Chapter Text

"Congratulations on the relationship, Kim Seungmin," are the first words Seungmin hears when he gets back to his apartment. Looking up, Seungmin see Minho and Felix sitting at the kitchen island, each digging into beef wellington. Minho doesn't even look up when he speaks, clearly tired, while Felix spares at least a wave before going back to his food. Seungmin toes his shoes off before heading to them.

"Relationship?" Seungmin asks, perplexed. The food smells great, but Seungmin notices his portion looks oddly smaller than the what the others are having. After years with Minho, he can basically feel the sour emotions and pout on his face before he really sees it. Seungmin tilts his head towards Felix, who mimes zipping his mouth and ignores him for the second time in favour of food. When Seungmin sits down beside Minho, the latter physically scoots further away and sniffs, head turned away.

Seungmin grabs Minho by the waist and tries to pull closer, ready to apologize already. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry if I did anything, what's wrong?" Seungmin soothes despite still being thoroughly confused and still having the silent interrogation with Felix who opts to stay silent. He's genuinely confused, but worried. He doesn't want to upset Minho, and he hates seeing Minho being upset or passive aggressive.

He loves him more than anything.

The apartment door slams open, startling Seungmin enough to allow Minho to twist out of the embrace and stalk off further into the kitchen. Turning, Seungmin is surprised to see Chan, mainly because of Chan's unusually extravagant entrance, and the exhausted look on his face. (Being Chan, though, he still was respectful and polite, quietly closing the door to make up for slamming the door open, taking off his shoes and neatly stacking it on the shoe rack neatly before entering the apartment.)

And, for the second time that day, Seungmin is being congratulated for being in a relationship.

"Congratulations on the relationship, Kim Seungmin," Chan announces loudly to the quiet apartment, settling down dramatically to Seungmin's right where Minho had sat moments earlier. "Oh, hey Felix. Any leftovers, Minho? I'm starving."

"Okay, okay, what's going on. It's the second time today that I've been congratulated for being in a relationship for who knows what reason since both of those people definitely know I've been in a relationship for a long time," Seungmin sighes. Felix gives a little laugh while Minho slides over an extremely large portion of the beef wellington to Chan (Seungmin is not being jealous over portions nope, nope) and settles down again, this time on Felix's side. The pout is still prominent and Seungmin receives Minho's Death Glare/Cat Grimace/Stink Eye (Felix coin the terms when they were younger), which hasn't happened for a good while.

Chan, clearly prepared, opens up his laptop in one fluid motion and hands it to Seungmin, who blinks blankly for a few seconds, taking in Chan's split screen of, what, 5 windows? And each window has upwards of twenty tabs, the sheer number overwhelming Seungmin enough to send his brain to focus on absolutely nothing at all. He scans the titles of the articles that are open and groans, head sliding down from where it was resting on his palms to the flat surface of the kitchen island, letting out a huge bang.

"There is no way I'm being outed for being in a relationship after years over a cute boxed lunch," Seungmin complains.

"Kim Seungmin," an irritated voice shouts. "Get back down here now".

Seungmin pouts down towards the source of commotion from where he's settled up in the trees. An annoyed Chan stares up, hands on hips. Clearly none of them are having the best time, and neither are they willing to reach a comprosmise. On Chan's left is Hyunjin, who is attempting to bite back a smile. Seungmin feels his mood sour more, childishly sticking to his high ground. Chan sighs from where he stands on ground level.

Seriously, Chan made a mistake recruiting these two freshman when they came to the tryouts. Unfortunately, they were among the very few who took high school baseball slightly more seriously than the others and could actually pitch

"Seungmin, please get down from that tree. I won't force you to run any more laps, and we'll get ice cream on the way home," Chan promises. At this point, Seungmin is pretty much soothed and has taken to the bribe, but wants to mess around with Chan so he opts to stick around up high for a bit longer just to mess around. He hears Hyunjin offering to go up to the second floor to poke Seungmin off the tree using a stick, and a yelp of pain followed by Hyunjin insisting it was only a thought for Seungmin's safety and not to mess around.

Nearby leaves flutter loudly as Seungmin is one foot down to the next branch and about to climb down. He turns his head to the left to notice an orange and white cat hanging on to the slim branches closer to the top of the tree, further than Seungmin had climbed before. Before he can question the cat's sudden appearance, another quickly follows the cat, this time a boy who doesn't seem like he could be older than Seungmin approaches. With surprising agility and balance, the boy scoops up the cat with both his arms and holds him up like a baby.

"Ah, Doongie, what will I do with you, you little rascal?" the boy sighs fondly. (His tone reminds Seungmin awfully of how Chan talks to him sometimes, a detail which he discards immediately) "You have to stop this habit of running off... What will mom say if you keep running off? Soonie will be lonely without you, too, so stop running off okay?"

The cat, Doongie, meows back in what seems to be an annoyed tone. Seungmin watches incredulously as the other boy has this, how would he describe this, a conversation of oddly coherent and stringed together cat noises that somehow makes sense and looks to an outsider like a fluent language of some kind? Seungmin is thoroughly perplexed.

As if noticing Seungmin's staring, the cat boy (as Seungmin has dubbed him in his head) whips his head around to Seungmin. Seungmin can feel his cheeks heating up, not just from being caught staring intently in a very weird position and location, but also because this cat lover boy but possibly the most handsome and cutest guy he's ever seen, and Seungmin is embarrassingly weak for cute good looking people. Chan can vouch, unfortunately, which is a sentiment shared by both parties.

Watching the really cute cat lover boy's expression change from quizzical to downright fear is, humiliatingly, the only reason he realises he's slipped off the branch he was half residing on and falling backwards, out of the tree and down towards the ground. Oh well, at least the cute boy would remember him as a fearless guy who fell down from the tree bravely instead of a weirdo who stared at him up high in some tree.

"OW!" comes the loud scream of pain. Only, Seungmin hadn't screamed and it was Hyunjin who did.

When he tentatively opens his eyes (when had he even closed them?) Seungmin blinks and takes in the odd scene. Hyunjin is curled in a fetal position, cradling his hipbone and letting out a string of curses which Seungmin is convinced has secured Seungmin a fate worse than Prometheus and a place in Tartarus for eternity. Chan kneels between Seungmin and Hyunjin, eyes widen and concerned, checking up on Hyunjin and Seungmin at the same time for injuries.

The cat boy, too, now is secure on the ground on both feet, hovering awkwardly.

"Ah, my goodness, are you alright?" the boy asks. He looks confused, but worried all the same, heading moving from Hyunjin to Seungmin. Eventually, the cat boy gently brings his cat to the ground and kneels by Hyunjin, lifting the latter's shirt to frown at Hyunjin's hipbone. Gingerly, the boy moves his hand around to assess the injury, eyebrows knitted together, focused. Now that Hyunjin is being attended to, Chan moves to Seungmin, moving Seungmin's arm around, checking his shoulder, a frown etched across his face.

"I'm sorry," Seungmin whispers, guilty. Chan shakes his head, tired.

"Hwang Hyunjin, you're perfectly fine, that boy didn't even land on your hip," a gently voice chides. Seungmin peeks over Chan's shoulder to see the boy with a cat and Hyunjin, a conjoined heap on the floor. Hyunjin looks only slightly guilty, a lopsided smile as he clings onto the cat boy's side, who looks exasperated yet fondly at Hyunjin. "But, ah, is the kid okay, Chan?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Chan sighs. "You two, don't you ever dare pulling that stunt again."

That gets Hyunjin riled up, whining about injustice and how it wasn't his fault Seungmin decided it was the day to freefall out of a tall tree and choose Hyunjin ever so conveniently as a cushion to his fall, before falling silent when Chan asks after Hyunjin's mini rant about faking an injury. (Hyunjin promptly turns red before sticking his tongue out and hiding before the cat boy, who is now feigning annoyance and trying to push Hyunjin away)

"Are you really fine, though?" the boy asks, moving closer to Seungmin. "I really am sorry if I startled you, I was chasing after Doongie so I didn't notice anyone nearby, and I really, really, really do want to make it up to you, so if there's anything you... Huh? Wait, where's Doongie? No, please, not again. Doongie, why are you so mischievous... please don't be like your big brother."

And, with that, possibly the cutest boy Seungmin has ever seen slips off before a name is given.

"Give it up," Hyunjin says, interrupting Seungmin's thoughts. "I saw him first, plus he's a year our senior and totally not interested in anyone who's not one of his cats."

"Don't be a prick," Chan sighs. "Lee Minho, a year your senior like Hyunjin said. Good luck if you want to make friends, he's out half the year dancing or studying, you'd think he'd be expelled for poor attendance... Ah, well, I he's a bit cold on the outside, but really, he's the biggest softie ever. You'd never believe what he did last time Hyunjin was sick, you'd think Hyunjin was dying instead of having the common cold." Hyunjin nods fervently, giving a thumbs up.

"Too bad you'll never be in Minho's books like me, I'm definitely the favourite," Hyunjin exclaims passionately, while Chan hides a laugh and shakes his head.

"You wouldn't want to be Hyunjin to Minho, Seungmin, trust me," Chan laughs earnestly. "Hey, joking, joking, I know Minho loves us all." Chan remedies when Hyunjin starts pouting and muttering curses (for the second time that day) underneath his breath.

"Great, now that all my teammates are safe and out of harms way, what do you say we get back to the field and pitch for a bit before calling it a day?" Chan proposes. Seungmin and Hyunjin eagerly follow, and Chan rolls his eyes knowing the two freshman are going to abuse their privileges to convince Chan, who is supposed to be a "responsible almost adult and currently senior high schooler", to buy the extra large triple scoop for each person.

For now, they took advantage of their time together, ignoring the outside world, leaning on one another in a borderline codependent way. They each had their own worries, their own issues. Seungmin's being the 57 calls he missed from a family member didn't change anything, and they could rely on each other to escape the harsh and difficult outside world. Spring moved slowly, and Seungmin takes his time following after Chan and Hyunjin, taking in the scenary. A single red carnation among a sea of yellow carnations catches his eye.