Chapter Text
1:
First Day Back At School After Summer Break
Min Ho was dreaming of her again. How could he not? She was the love of his love of his life. Not like he could tell her, not that he would. But in this dream they were walking together, it was sunny and they were on the Love Lock Bridge in Seoul. It was hot and they were both sticky with sweat, but Min Ho still looked immaculate, he always did. In his dreams and in reality. In this moment the sun was shinning on Kitty, she was glowing, looking like the closest thing to a light bulb that a human could, she was smiling her auburn hair was down and she had that white headband on that she wore sometimes, she was also wearing her red leather jacket with a little black dress. The weirdest thing, in Min Ho's opinion, when in dreams, when you see a person their outfits your brain picks the most random pieces of their wardrobe and then that's how their subconscious presents said person.
He smiled at her, she was the only thing that he saw, then he opened his mouth, "So, Covey, what exactly are we doing here?"
"We're here to put our lock on the bridge."
Min Ho's surprise must have registered on his face because Kitty laughed. Now that Min Ho had thought about it he had remembered that Kitty had mentioned going here with her older sisters and father, she had described it to detail to him actually, they had been on the road and sharing happy childhood memories, Kitty took over that conversation as Min Ho severely lacked in that topic. But in that moment it didn't matter, he wanted to hear more about her childhood, what it was like growing up in a stable household with a loving family. He didn't feel any jealousy, just wanted to hear Kitty talk, God he could listen to that sound for the rest of his life. He wondered why his brain had placed the two of them here of all places.
Then like it was the most natural thing on earth, Kitty steps forward and wraps her arms around his neck. She's looking at him so intensely, like if she isn't careful he'll disappear, she's trying to hold onto him. He wants to make it known to her that he won't run, that he won't evaporate.
So despite his knowing that this is only his subconscious playing a trick on him, he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her in, impossibly close. He pulls her in until he can feel her breathing against his cheek, till their noses are touching and she is leaning her body weight against him. He memorizes how she feels, how her being against him makes him feel. He feels everything when they are like this. But the thing that sticks out most to him is how she runs her one hand up and down the back of neck, while the other makes it way up to his hair, pulling the strands lightly, grounding him. This, whatever the hell this was, was intoxicating. As far as Min Ho knew nothing existed outside of this, Kitty Song-Covey, running her hands through his hair in this beautiful bright bubble where there was only them and this sacred moment between them that Min Ho had convinced himself would never happen.
Then, they both seemed to understand what was happening, their lips locked in a slow kiss. He had kissed her in other dreams, in those he had been more desperate for her in other ways, their kisses went fast and they'd end up in other positions, that's how it had been in the beginning, back before his feelings were more surface level and he could dismiss them easier. They'd just kiss for hours, then slowly they became more intimate, emotionally intimate though. They'd open up to each other, talk about college, in one they both got accepted into UCLA and he met her family and they even moved into an apartment together.
In this dream though this kiss had been resulting of a tension building. It crackled and burned between them as they kissed. There was nothing desperate about this kiss. Nothing even close to it. Then she broke away, he opened his mouth to say something and the dream just ended...
Now here he was at 6:08 AM on the morning of the first day back.
He had just kissed Kitty in his dreams again.
DAMN IT!!!
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Min Ho was already tired, mentally that is, he'd gotten more than eight hours of sleep. His dream had played over and over in his head for an hour. He had gone through his morning routine, mentally preparing for another day where that dream was so far from reality, that he was going to have to push his feelings for her away. He wasn't to push Kitty away just because he had feelings for her, usually he could push his feelings to the side, but then the dreams had started happening.
You'd think that after almost a year of having these dreams that he'd stop being so thrown off by them, that having them would make being around her more difficult. The strange thing about the dreams is that they were completely and utterly random, he could do absolutely nothing to suppress. They sucked him in every single time they happened. Then they replayed in his mind until the details were memorized, until what he can't have is etched into his brain and traced into his molecular being.
Now here he was, nursing a cup of coffee, in his school uniform standing with Q. Who looked like he had a million things to say but very much knew better than to say them. This is exactly why he hadn't told Q when he'd confessed to Kitty on the plane. He'd get some kind of speech about how it was dumb and say a dozen other things that only Q would say. Now that Q knew about it he could never escape the looks, it was so unnerving. It was specifically the knowing in Q's eyes that drove him particularly crazy. He had hoped that if he had kept everything to himself that these feelings would go away.
They didn't. But that was not the hardest part. It was everyone else in his life knowing, Dae had ignored him for so long, Q had endlessly questioned him about it. The only person he could tolerate knowing was Kitty. For some reason she didn't judge him, she had questioned him, he got so flustered that he ran back to first class like a coward. But it had seemed to be for the better, they were close, and such important parts of each other's lives. Even if she didn't reciprocate, she was still his friend. He wouldn't mess with that. He had told Q that, which only got him some kind of response about not suppressing his feelings and all of that bullshit.
Q nudged him, "So?"
"So what?" Min Ho responded
"Are you going to tell me if anything happened this summer?" Q leaned his head in, like their was a delicate secret like to be shared at any second.
"Even if there was anything to tell I would not tell." Min Ho sighed.
Then Q turned himself towards Min Ho, "You're kidding me, right? Nothing happened? No resolving of romantic tension you two were carrying? No dramatic love confession? Nothing?"
"Absolutely nothing happened Q."
"Oh come on! I thought the feelings were getting reciprocal because she literally went out of her way to ask to go on tour with you. You guys shared a room multiple nights! You bought her at least a dozen books! You held her hair back when she got road sickness! All of that for me to get nothing?!"
Why was Q acting like he was personally victimized by this Min Ho's unrequited love for Kitty? And how did he know all of this? Did he really tell Q that much?
"How did you know all of that?"
"Well, unlike you, Kitty can't not leave out a single detail when telling a story, so she told me everything. So I'd be totally in the dark if not for our daily texting conversations." Q said snarkily.
"You're acting like my love life is personally offending you." He was hoping that if he brought some kind of reason into this conversation Q would drop this fascination with his love life.
"Well it has!"
How was he going to get through this day?
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His first class of the day was Zoology. He didn't even remember signing up for this class, they must have just shoved all of the students who were not placed yet into the same class. And apparently one of those students was Katherine Song-Covey. She was seated at the back of the class, the seat beside her was empty. He was gonna take the seat next to her regardless, but then he saw Yuri enter the room, she didn't notice him but clearly was eyeing the seat next to Kitty.
Hell no.
He had no idea how things were between Kitty and Yuri, but Kitty had told him that anytime she was near Yuri, that Yuri just seemed to pull her in, no matter how hard she tried. He didn't care if he had Kitty's affection, but he did care whether she was pulled into the Yuri void. That had happened last year and it had disastrous consequences for not only Kitty but their entire social circle. He would not let that happen again. So before he could even think twice about it and before Yuri could take another step, Min Ho bolted towards the seat next to Kitty.
The slight flash of movement caught Kitty's attention. She looked up at him and smiled.
"Min Ho! If you were so eager to see me you could have just told me!" Her voice was light and teasing, nose scrunching, like she was about to start laughing at him.
"Oh you'd love that, wouldn't you Covey?"
"Yeah yeah. Think all you want, but you know you missed me, Min Ho."
"What can I say? Two weeks away from you was excruciating."
At that Kitty laughed. Then Min Ho saw Yuri, who was standing at the front, roll her eyes and sat in the front.
Good.
He turned back to Kitty. Who was beaming. She watched him as he sat down, eyes tracking his movement. At least she was doing well. Oh, God, she was plotting. That face. That was her plotting face. They had been separated for all of two weeks! They had barely been with each other for ten minutes. So why the hell did she have her plotting face on?
Was she gonna try to set him up again? He couldn't even try to wrap his head around what she was trying to plot here. He had just gone through an entire school year of her plotting. He had made it extremely clear that he could not put up with another school year of her schemes. So what was he gonna do now? He couldn't talk her out of it, she had thought it through. Any second now she was gonna bring it up, and he'd be sucked in, he was a complete and utter sucker for Katherine Song-Covey, if she asked him for help with something, he was gonna help. He had no choice in the matter, his being would comply with whatever she asked him to do immediately.
He sighed, he might as well rip the band-aid off.
He leaned in, whispered to her "Okay Covey, what are you plotting here?"
Then, her face changed, he was right, and she was for some reason surprised that he could read her. She sighed, admitting defeat, "I was hoping that, for this year, we could partner up and be study partners. I'm nervous about failing, again, and you've always been so good at passing tests, no matter the subject. So you must be good at studying, so I was hoping that you'd help me study, in this class."
That was it? He was expecting more. But all she wanted was some support in an area of study that she struggles in? Of course he would help her. He'd happily tutor her.
"Yes, of course I'll help you." He smiled and patted her hand, maybe that was too much.
"Really?"
"Yes, Kitty. I'd love to help you."
Then she launched herself at him. She wasn't so excited about studying, maybe she was just happy to have her plan go through. "Thank you, thank you!"
He had to keep the words from spilling out, he wanted to tell her that he loved her, that he'd do anything for her.
"Great! Let's do dinner on Thursday so we can review."
"Sure," He agreed
Kitty nodded happily, then the professor came in and they both turned their attention to the board.
He had just agreed to tutor the love of his life.
He was going on a study date with the girl he was in love with.
Who didn't feel anything for him.
Or did she?
Did Kitty have feelings for him?
No!
Yes!
No, Kitty Song-Covey did not have feelings for him.
She just needed tutoring, and he was her best option.
They were going to have dinner on Thursday. Like friends do.
He would get through this with his sanity in check. He was Minho Freaking Moon. He could do this.
But who was he kidding?