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Kenta stares at Minsu with wide eyes, watching the man steadily chop different items.
He’s making a shredded chicken salad.
But there’s something off about him.
Kenta knew it from the minute he woke up to see Minsu’s phone sliding from his hand.
He’d asked, hesitantly, if something was wrong.
That was clearly a mistake because Minsu’s face went blank, and it’s been an hour.
Minsu hasn’t said anything.
Not a single word.
He simply moved from the balcony to the kitchen, and it took half an hour for him to settle on something after staring at the chicken he'd thawed out in the early hours.
Kenta's not even sure if he's right about the chicken salad thing.
He could be completely off-base.
He's making assumptions that are purely based on the large salad bowl, the shredded lettuce, chilies, croutons, and tomatoes that are in the bowl already.
He could be doing something else with the chicken that he's starting to shred.
"Minsu," Kenta's voice is quiet, filled with hesitancy as he approaches the kitchen. "You haven't said a word in an hour, and I don't want to make you speak. But something's clearly wrong. You're trying to hide it, to… tough it out, to be strong, I guess, and I can't really speak on that, we both know it. I just— I'm worried about you. Is there— Is there anything I can do to help? Anything you need from me?"
"I'm not trying to—" Minsu cuts himself off, voice cracking as he stares hard at the chicken. "I wasn't trying to be strong, or to tough it out, I just don't have the words right now. If I speak, I'm going to breakdown, and I'd rather do that in my own room than in front of you."
"You don't have to though," Kenta's voice turns gentle, moving into the space and standing next to Minsu as he does. "If you want to break, I'll hold you while you do. You don't have to break alone, Minsu."
Minsu turns to him, eyes watery, and his voice comes out so quietly that it's insane to Kenta, "Can you really handle being that for me right now?"
"Minsu, I'm not doing this to repay you, or something like that. I want to make that plain first because the skepticism in those eyes kind of really hurt. But I get it," Kenta's broken with Minsu, but he's always been uncomfortable when anyone else needed to break. "I can't handle anyone else breaking. It's awkward for me, and I don't know what to do. It's different here though because it's you. Minsu, with you, I don't care if I know what to do. I only care that I'm here, with you, doing whatever I can to help you. If you need me to hold you, to sit in the same space as you, to let you hide, whatever you need. I will do it because it's you."
Minsu looks at him for a second, those eyes blank and filled with disbelief, but then he steps forward, letting his head fall against Kenta's shoulder. Arms wrap around Minsu just as the tears fall, and there's nothing left to ground him as his weight goes forward.
Nothing except for Kenta who holds him firmly, arms secure around his middle. Kenta who holds him as he breaks apart in his arms with silent sobs.
"My halmeoni," Minsu tries to speak, his voice cracks hard as a sob curls around the words. "She's been having some health troubles recently. She's fine, but I just found out she had surgery three weeks ago. This is the fifth time this year that something's happened with her, with my family, and I didn't know anything until after it was already done."
"Why aren't they telling you when it happens?" asks Kenta softly as his hands slide back to rub up and down Minsu's back.
"Because they don't want me to worry," murmurs Minsu as his hands grip Kenta's shirt, fingers twisting the material. "But they didn't even tell me that my uncle passed last month. Halmeoni just told me when she called. She's the only one communicating with me, but she doesn't realize that. Now, I have to come to terms with the fact that I missed a whole funeral for an uncle that I talked to almost every other weekend until he was hospitalized. I knew he wasn't doing well, but I still had contact with him until I didn't."
"Oh Minsu," Kenta's voice cracks on his name like he's hurting from Minsu's hurt.
"I literally flew there to check on him. I was there the week he passed," Minsu's voice keeps breaking. The words are clawing their way out through the sobs that are shaking his entire body. "I was at the airport the day we lost him, and nobody told me. They let me fly back to Thailand knowing my uncle had just passed."
"You definitely need to have a proper conversation with them about how this is making you feel," murmurs Kenta gently as he adjusts to hold Minsu against him again, to make himself a firm space to lean against.
"I know. I intend to," says Minsu with a hollow laugh. "The problem is that I keep having conversations, and it keeps getting me nowhere."
"Tell your halmeoni," Kenta tightens his grip, certain he's probably hurting Minsu, but he can't let go now. He's this close to making Pete fly him to Korea so he can give Minsu's family a piece of his damn mind. Even if that means bringing a translator. "You need to talk to them again, but this time, with your halmeoni being in the know. As close as you two are, there's no way she won't give them what's deserved. Either that, or you hand me the phone."
"I can't hand you the phone," Minsu shakes his head, amusement curling through the cracks of his hurt. "Some of them know enough Thai to feel offended if you start talking."
"Let them," huffs Kenta as he forces himself to loosen his hold enough to look at Minsu. "They're family to you, but they don't treat you in the same way. Minsu, you deserve better."
"Yeah, I know," sighs Minsu as he gives a smile that's less forced, less hurt, but still holds pain. "But I can't let you talk to them. I'll talk to my halmeoni tomorrow about it."
"Fine," Kenta lets it drop, even loosening his hold entirely until it's just the barest touch as he smiles at Minsu. "Do you still want to make food, or is it ready enough that I can finish what you started while you wash up?"
"It's actually done," Minsu's sheepish laughter melts through the space making Kenta snort.
"Of course it is," replies Kenta as he shakes his head. "Go wash up, and I'll set the table. I'll move everything over too, so don't even think about rushing."
"Okay, I'll be out soon," murmurs Minsu as he pulls away.
Kenta simply hums, turning his attention to the bowls instead. He grabs the two of them and turns, only to be surprised by Minsu leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek.
Kenta's not entirely sure how he managed to keep the bowls in his hand as he goes stock still because his grip definitely loosened in the shock, but he did.
He can vaguely hear the water running when he comes to and steps into the hallway, but Kenta keeps moving to the table. He settles the bowls down on the typically unused end before getting to work on setting the table up better.
"Oh nice, you grabbed everything! Are you ready to eat?" Minsu announces himself gently, voice softer and calmer than before.
He's more settled after washing up, and when Kenta turns around, Minsu's wearing gray sweats that are practically falling off his hips and a tank that's way too big.
Minsu's a walking wet dream.
Literally.
"I am. I see you're feeling better," murmurs Kenta as he settles in his chair.
"I definitely feel better, but I'm not exactly happy about you sitting on the other side of the table. I thought we were past this," Minsu huffs as he sits in his own chair, glowering at Kenta.
"We are, but I wasn't sure how you were going to be after washing up," Kenta's voice is soft and filled with amusement as he arches a brow. "You seem pretty irritated about that."
"Because you're supposed to be sitting next to me," grumbles Minsu as he leans back and pouts.
"Yeah, okay," snorts Kenta as he stands and adjusts to sit on the same side as Minsu's glare pout eases into a smile. "I'm by you now, and you're smiling. Better?"
"Much better," huffs Minsu as he leans into Kenta's side a little bit before adjusting until they're comfortably pressed together from shoulder to foot. "Now, you talked a lot today. Wanna explain?"
"I talked because you needed comfort and were trying to hide it from me," Kenta says it quietly, focusing on his salad.
"I told you, I wasn't trying to be strong, and you think that means I was trying to hide it from you?" asks Minsu, voice holding some sense of incredulity.
Or maybe it was disbelief.
Kenta's not quite sure, not even when he meets Minsu's wide eyes.
"Minsu, you didn't think I would comfort you," Kenta watches the way Minsu's lips part immediately like he's ready to argue that point, and he quickly continues on. His lips curve into a half-smirk when Minsu huffs in irritation. "Which wasn't a wrong assumption necessarily, but things have always been different for me when it comes to you. From day one things were different, especially when Pete decided to have you babysit me. You wouldn't break in front of me until I practically pleaded with you to do so because you shouldn't have to break alone. What else is there to say?"
"Why?"
The word falls into the space between them and takes up room. Kenta can feel it settling in the cracks of their touch, making his chest hurt with every breath. He can see it in the way Minsu looks away, fingers fiddling with his fork like he's going to get a bite ready to eat.
"Because you're the only person who has ever seen me and thought I was worth caring about."
Kenta's surprised by his own confession, the honesty hurting so much that his eyes sting with tears that start welling up in them.
"You've always been worth caring about," whispers Minsu as he takes Kenta's hand, his sincerity settling over the space with warmth.
"It's more than that from you, Kim," Kenta breathes the name that he doesn't use often since learning that Minsu is actually the way he's introduced and referred to in Korea. "It's love, no matter the type, and I'm selfish for wanting it to be the kind I never have to let go of again. I'm selfish for hoping that the person you told me was out there, that would love me, is actually you."
Minsu looks like he's one breath away from passing out as heat pours across his cheeks like a sunset stretches across the sky.
"Kenta, I'm in love with you," whispers Minsu as he leans a bit closer, like he needs to be heard despite how quiet his voice comes out.
"I'm in love with you too, Minsu Kim," replies Kenta genuinely as he leans in too, letting the very tip of their noses brush with the movement.
"Good."
Minsu kisses him with the whisper, their lips pressed together insistently, as though he needed this more than air. Kenta kisses back, one hand falling to Minsu's thigh as his hair is lightly tugged, and he doesn't hesitate to part their lips.
It becomes slick, and for the first time in a long time, Kenta actually loves it.
He did what he had to do for Tony, but it never went past this, ever. Not even when Tony demanded it. Kenta claimed it had, claimed he went according to plan, but it never did.
The kisses he'd shared with people Tony wanted him to get close to never felt like this, never went like this, never made him ache for more like this.
They were gross, made him flinch in his mind, eyes wide open, so guarded they would be confused.
But this one.
The way Minsu's hands are tangled in his hair tightly, squeezing the strands and tugging, Kenta feels heat.
He feels wanting.
An ache that he never knew before Minsu.
Not the ache of unrequited love.
The ache of falling in love with someone who sees him.
The ache of happiness and wanting more.
The ache of knowing he's found his everything.
It's an ache that he hopes to never lose as his hand squeezes Minsu's thigh while the other settles on his lower back and presses firmly.
"Fuck," groans Minsu as he kisses away from Kenta's lips for a moment, moving to his ear where his teeth tug at the lobe and send shivers through him. "You taste so good. You respond so well. I can't believe it took me this long to kiss you like this, properly with the wanting I can't ignore."
"I can't believe it either," Kenta's head tips back as those lips start trailing down his neck, teeth appearing and sinking into his skin with a sharpness that makes his stomach clench. "Goddamn, Minsu, you're killing me."
"No, I'm loving you," whispers Minsu as he pulls back after worrying a spot in the middle of his neck that Kenta knows he won't be able to cover comfortably. "I'm finally loving you the way you deserve, the way I've waited for. Is that okay?"
"Don't you ever stop," Kenta's answer clearly isn't what Minsu was expecting as those eyes went wide, but the breath-taking smile that curves his lips is worth the vulnerability. "I'm yours, Minsu, and I really want you to be mine."
"I've been yours since Pete brought you to my condo," murmurs Minsu as he tugs on the strands laced in his fingers.
Then they're kissing again, and Kenta doesn't even care that their food is sitting untouched in front of them. He doesn't care that this started because he refused to let Minsu break alone. He doesn't even care that Minsu is going to leave once they settle the Tony situation, that it could break this.
All Kenta cares about, with every fiber of his being, every ounce of his soul, every beat of his heart, is that Minsu loves him back.
That's enough for him to sink into the kiss, desperation settling between their lips, their fingers trailing, tracing, tugging until the sounds become more than slick, more than groans even, just… more.
Because that's what they've become.
More.
So, if Minsu doesn't let Kenta verbally eviscerate his horrible family, then he'll just have to do it anyway because that's what happens when he loves someone.
He protects them with everything in him, even if consequences come because of it.
But for now, they're lost in each other, and that's more than enough.