[ 2 M i n s  a p a r t m e n t ]
[ 25th  M a r c h ]

Changbin and Chan once again stood in front of Minhos and Seungmins apartment building.

This time not only Chan was nervous.

"Do you really think I look good Chan hyung?", Changbin asked Chan anxiously. "How many times will you ask this Changbin? You look really good, Seungmin will not murder you. That boy is way too whipped for you anyways." "You think so hyung?" "Uh duh, everybody who thinks differently is just blind." "I don't think-" "He'll definitely not like you anymore, if we stand here forever. Go and ring the doorbell you dork."

Changbin shrugged and pressed the doorbell. The response came almost immediately and they were let in.

Upstairs they were awaited by an excited Seungmin.

"Hello Binnie hyung and hi Chan hyung", he smiled and Changbin smiled back.

They were definitely whipped for each other.

"Hey Seungmin, it's nice to see you too. I'll just go inside, so you guys can be alone", Chan awkwardly said and made his way past the boys, who were still in their "smile at each other with heart eyes" state. Chan was pretty sure they hadn't even heard him.

This was his second time at Minho and Seungmins apartment, so he wasn't too sure about where he was supposed to go. He just followed the noise, which led him into the only room he knew better, aka. the living room.

In there he was met with the sight of Minho and a small girl playing with some toys. Both were laughing loudly while they were hitting their toy dinosaurs against each other.

As promised Minho had invited Chan, when his half-adopted child was over.

He watched them a bit, before clearing his throat to make them aware of his presence.

As soon as the girl noticed him she dropped her toy and mustered the intruder, while Minho smiled widely.

"Hey Looser, how you doin'?" "We'll never get past that Looser thing, will we?", Chan asked sighing. "Nope we won't. Ji-Hee sweetie, this is the Looser Chan I told you about."

Ji-Hee smiled, showing a gap in between her front teeth, and said: "Hi Looser."

"Oh so you too?", the girl only smiled wider and Chan sighed dramatically. "This is so unfair."

"Well, that's why you're called Looser. Ji-Hee do you want to explain to him, what we're going to do, while I go and prepare some stuff?" Ji-Hee nodded enthusiastically as a response and Minho gave her a peck on the head before leaving the room.

There was a small silence in the room, in which the girl took care of the dinosaurs she dropped earlier.

"Uncle Minho promised to make me food. I like rice so he said we are making that", she then proceeded to say, still focused on her dinosaur.

Now she seemed to care about it. It did seem a bit different earlier.

"We?", Chan asked doubting the cooking skills of a what? Ten year old? "Yeah we. I like cooking. Especially with Uncle Minho. It's so much fun", Ji-Hee said and grabbed one figurine to put it on the back of her dinosaur.

"I wanna ride a Pterosaurs like this person does", she said, obviously fascinated by the combination she just made. "A what?" "A Pterosaurs, a flying dinosaur. You have to know these things", she said a bit weirded out by Chans question. "Yeah I do, of course."

Just when Chan wanted to ask something else, Minho called them to come over to the kitchen. Ji-Hee immediately got up and ran out of the room. Chan followed her a bit slower, somewhat feeling really out of place.

In the kitchen he was met with the sight of Ji-Hee putting on an apron and Minho smiling fondly.

Chan had never seen Minho smile that way. Well, except for when he looked at Jisung. But that wa-

Wait Jisung? Did Minho like Jisung?

It made so much sense.

The way Minho looked at Jisung.

The way Minho acted around Jisung.

The way-

No. He really needed to stop. Why did he care anyways?

I don't want to admit it

Wait, what was this about?

The voices were supposed to come, when he thought about Yi.

What was happening?

"Hey Looser, do you want to stand there forever?", Minhos voice got him back to reality. "Yeah no sorry. What can I do?"

They worked for the next half hour.

Ji-Hee and him were supposed to cut the vegetables. Well, not exactly. Ji-Hee was supposed to cut the easy stuff and Chan had to do the hard job. Most of the time he just stood beside Ji-Hee, making sure she didn't cut herself.

Meanwhile Minho took care of cooking the rice and roasting the vegetables, Kimchi and eggs.

When Ji-Hee and Chan were ready, Minho send them off to play something. Chan did try to convince the younger, that he could help, but the younger didn't want to hear that.

So they ended up playing with the dinosaurs and figurines from earlier. It did take them some time, but while cutting the vegetables and playing they warmed up to each other and Chan believed, that Ji-Hee had a lot fun, while playing with him. But he just believed. He did know, that he liked the girl.

Some time later, Chan had stopped paying attention to the clock, Minho called them.

They ended up sitting on the balcony.

It was a nice evening.

All of them were wrapped up in blankets, because it was March and still a bit cold, but that made the whole mood even more cozy.

The food turned out to be a simple rice pan with some egg. It was really delicious.

While eating Ji-Hee told them enthusiastically about her week. She had been to school like usual and made a new guy friend, which she was really happy about. "I'm finally one of the cool girls on our school. I have a guy friend now", she said, smiling and again showing the gap in between her front teeth.

"Aww but sweetie you were cool before and after", Minho said, pouting a bit.

The light fell onto Minhos features, emphasising them and Chan noticed how beautiful the younger was.

Weird that he never noticed.

Minhos looks were something else. The orange hair complimented his side profile and made him look like a prince. Maybe even a king. His eyes shined like a star while listening to the girl. His resting face was so pretty. It radiated calmness, sprinkled with some happiness and definitely some warmth.

Then Minho looked over to him. Their gazes met and Chan immediately looked away.

How embarrassing.

Out of nowhere he felt something, no, somebody grab his hand and slightly pressing it.

Chan looked back up, once again meeting Minhos gaze. The younger was smiling and Chan started blushing again.

His body felt really weird. So tingly. Just as-

No.

It's hard to understand

WHAT WAS HAPPENING?

Deep down Chan knew what was happening. But he didn't like it. Didn't want it.

"Hey are you even listening?"

Chan snapped back into reality, for the third time today, and almost fell off of his chair.

"You're not", Ji-Hee said pouting. "Uncle Minho, I don't like him anymore." "Oh Ji-Hee sweetie, I'm sure he's just tired."

Chan received a (well deserved) hit from Minho.

"Yeah yeah sorry, I'll be listening from now on", he said, scared that the younger would decide to let go of his hand.

Thankfully Minho didn't.

Ji-Hee didn't talk a lot longer. The small girl was seemingly tired and couldn't keep her eyes open.

"Hey Ji-Hee sweetie, how about we go to bed, huh?", Minho said, after Ji-Hee had to restart a sentence for the fifth time. "No, I am not tired", she replied determined. "Yeah you're definitely not. Then at least go and brush your teeth, yeah? You're not going to sleep." "Ugh okay Uncle Minho", Ji-Hee said and got up, but wasn't able to walk straight. So Minho let go of Chans hand and got up to carry her inside, leaving Chan alone on the balcony.

He didn't mind. He had time to look at the night sky.

The moon was really pretty that night. Big and yellow.

Chan liked the moon. Looking at it made him feel calm and welcomed.

It reminded him of Minho.

No, not this again.

He had been over this a lot this day.

Minho liked somebody else from Chans judging and besides that, Chan couldn't fall for another person. It just would end up hurting him.

But... Jisung was taken and what would be so bad about liking somebody else?

Everything.

No not everything.

Liking a person was something so beautiful, if the feelings were both sided.

But were they here?

They could never. No.

There was no way Chan liked Minho. He just needed to think that and the feelings would go away.

"I brought her to bed, she should be asleep by now. Do you want to come inside? It's really cold out here." Without Chan noticing Minho had stepped outside again and was now standing next to him.

"Oh yeah, let's go inside", Chan said, now really ashamed by the thoughts he just had.

They both went inside and sat down on the couch.

There was an awkward silence then Minho asked: "Do you want to stay here over night? I could lend you some clothes and you wouldn't have to pay attention to the time." "Uh yeah sure. But isn't Ji-Hee sleeping in the guest room? I don't want to put more work on you." "Oh don't worry I have a mattress. This is not like a cliché fan fiction." "Okay good, I thought we would have a fight over who sleeps on the couch and who on the bed." "This is so specific. Do you read fan fictions Mister?" "UH noooo, I'd never?" "So you're reading them. Weird, I don't even know, why I like you, you're so unlikeable."

Chans stomach did a backflip. Minho liked him.

"Totally unrelated but do you want a hug?", Minho asked out of nowhere and Chans stomach did another backflip. "Yeah", he mumbled. "I'm sorry, what?" Chan just went over to Minho and hugged him.

There was a comfortable silence, then Chan turned to let go, scared and overwhelmed by his feelings.

It felt so good. It shouldn't feel this good to be in Minhos arms. What was wrong with him?

But to the surprise of Chan, Minho said: "No stay, this is nice", and grabbed him by the arm.

Minho wasn't a hug-person. Chan rarely saw him hugging other people.

So Chan stayed.

They continued to cuddle and talk.

I might as well forget

Maybe forgetting Yi and starting something new would be the best he could do.

And maybe, but just maybe, he wanted to start this "new" with Minho.

Just then Minho pressed a small kiss on his head, which caused another electric shock going through Chans body. "I couldn't return it in the climbing park, so here you go", he said and Chans stomach started tingling even more.

Yeah, why not?