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You can’t ever see stars when you’re in the city, but if you search hard enough, you’ll find them.
Aaron curses as he walks up the stairs of his apartment building, holding up the bags of groceries against his chest as he struggles to take more steps. Every weekend is the same; getting the same exact groceries, complaining about how heavy they are as he walks up the old musty staircase of his apartment building, and finally, stacking them into his fridge and kitchen cabinets.
He ponders upon how he fell into such a routine. It’s been so long since he moved out of his home in LA and started his new life in a different city. How many weeks has it been since school started? How many routine cycles has it been? How many Mondays has it been where he gets his ass out of bed, brushes his teeth, and goes to class?
“Need some help?”
Aaron peeks over the huge amount of his groceries and sees Mingi, a younger student from his university. The taller boy is wearing basketball shorts and his muscular shoulders and arms are barely covered by a tight-fitting white undershirt, and it makes Aaron duck his head back behind his groceries again, a bit of pink tinting his cheeks. Undoubtedly, Mingi is quite good looking, and Aaron has noticed this, but Aaron doesn’t really want Mingi to know that he’s noticed, because that would be weird.
Mingi, luckily, doesn’t seem to notice, and simply takes one bag from Aaron. He moves up the stairs much faster than Aaron does. After the first flight, he simply runs back down to where Aaron is lagging behind and takes both bags for him. At this point, Aaron is in no place to protest because he knows that Mingi can get up to his apartment twice as fast as he can with only half the effort.
As he climbs the last set of stairs before his apartment, he sees Mingi standing in front of his door, smiling benignly and shaking his head.
“You have to go work out or something. This isn’t doing it for you,” Mingi says, a teasing smile gracing his perfect features.
“It’s not my fault I have like, 10 responsibilities a day to attend to,” Aaron grumbles, climbing the last step.
Mingi laughs, and when Aaron unlocks the door and opens it, he walks inside and puts the groceries on the kitchen table. It’s so unfair how little effort Mingi puts into what he puts so much effort into. He rolls his eyes at Mingi and gives him a slight smack on the arm before collapsing into an armchair and sighing from exhaustion.
“Do you want a muffin?” he mumbles, directing the statement at Mingi. “If you do, you can take one.”
He hears rustling, and he can easily imagine Mingi eagerly reaching into the paper bag and pulling out a muffin, before helping himself to a large bite of it. The boy is still growing, and he plays a sport, so Aaron can’t really stop him. It’s not like Aaron himself needs all of those carbs.
“Yanno, I got invited to this off campus thing,” begins Mingi.
“Yeah, and?” Aaron knows where this is going. Mingi will tell him to go out and do something, like socialize, and Aaron’s going to decline, and Mingi will tell him he needs to get out more, and it just goes on and on until Mingi relents and they talk about something else.
“It’s a biking event that happens every month. Apparently this super hot dude is coming back after he injured his foot and couldn’t participate in the last match.”
“Mingi, saying there’s a hot dude isn’t gonna make me go.”
“But I heard that he’s like… really fucking jacked. He’s got tattoos and he’s tall and blond. Isn’t that your type?”
Aaron rolls his eyes and sits up. “That is my type, but that’s not the point.”
The wrapper for the muffin sits in Mingi’s hands, the muffin itself nowhere to be seen. “His name is like… Min… Min-something. I forgot. Minho? Minyeon?”
“Minhyun?” Aaron offers without thinking.
“Yeah, that’s it!” Mingi says. Then, he shoots Aaron a curious look. “How do you know?”
“Huh? I don’t!” Aaron retaliates. “It was just a wild guess.”
Mingi doesn’t look like he believes Aaron, but he drops it. “I have to go do laundry before the laundromat closes for the day,” he says. “The bike race is tomorrow at 9 pm in the park.”
“Okay. Bye,” Aaron calls, and another, “Buh bye,” resonates from the stairwell as his door falls shut.
That’s when Aaron contemplates what he just heard from Mingi.
Minhyun. Minhyun at a bike race? Aaron can’t imagine. The Minhyun he knows is quiet and definitely doesn’t have tattoos. Although, on a side note, his hair is bleached almost platinum blond.
But there’s no way it’s the same Minhyun. There must be two Minhyuns at this school because the one he knows would not participate in a (probably very illegal) bike race. The Minhyun he knows is withdrawn, quiet, and reads Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for fun . The Minhyun he knows would never get a tattoo.
He thinks of the time when he first met Minhyun.
“Uh, hi,” Aaron said, as the tall freshman sits across from him at the library table. “You must be Minhyun?”
“Yes,” Minhyun replied. “Thank you for doing this. I really need help to get where I need to be in terms of language.”
Aaron tilted his head. “But you seem so good at it.”
“Good at what?” It was Minhyun’s turn to tilt his head. “English? I know it seems like it, but I could be better at some grammars.”
It’s not grammars , it’s grammar, there’s no “s,” Aaron’s inner grammar police began to inwardly say, before he realized that this only proves Minhyun right; he does in fact need a bit of help.
So they began. Aaron helped him with sentence structure and grammar rules, and Minhyun would talk about books he was reading and certain sentences he didn’t understand. Minhyun was receptive and shy; he would only ask questions when he needed to and he spoke very softly. He had a habit of pushing his glasses up, like any person with glasses would, except his glasses were quite large and the frames were rather thick.
He also always wore turtlenecks and sweaters. It was his thing, almost, to wear thick clothes in any weather. Although, to be fair, the library and the cafe were quite cold, and Aaron never saw the boy in any place besides the library or the cafe, so he wouldn’t know.
Aaron tutored two other freshmen, but they were both in math and he didn’t really feel in touch with them. They were quite shallow, constantly complaining about their teachers, or how many assignments they had to do, et cetera. Minhyun was the only one who he would speak to about his day, or what he did that weekend.
He remembers Minhyun when they sat together in a cafe, reading a short story that Minhyun wanted to read. It was an Edgar Allen Poe story; Aaron didn’t quite remember which one.
“He’s definitely insane,” Minhyun said. “You would read the entire story believing him, and then you realize towards the end that there’s no way a sane person would hear a dead person’s heart through a bunch of floorboards.”
That moment seemed so surreal. Aaron didn’t really have any friends besides Mingi, who was only his neighbor. Minhyun was the only person he spoke to outside of school and club. They would frequently go off track in their conversations, often discussing news and various political videos they saw on TikTok.
One thing he noticed was that Minhyun never cursed. His mouth was surprisingly clean, which made Aaron nervous to curse around Minhyun. So he just didn’t do it. He was okay with that though, because it was worth purging his language for a little while just to talk to someone whose company he actually enjoyed.
Aaron would walk Minhyun to his dormitory room if they met particularly late. He would talk to Minhyun about what it was like growing up in Los Angeles, because Minhyun was so curious. He didn’t make it too obvious that he was, but Aaron picked up Minhyun’s fascination by seeing the way his eyes would sparkled slightly every time Aaron brought up big cities like Paris or Tokyo.
They would breathe in the cool air and bask in the nightlife together, and Aaron would wonder what it is like to be Minhyun, to move to the states for the first time and be truly fascinated by the world he sees.
So yeah, that’s why Aaron can’t imagine Minhyun racing a bike on a track. Minhyun is the epitome of the word nerd . Not that Aaron minded; he thought it was cute.
Still, a nagging feeling tugged at his gut. What if it really was his Minhyun?
Aaron groans and gets up to put his groceries in his cupboard. He doesn’t need unnecessary thoughts troubling him. He has an essay to do.
When Aaron looks up from his textbook, it’s approximately 8:30 PM, and he’s finished reviewing the whole chapter that he’s going to have an exam on Monday. He gets up and goes to the kitchen to get himself a muffin, before his phone pings.
Mingi
yanno, the race is still happening
don’t forget my offer :D
Aaron sighs. He has a test tomorrow. He shouldn’t distract himself.
Aaron
i have a test on Monday
Mingi
but ur done studying, aren’t u
Aaron
… that’s not the point
And you bet, you bet Mingi is standing in front of his door and knocking within the next thirty seconds. Aaron walks to the door and opens it, letting Mingi walk in.
“You don’t have an excuse not to go,” Mingi says, as Aaron let’s him in. “You have to come. There’s not even any alcohol.”
“You’re barely through the door and you’re already this annoying,” Aaron grumbles, as Minki walks in. “Come on. You know I am not going.”
“Come on, please? Just once! Once! I’m not even asking for much,” Mingi begs. “Just once, and I’ll leave you alone.”
Aaron hesitates. There’s not much harm in doing so, right? Plus, he would be able to finally get out and maybe fuck something besides his hand.
Mingi is watching him and sees him waver. “Get dressed,” he says, a triumphant smile on his face. “Dude, go!”
He drags Aaron to the wardrobe and starts flipping through it. At the back, he finds a black silk shirt with silver designs and some white skinny jeans.
He eyes Aaron carefully. “Since when did you have this?”
Aaron swallows. “I don’t know.”
Pretty soon, he’s following Mingi out of their crappy apartment building and into the darkness of the street. There’s quite a bit of cars and a lot of people walking around, but the night is young and the air is cool.
“I heard the party afterwards is always super fun, but I’m totally cool with it if you don’t want to stay,” Mingi says. “I was gonna meet up with some friends but I don’t think they’re coming anymore. And also, the champ biker is hot, so I’m pretty sure you’ll at least get a kick out of seeing him.”
Aaron rolls his eyes. “I’m not that desperate,” he says, and when Mingi gives him The Look, the “really?” look, he relents and says, “Okay, maybe I kind of am a bit boy-crazy sometimes. But listen!”
He pauses, and Mingi waits for him to continue. Then he says, “Yeah, continue what you were saying. I have nothing to say for myself.”
They laugh on the way to the park.
The park is barely illuminated by the street lamps, and it seems different at night, but when Mingi leads him to a part of the park that he’s never seen before, he does a double take.
It obviously used to be a baseball field. Mingi pushes a couple of shrubs aside and they step into the clearing, where there is a loud gathering of college students, some whom he recognized from his classes.
“How do they not get caught by the police?” Aaron mutters.
“This park has no patrol,” Mingi replies. “It’s privately owned and they just don’t care.”
They walk further into the field, finding a good place amongst the crowd on the bleachers to sit.
“Mingi!” someone says.
They both turn around to see a guy who Aaron doesn’t know.
“Dude! You made it!” Mingi says, embracing his friend and giving him a quick clap on the back. Gesturing to Aaron, he says, “This is Aaron, he lives above me and he goes to our uni.”
“What’s up, dude,” the guy says, bro hugging Aaron, and somehow, Aaron finds himself easily returning the hug.
They find their place next to Mingi’s friend, but Aaron can’t help wonder when it’s going to start.
The crowd is loud, but it becomes even louder as there’s suddenly a vrooming sound, and three bikers speed into the field, one after the other. They each brake aggressively on the grass, one after the other.
The first guy takes his helmet off, and Aaron recognizes the guy who sits next to him in one of his philosophy classes. He’s a brunette, and he looks like he could pick up two human beings, one in each arm, and walk around with ease.
The second one is thinner than the first, and stringy black hair mats his sweaty forehead. He sneers at the crowd before egging them on by lifting a hand and signaling for them to cheer louder upon his arrival.
However, when the last man speeds into the lot, brakes, and takes off his helmet, that’s when the crowd screams the loudest.
Aaron’s heart nearly stops.
It’s Minhyun.
This Minhyun is new. He’s completely different. When he takes off his helmet, his blond hair falls out of his helmet almost like a halo surrounding his head. It’s not straight and falling down to his face in side-bangs like it is when he’s sitting across from Aaron at a library table; it’s wavy and styled in a messy way that makes the noise of the screaming crowd reach higher pitches than it has before.
His glasses are gone, and in their place, he sees icy blue eyes covered in what seems to be contact lenses, causing a piercing gaze colder than winter. It feels like this new Minhyun can stab souls with his eyes alone.
But that’s not the craziest part.
Aaron’s never seen Minhyun without a turtleneck or sweater. However, tonight, he doesn’t even have a shirt on. There is nothing covering his well-defined torso except for a black biker blosson.
When Minhyun turns his head towards the crowd, Aaron catches sight of the huge dragon tattoo running up the side of his neck. It travels down to one well-defined pec and ends somewhere inside the jacket.
Minhyun leans back and revels in the noise of the crowd. It’s all too similar to a scene from a movie. Aaron catches sight of a smirk and a brief lick of his lips. He seems to thrive off of the energy that the crowd has, knowing that it’s all for him and him only. His eyes cockily scan the mass of people on the bleachers.
When Minhyun sees Aaron in the crowd, Aaron expects him to be confused. Almost like, What are you doing here? Instead, Minhyun simply smirks and runs a hand through his hair. This makes a particular section of the crowd scream.
In the corner of his eye, Aaron sees someone rise a megaphone to his lips. “The race starts in ten minutes,” the person booms.
Mingi begins to get up, and for some reason, Aaron follows, not knowing what else to do with himself.
Mingi’s friend leads the way. “That’s Minhyun over there,” he says. “He’s kinda always the champ of the race. Y’all wanna go meet him?”
And that’s how Aaron finds himself face to face with this biker man that he doesn’t feel like he’s known before.
Minhyun leans on the motorcycle, fiddling with a short strap on his helmet and pursing his lips impatiently. The tension is too much, and Aaron decides, fuck it, and breaks away from Mingi and his friend.
Minhyun watches him walk, almost cockily, like I knew you would come here. His mannerisms make Aaron on edge. He doesn’t feel like he knows this version of Minhyun.
The two of them are silent for two seconds, and then Aron says, “Don’t you have a rhetoric test soon?”
Minhyun throws his head back and laughs in a way that Aaron has never seen before. “Do you think that I stay home and study days before my fucking rhetoric test? Aaron, I don’t know who you make me out to be.”
When Hwang Minhyun gets up from his leaning position against the bike and stands to his full height, Aaron realizes that he’s never felt so small in his entire life.
“Since when did you have a tattoo?” Aaron asks. He studies the ink on Minhyun’s neck and the way it curls onto his chest and into the well-defined abdomen. When did Minhyun look like this? When did Minhyun act like this?
“Since my eighteenth birthday,” Minhyun replies sarcastically. “Why is that surprising?”
“Since when did you curse ?” Aaron quips back. “How come you never cursed around me before?”
“You never cursed either,” Minhyun points out, the corner of his lip curling as he raised an eyebrow. “Was I supposed to just scare you away?”
Aaron is silent, and it seems like this silence fuels Minhyun, because he says, “Who do you make me out to be? Do you think I’m some sort of innocent little boy? Is that why you walked me home every day?”
Aaron doesn’t trust himself to say anything through his shock.
“You know, I’m eighteen, not two,” Minhyun snaps angrily. “And I don’t know why it’s taken you so long to realize that I’m not a fucking kid. Is that all I am to you? You have 20/20 vision, but it’s still taken you half a year to realize that I like you.”
The world spins.
“How was I supposed to know?” Aaron finds the courage to say. “I never saw you outside of tutoring.”
“That’s because you never wanted to come with me anywhere I invited you!” Minhyun says, his brows furrowing in frustration. “You were always busy. You had some goddamn essay to do, or some club meeting to attend, a fucking test to study for. I asked you if you wanted to come to one of these races before and you just said that you have an essay to do. You know, you’re allowed to have fun. You’re allowed to have a life. You’re allowed to like people. You’re allowed to like me back, you know?”
Now that Aaron thinks about it, he remembers Minhyun asking him one weekend to come watch this bike race with him. Aaron remembers thinking of some race with white middle aged cyclists and crazy flag-waving fans.
“Well, I’m here now, aren’t I?” Aaron says. “And I’ll go anywhere with you after this.”
Something changes on Minhyun’s face. “Anywhere?”
Aaron nods reluctantly, before the nod becomes slightly more confident as he realizes he has nothing to lose. In fact, he has so much to gain. This is Minhyun, who he’s looked forward to seeing twice every week. This is Minhyun, the only person besides Mingi who has been a source of support for him.
He realizes that being his English tutor was almost an excuse to spend time together with him. With the other two freshmen he was assigned to, he spent an hour doing math exercises with them in a library, and it would be over. With Minhyun, he would sit in a cafe for over two hours eating chocolate croissants, drinking chai, and talking about whatever they wanted.
It was all a pretense. He spent time with Minhyun under the pretense that he was teaching him English.
“If I win this race, we’re gonna go to the river after this,” Minhyun says firmly, leaning in closer to Aaron. “And I’ll show you what it’s like.”
Aaron nods.
Minhyun moves in closer and whispers into his ear. “I’m not afraid of anything.”
“I’m not afraid of anything,” Minhyun said, as he closed the book and set it down on the table. “This is what gets the characters each time in a book. Being afraid of something. Letting something hold them back. You know?”
The brownie sitting on the table that Aaron ordered became surprisingly interesting. “Yeah,” Aaron muttered in response.
It was another afternoon, and the grammar exercises that Aaron printed out were left unconsidered in a folder tucked somewhere within his bag.
“Most of my life, I’ve been afraid to acknowledge my emotions,” Minhyun says. “But now that I know that acknowledging my emotions isn’t the same as letting them control me, I won’t be afraid of them anymore.”
When the race begins, Aaron finds his eyes fixed on the blond blur on the bike furthest ahead. Minhyun is a beauty on the track, his hair blowing backwards as he rides without a helmet. Unsafe, but Aaron’s too preoccupied to care.
When Minhyun crosses the finish line first and throws his hands back in triumph, he’s not the only one who feels such a way. The whole crowd cheers wildly. As he gets off the motorcycle and is handed his cash prize, Aaron can see droplets of sweat beading on his chest and his temples.
“Who wants beer?” someone yells, and immediately, the attention is directed towards a small icebox at the bottom of the bleachers.
Everything is moving in a flash. One moment, Aaron is watching silently as Mingi runs to join the fun. The next moment, he feels arms wrap around his waist as Minhyun holds Aaron in his embrace.
“You’re coming with me,” he hears Minhyun whisper.
He turns around and smacks Minhyun’s arm. “Don’t scare me like that!”
“Do I scare you?” Minhyun hums. “Are you scared of going to the river with me?”
Aaron is scared. He won’t deny it; he’s finally doing something spontaneous and unplanned. He’s finally making a rift in his schedule. But he somehow feels safe under Minhyun’s gaze, almost like Minhyun’s there to guide him through it all.
“Let’s get out of here,” Minhyun says softly, and for the first time tonight, he smiles.
Aaron returns his smile. For some reason, he knows, he feels that everything will turn out right. Rather than being endlessly stressed about not being able to study, or getting distracted the weekend before his test, he mentally attaches himself to this man in front of him.
As they walk to Minhyun’s bike, Aaron becomes aware of the stares being thrown his way. Stares of jealousy and confusion. Stares questioning why he would be walking with Minhyun to his bike.
When Minhyun takes Aaron’s hand in his, it doesn’t make matters better. But Minhyun holds Aaron closer to his side, and the noise is suddenly drowned out.
“I want you to sit in front of me,” Minhyun says, as they approach his bike. He gets on the bike and sits back enough for Aaron to climb on in front of him.
When Minhyun turns the bike back on, Aaron is suddenly aware of the bare chest pressing against his back. “Can you at least zip up your jacket?” Aaron asks, willing the redness to leave his ears.
“Don’t you like the view?” Minhyun grunts, reaching over Aaron to adjust a few buttons.
“Just do it,” Aaron mutters. Minhyun laughs and leans back to comply with Aaron’s orders. And then, just like that, the engine of the bike rumbles, and they’re disappearing into the night.
The way that the wind blows against Aaron’s face is nothing short of exhilarating. They speed through the streets and past people and cars. The streets are still well lit, and it doesn’t feel any different from daytime when they speed through Main Street, past laughing groups of friends, vendor carts, and moderate nighttime traffic.
The entire time, Aaron revels in being in the comfort of Minhyun’s embrace. Being held makes it seem like life is less daunting, even if his heart is beating out of his chest. When Minhyun rests his chin on Aaron’s shoulder, Aaron can feel Minhyun’s equally quick heartbeat.
Pretty soon, the river comes into view. The riverside is much more quiet than the rest of the city, almost like an oasis. Minhyun stops the bike for a second to buy them chicken kebabs from a vendor, before driving further down the side of the river.
“I come here often,” Minhyun says as they continue down the river, “whenever I need to clear my thoughts. It’s nice to be able to hear yourself think.”
A sudden thought occurs to Aaron. “How many people have you brought here?”
“One,” Minhyun replies sharply, and Aaron feels his blood run cold in jealousy. “Two, actually. You and myself.”
When Aaron doesn’t say anything back, he leans closer to Aaron’s face and whispers, “Who else did you think?”
“I don’t know,” Aaron replies. Minhyun’s hot breath against his neck makes him lose his focus.
“You’re getting a bit ahead of yourself,” Minhyun says. “You might see a completely different person right now, but I’m still Minhyun. We sat in a cafe together the other day. Remember?”
The motorbike stops, and Minhyun helps Aaron off of the bike before hopping down from it himself. He walks towards the side of the river and leans against the railing, looking at the other side.
“I wanna go to the other side someday,” Minhyun says. “The city is different from the suburbs. It’s so fucking loud here and I wanna be able to hear myself think for once.”
He turns and leans back against the railing, looking up at the sky. “Coming here is as close to that as I can get.”
Aaron comes and leans on the railing next to him. “I’ll go with you, you know. One day.”
A small smile graces Minhyun’s lips once again as he looks up at the sky, before he turns to Aaron and cups his face in his hands. Aaron forgets how to breathe as Minhyun counts the stars in his eyes, taking his time finding each and every constellation. Then, Minhyun leans in and kisses him softly under his eye, and then on his lips, and then again, and again.
And that’s how Aaron finally sees stars as Minhyun kisses him breathlessly under the night sky. He finds himself standing on his toes and grappling at Minhyun’s chest to find some form of balance, because everything seems so unstable right now. Whether it’s the lips and the tongue against his, or the spinning world around him, he can’t tell.
There’s this point in which Aaron wraps his arms around Minhyun’s neck, and somehow, Minhyun hoists him upwards until he’s standing on his toes.
It’s all too quick for Aaron. He becomes breathless as the kiss becomes heated, harboring more desperation and impatience than he can handle. Minhyun’s lips are moving too fast. Aaron becomes dizzy trying to keep up with Minhyun’s pace, and eventually, it becomes too much.
They pull away from the kiss, gasping desperately for air. Minhyun’s eyes are dark, darker than Aaron has ever seen them. It could just be because of the lighting, but Aaron is sure that he sees all the unpeeled layers of Minhyun’s emotions through those eyes, even through all of the darkness, and he realizes that he has to face his own as well.
“I like you,” Aaron blurts out. “I’ve liked you since the first time I walked you home to your dorm.”
Minhyun’s expression flickers as he looks at Aaron thoroughly. “Really?” he says, his tone posing a challenge. “How much do you like me?”
“I don’t know?” Aaron whispers, shifting in Minhyun’s arms and desperately trying to push himself further onto the large body in front of him. “I just do.”
Minhyun leans impossibly closer into Aaron, and Aaron shivers from feeling Minhyun’s breath on his lips. “You know, we’re both young. But for some reason, you specifically act like the whole world is on your shoulders. You don’t ever try to show yourself who you are.”
His eyes are dark, but Aaron sees the stars he never sees in the city in those pitch black pupils. “But I can show you what it’s like.”
“What it’s like to be young,” Minhyun continues, and his lips have moved to Aaron’s ear. The breath against his ear makes something within him stir, and he impulsively pushes himself further into Minhyun’s embrace. “What it’s like to find yourself.”
“I know who I am,” Aaron whispers, “but I want to know you better.”
“You know almost everything already,” Minhyun says.
“ Almost everything?” Aaron inquires, pulling back and looking into Minhyun’s eyes again.
“I can show you more.” Minhyun’s voice is heavy and deep.
When it crosses Aaron’s mind what Minhyun is implying, second thoughts cross his mind. But he thinks about it. What’s holding him back? What’s holding him back from what he always wanted? What’s holding him back from being able to see stars, finally?
And he finally figures it out.
He’s the only one holding himself back.
“Show me.”
Something about Minhyun changes right then and there. It’s something in his eyes. As they head back to his motorcycle, Aaron notices that his movements are faster, but not impatient. He is moving with intent. When he gets on the motorcycle, he helps Aaron sit in between his legs, before he starts the motorcycle and they drive off into the knight.
This time, Aaron doesn’t grip the handles as tightly. He doesn’t hold his breath every time they turn a corner. He only lets the wind blow his long hair out of his face. It’s a refreshing feeling. Something inside him has been set free.
“Which way from here?” Minhyun whispers.
“Left,” Aaron whispers, leaning back into Minhyun’s shoulder. “And turn right after this. You can stop after that.”
Minhyun stops right in front of Aaron’s apartment building. Aaron gets off first, and Minhyun follows.
Aaron patiently watches as Minhyun hooks his bike onto a pole, before following him into his apartment building.
Minhyun is speedy in his steps, but Aaron is not. He tries to keep up with Minhyun’s long legs, which climb the stairs at an immensely quick pace, sometimes skipping steps. However, even though he’s carrying nothing, he still gets tired.
“Wait,” he lets out breathlessly, bending over to catch his breath. “I can’t go that fast.”
“You won’t be saying that later,” Minhyun mutters.
“Huh?” Aaron huffs, looking up at him. “What did you say?”
“Nothing,” Minhyun replies. Wordlessly, he heads down the flight of stairs until he gets to where Aaron is. Then, in one quick motion, he picks Aaron up and tosses him over his shoulder.
Aaron shrieks, “Hey!” but ultimately does nothing else to protest Minhyun’s sudden act of impatience.
And when they finally get into Aaron’s apartment, it takes no strength for Minhyun to lift Aaron from his shoulder and set him down on the kitchen counter. Aaron grapples at him for balance, and his hands land on Minhyun’s biceps, which flex under his grip as Minhyun reaches for his thighs.
And that’s how Aaron finds himself sitting on the kitchen counter with Hwang Minhyun in between his thighs, showering him with desperate, bruising kisses that make him breathless. When Minhyun begins to push himself closer in between Aaron’s legs, it becomes clear that things are escalating and that they’re escalating quickly.
Aaron’s not sure what it is that’s making him feel like this; maybe it’s Minhyun’s large hands on his waist, or the sturdy shoulders he’s gripping onto. Maybe it’s Minhyun’s disheveled appearance, or the way Minhyun delicately but firmly holds his face in his hands.
So Aaron hooks his fingers onto the zipper in front of Minhyun’s biker jacket. It’s almost a suggestion, nothing more than a teasing gesture, but Minhyun looks up at him in surprise. Then, without hesitation, he pulls down the zipper of his biker jacket and tosses it to the ground.
And Aaron… Aaron can’t breathe.
He reaches forward and touches the tattoo. It’s inked on pale, taut skin and it expands from Minhyun’s neck down to his abdomen. He flattens his palm over Minhyun’s pectoral.
When he meets Minhyun’s eyes, he drags his hand up to rest on Minhyun’s neck, where the tattoo ends.
“I was afraid,” Minhyun says, his voice shaky, “that you might see me differently from now. Like I’m a different person.”
“I don’t,” Aaron says softly, a smile gracing his lips and eyes, “I’m just glad that I get to see more of you.”
Minhyun seems to swell with hidden joy. The way Minhyun looks up at him with the world in his eyes tells Aaron so much.
“I want you to know that I respect you endlessly,” Minhyun whispers, “and that whatever I say later doesn't reflect my true ideas of you.”
“What will you say?” Aaron challenges, leaning forward slowly and propping his elbows on his knees. He stares into Minhyun’s eyes. “What are you gonna say?”
“You wanna find out?”
“Yeah, I wanna find out.”
So Minhyun easily picks Aaron up off of the kitchen counter. Aaron’s legs automatically wrap around Minhyun’s waist as Minhyun walks through the door of Aaron’s room.
He lets go, of course, when Minhyun sets him down onto the bed.
“Have you done this before?” Aaron asks, reaching to the bedside table and fumbling inside the desk drawer.
Minhyun swallows and shakes his head. “Yes,” he says. “Have you?”
Aaron nods slowly as he fishes out a bottle and a small package and sets it on the table. “Yes, I have. Are you sure you…” he trails off as he looks at Minhyun.
Minhyun swallows and nods. “But are you sure?” he asks Aaron.
Aaron nods and leans in to pull Minhyun down by the neck for another kiss. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“Who was it?”
“You wouldn’t know him,” Aaron whispers, as they chase each other’s lips. Minhyun’s fingers latch onto his collar. “You want this off?”
Minhyun nods. As their kisses continue, he picks apart each and every button on the shirt with two fingers. Without breaking the kiss, he pulls Aaron’s shirt over his head.
Aaron shivers when he feels two warm hands rest on his waist. Breaking apart from the kiss, he climbs into Minhyun’s lap and cups his face in his hands. His knees dig into the bedsheets from the sheer intensity of the kiss. As he cups Minhyun’s face, he feels Minhyun's hands reach up to his chest and thumb his nipples.
His back arches and he lets out a sudden cry of surprise. He’s met with Minhyun’s concerned face.
“What’s wrong? Was that bad?”
“No, no, it was just surprising,” Aaron breathes. “How often do you do this?”
“This?”
“Sex.”
The word alone makes Minhyun realize what’s happening right now. There’s a stirring below his core as he thinks of the promise of being able to pin Aaron down and fuck him into tomorrow. It makes him impatiently tug at Aaron’s pants, and growl out, “What if I told you I did this often? Like every week , after a bike race. Huh? What would you say?”
“I-I-I, I wouldn’t say anything! Ah!” Aaron cries as Minhyun tugs his pants off of him. He feels his heart thumping in his chest, hard and fast. “You are free to do whatever you want. I- oh my god .”
His eyes roll back as he feels the hardness between Minhyun’s hips press against his own.
“Really?” Minhyun grunts, as he rolls his hips into Aaron’s, making Aaron cry out. “You asked me earlier how many people I brought to that riverside. Like I’m some sort of manwhore who fucks people for fun.”
Aaron’s too breathless and wrecked for words. He just presses harder into Minhyun, clutching his bare, wide shoulders for support.
“I’ll show you how much fun we can have. I’ll show you how much fun you can make me have. Usually,” he whispers, harshly tugging Aaron down so that his ear is next to his face, “when people want to have fun, they use toys . But I—” he stops to look straight into Aaron’s eyes, which are shimmering with tears, “—I will use you .”
Aaron is the definition of beauty: quivering thighs, ink on his small waist, and a pale expanse of perfect, smooth, neck that Minhyun suddenly feels a need to tarnish with blemishes and blue. He harshly pushes Aaron into the mattress behind him and pulls off his stained boxer briefs. He tosses it to the side and begins the slow process of decorating Aaron’s chest with red.
It’s too slow, too arduous for Aaron to bear. “Please,” he sobs. “Please. Minhyun. Minhyun !”
When Minhyun finally relents, it’s out of impatience. He frantically unzips his pants and pulls them off. His eyes land on the bottle on the dresser, which he picks up and uncaps.
Aaron watches in disoriented madness as Minhyun coats his fingers in the substance. “Can’t you hurry,” he breathes. “You’re taking so—” he suddenly cries out at the feeling of Minhyun’s fingers breaching him.
“I’m taking so what?” Minhyun says. “I’m taking too long? Patience, that’s what you need. Patience. Maybe if you had patience, then I would have fucked you sooner. You’re too loud. Don’t you think? You’re too goddamn loud.”
Before long, Minhyun has Aaron fucking himself on 4 fingers, crying and wriggling his hips. “Please. I need… please Minhyun.”
“Please what?”
“Please fuck me! For fuck’s sake, Minhyun, why can’t you just stop screwing around and get to it?” Aaron spits out. “Didn’t you say you didn’t want to waste more time? From the day we met—”
“The day we met is the same day I decided that I wanna pin you down and fuck you one day,” Minhyun grits, cutting him off.
His words send a spike of heat towards Aaron’s core, and he throws his head back and lets out a silent moan. “How?” Aaron utters out. “How did you—”
“I just knew.” Minhyun’s voice reappears next to Aaron’s ear, relishing in the broken sob Aaron lets out as Minhyun’s cock slides into him.
Minhyun’s eyes are pitch black. “I’m gonna fuck you until you see stars,” he whispers. “Tell me when you want me to move.”
“Just move,” Aaron whispers, his voice gone.
The first movement is a test of the waters. Minhyun breathes in and moans quietly at the feeling of Aaron’s soft, tight hole wrapped around his girth. When he looks down, the sight of Aaron’s hair matted to his forehead, the redness adorning his neck like jewels, and his heavy lidded eyes make Minhyun grip Aaron’s waist tighter and push back in, this time with more force.
Aaron grapples harder at the wide expanse of Minhyun’s back and forces himself downwards. “Get on with it. Come on.”
Steadying his grip on Aaron’s hips, Minhyun begins to snap his hips faster.
Contact with a sensitive organ at the end of the tunnel makes Aaron cry out and shake. He reaches up and wraps his arms around Minhyun’s neck as Minhyun moves.
“Fuck,” Minhyun grits out. “You’re so tight .”
It does take long for Aaron’s thighs to begin quivering again, his breaths to become shallow. Minhyun kisses him quickly, picking wet strands of hair away from Aaron’s face.
Aaron’s silent when he tips over the edge. His hole flutters as Minhyun fucks him through it, his inconsistent thrusts making him whimper from overstimulation.
When he feels Minhyun’s body go slack and fall into the bedsheets next to him, he’s still breathing heavily, dazed.
“Shower,” Minhyun mutters.
Aaron groans and turns over to face away from him.
“Come on, hyung, we’re gross right now.”
The next morning, Aaron wakes up to the scent of English muffins and scrambled eggs. He doesn’t remember buying English muffins from the store, but as he sits down and bites into the thick bread, he resolves that apparently, he did.
“Do you have anywhere to be today?” he asks Minhyun. “If you don’t, you can stay here.”
He checks his phone. There’s several missed calls and messages from Mingi. He looks up when he hears a knock on the door, cursing at his own negligence.
“Yes, Mingi, I’m fine,” he says, as he opens the door. “You don’t have to worry about me. You’re— oh my god, are you crying?”
Mingi’s lip is indeed quivering as he stands in Aaron’s doorway. “I—” he hiccups, “I thought you got kidnapped or something.”
“Is there some sort of issue?”
They both turn to see Minhyun standing there, English muffin in hand.
Mingi stares at Minhyun in shock. Minhyun’s appearance is a sight to behold; his torso is covered by a white t-shirt that’s barely big enough for him, and he doesn’t even have pants on.
“Minhyun, go put some pants on,” Aaron cries, pushing Minhyun back into the apartment and nearly making him drop his English muffin.
Mingi stares at the entire exchange, open mouthed. As Aaron turns to face him again, he just grins. “I’m going to leave you to do whatever you want,” he says, grinning and turning to skip away. “Bye!!!”