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Seokmin never regretted falling in love with Mingyu. They had known each other for years. They had met two blocks away from their pre-school.
Mingyu’s mother held her son’s hand as they strolled along the sidewalk. Mingyu was practically vibrating with joy. His mother had been promising to take him to the new park for weeks. Mingyu had been on his best behaviour to not ruin his chances of going.
Once they arrived at the park, Mingyu let go of his mother’s hand and dashed towards the slide. It was his favourite part of the park. The thrill that came with descending the slide and landing at the end always made Mingyu’s heart race.
When he had gotten to the slide, he found that it was already occupied. The boy at the top looked scared, refusing to go down. Mingyu, ever the impatient child, was not having any of it. He had waited weeks for this, and he was not going to have some scaredy cat ruin his playtime.
Mingyu approached the boy and tapped his shoulders, “Hey, can you like… move, or something… There are other people that want to go…” Mingyu put his hand on his hip and tapped his foot for emphasis.
“No… I was here first. Wait your turn,” the boy pouted and crossed his arms. He was not going to move. He was there first. If some bully was going to make him move, he was going to put up a fight.
“But you aren’t going…”
“But I’m going to”
“Are you scared?”
“NO!”
“YES, YOU ARE!”
“NO, I’M NOT!”
“Then go!”
“NO! I’LL GO WHEN I WANT TO!”
The boy turned to face the other way. Mingyu took the chance to push the boy. He slid down the slide with a cry. Arriving at the bottom, he started giggling. The boy jumped up and once more climbed up the wooden steps to meet Mingyu at the top of the hot metal slide.
“LET’S DO THAT AGAIN!”
The boy was loud. Very loud. Mingyu looked at the boy confused. He had just pushed the boy, and now he was asking Mingyu to do it again? What was wrong with him?
The boy realising Mingyu’s confusion stuck his hand out towards the taller boy.
“I’m Seokmin. Nice to meet you. We’re friends now!”
Seokmin realises now that maybe it was not very smart to tell a stranger his name. He would never regret it though.
That day in the park, Seokmin gravitated towards Mingyu as a sunflower would the sun. It was as if the boy radiated energy and Seokmin was in dire need of some.
It was too early in their lives to call it love. Much less love at first sight. They knew nothing of it. They were still in the age of cooties, where once you touched someone, you were contaminated. Liking someone seemed worse than being contaminated back then.
It was not until eighth grade that Seokmin found that he liked Mingyu, in a more than friendly way. Unfortunately for him, he was never the best at finding the right timing.
It was time to clear out their lockers. They were finally moving on to bigger challenges. High School.
Seokmin had decided that today was the day that he was going to confess to Mingyu.
After a good ten years of friendship, Seokmin’s heart decided that it liked this best friend. It decided this on its own accord. Not consulting his brain, nor his conscience on the matter. It chose to beat twice as fast every time the taller so much as walked into the room. It chose to clench every time Seokmin’s eyes saw Mingyu stand close to another, laughing, grabbing their arm as he struggled to catch his breath. ‘Surely nothing was ever that hilarious’.
Seokmin strode over to his locker happily. This was the last time he would ever need to enter this godforsaken building. He would find himself in a similar, somewhat worse, place in a few months. High School. The cream-coloured walls had seen the last of him. Turning into the math corridor, the corridor his home class was situated in stood Mingyu.
He was there in all his glory. The early morning sunlight illuminated Mingyu’s golden skin. His hair shone just as brightly. He was smiling…
No one word could describe how Mingyu’s smile mad Seokmin feel. Seokmin rarely spoke eloquently, somehow Mingyu’s beauty turned him into Shakespeare.
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
(Mingyu would never be old to Seokmin)
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
(He would remain as youthful, as carefree as the day that they first met in that park)
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
(They have known each other for years. They enjoyed the passing seasons together. Jumping into piles of leaves in the autumn, building sandcastles in the summer as their mothers watched, rolling the tiers of snowmen in the winter, and picking flowers in the spring to gift their sisters)
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.
(Mingyu would forever be beautiful in Seokmin’s eyes. Even when they are wrinkly and grey, even once they are dead…)
Seokmin wishes that the beauty of Mingyu’s smile was being directed at himself, but alas it was not…
No, the shy, bashful smile that graced the teen’s face was being directed at one, Jeon Wonwoo.
Mingyu’s long-term crush.
Mingyu turned his head from the boy shyly only to see Seokmin standing at the end of the hallway. Dismissing himself from the conversation with a small wave, Mingyu bound over to Seokmin.
Gyu grabbed Seokmin’s wrist, dragging him along as he sped down the corridors. They reached the quad in no time. Mingyu still had a smile on his face, he looked about ready to burst into a magnificent fireworks display. (Too bad both boys were deathly afraid of heights, Mingyu much more than Seokmin)
“Wonwoo-hyung asked me out”
Seokmin’s smile faltered slightly, his heart dropped a bit and skipped a beat or two.
‘Today… of all days?
“That’s great Gyu-Gyu”
If Seokmin’s voice was stained, Mingyu did not say a word.
‘I’m happy for him’
Seokmin should keep telling himself that, he might just believe it sometime.
It was the following year that the best friends met the last third of their trio.
Xu Minghao
He had come into their lives unexpectedly, but not unwelcomed, mostly.
Seokmin roamed around the school observing his peers.
Mingyu had been spending a lot of time with Wonwoo ever since they had started dating, just over six months ago, he would know, Mingyu had been freaking out the previous week about what to get Wonwoo for their sixth monthiversary. Because the boy had been spending less and less time with Seokmin, it left Seokmin with quite a bit of time on his hands. This meant more roaming, feeling lonelier than he had before, and Seokmin trying to busy himself, so as not to third wheel constantly.
Seokmin had other friends. He had loads of them, but most of them were busy. Be it with part-time jobs, schoolwork, significant others, or school clubs. It’s why he was looking for something to partake in. The school’s theatre club seemed interesting. Seokmin had always been good at singing. Mingyu always told him as much, he used to before Wonwoo took away all his attention.
Seokmin could not blame Wonwoo for all his misfortune with his best friend, but he felt that he had every right to feel at least a bit bitter about the turn of events.
Seokmin continued walking down the hallway dazed. He was too much in thought to see the confused boy walking towards him.
The boy was staring at the page in his hands, seemingly struggling with whatever was on the page.
If either of them had looked up, one of them would have been able to sidestep and avoid the pending collision.
With Seokmin’s luck… That would never happen.
The collision was glorious. Both boys knocking into each other with equal force. For every action (force) in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is exactly what had happened. The force of the collision knocked the boys onto their asses, leaving them spluttering and bruised.
The boy raised off the ground first. Seokmin was still regaining his thoughts when a hand was extended in his direction. He took it thankfully, never being one to shy away from help.
“I am so sorry,” the boy’s words were spoken brokenly, as if he were struggling to find the correct words. Seokmin looked at the boy and smiled.
“It’s totally okay, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going”
“But still… I feel bad” It warmed Seokmin’s heart. This stranger was absolutely adorable…
“Like I said, it’s okay… my name is Seokmin, Lee Seokmin” he extended his hand for a handshake. The boy seemed weary of his hand for a few seconds but took it with a small shy smile.
“Xu Minghao”
That was how the two had met.
Minghao was Seokmin’s saving grace. Saving him from the loneliness that he was feeling. Saving him from third wheeling for Mingyu. Saving his broken heart and fixing it up with glittered super-glue.
It took Seokmin three months to admit to Minghao that he liked him.
Seokmin and Minghao were sitting in the auditorium running lines for the next musical that the school had decided to put on. Seokmin had gotten the lead, and Minghao was chosen as the director. (May the record show that Minghao did not help Seokmin get the part as lead, he got it all on his own).
“Do you think that they will be okay?”
Minghao knew who Seokmin was talking about.
The two had decided to spend the lunch period running lines to give their resident couple some space. The two seemed to be going through a rough patch.
“I hope so, I haven’t been around them as much as you, so I can’t say for sure”
“They’ve never been like this though. But I mean, every relationship goes through this at some point. Right?”
“I would assume so, but I haven’t been in one long enough to know…”
Seokmin saw his opening. He had been trying for weeks to figure out how to ask Minghao out.
“Do you want to get to that part of a relationship… with me?” Seokmin was hesitant. The last time he had decided to go for it, his heart was run over by a truck.
Expecting rejection he lowered his head slightly. A hand reached forward and gently grabbed Seokmin’s chin. His head was raised just as gently, it was forced to face the gentle smile Minghao had reserved just for him.
“I would very much like that Minnie”
Minghao swooped in for a quick peck on Seokmin’s cheek and returned to the script as if nothing had happened.
Seokmin always looked back on that day with a smile. It felt like he had unlocked a new achievement.
Achievement Unlocked
Find the love of your life
Seokmin heard the bell of the café door jingle, indicating a new customer. He put on his best customer service smile and faced the newcomer.
“Welcome- “ Seokmin stopped mid-sentence as he was faced with his boyfriend, “Oh, It’s just you… Don’t you have work?” He did not want it to seem as though he did not want to see his boyfriend, he was just confused as to why he was in the café and not at work. His Lunch break had finished an hour ago.
“I took a half day… I can leave. It seems like I’m not wanted here” The man pouted and turned to “leave”. Seokmin grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him in for a kiss.
The café was having a slow day, so the only customers there to witness were the old couple sitting by the window, and their mutual friend Jihoon, who was busy with work on his laptop.
Seokmin’s boyfriend pulled away ever so slightly and smiled. “What if someone sees? This can’t be good for business…”
“Who cares? I’m the boss”
“You know he would be mad anyway…”
Seokmin knew the risks of kissing his man out in the open, he knew about the prying eyes in the café.
“Of course I am mad…”
In the doorway of the staff entrance stood Seokmin’s husband. His arms were crossed, and his foot was tapping impatiently.
“Hao-hao…”
Minghao strode over to the couple and pulled Mingyu into an all-consuming kiss. He turned to face his husband after releasing the other man from the lip lock he captured him in.
“I thought that we all agreed that we are all equal. That means all kisses go to all of us…”
Minghao smirked and brought Seokmin into a kiss as well, short, but sweet and just as passionate nonetheless.
They both parted with a giggle.
“Go and sit down, the both of you. I’ll make your drinks, just the way you like it
Achievement Unlocked
Find the second love of your life