Yunho felt sick.
Guilt ran rampant through his system without him even knowing why.
He felt guilty.
And it made him nauseous.
He needed to find Mingi, and he needed to find him now. All he could see was Mingi freezing before him, unknown emotions flowing through his eyes that were pointed at the ground...
Was he hurt? Was he offended? Was he mad?
God, Yunho didn't want him to be any of those things, and least of all mad at him...
No clue where he'd gone in such a hurry, Yunho took a guess and prayed that he was right.
Heading down to the locker room, Yunho didn't even take a breath before swinging the door open.
And by some stroke of luck, there was Mingi, standing at his locker texting on his phone leaning against the door. His dark hair was falling down over thin dark glasses frames, and his bracelet captured the light as he texted on his phone.
'Min-ah...'
Glancing up, Mingi's lips parted a little in surprise, but to Yunho's absolute disappointment, his face fell immediately.
'Min let me explai-'
'Please don't.' Rubbing the corner of his lip with his thumb for a moment, Mingi switched off his phone and shoved it into his pocket before pulling out a long sleeved blue theatre drape from his locker and shrugging it on over his scrubs.
Yunho felt even sicker.
'Mingi what he said-'
'- Was none of my business. Yunho, you can date whoever you like, it really doesn't concern me at all - and if I'm being honest, I'd prefer if we just didn't ever talk about this topic.' Pulling his ID tag over his neck, he shut his locker door, avoiding his eyes.
And it made Yunho feel even worse. Mingi, the one person he felt that he could talk to about anything, had set a line...
And without even meaning to - or wanting to - Yunho had crossed it.
'Mingi, it really was nothi-'
'Yunho. I know you mean well, and I know I said that everything was fine and we're talking again and I can see you're trying, but it turns out, I can't do this.' He ran a hand through his dark hair, ruffling it up and leaving it slightly messy and disgruntled in a kind of effortlessly charming manner...
'Wh-what are you saying?'
Mingi sighed, shaking his head. His mouth opened to reply, but just in that moment, his phone started ringing in his pocket, interrupting him.
Glancing down at the call, Mingi let out a short exhale of something that almost seemed like an unexpected yet unsurprised kind of sour amusement. From the door, Yunho couldn't see who it was, but he had a pretty damn good idea after he answered it...
'This is unexpected. To what do I owe this call?' A pause ensued, before, 'Thank god. Your place or mine?'
Yunho's stomach dropped through the floor and multiple stories down below that...
'Good. I get off in an hour. See you soon.' Hanging up, Mingi sighed heavily, shoving his phone into his pocket.
'Wh-who was that?'
He almost didn't want to know the answer.
And an answer, he was not given. Relatively curtly, Mingi checked his locker was shut before heading out. 'Let's not talk about who we're seeing. You clearly aren't interested in my dating life, and I really don't want to hear about yours. Let's just keep it that way, okay?'
Yunho felt so nauseous he could vomit.
Fight.
This felt, like a fight.
But fuck, Yunho didn't want that. He felt sick, and he didn't want Mingi to talk to him with such a bland, emotionless voice. It felt like this was the last time they would speak, and he couldn't deal with that... He needed him to be around...
'Min,' he suddenly begged, reaching out and catching his arm as he brushed past.
Mingi stopped, his eyes set straight ahead. He swallowed, breathing deeply for a moment.
This was his chance...
But he didn't know what to say.
'M-Min-ah... W-why does it feel like you're mad...?'
Sighing, Mingi reached up and peeled his hand from his arm, looking him in the eyes. 'Yunho I'm not mad. You did nothing wrong. I just can't listen to your dating life.' Turning to leave, Mingi put his hand on the door handle and began to turn it.
And suddenly words spilled from Yunho's lips faster than he could even think about them. 'But I don't get it you're seeing someone too I saw you two!'
Mingi let out a sharp exhale of breath, before turning the handle. 'Just because you see colours and smell perfume, doesn't mean it's a flower.' Opening the door, he stepped out, but not before finishing quite bluntly, 'Please never talk to me about this again.'
And with that, he walked away, leaving the door to swing shut behind him.
Standing in the locker room alone and feeling as though he'd been slapped across the face, Yunho's sickening feeling in his stomach was repulsive. Nothing he'd just said made any sense to him. It was just a blur of metaphors and gibberish that he couldn't understand, and suddenly, Yunho didn't know where he stood.
He didn't want to drive a wedge between them. But if there wasn't tension between them before, there definitely was now. Yunho hadn't ever seen him so switched off and stale, even when he was being harassed in the bar.
And Yunho hadn't even meant for this to happen!
If he'd had his way, Mingi would have never found out about Rose. No one would have found out about her.
If he had his way, he would have taken his actions back and never seen her.
But it was too late.
The damage had been done.
And Yunho had absolutely no idea how to fix it.
Leaning back against the corner, Yunho smacked his head back lightly against the wall, feeling nothing less than a ball of frustration and panic and guilt and sickness. Pulse thumping in his ears, and his stomach twisting in the most nauseating of ways, he closed his eyes helplessly.
Just because you see colours and smell perfume, doesn't mean it's a flower.
What the fuck did that even mean?
Frustrated beyond belief, Yunho groaned, smacking his head back again.
I've got to tell Rose I'm never seeing her again.
Yes, that would at least get rid of the problem altogether, and then all he would have to do is explain, clean up the damage and glue it back together...
I am never seeing her again. Ever.
~~~