4
"Do you need a ride home?" Chan asked, lifting his eyes from the floor and leaning on the broom.
Minho looked up with a raised eyebrow, looking down at the tips of his hands.
"Shit, I lost count." He rolled his eyes, leaving all the money on the counter to start again. That question had taken him by surprise, even more considering the way Chan had been quiet all day.
"Oh, sorry."
"Oh... No, thank you. Today is not so cold," Minho said but still gave Chan a thankful smile. He looked down at the money again and started over, this time with an annoyed pout.
Chan nodded slowly, throwing the dust and trash on the dustpan. Just then the door opened, making Chan look at it.
"Oh, sorry. We are closed already." He said, smiling at the person entering the shop. Even if the customer couldn't shop he could come by tomorrow, and so Chan wanted to be nice.
"Oh, no, don't worry. I'm here to pick up Minho."
Minho looked up again, his eyes landing on his well-known roommate's face. He raised his eyebrows again in surprise, standing up from his chair.
"Hyunjin. What are you doing here?" He asked, looking down at the money in his hands and an exasperated look on his face made Chan laugh.
"I lost count. Again..." Minho, annoyed as he could be, threw the money on the counter, sighing and running a hand through his hair.
"Oh, sorry. Keep on counting, I'll wait for you." He laughed, walking towards a chair and sitting down, taking out his phone.
"I don't want to count again." Minho pouted, picking up a coin and just staring at it.
"I can count, but I'll take my tips as well," Hyunjin commented, shrugging and immediately looking away when MInho's glare fell upon him.
"Shut up or I'll throw away that box of frozen pizzas you have in the fridge." He threatened, starting to count again.
"No, no, I'm sorry" Hyunjin apologized, starting to look at his phone while leaning on the chair.
"Are you Minho's friend?" Chan asked after some seconds, taking the dustpan to the trashcan and throwing the dust there.
"I'm his roommate, Hyunjin, nice to meet you." Hyunjin smiled at Chan, who returned the same smile.
"I'm Bang Chan, nice to meet you too."
Hyunjin's eyes went wide open and immediately rolled at Minho. As if he had spider senses, Minho lifted his eyes to meet Hyunjin's and shook his head.
Hyunjin wasn't stupid. After living with Minho for a long time he could identify when his dear roommate threw a death threat.
In silence, Hyunjin pretended to yawn and stretch and with a strange coordination Minho stood up, placing Chan's tips to the side and his other coworkers. He shoved his tips into his pocket and grabbed his backpack.
"Your tips are there, so the keys. Let's go Hyunjin." Minho sprinted towards the door and dragged his roommate with him by the arm. Hyunjin tripped when he got dragged by his friend but still waved goodbye to Chan.
Once they were outside Minho's eyes scanned the area until they found Hyunjin's car. He ran to the passenger side and Hyunjin without waiting for another second opened the car for them to get in.
"Why did you come?" Minho asked immediately, glaring at Hyunjin. Hyunjin shook in his place, a shiver running down his spine.
"I was curious! If you were crying over an ugly man I would have my reasons to hate you!" He admitted, putting on his seatbelt and pointing at Minho's. "Seatbelt, please. I want no dead people in this car."
"Then don't crash," Minho replied, putting on his seatbelt and side-eyeing Hyunjin. "What do you think?"
"He's hot. I would be crying too if that man left me." With a chuckle, Hyunjin started to drive.
"I'm not crying because he left me..." Minho shook his head a bit to get his bangs out of his eyes. "Well, I am, but it's not just that... There's a whole background"
Hyunjin shook his head.
"Look, that break up affects three people, you get it?" He started, lifting a hand and taking it to the side so Minho could see as he lifted his fingers to count. "You, Chan, and me. You better tell me something about it because I want to know the reason why my lovely roommate cries almost every night in his bedroom."
Minho slapped Hyunjin's hand with a terrible, dramatic sigh.
"You're so nosey, you know?" Minho said though he knew Hyunjin was right.
Hyunjin had been there for him for over a year, always listening to him cry every single time. He had been there for advice when he needed it and during his lowest time he had supported him: emotionally and economically.
Yet Minho never explained anything.
"You win. Maybe I'll tell you something about it."
Hyunjin sang victory with a little dance and nodded. "Finally. I'll warm up some pizza tonight and I'll get some ice cream"
Minho frowned, a shiver running up his arms this time.
"It's the fourth time you get pizza this week, aren't you tired? That's bad for your health. I'll cook something today." He complained, crossing his arms. "You'll get a heart attack at this rate."
Hyunjin buffed, though he wouldn't complain: Minho's food was delicious. He even tried to convince Minho into opening a little restaurant once before being turned down.
"I just like eating pizza every night. It's yummy."
Silence ruled the car, telling Hyunjin how he fucked up.
"You eat pizza every day!?"
...
The moment he crossed that door Chan was already expecting an awkward night.
Jisung, Changbin, and Felix all sat down at the table, some fast food placed for everyone and a box of lemon pie laid beside the trashcan, meaning they had bought some dessert for that night.
They all turned around, greeting Chan, all of them except Jisung.
"Hey..." Jisung waved shyly, fearing the greet would not be reciprocated.
Chan knew what it was all about: Jisung felt sorry for flirting with Chan's ex, specifically the one they all knew Chan had a rough time over. But despite Jisung's fear, Chan was nothing but glad to see his roommates after a long day.
They were his best friends over his roommates.
Chan walked towards the table, leaving his backpack on the couch as he passed by, and placed a hand on Jisung's hair, messing with it a bit. He wasn't looking at Jisung, but he could tell the younger one relaxed under a such caring touch.
"Good to see y'all. What ya got there?" He sniffed the air closing his eyes.
"Some pasta and salad. Some chicken too, in case you wanted that... Come sit down, I'll bring you something to drink." Felix hurried to say, standing up and opening a chair so Chan could sit down.
"Thank you, Lix." He smiled at the boy, who sprinted like an excited dog and in less than a second was already back with a cold drink for Chan.
Chan sat down and everyone started serving their dinner. It wasn't a big gesture, but the fact that the guys had been waiting for Chan to start eating dinner made his heart warm even though certain squirrel still seemed tense.
"You can calm down Sungie, I'm not mad at you. You didn't know he was Minho," Chan assured with a smile, stretching a hand to grab gently Jisung's cheek, pinching it softly. "It's okay. Plus I can't blame you, Minho is indeed hot. If I didn't know him I would probably flirt with him again."
He joked, trying to release some tension from the air. Jisung had really bad anxiety and some verbal assurance was something that helped the boy to calm down when problems like such happened.
"I'm still sorry... I know how sensible the topic is for you. If I had known-" Jisung rambled, words mixing and inevitably he started to stutter. Chan quickly decided to shut him up before his little brain came up with new excuses to feel awful.
"It's okay, Sungie. You did not know about it. I know you wouldn't do it if you knew, but you didn't. Plus I'm not the one to tell you who to date." He shrugged, his lips stretching into a fine line. "To be honest, If you want to date Minho you can do it as long as he wants to date you too. Just treat him right, be kind to him."
Chan took a bite of his pasta, a delicious Fettuccine Alfredo with some chicken tenders.
"Actually... I don't have any right to be messing with Minho's life again. I already did too much damage to him."
He did not need to look to know the boys were crossing looks with each other. Confusion ones, most probably.
Chan had never spoken a word about his relationship with Minho or how he truly felt like. All those guys knew was that they had been in a relationship and that Chan had seemed affected by it years after everything happened. Not during, but years later.
No wonder they were curious about it.
"Damage?" Changbin asked, careful to not get into any heavy topic Chan wouldn't want to talk about.
"I haven't told you anything about it, right?" He asked, knowing the answer already.
Changbin shook his head, holding Felix's hand under the table. He could tell his boyfriend got tense with the topic. "No, just... well, just that you guys dated."
Chan nodded, sighing and looking up, trying to find a way to explain everything that happened.
"Actually... We were high school sweethearts." He started, getting a surprised gasp from the guys.
"He was my first love... I wish I had some pictures right now to show you, but you would understand it better if you had been there. If you had seen him." He groaned in frustration, shaking his head as he looked down at his food. "He was gorgeous, and I think he was one of the most popular guys at school even though he barely spoke to anyone. I'm surprised he even looked at me! I was lucky!"
The three guys leaned on the table, completely invested in the story.
"But to make it short... I can't really make this short, can I? Well, just so you understand, I was a terrible boyfriend."
...
"He was a terrible boyfriend." Minho spitted a tired laugh that told everything. "Gods, he really sucked, but he was my perfect type so I just let it go. Plus I had all these mad bitches punching walls because I had the man they wanted." A proud smile crossed his lips, his chin lifting and his chest puffed in pride. "I wasn't the best boyfriend either. I sure was better, but still not a good one."
"Was he popular?" Hyunjin asked, leaning closer to Minho and holding the spoon in his hands. He nodded in satisfaction when the ice cream tasted too good in his mouth. Minho shook his head, using his hands to explain better.
"He was new at school, but he became popular quickly. I had my eye on him the moment he crossed the school doors. I remember it perfectly: I stood up from my desk and walked towards his desk. He was doodling something in a notebook with his friends and I pulled the notebook towards me without asking and called him cute. Then I forced a date on him."
Hyunjin gasped, pouring some chocolate and some cookie crumbs on the ice cream. "You had an attitude, huh? You were a total brat!"
Minho laughed loudly, agreeing.
"Yeah... But I was a teenager and I knew I was hot. If he rejected me he would've been the dumb one."
Hyunjin nodded, taking a scoop of ice cream to his mouth.
"But I wish he had rejected me... We weren't what the other needed back then."
Hyunjin frowned, his eyes finally looking at Minho.
Minho's eyes were lost somewhere in front of him and even though they weren't visible, Hyunjin could tell he was going back in time inside his mind: probably dates, nights together, or kisses. Perhaps he was falling back into all the bad memories that had him tied to misery now.
"We lasted three years together, but I could tell that by the second year Chan had become bored of me."
Hyunjin's eyebrows went up, a breath escaping him. Now he knew this wouldn't be the kind of enjoyable "ex gossip" he was used to.
"I did everything I could do to keep him with me and I think he noticed, so he didn't go away." Minho looked down at his hand, his thumbs fidgeting with the other. " But he stayed out of pity, because if he had tried to make things work we could've done it. Instead he decided to play around with other people."
A loud cough was heard through the entire room, Hyunjin hitting his chest with his fist in a poor attempt to gain back his breath
"He cheated on you!?" Hyunjin asked, dragging himself closer to Minho and forgetting the ice cream behind. "And you stayed!?"
Minho laughed at such dramatic reaction, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, he did. And yeah, I stayed. He had casual flirting with some other guys he found at parties or even sometimes after class. Then after flirting with them he would come with me and try to kiss me." He sighed, shaking his head in disbelief.
Now that he could look back at it he realized how stupid the story actually was. All he could do was humiliate himself again in front of his roommate this time!
"No way... Such a bastard..." Hyunjin's wide open mouth refused to close thanks to the shock.
Minho raised his eyes at Hyunjin, a smile covering his lips that sent Hyunjin a chill up his spine.
"I played dumb, but when I got fed up with it I stole his bitches."
Minho could tell by the pure look of his dear roommate that the story had taken a twist he hadn't expected.
"Wait, what? You did what? No, you did not..." Hyunjin's eyes wandered around the room in a look for some mercy into his brain that tried to process hit after hit.
"But not during the relationship, after. Once I broke up with him he felt less guilty about showing his side boys, so I went after them and they clearly were easy guys." Minho nodded, a pout forming on his lips as he crossed his arms, his legs getting comfortable one over the other, crossed. "That was a stupid revenge I did, but it hurt his ego deeply, so I can't say I wasn't proud of it at the moment."
Hyunjin's eyes quickly ran back to Minho, a hand running through his hair.
"Hold on, give me a second."
Hyunjin rested himself against the couch, his eyes lost in front of him and Minho could basically see a "processing" over Hyunjin's head.
He took his fingers up and started counting.
"One, you were boyfriends. Second, he ran out of love for you, third he cheated and fourth, you stole his side babes. Am I missing something?" Hyunjin asked, looking back at Minho and he could swear his roommate hadn't blinked at all since the last wave of shock.
"Yup, correct."
Hyunjin frowned, getting comfortable again this time in front of Minho.
"Then... Why were you so over him? He clearly was a bastard. A huge one!" He asked, leaning on and resting his chin on his hand.
Minho looked back at his hand, his thumb rubbing softly his palm in a soothing effort. He could feel his own heartbeat calm down slowly with the warms yet bitter memories of them. Of Chan and him.
"Because he wanted to keep me with him even though he didn't want me... Just them he knew how to be the best boyfriend"
Hyunjin's stomach fell down to the floor. His back stretched from his bad position and his head tilted a bit. Minho wanted to cry from the warm way Hyunjin seemed to want to comfort him now.
"He was the only boyfriend that actually loved me once. The first two years were the best for me." He said quietly, his eyes looking for a small, any kind of understanding Hyunjin could have for him. "I thought he really was the one."
...
"I wanted him to be the one."
Everyone's face seemed to be shocked by everything that had just been thrown to their faces.
A new side of Chan they never knew, a whole story from behind that they didn't know about that introduced them to a life of Chan they could never imagine to have happened ever.
"Then, what happened? Why did you do all... That?" Jisung asked, hugging himself. His confused, disgusted yet worried look from Jisung made Chan want to beat himself up again.
Chan places his eyes on the table and wished to be always like that: looking at the ground in shame.
"I loved him, I really did. But there were so many things I didn't understand from him." Felix frowned, wanting to hear the end of all that. There was no way Chan would do that just because... Right? His Channie would never do that. "I also found some interesting stuff that made me rethink everything."
The intense states the three guys threw on him made him stutter before wording a sentence.
"After two years of being together I found out I was bet"