6
Once they closed the doors behind them Seungmin and Jeongin said goodbye, both of them walking on the same direction.
Minho stared at them, a warm feeling on his tummy making him let a sigh out. They were the same age, some months apart but Seungmin treated Jeongin like a pampered kid.
They were friends, close ones and before Chan had gotten there he would try to stay inside the shop a bit more so those two guys could walk away. He always felt lonely besides them.
They were good friends, neighbors and even at work they seemed to connect in a way Minho had never seen before; They tried to befriend Minho as well, but he couldn't help but feel like creep.
Those guys were younger and he was the adult in the job, he had to protect them and make sure those two boys had a safe environment to be comfortable with.
Now with Chan behind him, even though he couldn't call him a friend of his, he felt less lonely.
Now that they were breaking the ice again working didn't seem so awful.
"Need a ride?" Chan asked, moving his keys on his hand to catch Minho's attention.
Minho turned around, about to deny when he spotted that smile on Chan.
"Please, let me do you a favor and I'll beg until you accept", he could read all over his face. He wouldn't accept a no.
"I guess." He said, smiling softly when Chan's successful smile appeared on his face, like a kid convincing an adult of buying him a candy.
They both walked to the parking lot where Chan opened the passenger door for Minho. As always, the best gentleman.
Minho sat down and waited until Chan got to the other door, sitting down too and putting on his seatbelt.
"You can put music on if you'd like."
No hesitation this time.
Minho quickly put some music on, some goth songs Hyunjin had showed him a while ago. He moved his head along with the rhythm of the song, listening to the lyrics.
"Woah, gothic music. Did you become a gothic?" Chan asked, his fingers on the wheel tapping with the beats of the song.
Minho laughed softly, shaking his head.
"No, but my roommate kind of is. He showed me these songs." He said, and now that he actually listened to the music he realized the song was better than he remembered it to be. It always happened: when he saved songs in playlists he didn't really listen to them until he enjoyed them in a car ride.
Chan nodded, a sudden silence dropping on the car for a few moments that made Minho wonder if he had said anything inappropriate.
"How did you guys became roommates?" Chan asked, stopping at a red light.
Minho didn't think much about it.
"When I got into college I met him. We were on the same career though he later changed it. As poor students we decided to share apartment and here we are even a year later." Minho shrugged, remembering how different everything was compared to back then.
"What career did you chose?" Chan asked, nodding to the new song that came.
"I tried medicine. Pediatric physical physiotherapy. " Minho's answer surely took Chan by surprise. " But I quit."
Minho kept on looking at his hands, now playing with his fingers distractedly and complelty forgetting about the song.
"Why? You didn't like it?" Chan asked, worrying covering his entire face and Minho could feel his crispy nervousness as static in the air.
"Had a really bad relationship during college and ended up dropping out."
Chan's stomach twisted inside him. A really bad relationship? He couldn't imagine what kind of relationship it must've been to make Minho drop out of college just when he was about to graduate.
"Woah, I'm so sorry... Are you thinking on going back for it?" Chan asked, finally parking in front of Minho's building.
"Not really. It's too late now to try going back to college." Minho shrugged, sighing and turning to Chan. "Thanks for bringing me."
He said, about to look into his pocket for any money he could give to Chan as gas money but he was immediately cut.
"It's okay, don't give me anything. I offered it." Chan hurried to say, taking the door locks off. "Have a goodnight."
Minho frowned, a pout accompanying his lips as he placed the bill on his pocket. Chan's soft laugh crossed the air.
"Sure. Goodnight, drive safe." Minho stepped back and closed the door, walking away into his building.
He got into the elevator and rested his head on the wall to rest a little. The jazz music became a great companion through the years, helping him to silence his brain a bit.
He got into the apartment and first thing he checked his cats's food. Then he rushed into his room, closing the door.
Hyunjin was at a friend's birthday party and so the apartment was only his that night. He jumped on his bed right after dinner and started scrolling through his phone into the old pictures.
He scrolled to one, two, three, four and five years ago. He thanked wifi and its magic to save memories of years ago and also to his lack of commitment to take or save many pics that saved space on his phone.
Though when he got to five years ago, memories were Chan were shown.
Screenshots of their conversations, pictures he had taken of Chan and some candid pictures Chan had taken of him that he sent him later on.
He decided to ignore the conversations in order to save his heart a heartbreak and decided to see what he could remember from Chan's pics.
One where Chan was standing on the sand, looking away at the sea.
Other where Chan held up Minho's last pet that still lived in his parent's house: a black and white kitten he had picked up with Chan when they found the little one living in a trashcan. Her mother loved the little boy so much he had become hers in no time.
Then a rare pic showed up: his own hand holding up some flowers Chan had gifted him once during Valentine's day.
His thoughts were interrumpted when his screen shun with a phone call: his roommate.
He picked up quickly with a sigh.
"What?" He asked, in return a loud giggle. Great, Hyunjin was drunk.
"Hey... Pick me up. Pretty please?"
Pretty please was a phrase Hyunjin used only when drunk. Just then he realized Hyunjin had drank enough to not be able to sober up before leaving.
"Send me your live address, I'll be there soon. Don't move." He got up from his bed and put on a big hoodie.
They hung up and Minho called the nearest taxi. In less than five minutes he was already on the car, sitting on the back seat while listening to the driver's music in silence.
They stopped in front of a house with loud music, two boys sitting on the side walk just laughing and chatting.
Minho jumped down the car and walked towards his roommate.
"Hyunjin. Let's go." He said, lending his hand to the drunk guy who held it softly.
"Minnie... Meet my new friend." He giggled, pointing at his friend sitting besides him.
Minho looked to the guy and his eyes opened wide in surprise: sitting there, the guy that had flirted with him at work.
Chan's roommate.
"Hey." Minho greeted with an awkward smile.
Jisung looked up and his eyes opened wide in terror.
"Oh, hey... Didn't think you... Woah" Jisung started hiccuping, thing only made Hyunjin laugh louder.
"You got hiccup? Are you that drunk?" Hyunjin asked, tossing his hand until it touched Jisung's forehead.
"What are you doing?" Jisung asked, slapping the hand away.
"Checking your temperature."
"I'm not sick"
Minho rolled his eyes, looking around when his eyes catched a car van parked nearby: a known one.
"I'll be going then. See ya later." Jisung hurried to say, standing up with trouble that forced Minho to lean closer in order to help the boy, who hesitantly accepted the help.
"Be careful. Is someone picking you up?" Minho asked to which Jisung nodded, pointing at the van.
"Chan is picking me up." He pointed with a dumb smile.
Minho looked at the van, noticing for the first time a man standing besides it, leaning on it.
He waved a hello to Minho, thing he returned.
"Bye." The both guys waved goodbye and Minho took Hyunjin to the taxi with him.
"Why were you with him?" Minho asked once in the car.
"They were waiting for me... Well, for you." Hyunjin said, quickly shaking his head. "I mean, for you and for me. Until you came for me."
Minho raised his eyebrows in surprise. He didn't expect anyone to do that for his friend and the way his heart warmed up. Chan waited until Hyunjin got picked up by someone of trust? Why?
He nodded, taking out his phone and immediately going to Chan's old chat.
He didn't know why he waited, but he couldn't ignore the fact that thanks to him his roommate was safe.
And so he opened the chat.
"Thanks for waiting for my roommate. That was really nice of you."
Hesitantly, he send the text, a growing anxiety on his stomach making him want to puke. Hyunjin leaned his head on Minho's shoulder, closing his eyes.
Once Minho was home he paid the taxi and helped Hyunjin get inside.
He immediately took the guy to his bedroom and tossed him some new, fresh clothes for him to change into.
Just then Minho's phone rang.
His stomach rumbled, an earthquake shaking it that caused a shiver on his hands. He looked at the text, an odd, warm and fuzzy yet anxiety inducing name that he hadn't seen years ago appeared on the screen:
Chris
"No problem :)"
Minho closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. How was supposed to answer!? What was he even supposed to say after that? Ask why he waited? Would he sound too crazy? Like an asshole? Like a creep?
Instead, he asked the only question his mind made up in the middle of the panic:
"Did you guys get home safe?"
He asked and threw his phone away into the bed.
A ring almost immediately made him want to scream. Sadly, he had to look at it at some point and he would rather not elongate his pain
"Yes, thank you. And you and Hyunjin?"
He wanted to hate how Chan knew Hyunjin's name. He knew they had met back at the cafeteria when the boy picked him up, but at least he could call him his roommate, anything else to not make it seem more intimate than what it was supposed to be.
How did he even remember his name even? Why did he care enough to remember it?
Maybe he was being too paranoic and toxic to think about it.
"Yes. Thank you."
...
He had known Minho to be a dry texter whenever he didn't feel like talking, and so he decided to just send a thumbs up as an answer to the boy's text.
He admitted that having Minho once again in his recent chats felt wrong, like something that wasn't supposed to happen anytime soon or even later.
If he scrolled up last conversation they had was five years ago, when Minho had asked him to meet up into a last date in which he broke up with him.
Now if he scrolled down he had Minho asking him if he had gotten home safe and thanking him for waiting for his roommate.
It was odd yet the nostalgia didn't allow him to hate it.
He liked seeing Minho's name back in his chat even if it was for something like that.
"Kitten ^^",
that's how Minho's name had been saved for the last years.
At first he did the care enough to change it back into Minho or even into something like "ex", but after a while he liked to think that the last thing he wanted to have from Minho was to see his nickname for the last time.
A nickname he had given to him when they were once in love. A nickname that just by reading it he could tell there was some kind of warmness to it.
He loved it.
He set his phone aside as he helped Jisung sit down and have a drink of water. Then he took the boy to his bedroom and helped him get changed.
"I didn't know he was Minho's roommate. You should've told me!" Jisung cried, a pout on his lips that Chan couldn't help but find adorable.
"What would you have done anyway?" He asked, laughing softly at such childish behavior he got to see when Jisung became drunk.
"Well, maybe we shouldn't have waited for him or something!" Jisung sighed loudly, throwing himself on his bed.
"Don't say that. What if something had happened to him before Minho had gotten there?" Chan scolded, sitting down besides Jisung. "Minho is not a bad person. Plus, don't punish people you don't know for other people. Safety is first"
"There you go, dad." Jisung rolled his eyes, stretching his whole body and then sighing.
"I'm being serious. Come on, let's go to sleep, it's late. Think about it later." Jisung nodded.
Chan stood up and turned off Jisung's lights and before he knew he could hear the boy's snores all over to his room.
He got into his bedroom and thought about their conversation once he was ready for bed.
He talked about punishing people for the past to Jisung yet his biggest regret floated around it, the same thing he had done as a teenager.
There was nothing to think about it, right?
He shouldn't think much of it.
Yet there he was, thinking twice about it.
Minho hadn't texted him at all before, so now it felt like a big step.
Everytime something like that happened to break the ice between them both he couldn't help but wonder if he was meant to do something about it. Was the universe doing some sort of conspiration for them? Why was everything aligning so them both could talk again?
In the darkness of his bedroom, Chan decided if he wanted to make things right now the least he could do was to apologize.
Tomorrow he would do it, after work and hopefully Minho would accept it.
Hopefully, he could lift some weight off Minho's shoulders after five years.