20
"You look like a teenager in love," Hyunjin's laugh was heard through the apartment as he watched Minho's shining face.
The only lie in that sentence was the fact that he wasn't a teenager.
"Did you know that you drain people's happiness?" Minho asked as he opened the fridge with a wide smile, symptom he hadn't been able to stop through the entire day and knowing that Hyunjin was complelty right.
"Nah, I only make you happier," Hyunjin said as he turned around with a bowl full of cold water, ice cubes and two spoons. "There you go, have mercy for your eyes, you look like a fish"
Minho turned around with a glass of juice on hand before shaking his head.
"I don't look so bad..." He mumbled, closing the fridge and then turning around with a fierce panicked face. "I can't look that bad, Hyunjin."
As another laugh escaped Hyunjin's lips, he pushed the stuff on hands towards Minho
"That's why I'm giving you this, it's for your puffy eyes, you don't want Chan to know you've been crying like an idiot."
Minho's pout grew funnier to Hyunjin when the guy picked up the two spoons and sunk them properly into the water. After a few seconds he picked up the spoons, turned them around and placed them both on his eyes.
"Is this supposed to help?" Minho asked after a few seconds.
"I guess so, I saw it online..." Hyunjin shrugged, placing the bowl somewhere around.
...
"Where should we go to first?" Chan asked as he leaned down, opening a map on his hands so Hannah could see the map as well.
"Seems confusing," she mumbled, nodding and crossing her arms in front of her chest.
Minho leaned down to see the map as well, nodding and looking over at Hannah, his cheeks burning red.
"You choose, where do you wanna go to first?" He asked, his wide eyes shining even under the cap he was wearing. As Chan looked up to see him, he couldn't help but smile widely too.
Minho's excitement could compare to a little kid entering a toy store knowing his parents would buy him anything he wanted: pure happiness.
Hannah, looking up to Minho nodded as she placed her hands around her waist, determination covering her entire face.
"A rollercoaster" she finally said.
Minho's smile drained immediately, glaring at Chan when the guy chuckled under his breath.
"What?" Hannah asked, tilting her head. "Are you scared of rollercoasters?"
Minho shook his head immediately, but before he got to say anything Bang Chan spoke for him.
"He's scared of heights" he said, making Minho punch him gently on the arm.
Hannah immediately ran towards Minho, grabbing his hand strongly and nodding.
"I'll hold your hand, so don't be scared." Hannah waved gently towards Minho, who couldn't help but try a smile on.
...
"You don't have to get on if you don't want to, Minho" Chan leaned closer to Minho to whisper as they stood in the line for the rollercoaster, holding Hannah's hand so the girl wouldn't wander away. "I'll go on with her, so you don't have to."
Minho shook his head, his eyes facing to the front with his arms hugging himself.
"No, the point of this is to spend time with her!" He whispered back, ignoring the way Bang Chan was incredibly close to him. "I want her to think I'm cool!"
Chan shook his head, placing his other hand on Minho's cap and gently stroking it.
"You don't have to do that so she thinks you're cool, you know?" He whispered back, now looking at Hannah who started pulling his hand.
"I want a sweet," she said, looking around in hopes to find a candy store.
"Hannah, if we move from the line we're going to loose our place" Chan said gently, smiling towards the little girl who already had a pout on. "We'll get sweets when we get do-"
He immediately got interrupted by Minho's hand in front of Hannah, holding a bag of m&m's. Hannah's eyes immediately light up as she took the sweets.
"Thank you Minmin!" She said, turning towards Chan with a triumphal smile. "We didn't have to get out of the line!"
Chan immediately turned to Minho, eyebrows raised.
"Really? Where did you even have them?" He asked, to which Minho pointed at his bags on his pants. His pants had pretty big bags, all of them zipped up so the candy wouldn't fall. "I'm trying to teach her patience..."
Chan mumbled, shaking his head and sighing, taking his hand down to Minho's shoulder, having had his hand up for a while made it tired.
"Not my problem, I don't have to raise her" he said, giggling and shrugging. "I'm here to spoil her"
Hannah started laughing, running until she was hugging Minho from the side, making him take his hand down to her head.
"I like him a lot!" Hannah said, raising her hand with the m&m's towards Minho. "Do you want?"
Minho nodded, placing his hand in front of Hannah who gave her some.
Minho immediately thanked her and then took his hand towards Chan.
"Do tou want?" He asked with a wide smile. Chan instead, rolled his eyes before grabbing one with the hand he used to have on Minho's shoulder.
"Thank you, Minnie" he smiled at Minho, to which Minho's blush only got brighter.
...
If rollercoasters weren't scary enough, Chan couldn't stand to be in the line behind Minho and Hannah without stressing his life out.
He knew Minho was deeply scared of heights, and so he couldn't hug him or hold his hand to comfort him, and now he kept on praying Hannah's seat was secure enough so she wouldn't fly away.
Reason why as soon as they got down the first thing he did was check up on both of them.
He knelt down in front of Hannah to see if she had any scratch on her, but as the girl kept on laughing like crazy and jumping around he got the confirmation that he should worry more about Minho.
Once he stepped up, the first thing he saw was an extremely pale face.
"Are you okay?" He whispered, to which Minho nodded with a soft smile.
"I think I still have all of my limbs together," he mumbled, his eyes going down to watch the now extremely excited Hannah, pulling him from the hand.
"Let's do something else, come on!" She asked, to wich Minho nodded.
"Let's take a break, shall we?" Chan interrupted Hannah, and before she could complain he gave a suggestion. "Do you want ice cream?"
After getting some ice cream, the three of them sat down in a table by a cafeteria, Chan and Hannah facing Minho.
"Where are we going next?" Hannah asked, taking a spoon of ice cream. "Oh, I know! Remember that haunted house by the teddy bears?"
Minho nodded, taking a bite of his ice cream and pointing with it at Hannah as if it were a finger.
"You like scary stuff huh?," he asked, to which the girl nodded with her chest puffed out. "A brave girl, good job".
Chan laughed softly, checking the map to see how to get to it soon.
"Finish first your ice cream and then we can go," he ordered, to which Hannah nodded. He lifted his eyes up off the map to glare at Minho. "You too, boy"
Minho was thankful of the shadow covering his face, because Chan wouldn't know about his deep blush.
"I'm not a kid," he protested, to which Chan shook his head back to the map.
"Sure thing, Minnie..."
...
Once they were surrounded by dark, Chan walked behind Hannah and Minho, who proudly walked in front of him laughing at bad decorations and then bursting out laughing after a scare jump.
"Psychopaths..." he mumbled to himself, laughing and trying to not die from a heart attack.
He couldn't help but notice the way Hannah had already accepted Minho as a big brother; she was comfortable, laughed a lot, looked for Minho and more importantly, mocked Chan with him.
He wondered how things would've worked out if he and Minho had never broken up in the first place.
They hadn't talked about anything, even at work and even when he saw Minho with puffy eyes enter the workplace. He couldn't go to hug him or even try to comfort him due to him being the cause of his pain, yet as soon as he mentioned Hannah not having classes the next monday, Minho had hurried to make a perfect plan on the amusement park with them both.
He wondered why he was even there when the day was supposed to be Minho's and Hannah's, and he trusted Minho with his life to take care of his dear Hannah.
Yet Minho had included him since the first moment in the plan.
And now he watched as both, Minho and Hannah had the time of their lives in the common haunted house of the amusement park.
Minho scared Hannah from time to time and Hannah wouldn't hesitate to grab insects of decoration and place them on Minho's clothes for the guy to get scared.
It seemed perfect for them and he couldn't be happier for them both.
Once out the sky seemed to be getting darker and darker, to which the decided it was time to go for the games section.
Minho scored perfectly in any shooting game so Hannah could get her dear plushies, and Hannah would give her best in fishing games so Minho could get a candy.
At the end of the day, it was Chan who got his hands full with plushies, toys and random candy bags.
As they walked to the car, Hannah gave Minho a high five.
"When can we come back?" She asked, excitement covering her voice as she turned to see Chan for an answer.
"Whenever you don't have school on mondays," he replied, shrugging.
Hannah's pout made Minho laugh.
"School goes first, young lady" he said, gaining a pout from Hannah. After a second, he decided to cheer her up. "Do you want McDonald's? Burger king?"
Hannah's eyes light up with a smile.
...
Once as they were having dinner in the restaurant, Hannah's feet kept on swinging on the air as she ate her hamburger.
"Today was amazing!" She claimed, turning to Minho. "Can we play again some other day?"
Minho nodded, taking a bite from his cheeseburger.
"Sure, whenever you want," he said, smiling quickly to her. "Do you like board games? We could do those even when you have school on mondays"
Hannah nodded, turning to Chan.
"I invite Minho to the house this Friday!" She said, giggling, to which Chan nodded.
"Tell mom first, shouldn't you?" He said.
"But mom likes Minnie already," she said, to which Chan frowned.
Minho's body fought to not be paralyzed, asking "really?"
Hannah nodded.
"She talked about you the entire day after my graduation!" She said, turning her eyes to Minho. "She said you are a good person."
Minho nodded, smiling softly to Hannah.
"I'm glad your mom likes me"
Hannah nodded. "Yeah, me too..." she mumbled, turning to Chan. "Where do you guys know the other?"
Chan looked down to his food, taking a fry and Minho could feel the tension growing.
"We're highschool friends," he said shortly, then looking back at Hannah. "And it's said 'where did you guys meet each other?' "
Hannah rolled her eyes, laughing.
"You got me," she shrugged, turning this time to Minho. "So you're as old as my brother?"
Chan rolled his eyes this time.
"You can have good grammar for that question, huh?"
Minho nodded with a wide smile.
"He's a year older than me," he said, and after Hannah's confused face showed he explained. "We met around in school, but we didn't share classrooms. We met, uh..." he turned to Chan, who had his eyebrows raised up.
"Uhm..." Chan continued, grabbing Hannah's attention "we met through a friend, yeah, that "
He said, to which Hannah nodded.
"That's cool," she said, taking her drink with both hands. "I've met friends of friends too, they're nice but I can never get super along with them"
Minho nodded, giving Hannah his fries when he noticed she ran out of hers.
"You don't have to get along with anyone you meet, just with whom feels right," he said, sighing and leaning back on his seat. "you'll find amazing friends, don't hurry"
Hannah nodded, eating a fry and turning to Chan, offering a fry.
"Do you want one?"
...
The ride back home became silent when Hannah fell asleep in the backseat.
As Chan drove Minho home, they both stayed in silence with low music going on.
Minho's eyes kept on drifting to the side road, from time to time mumbling a song and getting comfortable on the ride.
He kept on tossing Chan a couple of sweets so he wouldn't fall asleep.
"Thanks for today," Minho said after a moment of silence.
Chan shook his head.
"It's the bare minimum, don't thank me for that." Chan's heart pounded heavily on his chest. He could see Minho's pout from the side view in stop lights, and he wasn't sure on what the boy meant everytime he thanked him. "Hannah really likes you. If you can come by on friday to play with her. I'll drive you."
Minho nodded, hugging himself and yawning.
"That would be great"
Chan nodded, and after a moment of silence he decided to talk to again.
"Thank you for today," Chan said, turning to Minho for a second before turning his eyes back to the road. "Hannah really likes you. She enjoyed today a lot... she's already tired"
He looked through the review mirror to find the girl hugging a teddy bear, full asleep.
Minho nodded with a soft smile as he opened his phone to change the music. At that point he already had his own phone's Bluetooth connected to Chan's car.
They didn't say anything the rest of the road, though.
When they got to Minho's apartment, he turned to Chan.
"Thank you. Have some candies as you go, so you don't fall asleep" he said, emptying the rest of his pockets with candies.
Chan laughed softly, nodding and taking a new loli pop.
"Thank you, Minnie" he said as he watched Minho get down with a plushie Hannah had gotten specially for him. "I'll see you tomorrow at work"
Minho nodded, jumping down of the car and turning around with a smile and seeing the back seat.
"Tell her good night from my part"
Chan looked back, nodding and then back at Minho.
"Sure thing"
...
Things felt right now.
His heart felt calm, at ease and any sight of pain seemed to have calmed down now.
They were getting better.
Seeing Chan wasn't as painful as it used to be, and it didn't feel wrong to love him anymore.
As he went up the elevator in silence, he remembered the way Chan had let him have fun with Hannah and didn't interfere unless it was necessary with a game they both couldn't win.
They couldn't make up for the years they lost, but at least he could try to ease the pain from the past for a moment to feel peace.
As he got inside the apartment, the tiredness got over his entire body as he showered, changed clothes and finally laid flat on his bed.
His phone rang before he slept, but his eyes were so tired he didn't bother on checking.
Soon, he was fast asleep.
☆ Channie ☆: "Thank you for today, Minnie :) rest well, and I'll see you tomorrow"