When Jisung and Minho had made it back to their room, Jisung rushed into the bathroom to claim dibs on the first shower which caused Felix and Changbin to shout through their side of the door at the speedy boy for using his gift. Minho, on the other hand, just plopped down on the floor with his back against the side of his bed, so that he wouldn't get his sheets dirty. His mind was still racing a million miles a minute trying to comprehend what had happened during Jisung and Minho's sparring match.
He had been forced to put his thoughts on the matter on hold while they were fighting the dummies, but on their way back from class, Minho had noticed that Jisung was avoiding eye contact with him, and he didn't know why.
Minho didn't know about a lot of things concerning Jisung.
Why had he wanted to spare Jisung in the first place? Why the hell his heart hurt and his gift gave out the moment Minho heard Jisung yelp in pain during their sparring match? He shouldn't have had a reaction like that one. It was just a sparring match. Something he has done hundreds of times, and something that often ends up in people getting a little hurt. He had known what he was doing wasn't enough to actually injure the younger boy, so why did he panic?
Not to mention what happened after he froze. Why had Jisung stared at him so intently after pinning him to the ground? And more importantly, why did he stare so intently back?
As Minho let out a sigh after thinking about the entire situation. He was beginning to think that he should just talk to Jisung about it when the boy exited the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist and another, smaller towel being rubbed over his head to dry his long locks. Minho's eyes immediately went to the smaller boy's abs, and was pleasantly surprised at how toned they were. He had not been expecting that at all.
"That was fast."
"I'm always fast," Jisung said with a slightly playful smile but still refused to look Minho's way. After a moment of silence, Jisung cleared his throat and added, "you should rush into the bathroom and take a shower before Changbin and Felix realize that I'm finished. They are probably too busy cuddling to notice just yet."
"Uh, yeah. Thanks, I'll go do that."
And with that Minho got up and took a shower, using someone's shampoo and conditioner already in the shower since he didn't have his own. When he finally got out, he knocked on the door to the other dorm to let Changbin and Felix know they were done and then returned to his own dorm room to find Jisung changed into comfortable yet fashionable clothes, passed out asleep on his bed. Well, so much for talking.
*****
After three hours, all nine of them promptly met up at the edge of the hallway by the stairs. There were two couches lined against the walls along with a TV, so Minho assumed that it was a more private version of the lounge downstairs. Even after he and Jisung woke up after sleeping off their fatigue from the fighting earlier, the younger still wouldn't look Minho in the eye or say much to him at all. Jisung was definitely avoiding him.
"I cleared the trip with JYP earlier, so we are good to use the bus," Chan announced as he reached the top of the stairs, just then returning from JYP's office.
"Thank goodness because I was not looking forward to hauling all of you guys three jumps into town and being tired the rest of the night like I was the last time you all decided to sneak out," Felix said relieved.
At Felix's words, Chan immediately turned his head to the youngest two of the group and gave them a raised eyebrow. Jeongin smiled with a guilty face, but Seungmin just shrugged and said, "I have no idea what you are referring to, Felix, and even if I did, I think that our dear leader has no reason to scold us since he snuck out with his friends just earlier this week if I am not mistaken."
"Hehe, I guess you got me there, Seungmin. Let's just hurry up so we have more time to eat and celebrate our new status as an official team after we shop for Minho's stuff."
And with that, no one questioned it further as they rushed down the stairs and the left hallway to the garages. There, they all loaded up into a bus that had the letters 'JYP Academy' surrounded in a crest on the sides of the vehicle. Inside the bus, the interior was very spacious and had comfortably cushioned seats. It seemed very much like a travel bus for students of a rich kid school.
Chan drove the bus with Woojin joining him up front in the passenger seat just like it had been the night before on their way back from the mission except this time the trip only took around ten minutes before they pulled to a stop in a large parking spot outside what looked to be a department store.
As they all piled out of the bus, a few other folks in the parking lot looked and waved to them with a smile. All eight of the boys who were used to the town bowed back to them in response which caused Minho to follow after them.
"Alrighty, let's head inside and get the stuff quickly, so we can go eat," Chan said with a smile as they made their way inside. He looked over to Minho and could see him frantically looking around the entrance for any Gifted sensors that were usually at the entrance of stores.
"Relax, Minho," he said as he put a hand on Minho's shoulder. "This is an old town that isn't up to date on technology like that, and everyone at the academy comes into town all the time. This isn't the city, so you can relax."
Minho visibly did relax after that. He had known all of this because of how Jisung described it earlier, but something about actually being out and about in the real world again after running around the backstreets of Seoul when he was with BTS was very different and unnerving. Chan's reassuring words were quick to snap him out of it, however, and Minho admired the leader's ability to calm a situation.
As they made it inside Minho cleared his throat, "I don't mind if we split into two groups to make this trip faster. I am used to just using whatever is given to me, so other groups can get stuff like the school supplies I'll need and hygiene stuff."
"Well it doesn't have to be that way now, you know," Woojin reminded Minho. "The academy exists to give you these kinds of small choices."
Minho just smirked at the reminder, then added, "True, but in the end, it doesn't really matter because I'll just look fabulous either way."
Jisung, who had been hanging in the back, coughed at Minho's words before wrapping his arms around Jeongin and Hyunjin in front of him. "We'll go get that hygiene stuff," he said quickly as he dragged the two people in his arms away into the store in a hurry, Seungmin following close on their tail, rolling his eyes.
"Felix and I can get what you'll need for school," Changbin said and then disappeared as well with the freckled boy skipping along with him.
Minho looked after Jisung one more time before he grabbed a shopping cart and made his way over to the men's clothing section of the store. Chan and Woojin stuck with him and helped him find stuff that he would like, but all the clothes Chan were handing him were almost completely black.
"You know, black isn't the only color in the world, Chan hyung," he finally said after Chan tried to dump yet another black hoodie into Minho's cart. Chan paused, looking from the black hoodie then to Minho before he slowly took the hoodie away from the cart with a pouty look on his face.
"I suppose your right," he said defeatedly as he put the hoodie back where it came from. Woojin laughed at the blonde and grabbed ahold of his hand.
"I think you've hurt his feelings, Minho."
"It's not my fault he is trying to make my closet a black hole."
They continued shopping a bit more, and Minho noticed that Woojin and Chan never separated their hands. Watching them shop while holding hands with each other really couldn't help but paint a perfect couple picture, and Minho couldn't restrain himself from pointing that out to tease them.
"You two really do make an adorable couple," he suddenly said which caused both boys to turn their attention to the younger boy. Both their faces immediately turned a bit more red than they were before, and they both immediately disconnected their hands.
"We are not a couple," they said at the same time which just caused Minho to laugh.
"Surrreeeeeeee. And I'm not a certified badass."
Minho then returned to shopping quietly, a proud smirk on his face for getting the reaction he had wanted.
"Speaking of couples, you and Jisung seem awfully close," Chan suddenly broke the silence. Minho almost knocked over the clothing rack he was looking through to find his size, but he recovered quickly and cleared his throat. 'Shit. They fight back.'
"W-what on earth gives you that impression."
"Just the way you let Jisung win that fight during Gifted Apps today."
"I didn't let him win."
Woojin seeing what was going on decided to join in on teasing Minho. "Yes, of course you didn't let him win. You just froze when you realized that you were hurting him which allowed him to win."
"I-I..." Minho started to say, but then shut his mouth before continuing with a smaller voice. "To be honest, I don't really know what happened there. I just stopped." He paused another moment before rushing to add, "but you're way off about the couple thing. We haven't even known each other a full week."
"True, but that doesn't seem to stop you from being the closest to him out of all of us, and in case you haven't noticed, he seems really close to you," Chan said as he turned away to look for some socks, leaving that bit of information in the air.
"W-what are you talking about? We just connected well the night of the mission is all. And Jisung is definitely not close to me. I'm pretty sure he is avoiding me."
But Minho's words fell on deaf ears since Woojin and Chan had decided to disappear into an aisle away from the ranting boy. Minho just sighed and shook his head at what the older boys had been saying. 'No way someone liked me. No one has ever cared for me before.'
*****
Meanwhile, Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Jeongin, who were off getting Minho the toiletries he would need like a toothbrush, toothpaste, face wash, shampoo and conditioner, etc., were starting to get irritated by the annoying squirrel who had forced his way along.
All three of them were just trying to get some time to themselves, but Jisung kept bringing up random topics of conversation that the rest of them couldn't care less about. He was also rushing from aisle to aisle, not quite using his gift but still moving fast enough to give them headaches trying to keep up.
It was Hyunjin who finally decided to say something to their friend.
"Could you calm down and sit still and shut up for two seconds, Jisung. You're going to give us all an aneurysm."
"For real, though," Jeongin added. "You only get like this when you're avoiding something, Jisung."
Jisung slowed down a bit but still continued to look through the shelves for the face wash he wanted to get Minho, refusing to look at the other three.
"I'm not avoiding anyth-."
"Uh, hell yeah you are," Seungmin interrupted before he could make any excuses. "And I'm willing to bet I know what it is. Or rather who it is."
"You're right, Seungmin, he has been oddly distant from a certain someone ever since they sparred earlier today," Hyunjin said, understanding where Seungmin was going with this.
"OMG. You're avoiding, Minho?" Jeongin said a little louder than necessary since he had been clueless to it before.
"SHHHHHH, would you all be quiet," Jisung scolded.
"That's what I asked you to do literally 30 seconds ago."
"Wait, but why are you avoiding, Minho?" Jeongin asked, wanting more information after gaining this new knowledge. "Do you like him or something?"
"What?! Noooo. No I don't."
"Well, then, I don't see any reason for you to be avoiding him," reasoned Seungmin. "You could be making him think he did something wrong, and that isn't very nice of you, Jisung."
As soon as Seungmin pointed that out, Jisung instantly felt bad for his actions because the truth of the matter was he really didn't know why he was acting this way. Minho hadn't done anything for him to deserve to be avoided the way Jisung was avoiding him now. The only thing Jisung knew was Minho had made time stop for him two times now. Not only did he stop time, but also, ever since he met the older, Jisung's past few days have started to go by more slowly. And he didn't mind.
Ever since his mom and dad were killed, he would need the days to go by as fast paced as possible. That way, the pain wouldn't have any time to catch up. He didn't care to take the time to appreciate the little things life had to offer. Minho seemed to change all that, but Jisung just couldn't figure out why.
Why was it that anytime Minho smiled or laughed his heart would start to race? Why was it that any time Minho would start to tease him along with his other teammates, he would suddenly get ten times more embarrassed? Why was it that whenever Minho was close, he would want that moment to freeze and last for an eternity?
Is this what it's like to like someone?
And why did the thought of liking someone terrify him so much?
*********
I swear these chapters just keep getting longer and longer.
I started writing my second fic finally and I am proud of it so far. I probably wont start publishing it for another two weeks though, so stay tuned folks.
Q: What's the best gift you've ever received?
This is a very easy question. It is hands down the card my friend Lauren made me for my 18th birthday in December 2018 (Yes, I am a 2000 liner. It was a glorious year to be born).
But anyways, Lauren made me a card from scratch where she printed off pictures of all my kpop biases and then made a collage with them. And then she also wrote me an entire essay basically to tell me how great of a friend I had been to her since she just moved to my school at the beginning of this school year. It was like the most touching and personalized gift I have ever received and no one had ever done something like that for me before.
Ugh. Thank you Lauren for being awesome!
As always thank you all!!!
~Shadow