"you look different."
minhee tilts his head in confusion.
"hyung, i look the same as always."
"baby, i've seen your mug for almost 20 years. i think i can tell when you look a little different."
"ok boomer."
"the fuck did you just call me -"
minhee was currently cosied up in seungwoo's cushy little living room, located in a one-person apartment slightly off-campus. said criminology professor was cooking dinner in the kitchen, the savoury smell of ginger stir-fried pork permeating sharply in the air. minhee's secondhand biology textbook sat on his lap, pen in one hand and highlighter in the other. his laptop was propped on top of the coffee table, his skype displaying a laggy, half decent video image of wooseok.
"anyway, how's school going?" wooseok asks non-committedly, the handsome man himself occupied with smooching the life out of little ddadda, their adopted puppy, "you don't look like you just passed out in a ditch somewhere, so something good must have happened."
something good? yeah, if you called meeting hyeongjun a good thing, then yes. minhee finds himself subconsciously grinning as he lazily writes the hangul of hyeongjun's name in the corner of his notes.
"something really good, then," wooseok teases, and minhee dreads the tone in his brother's voice. it's the "aww my little brother is finally growing up that's cute i'm going to bully him now" tone.
"i made a friend, that's all," minhee casually admits, corner of his mouth curling into a satisfied smile at the thought.
in all honesty though, were they even friends ? hyeongjun seemed so nice and lovely to him, but it also seemed like he was nice to everyone -
"oh~?"
minhee rolls his eyes at wooseok and hopes his hyung manages to catch it.
" no hyung, i'm not in love or anything," minhee retorts, ignoring how his heart skips a beat at the denial.
you are such a fucking shitty liar kang minhee you're a weak bitch for song hyeongjun just admit it and go, his heart sasses him.
"minhee-ah, you can tell hyung anything, you know that right? especially if you've got a crush on someone. is it a boy or a girl? hyung won't judge~"
"don't tease, seokie," seungwoo calls out, and minhee's eyes flutter shut at the succulent aroma of ginger and spice hitting his nostrils. his body rises off his side of the couch as seungwoo plops down next to him, setting down their plates of ginger pork, rice and kimchi onto the coffee table, "you're such a bully sometimes."
"that's because you never let me have any fun," the model whines, and minhee can practically hear his brother pout from across the screen.
"you have enough fun when you're with me," seungwoo replies succinctly, iconic snoopy smile on his face, and minhee doesn't even need to look up from his textbook to know that wooseok is already getting visibly flustered by his fiancé's innuendo.
you'd think that being together for two years would make his brothers (soon, anyway) be a little less gross, but apparently not. they somehow managed to be even more sappy and romantic as the years went by and the fact that seungwoo was away teaching was definitely not helping wooseok's attachment issues.
"back to the point, i overheard you saying that you made a friend?" seungwoo removes minhee's textbook from his lap and replaces it with his dinner. minhee digs in without a moment's hesitation and almost cries at how good it tastes. god bless his soon-to-be brother-in-law for knowing how to cook.
"not a friend, but a crush ," wooseok singsongs, and minhee chokes on a piece of kimchi.
seungwoo rubs minhee's back gently while the student hits his chest in pain, wheezing. the older man shoots his fiancé an unimpressed look.
"wooseokie, really ?"
"what? you know how much our baby likes to undersell things. it's like that time when he called home saying he was feeling 'a little under the weather' when in reality he was actually having a fucking panic attack ," wooseok retorts with no bite to his words, and yet minhee still glances up towards the ceiling in an attempt to avoid his brother's accusatory jab.
"that's true," seungwoo admits, and minhee shoots his mentor a betrayed look. why was he constantly surrounded by traitors these days?
"don't look at me like that, miniyah. you know it's true," seungwoo laughs, reaching over to ruffle the younger boy's hair, "so anyway. who's the lucky boy? or girl?"
"pfft, as if we have anything but gays running in our family," wooseok scoffs, hugging a struggling ddadda - said puppy desperately trying to get away from his clingy owner's onslaught of kisses (minhee relates painfully to this, godspeed to you, ddadda), "but...if it's a girl, hyung won't judge, okay? i'll support and accept you regardless whether you're straight or not. just give me some time to accept it -"
"thanks, but you know i'm not into girls, so you don't have to worry about it, hyung," minhee deadpans, and resumes gobbling down his meal. he's about halfway done when he notices the silent anticipation hanging in the air, and comes to a realization that no one was going to talk until minhee dropped the name of said mystery friend.
"his name is hyeongjun," minhee mumbles in between mouthfuls, and wooseok squeals in glee.
"hyeongjun-ah, hyeongjunnie, jjunie~! snoopy hyung, which nickname sounds better for my future brother-in-law?" wooseok singsongs and minhee valiantly tries to hide his face behind his plate. seungwoo just looks to minhee in surprise.
"are you referring to dance sophomore song hyeongjun?" seungwoo inquires, and minhee stares at his professor in bewilderment. did everyoneknow about the poodle-haired boy except for him? shit, was he the last to know? seungwoo himself could barely remember half of the names in minhee's class. the fact that the professor knew of someone outside of the classes he taught was a feat on its own.
"hyung, you know him?"
seungwoo hums in confirmation, resting his chopsticks against the corner of his plate, "he conjured quite a stir when he admitted here. there were a lot of rumors flying around that he was secretly an SM trainee. plus, he's dongpyo's friend."
"dongpyo?" minhee drawls out uneasily, remembering the sassy, sharp-tongued boy from the café.
"oh, you know dongpyo?"
"yeah, i met him during my shift," minhee stirs around the leftover meat on his plate, "i don't think he likes me very much. he accused me of sleeping with hyeongjun and i almost got my ass beat."
"did you though?" wooseok demands, "because if you did, i hope you wore protection."
minhee splutters, " hyung . no. god. no. what the hell."
seungwoo chuckles and sets down his plate, arm wrapping easily around the giant boy's shoulders. minhee instinctively relaxes under the comforting weight, silently appreciating the sudden bout of affection, "sounds like him. i bet you he didn't like seeing hyeongjun get so friendly with you."
minhee eyes his hyung wearily, "hyung, how are you so familiar with this guy?" and why would he be so concerned about his friendship with hyeongjun?
"dongpyo likes occupying all of my office hours to consult me about the materials discussed during lectures. he's always going: 'professor han, why does law x only apply for this case, why can't we do it this way instead?' and then he forgets about the consultation and just goes off about how overly friendly his friend hyeongjun is," seungwoo explains, smiling at the memory, and minhee can feel a pinprick of annoyance biting his skin at his hyung's besotted reaction. what the hell, seungwoo hyung was his hyung, not dongpyo's -
"according to pyo, people have been approaching hyeongjun since the start of freshman year and asking him out. hyeongjun's too shy to turn anyone down, so dongpyo does it for him in his stead. he constantly vents about the amount of people he has to reject for hyeongjun every week. it's quite amusing."
minhee feels his heart plummet hearing all of this. so it was true. hyeongjun really was just being polite to him. his treatment of minhee wasn't anything special. he was just another stranger that hyeongjun couldn't help being nice too. in fact, he bet the dinner was all just a formality hyeongjun wanted to get over and done with -
minhee bites his lip, and casually brushes seungwoo's arm off of him.
"i'm getting seconds," minhee mutters, standing up. he grabs his plate and quickly stumbles into the kitchen, the sinking feeling in his stomach growing bigger by the second, a sensation that was definitely not indigestion.
"hyung...you moron," minhee can hear wooseok sigh deeply from the other room.
he'd only known the dance major for a few days, but he was convinced that there was something special between them. a spark. an instant connection . apparently not, he guessed. how could he be someone special to hyeongjun when the other literally had people flocking to him like bees to honey? he could have anyone , what reason would he have to treat minhee any differently?
in fact, he was probably back together with wonjin already, minhee broods, dumping the dishes in the sink. he should just be grateful that someone like hyeongjun would even bother to associate with a weirdo like him at all.
he ignores the dull pain in his chest at that admission, and physically slaps his face repeatedly in an attempt to shake his mind out of his stupor.
its okay. that's fine. i'm okay with just being near him. being friends is more than enough for me .
he convinces himself of this. imprints it so deeply into his skin and hopes his heart doesn't fight him on this decision. because he doesn't think he'll be able to handle his hopes being crushed over something that simply didn't even exist in the first place.
hyeongjun has everyone in his heart, and minhee doesn't think he's going to find a place there anytime soon.