"So park later?"
"Can't, I have plans tonight."
"With who, Jun? When will you just confess to him, Hao..."
Mingyu watches as Minghao rolls his eyes and shoved the rest of his book into his locker. He almost pouts.
"Shut up Mingyu, why don't you ask Seokmin to go with you?" Minghao deflects easily, something that doesn't go unnoticed by the older but one he chooses to not push any further.
Mingyu sighs, leaning against the locker wall beside his friend as he waits for him to finish so they can leave the school.
"DK has play practice, you know this."
"What about Hoshi? Vernon? They both skate too, go with them."
"Hoshi is too energetic for me and Vernon hates me since I turned down Seungkwan last year and supposedly 'broke his heart'" Mingyu complains, slumping again the lockers more to be eyelevel with his friend, pulling slightly puppy eyes on him.
Minghao is unaffected, rolling his eyes harder in a manner that Mingyu knows he'd picked up from Jun. The younger closes his locker, left with just his backpack and his phone in his hand, he turns to Mingyu and crosses his arms.
"Well I'm sorry his highness, but I'm not dropping my plans just to go skating. Besides, I don't even have my board right now after someone decided to smash the fucking thing against the half pipe to see if he could break it." He glares "That board wasn't cheap you dumb hulk, now I have to get a new one."
Mingyu huffs, though he does feel guilty for breaking Minghao's skateboard and he outright blames the three Bang energy drinks he had that day because he can barely remember going to the park that day let alone smashing his friends board. Granted he'd offered to buy Minghao a new one the next day but the other turned it down, and Mingyu is pretty sure that it was just so Minghao would have something to hold over him in fights. Minghao was a petty bitch but Mingyu loved him.
"I said I was sorry!"
"That doesn't make it okay?!" Minghao barks back, looking ready to smack him in the head. Mingyu groans and steps down, pushing himself off of the lockers and starting his way down the almost empty hallway. Minghao follows after, typing on his phone as they talk.
"So are you still going?" Minghao asks as they reach the front doors.
Mingyu shrugs, pushing the glass door open.
"Probably not, I hate going by myself ever since those Westside kids started showing up."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about them showing up now..." Minghao shivers before shaking his head "well if you go be careful, I don't want you calling me because you got into a fight with Mark and Jackson again."
Mingyu rolls his eyes
"Yes, Mom."
Minghao groans and pushes the other away from him before walking in the other direction, again leaving Mingyu by himself.
He pauses for a moment before sighing and beginning his own walk back home, the earlier hype about skating long gone after Minghao's rejection.
He doesn't skate much anymore, especially since Minghao's board was broken. And there's not many people in their city that skates so the park is normally empty, however a group of teenagers from a town over found out about the tiny skatepark and started to take over the plot. But skating was a lot like his smoking habit, it was a coping mechanism and it calmed him down. Thus he tended to run up and down his neighborhood late at night, it was just a benefit that it pissed off his neighbor Karen. He upset her enough that a cop now patrols the street, sadly.
With his day plans trashed Mingyu huffs a breath and pulls out his phone and earbuds to listen to music for his walk.
The walk from his school and his house is short, and with his legs he walks at an uncomfortably fast pace, so he arrives in front of his dark house in no time.
His house is nice, it's two stories with white paint and a perfect picket fence. It's high middle class, but with all that comes a cold unlove in atmosphere.
He checks the mail, grabbing the multiple white letters for his parents, and rushes into the house when he sees Karen's door open next door. He's not dealing with her today.
The house is quiet minus the muffled sound of the living room TV playing whatever channel the house keeper had been letting her children watch during the day. Not that he minded, Mrs Roslyn was very kind, and one of the few adults he liked. Plus it made the house feel like someone lived there, and not just his bedroom.
Mingyu darts up the stairs, marching up to his bedroom without seeing if anyone was home, he knows there isn't.
He pushes open his door and makes a beeline for his bed, dropping his bag on the floor and flopping onto the matress with an audible oof.He lays there for a moment, until he becomes restless.
Mingyu rolls over onto his back and pulls his phone from out of his pocket, checking to see if he had any missed texts. He huffs when he notices that the only notification he had was a Taco Bell ad. He drops his phone onto his bed and sits up.
He stares at the skateboard leaning against his wall, right next to a pile of shoes and clothes. He ponders for a moment before he blows a raspberry and stands up. He grabs his phone again and grabs his board, pushing back out of his door and out of his house.
He locks the door and makes his way down to the street to head to the park, his neighbor is out on her porch. He watches her as he walks, purposely holding his board so she can see it. He knows it's disrespectful, but this woman called the cops on him because he 'didn't look like he lived there' once.
"I sure hope you're not going to ride that monstrosity on our street again." The woman calls out.
Mingyu hums, never stopping his stride as he replies.
"Don't worry Karen, nobody's going to skate on your precious asphalt today. Maybe next week."
The lady stands up, obviously flustered.
"My name's not Karen! Do you know how offensive that is-"
"-Okay Karen! Have a good day ma'am!" He calls, quickly dropping his board and kicking off, leaving her to yell at him in the distance.
He really hates that woman.
The park is a twenty minute walk from his house, but thankfully he gets there in under fifteen. The park itself is large, it's their city park after all, but the area that Mingyu goes to is barely a quarter of the plot.
As he pulls to a stop just outside of the fence he can see who is there already, and it's not many. He steps around the fence, dropping the butt of a cigarette he'd just finished onto the small dirt patch he has to step over.
There's very few people for once, but Mingyu recognizes a few. Jackson and Mark just happen to be there as well.
He's not sure why those two have such a big bone to pick with him, they don't even live in the same city. Mingyu himself was on good terms with most of their friends, especially Bambam and Yugyeom, so he wasn't sure why the tension existed.
With the knowledge that the two were there Mingyu bears to the left side of the park, towards the shallow bowl. Mingyu walks over to a bench and props his leg up to tighten his shoes.
"Hey."
Mingyu startles, jerking his head to the side and almost choking on his own spit as seeing Wonwoo standing next to him like a ghost. He stands up straight, eyes wide.
"Can you stop scaring me every time you come around?"
Wonwoo snorts
"Sorry, you're kind of an oblivious person."
"Excuse you, I'm very observant?!" Mingyu blurts, offended.
The other just shakes his head, tilting it down to hide the small smile stretching at his lips.
"Maybe to things at a distance, but this is the third time I've startled you by now..."
Mingyu huffs
"You're just too quiet, like a cat. "
"Is that a compliment? I'm going to take it as one."
The taller pauses before shrugging and bends back down to tighten his other shoe. When he straightens up again he fully turns to Wonwoo.
"So, since when did you hang around the skatepark? I didn't know you skated..."
Wonwoo shakes his head, turning to sit on the metal bench.
"I rarely come here, but I was bored at home so I decided to see people bust their asses." A pause "and no, I don't skate. I've always thought it was cool but I never learned, I'd bust my ass too."
Mingyu nods in understanding before he gets a horrible idea in his head. He reasons to himself that they're both bored, so no harm could be done, and that it could be fun. Before he can funny think it through his mouth is moving before he can stop it.
"I could teach you. How to skate I mean, well maybe just ride for now..."
Wonwoo raises an eyebrow at Mingyu
"Really? You'd teach me?"
Before he can take back his words Mingyu nods again, kicking his board up for him to catch and turning to face the other completely.
"Yeah, I'll teach you. It's really not that hard."
The other hums, but seems to brighten up just a bit.
"Cool."
Wonwoo stands up and follows Mingyu to a more open part of the concrete, trailing behind like a puppy. Mingyu let's his board fall back to the ground and turns to the other.
"So first it may take a minute to get used to the movement, it feels weird and your body won't like the feeling of unbalance. So first, just step on."
The other hums, stepping into the board with wobbly feet, however he shifts too awkwardly and steps off in panic. He tries again, this time stumbling backwards. "This is hard Mingyu." He huffs.
Mingyu chokes down a laugh, shaking his head in amusement. He steps closer and grabs Wonwoos hand, forcing it to rest on his shoulder.
"Here, put your hand on my shoulder and step on again. If you feel yourself leaning force yourself back to a correct level. "
Wonwoo mumbles an insult under his breath but does as he's told, he eventually gets steady enough for Mingyu to step away. The older flails for a moment before balancing himself out again, a look of triumph on his face.
"Good, so now we're gonna move." Mingyu steps closer again continues instructing. "What you're going to do is; step off the deck, put your foot right towards the middle and kick off with your other leg and then once you're moving your going to place that foot at the tail of the board!"
"That sounds so complicated! There's like eight steps!" The shorter complains, stepping off to glare at the other.
Mingyu laughs quietly, just under his breath, and raises his hands in surrender. "I promise it's not that hard..."
The two spend a good hour and a half working teaching Wonwoo how to ride a skateboard, but it doesn't go very far. Mingyu doesn't think it's a problem, he didn't learn in one day either so he's not disappointed.
Most of it turned into Wonwoo being walked around by Mingyu while trying to maintain his balance, not the reason he came down but not a horrible experience.
Then two hours in Wonwoo hops down off of the board and sits down on the concrete, trying to convince Mingyu to show him the cool X Games tricks.
Mingyu eventually caves, unable to even form the word no once Wonwoo looks up at him. He ends up doing very simple tricks, but it's enough for Wonwoo to want to learn, even if he can barely stand on a skateboard at the moment.
Mingyu rides back and forth in front of Wonwoo until he gets bored, deciding to sit down next to the other.
"So..."
"Thank you." Wonwoo interrupts.
Mingyu blinks
"For what? Trying to teach you to skate? It's not a big deal-"
"No. I mean for treating me like a human."
The taller frowns, leaning forward a bit to see the other better in the slowly dimming day light.
"What do you mean?"
Wonwoo shifts a bit, pulling his sleeves over his hands again like the last time they spoke, his tone shifting to something more heavy compared to before.
"Not many people think of me as a person anymore, like just because I 'sleep around' I don't deserve basic respect. I don't know, you're just one of the few people who do...so, thank you."
Again, like before, Mingyu feels a sense of guilt. He feels bad for thinking so bad of Wonwoo ever, even if he didn't really care. He feels uncomfortable.
There's a brief pause before Mingyu speaks up, eyes no longer focused on Wonwoo but instead the emptying park in front of them. He pulls his pack out of his pocket and lights.
"Why do you do it?"
Wonwoo turns to look at him, eyes switching between the cigarette meeting his lips and his eyes.
"You know how you smoke?" Mingyu nods dumbly, and Wonwoo hums. "Well, I let people use me."
Mingyu frowns, forming words around smoke.
"That's not healthy, Wonwoo."
The other smiles, and he would find it pretty but the way Wonwoo smiles right then is sad.
"Neither is smoking."
After that the two stay quiet, both not knowing what to say or how to say it. Eventually Wonwoo announces his departure, leaving Mingyu alone again with a small wave and a promise of let's do this again sometime.
Mingyu is left staring at his pack of cigarettes with a bad taste in his mouth.