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kokoronashithe premonition the winter gave me
fandom exo
pairing xiuhun (xiumin/sehun), side baekchen (baekhyun/chen)
style one shot
length 4884
more presents. this time forgon merry belated christmas and happy super belated birthday!! title from this song. first time writing these pairs + first time writing main!xiumin and prominent character baekhyun. actually i think it's the first time ever i wrote chen too so er, sorry ;_;
His new neighbour arrived with the winter, and at one glance of the man, who according to his neatly labelled cardboard boxes was named Kim Minseok, Sehun had the impression that it was only right that this man came into his life in the winter after all.
Kim Minseok, presumably, was a short, stocky man who looked younger than Sehun. It wouldn't have been odd if he was. After all, the run down flat in a nowhere corner of Seoul Sehun resided in was often occupied by students and young workers, freshly graduated, working long hours for low pay, chasing their dreams in the big city.
“Hi,” presumably Minseok said with a smile when he noticed that Sehun had been watching, key stuck in his door but unturned. His voice was quiet and Sehun had to really listen to catch all of his words. “I'm Kim Minseok. You're in 305?”
“Ah, yes,” Sehun nodded. “Oh Sehun, 305.”
“I guess we're neighbours now.”
“I suppose so. Do you need help moving in?”
“Don't worry about it,” Minseok said. “It's good exercise, and my friend said he might be coming by to help in a few minutes.”
Sehun eyed Minseok's arms. Although he couldn't see it under the ugly looking sweater Minseok was wearing, but he imagined they must look rather nice. Nicer than his own, even, thin and wiry.
“Alright then,” Sehun said. He wasn't the type to impose his help on others. Most of the time, he wasn't even the type to offer. “If you need me, just knock on my door you, er, know where I live.”
“Sure do. Thanks for the offer.”
Sehun turned his key and let Kim Minseok disappear from his sight.
Greeted by his room, dark in the winter late afternoon, a feeling sank into him.
Something will change.
He thought.
He didn't understand.
“Dude,” Baekhyun let himself into Sehun's apartment without asking. He had once climbed over the water pipes to get in through Sehun's balcony for some ridiculous reason Sehun didn't want to know, and hence, Sehun decided giving him a spare key was the lesser evil. “Your new neighbour is hot.”
“Kim Minseok? Yeah he's not bad.”
Sehun didn't bother to look at Baekhyun then, busying himself with his book on music theory. Sehun's flat was small, a one room, one bathroom place cramped with a bed, a table, two chairs and a kitchenette. Sehun's music theory books stored wherever they could be stored and his little studio of laptop, headphones and keyboard sitting in a corner near the balcony.
“Minseok? He said his name was Kim Jongdae.”
“What? He told me he was Minseok, his boxes said Minseok. Round face, short, good build, room 304?”
“No! High cheekbones, one of those smiles that looked like this,” Baekhyun took a pen and tissue paper from Sehun's side table and draw a “:3” face. “But yeah, room 304.”
Sehun raised his eyebrow, as if offended he had to look up from his book to look at Baekhyun's crude drawing, but despite that he thought back to his conversation with Minseok earlier. A friend was coming over, he said. He supposed Kim Jongdae was then, this friend. He wondered about telling Baekhyun, but if he didn't, Baekhyun would increase his frequency of crashing Sehun's place, which was honestly already more than frequent enough.
“He's not my neighbour, he's my neighbour's friend,” Sehun said, stressing the word 'friend'. “He's only helping him move in,” and on that, he stressed the word 'only'.
Baekhyun nodded.
Sehun didn't think he listened.
That was the change, perhaps. Baekhyun would get more annoying. Would be there more often.
The sinking feeling remained,
Sehun met Kim Minseok again the next day at six forty-five in the morning. Sehun was still half-asleep, but that was the time he had to leave to get to his shift as a receptionist at a youth motel.
“Morning,” Sehun said.
Minseok was wearing a coat over what seem to be a piece of suit. Sehun couldn't tell if the suit was expensive or cheap, himself only needing a hideously coloured polo shirt for his own job.
“Ah, morning,” Minseok smiled, his voice was as soft as it was the day before. “Work?”
“No one else would leave their house at six forty-five otherwise,” Sehun said, sounding more sarcastic than he intended.
But Minseok chuckled anyway.
“You're right,” he said.
They walked towards the stairs in uneasy silence, Sehun raking his brain for what to say next.
“It's getting cold huh?”
He came to the words as they walked down the stairway. Lame, he thought instantly, but he supposed it was at least better than the silence.
“Yeah, I suppose so,” Minseok said. “I like it though.”
“You like the cold?”
“It's nice,” Minseok said. “Clean.”
“I suppose so,” Sehun agreed. He was rather thankful for reaching the bottom of the stairway at that. “I'm going this way.”
“Same,” Minseok nodded. “Taking the train?”
“Yeah.”
“Let's walk together then.”
And at the offer, Sehun relaxed.
Even their mostly-silent look didn't feel that bad.
When Sehun got back after a long shift that evening, Baekhyun was at his flat.
“God, do you work?” Sehun grumbled. He hadn't gone home with Minseok because he and Minseok got on different trains that morning. During his walk home he had a nudging feeling of wanting Minseok to be there, burying that feeling killed his mood.
“I do, I finished early,” Baekhyun shrugged, fishing out a plastic bag beside him of peace-maker bubble tea. “Is that really how you'd speak to your hyung?”
“Don't you have a flat, hyung?” despite his sarcasm, Sehun accepted the bubble tea anyway.
“My flat doesn't have a Kim Jongdae,” Baekhyun said.
“Neither does mine. He was only here to help his friend move in.”
“Alright, my apartment doesn't have a Kim Jongdae's friend who Kim Jongdae might visit,” Baekhyun paused. “But he hadn't today. His friend is home though.”
“Oh?”
Not that Sehun cared really.
“Kim 'not bad' Minseok.”
Sehun choked on one of the bubble tea's pearls and had to put the drink down on the table. He had thought that Baekhyun had forgotten he even said that considering dreamy over the mysterious Kim Jongdae yesterday.”
“Forget I said that,” Sehun said with a groan.
“Nope,” Baekhyun grinned. “Been a while since you had a crush on someone.”
“I would hardly call 'not bad' the sign of a crush!” Sehun defended himself.
“You think most of TVXQ is not good looking!” Baekhyun pointed out. “'Not Bad' in the Oh Sehun dictionary means hot in everyone else's.”
Sehun scoffed.
He didn't bother to argue with Baekhyun, knowing that Baekhyun won't yield.
And that Baekhyun was wrong.
Morning walks with Minseok quickly became a regular thing. An every weekday morning thing, even, for Sehun get out of the house at six forty-five every weekday morning and so did Minseok. On weekends, the days Sehun had triumphantly achieved as his off days by struggling to get to the roster first every time a new one was put up, Sehun would still be woken up in the morning by the sounds of vacuum cleaner from next door.
The vacuum cleaner was loud, and Sehun thought that was much unlike Minseok somehow.
By the time Sehun bothered to pull himself up and stretched himself on his balcony, he turned to see Minseok carrying his mattress out.
“Cleaning day?” he asked.
“Every Saturday,” Minseok smiled. “I like things clean.”
Clean, that's what Minseok told him about winter too, Sehun remembered.
“Why is the winter clean?” he mused out loud.
“Because the snow hides everything that isn't,” Minseok answered anyway.
“But technically,” Sehun said the next Monday morning. “If the snow only hides what isn't, it isn't really clean now because it isn't snowing yet.”
“Were you thinking of that all weekend?” Minseok made a sound that Sehun decided to interpret as a small, amused chuckle. “I guess, but since it's cold, things rot slower too.”
“I guess so,” Sehun looked sceptical. “That's only delay though isn't it?”
“Okay fine,” Minseok smiled. They have reached the train station and this is where they part. “I don't know why winters are cleaner, they just are.”
Sehun nodded.
“They just are,” he repeated, in agreement.
“See you tomorrow Sehun.”
“Come on man, you're friends with hot buns Minseok now aren't you? Ask him about Jongdae for me.”
Baekhyun bugged Sehun one day on a weekend, when Minseok's vacuum cleaning had became a regular background noise for Sehun and, with Baekhyun's all too frequent visits, for Baekhyun too.
“What am I supposed to ask?” Sehun sighed.
“Like, ask him to set your bestest friend up with his one true love.”
“Who you've met all of once?” Sehun scowled. “And since when are you my bestest friend? Bestest isn't even a word, hyung.”
“Sehunnie,” Baekhyun whined. He snuggled up close to Sehun. “Please.”
“Get off me, and I will,” Sehun pushed Baekhyun away.
Baekhyun pulled himself away and grinned at Sehun. “Thanks Sehunnie.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sehun turned away and returned to his book. He muttered softly: “What're best friends for right?”
Sehun regretted turning away so quickly. If he had, he would have noticed the expression on Baekhyun's face just as he got ready to tackle Sehun down.
“Get off me!”
“I knew you think we're best friends,” Baekhyun laughed
“I never said we weren't,” Sehun, once again, had to push Baekhyun off him. “I just said we weren't bestest friends. Bestest isn't a word.”
“Whatever,” Baekhyun waved him off. Pleased.
Bringing Kim Jongdae into the conversation was harder than Sehun thought it would be. After all, it wasn't as if Sehun had met Kim Jongdae and all Sehun knew of him was high cheekbones and a crummy doodle by Baekhyun.
“The way you moved in,” Sehun started, he spoke slowly, hoping the words would form itself as he started. “Did you friend end up helping you?”
“Hm?” Minseok seemed a little surprised at the topic, but his voice stayed quiet and soft. “He did.”
Well that was the end of that, Sehun thought. Sighed.
“What's wrong?”
“Alright, I'm just going to say it straight out after all,” Sehun said, although he could feel his skin warming up. While that was not unwelcome in the cold weather, it was a sign that he knew he would embarrass himself with the next line but had gone too far to go back. “My friend, Baekhyun, he has a crush on your friend. Kim Jongdae, was it?”
Minseok blinked. Laughed.
That was the first time Sehun heard Minseok laugh and it was pretty. Quiet, like Minseok and unlike Minseok's vacuum cleaner, but pretty, like Minseok's face. He felt his blush deepened.
“Ah yes, Kim Jongdae,” Minseok managed to return to his usual tone. “Lady killer, though from his name, I assume Baekhyun is a guy?”
“Would that be a problem?” Sehun asked.
“On the contrary,” Minseok still smiled. Sehun still stared at that smile. “It's perfect.”
He texted Baekhyun that he had learnt that Kim Jongdae liked guys.
Baekhyun promised him three cups of bubble tea.
Sehun smirked and replied back saying he was expecting that.
He was picking up his letters from the boxes downstairs when he met Minseok in the late afternoon. There was something a little odd about that, Sehun thought, for he had only seen Minseok in the mornings. Still, it was six and possibly a normal time for Minseok to come home.
“Hi,” he greeted Minseok as Minseok walked in.
“Hi,” Minseok said quietly, but with a smile. He noticed letters in Sehun's hand. “A birthday card?”
“Highly belated,” Sehun rolled his eyes. He knew who it was from too, his friend Zitao who now lived in China. “My birthday was in April.”
“Maybe it's just early.”
“It's late,” Sehun said. He opened the card there and showed an obnoxious looking sparkly 24 with pictures of dogs, also sparkling, around the giant number. “I've been twenty-four for a while.”
At this, Minseok paused and leaned against the stairs, rather casually.
“Then you should call me hyung.”
“Wait,” Sehun's forehead creased. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-nine,” Minseok responded with no hesitation.
Sehun's eyes widened at this. “Seriously?!”
Minseok fidgeted with the briefcase. He seemed almost a little hurt, which made Sehun felt bad for his unrestrained surprise.
“Do I not look like it?” watching Sehun hesitate, Minseok smiled gently. Bad idea, Sehun thought, as his heart skipped a beat. “Just be honest, I'm not angry.”
“You... don't.”
Minseok laughed this time, and Sehun was captivated. He almost didn't hear what Minseok said next.
“You can make it up by calling me hyung from now on.”
“Morning hyung,” Sehun said the next morning.
Minseok laughed. His laugh was still quiet and still beautiful.
Sehun propped on his headphones that night. He was the kind to say he would practise, he would compose little things, just because.
But with his work schedule, it was difficult. He had been tired, uninspired and hardly home.
The sound of Minseok laughter made him want to compose something.
Quietly he started, and he hummed along.
It wasn't perfect, he realised.
He kept going anyway.
Sehun got home to Baekhyun regularly, but this time, he got home to Baekhyun and a new somebody.
Ah, he thought, he got what Baekhyun meant by the scribbled ':3' now.
“Kim Jongdae?” Sehun asked.
“Yeah,” the man smiled at him. “Oh Sehun? Minseok told me about you.”
What did he say, Sehun wanted to ask but didn't. Instead, he walked over and hit Baekhyun on the head.
“Ouch! What was that for?!”
“Why did you bring a date into my flat?”
“Because coffee is expensive!”
Sehun rolled his eyes and faced Jongdae. “I hope he didn't tell you this was his flat.”
“No,” Jongdae laughed. He had a completely different laugh from Minseok, Sehun hated himself for noticing this. For comparing someone to Minseok to begin with, because he shouldn't be thinking of Minseok like this. “He made it clear, that we're crashing.”
“My place is far,” Baekhyun whined.
“Yeah, yeah,” Sehun said. “Sorry, I promise he's pretty charming when he bothers.”
“This had been an interesting first date,” Jongdae smiled. He leaned in and held Baekhyun's hand in his. “He's adorable.”
Baekhyun lit up at that. “Did you hear that Sehun! Kim Jongdae said I'm adorable!”
Sehun sighed heavily and went to his own kitchenette to make himself tea. He needed that tonight to keep calm.
Baekhyun ended up dating Jongdae and Sehun's phone was soon filled with selfies and panics and more selfies and more panics.
The one thing that was good out of Baekhyun dating Jongdae and that was, he and Minseok had a little more to talk about to work beside the weather and work.
“He's enamoured by him,” Minseok reassured Sehun, even though Sehun didn't need reassurance, Baekhyun did. “Thinks he's adorable.”
“Yeah, I don't get that,” Sehun shrugged. “Guess there's someone out there for anyone.”
“I think so,” Minseok nodded.
And then they arrived at the train station and they had to part again.
Sehun didn't like that time of the day.
“So you've been composing again,” Baekhyun dropped in, with bubble tea, three, one for himself, one for Sehun from himself and the other for Sehun from Jongdae, repayment for letting them crash his place for their first date.
“I'm at the keyboard, that doesn't --”
“You look deep in thought, your pencil's beating against the table,” Baekhyun interrupted with observation. “You're composing.”
“It's not a big deal.”
“Well,” Baekhyun walked over, handing the plastic bag of bubble tea to Sehun after taking out his own. “Jongdae apparently worked for some music company. You should give him one to listen to.”
Sehun shook his head. “It's not good enough.”
“Nothing ever was for you Sehunnie.”
“This one definitely isn't.”
It didn't even sound as if it was inspired by Minseok's laughter.
The next Saturday, Sehun leaned out of his balcony to take a breather. Minseok came out with his mattress, as was the custom for Saturdays.
“Morning hyung,” Sehun greeted.
“Good morning,” Minseok responded. “You're up early for someone who slept so late.”
“Ah, yeah,” Sehun paused. He was up composing the night before. “Have things to do today.”
To compose more, that is.
“Young ones,” Minseok said with a smile. “Wait here.”
Sehun blinked in question as Minseok went inside and fetched him a banana. He passed it over to Sehun past their balconies that hardly had a gap between them.
“That's good for you. Tons of potassium.”
Unsure what he was supposed to do next, Sehun peeled the banana and bit it here.
It seemed to be the right choice as Minseok smiled.
Sehun had work during Christmas, from the afternoon until morning the next day. The motel was understaffed as many of their young staff members had gone home.
Sehun didn't mind. It meant he could definitely take the day off to visit his family on the New Year after all.
Minseok meanwhile, had the day off, as Sehun could hear from the vacuum cleaning noise. Sehun stepped out to the balcony, and Minseok followed with laundry.
“Not going home hyung?” he asked.
Minseok smiled sadly, he answered with a question. “How about you?”
“I have work. All nighter.”
“Tough,” Minseok said. “I'll pass you another banana.”
Sehun grinned. “Thanks again hyung.”
When Sehun was getting ready to leave on New Year's eve, he noticed that Minseok's light was still on, seeping slightly from underneath his door.
Guess he wasn't going home for New Year's too.
Sehun came back from New Years and passed and orange to Minseok on the balcony.
“I know you like winters,” he said. “But vitamin C would still be good for you in this weather.”
Minseok laughed, and Sehun found in the days he had been away, he missed that laughter.
“A dozen though?”
“That's to help me out,” Sehun smiled. “Parents left me a box.”
“They're good parents,” Minseok laughed.
Minseok knocked on Sehun's door the first time soon after that. It was a Saturday and the sound of vacuum have stopped. Sehun had just about began on his music when he heard the knock.
“Are you free?” Minseok asked him at the door.
“Uhm, sure, what is it?”
“I want to go watch a movie, do you want to come.”
Sehun made a half glance at his keyboard, then at Minseok. Guess he could take the day off. He had been stuck, anyway.
“Glad to. What movie?”
“Nothing war, nothing action, anything else is a go.”
No action, huh? Guess Minseok wasn't a big fan of just flashy explosions.
He was an adult after all despite how he might look, Sehun held back from saying.
They picked a comedy in the end, but what Sehun remembered when he got home wasn't the movie.
What Sehun remembered was walking back with Minseok in the crowd and Minseok holding his hand so he wouldn't get lost.
What Sehun remembered was the warmth of Minseok's hand.
And with that, he weaved the warmth into his music, with the laughter and the cleaning and the beauty and the very idea with Minseok himself.
It was closer to what he wanted.
“What is it that you want to do anyway?” Minseok asked Sehun on another morning. Sehun was talking about his job – not a strange topic for them to talk about, although the mostly consisted on complaints on Sehun's part.
Again, Sehun felt himself getting embarrassed. He loosened his scarf a little to let out the bits of warmth.
“I want to write music.”
“Like, be in a band?”
Sehun shook his head. A band might have been cool, he thought, but really, Sehun's aspiration wasn't like that. Sehun's aspirations embarrassed him more than a little. “Like... compose. For an idol group maybe.”
“Ah, I see,” Minseok nodded. “You could do well on that.”
“How do you know?”
“You hum don't you? When you make music. They're pretty catchy.”
And Minseok hummed, repeating what he heard. It was Sehun's song.
Sehun listened. And Sehun smiled. For a while, he forgot he was embarrassed. For a while, he forgot that the melody wasn't perfect. On Minseok's lips, even as a hum, it was.
“It's catchy,” Minseok stopped, and Sehun felt that he didn't want Minseok to stop. Still, Minseok continued to speak, in that voice quiet and beautiful. “I like it.”
Sehun struggled to find his words. Simple, simple words, lost to him for now, taken by Minseok's lips humming his imperfect melody perfectly.
Syllable by syllable, they formed in his head and he could speak again.
“Thank you hyung.”
Minseok patted his shoulder, comforting. Why? Sehun wondered, what face was he making, there and then?
“Tell me when it's done okay?”
He managed to nod in reply.
Baekhyun was a less frequent visitor at Sehun's flat since he met Jongdae, for Jongdae had a nicer flat not too far from Baekhyun. It was another week when Baekhyun visited, unannounced with bubble tea.
“I like him,” Sehun said, resolute. He had all week to get that ready, to greet Baekhyun with those words without looking up from his keyboard.
“I know,” Baekhyun said. Cocky hyung, Sehun was almost annoyed, he knew Baekhyun was grinning when he spoke.
Sehun held back from throwing something at Baekhyun's smug face.
That Sunday evening marked the first time ever Sehun ever knocked on Minseok's door, despite having been neighbours for almost a month and a half by that point.
Minseok opened the door in his T-shirt and pajama trousers. Sehun observed then, that Minseok indeed have nice arms.
“Sehun? What is it?”
“Do you want pizza?” Sehun asked, his ruse. “I'm thinking of ordering, but this place has a two-for-one deal, so.”
Minseok smiled. “I've not eaten, so sure. Come in.”
It was during the pizza did Sehun ask.
“Hyung, what is it do you want?”
Minseok, again, smiled sadly. “That's a tough question.”
Sehun nodded. He sat there in Minseok's room and in awkwardness, he looked around at everything.
“You like everything to be clean.”
Minseok laughed, but this time, the laughter was sad. Quiet and sad, and beautiful still not not the same.
“I like my home to be clean.”
And the sadness made it into Sehun 's music. Weaved into the sound of quietness and beauty and the cleaning and the warmth and the idea that Minseok existed.
This was close now, Sehun thought.
But it was impossible to fully capture Minseok, he accepted.
The next morning, he sent the file to Baekhyun to be reviewed by Jongdae.
Six-forty, read the clock.
And Sehun packed his bag up to meet Minseok at the door.
“He liked it. I knew you would do well,” Minseok told him two days later. He had heard about Sehun sending his song to Jongdae from Jongdae himself, because of course Jongdae would tell him.
Thanks to you, Sehun wanted to say. But he couldn't.
How can Sehun tell Minseok that his laughter was his song.
---- and his sad laughter made it complete?
So he nodded and let it be, loosening his scarf as he was warm from the embarrassment.
“They want to buy it, your song,” Baekhyun told him that weekend. “Jongdae is still finalising stuff so I can't tell you, but this boyband, out for two and a half years, want your song for their comeback.”
Sehun smiled to himself. He turned off the phone and listened to the sound of the vacuum cleaner next door.
He walked to the balcony and he found Minseok there, alone.
“Hyung, I got it.”
Minseok laughed.
And it was quiet, beautiful.
Happy entirely for Oh Sehun.
And Oh Sehun forgot to be embarrassed he had a muse.
This was most likely the change.
Baekhyun invited Sehun to his flat the next week on a Wednesday for dinner with Jongdae. At first, Sehun wanted to refuse. After all, Baekhyun's food wasn't fantastic and he didn't want to be third wheel to Baekhyun and Jongdae, but Baekhyun promised they'd order and Jongdae insisted that Sehun came as a celebration, so Sehun did after work, still in his ridiculously coloured polo.
It didn't turn out too bad. Jongdae was a joker, inclusive and friendly and Baekhyun knew too much about Sehun and had fun telling the stories.
“So Baekhyun told me you like Minseok,” Jongdae said when Baekhyun went out to get them deserts from the nearby convenience store.
Sehun found himself sinking into Baekhyun's couch, clawing into it, a frown making clear that he was annoyed Baekhyun couldn't keep his big mouth shut,.
“Come on, don't be like that,” Jongdae laughed. “Why don't I answer any question about him in exchange of me knowing this secret huh?”
“Are you sure you should?”
“And as a present for your song debut.”
Sehun thought. He could have a million questions about Minseok, but only one truly stood out. It didn't feel right to ask, so he thought. Again and again, but that question overruled the others absolutely.
So finally, he let it sound. Tactless, inconsiderate, strange as the question was.
“Why is he so sad?”
Jongdae paused.
“There are things I can't tell you,” he said.
Sehun expected that. He sunk back further into his seat, embarrassed he even asked.
“But,” Jongdae started again. “It's on public records.”
“What?” Sehun's head was filled with all sort of things.
An accident?
A major tax fraud?
Something a whole lot worse?
Jongdae smiled, and Jongdae's smile was sad. He picked up a tissue from Baekhyun's place and a pen.
And he wrote on it, for Sehun, a date.
It was the end of February by then and Sehun walked home quickly, half a quick pace, half a small sprint.
He had gone to the library soon after Jongdae gave him the date. The date led to newspapers after newspapers of a murder, a burglary although the headline was a popular idol admitting he was dating a famous actress.
Then in a corner, there was Minseok's name, in an article that was smaller than some advertisements that most people would miss.
Sehun looked at the sky, dark as he had to stop for a traffic light. His feet were impatient to move.
No, he wasn't walking home.
He was walking to flat number three-o-four.
Minseok's flat.
He knocked on the door, the second time that winter. Minseok opened it, in his home sweater and sweatpants.
“Sehun--”
“Hyung,” he said. “You want your home to be clean.”
Minseok looked at him, puzzled.
“Your home,” Sehun buried himself into his scarf, even though he was warm. Warm from his walk and warm from his embarrassment. “Your heart.”
Minseok smiled sadly.
“And that is why – you don't like action or war, that is why you--” Sehun paused. Sehun took a deep breath. Sehun looked straight at Minseok.
Sehun said, surely, firmly.
“But it's not your fault.”
And with that, Sehun kissed him.
Kim Minseok, read the newspaper, discharged from national service for a fatal friendly fire.
Minseok's photo attached at the newspaper was black in white, grainy, an official bust photo with a grim face.
It didn't look anything like the Kim Minseok Sehun knew.
It didn't look anything like the Kim Minseok whose laughter Sehun fell for.
Surprisingly, Minseok kissed back.
Minseok invited Sehun into his flat, through an open door.
And as Sehun glanced out the balcony door of Minseok's flat, he noticed that it snowed for the first time that winter.
This was the change.
Spring came late that year, but Sehun didn't mind. He woke up warm, curled in Minseok's clean mattress and in Minseok's arms. The cold March gave him an excuse to sleep there, after all.
“Good morning, hyung,” he said as he woke.
“Good morning,” Minseok replied. It was Saturday, but there was no sound of the vacuum. There was just them, breathing. Them, looking at each other.
Sleepy.
Quiet.
Beautiful.
And in love.
fandom exo
pairing xiuhun (xiumin/sehun), side baekchen (baekhyun/chen)
style one shot
length 4884
more presents. this time for
gon merry belated christmas and happy super belated birthday!! title from this song. first time writing these pairs + first time writing main!xiumin and prominent character baekhyun. actually i think it's the first time ever i wrote chen too so er, sorry ;_;His new neighbour arrived with the winter, and at one glance of the man, who according to his neatly labelled cardboard boxes was named Kim Minseok, Sehun had the impression that it was only right that this man came into his life in the winter after all.
Kim Minseok, presumably, was a short, stocky man who looked younger than Sehun. It wouldn't have been odd if he was. After all, the run down flat in a nowhere corner of Seoul Sehun resided in was often occupied by students and young workers, freshly graduated, working long hours for low pay, chasing their dreams in the big city.
“Hi,” presumably Minseok said with a smile when he noticed that Sehun had been watching, key stuck in his door but unturned. His voice was quiet and Sehun had to really listen to catch all of his words. “I'm Kim Minseok. You're in 305?”
“Ah, yes,” Sehun nodded. “Oh Sehun, 305.”
“I guess we're neighbours now.”
“I suppose so. Do you need help moving in?”
“Don't worry about it,” Minseok said. “It's good exercise, and my friend said he might be coming by to help in a few minutes.”
Sehun eyed Minseok's arms. Although he couldn't see it under the ugly looking sweater Minseok was wearing, but he imagined they must look rather nice. Nicer than his own, even, thin and wiry.
“Alright then,” Sehun said. He wasn't the type to impose his help on others. Most of the time, he wasn't even the type to offer. “If you need me, just knock on my door you, er, know where I live.”
“Sure do. Thanks for the offer.”
Sehun turned his key and let Kim Minseok disappear from his sight.
Greeted by his room, dark in the winter late afternoon, a feeling sank into him.
Something will change.
He thought.
He didn't understand.
“Dude,” Baekhyun let himself into Sehun's apartment without asking. He had once climbed over the water pipes to get in through Sehun's balcony for some ridiculous reason Sehun didn't want to know, and hence, Sehun decided giving him a spare key was the lesser evil. “Your new neighbour is hot.”
“Kim Minseok? Yeah he's not bad.”
Sehun didn't bother to look at Baekhyun then, busying himself with his book on music theory. Sehun's flat was small, a one room, one bathroom place cramped with a bed, a table, two chairs and a kitchenette. Sehun's music theory books stored wherever they could be stored and his little studio of laptop, headphones and keyboard sitting in a corner near the balcony.
“Minseok? He said his name was Kim Jongdae.”
“What? He told me he was Minseok, his boxes said Minseok. Round face, short, good build, room 304?”
“No! High cheekbones, one of those smiles that looked like this,” Baekhyun took a pen and tissue paper from Sehun's side table and draw a “:3” face. “But yeah, room 304.”
Sehun raised his eyebrow, as if offended he had to look up from his book to look at Baekhyun's crude drawing, but despite that he thought back to his conversation with Minseok earlier. A friend was coming over, he said. He supposed Kim Jongdae was then, this friend. He wondered about telling Baekhyun, but if he didn't, Baekhyun would increase his frequency of crashing Sehun's place, which was honestly already more than frequent enough.
“He's not my neighbour, he's my neighbour's friend,” Sehun said, stressing the word 'friend'. “He's only helping him move in,” and on that, he stressed the word 'only'.
Baekhyun nodded.
Sehun didn't think he listened.
That was the change, perhaps. Baekhyun would get more annoying. Would be there more often.
The sinking feeling remained,
Sehun met Kim Minseok again the next day at six forty-five in the morning. Sehun was still half-asleep, but that was the time he had to leave to get to his shift as a receptionist at a youth motel.
“Morning,” Sehun said.
Minseok was wearing a coat over what seem to be a piece of suit. Sehun couldn't tell if the suit was expensive or cheap, himself only needing a hideously coloured polo shirt for his own job.
“Ah, morning,” Minseok smiled, his voice was as soft as it was the day before. “Work?”
“No one else would leave their house at six forty-five otherwise,” Sehun said, sounding more sarcastic than he intended.
But Minseok chuckled anyway.
“You're right,” he said.
They walked towards the stairs in uneasy silence, Sehun raking his brain for what to say next.
“It's getting cold huh?”
He came to the words as they walked down the stairway. Lame, he thought instantly, but he supposed it was at least better than the silence.
“Yeah, I suppose so,” Minseok said. “I like it though.”
“You like the cold?”
“It's nice,” Minseok said. “Clean.”
“I suppose so,” Sehun agreed. He was rather thankful for reaching the bottom of the stairway at that. “I'm going this way.”
“Same,” Minseok nodded. “Taking the train?”
“Yeah.”
“Let's walk together then.”
And at the offer, Sehun relaxed.
Even their mostly-silent look didn't feel that bad.
When Sehun got back after a long shift that evening, Baekhyun was at his flat.
“God, do you work?” Sehun grumbled. He hadn't gone home with Minseok because he and Minseok got on different trains that morning. During his walk home he had a nudging feeling of wanting Minseok to be there, burying that feeling killed his mood.
“I do, I finished early,” Baekhyun shrugged, fishing out a plastic bag beside him of peace-maker bubble tea. “Is that really how you'd speak to your hyung?”
“Don't you have a flat, hyung?” despite his sarcasm, Sehun accepted the bubble tea anyway.
“My flat doesn't have a Kim Jongdae,” Baekhyun said.
“Neither does mine. He was only here to help his friend move in.”
“Alright, my apartment doesn't have a Kim Jongdae's friend who Kim Jongdae might visit,” Baekhyun paused. “But he hadn't today. His friend is home though.”
“Oh?”
Not that Sehun cared really.
“Kim 'not bad' Minseok.”
Sehun choked on one of the bubble tea's pearls and had to put the drink down on the table. He had thought that Baekhyun had forgotten he even said that considering dreamy over the mysterious Kim Jongdae yesterday.”
“Forget I said that,” Sehun said with a groan.
“Nope,” Baekhyun grinned. “Been a while since you had a crush on someone.”
“I would hardly call 'not bad' the sign of a crush!” Sehun defended himself.
“You think most of TVXQ is not good looking!” Baekhyun pointed out. “'Not Bad' in the Oh Sehun dictionary means hot in everyone else's.”
Sehun scoffed.
He didn't bother to argue with Baekhyun, knowing that Baekhyun won't yield.
And that Baekhyun was wrong.
Morning walks with Minseok quickly became a regular thing. An every weekday morning thing, even, for Sehun get out of the house at six forty-five every weekday morning and so did Minseok. On weekends, the days Sehun had triumphantly achieved as his off days by struggling to get to the roster first every time a new one was put up, Sehun would still be woken up in the morning by the sounds of vacuum cleaner from next door.
The vacuum cleaner was loud, and Sehun thought that was much unlike Minseok somehow.
By the time Sehun bothered to pull himself up and stretched himself on his balcony, he turned to see Minseok carrying his mattress out.
“Cleaning day?” he asked.
“Every Saturday,” Minseok smiled. “I like things clean.”
Clean, that's what Minseok told him about winter too, Sehun remembered.
“Why is the winter clean?” he mused out loud.
“Because the snow hides everything that isn't,” Minseok answered anyway.
“But technically,” Sehun said the next Monday morning. “If the snow only hides what isn't, it isn't really clean now because it isn't snowing yet.”
“Were you thinking of that all weekend?” Minseok made a sound that Sehun decided to interpret as a small, amused chuckle. “I guess, but since it's cold, things rot slower too.”
“I guess so,” Sehun looked sceptical. “That's only delay though isn't it?”
“Okay fine,” Minseok smiled. They have reached the train station and this is where they part. “I don't know why winters are cleaner, they just are.”
Sehun nodded.
“They just are,” he repeated, in agreement.
“See you tomorrow Sehun.”
“Come on man, you're friends with hot buns Minseok now aren't you? Ask him about Jongdae for me.”
Baekhyun bugged Sehun one day on a weekend, when Minseok's vacuum cleaning had became a regular background noise for Sehun and, with Baekhyun's all too frequent visits, for Baekhyun too.
“What am I supposed to ask?” Sehun sighed.
“Like, ask him to set your bestest friend up with his one true love.”
“Who you've met all of once?” Sehun scowled. “And since when are you my bestest friend? Bestest isn't even a word, hyung.”
“Sehunnie,” Baekhyun whined. He snuggled up close to Sehun. “Please.”
“Get off me, and I will,” Sehun pushed Baekhyun away.
Baekhyun pulled himself away and grinned at Sehun. “Thanks Sehunnie.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sehun turned away and returned to his book. He muttered softly: “What're best friends for right?”
Sehun regretted turning away so quickly. If he had, he would have noticed the expression on Baekhyun's face just as he got ready to tackle Sehun down.
“Get off me!”
“I knew you think we're best friends,” Baekhyun laughed
“I never said we weren't,” Sehun, once again, had to push Baekhyun off him. “I just said we weren't bestest friends. Bestest isn't a word.”
“Whatever,” Baekhyun waved him off. Pleased.
Bringing Kim Jongdae into the conversation was harder than Sehun thought it would be. After all, it wasn't as if Sehun had met Kim Jongdae and all Sehun knew of him was high cheekbones and a crummy doodle by Baekhyun.
“The way you moved in,” Sehun started, he spoke slowly, hoping the words would form itself as he started. “Did you friend end up helping you?”
“Hm?” Minseok seemed a little surprised at the topic, but his voice stayed quiet and soft. “He did.”
Well that was the end of that, Sehun thought. Sighed.
“What's wrong?”
“Alright, I'm just going to say it straight out after all,” Sehun said, although he could feel his skin warming up. While that was not unwelcome in the cold weather, it was a sign that he knew he would embarrass himself with the next line but had gone too far to go back. “My friend, Baekhyun, he has a crush on your friend. Kim Jongdae, was it?”
Minseok blinked. Laughed.
That was the first time Sehun heard Minseok laugh and it was pretty. Quiet, like Minseok and unlike Minseok's vacuum cleaner, but pretty, like Minseok's face. He felt his blush deepened.
“Ah yes, Kim Jongdae,” Minseok managed to return to his usual tone. “Lady killer, though from his name, I assume Baekhyun is a guy?”
“Would that be a problem?” Sehun asked.
“On the contrary,” Minseok still smiled. Sehun still stared at that smile. “It's perfect.”
He texted Baekhyun that he had learnt that Kim Jongdae liked guys.
Baekhyun promised him three cups of bubble tea.
Sehun smirked and replied back saying he was expecting that.
He was picking up his letters from the boxes downstairs when he met Minseok in the late afternoon. There was something a little odd about that, Sehun thought, for he had only seen Minseok in the mornings. Still, it was six and possibly a normal time for Minseok to come home.
“Hi,” he greeted Minseok as Minseok walked in.
“Hi,” Minseok said quietly, but with a smile. He noticed letters in Sehun's hand. “A birthday card?”
“Highly belated,” Sehun rolled his eyes. He knew who it was from too, his friend Zitao who now lived in China. “My birthday was in April.”
“Maybe it's just early.”
“It's late,” Sehun said. He opened the card there and showed an obnoxious looking sparkly 24 with pictures of dogs, also sparkling, around the giant number. “I've been twenty-four for a while.”
At this, Minseok paused and leaned against the stairs, rather casually.
“Then you should call me hyung.”
“Wait,” Sehun's forehead creased. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-nine,” Minseok responded with no hesitation.
Sehun's eyes widened at this. “Seriously?!”
Minseok fidgeted with the briefcase. He seemed almost a little hurt, which made Sehun felt bad for his unrestrained surprise.
“Do I not look like it?” watching Sehun hesitate, Minseok smiled gently. Bad idea, Sehun thought, as his heart skipped a beat. “Just be honest, I'm not angry.”
“You... don't.”
Minseok laughed this time, and Sehun was captivated. He almost didn't hear what Minseok said next.
“You can make it up by calling me hyung from now on.”
“Morning hyung,” Sehun said the next morning.
Minseok laughed. His laugh was still quiet and still beautiful.
Sehun propped on his headphones that night. He was the kind to say he would practise, he would compose little things, just because.
But with his work schedule, it was difficult. He had been tired, uninspired and hardly home.
The sound of Minseok laughter made him want to compose something.
Quietly he started, and he hummed along.
It wasn't perfect, he realised.
He kept going anyway.
Sehun got home to Baekhyun regularly, but this time, he got home to Baekhyun and a new somebody.
Ah, he thought, he got what Baekhyun meant by the scribbled ':3' now.
“Kim Jongdae?” Sehun asked.
“Yeah,” the man smiled at him. “Oh Sehun? Minseok told me about you.”
What did he say, Sehun wanted to ask but didn't. Instead, he walked over and hit Baekhyun on the head.
“Ouch! What was that for?!”
“Why did you bring a date into my flat?”
“Because coffee is expensive!”
Sehun rolled his eyes and faced Jongdae. “I hope he didn't tell you this was his flat.”
“No,” Jongdae laughed. He had a completely different laugh from Minseok, Sehun hated himself for noticing this. For comparing someone to Minseok to begin with, because he shouldn't be thinking of Minseok like this. “He made it clear, that we're crashing.”
“My place is far,” Baekhyun whined.
“Yeah, yeah,” Sehun said. “Sorry, I promise he's pretty charming when he bothers.”
“This had been an interesting first date,” Jongdae smiled. He leaned in and held Baekhyun's hand in his. “He's adorable.”
Baekhyun lit up at that. “Did you hear that Sehun! Kim Jongdae said I'm adorable!”
Sehun sighed heavily and went to his own kitchenette to make himself tea. He needed that tonight to keep calm.
Baekhyun ended up dating Jongdae and Sehun's phone was soon filled with selfies and panics and more selfies and more panics.
The one thing that was good out of Baekhyun dating Jongdae and that was, he and Minseok had a little more to talk about to work beside the weather and work.
“He's enamoured by him,” Minseok reassured Sehun, even though Sehun didn't need reassurance, Baekhyun did. “Thinks he's adorable.”
“Yeah, I don't get that,” Sehun shrugged. “Guess there's someone out there for anyone.”
“I think so,” Minseok nodded.
And then they arrived at the train station and they had to part again.
Sehun didn't like that time of the day.
“So you've been composing again,” Baekhyun dropped in, with bubble tea, three, one for himself, one for Sehun from himself and the other for Sehun from Jongdae, repayment for letting them crash his place for their first date.
“I'm at the keyboard, that doesn't --”
“You look deep in thought, your pencil's beating against the table,” Baekhyun interrupted with observation. “You're composing.”
“It's not a big deal.”
“Well,” Baekhyun walked over, handing the plastic bag of bubble tea to Sehun after taking out his own. “Jongdae apparently worked for some music company. You should give him one to listen to.”
Sehun shook his head. “It's not good enough.”
“Nothing ever was for you Sehunnie.”
“This one definitely isn't.”
It didn't even sound as if it was inspired by Minseok's laughter.
The next Saturday, Sehun leaned out of his balcony to take a breather. Minseok came out with his mattress, as was the custom for Saturdays.
“Morning hyung,” Sehun greeted.
“Good morning,” Minseok responded. “You're up early for someone who slept so late.”
“Ah, yeah,” Sehun paused. He was up composing the night before. “Have things to do today.”
To compose more, that is.
“Young ones,” Minseok said with a smile. “Wait here.”
Sehun blinked in question as Minseok went inside and fetched him a banana. He passed it over to Sehun past their balconies that hardly had a gap between them.
“That's good for you. Tons of potassium.”
Unsure what he was supposed to do next, Sehun peeled the banana and bit it here.
It seemed to be the right choice as Minseok smiled.
Sehun had work during Christmas, from the afternoon until morning the next day. The motel was understaffed as many of their young staff members had gone home.
Sehun didn't mind. It meant he could definitely take the day off to visit his family on the New Year after all.
Minseok meanwhile, had the day off, as Sehun could hear from the vacuum cleaning noise. Sehun stepped out to the balcony, and Minseok followed with laundry.
“Not going home hyung?” he asked.
Minseok smiled sadly, he answered with a question. “How about you?”
“I have work. All nighter.”
“Tough,” Minseok said. “I'll pass you another banana.”
Sehun grinned. “Thanks again hyung.”
When Sehun was getting ready to leave on New Year's eve, he noticed that Minseok's light was still on, seeping slightly from underneath his door.
Guess he wasn't going home for New Year's too.
Sehun came back from New Years and passed and orange to Minseok on the balcony.
“I know you like winters,” he said. “But vitamin C would still be good for you in this weather.”
Minseok laughed, and Sehun found in the days he had been away, he missed that laughter.
“A dozen though?”
“That's to help me out,” Sehun smiled. “Parents left me a box.”
“They're good parents,” Minseok laughed.
Minseok knocked on Sehun's door the first time soon after that. It was a Saturday and the sound of vacuum have stopped. Sehun had just about began on his music when he heard the knock.
“Are you free?” Minseok asked him at the door.
“Uhm, sure, what is it?”
“I want to go watch a movie, do you want to come.”
Sehun made a half glance at his keyboard, then at Minseok. Guess he could take the day off. He had been stuck, anyway.
“Glad to. What movie?”
“Nothing war, nothing action, anything else is a go.”
No action, huh? Guess Minseok wasn't a big fan of just flashy explosions.
He was an adult after all despite how he might look, Sehun held back from saying.
They picked a comedy in the end, but what Sehun remembered when he got home wasn't the movie.
What Sehun remembered was walking back with Minseok in the crowd and Minseok holding his hand so he wouldn't get lost.
What Sehun remembered was the warmth of Minseok's hand.
And with that, he weaved the warmth into his music, with the laughter and the cleaning and the beauty and the very idea with Minseok himself.
It was closer to what he wanted.
“What is it that you want to do anyway?” Minseok asked Sehun on another morning. Sehun was talking about his job – not a strange topic for them to talk about, although the mostly consisted on complaints on Sehun's part.
Again, Sehun felt himself getting embarrassed. He loosened his scarf a little to let out the bits of warmth.
“I want to write music.”
“Like, be in a band?”
Sehun shook his head. A band might have been cool, he thought, but really, Sehun's aspiration wasn't like that. Sehun's aspirations embarrassed him more than a little. “Like... compose. For an idol group maybe.”
“Ah, I see,” Minseok nodded. “You could do well on that.”
“How do you know?”
“You hum don't you? When you make music. They're pretty catchy.”
And Minseok hummed, repeating what he heard. It was Sehun's song.
Sehun listened. And Sehun smiled. For a while, he forgot he was embarrassed. For a while, he forgot that the melody wasn't perfect. On Minseok's lips, even as a hum, it was.
“It's catchy,” Minseok stopped, and Sehun felt that he didn't want Minseok to stop. Still, Minseok continued to speak, in that voice quiet and beautiful. “I like it.”
Sehun struggled to find his words. Simple, simple words, lost to him for now, taken by Minseok's lips humming his imperfect melody perfectly.
Syllable by syllable, they formed in his head and he could speak again.
“Thank you hyung.”
Minseok patted his shoulder, comforting. Why? Sehun wondered, what face was he making, there and then?
“Tell me when it's done okay?”
He managed to nod in reply.
Baekhyun was a less frequent visitor at Sehun's flat since he met Jongdae, for Jongdae had a nicer flat not too far from Baekhyun. It was another week when Baekhyun visited, unannounced with bubble tea.
“I like him,” Sehun said, resolute. He had all week to get that ready, to greet Baekhyun with those words without looking up from his keyboard.
“I know,” Baekhyun said. Cocky hyung, Sehun was almost annoyed, he knew Baekhyun was grinning when he spoke.
Sehun held back from throwing something at Baekhyun's smug face.
That Sunday evening marked the first time ever Sehun ever knocked on Minseok's door, despite having been neighbours for almost a month and a half by that point.
Minseok opened the door in his T-shirt and pajama trousers. Sehun observed then, that Minseok indeed have nice arms.
“Sehun? What is it?”
“Do you want pizza?” Sehun asked, his ruse. “I'm thinking of ordering, but this place has a two-for-one deal, so.”
Minseok smiled. “I've not eaten, so sure. Come in.”
It was during the pizza did Sehun ask.
“Hyung, what is it do you want?”
Minseok, again, smiled sadly. “That's a tough question.”
Sehun nodded. He sat there in Minseok's room and in awkwardness, he looked around at everything.
“You like everything to be clean.”
Minseok laughed, but this time, the laughter was sad. Quiet and sad, and beautiful still not not the same.
“I like my home to be clean.”
And the sadness made it into Sehun 's music. Weaved into the sound of quietness and beauty and the cleaning and the warmth and the idea that Minseok existed.
This was close now, Sehun thought.
But it was impossible to fully capture Minseok, he accepted.
The next morning, he sent the file to Baekhyun to be reviewed by Jongdae.
Six-forty, read the clock.
And Sehun packed his bag up to meet Minseok at the door.
“He liked it. I knew you would do well,” Minseok told him two days later. He had heard about Sehun sending his song to Jongdae from Jongdae himself, because of course Jongdae would tell him.
Thanks to you, Sehun wanted to say. But he couldn't.
How can Sehun tell Minseok that his laughter was his song.
---- and his sad laughter made it complete?
So he nodded and let it be, loosening his scarf as he was warm from the embarrassment.
“They want to buy it, your song,” Baekhyun told him that weekend. “Jongdae is still finalising stuff so I can't tell you, but this boyband, out for two and a half years, want your song for their comeback.”
Sehun smiled to himself. He turned off the phone and listened to the sound of the vacuum cleaner next door.
He walked to the balcony and he found Minseok there, alone.
“Hyung, I got it.”
Minseok laughed.
And it was quiet, beautiful.
Happy entirely for Oh Sehun.
And Oh Sehun forgot to be embarrassed he had a muse.
This was most likely the change.
Baekhyun invited Sehun to his flat the next week on a Wednesday for dinner with Jongdae. At first, Sehun wanted to refuse. After all, Baekhyun's food wasn't fantastic and he didn't want to be third wheel to Baekhyun and Jongdae, but Baekhyun promised they'd order and Jongdae insisted that Sehun came as a celebration, so Sehun did after work, still in his ridiculously coloured polo.
It didn't turn out too bad. Jongdae was a joker, inclusive and friendly and Baekhyun knew too much about Sehun and had fun telling the stories.
“So Baekhyun told me you like Minseok,” Jongdae said when Baekhyun went out to get them deserts from the nearby convenience store.
Sehun found himself sinking into Baekhyun's couch, clawing into it, a frown making clear that he was annoyed Baekhyun couldn't keep his big mouth shut,.
“Come on, don't be like that,” Jongdae laughed. “Why don't I answer any question about him in exchange of me knowing this secret huh?”
“Are you sure you should?”
“And as a present for your song debut.”
Sehun thought. He could have a million questions about Minseok, but only one truly stood out. It didn't feel right to ask, so he thought. Again and again, but that question overruled the others absolutely.
So finally, he let it sound. Tactless, inconsiderate, strange as the question was.
“Why is he so sad?”
Jongdae paused.
“There are things I can't tell you,” he said.
Sehun expected that. He sunk back further into his seat, embarrassed he even asked.
“But,” Jongdae started again. “It's on public records.”
“What?” Sehun's head was filled with all sort of things.
An accident?
A major tax fraud?
Something a whole lot worse?
Jongdae smiled, and Jongdae's smile was sad. He picked up a tissue from Baekhyun's place and a pen.
And he wrote on it, for Sehun, a date.
It was the end of February by then and Sehun walked home quickly, half a quick pace, half a small sprint.
He had gone to the library soon after Jongdae gave him the date. The date led to newspapers after newspapers of a murder, a burglary although the headline was a popular idol admitting he was dating a famous actress.
Then in a corner, there was Minseok's name, in an article that was smaller than some advertisements that most people would miss.
Sehun looked at the sky, dark as he had to stop for a traffic light. His feet were impatient to move.
No, he wasn't walking home.
He was walking to flat number three-o-four.
Minseok's flat.
He knocked on the door, the second time that winter. Minseok opened it, in his home sweater and sweatpants.
“Sehun--”
“Hyung,” he said. “You want your home to be clean.”
Minseok looked at him, puzzled.
“Your home,” Sehun buried himself into his scarf, even though he was warm. Warm from his walk and warm from his embarrassment. “Your heart.”
Minseok smiled sadly.
“And that is why – you don't like action or war, that is why you--” Sehun paused. Sehun took a deep breath. Sehun looked straight at Minseok.
Sehun said, surely, firmly.
“But it's not your fault.”
And with that, Sehun kissed him.
Kim Minseok, read the newspaper, discharged from national service for a fatal friendly fire.
Minseok's photo attached at the newspaper was black in white, grainy, an official bust photo with a grim face.
It didn't look anything like the Kim Minseok Sehun knew.
It didn't look anything like the Kim Minseok whose laughter Sehun fell for.
Surprisingly, Minseok kissed back.
Minseok invited Sehun into his flat, through an open door.
And as Sehun glanced out the balcony door of Minseok's flat, he noticed that it snowed for the first time that winter.
This was the change.
Spring came late that year, but Sehun didn't mind. He woke up warm, curled in Minseok's clean mattress and in Minseok's arms. The cold March gave him an excuse to sleep there, after all.
“Good morning, hyung,” he said as he woke.
“Good morning,” Minseok replied. It was Saturday, but there was no sound of the vacuum. There was just them, breathing. Them, looking at each other.
Sleepy.
Quiet.
Beautiful.
And in love.
