C-51
It's the day of the final performance in PE class, but I can't find Minho anywhere. Everyone's busy here in the enclosed gymnasium whilst waiting for Coach Yoongi.
"Can't you reach Minho-hyung yet?" Felix asks and I shake my head. I've been calling him but he isn't answering.
"There's still time." Seungmin shrugs.
Seungmin is with us because he said he got bored with the presence of his teammates. Honest as ever! He's playing with his toy gun that they'll use as a prop later.
"Why are you still here?" Felix looks at him suspiciously. "Are you spying on us? Go to your group. You're not welcome here since you betrayed our friendship by teaming with others!"
The spectacled boy points his gun to the freckled one. "If this is real I would've shot you already."
"Whatever." Felix rolls his eyes and turns his attention back to me. "How about Minho-hyung?"
"He won't ditch us, let's trust him."
Felix grins at me. "If you say so! Here, let me fix your tie."
Felix goes closer to loosen my tie. The three of us will be wearing tucked-in dress shirts with black tie, trousers, and leather loafers as costumes. Felix came up with our concept. He says it's called 'Employees who are in desperate need for vacation.'
"We should look cool, dishevelled, and laidback." Felix undoes two buttons on my shirt. I jump at his boldness whilst Seungmin's eyes widen.
"Yah! What are you doing?" Seungmin swats Felix's hands.
"This looks a bit revealing... Is this necessary?" I ask, awkwardly scratching my exposed collarbone.
"It's our concept! Look at mine." He points to his open collar.
"But you don't have that thing... I mean..." Seungmin clears his throat and scowls at Felix, turning to walk away. "Suit yourself."
"That's how we get rid of him. He's too obvious." Felix snickers as we watch Seungmin's retreating back. He looks back at me to check my appearance and compare our looks. "Hmm.. What else? Your hair-- ow!"
Felix is about to mess with my hair when a blazer suddenly smacks his face.
Minho loosens his tie and folds the sleeves of his shirt, then he redoes the buttons on mine whilst glaring at our leader. "Try this shit again, unless you want to keep your fingers."
The guilty boy nervously skips a few steps away. "I knew he'd come."
I shake my head and go to Minho's side. "Where were you? I was worried."
I get confused when he takes my hands and just stares at me. He looks a little dazed... and a bit nostalgic? His eyes are also glistening.
"Min, are you alright?"
"Moon Y/n... it's you."
I chuckle. "Of course, unless there's also others with the same name here."
He suddenly hugs me. My heartbeat speeds up as he whispers his next words. "I'm sorry I was late. I'm sorry I didn't get to you on time... I missed you."
I slowly smile even when my face feels so hot. There he goes flustering me with his words again!
"At least you're here now. By the way, what did you take care of earlier?"
He releases me with an eager look. "I need to talk to you--"
"I hate to break it but Coach Yoongi is coming!" Felix announces loudly which makes everyone do their final retouch and fall in line.
"What were you saying?"
Minho shakes his head and sighs. "Later."
Our PE teacher walks in, looking like he just woke up from his nap. He drags a stool in front of the stage and sits on it, slightly yawning in the process.
"Aight kids, let's get this done!"
We all cheer as the first performers go in front. There'd be a total of four presentations by group and the three of us would be the last.
Felix is clearly enjoying beside me as he uses my head as an armrest. I poke his side that causes him to giggle away.
"I bet we'll be the best group. I'm the leader after all," he boasts.
"What if we fail?" I ask a bit nervously. This is our last performance before graduation so it's kind of nerve-wracking.
He shakes his head with a horrified face. "We didn't sacrifice our blood, sweat, and tears for that to happen!"
"What if we trip and fall off the stage?"
He whines and turns to Minho. "Can you tell her not to jinx it?"
Minho just rolls his eyes and pulls me away from our overexcited leader. He puts his arm over my shoulders and I immediately relax in his touch. I laugh when Felix scowls at the two of us.
"I'm fine here. I'll just hug myself." The freckled boy sighs.
I'm smiling as I watch my classmates perform. They're clearly enjoying our last high school performance. I will definitely miss this kind of fun even if I'm not participative and only dance for grades.
We all laugh as we witness Seungmin dance like there's no tomorrow to 'Shoot Me' by Day6. It's so rare to see the class genius enjoy because he usually keeps to himself and only talks to his friends. What a fanboy! I wonder how he managed to convince his teammates to use that song.
"It's a relief that he's not our member. We'll just clash on which song to dance to," Felix comments.
I frown at Minho's antsy semblance beside me. Is he running late to something?
It only took a while before it's down to the last presentation. I hop on the stage with my groupmates, hoping that we won't make a fool out of ourselves.
"Let's start!"
We head to our positions and when the intro comes, our bodies naturally react.
"You and me in the moonlight~"
We modified some of the steps in accordance to our concept, that's why when the word moonlight comes, they both move aside and push me forward as I sit on a swivel chair. It's the leader's idea because my surname and the word both have 'moon' on them. There's no point in arguing so I just went with what Felix wants.
I can hear the cheers of our classmates when that partner scene came. We made it more animated. Felix is enjoying it whilst Minho looks done. I can see him suppressing a smile though! When the chorus arrives, we kick aside our desk props and throw up faux-documents, and I had to stifle my laugh because the others are also doing it. Such big fans!
Our performance ends with a big applause and I've never been so satisfied because I know I exerted lots of effort into this, considering that I'm not a dancer. Our dance is kind of comedic though so that made it easy for me.
"I told you, guys! Minho-hyung is not scary. We all saw how cool he danced!" I hear Minhyung say to his friends when the three of us pass by them. "Oh, they're here!"
Minho's ears are so red as our classmates compliment him and our performance, contrary to what they always say about him. I'm so happy that they don't think of him as a bad guy anymore!
"Good job, guys!" Felix beams.
"Good job, leader! You're great." I high-five him. I turn to Minho and show him a big smile. "Of course, you too! Our classmates also think so."
He shrugs, trying to look cool despite his red ears. "It's nothing."
Coach Yoongi claps to get our attention. He stands at the centre and looks at everyone of us, smiling sort of proudly.
"We're finally done, kids! Even if you suck at basketball, you made up with your dance skills today. Expect to have high final grades in PE!" he announces and it makes us all cheer. "That's my gift to all of you. Congratulations and happy graduation!"
"I can't believe we just finished all of our requirements for high school. I'll miss studying at the library, won't you?" Seungmin suddenly appears.
"Studying?" Felix laughs and pats his shoulder. "You mean hangouts at the library. We need to find a new hangout spot. The librarian will definitely kick us out now."
Seungmin shakes his head. "How would you do in college? My head already hurts just thinking about it."
"I know enough, smartass."
"Yeah, like how 'the stomach takes out all the dump'? Pathetic."
"There's more to life than school!"
I look at Minho and see him having the same expression like mine as we hear Seungmin and Felix's conversation.
"Shut up, both of you." Minho sighs.
"Do you want to go to Mochi Cafe later? Let's celebrate," I propose.
"That's grea-- hmm!" Felix is about to answer but Seungmin slaps a hand over his mouth.
"Nah, you two can go without us. I still need to save this boy's future. He didn't turn in his English assignment yet," he says and pulls Felix away.
"So it's just the two of us again." I laugh as I turn to Minho. "What were you saying earlier?"
His mouth opens but no words come out. He looks troubled. I stare at him, and he also stares at me. I'm starting to get bothered with how he's acting.
"Why are you acting weird again? The last time you did, we fought. Did I do something wrong?"
He shakes his head. "Nothing's wrong... I just want to look at you."
My cheeks flare at his comment. There he goes again!
"Stop teasing me."
He holds my hands and pulls me in a hug. "I'm not, I'm just really happy that you're here."
I feel my heart skip a few beats.
"Y/n, I need to tell you something crazy but I don't know how to start."
"Why can't you tell me?"
"It just sounds so absurd and impossible."
Something crazy? That makes me so curious.
"We spent lots of energy on our dance. Do you want to talk about this with snacks?" I look up at him expectantly.
"We still have a class until dismissal."
"We can ditch it and nope, I won't regret it." I smile and pull his hands. "Do you remember that cafe I told you about? Let's go there."
"Where's that?"
"Seungmo Cafe."
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"Welcome to Seungmo-- Y/n! Oh... and Minho-hyung," Hyunjin greets us once we enter.
"Hello, Hyunjin!" I greet back.
"I guess it's the usual for you two?" I nod at his question. "Coming right up!"
We head to one of the tables and two dogs immediately come over.
"They're Shushu and Kiel," I introduce them to Minho.
His troubled face turns soft as he pets them. Just then, a small black-furred chihuahua with white streaks comes and barks at him. "Aish. Who is this loudass dog?"
Hyunjin appears with our drinks and cakes. His eyes widen upon seeing the noisy dog, trying to shush it as he picks it up. "Kkami! What are you doing? Your behaviour is so, ugh... Did I teach you to act bad to people?"
"That's your dog?"
He nods and apologises to us. "Mum allowed me to take him here today."
"It's okay. Why don't you join us? Is that alright?" I turn to Minho. He nods at me whilst still playing with the dogs.
Hyunjin sits down with Kkami on his lap, giggling a little. "I didn't know he's soft for dogs."
"He's softer for cats."
"Really?"
"You remember Dori?" Hyunjin nods. "We co-parent him."
"Who would've thought that the bad boy owns a cat." He giggles again.
"Not just one, but three. Promise me you'll keep that a secret, okay?"
We both smirk and do a fistbump.
"What are you whispering about?" Minho interrupts.
"Nothing..." I grin. "I was just telling him how tired we got after our dance presentation."
Hyunjin blinks before he gets it. "Y-Yeah! I didn't know you dance! I'm actually a dance student." He shows us his ID.
"Woah! That's so cool." I examine the fancy card.
"Y-You should watch us sometimes," he says shyly. "I'm planning to persuade my parents and continue it in college."
Minho shows a small smile. "Sure... Hyunjin. Keep it up."
Me and my KDrama buddy look at each other wide-eyed, smiling so big because he finally upgraded from being 'that cashier guy.' Minho just rolls his eyes at us.
Hyunjin goes back to his duties after the rest of the customers leave, and now there's only me and Minho. He left Kkami to me and told me not to feed him anything that he hasn't tried yet.
I'm taking pictures of Kkami when my phone dings, signalling a notification.
Junguwu:
wanna hangout with us today?
training just finished
I look over to Minho, thinking of a good idea. "Min, do you want to meet my friends?"
He nods, still preoccupied by Shushu and Kiel. I grin excitedly and type a reply to Jungwoo.
Y/n:
I'm actually with someone rn but he says he's okay with it
we're at Seungmo Cafe
you know that right?
Junguwu:
ofc we'll be there!
we can see it already :D
I can't help but swing my legs in anticipation. I hope my friends and Minho like each other since they are all part of my life. Maybe they can help us recharge our energies too.
Minho turns his attention to me when Shushu and Kiel leave, looking a little serious. He takes my hands in his and squeezes them.
"Minho, are you really okay?"
"I don't know... Y/n, I found out something today," he starts. "We really did go to the same school back in Gimpo."
"So it's true! How did you make sure?"
"Uh... Chan-hyung," he says.
"Is that why you're so jittery?"
"No, it's about something else. I don't know how to tell you this, so I'm just going to ask." He takes out the polaroid photo that I've been looking for. "Is this yours?"
"Hey, why do you have this? I've been looking for this everywhere."
I take it and check. It's really the photo that Kun gave me.
"They're your friends... and that's you. Am I right?" He points to the small girl in the picture.
I frown at him. "How'd you know? I look completely different from before."
He swallows thickly, flipping the photo so we can see what's written on the back.
"It's Sunny. Tell me... are you the same as my childhood friend?"
"I thought we're past this..." My frown deepens. "That's absurd."
"I also thought so... but can't you see all the similarities? Can't you really remember?"
I think hard about what he's saying. I can't remember... I don't get it. I shake my head and he laughs dryly.
"Right. You forgot everything and no one bothered to help you remember." He looks desperate as he gazes at me with glassy eyes. "Y/n, can't you remember me? I'm that guy at the rooftop! I'm Lee Minho, your friend... Please tell me I'm right."
My temples start throbbing at his claims. "I... I'm confused."
He is about to explain when we hear voices and the door opening.
"Y/n, we're here--" Jungwoo abruptly stops once he sees who I'm with.
Minho stands up and glares sharply at the guys who just arrived. His jaw is clenched as he pulls me behind him.
"Minho," Jungwoo hisses. Kun and Ten are quick to hold him back.
I look at them confusedly. Why are they acting so hostile to each other?