Walking in the Wind | 2Min

Chapter 9

Saturday took quite long to arrive. The week was tiring with classes and assignments, but Friday night got pretty exciting for a few.

The bell echoed through their apartment. One among the two had headphones on and the door closed, while the other dozed off on their couch clinging to a cushion with one leg hanging off.

The bell kept ringing causing an irritated Chan to swing open the door with a scrawl on his face.

"Oh, Seungmin. " His expressions softened at the sight of the younger looking so fresh early in the morning.

"Hey." He waved in tiny.

Quite confused Chan asked, "Why are you here at this time? We're not recording... "

"I needed some help from Minho Hyung."

"Oh... Come on in." Chan said as he opened the door a little more, "he's sleeping though and waking him is a big no-no on weekends. Did you announce your arrival? ", he asked while closing the door.

"Yeah, I did text him." He said as he was opening his shoes and keeping them aside. He walked two steps and saw the one in his dreamland.

"Minho?" Chan went up to Minho and gave him a little shake. But no response.

"Minho? Get up!" He called a little louder and gave him a stronger jerk.

Too sleepy to open his eyes, he asked, "Hmmmm...time?"

"8"

"......" And he went back to sleep moving a little to find a little more comfort, only to be shaken more violently.

"Hyuuuung it's just 8." He spoke with soft lazy voice irritation clear as he mumbled.

Chan looked at Seungmin standing awkwardly in a corner not knowing what to do.

Chan caressed Minho's face, patted on his cheeks softly and said, "Min, Seungmin is here, he needs your help. Get up."

Minho slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the morning light and looked around. Two pairs of eyes staring at him.

He slowly sat up, quite annoyed having to wake up so early. Seeing that his task's done, Chan made his way to his room.

"What are you doing here so early?" He asked as he tried to adjust his clothes and the cushions. His eyes still adjusting to the morning light.

"I did text you yesterday."

"Yes you did, but wasn't it.... like in the evening?"

"I mentioned a.m."

Minho checked his phone which was still in his pockets.He blinked couple of times.

"Fine. Just wait here."
He got up and left to freshen up.

Seungmin looked around a bit. There was hardly anything interesting in that space. A sofa, a little table and in one corner there's a kitchen counter and a fridge, and then there are doors closed shut.
Having nothing to do he waited on the sofa staring at nothing and contemplating with the idea of studying with Minho.

On the other side, Minho washed himself thoroughly, removing the traces of last night's party. And when done, he groaned internally realizing  not having brought changes with him.

"Seungmin..."
He called out peeping from the door that he opened very slightly.

"Y-yes?" The younger shifted his focus to Minho, rather only his wet brown hair and eyes.

"Get a pair of shorts and something to wear... You'll find it in my room. "

A little hesitant, he did what he was asked to. It wasn't that difficult to find them as they were piled in a basket beside the bed, but what caught his attention was the hardcover diary with a pen inside lying on the bed.

.
.
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I now understand the urge to self-harm.

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.
.

"Had your breakfast, Seungmin?" Minho asked stepping out of the washroom, fully clothed while wiping his hair with the already wet towel.

"Yes" Seungmin replied looking at him with observant eyes, which obviously didn't go unnoticed by the elder.

"Like what you see?" Minho asked with his cheeky smile.

"Huh? Yeah..... I- I mean no. " Embarrassment washed over him, he didn't think he'd notice.

"Take a picture it'll last longer. "

"It's nothing like that, okay? And don't use the same cliched lines." Seungmin sounded stern.

"Hmm... Fine. Now come let's get things done with. " Minho grabbed an apple from the fridge and walked to his room keeping the wet towel hanging on one of the chairs, Seungmin followed.

"So... Where do you actually need help with?" He took a bite, chewing it slowly while he went over to his rack looking for his old books. When he didn't get a reply, he shifted his focus on the other only to find the younger staring at him.

Seungmin looked away at once.
"You were saying....?"

"You could have just told me you're hungry you know?"

"What? I'm not."

"Is something wrong today?" Minho asked smiling a little.

"No.... It's just... Nothing." He failed to explain himself. Of course, how could he just say that he read his personal diary lying openly on the bed.

"Are you sure? Look, I know am a snack but that doesn't mean you'll be staring all the time." He said with a smirk, quite satisfied with his remark, but he only received a blank expression.

Unsatisfied with the reaction he went back looking through the piled-up books.

"Ahh... here.... Found ya! "

At the same time the younger blurted out, "Are you okay? ", unable to be less curious.

Minho was taken by surprise, it wasn't usual that some asked him stuff like that, and Seungmin doing that was more than unexpected. But then his lips formed another smile, "I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

Seungmin looked at his eyes looking for the actual answer he was looking for, which Minho did not verbalize. This time, Minho looked away first finding it quite bothering.

"Look at the time!!", Minho exclaimed to change the subject,"We've wasted nearly half an hour!"

Seungmin took the clue and got back to the reason why he was there.
"Yeah, so actually I don't need much help. I missed a few classes, well a lot of them, so it'd be nice if-"

"You want notes, huh?" Minho asked with eyebrows raised.

"What? No.... I just need you to tell me which parts are important. You can't just expect me to read the whole novel in so little time and analyse it!"

"Why didn't you join from the next semester itself ?"

"I had my reasons." But it sounded more like 'none of his business' to Minho.

"Whatever you say. Now get a pencil and mark them."

And there they sat on the single bed, with books between. Faint marks made their way on the new book, once in a while, Minho explained why something is significant or sometimes acted like their bald old teacher who taught them, and sometimes he read dialogues aloud pretending to be some dramatic lady, laughing and giggling, preventing the atmosphere to get dull.

Then we had Seungmin who paid close attention not only to the words but also to the person, whose eyes lit up with everything he said, showing no hint of anything he read before.