Alexandrite || Hyunho AU

III - Did you always know, or did you forget, like I did?

In 30 minutes Hyunjin's sixteenth birthday will be officially over. His birthday will be over, and he hasn't seen Minho at all. Actually he's barely seen him all week and to be honest, he's been seeing less and less of him over the past 6 months. Ever since he got a job.

"Job, right!" Sung-Ho snickers. "Yeah, no boy our age is that diligent about a job if he can afford not to. Minho's parents are doing alright for themselves so if you ask me, he's definitely seeing some chick and he's probably not ready to tell y'all losers about her so you don't embarrass him."

The rest of their friends agree and Hyunjin smiles. He feels like throwing up and howling at the moon and punching walls and flipping tables. He's felt like that on a daily basis ever since "Minho's secret girlfriend" has become a running gag in their friend group. He'd like to think it's just their friends being stupid but he can't deny the fact that Minho's absence from their past time activities due to his "job" has coincided with him distancing himself from Hyunjin. These days they can barely look each other in the eyes and the awkwardness of their interactions is overwhelming.

Of course their friends are oblivious to the change, as they've been oblivious to the silent complicity that was always there before. But nonetheless, Hyunjin is drowning. He's drowning because he feels like he's losing his best friend and because he's hopelessly in love with said friend.

Yeah, it took years but he's finally managed to piece together that friends don't feel about each other the way he feels about Minho. He sometimes wonders how he could have such clarity as a 4 year old and then somehow completely lose the plot for over a decade. It'd be funny if it wasn't so frustrating. He also wonders if somehow Minho sensed the shift that happened when Hyunjin came to terms with his feelings and that's why he started pulling back.

Or maybe it's just the job. Or maybe it's just a girlfriend.

Hyunjin turns around in his bed to find a side of the pillow that hasn't been soaked in tears yet.

25 minutes till midnight.

His friends left half an hour ago, after a pretty chill celebration with pizza and video games. It's all he wanted. This, and Minho. But Minho didn't come like he promised.

"I can't come earlier but I get off work at 9 so I can be there by 9:30." he said.

And now he's 23 minutes away from missing Hyunjin's birthday, for the first time ever. It really must be a girlfriend, Hyunjin thinks. He wouldn't miss his birthday for a freakin job so it's settled. Minho is in love with someone and that someone is not Hyunjin. The claw in his chest prods around demanding more tears but at this point Hyunjin's all cried out. He's cried out and exhausted and numb.

A knock on the door. Probably his mom making sure he's ok. She's sweet but he really can't deal with putting on a brave face for her right now.

"Go away! I'm sleeping!"

Another knock and the door opens slowly.

"You sound pretty awake to me."

Hyunjin feels a jolt of electricity as he jumps up from the bed.

"Minho..."

"Didn't think I'd miss your birthday, did you?"

He's using his soft voice, the one he only puts on when he's interacting with cats or when he's comforting Hyunjin.

"You did miss my birthday. Everyone's already gone."
There's little effort to disguise the disappointment in his tone.

"I'm so sorry, Hyunjin-ah! I really messed up, didn't I? Nothing went according to plan tonight but I swear I was gonna be here on time. It's just that the last delivery sent me in the middle of nowhere and then of course I got lost and on top of that my bike broke."