Past Me was a Fool (2min)

Strawberry shortcake

"Oh, young sir, welcome back."

Seungmin whipped around to see Mr. Kim, the head cook, tying his apron as he stopped before the door to the pantry. The younger tipped his head as an acknowledgment before asking if the cook is starting on dinner now.

"Yes, I will cook western dishes for this evening main course. Do you have any request for desserts, young sir?" the cook chuckled, gesturing with his now free hand towards Seungmin holding the refrigerator open halfway as if he was caught red-handed stealing chocolate in the middle of the night.

Sheepishly closing the refrigerator, Seungmin flashed a wide toothy grin, "I bought some fresh mangoes, I'd like some bingsu with them, please. I'll be washing up in the meantime, excuse me."

Reaching his room, Seungmin sighed, shoulders sagging and body leaning against the closed door. After a short moment of blankly staring into space, he decided to have a warm bath with a milk scented bath bomb like his best friend had suggested him to have.

"You'll get to unwind that way anyway," Hyunjin had commented breezily before shutting the taxi door close.

Was it twenty minutes? Or probably forty five minutes later that he finally emerged from the bathroom, clad in fresh night clothes and dried fluffy hair styled the neatest he could manage. He almost forgot about dinner, planning to lie down and sleep since he has morning classes tomorrow, if it were not for the knocks on the door. Small but there.

Weird, Seungmin turned away from the bed to pad towards the door. Wonwoo would usually call out to him whenever he came up to get him. Without much thought, he opened the door, and felt himself halt everything except for the blinking of his eyes.

Did he fall asleep in the bathtub? Is he actually deep in slumber at the moment?

"Come down and eat."

Seungmin blinked again, lips stayed parted but not uttering any words. That indeed sounded so real, very much belonged to Minho and spoken by Minho himself. The older said nothing more and went ahead towards the direction of the stairs, highly likely feeling Seungmin's blatant, bewildered stare but did not spare him another glance.

Which is a good thing because Seungmin thinks he is exploding. Minho called him for dinner! His husband walked all the way from the lower floor, spending effort and time going up each steps and covering the distance in the hallway leading to his bedroom, to call him for dinner and not one of the Lee's employees doing that instead!

Yeah, Seungmin might as well be having a fever from how unusually warm his face feels at the moment. Oh god.

He recalled the head cook mentioning about western dinner but what greeted Seungmin first is the unmistakable scent of korean stew as he padded towards the dining hall. He was proven right when he saw the familiar pot of kimchi stew in the center of the table, along with side dishes that are also nothing close to western.

His mango bingsu is there though, but that is the last thing on his mind at the moment. His favourite dish is in front of his eyes!

"Seungmin-ssi," Minho's voice once again snapped him back to the present. "Get seated."

"Ah sorry," rubbing his neck in embarrassment, Seungmin then quickly took his usual seat, which happens to be in front of Minho.

The dinner went smooth, no words exchanged amongst the sipping of soup and munching of food. Seungmin was glad for the non-awkward silence because he was able to enjoy the food while still aware of last night's incident. He can assume Minho shares a similar sentiment, if the little things he did, like passing him a napkin and making sure his water is refilled even when he did not ask for assistance, were anything to go by.

Only when they are on desserts that Seungmin gathered his courage to speak his mind, voice small but steady, "Can we do this once in a while?"

It can be interpreted in more ways than one but Minho knows what he meant. Although the brief pause the older took still increases his nervousness. Then comes the reply, "Maybe."

Maybe. It was not a yes, but it was not a rejection either. So Seungmin bit down a smile and hid it by taking a sip from his water. He can hope, right?

After he bid Minho good night, earning one back, Seungmin happily skipped to his bed right after he closed his own door. He picked up his phone to chat his best friend and was caught off guard when he saw a lot of messages from Hyunjin.

JJinie

< SEUNGMINIE
< A STRANGER ASKED ME ABOUT YOU
< SHOULD I BLOCK THE NUMBER

< OH wait wait wait
< He said he's Lee Minho's assistant
< WHYS UOUR HUSBANDS PA TXTING ME
< HOWD HE GET MT NUMBER
< SHIT HE KNOWS IM IGNORING HIM

< Why is this guy asking your fav food
< IS HE TRYING TO GET IN BETTWN YOU
AND TUR HUSBAND!?!
< HES SPAMMING ME
< HEY SEUNGMINIE BABY WHERE R U

< Oh whatever hes annoying im telling him
< FINALLY SOME PEACE AND QUIET

< Wait are you dead did he poison your food
< DID I KILL MY OWN BESTFRIWD

The last text was sent barely ten minutes ago while the rest seemed to be around two hours ago, during his bath. Seungmin did not know what to feel but his heart decided it wants to jump out of his ribcage. He should tame down the wilding expectation, shouldn't he?

On Tuesday evening, Seungmin realised he should have.

His day had been filled with classes back to back with less than an hour break until his last class which ended at five-thirty. It was worse today with one of his professor spending one period to 'scold' the entire class for a few person's low grade on the past assignment.

The exhaustion caught up to him the moment he leaned back against the seat of the taxi after informing his destination to the driver. Clutching his bag and a small sized box closer to his stomach, Seungmin decided to rest his eyes until he arrived. He hoped the maids and butlers would not interact with him too much considering his low self restrain on being polite for the day.

But, he would take Mrs. Yoon fussing over him or Wonwoo reprimanding him of self care, over this.

This, being his brother and his husband walking down the steps together, all formally and elegantly dressed up to go somewhere. Minho is wearing a long, maroon dress with diamonds decorating the curve of his waist, and lightly curled hair resting just on his exposed shoulders. He looks lovely.

Seungmin wanted to be mature, he really does. But he can't school his expression.

There has been an increasing amount of articles and news covering the official construction for the Lee's first own hotel with the Bang's as the main investor, ever since yesterday. Seungmin could understand the need to attend an official banquet for the opening ceremony because Chan was expected to bring his wife due to the major involvement. And he could understand, be willing to understand, if Minho attend it tonight as Lee Minho, the representative of the Lee's company.

Not as Chan's wife.

"Move. We're gonna be late for our dinner," Chan tried his best to sneer at a minimum, Seungmin guessed. Well, he doesn't care if his brother is trying to bully him in front of Minho.

What he cares about is the fact that his husband is going out for dinner with a man that is not him, the second consecutive time, and he is doing it without hesitation. Unlike how Minho gave him a vague answer.

"Maybe."

It was not a 'no', but it was never a yes either.

Locking his eyes at nothing in particular in front of him, Seungmin felt the faint brush of Minho's hand as the older walked past him towards the main door. Seungmin refused to let his eyes wander to the two, shallow crescents denting the brown box in his hands and bottom lip trembling in between his teeth.

He should have let Hyunjin have the strawberry shortcake.

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A/N

I swear I'm not planning on making this depressing :)