Still Flowers For You [SeungJin]

Chapter 33

Minho was not cat-like in this instance because he actually looked apologetic.

"I'm sorry about not cleaning the fridge. I got caught up with a choreography idea that was eating my brain but I should have asked someone else to do." Minho held two puddings in his hand and Hyunjin saw them as the peace-offering they were.

Hyunjin shrugged. "I shouldn't have had something I didn't know its origin. Don't sweat it hyung...I already did."

They laughed and fortunately, these puddings he knew the origin of and he also knew the expiration date so they sat down to eat them; a rare treat.

"No flower arrangement today?" Minho asked looking around.

Hyunjin shrugged again. He does that a lot these day even when he actually has a detailed answer. It was more to say 'what would you know'. "I've moved on to writing my thoughts over flowers rather than the water flower arrangements. They were nice but messy."

"And your feelings aren't?"

Leave it to Minho to cut with the sharp truth. Hyunjin glared and the other apologised again but he didn't think this one came with an extra pudding.

"Anyway, I'm not doing that tonight. Already did it yesterday. I'll just paint today."

Now Minho looked cat-like as he grinned and stepped closer but only as much as he wanted to.

"Oh really? What are you going to paint?"

Hyunjin opened his mouth to reply that he was thinking about painting Anmyeondo's sea but Minho didn't let him get that far.

"Oh I know what you could paint! Me!"

Hyunjin sighed and cursed ever wanting to learn how to paint. Each of his friends demanded to be painted several times...but none of them (apart from Seungmin and Changbin) offered him any compensation. He wasn't a professional artist but he was sure that friendship was not a currency.

"No thanks. I want to paint the sea we saw on holiday." He politely declined already envisioning the whining and following headache.

"The sea? When you can paint me?" Minho gasped. Usually he wasn't big headed about his looks but he knew he was handsome. Clearly, Jisung and him weren't just SoftBoysTM adjacent...they had influenced each other terribly and grew big heads and egos.

"I prefer the sea." In his head, he was there for a minute, seeing all the colours and textures and then he started to plan on how to bring them to life with the materials he had and the techniques he had learned. Maybe he'll search some more to learn something new. That would be exciting; a great highlight and a great distraction from – something he should not think about.

"Oh come on! You would totally try to get with me if I was single! How can you prefer the sea over me?" Okay, someone clearly was too influenced by Jisung. That sounded totally like something Jisung would blurt out.

"Please. I have so many better options than you." Not that he would consider them but he knew he had them if he wanted and there were many more that would open up if only he was actually interested. Besides, he'd consider Changbin hyung before Minho...but not any of the others. Sorry not sorry. 안 미안해서 미안해.

"I'm basically Seungmin! You should totally consider me hypothetically. I'm savage but sweet!" Minho said, trying to make a case for himself. He was probably taking it too personally; it's not like Minho actually wanted him to be interested. But it was nice to be wanted and didn't Hyunjin know that!

"No, sorry hyung. I know my standards and you're not it." He said clearly. He had to learn to be clear in his words, not only with Seungmin especially during play but to turn down assholes and make sure that they couldn't get out of it. No more 'oh sorry, didn't realise you were saying no' excuses. Practicing with Minho was safe.