It Started With Something (Minsung + Hyunlix)

10. Minho

Minho jogs up the wooden stairs, not bothering to take off his bag, and knocked on his boss's office.

"Come in." He entered, nervously sitting on the chair across from the old man. 

"I was wandering if I could have the night of for a project I have to work on with this boy from my class." He said quickly. The other looked up at him with an annoyed face and sat back. He sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"You can, but you'll have to pick up a double job one-night next week, got it?" Minho nodded and stood, bowing. 

"I will." He left and raced down the stairs, eager to get the project done and over with. Exiting into the brisk air and pulling his phone out to call Jisung, he realized he didn't have his number.

"Shit!" He whispered, running back inside to find Hyunjin. He found the younger on his bed and ripped out his earphones.

"Hey-"

"Do you have Felix's number?" The long-haired looked at him suspiciously.

"Yes, why?"

"I need his friend Jisung's address for the math project." Hyunjin nodded and started calling the blonde.

"How did you know they were friends?" He inquired, questioning his friend's strange behavior as the device rang.

"It's pretty obvious when you see them at lunch." Minho replied as if it was obvious, rolling his eyes and plopping onto his bed to wait. The other soon started talking into the phone, his voice slightly higher in pitch and sweeter than when he spoke to anyone else.

Hyunjin pulled out a notepad, writing down whatever he was told and hanging up.

"Here's his address, and Felix is going to call him so that he knows your coming." Minho nodded and grabbed the paper, thanking him and leaving the building again, this time immediately starting down the footpath.

He didn't know exactly where the house was, but he'd worked on the street it was on multiple times in the past. It was a large home, painted white with fake grass cut to perfection out the front.

A small fountain with quietly running water sat there as well, surrounded by small stones. The roof was a dark grey, making the place look even more modern. Where the pavement below his feet was cracked, the pathways to the house were clean and neat.

The sky was still bright as he walked up to the door, knocking on the metal to signal his presence. Footsteps could be heard from inside and in a moment the door was opened, reveling a comfortably dressed Jisung.

He shyly smiled and moved out the way for the elder, who entered and slipped his shoes off.

"Sorry, everything's a bit of a mess, but I set up our workstation at the kitchen bench." He brought Minho through the lavish house into a marble kitchen, massive island in the center.

"Wow, your house is really nice." The elder admired the place, amazed. Jisung laughed embarrassed and sat down in front of his books and computer.

"Have a seat and we can get started." Minho did, pulling his own books out.

"Do you ever take notes?" The younger jokingly said when he opened to a page, the only writing being the date. The elder shrugged.

"Not really." He cleared his throat, glancing at all the cursive writing on the younger's books. "So, what do you know about the index law?" He started. Jisung stared at him dumbfounded.

"Everything. We learnt about them in year 7." Minho felt his cheeks heat up, feeling stupid. This was only his first year of school, everything he'd been taught was from older gang members over the years, and they just happened to leave out exactly what he needed right now.

"Oh." He sighed. "Then I doubt I'll be of any help." The younger looked at him quizzically.

"What do you mean? We have to work on this together, so we'll just divide the slides in half or something." He started bringing up a PowerPoint on his laptop. Minho quickly reached out a hand, grabbing his wrist and stopping him.

Jisung turned to him, gaze flicking to where his hand latched onto his wrist and back to the other's eyes. The elder let go, blushing but not breaking eye contact.

"I hate to admit it, but I know absolutely nothing about index laws." He glanced away at his empty notebook, reminded of the years of education he'd missed out on.

"Why?" The other inquired, wanting to know more. All he knew about this attractive stranger was that he was in a gang and rude on their first encounter. Minho's eyes didn't leave the blank pages. He wasn't sure if he should elaborate but couldn't think of a good enough lie.

"I was taken into the gang when I was 10, after years of living on the streets with Chan, Changbin and Hyunjin. Because of that, I only learnt what the older members of the gang taught me in their free time. They were nice, scary, but when you got used to them, they were secretly big softies." A small chuckled escaped his lips at the thought. 

"We were lucky to have them, and it was only this year that our boss sent us to school so we could graduate with a high school diploma." He turned back to Jisung, seeing a sympathetic look in his eyes.

"Sorry about all that, I wish I could help you, but for now I can just teach you index laws." He gave the other a small smile, standing and walking to a draw. He brought out a book as Minho watched, confused.

"Here, this is my book from years seven, when we learnt about them. We can go through it together." The elder gave him a happy smile, the other returning it as he sat down.

*~*

Minho bowed as he left the house, walking onto the footpath with a smile plastered on his face. They had spent the hours working on the project and hanging out, genuinely enjoying each other's company and getting to know each other.

It turns out, they had a lot of common interests, like cats and cheesecake.

It left the elder with warm feeling, something he hadn't felt before. Something the younger reflected equally, though he didn't know that.