Rental Boyfriend ; Meanie

Chapter 12

That evening, Wonwoo receives an ominous phone call from Mingyu.

“Hello?” Wonwoo says warily when he picks up the phone. Lately, Mingyu hasn’t had time to call him out of the blue. It must be something urgent.

Mingyu’s voice is a little muffled when he says, “Hey. We need to talk.”

Wonwoo’s stomach drops as his old insecurities resurface once again. “What do we need to talk about?” he asks hesitantly.

He’s convinced that it’s finally happening—Mingyu has finally gotten sick of Wonwoo and he’s decided that their long distance relationship isn’t worth suffering through any longer.

Mingyu just asks, “Where are you right now? Are you busy?”

“I’m in my apartment,” Wonwoo answers, his throat feeling tight. “Why? Does it matter? What’s wrong, Mingyu?”

“Open the door.”

Wonwoo’s heart leaps to his throat when he finds Mingyu waiting outside. It’s been so long since they last saw each other face to face that Wonwoo feels like he’s seeing a ghost. Mingyu looks achingly familiar, like nothing’s changed in the agonizing months they’ve spent apart. His skin tone is tanner from all the hours spent under the California sun, but his radiant boyish smile is still the same.

“God, I missed you,” Mingyu groans, pulling Wonwoo into his arms to kiss him.

Mingyu quickly realizes that something isn’t right. Wonwoo is silent as Mingyu rediscovers the curves of his mouth with his lips and tongue, and he stiffens to Mingyu’s touch when he slides his fingers into Wonwoo’s hair.

Wonwoo finally pushes Mingyu away and asks, “What did you want to talk about? Let’s just get this over with, please.”

He speaks tersely, but Mingyu can hear the hoarse desperation in his voice.

They sit down, and Mingyu links their fingers together. He can tell that Wonwoo’s mind is distracted and his heart’s a mess, so Mingyu squeezes Wonwoo’s hand gently in an effort to comfort him. Wonwoo’s hand remains limp, unresponsive in his grip, like there’s an awful, unbreachable barrier between them once again.

Wonwoo can’t bring himself to look him in the eye as MIngyu takes an excruciatingly long time to piece his words together. It’s like the most painful part of getting an injection—watching and waiting for the needle to be prepared.

Mingyu finally says, “You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo says in a small voice.

Mingyu sighs. “Yeah. I love you in a way I’ve never loved anyone else before. I mean that. You make everyone else I’ve ever loved irrelevant.”

“But?” Wonwoo whispers even more quietly.

Mingyu frowns and asks, “But what?”

“Isn’t there going to be a ‘but’ to that statement?”

“Why would there be?”

“You came all the way here, aren’t you going to tell me something….important?” Wonwoo is still bracing himself mentally for his heart to be crushed.

“I just came here to remind you that I love you so damn much, since you don’t seem to believe it when I tell you on the phone.”

“You came all the way here just to tell me that?” Wonwoo asks, his voice quiet with awe and disbelief.

“I don’t care what you do. I still love you, and I’ll never leave you. But as soon as you decide you don’t want me anymore….” Mingyu’s voice grows rough with pain. He finally finishes in a soft voice, “Please just tell me.”

“Wait, Mingyu, what are you talking about? I….haven’t done anything. Why would you think that I want to leave you?” Wonwoo is suddenly even more bewildered than before.

With some difficulty, Mingyu finally admits to catching Wonwoo on a date with a girl earlier that day. Wonwoo’s eyebrows scrunch together in confusion, and then his face loosens into a grin when he realizes what’s going on.

“Mingyu, that wasn’t a girl,” he chuckles. “That was Jeonghan.”

“Jeonghan? But Jeonghan’s hair is….”

“Black and short now. He had to cut it when he let Minghao blow dry his hair, which made it catch on fire.”

“Who would ever let Minghao use a blowdryer?” Mingyu says faintly, still reeling in disbelief.

“God, I’m so stupid,” Mingyu groans. “I’m so sorry. I’ve missed you so much and I’ve been so lonely that I just jumped to the worst conclusion again.”

Wonwoo tackles Mingyu with a hug and promises, “I’ll make you so unlonely that you’re going to regret ever saying that you were lonely.”

For a moment, Wonwoo and Mingyu just look at one another with new eyes before kissing each other with new lips.

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