rubiginous (adj.)
/rʊˈbɪdʒɪnəs/ rust-colored.
- - -
"you're so lame," minghao laughed for about the hundredth time that afternoon, covering his mouth to rid himself of giggles.
jun grinned. he found minghao's shyness endearing.
it was a few hours into their cheesy setup. the two had shifted from the cool setting of a park to a secluded but sweet coffee shop.
"yah, hyung. you're spilling your coffee everywhere!" jun says in between laughs, whilst minghao stops and begins to quickly apologize.
"ahh, i'm sorry! i'm so clumsy, really—"
"it's fine, breathe." minghao nods frantically, helping jun to clean up the small mess.
"where would you like to go afterwards?" jun asks, disposing of the dirtied napkins.
the question throws minghao off a bit. he doesn't want to sound rude and offer something. "umm, where did you want to go?" the librarian counters.
jun shrugs. "it doesn't matter to me where we go. as long as i'm with you~"
minghao flushes and playfully punches jun in the shoulder, getting a 'it's true!' in return.
it's kinda weird how close they are, when minghao really thinks about it. at first he thought of jun as a rushed, carefree jock (and he wasn't wrong, really), who would press all of the wrong buttons and simply exist for minghao's irritation. now, jun has opened up to actually be a genuine person, a sweet one at that, and someone minghao can feel safe around. regardless of him only being a student.
"aish, stop thinking." jun mumbles, snapping a few fingers in front of the librarian's face. "you look too cute."
this has minghao snapping out of it. "i'm not cute, you punk!" he huffs, setting his coffee down and crossing his arms. his lower lip juts out in a pout.
jun smirks, flicking minghao's forehead. the elder boy whines in protest.
"you are too! i don't lie."
"or do you?"
the two continued to bicker back and forth. it ended with jun pressing his hand over minghao's mouth in order to get him to shut up.
"waaaah, kinky." a voice suddenly spoke, causing both minghao and jun to leap out of their seats. there stood soonyoung, beaming with a hint of 'got ya, bitch' in his thin eyes. next to him was a short boy— really damn short— who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.
"soonyoung— go away! you scared me, dipshit."
soonyoung snickered, and minghao looked uncomfortable.
"jihoon," soonyoung gestured to the boy next to him. "this is the junhui i told you about. and his...friend, minghao." both boys gave short, awkward waves.
the librarian was flustered. as if he recognized the small boy.
jun would have to ask him about that later.
"nice to meet you," jihoon murmurs. his eyes keep skidding back to jun's date. it was bothering him, almost.
fuck, did he really just think that?
grabbing jihoon's hand, soonyoung smirked. "i'll leave you two to have fun. bye, junhui!" he said, in the most obviously fake way possible.
the way soonyoung said his name made the student want to punch him.
after they left, jun turned back to minghao, who was looking down at his coffee with thrumming fingers.
"hey," the student whispered, reaching out to pat the older boy's head. "don't worry about soonyoung, he's stupid like that."
minghao nods hesitantly, offering a smile that has jun's heart exploding. it came down though when he realized that minghao didn't look as calm as he wanted.
jun reaches out and holds the other boy's hand, to which minghao blushes. he didn't deserve all this affection. he was nothing but a low-paid librarian, who lived off of netflix and youtube's finest cat videos.
"cmon," jun hums, pressing a feather-soft kiss onto the older boy's knuckles. "let's get out of here before that jerk comes back, yeah?"
- - -
this is so underwhelming im sorry
-j
