Flower Bromance | Kihyuk MONSTA X

Chapter 28

Everything was different. The trees seemed taller, the water darker, the air felt heavier to breathe too. Minhyuk didn't recall the forest to be like this, it used to be so much more peaceful somehow. Was this really the right place? His determined steps refused to slow down despite the doubt growing in his chest.

Crossing the exactly same river as years before, a sense of nostalgia hit the rushed boy. Even though things felt different, they were not. Everything was really the same. It was the same but different. He realised it really was as he found himself standing in front of the same buskage as so many times before. It was the place.

Minhyuk cleared his throat very deescretly and proceeded to confront the person he had searched for all along who he would chase to the end of the world. "It's okay. It wasn't your fault, Kihyun. You don't have to be sorry for anything." Taking a deep breath, he continued with his heart in his throat. "I know you didn't mean to lie and turn away from us all. You did it because you didn't want to hurt anyone. Right?" The words seemed so familiar but those were the only words his lips could let out.

"Yes..." A trembling honey-like voice whispered from the bushes and Minhyuk knew, it was him. Normally, he would've told Kihyun to come out to him and he would embrace him as after every each of their arguments but this time, he didn't. Instead, he walked behind the bushes and just as expected, he found Kihyun sitting there with his face buried in his knees that were pressed against his chest with his short, slightly chubby arms wrapped around them. He sobbed silently and tried to hide even more, feeling Minhyuk's tall shadow casting over him. Normally, he would've been embraced by his arms and he would cry into his shoulder. But that didn't happen.

"Are you okay?" Minhyuk surprisingly asked with a comforting tone as he sat down beside Kihyun who refused to look up. "It's funny because we always end up this way, don't we?" He chuckled sadly. "It doesn't matter what just happened, Kihyun. Nothing will change us. You and me."

Kihyun glanced up at his friend from behind his dark bangs, waiting for the rest he had to say if there was more.
"No matter how many times we might misunderstand each other. It has always been like that and it won't change, right?" Minhyuk said, tilting his head in Kihyun's direction.
"You know I will always find you."

Nodding slowly, the crooked boy beside him straightened his position. "I know."

"Good. Do you want to go back now? I mean, to town." Minhyuk asked and grinned, making small wrinkles fold around his eyes. His slender hand reached for Kihyuns that automatically did the same. He squeezed it tightly and felt as if they merged together.
"Yes. Let's go to the playground." Kihyun agreed and rose from where he sat, pulling Minyuk up on his legs as well.

The two started walking along the narrow path leading home. They remained silent throughout the whole walk but it didn't feel awkward at all to neither of them. Maybe that was what it was like being best friends for that long. The road seemed so much shorter this time and it didn't take that many minutes for the trees to become more and more distant from each other until none could be seen and only the familiar houses were surrounding them. Only seconds remained until they once again found themselves in the empty playground where they had grown up together. It held a lot of memories.

Minhyuk could see how the sun was already setting in the horizon as he squinted his eyes towards the sky. Letting go of Kihyun's hand, he took his usual spot on the wooden table where he freely laid down on his back, not meeting his friends glance who did the same thing. Arm to arm, they laid there, not speaking a single word. The silence hit Kihyun hard. He actually couldn't bear with it. What was he even doing? After everything Minhyuk had done for him, all he had done was to turn his back. He only kept on running away, hiding his feelings. His sadness, bothers, happiness...Why would he just be quiet?
Kihyun twisted where he lied on the hard table, making his spine ache a bit. He then inhaled deeply as he collected himself enough to tilt his head to Minhyuk's side, studying him from the side. His rounded nose tip, flat cheeks, thin lips, the face Kihyun had seen so many times and even though he never said it, he loved his face. Every little feature. But he was too scared of admitting it. Minhyuk was beautiful without trying. He was the most beautiful person, laying beside Kihyun.

"Minhyuk?" He got no answer. "Hey! Listen to me-"
"What is it?" Minhyuk mumbled, staring up at the clear, darkening sky.
Kihyun pinched the taller one and pouted the way he did when annoyed. "Look at me when I talk to you. I've...been thinking a lot." He started, talking fairly slowly as if he had a hard time understanding himself.
"What did you think about?" Minhyuk jokingly asked, chuckling a little bit.
Kihyun rolled his eyes and tried radiating some kind of seriousness.

"I really appreciate you. I hope you know that. You always stick up for me and defend me even though it's not very obvious all the time...It's really,  really kind of you, Minhyuk."
"Is that really Yoo Kihyun speaking? What are you trying to say?" The suspicious boy next to him questioned, pushing back his long bangs.

Kihyun massaged his temples in frustration, provoked by Minhyuk's edgy way of answering and the fact that he couldn't say what he wanted to say properly. "The last weeks, months...I'm not keeping track- has been very confusing. I don't know what I was thinking at all dating Wonho like that. Do you think it was dumb?"

Minhyuk made a disgusted expression. "Yeah, totally. Just as dumb as him." He blurted out, facing Kihyun who just brushed the last off with ease.

"You're right. I don't think I ever loved him. Not like that. Maybe I just wanted to be loved and feel special in a different way and thought that anything goes. It's stupid really." Kihyun continued to ramble, still getting nowhere which made Minhyuk impatient.
"I already knew you were stupid though."

The boy who never seemed to shut up, just pouring out all of his thought at the moment did not stop. He adjusted the round glasses that he had been wearing the whole day to win some time in order to figure how to say whatever came next. "Well, you said you wanted to know how I feel, right? I thought so much, Minhyuk. Really, I couldn't stop thinking. I thought until I had an answer and I understood at last."

Minhyuk swallowed as he patiently waited for Kihyun's final answer that he had been stretching on for so long now. Was this just the start of rejection? But he wouldn't be upset regardless. He would just cry for the rest of his life if Kihyun didn't like him back. Or was he even talking about that? Kihyun's melodic voice interrupted his messy thoughts once again and it felt like his heart was beating in his throat.

"I understood that I am already loved. I was pretending to love someone just because they liked me but it didn't matter because I didn't love them. After all this time, I realised that I don't have to even turn around to find love. Someone who loves me for real. Someone who always did so." Kihyun scooted even closer to Minhyuk's face that they were only centimeters apart. Too close but too far. "You. You, Minhyuk. You always loved me. You loved me even when I was cold and mean and I finally know now that...I- I love you too." He bit his lip as he let the heavy words slip through his mouth and waited for Minhyuk to say something. Anything. But he didn't. "Aren't you gonna say something?"

Minhyuk just locked eyes with Kihyun's narrow ones that stared with confusion at him, just like a lost fox. He brushed the black-haired one before him's bangs aside without saying a word. He then placed a kiss on Kihyun's forehead and smiled.

"It took you that long."