【Ａｓｐｈｙｘｉａ】 seongjoong

Healing

Yunho turned and spotted himself in the mirror. He jumped out of it with a soft patter of his shoes. He slid and extended his arms like a swimmer before bringing his feet back together. He brought his body up and then down, isolating his chest movements. There was some fancy foot movement before he finished the whole combination with a running slid on his knees. He paused to catch his breath when he heard some clapping from behind. He turned his head to spot Mingi standing in the doorway showing his appreciation with a bag under his arm.

"Wow," the brunette said in appreciation. "I've never seen you dance before. You're amazing."

"Thanks, but it really wasn't anything. I was just practicing a move I was struggling with in practice." Yunho panted. He stood up from the floor, his hair was sticking to his forehead from sweat. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"I knew where you went to school so I just asked around to find the studio." The brunette shrugged. "I finished up at work. I figured I'd stop by and bring you lunch." Mingi reached underneath his arm and pulled out the paper bag.

Yunho stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide. "You didn't."

"I did!" The brunette said, looking oddly proud of himself.

"Mingi," the blonde hissed. "You can't bring that here."

The brunette furrowed his brow. "I can't bring a sandwich?"

At the realization it wasn't what he thought it was, he exhaled in relief. Then he adopted a confused expression. "I appreciate the gesture, but you know I can't eat that right?"

"Why not? You ate that pizza that one time." Yunho frowned.

"Mingi," the blonde started slowly. "I was pretending. If I ate that, I would have to throw it up."

The brunette was hit with a flash of Yunho hunched over the sink in the bathroom. At first, he thought he had eaten something bad or that he was struggling with food. In retrospect, it all made sense now. He should have connected the dots beforehand.

"I physically can't eat what you eat. I don't want you to think of me as something that I'm not." Yunho said quietly. "I-I thought you understood that..."

Mingi's gut clenched and he started to panic. "No! No, I do!" He reached out and grabbed the other's hands.

"Look, if I'm going to be...involved... with you, we can't pretend. As much as I want to put what you know back in a box,  we can't. Not that you already know." The blonde's eyes were solemn but serious.

"I just thought it was a nice gesture." Mingi defended.

"No-no, it was." Yunho sighed. He really didn't want this to turn into something. "Let's just forget about the sandwich. There is a park nearby here, c'mon, let's go take a walk."

Mingi didn't verbally answer. Instead he nodded defeated. He tossed the sandwich in the trash can, untouched, as Yunho ran and grabbed his stuff. Once he was packed up, the blonde jogged to meet the other. Together they headed outside into the crisp air.

True to Yunho's word, there was a small playground near his dance studio. It was still early enough that kids were either in school or eating lunch. Placing his stuff on the bench, the blonde looked at the other.

"Race you?" He challenged with a raised eyebrow.

Not one to back down to a challenge, Mingi ran and started to chase the other. Yunho took off, using his long legs to try and get the advantage. The blond took off towards the steps of the playground. He easily hopped up onto the platform but with the brunette behind him, he grabbed the pole and slid down. Well, it was more like jumping down since his legs were so long they nearly touched the ground on their own.