Stee(a)l heart [2Min] (Shortfic/Completed)

2

It took Seungmin longer than expected to get bored of him.

Then why did it hurt so much?

Probably because Seungmin, without knowing, made him understand a lot about himself.

He was innocent in a way that wasn't common for his age yet way too mature at times. He often struggled against his own prejudices, it was hard to put aside your education, but he was also incredibly open-minded and tolerant.

They never matched to start with. They were too different. He should have known and he almost expected it.

To be fair, their relationship didn’t set off out of love, but out of curiosity. It was bound to run into a wall.

Seungmin and Minho started as distant friends. They were drastically different and rarely interacted one on one at first. They didn’t have to, nothing really bound them together. Their only common points were their interest in Day6 and their overlapping friend circle. To be honest, they bickered more than they properly talked.

It was an unconventional friendship, true, but they were good friends regardless and to Seungmin, their banter felt more affectionate than anything. He enjoyed the intellectual debates they ended up in, just for the sake of contradicting each other. Minho was smart, smarter than most people expected him to be. He had a singular view of the world and peculiar reasoning. He managed to surprise him every single time with the most unexpected arguments. It was never boring and Seungmin was enthralled by his unusual way of thinking.

Seungmin was so captivated by Minho’s unbothered weirdness he made it a point to solve by himself the puzzle no one seemed strong enough to see the end of.

“Hyung, go on a date with me,” he suddenly asked one day, right after their friends left them alone for the first time in a while.
“What are you on Seungmo, did you eat hallucinogenic mushrooms for lunch?”
Seungmin ignored the baffled gaze he received in reply and laughed, unbothered. “I am asking you to go on a date with me.”
“Why?”
“I’m interested in you.”
Minho stared at him without saying a word as if he were trying to understand a complicated physics formula. “I don’t understand how that would make you ask me out.”
“I want to try it out? See how it goes.”
“You mean like fake dating? I heard it’s trendy.” Seungmin shook his head amused. “A practice? Do you need that for a class? Some social experiment or something?”
“No. A real date, with you and me,” Seungmin clarified with a smile, expecting more questions.
“You don’t even know anything about me.”
“That’s what dates are for, getting to know each other. And I want to know more about you.”
“You’re weird.”
“So are you. But I think that’s a good thing. You’re different.”
“I hear that often but people rarely use it as a compliment.”
Seungmin laughed loudly, and Minho felt oddly proud for causing it. “I won’t lie and say I can’t tell why. But I think it's interesting.”
Minho nodded without answering the question.
“It’s okay if you don't feel the same, no pressure. I wanted to try. I'm not asking you anything you don’t want but if you want, I'd be glad to invite you for good a meal. No pressure, just a little talk, on me of course.”
“Bold of you to think you can pressure me.”
Who was Minho to refuse a free meal with a cute boy?
“Are you sure?”
“Never been sure-er!”
Minho seemed almost frozen if not for his repeated blinks. “Okay.”

Just like that, they started to be ‘more than friends’. They never talked further about any officialisation, but it’s not something they ever needed.

The following dates were filled with more bickering and weird humour, but they worked in their own way. Their daily dates went from spending long hours together in front of a movie with a few words exchanged to home-dinner with discussion worth a debate competition. It was surprising for many people, but they found peace in each other’s company.

They were far from the lovey-dovey couples filling every tv show, but they matched. They were incredibly domestic in their own way and they made it work. They were happy, that way. Or so he thought.

He might have been the only one to think so.
What an irony, for someone who rarely had feelings for anyone.