lilacs & lotuses | seungkwan x oc x key |

十四

Alongside Seungkwan, Mingyu also froze, darting his eyes subtly between Kibum and his friend, observing for any uncomfortable facial expressions.

Coughing to ease the silence, Mingyu continued, which he later learned to regret not keeping quiet.

"Black short hair with the underside dyed grey? The one wearing the leather blazer? That was Lee Minhui?"

The other nodded, glancing towards Seungkwan who was currently staring at him with wide eyes, unblinking. Kibum was very flustered, not meeting anyone's eyes and attempting to push down the sudden flush of heat that had rose to his cheeks.

"C-cute? Minhui is not cute, she's just a friend, actually I'm not even sure we could be considered friends yet."

After Kibum's comment, Mingyu awkwardly coughed to break the momentary silence.

"So, uhm.. Kibum where do you live?"

For the next couple minutes, the mood of the conversation changed, seemingly having become a lot more tense and cautious. The three men started to overthink their answers and questions, which led to constant pauses and uncomfortable glances. Seungkwan rarely contributed, more or less just sitting, staring down at his green tea latte with an expressionless face.

"Sorry both of you, I've got a pile of assignments I need to mark and seem to have overstayed my welcome so I'll get going." Getting up with a smile on his face, Kibum held out his hand to the two of them, shaking both and taking his leave. As soon as he was out of ears range, Seungkwan let out a breathe he didn't know he'd been holding.

"I'm sorry for mentioning Minhui." Mingyu instantly apologized, turning to Seungkwan who's expression was still blank, scaring the other man slightly.

Taking a few more deep breaths, he turned to face the taller man, patting his shoulder.

"It's not like you knew it was her, I can't blame you."

Seungkwan's mood was ruined for the next couple hours. Contradictory to what he had told Mingyu, he was irritated. Yes, he knew that his friend had no intention to hurt him and couldn't put him in the wrong, but did that person have to be Minhui? Maybe Seungkwan was blaming God instead, what a cruel joke.

In all honesty, he wasn't quite sure why he was feeling like this. Placing all the blame on his old feelings for her, Seungkwan ignored all the other possibilities. Of course he'd feel a little annoyed at his friend calling his long-term high school crush 'cute'. Right?

Kibum was still tinted pink as he speed-walked out of the cafe. Attempting to play off his sudden departure as not wanting to intrude too much on the two, he left, iced Americano in one hand, the other fist clenched.

The man had experienced his fair share of relationships, most of them ending due to losing interest a couple months after the 'love at first sight ' experience which seemed to be happening a lot less nowadays, not that he was complaining. Ruffling up his blonde bangs, he sighed, checking the time on his phone. An hour had passed since he left, meaning it was time to get back to the stack of papers lying messily on his desk. Groaning, the man heaved himself back up and begrudgingly began his way back towards the campus.

Kibum's mood that day was ever changing. One moment he was silent with his head buried in work, and the next, there would be a sweet smile upon his face - yet not even a minute later he would be sighing and muttering incoherent complaints. Minho, who was seeing all of this looked at his friend as if he was crazy or had lost his mind. Deciding to leave the interrogation to later, he left the office, shooting the clueless Kibum a pitiful look before exiting. About half an hour later, the blonde began packing up his things, shoving the pens back into the pot to his left and stacking the scattered paper neatly into a pile in the corner of his desk for him to come back to tomorrow. It was about 5'oclock when he left the room, ready to spend a few hours of freedom before heading back to his apartment and to work on the other pile of paper he had waiting for him at home. At times Kibum asked himself what had possessed him when he had the sudden urge to want to become a teaching assistant.