nope; junhao [ discontinued ]

thirty four

"hey, babe."

junhui slid in an empty space next to minghao and the others at the table stared at the two in shock. jihoon choked on his drink and seungkwan was there to rub his back as he continuously coughed.

minghao looked with wide eyes at jihoon and reached over to rub his back. "are you okay?"

jihoon held up his finger as if to say wait a minute, then his coughs slowly subsided and he looked over at minghao and raised his finger to point at junhui. "when was this?"

"um," minghao started, looking over at junhui. "last wednesday, after school. during play rehearsals."

"ah," chan said, mouth full, pointing at minghao with chopsticks that still had tiny bits of pork and sauce on them, "that's why you went missing."

junhui looked at chan with wide eyes and shook his head as everyone at the table looked at him. "no, no, no! it wasn't like that! minghao was trying to apologize and when i was trying to leave i broke the door handle."

jeonghan snickered softly and minghao sent him a look, as if to say shut the fuck up, it's not that funny. he continued to smile softly before saying, "what? it's funny."

"shut up," minghao said, moving his salad around in the container. he watched as hansol got more touchy-feely with seungkwan, and the latter didn't notice it. then he saw jihoon trying to drown mingyu with a gigantic water bottle (probably for making fun of his height, like always) and wonwoo trying to pull the plastic bottle out of jihoon's grasp.

yep. these are his friends.

---

junhui skipped his way to the gym for practice and minghao just rolled his eyes as he walked behind him. they had changed in the restrooms beforehand, which resulted in junhui giving minghao multiple compliments on his body.

jun threw the door open and smiled as he saw the polished floors and the school logo in the middle of the court.

"do you need to stretch?" minghao asked. 'because i already did." he grabbed the elder's bag and set it on the bleachers close to his.

"i did. you wanna do a one-on-one until everybody else gets here?"

"sure."

a few minutes later, junhui had gotten the ball cart out of the supply room, which was unlocked, thank god, and minghao was dribbling a practice ball. jun hurriedly got the ball from him and sprinted down the court to shoot in the goal, making the shot.

"that's not fair!" minghao yelled, voice and thoughts slipping back to mandarin, for some reason that happens a lot when he yells. "you didn't even dribble!"

"we didn't set up any rules, so," jun retorted, going after the ball and retrieving it before walking back to center court where minghao was.

the younger stuck his tongue out and snatched the ball out of his hands and dribbled it down the court, making sure to show off his skills and made a backboard shot.

"now that's what you call playing by the rules," he said, catching the ball as it fell out of the net.

"reach-in foul."

"shut up."

they continued to go at it until the score was tied at 22-22. minghao smiled and said, "last point wins the game." he passed the ball to him since it went out earlier.

"i've got this," junhui said. he began to dribble up the court towards his goal.

minghao caught up to him and stood in front of him to guard the boy. "are you sure about that?" he asked, smirking at the boy. "because i wouldn't be so sure, daddy."

junhui stopped dribbling, in shock of the particularly lewd word minghao had said, and held the ball before beginning to bounce it again, before minghao stole it away and bolted down the court, yelling out "you double dribbled!", before effortlessly shooting it through the hoop and smiling.

"well, we have another ten minutes before the rest of the team gets here," minghao started, "so what do you wanna do?"

"i have something in mind," junhui said before holding minghao's hand and pulling him to the locker rooms.