Roll for Initiative

Fireworks

They get a conversation going quite easily, which is a little perplexing, but also very pleasant. It's mostly just small-talk. Minho rants about some customers that come to the café regularly and all their weird habits and special orders that he has memorised by now. Chan mostly listens and throws in a comment every once in a while when he recognises someone based on Minho's descriptions. For example, there is this one girl that Chan thinks he went to school with, though he was never particularly close with her, that Minho holds some kind of a grudge against. Apparently she's very insistent on only drinking her milk tea with soy milk or whatever because she's vegan.

"But then she goes and sweetens that stuff with honey. Like, is that even allowed? I'm pretty sure that honey isn't vegan cause the damn bees make it, you know. Where is here stupid attitude about saving the planet when it comes to saving the bees? Am I the only one who thinks that there is something wrong with that? Either commit all the way or stop bothering me about soy milk."

"Sounds irritating", Chan hums. Most of the time he's not quite sure what to reply when Minho goes on a tangent like that. But it doesn't really seem like Minho expects much of a reply to his story, he just wants to share and Chan is very much content with just listening.

It's a rather mild night, no longer burning with the summer heat of the day, but also not really cold. Minho has the fluffy jacket open, one sleeve sliding off his shoulder, almost hanging down onto his elbow. The sky is mostly clear of clouds and the many stars are bright and visible, the moon almost completely full. Occasionally a strong gust of wind blows cold air that tastes like fresh sea salt and summer into their faces, but it doesn't bother them much. They are walking slowly, talking quietly. In the distance, Chan can already spot the lights from the festival and he is about to raise his arm to point them out to Minho when the other boy has already stopped in his tracks. He's going up on his tiptoes a little, eyes squinted together as if that could actually help him see better. But apparently he manages to make out what he has been looking for because when he turns around to face Chan his whole face seems to be shining with excitement.

"Are those lights from the festival? We must be getting close then. Wow, I'm getting really excited now, I feel like a child, I haven't been to one of these festival thingies in ages!"

He also looks a little bit like a child, with the way his eyes are sparkling. He's slightly bouncing up and down on his heels, as if he is giddy, longing to walk there as fast as he can and just throw himself right into the action. A pang of affection in Chan's chest hits him like a bullet to the heart.

"God, you're so cute." He doesn't really notice that he must have whispered it instead of just keeping it inside his head when Minho, who had turned his eyes back at the lights to stare at them longingly turns back to him. Visibly confused.

"Huh? Did you say something?"

"Ah, nothing", Chan quickly shakes his head, Minho doesn't seem fully convinced though. There is a crease on his forehead from knitting his eyebrows together as if he is pondering a tough problem in a math test. "We should get going", Chan quickly adds to distract Minho from however much of his accidental confession he actually understood. Minho looks at him for another moment, seemingly lost in thought, his lips are slightly parted, opening as if to take a deep breath, but then closing again. As if there is something he wants to say but doesn't. In the end, he just shrugs.

"Yeah, let's go."

There is an awkward moment when Chan thinks that Minho is going to reach for his hand but then he just kind of swings his arm around and begins walking. Chan grabs into thin air. Nothing to hold onto. Then he follows Minho.

They haven't even been there for a whole five minutes, barely enough time to start discussing what they want to do first and what food to try in what order, when they run into Jisung, Felix and Changbin. Felix is looking uncharacteristically grumpy, he's holding onto Jisung's hand but doesn't seem fully happy with his current situation. He has the expression of a young boy who got forced to go grocery shopping with his mother and is currently getting dragged around the store by her. Expression sour because he has already asked for a popsicle that he is not getting because there's still candy at home. Jisung has a similarly irritated expression though. With Changbin, who's trailing a little bit behind the duo, it's hard to tell whether he is also pissed at something or if that's just his normal look.