Roll for Initiative

Beginner's Luck

"So you two are like... officiallya thing now?", Jisung asks, the door not even completelyopened. Minho is standing half behind Chan, until just a moment agothey were holding hands but Chan slipped his hand out of Minho's holdto ring the doorbell. Well, of course, he could have also used hisfree hand. But he thought that by covering up the obvious he couldavoid questions for at least a little bit longer. Maybe he was stupidto assume so.

"Hell yes we are", Minhoreplies for him. And with Chan and Jisung being equally stunned bythat response he squeezes past both of them and inside. Chan andJisung exchange a look, Jisung with his eyebrows raised and Chandoing the vague I don't know man gesture.Then he follows inside.

Even though heshould be used to it by now it feels weird to enter through the shopwhen it's actually closed. Of course, there is a backdoor that leadsstraight to the upstairs apartment that Jisung's parents keeptelling them to use, but Jisung never bothers with that and by nowChan has also become used to it. But it's still odd to look at theplace when it's actually locked down. The chairs put up on the tablesto make swiping the floor easier, the nice glass display on thecounter that is usually filled with a variety of baked goodscompletely empty. Only the faints smell of coffee is still noticeable.No matter how much airing out Jisung's mother does, it's probablyimpossible to get it out completely. But at least it's a pleasantsmell. Minho is standing in the middle of the room, spinning aroundhis own axis without leaving the spot, like the little figure of adancer in a music box. The light flooding in through one window ishitting him like a spotlight on a stage and as so often Chan findshimself mesmerized with the beauty of boy that he can now call hisboyfriend. It still feels insane just thinking that.

"Wow, being inhere for something other than work feels so weird. Like I'm breakingin or something", Minho exclaims from where he is standing.Jisung laughs.

"Yeah, that'skinda along the lines of what everyone visiting me for the first timesays. Usually, they just don't work here. But it's crazy that you'venever been upstairs despite hanging out here every day, isn't it?"

"I'm nothanging out, I'm working for your parents", Minho corrects.Jisung shrugs his shoulders.

"Basically thesame thing", he muses. He's followed Minho into the centre ofthe room, leaving Chan awkwardly standing in the doorway by himself.With nothing else to do he steps inside and closes the door behindhim. Making sure it's locking. Because he's sure that Jisung won'tdouble-check that himself. Also, that gives him just a moment longerto try and compose himself. This whole situation feels like it's justwaiting to spiral out of control. Minho – Chan's now boyfriend oflike not even a full day – and all of his friends, in one room.Playing Smash. This is the perfect setup for disaster. And of courseit was Felix's idea.

Thetext came around midnight. Minho and he were still out on the beach,huddled together on their little blanket. The bonfire still cracklingand burning in the distance, but the flames had begun to shrink overthe past hour or so. Not that either of them had been particularlypaying attention to that. Since that first kiss, they had only takenbreaks from touching each other to breathe or to talk. At first, justshort pauses, filled with rushed words and deep inhaling. Comecloser, kiss me again, don't you dare stop. Butwith time passing their little breathing breaks started to turn intoactual conversations. Exchanging stories and meaningless littleanecdotes. Information and fun fact that Chan soaked up like a sponge.Minho's favourite colour is mint, his favourite season is autumn,he's a Scorpio, he likes mint chocolate ice cream but prefersstrawberry. They talk comfortably for a while. And what at first waspauses from kissing for talking turns into pausing their talking forsmall pecks on each other's lips. Chaste kisses. Innocent and sweetlike summer.

Andthen Chan's phone started to buzz with probably twenty incoming textsat once. Minho hat peaked at his phone while Chan angrily tried toturn off the sounds and must have read some of the texts on hisdisplay. An invite to join tomorrow's Smash Session, split up intoseveral short messages. Because Felix never bothers with one coherenttext. And of course, he had to add that bring Minho along ifyou get lucky tonight in theresomewhere. And despite all of the messages being in English and Minhoprobably not having the best grasp of that language he must haveunderstood that one. Which brings them to where they are right now.In an empty café, waiting for Jisung to guide them upstairs.