Work Text:
the first smile
“I’m gonna do it,” Jisung announced, jogging in place for over five minutes now. “I’m gonna talk to him.”
Minho rolled his eyes, not even bothering to look up from the textbook he’s reading under the shade of the narra tree. “You said that ten times already. Cut me some slack, Jisung. You’re not going to do it.”
Jisung only huffed in response. He looked over to where Chan was sitting cross legged, a few feet away from where Minho was, eyes pleading the older to give him support. Chan only shrugged and resumed with typing his report. “I’m going to have to side with Minho.”
Jisung stopped jogging and stood his ground, fists clenched on both sides. “I can’t believe you don’t have faith in me!”
“Maybe if you actually did it instead of telling us that you’re going to do it,” Minho snapped, finally tearing his eyes away from his textbook to give Jisung a pointed look. Jisung grimaced which caused Chan to laugh.
He huffed once again and mumbled a few things before walking away. Chan stopped typing at the same time Minho closed his textbook, both looking at Jisung. Their younger friend had attempted to go over to the other side of the university oval for ten times now to talk to Kim Seungmin, a fellow sophomore of his that he’s been crushing on ever since they became groupmates for a History project. During those ten times, before Jisung could even reach the conversation radius, he’d chicken out and run back towards where Chan and Minho were situated.
“You think he’s going to do it this time?” he heard Minho ask.
Chan looked over to him. Minho’s eyes lit up with amusement, clearly excited from watching Jisung attempt to do something. The corner of his lips turned up to a familiar smile, the first one Chan ever saw from him. It was the smile Minho would have whenever he finds something funny, or just remotely thinking of something just as so. He was very familiar with it because when he first met Minho, he was wearing that smile.
First day of freshman year and Chan was running late for his first class. To be fair, he had no idea about how their university campus was mapped out so naturally he would get lost one way or another. It took him ten minutes after the start of his first class for him to arrive at the lecture hall. When he entered, he rambled a lot of apologies to his lecturer and did his best to ignore the curious stares when he made his way to find a seat. He found one near the right aisle but just before he can go there, his foot got stuck on someone’s bag on the floor and tripped on the floor.
He was pretty sure he blushed a deep red as his face made contact on the floor. He could hear the class trying to stifle their laughter and that made him even more embarrassed. Hastily, he picked himself up and gathered a few of the things that spilled from his bag. He sat on the vacant chair carefully, the crimson on his cheeks still not fading away.
He could still hear a soft laugh beside him. When he turned to look at the source, the guy was already looking at him with the corner of lips turned up as little giggles escaped his mouth. Chan caught the glint of amusement in his eyes and he blushed even more furiously, quickly looking away.
“That’s a nice first impression,” the guy whispered sometime during the middle of the lecture. The lecturer was droning about classroom rules for thirty minutes now and the class was getting visibly bored.
Chan let out a nervous chuckle, trying to act cool. “I try to be funny.”
“You were funny, though,” the guy said, nudging him softly on the shoulder. Chan turned to look at him again only to meet the guy’s eyes again. “I’m Minho, by the way.”
He formed his own smile. “Chan.”
Chan shook his head at the fond memory and turned to look at Jisung, just in time to catch him tripping right in front of Seungmin and his friends.
Minho burst into laughter and Chan followed suit. Thankfully, the grass was soft, and Jisung quickly got up which meant that he didn’t seriously hurt himself anywhere. He felt a little guilty laughing at his friend, but at the same time he couldn’t help himself. He caught Minho’s eye while their own laughters shared the moment and he saw that smile again, reminding him of his own clumsiness when they first met.
When Jisung came back to their spot after profusely apologizing to Seungmin for startling them like that, both Chan and Minho have recovered from their session and proceeded to tease the younger.
“You did it, you exceeded my expectations,” Minho began, putting on a mocking voice.
“Shut up,” Jisung hissed, plopping down beside Chan. “At least I did something, even after ten tries and losing my last shred of dignity. What about you?”
Before Chan could register what Jisung said, Minho hit the younger on the head with his textbook continuously until Jisung pleaded with him to stop and promised to not say anything about it. Chan just laughed throughout the entire situation, pulling off a smile that was just the same as the one he was admiring a while ago.
the second smile
“I hate derivatives,” Minho muttered under his breath. He just finished the fourth out of ten problems from their take home worksheet while Chan was already finishing up his solutions for the ninth. “I don’t like this. Not one bit.”
Chan only laughed softly at that. They took sanctuary in the Math library while waiting for their next class and Chan insisted that they already do their homework so they wouldn’t have to think about it when they go home. “It is kind of hard,” he said in support.
Minho glanced at Chan’s worksheet and groaned. “How can you do those so fast? I suck at this.”
Chan didn’t believe that. Minho was actually smarter, way smarter than he gives himself credit for—he was just naturally lazy. He spends five minutes on one item: four minutes to complain and one minute to answer it with barely any difficulty. He pointed this out and Minho only pouted.
“Hey,” Chan suggested. “Once we finish this early, we can grab some food to eat during Physics, how’s that?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, but you have to finish that fast.”
Minho sighed and grudgingly picked up his pen again. “Ugh, it’s a trigonometric identity!” he complained when he saw the next item. Nevertheless, he proceeded to answer it smoothly which caused Chan to smile. Minho didn’t complain after that, just silently answering every item. Chan finished first, and while Minho was still solving derivatives, he kept checking if their answers were the same. Thankfully, they were, and Chan allowed himself to think that the answers they got were right. If they were wrong, then at least he’s not alone.
In the middle of answering the eighth item, Minho paused and laid back on his chair, eyes cast up the ceiling.
“Why’d you stop? You’re almost there!”
Minho shrugged, still looking at the ceiling. “Small break,” he replied. There was a pause, and then, “Ah, I remembered Jisung’s fiasco yesterday. And then we had to buy stir fried noodles near the Physics Institute to cheer him up. Those tasted divine, don’t you think? Let’s get some before going to second period. Oh, the oyster sauce and the peanuts and…”
Minho kept trailing about the sauces and toppings and how they all match and taste while still looking up, and Chan saw another smile again. It was the smile Minho had whenever he’s lost in a daydream. Chan would laugh at the context of Minho’s daydream, the focus and main point being the stir-fried noodles they had with Jisung yesterday, but he was too distracted by how the said smile—that smile that a street food caused—looked so solemn and sweet on Minho.
He’s seen this one quite a lot during class, whenever he looks over to Minho. They have the same course so they share most of their classes, and it was already a given between them that they would sit beside each other during those. When the lecture or discussion is getting boring, he would catch Minho staring in front, looking at the whiteboard and the professor with a soft smile, but Chan knew better. He knew that something else was on Minho’s mind, and he often masks his daydreaming with that smile. It was always random things. Minho would tell him about them after every class. The new outfit he got for himself, the song he heard from the radio that he wanted to dance along to, a new gift for his cats, and all those sorts.
Minho, after finishing his speech about the greatness of the noodles, finally diverted his gaze away from the ceiling and looked at Chan with a different smile. Chan felt a blush creeping on his cheeks with the way Minho looked at him.
“You’re looking at me like a stir-fried noodle.”
Minho’s first smile appeared. “Am I?”
Chan only scowled and told him to finish his homework, to which Minho did. After that, they still had twenty minutes before their next class, and they finally got their stir-fried noodles out of Minho’s daydream and into their hands.
the third smile
Jisung was staring at someone again.
“Who is it this time?” Minho asked. Wednesdays were the only days where Chan, Minho and Jisung’s vacant time during noon matches, so they habitually have their lunch at the campus’ food area. Chan followed the younger’s gaze to find someone approaching their table.
He recognized the guy as Seo Changbin, a fellow junior of his and Minho’s, just in a different course. Chan shares one class with him this semester, though he believed Minho shares three with him.
He realized he was right when Minho’s eyes lit up when he saw Changbin approaching them. “Binnie!”
Jisung, who was drinking his juice, choked on his own drink. Chan unconsciously frowned. Since when did Seo Changbin become Binnie to Minho? He could see Jisung trying to catch his eyes from his peripheral vision but he blatantly ignored him, picking on the heaps of vegetables on his plate instead.
He could hear Minho and Changbin engaging in a conversation, and for some reason his stomach dropped while hearing how comfortable Minho sounded talking to Changbin. He could hear snippets of what they’re talking about—their Geology presentation, apparently—but only snippets because he was too busy processing why he suddenly lost his appetite. He gave up and finally conceded to looking at Jisung who looked happy to entertain him with a conversation of their own.
They talked about Seungmin, trying to drown out the other conversation that was happening just near them. He was grateful for Jisung for coming up with topics to talk about, even though most of them were about pining over his crush. Jisung became an addition to his and Minho’s friend group through an organization managed by people from their own course. Jisung needed upperclassmen to help him with his application and he befriended Minho and Chan easily. After that, they became friends.
Which was why Jisung, even though he doesn’t tell them, knew Minho and Chan just as easily as they knew him. Chan figured that Jisung thought of distracting Chan from Minho and Changbin’s conversation. Even though he lost his appetite, he was still grateful to keep him entertained and not sulky. Why was he even sulky in the first place? Why did he lose this appetite? And how did Jisung know this?
He shook away these thoughts as soon as Changbin left the table, Minho following him with his gaze. Chan observed the smile that was on his best friend’s face. He knew this smile as well. It was the smile mirroring Minho’s satisfaction with something. He’s seen this whenever Minho finishes a choreography, or Minho just thinks the food is great. He’s also witnessed this when they get their academic papers back and Minho admires the high score written in red ink on his paper.
When he turned to look back at Chan and Jisung, he still had that smile. He looked satisfied, as if he successfully accomplished a plan on his head. His smile grew even wider when his eyes landed on Chan, who was subconsciously scowling again, the conversation with Jisung fading away in the air.
“Isn’t Changbin nice?” Minho pointed out. “He’s also really sweet.”
There was a tone of hidden intention with Minho’s words. Chan would dwell on it, but he was too busy thinking about Minho calling Changbin nice and sweet. He didn’t even know Changbin very well to judge him already but his mouth suddenly tasted sour when he came across that name. Jisung cleared his throat and opened up a new topic. “So anyway! Seungmin was…”
Chan, still in a bitter mood for who knows why, did his best to prevent his own eyes from rolling. Jisung just had to talk about Seungmin every chance he got. He was whipped , and he’s not doing anything about it. Seungmin was single. Seungmin also gives Jisung the attention his friend couldn’t see because he’s too caught up with thinking about his own embarrassment. Seungmin looked at Jisung with endearing interest. Seungmin was interested at Jisung, Chan confirmed that when Jisung tripped in front of him and the guy kept reassuring him that it’s okay while looking at him fondly. Jisung stands a chance with Seungmin. Besides, Seungmin didn’t have a close friend that Jisung would be jealous about that Seungmin is very comfortable and flirty with, even having a ridiculous nickname for him such as “Binnie”.
Chan stopped his own train of thoughts. While Jisung was still talking about why Seungmin was the best person in the world, he realized something. He was just like Jisung. He was whipped .
He was whipped for the guy smiling—why is he always smiling?!—across him, feigning interest with what Jisung was saying, still having that smug look on his face from when he was talking with Changbin. Chan’s heart sank. It was Minho’s smile of satisfaction, of victory. And that Binnie guy, whoever he may be to Minho, caused it.
He did his best to not look at Minho, not wanting to dwell upon the new realisations he had and listened to Jisung. The word “jealousy” was hanging over his mind and he couldn’t brush it away, causing him to silently scowl at himself. He’ll deal with this later. He did not want, and he would not allow himself to think of the reason why Minho, even when Changbin already left, still had triumph written all over his face.
the fourth smile
“I know what he’s doing,” Jisung hissed. The younger was in a bad mood because his binder got lost somewhere around the campus and he couldn’t find it, so he brought his dreary aura with him until the afternoon.
They decided to hang out that afternoon back at the university oval again, at the same spot under the shade of the same narra tree. Jisung was the one sitting with his back against the trunk, Chan still a few feet away from him sitting cross legged, and Minho was standing up, his earphones plugged in while he’s dancing to some songs on his phone.
It took a while for Chan to notice that Jisung was looking at Minho. Ever since his realisations a while ago at lunch, he couldn’t help but think about his best friend within every waking moment. Even just by seeing Minho dancing from the periphery of his vision and Chan was already blushing like crazy, he knew he’d give himself away if he looked directly at him. He didn’t follow Jisung suit and just asked, “What about him?”
Jisung looked at him incredulously. “I can’t stand the both of you.”
Chan furrowed his eyebrows. “I did nothing.”
“Exactly!” Jisung exclaimed, raising his arms up in the air. He must’ve seen something—or someone—because his face suddenly lit up, completely reversing his mood from before.
Chan tried to follow his gaze, spotting someone. “I can’t see Seungmin.”
Jisung let out another huff. “You know, I’m not always looking for Seungmin. Anyway, I have an idea. Remember how I told you that I have a guy from one of my classes that I think you would get along with each other because you’re both from Australia?”
Chan did recall Jisung saying that. “Yeah,” he replied after nodding.
Jisung beamed at him before turning back to where he was looking before. He cupped mouth with his hands and yelled a name. “Felix!” he called.
Apparently, the guy Jisung was looking at was a guy around Jisung’s age who was walking by the oval with a novel on his hand. When he turned his head up to look at Jisung, Chan did notice the features that made the guy—Felix—stand out. He saw the all too familiar Australian features he always saw back there and he couldn’t help but smile at the warmth of the memories suddenly flooding back in his mind. Felix smiled and waved at Jisung before making his way towards them.
“Hey Ji!” Felix greeted, and Chan was slightly surprised with how deep his voice sounded.
“Hey Lix! This is Chan hyung,” Jisung pointed to Chan who, out of courtesy, stood up to so Felix didn’t have to sit down on the grass. “He’s the one I told you about. He’s also from Australia!”
Felix looked at Chan with awe, and Chan felt a little bit shy with the way Felix was looking at him. “You’re from Australia too?” He asked.
Chan nodded, beaming. It was nice to talk to someone from his hometown. He made a mental note to thank Jisung later. “Yup! Aussie and proud!”
Felix clasped his hands in delight, and Chan thought it was cute. “That’s so cool!”
Talking to Felix was nice. It was like Chan was back in Australia again. During their entire conversation, they revisited their home country and shared a few experiences. Jisung would occasionally butt in the conversation to provide a side comment and the three of them would just share some laughs, clearly having a good time.
While Jisung was at the topic of asking about koalas, he was suddenly interrupted.
“Who’s this?”
They all turned to look at Minho who just pocketed his earphones and phone, forehead creased as he scanned the situation. Chan did the honor of introducing him to Felix.
“Felix, this is Minho, our friend. Min, this is Felix, he’s also from Australia. Can you believe it?”
Chan expected Minho to beam at the thought, at least, but all Minho did was purse his lips and smile. Chan’s own smile faltered a bit at that. He knew that smile. It was the smile Minho would force out of politeness, even though he did’t want to. He looked at Felix to see the freckled boy smiling widely and genuinely at Minho, Chan silently thanking that he couldn’t see through his best friend. Minho used that smile whenever he’s on the phone with his “annoying” roommate, or when a professor he didn’t like was talking to him. Chan couldn’t understand why Minho was giving Felix that smile when Felix radiated nice and sweet energy.
“Nice to meet you,” Minho said, as if he carefully thought out how to say those words.
Felix beamed. “Nice to meet you too!” He then checked his wristwatch and pouted. “Ah, I have to go! I still have an appointment with my doctor,”
“That’s too bad,” Minho muttered monotonously in a soft voice, probably thinking no one would hear it. Chan did, and he gave Minho a brief glance before turning back to Felix.
“It was really nice talking to you Felix,” he said, and he meant it. Their conversation was a breath of relief from his thoughts that were starting to creep back in again. Felix returned the statement and they bid their greetings before the other Australian went on his way.
“Well!” Jisung squeaked with unusual enthusiasm. “Wasn’t he cute?”
Chan nodded. “He was,” he said, because it was true. The guy was cute.
Minho only shrugged, that forced smile still on his face. He proceeded to sit on the grass and Chan did the same, still wondering why Minho pulled that smile out of all the smiles he had. When Chan turned to look at Jisung, the younger was grinning from ear to ear, his smile the complete opposite of Minho’s.
the fifth smile
“Jisung?”
They all froze in their tracks. It was a Thursday and they all had some org stuff to do, so the three of them decided to go to the clubroom together. What they didn’t expect was to hear Seungmin’s voice on their way there.
They all turned around to find the source of the voice and lo and behold, there was Seungmin who was chasing breath. It looked like he was running after them, hoping to catch up. Both Chan and Minho turned to look at Jisung whose cheeks were now the brightest shade of crimson.
“H- hey,” the younger stuttered.
Seungmin glanced at Minho and Chan for a while, probably debating if he should continue whatever he was planning with them around, and before either of them could do a thing, Seungmin just shook his head and spoke up. “I—“ he quickly pulled something from his backpack. Chan only realized that it was Jisung’s missing binder from yesterday.
Chan initially thought that Jisung couldn’t get any redder, but he was proven wrong when his friend’s eyes landed on the binder. He followed his gaze and his own eyes widened.
His idiot of a friend doodled Seungmin’s name at the cover of his binder. Next to his nametag, of course.
Minho caught Chan’s eye, and they both took a few steps back to give Seungmin and Jisung some space.
Jisung awkwardly took the binder from Seungmin and squeaked out a weak “thanks”. Chan, no matter how much he loved his dear friend, was getting secondhand embarrassment with the situation.
“That binder was pretty hard to find,” Seungmin said, surprising the three of them.
Jisung voiced out their thoughts. “You looked for it?”
Seungmin placed his hands on his pocket. “Yeah, well, I saw you at the oval trying to look for it yesterday. You probably had all your notes there so I decided to find it as well. It took quite a while but I managed to find it at the College of Arts’ library.”
Chan’s eyes widened at that. The College of Arts was a long, long walk from the oval. Ignoring the thought of Jisung being stupid enough to leave it there, he thought of Seungmin going through that length just to retrieve Jisung’s binder.
“Thank you,” Jisung said softly. “I- I know that’s not enough, considering how much you had to go through just to find it. I don’t know how to make it up to you.”
Seungmin only smiled. “You can. Ask me out on a date.”
Jisung dropped his binder, spilling everything inside. He muttered a lot of apologies as he picked up every item with Seungmin giggling and reassuring him it’s okay, helping him with doing so.
Chan smiled. Finally, he thought. He turned to look at Minho and he saw another smile of his. It was the smile Minho had whenever he saw something heartwarming—may it be a cute scene from a movie, or just stray cats letting Minho pet them. Chan loved this smile of Minho. It was just something that came naturally from him. It was the smile that would come from him during the simplest of moments, and that smile would make everything extraordinary.
Yup, he’s pretty sure he’s whipped.
“Hey,” he called over gently to Minho. His friend looked at him, smile turning into something even sweeter that Chan could barely recognize because he was too lost in Minho’s eyes which seemed to sparkle with endearment. “Let’s head to the clubroom first.”
Minho let out a soft giggle and nodded in agreement, turning their backs on the scene and continued to go on their way. He caught a brief glance of Minho’s smile before looking straight ahead, too caught up with figuring his own smile to think about the other’s.
the sixth smile
“I don’t know!” Jisung yelled for the umpteenth time after trying out the same shirt again. He invited Minho and Chan over—or rather, sneaked them inside—to their dorms after classes this Friday to help him pick an outfit for his date with Seungmin.
“I told you,” Minho told him. “It looks good on you. And Seungmin saw you trip in front of him. You could wear a banana costume and he wouldn’t care, so long as you two are still on for the date.”
Jisung groaned before settling with his decision to wear the shirt. He sat down on the stool in front of the mirror and let Chan do his hair. Minho started to hum a random song.
“Oh god,” Jisung moaned. “I’m nervous.”
“You’ll be fine,” Chan reassured. “Now stay still and let me work on your hair.”
Jisung did his best to stop fidgeting. Chan wanted to scold him for not staying still, but he looked genuinely nervous that he just did his best to work with him. “Say something. Anything. Distract me.”
Chan laughed and tried to steady Jisung’s shaking shoulders. “I can’t do that. I have to focus on your hair to make you look even more irresistible.”
Jisung cringed through the reflection of the mirror. On the other hand, Minho, who was sitting on Jisung’s bed scrolling through his phone, chuckled. “I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll do the talking. What do you want me to talk about?”
“Anything!” Chan had to steady him again on his seat.
Minho pocketed his phone and took a minute or two to think, before finally speaking. “I watched this movie—it was really amazing. Mostly because it had cats, and it reminded me of my own. Which reminds me, I have to facetime my parents soon. I think I’ll do it tomorrow, I really missed them. I heard they got a new karaoke set, they kept boasting about it to me. My roommate’s getting irritated, but fuck him.”
Chan laughed softly. It marveled him how Minho could jump from one topic to another. While his friend was talking, he checked Jisung at the mirror, and he could see the younger intently listening to Minho with a small smile. It seemed like Minho talking about anything calmed Jisung’s nerves.
Or maybe it was just really something about Minho. Every time he’s talking about things that he love, people that he love, his pets, his dancing, or just something he really cares about, he would talk about them in a way that would reach out to you. With simple words he would be able to capture your heart. Maybe it was the softness that lingers after every word, or the evident affection that laces his tone. For Chan, as per usual, it was the smile.
Lee Minho’s sixth smile. It was the smile he’d show when he’s talking about such things, and it was the smile that really makes him stand out. It wasn’t the biggest smile nor was it the cheekiest. It wasn’t also the simplest, though. It was just Minho’s.
When he looked at the mirror to see Minho, the smile was there, and Chan couldn’t stop himself from forming one as well.
He knew all of Lee Minho’s six smiles. Even when, to an ordinary person, they all look the same, Chan still knew how to distinguish all of them. Probably because he spent a lot of time with Minho. Probably because he pays attention to his friend. Probably because he always admires the said smiles all the time.
Probably because he loves every single one of them, and the person wearing them.
Before Minho could meet his gaze through the mirror, Chan went back to styling Jisung’s hair in a quiff. After a few minutes, with Jisung listening intently to Minho’s background voice as Chan transforms his hair, they’re finally done. Jisung stood up, excused himself, screamed inside his dorm room to release his nerves, and then they were good to go.
It took them a few more minutes for Jisung to be able to sneak Minho and Chan outside the dorm room. They both wished him luck and Chan engulfed the both of them into a group hug, careful not to ruin Jisung’s hair. They bid the younger goodbye as they went separate ways; Jisung on the way to his date with Seungmin, and Minho and Chan on the way back to their dormitories.
“They came through, huh,” Chan said as they walked together under the now darkening sky with nightfall about to arrive.
“Yeah,” Minho agreed. “They did.”
For the rest of the walk, they were silent. Chan’s heart was pounding fast in his chest. Every time he had the urge to look at Minho, he’d hold himself back. They stayed like that until Chan had to go first when they reached his dormitory. Minho walked with Chan up until the entrance.
“So,” he trailed, avoiding Chan’s eyes. Chan wasn’t sure if he caught Minho blushing, but he couldn’t verify because it was starting to get dark.
“You should go before it becomes completely dark,” Chan said. Even though he didn’t want Minho to go yet, he also didn’t want him walking alone at night. Now, he’s pretty sure he was the one blushing and he silently thanked the engulfing darkness around them for hiding it.
“Sleep well tonight Channie,” Minho bid as he started to walk away.
“You too, Min.” Chan said to his retreating figure. Before he could stop himself, he added, “Dream of me!”
He heard Minho laugh from the distance. The other boy turned his head back to look at Chan, a smile on his lips. Chan was taken aback for a while. This smile wasn’t like the other smiles. He listed the six smiles he was already familiar with and none of them matched this.
“I will,” Minho said before turning around and walking away.
Chan stood there on the doorstep of his dormitory, the ghost of Lee Minho’s seventh smile still lingering in the air and in his memory.
the seventh smile
“That sounds great,” Chan told Jisung over the phone.
It was a blazing Saturday. Usually, it was during these times where Chan would sulk inside his dorm room, envious of his roommate who goes home every week. Today, he was too bothered to even think about that. He dreamed about the seventh smile he saw last night, and even after he woke up, it was still an image he couldn’t take off.
Which was why he called Jisung and asked him about how his and Seungmin’s date went. He needed to distract his own thoughts and thankfully, Jisung was willing to entertain.
“Thanks!” he could practically imagine Jisung beaming. “I can’t believe I’m actually dating Seungmin!”
Chan chuckled. “I’m happy for you.”
“What about you? When will you and Minho hyung start dating?”
The question caught Chan off guard. So much for distractions. Looks like he really couldn’t run away from it.
“Oh, come on!” Jisung whined when Chan took too long to answer. “I’m tired of this! I’m tired for the both of you! You’re both pining over each other! The feelings were clear from the start, you two are just stubborn.”
Chan didn’t even bother to deny that he, indeed, had feelings for Minho. “He doesn’t like me like that,” he said, and before Jisung could retort, he added with a bitter tone, “he has that Binnie dude.”
He heard a string of curses from the other end of the line. “You’re dense. So, so dense. Is it that thing last Wednesday? When Changbin hyung came over? Hyung, he was obviously trying to make you jealous! Didn’t you see the smirk he had on his face afterwards? It’s because it worked! Why did you think I let you and Felix talk the next day after? I helped you get back at him! Did you see how forced his smile was?” Jisung groaned. “I can’t stand the both of you.”
Chan was silent while Jisung ranted about how stupid the both of them were. That’s when everything clicked. And Chan agreed with Jisung, he was stupid.
He was stupid to not see the smile that followed after every other smile. The smile after every funny moment, as if Minho meant to share it with Chan. The smile after daydreaming, as if Chan reminds him of reality. The smile after triumph, like he looks for Chan after receiving good news. The smile after every forced one so that he may show a genuine one again. The smile after a heartwarming moment as if including Chan in it. The smile after talking about the things he loves, as if Minho is opening them up to Chan.
Lee Minho had seven smiles. And the seventh one was just right in front of Bang Chan all along.
“Hyung? Hello? Are you still listening?!”
He almost forgot about Jisung. “You’re right Ji,” he said as he stood up from the bed, picking up his coat. “I was stupid. But I won’t be anymore.”
“What—“
“I have to go, I’ll talk to you later.” Before Jisung could even respond, he ended the call. Giving one last glance at himself in the mirror, he put his phone in his pocket, his heart on his sleeve, and he made his way out.
You see, Chan’s plan was to do some romantic gesture by calling Minho down from his dorm room window and confess his feelings, but it turns out that he didn’t have to do it because halfway near the said building, he already found Minho walking on the street as well.
Both of them looked surprised to see each other, meeting in the middle of the distance between their dormitories. Chan observed Minho who was staring right back at him. Perhaps they were both walking with the same purpose, and there was only one way to find out.
“Minho,” Chan started. Minho didn’t respond but instead pursed his lips, allowing Chan to talk first. “You have seven smiles.”
Minho looked confused. Chan took a step forward before continuing.
“One when you find something funny,”
Chan took another step closer.
“One when you’re daydreaming,”
He took another step. Instead of being cautious, Minho relaxed.
“One mirroring your satisfaction with something,”
Chan expected to be nervous with every step he’s taking, but to his surprise, he didn’t feel so.
“One forced out of politeness,”
Minho cocked his head to the side, giving Chan a curious gaze.
“One the aftermath of a heartwarming moment,”
Minho shrugged at that, and Chan could already see a smile forming.
“One when you talk about your family, friends, and things you cherish,”
This time, Chan was less than a feet away from Minho, closer than they were a few moments ago.
“And one when you look at me.”
Minho’s lips finally formed to make the seventh smile. Under the daylight, Chan could see the faint pink on Minho’s cheeks that he’s pretty sure he had too. Minho carefully placed his hands on either side of Chan’s face and smiled even wider. “It took you long enough.”
They both laughed at that. Chan’s hands found their place on Minho’s waist as their foreheads touched, still filling the gap between them with their soft laughter. In that moment, they had their answer. In that moment, they’re finally together the way they wanted to be.
With the smile still on his face, Minho breathed, “You know, these lips can also do other things than smile.”
Minho didn’t need to tell him twice. Chan leaned forward at the same time as Minho, and when they both met in the middle, sealing the gap between their lips from where the ghost of their smiles and laughter had been, everything felt right.
He should’ve known the moment he started paying attention to every single smile that Minho showed that he loved the person who wore them. But at least, right now, he was already in the moment with the person who wore them.
And during the kiss, he felt the corners of Minho’s lips turn up against his.
Chan knew that was the seventh smile, and out of all them, it was his favorite.