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Before We Got Here

Chapter 103: C2-3 Lunchtime on a Sunday

Summary:

Seungkwan and Mingyu are out to get some lunch when the latter decides to hide behind a tree. Seungkwan gets a call from Soonyoung asking for help identifying the mystery man his boyfriend is talking with.

// mentions of homophobia!

Notes:

idk what this summary is, lol. I guess this chapter isn't super relevant to the overall story?? (or at least not Seungkwan's story), but I wanted to include this so...

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

It was the Sunday after Seungkwan’s date with Bin. Mingyu just had his museum date with Minghao the day before. The weather was nice and they had decided to take a walk and pick up some food for lunch together. Seungkwan was just saying how he wasn’t in the mood for anything spicy when Mingyu suddenly grabbed him and pulled him behind a tree.

“Mingyu, what the f—”

“Shh!” Mingyu hissed. He cautiously peeked around the trunk of the tree. When Seungkwan tried to do the same he ducked down and dragged him down.

“Kim Mingyu, I swear to any and all gods if you don’t let me go and tell me what’s going on right now I will—”

“It’s Minghao,” Mingyu whispered.

“So? What about him?”

“He’s right there.”

“And? Didn’t you say you had a good time at the museum together?”

“Did you forget the part where I told you the end of the date?”

“That you didn’t kiss? So?”

“We haven’t communicated at all since last night. I don’t think he liked the date as much as I did…”

“You’re getting way into your head. Come on, let’s just say hello.”

“But what will I say?”

Seungkwan sighed loudly, “You’re giving me high school flashbacks, do you know that?” He jumped up and got out from behind the tree. He spotted Minghao walking a few meters away. “Minghao!” he yelled out and walked over.

Startled by the sudden sound of his name the other man turned around. He smiled when he saw who it was. “Hey, Seungkwan. What’s up?”

“Not much. Me and Mingyu ,” he said emphasizing his best friend’s name so he’d feel compelled to reveal himself, “were just out to grab some lunch. How about you?”

“Oh, I’m just going to go to the art supply store to buy a few things.” Minghao looked at Mingyu with a soft smile. “After our date yesterday I suddenly felt like painting.”

“Wonderful,” Seungkwan said and he placed a hand on the small of Mingyu’s back so he could nudge him forward. “Mingyu, haven’t you been saying that you want to try drawing more? You should go with him so you can pick up a sketch book or something.”

“I, eh, wouldn’t want to impose.”

“I’d like the company, actually,” Minghao replied and looked at Mingyu with such soft eyes that Seungkwan doubted he hadn’t enjoyed their date.

“But what about lunch—” Mingyu started but let out a yelp when Seungkwan roughly pushed him in Minghao’s direction. 

“Don’t worry about that. I don’t feel like eating with you anyway. I’ll see you later.”

Without further protest Mingyu went with Minghao and Seungkwan watched them talk as they walked away. He sighed. He didn’t actually want to have lunch by himself. He contemplated contacting Bin, but they had already agreed to meet on Wednesday and he didn’t want to come across as pushy. He figured he could try one of his other friends. And as if it was fate his screen lit up with Soonyoung’s ID. He answered. “Hey.”

“Yeah , that’s nice, Seungkwan. Can you come over here please?”

“Ehm, what’s going on? Are you okay? And where is here exactly?”

“I’m outside the coffeehouse. I wanted to surprise Minnie by coming over and wanted to pick up some of those cookies I know he likes that you guys have, but when I got here I saw him sitting outside on a bench. With another man. I don’t know this man.”

“Why don’t you just go up to them? It’s probably just a classmate or something.”

“They don’t have a classmate vibe. They look all serious and I just—The reason I’m not going up there is because I don’t want to be all jealous boyfriend.”

"Well you're doing an excellent job of that right now."

“Kwannie, please. Wait I’ll send you a pic.”

A few frustrated grunts later the call got disconnected. Seungkwan knew Soonyoung often had trouble figuring out electronics and he already started walking in the direction of The Grind. He sent his friend a message telling him to calm down and wait there. He found Soonyoung squatting behind a tree not unlike Mingyu had done earlier and Seungkwan wondered why everybody was acting crazy today.

“Thank you for coming. Now can you please look over there and tell me that I’m making things up in my head.” He pointed over to where Seokmin was engaged in a conversation with someone Seungkwan recognized immediately. 

“That’s weird. Why is Jaehyun here?” he wondered out loud.

"Jaehyun!?” Soonyoung exclaimed. “Jaehyun as in his first boyfriend Jaehyun!? The one he lost his virginity to Jaehyun!?"

“Eh…” Seungkwan stammered and squatted down next to his freaked out friend. He watched Seokmin’s face as he talked to his ex.“This certainly brings back memories from when me and Mingyu semi-stalked them on their first date,” he said without thinking and Soonyoung groaned. “Ah...sorry. That’s not a story you’d want to hear.”

“Why would he meet with him and not tell me?” Soonyoung cried. He hugged the tree.

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly fine explanation. Do you really think he’d take him here if he wanted to keep it a secret? They’re out in the open just ta—”

As he said it they watched Seokmin reach out and place his hand on top of Jaehyun’s. Soonyoung stood up. “That’s it. I’m going over there. Come with me.”

Somewhat reluctantly Seungkwan followed. Seokmin spotted them before they reached them. He looked surprised, but not in a way that suggested he felt like he was caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to.

“Hey, what are you guys doing here?” he asked.

“Well, I was planning to surprise you by coming over.”

“That’s so sweet. Oh, this is—”

“Your ex-boyfriend Jaehyun. Yeah, I know. Seungkwan told me.” Soonyoung puffed out his chest while Seungkwan greeted his old teammate with an awkward smile and nod of the head.

“Okay...Ehm, so...can you give us a minute?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m happy to see you, but we’re kind of—”

“Kind of what? You’re asking me to leave so you can hold hands with your ex some more?”

“What? We weren’t holding hands.” 

“I saw you. Just now. You were holding his hand.”

“I’m sorry,” Jaehyun interrupted. “I don’t know what you think you saw but we weren’t holding hands. I’m just here because I needed to tell him something and that was hard for me. He was just comforting me. That’s all. Really.”

“What did you have to tell him?”

“Soon...That’s private,” Seokmin said looking between the two men.

“Min— Seokmin, it’s okay. You can tell them. I’ll leave. I’ve said all I wanted to say anyway. Thank you for meeting me today.”

“Jae, you don’t have to—” Seokmin tried, but his ex had already gotten up.

Jaehyun looked at Soonyoung like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. He turned to Seungkwan instead. “Seungkwan, nice to see you. Maybe I’ll see you at a high school reunion or something one day.”

“Eh, yeah…” Seungkwan replied, not sure if it was actually nice to see him (and the idea of a high school reunion wasn’t exactly great either). He had liked Jaehyun up to the point where he dumped one of his best friends out of the blue and seeing him here now was weird.

Seungkwan sat down next to Seokmin, but Soonyoung remained standing. His arms crossed and his expression a kind of angrer mixed with insecurity.

“So…” Seungkwan said seeing as Soonyoung didn’t say anything. “What did he want?”

“He suddenly contacted me a few days ago asking if I had time to talk with him. He was kind of vague, said it had something to do with high school. It sounded like he really needed to talk so I agreed to meet him here.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? That you were going to meet with him?” Soonyoung asked before Soekmin could continue.

“I—” Seokmin cast his eyes down, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was a big deal. It’s not like I still have feelings for him or anything. I also told him beforehand that I have a boyfriend. I was just meeting him as a...as a friend.”

“So what did he want?” Seungkwan repeated. “It didn’t look like a happy conversation to be honest.”

Seokmin let out a deep sigh. “It wasn’t. He wanted to apologize for the way he broke up with me and explain why it was so sudden. I don’t know if we ever told you about Taesung?” he asked in the direction of his boyfriend. “He was a homophobic bully and one time Mingyu got in a fight with him because he said some mean stuff about Seungkwan and he got kicked off the basketball team. Jaehyun took over as captain and apparently he took it worse than we thought.”

“What do you mean?” Seungkwan asked.

“Remember when we all went to the amusement park and ran into him? Me and Jae were sharing a scarf and after that run in with Taesung he didn’t want to wear it anymore... and...apparently after that day he started harassing him over text.”

“Harassing how?”

“Sending him horrible messages about how he had become a fag from hanging around us and—” Seokmin stopped. He had almost cried before when Jaehyun had told him. “And how he had to make sure to clean the shit of his dick after fucking me...and how maybe he would try beating some sense into him…”

Seungkwan pressed a hand to his mouth in shock. He had always known Taesung was horrible, but he had no idea that Jaehyun had been one of his victims. Soonyoung finally sat down and placed a comforting hand on Seokmin’s thigh.

“Anyway,” Seokmin said and inhaled a breath through his nose, “The reason Jaehyun told me this today was because he broke up with me soon after that and at the time he thought he was just doing what was best, but he-he said mean things to me too and that he said those things because he wasn’t strong enough to stand up for who he was and he felt frustrated and scared. He said he’s been doing a lot of self-reflecting lately and he felt like he needed to...I don’t know, clear his mind from that part of his life or something.”

“How are you feeling?” Seungkwan asked. He felt bad for Jaehyun, but what he really cared about was his friend. He had been heartbroken when Jaehyun broke up with him so suddenly.

“I don’t know. I feel really bad for him and that he had to go through that...but man...I wish he would have told me then instead of breaking up with me. But I guess he would have broken up with me eventually anyway. I don’t think he really loved me to be honest. At least not in the way a certain someone does,” he said and placed his hand on Soonyoung’s. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was meeting him. I guess I wanted to find out what exactly he wanted first…”

“I’m sorry too. Maybe I overreacted a little. I know you wouldn’t cheat on me or anything.”

Seokmin furrowed his brows together in confusion, “What? Of course I wouldn’t.”

Soonyoung smiled and pressed a kiss on Seokmin’s cheek, “Are you really okay?”

“Yeah.” He leaned his head down on Soonyoung’s shoulder. “You said something about cookies?” 

“So I guess you guys want to spend some time alone now…” Seungkwan said, a pout evident on his lips.

“Well…” Seokmin sat back up and eyed his boyfriend in a way that told Seungkwan that they did.

“It’s fine. It’s not like we had plans together anyway. I’ll see if Jihoon has time for lunch.”

“He’s not here,” Seokmin said. “I think he has a new boyfriend or something.”

Seungkwan chewed on his bottom lip and wondered if he was with Seungcheol right now. He had refrained from asking Jihoon about what he and Mingyu had overheard at the beach, but he was so curious that he almost exploded everytime he saw Jihoon. But now what was he going to do for lunch. Mingyu was with Minghao, Seokmin and Soonyoung were going to hang out alone, and Jihoon wasn’t on campus. If he didn’t have homework to finish he’d call one of his friends that lived a bit further away. His phone buzzed. He checked the message and couldn’t help but to smile.

"What are you grinning at?" Soonyoung asked.

"Hm? Oh, nothing. Just got a message from someone."

"Someone? Who is this someone who has you smiling like that." Seokmin said, interested piqued.

“His name is Bin. I first met him at the musical afterparty, but we forgot to exchange contacts then. I saw him again last Friday and we went on a dinner date.”

“Oohh,” Soonyoung said with glee in his voice. “Maybe he has time for lunch,” he said wiggling his eyebrows in Seungkwan’s direction.

“I don’t think so...he just sent me a picture of the instant noodles he’s eating while studying.”

“Why?”

Seungkwan shrugged. “Sharing is caring? I don’t know, but…” A smile crept onto his face. “He said it doesn’t taste as good as the food Friday night but maybe that it had something to do with the company he was in.”

“Oooh,” Soonyoung said again. “He’s a flirty one, isn’t he? Smooth. I already like him.”

“Yeah,” Seungkwan giggled. “Me too.”

Notes:

-we have learned that Mingyu and Minghao had fun, but didn't kiss and Mingyu is confused as to why not (maybe he just needs to chill). We still have things to learn about Minghao
-Seungkwan being a good wingman
-idk if I think Seokmin should have told Soonyoung that he was meeting his ex...even if nothing was going on
-I kind of feel bad for the way Jaehyun left, but at the same time Seokmin honestly doesn't owe him anything