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Kim Mingyu. Mingyu. Gyu. Kim Mingyu - Hana hated, abhorred, Kim Mingyu.
It all started when they were still freshmen and in a club meeting, someone asked Mingyu if he would date the most popular girl of the club, which was Hana given her academic achievements and beauty, and he, without even looking up from his phone and asking who's that person, replied with a firm "No" (That was Mingyu's first day in the club and everyone was instantly smitten by his good looks and pretty smiles too charming to be true. So they decided to play a random game to break the ice, of course to know more about the handsome newcomer). When others joked that Mingyu wouldn't say no if he saw who was the said popular girl, Mingyu looked up from the device and flashed a smile towards others and said, "I am not interested", and winked at everyone which brought out another round of laughter and cooing at Mingyu's obvious charms. That's exactly what Mingyu wanted to do as it seemed because everyone moved towards someone else to tease. Even though it appeared that Mingyu was joking, Hana noticed how that smile didn't even reach his eyes. That was a fake smile as if Mingyu hated the idea of dating her. That and Mingyu's nonchalant behaviour bruised her ego. It's not like she was expecting something or anything but still, how he didn't even consider the question even for a second and seemed annoyed for some unknown reason (was it even that serious? everyone was just playing around. pretentious jerk), stung a bit. After that, Hana's one-sided feud with Mingyu started.
Seriously, what's wrong with that guy? Why is he smiling showing his ugly (definitely not pretty) canines all the time? Why is he always helping out others? pretentious bastard (definitely not lovely) - Hana would often find herself wondering this, not that she thought about Mingyu all the time.
What irked Hana more was that the ever so lovely campus' heart-throb Kim Mingyu never directed his oh so sweet (definitely not Hana's words) smile to Hana, ever. Okay, maybe it was partly (all) Hana's fault for scoffing at Mingyu and saying "don't bother" when he tried to strike up a conversation with Hana during one of their club meetings few weeks after he was selected as the secretary of the new club president, Jeonghan, with whom he formed an unlikely close bond in a matter of few months. Cut her some slack, she was still not over the fact that she wasn't the one who was picked by Jeonghan but Mingyu because it was her goal since she signed up for the math club. After that, even before Hana could muster up the courage to apologize to him, Mingyu started to ignore her.
That's how Hana found herself competing against Mingyu in every aspect of her college life. Academics, exams, clubs, foods, deadlines, lab reports - everything. They competed against eachother for everything. Three years later, everybody called them "academic rivals" and placed bets on who was going to top the tests, win the debate, get more marks on assignments and so on. All of these would end up at Mingyu and Hana throwing snarky comments as eachother and Hana rolling her eyes so hard that sometimes she feared getting her eyes stuck in her head ("Shut up, Kim!").
Everyone around her loved, worshipped maybe, Kim Mingyu. Even her traitorous friends adored Mingyu. Kim Mingyu was tall, so tall, he towered over almost everyone at the university. He had such an alluring smile that maybe puts the moon at shame, so pretty. He shined brighter than the sun whenever he talked about maths or physics or basketball. He looked so good while playing basketball that people questioned if this man was even real at all. He knew how to cook, was academically smart, a hard worker, polite and funny, has hands of magic because he can fix anything, he had amazing drawing skills and looked almost ethereal and mythic. Nobody could ever stress enough how good looking he was. Watching him walk around the campus almost made up for the fact that they would never see a greek god face-to-face. What's the point when the universe blessed them with a Kim Mingyu?
Although with all these qualities, he should've been unapproachable and intimidating but he was oddly adorable, clumsy, sweet, and down-to-earth. Almost, half of the campus saw Mingyu tripping on air or dropping whatever he had on his hands. One thing about everyone's sweetheart Kim Mingyu was, his personal life was mysterious. Nobody knew anything about him, not even if he had pets or siblings. Everything they knew was either from what they'd seen or his friends' instagram posts (Mingyu's instagram was on private and only his friends and family followed him there, said by one of his friends when somebody asked). So, it was given that Hana also knew what everyone else knew. But she wanted to know more about him. Even though three years had passed since their rivalry, Hana had this weird nagging feeling inside her to unravel the enigma Kim Mingyu was. So that, she could expose him and show everyone that he was not the kind-sweet-lovely guy everyone deemed him as and definitely not because she wanted to be on the recieving end of THAT devastating smile. Nope, no, noway, nah.
On one particular Friday, Hana saw Mingyu at a convenience store. He was yet to notice her. She was pondering about if she should walk towards him and say something to annoy him or just simply ignore him and get out of here so that she wouldn't have to tolerate his annoying face.
She and Mingyu never once had a nice conversation. His replies to her was always curt and cold. Hana wasn't any better, she was probably worse than Mingyu. Something about that guy was just so annoying that never failed to make her feel jittery and nervous and angry and annoyed. Whenever they came across eachother, it was always Hana who would get annoyed at Mingyu for anything and everything and throw a sarcastic comment towards him that Mingyu would always retort back with an equally sarcastic comment. She lowkey enjoyed those banters as those showed Mingyu's true nature. Nobody could ever be that sweet, for lack of better words, and those banters actually showed how he was faking being the oh so sweet Mingyu.
That day wasn't anything different. As she took a step forward to the aisle where Mingyu was staring intensely at the tomatoes on his hands (oh my god, is that a pout?), suddenly someone appeared beside him with two cartoons of milk on his hands. She halted in her steps. She hadn't seen this person before. Not on campus or not on the posts of Mingyu's friends. Mingyu's pout was now directed towards the handsome man, who was wearing a black polo and black jeans with round glasses resting on his nose, standing beside him. The man chuckled and pinched Mingyu's cheeks and took those tomatoes from his hands and put them back from where he picked those up. And dragged him by his wrist before he could open his mouth to protest.
After that, Hana started noticing the man in the posts of Mingyu's friends. In a bar, in a restaurant, in someone's apartment, in a park, in an arcade - always with Mingyu and his circle of friends.
This guy and Mingyu seemed awfully close to eachother.
There was this one picture with two of Mingyu's friends, where the said guy was resting his read on Mingyu's shoulder - both smiling at the camera. Also, that one picture posted by Jeonghan, one of Mingyu's friend and their previous math club president, where the guy was showing something to Mingyu on his phone and Mingyu was staring at the guy with a fond smile adorning on his face, he wasn't even paying attention to whatever the guy was saying ("did you even see what he was showing you, mingoori?", Jeonghan put this caption on the post).
He knew Jeonghan too.
Thankfully, Jeonghan tagged both of them on the post. Bless his soul. So Hana finally got to put a name on that pretty face (that guy was really handsome too. The glasses he wore made him look prettier and better looking than he already was. Broad shoulders and almost as tall as Mingyu but still somehow managing to look smaller than Mingyu).
His name is Jeon Wonwoo. His instagram account was public like all of Mingyu's friends and his account was full with pictures he's taken, mostly scenarios. She concluded this guy was into photography as she was scrolling through his posts on Instagram. His account hasd pictures of his friends too, taken by him. Hana spotted Mingyu in few group pictures.
Also, he seemed to be in a committed relationship with someone. He had few pictures of intertwined hands (with captions like "my love" , "warm on a cold night" , "i think he knows") , a blurry picture of someone's back taken in what seemed like an airport ("a think i will miss you forever"), another picture of coffee stain on a hoodie ("clumsy idiot"), a picture of two pinkies with matching beaded rings, green and purple beads mixed together ("shua, he said he wanted necklaces next") and so on. Hana concluded these are with the same person. A boyfriend.
Hana wasn't a stalker. She just followed all of Mingyu's friends because they're genuinely nice unlike Mingyu. Pretentious annoying jerk. So it's natural she would see their posts on her feed.
Few weeks later, Hana was waiting in a café for her friend. She was sitting at a corner from where she had a nice view of the whole café and it was hard to spot her too from there, a perfect place for little bit privacy. As she was sipping on a coffee she ordered while waiting for her friend, she arrived earlier than the meeting time, the bell in front of the entrance of the café jingled alerting the employees that another customer entered. Much to her luck, it was that jerk Mingyu. Oh, he looked..... different from usual? He definitely put some effort on dressing up today. He even styled his hairs.
Interesting. Nobody would do that if it wasn't for a celebration or..... a date?
He took a seat on the other side of the café beside the glasses, where it had a nice view of the streets, exactly across Hana. He was checking up his appearance every two minutes on his phone and was glancing towards the entrance every few minutes while tapping his fingers on the table and shaking his legs nervously.
It definitely was a date.
Something twisted in her guts. She should stop drinking the coffee,it was making her feel weird. Who was the person making the always ever so confident Mingyu nervous?
The bell jingled alerting that someone entered the café again and by the way Mingyu's eyes lit up, it must be his date. The date reached to Mingyu's table and wait- that's the Wonwoo guy. What was he doing here? It's not a date then as he was already in a relationship with someone else but the way Mingyu dressed up and looked all nervous- oh my god, oh my god. Mingyu, does he- he has a crush on Wonwoo, doesn't he?
From her table, Hana saw that Wonwoo said something to Mingyu and Mingyu's ears turned all red and he started scratching his neck with his right hand while smiling shyly.
This stupid Mingyu. Does he have any idea that this Wonwoo guy is dating someone?
Hana couldn't stay longer and observe them as her friend called her and asked her to meet her outside.
Later that night, Junhui, another one of Mingyu's squad and someone really sweet, whom Hana admired a lot and doesn't have any idea how someone like Mingyu managed to befriend someone like him, posted a group picture, Mingyu and Wonwoo were there too, side by side in the middle and others beside them, with a caption "Wonwoo, I am claiming the best man spot". What?Best man? This guy was getting married? Wow.
Few minutes later, Wonwoo posted a picture too. This time, a picture of two hands with fingers intertwined, one had a silver band and the other also had one but wasn't visible to the camera because of the angle, with a caption "my youth is yours".
The next day when she saw Mingyu on campus, he was practically glowing so much that it hurt her eyes looking at him and had a smile stretched on his lips so big, even her cheeks hurt seeing that. Weird. What made him so happy?
The weeks following after that day, Hana saw Wonwoo more and more on the campus (sometimes with Mingyu or his friends. He looked like he came to the campus to pick Mingyu up) or on instagram (in various posts or stories shared by Mingyu's friends).
It became awfully transparent to her that Mingyu indeed had a crush on the Wonwoo guy. The way his eyes would light up whenever he would spot Wonwoo, the way he would have a fond smile on his lips and mostly, the way Mingyu would stare at Wonwoo like he held the secrets of the universe on his hands. Hana knew that look.
That was the look you give when you are helplessly and hopelessly in love with someone.
Mingyu was and is crushing on an engaged guy. Is Mingyu dumb? Weren't there any other people to develop a crush on?
Hana might not like Mingyu at all but she wouldn't wish someone to go through the suffering of one-sided love at all. Mingyu surely knew Wonwoo was in a long term relationship because he wasn't hiding anything, even though he never posted a picture of his boyfriend publicly on any social media. Even Mingyu's friends, who are Wonwoo's friends also Hana realised, knew about the relationship. So, Mingyu definitely knew. He even had an engagement ring on his finger too. Then, why?
Hana felt her chest tightening at the thought of Mingyu being in love with someone.
The day before their winter break started, they had their last club meeting before the break too. After saying goodbye to everyone, Hana rushed outside of the club room as her sister was waiting for her at the parking lot. Mingyu was still inside talking with few juniors. As she turned left and took a step forward to the elevator, someone stopped her.
"Excuse me", came from a deep raspy voice.
"Yes?", Hana turned around only to come face to face with someone she least expected to ever interact with.
The handsome man who looked to good looking to be real was none other than-
"Hi, is the meeting done? Is Mingyu inside?", the man infront of her smiled while fixing his glasses with his index finger. She noticed the ring on his ring finger.
-Wonwoo.
"Y-Yeah", Hana cleared her throat. Get a grip. Now's not the time to space out, "The meeting ended just now. Mingyu you said? He will be out in a few minutes I guess".
"I see. Thank you," the man smiled oh so gently. Hana kind of gets why Mingyu likes him.
Again, the thought of Mingyu liking someone else made something tightened inside her chest. So, she clenched her fingers on her palms and bowed to him and turned around to leave. She took a step forward towards the elevator and stopped and turned back to face Wonwoo again. Wonwoo tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, confusion clear on his face.
One thing about Hana was that she never passed on any opportunity to embarrass or get back at Mingyu. There were hundreds of incidents where she tried to embarrass Mingyu or get back at him for being simply annoying. Something about Mingyu looking at this taken guy like he held stars in his eyes, something about Mingyu directing fond smiles ,which she would never be on the recieving end of, to this guy made her feel oddly angry, something about Mingyu being nervous around this guy, something about Mingyu putting on efforts to look good,more than he already is, by dressing up and styling his hairs made her stomach churn, something about Mingyu keeping this man so close to his heart made her sad, mad and frustrated. All these things made her angry, sad, annoyed and indecisive because she would never get to have a taste of those things.
What she did next , it was purely on impulse and the sudden rush of mixed emotions she had at that moment, was going to make her scream in agony and embarrassment for the rest of her life.
"Mingyu has—do you know he has a crush on you?", Hana said holding the strap of her backpack tightly.
"What?", Wonwoo's expression turned completely blank at her words, like he couldn't understand human language anymore.
"I said, Mingyu has a crush on you. Thought you should know because," Hana said taking a pointed glance at the ring on Wonwoo's finger, "it seems like you are engaged."
Wonwoo blinked once, twice, thrice while processing whatever he just heard.
The silence was deafening to Hana's ears.
"I hope he does or else it would be really awkward", Wonwoo said with an embarrassing chuckle and a slightly amusing look on his face, "Well then, have a nice day ahead," he said as his eyes shifted behind Hana's back for a slight second.
Wonwoo left with a bow and skipped past Hana to greet someone.
She couldn't grasp the meaning behind his words and she turned around to ask him to elaborate what he meant by that only to let out a loud gasp.
Wonwoo had his arms wrapped around Mingyu's shoulder while Mingyu's hands were wrapped around tiny waist, she noticed a familiar looking ring on Mingyu's ring finger too - oh my god, and stood on his tip-toes to leave a kiss on his cheeks.
Hana had never ran that fast in her life.
Wonwoo and Mingyu. Mingyu and Wonwoo. Mingyu was Wonwoo's fiancé. Wonwoo's long term boyfriend was Mingyu. The person behind all those instagram posts made by Wonwoo was Mingyu. Oh. My. God. What had she done? Oh my god. Mingyu was taken. Mingyu wasn't single. He had a fiancé.
Hana wanted to cry out of the utter embarrassment and sadness, that's a territory she would explore later.
Now she just wanted to disappear. It was all clear. It was all right infront of her eyes yet she failed to notice the obvious signs. They never were discreet about it, were they?
Hana even saw them holding hands whenever she would catch of glimpse of them around the campus but she decided to brush it off as something friendly gesture. Dumb.
Mingyu never walked around intertwining his fingers with someone else. Mingyu never showed any interest in anyone else all these years. Come to think of it, why did nobody ever ask Mingyu if he's taken or not?
Everyone, including Hana, concluded that Mingyu wasn't simply interested in dating.So he didn't even bat an eyelash towards her all those years ago because he was in a relationship. Wow. Ouch.
Later at that night, Wonwoo posted a stolen shot of someone's back. Hana let out a scream.
It was crystal clear that the person in the post was none other than Mingyu. That's clearly him. The shoulders, the figure, the slightly tousled hairs, the denim jacket and black turtle neck sweater Mingyu wore that day. It was Kim Mingyu.
Hana didn't scream because it was Mingyu on the post. She screamed because of the caption. It was "i think i have a crush on him (my boyfriend) too".
She left a heart on that post.
If Hana was dreading to face Mingyu after the winter break, if she was expecting him to come and laugh at her face and embarrass her, if she was surprised that confrontation never came to her even though they had only three weeks left till their graduation, if she was relieved after the realisation dawned upon her that maybe Wonwoo didn't tell him anything about his short, amusing on Wonwoo's part, and very embarrassing encounter with her, then nobody needs to know.
("Hi, did you wait for too long?", Mingyu asked as he saw Wonwoo walking towards him inside the club room.
The room is empty already. There's just Mingyu left as he was packing his stuffs.
"No", Wonwoo grinned mischievously,"I just arrived here few minutes ago but I heard something really interesting."
"You did?", Mingyu said wrapping his hands around Wonwoo's waist and pulling him closer.
"I heard", Wonwoo drawled while wrapping his arms around Mingyu's shoulder. Mingyu's hands still wrapped around his waist.
"You heard what?", Mingyu tightened his grip on his waist lightly to indicate he was listening.
"I heard that you have a crush on a certain Jeon Wonwoo", he said while standing on his tip-toes to leave a sweet but gentle kiss on Mingyu's right cheek.
"What?", Mingyu looked confusedly at him, cheeks tainted pink because of the kiss.
Wonwoo didn't reply anything. He wiggled out of Mingyu's hold and took Mingyu's hand into his and intertwined their fingers. Then looked up at him to give him the biggest smile he could ever adorn his face with and dragged him towards the exit. They had to go to Mingyu's parents' home for dinner.)