Episode five.
MASTERLIST
pairing: XO, Kitty's Min Ho x Female Reader
genre: Fluff, angst, enemies-to-lovers, slow burn, coming-of-age.
word count: 3.8k
warnings: Swearing, mentions of divorce, mentions of deceased parents, some cringey asf moments.
summary: Transferring to KISS was the last thing you had asked for and, yet, a certain tall boy made it seem both worse and better than you expected.
note: Bold - Korean, Italic - Over the phone
a/n: I am beyond overwhelmed by the amount of love this series is receiving. It means so much to me, you have no idea. Thank you <3
(let me know by filling the form in my bio if you want to be added to the taglist!)
There were bad days, and then there were bad days. And Min Ho was clearly having the second one. After you slammed the door in his face, he dropped on the couch next to Q. He might have hoped a little that his friend was going to be of any moral support but he couldn't be any far from the truth. Q was still pissed at him. In fact, almost everyone he knew was.
Dae came back to the dorm after Q left to go to bed. Seeing Min Ho alone, he greeted him kindly.
"You're here. How was your day?"
"It sucked." Dae gave him a sad look as Min Ho let out a sigh. "It sucked."
He went to sit across him and gave him a sad smile. "What happened earlier, I'm sorry... Things are crazy these days."
"I know, that's why I'm trying to help you." he said in frustration. "Why are you keeping secrets from me? You didn't even tell me you were dating Yuri all summer... And why did you tell Kitty about Poopy Baby?"
Dae gulped, not saying anything back.
"Are you really my friend?"
He let himself fall back on the seat in defeat. "I'm such garbage."
"Well, at least you know that."
"Hey. You still have feelings for her, right?" he was replied with a hum. "If I can be honest, I saw something today. On the Internet. Randomly! Accidentally!"
There was a pause before Dae hopped on his chair as he suggested they play Overwatch. After agreeing to order hot wings and do face masks, Kitty walked in and rushed to go see Q in his room. Dae's stare lingered to the door and Min Ho snapped him out of it.
Overhearing it all, you heard them call Kitty out of the room to show her something. Curiosity got the best of you, so you joined the others and walked up behind Q to watch what was going on. The sight horrified you. Why would someone stream their roommate in their sleep?
"What? My roommate put me on some weird website as I was sleeping." Kitty scoffed.
"I don't see the appeal." Min Ho sighed.
"And yet you somehow found the site."
He looked at you as you grabbed his attention but only received a death stare from your part. You definitely needed to work on your weird dynamic.
"Kitty, you should move." Dae said, more like an command than a suggestion. "You can't live with this girl anymore."
Q nodded. "Yeah, I agree with Dae. This is kind of sketchy."
She huffed. "I tried but there is no other room."
"Uh, how about a hotel? My driver could take you right now." Min Ho offered although he was well aware this wasn't an option.
"I can't afford that for an entire semester."
"I'm sure Dae can hook you up with a discount at Han Hotels."
"Shut up, Min Ho." you said, growing more annoyed with him by the second.
He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "Just trying to help."
"You helped enough today."
Before another argument broke, Q's face brightened as an idea popped in his mind. He offered to switch rooms with Dae for Kitty to come live with the rest of you again. In secret. Though unsure, she agreed because of how much she couldn't take her roommate anymore.
Chuseok used to be your favourite day of the year. You would have a delicious meal with your parents at home, free of worries and problems. Your mom's japchae was what truly kept the tradition living. Needless to say, their death definitely left its mark on you but it became easier with time. And tomorrow, you were going to enjoy it to the fullest. At least try to.
Kitty had spontaneously offered to organize a Chuseok for the expats of the school and begged you to help her out. You would have turned it down but her pleas were almost getting on your nerves that you gave in. She asked you about traditional meals you'd cook with your own family and you put together a list of ingredients she would need to buy. As the list only got longer, you opted to go grocery shopping together.
"Can you get soy sauce? I'll get the gochugaru."
You went to the end of the aisle as she called out for you to ask which kind of sauce she needed to get. Being already in front of the gochugaru, you assumed she could wait a second more for you to pick it up. You crouched down to get it off the shelf. Satisfied with the brand you chose, you got up and were greeted by Min Ho standing in front of you, a basket in hands. His shoulders dropped as you stared back at each other, you doing the same.
"You're seriously everywhere." he complained.
"It's not like I intend on seeing you everywhere."
Kitty came next to you with her cart, having picked out herself a random bottle of soy sauce. "Min Ho."
"And Kitty? You two are like my own sasaengs." he scoffed which Kitty seemed to not have understood.
"What's a sasaeng?" she asked, confirming your thoughts.
"Like a very obsessed fan." you explained. "But we're not."
"Yeah, sure." he smirked at you.
"What are you even doing in a grocery store?" Kitty asked.
"Yeah." you added. "Shouldn't you be on a yatch being rich and annoying?"
He faked a smile. "My dad is doing that with wife number three with her new fillers. I have decided to stay here as a favour to all women who want a piece of me this Chuseok."
He sent you a look before pulling a box of chocolates out of his basket. You could do nothing but roll your eyes at how pathetic it looked.
"Strawberries and chocolate? I'm going to be sick." Kitty said in a boring tone.
"I'm sure Lulu would appreciate it."
This caught your attention. "Lulu? The pop star? You got her to be one of your Min Hoes?"
He scoffed as his infamous smug look appeared. "That's cute, puppy. And she's only the fastest rising popstar in the country."
"And?" Kitty said, not sure what point he was trying to make.
He held up his phone to show you a picture of Lulu but you only frowned.
"We've been flirting since her trainee days." he justified.
"What a surprise." you said sarcastically.
Nonetheless, you couldn't ignore the feeling in the pit of your stomach. It felt like it was ripping apart and you only hoped it didn't mean what you thought it meant.
"She's on break from tour for the holiday. Even K-Pop stops for Chuseok." he continued.
"Okay." Kitty said, unimpressed.
Min Ho analyzed the content of your cart and frowned at you. Taking a pack that laid on top of the rest of your items, he showed it to you.
"Do you even know what to do with this?"
You snatched it back from him. "We're fine, thanks."
"I am admittedly entering new territory but with the help of TikTok, Y/N, and a positive attitude, I'll manage just fine." Kitty said and you facepalmed. "If not, I've won awards for my mashed potatoes."
She was about to push her cart forward and walk away but Min Ho stopped her. "No, no, no. As a Korean national, I cannot in good conscience let you desecrate my native cuisine like this."
"You do know I'll be doing most of the cooking, right?" you asked.
He acted as if he hadn't heard you and dropped his basket in your cart before removing Kitty from her spot to push it himself. "Do you want to poison your classmates or do you need my help?"
"Min Ho." you exhaled.
"This is me being kind right now."
Kitty sighed. "Fine. But I'm still making my mashed potatoes."
You and Min Ho groaned at her words and walked towards the next aisle. She followed behind in panic, telling you to not mess her system up.
While she was watching you two add products to the cart, you kept on bickering on anything really. Disagreeing on certains articles, disputing over a certain dish he wanted to cook, complaining about what you wanted to make...
You managed to go up to the cash register and he insisted on paying for it all. Having fought enough with him, you didn't protest and he helped you and Kitty with getting everything back to the dorm.
You got up from bed earlier than usual, wanting to focus on the side dishes you planned on making. It was going to take a while to get everything done so the sooner you started, the better.
What you didn't expect was to see Min Ho already standing in the kitchen as he dressed in a black tank top with a funny-looking apron over it. He didn't see you right away but he was quick to do so when you let a laugh slip out of your mouth.
"Well, well. Who's decided to be an early bird this morning?" he snickered, referring to your usual moody self when you wake up.
"Looks like we've had the same idea. I wanted to start cooking right away." you said as you went to stand next to him. "Need help?"
He shook his head. "I'm good. You can start on the budae jjigae, though."
Doing as told, you took the ingredients out of the refrigerator and Min Ho moved his own material to leave you space to work. It was silent but unlike normally, it felt nice. You almost dared to think that you liked being this comfortable with him.
"What's this?" you asked about the basket on the stool.
"My mom got it for me, my love language is gifts."
"I would have never guessed." you joked.
"She sent it from Los Angeles since she couldn't be here." He looked down. "We usually spend Chuseok together."
You smiled sadly. "It must suck, I get that. My parents and I never missed Chuseok together. Well, until... yeah."
"Right."
He cleared his throat to ease the tension and continued to chop his onions. You watched him go at it and were pleasantly surprised by his skills.
"I would have never guessed you knew how to cook. Nor would I have expected you to help Kitty. I suppose you can be nice."
He gave you a side eye. "I'm famously anti-Kitty, I'm only doing this to honour our traditional food properly."
"Try to convince me. You have a soft spot."
He chuckled while shaking his head. "Well, if you want me to be nice so badly, should I ask if you're okay?"
You cocked your head to the side. "What do you mean?"
"With your parents and all. I bet it's not easy."
You nodded. "Yeah, definitely a difficult holiday." you breathed out.
"I'm sorry but can I ask what happened?"
You looked at him and saw his eyes softened. "It's..." you hesitated. "They had a business trip and never came back." you kept it short
He rubbed your arm and you shivered at the contact. "That's awful. I'm sure they're looking after you. They must be proud."
Your breath hitched as you felt his head hover yours. You didn't dare to look up but you knew he was looking at you.
"Thank you, Min Ho."
You felt him breathe on the top of your head. It was unsteady and hot, you felt like you were about to melt.
"Good morning." Kitty yawned, coming to join the two of you.
You jumped away from each other and focused back on your tasks, attempting to forget what had just happened. "Hey, slept well?"
"I guess." she yawned again. "Oh, Pepero." she said excitedly and reached out to get it from Min Ho's gift from his mother.
He slapped her hand away. "Don't."
Hours of cooking went by and you were happy to have almost forgotten about your moment with Min Ho. Almost. Having finished with your budae jjigae, you sat at the stool and watched Kitty make her mashed potatoes. Growing bored, you connected your phone to the speakers and scrolled through your playlists to find something to add to the ambiance. After selecting one song, you heard a phone buzzing. Min Ho took his device out and smiled as he replied to a text.
"Confirmed Lulu will be at the premises at 8pm." he said with a smirk before putting his phone away.
Your stomach felt weird again.
"I'm sure she'll love the chocolate." Kitty smiled sarcastically.
"The chocolate was actually for," he began to say and moved his gaze to focus on you. "someone else."
Kitty eye-judged him as she kept mixing her potatoes.
"Hey, don't judge." he exclaimed. "Not all people need to be star-crossed lovers to be compatible. Like, hot people, for example." he pointed to himself. "We can, and want to play the field."
You mentally thanked him for saying that as it gave you a reminder that he was nothing but a jackass. That helped the weird tug in your belly go away.
"That's because you haven't found your perfect match." she looked at you for a second and you coughed in disapproval.
Min Ho grunted. "I've found many, many matches."
"I'm just saying, I've seen the magic when people find the one." she smiled to herself.
"That's sweet to think, Kitty." you said in a bored voice, not believing in what she was saying.
"Y/N's right. My parents both thought they found the one." Min Ho continued. "They were the 'it' couple. Beautiful, young starlet. Chaebol heir. The tabloids literally called them the perfect match. Look at them now."
Visibly, the divorce of his parents seemed to have impacted him more than he would admit. You kind of felt bad but, again, this was Min Ho. He didn't deserve your empathy.
"I'm sorry." you let yourself spill out unintentionally.
He shrugged. "Whatever."
Kitty coughed to clear the atmosphere and served him a bowl of her potatoes for him to taste. He took a spoonful of it and hummed as it was better than he thought.
"It must be weird to have people know all about your family." you continued on topic.
You were glad that he didn't mind keeping on telling you about it. "They think they know, they don't really. That's my point."
You nodded in agreement and he continued.
"There's really only one thing that matters at the end of the day."
"Which is what?" Kitty asked curiously.
"The truth." he responded as if it was obvious.
You helped Kitty with organizing the place. As more people came to her gathering, you welcomed everyone nicely by offering them drinks. You saw Q and Florian arrive and joined Kitty's side to say hello.
"Wow." Q breathed out in amazement. "People are calling this Chingu-seok."
"What?" Kitty asked and you were starting to wonder if she really was working on her Korean like she told you she was.
"It's a pun with chinggu, which means 'friends' and Chuseok." Florian explained. "You started a new tradition."
She was in awe but it was ruined when her eyes spotted Professor Lee. "Oh, no. Why is he here?"
"Because he's sad and lonely." Min Ho answered making you almost choke in your orange juice. "Mind helping me, Y/N?"
You followed him to the main table where you had placed the food dishes. He passed you a bowl of cold noodles and asked you to bring them to a table. As he was placing a plate himself, Madison appeared out of nowhere and waved at him.
"Min Ho, hi."
He shut his eyes closed, clearly not wanting to converse with her. "Hello, Madison."
"I wasn't expecting you to be here." she frowned but then noticed the plate he was holding. "Oh my God, you cooked."
"Yes, but I'm not staying long. Got a date tonight."
You had heard enough and moved to the entrance to invite people in. The weird knot in your belly came back and you absolutely hated it. You hated even more that Min Ho was seemingly the cause of it.
"Y/N!" he called out for you again.
With a lack of enthusiasm, you came to him and he asked you to put the plates away with him. Madison had left so you saw no problem in giving him a hand. Happy with the result, you went to Kitty's table together and stopped to look for which seat to take. You sat at the edge of the table, two seats away from your professor. Although awkward, Kitty was going to be in front of you anyway. Plus, you were only there to enjoy the food.
"Hey."
You raised an eyebrow at Min Ho. "You're sitting here? Willingly?"
He repositioned himself on the seat next to you and shook his head. "No. Yes? Just drop it."
"My bad."
Q insisted for Kitty to make a toast and she did a great job as she mentioned sweet thoughts such as gathering together and her mother. She ended her speech with a 'cheers' and you clang your drinks together. With Min Ho's first.
"Happy Chuseok, little pup." he nudged your shoulder. "Thank you for the food."
"Thank you to you too." you smiled.
You started to serve yourself and were, honestly, overwhelmed by how much food there was. You wanted to taste each one of them.
"Can you pass the japchae?" Min Ho asked Q.
Your head rose from the mention of this specific food. "You made japchae?"
He put it down in front of you two. "Yeah, first thing this morning. Didn't you see?"
You shook your head as a no. "I haven't eaten that in years."
Min Ho brought your plate closer and dumped some in it. "Dig in."
The last time you had actual good japchae was at your last Chuseok with your parents. None had own up to it so far and you were curious to see if his cooking skills were as good as he claimed them to be. You took a bite and chewed slowly. Your eyes grew bigger and you shook his shoulder.
"This tastes exactly like my mom's."
He chuckled. "Really? She might have sent you my way so you could taste it."
You rolled your eyes. "Don't ruin the moment."
He shrugged. "I'm just saying." he checked his phone quickly. "I'm off... to fulfill my destiny."
"Ah, Lulu?" you asked and he wiggled his eyebrows at you while getting up.
"Can't wait to read about it tomorrow." Q commented.
"Wait, you're leaving?" Kitty stopped him.
"Hello, hot date with popstar? Later, sasaeng." he tapped her head and walked away.
You felt disappointed he left. Of course, you would never admit it out loud. To suppress the annoying tingle that seemed to never go away from your chest, you focused on the japchae. Taking more and more bites of it, you reminisced your parents. You missed them terribly. But you were convinced they were watching you and you wanted to make them proud. Min Ho said they would be, after all.
And there it was again, Min Ho coming to your mind. You tried to shake it off but he simply wouldn't go away. And now you pictured him being with his date at this exact moment...
Ping.
You took out your phone from your pocket and read the messages you had just gotten.
Min Ho: Y/N!
Min Ho: Y/N, answer!
Min Ho: Help me!
Min Ho: I don't know who else to call, come help me!
He was definitely going to be the death of you. Putting your pride aside, you left the dinner to head to the school's entrance. You looked around but there was no one. You yelled out his name a few times but you were left unanswered. As you were about to give up and go back to the others, Min Ho's head popped out of the bushes.
"What the hell did Kitty put in those potatoes?"
You looked at him curiously. "What the- Weren't you going out just now?"
"Y/N, answer, please."
You shrugged. "Milk, cheese... I heard her mention it."
He squinted his eyes in shame. "Really, that little piece of-"
"Min Ho." you stopped him but he then groaned in pain and you heard his tummy rumble. "Awe, Poopy Baby. Are you okay? Do you need help with the potty?" you teased him.
"Real funny." he said while his face stayed still. "Lulu could come any minute now. You have to get rid of her. She can't see me like this. But keep her hooked on me."
You scoffed. "And why would I do that?"
"If her fans find out, I'm done for."
"Sounds like a you problem." you replied and started to walk away.
The sound of a car brought your attention back to where Min Ho was and you immediately connected that this was Lulu. Cursing at yourself, you turned back on your heels and greeted the idol with a forced smile.
"Hi." you bowed at her as she stepped out of the car. "Min Ho's running late."
"Who are you?" she asked in a bored voice.
"Min Ho's fanclub president, first in line for a date night with him."
You wanted to die just then and there. Fanclub president, what were you thinking?
"Uh?" she said, confused.
"My date with him just ended. I can't believe I even got to see him up close."
And more will to bury yourself ten thousand miles deep.
"That jerk double-booked me?"
You smiled, almost afraid of what you were going to say next. "He is the most handsome guy at school. I'm not going to lie, he ruined me for other guys. He's just so... well, you know."
"Intriguing... But I refuse to come second. You tell him I come back at 6pm tomorrow night. And that he better clear off the rest of his schedule."
"Oh." was all that you could say.
"When he has a night with me, he won't be seeing anyone else after."
She got back into the car, not leaving you time to say something back, and took off. Min Ho scoffed in disbelief.
"How did you do that?"
"Talent?" you answered, although it came out more like a question. "You owe me."
"I know, I know."
You stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do next. "Well, I'll go now."
"Y/N, wait."
Halting on your steps, you looked at him, confused, and waited for him to go on. He cleared his throat and looked anywhere but at you.
"The chocolate. It was for you. You can take them when you get home."
You froze. "For me?"
"Yeah." he affirmed and finally looked at you. "As an apology for the other day when I yelled."
You let out a small laugh. "Love language is gifts, uh?"
He rolled his eyes. "Say thank you and we move on?"
"Thank you, Min Ho." you smiled.
taglist: @nanaspalette | @schniti-is-in-the-house | @bakugou-katsukis-wife |@soobin-chois | @honeydewpie | @snoozeagustd | @justemalove | @n1ninunwo0 | @loislucky | @kuromomori | @lysira340 | @lenilla15 | @upsidedownjill | @woozarts | @aar0n3tte | @hy-eins | @olivetheoryx | @b1tch1macow | @dreaming-hope25 | @jiaant11 | @boba-tea1206 | @callsign-haze
Copyright © 2023 skzhua. All rights reserved.
739 notes
·
View notes