(Basically the first draft of my fic Both. Their initial relationship is totally different, but the direction it’s headed for is almost the same.)
In which Newt and Minho start out as best friends instead of sworn enemies.
There was this boy who, as far as Newt could remember, had always lived in the house next door. It was a small neighborhood, so they inevitably went to the same school, and being the same age, took the same classes as well. They never really interacted, until that one day in 3rd Grade when a wild baseball flew into Newt’s backyard, and hit him in the head while he was raking leaves. The boy, surprisingly for his height then, immediately climbed up the wooden fence to apologize and retrieve his ball. They’ve been inseparable ever since.
Between the two of them, the first one to use the term ‘best friend’ was Minho. It was during Newt’s first sleepover in their house at spring when he had formally met and was introduced to Minho’s mother. Hearing someone actually say he was their best friend, he felt surprised in a good way, yet somehow also nervous.
How did one know when he or she has met their ‘best friend’? How do you even know if this feeling of ‘best friend’-ship was mutual? Prior to this, Newt already had people whom he called friends, but no one he was particularly this close to. With Minho, they did the same things as he did with others, but it always felt rather different and the fun was always multiplied tenfold. There were also things that he would only confide in Minho, jokes that only both of them understand, stories Minho would also only share with him. Were those the telltale signs of having found your 'best friend’? Apparently, Minho was already sure of him even before the sleepover.
Newt also discovered, over the course of sharing his life with Minho, that being a best friend didn’t always mean that they’d only share the best of memories, but also the worst ones. He had his fair share of fights with others, but when he had disputes with people who actually matter, the hurt is much more amplified. Minho had long since transcended the role of best friend, and had become someone he has come to accept as family, and every fight they had affected Newt more than he allowed himself to be hurt.
Sometimes, Newt hurt alone. There were instances, as they grew up, in which Minho didn’t exactly do anything deliberate to hurt him, but inwardly, silently, Newt would feel some sort of pain inside himself that always made him feel shitty.
The first one to use the term 'in love’, was Teresa, a girl who transferred during high school. It was also during this period in their lives in which they discovered that Minho had a lot of admirers, a situation he decided to use to his advantage by dating. This was also when Newt found himself hurting alone often, but could never point out why, until his good friend Teresa ungraciously dropped the love bomb on him.
“ 'Sorry, Newt, I’m off to the movies with this girl from Class C’,” Newt muttered in his best parody of Minho’s voice. “ 'Not today, Newt, I’m going bowling with this girl with her friends from another school.’ Tch, weren’t these the same things he usually does with me? Am I being replaced?”
Newt knew he was exaggerating, but now that he was alone with Teresa on the swings in the local playground with no one familiar in sight, he just had to release the tension he was bottling up inside.
“Come on, no temporary fling can replace a best friend,” Teresa said, pushing herself off gently from the ground. “That kind of relationship you have with him is something that actually lasts.“
“Then why does it feel like we’re fading?” Newt said rather silently. “I only ever see him during class, during breaks he goes off to whoever his new romantic conquest is. We don’t even get to ride our bicycles home together anymore.”
“But who knows, this dating thing of his might just be a phase,” Teresa shrugged. “I mean, you yourself would eventually venture into that area.”
Newt pondered over that thought for a while. Somehow, his daily routine had always been with Minho, and in these recent three years, Teresa and a whole bunch of other guys were added into the mix, but the idea of being intimate with someone has never crossed his mind. He didn’t notice until then how happy and content he already was with the people he already had.
“I don’t know about that,” he said after a while. “I’ve always been with that shank that I never really thought about reaching out and baring myself that way with other people. I mean, I always thought… I don’t know, maybe I’m just selfish. Or really socially selective.”
Now it was Teresa’s turn to be silent. She stared at Newt as if meaning to study him. Then, she spoke, choosing her next words carefully. “It could be that you are selective. And maybe also kind of exclusive?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Let’s see,” Teresa’s eyebrows furrowed together in thought. “Have you considered that you maybe love Minho but in a different context…?”
Newt blinked twice. “Of course I do, if I didn’t love him I wouldn’t be tolerating the shank that he is, and he’s like a brother to me.”
“In a different context, Newt,” Teresa said, putting emphasis on her words. “I meant, like if you could date him, would you?”
Teresa’s words echoed in Newt’s head for days.
If Minho’s idea of dating was doing the exact same things they both did together but with different people, then technically, they’d been already dating with none of them realizing it. But where did the best-friendship end, and where did the dating begin? Then again, had they ever been what could be considered as intimate? The farthest they’d gone with their bodies was hugging out after winning basketball matches. They don’t mind sharing one drink with a single straw. And those weren’t even couple things, they were just friend things.
But if he could date his best friend, would he?
So the plot was supposed to be Newt struggling with his feelings for Minho, and eventually choosing to move out for college just to deliberately be away from Minho (who still keeps on dating). Newt's decision surprises everyone because he'd never been separated from his best friend, Minho becomes more evasive, hurt by the decision Newt has come up with and yet not knowing he was the reason for it. One day, while Newt is pakcing his luggage for the move, Min drops by his room one last time and they bicker a bit. Minho leaves but not before throwing something at Newt. Still too angry to check what it was, Newt continues to pack his stuff. Later on, he realizes that Min just gave him the baseball that started it all, and, well you could see how it's pretty much just the plot of BOTH, and it also ends up with them being finally gay together.
