secrets and lies
jongho
prompt: aspects of 1, 2, and 5 from augmenti's list - coming out, genderbending and body switching, magical themes



Minho knows he should go straight home. He knows that at 3 a.m. all kinds of creeps are out, and it's best to take either the most direct or the most well-lit route. He's sure this is right and sensible and is just a little bit annoyed when he finds his feet turning almost against his will around a corner to investigate that brightly lit shop.

The door is short, short enough that he'd probably need to duck to go inside, though only a little. The windows are wide open. Warm, golden light spills into the street. The air smells strongly of the forest, like a fierce spring rain. He closes his eyes for a moment and opens them to find a small woman staring up at him. She is old, and more wrinkled than he has ever seen, but her eyes are sharp. Minho is ill at ease in her presence.

"Secrets," she says. "Always full of secrets."

That breaks the spell for Minho. It's just too absurd. He laughs, a sharp, barking laugh that escapes him before he can think that it'd be terribly rude to laugh in this woman's face. "Sorry, grandmother. Sorry."

"Secrets are almost as good as lies. They change, warp. Just look in the mirror. You'll see."

Minho opens his mouth to say something, but a honking horn and screeching tires draw his attention. When he turns back, the woman is gone, and the shop is shut up tight.

Minho shakes his head and turns for home.




"Minho, get up already. You're going to be late for class."

Minho pokes his head out. "We don't have class today. The professor was going to be late getting back from his holidays, remember?"

Jonghyun gapes at him. Minho sighs. This kid, he thinks. Never remembers anything.

"You - you're."

Minho frowns. "What? Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Minho, you're green. Even your eyes." Jonghyun sounds absolutely horrified.

"What do you mean, green?"

Jonghyun just gestures, which isn't all that helpful. Minho pushes back the covers, starting violently when he realizes his legs are green. He pinches the skin above his knee. It turns white under the pressure, then fades back to green. His hands, he hasn't failed to notice, are green as well. Minho scrambles out of bed and runs into their bathroom.

"Green," Minho says, staring at his reflection.

"You look like a wood nymph," Jonghyun comments. "Or that kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Only green."

Minho says nothing, but turns on the water as hot as he can stand it, and immediately gets into the shower. No amount of scrubbing changes the color of his skin.



"Maybe it's an allergic reaction," Jonghyun suggests. "Or maybe you've been eating too many vegetables. You know, sometimes people turn kind of orange when they eat a lot of carrots. Have you been eating a lot of spinach?"

"No," Minho shakes his head. He's more than a little shocked by all of this. They can't find anything on the internet about turning green - only a lot of articles about some movie, and it doesn't even have anything to do with someone's skin changing color. Still, he's been reluctant to seek outside help. There's something at the back of his mind, something that has to do with all of this, if he could only remember.

"That's it, I'm calling Key," Jonghyun says decisively.

"No!" Minho knocks the phone out of his hand. "Definitely not Kibum."

Jonghyun sighs. "I'm out of ideas."

"No," Minho says again. "Just no."

"It's not like this is going to stay a secret if we can't fix you," Jonghyun says. "So if you're keeping Kibum away because you don't want him to make fun of you-"

"Secret!" Minho says, or rather shouts, if Jonghyun's startled jump is anything to go by. "Sorry. It's just, I met an old woman last night, and she said secrets are like lies, and they change you."

"So what secrets are you keeping?" Jonghyun asks, readily catching onto his train of thought.

"Oh, um." And that's the problem. Minho is keeping a secret, but he really would rather continue keeping that secret. "I'm not, actually. Maybe it was something else. Lying?" But he can't think of anything he's lied about, and he's pretty sure lying about lying is not going to help.

"Hm." Jonghyun slouches in his chair. "I don't know. Maybe it's genetic? You could call your brother."

Minho shakes his head. "No way. I'd have heard about it if Minseok ever turned green."



Minho calls in sick for work and emails all of his professors. The official story is that he's got the flu. They change that to mononucleosis when it drags on for more than a week.

Jonghyun finally sneaks Kibum into the dorm when Minho's sleeping, much to Minho's consternation. He suggests make-up and lots of clothes, but no matter how much foundation he applies, he can't seem to rid Minho of his green-ish tinge.

"It even comes off green when I wipe the foundation off," Kibum says, mystified. "Are you sure you don't just need a really good shower?"

"I have showered more in the last week than I have showered in my whole life," Minho says. "I've spent more time in the shower than in my bed."

"And he's spent quite a lot of time in his bed," Jonghyun pipes up. "Mopey, green freak."

Kibum shrugs. "I don't have anything to suggest, then. Sorry."

Minho's grateful for Kibum's sympathy. He wonders idly how much Jonghyun had to bribe him to keep him from mocking. He walks Kibum to the door, ducking away quickly before it's opened. He can't take the risk of someone seeing him.




"Minho?"

It's Jonghyun. Minho sits up. The truth is, he's restless. He's never been cooped up inside this long before. He's absolutely aching to stretch his legs, to run or play soccer or just breathe the outside air.

"Minho, I've been thinking," Jonghyun says. "Remember that first day? You said you met an old woman."

"Yeah," Minho says. Of course he remembers. She'd made some comment about secrets, and then he'd woken up green.

"Are you sure you don't have any secrets?" Jonghyun asks. "I'll go and find the person, if you want, so you don't have to go outside all green."

"You don't have to do that." Minho appreciates the gesture. Jonghyun's been kind to him all week, doing his best to keep him entertained during his confinement. It's made Minho's heart ache even more than usual, spending all this time just the two of them, with Jonghyun showing just how good he is to the people he cares about, friend or roommate or -

"I just thought, it might help," Jonghyun says. "It's the only thing we haven't tried."

Minho shakes his head. "I don't need you to go and get anyone."

Jonghyun stands at the door, shifting from one foot to the other. "Hey. Don't get all sad Green Giant on me again. I hate it when you mope."

Minho chuckles softly. "I like you." Quick, fast. Like a band-aid.

"I like you, too, idiot," Jonghyun says. "That's why I'm saying we should-"

"No," Minho interrupts. "I mean, I like you. Like like you."

That shuts him up quick. Minho doesn't dare look up, instead staring at his green hands resting on his green knees thinking there is nothing he hates more in the world than the color green, except possibly Jonghyun's silence.

"Oh."

Minho looks up. There's not a little annoyance in his voice when he says, "Oh? Really, hyung? That's all you can think to say right now?"

"Well?" Jonghyun scratches his head. "I just wasn't expecting that. Do you-" he looks back at Minho and stops talking, stops moving. His mouth hangs open, a little, and he looks pretty stupid.

"You're gaping like a fish," Minho says.

"You're not green," Jonghyun says. "You weren't lying. And you're not green." He lets out a quick shout. "You're not green!"

Minho looks down at himself, and it's true. He's turned back to his usual color in no time at all. "That's-"

"You were green all week because of that?" Jonghyun says, then. "That was your horrible secret that you'd rather be green than give up?"

"It is kind of a big secret," Minho says.

"Oh, shut up," Jonghyun says. "It's one thing to keep a bad secret."

"This isn't a bad secret?"

"No," Jonghyun says, grinning. He plants himself on Minho's bed, pulling him forward with a hand on the back of Minho's neck for a quick crush of lips. "Not a bad secret at all."