Chapter Text
V
A week after the Library fail, Minho was wallowing in his misery in the kitchens, where he tended to go when he wanted to be left alone (or ‘be dramatic’ as Changbin said). Okay, it hadn’t been a total failure, but let him be, he wanted chocolate. The other reason to be there was because of the castle kitten, Moonie, who was always hanging around in the kitchens and would accept the Slytherin’s pets with content.
He didn’t see any new opportunity to ask Jisung out, and he was out of ideas. Sure, there was the Quidditch match, but that had already been a failure the first time and the Ravenclaw knew about his fear of heights so he would stop him before attempting some crazy feat on the field.
“What should I do Moonie?” he sighed, petting the kitten.
Moonie replied with a low meow and then started purring under Minho’s attention, snuggling up to him.
“You’re truly the best, I don’t know how people don’t love black cats.”
He let the thoughts take over him as he continued petting the cat and munch on chocolate cake. His thoughts drifted to his birthday, which was a week away. He never liked celebrating his own birthday. As much as he liked giving gifts to his friends, he never saw the need to be getting them in return for his day. Over the years, his friends had learned to just ask him if he needed new school materials and that was how it ended. A new quill, new bottle of ink, maybe a fancy one, but nothing special since he didn’t feel special enough to deserve gifts.
It wasn’t like he felt bad about himself, it never bothered him much. But, after every failed attempt at asking Jisung out, he felt bluer than he was used to in this period of October. Maybe it was time to give up and avoid trying to feel special underneath the Ravenclaw’s gaze, no matter how many sweet looks and smiles he had been receiving.
He let out a sigh and, with a last stroke under Moonie’s chin, he left the kitchens and the elves to their work, not forgetting to thank them. He was sad, but not rude.
-
The days were passing by one after the other, Minho coming to terms with the fact that he wouldn’t get to be in a relationship with his crush. His friends were starting to worry about him, since he didn’t seem to be searching for Jisung with his eyes whenever they entered the Great Hall to have breakfast. The fact that the boy wasn’t there to practice for the impending match only helped the Slytherin to move on.
He tried to move on, but soon quit when, one day, after Charms class, he felt Jisung calling his name and saw him running towards him with one of the biggest smiles on his faces. He was sort of ready for the hug-assault, as he saw the Ravenclaw opening his arms up, but he wasn’t ready for the force it came with.
“Jisung? What’s going on?”
“I did amazingly good on my History essay!! All thanks to you!” his arms squeezed Minho even more, and he felt his knees giving up. Not the time, heart. Not the time.
“I’m proud Jisungie,” he replied softly, a bit shy with the hug still going on. “But I’m sure you could have done it with your own mind.”
Jisung looked affronted as he finally detached himself from Minho. “Hey, none of that! You did help me, and a lot at that!”
The Slytherin looked down, avoiding his eyes. “…Okay.”
“Good!” Jisung nodded with encouragement, “Now I have to run, but I’ll see you soon Min!”
And, without Minho processing how, Jisung left a soft kiss on his left cheek and ran away with a smug smile.
Was it that easy? Was a small cheek kiss all it took for Minho to feel better like the whipped dumb teen he was?
Maybe so. Listen, he was a weak person.
All he knew was that he was a fool with a big crush and now he felt better. Maybe not all hope was lost, maybe he still had a chance, and he would try one last time to ask him out. He still didn’t know how, but that was a matter of second importance as of now.
-
The day of the Quidditch match Minho arrived at breakfast with green and silver painting on a cheek and blue and bronze paint on the other one. If the Ravenclaw cheek was the one where Jisung had kissed him than that was no one’s business but his. Changbin, though, knew all about it since he had to suffer through his gushing and fond thoughts, and he was snickering at him since they left their Common Room.
When they sat down and he tried to tell their other friends the details to tease Minho, the other Slytherin fixed him with a blank stare and asked, “Do you want me to unleash Moonie on you?”
Moonie was not dangerous at all, but Changbin had always feared cats for no particular reason, and that was Minho’s favourite way to threaten him. It worked this time too, as the other boy shut up immediately.
“Minho aren’t you rooting for me?” asked Chan jokingly as he arrived and sat down, his Quidditch Captain uniform on.
“Of course I am, I just want to cheer for Jeongin as well.” He ignored the teasing laughs his friends tried to hide. They failed to do so when they saw the Ravenclaws approaching from behind Minho, Jeongin with a slightly disgusted look on his face and Jisung with an affronted one.
“But what about me?!”
Minho’s ears immediately coloured, but he tried to keep up his façade, even as Jisung sat down next to him and whined against his shoulder, like the dramatic ass he was.
Minho scoffed, “I guess I’ll root for you too.” Jisung let out a pleased squeal and proceeded to get up from his shoulder to eat his breakfast but kept as close as humanly possible to the Slytherin, which didn’t make his blush going away any easier.
They all finished their breakfast amongst chatter and playful banter between the two rival houses for the day, then they headed to the Quidditch field, taking place in the lowest part of the stands for Minho’s sake. When the teams walked up to the centre of the field Jisung sent him a reassuring smile and a thumbs up, before mounting his broom with the same cocky smile that caused Minho to swoon every time.
Jeongin managed to catch the Golden Snitch, thus ending the game, but Slytherin had won because of Chan’s many goals by 10 points, securing the first win of the year.
The two teams’ captains shook their hands, and everyone headed to lunch in the Great Hall.
Seungmin walked alongside Minho as they walked back to the castle, a grimace on his face at the loss. He wasn’t the biggest Quidditch fan, but he did care about House points a lot.
“Hey at least it’s not a great difference,” said Minho, happy for the win but a bit sad for Jisung losing.
“Are you trying to comfort me now? You? Lee Minho?”
“Fine, I will never be kind to you ever again.”
“We leave you alone for one second and you’re already bickering again?” said Felix, coming up to them after he had gone to the changing rooms to congratulate Changbin.
“Well, if you weren’t busy jumping your boyfriend you would’ve been able to stop us from the start!” replied Seungmin, causing Felix to blush violently.
“You don’t know that!”
“Your lips and neck do though.”
Felix grumbled and surpassed the two snickering at him, sitting down at the table.
When even the players joined them, they made fun of Changbin and Felix more, but the overall mood was light and happy, even the Ravenclaws laughing along them. Jisung had sat down, as was already tradition, next to Minho, and had linked their arms, pretending to be sad for the loss, and even after he admitted to being absolutely fine, he kept his arm there. That was fine.
Minho, at this point, was used to his heartbeat picking up with any contact the Ravenclaw established and tried to eat his lunch in peace without overthinking what that could possibly mean. He succeeded. More or less.
-
The day of Minho’s birthday arrived, and with it, his gloomy feelings about it. He decided that he would try to avoid everyone to not make them sad, and, since it was Sunday, he had the perfect opportunity to wake up early and hide in the Kitchen with Moonie, who he found napping in one of the open pumpkins that were being readied for the Halloween banquet of the following week.
He had been there for a couple hours, and he was munching on a piece of pumpkin cake, with a cup of tea in front of him and the other hand busy with Moonie’s black and silky fur, when he heard a clatter and looked up to see Jisung tripping on a pile of pots that had to be cleaned.
“You okay?” asked Minho amused and surprised at seeing him there.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry for the mess,” he waved his wand to reorganise everything, the elves smiling appreciatively.
“What are you doing here? Searching for snacks?”
“No, actually. I was looking for you!”
“For me?” the Slytherin couldn’t believe his ears. Okay, he was looking for him, what was the big deal about? Nothing.
“Yeah! It’s your birthday, Min. I wanted to have breakfast together and do something special,” replied Jisung, a pout on his face, “but I couldn’t find you anywhere. So I asked Changbin where do you go when you don’t feel like being around people.”
“H-how do you know I don’t want to be around people now?”
“Oh, well,” Minho thought he saw the Ravenclaw’s cheeks redden, “It’s just that, this week, whenever me or Innie or Lix tried to organise something for your birthday or even just at the mention of it, you changed subject and Chan and Changbin would shake their heads at us. So, I figured you’re not big on birthdays and that you would wanna spend the day alone.”
“Oh,” replied Minho softly. “Then why are you here?”
“Oh, that’s easy! I didn’t want you to be all alone, so, here I am! We don’t have to party or anything, I just want to spend time with you!”
“Oh,” yeah, Minho was going to combust. How can a person be this perfect for him? He felt like there would not be anyone else that matched him this perfectly, that knew what to say and when to say it, that knew what to do to always make him happy. Maybe this was the moment to ask him out, after all. There wouldn’t be a perfect plan ever, so why not try now?
Jisung got closer to him to pick up a piece of cake, and when he saw Moonie in the pumpkin hummed happily, thrusting his hand in the pumpkin, next to Minho’s.
It took a moment to click.
“Wait, Jisung!”
The Ravenclaw looked up to him, stunned, with his cheeks full of pumpkin cake and his hand in the pumpkin, petting the kitten. Then suddenly he started coughing, red blotches appearing on his throat and hand.
“Shit!” he coughed out. Minho stopped thinking, took the boy by his wrist, and started running towards the Infirmary, panicked but acting by instinct.
When they reached the doors, Minho went inside and called for nurse, Kang Younghyun – who also happened to be Jisung’s cousin – and the man came out of his office, eyes opening wide at the sight of his little cousin covered in red blotches and wheezing.
“Thank you, Minho, I’ll take it from here.” The Slytherin nodded shakily and went outside, waiting and worrying. That was all his fault. If he hadn’t been there in the kitchens and easier to find, Jisung would have not risked anything.
+ 1
A couple of hours had passed, word had got around and now Jisung’s bed was surrounded by all of his friends.
When he opened his eyes, he felt confused by the bright lights, different from the warm but dark glow of the kitchens he last remembered.
“What happened?”
Chan’s head rose up and he smiled happily at seeing Jisung was feeling better, and that the colour had come back to his face. “You ate pumpkins.”
“OH,” right. That happened. He was so smitten with Minho and the kitten he hadn’t realised what he was eating.
“Where’s Minho?”
Changbin looked nervous, but as he was expecting the question.
“He’s outside. He feels like it was his fault and is not sure you want to see him anymore.”
“Oh, Merlin, no.” damn Minho and his beautiful, but stupid, brain. “Can I go?” he directed the question to his cousin, who checked a few things and then let him up.
“Yeah, I gave you your usual treatment and you already slept through it, so it should be fine.”
Jisung got out of bed, thanked his friend for coming to see him and assured them he felt great and then left the Infirmary, with the intention of finding the boy he had been planning to confess to for a long time. This was it.
Thankfully, as Changbin said, he was right outside. Jisung couldn’t help but coo internally when Minho rose up and looked at him with a dazed look, his bunny teeth poking out.
“Jisung! Merlin, are you okay? I’m so sorry, this is all my fault, I should’ve stopped you and –”
“Min.” Minho stopped talking but avoided his eyes. “Min, hey, can you look at me?” Jisung brought his hands up to softly cradle the other’s chin and gently lifted his head so that their eyes would meet.
“It’s not your fault, okay?” the Slytherin looked uncertain, “I swear it’s not. I was just too focused on you and Moonie because you two were too cute to notice anything else.”
“S-sorry, what?”
“I’m saying,” okay, this was it, come on Jisung you got this, “my crush on you makes me act dumb sometimes. And yes, I’m sorry I have been teasing you, but you look too cute when you’re flustered, I couldn’t help myself.”
Jisung chuckled a bit at the look on Minho’s face, his ears and neck feeling hot under his hands, that had moved back to keep him close.
“And also, I was there to yes, keep you company, but also to finally ask you out;” Minho let out a soft gasp, eyes incredulous and wider the more words Jisung said, “So, Lee Minho, will you go out with me on a date? Merlin, I hope I’m reading this right.”
Minho couldn’t speak. He had lost any ability to do so. He had left his tongue with Moonie who was probably eating it. Whoops, too graphic there.
“Min?”
Oh, shit, he had to say something. But he couldn’t. Oh, no no no no. He had to find a way to make his interest known.
Rational thoughts out of his brain, Minho surged forward, arms circling Jisung’s neck, lips finding Jisung’s. He felt the softness of the other boy’s lips on his own and his body melted against the Ravenclaw’s, lips now moving on their own as Jisung’s arms moved to his waist and he kissed him back with certainty. They kept kissing until they couldn’t anymore, and when they parted, Jisung let his forehead fall gently against Minho’s, the soft smile always directed at him now part of their little bubble.
“So, I take it it’s a yes?”
“Yeah,” smiled Minho. Then he seemed to realise something, gasped and punched Jisung on the shoulder.
“Ouch! What was that for?”
“I was the one supposed to ask you out! I have been trying since the start of the school year!”
“Oh, I know. But I had a plan of my own if you didn’t go through with your attempts.”
“You knew?!”
“Yeah, your ears spoke for you most of the time,” Minho sputtered, feeling betrayed by his own body, “and also, I’m sorry for being so distracting.” Smirked Jisung, loving the reactions he was getting from the usually stoic Slytherin.
“Who told you you were distracting? Maybe I just didn’t want to ask you out, after all.”
“Changbin did.” Jisung crossed his arms, a winning smile on his face. In that moment, the other guys deemed it safe to come out of the Infirmary, hearing them talk again.
Minho locked his vengeful eyes onto the short Slytherin who was approaching them with a smile. Changbin halted. He looked between Jisung’s smug smile and Minho’s fiery eyes.
“Seo Changbin.”