Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Han Jisung had always been able to read other people’s minds.

As a child he would scream for hours on end, stranger’s thoughts thrashing into his mind, unable to differentiate between his own mind and others. He couldn’t go out in public or even school till the age of 8 when he had managed to control this strange abnormality, that had taken over his life. Even then, if someone had such a strong emotion such as anger then he wouldn’t be able to control it and their thoughts would thread themselves back into his mind.

The first person Jisung told other than his family was Chan. They’d been friends since kids and in by 9 years old, he found the courage to tell him.

“No way! You’re lying” a little baby chan said folding his arms in disbelief. “I can! I can!” Jisung exclaimed desperate to prove it to his best friend. Chan flopped on the floor his hair bouncing with him. “Prove it then, what am I thinking of now.”

Jisung furrowed his brow and stared at Chan. He then laughed and sat down with the other boy. “You’re thinking of blueberry muffins!” Jisung laughed in delight. For the rest of the day Chan made Jisung read his mind and for the first time Jisung didn’t see his ability to mindread as something bad.

He didn’t actually know wether people felt something when he entered their thoughts so he decided to do an experiment with his friends when they were in their first year of high school. It took weeks but they were all willing to help. Both Felix and Seungmin had said their eyes had twitched and Chan had later realised that his eye also twitched but Jisung has read his mind so many times over the years that he just knew when it was happening.

As they grew older, the other boys could tell when Jisung was reading their mind as well as Chan and scolded him for invading their privacy. His ability didn’t become as much of an issue anymore, he was able to choose wether or not he could read someone’s mind or not and had learned to control it. His friends understood it was a difficulty for him but they also made use of it. They helped one another really. Of course, he didn’t tell many people. Ending up as a scientific research project wasn’t exactly where he wanted to go in life.

Once they were in their last year of high school, he had made a solid friendship group and they all depended on one another. It consisted of Chan,Felix,Seungmin and new editions of Woojin, Hyunjin and Jeongin joined in their first year of college with Changbin joining recently.

“Oh hey Felix!” Jisung shouted down the corridor fairly empty corridor where he was standing by the lockers. He whipped around and smiled beckoning Jisung over. “So I was thinking maybe... oh uh hi” Jisung stopped, noticing the other boy with Felix.
“Sorry, im Changbin, im in Felix’s English class.”
“Oh no worries, nice to meet you Changbin.” He said feeling slightly awkward.
“What were you gonna say?” Felix asked moving a step nearer to Changbin.
“I was gonna see if everyone wanted to come round tomorrow?” Jisung said avoiding Changbins gaze. There was definitely something going on between the two. He stared into Felix’s eyes until his thoughts began to run into Jisungs own.

Oh.

“Why is this so awkward”
“Is Jisung okay? Or maybe Changbins shy?”
“But he isn’t shy with me?”
“God he looks cute”
“Why is Jisung looking at me strangely”
“Are you reading my mind?”

That made sense, Felix had a crush on him. A massive crush on him by the looks of it.

He laughed slightly causing the pair to become suspicious. Felix was already looking annoyed. “Did you just rea-“ Felix abruptly stopped forgetting Changbin was there.
“Did he just what?” Changbin asked confused.
“Oh uh nothing, we should probably get going.” Felix said throwing a glare at Jisung.

About a month later Changbin had pretty much officially joined the group and Jisung had to admit he was a good addition. After their first meeting it had become a lot easier to talk with one another and the relentlessly teasing about Felix was too good of a chance to pass up. It was obvious they both liked one another. The only problem was that Changbin didn’t know about Jisungs ability.

Jisung figured he’d have fun with it.

One time they were sat outside enjoying their break with just the two of them and Jisung decided to read Changbins mind. “Stop stressing about how you’re gonna get home, I’ll take you” Jisung said not looking up from his laptop.
“Wha- how did you..”
Jisung shrugged trying to conceal his laughter.
“Oh and you can have some of my lunch seeing as though you’ve forgotten yours.”
“What the fuck... how..”
Jisung laughed unable to hide it any longer and shut off his laptop, putting it in his bag.
“Here” he said throwing a bag of crisps at Changbin and walking off to his next class.

Later that day he got a call from Woojin lecturing him.
“You might as well tell him, the poor boy got scared.”
“Oh but it was so funny!”
“To you it was, im sure he probably thinks we’re all weird now”
“Yeah apart from Felix.”
“Shut up, just tell him tomorrow at lunch or something”
“Alright Fine but not until you’ve seen how reacts”
“You’re so mean”
“Yeah bye!”

He woke up the following day feeling fairly happy, apart from the fact they were changing seats in his chemistry class. It was his first class of the day and although it didn’t start very early, he hated morning classes.

He would later smack himself for not making an effort that morning as he was sat by a boy he’d never met before. And dear god he was gorgeous. Jisung wandered over to his new assigned seat by the window, desperately trying to flatten his hair and look presentable. Just as he had sat down and opened his mouth ready to introduce himself, their teacher began speaking.
“Okay settle down please, we have a new student! This is Lee Minho, he will be joining us in our chemistry course.”
Jisung stopped listening after that and pondered various conversation starters. The other boy had floppy brown hair with soft features and a sharp jawline. He was just wearing a plain black hoody with black ripped jeans but he looked so so good.

“Uh is there something you need?”

Shit. He’d been staring. Great conversation starter. “No, no! Sorry. So you’re new?” Jisung said trying to redeem himself. “Looks like it” Minho shrugged writing down something.

“Who can balance this equation for me?”

Jisung stared in surprise as Minho’s Hand shot up almost immediately. “Yes Minho?”
“Uh if I’m right it should be Lead, bracket Nitrogen plus Oxygen cubed then another bracket, squared plus two Sodium times Chlorine.”
There was a small silence before the teacher gave Minho a smile and continued with the lesson. “Woah” Jisung said under his breath. Obviously he wasn’t quiet enough as Minho whipped round giving him a grin.

“If you talk about this Minho boy one more time-“ Jeongin threatened. “No but seriously he was just so...” he trailed off noticing Chan walking towards with none other than Minho himself. “Hi guys uh this is Minho, he’s in my sociology!” Chan smiled happily. Their eyes met straight away and Jisung gave a little smile. “Yeah we’ve already met, we’re partners in Chemistry.”
“Oh great! So you don’t mind him sitting with us, seeing as though he’s new and all?”
“Not at all.” Jisung said not taking his eyes away from Minho. He could hear Felix trying to contain his laughter but he didn’t care, he was glad Minho was sitting with them. He tried to focus his mind on something else and remembered his plan to trick Changbin. “No lunch again Changbin?” Jisung said shaking his head. “No stop this is scary! How do you know? I haven’t even told anyone!”
“It’s almost like you can read his mind or something!” Minho laughed and it took Jisung a second to remember there was no way Minho could know before he laughed as well.
“Try me” Minho joked leaning forward across the picnic bench. He couldn’t see any harm in trying it once with Minho as well. He stared into the other boys eyes intently and furrowed his brow making a big deal of it.

Yet, he couldn’t. At all.

Chapter Text

“Explain to me again?”
“So I was making a big deal out of it pretending to concentrate and then I tried to... you know and I just? couldn’t? It was like there was this wall blocking his thoughts it was weird.”
“That is weird? Maybe it was a one time thing? Or maybe it was just in that moment? I’ll see you when we get to school.”
“Okay, bye Chan and thanks.”

Jisung hung up the phone and flopped onto his bed looking up at the ceiling. Ever since he’d been a baby he had been able to read peoples minds. It frustrated him, he could know what everyone else was thinking except the one boy he really wanted to know about. “Jisung! Hyunjins here!” His mum called from downstairs. Groaning he grabbed his bag and sprinted down the stairs almost stumbling into his mum along the way.
“Bye mum!” he called slamming the door behind him.
“Why are you always late?” Hyunjin sighed beginning to walk. Jisung laughed, as ever since they’d begun walking to college together, Jisung had been late every single time.

Just to check he wasn’t going completely crazy he decide he would read Hyunjins mind along the way.

did I leave my physics work at home?
don’t we get those performing arts exams back today?
did I remember to feed my dog?
I wonder what dog food is made from
Probably something disgusting
Poor Kami

Okay nevermind, he could definitely still read other people’s minds. So why couldn’t he with Minho?

He tried to forget about the whole thing and continued talk to Hyunjin as they entered their dance class. After they had got changed and their teacher had given them a few instructions, Jisung began working on his solo routine and it was okay but something was definitely missing. He also still had to devise a duet but Jisung couldn’t go with Hyunjin as they were already doing their group piece together.

For the second time that day, Jisung tried to clear his mind to focus on his dance when he heard the door open hurriedly. “Sorry I’m late.” Came a familiar voice from the door. Jisung whipped round to find Minho out of breath, his hair in all different directions. “I couldn’t find the building.” He said walking in.

Hyunjin walked over to Minho, clearly explaining where everything was and what they were working on for their exams. Minho left to the changing rooms and Hyunjin ran over smiling to Jisung.
“I just explained to Minho about the solo, duet and group piece and he said he already has a solo prepared from his last school but obviously still needs a duet and group piece. I recommended he join Byungwoo’s group as they’ve barely started and only have 3 people. Oh and I suggested he do the duet with you? I hope you don’t mind but neither of you have a partner so”
“Oh uh..... no that should be fine, thanks Hyunjin I’ll speak to him in a bit.”
“No problem!”
Jisung smiled at Hyunjin then continued to go over his solo, anxiously waiting for Minho to come back into the studio. To be fair he really did need a duet partner, as loads of others had advanced really far and although he had some ideas, he hadn’t started.
“Oh hey Minho!” Jisung called over beckoning him with his hand.
“Jisung, hi! I presume Hyunjin asked you about the duet? I sort of have some ideas in mind so if you want to meet up after school one day?”
“Oh that’s brilliant! I also have some ideas, we’re kind of behind so do you want to stay after school today?”

Jisung saw this as an opportunity to try and read Minhos mind again. Maybe it really was just a one time thing.

Nope. Not a one time thing. Nothing.

“Uh Jisung?”
“Right yes sorry i zoned out what did you say?”
“I said I’m fine to stay after school till about 5”
“Oh okay good plan, I really have to work on my solo but I’ll see you after?”
“Yeah me too, see you after!”
Minho ran off clearly very excited and Jisungs heart flipped as he stared at the floppy haired boy.

Class didn’t go as Jisung had hoped as he was too busy watching Minho, trying to decipher his technique and style. He probably should’ve thought of that before he agreed but he didn’t care. He flowed so easily with the music and looked.. well.. effortless. The teacher clapped signalling the end of the lesson making Jisung jump. He really had wasted that lesson.

It wasn’t until lunch that Jisung saw Minho again. He sat in the same spot, opposite Jisung which made him smile slightly. “So are you both definitely doing the duet?” Hyunjin asked bringing it up.

“Oh what?”
“You’re doing a duet together?”
“Is this for your exam?”
“Awwww”
“When were you gonna tell me?”

Everyone’s reaction made Minho and Jisung laugh as Hyunjin tried to answer everyone’s questions, failing to do so. “Yes we’re doing a duet together, yes it’s for our exam and I was gonna tell you in a minute!” Jisung directed the last part at Seungmin who looked sulky.

He wouldn’t lie, maths really dragged on. He loved maths but the prospect of meeting with Minho was a distraction. The fact that they were in the same chemistry and dance class made it more difficult. Whilst in the midst of his thoughts, Chan elbowed him harshly from where he was sitting next to Jisung.
“Please concentrate Jisung”
“I am!”
“You’re not, I can tell something’s on your mind”
“So now you’re the mind reader?”
“Ha ha funny. You have to tell me”
“Nothing!”
“It’s Minho isn’t it?”
“......no”
“yes it is, it’s so obvious.”

Jisung sighed ignoring Chan’s whispers from next to him. It wasn’t that obvious was it? I mean he’d only know him a couple days, in fact he barely knew him. He wasn’t even that whipped anyway.
He scoffed,folding his arms. He was intrigued. That was all.