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Minho liked Eric. He was funny, enthusiastic and was more than happy to join in whenever Minho was poking fun at any of their friends. He suited Felix, treated him well and he got on with everyone, which is all that really mattered. He fit into their group of friends as though he had always been there, even bringing his friends into the mix.
So, in short, Minho considered Eric one of his good friends. He trusted him and liked hanging out with him, even in one-on-one situations. He had an ability to make even the most mundane tasks fun, which Minho appreciated so much so he had managed to rope Eric into coming with him whenever it was laundry day. It definitely wasn’t because Eric had a habit of getting so carried away in whatever he was talking about, that he didn’t notice he was basically doing Minhos washing for him. That was just a plus, in his eyes.
The reason Minho is currently sitting on aforementioned friends couch, thinking about all the reasons he likes him, is because Eric had threatened him. Not in any real way, he hadn’t threatened him with violence or anything, but he had just shared a memory that, if Minho let himself hinder on it for longer than a second, would make him have to reconsider feelings he’d been ignoring for 5 years already. Which he really wasn’t in the mood to do.
“What did you just say?” Jisung spoke from beside Minho, surprising him out of his own thoughts. He turns, looking at the former, whose eyes are wide, mouth slowly chewing on the strawberry candy Minho had fed him but moments earlier.
“I’m serious! I thought you two had been dating this entire time! I figured you just… weren’t super vocal about it or something - which is fine. So I just went with it. Felix told me last night that you were just best friends. Which is kinda’ crazy to me.” Eric spoke quickly, stood in the center of the living room in front of the pair of them, as if he were pleading to a jury.
Minho turned his head to Felix, tone accusatory. “Why did you let him think this for two years?” He juts his chin out at the boy for emphasis, arms folding across his chest. He’d decided to try and pawn the blame off on Felix, which wasn’t exactly fair, but still. He could hardly accept the alternative; that Jisung and Minho could quite possibly come across as a couple.
“It’s not my fault you two are like that.” Felix argued, gesturing at the pair of them. Minho huffs, turning to Jisung who mirrors his expression. They had long come to accept that this was how they worked; they were just that close. Minho had managed to repress any emotion that could possibly imply anything other than best friends long ago.
“Why aren’t you dating anyway?” Eric asks, leaning between them and taking a handful of candy, throwing it into his mouth as he glances between the pair of them. He’s the only one in the room that’s moving. His words cause the other three to freeze, his question one that none of them had expected. “I mean - you’re already basically dating. Why haven’t you given it a shot?”
Quick as lightning, Felix tackles Eric and drags him into the kitchen, closing the door behind them. Minho appreciates it, but the damage has already been done. Eric had posed the question Minho had been trying to ignore all these years. Why hadn’t he given it a shot?
Of course, he knew why he hadn’t given it a shot. He didn’t want to risk anything. As cocky as he pretends to be, Minho worries constantly. He loves where he is, loves the people he’s surrounded by, adores the college course he’s striving toward. He’s worked hard to get to this point and he’s working even harder to keep it. At this point, such a dramatic change is a terrifying concept; especially because he couldn’t tell if Jisung was at all interested. As much as he prided himself on the idea that he knew the boy better than he knew himself, he still wasn’t sure if… this was something he’d ever thought about. The uncertainty scared him.
“Why haven’t we?” Jisung asks, voice cracking slightly. He clears his throat, pulling a pillow flush against his chest and shifting so his feet are tucked underneath him. He looks incredibly small like this, and it’s killing Minho. “Minho? Listen to me!”
He taps Minho’s shoulder tentatively and the contact has him jumping out of reflex. “I am listening! You’re not giving me a second to answer.” He shoves Jisungs shoulder and the boy falls back into the cushion of the couch. “I don’t know why we’ve never tried. You never said you wanted to!”
“You never asked!” Jisung shoots back up, jabbing his finger into the center of Minhos chest. Why was he getting mad about this all of a sudden? How was Minho supposed to know that it was his duty to ask Jisung about all of this - especially when he’d had nothing to go on?
“You never asked!” Minho mimics, seizing the pillow from Jisung, and hopefully, at least a small portion of how simply endearing he looked. Jisung pouts at him and Minho falters in his decision for a second, stressed out about how cute he was at all times. He sighs, gently throwing the pillow back at Jisung who just smiles happily in return. “Who said it was my job to ask? You didn’t ask either!”
Jisung just scoffs at that, picking up the bag of candy sat between them and emptying the remains into his mouth, patting the bag a couple times to make sure he got all of it. Probably so Minho and Eric couldn’t get any. Asshole. Minho leans back, swinging his leg up and over Jisungs lap, resting it on him with an exaggerated sigh. He chews in relative silence for a moment, before gesturing to the kitchen. “Those two don’t expect me to be the one who asks. Do you, Eric?” He calls out, baiting the boy and giving Minho a prematurely smug grin.
“No, I definitely thought it was Minho.” A voice responds, followed by the sound of someone being hit and yelling out in shock. So they were eavesdropping. Minho wasn’t exactly surprised, he’d kind of just forgotten they were even here to begin with. Being with Jisung is just like that; he gets caught up in their own little bubble and forgets about the people who exist on the edge of it.
“See!” Jisung sticks his tongue out at Minho then, which causes Minho to propel himself forward and throw his arm around his neck, pulling him close to his chest, other hand ruffling his hair somewhat aggressively. He couldn’t control himself around Jisung. He was just so annoyingly endearing Minho needed to make fun of him as often as possible or he’d burst.
He releases Jisung from his hold, leaning down to the ground to pick up the abandoned tube of Pringles and holding it to his mouth, tipping it back and tapping the side to get as many crumbs as possible, before holding it out to Jisung. “Do you want to try it then?” He asks as casually as he can, watching Jisung choke on the Pringles crumbs. Serves him right.
“Uh - yeah! It’ll be fun. We’ll still be best friends even if it doesn’t work out, right?” He asks, crunching as he speaks. Minho takes a second to consider his question; he doesn’t doubt they’ll remain best friends, but he wonders if there’ll be a layer of awkwardness between them. He shakes the thoughts from his head, hands flying up to adjust his hair back to normal.
“Yeah, we’ll still be best friends idiot. So - should we go on a date? To test it out?” His tongue runs over his upper lip after he speaks, a minor form of fidgeting. He’s still not sure if Jisung’s being serious about this - about trying all of this out. Does he understand what this means? What if it goes well? What do they do then? They haven’t discussed that possible outcome. Then again - Minho doesn’t want to get his hopes up. It’ll make it worse if it doesn’t happen.
“Okay! But you have to plan it - I don’t know much about dating, after all. Plus - you have more money than me anyway.” He smiles, tapping his hands against Minho’s leg that’s still resting on his lap. Minho doesn’t have the heart to tell him that he doesn’t actually know much either - he was way too busy to be thinking about dating people these days. Most of his time went toward his degree, and any spare time was split between tutoring and hanging with him and the rest of their friends.
“Okay. I can do that. I’ll pick you up on Thursday at 7. Dress nice.”
He knew Hyunjin had been raving about some restaurant Younghoon had taken him to last week for one of their dates, one that some member of Younghoons family probably owned or something. Hopefully Hyunjin would be willing to help them out and get them a table on such short notice. Fancy restaurants were what people did for first dates, right? He pulls out his phone and does a quick google search to check, before nodding to himself. A lot of sites recommended going for somewhere to eat and talk. Okay. He had this. He was Lee Minho, after all. This would be the best first date anyone had had in the history of ever. He’d make sure of it.
Minho is pretty sure this is the worst date humanly possible. They had shown up late because of traffic and had clearly been out of their element as soon as they stepped into the restaurant. Everyone around them seemed to be businessmen in full suits discussing important matters. Luckily Minho had asked Hyunjin how much money it’d cost for the pair of them roughly so he could be prepared or else he’d be worried about that too.
Jisung was clearly worried about the cost, despite his threats in the car to “eat everything on the menu”. Maybe Minho had tried too hard for this one when Jisung had been expecting him to take it as a joke? Either way, the entire date was awkward. Jisung spilled some of his drink on his pants and had hurried off to the bathroom to try and clean himself up, leaving Minho alone. He was pretty sure the servers were laughing at how uncomfortable he looked.
He’d dressed in his fanciest clothes, so he knew he didn’t look bad. In fact, he looked pretty good. There wasn’t any denying that. He just didn’t look as expensive as everyone within the vicinity. He’s wearing a patterned black-and-white shirt half tucked into black trousers, black beret perched on top of his hair. It’s simple and effective, usually. Compared to the number of branded clothes he’d spotted as soon as they’d walked in, however, he doesn’t feel as impressive as everyone else here.
He’s a little upset by how good Jisung looks, though. He’s so used to seeing him in his casual clothes - which aren’t bad, Minho likes how cozy he tends to look - but seeing Jisung like this throws him entirely. He’s wearing a pale blue shirt loosely tucked into black jeans and Minho cannot stop looking at him. His hair is a little messy, but it’s cute. Minho just wants to run his hands through it. Everything about him is overwhelmingly cute. Jesus. Ideally, this nightmare date wouldn’t be when Minho finally accepted he had feelings for his best friend, but he never did things when they were aptly timed.
And god, did he have feelings for him.
Jisung comes back and sits down, finishing his food in silence, completely unaware of the revelation he’s caused him to finally have. Minho watches him eat, having finished his food while he was gone. He’s entirely focused on the food and Minho doesn’t think he’s even aware that he is just… staring. Then again, he’s not entirely sure what else he’d be doing. They both felt too awkward to talk like they usually do, considering they were far louder than the rest of the customers here. It was just the worst date Minho could ever have taken Jisung on, he thinks. “Are you done? I’ll pay and drop you off at home, okay?” Minho leans forward, talking as softly as he can.
Jisung just nods, lifting the napkin and wiping his mouth clean. Minho does as he says, holding the ornate front door open for the other and heading to his car. Once they’re inside, they both sigh a breath of relief.
“That sucked, right?” Minho turns to look at Jisung as he asks, trying to gauge his reaction. He’d be lying if he said a little part of him wasn’t disappointed about how it had went, but at least he hadn’t let himself get his hopes entirely up. After all, this just proved that Eric was wrong. They were destined to be best friends and that was okay. Minho chose to ignore that Eric hadn’t actually said anything about them being destined for anything else.
“Yeah. At least we tried - Eric can’t yell at us for not giving it a shot, right?” Jisung adjusts the seat as he speaks, leaning it back slightly, before pulling his seatbelt across his chest and buckling it. His hands come to rest on his thighs, fingers tapping out a beat - Minho vaguely recognises it as one of the ones he’s been working on with Chan and Changbin recently, but he’s not sure what the name of it is.
“Yeah, thank god. Thanks to that asshole I just spent so much money. He better reimburse me.” Minho sorts his own seatbelt, before pulling out of the parking lot carefully, hand resting on the back of Jisungs headrest. Jisung laughs and without even realising, Minho finds himself smiling too.
“Wanna’ come back to mine and watch that movie I was telling you about? I bought the dvd so you could watch it. Maybe we can still save tonight so it isn’t a waste of time and money.” He laughs, as if he truly believed the date was a waste of time. But any time spent with Jisung wasn’t wasted.
“As long as we stop for snacks; I know you don’t have any left in your house, you were complaining about it last night, remember? I’m not watching a film without any snacks at all, hyung. You can’t make me.”
Minho rolls his eyes, adoring smile on his lips. The simple matter of Jisung remembering their text discussion, despite how tired he had been last night, meant the world to him. It doesn’t surprise him, however; Jisung was constantly listening and remembering even the most minute details about him.
“You are so full of complaints all the time, Han Jisung. Why don’t you pay for the snacks sometime? You basically live at my place and don’t pay rent, so it’s the least you could do. Complaining as if it wasn’t you who finished the snacks.”
“Oh, hyung.” He leans over and takes hold of Minhos arm, waving it slightly as he presses his cheek to his shoulder. When in doubt, Jisung would always use Minhos clear bias for cute things against him. “You take care of me so well! Please buy me some snacks. Or else my tummy will rumble and I wont be able to enjoy the film. For me? Please?”
Under the guise that he’s doing it only in order to get Jisung to shut up, Minho waves the boy off and heads home, stopping by the convenience store and picking up a few things, quietly lifting a bag of candy he knows Jisung loves and throwing that onto the counter too while the boy stands idly behind him.
They walk back to the car and Jisung is swinging the bags as he walks, having been told that he was carrying them by Minho. It was only fair, after all. Jisung had complied willingly, agreeing that he could do that much. He hums as he walks, continuing while they drive the short distance back to Minhos place.
Once they get into his apartment he greets his three cats, talking to them about how their days had been as if they’d ever respond. But that’s okay. After all, what he has with his babies transcends speech. Jisung dutifully follows behind, having long since given up complaining about how long it takes for Minho to settle in once he’s home. Now, he greets the cats too. It warms Minhos heart to watch his favorite creatures in the whole wide world grow such a liking for his favorite boy in the world.
They collapse onto the couch in a pile, limbs entangling as they open the food bags and Minho fiddles with the DVD players remote. It’s only when he’s about to press play that he remembers the small surprise he’d bought for Jisung at the store. He pulls the candy out of his pocket and throws it onto Jisungs lap, carefully avoiding the kitten curled up there.
The boys face lights up when he registers what has been thrown on him, lifting the candy and looking at Minho, eyes wide and mouth forming an ‘o’. Minho finds himself just staring at Jisung, watching as his mouth widens into the heart shape that he has come to begrudgingly adore as he talks to himself in his stupid affected voice.
Maybe the date wasn’t a complete waste of time and money after all.
“It didn’t work? What do you mean?” Felix asks, head tilting to the side. Minho feels a little bad about it, but only because he can see that Felix had held out hope that it would work. It’s not like he didn’t try - his wallet is still hurting and he’s already picked up a couple extra tutoring lessons to cover it.
Jisung sighs and throws his legs across Felix’s, stretching his arms above him. “It was awkward! The food was good, but the place was way too fancy for both of us and we didn’t get to speak or anything - so dating just isn’t for us.”
It’s at this point Eric whips round from where he’s sat on the floor beside Minho, in front of Felix. “Too fancy for us?” He turns his head to Minho, eyebrows furrowed. “Where did you even take him, hyung?” He’s confused, which is understandable. He probably didn’t expect Minho to put as much effort into it as he did. To be fair, Minho himself didn’t ever expect that he’d put that much effort in, but - he felt like he ought to. That’s what Younghoon did for Hyunjin, after all. And Hyunjin is always raving on about how great their dates are.
“I took him to that place Hyunjin and Younghoon went to.” Minho can’t help but let a little of the pride seep into his voice. Eric would probably be surprised Minho had the ability to plan such an expensive and extravagant date, after all. Maybe he’d even be a little impressed - which, admittedly, wasn’t all that difficult with the younger. He was very easily impressed. “Which reminds me - because it was your idea and it sucked, you better rei-” He’s cut off when Eric smacks his arm.
“You’re an idiot! Why did you go to an expensive restaurant? Have you ever gone to an expensive restaurant together before?” He glances between Minho and Jisung, as does Felix. When the pair of them sheepishly shake their heads, Eric just flops backward, head hitting against Felix’s knee. Felix reaches down and soothingly rubs it.
“What were we supposed to do? I looked it up online and everywhere said that going somewhere fancy to eat was a good idea for a first date!” Minho argued back, shoving Eric in return.
“You looked it up online?” Jisung questioned quietly, reaching forward and resting his hands on Minho’s shoulders. Hearing him ask that only served to make him embarrassed though. It felt like confirmation that Jisung hadn’t intended to take it as seriously as Minho did and that hurt more than he wanted it to.
“Why did you treat it like a first date?” Felix asks. The tone suggests he was genuinely confused by Minho’s thought process - which isn’t new. But it serves to confuse Minho even more. Why wouldn’t he treat it like a first date? He hadn’t been on a date with Jisung before now, after all. They hung out all the time, but those weren’t dates.
“You know what Felix and I did on our first date?” Eric propels forward again, reaching over his shoulder for Felix’s hand. They linked fingers and Eric beams at Minho. “We played PUBG together, like we always do. I paid for pizza, too. The only difference was I could say everything I wanted to say without feeling like it’d be weird. We cuddled after, too. Going on fancy dates is fun, but keep it within your comfort zone! Younghoon is used to big restaurant dates and because he’s comfortable in those sorts of places, Hyunjin is too. But even they prefer dates where they’re just at home watching movies together.”
Minho nods slowly. He understands what Eric’s trying to say. The date might have been a disaster simply because it wasn’t them. It was someone else’s date night and that didn’t suit who they were. That makes sense. Should they have stayed at home too? It’d be more comfortable and Minho would’ve been able to actually talk to Jisung, which is all he really wants to do. “When did you get so wise?” He reaches out and pinches Erics cheek, who simply grins at him in response.
“He’s only wise when everyone else is being dumb.” Felix chimes in, sticking his tongue out at his boyfriend when he turns his entire body round to headbutt his knee. Minho and Jisung laugh along with Felix when Eric reels back, rubbing his forehead.
“Isn’t that how wisdom works anyway?” Jisung asks. “You’re only wise if everyone around you is dumb.” He follows up, explaining his thoughts. Minho supposes he isn’t entirely wrong, but still. That implies that Minho himself is an idiot compared to Eric, who is younger than him, and that doesn’t feel right.
“Did you just admit to being dumb, Han Jisung?” He smirks, lowering his chin and flashing a smug expression Jisungs way. Before he even has time to flinch, a pillow hits the corner of his shoulder, thrown from Jisungs direction. He lifts it and immediately throws it back, hitting Jisung square in the face. Eric claps as he laughs, throwing his entire torso around in glee.
“You know, I wonder if your date didn’t work because the place was too fancy, or because you two were too worried about your relationship having to change.” Felix speaks, scratching underneath his jaw as he does so. It causes both Minho and Jisung to freeze, the sudden topic and tone shift alarming them.
“What does that mean?” Minho finds himself demanding, his mouth moving of its own accord. Felix flinches back at the tone, glancing down to his lap. It makes Minho feel bad, because he knows he doesn’t mean anything bad by it. It’s just that he’s right. For Minho, anyway. He’d been so willing to accept the date going awfully because it fit with the mindset he’d constrained himself to for years. He was worried about risking what he had with Jisung. Felix was right and Minho hated that.
“It would change, wouldn’t it?” Jisung speaks softly, fingers playing with the frayed ends of the pillow Minho had thrown at him but seconds earlier. His hair is covering his eyes and he’s pouting as he speaks. He looked like he was just as worried about this as Minho had been. Like he too had been fretting over these things. Which would mean…
Did Jisung like him too?
Minho pressed his hand to his chest and felt his heartbeat going at an abnormal rate. He wasn’t sure what to make of it all. Jisung looked as concerned about the possibility of change, about risking how effortless their friendship was, as he felt. He wants so badly to provide him with comfort, to assure him that things wouldn’t change; but he didn’t know.
“Yeah, it would.” Felix answers earnestly. It causes Minhos heart to sink and he almost misses what he says next. “But wouldn’t it be worth it? Don’t you both want to at least give it a shot? It’s obvious you both like each other - even Younghoon and Hyunjin have commented on it. If you didn’t like each other you wouldn’t have went on the date the first time, right?”
Minho freezes in a stunned silence. He hadn’t thought he’d been overly obvious with his feelings; had figured he harbored them quite well. But more than he focused on that, he thought about the rest of what Felix had said. The implication behind his words.
Jisung liked him too.
“Yeah. That’s true.” Minho mumbles softly, barely talking to the people around him, mostly admitting it for himself. He’s right, after all. Minho had gone on the date because he liked Jisung; that much he’d already accepted. He hadn’t thought much about Jisungs motivation. He hadn’t wanted to think about it in case he got his hopes up. But he’s well past that point now and it’s all because of Felix.
He turns, shifting his entire body around so he can properly look at Jisung who’s sitting directly behind him. He’s surprised to see the boy has been staring directly at the back of his head this entire time and lets his mouth drop open. He doesn’t quite know what to say, the words formulating in his head and dissipating before he can get them out. He barely registers Felix and Eric hurrying themselves out of their own apartment, Eric vaguely yelling something presumably instructional their way.
Minho can’t register anything except for the boy in front of him and Felix’s words echoing around his head. Was he right? He hadn’t ever considered the possibility of the feelings being returned. No, he hadn’t allowed himself to ponder on it for longer than as a passing thought, lulling himself to sleep. A dream world he only allowed himself brief visits to.
He couldn’t get his hopes up, after all.
Yet here he is, sitting in front of Jisung, staring up at him. There are so many things he wants to know, so many things he wants to confirm, or deny. But he can’t say any of them, not right now. His thoughts are scrambled and it’s so much, he’s quickly growing overwhelmed by it all.
Jisung takes hold of his hand, entwines their fingers together. “It’s true for me too.” He speaks softly, glancing down to their fingers. His thumb brushes against the back of Minhos hand gently, the repetitive action calming him down considerably. Jisung just tended to have that effect on him. And, as though he knew Minho needed to hear it directly, Jisung smiles. “I like you, Lee Minho. Quite a lot, actually.”
He can’t contain the smile that erupts from him, as though it had been building all of these years and could finally be unleashed. It had finally grown stronger than Minhos willpower, his need to bury his affection for the boy sat in front of him vanishes into thin air and all that’s left are the earnest words Minho wants to tattoo on his heart, imprinted into his thoughts. He pulls Jisungs hand to his chest and just smiles and smiles and smiles. He doesn’t say anything for a while, just admires the boy he likes, the boy who likes him back. One and the same.
“Say it back already!” Jisung huffs, hitting Minhos shoulder with his fist and Minho rolls his eyes, but the smile doesn’t fade away. Instead, when Jisung pouts, he just lifts their hands to his lips and presses a light kiss to the back of Jisungs hand. It surprises the boy, clearly, as his cheeks grow pink and his eyes widen. He hadn’t expected that. Good.
“I like you, Han Jisung.” The words flow from him, and everything feels lighter. There’s an unbridled fondness within his voice, a rush of unadulterated sincerity that knocks even Minho off his rhythm. It takes him a second to catch himself once more, to refocus on the gentleness of the repetitive movements of Jisungs thumb against his skin. “But if you ever drop the honorifics again I’ll flick your forehead so hard you wont be able to see for a week.”
Jisung doesn’t seem put off by this, though. He’s far too used to Minho to be properly scared or intimidated by him. Instead, he just tugs on his hand, patting the seat on the couch beside him. Minho moves where he’s told and Jisung immediately sidles up to him, head resting against his shoulder. “Did you really look it up?”
Minho nods. There was no point in trying to deny what he’d already said, considering he’d already heard it. If he denied it, then the boy would just hassle him until he admitted it a second time. Once already felt like it was enough.
They sit in silence like that for a little longer, just reveling in their newfound truths. There’s something to be said about the comfort provided by the quiet. Minho glances to the other and just watches him for a while. He’s scrolling through his phone, head resting against Minhos shoulder. His arm is hooked around his and he’s radiating warmth. “I really like you, Han Jisung.”
The seriousness of the sentence seems to startle him, and he looks up at Minho incredulously. His eyes are wide and his hair is ruffled and he’s so close. “I’ve liked you for so long. It’s kind of been a nuisance, actually. Having you in all my thoughts.” He reaches up and messes Jisungs hair up, causing the boy to huff and fix it again.
“That’s on you! That’s not my fault, hyung. You can’t blame your gay feelings on me for no reason.” He speaks under his breath, but Minho can’t find it in him to complain too much. It was Jisungs fault. He didn’t particularly do anything, sure, but he was himself. He was Han Jisung.
And Minho thinks that being Han Jisung was reason enough.