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High school is fun. You won’t know you’ll miss high school until you’re done with it ; that’s what everyone says.
But for Jisung, high school isn’t as fun as he thought. Not when the universe chose his strict parents to give birth to Jisung, 16 years ago. He’s now 16 years old and he isn’t sure if a daily cycle of repeatedly going to school then going straight to cram school afterwards and never being allowed to join extra-curricular activities is considered as a great high school experience. Hell, he’s never even been on an annual school trip with his friends except for that one time in grade four when they all went to the planetarium for so-called educational purposes.
“Oh, we’re worried about you.”
“What if something happens to you on the trip?”
“We promise you, we’ll travel there together someday.”
That’s what his parents always say. He can’t remember the time they actually kept their promises to him though.
Sure, he’s a model student. All the teachers love him. His parents are proud of him topping all the exams in his batch. The parents of his classmates and friends are envious of him ; they wish they have a Jisung as their son.
It’s fine. Right?
Jisung doesn’t really have best friends in his class. Not even close friends. No one really wants to be friends with someone who never gets the permission to hang out with friends outside school. The most he’s ever hung out with his classmates would be that time when he was in a group project with Felix, Seungmin and Hyunjin and they all met up at Hyunjin’s house to do their science project. Even then, his mom was in the car waiting outside Hyunjin’s house for Jisung to finish the project with his classmates.
It’s normal. Right?
🐰🐿️
Minho.
The first time Jisung met Minho was when he was ten and Minho was twelve. Minho's father got a job in Seoul so the family moved from Gimpo to Seoul to make things more convenient for the family.
Yellow roses. Whenever Jisung saw Minho, he was reminded of the yellow roses Minho gifted him when they first met. "Yellow means friendship. Be my friend?" He still remembered how Minho's smile was so bright it blinded him for a solid minute. Those were the first words he received from Minho six years ago when they first saw each other.
Even till this day, Minho will never not stop appreciating their friendship and never fails to tell Jisung that the younger's color is in fact, yellow — bright as a sunshine, bringing Minho the warmth he needed in his life.
To Jisung, Minho is his Flynn Rider. Jisung is Rapunzel; his own mother locking him in his own house, not allowing any unnecessary contact with the outside world. Except in this case, Minho is the only person Jisung's mother trusts so if Minho is present, Jisung will always be allowed to leave his house and explore the world.
Sunflowers. Jisung was twelve when Minho gave a bouquet of Sunflowers for the younger's birthday, together with a Pororo birthday cake because Minho knew how Jisung would watch Pororo at least 5 times a week.
"Do you know what sunflowers mean, Jisungie?" 14 years old Minho asked Jisung, ruffling the younger's hair as Jisung sniffed but looked mildly horrified at how there was no scent in those yellow flowers.
Jisung shaked his head quickly, still trying to process why sunflowers didn't have pleasant aromas like the yellow roses Minho got him before.
"Sunflowers means adoration and loyalty. I'll always be by your side, I'll be your loyal friend."
And that was how Minho's pinky fingers intertwined with Jisung's ; a promise for life sealed.
🐰🐿️
Winter Wonderland dance is an annual event that happens every Christmas eve at their highschool. The PE gym turns into an astounding ballroom, decorated with flowy, satin fabrics, snowflake latex balloons, white LED lighted trees — white, red and green, the colors of Christmas coming to life in the PE gym-turned-ballroom for a night.
“So, are you going to the winter dance?” Minho asks Jisung, as he jumps on the couch, seating himself beside Jisung who’s busy watching some discovery channel on his phone.
Jisung rolls his eyes, shaking his head and that gives Minho an obvious answer.
“Whyyyyy? Come on, it’ll be fun.” Minho teases, poking the mochi cheeks of a flustered Jisung.
“Uh, no one asked me out?” Jisung snorts, subconsciously swallowing his insecurities.
Jisung tenses up knowing he’s the uncool guy, his insecurities doing the nasty job, spiralling his confidence down the black hole. Minho, who can sense Jisung’s train of thoughts reaching 600kph, reaches for the younger’s fingers and intertwines them with his, both of their cheeks starting to tint with pink with such small contact.
“You don’t need a date to go to a dance.” Minho smiles at Jisung, his thumb slowly caressing the back of Jisung’s hand.
“Easy for you to say when you have a line of girls and boys who are willing to sell their souls to go to the dance with you.” Jisung pouts, avoiding eye contact with Minho so he focuses his eyes on his own feet rubbing against each other.
Minho sighs, unlinking their fingers, reaching out his hands to cup Jisung’s cheeks instead.
“You won’t know but there are people who are willing to sell their soul to go to the dance with you too.” Minho replies softly, stroking the younger’s cheeks with his little thumb.
“I know no one wants to go to the dance with me, hyung. Also, even if I wanted to go, I doubt my mom will let me.” Jisung sighs, eyes watering as loneliness creeps up on him again.
“Go to the dance with me.”
“Huh?” Jisung gasped out loud, looking at Minho wide-eyed.
“Really. Be my date! It’ll be fun. You mom will allow you to go if it’s with me too.” Minho grins widely as he proposes his idea.
“I can’t.” Jisung frowns.
“Whyyyy?” Minho whines, poking Jisung’s arms with his index fingers.
“Stop poking me,” Jisung sticks out his tongue at Minho and continues talking while his sad smile gets plastered on his face again, “It’s your last highschool dance, hyung. I’m not worth it. You deserve to go to the dance with someone you like.”
“Who said I don’t like you?” Minho replies, eyebrows furrowing at Jisung’s logic.
“I meant in r-romantic way.” Jisung stutters, avoiding eye-contact with the older again.
Minho shrugs, not giving an answer to Jisung but instead he’s staring blankly at the wall in front of him, thinking hard how to tell Jisung that he actually likes the younger in a romantic way but he’s a coward who’s too scared to confess and risk losing the friendship they have right now. He’s content with being Jisung’s best friend for now.
Maybe one day he’ll tell Jisung how much the younger means to him. One day.
Minho pulls Jisung into a bear hug, slightly squeezing his arms around Jisung and when he loosens himself from the hug afterwards, his hands reach out to cup Jisung’s cheeks, whispering a “Don’t think you aren’t worth it, Jisung-ah. You’re always worth it, okay?”
Jisung nods at Minho’s words and dives into Minho’s chest again, eyes closing shut at all the heart-warming words coming from Minho.
“Will you really let me follow you to the dance?” Jisung whispers into Minho’s chest.
“It’s a date.” Minho replies, leaving a peck on Jisung’s head.
Jisung hums, refusing to pull back from the older’s embrace and they stay like this until Jisung falls asleep in Minho’s chest.
🐰🐿️
“Wow, you look handsome.”
Minho is here to pick up Jisung for the winter dance and he’s currently malfunctioning at Jisung’s doorstep as Jisung stands tall in front of him in an all black suit, accompanied by a black velvet turtleneck underneath.
“You are way more handsome, hyung.” Jisung laughs nervously, rubbing his forearm as his anxiety kicks in slowly.
“Hmmm,” Minho hums as he approaches Jisung and ties a corsage of red chrysanthemum and baby breaths around Jisung’s wrist. The heart-shaped smile that appears on Jisung’s face after Minho ties a corsage around Jisung’s wrist made Minho’s heart leap out of his chest and seeing the younger’s corsage twinning with the boutonniere on his own lapel made him feel elevated.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Make sure you take him back home by midnight, okay Minho?” Jisung’s mom interrupts them but there isn’t much strictness in her voice.
Gaining full trust from your crush’s family works wonders Minho thought. .
“Don’t worry, aunty! I’ll bring back this Jiderella home by midnight.” Minho chuckles, waving the younger’s parents goodbye as he pulls Jisung by the hand and gets onto the car.
Minho opens the car door for Jisung, making Jisung giggle as the younger places his hand on his chest and bows down at Minho acknowledging Minho’s gentleman act. Minho then runs to the driver seat and realizes the younger still doesn’t have a seat belt on him so he pulls himself close to Jisung’s face as his hand reaches for the seat belt and helps Jisung with it. He can see pink blush coating the younger’s cheeks when his face is up close to Jisung’s but he can’t complain much when he can feel his own ear tips burning horribly and thank god it’s dark because it’s obviously hard to hide how both of them are a blushing mess right now.
“Do you know what red chrysanthemum from your corsage means?” Minho asks while driving.
“No..?”
“Hmmm, I’ll tell you after the dance.”
“Tell me nowwww”
“Nope.”
🐰🐿️
The word to describe the winter dance will be “aesthetically pleasing”, Minho thought. He totally has to give kudos to the organizers behind this. The whole “White Christmas” theme makes the venue beautiful and hula hoop chandeliers clinging on the ceiling, emitting more white lights combined with golden shooting stars hanging down make the night magical. Blue fairy lights and candle lights combination gives off an aurora lights vibe and everything’s just grand.
The shock on Jisung’s classmates’ faces is iconic. They weren't expecting their nerdy classmate with strict parents to actually show up at a winter dance, let alone coming here with his arms linked with Minho who was one of the hottest seniors at their highschool.
Jisung shivers, feeling the eyes on him and Minho recognizes the trembling hands of Jisung’s so he excuses Jisung away from his classmates and takes him to the buffet area instead.
“Are you okay?” Minho asks with an obvious worry in his eyes as he rubs soothing circles on the younger’s arms to calm him down.
“Y-yeah. Just got a bit overwhelmed.” Jisung sighs out loud.
“I know you are not a fan of crowds so do you just want to look around and escape somewhere else?”
“I don’t want to be a burden.” Jisung whispers but Minho catches it so he shushes Jisung by placing his fingers on the younger’s mouth which Jisung just licks like a puppy.
“Ew!”
Minho’s disgusted screech earns a giggle from Jisung’s mouth and Minho coos at how kissable Jisung looks right now but he swallows his own thoughts about wanting to kiss his bestfriend.
They walk around hand-in-hand, roaming the venue, taking cute (and weird) selfies together at the corners that they think are beautiful and for now it is just Minho and Jisung, Jisung and Minho, in their own bubble, all the anxiety-inducing crowd and classmates long forgotten.
After walking around the PE-gym-turned-ballroom, purposely avoiding places where there are people packed, Minho drags Jisung by his wrist without saying a word.
“Hyung, where are we going?”
No answer.
“Hyungggg”
Still no answer.
Minho continues walking with Jisung's wrist in his hand and stops when he finally reaches the door that says “Library”.
Minho just gives Jisung his polite cat smile as he opens the library door which has been deserted but he doesn’t care. He wants some time alone with Jisung and this is probably the best place he can find.
“Will you honor me with a dance?” Minho asks softly with his right hand reaching out to Jisung.
“But… I don’t know how to dance.”
“Follow me then.” Minho flashes a cocky smile.
Little does he know Jisung will follow him even if it’s to the depths of hell; as long as it’s with Minho.
Minho unlocks his phone and opens Westlife’s If I Let You Go as the first song - then pulling Jisung closer to him, one hand on Jisung’s waist and the other on the way to intertwine with Jisung’s fingers. Their bodies start swaying side by side awkwardly at first, trying to adjust their pace but the eye contact between them is never cut off; both of them blushing red like a tomato.
Minho leads Jisung confidently and Jisung nervously follows the steps, the tension between them can be cut with a knife.
“Ow, don’t step on my poor toe.” Minho fake cries but this pain isn’t anything compared to the pain he’s been feeling because he’s graduating and leaving for university after this school year ends and he still hasn’t confessed to Jisung yet.
“Blep.” Jisung sticks out his tongue at Minho and hits his chest to hide his embarrassment.
But if I let you go I will never know,
What my life would be holding you close to me
To say the lyrics hit home is an understatement and Minho wishes that the feelings he’s feeling are mutual because he’s so in love with the boy in his arms.
“Hyung…”
“Hmmm?”
“Will you forget about me when you leave for Uni?”
“Are you serious right now?”
“Y-yeah.”
Minho stops slow dancing with Jisung and instead he pulls Jisung’s chin and makes him look straight into his eyes. His heart drops down to his stomach to see tears welling up inside Jisung’s eyes. And maybe, just maybe, he thinks Jisung likes him the same way that he does.
“I’ll never leave you alone, you know. You’re my favorite person. You’re the home I’ll always be coming back to. No matter what. Don’t you dare think I’ll forget about you.”
A stray tear falls down Jisung’s cheeks and Minho wipes it away but more tear drops free-fall down Jisung’s cheeks so Minho just hugs him tight as Jisung sobs in his chest.
The timing might not be the best right now but Minho feels like if he doesn’t say anything right now, he’ll regret it in the future so he inhales deeply, trying to choose which words should come out of his mouth first.
“Jisung… look at me.”
Minho pulls Jisung away from him and meets him eye-to-eye again, the younger’s eyes swollen from the sobbing earlier.
“I hope I’m reading this right but I like you, Jisung. A lot. And not just in a friend's way. I want to be more than friends.” Minho confesses weakly.
“You mean you like me? Romantically?”
Minho nods quickly, a warm smile spreading on his face. He’s honestly glad he had the chance to confess instead of bottling his feelings up his whole life.
“But..I’m...not even likable hyung.”
At this point he’s not even scared of rejection. He just wants to tell Jisung that he’s loved, especially by him.
Minho rolls his eyes and flicks Jisung’s forehead with his index finger, earning an “ow” from the younger.
“What was that for?” Jisung narrows his eyes as he rubs the sore spot on his forehead.
“For being a dummy. I like you. I might even be in love with you, Jisung-ah. You’re fucking likable. So tell me before my nerves actually kill me, do you like me too?”
“Yeah..I like you too.” Jisung whispers, fixing his eye contact to the floor.
“Can I kiss you?”
“What?” Jisung gulps at the question.
“Yes or No, Sung, give me an answer.”
“Y-yes.”
Before Jisung knows it, he feels Minho’s lips on his and the kiss is chaste and gentle (it’s more of an awkward first kiss) but Jisung knows he could get used to Minho’s soft lips on his forever and he could hear his own heartbeat drumming in his ears. Minho can feel Jisung’s smile against his mouth and he couldn’t be happier that the younger is enjoying this moment of theirs.
They finally broke apart from their kiss to breathe and their smiles mirror on each other’s face and Minho can’t help but leave a peck on Jisung’s cute nose.
“So are you my boyfriend now?” Jisung murmurs, face still flushed from the kiss they shared a second ago.
“If you want me to be.” Minho smirks, ruffling Jisung’s hair.
This time, it is Jisung who runs into Minho’s chest and hugs him so tight he feels like his bones might break. Their hearts listen to each other’s unstable and deadly fast rhythm but the warmth spreads through their whole body, filling each and every part with love.
“Remember when I asked you what red chrysanthemum means?”
Jisung hums as he continues embracing Minho, one thumb caressing the older’s neck.
“It means deep love. Han Jisung, I am deeply in love with you.”
“Lee Minho, I’m deeply in love with you too.”