Chapter Text
“No,” Jisung said, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms. Felicia was standing in their room, a dress in each hand, showing them off so he could pick one. Hyunjin looked up from where she was, sprawled out on Jisung’s bed and gave a small smirk before laying back down.
“We don’t have a choice” She said exasperatedly, throwing her arms down, the dresses fluttering about, the loose improvised braid her long blond hair was in nearly coming apart. “You need to pick one and we need to go to this thing.”
“Blue one!” Hyunjin supplied, still laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. Felicia gave her a grateful look while Jisung threw her a glare.
“This thing… We are being auctioned off like cattle, Lix. It’s only natural that I don’t want to be a part of this” Jisung answered, ignoring his best friend’s suggestion and walking further into the room and taking his sister by the shoulders. “Besides, it’s not like we’d ever actually want to marry either of the Lee boys. You have your Changbin” Felicia blushes slightly at that “And I am… well, you know”
Felicia takes Jisung’s face between her hands and looks deep into his eyes, brushing his long brown hair away from his face. “My dear brother, it’s just a formality. You’ll see, one day soon I’ll be with Binnie and you’ll be far from here, maybe on your way to America where people will only know Jisung Han.” She gave him two small taps on the cheek and moved back to the dresses. “Now, do you trust Hyunjin’s fashion sense?”
“If there’s anyone’s fashion sense I trust, it’s Hyunjin,” Jisung smiled at Hyunjin, the maid getting off the bed and curtising back to him, a huge smile on her own face.
“That’s quite the honor Mr. Jisung!” Hyunjin giggled “Now, come on, let’s get you two ready!” Hyunjin clapped her hands and began her job to help the Han twins.
After a good hour of getting ready with the help of Hyunjin, both Felicia and Jisung were in the foyer awaiting their parents. “Felicia, you look stunning!” Mrs. Han said, walking down the stairs and eyeing her children. “Jiyeon, stop fidgeting with your dress, you’re going to ruin it. But you look marvelous my dear,” Ah yes, and there laid Jisung’s issue. To his family, and everyone else, he wasn’t Jisung, the Han’s eldest son but Jiyeon, their eldest daughter.
“Thank you mother” Felicia answered with a slight curtsy. After noticing Jisung’s small scowl, she elbowed him in the side and he followed suit, muttering a very slight thank you. The twins followed their parents outside to the carriage where they proceeded to get in. Mr. and Mrs. Han stood before the carriage looking at their two eldest children with hope and expectancy in their eyes.
“Remember, be courteous to the Lees, and try to get the boys’ attention. This union is very important” Their mother said, smoothing down a few stray hairs from Felicia’s head. Jisung was very thankful he entered the carriage first and was away from her fussing. “And have fun!”
“And don’t embarrass us” Mr. Han said with a pointed look to Jisung, who just lowered his head and was, for once, grateful for his long hair as it hid his face from view. Before the carriage took off, Felicia took her brother’s hand in her own and held it for the entire ride.
As soon as the Han twins arrived at the Lee household, a servant was outside, opening the carriage door and escorting them inside. “The young masters are waiting in the drawing room” He said, not looking either of them in the face and leading them towards said room.
“Ah, the lovely Han twins! Such a pleasure!” The eldest Lee son exclaimed when they entered, rising from his seat. To say he had a displeasing face would be lying, but at the same time he did not look nearly as handsome as rumors claimed. He was tall, dark hair cut short and dull blue eyes, almost like a pond during a cloudy rainy day. “Ladies, please have a seat. As I am sure you know, I am Arthur Lee” He sounded as smug as he looked, which is to say, a lot.
“Could you be any more condescending brother?” The youngest Lee asked, a bored look on his face. “I’m Minho” Now here was a young man who certainly surpassed the rumors told about him. Unlike his brother, Minho was on the shorter side, his hair slightly messy, but very fluffy and soft looking; and also unlike his brother, he had inherited his mother’s deep chocolate eyes, that held much more emotion than his brother’s and at the moment were trained on the newspaper in his hand, boredom still very evident on his face. Minho was, without a doubt, very handsome.
But the Han twins knew to never trust a pretty face. Sometimes the most beautiful people lose every bit of their beauty the second they open their mouth, and sometimes the opposite is also true. However, just looking at the two Lee boys, Jisung and Felicia could tell that Arthur would not, could not, say anything that would elevate his appearance and Minho most likely would be aloof and distant, diminishing his own appearance.
“Ladies, I cannot express just how happy I was when I heard our parents talking about setting up a proper meeting between us” Arthur started, taking a seat in the armchair beside Minho’s, across from the love seat Jisung and Felicia were sharing. “As I’m sure you both are very aware, a match between our houses would be most auspicious! After all, The Hans are the most traditional family of Waterton! After us Lees, of course” Arthur laughed, nudging his brother with his elbow, and received no response from him, while Jisung and Felicia politely chuckled. Felicia was always better than Jisung at feigning interest during teas and other gatherings so she came off as more sincere. Perhaps it was this that turned the eldest Lee onto the youngest Han twin.
“Without a doubt, Mr. Lee, your family may be the most traditional and, dare I say, influential family in all of the county!” Felicia had also been trained by their mother to give compliments freely that she did not mean whatsoever. And always with a lovely smile. Jisung understood that insulting the Lees would be the death of their family but he could not understand why his sister would try to flatter them so hard; especially since neither twin planned on joining the two families anyway.
With Felicia’s comment, however, Arthur fully turned his attention to her. Usually, one would expect that the two eldest would marry, but if Arthur had his sights set on the youngest of the two, who could argue? Minho, on the other hand, chose to ignore their guests completely. His focus on the newspaper in his hand. After a slight bit of inspection (and intensive eye narrowing that went, thankfully, unnoticed by anyone else) Jisung learned that Minho was reading an issue of The Times from two days prior.
This new discovery left Jisung a bit puzzled. They were near London enough for a new issue to arrive daily, albeit it would be closer to afternoon than morning when it did arrive, but in any case, it did not explain why Minho was reading a London newspaper from two days ago. A quick inspection of the room, from his seat on the love seat - that he did not dare get up from lest he embarrass himself in some way - led him to discovering two more issues of The Times, from the day prior and the current day. Both looked like they'd been read through. Jisung turned his gaze back to Minho and realized another peculiar thing. He had not heard the sound of a page being turned since he stepped foot in the room. Jisung may not have known exactly how long he and his sister were in that drawing room at that point, but judging by how Arthur and Felicia had both emptied their second tea cups, and how Arthur ate most of the sandwiches out on the platter on the low table between them, it had been a while. It was when Jisung cocked his head slightly to the side with a curious expression on his face that he noticed Minho lifting his eyesight to him and giving a slight smirk before once again hiding behind the paper.
“Oh would you look at the time!” Felicia exclaimed when the clock over the fireplace rang out at precisely 6 in the evening. “Thank you very much for your time and hospitality but me and my,” Felicia looked over to Jisung with a small apologetic look before continuing her sentence “sister must really be heading back home” At once, Arthur, Felicia and Jisung stood up. “Mr. Lee,” Felicia curtized towards Minho, “Mr. Lee” She gave Arthur a polite smile and curtized towards him. Jisung sloppily followed his sister’s goodbye before turning towards the door, Arthur and Felicia already out of the room.
“Ms. Han,” Minho called out after him. Jisung turned his head and saw that he had, finally, put down the newspaper and risen from his seat. With a smirk and a look that Jisung would not decipher, he gave him a nod and said “It was an immense pleasure meeting you” Jisung once more cocked his head to the side in confusion.
“We didn’t even speak, Mr. Lee”
“I know. We didn’t need to” With another nod, Minho walked past Jisung, out of the drawing room and up the stairs in the foyer, presumably to his own room.
Jisung and Felicia left the house quickly after that. The entire ride home, Jisung could not stop thinking about the mysterious Lee, his days old newspaper and what he meant by “We did not need to speak”.