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The worst thing about liking Lee Minho was the total concept that he was hard-to-get. Not ‘hard-to-get’ in the usual sense, rather, in the sense that he was confusing (challenging to understand, for lack of better wording). Han Jisung didn’t know what wish on a shooting star he made or black cat’s path he crossed but he knew for certain that one day, he woke up and realized that he had a crush on his best friend, and now his love life had disintegrated into pieces.
It wasn’t like he could relay this information to Lee Minho himself—all he wanted to do was shake the man’s shoulders and ask “hey, would you kiss me in an ‘I’ve been in love with you for three years’ way”—nor could his dorm mates handle any more of his useless pining. As if 3RACHA hadn’t been toughing out Jisung’s crush rants during their studio times, Hyunjin had been dragged into the mix by tolerating Jisung walking into his room without warning and wailing into his pillows.
So, just like any other good friend would do, Hyunjin redirects him to WikiHow.
(Which, as the rumor goes, had landed him several dates with other totally real and not made-up men.)
Jisung frowns at the current article he’s reading while lying down on Hyunjin’s bed. “This one brings up the fact that I might get rejected and completely ruin our relationship,” he exclaims, letting his thumb do the work and lazily scroll through the rest of the page, “Which, since I’m a great conversationalist and an even better Lee Minho fan, would never happen. Vetoed.”
“If you’re such a good Minho hyung fan, I don’t think you’d be crying to me, Changbin, and Channie hyung for love advice,” Hyunjin snorts and dodges the pillow that Han throws at him.
If only he knew how hard it was. Not only was Minho hard to understand, he quite literally played ‘hard-to-get’. In fact, he practically invented it. Years of stolen glances from across the stage to linking pinkies in private and not knowing if he should lean in whenever Minho playfully puckered his lips had driven Jisung to the point where his crush—his childhood schoolboy crush on one of his group members— took up more time than his regular hobby of watching movies.
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I really don’t know what to do. Feel like we’ve been going through these articles for hours and yet I can’t come up with anything. Maybe I should just give up, Hyunjinnie,” Jisung whines, moving his foot over to kick Hyunjin’s arm, and the other wrinkles his nose, lightly hitting his foot away.
“Ew, don’t do that. And no. We’re not giving up. I’m already getting noise complaints from Changbin and Chan because of your whining over him.” Hyunjin flops down onto his back next to Jisung, showing him a new article from WikiHow that was open on his phone. “Here. Ignore the title. I think it’ll still work out, though… Direct, not coming off too strong and not bringing up any implication of rejection. You interested?”
4 Steps to Flirt With a Girl: How to Let Her Know You’re Interested.
There were already several problems with this, the immediate one being that Lee Minho was not a girl at all, but Hyunjin was right. It was direct and looked safe and would definitely let Minho know that his intentions were serious. Plus, Jisung wasn’t a coward- he’d take it well, his only motivation being Minho himself (those thighs also played quite a large part).
“Okay,” he declares for himself and for the better of Stray Kids having to deal with his unfortunate yearning for the touch of another man, “I’ll do it.”
- Use positive body language. Display open, flirty body language so he knows you're attracted. Start by gazing right into his eyes and don't glance away or appear distracted.
It’s three in the afternoon a week later when Han accompanies Lee Know to a photoshoot for some luxurious magazine he doesn’t keep up with. Photoshoots were always something fun to him when he took part in it, so watching the process of another person going through it was just as interesting. That wasn’t his only motive, though: 1) he wanted to start his plan right, and 2) seeing Lee Minho in buttoned-down silk shirts came as a privilege welcome only to him.
The cameras flash as Minho entertains them with some modeling—Jisung cheers for him behind the camera crew and smiles at the way the dancer shoots him an embarrassed look—and soon enough, the job’s done. Well, for now- it turns out the company was amazed at the incredible job he’d performed and requested a few more pictures in another outfit.
Jisung hurries to the dressing room where Minho was taking his break, dressed in an academia-like getup while humming one of SKZ’s songs absentmindedly. Oh, and he had a harness on. Good lord.
Somehow, he senses the younger’s presence and looks up with a bright smile. “Jisungie, how’d I do?”
Right. According to the article, I’ve gotta display flirty body language and stare into his eyes. Han clears his throat and casually (or so he’d like to believe) leans against a tower of boxes off to his side, looking into Minho’s eyes amorously. “Just as well as you always do, jagi.” Now he knew for sure that Minho wouldn’t be able to resist him. Even if he were hard to understand, Jisung was well-aware of what the pet name meant to the other as a whole.
Unexpectedly, Minho blinks. “You’re looking at me weirdly. Is there something on my face?” He starts to pat down his cheeks, careful not to smudge his lipstick or his eye makeup and averts his gaze away.
“What? No, of course not,” replies Jisung easily. He has not looked away once nor blinked in the past few minutes. He wasn’t a wuss, he had to keep his stare.
“Don’t mess with me. Wait, Han, your eyes are watering.” Minho shakes his head to himself and reaches up to wipe away the tears gathering in the corner of Jisung’s eyes. Okay, that was probably a good sign. At least he wasn’t weirded-out by anything, which meant that Jisung was most certainly on the road to love. “You look so stupid right now.” Never mind.
He shakes his head and graces himself with the ability to blink, a small smile appearing on his lips. Minho’s touch was starting to tickle, but it wasn’t a bad feeling at all. “I’ve just got eye problems, that’s it. Probably?”
Surprisingly enough, the older man seems caught off-guard by that comment before he chuckles and pinches Han’s cheek. “You’re so weird, when’d you become so cute?”
All of the air feels sucked out of Jisung’s lungs, and before he knows it, Minho’s grinning victoriously again, patting him on the shoulder and walking towards the door. “They’re calling me again. Keep cheering for me, Hannie?”
Standing there in total shock from what had just happened, Jisung can’t force a reply out of himself, but it’s not like Minho needed one if he knew that Han would always cheer for him.
- Give him a subtle compliment. This sparks his interest in you and keeps him curious. To subtly flirt, find unique ways to compliment him.
A few days later, Jisung finds himself within the familiar walls of the practice room. He wasn’t alone (of course, when was he ever, with Stray Kids as his practical family) but he didn’t mind since the company in question happened to be Lee Know in his entirety. It’s also during this time that he realizes how lucky he is to be in the same room, alone, as one of the most attractive men to exist. (Sorry, STAY. Minho would be his for the time-being.)
As much as Han wanted it to be for no reason, it was actually for help with one of their choreo- specifically, a part requiring balance, and a part that he kept messing up by tripping over his own two feet. He could’ve asked Hyunjin or Felix for help with it, and for some reason, he didn’t. Lee Know was good at balancing, so it didn’t really matter.
Did Han learn this from just staring at his legs all day? Maybe.
Jisung blinks furiously when a loud snap goes off near his ears, oh, Lee Know was giving him a look. “Are you sure you need help or do you just want to stare at your reflection all day?” asked the dancer with a somewhat amused, partially frustrated tone in his voice, and Jisung gulped while furiously shaking his head. “Good. Okay, stand on one leg for me, Hannie.”
He complies and manages to fulfill the request with a bit of wobbling, letting out a yelp when Minho’s cold hands sneak to his waist, holding him steady. It was just a dance—he knew this well, he knew that if it were Felix or Hyunjin he’d laugh it off—yet it felt so oddly… intimate. Ashamed, Han coughs- could he even call this intimate? All Lee Know was doing was helping him, surely, nothing more or less. “What next, hyung?”
Minho smiles gently and cracks his knuckles, coming up beside him and mimicking his current position. “You need to kick your leg forward and lean until you’re kneeling with the leg in front of you, then kick it off to the side.” The words leave his mouth as he follows through with the directions, and then pops back up into a standing position like Jisung. “It’s definitely a lot harder saying it than doing it, I think. Does that make sense?”
Jisung spaces out with his eyes on Lee Know’s leg before refocusing. “Yeah, uh, I think?”
It doesn’t help when Minho narrows his eyes at him and then leans back on the ball of his foot before moving forward, performing a front walkover, where he walks on his hands then corrects it by moving into a standing position. It’s flawless, performed without any sign of difficulty, and it certainly does not make Jisung stop staring at the way his body bends. (He was shameless, unfortunately.) “Seriously, Han, what’s up with you? Something wrong or what?”
“You’re so flexible, hyung,” is what comes out of his mouth suddenly, “I’ve thought about your flexibility, but I didn’t know that your back could arch so easily.”
He curses himself internally for saying such things, especially to an older member of all things. Couldn’t he keep that stupid advice chain out of his mind for one second? What he doesn’t expect is Minho’s face to turn bright red, not out of anger, but out of presumed embarrassment.
“You’ve– what,” he chokes out, clearing his throat and pulling his shirt down to cover his torso suddenly. “You’ve thought about my flexibility?”
Jisung’s cheeks heat up— when did Minho start bringing up these sorts of things— and he hurries to say, “No, just-! The things you might be able to do with that flexibility are the stuff of dreams, you know..?” Ah, shit, he’s really gonna kill me now. Jisung knew full-well that he would deserve it, too, for being so crude and maybe a bit risky to his face. Lee Know must’ve been so uncom-
“Han Jisung dreams about me being flexible,” Minho echoes quietly, and then he coughs into his fist, and that was that. Han can’t really focus on the topic at hand when Lee Know’s cheeks were dusted so prettily with that shade of pink. “Um. Sorry, the next thing that you’re going to need to do is stretch your legs so they don’t cramp up, then we can. Go through the next part of the choreo.”
He nods hastily and sits down on the ground to stretch out his legs, ignoring the lingering looks that Minho sends his way while he drinks from his bottle of water. In no way was the compliment subtle. Han could only pray that the reaction meant something.
- Ask him about himself. Finding a way to ask him questions about his interests or background is a great way to be flirty and sincere.
It’s a firm belief of Jisung’s that mornings are always better when shared with another person, and it was no different with himself and any of the members of Stray Kids. He particularly enjoyed late nights with 3RACHA in the studio, and reading manhwa with Hyunjin until the early morning. This time, he’d snuck into the other dorm to go with Lee Know to one of their favorite restaurants late into the morning, and decided that maybe he’d just stay the night, too.
When he wakes up on an air mattress in Minho’s room alone, he puts on a pair of borrowed (stolen) house slippers and trudges into the kitchen. It smelled of breakfast stew and sounded like humming, and as his eyes adjusted to the sight of Lee Minho in an oversized shirt and basketball shorts at the stove, he thinks that it isn’t an unwelcome sight after all.
“Morning,” Han calls out to him, and Minho turns to look at him with a pair of glasses sitting on his nose.
“Oh, you’re up. I think Seungmin-ah and I.N-ah are listening to music together, so if you want to call them for breakfast, you can in a few minutes.”
The younger nods, walking further into the kitchen and lingering nearby where Minho was situated. He watched him mix some more spices into the stew, stirring occasionally; a more than perfect opportunity for small (or not) talk shows itself. “Where’d you learn to cook so well?”
Minho hums with a fond smile Jisung might see him give to his cats. “I grew up an only child, as you know, so I learned to take care of myself and it was my responsibility. Plus, it’s like a stress-reliever, right?” Swiftly taking a larger wooden spoon in his hands, he takes a bit of the stew and holds the spoon out for the other to taste. “Don’t know if my cooking’s all that perfect, but based on opinions, it seems to be well-liked.”
Han takes the stew onto his tongue, melting at the way the flavors blended together so well. To think this was a mixture of simple ingredients from the local market instead of being professionally made was incredible. He laughs something amused, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter, “What? Seriously, hyung, your cooking is so good. I’d do anything to wake up and see you in the morning every day.”
“Really? Anything?” He doesn’t need to look at Minho to know that he’s smiling, either genuinely or smugly, he’d never distinguish the two. It’s clear that he’s provoking Han, though, as he deliberately stops stirring the stew to hesitate and shake his head to himself. “Sometimes I wonder if you believe flattering people will get you anything, Hannie.”
Based on the older’s reaction, he’d say that flattering people certainly did get him places. “Yeah, anything. Really don’t know what you mean by that, ‘cause you’d be surprised at–”
Jisung’s heart practically jumps out of his chest at a loud cough from the door. Felix stands there donning a bright grin, shooting knowing glances between the two boys and whistling slowly. “Are you two done flirting? I think Innie and Seungmin are hungry.”
“Ah, Yongbok-ah, we weren’t flirting,” Minho replies sweetly– Jisung doesn’t need to look at him to know that his smile was innocent, yet clearly threatening. If asked by other people, he’d say that it was scary, but internally, it was a bit… Never mind. Thinking about it made his head throb. “Unless you’d like to consider whatever you and Changbinnie have got going on ‘flirting’ too?” Lee Know turns his head back with a smug grin and Felix sticks his tongue out at him before scurrying off into the direction of Seungmin’s room, most likely to bother someone else.
By the time that Jisung snaps out of his temporary daze and refocuses back on his hyung, Minho is already silently taking bowls out of the cabinets, placing them onto the counters and spooning out servings.
He offers to help, of course, but Minho only shoos him away with a smile vaguing on some sort of emotion—Han saw disappointment, for unknown reasons—and continues as if he weren’t there.
- Tease him to show you're interested in him. Once you’re comfortable enough with the boy, you can start to tease him a bit. Once it feels right, don’t be afraid to show your playful side by teasing the boy while you’re flirting.
Jisung doesn’t see Minho privately for a while (a week, four days and nearly eleven hours but who’s counting) and he’d like to convince himself that it’s just because of their busy schedule. It wouldn’t exactly be wrong, what with the upcoming performances and idol showcases they’ve been invited to, though somehow, he wishes they had nothing to do at all.
Out of the blue on a mellow evening, his phone buzzes with a text notification, and his lungs forget to breathe for a short moment or two.
minho: come over?
It takes less than a half of a second for Jisung to make his decision, and slightly more time combing his hair down and making himself look decently presentable. It takes a few minutes to explain to Chan why exactly he’d jumped out of his seat randomly while eating his usual snack of cheesecake and a few more minutes enduring the knowing expression on his leader’s features; earlier than expected, Jisung is standing outside of Minho’s dorm with his hat backwards and his slides nearly falling off of his feet.
jisung: oh sure lol
jisung: i have spare time so whatever
jisung: also im outside of ur dorm. pls let me in hyung!!! ><
A few seconds later, the door opens, and a newly revealed Minho cracks an amused smile, “You got here in three minutes flat. Pretty desperate for ‘spare time’, huh?”
Jisung winces upon realizing how quickly he’d seen through Han’s cool persona. “I was… passing by.”
Okay, well, maybe Lee Know just happened to be good at picking out truth from excuses. He graces Jisung with a laugh and heads inside, going straight to his room. Jisung closes the door behind him and takes off his shoes before blindly following the older’s wake.
He watches Minho glance around their living space and lock his bedroom door once they’re both inside, then sigh heavily and immediately pull Jisung into a hug. He can’t describe what emotion is hidden within the confines of Minho’s arms, but he does know that the touch is grounding, as if everything had only started to make sense with Minho holding him so tightly. “Missed my Han Jisungie.”
“We see each other every day, Minho hyung.” He’s laughing, yet doesn’t give up the chance to return Lee Know’s affection tenfold, taking his arms and cutting down on as much distance as he can.
“Not like this, we don’t.”
Instead of replying, Han turns their bodies and pushes Minho down onto his bed, then flops on top of him. Minho’s arms are slim and muscular, his thighs just as sculpted, but lying on top of him was rather comfortable, surprisingly; he understood now why Minho fell on top of Hyunjin and Changbin so often. Cuddling was nice, he thought. It’s even better when he lets out a content sigh at Minho’s hand carding through his bangs, combing through soft hair with gentleness.
“Feels nice, Lino.” HIs voice comes out a lot more soft than he’d expected it to be, and Minho chuckles.
“Well, I’m trying my best to make you feel good, Hannie.”
Ah. That made for very unexpected development. Han blinks and forces the several cogs in his brain to stop wiring the statement and overthinking practically anything that leaves those gorgeous lips of Minho’s. Tease him, show interest, let him know that you are down just as much as he is. “You can make me feel good in other ways, too.”
He lifts his head and rests his chin on Minho’s chest, meeting his eyes, watching Minho raise an eyebrow curiously. “I’ll do it if you ask. What ways do you want me to make you feel good, jagi ?”
That was–
He hadn’t anticipated that reply, to say the least. Far from it. He’d expected the type of conversation that had been recurring for the past couple of such, where he would spout some witty reply (thanks, WikiHow) and watch Lee Know’s face go through every shade of pink on the color wheel. Never did he expect Minho to reply just as easily as he would go through a dance move in some choreo. The heat rises to his cheeks– not only that, but the words were so casual, as if…
Wow. As if maybe, Minho had been expecting the question, too.
“Aaaagggghhh,” Han groans, burying his face into Minho’s hoodie in utter defeat and trying to hide away from the other’s laughter.
“It’s funny, isn’t it? That you think you can go flirting with your hyung for the past few weeks and then get all embarrassed when I say something back?” With an entertained tone to his voice, Lee Know pokes Jisung’s cheek playfully, and goes back to carding a hand through his hair. “Who dared you to flirt with me, Jisungie? C’mon, I won’t tell anyone.”
Wait, what? Instantly Han props himself up with hands on either side of Minho’s body, looking down at him with confusion. “No one? I flirt with you because I’ve had a crush on you for three years. I was starting to become a little restless, so… I tried making moves.”
“Because you’ve had a crush on me for three years,” Minho echoes slowly. He emphasizes every word.
Seriously, that can’t be the only thing Minho’s taken away from this experience. “Because I’ve had a crush on you for three years. Wait, is it really that surprising?”
Minho stares at him before bursting into laughter once more, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers, “You can admit to me that you’ve had a crush on me for three years while literally not knowing how I feel but you can’t coherently respond to a sex joke? Jisung, you’re a mess.”
As if he’d thought the heat from his cheeks was gone, it returns. Only now, it’s intense enough that he’s sure Minho can point it out. “That’s different! I don’t always know how to reply to– sex jokes but I’ve always known that I’ve had a crush on you. More like ‘have’, actually. Crush hasn’t gone away.”
He hadn’t particularly noticed before, but Minho was wearing that smile, that specific smile with his eyes sparkling and his lips parted and his bunny teeth showing. It was cute— it reminded him of why he had a crush on the older one in the first place. Han taps him on the nose, cooing, “Oh, you’re really cute, hyung.”
Said boy in question swats his hand away and instead links their fingers together. “You’re one to talk. But…” Minho’s eyes flit up to the ceiling as if considering something, then go back down to avert to the side. “I like you too. When you first called me your soulmate, it took me years afterwards to accept that maybe I wanted to be more than that— if there could be more than that.”
Han smiles the brightest he feels he’s ever, tangles his free index in the strings of Lee Know’s hoodie, buries his face into the crook of his neck, “Then… I’m happy you feel the same way. There could be more than that. Wanna make it happen?”
The way Minho’s arms tighten around his waist and pull him flush to his body is enough of an answer for him.
With extreme exaggeration, Hyunjin sighs audibly while lying on his stomach on the floor in front of the communal dorm TV. “I seriously don’t know how you managed to ask Lee Know out with instructions from WikiHow. ”
If you put it that way, it sounds ten times worse. “I’m that much of a charmer, I guess.” Next to him, Jisung tries to sound nonchalant, though the smugness in his voice seeps through his words, “And didn’t you say that you landed tons of dates in the first place with WikiHow?”
The other keeps reaching for popcorn and stays purposefully silent. Jisung blinks. “Hyunjin, you told me to use WikiHow because you said it would work.”
“Okay, well, I was mostly joking. I didn’t think you’d get that far, honestly,” Hyunjin laughs, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
Who’s the one with a boyfriend, idiot, Jisung thinks, and has no regrets dumping the bucket of popcorn on his head.