Work Text:
Being friends with Minho is easy, Jisung decides. Not just because they’ve been attached at the hip since birth, but also because things simply seem to make sense when they’re together. Choosing where to eat on their weekly “dates” (as Minho refuses to call them), is never a problem, and going on adventures every other month when they both have the time is never a hassle. It's all so simple about how Minho and Jisung work together, that there was never the question of if they are meant to be or not. Sometimes, Jisung finds himself mulling over the idea of whether or not they are truly soulmates, as their friends like to tease, but Minho says that soulmates don’t need to think about that kind of thing. Minho is usually right, anyways.
So, when Minho asked if Jisung would accompany him to his company dinner (with the excuse of something along the lines of, “They insisted I bring a plus one, and anyone else would’ve tired me out more.”), Jisung can’t find it in himself to say no. Does the new situation somewhat scare Jisung? Yes. But would Jisung do anything for Minho? Also, yes.
That brings them to their current situation. Minho stands in front of Jisung, grumbling something about how Jisung never learned to tie a tie, but doesn’t bother hiding his fond smile. Jisung can only stand and gaze at his best friend’s perfect cheek bones and pouty lips, as Minho fiddles with the unfortunate knot under the collar of Jisung’s button up. Jisung doesn’t have a chance to make any comments about their position before Minho stands back to admire his handy work, proceeding to turn around and gather his things.
“Thanks, hyung. So, there won’t be a lot of people, right?”
Jisung can’t help but be nervous.
He has asked Minho about three times in the last hour they spent at Minho’s place before the event how many guests there would be, and all three times, Minho has assured him it would be manageable. Even now, as they make their way out of the apartment to go to the parkade, Jisung finds himself unable to stop fidgeting with his rings or readjusting his sleeves, following behind Minho like some lost puppy.
Minho gives him a glance as they walk out of the elevator doors towards Minho’s car.
“I’m starting to think I should just leave you at home,” Minho quips playfully.
Jisung whines in response, knowing that Minho isn’t serious, but still doesn’t want to entertain the thought.
“No! I want to come, I just don’t want to embarrass you is all,” Jisung states with a chuckle, hoping to hide the self-deprecating comment.
As Jisung flicks his gaze back at Minho, he realizes that his friend’s brows are threaded together in clear upset.
“I told you not to say things like that, Sung-ah. You know I’m not embarrassed by you. I would’ve asked Changbin to come with me if I wanted that.”
Jisung laughs a little too loudly at the jab at their mutual friend but decides not to stretch out the rest of the conversation. He knows that Minho hates when he talks down about himself, so he’d rather not let his self-doubt ruin their mood. They are going to go to Minho’s company dinner, drink, eat, and enjoy themselves. Jisung won’t let his own thoughts spoil that plan.
After a short car ride, where they bicker about the music the whole time, unable to decide on the mood of the songs, they finally arrive at the destination. The venue is located in the middle of downtown Seoul, snug between high rises, and quite impressive looking from the view on the bustling street. There is golden light streaming out the tall windows, where anyone can peek inside the large building and see the guests milling about in small circles. A grand double-door entrance is placed in the middle of the building, with a red carpet leading up to the decorated entry way. Green hedges and shrubbery line the edge of the building, and it looks almost like a royal palace amongst modern architecture; Jisung can’t help but have his breath taken away at the sheer size of the place.
Minho gets out of the car first, with Jisung too stunned to realize that they’ve arrived, and only realizing he’s supposed to follow when Minho is opening his door for him.
“After you, darling,” Minho offers with a wink and slight bow.
Jisung defaults to rolling his eyes, realizing it was more of a jab than anything else, and gets out of the car finally. Minho offers Jisung his arm, and being too dazed by the surroundings, Jisung automatically links his arm with Minho’s, oblivious to the implications.
They begin their way up the red carpet, and Jisung totally misses Minho passing off his car keys to the valet, in favor of ogling the chandelier that he caught a glimpse of when the doormen had pulled open the doors moments ago.
Arm in arm, they breach the doors after Minho flashes his employee ID, and find themselves in a huge foyer, with the impressive glass chandelier Jisung had been captivated by directly above their heads.
“Holy shit, Minho, I thought this was going to be a small event!” Jisung exclaims, perhaps a bit too loud with how many other people are bumping past them in an effort to converse with each other.
But Minho just chuckles, tugging Jisung towards their designated table, nodding to some of his coworkers as they pass by. Finally, when they’re seating at the table, with a few other people filling up a couple of the ten other chairs, does Minho speak up over the classical music.
“I won’t lie, I also thought this would be a smaller event," a shy smile finds its way onto Minho’s face before he continues, “just say the word and we’ll get out of here, okay?” With those words, Minho offers Jisung a pat on the knee, before scouting out a waiter to hunt down a drink.
After sitting at the table, arguing about how much the light fixtures in the venue costs, (Jisung insists it has to be over 10k, but Minho is confident that it was probably no more than 5k) Minho finally decides that they should go socialize. Jisung follows after Minho again, something like a duckling follows their mother, towards a group of coworkers Minho supposedly recognizes. Just Jisung’s lucky though, because he also seems to recognize someone as he plucks another drink from a passing waiter’s tray.
“Oh my god! Chan-hyung? What are you doing here, I didn’t know you worked with Minho-hyung!” Jisung’s face lights up with excitement at seeing another friend. Feeling Minho’s quizzical gaze, Jisung whispers a rushed explanation. “He did a workshop at my building and helped with my team a bit last year, we kept in contact, I had no idea you guys knew each other.”
Minho only nods in acknowledgment, seemingly too quiet for his usually amicable nature.
“Jisungie! What are you doing here?”
Jisung grins devilishly at the chance to tease Minho.
“Oh, you know, Minho threatened to murder me if I didn’t come along with him to this work event. Said something about how he would be so bored without me, right hyung?” for emphasis, Jisung leans into Minho’s side, cocking his head playfully.
“You’re Minho’s plus one, I take it? How do you two know each other?”
Minho finally decides to chime into the conversation, scoffing, “We’re best friends. Somehow.”
Feigning offence, Jisung draws back from Minho’s side and places his palm over his heart, “How dare you, hyung! I thought you needed me!”
Now it was Minho’s turn to roll his eyes, ignoring Jisung’s antics in favor of turning to Chan and continuing, “Our moms met at some cooking masterclass before having us. So, this friendship wasn’t really a choice.”
Chan’s eyes flick between Minho and Jisung, the cogs in his head working overtime to calculate how long they’ve known each other.
“Hold on…” Chan starts, “you two have known each other for over twenty years?”
Jisung slings his arm around Minho’s shoulders, ignoring the painfully disgusted performative look on Minho’s face at the display of affection, “Twenty years and counting, baby!” He punctuates his words with a sleazy smile.
Chan only responds with a strange look that neither Minho or Jisung decide to take the time to dissect, and nods along with their words.
“Right, right. That’s really impressive, I wish I had that luxury. You two must be really close then,” Chan adds.
Now it was Minho’s turn to smirk, “Oh yeah, a little too close for comfort sometimes.”
Jisung lets out a hearty laugh at Minho’s comment, completely missing Chan’s confused look.
After an awkward clearing of his throat, Chan excuses himself from the conversation, something about needing a refill on his drink. Once he’s out of ear-shot, neither of the men he had been talking to hear him mutter, “Best friends, my ass, they’re so in love with each other it hurts,” under his breath.
As soon as Chan walks away, Jisung pins Minho with a puppy-eyed gaze. “Do we really have to talk to more people? That was already too much effort.”
Minho smiles back at Jisung gently, giving his slightly younger friend’s shoulder a squeeze. “You don’t have to do any talking, Sungie, I just need people to know I’m here and then we can sit down again until they serve us food. Is that okay, hm?”
Jisung sighs, but nods as he follows Minho through the crowd, until they end up on the other end of the room with some more coworkers that Minho is apparently acquainted with.
True to his word, Minho does do most of the talking, occasionally roping Jisung into the conversation to make some nervous comments which land more like jokes, causing Minho’s coworkers to chuckle along with them, although unintentional. Eventually, Minho wraps his arm around Jisung’s waist and gives it a squeeze, before leaning in to whisper in his ear, “I was going to get a glass of water, will you be okay here by yourself?”
Jisung hesitates for only a second, and then nods quickly to make sure Minho doesn’t doubt him. Jisung knows he can handle himself; he will be fine.
He is fine.
Right?
Maybe not. As soon as Minho leaves his side, it’s like the subdued anxiety crawls into his skin again, and Jisung feels like he has to escape. His pace of breaths picks up rapidly and it’s like his safety net is removed from beneath his feet.
Fresh air. He needs fresh air.
Excusing himself as quietly as possible, Jisung wades through the crowd of people with tunnel vision, trying to find the porch entrance, where had noticed some people gathering outside. Eventually, he spots the doors he was hunting for and makes a beeline directly for it. The fresh air hits him like a bucket of cold water over his head, and the lack of people sharing the space only add to ease the tension that was thrumming beneath the surface of Jisung’s skin.
Jisung floats over towards the railing of the porch area, which looks out onto the busy street, and becomes the only thing separating him from the strangers stumbling down the sidewalk. He should probably text Minho and let him know where he ran off too, but instead he takes this moment to breathe as deeply as he can, letting the oxygen fill his lungs fully before exhaling.
As he leans on the railing with his forearms, he lets his head hang between his shoulders, closing his eyes for a moment. He can do this. He just needs to go back inside. He needs to find Minho, and everything will be okay.
Before Jisung can find the courage though, a saccharine voice speaks up from beside him.
“Are you doing okay, pretty boy?”
The voice is so jarringly not-Minho, that Jisung almost physically recoils from it.
“Oh, uhm, I was just getting some fresh air?” Jisung isn’t sure why it sounds more like a question than anything else but doesn’t have time to correct himself when he gets a good look at who’s standing next to him. The man invading Jisung’s personal space, is tall, broad, and holds a smirk that pierces through people’s hearts. He’s leaning closer to Jisung, despite feigning his concern, and is definitely inebriated if the red glow on his cheeks is anything to go by.
“I can take you somewhere with some fresh air, pretty boy,” the man continues, licking his lips in what he probably thinks is a sensual display, but turns out to be rather disgusting from Jisung’s point of view.
“I’m okay actually, I was going to go find my-.“
“His boyfriend. Hi baby, sorry I left you for too long, is Younghyun bothering you?”
Now it was time for Jisung’s heart to truly drop to his ass. He snaps his head to look at the individual who decided to wrap their arm around his tiny waist without permission, and he can’t choose if he’s shocked or pleased to see Minho’s familiarly handsome face staring back at him.
Minho cocks his eyebrow in a, Just go with it, manner, before giving Jisung's waist a squeeze.
As Jisung’s brain catches up to the situation, he nods slowly, definitely sure that the red blooming across his cheeks mirror the same redness on the stranger in front of him supposedly named Younghyun. Jisung raises a hesitant hand to meet the one Minho has splayed across his side and gives it a squeeze before nodding more decisively this time.
“Yeah, I was going to come find you. Sorry, I just needed some air.”
“I see. Younghyun, do you mind excusing us?”
The man named Younghyun only rolls his eyes and mumbles something about, “Minho is such a dick,” under his breath, before stalking off to go find someone else to bother. As Younghyun disappears amongst the crowd, Minho releases a breath of relief he didn’t know he was holding, and pulls Jisung into a firm hug. He places his chin on Jisung’s head, which proves to be a bit of a challenge with their similar heights, but he succeeds anyways, patting down Jisung’s hair affectionately.
“I’m so sorry, Sungie, the head of the board of directors caught me at the bar and I didn’t have a choice but to entertain his conversation and I would’ve come found you earlier but-.”
Now it was Jisung’s turn to cut Minho off.
“Boyfriends, huh?”
Minho falls silent for a moment too long, and Jisung extracts his head from where he has it resting on Minho’s clavicle to look up at the other man. The only thing Jisung can notice is Minho’s ears burning red.
“Ah, I’m sorry, it was the only thing I could come up with on the spot…” Minho avoids Jisung’s gaze awkwardly, but continues his hold around Jisung’s torso anyways.
“If you're in love with me, why didn’t you just say so?” Jisung grins, his tongue poking the inside of his cheek playfully.
It’s only at Minho’s lack of reaction that Jisung realizes something is off.
“Minho…?”
“I really don’t think this is the right time for this conversation…”
At first, Jisung doesn't really understand what Minho's getting at. Why does Minho seem so serious all of a sudden? Of course, they've playfully flirted too many times to count in the past, usually with Minho faking his disgruntled attitude, but the air seems different now. Minho is looking at everything besides Jisung, his cheeks are flushed, and he's pressing his lips in a thin line. He seems embarrassed, Jisung decides, and it's not until the conversation that has just occurred clicks in Jisung's head, that he realizes what Minho feels. And what he has probably been feeling his whole life for his best friend.
In that moment, Jisung decides there’s no conversation needed, only action, which Minho is so dependent on. In a wave of confidence, Jisung surges up to meet Minho’s lips with his own, pressing them together with more enthusiasm than he intends. For a split second, Minho doesn’t respond, which causes the coil of anxiety in Jisung’s stomach to begin to unravel, but before he can pull back and regret his actions, Minho’s hand is in his well styled hair and he’s kissing him back fervently. Their attempt at keeping the kiss contained for the sake of their environment is ditched immediately, hoping that the darkness of the outdoor porch will offer them some cover from prying eyes. The rhythm of their kiss increases immediately, tongues meeting at the seam of their lips as their bodies press closer together instantly. They keep wandering hands contained, with Jisung now fisting Minho’s beautifully ironed button down, and Minho gripping Jisung’s hips so tightly it might leave bruises. Their mouths work together in tandem, accelerating from the shy kiss they were sharing initially.
A few heated seconds later, they pull away, their foreheads resting against each other as they heave for oxygen.
“We probably need to have a conversation when we get back to your place, though.” Jisung smiles weakly, completely overwhelmed by the bought of emotions he’s experiencing.
Minho smiles in a way that causes his eyes to form crescents, before placing a peck on Jisung’s lips for the last time.
“I think we do, yeah.”
Jisung giggles sweetly, before whispering against Minho’s lips, “I think the best friends title is a little outdated, don’t you agree?”
Minho only responds with a fond roll of his eyes and a finger poking Jisung’s soft cheek, before he’s pulling Jisung back inside the venue towards their table, their fingers laced together.
Unbeknownst to them, Chan scoffs from the porch entrance where he witnessed the whole interaction.
“Yeah, best friends, my ass, was right.”