Archive of Our Own

[SPOILER] Park Jin Young Announces Decision About Which “Stray Kids” Member Will Debut

[VARIETY] Dec 19, 2017 | by H. Zhang

The finale of “Stray Kids” finally aired, and we’re all crying at the results. The episode was broadcast live on December 19, and we were shocked to learn that previously eliminated members Felix and Lee Minho would get a chance to perform together to prove to PD Park Jin Young that they deserved to debut.

After performances from the six remaining members (“YAYAYA”, “Young Wings”) and all eight (“Hellevator”, “School Life”, “Grr”), Park Jin Young announced his final decision: “Stray Kids” would end with only seven members debuting. Park said that trainee Lee Minho had too short of a training period and that his weak vocals could hurt the success of the group.

“Minho has a lot of potential, but he needs more time to bring it out,” he added. “Though the fans might be disappointed, I hope they will understand my decision is for the best of the group.”

The seven members that will be making their debut are Bang Chan, Seo Changbin, Hwang Hyunjin, Han Jisung, Felix, Kim Seungmin, and Yang Jeongin.

Watch the announcement below.

Source (1) (2)

Comments

132 Comments | Best Newest Oldest

ASTRO_LOVER_1993 8 hours ago

Nooooo, I’m crying T__T Minho deserves better, fuck that stupid old man

34 Likes | 23 Dislikes

        Immortalyellow 7 hours ago replying to ASTRO_LOVER_1993

        People who can’t recognize that Minho wasn’t ready to debut are stupid as hell. Stray Kids is better off without him.

        17 Likes | 58 Dislikes

JUSTICE FOR LEE MINHO 8 hours ago

SEND TRUCKS!!!! WE WON’T REST UNTIL OUR BOY GETS WHAT HE DESERVES!!!

27 Likes | 11 Dislikes

See More

It hadn’t been a real loss, said the company. They were full up on dancers, and Felix was an English speaker besides, and Minho had only been training for four months. His chance would come.

He knew that was all bullshit, but who was he to call them out on it? It would get him nothing but a reputation for being uncooperative, which was practically a death knell to any future in the industry. Even backup dancers, which was probably what he’d end up as, relied heavily on reputation and word-of-mouth to get jobs.

So Minho grit his teeth and hugged Chan tight, dabbing at the elder’s eyes and dismissing his apologies, trying not to look too conscious of the camera staff in the corner of the room zooming in on them.

“What are you saying sorry for?” he laughed through his own tears. “I should be apologizing. I wasn’t good enough.”

Chan shook his head wordlessly, squeezing Minho until he thought his ribs might break. There was none of the joking recrimination from the first time he’d been eliminated, when there was still a chance he would be able to debut with them. His hot tears soaked the fabric of Minho’s shirt, chilling quickly once they made contact with the cold air. It was uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as seeing Minho’s hyper-competent leader break down, so he bore with it, fingers twisting in Chan’s denim jacket.

Felix was crying as well, his nose red from sniffling. “‘m sorry,” he kept repeating, over and over, until Minho muffled his apologies with a hug. “Should’ve been me,” he said, haltingly, but Minho could tell he meant every word.

“Yongbok-ah,” Minho sighed, smoothing down Felix’s hair. Fondness overwhelmed the devastation for a moment; though they hadn’t known each other for long, he was incredibly proud of Felix regardless. “You suffered a lot, too. You deserve this.”

“Not ‘s much as you, hyung,” Felix sobbed into Minho’s chest, his shoulders shuddering. There he stayed, Minho gently patting his hair and trying not to cry more himself, until he was gently guided away by Chan to let the other members in.

Changbin wasn’t crying nearly as much as Felix, but his baseball cap was pulled low over his eyes. He wrapped Minho in a tight hug, bony chin digging into Minho’s shoulder. Behind him, Minho made eye contact with Hyunjin, who looked stunned.

“Hyung,” he mumbled, and then he was on them, joining Changbin to tangle his arms around Minho. Into his shoulder, or maybe Changbin’s back, he mumbled, “What am I going to do without you?”

Minho shushed him and made soothing noises until Hyunjin calmed down. Then, he looked him in the eye and said, “You’ll have to be strict with the choreography details, Hyunjin-ah. Take care of everyone well in my place.”

That brought on a fresh wave of tears, and it was a while yet before Hyunjin felt composed enough to break away.

Minho could see the staff out of the corner of his eye. Their reactions were a mixed bag—some, those who had been with them since they were trainees and Minho felt confident in saying he knew personally, were crying with them; others looked almost impatient. They were staying late at work, after all, and Minho wasn’t even going to be in the group, anyway, so was there really a point in filming him?

Minho made the conscious decision to say fuck them and went back to comforting Jeongin, who had burst into tears after seeing all his hyungs crying. He was so young, still. Out of everything, Minho might have regretted most not being able to stick around to take care of him.

Seungmin, only a few months older, looked quietly stricken as he hovered around Minho and Jeongin. Minho beckoned him into the hug and he uncharacteristically obliged, wrapping his long arms around them and holding them tight.

And then there was Jisung. What was there left to say to him? This was the boy that Minho had almost considered leaving it all for. The boy that had likely saved Minho from leaving it all for him, with just the simple act of tapping out a beat on his hand.

Jisung wasn’t crying, but his eyes were red. He stepped forward and faltered, like he wasn’t sure what to say. Minho stood there and waited for him. He thought he might never get tired of waiting for Han Jisung.

Eventually, Jisung swallowed hard, blinked once, and wrapped Minho in a hug so tight he thought he might lose feeling in his arms. “‘m gonna miss you, hyung-ah,” he mumbled into Minho’s bicep. Then, unexpectedly, he sank his teeth into Minho’s right shoulder.

Minho burst into surprised laughter, which helped to stave off the tears that were welling up in his eyes. “What was that for?”

Jisung’s teeth were sharp. He bit down harder instead of responding, centimeters away from breaking skin. His incisors would probably leave two identical dents when he pulled away. Minho thought he could feel a damp patch forming on his shirt.

“Jisung-ah,” Minho said, softer this time. He lifted a hand to pet gently through Jisung’s overgrown hair—it was about time he got a haircut. They’d agreed to go together, back before—well.

Jisung pulled away from Minho’s shoulder, his arms loosening. “‘s not fair,” he said. He still wasn’t crying, and neither was Minho. “Wanted to do this together. I don’t want to…”

“Leave me behind?”

Jisung nodded miserably.

“You won’t,” Minho promised, and meant it with every fiber of his being. He took Jisung’s hands in his own, ignoring the slight pain in his shoulder as he did. “Go on and chase your dream, Jisung-ah. I won’t give up either. I promise I’ll be able to stand on the same stage as you.”

Jisung sniffled once again. “We better. Hyung-ah, I’ll wait for you, okay?” He was looking Minho straight in the eye, his lips thinned into a determined line. “So you better keep your promise.”

Later, Minho pulled the collar of his shirt to one side and stared at his reflection in the mirror, pale and drawn. Imprinted on his shoulder, standing out clearly against his pale skin, was a set of bite marks in the shape of Han Jisung’s teeth.

[enter-talk] JYP confirms trainee Lee Minho has parted ways with the company

[link]

What do you all think? It’s so soon after the survival show, and he’s leaving in the middle of the group’s promotions…

[+66] [-12] 1. It’s such a shame, this f*cking company…

[+30] [-5] 2. Fighting, Minho-yah!!!! Noona will follow you and cheer you on!!!

[+14] [-30] 3. No, but isn’t this too disrespectful to the company? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Leaving so soon, it’s like he doesn’t trust them at all ㅋㅋㅋㅋ It hasn’t even been a year and he already gave up…

In retrospect, he shouldn’t have been surprised at how quickly they lost touch. Minho was still in the group chat that Chan had made at the beginning of the show, but he suspected someone had realized it would be awkward for him to have to watch as they texted about things he could no longer relate to; where once the chat had been lively with discussions about cheating on diets or the new choreography they’d have to learn, it now only pinged Minho’s phone once in a while when either Changbin or Hyunjin decided to invite everyone out for a meal.

It was easier to decline, sometimes. Whenever Minho went out with them, the conversation always devolved into discussions of their upcoming debut and how stressed they all were about making an impact. He didn’t begrudge them this, necessarily, knew that it was the first thing on all of their minds, but it did make it extremely awkward whenever anyone remembered he was there and tried to subtly change the topic. So Minho declined offers whenever he could, figuring that he could always catch up with them later.

Then Stray Kids made their debut, and he realized how naive he’d been to think that. Immediately, his Naver homepage was filled with news articles about music shows and variety appearances, and the offers to hang out dried up. Even when their promotions were officially over, they were too busy with practice to do much more than send emoji responses to Minho’s messages. As such, the group chat died a remarkably fast death.

And then Minho left the company. He’d agonized over the decision for weeks. JYP had all but promised him that he’d debut, most likely as the leader and face of their new boy group. But there was no telling when that’d be, and military enlistment seemed far away but was really only in a few years, and the industry tended toward younger and younger idols by the year. So Minho cut his losses and moved to a smaller company, one that promised him a solo debut in the next two years.

He texted the group chat to tell them right before the news officially broke. The flurry of well-wishes that followed remained the last messages in the chat before Minho officially made his debut.

It didn’t happen nearly as quickly as he’d hoped. The company ran into some financial issues right about when they’d been getting ready to announce his debut, and Minho was put on the back burner while they focused on their currently promoting artists. He waited patiently, but months passed, then a year, and no one had approached him about restarting preparations, and he couldn’t help but feel forgotten. Had he left JYP for this?

He couldn’t exactly go back, and any other company would likely look at his birth year and reject him out of hand. So there Minho stayed, waiting patiently and praying the industry wouldn’t leave him behind. He was almost desperate enough to accept the company’s suggestion to go on the newest season of Mnet’s survival show, but he’d almost have rather just gone back to backup dancing than suffer through any more reality television.

So Minho waited and waited, biding his time and diligently attending his English and Japanese and dance and vocal lessons, as the world moved on without him.

He couldn’t help but feel resentful, just a little bit, whenever he saw Stray Kids break another record. It was slow going at first, but their unique sound found its audience in the West, and Minho bit his lip bloody when he saw the first announcement of their world tour. He couldn’t escape the thought that he could have been on that tour, if only—if only he hadn’t forgotten his lyrics. If only he’d been a better singer. If only he’d worked on his breath control more.

Minho kept spiraling, and spiraling, and he couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, always thinking back to his chance on the survival show. It was looking more and more like that would be his one opportunity—and then he got the news of his debut.

[ enter-talk] Former JYP trainee Lee Minho makes his solo debut

[link]

Limbo is so good… wow, I can’t stop listening to it… look at our Minho in the water in the music video, he’s so good looking I could die…

[+343] [-83] 1. Wow, awesome… the music video is so pretty and our Minho sings so well… Minho-yah fighting!!!!!!

[+293] [-150] 2. Can it really be a coincidence that Lee Minho debuted at the same time as Stray Kids’ comeback? Wonder what they’ll do if they meet on broadcast… Isn’t this just a publicity stunt from his company? As soon as Stray Kids get more popular, too, isn’t he just riding their coattails?

[+103] [-159] 3. He’s good at dancing, but isn’t his singing too weak to be a soloist? ㅋㅋ Shouldn’t someone like this debut in a group? Fourth generation standards sure are different…

[+23] [-230] 4. No, but isn’t someone like this too old to be an idol? Won’t he be enlisting soon?

[+43] [-27] 5. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ The song is so sad but our Minho dances so sexily ㅋㅋ

Minho knew abstractly that he would probably be seeing his former members for the first time in person when he debuted. The timing of their comebacks lined up nearly exactly. An unfortunate consequence of other idols’ schedules and the company’s resources, his newly-assigned manager said, like the thought didn’t make Minho’s stomach flutter with either anticipation or dread.

He still missed the members, no matter how long it had been since he’d seen them. They’d been something approaching a family, once. Even if they’d all told themselves to not get attached, all too aware of the fact that the company could tear them apart at any time, they’d been Chan’s, and they’d been his. They’d weathered the survival show and everything leading up to it together, and it had begun to look like they’d all get to debut together as well, chase their collective dream.

It was probably different for Minho than for the others. He was the one who had that dream ripped away, after all; the rest of them were likely too busy with promotions and idol life to think much about the eighth member who had almost been. But Minho still wondered, sometimes, how Hyunjin was holding up as dance leader, if he’d developed his personal style yet. If Jeongin had grown into his voice and learned to love it for how unique it was. How Seungmin was dealing with the responsibility as unofficial main vocal. If Chan had learned to let those around him shoulder some of the weight on his shoulders, even in Minho’s absence as second-oldest.

And Jisung… he wondered if the kid who’d been shy and reticent when he wasn’t spitting rap verses on the stage had grown up. If he’d stopped fighting with Hyunjin, learned to live with his anger and use it to fuel his writing. If he’d nurtured the kindness that had led him to tap out the beat on Minho’s hand. At times, he imagined he could still feel the phantom ache of the bite on his right shoulder that Jisung had left to remember him by.

(And he could never see a bottle of Coke without thinking of that damn show.)

He didn’t think of them every day, of course—he no longer had the time to go down rabbit holes of their content. He was much too busy with his own debut preparations for that; his dancing was easily far beyond the level of other fourth generation soloists, but his singing left much to be desired. So he sang and sang until his throat gave out, and drank honey tea and sang more besides, until he was finally pronounced good enough to not be torn to shreds as soon as he stepped on stage.

There was still more to improve on, always was, but there were promotional photoshoots to attend and music videos to film, and Tiktok challenges to practice, which left no time for vocal lessons. So Minho recorded the backtrack diligently and practiced singing while dancing in what little free time he had, praying that his voice wouldn’t give out in the middle of a performance.

His debut stage passed in a whirlwind of stylists scolding him for dancing too hard (Minho had to bite back the urge to scold them back for giving him outfits he couldn’t dance in), bowing and introducing himself to various sunbaenim who had deigned to do challenges with him, and assistants dabbing the sweat from his face.

He was only a rookie, and it had been years since the survival show, so he hadn’t been expecting the crowd of people waiting for him outside the broadcasting station when he got out of the company van. After his eyes had adjusted to the blinding flashes of cameras, Minho did his best to smile for the various fansites and news reporters that had gathered. To his surprise, he vaguely recognized some of the faces behind the cameras from the survival show days, and did his best to smile and wave at the ones he remembered.

Minho didn’t cry on the way to his dressing room—a small shoebox of a room with barely enough room to fit him, his stylists, and his manager—but he couldn’t hold back the tears once he got there. He didn’t have the backing of JYP anymore, and despite leaving on good terms he’d read the online chatter about how he’d been betraying the company by leaving. Minho hadn’t expected anyone to follow him once he left, and it was—refreshing, to know that people had been in his corner the entire time.

He spotted Chan first. They’d exchanged a few scattered messages after Minho had left the company, and had even met up once for dinner (on Chan, because he was the one with the cushy producer royalties and was older besides). Despite this, Minho wouldn’t exactly call them close, so he was taken aback when Chan brightened as soon as he saw him and started making his way over.

“Minho! Congratulations on your debut!” he said, wrapping Minho in a hug. Minho returned it slowly, very aware of the fact that the last time he’d hugged Chan, they’d just learned that they wouldn’t be debuting together after all.

Chan seemed to remember this as well, because when he pulled back there was something bittersweet about his expression. “I’m so proud of you,” he said. From anyone else it might have sounded condescending, but it was practically impossible to misinterpret Chan.

To his horror, Minho felt himself choking up. “Thank you,” he said, his voice coming out slightly strangled. Chan kindly didn’t say anything about it, giving Minho a second to compose himself before he continued, “We all stayed up to watch your music video when it dropped. Jisung was—”

Han Jisung came barreling back into Minho’s life like he’d never met, round eyes shining as he ran breathlessly up to them. “Minho hyung!” he said, then shrunk into himself. “Um. I mean, Minho-ssi.”

“Yah, Han Jisung, I’m not a stranger to you, am I?” Minho laughed, already at ease. Jisung hadn’t changed a bit. At the same time, nearly everything had changed about him. There was an ease to his movements that hadn’t been there three years ago, and Minho was very suddenly sharply regretful he hadn’t been there to see Jisung grow.

“N-no,” Jisung flustered, wringing his hands together anxiously. A wave of fondness washed over Minho, and he had to tamp down the urge to pinch Jisung’s cheek—he’d lost some of the baby fat, but there was still a cute roundness to them that, from his brief forays onto social media, the fans seemed to love.

He gentled his smile, watching in satisfaction as Jisung relaxed almost immediately. “That’s alright. Shouldn’t I be calling you sunbaenim now, anyway? Jisung sunbaenim, it’s an honor to see you again!”

Jisung shook his head, eyes wide. “No! H-hyung,” he said, stumbling over the word only a little, “I really liked your comeback. You looked so cool, and the visual effects were so well done. Oh! I really liked the part when you were in all white, you looked really handsome there—”

Chan cut him off with a laugh, putting his hand on Jisung’s shoulder and gesturing back at their stylists, who were beckoning impatiently. “We have to go, Jisung-ah. We’re two stages after you,” he said with a nod to Minho. Jisung frowned but allowed himself to be pulled away, glancing back at Minho as he went.

Impulsively, Minho found himself lunging forward to catch Jisung’s wrist. It was warm in his hand, bony in the way that most idols’ were, but he could feel Jisung’s pulse rabbiting under his thumb. Jisung turned and met Minho’s gaze. His eyes were round and shining, which gave Minho the confidence to say, “Can we catch up later?”

Jisung’s ears turned pink and he nodded. “Um. My number’s the same, so text me? I mean, we can also hang out after stages or something! Since our schedules line up a lot, y’know?”

Minho smiled at him, unbearably fond. “Of course, Jisung-ah. Anything goes.”

He exchanged a few scattered messages with Jisung in the coming few weeks, but they were both too busy with comeback activities to set an official time to meet. Instead, Jisung caught him backstage at the music shows they were both performing at and, after a brief period of awkwardness that got shorter and shorter each time, proceeded to talk his ear off about the newest animes that he’d been watching.

Minho chimed in whenever he could—as a rookie, he was perhaps even busier than Jisung in an effort to establish himself in the industry, and as such, hadn’t had much time to watch much of anything—but contentedly listened to Jisung ramble when he couldn’t, happy to watch Jisung’s eyes sparkle as he talked. These conversations inevitably ended abruptly when either one of them was pulled away by a manager or, in Jisung’s case, another member. Seungmin gave Minho the all-too-knowing look that he’d perfected as a trainee when he tapped Jisung’s shoulder to inform him that their call time was in thirty minutes.

“This is a great PR moment for us,” Minho’s manager gushed when he got wind of how he’d been spending his free time backstage. “It’ll clear up any nasty rumors of us maliciously taking advantage of their debut to get you more publicity.”

“Jisung is my friend,” Minho protested. “I’m not doing it for publicity.”

Minho’s manager nodded and patted his shoulder patronizingly. “I know you aren’t,” he said, “but it’s a good opportunity anyway. Is there any way you can take a few selfies with him? And get the other members in there if you can, as well. The more, the better.”

It was more of a command than a suggestion, and Minho wasn’t exactly in a position to refuse. So the next time he saw Jisung backstage, he proposed that they take a few pictures and post them, making sure to stress that it hadn’t been his idea.

“...and I don’t want you to think that this was my motivation in talking to you,” he said, uncharacteristically nervous. Jisung just smiled and pulled out his phone.

“Hyung, I like being friends with you, and I want to share that with Stay,” he said. “I was just waiting for you to ask.”

@leeleeknow

24 posts · 325K followers · 1,458 following

(On the first slide, Minho stands with Jisung on the Music Bank stairs. They’re both grinning widely, heads tilted together and arms thrown around each other. Minho’s fingers can be seen on Jisung’s waist. The second slide has Minho giving Jisung a piggyback ride. Jisung points ahead imperiously, but his mouth is open in a laugh.)

leeleeknow long time no see
635K likes · 56K comments

realstraykids missed you hyung!!

wen @wishuback · 3m
guys kstays are saying that jisung keeps talking to lee minho backstage IT'S HAPPENING THEY'RE REUNITING!!!!!

replying to @wishuback
jay @ohhennyhenny · 2m
first the mubank picture and now this we’re eating good today

prism @horrorspell · 1m
minho/jisung shippers on the tl again give it up it’s never going to happen

replying to @horrorspell
wen @wishuback · 32s
let us be delusional PLEASE

“I spoke to JYPE representatives, and they want to lean into the friendship between you and Stray Kids, and Han Jisung in particular,” Minho’s manager told him in the car back from his last music show performance. “It’s bringing a lot of good press their way as well, and obviously it’s beneficial to us.”

“We’ve barely even spoken to each other outside of music shows,” Minho said, visions of forum posts accusing him of riding on Stray Kids’ coattails dancing behind his eyes. It wasn’t for lack of trying—even with their schedules opening up in the next few weeks, somehow Jisung’s studio sessions with Chan and Changbin intersected exactly with half of Minho’s free time, and the other half was no longer free, due to the additional vocal practice he’d signed up for after seeing one too many articles about his singing being weak.

“That doesn’t matter,” his manager said patiently. “We’ll make some time. You and Jisung-nim can have a meal together some time soon. Just remember to take a picture for the fans at the end.”

“You want me to stage a publicity friendship.”

“It’s not staged if you two really want to be friends,” his manager said, raising an eyebrow. He paused. “You do want to be friends with him, right?”

“Of course,” Minho blurted, and realized he’d tipped his hand too early when his manager smiled, pleased.

After some schedule manipulation from his manager, Minho found himself knocking politely on an unfamiliar apartment door, shooting off a quick text to Jisung to let him know he’d arrived.

“Hyung!” Jisung blurted not half a second later, out of breath and cheeks flushed. He’d clearly sprinted for the door as soon as he heard Minho’s knock.

“Jisung-ah, you need to be more careful,” Minho said reproachfully, reaching out instinctively to tug at Jisung’s dangling earring. He mentally kicked himself for acting too forwardly, but Jisung just leaned into the affectionate teasing.

“But it was just you,” Jisung pouted.

“It could have been a fan,” Minho said. Honestly, wasn’t Jisung supposed to be the more experienced idol here? He should have known better than to open the door without checking to see who was there first.

“The longer we hang around out here, the higher chance someone is going to see us,” Jisung pointed out quite reasonably, so Minho allowed himself to be dragged inside, shucking his shoes at the door.

They had moved dorms since Minho left, no longer crammed four to a room. The apartment, containing Chan, Jisung, and Hyunjin if Minho’s brief Naver searches on the car ride over were accurate, was surprisingly neat compared to the horrors of their trainee dorm. There were dumbbells and other miscellaneous exercise equipment scattered in various corners (likely Chan’s, if what Minho remembered of Jisung’s and Hyunjin’s exercise habits still held true), but other than that, there wasn’t the clutter that had characterized living with seven other teenage boys.

Hyunjin and Changbin were perched on the couch, the TV paused on IU’s crying face. They were looking up curiously when Minho stood up, and he smiled nervously.

“Did you all suddenly learn to clean while I was gone?”

Hyunjin snorted first, and that broke the tension. “Hyung,” he said, somewhat hesitantly, but continued more bravely when Minho didn’t object to the familiarity, “If anything, we’re messier now that we have more space.”

And on second inspection, there was evidence of this fact scattered all around the apartment. He could see a small mountain of clothing hastily shoved behind the couch, some crumbs littering the coffee table, Jisung’s recognizable Supreme shirt draped over the back of a chair.

“You cleaned up for me?” Minho laughed, nudging Jisung playfully in the side. He didn’t expect the flustered reaction that followed, Jisung’s hands fluttering as he tried to explain that he really was trying to be neater, and he didn’t want Minho’s first impression of their apartment to be a disaster zone, and—

Minho put a hand firmly on the base of Jisung’s neck. He quieted, eyes wide.

“Hyung is happy you wanted to make a good impression,” Minho said. “I know you’re working hard, Jisung-ah.”

“Hey!” Hyunjin piped up from the couch, pointing an accusing finger at Jisung. “Hyung, he still leaves his socks all over—”

Faster than Minho could register, Jisung dove for Hyunjin and covered his mouth with a hand. He was jerking back the next second with an affronted yell, wiping his hand desperately on his pants. “You licked me!”

So not everything had changed, after all. Minho leaned against the kitchen counter and caught Changbin’s eye, sharing a conspiratorial grin. It was good to see Changbin’s cheeks filled out, finally allowed off the restrictive trainee diet and free to bulk.

“Jisung-ah, did you and Minho hyung want to watch Hotel Del Luna with us?” Changbin said, evidently used to Jisung’s and Hyunjin’s bickering.

“No,” Jisung huffed. “You two keep spoiling it for me anyway—unless you wanted to finish it with them, hyung-ah?” He turned hopeful eyes on Minho, clearly wanting to get him alone.

“That’s okay, I’ll catch up with them some other time,” Minho said, and obediently followed Jisung back to his room. It was small, as was expected in even a four-bed apartment in Seoul, but Jisung had evidently taken it upon himself to make his hard-won personal space his own. There were a few (subtle, tasteful) anime posters on the wall, his guitar hung up in one corner, and various well-loved music equipment scattered all over the room.

Jisung plopped down on his bed and patted the space next to him, only looking a little embarrassed.

“Soooo,” he said, once Minho had settled in on the well-loved comforter, “I didn’t really have a plan of what to do once you got here.”

Minho couldn’t stop his surprised laugh. “What kind of host are you? You invite me over and expect me to entertain you?” he teased.

Jisung shifted so that he was sitting cross-legged on the bed, twisting to face Minho. Now that comeback season was largely over, he hadn’t bleached his hair in a while, naturally dark hair bleeding into the blond. Minho gave into the urge to ruffle his hair, threading his fingers into the dark roots. Jisung leaned into the touch even as he complained, “Hyung, don’t be mean.”

“We could watch that new horror movie you were telling me about,” Minho suggested instead of teasing Jisung more, unsure of how far exactly he could push.

Jisung perked up, grabbing his laptop from his bedside table and pulling it up.

And it was as easy as it always had been, with Jisung. Minho didn’t have to hold in his comments on the plot of the film, Jisung dissolving into giggles whenever he made fun of the main characters for behaving like idiots. Jisung leaned into him, and suddenly Minho had an arm around him, laughing at him whenever he felt Jisung’s minute flinches at the jumpscares in the movie.

Minho had made arrangements with his manager to pick him up before it got too late, but Jisung made him promise the next time he’d sleep over.

”We have a really comfy couch,” he promised, fingers tangled into Minho’s shirt.

So the next time Minho went on one of his company-assigned hangouts, he slept on the couch and woke early with the sudden urge to make breakfast. A quick inspection of the fridge (which he had been given permission to raid by Jisung) revealed nothing but snacks, several packs of Diet Coke, and Changbin’s protein smoothie ingredients, so he ran to a small convenience store he’d seen nearby to grab some ingredients.

Jisung stumbled into the kitchen an hour later, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

”What smells so good?” he mumbled, before he saw Minho at the stove. “Hyung! You didn’t have to!”

”I saw the state of your fridge. You aren’t eating well enough,” Minho scolded, pointing his spatula at Jisung accusingly. He flipped the omelet in the pan one final time and plated it, handing it off to Jisung. “I made some for Hyunjin and Changbin too, but here’s a fresh one.”

Jisung dug in immediately in between muffled praises of Minho’s character and cooking skills.

It became almost a routine for Minho to make breakfast the morning after their movie nights. Hyunjin and Changbin even started putting in requests and buying groceries in advance, so Minho wouldn’t have to run out by himself.

One night, after a day full of dance practice and PT, Minho was so exhausted he didn’t even make it halfway through the movie before he passed out. He woke to a snoring Jisung on his shoulder, a patch of drool forming below his slack mouth. Minho, still too sleep-deprived to think much of it, just went back to sleep. He woke to Jisung’s frantic apologies and desperate attempts to clean up the drool.

He slept in Jisung’s bed from then on.

HAN "VOLCANO" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-RECORD] [3:33]

325,413 views • 42 minutes ago

Comments (2,392)

@moonlightstay0325

hanpop supremacy!!!!

1.2K Likes

@wishyoubacklover

amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before…

2.6K Likes

Minho hadn’t cried since being eliminated from the survival show, and he wasn’t crying then, but it almost felt worse. Abandoned next to his head, his phone automatically replayed Jisung’s song from the beginning. His finger twitched as if to turn it off, but he couldn’t muster up the energy. Instead, he lay there and stared at the ceiling as Jisung’s melodic vocals filled the room.

He hadn’t lost his love for stylistic autotune, Minho’s brain provided nonsensically. He squeezed his eyes shut and let the lyrics soak into his brain. He should have been practicing singing, or maybe talking on Bubble to his fans, but he couldn’t seem to muster up the energy to do anything other than listen to Volcano over and over again.

His phone chimed with a Kakaotalk notification, which he swiped away without looking at. Whoever was texting him must have been persistent, because a few minutes later he got another notification, then another, the cheerful Kakao! seemingly getting louder and louder with each text. Minho grumbled to himself and fumbled to pick up his phone.

He almost dropped it when he realized it was Jisung, texting to ask if he’d seen the new song, and if he liked it, complete with the customary cute hamster sticker. Typical for Jisung—what might have been considered fishing for compliments from anyone else just came off as endearing from him. Minho’s fingers flew across the keyboard as he tapped out an appropriately adulatory response.

Task complete, he set his phone down next to him—and blinked. When had he sat up? And where had his mood from earlier gone? And—why had he been in a mood after listening to Jisung’s song, anyway?

Minho closed his eyes. Jisung’s expressive face swam beneath them, smiling, laughing, crying, his cheeks puffed up as he glared at Minho playfully. Minho suddenly felt overwhelmingly greedy with the desire to see more of those expressions, to be the only one allowed to see some of them.

A line from Jisung’s song flitted through his mind. The scars of the wounds that covered my heart, as if only you could notice them.

And then—

“Fuck,” Minho mumbled to himself. He valiantly resisted flopping back down on his bed and shoving his face into his pillow.

He was in love with Jisung.

angel @leebitc0re · 16m
(Image consisting of a screenshot of the lyrics to Limbo and Volcano side by side.)
YOU GUYS . I HAD THE CRAZIEST IDEA WHAT IF JISUNG WROTE VOLCANO AS A RESPONSE TO MINHO’S DEBUT SONG

replying to @leebitc0re
angel @leebitc0re · 15m
STOP RATIOING ME I’M LITERALLY RIGHT.

rin @choccomelon · 12m
wait a minute oomf might be onto something…

replying to @choccomelon
angel @leebitc0re · 11m
volcano and limbo kiss when we’re not looking trust

ash @wqntsobad · 3m
god when will you give me the limbo to my volcano

replying to @wqntsobad
eech @ver_oichka · 2m
hello??? i'm right here???

prism @horrorspell · 1m
minsung arent even coworkers and yall ship them NOW CHANSUNG ON THE OTHER HAND... in this essay i will

[ enter -talk] Soloist Lee Know and Stray Kids HAN are very close…

(Screenshots from a behind-the-scenes video in which Minho and Jisung interact.)

How can Lee Know look at another male idol with an expression he doesn’t even look at his fans with ㅎㅎ Isn’t this too much?

[+27] [-11] 1. Someone better get that man away from our Jisungie. He never used to act like this before they reconnected…

[+18] [-17] 2. You could say it’s just fanservice but these two are idols from different companies… Can companies really collaborate so easily like that?

[+7] [-11] 3. Our Hanming fighting!!!!

(Scribbled onto the back of a lyric sheet and passed through a paper shredder, 2023.)

Dear Jisung,

Jisungie,

Jisung-ah,

Jisung,

I thought a lot about how to write this Why did you write that song? Who made you feel that way?

I listened to your new song. It really made me feel like, wow, my Jisungie has really grown up. I’m sorry I wasn’t there [scribbled out, unintelligible] I saw people online saying it was a reply to my debut. That’s not true, right? Fans like to speculate, even if the rumors can hurt us…

If you have any troubles, you know you can always come to hyung, right? I’d like to be a reliable older brother person to you. I’m sorry I can’t control my expression and I’m so obvious everyone can tell that I [unintelligible] Even if I don’t reply to you, I always care about you, Jisung-ah.

I think maybe we shouldn’t hang out as much anymore, just until the rumors die down

fuck

I’m not sending this

(The rest is scribbled over and crossed out until the ink bleeds onto the back of the page.)

hannie

> hyung!!! want to hang out this weekend?? i have something to talk to you about

> hyung? are you busy? you can say no

minho

< ah yes, sorry i have vocal practice

hannie

> okayyy ʕ´• ‸ •`ʔ but you’re paying next time to make it up to me!

Han Jisung

> minho hyung are you free this weekend?? manager-nim said you don’t have any schedules >__<

minho

< oh, i was going to cook something since i haven’t in a while…

Han Jisung

> wahhh!!!! hyung i want to eat your cooking!!

> if that’s okay…

minho

< well…

< if you don’t mind coming over to my place i’d be happy to cook for you

Han Jisung

> YAY CAN’T WAIT

So maybe Minho had given in too easily to the thought of getting to feed Han Jisung. Who could blame him? He loved cooking, and imagining Jisung’s round cheeks stuffed with something he’d made and his eyes sparkling as he praised Minho’s skills… well, that was too tempting an image to resist. And they wouldn’t be fanning the flames of the rumors as long as they didn’t publicize their hangout.

Jisung knocked on Minho’s door at precisely the time they’d agreed upon, though Minho had peeked through the peephole only a few minutes before and had seen Jisung pacing around nervously on his front carpet. Adorable.

He didn’t point it out when he opened the door because Jisung seemed self-conscious enough already, only put a hand on the small of Jisung’s back to guide him into the apartment. It was small, which generally worked out well for Minho considering he spent most of his time at the company anyway, but he felt strangely self-conscious as Jisung took everything in with wide eyes. The little couch he’d struggled to get up several flights of stairs with the help of his manager seemed especially dingy under Jisung’s inspection, despite Jisung himself seeming to be in awe of everything.

“Hyung, this is so cool,” he said. “You have a place all to yourself!”

“Who would I live with, anyway?” Minho laughed, pulling Jisung to sit on the couch. “Sit here while hyung cooks for you.”

“I want to help,” Jisung protested, getting up and following Minho closely to his little kitchen. He hovered over Minho as he pulled out his cutting board and knife. Ordinarily, this would annoy Minho to no end, but somehow everything was different when it was Han Jisung doing it.

“What’re you going to make?” Jisung asked. “Want me to cut anything?”

Minho set down the knife carefully and turned to put his hands on Jisung’s shoulders. “I told you I’d cook for you,” he said, steering Jisung to sit on the singular stool pulled up to the kitchen island. “If you want to help, sing something to entertain me.”

Jisung visibly perked up. “Hyung-ah, what song do you want me to sing?”

Minho hummed, pretending to consider the question. “How about the new one you just released?” He couldn’t pass up an opportunity to hear it live, in person.

Jisung whined wordlessly and covered his face with his hands. The way that his hoodie covered most of his fingers as he did so was painfully cute, and Minho cursed the traitorous thump of his heart.

“What, is Jisungie embarrassed?”

He could barely make out Jisung’s slight bob of the head.

“Why? It’s just me.”

Jisung mumbled something into his palms.

“I can’t hear you,” Minho said.

“I said, it’s because it’s you that I’m embarrassed,” Jisung complained, lifting his head from his hands.

Minho blinked. “Why? We used to sing in front of each other all the time at the monthly evaluations. And,” he added with a wry smile, “you’re a much better singer than me anyway.”

“Don’t say that!” Jisung said. Minho would have given anything to wipe the upset look off his face. “You’re an amazing singer, and I love your tone, and—”

“That’s enough dodging the question, Han Jisung,” Minho laughed. He knew his own faults better than anyone. “If you really don’t want to, hyung won’t force you. But I’d really like to hear you sing your new song.”

Jisung grumbled something about stupid hyungs and self-deprecation before he sighed and cleared his throat and pulling out his phone to get up a backtrack.

This was something that Minho could get used to, the sound of Jisung’s voice punctuated by the rhythmic chop-chop of his knife on the cutting board. Hearing Jisung sing in person for the first time in years was like a balm to the soul, something that Minho hadn’t even realized he’d been missing. His voice was sweet and soft as he sang, clearly shy at first but blooming as he reached the chorus.

When he was done, Minho set down the knife to applaud enthusiastically. Jisung’s ears turned red but he made a few mock bows, unable to hide the pleased grin on his face.

“Hyuuung,” he whined when Minho showed no signs of stopping, eventually reaching over to put the knife back into Minho’s hands. “I won’t sing anymore if you don’t stop!”

Minho got back to chopping with a speed that made Jisung giggle. He’d decided to make the curry recipe he knew by heart, which meant he didn’t have to pay much attention to what he was doing with his hands and could focus on Jisung’s singing instead. He’d broken into a rendition of Stray Kids’ latest title track, complete with exaggerated growl-rap to mimic Changbin’s tone.

“Isn’t that too much?” Minho laughed, when Jisung broke off into a coughing fit in the middle of the song. “You’ll hurt your voice.”

“I’m trying to do an accurate impression!” Jisung said. “Hyung-ah, isn’t that what Changbin hyung sounds like?”

Minho made a show of looking around, as if searching for any hidden cameras, then leaned in and said in his most conspiratorial voice, “Not at all.”

Jisung burst into giggles, folding over himself. “No, you don’t know what he really sounds like!” he insisted, leaning over the counter to stick his face into Minho’s line of vision. “I sounded exactly like he does in the studio, I swear.”

“I believe you, Jisung-ah,” Minho said, entirely too fondly. Jisung was too close. He could see the little mole on his left cheek all too clearly.

Minho finished cutting up the last of the potatoes with a flourish and took the opportunity to turn away to grab the pork he’d been defrosting in the refrigerator, putting some distance between them. When he turned around, Jisung was back in his seat as if he’d never left it.

“Hyung-ah, what’re you making?”

“Curry,” Minho said. “The kind you used to like when we were trainees.”

Jisung’s enthusiastic reaction was enough to convince him he’d made the right menu choice for that night. The rest of the cooking was quickly completed, Jisung accompanying him with a selection of songs curated from his varied music taste. Minho’s heart settled into something approaching a normal rhythm, save for one near-disastrous moment when Jisung hooked his chin over Minho’s shoulder to get a better look at the cooking curry. Minho had nearly dropped his spatula, trying to play it off as simple surprise.

“Smells good,” Jisung said, his breath washing over Minho’s neck. Minho stiffened—to do what, he wasn’t sure, but in the next breath Jisung was taking a step back, asking him where the dinner plates were.

Minho’s apartment wasn’t exactly built for entertaining, with only one dining chair, so they settled down to eat on the couch. Jisung sat cross-legged, plate of curry on his lap and body twisted to face Minho.

After they’d both eaten a little to sate their initial hunger, and after Jisung had completed the requisite compliments to Minho’s cooking skill, Jisung started fidgeting with his chopsticks nervously.

“Hyung,” he said, and stopped. Minho waited patiently as Jisung took another bite of curry, chewed, and swallowed.

“What is it, Jisung-ah?” he asked, when it became clear Jisung wasn’t going to say anything else.

“I wanted to ask you something.”

Jisung rummaged around in his hoodie pocket and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper. He smoothed out the folds before handing it to Minho, who took it, bemused.

“This is… a lyric sheet?”

Jisung bit his lower lip. “This is the song I’ve been working on lately. I wanted to ask if you’d record it with me.”

Minho’s first reaction was one of disbelief. Why him, and why not one of Jisung’s members, who were much more easily accessible and more talented besides? Then he took another look at the lyric sheet and balked. “Jisung-ah, I’m not good enough of a singer for this song.” It was entirely too high for him—he’d have to sing most of it in falsetto. There was no way he’d be able to record it satisfactorily, let alone perform it live.

“You are!” Jisung said immediately. “Hyung-ah, it has to be you. Please?” He widened his eyes in what could only be a very deliberate manner.

Minho was beginning to think that Han Jisung had just a little too much power over him. He folded like a house of cards. “Give me a bit to think about it.”

Jisung must have known that was basically equivalent to agreement, because he almost knocked over his half-eaten plate of curry in his haste to throw his arms around Minho’s neck. “Yes! Hyung, I’m so excited for this, you won’t regret it, I promise!”

“Yah, Han Jisung, I haven’t even agreed yet,” Minho said. Jisung’s cold nose was pressed into his neck, but Minho had never felt warmer.

(A vocal guide for the song Want So BAD, scribbled over with annotations and advice. It has been folded and refolded several times, carried in a pocket and pored over daily. Found in a trash can outside the JYP Entertainment building.)

“Fuck, this isn’t working,” Minho groaned, taking off his baseball cap and scrubbing his hands through his hair.

Outside the recording booth, Jisung blew out a sigh and rubbed a hand over his face. In the past hour they’d been recording, Minho had learned that Jisung was a remarkably laid-back director—much more laid-back than those he’d recorded with in the past. It really spoke volumes to how badly Minho was failing to meet his expectations, that even easy-going Jisung was getting frustrated.

“I’m sorry, Jisung-ah,” Minho said quietly. He’d known that he wasn’t the right person to record this song, and had gone along with it anyway. His falsetto was all wrong, too thin and airy, and he couldn’t manage to make his voice do what seemed to come so easily to others.

Jisung looked up, meeting his gaze. “It’s not your fault,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Your condition isn’t good.”

Minho had in fact been battling a slight cold for the past few days, but that was no excuse.

“I watched Kingdom. You didn’t let being sick stop you from a good performance.”

“They aired that?” Jisung yelped, and Minho realized belatedly that the clip he was thinking of, when Jisung had come down with vocal cord nodules, had been part of a behind-the-scenes episode.

“That’s beside the point,” he said, embarrassed at how much of their content he’d watched before his debut. “I just don’t know if I can give this song what it needs.”

“Why don’t we try again?” Jisung suggested, like singing the same line ten more times was going to improve it in the slightest. Still, Minho gamely agreed.

Thirty minutes later, Minho’s hair was a mess from running his hands through it, his lyric sheet was ink-stained from the amount of corrections he’d had to make to it, and there was a bit of padding coming out of his headphones from where he’d picked at them out of frustration.

“Look,” Jisung said finally, setting his pen down with an air of finality. “How about we take a break and come back to this tomorrow? Hyung, are you free?”

Minho’s hands twitched around the lyric sheet in his hands. “I’ll have to check.”

Jisung pinned him with a knowing stare. “Okay. But don’t leave me waiting forever, okay? I meant it when I said you were perfect for this song.”

In Minho’s defense, he hadn’t exactly meant to ghost Jisung for weeks on end. He was gearing up for his first comeback, and there seemed to be a never-ending stream of promotions: interviews to do, dance practices to film, behind-the-scenes content to carefully stage. He didn’t even have time to breathe, much less go into the studio to record a song that wouldn’t be on the next mini-album.

Regardless of his intentions, Minho hadn’t texted Jisung back for several weeks when he saw him on Music Core. He probably should have expected it, given that he was the newly-appointed MC and Stray Kids had just had a hugely successful comeback, but he almost dropped the mic and cue cards when he saw Chan leading the way to the interview area.

Minho greeted them politely, bowing to them and trying to ignore the knowing look Chan was giving him. Luckily, he had his cue cards to rely on for the interaction, and only had to react appropriately when prompted to by their answers, so the interview generally went smoothly.

The only hiccup came when his fellow MC Jungwoo asked them what new projects they had coming up.

”We have a lot of exciting projects in the works,” Jisung said, his gaze intent on Minho. “We just need to get in the studio and record a little more soon.”

Which—okay, noted. Minho wasn’t dense, so he texted Jisung back as soon as he got the chance to.

minho

< okay, okay, have your manager contact my manager and we’ll set a time to record

< i’m sorry for ignoring you

Jisung sent back a flurry of excited squirrel stickers, and that was that.

rachel @pieces0stars · 1h
So I wasn’t imagining the way Jisung looked at Minho when he said that exciting projects were coming up, right?

replying to @pieces0fstars
mo @hanibuni · 40m
MINSUNG COLLAB INCOMING I CAN SMELL IT

prism @horrorspell · 5m
i may not believe in minsung but i’m not blind. minsung collab incoming…

“I don’t understand why this isn’t working,” Jisung sighed.

“Maybe you should ask someone else,” Minho said, swallowing down the lump in his throat that had been preventing him from singing all day. “Like Seungminnie. You work well with him, right? And you can collaborate more easily ‘cause you live in the same building.”

Jisung crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t want Seungmin,” he said. “I want you.”

And it was the matter-of-fact way in which he declared this, like it wasn’t everything Minho wanted to hear but in the perfectly wrong context, that made Minho break down. He put his hand over his eyes to hide the tears that threatened to fall and just—left it there.

“Hyung?” Jisung squeaked, abandoning the pen he’d been absently twirling in his fingers to run into the recording booth and flutter nervously around Minho. “Was it something I said? I’m sorry if I was mean, hyung-ah, I didn’t want—”

“No,” Minho croaked, clearing his throat. “I just don’t know why you’re so set on having me duet this with you. I’m just—if you put me on it, it’ll ruin the whole thing. Your fans will be so upset.”

Jisung tackled Minho in a hug. Minho’s right shoulder throbbed, as if in warning, right before Jisung sunk his teeth right into the spot where he’d bitten down all those years ago. Minho jolted in surprise before he relaxed into the embrace.

“No one ever taught you not to bite?” he said. It came out choked out, his throat full with words he couldn’t say.

Jisung shook his head, his teeth still locked into Minho’s shoulder, making Minho sway with the motion. He detached to say, “Hyung-ah. I wrote the song about you.”

Minho jerked back, a million thoughts running through his head. “Which one?” he asked, checking his mental list of all the songs Jisung had written. Certainly not Alien, even though Jisung had called him weird on multiple occasions; Close and Wish You Back were love songs, so they couldn’t be it—actually, almost all of Jisung’s songs were love songs, come to think of it, so—

“All of them,” Jisung said in a rush. “All of my love songs, hyung, when we met I wrote Close, and after you left I missed you so much and I wrote HaPpY and Wish You Back, and then when I watched your debut I was inspired to write Volcano, and—”

Minho was holding his breath.

“—this one is about you too, hyung, and I wrote the falsetto parts because your falsetto is so beautiful, and I was imagining us singing it together, and I’m sorry hyung but I just liked you so much, and you can stop me any time now by the way—”

Jisung muffled himself with a quiet whine by biting down on Minho’s shoulder again.

Minho exhaled, measured. Then he cupped the back of Jisung’s head and guided him away until he could look him in the eye. Jisung’s bottom lip was quivering.

“I’m sorry, hyung,” he said, quietly devastated. “I didn’t want to tell you like this. If you don’t want to record the song anymore, that’s okay.”

Minho kissed him.

Jisung froze for a second, surprised, but returned the kiss with interest. He was a good kisser, enthusiastic and clearly experienced, and Minho fought down the flare of jealousy at the thought of someone else kissing Jisung in his absence. What else had he missed out on during all those years?

Jisung pulled back before the kiss could get too deep. His lips were parted and just the littlest bit swollen.

“Does this mean you like me back?” he asked, grinning cheekily.

“Han Jisung, I’ve been in love with you since that stupid show,” Minho said, and pulled him into another kiss.

wen @wishuback · 4m
ANOTHER WIN FOR DELUSIONAL PEOPLE

replying to @wishuback
ash @wqntsobad · 3m
another plane has hit the minsung building

prism @horrorspell · 1m
okay maybe i can see the appeal…