Work Text:
Jisung knows that Minho talks in his sleep. He's heard the stories. The jokes. He wasn't deterred when Minho came crawling into his bed one night, claiming that Seungmin had kicked him out.
"Why?" Jisung had asked.
Well, Jisung was about to find out.
It turns out that Minho doesn't just let out a few mumbles in his sleep. No, he has full on conversations. About anything and everything.
It starts out innocent enough. The first night, Jisung is dozing off when Minho starts to mumble under his breath.
"Hmm?" Jisung hums, yawning and blinking his eyes open. "What did you say?"
"You're a funny looking cat," Minho says, louder.
Jisung frowns. "Huh?"
"But you're so cute," Minho coos, leaning forward and nuzzling his face into Jisung's hair. "I'll name you Jisungie. Since you're so cute."
It's then that Jisung realizes that Minho is sleeptalking. He chuckles quietly and rolls over, closing his eyes again.
But Minho doesn't shut the fuck up.
All night long, he has increasingly bizarre conversations with whomever he's interacting with in his dream. (At one point, he's speaking with JYP, his tone clipped and irritated.)
Jisung just tries to ignore it, dozing off as Minho continues to talk to himself. Eventually, he falls asleep to the sound of Minho quietly humming an old demo.
He wakes up to his alarm after what feels like a good five minutes, groaning and rolling over.
Minho yawns. "Wow. I got such good sleep last night. It's so much better without Seungmin kicking me."
"I'm glad you got some sleep," Jisung mutters, his tone flat and irritated.
If Minho catches his tone, he ignores it.
₊˚⊹ ᰔ
Minho comes crawling into Jisung's bed over and over throughout the next couple weeks. Jisung is a little annoyed at first, but he finds it difficult to say no to Minho. Eventually he learns to fall asleep despite Minho's constant chatter. If anything, the sound of Minho rambling on about nothing and everything helps lull him to sleep faster.
But then it starts to get weird.
"Jisung-ah," Minho whispers one night.
Jisung almost replies, but then realizes by Minho's even breathing that he's still asleep. Weird, he must be having a dream about Jisung.
"There's something really important I have to tell you," Minho says, his voice startlingly quiet and serious.
Jisung's heart suddenly squeezes in his chest. Oh no. Should he be listening to this?
"I know I'm kind of just throwing this on you, but I really can't hide it anymore."
Jisung stares at the ceiling.
"I'm gay."
Jisung huffs. Well he fucking knew that already. Minho has never been shy about his sexuality.
He rolls over and closes his eyes, trying to fall back asleep.
"No, it's worse than that," Minho continues. "I like you."
Jisung's eyes snap open. He rolls over and tries to make out Minho's sleeping face. When his eyes adjust, he finds Minho frowning deeply.
"Not in a friends way. I like you so much. I've always liked you, but I didn't know how to say it. I was...scared."
Fuck. Jisung really shouldn't be listening to this, but he also physically cannot stop himself from hearing the words pouring out of Minho's mouth.
"I know that we're best friends, and I didn't want to ruin our friendship. I know you don't like me back, but I just thought you should know."
Jisung continues to stare at him. There’s no way Minho is serious, right? He’s just sleep talking. He says a lot of shit in his sleep. Most of it doesn’t even make sense.
But why does the idea of him not being serious make Jisung’s stomach sink?
“I really, really like you, Jisung-ah,” Minho’s voice is soft, a sliver of fear evident in his tone. “I’m really sorry.”
Jisung swallows thickly. Minho pauses for a long moment and then suddenly lets out the loudest snore Jisung’s ever heard, making Jisung jump. Minho rolls over and makes grabby hands at Jisung, pulling him into a spooning position and loudly snoring and mumbling incoherent words in Jisung’s ear.
Jisung doesn’t sleep for the rest of the night.
₊˚⊹ ᰔ
Jisung can’t stop thinking about Minho’s confession. He knows realistically that there’s no way Minho was serious. He shouldn’t take Minho’s words seriously since he was asleep. But…he can’t stop wondering.
Does Minho really like him? Why does the thought make Jisung so giddy?
He wants to bring it up, but he’s terrified of Minho’s response. What if it really was just sleep talk? That would probably make things awkward if Jisung were to bring it up.
But Jisung can’t shake the feeling that he overheard something he shouldn’t have. He decides to bring it up to Seungmin, who used to sleep with Minho before Minho came crawling into Jisung’s bed.
“You know, Minho-hyung sleep talks a lot,” Jisung says one day while he and Seungmin are out and about in the city.
Seungmin blinks at him. “I warned you. You look tired. Haven’t been getting much sleep, huh?”
Jisung laughs, albeit a bit forcefully. “Well…Minho-hyung says some weird shit in his sleep.” Seungmin hums. “Did he ever, uh, talk about me? When you used to sleep with him?”
Seungmin pauses and assesses Jisung with a look. “Sometimes. He seems to dream of you quite a bit.”
Jisung doesn’t know what to make of that.
“Why?” Seungmin presses. “What did he say about you?”
Jisung shakes his head. “It’s not important.”
“Clearly it is. Come on, tell me.”
Jisung sighs. “He said he liked me. Like…as more than a friend.”
“Oh,” Seungmin says nonchalantly. “I was worried he said something bad. He used to argue with me in his sleep.”
Jisung frowns. “You don’t sound surprised.”
“Well, no. I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?” Jisung asks. “That he likes me?”
Seungmin suddenly laughs, “You think he likes you?”
“Does he not?”
“Oh, Jisung…it’s worse than that,” Seungmin chuckles.
“I am so confused. Does he like me or not?” Jisung demands.
Seungmin only laughs harder. “You can’t be this thick, can you? I know you’re smarter than this.” When Jisung says nothing he pauses again, suddenly sobering up. “Oh, wow. You really don’t know.”
“Can you stop speaking in riddles?” Jisung huffs.
“Why don’t you ask Minho-hyung himself if he was serious?” Seungmin says.
“That would be so awkward. What if he wasn’t?”
Seungmin shrugs. “You won’t know unless you ask. You want to know, don’t you?”
Jisung tugs at the strings of his hoodie. “Yeah.”
“You’re just scared he wasn’t serious.”
Jisung looks at Seungmin and then looks away. “I don’t know.”
Seungmin puts an arm around Jisung’s shoulder and squeezes. “You know, even if Minho-hyung wasn’t serious, it wouldn’t make things any weirder than whatever the two of you have going on.”
Jisung weakly hits Seungmin’s chest. “Shut up. You and him are objectively weirder.”
“We try our best.” A pause. “I think you should just ask him. I think you’ll be surprised by what he says.”
Jisung sighs, “This is the one thing I’m completely unsure what he’s going to say.”
“Really? You’re not even like…a little sure?” Seungmin squints.
“Do you really think he likes me?” Jisung asks in a hushed voice.
“I can’t answer that,” Seungmin says, suddenly serious again. “Only Minho can.”
Jisung continues to fidget with the strings of his hoodie, lost in thought for the rest of the day.
₊˚⊹ ᰔ
That evening, there’s a soft knock at his door. He already knows who it is, so he just says, “Come in, hyung.”
Minho peeks open the door and shuffles in, wearing a hoodie, some basketball shorts, and a pair of fuzzy socks. He looks adorable and sleepy, climbing into bed beside Jisung and rolling over so he can hitch a leg across Jisung’s thighs.
Jisung’s hand instinctively goes to Minho’s hair, petting gently. “Hey, hyung.”
Minho only mumbles a response.
“Can we talk about something?” Jisung asks, his heart pounding in his chest.
Minho stirs a little at that. “What about?”
“Um. You talk a lot in your sleep, you know…”
Minho lifts his head and meets Jisung’s gaze. “Oh. You’re kicking me out, aren’t you?”
It’s not a question. It sounds like Minho has already accepted that he’s being kicked out. His voice is tinged with sadness, and his face looks like that of an abandoned kitten.
Jisung quickly shakes his head. “No, no. Not at all. I just…you said something. A couple of weeks ago…”
Minho frowns deeply. “I didn’t say anything mean, did I? You know, it’s just sleep-talk. It’s not like I really mean any of it.”
Jisung’s heart stops beating.
It’s not like I really mean any of it.
“Oh,” Jisung says, his throat suddenly closing up. “Right. Yeah. Sorry. It was dumb. I just-”
“Hey.” Minho sits up a little. Jisung’s hand falls from his hair and his eyes dart everywhere except Minho’s gaze. “What’s upsetting you, jagi? What did I say?”
“It’s nothing,” Jisung lies.
“You know you can’t lie to me.”
Jisung’s shoulders sag. “What if I don’t want to talk about it?”
“I’d really like to know what I said that made you upset,” Minho says gently. “So I can reassure you that whatever it was was just sleep talk. I didn’t mean it.”
Jisung’s bottom lip wobbles.
“Hyung’s making you more upset, isn’t he?” Minho chuckles, reaching out and cupping Jisung’s face with a single hand.
“It’s not your fault,” Jisung says, his voice shaky. “But I…What if I wanted you to mean it?”
Minho tips his head. “Mean what?”
“What you said.”
Minho thumbs under Jisung’s left eye. “I don’t know what I even said.”
“You said…you said you liked me,” Jisung whispers. “You liked me more than a friend.”
Minho freezes, his jaw tensing and hand stilling against Jisung’s cheek.
“Sorry,” Jisung murmurs, leaning away. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. You already said you didn’t mean it, so-”
“I did mean it.”
Jisung’s eyes dart to Minho’s. He searches every part of Minho’s face to see if he’s lying. He knows all of Minho’s tells, ones that even Minho doesn’t know. He doesn’t find anything.
“Really?” Jisung whispers, his heart stuttering.
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Jisung-ah,” Minho replies, his thumb caressing Jisung’s cheek again.
“But you said-”
“I didn’t know,” Minho cuts him off. “I thought I said something that hurt your feelings. I didn’t realize I said…that I like you.”
“You really do? Like me?” Jisung asks quietly.
Minho chuckles. “Well, not really.” Jisung’s heart sinks again. “I love you.”
Jisung blinks rapidly, brain unable to comprehend the words. “Like…like more than a friend?”
“More than a friend,” Minho reassures him.
“You said you felt this way since we met,” Jisung mumbles. “Is that true?”
Minho laughs. “I really outed myself, huh? Yes, I’ve felt this way since we met.”
Jisung is quiet for a long moment, at a loss for words.
“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same,” Minho murmurs. “It still feels nice that you finally know.”
Jisung stares at him for a moment, before he leans in and presses a quick, chaste kiss to Minho’s lips. Minho jumps a little, surprised, but when Jisung pulls away, he puts a hand around Jisung’s nape and pulls him right back in.
Jisung melts into the kiss, his heartbeat accelerating with every movement. Minho’s other hand is still on his cheek, caressing the skin of it. Jisung doesn’t know where to put his own hands, so he settles for digging them into Minho’s hoodie.
When they part after what feels like forever, panting quietly against each other, Jisung smiles. “I love you, too.”
The smile that spreads across Minho’s face is nothing short of radiant.