Work Text:
Fall semester, 2019
The first few times the boy came in to the planetarium, Minho hadn’t been able to say a thing outside his normal script. “Welcome in, just you tonight?”
Minho worked the front desk at the planetarium, meaning he faced everyone who came in through the front doors. His job was to collect entry fees and check IDs to determine if the patron was a student or senior so that they could get a discount—though very often he forwent the checking and gave out discounts regardless. It was a quiet job, and he worked the week-night shift which ultimately made it even quieter. It was rare that they had more than a couple people come in during the week, and very often they got to clock out early because no one came at all.
It had been on a Tuesday, the first time. Minho had stood there at the desk in baffled silence for several seconds too long, before jerking into motion to check the boy in. His dark hair fell in loose waves over his forehead, his cheeks were slightly rounded with a mole featured on the left. Minho stared at it for too long before dragging his gaze away, the next people in line already stepping up to pay their entry fee.
For the next few weeks, the boy had come in every week. Every Tuesday, in fact. Always fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled program being screened in the planetarium’s domed theater. Minho began to look forward to his Tuesday’s with some thread of anticipation that he couldn’t name.
So it was with some disappointment that, on a Tuesday night in mid-October, the program was minutes from starting and the boy had not shown.
Minho had checked in an older couple and seen them into the theater through the double doors at the back of the lobby at a quarter-to, but no one else had come in since. Sighing, Minho had pulled out his textbooks to get ahead on reading for one of his classes later in the week.
Hyunjin, who was responsible for starting the projection for the program, had yet to retreat to the backroom and was loitering behind the desk with him. Usually, Minho was able to ignore him.
Of course, Hyunjin choosing to drive an elbow into his ribs was not something easily ignorable and in fact quite annoying.
Minho twisted toward him, hand raised to smack. “What the fu—”
“Cutie alert,” Hyunjin hissed, grinning, eyes on the main door into the lobby.
Minho glared at him for another moment before schooling his features, putting on his customer service face with its generic bland smile. Except it froze half-way there, likely leaving him looking a little bit crazed.
It was the boy who’d been coming in weekly. And, yeah, he was cute. Now that Hyunjin had said it out loud, Minho would admit that that was why the boy had lingered in his mind these weeks.
The boy had paused immediately inside the doors to peer at the posters on the pinboard, advertising their special showings for upcoming celestial events that deviated from the regular nightly program. He was dressed in baggy cargo pants and a hoodie, a backpack slung from one shoulder that suggested he was a student. Pins adorned the backpack, but at the distance Minho couldn’t make out what any of them displayed. He didn’t usually wear a backpack, which suggested maybe he was coming from a class that ran late, or a study group.
Minho’s gaze drifted back to the boy’s profile and a small breath escaped his lungs as he saw the edge of his lips curl into a smile at something on one of the posters.
Hyunjin snorted, breaking Minho’s attention. Oh, he’d been staring.
“Fuck off,” he hissed, finally delivering the swat from before. “Don’t you have to get the projector set up?”
“It’s like, three buttons I have to press,” Hyunjin rolled his eyes as he pushed off the desk with his hip. “But whatever. I’m happy to leave you to ogle the customers.”
Minho scowled after him. Hyunjin was the one who’d pointed out he was cute. Which he shouldn’t have, because this was a customer who could probably hear everything they were saying—it wasn’t that large of a lobby.
“Hi,” a voice said.
Minho fought against jumping, head whipping toward the boy who was now stepping up to the desk.
“Hi—welcome! Is it just you tonight?” Minho asked, summoning a quick smile.
“Just me,” the boy confirmed, nodding. The fringe of his hair flopped a bit with the motion, and Minho had to remind himself to stop staring.
From this close, Minho could see his eyes were dark, seemingly depthless. He forced himself to type in the computer, marking student discount with a click of the mouse. “That’ll be five-thousand won.”
“Not going to check my ID to make sure I’m actually student?”
“You are a student, aren’t you?” Minho asked, brow raising. “Besides, you come in often enough for a discount, even if you weren’t.”
“I am,” the boy grinned, then handed over the correct change. “That’s good to know, that there’s a frequent visitors discount.”
Oh no. If Minho hadn’t thought he was cute before, he would now with that grin aimed at him.
On autopilot, Minho accepted the bills and passed over a ticket. Not that they had anyone staffed to actually check them, considering how slow most nights were, but it was one of the rules his boss insisted upon. If only for it to serve as a receipt for the buyer. Plus, some people liked collecting little mementos like that.
“I hope you enjoy the program,” Minho said.
The boy rocked on his heels, then nodded. “Thank you.”
Minho may have been staring at the cute boy’s back as he moved through the double doors into the theater room. To see what his pins said, Minho told himself.
There was one with the rainbow stripes of a pride flag. Another with a little green, antennaed alien. A third had writing in English with the text too small for Minho to read. The final boasted a logo Minho had rarely seen, for the Korean Astronomy and Space Science Institute—KASI.
Minho caught himself smiling, because clearly the cute boy was a fan of astronomy to some degree. Which he could have maybe guessed by his presence on a slow night at the planetarium, but that might have simply been a coincidence.
Ten minutes after the program had started, Hyunjin returned to the lobby. Minho had his face angled toward his textbook, though he’d not read a single word on the page in front of him, still thinking about the cute boy.
“Did you get his number?” Hyunjin asked, pushing Minho’s book to the side.
“Why would I have gotten his number?” Minho asked, shooting Hyunjin a look. He knew not to interrupt him while he was reading, though he seemed not to care about his own wellbeing tonight.
“You’re off your game, hyung. Tell me that you at least get his name?” Hyunjin asked, smirking as he folded his arms over his chest.
Minho pursed his lips as he glared.
“Come on, hyung. He comes in every single week.”
Hm. Minho didn’t know how he felt that Hyunjin had noticed, too. Hyunjin, who didn’t like to hang out by the desk before the program much at all because that meant someone might ask him questions—and he wasn’t working there fifteen hours a week for his love of astronomy.
“Every week?” Minho asked, trying to push down his annoyance.
“Yeah, like. Every single Tuesday. Since the start of the semester.”
“Hm,” Minho responded, tugging his textbook back toward him. Yeah, he was annoyed that Hyunjin had noticed.
“Also, for the record—I didn’t say he’s cute because I want to date him. I said he’s cute because I think you should date him. You never go out anymore.”
Minho scoffed. “So you think we should date solely on the fact that he’s cute?”
“He’s cute enough that you stared at him for a full minute straight when he walked in,” Hyunjin snickered. “Also, he clearly likes stars and shit. Otherwise he wouldn’t come in once a week to see the same boring program.”
And, yeah. Based on the pins on the guy’s backpack, he did, in fact, like stars and shit. Minho stewed for a moment, chewing his inner cheek.
“It’s not boring,” Minho protested weakly, looking away so that Hyunjin wouldn’t see the way he was thinking about it now. How not many people their age, especially, liked to come to the planetarium with anything like regularity.
On the nights when they weren’t busy, Minho sometimes slipped in to the theater to watch, sitting alone in the back row because it felt weird to him to sit in the middle, even with the place otherwise empty. And, yeah, most people would think watching the same program over and over again might be boring.
Minho wasn’t most people. He was in perpetual awe of the expanse of the universe. Had been since he was a kid, when his parents took him camping for the first time. Away from the city and the light pollution, to a place where it felt like it was only them and the stars scattered overhead.
By the sound of the cute boy, he wasn’t in line with ‘most people,’ either. It sparked a strange interest in Minho’s chest that he didn’t know what to do with, nestling into the same corner as the anticipation he felt ahead of his Tuesday night shifts all semester.
“The only two people I know who have repeatedly sat through it are you and him,” Hyunjin said. “He’s literally your type and shares one of your weird hobbies.”
“And so you automatically think we should date based on a whopping grand total of two things.”
“Three things, actually. You’re both hot. People have gotten together just because they thought the other looked hot, you know. You’re already up two points there,” Hyunjin shrugged. “You think he’s hot and you have something in common.”
“Okay, time out. That’s still two things, isn’t it? Perceived appearance, so hot or cute or whatever, is the same category. Also, when did me thinking he was cute morph into thinking he’s hot?”
Minho asked, and then immediately clamped his jaw when he realized his admission.
“Hah! I knew it,” Hyunjin pointed at him. “You do think he’s cute.”
Minho put his face in both hands, counting to ten. “Yes, I think he’s cute.” I’ve only been staring at him and giving him my general, repetitive spiel every Tuesday since the start of the semester because I cannot get beyond the fact that he’s cute.
“Get his number. Ask him out.”
“He is a customer,” Minho leveled him with a flat stare.
“So?”
“That’s gotta be against at least ten rules of basic human courtesy. He’s not coming in looking for someone to ask him out.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re thinking about the one where its super gross to ask someone out while they’re working; there isn’t anything saying you can’t ask someone out when they come to your place of work. Also, like. He totally could be. He’s come in often enough, and as I said, that program is b-o-r-ing.”
“Stop reaching. He is a customer and I am in my place of work and any decent person would probably find that bordering on inappropriate, no matter which side of the line they’re on.”
Hyunjin scoffed. “Fine. Whatever. Just know that I think you’re wrong. And that you could totally be the hottest, weirdest couple on campus that everyone is jealous of.”
“Noted,” Minho rolled his eyes, reaching across to grab his textbook and drag it back in front of him. “Now leave me alone so I can get my reading done or I’m not helping you and Felix review your papers for that class you have with Professor Park.”
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
Minho had to miss the first two of his shifts the following week. He didn’t think much of it, until the next Tuesday came around.
The cute boy walked in, five minutes before the program was set to start. Minho happened to look up as the door opened, Hyunjin off in the bathroom before he was required to be in the projection room.
It was because he looked up when he did that Minho caught the visible brightening of the cute boy’s expression when he saw Minho behind the desk.
“Hi,” he said, sounding mildly out of breath as he strode right up to the desk.
Minho smiled. “Hi,” he greeted, remembering the discussion from two weeks ago. He’s literally your type, Hyunjin had said. Thank god he was in the bathroom right now.
“You weren’t here last week,” the cute boy said.
“Oh,” Minho blinked. Confirmation that Cute Boy paid attention. To Minho. “Yeah. I had a presentation last week, so I had to swap a couple shifts around.”
“Nice. I hope it went well.”
“It did,” Minho nodded in confirmation. He wasn’t sure why he went on, his mouth opening and seeing more words like it had disconnected from his brain entirely. “It was on different learning styles in a classroom setting.”
"Oh, are you an education major?” Cute Boy asked.
“Mm,” Minho nodded again. “My specialty focus is on sciences, but I’m majoring in general education.”
“That’s awesome! I’m studying bioengineering.”
“Bio? Not something to do with astronomy?” Minho couldn’t help tease, remembering the pins. And, of course, how he came to the planetarium so regularly.
“I’m looking into adjacent fields for a master’s degree; astrophysics if I get the right prereqs done. Though, most aeronautic institutes accept candidates with biotechnical science backgrounds,” he said, smiling. It faltered a bit, before he went on. “If I can get that far, of course.”
“Why hold yourself back? Sky’s the limit, right?” Minho asked.
His smile recovered, even brightening as his eyes creased. “Yeah. You’re right.”
The door to the bathroom opened, and Minho glanced to see Hyunjin standing there, staring at the pair of them with a growing smile on his face.
Minho cleared his throat, eyes darting back to the boy in front of him. “Uh, is it just you again tonight?”
“Yeah,” Cute Boy said, handing over a few bills.
Minho accepted them, counting to ensure he didn’t owe any change back, then reached for a ticket. He paused, gaze flitting to Hyunjin as he threw Minho a smirk before sliding through the door into the projection room.
He shook his head, pinching a ticket from the pile between his fingers to hand off. “I hope that you enjoy the show.”
“Thank you,” Cute Boy smiled, giving a tiny wave.
Like two weeks ago, Minho stared after him until he disappeared through the double doors. He shook his head when the doors shut, exhaling slowly and staring at the ceiling.
When Hyunjin came out after the program had started, Minho only shot him a look. “Don’t even start.”
Hyunjin put his hands up in defense, though his grin gave his thoughts away. “I didn’t say anything.”
Minho grumbled under his breath and didn’t even pretend to try focusing on his reading.
He’d forgotten to ask his name.
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
Cute Boy came in again on Friday that same week.
They were playing a special program that night, focusing on the planets in the solar system rather than the expanse of the galaxy at large as was typical, due to an upcoming planetary parade.
Minho had spent the last three days thinking about Cute Boy. Because Hyunjin had decided to tell their friends in the group chat that Minho had a crush on someone who was ‘just as much of a space nerd as he was.’
It was decidedly not because he just couldn’t get him out of his head, with his smile and his fluffy hair and the KASI pin on his backpack. The way his eyes lit up when he smiled. His long, slightly crooked fingers when he reached out to pay or take his ticket. The way his wavy hair fell almost over his eyes. How he dressed in clothes that were clearly too big for his frame.
Minho knew precisely three things about Cute Boy: he was cute, he came to the planetarium every Tuesday, and he was in bio engineering.
When he explained that to the group chat under threat of interrogation, Felix proclaimed that was enough to propose marriage. Minho had muted the chat after that, but still the cute boy hovered in the back of his every thought.
When Minho clocked in to his shift Friday, he resigned himself to plotting how to engage in conversation with Cute Boy the next time he came in. Which was why his abrupt appearance was so jarring, Minho almost believed that his thoughts had summoned him into existence.
Thanks to the relative crowd for the special program that night, Minho didn’t even realize Cute Boy had come in until he was in front of him at the desk, smiling and offering his five-thousand won for admission.
“Oh, hi,” Minho said, blinking in surprise. For no reason at all, his face flushed. He felt the warmth in his cheeks and winced, hoping it wasn’t super obvious.
“Hi,” Cute Boy said, flashing a wide smile. His eyes sparkled with it, and Minho fought against drowning in their depths. “Just me, again.”
Because there was a line—short as it was, with about five people waiting behind Cute Boy—Minho bit his tongue. It wasn’t like he’d been able to conceive of a plan to talk to him yet. He’d only just decided that he wanted to try twenty minutes prior.
The won was exchanged for a ticket, and Minho bid him enjoy the show as the next patron stepped up the desk.
That was that, he assumed, his opportunity to say anything more being shelved until the following week when he’d come in on Tuesday for the regular showing.
Except, as the program ran in the theater, he considered that he might get a chance after the show.
An hour later, Minho looked up as the doors opened and the visitors began to file out of the theater at the end of the program. Usually, he kept himself busy with closing duties by then, going directly in to the theater to check for any trash left behind, empty the bins and make sure the seats were clean. The rule was no outside food and beverages, but this was a college campus. People snuck snacks in all the time.
Tonight, instead of grabbing the broom and dustpan right away, he lingered at the desk while Hyunjin stood at the doors bidding their guests a good evening. He didn’t have to launch immediately into closing duties—they could wait a few more minutes. While he remained at the desk, Minho very pointedly ignored every curious glance Hyunjin sent his way.
Cute Boy saw him immediately when he exited into the lobby and his face lit up with a smile. He waved, and Minho lifted a hand to wave back, chewing his lip.
Cute Boy walked over, cutting through the thinning crowd making their way to the exit.
“Hey,” Cute Boy said, still smiling.
He came over to speak to you, Minho’s brain provided helpfully. Ask his name!
“Hey, so—if this is totally out of line please feel free to tell me to fuck off, but, can I ask your name?”
Cute Boy grinned. “You know, if you’d ever checked my student ID like I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to, you’d have known it already.”
Minho blinked, his ears going hot. There was that. “Ah—well—”
His eyes danced in amusement. “It’s Jisung.”
“Jisung,” Minho repeated, voice soft. “I’m Minho.”
“I know. It’s on your badge,” Jisung said, still grinning as he nodded to Minho’s chest and the employee name badge.
“Right,” Minho laughed, looking at the floor. If he wasn’t blushing already, he was now. “Of course.”
And then, because he wasn’t likely to be able to get the courage to ask for something else from the cute boy—from Jisung—for at least a month at this rate, he snatched a pen and the nearest piece of paper. It just so happened to be one of the tickets they handed out.
He scribbled on it quickly before passing it over to Jisung.
“A free ticket?” Jisung’s brow raised and lip curled in a teasing smile. “That won’t get you in trouble, will it?”
“Uh. Its my number. If you wanted to maybe text me. Or don’t. Doesn’t matter.”
When he risked a glance up, Jisung was staring at him. Still smiling as he held on to the ticket. That was a good sign, at least. He could always give the ticket back or rip it up.
“I’ll text you,” Jisung said, eyes creasing.
God, but Minho could very easily get addicted to that smile.
“Okay,” Minho breathed.
“I’ll let you get back to work,” Jisung said. He waved the ticket. “I’ll text you,” he repeated.
“Okay,” Minho said again with a nod. He cleared his throat. “Have a good night. Jisung.”
“You too. Minho,” Jisung backed away a few steps before spinning on his heel to head to the exit.
Hyunjin appeared at Minho’s shoulder, already waggling his eyebrows. “You got his name?”
Minho’s expression hardened as he narrowed his eyes at Hyunjin. “Yes.”
“Thank fuck. What is it? I wanna stalk him on social media.”
“I only got his given name,” Minho said.
“Dammit, Minho! How’m I supposed to see if he’s single and not a complete weirdo? Not that he’s not already weird, considering how often he comes here—hey! Ow!”
Minho had swatted at him, scowling. He hadn’t even hit him that hard. “I wouldn’t want you to stalk him on the internet regardless! Besides. I gave him my number.”
Hyunjin gasped, eyes widening in glee. “Lee Minho! I thought that went against your morals as a decent human being.”
“Do not—”
Hyunjin hugged him, lifting Minho a few inches off the ground with the effort. “This is great! Oh my god, I’m so happy!”
“Jesus,” Minho choked in a breath as Hyunjin released him, his ribs aching from the press of the embrace. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It’s a huge deal. Your social life is fucking abysmal, hyung. I have to tell Lix immediately—”
“We have to close. You can tell him after we lock up for the night.”
“But—”
“Do you want my old notes for Professor Park’s class ahead of finals in a few weeks or not?” Minho asked, brows raised.
Hyunjin’s hands went up. Minho passed him the broom and dustpan and, for once, Hyunjin took them without complaint.
By the time Minho had made it home, close to ten pm, Jisung had texted him.
Minho was standing in the doorway with his jacket hanging from one arm, half out of his shoes, when he pulled his phone from his pocket to check—not because he was expecting a message, of course.
Unknown number
Hi! It’s Jisung from the planetarium!
Quickly, Minho saved the number. He was typing out a response before he had even thought about it.
Me
Hi, Jisung from the planetarium
Jisung from the planetarium
So, hypothetically speaking, am I allowed to use this ticket as a free pass to the planetarium?
Me
Hmmmm
He was in the middle of typing more when Jisung responded.
Jisung from the planetarium
How about if I bring you a coffee or something?
Me
Are you bribing me for free entry into the planetarium?
Jisung from the planetarium
…maybe
Me
Damn. And here I was thinking you accepted my number with pure intentions
Jisung from the planetarium
My intentions are SO pure
(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)
Me
I guess since you come so often I could let you in for free one time…
But only if I’m the one working the desk
And if we’re not busy
Jisung from the planetarium
Of course! Don’t want you to get in trouble!
But, seriously. I’ll bring you coffee next time too
My treat
Me
You don’t have to do that
Jisung from the planetarium
But I want to so I’m going to
Minho exhaled. He’d spoken to Jisung only a handful of times, and already he was impossibly endeared toward him. Very quickly, he could see this becoming a problem. He could see himself developing a full-blown crush on him.
The thought left a strange feeling in his gut. He couldn’t tell if it was good or bad.
Like Hyunjin had said, Minho didn’t have much of a social life. He didn’t care to make time for one, too focused on school and sleep and keeping up with his hobbies—which included anime, boxing, and camping when the weather was decent enough. He didn’t go out on weekends like half of the student body did, because parties meant tight crowds of people and noise.
Because of his general avoidance of people who he wasn’t friends with already, outside of going to class and working the weeknight shift at the planetarium, Minho didn’t interact with anyone enough to develop any sort of feelings beyond potentially platonic. He didn’t date—aside from the few instances where one of his friends had attempted to set him up with someone, which always ended up with an hour or two of awkward, stilted conversation over mediocre food because that’s all any regular college student could afford before they went their separate ways.
Apparently, that didn’t apply with Jisung. Apparently, all it took was realizing a guy who came in to the planetarium weekly was cute, talk to him a few times, and boom. Crush under development.
Me
Fine
Jisung from the planetarium
(˶˃ ∇ ˂˶)
Ok! I’ll see you on Tuesday!
“Hey, Min? You good there?” Chan’s voice called out.
Minho’s head snapped up, finding his roommate sitting on the couch in their living room, staring at him with mild concern.
“Uh—yeah. Just answering a text.”
“You’re smiling at your phone a lot,” Chan said, giving him a mischievous grin.
“Don’t start. I’ve already had to put up with this from Hyunjin tonight.”
“Is it the cute boy who comes to the planetarium every week?”
Minho dropped his head back and groaned at the ceiling. Why did Hyunjin have to go around telling everyone his business? Chan wasn’t even in that group chat—which, speaking of, was blowing up on his phone as Hyunjin made his report to Felix.
The smile Chan had accused him of wearing vanished. He scanned the messages as he finished removing his jacket and shoes, placing them neatly where they belonged.
Ferret
LIX IT HAPPENED
Minho's 4th cat
WHAT
TELL ME
DID YOU FAIL THAT PAPER
Ferret
what no I got a 90 on it
Minho's 4th cat
oh thats great congrats!
Why are we shouting then?
Ferret
MINHO TALKED TO PLANET BOY
Me
Do not call him planet boy
Ferret
What’s his name then hyung???
Minho's 4th cat
YOU GOT HIS NAME????
TELL ME
I NEED TO LOOK HIM UP ON SOCIALS
Me
no
Minho's 4th cat
usually I’m all for your gatekeeping but this is unjust
jinnie gets to know what he looks like!
Ferret
I’ll sneak a pic next time he comes in
Me
No the fuck you won’t
That’s absolutely a breach of privacy
Ferret
!!!!!
Just come in on Tuesday!
He comes every Tuesday you can see him yourself!
Minho's 4th cat
OH THATS A GREAT IDEA
Me
I’m going to block both of you
Minho's 4th cat
🥺🥺🥺
Minho-hyung nooooooo
Ferret
We have done nothing to deserve this treatment!
We only want you to be happy and fall in love
Minho's 4th cat
And get laid
Ferret
AND get laid
Minho muted his phone and stuffed it into his pocket. He wasn’t going to continue enabling them.
He’d migrated from the entryway to the living room during while answering and reading their messages, and now looked up to see Chan.
“Hyunjin?” Chan asked, laughing. He was still watching Minho from his position on the couch, his expression fond.
“Hyunjin,” Minho sighed.
“I can ask him to back off, if you’d like,” Chan said. “We’re meeting up later.”
Later. As if it wasn’t already after ten at night. Though, it was a Friday and midterms were finished.
“Don’t bother,” Minho shook his head. “It’ll only encourage him.”
Chan gave a nod. “Are you coming out tonight?”
Minho grimaced. His friends meant well, but he didn’t do parties much. They were too loud, too crowded. Never mind that he spent most Saturday’s volunteering and had to get up early to make it to the shelter for his shift.
“I’m at the shelter tomorrow,” he said.
“Oh, you’re right. Sorry, that’s on me for forgetting.”
Minho shrugged it off. Chan didn’t forget intentionally. He had enough on his own plate. Minho thought him mildly insane for being captain of the university swim team on top of majoring in biomedical sciences—because who had time for twenty-plus hours of practices on top of studying and potential part-time jobs?
“Let’s do dinner tomorrow night,” Chan said.
Minho smiled. “Yeah. I can pick up on my way home, if you want. Just text me what you’d like.”
Chan returned his smile. “Sounds like a plan.”
Minho retreated to his room, going through the motions of getting ready for bed. He would be awake until midnight at least, he figured, but it was better to wash off the day and get cozy.
By the time he was returning from his shower, dressed in comfortable sweats and a t-shirt, Chan had departed. Minho settled into bed with a sigh, resting back against his pillows as he pulled his phone out again.
There was a text from Jisung again.
Jisung from the planetarium
Question though
Are you one of those weird people that drinks their coffee black
Or are you normal and drown out the bitterness with creamer
Minho couldn’t help the snort that slipped out. He rolled onto his side, smiling at the screen as he typed out his response one-handed.
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
The next several weeks went something like this:
Jisung came in every single Tuesday to the planetarium without fail. He slid an iced coffee (or a hot chocolate, when the weather finally turned at the start of November) across the front desk and Minho waved off his entrance fee, because what was a few thousand won difference when weeknights were notorious for being slow, anyway?
They would chat for a few minutes, usually about their respective classes before Jisung would head in to the theater. Though, one time Jisung had mentioned an anime he’d recently started and that turned into twenty minutes debating slice of life versus heavier plot-driven shows. (Minho had filed a mutual like of anime into the column of ‘shit I’m developing a crush.’)
As soon as Jisung was gone into the theater and the program started, Hyunjin would come out and stare at him smugly. Felix did not make a coincidental visit to the planetarium as Hyunjin had suggested, though he had brought Minho apology brownies to their shared lecture on the Monday after the initial flurry of texts and Minho flat out ignoring them both throughout that entire weekend.
Oh. And Jisung started to text Minho regularly. Daily, even. Sometimes just a greeting. Sometimes a meme. Minho found himself looking forward to the texts, to replying to them in kind and even being the one to initiate if it was a few hours into the day and he’d not heard anything from Jisung just yet.
A month after they’d started to text, Minho was sitting in the on-campus dining hall later than he usually did for lunch after lingering after a class to speak with his professor when his phone lit up with a message.
He was already smiling when he pulled out the device, seeing Jisung’s name on the screen.
Jisung 🪐
Am I going crazy or are you in the dining hall right now???
[attached image]
The picture was Minho in profile, seated at one of the high tables by the wall of windows alone.
Minho snorted, shaking his head and twisting around to the direction from which the photo was taken. His eyes found Jisung easily, hovering by the dessert station with his lunch tray in one hand, looking down at his phone in the other.
Minho stared, waiting for him to look up. It took ten whole seconds until Jisung did. His frown froze on his face when they made eye contact.
Minho waved. Jisung’s face broke into a wide smile, and he hurried over.
It was different, seeing him in the middle of the day. His hair was fluffed under his hoodie, the daylight through the windows highlighting the warmth of his face. His eyes dark eyes seemed to capture and hold the light.
Minho’s chest gave a squeeze. He forced it away by holding his breath for seconds too long.
“Hi,” Jisung said when he was near enough, the word breathless.
Minho couldn’t help but return his still-present smile as he tipped his head back just slightly to hold Jisung’s gaze. “Hi,” he breathed, moving his backpack from the seat beside him to sit on the floor at his feet.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you here at this time before,” Jisung said, sliding into the open seat.
“I had a meeting run late,” Minho shrugged. “Still have to get lunch, though. Even if it’s nearly three in the afternoon.”
“Hmm,” Jisung said, glancing at him. “You might hate that I usually eat this late because I get caught up working on something and forget.”
Minho blinked at him. “You forget to eat?”
“Only sometimes,” Jisung said quickly, breaking his disposable chopsticks apart and digging in. Around a mouthful of food, he went on. “I keep snacks in my bag, too.”
Minho shook his head, smiling. He reached out without thought, smudging away a bit of sauce that had found its way to Jisung’s cheek as he chewed.
Jisung stilled, watching him with wide eyes for a moment before swallowing. “Ah—thanks,” he cleared his throat, face flushing.
Cute, Minho thought, wiping his thumb on a napkin. “You need to eat regularly, you know. How else are you going to be able to fuel your brain?”
Jisung tipped his head back. “Nooo, not you too,” he whined. “I already have one of my friends on me about eating enough all the time! I promise I do! Just not on a regular schedule.”
His pout was adorable. Minho breathed through the rising panic in his chest.
He’d spent the last month trying to tamp the budding feelings he had. He didn’t know what to do with a crush, especially on someone who was exactly his type in every way.
Minho refused to talk about it Hyunjin, who would only gloat. He couldn’t talk to Felix about it because, as much as he loved him, Felix would inevitably tell Hyunjin. Which left Chan, but Minho didn’t know how to talk about feelings with him. They generally avoided the subject out of some unspoken boundary, likely because Chan dated regularly (somehow, around his already packed athletic, school, and social lives, while still finding the time to sleep) while Minho just. Didn’t.
Minho shook his head, gesturing for Jisung to eat his lunch while he turned back to the last bites of his rice. When he finished, Jisung launched into a monologue about a partner project he had coming up and how he’d been paired with the worst possible person in his class who hadn’t shown up since the first week but that his professor refused to let them swap.
All the while, even as he listened, Minho took it upon himself to remind Jisung to keep eating.
“I mean—I’m going to end up doing the whole thing by myself.”
“Track it.”
“Hm?”
“Isn’t that a thing you can do on most shared document applications these days? Track the changes and additions you make to something? If you show that you ended up doing the entire project, you’ll get the credit and this other person can get fucked. It’s their own fault if they don’t put the effort in.”
Jisung started nodding as Minho spoke. “Yeah. You know—yeah, you’re right. And I mean, in honesty, I’d probably end up doing all of it anyway even if I had a shitty partner. I think I’m too involved sometimes.” His shoulders hunched and he looked bashful.
“Is it something you’re passionate about?” Minho asked.
“Well, yes. We get to choose the topic and since I emailed the guy and he’s not replied—it’s been a whole week, now, and we only have until the end of the semester to work on it—I’m just going to go ahead and do what I wanted.”
“What is it you want to do?”
“Design a functional small-scale microbial fuel cell for power generation.”
Minho blinked at him. “I’m sorry—you’re in your first year?”
Jisung smiled. “Yeah, but I completed a lot of my gen-eds during high school so I could focus on my actual major; I’m a bit ahead with my courses.”
Jisung spent the next while explaining his project, the reason he wanted to make a microbial fuel cell. How they produce electricity from biochemical reactions driven by bacteria. How on a long-term mission to space, there wouldn’t be enough capacity to store conventional fuel, so alternative power sources were necessary to investigate and develop.
He only stopped when he glanced at his phone. “Oh, shit, it’s already four.”
Minho blinked, sitting up taller. He’d promised to meet Felix. “Shit, I gotta run.”
Jisung nodded, and they both quickly gathered their belongings.
“I’ll see you Tuesday?” Jisung said, pausing as he stood.
“You know,” Minho replied, turning slightly as he hitched his bag up on his shoulder. “If you want to hang out, we can do it when I’m not at work.”
Jisung’s reaction was comical. His eyes went big, his mouth dropping partway open in mild horror. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think—of course it’s a bother to you that I come and talk to you while you’re working.”
“I don’t mind that you do. I usually just work on homework if we’re not busy, anyway. I just meant that, if you wanted to maybe do something together outside of that. We can. Like meeting for lunch.”
Jisung’s smile brightened. “Yeah. If that’s okay.”
Minho would do unspeakable things if Jisung only asked. He didn’t say that, though. Instead, he just smiled and said, “Of course it’s okay.”
“Well, since you already work at the planetarium,” Jisung said, chewing his lip. “Would you like to go walk around the botanical garden with me sometime?”
“I would want nothing more than to walk around the botanical garden with you,” Minho said.
Jisung’s smile in response was a reward all on its own. Minho carried the warmth of it in his chest through the rest of the day.
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
When the main door to the planetarium opened, Minho’s heart leapt. It was Tuesday, and the one person who consistently came in on Tuesdays was Jisung.
Even though they’d met for lunch around their respective schedules the day before, Minho was excited to see him. It didn’t matter that they’d texted off and on throughout the day, he was looking forward to asking how his day had been, if his shitty project partner had actually been in class that day. Or that Jisung had shown up bright and early Saturday morning to join him at the cat shelter Minho volunteered at after he'd mentioned it exactly one time. Or that they’d spent most of Sunday wandering around the botanical gardens—mostly in the greenhouses, though they’d spent far too much time outside in the cold, as well, neither really caring about the temperature due to being distracted by the other.
The speed at which Minho had become addicted to talking to Jisung, to wanting to be in his orbit was…not alarming, not quite. Different, yes. He didn’t usually warm up to people so quickly. He had classmates who’d been in the same courses as him since the start of his freshman year whom he only considered as polite acquaintances, even after partnering for projects or grouping up to study.
The only reason Minho was friends with Hyunjin was because Hyunjin was Felix’s best friend. And the only reason Minho was friends with Felix was because they’d lived down the street from one another and half of their schoolmates in elementary had thought them cousins because they had the same family name before everyone was old enough to understand basic genealogy.
(Felix, at six, had been convinced of it too when he’d first met Minho, despite the fact that his family had been in Australia for several generations before they’d moved back to Korea, whereas Minho’s direct ancestry had never left the country. It had been impossibly endearing to child-Minho to the point that he elected himself as Felix’s protector of sorts when the other kids would tease him for his accent or struggles with Korean. That had also been one of his first exposures to teaching: helping Felix as he learned the language better.)
As for Chan, Minho had been unceremoniously adopted by the older without his own realization during a required gen-ed lecture that everyone on campus was required to take within their first two years. He was the only exception to the rule to Minho’s lack of befriending classmates, and he’d not even been aware that they were friends until one night at the end of his first year when they were sitting in the dorm common area together and Chan had asked if Minho would consider rooming with him in an off-campus apartment the following semester.
They’d grown closer since, as there wasn’t much of a choice when you shared the same seventy-square meters. They got along, though. Respected each other’s tendencies and idiosyncrasies, even if they didn’t always understand them. Like why Chan would stay up to five in the morning some nights to finish project for class, then scoot off to the pool for morning practice without having slept yet. (Minho knew he typically passed out for several hours after the all-nighter-into-morning-practice sessions, and took it upon himself to swing back to the apartment between his own schedule to make sure Chan woke up in time to make it to his first class of the day, strategically scheduled to be in the afternoon.)
Jisung walked right up to the desk, smiling. “Hi, Minho-hyung.”
“Looks like it’s your lucky night,” Minho said in greeting. “You get the theater all to yourself.”
No one else had come in. Maybe it was the cold or everyone was busy getting ready for the loom of finals. December was only a few days away.
“Hyung, you should come sit with me,” Jisung said.
Minho blinked once, and then twice more.
“I can sit at the desk,” Hyunjin said, startling Minho, who had forgotten he was still standing there. “In case anyone comes in. Which I doubt they will, anyway, but.”
Between Hyunjin’s encouragement and Jisung’s big eyes, mouth curved into a pout, Minho couldn’t say no. He was, after all, falling at lightspeed.
Jisung cheered when Minho stepped out from behind the desk, reaching out to grab his wrist and tug him along into the theater. Rather than sit around the edges, Jisung pulled him right into the center row.
Their shoulders brushed as they sat side by side, and Minho had to fight not to lean into the point of contact.
He asked the question that had hovered in the back of his mind for weeks at that point. “Why do you come so often, by the way?”
“I like watching the program,” Jisung shrugged, glancing at him. “It’s…it settles something in me, I think. To know that I’m just a single person and space is an ever-expanding abyss.”
“I get that,” Minho murmured. The knowledge that the universe was bigger than himself, that he was just a grain of sand on the shore was often more reassuring than otherwise. “Do you have a favorite part? Of the program, I mean.”
Jisung hummed, tipping his head back as the narration for the introduction began. “The ending probably. When it does a timelapse of the night sky, with all the stars.”
Minho grinned, looking at Jisung’s profile. The other boy must’ve felt his gaze, because he rolled his head to the side to meet his gaze.
“What?”
“Thats my favorite part, too,” Minho confided, before they lapsed into silence to listen to the narration.
The lights had come up again when Minho spoke again, asking another question that had lingered in his mind.
“When’s the last time you saw them with your own eyes?”
“Hm?” Jisung asked, blinking against the renewed lighting in the theater, reminding them that they were alone in a sea of empty seats.
“The stars.”
“I don’t…” Jisung’s face creased with his frown. “I don’t know. Not recently, not really.”
Minho nodded, an idea forming. “What if we go see the stars? For real, not just on the dome of the theater.”
Jisung stared at him, eyes wide. “Really?”
Minho nodded. “Really. I’ll take you. We can drive out of the city, where the sky is clearer. Stay up all night, pack food and hot drinks and a bunch of blankets.”
Jisung smile bloomed. Minho wanted to see that smile on his face always.
“I think that’d be really fun. I would like that, a lot.”
“Alright,” Minho gave a nod. “At the start of winter break, do you need to go home right away?”
Jisung blinked, mouth open in surprise. “Oh, that’s soon.”
A little over two weeks away, right after finals. Before the chaos of the winter holidays. It was abrupt, maybe. Yet there was a tiny, nagging worry that came from nowhere useful that rose up to try and convince Minho that if they went their separate ways for a few weeks without something memorable happening, Jisung would forget about him by the time spring semester came around.
“Let’s do it,” Jisung said. “I’ll tell my parents I’ll take the train home Sunday instead of Saturday like I’d been planning.”
“I could drive you home, after. Make it easier for you.”
“Hyung—you don’t have to. I could live entirely out of the way for you.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” he murmured. If it meant more time, just the two of them. “I’d like to do it, if you’re okay with it.”
For a long moment, they just stared at one another. Then, Jisung nodded, giving him a small smile. “Okay. Yeah. Lets do it.”
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
The date Minho had chosen for their adventure happened to be during the Ursids meteor shower, even if it was a few days before the peak. He’d known, of course, that the shower would occur then. It did every December, from the seventeenth to the twenty-sixth.
In the two weeks leading up to their adventure, they spent an ever increasing amount of time together than they had before. Most of it involved them studying quietly in a shared bubble of space—a table in the library, the living room at Minho’s apartment when Chan was out, and once at Jisung’s dorm, wherein Minho met his roommates Seungmin and Jeongin. Jisung apologized for them profusely, though Minho had no reason to think it was necessary. They’d both been kind and respectful. Even if they’d given him pointed looks that made him feel like he was being studied under a microscope.
They started to watch a new anime together during study breaks, sitting pressed together on a couch or lying on the floor side by side.
Minho was pursuing his degree in teaching because he loved it. He loved working with kids, loved seeing that moment when a concept clicked. He loved their questions, their curiosity.
Some people thought teaching was an easy profession—and in some cases, sure. If you loved what you did, yes, it could be considered easy. Easy to want to do the work, and put in the effort.
Seeing the notes and prep Jisung went through while studying for his own finals, though, had Minho blinking.
Equations, lengthy paragraphs of information, dense wording and concepts that, when he’d tried to read through a page in one of Jisung’s textbooks while he’d stepped off to the bathroom, left him feeling dizzy. Dizzy, and absolutely certain that Jisung was also pursuing his degree out of love of what he was studying. Perhaps even more love than Minho held for teaching.
When their exams were done, Jisung came over and they packed up Minho’s car to head out. They got fast food on the way, and Minho insisted on paying.
During the drive away from the city, Jisung reported that his project with the microbial fuel cell had been a success and that he’d gotten full marks on it, while his parter—who’d dared showed up to the last class for the presentation—had gotten none.
Minho listened intently. At some point, Jisung’s voice drifted off, and when Minho glanced over, he was dozing against the window, his breath fogging the glass.
He smiled, focusing on the road for the last stretch, not bothering to wake him. They were planning to stay up the whole night to see the stars, to count as many of the meteors from the Ursids shower as they could.
Upon their arrival, Minho was pleased to find that there weren’t any other cars in the lot. The tires crunched over gravel, and Jisung stirred to wakefulness, stretching his arms overhead.
Considering it was December, the ground was frozen. It hadn’t snowed just yet, though it would be any day now. Minho had packed as many blankets as he and Chan had to spare, as well as a portable space heater, hand warmers, and thermoses of broth and hot chocolate. If it got too cold, they could retreat to the car for a while, too, and run the heater in there. Worst case, they could drive a half an hour to the nearest town and see if any of the motels had a room available.
When they settled on their mounds of blankets, the sky had been full dark for some time. The moon would rise in a few hours, a waning crescent, but for the time being it would be just them and the stars.
“Holy shit,” Jisung exhaled a billowed breath of condensation, his neck craned to take in the view.
Minho looked up and smiled. It was quite the sight, to be able to take in so much of the Milky Way at once. To imagine, for even a moment, that you could reach out and touch it with your fingertips. Cradle the entirety of the universe in the palm of your hands.
In the city, the sky was little more than a dark blanket, only the brightest of stars visible. Here, a few hours drive away, with little to no light pollution to speak of, you could take the whole of it unimpeded.
He glanced down to Jisung and stilled.
Jisung’s eyes, lit by the glow of the stars alone, were shining with unshed tears.
“You okay?” Minho asked quietly.
“Huh?” Jisung sniffled. He didn’t take his gaze from the sky as he spoke. “Oh, yeah. Just. It’s so much better in person, you know?”
“Yeah,” Minho said, staring at Jisung’s profile. “It is.”
He continued to watch Jisung watch the sky for a few minutes, until Jisung turned and met his gaze. He wondered if Jisung could see the stars reflected back at himself in Minho’s eyes, too.
“What?” Jisung laughed, the sound a bit damp.
“Nothing,” Minho said. “Just—you’ve really never come out to see the stars before?”
“Not like this,” Jisung shrugged. “I’ve never really been away from civilization at night before. Not that I can remember. Something about axe murderers.”
Minho snorted. “Too bad I left my axe at home.”
Jisung knocked their shoulders together, but instead of shifting back, he remained pressed to Minho’s side. “How’re you going to fight off anyone who comes to murder us, then?”
“Who says I’m not the murderer?” Minho laughed.
Jisung was looking at him again. “Nah.”
“No? You don’t think I could be a serial killer in disguise?”
“Nope,” Jisung grinned. “You’re too kind to be a serial killer.”
Minho could only blink at that. Jisung turned his attention upward again. Minho had to drag his gaze from the other boy’s face.
Minutes passed in silence like that, their gazes scanning the heavens. Sometimes they’d quietly point to a constellation they recognized, but mostly they basked in their smallness against the expanse.
“Do you think that’s the ISS?” Jisung asked, pointing at the light traveling steadily across the sky.
“Could be,” Minho nodded. He reached out, tucking a blanket closer around Jisung.
Jisung let out a tiny gasp. “It is!” In his hands, his cellphone screen was lit up. He glanced up, face glowing from beneath, to meet Minho’s gaze. “This is the ISS tracker website. It shows the approximate location of the ISS at any given time, and right now it says it’s above us!”
“That’s really neat,” Minho said, squinting at the miniature earth on the webpage.
“It makes an orbit of the earth every ninety to ninety-three minutes,” Jisung explained, tilting the screen toward him. “So sixteen orbits in a twenty-four hour period.”
Minho poked at the screen with his finger, rotating the little digitized earth with crisscrossing lines over its surface, showing the pathways of the space station. “That’s got to be quite the view they have, up there,” Minho mused.
“The best view. Imagine, looking down at the earth from orbit. The entire planet spread out below, surrounded by the expanse of space.”
“Is that what you want to do? Join a space program? Be an astronaut?”
“I think that’s the ‘aiming for the stars’ dream,” Jisung said, voice quiet. He shuffled closer, leaning his head against Minho’s shoulder. “You know; the lofty goal you set knowing it might be impossible because if you’re lucky you’ll land on something exceptional regardless.”
Minho hummed.
“I’m going to get my bachelors in bioengineering, then apply for a master’s program through the University of Science and Technology. Then either continue to my doctoral degree, or I’d try to apply for KASI, I think. That’d probably be my realistic goal, one of those two. Or, both, eventually. Get my PhD and do my postdoc at KASI.”
“And here I am getting ready to start student teaching after next year, and then that’ll be all I’m doing for the next forty-some years,” Minho laughed lightly. “My god, Sungie, that’s so impressive.”
“You think what I’m doing is impressive? I think what you’re doing is—it’s so admirable, hyung, dedicating your life to teaching kids. Educating the next generation. I don’t think I’d have the attention for it.”
“I bet you’d do better than you think,” Minho hummed.
“Maybe with older kids. Or, eventually, a college lecture. Little kids, I’d let them get me sidetracked for every little thing.”
Minho couldn’t hold back his giggles.
“I’m serious! They have such good questions I’d never think of, and I’d want to answer every single one of them.”
“Can I ask you something?” Minho asked, voice softening.
“Of course,” Jisung grinned.
“Why space?”
Jisung laughed. “Why not space? Why not the stars? Why not see what else could be out there? We can’t be alone in the universe. Humanity is always moving forward, reaching past our limits. I want to be a part of that, in any way. Even if it’s only some tiny, minuscule way.”
Minho hummed.
“Would you ever want to do it?” Jisung asked.
“Do what?”
“Want to go to space?”
Minho snorted. “I’m utterly terrified of heights.”
Jisung grinned. “I’m acrophobic, too. But I once heard someone ask, is it actually a fear of heights or is it a fear of gravity? A fear of falling?”
Minho gave him a flat stare. “Both of those things are entirely different. Barophobia and basophobia. The latter is a natural human instinct—I’ve read about climbers who have to train themselves out of their fear of falling.”
It was Jisung’s turn to hum. He was aiming the full breadth of his gummy smile at Minho, and Minho couldn’t help but return it.
“What?” He laughed.
“Just, you’re really cool, hyung.”
There was a long moment where Minho just stared at him, unblinking. Maybe it was the context. Just the two of them, alone under the night sky. No one around but them for kilometers. Or maybe the proximity, sitting with barely a whisper of space between them.
“I think you’re cooler,” Minho said quietly, knocking their shoulders together.
Jisung didn’t respond right away, so Minho tipped his head back and to peer up at the infinity sprawled out above them.
He rememebred one of the times he'd gone camping with his parents when he was a kid. No one around for kilometers, just them and the bright glitter of thousands of other star systems overhead. Pin pricks of light an impossible distance away.
He remembered asking his mom about it, while his dad had sent him to carry her things to their campsite. About the unknown number of worlds out there, in their galaxy alone.
“But, how do we know if we’re alone? We can’t be, can we?”
“We just don’t know, aegi. Maybe one day someone will make a telescope big enough or venture far enough to see if there are others out there.”
Minho may have set the notion aside, but seeing it still alive in Jisung, in his desire to know what more there was beyond the surface of their planet…it rejuvenated an old ache in his chest.
That feeling of insignificance against the weight of the universe. It didn’t matter who you were, how much money or power you had, when in the eyes of the cosmos you were little more than another speck.
The ache redoubled, an abrupt pang. He wanted Jisung to do it, if that was his goal. Go to space, be launched in a rocket beyond the atmosphere. Float in orbit on the ISS. Minho wanted to witness Jisung do all of it. More, he wanted to be there next to him, cheering him on. If Jisung would let him be pulled in by his gravity, would allow him to circle in a regular orbit just like the moon around the earth, the earth around the sun.
The problem was, he didn’t know how to ask for that. If Jisung had felt this same pull as he did over the last few months, drawing them closer and closer on what could be a collision or a fly-by, a mysterious asteroid on an as-of-yet unknown course.
It was funny, how someone he’d only known a couple of months could already occupy so much of his thoughts. How these feelings could build quietly inside of him, almost without notice, until they threatened to burst at the seams and leave him a bleeding, yearning mess.
“Minho-hyung?” Jisung asked, voice quiet.
“Yes, Sung-ah?” He tipped his head toward him.
Jisung was staring at him. The stars reflected in his eyes, at their full brightness without the moon to impede them.
He was dazzling, and his gaze kept slipping lower on Minho’s face.
“Is something—”
“Would it be alright if I kissed you?” Jisung breathed.
Minho felt the air catch in his lungs. He nodded, unable to verbalize his response.
Jisung reached for him slowly, like he was afraid Minho might pull back.
Minho’s eyelids lowered, and he only just registered the flash of a star darting across the sky behind Jisung’s head before their lips met.
Under the expanse of the night sky and the scattered stars raining across it, Minho melted into the kiss. The warmth of Jisung’s mouth on his, the spark of his fingers against Minho’s cold face. Jisung’s tongue licked at the seam of his lips and Minho opened for him, small sounds escaping them both.
When they broke apart, Jisung’s hand stayed on his face, while Minho’s curled around the back of the Jisung’s neck, fingers tugging gently at the strands of hair that escaped the back of his beanie.
“If bringing you out here means you’re going to kiss me, I think I’ll have to find more celestial events to get us away from campus,” Minho teased.
“There’s a penumbral lunar eclipse in January,” Jisung said, leaning forward to press their lips together again with hooded eyes. It was a briefer, softer kiss. Little more than their lips brushing before he pulled back, blinking his eyes wide.
“Fuck, I cannot tell you how attractive it is that you know that off the top of your head,” Minho murmured.
“I think I like you,” Jisung blurted.
“That would be great,” Minho huffed a laugh, eyes taking in every inch of Jisung’s face. “Because I know that I like you. Kind of a lot, actually.”
Jisung laughed, and Minho pulled him in to another kiss. His laughter tasted sweet. What Minho would give to get even a taste of it every single day.
This time when they broke apart, Minho tugged Jisung in front of him, tucking the younger’s back into his chest and pulling the blanket more securely around their tangle of limbs. Jisung tipped his head back to rest against Minho’s shoulder, his smile toothless and wide as he sighed in contentment.
Minho, too, felt that contentment. Felt that he was at peace with the world, within the expanse of the universe. He wound his arms around Jisung’s middle, holding him—for warmth, he’d say, though in reality it was a simple desire to just have him close.
“Will you go out with me?” Minho asked.
"Aren't we already going out?"
Minho thought of how Jisung had showed up yawning at nine a.m. on a Saturday morning right before finals were to start because Minho had said he volunteered at the cat shelter and he'd wanted to spend time with him by helping. Or their date to the botanical gardens—because what else could that be called, when they'd wandered for hours and hours around the same paths, talking about everything and nothing.
The late nights studying. Ordering take-out and watching too many episodes of a show when they were meant to be on a brief break.
How nice it felt, having Jisung tucked against his side or, like now, against his chest.
"Will you be my boyfriend, then?"
Jisung nodded, shifting to smile up at him. “Yes. I will.”
Minho thread their hands together, resting against Jisung’s coat-covered stomach beneath the blanket, and pressed a kiss to his temple. He couldn’t stop smiling.
“Look,” Jisung breathed, air coming out in a puff against the night, freeing one of his hands to point up at the sky.
Minho tipped his head back further, staring directly up into the cosmos as a blip of light streaked across.
“Don’t forget to make a wish,” Minho said, tightening his hold a fraction.
“I don’t think I need to,” Jisung murmured, shifting his head just enough to meet Minho’s gaze.
Me either, Minho thought with a smile, dipping down to press another kiss to his lips.
And, what a lovely thought it was to have, sitting there together beneath the stars.