Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

ˏ 𓏧 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓋒 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓏧 ˎ

“You know, what, Chan-ah? I—I’m ashamed to admit this, but you’re actually kind of… spot on. I… And Jisungie was right, too, because… He brought up the way we danced. He said he saw something in our eyes when we danced together, and, well, he was right about me. I… I was resisting it, but I do have feelings for you, Chan-ah. I fought it because of the marriage, but… being on this island… It has changed things between us, made me realize some things.”

“You…? But what about Ji—?” Chan’s eyes are wide and his ears are red, but Minho isn’t any better off as he shushes the older man. He just confessed his feelings, after all. He thought it would be weird to do so, but it feels quite freeing to finally admit to Chan that he’s very fond of him, because he doesn’t think that he has been expressing his feelings very well lately. 

“Let me finish, Chan-ah. But yes, I—I mean what I said. I only wanted to add that while I should stop resisting and fighting everything, I think that you should stand up and take what you want for once. Be selfish. Stop thinking about what others might think or want and just take it,” he cuts the man off before he can start bringing up Jisung. Bringing up Jisung will only bring him confusion and frustration, after all. 

Chan freezes, and Minho’s cheeks are warm as the look in Chan’s eyes grows more and more determined. He steps forward and places a cool hand on Minho’s jaw. Minho’s heart flutters, and lord—he hopes Chan has grown a spine and will finally be selfish for once. 

Do it. Take it, Chan-ah, Minho thinks, and he opens his mouth to say the words, but right at that moment, Chan leans in and presses their lips together in a desperate kiss.

Minho grabs onto Chan’s arms, leaning down slightly because of their minimal height difference, and kisses him back with all he has. He didn’t think it’d feel this good, but he should have known better, because lately, being with Chan has felt right.

He’s been wanting to kiss Chan ever since they danced together at the festival, but the feeling has only really settled recently. And now he can get out all his pent up frustration about Jisung and Chan never saying what they want, too. 

He tilts his head and moves his lips against Chan’s while Chan does the same, finally taking and taking, instead of only giving. Minho would argue that he’s giving just as much as he’s taking, though, because the butterflies in Minho’s chest are all due to Chan.

Once they run out of breath, they part with a wet pop of their lips, and Minho gasps for breath. Chan’s face is flushed and his eyes are slightly lidded, making Minho’s stomach flutter. 

“Does this mean Jisung was right about the look in your eyes, too?” he asks with a soft chuckle, the corners of his lips curling up into a smile. Chan giggles and nods.

“Yeah. He… He told me about that, too,” he replies. “But yes. I–I’ve actually been, uhm, falling for you for a while now, Minho. Ever since we got on that ship, to be more exact.” 

Minho inhales sharply in shock. “Since we got on the ship already? And—And you were listening to me complain about us being just friends the whole time? Damn, I must have sounded so obnoxious,” he says with a groan. Chan laughs but Minho pushes against his shoulder, his ears hot in embarrassment. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“I didn’t want you to be uneasy around me. We didn’t know each other that well back then, so I didn’t want to burden you,” Chan tells him with a slight shrug, and Minho sighs. He should have expected that answer.

“Come on! You’re too selfless for your own good, Chan-ah. You’re literally my fiancé,” he retorts, but there’s no bite to his voice. Chan laughs again and shakes his head.

“Oh so now the rings mean something, huh?” he says with the rise of an eyebrow, and Minho gives him a sheepish look. 

“It means that we shouldn’t let those rings decide what to do. And why didn’t you tell me at the festival, then? It would have been romantic as heck to kiss me while lifting me,” he replies as he wiggles his eyebrows, enjoying the way Chan’s cheeks grow even more red. He sputters a bit and Minho snickers at the sight.

“I… Drat. That would have been great,” Chan eventually sighs and shakes his head at himself. Minho takes a step closer to him and he places a hand on Chan’s neck. 

“There is always the next opportunity,” he suggests softly, leaning down a bit to brush his nose against Chan’s. Chan hums and his eyes flutter close.

“Wait… But… What about Jisungie?” he asks softly, his eyes slowly opening again. Minho swallows and puts a bit of distance between them, his heart stuttering at the mention of Jisung. “Didn’t you… You wanted to kiss him, too, right?”

“I… I did. I…” He wants to say I do, but he isn’t sure if that would be too strange. He lets out a sigh. “It doesn’t matter, I guess. He doesn’t want it, and what matters is that I want you, Chan-ah. And not only because Jisung doesn’t want me—doesn’t want us like that. I felt safe with you that night of the storm, because even if it wasn’t as bad as for you, I was scared.”
Chan’s breath hitches and he rests a hand on Minho’s arm before he lets it slide down to hold his hand. Minho intertwines their fingers and gives Chan a bashful smile. “Okay. Okay, I trust you. I’ve been… I don’t blame you for being fond of Jisungie, Minho. He’s quite lovable. But so are you.”

“Just kiss me again,” Minho says with a groan, and he grabs Chan by the shirt to pull him against him. Chan snickers and he wraps his arms around his neck before granting Minho’s wish and pressing their lips together in another kiss.

It starts out pretty soft, with the two of them simply getting used to the new feeling of kissing each other, but much to Minho’s surprise, Chan is the one to get impatient first. The latter holds him by the back of his neck as he tilts his head to deepen the kiss, eagerness seeping through.

Minho’s head spins a little as he gets lost in the feeling of Chan’s lips against his own, his heart hammering against his ribcage, coaxing him to keep kissing him until his breath runs out. It feels great to let go and finally admit to himself that maybe it’s not so bad that he and Chan are fiancés, after all. He really likes him, and Chan kisses like a madman. 

Minho tightens his grip on Chan’s waist and desperately drags his lips across Chan’s plump ones, biting back a groan when Chan slips his tongue between Minho’s lips. He pulls Chan closer, and they stumble backwards until Minho’s legs hit the bed. 

He lets himself fall onto his back, Chan bracketing his head between his hands. Their lidded eyes meet, and Minho’s heartbeat is loud enough for him to wonder if Chan can hear it. Minho tangles his fingers into Chan’s slightly damp curls and pulls him down and down until his eyes cross to keep looking at him.

His lips are curled up into a lopsided smile as he tilts his chin upward to kiss Chan again. His body feels hot in want, and it only gets worse when Chan deepens the kiss, almost devouring Minho in the process. Minho pants into his mouth and lets one hand stray down his neck to his back. 

Chan's fingers brush the side of Minho’s face as he licks between Minho’s lips, the two exploring each other’s mouths as if they're starving. Minho wants him closer, wants to press their bodies flush against each other, but the position doesn't make it easy. 

“Mmhmm, Minho,” Chan hums mindlessly as Minho scratches his scalp with blunt nails. He takes the moment of calm to sit up and flip their position. Chan gasps but he grins when Minho crowds into his space until he sits against the headboard. 

Minho crawls towards him until they're nose to nose. Chan's eyes grow fond and his gaze is intense enough to make Minho a bit flustered. “I can't believe my fiancé likes me back,” he whispers against Minho’s lips. 

Minho cackles and sits on his knees. His heart stutters when Chan's dimples appear and he leans forward to poke his finger into one. “I can't believe my fiancé liked me and I didn't notice. If I did, maybe I would have kissed you that night of the festival.” 

“Hmm… I kind of tried to hide my feelings from you, but perhaps I should have been more open. Jisungie noticed them, though,” Chan points out, and he reaches forward to caress Minho’s warm cheek. Minho hums.

“He did, but he didn’t notice the way we looked at him during the festival or at the beach, so I guess it’s more difficult to notice what’s right in front of you,” he replies, and they somehow brought up Jisung again—he guesses that he’s inevitable. Chan nods, but Minho feels like at this moment, they do notice what has been right in front of them for a while. 

“The only thing I see is a very handsome man in front of me. A man whom I’d love to kiss again, if he’ll allow me,” Chan says as he drags his thumb along Minho’s jaw. Minho gives him a cheeky smile and he leans forward to press a couple of chaste kisses onto Chan’s lips before settling down on his lap and slowly working up to continuing where they left off.

He tangles his fingers into Chan’s curls and lets Chan run his hands along his back. He then slips his tongue between Chan’s plump lips, heat building up in his veins as they make out. 

He pushes his chest flush against Chan’s, his hands roaming down to his neck, then his shoulders, before feeling up his pecs and stomach, enjoying how toned Chan is. Chan lets out breathy sighs, caressing his thumbs along Minho’s sides. 

They part for a moment, only for Chan to hide his face into the crook of Minho’s neck as he pants, catching his breath. Minho brings his hands back up to card through his curls, and his stomach flutters with butterflies when Chan starts to leave kisses along the column of his neck.

“Mmhmm, that’s nice, Chan-ah,” Minho says with an appreciative sigh. Chan is ever the pleaser, but Minho has to admit that he does know how to please someone well. Chan sucks below Minho’s ear, and Minho bites his lower lip to muffle a moan. 

He’s feeling more and more hot as Chan continues to kiss down his neck and collarbones, and Minho drops one hand to slip his fingers under his shirt and undergarment. Chan shivers under his touch and Minho drags his nails along the man’s bare lower back.

He hums again and slowly starts rolling his hips down onto Chan’s lap, getting lost in the feeling of his hands on Chan, and Chan’s lips on him. He’s tempted to get Chan to take off his shirt so that he can kiss all over his torso and show him some love as well.

He tugs Chan’s shirt up and up, until he gets the hint and takes it off. Both of their faces and necks are equally flushed, but Minho thinks it looks hot as hell on Chan. He grinds down and rubs his thumbs along his exposed chest, reveling in the way Chan lets out a soft moan.

“Lord—Minho… Should we…? Should we slow down?” Chan grips Minho’s hips and blinks at him with slightly dazed eyes. Minho purses his lips, but maybe he’s right about slowing down.

“Yeah, okay. You’re right. Let’s not take off anything more,” he answers, and he leaves a peck on Chan’s lips. “Let’s take it slow, but we can still kiss, right?” 

“Yeah, I’m okay with that,” Chan answers as he brushes his nose along Minho’s flushed cheek. Minho snickers and gladly accepts Chan’s lips against his own. They simply make out, explore each other’s mouths and caress each other’s bodies with their hands.

It makes Minho almost forget about his surroundings, about what happened earlier today, and he especially forgets about whose room they’re in. To be fair, he probably shouldn’t be thinking about Jisung when kissing Chan, but it would maybe have saved them some embarrassment. 

A knock sounds on the bedroom door, and they part with a gasp. “Chan hyung? Minho hyung? Are you two okay?” Jisung asks as he cracks open the door, his head peeking inside. Chan scrambles to grab his shirt, his face red as a tomato.

“Sorry—Oh lord. I’m so sorry—! I’ll leave,” Jisung stammers, his entire face flushing a deep red. Minho opens his mouth to protest, but Jisung already slams the door. 

“Drat! We should go, uhm. I’ll get dressed,” Chan curses as he waits until Minho gets off before quickly putting his undergarment and shirt back on.

Minho involuntarily catches a glimpse of the symbol on his shoulder, but he swiftly averts his eyes again and turns towards the door. “Yes, we should probably stop hoarding Jisungie’s room now. He… He might be worried about us,” he says, his heart hammering against his ribs.

Chan joins him in leaving the room, and they look around to search for Jisung. They find him in the kitchen, ears and neck still red as he gathers some ingredients to cook with. 

“Jisung-ah,” Minho begins, but Jisung jumps and drops everything with a squeak. Chan reaches out to catch some of the food, but he only manages to catch the spring onion, while Minho holds his hand in front of his mouth to muffle his laughter. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Wh–Why are you two here? I didn’t ruin the, uhm, mood, did I?” Jisung stammers as he crouches to pick up what fell on the floor. Minho and Chan help him out, but Minho’s ears are warm in bashfulness. 

“You didn’t. We shouldn’t have occupied your room for so long while keeping you in the dark about what we were doing. Sorry you had to see that, by the way. We might have gotten a tad bit carried away just now,” Chan assures him with an awkward chuckle. Jisung’s hands brush Chan’s fingers as they pick up the same vegetable and Jisung’s blush grows even darker.

“Don’t apologize, hyung. You can use my room whenever you want. If—If you want to sleep together in my bed every night from now on, please go ahead. I’m… I’m happy for you two,” Jisung tells them with a shy but sincere smile. Minho’s heart stutters in compassion. He wishes they could do something in return somehow. 

“Thank you, Jisungie, but I think it’s fair to say that by this point, we’re not guests anymore, and you don’t have to act like a host,” Minho says as he places a hand onto Jisung’s arm. “Let me take care of the food tonight.” 

“Only if you’re sure that you and Chan hyung don’t have anything left to talk about or anything. I’m happy to take care of dinner while you two do whatever,” Jisung assures him kindly, but there’s something in his eyes that seems off. Minho can’t place it. Maybe it’s nothing.

“I want to. Channie and I could use a break, after all. He could tell you about how right you were in the meantime,” he says as he already starts gathering what he needs. Jisung relents and joins Chan in the living room. 

Minho listens to their conversation as he prepares the food. Chan tells Jisung about their conversation, about how they both had to get some frustration out of their systems before they could admit to each other how they feel, and about how Chan has felt something for Minho for a while now. 

“But this is also thanks to you, Jisung-ah. You’ve allowed Minho to get comfortable enough with me to somehow grow feelings before we’ve gotten married,” Chan adds, and the words make Minho feel warm. He’s certainly grateful for Jisung. 

“You’re going to make me tear up…” Jisung replies, his voice a bit wavering. Minho chuckles to himself, finding Jisung ever so endearing. It seems like he genuinely cares a lot for the two of them, and is genuinely grateful for them confessing to each other.

Chan's bright laughter sounds through the house and it makes Minho unable to stop smiling. He's feeling quite happy, and he hopes that the feeling won't fade anytime soon. 

In the back of his mind, however, there's still a voice reminding him that they might be leaving Jisung behind, that he should still fight for him—even if he doesn't know what he's specifically fighting for. He simply has the feeling that Jisung is holding himself back, sacrificing himself and his feelings for them, but Minho doesn’t want him to.

He doesn’t know what to do about it, though. The least he can do is try to make the best of his time here, and make sure that Jisung is happy, too. And preparing a meal is one of Minho’s favorite ways to take care of someone, so he hopes Jisung will like it. 

“Here, eat up. We’ve all had quite the day,” Minho announces when he serves dinner. Jisung gives him a grateful smile. 

“Thank you, hyung. And congratulations to you and Chan hyung. I wish you two a lot of happiness in your future marriage,” he says as he grabs his chopsticks and digs in. Minho huffs, but he’s thankful for Jisung because he’s so excited for them. He can’t help but feel like there’s something off in his eyes. 

“That’s kind of you, Jisung-ah. We are lucky to have met you, you’ve been a precious friend to us,” Chan answers with a dimpled smile. Jisung blushes, but Minho is affected by Chan’s words, too, his heart fluttering because of his kindness. 

“And I’m lucky to have met you two, too. I sometimes feel lonely when Changbinnie hyung and Hyunjinnie aren’t here, but I think I’ve made two friends who will stay with me in my heart for life. I hope I can see you after your wedding every once in a while too,” Jisung says, his voice getting lower and lower as he speaks. Minho’s stomach churns as he thinks about the future, because the thought of having to say goodbye to Jisung hurts more than he thought it would. He has gotten too attached to the foreign boy, his stories, his kind and heartshaped smile, and his creative self, and he isn’t sure how well he’ll do without him. 

“I promise you that we’ll come and visit you whenever we can. When Changbin-ssi returns, we should make sure that we know where to find the island,” Minho assures him, his heart pounding because he hopes that they’ll be able to keep this promise. 

Jisung gives him a bright but wavering smile, his eyes glassy as if he can’t stand the thought of them leaving either. Chan is eerily quiet, but he seems a bit down as well. They all feel the same, because they’ve all grown close in such a short amount of time. 

Minho doesn’t want to cry today, however, so he decides to change the subject. “Anyway, uhm… I don’t think we’ve asked Channie about how his swimming was. Jisungie and I read a book about insects together. It was nice,” he says, distracting the others from their momentary sadness.

“Right. I really missed swimming. There’s something about the ocean that makes it refreshing to swim in there. I wouldn’t want to do it in bad weather, though. The waves and the saltiness are great, although I would like to wash myself after dinner,” Chan says with a chuckle. Minho snickers at the thought of Chan still dealing with sand between his toes and perhaps also other parts.

He’s glad to see that the mood lifts as the night goes on, and while Chan washes himself in private in the garden, Minho asks Jisung if he has another book for them to read together. Usually he likes taking an evening walk, but tonight he wants to spend some time with Jisung. 

Jisung is happy to pick out one of his adventure story books, and Minho gladly listens to him read it out loud to him while they sit shoulder to shoulder on the couch, just like how they sat on the beach.

And getting into bed with Chan afterwards makes him realize that Jisung’s house is starting to feel like home. Chan’s arms have felt safe and comfortable for a while, but now the bed, the kitchen, the couch, and even the garden, where Chan still dreads washing himself, feel familiar. 

He secretly hopes that Jisung’s friends won’t return anytime soon, but realistically he knows he’s living in a fantasy, thinking he can stay and live with Jisung for longer than a couple of weeks, even if the thought of marrying Chan doesn’t bring him a bad taste in his mouth anymore.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” Chan asks him softly, caressing a hand along Minho’s arm. Minho flinches in surprise, and he shrugs.

“I was thinking about Jisungie. And the wedding. Bothersome future stuff,” he answers with a deep sigh, and Chan gives him a sympathetic look. Minho can imagine that he’s worried about the future as well. 

“Are you dreading the wedding?” Chan doesn’t look at him, and thus Minho can’t read his expression to see what he thinks about the wedding. 

“I’m not. Not really. I’m simply dreading not seeing Jisungie anymore. The… The uncertainty of what will happen after we’re wed is bothering me,” he admits under his breath. 

“I know how you feel, Minho. I feel the same. I… I don’t want to leave him behind. I don’t want to say goodbye, yet, even though I know we should. I’ll miss him a lot, I know that already. Maybe we can figure something out. I’m sure that if we’ll be able to find our way from Doshima to Jeju island, then we’ll be able to find our way back, too. We have to,” Chan assures him, but it sounds like he’s saying it to convince himself as well. Minho trusts that he’s right, but the thought of not knowing what Jisung is up to for possibly months makes him feel dreadful. 

“You’re right. Good night, Channie,” Minho says and he leaves a brief kiss on Chan’s cheek. Chan smiles and returns the gesture before wishing Minho good night as well.

They settle in a comfortable position, holding each other and trying to fit on the bed without being squished too much. Minho is content at the moment, but he does think that he’ll miss seeing Jisung’s face before he goes to sleep. 

At least he has Chan by his side. That thought is comforting by now, because he feels like they’ve grown closer than he could have ever imagined before they arrived on the island. He wouldn’t have thought that he’d think of Chan as such a precious friend so soon after their engagement, but he’s forever grateful for Jisung and this island to have allowed them to evolve in this way.

Now the only thing else he can ask for is to be able to see Jisung often, even after they inevitably leave the island. (And in a perfect world, he’d be able to kiss Jisung just like he is able to kiss Chan. In a perfect world, Chan would love Jisung, too, and Jisung would be confident and comfortable enough to allow himself to love them.)

ˏ 𓏧 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓋒 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓏧 ˎ

Chan wakes up early for once. He isn’t sure if he even slept more than a handful of hours, his mind plagued with happy thoughts about Minho and anxious thoughts about the future. And he’s been unsure about his feelings for Jisung, too. He first thought he was insecure about Minho liking Jisung, but the more he thinks about it, the more he thinks that he’s feeling left out instead of jealous. 

Jisung told them that he didn’t even consider the option of being together with either of them before, which made Chan realize that he didn’t consider the option of being together with Jisung either. He imagined himself kissing his cheeks before bed, and he found himself daydreaming about not only kissing Jisung’s round and plump cheeks, but also about what it would be like to kiss his lips. 

He panicked for a moment, but then he saw Minho smile after kissing him good night, and he realized that he’s still quite infatuated with him as well. His feelings for one do not seem to diminish the way he fancies the other. He realized that both can exist at the same time.

He is still a bit confused about his feelings, however, but at some point, when he’s sleep deprived, thinking about it only makes it worse. He also needs to pee, so that isn’t helping.

Chan sighs and carefully peels Minho’s arm off him as he tries to get out of bed. Minho stirs, but Chan softly tells him that he’s only going to go and relieve his bladder, which is enough for Minho to relax and continue sleeping. 

Chan sneaks out into the living room, where the sun is already peeking through the curtains. Jisung is still fast asleep, his cheek squished against the pillow underneath him as he’s curled up on the couch. He looks incredibly endearing as he sleeps, but Chan forces himself to look away. 

He stubs his toe against the small table as he turns away, and he hisses in pain. And as he is distracted by the pain, he doesn’t notice the front door crack open. Only when he hears a gasp behind him, Chan whips himself around until he finds himself face to face with the intruder.

The man in the doorway’s eyes are wide as they flick between him and Jisung on the couch. Chan’s heart drops, and his first instinct is to step closer to Jisung to protect him in case the intruder means harm, but as soon as he moves, the man comes dashing towards him, and he tackles him to the ground with a grunt.

Chan groans when he hits the back of his head on the floorboards with a loud thump. The man’s eyes are fierce as he pushes Chan’s shoulders to the ground with his big arms. “What are you doing here?!” the man hisses, as if Chan is the intruder, instead of the stranger.

“Wh—What—? Get off me!” Chan says through gritted teeth as he tries to push the man off, but he only manages to roll them over, now on top of the stranger.“You should leave—”

Chan is cut off by the stranger slamming his forehead into Chan’s. Chan lets out a shout in pain as he backs off, but the stranger isn’t done with him, and he grabs his shoulders again.

“ You should leave. This isn’t your house—” the man begins raising his arm as if he’s going to hit Chan, but he’s cut off by a high pitched screech.

“Changbin hyung! Let him go!” Chan whips his head to the side to see Jisung throwing the blankets off of himself before he gets up and yanks the stranger—Changbin, apparently—back. At the same time, Minho comes dashing into the room, demanding to know what the hell is going on.

“Jisungie? Who the hell are these men?” Changbin reluctantly lets go of Chan’s shoulders as Minho runs up to him and checks if he’s okay. Chan rubs the sore spot on the back of his head while Minho caresses his forehead for a moment before glaring at Changbin.

“These are Bang Chan and Lee Minho. I found them floating in the sea when I was strolling on the beach, about to take a swim. They were on their way to an island—Jeju island is what they call it—and I offered to let them stay here. That was about two weeks after you left, so they’ve been here for multiple weeks,” Jisung explains with a huff. “And I’m upset with you for attacking Chan hyung.”

“Can you blame me? He was walking around your living room at the crack of dawn like a creep,” Changbin retorts with a scoff. “I didn’t recognize him, so I assumed that he was up to no good. How often do we encounter strangers on an island outside of the port, Jisung-ah?”

“They are really kind, Changbin hyung. They’ve been keeping me company and they accompanied me to the festival this time! I really want to see you versus them in tug-of-war, and—oh!—you should totally see Chan hyung play the zither! He can compose songs on them. And Minho hyung knows about the tale of the emperor’s son, and you should hear about how he is similar to him, and Chan hyung is similar to the dragon—Oh! And also you should hear about something else—” Jisung rambles, a waterfall of words flowing from his lips as he’s obviously excited to see his friend, despite it being so early in the morning.

“Okay, okay, woah there, let’s take it easy and get something to eat first, okay? Hyunjinnie will be here soon, after he has stocked all of our goods. We got a great haul this time—Some really nice fabrics, too. Allegedly,” Changbin says with a laugh, and he pats Jisung’s shoulder. Jisung’s eyes light up at the mention of his other friend and the mention of nice fabric. 

Chan’s heart flutters at his bright smile. He doesn’t know how to feel about Changbin yet, but that’s mostly because he’s dreading leaving the island, and they didn’t exactly meet in a pleasant way.

He does hope that Changbin can help them get home, however, because that day will have to come one day. He’ll also be able to hopefully give them a map with directions to Doshima, either from Jeju island or from the peninsula, because it’d be devastating to have to struggle to see Jisung again after parting from him. 

The morning is spent informing Changbin and also Hyunjin, who joins them just a moment later, about everything that has happened since they’ve been gone, but especially to tell them about how Chan and Minho ended up here and where they need to be going next. 

Changbin recognizes the name Jeju island, but he wants to make sure that it’s the place he’s thinking of, because he knows it under a different name. He also tells them that he can’t bring them there just yet, that he needs time to gather some resources before they can board the ship and leave for Jeju island. 

“So, wait, why do you two need to go there again? To Jeju island? Because you’re from the peninsula, right?” Hyunjin asks, gesturing between the two. Jisung smiles in excitement and reaches over to grab Hyunjin’s hand.

“They’re going to get married!” he tells him with a squeeze to his hands. Hyunjin’s eyes grow wide as saucers, and he beams at Minho and Chan.

“Really? Congratulations,” he says with a squeal. He bows his head at the two, and Chan’s ears heat up at the attention. “Oh, I should have noticed. You’re wearing engagement rings.”

“It’s… It’s not like that. It’s an arranged marriage. The royal family thought we took too long picking a rich partner,” Minho explains with an awkward chuckle, offering Hyunjin a sheepish expression. Changbin’s cheeks grow red at the words for some reason. 

“R-R-Royalty? And you didn’t tell me, Jisung-ah? I body slammed this man!” Changbin hisses, his voice wavering in embarrassment. Chan can’t help but let out a laugh as he quickly waves the man off.

“It’s not a big deal, Changbin-ssi, don’t worry about it. Our status means nothing here—we’re not even real royalty. Just related,” he assures him. He doesn’t want Changbin or Hyunjin treating them any differently than they would otherwise. “And it’s all thanks to Jisungie that we’ve grown close at all.”

“Yes, it’s thanks to him that I feel like this marriage could end well,” Minho adds softly. Jisung blushes and hides a bit behind his hands, but Hyunjin swings an arm around his shoulder and rubs his hand along Jisung’s arm.

“You’ll have to tell me all about later, Jisung-ah,” he says with a soft chuckle. “Anyways, I’m happy to hear that Jisungie has been a good host to you. I’m proud of him for allowing you to grow close. And I’m also happy to know that you got to experience the festival. I’m still sad that Changbinnie hyung and I couldn’t make it.”

“Yeah, it’s a real bummer. I wish we could have been there,” Changbin says with a sigh. 

“Anyways, I think it’ll be good if I take Chan-ssi and Minho-ssi to my house or the library, then we can take a look at the map and see if we can figure out if we’re talking about the same island,” he adds. “You and Hyunjinnie can catch up some more, but I want to hear about everything, too, so don’t have too much fun!”

Hyunjin and Jisung simply laugh and tell Changbin that they’d never leave him out. As soon as they open the door to leave, Chan already hears Hyunjin starting to talk to Jisung about something in an eager tone, and perhaps Chan hears the word wedding drop somewhere in between, but he isn’t sure.

Maybe he’s just asking Jisung if he can come to their wedding. They haven’t explicitly talked about it, but Chan thinks it goes without saying that Jisung is invited, if not a special guest. If it wasn’t for him, they might have not even survived the storm, nor would they have gotten this close. 

Changbin is quite helpful when it comes to maps, and it’s obvious that he’s way more experienced with reading them than most of the citizens of the island. “I suppose this is the island you’re talking about? If you came from the peninsula, and the storm swept you away, then it kind of makes sense to wash up here. I think.” 

“It looks big, so I guess you’re right,” Chan says with a hum. It makes sense what Changbin says, and he hopes that Changbin knows a route there. 

“I think I know how to get there. I’ve been there before, of course, but I’ll have to refresh my memory on the route,” he explains as he trails his finger along the sea line. “There might be a sea map somewhere, however. I mean, I have one, of course, but I have to find it between all of my luggage and all. I can give a copy of the sea map with the route to you two after we arrive—I’m assuming you two have no experience sailing, so Hyunjin and I will be coming with you. Jisung, too, because I suppose he’ll want to come along.” 

“You’re right. That would be great, Changbin-ssi,” Minho says with a smile. Chan rests a hand on the small of Minho’s back and hums in agreement.

“Yes, really. We appreciate you helping us out, despite us being strangers,” he adds with a grateful sigh. “You’ve had a long journey the past weeks, we understand that leaving in a couple of days isn’t what you envisioned to do after you got back.”

Changbin rolls up his map and shakes his head. “It wasn’t, but you men are obviously important to Jisung. Most of all, I can imagine what it’s like to be stranded somewhere foreign, with your friends and family unable to know where you are or whether you’re okay. That’s something I don’t wish upon my worst enemy,” he explains with a serious look. “I know I would miss my sister and parents like hell if it happened to me.”

“That makes you a noble man, Changbin-ssi,” Chan says with a nod. It seems like the island residents are all pretty noble people, which Chan appreciates. He’ll miss them. 

Changbin laughs and claps Chan on his back. “I’m grateful to hear that, Chan-ssi, but wait until you hear about my heroics on the journeys I’ve been on,” he says with a smirk. Minho cackles and Chan muffles his laughter behind his hand, remembering Seo Minah’s stories about Changbin. He hopes that they’ll be able to stay long enough to hear them from his side.

He’s still nervous to leave the island, and now that Changbin and Hyunjin are here, he will have to accept that they’ll depart soon. 

They aren’t even able to spend much time with Jisung the last couple of days, because Jisung, Changbin, and Hyunjin are busy gathering all of the goods the latter two brought with them, sorting everything out, and dividing them between the three. Chan wishes he could help somehow, but he thinks he'd get in the way more than being helpful. 

Minho seems grumpy as well, lately, but maybe Chan can help with that. 

“Hey. Are you bored, too?” Chan asks his fiancé, trying to be casual about it, but Minho raises his eyebrows, a suspicious look on his face. 

“I am. I could use a distraction from thinking about leaving this island. What do you have in mind?” he answers, leaning his chin on his hands with a smirk. A blush creeps up Chan's neck and he shrugs, tugging on the shell of his warm ear. 

“Jisungie is out right now, so I was thinking that he wouldn't mind us occupying his room right now, would he?” he admits bashfully, but Minho’s grin only grows wider, accompanied by pink cheeks. Minho takes him by the hand and drags him with him to the bedroom. 

“I thought you'd never ask,” Minho says as he closes the door behind them and cages Chan against it. Chan laughs and cups Minho’s face. 

“Didn't know I had to be the one asking. What happened to being selfish and taking for once, Minho?” he retorts as he caresses Minho’s cheek. It still feels a bit new to do this, to be together with Minho, but it's a comforting thought to know that they've both been ready for this for a while—everything they've been through the last weeks has proven it. 

“Sometimes I like waiting and seeing how long it takes for you to come forward. But don't worry, I'll follow my own advice now,” Minho answers, and he promptly leans forward to capture Chan in a searing kiss. 

Chan gasps softly and properly cups Minho’s jaw. Minho holds him by the waist, his short fingers digging into his sides as he drags their lips over one another. Chan's stomach fills itself with butterflies, and his skin heats up in longing. 

He never thought that kissing Minho could feel so relieving, but just like taking a swim or playing music, it feels like an outlet for Chan's feelings. He trusts Minho to take good care of them, just like he will protect Minho’s feelings, too. 

His worries and stress about the coming days are replaced by warmth and content, knowing that Minho most likely feels the same, because even if he doesn't say it out loud, Chan has learned to read his body language and expressions way better than he could before, and he can tell that Minho wants him right now. 

He uses his fingers to hold Minho’s chin and coaxes him to part his lips so that he can deepen the kiss. Minho presses himself flush against him, his hands roaming along Chan's chest. 

Chan sighs in pleasure, his whole body tingling and heating up. When he pulls back to catch his breath and dares to peek through his eyelashes to see Minho, he feels his heart stop. 

The sight of Minho’s flushed cheeks, lidded eyes, regarding him wantonly, sets Chan's body on fire. “You’re beautiful, Minho-yah,” he whispers as he cards a hand through Minho’s hair. 

Minho’s gaze wavers, the corners of his lips twitching into a shy smile, but he holds eye contact. “You should see yourself, Chan-ah. Gosh—” He cuts himself off as he surges forward to kiss Chan again. 

His hands find their way underneath Chan's shirt, soft hands caressing his stomach, his fingers seeming to wield fire as they set the butterflies alight. Chan sighs into Minho’s mouth, arching himself off the door a bit, pushing himself impossibly closer to his fiancé. 

Minho hums, his hands creeping up under his shirt, making their way up to his chest. Heat builds up within Chan, and he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to stop himself if they keep going like this. 

He takes off his shirt in an attempt to cool down, but it doesn’t help for long, because Minho latches on to his neck and sucks down the column of it. Chan can only pant and ground himself by threading his fingers into Minho’s hair. “Ah—That’s good. That’s nice, Minho-yah,” he mindlessly praises, and Minho hums against him, sending delicious vibrations through his chest.

Arousal pools in his stomach, especially when Minho keeps caressing his chest and stomach, leaving kisses all over his neck, shoulders and collarbones. It builds up until he feels like he’ll burst if he doesn’t reciprocate, and he clumsily tugs Minho upwards before pushing him backwards towards the bed.

Minho plops down on the bed and pulls Chan with him by the hand, spreading his legs so that he can fit in between. Minho then cups Chan’s face and leaves a few soft kisses on his cheeks, making him flush even worse. 

In the meantime, Chan slips his hands under Minho’s shirt, caressing his soft stomach and the skin just above his hips. “May I take your shirt off, Minho?” he asks in a whisper before taking over and pressing kisses along the side of Minho’s face, under his ear, and down his neck. 

“Yeah. Yeah, you can. Just—Don’t say anything about the symbol if you see it, okay?” Minho requests, taking a moment to pause and force Chan to look him in the eyes. Chan shakes his head, although he had almost forgotten about the ink on their bodies.

“Don’t worry, I won’t. I haven’t seen my own either,” he admits as he slowly lifts Minho’s shirt, revealing a small scar on Minho’s stomach which Chan thinks he’s heard about when Minho explained why he doesn’t like swimming. He keeps going, checking Minho’s expression to see if he changes his mind.

Minho has a great body, broad and healthy, fat to sustain his muscle and to soften the skin, making it nice to hold onto and to caress as he explores all of his edges and curves. “So beautiful,” he whispers as he helps Minho take off his shirt completely.

Minho scoffs and rolls his eyes, but his expression is gentle and his eyes are grateful. “Come here, you,” he says, and he wraps his arms around his middle before pulling him closer and sitting on his lap.

Chan holds his hips and leans forward to kiss and suck around Minho’s collarbones, his stomach contracting involuntarily as Minho lets out a shaky sigh, carding an appreciative hand through Chan’s curls. Minho subtly pushes him down, guiding him towards his nipples.

Chan blushes, but he shyly wraps his lips around the pink buds and sucks. He is immediately rewarded with a gorgeous moan slipping from Minho’s lips, and Chan feels his pants getting tighter by the second.

Minho starts rolling his hips, and Chan helps him, guiding him with his hands on his hips. He closes his eyes and lets himself get lost in the feeling of having Minho skin against his lips, his pleasure-filled sounds like music to his ears, their bodies moving in synchronization. 

He moans against Minho’s skin and bucks up into his moves, their hips slotting together and making Chan’s head spin. At some point, Minho pushes him over to lie on his back, pushing his hand flat against his chest until his back hits the sheets.

Chan admires the way Minho looks down on him through lidded eyes, both of them slightly panting as they keep moving against each other, taking in the sight before Minho dips down to kiss him deeply. Chan gasps into Minho’s mouth when Minho slips one of his hands between their groins, sending a wave of pleasure down Chan’s spine.

They get lost in one another, kissing, caressing each other’s skin, and drinking up each other’s sounds as the coil in Chan’s stomach tightens. They reach their highs together, lips attached, a matching flush on their skin.

“Oh—Oh lord.” Chan groans as Minho keens, high in his throat. Chan wants to watch him, admire him, but it’s difficult to keep his eyes open when he’s overwhelmed like this. He pants, trying to catch his breath, and as he does, he meets eyes with Minho, who is taking deep breaths as well.

Chan reaches out and cups his jaw before guiding him down to connect their lips again. Chan feels warm and he thinks he could kiss Minho forever. When he peeks through his eyelashes as he leaves soft kisses on Minho’s lips, he thinks he might be in love with Minho. 

The thought overwhelms him a bit, but when Minho briefly gets up to get a wet rag to clean themselves with, he becomes more comfortable with the idea. It’s a beautiful feeling, after all, being with Minho like this. 

Chan, however, can’t stop himself from thinking about Jisung as he welcomes Minho back into his arms, kissing his cheek as a thank you for doing this with him. “That was quite nice. I… I could get used to doing this with you more often, love,” he admits softly, running his hand along Minho’s arm. 

Minho chuckles at the affectionate petname, but he hums affirmatively. “Me too,” he says.

“I hope Jisungie doesn’t mind us having used his room for this,” Chan adds with a slightly awkward chuckle. Minho pauses, and he is silent for longer than Chan would expect him to be. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up Jisung so soon afterwards.5

“I don’t think he minds. I hope. He told us we could sleep together in his room, after all,” he replies belatedly. Chan laughs and bumps their shoulders together. 

“This is probably not what he meant by that,” he says. “But we’ve cleaned up nicely, so maybe he won’t notice. We’ll sleep in his bed for a couple of days more, after all.”

“True,” Minho says, a little absentmindedly. He swallows and turns to Chan with a slight frown on his face. “I… Were you thinking of Jisungie, too, Channie?”

Chan freezes. Was Minho thinking about Jisung? Was it the thought of Jisung that got Minho so worked up? Maybe it was both of them, but still. Minho might be yearning for Jisung and Chan is still getting in the way of his ideal situation—

“Hey. Not like that. I meant thinking of him just now. Not while we were busy with each other, of course. Who has time to think when they have a handsome man touching them?” Minho scolds Chan, softly slapping his arm with a scoff. Chan blushes and apologizes under his breath. 

“Okay, right. Sorry. But yes, I was thinking about him, too. He’s been busy the past couple of days,” he admits as he takes Minho’s hand into his own. “I… I’m concerned that we won’t see him enough before we leave.”

Chan hates bringing the subject of conversation back to leaving the island, because he was trying to avoid the topic, but Minho brought up Jisung, so he guesses that he couldn’t avoid it. Minho scowls. “Yeah, I feel the same. He’s been out all day today, and… I wish we could spend more time together these final days.”

Chan sighs and leans his head on Minho’s shoulder, and they sit together like that for a moment. They are startled out of their bubble by the sound of the front door opening and closing, and Minho immediately perks up. 

Chan straightens himself as well, wondering if they should greet him or go see him. Maybe he’s just passing by, getting something from his house before leaving again. They’re both still shirtless, but Chan quickly puts his clothes back on when he hears someone knocking something over in a different room.

Minho lets out a noise of confusion, but Chan just wants to see if Jisung is doing alright. He dashes out of the room and hears soft complaining coming from the kitchen so he makes his way over there, wondering what Jisung is doing, because usually he’ll call out a hello or something when he comes back home.

“Okay, okay, I just need to quickly get this back and—” Jisung is talking to himself, his back facing Chan as he’s struggling to lift a bucket with hot water from the counter. 

Chan takes one step closer when Jisung grunts in exertion, reaching out to help him. “Jisung-ah, are you—?” he begins, but his is cut off by Jisung whipping himself around and letting go of the bucket in shock, letting out a high pitched yell as the steaming water spills all over him. 

“Shit! Jisung—” Chan wants to yank him away, but his fingers get burned in the process. He hisses and pulls back for a second, but he forces himself to recover and take care of Jisung. “Drat! I’m so sorry—oh gosh. Oh lord—”

Jisung’s eyes are still wide in shock, tears welling up in them. His arms shake as he’s frozen in place, taking deep and slow breaths, and Chan quickly takes Jisung to the sink to get them under lukewarm water. He keeps whispering apologies, guilt settling in his stomach like a stone as his fingers are shaking while trying to turn on the tap.

“What’s going on? Why the yelling? What happened?” Minho approaches them, his voice full of worry. Chan finally manages to turn on the tap and shove Jisung’s arms under it, but Jisung flinches and Chan belatedly realizes that the water might be way too cold. 

“I—I—Hot water spilled,” he tells Minho, his mind too focused on helping Jisung to get a proper answer out. Minho takes a sharp breath and comes to stand next to Chan to check the water temperature. 

“This water is too cold. Where did it spill?” he asks, a slight frown adorning his face as he grabs the bucket and fills it with water before putting it on the fire again.

“A-Arms. My arms and–and my torso—stomach, too,” Jisung stammers in between hitched breaths. Chan’s heart clenches at the sight of tears running down Jisung’s cheeks, especially when the boy turns to look at him. “Channie hyung’s fingers, too, I think.”

Chan gasps softly and scowls at Jisung, his eyebrows drawn together apologetically. “I’m so sorry, Jisung-ah. I didn’t mean to startle you like that,” he whispers. Jisung bites his lower lip to muffle his sobs and he shakes his head.

“It’s not your fault, h-hyung-ah,” he assures him, but Minho clicks his fingers to get their attention as he’s checking the temperature of the water. He gets the bucket off the stove and motions them to come over.

“Chan-ah, put your hands in here. Jisung-ah, I’m going to help you carefully take your shirt off, but we have to move quickly,” Minho instructs them, and Chan wonders how he knows how to handle this so well. He puts his hands into the bucket of lukewarm water and sighs in relief as he watches Minho and Jisung work together to try and carefully peel Jisung’s soaked shirt off.

Chan mirrors Jisung’s flinches and his stomach churns as he hears his pained noises. Minho has a deep frown on his face, the corners of his lips twitching down as he carefully peels the wet fabric off Jisung’s stomach. “Chan-ah? Can you get me a cloth with lukewarm water?” he requests and Chan hums, immediately getting to work. “Only if you’re feeling okay enough, alright?” 

His fingers already feel better so he offers Minho to help him out. It’s the least he can do after causing this mess. “Can you dab the cloth on the burns? Jisung-ah, you’re doing well. Does it hurt?” Minho says, his voice managing to calm Chan. 

“I-It does. It hurts like hell,” Jisung says with a wet chuckle, sniffling as he raises his arms for Minho to pull his shirt over his head. Chan carefully soothes the burns with the cloth, making sure to not put too much pressure on his sensitive red skin.

“Okay. That’s good. I—The cook told me that the burns are the worst when you can’t feel anything anymore. He taught me how to deal with spilling hot liquid over your skin, and luckily I’ve never had to deal with it until now,” Minho explains softly, his breath hitching when Jisung lets out a pained sob. 

“Just a little more, Jisungie, hang in there,” Chan tells him softly, still dabbing the cloth over his torso as Minho works his shirt off the last bit, making sure that the fabric doesn’t stick to his burned skin. Jisung nods and takes a shaky breath.

“Do you have any bandages? Or, uhm, something that won’t stick to your skin? Big plasters, maybe? This is kind of where my knowledge stops,” Minho says as he takes Jisung’s shirt and puts it away before helping Chan with soothing the burns a bit.

“I-I don’t know. Maybe,” Jisung admits. Chan just wants to suggest going to see a doctor when a loud knock sounds on the door. 

Changbin and Hyunjin come in, asking what’s taking so long, and they freeze when they notice the three in the kitchen. “Oh lord—What happened here? Is everything alright?” 

“Yeah—No, I… I was clumsy and spilled the hot water all over myself. Minho hyung and Chan hyung helped a bit already, but it still hurts,” Jisung explains with a watery chuckle. Hyunjin immediately comes up to him and examines his skin. As Jisung turns around his arm to show all of the wounds, Chan suddenly notices black strokes of ink along his inner left arm. 

He remembers Jisung testing out the ritual on himself first, drawing a symbol on his left arm. He assumed that his symbol would be temporary, but then again, he has no idea why his symbol would be different from his and Minho’s, because he did the exact same thing. 

Chan can’t tear his eyes away from it—it looks like a dragon. He hasn’t seen his own, nor Minho’s symbol, but the curiosity has been reignited now. He shouldn’t be staring right now, though, he needs to help Jisung.

“Oh gosh. Come with me to my place, Jisung-ah. I happened to study how to treat burns when we departed because you know how much spare time I always have on the ship, especially while Changbin is sleeping or on land—Anyway, I think I might have something we can use to treat this,” Hyunjin tells Jisung as he gives him a soothing pat on the cheek. Jisung takes a deep breath and nods.

They all follow Hyunjin to his house, Chan sticking close to Jisung’s side, because he still feels guilty for startling him and making him spill the hot water over himself. And he feels even more guilty for being a bit glad that this allows them to spend some time together. 

“Are your hands okay, hyung?” Jisung asks him softly. His posture is stiff as he walks, but Chan can’t blame him. He’s probably still in pain, and the outside air can’t be helping much. 

“Yeah. Yeah, they’re fine now. Still a bit tingly and all, but I think I got away without any heavy burns, unlike you,” Chan explains. He looks down at his hands—the skin looks bad, but it’s just the back of his fingers, so he’ll be fine. 

“I’ll ask Hyunjin to take a look at it anyway,” Jisung assures him, moving his arm but changing his mind as his face contorts. Chan quickly puts a hand on his back.

“Hey, easy there. Don’t worry about me. I’m really fine. And, lord, I’m genuinely sorry for startling you—” he tells him with a deep sigh, but Jisung shushes him.

“Don’t. Stop apologizing. It was my fault. I was trying to be sneaky because I… I didn’t want to bother you while I was getting some hot water. That’s why I jumped so bad,” he explains, giving Chan a stern look. Chan pauses, his eyes growing a little wider. 

“You could never bother us,” he blurts, sounding a bit desperate in his own ears, but it’s true. Jisung could never be a burden to them—even though Chan wouldn’t have preferred him to walk into his bedroom while he and Minho were making out. 

“I’m serious. We… Minho and I might have confessed our feelings to each other, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not important to us, Jisung-ah. We want to spend our last days here with you as much as we can,” he continues, watching Jisung’s eyes widen and his cheeks grow pink. 

“Oh—Oh, okay. I mean, of course. I… I want that, too. I only… I was only working on a surprise for you two. A-A gift,” he replies, cheeks reddening with every word. Now it’s Chan’s turn to blush, too, and he gapes at Jisung in surprise.

“A gift?” he asks and Jisung nods. Chan can’t hold his gaze, especially because he’s still shirtless, his entire torso on display, but he tries his best.

“Yes. That’s why I was sneaking around. I didn’t mean to consciously stay away from you,” Jisung responds softly. He moves his arms again, but flinches and lets out a frustrated sigh. “Sorry. I don't really know how to act sometimes. I don't know how to deal with my friends leaving the island. I don’t—” 

Jisung cuts himself off with a deep and shaky breath. He blinks and presses his lips into a thin line. Chan’s stomach churns at the sight, and he hums in compassion. Jisung chuckles awkwardly. “Sorry. We're not that far yet. I'll be with you on the way to Jeju Island, so…” 

“You can also attend—” Chan begins, but just at that moment, they arrive at Hyunjin’s house, so he swallows the invitation. 

It’ll come later.

Hyunjin helps Jisung with his wounds and also checks Chan’s hands before simply putting some soothing cream onto them. Chan offers to help Hyunjin treat Jisung’s wounds, since he still feels like he owes him to help out, and he’s glad to be able to help out with dressing the burns in bandages—it makes him feel a bit less guilty. 

Chan can’t help but stare at the symbol on Jisung’s arm while he does so. The burns haven’t touched it, and instead somehow only scarred the skin around it, on the outside of his arm. Jisung averts his gaze when Chan forces himself to stop staring, and Hyunjin sees it too, but he doesn’t say anything.

Chan wonders if Jisung told him and Changbin about the reading. He probably did, but the amount of detail he told them will probably remain a mystery forever. Chan lets out a breath and continues fixing the bandages, while Hyunjin tells Minho and him how and when to change the bandages, so that he doesn’t have to come over and Jisung doesn’t have to do it himself.

“Okay. All done, now,” Hyunjin says and he pats Jisung’s cheek again. Jisung snickers and stands up to pull Hyunjin into a hug, carefully wrapping his arms around his friend’s middle. 

“Thank you, Hyunjinnie. Thank you Changbin hyung for coming to check on me. And thank you Minho hyung and Chan hyung for helping me out as well,” he says, slowly giving them all a hug one by one. He hugs Chan last and Chan takes a moment to hold him close, carefully running his hands along his back and arms. 

“I hope you’re not in too much pain, Jisung-ah,” he whispers, his heart pounding in worry, but it feels good to have Jisung close against him for a moment again. He has to admit that he’s missed this, even if it has only been a couple of days. 

“I’m not. I can handle it. Things like this happen. It’s okay,” Jisung assures him in a gentle tone, pressing his cheek against Chan’s shoulder as he smiles up at him. Chan’s heart flutters at the sight. 

“I still need to finish, uhm, my gift for you, but I think I’ll skip the hot water. I’ll… I promise I’ll be back soon to spend more time with you, hyungs,” Jisung then says as he pulls away from the hug. Minho’s eyes widen at the mention of a gift, but he nods and lets Jisung go. 

Chan and Minho go home together, but as Jisung promised, he doesn’t stay away long. They don’t let him step a foot in the kitchen for the whole night, ordering him to rest and stay put, even if he pouts and assures them that they don’t have to take care of him.

“We don’t have to do anything, Jisung-ah,” Minho tells him as he finishes preparing their dinner. Chan hums in agreement, grabbing three pairs of chopsticks and three plates.

“We want to do this for you. I think you deserve to have people take care of you every once in a while, especially when you’re injured,” he adds with a pointed look towards the younger. “It’s our way of showing you that we care.”

“I… This way I won’t be able to go back to living on my own,” Jisung complains with a sigh, following the two older men to the dinner table, his expression twitching when he raises his arms to grab the chopsticks. 

Chan scowls. The dread of leaving each other weighs heavy on all three of them, but Minho luckily starts talking about something happier.

“So, Jisung-ah. You’ve made us a gift?” he asks with a small grin.

“I did. I’ll give it to you later. It’s… It’s a wedding gift. I think it turned out well, so I hope you like it,” Jisung replies with a big smile. Chan’s stomach flips—a wedding gift? For them? 

“I’m sure we will. You—You should stay, by the way. For the wedding. It’ll be our way of paying you back for everything. If you want, of course,” Chan blurts, but he doesn’t think there will be a better time to invite him. “There will be great food, and we’ve heard that Jeju Island is beautiful.”

“Yes, and we’ll be able to show you a little bit of our life, too,” Minho adds with a chuckle. Jisung’s eyes are wide as saucers, and his cheeks are pink as an excited smile grows on his face.

“Really? Like, I’ll be able to have a bath?” he asks, and Minho bursts out laughing while Chan sighs in longing. If there’s one thing he won’t miss from here, it’s washing himself with only a bucket and a sponge. 

“Yes, you’ll probably be able to take a bath. We’re staying at the royal mansion, after all,” Minho responds between his laughter. When he looks at Chan, he starts laughing even harder, making Chan’s ears go red as he hits Minho in embarrassment. Minho keeps giggling and when Chan turns to Jisung for an escape, he is met with the most brilliant smile. 

“Are you laughing at me, too, Jisung-ah? I thought I could trust you,” Chan says with a sigh. 

“I’m not laughing at you, hyung, I’m amused by you,” he tells him with a cheeky grin that makes Chan unable to be upset at him. Minho turns to give Jisung a smile filled with fondness, and it all builds up to make Chan feel like he’s about to burst. 

“I–I would love to attend your wedding, hyungs. That would make me the happiest person alive,” Jisung then says, a genuine look in his eyes as he gives them a cute smile. “Do I need to bring more gifts, then? Uhm, for your family, too?”

“No, no, don’t worry, we’ll get enough gifts from our peers and family, and they don’t need anything more, believe me,” Chan quickly assures him. Minho nods.

“True. We should rather be giving you gifts, since I think you’ll make better use of what you get than our families would,” he says with a sheepish expression. Jisung snickers. 

“Maybe so,” he says with a shrug, not committing to taking any presents or gifts yet, but Chan thinks it would be nice to give him something to take home with him at least. Chan would love for Jisung to have something to remind him of them, just like they’ll have his wedding gift, and perhaps also the ink on their bodies to remind them of him for a while longer.

On that topic, Chan still isn’t sure if he wants to take a look at his own symbol. He can’t help but think how fitting it would be for him to have a dragon on his arm, too. He can’t look, though, because then he’ll have to see what Minho’s ink on his back looks like, and then he’ll perhaps know the outcome of the reading too, and he still isn’t sure if he’s ready to know.

Because the more he spends time with Minho and apart from Jisung, the more he’s starting to feel like he’s falling for the younger man, native to the island. At the same time, he still loves Minho. 

At night, when he and Minho have finally convinced Jisung to sleep in his bed for the coming couple of days because they will have plenty of opportunities to sleep next to each other in the future, Chan lies on the makeshift mattress of pillows and blankets and watches Minho read a book in the faint light of a candle.

The orange light highlights Minho’s sharp nose and pretty eyes, and Chan thinks he could stare for a while, because it distracts him from other thoughts, but his mind keeps involuntarily straying to Jisung every once in a while. His presence has become inevitable in Chan’s mind by now. 

“Minho-yah,” he begins softly, testing the waters to see if he’s too immersed in the book to talk or not. Minho hums, but doesn’t avert his gaze from the book yet, so Chan waits for a couple of seconds to see if he’s almost done with the paragraph or page. 

And yes, after a couple of moments, Minho puts the book down on his chest and turns his head to look at Chan. “You wanted to say something?” he asks with the raise of an eyebrow and Chan hums, so Minho puts a bookmark between the pages and puts the book away, silently telling him to go ahead. 

“I… I think I have feelings for Jisungie,” he admits under his breath, meeting Minho’s eyes within the darkness of the living room. Minho’s expression barely changes, but he heard him already, Chan knows that, he can tell.

“Took you long enough to come to terms with that,” he says with a straight face. Chan bites back a scoff and grabs a pillow to hit Minho’s arms with. Minho giggles and slaps the pillow away. “What! I could see it in your eyes at the festival already, my dear Channie, so it took you way longer to accept these feelings than it took me to find them out.”

“Well, just like it took you a while to come to terms with your feelings for me, it took me a while to realize what I felt for him,” Chan retorts, his ears burning as Minho teases him. Minho laughs, but his eyes are kind. Chan lets out a breath and leans his head on his arm as he straightens a bit to look at Minho from a better angle. 

“I have the feeling that you don’t mind my feelings for him,” he comments softly, because Minho’s expression is quite unbothered. Minho smiles and shrugs. 

“I don’t. I think it’s nice. Because I… I don’t know if I made it clear within the chaos after that day we went to the beach, but I like him a lot, too. I wanted to kiss him back then and I still do, now. I’ve been… slowly but surely falling for him, ever since the festival. Just like I did for you, actually,” he confesses honestly, his cheeks coloring a shade darker. 

Chan pauses to take that confession in, realizing that he hasn’t taken a moment to consider Minho’s feelings for Jisung yet. It makes sense, Minho wouldn’t want to kiss someone out of nowhere, and Chan already assumed that he fancied Jisung for that reason, but he had forgotten about it in the days he and Minho spent together after their confession.

Jisung said that he didn’t want to be with them, because he wasn’t ready. Chan wonders if that has changed since then. He says he doesn’t want to be in the way of their marriage, but maybe it could be possible for the three of them to be together, still. 

“So we might all fancy each other?” he hesitantly asks. He thinks that Jisung might definitely feel something for Minho, but a voice in the back of Chan’s head tells him that there’s a reason Jisung mentioned both of them while talking about the possibility of any of them dating. 

“I think we might, love,” Minho answers with a hopeful grin. “I… I hope so. It would be nice to be together with him, wouldn’t it? Do you think we should tell him?” 

“I… I think—I want to say yes, but what will we do? We can’t force him to just leave his home and come with us, can we?” Chan replies, pursing his lips in thought. He doesn’t think that Jisung would want to leave the island just like that, he fits here, belongs here, and it would be selfish for him and Minho to take that away from him. 

“And what if we… What if we come back and live here with him?” Minho then suggests, his eyes wide and full of anticipation. Chan likes that idea, but he doubts that their family would. Maybe they can arrange something. 

“Maybe we could somehow arrange that…” he says, but Minho lets out a scoff.

“Would you want that, Chan-ah? That’s more important,” he retorts. 

“Yes. Of course I’d want that,” Chan answers without hesitation. He doesn’t think that he’s been happier anywhere else than here with Jisung and Minho. He misses everyone from at home, though, so it would be ideal to get everyone to cooperate and agree to them staying here. 

This island may be small, but it’s pretty close to Jeju Island as far as Chan knows, so it might not be all that inconvenient. Maybe. Maybe not.

“Maybe we’re really like the emperor’s son, dragon, and musician, then,” he wonders out loud. Minho snickers, his eyes twinkling as he looks up at Chan.

“Maybe a little, yes. I think our story is just as nice, that’s for sure,” he responds with a soft smile, making Chan’s heart stutter. He then yawns and stretches himself before turning away from Chan. “Anyway, I’m tired. Good night, Chan. Sleep well.”

Chan smiles, his heart at ease. “Sleep well.”

He then turns around and looks towards the door to Jisung’s bedroom. And sleep well, too, Jisungie.

ˏ 𓏧 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓋒 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓏧 ˎ

Jisung wakes up with sore arms and a dull pain on his chest and stomach. His neck is stiff from the weird position he slept in to try and prevent his burns from getting irritated or stingy. He didn’t sleep particularly well, not necessarily because of his wounds, but mostly because he’s been thinking about Minho and Chan’s wedding all night. 

The wedding he’s invited to.

He’s incredibly giddy to be invited, but he thinks he’ll start crying real soon, either from happiness that Minho and Chan are finally getting married lovingly, or from sadness because he doesn’t want them to leave. He has gotten sincerely attached to the two, and the thought of only seeing them every couple of months with no way to contact them or know what they’re up to makes his heart clench in pain. 

He doesn’t want to admit to his feelings for them, but in the back of his mind he knows that he’s hopelessly infatuated with them. He can’t help the way his heart keeps longing for them, despite the way he’s trying to tell himself that he shouldn’t get in between them.

Knock knock. 

“Come on in,” Jisung calls out, slowly starting to get up from his bed. He stretches out his sore arms and runs a hand through his hair, smiling when Chan and Minho come in to greet him good morning. 

“How did you sleep tonight, Jisung-ah? Should we help you change your bandages?” Chan asks and Jisung hums, shyly taking off his shirt and unrolling the bandages. His burns look better already, which is a relief. He thinks he won’t need the bandages after a day or two anymore. 

“I didn’t sleep that well, but it’s okay. I hope you had a good night, though,” Jisung answers as Minho gently rubs some ointment onto Jisung’s burns. Jisung can’t really hide the symbol on his arm, and he’s sure that Chan noticed it, but he isn’t sure if Minho saw, and he also doesn’t know if they’ve seen their own, nor each other’s symbols, so he doesn’t know if he should bring anything up. 

“We slept well. And… Well, maybe you should rest a little today. Changbin-ssi stopped by just now to tell us that he and Hyunjin-ssi are finishing the preparations for us to leave soon, so… You could probably use a day of rest before we leave,” Chan replies, resting a gentle hand on Jisung’s leg. Jisung presses his lips together as he nods.

He wishes that they didn’t have to leave already, but he guesses that he has no other choice than to accept his fate. At least he has a parting gift for Minho and Chan, and he just hopes that they will like it and think of him every once in a while. He’s sure that he won’t be able to forget about them, after all.

“Do you know how long the journey will take? Do I need to pack a lot of clothes?” Jisung mindlessly wonders out loud, while Chan grabs the bandages and carefully dresses his wounds again. 

“I don’t know. Changbin-ssi said he’d come back with Hyunjin-ssi to help you pack later today,” Minho answers now, offering Jisung a kind smile. Jisung’s heart flutters at Minho’s gentle expression, and he gets the urge to tell him thank you for it, to express his gratitude to him and Chan once again.

“Okay, that’ll be great. I guess I will just read in bed until he comes over, but I’m also pretty hungry right now,” Jisung tells them instead, melting a little into Minho’s side.

“Of course. Let’s have something to eat,” Chan responds with a small smile before offering his hand to help Jisung get up from the bed. Jisung’s legs are perfectly fine, but he still takes him up on the offer, because he’s starting to realize that he likes being taken care of by the fiancés, and perhaps he wants to indulge a little these last few days.

Minho and Chan keep looking at him funnily throughout the day, with an expression Jisung can’t quite place his finger upon. It makes him feel a bit shy, but also curious. He wants to ask them why they’re looking at him like that, but just when he gathers the courage to do so, Changbin and Hyunjin arrive to help him pack for the journey to Jeju island. 

He thinks he spots disappointment in Minho’s eyes when he starts packing, but he isn’t entirely positive he saw it right. He makes sure that they pack the outfits in which Chan and Minho arrived—they haven’t worn them for a long time, because the outfits weren’t the most convenient to move around in—and some essentials for himself, but he doesn’t want to take much. 

“Oh, by the way, Changbin hyung, Hyunjin-ah, I got invited to attend the wedding, and I really want to go, so do you want me to ask if you two can stay and attend, too? Or…” Jisung plops down on the ground, already tired of trying to pick which books he’ll take with him. 

Hyunjin’s eyes widen and a big smile grows on his face as he crawls towards Jisung and wraps him into a hug. “That’s amazing news! I’m sure Changbinnie hyung and I will find something to do. We always do. In the meantime you can use this opportunity to confess your love to them!” 

Jisung squeaks and hits Hyunjin on the shoulder as the latter pulls out of the hug. His cheeks grow warm and he huffs. “I am not going to break a marriage, Hyunjin! How is attending their wedding an opportunity for that?” 

“Hey, you’re not denying your infatuation with them anymore. What changed?” Changbin points out, just as nosy as Hyunjin. Jisung sighs and gives his friends a sheepish look. He’s glad that they’re back, but they’ve been prying about more details of his time with Chan and Minho the past couple of days, and however happy he is that they’re interested, he doesn’t know how this will help him miss them any less.

“I… I guess I’ve given up on getting over my feelings. Maybe that will ease the heartbreak when I’ll have to go back to living alone,” he admits with an exaggerated scowl. Hyunjin clicks his tongue and swings an arm around him before he pulls him against him. 

“Don’t say that. Maybe your heart won’t be broken. I can tell that they like you so much, Jisungie,” he assures him as he carefully rubs his hand along Jisung’s arm. 

“Exactly,” Changbin agrees with a sure expression. “You should have seen the way their faces fell when I told them we could leave soon. The way they talked about what you’ve done together that first day was full of fondness. Chan-ssi was ready to fight me to protect you, too.”

Jisung purses his lips in thought, reluctant to accept their words, but he can’t deny them. He keeps thinking about Minho and Chan’s gentle eyes on him, the ways they’ve been so kind and caring towards him, the way Jisung wishes that he could be part of their relationship.

“You should tell them how you feel about them before it’s too late. It’s not breaking up a marriage if you feel something for both of them, right? The worst thing that could happen is that they kindly tell you that they can’t change anything about the situation and reject you, but didn’t Minho-ssi literally want to kiss you at one point? Which wasn’t that long ago?” Hyunjin says after a moment. 

“He did. You said he did. And you said that Minho-ssi told you that Chan-ssi also had something in his eyes when he was looking at you at the festival, right?” Changbin adds with a wide grin. Hyunjin gasps and gives Jisung an excited but slightly constipated look. 

“Right— Gosh, that festival was so romantic, I can imagine all three of you realizing your feelings for each other! The fiancés fell for you while watching you sing and beguile them with your sweet voice, and then you fell for them while watching them dance together, while their feelings for each other were set at the same time.” Hyunjin sighs longingly, his hand on his chest as he looks at Jisung. Jisung’s stomach does a somersault or three as he listens to his friends—they're only making his situation worse, because Hyunjin’s words are romantic as heck. 

The worst thing is, that the reading and the symbols might even support what they're saying. That realization makes Jisung’s throat close up, not ready to consider the possibility of it really being true. 

“What’s up, Jisung-ah? You’re not denying us or making excuses. Does that mean you know that we’re right?” Changbin leans forward to poke Jisung’s cheek. “Is it the soul reading you did? Does it agree with us? Have you been ignoring it for some weird reason?” 

“Maybe. I don’t know. I’ve never done it with three people—I was just testing on my own arm!” he says with a deep sigh. He still doesn’t know how to interpret the reading, because the book didn’t make him any wiser. There’s nothing in there about the person doing the reading possibly being connected to two others, so he has no idea what to think.

“If it were anyone else instead of you being possibly connected to the fiancés, what would you do? You’d support them, right?” Hyunjin asks him, and he makes a good point. If he’d be the one watching, he’d probably tell himself to grow a spine and confess, believe in themselves and Minho and Chan.

“I would. It’s… It’s not that easy, though,” he stammers. However much he’d want to be brave and confess, he’s afraid that there’s no way for the three of them to be together in the long run, and that his heart will end up broken into a million pieces. 

“Just trust your instincts, then, Jisungie. Trust yourself and trust them. You do trust them, right?” Hyunjin advises, resting a gentle hand on his shoulder. 

“I do,” he answers without hesitation. He knows that Chan and Minho care about him, and they’ve earned his trust without question. “I trust them. I’ll… I’ll think about telling them. About how to tell them.” 

“We’ll have your back on this, so don’t worry.” Changbin smiles and pinches Jisung’s cheek. Jisung bites at his fingers, but then he pulls his friends into a big hug.

He flinches when his stomach stings because he was too enthusiastic with the hug, but laughs it off and gives Changbin and Hyunjin a quick peck on the side of their head. He feels more confident about coming clean now, but he’s still anxious about the many possible bad outcomes. 

The day of departure is nearing, and even if the healing of his burns is going well—especially since Minho and Chan are so caring about it—he is also nervous to leave the island. He has never gone further than a relaxing fishing trip with Changbin, or swimming with Hyunjin. 

It doesn’t help that Minho and Chan keep looking at them with this emotion in their eyes, as if they want to tell him something important, but they’re not saying anything. 

“What is it, hyungs? You keep looking at me as if I’ll disappear once you stop looking. I won’t,” he jokes at dinner, his cheeks already warm from the silent attention. Chan sputters and Minho immediately averts his gaze. Jisung laughs heartily. “Hey. I’m only asking, I’m not accusing you of anything.”

“No, it’s just that… We simply want to make sure that you’re fine and all,” Minho explains with a chuckle, but his ears are suspiciously red. Jisung still appreciates the words, though.

“Okay. If you say so. I don’t mind, but it makes me curious,” he tells them. “I’m fine, though. The burns are healing well. I’m more nervous to be somewhere else than Doshima. I’ve never travelled.” 

“Oh, you’ve never gone with Changbin-ssi?” Chan asks him and Jisung shakes his head. He’s not really built to travel for long periods of time, and someone needs to stay behind to look after their stuff.

“I’ve never been, but Hyunjinnie sometimes draws their surroundings and they tell me all of their stories, so… It’s still exciting to go somewhere else, but also scary, because I don’t know what to expect,” he answers. He then pauses to look at the two fiancés. “Have you travelled much?” 

“We have. Not as much and as far as Changbin-ssi and Hyunjin-ssi, but we’ve been all over the peninsula,” Minho replies with a hum. Jisung wonders what the peninsula is like, and if it’s big, if the journeys were tiresome or beautiful or maybe they weren’t special at all for some reason. He wonders if they’re going to travel a lot more or if they’re planning to stay somewhere together after the wedding—There’s a lot Jisung is curious about.

“I’d love to hear about that more when we depart,” he says, just because he can’t get himself to start asking questions now. They’d be talking all night if he’d start now, and they’ll leave tomorrow, so he wants to rest as much as he can. 

So with that, Chan and Minho don’t get to know about all of the questions that are on Jisung’s mind, and in turn, Jisung doesn’t get to learn about what they’ve been thinking about either. It’s okay, they still have time. The journey will take about two days, maybe three if the weather isn’t on their side, so they’ll have time to talk and do whatever they still wanted to do here.

What matters is that Chan and Minho are still kind and gentle with him as they make sure that Jisung’s burns are still doing well before bed, and wish him a good night with something in their eyes that Jisung doesn’t dare to put a name on.

He falls asleep longing for them, a little bit of hope planting a seed in his heart.

Jisung is nervous and feels bittersweet as he, Chan, and Minho get everything on Changbin’s boat the next day. He promised himself not to cry, but his heart is pounding fast as Changbin and Hyunjin get ready to leave, and his eyes are watery. 

The sounds of Changbin and Hyunjin cooperating to make sure everything is ready to go help Jisung keep his mind from racing. There is so much to think about, after all, so much stuff to reminisce and to look forward to. He doesn’t want to think about the future, though. Not yet—that will only make him cry. 

Chan comes standing next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. Jisung lets out a long breath, letting his shoulders sag—he didn’t know he was this tense. Chan hums and caresses his thumb along Jisung’s arm as they watch Doshima recede. 

“How are you feeling, Jisung-ah?” he asks him with a gentle smile, the wind blowing through his curls. Jisung tilts his head at him, taking in the pretty sight of his profile, and shrugs.

“I don’t know. I’ve never left home. It makes me feel weird. I don’t know how to describe it,” he answers with a bittersweet smile. He swallows thickly, because his throat suddenly feels somewhat tight. He doesn’t know why.

“Because you don’t know what to expect? Home is predictable, the outside world isn’t?” Chan guesses. Jisung’s eyes widen slightly, surprised at how accurately Chan knows how to describe how he feels, even if it’s such a simple description.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s pretty spot on,” he admits with a chuckle. Chan pulls him closer against him and hums. He probably knows exactly how Jisung feels. “You probably know what that’s like, huh?” 

“He knows what what is like?” Minho appears out of nowhere, coming to stand next to Jisung on his other side. Chan chuckles and briefly explains what they were talking about to him. Minho’s hand joins Chan’s one on Jisung’s back, and he feels kind of shy standing between them like this, but he melts a bit into their touch. 

“But yes. To say that being stranded on Doshima was stressful those first couple of days would be an understatement,” Chan adds with a laugh.

“True, but Jisungie helped. For me as well. And now you have us to help you as well, Jisung-ah. And Changbin-ssi and Hyunjin-ssi, too, so…” Minho says, first looking at Chan before facing Jisung, his hand rubbing along the small of his back.

“I… I know. But also, I don’t—I don’t think I’m ready to say goodbye to you two yet,” Jisung admits with a sigh, his cheeks growing warm. Minho and Chan are quiet, but their hands stay on Jisung’s back and shoulder. He takes a deep breath, willing himself not to tear up.

“We won’t—We won’t say goodbye forever,” Chan whispers, but Jisung isn’t sure if he’s assuring himself or Jisung with the promise. He knows that they won’t be apart forever, but the uncertainty of it all makes it difficult for Jisung to hold onto something. 

He wants to change the subject, wants to distract the three of them from what’s about to come, wants the journey and every second he can still spend with Minho and Chan to be happy. There are still more memories to be made together, after all.

“You know what? We still need to teach you dancing, Jisung-ah. It’ll come in handy at our wedding.” Minho breaks the silence and pats Jisung on the back before backing away and smiling at him. Jisung’s lips twitch up into a smile—he almost forgot about that—the memory of the fiancés dancing instantly makes him feel better. 

“Yes! I want to fly like you did, Minho hyung,” he replies with a long sigh. For a second, he remembers the burns on his stomach, but he thinks they won’t hurt. They’ve been healing well, after all. A little pain doesn’t matter if he can dance with Chan and Minho. 

“Why don’t we start right now? The day is still young, it’ll be fun, dancing on deck,” Minho suggests with a bright smile, holding out his hand for Jisung to take. Jisung happily takes his hand and lets Minho pull him against him. 

He can’t help but glance over his shoulder to see if Chan is okay with this—with him dancing with his fiancé and standing so close to him—but he can only see Chan beaming at them. He looks almost too delighted to see Jisung standing with his chest against Minho, their fingers intertwined. 

“Don’t worry, Jisung-ah, Channie and I will take turns teaching you. You’ll get your turn with him,” Minho whispers, suddenly quite close to his ear. Jisung whips his head around to face Minho again, his cheeks beet-red. Minho grins, and the expression makes Jisung’s heart flutter, and so do his words.

“What—? I wasn’t worried,” he stammers, letting out an awkward chuckle as he unconsciously squeezes Minho’s hands. Minho gives him a squeeze in return and tilts his head.

“It’s okay, I wouldn’t want to miss out on dancing with a man like Channie either,” Minho simply replies. Jisung’s blush grows deeper, and he wonders if Minho is hinting at something. Maybe he sees the way Jisung has been looking at them, and that would be worrying if Minho didn’t look so happy right now. The little seed of hope in his heart grows.

“Are you going to dance or are you just going to hold hands and chat?” Chan comments from where he’s watching, leaning against the railing of the ship with a wide smile. The sun reflects against the seawater and a seabreeze blows through Chan’s curls, making him look unfairly handsome.

“I was just ensuring Jisungie that he’ll be able to dance with you as well. I’ll get on with it,” Minho tells him with a laugh, looking equally attractive in the sunlight, his laughter brightening the atmosphere. Jisung falters when Minho guides him into their starting position, because he was distracted, but Minho keeps smiling, pulling on Jisung like a magnet.

Minho teaches him some basic steps and the basic rhythm of the dance routine. Inwards, outwards, twirl, switch arms. It takes a while for Jisung to get used to the rhythm because there’s no music, just Chan and a while after also Changbin and Hyunjin clapping to a beat, and he stumbles, but Minho always catches him with a giggle that makes Jisung’s stomach flip. 

“Are you getting the hang of it?” Minho asks with a grin, after Jisung stumbles again, but he blames that on the swaying of the ship, rather than himself, this time. Minho steadies him by his hands, acting as an anchor for Jisung to hold on to, both of them trusting each other to not let the other fall. 

“I… I think so, yes,” he answers with a chuckle. Minho simply watches him with fond eyes, and Jisung blinks, swallowing as he wills himself not to get lost in them. He pouts slightly. “I don't think I'm done learning, though.” 

Minho chuckles, and something like endearment crosses his expression. Jisung feels shy under his gaze but he doesn’t want to stop dancing yet, he doesn’t want to let go of Minho. 

Minho sighs and steps closer to him. “I'm sure you're not done, but I can't be too selfish, so I will let Channie take over from here. I’ll come back and twirl you around, though, so don’t miss me too much.” 

Minho slowly lets go of his hands and Jisung can't help but feel bittersweet. He is confused about what Minho means by being selfish exactly, nor what he’s implying by don’t miss me too much, but maybe he simply means that Chan wants to dance, too, and maybe he’s simply teasing Jisung. 

“Okay. Is he going to lift me?” Jisung blurts, just because he really wants to try flying like Minho did with Chan. Minho laughs and suddenly places his hands on either side of Jisung’s face before leaning forward and pressing a peck onto Jisung’s forehead. 

“You’re so cute, Jisung-ah,” he whispers under his breath, his eyes scrunched up into a delighted smile, and Jisung gapes at him with wide eyes, his skin heating up where Minho’s lips touched. Minho turns away and beckons Chan to come over. “Chan-ah, it's your turn! Make him fly, please.” 

Jisung stands frozen in place as Chan and Minho switch, still processing the way Minho gave him a kiss. He wonders what is suddenly up with Minho that he’s being so sweet to him, but when Chan stands across from him, beaming, and takes his hands before teaching him how they’ll do some more advanced moves, Jisung starts wondering what happened to both of them.

He isn’t going to complain, because even though it makes him shy, he loves getting so much attention from the fiancés. He loves to see them smile even more, and apparently dancing with him makes them smile, even if they’re just watching from a little distance.

It makes Jisung forget about where they are, where they’re going, and what the future holds. It’s comforting, it’s warm, and it makes Jisung incredibly aware of how much he feels for the fiancés again, because when Chan pulls him close—their gazes never separating—he is overwhelmed by the sudden impulse to kiss him, right on the lips. 

It’s even worse when Chan explains how he’s going to lift him, and Jisung has to ask him to repeat himself three times because he’s distracted by Chan’s lips moving, by his gentle eyes, by Minho’s suggestive smile as he’s watching them, or by his own rapidly beating heart.

“Do I have to explain one more time?” Chan asks with a laugh, and Jisung nods. His cheeks are probably a deep crimson by now, but he forces himself to listen.

“Yes! Sorry—I keep getting distracted because Minho hyung is giving us funny looks. I promise I’m paying attention now,” he explains with a bashful chuckle. Minho scoffs loudly.

“I am doing no such thing!” he protests, but Chan turns to face him with raised eyebrows. Minho rolls his eyes. “I can’t believe you’d believe that man over your fiancé.”

“I haven’t uttered a word, Minho-yah,” Chan responds with a laugh. He then turns to Jisung again, the remnants of a smile still lingering on his face. Jisung’s heart makes a fuss about it—he’s down worse than he thought.

“Anyways, I’ll explain it to you again, Jisung-ah. For the lift, you’ll need to jump into my arms and I’ll twirl you around. You can choose where I’ll catch you—by the waist or by your hips. It depends on what you’re more comfortable with,” Chan tells him patiently, demonstrating what he means by first placing his hands on Jisung’s waist, and then on his hips. “You should keep yourself steady by leaning on my shoulders. Please keep your legs behind you, because, uhm… It could happen that you accidentally hit some sensitive parts of mine.” 

Jisung lets out a cackle, and he hears Minho losing his composure behind him as well, both of them caught in a fit of laughter. “I suppose that has happened before?” he says with a chuckle, and Chan gives him a sheepish look. 

“Just watch your knees, okay?” he replies before putting his hands onto Jisung’s hips again, squeezing a little as he starts lifting him. Jisung places his hands on Chan’s shoulders and pushes off the ground to give them some momentum and Chan lifts him off the ground, his eyes never leaving Jisung’s ones.

“Is that okay?” he asks as Jisung makes sure to keep his legs bent at the knee. He already feels like he’s flying, and Chan is simply holding him up right now. He doesn’t think he wants to come down.

“Yes. Yes, this is okay,” Jisung answers softly. Chan puts him down on the floor and smiles. 

“Okay, let’s try flying, then,” he responds, letting go of Jisung and taking a step back before standing ready to catch him. Jisung’s heart is pounding, both in anticipation and in something more. 

He’s a bit hesitant at first, so he isn’t able to gain enough momentum for Chan to properly twirl them around, but he’s afraid of hurting Chan, or bumping into him and toppling over. Minho still claps every time they manage to complete the move, and Jisung appreciates the encouragement.

“You should gather more speed before jumping, Jisung-ah,” the man calls from the sidelines. Jisung sends him a sheepish look. “Don’t be nervous, Channie will catch you.”

“I know,” Jisung softly whines, but he’s still jittery. It feels intimate to do this with Chan, because when Chan and Minho danced together and did this move, Jisung both realized his own feelings, as well as that he noticed those of the fiancés. 

“Hey, Jisung-ah. Look at me?” Chan gently taps Jisung’s cheek, and Jisung presses his lips into a shy smile as he looks at the older. “I won’t let you fall. And you won’t hurt me—even if you do, it’s okay. Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” Jisung answers without missing a beat, just like he did when his friends asked him a similar question. He trusts Chan and Minho, but he doesn’t trust himself. He doesn’t trust his feelings, nor his body, to do what he wants, but apparently Chan does trust him.

“Then let’s try this, alright?” Chan adds with a kind smile, and he steps back again, holding his arms out for Jisung to jump into. Jisung takes a deep breath and dashes towards Chan.

He turns his mind off and just jumps, clasping his hands onto Chan’s shoulders to keep himself steady. Chan beams up at him and twirls them around, making Jisung feel like he’s flying.

His heart is soaring at the same time, Chan’s happy expression almost overwhelming him with warmth. They turn around twice, but it feels more like the world is spinning around them and they are weightless in between, time seeming to slow down. 

When Chan puts him down, light and careful, Jisung can’t help but still feel like they’re the only two people on the planet. He puts his hands on either side of Chan’s neck, and leans closer, but he notices what he’s doing just in time, and he quickly pulls him into a hug instead.

Chan gasps as Jisung holds him tight, squeezing his eyes shut as he hopes that his rapidly pounding heart will calm itself soon. Chan’s arms wrap around him, caress his back, and Jisung lets his eyes flutter open.

He meets Minho’s gaze, but instead of calming him, it overwhelms Jisung with more heart-fluttering emotions. Minho’s expression is beyond filled with fondness, and Jisung can’t hold it for longer than a second. He hides his face in the crook of Chan’s neck, breathing in his scent for a moment. 

“Are you alright, Jisung-ah?” Chan whispers, and Jisung hums. He takes a deep breath and slowly unfurls his arms to step out of the hug. 

“Y-Yeah. I don’t know. I was a bit overwhelmed just now, but in a good way,” he admits, before sharing a hesitant smile with Chan and Minho. “Thank you for teaching me.”

“Of course,” Chan answers, a gentle and fond look in his eyes that makes Jisung’s stomach fill with butterflies. Chan ruffles his hair and presses a quick kiss on the crown of his head. Jisung gasps softly, and he closes his eyes, unsure of what to do with himself at the moment.

“Hey, we’re not done yet, I still want to make you fly, too, Jisung-ah,” Minho protests. Chan snickers and happily invites Minho over again—They’re both so happy today. 

“He’s all yours, my love,” Chan says, but Jisung takes it as if he’s calling him love instead of Minho. Minho takes Jisung’s hand and intertwines their fingers before meeting his gaze and raising his eyebrows.

“You up for one more round?” he asks, and Jisung nods, forcing himself to keep up and keep it together for a little while longer. “I’ll keep it brief, you must be getting tired after dancing so long.” 

“I’m always up for flying,” Jisung answers with a laugh. Minho cackles and tells him to bring it on. 

They start out with some simple moves to get into the rhythm again, and as soon as Minho lets go, Jisung takes a deep breath and runs towards him, jumping into Minho’s arms and giggling in delight as Minho beams at him. Chan claps and encourages them, and Jisung’s heart can’t seem to stop pounding in longing. 

Minho puts him down again, but neither of them can stop smiling, and Jisung can’t seem to tear his eyes away from Minho’s beautiful features. “There. Was it okay?”

“Yes. Yes, it was. It was great. I had a lot of fun. I—We should do this again, but my legs are tired now. So… Thank you.” Jisung stutters, and his cheeks are unusually warm, but Minho and Chan keep looking at him with those incredibly fond eyes, and it makes Jisung feel all weak in the knees.

“Thank you for letting us share this with you, Jisung-ah,” Chan comments, and he steps towards them before patting Jisung’s hair again. Jisung unconsciously leans into the touch, but his cheeks grow red when he realizes what he’s doing, so he quickly wraps up and leaves under the guise of checking up on Changbin and Hyunjin.

His friends are closer than he expected, though, apparently they watched the whole time. Jisung ignores their pressing looks—he really needs a moment to calm down, or else he might accidentally do or say something stupid, and no one needs that so close before the wedding.

His mind has been racing a lot since before they left, mostly with anxious thoughts about leaving his home and about Chan and Minho leaving him, but now, his mind is restless with sentiments about being hopelessly infatuated with two fiancés, who are about to marry and leave him behind.

He almost kissed Chan today, but Minho kissed him on the forehead, and Chan kissed him on the top of his head, and they were both so happy about it—it confuses Jisung and it fills him with hope, which he shouldn’t have. But the symbol on his inner arm—still clear and unscathed as it is surrounded by fading burns—makes it even worse. 

He’ll just have to hold on for a little while longer, and he should count himself lucky for even being able to spend such a long and precious time with Chan and Minho. He can positively say that they’ve changed his life for the better already, and all he can do now is make sure that he supports them and keeps them in his heart, even if it hurts to hold back.

He’ll tell them about his feelings, but he still needs a little bit more courage. 

ˏ 𓏧 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓋒 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓏧 ˎ

“Rise and shine, fellow sailors!” 

Minho is abruptly woken up by Changbin’s loud voice, just when he finally fell asleep again—the seas weren’t exactly kind to his slumber tonight—and he grumbles as he turns around, but Changbin barges into the sleeping chambers and lets out an excited shout. “Yoh!”

Minho sighs and blinks his eyes open, only to see Changbin beaming as he looks around the room. Hyunjin is behind him, silently rubbing his eyes as Changbin claps his hands. “Rise and shine!” 

“Changbin hyung, shut up,” Jisung whines from his hammock as he throws a pillow at his friend. Minho snickers, especially when he sees that Chan is soundly sleeping through all of the ruckus, his light snoring acting as background noise for Changbin’s loud booming voice. 

“I will not shut up, because there’s land at the horizon! Or rather, island,” Changbin counters as he runs up to Jisung and pats his cheek. Minho perks up and sits up, almost falling out of his hammock as he does so.

Island? We’re almost there? Minho’s heart jumps up into his throat, and his stomach churns in slight disappointment. He has been having so much fun, teaching Jisung how to dance together with Chan, and he’s nervous to find out how their family will react to everything that has happened.

“...Huh? Jeju island?” Jisung mutters, slowly sitting up as he uses the back of his fingers to rub his eyes. He looks frustratingly adorable in the morning, and even though Minho and Chan have been trying to butter Jisung up and show their interest in him, they haven’t been able to make it clear to him how they feel about him.

Minho is quite positive that Jisung has some type of feelings for the two of them, though. He can simply tell from his expression. He wishes that Jisung would allow himself to feel freely, just like how he has encouraged Minho to do so. He obviously needs a push, but Minho is still unsure if Jisung wants them in the way they want him.

It doesn’t matter at the moment, because they have to get their stuff in order and prepare to arrive at their destination—they have quite some explaining to do, but Minho is also nervous to see if everyone is okay after the storm. Who knows if they all made it to Jeju in the first place?

Minho shakes those thoughts away, and he wakes Chan before dressing himself in the same clothes he wore when the storm happened. That way, people on the island might recognize them earlier. 

Once everyone gets up on deck, Minho indeed sees that they’re nearing land. Jeju is a lot bigger than Doshima, and Minho can’t tell if it’s an island or not, but it must be. It’s impressive to watch how skillfully Changbin and Hyunjin handle the ship, cooperating to get the boat where they want it to go. 

Minho takes a deep breath, and Chan comes up to him, silently slipping his hand into Minho’s before giving him a compassionate smile. Minho sighs and squeezes Chan’s hand, thanking him for the silent support.

To distract himself, he watches how Jisung is leaning over the railing to watch the island get closer and closer, the breeze flowing through his hair and past his slightly pink cheeks. He still looks straight out of a novel, like the main character, and Minho and Chan are the side characters who watch him from a distance and long for him. 

Minho hopes that their tale will have a happy ending.

“Right! Chan hyung, Minho hyung! I—I have a gift for you. Your wedding gift,” Jisung suddenly exclaims, running down to the sleeping chambers before appearing again with two neatly wrapped in fabric Minho recognizes from Jisung’s home. His eyes are bright but shy as he offers them their gifts.

Minho’s heart is pounding in his throat as he opens the gift, checking Chan’s expression at the same time, only to see him looking like he might burst out crying any second. He unties the rope around the fabric and reveals two pieces of nicer smooth fabric. 

“I made it based on how well my clothes fit you, and based on the clothing you wore when you arrived on Doshima, so I hope they fit,” Jisung explains with a shaky chuckle.

Minho unfolds them to see that Jisung made them a traditional outfit—similar to the one they wore during the festival. Minho bites his lower lip to keep it from trembling as he inspects the careful embroidered outfit. 

“This is beautiful. Gorgeous. Jisung-ah, it’s… It’s amazing. Thank you so much,” Chan chants as he holds the outfit close to his chest. His eyes are watering and he sniffles as he pulls Jisung into a hug. 

Jisung lets out a whimper and holds Chan tightly with one arm, motioning Minho to join them with the other arm. Minho gladly does so, squeezing him tight as he presses a kiss to the side of Jisung’s head. “I can’t wait to wear it,” he whispers.

They pull out of the hug to see Jisung beaming at them. “I’m so happy you like it. And I hope it all fits well and is comfortable. I—I hope you can remember the happy times on the island when you wear this,” he tells them, and Minho’s heart clenches, a bittersweet feeling filling his chest.

“We will. We’ll treasure your gift,” Chan assures him genuinely. Minho nods in agreement, although he’s sure that he doesn’t need the gift to remember the happy times on the island. The impact Jisung has left on his heart alone is enough.

They carefully put away the outfits, and when they come back to the hull, they see that they’ve almost reached the port of the island already.

Changbin and Hyunjin make sure that they arrive safely, and inform the people at the harbor of their arrival and plans to stay for multiple days—not for trade, but rather for a wedding. The mention of a wedding already gets the people talking, and the five of them don’t even manage to get far past the harbor before a familiar voice calls out from the distance.

“Minho hyung? Chan hyung? Is that really you?” There’s no mistaking that deep voice, even if his figure is still quite small in the distance—it’s Minho’s cousin and Chan’s dear friend Felix.

All five of them freeze and turn towards the sound, but Chan is the first one to un-freeze and he starts running towards his friend. Jisung turns to Minho with wide questioning eyes, the unsaid question ‘ Who is that?’ obvious in his eyes.

“That’s—That’s my cousin. F-Felix. Lee Felix. He wasn’t on the ship with us, but he would come to the island later,” he clarifies, feeling a bit choked up to see his cousin again after so long. It’s like he’s been living in a fantasy world, separate from the real world, for the past weeks, and now he’s back, seeing familiar faces, but not quite home.

“Oh gosh, Chan hyung—We all missed you and Minho hyung so much! We thought you might have—That you might not have made it! The storm, and all—We’ve sent out men to look for you every morning! I’m so happy you two are okay. You’re alright, aren’t you?” Felix jumps into Chan’s arms and sobs against his chest. Chan shushes him and gently rubs his hands along his back and head, soothing him as the rest slowly approach them.

As soon as Minho is within an arm's-length of the two, Felix reaches out to pull him into the hug as well. Minho lets out a watery chuckle and presses a kiss onto the side of his cousin’s head, his heart relieved that he’s okay.

“We’re okay, Lix-yah. It’s all thanks to Jisungie. We’ve been lucky to have him take care of us until we could find our way back here,” Chan tells him softly, pulling out of the hug a bit before cocking his head towards Jisung and his friends. “He and his friends have helped us get to Jeju.”

Felix blinks and sniffles as he looks at Jisung and he steps towards the man to pull him into a tight hug as well. “Thank you. Thank you so, so much, kind young man. Thank you for taking care of Minho hyung and Channie hyung,” he chants as Jisung chuckles and happily returns the hug. 

“It’s okay. I—It’s been an absolute pleasure to be with them,” Jisung answers softly, a bittersweet smile on his face, but his cheeks are a bit pink. He is seemingly unbothered by the incredibly tight way Felix is embracing him. After a moment, the man moves on to hug Changbin and Hyunjin, who look more surprised than Jisung. 

“Thank you, thank you,” Felix chants again, and Minho lets out a fond chuckle. It seems like at least one person genuinely missed them and was concerned for them, but he hopes that they won’t be too concerned and be wary of Jisung instead of grateful.

Felix wipes his eyes and bows to Jisung and his friends again. “Please, come with us to the mansion. Everyone will be delighted to know that Chan hyung and Minho hyung have found their way to Jeju island safely. You’ll receive our thanks appropriately, of course!” he tells them.

Jisung’s eyes are wide and Changbin and Hyunjin already wave him off, telling him that they don’t need any compensation for only steering and handling the ship that brought them here, but Felix insists that they at least come and stay in the mansion for a couple of days so that they can eat and rest until they leave again. 

“If you want, you could all stay for the wedding, too—that is, if you’re okay with the wedding still going through, hyungs,” Felix explains as they take their stuff and go to the mansion. Minho swallows and shares a look with Chan, surprised that Felix even asks this.

“Do we even have a choice?” he asks in return. “I don’t remember us having any say in this wedding going through or not in the first place.”

Felix gives him a sheepish look. “I… I mean I guess not, but if you’re sick or injured it’ll be postponed—That’s what I meant.” 

“Ah. Right. We’re okay, physically, so…” Minho shrugs. He isn’t even sure what he’d do, given the choice to cancel his marriage with Chan. He has grown quite fond of him, after all, but it’s still too soon to know if he’d be willing to spend the rest of his life with him by his side. 

He won’t mind it anymore, that’s for sure. The only problem now is that he wishes that they could include Jisung somehow. 

“What about the rest? Did—Is everyone safe after the storm? Did everyone make it?” Chan asks, a nervous tinge to his voice. Minho’s stomach churns, but Felix already nods his head in an assuring motion.

“Yes! Yes, everyone made it, even though the ship didn’t. They were lucky that everyone fit on the safety boat—not many people were on the ship, after all—and that some traders from Jeju encountered them in the morning,” he explains, and Minho lets out a sigh of relief.

“Okay. That’s good. That’s good to know,” Chan says with a breathy chuckle, and Minho can tell that he sincerely appreciates the info. Minho does so, too, but his mind was still partially occupied by Jisung. 

Felix brings them to the mansion, and where Minho thought that maybe they could get some rest for a while today, it doesn’t seem like anyone is getting any peace and quiet anytime soon. As soon as they enter the mansion, the five of them are overcome with questions, hugs, formalities and more questions.

Minho and Chan try their best to give a summary of everything that happened, even if they have to repeat themselves about a dozen times, but it’s tiring. The worst thing is that after making sure that everyone knows that they’re okay thanks to Jisung, they have to hear about the formalities of the wedding, while Jisung, Changbin, and Hyunjin get led to the spare guest rooms in the guest house in the yard.

Minho makes sure that it’s clear that they’d love to invite Jisung to their wedding, but luckily everyone agrees that it’s a good way of showing their gratitude towards the man to do so. 

It’s only just before dinner time that Minho and Chan are finally dismissed so that they can enjoy the elaborate welcome-meal the staff have prepared for them. Jisung, Changbin, and Hyunjin are of course also invited to join, but even in Minho’s tired state he can tell that the trio feels a little out of place.

He wishes that he could just sit next to Jisung and have a casual conversation with him like they would do at Jisung’s place, but his and Chan’s parents still aren’t done talking about the wedding nor are they done asking them and Jisung questions about what happened—pressing the younger with inquiries about if they received proper care.

Chan insists that they’ve had a great time at the island, and he thankfully is able to change the topic of conversation, but not soon enough to save the last bit of Minho’s mood that hadn’t turned sour yet. 

“Minho hyung, you don’t seem too happy,” Jeongin whispers when the conversation moves away from him. At least he, Seungmin and Felix are here to make this welcome dinner less formal and more like a welcome back dinner. 

“I’m just tired. It’s—It’s a lot,” he admits. He wishes he could have shown Jisung around, or could have prepared a meal for him, or could have seen his reaction to what his room looks like. 

“Well, yes, your parents and the staff are bothering you and Chan hyung quite a lot about the wedding, given that you’ve only arrived here mere hours ago, so I understand if you’d want to rest,” Jeongin says as he gives Minho a sympathetic pat on the back. Minho gives him a sheepish smile and hums.

“I just wish I had time to explore the place with Channie and Jisungie, you know? I didn’t mentally prepare myself for the formalities yet.” He sighs and stabs his chopsticks into his food. Jeongin pauses to frown.

“You’d want to explore with them? I mean—I suppose you’ve gotten quite a lot closer to Chan hyung in the time you’ve been stuck on that island, because I don’t remember you necessarily wanting to spend time with him,” he comments as he bumps his shoulder against Minho’s. “And it also seems like you’re close with your savior, too.”

“We literally spent weeks together in a house built for one person, Jeongin-ah, of course we’ve grown close,” Minho tells him with a huff, but his ears heat up a bit.

“I get that, but they could have just as well driven you mad, right? I know I would go mad if I'd have to spend every second of the day with Seungminnie. Instead it looks like you’ve grown quite fond of them, or am I wrong?” Jeongin smiles widely and Minho can’t help but smile a bit as well.

“Yes, that’s true,” he admits softly. To say that he’s merely fond of Chan and Jisung would be an understatement, so he’s not embarrassed to admit it. Jeongin lets out a sound of delight.

“Woah, hyung. I didn’t… To be frank, I didn’t expect you to be so honest about it. Which means you really fancy Chan hyung and Jisung-ssi, huh? You should definitely tell me about that in more detail one day—but for now, you should rest and go take a look around the property tomorrow morning with them. It’s quite beautiful,” he tells Minho with a bright smile, his dimples on display. “We’ll catch up more later.”

Minho offers Jeongin a grateful smile. “Thanks, Jeongin-ah. That sounds like a good idea. I can’t wait to take a bath and dive into bed.”

“Right—You and Chan hyung share a room, in case you forgot, but everything is big enough for at least three people, as always! Definitely built for more than one person.” Jeongin laughs, but Minho can’t help but blush at the words. He’s flustered because Jeongin mentions everything fits at least three people, and he starts imagining taking a bath with Chan and Jisung before snuggling in bed with them—lord, if only that could be reality.

After dinner, however, Minho is too tired, so he simply tells Jisung to show him and Chan where he’s staying so that they can visit him—Minho is planning on exploring the premises with him early tomorrow morning. He’s going to ignore everyone who thinks they should be occupied otherwise, wedding planning and catching up can happen at a later time.

For tonight, a bath and then sleeping is the only thing on Minho’s mind, and judging from the empty look behind Chan’s eyes, the older man feels the same. And thus, after giving each other a kiss good night, they fall asleep, occupying only a small part of the large bed in their suite. (Probably a habit left over from having slept in Jisung’s bed. Or maybe Minho is genuinely starting to crave Chan’s presence, even if it’s not needed.)

“Chan-ah.” Kiss on the cheek. “Chan-ah.” Peck on the nose. “Chan-ah, wake up.” Kiss on the lips. “Chan-ah, there’s food.” Peck on the forehead. “Chan-ah, Jisungie needs your help.” Another kiss on the—

“Wh—?” Chan jerks and stirs awake. Minho lets out a sigh, but the corners of his lips twitch up into an amused smile. Of course the mention of Jisung manages to wake him up. That, or food, but only the smell of it, it seems. 

“Jisungie…?” Chan mumbles before groaning and looking up at Minho. “Wh… What did you say?”

“I said a lot of things, but only one thing managed to wake you up. Or rather, only the mention of one particular person needing help managed to bring life to that overprotective soul of yours,” Minho tells him with a laugh. Chan’s cheeks grow red and he huffs before sitting up.

“It’s—It’s not just him who would have woken me up, Minho-yah, you know that,” he mumbles. Minho’s smile softens and he brings a hand up to Chan’s face before dragging his thumb along his jaw.

“I know, but I like this better. Come on, let’s get dressed and let’s go explore the property with Jisungie.” He pats Chan’s head and crawls out of bed, getting a head-start on dressing himself. He sniffs a couple of times, but he doesn’t smell anything. He supposes that the staff has only just begun preparing breakfast. It’s still quite early, after all.

“Lord, how early is it, my dear Minho?” Chan softly complains as he gets up and stretches himself. Minho opens the closet and picks out clothing for both of them. Chan is still slow as he peels the garments off his face and sighs. “I thought we were both exhausted after the journey and tiring ordeal of being back here.”

“Yeah, but I think we were out before sundown, so we’ve slept in if you look at it like that,” Minho tells him with a chuckle. “I'll get Jisungie from his room and you get us some breakfast, alright?” 

Chan lets out a vaguely affirmative noise and Minho takes it as his cue to leave and get Jisung out of bed. He must be still sleeping, as well, but Minho never minded waking him up, never minded guiding a sleepy Jisung or Chan somewhere. 

Jisung looks adorable, expression hazy with remnants of sleep, dressed in an unconventional mix of his own clothing and some spare garments that the royal family has in the closets of the guest house and mansion. Minho mindlessly talks to him about his friends and family until they arrive at the breakfast room and he can watch Jisung light up from eating an elaborate meal. 

“It's so delicious. Again. Sorry Minho hyung—Your food is great, too,” Jisung says with a chuckle, his mouth full of food. “Thank you for waking me up and eating breakfast with me, by the way. I… It's different here. I chickened out on washing myself in the bath, because… the bathroom was intimidating. And the bed was really soft but it was so big. Too big. It was lonely—Uhm, but, uhm...” 

Jisung trails off, letting the words hang in the air for a while, the mention of feeling lonely affecting Minho more than they should. He quickly composes himself and responds, “If the guest house bathrooms already intimidate you, you should see our room. Everything fits at least three people.” 

Jisung’s eyes grow wide, and he blushes, while Chan alternates his gaze between him and Minho. The older man mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like ‘three people, huh?’ under his breath and Minho just hopes that Jisung will finally catch on to the fact that they want him.

“Really? You—I’d love to see your room. At least I’ll know where to find you, then, right?” Jisung says with a light chuckle. Minho smiles. It’s something.

Walking around the premises is calming. The weather is nice, the land around the mansion and the island are beautiful, but Minho is mostly enjoying the way Jisung’s eyes are wide as saucers, a gorgeous child-like wonder painted all over his face, even if Minho would argue that the nature of Jeju island isn’t that different from Doshima island. 

They show him their room as well and Jisung tells them that he’d probably get lost between the covers on the bed, and that he’d drown in the bathtub if he isn’t careful. He makes them laugh a lot, as always, which is a welcome distraction before they inevitably get ripped away from his side again to help with the last bits of wedding preparations. 

Jisung looks just as upset as Minho feels when they leave him to explore on his own, but his words are cheerful when he wishes them good luck, adding a soft but hopeful wish of seeing them again tonight. 

Minho wants to invite Jisung to sleep with them in their room. He wants to take Jisung to the beach and kiss him while they watch Chan swim. He wants to dress up in his wedding gift and play games like they did on Doshima. He wants to dance with Jisung again to see if he remembers what they taught him, wants to lift him and twirl him around, and wants to see Chan and Jisung’s bright smiles again when Chan lifts him in the air.

He knows Chan feels the same about this, he can feel it in the way Chan is a bit distracted while they kiss at night. They’re both tired—Minho can’t quite imagine how he put up with all of these formalities before the storm happened—but at least they have each other, and they’ve learned how to flow together, side by side, but it still feels like something is missing. Like some one is missing. 

It gets more and more obvious as the days go by and the day of the wedding gets closer and closer, and they don’t even have time to see Jisung for longer than a couple of minutes outside of meal time. Sometimes they see him play outside with Changbin and Hyunjin—and later, Felix, Seungmin and Jeongin join them as well—but at night Minho can’t help but notice that he looks just as tired as he and Chan feel.

Neither Minho nor Chan seem to be able to gather the courage to invite him into their room. The thought makes Minho’s stomach swirl, filling with butterflies, but he can’t get the words out of mouth, and he doesn’t have the energy to think about the consequences when there’s so much more to think about.

“Chan-ah,” Minho whispers against Chan’s lips. His eyes flutter open and he lets out a soft sigh before leaning in to kiss his fiancé again. Chan hums into the kiss, but he gently cups his face to put some distance between them. 

“What is it, love?” he asks, eyes kind as they regard him. 

“I just… I…” Minho can’t get himself to say it, even if the urgency to be with Jisung feels like it burns him. It’s so much that he feels like it’ll be too big for the room to bear. He knows that Chan feels the same, but if Minho says it now and they still don’t figure out how to keep Jisung in their life, it’ll hurt even more.

“You don’t want to marry me if you aren’t sure about how Jisung feels?” Chan blurts, his eyes slightly wide and a pink blush on his cheeks that isn’t due to Minho’s kisses. 

“Yeah. Lord—I just—I miss him already. Is that crazy? Is that—Should I not be feeling like this? Is it too greedy to not want to marry a man I love if I’m not sure that we’ll be able to love Jisung?” Minho sighs and leans his head onto Chan’s shoulder, absentmindedly running his hand along Chan’s arm. Chan is silent for a moment, simply breathing in and out, his breath hitching a little. 

“It’s—It’s not. If it is, we’d both be greedy. I—I love you, Minho-yah. I really do. I’ve had feelings for you for a while, but I don’t know if I’d be able to love you if it wasn’t for Jisungie. I’d feel so guilty for feeling something for you while you were forced into a marriage with me,” Chan begins softly.

“Chan-ah, don’t—” Minho straightens himself to protest—He’d learn to live with the marriage, they’d be great friends and he'd probably fall in love with him anyway, even if it wasn’t for Jisung. He wants to tell Chan that he shouldn’t ever feel guilty for feeling something, but Chan shakes his head and cuts him off.

“No, let me finish. I—I’m not done. I know you wouldn’t want me to feel guilty, but… You know how hectic our life was sometimes, how hectic it is now that we’re back. Jisungie… Jisungie allowed me to relax, to work through my feelings without feeling guilty. He allowed us both a breather, allowed us both a chance to fall in love with each other—that was what he wanted, too, wasn’t it?” Chan chuckles and Minho smiles, humming at the way Chan perfectly describes how he feels.

“He… He wanted us to fall in love, he wanted us to have a happy marriage, and he allowed us both to grow so that we could, but now… In return, we fell for him as well. I couldn’t accept it, at first, you have always been better at taking things on as they come, instead of fighting your feelings, even if you don’t necessarily show them in the most conventional way—even if you do fight what people tell you to do,” Chan continues. “But now, looking back, it feels right to have fallen for him. How could we not, when he has shown us the beauty of living with what you have, has shown us how to love and feel freely, even if he’s still scared to accept that love in return sometimes.”

“I—I kind of forgot where I was going with this, but I want you to know that I agree. Being with you fulfills me in a way that I’m sure I could live with and be genuinely happy with forever, but the idea of leaving Jisung without making sure that he knows how we feel is, to be quite frank, devastating,” he finishes with a sigh. Minho is a bit taken aback, but he’s also touched by how well Chan managed to word this.

He lets the words sink in, and he wholeheartedly sympathizes with them, but he doesn’t know what to add, so he turns to his fiancé again and cups his face, pressing their foreheads together. “We—We’ll find a way, okay? To tell him. To love him. I—I want to believe that,” he whispers.

“We will. I know we will,” Chan assures him, bringing his hands to Minho’s back and pulling him a bit closer. I love you, Minho thinks, but instead of saying it, he leans in to kiss Chan again.

There’s a bit of a desperate undertone to the way Minho presses his lips against Chan’s, but Chan pulls him flush against him, returning the kiss just as eagerly. They kiss and kiss, the stress from the past couple of days melting away and making space for the sweet and sticky feeling that surfaces when he’s close to Chan.

He deepens the kiss, licks inside of his fiancés mouth, confident that he knows just how to get them both to relax. Chan gasps and hums into Minho’s mouth, the space between them heating up by the second. 

Minho’s stomach contracts in arousal when Chan pushes their hips together. Maybe they shouldn’t be doing this, maybe they should be saving it for their wedding night, but Minho knows that this will be a good way to relieve stress, and that they will feel better tomorrow.

So he lets their bodies move in tandem, getting rid of their nightly garments to account for the heat building up between them. 

Minho thinks he could get used to this—he knows that a marriage with Chan would be enough, would be more than enough to give him a happy life, but as long as he knows that there’s a very real possibility of Jisung returning his and Chan’s feelings, he won’t be satisfied. 

And neither would Chan.

It’s the day before the wedding. Minho is nervous and distracted. He, Chan, and the important guests (family, close friends, and of course Jisung) are getting their outfits fitted. Chan just got his hanbok fitted and adjusted, and now it’s Minho’s turn. 

He wishes he could see Chan in his full look, or that he could at least get a glimpse of how Jisung looks, but unfortunately Jisung is in a different room, and Chan has to approve of the floral arrangements outside. He also wishes that they could wear Jisung’s gift, but it’s not fancy enough for their family, despite the clothes being beautifully crafted.

Minho keeps restlessly looking around, hoping that either of them will come and distract him from the thoughts of the wedding tomorrow, but he’s left to his own devices while he gets his hanbok adjusted by one of the younger staff members.

“Minho oppa? Please stay still a little more, okay? I don’t want to pinch you with the pins,” Yuna scolds him, pulling him out of his head as she looks up at him from next to the little dressing platform he’s standing. 

“Sorry,” Minho apologizes with a sigh, and he stops fruitlessly looking around between the windows and the door. 

“You’re so restless today. Has being stranded on an island changed you?” Yuna jokes as she crouches to readjust the hem of the hanbok. Minho chuckles and rolls his eyes, resisting the urge to kick at her to tease her, but she’ll probably prick him with the needle—accidentally or on purpose.

“No, it’s just… I mean, yes, being there changed me. Changed me for the better. But a wedding is a wedding, you know?” he answers, making sure to stay still. Yuna hums and looks up at him before standing behind him.

“A wedding is a big deal, especially in a family like yours. I get it, but that doesn’t mean you have to make my job any harder. Stay still and don’t even think about bothering me if you want to get out of here soon,” she tells him with a laugh. Minho feels a prick against his back and he flinches.

“Ow! Don’t do that on purpose! I’m staying still, you fiend,” he complains. Yuna cackles and pats his shoulder in a silent apology. 

“Sorry, oppa. Take your garments off for a moment, alright? I need to adjust the back. You haven’t gotten much skinnier, that’s good,” she says, elbowing him in the back, and Minho has to hold back a little smile, glad to have her distract him now that everyone is busy. 

He partly undresses so that Yuna can fix the back of the hanbok. He’s not wearing an undershirt so he feels a bit naked, but Yuna has seen worse. She makes a noise from behind him and Minho looks over his shoulder with a confused frown. “What?” 

“I didn’t know you and Chan oppa got matching ink,” she says with a soft coo. “That’s really sweet. It’s quite pretty, too.”

“What—? What do you mean?” Minho falters and turns around to face her, but then he remembers the symbol on his back. Yuna pauses and looks up at him from where she’s adjusting the hanbok. 

“What do you mean ‘what do you mean’? You have this sort of abstract dragon on your back, and Chan oppa has one on his shoulder. It doesn’t look exactly the same but it’s quite obviously matching… Right?” Yuna explains, vaguely waving her finger around as if she’s drawing a dragon in the air.
Minho freezes. The air feels like it’s being sucked out of his lungs, his legs shaking. A dragon? On his back? On Chan’s shoulder?

A dragon? 

He blinks. There was a dragon on Jisung’s inner arm. A dragon in ink. He saw it when Jisung got burned by the hot water that day and they treated his wounds. He couldn’t stop staring at it, wondering what it meant, wondering how it was connected to his and Chan’s symbols. Now he knows.

Or does he? They can’t possibly have matching symbols, right? Why would Jisung refuse to get in between them when he knows that the reading suggested a connection between the three of them? 

Something is building up inside Minho, something hopeful, something fierce. It feels too big for him to carry right now, and he’s itching to get out of here and confront Jisung about this. He needs to get dressed, take Chan with him and—

“Minho oppa? Hello? You look like I just told you that you’re dying. What’s going on?” Yuna once again interrupts his thought process, snapping her fingers in front of his face. Minho flinches and blinks.

“Right—Sorry, but I… I need to do something, preferably right now, so are you almost done?” he asks. Yuna frowns and pulls a face.

“You’ve got some audacity, Minho oppa,” she complains with a huff, continuing her work on the hanbok. “And I have no idea what has got you in a hurry all of a sudden, but I’m almost done, alright? Put this on again.”

Minho grins and redresses himself, vibrating in place as Yuna inspects the fit of the hanbok. She dismisses him with a sigh and tells him that she thinks she’s done now. Minho ruffles her hair and ignores her glare before bidding her goodbye and running out of the room, still dressed in the hanbok.

On his way to find Chan, he remembers that he probably shouldn’t go outside in his hanbok, or else Yuna will have his head, so he promptly turns back, but he bumps into his fiancé as he does. They both flinch and Chan opens his mouth to speak, but Minho beats him to it.

“Agh—Oh, Chan-ah, great, just who I was looking for! We—We need to go to Jisungie. Right now,” Minho tells him, not giving Chan any time to speak. The latter frowns, but he lets Minho take his hand as he’s dragged back to the wardrobe rooms to find Jisung. 

“What’s going on, Minho-yah? Is everything alright? Are you and he okay?” Chan stammers as they storm into the room where Jisung is supposed to be. Minho wants to respond, but he freezes as soon as he and Chan enter the area, a startled Jisung turning around to face them.

He’s wearing a light-colored hanbok and he looks beautiful. The bright fabric contrasts his tan skin in a gorgeous way, his lithe body almost drowning in the dress, but it has been well fitted to his waist. He seems to have been inspecting himself in the full-length mirror after the staff helping him left, and his cheeks grow pink as he sees the two fiancés.

It feels like the world around him suddenly disappears and there’s only Jisung staring at him and Chan with wide eyes, Chan’s fingers intertwined with Minho’s. Nothing other than the three of them existing in the moment. “Hyungs? …Hi?” 

“You—You— Lord, Jisung-ah I’m trying to be upset with you right now!” Minho exclaims, his cheeks feeling hot, but he can’t tell if he’s flustered or frustrated. Jisung’s eyes widen and Chan’s hand comes up to Minho’s shoulder.

“What? Minho, what are you talking about—? Jisung-ah, I have no idea what he’s talking about. I’m not upset with you,” the older man assures Jisung, but Jisung only blinks, confusion written all over his face. Minho sighs and grits his teeth.

“You might not be upset now, but wait until I show you why I am upset,” he tells the two boys. First he takes a deep breath and approaches Jisung. “I’m not mad, don’t worry, just—I don’t know. I’m—You look stunning, by the way. Really stunning.”

Jisung gapes at him, his cheeks growing redder by the second. “Uhm—Thank you, hyung-ah. Y-You too. But, uhm, what’s going on? What did I do?”

“I’ll explain. Chan-ah, I’m sure you’ve seen Jisungie’s symbol when you were helping him with his burns, right?” Minho begins, and he reaches out to take the sleeve of Jisung’s hanbok between his fingers, sharing a brief look with Jisung to ask permission to lift it, but he is only met with Jisung’s shocked and apprehensive expression—he probably already anticipates what Minho is going to say.

“Yeah, I have… It—It resembles a dragon,” Chan responds as Minho lifts Jisung’s sleeve to prove his words, a curious frown decorating the former’s face. Jisung is avoiding Minho’s gaze, and Minho hums as he turns away and walks over to Chan.

“Have you ever seen your symbol, Chan-ah?” he asks with the rise of an eyebrow. Chan pauses and shakes his head. Minho nods at him. “Please lift your sleeve and show us.”

“Are you—” Chan begins, but Minho cuts him off.

“I’m sure. Please show us what Jisungie drew on your shoulder,” he says firmly.

Chan does as he says and rolls up the sleeve of his shirt. Jisung still isn’t really looking, but what matters is that Chan sees what’s on his shoulder. His eyes widen and he swallows. “I—It’s a—It looks like a dragon, too,” he stammers, his gaze glued to his own arm.

“And do you know what Yuna just told me when I took off my clothes so that she could fix the back of my hanbok? She told me, and I quote, ‘I didn’t know you and Chan oppa got matching ink’. She said, ‘It doesn’t look exactly the same but it’s quite obviously matching’. Dragons. Obviously matching. All three of us,” Minho points out, his voice wavering in frustration, but also in excitement. Chan’s eyes are wide as he listens, his cheeks red. 

Minho is sure that he feels the same way as he does. They’ve been trying to convey their feelings to Jisung, to convey that they want him in the same way they want each other, and Jisung has known about there being a possible connection between the three of them for weeks.

“You—You didn’t want to know. You didn’t want to know the result of the reading. I don’t even know if it’s reliable,” Jisung stammers, stepping forward but still keeping his distance from the two. His eyes are pointed at his pigeon-toed feet, and Minho’s heart clenches.

“I know. I know that, and that’s not what I’m upset about! What I am upset about is that you were so eager to remove yourself from the equation when telling us that you didn’t want to come between us! Even when you knew about this—Do you not believe in the symbols? They’re dragons. ” Minho whips himself to face Jisung and points a stern finger at him. 

“Minho-yah…” Chan warns him under his breath, but Minho ignores him. He doesn’t want to hear it, now is the time to fight for what they want, because he’s quite sure that Jisung wants this too.

“Let him speak, Chan-ah,” Minho responds before raising his eyebrows at Jisung. Jisung takes a deep breath and flicks his eyes between the two fiancés.

“You—I don’t know. You told me that I shouldn’t act differently because of this. I—I don’t even know how to interpret this reading. I’ve never seen this before,” he explains.

“Isn’t it obvious? We all have the same symbol, so our souls might be connected, right?” Minho argues and Jisung hesitantly nods. “So why would you doubt yourself? Why would you not have faith in us?” 

Jisung’s eyes widen and a guilty expression overtakes his face. Minho bites the inside of his cheek and tries not to waver under Jisung’s gaze. Jisung doesn’t say anything—He opens and closes his mouth a couple of times but he doesn’t speak.

“Minho-yah, he might not want to…” Chan begins but Minho shakes his head. He doesn’t want to hear it. He could tell it from his eyes that Jisung wanted to kiss him that day on the beach, just like Jisung could tell from his and Chan’s eyes that they felt something. And when they were dancing on the ship, Jisung never pushed him or Chan away when they made a move.

“I don’t believe that. I—I don’t believe it. If there’s an opportunity for the three of us to be together, Jisungie would want that too. That’s right, isn’t it, Jisung-ah?” Minho retorts. Jisung’s lower lip wobbles and he bites it as he inhales deeply.

“I—I… Yes. Yes I’d want that, but… But there’s no way, right? How can I be with you when you’re bound to marry and leave me? I-I can’t leave my home, not if I can’t go back,” he admits, his voice wobbling, but it’s lined with sincerity. 

“What is possible isn’t important. What matters is what you want. From there, we can figure out how we’ll make it happen,” Minho points out a bit desperately, and he tugs Chan to come stand next to him, across from Jisung. Chan hums in agreement and he reaches out to take Jisung’s hand into his own. 

Jisung looks at Chan with insecure eyes, so Minho takes his free hand and squeezes it. Jisung swallows thickly. “I… I would be lying if I’d say that I haven’t fallen for you in the time we’ve spent together, but… I was sure you wouldn’t want to hear about my feelings. Channie hyung wouldn’t — I’m not sure if he feels the same, or if Minho hyung would still want to kiss me, you know?”

“You matter to us, Jisung-ah,” Chan assures him. “You and your feelings are important to us. Even if I wouldn’t return your feelings, they matter. We’d find something. Whatever it is. But—I… Minho and I have been trying to convey to you that we have feelings for you, too. We want to be together, all three of us.”

Jisung is frozen in place, his eyes wide as saucers as he listens to Chan’s words. His eyes grow watery and Minho’s heart is pounding so fast that he thinks he might start losing his composure soon as well.

“And I still want to kiss you quite badly,” he blurts, simply to try and lighten the mood. Jisung and Chan simultaneously burst into laughter, for which Minho is glad. His shoulders sag in relief and he giggles with them.

“Okay—Okay, oh lord. That’s—I mean— I think I should have put more faith in you and the reading,” Jisung says between light chuckles. He brings his and Chan’s linked hands to his face and uses the sleeve of his hanbok to wipe away the wetness from his eyes. “But—You’re not going to cancel the wedding for me, are you? I… I want you two to have your happy wedding.”

Minho shares a look with Chan. They hadn’t really talked about what they’d do yet. Minho isn’t sure what they should do. He still wants to marry Chan, even if he’d prefer it if it happened later, but it also feels wrong to exclude Jisung. 

He doubts if their family would approve of a triple wedding, however, especially so soon before he and Chan are supposed to marry. 

“We could talk about it. The three of us,” Chan suggests, a hopeful glimmer in his eyes. “Right now. Now that we have time before the wedding tomorrow. We can—We can just talk it out, figure out what we want and how we can do it. We can—We can ask our friends for help. Seungminnie probably knows what we can do.” 

Minho nods and squeezes Jisung’s hand. They all share a look of confirmation with each other before going to look for their friends to spill everything and ask them for advice. 

Jeongin and Felix are quite excited to hear about the three of them wanting to be together, and they express their enthusiastic support. 

Seungmin is a big help, too, as he’s working with many branches of the royal family and has a lot of insider knowledge. He suggests that the three of them could live together on Doshima, establishing a better trading relationship between them and the Republic. 

Jisung immediately lights up and leaves to get Changbin and Hyunjin to join the conversation so that they can come up with a plan and inform the relevant people about it. 

It takes them the whole day to do so, but Minho feels like they actually make progress—his and Chan’s parents are actually quite open to their suggestions and plans, especially when Seungmin, Changbin, and Hyunjin are there to make it all more concrete. 

It’s a big relief, but the negotiations and planning are tiring, and Minho wishes he and Chan would have more time to enjoy the fact that they and Jisung all want to be together more. The wedding is still on for tomorrow and there doesn’t seem any hope for a triple wedding—unfortunately their family is still hesitant to accept Jisung as part of their own so quickly, even when they are genuinely grateful for him. 

At the end of the day, Minho can’t do more than silently grab Jisung’s hand and drag him to his and Chan’s room. Everything fits three in there, and it’s only fair for Jisung to let him stay with them after today. They have to catch up on some missed time to reassure each other of their feelings.

Jisung spreads himself out on the bed like a starfish and Chan crawls next to him and already starts off a cuddling session by attaching himself to Jisung’s side. Jisung hums and smiles, his cheeks pink. “Minho hyung, come join us, the bed is way too big,” he softly requests. 

Minho’s heart flutters and he gladly crawls next to them and drapes himself over Jisung’s other side. He lets out a deep sigh and relaxes against Jisung’s body. It’s been a day.

“Are you looking forward to tomorrow, hyungs?” Jisung softly inquires, making himself smaller in between Chan and Minho’s figures, tugging at their arms to wrap them around him. Minho and Chan hum in response, and their hands meet on Jisung’s chest. 

“Yeah. I wish we could somehow let you join the ceremony more,” Chan admits softly. Minho agrees with that sentiment, and he unconsciously plays with the ring around Chan’s finger. Jisung lets his head fall to the side to face Chan.

“Please enjoy tomorrow, alright? Even if I can’t be a part of the wedding, I want you two to have a good time, and…” Jisung trails off, looking up to the ceiling again, his cheeks red. He makes himself even smaller between the two, but he doesn’t continue. “I… Nevermind.”

Minho shakes his head, his cheek pressing against Jisung’s chest. “And what? If there’s anything you want, tell us, ‘Sung-ah,” he tells him, gently running his thumb along Chan’s hand and hoping that it somehow soothes Jisung as well. Jisung stays quiet and Minho suddenly hears the sound of rustling before he hears the soft sound of a kiss—probably Chan pressing one on Jisung’s cheek.

“We still have a lot to talk about, but don’t hold back, alright?” Chan assures him, his gentle tone making Minho feel more at ease as well. “Just as Minho told you, what matters is what you want. Then, if we know that, we can see how we can make it happen or not. It’s a piece of advice I should follow more often, too.”

Minho is suddenly overwhelmed by the comfort of having Chan and Jisung by his side. As long as he’s in the presence of Chan’s gentle being and Jisung’s kind and bright personality, he knows that he’ll be just fine. He doesn’t always have to fight for everything, but he knows that he wants to fight for them, and wants to fight to keep them by his side forever.

The feeling makes him crane his neck to give Jisung a kiss on his plump, round cheek. Jisung’s breath hitches and he hugs the two closer to him. “I… I just wanted to say that maybe we could have a second ceremony on the island, when we’re ready. I—I can paint our faces again and we could invite your family, too,” Jisung rambles. “M-Maybe you could wear what I made. If you want.” 

Minho’s heart jumps at the suggestion, and he leans on his elbow to give Jisung a surprised look. Jisung shyly chuckles and flicks his eyes between Minho, Chan, and the ceiling. Chan is saying something—probably telling Jisung that he loves the idea and that he’d love to have another ceremony, but Minho can only look at Jisung’s face, his pink cheeks, spit-slicked lips from having bitten them in a nervous habit, round eyes and genuinely relieved smile.

“Jisung-ah,” Minho blurts. He hopes that Chan wasn’t still speaking. Jisung hums and looks up at Minho with big eyes. If Minho doesn’t kiss Jisung right now to get all of these fluttery feelings out of his system, he won’t know what to do with himself.

“May I kiss you?” he requests softly, bringing up his hand to brush some strands of hair from his forehead. He shares a quick look with Chan, who is merely looking at him with an encouraging grin on his face. 

Minho takes a deep breath and looks at Jisung again, his ears hot and his heart pounding in his throat. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while, and especially today—”

Jisung doesn’t let him finish and instead surges upward to press a brief and chaste kiss onto Minho’s lips, startling him a bit. He doesn’t get to kiss him back properly before Jisung already moves back, but Minho sits up and leans over him. He dips down and captures Jisung’s lips into a more proper, but still quite chaste, kiss. 

His lips are impossibly soft, thinner than Chan’s ones but they fit just as well against Minho’s ones. He takes his time to enjoy the sensation of Jisung’s warm body so near him, finally able to kiss Jisung and convey his feelings in a way that is easier than trying to tell him in words.

When Jisung eventually parts for breath, Minho can’t help but keep his eyes closed and linger, pressing light kisses on Jisung’s hot cheek and along his jaw. “Minho hyung… You have no idea for how long I’ve been wanting to do that, either, but…” Jisung whispers, caressing the back of Minho’s head as he leans away a bit, a shy expression on his face. 

Minho moves back and makes a confused sound in the back of his throat. “Sorry. Too much?” he asks, but Jisung shakes his head.

“It’s just…” he trails off and turns his head to look at Chan, a wobbly and abashed smile growing on his lips as cocks his head towards the older. “Channie hyung is watching.”

Minho sits up and laughs lightheartedly, and he starts full-on cackling when Chan’s eyes go wide as saucers and he frantically apologizes. “I didn’t mean to pry or stare! I—I’m simply happy—happy to see you two like this. It… It’s adorable.”

“Do you hear that? He was enjoying it, the dirty man,” Minho jokes and Jisung lets out a loud laugh, his body shaking as he hides his face behind the back of his hand, giggling at Chan. Chan groans and hits Minho’s arm.

“You are so shameless sometimes! I bet you’d enjoy watching me and Jisung as well,” he complains, and Minho’s blush spreads to his cheeks, but he grins and nods. 

“I sure would. Go ahead,” he tells them. Jisung is still giggling but he rolls onto his side as Chan rolls his eyes. Jisung holds up his hand to hide their faces and Minho laughs.

“That’s cheating,” he adds, but he can’t help but smile anyway. He wishes he could watch but he can only listen to the two snickering, filling in the picture when they go quiet and Chan rests a hand on Jisung’s hip.

Jisung moves his hand to rest on the side of Chan’s neck, allowing Minho to take in the pretty sight of their lips connected. His heart speeds up as if he’s the one kissing them—either of them. He’s glad that Jisung has loosened up a bit compared to when he was kissing Minho, pressing soft but confident kisses onto Chan’s lips, his thumb running along the column of his neck.

Chan holds him close, does it in a similar way he holds Minho close when they kiss or when they do more than kiss. Minho’s mind strays towards more dangerous territory, so he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, willing his flush to fade a bit, but judging by the soft snickering coming from below him, they’ve already noticed. 

“Not a word,” Minho warns them, still squeezing his eyes shut. “You guys simply looked—beautiful,” he softly adds. 

More giggling sounds before Minho feels two sets of lips press a kiss against his cheeks and his eyes flutter open to see Chan and Jisung’s loving expressions directed right at him—Lord. They are beautiful. 

Minho is the luckiest man in the world.

ˏ 𓏧 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓋒 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓏧 ˎ

It’s the day of the wedding, and Chan doesn’t think he could have wished for a better way that this could have gone. The morning is busy and stressful for no particular reason, but once everything is set up, everyone is dressed and ready, Chan allows himself to reminisce and enjoy.

When he and Minho left for Jeju, he couldn’t have imagined them to be this happy and in love on their wedding day, let alone have gained a companion they’d want to share this all with and love just as much as they love each other. 

Minho looks gorgeous in his hanbok, even as he fumbles a little in his words while telling Chan how much he means to him. It doesn’t matter, Chan can’t stop smiling, his heart feeling like it’s about to burst and beat right out of his chest. 

He enjoys Minho’s red ears and cheeks as he returns the favor, genuinely telling Minho about what he means to him, how much comfort he has brought him in the time that he has known him, always looking out for him even if it was in an unconventional way sometimes. 

That day of the storm, the night of the festival, that day after they went to the beach, their first time being intimate with each other—they’ve all become precious and happy memories, and Chan can’t wait to make countless more with him (and Jisung). 

Minho kisses him fiercely as soon as he’s done speaking, and Chan can’t help but smile into it, almost forgetting all about the crowd around them if it wasn’t for the way their friends loudly cheer. 

He smiles even wider when they get to thank Jisung for everything that he’s done for them the past weeks, how he’s taken care of them and shown them the beautiful culture and people of Doshima. Jisung doesn’t expect the speech they’ve prepared for them, and he’s shy when they call him to come forward and join them so they can show their gratefulness a little more intimately.

“Thank you for being so lovely to us from the day you found us, Jisung-ah. The fact that this is a happy and beautiful day is largely due to your hospitality, positivity, and kindness,” Chan tells him as he and Minho both hold one of Jisung’s hands. Jisung’s lower lip wobbles and his eyes are glassy as he listens to Chan’s words, and it makes Chan tear up as well.

He takes a deep breath and tries to swallow away the growing lump in his throat before he continues, “You’re a beautiful man, genuinely. Thank you for being there for us. Thank you for always taking care of us. Thank you for allowing us to love each other. Thank you for everything.” 

Jisung whimpers and lets out a sob and Chan bites the inside of his cheek to try and keep it together, but he can’t stop a tear from escaping his eyes. Minho lets out a shaky breath as well. “Stop crying, both of you,” he says with a watery chuckle, squeezing their hands between his fingers. “Seriously. I love you both, but this is embarrassing.”

Jisung only starts crying harder as he pulls Minho and Chan into a tight hug. “It’s—Th-These are happy tears,” he assures them and Chan nods in agreement. He’s nothing but happy right now.

“I love you, too,” Jisung softly adds, pressing a quick kiss to the side of the husbands’ heads. Chan wishes he could kiss Jisung on the lips, but he guesses that it’ll be too much for today, for the crowd. 

They stay like that for a moment, in each other’s arms, as Chan softly chants that he loves them as well, his heart pounding against his ribs. The moment is broken by Jisung sniffling and pulling away before awkwardly gesturing around. “I’m gonna go now—Wash up. Make sure I don’t embarrass you more,” he says, wiping at his eyes to get rid of the tear marks. 

Chan chuckles and Minho outright laughs at him, shameless enough to sneakily slap his butt as the man steps away from them. Jisung bites back a squeak and Chan bashfully checks to see if anyone saw, but luckily most of the guests have resorted to talking amongst one another instead of paying attention to them. 

The wedding celebrations continue with a big feast, which includes the much anticipated dance between the newlyweds. Chan feels just as light and excited to dance with Minho as he did that day of the festival, even if there are many people watching them. 

Minho kisses him as Chan lifts him up into the air and twirls him around. Minho’s expression is unrestrained, a wide and toothy grin on his face as he dances his heart out with Chan, laughing when their friends and Jisung cheer for them and clap along to the rhythm of the music. 

Chan thinks he will never grow tired of hearing Minho’s laughter, seeing delight in his eyes, holding his hands, or dancing with him. They dance until the musicians start becoming repetitive and Chan’s legs start aching.

Despite the ache in his legs, he wishes that he could dance with Jisung immediately afterwards, but he and Minho spend quite some time accepting congratulations and talking with their family and friends after their ceremonial dance. Jisung seems to be having a good time with his friends as well as Minho and Chan’s friends, so Chan doesn’t mind the little moment of rest.

He can hardly focus on talking to everyone, though, as he’s distracted by Jisung who is thoroughly enjoying the food that’s being served, his cheeks filled with food. He looks absolutely endearing, and Chan spots Minho sneaking glances as well.

As soon as they finish speaking with everyone, they join Jisung and their friends in having some well-needed food. Jisung looks delighted, looks way more at ease than he did when they first arrived on Jeju island. 

Chan lets Minho dance with Jisung first, it’s not like he’s fast enough to beat him in taking Jisung by the hand and dragging him away to dance. Chan watches as he eats some more, chatting with his friends and telling them about the festival and about how they taught Jisung how to dance on the ship on their way here.

“You guys are really lucky to have found him, Chan hyung,” Felix tells him with a bright smile. “He’s a sweet guy and you all look so happy when you’re around each other. All three of you. I’m glad. I like him a lot.” 

“Me too,” Chan admits, smiling when he sees that Minho spins Jisung in circles until the younger stumbles and they laugh when Jisung falls into Minho’s arms. As soon as Jisung recovers, Minho invites him into his arms to lift him and twirl him around.

Chan’s heart is at ease, and he’s relieved to know that his friends like Jisung as well. There’s still busy days to come, with a lot of arranging and figuring out stuff, but none of that is on Chan’s mind as Minho invites him over to come dance with Jisung. 

At first Chan dances with him—of course including a lift in there, because Jisung’s sunny expression and laughter filled with delight is worth it every time—but soon Minho joins them and they simply dance next to each other, switching partners and trying to figure out how to dance while they’re all holding hands.

The night flies by, and Chan wishes that it could never end, but they manage to prolong the ecstatic feeling of being together until deep into the night, even after they retreat to their room with giddy hearts and loosely intertwined fingers. 

The three of them get a bath ready for themselves, but as they wait for the water to warm up, Chan can’t hide the way his heart is longing to touch them already. Even in the slightly dim light of the bathroom, stripped from their fancy silk hanboks, Chan’s husband and his love look stunning. 

He tells them as much as he steps towards them and kisses their cheeks as well as the ink symbols on Jisung’s arm and Minho’s back—a relatively innocent gesture compared to where his mind is going. He can’t help it—The thoughts of kissing along the dragons on their skin and then exploring more are starting to cloud his mind.

Minho and Jisung seem to feel the same, though, because as they enter the hot bathwater and Chan pulls Jisung to sit between his legs, Jisung melts against his chest and Minho crawls towards the two of them with a subtle grin on his face. 

“Minho hyung, Chan hyung, did you have a good time today? Was it the wedding you dreamed of?” Jisung asks the newlyweds with a soft chuckle, squirming a bit as Minho buries his nose into the crook of Jisung’s neck before placing a kiss on his shoulder, his hair tickling Chan’s skin. 

“It was better than that,” Chan answers in a low voice, resting his forehead against the back of Jisung’s head as he tightens his arms that are wrapped around the younger man’s waist, Minho’s fingers loosely caressing Chan’s biceps as he continues to kiss along Jisung’s neck and jaw. “It was better than what I dreamed of. I didn’t think Minho would return my feelings, let alone think that you’d be there.” 

“That’s… That’s good. I’m glad, hyung. And Minho hyung? What—Stop kissing me for a second.” Jisung giggles and cups Minho’s cheeks to make him stop pressing kisses all over Jisung’s face, neck and shoulders. Minho looks up at him with slightly clouded eyes, his skin flushed all the way down his chest because of the hot water. The sight makes Chan’s stomach flutter.

“Sorry,” Minho apologizes with a chuckle, and he backs away a bit. “I simply never dreamt of a wedding in the first place, so it’s not like I had any expectations to meet,” he tells them, flicking his gaze between Jisung and Chan. 

He leans forward past Jisung to briefly kiss Chan’s lips. “Needless to say, this was a good day. A beautiful day. Perhaps the best day of my life so far, but I don’t know if the days of the festival can be exceeded that easily.”

Chan softens and hums in agreement, the bright memories of the festival days—Jisung singing, playing games, dancing, dressing up, painting each other’s faces—once again resurfacing. “Yeah, I agree. The festival was better, even though the dancing today was more fun.” 

“You guys are so sappy,” Jisung says with a long sigh, resting his head on Chan’s shoulder and looking up at him with a coy smile, his cheeks endearingly red. “I like it.”

“Then let us show you how much we like you, too, Jisung-ah. Properly,” Chan says and he cranes his neck to kiss him. 

“Also, drop the honorifics. I did that way before I was as close to Channie as you are to us now,” Minho adds. Chan laughs into the kiss with Jisung, their teeth clacking clumsily as Chan remembers how Minho insisted that dropping honorifics would make them closer as fiancés. 

“Okay, Minho-yah, Chan-ah,” Jisung says, slowly, as if he’s trying how the words feel on his tongue. It sounds endearing although a bit strange, too. Chan thinks he’ll get used to it in no time, though. 

“That’s kind of alluring, if I’m honest,” Minho says with a small smirk. Chan’s heart skips a beat when Minho surges forward to kiss Jisung, and not in a particularly innocent way. He prods his tongue between Jisung’s lips to gain access to his mouth and Chan’s face flushes. 

Jisung lets out something akin to a moan and Chan shivers behind him. He slowly unfurls his arms to take Minho into them as well, holding both of them close as they make out between his legs. 

Chan starts placing pecks on Jisung’s shoulder and Minho’s hands as well, wherever he can reach. Jisung shudders under their touches, and the slightly wet sound of Minho and Jisung’s tongues tangling is starting to get to Chan’s head. 

Jisung gasps and squirms more, heavy pants coming from his lips. “Wait—Hyungs—I mean, uhm, Minho-yah, Chan-ah. I—” 

Chan immediately stops what he’s doing and he sees Minho freezing as well. His stomach drops, and he hopes that they aren’t going too quickly or that they’re making him uncomfortable. 

“Sorry—Oh lord. Too much?” Chan apologizes, but Jisung shakes his head, his wet hair shedding drops in the process. His cheeks are flushed, but Chan is feeling quite hot as well. 

“No, that’s not it. I only—I had planned to say something. I wanted to say something at the wedding, but I… I started bawling, so I couldn’t,” Jisung tells them with an awkward chuckle. “And I still want to say that, before we… Before we do anything more, even if I’m really enjoying all of the attention right now.” 

Minho’s eyes grow fond and Chan relaxes against the edge of the bath. “Tell us,” he encourages Jisung, who bashfully grins. “We’ll gladly hear your words.” 

“Okay. I just… While you were busy with the last preparations for the wedding, I took some time to myself to write down my thoughts, so I hope I remember. Ever since I’ve met you two, I feel like my life has turned into a fairy tale, both with good and bad times, good and bad feelings, but the most important part is that my life changed,” Jisung begins, wordlessly inviting Minho to come sit with them. Minho sits next to Chan, their shoulders attached, and Jisung sits in between them. 

“I kept thinking that you were like the emperor’s son and the musician, but the more I thought about it and the more we talked about it, the more I grew afraid that maybe Channie was more like the dragon, and Minho would be the emperor’s son, and I the musician, but I kept being so focused on making sure that I wouldn’t ruin your fairy tale story that I didn’t know how to handle the idea of the three of us being connected,” he continues. 

“But if I think about it now, I feel so stupid. The dragon never leaves the emperor’s son and the musician’s side. The three of them are inseparably connected. They are soulmates, just like us. The dragon symbol proves it—It symbolizes our bond and shows that our bond is protected, just like the island is. It’s unconventional, a mix of traditional and modern views, a mix of fate and free will. In the end, we are not the people from the stories, like Minho said, but I do believe that their spirits might have played a tiny little part in allowing us to be together, although I wasn’t exactly helping. It all turned out well, and I am infinitely grateful to have you two, even if we wouldn’t be fated.” 

“I… I had a lot more written down, but I’m sure I’ll get to that one day.” Jisung grows quiet and turns around, kneeling in the bath as he gives them a sincere look. The steam coming from the water gives the scene a dreamlike look, adding to the feeling of this whole day being quite unreal. This time it’s Chan who closes the gap first, cupping Jisung’s cheek and kissing him to convey how he feels.

“It was beautiful, thank you,” he whispers against Jisung’s lips. Jisung’s eyes flutter open slowly and he leans forward to kiss Chan some more. Jisung is getting less and less shy while showing them affection, and he isn’t holding himself back as much anymore.

It’s obvious in the way he swipes his tongue across Chan’s lips and deepens the kiss as a soft whine escapes him. Chan can feel Minho’s hands on his arm, a pair of lips occasionally pressing pecks onto his skin, as well as Jisung’s, if the soft sounds of water sloshing and kissy noises are anything to go by.

They spend the rest of the night like that, taking turns kissing each other and holding each other until the water goes cold, especially showing Jisung their love. It doesn’t quite go into wedding night territory, but they’ll have plenty of time to do so later—they might even have a second wedding night, if they go through with having a second ceremony with Jisung. 

Tonight is not the time for that, it’s all still too new, even if it feels comfortable and right to be with Jisung, to hold him and to kiss him until their lips grow sore. 

ˏ 𓏧 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓋒 𓏲 𓏲 𓏲 𓏧 ˎ

The weeks after the wedding are busy, the first week still dedicated to celebrations and enjoying the nature of Jeju island, exploring, dancing, enjoying the food and the nice summer weather, swimming in the ocean, and spending some well deserved time with friends. 

After that, everything surrounding moving Chan and Minho to Doshima has to be arranged. Much to Jisung’s delight, Minho and Chan vote against the idea of building a big mansion on the island, and insist that they want to preserve the culture of the island, and that building a smaller house will not only save resources, but will also help the people of the island accept the changes that are to come. 

Establishing a trading relationship also takes time, but with Changbin and Hyunjin’s help, the planning goes quite well—at least, that is what he hears. He still has no idea about the details of their work, but he’s forever grateful for their help and support. 

Settling into Jisung’s home while their new home is being built takes less time, and it allows Jisung to slowly start preparing the traditional wedding ceremony. He makes sure to notify Chan and Minho’s close friends about it, and he gets Seo Minah and some of his own family to help him as well, trying to keep the preparations a little bit of a secret to his lovers (technically also his fiancés) so that they don’t have to worry about it in between the many meetings with their family.

He sneakily asks Chan and Minho’s staff about their measurements so that he can adjust the outfits that he initially made as a wedding gift for them. 

When the day comes that the busy preparations and settling on Doshima die down a little, Jisung can’t be more excited to share yet another piece of culture with Chan and Minho. He doesn’t think he sleeps one bit the day of the ceremony, and he wakes up at the crack of dawn to get everything ready. 

“Rise and shine, my beautiful fiancés!” Jisung announces happily, laughing when he only gets groans and muffled words in return. Even Minho is still sleepy and slow, who usually doesn’t have any problems getting up early in the morning. “Get up! I made food and I have more surprises for you.” 

“Wh… Jagi-yah… this is your day, too, why are you making breakfast for us?” Minho rubs his eyes and gets up to ruffle Jisung’s hair and give him a peck on the cheek as a greeting. 

“Because I couldn’t sleep,” Jisung answers with a laugh, and he pats Minho’s butt. “It might be my day, too, but I had help with preparing everything for today, so don’t worry.”

He turns towards the bed and dashes to tickle Chan, who has started dozing off again. “Chan-ah, love! Wake up~~” 

The morning flies by, but Jisung is enjoying the little moments of peace with his lovers, and the prospect of spending a full day with them again on the island, just like they used to do, fills him with excitement and butterflies.

“I adjusted your wedding gifts to be a little bit nicer the past few days, so I hope you don’t mind. They’re not as nice as the hanboks Yuna-ssi makes, but they will definitely fit you better than the clothes you borrowed for the festival, and hopefully they’ll also fit better than before,” Jisung says as he hands over Minho and Chan’s neatly folded garments. They’re mostly light colors with embroidery in many different colors, and Jisung is quite proud of what he made and how he managed to make the embroidery pop even more, but seeing Minho and Chan’s eyes grow wide as they take the clothes is even better. 

“I don’t know how you did it, but you’ve managed to make them even more beautiful, Jisung-ah,” Chan says with a bright smile.

“They’ll definitely be more comfortable to dance in than hanboks, that’s for sure,” Minho adds with a grin, and he leans forward to peck Jisung’s cheek. “Thank you so much Jisungie. And tell Yuna thank you from us, too, alright?”

Jisung’s cheeks grow red and he wonders how Minho knows that he asked Yuna for help, but maybe he hasn’t been as sneaky as he thought he was. (Or perhaps he has been underestimating how much of an eye his fiancés were keeping on him the past weeks.)

“Will you paint our faces again, too?” Chan requests with a bashful grin once they are all dressed, and Jisung nods eagerly, already gathering the powders and face paint. 

“This time it will be a slightly more delicate design, and we’ll have to wait for it to dry before we can kiss, so keep that in mind,” he explains as he sits down on his knees in front of Chan, taking a moment to admire his handsome bare face, slightly messy curls, as well as the way his broad shoulders fill his outfit. 

He leans forward to card his fingers through his hair, making it a bit neater before clipping it out of his face. Minho sits next to Jisung, watching how he gets to work and offering him soft words of affirmation while Jisung carefully drags his finger across Chan’s features. 

Minho is next, who looks just as stunning, and Jisung smiles when he spots the man’s red ears, endeared by the way his skin still grows hot when Jisung gets close to him and touches him—He can surely relate to that, too.

Hyunjin arrives just in time to help him with his own face, and at the same time, Changbin and his sister arrive to take Chan and Minho to the little clearing in the woods where their friends and family are waiting. Jisung joins them when he’s all ready, escorted by Hyunjin who keeps squeezing his arm, seeming to be almost more excited and giddy than Jisung is.

When the two of them arrive, Jisung thinks he might be beating Hyunjin in the competition of who is gripping the other’s arm tighter, because he almost tears up and ruins his face paint by bursting out bawling. Minho and Chan are waiting for him, dressed in his wedding gift, holding native island flowers, surrounded by their friends and family, who are all dressed appropriately.

Jisung can’t help but run into their arms immediately and hug them tight, the laughter of his soon-to-be-husbands accompanying him. He’s not supposed to kiss them yet, but he doesn’t care about rules and traditions that much when it means he has to hold back on affection.

Jisung takes two native flowers from Changbin and puts them behind Chan and Minho’s ears before they return the favor. Then, Changbin recites a traditional blessing before offering a ring to Minho and Chan.

Jisung’s eyes widen—A ring isn’t part of the ceremony. He didn’t know that this would happen, and he gapes at his hyungs, who give him equally giddy smiles. “Wh—What is this?” he stammers when Minho grabs his right hand and the two gently slide the ring onto Jisung’s ring finger. 

“It’s a little something we prepared for you. It’s not as pretty as the clothes you made for us, but we hope that the meaningfulness of the ring is enough. Now we all have matching bands around our fingers,” Chan explains with a chuckle, referring to the words Jisung spoke to them when he found them on the beach that first day when they met. “You’ll be recognized as our husband even if we go to the peninsula or to Jeju island, now.” 

Jisung’s heart feels like it’s about to burst right out of his chest and he bites his lower lip to prevent it from wobbling too much. “Thank you. I love you,” he whispers, placing an appreciative hand on both of their cheeks and offering them a grateful smile. Minho softly kisses Jisung’s cheek and Chan places a kiss on the back of his hand, right near the ring. 

Changbin gives them a moment to enjoy before he continues the ceremony. He justifies the marriage by reciting more traditional words, before giving his own personal justification.

“I have known Han Jisungie for a long time, and I have to admit that I have rarely seen him as happy as I have seen him the past weeks. I might have started on the wrong foot with his lovers, but I don’t think you can blame me for thinking that the strangers in Jisung’s house were burglars. We live on an island, after all. I hope Bang Chan will be able to forgive me for body slamming him and wanting to hit him in the face that one day,” Changbin says, eliciting laughter from the husbands as well as the audience. “I have gotten to know Bang Chan and Lee Minho better the past weeks, and I know that they are great people, and that they will take great care of my dear friend, Jisung, just like Jisung will take great care of them. You have my blessing, and I hope you will have a happy marriage.”

The ceremony is closed with music, food, and of course dancing. Jisung plays his zither together with Changbin for the first time again after Changbin left on his latest journey with Hyunjin before they met Chan and Minho. He can’t help but keep meeting his husbands’ eyes as they’re listening and dancing along to what he’s playing.

After a song or three, Changbin tells him to go dance with them and Jisung gladly agrees. They improvise and laugh as they bump into each other and their friends, and it feels like the days of the festival again, laughing, playing, and enjoying themselves into the night. 

And at the end of the day, when their legs hurt and their cheeks are red from the food and drinks that are admittedly of less quality than they were on Jeju, they stumble into Jisung’s small home, giddy smiles plastered on their faces.

Jisung’s bed is not wide enough to fit all three of them next to each other, but they don’t pay that any mind as Jisung lets himself fall onto his back, Minho hovering over him with Chan behind him, engulfing them in his hold and making him feel wonderfully small under them. Minho starts off kissing Jisung like they have somewhere to be in the morning, Chan adding onto it with gentle caressing hands and sweet pecks.

Jisung plays with Minho’s hair, caresses his back and holds him as close as he possibly can, his chest filling with butterflies and his nerves on fire. Minho brackets his head with his forearms, Chan’s hands joining wherever Jisung’s ones go, and he kisses him until they’re both breathless, their clothes feeling too hot for comfort.

Jisung takes a break to undress while Minho and Chan take this moment to enjoy each other’s touches and kisses, hands slipping under each other’s garments in the process. They’re a bit more experienced with this than Jisung is, but he doesn’t mind watching them lick between each other’s lips, a moan falling from Chan’s lips as Minho rolls his hips just right. 

Jisung’s veins feel like they’re electrified, and he hesitantly approaches to help them get rid of their clothes. Garments pile on the floor next to Jisung’s narrow and humble bed, and when Minho parts from Chan, pausing to catch his breath, he pulls Jisung into his and Chan’s lap, effectively trapping him between them.

He giggles and gladly accepts the offer to kiss Chan’s addicting lips again, the feeling of being between their broad bodies hightening his every sense. Chan’s hands are on Jisung’s waist as Jisung’s fingers tangle into Chan’s curls and Minho plays with Jisung’s buttocks, eliciting soft whimpers from him.

The feeling of being in between them like this is dizzying in the best way, and the contrast of their warm skin and the cool smooth texture of the rings around their fingers makes Jisung all the more aware of how big his heart feels, and how small and safe he feels in their arms. 

Minho kisses down Jisung’s spine as Chan makes out with him and Jisung runs his fingers all over Chan’s torso, letting out soft gasps every time someone touches a sensitive part of his body. He takes breaks to catch his breath and allows Minho and Chan to kiss some more.

Like that, they slowly take each other apart, bit by bit. Minho and Chan insist that they give him a little more love tonight, because he has some intimacy to catch up on, and it makes Jisung feel impossibly full. Full of love, full of appreciation, full of the warm and hot feeling of arousal, fueled by his husband’s kisses and touches. 

And he tries his best to reciprocate, he really does, but his mind is clouded with a soup of feelings, and he can’t quite concentrate on anything other than Minho and Chan’s soft praises and reassurances, telling him that he can relax and that they’ll take care of him—that he can take care of them another time, because they will have plenty of time to be intimate with each other now that they're married. 

“I love you, Chan-ah, Minho-yah. I love you so much,” he chants under his breath, gasping against Minho’s skin and falling apart under Chan’s touch. As soon as Jisung reaches his high and he’s barely able to kiss Minho back anymore, squirming in sensitivity, Chan comes up to kiss his cheek.
“I love you too, Jisung-ah. More than anything,” he whispers into his hot ear as Minho keeps placing pecks onto his jaw, neck, and shoulder. Jisung comes down from the intense feelings washing over him and watches how Minho and Chan slowly turn their attention towards each other.

“Ah—That’s good. I love you, both of you,” Minho breathes out between beautifully soft moans, meeting Jisung’s eyes with a sincere look. Chan groans under his breath, nodding and letting out something unintelligible. Jisung slowly sits up and embraces the two, placing soft kisses everywhere he can reach. 

He thinks he can get used to this. He can get used to spending a thousand more nights with Chan and Minho in his arms, holding him as well. 

(Those nights would preferably be spent in a bigger bed, with perhaps also a bath somewhere close, because Jisung has to admit that taking a bath is way nicer than washing himself with a bucket, but their new home will contain all that.)

And even if the ink on their skin is fading, the dragon symbols will remain in their souls, engraved there, connecting the three of them even when they may be apart. Jisung does believe that they are soulmates, after all, but even if they weren’t, he’d know that he has found his place in life with Minho and Chan.

End.