Archive of Our Own ^beta

The screeching of the breaks and the hiss of the train brought Minho out of his current daydream.  Outside the snow was falling, not heavily but Minho knew by nighttime there would be a small layer of snow on the ground. Quickly hopping up, the boy grabbed his suitcase from the railings behind him. There would be no way he’d drift from sitting besides his luggage if he could help it. He’d heard too many stories from Jisung about how the boy had either forgotten his bag on the train or someone had nicked it. 

The doors beeped open and Minho lugged his suitcase down the few steps onto the platform. It was only half covered and so the boy made quick steps to a set of seats protected by the snow to sort out his belongings. He had one large suitcase, which was half packed with gifts rather than clothes. His rucksack that carried all his electronics and more precious items was slung over his shoulder. He tugged his coat closer before he dragged his suitcase towards the deserted station exit. 

All the times the black haired boy had come to the station in his lifetime he never saw more than ten people there. That was including the five members of staff who sat at the ticket office, manned the barriers and helped with the signalling of the trains —well train— the small coastal town Minho grew-up in only had two platforms. Usually only with one train an hour. Sometimes two if they were particularly lucky. The journey from Seoul to his hometown always took at most six hours on a good day. Often having to change trains three times with long waits in between.

Dragging his suitcase up the stairs was always the worst part. They had no elevator at the station. Which always made Minho grit his teeth and roll his eyes whenever he came back for the holidays. He distinctly remembers when Jisung had spotted a squirrel in a tree when he was younger and decided to climb after the poor creature. The branches weren’t strong and under Jisung’s weight had snapped and he had broken his ankle. Going on trips outside of their town had become impossible because Jisung would complain about walking down and up the dreaded steps at the train station every time they had ventured near them when he was hobbling on crutches. 

Scanning his ticket through the barriers and heading over to the pick-up area he could already spot his parents' red car parked up. It wasn’t hard to spot considering it was the only car in the small area. He had barely taken a foot towards the car before his mum had jumped out and was rushing towards him in a hurry. 

“My poor baby! You must be freezing.” 

Minho let his mum fiddle around with the hat he was wearing and pulled his jacket closer to him. A small whack on his hands, “Why aren’t you wearing gloves you silly boy! You’ll freeze to death in no time.”  

Minho let out a small whine as he followed his mum towards the car, “I’m twenty-eight. I’m not going to freeze to death because of some snow and nippy weather.” 

“Well, don’t blame me if you wake up with a cold. You should’ve at least worn a scarf.” Minho’s mum tutted and shook her head as she climbed into the driver's seat as Minho dropped his bags into the boot of the car. 

“Dad is still at work?” Minho asked as he hopped into the front of the car. 

Minho’s mum gave a small hum as she started up the car and began the drive back to their house. It wasn’t too far, if Minho didn’t have his suitcase he could’ve walked the twenty minutes. But he doubts his parents would let him wander home regardless of the weather or his baggage. 

“How was the journey? I saw that one of the trains was delayed?” Minho nodded and fiddled with his phone to check if Jisung had replied to his message. With his exams coming up Minho was worried that he would end up skipping out on his meals to study instead.

“It was fine. It meant I didn’t have to wait so long for the next train but I managed to still have time to grab some kimbap and a boba before my train.” Minho clicked his phone to check the signal. 

The journey towards their town was a pain, there was always no service on the last train ride and so Minho had to try and guess what time he’d get in after all the delays. It didn’t help that there was a signalling problem on the last leg and they were stuck in the middle of nowhere for about thirty minutes. 

A couple of bars grew on the top corner of his phone and a couple of seconds later a message from Jisung buzzed through. 

Jisungie - Make sure to give the cats cuddles from me!

“That’s not enough food. I have something delicious cooking at home. You could’ve been eating much better if you came home earlier. I don’t know why you insisted and were adamant about staying in Seoul for longer. I thought Jisung was busy studying for his exams.”

Minho let out a small scoff,” I have more friends than just Sungie. Jeongin was staying in Seoul for a bit longer before he went back to Busan so we ended up hanging out as well.”

“Okay, even so. We’ve missed you. The cats especially. Unless you know there’s someone you like more than the cats? A girlfriend perhaps?”  Minho’s mum glanced over with a small smile on her face, an expected look. 

“You know if I met someone it would be a guy. We’ve been through this.” Minho looked outside his window to watch them pass the ocean that was stretching onwards across the landscape. 

Minho could never get bored of the view. Seeing the beach down below and the start of the line of fish stalls, markets and small businesses. It’s what he loved about his hometown. The fairy lights that were strung across the boardwalk year round, had been changed into Christmas themed lighting for the holidays. They shone brightly in the darkest, an indication that they had finally gotten round to replacing all the bulbs so they didn’t have a random array of dimmer lights and blinding lights. Minho let out a small smile as he spotted a few of their neighbours still hanging up some decorations across the small sheltered area where the market sits daily. The annual ‘switch on’ was in a week and there would be a whole ordeal of stalls selling hotteok, candy floss,random light up toys and a few fairground rides. A bit ridiculous considering the size of the town but it was something Minho had loved to attend every year.

The journey was quick and before he knew it they were pulling into the small driveway just outside Minho’s family's house. It was fairly small, with just enough rooms for the three of them and their three cats. Despite the size, Minho loved it all the same. The small pathway overgrown with flowers now covered in a thin layer of snow. The house was painted cream with blue trimmings on the visible beams and shutters. Minho remembered how he visited in the summer to help paint the outside of the house. It had been sweltering hot and it was difficult getting to all the high places to paint but it was worth it in the end. The porch light was on and Minho spotted Dori laying out on the bench, curled up in a small pile of blankets clearly unfazed by the coldness.

“He’s going to be complaining about being cold when he comes back in.” Minho’s mum chuckled lightly as she patted the cat’s butt lightly before unlocking the front door. Dori let out a small mewl, peaking his eyes open before shutting them and turning away from the pair. 

“Oh, really missed me, I see Dori.” Minho giggled and pulled his bags inside. 

Much like the outside, the inside was quaint and also had a recent paint-job. This one was not done by Minho. His dad had re-done the entire house as well as lifted up floorboards and replaced them, the whole shebang one would say. Immediately greeted by the living room, with the kitchen attached at the end, Minho could already smell the slow cooker. 

“You left on the slow cooker with Soonie around? That’s brave.” Minho took in a deep breath to take in the whiff of cooking before he was quickly shoo-ed off to his room to dump his stuff. He could smell immediately it was beef hot pot. Minho’s mouth started salivating at the thought of the tender beef, soft vegetables and crunchy potato slices that were cooking away. 

“He’s learnt that he won’t get any treats if he gets too close to it.” Minho heard his mum explain as he headed up the small staircase towards his bedroom. 

On the second floor there were only three doors. On the left was Minho's childhood bedroom, to the right was his parents and straight ahead was their bathroom. 

Since Minho had moved out after university he hadn’t really touched his room. But the door was always left open because he knew his cats loved lounging around on his bed and the cat tree that lived in the corner of the room. As he rolled his luggage in, Minho heard a meow and there was suddenly a ginger cat wrapping around his legs. 

“Doongie! Did you miss me?” Minho cooed lightly at the ginger cat which meowed in reply as the boy knelt down and stroked the cat. After a few welcoming pats, Doongie wandered back over to the bed and returned to his spot on Minho’s bed. It was clear his mum hadn’t had a chance to change his duvet because Minho could spot a pile of shedded ginger fur on his navy duvet where Doongie had been laying down. 

“Where’s your other brother huh?” Minho asked Doongie as he wheeled his suitcase in front of his wardrobe and sat down on his bed and Doongie immediately attempted to crawl into his lap purring loudly. 

“Mmm yes, I missed you too.” Minho nodded to Doongie as the cat butted his head into Minho’s hand so he’d carry on stroking him. 

With his free hand, Minho pulled his phone out of his jacket and navigated to his chat with Jisung. He still hadn’t responded to Jisung’s last message about the cats and so Minho decided to open his camera and snap a picture of Doongie on his lap whilst he posed with a pouty lip. 

Jisung’s reply was almost immediate.

Jisungie- I’ll kiss the pout off your face. Doongie! My favourite child. Where are the others?

Minho let out a small chuckle which caused Doongie to trill in question. 

Minho hummed to the cat in response and patted his cat on the head as he sent a quick text in reply to Jisung. 

Minho - Hurry up then. Dori is outside in the cold because he doesn’t use his brain cells. Soonie is probably somewhere near the kitchen as my mum is cooking.

The message was immediately seen and typing… popped up not even a minute later. 

“He’s supposed to be studying. Doongie. You tell Jisung he needs to be studying huh?” Minho leant down and gave the cat a few kisses on his head before a ping notified Minho of a new message. 

Jisungie- Is there any way to teleport there and back without being noticed? I need to give you all the kisses. My bed is all cold without you :( 

Minho texted back and forth with Jisung for a bit longer. Doongie made home on Minho’s chest when he laid down to get comfortable, making biscuits the entire time whilst purring as Minho kept up a constant stroking motion. It wasn’t too long before there was a shout from his mum announcing the food was ready. 

Minho sent one quick message to Jisung to tell him to get back to studying before picking up Doongie and heading downstairs where he heard his dad’s voice. 

“Ahh, Minho you’re back in one piece!” Minho’s dad,Hajoon, patted Minho on the shoulder as he swept past to put Doongie down on the cat tree besides Soonie who chirped in greeting Minho for the first time that day. 

“Just about, it was a bit of a long journey but I'm glad I managed to miss most of the snow.” Minho nodded as he glanced outside, noting how the snow had gotten heavier. He hoped Jisung wouldn’t end up getting stranded in Seoul due to the snow. He still had a couple of weeks but the weather was always so uncertain.

“That’s good at least. How’s work been? Has it been easy this semester?” Hajoon asked as they took their seats at the table just as the hotpot was brought over. 

“It’s good, very weird because it’s a new university that I'm teaching at. But I see Jisung a lot throughout the day because his lectures are in the same building. “ Minho explained as he grabbed a spoon and scooped out a few large spoonfuls of beef, vegetables and crunchy potatoes. 

“I didn’t realise they were in the same building. That’s nice then. Are the other lecturers nice?” Minhee asked as she passed over some swede that she had just cooked up before serving the meal. 

“Yeah, they are. Most of them are a fair bit older than me so it’s been a bit awkward. But the other dance teacher, she’s similar in age. She’s called Momo, she actually studied at the University so she’s been showing me around and making sure I don’t get lost if I’m not with Sungie which has been nice.” 

“Ah at least you aren’t on your own then.” Hajoon nodded in approval as the clattering of cutlery filled the small silence. 

“Have you made any plans with the boys now that you are back?” Minhee questioned. 

Minho’s childhood friends, Chan, Changbin and Seungmin all still lived in the town. None of them opted to move away from the small town after they had graduated. There were a mixture of reasons. Minho knew Chan stayed because his parents needed help with their convenience store that they ran. They usually employed teens who needed jobs for the summer and during weekends and so Chan spent most of his time being the supervisor on shift there. 

Changbin’s family lived right by the seafront, not too far from the fish markets as the Seo family often provided most of the catch that was sold during the week, freshly caught and prepared for customers to buy. 

Minho wasn’t too sure why Seungmin had decided to stay. The boy was a genius and could’ve gotten into Seoul university if he wanted. But unbeknown to Minho, Seungmin had decided to just go to the local University– Well, it wasn’t local. But it was only a couple of hours away and so he often came home on weekends.

“I was messaging Chan hyung a couple of days ago actually. I’m going to catch up with him and Changbin tomorrow. Not sure if Seungmin is going yet. As long as the weather holds up that is.” Minho tried peeking out the window to see how bad the snow had gotten. It seemed to have calmed down a bit more which gave him hope that it would be fine to meet up. 

“Well if it’s too cold to head out, let them know they are welcome here if the weather persists.” Hajoon offered up easily. 

“Sure, I'll let them know and we’ll probably decide tomorrow.” Minho gave a small thanks and continued to eat up his meal. It was the perfect hearty meal after his long journey.

“Oh before we forget, we are having the annual Christmas party here this year. The Bang’s did offer their space but we decided to let them off for the year.” Minhee announced as she pushed Soonie away from the food as he tried to clamber onto the table to steal something. 

“Isn’t our house a bit too small though?” Minho raised an eyebrow. The Bang’s house was probably triple the size of the Lee’s. It made no sense for them to be hosting the Christmas party. 

“Not everyone is able to make it this year, a fair few people are travelling out of the town to visit their families in cities nearby. So, because it was going to be a smaller gathering. We decided to host. It’s on the 10th.” Minhee explained as she poured herself a glass of wine. 

“Well at least Sungie will be back then. I think he was aiming to get a train on the 9th right after his last exam.” Minho nodded. He didn’t want a bunch of people intruding his house but at least he could hide away with Jisung upstairs until someone came looking for him. 

“I’m sure you could’ve survived the party without him anyway Minho. The boys will obviously be there and it would be good for you to catch up with all the neighbours. You see Jisung practically daily whilst you are up in Seoul. “ Hajoon chuckled lightly. 

“Yeah but-” 

“No buts Minho, it will be good for you to actually talk with your neighbours. I’ll be making sure you aren’t hanging around Jisung and the boys the entire time the party's on. How will you find a partner if you are just hanging out with your friends the entire time? I’m sure Jisung will also want to catch up with the neighbours as well.” Hajoon interrupted Minho. 

Biting his lip and holding back a scoff, Minho rolled his eyes. They always hated when he would constantly hang out with his friends . Which is pretty ironic when friends are someone you have mutual affection for and want to hang out with. Didn't help one of his friends was also his boyfriend . Minho also knew Jisung hated the Christmas parties just as much as he did. 

“It will also be my time to catch up with Sungie. It’s only the second now.” Minho pointed out, which he almost immediately regretted as soon as his dad gave a small chuckle. 

“Min, you’ll have a chance to catch up with him. You have the rest of the Christmas holidays, besides all he must be doing is studying and doing exams. There really won’t be a lot to catch up on.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Minho let out a small huff and glanced over to Soonie and Doongie who were cuddling together to keep warm. His heart clenched lightly and wanted to also collapse in Jisung’s bed and cuddle to keep the chill away. He’d have to get an extra hot water bottle out tonight.

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙  time can’t stop me quite like you did  ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

“Give these to Jisu please. I cooked them up just for her.” Minhee thrusted a carrier bag into Minho’s awaiting arms. As she did so she spotted the gloves missing from Minho’s hands. 

“Don’t you dare step out of this house without a pair of gloves on.”

“Okay, okay.” Minho sighed and dropped the bag besides Soonie as he fished out the gloves he had in his coat pocket. He actually had two pairs, mainly because Jisung constantly left his flat without them and always complained about the cold. It had gotten so bad that when Minho would go to meet up with Jisung, sometimes he’d get a text from Jisung’s flatmate Jeongin, saying if Jisung had forgotten a scarf or gloves. Minho had ended up becoming friendly with Jeongin purely through Jisung and his antics. Minho stopped himself feeling for  the extra pair of gloves. He wished Jisung didn’t have all his exams and got to come back sooner.

“Have a good time. Let me know if Chan and the others want to come round to eat dinner, I'll make extras.” Minhee smiled and grabbed her stacks of folders that were resting on the dining table. 

“Will do.” Minho nodded and grabbed the bags of food before making his way out of the house. 

It was definitely chillier than Seoul. The sea breeze always makes it feel extra cold. The walk to the Bang’s shop was fairly short . Only down a series of alley’s which Minho spent a bit too long walking down because it was icy and no one had gotten round to gritting the paths so that everyone could walk safely. 

Emerging from the alley Minho was met with a gust of wind that nearly blew his hat off. Quickly using his free hand to grab the top so it didn't fall off completely he tugged the red hat back on as he easily spotted Chan outside the convenience store. 

He was wrapped up warmly and pushing the freezer outside. 

The Bang’s convenience store was only a small shop. It had all the essentials but whilst it had everything anyone would need, the space wasn’t the best. In the summer they’d have all their fruit and vegetables outside under their cover so that they could have extra freezers filled with ice lollies and ice cream. In the winter it was the opposite. They always had to switch the freezers out for storage for the vegetables and fruit. Which meant every morning Chan wheeled out the freezers to display.

“Need any help Hyung?” Minho frowned as Chan heaved as he pushed the last freezer into its respected spot.

“Nah, all good here. Just a pain like always.” Chan rested his hands on his hips as he checked that all of the freezers were in the correct spots. 

“Ah My mum made this up for Jisu? Not sure what’s in it though?” Minho passed over the bag quickly and Chan gave a quick thanks before running inside to put it away.

“Are we meeting Seungmin and Changbin here?” Minho asked as Chan grabbed his bag off the ground and slung it over his shoulder. 

“Nah, they said to meet at the cafe on the pier.” Chan explained as he adjusted his gloves and fell in stride besides Minho who began walking in the direction of the pier. 

“Makes sense, no point in walking past it and then walking back again in the cold weather.” Minho chuckled softly and he shivered from the strong breeze in the air. 

“How’s the new job been?” Chan questioned as they walked down the main road opting to walk on the road instead of the paths as it was gritted and not nearly as slippery. 

“Yeah, it’s good. I’m not sure if I’ll stay there for too long though. A lot of the other dance instructors and lecturers are a lot older and so I've been struggling to get along with them. Momo, who I told you about the other week, she’s really nice. I’d feel bad leaving her but I'm not sure if I'll stay after Jisung graduates.” Minho shrugged. 

“Makes sense, I mean when you are the youngest in a work setting, it does sometimes feel like you gotta put even more effort into getting along with your co-workers.” Chan agreed. 

The pier wasn’t exactly a pier. It was a stone walkway that led to a lighthouse which doubled as a cafe. The lightkeeper ran the cafe downstairs during the day and then in the evening would station himself upstairs to get the lighthouse up and running. Minho had a part time job at the cafe whilst he was still in school, Jisung also did briefly before he realised he couldn’t deal with annoying customers even if he knew most of them from the town. 

It was a fairly small cafe, with only a few tables inside. There was seating outside but in the winter it was never used and so was stored away upstairs until springtime. As the pair entered, Minho gave a small wave to Doyun the lightkeeper.

“Minho! Back for Christmas?” He grinned and waved happily back as they approached the till. 

“Yep, just for Christmas, I have to be back at work straight after New Years.” Minho hummed as he glanced towards the glass cabinet which held a small variety of home baked pastries baked by Doyun’s husband. 

“I’ll have one of the orange and cinnamon buns please, and an iced americano.” Minho nudged Chan to also choose his own food. 

“I’ll get the bun as well but I'll just get a hot chocolate.” Chan smiled at Doyun. 

“Perfect, I’ll get that all started for you. Siwoo is going to be annoyed he missed you Minho! He was complaining just the other day about how you weren’t around to keep him company like when you used to work here or came and did your school work here.” Doyun chatted away as he began making the drinks. 

“I’ll have to stop by later on then.” Minho agreed.

“You’re not coming to the Christmas party?” Chan voiced up. 

“Ahh no not this year, we’re actually heading to Siwoo’s family's house for Christmas this year and so will probably be too busy packing all our bits up. Luckily Nancy said she’ll at least keep the lighthouse going at night for us.” Doyun explained. 

Minho couldn’t catch everything he said over the noise of the milk being steamed but he managed to get the gist for the most part. 

“That’s a shame,It was at Minho’s this year as well.” Chan sighed as Doyun set up a tray with their drinks and their pastries. 

“Oh really? That is extra annoying because I can’t say hi to the cats. Although I'm pretty sure I saw Mochi chasing Doongie around the streets the other day when I was buying groceries. So at least she still gets company.” 

“Doongie? Wow, he rarely leaves the house, I'm surprised Dori hasn’t been hanging around here with Mochi.” Minho chuckled. 

Dori and Mochi were both grey tabbies and loved playing with each other. It was rare to see one without the other when they were out wandering the streets. 

“Pretty sure it was Doongie, I don’t remember seeing any other ginger cats around here. Unless we have some new strays about.” Doyun shrugged as he plated up the tray with the buns and two drinks. 

“It’s on the house. As long as you come and see me again before you leave for Seoul again.” Doyun chuckled as he pushed the tray in the direction of the pair. 

“Thanks Doyun Hyung.” Minho grinned widely as he picked up the tray and the two made their way over to where Seungmin and Changbin were crowded around a table. 

☃︎⋆꙳•❅*

“How’s life in Seoul?” Seungmin peaked over his drink as the initial greetings were quickly given as Minho and Chan sat opposite their friends. 

“Decent. Very busy and fast-paced compared to here.” Minho answered briefly as he took a knife and began to chop up this orange and cinnamon bun. The cinnamon paste in the middle oozes out slightly. 

“You don’t miss it here then?” Seungmin chuckled as he leant back in his seat, arm resting behind Changbin’s chair. 

Minho gave a small hum, “Honestly i’m surprised you haven’t moved out of here yet. After you finish University, surely you’ll get a good corporate job in Seoul.” Minho raised an eyebrow slightly interested in Seungmin’s long term plans. 

Seungmin glanced towards Changbin and Chan before speaking, “Actually, I'm staying here. The shop next to the Bang’s convenience store has been closed for ages, I spoke to Mr Yamamoto, yah know the old Japanese man who used to run the small newspaper stand there for a while.” 

“Well I managed to buy the shop from him. So once I finish University this year I'm going to renovate it into a bookshop! The local library doesn’t have many up-to -date books, especially manga and manhwas. I thought it would be a good idea to make sure the kids in the town would be able to read things that are actually recently published.” Seungmin beamed clearly excited about his plans. 

“Oh, that’s cool. Jisungie will definitely be a top customer each time he visits.” Minho giggled as he imagined the bookcases in Jisung’s current dorm being overfilled with manga volumes and books.

“It’s on a good spot as well, right by our shop and right by the seafront. It’s not hidden away in an alley like the library. I'm sure it will do well. Especially cause lots of people know Seungmin has brought it. They've already asked me whilst I'm at work wondering when it will be opening up.” Chan explained as he scooped off the whipped cream on his hot chocolate which was slowly melting down the sides of his mug.

“Well, if all things go to plan I’ll be renovating it in the summer after I finish university and hopefully have it open a couple months after. “ Seungmin nodded. 

“I bet Changbin will help out, use all those muscles he’s gotten from fishing to help you build the bookcases and such.” Minho winked at Seungmin who blushed a light red. 

“I mean, if i’m not busy with the markets and fishing then I was going to lend a hand anyway. I personally think you should ditch Seoul for the summer and come and help Seungminnie as well.” Changbin pointed a finger at Minho. 

Minho held up his hands in surrender, “I still have lessons to teach at the dance academy. I have no idea what the summer schedule will be like.” 

“I’m sure I can help out, I can hop between keeping an eye on our store and helping with the renovating cause they are right next to each other.” Chan agreed easily. 

A small ring twinkled between the small silence of the four. Minho felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. As he pulled it out he quickly noticed it was Jisung calling him. He must’ve just finished an exam. 

“Sorry, I gotta take this real quick, it’s Sungie.” Minho didn’t wait for a response from the others and quickly stood up, chair scraping along the floor as he answered the phone and began walking outside. 

“Jisungie? You okay?” Minho spoke into his phone as he headed outside.The strong breeze hit him immediately and he contemplated going back inside to get his coat but quickly decided against it when he heard Jisung’s voice. 

“I did rubbish Hyung. I completely screwed up.” Jisung sniffed lightly and Minho could immediately tell that Jisung clearly had been crying before calling. He walked around the back of the lighthouse, nearer to the coast so he could hear Jisung better.

“What’s wrong baby?” Minho voiced his concern, frowning at the thought of Jisung having to suffer back in Seoul without him. 

“My stu-stupid anxiety got the better of me and I… um… I  screwed up my presentation on my, on my English presentation.” Jisung’s voice quivered slightly. 

“I’m sure you didn’t do that badly, Jagi.” Minho let out a soft sigh as he sat down on the bench beside him. It was cold and slightly covered in snow, but he paid it no mind.

“I freaked out Hyung! I was stumbling over my words, I even forgot how to speak English... and then… and then I started panicking and ran out the… I ran the room. I- I didn’t even finish it.” Jisung sobbed through the phone. 

Minho’s chest tightened at the thought of not being able to give Jisung the biggest hug, wrap him in a blanket and put on a Ghibli film to chase all the thoughts away. 

“Has your lecturer messaged you about it at all? Maybe you can ask to re-do it just in front of the lecturer. Surely she’ll know about your worries about what happened.” Minho suggested.

It was a few seconds before Jisung responded, his cries becoming softer as he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. 

“Sh-she emailed me... um… asking if I was okay. She umm... She wants to talk to me about it... she’s... hyung, she’s gonna fail me... I know it.” Jisung’s cries started up again. 

Minho shut his own eyes taking a deep breath himself so he didn’t end up crying alongside Jisung, “Jiji, that’s your anxiety talking. You’ve just had a hard time so now you’re thinking the worst will happen with the outcome. You have the same lecturer I had right?” Minho didn’t wait for a response before he continued. 

“She is usually pretty sympathetic about mental health stuff. She’ll probably complain more to you about how you didn’t tell her anything about your anxiety before presenting in front of the class, than fail you for it. Trust me.”  Minho explained softly to Jisung who was sniffling down the phone. 

“I guess…” Jisung whispered, his voice cracking slightly. 

“I’m out with Chan, Seungmin and Changbin at the moment. So I should get back to them. But I’ll call you later, we can facetime and watch Howl’s moving castle. I’ll make sure I have the cats with me so you can say hi to them as well okay?”

“Will you be okay baby? If not, I will ditch them in a heartbeat and stay on the phone with you.” Minho asked, still slightly concerned that Jisung won’t break down the minute the call ends. 

“I-I think i’ll be okay. Jeongin will be back soon. I’ll... I’ll hang out with him, get delivery for dinner.” Jisung said through shaky breaths.

“Okay baby. I love you little baby. Call me if you are still upset before this evening.” Minho stood from the bench. He didn’t realise how much he had begun shivering from the cold weather until he moved.

“Love you, big baby.” Jisung let out a small chuckle at the nicknames they had recently begun calling each other. 

The line soon went dead and Minho let out a deep sigh. He wished he could take the next train back to Seoul just to give Jisung the biggest hug. He also wished he could’ve stayed on the phone for longer, the only good thing was Jeongin was still at their flat so Jisung wouldn’t be totally alone. At the thought of the younger boy also being there Minho quickly pulled out his phone. 

Minho- Here’s 20,000 won. Buy Jisung some fried chicken on my behalf.

He got a response immediately 

Gremlin Jeongin- Why? What about me?

Minho let out a small chuckle as he rushed back inside the cafe. The three boys perked up at Minho rushing back inside. 

“Jisung okay? You were on the phone for a long time.” Chan asked, looking slightly worried, he always had a small soft spot for Jisung.

“Yeah, he was upset about a presentation that went bad.” Minho didn’t go into any more details knowing Jisung wouldn’t want anyone else to know about his anxiety attack.

“You never answer my phone calls that quickly.” Changbin huffed as he nursed a new mug of coffee that he definitely didn’t have when Minho left. 

“Yeah, ‘cause you aren’t Jisung.” Seungmin chuckled as Changbin pouted slightly. 

“Why would I answer the phone to you anyway?” Minho raised an eyebrow and lifted the straw of his iced americano to his lips. It was a lot more watered down. Glancing at it, the ice had nearly completely melted. Had he really been on the phone for that long?

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ blurring out my periphery   ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Minho dropped down the last tattered box from the small attic. Their christmas decorations had been stored in the same boxes ever since Minho was a child and each year he was surprised the boxes managed to stay together. Well, there was a lot of duct tape helping.

“That’s all of them?” Minhee crossed her arms in slight confusion, “I swear we had more…” She mumbled lightly as she began pulling off the tape off the top of each box to check what was in all of them. 

“I think we threw a few things away last year because of some water damage. But I don’t remember it being that much.” Minho pulled one of the tapes off the cardboard box revealing the plastic boxes filled with fairy lights. Luckily it was all organised and wouldn’t need de-tangling. Minho remembered one year how they had rushed packing up all their stuff. The following year the lights were all tangled together and it took far too long to get them all separated. 

“I’m sure we will have enough to go around the house, we mainly only need them downstairs and maybe on the staircase bannister.” Minho shrugged and began unpacking the boxes. Doongie quickly became interested in the cardboard box and poked his head inside. 

“Nope, not for you Doongie, sorry.” Minho picked up the ginger cat and placed him away from the box. The cat immediately began to pad back over but quickly stopped when Minho gave him a short glare. 

“If you get in this box I will tape it up and put you in the attic. I’m sure you’d love that, no treats or anything.” Minho tutted lightly and Doongie gave a loud meow in response before wandering over to Minho’s dad who was already fighting Soonie out of the way so he could fluff up the fake tree. 

The past few years they had made the decision to get a fake tree. Not only was the mess horrible to clean, but the cats frequently found themselves covered with needles. One year they nearly knocked the whole tree over and onto the dinner table where they were eating their christmas dinner.  Every year since, Jisung had complained about how their house never smelt like christmas (because of the fake tree) and without fail pretended to be upset with the cats about it. 

Each year Jisung’s family went full out in their decorating. You could see their house for miles due to all the outside lights they set up.  Minho knew Jisung was probably upset he couldn’t be back to decorate with his family. He always loved hanging up the decorations not only in his house but by the seafront as well. He usually helped the aunties and uncles with the higher spots by climbing up the ladders instead of making them climb it.

“Did you want to start hanging up the lights and I'll help your appa with the tree? I feel like two may be better so we can keep the cats away for now.” Minhee picked up the box filled with their Christmas tree decors. It was a mixture of specific lights, tinsel and a variety of baubles in the classic green, gold and red colours.

Minho hummed in agreement and picked up the box with all the lights in and made his way over to the kitchen to start there. They hung the lights across the whole ceiling of the bottom floor. It was open planned and so a lot easier. They were always wrapped around the wooden beams that were the feature of their house. Minho loved when he could lay on the sofa and just look up at the lights whilst it was pitch black outside. Minho and Jisung would spend hours chatting about everything in the middle of night being able to pretend they were star gazing rather than being in the comfort of Minho’s house wrapped up in blankets and with heating. 

Minho smiled to himself at the thought of doing that again this year. They hadn’t done it for a few years.

 Minho glanced at his phone to check the time, it was three in the afternoon already. Jisung’s exam should’ve been finished by now but he still hadn’t had a message from him. The last message was sent by Minho. 

Minho - Good Luck baby! Let me know when you finish, I'll give you a call.

He had been left on read which wasn’t unusual for Jisung, the younger boy wasn’t the best at responding to Minho unless he called him. Which Minho hated, there was nothing worse than a phone call. He always felt like he had to guess how the person on the other line was reacting. He couldn’t just read their body language or look at emoji’s to understand the tone of the message.

Minho’s thumbs hovered above the text bar. He didn’t want to annoy Jisung after he had just finished his exam but he wanted to catch up. Tonight would be the best time to do that considering the boy didn’t have an exam the next day so wouldn’t be cramming at the last minute. 

“Will you stop looking at your phone Min, we need these decorations up.” Minhee sighed as she pointedly looked at Minho with one hand on her hip, the other one flapped just slightly in frustration. 

“Sorry, I just wanted to know how Jisung’s exam went. He was worried about this one the most.” Minho glanced back down at his phone hoping to see a bubble with three dots appearing but it didn’t. 

“You’ll see him in like a week. It’s not that important to message him immediately.” Minhee added as she grabbed Soonie out of the christmas decoration box where the cat had decided to start biting at the rope on some of the baubles. 

“I know but-” Minho began to state his case.

“No, Minho. You are decorating with your family, who you haven’t seen since the summer. The least you could do is stop being attached to your phone twenty-four seven. You are always messaging someone, or calling Jisung.” Minhee gave Minho one last look before turning back to the tree which had been finished fluffing. 

Minho let out a short sigh from his nose. He couldn’t just announce he was actually dating Jisung. He didn’t know if Jisung wanted that, and he would never do that without Jisung by his side in the first place. 

Minho quickly messaged Jisung and tucked his phone into his pocket before reaching down for the fairy lights to plug them in and start wrapping them around the beams.

Minho - Miss you, call me when you get a chance x

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙  my smile is like I won a contest  ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Minho watched fondly as Jisung tried to show off a random new magic trick he had learnt in the midst of his procrastination of studying. Jisung made some random flourishes of hand movements before pulling out the King of hearts.

“Look! You had a king right?” Jisung grinned, the lag on the video call making his body move suddenly closer to the camera, a wide grin plastering Minho’s laptop screen. Letting out a small laugh Minho nodded, “Yup, it was a king.”  

Jisung began dancing around happily and Minho didn’t have the heart to tell him that he actually had selected the five of clubs. Minho felt his heart pull slightly at the want to tackle Jisung into a big hug whilst the boy was dancing and jumping excited about getting his trick right. 

“I miss you baby.” Minho said softly, he wasn’t even sure if Jisung heard it through his speakers. 

“Nooo Jagi, don’t get sad. I’ll be back in a couple days!” Jisung pouted slightly before tilting his laptop to show a half packed suitcase which consisted of a bundle of unfolded clothes. 

“I’ve started packing already.  As soon as my exam is done I'm catching the next train.” Jisung sat down on his bed with a bounce, his hair jostling around with his movements as he shuffled himself back against the wall. 

“Well you’ll be super excited to know that there’s going to be the christmas party the day after you get back. My parents have been chatting and organising it with our neighbours. Apparently they wanted the Bang’s to have a year off, and so they offered up our tiny house.” Minho scoffed. 

His parents had been badgering the boy to invite everyone he sees to the party– which Minho did not do. It was bad enough having their neighbours in close proximity for too long. The Marlot family next door had moved to Korea only a few years earlier and Minho barely knew them. He’d only seen them in passing and even then it was when he visited during his annual leave or during christmas. Not only was their Korean patchy, but they also judged everyone. It was a surprise they moved to such a rural seaside town in the first place. It was a fairly tight knit community, and he was fairly certain that most of the town didn’t rub well with them.

“Noooo.” Jisung whined loudly, hiding a face in his pillow. Minho let out a small laugh knowing that Jisung would absolutely despise the christmas party. 

“I’m changing my train ticket.” Jisung peaked up from the pillow looking back into the laptop webcam. 

Minho was quick to shake his head, “Nope, don’t you dare. I will not be subject to the party on my own. I don’t care if Chan hyung and the others are there. I can’t deal with everyone without you.” 

Jisung let out a wide grin, eyes squinting, “awww.”

Minho tutted and shook his head lightly, a small grin forming on his face, “Nevermind, change your ticket. See if I care.” Minho quickly deadpanned and shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant over it. 

“Can you meet me at the station? I don’t want to have to see my family straight away.” Jisung asked softly as he pulled his pillow into a hug. Minho could see that Jisung was trying to get comfortable on the bed. He wished he could be in the double bed that took up Jisung’s dorm room. He wasn’t technically meant to have a double bed, but the accommodation team had messed up the rooming and they gave Jisung a disabled room instead of a standard room. Jisung had worriedly spoken to them on his move in the day wondering if he had stolen a disabled student's room. But luckily they had already been allocated the correct ones. Minho couldn’t complain when he spent a lot of his nights in Jisung’s room because it was double the size and the bed was extra comfy.

“That was my plan anyways.” Minho let out a small smile when he noticed Jisung’s smile grow tenfold at the response. 

“Good, I just don’t want to have to be all cheery and energetic when I'm probably going to be exhausted from the journey. Especially since my train is meant to get back late in the afternoon. A whole day of travelling is too much.” Jisung explained as he produced a train ticket from thin air, waving it at the camera. 

“We can go to the beach, before you catch up with everyone.” Minho suggested as he watched Jisung shuffle around and tap away at his phone. 

“I forgot to tell you! I saw the cat that always mooches about the library for the first time! I was studying there a couple of days ago and he came and sat on my lap!” Jisung showed his phone up to the webcam, showing off a slightly blurry image of a black and white cat curled up on his lap. 

“You didn’t tell me this earlier?!” Minho gasped as he leant forward as if he could somehow get a better look at the cat on Jisung’s lap. 

“How dare he pick you before me! I always give him cat treats when I walk past to go to the dance rooms.” Minho pouted lightly and crossed his arm in faint annoyance (it wasn’t fake, he was genuinely annoyed but he’d never let Jisung know that.) 

“He could tell I am a cat magnet, he knew I was missing my kitten and comforted me.” Jisung winked at Minho, making the boy blush lightly. 

“I thought we decided against that nickname.” Minho grumbled and saw in the small corner of his screen how bright red his face had gone from the nickname. 

It didn’t help that just as he went a colour of a tomato his mother decided to knock and open the door practically unannounced. Minho quickly shut his laptop and looked wide-eyed at his mum who was carrying a bunch of blankets to store in his cupboard. 

“Why do you look like that?” Minhee raised an eyebrow as she looked at Minho with slight concern, “You’re not sick are you?” 

“W-what?” Minho stumbled over his words as he felt his cheeks still burning from the nickname that Jisung had called him. The call had most likely disconnected because Minho’s phone began buzzing with a call from Jisung. 

“Why are you all red then? I told you to wrap up warm when going outside.” Minhee tutted and shook her head as she dumped the blankets. 

“Oh, no I'm definitely not ill. Don’t worry. I was looking through the class files to see if I could reuse any footage for showing off a dance in the New Year. I found a clip of me tripping over my own feet in front of the class I was teaching. Still makes me react.” Minho lied quickly. He felt his phone buzzing constantly against his thigh as his mum raised an eyebrow. 

“Sure…” 

Minho could tell she didn’t seem too convinced but it was the best he had. As the door clicked shut Minho let out a sigh and pulled his phone out to a large spam of messages from Jisung and a few missed calls. 

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙   Now it's like snow at the beach ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Minho was certain he had jinxed it. Jisung was supposed to be back last night, but the snow had decided to cover the train tracks and the only train home was cancelled because it wasn’t a ‘busy’ train. Minho had to stop himself from sneaking out that evening and driving the 6 hours back to Seoul just to pick Jisung up but he knew that it would be pointless when by the time he gets back he’d be exhausted and in a bunch of trouble (even though he was an adult).

Jisungie - The train will get in at nine-ish. 

Minho had been awake since seven after Jisung had sent him the text. All Minho could think about was that Jisung had clearly stayed at the station waiting for the next train out of Seoul because there was no logical way of him getting back so early without leaving Seoul around midnight or very early morning.

The dancer dressed ready for the festivities to start in the afternoon. He knew once he’s picked up Jisung the pair would be roped into finishing up all the preparations so Minho’s plan was to drive down to the seafront so he could catch up with Jisung first before being thrown into cooking.

“I’m heading out to pick up Jisung!” Minho called out to his parents as he started to slip on his shoes, Dori interested in the laces as he tied them up. 

“His parents couldn’t get him?” Hajoon asked as he sipped on a cup of tea whilst watching the news on the TV. 

Minho gave a nonchalant shrug as he grabbed his hat and a scarf, “I’m not sure. I offered anyway.” 

Hajoon gave a small hum before responding, “Just make sure you aren’t out for too long. We still need help setting up.” 

Minho gave a smile and nodded quickly as he grabbed his parents keys out of their bowl by the door. Minho was originally going to be driving back home but with the weather predictions being so unreliable he had decided to get the train instead. It didn’t help in times like these when he would love to be able to use his own car.

“Tell Ji we say hi.” Hajoon gave a small wave as Minho quickly agreed and headed outside. 

The snow had calmed down a lot since last night. There were only small flurries coming down, nothing to really build on the already couple inches of snow. The dancer rushed to the car and quickly hopped in. It was bitterly cold and Minho was silently dreading going down to the seafront with Jisung, but it was the best place to have a bit of privacy.

Luckily the main roads had all been gritted and cleared again so everyone was still able to get around everywhere, so it wasn’t long before Minho was comfortably driving up towards the train station with the clock flashing eight-fifty. He planned on being there early so that if Jisung did get in early then he wouldn't be stuck hanging around in the cold. 

Minho pulled into the waiting bays and noticed only one other car waiting as well as the bus that picked up passengers from the nine-o’clock train. 

Glancing at his phone he hadn’t had another message from Jisung since so he assumed that the train was still on time– at least it was before he got on the train.

Minho fiddled around with his parents radio whilst he waited, switching between the few channels that were actually turned into a station. One was blasting Christmas music 24/7 and the other was playing more generic pop music. He knew Jisung would want to listen to the christmas music and so he kept it on the christmas channel and let a song called mary did you know? by some group with a weird shape name. Minho wasn’t too sure. 

Minho heard the screeching of the breaking of a train and perked up slightly. It was just past nine. Which meant this should be Jisung’s train. Tapping his hands impatiently on the steering wheel Minho kept a look out of the drivers rear mirror so he could wait for his boyfriend to show himself.

Soon enough there was a marshmallow-like coat and a bobble hat. Underneath the lump of clothing was Jisung, dragging his suitcase beside him. 

Minho quickly jumped out of the car and rushed up to Jisung who quickly ran and closed the gap between them, leaving his suitcase behind as he let Minho wrap him up in the tight hug.

He had missed Jisung’s hugs. They made him feel warm from the tips of his fingers all the way to his toes. The comforting pressure pushed on his chest as they pulled each other as close as possible. 

“I missed you.” Minho mumbled into the top of Jisung’s hat. 

“Not as much as I did, I bet.” Jisung rested his head on Minho’s shoulder before pulling back slightly, his arms still wrapped around Minho’s shoulder. 

“Want to bet?” Minho chuckled as he looked at the brown boba eyes shining back at him. 

“Of course, but once we are in the warmth of the car, ‘cause I am freezing!” Jisung rushed as he grabbed Minho’s hand and his suitcase with his other hand before they quickly made the short walk back to Minho’s car. Minho rolled his eyes at Jisung’s palm meeting his own, of course he hadn’t worn any gloves.

“You get in, I'll dump your suitcase in the back.” Minho squeezed Jisung’s hand lightly before pushing him lightly towards the passenger door. 

“It’s soooo warmmm.” Jisung sighed in relief as he collapsed back on the seat and smiled happily with his eyes shut. 

“I suffered through the cold for you and you are yet to give me a kiss.” Minho pouted as he climbed into the driver's seat and turned to Jisung who giggled brightly. 

The younger student wasted no time in cupping Minho’s chin and kissing him softly. Minho hummed in delight as he pressed his lips back lightly. 

“Missed you.” Jisung whispered as he parted, his warm breath hitting Minho’s face. 

Minho smiled softly and pressed his forehead against Jisung’s and he moved his hand into his pocket and pulled out his extra gloves, “If you really missed me, put these on.” Minho pushed the gloves into Jisung’s hand carefully. 

“There’s no way I'm letting you get sick when I've just gotten you back.” Minho pulled away and watched Jisung quickly pull them on. The younger boy pretended to rub his hands together and warm them over the heater like he was sat by a fire.

“True love. In sickness and in health and all that nonsense. Lee Minho, you may as well ask me to marry you if you care about a cold that much.” Jisung chuckled as he strapped himself in as Minho began to pull out of the small car park.

“Whelp, guess I need to buy you another christmas present then, way to spoil the surprise.” Minho joked as he followed the singular road back down towards the beach. He did take a small detour so that he didn’t drive past his house so that his parents didn’t catch him out.

“Nooooo” Jisung cried out before laughing lightly and glancing out the window, “Are all the lights up now?” 

Minho hummed as he turned down the radio slightly so he could talk comfortably, “I think so. The ones by the sea front are done. So are the ones by your house. You never mentioned your parents brought new ones. I drove past them the other day and saw a massive reindeer on the side of the house and thought I had driven the wrong way for a second.” Minho quickly glanced over to Jisung who was already looking at Minho. Minho gave a small scoff. 

“Stop staring you weirdo.” Minho heard a small laugh come from Jisung and he took a hand off the steering wheel and rested his hand on Jisung’s leg that was bouncing slightly. 

“You didn’t ruin my gift Sungie, don’t worry. I also would never propose to you during Christmas. Why would I ruin a celebration with another celebration on top of that. Also, it's already my parents' anniversary then, so I don't want to add another.” Minho said softly as he gave Jisung’s leg a small squeeze and the boy relaxed his leg. 

“I wasn’t worried.” Jisung grumbled as he rested his own hand on top of Minho’s on his leg and linked their pinkies.

Jisung played with Minho’s hand as the pair drove in a comfortable silence as they took in each other’s presence after being separated for a few weeks. It was still fairly early and not many people were out. Jisung spotted the Shin family out walking their dogs. The smaller dog jumped into a pile of snow that had clearly been swept from the road.

Within a few minutes Minho was pulling into a spot right by the seafront. “Let’s go.’ Minho turned off the ignition and unstrapped himself before exiting the car. Jisung was quick to follow and rushed round to Minho so he could huddle close and try to ignore the cold wind that was blowing harshly. 

☃︎⋆꙳•❅*

“Did your other exams go well?” Minho asked Jisung as he balanced on the rocks looking to see if there were any daege’s. Usually the Seo family came out every few days to catch the snow crabs so they could sell them. It was a popular meal throughout the winter months so Minho wasn’t surprised when Jisung whined about not being able to see any. 

“Well, my music history exam went as well as it could’ve gone. I knew most of the answers, but I struggled to actually write the answers out in a cohesive way. So let’s just hope I don’t get marked down for the insane amount of scribbling out I did. My paper was a mess when I turned it in.” Jisung sighed lightly. 

Minho watched intensely as his boyfriend stepped on a rock. It was much too icy for them to be out here not wearing proper footwear. Jisung wobbled slightly and the dancer was quick to grab Jisung’s shoulder to help him balance. 

“I wasn’t going to fall.” Jisung pouted, but let Minho hold his hand as he continued to traverse over the rocks. At least no one could question the hand-holding if they spotted them on the beach. It was obvious Minho was acting as a balancing pole. 

Minho squeezed his hand as Jisung slipped slightly on one of the rocks and fell into Minho’s shoulder. 

“Told you, I didn’t fall.” Jisung stated as he jumped down from the rocks, clearly thinking about Minho’s mental state. 

Minho just rolled his eyes and pulled Jisung closer by the hand, and swung them lightly as they began trudging along towards the edge of the seafront where the waves were sliding up the beach. 

“Is everyone coming to the party? Or will we be able to hang out?” Jisung asked, which caused an immediate groan out of Minho. 

“My dad is adamant that he’s gonna keep us separated. I think he wants me to ‘socialise’ so I can find someone to date.” Minho huffed. 

Jisung tugged their hands and sat down by the last rock, leaning against it. Here they were hidden from anyone walking past the beach, as well as anyone who didn’t walk right up to the sea. It also protected them from the wind. Jisung leant against Minho’s shoulder as they clutched their hands tightly together. It was slightly overcast and so not nearly as warm as Minho had originally hoped. But it was forecasted to snow again so that was probably why.

“I mean we could tell them?” Jisung suggested, his voice quivering slightly as he knew he definitely wasn’t actually ready to tell anyone about them dating just yet. 

“Sung. I won’t make you announce anything. I know you’re still uncertain of your own orientation and I know for a fact my parents would be asking you about all of that.” Minho wrapped an arm around Jisung’s shoulder and pulled him to his chest.

“Well I’m bi, but I’m fairly certain I'm also just ace. I’m not greysexual and definitely not lithosexual. I was talking to some of my online friends about it and one of them is greysexual and nothing matched up. So I don’t know.” Jisung shrugged. 

“Okay, so we won’t. If you aren’t one hundred percent certain that you want to announce we are dating then we won’t.” Minho kissed Jisung’s forehead and pulled him into a tight hug.

“But I feel bad. Because surely you want to?” Jisung mumbled into Minho’s chest. 

“I do Sung, but I’d much rather do it when you also feel comfortable with it. I know my parents will constantly ask about everything under the sun. Also let's be real, even though we wouldn’t, They would ban you from my room thinking we’d have sex in the middle of the day or something.” Minho chuckled. 

“Ahh yes the twenty-eight year old is not being allowed to sleep in the same room as his twenty-four year old boyfriend. Adds up.” Jisung giggled at how protective Minho’s parents were despite the boy being nearly thirty. 

“Can we go? My butt is freezing. Not to mention my contact lenses are drying up and I feel like they’ll fly out my eyes soon.” Jisung mumbled and Minho let out a loud laugh as Jisung glared up at the older boy. 

“Sure baby.” Minho grinned and kissed Jisung lightly. His lips were slightly chapped from the wind and cold weather but it was comforting nonetheless. 

☃︎⋆꙳•❅*  

Minho sighed as he sipped on his beer. Dori was in his lap keeping him warm despite the hoards of people in his house. He had claimed the bay window for his own and had pretty much stayed there the entire evening. The party was in full swing. Christmas music playing loudly whilst all the neighbours mingled with each other hands filled with a variety of alcohol, tables filled with snacks. 

Once Minho had dropped Jisung to his house he had barely seen the boy except when he had entered a few hours ago. He had been swept away by some of the neighbours who loved to baby him despite his age. Minho managed to say hi and Jisung had quickly complained about the fake tree like always, but that was all the conversation he had gotten in. 

Jisung was close enough for Minho to keep an eye on him. He was crowded around the sofa as he sat uncomfortably squished up against a row of aunties who were chatting to him not letting him get a word in. Soonie had placed himself on Jisung and so Minho was happy that the boy at least had Soonie with him for comfort. 

Pauline Marlot was talking to Jisung in English whilst mixing in some random Korean words to help get her message across. Minho didn’t know much English but he knew she was talking about relationships. 

He heard ‘ girlfriend’ and ‘ need to be dating soon’  leave her mouth in korean and that was enough for him to roll his eyes a tut lightly in their direction. 

“Oh, well I’m bisexual so it could be a boyfriend.” Jisung had stumbled out in english and Pauline gave a sigh and gulped down her wine that was still mostly filled. 

“Of course you’re one of those people. Don’t pretend you actually are anything but straight. Why are kids these days so stuck up on trying to pretend to be gay when they aren’t.” 

“-Oh no I’m bi - um bisexual not gay.” Jisung tried to interrupt but his voice was too soft to be heard as another Auntie chimed in. 

“I have a lovely niece who lives in Seoul. I’ll give you her number so you can meet her. She’s around your age. She’s 18.”

Minho nearly choked on his beer at Bora thinking eighteen and twenty four were the same age.

“Oh that’s such a lovely idea Bora.” Another Auntie added on, smiling softly at Bora who was looking all too pleased with herself.

Jisung glanced over to Minho who was already glaring back at the Aunties who were swarming him. With one singular look of plead, Minho stood up with Dori and quickly made his way over to the group. 

“Sorry everyone, I need to borrow Jisung and Soonie. It’s feeding time.” Minho interrupted and wasted no time in grabbing Jisung’s arm and letting Jisung scoop up Soonie into his arms as he pulled him from the group. 

Jisung let himself be pulled into the kitchen where it was a lot quieter and less people, only a few people grabbing refills. Even though it was open planned the kitchen seemed to feel like it was it’s own separate room with how quiet it felt there. 

Jisung watched how Minho grabbed out the cat bowls and filled up the food. Soonie still laid in Jisung’s arms but wiggled slightly at the sound of food pouring into bowls. Doongie also shortly appeared as Minho was adding in some wet food to mix it with their dried food. 

“It’s not their feeding time yet.” Jisung stated as he leaned down with Soonie and let the cat jump out his arms as the cats crowded round the pair as Minho placed the bowls onto the ground. 

“Early today.” Minho shrugged as he let out a cute noise as Doongie chirped his way before eating, “The only cat with manners. He’s the only one to say thank you.” 

Jisung glanced around the house, it was pretty packed with people. Chan, Seungmin and Changbin were sitting at the dining table playing some card games. They could play with them and still look like they were catching up with others. Felix couldn’t make it because he had come home early from University and still had to submit some coursework. He also mentioned something about the stall his family was running at the switch-on.

“Do you want to go upstairs?” Minho asked quietly as he reached for Jisung’s hands that had begun to pick at his nails. 

Jisung quickly spun his head in Minho’s direction, “Oh, um…I don’t mind.” he shrugged lightly as he watched how Minho’s parents were talking to a few people next to the pantry right by the stairs. They wouldn’t be able to sneak past easily. 

“You don’t want to be down here right? Neither do I. I have no one to chat with, I message the guys constantly so it’s not like I have anything to say to them.” Minho softly rubbed Jisung’s hand which was covered by the kitchen cabinets so if anyone did look their way it just seemed like they were standing chatting, albeit standing very close to each other.

“Okay, yeah.” Jisung hummed as Minho let go of his hand and scooped up Doongie as the cat meowed at him. 

The pair, and cat, crossed over towards the stairs walking past Minho’s parents in the meantime. As they began walking up the stairs Jisung held a breath hoping it would somehow make him invisible so no one would spot them sneaking away.

They rushed up the stairs and luckily weren’t dragged back down and Jisung quickly collapsed on Minho’s bed. 

“Peace and quiet.” Jisung shut his eyes and gave a peaceful smile. The music was definitely still heard but it was muffled slightly. 

Jisung felt a thump of Doongie  jumping out of Minho’s arms and soon felt Minho’s body on top of his. 

“I missed sleeping in the same bed as you.” Jisung softly mentioned when Minho twisted them around so they were laying side by side. One hand cupping his face softly.

“Same, although I can't say that this small single bed is nicer than your double bed.” Minho chuckled lightly. 

Jisung let out a small gasp, “You mean you don’t want to sleep as close to me as possible?” Jisung clutched his shirt and pretended to be heartbroken over the confession. 

Minho giggled and pulled Jisung closer, one arm rubbing his hip lightly as their foreheads bumped slightly together, “I mean it just means less chance of falling out the bed on your double bed. But you do need to stay round now, you’re stuck here I won’t let you leave.” 

Jisung leaned forward and kissed Minho softly, it was nothing rushed. More of a “i’ve missed these moments’ kind of kiss. Nothing was going to come from it anyway. With Jisung being ace there were a lot of different rules they juggled with. Jisung loved kissing, and was practically obsessed with the deep connection he felt when pressing his lips with Minho’s. But nothing ever went further than a heavy makeout session. 

Jisung pulled away slightly breathless, “I’m hungry.” 

Minho laughed loudly and pushed himself upwards and fixed his slightly askew shirt, “I’ll grab us some snacks and we can watch a christmas film up here. I’ll try and get Dori and Soonie up here as well. Lure Soon with the snacks.” Minho gave Jisung a small kiss on his forehead as he stood up. 

“Don’t take too long.” Jisung let Doongie jump onto his chest and quickly petted the cat's head. 

Giving a quick nod, Minho headed back downstairs, where everything looked pretty much the same except a few people had moved to chat to different people. Luckily no one seemed interested about Minho coming down the stairs, probably just assuming he went to the toilet. 

Making the detour to the kitchen the boy grabbed a couple of bowls out of the cupboard and began filling them with Jisung’s favourite snacks, there were some pigs in blankets that the Marlot’s had brought round still left on the side so Minho also grabbed them and put them in the bowl. He hadn’t tried them before, but it was essentially pork and more pork and it was a nice saltiness mixed within it. He was secretly obsessed with them. He knew he’d have to search a recipe up for them. 

A small cough beside him made Minho almost drop the bowls. 

“Going somewhere?” Hajoon stood there with a raised eyebrow, leaning against the cabinets with his arms crossed. 

“Upstairs away from the loud people. Jisung was struggling with all the noise so I was going to bring some snacks for him.” Minho shrugged, only telling half a lie, the snacks were for both of them.

“You can take them up in a minute. I want you to meet Ted, he’s a dancer at one of those idol companies. I think you’d be good friends.” Hajoon grabbed Minho by the arm and pulled him lightly over to Ted who was standing chatting with Chan. 

“Oh Minho! You haven’t met Ted have you. I think he works at the entertainment company that Jisung is trying to get an internship for!” Chan grinned as Minho shuffled over after his dad let go of his arm. 

“Sure.” Minho mumbled lightly. He should probably message Jisung if he was going to be stuck downstairs for long. 

“Chan mentioned how you’re also a dancer right?” Ted gave a friendly smile looking genuinely interested in talking with Minho. 

“Umm yeah, I’m a dance instructor at a University and I do Sunday morning ballet for kids.” Minho nodded as he shoved his hands in his jeans pocket, feeling his phone. 

“Oh cool! How come you decided to teach there instead of an entertainment company?” Ted tilted his head slightly. 

“I was a backup dancer for BTS for a bit and I hated how we were treated, not by the idols, but by the company. I’ve sworn myself to never work there again.” Minho tried not to sigh as Ted’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at Minho like he had grown an extra head. 

“That’s so cool! Do you have any clips?” Ted gasped with way too much excitement in his voice. 

All Minho could think of was that Jisung was probably wondering where he was, not to mention this Ted guy clearly didn’t know any other words other than ‘cool’. Feeling his phone buzz in his pocket he quickly pulled it out knowing it would be Jisung. 

Jisung: Where are youuu, I'm hungry. I have the film set up.

Minho typed out a quick response.

Minho Sorry baby, been dragged away. Meet me at the beach in an hour x

Whilst he had his phone out he navigated to his folders and scrolled back to his old dancing videos for BTS. The sooner he can finish this conversation the quicker he could get back to Jisung who no doubt was probably pouting at the message. 

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ It’s comin’ down, no sound it’s all around   ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Jisung exhaled and watched how his breath was visible in the air. It was freezing, much more than it had been the last few days and he was suffering from it. Not to mention because it was the annual switch on he was practically forced out his house to watch them turn on. He did love it, and it was one of his favourite christmas traditions but it was too cold. 

Leaning against Minho’s front garden fence he could see through the small windows as Minho was tugging on his coat, wrapping a scarf around his neck as Dori had his claw caught in the few loose threads on the end of it. 

Jisung let out a breathy chuckle as Minho tried to get Dori’s paw unhooked but the cat fussed around and clearly let out a mewl and a small growl as Minho wrestled with his claws. 

Jisung could faintly see Minho’s parents in the background also grabbing their coats and shoes. He was hoping that the pair would be able to ditch their parents for most of the evening. Jisung knew his own parents were helping run some of the smaller stalls which have light-up toys so he could probably avoid them for the most part. But Minho had messaged him earlier about how his parents were going to be tagging along for the first part until Minho and Jisung met up with Felix after he finished his shift with helping out at the candy floss stall. Which thank goodness ended just after Minho and Jisung were planning on arriving. 

Jisung let out a small sigh, he did want to announce they were dating to their parents but they were both so unsure how they would react. Minho’s parents always seemed to give such vague responses about whether they support the queer community or not. Jisung’s parents knew he was bi, but he never knew if they actually would be happy for him if he was dating a guy. 

The cottage's door swung open and Minho came rushing out with a small smile on his face, “Hi.” a puff of his breath visible as he spoke. 

“Hi.” Jisung smiled back at Minho as he heard their front door closing and Minho’s parents walking towards them. 

“Evening Jisung, aren’t you cold?” Hajoon pointed at Jisung’s hands which were bare of any gloves. 

Jisung let out an awkward chuckle, “I was rushing to leave on time. Maybe… forgot them.” 

With a small scoff coming from Minho, Jisung glanced up and saw Minho rolling his eyes before pulling out a pair of gloves from his pocket and passed them over to Jisung as they began to trail behind Minho’s parents as they began the walk towards the coast.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you Hyung?” Jisung grinned as he pulled on the gloves and walked slightly closer to Minho. His hand itching to reach down and connect their hands together. 

“Not nearly enough apparently.” Minho chuckled as he grabbed Jisung’s bobble hat and shook the younger boy's head lightly. Jisung let out a small whine and swatted the boy’s hand away. 

☃︎⋆꙳•❅*

“Where was Felix’s stall again?” Minhee asked as the group of four walked along to where the start of the stalls were. It was fairly busy, not only were there the locals and their families but the switch on usually always brought along a good amount of tourists who are travelling through. 

“I think in the middle? There’s usually a long queue for it so it shouldn’t be too hard to stop.” Jisung explained to Minho’s parents as he clutched his hands together. Even with the gloves on, his fingers were frozen. 

“Are you going there straight away instead of starting from one end?” Minhee asked as all four of them briefly stopped in front of the first stall amongst many that stretched down along the seafront. There were also food stalls stationed on the right side and then any gift stalls or smaller stands with toys on the left. 

“Probably. Felix should be finishing soon and so we can walk back to the start and then see everything together.” Minho explained as he felt Jisung huddle closer to him.The gloved finger’s brushing at the sliver of skin that was peeking out between his coat and gloves told him Jisung was stopping himself from clutching onto Minho’s arm for warmth.

“Okay, well stay warm. Just text when you are heading back.” Hajoon nodded and Minho gave a quick affirmative nod back.

The couple quickly began to make their way to the long line snaking to Felix’s family's stall. 

“Are you cold?” Minho asked as he felt Jisung’s fingers brush his arm again. 

“No.” Jisung gritted his teeth and looked away towards one of the stalls cooking hotteok, the smell of red bean and chocolate almost had Jisung drooling. 

“I’ll buy you one once we meet up with Felix okay.” Minho wrapped an arm around Jisung’s shoulders and pulled him closer. It didn’t look overly weird. If anything, people would just assume Minho was keeping Jisung warm. Especially with Jisung looking like he was an ice cube with his face pulled into an unpleasant frown.

They quickly reached Felix’s family stall, Felix was bagging up some extra candy floss so people could buy bags immediately instead of waiting for Rachel, Felix’s sister, to make a new load unless they wanted one on a stick. 

Olivia was chatting away with customers as she took their money and handed out the bags. 

“Lix!” Jisung called and Felix’s head shot up and he dropped his current half filled bag on the floor and rushed over to give Jisung a big hug. 

“Jisung! Sorry I couldn’t see you at the Christmas party. Olivia and Rachel needed some help with digging this out of our garage and cleaning it up.” Felix chuckled as he noticed Rachel give him a small glare and pick up his abandoned work. 

“That’s fine, we can catch up later on I'm sure.” Jisung grinned. 

“Did you need to stay and help longer? Or are you good to go?” Minho asked as he watched how one of Felix’s parents hopped in to fill Felix’s spot. 

“Nah, I should be good. Also I'm starving!” Felix bounced on his feet before quickly rushing back to grab his bag, flinging it over his shoulder before making his way over to the pair.

The trio began walking down to the start of the stalls so they wouldn’t miss anything. They had around an hour before the lights were turned on, plenty of time to see everything and potentially ride on one of the rides at the end. 

“I gotta get Jisung a hotteok first, before he turns into an ice cube completely and I have to carry him everywhere.” Minho joked as he let Jisung huddle closer to him for warmth. 

“Wow, and now I wish Hyunjin was here, way to make me feel single.” Felix laughed out as they headed over to the small hotteok stand that luckily didn’t have a queue. 

“Two red bean hotteoks please.” Minho quickly ordered and passed over some coins to pay. 

Jisung quickly took one from the vendor and bit into it before screeching at how hot it was, Minho rolled his eyes and hit him on the head with the arm that was wrapped around him. 

“Of course it’s gonna be hot, idiot.” Minho blew on his own whilst they waited for Felix to buy a chocolate filled one. 

“Is Hyunjin back in Seoul? I thought you were inviting him down here for Christmas.” Jisung asked as he blew on his hotteok before taking a much more careful bite.

“He was, but then found out a week ago that his grandparents weren’t well and so opted to stay up there for Christmas, it could be his last one with them and so I didn’t want him to miss out on it.” Felix smiled sadly as the group began walking past a few more stalls filled with Christmas decorations and handmade gifts. 

“That’s understandable. I suppose you must be missing him then.” Minho pulled Jisung a tiny bit closer, his hand flexing on his arm slightly. 

“Yeah, kinda rude that you two get to always be together.” Felix whined lightly. 

Minho stopped in his tracks, looking at Jisung slightly worried about what Felix had just said. 

“Ah, Hyung, I may have accidentally told Felix… I was complaining to him whilst I was still stuck in Seoul and you two were down here. Maybe I spilled the tea on us being together. But don’t worry he’s sworn to secrecy.” Jisung rubbed Minho’s arm comforting him. 

“Okay.. but if I hear a single peep about us coming out of his mouth I'm driving all the way back to Seoul and banning Hyunjin from seeing Felix when he goes back.” Minho glared softly at Felix who held up his hands in surrender. 

“I promise, besides you guys are cute. I won’t ruin that.” Felix chuckled as he pulled Jisung towards the bright lights where all the rides were. 

“Come on! Let’s go on some of them!” 

☃︎⋆꙳•❅*

They didn’t really have anyone famous to switch the lights on so each year they’d always pick a kid out from the crowd to turn on the lights. Minho remembered just how excited Jisung was when he got chosen one year. His parents stood with him on the stage whilst the seven year old, Jisung couldn’t stop bouncing on the spot at his excitement to press the lights on. He was so excited in fact that he disregarded the countdown and when they got to ‘five’ he had excitedly pressed the button and all the lights turned on before they could finish counting.

Minho always thinks about that whenever they watch the switch-on. He was eleven at the time and had learnt about how Santa wasn’t exactly real but had to keep up the fantasy for Jisung a few more years before the boy found out whilst he was at school. That was a traumatic time for the younger boy, completely unexpected of the truth.

“Aww cute! She looks so scared about pressing the buzzer at the wrong time.” Felix cooed slightly at the girl who was wrapped up from head to toe in winter gear, one of her gloved hands holding onto a light up stick which spun when you clicked a certain button. Her over hand hovered over the buzzer as she looked at her parents waiting for the signal. 

The trio were standing just by an alley where they were slightly hidden from the loud crowds of people. Everyone had gathered down into one spot where there was a small stage for the town mayor and a few entertainers were stationed as well as the girl and her parents. 

Jisung jumped on the spot as the countdown began, the crowd all chanting in sync. As soon as they finished the girl had pressed the button and the streets were filled with a white glow of snowflake lights and string lights shining all down the seafront. Jisung grinned widely and spun to Minho who was already looking at him fondly.

“Merry Christmas Jisungie.” Minho smiled at him and Jisung had the sudden urge to kiss the boy. 

He pulled them a bit further down the alley and quickly kissed him, hand clutching his scarf. Minho tugged him closer, pulling away from the kiss but immediately littering him with kisses on his cheek and forehead. Jisung let out a small giggle. 

“Merry Christmas Hyung.” Jisung let the boy rest their foreheads together. 

A loud laughter from a group of young boys made the pair quickly pull apart, as they glanced at the opening of the alley as the boy’s chatted away as they walked past. 

“We should probably get back to Felix. I want to get some candy floss before it closes.” Jisung intertwined his hand with Minho for a moment before letting go once they were back out into the open. 

Felix was typing away on his phone as he leant against the wall. As they approached him Felix glared at them playfully. 

“I didn’t hang out with you guys to be the third wheel. Now come on, I want to go on some more rides and buy my sisters some presents from the woodcarving stall.” Felix grabbed Jisung by the arm and clutched onto him and dragged him away from Minho.

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ Stars by the pocketful   ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Jisung whacked Minho on the arm as the boy made a stupid joke., “Yah! Hyung!” Jisung whined and pushed the older boy. Minho let out a high pitched giggle as he let Jisung push him around. As Jisung went for another push Minho grabbed Jisung’s arm and pulled him closer so he could wrap his arm around the boy’s shoulder. 

“Sorry Baby.” Minho giggled again as he looked down to their shoes getting covered in the snow covered sand that he walked over. 

It was night and the pair had decided to meet up at the beach. It was pretty cold, but it meant they could have some privacy. Minho’s parents were not only getting annoyed at Jisung constantly coming around, but they were also getting frustrated at him from constantly going out. Hence why today Jisung and himself snuck out to meet at the beach. 

“Did you bring a blanket for us to stargaze?” Jisung let out a breath as he watched his breath float up into the frosty air.

Minho let out a groan and bashed his head against Jisung’s, “I knew I had forgotten something.” 

Jisung whined and pushed Minho away again, “You’re telling me we could be inside in the warmth instead because you forgot the blanket this entire time?!” 

“Maybe?” Minho gave an awkward chuckle and quickly began to run away as Jisung started to chase after him shouting profanities into the open air as Minho laughed as they both struggled to run on the snow covered sand properly. Looking back to watch Jisung stumble over the sand slightly.

Minho turned around abruptly, stopping when he saw Changbin and Seungmin in the distance chatting, eating some of the street food from the vendors that parked up during the weekend. The boy was knocked forward slightly as Jisung ran into the back of him. 

“Why’d you stop?” Jisung said, slightly breathless. 

Minho just pointed over to where his friends were and grabbed Jisung’s hand and quickly pulled him away and towards an alley between two shops at the start of the beach. 

“Who was that?” Jisung asked, he barely saw the figures before he was dragged away.

“Changbin and Seungmin.” Minho huffed as he wrapped an arm around Jisung’s shoulder and they began heading towards Minho’s house. 

“Oh! Why didn’t we say hi?” Jisung asked, curious at Minho’s avoidance. 

“Cause, I don’t want them asking questions, also I have a sneaky feeling they were on a date. Seungmin won’t say anything about it but something  fishy is going on between them.” Minho said before laughing at his own joke. 

Jisung stayed silent as they trudged through the snow back to Minho’s house. As they walked up to the door, Jisung spotted Dori looking outside, he let out a meow when he saw the pair and jumped off the bay window, clearly rushing towards the door. Minho stuffed his key in the lock and quickly opened the door and ushered Jisung inside as Dori let out a loud meow and weaved between the pairs legs. 

“Dori, my baby… I’ve missed you.” Jisung cooed as he gave the cat a few strokes before standing. 

“You literally saw them a couple days ago.” Minho chuckled as he removed his coat and hooked it by the door, dumping his boots on the ground as well. 

“Too long! I don’t know how you can survive going back to Seoul without thinking about catnapping them with you.” Jisung said as he followed Minho into their open kitchen/living area.  

“I know.” Minho chuckled as he flicked on the fairy lights instead of the main lights.

Jisung followed him into the kitchen and watched the older boy put on the kettle and grab two mugs out of the cupboard. Along with tea bags. 

“My hands are frozen, as well as my face.” Jisung complained as he rubbed his hands together, his gloves hadn’t helped much whilst they were outside and the harsh winds on the beach meant his face was frozen. 

“Aww my poor little baby is just a tiny ice cube huh?” Minho cooed at Jisung and cupped Jisung’s face with his warm hands. Jisung felt a flush of warmth grow through him.

“How are your hands so warm?” Jisung smiled contently as Minho rubbed his thumb against Jisung’s cheek and leant in and gave a soft kiss. Jisung’s chapped lips meet with soft lips. It was a mystery how Minho didn’t ever get chapped lips in the cold weather. Quite frankly Jisung thought it was unfair how he never seemed to be affected by the cold weather. 

Minho deepened the kiss just slightly as he bit down on Jisung’s lip, Jisung shivered at the warmth that spread through him as one of Minho’s hands moved to his hip and pulled him closer. Jisung in turn wrapped his arms around Minho’s shoulders. 

“Mmm Min.” Jisung pulled away, “Your parents.” 

“My parents aren’t here.” Minho kissed Jisung again. Jisung pulled back again.

“You’re telling me we could’ve been in the warmth of your house the entire time?!” Jisung slapped Minho on the chest slightly harder than he meant when he saw Minho wince slightly. 

“Sorry baby, I was worried that they’d come home early on and ruin it for us.” Minho sighed.

Jisung playfully tutted and leant round Minho to grab the kettle and fill their teas up. 

“I have a plan to make it up to you though. Go and have a shower and get warmed up. Go put on some of my clothes.” Minho patted Jisung’s butt and nudged him upstairs. 

“Hmmm okay.. You’re suspicious.” Jisung raised an eyebrow but did as he was told.

☃︎⋆꙳•❅*

Jisung had probably taken a bit too long in the shower, his limbs felt like they were frozen to the bone so he stood under the hot water for much longer than necessary, if his now lobster looking skin was anything to go by. He shrugged on a spare pair of Minho’s boxers, joggers and a hoodie before heading downstairs. 

As he reached the last few steps he noticed what Minho had done. The sofa had been pushed up towards the bay window so there was a large open area on the ground. It was covered in lots of blankets and a heap of pillows. As well as three cats who seemed to be loving the fluffy blankets. 

“Min…you didn’t..” Jisung let out the softest sigh as he rushed over to Minho who was standing by his creation. 

“We haven’t had a chance to do this since we were kids. I may have forgotten the blanket on purpose…” Minho smiled bashfully as Jisung let out a short laugh and collapsed onto the pile of blankets and pillows, the cats unbothered by his sudden appearance. 

“The last time we did this was probably just before you left for Uni and ditched me here for a whole year on my own.” Jisung exclaimed as Minho crawled into the small gap between the boy and Soonie who was sleeping on one of the blankets. 

It was definitely years since they had pretended the fairylights were constellations and that they were stargazing. Minho wrapped an arm around Jisung and pulled him closer, letting their legs tangle lightly. 

“What about my tea?” Jisung said as he let Minho get comfy. 

“Ahh well, I’ll make you a flask before I have to let you walk back home on your own.” Minho said before the pair settled into silence and looked up towards the fairy lights. 

“You know, the last time we did this… was right before we became official. Which was pretty stupid considering you were about to go all the way to Seoul.” Jisung whispered as he felt Minho stroke his hair. 

“Yea, that was pretty stupid of us wasn’t it.” Minho chuckled. 

“Although I can’t believe no one caught onto us dating.” Jisung added on as he felt Doongie climb on his legs and wiggle his way between the pair. Jisung moved an arm to stroke the ginger cat on the head. “I mean, we were in Seoul most of the time, my parents just assumed I was mourning the loss of my best friend for the first year.”

“Little do they know.” Minho laughed and Jisung felt his chest vibrate from the laughter. 

“I can’t wait to get back to Seoul. I think I'm probably going to stay there after I finish. I mean.. I’d like to think I'll get the internship, otherwise I will be stuck.” Jisung pretended to look at the fairylights as if they were the ship constellation group as he continued,

“Doriiii, come over here.” Jisung let out a soft whine as tried to entice the tabby cat that was sitting on the kitchen tabletop. 

Minho scoffed, “He’s annoyed cause he assumed we came back to give him food.” 

“I don’t know how you can’t miss these guys when you’re in Seoul.” Jisung sighed as Dori scurried off the kitchen table and up the stairs in a rush. 

“Well, I was thinking about getting a cat back in Seoul, but my apartment doesn’t let pets. So I was actually just waiting to see what you were going to do. Because if you get the internship at that entertainment company then we can move in together in a place that’s between our two jobs. Besides, I don't think I’ll stay at the university next year.” Minho shrugged.

“R-really? You want me to move in with you?” Jisung turned so he was looking up at Minho. 

“Yes Ji. I’d love for you to. I would’ve asked you already but I know you want to be with Jeongin whilst you are at university.” Minho explained

“True, I think Jeongin would actually find me and kill me if I left him whilst we were both studying.” Jisung chuckled and rolled onto Minho and let the boy pull him into a tight hug. 

“I will happily move in with you. I love you.” Jisung pressed up and kissed Minho briefly. 

“I love you more Sungie.” 

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙    ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆ You wanting me tonight, feels impossible ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙    ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

“I thought we were meeting at the beach tonight?” Minho rubbed his eyes lightly as he saw Jisung on the other side of his front door. 

“It’s too cold, Min. I just wanna be cosy and warm for once. I also want to say hi to Soonie, Doongie and Dori for a bit.” Jisung toed off his shoes as he let Minho take his coat from him. 

“Well did you want to watch a movie as well? That new Christmas horror was released the other day which we were looking forward to.” Minho asked as he let Jisung follow him upstairs. His parents were in the sitting room and gave a small wave as they walked past. 

“The cats are in my room already actually, I was just giving them some enrichment food and playing with them out of the way of the tree and my parents.” Minho explained as they quickly entered the older boy’s room. 

Jisung was immediately welcomed with soft meows coming from all three cats as they scurried over to say hello to the boy. Jisung grinned and squatted down to give all three cats some pets saying hi to them all as Minho began to grab his laptop and set it on his bed. He also grabbed out a blanket from his cupboard and of course some spare clothes for Jisung who was still dressed in clothes that were more suited for wandering at the beach in the cold. 

“You get changed, I'll grab some food and drinks, and I will definitely come back upstairs this time.” Minho looked at Jisung who glared at him lightly. 

“I am not forgiving you for that, well.. I appreciated the peace and quiet for a bit but it was so embarrassing coming downstairs afterwards.” Jisung complained as he took the clothes from Minho’s hands. 

“If you aren’t back in five I will riot.” 

Minho rolled his eyes and rushed downstairs to grab some food and drink for the pair. 

“I thought you were going out to meet Seungmin? Why’s Jisung here?” Minhee asked as Minho grabbed out a couple of beers from the fridge, a soft drink for Jisung and a couple of snacks from the drawers. 

“Seungmin ended up being busy. I messaged Jisung about meeting up instead and we were going to go down to the beach, hence why i’m dressed to go out. But now he’s just staying here for the evening cause he’s cold.” Minho explained quickly as he stacked the bowls on top of each other so that he could carry them upstairs in one trip.

“I thought Jisung would hang out with Felix whilst he is here, aren’t they friends anymore?” Minhee questioned. 

Minho shrugged, “No idea, he hasn’t mentioned anything to me about it. I think Felix must just be busy.” 

“Okay, well… he can’t sleep round, we are getting up early tomorrow to go to the Sunday market and get all the last bits we need before Wednesday.” 

“Sure, we are only gonna watch a film.” Minho commented that even though he knew full well he would probably let Jisung sleep around regardless.

☃︎⋆꙳•❅*

Jisung rolled his upper body on his side as Minho pushed open the door to his room. He would’ve moved to help him carry the food the rest of the distance but he had Dori resting by his head, Doongie on his lap and Soonie laying on his feet so he was a bit trapped.

“It’s so rude how they all clearly prefer you to me…” Minho scoffed as he placed down the food on the bedside table before ruffling Jisung’s hair. 

“I’m just too cute.” Jisung preened lightly as Minho rolled his eyes before going to dig in his cupboard. 

“That you are.” Minho agreed easily.

“Let me get some comfy clothes on and then we can watch the film.” Minho passed Jisung his laptop for him to set up. 

The younger boy groaned lightly as he had to sit up in order to comfortably navigate the laptop. Dori meowed lightly as Jisung accidentally disturbed him from his nap. 

“Sorry Dori..” Jisung mumbled as he typed in Minho’s password and headed over to the Netflix tab. 

“It’s called the murder at the mistletoe mansion. Or something?” Minho said. 

Jisung glanced over as the voice was slightly muffled as Minho was pulling his shirt over his head. Jisung gulped lightly as he noticed how toned Minho’s body was. He had seen Minho get changed often, especially after sleeping around. Minho also often slept shirtless when he was in Jisung’s room because the room was also hot considering Jisung always blasted the heaters cause he was always running cold. He had clearly never noticed just how muscular Minho’s back looked, all that dancing clearly showed. 

“R-right.” Jisung stuttered out as he watched how Minho’s arms flexed lightly as he untangled his t-shirt and slipped it on. 

Jisung quickly looked away, his heart racing slightly. He felt a weird sick feeling in his stomach. His face was on fire. He struggled to type out the title of the movie as he tried to not focus on the figure of Minho slipping off his jeans out the corner of his eye. 

What was he thinking?

Jisung swallowed and shut his eyes at the sudden thought of being close to minho. His body felt tingly and the boy felt slightly sick at the intrusive thoughts darting through his mind. 

“Found it?” Minho asked as he leaned into Jisung as checked the screen which just had 

‘Mistletoe murder at mansion’ written in the search bar. 

“Ahh no that’s not it baby, it was murder at the mistletoe mansion. Although I reckon a murderous mistletoe would be more interesting.” Minho gave a high pitched giggle as he climbed over Jisung legs and got comfortable beside him. 

Giving out a deep breath Jisung tried to relax and not pay attention to the tight t-shirt Minho had picked out, it showed off his body far too well.

Minho pulled the laptop onto his own lap and typed in the correct title before clicking off the bedroom lights from the switch by his head and shuffled around to get comfortable. 

Shaking off all his thoughts Jisung spun round and cuddled closer to his boyfriend. Minho’s hand immediately went to play with his hair. 

“I didn’t want to see the cats, I just came to see you.” Jisung mumbled as he wrapped an arm around Minho’s waist and hid his face in Minho’s neck. 

“Why did you say you wanted to see the cats then?” Minho chuckled lightly as the movie showed the opening title. 

“‘Cause your parents were in the room. I-I’ve just been missing you a lot more recently. I’m not sure why. But I think since you spent so much time in my dorm at university that it became a struggle without you.” Jisung mumbled feeling slightly betrayed by the sudden confession he let out. He peaked out from where he was hiding in Minho’s neck. 

Minho shuffled round and quickly stopped the movie and shut his laptop, pushing it down to the bottom of the bed where Soonie was lying. 

“You just wanna cuddle then?” Minho cupped Jisung’s face and stroked his cheek lightly, brushing a couple fallen hairs from his face. 

Jisung nodded and let Minho kiss him gently. Minho stroked Jisung’s cheek as he deepened the kiss ever so slightly, biting his lip as Jisung pushed himself closer. One leg climbing on top of Minho’s. The urgency to take off Minho’s shirt overcame the boy and Jisung played with the hem of Minho’s shirt as he twisted it in his hand and pushed it up slightly. The feeling of the ridges of where Minho had slight abs brushed over his fingertips leaving them burning. Jisung stopped himself from the sudden urge to rip off the shirt and quickly pulled away.

 “I-I’m actually kinda tired, can we just sleep?” 

Minho furrowed his eyebrows. Jisung could tell he was concerned, “I’m okay, just tired. Promise.” Jisung gave a small smile whilst Minho continued to look at him slightly confused. 

“Sungie, are you sure you’re okay? You’d tell me if anything is wrong right?” Minho asked as he gave comforting strokes on Jisung’s arm before holding his hand and intertwining their fingers.

“Sure.” Jisung gave a weak smile as he hid his face in Minho’s chest, noticing how the dancer’s heart rate was quicker than normal. Squeezing his eyes shut Jisung tried to block out what that meant and huddled closer to his boyfriend who shuffled them around so they were laying in the middle of the bed. 

  ☃︎⋆꙳•❅*

“I told you Minho he couldn’t stay round.” Minhee’s hushed tone woke up Jisung as he felt Minho clutching Jisung’s waist lightly. 

“He felt unwell, I wasn’t going to make him walk back in the dark in the cold, and snow whilst feeling terrible. Besides, he ended up falling asleep whilst we were watching a movie so I wasn’t just going to wake him up.” Minho hissed back. 

Jisung felt one of the cats jump onto the bed and walk up his legs and lay right by his face. He fought off the urge to stroke the cat. 

“Dori, Sungie is sleeping, don’t wake him.” Minho said softly to the tabby, Jisung felt Minho move Dori out of the way, a small mewl leaving the cat. 

“I’ve had enough with you constantly spending all your time with him, Minho. You came back for the holidays, to spend time with your family and you are hanging out with Jisung, who you see all the time in Seoul.” 

“That makes no difference- cause..” Minho began before he was quickly cut off. 

“It’s like you are avoiding us Minho. We get it, you and Jisung have always been super close ever since you were kids. But we haven’t had a chance to truly spend time with you this entire holiday.” Minhee sounded upset and almost desperate. 

“Look I promise I won’t spend any time with him until Christmas when we do our present swap with the Han’s like every year. I'm sure Hannie will understand.” Minho sighed lightly.

Jisung had to stop himself from biting his lip at the thought of not being able to see Minho for a few days, but he knew he should also spend time with his own family. They were constantly in each other's bubbles. Maybe it would be good for it to burst for just a moment.

  ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙  can this be a real thing, can it?  ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Jisung's face was illuminated by his phone screen as he glanced down at the unopened message he had sent Minho earlier. 

Jisung- Beach later?

It had already been three hours and the clock was ticking towards eleven, only one hour left until Christmas day. Minho probably wouldn’t respond now. It was far too late and Jisung was now all wrapped up in his bed with a hot water bottle so leaving for the beach wasn’t particularly ideal now. Besides, he’d been trying to sleep for the last hour but his brain wouldn’t shut up. He’d been rolling back and forth trying to calm his mind and avoid thinking about what had happened with Minho a couple of days ago. He hadn’t seen him since because of Minho’s promise to his parents. It had felt like torture. 

All he could think about was his stomach twisting, and the pool of not necessarily butterflies, but whatever he felt below his stomach when he had seen Minho shirtless. He’d never felt that before.

 Letting out a small sigh Jisung grabbed his laptop off the floor and quickly navigated to his google tab that still had a paper open from when he was writing some of his coursework. Clicking back to the front page of the search engine he began to type.

What does sexual attraction feel like?

Your heart rate may increase, you might feel flushed or blush, or you might sweat. You might also experience butterflies or a knot in your stomach.

Jisung frowned at that. He hasn’t sweated over Minho’s body. However he definitely felt a knot in his stomach, well it was probably more of a sick feeling. He couldn’t really tell the difference.

After that Jisung didn’t mean to go down a rabbit hole but the night worms were eating away and he couldn’t help the buzz in his brain as he kept searching and searching:

What type of asexual am I? 

Asexual quiz  

Am I actually asexual? 

The difference between greysexual and demisexual 

Am I demisexual quiz

Demi-sexual definition

Jisung could barely see what he was clicking on by the end of it. His chest was aching, not from anything heavy, but the weight from his chest seemed to have lifted. His head hurt from his eyes becoming dry after the tears he let out had soaked his duvet. It all made sense.

He never felt truly connected with anyone he dated in the past. Minho and himself already had a ‘soulmate’ connection as Jisung would call it, before they dated. But it made no sense why he only just started feeling any sort of sexual attraction, was it because Minho wanted them to move in together? The feeling of them finally thinking about coming out to their parents? The bond he felt when he finally saw Minho after weeks apart? 

Jisung shook his head and stopped his brain from spiraling, he couldn’t afford to go down another rabbit hole when it was already creeping towards one in the morning.

 ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙  coming down, it’s coming down  ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

It smelt amazing in the kitchen, food was bubbling away, the oven was stuffed to the brim with different foods cooking away. Minho was stationed at the kitchen with a small apron on as he chopped away at some raw beef that he’d be cooking in a little bit. There was a sauce on the side waiting to cover the beef so it could marinate for a while. 

“Sungie, can you test this? I don’t want it to be too spicy.”

Jisung was sitting on the spare chair they had dragged out of the garage so everyone would be able to crowd round the table and eat later. Soonie was on his lap sleeping away. 

Jisung opened his mouth as Minho brought over a small spoonful of the sauce, feeding the younger boy. 

Jisung was half expecting it to be super spicy but he was pleasantly surprised when the spice only hit a tiny bit, just a small burn at the back of his throat. Nothing to cause him to cough or need water immediately. 

“It’s good?” 

Jisung hummed out a response as his eyes trailed down to watch Minho continue to prepare the ingredients for the next set of meat that was going to be fried up. Jisung always admired how incredible Minho was at cooking. He was always so well fed back in Seoul and the last few weeks without him, Jisung had really missed his cooking. Especially when Jisung could sit on the counter, swinging his legs talking about the latest animal documentary he had watched. Minho nodding along and commenting whilst he cooked away. 

Today was no different. Minho uses the side of the sharp knife to press down onto the garlic to split it. Jisung had never quite noticed how much his veins popped when he cooked. It was almost interesting how they seemed to hum along with Minho’s movements, becoming more prominent as he used more force. Jisung felt himself become warm at the sensation of watching Minho grunting as he pressed down particularly hard on one of the garlic segments. His veins bulge slightly. 

Jisung let out a shaky breath and shut his eyes, the image burning under his eyelids. It wasn’t necessarily attractive was it? It didn’t make much sense. The vein was just a vital part of the circulatory system, purely there to keep you alive and send blood to the direction where you need it the most. In Minho’s case, his hands. So why was he feeling so flustered, a weird sensation pooling over his stomach.

“You okay Jisung? You’re looking a little red. Is it too hot in here?” Hajoon asks as he slides past the pair to grab a beer out of the fridge. 

“O-oh, um no, i’m okay thanks. Not hot, yeah I'm nice and warm.” Jisung stuttered out barely registering what he was saying as he tried to not look back at Minho’s hands, even though there was the random urge to. 

“If you say so. You can open a window though if you feel too hot.” Hajoon patted Jisung on the head before heading back over to the sofa where all four parents were watching a christmas film.

“T-thanks.” Jisung mumbled as he took a deep breath as Minho turned towards the oven, pouring the garlic into a frying pan. The sizzling increased as he began to stir fry the garlic before chucking in the chopped meat. 

  ☃︎⋆꙳•❅*

“Do we have all our presents?” Jisung’s mum Riku asked as she slid back to her seat on the couch. 

The two families were getting ready to exchange gifts, it had begun a tradition fairly early on in Minho and Jisung’s friendship when Jisung practically begged his parents to take him to Minho’s house on Christmas just to exchange his presents with the boy. Jisung’s parents were spread out on the sofa whilst Minho and Jisung were tightly pressed up against each other on the bay window. They couldn’t get fully comfortable as Dori was sleeping by the window as the cat had been watching the snowfall all day and had dozed off there. Minho’s parents were sitting on the floor so they could hand out gifts to everyone. 

It was a fairly small exchange, the boys always got presents from each set of parents as well as each other. Their parents just exchange between immediate family. 

They all tore up the presents immediately, an array of wrapping paper flying into the air and onto the floor which Soonie and Doongie immediately attacked. At least it wasn’t the carpet and was just the wrapping paper they clawed at. 

Jisung let out a small squeal as he opened up his parents present, it was part of a new set of MIDI pad controller that Jisung had been eyeing up all year since it was released. Jisung hugged the box close to his chest and gave a grin and a thanks to his parents who were much more calm with opening their presents. 

Besides him, Minho gave a small laugh as he pulled open a new dance bag. His last one had lasted years , the straps were falling apart and the outer pocket had completely ripped off but Minho had always refused to buy a new one.

“Open mine next!” Jisung shook Minho by the shoulder, slightly pointing to the box excitedly. 

Minho picked up the fairly heavy wrapped present, “Should I be scared at the weight of it?” 

Jisung shrugged and held back a laugh and waited, slightly vibrating in his seat for Minho to rip open the present. Minho hadn’t even pulled off all the wrapping before he laughed loudly. A weighted blanket. Because Minho always complained to Jisung how he hated sleeping on his own without Jisung resting on him. 

“I hope I won't have to use this for too long though.” Minho winked at Jisung as he pulled the box fully out of the wrapping. 

“Oooo Jisung, that's a good present! Especially in the winter, I hear they are really good at keeping in heat. You probably won’t have to blast the heating in your room if you use that.” Minhee smiled softly at it.

Jisung frowned slightly as he noticed there wasn’t another present attached to the box. He had wrapped up two presents. Jumping off the seat and crouching under the tree Jisung found his other present pushed to the far back. Probably one of the cats playing with it and pushing it off the pile and deeper under the tree. Avoiding getting poked by the tree needles and making only a few fall, Jisung grabbed the present and sat back besides Minho passing him the box. 

Minho twisted the small box in his hand before he carefully tore the paper off. Underneath was a white box. Jisung held his breath as Minho pushed open the box and revealed an opaque ring nestled inside. 

“It’s beautiful..” Minho whispered. 

Jisung watched as Minho pulled the ring out, reading the small engraving inside the ring.

Together we’re a romantic comedy

Minho quickly slipped the ring onto his index finger and grinned. 

“Oh you got a ring? Who from? Your girlfriend?” Minhee smirked as she watched Minho smiling fondly at the ring on his hand. 

Jisung felt like someone had thrown cold water over his body. They always assumed Minho had a girlfriend, maybe he did. He’d probably get treated better with her. 

“I-um no.” Minho’s swallowed.

“Don’t be shy, why haven’t you told us about her!” Hajoon spoke loudly, laughing slightly. Clearly drunk from where he had been mixing Soju and beer all day. 

“It’s not like that..”  Minho tried again. 

Jisung couldn’t stand watching Minho desperately try to lie to their parents. It would be better if he was out of the picture so Minho could tell them a lie. Also to get away from them being happy for Minho with his fake girlfriend which he clearly deserved. He didn’t register the tears that had begun until he sprang out of his seat and rushed towards the front door and down the road. 

He was such an idiot thinking that his relationship with Minho could really be anything other than friendship. He couldn’t give Minho any sort of intimate relationship. God knows he’s probably got a girlfriend so he can just have sex because he couldn’t give it to Minho. 

It was pointless even trying to convince Minho to stay with him. He can just run off and find a girlfriend in Seoul. He’s sure Jeongin would still want company. 

Jisung hadn’t even noticed that he had rushed down towards the beach until the strong winds blew through him. He had no coat, no gloves, no scarf. Typical Jisung really. 

He sat down on the damp snow and huddled up and watched the sea bash roughly back and forth. He wished he could be swallowed up by those waves. Get away from the horror that was probably waiting back at Minho’s house. 

Maybe he could wait it out, they’d forget he was missing. Too caught up with Minho's girlfriend and continue the festivities without him.

He wasn’t too sure how long he had been sitting there, but the sudden warmth of a coat draping over his shoulders shook him from his reverie. His eyes were stinging from the tears and wind. Thank goodness he didn’t have contact lenses in today, they would’ve fallen out by now with all the tears and wind.

“You didn’t even open my present.” Minho huffed as he sat down beside Jisung, no coat on his body. It was clear he had just given Jisung his coat instead. 

Jisung looked down and saw a small box, similar in size to the one he had given Minho. 

He took it from Minho’s hand, his hands frozen slightly so it was hard to unwrap but he managed to pop open the box. Inside was a cream ring.

“Don’t worry, it really isn’t an engagement ring. Although now I'm thinking you had similar ideas to me.” 

Minho pulled out the ring from the box and showed the engraving inside. 

I fell in love with you unexpectedly

“You can’t use my own song, that's copyright.” Jisung joked as he let out a small sniffle.

“Last time I checked I was also included in the credits, considering I literally sang it.” Minho nudged Jisung slightly and helped the boy slip the ring on his finger as well.

“What did you say to your parents?” Jisung muttered, he said it so softly because quite frankly he didn’t want to know the outcome of that conversation and how Minho weaselled his way out of it. 

“Well, after you left, they questioned your sudden departure. I literally just shrugged and let them carry on opening their other presents. I assumed you would text me, but I quickly realised you had left your phone with guard cat Dori. When I realised you weren’t coming back soon I just guessed you’d be down here.”  Minho shrugged and wrapped an arm around Jisung and pulled him under his arm to hopefully emit some more warmth. 

“Hyung. You should’ve just said you had a girlfriend… Do you really think you want to spend the rest of your life stuck with me?” Jisung asked as he sat up, moving slightly away from Minho. 

“Baby…Why would I even lie about a girlfriend in the first place when one,” Minho held up a single finger, “I’m gay and secondly..” holding up a second finger, “I am completely enamoured by you Han Jisung. You’re stuck with me, I'm afraid.” 

“But, I’m ace. If you haven’t been cheating on me then you haven’t had sex in like three nearly four years. Surely… that’s something you want?” Jisung sighed as he glanced down at the snow that was by his leg and traced his finger over it. 

“Hannie, I knew what I was getting into. I find ways to keep myself happy without the need to cheat. Why do you think I sometimes take super long showers? Or ban you from coming over?” Minho grabbed one of Jisung’s hands and intertwined their hands, his gloved one with the younger's bare one. 

“That’s the thing Hyung…I.. I don’t know if I am just asexual now. Like I'm still definitely biromantic. But… These past weeks I’ve been having thoughts . Ew that’s weird to say.” Jisung scrunched up his nose in disgust before continuing, “I’m not sure if it is sexual thoughts, google said they were. But you can’t always trust google. But I did some research. I think I’m Demi..” 

“Demisexual? So like only when you have a connection with someone?” Minho raised an eyebrow, a small smirk appearing as Jisung looked his way. He got a small shove from the boy. 

“Get your thoughts out the gutter. I think it’s because I know I can trust you one hundred percent with anything. You know me better than I know myself sometimes. Which admittedly is kinda creepy Min.” Jisung let Minho pull him onto his lap which he wasn’t going to argue with when his butt had frozen. 

“If you think you are Demi then that’s fine. I’m not going to force you to have sex with me Hannie. You can be Demisexual but still be sex repulsed, or even just not want sex. I love you for who you are and a single label isn’t going to change that.” Minho went around Jisung’s body and kissed him on the cheek a few times, wrapping his arms around Jisung’s stomach and squeezing him slightly.

“Stop reading my mind…” Jisung wiggled on Minho’s lap in annoyance. 

“Neverrrrr.” Minho whispered into Jisung's ear, making the boy squirm more. 

“Come on, we should get you back in the warmth.” Minho patted Jisung’s butt and hoisted Jisung up by the hip. 

“I don’t wanna.” Jisung whined and fell into Minho’s hold and twisted around and hid his face in Minho’s chest. 

“We gotta, I’ve left all three cats with four humans who won’t play with them, and I also have a cheesecake that I baked waiting for you to eat.” Minho smirked as he saw Jisung raise his head and a small smile on his face. 

“Let’s go..” Jisung grabbed Minho’s hand and began pulling him along quickly. 

Minho pulled Jisung to slow him down and wrapped his arms around the boy, “Sure, but… what are we going to say to our parents huh? Why did you run out?” Minho asked as he fixed his own hat onto Jisung’s head. 

“I guess, we should come clean right? I mean I have a feeling you may explode out with it if they mention a girlfriend again.” Jisung shrugged as they walked along the beach at a slower pace this time.

“It’s up to you baby. Whatever you are comfy with.” Minho stopped them in the middle of the beach, the wind whistling through them. 

Jisung spun to look at Minho, “Let’s do it. We’ll have to come clean at some point. But I refuse to spill any details about anything . And you have to be the one to convince them to let me sleep round, without explicitly saying I'm ace, and nothing will happen.” Jisung pointed a finger and waved at Minho. 

“Sure.” Minho grinned and creeped closer to Jisung, wrapped his arms around Jisung’s waist and pulled him closer. 

“I love you.” Minho said softly, not letting Jisung reply before he kissed the boy. Jisung mentally rolled his shut eyes as Minho’s lips were still as smooth as ever compared to his dry ones. He let his hands travel around Minho’s shoulder and pulled him closer. It was too cold for them to really stay outside longer but the pair indulged in the kiss and let themselves ignore the world around them as the snowflakes drifted down around them on a beach covered in snow and the wind whistling, they only felt the warmth of their bubble.