Chapter Text
Jisung was only 18 years old when he left his hometown Incheon for the first time in his life to study in Seoul, all alone. He kept clutching to the strap of his light green backpack that contained everything he needed to live. Clothes, money, his ID and pager, toiletries and maybe, just maybe, there was a magazine hiding between shirts and trousers and underwear, just like it had been hidden in Jisung’s closet in Incheon. Jisung looked at the piece of paper between his fingers while he waited for his train to arrive at a subway station. In hurried handwriting and red ink, the address of the boarding house he will live in stood on the wrinkled paper. Over and over he read the words written in front of him just to assure himself that he wasn’t at the wrong station, waiting for the wrong train, taking him to the wrong part of Seoul, that this was really happening and not a dream. He really was going to study in Seoul, away from Incheon, his parents, his so-called home. He was free. Kind of. Finally Jisung could breathe freely and inhale the air of freedom even though the air in Seoul wasn’t the best. It’s the thought that mattered.
With anxious yet excited steps Jisung entered the train after it had arrived noisily and a mass of people had exited it. Please let it be the right one! He didn’t want to embarrass himself or waste any second of his precious time. One look at the map inside the train, after he stepped inside, told him that he was in fact not in the wrong train. It was crowded, people kept pushing him slightly, shoulders brushed each other. Jisung was standing close to the door, eyes fixated on the glass in front of him. He stared right into the darkness that was somehow still moving, while he tried to ignore his reflection. He didn’t want to look at his face, at his chubby cheeks people liked to point out. Jisung had given up on waiting for his glow up where the potential baby-fat of his cheeks would magically disappear.
This whole situation totally felt surreal. He would live in Seoul in a boarding house with people he had never met. His host parents had let him know that they live in the house with their son who was 20 years old. Besides them there lived five other people, all guys who were around his age. Five other guys plus the hoster’s son. Somewhere inside Jisung was a tingling feeling when he thought about it. Maybe he will-
Quickly he shook his head to make the thought disappear. It was stupid to even think about it. He hated how fast his thoughts would jump to conclusions and imagines, and how he couldn’t control it.
The robotic female voice of the train threw him out of his head with announcing that they would arrive their destination any second. Jisung prepared himself to get off of the train. He had to find a telephone booth to page his friend that he arrived. His friend would meet him and they would go eat noodles and talk and remember their childhood. The thought eased his mind a little bit. Said friend was the only person Jisung knew in Seoul. He had moved here a year ago and Jisung had missed his face. The last time he had seen him was on Jisung’s prom. Jisung barely remembered anything of his prom besides his friend he had missed so dearly.
“Hey, it’s Jisung,” He started after he picked up the phone and dialed his friend’s number. His heart was beating a little faster inside his chest. “I arrived at the station. Can you pick me up? We wanted to eat noodles and talk, you remember? I guess… see you later.” Then he pressed “#” and stepped out of the booth. Jisung stood next to it and waited. Did his friend change or does he still look the same? People walked past him and Jisung tried to stay calm. The excitement inside him was bubbling.
And Jisung waited.
Worried he looked at the watch on his pager. His heart was slowly not beating so fast out of excitement but fear. Did something happen to his friend? Or worse, was he ignoring Jisung? No, Jisung didn’t want it consider it an option.
“Hey, it’s Jisung… again. Is everything alright? Did you forget about our meeting? Please call me as soon as you hear my message.”
And again, Jisung waited. He sat down, on the floor, somewhere near the telephone booth where he wouldn’t bother anyone. 53 minutes had passed after his first message and no response from his friend. Was this a sign? Did this foreshadow his future? Would Jisung be left alone? Was this the price for his secret? He lied to his parents about two big parts of his life and now he had to pay for it. Was it that? Jisung sighed. Great, his first day in freedom was going great. Really great.
Jisung looked at his watch on his wrist. 72 minutes and still no message. Everything had gone so well, from saying goodbye to his parents to riding the right train, and now this. Jisung felt so stupid for believing that everything would be great if he left his hometown. His heart hurt from thinking that his friend might be ignoring him, that he wasn’t his friend anymore. What had happened? Jisung was scared he missed the point where their friendship faded away.
He’ll wait four more minutes and then he would leave, he said to himself. His eyes and head hurt from holding back the tears. No, he wouldn’t cry. Jisung was still free, even though he might didn’t have the support of a friend in this new surrounding as he had expected.
Sighing in disappointment Jisung got up after those four minutes had passed. He took out the paper with the address on it out of his jeans pocket. Then he started his walk to the boarding house, ignoring the stinging pain inside his chest.
--
The sun was already setting when Jisung arrived at the house. His backpack was so heavy, it started cutting into his shoulders. Warm lights were greeting Jisung through the windows, the walls were made out of bricks and flowers were freely growing around the house, little dots of yellow, blue and red. Jisung felt his lips twitch a little bit and there it was again, the excitement he had felt before. His quick steps returned when he walked towards the entrance.
“Huh?” Jisung made a little noise of surprise when he noticed that the door was a gap open. Did they leave it open for him? Carefully Jisung stepped inside but he barely sat his second foot down when a loud yell busted through the air. “What did you say?”
Jisung immediately froze on his spot. But he hadn’t said anything? Was it even directed to him? It couldn’t be. Jisung’s heart was beating a little faster when he slowly came in. He took off his shoes, still being hesitant. He put his shoes aside and stepped into the living room. The sight he was greeted with was, well, not what he had expected.
A rather tall guy and a rather small guy were standing in front of each other, on eye-level (or as much their heights allowed them to) and they were screaming at each other.
“Did you just call me small?” The small one shouted, his hands in fists while the taller one had his hands resting on his waist. He was wearing a black shirt and you could see through it that he was fit.
“So what? You want to tell me that I’m lying or what?”
“Of course you’re-“
Jisung’s eyes drifted to the two people lying on the floor, right next to the fighting guys, facing the television. One was watching the tv or at least he tried to because the other one who looked younger, was making loud noises and sang off-key, probably just to annoy the other one – which worked.
“Can you please at least be quiet?”
“Hmm.” The younger-looking one made and then burst into laughter. Only then Jisung noticed that he was wearing braces. “No!”
“Oh, you little brat. I’m gonna ki-“
Again, Jisung looked away. One the couch was a guy with curly hair on the telephone, looking completely calm with a gentle smile on his face while he talked to someone which threw Jisung totally off. How could he be on the phone, talking to someone as if there wasn’t this mess in front of him? Jisung could barely make out his voice because he didn’t scream like the others did. All Jisung could hear was “Yeah, they are fighting again.” before someone else stepped into his sight, waving awkwardly. Startled by someone actually noticing him, he bowed quickly. The other one followed his action and smiled at him apologetically. Jisung noticed freckles sprinkled all over his cheeks and nose. How cute. Then the guy started to talk with a heavy accent: “Hello, you must be the new housemate. I’m sorry for this… mess. When Chan finishes his phone call he will show you everything.”
Jisung thanked him and decided to stand still. Where was the other one from? His accent sounded foreign, somehow English-sounding? He wanted to ask the other one where he was from and what his name was, when the guy with curly hair – Chan? – came over and greeted Jisung. “Hello, I’m Chan. Sorry that you have to arrive to this kind of… situation. Wait, give me a second.” Then he turned around and raised his voice:
“Hey, can you shut up of a moment? Our new housemate is here.”
Immediately everyone froze in their movement and then gathered themselves, the ones on the floor stood up and the fighting ones loosened their hands from being fists, and bowed to Jisung, looking seemingly embarrassed. Jisung was impressed by how well they listened to Chan. He was probably the host’s son.
“Okay, let me introduce everyone. Everyone, this is Jisung!” Chan pointed at him, Jisung waved in response.
“This is Felix. He comes from Australia which is why his Korean isn’t so good at the moment but he is improving quickly. Also, he will be your roommate.” Chan patted the shoulder of the freckled guy who had talked to Jisung firstly. Australia… okay, that’s interesting.
Then Chan pointed to the smallest guy out of them, the one who felt very attacked by the tallest one commenting his height. “This is Changbin. I know him the longest out of everyone. He’s not as tough as he always acts like. Our Changbinnie is actually a baby.” Changbin glared at him but his ears were so red, it almost made Jisung laugh.
“So, and this is Hyunjin.” The tallest one who had mocked Changbin waved with his hands. “He actually doesn’t live here but he hangs around all the time. He’s in the same swimming club as me.” That explained why their shoulders were so broad, Jisung thought. Then Chan got closer to the person he was about to introduce. He slung his arm around the waist of the guy with the braces who had kept annoying the other guy.
“And this is Jeongin, our youngest one. Isn’t he cute?” Chan ruffled his hair which made Jeongin laugh and Jisung had to agree that he was really cute. Then Chan slung his other arm around the guy Jeon had annoyed. “And last but not least, this is Seungmin. He shares a room with Changbin and Jeongin. If you touch his camera he will kill you.”
Seungmin then said with the sweetest smile Jisung has ever seen: “I will.”
Jisung bowed, again, and introduced himself: “Hello, I’m Jisung. I’m from Incheon and… yeah. Nice to meet you.”
For a moment they just stood there, awkwardly. Then Chan continued to talk: “My parents are currently at work, so I’m gonna show you your room and explain the house rules.”
Jisung nodded and followed Chan upstairs. He felt how everyone was watching him. Jisung felt a little uncomfortable, everything was so new but Jisung knew he would get used to it. His housemates seemed to be nice. The stairs creaked quietly under Jisung’s steps and Jisung found it somewhat charming.
“Okay, here to your left is your and Felix’ room. And to your right is Seungmin’s, Jeongin’s and Changbin’s room. In front of you is the bathroom and if you turn around, there is Minho’s room.”
Confused Jisung put his bag on the floor and turned around. There it was, a wooden door which separated them from the room of the so-called Minho. “Who is Minho?”
“Oh, right, you didn’t get to know him yet. Sorry, my parents usually do this, so I’m not really good at… this,” Chan laughed quietly and scratched the back of his head. “Minho is our other housemate. He’s still at the dance studio. You know, he’s a dance major.”
Jisung formed an ”o” with his mouth. That was interesting. He had never met a dancer and he found it admiring how Minho studied dance and would dedicate a big part of his life to it.
“And why is he alone in his room?”
“His room is the smallest one and he lives the longest here besides me and my parents.”
Understanding Jisung nodded, then he walked to his room and opened the door. Two beds standing on opposite sides of the room and a desk with piles of books and a computer greeted him. On the bed on the left side of the room a blanket had been thrown careless on it, while it was folded nicely on the other side. The window above the desk had no curtains and the sunlight made the dust particles dance in the air. The bed on the right seemed to be belonging to Jisung. Jisung turned to Chan.
“What is Felix majoring in?”
“Computer Engineering.”
Impressed Jisung looked at Chan and wanted to ask what the latter studied when Chan asked Jisung himself: “And what are you studying?”
Jisung hesitated and grabbed with slightly trembling fingers the belt of his backpack.
This. This was one of the moments he was most scared of. If he would tell the truth it meant that Jisung trusts Chan. It was a big part of Jisung and also one of the parts he hid from his parents. If his parents find out that he wasn’t studying medicine but lied to them, they would definitely kill him.
“Jisung? You okay?” Worried, Chan looked at him, slightly tilting his head to the left.
“I’m-“ Jisung opened his mouth, then closed it. He pressed his lips tightly together. Strangely he wanted to trust Chan. “I’m studying music but please don’t tell anyone. If my parents find out that I’m not majoring in medicine, they will…” The rest of the sentence hung in the air and also danced in the sunlight just like the dust did.
“Hey, it’s okay Jisung. I won’t tell anyone.” Chan held Jisung’s shoulders and Jisung noticed how his cheeks were burning. “Actually, Changbin and I compose songs from time to time. We do it on the attic, except in the summer because then it’s too hot to function. But you’re studying music, that’s so cool! You must be very talented if you got accepted.”
Jisung looked down, his lips were stretched into a wide smile. For the first time someone didn’t judge him for his interest in music. Normally people would tell him that music was nice as a hobby but nothing more.
“But Jisung, think about telling the other housemates. I don’t like having secrets under the roof. And the others won’t tell anyone about it too, I promise. Now you can unpack and settle down. If you want you can join us in the living room. We’ll order dinner in an hour, normally mom cooks for us but yeah.” Chan patted Jisung’s shoulder and left the room.
Jisung sat down on his bed and freed his back from his backpack. His shirt was sticking to his back, even though it was only April. It had been warm enough for Jisung to sweat. He felt the blanket underneath him, touched it slightly with his fingertips. It felt real. He really did arrive at the boarding house. Jisung leaned back and sighed happily. The start into the day had been rough but he made it. Jisung thought about Chan’s words. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to tell the others. Heck, he wasn’t sure if telling Chan the truth had been the right thing. He barely knew him and yet, Jisung told him a secret. Chan just had this… trustworthy appearance, Jisung couldn’t explain it.
Still, Jisung would probably go downstairs to get to know the others better. He could do that without telling them that he wasn’t a medicine student. They seemed to be nice, really nice. Also, Jisung was interested in meeting Minho. Maybe he would join them later?
Jisung got up and made his way downstairs where loud chatter came from. A little nervousness was noticeable inside his stomach but he still took every step of the stair until he touched the floor of the living room.
“Oh, hey Jisung. Come here!” Changbin greeted him when he noticed him standing next to the stairs. Jisung awkwardly waddled towards them. Chan and Felix made space between them and Jisung filled it when he sat down.
“Do you know what you want to eat? We decided to order now and not in an hour, because Chan is already starving. And now we’re waiting for Jeongin fucking finally finding the phone number of the restaurant,” Seungmin explained from the other side of the small table they were sitting around. In response, Jeongin made a stressed noise. Jisung shook his head which made Hyunjin hand him over the menu of the restaurant. Without really reading through the whole thing, Jisung named anything from it. Chan hummed in approval. Seems like he had ordered the same thing.
While Jeongin was dialing the phone number, Jisung remembered Chan’s words from earlier. “Uh, Chan. You wanted to tell me the house rules earlier?”
“Wow, of course you forgot to tell him the rules,” Changbin commented in a teasing tone.
Chan groaned. “God, why did my parents let me do your introduction? I’m sorry for forgetting it.”
“It’s fine.” Jisung smiled comforting.
“Okay, anyways. There aren’t that many rules and if you forget them, my mom wrote them down. The list is hanging in the kitchen. So,” Chan started explaining. In the background Jeongin was carefully ordering the food and Seungmin and Hyunjin kept poking the youngest into the stomach with their pointing fingers. “Rule number one: bedtime is at 11pm which doesn’t mean that you have to be sleeping at that time. You just have to be quiet. But most of the time my parents are still up at that time and we all watch tv together, so you don’t have to take that rule so serious.”
“I still don’t get why that rule is the first one, when it isn’t that important anyways,” Hyunjin said, still teasing Jeongin.
“Look who’s talking. You don’t even live here, so the rules don’t affect you that much,” Seungmin said, sounding mildly annoyed. Hyunjin mimicked Seungmin in a mocking way by imitating his voice, making it sound overly nasal.
“Uhm… yeah. Rule number two:” Chan changed the topic and made a peace sign with his fingers. “We always eat breakfast and dinner together. Breakfast is at 8am and Dinner’s at 7pm. Being late isn’t an option.”
“Except when his father oversleeps, which happens all the time, then you can come later,” Felix added, grinning. Jisung returned the smile, he found it funny how the others kept adding their comments. If Chan’s parents had explained him the rules, it wouldn’t have been this entertaining.
“Rule number three… is uh… let me think,” Chan mumbled to himself, then slightly shook his head. “Nevermind, you can read the rest of the rules on the list in the kitchen. The most important rule is that we don’t have secrets in this house.”
Jisung swallowed hardly, then nodded. If Chan only knew that his choice of major wasn’t his only secret…
The doorbell rang. Confused everyone in the living room turned towards the door.
“Strange… the food can’t be ready yet,” Chan said, got up to open the door. “Maybe it’s my parents? Did they forget the keys?”
It was silent for a moment, then you could hear the sound of the lock being opened. “Oh, Minho. Hey.”
A “Hey” came in return and you could hear soft footsteps. Jisung fixated his eyes towards the entrance. He was strangely very excited about Minho, was curious about how the dance major looked like. A person, clothed in black sweatpants and black shirt with a black cap and a face mask appeared in the living room, said “hey” again and immediately went upstairs. He disappeared as fast as he came. Jisung didn’t get a proper look of his face, it had been covered by the cap and face mask. Jisung’s shoulders fell in disappointment. This wasn’t what he had expected.
Chan returned to the living room and sat down on the floor again. “Sorry for Minho not introducing himself. He’s tired from the dance practice. You will get to know him at breakfast tomorrow.”
“Oh, isn’t Younghyun going to be at breakfast too?” Felix suddenly asked and played with the menu of the restaurant. The edges of the paper were already worn.
Hyunjin jumped from his seat. “Oh my god, please don’t tell me he’s coming!” With wide eyes and shaking pupils he looked at Chan, seemingly terrified.
“Who is Younhgyun?” Jisung asked carefully. Hyunjin’s reaction towards the unknown name made Jisung slightly scared.
“Super scary,” Hyunjin, Seungmin and Changbin said in union. Chan rolled his eyes, sighing loudly.
“I asked who he is and not what-“, Jisung started but Seungmin interrupted him.
“God, I’m glad he isn’t here right now. I can’t breathe around him.”
Changbin faked a gasp. “Seungmin, he probably heard you right now and will come by at night and eat you alive!”
“Guys, can you stop?” Chan finally spoke up, seemingly done with the others. Then he turned to Jisung to explain who Younghyun actually was. “Younghyun is my best friend and he often comes by, just like Hyunjin. And you don’t have to be scared of him, the others are just being overdramatic. Also, he won't be here tomorrow morning. He has practice.”
“Well, then you'll get to know Younghyun in the next days, since he's often here,” Jeongin concluded. He didn’t seem to be scared of Younghyun at all, which calmed Jisung a little down.
“Now that I think about it, you two look quite similar...” Felix added but before Jisung could question it, the doorbell rang, again.
--
With his stomach filled with good food, Jisung lied in his bed. His head was full with new memories and still, the old ones were slowly creeping up and pushing the new ones aside. It was quiet, Felix was already sleeping, so Jisung was alone with his thoughts. Jisung wasn’t aware of how much it had actually affected him that his old friend hadn’t met him earlier, until now. It hurt. His hopes had been so high, too high. He had thought about so many ways their meeting could have been like and it just… didn’t happen at all. A whole year had separated Jisung and his friend, all this time they hadn’t seen each other and Jisung had thought that his friend had missed him as much as Jisung did.
The last memory he had with him was his friend’s prom. He was a year older than Jisung, so he had finished school earlier than the latter. The prom was just a blur inside Jisung’s head, all he could remember were the sparkling dresses, shattered glass on the floor and the urge to pull his friend behind the bushes and… kiss him.
Jisung squeezed his eyes shut, took his pillow and pressed his face against it. He didn’t want to remember that feeling, it made him feel ashamed. Why couldn’t he be just like other guys and like girls? Why did he have to be into guys? It made everything so complicated. Hiding was so tiring.
Jisung rolled on his side, facing the window. The moon was looking at him. Why couldn’t it be accepted to be like Jisung? He was still a person after all, no matter if he was into guys or girls or both. Then he wouldn’t have to lie to his parents or his friend or Chan or everyone else. Then he wouldn’t have to hide the magazine he stole from his sister, so he could look at the picture of a famous male actor, shirtless, on page 46.
Again, Chan’s words were creeping inside Jisung’s head. “We don’t have secrets in this house.”
His major was one thing, already a huge secret on his own, but him being into guys was on a whole another level. Him being a music major was probably a thing the other housemates would accept but not his sexuality. Jisung knew that. At high school, every guy who acted a little differently, got beaten up by all the other guys. The bullies would call them names, really bad ones, hurt them and sometimes they did worse. Much worse. Jisung didn’t even want to think about it.
The moon had been there for Jisung, every night. When he didn’t find any sleep he would look through the window and tried to find comfort in the white dot hanging in the night sky.
In some nights it did help, in some nights it didn’t.
Tonight it didn’t help.
Jisung sighed.
“Jisung?” Felix suddenly asked next to him, on the other side of the room. Fuck, did he wake the other up?
“Yes?”
“You can’t sleep?”
“Mhm.”
Jisung could hear how Felix got up and walked over to Jisung’s bed. Then he sat down on the edge of said bed.
“Are you homesick?” Felix softly asked. It was so dark, Jisung barely saw the features of the other’s face. The voice of Felix was comforting. Jisung didn’t know if he should lie or tell the truth. And again, Chan’s words were haunting him, as if they were cursed.
Jisung got up and slung his arms around his legs, holding them close to his chest. “No.”
They sat there in silence, he wasn’t going to lie. Not telling about his secrets wasn’t lying.
“You’re not going to tell me, aren’t you?” Felix chuckled. “It’s alright, no pressure. We don’t have to tell everything to each other. Some little secrets are fine. For example, Seungmin doesn’t have to know that I stole his comic books last Sunday.”
Jisung laughed. That feeling was freeing. “Oh my god but please don’t tell it Seungmin!” Felix quickly added with a panicked voice.
“Yes, yes, of course I won’t tell it,” Jisung reassured him.
“Thanks, mate. And now let me give you a hug,” Felix said and completely threw Jisung off guard.
“A-A hug?”
“Yes! You can’t sleep, so you need a hug. A hug always helps me falling asleep,” Felix explained and before Jisung could say anything, the other one pulled him into a warm hug. Jisung’s whole body tensed up. When had been the last time someone had hugged him? This morning, his mum had hugged him but this wasn’t the same kind of a hug. This hug, that Felix was giving, was comforting. It made Jisung’s heart swell in warmth. Hesitating at first, Jisung returned the hug and let his chin rest on Felix’ shoulder. Felix made a happy noise, as if he was satisfied by Jisung’s action.
“Now that was a good hug!” Felix said after he loosened his grip around Jisung and took his arms back. His comment made Jisung laugh. What was Felix so nice for? “I know for sure that I will be able to sleep well now. I hope you do too. Good night.” And with these words Felix got up and returned to his bed. Jisung wiggled a bit around in his bed to find a comfortable position to sleep in, closed his eyes again and finally found sleep.
--
“Jisung, wake up. It’s time for breakfast.” Just how Felix’ voice had put Jisung to sleep, his voice pulled him out of it. Felix’ hands were on Jisung’s shoulders and softly shaking his body. Jisung groaned.
“Didn’t you tell me yesterday that Chan’s father often oversleeps?”
“Yes but it’s already 8,” Felix explained smiling while he looked at Jisung. Latter rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and the picture of Felix became slowly clearer.
Jisung sighed and gave in. “Alright, I’ll get up in a second.”
Felix got up from his knees as he has been kneeling in front of Jisung’s bed, and said that Jisung should come down soon. Tired Jisung stared at the ceiling, for five seconds he just laid there and did nothing, then he swung his legs out of bed. Yawing he sat there and thought about just not going to breakfast, just out of laziness. He looked around the room, caught new details here and there, until his eyes met his bag. Out of nowhere the sudden fear of the magazine being lost, appeared inside Jisung’s stomach. Jisung moved to his bag, opened it in a hurry and pushed his pink sweatshirt aside, just to find the magazine still being there. Of course it still was there. Jisung felt stupid for having to make sure that it still was there. His hand hovered above his bag, his mind was playing with the thought of pulling the magazine out and hiding it somewhere else than his bag before anyone could find it. He took it after some time of thinking and the bundle of paper suddenly felt heavier than it normally was. Jisung stared at the cover and he knew every detail of it, from the woman who was smiling brightly to the headlines, inviting the reader to take a look inside.
“Hey, what’s that?” Hyunjin literally screamed from the door and Jisung simply replied with a loud, surprised shriek. Where the hell did Hyunjin suddenly appear from? Quickly Jisung hid the magazine behind his back. “What do you mean?” His hands were shaking so badly. Oh no, this couldn’t be happening.
Hyunjin rushed towards Jisung. “Oh you know what I mean. Rule number 1: we don’t have secrets here!”
“Hey, that wasn’t rule number 1,” Jisung tried to distract. Why was everyone’s opinion on this rule so different?
“I don’t care,” Hyunjin scoffed and tried to grab Jisung’s magazine. “Now stop hiding it!”
Jisung started to scream, holding tightly to his secret item. Hyunjin got a hold of the magazine, kept dragging on it but Jisung didn’t let go. His fingers started to hurt. No, no, no, Hyunjin couldn’t even get a glimpse of what he was hiding. This couldn’t end like this. Jisung’s heart was beating so fast, it was pounding inside Jisung’s throat.
Hyunjin also screamed, saying things like “Give it to me!” and “Stop it!” and Jisung almost felt like crying because he didn’t want this to happen. He didn’t know how he could explain that he was hiding a teen magazine for girls.
“Hey!” A shouting male voice from the first floor interrupted them. “If you don’t shut up and come eating breakfast now, I’m gonna kill you!”
Hyunjin and Jisung both froze in their movements, looking into each other’s eyes with terrified expressions.
“Oh no,” Hyunjin mouthed, jumped off Jisung and ran out of Jisung’s and Felix’ room. Jisung’s hands were still shaking violently when he threw the magazine underneath his bed and followed Hyunjin downstairs. He was really coming late to breakfast on his first day. This was terrible, Jisung didn’t want to make a first bad impression when he first meets the host parents but now this would probably happen.
When Jisung entered the dining room, Hyunjin was already sitting with the others at the table which was filled with different kinds of food. Ashamed and with lowered head Jisung came a bit closer to the table, then he turned towards the woman and man who were sitting on the end of the table.
“Hello, I’m Jisung. I hadn’t the pleasure meeting you yet. I’m sorry for coming too late,” he politely introduced himself and bowed. The woman got up and did something Jisung did not expect: She hugged him.
“It’s okay, my husband just overreacted,” she said with a sweet smile on her lips. She gently patted his shoulder, just like Chan always seemed to do. “Chan must have forgotten to tell you when breakfast starts.”
Jisung looked up, opened his mouth to tell Chan’s mother the truth but Chan already confirmed what his mother had said: “Yeah, mom. Sorry but you know I easily forgot stuff.” Just like that Chan broke his own, most important rule. Jisung had to bite back a smile.
Chan’s father grumbled. “I hope that’s the first and last time you came late to breakfast, rookie.”
“Yes, of course,” Jisung reassured and finally sat down, next to Felix. To the left of Felix were Changbin and Jeongin, on the other side were Chan, Seungmin and Hyunjin. The latter was sitting right in front of Jisung and sent him a glare. Why was Hyunjin actually here again? He didn’t live here, right?
“I know what you’re thinking. I stayed the night, that’s why I’m still here,” Hyunjin answered his unspoken questions. Jisung tried to ignore the other’s glare and started to take some of the food. Was Hyunjin the type of person who would go into Jisung’s room and touch his stuff without asking? Jisung didn’t know the answer, yet.
It was quiet for the first time and all you could hear was the clicking of the cutlery and the rain drops hitting the windows. Oh, when did it start raining? Jisung was taking a piece of kimchi pancake into his mouth when he realized that one chair was empty. Who was missing? While munching on his food, he looked around, looked at every face, except Hyunjin’s because that would remind him of the incident again, when another person entered the room.
“Hey, who gave you the right to come this late?” Chan’s father shouted, and threw his metallic chop sticks on the table. Everyone looked up. The guy had a somehow dark aura, his head was hanging low but not in an ashamed way, just like Jisung had felt earlier. It seemed like he was annoyed. His black hair was slightly covering his face. He was wearing black pajama pants and a white shirt with… a cute-looking cat in cartoon style on it? Well, that didn’t fit the guy’s image at all.
“Now, say hello to the rookie and sit down!” Chan’s father demanded and only then the guy looked up, brushed his hair out of his face and his and Jisung’s eyes met.
Jisung completely forgot how to breathe. This guy can’t be real. A real human being just like everyone else in the room. He was stunning, breathtakingly beautiful. His face had perfect proportions, nice, plump lips and a straight nose with a tiny mole on the tip but the most mesmerizing part of his face were his eyes. They were huge. Two big, glistening irises looked at him, they were a dark, chocolate brown, basically sucking Jisung in.
“Hi, I’m Minho,” the guy simply said with no expression on his face and sat down on the empty chair.
Jisung swallowed hardly. “I-I’m Jisung, nice to meet you.”
Minho didn’t seem to care about who Jisung was. He didn’t react at all, he just started eating. Jisung was afraid that he didn’t even said his introduction out loud but no, he clearly said it. Did he sound stupid or unlikeable? Blood rushed into Jisung’s cheeks and he quickly looked down, stuffing his face to hide his embarrassment.
So, this was Minho? Jisung hadn’t expected him to be like that at all. He had imagined him to be nicer. He didn’t know if he liked him, if they even could become friends.
What did Jisung know for sure was that he didn’t like the effect Minho had on him. At all.