LOSE MY BREATH

LMB 26

26: A different Minho.

Jisung was very much against taking advantage of drunk people, but Minho was an extremely tight-lipped individual, and also most often very much against giving Jisung any answers to questions that didn’t involve reciting one of the three thousand rules of the sect.

“Minho! I have a fun game we should play.” He stated, completely ignoring his own drink in favour of this. “It’s called 20 questions. I’ll ask a question, then you’ll get to ask a question. And we’ll have to be honest! You in?”

Minho made his drunken state evident by agreeing with a nod.

“Great! My first question is...” Jisung squinted, thinking. “Have you ever been to the women’s side?”

“No.”

“Ha, figures.” and if Minho had, it would’ve probably been with permission and a blindfold. “Now you ask.”

“What is Jisung’s favourite colour?” Minho, the absolute angel, asked.

“Red, I guess?” Jisung would have said red without hesitation before, but now other colours have nice connotations as well. Light blue. White. Gold.

“Mn. Thought so.”

“What’s Minho's?” Jisung asked because now he was curious. Probably blue, if Jisung had to guess. Like the sky and the little springs around the clan.

“Black.” replied Minho, and Jisung blinked. Damn, he had no idea. He hadn’t seen a single black thing memorable enough around the clan or in Minho's closet from what he could recall.

“What does Jisung miss the most from his home?” It would have felt like a sucker punch if someone else had asked the question instead of Minho. The answer, though, was easy.

 “My friends. And my– can I say Jeongin? I will still miss him when I return because he was there, but he was here too, but then again he is no longer there. And Felix, of course.” Minho nodded, eyes cast, like he was genuinely sad over the answer and Jisung couldn’t let that happen! Quickly, he threw out the one question he really wanted to ask.

“Minho, do you like me?”

“Mn.” replied Minho very easily, not rushed nor too slow to answer. A part of Jisung felt warm at the validation. He’d known, of course, but to hear it confirmed–

Another part of him wanted to clarify, to inquire whether Minho's like had an edge to it. Perhaps Minho's liking involved pushing Jisung into the mattress.

As if he had any right to be thinking such things, but he was a little tipsy, so he took the answer and tucked it away in the secret place in his chest where every other positive thing Minho had said about him was safe and hidden.

“What about Jisung?”

“Do I like you?” A question so ridiculous it made Jisung almost incredulous. “I like Minho more than anyone.”

It was true because Minho was a rock where Jisung faltered, a constant with whom he felt secure. Minho was the person who patiently listened to whatever nonsense Jisung had to say and stayed despite being an unmatched fighter and musician whose accomplishments were so obvious they felt unattainable.

He had seen Jisung's mess the night of their first meeting and had opened his home to him.

There was the slightest hint of a smile on Minho's face now like he was actually pleased with the answer. As if Jisung did anything other than praise him.

Jisung quickly moved on, then asked silly questions, the ones Minho would normally treat with nothing but a stony stare and a cold shoulder.

Minho's favourite animal was cats! – and his favourite book was a love poem by one of their clan’s ancestors. Minho liked his brother very much but avoided him sometimes when he knew he would be teased about something.