Strictly Business / Minsung

three -

When the two boys arrived back at the table, the dinner seemed to move much more quickly. They easily slipped into animated conversation about various things such as music and their joint love for animal documentaries. Minho was beginning to think that maybe Han Jisung was the best person he had ever met.

It was only when the dinner ended and various couples began to take their place to dance that Minho's father attempted to break the two apart. "Minho, may I borrow you for a second?" the man asked and his son nodded at him before informing Jisung that he would be right back.

As soon as they reached the edge of the room, the boy's father began talking in a strict and almost scary manner, "Minho the reason I brought you here was to charm the daughters of potential partners not to charm the son of our rivals," he all but spat out, "I want you to go over there and ask the daughter of the Shin family to dance, now."

Minho sighed, "okay father but I won't be rude to Jisung, I will tell him first that I am going to dance."

The boy's father huffed, "do whatever you like, I don't care but if I don't see you dancing with that girl within the next two minutes then there will be serious consequences."

The man stormed away leaving an annoyed Minho behind. He made his way back to Jisung and begrudgingly told the boy that he would have to dance with the Shin's daughter before he could continue with their conversation. Jisung only laughed before telling him to 'go and get it over with'.

Minho decided to do just that as he approached the girl and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Lee Minho, I was wondering if you would like to dance with me?" he asked kindly. No matter how kind and warm Minho knew he looked on the outside, he couldn't quash his inner dialogue that was screaming at him about how wrong this was and how he felt like he was in some gross 1700's novel.

The girl noticeably glanced at her parents who nodded eagerly before she accepted his request and they walked on to the dance floor.

"So, what's your name?" Minho asked her whilst attempting to use every bit of charm he possibly had.

"Shin Ryujin," she replied so bluntly that Minho was almost taken aback, "please can I stop this here before this gets weird and tell you that I'm a lesbian."

Minho felt like he'd hit the jackpot, "that's great this could've got really awkward because I'm gay and I just had to leave a boy I like because my dad forced me to dance with you."

Ryujin's expression instantly changed and she let out a loud laugh, "that's brilliant, maybe we can use each other for cover every time we meet at these kind of things, I've just got to make sure my girlfriend doesn't find out I'm dating a boy, not that I could ever bring her along to these things anyway."

"Do your parents know you have a girlfriend?" Minho asked and Ryujin laughed.

"Knowing and accepting are two different things," she explained, "do your parents know you're gay?"

"I think my mom suspects that I am, as for my father he's completely clueless," the boy laughed although Ryujin seemed as if her full attention wasn't on him anymore.

"You know you said you liked a boy, is it the brown haired guy with the black suit over there because he's staring at us and he looks kinda upset," she spoke and Minho whipped his head around to see that she was staring at Jisung. The boy did, indeed, look upset and Minho attributed this to the fact that their conversation had been cut brutally short by his father.

"Do you want to come and join us? That might please both of our parents," Minho laughed and Ryujin nodded before they both began walking in Jisung's direction.

They sat down at the table and Ryujin immediately stuck her hand out to Jisung, "hi I'm Shin Ryujin, it's nice to meet you."

"I'm Han Jisung and you too," Jisung smiled politely although he still looked mildly uncomfortable.

"I can't believe we've formed a I'm gay but my parents want me to marry someone who would make a good business partner allicance," Minho spoke out suddenly before the two others burst out laughing at his statement.

"You too?" Jisung asked seeming immediately more at ease.

"Yes, lets just say my girlfriend is not seen as an ideal match for me at all." Ryujin smiled but it was a smile full of sad acceptance rather than bright happiness.

"Well at least we've all got someone we can relate to now," the oldest pointed out making the two others nod in agreement.

Their conversation continued for almost half an hour after that, they talked about their families lack of acceptance and how hard they find it to make friends. Minho felt as if he had never related to two people more in his entire life than he related to Jisung and Ryujin.

It was only as people began leaving and the lights turned back on did their conversation finally come to an end. Ryujin was pulled away by her parents but not before giving both Minho and Jisung her phone number and making them swear to make a group chat. The oldest simply rolled his eyes playfully which earned him a light hit on the shoulder from Ryujin and a promise of, "I'll hit you harder at the next event if you don't make one."

In the end though, Jisung and Minho were left alone again. Their respective parents were off in other rooms talking about deals with their partners and as the two boys waited for another half an hour, they were the only two left in the hall other than the cleaners.

"This was not what I expected from tonight," Jisung yawned as he rested his elbows on the table and placed his chin on his hands.

"Me either," Minho replied honestly, "I didn't really know what I expected would happen."

"I thought you'd be the worst person I'd ever meet in my life," Jisung admitted and from his own experiences of what Minho's parents had told him about Jisung, the older boy could hardly say he was surprised.

"Same here," Minho spoke, "I did kind of hope you would be more like me though, I've always wanted a friend."

"I hoped for that too," Jisung laughed quietly, "that's why I let you in on my private instagram, you do realise that my only followers are you and two of my cousins right?"

"No I didn't realise and I beat you there, you are literally my only follower," Minho laughed loudly.

"Why do you even post then?" Jisung giggled.

"It gives me a sense of normality I guess, like that's what normal people my age are doing and if I'm doing that I can pretend I'm like them," the Lee heir faltered for a second, "plus you like all my posts."

"I do," Jisung laughed, "it's because you're so pretty," he blurted out and Minho flushes a deep red.

"That's why I like all of your posts too," Minho admitted.

"That makes us equal then," Jisung spoke.

When their parents finally walked back into the room, rather than feeling excited that he finally got to go home and to bed, Minho was struck with a sudden sadness. There was no telling when he would meet with Jisung again and the fact that they were sworn enemies from birth only made arranging a place to meet up so much harder. If ever his father found out that the two boys were friends, Minho couldn't even begin to think what the consequences would be.

As the Han family stood up to leave, Jisung offered Minho a warm smile, "nice talking with you Lee Minho," he addressed him and Minho bit back a laugh.

"You too Han Jisung," he smiled probably too widely but the feeling of immense happiness was far too much for him to be able to fight it back.

"Shall we leave then?" he father asked as soon as the Han's had made their way out.

"Okay," Minho replied simply with his eyes still locked on to the door that Jisung had just walked out of.

The boy had been infinitely better than he was expecting and infinitely better than even the Han Jisung that had appeared in his dreams. For one of the first times that Minho could remember, he felt a feeling of warmth inside him that he could only call true happiness.

-

tysm for reading this i really hope you enjoyed this chapter !! <33