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Changbin remembers it clearly - Minho literally falling for Jisung at first sight.
He was standing at the end of the street, skateboard tucked under his arm as he waited for Jisung to join him. In the meantime, he had been quietly observing as Minho, new in town and a stranger to Changbin at the time, hurriedly crossed the street. And then, in the next instant, Jisung was rushing out of his house, onto the sidewalk, and clearly not thinking much as he ran straight towards Changbin, not taking into account that he could very well likely collide into the new boy.
Somehow, Jisung’s quick reflexes had allowed him to skid to a stop, and quickly step to the side before he crashed into Minho, except the latter wasn’t as lucky, because when he tried to avoid Jisung, his foot instead ended up tripping over Jisung’s leg.
The next thing they all knew, Minho was free falling onto the ground, face first - lucky for him, he was able to catch his weight with his hands at the last second, and the most damage he’d gotten from the incident were two badly scraped knees.
Changbin, after the momentary shock, had rushed over, just as Jisung started apologizing profusely.
“I’m sorry, sorry, sorry— Are you okay?” Jisung asked, only to look mildly starstruck the moment Minho looked up and their eyes met. “Pretty,” is what Changbin will swear, even now, that he heard Jisung mumble under his breath. Whatever it was though, it was quickly drowned out by another round of apologies.
“It’s okay,” Minho told them, even as he winced and rubbed his knees. Jisung continued to uselessly fawn over him anyway, repeating I’m sorry over and over again, leaving Changbin to do the responsible thing of running to his house and asking his mother for rubbing alcohol and bandaids.
The three of them had become inseparable from that day onwards; in a lot of ways, Changbin feels like he was always stuck in the middle, between Minho and Jisung - he was literally in the middle age-wise, and his house was right in between theirs as well.
He always played mediator a lot because Jisung had a habit of running his mouth, while Minho had a habit dropping witty, but oftentimes insensitive quips, and neither habits meshed well with the fact that 1) Jisung can be quite sensitive, and 2) Minho is bad at apologies.
When Changbin is 11 (Jisung, 10 and Minho, 12), they had their first real spat. It happened over the course of a weekend after a Saturday morning that Minho and Changbin spent hanging out together, just the two of them. They did drop by Jisung’s to pick him up, but after his mother had informed them that he was still asleep, they didn’t bother waiting before heading off on their merry way. They had spent most of the day by the Han River, Changbin exercising complete patience as he taught Minho basic tricks and flips on his skateboard. A day well spent, Changbin would have said, except by the time they get back home, they’re met with an irate Jisung at the steps of Minho’s house.
“You left me!” He accused them, frustration and anger etched across his young features.
To his credit, Changbin did feel bad - it’s not as if he and Minho had meant to waste the entire day away with just the two of them, but with Minho repeatedly falling on his ass, Changbin admits to having had too much fun and losing track of time easily.
“So—” He began to apologise, but he’s beaten to speaking by Minho.
“You were asleep. It was past eleven in the morning,” Minho pointed out, his tone calm, but also maybe just a tad patronizing. “We thought you needed some beauty sleep,” he added, a tiny smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.
To Changbin, it was funny that Minho was acting like this, when on the way home he’d kept excitedly talking about showing Jisung his new (very basic) board tricks; not to mention it was Minho who suggested they buy some of Jisung’s favorite snacks at the nearby convenience store to make up for leaving him behind.
To Jisung, however, who knew none of these things, all Minho’s words did was provide nothing but sting.
“I hate you both,” JIsung hissed, right before flouncing off back to his house, and even for a ten year old, Changbin’s pretty sure that was a bit overdramatic but he had been willing to run after Jisung to fix things, but—
Minho just shrugged. “He’ll be fine once he calms down.”
He was right, of course, except it took Jisung an entire five days - with Changbin needing to go back and forth, twisting Minho’s words to make him sound more rueful - to calm down.
It’s Changbin that Minho turned to when he was 19, about to graduate high school, and he started going through an entire roller coaster of feelings.
“I like someone,” Minho told him, tone completely even and rational, because even though Changbin knew him well enough to to be aware that Minho was very likely a mess inside, he still had to put on a calm front.
“I know,” Changbin answered anyway, hardly even missing a beat. He wasn’t surprised at all, because he was one of the two people closest to Minho, and unlike Jisung, he wasn’t a complete fool. “You like Jisung.”
Minho actually looked visibly surprised, and for a second, a self-satisfied smirk spread across Changbin’s features. Serves him right, he thought smugly.
“Okay, I do,” Minho sighed, surprisingly not bothering to argue, or even ask how Changbin even knew. “Don’t tell him.”
Changbin could only give him an incredulous look, while thinking, whatever. It wasn't his problem if Minho wanted to keep his feelings to himself. It won’t be on him if Minho one day just explodes out of frustration.
Except— life is funny, and Minho and Jisung’s romantic issues of course eventually land on his lap again. It happened the night of Minho’s graduation, when Jisung climbed into his room through through the window in the middle of the night, looking all panicked and nervous.
“Hyung, hyung, hyung— ” He whined, shaking Changbin awake.
“ What?” He asked, annoyed at being woken up because it’s past fucking midnight, and he needed his beauty sleep, goddamnit. “What?” He asked again, sighing as he slowly sits up and rubs his eyes open, because Jisung sounded really, really unnerved.
“Hyung,” Jisung repeated, looking at him with big, doe eyes. “I’m in love with Minho-hyung.”
He said it so matter-of-fact that Changbin almost choked on his own spit. “This couldn’t have waited ‘til morning?!” He squawked in disbelief.
Jisung kept staring at him with an uncertain expression, and eventually Changbin’s annoyance thaws out.
“What are you going to do, then?” He asked, only to be met with a blank look.
“That’s why I came over, hyung,” Jisung explained slowly. “What should I do?”
Changbin groaned, “This really can’t wait until tomorrow?!” He shook his head and fell back down on his bed again, this time pulling his blanket over his head. “Just confess,” he grumbled. “And put us all out of our respective miseries.”
The truth is that Changbin is only 17 when he first realised that there was something going on between his two best friends that he shouldn’t necessarily involve himself in.
Changbin had led a trip up to Namsan Tower after his girlfriend of seven months had dumped him; the two of them had hung a love lock when they’d reached a hundred days, and now that they were over, he couldn’t help but feel spiteful enough to want to take it down.
The moment they stepped inside the elevator to go up the tower, Minho had frozen; right up until that moment, Changbin had actually forgotten that his friend had a massive fear of heights, and something inside him had felt touched that despite this, Minho actually kept silent and just followed along Changbin’s request for them to accompany him.
He was about to open his mouth to express his gratefulness, but Jisung was already whispering something in Minho’s ear. The older’s expression was still a little panicked, but Jisung was on it - he’d taken Minho’s hand in his own, while his other free hand rubbed gentle, soothing circles on Minho’s back.
The scene felt oddly personal - Changbin was the reason they were all cramped in the tiny elevator space, making their way up a seven hundred foot tower, but it felt like Minho and Jisung were having a moment that he wasn’t privy to.
Objectively, he knew he should feel a bit off about it - a little jealous, maybe, after all he had known Jisung for far longer, while he was much closer to Minho’s age, and all of that should somehow mean that he was closer to each of them, than they were to each other.
Except, it wasn’t like that, at all.
But if anything, Changbin just felt like it all made perfect sense.
Even after Changbin’s clearly sound advice, Jisung doesn’t really confess, and somehow that directly affected Changbin’s life because it meant that he kept needing to hear both Minho’s denials, and Jisung’s lamentations.
He can’t lie - it started out amusing. How can it not be? Jisung whining any time Minho was too busy to spend time with him was funny enough, but the look on Minho’s face every time Jisung showed even an ounce of interest in someone who wasn’t him - that was priceless.
But Changbin could only take so much of the same thing over and over again.
Everyone knows that years of dancing around your feelings for someone can’t be healthy. At the very least Changbin knows it can’t be healthy for him and his sanity.
It’s not as if Changbin hasn’t tried at least nudging them towards the right direction.
“You should just tell him how you feel,” Changbin advised Minho one time. It’s been a year of watching his best friends painfully dance around each other’s feelings, and he was just about fed up with all of it. “I don’t understand what’s so hard - everyone already knows you like him anyway.”
“Everyone does not.” Minho answered drily. “He’s Jisung,” he continued to point out. “You never know what’s going on in his head.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Changbin chortled. “You know he’s totally into you too.”
“Don’t be rude,” Minho shot back. “I’m still your hyung.”
“What if he’s into girls?” Is what Changbin got from Jisung, and it took all of his self-control not to laugh obnoxiously in Jisung’s face.
“Are you serious? Do you want a list of all the girls he turned down in high school?” Changbin asked, and at this point he’s unable to keep himself from laughing anymore.
“So? That doesn’t mean anything,” Jisung retorted. “Minho-hyung’s just very picky.”
“Sure he is - he has a very specific taste after all,” He returned, giving Jisung a very pointed look.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Changbin sighed. “It means you’re an idiot.”
When Changbin complains about his predicament to Hyunjin, all he gets is hearty laughter, together with a comforting hug - which was nice, but didn’t really help him any.
When Seungmin hears about his plight, he gets a derisive eye roll, followed by even more laughter. “I don’t know why you think you have to do anything. Everyone already assumes they’re dating, anyway.”
Jeongin just tells him, in a very dry, matter-of-fact tone that sounded out of place when coupled with the bright smile he wore on his face, “Maybe you should get a love life of your own instead, hyung.”
As it turns out, Seungmin is completely right, and Changbin ends up not needing to do anything, except maybe bleach his eyes, after he ends up walking in on Minho and Jisung one afternoon, practically shoving their tongues down each other’s throats.
“What the fuck?!” He squawked, a horrified expression on his face as he interrupts them. “Why are you doing this in my room?!”
Alerted by his presence, his two best friends quickly sprung apart; at least Jisung had the gall to look embarrassed. Minho, annoying as ever, looked mostly unfazed - at least unless you know to pay attention to the way the tips of his ears were burning up.
“S-sorry!” Jisung stammered, forcing a laugh when he tried to face Changbin. “We wanted to surprise you—”
Changbin continued to blink at them, his jaw still slack from disbelief. “Surprise me?!”
“Happy birthday!” Minho chirped, picking up a shiny paper bag from the floor to hold out to him; Changbin assumed this was supposed to be his birthday present, but that was the last thing in his mind in that moment.
“Yeah…” He drawled, cringing as he took a cautious step towards the two. “That’s less of a surprise than whatever was going on in here earlier.”
“Don’t act like you’ve never seen two people kiss before, Changbinnie,” Minho teased, getting up so he can pull Changbin over towards them.
He ends up seated on his bed, right between Minho and Jisung, and it felt weird but strangely not awkward at all. Maybe it was because he's had more than a decade to get accustomed to the combined weirdness of Minho and Jisung. “So,” he started, his eyes drifting from Minho to Jisung, and then back as Minho shoved the paper bag in his hands. “This is happening? Finally? The two of you?”
Jisung laughed, but not a second later, he was also the one to give Changbin a shy nod of confirmation.
“Okay.” He nodded back and let out a slow exhale, before allowing a genuine smile to spread across his face. “Happy for you two and all, and just… fucking finally, and all that but—” He cleared his throat, and fiddled with the handle of the paper bag in his hands. “But maybe a better birthday present is the two of you not sucking face in my room, and on my bed, you know?!”
There was a moment of silence, and Changbin almost wondered if he made it awkward, but then Minho started laughing before he wrapped an arm around him, and Jisung soon followed suit.
“So we can take this back to the store, then?” Minho teased, pulling at the paper bag and pretending to take it back. “It cost us a fortune you know.”
“No—” Changbin quickly answered, laughing as he hugged the package to his chest. He didn’t even know what was inside, but he knew he can trust his two best friends to know what to get him. “This is backpay for all the the years I had to suffer your continuous, yet mutual pining. I deserve as much.”
Okay, in hindsight, maybe it was less Minho falling for Jisung, and really more just falling on his face because of Jisung, but they were ages, 9, 10 and 11 at the time, and none of them knew anything about falling in love.
Still, whenever Changbin looks back to that time, he thinks it makes perfect sense that’s how Jisung and Minho met, all things now considered - a ridiculous start, for a ridiculous pair.
fin.