22: Fated meeting.

Hearts don't heal overnight, but it was hard to be completely miserable in the company of his favourite people. 

Jisung and Minho were asked to have breakfast with the Yang family, and sitting between Minho and Jeongin was… a feel good moment.

Of course, Felix… Yongbok was there as well, and it seemed this reality’s Felix had also some difficulty controlling his volume.

“Jisung! What do you think you’re doing?” Yongbok barked. Jisung chopsticks froze mid-air between his and Minho’s bowl. He looked up, confused.

“Stealing Minho’s kimchi?” he said. “Why… you want one?”

“Did I… did I… ” Yongbok stuttered, turning a weird shade of red. “How is every version of you like this?”

“Hyung, be good,” Jeongin chastened from where he sat next to his wife.

The lady had been very silent for most of the morning. She seemed sort of arrogant in a way that most high-class cultivators here did, but Jisung hadn’t missed the absolutely adoring face she made at Jeongin’s back whenever he turned away, so Jisung wasn’t that worried.

And he could trust Jeongin’s taste. Probably.

“The dakbokkeumtang is really spicy and Minho doesn’t like that,” Jisung defended. “So really, I’m doing him a favour. See, I was going to exchange it for a piece of naengmyeon.”

Yongbok turned to Jeongin, his face morphed into horror. “No, no, I think he’s even more shameless than before. We can’t let anyone know we’re associated.”

“Ha, too late. Everyone already saw you cry on my shoulder yesterday.”

Jisung chugged one of the dakbokkeumtang into his mouth, and it was indeed really spicy. He loved it. As thanks he put pieces of carrots, and naengmyeon into Minho’s bowl, mild in taste and probably well cooked.

“Who cried? Who cried, Jisung?!”

“Hyungs.”

“Sorry, Jeongin,” Jisung said, although he didn’t feel very apologetic. Yongbok parroted the apology with much of the same reluctance.

After a moment’s peace, Yongbok opened his mouth again, but this time with a little less aggression.

“So...” he said. “How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

Yongbok rolled his eyes. “Cross realities, or whatever. End up here.”

“Oh, it was apparently a fated meeting sort of thing? That’s why Minho and I are such good friends! He was the person I met that night when I took a wrong left and ended up in the Geumgangsan.” 

One of the carrots in his dish looked extra bland. Jisung dropped it into Minho’s bowl.

“What the fuck… ” said Yongbok making Jisung look up.

That is when he realised everyone was staring at them across the table. Minho was clearly avoiding the social attention that would have resulted from spending too much time with Jisung by keeping his gaze fixed in the middle distance. Minho did look very blank, though. Very deliberately blank.

“And you didn’t think to mention this?” Yongbok asked, heated. "You have been playing around with Second Master Lee, showing absolutely no concern for the proper handling of these matters–”

“Hey, woah! We have long established that I am unchaste and permanently tainted for marriage or whatever." Jisung cut in. “No need to pull Minho into it.”

“You said ‘fated meeting’!” Yongbok said. “Those are about soulmates!”

Soulmates? He felt a sudden, uncontrollably beating sensation in his chest.

He looked over at Minho, who was chewing his vegetables quietly and elegantly without making any noise or responding to him or the conversation. Jisung cleared his throat.

“Chan hyung said it could be any kind of important meeting with any sort of important person.” Jisung said. "You are the one portraying it as an illegal affair."

Yongbok rubbed his temples. “This is unreal. Tell me, do you already have a partner back home?"

“Aww, Yongbok, are you jealous?” Jisung grinned. “Don’t worry, one day you’ll find a person who likes you back. Maybe a deaf one.”

“You-!”

“Hyung,” Jeongin said, exasperated. There was a strange look in his eyes when he turned to Jisung. "Jisung hyung, do you genuinely think this is something different?"

Jisung believed that such incidents did not occur to him. These kinds of magical, universe-changing, soul-healing experiences. It was not what he deserved, and Jisung was fine with that.

He chuckled, a little too self-satisfied. “Aish Jeongin, of course meeting Minho was important. It led me to seeing you, but does anyone really think you could fall in love at first sight?”

The smile Jeongin gave him was a mix of something very knowing and something very sorrowful, but despite seeing Jisung for what he was, he never pushed.

Minho's silence felt loud beside him, more so than it had in a long time. Jisung gave him a quick glance but was unable to meet his gaze.

“Right, fine.” After saying that, Yongbok shifted the conversation to the feast and the baby, drawing attention from Jisung to the contented pair.

Despite the hollowness in his chest, Jisung could not help but feel warm as he heard stories about his different-reality siblings' lives. For a brief moment, Jisung forgot about the 'fated meeting' and everything else about his life in Seoul, and simply let himself be present.
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Blue hair Changbin supremacy 😩