Archive of Our Own

Seungmin is the first to arrive at the brunch spot. It’s tradition at this point. Every Saturday morning, he and his friends meet here, unwind from the weekend and maybe have a drink or two before noon comes around. It’s nice, even if it does cause a slight dent in Seungmin’s wallet every time he has to pay.

He likes to get there first, gives him time to sit down and order his first drink. It’s usually a coffee or tea, figuring he can wait until the others arrive before he starts hitting any alcohol.

“Minnie!” A deep voice calls out to him. Seungmin turns just in time to see Felix wave brightly at him. He’s much too happy for someone who said he was hungover in their group chat this morning. Behind him is someone who looks the exact amount of hungover that Seungmin expected from the way he was responding in the group chat. Jisung looks tired and sluggish. He follows behind Felix like a zombie and Seungmin is pretty sure his eyes are closed. Jeongin isn’t too far behind, leading Jisung to the table. He doesn’t look hungover in the slightest. Not a surprise since he rarely drinks that much, unlike his two hyungs that he’s following. “We didn’t make you wait long, did we?” Felix worries as they get closer.

Seungmin shakes his head slightly. “Not that long. I just got settled.” Seungmin answers easily.

“Good!” Felix smiles brightly as he slides in beside Jisung. Seungmin feels a little bad for Jisung’s sorry state so he says nothing as Jisung steals his iced americano and starts sipping on it like he bought it. “It’s on me today, so make sure to order lots.” Felix informs the table and Seungmin appreciates the sentiment but it’s a bit of an unspoken rule to order within reason unless it’s on Jeongin’s parent’s credit card. Then it's a free game.

They waste little time ordering, all knowing what they want since they get it every time. Jisung seems to perk up as he drinks more of Seungmin’s americano, to the point that Seungmin orders a second just for Jisung. He gets a grateful look when Seungmin slides it over to him, sipping on it happily.

“So Minnie…” Felix starts as they wait for their food to arrive. “How was your date last night?” He asks.

Seungmin had forgotten he mentioned the date to them. He’s mentioned it the last few times that they have gotten together. He’s been seeing someone, which is new for him. He isn’t really sure it’s a relationship yet, they talk all the time and he even comes to see him at work every so often. Usually with lunch or a late breakfast. His accounting job gives him a lot of time for breaks and he uses that privilege quite often. He’s kind of the perfect guy. He’s nice, walks him home and even walks him to work when he has time and is out on his morning runs. He works as a private chef and always makes extra for Seungmin for him to have on the weekend even when he’s supposed to be cooking for whatever family is paying an unreal amount of money to cook for them. He sends Seungmin pictures of his cats while Seungmin balances books and Seungmin sends him pictures of random dogs he sees walk past his office while the private chef cooks. He’s wonderful and Seungmin would like to be his boyfriend. He just has one problem, one that Seungmin has really been trying to ignore but at this point, it’s a bit of an issue. A glaringly obvious issue.

“It was nice…” Seungmin decides to say, adjusting his glasses. He has to be careful and choose his next words cautiously. His friends, while oblivious to things in their own lives, are horribly preceptive to even the smallest things in Seungmin’s. They read him like an open book. “There is just this one thing about him that… Is a little odd?”

“Odd?” Jeongin raises an eyebrow. “What kind of odd? He’s not like a stalker or serial killer or something, is he?”

“Please don’t tell me you’re dating another potential serial killer.” Jisung whines. Seungmin feels weirdly offended, he’s never dated a single person who was a potential serial killer, save for that one guy in college who cut Seungmin’s hair in his sleep. When they didn’t even live together. And Seungmin didn’t even tell him where he lived.

Okay, maybe Jisung does have a point, but Minho isn’t a serial killer. Stalker, maybe, because he did follow Seungmin home that one time after work but that was because Seungmin had his headphones in and didn’t hear Minho behind him the entire walk home and Minho didn’t want to scare him. He’s a considerate stalker at least, unlike the guy from college. Seungmin had to hide that bald spot for three months until his hair grew back.

“My hand still hurts from punching that weirdo.” Jeongin grumbles from the side. Seungmin is still thankful for the trio, who he lived with at the time, taking care of the weirdo for Seungmin. He hadn’t stood a chance against the three. Felix had really taken pleasure in kicking the guy and Jeongin loved that he landed a few punches on the guy. Jisung liked to be the moral support and helped Seungmin from breaking down into tears. A real bonding experience, if you asked Seungmin.

“He’s not a serial killer.” Seungmin is quick to put that to rest.

“Then how is he odd?” Felix tilts his head curiously.

“Well…” Seungmin starts, trailing off, unsure how his friends will react. “He… He keeps taking me to the circus. Like, we’ve gone like five times. That’s not even counting the other two times we went and there was no circus. He just got the days wrong and we ended up walking around.” Seungmin explains. “He just always seems to have tickets to the circus, I don’t even know where he gets them. And he always acts like it was some big deal that he got them but then we get there and there are maybe 10 people there. The first time we went, we were the only two in the audience.”

He’s not really surprised when he’s met with silence.

The looks on his friends' faces vary, Seungmin doesn’t know who looks more confused though. Felix is leading, but only by a slight margin.

“I don’t even know what to ask first.” Jeongin finally says from the side. Seungmin understands the confusion, he didn’t really know what to think of all of this at first either. “He’s… You’ve gone with him to circus with him five times-”

“Seven.” Seungmin corrects quickly. “We just didn’t see a performance two times.”

“I think that’s worse.” Jisung seems to have collected his jaw off the table long enough to pipe up from the side. “If you had seen a performance, at least you had a reason to be there. But you just stayed there after realizing he got the day wrong and walked around somewhere none of us have heard of and decided to go another time?!”

“It was the third and sixth time so technically, he had proven there was a circus-” Seungmin defends but is cut off.

“Last night was the seventh time you have gone to this circus with him?” Felix interjects. He seems the most confused still.

“Yes.” Seungmin nods quickly. They are all quiet again for a beat.

“Was it any good?” Felix asks. It’s a little off topic but Seungmin will take it.

“Meh.” Seungmin grimaces slightly, shrugging one shoulder. “It was better than the first time we went. They’ve gotten better but it’s still just okay.”

Silence once again fills the air at the table.

“You’re telling us,” Jeongin begins, “That you have gone to a subpar circus with a guy you met a month ago not one time, not two times, not even five times,” He pauses, ”but seven times?”

“Yes.” Seungmin repeats.

Silence, again.

“Can we go next time you go?” Felix breaks the silence and is met with protests from the other two.

“Felix!”

“We are not going to a potential death circus!” Jeongin exclaims before looking at Seungmin. “You are not going to another potential death circus!”

“It is not a death circus-” Seungmin tries to argue.

“It is!” Jeongin snaps back. “I have never even heard of a circus going on around here, let alone one going on for this long! You can’t be serious hyung!” Jeongin chides and Seungmin doesn’t like to be scolded, especially by Jeongin.

“I am!” Seungmin maintains, glaring at the man beside him. “I didn’t tell you guys to just be judged!”

“This isn’t judging!” Jisung asserts, though even that sounds like a judgment to Seungmin’s ears. “This is us being worried. Normal people don’t just take people to the circus seven times!”

“He’s not normal!” Seungmin defends Minho. Even if he’s not here, he would take offense at someone insinuating that he is normal, or needs to be.

“That’s even more concerning!” Jisung argues and Seungmin knows this is a lost cause, he shouldn’t have even brought it up. He’s regretting it already.

“Guys, let’s not fight.” Felix tries to reason with the other three who seem dead set on doing anything but listening to him. It’s when they start getting looks from other patrons that Felix decides that they really need to stop fighting before they get kicked out. “Look, this is Seungmin’s life and if he wants to go to the circus with this guy-”

“He’s going to get killed!” Jisung insists and Felix is quick to silence him with a glare. Jeongin looks close to agreeing but is also silenced by the same glare.

“Let me finish.” Felix continues, glad to see the pair settle down. “If Seungminnie wants to do this, let’s just go to the circus and check it out.” Felix reasons and it’s a good plan. One that Seungmin can get behind.

“I agree.” Seungmin smiles gratefully at Felix.

“But if we think it’s weird Seungmin, you have to stop going.” Felix tacks on. Seungmin suddenly doesn’t like this plan.

“That’s not fair-” Seungmin is about to start arguing again but is also silenced by Felix’s glare. “Fine…” He grumbles, pulling out his phone.

“Then it’s settled. When is the next circus Seungmin?” Felix asks.

Seungmin is typing while he answers. “Wednesday. I’ll ask Minho hyung if he can get you guys some tickets.” Seungmin mumbles to himself as he types out a message to Minho.

“I thought you said only ten people ever show up?” Jisung asks, watching Seungmin.

“Yeah… But you still need tickets.” He answers, like it really answers anything. They just watch in silence as Seungmin smiles to his phone, typing and replying to this Minho guy.

He has the tickets secured before they even have their second rounds of drinks.

.

“Is this really the place Seungmin?” Felix looks at the door questioningly.

Seungmin knows the feeling, he felt the same the first time he came to the seemingly empty building that needs a new coat of paint, a better sidewalk, and a door that doesn’t look like someone got murdered in front of it and they didn’t even bother to wash off the blood. It’s just rust, Seungmin knows that now. It might honestly be cheaper if they just tore the whole building down and rebuilt it from the ground up than try to fix everything about it, but Seungmin thinks that’s its charm.

“It’s better inside.” Seungmin assures him. Jisung and Jeongin don’t really seem convinced though. “Really! It just looks like a dump from the outside. They just fixed the heating too, it’s really nice.”

“When is Minho getting here?” Jeongin asks, not buying anything Seungmin says.

“He’ll be here any minute. I told him we were by the door.” Seungmin answers. He had texted him as soon as they got here and got back a thumbs up and that he would be there soon. He was parking. That’s what the other three don’t understand either, Minho has a car, unlike any of them, and they normally drive here. Minho opens his door too, like a gentleman. It’s also because Minho’s passenger side can only be opened from the outside due to one too many accidents the poor car has been in, but they don’t need to know that.

“Is that him?” Jisung interrupts his thoughts. Seungmin looks up to see Minho walking down the street towards them. He looks so pretty, even in the dim street lights and all bundled up in his winter jacket. Seungmin has to stop himself from running over to him to take his hand. He has a reputation to maintain.

“Yeah, that’s him.” Seungmin smiles shyly, unable to help himself. “Hyung!” Seungmin calls out, waving at Minho as if he didn’t already spot them.

Minho quickened his pace, obviously wanting out of the cold but also to make his way over to them faster. As soon as he’s in reach, Seungmin is pulling him closer, unable to help himself. He’s not a touchy guy, not at all. Neither is Minho but Seungmin can’t help the possessive feeling he gets around Minho. They aren’t even really dating, but they also are. It’s complicated.

“Guys, this is Minho. Minho, these are my friends I was telling you about.” Seungmin introduces them all. Minho greets them with a slight smile and is greeted back with wary looks of distrust. Not the best sign, but Seungmin really hopes that tonight they will realize they have nothing to worry about. Minho is weird but not a serial killer weird.

“Let’s head inside, the show is starting soon.” Minho is unbothered by the lack of greeting from the trio in front of him. He pulls out the tickets quickly and Seungmin takes them to distribute them among his friends and himself. He ignores the looks of confusion painted on everyone's face as they take the tickets. Minho opens the door for them and Seungmin is the first one in before turning to the others.

“Come on, we’re letting out the hot air.” Seungmin tells them. The trio share a look, one of resignation as they cross the threshold, praying it won’t be the last time they do.

.

Three hours later, their prayers were answered as they crossed the same threshold again.

It’s silent as they all try to collect their thoughts about what they just witnessed. Seungmin looks at them eagerly. “So, what did you guys think?”

“That was…” Felix starts, not wanting to be mean. He sees the excited expression on Seungmin’s face paired with Minho’s raised eyebrow and he doesn’t have it in him to tell the truth. “Really cool!” Felix smiles brightly, trying to make it seem believable.

“Wasn’t it? They’ve really improved.” Seungmin agrees quickly, looking at Minho who only nods. “Last time we came, they dropped like every bowling pin while juggling. Keeping two in the air was a really good record this time!” Seungmin continues.

It’s then that they see it. The pleading in Seungmin’s eyes to say something nice about this, anything nice about the absolute train wreck they just witnessed. Something polite about the three clowns that were on the stage for the last three hours, all in various forms of the worst clown makeup Felix has ever seen. Say something good about the horrible contortion act that Felix is pretty sure the tallest clown pulled something during if the way that he grimaced was anything to go off. Say anything somewhat nice about the strongman act that went on way too long and Felix is pretty sure it was just the clown's workout routine. Say something adjacent to a compliment to that magic show at the end that wasn’t even magic, it was just some really bad slight of hand tricks that somehow never worked.

This is very obviously not Seungmin’s thing, it’s clearly Minho’s and Seungmin just wants them to be nice about it. Though the three give Seungmin a hard time, they don’t want to be cruel.

“It was cool.” Jeongin agrees, smiling slightly. Jisung smiles from the side too, nodding his head.

“Yeah! I liked it. Best circus I have been to in a while.” Jisungs adds. He doesn’t add that he’s never been to a circus before.

“They do one once a week if you want to come back.” Minho tells them and smirks slightly. It’s a bit odd, Jisung thinks. He understands what Seungmin meant about him being odd now.

“No, I think we’re good. This is you and Seungmin’s thing, I would hate to intrude!” Felix is quick to say, still smiling brightly. “I’m kind of surprised though, I never really took Seungmin as the type to like the circus though, so it’s really good he met you!”

The smirk on Minho’s face is replaced by a slight frown. “What are you talking about? Seungmin loves the circus.” Minho emphasizes and the trio freeze. This is news to them.

“Since when?” Jeongin can’t help but ask. He’s met with an even more confused look from Minho.

“Since forever.” Minho replies, looking at Seungmin who looks just as lost. “Since forever, right?” Minho asks.

Seungmin looks just as confused as Minho. “Where did you get that from? I mean, I like coming to them now, but I can’t say I have loved them forever-”

“You literally texted me that you loved the circus.” Minho interrupts. There is a beat of silence.

“I have literally never texted you that.” Seungmin denies. Minho is stunned only for a moment before pulling out his phone and scrolling. The trio can only watch in awed silence as the man seems to be looking for something.

“You did, look.” Minho shows him the phone. Seungmin is quick to take it, looking at the screen. It takes him a minute to figure out what he is looking at. It’s their text logs from a month ago, when they really started to talk. There is a picture of the brownies that Minho had baked and dropped off at Seungmin’s work with clear instructions that no one but him was allowed to eat them because Minho didn’t like his coworkers since they always made Seungmin do all the work. Seungmin had giggled at the instructions that he wrote on a sticky note attached to the brownies. It was cute.

Under it though, sits the real evidence.

Seungmo: I love the circus!

There it was and Seungmin could scream because he was obviously talking about the brownies that Minho had brought him, they had an orange zest in them that Minho had added. Seungmin loved the citrus, not the circus. He had been in a rush to type out the message, needing to go to a meeting but not wanting Minho to think he was being ungrateful so he typed out the message without proofreading it. The message was likely buried under Seungmin’s post-meeting spam messages he graces Minho with from time to time. Seungmin hadn’t thought twice about the message after he sent it, not even thinking about the fact that Minho hadn’t responded. He’s dating an idiot. The idiot he’s dating is also dating an idiot.

“I was talking about the brownies!” Seungmin exclaims, handing the phone back. “Oh my god, I meant to type I loved the citrus! You know, the citrus you put in the brownies that I had just taken a picture of!”

“How was I supposed to know!” Minho defends himself.

“Why would I just start talking about the circus?!” Seungmin asks, incredulous.

“You start talking about random things all the time!” Minho argues. “I just thought you were trying to tell me you wanted to go to the circus!”

“So instead of asking me, you just found the only circus in town to take me to?” Seungmin raises an eyebrow. At that though, Minho goes weirdly quiet and his face twists into something new. Embarrassment, Seungmin realizes. “What’s that look for?” Seungmin asks.

Minho says nothing as he continues to not meet Seungmin’s eyes. Seungmin sighs, getting ready to tell Minho they don’t need to keep coming to a random circus he found just to please Seungmin. It’s a sweet gesture, it really is, but it’s one that comes from a misunderstanding and Seungmin doesn’t know how to feel about that. He hates misunderstandings, mainly because he feels like he’s wasted Minho’s time.

“I didn’t find a circus.” Minho admits, confusing Seungmin.

“What are you talking about? You did, we’ve been coming to it multiple times, we don’t have to anymore. It was really nice and I’m sorry-”

“I didn’t find one.” Minho interrupts and his face screws up like he just got all his teeth pulled. It’s confusing Seungmin even more. “I didn’t find one because… Me and my friends have been putting on the circuses we’ve been going to.” Minho admits.

Silence.

“Say that again?” Seungmin asks, looking at him like he’s grown a second head.

“Don’t make me repeat it.” Minho almost pleads but Seungmin is not as merciful as Minho hopes.

“Repeat it.” Seungmin insists and Minho sighs, resigned to his fate.

“When you said you liked the circus, I kinda freaked out because I thought that was your way of saying you wanted to go to one as a date. But then when I looked around, the closest one is in Busan and that’s way too far for a first date. So… I kind of bribed my friends to put on a circus of our own. I get to use this place for free on Wednesdays and Sundays since I work for the owners of the place so…” Minho trails off. Seungmin can only stare at him, it’s a bit unnerving to Minho. “Those two times we weren’t able to watch them perform, two of them actually had to go into work so… I kind of lied when I said I got the dates wrong.”

“You lied about the whole thing.” Jisung pipes up from the side. It startles the pair who seemed to forget they were over there. Minho sheepishly nods.

“I did. I didn’t really mean for it to go this far.” Minho looks at Seungmin, sincerely. It’s the most serious Seungmin has seen Minho since they met. “I just… I wanted a good first date but you really seemed to enjoy it and then it just kind of snowballed into this mess. You had so much fun every time we came here, I didn’t want to stop bringing you here, even if it meant continuing the ruse.” Minho continues. His ears are red, Seungmin can see it even in the streetlights.

“You’re ridiculous.” Seungmin laughs, unable to hold it in any longer. He sees the small smile creep onto Minho’s lips as he continues to laugh. This entire thing is insane, Seungmin doesn’t know how he ended up in this situation. “You’re so stupid.” Seungmin says around giggles. “I wasn’t having fun because of the circus, I was having fun because I was with you idiot.”

Saying it outloud makes Seungmin laugh even harder. Minho blushes harder but he’s laughing too and Seungmin loves how pretty it always sounds.

“Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t like the circus after the first few dates?” Minho asks once Seungmin starts to settle down a little. Seungmin can only grin, taking Minho by the hand and pulling him slightly closer. He doesn’t care if his friends are watching as he stands close to Minho.

“Because I thought you really liked them. And I was happy to just spend time with you. I thought it was odd but… I just wanted to spend time with you.” Seungmin admits and it feels like a love confession. Sounds like one too and Seungmin knows Minho doesn’t do well with words. His actions always speak louder. This proves it more than anything.

“This is so gross, can we go?” Jeongin grumbles from the side. Seungmin spares the trio a glance. Jeongin looks grossed out, Felix looks teary eyed, Jisung looks endeared.

Before Seungmin can even think to answer, the door behind them swings open. Seungmin had thought it might be one of the few other audience members who came tonight, but it’s shockingly not. It’s the clowns. The circus clowns. Minho’s friends that he bribed to pretend to be a really bad circus to impress Seungmin.

“Oh, sorry.” The tallest one mumbles, obviously shocked so many people are standing around the door. He still has the remnants of his stage makeup on the sides of his face and his hair is a complete mess. The other two aren’t much better off. “We’re just gonna squeeze by-” He continues but Minho interrupts.

“You don’t have to act like you don’t know me Hyunjin.” Minho tells him. The three pause, looking at him before looking at Seungmin as well. “I told him.”

“Oh thank god. Does that mean we don’t have to do this anymore?” The shortest one exclaims. The strongman, Seungmin’s mind supplies.

“Nope.” Minho answers and is met with groans of happiness, if groans can be happy. “Seungmin, these are my friends that helped me. Hyunjin, Changbin, Channie.” He points to them as he says their names. “They already know you.”

Hyunjin glares at Seungmin. “Yeah, we already know you.” He grumbles. “You’re the freak that loves the circus for some reason and has cost me my social life for the past month.” Hyunjin accuses. “Do you know how much of my spare time has been spent trying to learn how to juggle! I’m pretty sure I have a permanent concussion from how many times I dropped bowling pins on my head thanks to you!”

“Jinnie, we told you to use plastic ones-” Chan reminds him.

“Minho didn’t! He told me to use real bowling pins!” Hyunjin glares at the man in question.

“Why would you listen to hyung when we told you it was a bad idea?” Changbin asks.

“All of this was a bad idea!” Hyunjin declares.

“It was a misunderstanding.” Felix adds, figuring it might not help but they deserve to know.

There is a beat of silence before Hyunjin turns to Felix. Felix is a little afraid he’s about to turn his anger on him but is happily surprised when all Hyunjin does is take a breath. “If that is the case… Hyung, you owe us dinner right now.” Hyunjin glares at Minho as he says it.

“Fine.” Minho agrees easily, much easier than what any of them expected. “We can all go. Me and Seungmin were going to go eat anyway.” Minho tells them as he reaches down to hold Seungmin’s hand and turns to the others.

“We’re walking, I’m not getting into your death trap of a car again if I can help it.” Changbin grumbles from the side.

“You ride in it every day.” Chan points out. “You drive it too. We literally rode here in it.” He adds and Changbin is quick to wave off the numerous accusations.

“Just follow me, I know a place around here.” Hyunjin tells them, obviously done with everyone. Felix is quick to join him in the front. Jeongin is close behind Felix, not wanting to leave him alone with the obviously disgruntled man. Regardless of the irritation, Hyunjin doesn’t seem to mind the pair, even talking to them as he continues to lead the pack. The two even get a few laughs out of him, so Seungmin considers that a win. Jisung is chatting with Changbin and Chan, telling them that even if the circus was fake, he really liked the background music that they had. Seungmin hears them tell him that they did the music. It wasn’t made for the performance, they just made music and Jisung seemed thrilled to hear about what else they liked to do. His heart feels a little fuller than normal, knowing that his friends like Minho’s friends and vice versa. It’s nice.

“What are you thinking about?” Minho asks beside him, startling him out of his thoughts.

“I like that our friends like each other.” Seungmin answers easily. That’s not the only thing on his mind though. There is something else that won’t leave his mind. “And… I guess I’m just realizing that you really like me, don’t you hyung?” Seungmin teases. He’s not expecting the serious expression on Minho’s face when he turns to him.

“More than you think.” Minho replies softly. It’s said quietly but it’s like Minho is screaming it in Seungmin’s ears and it’s finding its way into Seungmin’s heart. “But next time you don’t check your messages before you send them, I’m going to rearrange all of your apps on your phone so you can never find anything again.”

Seungmin is in love, so horribly in love with this weirdo, even hearing a threat on his phone makes his heart soar.

“Hey! Will you two stop being gross, I’m starving!” Hyunjin shouts, breaking the moment.

“Hey, don’t yell, people live around here!” Chan yells from behind Seungmin and Minho.

Maybe, just maybe, nobody is as odd as Minho. And maybe Seungmin likes that about Minho. And maybe, just maybe, Seungmin does like the circus. Just a little bit.