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Part one:

A new comeback always has its difficulties. Learning new choreography, writing and recording the new songs, costume fitting, photoshoots, doing stunts for music videos, and a whole lot more. Its a stressful time of year, and considering Stray Kids’ release schedule, its usually most of the year.

The members barely get time to themselves, let alone relationships. Yet two members seem to make it work, Minho and Jisung. Their days are curated to match each other to a tee. Jisung needs to handle some producer work? No problem, Minho’s cooking up their dinner. Minho’s got to work on choreographing one of the new songs? That’s fine, Jisung’s going to make a quick trip to the local convenience store to pick up some stuff anyway.

They may not see each other as often due to the influx of work, but the time they do have off, they spend it together.

“Like a married couple.” Seungmin once said.

On one of their busiest days, the entire group spent their time taking measurements for multiple costumes they were going to need for their music videos and filming a new SKZ Code episode. It was gruelling. They barely had anytime to eat that day, yet later in the evening when they’d finally been allowed to go back to the dorms, they noticed the usual suspects were missing.

“They probably went out eating. Again.” Changbin murmured as they all walked through the sliding door leading to the lounge. The rest of the group laughed.

“Argh, they’re so… lovey-dovey!” Felix whined, “why can’t they just, you know, get together

already?”

“They’re wimps.” Seungmin sighed as Chan slapped his arm playfully.

“Then… let’s get them together,” Jeongin suggested, holding a portable fan to his face as he sat down on the 4-seater couch. “We could, you know, create a date for them and get them to confess?”

“A meet-cute!” Felix cheered as he sat next to the youngest and wrapped an arm around him, “you’re a genius, Innie.”

“Of course, I am.” He shrugged the other’s arm off him and looked at their eldest, “what do you think,

Chan?”

The man in question, who had been taunting Seungmin while they both sat at the dining table, looked up at the two with a contemplative expression. “I guess we could try. But nothing too crazy, okay? And nothing that gets in the way of our schedule.”

“Yeah, yeah. Nothing fun, we get it.” Changbin snickered as he sat next to Felix on the couch.

“Will it even work?” Hyunjin asked skeptically, from his own seat by the dinning table, “I mean, what exactly are you planning to do here? Those two are so obviously into each other but never confess.”

“Don’t be such a downer, Hyunjin.” Felix groaned as he got up and faced the others, Jeongin slouched even more as Changbin took his seat, Chan dragged up Seungmin to sit on the couch too.

“Tomorrow, after we’re done filming the episode, we’ve all got free time, yeah?” Felix asked, looking to all his mates to confirm. “Let’s cancel Minho’s choreo-session and get them to meet up! We could, uh, I don’t know…”

“We could get them to think the other was about to confess, then have them meet and, like, do it.” Jeongin interrupted, already forming a full proof plan in his mind.

“For someone who barely passed high school, you’re pretty smart.” Seungmin deadpanned as he tried shaking off a clingy Chan.

“Shut up!” Jeongin groaned as Felix lit up at the idea, “yes, that’s perfect, Innie!”

“Too bright…” Hyunjin grumbled as he joined the others on the couch, plopping himself on Jeongin’s lap casually. The younger groaned in protest.

“Let’s do it.”

And so, operation: Get Minsung Together, was a go.

The following day, the members of Stray Kids, Chan, Minho, Changbin, Hyunjin, Jisung, Felix, Seungmin and Jeongin, finished the filming of the second part of their SKZ Code episode. But, unbeknownst to Minho and Jisung, their work was yet to be done.

The plan was simple, Felix would drag Jisung away with him, with the excuse they were going to get some snacks. Jeongin would ask Minho to accompany him back to the dorms to do something too, while Changbin and Seungmin set up a picnic in the snow.

“We probably should’ve thought this out a bit more…” Seungmin murmured as snow drenched the red and white checkered blanket. Changbin’s grip on the picnic basket and unlit candle tightened slightly.

“We could set it up on the picnic table?” He suggested, to which Seungmin nodded and picked up the blanket.

Chan had been making sure none of the management team and staff would interrupt.

It was all clicking into place. Hopefully.

“C’mon, Sungie! I still need a few more things,” Felix tried to persuade, holding Jisung’s arm as he tried to get in line to pay.

“Felix, we bought the whole shop. What more could you want?” Jisung laughed, as he gestured to the trolley he was pushing, a whole lot of snack packs, ramyeon packages and drinks loading it up.

“Just… uh, this?” Felix grabbed the nearest thing to him, which just so happened to be a jar of pickles.

Jisung narrowed his eyes, “gherkins, really?” He asked suspiciously.

“Y-yes…?” Felix smiled before glancing at his phone in his pocket, the text message ‘We’re ready’ popping up. “Okay, let’s go now!” He smiled a brilliant sunshine smile at a confused Jisung, who simply nodded and made his way to the now much longer que.

“What exactly are we looking for again?” Minho asked skeptically as he lifted a dirty shirt off Jeongin’s desk chair. The younger had dragged him to his room, asking for help looking for something.

“My headphones, hyung. I need them!” Jeongin replied distractedly, holding two separate shirts in each hand and inspecting them closely.

“Yeah, okay.” Minho grumbled unbelievingly and made his way to the door. “You have fun with that, Innie.”

Just as his hand reached the knob, Jeongin panicked, “w-wait! You can’t just leave.” He tossed the shirts and searched around for something else to do, “let’s…” before he could finish a text lit up his phone screen, where it was placed on his desk, within Minho’s range.

The younger snatched the phone away and laughed nervously at the raised eyebrow pointed his way, “actually, yeah. Let’s just go…”

The words ‘it’s time’ looming ominously on screen.

If you asked Chan how he found himself in this position, squished between an excited Changbin and jittery-with-joy Felix, he wouldn’t be able to say.

The members of Stray Kids found themselves hiding behind a wall, watching the moment between Jisung and Minho unfold as the two slowly approached a picnic table covered by a red and white checkered blanket soaked from the snow and a candle barely lit flicker ever so slightly.

Changbin peeked around at them, holding a camera and capturing the moment.