omg, bless you for this question 🥺🥺🥺

first of all, im absolutely CRYING over the portmanteau of elisung, i never even thought to do that THAT'S SO CUTE!!!!!!!! i need to do that for the rest now....

3rd int is very much a lgbtq+ themes fic, and i wanted to explore multiple corners of that, for each of the boys to have a unique experience with it. from platonic bonds to late realisations to gender and sexuality.

i see jisung as someone who might find comfort in GNC and being part of the trans umbrella but because everyone else in the band is very much cis, there was almost.. no mentor for him about it? no one who could educate him and give him a foot into the trans community. if he was ever able to have the confidence to explore this further than less masculine outfits during his idol career, it would have to come from an outside force.

in chapter 8, when seungmin details what happened between him and jisung, he explains how when jisung was getting back on his feet, it was the adhd diagnosis first and then meeting eli that were the two main things which helped him. both things very much worked hand in hand to give jisung a lot of identity dysphoria, like he was trying to force himself into a mould he thought he was supposed to be in society, but it just wasn't working and it was making him so depressed. then, meeting eli, they helped to introduce him to these concepts and ideas of just,, life being more fluid- gender and sexuality (jisung identifies as pansexual). with eli, he was able to explore these ideas before finding the ones which felt the most like him, which right now is primarily dressing with genderless silhouettes (and lemme tell you it is VERY funny when seungmin and jisung do red carpets together, it rly looks like shit hot superstar seungmin taking his androgynous raccoon for a walk)

you might have also noticed in the group chats, jisung's handle is HAN, rather than everyone else, who has their first names. this is one small way he makes himself more gender neutral (he is okay with ppl in his close circle calling him jisung still, but for the most part, he prefers to go by han now). he wouldn't consider himself cis and uses he/him publicly, but behind closed doors, he is experimenting with he/they, though this is not something he's sure he's ready to commit to yet. it's been a long process over many, many years and how he feels about it always fluctuates and will continue to forever. but the most important part is that eli helps him feel like himself and love himself and he knows that no matter what happens, eli will be there and support him (and vice versa!!)

i could also yap for a million years about eli, they are so cool and perfect for jisung. i love love love their bond and relationship.