lani ✿

you shifted in hyunjin’s arms, resting your head against his chest. it was early, and the sun was poking through the curtains. your boyfriend’s nose scrunched up before pulling you impossibly closer. your eyes flittered open as you pressed a soft kiss to his jaw. “good morning,” you whispered softly, earning a sleepy smile from the boy in front of you.

“good morning, sunshine. happy birthday.” you mirrored hyunjin’s smile as his voice filled your ears, humming quietly.

“thank you darling,” you responded as hyunjin craned his neck to pepper soft kisses on your forehead.

“is there something in particular you would like to do today?” he asked gently, rubbing a hand up and down your side. you shook your head in response.

“no, i think laying here with you would be just fine,” you responded, causing hyunjin’s ears to tint a gentle pink. 

“we can do that,” he answered, running his eyes across your frame for a few moments. hyunjin always looked ethereal in the early hours of the morning, the lovely brightness the sun gave his eyes and the way his smile seemed to shine even brighter with the rays grazing his face. “you’re so old now,” hyunjin murmured, eliciting a scoff out of you.

“excuse me?” you responded jokingly, lightly hitting his chest. hyunjin put a hand up in defense before wrapping his arms around you once more, beginning to hum a small song quietly.

“why can’t you just tell them no?” you questioned, shoving a hand in your pocket while you eyed mark.

“as much as i would like to deny working with mina this time around, i can’t. they have no one else to ask, especially when it’s something so short term like this.” mark ran a hand through his hair, licking his lips. “besides, it’s been a while since i’ve interacted publicly with someone that isn’t you or one of the members. maybe this is for the better.” he yanked his jacket off of the coat rack and left through the front door, leaving you standing at the table in shock. it wasn’t the fact that he would be mcing at a show, but rather the fact that mina would be there, and it felt like she had everything that you didn’t.

mina was talented, pretty, had the sweetest voice and the kindest personality, and you weren’t exactly on the same level of standards as her. sure, you were good looking and talented, but you sure weren’t an idol, and you sure would not be the person standing next to mark in front of hundreds of thousands of people on television. he could always leave you for her, or someone else, someone better.

you scoffed quietly before placing yourself on the couch, flicking to the channel you knew you would be seeing mark and mina some time soon. whilst waiting for the show to start, you decided to scroll through social media to let time pass, but what showed up on your feed was not what you had expected in the slightest. mina was there, holding hands with a girl that you couldn’t recognize. the caption was rather cheesy and flirty, so you spared yourself reading it, however, you felt stupid. stupid for thinking that mark would go after someone else, specifically mina, when she already had someone to love. you shut your phone and the television off, rolling onto your side and shutting your eyes, taking a shaky breath before falling asleep.

hours had passed and mark had come back to your shared apartment, hanging his coat on the rack. “hello?” he called out, causing your eyes to open. 

“welcome home,” you started, sitting up slowly with a small yawn. “can i talk to you for a second?” mark shrugged before shuffling over to you and taking a seat on the couch. “i wanted to apologize for overreacting earlier, i shouldn’t have responded like that when you told me you were going out. it’s your job, and i shouldn’t interfere with it.”

mark’s eyes softened before taking one of your hands in his, a small smile adorning his features. “you shouldn’t feel sorry for that. you’re human, and emotions like that are bound to happen whether we want them to or not. in fact, i’m sorry for walking out on you while we were talking, that’s not something i should have done.” you frowned before laying your head on mark’s lap, humming quietly.

“it’s okay. we’re okay.”

you knew sooyoung was going to be late, however it was nearly impossible for you to be able to fall asleep without her by your side. you sat on the floor in front of the couch, investing yourself in whatever was on the television before hearing your phone ping once, twice, three times before deciding to pick it up. “hello?” you mumbled out, voice raspy due to not speaking for hours.

“hi baby,” sooyoung’s voice rang out from the other end of the line, making your eyes light up.

“oh my god, hello! it’s nearly two, where are you?” the line went quiet before hearing familiar voices in the background, and a hushed ‘no’ from your girlfriend before she could answer your question.

“i can’t quite come home just yet, but heejin, hyejoo and i wouldn’t mind if you came and sat in here until we get this down.” your face fell at the words that left sooyoung’s mouth.

“as much as i would love to do that, i don’t want to distract you from practicing, especially if it’s so important to where you can’t come come before one.” sooyoung sighed audibly through the speaker, and you could heejin’s laughter in the background before sooyoung spoke again.

“baby, please? c’mere, i miss you.” your breath hitched in the back of your throat, mulling it over temporarily before nodding, even though she couldn’t see it.

“okay, fine. i’m coming,” you responded, hearing cheers from heejin and hyejoo and a relieved laugh from sooyoung.

“we’ll be waiting, angel. take your time. i love you.”

“i love you,” you answered back, pulling your phone away from your ear and slipping into the nearest pair of shoes after grabbing your car keys.

before long, you ended up at said studio, being greeted warmly by the lady at the front desk before bursting into the room that sooyoung was in. “surprise,” you spoke, kicking the door behind you before feeling a pair of arms around you.

“i’m glad you made it sunshine!” sooyoung welcomed, pressing a ton of kisses onto the top of your head. 

“stop it, you stink,” you joked, smiling brightly when sooyoung moved away with a blinding grin.

“do you want to learn with us?” hyejoo questioned from in front of the wall length mirror, shooting you a smile of her own.

“and keep you here longer than you need to be? no thank you,” you replied, sliding down against the back wall and digging around in sooyoung’s bag.

“oh come on, it’ll be fun!” your girlfriend chimed, earning a hum from heejin and an encouraging smile from hyejoo. you groaned softly before standing up, dusting off your pants before beginning to stretch. 

seungmin looked gorgeous.

his hair was dyed a fresh blond color, a white, fuzzy beret sitting atop his head. a blue, cropped sweater hung over his frame, his stomach being covered by a white undershirt, all of it being paired with black slacks and white converse. the gentle make-up the boy had decided to put on only enhanced the way he looked, making your heart skip a beat.

“we match,” he noted as you reached his spot, which was in front of the high school doors. you scoffed quietly with a smile, holding onto your wallet with a small hum.

“do you not remember planning that out?” you teased light heartedly, tilting your head slightly as you replayed the previous memories through your mind.

you and seungmin had gone to a local boutique after reasoning with him that everything you currently had was in no way, shape, or form acceptable for the home coming dance, especially considering the fact that the two of you were seniors. “we should match or something,” seungmin’s voice rang out, drawing you out of your thoughts as you stared at a rack of clothing.

“what made you think of that, minnie?” you questioned, not missing the way the boy’s ears turned red. “i wouldn’t think you’re the type of person to suggest that.”

“i’m not,” seungmin grumbled, folding his arms over his chest. “it’s just the fact that it’s our senior year, i would have thought that you would have liked to do something special this year, you know? especially because-”

“minnie,” you interrupted, giggling softly. “you ramble a lot, you know.” seungmin rolled his eyes playfully, prompting you to continue. “i’m fine with the idea, i was just teasing. what color were you thinking?”

seungmin thought for a moment, furrowing his brows before his eyes lit up. “blue. the sweater i’m thinking about is a really pretty blue color.” pressing your lips together, you returned your gaze to the clothing rack, grabbing an off-the-shoulder, pale blue dress that stopped at around your knee caps. “pretty,” you heard seungmin mumble, however you decided not to comment on it.

“i like this one. i have a good condition cardigan at home that i can bring with me if it happens to get cold.” you returned your line of vision back to seungmin, smiling brightly. “we can check out, then let’s go get that ice cream you were talking about earlier.”

“yeah, yeah, whatever,” seungmin responded, bringing you out of your short mind-movie. you could see him take a deep breath before offering his hand out to you, his cheeks dusted a gentle pink. “senior year home coming, are you ready?” you cocked an eyebrow at the hand the boy had offered out to you, but decided to take the offer before he could change hismind and potentially get more flustered.

“as ready as i’ll ever be,” you answered. taking note of how nicely his hand seemed to warm yours. he flashed a grin at you before opening the door, allowing you to step inside the school first before leading you down to the gym. it was almost as if the night would go by smoothly.

but what was the universe to be on your side?

you stepped into the gym with seungmin, your hand still tightly holding onto his. “there’s a lot more juniors here than i would have thought there would be,” you mumbled softly, gazing around the room before a certain pair of eyes catches yours. 

felix.

your breath hitched, sinking your teeth into your bottom lip as you gently shook seungmin’s hand. “what’s wrong?” he asked lowly, making sure he was loud enough for you to hear him over the music and people chattering nearby. 

“he’s here,” you responded weakly, feeling your legs turn to jelly as said boy approached the two of you.

to be fair, felix was a nice kid. he was smart, kind, and one hell of a flirt.

“y/n!” his deep voice called out, his eyes shining with an emotion you couldn’t quite decipher. “you didn’t tell me you had a date to the dance.” your breath hitched in the back of your throat, you could feel seungmin tense up next to you. 

“it’s not like that, felix,” you answered as flatly as you could, pressing your lips together.

“then why did you reject me all those times?” you could hear the slight hurt laced in his voice, sending a small pang to your heart. you let go of seungmin’s hand and folded your cardigan over your chest, suddenly feeling extremely cold. 

“i’m sorry, felix.” you answered once more. you turned and left the gym, leaving both seungmin and felix dumbfounded without any answers. 

you exited the school and let the chilly october air hit your chest, feeling queasy and full of guilt. not being able to process any emotions, you sat down on the side walk and planted your feet next to the space where your car was parked, gripping your wallet tightly. “y/n?” you heard a warm voice call out, squeezing your eyes shut.

“i’m sorry” was the first thing that flew out of your mouth, being answered with a warm hand carressing your cheek.

“open your eyes, dummy.” 

seungmin.

following instructions, you opened your eyes and searched his, they were still sparkling, more so than when you had encountered him earlier. he stared at you for some time before closing the miniscule gap in between the two of you, pressing his soft lips onto yours. you froze, confused for a moment before gently kissing the boy back, allowing a hand to let go of your wallet and grasp onto his sweater instead. seungmin tasted faintly of cinnamon and brown sugar, like what autumn itself would taste like. he was the first to pull away, his face a tinge of pink and his lips swollen.

“i guess you can tell what i wanna say to you.” your eyes searched his again, looking for some sort of doubt or hint of lying. but you couldn’t find any. it was all genuine, innocence, pure. it felt like the wind had just been knocked out of your lungs, but in a good way. your hand moved from his sweater to his cheek, smiling slightly.

“i think i wanna hear you say it anyway,” you whispered in response, noticing how his face went even redder. 

“i’m in love with you, that’s what. i’m sorry i tensed up like that when felix called us a date, it’s honestly what i’ve been thinking of this as to calm me down when it came to senior home coming and-”

“minnie,” you interrupted, giggling softly when the boy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. he looked up to meet your gaze with a slight tilt of his head, his eyes catching the reflection of the near by streetlights. his lips were far too inviting for you to deny the urge to kiss him, so you did exactly that.

after nearly two minutes of fully enjoying his taste, his warmth, the happiness that radiated off of him, you pulled away again, causing him to tilt his head. “you remember that one word that the english teacher told us about the other day?” he asked suddenly, causing you to furrow your brows.

“um... akrasia?”

“yeah. they should add something to the definition of that.”

it was now your turn to tilt your head, silently asking for clarification.

“cold?”

you looked up from your cell phone, meeting minho’s sparkly brown eyes with a gentle smile. “you could say that,” you responded, curling into yourself further and nuzzling into the couch with a soft hum. “i hate the summer time. you always crank the air conditioning,” you mumbled, earning a cheeky hum from your boyfriend. 

“would you rather sweat in and outside of the house?” he questioned, reaching over to the recliner and grabbing the big brown blanket that hung over the arm rest. you scoffed quietly at his response, folding your arms over your chest after shutting your phone off. 

“minhoooooo,” you whined, causing the boy to break out in a fit of giggles with a soft hum. 

“alright, alright, okay.” eyes lighting up at his words, you scooted over from your spot and allowed him to take it before leaning into his arms as he draped the blanket over the two of you. “better?” he asked after setting his phone on the side table, interlacing his hand with yours. your head was rested against his chest, body in between his legs. rubbing gentle circles on the back of minho’s hand, you nodded warmly.

“much warmer,” you answered, eyes flittering closed when his other hand came up to play with a strand of your hair. minho hummed quietly in response, bringing your hand out from underneath the blanket and pressing a soft kiss to the back of it. you could feel your heart skip a beat in response to the small action, allowing your ears to tune into minho’s breathing pattern.

“if you’re tired, we should move to the bed.” you squeezed his hand in response.

“i’m too lazy to do that. can we stay here? please?” minho raised an eyebrow before pressing another kiss to the back of your hand, earning a small smile from you.

“i never said we had to,” minho replied, giggling before bringing a hand up to your head and giving your scalp a gentle massage. “you’ve been very.. whiny today. i mean that in a positive way, before you try to fight me about it.” you craned your neck to meet your boyfriend’s eyes, tilting your head slightly.

“because it’s cold!” you reasoned, snuggling deeper into his arms to prove your point. “how do you expect me to be happy if i’m cold all summer?” the boy hummed with a small smile, his eyes searching yours. 

“you’re so picky.”

“me!? i’m picky?” your eyes widened as you playfully smacked the other’s thigh, a smile spreading on your face. “you literally refuse to any other sweet of mine unless they’re chocolate chip cookies.”

“because everything else of yours doesn’t taste as good,” minho responded matter-of-factly, eyebrows shooting up.