w o r d k i l l

it takes three rings for it to go voicemail. hunchulattributes it to the sixteen hour difference between los angeles and seoul, butit still peeves him that his boyfriend won’t pick up. sighing, he tosses hisphone away from him, on the bed, laying back to stare at the ceiling.

he tries again a few hours later, when it isn’t barely pastasscrack of dawn in seoul. he gets voicemail again, siyoung’s voice cheerfullytelling him to either leave him a message or fuck off. no matter how muchchangjoong told him that kind of a voicemail message is childish, siyoungwouldn’t change it. right now, hunchul is pretty sure siyoung is keeping itjust out of spite.

when he finally gets through and siyoung picks up, it’s almostmidnight in korea, way too early to be up in california. siyoung soundsunusually chipper, or it might be that absolutely everyone hunchul has spokento in the past few hours sounded dead.

“hey,” and he sounds just the slightest bit out of breath,“didn’t expect you to call.”

hunchul chuckles “what, can’t i miss my boyfriend’s voice?”and there’s a laugh on the other end of the line “of course you can. but isn’tit like six am there?”

“close enough,” hunchul yawns out, “i was gonna sleep but ihaven’t talked to you in weeks so i called.”

“awwww,” siyoung coos, voice dripping with honey and it’sway too loud for someone who’s jet lagged, sleepy and missing good three daysof proper sleep, but hunchul’s head over heels for siyoung, so he justchuckles.

“tell him he’s fucking cheesy,” comes a voice from the otherend of the line and hunchul spontaneously sits up straight, already alert atthe fact siyoung has someone over. siyoung cackles “shut up. sungmin tells youyou’re fucking cheesy.”

sungmin? hunching thought he’s busy promoting with dongyeolbut he guesses sungmin made some time to spend with his close friend. not thathe’s happy about it.

“oh yeah? tell sungmin to stop terrorizing every mirror helooks in.”

“ohhhh shit, burn.” siyoung laughs out in english andhunchul knows siyoung’s the happiest when he can see his friends bantering. “hesaid you’re ugly. dude give up.”

“hey hey,” is the only thing hunchul understands beforesungmin starts screaming on the other line and siyoung kicks him, if it’s tojudge by the pained whine that comes after the sound of something breaking, andthen siyoung leaves the room. “sorry. he’s a pain in the ass.”

“it’s fine,” hunchul sleepily smiles. “i miss you.”

“i miss you too. tell donggeun hyung to stop keeping you halfwayaround the world from me and just come home already.”

“i will.” hunchul promises, yawning and siyoung doesn’t skipa beat.

“now go sleep! quickly! or i’ll bite you in your sleep.”

not even hunchul’s “oh you can definitely bite me”, spokenthrough a smirk, softens siyoung’s naggy self so hunchul has to put the phonedown and finally catch a few hours of sleep.

a few days after that, hunchul gets a text from siyoung.it’s only a few words, but even the “i keep talking to sungmin about you and hehates me now ㅠㅠ” is enough to bring asmile to hunchul’s face. they’ve been exchanging messages on and off for a fewdays now but this one is his favorite so far.

it’s not that hunchul’s a jealous person, he really isn’t,but he really, genuinely likes siyoung so naturally, he tends to get a bitpossessive over him. it doesn’t help that siyoung is really fucking hot. sowhen, during one of his last days in america, he opens instagram and the firstthing he sees is his boyfriend’s smiling face, his heart skips a beat. however,sungmin’s in the picture too, one side of his face squished against siyoung’ssmiling cheek, and siyoung’s arm is wrapped around sungmin’s neck, keeping hisbody close. it’s a heartwarming picture and even daewoong commented on it buthunchul just locks his phone, without leaving a like or even closing the app.the feeling the image burned on the back of his eyelids leaves is not apleasant one and it takes him a while to get over it.

“mmmm, i missed you,” siyoung breathes into hunchul’s neck,the younger’s hands pressing his hipsdown onto his lap, both of them already a panting mess and hunchul nods, “imissed you too.”

siyoung leans back just a few inches to look hunchulstraight in the eyes before slowly grinning lazily, “i’m not saying this causei’m horny right now, which i am, by the way, but i missed you a lot. it getsboring without you around. that being said, you gotta do something about thefact that i haven’t gotten laid in like a month and a half.”

despite the red blotches on his cheeks and his messy hair,siyoung’s eyes look sincere. hunchul secretly likes it the best when hisboyfriend doesn’t have his glasses on, especially in moments like these,reserved only for the two of them, alone.

pulling his face in to kiss him, hunchul feels a surge ofaffection run through his spine, but it quickly turns into another kind ofwarmth as siyoung rolls his hips forward into hunchul’s, barely teasing overhunchul’s hardening dick, making him breathe out into his lips.

his hands slide underneath siyoung’s white, worn in supremeshirt, the one hunchul knows is one of his favorites, so his fingers can traceover his ribcage, so siyoung can slide even deeper onto his lap, until theirtorsos are practically glued together and fuck, hunchul really did misssiyoung.

“it’s always so fucking boring without you here,hunchullie,” siyoung half-moans into hunchul’s jawline, hips still slowlygrinding down on hunchul’s, “so boring, how could you leave me alone withsungmin?”

there’s not a single thought of malicious intent insiyoung’s head right now, hunchul is sure, but the second he hears the otherboy’s name, he freezes, an icy dread replacing the heat of his arousal and heregrets his words before they even leave his lips “you spent a lot of time withhim?”

siyoung doesn’t detect anything wrong, his fingertipsdigging into hunchul’s bare shoulders, and he nods, “i guess, when we’re notbusy.”

when hunchul doesn’t respond, or move at all, siyoungrealizes his mistake, but the damage is already done.

“earth to hot boyfriend?” siyoung tries, an unsure grin onhis face, “are you really zoning out while we’re half fucking?”

when hunchul speaks up again, his voice is deep withsomething siyoung is sure isn’t arousal. “are you cheating on me with him?”

now it’s siyoung’s turn to freeze up, leaning back sothey’re not dangerously close “what the fuck?”

“it’s a simple question, are you fucking him behind myback?” hunchul spits out and he can already see the hurt in siyoung’s eyes buthis vision is red, blurry and his blood is boiling.

“are you messed up in the head, or what? what kinda bullshitare you talking?” siyoung’s brow is furrowed and his hands are starting toshake and hunchul wants to hug him, say he’s sorry, but the want to hurt him isbigger, the want to make him feel as bad as he did.

“so why aren’t you answering? just say no and we’ll put thisbehind us.”

siyoung’s eyes widen at that and that’s when hunchul knowshe fucked up colossally.

sliding off hunchul’s lap, making him already regret theloss of warmth, siyoung hisses out “the hell we will. i’m not gonna sit aroundand listen to you accusing me of stuff you known damn well i’d never do, whileyou fuck off to america and leave me all alone.”

grabbing his cigarettes and his phone, siyoung puts on hisglasses, running a hand through his hair as he glares at hunchul from thedoorway. “you’re a prick, jung hunchul.”

he slams the door on his way out, leaving hunchul shirtless,confused, and immensely sorry.

it’s not like there’s much he can do, is the logic hunchulgoes by, and nothing is all he tries to do. he’s aware that this is A MassiveFuck Up, with all capitals, and saying sorry for being a damned ass justdoesn’t seem sufficient, so he sucks it up and looks away every time giriboy ismentioned in his presence.

a good few weeks pass before anyone notices something’swrong. but, to their defense, minwoo has been living the high life, takingselcas with diplo, donghyuk got himself a girlfriend and the rest of hisfriends are either busy with promotions, or promoting rock bottom. he evenconsiders asking his sister for advice, but that would mean he’d have to tellher he has a boyfriend in the first place. it’s not that his sister doesn’tknow that he’s into boys, it’s just that hunchul would rather keep his lovelife and its tragedies to himself. besides, he’s not even sure he can call theboyfriend in question that.

overall, it’s a shitty situation through and through, andsurprisingly, donghyuk’s the one who notices hunchul’s unusually quiet. it’sdonghyuk, so he doesn’t ask him directly what’s wrong but he tries to distracthim, and for the most part, he succeeds. however, donghyuk gets a text from hisgirlfriend and hunchul practically physically winces, remembering how siyoungwould send him random texts about what he’s currently doing and snapchats ofhis food.

siyoung isn’t hanging up much better, either. in all honesty,he feels like he might have overreacted too, but he just missed hunchul somuch, and it really did hurt him that his boyfriend would accuse him ofsomething like that straight out of the blue.

calling him a prick might have been a little unnecessary,though.

however, the root of all his new problems, ryu sungmin,agrees with him completely. of course sungmin is totally whipped for hisgirlfriend so he obviously has no idea what he’s talking about but siyoungappreciates it.

“you know it’s not your fault, right?” sungmin keepsreminding him, content only when siyoung nods, “yeah, i know.”

looking down at the tip of his shoes, siyoung sighs, “i justmiss him.”

at that, sungmin turns around, his swiveling studio chaircreaking at the motion, “no, hey, dude, come on. you don’t need him. he was badto you, remember.”

siyoung doesn’t think what hunchul did was nice, but hewouldn’t call him bad. despite all the times he’s repeated hunchul’s words inhis head, he doesn’t hate him. but he really does miss him.

“i guess…” he trails off and sungmin turns back around,clicking at his computer without much interest.

“you really need to get over him. i’ve been telling you he’san asshole.”

“jesus christ. you are such an asshole.” ikje almost laughsstraight into hunchul’s face. they’re in the middle of a supermarket andhunchul must have moped around and looked miserable just a bit too much sinceikje nagged at him to accompany him on his grocery day. donghyuk’s probablybehind his, that sneak. all hunchul got so far is mocking and bag carrying. hesupposes he deserves it, anyway.

“you broke up with siyoung? seriously.” he says, puttingunhealthy amounts of beer into his cart and hunchul shakes his head, “i didn’tbreak up with him. i think.”

ikje just gives him a screw-the-shopping-channel face, lipspulled into a mock smile.

“dude. giriboy. the extremely hot, popular, talented rapper.and you’re not sure if you broke up with him. what kind of stupid are you?”

‘all kinds’, hunchul wants to say but ikje stops his trainof self-pity thoughts, “you need to apologize to him. pass me those tomatoes.”

doing as he’d been told, hunchul tries to reason with hishyung, “i can’t just walk up to him and say sorry. i accused him of cheating.that’s huge.”

“well.” ikje just says and hunchul really doesn’t understandhow this alleged support therapy in the supermarket is supposed to go, sincehis hyung is being a total tool, and hunchul is ninety percent sure the girlikje is wooing has his kakao id blocked, but whatever goes.

putting down noodles, ikje looks at him “why the hell wouldyou assume he’s cheating on you? where did that even come from?” and hunchulsighs, worrying his lower lip with his teeth, “it’s stupid, he’s been spendingloads of time with sungmin and i honestly was just sick of it and before iknew-”

“hold on, hold on, hold on,” ikje interrupts him, “sungmin?”hunchul nods, “yeah, that’s what i said”

“ryu sungmin? cjamm? c-j-a-double-m? from sexy street?”hunchul’s feeling dumber by the second “uh…yeah” and it only intensifies whenikje bursts out laughing, packs of snacks in each hand “you moron.”

“hyung…” hunchul deadpans, mildly offended. yes, he doesknow he’s a moron, and he’s very much aware that he fucked up but standing hereand being blatantly attacked is not his idea of rebound therapy. his idea ismore of a ‘beer, chocolate and shitty cable tv dramas’ kind. nonetheless, ikjecontinues, not missing a beat.

“he’s dating, dude. he’s also straight as a ruler. trust me,i met his girlfriend, she was waiting for him in front of the bathroom,refusing to let me in. apparently, two dicks in the room is too much for him.weirdo. anyway his girlfriend is cute, though, i went through her sns.”

exactly why ikje goes through instagrams of people he hasmet in front of the boys’ bathrooms in clubs is way beyond hunchul, but, withhis fingers still wrapped around the trolley handle, he gets an epiphany.

even without the possibility of reconciliation, and the makeup sex (for which he’s kinda hoping), hunchul has to apologize.

luckily, the opportunity is presented to him when donghyukmessages him an address of a party two days from now, with the text ‘ur bfmight be there.“

that “might” keeps hunchul awake and by the time the partystarts, hunchul’s sure he looks like a member of the supporting cast in thewalking dead.

minwoo slips him an energy drink, saying “you look like youneed it.” and then ikje’s ruffling his hair before walking over to the bar,undoubtedly to get piss drunk and send cheesy texts to his crush.

it’s kind of disgustingly cute, really.

and, as it turns out half an hour later, donghyuk remains trueto his word; siyoung is here, sungmin, dongyeol and daewoong in tow and holychrist he is beautiful.

it’s a known fact hunchul is whipped to hell and back forhong siyoung but he really can’t help it when the latter looks like the actualproof god exists and is good.

“fuckin’ go talk to him” donghyuk all but kicks him, phonein his hand, screen showing a kakao chat that’s surprisingly not the one he haswith his girlfriend.

taking a deep breath, hunchul puffs his chest out, feelingmore inflated than brave and walks straight to where siyoung’s standing withhis entourage. dongyeol isn’t there, and daewoong looks zoned out of his mind,staring at the girls standing chatting nearby, but sungmin gives him a realdirty look the second hunchul approaches them.

it’s not even the glare sungmin is giving him that makes theinside of hunchul’s stomach feel empty, it’s the fact that siyoung looks himstraight in the eye before putting an arm around sungmin, showing him somethingon his screen.

such a simple gesture manages to make hunchul feel like heswallowed a balloon and he pivots on his heels clumsily, walking back to whereikje’s hissing something out at donghyuk, his mind on autopilot.

“…and maybe if you stopped fucking around with idols, you’dbe less of an ass. wait, here he is. are you okay?”

it’s actually uncanny how motherly ikje can get, even as hepats hunchul’s back sympathetically while simultaneously giving donghyuk thestink eye. even though it’s all in good intentions, hunchul can’t stay for longin the same club as siyoung and not thirty minutes later, he excuses himselfunder the pretense he’s tired. donghyuk isn’t around to see through his lie andeven though ikje tells him to call him if he needs something, hunchul can’t helpbut feel like utter crap.

the next time he gets to see his, now surely ex, boyfriend,they’re all doing a photoshoot, as a sort of a throwback to show me the moneythree, with the finalists of the fourth season. hunchul’s running unfashionablylate and by the time he gets there, most have already gone through make up andhair.

once he walks into the small, but heavily illuminated,crowded room, he’s immediately placed into a chair, a noona with a comb alreadyat his side and he slinks down in the uncomfortable chair when there’s achuckle next to him, “yeah, me too.”

he turns around to find jung woosung, better known by hisstage name olltii, in the chair next to his, giving him an amused smile andhunchul automatically grins back, slapping woosung’s open palm as a greeting.

“man, i hate stuff like this” he complains and woosung nods“you and me both, dude.” and there is so much hairspray on woosung’s blacklocks it actually hurts to look but then hunchul is subjected to the sametorture and it takes around half an hour for his stylist to like what she sees.

only when his bangs are styled upwards and there’s subtlekohl in the corners of his eyes is he allowed to leave the room, woosung intow, chatting happily about some gig adv performed at. he’s talking about howchulgoo is getting more and more recognized on the streets, and “justyesterday, some high school girls asked for his autograph” and hunchul wants toask if woosung is chulgoo’s friend or his mother, but all the words die in histhroat when he sees siyoung.

he’s not wearing glasses, and hunchul knows siyoung hascontacts in, because hunchul’s very familiar how crabby siyoung looks whilesquinting when he can’t see. his hair is blonde now, with visible black rootsand, to hunchul, he looks too cute like this.

donghyuk often told him he’s a goner for siyoung but ifdonghyuk was here, hunchul would make him eat his words. there’s a bored glintin siyoung’s eyes and he’s standing there alone, watching a makeup artist fixdaewoong’s foundation. there’s a flash of recognition, and something else, inhis dark pupils and for a second siyoung looks like he’s gonna walk over towhere hunchul’s standing dumbly, completely deaf to whatever woosung’s talkingabout, but then he turns his head away and hunchul thinks he could cut hisdisappointment with a knife.

it takes almost an hour for the photographer to finish allthe shots and the entire time, hunchul can feel eyes on the back of his neck.he doesn’t even have to turn around and check, his gut instinct tells him it’ssiyoung, and hunchul’s gut instinct never lies when it comes to thebespectacled rapper.

however, he doesn’t get a chance to ponder what siyoung’sunwavering gaze means, as he finds himself being shoved into a bathroom stall.under normal circumstances, he’d protest but he can recognize the lanky arm infront of him, and in moves a slender torso and a blonde head and then siyoungcloses the door behind him, staring straight at hunchul.

“uh.” hunchul says dumbly and siyoung continues staring.

“this is fucking awkward.”

“no shit babe, why are we in a bathroom stall?”

hunchul lets the nickname slip and he feels jittery as hesays it, quickly masking it with a question, but as usual, siyoung notices. henotices almost everything about hunchul.

“don’t call me babe, you brat. we’re in a fight?”

hunchul lifts an eyebrow, amused by siyoung’s nervousstance, “then why are we in a cramped bathroom stall? you know, if you wantedto kill me, it’s gonna take forever to wipe the blood of these tiles.”

“don’t be stupid,” siyoung hisses out, “i wanted to talk toyou.”

his gut instinct tells hunchul that the wise thing to dowould be to shut up and wait so that’s what he does, and siyoung continues.

“what you did was a really shitty thing,” siyoung pokeshunchul’s chest with a bony finger, “and you’re really fucking lucky i’m notchopping your dead body up right now, but i need to know where we stand.”

“in a stall of a public bathroom?” hunchul isn’t trying tobe snarky but this is the closest siyoung’s been to him in quite a while andall charades aside, he misses his boyfriend.

in retaliation, siyoung slaps his shoulder a little harderthan necessary, “are you gonna joke around like that? cause if you will, i’mleaving.”

before he can think his next move through, hunchul’s handsfind siyoung’s shoulder, to keep him in place, “no, you’re right, i’m sorry,what did you want to say?”

siyoung breathes in and finally looks at hunchul, “i’llaccept your apology now, so go ahead and say you’re sorry.”

there’s not a trace of uncertainty in his voice and if thissituation wasn’t making his heart beat so fast he’s pretty sure he can’t evenfeel his pulse anymore, hunchul would burst out laughing.

“uh…” he starts and siyoung nods, “good starter, go on.”

however, all words seem to have escaped hunchul’s mind neverto come back and even breathing in siyoung’s proximity poses an issue to him ashe blinks dumbly. just when thesituation becomes too awkward for hunchul to handle, siyoung rolls his eyes andmoves away.

“god, you’re such an ass cactus.”

he’s already unlocking the door and is almost outside of itwhen hunchul’s fingers wrap around his forearm and pull him back, “no, wait.”

once siyoung’s back inside the stall, hunchul finally snapsout of it, “look, i know i said some really stupid shit that you know i didn’tmean and it must have hurt you a lot. i’m sorry, i really am, i seriously nevermeant to hurt you. do you forgive me?”

siyoung’s arms wrap around him and hunchul lets out a breathhe didn’t realize he was holding as he hugs him back, the familiarity ofsiyoung’s body pressed against his own soothing his raging nerves. when theypart, siyoung’s eyes are gleaming behind the thick glasses, “no.”

“what. what do you mean no?” hunchul says, a little louderthan necessary.

“i mean no. do you want me to say it in spanish? no.”

hunchul just lets out a half-whine, half-hiss of utterbafflement before siyoung continues, “i’m not some cheap bitch, hunchullie.you’re gonna have to take me out on a proper date and beg for my forgiveness asi dine on overpriced beef.”

hunchul cracks a grin, “sounds okay to me” and siyoung’skissing him then, and hunchul’s heart is finally in its rightful place.

 his bangs won’t stay in their place and minwoo told him helooks like a unicorn when hunchul sent him a selca over kakao, begging forhelp. however, kang minwoo isn’t evil enough to leave a bro hanging, so hesends hunchul some online tips.

hunchul’s not entirely sure if the place where he has areservation for exactly fifty three minutes from now on is formal or casual, sohe’s currently dressed in a white button down shirt with a bowtie and boxerswith colorful little squares.

he made the mistake of inviting donghyuk over, to help himget ready and hunchul knew it was gonna come back to bite him in the asssomehow. this is how, apparently because donghyuk snorts at him, glancing athunchul’s form trying to smooth his clothes out in the mirror, “change yourfucking boxers, dude. these are really unsexy.”

hunchul turns to look at his friend, sprawled out in anungraceful, very unflattering half-sitting, half-lying position on hunchul’scouch, “why? what’s wrong with them?”

“they make your chicken legs look even worse. if you, bysome miracle, manage to get siyoung’s clothes off, he’ll go limp the minute hesees that…tragedy.”

hunchul huffs at that, but he’s going to his drawers to findanother pair of underwear, one that doesn’t explicitly state he still watchesspongebob on the weekends, “what do you know, you’re like fuckboy overlord?”

he tries to ignore the shout “because i fucking dress well.”that comes from his living room, because shin donghyuk is currently wearingcamo pants and hunchul doesn’t want to break his delusion.

once donghyuk approves of hunchul’s choice of undergarments,hunchul sighs at him, “i don’t even know if we’ll get to that point.”

not even lifting his gaze up from his bright screen,donghyuk grumbles “of course he’s gonna put out, you’re going to a fancydinner, for fuck’s sake.”

putting his pants on, hunchul mumbles, “doubt it.”

“i’ll bet you ten thousand you’ll get laid.” donghyukshrugs.

hunchul accepts that offer.

exiting his apartment, donghyuk in tow, however, he gets atext message from siyoung, saying only “bring condoms, i’m out.”

figuring he’s already late, hunchul turns around, towardshis apartment before giving donghyuk ten thousand won reluctantly.

despite looking sullen at the loss of money, hunchul can’tsurpress a smile as donghyuk yells at his retreating form “what did i say? aren’tyou glad you changed your boxers now?”

his smile lasts the entire night, right until siyoung kissesit off once they’re both naked.

the first day, jeongguk gets rudely interrupted mid-mission, jimin’s mecha floating in front of jeongguk calmly, taehyung digging the long legs of his own mecha into the soft ground with a loud hissing noise and jeongguk hisses out “what the fuck” while simultaneously trying to get his mechanical armor to come to a halt, to avoid slamming straight into jimin.

taehyung giggles into his ear via the earphone they’re all wearing for communication, probably due to jeongguk cursing but jimin doesn’t budge and jeongguk barely manages to hit the breaks completely, dirt piling around his mecha’s legs.

“park jimin i almost died.” jeongguk growls out, knowing jimin will hear him but jimin doesn’t laugh back at him with some halfassed jab like he always does, “but you didn’t. training’s cancelled, come on.”

opening the hatch in the eyes of his mecha, taehyung trudges over “what do you mean training’s cancelled. it can’t be cancelled. it’s training. it’s uncancellable.”

jimin just shakes his head sadly, except he’s still in his mecha, so all they see is armor straining to portray humane body language.

“orders from the bosses. they just told me to take december and come pick you up. we’re heading back.”

and really, there’s no one around them so jeongguk decides jimin isn’t really playing a prank on them.

next to him, taehyung sighs dramatically, already turning his cypher around “go do this, taehyunggie, go outside and practice, actually no, taehyunggie, come back” but he doesn’t sound bitter, just airheaded like he sometimes gets. in jeongguk’s opinion, there is something dangerously wrong with kim taehyung.“so,” jeongguk mumbles into his soda can, “why exactly are we here in time for dinner?” his eyebrows are lifted up at jimin and taehyung chimes in, mouth chock full of beef and veggies “yeh. wer ushuly ner am tyme.”

ignoring taehyung’s wide open eyes and wider open mouth, jimin shrugs, “honestly i know as much as you guys. i was just told to come get you.”

swallowing, taehyung hums “it’s weird. i don’t think training has ever been cancelled. what’s going on?”

they’re not the only one talking about today’s events in a hushed tone, hunched over their dinner at the school’s food court. for as long as jimin can see, everyone seems wary and suspicious, eyes darting from one of their friends to the other.

“what do you reckon had to happen?” jeongguk asks, and even before the question fully leaves his mouth, taehyung is already piping in “oh, oh, maybe the school has been taken over by the enemy.”

jeongguk eyes him disgustedly, focusing on the rice in the corner of his lips, “yeah right. you really think evil ai drones would be nice enough to fry your beef before they kill you.”

taehyung shrugs “hey, if i was an evil artificial intelligence drone, i’d try to trick everyone into believing everything is fine and then….boom.”

leaning over the table to wipe at taehyung’s lips, jimin chuckles “sometimes i think i should be worried for you.” and taehyung gives him a warm grin “you should most definitely be worried about me.”

before jeongguk can say anything, one of their classmates is telling them there’s a party in one of the dorm halls, and jimin decides that all three of them need some fun, so eleven pm finds them exhausted on a porch. the inside of the hall is still booming with music and chatters of groups of people but jeongguk is too lazy to go join them.

jimin walks back outside, carrying four cans of beer, giving taehyung one and pressing another one against jeongguk’s warm forehead. “drink up, gukkie, you’ll need it.”

“why’d you get two cans?” taehyung asks accusingly, leaning into jimin’s personal space to hang off of him, like he usually does and jimin pops the first one open, “because i need to be twice as drunk to save your dumb asses.”

jeongguk would say something but taehyung agrees. a comfortable silence, product of years of friendship, settles between them before taehyung starts, “i should get cypher tuned, my left arm keeps going berserk. yesterday i almost shot my foot off.” and jeongguk complains that his robot, midnight,  skipped two tunings already and their conversation turns completely professional, how only the three of them can do.“i think something’s coming.” jimin says softly. he’s laying on the couch an indefinite amount of time later, taehyung’s head on his shoulder and taehyung immediately darts up “what’s coming? where?”

his eyes are glued to the clear night sky but jimin shakes his head “no, i meant…i have a bad feeling. something today felt off.”

not drunk, but pleasantly buzzed, jeongguk agrees “they’ve never made us stop in the middle practice.” and taehyung sighs “man i was doing so good i was about to beat my high score.”

even in just simulation, taehyung is one hell of a sniper, with eyes of a hawk and despite his weird persona, he’s known as a prodigy in their class, often described as their new hope. most often than not though, taehyung annihilates whole armies of training bots before his left arm recalibrates and he shoots himself in the foot, quite literally. it’s kind of tragically beautiful.

“i overheard someone talking about the drones closing in. the southeastern block is nearly completely run over. apparently, we’ll be called for combat soon.”

jeongguk’s eyes lift up at that, staring at jimin, shining in fear, “we can’t fight. we haven’t even graduated.” when jimin doesn’t give him a definite answer, or absolutely any other kind of answer, jeongguk says, mostly to himself “they can’t do that.”

“it doesn’t matter what they can’t or cannot do, jeonggukie. we knew what we signed up for.”

there’s a gravely silence after that until jimin snores “you knew, my ass. you just wanted to be like kim namjoon.” and taehyung screeches a speech he has delivered a billion times by now “just because i named my mecha after them does not mean i want to become like faction thirty-four, jiminnie!”

jimin sticks out his tongue, “whatever, i’m not the one who has min yoongi’s picture above his bed.” and taehyung elbows him in the ribcage “shut up. like you don’t think he’s cool.”

“mmm, jiminnie hyung prefers jung hoseok, don’t you?” jeongguk looks at them from his position, a few inches from jimin’s left side.

“yeah. well he was the most famous hand to hand combat pilot, what do you expect. that’s my area of expertise.” and taehyung emerges from behind jimin’s chest, eyes hopeful, “do you think we could be like them?”

“the most efficient squadron in history, i think pretty much everyone wants to be like them, taehyunggie.” and taehyung pouts at that. “but if you continue practicing, you’ll surely surpass min yoongi’s shooting skills?”

“does that make me namjoon?” jeongguk asks, half in mock.

“well, you do have the oldest mecha.” jimin confirms.

whatever. kim namjoon’s monster is still cool, in jeongguk’s opinion.the next time jeongguk looks up at his best friends, they’re both asleep, jimin wrapped around taehyung, snoring softly into his neck and they both look so peaceful, jeongguk feels bad for looking, like even that might wake them up.

it had been hard when he was just accepted into his spot, as a close range fighter but jeongguk prouds himself in his skills. having no friends sucked, but taehyung quickly latched onto him after jeongguk helped him stagger home to base, his foot blown completely off.

half expecting the pilot to fuck off the second the hatch opens, jeongguk was taken by surprise once taehyung jumped out enthusiastically, sputtering out “thank you”s and “you’re so cool”. long story short, jeongguk and taehyung became inseparable that day, whether jeongguk wanted it or not.

however, jimin came unexpectedly, in a weird “help taehyung, get jimin” one plus one bonus. even before speaking to him, jeongguk knew exactly who jimin is. everyone knows who park jimin is. there’s a reason why the duo was known as prodigies and jeongguk would be lying if he said he didn’t have the biggest crush on jimin, but all jimin had, still has, eyes for is taehyung and after all this time, jeongguk can honestly say he’s okay with that. they’re meant to be.

he watches them sleep for just a few more seconds before snuggling up to them, snoring in a matter of minutes.the next day, they’re back in their mechas before they’re even awake and the hall they were peacefully sleeping in just hours ago is a fiery hell. jeongguk isn’t sure what happened, nor what is currently happening but next to him, taehyung is loading out more sets of bullets jeongguk thought he had.

it all happens so fast.

“think you might give in anytime soon?”

yoongi’s voice sounds determined but namjoon has stuckaround long enough to notice the raspy echo of neediness. of course, yoongi’sarousal is visible from a mile away, from his messed up hair sticking to hissweaty forehead, over the glazed over eyes and the blush on his cheeks to theheat of his skin.

namjoon’s head lifts up momentarily, staring down at him“nah.” before diving back down, to leave kisses and small, light nips on theskin over the curve where yoongi’s neck becomes his shoulder.

“you fucking asshole” yoongi mutters but namjoon knowsyoongi doesn’t mean it, so he just continues playing their game, clucking histongue at his boyfriend. “that won’t do, babe.”

yoongi’s hand tangling in namjoon’s recently cut, newlybrownish hair, he almost whines out only to have namjoon interrupt him “don’tyou know what you’ve been doing to me lately?”

the only response he gets is a slight tug on his hair and aheavy exhale so he continues, moving his kisses to yoongi’s other shoulder.“every time i saw you in that uniform, don’t you know how i felt?”

giving the pale skin a bite that will surely leave a mark,namjoon smirks into yoongi’s neck, enjoying the way his boyfriend’s body curlsup around him at the sudden sting of pain. “of course you don’t.” he licks overthe newly formed hickey, soothing the redness with his tongue, “but that’sokay, i’ll show you.”

with that, he lifts himself up on his forearms, sitting backon his shins between yoongi’s spread legs, taking in the alluring sight ofyoongi naked and on his back, in front of him. he’s already quite hard but,judging by the precum leaking from yoongi’s dick and the flush grazing his skinunder the thin sheen of sweat, yoongi has it a lot worse. good. namjoon wantshim to suffer, just like he did.

lifting one arm to put it over his eyes, yoongi squints athim, an accusatory tone in his voice, “what do you want me to do, to beg?” andnamjoon muses the thought for a good half a minute before humming, “maybelater.”

namjoon leans in again, putting both of his forearms oneither side of yoongi’s torso, to keep himself up before planting a wet, hotkiss on the center of yoongi’s stomach and licking over the spot his lipstouched and yoongi breathes in audibly, keeping air in his lungs selfishly, asif letting it out will take namjoon with it.

however, namjoon would most rather be buried deep inside ofyoongi, feeling sinfully good like only his hyung can make him feel but he’srather determined to keep the promise he made to himself, to make yoongi achefor him like he did for the entire past week.

“god, every time i saw you in that uniform…” namjoon trailsoff, because how could he possibly describe the surge of emotion he felt everytime his boyfriend paraded around in a very tight, very complimenting armyuniform. he can’t, so all he does is trail his tongue over yoongi’s burning hotskin, across his stomach and to his abdomen.

he knows  all yoongiwants is to be touched where he needs it the most, and he wants to touch himtoo, so badly, wants to make yoongi gasp out his name deliciously, but therewill be more than enough time for that later.

sucking yoongi’s skin into his mouth, namjoon leaves a fewmore hickeys just above yoongi’s v line and yoongi hisses out at the pain,groaning “you’re such a dick.”

namjoon giggles at that, punishing yoongi by licking astripe up his cock, making the breath hitch in yoongi’s throat, “you don’treally mean that, do you, hyung?” almost instantaneously, yoongi franticallystarts shaking his head and namjoon can’t help but smile at him, eyes soakingup the scene. “good.”

he lifts himself up to reach for the lube on the drawerbeside yoongi’s bed, when yoongi pulls him down for an openmouthed kiss. it’ssloppy, needy and messy and yoongi is definitely more horny than he’s showingbut namjoon isn’t gonna let him get off so easily.

after biting down on yoongi’s lower lip, he sits back up tomake room for himself between yoongi’s thighs. “put yourarm down, hyung, i want you to watch.” he warns, before taking the tip ofyoongi’s dick into his mouth and yoongi’s back curves right off the bed, bothhands tangling in namjoon’s short hair when he takes in as much as he can ofyoongi into his mouth.

he sucks almost gently, wrappinglong fingers around the base as he hollows out his cheeks before sliding backdown, tongue licking over the prominent vein on the underside of yoongi’s dick.daring even to press the tip of his tongue into the slit, namjoon pops off whenhe feels yoongi’s thighs getting tense and yoongi almost growls, voice brokenand needy “just fuck me already.”

“oh don’t worry, i will.” namjoonassures him, taking the lube that had been laying discarded somewhere just alittle away from yoongi’s shoulder, and coating his fingers generously with it.

trying to soothe yoongi’s rapidbreathing, he shushes him as he slides the first finger inside of him slowly,eyes cautiously searching for any sign of discomfort on the older’s face. whenhe finds none, he carefully adds a second finger, giving yoongi time to adjustbefore scissoring him, praising him the entire time, “i swear, hyung, you driveme crazy. you’re all i ever think about, even when i’m asleep i have thosethoughts. do you have to torture me like this?”

despite looking fucked out beforeanything even happened, yoongi manages to cockily smile, a lopsided grinadorning his face “it’s not my fault you can’t keep it in your pants, though.”it’s enough to make something break in namjoon’s chest, even though yoongi’svoice is obviously cracking, so he adds in a third finger, stretching him out,making yoongi gasp when namjoon’s long digits graze over that one spot.

“not so smug now, huh?” namjoonasks and yoongi gulps, one hand curling to leave marks down namjoon’s back.ignoring the burning trail yoongi’s fingers leave on his skin, namjoon kissesthe corner of yoongi’s lips, his fingers ceasing movement and yoongi opens hiseyes at that, to look at him with unfocused eyes, cracking a lazy smile “fuckyou, namjoon.”

“don’t mind if you do.” namjoonsimply replies, moving so he can drip more lube on his hand before sliding itover his own dick, trying to remind himself to relax, not to be too rough withyoongi. although, rough is just how yoongi likes it, because the older whines“hurry up already” and namjoon rolls his eyes, aligning himself with yoongi’sentrance and relishing the gasp that leaves yoongi’s lips once namjoon slidesinside of him to the hilt.

hissing out a “shit” namjoontries to still himself, listening to yoongi breathe right next to his ear andlifting his legs, so yoongi can comfortably wrap them around namjoon’s waist.it’s excruciating, trying his hardest not to blindly thrust into the tight heatbut namjoon really, really doesn’t want to hurt his boyfriend so he patientlywaits for yoongi to nod “move” before thrusting lightly.

one gentle thrust turns into afew and it’s not long before namjoon’s almost fully pulling out to slam hiships into yoongi’s ass, making the older slide up the bed an inch every time.

yoongi’s hypersensitive, it’sobvious by the way even slightest rotation of namjoon’s hips makes him cry out,one hand in his hair and the other one gripping the sheets tightly, eyes screwedshut and mouth open in a silent moan and namjoon honestly never wants to stop,wants to spent the remainder  of his lifewatching min yoongi come undone before his eyes, because of him and him alone.

but yoongi’s never the one togive in easily and once namjoon starts pulling out, yoongi clenches around him,making namjoon bite down on the skin over yoongi’s shoulder, groaning out“fuck, hyung, that’s not fair” but yoongi doesn’t have him in himself to looksmug anymore.

sliding into him again forces namjoonto shut his eyes, listening to yoongi’s gasp so close to his ear and namjoonjust has to turn his head a little bit so he can comfortably leave butterflykisses, albeit sloppy ones, on yoongi’s jawline. the second he does so,yoongi’s hair finds namjoon’s nape, tugging at the hair there, and scratchingthe skin with blunt nails.

the legs around his waist tightentheir grip and yoongi’s close, namjoon knows from experience that a few morethrusts will do it but he wants to prolong this as much as possible. that, andthe sappy part of him, which is kept hidden, wants both of them to come at thesame time. so he pulls out completely, detangling himself from yoongi’s palelimbs to sit back on the bed just a couple of inches away from his previousposition.

it’s enough to make yoongi whine“namjoon, you fucking asshole, i was so close” but namjoon pulls him into hischest, shushing him, watching as yoongi eagerly sits down on his dick. likethis, namjoon can perfectly see his cock sliding in and out of yoongi and it’sso mesmerizing, the thought almost makes namjoon wonder, how much can hesugarcoat this very scene before someone realizes bangtan sonyeondan aresinging about sex. the thought occupies his brain for just a millisecondbecause yoongi’s clenching around him and namjoon’s close too, this time.

“yoongi, open your eyes” namjooncommands and, to his surprise, yoongi actually listens. although it probablydoesn’t mean much, since yoongi’s eyes are so dilated, namjoon wouldn’t besurprised if the other wasn’t seeing anything at all. however, yoongi managesto focus on namjoon’s face, mouth panting and cheeks stained with red and helooks so wrecked, namjoon feels proud, as yoongi’s arms come up to wrap aroundnamjoon’s neck for support.

yoongi tries to warn him, doeshis best to get his vocal chords to listen to him but it comes out as a raspy“namjoon, shit, i’m gonna come,” and namjoon nods, hands finding purchase onyoongi’s hips, nails digging into the skin there as he slams yoongi’s hips downonto his dick and yoongi throws his head back, almost letting out a scream ashe comes.

the intensity of his orgasm makeshis whole body shudder and his head falls on namjoon’s shoulder, limbs stillshaking and he lets out a satisfied gasp once namjoon comes inside of him,filling him up to the brim.

he lets his boyfriend ride outhis orgasm, blindly thrusting into yoongi, who is still coming down from hishigh and only when namjoon releases his grip on yoongi’s hips does yoongibreathe out, cool air making the skin on namjoon’s chest rise in goosebumps.

“shit,” yoongi laughs, “fuck imissed that.”

namjoon’s drawing out patternsonly he can see on the skin of yoongi’s back, periodically admiring thecontrast of their tans, still trying to regain his breath.

“seriously though, you fuckingwreck me with that stupid uniform.”

yoongi looks up, cocking aneyebrow at namjoon, a smug twinkle in his eyes, “wouldn’t think of you as auniform kink kinda guy.”

namjoon shrugs, trying hishardest to look nonchalant, “i’m not a grumpy blonde kinda guy either, yet herei am.”

the only reward he gets for thatis a punch on the forearm that will probably take forever to heal and will be apain in the ass to explain to hobeom and the rest of their team. still worth itthough.

jeon jeongguk has a hickey.

that isn’t a problem on its own except jeon jeongguk is inbangtan sonyeondan, a group that looks up to kim namjoon, the leader, for aguidance. and the very same kim namjoon is sure that if the word about theiryoungest being not so innocent got out, their manager would have namjoon’s headon a silver platter. that makes it kim namjoon’s problem.

the brat doesn’t want to say anything, all he does is smilecheekily, like he’s keeping a secret and namjoon wants to rip his bleached hairout from the roots.

“relax,” yoongi breathes out, sliding onto the floor next tonamjoon, “we’ll say it’s a bruise or something.” he actually sounds hopeful.“it’s not that visible, anyway. we’ll figure something out.”

namjoon doesn’t think they’ll figure something out becauseyoongi isn’t the leader of bangtan, namjoon is, and whatever problem bangtanhas, it becomes namjoon’s problem eventually, like jimin’s rigorous diet ortaehyung’s strange and potentially dangerous obsessions.

however, he manages to forget about the discoloration on theskin of jeongguk’s shoulder, visible only when the boy in question wears lowcut shirts, as they practice a choreography for a special stage until namjoonsees stars in front of his eyes and swears he’s dying.

it becomes just a reminder in namjoon’s mind until jeonggukstrolls into kitchen, eyes blazing with a mischievous flame, lips swollen andhair mussed. upon seeing namjoon, however he does a one-eighty, clumsily tryingto make a beeline for his room before namjoon lays his sight on him.

“jeongguk.” namjoon calls, with a sigh and the younger hasno choice but return to the kitchen, “you uh, you called?” namjoon decides notto beat around the bush, since really, jeongguk obviously isn’t a kid. “you’reseeing someone.” it’s not a question but jeongguk nods anyway.

pinching the bridge of his nose, namjoon continues, “look,i’m really not trying to cockblock you or anything, good for you, man, buthickeys? you gotta cut that shit out.”

jeongguk nods again and namjoon feels like a mother when theyounger proudly says “yes, sir!” followed by a “can i be excused now?”

he’s dismissed with a wave of namjoon’s oversized hand,“yeah, sure, you’re free” and jeongguk hops away, screaming “jimin,taehyung-hyung, let’s play smash bros”

the next day, he comes to breakfast with a large, purplebruise on his neck and avoids namjoon’s eyes all through the meal.

kim namjoon is running out of ideas here, so of course, hegoes to the source of all wisdom in the group, kim seokjin. “jeongguk has ahickey.” and seokjin nods, chopping cabbage for their dinner, “yeah, you’dthink i’d notice. it’s not exactly small.”

namjoon rolls his eyes underneath his eyelids, careful notto let his hyung see the sarcastic gesture and asks, “hyung, i’m here cause ineed an advice.”

seokjin doesn’t even stop cutting up vegetables, “namjoon,”he sighs, “are we in the middle of promoting?”

not really understanding the question, or the point seokjinis trying to make, namjoon shakes his head, “no, hyung, why?”

the first reply he gets is a careless shrug from seokjin“what i’m trying to tell you is; let him. namjoon, he’s only seventeen, ofcourse he’s going to want to date. now that we’re not promoting, there are lessfansites following us around and even if the thread about his marks come up onnaver, we can always say it’s from practice. god knows we look banged up allthe time, anyway.”

namjoon is silent, mulling over everything seokjin said, andreally, the oldest is right. seokjin ends their conversation with “now, ifthat’s all, pass me that pot if you want to see any food before midnight.”

true to his word, namjoon backs off of jeongguk’s supposedlove affair for a while and the younger seems to rejoice due to the fact thathe can now openly date. he keeps bragging about his love life, occasionallyslipping it into the conversation that he’s in love or how he always gets cutetexts.

it’s kind of gross, in namjoon’s opinion but namjoon reallyisn’t an affectionate person so he doesn’t say anything. he catches yoongirolling his eyes at jeongguk saying love makes the world go round.

it gets dropped for a while until jimin walks up to namjoonone day, looking lost right before bed time. even though he’s dead tired, namjoonsits down on his bed, “hey, jimin, what’s up?”

“namjoon hyung, you know how sometimes two boys can fall inlove, right?” there it is, namjoon should have seen it coming. of course jiminand taehyung fell in love. it was just a matter of time, honestly.

“look, jiminnie, if you and taehyung feel that way-” jiminlooks dumbstruck, interrupting him “what? no. not me. hyung, i’m talking aboutjeongguk.”

now it’s namjoon’s turn to look like someone punched him inthe gut. “what.”

jimin shrugs, “he let it slip. he was going on on one of hisrants and he accidentally said ‘he’ when talking about his stupid person. ithought you might want to know, or something, i dunno.”

nodding, namjoon thanks him, saying he did good for tellinghim and sending him off the bed. however, exiting namjoon’s room, jimin turnsaround “hyung, you really think taehyung could fall in love with me?”

namjoon sighs, “jimin, bed, now.”

yoongi’s the only one who hears about this, besides namjoonand jimin and whoever jeongguk’s careless enough to blab out to, becausenamjoon asks him to stay back one night in the studio after hoseok leaves. it’snot that namjoon doesn’t trust hoseok, but he really doesn’t want this to getout and he’s at least one hundred and fifty percent sure that yoongi won’t tella word.

“so,” namjoon tries not to beat around the bush, “jeonggukis dating a guy.”

yoongi cocks an eyebrow at namjoon’s statement. “wow, okay.”followed by an unimpressed, “so?”

“so?” namjoon repeats and yoongi nods “yeah, dude, come on,it’s his personal thing. let him be.”

“but what if-” yoongi shakes his head, “namjoon. stop. don’tfuck this up for jeongguk. just tell him to be careful or whatever. to use someprotection.”

namjoon nods and he blames his tired brain for the time ittakes him to realize what yoongi’s said. “wait. protection? yoongi, you don’tthink he’s doing that, do you?” and yoongi sighs, locking up the studio.

the thought comes into his head, namjoon’s lying in his bed,on the brink of sleep. what if jeongguk’s dating one of the members? thepossibility keeps namjoon up almost till sunrise and he can’t look any of themembers the same.

the thought slowly gnaws through namjoon’s mind for a fewdays until he catches yoongi smiling at him smugly, like he knows somethingnamjoon doesn’t. he initially thinks yoongi read something dumb about him onpann but yoongi’s grin doesn’t disappear for a whole week, until namjooncorners him in the studio, under the excuse he needs help fixing the bridge onhis song.

waiting until seokjin drags jimin out of the studio, helooks at him “hyung. what.”

yoongi looks confused, but self-content “what what?”

namjoon has to roll his eyes underneath his eyelids becausehe doesn’t want to come off as disrespectful “why do you keep smiling likethat?”

with the exact smile namjoon’s talking about on yoongi’sface, he asks “like what?”

“like you know something i don’t. like that.”

yoongi shrugs, “namjoon, maybe you’re not supposed to knowsome things.”

then, namjoon’s eyes widen in realization, “hyung. is thisabout jeongguk?” and all yoongi does is shake his head, amused, “remember whati said, namjoon.”

what if it’s yoongi? it could be yoongi. yoongi would be atotally rational candidate, in namjoon’s mind. except the yoongi in questiondoesn’t treat the maknae any better than jimin, which is saying a lot, eventhreatening to kick him when jeongguk tries to take yoongi’s time in theshower.

namjoon rules out jimin immediately. despite the popularbelief, jimin is way more into taehyung than into their youngest and namjoonwould rather not get in the way of their weird courting rituals. luckily forhim, that automatically excludes taehyung too, and he’s left with only theoldest members of their group.

quite frankly, namjoon thinks that the age gap between anyof them and jeongguk is too big but he’s at least eighty percent sure it’syoongi. he never would have thought his hyung would be into people likejeongguk but he supposes yoongi is just full of surprises.

so, content he’s at least satiated his curiosity, namjoonlets go of it for a few weeks. jeongguk still shows up with hickeys, but thistime, they’re less prominent and on places that are easier to hide. every timenamjoon discovers a new mark on an exposed part of jeongguk’s body, he can’thelp but shoot a look at yoongi, his brain unable to conjure up an image of himbiting jeongguk.

it lasts until yoongi rooms with hoseok during their trip tojapan, even though namjoon went out of his way to put him with jeongguk.probably a lover’s spat.

however, at dinner, jeongguk can’t stop shaking and grinningand being generally lovestruck, despite the fact yoongi is sitting on the otherside of the table. as minor of a detail that is, namjoon can’t help but find itstrange.

finding yoongi in seokjin’s and his room the next week, backin their dorm, he instinctively sits down next to him. yoongi takes off hisearphones and minimizes his browser, shooting namjoon a look “what’s up?”

his eyes are just as sleepy and uninterested as usual andnamjoon really can’t do this. he respects yoongi, not only as his hyung, but asa fellow rapper, too much to pry into his personal life, so all he does is givehim a smile “you need to help me with a few rhymes on the last cypher.”

the mention of their new song brings some light intoyoongi’s eyes and namjoon feels sort of relieved he didn’t ask, even though hehad the perfect chance. he’s sort of afraid of the answer and sort of ignoringthe fact that, for some reason, he really doesn’t want it to be yoongi.

they discard work quickly in favor of having discussionsover the latest songs they’ve been liking, a few anecdotes and an abundance ofjokes. it lasts until right before dinner and namjoon exits the room to gopee  and wash his hands before eatingonly to find seokjin and jeongguk in the kitchen. the younger is diligentlycutting up a salad as seokjin stirs something in a pot and this is the firsttime in a long time namjoon has seen his mouth closed. it’s a nice change andnamjoon almost forgets he has to  go tothe bathroom, but jimin walking in there right in front of him sort of remindshim. it takes all of the goodness in him and his willpower not to make jiminthe one who has to correct seokjin’s steps during next dance practice. he’s notthat evil. yet.

however, as it turns out, jimin’s too busy learning thesteps himself because they get a new choreography to perfect and not nearlyenough time to perfect it, as usual. they’re given just a little under twoweeks and namjoon seriously doesn’t think normal human shoulders can roll likethat. even hoseok’s worried at this one, taehyung is filming himself lookingdisheveled for the fancafe and yoongi just looks dead. the great bangtansonyeondan, reduced to a panting mess on the studio floor. discreetly, namjoonsnaps a photo of all of them in the mirror. it’s too blurry to go on twitterbut it serves perfectly as his new wallpaper.

jeongguk won’t budge. no matter how much jimin pries and nomatter how many tricks taehyung tries on him, he won’t give up a name.truthfully, namjoon respects him for that, but he can’t deny he’s curious. forsome reason, he cares a lot if it’s yoongi or not.

despite their schedule, namjoon makes sure they all get asmuch sleep as they can, especially their youngest ones, and that includes a lotof shooing taehyung and jimin into bed when they beg him to stay up just alittle while longer playing games and recording dubsmashes. though, whenthey’re in bed, they fall asleep pretty quickly and namjoon sort of wishes theyhad a break for at least a week.

making sure taehyung isn’t on his phone and jimin isn’tsleep talking, namjoon walks over to jeongguk’s bed in the other room to checkup on their youngest but he’s nowhere to be found. looking for him in thebathroom and asking hoseok and yoongi about it is in vain because they bothshake their head, replying that no, they haven’t seen him since they got backfrom practice.

sighing, namjoon puts on his hoodie and runs out to theirdance studio nearby. although not as loud as usual, their new song can be heardthrough the speakers and namjoon sneaks to the door to take a peek and findsjeongguk helping seokjin with his posture, fixing his steps and guiding himthrough the flow and the feeling of the choreography. he ends up staring atthem for more than necessary and jeongguk looks happier than namjoon has seenhim in a while, more content, although evidently tired.

he sneaks out the studio, deciding to let their oldest andtheir youngest practice, thinking this moment was too intimate to be interrupted.

“you’re in my spot.” yoongi mutters at jeongguk and eventhough namjoon is at least eighty percent asleep, he knows jeongguk would bewise to just move. sleepy  yoongi is acrabby, homicidal yoongi, namjoon knows this since their predebut days but thedark haired boy just seems asleep, so yoongi nudges him, a little stronger thanneeded.

“dude, you’re in my fucking spot, move.” he exclaims alittle bit louder and jeongguk sleepily blinks up at him, “sorry.” beforemoving to let yoongi sit at his usual spot in the van. once yoongi’s seated,jeongguk’s head falls on his shoulders and namjoon looks back a lot more thanhe should.

“hyung, how do you know you like someone?” namjoon slidesinto their living room with the elegance of an elephant, making seokjin dropthe remote.

“what?” seokjin looks at him wide-eyed, and namjoon reallywishes he wasn’t so frank all the time. “like when you have a crush on someone,how do you know?”

seokjin gives it some thought, “i guess you can’t stopthinking about that person and you want them all to yourself and stuff. whereis this coming from?”

namjoon shrugs, desperately trying to not mention yoongi,that’s a conversation for a whole another time. “taehyung and jimin look tooclose for comfort to me, is all.”

seokjin smiles, “just invite me to the wedding. i’vedeserved it.”

“and that’s why i’m asking you to tell jimin to stop takingmy headphones i can never find them and hoseok starts yelling at me if i playmy music too loudly.” yoongi concludes and namjoon really didn’t listen to aword he has said. of course, yoongi notices.

“world to rap monster? i need my headphones?” and namjoonlooks up from the computer in the bangtan room to his face “hyung, it’s notyou, right?”

yoongi doesn’t even seem phased. “probably not but just tobe sure, what’s not me?”

namjoon’s stare doesn’t falter, “the whole jeongguk thing,you’re not dating him, right?” he knows he sounds too hopeful and yoongi staresat him in silence, expressionless, for what seems forever until he bursts outlaughing.

hiccupping, it takes him a while to come to his senses buthe looks at namjoon, eyes squinting into crescents from laughter, “no, namjoon,it’s not me.”

it’s not like namjoon’s relieved but he does fix two out ofthree things that have been bothering him in a ballad that night.

once promotions start up in full swing namjoon wants toscream at a wall for an hour and then sleep for a week but he works diligently,pushing himself to the hardest to get all his lines and steps right and eventhen he doesn’t feel content. but when it comes to his team, he’s immenselyproud of all six of them. he knows how tired they are and how hard this is onthem but none of them complain.

as for jeongguk, he keeps his promise, as there areabsolutely no hickeys or any kind of marks on him whatsoever. he looks toosleep deprived to even complain about jimin pinching his arm, let alone be allgiddy about his relationship. it actually makes namjoon sad.

it’s kind of a shock when he sees yoongi standing at hisdoorstep that night, rubbing his eyes and holding a pillow. “’sup?”

namjoon quirks an eyebrow at him, “hyung, you know your roomis down the hall?”

yoongi nods so namjoon tries again “so why are you here.”the first response he gets is yoongi plopping down on jeongguk’s bedunceremoniously after putting his own pillow there, “giving them room.”

“what?”

looking up at him, eyebrows lifted, yoongi actually lookscute “wait, you still haven’t figured it out?”

and right then, namjoon gets it. why jeongguk likes spendingso much time around seokjin, why he doesn’t mind helping him, why seokjin toldhim to lay off it. in retrospect it was kind of obvious but namjoon supposes hewas always good at playing dumb when necessary.

“damn.”

“yep.” yoongi smiles.

“are you sure you should be leaving them alone?” he reallydoesn’t want to go there but he has to ask.

“don’t worry, i have a feeling this is exactly what theyneed. ‘sides, you’ll only put up with me for a night.”

later that night, namjoon goes into the kitchen to gethimself water. passing by yoongi’s and seokjin’s room, he peeks inside andfinds jeongguk curled up into seokjin’s body, like how hoseok once told himtaehyung and jimin occasionally sleep. it’s honestly kind of cute, in a cheesydisgusting way. once he lies down into his own bed, he looks over at yoongi,whose back is turned to him. before drifting away to sleep, his last thought isa sincere wish that jeongguk and seokjin’s thing works out. not only becausethen he’d get yoongi as a roommate even though that’s an important factor, too.but that’s a thought for a whole another time.