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so long gay boys (2/2)
“What took you guys so long?”
When they return, Kyungsoo’s got one hand on his hip and the other brandishing a ladle of some kind. “The food’s nearly done and we haven’t even cooked the rice yet.”
“Calm down, Soo, there’s plenty of time.”
“I thought we were going to grill meat?” Jongdae pouts.
“Everyone’s too tired. Let’s do it tomorrow night and settle for homemade cooking tonight, okay?”
They toe off their shoes and silently bless Kyungsoo for cleaning the floor earlier. Chanyeol and Sehun are in the living room, sprawled across the carpet and eyes fixated on the screen.
“Where’s everyone else?” Junmyeon puts the rice on the kitchen counter, massaging his aching wrists. Jongdae does the same.
“Dunno,” Sehun’s eyes don’t leave the screen, fingers pounding away mercilessly at the controller. “Probably upstairs unpacking or something – hey! Chanyeol, why did you restart the game?”
“Because I was losing,” he huffs. “And it was only two minutes into the match.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes and turns to Junmyeon. “I better go unpack too.”
“Yeah, I’ll sort out the stuff we bought, you go ahead and wash up.”
-
Jongdae realises they haven’t had a proper tour around the house yet, so when he ascends the wooden staircase and reaches the second floor, he feels more than a little disoriented. He tries to remember how many bedrooms there are supposed to be in the house, and how many bathrooms are supposed to go with them. Where’s his and Junmyeon’s room anyway? Did Kyungsoo put the right bags in the right room? Jongdae suddenly needs to pee.
He tries the first door. Locked. So is the second one. Third time lucky, he stumbles into a well-lit bathroom that he thinks is fit for a hotel.
“Who turned the lights on?” he mutters, locking the door behind him. When he retracts his hand, dust comes away. “Kyungsoo really needs to clean this place, too –“
The sound of running water elicits a yelp out of him, and a small voice from behind the bathtub curtain sends shivers down his spine. “Who – who’s there?” Wait, this voice? “Kyungsoo?”
Jongdae lets out a sigh of relief. “It’s just me, Jongin.”
“Oh, Jongdae?”
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were – you know. I’ll leave now –“
Suddenly a very warm and wet hand grips his wrist and Jongdae nearly falls headfirst onto the floor if not for the strong hold Jongin’s got on him. He hears an amused chuckle, and he has to swallow the lump in his throat.
“You’re pretty daring to walk in while I’m –“
“I told you! I didn’t know!” He shakes his wrist. “Let me go.”
“It’s fine, there’s no need to hold back.” Jongin’s voice has dropped an octave lower, making Jongdae visibly shudder. “I’ll keep it a secret from everyone if we do it now…”
“What the fuck – what are you t-talking about –“
“Hey, don’t you want to,” Jongin lets out a sigh. “Do it with me?”
“Do what?”
Jongdae shrieks and closes his eyes shut when he hears the curtain being haphazardly pulled back, and he’s about to scream when Jongin cheerfully says, “Clean the bathtub!”
Jongdae opens his eyes and gapes at Jongin through the mirror on the opposite wall, watching him laugh as if he’s high, clutching his stomach and hand propped up on the edge of the bathtub to support himself.
“Man, I should’ve recorded that, you were hilarious!” Jongin’s eyes nearly disappear between the folds of his eyelids. “My god, Jongdae, what were you thinking of?”
A million and one images flash through Jongdae’s head, but he decides to shake them off if he wants to keep the contents of his stomach inside. “You’re the worst.”
“And you’ve only known me for so many days! Or hours,” Jongin turns the tap off, wiping his hands on his shirt. “Why did you come in anyway?”
“I don’t need to go anymore. I lost all my senses.”
“That’s unfortunate. But hey, admit it,” Jongin snakes a hand around his shoulders. “You’ve thought about doing it with me, right?”
This time Jongdae doesn’t hesitate and pinches Jongin’s nose hard until he’s screaming like a girl and his nose turns the colour of cherry tomatoes. “I’ll tell Kyungsoo you harassed me.”
“No! Wait, don’t! Come on, it was just a joke.”
But Jongdae’s already out the bathroom, leaving Jongin as a blubbering mess in the bathroom.
“Kyungsoo!”
“Huh?” Kyungsoo turns to see a very flustered, on the verge of mental breakdown Jongdae, if his exaggerated sobbing and flapping arms were any indication. “What is it?”
More arm flailing, while Jongdae continues to wail. Kyungsoo frowns. “Jongin? Pretending to take a shower? Toying with a pure guy’s heart? Uh, okay…but did you start cleaning the bathroom?”
Jongdae shakes his head no. He watches in glee as Kyungsoo throws down his rag. “Everyone is useless when it comes to cleaning! Fine, I’ll do it myself. And I’ll teach Jongin a lesson while I’m at it.”
It takes all of Jongdae’s self restraint not to burst into laughter the moment Kyungsoo bounds up the stairs. Very soon afterwards he hears Kyungsoo shouting, “Hey, Jongin, you bas–”
The silence is nearly suffocating but Jongdae manages to hold his laughter back with convulsively shaking shoulders as he watches Kyungsoo appear at the top of the stairs, eyes impossibly wide and face a little paler than usual. His feet tremble when he sluggishly descends.
“Jongin…he was really…taking a shower…”
“Really?”
“Jongin…he’s like…” Kyungsoo makes a crude gesture near his groin that Jongdae didn’t even know he had in him. “Boom! There, and –“
Out of nowhere, a wet towel smacks Kyungsoo in the face and he screams, trying to get the filthy thing off. “Cut the useless shit!” Jongin shouts, ignoring Kyungsoo’s cries of bacteria burns!
“I’m more surprised that he hasn’t seen you, you know, down there yet. If you guys are together.” Jongdae raises his eyebrows.
“Yeah, well,” Jongin huffs. “He acts like he’s my mother. So it’s kind of hard to get to that stage yet.” Jongin makes sure he hitches his voice a little louder to say, “Sometimes I wonder if he wants it too or not.”
But unfortunately, Kyungsoo is still too busy struggling with the towel and trying not to suffocate from the thought of dirt on his face to pay any attention to Jongin, who sighs and shakes his wet hair.
“I didn’t even get to rinse and repeat.”
-
Luhan skips into the kitchen, his iPod blasting Mirotic into his ears and a Stitch plushie under his right arm. He looks around and upon seeing only Junmyeon manning the stove and laying out the dishes, he frowns.
“Where’s Kyungsoo? Isn’t this supposed to be his natural habitat?”
Junmyeon doesn’t look up from where he’s staring holes into an instant curry packet. “He’s recuperating from his shock somewhere.”
Luhan snorts. “That’s his own fault. He’s been together with Jongin for ages, I can’t believe they still haven’t –“
“Can you call Jongdae over for me?”
Baffled at being interrupted, Luhan sputters, “why?”
“I need help to cook dinner for everyone. Kyungsoo didn’t leave very detailed instructions.”
“Why couldn’t you have asked me? Don’t you trust me?”
Junmyeon finally looks up to stare at him for a very long time.
“Okay, okay, sheesh I’ll get Jongdae.”
-
“Woah, the dinner looks great!” Baekhyun exclaims, smacking his lips unattractively. Chanyeol is still smiling at him dreamily anyway. “Hey! We can survive without Kyungsoo in this house!”
“Excuse me?” Sitting down gingerly in his seat, Kyungsoo sends a look at Baekhyun and glances up at Jongin, who had helped him get to his seat with a smile. He can change expressions so quickly, Jongdae thinks. “Is my sole purpose in this house to be your personal servant and housemaid?”
“Well, someone’s gotta be it, right? You just happen to be good at doing what maids do.”
Before Kyungsoo gets to say another word, Jongdae brings in two more plates of curry and some of the kalbi they’ll grill. That pretty much shut everyone up, even Sehun and Chanyeol who still can’t stop arguing about who should’ve won in the game. Food really brings people together.
“Let me help you with that,” Junmyeon says, picking up the left side of the dish. It’s not even remotely heavy, yet Junmyeon tuts and shakes his head. “You should stop carrying such heavy things, Jongdae. You’ll age too soon.”
“Please, you should see the grocery my mum makes me carry.”
Once everyone has settled in and Kyungsoo has more or less sobered up, they thank Junmyeon for the food (“thaaaaaaanks for the house too”) and dig into their food. Everyone goes back to having small talks amongst themselves, happily shoving rice and saucy chicken into their mouths and ignoring Kyungsoo’s chidings of close your mouth when you eat! It’s on the second mouthful of food that the whole room falls silent, pairs of wide eyes staring at Junmyeon and Jongdae and their faces reddening and at first Jongdae is really confused until –
“HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU PUT IN THIS?”
“I’M TASTING HELL ON MY TONGUE.”
“SOMEONE GET ME WATER THE INSIDES OF MY STOMACH ARE SHRIVELING UP.”
“JUNMYEON!” Chanyeol cries, tongue hanging out of his mouth and his eyes watering until a single tear trails down his left cheek. His face is comically red. “What the fuck did you put in this?”
“I – oh god – I don’t know,” Junmyeon tries to keep his composure, but his eyes are delirious in the way that they dart around in search for a glass of water. “Jongdae and I just read the instructions on the packet.”
“THE HEAT. IT’S HERE. IT’S GOING INTO MY HEAD.” Everyone ignores Baekhyun’s dramatic shrieks.
“I think you ruined my vocal cords.” Sehun sits back down with his glass of water, only to have it snatched away from his hands by Jongin. “Hey!”
‘”You don’t even have vocal cords. You can’t sing for shit.”
Eventually Jongdae is sick of just sitting there and nursing his burning throat so he gets up and manages to fill up seven glasses of water. He thinks it might have completely been his fault, because when Junmyeon had asked to make the dish a little spicier, he’d been too distracted by the concentration evident on Junmyeon’s face that when he had finished putting the chili powder in, the broth had turned completely red. He thought it was normal. It certainly looked normal. He didn’t spare the dish a second thought when Junmyeon pouts, and all his worries had been flung out the window.
Jongdae shakes his head. He returns to the table and hurriedly drops the tray before everyone else pounces on it like dehydrated desert dwellers.
“JUNMYEON.”
“WHAT.”
Chanyeol doesn’t flinch at Junmyeon’s louder tone, and instead breaks out into a grin. “This is…. strangely delicious.”
“I know. Despite the spiciness, it has a certain allure to it…” Kyungsoo says, shoveling some more in his mouth and tightening his grip on the glass of water. “It’s like there’s a certain kind of addictiveness to it. Did you spike this thing?”
“I wish I was that skilled of a cook,” Junmyeon laughs, fanning his still red face. “This is why you should always take charge of making dinner, Soo.”
“Is this just an excuse to make me do the chores?”
A chorus of ‘yes!’ reverberates through the room, followed by laughter that sounds thick with food and the occasional choking in the background. Jongdae wills away the thumping in his ears and smiles to himself. He can definitely get used to this.
-
“Lights out! I’m going to be coming in to check everyone’s rooms before midnight!”
“What the fuck,” Sehun looks up from his snack. “Why are you tucking us in bed?”
“I’m not going to tuck you in, I’m just going to make sure that everyone goes to bed properly.”
“I feel like I’m in a boarding school.”
“Well I know who’s going to like it,” Baekhyun snickers, sneaking a glance at Jongdae who sends him a warning look in return. He doesn’t need the whole world to know about his crush – one Baekhyun and one Chanyeol, and possibly one Luhan since Jongdae caught him sniggering at him during dinner, are more than enough.
“I’m going to drop by again in the morning.”
“What if we want to do something private in the morning?” Luhan pouts. “I don’t know, like –“
Suddenly Luhan jumps up from the sofa and lets out a high-pitched shriek, nearly tripping over Sehun lying on his stomach on the carpet. “What was that?”
“What was what?” Sehun groans, clutching his side.
“That! On – on the back of my neck! I felt something wet and –“ Luhan shudders. “It felt cold!”
“Stop being such an attention-seeker, Lu –“ Jongdae is cut off by another shriek, and this time Luhan drops down to the floor clutching arms.
“I felt it again!” He brings a trembling hand to his neck to feel it, oblivious to the amused expressions on his friends’ faces and smells his fingers. “It…smells like seaweed.”
“I think you really need to go to bed,” Chanyeol says, gripping his shoulders to push him in the direction of his and Baekhyun’s shared room. “Your brain is going more haywire than it already is.”
“Wait, did Baekhyun just call me an attention-seeker?” Luhan asks rather belatedly, earning a snort from his boyfriend.
“Yes, I think everyone needs to go to bed. Turn the console off, now. And Soo, remember to turn the stove off and close the kitchen door. Sehun and Jongin, clean up your snacks. Everyone else, bed!”
Nobody moves except Jongdae, who instantly jumps up to follow Junmyeon’s orders.
“You can stop pretending to be authoritative, now.” Baekhyun sniggers.
Junmyeon sighs, resting a hand on his hip. “Why can’t you all be good boys like Jongdae?”
His tone is playful and exaggerated, but Jongdae can’t help but feel a burst of pride in his chest when Junmyeon says that. He happily skips to his and Junmyeon’s shared room, anticipating the sounds of Junmyeon’s calm, even breathing when he sleeps and seeing him maintain one sleeping position until dawn.
Not that Jongdae would know. He definitely did not do some research.
-
“What happened to you?”
Jongin limps into the room, hair sticking out at odd angles and face looking like a truck had run him over. Jongdae grimaces and pushes away his breakfast, because it is not a pleasant sight and he has just lost his appetite.
“Luhan kicked me out of Sehun’s room. Don’t know what he said, but mentioned something about Seaweed Monster or some shit. I had to migrate to Baekhyun’s room, and turns out they’ve pushed the two beds together. Baekhyun ended up hogging like four-fifths of the bed.”
“Wow,” Kyungsoo whistles, setting down Jongin’s breakfast and softly massaging his shoulders. “Sorry you had to go through that. Do you want some tea? Or some of that dark coffee you like?”
“Coffee, thanks Soo.”Jongin pries Kyungsoo’s hand away from his shoulder to plant a kiss on it, and Kyungsoo’s face flushes red. Jongdae scoffs, but inside he feels a little jealous of their domesticity. Everything pleasant and relaxed comes easily to them, mostly without a second thought, and Jongdae wonders when he’ll be able to have that kind of relationship with Junmyeon.
With someone. He means someone. It doesn’t have to specifically be Junmyeon, nope, he tries to convince himself.
“I feel sorry for Junmyeon,” Jongin sighs rather contentedly when Kyungsoo places a mug in front of him. “He’s probably going to walk into their room and it’ll be –“
“Uh, guys,” Junmyeon walks in, face a little paler than usual. “Why is Luhan in Sehun’s bedroom?”
“He kicked Jongin out. What’s wrong?”
Junmyeon shudders. “Just. See it for yourself.”
“Holy crap. Should we wake them up?”
They stare at the two bodies on the bed, arms tangled and toes peeking out from underneath the blanket. Luhan’s head is resting on Sehun’s bare chest, an expression of content and bliss on his sleeping face, and Sehun’s head rests against his. They look like they’ve been glued together, every inch of skin pressed against each other’s. Jongdae feels a pang of jealousy, and doesn’t try to hide it as he scoffs at the pair.
Kyungsoo moves to pull the blanket off of them, but Jongin stops him abruptly. “Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t know if they’re naked or not.”
“Oh.” Kyungsoo turns quiet all of a sudden. “Right. Okay.”
“Are they gone yet?”
Luhan looks up, glancing at the door. “Yeah. Do you think we scared them enough?”
“They were shitting their pants, I wish I could’ve seen their faces.” Sehun laughs, left arm finding its way back to Luhan’s bare torso until it rests on his waist, fingers tracing circles on his jutting hipbone.
“Perfect. We can have the room all to ourselves now.”
-
They all step out to the edge of the lake, feeling the increased humidity from yesterday. It’s even hotter than the curry! Baekhyun had said.
“Okay guys, I decided to ump my security measures to avoid having episodes like yesterday,” Junmyeon’s gaze travels to Luhan, who shoots him an annoyed look in return. “So meet my new recruit, Kris the lifeguard!”
A very tall and pretty buff guy walks out, his face looking like it had been chiseled out of the blessed marble from the highest heavens even behind the obnoxiously large sunglasses perched on his nose.
“Holy shit, you’re hot.” Baekhyun gapes, not even trying to be subtle. Behind him, Chanyeol’s eyebrows furrow together.
“Um, thanks?”
“He’s dropping by here from Canada as a part of his gap year schedule. He’s not very fluent in Korean, so I’d really appreciate it if you guys help him out!”
“I know some effective ways of learning the language,” Baekhyun licks his lips. “They all involve the bed.”
Kris just stares at Luhan and Baekhyun laughing hysterically with a stoic expression, and Jongdae’s not sure if he’s trying very hard to ignore the inappropriate remark or if he really doesn’t understand that much Korean yet.
“Okay, moving on,” Junmyeon shrugs. “I thought the facilities here are a bit lacking, so –“
“What the fuck,” Jongin gapes. “You’ve got a freaking mansion with plasma TV and like five different gaming consoles, DVD sets, a tennis court, a basketball court, a damn lake, world-class bikes, a garage the size of my house I don’t even want to know what’s inside –“
“Anyway,” Jongdae finds it amusing (and possibly a little endearing) that Junmyeon gets uncomfortable when his wealth or prestigious status is mentioned, considering how he’s practically swimming in three oceans of money. “I phoned my dad to ask about other activities we can possibly do, and – Yixing, Tao, Minseok, can you come out here?”
“Holy shit, he’s hot too,” Baekhyun points at the tall dark-haired boy with glaring eyes that seem to cut through the air. “Oh fuck I’m so torn now.”
“Ehem.” Chanyeol tries, but Baekhyun ignores him. Chanyeol visibly deflates.
“This is Yixing and Minseok. They’ll be your kayak instructors – yes I’ve got some kayaks, Jongin.” A very handsome guy with a handsome dimpled smile waves, while the smaller (and cuter, Luhan comments much to Sehun’s discontent) shouts out an enthusiastic hello!
“This is Tao, your firearms instructor –“
“Firearms? Junmyeon what the –“
“For paintball, calm down,” Junmyeon rolls his eyes. “There’s an indoor pistol range that is hardly ever used, so we can drop by sometime. But he’s mainly here to help us set up the paintball games and stuff.”
“We’re going to go paintballing?”
“Maybe, one day. But first, let’s go try out the kayak, shall we?”
-
“Kayak is a very leisurely sport, to be honest, and it’s very basic, hardly complicated,” Yixing nods fervently at everything coming out of his own mouth, the action oddly contagious. “We’re just kind of here to help you out, really.”
They’ve all got their kayaks with them, the water lapping at the oars and plastic body. Luhan and Baekhyun had bickered for the best-looking one (purple with pink decals. Jongdae doesn’t even know where to begin) while Sehun had already broken his oars into two before he even got his toe in the water. Jongdae is starting to realise why they need two instructors for such a simple sport.
“Once you’ve got your lifejacket secured and you’ve stretched, just slide in and position your feet comfortably so that you won’t get cramps.”
“Hey Jongdae,” Baekhyun walks up to him, lifejacket comically wrapped around his body and making his arms stick out. “Aren’t you going to make a move anytime soon?”
“Move for what?”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes, hips cocked to the side. “A move on Junmyeon. Aren’t you supposed to be planning this whole thing throughout the trip?”
“Well um,” Jongdae feels heat creeping up to his cheeks. He rarely gets embarrassed around Baekhyun, but he’s never been one for sentiments, either. “I…kind of got lost with the whole atmosphere, you know. Junmyeon’s friends are really nice and fun, and just doing everyday things with Junmyeon, it’s…kind of satisfying? Just walking with him and having him beside me, talking to him about the weirdest things…”
Baekhyun narrows his eyes, and is silent for a few moments. “Are you just saying this because you’ve secretly slept with him in your room?”
“What? The hell, no way man.”
“Well aren’t you one lucky guy to have a friend like Byun Baekhyun,” he throws an arm around Jongdae. “He’s your entertainer, saviour, guardian and cupid all in one. Clap for me.”
“I didn’t ask for help though.”
“It’s free of charge, don’t worry.”
-
Jongdae has just found a spot for himself, quite a distance away from the shore and everyone else with only the large expanse of rippling water to accompany him. He stops paddling and is about to tilt his head back to inhale the fresh air when he hears a frenzy of splashing.
Jongdae turns around, and nearly screams as he sees Baekhyun rowing full-speed towards him (when did he acquire that extra strength?). Only he doesn’t get the chance to, because the next thing he knows he’s got his head the wrong way round in the water and something heavy and plastic slapping painfully at his back. Water rushes into his head and his lungs are screaming for air, and he hears the faint sounds of a pair of oars getting closer.
“Baekhyun!”
Arms flailing, Jongdae manages to resurface with his torso bobbing up and down, nearly hitting his head on his kayak in the process. Just when he manages to get his bearings properly, he hears a click under his chin and sees his lifejacket being forcefully pried away from his body.
Holy shit I can’t fucking swim his brain is screaming, and Byun Baekhyun knows this. That son of a bitch.
“Help! Someone, help!” In a few seconds flat, Jongdae had gone back to being submerged underwater, spluttering and gasping whenever his head bobs up. Baekhyun’s shouting continues to pound in his ears. “Help! Jongdae’s lifejacket came off! Please save him, someone strong and NOT YOU, KYUNGSOO! HELP!”
Either Baekhyun had dragged Luhan into this or he had caught up to the situation very well, but soon Jongdae hears him shout, “Where’s Junmyeon? Isn’t he the expert at this?”
Jongdae contemplates saving his energy and just drowning – he’d die either way, might as well not die from embarrassment.
He hears some faraway grunts and more splashing, and soon strong arms were gripping Jongdae’s waist and dragging him up. He feels himself being lifted up onto a flat surface that seems like it’s going to give way any second. Strong hands splay themselves on his chest, and push once, twice thrice. Junmyeon’s hands feel good, and Jongdae’s head slowly stops spinning but he still wants to enjoy the feel of Junmyeon’s hands on his chest so he keeps his eyes closed, and –
“Push harder, Kris!”
Wait. Kris?
Jongdae’s eyes fly open to a face-full of frazzled blonde hair and thick eyebrows. Screaming, he knocks his forehead painfully on Kris’, sending his head back to the floor of the small boat.
“Are you…alright, Jongdae?” To the right, Junmyeon is slowly rowing towards him, an expression of concern across his face.
Jongdae wants to cry, partly because he had just been groped by someone he doesn’t know (Jongdae is very specific about his personal space, okay) but also partly because Baekhyun’s voice reminds him of why he’s in this position in the first place.
“God, if you’re fine why did you have to make such a big deal out of this, Jongdae? Stop being such a drama queen.”
Jongdae knows Baekhyun’s just jealous of his close proximity to Kris, so he replies, “that lifejacket. Orange. Doesn’t go with your kayak.”
He revels in the shriek and string of curses Baekhyun lets out.
-
“Here’s the home theater!”
Junmyeon opens a door to a room full of big cushiony chairs in three rows, the lighting of a subtle orange hue and the air smelling of caramel popcorn and air freshener. A wide screen occupies the opposite wall and the feeling of the soft carpet under his feet and the smooth leather of the chair are a little too much for Jongdae. He lets out a whimper.
“Holy crap, Junmyeon,” Chanyeol says for what seems like the thousandth time that trip. “Seriously man, what don’t you have?”
“Love,” Baekhyun sniggers and Junmyeon’s ears turn a pretty shade of pink.
“Well, uh, we can sit down and decide on a movie?”
When they’ve all settled down, Junmyeon takes out small strips of paper and a few pens. “I thought this was the most civil way to go about it. Write your preferred movie and we’ll decide?”
“Too lazy to write,” Luhan groans, sliding down the leather seat in a huff. “But okay, fine. Baekhyun, want to decide together?”
“No conspiring!” Junmyeon tries, but everyone else has turned around to discuss their choice of movies with each other. Sighing, Junmyeon sends a helpless look at Jongdae. “Nothing works with these kids, huh?”
“You sound twenty years older than what you really are, don’t do that,” Jongdae nearly pats his shoulder, but draws his hand back at the last moment. Junmyeon just chuckles.
After ten long minutes, everyone has more or less come up with something on the paper. They all submit their suggestions to Junmyeon in a pile of mess (except Kyungsoo’s neatly folded one) and they sit in anticipation, waiting for Junmyeon to pick one.
“Okay, so Luhan’s….and Baekhyun’s,” Junmyeon squints. “Have four suggestions.”
“We couldn’t pick one!”
“Sleepless in Seattle, The Notebook, Mulan and What Women Want….”
“The classics,” Luhan sighs dreamily. “You can never get tired of them.”
“O…kay. Next, Sehun.” Junmyeon flips open another piece of paper. “Step Up or New Girl. Isn’t that a series?”
“It’s so worth the watch I swear.”
“Jongin. Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, Thor – I don’t think you guys understood the meaning of ‘one suggestion’.”
“How was I supposed to pick just one out of the many glorious superhero movies?”
“What’s so good about watching men with too much testosterone and possibly on steroids walking around with an off-brand shield?” Baekhyun scrunches his nose in distaste.
“Kyungsoo. I don’t care. I’ve never heard of this movie before.”
“It’s not a movie.” Kyungsoo stares at Junmyeon with blank eyes. “I really don’t care what we watch or not.”
“You could’ve sided with me,” Jongin whines.
“Chanyeol. Toy Story 3 or The Incredibles. What? Okay, okay I’m not judging you.” Junmyeon sighs. “Jongdae, Dead Alive. Woah, are you sure?”
“Fuck you Jongdae, you really want me dead don’t you?” Luhan swats at his head.
“What? I enjoy horror, okay.” He shrugs.
Junmyeon rifles through the pile of paper. “Wait, Kris, Yixing, Tao and Minseok, you guys didn’t give your suggestions in?”
“We don’t mind anything,” Kris shrugs. “We don’t even feel like we should be here, it was very kind of you to invite us.”
“Yea ‘cause they’re peasants,” Baekhyun yelps when Chanyeol elbows him in the ribs. “Okay, okay, hot peasants.”
“Well, how should we pick one now…”
“Just pick one out of the hat.”
“Okay, okay,” Junmyeon carefully folds each individual paper back up, neatly laying them out on the base of the tophat he had pulled out of nowhere. He smoothens the edges of the folds, taking care to press his thumb down just right –
“Fucking hell, can’t you just get on with it?”
After swatting Baekhyun’s head, Junmyeon shakes the hat with a grin on his face. “Okay! This is it!”
“It’s not the presidential election, no need to hype it up.”
“Shhh, quiet. Now,” putting a hand in, Junmyeon’s fingers prod at the pieces of paper. “What movie will I pick?”
The whole room holds its breath as Junmyeon pulls out a piece of paper. Clearing his throat, he flips the paper open with an excited smile.
That smile promptly falls of his face as he reads it.
“Oh my god, that’s not good.”
“Shit, do you think he chose Chanyeol’s baby movies?”
“Hey!”
“What is it?” Jongdae implores. “Can I see?”
Baekhyun wolf-whistles when Jongdae scoots closer to Junmyeon to read over his shoulder, only to end up on the floor as he clutches his stomach, laughing hard.
“This is a joke!” Jongdae laughs out. “This is not happening.”
“What is it?” Climbing out of his seat, Sehun taps Junmyeon’s shoulder. “Just show us already.”
Junmyeon slowly turns the paper around, and instantly the whole room explodes.
Because Junmyeon had just picked Dead Alive.
-
“Sehun, do you have your phone with you?”
“Why? Luhan, I’m not going to let you go through my chats anymore I swear I’m not cheating on you.”
“It’s not that. I need to film my will, because this movie will be the death of me.”
-
Jongdae isn’t even remotely scared, honestly. The blood is too exaggerated to be real, gushing out of every corpse and splattering onto the camera like volcano eruptions or something.
What unfortunately happens, though, is that he instinctively screams whenever Luhan does. It’s like a reflex – when someone starts screaming, they all start raising their voices even when they don’t know what’s going on.
“AAAAH!!!!”
“AAAAAHHH!! WHAT IS IT?”
“FUCK OH MY GOD.”
“HOLY SHIT THAT WAS SCARY OH MY GOD WAIT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED.”
“STOP GRABBING ONTO ME!”
“WHERE’S THE POPCORN??”
Sometime during the movie, Luhan’s screams (yes, his screams and not the movie) must have really gotten to Jongdae, because he finds his hand fisted in the long sleeve of Junmyeon’s sweater.
“Are…are you okay, Jongdae?” Junmyeon whispers in his ear, making him jump out of his seat, suppressing another scream. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
“What? Huh? Oh, yeah I’m – I’m fine.”
“I thought you liked horror?”
“I do. It’s just – people’s screaming. Scares me.”
Junmyeon raises an eyebrow, flinching when he hears some more exaggerated gory sounds of death. “So screams scare you more than all of…this.”
Before Jongdae can reply, he hears a soft moan from somewhere behind him. Casting a confused look at Junmyeon, he cranes his neck back, only to be greeted with a faceful of Luhan in Sehun’s lap.
“Oh my god, that’s gross guys,” Jongdae makes a face at his two friends making out. “Get out and get a room.”
“You’re the one who chose the horror movie,” Luhan replies. “I need some form of distraction from this.”
“Not in front of us, you hormonal jerk.” Jongin throws an empty can of coke at Luhan’s head. “Either take the very back seat of the cinema or –“
“Gladly.” Sehun breaks away from Luhan to drag him farther away from his group of friends. Junmyeon sighs.
“Leave them be. They’d do that regardless of what movie we watch.”
“Even Toy Story?”
Junmyeon grins. “Especially Toy Story.”
-
“Thanks a lot, Jongdae,” Jongin mumbles as they all stomp up the stairs. “Another sleepless night for me, then. Woohoo.”
“You can always ask Kyungsoo to cuddle you in bed.”
Kyungsoo throws a dirty look at Jongdae, who starts laughing at the sight of a blushing Jongin. When Junmyeon walks beside him, though, his laughter promptly stops.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, you know,” Jongin shrugs. “Just Jongdae trying to meddle with other people’s love lives when he can’t even kick-start his own.”
If Jongdae was not as fatigued, he would have pushed Jongin off the banister and send him into a bone-crushing landing as soon as he started laughing. So he settles on pinching the skin on Jongin’s thigh very, very hard, and ignores the way Junmyeon sends him questioning looks.
-
They’re in the living room minding their own business when it happens. The sun has set and they’ve all been drained from the intense swimming session, with Baekhyun and Luhan repeatedly challenging each other to duels. Using swimming noodles, they had managed to hold a makeshift jousting match in the middle of the lake, ignoring the countless eye-rolls Kyungsoo sent their way.
“I want to go for a drive.” Jongin whines.
“Sorry,” Junmyeon says, not looking up from his book. “The simulator’s broken. I sent someone to fix it before we came, but he never showed up.”
“I meant a real car.”
“You’re not old enough to drive around you stupid kid.” Baekhyun shoots back. He’s in a bad mood because he had lost three consecutive duels with Luhan previously.
“Yes I am!”
“Oh, sorry. I forgot you’re not fifteen anymore.”
“It’s been more than a week,” Junmyeon remarks between a stick of pepero. “Should we stick to the schedule and go back home tomorrow?”
“No!” Baekhyun scrambles up the couch, pleading at Junmyeon with his pout. “How about the day after tomorrow? It’s too soon to go.”
“I really don’t want to leave this place,” Kyungsoo stretches out on the sofa, arms nearly punching Sehun in the face. “But I’ve got family things to do before I go to university. Not to mention the packing and everything.”
“I know. Most of us do. I think it’s best if we leave tomorrow.”
Baekhyun is still pouting, because that decision did not help dampen his angry mood. The atmosphere in the room has dimmed down like a flickering flame that has been blown off, because however chaotic this holiday had been, none of them want to leave the lake house.
“Aw, guys, don’t sulk like that,” Junmyeon smiles. “We can come back here in the future!”
“No we can’t!” Baekhyun whines. “Because you’ll hog it for your honeymoon with Jongdae in the future.”
A (totally Luhan) gasp followed by silence suddenly envelops the room, and Junmyeon frowns in confusion. “What?”
Jongdae grits his teeth. “What the fuck, Baek?”
“You’re so dense, Junmyeon. Can’t you see Jongdae’s, like, neck-deep in love with you?”
Jongdae makes a gurgling noise at the back of his throat when Luhan quips, “I can testify!”
“Oooooh, drama.” Sehun scoots backwards in his couch, trying to distance himself as far away from Junmyeon as possible.
Chanyeol suddenly brings his phone to his ear, despite the absence of his ringtone, and walks out the room with a louder-than-necessary hello?
“I – I don’t understand.”
Baekhyun looks like he’s about to explode. “Jongdae. Is. Ridiculously. Unconditionally. In. Love. With –“
“I’m going to go to bed,” Jongdae says. “And Baekhyun, make sure you check your damn phone.”
Before he tucks himself in bed, Jongdae sends a (tearfully) angry text message to Baekhyun, mostly in the form of stickers and threats like I’ll cut off Chanyeol’s balls and give it to Kyungsoo to cook so he can feed it to you, you motherfucking asshole and If I get married to Junmyeon in the future, we are definitely NOT inviting you back here, jerk but also, at the end, you promised you wouldn’t tell.
Jongdae feels like he’s back in high school and he doesn’t like it, so he snuggles up in his covers and falls asleep before Junmyeon can walk in and talk.
-
Jongdae wakes up late to Junmyeon’s empty bed and three text messages from Baekhyun. Two of them are replies to his threats that made Jongdae run to the bathroom to stop gagging – I already know how Chanyeol’s balls taste like, loser – and the last one; it’s not that bad. You’ll see.
He sees that Junmyeon’s bags have been zipped and stacked up neatly in the corner of the room, so Jongdae figures he should do the same. He’s not in the mood to be doing anything right, so after two minutes of trying to patiently fold his clothes he opts for throwing them in his bag, sitting on it and zipping it up forcefully, the seams nearly bursting from the contents.
It’s like last night hadn’t happened when Jongdae walks into the kitchen, and maybe Jongdae would have believed it didn’t if it weren’t for Baekhyun’s messages still in his phone.
“Oh, look who just rolled out of bed.”
“What?” Jongdae brings a hand to his hair, hurt by Kyungsoo’s remark. “I thought I cleaned up pretty well.”
“’Pretty well’ isn’t good enough. You need to look stunning.” Luhan grins. “I can’t wait to show you guys my airport fashion.”
“We’re not even going to an airport.” Jongin deadpans.
“Any outfit to do with travel, I’m calling it ‘airport fashion’, okay?”
“Where’s everyone else?”
“Either still packing, or loading the van up with the luggage. We’re leaving in, like, fifteen minutes. You woke up pretty late.”
“Yeah, well,” Jongdae laughs. “Waking up didn’t sound so tempting after last night.”
“Hey, don’t overthink it. We’ve all been there right? No one takes Baekhyun seriously anyway.”
“I heard that!” Baekhyun saunters in the kitchen, crumbs on his face from his breakfast. “Stop being such a worrywart, man. Look, I’m sorry, okay. Hating me for a moment is fine, but just not forever.”
Jongdae laughs. “I don’t hate you, Baek.”
Chanyeol walks in to ask Baekhyun where the rest of his bags are, but he suddenly stops in his tracks.
“What is it?”
“You’ve got something right…there.” Chanyeol brings a thumb to wipe at the corner of Baekhyun’s lips, when the crumbs are obviously on his chin.
Jongdae groans. He definitely hates Baekhyun now.
-
They settle into the van that will take them to the train station, and Jongdae had somehow ended up with Junmyeon as his seatmate. He thanks all the deities up there that nothing has turned awkward, that they can still converse normally like old days. Like the friends they are.
“Hey, about last night…” Junmyeon starts, and Jongdae senses a dreaded feeling in the pit of his stomach. Junmyeon laughs. “Don’t look so worried, relax! I just wanted to say that don’t get so hung up about it. I’ll overlook it – besides, it’s Baekhyun, and nobody takes him seriously anyway.”
Somewhere at the back, Baekhyun shouts I heard that! Jongdae lets out a relieved sigh, and fumbles with his thumbs. “I’m glad. Sorry about that.”
“Yeah, so. Don’t look so tense. Have some fun before we have to go back to serious mode.”
The van pulls up, and Junmyeon slides the door open to let everyone out. Their chatters turn more and more excited as they load out the luggage, because although they’ll be leaving behind what had been an incredible holiday, whatever’s waiting for them in the future is not anything short of exciting, either.
“Guess we’ll be busy for the next few weeks, huh.”
Junmyeon shakes his head. “Not too busy that you won’t be able to make time to go out.” He smiles. “We can always go for a coffee together. Or a movie. Or lunch. Or anything you want, really.”
Jongdae feels his heart beat faster in his chest. “Really?”
“Well, yeah. Knowing you, you’d probably stress out within a few days. It’d be nice to take a break and hang out, don’t you think?”
“With…Baekhyun and Chanyeol…and everyone else?”
Junmyeon shyly grins as they all step into the air-conditioned station. “I think just the two of us sounds good.”
Jongdae decides that the words are the highlight of that day – and it’s still only noon. Jongdae shouldn’t think of it as much, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. And there’s something else that makes it much, much better.
Baekhyun’s not there to throw a snarky comment at him.
When they return, Kyungsoo’s got one hand on his hip and the other brandishing a ladle of some kind. “The food’s nearly done and we haven’t even cooked the rice yet.”
“Calm down, Soo, there’s plenty of time.”
“I thought we were going to grill meat?” Jongdae pouts.
“Everyone’s too tired. Let’s do it tomorrow night and settle for homemade cooking tonight, okay?”
They toe off their shoes and silently bless Kyungsoo for cleaning the floor earlier. Chanyeol and Sehun are in the living room, sprawled across the carpet and eyes fixated on the screen.
“Where’s everyone else?” Junmyeon puts the rice on the kitchen counter, massaging his aching wrists. Jongdae does the same.
“Dunno,” Sehun’s eyes don’t leave the screen, fingers pounding away mercilessly at the controller. “Probably upstairs unpacking or something – hey! Chanyeol, why did you restart the game?”
“Because I was losing,” he huffs. “And it was only two minutes into the match.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes and turns to Junmyeon. “I better go unpack too.”
“Yeah, I’ll sort out the stuff we bought, you go ahead and wash up.”
-
Jongdae realises they haven’t had a proper tour around the house yet, so when he ascends the wooden staircase and reaches the second floor, he feels more than a little disoriented. He tries to remember how many bedrooms there are supposed to be in the house, and how many bathrooms are supposed to go with them. Where’s his and Junmyeon’s room anyway? Did Kyungsoo put the right bags in the right room? Jongdae suddenly needs to pee.
He tries the first door. Locked. So is the second one. Third time lucky, he stumbles into a well-lit bathroom that he thinks is fit for a hotel.
“Who turned the lights on?” he mutters, locking the door behind him. When he retracts his hand, dust comes away. “Kyungsoo really needs to clean this place, too –“
The sound of running water elicits a yelp out of him, and a small voice from behind the bathtub curtain sends shivers down his spine. “Who – who’s there?” Wait, this voice? “Kyungsoo?”
Jongdae lets out a sigh of relief. “It’s just me, Jongin.”
“Oh, Jongdae?”
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were – you know. I’ll leave now –“
Suddenly a very warm and wet hand grips his wrist and Jongdae nearly falls headfirst onto the floor if not for the strong hold Jongin’s got on him. He hears an amused chuckle, and he has to swallow the lump in his throat.
“You’re pretty daring to walk in while I’m –“
“I told you! I didn’t know!” He shakes his wrist. “Let me go.”
“It’s fine, there’s no need to hold back.” Jongin’s voice has dropped an octave lower, making Jongdae visibly shudder. “I’ll keep it a secret from everyone if we do it now…”
“What the fuck – what are you t-talking about –“
“Hey, don’t you want to,” Jongin lets out a sigh. “Do it with me?”
“Do what?”
Jongdae shrieks and closes his eyes shut when he hears the curtain being haphazardly pulled back, and he’s about to scream when Jongin cheerfully says, “Clean the bathtub!”
Jongdae opens his eyes and gapes at Jongin through the mirror on the opposite wall, watching him laugh as if he’s high, clutching his stomach and hand propped up on the edge of the bathtub to support himself.
“Man, I should’ve recorded that, you were hilarious!” Jongin’s eyes nearly disappear between the folds of his eyelids. “My god, Jongdae, what were you thinking of?”
A million and one images flash through Jongdae’s head, but he decides to shake them off if he wants to keep the contents of his stomach inside. “You’re the worst.”
“And you’ve only known me for so many days! Or hours,” Jongin turns the tap off, wiping his hands on his shirt. “Why did you come in anyway?”
“I don’t need to go anymore. I lost all my senses.”
“That’s unfortunate. But hey, admit it,” Jongin snakes a hand around his shoulders. “You’ve thought about doing it with me, right?”
This time Jongdae doesn’t hesitate and pinches Jongin’s nose hard until he’s screaming like a girl and his nose turns the colour of cherry tomatoes. “I’ll tell Kyungsoo you harassed me.”
“No! Wait, don’t! Come on, it was just a joke.”
But Jongdae’s already out the bathroom, leaving Jongin as a blubbering mess in the bathroom.
“Kyungsoo!”
“Huh?” Kyungsoo turns to see a very flustered, on the verge of mental breakdown Jongdae, if his exaggerated sobbing and flapping arms were any indication. “What is it?”
More arm flailing, while Jongdae continues to wail. Kyungsoo frowns. “Jongin? Pretending to take a shower? Toying with a pure guy’s heart? Uh, okay…but did you start cleaning the bathroom?”
Jongdae shakes his head no. He watches in glee as Kyungsoo throws down his rag. “Everyone is useless when it comes to cleaning! Fine, I’ll do it myself. And I’ll teach Jongin a lesson while I’m at it.”
It takes all of Jongdae’s self restraint not to burst into laughter the moment Kyungsoo bounds up the stairs. Very soon afterwards he hears Kyungsoo shouting, “Hey, Jongin, you bas–”
The silence is nearly suffocating but Jongdae manages to hold his laughter back with convulsively shaking shoulders as he watches Kyungsoo appear at the top of the stairs, eyes impossibly wide and face a little paler than usual. His feet tremble when he sluggishly descends.
“Jongin…he was really…taking a shower…”
“Really?”
“Jongin…he’s like…” Kyungsoo makes a crude gesture near his groin that Jongdae didn’t even know he had in him. “Boom! There, and –“
Out of nowhere, a wet towel smacks Kyungsoo in the face and he screams, trying to get the filthy thing off. “Cut the useless shit!” Jongin shouts, ignoring Kyungsoo’s cries of bacteria burns!
“I’m more surprised that he hasn’t seen you, you know, down there yet. If you guys are together.” Jongdae raises his eyebrows.
“Yeah, well,” Jongin huffs. “He acts like he’s my mother. So it’s kind of hard to get to that stage yet.” Jongin makes sure he hitches his voice a little louder to say, “Sometimes I wonder if he wants it too or not.”
But unfortunately, Kyungsoo is still too busy struggling with the towel and trying not to suffocate from the thought of dirt on his face to pay any attention to Jongin, who sighs and shakes his wet hair.
“I didn’t even get to rinse and repeat.”
-
Luhan skips into the kitchen, his iPod blasting Mirotic into his ears and a Stitch plushie under his right arm. He looks around and upon seeing only Junmyeon manning the stove and laying out the dishes, he frowns.
“Where’s Kyungsoo? Isn’t this supposed to be his natural habitat?”
Junmyeon doesn’t look up from where he’s staring holes into an instant curry packet. “He’s recuperating from his shock somewhere.”
Luhan snorts. “That’s his own fault. He’s been together with Jongin for ages, I can’t believe they still haven’t –“
“Can you call Jongdae over for me?”
Baffled at being interrupted, Luhan sputters, “why?”
“I need help to cook dinner for everyone. Kyungsoo didn’t leave very detailed instructions.”
“Why couldn’t you have asked me? Don’t you trust me?”
Junmyeon finally looks up to stare at him for a very long time.
“Okay, okay, sheesh I’ll get Jongdae.”
-
“Woah, the dinner looks great!” Baekhyun exclaims, smacking his lips unattractively. Chanyeol is still smiling at him dreamily anyway. “Hey! We can survive without Kyungsoo in this house!”
“Excuse me?” Sitting down gingerly in his seat, Kyungsoo sends a look at Baekhyun and glances up at Jongin, who had helped him get to his seat with a smile. He can change expressions so quickly, Jongdae thinks. “Is my sole purpose in this house to be your personal servant and housemaid?”
“Well, someone’s gotta be it, right? You just happen to be good at doing what maids do.”
Before Kyungsoo gets to say another word, Jongdae brings in two more plates of curry and some of the kalbi they’ll grill. That pretty much shut everyone up, even Sehun and Chanyeol who still can’t stop arguing about who should’ve won in the game. Food really brings people together.
“Let me help you with that,” Junmyeon says, picking up the left side of the dish. It’s not even remotely heavy, yet Junmyeon tuts and shakes his head. “You should stop carrying such heavy things, Jongdae. You’ll age too soon.”
“Please, you should see the grocery my mum makes me carry.”
Once everyone has settled in and Kyungsoo has more or less sobered up, they thank Junmyeon for the food (“thaaaaaaanks for the house too”) and dig into their food. Everyone goes back to having small talks amongst themselves, happily shoving rice and saucy chicken into their mouths and ignoring Kyungsoo’s chidings of close your mouth when you eat! It’s on the second mouthful of food that the whole room falls silent, pairs of wide eyes staring at Junmyeon and Jongdae and their faces reddening and at first Jongdae is really confused until –
“HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU PUT IN THIS?”
“I’M TASTING HELL ON MY TONGUE.”
“SOMEONE GET ME WATER THE INSIDES OF MY STOMACH ARE SHRIVELING UP.”
“JUNMYEON!” Chanyeol cries, tongue hanging out of his mouth and his eyes watering until a single tear trails down his left cheek. His face is comically red. “What the fuck did you put in this?”
“I – oh god – I don’t know,” Junmyeon tries to keep his composure, but his eyes are delirious in the way that they dart around in search for a glass of water. “Jongdae and I just read the instructions on the packet.”
“THE HEAT. IT’S HERE. IT’S GOING INTO MY HEAD.” Everyone ignores Baekhyun’s dramatic shrieks.
“I think you ruined my vocal cords.” Sehun sits back down with his glass of water, only to have it snatched away from his hands by Jongin. “Hey!”
‘”You don’t even have vocal cords. You can’t sing for shit.”
Eventually Jongdae is sick of just sitting there and nursing his burning throat so he gets up and manages to fill up seven glasses of water. He thinks it might have completely been his fault, because when Junmyeon had asked to make the dish a little spicier, he’d been too distracted by the concentration evident on Junmyeon’s face that when he had finished putting the chili powder in, the broth had turned completely red. He thought it was normal. It certainly looked normal. He didn’t spare the dish a second thought when Junmyeon pouts, and all his worries had been flung out the window.
Jongdae shakes his head. He returns to the table and hurriedly drops the tray before everyone else pounces on it like dehydrated desert dwellers.
“JUNMYEON.”
“WHAT.”
Chanyeol doesn’t flinch at Junmyeon’s louder tone, and instead breaks out into a grin. “This is…. strangely delicious.”
“I know. Despite the spiciness, it has a certain allure to it…” Kyungsoo says, shoveling some more in his mouth and tightening his grip on the glass of water. “It’s like there’s a certain kind of addictiveness to it. Did you spike this thing?”
“I wish I was that skilled of a cook,” Junmyeon laughs, fanning his still red face. “This is why you should always take charge of making dinner, Soo.”
“Is this just an excuse to make me do the chores?”
A chorus of ‘yes!’ reverberates through the room, followed by laughter that sounds thick with food and the occasional choking in the background. Jongdae wills away the thumping in his ears and smiles to himself. He can definitely get used to this.
-
“Lights out! I’m going to be coming in to check everyone’s rooms before midnight!”
“What the fuck,” Sehun looks up from his snack. “Why are you tucking us in bed?”
“I’m not going to tuck you in, I’m just going to make sure that everyone goes to bed properly.”
“I feel like I’m in a boarding school.”
“Well I know who’s going to like it,” Baekhyun snickers, sneaking a glance at Jongdae who sends him a warning look in return. He doesn’t need the whole world to know about his crush – one Baekhyun and one Chanyeol, and possibly one Luhan since Jongdae caught him sniggering at him during dinner, are more than enough.
“I’m going to drop by again in the morning.”
“What if we want to do something private in the morning?” Luhan pouts. “I don’t know, like –“
Suddenly Luhan jumps up from the sofa and lets out a high-pitched shriek, nearly tripping over Sehun lying on his stomach on the carpet. “What was that?”
“What was what?” Sehun groans, clutching his side.
“That! On – on the back of my neck! I felt something wet and –“ Luhan shudders. “It felt cold!”
“Stop being such an attention-seeker, Lu –“ Jongdae is cut off by another shriek, and this time Luhan drops down to the floor clutching arms.
“I felt it again!” He brings a trembling hand to his neck to feel it, oblivious to the amused expressions on his friends’ faces and smells his fingers. “It…smells like seaweed.”
“I think you really need to go to bed,” Chanyeol says, gripping his shoulders to push him in the direction of his and Baekhyun’s shared room. “Your brain is going more haywire than it already is.”
“Wait, did Baekhyun just call me an attention-seeker?” Luhan asks rather belatedly, earning a snort from his boyfriend.
“Yes, I think everyone needs to go to bed. Turn the console off, now. And Soo, remember to turn the stove off and close the kitchen door. Sehun and Jongin, clean up your snacks. Everyone else, bed!”
Nobody moves except Jongdae, who instantly jumps up to follow Junmyeon’s orders.
“You can stop pretending to be authoritative, now.” Baekhyun sniggers.
Junmyeon sighs, resting a hand on his hip. “Why can’t you all be good boys like Jongdae?”
His tone is playful and exaggerated, but Jongdae can’t help but feel a burst of pride in his chest when Junmyeon says that. He happily skips to his and Junmyeon’s shared room, anticipating the sounds of Junmyeon’s calm, even breathing when he sleeps and seeing him maintain one sleeping position until dawn.
Not that Jongdae would know. He definitely did not do some research.
-
“What happened to you?”
Jongin limps into the room, hair sticking out at odd angles and face looking like a truck had run him over. Jongdae grimaces and pushes away his breakfast, because it is not a pleasant sight and he has just lost his appetite.
“Luhan kicked me out of Sehun’s room. Don’t know what he said, but mentioned something about Seaweed Monster or some shit. I had to migrate to Baekhyun’s room, and turns out they’ve pushed the two beds together. Baekhyun ended up hogging like four-fifths of the bed.”
“Wow,” Kyungsoo whistles, setting down Jongin’s breakfast and softly massaging his shoulders. “Sorry you had to go through that. Do you want some tea? Or some of that dark coffee you like?”
“Coffee, thanks Soo.”Jongin pries Kyungsoo’s hand away from his shoulder to plant a kiss on it, and Kyungsoo’s face flushes red. Jongdae scoffs, but inside he feels a little jealous of their domesticity. Everything pleasant and relaxed comes easily to them, mostly without a second thought, and Jongdae wonders when he’ll be able to have that kind of relationship with Junmyeon.
With someone. He means someone. It doesn’t have to specifically be Junmyeon, nope, he tries to convince himself.
“I feel sorry for Junmyeon,” Jongin sighs rather contentedly when Kyungsoo places a mug in front of him. “He’s probably going to walk into their room and it’ll be –“
“Uh, guys,” Junmyeon walks in, face a little paler than usual. “Why is Luhan in Sehun’s bedroom?”
“He kicked Jongin out. What’s wrong?”
Junmyeon shudders. “Just. See it for yourself.”
“Holy crap. Should we wake them up?”
They stare at the two bodies on the bed, arms tangled and toes peeking out from underneath the blanket. Luhan’s head is resting on Sehun’s bare chest, an expression of content and bliss on his sleeping face, and Sehun’s head rests against his. They look like they’ve been glued together, every inch of skin pressed against each other’s. Jongdae feels a pang of jealousy, and doesn’t try to hide it as he scoffs at the pair.
Kyungsoo moves to pull the blanket off of them, but Jongin stops him abruptly. “Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t know if they’re naked or not.”
“Oh.” Kyungsoo turns quiet all of a sudden. “Right. Okay.”
“Are they gone yet?”
Luhan looks up, glancing at the door. “Yeah. Do you think we scared them enough?”
“They were shitting their pants, I wish I could’ve seen their faces.” Sehun laughs, left arm finding its way back to Luhan’s bare torso until it rests on his waist, fingers tracing circles on his jutting hipbone.
“Perfect. We can have the room all to ourselves now.”
-
They all step out to the edge of the lake, feeling the increased humidity from yesterday. It’s even hotter than the curry! Baekhyun had said.
“Okay guys, I decided to ump my security measures to avoid having episodes like yesterday,” Junmyeon’s gaze travels to Luhan, who shoots him an annoyed look in return. “So meet my new recruit, Kris the lifeguard!”
A very tall and pretty buff guy walks out, his face looking like it had been chiseled out of the blessed marble from the highest heavens even behind the obnoxiously large sunglasses perched on his nose.
“Holy shit, you’re hot.” Baekhyun gapes, not even trying to be subtle. Behind him, Chanyeol’s eyebrows furrow together.
“Um, thanks?”
“He’s dropping by here from Canada as a part of his gap year schedule. He’s not very fluent in Korean, so I’d really appreciate it if you guys help him out!”
“I know some effective ways of learning the language,” Baekhyun licks his lips. “They all involve the bed.”
Kris just stares at Luhan and Baekhyun laughing hysterically with a stoic expression, and Jongdae’s not sure if he’s trying very hard to ignore the inappropriate remark or if he really doesn’t understand that much Korean yet.
“Okay, moving on,” Junmyeon shrugs. “I thought the facilities here are a bit lacking, so –“
“What the fuck,” Jongin gapes. “You’ve got a freaking mansion with plasma TV and like five different gaming consoles, DVD sets, a tennis court, a basketball court, a damn lake, world-class bikes, a garage the size of my house I don’t even want to know what’s inside –“
“Anyway,” Jongdae finds it amusing (and possibly a little endearing) that Junmyeon gets uncomfortable when his wealth or prestigious status is mentioned, considering how he’s practically swimming in three oceans of money. “I phoned my dad to ask about other activities we can possibly do, and – Yixing, Tao, Minseok, can you come out here?”
“Holy shit, he’s hot too,” Baekhyun points at the tall dark-haired boy with glaring eyes that seem to cut through the air. “Oh fuck I’m so torn now.”
“Ehem.” Chanyeol tries, but Baekhyun ignores him. Chanyeol visibly deflates.
“This is Yixing and Minseok. They’ll be your kayak instructors – yes I’ve got some kayaks, Jongin.” A very handsome guy with a handsome dimpled smile waves, while the smaller (and cuter, Luhan comments much to Sehun’s discontent) shouts out an enthusiastic hello!
“This is Tao, your firearms instructor –“
“Firearms? Junmyeon what the –“
“For paintball, calm down,” Junmyeon rolls his eyes. “There’s an indoor pistol range that is hardly ever used, so we can drop by sometime. But he’s mainly here to help us set up the paintball games and stuff.”
“We’re going to go paintballing?”
“Maybe, one day. But first, let’s go try out the kayak, shall we?”
-
“Kayak is a very leisurely sport, to be honest, and it’s very basic, hardly complicated,” Yixing nods fervently at everything coming out of his own mouth, the action oddly contagious. “We’re just kind of here to help you out, really.”
They’ve all got their kayaks with them, the water lapping at the oars and plastic body. Luhan and Baekhyun had bickered for the best-looking one (purple with pink decals. Jongdae doesn’t even know where to begin) while Sehun had already broken his oars into two before he even got his toe in the water. Jongdae is starting to realise why they need two instructors for such a simple sport.
“Once you’ve got your lifejacket secured and you’ve stretched, just slide in and position your feet comfortably so that you won’t get cramps.”
“Hey Jongdae,” Baekhyun walks up to him, lifejacket comically wrapped around his body and making his arms stick out. “Aren’t you going to make a move anytime soon?”
“Move for what?”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes, hips cocked to the side. “A move on Junmyeon. Aren’t you supposed to be planning this whole thing throughout the trip?”
“Well um,” Jongdae feels heat creeping up to his cheeks. He rarely gets embarrassed around Baekhyun, but he’s never been one for sentiments, either. “I…kind of got lost with the whole atmosphere, you know. Junmyeon’s friends are really nice and fun, and just doing everyday things with Junmyeon, it’s…kind of satisfying? Just walking with him and having him beside me, talking to him about the weirdest things…”
Baekhyun narrows his eyes, and is silent for a few moments. “Are you just saying this because you’ve secretly slept with him in your room?”
“What? The hell, no way man.”
“Well aren’t you one lucky guy to have a friend like Byun Baekhyun,” he throws an arm around Jongdae. “He’s your entertainer, saviour, guardian and cupid all in one. Clap for me.”
“I didn’t ask for help though.”
“It’s free of charge, don’t worry.”
-
Jongdae has just found a spot for himself, quite a distance away from the shore and everyone else with only the large expanse of rippling water to accompany him. He stops paddling and is about to tilt his head back to inhale the fresh air when he hears a frenzy of splashing.
Jongdae turns around, and nearly screams as he sees Baekhyun rowing full-speed towards him (when did he acquire that extra strength?). Only he doesn’t get the chance to, because the next thing he knows he’s got his head the wrong way round in the water and something heavy and plastic slapping painfully at his back. Water rushes into his head and his lungs are screaming for air, and he hears the faint sounds of a pair of oars getting closer.
“Baekhyun!”
Arms flailing, Jongdae manages to resurface with his torso bobbing up and down, nearly hitting his head on his kayak in the process. Just when he manages to get his bearings properly, he hears a click under his chin and sees his lifejacket being forcefully pried away from his body.
Holy shit I can’t fucking swim his brain is screaming, and Byun Baekhyun knows this. That son of a bitch.
“Help! Someone, help!” In a few seconds flat, Jongdae had gone back to being submerged underwater, spluttering and gasping whenever his head bobs up. Baekhyun’s shouting continues to pound in his ears. “Help! Jongdae’s lifejacket came off! Please save him, someone strong and NOT YOU, KYUNGSOO! HELP!”
Either Baekhyun had dragged Luhan into this or he had caught up to the situation very well, but soon Jongdae hears him shout, “Where’s Junmyeon? Isn’t he the expert at this?”
Jongdae contemplates saving his energy and just drowning – he’d die either way, might as well not die from embarrassment.
He hears some faraway grunts and more splashing, and soon strong arms were gripping Jongdae’s waist and dragging him up. He feels himself being lifted up onto a flat surface that seems like it’s going to give way any second. Strong hands splay themselves on his chest, and push once, twice thrice. Junmyeon’s hands feel good, and Jongdae’s head slowly stops spinning but he still wants to enjoy the feel of Junmyeon’s hands on his chest so he keeps his eyes closed, and –
“Push harder, Kris!”
Wait. Kris?
Jongdae’s eyes fly open to a face-full of frazzled blonde hair and thick eyebrows. Screaming, he knocks his forehead painfully on Kris’, sending his head back to the floor of the small boat.
“Are you…alright, Jongdae?” To the right, Junmyeon is slowly rowing towards him, an expression of concern across his face.
Jongdae wants to cry, partly because he had just been groped by someone he doesn’t know (Jongdae is very specific about his personal space, okay) but also partly because Baekhyun’s voice reminds him of why he’s in this position in the first place.
“God, if you’re fine why did you have to make such a big deal out of this, Jongdae? Stop being such a drama queen.”
Jongdae knows Baekhyun’s just jealous of his close proximity to Kris, so he replies, “that lifejacket. Orange. Doesn’t go with your kayak.”
He revels in the shriek and string of curses Baekhyun lets out.
-
“Here’s the home theater!”
Junmyeon opens a door to a room full of big cushiony chairs in three rows, the lighting of a subtle orange hue and the air smelling of caramel popcorn and air freshener. A wide screen occupies the opposite wall and the feeling of the soft carpet under his feet and the smooth leather of the chair are a little too much for Jongdae. He lets out a whimper.
“Holy crap, Junmyeon,” Chanyeol says for what seems like the thousandth time that trip. “Seriously man, what don’t you have?”
“Love,” Baekhyun sniggers and Junmyeon’s ears turn a pretty shade of pink.
“Well, uh, we can sit down and decide on a movie?”
When they’ve all settled down, Junmyeon takes out small strips of paper and a few pens. “I thought this was the most civil way to go about it. Write your preferred movie and we’ll decide?”
“Too lazy to write,” Luhan groans, sliding down the leather seat in a huff. “But okay, fine. Baekhyun, want to decide together?”
“No conspiring!” Junmyeon tries, but everyone else has turned around to discuss their choice of movies with each other. Sighing, Junmyeon sends a helpless look at Jongdae. “Nothing works with these kids, huh?”
“You sound twenty years older than what you really are, don’t do that,” Jongdae nearly pats his shoulder, but draws his hand back at the last moment. Junmyeon just chuckles.
After ten long minutes, everyone has more or less come up with something on the paper. They all submit their suggestions to Junmyeon in a pile of mess (except Kyungsoo’s neatly folded one) and they sit in anticipation, waiting for Junmyeon to pick one.
“Okay, so Luhan’s….and Baekhyun’s,” Junmyeon squints. “Have four suggestions.”
“We couldn’t pick one!”
“Sleepless in Seattle, The Notebook, Mulan and What Women Want….”
“The classics,” Luhan sighs dreamily. “You can never get tired of them.”
“O…kay. Next, Sehun.” Junmyeon flips open another piece of paper. “Step Up or New Girl. Isn’t that a series?”
“It’s so worth the watch I swear.”
“Jongin. Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, Thor – I don’t think you guys understood the meaning of ‘one suggestion’.”
“How was I supposed to pick just one out of the many glorious superhero movies?”
“What’s so good about watching men with too much testosterone and possibly on steroids walking around with an off-brand shield?” Baekhyun scrunches his nose in distaste.
“Kyungsoo. I don’t care. I’ve never heard of this movie before.”
“It’s not a movie.” Kyungsoo stares at Junmyeon with blank eyes. “I really don’t care what we watch or not.”
“You could’ve sided with me,” Jongin whines.
“Chanyeol. Toy Story 3 or The Incredibles. What? Okay, okay I’m not judging you.” Junmyeon sighs. “Jongdae, Dead Alive. Woah, are you sure?”
“Fuck you Jongdae, you really want me dead don’t you?” Luhan swats at his head.
“What? I enjoy horror, okay.” He shrugs.
Junmyeon rifles through the pile of paper. “Wait, Kris, Yixing, Tao and Minseok, you guys didn’t give your suggestions in?”
“We don’t mind anything,” Kris shrugs. “We don’t even feel like we should be here, it was very kind of you to invite us.”
“Yea ‘cause they’re peasants,” Baekhyun yelps when Chanyeol elbows him in the ribs. “Okay, okay, hot peasants.”
“Well, how should we pick one now…”
“Just pick one out of the hat.”
“Okay, okay,” Junmyeon carefully folds each individual paper back up, neatly laying them out on the base of the tophat he had pulled out of nowhere. He smoothens the edges of the folds, taking care to press his thumb down just right –
“Fucking hell, can’t you just get on with it?”
After swatting Baekhyun’s head, Junmyeon shakes the hat with a grin on his face. “Okay! This is it!”
“It’s not the presidential election, no need to hype it up.”
“Shhh, quiet. Now,” putting a hand in, Junmyeon’s fingers prod at the pieces of paper. “What movie will I pick?”
The whole room holds its breath as Junmyeon pulls out a piece of paper. Clearing his throat, he flips the paper open with an excited smile.
That smile promptly falls of his face as he reads it.
“Oh my god, that’s not good.”
“Shit, do you think he chose Chanyeol’s baby movies?”
“Hey!”
“What is it?” Jongdae implores. “Can I see?”
Baekhyun wolf-whistles when Jongdae scoots closer to Junmyeon to read over his shoulder, only to end up on the floor as he clutches his stomach, laughing hard.
“This is a joke!” Jongdae laughs out. “This is not happening.”
“What is it?” Climbing out of his seat, Sehun taps Junmyeon’s shoulder. “Just show us already.”
Junmyeon slowly turns the paper around, and instantly the whole room explodes.
Because Junmyeon had just picked Dead Alive.
-
“Sehun, do you have your phone with you?”
“Why? Luhan, I’m not going to let you go through my chats anymore I swear I’m not cheating on you.”
“It’s not that. I need to film my will, because this movie will be the death of me.”
-
Jongdae isn’t even remotely scared, honestly. The blood is too exaggerated to be real, gushing out of every corpse and splattering onto the camera like volcano eruptions or something.
What unfortunately happens, though, is that he instinctively screams whenever Luhan does. It’s like a reflex – when someone starts screaming, they all start raising their voices even when they don’t know what’s going on.
“AAAAH!!!!”
“AAAAAHHH!! WHAT IS IT?”
“FUCK OH MY GOD.”
“HOLY SHIT THAT WAS SCARY OH MY GOD WAIT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED.”
“STOP GRABBING ONTO ME!”
“WHERE’S THE POPCORN??”
Sometime during the movie, Luhan’s screams (yes, his screams and not the movie) must have really gotten to Jongdae, because he finds his hand fisted in the long sleeve of Junmyeon’s sweater.
“Are…are you okay, Jongdae?” Junmyeon whispers in his ear, making him jump out of his seat, suppressing another scream. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
“What? Huh? Oh, yeah I’m – I’m fine.”
“I thought you liked horror?”
“I do. It’s just – people’s screaming. Scares me.”
Junmyeon raises an eyebrow, flinching when he hears some more exaggerated gory sounds of death. “So screams scare you more than all of…this.”
Before Jongdae can reply, he hears a soft moan from somewhere behind him. Casting a confused look at Junmyeon, he cranes his neck back, only to be greeted with a faceful of Luhan in Sehun’s lap.
“Oh my god, that’s gross guys,” Jongdae makes a face at his two friends making out. “Get out and get a room.”
“You’re the one who chose the horror movie,” Luhan replies. “I need some form of distraction from this.”
“Not in front of us, you hormonal jerk.” Jongin throws an empty can of coke at Luhan’s head. “Either take the very back seat of the cinema or –“
“Gladly.” Sehun breaks away from Luhan to drag him farther away from his group of friends. Junmyeon sighs.
“Leave them be. They’d do that regardless of what movie we watch.”
“Even Toy Story?”
Junmyeon grins. “Especially Toy Story.”
-
“Thanks a lot, Jongdae,” Jongin mumbles as they all stomp up the stairs. “Another sleepless night for me, then. Woohoo.”
“You can always ask Kyungsoo to cuddle you in bed.”
Kyungsoo throws a dirty look at Jongdae, who starts laughing at the sight of a blushing Jongin. When Junmyeon walks beside him, though, his laughter promptly stops.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, you know,” Jongin shrugs. “Just Jongdae trying to meddle with other people’s love lives when he can’t even kick-start his own.”
If Jongdae was not as fatigued, he would have pushed Jongin off the banister and send him into a bone-crushing landing as soon as he started laughing. So he settles on pinching the skin on Jongin’s thigh very, very hard, and ignores the way Junmyeon sends him questioning looks.
-
They’re in the living room minding their own business when it happens. The sun has set and they’ve all been drained from the intense swimming session, with Baekhyun and Luhan repeatedly challenging each other to duels. Using swimming noodles, they had managed to hold a makeshift jousting match in the middle of the lake, ignoring the countless eye-rolls Kyungsoo sent their way.
“I want to go for a drive.” Jongin whines.
“Sorry,” Junmyeon says, not looking up from his book. “The simulator’s broken. I sent someone to fix it before we came, but he never showed up.”
“I meant a real car.”
“You’re not old enough to drive around you stupid kid.” Baekhyun shoots back. He’s in a bad mood because he had lost three consecutive duels with Luhan previously.
“Yes I am!”
“Oh, sorry. I forgot you’re not fifteen anymore.”
“It’s been more than a week,” Junmyeon remarks between a stick of pepero. “Should we stick to the schedule and go back home tomorrow?”
“No!” Baekhyun scrambles up the couch, pleading at Junmyeon with his pout. “How about the day after tomorrow? It’s too soon to go.”
“I really don’t want to leave this place,” Kyungsoo stretches out on the sofa, arms nearly punching Sehun in the face. “But I’ve got family things to do before I go to university. Not to mention the packing and everything.”
“I know. Most of us do. I think it’s best if we leave tomorrow.”
Baekhyun is still pouting, because that decision did not help dampen his angry mood. The atmosphere in the room has dimmed down like a flickering flame that has been blown off, because however chaotic this holiday had been, none of them want to leave the lake house.
“Aw, guys, don’t sulk like that,” Junmyeon smiles. “We can come back here in the future!”
“No we can’t!” Baekhyun whines. “Because you’ll hog it for your honeymoon with Jongdae in the future.”
A (totally Luhan) gasp followed by silence suddenly envelops the room, and Junmyeon frowns in confusion. “What?”
Jongdae grits his teeth. “What the fuck, Baek?”
“You’re so dense, Junmyeon. Can’t you see Jongdae’s, like, neck-deep in love with you?”
Jongdae makes a gurgling noise at the back of his throat when Luhan quips, “I can testify!”
“Oooooh, drama.” Sehun scoots backwards in his couch, trying to distance himself as far away from Junmyeon as possible.
Chanyeol suddenly brings his phone to his ear, despite the absence of his ringtone, and walks out the room with a louder-than-necessary hello?
“I – I don’t understand.”
Baekhyun looks like he’s about to explode. “Jongdae. Is. Ridiculously. Unconditionally. In. Love. With –“
“I’m going to go to bed,” Jongdae says. “And Baekhyun, make sure you check your damn phone.”
Before he tucks himself in bed, Jongdae sends a (tearfully) angry text message to Baekhyun, mostly in the form of stickers and threats like I’ll cut off Chanyeol’s balls and give it to Kyungsoo to cook so he can feed it to you, you motherfucking asshole and If I get married to Junmyeon in the future, we are definitely NOT inviting you back here, jerk but also, at the end, you promised you wouldn’t tell.
Jongdae feels like he’s back in high school and he doesn’t like it, so he snuggles up in his covers and falls asleep before Junmyeon can walk in and talk.
-
Jongdae wakes up late to Junmyeon’s empty bed and three text messages from Baekhyun. Two of them are replies to his threats that made Jongdae run to the bathroom to stop gagging – I already know how Chanyeol’s balls taste like, loser – and the last one; it’s not that bad. You’ll see.
He sees that Junmyeon’s bags have been zipped and stacked up neatly in the corner of the room, so Jongdae figures he should do the same. He’s not in the mood to be doing anything right, so after two minutes of trying to patiently fold his clothes he opts for throwing them in his bag, sitting on it and zipping it up forcefully, the seams nearly bursting from the contents.
It’s like last night hadn’t happened when Jongdae walks into the kitchen, and maybe Jongdae would have believed it didn’t if it weren’t for Baekhyun’s messages still in his phone.
“Oh, look who just rolled out of bed.”
“What?” Jongdae brings a hand to his hair, hurt by Kyungsoo’s remark. “I thought I cleaned up pretty well.”
“’Pretty well’ isn’t good enough. You need to look stunning.” Luhan grins. “I can’t wait to show you guys my airport fashion.”
“We’re not even going to an airport.” Jongin deadpans.
“Any outfit to do with travel, I’m calling it ‘airport fashion’, okay?”
“Where’s everyone else?”
“Either still packing, or loading the van up with the luggage. We’re leaving in, like, fifteen minutes. You woke up pretty late.”
“Yeah, well,” Jongdae laughs. “Waking up didn’t sound so tempting after last night.”
“Hey, don’t overthink it. We’ve all been there right? No one takes Baekhyun seriously anyway.”
“I heard that!” Baekhyun saunters in the kitchen, crumbs on his face from his breakfast. “Stop being such a worrywart, man. Look, I’m sorry, okay. Hating me for a moment is fine, but just not forever.”
Jongdae laughs. “I don’t hate you, Baek.”
Chanyeol walks in to ask Baekhyun where the rest of his bags are, but he suddenly stops in his tracks.
“What is it?”
“You’ve got something right…there.” Chanyeol brings a thumb to wipe at the corner of Baekhyun’s lips, when the crumbs are obviously on his chin.
Jongdae groans. He definitely hates Baekhyun now.
-
They settle into the van that will take them to the train station, and Jongdae had somehow ended up with Junmyeon as his seatmate. He thanks all the deities up there that nothing has turned awkward, that they can still converse normally like old days. Like the friends they are.
“Hey, about last night…” Junmyeon starts, and Jongdae senses a dreaded feeling in the pit of his stomach. Junmyeon laughs. “Don’t look so worried, relax! I just wanted to say that don’t get so hung up about it. I’ll overlook it – besides, it’s Baekhyun, and nobody takes him seriously anyway.”
Somewhere at the back, Baekhyun shouts I heard that! Jongdae lets out a relieved sigh, and fumbles with his thumbs. “I’m glad. Sorry about that.”
“Yeah, so. Don’t look so tense. Have some fun before we have to go back to serious mode.”
The van pulls up, and Junmyeon slides the door open to let everyone out. Their chatters turn more and more excited as they load out the luggage, because although they’ll be leaving behind what had been an incredible holiday, whatever’s waiting for them in the future is not anything short of exciting, either.
“Guess we’ll be busy for the next few weeks, huh.”
Junmyeon shakes his head. “Not too busy that you won’t be able to make time to go out.” He smiles. “We can always go for a coffee together. Or a movie. Or lunch. Or anything you want, really.”
Jongdae feels his heart beat faster in his chest. “Really?”
“Well, yeah. Knowing you, you’d probably stress out within a few days. It’d be nice to take a break and hang out, don’t you think?”
“With…Baekhyun and Chanyeol…and everyone else?”
Junmyeon shyly grins as they all step into the air-conditioned station. “I think just the two of us sounds good.”
Jongdae decides that the words are the highlight of that day – and it’s still only noon. Jongdae shouldn’t think of it as much, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. And there’s something else that makes it much, much better.
Baekhyun’s not there to throw a snarky comment at him.