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"JRie!!"
Minhyun knows he's gone if he gets caught speeding down the dim hallways of the dorm building at one in the morning, way past lights out, in search of a particular wartortle, yelling his name at the top of his lungs.
Honestly he didn't think about it much, all he could care about was getting into Jonghyun's room in one piece, without tripping over his own clumsy feet.
In the dim lighting he managed to find the door with the sign that read 'Fear' on it. The fact that the rap position signs were in black made it ten times harder, but Minhyun trusted his night vision and burst through the door, closing it behind him.
"JRie!!"
His eyes scanned the messy room in front of him and his left eye twitched, his cleaning instincts kicking in. Guanlin was nowhere to be found (Minhyun thinks he went to his buddy Seonho's room), Moonbok was on the floor drying his long hair, and Taemin sat on his bed, sharing earphones with who Minhyun presumed to be Taewoo. The three of them stared at Minhyun for a solid five seconds, before going back to minding their own businesses.
His gaze shifted to the top right bunk, where a sleeping figure lay buried under the blankets, a tuft of black hair peeking out. Minhyun smiled.
Clambering up the steps to the bed, he flopped himself on his leader, who made a groaning sound in protest.
"JRie!!"
"Mmph," Jonghyun furrowed his eyebrows and took a deep breath, ignoring the fact that a 183cm giant was crushing him.
"JRie!! Wake up!!" Minhyun sat up on Jonghyun's stomach, bouncing lightly while cupping his cheeks in his hands and squishing them.
"Who... are y-" Jonghyun began silently, barely a breath leaving his mouth, but Minhyun beat him to it by yelling for the upteenth time that night.
"JRie!!"
"Ah, Minhyunnie," for a split second, Minhyun was sure that he saw a small smile form on the leader's face, but it disppeared as quickly as it stayed, "what brings you here?"
"Jonghyun-ah you got first place!" Minhyun squealed in excitement. Jonghyun cracked open his tired eyes and raised an eyebrow at the grinning boy on his stomach.
"I know I got first place in my team, I thought I told you? Did you forget?" Jonghyun stuck out his bottom lip a little but Minhyun rolled his eyes, groaning.
"Not in your team, out of the entire 59 of us! You're first!" Minhyun squished Jonghyun's cheeks again, giggling softly when he squinted.
"Come on, Minhyun, if you came all the way here and woke me up just to joke with me, I swear I won't hesitate to kick your ass out of the window right now."
"No I'm serious! Jaehwannie was watching the live broadcast just now to see the rankings as of episode 6, so all of us joined him, and when I saw you on the first place spot I practically yelled into Jaehwan's ear to screenshot it and send it to me!!" Minhyun argued and pulled his phone out of his pocket, "I have proof since you don't believe me..."
Jonghyun stayed silent, blinking rapidly, trying to process the infomation that was shoved into his head by a certain boy that was currently suffocating him and rambling about... what was he saying?
"...I can't believe you did it Jonghyun-ah, you dethroned the legendary 'nae maeum soge jeojang', mismatched neon shoelaces, fashion terrorist wink boy! Your name will go down in the history of produce 101, remember me when you're famous..."
"Minhyun," Jonghyun said calmly in the middle of his monologue.
"...Oh and Niel got second place! I'm so proud of the both of you, of course, it's the work of Hwang Minhyun the genius who selected the members of the Justice League, the true Avengers team..."
"Minhyun," Jonghyun repeated, sighing loudly but at the same time trying not to grin at how cute the nonsense coming out of Minhyun's mouth was.
"...Wink boy is in third, and guess who's fourth place Jonghyun-ah? Hmm... I'll give you hints... he's the best at imitating optimus prime, JRie's raps, king of personal talents, he's a lead vocal, he did a duet with JRie on their latest album..."
"MINHYUN," Jonghyun said loud enough for Taemin and Taewoo to look up from whatever they were looking at and stare in amusement at the sight in front of them.
"...Dongho's in top 11 too! Not Minki though, I'm worried for him. Jaehwannie said Mnet hardly gave him personal screentime in this episode, I don't want him to-"
"HWANG MINHYUN," Minhyun stopped talking to himself and looked curiously at Jonghyun, who was very red in the face.
"Please get off me, I can't breathe. Friendly reminder that you're very much taller and heavier than me, young man," Jonghyun sighed in relief when Minhyun rolled off him, "finally."
"Found it!" Minhyun cheered and tapped on a particular picture on his phone, "God, I told Jaehwan to send me only that screenshot, not a hundred over ugly selfies of him, Hyunbinnie, Sungwoon hyung and Jisung hyung."
Minhyun shoved his phone, which displayed that day's 1-11 rankings, into Jonghyun's face. The leader squinted at the bright screen, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness.
True enough, Jonghyun saw his name at the top of the triangle, a crown sitting on top of the number 1 square that displayed his name. A small red triangle with the number 7 beside it indicated that he moved up seven places from the previous episode, and as much as it was the truth, Jonghyun couldn't believe it.
"Believe me now?" Minhyun inserted his chubby face in between Jonghyun and his phone screen, gazing at Jonghyun with his usual playful and mischievious eyes.
"How..." Jonghyun handed the phone back to its owner, sitting up beside Minhyun, holding both hands to his head, "how is this possible? Were the votes hacked or what? How can I be first?"
"Of course you can be first, Jonghyun-ah, practically everyone loves you now, ever since the fourth episode was aired. You saw it right?" Minhyun inched closer to the very much stressed out leader.
Jonghyun nodded slightly, the picture of the blue crown atop his birth name still embedded in his head.
"Everyone sees how much of a wonderful leader you are now, taking blames when it's not even your fault, leading the choreography, cheering us up when we were down. They know how you gave your lines to Niel and Hyunbinnie because you wanted them to shine, and although in the end Hyunbin won over you, you weren't upset but instead thanked him for his hard work. Everyone knows now, Jonghyun-ah, you're- we're finally recognised for our hard work."
Maybe it was because Jonghyun had a tough day, but Minhyun's sincere words made tears build up in his eyes. He didn't deserve the first place, he was a debuted idol of five years coming onto the show, yet he stole the spotlight of other trainees desperate to debut. He showed a lacking appearance on stage, but still people voted for him, loved him, believed in him. He didn't deserve all of that-
"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking of now," Minhyun said softly after moments of silence. He reached for Jonghyun's hand and pulled it towards him, playing with the short fingers.
"Why do you keep thinking that you're not worthy of first place? If there's anyone that I want to win this show, it'd be you. Throughout these five years of our group being together, you led us through every hardship and obstacle. Without you, NU'EST wouldn't even exist today anymore. You kept us together even during the hardest times, when we put in so much effort just for our albums to become a waste, not even being nominated on any music show, barely charting on music sites, earning the title of 'the group who debuted years before their hoobaes but still did much worse th-'"
Minhyun stopped suddenly, tightening his grip on Jonghyun's fingers. Jonghyun felt his hand trembling against his, so he pried Minhyun's death-like grip open and held his hand tightly.
"Wh-what I'm saying is..." Minhyun continued shakily, "lots of people believe in you now, so you just have to believe in yourself, Jonghyun-ah. Stop thinking that you're unworthy okay? We can't have our future leader of boy IOI having that mindset," he looked up and smiled tearily at him.
Jonghyun brought his free hand up to smoothen out Minhyun's messy brown hair, swallowing his own tears when a tear escaped Minhyun's eye and trickled down his cheek.
"Look who's the one getting so emotional," Jonghyun swiped away the stray tear using his thumb, "but I get it, Minhyun-ah, I'll try okay? I'll be the leader that you all can rely on, cry on and trust. Don't cry anymore, you baby."
Minhyun scowled, shaking Jonghyun's hand off his cheek. "I didn't come here just to tell you that you got first," he admitted softly.
"Hm? Then for what other reason did you come here?" Jonghyun asked as his thumb caressed the skin of Minhyun's hand, although he already knew the answer.
"I missed you," Minhyun replied embarrassingly, his answer muffled as he buried his nose into the crook of Jonghyun's shoulder.
"I missed you too, idiot," he placed a hand on Minhyun's soft and fluffy hair, keeping it in place on his shoulder. "I kind of envy Dongho and Minki, they got to be on the same team... and the three of you are in vocal. I'm stuck in rap alone," Jonghyun sighed.
"Maybe I should've joined rap. Show everyone what a rap god Hwang Minhyun is," Minhyun started rapping his famous version of Jonghyun's rap in Face, making a huge smile spread out on its owner's face.
"It's been ages since you've did that. As much as I hate and love it at the same time, I miss it," Jonghyun chuckled and gently hit Minhyun's arm.
Minhyun's soft giggles sent chills up Jonghyun's spine, but that position was too comfortable and Jonghyun's tired body had too little energy left in it to move.
Jonghyun laughed silently as Minhyun wriggled closer to him, making their shoulders bump and their thighs pressed together. That's what he loved about Minhyun, Jonghyun thought, the comfort he felt when he was with him even if they stayed in silence, his ability to make Jonghyun feel better about himself even with the smallest actions... it would be a lie to say that Minhyun occupied a place in his heart that was equally as big as the rest.
"Jonghyun," Minhyun said sleepily after minutes of silence. Jonghyun jerked in surprise, he thought Minhyun was asleep all this while.
"Hmm?"
"Can I sleep here tonight," it sounded more like a statement than a question, but nevertheless Jonghyun just pulled Minhyun down beside him so the two of them were squished together in the small bed.
"Won't the dorm people scold us if they see that I'm here and not in my room?" Minhyun lay his head on Jonghyun's chest, the steady heartbeat lulling him to sleep.
"It's okay. Taewoo sleeps here most of the time too," Jonghyun gestured to the best friends who were snuggled together underneath the blankets, sleeping soundly. "If Taewoo doesn't come here, then Taemin goes over. Those two are literally glued by the hips."
Minhyun shut his exhausted eyes, smiling. "I wish we can have a friendship like that too."
"What was that?" Jonghyun asked after he heard Minhyun mumble something against his chest.
"Mmh... nothing," he wrapped a leg around Jonghyun's waist, "goodnight, Jonghyun-ah. Sleep well."
"You too, Minhyunnie," a short pause, "I love you."
As Minhyun drifted off into sleep, snuggled safely in Jonghyun's arms, their hands still linked together, he thinks that day, Jonghyun might have won first place in more than just the rankings.