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Hyunjin winced as Changbin’s shoe squeaked aggravatingly high-pitched as he practiced his turn of the hundredth time. Hyunjin had long since perfected the move but he waited patiently as Minho taught Changbin slowly, working up a foundation of easier moves to solidify their performance. Without Minho, Hyunjin thinks, their choreography would be a lot messier. It would still work with their concept but it felt good to be a unit, them in perfect sync against the world.
The world was about to get a whole lot closer as their debut date rushed ever nearer. Two and a half months was a lot of time but the last two and a half months had been a long time too and that had passed in the blink of an eye. Hyunjin should probably go and do something useful, like work on his rap, but it just frustrated him every time he sat down to practice and he didn’t have the heart to face that today. Maybe Changbin could help him when he was done with dance.
Hyunjin looked up to Minho demonstrating again, holding his arms out for balance he didn’t need as he turned. He’d been dancing all afternoon, whether on his own, with the choreographer or with the other members and his hair was a mess, stuck up in odd directions with dried sweat.
“Hyung, what’s that on your arm?” Hyunjin asked as Minho set up to show the turn again. A black scrawl ran down the inside of his wrist, standing out against his skin.
“Huh?” Minho asked. He glanced down and comically pulled away from his own arm. “I didn’t do that.”
“Looks like Jisung’s writing,” Changbin commented, peering over. Hyunjin stood up to get a closer look. “It is jisung’s writing,” Changbin said in shock. “That’s lyrics. About-”
Minho pulled his arm away. “If he wanted you to read it he would have written it on your wrist.”
Hyunjin’s excitement deflated. “Why did you react like that if you already knew it was there,” he grumbled. Minho ignored him, busy reading the lyrics.
“I bet it’s a love ballad,” Changbin whispered conspiritorily to Hyunjin.
Hyunjin snorted. “You say that like you’ve never written a love song.”
“I haven’t!” Changbin protested. “I write about dark stuff, like suicide and societal oppression.”
“I’ve heard Wow,” Hyunjin deadpans.
“That wasn’t- I didn’t- We have better songs!” Changbin was getting defensive and Hyunjin smiled down at him, loving how it made the older boy bristle more.
“Wanna fight, Hyung,” Hyunjin teased, pushing up his sleeves. He wouldn’t really fight Changbin, Chan didn’t deserve that after he’d only just started getting along with Jisung.
Changbin didn’t answer. He was staring down at Hyunjin’s arm.
“What?” Hyunjin asked following his gaze. “Oh shit.” Along his wrist was a hauntingly familiar scribble. Changbin tore his eyes away as Hyunjin lifted his arm to read the words, pulling up his own sleeve and whimpering at the matching ink. It was messy and Jisung’s handwriting was unfamiliar to Hyunjin but he could pick out a few words. It wasn’t a love song- he was writing about being scared of something. Hyunjin couldn’t work out what he was scared of, either because of the words he couldn’t read or the poetic complexity Jisung liked to use.
“It’s still going,” Changbin whispered and sure enough when Hyunjin looked to the bottom of the phrase more words were slowly appearing.
“What did you say?” Minho asked sharply, turning to look at them. Changbin held up his own wrist and Minho’s mouth fell open in a small ‘o’.
“Are you not freaked out?” Hyunjin asked, aware his voice was getting louder and higher as he spoke. “Because I’m a little freaked out.”
Minho shrugged.
Changbin had pulled a pen from his pocket while they weren’t looking and was writing ‘JISUNG’ in large letters under the wall of lyrics. Hyunjin watched in horrified fascination as the letters appeared on his own wrist in real time. Jisung’s slow scribble stopped and a line appeared next to his last letter, slashing across their arms.
“Great job, Bin,” Minho said. “You’ve given him a heart attack.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Changbin admitted quietly.
Below Changbin’s letters, a small neat script was appearing. ‘What’s going on?’
“That’s Seungmin,” Hyunjin informed them reluctantly. This was already too much to handle. He sat down on the floor, propped up against the mirror and tugged his sleeve back down. If he couldn’t see it, it wasn’t happening. Changbin sat next to him, balancing his arm on his knee as he replied to Seungmin.
“Hi Sung, are you alright?” Hyunjin heard Minho ask, his phone pressed to his ear. Even across the room Hyunjin could hear Jisung’s indignant ‘No!’ from the other end of the call. It’s a good thing he and Jisung made up the previous night- they could panic together. Jisung was certainly panicking, words coming at 100km/hr though the speaker. Minho’s face stayed blank as he listened. “We’re coming to get you,” Minho told him and hung up. He turned to Hyunjin and jerked his head towards the door. Hyunjin grabbed Changbin’s arm, ignoring his squawk of annoyance and pulled him after their Hyung.
***
Changbin had made a notification post on their palms for everyone to join them in Jisung’s studio since their left forearms were already a solid wall of text. It had brought over-excited Seungmin and Felix which wasn’t exactly the support system Hyunjin was looking for right now. Hyunjin needed a hug, a long hug, and probably a nap. And also for all of this to go away but the opposite seemed to be happening so he would settle for a long hug and a nap.
His choices for hugs were limited however by the excitement everyone had for their newfound ability.
“Can I hug you?” Hyunjin asked Jisung quietly when everyone was distracted. They had only just stopped fighting and under normal circumstances Hyunjin would take a brick wall over Jisung but these weren’t normal circumstances and Hyunjin was fighting the urge to sit on the floor and cry like a baby. Jisung opened his arms immediately. Hyunjin blinked at him. Jisung was sitting in an office chair and Hyunjin didn’t think they were that close for him to sit on his lap.
“Come on,” Jisung urged, beckoning him closer. “If you squash my lungs and knock me unconscious you’d be doing me a favour right now.”
Hyunjin hesitantly sat in his lap, sitting side-on so he could actually return the horrendously awkward hug he’d asked for. Jisung latched on tightly pressing his face against Hyunjins chest and Hyunjin shuffled back to sit on the chair itself not Jisung’s leg. It brought them closer in height though his legs hurt from being at an odd angle and Hyunjin slipped an arm behind Jisung’s back to hug him back. Jisung was a surprisingly good hugger, especially considering the circumstances and Hyunjin found himself wished he’d known that sooner.
“What were your lyrics about?” Hyunjin asked.
“Being scared of debut,” Jisung mumbled. “Ironically I wrote it on my arm so nobody would see it in my lyric book. That worked out well.”
Hyunjin patted his back consolingly. “At least your hand-writing’s too bad for most people to read anyway. "Maybe you can rub it off?” he suggested.
Jisung pulled his head back to look at Hyunjin. Their faces were far too close together. “Do you think that’ll work?”
Hyunjin shrugged. “It’s just pen, I don’t see why not.”
Jisung looked down at his arm, a pout forming on his face as he took in the chaos six hands had created. And then without warning he licked a stripe up his arm.
“Gross,” Hyunjin commented.
“Got a better idea?” Jisung asked, rubbing frantically at the ink closest to his wrist. He licked his arm again.
Hyunjin shifted, slinging one leg behind Jisung to finally relieve the pressure on his knee. “I think it’s working,” he commented as Jisung’s lines grew fainter, smudging together to become unreadable. He held his own wrist next to Jisung’s. His arm was longer but the ink spread along it was identical. “Mine too.”
“Thank god,” Jisung said, deeming his lyrics finally sufficiently obscured. He curled into Hyunjin’s chest, fitting much more comfortably this time and Hyunjin pulled his sleeve down, linking his arms around Jisung’s waist.
“Hey! Why did you get rid of it?” Felix called, having noticed a rare blank spot on his arm.
“You guys weren’t supposed to read it,” Jisung grumbled into Hyunjin’s neck. “It was personal.”
“Sorry,” Felix said sincerely. “I couldn’t read it anyway. I have no idea what most of this says,” he said brandishing his arm proudly. Hyunjin didn’t want to look. He didn’t want to think about it or why the hell his skin was now a bulletin board for all his members.
“Hello everyone,” Jeongin said grandly as he entered the studio. “Who drew a dick on my elbow?”
There was an outbreak of yells as everyone tried to point the blame someone else. Hyunjin screwed his eyes shut and buried his face in Jisung’s soft hair. He smelled like strawberries. That was a much better thing to concentrate on.
“Are you two ok?” Minho asked.
“Not really,” Jisung replied honestly. “I mean, I’m hugging Hyunjin.”
“Hey!” Hyunjin complained, but he didn’t loosen his grip on the younger boy.
“You know it’s weird, dude,” Jisung said. Hyunjin couldn’t deny it. They’d called truce but their current position was far beyond mutual tolerance.
“It was desperate times,” Hyunjin told Minho, turning to rest his cheek on the crown of Jisung’s head.
“Yeah,” Jisung agreed. “Special circumstances.”
Minho frowned. “I don’t know. You look pretty cozy.” Behind him Jeongin was brandishing a pen at Seungmin’s face.
“Jisung’s good at cuddling, it’s stopping my panic,” Hyunjin admitted.
“I'm just being a good supporting member,” Jisung lied.
“Your head's practically inside Hyunjin's hoodie,” Minho pointed out.
“That is a coincidence,” Jisung bluffed.
“Not because he smells nice?” Minho asked.
“Not because he smells nice,” Jisung agreed, turning his face back into Hyunjin's neck and pressing his lips against his skin. Hyunjin fought a smile as Minho raised an eyebrow at him.
***
“Has anyone heard from Channie-hyung?” Changbin asked later once the initial excitement had worn off and most people had put the pens down. Felix was still printing tiny hearts up Jeongin's right arm. Well, everyone's right arm.
“I haven't seen anything from him,” Seungmin said. “Maybe he hasn't noticed yet.”
“How?” Jeongin said holding up his left arm. It was almost entirely black. There was also pink highlighter streaked across his cheek.
“It is Chan-hyung,” Changbin pointed out. “ When he's really focused …”
Minho grinned. “Time to surprise him then.”
Felix cheered.
“You guys coming?” Changbin asked, looking back at Hyunjin and Jisung comfortably tangled together.
“Probably,” Jisung answered, making no effort to move.
“It kinda has to be now,” Changbin urged, glancing behind him to the group skipping off down the corridor.
“Hyunjin?” Jisung said.
“Yeah, fine,” Hyunjin groaned, lifting his leg to let Jisung out. He felt cold as the younger boy moved away. Jisung helped him up, steading Hyunjin as he stumbled.
“I can't feel my leg,” Hyunjin complained.
“Yeah, me either,” Jisung said as they hobbled after their members.
***
“Hi Chan-hyung,” Jeongin said, knocking on the door to Chan's studio. Chan pulled his headphones off and blinked at them, huddled in the doorway.
“Hey guys, what's up?” Chan asked as they shuffled in and closed the door. Some things were best not shared with the rest of JYP. Hyunjin hung back in the corner closest to the door, Jisung pressed into his side.
“Have you looked at your arms recently?” Seungmin asked cheerfully. They had all covered the worst of their marks with their sleeves to walk through the building to avoid awkward questions.
“No?” Chan frowned at their manic grins and pushed up his sleeve. “Ambidextrous, bitches?” he read slowly.
Minho giggled. “Other arm,” he said helpfully.
Chan pushed up his other sleeve and stared in confusion. “What?”
Aside from Hyunjin and Jisung the other members held up their left arms. Chan blinked as he took it all in and then glanced to the highlighter staining Jisung’ and Hyunjin's cheeks, branding them one with the other.
“Oh, ok,” Chan said slowly, smiling as he read through the notes he'd missed. “I guess I picked the right members then.”