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“Lo and behold!” Jisung loudly exclaims, holding a rectangular opaque high up in the air after barging into the kitchen with the graces of a wilding goose.
Woojin winches at the high pitch of his voice, Hyunjin grumbles from his seat and throws a piece of the cocoa puff he’s currently downing in two cups of milk at Jisung with a “shut up s’too early for dis.”
“Jisungie, what’s up,” Chan had asks out of courtesy, looking up at Jisung from his second cup of black coffee of the morning, eyes barely opened.
“I’ve found the secrets of the demon,” Jisung pipes as he joins in the party, squeezing in between a grumbling Hyunjin and a half-asleep Seungmin at the dining table.
“Who?”
Jisung shoves the object in his hand to Chan’s face, the older squinting in focus and his snailing morning brain finally registers it as a smartphone.
“Hey, is that Minho’s phone?” Woojin asks from the side, recognizing the familiar casing. “He just went out with Felix for grocery. Even the kid doesn’t bring one with him.”
“Auww, I was just planning to ask him for some croissants,” Hyunjin pouts, shoving mellow puffs into his mouth.
“What do you mean ‘secrets of the demon’, Jisung?” Seungmin asks, reaching up to lightly pinches at Jisung’s sideburn. “We don’t you to be snooping around people’s stuffs, now do we?”
“I know but pfft, since when does Minho hyung knows anything about privacy,” Jisung swats at Seungmin’s hand with a jerk of his tongue, fiddling with the smartphone in his hand with a mischievous glint in his doe eyes. “I’m pretty sure he’s seen enough blackmail materials in Jeonginnie’s gallery at this point so I think that’s a plus. He’s got mine and if I don’t keep letting him stealing all of my beef jerky he keeps feeding his cats with, I’m sure he’ll have it uploaded in his instagram at some point.”
“Ouh, what’re you gonna do with it?” Jeongin comes in from behind, slightly excited yet a bit wary. “Are we allowed to do this, though?”
“Of course Not. Sungie, stop giving the maknae wrong ideas. Put that away and eat your breakfast,” Chan scolds, getting a bowl and a glass for Jisung to have his breakfast.
“Aww, but I wanna look,” Jisung whines, slumping on the kitchen table with his big googly eyes and pout that Chan almost all the times gives into. He doesn’t look at Jisung at the moment, so maybe not today.
“There’s this hidden folder mine he kept in the SD card and there’s nothing but videos in them so I thought I wanted to share it with you guys.”
“Mine?” Woojin scoffs. “That’s something coming from him. And it’s hidden?”
“Yup.”
“Since when exactly had you been poking your nose into his phone?” Seungmin squints an eye at Jisung, who just gives a peace sign at him.
“Since he got out and I found out he left his phone.”
“Seriously, this kid,” Chan shakes his head. “Really, Jisungie. If it’s hidden and encrypted, it means he doesn’t want any of us to find out about it.”
“But what are all these videos about that he doesn’t want us to see?” Changbin peers into the screen, where Jisung’s fingers are sneakily tapping away underneath Chan’s berating nose.
“Of us parading across the living room in nothing but underwears?” Woojin suggests weakly, just for the humour of it.
“Whatever it is,” Chan presses, not noticing Jisung is already scrolling down through the hundred of videos with his eyes still on Chan’s. “We can’t—Jisung.”
“Oops?” Jisung shrugs his shoulder cheekily. Yet before Chan could as much as reach across the table to mockingly whack the younger on the forehead with the bent of his index finger, the phone’s speaker is on full volume and the sounds bleeding through distracts him.
There’s a solid sound of clicking and what appeared to be a palm moved away from covering the camera lenses, revealing Minho’s bare face, hair a bit out place and traces of sleep on the creases of the corner of his eyes and lips.
He looked annoyed, though.
“Just woke up a couple of minutes ago to find my human space heater gone,” he mumbled, voice grousy. He brought a hand up to rub the heel of his palm across his right eye.
“And do you know what I found?” he said in an irritated manner, no malice. He turned the camera around, facing the room and revealing that he’s currently in a hotel room.
“Eh, where is this?”
“Don’t remember. Germany?”
He trudged forward, camera lens shuffling around carelessly as he stomped to wherever he’s heading, exiting the room and into the hallway. He went pass a few rooms more before going into his right, the door being held opened by a small box being wedged in between the door and the doorframe to allow Minho pass through easily. The camera faced his face back before it could record the whole view of the inside of the room.
“Look at this. Look at this motherfucker.”
He shifted it back around, revealing two figures huddled up together in one of the single beds there. He went closer, the camera focusing more and confirming two heads—one jet black and the other one blonde—scandalizingly close to each other and appearing to be cuddling.
Minho, despite his curses, trudged forward quietly, the screen getting a much closer view to the two sleeping boys and his hand reached out from behind the camera, slowly sliding the comforter covering their faces down with his index finger, revealing Felix’s pouty face and Hyunjin’s, cheeks smushed against each other.
All the boys snapped their heads towards Hyunjin, whose mouth forms a ‘o’ innocently at the video playing before them.
“You two went on a cuddling session without me??” Jisung asks, scandalized, while Jeongin and Seungmin at the other side jabs their fingers at Hyunjin’s ribcages.
“Wait wait WAIT. When is—auw! Stop that. When is this? I don’t remember me cuddling Felix,” Hyunjin defends himself, meekly avoiding the younger ones assaults on him.
“Look at this cheater,” Minho’s fingers went forward to poke at Felix’s swollen exposed cheek, disregarding the quiet squirms coming from the younger at the assault. At this point, it’s clear that Minho’s being pouty.
“You punk. Ditching me for Hyunjin. Huh. Am I not good enough for you, huh?” he whispered, jabbing at the most squishy part of Felix’s cheek particularly hard, causing the younger to stir awake, glazed eyes fluttering open and staring straight into the camera.
He groaned.
“Hyungggg,” he whined, throat scratchy and voice hoarse. He shifted to the side to avoid Minho’s assaults to his face (which proved to be futile), unconsciously snuggling further into the little space left between him and Hyunjin, the tallest of the three grumbling something incoherent before he leaned forward, brought an arm out of the duvet to drape all over Felix’s form, almost dragging Minho into it too.
There’s an exaggerated gasp sounding behind the camera at the act, Felix didn’t seem to care and Hyunjin just hugged the other closer against his body.
“This is the worst Sunday betrayal coming from you, kid,” was Minho’s murmur of disbelief, the camera being set down at the lamp table beside the bed the two were sleeping on, Minho adjusting the angle just right so that it’ll capture a perfect full video of the whole scene—
Of him jumping over the two poor boys with his arms and legs outstretched like that one flying squirrel with a war cry, earning a smacked “Oofff!!” when he landed excellently on who seemed to be the innocent Hyunjin, a loud strangled screeches coming from the flopping mess of limbs on the bed and the camera rattled around as the bed frame hit the table lamp where it was residing.
“What the fuck is going on—”
“Die you motherfuckers—”
“Hyung, I’M GONNA KILL YOU.”
And just like that, the video ends with a beep, the screen taking the boys back to the list of previews of videos available in the mine folder, waiting quietly for them all to play like a taunting devil hiding in a corner.
There’s a definite pause that lasts for approximately a minute before Hyunjin finally breaks the silence, innocently biting on the tip of his index finger with a nervous laugh. “Ahhh. Now I remember. It was that morning...”
“How could you??” Jisung throws his arms up in betrayal. Seungmin stares at him with a crooked eyebrow.
“Weren’t you roommates with Hyunjin that day? Where were you?”
“I was out with Chan hyung and Binnie hyung getting some things done to the songs we were supposed to edit a bit, I think. It was hella stressful and I think Binnie hyung passed out at the table a couple of times until he’s had the second Americano down in his system,” Jisung recalls, glancing at Changbin who’s smacking his lips in exasperation at the memory.
“Don’t remind me. The worst deadline due I’ve ever encountered of all the ones given to us during tours.”
“So that explains your absence at the breakfast buffet. Okay, now I remember,” Jeongin claps his hands in clear victory. “Hyunjinie hyung came to me sulking. He was grumbling something about ‘rude wake up call’ and ‘could have at least give me morning cuddles or something’. No wonder he was so clingy that morning.”
“But Felix looked fine. He was really excited when he got the croissants and butter and jam,” Woojin recalls, expression soft as blurry images of a barefaced, soft and giggly Felix in cardigans hyping over fresh warm pastries fill his mind. Woojin is always so happy seeing one of the members eating so well, having being used to work in a fried chicken restaurant before. After seeing all those families and friends gushing over the food and happily getting their bellies stuffed, it kind of stick with him.
“But Minho hyung didn’t. He was a bit grumpy, not unusual. But he sat behind you guys so you didn’t see but he kept pouting towards Felix hyung,” Jeongin points out while massaging his chin with his thumb and forefinger, seeming to be deep in thoughts. “You know—”
“Guys, if you wanna see more, we gotta play now cuz Minho hyung and Felix are gonna be home in less than hour,” Jisung says a bit desperately, waving the phone in the air.
“Now aren’t you afraid at being caught?” Changbin raises an eyebrow. Jisung rolls his eyes.
“Please. Aren’t we all afraid of that Satan?”
They settle on a video titled as channie, the dumb kangaroo of aussie, which frankly speaking, has the said Chan choked up because how am I a dumb and a kangaroo??
“So, the members are having individual shoots at the moment and I’m getting hella bored by seconds so I’m just gonna tryyy...” the camera shuffles around as Felix puts it down over a surface—a table probably, adjusts the screen and sits down in front of it and leaning behind a white wall. The camera is far enough to fit his entire half of body, face clean of any makeup except his lips, bright red and glossy.
“He really likes that lip gloss I gave him, doesn’t he?”
“The fact that you just assumed that it was your gift he was wearing says a lot about how low you are, Jisungie.”
“Rude.”
“So, I think I’m just gonna record myself practising some Hangul and go through them videos later on when I have the time...” Felix pulled up a An Advanced Learning: Hangul to the screen and his grin is pretty and mischievous as he said “I’m gonna go with tongue-twister today and see if I can boast about it later to Innie and Minnie.”
“Awww.”
“So cuteee.”
“That cheater left me out.”
Felix shifted in his seating comfortably, opened up the book to some pages before settling on one and mouth opening, ready to say out loud whatever is written on the page before a door clicked opened somewhere at his left, Felix snapping his head at the sound before piping out a “Hyung! You’re done shooting already?”
“What’re you doing?” a soft voice greeted him—Minho’s—, the door clicking again as it was being closed and Felix raised the book in his hand up, wiggling it in the air.
“Tongue-twister. Was just about to go over it.”
“Ouh. Was I interrupting your studying?”
“Nooo. I didn’t go through them yet,” Felix blinked up at the possible direction of Minho, a couple moments of silence passed, a subtle sound of feet shuffling before Felix asked, “Hyung, wanna join me?”
“...Can I?”
Felix did not answer, just scooted a bit to his right and patting the space beside him that he had just opened up for Minho to take up. Minho came over and slid down, making himself comfortable before he realized the camera in staring at him from the front. He scoffed.
“You’re even recording?”
“Heyyy, leave me be,” Felix pouted, swatting at Minho’s shoulder who stuck his tongue out at him in return. Felix leaned back against the wall, huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “You have the decency to tease—”
Minho flopped forward into Felix lap within that second of Felix blabbering, figure disappearing from the screen and the younger immediately shut up, looking down at the older laying on him at the moment and back at the camera.
“Hyung,” he called, voice soft, hands appearing to be moving over supposedly Minho’s head, like he’s stroking the older’s hair. “You want to talk about it?”
“You know, I keep having these thoughts,” Minho answered almost immediately, as if he’s been waiting for Felix to gauge responses from himself for some reason. “Nowadays some fans are bashing Channie for his hair and your improving Hangul. Keep reminding you two how you should be grateful that JYP brought you back.”
“It’s as if they forgot the fact that we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Chan. If it weren’t for the fact that he put us all together and is our core, our backbone.”
Felix kept quiet, hand slowly caressing Minho’s hair from the screen, face facing the direct view of the camera yet his eyes were locked at something to his right, expression tight. “They forgot for a moment that I was the first to be kicked out of the team,” Minho’s voice sounded soft yet deep, angry even. “That I was the unwanted one from the very beginning.”
“Don’t say that,” Felix shushed him, looking down at the older. “They love you. You’re such a great idol. You make so many people happy.”
Minho shifted in Felix’s lap, looking up at Felix’s stern face. “But you make me happy.”
Felix’s lips parted opened like a fish out of the water, looking dumbfounded. “Isn’t that enough? Why can’t they just let us be happy with you here?”
“I...” Felix’s eyes wandered around, clearly looking for words to reply to Minho’s sudden outburst, a rare sight to see coming from the usual quiet and reserved dancer.
The members are quiet at this point, occasionally glancing at each other and the Australian leader who’s boring an intense stare at the screen of Minho’s smartphone, lips pursed.
They never talked about it, never really got the chance to say anything about the bullying and pressure Chan gets from the media and some of their fans (if they were to put a name on those people who claimed to care for their group but is out there lashing at one of them like a cult activist).
Chan doesn’t allow them to. Felix and Woojin are probably the ones closest to getting Chan to get things off of his chest because Jeongin had informed them once how he came to the studio to inform Chan about him getting his notes and keys all wrong, until he cracked the door to the studio open and saw Felix with an armful of Chan who’s had his face stuffed to Felix’s belly with his arms tightly wounded around the younger’s waist, hunched shoulders trembling and Felix could only placed his hands over Chan’s shoulder blades, stroking slightly to calm him down.
Felix had noticed Jeongin’s frozen presence, and he had placed a finger over his lips at the younger, smiling sadly. Jeongin nodded, closed the door and slipped away as quiet as he had come.
Felix didn’t open his mouth about it, neither did Chan. Jeongin had informed the others about it just for a heads up. Nobody knows the true reason to Chan breaking down in front of Felix but those two. But it’s alright, because it’s usually settled if Chan himself didn’t come out about it to them.
Minho, though, might have lost it these days. There’s a reason he has his Instagram account so active.
“...we can’t make everybody happy,” Felix’s soft answer received silence. His hand continued to move, lifting up strands of hair from Minho’s face and stroking slightly, an act of calmness that is always reserved to the whole group whenever they are stressed to the limits or just needs a good head petting.
“I can’t make everybody happy. Channie hyung can’t make everybody happy. That’s why the smaller amounts of those who do counts, don’t they?” Minho did something with his face, it can’t be seen from the camera but Felix scrunched his nose and pinched Minho’s face (his nose, cheek, probably?) to which the other retaliated with a meek “Hey, I’m your hyung!”
“Not all the fans are cruel. Racist, if you wanna call them that. But maybe they just want to keep their culture sacred or something. People can be so open-minded, these days, you know? Just,” Felix sighed.
“Don’t overthink stuffs, yea? This is Christ’s problem, a petty one that comes from irresponsible childish people. If he can’t receive it well, he’ll come to us and we’ll be there for him. Isn’t that’s why we’re here? But I doubt that because he’s stronger than we all think, than everybody had credited him to be. Aren’t I right?”
Minho kept quiet, so did Felix’s hand movement but there’s a small smile gracing his face as he looked down at the sulking man in his lap.
“You know, I hate that you can be too mature for your age,” Felix chuckled at the compliment grumbled from the pouting Minho.
“Back at my place, I think I’m pretty decent.”
“Nah. Don’t get too cocky,” Minho reached up, grabbed at the back of Felix’s neck and swiftly pulled the other down, receiving a “Eeepp!” from the Australian and lifting his own face up in time to meet Felix halfway on the lips.
“Holy shi—”
“What the fuck—"
Felix didn’t even had the time to react properly aside from yelping and scrambling his hands around for support before an arm reached out into the screen, circling around Felix’s back and he got himself flipped over to the side, Minho up and hovering over him before diving back down, head disappearing from the screen and all that could be hear is “Yah hyung! You surprised me—you can’t just manhandled me around like that out of nowhere!”
“You like it when I manhandle you around.”
Their limbs might had knocked the table because there was a loud ‘thud’ sound and an ‘oof!” coming from one of them and the camera rattled from where it stood, only the back of Minho’s hunched form was visible on the screen.
“Hyung, someone might come in—”
“Just a few more...” Minho comforted, a suspicious smacking and groaning sound vibrated from the speaker, along with some shuffling of clothes on skin because the room Felix chose to be in was so freaking quiet that even the sound of them breathing hard could be heard.
“Okay WAIT. Holy shit, what the hell are we doing?” Chan’s sudden yell make everyone jump on their seats and Minho’s poor smartphone almost slipped off of Jisung’s tumbling hands.
“Hyung! Don’t scare us like that!”
“Wait! I need to see how it ends!” Hyunjin screeches, blocking Chan from getting his hands anywhere near Jisung.
“Nuh uh. You kids. It’s too early for this...Why are we even snooping on a video of our teammates making out with each other to begin with?” Chan reprimands, rubbing at his eye with the ball of his fist to wipe away any sleep residue residing there.
“Because we didn’t think it would be a making out video in the first place!” Hyunjin throws his hands up like the dramatic queen he is.
“Nope. Still a no, young man,” Woojin shakes his head in disapproval, though reluctantly. “Now that we’re talking, it’s wrong to be snooping around our teammate’s phone like this. Even though it’s...well. Kinda off. Regardless, we all know better, Hyunjinnie.”
“Awww, but...” Hyunjin’s shoulders slumps, lips pouting yet he doesn’t fight any further.
A pregnant silence between the bandmates and the phone’s screen lightening innocently in the middle of the little circle they had unconsciously made throughout the entirety of the video.
“Are we seriously leaving out this part where two of our bandmates were kissing each other like it’s a normal thing behind our back?” Seungmin’s enquiry is like a relived clock wall and they all snap their heads towards the curious boy.
“See? Seungminnie thinks the same,” Hyunjin pokes a thumb towards his general direction.
“Nah, I’m genuinely curious. You just wanna see more of their actions,” Seungmin shrugs, making grabby hands at Jisung who has resorted to being suspiciously quiet after the video ended.
Hyunjin gasps and mockingly clenches at his own chest in an act of offense. “Your accusation, how could you?”
“I’ve been wondering about that, to be honest,” Jeongin cuts in just as Seungmin gets a hold of the smartphone and fiddles through the contents as the others’ attention are now on the maknae.
“I mean,” he sheepishly scratches at the back of his head before folding his fingers on his crossed legs on the floor. They wait with wide anticipating eyes.
“What? Do you know something, maknae-ah?” Woojin coaxes like a gentle father after sensing that Jeongin might not be really comfortable in saying out loud whatever it is that is occupying his mind at the moment, or he’s just very, very embarrassed to even talk about it.
“Welllll,” Jeongin begins, the tips of his ears going red and Chan and Jisung squint their eyes accusingly. “Don’t tell me you saw something rated 18 plus, young man. You’re not even there yet!” Jisung reprimands, looking very scandalized for someone who had accidentally exposed two of their bandmates.
“It’s not! And I’m already 18, what the hell?” Jeongin yells back in equal pitch.
“Innie...”
“Sorry hyung. Anyway, Minho hyung likes to sneak out of bed every other night. Like, around 3 to 4 in the morning. Sometimes I would hear him talking to someone around that time and I thought he was talking with someone in the phone. But I saw that he was with someone in his bed as well, just talking. I figured it was Jisung hyung cuz you know, you guys are real close and all but turns out it was Felix hyung.”
“Ahh...” Chan drawls out, seeming to contemplate on something.
“You know, it’s not unusual for us to be close to each other or anything. It’s common when we’ve lived with each other for ages,” Seungmin says. “And Minho hyung and Felix are never really subtle, but if you guys look closer, you can tell there is something going on between them as of now.”
“Yea yea, come to think of it. I feel like there’s this tension between them like, I can feel it but I just can’t reach it,” Woojin stresses with a clench of his fist and jaw, like he has been doing this for a while now and has come out with absolutely nothing.
“So you’re saying they’re dating, or whatever it is that might be platonic,” Jisung deadpans. “Because I would be the first to hail that if they are.”
“I mean, them kissing of course means something, alright,” Chan rubs at his face in exasperation, the sudden revelation that two of his bandmates might be dating each other behind their backs are weighing on him. Pity if it was the case because the fact that it is a secret indirectly tells them all that whatever that is between them is still very much vulnerable, or they’re just scared or insecure. “But we can’t really assume that they’re dating each other already considering Seungmin’s kissed Felix twice during winter break.”
“Hey, you guys made us do it!” Seungmin sputters, going red quickly at the tips of his ears.
“Then you guys wanna watch more of this?” Changbin finally speaks, curiosity lacing his tone and Chan swallows. “Cuz, you know. Whatever else that we would find out in here, we can’t go back. We won’t be able to look at them the same way again.”
Changbin’s talking like what young man around his age are supposed to say. It’s unusual and too serious of him, an image that sits strangely on him for outsiders but they’ve seen him like this countless of times and know all too well. He is right. They can’t go back.
The video started with Minho slapping gently on the right side of his temple, around the area in front of his ear, head tilted at 90 degrees downwards, looking very frustrated. His hair was half dried up, the towel draped over his bare shoulders, sitting on a hotel bed in nothing but a loose sweatpants to cover him up in front of the camera.
he calls the sea home, the video was titled.
“My god, so annoying,” he groaned out loud, resorting to wildly rubbing at his mildly wet hair with the towel in obvious irritation.
“What is it, hyung?” low timbered voice spoke somewhere in front of him.
“There’s water clogging my ear. I can’t get it out.”
“That’s because you’re doing it the wrong way. Stop hitting yourself like that!” Felix came into view as quickly as Minho had started banging himself on the head in pure frustration, so annoyed by not being able to hear properly that he’s willing to go to this length, Felix covering the assaulted area with both of his hands clasped over it, effectively stopping Minho from giving himself a mild concussion.
“Seriously, who would have thought you would get up on my shoulders just when the waves were coming to smash you on the head,” Felix giggled, bending into Minho’s sulking form who’s got his arms curled around his waist already, pouting when Felix pulled away after placing a chaste kiss on his temple.
“I told you, you should have let me carry you instead but NO, you want me to get on your freaking twig of shoulders and look at me.”
“Hey! They are not twig, I actually lifted you up without much of a hassle!”
“And I’m half-deaf at 21!”
Felix tackled him to the bed, both tumbling recklessly all over and if it wasn’t for the bed being king sized, one of them would surely fall off and risk a broken patella.
“Okay okay, now I’m getting palpation because of you,” Minho gave in, firmly placing a palm over Felix’s face to stop him from trying to bite him at the ear. Felix mock cooed at him and, without as much as a sympathising warning, licked a long, fat stripe over his palm, scrambling out of bed as Minho screeched out the most offending whale-level worthy of a scream, angry hands groping to clench at whatever part of Felix for retaliation.
“Felix!!”
Woojin honest to god chokes on his own spit, Chan slowly has his face in his hands in an actual second-handed embarrassment, ears tipping bright red and if Hyunjin is being honest, his perfect 20-20 vision could swear that there are tears in Jisung’s eyes as he stares in awe at the screen.
“My baby Felix...”
“He’s grown up,” Jisung seriously sniffles. Jeongin purses his lips and blinks a multiple time, already seeming to had taken Minho’s habit of blinking his eyes all the time.
“I don’t think that’s a correct—”
“This is how you should be dealing with it, hyung,” Felix pointed out, sitting down beside Minho on the edge of the bed with a small dropper. He tugged at Minho’s arm, urging the (seemingly still sulking) young man to scoot a bit further up into the bed for a more comfortable position.
“Come on. Tilt your head to the side so I can drip this into your ear,” Felix nudged at his thigh with his knee, already up on his knees and he’s got an arm around Minho’s shoulder from the front, comforting him.
“How is putting more water in my ear is gonna help me unclog it?” Minho seemed unsure, glaring at the innocent white drip bottle.
“Trust me. I’ve done this all the time,” Felix waved him off, gently cocking Minho’s head to the side in his behalf, peering into the earlobe. “I love the sea and I would always go swimming back at home. Clogged ears are not an issue for me.”
“So that explains why you almost own Channie hyung’s ass in swimming back in LA.”
“Pfft, no. Chan is out of my league. Honestly scared me back then with how fast he can swim butterfly style. Try being underwater when he does that towards you.”
“Ouh I don’t think my mentality can survive that,” Minho said glumly, squirming when Felix has the drip right above his ear canal.
“It’s lit. You would feel like King Kong’s mermaid nightmare would come true!” Felix said excitedly, peering down at Minho’s scowling face.
“These kids...have the guts in making a fun outta me.”
“Honestly, we all do,” that suspiciously sounds like Seungmin.
At the first few drops, Minho squirmed so much that Felix had to hook a leg over his lap, hushing him to stay quiet. Minho stuck it out by gripping his arms around Felix’s waist tightly and jittered his legs against the bed frame, looking so squeamish and giggly that Felix giggled as Minho’s hands around him was making him ticklish.
“Stopp, you’re gonna make us both fall off the bed,” he wheezed out, carefully dripping a bit more. “Do you feel clogged enough?”
“Firstly, that sounds right and wrong in all ways possible,” Felix rolled his eyes so much the vast white of his eyes spooked the camera. “Secondly, I feel deaf enough that you sound like you’re mumbling.”
“Alright, let’s go to the bathroom. Quickly!”
They both hopped off and trudged towards the general direction of the bathroom. The video cut away to probably a few minutes afterwards, giving out an assumption that Minho might had edited it. Minho came into view, flopping down on the bed heavily while cupping both of his ears with his palms with a dramatic sigh.
“Oh my god, that feels so much better now. Thank you,” he moaned, glaring fondly at behind the camera.
“Anytime,” came Felix’s gloating response.
Minho patted at his own thigh with a suggestive look in his eyes, Felix slowly padding his way into Minho’s opened arms, sliding a knee beside his lap to support his weight as he climbed up onto Minho’s lap, arms snaking around the older’s neck and his back obscured Minho from the sharp camera, only his hands on Felix’s hip visible.
“You said you love the sea,” Minho whispered, barely audible. Felix hummed in response, seeming to tilt his head downwards as one of Minho’s hand sneaked up from the small of his back to the dip between his shoulder blades, pushing him down.
“Sorry that it’s too cold in Korea for you to dive in.”
“It’s alright. We got private swimming pools. That’s good enough. It’s just that, the sea makes me feel close to home, you know. Sydney is known for its beautiful beach and sea.”
“Would you teach me how to swim like a champ?” that sounded barely innocent despite the non suggestive words, but the request came out in a whisper, and Felix’s already making himself comfortable on his lap, his oversized shirt riding down from Minho’s pull to sneakily caress the bare skin of his shoulders.
“I would love to,” then Felix dived down, back hunched and the familiar smacking sound of lips to lips resonated across the otherwise empty vast hotel room—
“You guys really sure you wanna go with this?” Seungmin asks in a soft careful voice between them, soft as to not to shock them in the unnecessary attention they’re in, careful as not to give out any stresses or suggestion with the tone of his voice because this is getting way too awkward and way too personal. Half of them blink blankly as an answer, the other half swallow down a rock. He sighs.
“Like really sure?”
“Hey, Lixxie,” Minho voiced out before he got to pull Felix down with him on the bed.
“Hmm.”
“Didn’t Seungmin and Jeongin were planning on getting on vlive?” Felix groaned out so loud that Minho knocked out a long hearty laugh, looking like he knew a bit too well why the younger suddenly seemed overwhelmed.
“I forgot. Oh my god, I literally jumped on the opportunity when Innie came up with it. Now I’m too cosy to go over there,” Felix whined pitch high, figure slumping all over Minho who only resorted to laying down on his back with Felix draped all over his front, one hand slowly caressing his back, the other running across the strands of his hair.
“There there. It’s not always just you three got to be together on vlive,” from the viewpoint of the camera, it had seemed like Minho had shifted his face sideway and was kissing Felix’s cheek, face mushed against the other’s chest.
“Can’t we just go back to cuddle—”
The video ends abruptly and silence engulf all seven of the boys, none making any move to see further into the videos because there are ton crap of them. A whole 127 videos ranging from 3-8 minutes in average. All of them look at each other with the kind of uncertainty that they haven’t felt in a long time.
“Oh. My,” Jeongin starts.
“God Almighty,” Seungmin fills in, rubbing at his own face in mortification. “He came to us right after making out with Minho hyung. No wonder he was being all mushy and affectionate.”
“I need holy water,” Jeongin murmurs into his palms. “Lix hyung kissed my head after smooching with Minho hyung. I cannot.”
“Should I worry for your sanity because of the innocence that should come with Felix’s kisses, or is that jealousy clouding your judgement?” Woojin says with an air of a berating mother. “Because, let’s face it. Y’all a sucker for Felix.”
“You’re saying that as if you haven’t been whining for Felix to come cuddle you at your bed ever since we switched rooms,” Jisung deadpans, a rare occasion of siding with the maknae line because the tea is really just that. They are all whipped for the youngest Australian.
“Hey!”
“So...” Hyunjin’s the first to bring the reality back to the surface though. “Who’s gonna go ask for explanation on what we’ve just seen?”
“More like who’s gonna ask for forgiveness first for invading Minho’s privacy like this?” Seungmin deadpans with a raise of an eyebrow, all colouring in the face with guilt. He shakes his head in equal solemn. “Hyung is never ever gonna trust us with any of his things again.”
“Like he ever,” Jisung grumbles, suddenly not as enthusiastic as he was before even though this whole thing was his idea in the first place. He buries his chin in the folds between his clenched palms at the table, glaring at something in front of him.
“So. That was something,” Seungmin scratches at the new undercut his stylish noona had done on him for an experiment, looking to see if the new style fits him or not. If it works, the fans will have the fortune of seeing him with the new haircut this upcoming tour. If it doesn’t, he is going to have foresee a hair extension which he doubts would be pleasant.
“I’m just gonna assume that we’re done here. So, are we just gonna go along with this and act like we don’t know nothing? Or are we gonna go consult them,” Changbin comes up with the questions that they all dread yet expect to come. “Because I can tell you one thing. I’m definitely not gonna be able to look at them the same way. Ever.”
“We all won’t, apparently,” Chan adds, a frown settling over his strong eyebrows. “Now that we’re on the subject—”
“Honey, I’m home!” Felix’s dramatic white granpa personified voice cuts in obnoxiously loud coming from entrance of the living room, succeeding in making all seven of them jump and scrambling out of their seats, paling from their heads down to their toes.
“Shit! Hide that thing!” Hyunjin hisses, unconsciously trying to fit himself into the space underneath the kitchen table, which should have been hilarious considering his long mess of limbs and the absurdity of the situation in hand.
“Why are you even hiding? Don’t make things seem so obvious, you idiot!” Jisung whacks him across the head, dragging him out and up, the others struggling to make themselves seem more normal and like nothing had just conspired between them the last 20 minutes.
“Jisung, get—oh shit, hey you’re back,” Seungmin says uncharacteristically chirpy, voice a tone higher than usual and that is usual enough to give them away, but Felix just flops the bags of bread loaves and crackers and other sorts of food on the table with a relieved groan, rolling his shoulders with a few cracks. He doesn’t seem to notice how tense the other members are at the moment, and Chan hushes a whisper between gritted teeth, “Act normal, children.”
“Minho hyung made me carry so much stuff while he’s just there carrying coffee,” he complains, slumping on a vacant barstool beside, funny, Hyunjin who has the decency to act normal and winds his arm around the brooding blonde.
“Hey, I helped carry your shit,” Minho comes in just in time with 2 Starbucks cups, one in each hand. Truth to be told, he’s only carrying their coffees and what seems to be Felix’s favourite red mafella draped over the crook of his elbow. “Which is really, a 2nd degree diabetes worth in a cup. That is too much sugar in just hot chocolate hazelnut, Lixxie.”
“How do you think I keep up with all of you and your buzzing energy? Channie is a wild excited kangaroo to wrestle with sometimes and you too, sloth,” Felix retorts to which Minho just pats his head with a warning in his mischievous glare.
All of the members look at them with a profound knowledge and interest, Minho’s phone seems to be burning with betrayal in Jisung’s back pocket. At Chan’s unusual unresponsive stature, Felix turns in Hyunjin’s embrace to glance at Chan, blinking blankly.
“Hyung, have you eaten yet?”
“Huh? Oh yea, I just did,” it takes a while for the leader to realize Felix is talking to him and he swallows hard at the concerned look sitting in Felix’s eyebrows. “With coffee. The usual. Why?”
“Oh, nothing,” Felix blinks again, and they all take in a breath at how he might have find out about what just happened, before he shrugs and, bless that innocent unperturbed boy, resumes to complain to Minho about how merciless he was back at the grocery store, and they all heaved a sigh. All seems to be going on well. They’re going to have a throughout conversation about where they all are standing at some point.
For now, let’s just indulge in these two.
It is short lived, though. Jisung just happens to have the luck of a wild flying squirrel that runs into the rose bushes when it initially opts for the apple tree.
“Come on, spill it out,” Minho had say, cornering Jisung into his and Jeongin’s shared room when the maknae had gone out with the maknae line for video games.
Why me, Jisung groans internally despite the biggest stoic expression he could muster up at the moment doesn’t really give away anything. But Minho has that I Know You Know Something So Cave In Or I Will Set Something On Fire Preferably Your Good Luck Socks look on his face that Jisung just blurts out a defeated, “What? I did nothing.”
“I know you did. You all did. Something happened and it was unbearable at the kitchen just now with how tense you all were. Either Felix is too oblivious to notice or he’s just too nice to ask what the fuck is wrong.” Jisung purses his lips in silent agony because curse this man and his stupidly accurate and keen observation, always nothing can go by without passing under his radar.
Minho rests his hands on his hips and cocks his head to the side, silently nudging the other to burst. Jisung just flops his arms against his sides and puffs his cheeks. Minho does not relents. It doesn’t seem like Minho’s going to give in and make way for Jisung to bolt out of there unless Woojin’s hair is on fire (it happened once when they were still using gas for the stove) or Changbin fell off the second bunk bed and risked a fractured toe (also this, hence, Felix occupying the dangerous bed position).
So Jisung really does ends up bursting, blubbering out loud the apocalyptic news, “We got into your phone and found out that one video where you and Felix were making out and we think that you guys are dating!”
Minho’s eyes narrow and widen so much in the span of 10 seconds that he takes for the blush to rise firey red from his collarbones up to his hairline, that Jisung winches visibly with his blow.
“Okay, maybe two...?”