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“Yugyeom, you know nothing about girls.”
“What? Is it bad to tell a girl about your feelings?”
BamBam groaned, “How are you so innocent? You never tell a girl you like her!”
“That makes no sense. How would a girl even know I liked her unless I told her?"
BamBam sat up and glared at him. “Who has more experience here, you or me?”
It was three in the morning, and Yugyeom should have been asleep an hour ago, but he had gotten caught up in a pre-bedtime heart-to-heart with BamBam. The mirror light was off and they were lying in their respective beds, the glow from Seoul illuminating the walls in patches of gold and orange. Yugyeom was tired but not exhausted, or at least not enough to avoid arguing with BamBam. The truth was, he liked their nocturnal conversations. It was one of the only times they were able to connect, just the two of them.
They hadn't talked deep into the night like this for awhile, however. Things had been so different since their debut. Yugyeom had gained six new brothers but somehow BamBam felt more and more distant from him every day. Most nights, he fell asleep straight away, exhausted from practice and the rigors of the day. Sometimes he chatted with BamBam, but the conversations never were like they used to be. They used to talk about their families, their school friends, their hopes and dreams...
At first, Yugyeom had hated BamBam. He charmed everyone he met, just by virtue of being cute. Yugyeom had to work harder to impress his teachers and hyungs. He was a shy, chubby kid, but he knew he could dance better than BamBam. It was frustrating when BamBam got awarded the center in a dance when he didn't work half as hard as Yugyeom.
Things began changing, though, when Yugyeom and BamBam were assigned a duo dance for an upcoming trainee showcase. They had to choreograph the dance themselves, and sometime during the countless hours they spent in the practice room, Yugyeom realized that BamBam worked just as hard as he did. Something between them shifted. Yugyeom started volunteering to dance with BamBam more, and they moved to adjacent beds in the trainee dormitory. They started talking late into the night about their plans for the future. "It would be amazing if we could debut together," Yugyeom confessed one night.
BamBam tried to hide a smile behind his hand. "Yeah, that would be cool."
One night after their showcase, as Yugyeom was drifting off to sleep, BamBam had whispered his name. "Yugyeom-ah?"
"Yeah?" Yugyeom whispered back. The room was full of the sound of other trainees sleeping; even breathing and the occasional sleepy murmur. Yugyeom rolled over so he faced BamBam's bed, the cot beside his. The city lights streamed in through the half-closed curtains and illuminated BamBam coccooned in his duvet. He looked so small and lost that Yugyeom's heart clenched.
"I'm really happy that I met you," BamBam murmured.
Yugyeom blinked, astonished. BamBam was never sentimental. He could be cheesy, sure, especially where girls were concerned, but he had never said anything like this to Yugyeom before without a trace of irony.
Yugyeom reached his hand across the gap between their beds and was further shocked as BamBam's hand met his. Yugyeom tangled their fingers and squeezed BamBam's hand. "I'm really happy I met you too. I hope we're friends forever."
BamBam's eyes sparkled with unshed tears as he squeezed Yugyeom's hand back. "Friends forever," he promised. They untangled their hands so only their pinkies were linked, and pressed their thumbs together. That was when Yugyeom realized he had found the greatest friend of his life.
The memory still made Yugyeom feel a little emotional. BamBam's friendship had helped him get through his turbulent trainee period. Every day was made easier by the belief that, in the end, he would debut with BamBam.
And his dream came true. Yugyeom debuted with BamBam at his side, as well as five other boys he loved as fiercely as family. He had everything he hoped for, but he hadn't realized how being an idol would change things. He was with BamBam literally 24/7, but somehow he felt more distant from him than ever. They rarely talked like they used to. Maybe it was the stress of the idol life... they were always being shepherded from one schedule to another, where would they find the time for a heart-to-heart? But Yugyeom found himself missing BamBam more and more, even when BamBam was right beside him.
Now during their rare late-night chats they complained about the events of the past day, or, more commonly now, they talked about girls. Maybe it was Yugyeom's fault. He had sleepily brought up his first and only girlfriend a few months ago. Yugyeom remembered that her name was Soojung and that she was short and pretty, but he didn't remember much more about her than that. They had dated in middle school, a time when dating meant Yugyeom carried her books and occasionally held her hand between classes. She broke up with him after less than a month, because she wanted to join the swim team and her mom wouldn't let her swim and date at the same time. Yugyeom didn't even remember feeling upset about the break-up.
After Yugyeom mentioned Soojung, though, BamBam jumped on the topic of girlfriends with excitement. He had tons of girlfriends back in Thailand, he claimed, and he told Yugyeom about all of them. Mai was his first kiss. She was one of his sister's friends. Then there was Kalaya, who had long dark hair and was very serious about her studies, but had followed BamBam around for weeks before he agreed to date her. Nataya was next, and, BamBam said, she receieved the same ultimatum from her mother that Yugyeom's Soojung had, but continued dating BamBam in secret. There were countless others, too. Countless girls and countless kisses, all taking place in Thailand before Yugyeom had even met BamBam.
Yugyeom would lie in bed listening to BamBam's stories in amazement. He didn't know BamBam had had such an active dating life. He certainly never mentioned it to Yugyeom before. Suddenly, there were past girlfriends crawling out of the woodwork. BamBam told stories of cherry chapstick and long legs that made Yugyeom blush. BamBam was a dating expert, and Yugyeom had never even kissed a girl. It was giving him an inferiority complex.
A pillow flew across the room and smacked Yugeyom in the face, jerking him back the the present. “Are you sleeping?” BamBam demanded.
Yugyeom stifled a grin and let out a loud snore instead.
“Faker,” BamBam accused. “Just admit you know nothing about girls.”
Yugyeom sat up, affronted. “I know things about girls!”
“It doesn't count as dating if you never kissed, you giant baby."
Embarrassed, Yugyeom slid back under the covers and pulled them over his face. “I’m just waiting for the right person.”
“Whatever you say,” BamBam sniffed, “but if you want to kiss a girl, you should follow my advice. And my first piece of advice is to never tell a girl you like her. You should play hard to get.”
Yugyeom tugged the sheets down and peeked at BamBam. “That really works?”
BamBam grinned. “Trust me. You should test it on someone. Someone like... Baek Yerin?”
“BamBam!” Yugyeom shouted, before clapping a hand over his mouth, glancing fearfully at Jinyoung’s door. “Not her!”
"I knew you liked her,” BamBam chortled, wiggling in his bed with glee.
“I don’t!”
“You do, you do, you do,” BamBam chanted giddily, breaking out into full-bodied laughter as Yugyeom pulled the sheets over his face again.
BamBam’s sudden silence brought Yugyeom out from under the sheets once more. A dark figure stood in the doorway.
“Children,” Jinyoung said icily, “It is three in the morning. I have slept a total of five hours in the past two days. If you two don’t shut up I will personally take scissors to every item of clothing you collectively own.”
“Sorry, hyung,” Yugyeom apologized.
“Yeah, sorry!” BamBam echoed.
Jinyoung merely stepped back and slid his door closed, glowering at them all the while.
“Maybe I shouldn't have hidden his earplugs,” BamBam whispered, and they both smothered a fit of laughter into their pillows.
Yugyeom’s chance to implement BamBam’s advice came earlier than he had hoped. Truthfully, he had planned on avoiding Yerin for the rest of his life so BamBam would never tease him about her again. But knowing his luck, he literally stumbled into her the next day at JYPE with BamBam at his heels. “Oh! Sorry,” Yugyeom blushed.
Yerin smiled, sweet and pure, and Yugyeom's heart pounded with nervousness “Oh, hi, Yugyeom-ah! I haven’t seen you around in a while.”
BamBam leaned around Yugyeom. “Hi, Yerin!” he simpered.
“BamBam,” Yerin nodded. She didn’t quite know how to deal with BamBam. Yugyeom sympathized.
Yerin turned back to Yugyeom. “I actually wanted to ask you something.”
“Oh?” Yugyeom said, mouth going dry.
“I was wondering if you wanted to practice a duet with me? I know you wanted a chance to brush up on your singing skills, and I can help.”
“I would love to!” Yugyeom smiled, and BamBam punched him hard between the shoulder blades. “But not right now,” Yugyeom wheezed. “I’m a very busy, very important man. With many schedules. So. I’ll get back to you.”
“O...kay...” Yerin blinked. “Are you alright?”
“Fine!” Yugyeom rasped. “Nothing to worry about. Maybe I ate something funny. Avoid the fish cake in the break room! Anyways, bye.”
“Bye,” Yerin called after him. “I’ll text you?”
BamBam punched him in the arm.
“If you want!” Yugyeom whimpered.
As soon as Yerin was out of sight, Yugyeom collapsed against the wall.
“That went perfectly!” BamBam cheered. “Phase one complete!”
“Why did you have to punch me,” Yugyeom moaned. “And I don’t think it went well. How could ignoring a girl make her like you?”
BamBam shrugged. “I don’t know why these things work, they just do. Girls are weird! And you could tell she was really into it. She even wanted to text you!"
"I guess she did... She mostly just seemed confused, though."
BamBam was ignoring him and rubbing his hands togther gleefully. "Now we move on to phase two.”
Yugyeom touched his bruised arm gingerly. “What’s phase two?”
“You insult her.”
“BamBam, that's horrible advice.”
“No, there’s logic behind it! All the dating pros talk about it! It's called negging: you give her a compliment and then say something kind of mean. Then the girl will feel bad about herself but she can’t blame you because it was disguised as a compliment.”
Yugyeom squinted up at BamBam. “Why would I want to make a girl feel bad?”
BamBam spluttered. “Look, it just works. Stop asking so many questions."
“Maybe I wouldn’t have to ask so many questions if literally anything you told me made sense.”
“Aw, don’t be like that,” BamBam pouted and pulled Yugyeom upright with a heave. He slung an arm around Yugyeom’s shoulders, going up on his toes to do so. “Just trust hyung.”
“Ew,” Yugyeom said, and shoved a giggling BamBam into the wall. He weighed his options silently. On one hand, he could ruin his friendship with Yerin irreparably. On the other, he might get to finally kiss a girl, and, most importantly, he could keep spending one-on-one time with BamBam.
"Fine, I'll do it," Yugyeom sighed.
"Yay!" BamBam cheered, and swung his arm around Yugyeom's shoulders again.
A week later, Yugyeom was curled on the practice room couch, idly watching Jinyoung go over choreography with Youngjae. Yugyeom had been practicing for five hours already and his body buzzed pleasantly with fatigue. He was sprawled across the cushions, head hooked over the couch back, with BamBam leaning warm against his side, idly picking at his fingernails. Even Jackson was uncharacteristically worn out, half-snoozing against BamBam with his snapback perched on top of his head.
“Who’s going to buy me dinner?” BamBam asked, breaking the silence. “I’m hungry.”
“Brat,” Jackson snorted, eyes still closed. “Who said anyone was buying you dinner?”
BamBam stretched across Yugyeom and Jackson’s laps. “Jackson-hyung,” he whined, clasping his hands in front of his chest. “Pleaaaaaase.”
Jackson grimaced and covered BamBam’s face with his hand. “Fine, but don’t ever made that face again.” BamBam licked his palm and Jackson jerked his hand back with a yelp. “How could you?” he asked, betrayal painted across his face.
Yugyeom laughed, lazy and comfortable with BamBam’s legs stretched across his lap. “You’re the grossest person I know,” he said affectionately and squeezed BamBam’s ankle.
“We both know that’s not true,” BamBam snorted, and gestured at Youngjae, who had stopped dancing and was furtively picking his nose.
Jinyoung slapped Youngjae’s shoulder. “Can you not use a tissue?”
Youngjae lunged towards Jinyoung, nose-picking finger extended. "Why use a tissue when I can use you?"
Jinyoung leapt away with a shriek. “You’re an animal!”
“Get him, Youngjae,” Jackson cheered. “Use everything I’ve taught you!”
Youngjae chased a disgusted Jinyoung around the room, laughing all the while, until the practice room door suddenly slammed open. Youngjae halted, finger still outstretched, as Jimin and Yerin walked in. Yugyeom felt a sudden jolt of nausea and fervently ignored the eyebrows that BamBam was wiggling in his direction.
“Ah, Park Jimin, we meet again,” Jackson said, sitting up and pulling his snapback into place with a grin.
“Quiet, Wang. We reserved the practice room for tonight. You’re trespassing.”
Jackson jumped up, dropping BamBam to the couch. “Over my dead body!”
BamBam groaned and curled around Yugyeom wearily. “Why do I always get stuck in the crossfire?”
Yerin peeked around Jimin. “What Jimin meant to say was, could we please use the practice room now?”
BamBam pinched Yugyeom’s wrist. Yugyeom smacked his hand away.
Jackson thoughtfully rubbed his chin. “Well, Yerin, since you asked so nicely...”
BamBam stopped pinching Yugyeom’s wrist and instead grabbed it with both hands, trying to give Yugyeom an indian burn. “Okay! I’ll do it!” he hissed, shaking BamBam off with a glare. Yugyeom turned to Yerin. “Hi, Yerin! Um... your hair looks nice! Did you finally start washing it or something?”
“Excuse me?” Yerin asked, confused, while BamBam tried and failed to stifle peals of laughter behind his hand.
“Diss, diss!” Jackson shouted, and guilt struck Yugyeom like a blow.
Jimin frowned at Yugyeom. “Yugyeomie, did Jackson finally get to you?”
“No, BamBam did,” Yugyeom said miserably.
Jinyoung finally recovered from his booger-induced trauma enough to inject a semblance of maturity into the scene. “Sorry girls, we didn’t know the practice room was booked. We’ll move next door. Right, guys?” He gave Yugyeom a particularly sharp look and Yugyeom buried his head in his hands.
They shuffled out the door, Jackson pausing to bow to Jimin. “You are a worthy adversary.”
Jimin shook his hand. “Better luck next time.”
“Sorry, that was really rude,” Yugyeom began apologizing to Yerin, before BamBam yanked him out the doorway. The last thing he saw before the door closed in his face was Yerin frowning at him.
Yugyeom tugged his arm out of BamBam’s grip. “What’s wrong with you?” he growled.
Ahead of him, Jinyoung and Jackson raised their eyebrows at each other and slung Youngjae in between them. “We’re going to check up on Jaebum and Mark! Bye guys!”
“Fine by me,” Yugyeom said, still glaring at BamBam, who looked a little taken aback.
Yugyeom grabbed BamBam by the scruff of the neck and steered him into the nearest practice room, slamming the door behind them
“Ow,” BamBam said, batting Yugyeom’s hands away and massaging his neck. “What did I do?”
“You give horrible advice.”
“I give good advice! It’s not my fault you don’t implement it right!”
“How do I insult a girl in a way that doesn’t hurt her feelings and at the same time make me feel like a terrible person?”
“Look, it doesn’t matter,” BamBam waved his hands. “All that matters is that now you can enact phase three.”
“Phase three,” Yugyeom sighed, rubbing at his temples. “I think if I go through another one of your ‘phases’, Yerin won’t talk to me ever again.”
BamBam pulled Yugyeom’s hands away from his face. “No, no. This is the good phase, the final phase. This is how you get the girl.”
“What is it?” Yugyeom asked warily.
BamBam smirked. “The pick-up line.”
Yugyeom knocked on the vocal practice room door, nervously straightening his shirt.
“Yes?”
Yugyeom cracked the door open. “Yerin? It’s me, Yugyeom. Can I come in?”
Yerin was watching him cautiously. “Yeah, I guess.”
Yugyeom stepped in and took a deep breath. Yerin was bent over a song, writing tiny annotations and marking breathing pauses.
“Look,” Yugeyom exploded, and winced. “Look,” he said again, quieter. “I wanted to apologize again, for the other day. I was just... actually, I wanted to ask you a question.”
Yerin put her pen down and frowned up at him. “A question?”
“Yeah, I was wondering if it hurt.”
“If what hurt?”
“When you fell from heaven?”
Yerin opened and closed her mouth wordlessly for a few moments and Yugyeom felt his face go tomato red. He buried his head in his hands and collapsed to his knees. “I’m so sorry,” he apologized against his hands.
“You’ve been really weird lately, Yugyeom-ah.”
Yugyeom sighed and folded his hands in his lap. “I know. I agreed to follow dating advice from BamBam and it was a horrible idea.”
“Dating advice...?” Yerin asked, and Yugyeom felt his face go even redder.
“Yeah... just... I don’t know.” Yugyeom stammered.
“I’m flattered, but...”
“No!” Yugyeom shouted, and Yerin started. “No, it’s fine! I understand. I feel like I got a glimpse into the dating world this past month and I don’t like it at all. I’d much rather be your friend.”
Yerin smiled tentatively. “I’d much rather be your friend too.”
Yugyeom sighed, relieved. “Good, lets just forget this entire month even happened. Is my face still red?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty red,” Yerin laughed. She thoughtfully tapped the song she was annotating with her pen. “Actually, I was just working on that duet I told you about earlier... Do you want to practice it together?”
Yugyeom grinned.“I’d love to.”
Yugyeom didn’t get back to the dorm until around midnight. He and Yerin had worked on the duet for hours, and Yugyeom was surprised at how comfortable it was. It turned out when he wasn't concentrating on seducing Yerin, he was a lot less nervous around her. The warm smiles Yerin shot him every time they mastered a new verse filled him with a sense of camaraderie and friendly affection, instead of the cold dread they had inspired before. Yugyeom couldn’t help smiling back. They were a lot better as friends.
He was still young, Yugyeom decided. He would have plenty of times to kiss people in the future-- people he was actually interested in, not just girls whom he was close friends with.
But he was still upset with BamBam.
The dorm was unusually quiet for midnight. Jaebum was the only one in the common room, flipping through a thick binder of clothing samples and wardrobe notes for their next comeback.
“Hi, hyung,” Yugyeom greeted.
Jaebum looked up. “Oh, good you’re home. Did you and Yerin make up?”
Yugyeom shifted uncomfortably. “You knew about that?”
“Of course I did. I know everything that goes on around here.”
Yugyeom ruffled his hair bashfully. “Yeah, we made up.”
“Good,” Jaebum grinned. “Baby Yugyeomie is growing up.”
Yugyeom blushed. “I’m going to bed. Did you need anything, hyung?”
“No, unless you can magically teleport Jinyoung and Mark here. They went out to play billiards and were supposed to be back half an hour ago.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine.”
Jaebum sighed. "I know, but I still think I should wait up for them."
"You're a good leader, hyung," Yugyeom said honestly.
Jaebum smiled at him, touched. "Pure crystal!" he declared and tried to pull Yugyeom into a rough hug. Yugyeom ducked away from Jaebum's arms and fled to his bedroom. "Goodnight, hyung!" he called behind him.
The lights were off and BamBam was lying in bed, idly scrolling through his laptop. He sat up and tugged his earphones out as Yugyeom walked in. "How was it?" he asked excitedly. "You were gone a long time, did you seal the deal?" In case Yugyeom didn't understand his metaphor, BamBam began making exaggerated smooching noises.
Yugyeom silently put his bag away and began unbuttoning his jacket with his back to BamBam.
"Yugyeom-ah? Did something go wrong?"
Yugyeom stayed quiet.
"Well, if anything went wrong, it wasn't because of my advice," BamBam said defensively. "You must have messed up somehow."
Yugyeom felt the undercurrent of anger that had been running through him the past few months suddenly kindle into fury. He clenched his teeth and faced the wall.
"So pure and innocent," BamBam scoffed. "Girls will never fall for that kind of thing. No wonder you've never kissed anybody."
Yugyeom whirled around, eyes blazing. "Are you even my friend anymore?" he demanded.
BamBam's eyes went wide. "What? Of course I'm your friend! I've been trying to help you, in case you haven't noticed."
"How, by trying to ruin my friendship with Yerin?"
"Of course not, I would never do that. I was just giving you advice!"
"Horrible advice. Horrible advice that would make Yerin hate me. I still can't believe she forgave me..."
"I didn't do anything wrong," BamBam protested, his voice rising in incredulity. "You really think I would try to end your friendship with Yerin?"
"I don't know what you would or wouldn't do!" Yugyeom shouted, blinking tears out of his eyes. The truth suddenly burst out of him, "I don't know you at all anymore, BamBam!"
BamBam went quiet; tears started shining in his eyes. Yugyeom's chest felt raw, but he also felt like a weight had been lifted from it.
"That's what you think?" BamBam asked after a moment, voice trembling. "You don't know me anymore? Yugyeom, we're best friends."
"BamBam..."
BamBam covered his face with his hands. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong."
"Maybe we're both doing something wrong." Yugyeom sat heavily in his bed. "I don't know when it started. We're not as close as we were, can't you tell? We used to stay up all night talking about life, about our families, our dreams... Now all we talk about is girls. I feel like the only time I even interact with you anymore is when you're trying to get me to say something stupid. And then I see you with Jackson or Mark-hyung and I guess I just..." Yugyeom passed a hand across his face tiredly. "I just miss you."
"Yugyeom, things change," BamBam said faintly. "We're idols now. We don't have time to talk about our dreams anymore."
"Why not?" Yugyeom burst out. "Why do we have to change? All I wanted was to debut with you, but now that we have I've lost you."
BamBam gazed at him from across the room, expression pained. "Is that really how you feel?"
"Yes," Yugyeom swallowed. "No... I don't know. All I know is that I miss you, even when you're here. I miss hanging out with you like we used to, I miss..." I miss the times before there were girls, before there were the hyungs. I miss the time when it was just you and me in the practice room, goofing off instead of preparing for the showcase. "I just miss you," he finished lamely.
"You haven't lost me, Yugyeom-ah," BamBam whispered."I'm still here, I've always been here. I'm sorry if I'm mean to you sometimes, or I act like you annoy me, I just..." BamBam's voice caught, and he looked down at his hands. "I just assumed you would always be with me, no matter what I did. We're friends for life."
Yugyeom walked over to BamBam and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.
BamBam made a small noise of disgust. "You really are the world's biggest baby... sorry."
Yugyeom pulled away and laughed, sniffling. "No, I am."
BamBam leaned in to wipe Yugyeom's eyes. Yugyeom's breath caught in his throat. "I'll try to be nicer to you," BamBam muttered.
"Don't be nicer, just be honest with me. Tell me what you're really feeling once in a while..."
BamBam studied Yugyeom's face carefully. "You really want me to be honest?"
Yugyeom backed away. "You didn't actually try to break up my friendship with Yerin, did you?" he asked suspiciously.
"No!" BamBam cried. "But I may have been... less that honest about other things."
"Like what?"
"I may have gotten that dating advice from... outside sources."
"The advice you kept assuring me was guaranteed to work, because you had personally had used it before?"
"Yeah, that advice."
Yugyeom resisted the urge to strangle BamBam. "And who gave you the world's worst dating advice?"
"Jackson-hyung," BamBam said miserably.
"It never occurred to you that he might have been pulling your leg?"
"I trusted him!" BamBam wailed.
"Bam, it's Jackson."
"I know. I'm an idiot."
"Yeah, you really are. So how did you end up dating so many girls?"
"About that," BamBam said, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.
"BamBam," Yugyeom said, scandalized. "You haven't?"
BamBam refused to make eye contact with Yugyeom, but he shook his head minutely.
"Mai... Kataya... Nayala... You made them all up?"
BamBam gave a tiny nod.
Yugyeom knew he should be enraged, knew he should refuse to talk to BamBam for the rest of the week, or at least the rest of the night, but he couldn't help collapsing against his mattress and guffawing loudly instead. "You! Never... had... a girlfriend!" he howled out between peals of laughter.
"It's not that funny," BamBam sulked.
"Ladykiller BamBam!" Yugyeom gasped out, stomach aching.
"Could you please stop laughing? You're hurting my self-esteem."
"Hey, I could be furious with you. You should be happy I'm only laughing at you."
"Fine," BamBam pouted and crossed his arms cutely.
Yugyeom grinned. "But I'll stop laughing, because that's what a good person I am. Why would you even lie about that? And you created such detailed fake girlfriends, too. BamBam, forget being an idol you should be a drama writer!"
BamBam shrugged sheepishly. "I thought you would think I was cool. Jackson-hyung's always talking about all the girls he's dated."
Yugyeom broke off into more laughter, but quickly swallowed it down when BamBam glared at him. "BamBam, you don't have to lie about that kind of thing," Yugyeom assured him, "You're already cool."
"Really?" BamBam's eyes were shining in the darkness.
Yugyeom's ignored the way his chest fluttered and he reached out, grabbing BamBam's hand and squeezing it. "Really. You don't have to try so hard to be Jackson, you're already perfect as BamBam."
"So cheesy," BamBam complained, but sneakily wiped at his eyes with his free hand.
"So you really invented a bunch of girlfriends just to impress me?"
BamBam tried to tug his hand away but Yugyeom held fast. "There may have been other reasons..." he said evasively.
"Such as?"
BamBam squeezed his hand and smiled up at Yugyeom tremulously. "It doesn't matter now."
Yugyeom felt a rush of affection. Sitting here in the dark, holding BamBam's hand, he felt close to him in a way he hadn't in a long time. They had finally worked through what had been bothering Yugyeom since their debut, and now he knew for certain that BamBam meant it when he had said, many years ago, in a training room dormitory, that they would be friends for life. Yugyeom laced their fingers together tightly. "Friends forever."
"Why would I need a girlfriend when I have you?" BamBam teased, but he squeezed Yugyeom's hand back. "Friends forever."
They smiled brilliantly at one another until someone cleared their throat. Yugyeom and BamBam jerked away from each other like they were stung.
"Sorry if I interrupted anything," Jinyoung remarked cooly. "Looked like you two were having a moment."
Even grumpy Jinyoung couldn't ruin Yugyeom's mood. "BamBam and I are best friends!" he said ecstatically.
"Congratulations. Please, no celebratory dance party tonight, I'm far too tired."
"Aw, but hyung, we already hung the streamers," BamBam said sarcastically.
Jinyoung pinched both of their cheeks, a bit more roughly than he needed to. "What did I do to deserve two such adorable maknaes?" he cooed.
Yugyeom concentrated on sticking his tongue out far enough to lick Jinyoung's hand. Jinyoung recoiled and cuffed him lightly on the head. "Disgusting," he remarked. "I'm going to bed. If either of you keep me up with your giggling I'm posting that photo on the internet." He met Yugyeom's gaze steadily. "You know which one."
BamBam shivered as Jinyoung slid his door closed. "The more he hangs out with Mark-hyung, the scarier he gets."
Yugyeom nodded. "Well, I guess we should go to sleep too..."
BamBam cleared his throat. "Unless..."
"Yeah?" Yugyeom asked.
"My sister did something really dumb yesterday, and she's been texting me about it. It's a stupid story, but if you want to hear it...?"
Yugyeom beamed. "Yes, please."
He tugged BamBam under the covers with him and BamBam started out. "So Baby and her friends have a bet going on as to which one of them will manage to kick a pigeon first..."
It was an exceptionally stupid story, and it made Yugyeom laugh loudly enough to invoke Jinyoung's wrath. The next day, as promised, there was a humiliating picture of Yugyeom posted on Instagram, but Yugyeom didn't mind. It was all worth it.