Archive of Our Own

Like everyone else in Mayhem, Jaewon just wished they had a dorm.

It would make everything so much easier. Not just for him, but for everyone else too. Most of them didn’t live near the company, and public transportation was a hassle to deal with on a good day. Even Dongho, who got driven to practice every day, had to deal with the struggles of rush hour traffic.

But still, it was kind of nice to have his own space, if he really thought about it. Not having to share a bathroom or precious closet space with three other guys was pretty nice. Plus, he didn’t have to care about anyone else’s opinions when it came to decorating.

Except now, apparently, because Dongho had invited himself over.

Jaewon wasn’t sure how it happened, but for once, the group had nothing planned after dance practice. He had been getting ready to head out, but just as he had been walking out of the practice room, a hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks.

“Hey Jaewon, could I ask you something?” Dongho asked.

Jaewon obviously couldn’t say no to Dongho, because well, he’s his hyung and kind of scary. His poker face and all-black outfit made a terrifying combination. Plus, the butterflies in his stomach seemed to amplify tenfold around him. He nods and turns around with a wide smile on his face. It was nearing nine in the evening, and all he wanted to do was go home and sleep, so he hoped Dongho didn’t want a sudden three-hour heart to heart.

“Well, uh..,” Dongho begins, and honestly Jaewon is surprised at how awkward his normally confident hyung was acting. Dongho quickly composed himself, however, and began once more.

“You know how I always get a ride back home after practice?” At Jaewon’s nod, he continues. “Well, apparently, they’re having car troubles, and won’t be able to pick me up for some time. Would it be okay if I were to stay with you until they can pick me up?”

Well, that definitely wasn’t what Jaewon was expecting.

“I mean, sure hyung, but I live a little far away and I usually walk.. Is that okay?” he asks, though he isn’t sure what he’ll do if it’s not okay with Dongho.

“Yeah, that’s fine, I don’t mind walking,” Dongho says, and that was how, 15 minutes later, the two were walking down the street towards Jaewon’s apartment.

There is an uncomfortable silence between the two; unlike the other members of Mayhem, Jaewon isn’t really close with any of them. Due to the CEO, he’s had to decline numerous invitations to hang out after practice, and so everyone in the group thinks that he doesn’t like them.

Well, at least he could start anew with Dongho!

“So, uh, how are you?” Jaewon wanted to slap himself. He wanted to start a conversation, and that was the best he could come up with? Seriously, he wasn’t a random stranger. He should’ve been able to come up with something, anything, better. But before he could try to take it back, Dongho spoke up.

“Well, I mean, it’s going as good as it can be. Wishing I was home right now, but otherwise fine. How about you?” It wasn't fair how composed Dongho’s answer was compared to Wyld’s awkward responses.

“Ah, I’m doing okay too!” Well, there’s that conversation. Why couldn’t he say anything that could actually lead to more talking, instead of killing the conversation before it even started?

Again, it’s Dongho to the rescue. “So, your apartment, do you like it?”

His apartment. That’s something Wyld could talk about without blundering. He talks animatedly about the nice Ahjumma, who was his landlady, about the coffee shop he liked to stop by occasionally(and bemoaning that it closed early that day), and how his neighbors didn’t mind his odd hours.

Dongho listens to his rambling kindly, nodding when appropriate and asking questions at just the right point so that the conversation doesn’t feel one-sided. He even chimes in with his own additions, like mentioning the coffee shop that was by his own apartment that he preferred.

Before he knew it, the two had arrived in front of his apartment. He waved at his landlady before leading Dongho upstairs to the third floor. He quickly entered his passcode, not wanting Dongho to realize that it was Mayhem’s debut date. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt embarrassed at showing how important Mayhem was to him in front of Dongho, who probably thought he didn’t care about the band to any true capacity besides publicity.

He prays that he had remembered to clean up that morning, and grins slightly when he opens the door to a reasonably clean apartment. It wouldn’t be winning any awards any time soon, but at least there weren’t clothes strewn all over the floor or empty take out containers on the counter.

“Well, Dongho-hyung, feel free to make yourself at home,” he says, and watches as Dongho slips off his shoes and drops off his bag by the door. He looks around the apartment, and Jaewon hoped he wasn’t judging the obscene amount of plushies he had or the lack of other decorations.

“Oh you have a nice view!” The comment caught Jaewon off guard, but Dongho had walked past Jaewon’s desk to the window on its right.

Dongho wasn’t wrong, he did have a pretty decent view despite being in the middle of a city. The street behind the apartment had a lot of billboards, so there were always interesting ads to see. Jaewon could remember many a day where he was supposed to be working that he would end up staring at numerous ads for skincare products and new music.

Nowadays, however, he didn’t spend nearly as much doing that. Part of that was due to his busier schedule as an idol, which meant that he never had as much time as he wanted to spend at home. But the other part of it was the crack right down the middle of the window; as of right now, it was just a slight crack but Jaewon wasn’t willing to test it so he had left the window alone for the time being.

Thankfully, Dongho didn’t lean against the window or anything, so Jaewon didn’t have too much to worry about.

“Ah yeah, the view’s really nice. It’s a fun distraction from real life,” and wow Jaewon, angsty much? Thankfully, Dongho just nodded in agreement, his eyes focused on the billboard which was currently showing some new product Jaewon hadn’t heard of before.

Just then, Dongho seemed to take notice of the small pile of books that were resting on Jaewon’s desk. There weren’t that many, Jaewon wasn’t the biggest reader, but they were the few books he truly enjoyed reading. Dongho picked up one of them, a short story collection from a popular author.

“Jaewon, I didn’t know you enjoyed reading. Have you read any of this author’s other works? They have several other short story collections.” That was news to Jaewon. He had been given this book several years ago by a friend, but he had never really looked into the author that much.

“Really? I never knew the author had released other books aside from this one. I had always assumed this book was just extremely popular.”

Dongho shook his head, his black hair falling in front of his eyes as he did. “I can’t believe you didn’t know. This book isn’t bad, but some of her other works have exploded with popularity in recent years. In fact..” he placed the book in his hands back in the pile before heading to his bag.

Jaewon watched in confusion as Dongho searched through his bag for something, though his attention was quickly diverted to an ad for “On the Rise Artists” outside. And so when Dongho called out, “Heads up!” it was no wonder that Jaewon jumped back in surprise.

And then suddenly, there was a book flying out the window and glass shattered all over the floor.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” and suddenly Dongho was standing next to him, his usually composed face filled with panic.

“Did you.. did you just throw a book.. through my window?” Jaewon asked incredulously, staring at the gaping hole in the window.

“I am so sorry, I didn’t realize you had looked away,” Dongho said guiltily, looking down at his hands. He then quickly looked up.

“You aren’t going to lose your lease because of me, are you?” he asked worriedly.

“No, I don’t think so, as long as I fix it,” Jaewon said, and he hoped he was right because otherwise he was completely screwed. If he lost this lease, he had no money for another apartment. He barely had enough money for food as it was.

“I am seriously so sorry about this, let me help you fix it?” Jaewon didn’t mind asking for help, but when it came to money-related matters, it was a bit more awkward. He didn’t want it to seem like he couldn’t afford it, but well, he really couldn’t. At least not for the next month or so, when his parents sent a bit of money for snacks and such. If that would even be enough.

“I mean, you could at least help me explain it to the landlady,” Jaewon said, and Dongho quickly nodded, obviously wanting to fix his mistake. So the two carefully walk around the broken glass and head to the landlady’s office.

Once she answers the door, Jaewon quickly introduces Dongho before they begin to explain the situation.

“... So you see it was all my fault, and I would like to help Jaewon with fixing it if that would be okay,” Dongho says, and the landlady seems to consider something before responding. She explains to them both how much the window repairs would cost, and while Jaewon’s eyes widen at the cost, Dongho doesn’t do more than blink.

Then the two head back upstairs so they can begin to clean up the mess. Jaewon grabs a broom and dustpan out of a small closet, and Dongho follows him as he begins to sweep up the glass shards.

“I’m sorry you lost your book.”

Dongho blinks at him once, twice, before responding. “Why are you apologizing? It wasn’t your fault at all, I wasn’t paying attention and I broke your window.” And yeah that’s true, Jaewon concedes. But considering how good the book supposedly was, he felt bad for not catching it.

However, the sound of EXO’s Tempo stops him before he can say anything, and Dongho rushes to answer his phone. The quietness of his voice, plus the distance between him and Jaewon means that Jaewon can’t hear anything, but he assumed the person on the other end was whoever was supposed to pick up Dongho.

However, even without any sound, Jaewon could detect the agitation in Dongho’s face, his brow furrowing like it did whenever he scolded Daehyun for slacking during practice. He watched as Dongho heavily sighed as he hung up the phone before he headed back to Jaewon.

“I have some bad news,” and honestly Jaewon wasn’t sure he could handle another bad thing today, but he let Dongho continue, “I know I said I could pay for the window, but it turns out my money is frozen for the next few weeks. I’m not sure why, but that means I can’t pay to fix it.”

Jaewon just stared blankly at Dongho for a few moments before setting the dustpan and broom down. Wordlessly, he gets up and walks to his kitchen before proceeding to search for his emergency cash stash. He gets through four different drawers before Dongho speaks up.

“Um, what are you doing?” he asks.

“I’m looking for my emergency cash stash,” and if he doesn’t find it soon, he’s going to go crazy. He was sure it was in the empty coffee tin, but it wasn’t where he thought it was, nor was it in any of the random empty drawers. Just as he was about to start searching his bare cabinets for the tin, he realized.

There was no emergency cash stash in the coffee tin because he had spent it all. Last month, when he had gotten sick and had to spend the money on the medication. He had ended up needing antibiotics, which took up all of his saved up money.

Jaewon groaned and buried his face in his hands. He felt Dongho’s long arm wrap around his shoulders.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Fill me in a little here,” he asks, and while his voice sounds teasing, there was a hint of concern there.

Jaewon hadn’t noticed when he had started crying, but he startled at finding tears running down his face. He quickly swiped at his face in a futile attempt to get rid of them.

“W-well, I had money set aside for emergencies. Like several thousand won, just in case. I saved a little every month for it. But I forgot I spent all of it last month,” he says, and he hopes his voice doesn’t sound too whiny because he felt incredibly pathetic at the moment.

It takes a Dongho a moment to connect the dots. “You spent the money to buy meds? So now you don’t have any for the repair costs,” he guessed, and the guilt was back in his voice.

Jaewon nodded slowly before standing up from the counter, gently shrugging off Dongho’s arm.

“I mean it’s fine, I’ll figure out how to pay for it somehow. That was your ride calling you, wasn’t it? You should go,”Jaewon didn’t mean to sound so blunt, but it was probably close to midnight, he was tired, had a broken window, and as he just realized, a freezing cold apartment.

Turns out a broken window really messed with the heating, who knew.

“I mean yeah, but they can wait. Jaewon, you can’t stay here with a broken window. I know you say you can pay for it, but I know you can’t, which is why I offered,” Dongho said, and he placed a hand on Jaewon’s shoulder in what was probably an attempt to be comforting.

“I-I can..” Whatever argument Jaewon was trying to make left his lips as he realized; he couldn’t afford it. Even if he literally didn’t eat for the next month, he would have maybe a third of the money needed to fix the window.

“Well, what do you suppose I do? It’s not like I’ve got another apartment somewhere,” Jaewon scoffed lightly. He knew it was out of character for him to be so short with others, especially his hyungs, but he just wanted Dongho to leave so he could figure out his own shit.

“I mean, you could stay with me?” he offered hesitantly.

“W-what?”

“You could stay with me,” he said, more confidently. “I live in a pretty large apartment, I have a lot of space. I wouldn’t mind.”

Jaewon’s mind was reeling. Why on Earth was Dongho offering to let him crash with him? That made no sense; of all the members, he was most distant with Dongho. Dongho didn’t seem to like anyone that much honestly.

“I couldn’t impose on you like that, hyung. It’s fine, I’ll figure something out.”

He tried to walk away, but Dongho’s hand on his shoulder just tightened his grip. “You wouldn’t be ‘imposing’ since I was the one who offered. And seriously, you can’t stay here, it’s October, it’s freezing in here already. You’re just going to get sick again. It’s decided.”

And before he can say anything, Dongho firmly, but gently, pushes Jaewon to his closet and pushes the doors open. Dongho picks up an empty duffle bag from the ground and shoves in Jaewon’s hands.

“Come on, get some clothes and whatever else you need, and we can go.”

“I can’t just–,” Jaewon stops, then sighs deeply. “If you’re sure about this hyung…”

Dongho nods. “Of course I’m sure, now get your stuff together, and I’ll try to cover up the window.”

So while Dongho attempts to tape Jaewon’s bed sheet over the broken window, Jaewon grabs clothes and toiletries, and before he can overthink it, his two favorite plushies. Dongho sees him standing around awkwardly, so he leaves the blanket mostly covering the window before going to him.

“Okay, you’ve got everything you need? I mean, worst-case scenario you can borrow my stuff, but it’s nicer to have your own.” Jaewon honestly isn’t sure if Dongho means that it’s nicer for him or if it’s politer, so he just nods along to Dongho’s words.

“Come on, I’ve made my butler wait too long already,” he says, slinging his own black bag over his shoulder.

Wait, butler?!

That was not who Jaewon expected to be picking up Dongho. He had always assumed it was a parent or a close friend, but never a butler. Just how rich was Dongho?

Realizing that he was still standing in the middle of the room gaping, he quickly headed out after Dongho, making sure to close the door properly behind him.

Despite it being him who lived in the apartment, he followed Dongho down the stairs to the main door, where Jaewon could see the faint outline of a black car parked across the street.

Dongho strode towards the car with Jaewon stumbling to keep up with his hyung’s long strides. Dongho pulled open the door of the car and spoke a few words to the person driving before gesturing for Jaewon to enter the vehicle.

Jerkily nodding, he quickly entered the vehicle and sat by the far door, allowing Dongho plenty of space. He mumbled out a weak hello to the elderly man driving, bowing his head, and the man replied the same before starting the car.

Jaewon was tense, not wanting to do anything weird before he even got to Dongho’s house. Thankfully, the silence didn’t last too long since Dongho had hooked up his phone to the car and the words to some American pop song Jaewon didn’t recognize began playing from the speakers.

The silence becomes much more comfortable afterward, and Jaewon relaxes slightly into his seat. It hasn’t escaped his attention how nice the car was, with its leather seats and wood paneling, but he chooses not to comment on it. Instead, he opens his phone and opens a cute puzzle game he had been playing for the past few weeks.

Jaewon can see Dongho peering at his phone to see what he was doing, but he turns his head away before Jaewon could comment on it. Once again, he doesn’t say anything, and focuses on trying to solve the newest puzzle.

Before he knew it, they had arrived at Dongho’s apartment, and as Jaewon had suspected, the building is one of the more luxurious apartment complexes in the city.

The butler leads the car into a parking garage, and once they’ve stopped, Jaewon waits for Dongho to exit before exiting himself. He clutches his bag close as he follows Dongho to the elevator, trying to make it unobvious he was staring at the fancy decor everywhere.

Once they actually walk into Dongho’s apartment, Jaewon was astonished at the sleek furniture and modern decor of the room. He wasn’t sure if that was Dongho’s doing or someone else’s, but it looked amazing either way.

“Alright, you can take the guest room, it’s over here,” Dongho said, walking towards a small hallway to the right.

“This one’s my room,” he points to a door on the left before stopping in front of the one right next to it. “And this one is the guest room, or for now, your room.”

The two of them walk in, and thankfully the room isn’t too over the top. The bed looks comfortable, and there’s some sparse decoration. The only thing that stood out in the room was some random boxes in the corner, and when Dongho realized he had noticed them, he was quick to explain:

“Ah, when I moved here, I had a lot of stuff I wasn’t sure what to do with. So I just put them in this room, but I haven’t had that much time nor interest to go through it and sort the stuff. Please don’t mind the boxes.”

“No worries, it’s fine, my own apartment has boxes in it still to be honest. I just hide them in the closet,” he admits, setting his bag on the bed.

“Oh I just realized neither of us have had dinner. It’s really late, so I understand if you want to sleep, but I’m going to eat now if you want to join,” Dongho says, and Jaewon picked up his phone glancing at the time. The numbers 12:48 glare at him. Wow, he hadn’t realized how late it had gotten.

He was incredibly tired, the day having just been one exhausting activity on top of another, but he also hadn’t eaten any food for about 12 hours and he was fairly hungry.

“Oh yeah, I think I’ll join you for dinner hyung,” he says, and Dongho nods knowingly.

“Sure, take a few minutes to do what you need to, I’ll heat it up. Come to the living room whenever you’re done. Bathroom’s right outside, I have my own so don’t worry about sharing,” and he leaves with those parting words.

After quickly using the bathroom and rinsing his face, Jaewon heads to the living room as directed where Dongho is setting down two bowls.

“Hope you don’t mind, it’s just some ramen. I usually don’t do much for dinner,” Dongho says as he sits down on the couch. He picks up one of the bowls and a pair of chopsticks. He pauses and frowns slightly, patting the couch next to him when he’s realized that Jaewon hadn’t moved from the entryway.

“Come on and sit, don’t make your hyung feel all awkward with you standing there.”

“Ah sorry,” he quickly apologizes and sits next to Dongho, leaving a large amount of space between them. He grabs his bowl of ramen from the table in front of him. “And don’t worry, ramen is fine, it’s what I eat most of the time anyway.”

Dongho seemed to frown at this, but the dim lighting in the room made it hard to know for sure. Jaewon had to admit that for how awkward the situation was right now, Dongho was a lot nicer than he usually was. Dongho already wasn’t the most participating member in the group, but compared to Jaewon, he had a very good relationship with Minsoo and Daehyun. In fact, Jaewon knew for a fact that Dongho had a soft spot for Daehyun, often loaning the younger one of his oversized hoodies for when he had to walk home.

The fact that Dongho had asked Jaewon to crash, even temporarily, with him made no sense. Why didn’t he ask Minsoo or Daehyun since he was closer to them?

“Is the ramen not good?”

Jaewon’s head shot up at the sudden question.

“No, it’s fine, why do you ask?”

“Well, you were frowning pretty hard at the bowl, so I figured maybe the ramen hadn’t been prepared right.”

“No, the ramen’s fine, please don’t worry!” Jaewon placed the bowl in his lap, and waved his hands reassuringly. He brought them back to the rim of the bowl as he spoke again. “It’s just- I just have something on my mind is all.”

Dongho didn’t seem reassured at this response, though he seemed happy that the ramen wasn’t bad. “Well, what’s up? You can talk to me if you want.” Seeing Jaewon’s furrowed brow, he was quick to reassure, “Or don’t, either way is fine by me.”

Jaewon shook his head. “Um, well it’s just, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

At Dongho’s kind nod, he continued. “You’re better friends with Minsoo-hyung and Daehyun than you are with me. Why did you ask to stay at my place when you could’ve stayed at one of their homes? I’m sure they would’ve said yes.”

Jaewon raised his head, and he took note of Dongho’s troubled expression. Afraid he had angered the older, he quickly added on. “Not that I’m upset you chose me or anything! I’m just.. curious, that’s all.”

Dongho’s troubled expression didn’t go away, however. “Well, there’s actually a reason I asked to crash with you. And before I stupidly broke your window, I was going to talk to you about some--”

Before he could finish explaining, Jaewon’s phone began ringing on the table. Jaewon quickly set the bowl to the side and reached for it. Just as he was about to snooze it, however, he saw the caller ID.

CEO

He gulped slightly, and picked up the call.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Wyld. I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“No sir, I was still up.”

At this statement, Dongho frowns, though Jaewon can’t see it since his face was turned away.

“That’s good. I need you to come in for a meeting tomorrow.”

Tomorrow? But tomorrow was one of their few days off. They had no practice or recording scheduled.

“Tomorrow sir? What for?”

“Wyld, are you questioning me? Might I remind you I’m the reason Mayhem even exists, and you would do good to show up tomorrow.”

“Sorry sir, my apologies. What time?”

“That’s more like it. How about 10 AM?”

Despite phrasing it as a question, Jaewon knew it for what it really was. A demand.

“Yes sir, I’ll be there at 10 AM.”

“Good.”

Without further discussion, the CEO hung up the call.

Jaewon sighed, rubbing his eyes. He had been looking forward to a relaxing morning tomorrow, but obviously that was no longer the case.

God, he just hoped another fake article hadn’t come out. It had only been three days since his last one, he didn’t need yet another one on his record. He would never recover from the backlash at this point.

“Jaewon? What was that? Were you talking to the CEO?” Dongho asked, and Jaewon didn’t miss the accusatory tone in his voice.

“Y-yeah it was,” Jaewon sniffed, and when had he started crying? “He wants me to come in tomorrow, a-another meeting.”

“Hey, why are you crying?” Dongho asked, and there was suddenly a large but gentle hand wiping away the few tears that lingered on his face.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just– Tomorrow was our day off, and I really don’t want to be told that I’m in another scandal yet again.” Jaewon wasn’t sure why he was telling Dongho this, he wasn’t supposed to be complaining about the scandals like this. Just because he didn’t like them didn’t mean they weren’t good; they brought Mayhem a lot of attention and popularity that they desperately needed as a new group.

Dongho’s hand hadn’t moved from Jaewon’s still teary face, though he did pause in his ministrations. “I mean, aren’t they kind of your fault? It makes sense that the CEO would want to reprimand you for them,” he said bluntly, though there wasn’t any heat in his voice.

“But that’s just it,” Jaewon said miserably. “They are never my fault. Never. It just seems like that. And now everyone thinks I’m this playboy idol, even though that’s not true at all!” Without meaning to, the tears now streamed down his face even more than before, and Dongho’s hand continued to wipe them gently from his cheeks.

“What do you mean they’re not your fault? I don’t understand,” Dongho said, and he genuinely sounded confused, no mocking present in his voice.

“W-well, a lot of the pictures are taken out of context,” Jaewon tried to explain, though he knew how pathetic of an excuse that sounded.

Dongho knew this as well, raising an eyebrow. “‘Out of context’? Explain.”

Jaewon unwrapped one of his arms from himself and picked up his phone from beside him. He flipped through it for a moment, before finding the photo from a scandal a few days back. It was of him and an older woman who was hugging him.

“Well, like this photo,” he started, leaning the phone towards Dongho so he could see, “everyone thinks I was flirting with her or that she’s my girlfriend. It didn’t really help that we were in a random side street in the middle of the night. But her dog had run off from her, and I chased it and gave him back to her. She hugged me because she was happy to have her dog back. That’s it.” And if one were to properly look at the photo, they would see the tiny puppy that was hanging around the woman's feet.

Dongho looked thoughtful for a moment, and Jaewon could almost see him debating whether what he was saying was true or not. He wasn't sure if Dongho had noticed the dog in the photo or not. Finally, he responded. “That makes sense. And if you’re saying that all the scandals are similar to this, then why doesn’t the CEO try to get rid of them?”

At this, Jaewon paused. He couldn’t tell Dongho the real reason, because otherwise, that would cause problems that he didn’t know how to solve. There was no way to explain why he didn’t just try to stop the CEO without painting himself in a bad light. So he just shrugged, hoping that it would placate the elder man.

It clearly didn’t, considering Dongho’s disgruntled expression, but Dongho didn’t say anything. He just wrapped his arms around Jaewon, pulling him into an unexpected hug. Jaewon didn’t move at first, but slowly he wrapped his own arms around Dongho, returning the hug.

It felt nice to be able to let go of some of the burdens that had been resting on his chest for so long. Who cared if he didn’t know the whole story, Jaewon didn’t need him to. It was enough that there was someone on his side, someone who believed him when he said that the person in the scandals wasn’t him.

Slowly, Dongho let go of the hug, and picked up his discarded bowl of ramen. He then picked up Jaewon’s as well, standing up. “Come on, these have probably cooled off too much by now. I’ll go heat these up so we can finish them.” Jaewon mutely followed Dongho into the kitchen, arms still wrapped around himself.

Dongho’s kitchen was just as impressive as the rest of the apartment. The fact that he even had a separate kitchen was impressive to Jaewon, but like the rest of the apartment, there was the tasteful decor and the appliances were all stainless steel. They probably were the newest models too, but Jaewon didn't really know about these things.

While they were waiting for the bowls of ramen to heat up in the microwave, Dongho turned, leaning against the counter to face Jaewon.

“You asked me earlier why I wanted to stay with you.” Confused at the 180 in conversation, Jaewon just nodded.

Dongho sighed, wringing his hands. “Okay well, there was something I wanted to say to you. Actually, I’ve been wanting to say this for a long time. But when the scandals began happening, I decided I wasn’t going to say this because, well, it seemed like it would be a mistake.”

The microwave beeped, but they both ignored it.

“Learning today that those scandals aren’t the real you… it was a relief. Because, now, I feel a lot better telling you this Jaewon. I like you.”

I like you.

Jaewon could almost feel his heart beating out his chest at the words. Did Dongho actually mean that?

“W-what?”

“I like you,” he repeated, some of his confidence wavering.

Jaewon’s head was swimming. Dongho liked him? Why him?

“Why-why me?”

“Well, you’re nice to everyone you meet, even those who aren’t nice to you. You go out of your way to help others and never expect anything in return. I love the fact that you have so many plushies. And,” he smirked, “you look hot after dance practice.”

Jaewon blushed heavily at this, but his thoughts were still reeling. Dongo liked him? If Jaewon was being honest, he had sort of been crushing on Dongho for a while now, though he had refused to admit until now. There was something about how graceful Dongho looked no matter what he was doing, how even the most simple of actions took Jaewon’s breath away. Dongho was generous to everyone, even if he didn’t seem it, and he was the hyung Jaewon knew he could always go to for help.

“I-I like you too,” he mumbled, averting his gaze from Dongho’s.

Dongho’s expression relaxed, all the tension leaving his shoulders.

“You’re such an amazing person, Jaewon. I’ve wanted to tell you all of this for such a long time now, but it never seemed right.” But somehow, in the dead of night in the middle of Dongho’s kitchen, everything seemed perfect.

Closing the gap between them, Dongho wrapped his arms loosely around Jaewon’s shoulders. He brought them closer together and then sealed the gap by pressing his lips softly against Jaewon’s.

Jaewon let out the tiniest of gasps before returning the kiss, just as soft. This was nothing like the kisses that had been forced onto him by women wanting some attention from the paparazzi. This was soft and gentle, and there was something here that had been missing from all those other kisses.

Love.

Dongho carefully deepened the kiss, gently tugging at Jaewon’s hair. They stayed like this for what felt like forever, together in each other’s arms.

Eventually, they let go of each other and the two looked at each other in the eye.

“This is okay, right?” Dongho asked.

“More than okay.”