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“I’m getting married.” Yifan says in lieu of a greeting as soon as he takes a seat next to Tao. The fact that Tao’s only reaction is to raise an eyebrow at the older male before taking a sip of his coffee, says more about Yifan than it does about Tao. Had this exact statement come from literally anyone else in the world, Tao would have a whole lot to say in response but this is Yifan Gē (Hyung in Chinese) and today is not his first day being friends with him. “Make me best man and I won’t tell Luhan Gē.” Tao demands. Priorities? Check. “Only if you promise not to call me crazy.” Now that. That has peaked his interest. Zitao gives Yifan a long and hard stare, trying to decide whether or not he should make that promise. Earlier he had just assumed that Kris had accidentally seduced someone again, but if Yifan is asking Tao of all people not to call him crazy, then this is not just another Luna situation. That was a mess. Luhan Gē is still not over it.
In the end Tao decides that he’s not in the mood to filter himself. “No deal. What did you do?”
“You know Suho right?”
“That Korean singer who hates you? Excellent judge of character that man has.”
“You love me.”
“Only on pay day. Anyway what about Suho? You still sexually harassing him online?”
“He told me that he loves me when I left his apartment this morning.” Tao choked on his coffee.
The director for the movie that they are filming together chose that moment to walk in and start the meeting, saving Yifan from Tao’s onslaught of questions.
Junmyeon had practiced his cool, unbothered face with Kyungsoo on the drive over to SM after all his appearances were done. Now that he’s no longer scared of his manager – not that Junmyeon would ever admit that he ever was out loud – Junmyeon found that Kyungsoo is probably secretly the softest person in the world. Kyungsoo didn’t even make fun of him for the whole ‘hyung’ thing. Junmyeon was quick to claim him as his new best friend. Sehun and all his other ‘friends’ can suck a lemon.
So when he walked into the dance studio he’d booked to find all his ex-friends waiting for him, he uncharacteristically managed to keep his face perfectly calm. They had even managed to drag Jongin into this. “Good Morning.” Junmyeon says his tone just the perfect amount of bored, between sips of his iced vanilla latte. At Sehun’s raised eyebrow in surprise, Junmyeon surmises that he’s successfully hidden his internal panic. Junmyeon is pretty sure that Kyungsoo was an actor in his past life or something. If the plan they came up with this morning works, then Junmyeon is going to make sure that Kyungsoo gets a raise. Hell, he’ll even go back to calling him hyung. ‘This better work’ Junmyeon thinks to himself as he calmly takes off his coat and unwraps his scarf, putting them neatly down while waiting for someone to notice. “WHAT IS THAT?!” Jongdae screeches rushing to Junmyeon’s side to take a closer look at the hideous mark sitting prettily on Junmyeon’s neck.
Junmyeon had probably asked Kyungsoo about a hundred times if he was sure, as he was carefully removing the makeup concealing the love bite Yifan had left just below Junmyeon’s ear. “Trust me hyung.” Was his response every time. And he does. And he understands that at least one of his friends is going to remember witnessing the love bite being made last night, and that covering it up only to be called out will only work against him in the long run. Besides, Suho was done with on Camera appearances for the day, so he couldn’t even use that excuse. But to be displaying the mark out so shamelessly… Junmyeon can’t help but hope that Kyungsoo’s coaching is enough to hide the embarrassment that he’s feeling.
“You of all people should know what this is, Ajusshi.” Junmyeon says dryly, rolling his eyes. “Ya!” Jongdae screeches making everyone laugh even more. Bewildered, Minseok wraps Junmyeon in his arms, forcing his head on his shoulder so that he can comfortingly run his fingers through his Junmyeon’s hair. “Oh my. What has that bad man done to my sweet Myeonie?” Minseok coos. The military really has done a number on him. He’s not used to such an affectionate Minseok, even if he’s just being a troll. Not that Junmyeon is complaining. “Don’t worry hyung. His is worse.” Junmyeon replies, keeping up with Kyungsoo’s plan. Minseok immediately detaches himself from Junmyeon as equally impressed and disgusted as he was last night when he witnessed the new couple’s idea of getting acquainted with each other. Baekhyun meanwhile, has been uncharacteristically silent, still amused at how Jongdae is sulking while unconsciously playing with his wedding ring. Something that he’s taken to doing whenever he’s thinking about his wife. ‘The sap.’
“How the mighty have fallen.” Yixing says bringing everyone’s attention to what they are all here for in the first place. “What happened to ‘I don’t like cold, arrogant and standoffish guys?’” Yixing asks amused with a raised eyebrow. He’s been waiting for this day longer than anyone else. “I still don’t.” Junmyeon says simply with a shrug. Not wanting his unbothered façade to slip and ruining his plan, Junmyeon starts warming up. “If that’s how you act around someone you don’t like….” Sehun snorts leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. And this was not the opening that he was looking for, but Junmyeon doesn’t think that he can keep up his act for much longer. “Well, we can’t all be as good at these things as you are Sehun.” Junmyeon says facing the mirror and stretching, subtly as possible gauging everyone’s reaction to what he said. Everyone looks confused and Junmyeon is about to back track. Kyungsoo must have been wrong about this. But then he sees it. The way Sehun’s smirk falters for a brief moment. ‘No way! Kyungsoo was right!’
“I don’t know what you’re talking about hyung.” Sehun denies but by the slowly creeping blush on his cheeks, it’s apparent to everyone that he knows exactly what he’s talking about. “Oh. Are we still pretending that you haven’t been pining for a certain someone for weeks now? Oh my bad.” Junmyeon says casually, still stretching as if he didn’t just throw Sehun under the bus out of nowhere.
Baekhyun is the first to snap out of the shock, gasping loudly before rushing to Sehun’s side and pinching his cheeks. “Our baby is in love! Who is it?!” Baekhyun coos as Sehun goes into a full body blush. As long as Junmyeon has known Sehun, he’s never seen the younger male so flustered. Junmyeon used to get jealous at how Sehun is, how he just walks around making hearts race while remaining calm and cool no matter his true feelings. He can’t believe that all this time, Sehun is as big of a mess as him. Junmyeon is glad that he decided to keep the name of Sehun’s crush to himself. He might need that particular card for later. “Hyung stop it! Junmyeon hyung is lying.” And if anyone was still in doubt before, that all changed at Sehun’s pathetic attempt at a lie. “Aww! Hunie. So cute! Who is your love? Hyung will help you charm her!” Baekhyun continues to tease and it’s clear that everyone else is about to join in as well, so Sehun changes tactics. “Hyung tell your boyfriend to leave me alone.” Sehun says looking pointedly at Chanyeol, who promptly chokes on air. “My what now?!”
“Don’t insult me by trying to lie!” Sehun retorts with a roll of his eyes. “Ya! Oh Sehun!” Chanyeol shouts ready for a fight. “While we are busy exposing each other. Nini where do you disappear to every second Thursday night?” Jongdae asks out of nowhere, wanting to stir things up some more. “You noticed that too?!” Yixing exclaims. Jongin looks like a dear caught in head lights as he tries to stutter out a response. The studio erupts into chaos as everyone starts yelling over each other, trying to air out each other’s dirty laundry in order to distract from their own. “Guys!” Minseok yells over everyone’s voices. “How long has Junmyeon been gone?” They all look around the dance studio only to find that the only trace of Junmyeon ever being there was the cup that once held his Iced Vanilla Latte.
“How about we stop here for about 15 minutes.” The director says after checking a message on his phone. Something must have come up. Everyone nods and the director gets up and leaves the room, his assistant a couple steps behind him. “Finally! No running from me now. I’m going to need you to start from the beginning. Exactly what’s happening between you and that singer? How’d you get him to lower his standards so much?” Yifan rolls his eyes at Tao’s jab and is about to retort when his phone buzzes with a new message. The message is from his new boyfriend, making yifan smile a little while unlocking his phone. Junmyeon has sent him a picture of himself with a grumpy pout on his face as he angles his neck to give a perfect view of the bruise on his neck. “My favourite makeup artist scolded me for the first time today. I hate you.”
Yifan chuckles at how cute his boyfriend is before unwrapping his scarf and pulling the collar of his jacket aside, making sure that Junmyeon’s claim on him was on display and taking a boomerang of himself winking. The dork that he is captions it “Look we match!”before hitting send. He wraps himself back up and turns to find a slack-jawed Tao staring back at him. Yifan places two fingers under his chin and gently closes his mouth. Snapping out of his shock Tao immediately takes out his phone and makes a phone call. “Gē! Yifan Gē is broken. Come fix him!” Tao cries desperately. “What happened to not telling Luhan?” Yifan grumbles with a roll of his eyes before turning back to his phone, willing it to buzz with another message from his boyfriend. Tao opts to ignore him. They both know that he was always going to snitch to Luhan. He always does. “I don’t know. He came in this morning saying that he was getting married and next thing I know he’s telling me about how he seduced that one singer from Korea last night. Yes that one!”
Yifan looks up from his phone then. “That is not what I said!” Yifan protests knowing that Luhan won’t believe him. To be fair he did imply that that was what happened but he was planning on clearing it up before Tao had to go be himself.
“Then he gets a message and it must have been Suho because he checks his phone and… I swear Gē I’ve never seen anything so disgusting in my life… Yifan Gē checks his phone and his face gets all glad looking!” Yifan snorts at how dramatic Tao is acting. “Then he unwraps his scarf and the most hideous love bite is on his neck! It was ginormous!” Yifan rolls his eyes, checking his phone again. “Then he takes a video of himself and he’s doing some weird ass eye twitching thing. I almost called for an ambulance! I don’t know why he thinks that he can wink. I keep telling him that he can’t wink.” Yifan is about to punch Tao but his phone buzzes with a response from Junmyeon. He’ll deal with the brat later. Yifan is about to type out a response to his boyfriend’s grumpy reply but is interrupted by the sound of a camera flash. “Gē I’m sending you a picture! He made that face again! You must be traumatised with me!” Yifan types out a quick response to his boyfriend before putting his phone down and deciding to deal with the brat now.
“So when am I going to meet my son in law?”
“Omonim!” Junmyeon gasps scandalised, nearly dropping his phone. Junmyeon always gets overly formal when he’s flustered. . “What?” She asks as if her question was perfectly reasonable. “Do not call him that!”
“So you admit that there’s someone to meet.” Junmyeon can just picture the the triumphant and annoyed look on her face. His mother acts like she hates having to find these things out by herself, but she is always so satisfied when she’s right that it’s hard to take her seriously. “How do you even know this? It’s been less than a day!” His mother lets out a long suffering sigh. “A mother just knows.” Not for the first time, Junmyeon wonders who her spy is, his money is on Chanyeol. “Why aren’t you bothering Hyung about these things?” Junmyeon whines, earning him another sigh. “That other son of mine?! I gave up on him a long time ago.” What she really means is that she’s too old to be getting excited every time her first born finds someone new. “Bring my son in law with you when you next visit.” She says with finality. “I’ll come home sometime this decade then.”
“Kim Junmyeon.”
“Muuuuuuummm.” He whines like he hasn’t done since he was still a child. “Have you ever heard of a mother who’s never met their son in law? Does that make sense?”
“Mum stop calling him that. It is so inappropriate.”
“Must I wait till you’re married to be called mother in law? I’ll be so old by then.”
“You’re old now.” Junmyeon responds without thinking. “Better get married and give me grandchildren before I die then.” She’s relentless. “As soon as it’s legal.” He says to placate her, knowing full well that legal gay marriage is still a long way away. “Perfect! My son in law is a foreigner, so it’s okay. Let me get a Hanbok ready and we can go to Canada tomorrow.” She responds, sounding scarily serious. “How did you know that he’s Cana…” Junmyeon trails off and his eyes widen as he realise the answer to his question. “MUM! IS MINSEOK HYUNG YOUR SPY?!!”
“Obviously.” She responds casually in a tone that says ‘don’t ask me no stupid fucking questions.’