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There are big group events, and then there are big group events. This particular event falls under the latter category, evident in the usage of spreadsheets, a separate group chat, and multiple video calls to plan it all out. But all that effort was worth it, because now, nearly three weeks after Yuta brought up the idea, everything seems to have fallen into place.
It’s honestly a small miracle – when it comes to their group of nine, last-minute decisions usually don’t pan out so well. After all, it is hard to coordinate everyone’s schedules and make sure they’re all available on the same day, at the same time, and for the same duration. Hell, just meeting up for lunch on campus is hard enough.
But somehow, here they are, equipped with a full itinerary spanning seven days, a map with their route drawn out, and three different Airbnb bookings. Doyoung had sent a ZIP file with all the information through the group chat earlier in the day, and that’s what they’re looking at right now, all piled into one of the many study rooms available on campus. Well, minus Doyoung himself, who’s busy with student council duties.
“Spring Break, baby!” Yuta hollers, looking mighty pleased with himself. “Imagine if I never came up with this idea; in twenty-four hours, we’d be paying way too much for cheap booze on overcrowded beaches.”
“Shut up, you’re gonna get us kicked out.”
Yuta grabs Donghyuck’s drink right out of his hands in retaliation and takes a huge gulp. The resulting squabble lasts for a good six seconds, concluding when Yuta pulls the youngest into a headlock and Donghyuck simply slumps against his chest. As usual, they end up cuddling.
Someone’s foot collides against his shin and Johnny winces, reaching down to physically move the offending foot away before he clicks through to the next document.
“Wow, we’re going to a lot of cafés and restaurants,” he notes, drinking in the number of locations highlighted in sky blue. Although he doesn’t like to admit it, Doyoung has a penchant for colour-coding things, and it’s times like these that it really comes in handy.
Across the table, Jungwoo’s head pops up from where it was bent over his phone. He beams, “Yeah! What’s a road trip without food, right?” Next to him, Jaehyun smiles at Jungwoo’s childlike excitement, gaze lingering on the other’s profile for a second too long before he looks back at his laptop screen.
Along with food (sky blue), there are tourist attractions (pale green), scenic locations (peach), and entertainment venues (yellow). There are even slots allocated for free time (lavender), where they’re free to go wherever they please just as long they’re back in time for food. The only thing missing from the list is boredom.
Johnny does a quick Google search of a few places on the list, and he’s thrilled to see that these locations would look amazing on camera. He’s ready to use up all the SD cards he’d bought just for this trip, stored into a little drawstring bag that his mother had dug up for him so he wouldn’t misplace them. As soon as he wakes up tomorrow morning, he’s turning his camera on and filming everything.
He throws a straw wrapper at Mark – it flutters only a few inches forward and lands on Donghyuck’s lap, but it surprisingly manages to catch Mark’s attention anyway.
“‘Sup?”
“You’re in the other car, right?”
“Uh-huh, since you three giants get your own car.”
Johnny grins. “Perks of having long legs, man. Anyway, you wanna take one of my GoPros and film the drive for me? You know our car rides are gonna be vastly different and I want to capture the difference.”
“Oh, you’re really gonna do the vlog?”
“Not a vlog, exactly, more like a short film? Either way, I’d rather have more footage than not enough.”
Mark holds out his fist and Johnny meets him halfway. “I got you buddy, but when all is said and done, don’t forget to credit me as your co-director.”
Also in the ZIP file is a checklist of everything they should be bringing along – a genius move, because at least half of them are prone to forget things. Even with the checklist, there’s an extremely high chance there will be things left behind. On a hunch, Johnny catches Taeyong’s attention and goes, “Are you in charge of spare chargers?”
Taeyong rolls his eyes, turning his phone around to point out the italicised sentence on his personalised checklist: please remember to bring the spare chargers, underwear, socks, toothbrushes, wet w… It continues past the bottom of the screen. “Among other things, unfortunately.”
“Better you than me.” Johnny easily dodges the pen thrown at him and waggles his brows.
Their booking for the study room expires at five, sending them dispersing like a flock of pigeons do when a human runs right through them. For those who have parents within the city, they’re heading home for dinner before their road trip begins tomorrow, while the rest are heading back to their respective places to finish packing.
Mark prods him in the back. “Did you drive to school today? Wanna give me a lift home?”
“I didn’t, mom needed the car. I’m dropping by the electronics store first anyway, wanna see if they have a protective casing for GoPros just in case you drop mine.”
“Rude,” Mark says, just as Taeyong calls out his name.
“I drove. I can drive you home, but we’ll have to wait for Doyoung to finish his meeting. And yes, Yuta, I can drop you off at the subway station.”
Yuta claps and springs to his feet. “Excellent! Mark, let’s go to Starbucks while we wait for Doyoung, yeah?” Without waiting for Mark’s reply, Yuta grabs his bag in one hand and Mark’s wrist in the other, and disappears out the door with a bright, “See you guys tomorrow!”
“I want Starbucks,” Jungwoo comments, brushing his hair out of his eyes as he waits for Jaehyun to finish packing. “Or maybe some boba.” A pen rolls off the table and he ducks under the table to retrieve it.
“Oh, thank you. We can get something on the way home if you want.”
Jaehyun and Jungwoo are the only roommates within the nine of them, somehow having managed to find a nice, cosy two-bedder within walking distance to campus. Their home is also home to many of the group’s memories, from the happy (Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas Eve present swaps, and their regular get-togethers) to the sad (Johnny’s break-up with his long-time girlfriend just a few months ago, Jungwoo losing out on the lead role in a drama production that he’d really wanted).
In fact, it’s such an important place for them that Jaehyun had spare keys made, giving a set to Doyoung and the other to Johnny should they need to use it.
“Hey, can I drop by and pick up that pair of jeans I left at your place?”
“Yeah, of course, if you don’t mind stopping along the way for Woo’s boba.”
Taeil leads the way, followed by Jungwoo, then with Jaehyun bringing up the rear.
“Bye,” Jungwoo calls, pausing in the doorway to look back at the few remaining. During this time, Jaehyun closes the distance between them and slings an arm around his shoulders. “Don’t sleep too late!”
The sun is high in the sky when his mother pulls the car up to the sidewalk. He sees Taeyong’s car already idling at the drop-off point, with Taeyong himself standing against the side of the vehicle, phone pressed to his ear.
“Thanks, Mom, I’ll give you a call when we arrive at our first stop.”
He leans over the console to plant a kiss on her cheek before getting out of the car. The sound of the door slamming shut catches Taeyong’s attention and he ducks to wave hello to Mrs. Seo through the windscreen as Johnny retrieves his duffel from the trunk.
“Enjoy the trip!” She calls through the open window, already shifting gears. “Take lots of pictures and stay safe!” Then she drives off, and Johnny lugs his bag over to where Taeyong is.
“Have you been waiting long? Where’s everyone else?”
Taeyong hums, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “Nah, not that long. Mark is already here, but he went up saying he needed to pee – I think he’s just checking to see that Jungwoo’s bringing snacks that he likes. Doyoung’s picking Taeil up along the way here, and Yuta’s arriving soon.”
“Donghyuck?”
“Woke up late,” Taeyong snorts, “so he’s grabbing an Uber over.”
Johnny unearths his precious camera from his backpack. “Mind watching my stuff? I’m gonna head up and get some footage.” Taeyong gives him a thumbs up and Johnny heads into the building, fiddling with the settings on his camera as the elevator brings him up to the tenth floor.
Jaehyun and Jungwoo’s apartment is at the end of the hall, and as Johnny makes his way down, he hears Mark’s laughter trickle out from the open door. He hits Record and raps on the door.
“Mark, Taeyong said you came up to pee, not eat.”
The person in question is seated at the dining table with a Tupperware in his hands. “I did come up to pee. Then Jungwoo said he had fruit that needed finishing, so here I am. I’m doing them a favour, Johnny.”
Jungwoo looks up from where he’s rinsing off a few dishes and says, “He really is. Eating all the watermelon and nothing else.” Mark giggles and jabs his fork into the last watermelon cube.
Johnny pans the camera from Mark’s face down to the nearly empty container of fruit (all that’s left are a few pieces of melon) before he moves on towards Jaehyun’s bedroom.
Back when the pair first settled on this apartment, they spent the longest time arguing over who should get the master room. Jungwoo had a solid argument prepared: Jaehyun, a starter on the basketball team, needs the space to stretch, as well as to store a keyboard that he uses regularly. All he would do in his room is watch videos on his phone and sleep, Jungwoo pointed out, so why wouldn’t Jaehyun take the bigger room?
Jaehyun, bless his heart, just wanted to give Jungwoo the bigger room. No actual reason, really – the room gets better sunlight, there’s a nice little ledge by the window for Jungwoo’s many succulents, and the en-suite is right there if he wanted to shower at odd times of the day.
But Jungwoo is stubborn, and Jaehyun had ultimately given in.
“You got a new rug,” Johnny says, zooming in on where Jaehyun is hunched over his sports bag, the university’s seal plastered on one side.
“Yeah, Jungwoo saw it one day and got it for me. I’ve always wanted a rug, just couldn’t find a nice one. Damnit, where’s my wrist guard?”
Johnny turns around and calls out into the living room, “Where’s Jaehyun’s wrist guard?”
“By the TV,” Jungwoo answers, and Johnny looks over to the TV console. Sure enough, it’s sitting innocently on the surface, next to a vase of fake lilies. He passes it to Jaehyun, who drops it into a side pocket and zips up his bag.
“I’m ready,” Jaehyun announces, hoisting the bag onto a shoulder before checking to make sure everything is switched off and the window is just slightly ajar for ventilation. They return to the kitchen to see Mark putting on his shoes and Jungwoo finishing up with watering the house plants.
Once he’s done, Jungwoo grabs his own bag and ushers them all out of the apartment, and Johnny makes sure to film the key turning in the lock.
Downstairs, Doyoung’s got his head in the trunk of his car while Yuta takes photos of Taeil posing on the hood, much to the secondhand embarrassment of Taeyong as passersby’s gazes linger.
Doyoung spots them and waves them over, stepping aside to let the three towers dump their bags into the trunk. Just as it slams shut, they hear a familiar voice going, “I’m here!”
“Finally.” Taeil hops off Doyoung’s car and practically pulls Donghyuck over to the other vehicle, where Taeyong is in the driver’s seat fiddling with the GPS while Mark sets up the GoPro on the dashboard. “We’ve been waiting for you for the longest time.”
“I’m only seven minutes late,” Donghyuck points out, “not my fault you guys like to be early.”
Luckily, Johnny manages to film the smack that Taeil lands on Donghyuck’s butt and the yowl that immediately follows.
An hour into the drive, they’ve made it one third into Johnny’s road trip playlist and Jungwoo has already finished a bag of gummy bears. There’s joyous singing coming from the backseat and Johnny momentarily wonders how bad they sound on video. But hey, who cares if they sound bad? They’re having a blast and that’s really all that matters.
The city is behind them now, their surroundings shifting from metropolitan to scenic. Johnny winds down his window and takes quite a few photographs of sprawling land and blue skies, and twists around just in time to film Jaehyun releasing a small paper plane into an unknown future.
“Do you think it’ll get to see a lot of different things before it falls?”
Johnny, too distracted with a gorgeous view of the horizon, doesn’t see what happens next, but the GoPro does. It sees Jaehyun’s hand, half-covered with his wrist brace, settle onto the curve of Jungwoo’s knee. Despite the fair amount of space they have, the roommates are seated side-by-side.
“Yeah,” he replies, “Who knows, maybe the wind will keep it in the air forever.”
Jungwoo smiles, gaze flickering past Jaehyun to the outside. “That’d be nice.”
At the halfway point, they pull into a rest stop. Doyoung makes a beeline for the bathroom while the other three head for the convenience store, Johnny already engaged in an inner conflict between iced tea or coffee. He passes Donghyuck in the chocolate aisle, laughing when the younger catches his attention and asks, “Which chocolate bar do you think the others hate most? I wanna get that one so they won’t eat my chocolate.”
Johnny helps Donghyuck pick a chocolate bar, and in return, Donghyuck decides he should get iced tea instead of coffee. So Johnny ambles over to the fridges with the intent of getting some Arizona, only to be met with the sight of Jaehyun with a bottle of Pocari Sweat in each hand and Jungwoo’s head in the fridge, reaching for a third.
“I can just go back to the car and get more cash,” Jungwoo is saying. “I know you don’t like Pocari as much as I do, so we can just get –”
“No, it’s okay.” Jaehyun tilts his head towards the fridge. “I’ll just get something else later. I have water in the car, anyway.”
Johnny manages to film the start of Jungwoo’s bright smile, but the rest is lost to movement when Taeil calls his name and he whirls around to answer.
It’s dusk when they arrive at their first Airbnb. Day One was set aside for the drive with extra time allocated to the journey just in case they needed it, so their itinerary for the rest of the night mostly involves lazing around, eating, and movies.
“I wanna room with Mark,” Yuta declares as he strides into the house. He pauses to look around before pointing at a room to the right. “That one. It’s the one with the glow-in-the-dark stars, right?”
“Do I even get a say in this?” Mark follows Yuta into the room, GoPro held up as he speaks to the camera. “Feels like I don’t.”
Allocating rooms don’t take too long – Jaehyun and Jungwoo in one (of course), Doyoung and Taeyong in one (again, of course), and Taeil gets his own room thanks to him pulling the age card. Which means…
“You’re stuck with me,” Donghyuck grins, linking arms with him. “I hope you don’t snore.”
With only two showers between the nine of them, it’ll take a good amount of time for everyone to wash away the lethargy of the long drive. Wanting to take some good shots of the house and their neighbourhood before it gets too dark, Johnny lets the rest go first and drags Mark out of the door.
When they get back twenty minutes later, they find Donghyuck and Jungwoo seated on the couch playing Kart Rider, and Jaehyun with his head in Jungwoo’s lap, eyes closed.
“Taeyong ordered food,” Jungwoo informs them, chancing a glance at Donghyuck’s screen. “The showers should be free soon, Yuta and Taeil went in like ten minutes ago.”
“What’s up with him?” Mark gestures to Jaehyun, who has a towel tucked beneath his wet hair to prevent Jungwoo’s sweats from getting too damp.
Jungwoo gives his dozing roommate a gentle pat on the head. “He was too excited last night, barely got any sleep.”
“You seem fine.”
“That’s because I’ve learned how to sleep with noise,” Jungwoo quips, followed by a silent cheer when he wins a game. “Jaehyun really isn’t as calm as he looks.”
Johnny snaps a quick picture of the scene and races off to nab the first available shower.
Once everyone is clean and fresh and dressed in comfy clothes, Taeyong plates up all the food and shuts off the lights. The only source of illumination comes from the television, where Netflix is pulled up on the screen. Mark calls out movie titles in rapid-fire, moving on to the next as soon as someone vetoes it.
In the end, they decide on a thriller despite Jungwoo’s weak protests, because despite him saying no, they all know he secretly finds them interesting. He just happens to scare easily, that’s all. They settle down for dinner, plates on laps or on the coffee table, shoulder-to-shoulder as they enjoy a quiet night together.
Well, not so much a quiet night. The house is quickly filled with shrieks (courtesy of Jungwoo and Mark, although the latter will vehemently deny ever making a sound) and laughter (courtesy of Johnny and Donghyuck), and yelps of pain (courtesy of Taeyong, who unfortunately has to endure Mark’s reflexive smacks).
The chaos dies down when the movie ends and they’re all coasting on the remnants of a food coma. Doyoung sends them all off to bed, telling them that they’ll need to wake relatively early if they want to get through everything on their itinerary tomorrow.
Somehow, brushing teeth turns into a group activity as well. Johnny makes them line up in front of a large mirror hung on the wall in an attempt to take a picture, foamy mouths and all.
Doors close one by one, and Johnny flops into bed with his GoPro in hand. In the next bed, Donghyuck has the covers pulled up to his chest, phone held above his face as he does whatever a college freshman does.
He’s not too sleepy yet, so Johnny starts going through the footage of the day, fast-forwarding through everything just so he can get an idea of what he managed to film. A lot of scenery, Doyoung frowning at the GPS, Jungwoo offering them his impressive collection of snacks that he’d packed neatly into his bag.
There’s footage of Mark stopping to pet a dog during their brief venture into the neighbourhood and even a shot of the same dog trotting over to a fire hydrant to take a leak. The camera catches everything during the movie, from the way Taeyong inches closer to Doyoung with every cliffhanger to the way Jaehyun cards calming fingers through Jungwoo’s hair whenever the younger jumps.
A great start, Johnny thinks.
On Day Two, they go to the beach. It’s Spring Break, after all, and what is Spring Break without a trip to the beach? Armed with sunblock, a volleyball, and a change of clothes, they pile into their cars and speed off towards the beach. The sun is a ball of fire in the clear blue sky, but there’s a nice breeze that helps offset the heat, and there’s always the option of ice creams to cool down.
They manage to find a spot on the beach big enough for all their things and Taeyong orders everyone to slather on a layer of sunblock before leaving the safety of the massive umbrellas.
“I’m going to get us some coconuts,” Yuta says, and Jungwoo immediately jumps up.
“I’ll come with you!”
Johnny barely has time to set up his camera when he sees Taeyong stand and lock eyes with Mark, identical evil smiles spreading across their faces. Oh, something’s definitely about to go down.
There’s a moment of peace and serenity before they pounce on an unsuspecting Doyoung, a wonderfully pitched shriek tumbling out of his mouth when Taeyong grabs him under the armpits and Mark lifts him by the ankles.
“What the fuck are you guys doing!” Doyoung yells, arms flailing as Taeyong and Mark speed off towards the sea. “No, don’t you guys dare! I swear to god, Taeyong, I’m going to dump you if –” His words are swallowed by the sea as he’s tossed inside, flip flops and all. Johnny chases after them, camera held out in front of him as he films it all, from the way Doyoung’s hair is plastered to his head when he resurfaces to the tears beading in the corners of Taeyong’s eyes from how hard he’s laughing.
Glowering, Doyoung sloshes through the water, flip flops lost to the current, and grabs Taeyong by the wrist. One yank and his boyfriend is belly-flopping onto the water’s surface, spluttering through his sustained laughter (and probably thinking that the impending punishment is worth it).
“Mark,” Doyoung says, sounding oddly calm. “You have about ten seconds to disappear from view.”
Mark pulls on Johnny’s shirt. “One casualty is better than two,” he says, and runs. “Bye, Taeyong! Nice knowing you!”
“Bye!”
The last thing Johnny hears from the couple is, “Lee Taeyong –”
Yikes, the full name treatment.
Back at the umbrella, they find Taeil lying under a growing pile of sand, sunglasses on and seemingly very content with how things are going. Donghyuck looks like a child next to him, cross-legged as he packs handful after handful of sand around his friend.
“I’m gonna turn him into a mermaid,” Donghyuck informs the camera. “Remind me to find a pair of shells for his sand boobs.”
Behind them, Jaehyun lies shirtless on a deck chair, sunlight bouncing off the sheen of the sunblock on his skin. Johnny discreetly films a trio of passing girls checking him out before panning back to an oblivious Jaehyun. He’ll definitely include this clip in the final short film just so he can see Jaehyun’s ears turn red.
Jungwoo and Yuta come back with a tray of coconuts and pass them out, leaving a couple wedged in the sand for when Taeyong and Doyoung return (?).
“He looks pretty,” Jungwoo compliments, kneeling down on Taeil’s other side.
“Thanks, wanna help me design his tail?”
Designing the tail becomes a five-man job, featuring Johnny as the cameraman. Jungwoo collects a whole bunch of tiny shells and unearths a skewer from the sand that they use to draw patterns, and Yuta takes it upon himself to give Taeil a nice pair of C-cups. Donghyuck stays true to his plan and finds shells big enough (albeit chipped) to fit them.
When Taeil the Mermaid is complete, Johnny takes a bunch of pictures of the other five lying around Taeil, matching grins on their faces as they pose with their art piece.
Donghyuck checks the photos and nods in approval. “Awesome. Anyone wanna play volleyball? We have six, so three in a team?”
One by one, they follow Donghyuck to a free beach volleyball court.
“Uh, guys?” Taeil’s voice trickles after them. “I can’t – guys? I’m stuck.”
At one point, Doyoung and Taeyong rejoin the group. Whatever method Taeyong used to mollify Doyoung seems to have worked, because despite the amount of sand still left in his hair and the loss of his flip flops, Doyoung seems to be in a good mood once more.
Mark takes over filming to let Johnny play, since with the return of the couple and Taeil’s hard-earned freedom, they’re able to have four on a team. They play until the heat gets a little unbearable, at which point they start stripping their shirts off and running into the waters. Doyoung, understandably wanting to avoid the water, brings the volleyball back to their umbrella.
“Dude,” Johnny says, knee-deep in water. Mark’s next to him with the GoPro still in hand. “You’re literally filming up your nose.”
“What? Am I? Shit, sorry.”
Johnny laughs, reaching out to take the camera back. “It’s okay, I can film. Go ahead, I think Yuta wants to drape some seaweed on your head.”
Mark goes splashing off and when Johnny looks up from the gadget, he sees two familiar figures off to the side, away from everyone else and half-hidden behind rocks. Jaehyun’s closer to the shore, phone out as he takes a photo of the view, while Jungwoo is deeper into the waters. When he dips his hand into the water in search of something, the camera is just able to capture the small furrow between his brows.
A few seconds pass, then Jungwoo’s expression brightens as he stands, hand held out towards Jaehyun. Jaehyun laughs and pockets whatever Jungwoo has found, then pulls him in by the arm to take a selfie.
It’s clear they have a strong bond; as Johnny watches, Jungwoo rests his head on Jaehyun’s shoulder and throws up a peace sign at the camera. Photo taken, he pulls Jaehyun deeper into the water, and as always, Jaehyun follows.
Johnny smiles and turns away, deciding to let them be.
Day Three starts with Donghyuck nearly busting a lung from laughing at the faint tan line on Doyoung’s face from an entire day of wearing sunglasses.
“He looks like a raccoon!” Donghyuck wheezes, toppling over onto Yuta who seems very unbothered by it all.
“Oh shut up,” Doyoung grouses, “you have a tan line too.”
“Yeah, but not on my face!”
Taeyong has popped over to the nearby pharmacy to find some concealer or foundation that can help even out Doyoung’s skin tone so that the poor man won’t have to walk around with dark rims around his eyes, but while Taeyong’s out, Johnny takes the opportunity to snap a few photos.
Doyoung sighs and accepts a plate of french toasts from a grinning Jaehyun. “I hate you, Johnny. You’re gonna use those photos, aren’t you?”
“I’m documenting everything, remember?”
“I think you look cute,” Jungwoo calls, moving around Jaehyun as he cuts up some fresh fruit that they’d gotten on their way home last night. “Raccoons are cute!”
Jaehyun laughs, reaching over to squeeze Jungwoo’s nape. “You think everything is cute.”
“Jungwoo is the only person I like here,” Doyoung says, stabbing his fork into the french toast. “The rest of you suck.”
After Taeyong returns with the makeup and painstakingly applies it onto Doyoung’s face (while holding back his laughter the entire time), the nine of them leave to start their day. Today is their last day in this city before they move on to the next, and Mark has labelled it ‘Johnny Day’.
He’s not wrong, Johnny supposes, because all the places they’re going to are excellent backdrops for photographs. Their first stop is the botanical gardens, the vibrancy of the thousands of blooms in the area contrasting with the blueness of the sky.
Yuta, having nabbed the other GoPro out of Mark’s hands, photographs each new flower like he’s on some sort of personal mission to document all the species in the gardens. While he does that, Johnny settles for filming it all. With a vintage filter or something similar, this could turn out to be really nice. He’s excited, and honestly touched that his friends are all willing to spend a day letting him express his artistic side.
He interviews Taeyong as they walk ahead of their friends, shamelessly holding up his GoPro on its selfie stick despite being very aware of the attention he’s attracting: a six-foot man surrounded by flowers, eight other men, and holding a selfie stick – that’s something you don’t see every day.
“I’m really happy we managed to go through with this,” Taeyong says. “We’ve talked about going on a trip together like a billion times but things just never worked out. Glad we could do it before Taeil graduated.”
“You ever just think about how all of us became friends? It’s a small miracle that we all found each other the way we did.”
Johnny remembers meeting Taeil at orientation three years ago when he was a freshman; the elder was the RA for his dorm, and because he’d moved in earlier than most, Johnny had ample time to get to know and befriend him.
Not long after that, Taeil introduced him to Doyoung, a fellow freshman and the younger brother of a senior in Taeil’s major. After that, things just kinda fell into place. From Doyoung came Taeyong, and Johnny was the one who befriended Yuta after a friendly game of football one summer afternoon. His first year passed, and when sophomore year began, Yuta brought Jaehyun, both competitive athletes under the university roster (football and basketball respectively), along to a movie night.
Jungwoo came along not long after, so bright and sociable that half the student population knew his name by the third week of school. Upon answering Jaehyun’s request on the school board for a roommate, he blended in with their group seamlessly. Amongst his many friends, Mark and Donghyuck, both freshmen this year, weaselled their way in.
And now, they’re nine.
They would've been ten – Sicheng, a transfer student they befriended, spent most of his time during his year at the university with them. He’d gone home, however, last summer, and never got the chance to meet Mark nor Donghyuck in person. But they’ve had a few video calls with him, although they’re hard to arrange thanks to the time difference, and he seems to like the two of them just fine.
Taeyong smiles, tossing a glance over his shoulders at the others. Doyoung’s running circles after Donghyuck and Yuta is trying to get Mark to hop onto his back for a piggyback ride. The usual, really. “Almost like a soap opera.”
Time is a weird concept, Johnny thinks. It never flows at a constant pace, despite the seconds and minutes and hours that it claims to have. He’s known some of these people for three years and some for just half a year, but it feels like they’ve been in each other’s lives forever.
“You think we’ll still be this close after we all graduate?”
“That’s up to us, isn’t it? Takes effort on all our parts.”
As they approach a gift shop, Jaehyun calls out for them to stop before disappearing inside. They stop to wait for him and Jungwoo follows him in. Outside, Yuta lets go of Mark unceremoniously, complaining of a sore back.
Taeyong turns to him, then looks straight at the camera. “But you know what? I think we will.”
Minutes later, Jungwoo reappears with a flower crown on his head, looking a little flustered but pleased at the same time. Jaehyun comes out right behind him.
“Did you really just buy Jungwoo an overpriced flower crown?”
Jaehyun reaches up to adjust said flower crown. “Yeah, but it’s made so that it lasts forever. Suits him, no?”
It does, admittedly. With his silver hair, the lilac blooms resting on his head make Jungwoo look like some type of flower prince. Johnny passes his GoPro to Taeyong and lifts his DSLR.
Day Four sees them back on the road, except this drive is considerably shorter.
By wrangling the two sleepy freshmen out of the Airbnb as early as possible and grabbing breakfast through a drive-thru, they manage to reach their destination by lunchtime. Which is great, because the first thing blocked out on their itinerary is coloured sky blue and they have a reservation to keep.
Squished around the table, they each order a different menu item to share. The restaurant is one of the city’s most renowned places, so of course they have to try as many things as possible. After Jungwoo takes a few photos of their massive spread for his food Instagram, they waste no time tucking in. There are a whole lot of dishes being passed around and they make quite a mess for a group of grown men, but there are times to be shameless, and this is one of those times.
“Can we get dessert after?” Jungwoo chirps. He dumps a spoonful of mac and cheese onto Mark’s plate and receives a fond pinch to the cheek in thanks.
“I’m sure we’ll pass a dessert place along the way to the wax museum.”
Jungwoo throws a fist into the air, only for his excitement to be tamped down when Jaehyun clicks his tongue and goes, “You have something on your – no, to your right. Ah, turn here.”
The smile that Jungwoo graces upon Jaehyun for his helpfulness is so pure that Johnny wishes he was filming right now.
After lunch, they file outside into the sun and trail after Doyoung like ducklings after their mom as he leads them to their next destination. Yuta spots a rolled ice cream store and drags Jungwoo inside, the two emerging five minutes later with a huge cup and several spoons.
As soon as they arrive at the wax museum, Johnny finds himself swamped with work. He’s everywhere at once, camera at the ready to take photos of his friends with their favourite waxed celebrities as they come up with the wackiest poses they can think of.
Donghyuck takes one of the GoPros and proceeds to interview Angelina Jolie as Yuta helpfully provides a voiceover for the actress, and Mark films a confident Taeil strutting up to Mariah Carey before he declares himself the better singer.
“Hey, maybe one day you’ll be a wax figure,” Johnny overhears as they venture into the sports section of the museum. “You’ll invite me to the unveiling of your wax figure, right?”
Jaehyun’s laughter flows through the room. “Woo, that’s not gonna happen. I’m only a collegiate athlete.”
“Everyone starts somewhere!” Jungwoo’s voice grows louder and suddenly, there’s an arm slung around his shoulder and he’s spun around to face an amused Jaehyun. “Johnny could totally be an Oscar-winning director, right?”
It’s hard not to indulge Jungwoo, especially when he’s got such an expectant look on his face. So Johnny nods and rests his hand on the crown of Jungwoo’s head. “You’re right. You never know what the future holds.”
“Alright,” Jaehyuna relents, “when I become a world-famous basketballer and I get a wax figure, you’ll be the first one I invite.”
Johnny snaps a photo of the two of them shaking on it, pinky fingers locked.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Day Five doesn’t go quite as planned.
They wake to a storm, dark clouds rolling overhead and raindrops beating out a quick beat on the window panes. Horrible weather, but beautiful in its own right, and Johnny sticks his GoPro out into the rain in an attempt to capture that fact. Most of them end up sleeping past their set alarms thanks to the perfect snoozing atmosphere; it’s nearly noon when people start trickling out of their rooms, hair mussed and pillow lines pressed into their cheeks.
“Where,” Taeil yawns, nearly tripping over one of Mark’s socks on the floor, “is Jaehyun?”
“And Jungwoo,” Yuta chimes in. “It’s lunch, you’d think he would be out here.”
Johnny, only a few steps away from their room, offers to check on them. He knocks twice, but when he doesn’t hear any acknowledgement, he eases the door open and peeks in.
The room is awash in a shade of dark orange as sunlight struggles to penetrate through the curtains. As Johnny’s vision adjusts, he sees a hand rise up from the depths of the covers and to wave in his direction.
“...Jae?”
The hand gives him a thumbs up, then beckons him over with a flap of the fingers.
Johnny approaches the bed to see the top half of Jaehyun’s head sticking out of the duvet and a gigantic lump by his side.
“Hi?”
“I’m a little stuck.” Jaehyun peels back the covers to reveal the top of Jungwoo’s head lying right in the middle of his chest. “He’s lighter than he looks, but this is deadweight we’re talking about.”
“How long have you been awake for?”
“Hmm, like twenty minutes? I’ve just been on my phone, but my arm’s getting a little sore and he doesn’t seem to be waking up.”
Johnny whips out his phone and takes a picture. Jaehyun rolls his eyes.
“So why are both of you squished in one bed?”
“We were watching a horror movie last night and you know how he gets. Refused to sleep alone after that.” Jaehyun’s face contorts in effort as he tries to ease a limb out from under his roommate, but to no avail. “Can you help me roll him over?”
This entire situation is…amusing, to say the very least. He tries his best to locate where Jungwoo ends and Jaehyun begins, but before he can, Jungwoo stirs.
He shifts just enough for Jaehyun to wriggle free, but before Jaehyun can get out of bed, Jungwoo reattaches himself to the poor basketballer and continues sleeping in bliss.
“Um,” Johnny begins, torn between cooing or laughing.
“This is what happens when he doesn’t have a spare pillow to hug,” Jaehyun sighs, but judging from the way he’s petting at Jungwoo’s hair, he doesn’t really mind. “It’s okay, I’ll wake him up in a bit.”
“We’re probably gonna make lunch soon. We’ll save you two some.”
The storm rages on through the afternoon, leaving them housebound and still in their pyjamas despite the hour. They’ve brought out duvets and pillows from the bedrooms to pile them on the floor in front of the TV, and they’re camping out there when Taeyong looks around at everyone else and goes, “Hey, since we’re stuck here all day…how about we play beer pong?”
“That’s a horrible idea,” Doyoung immediately replies. “But let’s do it.”
Donghyuck scrambles upright, blanket tangling around his ankles. “That’s an excellent idea.”
Doyoung points at him. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that you’re a minor.”
A casual wave of Donghyuck’s hand. “Nah, that’s okay.”
The last time Johnny played beer pong was before Mark and Donghyuck started at the university, so the prospect of being able to play with them sends a jolt of child-like excitement radiating throughout his frame.
“I’ll go buy the booze,” he offers. “Someone pop by the store down the road for the cups?” On the way to his room to change, he pulls on a lock of Jaehyun’s hair. “Hey, alcohol connoisseur. Come with me.”
He hears Jaehyun groaning behind him. “Okay, just because I can hold my liquor doesn’t mean I’m a connoisseur!”
What was supposed to be a short drive ends up taking nearly twenty minutes after Johnny gets lost and takes one too many turns. When they finally step into the store, they spend an inordinate amount of time roaming the aisles and debating over the best beer, only for the debate to be put to an abrupt stop thanks to a text from Jungwoo.
can u buy the beer i like ^^
“He only drinks Hite,” Jaehyun informs him, retracing his steps to where he’d spotted the beer earlier. “He likes the sweetness.”
Johnny holds out his arms and lets Jaehyun drop two six-packs into them, waiting until he picks up another two packs before heading towards the cashier. He’s reaching for his wallet when Jaehyun nudges him aside.
“Jungwoo has expensive taste in beer,” is all he says before handing over some cash.
Johnny waits until the transaction is done and they’re walking back towards the car, shoulders bumping under the umbrella. Then, he asks, “Hey, are you and –”
He pauses. Something tells him that this is not the time.
“Hm?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” He can feel Jaehyun’s gaze on him, curious but not curious enough to probe.
“Okay,” Jaehyun shrugs. “If you say so.”
The front door opens to reveal a ping pong table situated right in the middle of the living room, the coffee table having been pushed into a corner to make space.
“Whoa, where’d you find that?”
“Storeroom,” Mark says, and Johnny is pleased to see that he has already set up the GoPros on both sides of the room. Partner in crime, indeed.
As Jaehyun brings the umbrella out to the sheltered patio and leaves it there to dry, Johnny sees Jungwoo opening a can of beer and pouring it out into one of the many Solo cups lined up on the kitchen counter. He takes a sip and does a happy jig, one that doesn’t go unnoticed by Jaehyun when he turns back around.
“Luckily they had it in stock, remember that one time we went to this huge store back home and they didn’t have it?”
Jungwoo grins, passing over a half-filled cup in exchange for an empty one.
“Yeah, and you insisted on going to another store half an hour away because you knew they carried it.”
Another beer can is cracked open and Jaehyun empties it into a few cups. “Because you like Hite.”
They use four and a half cans for ten cups, which is a little more than the usual, but they’re home on a rainy day and they’ve got nowhere else to be. Once they’re done, Yuta takes his sweet time arranging the cups into neat triangles.
“We have an odd number, so I’ll be the ref,” Doyoung says, already pulling up a chair. “I don’t want to be burping the whole night from all the gas.”
“No.” Taeyong pulls him to his feet. “Whoever isn’t playing can ref. We can just have a team of three, right?”
“I call Jaehyun,” Yuta says immediately, grinning when Donghyuck complains. “Too bad, I called dibs."
“You can’t just call dibs.” Jaehyun washes a few ping pong balls and drops the spare ones into a cup of water. Still, he walks over to Yuta’s side and holds out his fist for the footballer to bump. “I’m not a passenger seat, you know.”
From there, they split into teams. Taeil claims Jungwoo, the youngins take Johnny, and Taeyong drags Doyoung over to the table with an arm around his neck.
“We’ll play first,” he says, “so Doyoung can’t escape.”
They end up playing against Yuta and Jaehyun, so it comes as a surprise to no one when they lose by a landslide. Doyoung, to his dismay, lets out a belch as soon as he finishes his fifth cup of beer, promptly sending Taeyong bursting out into giggles.
The cups are refilled and another round commences, and because time passes fastest when you’re having fun, the sun has already set when the final round starts. It’s the athletes versus the arts students – polar opposites, seemingly.
But the underdogs pull out all their hidden tricks, easily matching the other team cup for cup until they’re both left with one each.
“Hey, our impromptu coaching sessions are paying off,” Jungwoo laughs, rolling the ping pong ball between his fingers. A lightweight, his cheeks are already tinged red, colour seeping down his neck with every mouthful of beer he takes. Jungwoo on alcohol starts off exuberant and excitable, but the more he drinks, the quieter he gets. Right now, he’s as happy as he can be.
Across the table, Jaehyun tries and fails to hide a smile.
“Yeah, I regret all those sessions now. Why would you use your skills against me?”
Jungwoo’s next shot misses, and Johnny wonders if he’d done it on purpose.
Back and forth they go, until Jungwoo scores a shot that the refs deem as a foul thanks to his elbow passing the line. Jaehyun takes the ball, gives his opponents a wink, and shoots. It arcs gracefully into the air and drops straight into the lone cup, and everything around them explodes.
It’s just beer pong, but there’s something about beer pong with this particular group of people that makes it that much more enjoyable. Mark and Donghyuck are yelling out nonsensical words while Doyoung digs out a five dollar bill to give to Taeyong, and the winners are spinning around in joyous circles. Well, Yuta’s spinning Jaehyun around in joyous circles, but there’s no point getting too specific.
When Yuta releases Jaehyun in favour of Mark, Jaehyun makes his way over to where Jungwoo’s still laughing at Taeil’s despondent expression.
“Good game,” Jaehyun says, sounding like he’d just finished an actual basketball match. He accepts Taeil’s offered hand and pulls him into a hug. “You guys are worthy opponents indeed.” Taeil claps him on the shoulder good-naturedly, perking up the next second when he hears Mark opening a bag of chips. Jaehyun lets him go before moving over to Jungwoo, hand sliding over the sleek line of his shoulder. “Hey, you good? Didn’t drink too much, right?”
The last thing the cameras pick up before they move out of frame is Jungwoo going, “I had like, one beer in total, I’ll be fine!”
Except he accepts another can when Yuta offers him one, managing to make his way through it by the time dinner arrives. When they finish eating, he’s flushed and warm and a little quieter than usual. They pile into the living room for some board games that their Airbnb host has so graciously provided (Taeyong instantly vetoes Monopoly), but instead of joining everyone on the floor, Jungwoo curls up on the couch.
Mark grabs one camera and gets all up in Jungwoo’s personal space, the latter unfazed as Mark pokes at his cheek and coos over how cute a tipsy Jungwoo is.
“Is this your first time seeing him tipsy?” Doyoung passes a bottle of water over and Mark sets it down on the floor, within Jungwoo’s reach should he want to have some.
“Yeah, we usually don’t drink when we hang out, and he’s always busy with theatre or something when there’s a party. It’s so weird, I never would have expected him of all people to be quiet with alcohol in his system.”
Jaehyun chuckles and turns around, rising up on his knees to lean in close. One hand reaches past Mark for a pillow and the other brushes stray strands of hair out of Jungwoo’s face.
“Here, lie on this, or your neck’s gonna get sore in a bit. You’re okay, yeah? Just sleepy?”
A sniff, then Jungwoo’s closing fingers around Jaehyun’s wrist. “‘M not sleepy.” He blinks once, eyelids heavy as they open and shut.
“Okay,” Jaehyun says, letting Jungwoo hug his arm despite the awkward angle. “Not sleepy, got it. Let me know if you need anything.”
Right before Jungwoo responds, Mark turns the camera off.
They’re back on the road for the start of Day Six, and along the way to their next destination, they stop along the highway shoulder to admire the view. There’s a unique sense of serenity one gets when driving along the ocean and this time is no different. There are areas cordoned off just for this purpose – as they pull to a stop, they see several cars already parked there.
It’s a gorgeous sight, an endless swath of blue from both the sky and the sea accompanied by a faint saltiness in the air. Johnny’s photo senses start tingling as soon as he climbs out of the car and he wastes no time putting them to good use.
His friends roam about, hopping over the road divider to sit on the small stretch of grass, legs stretched out in front of them. Taeyong spots a small clump of daisies near the road and he plucks one bud to stick behind Doyoung’s ear – Johnny takes a photo of the moment right after Taeyong’s hand falls away and Doyoung smiles.
Meanwhile, Donghyuck has managed to coerce Taeil into lying down on his stomach, and rucked up his shirt to expose his back. In comes Yuta, marker pen at the ready, and Johnny isn’t sure if he wants to stay around to see the…masterpiece that the duo comes up with.
A sound catches his attention and Johnny looks a few metres over to see Mark hanging off Jungwoo’s shoulders, both looking at his phone screen as Jungwoo snaps several shots of Jaehyun looking out at the view.
“That looks nice,” Mark’s saying, “very Instagram worthy.”
“There’s a secret to Instagram worthy pictures,” Jungwoo tells him. “You wanna know what it is?” A few taps of his thumb later and Jungwoo moves closer, stepping around Jaehyun until they’re facing each other. Sunlight brightens Jaehyun’s already porcelain skin and a breeze ruffles through his hair, and just as Jaehyun’s lips quirk, Jungwoo takes a picture.
“Yeah, what is it?”
“All you need is an Instagram worthy model.” Jungwoo grins at Jaehyun’s bark of laughter and takes another picture. “See?”
Mark looks at the screen and nods. “You’re right. Also, that’s some cheesy shit.”
It’s cheesy, Johnny agrees, but there’s an underlying truth to the statement. The model is such a key part of a photograph – there’s a visceral connection that’s needed between the model, photographer, and the environment to create a piece of art that strikes home.
“Hey, you two. Let me take a picture.” It’s already a proven theory, but Johnny wants to test it anyway. Mark moves over to him and looks on as Jungwoo steps behind his roommate, chin coming to rest on Jaehyun’s shoulder. They smile, eyes crinkling, and Johnny takes the photo.
“Oh, that’s a really nice photo,” Mark says. Johnny thinks so, too.
After dropping off their stuff at the Airbnb, they head straight for the enormous M&M store that boasts two floors, a candy wall, and customisable candies, among a plethora of other goodies. There are literal stars in Jungwoo’s eyes when they approach the doors – if he was a puppy, his tail would’ve wagged straight off his body.
“Guys,” he says, “please stop me if I buy too much.” Before anyone else can respond, he bolts inside.
Doyoung and Jaehyun exchange looks.
“Not me,” Jaehyun says in the next second, finger on his nose. “I don’t want to see him pout when someone takes a bag of candy away from him.”
A sigh, then Doyoung steels his shoulders and strides in after Jungwoo.
“I gotta film this.” Mark hurries in after them, camera at the ready.
An hour later, Jungwoo exits with one big bag and a plushie clutched to his chest. He’s all smiles, happy with the chocolates he’d bought for himself and as souvenirs for others, and his joy spreads around like wildfire. Johnny takes advantage of everyone’s smiles to take a group selfie in front of the mascot, faces squished together as they try to fit into frame.
As they walk a few blocks down the road towards their first café stop, Jaehyun peers into Jungwoo’s bag of chocolate. “Wow. I don’t even want to know how much you were going to buy before Doyoung stopped you.”
“Hey,” Jungwoo says, shifting the plushie from one arm to the other. “I got you your favourite dark chocolate peanut ones, okay, and a bag of Maltesers.”
“Okay, okay,” Jaehyun laughs, “I’m sorry. Thank you for the chocolate.”
Having worked up an appetite from all the chocolate shopping, they file into a very flowery café and make a beeline for the counter. The young lady behind the counter startles visibly at the sudden onslaught of university students – not wanting to unnerve her further, Johnny grabs two of them by the arms and drags them off to look for a table.
There’s an available table towards the back, so Johnny herds Mark and Doyoung over to it, only for Doyoung to slip away with a rushed, “I’m positive that they’re gonna get me something I’d hate just so they can eat it.”
“You sit,” Johnny says firmly, and Mark rolls his eyes.
“I wasn’t gonna go anywhere, dude.” He sinks down in his seat and fiddles with the GoPro. “I kinda wanted to check something out anyways.”
Johnny takes the time to send a quick update to his parents along with a few cute pictures of the last couple of days, and he’s in the middle of a conversation with his mother (she wants some specialty bagels from the city they’re in) when Mark digs his elbow into his ribs.
“Ow, what the – what’d you do that for!”
“Have you been looking at the footage?”
“Do you even know me? Of course I have. Why?”
His phone is snatched out of his grip and Johnny watches as Mark loads up the GoPro app just so he can import a clip. A couple of minutes later and Mark gestures for Johnny to look.
It’s a clip of them just a little while ago in the M&M store. Mark, who’d been following Jungwoo, filmed nearly everything their favourite ray of sunshine was up to, including this very moment.
Johnny watches as Mark trails after Jungwoo from display to display, the younger laughing at Jungwoo’s amazed expression. Within minutes of stepping into the store, Jungwoo has already got a few bags of candy in his basket (much to Doyoung’s audible chagrin in the background), and is in the middle of dithering over another one when Jaehyun pops into frame.
“Hi, I got you this.”
It’s the plushie that Jungwoo’s hugging right now, a green M&M that’s bigger than his head, complete with lips and lashes.
“What? Jae, you shouldn’t have gotten me anything, everything here is marked up for tourists –”
“Well, I already bought it, and I threw the receipt away because I knew you’d react like this. No refunds,” Jaehyun finishes, and Johnny can almost feel his smugness radiating through the screen.
Jungwoo sighs, but the smile on his face is bright enough to light up a room. He sets his basket of sugar down on the floor and opens his arms for a hug that Jaehyun easily steps into, and it’s at this point that the video cuts off.
“You see this, right?” Mark points at the phone. “Like, I’m not hallucinating or anything?”
“If you could tell me what exactly you’re talking about, that would really help me answer your question.”
Mark huffs, glancing over at where the others are still huddled around the counter. Poor girl, Johnny thinks absently.
“There’s something between those two.”
“Oh, that.” Johnny finishes composing his reply to his mother and sends the text. ‘Yeah, I know. Took you this long?”
That quip earns him two smacks on the chest. “What the hell do you mean you know?”
“I arrived at that conclusion like, a day into our trip. I mean, we all know they’re close, maybe a little too close sometimes, but as the saying goes, you never really know someone until you take a trip with them. And now, I’m pretty sure I have videos to prove our suspicions true.”
Mark leans in, eyes glinting.
“You have something planned, don’t you?”
“Maybe. You’ll have to wait and see.”
Their last full day is mostly a free and easy day. After a nice breakfast together at a cosy restaurant with outdoor seating and wicker swings, they split into small groups to explore. The couple goes off by themselves almost immediately and Johnny has a very quick discussion with Mark before they part ways. Along with Taeil and Donghyuck, Johnny heads in one direction; Mark, Yuta, and the roomies head in the other.
They walk through the city, accidentally stumbling across a farmer’s market where they spend far too long stopping by each table to try out various samples, ranging from cheeses to skincare products. Taeil buys Donghyuck a miniature toy piano as a joke, but the freshman surprisingly loves it, even managing to play a short tune with his pinky as they walk around.
Just a few blocks away from the farmer’s market, they discover what appears to be a meet-up for pooches and their owners in a neighbourhood park, and Johnny ends up with far too many photos of Donghyuck buried under his newfound (and very enthusiastic) canine friends. Later, as Taeil is busy picking out blades of grass from Donghyuck’s hair, Johnny sends a quick text to Mark.
how’s it goin
icb, Mark replies, they’re getting matching bracelets dude. and now yuta wants me to get one with him bc he thinks they’re FRIENDSHIP bracelets what a dumbass
lololol film it all
“Johnny! Let’s get ice cream! There’s also an arcade we passed that I kinda really want to go to.”
They’re well and truly knackered by the time they return to the Airbnb for dinner. The sugar high has worn off, and thanks to an epic Dance Dance Revolution battle with a talented young girl, even Donghyuck’s never-ending supply of energy seems to be depleted.
At least they come home to a wonderful dinner by Doyoung (read: bought from a nearby family-run restaurant that serves homemade ramen), all warm and fragrant and waiting to be enjoyed. They finish the last of the beer along with their dinner, taking the time to share anecdotes about their day as they eat. Taeyong shows off the photos he’d taken with Doyoung in their little Ferris wheel cabin and Yuta tells everyone a short – but delightful – story of Mark tripping over his own feet and nearly sending his drink flying down the front of a lady’s shirt.
Dishwashing becomes a group affair, wherein only two people wash and rinse while the others hang around just to get in the way. Johnny gets a great clip of Donghyuck dropping a blob of soap bubbles onto Doyoung’s nose and the resulting shriek he emits when Doyoung seizes him by the neck and tries to dunk his head into soapy water.
Later, after they’ve cleaned up and showered, Mark leads them up to the roof of the house, having found a way to get up there through a window ledge from one of the bedrooms. Spreading out a couple of picnic blankets that Taeyong had in the trunk of his car, they get comfortable with a few pillows and huddle together to watch the stars.
There’s music playing softly from one of their phones and it isn’t long before Taeyong and Mark start to freestyle, voices kept low so as not to disturb the peace. No one seems to mind; Johnny sees one of Doyoung’s feet tapping along to the beat.
With Mark preoccupied, Johnny takes it upon himself to lie back and pan his camera across the sky. It’s truly a beautiful sight, the lack of clouds really helping the stars to shine brightly in the dark. The camera moves towards his friends, capturing Donghyuck lying on Taeil’s tummy with his feet on Doyoung’s lap, Yuta next to them taking blurry selfies on Mark’s phone, then the roommates near the edge of the roof, Jungwoo’s head on Jaehyun’s shoulder as he dozes.
Jaehyun, arms circled around his knees as he looks up at the sky, seems to be lost in thought. The moonlight casts a gentle glow across his features, and when he moves to prop his chin up on a hand, Johnny sees a flash of silver around his wrist before it disappears into the sleeve of his hoodie.
Just as he’s about to look away, Jaehyun turns his head ever so slightly to the side and Johnny pauses. There’s the tiniest smile on Jaehyun’s face when he reaches over to brush a few strands of hair out of Jungwoo’s face, and Johnny doesn’t realise that he’s holding his breath until after Jaehyun drops a chaste kiss on the crown of Jungwoo’s head.
“Idiot,” he hisses, “kiss him when he’s awake!”
Shaking his head, Johnny turns off his camera. He’s positive there’s enough footage to make many valid points.
The drive home on Saturday takes up most of the day and it’s an unspoken agreement between them to spend Sunday apart. They may be best friends, but there are still limits to how much time they’re willing to spend in each other’s presence. Twenty-four hours, seven days a week is more than enough.
This means Johnny gets to spend the entirety of Sunday working on the video. He does just that, camped out on the couch with his laptop and his parents popping by ever so often. Mark texts him at some point to ask how the video’s coming along, and Johnny doesn’t reply until it’s nearly midnight, telling him that it’s done and ready to be viewed.
The final product is amazing, if he can say so himself. There’s just something about documenting memories in a video format that makes it that much more tangible, more impactful. Sure, he’s already done quite a few videos of events that they’ve done together (cheering at sports matches, concerts, and snowmen building, just to name a few), but there’s something special about this one that puts it at the top of his list.
He goes to bed with sore shoulders and a stiff neck, but those are battle scars he will willingly wear.
Although most of them don’t have classes on Mondays, they all meet in one of the study rooms during a break in the schedules of those who do.
“Sorry!” Mark comes skidding into the room, backpack bouncing off his hip when he stops. “My sociology professor would not stop talking about the quiz next week.”
He squeezes into the seat left for him between Doyoung and Yuta and looks expectantly at the open laptop sitting on the table. When their eyes meet and Mark squints at him, Johnny fights down an excited grin and hits the play button.
Entirely on purpose, he’d included a whole bunch of clips featuring the roommates, from car rides where their heads would be bent over the same phone in the backseat, to them walking down the street with Jaehyun’s arm around Jungwoo’s shoulders. There are clips of Jaehyun giving Jungwoo the last bite of his food, clips of Jungwoo visibly brightening when his roommate would return from wherever he’d disappear to, clips of them off in their own little world despite being surrounded by their friends.
There’s even a short clip of them holding hands, a brief moment during their day at the beach that Johnny had luckily managed to capture.
While his friends watch the video, Johnny watches his friends.
He’s provided with great amusement in the form of Jaehyun’s ears gradually turning a bright red and Mark’s gleeful expression, not to mention everyone else’s eyebrows slowly disappearing into their hairlines.
After fifteen minutes, the video ends and Johnny waits for the ball to drop.
It does, in the form of Taeil.
“So.” He clears his throat. “Was I blind all this time? Did you guys –”
“Nope.”
“Not at all.”
“No, but it kinda makes sense, if you think about it.”
“Yep,” Mark says, popping the p. He leans back in his chair, all smug. “I figured it out all by myself.”
Despite Jaehyun’s obvious reaction to the video, Jungwoo seems very unbothered by it all. He takes a sip of his smoothie, bracelet sparkling when he moves to set the cup down.
“So which one of you wants to take the first step and act on this huge thing between you two?”
At that, Jungwoo looks over at Jaehyun. There’s a pregnant pause, then Jungwoo opens his mouth.
“Actually,” he begins, the corner of his mouth quirking. “He kinda already did.”
Wait, what?
“What?” Johnny blurts. “What do you mean?”
Jungwoo soothes an itch on the side of his nose, all casual. “Yeah, like a little over a month ago? Jae made dinner at home and told me it was our pre-date, then on the next day we went on our actual first date.”
Johnny turns to Jaehyun. “Jae, what the fuck is a pre-date?”
“Oh, shut up. It worked, okay?”
“That’s what you focus on?!” Mark smacks Johnny on the arm. “Dude, they’re together.” He rounds on the roommates – no, the couple – and demands, “Why didn’t you tell us?!”
“We wanted to see how things went. Just because two people are great friends doesn’t mean they’re romantically compatible. If it didn’t work out, we could deal with it by ourselves and not let anything affect our friendships. Keeping it from you guys wasn’t our intention; you’re all very important to us, but so was being able to quietly focus on growing our relationship.”
After hearing that, guilt starts creeping up on Johnny. “I’m…I’m sorry. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have made –”
Jungwoo laughs, all pure and loving, without a single ounce of malice. The sound is an instant balm to the discomfort currently floating about in the pit of Johnny’s stomach. “It’s okay! We’ve been trying to figure out a way to break the news, so you actually did us a favour. Honestly, we never expected to be able to keep this a secret for this long. You guys are usually much more perceptive.”
An arm flies out of nowhere – it belongs to Doyoung, who’s reaching across several bodies just to close a hand around Jaehyun’s wrist. “Hey, if you upset him, I will deck you.”
Jungwoo has always been one of the more sensitive and emotional ones of the group, and they’ve all come to be quite protective of him in that aspect. While he’s stronger than he looks and packs quite a punch (they’ve all witnessed it once when someone insulted Taeil’s singing – the guy ended up needing seven stitches across the bridge of his nose), stressful situations tend to affect him more than most.
Jaehyun nods. “Of course; I’d never intentionally hurt him. You have my word.”
“I believe you.” Doyoung catches Jungwoo’s eyes and smiles. “You two are good for each other. Be happy, okay?”
Something in Jungwoo’s eyes softens, and Johnny looks on as two of his best friends interlace their fingers. “Yeah, we will."