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“New years eve was never a big thing in my house!” Hyojin is protesting, and Seungjoon, just coming back into the living room to dump a mountain of chip bags onto the coffee table, jolts at the unexpected volume, looking with bewilderment between the two figures on the couch. Hyojin is curled up, looking small and comfortable in one of Minkyun’s oversized woolen sweaters, an ugly thing Seungjoon always makes fun of Minkyun for but, on the older boy, somehow manages to look quirky and cool instead of the ridiculous eyesore it usually is. Minkyun, on the other end of the couch, is scoffing and stretching out his legs to jostle Hyojin’s hip with the side of one foot, looking thoroughly scandalised.
“But it’s the new year! We have to do something!”
Seungjoon chuckles and collapses between them, directly onto Minkyun’s legs, chucking a potato chip in his mouth. Jay, who’d been snoozing in Hyojin’s lap, jolts awake and scrambles to run to the other side of the room. “What’s so great about new years eve?”
The scandalised look turns on him, immediately. “It’s- It’s a new year!”
“So you keep saying,” Hyojin mutters, rolling his eyes. Minkyun huffs, used to his muttering by now, and Seungjoon slaps him lightly, but knows even better just to expect the sharpness sometimes.
“What’s wrong with you?” Seungjoon asks. “You’re passing up an opportunity to throw a party?” Minkyun makes a noise at the back of his throat, one loud, deep note that Seungjoon assumes is agreement and relief that someone’s now backing him up, and shuffles underneath him, but doesn’t move.
Hyojin curls up closer to the sofa cushion,cheek resting against the leather, frowning. “You know I’ve been busy with work,” he mumbles, “and a party just seems like a lot of effort-”
“But,” Minkyun mumbles, “I thought it’d be fun to spend new years with you.”
Seungjoon throws another chip into the air and catches it in his mouth, crunching down with a cheeky smile, the kind that turns only the corners of his lips up, more in his eyes than his expression, as he asks, “Who gets the kiss at midnight?”
The blush deepens, just like he’d wanted it too, but he also gets a punch in the side from Hyojin, who appreciates the joke less. “If I’m being dragged into this, me. ”
Minkyun gnaws at his bottom lip. “You’re really not excited?”
“It’s just a day,” Hyojin shrugs.
Sensing genuine disappointment from the boy on his other side, Seungjoon steps in, leaning closer to Hyojin before Minkyun can say anything. “Then now it’s a day you get to spend with us ,” he smiles. Hyojin raises a brow, clearly still ready to argue, and Seungjoon shifts so he can reach one of his shoulders, kneading the knots there with one hand. “You’ll finish by the deadline, you always do, you need something to get rid of all this stress.”
“And we weren’t even together for Christmas,” Minkyun points out, pouting through the words, a faint frown line between his brows. “Not really.”
It’s true, and it’s a good argument. The three of them had spend almost the entirety of Christmas Eve complaining about having to separate, but they had, Minkyun going to his parent’s house, Hyojin to his sister’s, Seungjoon going back home by himself and trying not to stare at his phone screen as his family unwrapped presents, and played games, and ate christmas dinner. It had been the first time Christmas hadn’t really felt like Christmas. And they’d all escaped back to the loft the day after, as quickly as they could, and told each other how much it had sucked and how they would spend next year together. So they all know Hyojin had wanted to spend Christmas with them, too.
Hyojin stares between them, lips pursed, considering it for a few silent seconds. And then he sighs. “Alright,” he groans, and then holds a hand in the air to stop Minkyun’s excited screeching, “but nothing crazy! Just us, and Changyoon and Yuto if you insist on inviting them. I meant it when I said I just need a weekend to unwind a little.”
Seungjoon sees eyes on him, and shrugs. Minkyun gives him a wide grin that’s all sunshine.
“Deal!” he says, and then Hyojin breaths an incredulous laugh and throws a chip at him, and they go back to Tv, and other things.
Changyoon is, of course, elated at the idea of them all throwing a new years eve party.
“Of course we’ll come!” he yelps into Hyojin’s ear, when Minkyun shoves a phone in his hand and forgets to tell him it’s on speakerphone, cringing away from it and rubbing at his ear, glaring at Minkyun’s apologetic smile.
“Nothing wild,” Hyojin tells him, through the phone. “It’s just going to be a casual thing-”
“Totally, totally,” Changyoon reassures him, though he already sounds distracted, and Hyojin’s eyes cast impatiently up to the ceiling. “Just a casual thing, we’ll be there.”
“Great,” Hyojin sighs. “Tell Jaeyoung he’s not invited.”
“Sure thing,” Changyoon says immediately, chirpily. He’s not even listening anymore. Hyojin can feel the prospect of his relaxing weekend at home fly out of the window and swan dive onto the pavement.
“Thank you,” Minkyun says later, when Seungjoon’s out picking up delivery food, and the movie they’d been watching has been paused, curled against Hyojin’s chest as if he were the smallest of the two of them. Most of the time, he feels like he is, though a few weeks ago his caramel-coloured hair had faded and been dyed a raven black, so now when Hyojin looks at him sometimes he can only see the tall boy up on the stage of a jazz bar, demanding their attention, charming patrons with his wide grin. Equal times he wakes up to see Minkyun chasing Jay around the apartment, laughing like a toddler with his hair standing in every direction, so it balances out.
Hyojin tuts him, though the fingers running through his dark hair are gentle.
“I have three demos to be handed in before the end of the year,” he says, though they all know Hyojin’s schedule by heart, Minkyun after being subjected to so many late night stress-rants, Seungjoon because he always keep up-to-date with the deadlines, in case Hyojin himself were to forget one. “You better clear out your calendar.”
Minkyun sighs, already stealing himself for hours in the studio with Hyojin’s frustrated directions, but if that’s what it takes to celebrate with the two of them, he’s willing, and by the end of the week it isn’t only Hyojin who’s exhausted, and Seungjoon walks into the living room the day before new years eve to find them both asleep on the couch where he’d left them, mouths open, movie still playing. Minkyun has a very different method of dealing with stress than Hyojin though, and when new years eve finally arrives, and Hyojin has, in fact, handed every demo in and finished every project he’d needed to, he’s only more insistent on the party, and he leaves early that morning with an excited grin and no explanation as to where he’s going. Seungjoon, amused, let’s him go, and spends the day making tea and changing channels for Hyojin, checking his watch every now and then to make sure Minkyun hasn’t been out too long. The party starts at seven, and Minkyun arrives on the dot (which is to say, half an hour before all of the other guests who decide to be fashionably late.)
Seungjoon smirks up at him from one of the sofas. His dark hair has been styled in lazy waves, parted slightly, and the long coat Hyojin had bought him for Christmas is a similar inky shade, making the gold of his skin stand out. He looks so serious, as he toes off his shoes, and Seungjoon’s eyes follow the motions of him slipping out of his coat, right up until the moment Minkyun turns and spots him, and fixes him with his wide grin.
“Where’s Hyojin?”
“Kitchen,” Seungjoon says, eyes still lingering on Minkyun as he tips his head, but Hyojin interrupts before he can say anything, shuffling back toward the other sofa with a glass of water in his hands.
“The party should be starting soon,” Minkyun says, the serious look broken as he steps further into the room and looks around, at Seungjoon spread out on the sofa, the empty coffee table. His eyes travel down Hyojin’s form, taking in the crumpled t-shirt and jeans he’s still wearing. “You’re not ready?”
“Sure I’m ready,” Hyojin shrugs, and Seungjoon sighs, and rises from the sofa, holding out a placating hand.
“I’ve got this,” he tells Minkyun, taking one of Hyojin’s arms at the elbow. “You can set up snacks, or something.”
He shepherds Hyoijn through to his room, ignoring all of the protests and attempts to escape, and starts rummaging through the drawers of a dresser before Hyojin can stop him. Irritated, the red haired boy throws himself down onto the bed, scuffing his socks against the carpet as he swings his legs, though he doesn’t say anything until Seungjoon’s stepping closer, throwing clothes down into his lap and reaching to close the door. Hyojin’s brows rise as the younger boy leans back against the wood, arms crossed, and smirks at him.
“Really?”
Seungjoon just lifts one shoulder, gaze dropping to the pile of clothes Hyojin is begrudgingly holding and back up to his face, a playful glint to them. Hyojin does nothing for a moment, just returns the look, and Seungjoon keeps grinning at him. He gets to his feet, his laugh a little shaky.
“I can get dressed by myself,” he says.
“I know,” Seungjoon grins.
Hyojin huffs. The clothes Seungjoon had picked out for him hang in a fisted hand at his side. “You’re really just going to stand there?”
Seungjoon quirks a brow. “Why, d’you want company?” He reaches behind him, only stepping forward just enough to inch the door open, turning his face toward the gap in the doorframe. His voice rises a little, “Min-”
Hyojin’s fingers clutch the hem at the bottom of his t-shirt. “Alright, alright.”
There’s a sly laugh behind him as he turns and pulls his shirt over his head, dressing quickly, too conscious of Seungjoon’s gaze heavy on his back to take his time. He’d picked out skinny white jeans, a pair he’d mentioned a few times before, and Hyojin sighs and turns just enough to look over his shoulder, raising a brow, but doesn’t have the confidence to actually say anything, or turn round fully, until he’s ready, the white jeans and dark satin shirt finally in place. Seungjoon, still leaning against the door, lets his eyes purposefully slowly trail over the outfit, and then he laughs, and steps forward. There’s a chain in his hands, that Hyojin hadn’t saw him picking up, and he twines his arms around Hyojin’s neck to fasten it, a little golden cross dropping to sit just above the dark satin neckline.
Hyojin tries his hardest to glower as Seungjoon steps back to appraise him again. “Are you done?”
Considering it, Seungjoon gives a thoughtful hum, and then reaches for the doorhandle again. “Let’s see what Minkyun thinks, shall we?”
Hyojin rolls his eyes and fights away a smile as Seungjoon leads him back into the living room. Minkyun, in dark trousers and a baggy suede t-shirt, glances up at them from where he’d been pouring pretzels into a glass bowl on their coffee table and smirks. He sets the snack bag down and leans in to kiss the corner of Hyojin’s lips, a quick peck that’s fleeting, but not soft.
Hyojin grumbles and throws himself down onto the middle of the sofa. “You’re both working against me, this isn’t fair.”
Seungjoon stops fiddling with the collar of his dress shirt and wraps a hand around Minkyun’s waist, hand low on his hip. He pouts down at Hyojin sarcastically, and Minkyun giggles. From the way Seungjoon follows the younger boy with his eyes when Minkyun ducks back into the kitchen, it’s clear he’s thinking about the bar too, the now countless performances they’d sat through, watching Minkyun practically turn into a different person. Hyojin scowls, and bites down sharply on a pretzel.
Seungjoon turns toward the noise, frowning. They’d gotten it out of him the night before, when Minkyun had made some passing comment about being excited and Hyojin had protested the party again, what it was that was really bothering him. Sure, Seungjoon had saw Hyojin go through creative slumps before, but they weren’t usually like this, and he hadn’t really believed it was just work stress that’d been getting him down. It was then that he’d put his foot down, and together they’d got the real story out of him. Christmas had been dull and long for all of them, when they were separated, but it seems it had been worse for Hyojin. Seungjoon didn’t realise it would eat at him so much, to not be able to tell his parents about them, but Hyojin had always been close to his family. If it had just been one of them, there would be nothing to hide, but Seungjoon himself had been cautious about inviting them both around for a family dinner, even if Minkyun’s parents knew everything and seemed just as accepting as Minkyun had known they would be.
Sighing, he drops onto the sofa beside Hyojin. The red haired boy doesn’t make any move to push him away when Seungjoon puts a hand around his shoulders, and Seungjoon pulls him closer, into his chest, resting his chin in the crimson of the older boy’s hair. “There’s nothing we have to hide tonight,” he says quietly, not wanting Minkyun to hear. “All of our friends know. They’re fine with it.”
“They tell us they are,” Hyojin mumbles, voice muffled by Seungjoon’s shirt.
“You don’t trust them?”
“It’s- it’s just we’ll never know what anyone thinks. Not really, no matter what they tell us.”
“It doesn’t matter what they think,” Seungjoon tells him, arms wrapping tight around him. His voice is so fierce it had startled himself, too, and he can feel Hyojin shifting in his grip, tipping his chin up as if trying to see his face. “You’re not dating them, you’re dating us . What we think is the only thing that matters.” Hyojin sighs, his breath tickling the bare skin at Seungjoon’s neck, and he loosens his hold enough for them to look at each other, faces close enough to touch but not quite, as Seungjoon’s gentle smile sharpens at the edges. “And right now I’m thinking about how those jeans are still the best thing I’ve ever bought you.”
Hyojin splutters a startled laugh and shoves him away. “Pervert,” he mutters, shaking his head, but there’s a smile growing on his lips when Minkyun steps back into the room, smiling bemusedly at the two of them laughing, and Seungjoon knows the joke has worked.
He glances at his watch as Minkyun sighs, hands on his hips as he hovers by the coffee table. “Shouldn’t the others be here by now?”
Minkyun starts to grumble something, but he’s cut off by the sound of a doorbell, and he immediately forgets his annoyance, an elated, excited grin stretching ear-to-ear as he rushes to open the door. Hyojin laughs, despite himself.
Changyoon comes striding in first, pink-cheeked with the cold, a scarf billowing out behind him, and catches Hyojin just as he stands to greet them all, screeching happily as he pulls the older boy to him in a rough hug. Hyojin whines, but doesn’t push him away, as Minkyun returns with Yuto and Jaeyoung on his heels.
“They’re here!” he cries, slightly breathless with what must be the after-effects of his own Changyoon embrace. “Late, but here- and Changyoon! Stop trying to steal my boyfriend!”
“But you’ve got two!” Changyoon cries back, only tightening his hold on Hyojin’s arm when the red haired boy tries to slip away. “Can’t you do without one?”
“Yeah, Minkyun,” a drier voice says, and Yuto steps up to Seungjoon, clapping him lightly on the back, “leave some for the rest of us.” Minkyun laughs, and drags him to sit with him on the sofa, casting a glowering look in Changyoon’s direction as he does.
Seungjoon gives Jaeyoung a small smile. “I think I remember telling you you weren’t invited,” Hyojin tells him, as Changyoon fusses over glasses and bottles, already pouring drinks.
Jaeyoung scoffs an offended laugh. “You know this was my house too,” he says, the same thing he always says, when they tease him, the card he always plays in arguments. “Don’t make me regret being hospitable enough to swap roommates.”
“As if,” Changyoon laughs. “We’re way better than these two.” Hyojin pokes him in the ribs, and he laughs. “Well, one of them, anyway.” Seungjoon crosses his arms as Changyoon’s eyes flicker up to his, pointedly.
“For the last time, the bet was technically Hyojin’s idea!” he cries. “Why is he still your favourite?”
“He didn’t make you agree to it,” Changyoon shrugs, and Minkyun laughs as Seungjoon sulks, stepping up behind him and resting his chin on his shoulder.
“Don’t look like that,” he lilts, voice low in a way that makes Seungjoon shiver, head tipped so as he speaks his lips almost graze skin. “I don’t pick favourites.”
From the couch, Hyojin raises a brow at them, too close to CHangyoon’s excitable chatter to hear what they’re saying, and Seungjoon laughs breathlessly and steps away, perching on the arm of the sofa next to Yuto’s spot. He can just pick out Minkyun’s close-lipped laugh in the din as the taller boy goes to sit between Hyojin and Changyoon.
“He treating you alright?” Seungjoon asks, leaning closer to Yuto and jabbing his chin in Jaeyoung’s direction. Jaeyoung scoffs again, affronted, and Yuto giggles.
“It’s going great, actually,” he says, voice sweet and quiet as it always is, immediately placating Jaeyoung, who just takes the drink Changyoon passes him with a roll of his eyes. “We get along really well.”
Seungjoon knows it had been sudden, had been perhaps a little less certain of the idea as Minkyun and Hyojin had been, but it’s been almost three months since the move, when Minkyun and Jaeyoung had traded places, and it seems to be going well. Jaeyoung is closer to all the places he needs to be, now, and Minkyun no longer has to bug them about bringing Jay. Jaeyoung had joked the first night, when Seungjoon had panicked and called him to check for the hundredth time, that he’d do anything to escape the two of them moaning constantly about missing the younger boy. It’s good, though, that they’re all getting along.
“Changyoon talks almost as much as you do though, Joon,” Jaeyoung says, and Changyoon glares at him over his shoulder, and Seungjoon reaches past Yuto to shove him.
“If anyone can complain about the noise,” Hyojin speaks up, “it should be me. I never thought this loft could actually get louder, but you wouldn’t believe how loud they are.”
Minkyun and Seungjoon share a conspiratory glance, neither looking too put out by the complaint, and Minkyun raises a brow.
“If we’re airing dirty laundry now-” he starts, and Seungjoon and Hyojin both rush to talk over him, equally urgent, and he bites his tongue, grinning.
Yuto holds his hands up to his ears, shaking his head. “I don’t want to know.”
Minkyun sticks his tongue out at him.
“What’s the plan for tonight, then?” he asks, directing the question to Minkyun, and Changyoon, as an afterthought.
“Truth or dare with a twist?” Yuto offers, teasing, and both Hyojin and Minkyun turn a bright cranberry-red. Seungjoon chuckles.
“I’m not drunk enough for that yet,” Jaeyoung shivers. “How ‘bout something tamer?”
They all roll their eyes at him, poke fun, but they settle down quickly, three to a sofa, drinks in hand, talking about whatever comes to their mind. They make a good group- Changyoon and Minkyun’s electric laughs, constant jokes, Yuto and Jaeyoung’s calmer composure, Hyojin’s sudden, sharp inputs, Seungjoon somewhere in the middle of it all, dulling Hyoijn’s quick tongue, teasing Minkyun back down to earth when he’s too carried away, paring Jaeyoung and Yuto knowing glances. It’s a few hours later that Seungjoon finds himself next to Hyojin, far closer to drunk than he had been, a pleasant, warm buzz falling over him. Hyojin had loosened up eventually, laughing along just as easily as the rest of them, and he sighs happily as Seungjoon leans against his side, one hand on Hyojin’s thigh, both of them watching Minkyun come back through from the kitchen with trays of takeout food. Jaeyoung and Changyoon are howling with laughter about something on other sofa, Yuto shaking his head at them, smiling, and none of them notice the food as Minkyun sets it down, and then grins at the two of them sitting close.
“Room for one more?” he asks, and Seungjoon laughs, and Hyojin gives him a playful, sharp grin. Minkyun smiles and pulls Seungjoon’s hand from his leg so he can settle into Hyojin’s lap, and the older boy breathes a surprised laugh, groaning.
“You know,” he says, close to Minkyun’s ear, “I think you forget how much bigger you are than me sometimes.”
“You’ll live,” Minkyun laughs. He’s distracted by Hyojin’s fingertips digging into his hips, bruisingly strong, and doesn’t realise what’s about to happen until Hyojin’s pushing him and he’s toppling on top of Seungjoon instead, both of them yelping with surprise.
Seungjoon recover fast, capturing Minkyun with his ankles locked around his waist like an oversized koala, shaking his head at Hyojin. “You really are stronger than you look.”
Minkyun is red-faced and startled, but shifts backward so he’s lying more comfortably against Seungjoon’s chest. “I think you bruised me,” he tells Hyojin.
The red haired boy smirks. “Good,” he says, and Minkyun pouts at him.
They’re brought out of their little bubble by a terrifying gasp- Changyoon, opposite, is staring down at his phone screen with wide eyes. “It’s almost midnight!”
Minkyun gasps and fights to sit up, scrambling for the tv remote. The countdown they’d muted in favour of better music a while ago is still playing, though now the clock behind the host shows an hour dangerously close to midnight, and after a few minutes the real countdown starts, the chant of the last minute pounding through speakers as Changyoon and Minkyun pull everyone off of the sofas and to their feet, shoving drinks in their hands. Seungjoon catches a glimpse of Minkyun’s excited grin as he turns back to the television and laughs, something fluttering happily in his chest, and Changyoon starts joining in with the chant, so enthusiastically that by the time it reaches the last ten seconds, even Hyojin is screaming with him.
Five!
Minkyun winds a hand around Hyojin’s waist, jostling him closer.
Four!
Seungjoon’s laugh is just audible above the chaos. Hyojin turns toward him, smiling ruefully.
Three!
Seungjoon’s arm joins Minkyun’s on Hyojin’s waist, and the two share a look behind the oldest boy’s back.
Two!
Seungjoon giggles, and nods, with an encouraging tip of his chin. Hyojin’s brows shoot up as Minkyun turns his face to his.
One!
Seungjoon leans in to kiss Hyojin’s cheek as the countdown ends, drawing back just as Minkyun does, and both of them can see Hyojin’s flushed, colour high in his cheeks, eyes half-lidded, as he turns toward Seungjoon, too, and the room around them fills with screeches and applause and laughter.
“Happy new year,” Seungjoon says, against Hyojin’s lips, feeling as much as seeing the other boy smile, already feeling Minkyun tugging at his arm.
“Happy new year, Seungjoon.”