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jeonghan is self-assured.
you can tell just by looking at him. while being confident in one’s own abilities and self-image is a great thing, the stubbornness that tends to come with it is… not so great. to the bane of those closest to him, they have come to understand two fundamental facts about yoon jeonghan: 1) he does what he wants when he wants 2) there’s no use in changing his mind once it’s been made up.
that’s why it comes as a great shock to almost all of his friends, currently trying to fit in seokmin’s not-that-tiny-but-tiny-for-thirteen-people living room, when jeonghan nonchalantly raises his hand after jihoon asks who ordered the mint-chocolate frappuccino. the yoon jeonghan who boldly stated he would make out with his childhood friend wonwoo (with tongue)* before willingly consuming anything mint-chocolate flavored.
*the not-so-subtle glare minghao gave him was worth it
**seokmin clinging to him tighter than usual for the rest of that night wasn’t so bad either
a silent, questioning look runs down the metaphorical line: “what's gotten into jeonghan?” written on one face and passed to another as the person in question takes an unnecessarily loud sip, blissfully ignorant.
SHHLLLLLP
near the front door, equally oblivious but much hungrier, wonwoo commandeers jihoon’s job of distributing everyone’s order, eager to get to his kimchi fried rice before it gets cold. the room remains is quiet and still (both adjectives very subjective to the dynamics of a thirteen-member group of friends) as each person distractedly takes their respective take-out box once wonwoo calls their name.
it’s when jeonghan’s about to take another sip—still nestled into the arm of the couch while absentmindedly tapping on his phone—when the peanut gallery decides to voice their opinions on the matter.
“hyung, are you sick?” seungkwan questions from where he sits on the floor, leaning against jeonghan’s legs. his face is one of over-dramatic worry, the tone of his voice just as theatrical. it elicits a quiet snicker from hansol sitting to his right and an eye-roll from chan to his left.
on the other side of the floor table separating the room, with a mouth full of food and his meal somehow already half-eaten, soonyoung asks, “what bet did you lose? did you lose to shua for once?” the statement pulls an irritated grunt from joshua at the implication of him having a losing streak (he does), but he parrots soonyoung's question with seriousness, sans the losing streak part, curious as to who could’ve possibly bested the universe’s favorite.
and since jeonghan is as jeonghan does, he doesn’t even bother to look up from his phone at the sudden interrogation. he just gives a non-committal hum and waves away everyone’s inquiries with his free hand before grabbing his cup to purposefully take an even louder sip.
seungkwan and a few others whine at his dismissal (with seungcheol crying “annoying!” from the back of the room), but right on cue, seokmin walks back into the crowded room from the kitchen with two large bottles of soda and a bag of plastic cups mounted precariously on his arm. his attempt to concentrate is visible in the way he juts his lips ou, with his brows furrowed, walking way slower than he needs to. it doesn’t take long for the bombardment of questions to target a very, very, very unsuspecting seokmin, much to the pleasure of "an equally unsuspecting" jeonghan.
“yah!” mingyu points an accusing finger at seokmin’s confused face after dropping his weight onto seungcheol's back, his other arm instinctively putting the latter into a weak chokehold. “what’s wrong with jeonghan-hyung?”
seokmin furrows his brows deeper in thought, eye disappearing as he safely sets the two bottles and the bag of cups on the table. he mulls over the unexpected question in his head, wanting to give a proper answer. his train of thought goes as follows:
what’s wrong with jeonghan-hyung? is... is he sick? he looked fine to me this morning. he looks fine right now. oh god, is there something i don’t know? do my friends know my boyfriend better than i do? oh my g-
regardless, even if seokmin managed to answer it’s not like mingyu would be able to hear him anyway seeing as his head is now in a chokehold. specifically, seungcheol's.
back on the couch, jeonghan snorts out a quiet laugh and nudges the back of seokmin’s leg with the tip of his foot.
“yeah, seok, what’s wrong with me?”
at this point, everyone’s only half-invested in eating the food they ordered, preferring to be fed with juicy gossip instead—with the exception of hansol, who does not prefer to be fed with inedible, intangible forms of sustenance and minghao, who prioritizes showing wonwoo something cute he found on twitter. wonwoo doesn’t count either, his priority on looking at said cute things on minghao’s phone.
seokmin, still very, very confused, eventually settles in and takes his spot on the couch next to jeonghan, still trying to formulate an answer. it doesn’t make it any easier on his poor brain when he discovers the group has somehow derailed the conversation to exchange oddly-specific conspiracy theories about jeonghan. one theory claims the jeonghan in their presence is actually a clone counterpart of the real jeonghan. it also claims the real jeonghan is probably lounging around lazily in his own apartment because he didn’t have the energy to come to tonight’s get-together. nobody mentions the fact that seokmin's apartment is only a ten-minute walk from jeonghan's because, honestly? jeonghan could live on the same floor as seokmin and he would still have no energy to come over.
“wait, he doesn’t live here ?”
jun questions it so earnestly, it has the whole room in shambles with laughter, several bodies collapsed onto the floor. several of them take turns incredulously repeating his question, finding the next impersonation funnier than the last. even chan looks pleased despite the persistent slaps of amusement soonyoung keeps gracing his shoulder with.
jun doesn’t really know why everyone’s laughing, but he still smiles along anyway. he's just happy that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. next to him, wonwoo drops his head on minghao’s shoulder and opens his mouth, having listened to the entirety of the chaotic discussion and deciding it’s now his turn to speak.
“seokminnie likes mint-chocolate,” is the only thing that comes out.
it doesn’t occur to him that he hasn’t actually answered the question, too blinded by the pride twinkling in his own eyes for knowing this particular fact about his younger brother. it doesn’t occur to him until the room that was just filled with warm laughter, begins to fill with hot protests. unaffected, minghao giggles under his breath at everyone’s reaction to wonwoo’s confident non-answer and wonwoo's reaction to... everyone else's reaction.
“the heck! what does that even mean?” chan whines. the sound grinds into the ear of a flinching and displeased seungkwan, who aggressively wipes at the corner of the youngest’s mouth with a wet napkin. it doesn’t deter him from throwing in his two cents, though. he wouldn’t be boo seungkwan if it did.
“i mean, the rest of us like it too. it’s just weird because jeonghan-hyung hates it! don't you remember the time he said he would rather make-out with yo-”
a sticky hand is slapped over seungkwan’s mouth, effectively silencing him before he can continue—but it’s at the cost of hansol's palm, now bearing a bite mark that doesn’t look like it’ll go away any time soon. he accepts the stinging pain as an exchange for peace, averting the possibility of a sulky seokmin and jealous minghao making an appearance.
thank you full-metal alchemist for teaching me the ways of equivalent exchange.
— hansol vernon chwe (b. 1998)
the room jolts in surprise when seokmin happily cries out his response... to something that was said seven minutes ago. “i love mint-chocolate! especially as ice cream,” he agrees.
“i buy it almost once a week when i go to get those little microwave pizzas. you guys know which one, right? i like the bacon one, but you can never go wrong with just cheese!”
“and there you have it,” jeonghan pipes up, radiating amusement as the eyes boring into him overflow with frustration. he knows they don’t really care about the reason why he suddenly likes mint-chocolate at this point. he’s been around all of them long enough to know how much they all enjoy getting to an answer (by arguing) than getting the answer itself (after arguing). in this case, they’re tasked with finding out why the ever-set-in-his-ways jeonghan, who hated mint-chocolate only half a year ago, is now drinking a mint-chocolate frappuccino in front of them like it’s no big deal.
seokmin continues to ramble on about frozen pizzas, unaware of the mental gymnastics going through everyone’s heads. it's basically the qualifying round for everyone else when seokmin moves on to explain why store-bought frozen pizzas are just as good as fresh, restaurant pizzas (because all pizzas are created equal (except for those with pineapple (((those are kind of weird.)))
jeonghan, satisfied with the inner turmoil he’s catalyzed in the others, focuses his attention on seokmin, genuinely engrossed in his monologue as if he could listen to seokmin talk about the logistics of pizza delivery for days (he would).
everyone’s working to decipher jeonghan’s last statement. they’ve only been given slivers of information, but they'll be damned if they let jeonghan “win” this one.
after a few beats of contemplation, jihoon decisively narrows his eyes at joshua, who in turn forms a small o with his mouth, turning to face seungcheol. just like that, each person’s perplexed expression morphs into one of realization.
“i see the one brain-cell you all share is finally getting put to work.” jeonghan says teasingly once he notices the shared look on everyone's face.
the room splits into different reactions at jeonghan passively acknowledging the conclusion they’ve all reached. jun, mingyu, seungcheol, and seungkwan are flexing their fingers in the air and contorting their faces at how cringe-inducing this all turned out to be; jihoon and chan deadpan, mourning the time they wasted trying to find an answer that should have been painfully obvious from the start; joshua and soonyoung are giggling and nudging those next to them with their elbows. meanwhile, vernon, wonwoo, and minghao are just barely paying attention to the commotion from their respective corners.
the conversation eventually moves on to a movie chan saw the week before. when chan finishes giving "a spoiler-free dance interpretation of the film's plot" (having been challenged to do so by seungkwan and soonyoung), jihoon suddenly voices a single thought that ran through all their heads earlier on, “to think yoon jeonghan would change because of love....”
“oh, how the mighty fall,” mingyu sighs out with exasperation. he navigates his way past the amalgamation of his friends to the kitchen with the grace of a newborn pup. his lisp resonates into the living room once he discards his empty take-out box, “it's unprecedented.”
soonyoung considers all of this for a moment, then pouts with disappointment, “awww, does this mean you won’t be making out with wonwoo?” he doesn’t realize what he’s said (sometimes his inner voice and outer voice get mixed up) until twenty-four admonishing eyes bore into him. he doesn’t look at any of them, but the flush on his skin proclaims his embarrassment over the slip-up as he laughs sheepishly to brush it off. it’s too late though because the whole room erupts into laughter, including the my-pace group sans wonwoo, who instead gags at the thought of locking lips with jeonghan.
“gross. i’d rather eat mint-chocolate.”