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“Haechan, who would you like to date among these six friends of yours if you were a girl?”
The members around Haechan snorted and looked at him expectantly, except for one member who sat right beside him.
Haechan knew the answer to this question by heart. Call him crazy, but he had been waiting to get this kind of question for a really long time and it finally came.
There's this one person that Haechan would like to date if he was a girl. Well, technically, he would like to date this person regardless of what circumstances they were currently in.
All Haechan knew was that he really wanted to date this person.
Haechan took a quick glance at the person who sat beside him once again before bringing his eyes back onto the radio DJ who was waiting for his answer.
“It's Jaemin.”
Chaos erupted around Haechan after they heard his answer. He laughed silently when he saw how confused Jeno was, questioning him the reason behind his answer.
Haechan turned his head back to the person who sat beside him only to find the said person was looking at him as well. Na Jaemin, was looking at him satisfiedly, with his infamous smug expression.
“Oh, Jaemin looks like he knew he’d be picked?” The DJ said before continuing, “Haechan, what’s the reason?”
Of course he knew he’d be picked.
Haechan thought while clearing his throat a little. He looked at Jaemin and then looked at the DJ before he finally started talking again. He could feel Jaemin was staring at him intensely, burning holes into the side of his temple.
“First of all, I think it would be fun to be with him,” Haechan said as he slightly tilted his head towards Jaemin, giving that man a small grin, even though it wouldn’t be seen since he wore a mask.
He felt a little embarrassed but the look that Jaemin was giving him encouraged him to say more, “Jaemin is a very caring person, he is really good at cooking too. He is also good at cleaning, doing the chores—” Before Haechan could say more, Jaemin cut him off, “Hey, hey. Wait this sounds a little wrong.”
Haechan quickly shook his head and opened his mouth again, “No, no. It’s like.. Jaeminie here is good at things that I’m not good at. So he would fill what I’m missing. He would complete me just fine.”
“So you were saying that, you are not good at these things— cooking, cleaning?”
“He cooks well too, though.” Jaemin answered while looking at Haechan amusedly.
Busted.
Haechan blushed embarrassedly when he realized that he had just been busted by Jaemin himself. He knew that he shouldn’t have included cooking as one of the reasons, but have you ever tasted Na Jaemin’s cooking? The grilled meat that they all ate on 7llin’ in the dream a few weeks ago had never left Haechan’s mind for one second. It was so good to the point it made him say ‘I love you’ to Jaemin in front of the camera.
“Well, I’m not good at cleaning, obviously. Ah— I’m not very caring too as a person.” Haechan laughed along with the other members who seemed to agree with that.
Except for Jaemin, who had immediately blurted out, “No, I think you are caring enough as a person too.”
Haechan’s eyes lit up as he processed what the man beside him just said. He bit his own lower lip that was hidden under the mask that he was wearing, feeling a little braver than before.
“Jaemin here has a very nice voice too,” Haechan said all of a sudden. “He has so many charming points that would make you fall for him.”
Haechan almost groaned out loud when he realized what he had said just now. He did not just say that he would like to date Jaemin, but he also professed his undying attraction for the man who sat beside him and kept on looking at him silently in amusement. And it was live, on a radio show.
He tried to stay as calm as he could be as he listened to the radio DJ. “Alright. Then, let’s hear from Jaemin’s side too! Jaemin, what do you think?”
Jaemin smiled and leaned forward to speak closer to the mic, “It’s been a while since Haechan complimented me, so I’m impressed by his compliments for me.”
“Ah, you are impressed?”
“Yes, yes. I’m impressed,” Jaemin said satisfiedly while looking at Haechan.
The radio DJ nodded before opening her mouth again, “Then, let me ask this to Jaemin. If you were a girl, who would you date among your members?”
Haechan blinked his eyes as he looked at Jaemin in anticipation, waiting for the man who sat beside him to give out his answer.
“I will live alone, of course,” Jaemin answered, letting out a playful laugh as he saw the anticipation in Haechan’s face. The other members and the radio DJ had laughed too once they heard Jaemin’s answer.
Of course he chose to mess with me, of course. Haechan thought, but still laughed along with everyone else.
“Living alone is not bad at all,” The radio DJ said and added, “Haechan is rejected.”
Haechan dramatically sighed and shook his head dejectedly while everyone else laughed harder at his misery before they finally moved onto the next segment.
***
“So, you think I have a nice voice, huh?”
Haechan rolled his eyes as he found Jaemin standing in front of him while leaning himself against the wall with a small playful smirk plastered on his face. “Shut up. I’m still mad that you rejected me and chose to live alone.”
They were currently taking a little break from their practice. They had played rock, paper, scissors earlier. This time they switched things up so the losers would stay at the practice room instead of the winners.
As a result, Mark, Renjun and Jeno had gone with the manager hyung to buy dinner and their youngest members, Chenle and Jisung, went to get coffees for all of them. While the losers, Haechan and Jaemin, were being left alone at the practice room.
Jaemin laughed a little as he took a step closer to Haechan, “You do know that at this point we both know that we had never been able to be mad with each other except for that one time kimchi jjigae accident, right?”
Haechan knew Jaemin was right. It was just how their relationship worked. They both teased each other, annoyed each other, sometimes even acted like they were each other’s biggest enemies, but they would never be truly mad with each other.
“Fine, I’m not mad at you.”
“You still haven’t answered my question, Haechanie.”
Haechan shook his head in embarrassment as Jaemin kept on pressing him to answer the question. “Fine, I will answer duh— You do have a nice voice, happy now, Na?”
“And you also think that I have lots of charming points that would make one fall for me, right?” Jaemin took one more step closer to Haechan, waiting for him to answer his question with a curious glint in his eyes.
There was something about Jaemin and his confidence radiating throughout his body paired with the daring gaze that he gave to him made Haechan realize that there was no point of him backing out or denying things that he had already said. Because after all, Haechan was a weak man, with Na Jaemin being his number one weakness.
“Yes. I had said that loud and clear for everyone to hear on the radio show earlier. So what?”
Haechan held his breath as Jaemin innocently yet confidently took another step closer, before stopping himself right in front of Haechan with a small smirk plastered across his face, “Then, have you fallen for me, Lee Haechan?”
Haechan looked at the black haired man who stood in front of him blankly after hearing that question. Just how dumb and dense Jaemin was to ask this question to him again, when he had practically told everyone that he had the biggest and fattest crush for the said man on live radio earlier?
“Are you seriously asking me that now, Na Jaemin? I technically professed my undying love for you earlier and even said I wanted to date you. What part of it do you not understand that me, the almighty Lee Haechan, has fallen for you, you stupid?”
“So, you really have fallen for me?” Haechan watched as the smirk that was still plastered on Jaemin’s face got even bigger than before.
“Yes, stupid. And if you asked me about that again, I’ll punch you.”
“Punch me with your lips?” Jaemin raised both of his eyebrows and wiggled it playfully towards Haechan, who shrieked and frowned at Jaemin, “Never ever do that again, Na Jaemin. Never. Gross.”
Jaemin laughed and brought his index finger up to touch the frown that was formed on Haechan’s forehead, trying to ease it up. He had always loved teasing the older man and found his reactions were very endearing to witness.
“Stop frowning or you will get wrinkles.” Jaemin smiled softly as he let his gaze fall on Haechan’s round beautiful face. “Can I ask you something?”
Haechan let out a small low hum as he squirmed a little under Jaemin’s intense gaze before answering him playfully. “Isn’t that what you had already done since earlier? As long as it’s not something stupid then ask away.” Haechan scoffed and sat down on the floor before gesturing to Jaemin to sit down beside him.
“Since when and how?” Jaemin asked once he settled himself down beside Haechan who’s currently leaning his head and back against the wall.
Upon hearing the question came out of Jaemin’s mouth, Haechan closed his eyes as if he was trying to remember when and how it happened. Since when did he start falling for Jaemin, the one that he had practically grown up with for the past seven years? How did he realize that he was attracted to one of his team members and even had the desire to date him in the first place?
Maybe it was through their sleepless nights together, sharing warmth with one another as they fell asleep in their old practice room when they were still trainees after a long, tiring day, Haechan found himself being attracted to Jaemin’s warmth and wanting it more and more as the time went by.
Maybe it was through Jaemin’s absence a couple years back and Haechan found himself yearning for Jaemin’s presence. He still remembered clearly how he refused to give Jaemin a call, not because Haechan saw Jaemin as his enemy, but because he didn’t want to break down and cry in the middle of his call with Jaemin. (But in the end, Haechan did have his breakdown when Jaemin finally came back to the group, he cried his eyes out in Jaemin’s embrace with Jaemin whispering ‘I’m back, Haechanie’ softly against his ears.)
Or maybe it was through their playful bickering and serious fights that Haechan found himself someone that would always be there for him no matter what. No matter how annoyed they were towards each other, no matter how nasty the fights they had, Jaemin would still be there for Haechan. Even when Haechan annoyed the younger man by whining at him at 2 in the morning to cook kimchi jjigae for him, he still found Jaemin cooking the said food and waited for him to finish and clean everything up before going back to sleep again.
Maybe Haechan had fallen for Jaemin since forever, through those small but precious moments that they had shared together.
It had always been Jaemin and no one else for Haechan.
Haechan let out a small chuckle before opening his eyes slowly and tilted his head aside to look at Jaemin who had been staring at him, patiently waiting for the answer to his question.
“Isn’t it funny, no matter how hard I tried remembering when and how it happened, I couldn’t really find the exact answer to it,” Haechan said softly as he kept on looking at Jaemin in the eyes.
“I guess I have fallen for you since forever and through those times that we have spent together, which is like a lot, you know. I think it all happened naturally, like no matter where I look, all of my stories have you in it and they are always about you. You are the main character that I have fallen for since forever. It has always been you, Jaemin and no one else.”
Haechan took a deep breath after finishing his speech, breaking his eye-contact with Jaemin and avoiding to look at the younger man even longer than necessary. He could feel his cheeks heating up so he bowed his head down a little to hide his blushing cheeks from Jaemin who still hadn’t said anything at all.
It was silent between the two of them for a while and Haechan started to get nervous.
What if I fucked this up and made things awkward with Jaemin. Maybe I should have answered with I don’t know or maybe I should have just said that I was just ki —
Haechan’s train of thoughts got interrupted all of a sudden when he felt his hands were being held by someone. He quickly looked up only to find Jaemin’s beautiful eyes staring back at him. Apparently he had been too deep in his thoughts that he didn’t notice that Jaemin had moved from his initial place to sit in front of him.
Jaemin’s lips held a faint soft smile and his eyes twinkled as he continued holding Haechan’s hands gently, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Stop thinking for a moment, can you?”
“Well maybe I can if you said something instead of being silent after I said all of that.” Haechan said before he heard Jaemin’s soft laugh echoing around the empty practice room.
“I’m very sorry, love. I was just surprised and trying to process everything first, that’s all,” Jaemin said before giving Haechan’s hands another gentle squeeze.
“Is it a good kind of surprise or a bad kind of surprise?”
“It’s a good kind of surprise, don’t worry. You didn’t fuck this up, Haechanie.”
The smile that Jaemin gave him after saying that he didn’t fuck this up made him feel so warm and tingly. Haechan could feel the butterflies inside his stomach start dancing around as Jaemin leaned in closer towards him, slowly closing the gap between them. He could feel Jaemin’s soft yet fierce gaze on his lips as he inched closer. He could definitely feel the younger’s hot breath brushed against his lips while he pressed his forehead against his.
“Can I kiss you?”
Haechan nodded his head slowly as he really didn’t want to embarrass himself by answering Jaemin’s question with his own squeaky and trembling voice. He let the man in front of him close the gap between the two of them by planting his lips against his, eyes fluttering shut as they kissed.
Kissing Jaemin would always bring a beautiful feeling to Haechan. It’s obviously not their first time kissing each other, but Haechan always felt something similar like fireworks, sparking between them every time their lips met and by the end of their kiss, Jaemin would always leave Haechan breathless and feeling giddy.
Kissing Jaemin was easy and Haechan couldn’t help but wanting to do that more and more.
They broke the kiss after a while and pressed their foreheads against each other while trying to catch some breath. Haechan let out a soft laugh as he found the image of him and Jaemin being breathless in the middle of the practice room and not because they were practicing funny.
“Stop laughing, stupid. What’s so funny?” Jaemin said while still trying to breathe properly.
“Nothing. Just seeing you looking all disheveled like this and knowing it was because of me brings me satisfaction.”
Haechan watched Jaemin laugh along with him this time and he found himself falling for Jaemin once again, through the younger man’s beautiful laugh and bright face.
“So, what are we now, Nana?” Haechan asked once their laughter died down. Jaemin hummed and waited for a while before answering. “Boyfriends?”
Haechan snorted out loud and sighed dramatically before opening his mouth again, “All this time I thought, you, Na Jaemin is a romantic person and yet here you are saying that we are boyfriends without even asking me out properly.”
“Alright, alright. Let me ask you then,” Jaemin smiled brightly as he took Haechan’s hands and held them once again. “Will you, Lee Haechan, the cutest person I’ve ever known in my entire life, be my boyfriend?”
Haechan's eyes twinkled with happiness as he intertwined his fingers with Jaemin’s, “Yes, I will be your boyfriend, you stupid.”
“Then, if I asked you to move out and live together with me, would you say yes?” Jaemin looked at Haechan with high expectations written in his eyes.
Haechan scoffed and said, “Aren’t you the one who said you would rather live alone by yourself earlier on live radio?” Jaemin pouted but before he could say anything, Haechan opened his mouth again while smiling brightly to the younger man, “But I definitely would say yes, in the future, Na Jaemin.”