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It was a particularly unique afternoon, at least in Sunghoon’s opinion. Him and Jay had wrapped up filming early that day and as it was the last thing on their schedule, the one and only unit were able to leave the rest of the members behind and head home for the night.
Sunghoon had already crawled into his bed, having washed up and changed into much more comfortable apparel, and was staring dazedly towards the ceiling. The realization came quite quickly that being in the dorm with only one other person was a bit uncomfortable. Not in a terrible way but in a similar manner to being at school after hours. A place of such familiarity and yet with a lack of noise and bustling that left the air stagnant and a bit stifling.
“No!”
Sunghoon jerked into an upright position, obviously he had spoken too soon when the only other person in the room was Park Jongseong.
Crawling down from his bed, Sunghoon stuck his head out of the bedroom doorway to look skeptically towards where Jay lay face first on the couch, a muffled groan emitting from his general direction.
“Uh, are you okay?” Sunghoon raised an eyebrow, a hand lifting to ruffle his hair away from his eyes.
“Haven’t you been reading the groupchat?” Jay tilted his head out of the couch just for the sentence before turning to press it back into the couch.
“No, why? Is something wrong?”
Another head turn, “Yes.”
Sunghoon could tell by the boy’s lack of motivation that whatever the issue was, it was minimal and so Sunghoon instead let a small grin spread across his face as he crossed the room and sat down by Jay’s head, pulling his phone out of his pocket simultaneously.
A few thumb swipes and Sunghoon took a glancing scan through the multitude of messages the others had sent. Mostly it seemed to be varying meme’s and animal videos but between the media, Sunghoon spotted a small conversation regarding weekend plans.
As it so happened, the boys would be getting an entire day off. A rare and welcomed treat and in the messages, both bolded and heavily emoticoned it read:
FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT (plus chicken!)
“What’s wrong with a movie?” Sunghoon lifted a hand to pat the back of Jay’s head, only vaguely worried his friend may be actively trying to suffocate himself.
“Keep reading,”
Scrolling down just a bit further, Sunghoon sighed in understandingly and began actively petting Jay’s hair. The movie option, it seemed, was a horror film that Sunghoon had never and would never want to watch.
“Awe, it’s okay, maknae,” Sunghoon teased, gently tugging a strand of Jay’s hair causing the boy to huff a warning but the noise held significantly less threat as faint as it was, “You can do it.”
Jay pulled out from under Sunghoon’s hand and turned up to glare pointedly at the other, “Stop trying to act tough, you hate horror movies.”
“I’m not going to watch.” Sunghoon answered firmly, crossing his now empty hands across his chest.
“I think you completely missed the point of family movie night.” Jay monotoned.
Sunghoon blew a stream of air out of his mouth, letting it push his bangs up from his forehead only briefly, “You’re right.”
“We’re so screwed.”
The two 02z both groaned in shared despair as they collapsed backwards onto the couch, barely dodging a harsh knocking of heads. Sunghoon already trying to think of a way to feign a stomach ache come the weekend, maybe he could eat too much? Was pretending to have an allergic reaction going too far?
Sunghoon prided himself in many things; his looks, his dancing, his performing abilities, even his fashion sense. Sunghoon, however, also did not hold any false allusion to the idea that he was tough enough to watch a real horror movie.
Jay was much the same. Jay was cool and funny and incredibly talented but he was not fearless. For as long as the two had known each other, Sunghoon had never known Jay to appreciate anything even mildly scary. The slightly older boy even avoided dark rooms and jumped when someone across the room coughed too loud.
Both were surprised the others had managed to convince Jake to watch the movie as well, their fellow 02z just as bothered by scary movies.
“I have an idea.”
Sunghoon startled once, glancing over where Jay sat in a classic thinkers pose- knee drawn up and hand resting on chin. The brunette had an almost intimidating look of concentration on his face.
Sunghoon could tell the other wasn’t going to continue speaking without prompt and so replied, “What is it?”
“Don’t make fun of me.”
“No promises.”
“Hoon.”
“Fine.”
“Well… the others aren’t going to be back for the next two hours so what if we watch the movie now so that we know where the scary parts are so it won’t be so bad this weekend?”
Sunghoon opened his mouth to shut down the idea before freezing, jaw still slack. It wasn’t a terrible idea. Actually, it was a very, very smart idea.
“Jay-ah, you’re a genius.” Sunghoon pulled his mouth shut and grinned brightly over at Jay, eye’s bright.
Not thirty minutes later, two scaredy cats sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch as a naive main character walked down a desolate hallway, the scene made overly intrusive by the sheer size of their living room TV.
A sharp burst of music and a blade to the characters throat made the both of them jump, Sunghoon reacting by instinct and reaching towards Jay. Jay seemed to have similar instincts and had moved towards Sunghoon, the two now clutching each other tightly. Sunghoon’s head was pressed against Jay’s chest and the other had wrapped his arms just a bit too roughly around Sunghoon’s shoulder where he was also attempting to duck his head towards.
Sunghoon almost laughed at their visceral reaction, but the music coming from the TV was still a bit too demonically spirited for any form of enjoyment.
The ice skater realized that he was probably holding Jay too tightly and went to loosen his grip, only to cough once as Jay tightened his own as though afraid his new safety teddy bear was attempting to escape. Sunghoon melted back into his hold, all too happy to let Jay tuck his head back down in a position that only allowed Sunghoon to half see the screen.
“We tell no one we got this scared.” Jay whispered once, tone a bit shaky.
“Not a soul.” Sunghoon responded, already relaxing into the way Jay had begun to rub neck. The action simultaneously calming and highly appreciated against his sore muscles.
Jay wasn’t someone who Sunghoon often was this physically close to. The two generally shared a teasing and friendly relationship despite knowing Jay the longest out of nearly all the others. Sure, they held hands when the situation called and Jay was known to casually swing an arm over Sunghoon’s shoulder for a picture but in comparison to the others Sunghoon could count on two hands the amount of times he’d truly cuddled with Jay.
That said, this was a moment Sunghoon would not lose the memory of. He found himself appreciating the strength with which Jay held him, arms sturdy and reliable much like Jay himself. The hand massaging his neck was beginning to numb the skin but the contact was so effortless and so unlike their typical relationship that Sunghoon couldn’t find it in himself to tell the other to stop.
Sunghoon burrowed his face further into Jay’s chest as a jump scare popped out, Jay also digging his nose into Sunghoon’s hair.
It was perhaps a bit embarrassing that two 19 year old boys were sitting cuddled in fear against a fictional movie that, in hindsight, didn’t even have that good of effects, but Sunghoon couldn’t find it in himself to care and based on Jay’s hold neither did he.
When the rest of the members returned, they would see Jay playing video games or watching a (not scary) drama with Sunghoon on the opposite side of the couch playing on his phone and be none the wiser but for now, at this moment, Sunghoon would just enjoy his time with his one and only unit.