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Chapter Text

When Jisung walks out of his former place of work with his boxed stuff in his arms, his bag slung awkwardly over his shoulder and the total sum of his hopes and dreams lying broken and burned in the building behind him, he isn't quite sure what comes next.

In his mind, it definitely wasn't Minho pulling up in his convertible Mercedes and coming to a stop right in front of him, but it's far better than anything he'd imagined. Hyunjin pokes his head out from behind Minho, lifting three fingers of one hand in a little wave. In the back, Changbin smirks at him from behind his dark shades. He's still staring dumbly when Minho lifts a hand off the steering wheel to push his own shades down his nose a little and give him a look over the top edge of them.

"Get in, bitch," the best friend out of all best friends says with all the enthusiasm of a dead fish, but Jisung sees that twitch of the corner of his mouth that indicates an excitement beyond human comprehension. "We're going coping."

Changbin lifts a blowout noisemaker to his lips and blows it like he's trying to get the whole neighbourhood involved. Hyunjin spasms in the front seat at the sudden noise right behind him, flailing like he might die from his surprise alone. Jisung is so in love with all of them he might cry.

Instead he walks over to the side of the car, hands the box with his stuff and his bag to Changbin to take care of and then puts his hands on the side of the car and hops into the one free space on the back seat.

"I'm so in love with you guys right now," he says full of conviction as he puts on his seatbelt and settles in for the ride. "If I wasn't literally straight we'd make out so hard."

"Shame," Changbin comments dryly.

"If you squint a little you could pretend I'm a girl," Hyunjin offers helpfully.

Minho puts the car in drive and pulls back onto the road, the roaring of the engine and the whipping wind cutting off any further conversation.

—

The karaoke place they end up at is not their usual, because that one's closed on Fridays - who the fuck does that, right? - but it's a good one too. Their snacks are incredible, their drinks are halfway to cheap and the song selection is impeccable.

Jisung is mid the best rendition of I Will Always Love You that anyone has ever done in the entire history of existence - no, he will not take criticism on this - when suddenly the emotion grabs him by the throat. The sudden, crippling realisation that he's broke, jobless, single and with no more dreams left standing hits him all at once, completely cutting off any single rational thought in his brain and he starts sobbing uncontrollably. Into the microphone.

The copious amounts of alcohol definitely have something to do with this.

From his right, Hyunjin launches a full body comforting attack, wrapping overly long limbs around him like they could become a blanket and pressing sloppy kisses all over his temple and cheek.

"Don't cry, Jisungie, baby, don't cry!" His friend exclaims with great worry, petting his hair and back as if to soothe all of the hurts inside of him through touch alone. "I'll be a girl for you! We'll make out! You'll be okay!"

"Shut up, Hyun," Changbin snaps from the couch. "He doesn't want to make out he needs another drink. Bring him here!" Changbin's always a little grumpy when drunk, but only when things aren't going his way. Anybody crying is definitely a prime example of that. So Jisung lets himself get dragged to the couch, lets Minho take the microphone from his hand and Hyunjin press more kisses to his cheek and Changbin hand him another shot to pour down his throat.

The next song that starts playing is definitely Minho's choice, proven by the way his friend jumps up from the couch to bring them another no doubt absolutely stellar performance of Gorgeous by Taylor The Queen Swift. Jisung holds out his shot glass for Changbin to refill it and then pours the whole thing down his throat again. Hyunjin giggles where he's hanging half over his shoulder still. Minho gives it his all while Changbin becomes a master of the tambourine.

…

"No but Jiji you are the handsomest of all the handsomes!" Hyunjin's voice is a little slurry, his face a little blurry. Is he crying?

"You're the absolute best," Changbin agrees like there's no denying it, and he feels his friend drape over his free shoulder, nuzzling into his ear. "There's like nothing you can't do. They were stupid for letting you go! Idiots!"

"Yes!" Minho yells from where he's hanging upside down off the side of the couch, punching the air with the nearly empty soju bottle in his hand. "Screw them all! You're a king and you deserve a workplace where they treat you accordingly!"

"I'm sexy and hot and everything they're not!" He agrees pointedly, grabbing his glass that miraculously keeps being full the entire evening long already.

…

Hyunjin giggles drunkenly in his ear. "Jisungie. Baby. Darling. Handsome. Who are you texting? You're looking so happy!"

He giggles right along, tapping a reply before looking up at Hyunjin with a big grin. "I'm texting my future girlfriend! Do we have another drink?"

A bottle is passed around to him while Hyunjin pouts at his phone. "But I was gonna be your future girlfriend," his friend mutters dejectedly. He passes the bottle to him after taking a sip of his own.

"Next time, baby."

…

"Noooooo!"

Changbin yells the absolute loudest of anyone ever, though Jisung isn't entirely sure what he's yelling about. Or where they are. Or why his hand's being squeezed so hard he thinks his fingers might just disintegrate.

He slowly lifts his head to look at the other person present, but they're looking down at something with great concentration so he thinks he really shouldn't bother them.

"Changbin what the fuuuuuck?" Minho yells back from somewhere else and he absolutely has no idea what's going on so he lets himself zone out again.

…

The music in the club is loud. So loud. But there's a drink in his hand and he's gotten used to raising his voice trying to be heard in times when Changbin and Minho have one of their screaming match arguments, so he doesn't care too much.

"No, I just got fired from my job today!" He yells at the girl opposite him, grinning widely and lifting his drink at her. "We're celebrating!"

She laughs. Jisung wonders if she'll let him kiss her. He leans forward a bit more to ask exactly that when there's a hand on his shoulder.

"Jiji darling, come on! Minho wants his drink!"

Hyunjin picks up two of the glasses in front of him and so he can't do anything but follow with the third and his own, shooting a bright smile at the pretty girl before following the bright blond bob of his friend's hair.

…

"Are you sure?"

The unknown man he's looking at has a very nice laugh. Warm and inviting, looking every bit like his smile alone might hold the cure for cancer and literally every other disease. There's a comfortableness to it, and so he does what the smile is telling him to do.

He bodily throws himself against the stranger's solid frame and cuddles him like the soft, large teddy bear he looks like.

"Oh. Hi."

There's an arm wrapped around his shoulders easily, a hand rubbing up and down his back once. It's warm. It's safe. He sighs deeply.

"You're the best teddy bear in the world!" He decides.

"That's my friend Jisung," Minho says, like it'll explain everything. "He's straight."

"I resent that!" He protests loudly.

"What? You said it yourself! Then what are you?"

"Oh, no, I am straight, but I just resent it."

The teddy bear shakes with laughter. He grins, proud of his achievement, and buries a little closer still.

…

Here's the thing… When he had an extra serving of the dried squid, he didn't intend to have another taste of it on the way back up. Nor did he expect to get a good look at it again after it was partially digested, floating in a puddle of several different types of alcohol all mixed up into one, no doubt.

Before he can get too philosophical about the inevitable finality of things, his stomach roils with another wave of nausea, body convulsing so hard that he ends up putting a hand down right in the middle of the puddle he just made.

"What the fuck, Ji, that's disgusting," Changbin exclaims from behind his shoulder with great delight. He thinks he hears the sound of a picture being taken. Someone lifts his arm, someone else cleans off his hand. Someone else helps him up from the ground again.

He wants another drink.

…

…

…

Groaning is the only sound he's capable of making when he slowly but surely becomes aware of several things at once.

One: he's awake.

Two: his head feels like it's stuck under a hydraulic press that is slowly but surely trying to squeeze his brain out through his ears.

Three: there's people in his bed with him.

Four: someone's hand is stuffed down the back of his boxers and resting on his left ass cheek.

"Who the fuck is feeling up my ass?" He grumbles, cracking open half an eye so he can find the culprit - and regretting it immediately. But even the slightest glimpse of the morning scene he got before closing his eyes again is enough to tell him several more things.

Five: they're not in bed, they're on the floor.

Six: Changbin's using his foot as a pillow, so it's definitely not his hand on his ass.

Seven: the chandelier is incredible. They must be at Changbin's house.

He moves a hand blindly to swat at the arm attached to the hand attached to his ass. "Get your hand off my ass, man," he grumbles again. There's finally some movement, the hand pulling out from his boxers just to settle on his face instead and he groans even louder when he's being pushed down by the hand smelling of ass.

It must be Minho's. No one else would even think of doing this. Hyunjin would be whining about having a dirty hand. There are no other people in his life who would put hands anywhere inside of his personal space so casually like this.

"Shut up." Yes, that's Minho indeed. "Shut the fuck up, Han Jisung. My head is killing me."

"Ugh mine too," he groans against the ass-hand. "D'you got water?"

There's a pause, the hand shifting like its owner moves away to look around. When it comes back to fit against his face fully again he suddenly feels something hard hit against his teeth.

"Fuck, man, since when did your fingers get so bony?"

He cracks open an eye again, lifting Minho's ass-hand off his face and squinting at it.

"Ugh, nice ring, dude. Did you get Changbin to pay for it?"

He squints past the hand to be able to see Minho's face. His friend's eyes are still closed, but they twitch and then he sees Minho brave a look beyond the back of his own eyelids. He quickly comes to the same conclusion as Jisung had before: too bright, abort mission.

"Don't fucking remember. Sure hope so," Minho mutters darkly, groaning and moving up a hand to rub at his face. The hand that hadn't been on Jisung's face, of course. Minho wouldn't put ass on his own features, but Jisung's nose is the best place for it.

"Shove off, I'm gonna grab some water," he grunts, shifting and then rolling over until he's on his stomach with a hand under him to help push him up. He makes it to being on all fours and that's the full extent of how much he's willing to fight off gravity right then.

So he crawls from the living room to the kitchen, where he glances up to the fridge and realises he'll never make it up high enough to get the water out.

"Morning, Jisungie."

He turns towards the sound of the voice, finding Changbin's sister sitting at the kitchen table, nursing a large mug between both hands.

"Morning," he replies politely, because he was raised properly, even when it's ass o'clock in the morning and his head is being split open with two rusty hammers.

"What brought you all the way to the kitchen?"

"Wanted to get some water. Maybe aspirin?"

"Sounds like a good idea," she agrees, smiling. "Want some help with that?"

"Ugh, please."

She huffs out a laugh, and he tries his very best not to tell her to be quiet, because she's about to become his saving grace, his guardian angel, the reason he might live beyond whatever time of the day it is right now.

So he undergoes the hellish screeching of her chair being pushed back and the sound of her footsteps drumming in his ears. She opens the fridge door like the absolute goddess she is and starts pulling out bottles of water. One, two, three, four. He stores them under one arm and when he's done and looks back up, she's holding out a small medicine box to him.

"One each," she tells him and he's nodding. "No matter how much your head hurts. One each and an entire bottle of water before you go back to sleep."

He nods his head again, closing his eyes against the dizzying nausea of that, and closes his fingers around the box blindly when she puts it into his hand.

"Thank you so much," he says, once again politely, and then he shuffles back towards the living room on one hand and knees. He deposits his bottles against Minho's back, just so the cold condensation will really wake him up, and then makes shushing noises at the loud cursing that follows.

"It's water, dude, shut up! I brought aspirins. Changbin's sister is the bomb. We should buy her, like, a throne."

Minho grunts, but rolls over towards him, holding out a hand. He fumbles with the box, eventually managing to put a pill in Minho's hand. He takes one for himself as well and starts emptying a water bottle entirely to wash it down with. Only when that's done does he take the leftover two bottles and the box of pills and shuffles over to his other two friends.

Changbin hasn't moved from where he dropped when Jisung took his foot back. Hyunjin is using Changbin's ass as a pillow, which he understands was probably the softest spot around. One of Hyunjin's arms disappears under Changbin's shirt, but that's definitely their own business to deal with.

He shakes Changbin's shoulder first. "Wake up, man. Water and aspirin, come on." It requires some more shaking, and then some more, but eventually Changbin grunts, rolls half onto his side, realises the weight on his ass and then cracks open half an eye.

"Mwuh?"

"Water. Aspirin." He clarifies, and pushes a bottle into his friend's hand with all the patience his pained head can being up for it right now. But they went out for him, to cheer him up, to help him forget about the unfortunate end of his world, so the least he can do is help nurse them back to health after, right?

One shake of Hyunjin's shoulder and a loud, obnoxious whine later, he's changed his mind completely.

"Fuck it, you deal with him," he tells Changbin, right as Minho suddenly heaves himself half upright.

"Hwang Hyunjin if you don't shut your trap right now it's going to be fifty minutes at three hundred degrees!" He intones, too loud for anyone's comfort, and so they're all wincing, ducking their heads, attempting to cover their ears. He shoves the last water bottle in Hyunjin's face and puts a pill in his friend's hand.

Once his job is done, he lets himself collapse down to the floor again, cradling the box of pills to his chest and closing his eyes. It's not hard at all to let the haze drag him back under, and he gladly succumbs to the absence of pain.

—

It's his bladder that wakes him up the second time. The incessant throbbing of his head has reduced to a dull ache that he carefully avoids making worse as he moves up from his former position slowly. Changbin, it seems, has deserted them. Hyunjin apparently crawled over to cuddle with Minho, perhaps in order to apologise for his earlier wrongdoings.

He manages to get up on his feet this time, shuffling over to the nearest bathroom. A quick knock verifies no one's inside so he shuffles in and does his thing. He leans over the sink to splash some water into his face as well, running fingers through his hair and finding almost all of him smells like cigarettes and alcohol. Perhaps it's a good thing they didn't make it to any furniture before they passed out.

He pulls out his phone, checking the time - early afternoon - and finding a notification waiting for him that makes no sense whatsoever.

01 4568 3942
Morning babe. I hope you slept alright and that you're feeling better. 😘

The message was sent several hours ago, and right as he's staring at it with great confusion, the speech bubble pops up and a new text follows seconds later.

Oh there you are! Hello handsome! Still alive? 😄

There's no name to the number, no contact added for this person, but one swipe of his finger down tells him there's a lot of messages exchanged before this one. When he swipes all the way up to the first one, he sees it was sent somewhere last night, shortly after 10, by him.

Embarrassingly it says: Hello gorgeous. Wanna be my girlfriend?

Even more embarrassingly, the first reply back is Uh, who is this? and his response to it nothing other than Your future boyfriend, of course!

He groans, actually lowering his head and looking away as if that will make the cringiest texts he's ever sent somehow unexist. Is there a control alt delete button to reset life?

It's a morbid curiosity that has him lifting his head again so he can read what follows.

Oh, interesting. I wasn't aware I had one of those. Tell me a bit more about yourself?

Obviously I'm handsome, tall, funny, interesting, an absolutely great prospect for a future son-in-law.
Almost no downsides, actually.

He groans even louder, wondering if it's socially acceptable to flush your own head down the toilet. But he must have done something right, because there's way more to the message log than just this, and the other person kept texting back.

You got a picture to go with all these outrageous claims?

Hold on.

The picture is a little blurry on the edges, but he's recognisable enough. Grinning, biting his lip, throwing up a peace sign next to his face. Over his shoulder Hyunjin is beaming at his camera as well, one hand lifted to poke a finger against his cheek. From the general look of it, he'd say they were sitting at a playground sharing beers. It's a good picture. It's horrible.

Are you the one in the front or the one in the back?

The front! The back is my friend, but no need to look at him, he's gay.

Shame.
You got a name?

U can call me babe.

Alright babe.
You don't want a pic of me?

I don't need one to know ur beautiful

He physically cringes and quickly scrolls down to eject himself from the embarrassment of that conversation. When his thumb stops the message log from moving, the timestamp reads a little before midnight, and the unknown number is still replying to him with the same supposed earnestness.

Wtf that sucks! You literally did nothing wrong! I'm so sorry babe :(

Sokay. Scool. Im ttky crushngi t
Got my frnz got u Im thelu ckieet man alive

I'm the luckiest for having you <3
Are you still at the playground?

No.
Left to get z yzyypp
Bin s shktlgnb

Send me another picture, babe? I miss your face.

Clearly this girl is either an absolute genius for trying to figure out his new location through pictures or she's sitting at a bar with her friends having the time of her life laughing at a drunk guy. Or was. Last night, at half past eleven.

The picture this time shows him beaming the happiest grin at his camera. Somehow even though his typing got worse, his picture taking got better, because this one isn't blurry at all. They must be in some sort of club, because the lighting around him is a mix of purples and blues.

Right after there's another picture, this time framing his and Changbin's face. He's posing cutely, while Changbin's features are completely contorted in what he's not sure himself whether it's pain, anger or constipation. His friend's face seems to be squished against the wall or something, and Jisung's face is squished against his. It would be perfect teasing material if he hadn't sent this picture to an unknown number while texting out of his mind drunk. And it doesn't get better when he scrolls further down.

Love u

Love you too babe <3
Still looking great! Not sure what your friend is going through but good luck to him!

Hs dyinf
😄😄😘

😂 Alright. Rip him I guess.

He snorts, then regrets it instantly when it sends a spike of pain through his head. Luckily the throbbing eases after a few moments of breathing. He needs another bottle of water or five and maybe another aspirin. Perhaps some food.

When he looks back down at his phone, the conversation has jumped back to the present, with a new message waiting for him from his supposed girlfriend.

Hey I don't mind if you wanna pretend none of that conversation ever happened but could you just let me know you're alright? You seemed p drunk last night and I just wanted to make sure you got home safe and all's well? Your friends okay too?

He stares at it for a few good moments, processing, wondering if it's possible to be in love with someone based on a single text. Wondering if he's going to have to profess his undying love to a total stranger all over again. Wondering if he needs to apologise. But when he scrolls back up a little, he doesn't see any messages indicating that the girl is annoyed about it all. In fact, whenever he got quiet for a while, she always seems to have texted him to make sure he was still good.

And somewhere near the early hours of morning, he'd stopped replying completely. She'd sent a few inquiring texts before wishing him a good night's sleep and reminding him to drink plenty of water. So, out of some sense of gratitude or obligation or both, he goes through the mortifying ordeal of replying when sober.

Hi

Hi :)

I'm ttly fine, my friends are too. We crashed at my friend's place so we made it home safe.
Just hungover but you knew that already probably.
Thanks for, uh, not getting a restraining order on me or something.

Haha glad to hear you're alright! And no worries, it was fun!

Looks like I was mostly embarrassing.

Nah, you're good. Isn't that what getting drunk to cope with getting fired is all about?

He huffs out a smile, amused and a little grateful as well.

Looks like you got up to a lot of cool things as well. Hope you'll manage to feel better about it all soon.

Thanks.
You, uh, you have a name?

You can call me babe 😘

He grins, catches sight of himself in the mirror, pauses, then grins again.

Alright babe <3 Thanks for being supportive last night.
I'm gonna go and have more water now like you suggested. Maybe food too.
Hope you have a great day!

Sounds good! Take care babe! <3

It shouldn't be this casual and easy, but apparently it is, because when he tucks his phone back into his pocket after reading over his morning conversation again, he thinks maybe he made a new friend. Just like that.

—

He finds Changbin in the kitchen, his sister nowhere in sight anymore, but then it's probably been hours since his interaction with her earlier that day. Maybe. He has no idea what time it was before.

"Morning," he mumbles, breathing in deeply at the smell that suddenly hits his nose. "Is that coffee? I love you."

"It's my coffee," Changbin agrees. "I'll make yours after. You good?"

"Yeah, just feel like I might die but good. You?"

"Fine. Glad we made it back home last night. I don't remember much honestly."

"I literally have no idea where we were after karaoke and the playground."

"Same."

Changbin stretches a little, face contorting with discomfort and he frowns in worry. His friend catches his gaze and shrugs.

"I don't know, man, my lower back hurts. Probably slept bad."

"Here, I'll massage it."

He walks over to his friend, sliding hands down his back and feeling for tense muscles to see if he can loosen them up a little. When his fingers reach Changbin's lower back, though, his friend flinches away and hisses. Right at that moment, there's a blood curdling banshee screech coming from somewhere in the building, causing him to instantly cover his ears and groan at the pain stabbing his head.

"Hyunjin, what the fuck bitch?!" Minho yells from the living room, but when there's no immediate reply the three of them are instantly scrambling to rush over towards where the sound came from. They find Hyunjin in the other downstairs bathroom, staring down at his own dick. For a moment it's just the three of them trying to discern what's wrong with Hyunjin's dick, before Jisung realises exactly what he's doing and then he's looking up at his friend again.

"Jin? What's wrong? What happened?"

His friend turns almost blank eyes up to look at him, and then shifts his hips towards him a little. He looks down automatically, though he wonders how many times he'll be looking at someone else's genitals today. But what catches his attention is not Hyunjin's dick, rather the black creature on his friend's skin.

He physically convulses, barely repressing the urge to swat the humongous spider off his friend's hip because he's quite certain that would involve smacking his friend's dick as well; and they're pals, they're buds, he'd give his life for his friend, but he doesn't want to get to dick-touching base with him, no thank you.

"What the fuck?" Is therefore what he says, and Minho shoves him aside to look as well. Changbin nearly sticks his face right in Hyunjin's crotch trying to get a good look and then, suddenly, Jisung gasps.

"Changbin! Dude! What the fuck! When did you get a tramp stamp?"

He reaches out and tugs his friend's shirt up, and then Hyunjin is gasping and Minho is straightening up so fast that he headbutts Changbin in the face, and the entirety of his friend group goes tumbling to the ground in a big pile of four hungover messes.

There's a moment of absolute silence as they're all piled upon each other, but then Minho is yelling again. "Hyunjin, get your dick out of my face what the fuck!" There's shoving, shifting, moving and then Hyunjin is pulling his boxers back up and Changbin is groaning with a hand over his nose and Jisung is looking at it all in stunned silence for a moment before he's suddenly laughing.

Five seconds later, so is everyone else.

"Oh, god, fuck, ugh," Changbin says eventually, slowly pushing himself up into a seated position once he's regained his composure. Hyunjin's just lying flat on his back, trying to stop giggling long enough to get a breath in, while Minho got lucky, sitting on the carpet with his back against the shower stall.

"I love you guys so much," Jisung decides to say. "Does anybody have any idea what the fuck we did last night?"

"Well, we got me a ring," Minho states, lifting the hand on which he's wearing a sleek silver-coloured ring. Changbin gives it one look before quickly checking himself over.

"Wait, did I pay for that?" He pats all possible pockets but there's no phone on him.

"Whatever, guys, I got a weirdass insect thing tattooed on my hip bone?"

"No, guys, listen," Jisung decides to say, and once again lifts up Changbin's shirt. "'Smack my ass and call me baby'. Changbin got a tramp stamp."

"It does not say that," Changbin protests, but Jisung gives him such a serious are you sure about that look that his friend instantly turns around. "Hyunjin, does it say that?"

Before Hyunjin can say anything, Minho is cackling loudly in absolute, worst-friend-in-the-world delight and Changbin turns paler than the marble floor of his bathroom.

"What the fuck. I'm going to sue whoever did this! What. The. Fuck! What am I going to tell my parents?" The tirade suddenly stops and then Changbin's looking up towards the door with literal fear written all over his face. "What if they already saw?"

"Okay, hold on, hold up. They didn't already see. I talked to your sister this morning and she was all chill. No one knows. Let's just… Let's just go to the kitchen and have something to eat and then maybe we'll have the brain to figure this out, okay?"

"Sounds good to me," Minho says, dragging himself up from his spot against the shower cabin. He has the audacity not to sway even a little when he straightens up fully, and then reaches out a hand to help Changbin up. Hyunjin finishes taking what Jisung really hopes isn't a dick pick before looking up.

"I still need to pee," he says when he gazes at them. "See you in the kitchen." He hands his phone to Jisung, who takes it gingerly, only to see it's a picture of the black spider-like thing, which he now realises isn't a spider at all, but rather what looks like intricately designed letters.

"Hey I think these are someone's initials," he says, but Minho drags him out of the bathroom before he can take a closer look.

—

"No, listen, guys. Listen. I didn't pay for that ring, Minho, check your bank account. I did pay at the tattoo parlour. We need to go there after washing up, I need them to undo this somehow. Did you all check yourselves? Nobody else has any sudden tattoos, right?"

He instantly lifts his shirt, checks his arms, his stomach, what little of his back he can see. It's on to his legs next, but they're fine and nothing hurts either, so it seems unlikely that he's been branded the way his friends have. Minho also comes out of the inspection unblemished, the only change being the ring on his finger, but no money had gone off his bank account either.

"Maybe I seduced someone into buying it for me," his friend says with a shrug. "Or maybe I stole it. Either way it's mine now. Finder's keepers."

"Technically I'm the one who found it on your finger, Min," he retorts, which only has his friend scoffing.

"Let's go and wash up, guys, that tattoo parlour supposedly closes at nine on Saturdays and I want to have time enough to drag his ass for putting that on me. Min, Hyun, you guys take the downstairs bathrooms, Ji you come up with me."

When in Changbin's home, drinking Changbin's coffee, having had Changbin's breakfast while hungover on alcohol Changbin undoubtedly paid for; one listens to what Changbin says.

—

The tattoo parlour they walk into is neat and sleek, a monochrome design with colourful accents here and there. It looks professional, as does the guy who looks up from his work to greet them. Relatively short black hair, softened but adult features and sparkling eyes meet theirs one by one. The young man's left arm is covered in an intricately designed tattoo sleeve, his right wrist decorated by a tattooed bracelet. He’s wearing dark jeans and a leather jacket over a simple white t-shirt.

On his right, Hyunjin's jaw falls slack.

"Holy shit," his friend says, and he's pretty sure Hyunjin doesn't realise he's speaking his thoughts out loud. "I'm in love."

The tattoo person? Tattooer? Tattooist? Tat-guy? Whatever he's called, he breaks out into a bright grin, eyes sparkling with it, and puts down the pen in his hand, stepping out from behind his desk to greet them properly.

"Glad the sentiment still holds when you're sober," he says, and his voice is peculiar. Recognisable. Jisung has a strange flash of recollection. Has he heard this guy say when you're sober before? "You are sober, right?" Follows then, an inquisitive look going mainly to Hyunjin and Changbin.

"Very much so," Changbin agrees.

"Regretfully," Hyunjin adds.

"Did you happen to tattoo a large tramp stamp on my friend's lower back?" Minho asks, never one to beat around the bush.

The tattoo guy laughs and Jisung distractedly pulls out his phone to look something up.

"You did ask me for a tattoo on your lower back, but I never ended up giving you one because when I started you said it hurt too much," the guy explains to his friend, and Jisung looks back up a moment later, now officially certain that tattooer, tattooist and tattoo artist are all terms that can be used.

"I did give tall, blond and sexy over here one, though, does it hurt?"

Hyunjin is flustered within half a second of being called sexy as he always is, but quickly tries to redeem himself by shaking his head.

"No, I hardly- Hardly felt it, really. I actually thought I had a large cockroach on me this morning when I went to pee, that was less fun."

The tattooer laughs again, the sound somewhat low but definitely contagious. "That's good," he says when he's done, nodding his head. "That it doesn't hurt too much, I mean. Kind of offended that you thought it was a cockroach. You were a lot more enthusiastic about my design yesterday.”

Hyunjin pouts a little. “I was very drunk yesterday so I was probably just trying to impress you,” he says with a shrug, which only makes the tattooer laugh again.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Changbin says just then. “But could you maybe help me out with the huge thing on my back? I don’t exactly look forward to walking around with this for the rest of my life.”

“Well, I can give it a look, but if someone put it there last night there’s very little I can do for you today. It’ll have to heal properly before we can even consider doing anything to it. What did you get?”

In lieu of explaining, Changbin turns around and lifts up half his shirt. The guy takes one look at the revealed part of the tattoo and then bursts out in loud laughter.

“I’m so sorry,” he instantly apologises, but he can’t help laughing more, and soon enough Hyunjin is chuckling along with him. Jisung, admittedly, has a hard time trying to keep from doing the same. “It’s, uh… That- Yeah, that doesn’t look like you’d want it for long.” The guy nods his head while seemingly trying to recompose himself. “In any case, uh, I can’t help you with this.”

Changbin’s wide eyed and pale when he turns back around, dropping his shirt to cover up the mess again and clenching his fists by his side. “What do you mean you can’t help me?”

Jisung knows it’s not aggression that shifts his friend like this, but rather a crippling fear of what his parents’ reaction will be if they find out. His friend might be old enough to move out and live by himself, but he loves his family dearly and also probably couldn’t go without the wealth his family provides him with. Neither could any of them anymore, he thinks. He, for one, has been friends with Changbin so long he’s become wealthy by proxy, and if ever he has to start counting pennies, he’d much rather just die right there and then.

At least the tattooist doesn’t look like a bad guy, because he instantly pats Changbin on the shoulder, expression turning serious and reassuring. “Hey, man, it’s alright. I don’t know who did that to you but it’s not a real tattoo. It’s not permanent. It’ll probably wash off over the next two weeks. If you can keep it from whoever you don’t want to see it for that amount of time, you should be fine.”

Changbin physically deflates, relief clear in his expression, and Jisung casually puts an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into a comforting side-hug.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Hyunjin asks right then, and the tattoo guy grins over at him easily.

“Why don’t you figure it out, sexy?” He retorts smoothly. “You’ve got my initials tattooed on your hip for a reason, don’t you?”

“I- You- What?”

Hyunjin looks down at himself as if he’s considering pulling his pants down in public just to double check, but he seems to be sober enough to remember that’s a bad idea, because instead he looks over at Minho, who shakes his head at him and shrugs.

“Hey, I’d love to chat with you longer, but that’s my client walking up right now so I need to get back to work. It was fun meeting you guys sober, though.” The tattooist pats Changbin’s shoulder once more, nods at Minho, then turns to look at Jisung. “Hope your girlfriend is well,” he says and Jisung nods his thanks, too stunned to speak. The last person to be on the receiving end of the tattooer’s attention is Hyunjin again, who gets a wink and smile that is definitely flirty. Jisung might not be well-versed in flirting, but he recognises that much.

“See you around, handsome.”

Before Hyunjin can formulate a reply, the woman who supposedly is the client enters the shop, so they all quietly move to leave again. Jisung glances back at the tattoo parlour’s front briefly before getting into the car.

Yin & Yang Tattoos the window proudly proclaims.

—

The food isn’t all too bad, though Jisung honestly doesn’t really know what he’s eating exactly. He’s more interested in scrolling through the message history with the unknown number than listening to Changbin talk about his temporary tattoo and Hyunjin whine about the hot tattoo guy while trying to decipher what the initials of his name are from the picture he took of his own tattoo that morning.

You still awake, babe?

Im here! Love u. Miss you :( <3

Oh did you sober up a little?
Miss you too <3
Are you still in the same place?

No
Bin chickened out
Getting drinks now
Jis hurt

Oh no! Is he okay?

Yeah he’s just a babe
Baby
Not babe
Ur babe
<3

Can you send me another pic, babe?
I miss your face <3

The next picture is one of all four of them clearly waiting in line at a club. Hyunjin is draped over Minho's shoulder, who's making a disgusted face at him. Changbin is holding Minho's hand but looking off to the side. Jisung is proudly beaming at his camera once more, peace sign in place and expression blinding. Immediately after is a picture of just him, winking at the camera while blowing a kiss.

He physically cringes. There's no doubt in his mind now that whoever is on the other side of this conversation must just have been laughing their ass off at the weird drunk guy sending them pictures. Perhaps it would be better to just block this number? But then as long as he never actually runs into the person in real life he'll be fine, right? And what are the odds of a random number's owner living nearby?

Then again: how did he get this random number?

He switches to his gallery instantly, eyes immediately falling on one of the last pictures he took. Not because it's weird but because of who's in it. Himself, of course, beaming and posing like he does in literally every picture all night long. Behind him, Minho is making a face at a man to his right, who is smiling almost patiently at the camera, a hand on Minho's shoulder. Something tickles his brain about the picture but he can't remember.

On a whim, he goes back to his messages.

Hey babe… Do you, uh, could you tell me what I did last night?
I remember karaoke and the playground and the tattoo parlour, then we went to a club, I believe. But uh…
Did I tell you anything about what we got up to?

You were pretty drunk, babe. But from what I could decipher you made a new friend at the club.
You sent me a picture with him and called him teddy bear.
But he was more interested in your friend so you got upset about that and left them.
Then I think you danced with your other friends or maybe strangers idk.
You were at the club for quite a while.
The last thing you sent me was that you were going home. You sent me a picture as proof that none of you were driving in that state.
After that nothing.
Does that help?

Yeah, thanks <3
Sorry to bother you with this

No! It's no problem! Anything for you babe <3

Does he know this person? Is someone just toying with him and is he going to show up at work or something and just- No, wait, he isn't going to show up at work. He got fired. There is no more work.

I appreciate you looking out for me last night, by the way. I presume that's why you kept asking for pictures.

I mean… I also did it bc I think you're cute, but yw!

Oh, uh, thanks?

Haha no
Thank you!
It's not often I get randomly messaged by an unknown number belonging to a cute guy who's not a creep
And when I say not often I mean it's never happened before
It was fun

Hope I didn't wake you up with my texting?

Nah, no worries, I was working.
You're all good babe ;) <3

Oh.
At night?

Yeah. Shitty 24/7 shop.
We suffer in order to survive ✌️

Aww shit babe sorry :(
I'd get you a better job but I literally just got fired so
Sorry <3

Lmao
It's cool babe
Love you <3

Love you too <3

"Hey, who have you been texting? All your friends are here." Hyunjin makes use of his ridiculously long neck to try and sneak a peek at his screen, but he turns it off automatically.

"Just… someone," he says, flustered, before realising he has absolutely no reason to be flustered. "I, uh, I apparently texted a random number last night and they kept asking for pictures of what I was doing all through the night to make sure I was fine so I was just thanking them for doing that."

"Oh cool," Hyunjin says, nodding enthusiastically.

"You have pictures of last night?" Changbin asks instantly, and then suddenly all three of his friends are checking their galleries.

"Oh my god I have a picture of the hot guy from the tattoo parlour!" Hyunjin exclaims.

"I just have a bunch from the karaoke but nothing after that." Minho says easily. "I probably-" He goes quiet very suddenly, entirely still. His gaze is on infinity for a few beats, before it suddenly zones in again. "Guys… Where's my car? I mean… I'm sure we left it somewhere safe because we'd be too drunk to drive home, but… Where are my car keys?"

One beat. Two.

"They weren't in the living room," Changbin supplies. "Maybe they're in your bag?"

"I didn't have a bag. If I did it's still in the car."

"Dude, my stuff is also still in your car," Jisung says, suddenly wide-eyed, because his bag is in there and his bag has everything including his house key. "Where the fuck is your car?"

Panic ensues at the table. Minho is frantically checking all of his socials to see if there's a hint anywhere about the whereabouts of his car. Changbin is doing something much similar. Hyunjin is still dreamily staring down at the picture of tattoo parlour guy. Jisung looks back down at his phone.

Did I happen to mention what we did with the car?

No I've got no idea sorry :(

Ok cool no worries

"Fuck," Minho mutters when his search seems to turn up fruitless. "Fuck!"

And then, suddenly, Minho's phone rings. He stares at it in shock for a moment, but picks up almost immediately after and also instantly puts the phone on speaker. It's an anonymous number, Jisung sees.

"What!? If this is a scam call, save your breath because I'm really not in the mood."

"... Hello to you too. I'm just calling to let you know that I dropped your car keys in your letterbox. Hope you got home safe last night."

"Who the fuck are you?"

There's a longer pause this time, and all four of them glance around at each other trying to figure out whether they're supposed to know the answer to this. Then, suddenly, there's the sound of the call disconnecting.

They all stare wide-eyed at the phone for a moment, before Minho slaps his hand down on the table. "I need to go home and check if my car keys are really in my letterbox, guys. Otherwise I need to call the police or something."

"We'll all go," Changbin says decidedly. "I'll go pay for the food, I'll meet you at the car."

He tosses the keys of the car to Jisung, who fails badly at catching them and drops his phone as well in the process. He quickly scrambles to pick both things up again and gives his friend a thumbs up to show all is well. When Changbin gets up to pay, the rest of them quickly empty their drinks and head outside to the car.

—

Minho nearly makes out with his car keys when he finds them in his letterbox, and then literally kisses the hood of his car when he finds it parked in his parking spot in the underground parking garage. Considering the price tag on the only one year old Mercedes and how long he'd saved up for it, Jisung doesn't judge. At all.

His bag and the box with his stuff from work are still in the back seat too, so he takes those out, putting them down on the floor for a moment so he can put the bag in the box as well and have only one thing to carry. When he gets back up, Changbin is frowning at Hyunjin, who's still got his eyes glued to his phone.

"See, but I really think it's an H. And a J. Do you think his name is Hyunjin too?"

Changbin rolls his eyes. Jisung smiles at his friend. Minho returns to their side with a few quick strides.

"Just google the damn tattoo parlour and stop being a dumb bitch, Hyunjin," he says, but the hand he runs over Hyunjin's head is gentle, as is the brief smile flitting over his features. Then the oldest of their group sighs deeply. "I don't know about you guys but I think I'm gonna go upstairs and pass out? This was a lovely post-drinking hungover adventure, but I have to finish up some work tomorrow and I think I need, like, a full Sunday to recover. The last time I got this drunk was probably still at university."

Minho's eyes go past each of them slowly even as he's grinning. "Unless you need me for anything else? You cool, Sungie?"

"No, yeah, I'm cool. Thank you guys, though. For hanging out with me. I was definitely about to have a breakdown when you all showed up. I appreciate it. I'm pretty sure last night was amazing even though I don't remember much. It's probably best if we all get, like, a proper night's sleep. But I love you guys. Really."

"Awww," Hyunjin coos. "Group makeout session now?"

"Still straight, but you do you."

"I should've shot my shot when you were too drunk to notice I wasn't a girl," his friend sighs dramatically and he laughs.

"I think I need to be very far gone to forget you're my friend, Jinnie. Your beauty is unforgettable."

"You flatter me! Rightfully so, of course."

Hyunjin grins, Changbin chuckles, Minho huffs out a laugh but steps closer to pull Jisung into a hug regardless.

"Call us if you're feeling shit, okay?" He's told with endless care and he nods mutely. When Minho lets go of him, Hyunjin is instantly there to leave a few sloppy kisses on his cheek and he chuckles at them, shoving his friend away, though not with a lot of conviction.

"I'm fine," he says decisively. "I just need a ride home and then I'm good."

"Fuck home," Changbin says. "Stay over at my place. No reason to spend Sunday alone."

Maybe he tears up a little, maybe he's so platonically in love with his best friend of fifteen years that he's willing to marry him. In any case, he nods his head.

"Can I…?" Hyunjin starts, but Changbin doesn't even let him finish.

"Go home, you useless gay. Google your boyfriend's name and go bother him or something." Hyunjin pouts heavily but Changbin just rolls his eyes. "You're literally already home, Jin. Besides, our gardener isn't coming by this weekend so there's no point in hanging out at my place tomorrow."

All of Hyunjin's protests die on his lips and he sighs deeply. "Fine!" He says, trudging over to Minho and hooking an arm through his. "Let's go up, I want pizza."

"No way, bitch, me too!" Minho exclaims and the two make their way over to the elevator. Jisung turns back to Changbin, and then promptly walks over to get a hug.

"I'm so exhausted," he says, feeling his friend nod in agreement.

"You and me both, baby. Let's go home and just not move again until tomorrow." That definitely sounds like the best plan for the rest of his Saturday evening. "I really hope the tattoo guy was right and this thing will be gone in two weeks, though."

Chapter Text

Everything returns back to normal, except that Hyunjin is now obsessed with the tattoo artist, Changbin wears his shirts always tucked into his pants, Jisung is jobless and Minho never lets his car out of his sight unless it's in a parking lot.

And also that, occasionally throughout the day but mostly in the evening, Jisung texts an unknown number and chats with his 'girlfriend' for a while, who always manages to make him smile and brighten his day simply with how willing she seems to have conversations with him.

Everything returns back to normal, except Tuesday afternoon just when Jisung's dinner is delivered, Minho video calls all of them and when the line connects, he looks paler than he's ever looked.

"Bitch what the fuck," he says. Jisung's phone buzzes with the picture sent to the group chat and he opens it. It takes him reading it a few times before he realises what he's looking at.

"Bitch WHAT THE FUCK???" Minho yells and he quickly clicks back to the video call.

"Is that- Did you-?" He stumbles over his words.

Changbin, always a little late to catch up, starts reading the picture aloud. "Congratulations on your wedding. The official procedure has been completed and you are now officially married by state law. We hope you and your partner will be hap- Wait, Minho, what is this?"

"I got this in the mail today," Minho says, voice just barely kept even. "I just called city hall to ask if this was a joke. I pulled up my own information out of the database too. It's not a joke. It's real. Apparently I got married Friday night? Apparently I exchanged rings with this guy and we kissed on it and signed the papers and everything."

"Congratulations?" Hyunjin offers, and Minho nearly combusts right there on his telephone screen.

"Bitch I don't even know who he is! They gave me a name and an address. I need you guys to go there with me!"

There's a moment of silence in which they're probably all just taking in the news and processing the implications of Minho being married (what the fuck?) to someone they don't even know (What the fuck???).

"Sure." As always Changbin is the first one to regain his control and take action. "I'll pick up Ji. Send me the address and we'll meet you guys there."

"Hey, don't you think it's gonna be, like, a little overwhelming if we show up with the four of us?" Jisung offers hesitantly. "For all we know this guy was drunk as fuck too and has no idea either?"

"Bitch, I'm married to a stranger!" Minho counters. "I'm overwhelmed! He can settle his own issues!"

Which is really all the discussion there is to be had, and so it's decided. Jisung makes sure to quickly eat some of his dinner before Changbin makes it to his apartment so that at least he won't be showing up at Minho's husband's (Still what the fuck??) place with a growling stomach.

—

"Okay, look, I'm just gonna… I'm just gonna ring the bell." For all he sounds calm and composed, the hand Minho reaches out trembles a little and they're all tensely watching his finger press the doorbell after which they listen to the chime of the device inside the house.

In the following silence, they're just four guys in front of a closed door, Jisung standing behind Changbin with his arms around his friend's middle, Hyunjin clinging on to Minho's arm, all of their gazes focused on the door. After some silence, there's suddenly the sound of a key turning in the lock and then the blue door opens inwards and the man from one of Jisung's last pictures stands in front of them.

His gaze goes over all of them for a moment, seemingly not recognising them at all, but then they settle on Minho's face and the man smiles. The expression lights up his features, a gentleness punctuated by the dimple and the way his eyes sparkle.

"Hello husband," he says, his voice just as gentle as his demeanour.

"About that…" Changbin starts, but Minho's hand shoots out to settle on his friend's arm, pushing Hyunjin back in the process. Minho's eyes haven't left the man's face for even a second.

"No, let the man speak, he makes a good point," Minho says.

"All he did was call you husband!" Hyunjin protests, which is finally enough to bring Minho's glare over to his friend.

"And it's a Good Point, bitch," he snaps, before looking back up at the man in the door opening. "Hello husband," he says, just blinking at him a few times. When the silence lingers, Jisung licks his lips and dares speak up.

"Hello teddy bear," he ventures, and the man's gaze moves to him, growing even warmer with appreciation and possibly also a sense of relief? happiness? at being recognised by someone, at least.

"Hello Sungie, it's good to see you again. Are you feeling better today?"

He nods his head and slowly steps out from behind Changbin. "Much. Can we come in? I mean, if we're not disturbing."

"No, not at all!" Teddy says as he steps aside. "After all; mi casa es su casa, right darling?" The dark eyes go over to Minho again, smile turning into a slight smirk. Minho looks like he has died and gone to heaven, but as expected the taunting hint to the man's voice snaps him out of his reverie.

"Of course!" He instantly agrees. "There's no need to ask, Sungie. What's his is mine, and what's mine is all of yours, so…" He steps forward, pulling his arm out of Hyunjin's grip and simply walking into the house like it really is his and he's been there many a time before.

"Second door to the right, darling," Teddy provides without even looking up, waiting until Jisung has stepped inside last and then closing the door behind him again. He hears the key turn in the lock again and glances up at the man even as Hyunjin and Changbin are following Minho wherever.

When their eyes meet, the man instantly smiles at him again. "I'm, uh, I'm sorry about this, but what's your name?" He decides to ask.

Teddy bear breathes out a chuckle, and then reaches out a hand to run it over his hair. "My name's Chan. I'm afraid I've only ever been introduced to you being Sungie, is that your name?"

"Jisung, actually," he provides, and makes an attempt at a friendly smile. Chan nods his head once. His smile is as warm and friendly as ever.

"It's nice to properly meet you, Jisung."

The hand comes to rest on his shoulder then, Chan motioning for him to precede him to the door his friends went through as well. When he looks inside, he finds Minho lounging on an incredibly comfortable looking sofa, Hyunjin admiring a vase full of intricately crafted glass flowers and Changbin inspecting a shelf full of books.

“Our couch is absolutely incredible,” Minho says the second Chan steps into the room, running a hand over the armrest and beaming a grin the man’s way. Jisung can’t help glancing at Chan to see what his reaction might be, but the man is smiling just as warmly at Minho as before.

“I’m glad you approve,” he says. “So what brings you over, darling?”

“I got a congratulatory card from the city,” Minho says lightly, and Jisung thinks something must have happened while he was in the hallway with Chan, because his friend looks much more comfortable with the idea of being married now than he did ten minutes ago. “Imagine my surprise finding out I got married.” Minho’s smile turns positively flirty then as he keeps his gaze on Chan. “Though now that I’ve seen you again, I can’t say that I mind. But in the spirit of honesty I have to admit I was out of my mind drunk and I don’t recall what happened or why exactly we decided to get married, rings and everything.”

“You didn’t seem that drunk Friday night,” Chan says slowly, his expression shifting into something different. Jisung realises he may be staring a little, but he can’t seem to look away. What goes on in the mind of a man who got married to some drunk stranger somewhere around three am on a Saturday morning?

“Bitch I was wasted,” Minho shakes his head. “I woke up on the floor in Bin’s house. Believe me, if I had any hint of sobriety in me by the time I made it home, I’d have been on a couch at the very least.”

Chan’s features darken ever so briefly and if Jisung wasn’t trying to stare right down into the man’s soul to figure him out, he might have missed it, because a moment later he’s smiling again.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. We met in the club, we talked, we danced, you introduced me to Jisung but then got upset when I talked to him and said all my attention should be for you only. We danced some more and then you told me we should get married. I asked if you meant right then and there and you said yes. You googled the nearest place we could get married at and then insisted we go there straight away.”

Chan gives a little shrug of his shoulders at this point, his expression having gone neutral. “When I asked why I would get married to you, you said it’s so we could kiss after and well…” Another shrug. “Kissing sounded like a great idea at the time.”

“Of course,” Minho agrees without questions. “Kissing me is always a great idea!”

There’s silence in the room for a few moments, and then Changbin clears his throat. “So… Let me get this straight… You legally married and tied yourself to a complete stranger just so you could kiss him?”

Chan looks at Minho a moment longer before he turns his gaze to Changbin, gives him a brief look and then shrugs his shoulders again while nodding. “Yeah, pretty much.”

At this, Changbin huffs out a laugh and shakes his head. “You know what? Sounds like you two are absolutely made for each other. You’ve got my blessing, Min, but I’m beat so I’m going home.”

Hyunjin looks like he wants to say something, but before he can, Changbin adds: “I’ll take Hyunjin with me. Ji, you coming too?”

Jisung startles out of his staring, looking over at Changbin briefly and then turning back to look at Chan again. The man’s eyes are still fixed on Minho, and he’s got a feeling like the two of them probably need to figure this out by themselves.

“Considering watching Teddy and Min have sex is not on the list of things I want to do, I think I’m also leaving,” he says lightly. Those words do make Chan look up instantly, but they especially make Minho throw his head back and cackle loudly.

“Love you, Sungie, you know me too well,” his friend says, making a kissy face at him. He waves it off with a shrug and a grin, before looking over at Chan again.

“Thanks for the hospitality, Teddy bear,” he says with all the confidence of someone who has already been totally wasted in front of someone else and has nothing left to hide. “I hope we’ll see each other again soon once you guys have sorted out your honeymoon phase.”

Chan laughs, but he also doesn’t try to correct him, so he waves at Minho as well. “Be safe. Don’t do anything stupid. Text me before you go to sleep, okay?”

“Ugh, fine mom, now would you leave already!” Minho says, disgusted, and he laughs as he walks out into the hallway to leave alongside the other two.

—

So my friend got drunk married Friday night
Like legally married
To a stranger

That sounds hilarious
Tell me more.

Well, remember teddy bear?
Apparently my friend seduced him and decided they should get married
And the guy agreed bc Min promised him a kiss after
So now they're officially married
He only found out bc the city sent him a congratulations card
Anyway we met teddy bear earlier he seems cool
Min was totally into him too so that's something
Maybe they'll be a thing
If not they can divorce again too I guess

It would be super romantic if they rlly get together
Imagine telling your kids that story
"Dad really wanted to kiss pops so they got married that very evening"
… Mhm, might not give them the best ideas about how to deal with strangers

Lmao
Not rlly

Our story isn't a much better cautionary tale tho
"So then dad texted a random number and they replied! All night long!"

Hey you've been very cautious
We'll just… not talk about me

😄😄😄
Deal

When he temporarily can't think of anything to reply anymore, he suddenly becomes aware of how wide he's grinning. It's a good thing Hyunjin's glued to his phone and Changbin's busy driving or else he would definitely have had to explain himself again. As it is, he schools his expression before leaning forward a little.

"Hey Jin, did you figure out your tattoo guy's name yet?"

"No," his friend replies instantly with a pout. "But I called the number listed for the shop yesterday and made an appointment. So I'll get to talk to him again! Will you come with me?"

Hyunjin tears eyes away from his phone to give him the cutest pleading eyes and he can't help but smile at his friend.

"I don't know, when is it?"

Hyunjin huffs at his teasing grin, pouting full force now and turning his face back to the front. "As if you've got any plans at all. Why do you all hate on me so much?"

"Hey, Jin? Shut the fuck up." For all Minho is actually the oldest in their group, Changbin really does a much better job of being the voice of reason - most of the time. "Sung's not enjoying some sort of endless free time, yeah? He's still trying to cope with getting fired."

Hyunjin's pout shifts to one of regret as he looks back again and Jisung does what he knows is the only solution, leaning in and kissing his friend's cheek. "I'll go with you, but when is it?"

"Tomorrow morning. It's the only time this week I had no classes and he said he had time."

He nods. "Alright. I'll meet you outside the shop?"

"There's a coffee shop a block away, let's meet there? At nine?"

"Alright Jinnie," he says lightly, smiling at the hopeful look on his friend's face. "I'll be there."

"Are you really getting another tattoo?" Changbin asks, somewhat incredulous. Hyunjin nods.

"Have you seen that man's work? He's really good. You know I've always wanted flower tattoos. I'm thinking of getting one on my side. Anyway we're probably mainly gonna do planning and seeing what's possible tomorrow, the real tattoo only happens later."

"I'll bring my earphones in case you guys start making out then," Jisung comments dryly and Hyunjin shrieks in embarrassed glee at the thought but Changbin just laughs.

"Don't ruin your ears trying to block out this guy's noises, just walk out," his best friend says with a smirk and then they're all laughing. Hyunjin has no retort to that, not when it's true.

Jin's getting another tattoo just bc he thinks the tattoo guy is hot.

😂
Now I'm curious how hot someone has to be for that
Pic?

Are you thinking of cheating on me?

Depends on the pic? 😄😄

You wound me
I'll see if he's got a picture online

Two minutes, a quick bout of googling and facebook stalking and an interesting discovery later, Jisung has a picture of the tattoo artist at work, tattoo gun in his hand, hovering above someone's arm. The guy is looking up at the camera and smiling that bright smile of his that makes it hard not to like him on sight.

Jisung also knows his name.

"Hey guys, what do you think about Jeongin as a name?" He asks. Changbin raises an eyebrow at him through the mirror and he grins back quickly, his friend returning his gaze to the road and skillfully hiding his own grin. Hyunjin earnestly thinks it over.

"It's cute. Why? Are you thinking of changing your name? You know I support you through everything, right, baby?"

"I know. But no, I just came across it on the internet and thought it was cool."

"It's cool. It's cute." Hyunjin nods his head once and looks back down at his phone then. "Maybe his name is Jeongin… But then why is there an H? Or is it an M?" He frowns as he brings the phone closer to his face again. After a moment he drops it to his lap and lets his head fall back against the seat. "Ugh this is so frustrating!" He whines loudly. "Why won't he just tell me his name!?"

Jisung laughs alongside Changbin at Hyunjin's misery, but he figures Jeongin will reveal the truth to his friend soon enough. And if he doesn't tomorrow, then he can still tell his friend himself. So he merely pats Hyunjin's shoulder in sympathy before focusing back on his phone so he can send the picture to his girlfriend.

Oh Jeongin!
He's really good!
Not my type though
You're cuter
Guess we can keep dating ;)

It's embarrassing how flattered he is by a throwaway flirty comment from someone he only started talking to four days ago and has never seen before, but he's beaming smugly at his phone and he knows it, because when the screen goes dark he gets a full view of his own stupid face.

Then he realises that if she knows Jeongin, she must not be from very far away, right?

Oh, you know him?

Yeah he comes by the store sometimes ^^

Oh you work nearby

Yep
Not as worlds removed as we once were 🙂

Shit is that a bad thing?

If it was I wouldn't have mentioned I know Jeongin
Why?

Idk that 🙂 felt like the blank faced emoji of inner death

Lmfao what

You know; empty eyes, empty smile, just wanna die

Are u… okay?
Should I be worried? :p

What? No, I'm cool! The emoji just looks like that!
It's like "I like you 🙂" means 'please drop dead right now never come before me again or I will murder you and your entire family'

… No but rlly are u ok?

I'm fine!
Doesn't it look like that to you?

It looks like a smiley face to me
Should I use 😊 is that better?

Much.

Lmao ok
Will do babe <3

He's grinning like a fool all over again when he reads the last line and it's stupid and it needs to stop.

Anyway, uh
Not to be the creepy guy after all but
You maybe wanna meet up for drinks or smth?

Nothing creepy about drinks if u ask me
I'm currently on the shitty night shift tho
So I'm working evenings and night
And not rlly up for going out much during the day
If u wanna come to the shop to hang out tho
We do sell drinks

o i c

?

Luring unsuspecting men into your workplace
Getting extra sales in
And then you bury them out back when their use is up
Don't you?

Shit.
U found me out

Does this mean I should stay away?

No! :(
I wanna hang out w u
Promise I won't kill u
Cause ur my babe <3

Aw babe <333

<33333333

I wanna have ice cream now

…
We also sell that at the shop

😂
Cool
Cool cool
I'm officially seduced
By the 24/7 shop mermaid

Mission accomplished.

So, uh..
Where should I go?

He waits with bated breath, but rather than a speech bubble, there is simply a location shared with him and when he opens it up, it shows a store about a block away from the tattoo shop. It's just then that the car stops and he looks up to realise they've reached Hyunjin and Minho's place.

—

With Hyunjin safely deposited at the door of his apartment, a few good hugs and another promise to meet his friend before his appointment at the tattoo shop the next morning later, Changbin and him head back down to the car. The second the doors of the elevator close, his friend turns to him.

"Spill."

There is a brief second in which he contemplates playing dumb, but he knows that Changbin knows what he's thinking, and so in the end he makes a face of defeat.

"I've been texting that person I started texting Friday night, right? And they're like… really nice. So I asked if they wanted to meet up, because maybe I could make a new friend, you know? Turns out they work not far from the tattoo shop at this 24/7 corner store. And I kinda wanna… go?"

He can tell his voice lilts awkwardly at the end of his sentence like he's asking a question more so than stating a fact, but as always all Changbin does is nod once and take it all in stride.

"You want me to go with?"

"Maybe… Though I'll ask them if they're okay with that."

Changbin nods and he pulls out his phone again.

Is it cool if I bring a friend?

Course babe! Which one?

Bin owns a car, so…

Lmao aight

"Are they at work right now?"

Are you there now?

Yea
You wanna come right now?

Is that okay?

Yea sure
Cool
I'll make sure all the drinks are stocked ;)

Aw thnx babe <3

Anything for you babe <3

"They are," he belatedly tells his friend, and Changbin nods again, gaze fixed on his face.

"Well then let's go."

"Are you sure?"

"Did I or did I not drive Hyunjin to his tattooing crush and Minho to his husband? You think I can't do the same for you?"

For some reason he's embarrassed. He knows the second he feels his cheeks heat up that Changbin knows he's embarrassed. He still elbows his friend in the side anyway.

"I'm not married nor smitten with them!" He protests, and Changbin laughs, but puts an arm around his neck and pulls him in for a hug anyway.

"But you want to make a friend and that's happened maybe once in the last five years, so let's go. Do you want to change into different clothes first?"

He frowns in question, but then glimpses himself in the elevator wall mirror and instantly grimaces. "Yes please."

—

They don't go to his home, they go to Changbin's, and they spend about half an hour on him trying on different things they both know he looks good in before settling on a simple white shirt and dark jeans combination, with a zipper hoodie in case he gets cold later on.

Then they drive to the corner store and Changbin looks for a decent parking spot to safely leave his car in. For some reason he's nervous. Really nervous. So nervous he almost turns right back around and walks away again when the corner store's neon sign comes into view.

Changbin puts an arm around his middle and casually turns him right back around, walking him over to the store. The doors slide open automatically upon their arrival, squeaking a little as they do so. There's no one behind the counter so he looks up at his friend with pleading eyes.

"Let's grab something to drink? I actually only had half a dinner because of Minho's marital crisis, so do you also wanna grab some snacks?"

He nods his head mutely, following after his friend towards the fridges with drinks in them. Changbin quickly decides, always gets the same expensive brand, but he takes a little more time to decide.

"Hey, I'm already going to look at the snacks," his friend says and he nods.

"Yeah, sure, you can grab me whatever."

Changbin nods, probably, and heads off. Jisung's too busy trying to read the label on the chocolate drink he spotted to look over. Indecisiveness really is his middle name sometimes, so he's still reading labels a little while later when someone walks over again and comes to a stop next to him.

"Should I get something with alcohol too?" He asks his friend while finishing his reading.

"I don't know, babe, do you want to get drunk again?" Definitely-not-Changbin answers and he looks up instantly, wide-eyed and shook because the voice sounded nothing like anything he might have expected.

The blond-haired, freckle-dusted, deep-voiced stranger by his side is smiling at him somewhat hesitantly and his brain is short circuiting. His lips part for air, but no words are produced and when he looks around the store to see where Changbin is, he finds they're both less tall than the shelves so there's no way of finding him. When his eyes return to the blond haired stranger, the smile has left their features.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he's told regretfully. "Are you okay?"

He's still short circuiting, but the other person starting to look ever more uncomfortable with the second finally snaps him out of it.

"What the fuck you're hot."

There's a brief pause of silence while the blond stranger's features fold into the sunniest of smiles and he's just staring because he can't comprehend how attracted he is to this gorgeous apparition opposite him when last he checked he was straight. Right? Right?

"Aw thanks, babe," the blond says bashfully, reaching out and briefly touching his arm, which sends a jolt up to his shoulder and straight to his heart, beating like a fearful rabbit faced with the hunter's barrel. "You're pretty hot yourself."

He squeaks (squeaks!) before quickly clearing his throat to hide the noise and it has the blond stranger laughing, the sound warm and soft, the mirth lighting up those features into pure sunshine.

"Are you, uh…" He starts, but the love of his life nods his head without him having to finish that sentence.

"Your girlfriend? Yeah."

"But you're not, uh…"

"A girl? I know. Sorry about that."

Jisung shakes his head quickly. "No no, that's fine, I'm not, uh…" This time there is no one to finish his sentence for him, so it just hangs open-ended in the air between them. When it becomes clear he's not going to say more, he's offered a hand.

"I'm Felix. It's nice to meet you."

"Jisung," he says dumbly, shaking the hand. "But you knew that, probably."

"I didn't, actually. It's nice to meet you, Jisung."

They're still holding on to each other's hand and he's loath to let go and is that his brain just jumping out of his skull and walking off without him because Jisung.exe has stopped working for sure. Felix's smile turns into a billion watt sunshine again slowly throughout the ongoing silence, though he never pulls his hand away either.

"You okay, babe?"

"Fine," he hastens to say. "I'm fine. You're fine! I really wish I did not just say that aloud. Um…" He looks away briefly, but instantly finds his gaze travelling back to Felix's face, not wanting to miss a single second of looking at it. Then Felix's gaze moves past him and he wishes he could turn to look as well but he's stuck looking at his girlfriend's very non-girly face.

"You must be Bin," Felix says with great warmth, lifting his free hand in a little wave. "I'm Felix, it's nice to meet you."

Jisung feels his friend come to a stop next to him, and he looks over just as Changbin introduces himself as well to the store worker aka his girlfriend aka the love of his life aka the man whose hand he's been holding for a solid minute now probably. When he looks up at his friend with wide-eyed shock, Changbin briefly looks back at him.

He sees the moment when Changbin realises, when over fifteen years of friendship pays off with a single shared look, a glance towards linked hands and a look up into Felix's face. He also sees the moment when Changbin decides to act with the part of him that's been friends with Lee Minho for a wholeass decade as well.

"Oh, pardon me, I didn't mean to interrupt your awakening sexuality," his friend says with a sickeningly sweet smile. "I'll just be off again, nevermind me." He watches Changbin walk away again just like that, feeling betrayed and fiercely loved both at the same time. Opposite him, Felix laughs again.

"You okay, babe?" He asks, eyes sparkling when Jisung turns his head to meet them again and his breath hitches at the sight of it.

"Please tell me I can kiss you."

Felix's expression briefly goes blank with surprise, but before he can feel anything about that, it turns bright with amusement all over again. "We're dating, aren't we?" The god among corner store workers offers, shrugging a little, and Jisung is lost. Lost.

He's also kissing this blond-haired, freckle-dusted, deep-voiced adonis the very next moment.

—

"You good, bro?"

He brings his gaze up from the snacks on the table to Changbin's face, still a little dazed. "Cool," he says blindly, stupidly. "I'm cool. I'm good."

There's a flash of memory of Felix's hand in the back of his neck, pulling him in closer in order to coax him into opening his mouth and he had and then he'd been truly kissing the blond man. Who is a man…? Jisung is still processing.

"You wanna talk about it?" His expression turns incredulous and Changbin laughs a little while shrugging. "I don't know, dude, maybe it'll help?"

"What is there to say?" He asks, thinking about what has transpired and quickly bringing his hands up to cover his face because he was kissing a man and he kind of wants to still be doing that. There was a customer, though, and Felix is at work and Jisung is…

…

Gay?

He lifts his head to look up at Changbin, tries to imagine kissing him and it's really not a thing he wants to do.

"It doesn't work that way," his friend gracefully supplies after using their best-friend-telepathy to read his mind again, luckily keeping his voice low enough not to be heard by anyone else. "You don't magically want to kiss every guy you come across. Unless you're Hyunjin, of course. There's just certain people you're attracted to, same as with those girls you've dated."

"I've never in my entire life wanted to kiss someone as badly as I want to kiss this guy, though."

Changbin's eyebrows rise slowly, and then suddenly his friend is grinning. He pulls out his phone and Jisung frowns at him instantly.

"No, don't you dare!"

But his phone buzzes in his pocket before he even finishes his sentence. When he pulls it out, it's a group chat notification.

Guys, Sungie's in love

!!!!!!!!!!!! With who?????????????

I am Not!

Hold on I'm pausing my makeout session for this. Jisung did what? Didn't you guys go home? When did he have time to fall in love?

About ten minutes ago, right before he kissed the love of his life

???????????? Pics or it didn't happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are no pics!

He glares up at Changbin, but to his absolute horror his friend's grin is smug and his fingers tapping on his phone purposeful. The next second a picture does appear in the chat, and not just any picture, no. Right there on undeniable photographic proof, he's got one hand fisted into Felix's shirt, one of Felix's hands on the back of his head and they're very clearly and very obviously kissing.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sungie baby I'm so proud!!!!!!!!!!!

Bitch!!!!!
What the fuck!
Look at you go!!!!!

I walked in on his sexuality awakening so I left again but when I came to check in on him this is what I found
Sexuality wide awake.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who is he???
What does he do????
Where do you know him from??????
How long has this been going on????????

He looks like a good kisser.
Is he a good kisser?

Pretty sure I heard Sungie moan so…

I did Not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bitch who is he?
Why didn't you tell us???

P sure he had no idea until literally 15 mins ago

Do you have a better pic of this guy, Bin?
I wanna know who our Jisungie fell in love with.

There are No Pics!!!

Hold on I'll ask

"Bin, what the fuck, don't you dare!" He grumbles up at his friend instantly, but Changbin simply winks and looks over towards the counter.

"Hey Felix?" He yells, and for once Jisung curses his friend's spontaneity. Felix's head pops out from behind the nearest shelves a few moments later.

"Yeah?"

"Can I take a pic of you? Our friends want to know who you are."

"Oh sure!"

Jisung sits dejectedly in his chair glaring down at the table and his phone, on which the chat is still open with his friends waiting for pictorial evidence of his downfall.

Then a hand touches his shoulder and the next moment there's arms sliding around his neck loosely. Felix's face presses against the side of his, almost nuzzling into him, and he can feel the bright smile on the blond's face. For a moment he is frozen in complete shock, shoulders tense, unmoving, trying to get a look at the man's face to possibly see what he's thinking.

Then his phone buzzes in his hand, lighting back up with the picture now sent into the group chat. Felix is smiling brightly at the camera, still the epitome of beauty and looking utterly cosy cuddling up to him like that. Jisung himself looks like a deer caught in headlights, a flush on his cheeks and making the stupidest face trying to catch a glimpse of Felix.

"Aw that's super cute!" Felix chimes happily and he realises his phone screen is in full view of the man. "Can you send me that pic later, babe?" He's asked, and all he can do is mutter something affirmative and nod his head.

When he looks up properly then, relaxing a little now that he's used to the gentle weight on his shoulders, Felix beams a smile down at him. He smiles automatically in return, and then his phone buzzes in his hands again. This time the picture shows that very moment of them smiling, Jisung's shoulders much more relaxed compared to before, Felix's smile much more bright. He almost wants to set it as his lock screen.

Omg he's super cute!!!!!!
Like a mini version of me!
I always knew you loved me Sungie <3

Shut up bitch he looks nothing like you
But they're fucking adorable
Chan says you look cute tgt
He asks if that's your girlfriend
What does he mean?

Flustered and a little shy with Felix reading along over his shoulder, he still types out a reply.

Yes that's my girlfriend
Thank you teddy
Fuck the rest of you
I hate you all
We look so fucking cute I'm upset
Why did none of you tell me I wasn't straight?

None of our business baby

Bitch pls
If you felt straight then you were straight end of story
You feelin cheeky now then ur cheeky now
Whatever floats your boat

Ew Minho who even still says that?

My husband does shut the fuck up bitch

Felix laughs and he becomes aware again of the man's face still pressed against his, of the arms wrapped loosely around his neck and the fingers toying gently with his shirt. He becomes aware, too, of the flutter in his stomach and the way his cheeks heat up even worse than before. So instead of looking at the conversation any longer, he saves both pictures and sends them to his girlfriend.

"You didn't even save my number?" Felix asks, sounding a little betrayed somehow. The question brings a flush to his cheeks all over again and he fumbles with his phone a little.

"I, um…" He says, but his phone is unceremoniously plucked out of his hands. When he looks up at feeling Felix straighten, he sees the man tapping his phone seriously before beaming another absolutely sunshine smile at the phone while making a finger heart at it and then typing some more.

When the phone is tucked back into his hands a minute later, the name of his contact is now My girlfriend <3 with a picture of Felix throwing up said finger heart. Somehow it pleases him more than he can say.

He's still staring at his phone - grinning stupidly, he realises - when another phone is held out in front of his face. There, on the screen, is the contact name My boyfriend <3 with his number underneath it and one of the pictures he took Friday night next to it; him winking and blowing a kiss at the camera. Like they're really dating.

He tries not to think of what that does to his insides and simply looks back up at Felix again. A big part of him is convinced that the only way his expression in that moment can be described is ‘heart eyes’ and it doesn’t help when Felix beams him another smile and then leans down to kiss him again quickly.

“Have to get back to work, babe, but I’ll be around, yeah? Don’t leave without telling me!”

He nods his head without words and is left watching Felix walk away from him, all the way until the man disappears behind the nearest shelf again. When he turns back to Changbin, his friend is grinning at him with great amusement and he doesn’t even want to know what the group chat looks like, so he simply locks his phone, tucks it away into his hoodie pocket and picks up his drink to occupy himself with.

After a moment of silence, Changbin speaks up again, still amused, but a little more serious as well. “You good, Ji?”

He sighs deeply, but there’s no way to lie to his friend, and no reason for him to want to, either. “Fine. Just processing. Not sure how I feel other than, like, kind of excited that I’m not single anymore? May have lost my job but gained a girlfriend sort of thing?”

Changbin laughs but nods his head anyway, understanding him fine no matter how stupid it may sound to anyone else. “Pretty interesting girlfriend, too,” he’s told after a moment, Changbin’s gaze briefly going over to where Felix had disappeared from view. “He seems cool, though. If you’re comfortable with it I’d say just roll with it and see where it goes.”

“Yeah? It’s not too weird if I do that?”

Changbin shrugs. “Your girlfriend doesn’t seem to think so. That’s the only thing that matters, right?”

He puffs up his cheeks a little in thought, but then shrugs and nods his head, accepting that wisdom at face value.

—

Since Felix of course had to work all night and Changbin still had work in the morning, they decided to go home after another thirty minutes. Jisung kept up his usual texting with his girlfriend, however, which is how he learned that Felix finished work at eight that morning. And because he’s a friendly guy (absolutely smitten) he asked if Felix wanted to have breakfast with him and then meet Hyunjin at the coffee shop before going home.

Which is why he’s standing at the corner store again at exactly eight o’clock the next morning, hands tucked into the front pouch pocket of today’s hoodie and waiting for Felix to come walking out of the corner store. For all he’d looked good the night before and Jisung had been nervous about meeting him again, Felix’s sunshine smile seems twice as bright this morning and he looks even more like a runway model as the man comes walking out the door without wearing the store’s logo this time. All he can do is just watch as Felix walks over until they’re standing right across from each other.

“Hi,” the blond male chimes happily, seeming extremely excited to see him despite having just worked all through the night. He’s soon proven that this is true when Felix adds: “Thanks for inviting me for breakfast! I’m super excited!”

He promptly blushes, and then promptly feels stupid for blushing at the same time. “It’s fine. It’s nothing. I figured you’d be hungry anyway, right?” Felix nods his head and then instantly reaches out a hand, offering. He looks down at it in surprise for a moment, but then gratefully slips his own into it.

“So,” Felix says as they’re walking away from the corner store. It’s not so early that the streets are empty of people, but early enough that they’re not full of people yet either. “You said your friend has no idea yet that Jeongin’s name is Jeongin and we’re going there because he’s trying to figure it out by getting himself another tattoo?”

“Yes, that pretty much sums it up,” he agrees with a nod.

“Cool,” is all Felix has to say to that, and when he looks over at the male, their eyes meet and the smile he’s shown is full of warmth. He allows himself to follow through on the urge to lean in and kiss Felix’s cheek. The response is an even brighter smile, a little squeeze of his hand and Felix tangling up their fingers as they continue walking.

“I looked up that coffee shop you said we were heading to and they actually have a pretty decent breakfast menu. I’m excited; it’s been a while since I went out to eat!”

“You don’t…?” He starts a question, realising how rude it could sound after two words and trailing off. Just like the night before, Felix seems to finish his sentence on his own, because he shakes his head.

“Nah, not when I’m on the night shift. I only moved to this city relatively recently as well so I don’t really have any friends here yet. Not many cool friends to make in the corner hell either, unless you’re into hanging out with Bud Light Bert and Heineken Henry.”

“Are those… their real names?” He asks, trying his best not to grin too widely, but Felix laughs openly at the question.

“I wouldn’t know, honestly, that’s just the names I gave them. They’re usually too drunk for much proper conversation; and not the kind of people I’d want to have too long of a chat with. But at least they’re friendly. There’s worse, too.”

He nods his head in understanding, and then temporarily tightens his hold on Felix’s hand himself. “Hey, but you have friends now. You met Changbin and you’re about to meet Hyunjin as well. I’ll introduce you to Minho later. I’m sure Teddy bear wouldn’t mind meeting you, either. You guys have a very similar accent.”

“Oh really? Sounds fun. I can’t wait to be introduced to all of them!”

And somehow, Jisung has no doubt it’s the truth. Felix manages to make everything sound like the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to him, after all. Even a mediocre breakfast at the coffee shop twenty minutes later. At least the coffee itself is pretty good, and when they opt for sharing some pancakes they’re not too bad either, so he doesn’t have to send Felix home with a half-empty stomach.

They’re in the middle of laughing at the pictures Jisung took Friday night together when all of a sudden someone plops down by his side.

“Oh my god I can’t believe I’m meeting you in the flesh!” Hyunjin instantly pipes up with great delight, gaze fixed on Felix and Felix alone, hands resting on his cheeks before he reaches one out. “I’m Hyunjin, it’s so nice to meet you! You’re so pretty we could almost be twins!”

Felix only laughs, seemingly unbothered by the sudden appearance of a new person. He takes the hand offered and shakes it once. “I’m Felix, it’s nice to meet you too, Hyunjin. You’re very pretty as well, indeed. We can be blond haired twins.”

Hyunjin practically beams at having someone reciprocate his love for a change, and then promptly turns to Jisung to wrap him up in a squishy hug that he barely manages to live through.

“Sungie, I’m so happy for you! You stopped replying in the group chat when I still wanted to wish you good luck.” There’s a pout, but it disappears again the next moment as a beaming smile takes over Hyunjin’s features again. “But you brought him to meet me instead today so it’s okay!”

Attention instantly going back to Felix, Hyunjin adds: “After meeting me, you’ve met the most important person in the friend group so you don’t have to bother with meeting the others, they’ll all fall short in comparison anyway.” He waves off the mere idea, as if there really isn’t anything interesting to it at all, and then pushes himself up again. "I'm going to get myself a drink, be back in a hot second." He winks at Felix and practically parades away, leaving behind an impressive silence.

"He's something isn't he?" Felix asks after a moment of both of them staring after Hyunjin before sharing a look, and Jisung can only grin in return, nodding his head.

"Yeah, he's great but some days he's too much for me. He's not always this… Like this, though. We often spend days just lounging around the house together doing nothing much, and whenever he's painting he becomes a different person."

"Oh, he's an artist?"

"Yeah, he gives art classes, actually, and does some drawing and painting on the side."

"That's so cool. What about you? What did you use to do?"

His mouth opens rather uselessly, and then he looks away, gaze dropping to the table as he closes his mouth again. Before he can be asked to explain himself, Hyunjin returns, flopping back down on his chair from before and instantly leaning over the iced americano in his hands towards Felix.

"So why would you text back an unknown number?" He asks instantly, absolutely no shame or hesitation there, and Felix laughs lightly. Jisung can feel the man's eyes settle on him for a moment.

"I don't know… It was funny; and he was cute."

"Aww, that's adorable. Meant to be! It's a good thing Sungie thinks you're cute too!"

"Very good," Felix agrees with a nod, just as Jisung glances up at him again. He's given a smile, and Felix gently nudging a leg against his, before casually tangling up their legs under the table. "It would've been sad if I were to have to give up my boyfriend again."

"How did you even come upon his number?" Hyunjin's question turns to him and he shrugs.

"Beats me. The first picture I sent was a selfie with you in it at the playground. Maybe I just decided to text a random number?"

"You should retrace your steps!" Hyunjin exclaims excitedly. "Go back to where you were Friday night to see if you remember something else!"

He actually considers it, but before he can decide either way, Hyunjin slaps his hand down on the table. "We should go! I don't want to be late for my appointment and we still have to walk a little bit. Did you guys pay already?"

He nods his head, watching Hyunjin nod as well and then they're all getting up from the table, gathering their empty plates on the trays and putting them away on the cart meant for it.

"Are you headed home now, Felix?" Hyunjin asks, but Felix shakes his head.

"Nah, I'd love to see the tattoo parlour if that's alright?"

"Sure! You can keep Sungie company!"

Felix's gaze comes briefly to him then, the look in his girlfriend's eyes inquiring and he smiles because of it, before nodding his head to indicate it's fine. Instantly the sunshine smile blooms on Felix's face again, and they're holding hands once more by the time they're outside the coffee shop.

—

"What the fuuuuuuuck!!!!!????"

Hyunjin's voice is pitched a little higher than usual and Jisung's features contort at it, but Felix helpfully covers his ears. Across from his friend, Jeongin lets out an amused chuckle.

"It's really not that hard. There's the H for your first and last name here, there's the Y of my last name and the J of my first name."

He's pointing them out not on the picture Hyunjin took like a normal person would, but rather on Hyunjin's tattoo itself, for which his friend has pulled down his pants just enough to reveal it.

"Bitch, I thought that was an M!" Hyunjin protests loudly but he's instantly grinning over at the tattooer, swatting at his arm. "I actually really like it. Does this mean you marked me as yours, though?"

"Obviously. That's the property of Yang Jeongin stamp. No one will move further once they catch sight of it."

He watches Hyunjin make googly eyes at the tattoo guy and thinks if he waits a little longer he'll see his friend's eyes turn into literal hearts. Instead of doing that, he turns to look at Felix.

"I think that's our cue to leave," he mumbles, causing his girlfriend to laugh but nod his head regardless.

Neither of the two men peering down at Hyunjin's hip even notice them leaving, so he sends his friend a quick text to explain his absence once he's walking over to the subway station hand in hand with Felix again.

Chapter Text

"I'm not letting you walk around the city alone, bitch!" Minho protests loudly, shaking his head. Changbin and Hyunjin nod along with him. "My husband will go with you, he's got a free day anyway. He can drive you around to everywhere we've been and you can figure shit out like that."

"Is 'your husband' alright with you deciding shit for him like that?" Changbin counters with a little frown, but the next moment Chan's head suddenly pops into view of the camera next to Minho's.

"I suggested it myself, but thanks!" He chimes before disappearing from view again and leaving the three of them to squint at their screen.

"Are you still at his place?" Changbin asks, incredulous. Minho makes a face.

"Obviously, yes. I went home last night and found tattoo guy's hand down Jin's pants and they clearly weren't up for a trio, so I made myself scarce since." He makes an upset face that's clearly directed at Hyunjin, who's sputtering and flailing at the same time but doesn't really manage to get a proper word out.

"If I'm not welcome anymore at home then I'll go where I am loved," Minho adds and Jisung puffs up his cheeks a little.

"You're loved here too, Min."

Instantly Minho's expression softens into a warm smile. "I know, Sungie, but I don't think you'd wanna stick your hands down my pants, which is definitely something I do get here."

"Wow, details!" Changbin instantly cautions and Minho's smile turns into a positively devilish grin.

"Well, he does this particularly interesting thing with his hand where-"

"I meant less details, what the fuck, Min!?" Changbin interrupts him loudly. When Minho looks upset at being interrupted (he's just playing) Chan comes into view again pressing a kiss to his cheek and saying something like 'you can tell the rest of the details to me later' (he's probably not playing). It makes Minho look entirely smug, and it makes Jisung try to evacuate the conversation entirely.

"Guys, I may not be straight after all but I still don't want to know, kay? So Teddy's picking me up later?"

"Hmm," Mingo agrees, still grinning at his husband off-screen and looking utterly pleased. "In my car. Apparently like a whole responsible adult I left my keys and my car with my husband and told him to get it back to me when he was sober, so he did. Isn't he just the most trustworthy husband you could ever imagine?"

"I'm going to vomit," Changbin says with little to no heat behind his words and Hyunjin cackles happily.

"The house is empty without you, Minnie!" The blond protests the very next moment, pouting at the camera as hard as he can. "Come home tonight! I promise Innie's not gonna be here. I miss you! You're the only one who knows how to properly appreciate my stories!"

Minho makes a face like he's considering it, but then Chan seems to say something again in the background and Minho's expression once again softens briefly to a smile.

"Fine," he says then. "My darling's busy tomorrow anyway, I'll come keep you company after work. But no hands down your pants, bitch, or I'm out forever!"

Hyunjin's quick to promise no such shenanigans, and Minho nods solemnly. Jisung thinks that when he looks at Changbin's face on his screen, his friend is doing the exact same thing, because they both raise their eyebrows a little at the same time and then they're grinning.

"Chan says he'll be there at eleven, that cool?" Minho asks him the next moment, so he nods.

"I'll see him appear. I'm going to sleep now, though, guys. It was kinda early this morning."

"Sungie went to see his loverboy~" Hyunjin sing-songs and he groans, dropping his head.

"Goodnight!" He says loudly, before any of them can add to the teasing, and taps out of the video call.

—

"So you remember everything from the karaoke?"

"Yeah, most of it. I remember leaving it, too, and Minho driving us out here."

Chan nods his head pensively, looking around the area. There's a playground not too far away, and the store they're standing at is the one they always come and get their snacks at. He wanders inside and is briefly reminded of his visit to the corner store. He checks the person at the register almost automatically, but it's not Felix. Of course not; Felix is asleep at home, they exchanged their last texts when he got in the car with Chan.

When his gaze goes back to the store itself, he finds Chan looking at him funny, so he shies away from the look a little. He wishes one of his friends were with him so they could call the man out on his looks, or just be on the receiving end of them. But Chan's expression softens to a smile.

"You really like him, don't you?"

He blinks in confusion, glancing back towards the register to double check it's really not someone he knows.

"Your girlfriend, I mean. Felix?"

"Oh. I- He- Yeah…" He looks at Chan a moment longer. "Is that weird?"

"No! No, just… Do you think Minho really likes me?"

Not where he thought this was going. "I don't think even Minho knows if he really likes you yet," he says honestly. "Though I guess he does or he would've complained about you a lot more already."

Chan smiles, but there's still uncertainty there and Jisung wishes he could take it away.

"He doesn't usually hook up with strangers, though," he tries to add. "We don't usually all get this drunk either. But I was feeling like shit after getting fired and, well…" His words fade out before he eventually says: "They're the best friends I could ever have."

Chan nods his head like he understands, smiles, puts a hand on his shoulder. He wishes he would never be reminded of his stolen future again.

"Anyway, I meant to say that… I think you're fine. He wouldn't just be with you because of your house or your couch or something like that. I mean, if he did, he'd already be moving the couch to his own place or trying to get you to put the house in his name as well."

"Oh, but the house is partly his now. We got married." Chan says it like it's normal, like it isn't a total stranger owning half of everything he worked hard for. "You know, I told him Friday night why I'd agree with marrying him. He seemed sober enough to remember what he was doing, but… Then he forgot. I called him about his car and he had no idea. So I thought maybe he was going to get really upset when he figured out he got married, but then he didn't."

There's a shrug, Chan seemingly taking it all in stride somehow and Jisung wants to know how to be a person like that; not worried at all about what the future will bring. Maybe it comes with being rich. Maybe it just comes with being drop dead fucking gorgeous like literally all of his friends (and his girlfriend) seem to be.

"I just thought it'd be a unique way to find inspiration for my next nove- Hey, is this Felix's number?"

Chan points out a paper hanging on the announcement board in the middle of his earlier sentence and Jisung instantly walks closer to take a look at it. The number on the little tear-off parts at the bottom is indeed Felix's - he knows, because he learned it by heart over the past couple of days of looking at it. Then he focuses on the message itself.

Looking for work
Versatile, capable, responsible. Willing to try anything.

As he reads the words, he suddenly remembers vaguely the way Hyunjin dragged him over to this very spot, giggling and pouting. "Here," he'd said, all laughter and drunken joy. "Maybe they're willing to date you." And he doesn't entirely remember what he'd responded with, but he must have thought it a great idea, because Felix's number is now in his phone and his first text had been asking for a girlfriend, after all.

"Oh my god," he says, stunned and embarrassed and stupid and so, so, so enamoured with the man who replied to that text with nothing but kindness. He takes a picture of the paper anyway, so he can show the others later, but it's horrible. "I want to unexist right now," he adds with flaming cheeks and Chan laughs, puts an arm around his shoulders and draws him towards the exit of the store again.

"Let's get something to eat instead, yeah? I'm starving and I'd rather you continued to exist; I quite like you."

He lets himself be guided out, smiling up at Chan, and maybe - just maybe - he gets exactly why Minho doesn't mind being married to him.

—

He's in the middle of burgers and fries paid for by the best husband in the world when his phone buzzes and he picks it up to see Changbin's name on the screen. For a moment he just stares at it, frowning, before he quickly picks up. Changbin never calls while at work unless in emergencies, after all. Which means it must be an emergency.

"'m Eafng," he gracefully informs his friend with a mouth full of burger, so he'll know why no proper answer is being given. "Whus m ma'er?"

"Jisung." He instantly chews as fast as he can to swallow because Changbin doesn't even sound like Changbin, and using his full name is always a bad sign. Chan gives him a worried look but he shakes his head.

"What's wrong, Bin, what happened?"

"I just got an email… I'm sending it to you right now. I don't know who the fuck this is from, Ji."

He frowns deeply as well, and then pulls his phone from his ear to open his email app. "Hold on, Bin, I'm checking my mail."

"Are you alone?" He hears his friend ask, and glances up at Chan.

"No, Chan's here. We're having burgers."

"Can you go to the bathroom or something? Somewhere no one else can see?"

He has no idea what to expect at this point, but he shoots Chan an apologetic look and then he's already walking, leaving burger and fries behind in order to head out to the car. "Hold on, I'm on my way." He gets into the car once he reaches it and casually pulls his hoodie over his head to be able to hide underneath it with his phone so that not even a random passerby will be able to see anything.

"Okay I'm in the car hidden under my hoodie can I open the mail?"

"Yeah… Maybe… No. Yeah…"

Changbin sounding so uncertain about something is the second red flag of the evening and so he can't not open the mail now. The title simply reads 'Fwd: Your pictures' and when he clicks it open, it's a very politely worded email.

Hello Changbin

I'm sorry for only getting back to you this late but I had some unexpected extra work come up during the weekend.
I've made my way through your pictures now, though, and I think you'll be happy with the end results.
I've attached a few example pictures so you have an idea already of what the picture reveal will be like. I look forward to hearing from you when you'd be able to meet up for it. I'm available in the evening for the rest of the week and the entire weekend.

Kind regards,
Kim Seungmin
MSK Photography

Considering the email in and of itself doesn't sound all too bad, Jisung decides to open up the first attachment. The picture loads slowly at first, and then all at once.

"Ji?" Changbin asks right at that moment, as if sensing his disbelief, or perhaps simply because he's been quiet for a while.

"Bin… What the fuck is this?"

“I don’t know!” Changbin instantly exclaims, and it’s clear he’s upset. It’s clear he truly has no idea indeed what on earth is going on in his inbox right now and Jisung bites his lip as he closes the image and then opens the next attachment. There’s an extreme kind of silence on the line that they’ve never had between them before, but Jisung is looking at pictures of his friend that are definitely not for his eyes to see and Changbin is… panicking?

“Jisung, what if he publishes these somewhere. What if he’s got a website he posts this stuff on. Jisung, I’m-” Changbin stops talking for a moment. “My parents…”

He startles out of his shock because of the terror in his friend’s voice, firmly closing the last attachment again as well and pulling his hoodie off his head so he can bring his phone to his ear again properly, turning off the speaker.

“Bin, you should call Minho and ask him about-”

“No, I’m not calling Minho. You can’t tell anyone, Jisung. No one can know about this. You have to come with me to talk to this guy and we have to make sure he doesn’t reveal any of these to the public.”

“Of course, Bin, that’s why I’m saying you should get some legal advice on this matter from Minho. You don’t have to tell him what it’s about exactly, just call him like you always do when you want some legal advice. Tell him it’s about one of your employees who you want to help, I don’t know. You’ll feel better once you know the legal ways. And then we’ll go see him, just you and me, and we’ll talk to him, and maybe he understands and deletes all of these pictures in one go.”

Jisung remembers the pictures well; that look on Changbin’s face and the colouring and the blanket and- He shakes his head to dislodge the image from his brain, attempting to be a better friend than he knows he truly is. His friends have always been superior to him when it comes to helping out, but he will do his best now. Here. For Changbin.

“I’m free all week, right, so just make an appointment with him for when you’re free. Tonight if you can. The sooner we do this, the better.”

“Yeah, yeah okay. Tonight,” Changbin agrees and Jisung nods even when his friend can’t see him.

“Alright. You okay?”

“No. I’ll be fine. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise. It’s fine. I’m your friend even when you commit murder, you know that right?”

Changbin huffs out a smile and he feels proud for having managed to make his friend smile again despite everything.

“Yeah, yeah I know. You’re the best, Ji.”

“You’re better,” he decides, and smiles when there’s no protest. He shakes off the urge to reopen the attachments and instead ends his call with his friend so he can head back to his burgers and fries though they’ll have long gone cold.

When he enters the restaurant again, Chan’s just bringing a new portion of burgers and fries over to their table and he considers professing his undying love, but he figures doing that to one stranger a week might be more than plenty.

—

It’s not until he’s sitting in the passenger seat of Changbin’s car later that night, having texted Felix about the unfortunate finding of his mobile number (and Felix saying he’s glad about it; glad!) that he finally opens the email attachments again, looking at them for a long time in silence. Next to him, Changbin sits absolutely silent as well, seemingly frozen in time and space. Until eventually his friend takes a shuddering breath and looks over to him.

“Well,” he decides to say when the vulnerable, fearful look in Changbin’s eyes makes him want to do anything to cheer up his friend. “I mean… You look stunning, though?”

Changbin snorts in that way that is disbelieving and extremely unwillingly amused, but it’s enough for Jisung to know he’s done what he intended to do. He looks up to meet his friend’s eyes again and gives him the most reassuring look he can muster.

“I’m serious, though,” he says when he looks back down, because he cannot say this while actually looking at his friend. “Like… Sorta feels like these pictures definitely aren’t for my eyes to see but for whoever you’re trying to date, but… They’re very flattering. You’re very handsome. I’m not just saying this because I recently figured out I’m not straight,” (He still doesn’t know what he is if not straight but he figures it doesn’t matter while he’s dating Felix, right? Right.) “You really look good in this. You could be a model like this. Look at your shoulders, man. And your arms! And…” He trails off and manages to glance up at Changbin a little guiltily. “Sorry. I know you’re stressed.”

“I am,” Changbin says simply. “Stressed. And extremely hot in these pictures. I’m almost attracted to myself, it’s so bad. This photographer really knows his business.”

Jisung nods his head and does something else he hasn’t done before; googling the photographer’s brand name. The first hit is the man’s website, and the quick description at the top explains everything.

Boudoir photography is apparently a thing, where people take pictures of what appears to be mostly women in lingerie or other pretty clothes, meant for the person themselves or their partner to enjoy and - according to Kim Seungmin - to help with their self-confidence as well.

"When did you even have time to go to this man's studio and get a whole photoshoot in without any of us knowing? Do you think one of us was there, or maybe…" He pauses when a memory hits, vague and rather headache-inducing. "Wait… I think I recall you heading off to the bathroom with someone. Do you think you…" He doesn't finish his sentence but Changbin's eyes grow wide.

"I sure hope not," he says, mortified all over and Jisung quickly clears his throat.

"Let's just… Let's just go inside, yeah?"

They make their way out of the car and to the building. When they press the doorbell, they're buzzed in without anyone even asking for their name. He presumes there must have been a camera. So far for secret murder.

There's no stairs, what with Kim Seungmin's apartment being on the ground floor. The studio's address was elsewhere, close to the club Chan confirmed they were at, and so things are starting to make a little bit more sense at this point, at least concerning how Changbin managed to get a whole photoshoot done overnight.

When they reach the right apartment number, the door is open and a friendly looking man is waiting for them with a wide smile on his face.

"Changbin," he says, clearly delighted. "I'm so glad you could make it. And Jisung! How is your girlfriend?"

There's a strange sense of deja-vu in that question, like he's been asked it many times before. He remembers Jeongin asking it in the tattoo parlour, and Chan asking it through Minho. How much has he been talking about the random number?

"Um, yeah, she's fine," he manages to utter, blinking owlishly at the other man. Kim Seungmin seems to realise they're not as bright and happy to see him as he is to see them, because he steps aside while his face falls.

"Come in," he hums, and Jisung motions Changbin to go first. They file into the apartment slowly, almost hesitantly, but it's a beautiful space. There's nothing weird about it, nothing that screams I'm a horrible person who's going to ruin you with those pictures. Jisung almost wishes there was so they could go straight into offence.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Seungmin asks once they've settled, and they both shake their heads.

"I don't think we'll be here long," Changbin finally speaks up, clearing his throat and sitting up a little bit straighter on the couch. "I'll be frank with you; I have no recollection of these pictures being taken nor do I wish for them to be published in any way, shape or form. I would be grateful if you removed all of them permanently without ever showing them to anyone else."

Seungmin's gaze fixes on Changbin, lingers there a moment and then he looks away. The man is quiet a moment before straightening his shoulders and seemingly recomposing himself.

"You don't remember Friday night?" Seungmin asks as he turns back to face them, and Jisung thinks he maybe looks a little sad. Changbin seems to feel the same way because he clears his throat again as he shakes his head.

"I'm afraid not. I had way too much to drink and don't really recall anything beyond midnight. I apologise if you had a different impression."

Seungmin glances between them a few times before his eyes flit around the room, like he's desperately trying to hold back an emotion. Then, suddenly, he bursts out into loud laughter, startling them both. Jisung shares a look with Changbin before looking over at the stranger again.

"You think this is funny?" He asks, perhaps a little sharper than he should maybe be, but it seems like a pretty rude reaction.

"Hilarious, actually," Seungmin agrees with a nod, walking closer and then running a hand through Changbin's hair. His friend, though flinching at the touch, does not push him away, perhaps too shocked by the reaction.

"I can't remove the pictures permanently, Changbin," Seungmin continues almost fondly, not even hiding his own amusement. "You made me write and sign a whole contract that says I'm allowed to keep the pictures no matter what anyone tells me, including you. You gave me your full permission to do with them as I pleased, as long as I wouldn't publish them or share them with strangers."

There's a brief pause, Seungmin looking down at Changbin and Changbin alone. "Looks like drunk you knew sober you well enough and wanted to keep him from robbing me of my best photoshoot yet."

Changbin tenses up again. "But you can't publish them," he half says, half asks, as if verifying.

"Nope. Not on my website, not in a magazine, nothing."

Some tension seeps out of Changbin's shoulders and Jisung watches him seemingly process this information. Seungmin still stands next to the couch, right next to Changbin's legs even, looking way too comfortable to really consider them strangers, he thinks. Or maybe the man is just naturally comfortable around strangers.

"I knew you were drunk Friday night," the photographer says then, and he's smiling. "Drunk enough to make decisions you wouldn't make sober, at least. I didn't think you'd forget everything. Still, I won't hold any of it against you. Your parents won't hear a peep from me and your position as the pristine second child of the Seo family is safe."

Changbin looks up at Seungmin with surprise, but the words are also a comfort, Jisung can tell from the way his friend's shoulders relax a little.

"That being said, you looked great in the photoshoot and if you're open for it I'd love to show you the other pictures. That and I also have the ones I made of your friend's… wedding, I guess I should call it."

"You took pictures of Chan and Minho?" Jisung blurts out, both delighted and somewhat horrified. Seungmin looks over at him and suddenly smiles.

"I met you guys at the playground. I have a few candid pictures of all of you throughout the night."

There's a momentary pause, Jisung glancing at Changbin, Changbin looking back at him. Then they both look back up to Seungmin.

"Why?"

"I'm a photographer?" The man hesitantly supplies, as if he's not quite sure what he's being asked exactly.

"No, I mean, why did you follow us around, we were four very drunk guys that you didn't know."

"Oh, well, I walked out of the corner store with booze in my hand and you guys called for me to join you. Bin here roped me into a bet about him being able to stand getting a tattoo and he lost spectacularly, so that's why he owed me a boudoir photoshoot." Seungmin's grin suddenly blooms into utter delight as he turns to look at Changbin again.

"How horrified were you when you found out about the fake tattoo?" He asks, devilish amusement in his face and Changbin promptly flushes at the memory.

"Dude. Don't remind me of the tattoo. I was certain I was getting disowned the next time I forgot about it and walked out of the bathroom in only a towel."

"I really liked it, though," Seungmin counters smugly. "Especially the open invitation."

There's an eyebrow wiggle and Jisung wondering if he's supposed to leave his third friend alone with his drunken night crush as well, but Changbin makes a face at the photographer and shakes his head.

"Shut up and show us the pictures."

Seungmin laughs, a very smug sounding thing that makes it seem like this reaction is exactly what he was going for, and then wanders off to go get his laptop. He puts it on the coffee table, sitting down on the floor between their legs and leaning back so they have a clear view of his computer screen as he opens the folder labelled 'Changbin Friday Night'.

Jisung exchanges a glance with his friend again before focusing on the screen.

—

Apparently we befriended a photographer Friday night and he took pics of the evening, including when we were at the tattoo parlour and the wedding.

That's cute!
Show me?

I don't have the files yet, but there's some really fun pictures of my friends and I just having fun.
I like that I can have something to remember the night by
Even if I don't remember

😂😂😂
Yes

I mean I have you to remember it by too but that's different

I'm different how?

Well you weren't there
You just remind me that people sometimes make rlly stupid decisions when drunk
And sometimes other people are so amazing they turn them into good ones

I was about to :(
But now I :D

Good.
I only want you to :D
I mean if you feel :( you can tell me of course
I wanna be there for you
But I'd like the only response I elicit from you to be :D

Sweetest love letter ever written for me
I'm a little :( right now

:( Why????

Bc ur not here :(
& I rlly wanna kiss u rn

😳

Is that too :(?

No!
I'm just thinking that
When I find a job again
We'll have so little time together

True :(

But until then
I'm coming over right now

What?
You don't have to!
It's very late, shouldn't you go to bed?

But you're :( because I'm not there!

I'm always :( bc ur not here

Then I must remedy it!
Turn that frown upside down!
Tinkle your periwinkle!
…. Why does that sound so ambiguous
I just wanted to use happy words oh no

😂
It's ok
I get u
Thx babe <3

Anything for you babe <3

Awwwww 🥰🥰🥰

He smiles as he looks down at his phone, so utterly pleased with this particular consequence of the drunken night out. .

"Can you drop me off at the corner store?" He asks out loud, and when he looks up at Changbin, his friend meets his gaze already. There's no need to ask which corner store. There's only one of them that Jisung would mention without specifying. Changbin holds his gaze for a brief moment and then smiles.

"You two are so cute," his friend says. "I'll take you there if you let me hang out with you a bit longer."

"Aren't you tired? Don't you have work in the morning?"

"I do," Changbin agrees, and then shakes his head a little. "But I like watching you around him. You have that bright happiness to you when you are. It's warm."

He makes a face, but only because he doesn't know what to do with the feelings in his chest. "If I didn't know better I'd think you were in love with me," he says through pursed lips and Changbin laughs even as he focuses back on the road.

"I am in love with you, Ji," he claims easily, casually, while Jisung's heart jumps into his throat - terrified of an imminent need for rejection; confrontation. "I don't think anyone can be the type of friends we are and not be a little bit in love with each other."

The dread in his gut abates at the way Changbin grins over at him still, and he huffs out a smile. "I always did think Hyunjin and Minho would end up together somehow but now Minho's married and Hyunjin's apparently on dick-touching base with Jeongin, so…"

Changbin laughs. "And you got yourself a girlfriend, too. Guess I'm the only one who came out of this evening without anything fancy."

"Excuse you? That photoshoot was fancy as fuck! I'm also pretty sure Seungmin would go to dick-touching base with you if you let him."

"Ji," Changbin says all seriously the moment he proclaims this. "Ji, stop saying dick-touching base, it's embarrassing. Besides, I'm not interested in messing around with mister 'late night boudoir photography with strangers'. Mom's decided to send me on a series of blind dates again so I must be on my best behaviour for the next couple of weeks."

He makes a face, and then nods his head in full understanding. "Now I get it," he agrees. "Let's go to the corner store together for your last hurrah!"

He instantly digs his phone out and texts Hyunjin and Minho they're meeting at the corner store because Changbin is going into blind date exile again. Changbin probably knows what he's doing but doesn't comment on it either way.

—

"I literally don't understand how you guys can still be this chaotic when sober," Jeongin deadpans as he looks around the circle, seeming a bit overwhelmed. Hyunjin giggles behind his hand and leans in to rest against the tattooist's side, putting a hand on his stomach.

"Bitch, please, we're being civil because you guys are here," Minho protests instantly, reaching out over the distance to smack Hyunjin's arm.

"Ouch! What was that for!? I didn't say anything!"

"No, but I can't hardly hit your boytoy on our first official meeting, can I?"

"I do think he's the boytoy in this relationship," Jeongin counters dryly, unaffected by the way Hyunjin is sputtering and blushing by his side. "I'm just using him for my pleasure and then I'll be moving on when I get bored."

"Uh, excuse you?" Hyunjin is promptly offended and incredulous. "I do believe I've been getting the most pleasure out of this thing so far so you must have gotten your cogs all twisted. Or your ink bags, or whatever you have plenty of."

"Right now?" Jeongin's gaze goes around the circle, a smirk appearing on his face. "Idiots."

"Hey! I resent that!" Changbin loudly protests. Jeongin simply raises an eyebrow at him before looking over at Minho.

"You should smack his ass and call him baby to remind him what he got up to last week."

Minho cackles, and even Chan laughs softly at the bickering. Jisung nurses his drink with an arm around Felix's middle, who's sitting on his lap because there weren't enough chairs and this way he can get up and leave quickly when there's a customer, too.

"Honey, get me another drink," Minho tells Chan, and both Chan and Felix get up to make it happen. "It's a weekday," Minho chimes before they can leave. "So nothing alcoholic, I have important work in the morning! I can be tired but not hungover!"

Hyunjin laughs, and promptly moves to take up the seat Chan emptied, wrapping his arms around Minho's neck and peppering his cheek with kisses. In return, Minho yells like he's being assaulted and shoves his hands in Hyunjin's face, messing up his hair. That in turn leads to incredulous screeches from Hyunjin's side, and then there's the sound of a photo being taken.

Jisung looks up in sync with Changbin, just in time to see Seungmin lowering his camera and smiling at them.

"Hey," he says. "I heard there was a Friday night reunion ongoing so I brought my camera."

"Who invited you?" Changbin asks, but not unkindly. Right then, Chan returns with Minho's drink, putting it down on the table without paying attention to the two best friends who look like they're trying to murder each other and instead smiling brightly over at Seungmin.

"Oh, Min, you made it," he says with warm delight and Seungmin lifts a hand to wave at him. Changbin raises his eyebrows.

"You two know each other?"

"Uh, yeah," Chan agrees easily. "He took pictures of the wedding."

"I keep forgetting you weren't drunk that night," Jisung blurts out almost stupidly. "None of you forgot anything."

"Not for a lack of trying," Jeongin pipes up without looking up from his phone, and then reaches over to swat at Hyunjin's leg. "Settle down or I'm going home. You're causing a disturbance at someone's place of work again."

Hyunjin has never untangled himself from a fight with Minho this fast before, instantly making puppy eyes over at Jeongin the second he's sitting next to him again.

"I didn't mean to, but Minho's just such an asshole!" He pouts away, causing said friend to instantly roar his disagreement.

"You're just a little bitch!" He counters loudly, but is then promptly also settled by Chan putting a hand on his shoulder and leaning down to kiss him. Even with only about five and a half days of marriage under his belt, he seems to know exactly what to do to make sure the distraction works, because he simply keeps kissing Minho until a hand curls into his hair and all other thoughts must have left Minho's brain.

Jisung laughs, and then looks over at where Hyunjin has climbed into Jeongin's lap and is seducing the tattoo artist with muttered promises all over again, and simply laughs more. When he meets Changbin's eyes, he sees his friend is amused as well, and then they both look back up at Seungmin.

"Sit," Jisung offers him jovially. "We sort of ran out of chairs before but you can just steal one of theirs, they'll use each other's laps if they don't have their own chair."

Seungmin does exactly that, pulling up an empty chair to take a seat in between him and Changbin. Right when he's settled, Felix returns to the table, sitting down on Jisung's lap again and promptly curling away against his chest entirely. His brain short-circuits all over again when suddenly there's two hands slipping under his shirt and coming to rest on his sides, but he simply lifts a hand up to rest it on the back of his girlfriend’s head.

“You okay?” He asks, somewhat worried, only for Felix to nod his head where it rests on his shoulder.

“‘m fine. Just a bit tired. I love your friends, though.” Felix brushes his nose against the side of his neck and he lets out an involuntary sound of surprise at the feeling. It causes his girlfriend to giggle and then to casually straighten up so he can press a kiss to his cheek. “Love you too, babe,” he’s told after, and that definitely melts the wires in his brain completely.

“Wow, you’re going to be the death of me,” he replies dryly and Felix laughs. He sighs with great contentment. “I guess I can’t complain when I opened the door for Grimmy myself.” Felix only laughs harder and to his left he’s pretty sure he can hear Seungmin and Changbin chuckling as well.

“Grimmy?” He’s asked, so he looks over to lock gazes with Seungmin, who’s giving him an interested look and a tight-lipped smile, clearly trying not to laugh yet.

“Yeah, the grim reaper. I figured he’d grow tired of all these dreary old names at some point so I updated it to Grimmy. Makes him sound a bit like a dog, though. Here, Grimmy, Grimmy.” He snorts, Minho cackles and then the whole table is laughing at the idea of waving sausages around in front of Death’s face.

By the time another customer shows up again, Felix is fast asleep in his lap. Before he can wake his girlfriend up, though, Chan is already walking over to the register and helping the man out without hesitating even once. He shoots a grateful look the man’s way, and makes sure to tell Minho he should ‘keep this one’. The comment only earns him a raised eyebrow and Minho demanding to know why he assumed he wouldn’t be doing exactly that.

“Because we all know you’re stupid,” Hyunjin declares loudly.

“Bitch, get ready to meet Grimmy!” Minho calls back, pushing his chair over in his haste to get up and lunge for his best friend. Jisung’s uncontrollable laughter ends up waking up Felix, who takes in the scene briefly and then just smiles and goes back to cuddling him.

—

It’s around half past one in the morning when Chan declares they should head home, and the others all agree easily, each of them still having a day of work left to do before the weekend. Jeongin still has work during the weekend as well, whereas Changbin needs to make sure he looks presentable for what is his first blind date out of a series of them.

“I hope you stocked up on smiles to last the rest of your shift,” Jisung tells Felix while they’re hugging each other goodbye, and the blond cashier grins brightly at him as they pull apart.

“Enough smiles to last the rest of my week,” he stresses. “But never enough of you. Can I come take a nap at your place in the morning? Tomorrow’s my last night of work, I have the weekend off, we can hang out together then if you’d like?”

He answers with a kiss that lingers so long it’s only Changbin clearing his throat that makes him pull away to finally leave, and Felix’s smile is so bright it’s like the sun has risen again at two in the morning.

—

You’ll never guess who showed up

Jisung looks down at his phone with a frown. He’s lying in bed, absolutely making use of the opportunity to laze around now that he has the excuse of keeping Felix company in bed. His girlfriend is currently catching up on some much needed sleep, curled up against his side, cuddling him like he’s a replacement teddy bear. He has zero complaints.

As he runs a hand over the soft blond hair - and how is it still this soft when it’s bleached so much - he tries to think of whoever Changbin could be talking about showing up to his blind date.

Don’t tell me it’s the Lee girl you had to almost get a restraining order for?

Worse.

Worse?
Is there worse than her?
Umm
Did they try to set you up with one of your colleagues?

Worse

Even worse?
I don’t know
Who is it?

Instead of a reply, he’s sent a picture. It’s clearly a well-decked dinner table offering a spread of delicious food to choose from, with one person sitting on the opposite side smiling almost smugly into the camera. The person being none other than Kim Seungmin, boudoir photographer, who looks absolutely spick and span dressed in a fancy suit and utterly relaxed being there at a blind date dining table with a not-so-stranger.

Apparently his Kim is the same Kim as Mobile Consolidated Kim
One of the top ten richest families in the country

Your mom set you up with a Man????
I thought u said she wouldn’t but would accept if you met one?

It was supposed to be his sister
Mom pbb has no idea

Is his sister okay with this?
What about his mom?
Am I supposed to start preparing for being disinherited?
What is going on!!!???

Lmao dude
Chill
My inheritance is fine
We’re just having dinner

Are u ok?

Yeah I’m good
No worries
Seungmin says hi

Hi back
Lix is asleep but he’d say hi too
Pls bring your leftovers home to me in fancy boxes
I’d love a dinner like this
Without having to get up and make it

Will do

Thnx
You’re the best
Like the best best
Tell Seungmin he’s bagging a 20/10 man with this date

He says he knows
And that that’s why he’s here

Smart man
Enjoy dinner
Imma nap some more
Love ya

You too, Ji
Enjoy your girlfriend
‘s company
Is what I meant

Nice save

He's not actually upset with Changbin, of course, doesn't think he could ever be upset with Changbin, because they've been friends for so long everything harmful that could ever come between them has already been thought, said and forgiven. Which is why he doesn't even think twice about opening up the group chat.

Guys, Changbin is blind dating Seungmin right now
I think they're about to get married

What!!????

Bitch where's my invite???!!!!

Oh my god you guys we're not getting married it's just one dinner

One dinner with the intention of scoping out possible marriage prospects
It's the first time you're with a guy
Excuse me for being excited for you

…
This is revenge isn't it?

Fuck yeah it is
Guys! Changbin is having dinner with the guy who convinced him to get a temporary tramp stamp
If that isn't true love idk what is, right?
We should start planning his wedding

Bitch if Jin and I aren't bridesmaids this friendship is Over

I have the perfect dress for it!!!

Why do you have a dress?

It was cute!!!!

Valid af bitch
I'll put on a wig
I got a rlly good one

I'll be the best man
Bc I am
The best man
Obviously

That's the spirit baby

Maybe Lix wants to be a bridesmaid too
Since he's my girlfriend and all

Fuck yes
He can wear a skirt! :D
Who's putting on the high heels though

Bitch not you
You're already way too tall as is
I'll wear the heels
So I can look down on all of you as the lord intended

If the lord intended that he'd have made you taller Min
Why would there be bridesmaids if there isn't a bride?

So you agree, Bin?
You also think that you're going to be marrying Seungmin?

Oh my god
Shut up Ji
You're losing best man privileges fast

Impossible
I am made of nothing but best man privileges
Besides who could you trust but me not to lose the rings before the ceremony?

You make a point

Bitch what the fuck???

You literally lost your entire car And keys, Minho

I didn't lose them!
I just left them with my husband for safekeeping
And then forgot about him
It's all Jack Daniels' fault!

Yeah fuck him!
And William Lawson as well!

Fuck Bacardi!!!

And fuck Armand Kistner!

Which drink is that?

Nah that's just the guy who fired me

Oh omg fuck him the most!!!

What the fuck that little bitch!
Suing him first thing Monday morning
Nobody fires my bestie and gets away with it!!

What a deceitful piece of overworn flannel!
I'll paint him a guillotine!!
Anyway Binnie how is your date going has he proposed yet?
Tell us the details pls we're ur friends and we love u
Also Innie is busy at work pls entertain me

Nobody's proposing to anybody!
We're just having dinner
I don't know this guy!

Just take him home with you
Get to know him in the bedroom
I can attest to impromptu marriages being a good idea!

Ok but not everyone can get such an amazing husband as you, Min

True, none of you have my charm
Ok I guess talk to him a lil first
And then, if you like him, take him to the bedroom!
Ravage that man, Binnie
It's been too long since you got laid
I know bc I keep a calendar for all of us
I'm waiting for the day I can finally put a mark for baby Ji

Hey what the fuck?
You keep a calendar????

Course bitch

Yeah I'm purple! :D
Minho's red
It's been very red these past few days

What the fuck

It's up in our kitchen!

You told me those were the trash days!

Ur gonna be green, Ji
Bc ur so gullible
And green

Bin's fuschia

What. The. Fuck.

Fuschia suits you Bin
I like it

You're all crazy
Anyway did you put fuschia on Friday night

No wayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!

Bitch did u get laid without telling us??????

WAS IT YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND?????

Seo Changbin!!!!!
Don't leave us on read bitch!!!!
Tell us who it was!!!!!

And if it was good!!!! :D

Sorry guys, am having dinner, g2g

SJDHSKKZDKLFFLG
Oh oops guys I woke up my girlfriend
Gotta go love u all
Let me know when the wedding is!

—
—
—

"Guys! Guys! Oh my god, guys!"

He bounces up and down a little, hurrying over to where his friends are gathered. Felix follows him with a wide grin on his face as he nearly throws himself at Changbin in an excited hug. His best friend pats his back without really knowing what for, but he's bouncing around again soon enough.

"You remember that rival company I talked about? The ones we were always trying to one-up?"

Minho nods his head, holding his glass by the stem and taking another sip of his drink. It's some fancy thing that Chan no doubt ordered for him since Minho only tries new things when his husband encourages him to.

"They just sent me an email asking to come in for an interview! They want to hire me!"

He's not sure how all of his excitement manages to stay contained within his own skin when he feels like he's bursting with it, but instantly every single face around him mirrors his wide grin and then he's being absolutely enveloped by his best friends.

"Congratulations!" Hyunjin yells into his ear, while Minho is patting his butt encouragingly and Changbin is squishing him the closest out of all of them.

"That's such great news, Ji! You'll be able to do what you love again!"

"Oh my god, Sungie! Look at you go! We're so proud!"

He stays huddled up in the hug for a moment longer before his excitement buzzes too much to stay still any longer and he's bouncing back over to his girlfriend to hug him again as well. Felix laughs, holding him close and kissing him back, and then jumps up and down with him a little.

"Oh my god. Guys!" He keeps a hold of Felix's hands as he turns around to face them again. "This is so exciting! I didn't expect this at all! I don't know how to cope!"

He bounces up and down some more, clapping his hands a little. Across from him, Minho's expression shifts into a sly smirk, his hand automatically reaching over to hand his glass to Chan. He reaches out his free hands then to pull Hyunjin and Changbin both closer to him, taking a step closer to Jisung as he slips his arms around their friends' shoulders.

"Let's go, bitch," he says, very deliberately, and Jisung's grin instantly widens as well when he realises what's about to follow.

"We're going coping."