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Sunoo marvels at the fact that the other members like the way he smells.
The first member to actually voice this out was Riki, back when they were still in the confides of I-Land, when the younger male was having trouble sleeping after they were both sent to the ground. Sunoo being the kind hyung that he is, he offered to sleep with Riki for that night, letting the Japanese male lie next to him.
“You smell nice, hyung.” He remembers Riki mumbling against his chest that night. Sunoo only chuckled that time, shaking his head as he waited for the younger male to fall asleep.
Fast forward to their debut, Sunoo had already forgotten about that moment with Riki. He only remembered it when another member commented on his scent—that member being Jaeyun hyung.
“What body wash are you using, Sunoo-ya?” Jaeyun asked him after sniffing his shirt, draping an arm around his shoulder as he pressed his nose further in Sunoo’s cotton shirt—which normally would make Sunoo uncomfortable but living with six other men who are weirdly affectionate to each other despite half of them being strangers not less than six months ago, you really just have to get used to it. But he does like the affection, no doubt about that.
“You smell good.”
That was the second time he was told that he smelled nice.
The third time, it was Jungwon. He just got back from school then, Jungwon coming home earlier than him and Jongeeong. He just washed up, Jungwon coincidentally walking inside their shared room, phone in his hand.
The younger male stopped his tracks in the middle of the room, looked up and stared at Sunoo who was sitting on Riki’s bed with his round eyes scrutinizing. The older male blinked, tilting his head, confused. “What?”
“The scent smells nice. Was that you?”
Sunoo, although confused as to having another member telling him that he smelled good, turned his head to sniff his wrist. “I smell normal, though?” He said.
Jungwon didn’t say anything else but he gestured to the older male to scoot over the bed. Sunoo did as he was told, making space for the younger male. Jungwon draped himself on the other male who let out a squeak as he fell down on the bed with their leader holding onto him.
“I’m sleepy hyung, can I sleep beside you?”
Sunoo doesn’t remember what his response to the question was that time, but he does remember sleeping next to Jungwon then, a comforting weight above him and a picture posted in Weverse the next day.
The whole you smell nice, Sunoo ordeal lasted for months. Sunoo isn’t sure what his members mean, even. He uses the same body wash as some of them and he uses the same perfume as Jongseong’s. So having the younger members clinging to him like leeches because of his apparently pleasant scent , confuses him.
“Do I really smell that nice, Jay hyung?” Sunoo asks, sitting beside the older male. Jongseong sets his phone down, turning to look at the younger male with an eyebrow raised.
“What?”
Sunoo looks at him, brows creased, lips jutting out in a pout. “I just wanna know if I really smell good. ‘Coz Riki and Jungwonie have been hoarding around me lately and keep on sniffing me like dogs. ” He says,
Jongseong lets out a snort, shifting his position a little to lean towards Sunoo’s personal space and stopping a few centimeters away. He hums as he breathes in the younger male’s soft scent, a mixture of his body wash, his shampoo, their similar perfume and their laundry detergent. Jongseong pulls back after a while, chuckling when he sees Sunoo’s flushed face.
“You do smell nice.” He says with a smile. “I can smell my perfume on you. You’ve been using the same scent.” He grins. Sunoo’s cheeks redden more, tongue poking out to lick his dry lips.
“I liked the smell,” He mumbles, averting his gaze towards another direction, avoiding Jongseong’s eyes. “And you gave that bottle to me.”
“Well, you mentioned that you liked it so I gave you one.” The older male shrugs. “Anyway, you do smell nice. I don’t blame the maknaes trying to inhale you whole.”
The statement makes Sunoo’s face flush in the darkest shade of pink. Sunoo does his best to give the most intimidating glare he could muster to the older male—which he obviously fails , based on Jongseong’s reaction.
The last member to tell him how nice he smells is, well, Heeseung.
Honestly speaking, Sunoo doesn’t really pay attention to the unsolicited comments about his scent anymore given to him by the other members—as it has become a daily thing to them.
Sunoo has Riki draping himself on his back every morning, inhaling his hair and then Jaeyun who has been giving him hugs after breakfast. The hugs usually last for about ten seconds maximum. Sunghoon would often have an arm around him and given their height difference, the older male would rest his cheek atop his hair and would speak about his pleasant scent again. Then there’s Jungwon who has been asking him if he could sleep next to him more often than not. Sunoo doesn’t mind, and he finds the younger male cute for asking—all with rosy cheeks and shy glances. And he does like having wrapped around Jungwon some nights. Jongseong on the other hand, would occasionally ask Sunoo if he would like Jongseong to buy him another bottle of the perfume they are using or if he would like to try on a different scent. Sunoo doesn’t really mind what perfume he uses that much—he remembers borrowing some of the member’s perfume before, it just so happens that he really liked that one Jongseong is using.
So yeah, having a member invading his personal space has been a normal occurrence in their household for the past year they’ve been living together. Although it did overwhelm Sunoo at the first few months, since this was the first time he’d been away from home for this long and the only person who didn’t know what personal space meant was his sister and not having that much male peers in his life before he became an idol trainee didn’t help, and then suddenly having six guys who are like puppies in need of affection everyday did shock his world a little bit.
“You smell nice, Sunoo-ya.”
Heeseung’s low and soft voice has him craning his neck towards the older male’s direction in surprise.
It has been a good year since the comments about his scent started, however inside the duration of that year, not once had he heard their eldest hyung mention anything about his smell. Not that Sunoo expects him to and not that he wants to… Or maybe he does but not that much! He knows their Heeseung hyung doesn’t really care much about such trivial things and would only speak about things he’s interested in.
So to hear Heeseung speak on it after a whole year, surprises Sunoo. He’s looking at the now redhead hyung, whose eyes are trained to him, face too close. Sunoo unconsciously pulls back a little, not used to Heeseung’s whole attention like this.
“I-I do?” Sunoo manages to mutter under the circumstance, heart beating fast. He eyes the turned off television behind Heeseung, then to the unsuspecting workout equipment, that Sunoo doesn’t know the name of, next to their couch.
“Yeah,” Heeseung hums, then pulls back, thankfully, and leans on the sofa, closing his eyes.
Sunoo watches the older male with confusion still, not sure why the older male is talking about his scent right now despite their members’ ongoing mission of sniffing out Sunoo for the past year.
“I actually like the way you smell,” The older male speaks again after a few minutes, opening his eyes and looking back at Sunoo once again. “These days, I like the flower-like scent. I don’t know if it’s your shampoo or your body wash.” He says.
“It’s the shampoo…”
Heeseung gives him a lopsided smile, turning his head fully to face Sunoo. “Yeah that one.” He mumbles.
Sunoo nods his head as a reply and doesn’t say anything else anymore, not sure of what to say anyway. He lowers his gaze to his fidgeting hands. He feels awkward all of a sudden, not used to being alone with Heeseung like this. It has been a while since they hang out alone—except well, when they play games together. So having Heeseung next to him doing absolutely nothing feels new to him.
“Do I make you uncomfortable, Sunoo-ya?”
The younger male’s eyes widened at the question.
He whips his head to look at Heeseung who’s still staring at him with his piercing gaze. There is really something in Heeseung’s eyes that has Sunoo’s knees feeling like jellies.
“What?”
Heeseung hums, shifting his weight to sit properly on the couch with his back still pressed against the cushion.
“I think I make you uncomfortable…” He mutters. More to himself than to Sunoo.
“What? No!” Sunoo looks scandalized, panic rising, confused as to why Heeseung thinks that way.
“You don’t, hyung! Why would you say that?” He asks.
Heeseung blinks at his sudden burst, reaching up and places a hand on the younger male’s arm albeit hesitantly. He gently squeezes Sunoo’s arm in an attempt to stop the other male from overthinking.
“Hey, calm down Sunoo-ya.” He mumbles, rubbing his hand on Sunoo’s arm. “I’m sorry.”
Sunoo calms down a little, inhaling slowly to even his breathing. When he feels better, he looks at Heeseung with a frown, his usual bright smile turned upside down.
“Why did you… Think like that hyung?” He asks, a little sad, tilting his head down to look at his hands again.
Heeseeung must have sensed the change in Sunoo’s emotion that he abruptly bends down to look at the younger male’s gaze. “Hey… Don’t be sad Sunoo-ya… Hyung’s sorry, hm? I didn’t mean to make you sad.”
Sunoo looks at Heeseung, “I’m… I just want to know why you thought of that hyung… Do you think I hate you?” He asks, voice almost a whisper.
“Hm… No. I don’t think you hate me—if you do, you wouldn’t be next to me right now.” Heeseung says, giving Sunoo a small smile and a light squeeze on the arm. “But I do really think that I make you uncomfortable.”
“Why?” Sunoo asks, despite feeling tears welling up in his eyes.
Heeseung stares at the younger male’s wet eyes.
“I’m sorry, this is really dumb.” He mutters.
“No, please. I want to know why you thought of that hyung.” Sunoo says, almost pleading. Heeseung sees the first batch of tears fall from Sunoo’s eyes.
“Oh—why are you crying?” Heeseung asks, panicking. He immediately reaches up to wipe Sunoo’s cheeks as tears continue to fall. “Yah—if someone sees you crying like this they’d probably think that I hurt you.”
Sunoo sniffles, wiping his eyes with his sweater. “I just want to know…”
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you just please stop crying.” Heeseung says, wiping the remaining tears under Sunoo’s eyes with his thumbs.
“Look… It’s probably just me and my anxiety to be a good hyung to all of you.” Heeseung starts. His hands leave Sunoo’s face and he rests his closed fists on top of his thighs. “And I thought I was doing a great job, being reliable to everyone. Until—“ He pauses, looking at Sunoo. “until I saw you letting everyone hog you and dote on you every chance they get and I realized that I haven’t done that because—“ He pauses again as he blinks his eyes.
Because what?
Heeseung isn’t even sure anymore. He doesn’t know the reason anymore.
Sunoo waits, though. Heeseung gnaws on his lower lip, inhaling deeply.
“Because I don’t know how to approach you and I don’t know how to take care of you.” He says. “I badly wanted to tell you that I love your flower-like scent, that it calms me whenever I smell it. I wanted to tell you that you can rely on me too, that you can tell me everything, that I wanted to be a good hyung to you and that I like spending time with you playing games. I wanted to, but I just don’t know how and now—now I can’t seem to stop telling everything to you.” Heeseung says, “And I wanted to tell you that I want you to be comfortable with me too, just like how you feel with the others—how they could embrace you whenever they feel like it, how they could tell you how cute you looked or how amazing you were during performances. I want to do all of that but I was just not sure how to—because I know you’re not fond of skinship and you value your personal space. But then you’re so… Close to the other members lately that I couldn’t help myself but to think that maybe… Maybe Sunoo does feel uncomfortable around me.” Heeseung breathes deeply, “I don’t know Sunoo-ya… I might be losing my mind.” He finishes off, falling on the couch again and closing his eyes.
Sunoo lets out the breath he doesn’t realize he was holding during Heeseung’s monologue. His heart is beating wildly in his chest that he had to hold his chest in an attempt to calm himself down to no avail.
He inhales, “Hyung…” He begins, gathering the words to say without stuttering. “Hyung… Please believe me when I say that you don’t make me uncomfortable…” He mumbles, slowly reaching out to hold Heeseung’s hands. “It’s just… I thought you’re the one who’s uncomfortable with me so I usually tone myself down whenever I’m with you because I’m afraid that I might overwhelm you.” He says. “I’m sorry that you misinterpreted my actions.”
“Sunoo… I should be the one saying sorry for not giving you the same attention I give to the others. I’m your hyung, so I should have known better than to assume things. I’m really really sorry.”
“Heeseung hyung, please don’t apologize.” Sunoo says, tightening his grip on the older male’s hands. He smiles at the older male, “I think it’s safe to say that we’re both at fault then. For concluding and for not asking sooner. We could have easily avoided this misunderstanding.” He says.
The redhead nods his head in agreement. “You’re right.” Heeseung smiles, squeezing Sunoo’s hands. “A lesson learned, I suppose? For better communication between us.”
They exchange smiles after that, a silent agreement between them and indeed, a lesson for the two of them. To communicate better and to share thoughts with each other. Heeseung isn’t a touchy person either, like him, so Sunoo understands. However, having their hands entwined, Sunoo thinks that their oldest hyung may not be very vocal with it, he also needs physical affection like the rest of them.
And Sunoo is more than willing to give his arms for his hyung.
“You smell nice. Are you wearing perfume?”
Sunoo looks up from his phone to see Heeseung looking down on him from where he is standing before him. The younger male is sitting on the sofa, waiting for everyone else to finish getting ready for their schedule. Sunoo usually is the first one to have everything done because he is always the one to wake up first, aside from Jungwon.
“Hm, I do actually.” He grins. Heeseung smiles at him and takes the space beside him to sit.
What an unusual sight. To see Sunoo and Heeseung together, the skin of their arms almost touching.
“Smells good, was it Lush? ” The older male asks, fishing out his phone from his front pocket and leaning back on the sofa.
Sunoo hums, following Heeseung and leans back. Their shoulders brush against each other and the younger male could feel himself smile at the weird turnout of events. They were once this close though, during I-Land and during the few months before debuting and after debuting. But life changed, Heeseung grew older, Sunoo grew older, they eventually shifted away from each other. So being this close after their unexpected talk last night, makes Sunoo really happy.
“It’s Lush. Jay hyung gave it to me on my birthday.”
He hears Heeseung hum, “You like perfumes?” He asks.
Sunoo then proceeds to talk about his favorite scents and the other bottles Jongseong gave him, even turning his body to face Heeseung who has his phone down on his stomach as he watches and listens to Sunoo. There’s a small smile on his face too, eyes crinkling in fondness that Sunoo has probably not noticed as he continues to talk about perfumes.
And maybe the sight is a surprise to the other members too. As Jongseong walks to the living room to wait for the other members as well, he stops on his tracks when he sees Sunoo and Heeseung sitting next to each other on the couch, with Heeseung looking at the younger male in endearment. Jongseong slowly approaches them and sits beside (behind) Sunoo who didn’t even notice the dipping of the space next to him.
He hears Sunoo gushing about the perfumes he gave him, so he cannot help himself from smiling. But seeing the two of them talking like this, after months of shying away from each other makes Jongseong feel a whole lot happier.
And when he sees Heeseung draping himself on Sunoo later after the scheduled interview for their comeback, he doesn’t say anything. He instead decides to watch them, seeing how deprived Heeseung is of Sunoo’s presence.
“Hyuuung,” He hears Riki whine somewhere. Jongseong sees the younger male walk past him even before he looks for him.
Riki holds on to Sunoo's arm and gently (tries to) pull the shorter male towards him. “Heeseung hyung, I love you but please don’t hog Sunoo hyung all to yourself!” He exclaims.
Jongseong snorts at the maknae’s protest. He sees Heeseung give the younger male a smirk. “You’ve had Sunoo more than enough for the past months, let me have him now.”
Or maybe it’s not actually a good thing that Heeseung finally opened his wall for Sunoo and physical affection. Jongseong already has his head aching from competing with four people for Sunoo’s attention, so what more now that Heeseung was added to the list?
Jongseong can’t imagine the impending stress he will feel in the next few years from now on.