Chapter Text
It was late morning and not much was happening in the Stray Kids dorm. The boys had been given the morning off, meaning the usually loud and chaotic dorm was uncharacteristically quiet for the time of day, and everyone took the opportunity to either sleep in or lounge around. They had plenty of time to get ready for the day’s activities and the members were exploiting the rare occasion to its fullest.
Jisung was no exception. The man slept like a hibernating animal all morning, not budging more than a rock would until the alarm he set last night came blaring through the AirPods still left in his ears. The sound, magnified twice as loud in his eardrums, caused Jisung to flinch so hard he rolled off the side of his bed, falling unceremoniously to the ground and flailing wildly all the way.
He groaned, rubbing his head where it smacked hard against the wood floor a second ago. That was one way to wake up. At least he didn’t sleep on a top bunk like some of his hyungs-–that would have been painful.
After a moment of frowning down at the Airpods he plucked from his ear and now pinched in between his fingers, Jisung got up off the ground and tossed them onto his bed without much thought where they landed.
He quickly checked across the room, thanking the stars that Jeongin was an early riser and thus not there to watch Jisung completely make a fool of himself falling in a heap to the floor. Jisung knew for a fact that Jeongin would spend the rest of the morning making fun of him for it.
It wasn’t his most idiotic moment, definitely nowhere near being on the Top Ten Most Embarressing Things Jisung Has Ever Done list, but he was glad there was no one to witness this particular moment of clumsiness though Jeongin wasn’t exactly one to talk. The kid was well known in the group for his tendency to be clumsy and careless with his stuff, part of the reason the roommates probably got along so well sharing a room since Jisung was just as disorganized as the younger boy.
He was reminded how mindless he was with his belongings as he fumbled through his sheets for his phone. As much as he thought the alarm would make it easy to locate, it took him two full minutes to track the ringing to where his phone had slipped in his sleep between his bed and the wall, now resting far against the wall on the floor in the abyss that was the underside of his bed. Getting down on his hands and knees, Jisung shoved his body as far as he could get it under the bed and stretched his fingers out to reach for the phone.
It didn’t help that he tended to sweep most of the trash that collected in the bedroom beneath both his and Jeongin’s beds (out of sight, out of mind, he thought). It wasn’t always this bad but Chan had demanded the roommates’ dirty room get cleaned up before the two left for the arcade together yesterday and the boys ended up kicking and shoving the mess into their closets and beneath their beds to postpone the major project for later and run off as quickly as they could. When Jisung’s hand, deep in the shadows under his bed, met some sort of wet piece of clothing that oddly smelt of sauerkraut, he started to regret that decision.
While his chest was half pressed between the floor and the frame of the twin-sized bed, an annoyed Changbin screamed from his room down the hall, “JISUNG, TURN THE ALARM OFF OR I WILL COME OVER THERE AND DO IT MYSELF!” The sheer volume and suddenness of the threat made Jisung startle and nearly bang his head again.
The boy only laughed at his hyung once he recovered, knowing Changbin would do no such thing, as his fingers finally reached his phone and he pressed the “stop” button to end the noise blaring from its speakers.
Funny, he thought Minho would have been the first one to say anything, given that it took him over five minutes to silence the alarm. While Changbin was probably still sleeping and too lazy to make good on his threats, Minho was most definitely awake and would not hesitate to barge in and shut the annoying sound off. Well, unless he felt like being particularly uninvolved in everything since they had the morning off. Still, the alarm would have bothered him to some degree if he heard it.
Jisung found the explanation he was searching for as he opened the door into the hall and heard the shower going from beyond the closed bathroom door. Ah, he must be showering , he mused, passing by the room on his way to the living room. He drowsily shuffled in with sock-covered feet.
Like he suspected, Seungmin and Jeongin were awake and lounging on the L-shaped couch that was positioned in the middle of their living room. It faced the wall with the TV, but neither boy paid the blank screen any attention. Instead, they were both absorbed in whatever they were doing on their phones. By the looks of it, it seemed Seungmin was scrolling mindlessly through Twitter and Jeongin was invested in some phone game.
Jisung entered the room from behind the couch, so the two did little to notice his presence until he walked around the giant piece of furniture to take a seat. Realizing he was awake, the pair sat their phones down and glanced up at him.
Seungmin, always up before everyone else like Minho and Jeongin, snickered up at Jisung the second he caught sight of him. “Did you have a fight with your pillow last night? You look awful.”
“Thanks, Min. You’re a real boost of confidence,” he hummed back.
As rude as the comment was, it wasn’t like Seungmin was wrong either. Knowing what time he went to bed last night and how his morning went, it wasn’t that hard to guess how he might look. He suspected there were dark circles left under his eyes and the tufts of hair dangling in front of his eyes in every direction led him to believe his hair was in no great state either. He brushed it through with his fingers.
Man, he really shouldn’t have stayed up until 5 AM watching “Howl’s Moving Castle” again. He had seen it enough for every member of Stray Kids to have at least seen it twice, but Jisung couldn’t help it. He loved the movie. It was so pretty and calming, effortlessly forcing Jisung to relax and sleep without the usual staring at the ceiling and endless thinking that falling asleep would usually require. So really, watching the movie for the upteenth time was doing Jisung a favor.
He sleepily nodded along in agreement to the mental reasoning and slumped into the couch next to Jeongin. Jeongin’s legs, which had been sprawled out on the length of the couch, recoiled back just in time to avoid the full weight of Jisung’s butt. He huffed at Jisung and threw a pillow at his head in protest. Jisung did nothing to dodge it, letting it smack him in the face while he smirked at a frustrated-looking Jeongin. Worth it.
Feeling better after watching the couch cushion hit its target, Jeongin made himself comfortable in his new spot. With an amused smile that soon blossomed on his face, he crossed his arms atop his bent legs and rested his head, tilted with curiosity, on his knees to look at Jisung. “Wow hyung, you really do look terrible. What did you do last night?”
Jisung frowned slightly. Surely, he didn’t look that bad. He responded, his voice still deep from sleepiness, “Watched a movie…” He looked away from Jeongin as he said it, knowing full well—
“‘Howl’s Moving Castle’? Again? Really?” Jisung could practically hear his eyes roll. “You’ve watched it so many times hyung, I know all the words. I get watching it for fun or whatever, but staying up to watch it…why would you do that to yourself?”
Jisung vaguely registered Seungmin grumble something along the lines of “Here we go again…” before he rose from his spot on the black leather couch and left for the kitchen, leaving the two bickering boys behind.
“Cause it’s good that’s why!” Jisung shot back. It was the same defense he always gave and jumping into it at this point was second nature. “And don’t get onto me for staying up to watch something I’ve already seen. You’ve watched the same three ASMR videos every night for the past two months and I don’t say anything about it.”
“That’s different. It helps me sleep.”
“Mine does too!”
“But at least mine is white noise. Yours is so annoy—”
Jeongin’s response came to a crashing halt as Seungmin, who must have come back into the room sometime during that whole thing, shoved a fist full of pancake into his open mouth. The action managed to stun both Jeongin and Jisung into silence, though Jeongin sounded less silent and more like someone being strangled.
He managed to shout a very quiet “Ya!” somewhere in between the noises he was making. The exclamation, though, almost came out completely muted, muffled by the pancake that filled his cheeks. It dangled, half in and half out of his lips. Realizing he couldn’t speak with half a pancake in his mouth, Jeongin hesitantly lifted the rest to his lips and chewed it slowly.
After a couple seconds, he was finally able to talk, albeit with most of the pancake still in his mouth. “What did you do that for?!” He spit chunks of pancake as he yelled with his mouth still full. At some point, he choked on a piece and started hacking.
“Don’t kill each other in there,” called a half concerned Chan from the other room.
Jisung hadn’t realized he had been in the kitchen in the room next to theirs that whole time, though it wasn’t surprising. Neither was his tone; Chan was used to their antics at this point. It would take a whole lot more than a pancake to kill Jeongin. Chan knew it and so did Jisung, but that didn’t stop him from scooting over to Jeongin’s side of the couch to pat his back as he coughed up a lungful of pancake.
When he could properly breathe again, Jeongin glowered up at Seungmin.
Unbothered, Seungmin shrugged his shoulders and flatly stated “breakfast is ready,” then walked out of the room in the next moment like nothing happened.
The two remaining boys sat in disbelief at the other boy’s actions, unmoving until Chan, who was in the other room emptying eggs from the pan he was using onto a plate, reminded them of the prospect of food. “Better get in here if you want a fried egg. They’re much better when they’re hot.”
They knew he was right, so it didn’t take much more than that for the two to file in after Seungmin and sit down at the table, where Chan, fried eggs, pancakes, and an assortment of fruits were waiting for them.
The three boys quickly helped themselves. When JIsung was satisfied with his plate, he decided to sit down across from Chan at the end of the table only to hear “Jisung, you look terrible” from his hyung.
Jisung huffed in indignation. “Why does everyone keep saying that?!” Honestly, this was getting ridiculous. Couldn’t a boy watch a movie and make poor decisions without the world questioning him for it. It was unfair. He felt targeted.
Seungmin laughed at his reaction. “Because it’s true. You look like you’re dying.”
“Or he’s just ugly,” Jeongin added.
The two boys chuckled into their fists.
Chan shot a quick look at the two maknaes before looking back at Jisung with a more meaningful, concerned one. “Ji, did you manage to get any sleep last night?”
He threw his hands up. “I did!” It was true he did sleep, but what Chan didn’t need to know was how much of it he actually ended up getting.
Or at least he thought he didn’t. Chan gave him a look he kind of expected to see coming that said he didn’t believe him in the slightest.
A few seconds passed until he eventually caved. “Well okay, not much of it…but I slept. That’s something.”
“He was watching a movie,” Jeongin interjected.
“Hey! I never sell you out to Chan.”
“That’s a lie and you know it. And where’s your respect, huh?” he lifted his fist at the end like an old lady would, nudging his head towards Chan. It was scary how good Jeongin could play the role of a grandmother, always reprimanding her grandchildren for their constant disrespect. He effortlessly could jump into the role at a moment’s notice.
“Sorry hyung.” As much as he knew Jeongin was joking, he still respected Chan and quickly mumbled the apology without looking at either of them. He was too busy looking down at the watermelon cube he was trying to pick up with his chopsticks. In the end he resorted to stabbing it and stuck it in his mouth lazily.
Chan watched the scene with a grimace and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You boys are going to give me a migraine.”
Seungmin, who was on Chan’s left, stage-whispered over to the older, “Imagine how I feel. They’ve been like this all morning.”
Chan raised a brow at that. “I thought you two were getting along well these past weeks,” probably thinking about Jisung and Jeongin’s trip to the arcade last night.
“That was before he disrespected the greatest movie of all time.” Jisung made a show of crossing his arms and turning away from the youngest boy sitting right next to him on his left.
“Well sometimes people don’t want to listen to the same movie again and again,” Jeongin retorted with a bit of sass in his words. Jeongin truly got more and more sassy with every day, a side effect of hanging out with Seungmin and Minho all the time.
Jisung honestly couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “They would if they had taste—”
“Will you two shut it?” Seungmin interrupted, looking pretty annoyed after so much bickering from the roommates that morning. “I would like to eat breakfast in peace for once since we’re not having to rush out of the door for schedules.” He aggressively shoved a piece of pancake in his mouth after he finished.
Chan only chuckled. “That would have been nice, yeah, but I already accepted that is never happening in this household.” He got up from the table and walked over to the sink to wash his empty plate off.
Jeongin and Jisung subtly shot each other smiles after seeing Seungmin and Chan both get frustrated with their behavior. They had their disagreements, sure, but they both knew their arguments were nothing but playful, and they got bonus points if it annoyed the other members while doing it.
“But seriously Hannie, you look tired.” Although he was across the kitchen and his hands were still deep in dish soap, Chan said it gently and softly. It almost couldn’t be heard over the sound of the facet running.
Jisung merely rolled his eyes at the comment.
Chan turned the sink off and dried his hands with a towel nearby. “We have a while before we have to be anywhere. Why don’t you lay back down for a couple of hours?” He sat down at the table again, ruffling Jisung’s hair as he slipped back into his chair.
Jisung groaned like a child, both at the mess Chan made of his already wild hair and the suggestion to go back to bed. “I’m already awake though. It takes me a while to get up.” They were weak excuses he knew, but he hoped Chan would buy them.
Meanwhile, Jeongin took every opportunity to joke more with Jisung. “Yeah hyung, it took you forever to silence that alarm earlier.”
Taking it in stride, Seungmin added, trying to appear almost disinterested, “If I didn’t know any better I might have said I heard something fall back there.”
“You must be hearing things then,” Jisung shot back.
Unfortunately, Chan was not so easily swayed by their antics as Jisung hoped. He tried again. “Han, don’t worry. I can go wake you up myself when you need to start getting ready.”
Jisung waved his hands as a gesture to decline the invitation. “I’m fine, hyung. Really. Just need a bit of coffee in me is all.” He gave a weak smile when he had finished, wishing Chan would let it go.
After several seconds Chan obliged, nodding in agreement. “Okay. It’s your choice.” With that he rose and passed through the glass doors that led into the living room. As a final thought, Chan called from behind his back, “Better go ahead and get some coffee in your system then mate. The dorm will only get more and more chaotic as Hyunjin, Changbin, and Minho wake up.”
Jisung cocked his head at that. Minho wasn’t awake yet? That was strange for him. Minho was always one of the first of the members to stir. He tended to be up before the crack of dawn, getting dressed and making food before Jisung could even properly keep both eyes open. Whether it was because he wanted to steal the shower before anyone else could get to it and use up all the hot water or he was just born a morning person, Jisung didn’t know. Perhaps he liked having more time to relax, eat breakfast, and look through his phone before schedules started. Whatever reason Minho had for being awake so early didn’t exactly matter; he just always was , so it was shocking that he would still be asleep. Jisung was also partially confused because hadn’t Minho been showering earlier? He thought he heard the shower running when he passed by the bathroom earlier. If it wasn’t Minho, then who? Jisung asked Chan as much.
“Oh. No, that was Felix,” he replied, leaning against the large doorway having turned around after Jisung asked him his question. “He got up about thirty minutes before you did, but yeah, no, I haven’t seen Minho all morning.”
That made sense, he guessed. Minho wouldn’t have used the shower near Jisung’s room anyway unless Seungmin or Hyunjin were already busy using theirs.
Still, Jisung felt himself sigh. There went Jisung’s plan for coffee. He had secretly hoped that since the team had nothing to do for a few more hours, he and Minho would have enough time to visit a cafe before they were needed at work. Minho, like Jisung, was a huge fan of the Americanos made by a coffee shop a couple blocks over from their dorm (the place also made a mean cheesecake that just so happened to be Jisung’s favorite), but they rarely ever had the time to go nowadays. Although Jisung didn’t tell his hyung of his plans, Minho was usually up for a trip to get food or drinks, so he didn’t think of informing the older boy in advance. Unlike Jisung, he was very extroverted and almost always liked going out when someone invited him (unless he was feeling lazy that was).
Now that Jisung knew Minho was not already awake, he realized it was very likely they wouldn’t end up going. Well, there was always Seungmin, who too liked the bitter coffee Jisung was craving, but it just wasn’t the same.
Since debut, Minho easily clicked with Jisung and of all the other members the two got along the most. While Jisung could rant for hours about whatever random thing he was obsessed with at the time, his hyung was one of the only members who was willing to put up with it all and listen intently. In return, Jisung dealt with Minho’s 4D personality the best out of everyone, understanding the quiet moments as much as the weird and savage ones. So the two were inseparable, which was why Minho was fun to get coffee with, and Seungmin….wasn’t.
“Did I hear my name?” he heard a deep voice say, snapping Jisung from his thoughts. Then Felix came happily strolling into the kitchen, his hair wet and dripping with water, which confirmed Chan’s answer.
“Sorry mate. Just me telling Jisung you were the one who was showering,” Chan responded, back still against the glass of the sliding door.
Felix smiled widely at that. “Oh yup. That was me.” The freckle-faced boy continued grinning when he reached over Jisung’s shoulder and quickly made himself a plate before taking Chan’s old spot.
Dang, how could someone be so chipper that early in the morning? It felt unnatural. Jisung needed to find himself more grumpy friends. Without realizing he unintentionally voiced his thoughts to the group.
“Sorry you chose to get almost no sleep. Maybe you’ll think better next time and can be just as happy as the rest of us,” Seungmin suggested.
“Really? We’re starting this again?” he rolled his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “You know what, I’m tired of this mistreatment. Maybe I will go find someone else to be grumpy with.” He hopped off his chair, leaving his dirty plate on the table, which he heard Seungmin complain about, and exited the room. Felix and Jeongin laughed at his theatrics, though Chan only gave him a look of partial amusement, slightly unhappy with the mess the younger left behind for someone else to clean.
“Jisung, stop acting like a child,” he heard Seungmin scold, but Jisung just ignored him. He knew it was childish, but leaving Seungmin to deal with his dirty plate felt like the perfect payback for his incessant teasing all morning, so he didn’t turn around.
Instead, he kept going and passed through the living room until he found himself in Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Minho’s shared bedroom. Sometime during that whole conversation Jisung had made up his mind: he was going to get coffee with his hyung, whether that required waking up a sleeping Minho or not. Screw being polite and letting him sleep. The two could be grumpy together. As the phrase went: misery loves company. Minho might not love him after this, but at least the two would be grumpy boys with Americanos. Surely that would win his hyung over.
Knowing full well that Hyunjin was still asleep, Jisung passed his bed quietly as to not disturb the slightly older member. As much as Jisung was willing to wake up one bear, he was not going to poke the bear that was Hyunjin. That in itself was a death wish. Though, Hyunjin was actually very hard to wake up. He still wasn’t about to take his chances, so he crept the entire way past his and Seungmin’s bunk and went up to Minho’s.
Wow, Jisung mused, Minho was actually asleep. The makeshift curtain, which dangled from the upper bunk to his lower bunk, was still closed and Jisung could make out his soft snores from behind the blanket. He had hung it there to keep any unwanted light out and provide extra privacy so he could sleep peacefully, and it seemed to be working since Seungmin hadn’t managed to wake him up accidentally when he climbed down from his bunk a few hours ago.
Too bad Jisung was about to rip it away and wake him up anyway. Without much more thought, Jisung pulled back the curtain.
But just as he was about to gently shake Minho awake, Jisung let out a scream.
It wasn’t Minho sleeping in the bed like he thought; it was a small child.
“What the—?”