Work Text:
Kim Jiwoong has a problem.
Scratch that, he actually has several problems, but his biggest one, a whopping 180.5 cm tall problem, sleepily looks at him from the bed in the middle of the room. Said problem speaks, an unconscious pout forming as the light from the living room trickles in from behind Jiwoong.
“Ah, hyung, are we roommates?”
The problem ( commonly known as Zhang Hao, affectionately named by fans as Jjangguri) , has a strand of hair sticking up as he blinks bleary eyes at Jiwoong. It kind of makes him look like he has an antenna. Or an apple, really, if the way his cheeks slightly puff out as his pout deepens, the tips of his ears going red as Jiwoong fails to reply.
“Hyung?” Zhang Hao tries again, and maybe it’s the lack of sleep getting to Jiwoong, but he thinks he could hear the slightest hint of a whine in his voice.
Oh my god.
“Ah, sorry for waking you up, Hao-ah. I’ll just settle in, then I’ll get started on dinner,” he thinks he hears himself reply.
Zhang Hao sleepily blinks up at him, and with a slight nod, flops back into the bed. The strand of hair that was sticking out flops back down with him. Jiwoong pretends he doesn’t track its movement as he quietly brings his luggage in, doing his best not to wake up the sleeping boy in the bed next to his.
“Jiwoong-hyung,” he hears Zhang Hao slur out as he moves to go to the kitchen. He’s hoping that if not Hanbin, then at least Hao had had the idea to start stocking up the necessities for dinner, since they couldn’t really depend on the kids to do so. Jiwoong thinks Yujin has probably never even set foot in a grocery store his whole life. Gunwook could probably be trusted, but Gyuvin would get to him and they’d just leave the store with their carts filled with different candies and snacks.
“Hyuung,” Hao starts again, and Jiwoong looks back to see him looking at him, obviously half-asleep. His mouth is in that pout again, but this time his face is squished against the pillow, so the effect is extra deadly. For a short, crazy moment of weakness, Jiwoong thinks he looks like a kind of bread.
Ah, I really need to get out of here.
He simply hums and Hao continues, words still slurred but somehow intelligible, “Binnie n’ I bought eggs. Bu’ G’ubin broke half.”
If he didn’t think it impossible, he’d say that Hao’s pout deepens even more. Jiwoong takes a deep breath.
“Hm, then let’s hope we have enough eggs for dinner, then, Hao-ah? Now go back to sleep. I’ll wake you up when it’s time to eat.”
Or maybe he’ll get Hanbin to do it, if just to maintain some of his sanity.
“Noooo,” Hao grumbles, but buries deeper into his blankets. Jiwoong is about to have a conniption.
“When you start, please wake me up. Wanna ‘elp ‘yung,” he continues, the words becoming muffled as sleep takes over him once more.
Jiwoong pretends that he doesn’t stand by the door for a few seconds. He also, definitely, does not spend those few seconds staring at Hao’s sleeping. Absolutely not.
I really need to get started on those eggs.
-
That was their fourth ever conversation.
He’s keeping count, after all.
(He also notably does not wake up Zhang Hao as he gets dinner started, the half-dozen eggs in the fridge being fried with some tomatoes to form some semblance of a meal. He’s heard enough stories from Yujin and Gyuvin about Zhang Hao’s adventures in the kitchen. Witnessing him almost take his eye out when they were making cakes for the Star Masters was the last straw.
He’s not letting Hao near the kitchen, ever. For the good of both the dorm’s structural integrity, and Jiwoong’s old man heart.)
-
See, it wasn’t Jiwoong’s intention to suddenly find Zhang Hao this cute all of a sudden.
He’d thought the younger trainee to be pretty, yes, and certainly multitalented, but Zhang Hao had always seemed too serious and put together to actually be perceived as cute. In the limited interactions they had in Boys Planet, he could count on his fingers the amount of times he’d seen Zhang Hao smile or laugh, the boy usually having a serene disposition even as the world raged around him. How he did it, especially with Gyuvin and Yujin constantly making excuses to hang off of him, Jiwoong would never know.
Which is why this whole 180 has him quite baffled, the disparity between G center, perfect, stone cold Zhang Hao and Hao , his housemate so jarring, that Jiwoong constantly has to take second glances to make sure that what was happening in front of him was real. He’d seen some of it himself, when their circles started to slowly merge during Say My Name , but it had always been in the presence of the other Yuehuaz or Hanbin, none of it directed at Jiwoong himself.
(He would never tell anyone, but for the majority of the show, he had thought the Chinese boy had simply disliked him, as he started to befriend all of Hao’s friends but never Hao himself. The trainee had always been magically absent when Jiwoong hung out with the Yuehuaz and on some occasions, even Kuan Jui, always off to train or record something for the show.
Jiwoong had thought that Hao had taken all that extra work on, when he could’ve been with his friends, because Hao didn’t want to be around him.
When he told this to Matthew (who, in retrospect, probably knew something he did not at the time), the boy looked at him and simply laughed.)
“Ah, Jiwoong hyung. Goo’ mornin’,” he hears someone call out as he busies himself in the kitchen, the breakfast on the table slowly going cold.
“It’s already the afternoon, Hao-ya,” he chuckles out, “Come. It’s already getting cold, but you need to eat. We have a schedule later.”
If Zhang Hao takes notice of the casual Hao-ya , he says nothing. Instead, he sits at the kitchen counter and stares, seemingly zoning out and close to falling back asleep. That one strand of hair is sticking up again. Jiwoong’s hand itches.
“Ah! I caught it,” he exclaims before he could catch himself, his (in)famous aegyo put to work as he claps his hands around Zhang Hao’s antenna/stem/sprout/whatever it is.
Zhang Hao looks at him. He looks back.
Oh.
Underneath the harsh fluorescent lights of their dorm’s kitchen, he can see the way Hao’s eyes slowly widen as he registers what just happened. From beneath the mass of his bed hair, Jiwoong can see his ears turn that vivid shade of red that only happens when he’s shy or embarrassed.
Jiwoong still has his hands around Zhang Hao’s hair.
Oh my.
“Good morning, hyungs! What’s for breakfast?” Gyuvin exclaims as he strides into the room, impossibly peppy and loud for someone who had slept in.
They separate, both letting out uncomfortable chuckles and unable to meet one another’s eyes.
What did I just do.
As Jiwoong pretends to busy himself around the kitchen, the others slowly come in, surely awoken by the harsh sunlight seeping in from their windows. Yujin is still slightly asleep, supported by Ricky as they sit at the dining table together. Taerae and Gyuvin chat about WAKEONE’s company building. Matthew still isn’t here, the last of them to move in after spending some time with his family before ZB1 schedules ultimately take him away. Hanbin sits silently, a dazed look on his sleepy face.
I could see why he and Hao are called mirrors of one another.
He looks at his peripheral, to see Zhang Hao still at the kitchen counter, face in his hands. His ears still burn that same shade of red.
Oh no. He’s cute.
-
It is only as he’s freshening up the afternoon before their first ever schedule as a group, that he realizes.
That had been their fifth conversation. Fuck.
(At the back of his mind, he can hear Matthew’s voice echo, “You just need to approach him first, hyung. He’s just introverted, that’s all.”
Jiwoong would believe him, maybe even follow his advice, if only Matthew didn’t laugh to himself afterward. That sunny smile knew more than what he let on, and Jiwoong would find it out even if it killed him.
Still, he played Matthew’s words over again.
He doesn’t hate you, hyung. You just need to approach him first.)
And well, doing aegyo and grabbing his hair must count, right?
-
Jiwoong resolves to finally approach Zhang Hao first as they settle in for the night, the younger boy sitting on his bed in the pink pajamas Jiwoong remembers him wearing for that one Boys Planet recording. He’s wearing a poop emoji clip in his hair, one that Jiwoong remembers Hanbin wearing during one of their Hot Summer practices.
On Hao’s bedside table, there are more clips, each with a different emoji. He thinks he’s seen Gyuvin wear the sweat one on more than one occasion. Yujin, he knows, wears his star emoji clip every time he does his nightly routine.
So that’s where they came from.
“Oh, Hao-ah. Going to sleep so soon? The kids wanted to watch a movie,” he says as he sets some clothes on his bed.
The housekeeper had been kind enough to press their clothes that morning, and Jiwoong would not leave his clothes just lying around the dorm. The last time he did that, back in the Boys Planet dorms, he had lost a shirt, only to see Junhyeon wearing it on their next schedule. He’s not taking anymore chances.
“Ah, Jiwoong hyung is here,” he hears Hao mumble, and Jiwoong sees that he’s actually on a call. He hears a small shout erupt from the screen, and Hao turns his phone so Jiwoong could see who’s on the other side. Kuan Jui’s smiling face greets him.
“Rui-ah! It’s been so long,” he smiles at the younger boy, who looked much better compared to the last time he saw him. Considering that time involved Kuan Jui sobbing after being eliminated, Jiwoong would be worried if he still looked that broken.
He and Kuan Jui talk for a minute, as Zhang Hao putters about their room, grabbing a face mask as part of his nightly routine. It’s when they’re talking about Kuan Jui’s future plans that he hears Zhang Hao make a small, dismayed noise.
“Hao-ah? Is everything okay?”
“Hyung,” he looks up from the phone and sees Zhang Hao wearing that pout again, a small crease forming between his brows, “I can’t open it.”
Oh god.
He says goodbye to Kuan Jui and ends the call, approaching Zhang Hao as the other grumbles silently. Looking closer, he can see that Hao’s hands are slightly wet, which would make opening the face mask packet more difficult. He says as such to Hao, who only looks more miffed as he sits down on the bed.
The pout is still there. And that one strand of hair, his antenna, Jiwoong’s mind supplies, is slowly starting to rise up.
“Aiya, don’t worry. Let hyung open it for you,” because Jiwoong has always been weak to cute things and pretty boys.
And Zhang Hao is both a cute AND pretty boy.
He takes the packet and opens it along the crease, careful not to let the mask rip. It feels slimy in his hands and Jiwoong hates the feeling, but one look at Hao’s expectant face makes him persist and bear it. He could always wash his hands after this.
“Hyung,” Zhang Hao exclaims again, and this time, it seems as if he’s actively trying to make himself cute. Jiwoong curses his past self who refused to believe Yujin when he said that Hao had good aegyo.
Jiwoong looks at him, slimy mask in his hand. Zhang Hao looks back.
Oh no.
“My hands are wet, the mask might slip,” he hears Hao start.
I know where this is going.
“Can you put it on for me?”
Oh my god.
Jiwoong is going to have a conniption. His head is going to explode. But he doesn’t do this, because 1) he’s a grown man, and 2) it’s literally been only a couple of weeks since he debuted, and he’d very much like to spend more time with his team, thank you very much.
So, instead, he says:
“Aiya, you just wanted hyung to take care of you, huh? Don’t worry, hyung is here.”
He sees Hao’s hands make little grabby motions on the bed, and he understands why the fans like to compare him to a raccoon so much. Even the little smile he gives Jiwoong is similar to how raccoons look when they get something they want. Cute.
“Thank you, hyung!”
His heart stutters. God, Jiwoong is so weak.
-
He files that away as their sixth conversation.
By the time he’s ready to turn in for the night, exhausted after watching movies with the kids, he’s resolved to become closer to Zhang Hao in the future.
Hyung will come to you first from now on, Hao-ah.
(Zhang Hao actually joins them for the movie night after the first movie ended, the mask Jiwoong put on him already discarded. His skin looked extra shiny from where he sat between Gunwook and Yujin, Hao pushing the bowls of popcorn into the maknaes’ hands and encouraging them to eat more.
Jiwoong wonders how this Hao and the Hao whose face mask he put on a few minutes ago could be the same person. This Zhang Hao was the same Hao that he saw frequently in Boys Planet, always hovering around his Yuehuaz like he was their mother. He’s roomed with Yujin enough to see Zhang Hao drag the younger boy off to breakfast, unwilling to let the maknae starve even if he himself did not eat anything.
Then Jiwoong remembers that this probably would’ve been the first time Hao has had a hyung take care of him in months, years even, (sorry, Hoetaek hyung!), and his heart softens.)
-
He and Zhang Hao had barely talked the whole day, too busy with preparing for the commentary recording to do anything but nod at each other across the room. He sees Zhang Hao lean his head on Hanbin’s shoulder as the manager reminds them of their schedule, and he’s struck with the urge to go and sit with them, maybe stroke Hao’s hair as he dozed on Hanbin’s shoulder. He knows that Zhang Hao was already familiar with today’s schedule, having talked with the manager yesterday. That’s probably the only reason why the manager hasn’t called him out yet.
Or maybe it’s because he’s so cute, his traitorous mind supplies yet again. Still, the way Hao’s cheek smushes against Hanbin’s shoulder is cute. Jiwoong is reminded of the time that he likened a Hao like this to bread. Seeing him like this, Jiwoong can’t believe he’s 180.5 cm tall. He looks like he could fit inside Jiwoong’s pocket.
Matthew, who is right next to him, follows his gaze and gives him a knowing smile. Jiwoong resists the urge to nudge him.
“He’s cute, isn’t he? Our little Hao hyung~” he teases as if he can hear Jiwoong’s thoughts.
Jiwoong nudges him. Matthew groans.
Ha.
-
Jiwoong finds out what Matthew’s been keeping from him all this time like this:
They’re in one of Mnet’s studios, the hair and makeup team doing their magic to make sure that they at the very least look presentable on camera. Jiwoong had been one of the first to go, so he’s free to do whatever he wants until call time. Across from him, Gyuvin, Gunwook, and Yujin play a game on a console, the loud noises mixing in with the sounds coming from the blow dryers and Hanbin’s pre-show playlist. Taerae and Matthew are getting their makeup done, the former chatting away while Matthew is strangely subdued.
Must be the nerves, he thinks, and gives the younger boy a pat on his back as he makes his way to the bathrooms outside. Matthew flashes him a grateful smile. On his way out, he passes by Hanbin who had gone out with Hao to get drinks for everybody. His arms are full of different drinks, probably to account for the varying tastes of everyone in the group.
“Hanbinnie! The director was looking for you, something about camera angles, I think? Where’s Zhang Hao?”
Hanbin shoots him a grateful smile as he opens the door for him, his whisker dimples coming out to play. Ah, Hanbinnie is so cute, too.
“Oh, Hao hyung went to get some snacks for the kids. He made me go first, since the drinks were so heavy, but maybe you can help him carry the snacks back, hyung?”
With a nod, he lets the younger go to make his way down to the vending machines, all thoughts of the bathroom wiped away from his mind. As he gets closer he can see Zhang Hao seriously surveying the snack collection before him, which Jiwoong approves of.
Snacks were a serious matter after all, even if I’m not as crazy about them as Gyuvin is.
"Oh, I caught it!” he loudly exclaims, pretending to trap the little Hao between his fingers. He’s fairly far away, but he’s loud enough for Zhang Hao to hear him and laugh out loud, a sharp bark of laughter ringing through the air.
“Ah, hyung-ah could be so cute, sometimes,” Hao says as he approaches, a teasing smile on his face.
“But Hao-ah is much cuter, still,” Jiwoong teases back, “a cute dongsaeng who asks his hyung to put on his mask for him!”
He sees Zhang Hao’s smile drop, and he fears that he might’ve taken it too far. Zhang Hao, while not hating him, still might be uncomfortable with him, after all. He tries to backtrack, only to see Hao with his face in his hands, obviously trying to hide.
His ears are slowly turning that familiar shade of red.
Oh.
“Ah, Hao-ah, why are you being shy,” he teases again, as Zhang Hao groans in response. It’s amazing how he could make something like groaning so cute.
Or maybe I’m just whipped.
“Hyung is too mean,” Hao whines, and Jiwoong can’t help the smile from forming on his face. I’m finally getting somewhere.
“You wouldn’t like me this much if I wasn’t a little mean, Hao-ah,” and maybe that’s a little too forward, but Jiwoong thinks it’s appropriate enough. If Zhang Hao finds it weird, he could always pass it off as a joke.
He hears a squeak beside him and sees that Zhang Hao has, if possible, hidden his face even more in his hands, the tips of his ears now burning red.
And that is when Jiwoong realizes. Oh.
(Suddenly, all their previous interactions, even in Boys Planet, make a lot of sense. Jiwoong remembers all the times he would see Zhang Hao glance at him from his peripheral vision, thinking that he was side-eyeing him out of dislike. He remembers how Hao would freeze up when he would join their little Yuehuaz-and-Hanbin gatherings, the Chinese trainee clamping up when just moments earlier, he had been nagging Ricky about his used laundry.
He remembers the funny glances Kuan Jui and Gyuvin shared when Zhang Hao had interviewed him for Planet TV, the odd way Matthew had teased him after. He remembers how Hanbin glanced at him whenever Hao went to the Say My Name practice room to watch them go at it, until Kuan Jui came in and said their break was over.
Oh.)
“Well, I mean, Hao-ah must like me well enough, or else he wouldn’t let me tease him like this,” he starts, and because he’s a menace, he adds, “Or ask me to put his face mask on for him.”
He hears Zhang Hao let out a small chuckle, and Jiwoong is relieved to see that while his ears still burn red, he isn’t hiding away embarrassed, anymore. Instead, Hao says:
“Of course, I like hyung. I’ve liked him for quite some time now,” and he sounds so earnest, so cute, that Jiwoong feels his heart stutter yet again.
“Aigoo, our Hao-ah. Then that must mean hyung must try harder, right?”
Zhang Hao looks back at him with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. He’s reminded that as much as Hao is cute, he’s pretty, too. Very much so.
“Hao-ya,” he starts, “Let’s get closer starting from today.”
Jiwoong hopes he understands what he means.
Let’s see where this might bring us.
Seeing Zhang Hao’s small smile, Jiwoong thinks he does.
-
That had been their seventh conversation.
As Zhang Hao sleeps in the bed across from him, snoring loud enough to probably rival Mingyu’s Man in Love performance, Jiwoong hopes that they could have many more.
Maybe this could be the start of something.
-
(A conversation in the Say My Name practice room, three weeks ago:
“How long do you think before Jiwoong notices Hao hyung’s crush on him?” Matthew asks as he and Hanbin cool down after practice.
The taller boy just shrugs.
“Did you know hyung had the nerve to ask me if Hao hyung hated him? Him! Zhang Hao is literally one step away from dislocating his jaw every time hyung so much as appears on screen!”
“They’re both being idiots, but we love them, anyway,” Hanbin finally replies, shaking his head.
“Hmph, maybe you do,” Matthew replies, and he could see Hanbin slightly flinch as he registers Matthew’s emphasis on the word ‘you.’
God, he was surrounded by idiots.
“And besides, Kuan Jui and the Yuehuaz have an ongoing bet on them. Kuan Jui and Yujin say hell will freeze over before Hao hyung even speaks to him, so they bet that Jiwoong hyung will crack first," Hanbin changes the topic, and Matthew lets him.
Zhang Hao is so obvious that even Yujin had picked up on it! The kid! God, Matthew is getting a headache.
"They're all in on it? What about Gyuvinie?"
"Gyuvin, Ollie, and Ricky placed their bets on Hao hyung folding even before that. Seungeon wanted no part of it, but the prize is a trip to Everland, so he’s on Yujin and Kuan Jui’s side," Hanbin continues.
Matthew finds it crazy that so many of their friends know, or at least have noticed, but Jiwoong still thinks Zhang Hao hates his guts.
Well, Hao hyung would probably want to–
No, let's cut that line of thought.
“Hm, a bet? Then should we have one, too? I bet a month’s worth of Zero Coke that Jiwoong hyung will crack first.”
He sees Hanbin hesitate, thinking over the offer. Matthew thinks that his Zero Coke obsession will someday kill him.
“Then I bet a month’s worth of chores on Hao hyung. Seeing Jiwoong hyung in Say My Name has broken him, he says he goes to our practices to annoy me but I know he’s here to see hyung act all cute,” he finally says.
They both shake on it.
Fast forward three weeks later, Matthew is watching Jiwoong and Zhang Hao (unsubtly) play footsie under the dining table. They’re having galbijjim for dinner, because that apparently happens when a certain Kim Jiwoong is (love)sickeningly inspired.
Hanbin is still stuck cleaning the bathroom.)