Work Text:
That morning began the same as any other. Ricky was in the bathroom doing something or other while Gyuvin lay on his bed waiting for him to finish, it had become a bit like a routine for them with the younger always being the one who wanted to see Ricky first thing every day.
“Gyuvin!” Came a shout from the bathroom a few moments later, “literally where could you have possibly put my toothpaste?” Ricky shouted and almost as if on queue an exasperated Jiwoong came hurtling through the door.
“I’m sure it’s here somewhere Ricky you don’t need to fight over it,” the oldest member spoke calmly and Gyuvin simply turned towards him and shot him a strange look.
“It’s fine hyung, I just borrowed it because mine ran out.”
“Borrowed it?” Ricky spoke again, “you know that one’s my favourite, you’re always using it, do you have some kind of ulterior motive or something?”
Gyuvin giggled a little as he imagined the cute pout that sat on his boyfriend’s lips. His boyfriend knew only too well why Gyuvin kept stealing his toothpaste, something about the unusual strawberry flavour always making him smile whenever he used it but of course, to Jiwoong, everything was just escalating out of control.
“Okay, how about you both calm down a little? Ricky I’m sure he had no ulterior motive but Gyuvin please apologise to Ricky and make sure you have enough next time okay?” Jiwoong spoke as he ran a hand through his hair in stress.
“Sorry Ricky,” Gyuvin spoke out, desperately trying to hold back a laugh as Jiwoong seemingly deflated, “great, now please go back to your own room Gyuvin.”
“No,” the youngest whined, “I want to see Ricky.”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Hao appeared in the doorway and Gyuvin already knew at that point that his morning’s plans were doomed.
“But hyung I’m serious I just want to see him,” Gyuvin whined again but neither of the two older boys were having any of it.
“Well you can see him downstairs, come on,” Hao reached forward and dragged him by the arm almost forcibly dragging him out of Ricky’s room and downstairs to where the rest of the group were eating breakfast.
A lot of their mornings sadly went like this, Gyuvin never really understood why the whole group seemed to think that they were three seconds away from punching each other at any given moment. Sure, they definitely bickered a lot but it was nothing that other members didn’t do and the other members even actually meant it.
When Ricky finally emerged from his room, Gyuvin was already halfway through eating and he excitedly patted the chair next to him for his boyfriend to sit down on yet it seemed that Matthew had other plans as he quickly moved over to leave the seat between him and Hanbin empty for Ricky. “Oh,” the blonde boy spoke as he stopped in his tracks, “I can sit next to Gyuvin it’s fine.”
“No it’s okay, I don’t mind sitting here,” Matthew smiled and Ricky only shot him a confused look before shrugging and sitting down. He looked a little grumpier than usual and this was typical of mornings where he and Gyuvin were separated before they even greeted each other. The younger boy revelled in this, taking great delight in the fact that a kiss from him had quickly become part of his boyfriend’s daily routine.
“What’s up Ricky?” Gyuvin asked with a mischievous smile on his face, “woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”
Ricky stared back at him with fond eyes but quickly schooled his expression as he spoke, “my bed is next to the wall dumbass.”
Gyuvin nearly snorted and was about to retaliate before Hanbin quickly spoke up to change the topic and brief them all on what their schedules were for that day, the two boys still caught each others eye though and Ricky only offered an amused smile to which Gyuvin sent him a wink.
—
It was only a few hours before something happened again. Usually, the older members would only come between them a few times in a day. By now, Gyuvin suspected that they knew something, it seemed that whenever he and Ricky were alone one of them would burst into the room and it was honestly starting to get annoying because they constantly had to have their guard up at all times. Lately it had gotten even worse, whenever they so much as spoke to each other one of the other members would butt in and try to get them to stop or make them apologise for something that wasn’t needing of an apology at all.
“Why do they do it?” Gyuvin asked Ricky as they headed around a supermarket together. They’d somehow managed to convince Hanbin and Taerae that it would be okay to leave them alone for a few minutes while they walked off to get some snacks for the group movie night later.
“I don’t know,” Ricky responded honestly, “the only thing I can think of is that they know more than they’re letting on.”
Gyuvin hummed sadly, that really was the only explanation.
“But why do they keep splitting us up then, why don’t they just ask us about it?” Ricky continued seeming a little frustrated and Gyuvin just wanted to do everything in his power to cheer his boyfriend up and let him know that it was okay and they’d work it out.
“Maybe they think that you’re down so bad they don’t want to confront you and embarrass you,” Gyuvin snorted and Ricky’s face immediately softened as he hit his boyfriend’s shoulder lightly and pointed an accusatory finger at him.
“You’re the one who’s down bad, I don’t come and steal your toothpaste because it reminds me of you,” the older grinned and Gyuvin scoffed.
“Didn’t you hear what Jiwoong hyung said? I had no ulterior motive,” Gyuvin took a step closer to Ricky and only then did Gyuvin feel a hand on his shoulder pulling him back.
“Are we really still talking about the toothpaste thing?” Hanbin asked and Gyuvin sighed deeply.
“No, honestly it’s just a joke he doesn’t mind,” Gyuvin spoke and Ricky nodded from behind him in agreement but their words seemed to fall on deaf ears.
“You two need to be more subtle, especially in public,” Hanbin sighed and Gyuvin felt his heart drop, they definitely knew. He shared a nervous glance with Ricky as Hanbin kept talking, “come on lets buy this stuff, I think it’s time we all talk about this at home.”
—
Gyuvin and Ricky sat the whole way home with Taerae in between them. It was hard enough to deal with the thought that everyone might know about them but not even being able to discuss it or get some form of comfort from each other made it all feel infinitely worse.
They’d done everything they could to try and cover their tracks. It wasn’t particularly hard, they’d been best friends before they’d been anything else so Gyuvin spending a lot of time with Ricky alone was never weird and their bickering was just their weird way of flirting so in the beginning no one had ever questioned that either. Yet Gyuvin was beginning to think that it was that exact thing that had been their undoing.
When they finally arrived back, Ricky walked in first after slipping his shoes off but he immediately came back out of the room when Taerae had rushed off to help Hanbin put the shopping away so that he and Gyuvin finally had some time alone.
“They know don’t they?” the older asked and Gyuvin sighed deeply.
“They do, what are we going to say?” the younger questioned and Ricky gently reached out to hold his hand and squeeze it in support.
“The truth, I doubt they’ll be mad at us we just need to be honest.”
Gyuvin nodded quickly as he tried to not let the nerves get the better of him and Ricky planted a soft kiss on his cheek, “shall we go in then?” The younger asked.
“Yeah,” Ricky breathed out as he let his boyfriend’s hand go and they re-entered the room where all of the other members were now waiting for them. Surprisingly, they were allowed to sit next to each other and Ricky quickly took advantage of this as he threw a blanket over the two of them and discreetly took hold of Gyuvin’s hand beneath it.
“Okay, you know why we’re here and talking, it’s okay to feel the way that you feel but we just want you to be a bit more subtle about it especially in public or in front of the fans,” Hanbin took the lead on the conversation and Gyuvin’s heart both rested and stilled. It was okay, Hanbin said it was okay and Gyuvin squeezed Ricky’s hand upon hearing these words but the last part of the sentence still kept swimming about in his mind. Subtle in front of the fans?
Ricky didn’t seem to dwell on this, however, as he spoke back, “You know?”
“Of course we know, how would we not know?” Jiwoong spoke up this time and Gyuvin couldn’t help but flush a bright red.
“That’s embarrassing,” he spoke out quietly and Ricky squeezed his hand yet again in support, it was the only thing they could do.
“How did you know?” the older boy once again asked the questions that Gyuvin was too afraid to.
“It’s really obvious, you’re bickering constantly like some sort of messed up old married couple,” Jiwoong spoke again and Gyuvin could see multiple members of the group nodding in agreement.
He breathed deeply then and decided it was finally time for him to say something, “I’m really sorry we left you in the dark about all of this but please I’m literally begging you don’t tell the managers, this is something we can figure out between us, we’ll try to be more subtle just please don’t tell them.”
Hanbin sighed before glancing over at Hao who only shrugged and Jiwoong who did the same, it was obvious they’d spoken about it many times and Gyuvin just felt his heart sink deeper and deeper into his chest, “We kind of have to tell them in case all of this starts to escalate.”
These words confused Gyuvin. Escalate? How could their relationship escalate? Did Hanbin think they were going to get engaged or something?
His thoughts were cut short, however, when Matthew suddenly chimed in, “I just don’t get it though, why do you hate each other so much?”
Gyuvin and Ricky both stilled then and shot each other an incredulous stare. “Hate each other?” Ricky breathed out, utterly confused, “are we talking about the same thing here?”
“What else would we be talking about?” Hanbin questioned, “Taerae literally said that he walked in on you two physically fighting a few days ago, we had to say something.”
“Fighting?” Gyuvin spluttered out in disbelief.
“You literally jumped apart from each other and all your clothes were messed up and your hair!” The witness in question pointed a finger at them accusatorially and Gyuvin felt a little like he was the target of some prank tv show.
“This is so funny,” Ricky began laughing as he shared a look with Gyuvin that seemed a little like fuck it, lets just tell them.
“How is this funny?” Hao asked frustratedly, “This could be a huge problem for the group.”
“We weren’t fighting,” Gyuvin tried to reason but got cut off again by Taerae this time.
“I literally saw it,” he spoke out and Gyuvin laughed again in disbelief.
“We really weren’t fighting,” he explained.
“Why did you get so scared when he saw you then?” Jiwoong asked.
“Well you did walk in on me making out with my boyfriend,” Ricky finally announced.
The entire room fell into stunned silence. Gyuvin would have hysterically laughed if not for how serious this could potentially be. He took note of the other members faces and how Yujin looked three seconds away from snorting while Hanbin seemed as if he’d seen a ghost.
“You’d rather pretend you’re dating than admit that you hate each other?” Hao asked and Ricky groaned while Gyuvin this time couldn’t help himself from laughing a little.
“Don’t you think that it explains a lot?” Ricky asked, “Why Gyuvin is in my room every morning because he wants to see me, why he stole my toothpaste because it reminds him of me, why Taerae saw all our clothes and hair messed up?”
Gyuvin was sure that he could hear the cogs turning in the oldest three’s minds then and it was Jiwoong who started laughing first. “Well, I’m very glad that you don’t actually hate each other,” he managed to giggle out before his face softened, “you were comfortable with telling us this though right?”
Gyuvin shared a glance with Ricky who just nodded, “we’ve been wanting to tell you for a while but we were a bit scared,” he admitted, “I’m kind of glad we’ve sorted this out so you’ll stop sending someone in to separate us when we want some alone time.”
“Oh god,” Hanbin breathed out finally, “we were doing that weren’t we?”
“It’s fine hyung,” Gyuvin giggled, “now that I know why you did it I’m not mad anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Hanbin spoke then as he stood up to walk towards the two boys and embrace them in a hug, “just know that you can come to me with absolutely anything okay? You have no need to be afraid to tell me anything whether it’s you dating or you wanting to kill each other.”
“Me too!” Hao called out causing Ricky to laugh a little. Finally, Gyuvin felt content.
—
It wasn’t until later that night that the news of him and Ricky dating reared its head again. It was an hour or so before their movie night was scheduled to start and Gyuvin, Gunwook and Yujin were using the time to test out some new retro gaming system that Gunwook had found on sale in a shop for cheap. It was quite fun actually, running games that Gyuvin wouldn’t usually play but found fun nevertheless.
Only halfway through the second game did Yujin finally pipe up, “you know, me and Gunwook both knew about you and Ricky.”
Gyuvin choked on his own spit, “you did?” He questioned, “why didn’t you say anything then?”
“Thought it was funny,” Gunwook shrugged, “and it’s none of our business anyway but for the record we did try and convince Hao hyung that you didn’t actually hate each other but he wouldn’t listen to us.”
“Thanks I guess,” Gyuvin laughed and made a mental note to tell Ricky all about the conversation later.
—
In the end, he and Ricky were excused from movie night so that they could spend some time together as some form of an apology from Hanbin who felt far too guilty for Gyuvin to feel even the slightest bit mad at him. “It’s okay honestly, I would have thought the same thing, we found it funny most of the time,” Gyuvin had told him over and over again but Hanbin’s eyes had still shone with unshed tears and it took Hao interfering to calm him down.
When the leader had apologised for the final time and headed off to join the movie night, Ricky and Gyuvin finally found themselves alone in Ricky’s room with no need to worry about another member bursting in and trying to stop them from fighting each other.
Gyuvin lay next to his boyfriend with his head resting on his shoulder as he played with their entwined hands and listened to Ricky intently as he recounted all of the times that he never realised everyone genuinely thought that they hated each other.
“You know what Gunwook and Yujin told me earlier?” Gyuvin asked and Ricky looked down to meet his eyes.
“They knew all along,” Gyuvin giggled causing his boyfriend to laugh along with him.
“If anyone knew about us it was going to be those two, they’re too observant for their own good,” the older laughed and Gyuvin nodded in agreement.
“I think it’s because they don’t complicate things,” Gyuvin hummed, “not like you do.”
“Oh shut up, we got together in the end didn’t we?”
“Took you about 2 years to admit you liked me though.”
“Do you want me to actually punch you?”
“You can with your lips.”
Ricky had never been happier to finally shut Gyuvin up.