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Heeseung is up to something, Sunghoon is sure.
He doesn’t know yet what Heeseung is planning or what for, but something has to be happening. Heeseung has always been a little awkward towards him, Sunghoon guessed, but it never bothered him. It was honestly kind of endearing, even. It’s in the way he used to stammer around him, and shy away from his touches. It always leaves Sunghoon feeling warm inside and maybe he developed a small crush on the clumsy but confident alpha. His crush only grows with every chance he gets to see Heeseung perform.
However, Heeseung’s awkwardness has taken a bad turn recently, and it leaves Sunghoon with the impression that Heeseung thinks very lowly of him. He isn’t sure what brought the sudden change, but he thinks it has to do with him being an omega. Honestly, he doesn’t want to think that Heeseung would be like those alphas, but with every one of his actions, Sunghoon is more and more convinced.
Sunghoon decides the best thing he can do, is make a list. It starts with the van’s door.
It seems to be a pretty innocuous thing, after all, it is just a door. Which is probably why Sunghoon has taken a couple of weeks to notice there was something off. Somehow, Heeseung always manages to be before Sunghoon to get on the van, but he never enters it first. What Heeseung does is hold the door open for Sunghoon and let him go first, then he helps him get down. And yes, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, maybe Heeseung’s just polite. But it only happens with him.
Sunghoon doesn’t have much of a parameter of comparison, because somehow Heeseung is never before anyone else to get on the van. Yet, Sunghoon has seen two instances of someone else being after Heeseung and he hadn’t acted that way. One of them was even Riki, and Heeseung always does everything for Riki. Which, to Sunghoon, means that this is something specific for him. Heeseung must think he’s incapable of opening the door for himself. Heeseung must think he’s helpless enough to need assistance to get out of a van. It’s not even that high and he’s almost Heeseung’s high, he shouldn’t be treated like this.
After noticing the first sign of Heeseung treating him differently, Sunghoon notices the second instance: he always takes his plate after they are done eating, if they are eating together.
Again, it seems innocent enough and Sunghoon actually doesn’t mind this one as much, but it strikes him as weird. Like, really, Heeseung is just taking the empty plate to the sink for him, that’s not that bad since he also has to take his own. What bothers Sunghoon is that, first, Heeseung doesn’t ask if he wants him to take the plate; and two, he never does it for anyone else, not without prompting at least. Again, it makes Sunghoon think Heeseung sees him as someone less capable.
He’d think he’s being paranoid. Maybe Heeseung’s just trying to be a nice hyung, a helpful friend, but Sunghoon can’t fully accept that as an explanation.
And the Heeseung starts helping him with his clothes.
Nothing too outrageous, just with his jackets and hats at first. Somehow, Heeseung is always around when Sunghoon is about to put on a hat or take off his jacket. It gets worse when he starts helping him with his shoes. Sunghoon tells him he can do it himself, but Heeseung insists and he has a hard time denying him for a second time. Especially because he is sometimes taken off guard when he’s too sleepy to realise how weird it all is. And even then, it isn’t the fact that Heeseung seems to want to do all these things for him, but that he’s only doing them for him. He tries for a while to see if he catches Heeseung helping any of the other members in the same way he does for him, but he doesn’t notice it even once.
It’s just weird and it annoys Sunghoon a bit, but it isn’t harmful so he lets it slide. For the moment, at least.
And then Heeseung’ starts doing more for him. He gets him food as often as possible, buys him water if he even mentions being thirsty, attempts to dry his hair in several occasions —he’s successful twice—, he sorts out his jewellery and Sunghoon is sure there are now new rings and earing in there. Sunghoon has caught Heeseung making his bed for him once too, which just doesn’t make sense. Heeseung doesn’t make his own bed, why would he even go through the trouble of making Sunghoon’s?
Worst of all is that Sunghoon knows he sounds like he’s complaining about something stupid. He has someone doing pretty much everything for him, he’s sure Heeseung is two steps away from wiping his ass too if he let him, why would he complain? Well, what annoys him is that he’s not doing any of it for any of the other members. It feels insulting, like he’s just not capable of taking care of himself.
And then he comes into his room and there are new candles and a set of blankets by his bed. He looks at them, for a good minute, he just stares. He doesn’t know what to make of them, what Heeseung is trying to tell him. Maybe Heeseung doesn’t like how his sheets smell or he thinks there are too many scents mixed in his room. Maybe it means nothing and Heeseung is just giving out gifts to the members. But then, the only one who’s got any is him.
“Did- Did hyung buy you blankets?” Sunoo asks, curious and having been following the entire thing from the beginning. Sometimes, Sunoo laughs while Sunghoon tells him his conspiracy theories; Sunghoon hasn’t figured quite why yet, but he’ll get there after he understands what’s going on with Heeseung.
“And scented candles,” Sunghoon comments. “Do you think he doesn’t like my scent?”
“Nah,” Sunoo answers easily, dropping onto his own bed. “Maybe he thought your blankets were too old,” he adds, but he has that smile that tells Sunghoon he knows more than he’s letting on.
There’s no proof, though, and the gift seems inconspicuous. But then it’s followed by a thick, fuzzy, blanket. It is huge and really warm, Sunghoon feels conflicted. On the one hand, the blanket is so comfortable. On the other hand, it seems childish. The colours, the design, the gift itself; it’s as if Heeseung thinks of him as a child that needs comfort. When the plush toys start appearing, Sunghoon loses it. They are cute, and in any other circumstance Sunghoon would have liked them, but at the moment he feels diminished.
He never says anything against Heeseung’s actions, and that’s his fault, but Heeseung should realise on his own that it isn’t right. Or at the very least, that it comes off as rude and patronising. No one else seems to notice this, or they don’t think the same as Sunghoon. It’s like no one sees it as something wrong, so that may be why Heeseung doesn’t stop. Maybe he should talk to Heeseung about it, see if he’d stop if he tells him to.
“Should I tell Heeseung-hyung to stop or would that be rude?” Sunghoon asks Jake as they spend some time together.
It takes Jake a couple of seconds to get what Sunghoon is referring to, the question lacking context. “You mean the gifts?” Sunghoon nods. “Well… depends on you, but I thought you liked him,” Jake tells him, confused by Sunghoon’s change of heart.
“With how he’s been treating me… I don’t know how I feel anymore,” Sunghoon admits. He’s aware that he still has a small crush on the alpha, but it conflicts with how Heeseung seems to view him.
“How he’s been treating you? Did he do something?” Jake is completely lost; he can’t remember anything Heeseung has done for Sunghoon to change him mind.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed,” Sunghoon complains. “He keeps treating me like… as if he saw me as a child!” Jake frowns so Sunghoon adds, “he gives me stuff toys and blankets with childish designs,” he enumerates. “He tries to tie my shoes all the time, or help me with my clothes in general—”
“Sunghoon,” Jake stops him. “He does not see you as a child, he wants to give you a child.”
“Sorry, what?” Sunghoon’s brain immediately resets at Jake’s words.
“Okay, maybe not literally, but you know…” Jake’s cheeks turn red.
“I don’t follow,” he says. Jake has virtually just destroyed his entire understanding of Heeseung’s behaviour.
“He’s courting you,” Jake explains, not wasting time by directly telling Sunghoon what’s going on. “Or he’s trying to, apparently, he’d not doing a great job.”
“No way,” Sunghoon mutters, taken aback and disoriented. “That’s not- he’s not- Why would he-?” He is unable to form full sentences.
“Take your time, you’ll get there,” Jake encourages him, though it does sound a bit like mockery.
“I need to ask hyung,” Sunghoon concludes. There’s no way he misunderstood Heeseung’s attempts at courting for belittlement, but it would explain so much.
Jake doesn’t even try to stop Sunghoon as he walks directly towards Heeseung’s room. Sunghoon is well aware that Heeseung is spending his free time taking a nap, but his need to know is strong enough that he’ll attempt to wake him up. It ends up being way easier that Sunghoon expected, as soon as he enters the room and turns on the light, Heeseung is stirring in his sleep; he’s not yet awake, but halfway there.
“Hoon?” Heeseung asks as he tries to focus his eyes. “What happened?” The rasp in his voice from just having woken up is doing things to Sunghoon, but he’s choosing to ignore the feeling in his stomach until after he gets answers.
“Have you been courting me?” Maybe it isn’t the most tactful way to ask, but Sunghoon is in a rush and has an urge to know as soon as possible if Jake was right.
Heeseung says nothing for a beat, simply staring at Sunghoon like he can’t comprehend the language he’s using. “Yes?” His response comes off as confused.
“S-so… the blankets and plushies… they were courting gifts?” Sunghoon has to clear up everything. “The food and helping me with… everything, all of that was… you were courting me?”
“…Do you want me to stop?” Heeseung asks, being confused by Sunghoon’s questions and wondering if he’s done something he shouldn’t have.
“Please, don’t,” Sunghoon finds himself saying before he can actually think. “I thought you were treating me like a child.”
“Why… would you think that?” Heeseung sits up on his bed more comfortably.
“Hyung, your gifts are very…” Sunghoon doesn’t know how to explain it, they just seem like something you’d give a child.
“You don’t like them?” Heeseung sounds so hurt Sunghoon panics for a second.
“No! I mean, I love them!” He reassures him. “But they made me think that… maybe you saw me as… you know, a kid or not good enough…”
“Oh,” Heeseung slowly thinks his words. “I hadn’t thought it could come across like that, sorry,” he apologises. “Should I court you differently? What do you want?”
“I want for us to go on a date.” Sunghoon lets his mouth run without filtering his thoughts, which leads to him being way more straightforward that he thought himself capable.
“Are you sure? I mean-” Heeseung scrambles out of his bed, crawling to the edge and almost tripping while getting up. Then he stands in front of Sunghoon. “I don’t mind courting you for a little longer so you don’t feel like I’m looking down on you—”
“Hyung, I appreciate it but I’d rather you took me out on a date instead,” Sunghoon insists, giving Heeseung a quick and chaste kiss on the lips before turning to leave. “Let’s go somewhere on our next day off,” he says and if he hears Heeseung malfunctioning, he doesn’t mention anything. He’s more worried about hiding his own embarrassment than on that.
Heeseung was up to something, Sunghoon was right, and now he knows exactly what it’s all about.