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joshua plopped down onto the hotel bed. it was another successful concert, one in tokyo. despite not having all the members there, he enjoyed the day nonetheless. he was all tuckered out, and he wanted nothing to do but rot in his bed for the rest of the day, not that there was much of the day left.
as he checked his phone, a weverse notification popped up, indicating that one of the members went live with the caption ':)'. he decided to ignore it, being too tired to watch anything at the moment. a few minutes later, he suddenly got another notification, this time indicating that a member had commented on the said live. the said member was jeonghan. joshua's eyes widened. why is jeonghan commenting on a live? was he not working? questions flooded joshua's mind as he quickly clicked in the notification to bring him to the live.
it was scoups' live. ah. no wonder. of course jeonghan would comment on his live. joshua felt a pang of jealousy, but he quickly dismissed it. he read jeonghan's comments, one keep coming after another.
'ㅋㅋㅋㅋ cuz we have to be a couple'. joshua did not know the context of these messages yet he felt uneasy. he continued watching the live, hoping for some context that would prove his suspicions wrong. he sighed and closed the live, not wanting his heart to be hurt again with additional context.
joshua had always known the two older members were close, closer than he was with them. he sighed, not wanting to think about it further. he got up from the bed and decided to take a quick shower to dismiss the negative thoughts he had. although the thoughts were not all that bad, it hurts joshua to think about it so he considered it bad.
after one steamy shower, joshua checked his phone to see if there was any new notifications. none. not even jeonghan texted him, which he did many times when he left seoul for the world tour. he sighed once again, before plopping down onto the bed again. why was jeonghan asking scoups to be a couple so heartwrenching? they were only best friends after all, right?
joshua threw his phone to the other side of the bed before groaning at his newfound emotions. he did not know what he was feeling and he did not enjoy it one bit. the feeling was eating up his insides the further he thought about seungcheol and jeonghan being together, the jeongcheol couple, as the fans call them.
"why do i suddenly feel like i want to throw up?" joshua asked out loud as he rubbed his face in frustration. he frowned as he lay down on his bed, not knowing what to do. he was in tokyo, afterall. he could not go to talk with jeonghan even if he wanted to. jeonghan was in seoul afterall. then his eyes widened with realisation. he could just call him! he searched for his phone and went to jeonghan's contact, preparing to press the call button.
wait, why did he want to talk to jeonghan? he hesitated to call him, since he did not have a good reason to call him. he sighed, finally clicking on the call button, wanting to hear jeonghan's voice for the first time in a while.
the call was immediately received, which surprised joshua. jeonghan's sweet angelic voice came out, making joshua smile.
"joshuji!!! why did you call? you never call me!!" jeonghan exclaimed through the phone. if only joshua could see the older's face, which he clicked the audio call button so he could not.
"i- uhh..." joshua choked on his words, suddenly feeling nervous. "i missed you, jeonghan." he said hesitantly.
"AHHHH!!!!!" the other end suddenly exploded. "oh my gosh!!!!! THE hong joshuji said that he missed me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" jeonghan exclaimed, shuffling could be heard from the other end, indicating that he was jumping around with joy.
a light blush appeared as joshua laughed, enjoying his best friend's randomness. "hey, its not a big deal." he said, still laughing.
"of course its a big deal!!!! i need to tell this to all the members right now!!!" the older exclaimed once again, the shuffling on the end finally stopping. joshua laughed once again, his eyes curving into a crescent shape. jeonghan began to laugh too, as the two best friends shared a laugh together.
once their joyous giggles had subsided, joshua cleared his throat, wanting to be serious. "uhhh... so, jeonghan.." he started hesitantly, not knowing if he should ask the question that had been weighing on his mind since the call started. "you know the... live just now, the one you commented in?" he paused, not knowing if he wanted to hear the truth about the interaction earlier.
"yeah? what about it?" jeonghan asked, his full attention on the latter.
"what did you mean by you and seungcheol having to be a couple? are you guys dating or something?" joshua asked, finally getting the question out. "i mean if you are then you should've told me earlier, you know?" he added on quickly, hoping that he did not sound too pushy.
jeonghan on the other side let out a suprised sound, not expecting the younger to ask that question. he chuckled slightly as he asked teasingly, "joshuji, are you jealous?"
"jealous? me? why would i be jealous?" joshua answered too quickly for his sake. jeonghan was not convinced as he teased him. joshua blushed as the older continued to tease him. he felt relieved that the latter was not able to see him or else he would have been teased even more relentlessly.
"don't worry joshuji, i was only telling him that we had to match items." jeonghan chuckled, sounding extremely heavenly for the younger. joshua felt relieved but slightly disappointed that jeonghan would be matching with scoups.
"i only have eyes for you, shuji" jeonghan said, snapping joshua out of his train of thought. his brain stopped working again. jeonghan? the boy, who everyone chased after, only had eyes on him, hong jisoo? joshua stuttered, not able to reply to the information.
jeonghan chuckled at the silence received from his remark. "i missed you too, shuji" jeonghan added on, the fondness in his voice clear. joshua was extremely red, his brain in shambles as he tried to process the information. his heart was beating impossibly fast and joshua was extremely grateful that he did not video call the older so he would not be able to see how his words had affected him.
joshua suddenly realised, why did yoon jeonghan cause such a reaction from him? he was only his best friend, so why did jeonghan saying his eyes were only on him give him so many butterflies? heck, he was pushing 30 and he still experienced 'butterflies'.
"i'm in love with yoon jeonghan" joshua whispered out, realisation dawned on him. all the times he hung out with jeonghan, all the times he felt feelings he could not explain when around him. it was love. jeonghan, on the other end, was smiling while patiently waited for his dear joshuji's response. he had heard what the latter had said, but decided to wait for what he had to say before responding.
a few minutes had passed and jeonghan realised that joshua was not going to bring it up, so he cleared his throat to get his attention.
"joshuji, i love you. i loved you for a long time now. you are the most beautiful person i have laid eyes on and i want to be with you. forever." he paused, nervous to continue. "i was planning to confess in a more romantic way but i couldn't help it" he chuckled.
joshua was once again speechless. he did not expect the older to confess. especially not when he just realised his feelings for the latter. "i- uh.." he stuttered. his face heated up as he tried to form a coherent answer to say. did he want to be with jeonghan? yes! but he did not know how to form the sentence to tell him that.
"its okay joshuji, i know you love me too" jeonghan's smirk was evident in his voice. joshua rolled his eyes playfully as he laughed, his face still red.
"don't be so sure, yoon jeonghan." he replied payfully. jeonghan let out a dramatic gasp before bursting out laughing. they laughed together for a while, both enjoying the moment.
"shuji, when you come back to korea, i'll confess properly to you, okay?" jeonghan suddenly said sincerely, taking joshua aback. he could hear the fondness in the other's words, his heart suddenly beating faster.
"okay. i'd like that" joshua smiled, even though the older not being able to see it. he looked forward to the day to meet his future love.