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The fun get-together was definitely not supposed to look like a college frat party from the states– not that Johnny knew what that’s supposed to look like, with only American coming-of-age movies as his reference points. Taeyong sat at the very middle of the chaos, face red from all the liquor he had consumed, which if anyone was to be honest, not a lot. Beside him was a very timid-looking Doyoung, nursing another cup of what could only be Haechan’s concoction of soju and beer.
At the far end of the living room sat Jungwoo with Kun, Yuta, and Johnny, where the window was cracked open, enough to function as an exhaust for the smoke their vapes have been producing, allowing the tiniest creak of the freezing December wind to creep up into their skin, despite the efforts of the centralized heating. The kids decided on a very brutal game of vodka pong, relocating the massive dining table into the living area, allowing more members into the chaos.
Jaehyun and Ten stood at the island separating the kitchen from the living space, shaking up monstrous concoctions that the members— sans Taeyong and Jungwoo, dared to drink (they added that they had future dreams and did not want to try their luck at alcohol poisoning by Jaehyun and Ten, to which they were met with a chorus of disproving groans).
They were also unfortunately assigned to fixing body shots made upon request.
“Jaehyun,” their leader dragged the syllables on his mouth, making his way onto the mini-bar they had set up. “Body shot,”
Jaehyun stared at their leader, his eyebrow shot up in confusion, “Hyung, you already had enough drinks for tonight,”
“Your point being?” their leader placed his hands on his hips,
“Fine,” the younger responded, placing a sprinkle of salt on the base of his neck and a wedge of lemon between his lips.
Taeyong and Jaehyun’s relationship remained under wraps for most of their promotions and to the public, careful as to not give the slightest slip-up to occur and on which occasion, was kept under the guise of fan service. Their manager for five years, the 127 members, and Lee Soo Man (an obligation to which all SM artists had to comply. citing PR and other reasons the boys know have been put in place to protect them) were the only people who were notified of the development in their relationship.
Needless to say, the remaining boys in the team had no idea.
He handed Taeyong the shot of tequila Ten had prepared beforehand, “Ready?”
Their members hollered and guffawed around them, cheering their two older members on.
Taeyong latched on Jaehyun’s neck hard and the latter winced at the pain, already aware of the blooming mark on his pale skin. Taeyong licked the base of his neck clean before taking the shot of tequila without breaking eye contact.
“Jesus Christ,” Jaehyun hears Mark mutter from behind them, and their leader went for Jaehyun’s mouth to extract the juice of the citrus, hooking his hand on the younger’s nape to push Jaehyun towards him.
The juice of the sour fruit dripped into Jaehyun’s mouth as Taeyong maneuvered his tongue further, sucking on the wedge that he was only supposed to take from the younger’s mouth. Jaehyun's hand automatically flew to his lover’s waist so as to not let them fall over the blunt force of Taeyong’s aggressiveness.
“Oh for fuck’s sake guys,” Yuta groaned from the end of the room, puffs of smoke emerging from his lips in practiced donuts.
“Let them be, Yuta-hyung.” Their Thai member countered,
“I’m pretty sure I’m watching porn right now like—” Jisung muttered,
Johnny pried the two apart with his hands, “Come on, both of you, that’s enough.”
“You’re on time out,” he pointed at their leader who simply tumbled onto the soft material of the couch, uncontrollably giggling.
“And you,” he pointed at Jaehyun, “You’re not drunk, Jae. Stop it,”
He removed the dried wedge of lemon from his mouth, tongue still burning from the taste, “Oh come on Hyung, stop acting like I didn’t see you do a body shot on Ten-Hyung’s nipples literally just five minutes ago.” The younger boy retaliated and Johnny looked at him incredulously, a horrified choke emerging from one (most likely several) of their members.
“Was I supposed to turn that offer down?”
“Makes two of us,” Jaehyun popped his dimples out before downing his glass– a dark liquid of what could only be whiskey.
He pulled another bottle of vodka from their chiller, “Who’s ready for another round of vodka pong?”
“Hyung, everything hurts,” Haechan crawled on Mark’s lap, with the latter helplessly strewn on the cold wall beneath their mini-bar. The members were now scattered across the floor and several couch cushions. A game of truth or shot had been voted unanimously as their new activity after three gruesome rounds of vodka pong (which they eventually swapped with the remaining bottles of alcohol i.e. tequila, rum, whiskey, and Jagermeister) which took the majority of the members to their alcohol intake limit.
Mark’s hand flew to the younger boy’s tousled locks, unconsciously carding his fingers through the mess. “We’re doing water therapy now, Hyuck. You’ll be fine.”
“You two,” a raspy voice called from the center of the living room.
Donghyuck raised his head towards the source of the sound, “Who?”
“Here,” Ten raised his hand to be noticed and the younger boy nodded, finally recognizing the source of the voice.
“What do you want, hyung?”
“We’re still playing truth or shot, Hyuck,” Jeno reminded from somewhere near him,
The game, as it stands, became an excuse for the members to interrogate each other, having promised to not drink any more alcohol (not that they had more—Donghyuck was able to rummage through all existing wine and beer fridges in the dorm much to Johnny, Jaehyun, and Doyoung’s chagrin). Not one soul attempted to take another shot of jager, the only alcoholic drink they had left, and instead opted to answer the most intrusive questions one could ask a coworker.
Chenle only had one shot of the Jagermeister (after Jisung had successfully won against him in their downright criminal rendition of beer pong) and actually believed that he would die if he would have to go through another shot of what he concluded to be the tears of the devil himself. He was also convinced that there are better things in life other than opting to empty the contents of his stomach onto the toilet bowl a few meters away when it was probably covered with piss and other body fluids he does his best to not think about—he suppresses the vomit.
“How long have you been dating Mark?” Ten asked, his Cheshire-like eyes glinting in the dark of the room.
A choking noise was heard from Hendery from across the room, “You guys are dating?”
“They really weren’t the most subtle about it, Dery-hyung,” Chenle countered, the increased alcohol content of his blood did nothing but feed into his frank nature.
“I honestly thought they were just frustratingly pining the entire time,” noted Jisung, “But then it got really disgusting so fast—”
Mark groaned and rolled his eyes, “I’m not drunk enough for this,”
“Woah there tiger,” Ten slapped his hand from reaching the bottle of liquor, “No,”
“I’m twenty-four, Hyung,” he countered, “And I’m seventy-nine,” doyoung snorted, “Drink your water, Minhyung.”
Johnny raised an eyebrow, “You’re like, eighteen max.” Mark groaned half-heartedly. His hyungs treated him as if he had never passed age 20, one thing that he had noticed about his hyungs when they’re drunk beyond their wits. Suddenly to them, he was the beady-eyed thirteen-year-old boy who entered the sky-painted practice rooms.
“Oh no they’re bullying my baby,” cooed Haechan, nuzzling his face on the side of his lover’s head. Mark pouted, an action met with several groans,
“Of all the types of drunk mark-hyung could’ve been, he chose to be a clingy drunk,” said chenle, “Sober mark would be so repulsed,”
“Mark doesn’t need alcohol to be that clingy,” jaehyun pointed out, “One time I caught them—”
“We’re entering our fourth year in 2022,” Donghyuck answered nonchalantly,
“ Four?” the room erupted in various states of surprise,
Jaemin whistled, “Damn, that’s a really long period of time,”
“Yeah, you can add two more years to that if you include the pining part,” Mark muttered under his breath,
“You guys have been dating the longest in the entire team?” Renjun innocently asked. Yuta giggled along with other members of 127, those that have been closest to the revelation that was Johnny and Ten’s relationship.
Yuta emerged from behind Doyoung, “My good friend John,” he sing-songs.
“What do you want?” the taller boy groaned, visibly more sober than most boys in the room.
The Japanese nudged the retreating man in the kitchen, “How long have you been dating Ten?”
Another wave of surprised chokes emerged from the younger members, “You guys are dating?” Xiaojun exclaimed, scandalized at the revelation. “Isn’t it Doyoung’s turn?”
“Fuck the circle, John. Answer the question,” Jaehyun egged on, ever eager to see Johnny tip his composure over, “I’m not good at dates though,” he sighed dejectedly, “We started in 2015,”
“That’s—” Jaemin counted on his fingers, his eyebrows scrunched together in concentration. “Ten years on the first of March this year,” Ten quipped, now squeezing himself between johnny and chenle, a fresh pitcher of water in his hand.
“I’m too drunk for this,” Yangyang massaged his temples desperately, “You didn’t even tell me shit!” he pointed an accusing finger towards Ten. “Yang, he was always at the dorms when I was there,” the man deadpanned, “You said you were best friends, hyung.” it was now Hendery’s turn to accuse Ten,
“And I thought he liked playing with the cats,” Xiaojun added, more bewildered, “‘Cause apparently they can’t adopt cats in their dorms because some of them were allergic—”
“---You learn new things every day, kids.” Kun smiled serenely, dragging another hit from his juul, one of the very few people who were visibly more sober than the others.
“Kun-ge!” the three exclaimed, “You knew?” Hendery squawked,
“You’re honestly just plain dense— this isn’t news to the others as it is for the three of you,” he added,
“We knew you guys were shamelessly pining over each other, but holy hell I thought you guys started after 2017 or something,” Jeno quipped,
“We were on and off for the first four years, so I totally get the confusion,” Ten answered,
Renjun chuckled, “You guys should make a guidebook at this point,”
“How to date like pro-idols,” Jaemin supplied,
Mark snorted beside him, “More like, “Pro-Idol Dating for Dummies”,”
“Yeah and I’d give it to Jaehyun and Mark,” Johnny cackled as his two friends groaned.
Donghyuck now sat on his heels, grinning sadistically from ear to ear, “Where were we?”
“Ah,” he turned to the person to his right– “Jaehyun-hyung’s next!”
The man groaned into their leader’s nape, his hands wrapped around Taeyong’s waist. “What do you want?”
“How long—” Jungwoo started,
“Nine months on the 27th,” their leader cut him off, too drunk to care, “That’s what you wanted to ask, right?”
Jaehyun emerged from his lovers’ nape, his face competing with the pink hue of their cherry bomb poster on the wall, “Technically five years,”
“Five years if at least one of you had the balls, Jae.” Ten chuckled, “I can’t believe we had to trick the two of you into going to the arboretum in Paju just for you to fix whatever bullshit you had going on for two years,” he wildly expressed while his arms flailed in exasperation, hitting some members in the process.
“Those SuperM schedules put you two through hell—” acknowledged Doyoung, and Yuta nodded beside him,
“Forget SuperM, have you forgotten how they made us do the fanservice during one of the sets of the concert because they had a huge fall out in the middle of a fucking desert?” asked the Japanese man, his pupils blown.
Their maknae laughed, “ Ah, the unforgettable screaming match in Texas—inside the tour bus too, no less.”
“Are you guys done?”
“Dude this is nothing compared to all the tension the two of you put us through, against our will ,” quipped Johnny,
Their leader nodded, “Fair enough,”
“It was like watching the most frustrating romance melodrama for six years straight,” says Mark,
Jaehyun nodded, his head perched on Taeyong’s shoulder, “I think we owe them an explanation,”
“Yeah, sure.” the older man replied, nuzzling his face onto the side of Jaehyun’s face. “You do it,”
“I’m not drunk enough for this, c’mon– you do it.” Jaehyun mumbled,
“We don’t have all night, you shits.” groaned Haechan, his eyes half-closed.
Taeyong sighed, “We were on the rooftop of the SM building in Cheongdam-dong, winter of 2015.”
“Long story short—Jaehyun confessed, I said no.”
Silence stretched in the room.
Kun clicked his tongue, “That’s rough, man.”
“We were already preparing for the seventh sense when it happened— and I said that we can’t end our careers before we even had the chance to start—”
“Sucky, homophobic industry–” muttered Jeno, the other members nodding along.
“So, he did what most sane people would do—” continued Taeyong,
Yuta laughed beside him, “Most sane people would’ve moved on, Yongie.”
“This is Jaehyun we’re talking about. He’s like—the least sane out of all of us,” added Ten.
“The bar for sanity is on the floor,” Mark giggled,
Jaehyun rolled his eyes, “Geez, thanks a lot.”
“He asked me if we could just leave it all behind, go to university somewhere where we won't be scrutinized for choosing who we love, where we get to live in peace.” Taeyong chuckled, caressing the soft skin of Jaehyun's hand on his waist.
“He also said that we could move to the states, he’d go to university and I could join dance troupes and do whatever I want, we could get married in Las Vegas, adopt a cute dog and a turtle, settle down somewhere in Connecticut or California— a whole new life planned out for us.”
“No way he said that—-” Mark spluttered, his mouth agape.
Jaehyun shrugged, “I was desperate,”
Johnny stared at his best friend in disbelief, betrayed at the new revelation, “I never knew about the second half, holy shit Jae.”
Jisung’s eyes were wide as saucers at this point, “I can’t even imagine the team without you guys—”
“You don’t have to imagine anything, Jisungie. We both chose to be here, so we’re here now,” said Jaehyun,
“I told him to wait for three, four years—at least until the team and our careers were established,”
“So that explains the mess of 2019 and 2020.” Johnny sighed, “I might actually have a stroke if I had to live through that again,”
“And I had to set up separate dinners with the two of you just so John, Yuta-hyung, and Doyoung would stop whining every time I see them,” complained Ten.
“The rest is history, kids. Story time’s over,” quipped Jaehyun, as he slowly moved towards the kitchen in a quick attempt to retrieve more water for the group.
“Fuck that, I have never been subjected to such gross shit in my entire life.” Doyoung complained, “We have separate rooms for a reason,”
“Stop acting like we’re worse off than Johnny and Ten,” Taeyong muttered, his words slurred on each vowel.
“That’s ‘cause we are better,”
“No, you weren’t,” Donghyuck reeled, “I would reboot my memory and remove the shit I’ve seen if I fucking could,”
Jaemin laughed, “As if you and Mark-hyung are any damn better—at least the hyungs are subtle in public,”
Donghyuck turned to his friend, scandalized, “You take that back, Na Jaemin.”
The younger boy flipped him off.
“Excuse me?” Chenle blurted, his face red and appalled, “Are we just glossing over the fact that Jaehyun-hyung asked Taeyong-hyung to marry him in Vegas, no less, and live with him in another country six years ago?” His pupils were blown, a scandalized expression on his face.
Jaehyun spared a glance to his lover, who sat with his knees brought up to his chest. Taeyong’s head was perched on Jaehyun’s shoulder, providing him enough leverage to not fall over. “Yeah, he did,” Taeyong murmured, “He was eighteen then, and I was twenty.” the entire room fell into a shock of silence, their attention suddenly directed to Taeyong.
His face blushed all over in a shade that made the cherry bomb posters on the wall appear muted when he says: “I wish he’d ask me again—I want him to ask me again, actually.” he smiled sweetly as his eyelids fluttered shut, “‘Cause this time I have a definite answer,”
“Taeyong,” Jaehyun faced his lover after almost an eternity of trying to not look at the man beside him, “Yong,” he softly cupped Taeyong’s cheeks.
Taeyong’s eyes fluttered open, the wide boba eyes now stared back at Jaehyun as if he held the universe. “Hmm?”
Jaehyun slowly grazed his thumb over Taeyong’s rose scar, then to the shy redness over the expanse of his cheeks by the flush of alcohol. “I love you,” he murmured as he leaned his face closer to his lover’s, their noses already touching. He placed a feather-light kiss on the tip of Taeyong’s nose, “I’ll ask you again when we’re sober,”
Taeyong bit his lip, a smile breaking onto his face, “Okay,” he kissed Jaehyun’s jaw and the mole on his cheek,
A cough resonated through the room, completely breaking the trance all the members of the room were placed under. “I’m sorry,” Yuta says, pointing at his Juul. Doyoung smacked the back of his head lightly.
“Well guys,” Johnny stood from where he sat beside Ten, “I believe that that’s our cue to end the party,”
He was met with a chorus of groans, specifically from the younger members of the team. Their stamina currently not as worn as the older boys’. “Can’t we drink some more?” Jaemin chimed,
Doyoung shook his head, “Suit yourselves. We don’t have anything lined up for tomorrow.”
Jungwoo stared at the mess, begrudgingly reaching for three of their robot vacuums, a fourth vacuum for their couch in his hand, “Look at him—he’s still cleaning when he’s drunk out of his wits,” Jeno chimed. The rest of the older boys turned to the scene, impressed at the consistency of the boy’s habit. “I guess that’s our cue to clean the sink and tables, too,” Doyoung mumbled, earning several groans from Johnny, Yuta, and Ten.
The boys shuffled and almost immediately turned the battered room into its former state–a bit more livable–one of the perks of having more than twenty men in one team, Taeyong reckons. They quietly picked up scraps of food on the floor, scattered cups, and empty cans of beer into bags of trash, still considerably drunk from all the alcohol they had consumed.
Mark and Haechan stumbled into their makeshift room, four futon beds lined together on the floor of Taeyong and Jaehyun’s room, the lovers already dead asleep. The bustling city lights of Seoul emitted a faint glow into the room from below, the morning horizon peeking from the pacific, painting the sky a faint shade of blue and black. Mark focused on the flush of pink on his lover’s cheeks, clusters of soft shadows from his lashes atop, the constellation of tiny moles adorning half of his face. Mark figures Haechan’s bare face could rival any ivory sculpture in the Louvre, brushing streaks of his auburn hair from his face.
“Mmmh,” the younger groaned, wrapping his arms around the older’s waist, burying his face further into Mark’s chest. “You look really, really pretty right now,”
A smile shaped on Donghyuck’s lips, devoid of the usual mischievous and playful demeanor he would put on–this one full of joy and contentment, one only reserved for the eyes of Mark.
“I always do, babe.” Mark rolled his eyes, amused at his boyfriend’s quips even when blacked out drunk. He placed a chaste kiss on his lips, giggling. “I love you.”
“Oh, whatever, Markie,” he teased and peeled himself from the hug, Mark sighed. “You’re pouting,” Donghyuck egged on, peeking through his half-shut lids.
The older boy groaned, “No, I’m not.”
“Tell me again tomorrow morning,” He says, burying himself back into Mark’s warm embrace. “You’re like a furnace, did I tell you that?”
“What?” Mark blinked, confused.
A pillow hurled in their direction, knocking them out of their conversation. “Go to sleep, you two.” Jaehyun half grumbled from his place on the bed, leaving the two in fits of giggles.