Archive of Our Own

Day 1

Jeongin’s only intention tonight was to get a glass of water and go back to bed. He never meant to end up cradling a distraught Kim Seungmin in his arms. He had been on his way to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and stopped in his tracks, thinking he heard something. Jeongin shrugged it off and prayed one of the members wasn’t doing anything inappropriate while he simply wanted to get a glass of water. Jeongin filled up a hello kitty themed plastic cup and took a big drink of it, sighing in relief once he eased his thirst.

Jeongin was on his way back to his own bedroom when he couldn’t help but stop in front of Seungmin’s door where an excessive amount of noise was coming through. Jeongin was hesitant to listen at first, but it sounded like Seungmin was in pain. Jeongin’s heart nearly stopped when he clearly heard a choked back sob. He was ready to burst in. He sat his cup of water down on the floor and knocked gently.

“Hey, Seungmin hyung. Are you ok?” He spoke softly so the others wouldn’t be alerted. They would all try and step in and he wanted to handle something himself for once. Just because he was the youngest didn’t mean he was not capable of taking care of his fellow members.

Jeongin frowned at not hearing an answer and realized Seungmin must be having a nightmare. He slowly opened the door in case Seungmin was actually awake, but he gasped in shock when he saw Seungmin tangled up in the sheets struggling to get out in his sleep. Jeongin closed the door behind him and raced forward, immediately trying to untangle the knots Seungmin managed to get himself in before he hurt himself.

“Seungmin hyung, wake up. You’re ok. I’m helping now.” Jeongin shook Seungmin a little to try and wake him up. Seungmin suddenly shot up with a gasp, coughing immediately after as if he had been underwater for too long.

“Hey, breathe. It’s ok. I’m here.” Jeongin gently tried to soothe the older. He brushed Seungmin’s bangs off of his forehead which was sticky with sweat. His heart ached for the poor boy in front of him.

Seungmin choked a little more and nearly gagged from the action which only made him start sobbing even harder. Jeongin considered calling for backup since he’d never seen anyone have this bad of a reaction before, but he knew he was perfectly capable of helping. Jeongin sat on Seungmin’s bed, pulling the sheets one more time to get Seungmin untangled. Seungmin shakily reached out for anything to hold onto to stabilize him, and Jeongin quickly gave him his hand to squeeze. The two remained like that, nothing to hear but Seungmin’s sobs.

Jeongin rubbed his thumb across Seungmin’s hand as a gentle reminder that he was there and Seungmin was safe. Seungmin absentmindedly started leaning closer and closer to Jeongin until he leaned against him fully. Jeongin moved to lean against the headboard of the bed and pulled Seungmin close to his chest seeing as the boy was seeking out comfort. Seungmin’s sobs almost instantly stopped once he was cradled against Jeongin’s chest.

“That was a lot. Do you feel better after crying it out?” Jeongin asked in a hushed tone.

“Sorry…” Seungmin simply said, moving closer to Jeongin despite his apology.

“You don’t need to be sorry. I was worried about you. I’m glad I came in.” Jeongin whispered, guiding Seungmin’s head up to look at him. “Are you ok? Do you like…wanna talk about anything?”

Seungmin shook his head and laid back down against Jeongin’s chest. He took a few deep breaths before speaking again, “I just want to put that nightmare past me. Stay for a bit though?”

Jeongin hummed in response, running his hand through Seungmin’s hair, cringing a little at how damp it was from sweat. He must have really been fighting. Jeongin couldn’t imagine what would have happened if he had not gone in.

“Seungminnie, you’re really sweaty.” Jeongin pointed out, pulling Seungmin’s shirt off his back from where it was stuck to him from sweating.

“Well I was fighting for my life. Sweaty is the least amount of damage that could’ve been done.” Seungmin huffed, giving Jeongin’s arm a small slap.

“There’s the Seungmin hyung I know.” Jeongin giggled and ruffled Seungmin’s hair. “Doesn’t change the fact you need a shower.”

Seungmin groaned dramatically and sat up off of Jeongin. “Yeah I guess you’re right. I’ll go take a shower.” Seungmin stood from the bed and stretched before heading to the door. “Thanks, Innie.” He said before leaving.

Jeongin got himself out of Seungmin’s bed and tore the sweat-soaked sheets off for him. He brought them to the washer and put them in, setting the sheets to wash on the sheets setting. When he turned around, he gasped at seeing Minho standing there.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jeongin whisper-yelled.

“I’m wondering what you’re doing washing sheets in the middle of the night.” Minho simply replied, dipping his spoon into the pudding cup he had and taking a bite.

Jeongin blushed and scowled at him. “I’m a grown ass man who doesn’t need to tell you.” He spat, smirking a little as Minho’s eyes widened.

“Well excuse me for caring.” Minho huffed, crossing his arms as best as he could with his pudding in hand.

“Yeah right. You’re just being nosy.” Jeongin teased.

“You know me too well.” Minho sighed and smiled a mischievous smile at Jeongin.

Jeongin loved bantering with Minho, but he just wanted to get back to bed after all the excitement. “Minho hyung, go to bed.” He instructed through giggles.

Minho rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. “You get back to bed too. Rest well, Innie.” He called out as he started off towards his room.

Jeongin picked back up his cup of water from earlier and went back to his room. He shut the door behind him and crawled in bed, sighing as his head hit the pillow. Jeongin started to scroll through his phone, cringing when an edit of Changbin popped up. He scrolled away from that video quickly. He wasn’t on his phone for long before he heard a knock on his door.

“Come in?” Jeongin answered with an inquisitive tone.

The door opened to reveal a freshly showered Seungmin in a large t-shirt and shorts. Jeongin was surprised to see the other since he normally never came to anyone in the night. He quickly turned off his phone and sat up to face the other.

“Can I stay in here for a bit and watch videos?” Seungmin asked, still standing in the doorframe.

Jeongin was surprised to hear this request, but he wasn’t going to deny him after the night he had. “Yeah of course.” Jeongin simply replied, scooting over so he was on the right side of his bed.

Seungmin closed the door behind him and quickly made his way to the left side of Jeongin’s bed. He crawled in and the two of them laid down at the same time, watching a video of a dog. Seungmin’s head slowly made its way onto Jeongin’s shoulder with mumbled complaints of not being able to see.

“This puppy looks like you.” Jeongin teased, laughing when Seungmin scrunched up his face in annoyance.

The two sat there watching videos until Jeongin noticed Seungmin had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He looked over Seungmin’s softened facial expression and smiled, suddenly realizing just how cute the other was. Jeongin shut his phone off and turned his lamp off before pulling the covers over Seungmin’s shoulders. Jeongin wrapped an arm around him and started to drift off to sleep as well. He could get used to Seungmin’s affectionate side.

——

Day 2

The next day went by like nothing happened. When Jeongin woke up, Seungmin was no longer there. The day went on full of dance practices and Seungmin didn’t say one word to him. Jeongin was beginning to wonder if he did something wrong. Maybe Seungmin was just embarrassed. Either way, he contemplated everything all day until he found himself back in bed the next night. The day practically sped by with Jeongin lost in thought most of it.

Jeongin turned on the tv when he heard a knock on the door. He had no clue who it could be since everyone said their goodnights a while ago. Jeongin mentally went through all the members in his head. Minho and Jisung were watching a horror movie together, Felix, Changbin, and Hyunjin were playing video games, Bang Chan was working hard on a new song, and He doubted Seungmin would come to him after ignoring him all day.

“Come in.” Jeongin finally responded, not being able to guess who would be visiting.

To his surprise, Seungmin appeared in the doorframe. He was the last person Jeongin expected to be there. Seungmin looked down at the ground and didn’t say anything. It was almost like he was ashamed of something.

“I said you can come in. You don’t just have to stand there.” Jeongin told him, patting the spot next to him on his bed. He had subconsciously gravitated towards the right side of his bed again despite Seungmin not previously being there.

Seungmin quietly closed the door behind him and sat on Jeongin’s bed. “I got bored. Can we watch a movie?” Seungmin asked nonchalantly.

“Yeah sure. I was looking at this romantic comedy movie before you came in. We can just watch it together.” Jeongin gave Seungmin a smile.

He was happy to know he was just overthinking the whole day. Maybe Seungmin hadn’t ignored him. He did seem to be quite the mystery at times.

“That sounds like a mindless watch…that’s perfect. I’ll slap you if I start getting secondhand embarrassment though.” Seungmin jokingly threatened.

Jeongin turned on the movie and within a few minutes, Seungmin was curled into his side. Jeongin threw his arm around Seungmin wordlessly which allowed Seungmin to further cuddle up to him. Jeongin’s heart raced as this happened, not wanting to move from this position. He was growing fond of their cuddle sessions and it was only the second day this had ever happened.

The movie ran on and Jeongin kept getting distracted by Seungmin’s comments about how predictable the movie was. If he laughed at Seungmin’s remarks more than what was necessary, that was simply between the two of them. Towards the end of the movie, Seungmin grew quieter and quieter until Jeongin heard his breathing even out altogether.

“Seungmin hyung?” Jeongin whispered to test if Seungmin was truly asleep. When he got no response, he knew the other had fallen asleep on him for the second night in a row.

Jeongin shut his tv off and placed the remote on his nightstand. He wrapped a second arm around Seungmin and nuzzled his cheek against his head. Seungmin was so warm and it easily put Jeongin to sleep as well. He just hoped he would wake up with Seungmin still in his arms the next morning.

——

Day 3

Jeongin woke up to Seungmin gone again and sighed. Maybe he simply woke up before Jeongin and didn’t want to wake him. Jeongin settled on that answer before sliding out of bed and starting his morning routine. Once his morning routine was completed, he made his way to the kitchen where he saw Seungmin and Minho arguing over a brownie.

“Give it back! I pointed at that one first.” Minho argued loudly.

“Nuh uh! I grabbed it first. You lose.” Seungmin stuck his tongue out at Minho which caused Minho to make a noise resembling a growl.

“Guys I literally have so many more brownies. Why do you have to fight over a singular one?” Felix laughed sheepishly. He turned to Jeongin and held out his brownie box. “Hey, Innie! I made brownies. Please don’t mind the terrible behavior going on.”

Jeongin laughed and patted Felix on the back as a thank you before grabbing a brownie. “I don’t actually care which one I have because I know they’re all good.” Jeongin loudly said to disrupt the fighting.

“Kiss up!” Seungmin shouted followed by a “Goodie two-shoes!” from Minho.

By giving those two a common enemy, they ended up laughing and splitting the brownie. They both liked to aggravate each other on purpose at times, but they never meant any real harm by it. They always ended up growing closer out of each banter. No one truly understood those two.

Jeongin didn’t understand either of their antics, but most of all, he didn’t understand what happened between him and Seungmin the last two nights. One night he could brush off and pin it on Seungmin being shaken up from his nightmare. Two nights in a row seems too odd to just be a coincidence. He watched Seungmin laughing with Minho and eating brownies and he sat on the couch to contemplate the recent events.

Jeongin didn’t get to sit for too long before he felt arms thrown around his neck. “Hi, Felix,” he quickly replied without turning around to see who it was. He knew Felix was the only one out of the current grouping who would show random affection.

“You look like you have a lot on your mind. Wanna share?” Felix offered, not bothering to move from where he draped himself over the younger.

Jeongin suddenly felt a sinking feeling in his chest. He didn’t want to tell Felix because he might try and intervene. He wasn’t willing to give up the way Seungmin showed him a soft side of himself. He knew Felix would jump on that new information immediately. He was always clinging to someone and Jeongin wanted this for himself.

“I’m just thinking about that hard choreo from yesterday. It was really messing me up.” Jeongin told a half-truth. The choreography wasn’t easy, but he wasn’t all that messed up by it.

Felix tossed himself over the back of the couch to sit by Jeongin rather than simply walking around a couple steps. He wrapped his arms around Jeongin and yanked him to his chest all while giggling. Jeongin couldn’t even be mad when Felix was being this cute. He just let the hug attack happen.

“I can help you if you’d like! Wanna go to the studio with me?” Felix offered, still not letting Jeongin go.

“That would be helpful. Thanks.” Jeongin smiled and wiggled himself out of Felix’s grip.

The two spent almost the whole day at the studio reviewing choreography and talking about random things. Eventually, Hyunjin also came into the room to practice and Jeongin got quieter and quieter as he saw the way those two played off one another. He finally decided it was time to go and he waved goodbye to the dancers.

Jeongin made a beeline to the shower once he was home and exited the bathroom to see Jisung. Jisung seemed more shocked by Jeongin despite Jisung living in the other dorm. Jisung dramatically jumped backwards and let out a yelp.

“Is my face that scary to you?” Jeongin teased.

“I was just looking for Minho hyung and-“ Jisung started to speak.

“Of course you’re looking for Minho hyung.” Jeongin cut him off in a teasing manner.

Jisung blushed and slapped Jeongin on the arm gently. “Shut up! We just wanted to watch a movie and suddenly you come popping out of nowhere.”

“No way! I popped out of the bathroom in my dorm! Who would’ve thought?” Jeongin continued to tease.

“Yeah yeah maybe I’ve been watching too many horror movies. Ok I gotta get going because I’m already late to when I said I’d be here.” Jisung said as he started to jog down the hallway to Minho’s room.

Jeongin shook that off and headed to his room. He put some earbuds in and started listening to music while tidying up some things he had been meaning to clean up for a while now. He was surprised Seungmin didn’t trip over a few of his shoes he left on the floor when he came in.

The rest of the day flew by and it was time for bed again. Jeongin laid in bed on the right side once more, staring at the door and feeling hopeful. He didn’t know why he was hopeful Seungmin would come in again, but he didn’t want to think too hard about it. Sure enough, a knock was heard on the door a few minutes later.

“Come in!” Jeongin called out, a small smile taking over his face.

Seungmin came in with a gaming system in hand, shutting the door behind him and quickly crawling into the left side of Jeongin’s bed. “I see you finally tidied up.” He teased, laying on Jeongin’s shoulder as usual.

“I see you’re back again.” Jeongin replied, laying his head on top of Seungmin’s.

Seungmin simply hummed in response. Seungmin played his game while Jeongin scrolled on his phone. Around thirty minutes later, the gaming system slid out of Seungmin’s hands. Jeongin looked down and realized he was asleep on him again. Jeongin smiled fondly and saved Seungmin’s game for him before turning it off and setting it on the nightstand along with his phone. He turned off the lamp and wrapped his arms around Seungmin as he had been doing each night and fell fast asleep.

——

Day 4

Jeongin woke up to Seungmin still in his arms for once. It was only the third morning with him, but he hadn’t woken up next to Seungmin yet and he couldn’t help his growing excitement. Seungmin was still fast asleep in Jeongin’s arms. He must have been really tired if he was asleep when Jeongin was.

Jeongin looked over Seungmin’s softened features as he was sleeping. He brushed some hair out of Seungmin’s face and smiled down at him. Jeongin couldn’t help the way his heart raced when Seungmin started to stir. His face scrunched up in the cutest way possible and Jeongin felt like he was about to melt. Seungmin shifted a little to be even closer to Jeongin, gripping onto his shirt and rubbing his cheek against Jeongin’s chest.

“Morning, Innie.” He mumbled, his voice laced over with sleep.

Jeongin felt frozen in place from hearing Seungmin’s morning voice. After all these years, he’d never heard it when he first woke up. Jeongin didn’t know if there was a prettier sound, but he realized the vocalist just had a perfect voice anyway.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?” Jeongin asked, mentally slapping himself for asking dumb questions.

Seungmin nodded against him and hummed. It was clear he was still waking up and not at full alertness. Jeongin took advantage of that to run his hand through Seungmin’s hair. He played with his hair for a while in silence and ended up resting his hand on Seungmin’s back when he was done. Seungmin had other ideas. He huffed and picked Jeongin’s hand back up, placing it back on top of his head in a demand to keep petting him. Jeongin giggled and continued anyway.

The two remained like that for another fifteen minutes before Jeongin’s hand was too tired to keep petting Seungmin. “Alright, Seungmin hyung. We gotta get up.” Jeongin pat Seungmin’s back a couple times and slowly started to sit up.

Seungmin groaned and got off of Jeongin, stretching his arms out above him. Seungmin slid out of bed and walked towards the door. “I’ll see you at breakfast.” He said and exited the room.

Jeongin couldn’t help the sad feeling he got watching Seungmin just walk away. He knew he had to leave, but he hated to see him leave. He was so curious about this new side of Seungmin, and he wanted to keep exploring it as long as possible.

The day was boring. Jeongin went to the gym with Changbin and worked out for a while, he took a vocal lesson, and he grabbed dinner with Hyunjin at a ramen place. Nothing new and interesting happened, but he didn’t hate that. It was nice to have a calm day with lots of good routines. Night time before he knew it, and Jeongin found himself in the kitchen making hot cocoa. Jeongin ended up making extra for his visitor and headed back towards his room. He didn’t get to his room before he saw Seungmin leaving his room.

“Heading my way?” Jeongin asked with an uncontrollable smile.

“I figured you could use some company. Drinking two hot chocolates alone?” Seungmin asked.

“I made this one for you.” Jeongin instantly handed Seungmin the one with more marshmallows despite himself wanting that one. It was like an instinct to give Seungmin the more appealing cup. “I figured I’d have a visitor again.”

“You’re just spoiling me with extra marshmallows. Thank you.” Seungmin grinned, licking his lips at the sight of the hot chocolate.

The two made their way into Jeongin’s room, sitting on their respective sides of his bed. They sat drinking their hot chocolate and talking for a while and eventually it was gone. Seungmin looked around for a place to set his cup down, but there was no nightstand on his side of the bed. Jeongin made a mental note to do something about that if Seungmin kept coming in.

“I can take them back to the kitchen if you’d like.” Seungmin offered, holding out his hand to take Jeongin’s cup. If Jeongin thought about holding his hand, no he didn’t.

“Thanks, Min.” Jeongin smiled, handing him his cup.

Jeongin watched as Seungmin hurried out of bed and left the room to put the cups away. Seungmin left the door open and Jisung came walking by shortly after. Jeongin rolled his eyes knowing he probably wouldn’t leave that night.

“Go home!” Jeongin shouted, giggling to himself.

Jisung simply flipped him off as he continued walking. He noticed Jisung was heading to the kitchen and he hoped that didn’t mean Seungmin wouldn’t come back. Fortunately for him, Seungmin came back a couple minutes later and shut the door behind him so Jisung couldn’t walk by and see. Seungmin climbed back into bed and laid on Jeongin’s shoulder for the fourth night in a row.

“What took you so long?” Jeongin asked, his hand finding his way to Seungmin’s hair since he knew he liked it so much.

“Jisung stopped me in the kitchen. I told his ass to go home.” Seungmin replied simply.

“Hey! That’s exactly what I told him!” Jeongin exclaimed.

They both laughed and continued conversation for a while until Seungmin’s responses got less and less and it was just Jeongin rambling. Jeongin took a break from rambling to see if Seungmin was asleep and sure enough, he had fallen asleep there yet again. Jeongin could get used to this.

——

Day 5

Jeongin woke up to his hair being played with for once. He slowly opened his eyes to meet Seungmin’s wide, sparkling eyes. He groggily smiled at him, leaning into his touch a little. It felt really nice to have Seungmin’s hands in his hair.

“Good morning.” Seungmin greeted him.

“Morning, Minnie.” Jeongin replied, quickly taking notice of Seungmin’s blush after hearing his morning voice. Had he really flustered him?

“We have more dance lessons today. I was struggling with the last one. It stressed me out. I really hope they take it easy on us. Maybe they’ll give the dance racha members more of the tricky moves. I don’t think I can keep up if they keep making it this hard.” Seungmin rambled.

Jeongin had never heard Seungmin just start rambling about whatever was on his mind. Typically he was quiet and thought about his words before he said anything. It was also what made him so funny. For Seungmin to be opening up to him like this, it felt like a big accomplishment.

“I was struggling too. Felix helped me the other day actually. I wasn’t able to get it on my own.” Jeongin replied, gazing into Seungmin’s eyes as he continued to play with his hair. Jeongin wondered if it grounded Seungmin to play with his hair.

The two continued their conversation until it was getting awfully close to time to leave. They parted ways and began to get ready for the day. Jeongin worried about Seungmin’s words, but he trusted it would be ok. Seungmin was strong and able to handle himself. He then left for dance practice, going over the steps in his head repeatedly. Dance practice was hard. The energy in the room was low and even Minho was struggling to pick up a certain part with intricate arm motions.

Seungmin suddenly spoke up with a shaky voice and teary eyes, “Can I have a bathroom break?”

Jeongin knew something was wrong when Seungmin practically ran out the door. He excused himself as well and followed after. Unfortunately for him, Hyunjin followed Jeongin and caught up to him. Hyunjin grabbed Jeongin’s wrist and forced him to stop.

“Hey, you ok? You rushed out really fast. Are you overwhelmed?” Hyunjin asked, worry evident in his eyes.

Jeongin glanced back where he was supposed to be following Seungmin and saw Changbin following after instead. He knew one of the older members would go after him. He thought he could beat them to it and be the one who comforted Seungmin, but here he was being caught by Hyunjin. He couldn’t let them know he was trying to go after Seungmin, so he ended up staring down at his feet and sighing to portray himself as more overwhelmed than he was. Hyunjin pulled him into a hug before he could even respond.

“You know you have a lot of us to help you learn it. We’re all in this together as cheesy as that sounds. Please just talk to us next time you feel overwhelmed and we can have a break.” Hyunjin offered, rubbing Jeongin’s back.

“Thanks, Jinnie hyung.” Jeongin simply responded, his mind too far focused on Changbin getting to comfort Seungmin instead of him.

Jeongin was led back into the studio and immediately doted over. Felix brought him a bag of chips and some water and pulled Jeongin down to sit by him on the floor. This naturally led to many hugs from Felix. Minho started telling jokes and Hyunjin laughed way more than he did. After what felt like forever, Changbin came back with an arm around a shy-looking Seungmin.

Jisung immediately ran over and excitedly rambled about a stupid video he watched which made Seungmin ease up a bit. Jeongin watched as everyone pitched in to help the two youngest members, and his heart sank. He should have felt overjoyed with everyone being willing to help him and Seungmin, but it made him feel incapable of helping anyone else because he was the youngest.

The rest of the practice went by with Seungmin laughing at random jokes directed at him and Jeongin getting small acts of affection. When they all went home, Jeongin was allowed to shower first. He contemplated his ability to give Seungmin the comfort he needed at times, and he also contemplated why he even wanted to comfort Seungmin so badly. There was a lot on Jeongin’s mind as he went to bed that night. He almost forgot about his nightly visitor until he heard a familiar knock on the door.

“Come in.” He called out and smiled when he saw Seungmin enter in a blue striped pajama set.

“You’ve been off all day. I can practically hear you overthinking.” Seungmin pointed out as he shut the door behind him and made his way into Jeongin’s bed.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about.” Jeongin simply told him, attempting to give Seungmin a reassuring smile.

“Bullshit. What’s going on?” Seungmin pried, falling into his usual spot curled up into Jeongin.

“Do you think I can give you good comfort or should I just forget being able to comfort anyone else because I’m the youngest?” Jeongin asked in a sudden burst of courage.

“If you couldn’t give me comfort, I wouldn’t be in your arms right now, dummy. Now stop overthinking and let’s watch videos.” Seungmin said, pointing to Jeongin’s phone.

The two fell asleep that night watching videos together. Jeongin felt reassured and held Seungmin a little more protectively that night.

——

Day 6

Jeongin woke up without Seungmin there again. Had they really reverted back to this? He was getting used to waking up next to Seungmin despite only having done that for two days. Jeongin pulled himself out of bed and entered the kitchen. He quickly realized no one was home and wondered if he should check the other dorm.

Jeongin spent most of the day alone in the dorm wondering where everyone was. He busied himself with the tv and went to the gym for a pastime as well. As Jeongin was making himself a frozen dinner, Seungmin entered the dorm. Jeongin turned and waved and Seungmin gave Jeongin a small gesture of acknowledgment. Jeongin went back to watching the microwave and gasped when he felt arms around his waist a few moments later.

“Sorry I scared you.” Seungmin said quietly, burying his face in Jeongin’s neck.

Jeongin had never seen Seungmin this affectionate before. He wondered why he had become so attached to him lately. Jeongin kept watching the timer on the microwave with Seungmin hanging on him like a koala all while trying to control his heart rate. He wondered if being alone had something to do with Seungmin’s affection. He only appeared affectionate towards him when no one else was around.

“Are you going to take my food?” Jeongin asked him, searching for an ulterior motive.

“Can’t a man just show some affection?” Seungmin huffed, pinching Jeongin on his stomach.

“Ouch!” Jeongin scoffed out, trying to shimmy out of Seungmin’s hold.

The two playfully fought each other in the kitchen until the door was heard again. “Seungmin, you forgot your hoodie in the car. You’re lucky you have someone so observant looking out for you.” Felix walked in with a hoodie in his hand.

“Ah! Thanks, Felix.” Seungmin said and quickly went back to basically ignoring Jeongin to interact with Felix. This wasn’t a problem for Jeongin because he knew he was the one who would get Seungmin that night.

Minho walked in with Jisung a few minutes later and no one batted an eye as they went straight to Minho’s bedroom. They always watched movies together and no one had any reason to believe otherwise. Jeongin was eating his food at that point, rolling his eyes as he watched the pair enter Minho’s room. That probably meant Jisung would end up staying the night.

“Hey, they didn’t ask us to watch the movie tonight. What’s with that?” Felix pointed out. The pair always offered for others to join.

“They probably just got tired of us declining.” Jeongin reasoned, not wanting Felix to get his feelings hurt over something simple as he often did.

“I was gonna say yes tonight.” Felix pouted and crossed his arms.

Seungmin patted Felix’s head twice in sympathy, and he got pulled into Felix’s arms. Jeongin felt a small pang of jealousy, but he had no idea why he would be feeling such emotions. Felix was simply an affectionate person and this wasn’t abnormal. Seungmin was even grumbling about being the victim to Felix’s cuddles, so why couldn’t he just let it go? Jeongin stood up suddenly and threw his trash away before heading to his room.

Jeongin sat alone in his room for an hour before hearing the knock on his door. He didn’t even get to reply before Seungmin came in and shut the door behind him. Seungmin didn’t take the normal pathway to his side of the bed, but instead approached Jeongin standing on his side of the bed.

“You disappeared and never came back. What’s with that?” He asked, placing his hands on the bed on either side of Jeongin’s hips.

Jeongin smirked and pushed Seungmin away by his head. “You were busy cuddling with Felix.” He shrugged.

Seungmin groaned dramatically and rolled his eyes. “I didn’t think he’d ever let go.”

Jeongin giggled and Seungmin made his way to his side of the bed. Seungmin took his spot curled into Jeongin and sighed in content. The two sat in silence for a while, both on their respective phones. Jeongin liked the way Seungmin fit into his night routine so well. Jeongin was nearly asleep when they heard Jisung scream.

“Now what the fuck was that for?” Seungmin groaned, sitting up dramatically.

“They must be watching a horror movie. They didn’t have to be disrespectful to those of us trying to sleep.” Jeongin responded, scowling at the loss of Seungmin’s warmth against him.

“He never does that for movies. That’s just for the camera.” Seungmin pointed out.

“Well send Minho hyung a complaint.” Jeongin suggested.

Seungmin opened his phone and laid back against Jeongin’s chest as he scrolled to Minho’s messages. Jeongin burst out laughing when he saw Minho’s contact name. Seungmin had him labeled as “mean hoe” in his phone and he sent a message saying “control your boyfriend.”

“Did you seriously go out of your way to insult Minho hyung in English in his contact name?” Jeongin laughed.

“It’s not out of my way. It’s the lengths he deserves.” Seungmin said a little too seriously.

Minho sent back an eye rolling emoji a few seconds later. The two got settled back in when they heard another scream. Seungmin sat up with a loud whine and Jeongin’s stomach flipped. He never thought Seungmin, all frustrated, could make him feel such an interesting way.

“I’m calling him.” Seungmin explained, clicking a few buttons to call Minho.

Minho picked up pretty quickly. “I’m trying to kill a spider.” He said dryly.

“Oh that makes sense. Haha sucks for you.” Seungmin teased and hung up the phone.

Seungmin fell into Jeongin again, snickering as he imagined how scared Jisung must have been. A few moments later, the two calmed down and it seemed as if the excitement in the other room died down too. Slowly but surely, they both fell asleep again.

——

Day 7

Jeongin woke up to Seungmin in his arms and sighed in relief. He didn’t like not knowing whether he would be there in the morning or not. Jeongin held Seungmin in almost a possessive way. He wanted him to himself and didn’t want anyone else to come in between them. Jeongin stayed holding Seungmin and rubbing his back for a whole hour and a half before Seungmin finally stirred.

As Seungmin was coming into conciseness, his hands grabbed onto Jeongin’s shirt to better cling to him. Jeongin loved when Seungmin would show off his clingy side to him. Everything about this moment felt perfect. Seungmin’s eyes slowly opened and looked into Jeongin’s eyes.

“Good morning.” Jeongin whispered, not wanting to break their moment.

“Hi, Innie.” Seungmin replied, laying his head back down on Jeongin’s chest.

The two laid there for a while just enjoying the feeling of being in each other’s arms. Seungmin’s grip never loosened on Jeongin’s shirt and Jeongin’s protective arm around Seungmin never wavered. They could have stayed there all day, but Jeongin knew they had to get up.

“I gotta work out soon. I promised Channie hyung I’d go with him at noon.” Jeongin said.

“Tell him you’ll be a while longer.” Seungmin replied as if it were that simple.

“What would be more important than keeping my word? There’s not exactly anything I could tell him to get out of it.” Jeongin pointed out.

“You’re busy with me right now.” Seungmin said like it was obvious.

“You’ll be back later I’m sure. This isn’t the only time in the world you get me.” Jeongin laughed, trying to pry Seungmin’s hands off his shirt.

“I’m busy right now though.” Seungmin huffed, only holding onto Jeongin’s shirt tighter.

Jeongin yanked at his shirt a few times and realized there was no way he was getting out of Seungmin’s grip with his shirt in one piece. He assessed the situation and came up with a plan. Jeongin slipped out of his shirt entirely to get out of Seungmin’s grip. He was left shirtless and scrambled out of bed, giggling and grinning at the other. Seungmin’s blush was extremely evident as he realized he was just holding Jeongin’s shirt.

“That’s foul play!” Seungmin complained.

“Says you! You’re the king of foul play!” Jeongin scoffed, rolling his eyes playfully.

“Fine then I’ll just leave.” Seungmin tossed Jeongin’s shirt back in his face and ran out the door as fast as he could.

Jeongin didn’t know, but Seungmin ran straight to his room to contemplate everything he was feeling. Jeongin took his time getting dressed and made his way to the kitchen to see Minho and Jisung cooking together. Minho was behind Jisung physically guiding his hands through breaking an egg. Jeongin didn’t think all that was necessary of a grown man cracking an egg, but this behavior was typical of them.

“Hey, Hannie! How’s that spider?” Jeongin teased, heading to the pantry to grab a granola bar.

Han turned around and looked confused. “What spider?” He said simply. This caused Minho to stomp on his foot which made Han yelp.

“Ok then…I don’t even wanna know.” Jeongin sighed and grabbed his granola bar, quickly heading out and walking to the gym.

Bang Chan was already at the gym working on some squats when Jeongin entered. He didn’t get acknowledgement until after his set was done and the bar was back on the rack. Bang Chan let out a breath of relief and turned to face Jeongin.

“You’re later than you said you’d be. I heard your dorm was rowdy last night. I almost came down there.” Bang Chan laughed, stretching his arms behind his back.

“It wasn’t that bad. Jisung screamed a couple times because of a spider but also not a spider because he had no clue what I was talking about this morning.” Jeongin said as he walked over to the leg press machine.

“Oh so you fell asleep before I started getting messages from Felix. Lucky you. Seungmin didn’t seem bothered either.” Bang Chan mumbled that last part.

“I guess we were both asleep! Very convenient. Tell those two to go to Han’s room next time. I’m sure Changbin hyung would love his beauty sleep to be disturbed.” Jeongin snickered and laid down to start his set.

“I would personally pay those two to leave.” Chan grumbled, going back to his squats.

The two worked out for a few hours and then hit the showers in the gym. Jeongin had just gotten redressed when Bang Chan exited his shower, a towel draped around his waist. He hurried to throw a t-shirt on and sat down on the bench in the shower room.

“So what really happened the other day in practice? You don’t normally get upset over those things.” Bang Chan asked, sliding on the rest of his clothes.

“Ah- I was worried about Seungmin.” Jeongin admitted. “I didn’t get upset. I just wanted to help him.”

“That’s sweet, but you don’t have to worry about that. You know you have six other people to help out with those things. You don’t have to take that on yourself.” Bang Chan frowned.

“What if I want to be helpful though? I feel like everyone thinks I can’t be helpful because I’m the youngest.” Jeongin said with a matching frown.

“That’s not the case at all! We just didn’t want you to feel like you had to take on a bunch of responsibility. If you want to though, by all means jump in.” Bang Chan offered Jeongin a smile.

Jeongin was a little upset this was even a conversation. Of course he wanted to help out his fellow members. He just never got the chance to because someone else who was louder would jump in front of him. This was why he decided he would never tell anyone Seungmin was coming to him every night. That was the one thing that held the most importance to him.

“Thanks, Chan hyung.” Jeongin said instead of pushing anything further. He didn’t trust himself to keep his secret if he got into a bigger conversation.

The two walked back to their respective dorms, and Jeongin made it back to his room. There was still a good amount of the day left, so he debated what he should do with the time. He sat on his bed and debated for a while until he came up with an idea. He had an empty space next to Seungmin’s side of the bed that needed to be filled with a nightstand if he was going to keep coming in. He quickly did a Google search to see if he could find one that matched his current one.

Jeongin spent a while searching for the matching nightstand before he finally found one identical that could get here tomorrow. He got out his credit card and placed the order so he would have it by tomorrow. He was seriously banking on the hope Seungmin would continue to come into his room at night. Tonight would make a whole week of it.

The rest of the day dragged by. Jeongin took a nap, did some laundry, played a card game with Felix, and ate dinner. It was that time again. Jeongin felt nervous for some reason. Would Seungmin still come in tonight and make it a week-long habit? He laid in his bed for what felt like forever before Seungmin came in without knocking. What should have been seen as rude actually made Jeongin smile at knowing Seungmin was comfortable enough to just walk in. Seungmin took his usual place by Jeongin and placed a sheet of paper on top of his stomach.

“What’s this?” Jeongin asked, picking the paper up and scanning over it.

“New lyrics to memorize. I got my sheet first because I’m Changbin’s favorite.” Seungmin bragged, curling into Jeongin’s side as usual.

“And you couldn’t help but share it with me because I’m your favorite.” Jeongin added on.

“Perhaps.” Seungmin hummed, tugging the blanket over his shoulders.

Jeongin blushed and put the paper aside, wrapping his arms around Seungmin before he was asleep for once. Seungmin hid his face in Jeongin’s neck for a bit, but Jeongin guessed he was blushing. It only took a few minutes before Jeongin heard Seungmin’s breathing even out. It was officially a week of Seungmin sleeping in his room.

——

Day 8

On the eighth day, Jeongin woke up without Seungmin once again. He sat up and sighed, hating mornings where Seungmin wouldn’t wake up in his arms. This had only been a habit for a week, but he hadn’t woken up next to Seungmin as much as he would like to. Fortunately for Jeongin, the door swung open again, revealing Seungmin with two muffins in his hand.

“Oh you’re awake. Sorry, I tried not to wake you.” Seungmin apologized, making his way back to his spot in the bed.

“You didn’t wake me. I woke up just a second ago.” Jeongin reassured him.

“Here. I brought you some breakfast. It’s chocolate chip.” Seungmin handed Jeongin one of the muffins.

“That’s really thoughtful. Thanks, Min.” Jeongin smiled and bit into his muffin.

The two sat on Jeongin’s bed eating their muffins in a comfortable silence. Seungmin finished his muffin and looked around for a place to put the wrapper for the current moment. Jeongin fought back a grin at knowing he’d have his own nightstand a little later that day.

“Here, Minnie. I’ll put it on. my nightstand.” Jeongin said, grabbing Seungmin’s trash and placing both their wrappers on his nightstand.

Seungmin gave Jeongin a small smile and wrapped his arms around Jeongin’s waist. Jeongin wrapped his arms around Seungmin and gave him a small squeeze to let him know he was there for him. Seungmin shifted closer to Jeongin which made Jeongin tug the older into his lap. Seungmin let out a small noise resembling a squeak, but let himself be pulled into the younger’s lap. He almost instantly tucked his head into Jeongin’s shoulder.

“You’re really warm.” Seungmin broke the silence.

“Is that a bad thing?” Jeongin asked him.

“No, it’s perfect. It’s just making me sleepy again.” Seungmin admitted, lips grazing Jeongin’s neck as he spoke.

“You can go back to sleep. We don’t have anything to do today.” Jeongin pointed out.

Seungmin simply hummed and sighed, the breath tickling Jeongin’s neck. Jeongin fought off shivers from the feeling. Jeongin turned on the tv and started watching a series he’d been meaning to watch for a while. He felt Seungmin go limp against him and he knew he was asleep in his lap. Jeongin considered moving him so he was laying down, but he selfishly wanted to keep holding the other.

A few hours passed before Seungmin started to stir. Jeongin had gotten halfway through the first season of his show. His episode was nearing the end when Seungmin finally woke up. He was pleased with the good timing that worked out. Seungmin pulled back from Jeongin and rubbed his eyes.

“Feel better?” Jeongin asked, reaching up to brush hair out of Seungmin’s face.

“I don’t feel too well.” Seungmin admitted, taking his hands off his eyes and looking into Jeongin’s eyes.

“What happened?” Jeongin frowned, placing his hand against Seungmin’s head.

“It’s just a migraine, but it’s been killing me since I woke up the first time. That's why I tried to sleep it off.” Seungmin spoke with a small lag from word to word.

“You should probably have some painkillers. I’ll go grab you some.” Jeongin offered, picking Seungmin up off his lap and setting him down beside him.

“You’re the best.” Seungmin mumbled, leaning back against the headboard and placing his hands on his head.

Jeongin moved out of bed and made his way to the kitchen to dig through their medicine cabinet. He pulled out a couple painkillers and grabbed Seungmin a glass of water too. He went back to his room to find Seungmin with his face all scrunched up. Jeongin’s heart sank knowing his head must really be hurting him.

“Here. I brought you some water to take it with too.” Jeongin said, putting the painkillers and the cup of water in Seungmin’s hand.

Seungmin muttered a thank you and took the painkillers. He tossed his head back against the headboard and scrunched his face up again. Jeongin took the water out of Seungmin’s hand and walked around to place it on his nightstand. The new nightstand would really come in handy right now.

“You can kick me out if you want.” Seungmin offered, looking up at Jeongin with sad eyes.

“Why would I kick you out? I’ve let you stay all this time without doing that. It won't change now.” Jeongin said firmly, pulling the blanket up over Seungmin a little more.

“I’m probably just gonna sleep the day away though.” Seungmin admitted.

“You’re welcome to stay regardless.” Jeongin quickly replied.

“You’re just a little too nice to me sometimes. I might get the wrong idea.” Seungmin joked, tucking his hair behind his ear and winking.

“Nevermind! I hate you actually.” Jeongin groaned and started to walk back towards his door.

“Too late. I’m asleep now.” Seungmin closed his eyes and pretended to be sleeping.

“Yeah yeah. Rest well.” Jeongin said and exited his room.

Jeongin was met by Minho with a shocked expression on his face. His heart sank. He was likely about to have to give up Seungmin. Minho knew now and that couldn’t mean anything good.

“Did I just see who I thought I-“ Minho started out, only to be shushed by Jeongin.

“Don’t tell anyone. I mean it. Just let me have this.” Jeongin said firmly, eyes glaring into Minho’s.

“Woah. I’m not doing anything. Calm down. I just wanna know how you managed to get Kim Seungmin in your room. Felix isn’t home, don’t worry.” Minho held his hands up as if he were being arrested.

“I couldn’t tell you! It’s been a whole week now and he just shows up and sleeps in my bed every night.” Jeongin sighed, looking towards his door.

“A whole week?! Is this a Seungmin from another universe?” Minho said, completely baffled.

“I mean, he had a really bad nightmare one night and I came in and woke him up. It was kinda scary. He was tied up in his sheets and everything. He showered up and that’s when you met me in the hallway doing laundry, but when I went back to bed, Seungmin knocked on my door a few minutes later. I thought he was just gonna hangout and watch videos with me for a while, but he ended up falling asleep on me.” Jeongin told the whole story.

“Wait- he’s not only sleeping in your bedroom? He’s cuddling with you too?!” Minho’s voice raised a little with shock.

“Keep it down. He’s trying to sleep.” Jeongin wacked Minho gently on his shoulder.

“Do you know how many times I’ve tried to get that man to show even an ounce of affection? And he just comes to you?!” Minho rambled on.

“Believe me, I don’t understand it either.” Jeongin mumbled.

“I can’t tell anyone then. It would be wrong to take that away from Seungmin when he feels safe with someone. My lips are sealed. Even to Jisung.” Minho assured him.

“Even to Jisung is saying a lot.” Jeongin teased, a mischievous grin on his face.

“I mean it though. He must really need this. I’m glad he finds comfort in you.” Minho smiled.

Just then, Jeongin got a notification on his phone. He took it out and unlocked his phone only to find his package had been delayed until tomorrow. He sighed in frustration since he had paid for the rush shipping. As silly as it was, he worried Seungmin wouldn’t want to stay if he didn’t have a nightstand of his own.

“You look upset. What happened?” Minho asked, noticing the shift in Jeongin’s behavior.

“Ah- it’s nothing. My package just got delayed. I got another nightstand so Seungmin could have one on his side, but it won’t come until tomorrow.” Jeongin explained, putting his phone in his pocket.

“You got a nightstand for him? This is getting so sweet I might puke.” Minho laughed.

“Just for that, you can help me build it. It has to be assembled.” Jeongin said with a smirk.

“What did I ever do?! I only supported you unconditionally and told you I’d keep your little secret.” Minho pointed out.

“Yeah, but it’s more fun to put things together with someone and I don’t wanna make Seungmin help because then he’d probably feel bad I bought something for him.” Jeongin reasoned.

“Valid points. I’ll help. But you don’t get to complain when Jisung comes over tonight.” Minho stated.

“You’ve got yourself a deal.” Jeongin smiled.

The two parted ways and Jeongin was left on his own for a bit. Jeongin busied himself with a couple chores and went to the gym for a while. By the time Jeongin showered up and came back, Seungmin was sitting at the table, smiling and talking to Minho. Jeongin listened in as subtly as he could, making sure Minho wasn’t asking Seungmin about the two of them. When he found out he wasn’t, he went back to his room and was surprised to see a stuffed toy on Seungmin’s side of his bed.

Jeongin walked over and picked up the toy, contemplating where he’d seen this before. He realized Seungmin had brought it to an interview once and claimed to sleep with it by him each night. Had he really felt safe with Jeongin so he would not need to sleep with his stuffed toy? Jeongin felt a little bit of pride from knowing that.

Later that night, Seungmin came into Jeongin’s room quietly and climbed into bed. He picked up his stuffed toy and blushed, clearly feeling embarrassed Jeongin knew he brought it in. Jeongin wanted to say something, but he didn’t know how to reassure him. He didn’t want to patronize the younger.

“I just wasn’t feeling well so I brought this in while you were away. It’s not because I don’t feel safe with you.” Seungmin explains despite Jeongin not saying anything.

“I didn’t think you were making any kind of statement by bringing a stuffed toy in here. You’re allowed to bring anything of yours that you want in here.” Jeongin smiled.

“Can I hold your hand?” Seungmin whispered, looking anywhere but in Jeongin’s eyes.

Jeongin was a little taken aback by Seungmin’s request. It was completely off-topic and out of nowhere. Seungmin’s face was completely red and it made Jeongin start to question their entire friendship. Was this normal of friends? Was the feeling in Jeongin’s chest friendly?

“Yeah, of course.” Jeongin simply replied, grabbing Seungmin’s hand first.

Seungmin laced his fingers through Jeongin’s which made Jeongin question the friendliness of the current actions all over again. Seungmin’s hands were so soft and felt like the perfect amount of weight in Jeongin’s own. Seungmin’s hold was firm enough to let Jeongin know he didn’t want to let go, but gentle enough that it was comfortable.

“Do you want to watch a movie? There’s this new apocalyptic…” Jeongin trailed off upon seeing Seungmin rapidly shake his head.

“I want to talk to you. Tell me about your day.” Seungmin suggested.

“It wasn’t all that interesting. We woke up together and when I left the room, I talked to Minho for a while and then…” Jeongin continued to ramble on about his day while Seungmin listened and laid against his shoulder.

The two sat like that for a while and Jeongin kept rambling about various things until Seungmin dozed off sitting up, his hand still intertwined with Jeongin’s. Jeongin knew their backs would probably hurt in the morning from the position, but he couldn’t find it in him to care when Seungmin’s hand was in his. Jeongin looked over at his sleeping friend and smiled before dozing off himself.

—

Day 9

Jeongin woke up to Seungmin gone again, but he didn’t mind because the package should arrive any minute. He picked up his phone and saw a text from Seungmin explaining where he was for the first time. He said he was going out with Changbin. Jeongin was always jealous of how close those two seemed, but he calmed those feelings by reminding himself he was the one with Seungmin in his bed at night. Jeongin was snapped out of his thoughts by a knock on his door.

“Innie, there’s a package for you! I assume this is our project?” Minho continued to knock obnoxiously as he spoke.

“Stop knocking, you asshole. I’m coming.” Jeongin grumbled, throwing on some clothes while Minho never let up. He finally threw the door open, a pissed off expression on his face.

“Finally. I was getting tired of knocking.” Minho huffed and rolled his eyes. Jeongin felt a little insane.

“Just show me where the package is.” He instructed.

“Aww did our baby wake up on the wrong side of the bed?” Minho teased in a baby voice.

Jeongin shot him a glare that was strong enough to make him shut up completely. Feeling proud of himself, Jeongin smirked as he let Minho lead him to the living room where Felix was circling the package. Jeongin should have known Felix would be curious when a big package arrived. He was curious even with small packages. Jeongin knew he could never order anything he didn’t want Felix seeing.

“Innie! What did you get?” Felix greeted him, eyes sparkling like an excited child.

“It’s a nightstand for the other side of my bed. I was getting annoyed having only one to use.” Jeongin lied smoothly.

“Does it have to be built? Can I help?” Felix asked, practically bouncing with excitement.

Jeongin laughed a little at how excited Felix was getting. It wasn’t that big of a deal to get a package in, but Felix was always jumping into anything he could. Jeongin nodded to him as a sign he could help and Felix’s arms shot up in celebration. Minho went up behind Felix and ruffled his hair roughly.

“This means I don’t have to help! You’re my favorite now.” Minho exclaimed.

“Just for that, you have to sit with us and hand us the parts.” Jeongin also cheered those words to annoy Minho.

Minho groaned and threw himself into a chair to do exactly that. Felix ran to the kitchen to get scissors and walked comedically slow back to the package. He handed the scissors to Jeongin who was quick to get the package open. The boys worked separating the parts and handed Minho the instructions.

“Alright, what’s first?” Jeongin asked, kneeling down on the floor to build the nightstand.

“I don’t know. I’m a little confused.” Minho admitted.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Jeongin looked up at him with a baffled expression only to notice he had the instructions upside down. “Well first off, it would help if you held the instructions the correct way.”

Felix burst out into giggles as Jeongin snatched the instructions up and turned them the correct way. Minho made an “O” shape with his mouth and started reading off the first parts to gather up. Jeongin gathered the parts and held them together, looking around for a screw.

“Lixie, can you find me a screw?” Jeongin requested.

Felix looked confused. “Which one is that?”

“You cannot be serious right now.” Jeongin sighed, making Felix pout a little.

Minho kicked Jeongin in the butt hard. “Don’t be mean.” He instructed.

“And kicking me as hard as you can with those dancer legs isn’t mean?!” Jeongin yelped.

“Felix, this.” Minho kicked over a bag of screws to Felix whose eyes light up with understanding. Clearly he had just forgotten what the Korean word meant and Jeongin felt a little bad.

They steadily got the nightstand put together more and more until it was done and completely stable. Jeongin shook it a little as a test, but it remained steady. He smiled and Felix cheered upon finishing. Minho ripped the directions in half and let out a loud yell of excitement.

“You better be glad I don’t need those again.” Jeongin teased.

“Let me help you carry this into your room!” Felix offered even though Jeongin didn’t really need help.

Jeongin nodded and they got on either side of the nightstand to lift it and carry it down the hall. Jeongin took a hand off to turn the handle of his room and they entered, placing the nightstand down on Seungmin’s side of the bed. Felix suddenly looked over to stare at the plush toy. He swore he’d seen it somewhere before.

“Well anyway thanks for helping!” Jeongin quickly said, gently guiding Felix in the direction of the door before he could question anything.

“But Innie let’s cuddle!” Felix suggested, trying to push back against Jeongin’s pushing.

Jeongin should’ve known there was a reason Felix wanted to help him bring in the nightstand. He couldn’t risk Felix overthinking the plush toy and saying something about it. He knew he would have a hard time prying Felix off when he was done cuddling too. He always did. He didn’t want Seungmin to come home and see Felix in his spot either.

“Let’s go to the couch if you must cuddle me.” Jeongin suggested, giving Felix another push towards the door.

“Aww but it’s so much nicer in bed!” Felix argued, trying to push back.

“I don’t want you messing around in my lovely bed.” Jeongin complained.

“Do you think I’m dirty or something?” Felix whined.

“Why can’t we use your bed?” Jeongin suggested.

“Ok! Hurry up!” Felix’s eyes lit up and he grabbed Jeongin’s wrist to tug him to his room.

Jeongin was surprised how well that worked. Felix was easily persuaded when it came to being able to get affection. Jeongin let himself be led into Felix’s messy room. Clothes were tossed around everywhere and he had to be careful not to trip. Jeongin climbed into Felix’s bed and was quickly pounced on by a giggling Felix. Felix laid on Jeongin’s chest and tucked his head under Jeongin’s chin. He sighed happily and tossed his leg over Jeongin’s legs. He was basically fully on top of him.

Jeongin accepted his fate for the next hour. Cuddling Felix was very different from cuddling with Seungmin. Felix was bold and basically locked Jeongin into place. He was a little wiggly and kept shifting around to somehow get closer. Seungmin was a little reserved. It seemed like he was hesitant to even lean on Jeongin and he stayed calm and still in his place. Jeongin felt his heart racing a lot more when he was holding Seungmin.

“Ok, Felix. Time to let me up.” Jeongin announced after a time a time longer than an hour passed by.

“Nope! You’re comfy! And very muscular. I can tell how much you’ve been working out lately.” Felix pointed out, giving Jeongin’s arm a squeeze.

“Exactly why I need to go workout right now!” Jeongin simply said, trying to wiggle free.

“You’re no fun.” Felix complained and slid off of the younger.

Jeongin left his room with a small wave and was immediately met with Seungmin’s face. He nearly fell over out of the shock of someone being right there when he exited the door. Jeongin could feel his cheeks warming up as he looked into the older boy’s eyes.

“I was looking for you.” Seungmin simply said.

“What for?” Jeongin replied.

“I brought you home a cupcake.” Seungmin answered, averting his gaze.

“Really? Thanks, Seungminnie.” Jeongin smiled, reaching out to put his hand on Seungmin’s shoulder to express gratitude.

“Come get it. I think you’ll really like it. It’s a double chocolate one.” Seungmin explained, making his way towards the kitchen before he knew if Jeongin was following behind.

Jeongin was amused with how flustered the boy seemed over an action he did himself. Seungmin had never brought Jeongin things before this week. For a brief moment, Jeongin wondered if Seungmin liked him back. Back? What was Jeongin thinking? He didn’t like Kim Seungmin like that, did he? Jeongin shook that thought off quickly and rushed to the kitchen to catch up with Seungmin who already had Jeongin’s cupcake on a plate for him on the counter.

“Chocolate covered strawberries too? I love these!” Jeongin exclaimed at seeing those also on his plate.

Seungmin was completely red and seemed a little shy. Jeongin didn’t understand why he was so shy since he was the one who did all this, but he thought it was cute. This sent Jeongin into another panic. He had never seen Seungmin that way before. Sure he knew the other was attractive, but this was a different realization. Jeongin simply busied himself with the food.

“Jeongin, I’ve been meaning to tell you…” Seungmin started to say.

Jeongin looked up at Seungmin who was heavily fidgeting. He was surprised to hear Seungmin call him his name in a serious manner. He knew something important must be up. Seungmin took a deep breath from his spot on the other side of the counter Jeongin was sitting at, but Jisung burst through the door.

“What up, everybody?!” He loudly announced himself.

Seungmin looked frustrated but waved to the boy. Jeongin turned to ask Seungmin what he was about to say, but Jisung had other ideas. The loud boy quickly came up behind Jeongin’s shoulder and was peeking at his desserts.

“Ooh chocolate strawberries. Ok skrr! Can I have one?” Jisung asked, his hand already reaching for one.

“Ask me nicely.” Jeongin instructed, a playful smirk on his face.

Jisung stole a strawberry anyway. “Thanks, Innie!” He called out as he skipped down the hall, likely to Minho’s room.

“What were you saying?” Jeongin asked Seungmin who seemed to be upset.

“Oh I was just gonna tell you I’ve been meaning to go to this new restaurant. We should go.” Seungmin clearly lied.

Jeongin frowned at the obvious lie, but he wasn’t going to push it if Seungmin wasn’t ready to say anything yet. Jeongin nodded and they continued small conversation about various things they wanted to do together. Jeongin supposed it wasn’t all that much of a pointless conversation after all if they planned to do so many things together. He felt like he and Seungmin would go out a lot more together now.

The night time came before Jeongin knew it and Seungmin made his way into his bed as seemed to be their new routine. Seungmin looked at the nightstand for a while before turning to Jeongin with a shy smile. He could barely meet his eyes and Jeongin wondered what was causing Seungmin to feel this shy.

“Thank you.” Seungmin whispered, laying on Jeongin.

Jeongin didn’t need to ask what for. He knew Seungmin noticed the new nightstand for him and he was grateful. Jeongin felt content knowing he could make Seungmin happy. He fell asleep that night feeling pride from being able to take care of the older.

——

Days 10-13 passed with minimal interactions during practices and recordings, and it ended with the same outcome of Seungmin in Jeongin’s arms at night.

——

Day 14

On the fourteenth day, Jeongin woke up to a gentle voice and a hand brushing his hair out of his face. This was new as Seungmin had never woken him up before. Jeongin opened his eyes to see the most beautiful sight in the world. The sun was pouring in through the window and lighting up Seungmin’s face. His eyes were almost sparkling and his messy hair fell perfectly. Jeongin was nearly breathless upon seeing such a beautiful sight above him. Has Seungmin always been that pretty?

“I made you breakfast.” Seungmin said simply, moving to grab a tray with breakfast foods on it.

Jeongin was a little blown away. He never expected Seungmin to work so hard to make him breakfast in bed. Part of him wondered if he was still asleep, but the way everything looked and felt made everything seem so real. Jeongin sat up and let Seungmin put the tray in his lap.

“Thank you, Seungminnie. This is really way too nice.” Jeongin shyly smiled at the puppylike boy.

Jeongin started digging into the food and Seungmin sat on the bed in front of him on his knees. Jeongin had to focus on his food to keep himself from thinking thoughts he shouldn’t be about the way Seungmin was sitting. Seungmin fidgeted for a bit before finally looking up into Jeongin’s eyes.

“Jeongin, I have something I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’ve been thinking about it for a while but recently…” Seungmin started to talk only to be interrupted by a loud alarm noise.

“Shit. That’s the fire alarm, Minnie.” Jeongin flashed the clearly frustrated boy an apologetic look.

“It’s whatever. Let’s get out of here.” Seungmin threw himself off Jeongin’s bed and stormed out of the room.

Jeongin felt horrible about having to leave the nice breakfast behind. He felt even worse about Seungmin getting interrupted. This was the second time Seungmin had gotten interrupted when he seemed to be saying something important recently. Jeongin wondered what could have possibly been so important. Jeongin walked out of his room and Felix immediately hooked his arm into his.

“I hate the alarm noise.” Felix pouted, walking with Jeongin to the door.

Jeongin pat Felix’s hand that was around his arm a few times and let himself be clung to all the way downstairs and out of the building. When they got there, Jeongin saw Seungmin grumpily sitting facing away from everyone on the grass. He wanted to approach him, but Felix was too busy holding him down. He didn’t want to make a scene in front of everyone else either.

“Guys, would this be a bad time to admit I burned some toast right as the fire alarm went off?” Jisung suddenly spoke loudly.

“You better be kidding. All this over some burnt toast?!” Minho glared at him.

“Sorry, babe. I didn’t have anyone to make breakfast with me this morning.” Jisung winked to try and lessen Minho’s frustration.

“You do not need me to guide you through making toast.” Minho deadpanned.

Those two kept up their banter as Changbin approached Jeongin and Felix. “Well this is a great start to the day.” He attempted to joke.

“I don’t have shoes on and it’s hot! Carry me!” Felix instructed, coming off of Jeongin and making grabby hands at Changbin.

“Why didn’t you slip some shoes on?” Changbin asked, hoisting Felix up on his back anyway.

“Have you seen his room? He could never find them.” Jeongin teased lightly.

Jeongin peered over at Seungmin and looked back to where Felix was busy with Changbin. He realized this was his chance to go over to him. Jeongin quietly slipped away and walked over to Seungmin, sitting down beside him. Seungmin took one look up to realize it was Jeongin and quickly laid on his shoulder.

“So Hannie burnt some toast.” Jeongin informed him.

“Great. Exactly what I wanted him to do after I worked so hard on breakfast.” Seungmin grumbled, a small pout clear on his face which made Jeongin’s heart speed up.

“I’m so sorry. I know you must’ve worked really hard on that.” Jeongin whispered, wrapping his arm around Seungmin who moved closer into him.

“I feel like something keeps interrupting the food I set up for you…and that something is Han Jisung.” Seungmin huffed, glaring in Jisung’s direction.

“It has happened twice now, hasn’t it?” Jeongin laughed softly.

Jeongin could feel eyes on him, but he didn’t want to think about it just yet. Seungmin shifted completely to be between Jeongin’s legs and laid back on him. This was the first time he was publicly showing him affection in these two weeks. Jeongin happily accepted it and wrapped his arms around Seungmin’s center.

“Kim Seungmin!” Changbin loudly shouted.

“Not right now. I’m busy.” Seungmin replied dryly. Jeongin felt honored.

“Busy bothering our maknae!” Changbin teased, loudly laughing at himself.

Seungmin rolled his eyes and didn’t bother to move or answer Changbin. He didn’t care what anyone else had to say. They both happily remained like that until an announcement claiming the building was safe and it was indeed just Jisung’s burnt toast played. Everyone groaned at him and took turns giving him small punches.

“In my defense, they didn’t tell me how long to cook toast on the bread package!” Jisung attempted to defend himself.

“You’re such an idiot.” Minho complained, unable to help the smile on his face.

Everyone returned to their respective dorms and Jeongin quickly went back to his room only to find the food was cold. He knew it would be, but he felt horrible knowing Seungmin worked so hard and he couldn’t even finish the food. He went ahead and started eating it anyway so he wouldn’t hurt the other’s feelings.

“Innie, you don’t need to do that. I know it’s gotta be like ice by now.” Seungmin said upon entering.

“But you worked hard to make it. The least I can do is enjoy some of it.” Jeongin shrugged, eating a piece of bacon.

“You’re really too nice to me. Jeonginnie, I…” Seungmin trailed off at seeing Minho knocking obnoxiously on the open door.

“You guys wanna go get boba with me?” Minho offered.

“Yeah I’ll get ready now.” Seungmin brushed past Minho, knocking his shoulder roughly on the way.

“Ow! Rude!” Minho called out. He then turned to Jeongin. “What was that about?”

“Seungmin seems like he has something to tell me. He tried the other day and he’s tried twice today.” Jeongin informed him.

“He’s probably about to confess to you.” Minho said in a hushed tone, stepping into Jeongin’s room and closing the door behind him so Seungmin wouldn’t hear.

“Confess what?” Jeongin asked, his heart rate speeding up since he knew what Minho was getting at.

“His feelings for you. No way he’d be making breakfast for you like this and staying in your room every night if he didn’t feel that way for you. It’s ok though because clearly you feel the same if you’re buying him nightstands and stuff.” Minho pointed out.

Jeongin froze in place. He didn’t like Seungmin like that, did he? He was only doing what he felt like was necessary to take care of him properly. He never thought about the way Seungmin’s lips might fit onto his. That was definitely never a thought that occurred.

“What do you mean? I don’t like Seungmin like that.” Jeongin quickly replied.

“You sure have a funny way of going about platonic feelings.” Minho raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know what I feel. This is all so new. I need more time. If he’s trying to confess, I don’t know what I’d say.” Jeongin admitted.

“That’s completely valid. Take all the time you need. There’s no time limit on this kind of stuff.” Minho said softly.

“Thank you for listening. I mean, my heart flutters when I look at him sleeping in my arms. That doesn’t feel so normal.” Jeongin rambled. “Oh, and he asked to hold my hands the other night. Our hands fit together perfectly. His hands are so soft it made me wanna melt. Oh shit I do have a crush, don’t I?”

Minho just stood there and smiled, being patient while Jeongin got all his feelings out. “That’s something only you can come to terms with on your own time. If you want me to root for you, I’ll do that. If you just want me to listen, I can do that too.” Minho offered.

“What’s wrong with me? I’ve never looked at him this way before. It happened so suddenly and now it feels like everything in the universe has shifted.” Jeongin started to tear up upon realizing he may have feelings for Seungmin.

“Hey, no. Nothings wrong with you. That happened to me with Jisung. Things that seemed platonic at first suddenly made my heart flutter. It was like I was falling so fast and everything was out of control. Luckily for me, Jisung just asked me flat out if I felt a spark between us. He’s always made conversations so easy and it never felt intimidating. Now that we’re together…” Minho started to explain his story, traveling over to where Jeongin was sitting and joining him.

“Wait, you’re actually together?!” Jeongin gasped.

Minho just laughed. “We’ve been together for years. We thought everyone just knew. But anyway, what I meant to say was I understand where you’re at right now. This is a big deal. It’s one of your fellow members and it’s basically life changing to make a shift in relationships. You do not need to rush so quickly into this.”

“You’re the best. Thanks for sharing your story. It means a lot.” Jeongin threw his arms around Minho for a moment and pulled back feeling way better.

“Anytime you need someone to talk to about this stuff, I’m here.” Minho offered. “But right now, I’m gonna get out of here so we can get ready to go get boba.”

Minho left the room and Jeongin got ready to go out for boba. They spent a nice day out and ended up going into a few stores as well. The day practically flew by and before he knew it, Jeongin was back in bed with Seungmin laying on his chest. Seungmin had Jeongin’s hand in his and was gently playing with it. Moments like these meant the world to Jeongin. Their conversation was minimal before they ended up asleep together.

——

Day 15

Jeongin woke up first, but his right hand was trapped between Seungmin’s hands. He wasn’t able to grab his phone to scroll without moving and potentially waking him up. Jeongin took that time to look over Seungmin’s peaceful features as he’d done before. He knew the feelings he was having weren’t platonic, but he was just a little too scared to fully indulge in them.

“Minnie, wake up, honey.” Jeongin accidentally let the pet name slip from his lips. It felt all too natural.

Seungmin stirred in Jeongin’s arms and slowly opened his eyes. He laid on Jeongin’s chest and rubbed his eyes, finally letting go of the other’s hand. Jeongin looked over his hand that had small indents in it from being in that position for so long. His heart fluttered.

“You should go out with me today. Let’s go for a picnic in the park. We can take some cute pictures for the fans.” Seungmin suddenly suggested.

“When did you become such a romantic?” Jeongin giggled, loving Seungmin’s cute idea.

“I’m only like this for people I really like.” Seungmin explained.

Jeongin couldn’t help the blush on his face. “It’s already noon! We slept for so long!” Jeongin exclaimed upon picking up his phone.

“Hm…we better get going soon then unless you want a sunset picnic. That would be extra romantic.” Seungmin laughed, sitting up and stretching.

“That would make for good pictures. What if I hit the gym first and let’s hangout around here for a while. We can have a sunset picnic.” Jeongin latched onto Seungmin’s idea quickly.

“We’re basically on the same level as Minho hyung and Hannie.” Seungmin pointed out all while laughing.

The two parted ways for the time being, both excited as ever for their outing later. Jeongin worked harder than normal at the gym due to thinking about how Changbin throws Seungnin around and wanting to do the same. He imagined Seungmin’s cute reactions to being manhandled by him and he added a couple extra reps into his sets. He couldn’t wait to surprise him with that someday.

Jeongin got back to their dorm to see Felix in Seungmin’s lap on the couch. They were watching some old video of theirs. Jeongin couldn’t tell which one it was. Jeongin walked over to the couch and sat down much to Felix’s delight. He quickly laid himself across the two of them.

“Hi, Innie!” Felix greeted Jeongin after he was already laying across him.

They stayed like that watching old videos for a while, laughing at their past failures and successes in all the games they played. Felix finally let them up after some time, and it was already about time to get ready for the outing. Jeongin walked to his room and opened his closet. He had no clue what to wear for something like this. They were taking pictures so he wanted something nice, but he didn’t want it to be over the top. He settled on a casual outfit and a couple pieces of jewelry. Jeongin walked out of his dorm and saw Seungmin in a similar style outfit. He felt relieved he wasn’t over or under dressed.

“You think we can get out of here without Felix?” Seungmin asked, seeing as he had been clingy all day.

“Aww you really want it to be just us, don’t you?” Jeongin teased, reaching out to cup Seungmin’s face teasingly but getting slapped down.

“You know I do. Let’s go say bye to him.” Seungmin said, walking towards Felix’s door.

“Hey, Lixie, Innie and I are going out.” Seungmin called out.

“Where are you going?!” Felix quickly opened the door.

“I’ve got some stuff planned for us two and we’re gonna get some pictures. Want us to bring you something back? We may stop for ice cream on the way back.” Seungmin explained.

“Ooh is this a date?” Felix teased only to start getting wrestled by Seungmin.

The two wrestled for a while before finally parting ways. “Have fun on your date!” Felix said and closed his door again.

“He’s such a menace.” Seungmin grumbled and crossed his arms.

“Says you.” Jeongin shot back, a small smirk on his face.

“Don’t make me decide not to take you out.” Seungmin threatened, the same smirk on his face.

Seungmin grabbed a tote bag full of a few snacks and sandwiches off the counter and headed for the door. Jeongin followed behind, trying not to freak out that he was basically going on a date with Seungmin. Seungmin walked in a casual manner which was perfect for Jeongin. He never seemed to be in any rush for anything.

“I forgot how nice the walk to the park was.” Jeongin reminisced.

“I think walks are nicer with good company too.” Seungmin added.

Seungmin’s hand brushed against Jeongin’s as they walked and in a sudden burst of bravery, Jeongin grabbed onto it. Seungmin looked up at Jeongin’s face with a shocked expression. He then smiled and laughed, squeezing Jeongin’s hand as he settled into their fingers being laced. The two walked hand in hand silently all the way to the park. They started to run, smiling and laughing as they got to their picnic spot under a big tree. Seungmin laid out a blanket and they both sat a little closer to each other than necessary.

“When did you have time to make these?” Jeongin asked, opening up the tote bag to see the sandwiches and fruits.

“You took extra long on your workout today. I did that and Felix came in and made me make him a sandwich too. Then he wanted to trap me down for a while. When you came in, we’d just started watching tv.” Seungmin explained, passing Jeongin a sandwich.

“Have you been timing my workouts or something?” Jeongin teased, wondering how Seungmin knew it was longer than normal.

“Something like that.” Seungmin admitted with very little hesitation.

The two sat and ate their sandwiches for a while until they were gone. Both of them happened to finish and reach for the strawberries at the same time, blushing and pulling back their hands. Jeongin noticed the blush on Seungmin’s face and his heart sped up with a hopeful feeling.

“Here, I’ll get them.” Seungmin said, grabbing the container of strawberries and opening them up.

To Jeongin’s surprise, Seungmin grabbed a strawberry and held it out to Jeongin’s mouth to offer to feed him. Jeongin shyly accepted, eating the strawberry out of Seungmin’s hand. It was common for the members to feed each other, but this felt different. This felt more personal and intimate. Jeongin felt his cheeks flushing even more if possible.

“Did the strawberry turn you red?” Seungmin suddenly teased, poking at Jeongin’s cheeks.

“If the strawberry is named Kim Seungmin, then I suppose it did.” Jeongin replied before he truly realized what he was saying.

“You can’t just say that stuff! I might get the wrong idea.” Seungmin muttered, turning away to hide his own redness.

Jeongin simply giggled. The two carefully took turns picking strawberries up and eating them one at a time. They seemed even more aware of each other’s space and kept to themselves as much as possible. It was silly since they were basically on a date, but neither of them were quite ready to face that yet. The night went on nicely until they were ready to pack everything up.

“We gotta get pictures. We almost forgot and the sun is starting to set.” Jeongin reminded both of them.

“You go first. I’ll take pictures on my camera.” Seungmin pulled out his phone and shooed Jeongin away.

Jeongin stood in front of the sunset, smiling and posing in various positions. Seungmin kept taking pictures the whole time until they switched. This time, Jeongin took pictures on his phone. He smiled to himself at the fact he could keep all these pictures of Seungmin in his gallery without any kind of questions. His smile turned to a blush when he realized Seungmin could do the same for him.

“Ok that’s plenty. Can I see?” Seungmin asked, jogging back over and trying to peek over Jeongin’s shoulder.

“They’re really pretty.” Jeongin stated, scrolling through the various pictures.

“The sunset was so pretty.” Seungmin agreed.

“It’s not just the sunset.” Jeongin mentioned, making Seungmin blush yet again.

“Ready for ice cream?” Seungmin asked, facing away from Jeongin.

“Very. Did Felix end up wanting some?” Jeongin questioned, only remembering the two wrestling and never Felix saying anything he wanted.

“Nah. He texted and said he was good.” Seungmin responded, starting to walk in the direction of the store.

The pair walked to the store across the street from the park and were hit with a cold blast of air when they walked in. Seungmin immediately started to shiver, contrary to Jeongin who thought it felt good. Jeongin noticed this and immediately took his jacket off and placed it around Seungmin’s shoulders.

“You don’t have to give me this.” Seungmin said, holding onto the jacket as if he was about to take it off but never did.

“I know. You look cold and I’m not all that cold.” Jeongin explained, pushing the jacket further onto Seungmin’s shoulders.

Seungmin didn’t argue further and instead put his arms through the jacket. Jeongin couldn’t help but feel a possessive feeling upon seeing Seungmin wrapped up in his jacket. He fought off the urge to wrap his arm around Seungmin as well. He wanted nothing more than to pull Seungmin close…just to warm him up of course.

The two boys stepped up to the counter and ordered their ice cream, both grinning when they got them. They made their way to a table to sit and eat ice cream for a while, laughing and talking about everything and nothing all at once. They soon finished and threw their trash away, stepping outside once more. They started walking back only to feel the most unfortunate possible thing: rain.

“Min, did you feel that too?” Jeongin asked, looking up at the sky as a raindrop fell on his head.

“So I didn’t imagine us about to get rained on while we still have a ten minute walk home.” Seungmin sighed, sticking his bottom lip out a bit in a pout.

The rain only seemed to pick up when they acknowledged it. “Run!” Jeongin exclaimed, grabbing Seungmin’s hand and dashing towards the path home as if they could escape it. The pair ran for a while until they both had to stop, panting and catching their breath.

“We’re soaked!” Seungmin complained, shaking like a dog to get some of the water off him.

“We should film us dancing in the rain.” Jeongin suddenly suggested.

“That would be kinda funny to post and tell the fans how we got caught in the rain.” Seungmin’s lips curled into a small smile.

Jeongin found a spot to prop his phone up and looked for a song to use. While he was searching, Seungmin came up behind him and tapped him. Seungmin gestured upwards to where there was a speaker playing cheesy romance music from a restaurant they were facing.

“You can’t be serious, Kim Seungmin.” Jeongin laughed.

“Slow dance with me in the rain, Yang Jeongin!” He replied, his eyes sparkling at the idea.

Jeongin burst out laughing and grabbed onto Seungmin’s waist, feeling the other hold onto his shoulders. They were both dying of laughter as they stepped forward and back to the music. Jeongin’s hands tightened on Seungmin’s waist as he spun them around, making the pair erupt in even more laughter.

“Let me dip you!” Jeongin suggested, already tugging Seungmin around.

“Don’t you dare drop me!” Seungmin threatened, squealing as he got dipped down and back up.

“Now spin!” Jeongin directed, grabbing Seungmin’s hand and holding it up high so he could spin.

“This is so stupid!” Seungmin exclaimed, spinning regardless of his statement. “You look so pretty in the rain.” Seungmin said upon returning to face Jeongin.

“You look like a wet dog.” Jeongin teased making Seungmin pout. “But it’s really cute.”

“We should head back. We’re gonna catch colds and the group would die without our beautiful vocals.” Seungmin mumbled, facing away from Jeongin.

“You’re right. Let’s get going.” Jeongin agreed, grabbing his phone and stopping the video.

They headed back home, walking in a comfortable silence as the rain fell. It was both peaceful and heart racing for them as they tried to process the night they’d had. Once home, no one batted an eye at the footprints they forgot to clean up on the way to take turns using the shower. They ended up in bed together curled up into each other to fall into a peaceful sleep.

——

Days 16-19 were a blur. The two seemed just a little bit closer in practices than normal. Touches lingered longer than what was truly friendly, and eye contact was held for way longer than necessary. If everyone noticed what was happening, no one said a word. At the end of the day, the two ended up peacefully asleep in each other's arms.

——

Day 20

“Kim Seungmin! When I catch you!” Minho’s voice rang out through the living room as he chased Seungmin around over a brownie again. Some things never change.

“What? I can’t hear you over this delicious brownie!” Seungmin called out, dashing through the hallway straight into Jeongin. “Shit! Sorry!”

“I just woke up and you’re already crashing into me.” Jeongin teased, wrapping his arms around Seungmin’s waist in a gentle hug.

“You’re lucky I can’t attack you because I’d attack the maknae if I attacked you right now.” Minho grumbled, a fond smile on his face despite his threats.

“Guys, come back to the kitchen! I have more.” Felix yelled, trying to get everyone to calm down.

“Be right there, Lixie!” Minho yelled and jogged back to the kitchen to retrieve more sweets.

“I missed you when I woke up this morning.” Jeongin admitted, giving Seungmin a tiny squeeze.

“You’re such a deep sleeper. You barely let me go. I had to fight my way out.” Seungmin informed him, nuzzling into Jeongin’s neck a little.

“Let’s go to the kitchen.” Jeongin suggested, willing himself to pull away from Seungmin before he became too focused on his scent to function.

Seungmin and Jeongin entered the kitchen, but not without a suspicious look from Felix. Jeongin met his eyes and saw he was about to ask them something that may become uncomfortable. He quickly grabbed a brownie and shoved it in his mouth to avoid having to speak for a moment.

“You two are awfully close lately.” Felix pointed out, looking between the two of them.

“I just realized how cute and lovely our Jeonginnie is.” Seungmin said casually, grabbing another brownie.

This caused Jeongin to fully choke on the brownie he was eating. He coughed until he couldn’t breathe and all he felt was arms pressed into his stomach until he coughed the brownie back up. He knew this was the absolute least attractive thing he could have possibly done in the moment, and his face turned crimson red.

“Geez, Innie. Go have a seat. That was rough.” Felix said, clear tears in his eyes from worry. Jeongin felt a little bad for causing such a scene that Felix panicked.

“I gotcha. Seungmin, grab some water, yeah?” Minho instructed, making his voice evident from where he was behind Jeongin after administering the heimlich.

Jeongin was a little dazed and confused after choking so hard, but he was more relieved he didn’t have to answer any more questions. That was one way to get the attention off him and Seungmin. He just hoped he didn’t turn Seungmin away from him with the extremely unappealing display. He knew Seungmin had already seen him through multiple stomach bugs and flus and blood and tears, but he couldn’t help but worry about choking in front of him after all the recent happenings.

Minho guided Jeongin to the couch and Jeongin leaned against arm rest and groaned. His throat was a little sore and his stomach was feeling a bit twisted. He just wanted to sink into the couch and disappear. Seungmin approached him with a glass of water and slowly guided it to Jeongin’s lips, allowing him to take a few sips.

“Sorry I made you choke.” Seungmin said, placing the glass down on the table and fighting back laughter.

“Sorry you had to see me like that.” Jeongin replied, finding his voice to be a little raspy.

Seungmin sat down on the couch and quickly curled into Jeongin’s side much to Jeongin’s relief. “Innie, I’ve seen you through much worse than that. It wouldn’t make me any less attracted to you.” Seungmin whispered that last part.

“You’re…” Jeongin trailed off upon Felix approaching him.

“Do you want me to make you some honey tea?” Felix asked, a concerned expression still on his face.

“I choked, hyung. I’m not sick.” Jeongin replied, trying to reassure the blonde.

“I’m making it anyway. Maybe you should stay home from practice today too.” Felix suggested, looking at Minho who had a disapproving look on his face.

“He’ll be fine. I need him in rehearsal.” Minho stated, shooing Felix back into the kitchen.

Jeongin allowed Felix to try and take care of him for a while until Felix started to shove himself between Jeongin and Seungmin to get cuddles of his own. Jeongin was disappointed, but he didn’t want to say anything. Seungmin had an angry face on and looked like he was about to start barking as if he were a real dog.

“Go away, Lix!” He complained, shoving Felix away with his feet.

“What’s with you?! I just wanna take care of our Innie.” Felix explained, frowning and not seeing what was wrong.

“No. That’s MY Innie.” Seungmin practically growled, continuing to kick at Felix.

“You gotta share! What’s with this possessiveness?!” Felix yelped, turning around to fully wrestle Seungmin.

“I don’t have to do anything! You can’t just shove yourself between people. That’s rude!” Seungmin stated, fighting against Felix’s pushing.

“It’s called being concerned! Like you’d understand. You don’t ever feel anything!” Felix started to raise his voice, whacking down Seungmin’s leg that tried to fight against him.

“And you’re too dense to ever read a room! Let other people have something for once!” Seungmin argued, kicking Felix in the thigh a little harder.

“Guys…” Jeongin tried to introject, noticing the actual kicks and hits being thrown in.

“Everything always has to go your way!” Felix yelled.

“Says you! Everyone bends over backwards to make your needy ass happy!” Seungmin shouted.

“Guys…” Jeongin tried again, hesitantly reaching out to tap Seungmin, but pulling his hand back before he could.

“Maybe it’s because I’m actually likeable! You’re always making fun of everyone and being an asshole.” Felix raised his voice further, shoving Seungmin extra hard.

“That’s enough!” Minho shouted at the top of his lungs, roughly pulling the two apart from where they started roughing each other up. “You cannot be serious right now. You’re fighting over a literal human being. Look how upset he is! You should be ashamed of yourselves. Take a walk. Both of you…in separate directions.”

Felix whimpered and practically ran to get out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Seungmin flashed Jeongin a horribly apologetic look and walked out slowly, small sniffles clearly audible until the door closed behind him. Minho shook his head and sat down on the couch, burying his head in his hands for a moment before looking up to face Jeongin.

“Are you ok? That got seriously out of hand.” Minho asked gently, keeping his distance as he could see Jeongin was shaking.

“I don’t know what just happened, hyung. I mean, I didn’t want Felix to come between us either, but I have never seen Seungmin blow up over that. More than that, I’ve never seen those two get violent with each other.” Jeongin said shakily.

“I think they were just wrestling it out for the spot next to you and it ended up getting a little heated. I don’t think they would ever take a swing at each other outside of that no matter how bad it got.” Minho tried to reassure, looking back towards the door. “I think you and Seungmin need to have a talk. Soon. I didn’t wanna rush you, but we can’t have stuff like this happening. I don’t know how to tell Channie-hyung.” Minho admitted.

“I think you’re right. But I don’t want to have a nice moment until those two make up.” Jeongin admitted, shaking his head in disbelief. “Hyung, I don’t feel so good after all. Can I stay home today?” Jeongin asked, clearly lying through his teeth.

“I suppose that would be fine. I’ll talk to them. Don’t worry about it.” Minho assured him, flashing Jeongin a small smile before getting up and getting ready to leave.

Jeongin stayed on the couch for a long time after the event. He fell back asleep for a while and woke up only to watch tv until the others got home. Jeongin turned around to see only Seungmin and Felix walking through the door. They were walking closely, clearly ashamed and hesitant to approach Jeongin.

“Innie, we’re really sorry. We hugged it out and said we love each other. We won’t do that again I promise.” Felix spoke first, grabbing onto Seungmin’s arm for support.

“That was scary. You better not ever shove each other around like that again.” Jeongin threatened, crossing his arms.

“We won’t. We love each other. I shouldn’t have wrestled Lixie so bad. His pretty self isn’t made for that stuff.” Seungmin smiled softly, patting Felix’s hand twice.

“I’m glad to see you’re back to getting along.” Jeongin said simply, still a little unable to shake off their earlier argument.

Felix sat down on the couch, dragging Seungmin down with him. He wrapped his arms around the younger and held him close. Jeongin wondered if they were making a show of it, but he was fine with it as long as they were getting along. Minho entered a little later, smiling fondly at the sight of Seungmin and Felix tangled up together. He knew they were back to their normal behavior and he was clearly relieved.

“How are you doing, Innie?” He asked, walking over to Jeongin and standing beside the couch.

“I’m ok. Just wondering if all that cuddling is for show. You didn’t tell them to do that, right?” Jeongin asked, still skeptical of the sudden turnaround.

“No, I actually found them like that outside earlier. You know they can’t stay mad for long. I think they really feel bad about it.” Minho said quietly.

“I don’t know what got into them, but I’m glad it passed over quickly.” Jeongin sighed in relief.

Everything seemed normal for the next hour, so Jeongin went to work out and came back to shower and eat dinner. Everyone ate dinner together and talked and laughed together as if nothing ever happened earlier. Jeongin was relieved to see everyone being ok again. After dinner, Jeongin made his way to his room. It took Seungmin a while to join him in his room since he started playing a card game with Felix. Jeongin was glad they were hanging out together outside of his view. Finally, Seungmin entered Jeongin’s room and smiled as he got into bed with him.

“Hey, Innie. You ok?” He whispered, still sitting up instead of laying on Jeongin.

“I’m ok. That was just a lot earlier. You got really scary. I’ve never seen you get that possessive. You must really like me or something.” Jeongin teased to lighten the mood.

“I do.” Seungmin said plainly.

“Then come cuddle me.” Jeongin opened his arms up, which Seungmin happily fell into. They both fell asleep, unknowing of the situation that would occur while they were sleeping.

——

Day 20 ½

Felix felt horrible about the situation earlier. He knew he and Seungmin made up, but he had always been someone who needed extra reassurance after arguments. Felix got out of his bed around ten o’clock to go join Seungmin in his room for the night. He thought some cuddles would help both of them feel better after everything. Felix walked down the hallway and knocked on Seungmin’s door. He waited a minute and knocked again. After the third knock, he slowly opened the door, thinking Seungmin was asleep.

“Seungmin?” He called out, looking inside the door.

Felix couldn’t quite make out Seungmin in his room, so he crept over to his bed. Felix looked over the empty bed and blinked a few times before he determined what he was seeing. Seungmin wasn’t there. Where could he possibly have gone? He knew Jeongin was already asleep so Seungmin couldn’t be in there. Felix decided to walk to Minho’s room to see if they were in there together.

“Minho hyung? Is Seungminnie with you?” Felix asked, knocking on the door.

Minho opened the door with a confused expression on his face. “No. Why would he be?”

“He’s not in his room. Jeongin’s sleeping so I don’t wanna disturb him to ask if he’s seen him.” Felix explained, nervously fidgeting.

“Oh Seungmin’s probably not in his room because he’s in…he’s probably with the others!” Minho paused, quickly adding on the suggestion.

“Oh yeah! Let me call them.” Felix said, quickly pulling his phone out and calling Hyunjin.

“Hey, Felix. What’s up?” Hyunjin answered the phone.

“Is Seungmin over there? Minho hyung and I are trying to find him.” Felix replied.

“Uh…no. Haven’t seen him since practice.” Hyunjin said with a concerned tone.

“So no one knows where Seungmin is?” Felix asked, worry lacing his voice as well.

“He probably just went for a walk. He’s a grown man. He can handle himself.” Hyunjin reassured him. “On second thought, an idol walking the streets alone at night sounds like a terrible idea. We should look for him.”

“We’ll be right over.” Felix ended the call and looked at Minho. “Let’s let Jeonginnie sleep. We don’t need to put all this worry on him after we already stressed him out today. Besides, this is probably my fault Seungmin’s missing. Maybe he didn’t really recover.”

“Hey, it’s gonna be ok. I doubt this has anything to do with what happened earlier. You two have been inseparable since.” Minho tried to give Felix a small smile.

The two left to go meet the others halfway between their respective homes. Minho felt horrible for lying about not knowing where Seungmin was, but he promised he wouldn’t expose that secret. Besides, they wouldn’t go too far before Seungmin answered the texts they just sent, right?

“Hyunjinnie!” Felix called out, rushing towards Hyunjin and throwing himself in his arms when he saw him.

“The others are behind me. I sent Seungmin a message and he hadn’t responded yet.” Hyunjin informed them while hugging Felix back.

“We sent some too while we were on our way. No luck.” Minho replied.

“Yo wassup?” Jisung greeted them, patting Felix on the shoulder and quickly taking a spot by Minho’s side.

“Well this is an unusual situation.” Changbin joined them as well.

“We should split up. Minho and Han, Hyunjin and Felix, and myself and Changbin. Everyone happy?” Chan entered and quickly started directing them.

“Extremely.” Jisung nodded, lacing his fingers through Minho’s.

“We meet back in thirty minutes. Let’s cover ground fast. We all know how much Seungmin likes to wander around. He could be anywhere.” Bang Chan said and walked off with Changbin who kept the mood light by rapping something to himself.

Felix and Hyunjin departed which left Jisung and Minho alone. Jisung wasn’t moving which made Minho start to wonder what was happening. Now wasn’t the time for him to start playing around. Even if Minho knew the truth, Jisung surely didn’t. He should be rushing to cover ground as well.

“Can I admit something to you before I explode? I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone including you, but I’m kinda dying here with all this excitement.” Jisung practically bursted out once everyone was out of sight.

“Yeah, anything.” Minho replied, suddenly curious what was so important for Jisung to tell.

“Seungmin wasn’t anywhere to be found because he’s been sleeping with Jeongin.” Jisung admitted in a fast-paced voice.

“How do you know that?” Minho asked, trying to keep the shock out of his voice in case it was just speculation.

“Seungmin told me. He admitted what was happening that one night I came over and we watched some kind of horror movie a bit back. I stole some chocolate covered strawberries from Jeongin and he told me later he was about to confess to him. Man I really shouldn’t be saying all this to you, but you gotta be my voice of reason.” Jisung explained everything.

“I’ve known too. Jeongin told me after I saw them together one night. We’ve had talks about his feelings and he’s been slowly accepting the way he feels about him. I don’t wanna risk coming between that by telling the others.” Minho sighed, looking down at the ground.

“Oh man this really sucks. If we don’t tell them, they’re gonna spend all night searching for Seungmin and stress out really badly only for him to suddenly appear back home and confuse everyone. If we do tell them, we get in trouble for not saying something sooner and they probably get an embarrassing talk from Chan hyung. Either way they’re probably gonna find out. Should we just rip the bandaid off?” Jisung rambled, trying to decide what the right thing to do was.

“I don’t wanna betray them like that. They both had us swear not to tell anyone.” Minho reasoned, guilt weighing heavily on him.

“Then let’s keep it to ourselves. Maybe we somehow suggest waking up Jeongin? Then they’ll see for themselves and we won’t technically be telling them.” Jisung suggested.

“That’s a good idea. They really don’t wanna worry Jeongin, but I bet they’ll decide to wake him up anyway once they can’t find Seungmin on this search.” Minho said, looking up to meet Jisung’s eyes.

“Then let’s just walk around for a bit and pretend we came up with nothing.” Jisung responded, grabbing Minho’s hand again and taking off in the direction they were supposed to be searching anyway.

After the allotted time, the pairs slowly began returning. Everyone wore a worried expression and hated to see each other walking up without Seungmin with them. Minho and Jisung were the last to join, both of them feigning worry on their faces as well.

“I know we were trying to let Jeongin sleep, but he deserves to know.” Minho pointed out, putting just the right amount of worry in his tone.

“We already stressed the maknae out enough today. Why would we add someone else into this?” Felix asked with a frown.

“Why wouldn’t we add someone else into this? The more people we have, the better chance we have at finding Seungmin.” Jisung replied.

“That’s a good point.” Felix said, his hand going to his chin in thought.

“I say let’s go wake Innie.” Changbin declared, already starting off in that direction.

Soon enough, everyone was following after. Felix unlocked the door for them and everyone filed in. Minho and Jisung exchanged a look, continuing to follow in the back of the group. Bang Chan’s hand went to the doorknob, turning it to step in and wake up Jeongin. To his surprise, he saw Seungmin there and quickly closed the door with a blush.

“What’d you do that for?” Changbin complained.

“It’s Seungmin. He’s in there.” Chan explained, stepping away from the door.

“No way.” Changbin scoffed, opening the door. “Holy shit.”

“Seriously? They’re all cuddled up too.” Hyunjin pointed out, taking a look inside as well.

“I can’t believe we didn’t just wake up Jeongin to begin with. We spent all that time looking for nothing.” Jisung said, trying to sound in disbelief.

“What’s going on?” Jeongin suddenly woke up and looked at the entrance of his door.

“Run!” Jisung said in a panic. Minho was quick to grab his wrist so he couldn’t.

“We were looking for Seungmin everywhere but he’s with you.” Felix stated the obvious.

“Guys? Everyone’s here?” Seungmin woke up as well, sitting up as fast as he could as if that would help the situation.

“Are you guys like together or something?” Changbin asked, oblivious to the inappropriate question.

“What do you mean?!” Jeongin yelped, also pulling himself up.

“Let’s not be asking questions like that. We just woke them up after all. We can talk in the morning.” Chan stated, embarrassment obvious on his face.

“No, there’s nothing to talk about.” Seungmin claimed.

“Wait a second! Is that why you bought an extra nightstand?! Because Seungmin sleeps with you?! Aww that’s so cute!” Felix exclaimed.

“You bought an extra nightstand for him? Oh we’ve got another Jisung and Minho hyung situation on our hands.” Hyunjin laughed.

“Everyone, chill out. We solved the mystery and now we can leave them be.” Bang Chan tried to get the situation under control.

“I sleep in Jeongin’s room now. That’s all I have to say.” Seungmin boldly admitted.

“Maybe we should drop it.” Minho suggested gently.

“Can we please get some sleep?” Jeongin requested, not even caring now that the secret was out. He just hoped Seungmin would stay.

“Let’s all head back. We could all use some sleep.” Chan agreed. “Goodnight, guys.”

“Have fun!” Felix giggled, running off to his room.

“Sleep well. I know you guys will.” Hyunjin teased, following Bang Chan out.

One by one, everyone slowly left. Minho waved at the two and closed their door before he left being the last one. Seungmin looked at Jeongin briefly before cuddling back up to him like nothing happened. Jeongin let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding when he had Seungmin back in his hold. He was so afraid to let anyone find out because he thought the whole thing would fall apart. They could finally go back to sleep and worry about this more in the morning.

——

Day 21

When Jeongin woke up, Seungmin was already gone. He figured he was already explaining himself to everyone. Jeongin pulled himself out of bed and got changed to head to the living room. Jeongin paused in the hallway before he got there, listening for any conversation. When he couldn’t hear any, he walked in and saw no one was home. Jeongin pulled out his phone to see a text from Bang Chan asking him to come over.

“Shit.” Jeongin mumbled, shoving his phone in the pocket and heading to where everyone else probably was.

“Nice of you to finally join us.” Jisung teased when Jeongin entered.

“You haven’t been waiting all that long. No one came to wake me…as I see is a common theme.” Jeongin grumbled that last part.

“So we need to talk about safe sex.” Changbin deadpanned, his lips wobbling while trying not to laugh.

“I’m out of here.” Jeongin declared, heading back to the door.

Everyone burst out laughing at Changbin’s antics, but Jeongin felt a familiar hand on his wrist and stopped. He turned around to face the serious eyes of Seungmin. He communicated without a single word. Jeongin immediately knew he needed to stay. Jeongin sat on a large chair likely meant for one person, but he and Seungmin both fit together on it tightly.

“In all seriousness, we owe you an apology, Jeonginnie. We’ve been treating you like you can’t handle simple things and it’s gone too far. We should’ve woken you up yesterday and we should let you handle yourself a little bit more.” Chan started out, to Jeongin’s surprise.

“We’ve been taking things overboard with the maknae treatment as of lately. Something must be in the air.” Jisung added.

“Seungmin expressed how safe he felt with you, and it made us realize how much we’ve been underestimating you. We can see how you’ve been wanting to care for others too and we’ve not been letting you.” Changbin explained.

“Guys, it’s not that big of a deal. It was one day I talked to Chan and told him I wanted to be allowed to care for others the same way everyone cared for me. I didn’t think anyone was infantilizing me.” Jeongin assured them.

“Now that we’ve addressed that, let’s address the elephant in the room.” Bang Chan steered the conversation elsewhere.

“You mean Changbin?” Seungmin joked, playfully jabbing Changbin in the side.

“Ay! Be nice to your hyung!” Changbin complained, a smile on his lips.

“Are you guys like…together?” Felix asked the question everyone wanted to know.

“Not that I know of.” Jeongin said at the same time Seungmin said, “Last time I checked we weren’t.”

“Ok. You know we aren’t gonna judge or anything. We just gotta go over logistics and keep things under cover.” Bang Chan said with a raised eyebrow.

“We know. We’re not new here.” Seungmin said playfully.

“Well if everyone’s all good, we’ve got breakfast. We grabbed some cinnamon rolls from the shop.” Chan said with a smile.

Everyone quickly scrambled to grab the best cinnamon roll which led to another play-fight between Minho and Seungmin. Everyone erupted with laughter while Jeongin couldn’t help but sit back and think everything over. He couldn’t understand the entire point of everything, but he had basically gotten their blessing for dating Seungmin from all their words. He was becoming more and more sure that was something he wanted. With the support of his members, he knew what he had to do.

Later that day, Jeongin asked Seungmin to come to his room a little early. He looked over the display of the sweet treat he bought Seungmin sitting on his respective nightstand. He was going to confess to Seungmin the same way he was sure Seungmin was going to confess to him the first time. He thought it would make up for their interruption. Seungmin entered the room as usual, stopping when he saw a piece of cake on his nightstand.

“Did you buy this for me?” Seungmin asked, approaching the cake with a sparkle in his eyes.

“Yeah I hope you like it. I remember you ordering this kind once.” Jeongin nodded, fidgeting in his lap a bit.

“You really didn’t have to.” Seungmin assured him, picking up the plate anyway and sitting on the bed.

“I know. You didn’t have to buy me anything either but you still did. I’m just returning the favor.” Jeongin smiled softly, meeting Seungmin’s eyes for just a moment before pulling his nervous gaze away.

“Jeongin, I…” Seungmin started to speak, but Jeongin stopped him.

“Listen, I don’t know if I’m reading this wrong, but…” Jeongin started out.

“You’re not.” Seungmin cut him off quickly.

“You know this is gonna change everything.” Jeongin whispered, fear in his voice.

“Will it though? We already sleep together and go out on dates. The only thing that will change is the fact I can finally kiss you.” Seungmin suddenly looked up at Jeongin, placing the plate of cake back on his nightstand.

“Then hurry up and do it already.” Jeongin commanded, one of his hands already falling to Seungmin’s waist.

Seungmin didn’t have to be told twice. He threw his arms around Jeongin’s neck and joined his lips to the younger’s. He was overly eager and Jeongin could tell in the way he kissed desperately as if he’d been waiting forever. Jeongin tried to keep up with Seungmin, falling behind a little bit and just letting Seungmin take what he wanted. He knew he had made him wait for way longer than he wanted to. The two remained like that until Seungmin pulled away, his eyes glazed over and a stupid smile on his face.

“Desperate much?” Jeongin teased, running his fingers through Seungmin’s hair.

“My romantic confessions only got interrupted countless times. Plus you don’t even know how long I wanted you before I started sleeping in your room. My nightmare was just a good excuse to finally get closer to you.” Seungmin admitted.

“I never minded. It’s actually been really nice to have your company. I like it way better than being alone. It’s why I never kicked you out.” Jeongin confessed.

“I was hoping you’d confess on your own, but it took you forever. You’ve been staring at my lips for weeks.” Seungmin giggled, clearly proud of himself.

“How could I not?! If I’d known you kiss like you’re never going to kiss again, I would’ve done that so much sooner.” Jeongin laughed, gently holding the back of Seungmin’s head.

“Then do it again already.” Seungmin demanded, laughter overtaking him.

Jeongin tugged Seungmin back to his lips, being careful to take the lead despite Seungmin’s messy kissing. The two remained like that, exchanging quiet confessions and kisses late into the night. Seungmin finally laid on Jeongin’s chest, exhausted from all of their activity. The cake was long forgotten, but Seungmin had tasted something so much more satisfying. Seungmin fell asleep for the 21st night, but Jeongin knew there would be many more to come. Before Jeongin fell asleep, one quick message was sent to the group chat…

‘Funny story. Seungmin and I are actually together now.’