Chapter Text
PROMPT: being best friends with taeyong. he gets jealous of you hanging out with another guy friend and confesses. (fluff)
“you know, we should hang out in my room too sometimes. my mom is starting to think we’re dating and i’m keeping it a secret from her or something.” you mumble sleepily, punctuating the sentence with a yawn.
it is yet another lazy sunday afternoon you are spending doing nothing productive in your best friend taeyong’s room. at the moment, you’re effortlessly kicking his ass at mario kart while he bites his lower lip in deep concentration, glaring at the screen in hopes it boosts his character’s speed.
“i don’t care what your mom thinks about us, there’s no way i’m setting a foot inside that messy hell hole you call a room. not again.”
“come on it’s not that messy,” you say, elbowing him playfully.
taeyong makes a disgusted face and hits you back. “not that messy? i found a moldy pizza under your bed once.”
“that was years ago, stop brining it up.” you elbow him again, making him lose his balance and lose the game. again.
you burst out laughing and after a moment of frowning at you, he starts laughing too, giving you a soft shove when your laughter gets even louder.
he gets up to turn off the console and just then your phone beeps. you look around, not remembering where you left it when you arrived hours before, and when you finally spot it on the desk you reach for it and unlock it to see who has texted you.
you aren’t exactly antisocial but you pretty much only ever hang out with taeyong outside of school so you are kind of confused when you see you have a message from johnny.
“oh.”
taeyong turns to look at you with a raised eyebrow. “oh?”
“um. you know johnny? from calculus?”
“the american kid, yeah. what about him?” he asks, walking past you to open the window. spring days have been getting warmer and warmer lately.
“he just texted me asking if i want to hang out with him tonight. huh.” you look at taeyong just in time to catch the slight downward curl of his lip. “what do i do?”
“why are you asking me? do YOU want to hang out with him?”
“well. i mean. i wouldn’t mind getting to know him better? he seems nice. plus, he’s cute.” you reason, looking directly at taeyong. his eyes widen for a second and then he’s looking away.
truth is, you’ve been crushing on your best friend since you first laid eyes on him, when you were both thirteen and you were one of the quiet nerds while he was the attractive but shady kid sitting in the back of the class, with numerous rumors and a bad reputation preceding him. he’s changed since then, no longer one of the bad boys, but the “cool” and “mysterious” guy instead.
your friendship had blossomed after you had confronted him for making fun of your accent. he always says he had apologized only because of how scary you looked when you were angry. since then, he had started clinging to you, always talking to you and wanting to know more and more about you. he had even started walking you home and randomly showing up at your house whenever he was bored.
neither of you questioned your weird friendship, but in the past few years it had grown to be an unbreakable bond and you found yourself wanting no one other than him by your side at all times.
now, after years of friendship, you know you can’t crush on him forever. so maybe if you get to know that johnny guy better you’ll fall in love with him instead. it’s worth a shot.
“i’m gonna tell him that i’d love to hang out.” you shrug and get up. taeyong doesn’t look at you. “i should get going. i need to take a shower or something.”
“yeah, you do that. you smell terrible.” taeyong has started playing with his phone and he still won’t even glance at you. but unlike when you were thirteen, you’re used to his mood swings now, so you laugh and leave.
★★★
johnny is everything you could ever ask for. he’s tall and handsome and intelligent and talented and caring and funny and just plain amazing. he’s the kind of guy anyone would fall for.
but he’s not taeyong.
throughout the entire date johnny is able to make you laugh, and blush, and get lost in his eyes. but not for a single second do you stop thinking about taeyong.
at the end of the night johnny holds your hand and walks you home, makes you look up at the night sky and tells you about the stars and their meaning. it reminds you of when taeyong bought you a star projector for your birthday and you two spent the entire night cuddling in a blanket fort looking up at the ceiling, making up names and meanings for each star and constellation.
when you finally arrive at your doorstep, johnny smiles at you and kisses your cheek. it’s perfect.
you kinda feel like crying.
“did you have fun tonight?” he asks, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. your eyes start to water slightly and he notices, smile falling quickly to be replaced by a worried frown. “oh god don’t cry, please.” he wipes a tear with his thumb and cradles your face in his palms. “like i kinda knew my mom was exaggerating when she said im the most handsome young man in the universe but im not that ugly, am i?? please stop crying.”
he sounds so desperate and you can’t help but let out a chuckle in between the sobs. he sighs in relief.
“you’re really handsome.” you giggle softly, rubbing your wet eyes when he lets go of your face, holding your hands instead.
“i know i am.” he shrugs one shoulder with a lazy smirk on his face. it makes you laugh again. he squeezes your small hands in his big ones. “hey”
“hey.”
“is this because you’re in love with taeyong?”
you choke on your spit and start coughing a little. he starts cackling loudly and pats your back.
“i’m not- i- i don’t- taeyong is- i’m-”
“hey, hey, it’s fine,” he laughs. “i mean, i was hoping i could steal you away from him, but i see you guys really are in love each other, damn.”
“huh? no, taeyong isn’t-”
“good night, ______”, he kisses your cheek and walks away, leaving you standing on your doorstep, completely and utterly speechless.
you can’t believe johnny seo knows about your crush on taeyong. does that mean everyone else knows? and does that mean taeyong has noticed too and not acknowledging it is his polite way of turning you down and trying to maintain your friendship?
you’ve been standing there for god knows how long when you finally realize it’s late and it’s cold so you go inside and try to sleep.
★★★
surprisingly, johnny and you start hanging out a lot after that day. even if you don’t have any romantic feelings towards him, he’s still able to make you laugh so hard you can’t breath properly. you have a lot of things in common, plus you’re both annoyingly sarcastic and witty. you make a great duo.
taeyong doesn’t think so.
these days you go out a lot. it’s usually just you, taeyong, johnny, and ten hanging out at the mall.
you met ten through johnny, and instantly had a connection. he’s a thai boy around your age, with a name a little bit hard to pronounce and an habit of getting very touchy very quick. he talks a lot and gets very excited about certain topics (mostly shinee and basketball) and you can’t help but reciprocate his skinship and his energy.
taeyong seems to adapt well enough to your new friends. ten likes him a lot and taeyong likes him too, likes his energy as much as you do. he jokes with him and smiles at ten’s exaggerated hand movements when he talks.
but with johnny… well, he doesn’t hate him. at least you don’t think he does. and that’s good enough.
but sometimes you’d like to know what’s going through taeyong’s head when he scowls at johnny making you laugh or holding your hand. when he glares at the both of you every time you hug. when he bites hard on his bottom lip and looks away whenever you blush at some of johnny’s compliments.
at those times you remember what johnny said about you and taeyong being in love. with each other. and you can’t help but let your mind wander.
★★★
it happens on a warm summer night. johnny invites you over to his house and when you arrive taeyong is already there.
you find yourself sitting in a circle, surrounded by johnny’s friends in his basement. both johnny and taeyong are in front of you, while ten chooses to squeeze himself next to you.
there’s a bunch of kids from your school that you know and have talked to before, like hansol, taeil, irene, joy, doyoung, and jaehyun. but there’s also a few others you don’t recognize, that ten excitedly introduces as part of his “foreign visuals squad”: a japanese guy named yuta, a canadian girl named wendy, and a couple of chinese boys named kun and winwin.
neither you or taeyong are the social type so youre surprised to see both of you having no problem interacting with these new acquaintances and quickly becoming friends with them.
but soon things take an awkward turn when ten appears out of nowhere (when did he even leave?) with an empty soju bottle, sitting next to you again, and placing it in the middle.
“give it a spin, doyoung!” he says, and doyoung raises an eyebrow before shrugging and spinning the bottle. it stops on jaehyun and everyone let’s out a giggle and ten starts clapping really loudly.
“seven minutes in the closet! go!”
doyoung’s face goes beet red but jaehyun just smirks lazily and gets up, walking to the closet. doyoung follows quietly.
seven minutes pass and the two boys come out a little breathless, but no one comments on it except ten, who snickers loudly.
for the next half an hour more couples go into the closet. you’re growing more and more nervous with every spin because it hasn’t been your turn yet and you’re not sure you wanna go in there with anyone. you barely know most of these people and it would be incredibly awkward.
“you’re next, ______!” irene says. you’d been spacing out and hadn’t noticed her seven minutes with kun were up.
you hesitantly reach for the bottle and spin it. you close your eyes. it feels like it’s spinning forever while you pray for it to land on ten so you won’t have to deal with any awkward tension. ten flirts a lot but he knows you aren’t into him like that and he wouldn’t push your boundaries.
“hell yeah, finally!” you hear johnny say and suddenly your eyes are wide open and staring at him.
“i-”
you watch him get up and smile at you and you don’t know what to do so you just stare open-mouthed at him for a few seconds not knowing what to do before suddenly there’s someone grabbing your hand and helping you up and leading you to the closet and wow it’s so dark what is happening.
click.
the small closet is now bathed in a weak yellow light and taeyong is in front of you, frowning and biting his lips and unnervingly quiet.
“taeyong?”
“don’t hate me.”
“wha-”
but you don’t get to finish your question because his lips are on yours but he’s not moving and neither are you and oh god has he stopped breathing?
the kiss is but a mere press of lips but it floods your stomach with a sense of relief that you can’t explain. it doesn’t last more than a few seconds and taeyong is pulling away far too quickly for you to be able to kiss him back.
taeyong is staring at you with big uncertain eyes in complete silence and you have no idea what to say except, “what.”
he sighs and you hear a whisper that sounds suspiciously like fuck it. “i like you.”
“what.”
“i like you, you dumbass. i’ve liked you for the longest time. fuck, i’ve liked you before we even became friends. and i tried to not act on it, god knows i tried. so hard. but then i saw you with that johnny guy and he clings so much to you and hugs you and kisses your hand and now he wanted to get into a closet with you and make out with you for seven fucking minutes and i just-”
you shut him up with a kiss. and this time it’s him who doesn’t expect it.
“i like you, too, nerd.”
it takes him a moment to process the thought but suddenly he’s kissing you again and when you pull away he chases your lips, circling his arms around your hips and bringing you closer to him. your arms snake around his neck and you feel yourself smile into the kiss when he squeezes you against his chest. you break the kiss to breathe and he hides his face in your neck.
“why are we so stupid,” he asks, lips brushing your skin and making you shiver.
“i never imagined you’d feel the same and i didn’t want to ruin our friendship.” you whisper.
“i thought you liked johnny.”
“everyone likes johnny. he’s dreamy.”
“fuck johnny.”
“i would,” you tease. he slaps your butt playfully and pulls away to stare at you with a smirk on his face.
“i think we have two minutes left. let’s make the most of it.”