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Okay, everyone, it's time to vote for what we want to eat tonight. Throw out some suggestions, I’ll write them down, and we’ll vote. The members filed into the living room, sitting on the couches while Junseo crouched in front of the coffee table.
“I want pizza!” shouted Anxin. “Can we have fried chicken tonight?” asked Xinlong. “I think kimchi jjigae is a good option, added Sangwon. “Any other suggestions? Junseo asked while looking around the room with his eyes landing on Jiahao.
“Actually, Hyung, could we go out for hot pot?” Jiahao asked softly. “Okay", Junseo said without taking his eyes off the cherry-haired man.
Let's close our eyes and vote. “Who wants fried chicken?” Xinlong and Leo raised their hands. “Who wants pizza?” Anxin, Geonwoo, and Sanghyeon raised their hands. “Who wants kimchi jjigae?” Only Sangwon raised his hand. “Who wants hot pot?” Only Jiahao raised his hand.
“Okay, you can open your eyes. It looks like we’ll be going out for hot pot tonight”, Junseo beamed.
Jiahao smiled to himself as the meal he had suggested had won again. He was starting to think that he had a knack for this sort of thing. It seemed like every time the team had to vote for something, his option won unanimously.
When Sanghyeon and Anxin returned to their rooms, Sanghyeon flopped onto the bed with a sigh. “He did it again, hyung! I was peeking this time! Only Jiahao hyung wanted hot pot”, he groaned. “Junseo hyung really has it bad, Anxin agreed while grabbing his shoes and mask to take down stairs.
“Do you think we should talk to him?” Sanghyeon asked while pushing himself up from the bed. “You think hyung doesn’t know how obvious he’s being?” Anxin asked. “He stares at Jiahao hyung like he has stars in his eyes. I doubt he even notices us when we’re in the room with them,” said Sanghyeon.
“Is everyone ready to go?” they heard Junseo yell up the stairs. “Let’s go, Sanghyeon, if we don’t get in the car before Hao ge, Junseo hyung might tell the driver to go ahead without us,” he joked.
The two maknaes ran down the stairs to meet up with the rest of the members. Everyone was ready to go except for Jiahao, who was still in his room. “You guys can go ahead to the car, and I’ll see what he’s doing”, stated Junseo.
Junseo walked up the stairs and down to his shared room with Jiahao. He knocked on the door lightly before hearing a gentle “come in”. He opened the door carefully to see Jiahao sitting on the bed, staring into their closet, looking confused.
“What’s wrong?” Junseo asked in a concerned voice. “Hyung, you know how some restaurants are hot and others are colder? I don’t know what I should wear. I don’t want to wear a shirt that’s too thin, a shirt that’s too thick, or to carry around a jacket”, Jiahao said in a sigh. “How about this, Hao, you keep on the shirt you have, and if you get cold, I’ll give you my jacket. If it gets too hot, you can give it back, so you don’t have to carry it around afterwards,” Junseo proposed.
“Really? You’d do that for me, Hyung?” Jiahao said while throwing his arms around the older man.
Junseo wanted to tell him that he’d do anything for him, but held back.
The two of them headed downstairs to the car and joined the others inside the car. Upon arriving at the restaurant, each of the members exited the vehicle while slipping on their masks.
Jiahao was the only person who had forgotten to grab some on the way out of the apartment earlier. Without even having to ask if anyone had an extra one, Junseo was slipping him one from the extras he had packed in his bag.
After being seated, the guys placed their order for drinks and chatted lively about finally making their debut next week. When the waitress had come back with their drinks, she placed them in front of everyone quickly before leaving to attend to another table. Jiahao stared at his drink and looked around the table. He wasn’t someone to complain if his order had been gotten wrong, but Junseo beat him to it. “That isn’t what you ordered, right, Hao?” Junseo asked. “No hyung,” he said simply. “Here, switch with me, I know how much you love strawberry lemonade. Besides, I love raspberry tea”, he said, already leaning over the table to swap the drinks.
Everyone except for Jiahao seemed to notice how much fuss Junseo seemed to make over ensuring that the younger man’s needs were met; he didn’t even have to open his mouth for Junseo to do something. Their hyung seemed to just do it, as if it were an instinct.
When Junseo got up to go to the bathroom, Leo let out a chuckle, “Someone is down bad.” ‘“You’re one to talk, said Geonwoo. “You’re the same when it comes down to Sangwon”, he said pointedly, making Leo and Sangwon blush. Xinlong laughed, “You know that’s exactly what watching Junseo is like, Leo, before he confessed.” The other members at the table agreed.
“What are you guys talking about?” Jiahao asked curiously. Everyone looked at him like he had dropped a dish and broken it. “Hyung, you can’t be serious?” said Sangwon. “You really don’t know ge?” asked Anxin.
“No? Is there something I’m supposed to know?” Jiahao inquired. “Junseo hyung, he’s literally in love with you”, said Sanghyeon. “You don’t see how he always ends up choosing the restaurants you want to go to?” asked Leo. “Or how even if you don’t suggest a restaurant, movie, or activity to do, he always waits for you to, so he can end up choosing that place,” said Xinlong.
Jiahao looked at them shyly before smiling. “So you guys think he likes me back?” he asked.
“WHAT?!”, the entire table roared. “Hyung, all this time I thought this was one-sided,” said Sanghyeon, grabbing his hair while stressing.
“It’s pretty hard not to fall for someone like Junseo,” he takes care of us so well”, Jiahao said dreamily. “Hyung takes care of you so well, you don’t even notice the special treatment,” Xinlong exclaimed.
“Hmmm”, Jiahao pondered while tapping his bottom lip. “I’ll put that theory to the test tonight.”
“What do you mean by that, ge?” Anxin asked cautiously while side-eyeing Sanghyeon.
As if right on cue, Junseo returned from the bathroom, clapping his hands together, “Okay, are we ready to order?” The waitress returned to turn on the pot and bring various seafood meats, dumplings, and vegetables that the members had ordered.
An hour and a half later, the dinner slowed down. There were only a few pieces left in the pot floating around. Junseo had noted that Jiahao was partial to the dumplings. Leo reached in at the same time as Junseo to grab the last one. He tapped the younger one’s chopsticks, making the food fall back into the pot, before picking it up again to feed to Jiahao.
“Hey!” Leo grumbled. “It's okay, hyung, we’ll order you some to-go", Sangwon said while patting his head.
Maybe it was because Jiahao had become aware of Junseo’s crush on him earlier that he felt emboldened to close his eyes and hum while chewing, “This dumpling is especially good, because Junseo hyung fed it to me.” This led the tips of Junseo’s ears to turn red at the comment. Meanwhile, everyone else at the table began hiding their laughs behind forced coughs.
After Sanghyeon reached in to grab and eat the last shrimp, Junseo stood up to pay the bill and load the members back into their car, before heading back to their apartment. When the members arrived home, everyone headed straight for their rooms. With eight people living in one space, there were four bathrooms in each room. So each roommate took turns alternating when they would shower.
Tonight was Junseo’s night to go first. Jiahao sat in the chair at their desk as he waited with his pajamas in hand for his hyung to finish.
He couldn’t believe he was confessing so suddenly. Although he wished Junseo had taken the first step if his affection for him was really that obvious to others, he concluded that maybe Junseo was more of actions speak louder than words kind of guy.
He was disrupted from his thoughts when Junseo exited the bathroom in his pajamas with his hair still wet. Jiahao smiled shyly before entering the bathroom and closing the door behind him.
When he had come back out, he saw Junseo sitting at their vanity mirror, coming through his hair.
“Would you like me to style it for you, hyung?” he offered.
“Sure”, Junseo said while blushing, not trusting himself to say anything more.
“So I heard something interesting today,” Jiahao said while running his fingers through Junseo’s hair.
“What did you hear?” said Junseo, relaxing into the sensation with his eyes half closed.
“The members think that you’re in love with me”, Jiahao said casually. Junseo’s eyes popped open in horror.
“Don’t listen to them, they don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said quickly.
Jiahao leaned down to look at him in the mirror. “Are you denying it because you don’t like me, hyung, or because you’re embarrassed I found out?” he questioned. “The second one,” Junseo said under his breath.
Jiahao hopped up on the desk facing him now. “You don’t have to be embarrassed, hyung, not when I like you too,” he said, taking in the surprised look on Junseo’s face.
“You like me too?” Junseo said, smiling. “I do”, Jiahao confirmed.
“I don’t know what to say. I never pictured this happening, much less so soon,” stated Junseo.
“You don’t have to say anything, just don’t leave my side”, said Jiahao. “I wasn’t planning on it,” Junseo said, gazing into his eyes lovingly while grabbing his hand and squeezing it.