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Soonyoung always carried his lip balm around him. He liked the feeling of having smooth lips and it made him so much more confident kissing his boyfriend with nice soft lips. He also knew how much Jihoon loved them as he swore he saw the other’s wallpaper as the picture of him pressing his lips onto the glass wearing bright red lipstick.
But of course, the members loved to fool around with Soonyoung and decided to hide his lip balm.
It started off as a simple dare from Seokmin to Seungkwan one day when they were heavy at practice and had a five minute break. Soonyoung, typical of him as performance unit leader, was still taking the five minute break to practice. Seokmin and Seungkwan sat at the back of the room and it so happened that they were right next to Soonyoung’s duffle which was wide open, the lip balm in clear sight.
“I dare you to take it while he’s not looking,” Seokmin nudged with a smirk and glimmering eyes.
“Hyung, you do it. I don’t want to get him upset,” Seungkwan whined softly, not wanting to alarm the other members.
“Imagine his reaction, it’s probably gonna be quite funny knowing him. Who knows, maybe he won’t kiss Jihoon hyung with his ugly lips and we won’t have to cringe every time we see them acting lovey dovey.”
Seokmin winked at the other and Seungkwan obliged and hid the lip balm in his own duffle bag before returning to practice.
“Thank you guys for staying a little bit late,” Soonyoung says to the performance team as the rest of Seventeen has already left.
“It’s fine, hyung. We’d probably be waiting to use the bathroom anyways, so polishing up some choreography sounds better anyways,” Chan says with a smile as he grabs his stuff.
The leader nods as he shoos them away, promising he needs only another 10 minutes, which turned into 30, but at least it wasn’t another 2 hours. The one time he had stayed that long led to Jihoon getting upset at him because he was promised sexy time, but Soonyoung came home dead tired and not willing.
He grabbed his duffel and chugged down his water, not noticing that his lip balm was gone just yet.
“Where could it be?” Soonyoung muttered as he searched his duffel bag, making a huge mess as he threw its contents wherever.
“Where is what, hyung?” Seokmin innocently asked as he squatted next to him.
“My lip balm! I always put some on before I go to bed and it’s not here.”
“Did you leave it in the practice room?”
“Maybe…I don't really remember.”
Soonyoung shook his head as he closed his duffel and headed off to his room. Luckily, Seokmin and Seungkwan were sleeping in the other room and Seokmin ran to the bunk beds muffling his laugh.
“What? What’s going on?” Chan asked as he sat up from his bed.
“Seungkwan and I are pulling a prank on Soonyoung hyung, you wanna join?”
And that is how the terrible duo brought everyone in on stealing Soonyoung’s precious lip balm.
A few days went by and Soonyoung’s lip condition got worse. Everytime he would buy a lip balm, he would apply a coat and put it somewhere else, in which one of the members would secretly take it and he would be once again without any lip treatment.
Soonyoung had a horrible habit of licking his lips which is why he started using lip balm. But his habit of licking his lips led to them getting irritated after going out and drying up, which led to him rubbing his lips often, which led to cracked chapped lips.
His lips were ugly and he hated it.
Jihoon went up to him several times, trying to display some sort of affection. Holding hands, hugging, and cuddling were all okay, but once he tried kissing Soonyoung, the other would immediately purse his lips and look the other way. If Jihoon asked about it, Soonyoung would simply avoid the question all together.
I mean, how could Soonyoung easily say “my lips are ugly and gross don’t kiss me”? He couldn’t and he felt bad but he felt unconfident because of his boyfriend’s love for his lips.
He tried everything to fix them. Exfoliating with a toothbrush was something he read online, and yes, it made his lips peel, but they still felt uncomfortable. He tried using lotion and moisturizer to balm his lips, but the products only irritated his lips and made them feel weird.
Soonyoung had spent too much money than necessary on lip balm. Once he realized he kept misplacing them, he tried keeping the lip balm next to him 24/7 but the next morning, it was gone. Everytime he tried to mention it to the members, they acted like they didn’t know anything and said they had their own lip balm. He would search the practice rooms and find nothing. Honestly, he blamed the trainees and had a feeling they were the ones taking them or maybe just throwing them away.
Jihoon noticed his boyfriend getting distressed, but didn’t want to say anything to get him more upset. However, as days passed, Jihoon felt himself grow more angsty that after a dance practice, when Soonyoung refused to kiss Jihoon, he couldn’t help but burst in front of all of the members.
“WHY WON’T YOU KISS ME WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” Jihoon yelled as he backed away from his boyfriend. If anyone didn’t know any better and didn’t hear what Jihoon yelled, the situation could have easily been read as a child having a hissy fit with his older brother.
Soonyoung blinked at the other’s sudden yelling and blushed as he looked around at the members, who were all looking at him.
“Jihoon, not here in front of the members,” he hushed.
“I don’t care!” Jihoon hissed as he glared at his boyfriend, “I haven’t gotten any kisses from you in such a long time. And not just kisses, I haven’t gotten any sexy time either for no reason! Or at least, not a reason that has been told to me!”
The Seventeen members snickered as they heard “sexy time,” while Soonyoung looked at the floor and rubbed his face in embarrassment.
“Babe, okay listen to me.”
Jihoon crossed his arms and looked up at the other, squinting his eyes.
“I’m listening.”
“I’ve been eating garlicky foods, so my breath stinks,” he said, awkwardly smiling at the other who was obviously not buying it.
“Bullshit. You wouldn’t eat garlicky food for this long. I know you. COME ON TELL ME THE REAL REASON. IS IT BECAUSE I’M UGLY. I MEAN I GET THAT, BUT.”
Soonyoung furrowed his eyebrows, especially at the last part and pulled the other into a hug, his head leaning on Jihoon’s just a bit.
“You’re so cute, handsome, beautiful, stunning. I can go on and on. Why did you say that?”
“I mean… why else wouldn’t you want to kiss me? I thought you loved kissing me…” Jihoon pouted as he held onto the other’s shirt from the back.
“I do… I just didn’t want to show you an unattractive side of me because I’m supposed to be hot and cool to you. I mean I am hot and cool, but not with these ugly chapped lips and I know you like my lips an--”
“WHO SAID I LIKED YOUR LIPS,” Jihoon interrupted, “AND WHO SAID YOU’RE HOT AND COOL,” he softly muttered as he blushed, "You're gross."
Soonyoung smiled as he let go, noticing the other’s mood was lifted a little more as he was denying everything that he liked about the other.
“Don’t act like I never saw your home screen wallpaper, okay?” He teased with a nagging finger, “But you understand right?”
Jihoon paused and looked at the other before catching him off guard and kissing him anyways. Just a small peck on the lips before pulling away and smiling.
“Dumbass.”
Soonyoung rubbed his lips as he tilted his head, confused.
“What?”
“I like kissing you not because of your lips, which I admit are nice, but if I only liked kissing soft pretty lips, I’d also be all over Jeonghan.”
“HEY MY MAN. NOT YOURS,” Seungcheol interrupted, receiving a glare from Jihoon.
“Yeah, yeah. Not the point. I like kissing you because it’s you. I like kissing Kwon Soonyoung. Kwon Soonyoung’s lips, chapped or unchapped, are my favorite. And besides, I was never one to complain about things getting a little rough, if you know what I mean,” he chuckled with a wink.
Retching sounds are heard in the room from the 11 other members still inside, invested in this dramatic conversation.
“Shut up!” Soonyoung yelled before kissing his boyfriend, not feeling unconfident like before. He leaned forward as they kissed and he sucked sweetly on Jihoon’s lips, feeling an even bigger surge of love towards him.
“Lets do this somewhere not in front of them,” Jihoon muttered as he pulled away and looked at the members who were awkwardly laughing.
Soonyoung agreed and grabbed the duffel bag closest to him, assuming it was his, but no it wasn’t as he accidentally tipped it over and revealed all of the different brands of lip balm he had bought this whole time.
The room fell silent as Soonyoung’s eyes widened. He immediately searched the bag to find some sort of identification and there was a wallet with the ID of Lee Seokmin.
“LEE SEOKMIN. YOU’RE DEAD TO ME,” Soonyoung raged. He looked around only to see that the said man was already gone.
Previously, a group of ten people gathered to discuss where to put all the stolen lip balm and cackled as they pinned it on the one who started it all.