Chapter Text
“You have a crush on Huening Kai.”
The voice across the table from him, accompanied by an accusatory finger, holds so much confidence that Taehyun can’t even begin to deny it. He just drops his lyric writing pen, mouth falling open in sheer shock.
No way. There’s absolutely no way—
“Aha! I knew it!” Beomgyu is entirely too smug, leaning back with his arms waving triumphantly. Does Taehyun need to fight him? “I could tell, oh my god, Taehyun, I—”
The boy’s words are cut off with a hand clapped over his mouth. Soobin’s smile is sheepish and apologetic.
“Sorry, Taehyun. I’m so sorry,” Soobin tells him, holding Beomgyu from behind securely. Taehyun’s shoulders relax—his cover is safe, nobody knows, Beomgyu’s going insane— until Soobin continues. “We won’t talk about it ever again if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. The way Soobin had said it, as if it was just a simple fact; the sky was blue, the grass was green, Taehyun liked Huening Kai.
To be fair, it often felt the same way to Taehyun. It was a fact of life, like breathing and sweating and swelling up after eating ramen in the middle of the night. Loving Kai was bound to happen.
But that did not mean anyone else had to know.
“You all think…?” Taehyun starts softly, feeling the blood draining steadily from his face. Soobin has the good grace to look mortified. Beomgyu is smirking, reaching up to bat Soobin’s hand away.
“We all know,” Beomgyu declares, ignoring the look of abject horror that Taehyun is staring at him with, turning to face Soobin’s glare, “oh, come on! You’re the one who brought it up, hyung!”
This time it’s Soobin’s turn to shrink beneath Taehyun’s wide-eyed, accusatory gaze. “N-no! You’re the one who said that Kai and Taehyun have been acting weird—”
“But you said that you think they like each other, so—”
“You’re the one who agreed immediately—”
“Wait,” Taehyun says, cutting their verbal ping-pong match short. “Each other? You think we like… each other?”
“Which brings us back to our main point,” Beomgyu declares excitedly. He walks around the table to grab Taehyun, pulling him to his feet and spinning him around. Still reeling from shock, Taehyun lets him.
“Main point?” he asks, trapped in a daze.
“Yup!” Beomgyu chirps, as joyful as can be.
“We’re gonna help you and Huening Kai get together!”
Which is how Taehyun finds himself cross-legged in Yeonjun’s room, hugging a pillow to his chest. Ridiculous.
“I can’t believe you confronted him,” Yeonjun says with a little laugh. “I actually thought he had no clue.”
“That he had a crush on Kai?” Soobin prompts incredulously. Taehyun buries his face deeper into the pillow with a groan.
Every time those damn words are repeated, his head spins all over again, and he’s reminded of how spectacularly terrible he is at all of this love shit.
“Is it that obvious?” he has to ask. Beomgyu snorts and he regrets asking.
“Duh. Taehyun, your eyes shoot hearts whenever you see him. Fans are still recycling that clip of you hogging all of Kai’s personal space during that VLive way back in the day.”
Taehyun feels that flush of embarrassment descend over himself. He still remembers that live, leaning closer to Kai without realizing, absorbing every word that fell from those perfect lips, his soft, warm scent surrounding Taehyun in a cloudy haze…
He feels giddy just thinking about it, so he chooses not to.
“So do you think… do you think Kai knows that I—”
“God, no,” Yeonjun is quick to reassure. “He’s, like, ten times more oblivious than you are. He has no idea how infatuated you are.”
Somehow, it stings as much as it comforts him.
“But you still think Kai likes me?” Taehyun feels like a shy middle schooler all of a sudden, asking a mutual friend if the pretty boy at the back of class really does think Taehyun’s cute. He keeps his gaze firmly on the wrinkled ridges rising out of Yeonjun’s messily made bed.
“Of course,” Beomgyu tells him, and his voice is gentle this time, devoid of all teasing. Taehyun’s chest feels warm; Beomgyu’s good at getting him riled up, but he’s just as good at knowing what Taehyun needs to hear, and how. “Of course he does, Taehyun, how could he not? You’re so good to him.”
Such simple words, but Taehyun’s heart feels calmer. “Okay. Now what?”
Silence. Taehyun dares to raise his head and catches the sight of the Chois glancing between one another. He’s awarded a sheepish smile from the trio.
“Ah. That’s the thing,” Soobin admits, scratching his head. “We, um. There is no plan.”
More silence. Taehyun feels shock overriding his system for the second time that day.
“In our defense!” Yeonjun declares, drawing the youngest’s attention back to him. “In our defense, we didn’t think Beomgyu would ruin our plans.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. We were supposed to come up with the perfect plan to get our cutie maknaes together, but you were too impatient and had to confront Taehyun early!”
“Wait,” Taehyun butts in, “how long has this discussion been going on for?”
Soobin winces, but Beomgyu shows no such hesitation. “We’ve all known since we first met you guys, but we only started talking together recently.”
“Actually,” Soobin corrects softly, “Yeonjun and I have been talking about it since then. Beomgyu’s the one who brought it up like it was his idea.”
“What,” Beomgyu says more than questions, “you’ve been talking about it since before debut? What? And you didn’t want to let me in on it?”
“Beomgyu. I love you a lot, but you’re not really the most subtle person,” Yeonjun deadpans.
“Case and point,” Soobin tells him, gesturing at Taehyun. “It took you four minutes to listen to me, then run out of our room and harass Taehyun.”
Three pairs of eyes rest back on him. He’s not usually so afraid of being the center of attention, but the topic of conversation is starting to make him feel a little restless.
“So…?” Taehyun prompts.
“We’ll work on it,” Yeonjun promises suddenly. His smile is blindingly bright and reassuring. “You don’t have to worry about a thing, Taehyunnie! Your hyungs will take care of everything and you and Hyuka will be cuddling and kissing in no time at all—”
“They already do that,” Beomgyu interjects.
“Whatever. You’ll be together finally and you’ll know your feelings are reciprocated and everything will be great! The end.”
Well, excuse him if he feels a little skeptical. His bandmates are reliable, but he can’t guarantee they’ll be reliable in such a strange, unconventional way.
“Okay,” he agrees anyway, if only to end this pointless conversation.
“Okay!” Beomgyu says brightly. “Now, I’m hungry. Can we eat now?”
“As if you didn’t start this whole conversation,” Soobin reprimands. “I was going to order us lunch. Come on, let’s go.”
Taehyun rises to his unsteady feet first. Yeonjun shoots him a concerned look that is not lost on him. Soobin only shakes his head slightly.
Yup. Taehyun is feeling totally normal about the whole situation and completely trusting in his hyungs to do something about the little problem he’s been battling with since before they debuted.
He tosses the pillow to the bed before marching out, determined to leave the whole conversation behind him. It’s unrealistic, this whole expectation that it’ll be the damn Choi trio to get Huening Kai to realize that Taehyun was madly in love with him, so—
Taehyun’s face collides with something solid. He feels his skin heat up before his brain registers who it is. Just as quickly, he jerks back, gaze meeting kind eyes.
“Taehyun!” Kai chirps. His cheerfulness melts into confusion as he murmurs, “...and Beomgyu-hyung? Oh! Soobin-hyung! What are you all doing in… Yeonjun-hyung’s room…?”
Taehyun prides himself on his ability to keep his cool, but even he can’t override how incredibly insane this situation is. His face bright red, the conversation still running through his mind, Kai knows, Kai knows, Kai knows—
“We were just planning you and Taehyunnie’s wedding,” Beomgyu tells the youngest. He leans against the doorframe, eyeing the pair, acting as if the words he’s saying are completely normal. “Floral arrangements and all that jazz.”
Taehyun gapes at him. Did he just—
Kai’s arms circle around his waist, calloused hands rough through Taehyun’s shirt as he pats his stomach. His breath is warm against Taehyun’s neck as he giggles. “Fine by me! Can’t wait, Taehyun-ah.”
He’s gone just as quickly as he came, with a last parting laugh before he disappears down the hallway. The remaining four members look after him, one dazed and three amused.
“See?” Yeonjun tells him, smirking slightly as he breezes past, stirring the flies that are surely collecting in Taehyun’s open mouth. “He’s totally oblivious.”
Soobin kicks Yeonjun’s ass, which earns him a yelp and a complaint. Beomgyu just shakes his head, looking caught between thoughtfulness and amusement. Taehyun sends a final glance down at his and Kai’s closed door before he follows.
Sometimes he wonders if he should just give up.