Chapter Text
It was MARS’ one year anniversary of being an official boy-band under ONER.
In a year, a lot had changed.
A house was gifted to them by Khun Pemika on their fifth month anniversary for ‘making it in the industry and gaining a huge fandom in less than a year’. On their sixth month, they had an official name for their fans, ‘Spheres’, they are called. MARS had moved in together by then, making the house feel like a home with how it is littered with knick-knacks each of them had integrated to make the space theirs.
And now, in the common room, they had decided to start a live to spend this special day with their beloved spheres.
Everyone gathered around the coffee table, Nano’s phone placed in front of a tissue box which acted as a phone stand while comments flooded the screen. Requests and questions were met with the shy lilt of five teenagers who are still getting used to their name being known by the outside world.
This live was a point in their lives which made them realise that they're not only just five people who struggled under the same harsh ceiling lights, hoping they will make it to the end, but also five people who are now in the long game together, that they are all they have.
It also made them realise how little they know about each other.
When the live ended, Jun collapsed on the couch, an arm thrown over his eyes in a dramatic manner. Dylan, like they all got to know him, took his place on a bean bag, his headphones slung on his neck, scrolling through his phone. Pepper, deciding to be the responsible one, went to the kitchen to grab some snacks, knowing that spending almost an hour in front of a screen would make them all hungry. Thame was sitting on the opposite end of the couch with Nano sitting on the floor, leaning against Thame’s legs.
It was calm. The cheers and laughs that filled the room during the whole live, morphed into comfortable silence that stopped being awkward after living together for two weeks.
Until Jun realised something.
Suddenly sitting up straight like he got struck by lightning, he pointed a finger at Dylan across the room.
“You.” Jun accused.
The black-haired boy looked up slowly, like it was a daily occurrence that he can’t wait to get over even before it started. The slow assessing stare with which he looked at Jun a cold reminder that they are the only two who still hasn’t reached past the boundary of colleagues who bicker to genuine friendship yet.
“What?” Dylan asked in a reserved tone.
“When did you say your birthday is?” Jun questioned.
Nano, almost on the verge of falling asleep on Thame, looked between them, a curious light in his ever-bright eyes. Pepper settled in the floor beside him, nudging Nano’s shoulders and offering him a share from the bowl of popcorn he made.
“October 16th.” Dylan said slowly.
“Mine is on April 20th.” Jun said, as though that explains the reason for his outburst.
“...okay?” Dylan nodded slightly, returning to his phone.
“No, no. You don’t understand.” Jun said, wagging his index finger at him. “I am five months older than you.”
“Congratulations Jun, you know basic maths.” Dylan said in a deadpan.
Jun rolled his eyes. “I know that, dumbass. I am saying, since I am older than you, shouldn’t you be calling me phi?”
“...it’s only five months Jun.” Dylan said.
“Yeah, but it still counts.”
“Five months is basically nothing.”
“It’s almost–” Jun mumbled under his breath as he did the math in his fingers, “ –it’s almost 150 days.”
“Thanks for letting me know.” With that, Dylan placed his headphones over his ears, effectively shutting the world outside.
“Dylan.” Jun called.
No reply. Dylan continued his scrolling, his face lit up by the blue screen.
“Dylan.”
Still no response from him.
Thame who was on his phone, looked up at Jun’s voice calling out Dylan's name, his hand pausing its motions in running through the bright orange of Nano’s hair. Nano and Pepper’s attention swung back and forth between Jun, who was still trying to get the dark-haired boy’s attentions, and Dylan, who is still avoiding him.
Jun slumped back on the couch with a frown.
Out of all the four members in MARS, Dylan seems to be having a problem only with him. It might be due to their clashing personalities.
Jun, the loud and the extrovert, who turns on charm like turning on a switch, and Dylan, the quiet one, who prefers the silence of his room than the noise of his friends.
But Jun wasn't someone who says, I tried what I can. Jun is someone who presses forward until the other side yields.
So Jun tried again.
“Dylan.” Jun yelled at the distance across the room. His voice getting louder and louder with every Dylans.
“Dylan.”
“Dyl–”
“What do you want, Jun?” Dylan finally snapped, his brows a sharp V as he glared at Jun.
“I want you to call me phi.” Jun answered.
“I won’t.”
“Why?” Jun’s voice turned a little sharp with frustration at not getting what he wants.
“Because five months is not that big of a difference.” Dylan said, sitting straighter in the bean bag, shoulders tensed.
“That’s it?”
“And calling you phi will only feed your ego.” Dylan said. Then, pointing a finger at Nano, “You already have Nano calling you phi.”
“But that’s different.” It was pathetic how his voice resembled that of whining. Jun cleared his throat.
Dylan froze. Jun knows that he took him by surprise with that answer in the way Dylan blinked slowly.
Then, “How so?” the question came out a little strained.
“Because he calls everyone phi. He’s our youngest.” Jun reasoned. “If you call me that, you’ll be calling only me by that honorific.” And because it’s not them without infuriating the other, Jun added, “And that will annoy you.”
Dylan's eyes hardened, his posture once more going rigid as he looked at Jun. “I am not calling you phi.” It was said in a tone that meant the discussion ended. Final.
And if that wasn't enough of a message, Dylan stood up from the bean bag and marched his way back to his room. The sound of a door slamming echoed to the common room. A ringing that felt loud in the silence that followed. Jun only frowned deeper, a huff leaving his lips.
Meanwhile, the rest of MARS looked at Jun and at the hallway Dylan had disappeared behind. Watching the interaction with the focus of an author trying to find any mistakes in their final draft.
“Why do you care, phi?” Nano was the first to break the silence.
“Because.” Jun said simply.
Nano waited for an explanation that Jun didn't know how to put into words.
Jun, at last, settled on, “Because I am older than him.” he said, “Shouldn’t I be getting the respect that I deserve?”
“Leave him be, Jun.” Pepper said from beside Nano, his bowl almost empty. “You know he doesn't usually do that.”
“Do what?”
“Call someone phi unless he actually knows them.” Thame finished. “He only calls them khun.”
“But he knows me.” Jun pointed at himself, genuinely upset that Dylan still thinks of him as a stranger.
“And you two bicker like cats and dogs whenever you guys try to have a conversation.” Nano quipped in. “I don’t think that’s a good enough reason for him to call you that, phi.”
“Besides, like he said, it’s only five months. That’s not much of a difference.” Pepper waved a hand, getting up to wash the empty bowl, signalling the end of conversation.
“Still.” Jun mumbled to himself, slumping deeper into the couch as the other went back to their work.
Jun couldn’t sleep that night. He shifted and turned in his sheets until it became a rumpled mess, but sleep always found a way to escape him. Jun couldn’t really blame it on his brain though. Ever since the conversation in the afternoon where Dylan was adamant on not calling him phi, he was restless. He doesn't know why but it irked him.
Shouldn’t he be called that? Isn’t a year enough time for Dylan to start calling him phi?
And so Jun made his mind.
He would annoy Dylan. It’s not new, the annoying part. Honestly, it’s how they have come to communicate, quick taunts and even quicker insults that breeched the surface of hitting too close to the home but never pushing further.
But this time, Jun had a motive.
He would annoy Dylan not for the sake of it, but until Dylan admits defeat and calls him phi.
Yes, that is it. Jun is going to make a plan. A perfect plan that would give him the respect he deserves, and make Dylan eat his own words.
I am not going to call you phi.
Jun scoffed at the thought. Yeah, as if I will let you off the hook so easily.
With determination in his veins and a half-assed plan that he conjured in the midst of his broken pride, Jun turned one last time, Dylan's words from the afternoon looping like a lullaby, until he eventually fell asleep.