Chapter Text
It had been exactly a month after the finale of Produce 101 Japan Shinsekai; debut was set for October, schedules were tight, tensions were high, the dorms were meant to be a safe space for the members of Ko1keyz, but for Yanagiya Issa and Oh Shinhaeng, there was always an unspoken tension. Everyone got to choose their own roommates, Yura chose Kosuke, Keito chose Ryoga because that was the person he was closest with outta the 12, Ryuji had been Issa's original pick of roommate but he had chosen Towa first, Siyoung who Shinhaeng was always attached too had picked Yuki over him for the sake of ‘Goto needs comforting at night’, Yoshiki and Midori together because who else would they pick but not each other, which left Issa and Shinhaeng as the last people causing the staff just to put them together in one room.
Schedules tend to be tight with fan meets, discussions with staff, and filming of content, all of that to build up to their debut. On one specific day after tons of discussions with producers and choreographers, Ko1keyz, minus the 4 youngest who weren't legal drinking age, all decided to go out to the bar, course it wasn't forbid to go drinking but as an idol you should expect fans to be parasocial about what you do at such places so the members had to be extra careful about what type of people they interacted there. Overall, they spent about 3 hours there just playing games and drinking, some less than others; for example, Midori chugged 3 glasses of whiskey while Issa barely touched his glass. By the end, Keito was passed out, Siyoung laughed at any word spoken, Yoshiki was carrying Midori who kept demanding random shit, Ryoga and Yura were speaking just for the sake of talking while constantly using every curse they knew, and Shinhaeng seemed attached to Issa, keeping his hand wrapped around Issa through the whole time spent, and Issa was too awkward to say anything about it.
On the drive home, Shinhaeng rested his head on Issa's shoulder. By the time they got back to the dorms, Yura quietly existed, clearly only wanting one thing: sleep. Ryoga helped Keito walk back to their room while still never shutting up, Yoshiki dragging Midori out. Siyoung stayed behind to make sure everyone got into the dorms safely. “Issa-chan, do you want me to carry Shinhaeng back to the room?” Siyoung asked as he looked over the way Shinhaeng was being awkwardly held by Issa, “I can walk, Siyoung-hyung…” Shinhaeng murmured, Siyoung looked over to Issa, who nodded, Siyoung taking it as a sign they didn't need him.
Once finally in their dorm together, Shinhaeng still refused to let go of Issa, “You're never this clingy. I guess alcohol really does change people…” Issa wasn't really sure what to do. The bunk was relatively small, causing them to be cramped tightly next to each other. Issa tried to shift a bit, but Shinhaeng only pushed his face into the crook of his neck. “Shinhaeng… is something bothering you?” Issa finally said, he knew the older boy wouldn't even remember the full extent of this interaction, yet it still hurt to breathe.
“Why have you been avoiding me…?” Shinhaeng looked up at Issa, his cheeks all pink and his eyes glazed over, yet somehow were still able to make Issa stutter. Issa knew he'd been purposely avoiding Shinhaeng; everyone knew, everyone saw the awkwardness they shared when the two had to communicate, but all the members were too focused on their own activities to actually bring it up. During the show, they both realized there were feelings neither of them had time to digest after the Bite Me teams, especially not when cameras followed their every move, so instead they stuffed their personal thoughts and feelings down for a time. But now where they were going to be part of a group together, those feelings had to be discussed, Shinhaeng was too awkward to ever speak to Issa so he just never engaged in conversation outside of work, and Issa took that as Shinhaeng holding disdain for him, so his conclusion was too completely ignore Shinhaeng, keep conversation short and polite for the sake of not starting drama with a co-worker.
“Me…?” He stumbled over his words. “You've been the one taking a dislike to me,” Issa admitted nervously, avoiding eye contact. Shinhaeng's glazed eyes widened, then softened. “Issa-kun, I don't hate you, you scare me because you're so amazing…” Issa tilted his head, unable to hide the confusion at Shinhaeng’s words. Shinhaeng just tightened his grip on Issa’s sleeve.
“You think I'm intimidating..?” The older boy nodded, “I mean, given the circumstances we met in, I think I'm valid.” Shinhaeng smiled, still avoiding eye contact. There was silence for a long moment where the only sound was the two’s uneven breathing. Issa supposed he understood where the older boy holding onto him was coming from. They met on a survival show, on opposite teams performing the same song while performing the same parts, and Issa beat Shinhaeng by a lot, to the point where Issa at the time couldn't even celebrate his win because of how much he saw it broke Shinhaeng.
“I'm sorry, I really am… I've been looking too hard into all this– it's just the stress of practice and soon debut… I've been over analyzing everything, including you.” Before Issa could add anything else to his sentence he was cut off guard, his Breathe hitched as Shinhaeng kissed him. It wasn't anything harsh, just a short kiss on the lips, but to Issa, his whole world tilted on its axis. Shinhaeng pulled back to look at Issa through his glazed eyes “You're usually the one so calm and collected, it's not even a big deal because now you know how much I truly am in love with you.” While Issa was completely frozen, taking everything in little by little, Shinhaeng leaned back in, deepening the kiss, but this time, Issa's brain went on autopilot, he pulled Shinhaeng closer by the waist so there wasn't a single bit of space between them.
Neither of them knew for how long it went for, Issa assumed a couple of minutes before Shinhaeng finally pulled back, gasping for air.
“I think I like you too…” Issa closed his eyes as he spoke, Shinhaeng rested his head on Issa's shoulder still breathing heavily. “I like you more…” Shinhaeng mumbled, before Issa knew it he looked over to the older boy who was seemingly already fast asleep, there wasn't much Issa could do besides shit his brain off and sleep. All of this was a situation for future Yanagiya Issa not the one in the bed with his co-worker.