hello it has been a fat minute since i was on here to post lmao but i’m finally on break and i’m gonna try to get some stuff written to post bc it’s been far!! too!! long!! and i really just wanna write
san and wooyoung had been laying in bed in the bedroom of their shared apartment when the sirens rang out, the noise easily penetrating the walls and letting them know that something was wrong. san reached blindly to the side, groping around on the nightstand for a phone and saw that it was already lit up with a national emergency alert. as his eyes scanned over the warning, wooyoung groggily asked what it was for, since they were almost asleep when it started.
san informed him of the situation, assuring wooyoung that they were safe where they were. of course, his fiance placed full trust in him and they laid there in silence for a few hours, listening to the quiet underneath the sirens with san's phone playing music all the while to attempt to cover it up. san swore that he heard a crash from next door, but paid it no mind. the couple next to them had a swarm of kids who were almost always making noise, so he let it go. however, when the crashing turned to a thundering noise he sat upright abruptly, throwing wooyoung’s head off his chest in the process before pulling the two of them to their closet to grab a jacket each to throw on top of their pajamas, and then shoving the shorter male into the kitchen to grab a knife while he went to peek out into the hallway. when wooyoung joined him at the front door, they heard slamming in the apartment next to them but saw that the door was closed and there was no one in the hallway, so they made a run for it, san holding desperately to wooyoung’s hand.
neither of them quite knew how they accomplished it, making it past a horde of undead that swarmed the entrance of the stairwell, but they pushed their way through without a single problem and burst out onto the street just outside their building. wooyoung took the lead, then, pulling san to a supermarket nearby that he knew was still open. “we’re gonna have to camp out somewhere else, until it’s safe to go home.” he had panted, pulling his hand from san’s to wipe the sweat on his pants. they heard the groan of one of the undead behind them, and san lunged forward to take a hold of wooyoung’s hand once more so he wouldn’t lose him when they ran.
however, they were confused to see the undead simply walk past them, not even seeming to acknowledge the two once san had a grip on the other. they glanced at each other, and san experimentally let go of wooyoung’s hand. the undead refocused on them, but lost interest as soon as san grabbed wooyoung once more. “that could come in handy.” san chirped wittily, making wooyoung groan at his horrible pun. they walked calmly to the supermarket a block or so away from their building, san wielding the knife in one hand and wooyoung’s hand clutched in the other. the market was silent when they walked in, separating momentarily so wooyoung could head to the other side of the entrance to grab a hand basket. they had already discussed what they needed to get, light things that would be easy to carry until they could find a backpack or something to carry it all in. they didn't think of the fact that perhaps there would be people already in the market, and froze when they came face to face with two boys who stood back to back, wooyoung nearly shrieking with surprise, until san pressed his hand over wooyoung’s mouth and soothed him quietly. in this time, the blonde boy facing them tapped the other, who turned to face them as well, and it was a silent stand off for a moment until san’s hand fell away from wooyoung’s mouth. “we’re not here to hurt you or raid you, we’re just trying to stock up before everyone else does. we can’t get back into our apartment, our building is surrounded in the undead and they’re walking the hallways, too, so this is our only shot.” he could feel wooyoung trembling, and tried to steady him by grasping his hand and squeezing, trying to reassure the other. the blonde one blurted out that they could follow them to the mauve haired boys apartment, and figure it out in the morning. san and wooyoung exchanged glances, while the mauve haired boy sputtered indignantly, yanking the blonde boy to the end of the aisle and out of sight.
wooyoung and san looked at each other once more, shrugging, while san muttered “what could go wrong?”, to which wooyoung replied with a steely look and a quiet murmur of “everything.” they heard the sound of quiet laughter before the two boys came back into sight, wooyoung and san watching them quietly, with nervousness clear in their demeanors.
the two introduced themselves, mauve boy being yeosang and blond being seonghwa. “if you get a cart and help us stock up, you can come home with us.” was all that yeosang said, before san rushed off to get a cart. wooyoung stayed behind, conversing quietly with seonghwa and yeosang and telling them about their situation, but deciding to keep quiet about san’s mysterious ability that may be able to keep them safe. the fiances followed behind the two strangers to their apartment, dodging the undead that seemed to pop up out of nowhere until they finally made it to a safe place.
--
wooyoung left the apartment with yeosang’s words still ringing in his ears as san discussed with mingi and yunho where they would be going. it didn’t take long for the group to decide to try and go back to mingi and yunho’s apartment, hoping that the raiders would be long gone and they could collect some supplies. the group decided as one that they would stake out yunho and mingi’s apartment building for a few hours, and then try to get to the two’s apartment in one piece. “we have some supplies in there, we just couldn’t get them all in time.” yunho had claimed, mingi nodding along in agreement.
and so, after finding a comfortably dark alley with a lower amount of bugs and rodents than the others, they waited. san had sat down with his back against the brick wall of the building behind him, stretching his legs out in front of him. wooyoung threw himself next to san, while yunho and mingi sat cross legged next to each other on the other side of the alleyway. the four watched in turns, san keeping an eye on his not yet dead watch. after three or four hours had passed with no signs of the raiders, they finally decided to go in. mingi dug out his key, and the roommates led the fiances up to their apartment. the sight that greeted them was not pretty.
much of their furniture was overturned, blood trails covered the floor and splattered onto the walls. mingi couldn't atop the shiver that ran up his spine at the sight, and soon felt a comforting warmth on the back of his neck. yunho's fingers found purchase in his hair, rubbing soothingly over the spot to try and calm the other down. yunho took the lead and ventured further in, stance tense and ready to protect himself if needed. mingi was next, then wooyoung and san. the rest of the space was no better - the picture frames that once hung on the walls and held pictures of their families had made the floor their new home, broken glass crunching under their feet with every step. mingi grimaced at the sight of a picture once showing him and his mother being torn in half, his mother's glowing smile disappearing, probably into the pocket of a raider. he forced himself to move on, venturing into the dining room while yunho headed to his bedroom. san went to the next bedroom, leaving wooyoung to stand guard over them all.
yunho emerged from his room with a bag slung over his shoulder with extra clothing, moving onto mingi’s room next. he found san standing in the center of it, feet planted firmly in front of the overturned mattress. their eyes both caught on the same thing - a smaller body that was occupying the space under the window. the figure had their head caught between their knees, silver hair sticking up in unruly tufts. yunho poked the figure with the end of a baseball bat that he acquired out of nowhere, it seemed, and they moaned lowly in response. it took a second, but the figure raised their head up, the first thing catching their attention was a sharp pair of eyes. as the figure slowly unraveled, they realized that he couldn’t be more than a few years older than them.
when the person on the floor made eye contact with the two towering over him, he scrambled to get to his feet, slurring out apologies and pleas for his life. san was the one to throw his hands out, trying to placate the other. it took a minute before the other person calmed down and his eyes finally focused on yunho and san, and another few for him to explain why exactly he was in an apartment that wasn't his.
he lived in the same building, just a few floors above where they were now. he and his partner had been trying to get up the fire escape to their own dwelling, but had to duck into yunho’s apartment because they thought they heard a raider somewhere above them. his partner - hanbin, he told them, was his name - had left him alone in the apartment, saying that since it was trashed already they (the raiders) probably wouldn’t come back and so he would head up to their apartment by himself. the person in front of them, who soon told them his name was jinhwan, had been there by himself for less then a day. he hadn’t heard from hanbin, but was certain that he was still alive. he hoped that he was still alive.
yunho was the one who finally offered a hand, pulling the shorter male to his feet and leading him back to the living room. when he caught san’s eye, he mouthed for the boy to start gathering some of mingi’s things into a bag. san nodded in agreement, watching as yunho led the other from the room. it didn’t take long for mingi to volunteer to walk jinhwan up to his apartment, to check and see if hanbin was indeed there. the two left, mingi leaving with a promise that he would come back unharmed to yunho. then, the questioning started. “so, how long have you guys been together?” wooyoung threw at him from his spot in front of the door. yunho just stared at him blankly, leaving wooyoung to continue. “you know, uh? being a couple? boyfriends? fiances, maybe? or even husbands? partners?” he exaggerated every title with a wave of his hand, and yunho’s cheeks flushed a deep color as he waved his hands, shaking his head at the same time as though trying to dispel the thought.
“we’re not together, we’ve been friends since we were little and we ended up moving in here together because the rent would be cheaper and maybe i had slight feelings for him but he’s never felt the same.” yunho stuttered out, his voice softening at the end of his thought. wooyoung looked at him thoughtfully, as san emerged from the bedroom with a rucksack full of mingi’s clothes. wooyoung quickly explained where mingi had gone, finishing up just as mingi himself walked back in the door. fresh blood was sprayed across the side of his face, and a dark patch had made its appearance on his arm. before he could explain the stains origins, yunho was rushing forward and wrenching his sleeve up, checking to make sure there wasn’t a hole accompanying it. he breathed out a sigh of relief at the sight of no such thing, but still found himself questioning if mingi was okay. the younger reassured him time and time again that it wasn’t his blood, that they had run into one of the undead in the stairwell.
yunho wouldn’t forget the knowing look he got from wooyoung later, when he stuck closer to mingi than normal.
he also wouldn’t forget seeing seonghwa’s body fall to the ground, blood pooling where he had been struck.
he wouldn’t forget the fear on hongjoong and jongho’s faces as the undead moved closer to him.
Author Note: dfklgdh okay so as usual, this is late bc work is a mess and i’ve been swamped and i haven’t really had inspiration to write :(( but please enjoy this!
as with every other day, even the ones that they had off, johnny and ten still woke up and rushed through their morning routines, because of course, they were late. they had around half an hour to shower, eat, and somehow make the half hour trip to the botanical garden, where they’d be meeting up with the two pairs dubbed as luwoo and markhyuck.
of course, it was just their luck that their bus would show up as they were walking to the stop, and driving off just as they reached the bench. of course it would take another twenty minutes before another one would get there. of course they would a text that markhyuck wasn’t able to make it.
of course luwoo would be standing at the gate to the botanical garden, phones out and reading the messages that were coming through. of course they would get the chance to have a date alone, since their tour started in less than ten minutes. of course donghyuck would get sick, and therefore mark would get sick. of course ten and johnny would get stuck without transportation, unable to make it to the garden in time.
however, yukhei couldn’t find it in himself to care much, as he took a hold of jungwoo’s hand and they made their way to where the tour started. their guide took them through winding paths, stopping in the most scenic places for people to take pictures. some people that came with friends took pictures in groups, couples took selfies under the trees, and yukhei? he took pictures of jungwoo looking at flowers, looking up in awe at the slivers of the sky he could see through the branches, looking down at the little river where he could see fish swimming. a stranger took a picture of them together on yukhei’s phone, one of them kissing underneath a cherry blossom tree. another person helped them out and took a picture of them underneath a curved canopy of trees, and yet another snapped a shot of when yukhei dug out a ring from his breast pocket and dropped to his knee, jungwoo standing in front of him with his back turned, hands over his eyes and waiting for yukhei to say something.
somebody got a video of the moment jungwoo turned around, spotting yukhei. jungwoo’s jaw dropped. “you can’t be serious, oh my god you’re serious.” he kept whimpering, hands over his mouth as he stared at the taller man.
“jungwoo, i know we’ve only been together for a year. i know that, but it’s been such a ride and the future’s only gonna be an even crazier ride and i wanna spend it with you by my side. you’re my light in the darkness, my northern star to guide me, my rock when i’m tired, and my pillar when i’m breaking. i couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else. so would you please marry me?” jungwoo sobbed at that, nodding frantically. yukhei got to his feet and slid the ring onto his finger, before pulling the shorter man to his chest and letting him rest there. the crowd around them clapped and cheered, and the guide was nice enough to give them a minute for jungwoo to collect himself.
of course, it was all planned out, except they were planning to have some of their friends there for it. but the moment went just fine, with or without their friends.
yukhei saw their video on the garden’s homepage, while they were sitting down to eat in a quaint little restaurant across the street, after their tour had ended and the group had been guided out. they had taken several more pictures together, and yukhei took more of jungwoo, not knowing that jungwoo was doing the same in return. they looked through their photos together, sending each other the ones that they didn’t have. a comfortable silence fell over the table as they ate, knives and forks clattering on the plates as they dug into what they had ordered, occasionally reaching over to grab bits of the other’s food. they split the bill, before walking out hand in hand.
jungwoo fell asleep on yukhei’s shoulder on the way home, something that was expected of him, since he had been whining for an hour already that he was tired. yukhei let him rest there, fiddling with the boy’s fingers as he slept and soon enough, they were dozing off on one another.
meanwhile, mark was trying to coax soup into a sick donghyuck, who kept refusing and whining that his throat hurt and food would only make it hurt worse. mark murmured that he knew, but hyuck had to eat something. “c’mon hyuck, you’ve gotta eat something or you’ll get even sicker.” he nearly pleaded with the younger, who finally sighed and allowed his boyfriend to feed him soup, avoiding anything that wasn’t broth like it was the plague. mark finally breathed a sigh of relief as he lifted another spoonful to his mouth, letting him drink that before turning and coughing into his elbow. granted, since donghyuck and mark shared a bed and a dorm and basically their whole lives, donghyuck had immediately spread his cold to mark. so, mark, being the responsible adult he is, ate some of donghyuck’s soup himself, to try and ease the dryness in his throat.
newsflash, it didn’t work.
then, he found himself at the little corner store just off campus, searching for some cold medicine that he quickly bought, along with some little treats and things for when the two of them were better and their throats weren’t sore. on the way back, hyuck texted him that norenmin were going to be at their dorm, since renjun had heard from jaemin who heard from jeno who heard from doyoung who heard from ten who heard from johnny that hyuck was sick, and renjun’s mother instincts had kicked in immediately, dragging his two boyfriends with him to go visit his sick best friend.
mark found them all curled up and asleep on hyuck’s bed, the three healthy ones with masks over their faces. hyuck had saved the spot behind him for mark, which mark quickly took advantage of as he wrapped himself around the smaller boy, lightly brushing his nose along the back of hyuck’s neck. they slept peacefully like that, until somebody stretched out and suddenly both jeno and mark were on the floor, on opposite sides of the bed as they groaned in unison. their respective boyfriend(s) leaned over the edge to check on them, tears of laughter falling down their cheeks.
when mark pulled hyuck down to join him on the floor, jeno clambered back up into the fluffy fortress they had made of blankets and pillows (hyuck soon admitted it was more of a nest than a fortress), and the three of them sprawled out so that there was no room for mark and hyuck, which led to the doggy pile that happened minutes later, after mark snuck a quick kiss from his beautiful boyfriend. then, it turned into war as people were thrown off the bed and alliances were quickly formed and then broken, pillows tossed about and people being wrapped up in the blankets and forced to the ground.
mark still has no idea how they managed to fit the five of them back on the bed, panting from exertion. he just knows that he had the best sleep of his life, curled up behind hyuck and resting underneath jaemin’s arm.
meanwhile, as markhyuck and norenmin napped, as luwoo made their way home, johnny and ten had made it back to their apartment in time to order takeout before the lunch rush hit and that’s where they stayed, eventually inviting doyoung and taeil over when they realized they couldn’t finish all the food. ten somehow coerced doyoung into looking over wedding magazines with him, even though their wedding wasn’t going to be anywhere near as big and grand as the ones pictured. the two of them poured over the pages, figuring out what they would actually need a professional for (aka, the cake and flowers) and what they could do at home, decorations wise. it would only be their friend group, plus johnny’s parents as well as ten’s, and of course, whatever other family would attend, and the four gathered there already knew that ten would be putting the rest of their friends to work on whatever they could do.
johnny and ten had already talked to some people and somehow managed to rent a whole hall at the edge of their university, and had already planned to cook all the food themselves to - hopefully - save money. they would also be setting it up themselves, including the little altar and the chairs, along with all the decorations and tables for the dinner afterwards. taeil was working on getting ordained so he could officiate their marriage, and they were both working on choosing their best men and groomsmen (which included some very intense games of rock, paper, scissors to decide who would get who). they had also already gone in to get their fittings done for both of their suits, deciding to match enough to seem put together but still set apart from one another.
it was a busy time for both of them, but as they sat in the living room of their little apartment with some of their best friends by their sides, eating whatever food had been ordered and looking over wedding magazines, pointing out the little things that they liked. every once in a while, doyoung would smile that bright smile of his and point to something, poke taeil in the side and say “that’s what i want at our wedding one day”, and taeil would smile gently back and nod, while johnny and ten looked on with soft eyes at the two.
however, the moment was ruined by the barrage of loud knocks that echoed through the apartment. johnny got up to open the door, spotting a beaming yukhei and jungwoo right away, who pushed him back in the living room. he sputtered unintelligibly, before they yelled in unison that they had news. not just any news, news. the group that was already gathered there just looked at them in confusion, until jungwoo lifted his hand and showed off the band that was situated on his ring finger, yukhei showing his as well a second later. the group gaped at them, before ten was jumping to his feet and calling out his congratulations as he rushed yukhei first and caught him in a hug, and then jungwoo. the rest weren’t far behind him, congratulating the newly engaged couple.
yukhei and jungwoo joined in on their wedding planning, talking over things with ten as he excitedly showed them what they were planning on. johnny watched, joining in on the excitement when needed but otherwise sitting back and realizing that this? this was his life now, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Full Title: storytime: my lover’s an assassin and he tried to kill me!
Pairing(s): Markhyuck, Norenmin, Chenji/Chensung
Genre: ??? Not entirely sure what to call this???
Word Count: 5,000+
Warnings: None
Author Note: so um!! this has been a long time coming!! me and my best friend (weirdandawesome15 on ao3!) have been working on this for about two months and we’re finally ready with the first chapter! also, this chapter does jump around quite a bit so please, please, please pay attention to timestamps and dates!! it starts out in the future and then goes into the actual present of the story!
mark had been kidnapped before, someone snatching him from the grocery store aisle just behind his mom when she had her back turned. that was nothing like this, there was no rope around his wrist and no group of people hiding weapons standing in front of him. then, he had screamed and struggled, but now? he’s calm, if only for the fact that their leader is cute.
°l||l°l||l°l||l°l||l°
2:16 p.m, 8.13.????, location: ???’s backyard
it was a nice gathering, mark had to admit. he wasn’t exactly sure what they were all there for, but food was involved and mark didn’t like paying absurd amounts of money to feed himself and hyuck, so there they were, surrounded (mostly) by people they knew. mark had taken one of the lawn chairs for himself, hyuck settled on one of his thighs with his feet perched on another lawn chair, with someone mark had never met sitting across from them - but hyuck seemed to know him well, considering the way that he was talking animatedly and without the use of honorifics. of course, they had been introduced to one another, mark and the stranger, but mark was horrible with names and couldn’t remember the stranger’s name to save his soul. so he suffered in silence.
that is, until hyuck mentioned his name and mark tuned back in to their conversation, dragging his eyes away from where renjun had jeno in a headlock to keep him from rushing towards the neighbors’ cat, a fluffy thing with bright green eyes that made eye contact with jeno exactly once, and he now swore he was in love.
but mark won’t let himself linger on that. instead, he focused on the words spilling from hyuck’s lovely lips, and the laugh that followed soon after. “…and we didn’t notice until like, five minutes later. renjun went to hit him or something, and mark threw his hands up real quick to protect his pretty face and we all just kinda looked at him like “what?” and mark was like “oh, yeah, i wasn’t supposed to do that”.” hyuck even imitated the way mark had said it, causing the older to pinch his side in retaliation.
the stranger laughed in response to the story and impression, gesturing for the younger boy to continue on with his story even though mark was sending him a withering glare that could kill. “so then what happened?” he asked, eyes alight as he watched the lovers’ interaction.
“well obviously, our beautiful leader aka moi had to tie him up again because that idiot,” he coughed loudly and pointedly, the sound vaguely coming out like ‘jeno’, “can’t tie a proper knot to save his life.” hyuck scoffs and shakes his head in exasperation, “they may be assassins but they’re actually really dumb, all they can do is panic and be gay for their boyfriends.”
the stranger snickered into his hand, “huh, sounds like a certain someone else that we know, eh, hyuckie?” the aforementioned male just sent the other a blank look.
“look johnny, if they were like me, then they would have been much more fabulous and less…ah… mediocre. maybe they’d actually be good at their job.” hyuck threw back, shifting as though he was gonna lunge for johnny had it not been for mark’s hands suddenly on his hips. while hyuck settled back against mark’s chest, mark was burning johnny’s name into his mind, telling himself not to forget it.
renjun scoffed in reply, his hearing suddenly increasing tenfold at the mention of one of his beloved boyfriends. “listen, lee donghyuck,” his lips curled as he playfully spat out the name of the other, while his grip loosened on jeno and the boy finally broke free, “the world doesn’t have enough room for anymore egos like yours. it’s already the size of mount kilimanjaro.” hyuck looked offended at this, tsking playfully back and muttering something under his breath.
when jaemin traipsed out into the backyard to announce that the sweets were ready, he found chaos outside that he thought he had escaped from in the kitchen. under the watchful eye of johnny, jeno and hyuck were wrestling, jeno shouting something about “renjun’s honor”.
jaemin? he turned tail and retreated back to the kitchen, preferring to deal with the two babies covered in flour over the fully grown adults playing in the yard.
7:34 a.m., 5.28.????, location: unknown
an abandoned warehouse was the home of a very peculiar group, one of whom was a male just surfacing from a drug-induced state of unconsciousness. a groan slipped past his lips as he forced his eyes open, feeling cold metal underneath him and something tied tightly around his wrists and ankles, and strung across his hips and chest. the material chafed when he tried to move - ‘that would be rope’, his mind helpfully supplied. with a quiet curse, he looked around, taking in the unfamiliar setting that he found himself in. “shit, how did i – oh my god, i got kidnapped. they told me i’d never get kidnapped but yet, here i am.” his brain was still muddled from the drug, leading him to not fully process the situation, but as he took in more and more of the cracked walls and abandoned machinery, it began to fully sink in. it took everything in him not to struggle, instead trying to calm himself by taking deep breaths. “it’ll be fine, maybe they’ll just let me go. yeah, that’s it, they’ll just let me go and i’ll never tell anyone and –”
the boy’s ramblings to himself were cut short, as a loud voice boomed around the room. “lee minhyung, aka mark lee. current age is 22, born on august 2nd, 1999. you were born in vancouver, canada, but lived in new york, toronto, and now seoul, having moved here in 2009 due to your parents wanting to relocate and reconnect with their roots. currently, you manage ‘ty track’s cat cafe’ alongside lee taeyong, a seoul native born on july 1st, 1995.”
with the reveal of his own information, the boy - now identified as mark - turned to try and find the source of the voice, but to no avail. the warehouse was mostly shrouded with darkness, little sunlight slipping in through the cracks in the walls and broken windows. as more and more information slipped from the stranger’s mouth, a second shout could be heard. “he works at a cat cafe? why didn’t any of you mention that?” the second voice sounded slightly different than the first, slightly lower pitched and more upset. a thump was heard, followed shortly after by a whiny “ouch!”. “jun, why’d you hit me?” the second voice complained loudly, followed by a deep sigh that was clearly the product of many hours of suffering.
“because you were being a dumbass and ruined the whole plan!” a third voice replied, softer than both of the others. although, it sounded not quite as soft with the irritation that was clearly infused into it.
a fourth voice sighed. “i’ll get the lights.”
after a few quiet moments, there was a ‘whir’ and a ‘click’, then light flooded the room. mark squinted blearily, trying to adjust quickly to the light he was attacked with. he heard footsteps coming closer, and by the time he could see properly, there was a group of five men in front of him, and another walking towards them, hair colors ranging from cabbage green to dark brown to a peachy pink and two with faded orange. judging just by expressions, the first voice had to have come from the mousy brown haired boy with streaks of color run through his bangs. the assumption was also supported by the microphone in his hand, and the terribly unamused face he sported.
‘it looks cute on him.’ a voice whispered in the back of mark’s mind, the part that fell too hard and fast and that should really shut up.
the second voice had to be the darker brown-haired man, who was still pouting and holding the back of his head, where he was presumably hit. he kept sending pitiful glances to the shorter of the two orange haired men, who could only be the third voice. what mark assumed to be the fourth person was the cabbage haired boy, who was heading to the empty spot beside the tallest member of their group. now that mark began to look closer, the men - boys - couldn’t be much older than he was. in fact, they looked as though they were a few years younger. mark’s attention was drawn to the conversation that was being had between the dark brown haired boy, and the shorter orange haired boy - ‘jun, that has to be jun’ mark tells himself.
“–mark works at a cafe, and not just any cafe, a cat cafe! a cat cafe, jun! why wouldn’t you tell me that, of all things?” the dark brown haired boy continued to whine, hands gripping onto ‘jun’s sleeve and shaking it slightly. with a sigh, his hand was removed, but it just latched on once more.
‘jun’ gives up with a resigned look. “because we knew you’d react like this, jen.” there was an indignant huff from ‘jen’, and the pink, cotton candy haired boy moved towards the pair, sneaking his arm around ‘jen’s waist.
“aw junnie, you don’t have to be so mean to him. he has a point, after all.” he jokingly scolded ‘jun’, sending a wink his way as he ran comforting fingers up and down his side. ‘jen’ fake cried into his shoulder, making a show for all to see as he turned into the slightly shorter boy. the group could hear him uttering phrases like “you’re the only one that understands” and “see, this is why you’re my soulmate”, which caused ‘jun’ to roll his eyes at the dramatics. the pink haired boy consoled him, patting his back comfortingly. internally, mark was screaming, “this is ridiculous”, but instead of saying anything, he opted to roll his eyes.
“this is sweet and all, but we’ve got other things to do, ladies.” mark’s attention shifted to the boy with the multicolored highlights, who he assumed to be their leader. he certainly acted the part, his attitude screaming a mixture of “cross me and you’ll die”, but also “bitch i’m fabulous”, the latter making mark scratch his head. mentally, of course, given the fact that his hands were still tied. the deadpan look that highlight boy sent to the members made them stop and freeze, quieting their bickering in a second.
mark would never admit the “hot” that echoed around his brain at that.
highlights boy was perched on top of a large crate or box of some sort, twiddling with the microphone in his hands, but hopped off after he began to speak. he clapped his hands twice, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “i guess we can make our guest,” he glances quickly at mark, “feel a bit more comfortable and introduce ourselves. maybe he’ll talk easier if it’s to acquaintances, and not strangers.” he smirked a little at that, a weird twinkle in his eye startling mark for a second.
they form a half-circle around mark, introducing themselves with an air of boredom. the cabbage haired boy called himself ‘zhong’, and the tall boy next to him was ‘park’. it quickly became apparent that these were aliases when the cotton candy haired boy introduced himself as ‘nana’, then ‘jun’ and ‘jen’, who wondered amongst themselves if they should use their last names as well. ‘jun’ shrugged, and said that they should just stick with what they had already.
after their initial ‘introduction’ of sorts, the air became tense with the weight of the questions held on the members’ tongues. mark’s eyes shifted between the six, never stopping for more than a second on each of their faces - except for one. the chestnut-haired boy with the multi-colored highlights was the only one to keep his identity a secret, not even giving mark an alias or code name. there was something in mark’s head that directly associated the caramel hue of the boy’s skin with the sun, officially dubbing him as ‘sunshine’ in his head. it totally wasn’t because of the images that he held in his head, the thoughts that would never see the light of day, definitely not.
‘park’ meandered forward, squatting down in front of mark so that they were eye level. ‘zhong’ followed behind, placing his hand on the taller boy’s shoulder, either to steady him or to control him.
mark wasn’t sure which it was, and didn’t care to find out.
“so, do you know why you’re here?” ‘park’ asked flatly, draining the emotion from his voice. mark shook his head, replying with a barely heard “no”.
the pink haired boy - ‘nana’, was it? - stepped forward from their circle. “it’s because you’re dangerous, mark.”
with the reveal of that information, mark made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded vaguely dog-like. three of the boys stopped, their pokerfaces nearly falling, and ‘jun’ hit one of the other two. “dude, it sounded just like you!” he laughed, and ‘jen’ hissed a “shut up” in reply. ‘jun’ seemed to shrink away, nodding quickly. ‘jen’ noticed his posture, and wrapped an arm around his waist. ‘sunshine’ huffed, muttering something about “the dumb hets that he was forced to deal with”, causing the others to drop their facade completely and begin arguing amongst themselves. “you can’t just call people dumb hets, haechan! especially not the ga-” ‘zhong’ was stopped in his tracks as ‘sunshine’, now known as ‘haechan’, lunged forward and dropped the green haired boy to the floor, fingers interlocked at his neck.
“And you can’t just go around revealing people’s aliases, ch - zhong!” haechan seemed to stutter over his words, and seemed disgruntled when ‘zhong’ began laughing, ‘haechan’ being pushed around by the force of his laughter.
mark just watched in confusion, fingers twiddling with the knot tied over his wrists. amidst their fighting, none of them heard the soft thump of the rope hitting the floor, and mark found himself unable to move due to shock.
it took a few moments for the room to quiet, but when it did, they could hear a pin drop outside if they tried hard enough. mark caught himself counting the cracks in the ceiling, aimlessly wondering if it was sound enough to not come crashing down on them if they were in there any longer. a sigh drew his attention once more, eyes flickering over individual faces before landing on ‘jun’. ‘park’ and ‘zhong’ had retreated silently, standing to the side of the others, and ‘haechan’ had moved to take their place.
“so, you really don’t know why you’re here?” he asked quietly, watching mark’s face intently. mark shook his head, and ‘haechan’ let a sigh slip past his lips. he moved to squat in front of the tied up boy, then seemed to change his mind as he nearly threw himself down and sat cross-legged instead, settling into his position with a groan. ‘zhong’ made a nearly inaudible comment about ‘haechan’ becoming an old man, said boy turning to send a glare his way that could kill if it was possible. ‘zhong’ didn’t seem phased, laughing quietly behind his hand as soon as ‘haechan’ turned away, but it didn’t take long for ‘park’ to shush him and smack the back of his head, gesturing for him to listen. mark’s eyes immediately focused on ‘haechan’ again, waiting patiently for him to start speaking.
‘haechan’ tried to keep up his angry facade, but a smile slipped onto his face when ‘zhong’ just laughed harder. soon enough, the entire group had dissolved into giggles, following the leader. it was infectious, clearly, since none of them knew what was funny, but yet still laughed their hearts out. ‘jun’ was the only one to stay quiet, a fond smile on his lips as ‘nana’ clutched his sleeve, doubled over due to the force of his laughter. even mark had a small smile on his lips, but he would never admit that it was due to the loud, raucous laughter issuing from ‘haechan’. mark simply watched with something akin to fondness in his expression, but soon realized what was wrong with that. ‘they kidnapped you, you idiot!’ he internally berated himself for letting his guard down, remembering exactly where he had been prior to this.
–
11:32 p.m, 5.27.????, location: ty track’s cat cafe
mark sighed as he took a look at the rest of the paperwork spread out in front of him, covering nearly the entire countertop that he normally served drinks over. taeyong, the manager that was meant to deal with the paperwork, was currently on a vacation, leaving mark to watch over the cafe for a week and a half. with a sigh, he realized that there was no way he was going to finish this tonight, and decided to stow away what he had left for tomorrow. the cafe was empty, the other staff having already left him alone to close. the young male let a yawn escape his lips, stretching a bit, and listening to some of his joints pop in the process. he returned all the leftover papers to taeyong’s office, before beginning to put chairs up and sweep the floor, picking up the little bits of waste that were left behind. one of his coworkers, jungwoo, had already washed all the dishes and things, which just left mark to clean up the main area, wipe down the counter, and then he was free to lock up and leave.
he did just that, checking the clock every few minutes until he was finally free to leave. it wasn’t until a quarter ‘till midnight that he was finally walking to his place, to the tiny apartment he called home. the streets were quiet, small groups of people milling around outside of bars or clubs, but they left mark to his own devices as he answered texts that he got during his shift, assuring his manager, taeyong, that he had closed up shop without a problem and was getting home safe.
the walk wasn’t more than ten minutes, and soon he was entering the code for his door, stepping inside and taking off his shoes before venturing inside. he didn’t even bother to put on his slippers, instead padding upstairs to his bedroom that took up the space of a small loft. he threw himself down onto the bed, only after shimmying out of his work pants and sliding on a pair of shorts instead, toeing off his socks as he tried to get comfortable. he knew he smelled of strong coffee and shots of hazelnut, but couldn’t find it in himself to care as his tired body became one with the bed and he slipped into the strange in between state of not quite unconscious, but not quite conscious, either.
he laid like that for a while, the quiet of the apartment creeping into his bones and leaving him there to stew in his thoughts for a few hours before he could drift off.
–
3:15 a.m, 5.28.????, location: mark’s apartment
a crash broke the silence in the small apartment. six figures crept not so sneakily through the space, the two youngest not even bothering to be quiet in their whispering. one of the eldest turned to them, shushing them with a finger to his lips and narrowed eyes that seemed to spit sparks at them. “park, zhong, we’re never gonna secure the target if you two don’t stop with your shenanigans.” the two youngest glanced at one another, shrugged, and crept away the second their hyungs’ backs were turned. the four left continued their journey, ignoring the crashes and bangs that echoed in the kitchen, praying to all that is holy that their target was a deep sleeper - or better yet, dead to the world.
in addition to that noise, there was a small incessant meowing that emitted from the arms of one of the taller boys. the cat bearer was the next to be reprimanded by the shorter male. “and jen, did you really have to bring the cat?” ‘jen’ snorted in response, leaning into the slightly shorter boy next to him. “nana, please tell him it wasn’t necessary to bring the cat. he has no purpose!” the shortest teen complained again, yanking at the sleeve of the significantly taller figure, identified as ‘nana’. before he could reply, ‘jen’s nose was in the air as he huffed out a “well, at least he has a purpose, unlike you” with a pointed glance at the male. he stomped off, kitten in hand, to go join the two youngest in their kitchen escapade.
“so, nana, are you gonna explain the cat?” the shortest turned to ‘nana’, and gestured towards the kitchen, where they could hear whispers of glee and the purrs of the kitten. ‘nana’ gave him a sheepish look, murmuring something under his breath that the shortest couldn’t hear, the only thing he caught being his nickname and alias, ‘jun’. “oh, none of that ‘but jun’ nonsense, spit it out.” he snapped quietly, tapping his foot impatiently. the only other person in the room with them stared at the two, watching as they tossed words back and forth like a tennis match, his eyes flickering back and forth between the two.
“you gotta believe me, i told him not to bring the cat but he gave me those eyes and you know i can’t resist our boyfriend when he gives me those puppy dog eyes.” ‘nana’ pleaded desperately, trying to escape the scorn that he knew was coming.
instead, ‘jun’ rubbed his temples and heaved a sigh. “alright, but next ti-”
his words were interrupted by a loud crash that shook the floor. ‘jun’ knew that soon the neighbors would be calling the police on them, so he grabbed ‘nana’s wrist and hauled him into the kitchen to find out what the others were doing.
the last male, who still stood in one spot and went unnamed, just rolled his eyes at the commotion. “i could have ended up with any other gay squad, but it just had to be this one.” with one more glance at the kitchen, he began the ascent up the stairs to search for their intended target - lee minhyung, aka mark lee.
–
2:50 a.m, 5.28.????, location: mark’s apartment
mark couldn’t sleep. that was not a rare occurrence, but never before had he tossed and turned so much, only to be avoided by sleep. it was as if his brain couldn’t shut off, too many things running through his mind. “i have to balance the budget and finish those papers and be up by 5 so i’ll be able to get to the cafe at 7 and –”
the thoughts just kept coming, poking and prodding at his consciousness in order to keep him from slipping into a blissful sleep. the 22-year-old rubbed at his eyes and yawned, turning on his side to fumble around in the dark for his phone. he was greeted by the blinding brightness of the screen, which he dimmed quickly as he squinted at the device in his hand.
it took a minute of scrolling through his ‘sleep’ playlist, eyes catching on anything from classic titles like ‘the nutcracker’ by pyotr tchaikovsky, and songs from disney movies. in the end, he decided to shuffle it, listening as the beginning of ‘part of your world’ from ‘the little mermaid’ began to pour from his speaker. then, it was a mission of turning to his other side in order to dig out a book from the pile on his other nightstand, before the lamp was finally flicked on, his glasses were settled on his nose, and he was leaned up against the headboard, hoping to find sleep in the pages of the book.
–
3:28 a.m, 5.28.???? , location: mark’s apartment
the unnamed male opened up doors as quietly as he could, peering inside the rooms to see if the target was in any of them. he passed by a storage closet, a bathroom, and a small guest room before finally spotting the soft light that spilled out underneath one of the doors. “of course it would be the last place i check.” he grumbled, heaving a sigh as he padded towards the door as quietly as possible. there was a small click as he loaded a tranquilizer dart into his gun, before pushing the door open with one hand, the other holding the gun with his finger just above the trigger, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. he had expected the target to be asleep when the door opened, but instead, his eyes met with a panicked pair of brown eyes. “oh, shit.” he swore under his breath, aiming carefully before pressing on the trigger and watching the dart fly through the air as if in slow motion.
the target - mark - let out a small whine when the dart pierced his skin, and he seemed to get sluggish quickly as the two of them made eye contact once more, the unnamed male waiting for the drug to seep into his bloodstream. he was by mark’s side when his grip relaxed, the book falling to the floor and mark almost following it. he, as gently as possible (come on, he’s not a complete monster), slung the unconscious boy over his shoulder and made his way back downstairs and to the kitchen, humming a tune under his breath.
as he turned into the kitchen, the first thing he saw was ‘jun’ sitting in the corner, seeming to have lost control of the chaos. ‘zhong’ was seated on one of the countertops, ‘park’ slipped in between his legs as they had a quiet conversation, eyes darting around occasionally as they talked. ‘jen’ and ‘nana’ were watching the kitten walk around on the island, cooing every time it meowed, even when ‘jen’ had to stop and sneeze. with his free hand, the unknown figure raised his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly to catch their attention. “it’s time to go back to base, target acquired.”
the rest of the group gaped at him, their shock seeping out as they shot rapidfire questions at him. their voices melded together, into ‘what’s’ and ‘what about our target?’ and ‘i thought we had a mission?’. their leader nodded in response, gesturing to the figure slung over his shoulder. “the job’s already done, target acquired as i said.” he repeated smugly, tucking the dart gun back into the waistband of his pants as he spoke. there was more clamoring and questions, but the one thing that stood out to the leader was the “aw, i wanted to shoot him!” accompanied with a pout, that came from ‘park’.
they all glanced at the youngest member, and he just shrugged nonchalantly. “what? i’ve never gotten to use it on a mission before.”
“that’s because you’re the baby!” ‘zhong’ cooed as he pinched the youngest’s cheeks, laughing all the while.
their leader gestured for them to follow him out of the room, the noise of ‘park’s retaliation following them. “yah, i’m only two months younger than you, hyung!” ‘zhong’ just laughed in response, curling up against his taller boyfriend as they walked. despite his pout and clear disdain for being called the baby, ‘park’ wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled the elder closer.
however, after laying mark in the back of their van and leaving the two maknaes to watch over him, they realized that their leader was not taking them to their main base. “we’re going to the investigation station!” ‘nana’ cheered, as their leader turned down a familiar road that started the journey to the abandoned warehouse that they used for questioning.
“you guys better not mess this up like last time.” their still unnamed leader spoke, barely glancing at them through the rearview mirror before his gaze was fixed back on the road, catching a glimpse of ‘zhong’ and ‘park’s faux innocent faces.
“but hyung,” the second youngest whined, “it wasn’t all our fault last time! how were we supposed to know that those cans of spray paint still had paint in them?” ‘park’ nodded along, backing up his words.
their leader arched his brow at that, sceptically looking at the two in the mirror once more. “oh so you guys just happened to spray paint on us and the target, but it’s not your fault at all, right?”
“he made us do it.” the maknaes pointed accusingly at ‘jen’ who looked offended, quickly sputtering out a reply in order to clear his name, but ‘nana’ cut in quickly with an accusing look focused on his boyfriend that quickly morphed to an innocent one as he threw ‘jen’ under the bus in order to lessen the impact it would have on the maknaes.
“but jen, i swear i overheard you saying something about a bet and –” a soft slap echoed in the van, the culprit being ‘jen’s hand landing over ‘nana’s mouth, muffling the words that the other still tried to form. the rest of the van’s occupants stared at him and ‘nana’ expectantly, but ‘jen’ just laughed nervously in response.
after whispering something inaudible into ‘nana’s ear, ‘jen’ turned to face the rest. “okay, so maybe i did something i shouldn’t have, but the past is the past, man! forgive and forget, you know?” he did his best to plead with the others. the only ones to give in were his boyfriends, one falling victim to his infamous puppy eyes and the other having been threatened into silence.
soon enough, the van was filled with complaints, ‘jen’, ‘zhong’, and ‘park’ arguing amongst themselves while ‘jun’ and ‘nana’ mediated. their leader just sighed in mild annoyance and moderate despair, sending up a quick prayer to whichever deity was willing to listen to him (he really wasn’t picky) to not give him strength, but to give him the patience it would take to endure the rest of the ride. if one of the deities gave him strength…bad things would happen, and somebody would likely end up hurt. more than likely one of the maknaes, but that was besides the point. he turned on the radio quietly, just loud enough that he could focus on it and not on the bickering in the back.
if he hadn’t, he might’ve combusted on the spot and who knows what would have happened to the rest – he knew for sure that it would end in jail time for murder on his part, if they didn’t stop arguing. that would be ironic, he thought, considering the fact that he was an assassin. his thoughts trailed off into other careers that he might possibly be able to take up, that would allow him to never see the annoying group in the back ever again.
he made a mental note to look when they went back to headquarters.
Author Note: as usual!! late and unbetaed and i’m only slightly considering putting this story on hiatus,,,, but i also wanna finish it so?? idk man lmao
time never seemed to slow, ticking by faster and faster until wednesday rolled around, the early morning hours finding minhyuk tossed from his bed as sungjoo woke him up, chanting eerily that he had classes to attend. minhyuk groaned like a man possessed, rolling over onto his back amongst the blankets that he had taken to the floor with him. sungjoo seemed to hear his internal struggle, wondering if it was worth it to just wrap himself back up and go back to sleep, and wrenched the sheets and blankets out from underneath him in the blink of an eye, sending minhyuk sprawling back over the floor.
after that experience, minhyuk stumbled from his room to grab a cup of coffee that smelled so strongly it burned the other’s noses. he retreated back to his room, sipping languidly on the scalding hot liquid even though it burned his tongue, calling to one of the others to let him know when breakfast was ready.
when the call echoed through the apartment that food was ready, there was a stampede of feet and minhyuk was at the front of the makeshift serving line. jinyoung stood at the stove today, serving up meat and then directing them to the sides that lined their countertops. minhyuk’s mouth watered as he grabbed a little bit of everything, scurrying back to the table to begin scarfing down his food so that he could run for his one (1) early morning class, and then his lunch shift at the cafe, and then one more class before he could head home and sleep for the rest of eternity - or until tomorrow, whichever came first.
after rushing through the rest of his routine and getting to class early, he found that it had been cancelled on the way to the campus. since he was already most of the way there, he decided to just hang out in the library and work on an assignment that was due in a few weeks, and then head for the cafe afterwards. it was dead silent when he took over a table in the corner, spreading out his things with his laptop in the center and headphones buried in his ears. he surrendered himself to the soothing music and just let the words flow out onto his document, deciding to clean it up later and organize his thoughts better. he worked like that for close to an hour, consulting his notes every now and then to make sure he was getting his facts straight, when a tap on his shoulder broke his concentration. he whipped around, almost expecting it to be mark, bearing a cup of coffee. however, it was the soft, baby faced im changkyun, clutching at a drink that looked far to sweet and not even vaguely coffee-like. minhyuk still took it, inviting the other to sit down with him as he cleared a space for the other. changkyun shook his head no. “i’m not staying for long, honey’s waiting for me.” he gestured towards the front, where, in fact, lee jooheon was watching them. minhyuk raised a hand in greeting, the other nodding in reply before minhyuk turned his attention back to changkyun. “i just wanted to say thank you for the letter, and for at least being respectful. i’m sorry that i can’t return your feelings, but i’m grateful tha--” he was stopped abruptly as minhyuk held up a hand.
“that letter was written months ago, so please don’t worry about returning my feelings. there aren’t any to return anymore, and i wish you and jooheon a happy future.” he spilled out, smiling all the while. changkyun seemed to deflate slightly, breathing a sigh of relief and bidding minhyuk goodbye, expressing his wish to be friends. they exhanged social media before changkyun scurried off to join jooheon, who grabbed his hand and led him outside, the two chattering away between themselves.
minhyuk realized that this may become a daily occurence, the people that he wrote letters to coming up and greeting him without ill intent.
minhyuk realized that he didn’t quite mind that idea, preferring it to being beat up over his feelings, or lack thereof.
it wasn’t long before he had sped through his shift, spotting changkyun once more for his dose of caffeine. the other offered him a friendly smile, talking to him about the mundane things as minhyuk prepared his drink. it was the slowest hour of the afternoon, so minhyuk was by himself taking orders and preparing drinks, and it gave him the chance to talk to the customers as he worked. they discussed their majors and what they planned to do after university. changkyun stayed longer than what was warranted, leaning on the counter as he idly sipped his drink while listening to minhyuk talk about his project that he was currently working on, and only moving when the next customer moved through.
he left soon enough, leaving minhyuk to his own devices. he was relieved from his duty a little while later, jeongyeon coming in to take over so he could go to class. after an hour and a half of drilling information into his brain, he stumbled from the lecture hall with a handful of notes and his pencil still clutched in his hand, trying to stuff them into his backpack as he walked while weaving through the crowd emerging from the hall with him, and those waiting to enter. of course, it was inevitable that he would run into someone, he just didn’t expect it to be someone who felt like a pillar, knocking him off balance and causing him to make the split second decision - it was either him falling, or his carefully organized notes.
he chose the notes.
thankfully, the other person had decided to catch him, a strong arm wrapping around his waist and pulling him back upright. with an apology and words of gratitude on his tongue, minhyuk looked up to see one of two people he would have killed to not see for at least another week. soft brown eyes stared back at him, belonging to none other than sohn hyunwoo. of course, just minhyuk’s luck, it would be one of the two that he still had major feelings for. the other seemed just as flustered, letting go of minhyuk quickly as though he had been burned. minhyuk didn’t give either of them a chance to say anything, sidestepping the taller male and rushing off to the entrance of the building, nearly flying down the stairs in his haste to get away. other students stared at him, wondering why he had flushed red cheeks and was in such a hurry to get out of the building. had he stayed back for a second more, he would have seen the sudden rush of color that flooded hyunwoo’s cheeks, as he thought about the feeling of the other in his grasp, and the contents of the letter that he kept stowed away in his bag.
maybe, had minhyuk been closer, he would have felt the rapid pumping of hyunwoo’s heart as the person he admired from afar was finally in his arms, but not to stay.
Pairing(s): Woochan, Minsung, Changlix, Seungjinin (Seungmin x Hyunjin x Jeongin)
Genre: Crack?? possibly??
Word Count: 2600+
Warnings: None!
Author Note: uhhh so this has been on my mind f o r e v e r and i finally finished it so here!! take some crack!! bc i don’t have time rn to write anything else lmao also this is mostly based around woochan bc i love them and?? yeah
chan and the rest of 3racha listened to wow on chan's weekly vlive. of course, their loyal boyfriends were watching at home. of course, chaos ensues.
the night started out normally. chan introduced his show, introduced his guests, they talked for a little while, and then they started taking requests. when chan saw a request for 3racha fly up in the chat box, inspiration struck. he suggested that the three of them listen to their mixtape, and the two reluctantly agreed. it was fine, the three vibing along to their older music, when suddenly the beginning of ‘wow’ began playing, jisung’s voice filling the studio. the three of them had different reactions. changbin threw his head back, hands covering his face while jisung threw himself into chan’s arms, screaming the whole way. chan himself mouthed along to jisung’s iconic “excuse me noona, do you have a boyfriend?” line, which made the younger get up and retreat behind the chair he was previously sitting in. they alternated between being embarrassed and jamming to the song, as well as chan forgetting the lyrics to his own verse.
by the time the song ended, jisung and changbin had both thrown themselves back in their chairs and it seemed as though their souls had left their bodies. chan was left to dance by himself, having a great party for one. after the last chords had faded and the next track was paused, the three mocked each others verses, imitating changbin’s drawl at the beginning of his verse, as well as parts of jisung and chan’s raps.
the live ended without much more fuss, the trio waving goodbye before chan finally shut the live off. they all looked at one another, murmuring their tiredness and looking over to their manager to see him gathering their things. they pushed the chairs back into their original positions, letting their manager take the lead down to the parking garage where the company van was parked. one by one, they piled in and split up to take a whole seat each, chan furthest back and changbin closest to the front with jisung in between them. in a few moments, the van was filled with a comfortable silence with music just barely able to be heard from three different sets of headphones, as well as the radio.
it didn’t take long for them to get back to the dorms, or maybe they just slipped into a gentle slumber that made it seem like time passed quicker. the world may never know. all they knew was that within what seemed like minutes, they were stumbling out of the van and rubbing the sleep from their eyes, heading to their dorm where they knew a warm bed and even warmer bodies awaited them.
they quietly cracked the door open and saw the living room light was on, which led them to believe that at least one of the other members was still awake. they slipped out of their shoes and filed into the living room, seeing the entire rest of their group awake and splayed out over the floor or the two couches. woojin had sprawled out on the furthest couch, while minho and felix had taken over the other, leaving their last trio to take the floor. jeongin had cuddled up to hyunjin, who was in the center, his chest rising and falling with even breaths as he slept on hyunjin’s chest. seungmin was wide awake, his head on hyunjin’s outstretched arm, and was holding the phone up so the two of them could see. chan made a beeline for woojin, throwing himself down on the couch next to the elder, who put his phone away so he could hold chan close, running his fingers through his hair gently as they talked quietly. when changbin and jisung looked over at their respective boyfriends, they saw minho watching them with his front pressed to felix’s back, the younger boy sleeping peacefully under minho’s arm. minho shook his couch partner awake, before saying something that made him jolt up. changbin gathered the australian boy into his arms, felix automatically wrapping around him like a koala with his legs around changbin’s waist and his arms around his neck, changbin’s hands settled against his thighs to hold him up. “i’m gonna take felix to bed, good ni-” changbin only got through half of his sentence before the aforementioned boy was cutting in, mumbling something unintelligible into his neck. he whispered a soft question in reply, and felix pulled his face away from changbin’s neck to say it again. in his deep drawl, he uttered the one phrase that made everyone in the room freeze.
“hyung, you can be my shrek today, and i’ll be your fiona”
it took a second for everyone but changbin to process the fact that that was one of changbin’s iconic lines from wow, except backwards since it was from felix’s point of view. the other six members (excluding jeongin, who was still sleeping peacefully) watched on in silence as changbin turned on his heel, whispering rapidly into felix’s ear, who turned bright red and mouthed “help me” to the others, who all shrugged and didn’t bother to help him.
before long, hyunjin had retreated back to the room he shared with seungmin and jeongin, dragging his two boyfriends with him.
chan and woojin slept on the couch that night, long after jisung had peeled minho from his spot, and guided him to their room. the elder whined the whole way, but kept his fingers intertwined with jisung’s nevertheless.
the two eldest were the first ones awake, sleepily stumbling into the kitchen to get breakfast ready for the kids, even though it was their off day, so the kids would likely be sleeping in. they worked in a quiet harmony, humming along absentmindedly to the music playing quietly through chan’s phone. woojin went to work on making the main part of their breakfast, pancakes, something that felix had been begging for for a week now. chan was quietly cutting up fruit behind him, before tossing it all into a big bowl and storing it away in the fridge so it would stay cold. he worked on frying up a pack of bacon, the smell quickly filling up the dorm and appearing to drag the boys out of their rooms. minho and jisung were the first two to appear in the doorway, minho piggybacking the smaller boy who was still half asleep with his head nestled into the side of minho’s neck.
felix came out next, throwing himself down at the table next to jisung, leaning on his almost twin in a sleepy haze. the two nearly fell asleep on each other, before changbin joined them and felix took his rightful place snuggled into the elder’s side, who threw a lazy arm around his shoulders. when chan glanced back at them, he saw minho had sat down with a large cup of coffee, offering sips of it to jisung who was almost in his lap. jisung would shake his head before taking a large sip of the drink, and then proceeded to make a disgusted face before taking yet another sip. next to them was felix and changbin, who were leaning on one another with changbin’s arm around felix’s shoulders. the next person to come out was seungmin, who looked more awake than anyone yet, aside from the eldest. he greeted them with a chirpy “good morning” as he poured out three glasses of juice, setting each one at a different chair at the table. then, he left the room and came back with a half asleep jeongin, who he deposited at the table with a quick kiss left on the crown of his head.
breakfast was done and set out when he came back with hyunjin wrapped around him like a koala, similar to how changbin had picked up felix the previous night. he sat down like that, the elder turning around in his lap to be able to eat. it was a common sight to see in the morning, since hyunjin got quite clingy when he was tired. they ate in peace, a quiet settling over the table save for the clinking of dishes and the chewing of food. woojin fed chan some of the fruit from his plate, while changbin tried to coax felix more out of his sleep.
they spent the day lazing around, the maknae line and changbin playing a card game in the corner while the eldest three laid out on the couches. they were all on their phones, chan glancing over woojin’s shoulder to peer at his screen from his position behind the elder, his front pressed to woojin’s back. minho had kicked his legs up over the arm of the couch, his back resting in the seat part and his feet idly kicking. when jisung finally lost at the game, he threw his hands up in mock frustration and retreated to his boyfriend to pout, throwing his entire body weight onto minho as he maneuvered himself on top of the elder. the rest of the maknaes (sans changbin) just laughed in response, teasing jisung for being a sore loser, which he refuted quickly with a pout still adorning his lips. minho drew him closer, telling off the babies for making his jisungie sad. they fell into yet another comfortable silence, chan dozing off behind woojin and jisung mimicking him from his place on minho, the elder running a hand up and down the length of his back and letting it rest on the back of his neck when it seemed jisung’s breathes slowed and he slipped into unconsciousness.
that is, until felix scared them all by flopping back and yelling that he was bored. changbin just patted his knee, the closest thing he could reach, before pulling him back up for his turn. there were noises of assent that echoed through the room, and soon they were getting up in groups to go change into clothes that they could go out in. felix, hyunjin, and minho were the first ones to leave, the youngest and the oldest of the group seeming to be planning something together. they split up into their respective rooms, minho yelling that he was setting out clothes for jisung as well, since the other had slipped back into his tired state and could barely form a coherent sentence through his drowsiness. it was impossible to know how minho heard jisung hum in confirmation, before he dozed off again. the vocal line was the next to leave, chan whining as his source of heat left while woojin just laughed at him. the freshly changed members laughed as he made grabby hands towards his shared bedroom door, which woojin poked his head out of to promise for more cuddles later. chan smiled and nodded in response, rolling over onto his stomach to wait for his boyfriend to finish. then, it was time for 3racha. minho had to poke and prod jisung to get him to wake up, and the group watched him stumble into the bedroom while minho and felix giggled. changbin glanced back at his boyfriend, fear chilling his blood as he thought back to the night before.
however, changbin wasn’t their target. jisung bounced out of the room fully awake with a grey hoodie that fell past his hands and down to the middle of his thighs and a pair of white jeans to match the white design on his hoodie. he stopped midstep as he saw felix and minho giggling together, before suddenly, his blood ran cold. “hey, hey, hey! look over there, he's so handsome, wow i really wanna date him!” minho chimed enthusiastically, fanning himself with one hand as he looked over jisung, while the other was occupied with slapping felix’s arm.
felix pretended to look around, before asking “where?”, to which minho responded with “there!” and pointed in jisung’s general direction. their target sunk to his knees, mock sobbing as he realized that his beloved boyfriend, the light of his life, his one and only, was mocking his lines in one of the cringiest songs he had ever participated in.
the two continued on, even as chan and changbin came out of their respective rooms to find out what the fuss was about. they saw the rest of the group, aside from the tormented and the tormentees, were crying with laughter as they saw the scene in front of them. jisung had buried his face in his knees, cringing so hard that chan swore he was gonna break something. minho finished up with the iconic “excuse me noona, but do you have a boyfriend?”, but replacing the ‘noona’ with ‘hey’, since jisung was neither older than him or a woman. they watched on as the boyfriends met in the middle, minho laughing as he tried to soothe the other boy, who had finally broken and began laughing as well, as jisung yelled “yes” at the top of his lungs, causing yet another uproar of laughter. the other two rappers had joined the ruckus that the others were making, until chan had a realization and froze.
felix had quoted one of changbin’s lines to him, and now minho had hit jisung with one of his lines as well. he realized that that pattern meant he was next, and he sent a glance to woojin to find him already staring, the elder grinning like a madman. he, woojin, mouthed “you’re next” to chan amongst the madness, causing the other to nervously laugh and mouth back “i’m in danger” to which woojin laughed.
however, the rest of the day flew by in a blur and not a single time did woojin try to quote his lines back to him.
in fact, for about a week, there was radio silence and the rest of the group seemed to forget about the event and so did chan himself. they went through their schedules, and chan even made it through his weekly live, bringing woojin with him as his special guest for the show. once they had ended the live, they collected the babies that were still at the company building and all headed home, the two couples curled up in the back of the van and dozing peacefully.
it wasn’t until the next day that chan had his very rude awakening.
they had nothing to do later in the evening, so they all split up to do their own things. changbin and felix stayed at the dorm to nap, the trio went out to an arcade, while minho and jisung went shopping because jisung needed new sneakers. woojin and chan decided to go out to dinner together, after some not so careful planning on their part. all woojin had said was “let me take you out to a restaurant”, which passed by chan’s wow-o-meter and didn’t seem to set off any alarms in his head. then, when they arrived and woojin rushed forward to open the door, letting chan in first, he spilled the next line in the song - “please, let me open that door for you, you need to enter first to have a good look” - which was something that sounded slightly familiar to chan but he just squinted suspiciously at woojin and didn’t say anything, choosing to ignore it instead, despite the feeling of dread that churned in his gut. it wasn’t until after their meal and after woojin had paid for both of them that chan asked why he did it. and woojin’s answer?
“cuz i’m a nice guy who just has a lot of money.”
chan malfunctioned right there in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at his boyfriend with a look of utter betrayal and slight disgust obvious on his face, watching the elder sink to his knees in a fit of laughter.
and this, of course, was not the end of it. random bursts of “wow, he’s hot” that followed them around the dorm whenever they came out of the bathroom after a shower, while they were cooking, or even doing something as simple as reading or writing.
did the members of 3racha complain? only slightly. did they still absolutely adore their annoying partners? hell yeah they did.
once again, just like the day a short week before, yeosang awoke to the sound of banging and yelling at the door. he could faintly hear his name, but the only thing that mattered in that moment was the absence of seonghwa. the other was nowhere to be found, and yeosang couldn’t even hear him clattering around in the kitchen. the pounding grew more frantic, and yeosang was quick to arm himself as he crept to the door, peering out the peekhole and feeling a sense of deja vu as he looked at the people outside his door. when his eyes caught sight of the familiar platinum blond hair he was used to waking up next to, he gasped and wrenched the door open. yunho was immediately pushing past him with seonghwa in his arms, the latter groaning as he clutched at his stomach. mingi was quick to follow, and then in rushed four more people. yeosang quickly recognized wooyoung and san, but ignored the two newcomers in favor of rummaging through the bathroom cabinet for the first aid supplies. when he emerged, yunho had made quick work of seonghwa’s shirt and left the other bare chested on the couch, letting yeosang kneel down next to him and peel his hands away from his stomach. a decent sized gash curved over his belly button, steadily dribbling blood down his sides. “get a towel, quick, from that closet!” yeosang vaguely gestured in the direction of the closet in question, watching for wooyoung to return with a towel so he could begin applying pressure and hope that the wound would stop bleeding so heavily.
he quickly soaked through that towel and requested another one, that wooyoung quickly tossed at him, seeming to have been prepared. about halfway through the second, the flow seemed to slow down slightly, and yeosang pulled the towel away to take a look at the wound. it wasn’t deep enough to warrant major concern, but he would have to stitch it up.
thank the government for his one semester of nursing school, where the first thing they learned was how to stitch someone up.
as he rummaged through the first aid kit, he pulled out the supplies that he would need and urged any of the weak stomached people to leave the room as he worked. nearly half the group moved to the kitchen, leaving him alone with wooyoung, who kneeled next to him. “what do you need?” he asked quietly, almost afraid to disturb yeosang’s concentration. yeosang murmured for him to slip on a pair of gloves so he’d be able to hold seonghwa’s gash together, after it was sanitized. seonghwa hissed as yeosang made quick work of disinfecting the wound, before it was like the world faded and yeosang was brought into a mode where nothing could bother him. he knew seonghwa was wincing at every pierce of the needle, whining in pain but doing his best to hold still.
he couldn’t hear it, though, his brain set on the task at hand.
wooyoung played his part well, making it easier for yeosang to stitch up the wound and cover it with a thin layer of a cream that was supposed to help seonghwa heal faster, then wrapping him in bandages. when yeosang had covered seonghwa up with one of his own shirts (seonghwa swears on everything he didn’t blush at the thought of wearing yeosang’s clothes), he called the others out and wooyoung was the one to introduce the newcomers as yeosang was fetching ibuprofen for seonghwa. the shorter of the two with the angular face and long hair was hongjoong, and the taller with the plumper face was jongho, who was his student. yeosang greeted them politely, before informing them that they had no room for anyone else. hongjoong and jongho both smiled in response, responding that the other two couples had already informed them of that, and that they would be moving on as soon as possible.
however, with a glance at seonghwa, yeosang couldn’t find it in himself to kick them out now, and force them to find somewhere else to stay. “there’s an apartment next door that’s been empty for years, and the landlord - for whatever reason - let me have the key, so maybe the eight of us can split up into two groups and we all stay in this building?” he suggested, watching as the six of them began to talk amongst themselves. he and seonghwa exchanged looks, the blond grinning slightly at him in response to the suggestion. “we can do like, shifts for runs and stuff so that we never leave the apartments fully unprotected.” he added quickly, his head already churning at the thoughts that began to gather. there was a collective noise of assent as they finally came to a decision. yeosang beamed for the first time in what seemed to be a lifetime, scurrying off to his bedroom to find the key.
it wasn’t long before yunho, mingi, hongjoong, and jongho were getting settled into the other apartment. it was furnished very sparsely, only a bed and a couch filling the space, so they decided that yeosang’s apartment would be the meeting area for meals. they had also moved seonghwa into yeosang’s bedroom, so that wooyoung and san could take the couch - which they discovered folded out into a bed, something that yeosang himself didn’t even know. yeosang stocked the other apartment with blankets and emergency supplies, before walking five feet down the hall and re-entering his own apartment. a comfortable silence greeted him, until the yell of “uno!” broke the quiet. yeosang ventured into the living room to find it empty, and the noise seemed to be radiating from his bedroom.
it wasn't long before the four were gathered on the bed, shouting when someone cheated. time passed quickly, and soon enough dinner had come and gone, leaving yeosang to feed seonghwa so he didn't disturb his new stitches. they were silent for the most part, until yeosang accidentally slid the spoon across seonghwa lip and left a streak of sauce there. he wiped it off absentmindedly with his thumb before sucking it off without thinking about it. when he looked up, seonghwa was looking at him with a strange expression, that yeosang quickly ignored in favor of finishing feeding seonghwa his portion. when he was done and had tossed the can, he came back to join seonghwa in bed, stepping around the folded out couch and trying not to disturb san and wooyoung. seonghwa was dozing idly against the wall when yeosang closed the door, and soon enough the two of them were laying face to face. well, seonghwa was laying on his side with his face to yeosang, but it was the thought that counts.
yeosang noticed a little bit of sauce that had gathered in the corner of seonghwa lips, wiping his thumb across seonghwa lips without a second thought.
that is, until seonghwa’s lips parted and yeosang's finger dipped inside, where seonghwa suckled on the tip of his finger gently, using his tongue to clean the pad of yeosang’s finger. when he released it, he sent the younger a look that made all the heat in his body rush south, and suddenly he was as close as possible with his lips locked with seonghwa’s.
they were like that for a bit, passing heated kisses like it would be the last chance they ever had.
and as seonghwa explained why he had been gone that morning, yeosang realized that he was lucky to have this one chance.
he had noticed they didn't have something specific, so he had gone out on a quick run to find it for them, so yeosang wouldn't worry. (“and what’s so important that you almost died for it?” “....i don't even remember”) he was attacked by a raider, and was hit once before san, wooyoung, mingi, and yunho found him. on the way home, mingi had spotted two people surrounded by a horde of the undead, and took san to free them. those two were hongjoong and hongjoong, and they were lucky that they were in the right place at the right time, or else they'd be dead.
yeosang had scolded him properly for sneaking out, but pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
“I'm just glad you came home.” he whispered as they drifted off to sleep, their fingers intertwined between them.
how it all went wrong (and what went right) || Part 2
Pairing(s): Seongsang, Woosan, Yungi (platonic for now!)
Genre: uhhh once again, mild fluff and slight gore ig??
Word Count: 1700+
Warnings: None for this part!
Author Note: so this was actually only gonna be half of the second chapter, but i decided to split it up into two parts so i can post sooner! also, the next part m a y explain why either woosan or yungi ended up with seongsang, but i’m not sure which yet!
seonghwa is yeosang’s rock, just as san is wooyoung’s. so what happens when their peace is disturbed by two newcomers?
they were lucky for the setup of yeosang’s apartment, the group very quickly realized. they had pulled all the curtains shut, including the ones in the kitchen right next to the front door (yeosang still didn't understand the need for a window overlooking the hallway but whatever) and both windows in the dining room and bedroom. wooyoung and san had already crawled off the couch, and crept quietly over to their weapons before seonghwa and yeosang had even emerged from the room. the banging and shouting only grew louder, the noise beginning to sound like panicked screams but yeosang knew they really couldn't trust anyone.
it wasn't until everyone had a weapon of some sort that they crept to the door, yeosang peeking through the peekhole at whoever was outside. there were two figures stood side by side, their figures distorted through the window, but yeosang saw no weapons, and he said such to seonghwa. seonghwa shrugged and mouthed “let them in”, to which yeosang sighed. of course he would say that.
that must have been quite a shock for them, hearing the lock turn to an apartment and then stumbling in to find that there were four people inside, all wielding weapons. but the two took it in a stride, one turning to close and lock the door as the other explained their situation.
they were roommates, the brown haired man being mingi and the black haired man being yunho. since they lived in a worse part of town that yeosang himself did, their apartment building was one of the first raided when the sun rose. they could hear the doors being busted down above and below them, and soon enough it was the one at the end of the hall. then the middle one. and then the one right next to them. they had just bolted through their living room window onto the fire escape when the door was busted down, dust flying through the air and settling softly around the figure that stood in their doorway. mingi froze, and yunho pushed him to start climbing down with a shout of “go!” before they were rushing down the metal stairs to the sound of the figure screaming - whether it was into a walkie talkie or to an accomplice, they’d never know.
when they hit the ground and started running, they could hear footsteps behind them and glanced back to see that somebody had run from the lobby after them. presumably, it was another member of the group that was raiding their building, but they weren’t sure. friend or foe, they ran until they lost him, dodging through alleys that they knew like the back of their hands and past the undead that reached out to touch them. somehow, the person that broke down their door emerged from the shadows, and they bolted once again, and so they ended up at yeosang’s door, knocking with the ferocity of a thousand beasts as they heard his thunderous steps up the stairs.
yeosang simply stared at them, before his mind went into overdrive. “so you’re saying, you led a big, beefy man to my apartment and now we’re all stuck in here?” he seethed, mingi and yunho both seeming to shrink as they took in his anger. “god, you’re so lucky this floor is nearly abandoned.” he mumbled, anger melting away as seonghwa laid a soft hand on his shoulder, whispering something to yeosang that calmed him down. the two newcomers stood in the doorway, still confused. wooyoung and san had retreated back to the couch, where they sat watching just in case something happened, although they doubted that the two tall men posed a threat.
yeosang finally sighed, moving aside to allow the other two in. “i swear to all that is holy that if somebody tries to break into my apartment, i will sacrifice you two.” he muttered to the taller boys as he guided them to the living room. the two nodded. “see, i don’t even know how you guys got here. nobody’s lived on this floor for years, aside from me. the door from the stairs doesn’t open, and half the elevator buttons don’t work, but the one for this floor is particularly iffy.” he shrugged, figuring that they were pretty safe. then, he noticed the bags that the two had slung over their shoulders, and gestured towards them. mingi seemed to understand quickly what he wanted.
“we don't have any weapons, all we have is some food, a little bit of water and some matches. i think yunho has sleeping bags.” mingi informed them, pulling his bag off to show them as yunho did the same. yeosang passed them to seonghwa to check, and he confirmed what they said. “we probably won't last very long with what we have, but as soon as they leave, we’ll leave too and we won’t bother you.” he promised them not even a heartbeat later, gesturing wildly as he tried to prove his point. however, at the sound of footsteps on the floor above them, the entire group went quiet. san went to check that the windows on the backside of the apartment were locked, and the shades pulled closed before he returned to wooyoung’s side, their fingers clasped tightly in between them while their other hands held tightly to their newfound weapons. seonghwa and yeosang took up a protective stance in front of the others, their hips pressed together as one stared at the window and the other at the door, waiting for something to drop in.
they stayed like that for what must have been close to an hour, listening to the footsteps that traipsed around the rooms above them, likely raiding the apartment. yeosang wracked his memory, trying to think of who lived above him but drew a blank. finally, they were able to relax as the footsteps faded away, and they could faintly hear noise travelling down the staircase. yeosang breathed out a sigh of relief, throwing himself down on the floor next to wooyoung and san, who had sat on the side of the coffee table closest to yeosang’s bedroom. the group of six glanced at one another, while mingi and yunho got to their feet. “we’ll just take the fire escape out, and we’ll be out of your hair.” yunho reiterated mingi’s words from earlier, his voice considerably higher than that of his counterpart. yeosang sighed, before informing him that they didn’t have a fire escape. yunho gaped at him, and then shrugged before saying they would just take the elevator back down.
wooyoung and san both stood up with a start, glancing over at yeosang and seonghwa to say that they should probably get a move on too, since they were only meant to stay for the night. yeosang glanced at seonghwa, who nodded and went to pack them up a bag with food and water, and as much of their supplies as they could spare, pressing the bag into a protesting san’s hands. seonghwa shushed him quickly, before the group of four was finally leaving the apartment, yeosang locking the door behind them. he had pulled wooyoung aside for a brief second, to tell him that if they needed anything, to come find him and seonghwa. the silver haired boy had nodded in understanding, before rushing to join his fiance and the rest of their rag tag group at the door. yeosang felt a strange emptiness that flooded his chest and seemed to permeate the room around him as the door clicked shut behind the others, and he turned to find seonghwa staring at him.
“what is it?” he murmured, pushing past the blond to take a seat on the couch, where it was still warm from yunho and mingi’s body heat. part of yeosang wanted to go pull the four back, but he knew that that was risky. they only had enough for two of them, and not near enough to sustain six people until they found somewhere better to camp out. that was the part that it seemed seonghwa could read, sitting next to him and reassuring him that it would be all right, that the group would be fine.
seonghwa somehow coaxed him to get back in bed and catch up on the sleep that he missed. seonghwa himself didn’t join him, instead sprawling out over the floor and leafing through one of yeosang’s textbooks from his college courses. yeosang slipped into an easy sleep, knowing that seonghwa was capable of protecting the two of them if need be.
they fell into a routine like that, sleeping next to one another at night and sharing a can of food at mealtimes, not even bothering to heat anything up. they made runs together, filling their backpacks up with as much as they could carry to bring home. steadily, their stock of food and medicine piled up, covering the cabinets in the kitchen and spilling out into the dining room, where they also stored their two emergency bags, filled with things they would need if they had to run.
a week flew by, as they listened to the radio nightly for progress on the situation outside. yeosang’s building had stayed eerily quiet, and they assumed that the other tenants had fled at the first sight of danger. it wouldn’t surprise yeosang, and certainly not seonghwa, who said it would make sense. they planned on where they would go, to seonghwa’s grandparents house in the mountains. he said that that would be safer for them, and that his grandparents had passed away long ago and left the house to him. yeosang agreed enthusiastically, but his mood quickly dropped as he looked around at their supplies. “but how will we move all this?” he asked one night, as they laid in bed with seonghwa’s arms around yeosang, where the younger was resting against his chest.
seonghwa just reassured him that they’d find a way, before yeosang nodded and drifted off to sleep. seonghwa waited for a little while, waiting for yeosang to be in a deep enough sleep that he wouldn’t feel seonghwa untangling their limbs and climbing from the bed. “i’ll be back in the morning.” seonghwa uttered this promise to deaf ears, watching as yeosang felt around the bed for something to hold onto, which seonghwa granted in the form of a pillow.
yeosang slept on peacefully, not knowing of the disaster he would be waking to.
how it all went wrong (and what went right) || Part 1
Pairing(s): Woosan, Seongsang, Yungi
Genre: ?? Not even sure what to call this?? mild fluff and idk what else
Word Count: 3000+
Warnings: bc this is a zombie au, there will probably be some mildly gory descriptions, moderate violence, and who knows what else?? but everything will be tagged here!
Author Note: y’all,,,, i literally wrote this in one night,,,, and i’m so excited to actually be posting it!! i got inspired to write this after reading “kenopsia” by skz_jpeg on ao3, which i 100% recommend!! anyways this probably won’t be super long of a series, but it’ll probably be somewhere between 10 and 20 parts?? i’m not 100% sure yet tho!!
it’s hard to forget where you were when tragedy struck, even after years pass.
when it started, yeosang was at his favorite department store, browsing the racks one minute, and locked in the manager’s office the next. his savior, a boy in red by the name of seonghwa, told him that he was mere feet away from the undead.
even at night, the city of seoul was almost always bustling with people. whether they were just getting off work, or just going to work, just going shopping or coming home from a night of drinking, there were always people lining the streets. bars would be open, music blasting onto the streets every time the front door opened. businesses would have their lights on, workers dozing off behind desks and counters as they worked the midnight shift. corner stores were always open, their bright signs flashing “open!” at anyone who happened to pass by.
however, yeosang had never seen the seoul streets this empty and quiet. then again, he had never walked home in the dead of night with a machete clutched in one hand, and a stranger’s hand in the other. he had also never faced death in the face of the undead, but it turns out that there’s a first time for everything.
it had been peaceful, the late night crowds in the underground mall slowly dissipating as yeosang leisurely browsed the racks of his favorite department store at a quarter to midnight, just a few hours before the store would close. he had been in the underground mall for hours at this point, but had come out of nearly every store empty-handed, but he swore that that wouldn’t be the case with this one. although the mall was clearing out, there was still loud chatter in the hallways that enveloped the building. he assumed that the shrieks fading into the distance were due to a celebrity or something showing up, and continued on his search for new clothing. because his paycheck had been rather large this time around and he had money to spare, he decided to treat himself for once. he had an armful of clothes, and was just turning around to check out when a voice shouted “look out” not even a foot away from him, and he turned to see a person. but no, it wasn’t just any person. it was someone wearing the store’s uniform, presumably once an employee, but judging by the chunk of flesh missing from their neck, the sickly color of their skin, and the blood that stained their shirt, it could be assumed that they were no longer alive enough to be employed.
there was a tug on his wrist, and he watched the person - zombie? undead? - lurch dangerously close to where he was just standing. he was pulled back into a solid chest at the same time as a wooden pole appeared in the corner of his eye, smacking the undead on the side of the head, causing it to lose balance and tumble to the floor, which bought them just enough time to bolt for the manager's office. they were lucky, yeosang thought, at the metal door swung open with ease and soon clicked closed behind them. there was a small window up near the top of the door, which they watched through as the undead seemed to lose sight of them and wandered off. for a brief moment, yeosang compared the being to a baby, considering that it seemed to have the same concept of object permanence as one. he shook his head at the thought, watching the being stumble between the racks and out the front of the shop, presumably to look for another victim. a loud sigh of relief made reminded him of the other presence in the room, a bleach blond boy slumping against the wall next to the door. yeosang remained standing and studied him curiously, eyes raking over the unfamiliar face for a second before the boy looked up and they made eye contact -- and suddenly yeosang couldn’t look away. piercing, almost ashy green eyes held his gaze, the color unnatural but suiting the stranger. the firetruck red hoodie that covered his upper half was striking against his hair, the combo obviously very carefully put together to attract attention. the two sat in silence for a few moments, just studying one another, before the stranger was hauling himself back to his feet with the help of the wooden pole still clutched in his hand. his free hand was soon extended to yeosang, and he was introducing himself as seonghwa.
yeosang soon learned that the country was in a state of emergency. some sort of scientific outbreak had occurred, and soon, people were dying and coming back to life, but only halfway, resulting in beings like the one they had just seen. seonghwa informed him that the mall was crawling with them, but that it would be good for them to get out as soon as possible. yeosang nodded in response, before suggesting that the two of them stick together and go back to yeosang’s apartment, where they would likely be safer than out in the open. seonghwa readily agreed, and soon they were setting out. just before they left the store, however, yeosang headed to the back and grabbed one of the biggest backpacks he could find, and shoved some of the more useful clothes that he was planning on buying into it. after looking around and making sure the store was clear, he ordered seonghwa to go find either a leather jacket or a denim one. his only reply to the confused look he got was a deadpan one in return. “denim and leather are hard to bite through, and these things are humans, with human teeth.” he quietly informed him, getting an understanding nod in return. they split up but stayed within a few feet of one another, as yeosang shoved his arms through the sleeves of a denim jacket, and tossed a leather one into the backpack. just a few rows over, he saw seonghwa doing the same. he hissed that they needed to hurry, and the other nodded, before they joined up to exit the store.
they were lucky, somehow managing to make it to a camping supply store without seeing a single undead. they ducked inside, splitting up to find supplies to take home, since yeosang had mentioned that he didn’t have a lot of things that they would need. he figured that if the world ever sorted itself out, he’d keep a tally of what they stole - borrowed - and pay for it when everything was right again. seonghwa came back with his own bag, full of things that they would need if the electricity went out, or they ran out of food, and supplies to purify water if they needed to. yeosang was in the middle of unboxing a pocket knife, which he then used to cut the packaging on a machete. the pocket knife was stuffed into his jacket pocket, and seonghwa shoved another packaged machete into his bag before saying they needed to leave.
as they were navigating their way out of the mall, yeosang suddenly pulled seonghwa into a beauty supply store. seonghwa went to question him, but yeosang just pulled him to the side of the door into a small cubby-like space, pressing the two of them together and pressing a finger to his lips. they heard stumbling footsteps over the sound of their breathing, followed by a short moan that quickly dissipated as the figure passed. yeosang checked quickly to make sure it had passed, before venturing further into the store and gesturing for seonghwa to follow him. it wasn’t long before they stumbled across one of the undead at the back of the store, where yeosang was pulling down a box what appeared to be the same dye he used to achieve the blush colored hair he currently sported, as well as one that seonghwa assumed was his natural - or as close to natural as he could get - hair color to cover it up with. after the undead was taken care of and the dyes were in yeosang’s backpack, and he had finally convinced seonghwa to grab what he needed to maintain his own platinum blond hair (“it looks good on you! you have to keep it!” yeosang had rambled on excitedly at the prospect of helping seonghwa with his hair), the two continued to make their way out, the contents of their bags rattling slightly with every step. seonghwa cursed as they had to take out another undead before finally hitting the escalators, which hadn’t shut off just yet. they rode in silence, standing as close to each other as they could and watching each other’s back.
the sirens that blared got louder and louder the closer they got to the surface, and yeosang idly wondered why he couldn’t hear even a hint of them while he was in the store. when they finally got out of the mall, they found the streets empty and near void of life. the moans of the undead could be heard from where they were, so they decided to speed up their pace, even just a little bit. just a few blocks from yeosang’s apartment building, they were just passing by a supermarket when seonghwa pulled them inside, pulling the same maneuver as yeosang had just a few hours before, at the sight of a zombie about a mile away. he shushed yeosang quickly, keeping an eye out for the undead to pass them by. they were lucky it hadn’t noticed the automatic doors that had slid open at their appearance, and remained open as they stood next to it.
yeosang finally breathed a sigh of relief as seonghwa finally pulled himself away, before looking around, trying to ignore the flush on his cheeks from their proximity. sure, it was okay when yeosang had done it to seonghwa, but the other way around had a feeling bubbling up in yeosang’s stomach that he didn’t like. the building seemed quiet, and the two of them exchanged glances. “should we grab a cart or two and take some of this back to your place? before somebody else raids it?” seonghwa suggested quietly, eying the carts just past the door to their right. yeosang shrugged, agreeing that it might be a good idea.
since it was the dead of night and the country was considered under a state of emergency, it was assumed that most people would be holed up inside their apartments and houses under morning, at the very least. with a nod, they grabbed two of the shopping carts and started walking up and down the aisles. seonghwa stocked his full of bottled water, checking it often to make sure that it wasn’t too heavy to push down the street and to get into an elevator. yeosang’s was soon full of canned goods and other things that wouldn’t spoil quickly, along with little things for them to snack on in the meantime, things that they may not be able to enjoy for long. he also stocked up on various vitamins, telling seonghwa that having a stronger immune system may help them in the long run. seonghwa nodded in agreement, before also throwing bottles of shampoo into yeosang’s cart, “just in case”, he said. just as their quiet ‘shopping trip’ was coming to an end, they heard the automatic doors open and froze in their spot. footsteps echoed around the store, but there wasn’t a moan to be heard - therefore, it had to be somebody alive that was inhabiting the store with them. yeosang and seonghwa were soon back to back, wielding their respective weapons as they watched either end of the aisle with bated breath, waiting for either friend or foe to pop out.
a silver haired boy, and a black haired boy with red highlights appeared from behind the endcap, one of them holding a hand basket while the other wielded a kitchen knife. with his free hand, seonghwa, who was facing the two boys, tapped yeosang’s upper thigh to signal for him to turn around. the two groups finally took notice of one another, the silver haired boy nearly shrieking in surprise. the black haired boy quickly covered his mouth, shushing him quietly. “we’re not here to hurt you or raid you, we’re just trying to stock up before everyone else does. we can’t get back into our apartment, our building is surrounded in the undead and they’re walking the hallways, too, so this is our only shot.” the black haired boy explained quickly and quietly, letting his hand drop from the other boy’s mouth, and letting it drop to intertwine with the other’s. before yeosang could reply, seonghwa had already blurted out that they could follow them to yeosang’s apartment, and they could figure it out in the morning. the two boys exchanged glances, while yeosang was sputtering indignantly, yanking seonghwa to the end of the aisle and out of sight for a minute, completely disregarding their carts.
seonghwa raised an eyebrow, and yeosang took a deep breath before finally speaking a proper sentence. “you can't just invite people into my home!” he hissed, trying to make sure the others couldn't hear him. seonghwa sent him a deadpan look, before gesturing down to himself. at the realization that he was being slightly hypocritical, yeosang sighed, a hand drifting up and fingers rubbing at his temples. “it's different with you. you saved me, and i owe you.” he whispered, eyes closing as he tried to distract himself. why exactly did he so willingly offer up his home to a stranger?
the answer came to him in the form of the butterflies that reeled in his stomach when seonghwa grabbed his hand with one of his own, pulling it away from his face at the same time that his free hand reached out to cup yeosang’s chin and make him face the other. “then let them stay with us, and we'll be even. tomorrow, when they leave, it'll just be us again and we'll be fine.” seonghwa tried to soothe him, rubbing his thumb over yeosang’s cheek, who leaned into the touch.
it took a second for yeosang to relent, nodding into seonghwa’s palm. he heard the other laugh, and allowed himself to be pulled closer into a tight embrace before they headed back to the other two, acting as though nothing had happened. the two boys watched them nervously, the silver haired boy fiddling with his fiance's fingers to distract himself.
“if you get a cart and help us stock up, you can come home with us.” yeosang relayed to them quickly, and the two rushed off to get a cart, only after introducing themselves. the black haired boy was san, and the silver-haired boy was his fiance, wooyoung. it turned out that they lived just a block or two away from yeosang, thankfully far enough that they didn’t worry about seeing the undead that flocked their building. it wasn’t until nearly an hour later that they found themselves standing in front of yeosang’s apartment building. they had to abandon their carts several times during the walk home, hiding in doorways and behind pillars until the threat had passed, somehow managing to make it back in one piece. yeosang was the first to go up, taking the elevator to his floor and checking to make sure that it was clear before riding back down and guiding the rest up to his apartment. soon enough, they had managed to fit the three carts in the doorway, and were unpacking the supplies. “we need to find some way to board up the windows, just in case.” yeosang piped up from the kitchen, where he was stacking canned food in the cabinets. even though they were on the third floor, there was still a possibility of something - or someone - getting in through the window.
“and we should figure out how to rig up the hallway so nothing else can get down here.” san replied from the small dining room, where he was pushing the carts together near the window and going to join yeosang in the kitchen. wooyoung and seonghwa were quietly conversing as they unpacked the other supplies that seonghwa and yeosang had collected, as well as some little things that they managed to save from their apartment. soon enough, the four of them were gathered in the living room, where they quickly whipped up a list of things that they still needed, which included, but wasn’t limited to: sleeping bags, maybe air mattresses if they were lucky, along with other things like more matches and candles, batteries, a radio, and a few other things. they made themselves comfortable, yeosang pulling a blanket down from his closet for san and wooyoung, who had taken refuge on the couch. seonghwa had already said that he would be sleeping on the floor next to yeosang’s bed, “for safety reasons”. yeosang had rolled his eyes, a bright flush painting his cheeks as he pushed seonghwa away. moonlight still flooded in through the windows, signaling to them that sunrise was still a few hours away, and they had time to catch a little bit of shut-eye before it was time to figure out a plan.
yeosang woke sometime a little bit later with a racing heart and a scream hovering in the back of his throat, one that he barely managed to hold back. it seemed that either he had already made noise in his sleep, or seonghwa was just that light of a sleeper, considering that the other sat up quickly and glanced around, eyes falling on yeosang’s shiver ridden form. with a small noise, he crawled into bed next to yeosang, pulled the boy to his chest and soothing the boy with gentle strokes of his hands over his hair and back. seonghwa smiled as the boy melted into his chest, and found himself falling asleep again with yeosang’s fingers wrapped in his shirt.
san and wooyoung slept peacefully in the living room, wooyoung pressed into the back of the sofa. it was a good arrangement, considering that wooyoung got cold easily in the night, and san too hot.
silence once again draped over the apartment like a blanket as the people inside finally all fell into a deep sleep, to ease the tired they felt in their bones.
they were woken just a few hours later at the sound of frantic pounding on the door and screams for help.
tuesday rolled around quickly, the morning light making minhyuk stir from a fitful sleep. he vaguely debated just staying and moping around the apartment, but those plans were tossed out the window when jeonghan burst into his room, loudly announcing that they were going out for breakfast and that he had better hurry up, or else he’d be left behind.
he vaguely considered just giving up and going back to bed at least three times during his morning routine, but finally stumbled out of his room fully dressed, bathed, and with his toothbrush hanging from his mouth as he searched high and low for a match to the sock he held in his hand. silently, jeonghan held up the match from his position on the couch, almost as if he could read minhyuk’s mind. minhyuk quietly thanked him, heading back to his room to finish brushing his teeth and pull his socks on, before grabbing his phone and making his way to the living room. it was empty, save for sungjoo who was waiting patiently for him.
the two walked out together, sungjoo offering his arm for support as minhyuk pulled on his shoes, before they joined the rowdy couples in their trek to their favorite diner, and the only one that could seat all of them. it was a peaceful start to the morning, as far as minhyuk's group of friends and roommates went. they all divided off into their own conversations as the food arrived, and some didn't talk at all. half of the group had classes while the other half didn't, but they all started late in the afternoon so the group was free to mess around.
minhyuk sat at the end of the booth with sungjoo next to him, and so it made sense that he could see the door. it also made sense that he could see the people walking in. what didn't make sense was the sight of hyungwon and his boyfriend hoseok entering the diner, almost immediately meeting minhyuk’s gaze. hyungwon whispered something to hoseok, who’s gaze flickered between minhyuk and hyungwon, before nodding. hyungwon walked up to the hostess desk, while hoseok made a beeline for minhyuk. it didn’t take more than a second for hoseok to pull him up by his elbow, gently, and pull him to the side.
“listen, hyungwon explained the letters to me, and i just want to let you know it’s okay, and to say thank you for making him happy. when he read that letter, his face lit up and i could see how happy it made him, so thank you.” hoseok rushed out, his voice soft so he didn’t attract the attention of the others - which was near impossible, given that the whole group was staring at them anyways. minhyuk just nodded, whispering a quick “you’re welcome” before hoseok was rushing back to hyungwon, the latter wrapping thin hands around the former’s bicep as they walked to their table, following the hostess.
the whole table began to question minhyuk when he sat down, but he just shook his head and continued eating, ignoring their questions.
it wasn’t long before they were trudging back to the apartment, minhyuk immediately retreating to his room since he was one of the people with classes that day, along with sungjoo, jinyoung, and jeonghan. he finished off the last bit of an assignment that was due, and shoved it into the backpack sitting in his desk chair, along with his laptop and charger. soon enough, sungjoo was calling him and saying it was time to leave. the four of them left, jinyoung and jeonghan walking slightly ahead, leaving sungjoo and minhyuk to lag slightly behind.
minhyuk told him what hoseok had said, the other listening in silence as he explained. he stayed silent, contemplating what to say. “who all did you write letters to?” he asked, glancing over at minhyuk to gauge his reaction.
minhyuk lost himself to his thoughts, considering whether or not he should answer truthfully. after realizing that his oldest friend could see through him when he lied, he hummed thoughtfully and replied, “hyungwon and hoseok, obviously. also im changkyun and lee jooheon, yoo kihyun and sohn hyunwoo too.”
sungjoo looked thoughtful. “and out of those six, you know there's two couples, right?” hyungwon nodded in response, responding that there was no way he didn't know of the most popular couple in school - lee jooheon and im changkyun, who were childhood friends that recently revealed their relationship. lee jooheon was the star baseball player for their school, and almost always had girls and guys alike hanging off of him. it was a definite surprise for one of their classmates to find the two tucked away in a storage closet with their lips pressed together and their bodies even closer. word spread faster than the door had slammed, and suddenly the two were thrust into the spotlight as the one of the first openly gay couples, aside from hyungwon and hoseok, as well as jeongyeon and her girlfriend nayeon.
minhyuk shrugged. “besides, it’s not like i ever acted on, or will act on, my feelings. plus, everything that i felt for everyone except the last two is gone by now, so i’m not bothered.” he tacked on, feeling the sudden need to explain himself. sungjoo nodded, before the two in front of them circled back to tell them that they were gonna be late if they kept going at this speed, so the rest of the way there was spent in silence, aside from the pounding of their feet on the pavement.
when classes were over and minhyuk showed up for his shift at the cafe, hyungwon was already manning the counter, with hoseok sitting in one of the booths near the window. minhyuk quickly threw on his apron, getting to work making orders as hyungwon took them. they worked in harmony for a while, until it was time for hyungwon to switch out with one of their other coworkers, the aforementioned jeongyeon. minhyuk watched hyungwon and hoseok leave the cafe, the latter waving at him before they walked out the door. minhyuk was slightly confused, having never interacted with him outside of their earlier conversation, but didn’t bother to dwell on it. he had better things to do, like make a iced coffee with twelve pumps of sugar free vanilla, an equal amount of hazelnut and caramel, a splash of soy, enough coffee that it hit the middle of their logo, with ice, before it was tossed in the blender. twice.
by the time minhyuk was finally closing the cafe, he had a twitch in his eye that only a good night’s rest and at least thirteen business days away from people could cure.
he didn’t get what he wanted, as he was awoken at seven am sharp the next day, by a frantic sungjoo who had entered what the group liked to call “mom mode”.
👀👀 the first chapter of my ateez zombie au is written and ready to be posted, i just wanna finish one or both of my current au's first before i officially start this one!!
Author Note: as usual, this is unbetaed because we die like men dflkghd uhhh if you see any mistakes or weird tenses, please let me know!
and just like chewing gum (or rather, ring pops) this is a prequel to show jaeyong's backstory for of chaos and calamities, but you can read it as a standalone story as well!
"i can’t do this anymore. this-this hiding thing, not being able to tell my friends that i’m completely, utterly, irrevocably in love with you” the words kept running circles in taeyong’s head, long after his best friend and lover had walked away. now, he could only hope that he could run fast enough in the future to catch him again.
if anyone had asked what jaehyun’s plans were for the day, he surely wouldn’t have said “oh, nothing much, just studying biology alone with my ex because the rest of our group ditched us”. no, if it were up to him, he would be laying in bed watching reruns of his favorite show, or at the gym. he was skipping leg day to watch his ex pour a red bull into his already overly caffeinated drink and -- wait, what?
jaehyun snapped back to the present just in time to hear the splash of the canned drink as it was poured into his iced coffee. with eyes round like saucers, jaehyun reached forward and grabbed at taeyong’s wrist, but not before the last dregs of the drink were spilled into his cup. for a moment, the two of them stared at each other and tried to ignore the energy pulsing between them. without a second thought, jaehyun withdrew his hand and watched as taeyong nonchalantly stirred the mixture, taking a sip, before chugging the whole thing down in one go.
now, jaehyun had known taeyong since their freshman year. he had never seen him chug a cup of coffee or an energy drink that fast, nonetheless the two together. he pushed the thought aside as he instead focused on his notes, forcing himself off the thought that he didn't know taeyong like that anymore.
they worked in near silence for a bit, going over their previously done work together with small comments here and there, correcting the form of a sentence or where a formula was written wrong. it took a while for the amount of caffeine to hit taeyong, and jaehyun paused for a second when he saw the other's hands beginning to shake. without saying a word, he got up and went to the counter, ordering taeyong’s favorite muffin, a banana, and a bottle of water. he hoped that the combination would help ease the way taeyong’s hands were shaking, and was mildly pleased with the look of surprise on taeyong’s face when he set the full plate on the table in front of him, directly over the notes that he was looking over.
without a word said, jaehyun pulled their shared notes over to him, as well as the textbook that lay sideways between the two of them. he began to check over his notes, and then eventually pulled taeyong’s towards him as well, adding and taking out information wherever necessary as taeyong finished off the food and drink.
by the time they left, there was a full set of notes for them to copy and print for the rest of their group, and they left one another in silence as they headed home. taeyong’s phone felt heavy with jaehyun’s number in it once more, along with the knowledge that it was saved under “jung jaehyun”, and not under one of the many nicknames that taeyong once had for him.
--
“you can’t just ignore it, jae.” johnny was the voice of reason a week later, sitting alongside yuta, who were two of jaehyun’s closest friends. “you have to tell him eventually.” jaehyun snorted, shoveling another mouthful of whatever slop lined his tray - meatloaf? pasta? the world may never know. he sure as hell didn’t.
with one last glance across the cafeteria at the table where taeyong sat surrounded by his friends - their old friends - he smiled wistfully at johnny. “if only it was that easy, john. he wouldn’t listen to me anymore.” johnny and yuta shared a look, before returning to their lunches, gears already turning away in their minds. jaehyun pretended that he didn’t glance up at taeyong every once in a while, acting as if he was scrolling through social media instead.
he couldn’t deny, however, the shiver that wracked his body when taeyong glanced back at him, with a strange look in his eyes that jaehyun couldn’t decipher.
--
across the canteen from jaehyun, taeyong was settled in between some of the members of his friend group. jonghyun (who insisted that they call him jr to set him apart from the other jonghyun’s in their school) sat to his left, with seungcheol to his right, followed immediately after by his two boyfriends, jeonghan and joshua. they were the only five there at the moment, leaving nearly half of the table empty. after receiving a text that the others wouldn’t be coming for lunch, taeyong and jr moved to the other side of the table, which gave both sets of people ample room to spread out.
the only disadvantage was that this put jaehyun, who was across the canteen from him, directly into taeyong’s sight, and vice versa. taeyong listened idly to jeonghan talking about their plans for the weekend, his eyes drifting over to jaehyun without thinking about it. he must have spaced out, because joshua snapping his fingers in front of his face was the next thing he heard. “so are you gonna talk to him, or are you just gonna stare like a lovesick fool?” his tone was slightly snippy, but taeyong knew he meant nothing by it.
in response, he sighed, resting his cheek on his folded hands that lay on the table. his verbal response came out muffled, and jr grabbed a small chunk of his hair and gently pulled him up. taeyong grimaced, letting a dramatic moan of pain slip through his lips. the sound attracted looks from other tables around them, but taeyong just wrenched jr’s fingers from his freshly dyed silver hair. “there's no reason to talk to him now. we're just partners in class, not partners in life.” he replied, his eyes drifting back to jaehyun - who turned almost at the same time, their eyes locking.
when jaehyun finally broke his gaze, taeyong whispered “not anymore, at least.”
the other four shared a look, knowing what had to be done.
--
taeyong and jaehyun had known one another since they were teens, having gone to the same high school together and only getting together in their junior year. jaehyun knew that their relationship would be a secret for a while - taeyong wasn't yet out to his friends or family, while jaehyun was. that wasn’t a problem for jaehyun. he kept their physical contact short, only kissed taeyong behind locked doors, and never let his stare linger too long. for a year, that was enough to keep jaehyun sated.
however, problems began popping up after their first anniversary, just as they were heading into their senior year of high school. they often had late night talks, saying that once they graduate they would room together in college and that would be that. maybe taeyong would be able to come out to his friends, then, since they were planning on furthering their education in a different city. they spent months and months studying for their exams, and saving up for application fees and down payments for a dorm - then it all went downhill.
they went to a party together on a normal friday night, dressed to their best and walking with linked hands, but only as soon as they were out of sight of taeyong’s parents. jaehyun hadn’t been able to wipe the pleased smile off his face as he listened to taeyong blabber on about a new track he had been working on, not even when their hands naturally fell apart just before they arrived at the block that johnny, taeyong’s best friend, lived on. they could feel the vibrations of the music halfway down the street, the front door stood wide open and dancing bodies visible through the open space. the two didn’t even bother finding johnny, taeyong instead guiding jaehyun to the kitchen with a gentle hand on the small of his back. his touch was withdrawn as soon as they stepped into the significantly less crowded kitchen, and taeyong rifled through the fridge to find them two sodas to mix with one of the many bottles of alcohol lining the countertop.
it wasn’t long before jaehyun was leaning into taeyong’s side on a long couch, drink held precariously in his hand and threatening to spill at any second. taeyong laughed at some joke that he told, grabbing the other’s drink before it could spill and leave a stain that johnny would never be able to explain. when jaehyun leaned forward to leave a small kiss on taeyong’s cheek, the elder pushed him away with wide eyes, motioning silently to the other people in the room. it was then that jaehyun truly realized the magnitude of their relationship, of the situation that they were in. taeyong watched in silence as jaehyun seemed to ice over, his mouth clamping shut as he scooted over to leave room between them. he snatched his drink back from taeyong, almost as an afterthought, and threw the rest of it back with no hesitation. taeyong could only watch as he got up and went to get another drink, stumbling back towards him with a half full drink a few moments later. it was only when jaehyun mumbled something about needing to go somewhere quieter that taeyong finally unfroze, gently grabbing his wrist and dragging him upstairs to one of the guest rooms that he had claimed as his own.
after unlocking the door, he led jaehyun to the bed, and allowed him to sprawl all over the navy blue covers as he locked the door behind him, throwing his jacket off into the corner, and sitting down next to jaehyun. he looked over his boyfriend’s face, taking in every little detail. a bad feeling grew in the pit of his stomach, one that seemed all encompassing and like it would take over the world if it could.
little did taeyong know, it soon would take over his world.
drunk jaehyun was a filterless jaehyun, taeyong had found out over his time of knowing the other. therefore, it wasn’t a surprise when jaehyun began venting over the little things that had happened in his life, before suddenly jolting upright and staring at taeyong with a gaze that seemed to intense to be anything but sober - but the quiver of his lip and slur of his words was enough to let taeyong know that jaehyun was anything but sober. “why are we still doing this?” he muttered, words thick as they came over his tongue. taeyong’s voice came out gentle, asking what the problem was, and jaehyun just shook his head, seeming to change his train of thought. “i can’t do this anymore. this-this hiding thing, not being able to tell my friends that i’m completely, utterly, irrevocably in love with you” was the next thing out of his mouth. taeyong froze once more, only being able to watch as jaehyun got to his feet and bolted for the door, unlocking it quickly and slamming it shut behind him. taeyong went into overdrive, rushing towards the exit in search of jaehyun. the younger boy was nowhere to be found.
--
it didn’t take more than an hour of texting and calling jaehyun to realize that his texts and calls were no longer going through, and he couldn’t get a hold of him through other social media. the bold “you’ve been blocked by this person” on jaehyun’s twitter page sent a bolt of pain through his body as it finally sunk in that this was it. this was the end of the best thing that had ever happened to him.
jaehyun had even gone so far as to transfer schools to avoid taeyong. it wasn’t a surprise, honestly, since most of jaehyun’s friends went to their rival school anyways. over a year and a half after the incident, taeyong had found himself sitting across from jaehyun for their project, and didn’t know how to deal with himself.
--
so how he, jaehyun, found himself standing in front of the door to taeyong’s dorm a few days later, he’d never know. all he knew was that the older had sent him a text, asking to meet in his room to go over part of their notes. jaehyun didn't question it, considering that they had a test next week over the notes that they had taken, and they needed to be perfect. jaehyun knocked lightly on the door, listening for the telltale sound of feet coming towards him. the door swung open, taeyong standing behind it with black dye on his head, and one of his stained gloves pulled off so he wouldn't stain the door handle. he motioned for jaehyun to come in, telling him to ignore the smell that lingered in the dorm.
jaehyun looked around a little, seeing familiar photos and decorations that taeyong had brought from home. he felt a pang in his heart as he saw a particular frame that still housed a photo of them from one of their trips to the park in their younger days. all thoughts of taking notes and revising left his brain at the sight. taeyong noticed his gaze, laughing a little when he saw what had caught jaehyun’s attention. “even after all these years and all we’ve been through, i still can’t get rid of it.” he mumbled, eyes flickering up to meet jaehyun’s, who had been watching him closely. jaehyun’s gaze drifted back to the photo, his feet slowly following suit as he reached out for the frame, picking it up gently and gazing at the photo inside. it was probably from middle school, given that they both had their natural hair colors - they had both dyed their hair in high school - and they had their arms wrapped around one another. jaehyun remembered the day it was taken, not in specifics, but in feelings. he remembered the feeling of the sun on their back, of the burn he got on his knee from sliding down the slide and rolling off the end (the burn that taeyong kissed, because he swore it would make it better), he remembers the feel of taeyong’s squishy cheeks under his hands as he teased him.
“can we talk about it?” jaehyun uttered, his voice shaking slightly as the memories brought back a torrent of feelings that he thought he had covered up. taeyong replied with a small ‘yes’, causing jaehyun to let out a shaky breath and set the photo down, turning to taeyong before he could lose his nerve. “it was true, what i said that day, about being completely, utterly, irrevocably in love with you. it’s still true, as much as i wish it wasn’t.” he let out a sad laugh, before his head tilted down so taeyong could no longer see his face. “i regretted it the moment i said it, the moment i walked out, and i’ve regretted it since.” taeyong barely caught the rest of his sentence as his voice slowly tapered off, and jaehyun watched his feet come into view before taeyong was throwing his slender body into jaehyun’s arms, grasping tightly at him.
he could hear taeyong breathe a sigh of relief. “i regretted it too, not holding you back, that is. i watched you walk out of the door and out of my life and didn’t do a damn thing about it, and i’ve regretted it since then. and i’m sorry for never telling my friends, at least.” taeyong murmured into jaehyun’s shoulder, where his face had inevitably ended up buried. jaehyun was shocked, to say the least, as he slowly wrapped his arms around taeyong’s small frame and pulled him closer.
that is, until taeyong’s dye wet hair touched his cheek and he jumped back with a small shout, causing taeyong to drop to his knees and laugh. he watched as taeyong bustled off to rinse his hair out, coming back with water wet hair this time, drying it off with a towel. when he was done, he used the towel to wipe off the dye from jaehyun’s face, although it still left a blue mark. even after he had wiped the dye from jaehyun’s face, his hand lingered, and before they knew it, they had locked eyes and were leaning in, eyes fluttering shut and their lips about to meet --
then a door slammed not even ten feet away, and they jolted apart. a glance to the side revealed jeonghan, taeyong’s roommate, standing in the doorway. he stuttered out an apology, alongside a sneaky glance at taeyong, whose face was flushed red.
the two of them burst out laughing as soon as the door clicked closed, leaning on one another for support as they laughed until their lungs hurt. it was then, and only then, that they finally shared their first kiss in close to two years - jaehyun’s hands settled on taeyong’s waist, and taeyong’s arms around jaehyun’s neck. it was like time had never passed as they settled into a rhythm, their bodies pressed together and hearts beating in sync, it seemed.
--
the first time they sat together with all of their friends, it was nothing short of awkward. seungcheol and his two boyfriends had staked their claim on three consecutive seats, leaving taeyong and jaehyun to sit next to each other, while johnny and yuta sat next to them. johnny had also dragged along his new boyfriend, ten, who was coincidentally on the same dance team as taeyong.
and jr? oh, he sat between all the loving couples, silently gagging and making faces back and forth with yuta, the only other single person at the table.
most days, johnny can handle the babies of their friend group. there were some days, however, that he couldn't. today was one of them.
the day had begun normally - he and ten stayed in their shared bed until twenty minutes before they had to leave, which made ten jump out of bed and hurry through his shower before nearly tossing johnny out of his sprawled out position, leg kicked over a pillow in ten’s absence. johnny merely whispered ‘hot’ in response to the action, then finally dragging himself up and going to take his own shower while ten scrounged together a small breakfast for the two of them, knowing that they wouldn’t have time to eat on campus, considering their time was ticking away quickly as johnny stalled, unable to decide between two nearly identical shirts. ten picked one, they ate breakfast, and then hurried out the door into the crisp spring air.
johnny was glad for the change in weather, knowing that it was warming up and that meant that their spring break was coming up. he and ten were planning a trip to go see both of their sets of parents during the break, a trip that was costing them both nearly a year’s worth of paychecks. however, it would be all worth it, finally getting to meet one another’s parents after close to four years of dating. of course, they had video chatted with their parents, but they had never met in person, so it was time to remedy that.
the two of them stumbled into the canteen, instantly spotting mark and donghyuck, who were both hunched over an assignment. johnny and ten stood back for a minute, watching the newly formed couple in silence. when mark got a question right, donghyuck nearly jumped to his feet and cheered, praising mark all the while. the other had a bright blush on his cheeks, but accepted the words of praise and kisses that donghyuck was bestowing upon him. “remember when we were like that?” ten mumbled, looking up at johnny. he nodded, smiling at the memory.
“we’re still like that, just not in front of them.” he replied, leaning down to press a kiss on ten’s temple. ten rolled his eyes in response, mumbling a ‘liar’ before dragging the taller with him to go greet the babies. they sat in silence for a few minutes, johnny having pulled out his laptop to type more of his last essay of the year as ten dozed off on the table. jaemin and jeno were the next to arrive, their duo looking oddly empty without renjun. jaemin came bearing a mysterious tote bag, filled halfway with unknown contents. they were talking between themselves as they walked, jeno smiling brightly before he made eye contact with the others at the table. mark and donghyuck had paused their studying, donghyuck calling out “did you bring the stuff?” as they neared the table. jaemin nodded, jeno calling back with something unintelligible. after sitting down, jaemin pulled out a bag of what looked like party horns, amongst other noisemakers and a bag of confetti. johnny eyed the contents suspiciously as jeno and jaemin began to hand them out, telling the others to hide what they got. when ten finally picked up his head, there was a small party hat and a horn laid in front of him, and he just let out a small “ah” in response, his head dropping and small snores soon emitting from his sleeping figure.
it took a few minutes for johnny to realize that it was soon to be renjun’s birthday, and surely his boyfriends had planned something big. by that time, chenle and jisung had joined them. there was nothing wrong with that, aside from the fact that jisung was walking normally, with chenle’s hands on his bicep, and chenle - well, chenle was wearing a pair of roller skates, allowing jisung to drag him around. the sight, however, didn’t even shock johnny.
instead, it brought him back to the time that jaemin showed up in a battery powered ride on car, that was made for kids. jeno and renjun had flanked him, looking like they were considering breaking up with him and moving on with their lives - that is, until jaemin stopped suddenly and pulled renjun onto the back, and jeno into his lap.
johnny still didn’t know how they managed to ride around on/in that car for the whole day, without a single teacher saying a word about it.
but the thought was thoroughly erased from his head at they took their seats, chenle throwing himself down with a sigh and a quiet complaint from jisung. the youngest of the group all huddled together, jaemin passing out more of the party supplies to the newcomers, explaining what their plan was. jisung and chenle nodded in understanding, chenle fiddling with the elastic string attached to the bottom of his party hat. after a shriek of “he’s coming” erupted from near the canteen entrance, johnny looked around, and finally noticed some of the familiar faces seated around him, most of which wouldn’t have been there on a normal day, and most certainly wouldn’t be hidden among the normal students, all of whom were either, a: looking around in confusion, or b: ignoring it, because this was university and weird shit happened all the time. taeil and doyoung sat at the table behind them, with taeyong and jaehyun at the table to their right, and then yuta and sicheng at the far left. straight in front of johnny was kun, yang yang, xiao jun, and hendery. to that groups left, and closest to the door, was jungwoo and yukhei - yukhei being the one that screamed.
johnny noticed that most of them were holding different party favors as well, taeyong messing around with three different blowout horns in his mouth as jaehyun watched, idly twirling another noisemaker in his hand. however, at the sound of yukhei’s voice, everyone seemed to jump into position, ready to make as much noise as possible. just a few seconds too late, johnny saw jeno and jaemin sneak away from the table after storing the tote bag out of the way, splitting up quickly. jeno went out into the hallway, while jaemin went to the large panel of light switches across the room from them. renjun had barely propped the door open when the lights suddenly switched off, bathing the room in near darkness, except for the glass walls that surrounded the canteen still let light in - jaemin clearly hadn’t thought that through, johnny thought. either way, renjun still gasped, spotting jaemin in the dimmer light, and making his way to him. “what is this?” he could be heard calling out, and jaemin just smiled, shaking his head.
“happy birthday baby! i know you didn’t want anything big, but i only wanna do the best for my boyfriend, so this is it.” jaemin called back as he met renjun halfway, pulling him into a tight hug. not even a heartbeat later, the doors were flung open, and were held open by two of jeno’s friends, who johnny thinks are named hyunjoon and felix. the two boys are quickly overshadowed by the object in jeno’s hands - a three or four tier birthday cake, with a handful of candles on the top, and decorations trailing down the side. jeno’s smile is wide as he makes it through the door, making his way over to renjun and setting the cake down on a nearby table to hug renjun and tell him happy birthday. it didn’t take more than a minute for renjun to nearly break down in tears, overwhelmed at the sudden celebrations. johnny couldn’t hear what was being said, but he could see the way renjun’s lip trembled as he kept softly hitting jeno’s arm, then jaemins, and presumably questioning when they had time to plan all this.
jeno could only smile in delight, calling to the others. “that’s not all, though. come on out, guys.”
thus, a sobbing renjun was pulled into his boyfriends’ embrace as the rest of his friend group converged on him, making all sorts of noise and donning party hats. johnny even coaxed ten from his spot, the shorter begrudgingly wearing his hat as he leaned on johnny, still half asleep. when renjun finally pulled himself together, he blew out the candles as the rest of them sang happy birthday to him, and made noise after the last candle had gone out. it wasn’t long before the three boyfriends were huddled together once again, quickly surrounded in a group hug by the others.
the first to break away were chenle and jisung, who had to run to class. they both called out their congratulations to renjun, who tearfully waved at them, and promised to save them each a piece of cake. jisung, once again, walked away with chenle’s arm on his bicep, dragging the elder on his roller skates.
let’s just say, they only got in a little bit of trouble with their teacher for it, and chenle had to be carried up the stairs to their class, and then to his seat in the lecture hall.
long story short, it was a very, very, v e r y long day for jisung.
but it was very worth it, jisung thought as he gave chenle a piggyback ride back to their dorm, where he had a surprise waiting. their 10th anniversary (or, at least the 10th year since he ‘proposed’ in the third grade) was coming up, and he had some of the parents of the group - taeyong, jaehyun, doyoung, and taeil - set up their room to be a romantic dinner for two, followed by a ‘movie date’ in their living area, and then whatever they wanted.
jisung had left his key with the elders, allowing them to go in and decorate as they saw fit, but had told chenle that jeno forgot something in their room (a common occurrence) and had left his key for that purpose. when they finally reached their hall, jisung set chenle down gently, the elder swinging his skates about as he danced around on bare feet, startling everyone in the hallway. jisung could only watch in amusement, smiling fondly as he watched chenle dig through his bag for his key. he followed shortly after, locking the door behind them. his key laid on the kitchen countertop, on top of a small note that read “dinner's in the microwave, have fun” with a winky face at the end - more than likely jaehyun’s doing.
with a quick eyeroll, he bustled around to get their food out, hurrying to set it up as chenle threw their stuff in the bedroom. when he came back, he saw jisung waiting by the doorway to their small kitchenette, and eyed him suspiciously. it was easy to push the taller aside, and he spotted the plates of food right away, turning to assess his boyfriend warily. mentally, he ran over the past few days, wondering if he had given off signs that something was wrong. as if sensing his mental debate, jisung finally broke his poker face and grinned. “you don’t remember, do you?” he asked, a glint of humor in his eyes as chenle shook his head. “it’s been ten years since i proposed to you on the playground.” with a tut and a joking shake of his head, jisung gently pushed chenle to the table, pulling out his chair and nudging him to sit down. the food was almost hot enough to steam, and the two happily chowed down on the meal that neither of them had to cook. afterwards, they cuddled up with nearly every blanket in their dorm on their small couch, watching a few movies back to back before heading to their room to continue the marathon, this time with a new show they’d been watching together.
it was later in the night, with their fingers intertwined over his stomach that jisung felt himself truly relax as they talked about everything and anything. even though they had known each other practically their whole lives, there was still new things that they found out about one another. jisung learned that night that chenle wanted to go to the stars, wanted to see their beauty up close. jisung didn’t bother telling him that he would likely go blind from that.
instead, into the pitch black of their room, he whispered that he would steal the stars from the sky if that’s what chenle wanted.
chenle insists that he didn’t let out the cutest noise after that, a sharp ‘eep’ made of embarrassment and shock, but couldn’t convey the love and warmth that filled his chest at the other’s words.
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