pairing: AFAB Reader x Non-Idol! BSK
genre: fluff
warning(s): cursing
word count: 2.1K
recommended song: Spicy by aespa, HOT by SEVENTEEN
You had been friends with the Maestros since freshman year, when you had started university in New York. Among all the Vocal Music majors, the Maestros were the best and have been a band since freshman year (yeah, they're that good!). Joshua Hong and Yoon Jeonghan were Seniors now. You were Korean American just like Joshua and had instantly clicked with him. Which is how you came to be a part of their friend-group, as well as band member, during your sophomore year. The leader of the band was Lee Jihoon, whose stage name was Woozi. He had cherry-picked the people for his band, so he was obviously skeptical when the others wanted you to join the band. But after an intense audition, you had finally made it! Lee Seokmin (whose stage name was Dokyeom), Boo Seungkwan and you, were kinda inseparable since the start of university. Even though Dokyeom was a sophomore when you and Seungkwan started as freshmen, his lively personality pulled you both towards him.
One fine day, you were practicing peacefully with your friends/bandmates when some of your classmates burst through the door. "Y'all know Wen Junhui from the Performing Arts major, right? Y'all know how he's the person with the highest spice tolerance in all of New York, right?" said Ian who was panting and red in the face. "Yeah, and what about it?" questioned Woozi, clearly annoyed that the practice session was interrupted. "What about it is that there's a Spicey Food Eating Challenge going on at the Asian restaurant nearby and we want y'all spicey food freaks to avenge the Vocal Music department from our previous horrendous defeat against Wen Junhui!" screeched Daniel, who too was red as a tomato and had tears streaming down his face.
"We're the spicey food freaks, now? Since when?", you wondered out loud and Dokyeom supplied sullenly, "Since we dared to compete with The Wen Junhui and lost horribly during the Malatang eating contest". "Did y'all just come back from the competition?" Seungkwan asked curiously. "Dude, DO YOU EVEN HAVE EYES?" yelled Ian. "Okay okay Ian, sorry, just chill", Joshua says and placates poor Ian. "We'll chill when you defeat Wen Junhui. Otherwise, don't bother performing at the year-end concert because there won't be any audience!!!" your classmates yell out and leave you with a huge challenge.
"So, where's Junhui? When do we go to the competition?", asks Jeonghan, the oldest, while carefully judging Woozi's expressions. "We saw Junhui head towards the Performance Arts wing", said Terry, another one of your classmates, who had just come running to join Ian and Daniel. "Okay cool, we'll meet Junhui, challenge him and go with him to the restaurant. Cool?" asks Woozi, surprisingly rising to the occasion. "O...kay...?", the rest of you say unsurely. Your classmates leave after glaring at you as if to say, 'Don't you dare do anything but win'!
You and your bandmates find Wen Junhui chilling in his department building's cafeteria. Your plan on making him rise to the challenge rested on him being alone and thankfully, the cafeteria was empty at the moment, sans Wen Junhui. All of you approach him as non-threateningly as possible (read: timidly), and he looks up from his laptop as you reach near his table. "And what are the sore losers doing here?", Wen Junhui asks with a smirk. "We actually wanted to talk to you about another spicey food eating contest...", begins Woozi unenthusiastically. "Really?", deadpans Junhui. "Yes, really. We're in a bit of a fix, you see. Our department threatened the 6 of us to challenge you, by keeping the year-end performance on the line!", Seungkwan says and almost whines. "So?", asks Junhui, ever the cocky winner. "So...we uh...we were hoping you could intentionally lose?", Jeonghan asks unsurely.
"BHWAHAHAHAHAHA", Junhui laughed maniacally. "Are you fucking kidding me?" Why would I lose and give up on my winning streak for you losers?", Wen Junhui asks incredulously. "Because you love our songs! You love Fallin' Flower a lot, don't you?", asks Dokyeom while mustering his best puppy-eyed look. "And you also LOVE Our Dawn is Hotter Than Day to pieces! I know it because your Spotify Wrapped showed that it was your #1 song this year!", Joshua supplies with conviction. "I can live without hearing those songs live, you know?", replies Junhui, but his resolve seemed to be cracking, which didn't go unnoticed by you. "So, please Junhui! Please, concede for us and we'll give you the copyrights to whatever songs you want to use in your dances", you plead. "Copyrights, huh? Hm... that's something I can get behind. Okay fine! You need me to lose? I will. But only when 1 or 2 of you are remaining. Cuz it will definitely look intentional if I lost against all of you, lol", says Junhui cheerfully.
"OK, let the food be brought to the tables!" yells the judge and steaming bowls of Japanese ramen with a large side of wasabi are placed in front of the 7 of you. Unbeknownst to the 6 of you, all the colour drains from Junhui's face. "Fuck!", he whisper-yells and turns to Minghao. "I think this is the time you lose, my friend" Minghao consoles him forlornly. "But what if they can't eat Wasabi too?" Junhui asks him hopefully. "Okay, 2 things. They're Korean and Korean people eat a LOT of Japanese food so I'm pretty sure they can handle wasabi. AND I've seen 2 of them ask for extra wasabi at this very restaurant one time, so..." Minghao trails off. "You could've led with the second thing, bitch!", screeches Junhui while Minghao throws his head back in laughter.
"Oh my God! Thank you, Junhui! We'll literally dedicate our entire concert to you!" you and your bandmates squeal with joy. All of you shortly reach the restaurant and to your shock, your classmates are waiting for you there! "So, I guess you guys love your performances after all, huh?" asks Ian cockily. "Shut up, Ian" Woozi snarls and beelines towards 1 of 6 empty chairs set up for the competition. "Why are there exactly 6 chairs? Did you jackasses customize this round of the competition?" Jeonghan asks Daniel with narrowed eyes. "And if we did?" says Daniel and takes off running before Jeonghan could catch him for that display of cheekiness.
"God! I wanna kill them" Seungkwan whines angrily. "It's okay Kwan, let's just get through this", Joshua says with gritted teeth. "Guys, calm down" you begin to say and then whisper "Junhui is literally on our side! We got this!" you say with a wink. "Yeah, y/n's right. Let's just go sit", Dokyeom supplies and all of you fall into the chairs beside Woozi. Junhui sits right across from the 6 of you. The judge of the competition comes in between both your tables and announces, "You will begin eating when I say and the last remaining person/group to keep eating wins. Ready?" All of you look at each other unsurely and offer silent cheers and when you turn to look at Junhui, he's already looking at y'all with his classic smirk. "Good luck, losers!" Junhui goads you. "Hush, Junhui. Enough with the teasing", Junhui's friend Minghao gently chides him. "When did you get here Hao?" Junhui questions, surprised to see his friend beside him. "When I saw you resolutely walk with the Vocal Music majors towards the restaurant. That's when", Minghao says and laughs.
The 6 of you are indeed relieved seeing that it wasn't some Chinese spice, but your dear old wasabi. "It's just wasabi! We can do this, guys!" Dokyeom chirps, ever the mood-maker. "Yes! Let's go!", you and Seungkwan say in unison. "And let us begin!", screams the announcer suddenly and it's a clamour as 7 set of chopsticks are hurriedly picked up and clash with the bowls of ramen and wasabi. It was going really well on your side of the table, all 6 of you having gone through 3 servings. Junhui was just finishing off his 2nd serving and looked worse for wear. "Junhui, I think you should call it a day..." begins Minghao but Junhui interrupts him, "NO! Let at least 3 of them give up before I do...cuz even if I lose, I need to have some dignity". No sooner had he finished saying this, Jeonghan & Joshua got up from the table and darted towards the judge's area where banana milk tetra packs were placed for the competitors to soothe their burning mouths.
Soon, and thankfully for Junhui, Woozi and Dokyeom also gave up. Dokyeom was low-key crying as he chugged his banana milk unlike Woozi, who was plainly annoyed. But you and Seungkwan don't notice any of this because at some point, you had started competing with each other, forgetting Junhui and the bet! Now, there are 2 things that only the Maestros know about Kwan and you: 1, they can't handle spicey food that well and 2, they can't stand losing to anyone, especially to each other. They also know that you both will regret this later as you stay away from anything even remotely spicey for a month after this, as was evidenced by the Malatang contest.
Junhui realises that you both have completely forgotten about the competition and after slowly placing his chopsticks down, bolts for the banana milk, grabs it, runs back and grabs Minghao, and rushes off towards your university campus. You sense someone running and Seungkwan must have too, because you both look up at the same time and see that Wen Junhui's chair was now empty! You both slowly turn to look at each other, like in a slow-motion shot from a movie, and once your eyes lock, you too, pull a Wen Junhui and dash off towards the campus with your precious banana milk packs. Your classmates rejoice and get the plaque addressed to "The Maestros", winners of the Wasabi Eating Contest, to bring it to y'all later.
Both of you start screaming and tearing your banana milk tetra packs open as soon as you reach the bleachers. You take a gulp, scream out, take a gulp again, until you both had finished the banana milk. Both of you are heaving with all the breathlessness that came as a result of trying to will the spiciness out of your mouths. "Why would you keep going when you can't handle spicey food all that well?", Seungkwan asks you mid-heave. "Well, I can't be seen losing to my best friend! But you're one to talk. You can't handle spicey food well either right!?", you accuse him back. "Ah that...I wanted to at least pretend to beat Junhui. I didn't know he had already lost, lol. But also, I wanted to look cool for you, I guess" Seungkwan trails off, mumbling.
"For me? Awww! Kwannie! Don't tell me you like me or something..." you tease him playfully. "I do, actually", Seungkwan answers seriously. "It's because I like you that I asked Shua hyung if we could make you a part of our friend group. You already being friends with Shua hyung was sheer dumb luck! It's because I like you that I always go to vocal training with you. It's because I like you that I agreed to this stupid bet, and to that Malatandg bet, despite my, well, our spice tolerances being low. It's because I like you that I kept going even when I couldn't...feel free to stop me", Seungkwan ends his monologue bashfully.
"Oh my God Kwan! All this time I thought my crush on you was one-sided...I should've believed Kyeom when he said he was pretty sure you liked me too!", you answer him with tears in your eyes. "Why didn't you tell me you liked me, oh my God!", Seungkwan asks with tears in his eyes too. You both hug each other and stay in the embrace for a while, until both your phones go off with notifications at the same time. "I think we need to get to practice", Kwan says, not yet pulling back from the hug. "I think we do," you say sadly as you pull away and start walking back to the practice room, your hand in his.
"Why do you both have tears in your eyes?", asks a worried Joshua. You and Kwan exchange glances, not knowing what to say. Then you both look to Dokyeom for help, with eyes that say, 'We did it! We confessed to each other, now help!' Dokyeom takes one look at you and your interlocked hands and answers with a smirk plastered on his face, "Ah that! Hyung...looks like they both forgot they can't handle spicey food all too well, in the heat of the competition" "Yeah! That's why our eyes are watering", both you and Kwan scramble to confirm Kyeom's statement. But to no one's surprise, Jeonghan, ever the evil little gremlin, says into the mic with a wink, "But they discovered they could handle a whole other type of spicey".
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