Chapter Text
1.
His jumping to conclusions may have been a product of late night exhaustion and irritation, and although reflection with Riki later agreed with this, at the time of the incident Sunoo had felt it in his bones. He believed in his instincts, and just couldn't let it go.
It had been a particularly long and gruelling day - they had spent pretty much every hour of the day dancing, and all the members had been exhausted. It seemed that every time they ran it one of them made a misstep, and they had to start again. Sunoo knew the trainer, or bitch as Jake was now calling her, just wanted to get the best out of them, but its like she had forgotten they were human. Even the thought of being like BTS couldn't fend off his bad mood, and Sunoo went back to the dorms angrily. Jay had raged the whole way home, Riki had gone full hormonal teenager and been very stroppy, while the rest of them had sat in silence trying to will away their aches and pains.
Sunoo had got lucky and showered second, and had only returned as an afterthought, looking for a decent mirror to put his facemask on. The hallway was lit up by the glow from the bedroom, and as he and Riki - who had to go last - leant against the wall in the semi darkness, the situation that caused his jumping to conclusions occurred.
Jay poked his head out of the bathroom, glancing at them but not registering their presence, before shooting a hand out and dragging a waiting Sunghoon into the room, before locking the door.
Sunghoon would have screamed if Jay hadn't put his hand over his mouth - it just came out a muffled "mmph". There was one of the biggest spiders he had ever seen in the shower, and Jay, once happy that he wasn't going to scream, just handed him a glass expectantly.
"You're kidding"
"No I fucking hate bugs" he whispered urgently "but I didn't want to wake Jake up"
"So you chose me?"
"You've got long legs they'll see you as a friend" Sunghoon could have smacked him, but it might have scared the spider into moving.
It took him 3 minutes to even approach the spider, and another 5 to start moving his hand - it also didn't help that Jay was practically jumping on his back. What followed was one of the most intense challenges of Sunghoon's life: trying to catch a spider silently while in a confined space with a boy who was using you as a human shield.
Sunoo stood next to Riki, waiting for their hyungs to come out of the bathroom for over 10 minutes, and making odd noises of scuffle. Sunghoon eventually emerged red faced, shirt pulled all over the place, followed not long after by Jay who's hair was sticking up like he had been in a fight. Sunoo couldn't believe it. He looked to his right, and the younger had the same pink cheeks he was sure he too was sporting. They didn't really speak, they just communicated with wide eyes.
The following morning when they found themselves alone, Riki brought it up.
"About last night..." He said nervously
"Yeah." Sunoo paused.
"they hooked up" "let's not jump to conclusions"
"Oh." He felt a bit silly now "yeah, you're right. They were probably just catching a bug or something."
They talked some more, but soon dropped the subject, deciding it was likely just lack of sleep and impatience. Nonetheless, Sunoo can't delete it from his brain.
2.
Heeseung knew he had to get his head out of the gutter, but he couldn't help but be shocked when he heard moans coming from the living room. A small, disgusting part of his brain reminded him that one of them might have sneaked someone in, but he squashed that back down. He collected his lemonade and padded his way over cautiously, ready to turn and run if he heard an unfamiliar voice.
"Oh yeah. Ugh. Right there." Heeseung knew that american drawl very well. "Oh that's a good stretch" If Jay had smuggled someone in here he would almost be more impressed than affronted - at least it wasn't Jungwon, or God forbid, Riki.
"Its good right?" Said the other voice, in Korean this time. A very familiar voice.
Heeseung wanted to laugh at himself for imaging Jay could have got someone in there, and was about to enter, when their conversation made him stop in his tracks.
"Can we switch? You're so good at this" Sunghoon asked, and Jay must have nodded, as he heard them moving around.
"Get your shirt off its easier that way" the older of the 2 requested. A gasp followed soon after, and a quick sorry.
"Yeah, just there. Mmm" Sunghoon hummed.
"There we go I got it." Jay sounded pleased with himself, but focused, and another rather loud hum escaped Sunghoon.
Heeseung couldn't believe his ears. The youngsters could be around, hell the managers could walk in if they wished to. He didn't want to barge in, but he had to. He heard what could only be described as a moan from Sunghoon, and made a split second decision.
"Jay!" He shouted "I need your help!"
"I'm in here hyung!"he replied, and the eldest waited 10 seconds before entering.
"I need your help with this English word" he scanned his can of lemonade for a long word "how do you pronounce it? And hey 'Hoon"
The man in question waved from his position on the floor. Jay took the can and sounded out the word, laughing.
"I don't know why you want to know this word hyung"
"Just curious" he prayed he bought it. Jay just shrugged.
"Sunghoon was just teaching me some new, fancy figure skater stretches for your back. You should try them!"
"And I got a massage in return" Sunghoon looked pleased with himself.
Heeseung could have sighed with relief. Massage. He quickly backed out of the room, embarrassed that he'd think that of his friends. He didn't feel totally foolish though - there had been an odd tension in the room, like he had interrupted something sort of important. Scratch that, he was being foolish, there was no way his band mates were hooking up in broad daylight in the dorm. Or at all, for that matter.
3.
Jungwon got back from a day of meetings cranky and restless. Being leader meant he had to be present for things the other members didn't, and while they had got breaks in between them and an afternoon of vocal training, Jungwon had done nothing but nod and smile politely all day, and was desperate to just move. He had messaged the group chat to see if anyone was still at the company building. Upon receiving an affirmative from Riki, he was standing at their designated meeting spot - the coffee machine that makes watery coffee.
Jungwon found it in himself to relax and smiled at the maknae sneaking down the halls. Though it wasn't expressly forbidden, they weren't really meant to just wander into any old dance studio at 11 in the evening and start doing their own thing. Most of the building seemed to be abandoned, which appeared to excite Riki, who clearly hadn't had much of a rebellions phase.
"What do you want to do, hyung?"
"Loosen up" Jungwon desperately needed to shake out his stress "let's just put on some good tunes and mess about. I don't want to do anything work related"
They walked through the halls, trying to find a satisfactory space to practice. They all appeared to be shut, and Jungwon wouldn't risk trying to open the ones that were locked out of fear of finding a choreographer burning the midnight oil. They were eventually successful, and spent the next hour messing about - well, Jungwon messed around and Riki showed off. Nothing like copying some girl group moves badly to blow off some steam.
They crept back out, now conscious that if someone found them they'd get the scolding of their lives about going to bed at the right time. The building was a rabbit hole, and they must have gone the wrong way at least twice. It was much harder to navigate the place when you wouldn't turn the light on.
"Wait! Is that bts?" Riki shushed him halfway down and unfamiliar corridor, cupping a hand to his ear. Sure enough, blood sweat and tears was playing quietly through the wall of a nearby studio. They crept nearer, and sadly didn't see any members of said superstars, rather just Jay and Sunghoon. Jungwon was sort of annoyed they hadn't replied to him, but soon realised that they were otherwise engaged.
The studio lights were on low, in a feeble attempt to be sneaky, should anyone see light in the hall. Sunghoon turned down the music a little after appearing to glance at the clock, and started body rolling, though it looked a little more like a convulsion in his annoyance.
"I can't get the motion quite right" he complained "I get thrown off when I'm on the floor"
Jungwon knew it was just him taking it the wrong way, but he felt his ears go pink. He needed to find out a way to miss some of these meetings, they sapped what little dignity he had left to leave him a mess when he got home.
Jay grabbed his arm and pulled him closer.
"Look, its not that hard, just follow me" he demonstrated something that looked slightly more coordinated than Sunghoon "it's sort of backwards to normal"
The music was clearly on shuffle, as it had changed to something slower and more calm. Jay started rolling in time, and Sunghoon copied him, rather closer than Jungwon thought was strictly necessary. Again, tiring day.
Sunghoon clearly liked the song, and his rolling got more enthusiastic.
Jungwon may have been young, but he was also a teenage boy. He had access to the internet, he had seen music videos. And that looked far too close to grinding for his comfort. He glanced to the boy beside him, and noticed Riki had turned pink with embarrassment. He gestured backwards with his hand, and began backing away, until loud laughs caught his attention. Jay was lying on his back on the floor while Sunghoon stood nearby, hunched over with laughter.
Riki had seen, and whispered to him "Jay-hyung did a handstand too enthusiastically and sort of flipped over"
Jungwon giggled at the thought, but was cut off as the scene in front of him changed.
Sunghoon flipped into a handstand, and gently lowered himself to the floor through a body roll. Jungwon blanched when he actually realised what was happening, and pulled the younger away, all but running down the corridor and out into the street.
I didn't believe Sunoo-hyung" Jungwon looked at him questioningly.H
e flushed even more."The other day Jay-hyung pulled Sunghoon-hyung into the bathroom and they didn't come out for like 15 minutes. And they looked sort of" he looked sick saying it "messed up. Sunoo-hyung thought they might be doing...stuff"
Jungwon sank down on his haunches. "They were probably just practicing the blood sweat and tears choreography."
Riki raised a judgemental eyebrow "pretty enthusiastically"
"Bts will do that to you"
They giggled again, and Jungwon's exhausted head gave him a terrible idea. He opened his phone and made a group chat with 5 of the 7 members.
When he woke up the following morning, he was totally baffled at the 30 or so messages he had received from a group chat named 'J and SH are kinda sus'. He played it off as a joke a sleepy him had thought was funny.
4.
Jake had thought the group chat was a joke that Heeseung had somehow agreed to. He knew they were just pulling his leg. The Australian knew he would have been able to tell if his fellow 02z were fooling around, so just ignored the messages.
Jay had been talking to their youngest before bed, he was particularly drowsy, which offered the win-win scenario where Jay could practice Japanese while also providing him with some comfort. In doing so he had forgone his usual evening routine, but was too tired to care. He regretted it immensely when he woke up at 2am starving hungry. He tried to silently roll out of bed, but stubbed his toe hard and had to hold back the curses. Never mind, he had committed now, and wanted that late night snack.
He padded into the kitchen, no longer worried about waking the other members. He nearly screamed when he heard breathing and whipped around to notice Sunghoon looming behind him.
"I'm just getting a snack" he said, by way of greeting, and kept going to the fridge. Jay felt his heart flutter when he realised what was left in there, he could start drooling.
Jake had been awoken by Jay crashing about in the dark, and once Sunghoon had followed him he couldn't get back to sleep. He slipped out of the room and trudged down the hallway, but stopped in his tracks when he noticed the light from the fridge illuminating the 2 members.
Sunghoon was wrapped around Jay's shoulders, his hands clutching his waist while his head rested over his shoulder. Jay turned around in his grasp and giggled quietly, pulling at the hands to get closer to the fridge. When it become clear Sunghoon wasn't letting him go, he grabbed him tighter and started trying to pull him away from the fridge and its heaven-sent snack. The younger hooked a leg around his, straining even more and digging his heels in. Jay had had enough, and picked him up, before plopping him on the counter. It briefly crossed his thoughts that all this play fighting must be making him stronger. He turned back towards the fridge, but Sunghoon wouldn't let him go, hooking his legs around his waist and grabbing on to his back.
It was this final position that Jake walked in on.
"Fucking christ!" he cursed, rather loudly and harshly "Christ on a bike. Jesus"
It caught their attention, and they whipped their heads round.
"Its not what it looks like!" Jay hissed back, frantically waving his arms.
"Sorry mate" he backed away "didn't mean to interrupt. Shit!"
"Fucks sake its not that Jake!" He protested.
"I support you mate, but it looks like you were about to start fucking on the counter. We eat there, come on."
"No I was just stopping him get to the fridge!"
"I could see that"
"Its not that!" Jay's voice was getting higher and higher "oh my God! I'm telling you we were just messing around. Shit that still sounds bad."
"Please do it somewhere else. Literally anywhere except where we bloody eat!"
"Oh my days, Sunghoon tell him." Jay ordered, and Jake noted the totally lost expression on the third boys face. He realised he had just had his conversation with Jay in rapid, expletive ridden English.
"I'm sorry Sunghoon" Jake apologised in korean this time, turned on his heel, and almost ran back to the bedroom.
As he imagined, all the members were sat up with wide, expectant eyes, waiting to find out what all the shouting was about.
"They were sat there wrapped around each other" Jake shuddered as he recalled it "and Jay was way too defensive. He said they were play fighting, but Sunghoon was shirtless!"
"Sunghoon often sleeps shirtless though" Heeseung pointed out. "Maybe they really were just playfighting?"
"Stop being such a prude hyung" Sunoo scolded jokingly "Jeaysuhs" he did a bad impersonation of Jake's previous shock. Jake hit him lightly. "It may have just been a misunderstanding. Sleep on it" he declared.
"Bet Sunghoon gets to sleep on Jay" Jungwon mock-grumbled with a wicked grin.
The morning after their impromptu shouting match, Jay pulled Jake aside. He needed to apologize for how he had spoken to him about what was clearly, in hindsight, a joke.
"Hey, man. I'm sorry about my flying off the handle yesterday-" he started sheepishly, but Jake cut him off.
"Don't worry mate. Seriously."
Jay breathed a sigh of relief. "Hungry you know, having to fight Hoon to the death for that last mochi got me fired up"
They laughed, and moved on to talk about other things. Jay didn't realise Jake had gotten totally the wrong of the stick about what he was trying to apologize about.
5.
It seemed to Heeseung that they had a photo shoot every other day. He didn't even know what this one was for, they'd just been carted off early in the morning to some forest filled with cameras. Instead of group shots, the director had decided he wanted units, and swiftly paired them up according to their outfits. Heeseung had experienced a moment of thrill when they were told they could go home after the unit shots, only to realise he and Jake would likely end up last.
Really, it could have been worse. They went in the middle - after Jay and Sunghoon, who looked far too pleased with themselves as they walked away, making pitying faces at the members who had to stay behind. He got into his work, mirroring Jake's position. Really, with their current hairstyles being all but the same they looked worrying similar. The eldest half wondered if he could have just left Jake with a mirror and gone home. They finished eventually, and got into the car back after giving back all their clothes and accessories.
Heeseung knew it was just a joke spawned from a misunderstanding. He really did. But that horrible part of his brain reappeared yet again, and whispered that Jay and Sunghoon were at the dorms together, alone.
When Sunghoon had gone to leave he had been so excited at an early finish that he had forgotten to hand back half of his stuff - he was still wearing the socks, and had left his earrings in. He hadn't even realised when he rested his head and took a power nap in the car. Big mistake. The earrings were fiddly and made a sort of twisted cage shape. It wasn't until he was back at the dorm with Jay that he realised there was a tug in his hair. He reached up, and found one of the earrings twisted in his hair. Sunghoon pulled at it, but it didn't loosen, and with a sigh he stomped over to the bathroom for a better view.
5 minutes of tugging later and Sunghoon feared he'd just made it more of a mess. He had to admit defeat, and went to Jay.
"Jay!" He called
"Yes?"
"I need your help" he picked up his now matted lump of hair sadly. Jay just sighed and beckoned him over.
Heeseung and Jake collapsed through the door, and the Aussie called for their bandmates. There wasn't a reply, and Heeseung wondered if they'd gone out, though their shoes still looked to be at the door. He grabbed a drink, then walked further into the dorm, scanning for the younger pair, when he felt Jake clutch his arm.
Sunghoon was on his knees in front of Jay, who was looming over him with his hands in Sunghoon's hair.
Heeseung had thought it was a joke, but there was no way of getting around the predicament the pair were in. His brain went blank while Jake dragged him out the room, but he stumbled, and caught their attention.
"Oh, hey guys" Jay seemed remarkably calm "I'm just trying to help Sunghoon get something out of his hair"
They finished? Heeseung thought, and wished he could punch his brain for the intrusive thought.
"What?"
"I forgot to take out my earrings, and I took a nap, and they're a super weird shape and one of them got stuck" Sunghoon affirmed. Heeseung would have been impressed with their lying it if weren't for his disgust.
"The YouTube video showed what to do I think we're getting there"
"Um ok" Jake seemed to at least have the ability to speak, and dragged the eldest as far away in the dorm as possible.
"I thought this was a joke!" Heeseung spluttered "I can't believe them! And that stupid excuse!"
"I know right? Who thinks to themselves: 2 of my band members just walked in on another member sucking me off - I know, I'll tell them he got his earring stuck!" Jake's voice was pitching higher.
"And Hoon just going along with it" he exclaimed "mans on his knees but agreeing to the story"
Jake went quiet for a moment, and Heeseung looked at him questioningly.
"I think we should keep this quiet" he said "the maknaes can't know this"
Heeseung nodded vigorously.
Soon afterwards, they heard Jay scream "I got it!", and he soon emerged in the kitchen with a very ornate earring with quite a few hairs knotted around it. Sunghoon wasn't far behind him, rubbing his head.
"Ew" He laughed, looking at the earring "I never want to see that thing again!"
Sunoo, Riki and Jungwon came back not long after, and Heeseung got to have a quiet word with Jake.
"I think we may have jumped to conclusions. They were too calm for...what we thought"
Jake just blushed and nodded.
6.
Jungwon was confused - Jake and Heeseung had taken to laughing every time they touched or even mentioned earrings. He didn't understand why, maybe it was some weird twin telepathy thing. He also didn't know what was happening with 2 other hyungs. Jungwon prided himself on being observant, and Jay and Sunghoon had been slightly odd the past few days, sort of cold. Sunghoon had withdrawn himself, maybe the work was just getting to him. In an attempt to get him to relax, he and Sunoo challenged him to try his hand at cooking when he was hungry, rather than calling delivery or Jay. The man, secretly, was fiercely competitive, and had agreed.
Sunghoon had apparently decided to start simple, as he was just attempting pancakes. He had made the mix fine, though Sunoo had been cracking jokes the whole time, the problems began when he started trying to fry them.
"Be careful hyung" Jungwon wasn't sure how you cooked pancakes properly, but there looked to be rather a lot of oil in the pan.
"Aish!" Sunghoon exclaimed as some oil was spat on him.
Jungwon felt Sunoo tap his shoulder, and diverted his attention to the video in front of him - a girl burning dry pasta. Sunoo pointed at Sunghoon discretely, and giggled. He didn't notice Jay coming until he was already standing there.
In the past few days it was likely that Jay would have just turned around before Sunghoon spotted him, but he went full mother hen. Jungwon couldn't help but be amused at how protective Jay got over the kitchen when he rushed to Sunghoon's side, shouting at him to wait.
"Stop you're going to burn yourself!"
Sunghoon blinked at him.
Jay just made worried noises. "Why have you got so much oil in there? And why is the heat so high?"
"You need oil to cook them" Sunghoon argued "and I'm just burning a bit off before I start frying"
Jay shook his head, turned down the stove and poured most of the oil out into a mug. He put the pan back on the heat, and gestured at Sunghoon to start.
The younger of the pair splashed some mix in, and started rolling the pan about.
"Stop!" Jay rushed over again, putting his arms around Sunghoon's shoulders and grabbing the pan from his hands. Sunoo looked at him and them pointedly, wiggling his eyebrows. Jungwon did notice the close position, but Jay had a different brain in the kitchen. He was just worrying about a friend - and likely the fate of his pan.
"you can't hold it down there, you'll burn your fingers. And you need to roll it more gently, don't get my stove messy!" He scolded Sunghoon playfully. Dare Jungwon say, tenderly - he felt like the energy in the kitchen had changed as Jay put his hands over Sunghoon's and guided him around. It felt too private, comfortable silence surrounding the pair as they continued to cook.
Jungwon pretended not to hear the whispered "I'm sorry" from Jay, nor the "me too" from Sunghoon. He decided to leave the room and take Sunoo with him when they kept talking.
"I shouldn't have been distant. Family drama you know, and I took it out on you" Jay tightened his arms around Sunghoon. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth.
"It was my fault too" Sunghoon leant back into his embrace in a rare show of clingyness "I got annoyed and I let it grow. Can we just forget it?"
"Forget what?" Jay smiled, before pushing the younger away and taking care of the pancakes himself.
The next day, all was back to normal, and Jungwon could relax at another crisis averted.