1772

Mingyu giggles as he swipes chocolate across a Wonwoo's unsuspecting cheek. Wonwoo grimaces, ignores Seokmin's obnoxious laughter, as he rubs the mixture off with the back of his hand but this only helps to smear it some more. Mingyu guffaws as Wonwoo growls, “It's not funny, you ,” but there isn't any heat behind it. In fact, Wonwoo's small smile tells Minghao that the brunette is in fact at least a little amused. As long as it was coming from Mingyu, if it was, say, Seokmin, Minghao might as well say goodbye to his best-friend.

“Guys, don't make a mess,” Seungcheol bemoans from the other side of the cramped kitchen, “my mom is going to kill me if we don't clean up.”

Minghao surveys the area and to be honest, the damage isn't even that bad. At least it wasn't as bad as last year's fiasco when Mingyu tried to make those DIY chocolate bowls that involved a balloon. Least to say, it took them an hour trying to clean the chocolate from the ceiling.

The cartoon chicken timer, that Jisoo likes to refer to as 'Clucky' (“Oh, how creative, hyung” “I don't want to hear it, Wonwoo.”) rings violently, almost threatening to fall off the counter but Seokmin turns it off in time. Mingyu cheers excitedly for the cookies to finally be done as Jisoo slides the metal tray onto a cooling rack. The cookies are shaped into hearts, the batter having been red velvet baked with hershey kisses inside. Some of the hearts, okay, all of them, were rather misshapen and lumpy but it was better than Wonwoo's suggest of actually baking accurate human hearts. Minghao surpresses a shiver.

“Hey, that reminds me,” Seungcheol begins, taking most of the messy chocolate bowls—how many did they use?—to the sink, “what are Jun and Soonyoung doing for Valentines day?”

Every head in the kitchen turns to Minghao's flustered face, suddenly the blonde wishes that he had the ability to turn invisible or for a blackhole to magically appear and swallow him up.

“How should I know,” Minghao mumbles, ducking his head away in the process as he swipes some of the chocolate from the bowl Mingyu's hoarding. The brunette makes a noise that he can only describe as a mix between a whimper and a soft growl.

“Yeah, how should Minghao know,” Wonwoo adds blankly, “I mean, he only lives with the two guys.”

This time Seokmin interrupts, a small frown decorating his face (Minghao wants to say it doesn't suit him at all), “Guys, you know they're not that close.”

“No, hyung, it's fine. I mean, I guess I should get back to Soonyoung or he might start another fire in the microwave.” Minghao wipes off his hands onto Mingyu's apron, nudging the taller man playfully in the process. Wonwoo gives him a funny look. Seriously, how him and Mingyu aren't dating has to be the eighth wonder of the world.

“Wait, take a cookie!”

Watching in amusement as Jisoo places the cookie in his awaiting palms, Minghao laughs like nothing in the world matters. And truthfully, standing in the kitchen with his friends who are covered with flour and chocolate, nothing else does matter.

“Did they really start a fire in the microwave,” Wonwoo questions incredulously, unable to believe that a twenty-something year old is just that bad at taking care of himself.

Minghao shakes his head. “Three incidents in the past month, if we were on a boat we would've been thrown overboard by now.”

Seokmin laughs hard enough to shake his shoulders, the infectious sound coming out of him like second-nature and soon everyone else joins in on Minghao's misfortune. Eventually, the blonde gives in too, giggling softly at the absurdity that his life seems to be in.

♥                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ♥

The airports decorated in a sea of red and white, the small stores and shops even more grossly over-decorated with red hearts and things that glitter. Jun squints at the eyesore, trying to refrain from rolling his eyes as he spots more than the usual amount of couples at the airport holding over-sized teddybears and comically large bouquet of flowers. He's never been one to like Valentines day, the commercialization of it and people associating gifts with love. If you love someone you show it everyday, you don't reserve it for just one day. At least, that's what Jun believes, but Soonyoung's never been like that. The blonde idiot was too sensitive and loved love. Wheeling his suitcase forward, Jun let's the blinding sunlight hit him.

He had told Minghao and Soonyoung that his trip to China to visit family would be a week and a half, but cut it short to a week much to his younger brother's dismay. He promised the boy (not teenager because Jun refuses to acknowledge that his brother is growing up) that he'd fly him out to Seoul next time though and he could stay as long as he wanted.

The last store Jun passes by before exiting the airport makes him slowly come to a slow stop. It isn't flashy as the rest so it's already much better in Jun's opinion, but the display case was lined up with cute stuffed animals holding hearts.

He shakes his head, laughing to himself for even entertaining the idea of buying something grossly romantic for his two blonde roommates. He isn't even sure if Minghao would like a gesture like that, although there was no doubt in Jun's mind the thin boy would take it to be polite. He grunts, running a hand through his hair as he forces himself to keep moving.

Minghao is still a huge mystery to him, almost causing him as much headaches as Soonyoung, but now he really couldn't imagine coming home to just Soonyoung-

He swerves that train of thought into oncoming traffic.

♥                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ♥

Because the universe seems to like awkward meet-ups and like making Minghao'slife miserable like it's its favourite hobby, the blonde is caught by Jun holding a large chocolate Valentine box. The two stand at the front door awkwardly, Minghao's mouth opening but no words coming out.

Jun quirks an eyebrow, “Is that for Soonyoung?”

“Y-You're back!” Minghao's face flushes a brilliant shade of red, almost making the candy box pale in comparison. “I- I would've gotten you something if I knew you'd be back...” He finishes, hiding behind the large heart shaped box but Jun just chuckles.

“Aww, and here I thought I was your favourite hyung,” he teases, grabbing Minghao's bony wrist in the process so they were only one step away from one another. Minghao just whines some more, shaking the hand off of him.

“Gross, I can't believe I actually kind of missed your obnoxious face-”

Jun interjects with a lopsided grin, “So you missed me.”

God, why isn't spontaneous combustion a thing? Or better yet laser vision? Minghao bristles, deftly punching in the passcode.

“Well, now I suddenly wish you were back in China,” he grumbles opening the door, “and for the record Seokmin-hyung is my favourite hyung,” he rebuttals. Pulling the door shut, Jun is about to make a comeback (he would rather die than admit that he sort of missed Minghao's crankiness and their banter) but before he can a hyper Soonyoung bounds over to them from the couch much like a dog greeting it's owner.

Minghao watches as Soonyoung envelops Jun, practically tackling the black-haired man. Something weird bubbles in his gut, tacky and unpleasant but he suppresses the emotion and sets the chocolate box on the kitchen counter. “Hey, what do you want for lunch?” He asks, back turned to the two older men as he goes through the fridge. With Jun gone for a while and no one to feed them, Minghao had to resort to ordering take-out almost every day since he never had the time to cook and he didn't trust any concoction Soonyoung made. They might as well start their own mini fast-food service with the amount of styrofoam boxes they had.

“Guys,” Minghao repeats when he doesn't get an answer. Closing the fridge, he turns to see Jun and Soonyoung watching him from the kitchen island, a sly smile—Jun—and a blindingly bright grin—Soonyoung—decorating their faces. “What, do I have something on my face?” Fidgeting at the intense gazes, Minghao starts touching his hair and inspecting his clothes. Nope, everything seemed normal to him.

“Aww, he wants to cook for us,” Jun coos.

“I think he's starting to warm up to us,” Soonyoung adds but in a less mocking and more genuine tone. The glee dancing in his golden eyes enough to make Minghao's heart speed up.

Unable to handle the attention, Minghao buries his face into his hands, groaning, “Ugh, if you guys are going to be like this I'll just let you starve,” he bemoans, about to head to his room but a hand quickly stops him.

The older two made an agreement that they wouldn't do too much skinship with Minghao, this included hugs or anything that had overwhelming physical contact, as long as Minghao didn't squirm and try to hit them when they ruffled the younger boy's hair or linked their fingers. Soonyoung was the big one on skinship though, and it didn't come to a surprise when the older blonde linked their fingers while Jun slung an arm lazily around Minghao's thin frame.

“Where are you going so fast? Shouldn't we eat the chocolate you bought,” Jun muses, picking at the plastic encasing the heart box.

If Minghao was the Minghao from a month ago he would have felt absolutely nauseated at the affection the men were showing him and promptly freaked out, but now the unpleasantness was palpable and barely made his skin crawl. It was better than nothing, Jun and Soonyoung had agreed.

Disentangling their hands, Soonyoung rips open the plastic.

“This doesn't seem like a healthy lunch,” Minghao considers with a frown but he doesn't object as Jun passes him a chocolate

“C'mon, live a little,” Jun drawls with a wink.

Minghao flushes, quickly stuffing the chocolate in his mouth. Yeah, he thinks as he watches Jun chastise Soonyoung for ordering so much takeout, things could have definitely gone much worse, living with them. This time another feeling blooms inside of his ribcage and he quickly identifies this one as content. He reaches over and sneaks in another chocolate piece, this time caramel overriding his senses as he bits in, a small smile on his face as Soonyoung amps up the cuteness so Jun would forgive him.

It works.

Minghao isn't surprised.  

A/N: This isn't part of the "official" timeline but it does show how their relationship will eventually be like as it progresses! Also, I'm still on hiatus but I just wanted to do something special for you guys, so happy Valentines Day! Who else is spending it alone because I am xD also even in this timeline Meanie aren't together lol