After a long day(and night) at the dance studio, Seungtae finally came home to his cozy apartment. He dropped his lightweight black jacket next to the door and walked slowly, dragging his slipper-clad feet along the wooden floor.He made his way to the black leather couch in the living room that just felt like home and flopped down onto it, his muscles burning from hours upon hours of dancing and working out. He could feel the hungry rumbles in his stomach but chose to ignore them in favor of taking a nice, warm shower and going to sleep after resting for a moment on the sofa that he seemed to sink into.

    The 26-year-old had changed his clothes before leaving the studio. He was no longer wearing sweat-soaked clothing, but since he hadn’t showered already, his “clean” black tank-top and jogging pants clung to his moist skin. He sighed deeply and pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time. 12:22 A.M. He had to be awake in less than 5 hours. Hesitantly, he stood up and started undressing as he walked to the bathroom.

    Leaving the door open since he lived alone, he the water and, in all of his glory, started making faces at himself in the mirror as he waited for the water to get up to a good temperature. When he noticed steam coming from the above the dark-blue shower curtain, he smiled at himself, excited to relax his muscles with the warm water, and got in. The hot water hit his skin in streams, massaging wherever it touched. He backed up so that the water could reach his sore thighs and closed his eyes so that he could properly enjoy the feeling. After a few minutes, he decided it was probably time to actually wash himself. Once he actually got to the cleaning part of his shower, it went pretty quickly. He lathered himself up with his cedarwood scented body wash that doubled as a shampoo and sudsed up his hair as well. The blond rinsed himself slowly, loving the way the hot water made his aching muscles loosen up and not wanting to get out just yet, but as soon as he remembered what time he had to be up in the morning he immediately turned off the water and opened the shower curtain.

    He stepped out of the shower grabbed a towel to wipe his face with and started drying his hair, but as soon as the towel was no longer covering his eyes he saw his brunet neighbor from across the hall, Changsun, standing in the doorway, looking straight at him with wide eyes. Seungtae screamed at the top of his lungs and jumped back a bit, almost falling straight into the bathtub.

    “Wait, don’t be scared! I’m sorry, I just--” He stuttered and his eyes jumped from place to place on the older’s body. “Your door was open and I-- Your package-- I mean, not that package, this one!” He lifted up the cardboard box he was holding very quickly and covered his eyes with it, but slowly lowered it again. “It got here this morning and you were gone and someone tried to steal it, but I got it from him and I decided to just wait until you got home and give it to you personally and I came to knock on your door since I heard you come in not that long ago, but your door was open so I just came in and I heard the shower and-- Can you please put a towel on? This is very distracting.”

    “Why are you even still standing there?” He yelled. “Just put the package in the living room and leave! Jesus Christ!”

    “That’s probably a good idea. I’m sorry!” He said before bowing and making his way to the living room.

    Suddenly wide awake, Seungtae slammed the bathroom door shut. He dried off and put on some underwear rather quickly, then made his way to his room to put his dirty clothes in the hamper and throw on some basketball shorts. He decided it wouldn’t hurt to open up his package now rather than in the morning since he was already wide awake anyway. His muscles have been freed up and he had been waiting for this package for a horribly long week and a half. For some reason, though the brunet was sitting on his couch, looking much more comfortable than he should.

    “Didn’t I ask you to leave?”

    Changsun stood up as soon as he heard the older’s voice. “You see, I tried to, but I must’ve forgotten to unlock my door before I came to give you your package and I’m locked out. Do you think I could crash on your couch tonight?”

    , he thought to himself, I really wanted to open that package. Maybe I still can if he stays out here and I just lock my door…

    “And do you think I could have some ramen too? If it’s not too much to ask, you can say no.”

    He sighed, really wishing he knew how to say no. “I’ll put some water on to boil and grab a blanket and a pillow for you,” he said, deflated.

    Changsun grinned widely and plopped back down on the couch. “Thank you Seungtae-ssi!”

    Since he really didn’t want to do this, the blond didn’t respond at all. He just walked away to go boil the water for ramen. While he was gone, the 21-year-old’s attention was brought to the package he had set on the coffee table. He reached over and picked it up, checking if anything on it said “fragile” before shaking it next to his ear. He had no clue what it was since it was packaged so well that nothing even moved. Letting his curiosity get the best of him, he peeled the tape holding the box closed off and opened it up. Through the top layer of bubble wrap he could see something long and rainbow colored. He pulled the packaging out and held the long rainbow thing up. It was like a thick rubber stick, rounded at the top with a spherical sort of shape at the other end that was sliced in half, probably so that it could stand up on it’s own. He stood it on the coffee table and pulled out the rest of the bubble wrap to find a plastic-wrapped pair of white with little pink hearts decorating it and a little pink bow on the pink laced trim. Slowly, he brought his attention back to the thing he had set on the table, things suddenly clicking in his mind as he realized it’s resemblance to a . It was a rainbow .

    He tried to think of why he would have bought such things, but heard footsteps coming down the hallway and shoved everything back into the package, attempting to tape it shut again but failing because the tape had pulled cardboard with it when it was removed and was no longer sticky. The footsteps stopped and he looked up from the box. Seungtae was standing next to the couch, now wearing a shirt, holding a white pillow and matching blanket, staring wide-eyed at the younger male.

    “What are you doing?”

    “I got curious…” He replied quietly. “I’ve never seen you bring anyone home before, I didn’t know you had a girlfriend,” he added and smiled, nudging the older male’s leg with his elbow.

    Seungtae set the bedding on the couch, swearing in his mind. “Uh, yeah. Girlfriend. I have a girlfriend, that’s it. We have a, uh, special night coming up, that’s why I got those. Could you maybe put that down? Please?”

    “Oh, yeah, sorry,” he apologized and set the box back on the coffee table. “Is she pretty? Can I see a picture of her?”

    “Um…” He pulled his phone out and looked through all of his photos. , he thought, I’m too gay. There’s not a single girl in my photos besides my mom. . He put his phone away quickly and grabbed the box. “You know, I don’t really know you that well, so I’d prefer not to show you. Sorry. I’m gonna go put these in my room, I’ll be right back.”

    He walked as quickly as he could, trying not to seem too suspicious. He opened up the bottom drawer of his dresser where he kept his collection and carefully laid the brand new rainbow one down next to one just a little bit shorter; he organized them by length. When he reached into the box he set next to him to grab the , he saw Changsun standing right next to him, staring wide-eyed at his collection.

    “I- I can explain--” he started, but Changsun knelt down next to him, observing all of his s.

    “They’re so pretty.”

    He looked from his collection to his neighbor. “Uh, yeah, they are, aren’t they?”

    Changsun finally looked away from the colorful rubber es and looked at the blond. “I won’t judge you if you say these aren’t for your girlfriend. They’re super pretty.”

    “Oh, thank God. They’re mine. I, uh, collect them?” He said, more like a question than a statement.

    “That’s actually pretty cool. I collect spatulas, but you can’t use those . Do you collect those , too? Or are those actually for your girlfriend?” He asked. He seemed genuinely curious, and didn’t seem to think that it was weird at all.

    “Those are mine, too.”

    “Do you, like, wear them? Or do you just like looking at them? The ones you just got are really cute.”

    “I wear them.”

    “That’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to try on women’s just to see how it feels, but I don’t have the balls to buy any.”

    “Do you want to try on a pair of mine? There’s one that I don’t really wear anymore.”

    “Can I?” Seungtae nodded, smiling kind of nervously. “You have to wear some too, though! I’d feel awkward if I tried some on and you were over here fully dressed with men’s underwear all.”

    “I’ll try on my new ones, and you,” he opened the drawer above his collection and pulled out a neon green pair with blue lace, “can put these on.”

    Without another word, the younger took the and stripped. Seungtae chuckled and took his new out of the clear plastic bag they were in before stripping as well. When they both had the on, they just looked at each other and bursted into laughter.

    “They fit you pretty well,” Seungtae commented, trying to sound at least a little bit serious.

    “Same for you,” he replied, but didn’t even attempt to sound serious.

    “Do you like them? The ones you’re wearing, I mean.”

    “Yeah! They’re strangely comfortable, even if there isn’t exactly a spot to put my, uh, little friend.”

    “You wanna keep them?”

    “Seriously?”

    “Yeah. If you want them, they’re yours.”

    Probably too happy over a pair of , Changsun hugged his neighbor. “Thank you!!!”

    When he finally let go, Seungtae added, “Just don’t tell anyone about either of these collections, okay? I don’t want people to think I’m a ert when I get famous.”

    “When you get famous? What makes you think you’ll get famous?”

    “I’m a trainee at SS Entertainment. You’ve probably never heard of them, but once I debut I’m sure we’ll make it big!”

    “Wow, there’s so much I’m finding out about you tonight.” He laughed, still a little too close to Seungtae, but he didn’t complain. “Don’t worry, hyung, your secret’s safe with me. Promise.” He held out his pinky.

    The blond couldn’t help but think that the action was rather childish and kind of cute, but he connected their pinkies and stamped their thumbs anyway. “Promise.”

    As soon as their hands disconnected, Changsun dropped down again to look at the collection. “So, do you actually use these?”

    “Yeah, I do. I won’t let you use one of these, though. The only reason I would let another guy use one is if we were… intimate.”

    “Ooooohhh, you like guys!” He sounded rather excited at the discovery. Seungtae only nodded in reply. “I do too!”

    “I’m not surprised, honestly.” The older replied and he could practically see the question marks in his neighbor’s eyes. “You called my s pretty.”

    “True, true, I see your point.” They laughed for a minute or so before Changsun randomly remembered something and jumped up, running out of the room. Seungtae chased after him, hoping he didn’t fall out of his . When he got to the kitchen, he found Changsun putting the ramen in the boiling water on the stove and adding the flavor packets.

    He couldn’t help but laugh. “I thought something bad happened the way you ran out like that, but you just wanted ramen?”

    “I’m hungry.” He said with a shrug.

    Seungtae leaned on the doorframe, smiling pretty wide at the brunet standing in his kitchen wearing neon green . “You should come over more often.”

    “Just come knock on my door whenever, I’m always home.”