“Are you 100% this is okay and our neighbors won’t call the police?” Jinhwan seemed slightly worried but failed to suppress an amused giggle.

Even though he wasn’t caring about two of his teammates going to jail because of some silly and “harmless” game, Chanwoo too was worried. In fact, he could be the most troubled person in that room at the moment; he was sweating gallons because of how worried he was. The reason? Hanbin had been staring/glaring at him for the past two minutes and forty-two, no, three seconds and counting.

The maknae was sure that this time he had done nothing wrong—so what if he were or were not behind Jiwon and Junhoe’s current little battle? No one needed to know about that.

“Don’t worry, hyung,” Donghyuk assured the elder with a smile. “They will be the only ones spending the night behind bars~”

“That’s not exactly what I wanted to hear, you know.”

“Shh! I’m trying to record over here!” Yunhyeong hissed. His eyes were focused on capturing every single moment of the current battle happening between the singer and the rapper in front of them.

“HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE! I—”

“AM A GOOD BOY”

“—MUST HAVE CALLED A THOUSAND TIMES.”

“TURN IT UP!”

“It’s not like it will be difficult to hear them.”

“TO TELL YOU I’M SORRY FOR—”

“I AM A GOOD GOOD”

“But it messes up the audio!”

“—EVERYTHING THAT I’VE DONE!”

“I AM A GOOD BOY!”

Junhoe snorted. “Like I care,”

“BUT WHEN I CALL YOU NEVER SEEM TO BE HOME! HELLO—”

“ES!!! NANANANA NANANANA NA NA”

Chanwoo ignored his bickering hyungs, focusing on the other two bickering hyungs screaming their lungs off instead. It had been a brilliant idea to have those two fight in some sort of “vocal battle” Donghyuk had seen in a random movie. Chanwoo only needed to push some buttons here, others there and it was done. It wasn’t as if someone would actually call the police—the neighbors had to put up with Junhoe’s screams pretty much every day, Jiwon would only be a one-day addition. Well, he hoped they weren’t going to.

The rules were simple: you could sing whichever song you want as long as it contained a related word that was present on your opponent’s song. Donghyuk would be the one judging the whole thing; he was the responsible for being biased to whoever could put more money in his hands. So far, Jiwon had been coping pretty well with all the unknown range-challenging songs Junhoe had managed to find.

It was fun, he really wanted to make it last. It was a rare occasion to have an afternoon for themselves, bond over two screaming boys, two bickering hyungs, a shady judge and Hanbin. Ok, his leader wasn’t exactly participating, but he was in the living room with them so it had to count for something, right? He was glaring at Chanwoo and being all sulky, but he was still present.

The maknae turned to the leader at the darker corner of the room, locking eyes with him right away. He was still wearing his pajamas despite being passed lunchtime, his hair was all messed up and he was being paranoid while scrutinizing Chanwoo in a very peevish way. The leader had been switching between intriguingly sulky and explosively enraged all week. Currently, he was tending to the “stare at Chanwoo until he notices and then stare some more” mood.

(Chanwoo felt quite restless whenever his leader acted that way, which was every hour or so nowadays.)

As they held a staring contest, the younger tried to think of one thing, just one single little tiny thing, that he might have done wrong. Aside from the mess at the dorm happening right now, he was clean. Maybe his leader was waiting for him to screw up…? No, it didn’t seem like something Hanbin would do. However, if these past few days had taught Chanwoo anything, was that he couldn’t just ignore this possibility yet.

Giving up on trying understanding his hyung, the youngest one told himself that he would deal with that issue later. Maybe. Possibly. He had learned the hard way it was better to leave Hanbin alone when he was having those mood swings.

His phone buzzed; a new message.

“so u coming or nah?

need my daily love, chanu-ah~”

Chanwoo rolled his eyes. He had forgotten about that other issue when Jiwon and Junhoe started screaming at each other’s faces. Seungyoon would too be something he had to deal with some other day.

That’s right. Seungyoon, WINNER’s leader and the boy who Chanwoo was so awkward with just two weeks ago, was now texting (and bugging) him nonstop. The older one had successfully crushed any awkwardness left between after that dinner. He was promptly texting the maknae whenever he could, which was every other day or so, and inviting him to lots of meals, which was very kind of him because free meals. Now he was pestering Chanwoo again so he would come over to YG recording studio again with some drinks and snacks the younger would buy on his way there again.

(He had a feeling he was spoiling Seungyoon too much, even though some could argue that it was quite the opposite.)

Chanwoo looked around the room, not sure that his idea was that brilliant anymore. Donghyuk was now at the “adding fuel to the fire” stage; Junhoe’s neck veins shouldn’t be that noticeable; Jiwon was just enjoying himself, screaming some lyrics and jamming like the room wasn’t about to blow up; Jinhwan and Yunhyeong were debating heatedly about something he couldn't quite understand; and Hanbin was, wait for it, sulky again.

Yup, definitely not that good of an idea.

The younger one looked down at his phone and then at the scene happening around him. It seemed like he would be spoiling Seungyoon one more day.

Chanwoo got up from the couch, sending a “coming” to the clingy leader. He decided that dealing with just a crazy hyung would be better than what he would certainly face later if things kept going the way they were now. Maybe Seungyoon would take him to dinner again so he wouldn’t be feeling that bad about leaving the whole thing to Jinhwan.

Now, he only needed to tell someone he would go out, but who? Donghyuk was too engrossed on milking Jiwon and Junhoe’s money and empty promises, the younger surely wouldn’t try to talk to Jinhwan while he was looking so threateningly mad, which meant that he couldn’t say anything to Yunhyeong either, so the only option left was…

There was no way in hell he would tell Hanbin he was leaving to meet Seungyoon—Chanwoo had noticed that Hanbin had some sort of… reluctance when it came to WINNER’s leader. Nevertheless, he needed to tell someone, otherwise, Hanbin would be mad because he left without telling someone.

“Why is life so difficult?!” he whined to himself, pouting as he walked as casually as possible to his leader.

The boy gathered up the courage to talk to his leader, he was going to face the lion. Well, he would have faced the lion if said lion hadn’t stormed off the second Chanwoo even thought about moving. The poor maknae was left confused. It would be already difficult to settle things with his hyung as they were, but now he didn’t even want to be in the same room as him? What the hell had he done to deserve this?!

Chanwoo sighed, turning to the only sane person in that group. “Donghyuk-hyung, I’m meeting Seungyoon-hyung at the YG studio, ok?” the younger one shouted over Junhoe’s screams. “Call me if you need anything!”

He wasn’t sure if Donghyuk had heard him, or anyone for that matter, but he liked to think that they did. Donghyuk did mumble a “yeah, yeah” in response, no one could blame him now.

As the boy left the dorm, he didn’t even flinch at the sound of Junhoe’s voice trailing behind him all the way to the streets (“You’re supposed to use the same words not words that sound the same, you idiot. What? I’m calling you idiot because you’re an idiot. 馬鹿,”)

He sighed quietly, hiding his face with the hood of his jacket and a simple scarf. It wasn’t that cold out there but he couldn’t afford being followed around.

His phone buzzed again.

“Buy me something from Starbucks!

Something with a fancy name~”

Chanwoo looked at his phone with disbelief. Really? Well, after two weeks getting to know the whiny leader, he shouldn’t be surprised at all.

“Hyung, I just debuted!

I have no money for fancy Starbucks' coffees T~T”

“Poor you…

Just buy me something with a cool name and bitter taste then.”

Seungyoon was just too much sometimes. Thankfully, he brought some money with him, otherwise, his hyung would nag until the end of the world about how he was “such a bad dongsaeng” or how he didn’t love him anymore after “all the things we went through, Chanwoo-ah.”

Another message arrived.

“Bitter like your attitude”

Chanwoo blocked his phone feeling extremely wronged, heading to the nearest Starbucks with a sudden thirst for (Seungyoon’s) blood. He would ask for the bitterest coffee they sold! And a regular macchiato for him, of course. Coming to think of it, he should buy something for his own leader too, maybe then Hanbin would stop being so bipolar around him. Yeah, it seemed like a good option.

The iKON leader had been acting strange around him. Stranger than usual, that is. It all started some days after that disastrous dinner with Seungyoon and Mino, which was roughly two weeks ago. Now, he was suddenly all over him or simply glaring at him from afar, mumbling some confusing things and sulking.

The maknae didn’t know if it was a good thing. He wasn’t being bossed around as much as before, but he had a feeling that things weren’t going to stay that way for much longer—Hanbin had that odd habit of being moody (and bossy, really bossy) whenever something was bugging him.

“What would you like today, sir?” The attendant asked politely, smiling.

Chanwoo blinked a few times to realize that he was already at Starbucks. He ordered his stuff and smiled cutely at the attendant, asking in his sweetest voice if she could write something special for him on the cups.

The boy left the place shortly after getting his order, holding a plastic bag in one hand, his phone on the other and heading to the YG building. Chanwoo was sure Seungyoon would nag—when didn’t he?—if they didn’t drink their coffees together.

As the boy headed to his destiny, his mind wandered back to Hanbin and Seungyoon. His leader would act all weird whenever the other leader was mentioned but that only started happening after their dinner together. Was there a connection? It wasn’t possible that Hanbin didn’t like Seungyoon, was it? They seemed quite comfortable with each other last time both groups were together...

Coming to think of it, most of the uncomfortable situations he had to face those past weeks were because the two leaders. Seungyoon would monopolize Chanwoo and Hanbin would get moody or Hanbin would be all clingy to Chanwoo and Seungyoon would do the same. Was there something going around he wasn’t aware of?

The first time Hanbin went “berserk” on him was when Chanwoo and Yunhyeong were wrestling on the floor, fighting over the younger’s phone. They couldn’t decide whether sending Seungyoon some pictures of their latest music videos shoots was a good idea or not and Chanwoo had the brilliant idea to blame his hyung if anything went wrong—apparently Yunhyeong wasn’t that fond on the idea (“Why are you making a fuss about it? Just send it.” “Because what if Hanbin-hyung gets mad at me?! He’s been acting strange these days.” “Then don’t send it,” “Fine! I’ll just send him. If anyone asks, I’m saying you made me do it.”). Hanbin came right when Chanwoo was just about to send the pics and snatched his phone away, leaving seconds after typing something. A “mind your own business” was the last thing the maknae thought his leader would send. Stranger than that, Seungyoon seemed rather amused.

After that, it happened again when Chanwoo had to deliver some drinks and snacks to Seungyoon. It wasn’t like he wanted to do it but his hyung was pestering him so much that he had to give in if he wanted the flood of messages to stop. When Hanbin found out about it, well, he tagged along for some reasons Chanwoo still can’t figure out. Needless to say, the whole travel was difficult to handle. Hanbin ignored him and, in return, Seungyoon ignored Hanbin. Chanwoo couldn’t get a grip on the situation.

There was also that time when Seungyoon kidnapped him. The boy didn’t know why or what Seungyoon was thinking when he showed up at their dorm one random day to have some “maknae bonding time” with him (“But, hyung, you’re not the maknae,” “I was the maknae before Taehyun came,” “Weren’t we all maknaes before someone younger than us came in?” “That’s not the point,” “And the point is…?” “I’m taking Chanu with me. Now. We’ll be back in 2 hours. Don’t call. Bye~”). His leader wasn’t pleased at all when Seungyoon dragged him for a 2-hour long date with some ice cream cake and a whole bunch of other sweets. At least, he did eat a lot and that was some sort of comfort when he faced Hanbin’s cold as ice attitude afterward.

Yeah, there was something definitely fishy going on between those two. He just needed to figure out what and why.

He would try to deal with both leaders latter, maybe ask Seungyoon if he knew something about Hanbin's constant mood swings. Now he had to convince the WINNER leader to take him to the nearest Chinese restaurant they both could afford. Food was always welcomed when he felt confused.

“Chanwoo-ah, won’t you greet your hyung?” A light-hearted chuckle broke the younger’s trail of thoughts.

Chanwoo turned around right away, feeling somewhat dizzy because of it. Was he at YG building already? When did he get there? The maknae’s eyes widened as he promptly bowed full ninety degrees to the person in front of him. How could he be so distracted and rude that he would straight up ignore his sunbae?! God, he felt so embarrassed.

“Ah. Sunbaenim! I’m so so sorry! I was so distracted that I didn’t—”

Jiyong smiled at him with that gummy smile of his, the younger one could feel his cheeks burn. “There’s no need to be so formal, dongsaeng,”

Chanwoo nodded, trying so hard not to gawk at the older one, his presence was no joke even though he was wearing no makeup and had the simplest outfit on. Wow, Jiyong-sunbae was for sure in another level.

“Y-yeah, h-hyung,” He still felt ashamed that he didn’t recognize the BIGBANG leader.

Jiyong patted his shoulder and the maknae felt his heartbeat quicken. “That's better.”

The younger one tried to control his reactions, suddenly feeling too aware that they were still at the front of the YG building. He should learn how to control his emotions better, was he not an idol after all?

“Hm, hyung… I think we should enter,” he offered quietly, not daring to look at the older boy even though he knew he was being impolite.

His sunbae nodded and Chanwoo was more than quick to follow him inside, he was still fighting his heartbeat so the silence was very much welcomed.

“So, what brings you here?” Jiyong asked casually, looking ahead.

Chanwoo inhaled some air before he spoke. “Well, Seungyoon-hyung wanted me to buy him some coffee so I came,” He proceeded to motion the plastic bag he was holding. “What about you, hyung?”

Jiyong glanced at the maknae, rubbing his chin, probably thinking about something. “Seungyoonie, huh…” he mumbled, “Didn’t know you guys were that close.”

The younger one didn’t know what to think of his sunbae’s comment. Was Jiyong merely surprised by their relation or was he implying something else? He was so confused, and his heart wasn’t helping at all.

“W-we’ve been getting closer these days, hyung,” was what came out in an almost inaudible murmur.

“Ah, I see.” Jiyong nodded absent minded, not noticing the breakdown the boy beside him was dealing with. “Anyway, I have a meeting with YG to settle some things about BIGBANG’s album.”

“I see—” The mention of his sunbae’s album clicked something inside the younger’s mind. He promptly bowed again as Jiyong raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. “Thank you so much for giving us ‘아니라고’, sunbaenim! We’ll be forever thankful!”

Jiyong chuckled again, patting Chanwoo’s head affectionately. “No need to thank me, dongsaeng. And drop formalities—I already told you so. It suited you guys better, anyway.”

Chanwoo grinned at his sunbae. “Thanks, hyung!”

Jiyong smiled back, it was restrained and carefully blank. Chanwoo was sure he saw that expression somewhere else. “Chanwoo-ah, mind answering me a question?”

“Of course not, hyung! Anything for you!”

There it was, the twinkle in his eyes. Something inside the maknae told him that it meant trouble, but the younger didn’t know exactly why...

“Oh, such a dedicated maknae,” Jiyong smirked. “But, you know, I’ve been wondering… do you like me?”

Chanwoo didn’t even blink. “Of course, hyung!”

“Better than Seungyoonie?”

Now he did blink, several times to be more accurate. “Huh?”

“Do you like me better than Seungyoon, Chanwoo-ah?”

* Idiot in Japanese

** “I Miss You So Bad” (you should check it out if you haven't already!)

Ok, so this took a while to write. I wrote almost 6k for this but had to write it again and again until I was satisfied. It was a really difficult chapter because I did know what to write but I just didn't know how. Maybe I'll put some of the extra content at the end of the next chapter~

It's a bit big, I know, around 3k (!) but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to turn this into a two-shot again so I just went with it. Hope you guys like it~

(When will Chanwoo learn that when a person asks "can I ask you something?" is never a good thing? Poor kid, he should have known better after what happened with Seungyoon.)

I'd like to thank all of you guys who have subscribed and commented and simply read! This my fanfic with most subscribers and I just posted like three days ago! I was pretty sure people would just ignore this because Chanwoo is not that popular, but it's so good to see that a lot of people love this cute boy.

Anyway, next chapter will be (wait for it) paranoidnjealous!Hanbin's POV! It's so fun writing him like that and I wouldn't be surprised if next chapter becomes bigger than this one. Also, I changed the prompt of the story slightly (it was mostly because what I wrote on the foreword didn't make much sense compared to what I'm going for here), I hope you guys don't mind it.

Leave your comments and thoughts and general feedback, I appreciate every bit of it! Thanks again for those who subscribed and commented! You guys rock!!!

Have some cute and shy Seungyoon now~

(Also, I was thinking about a Christmas fanfic involving Chanwoo, Junhoe, and Mean Girls, what do you guys think? I know Christmas was two days ago but I really wanted to write some passive aggressive Junhoe blushing around Chanwoo~)