Jingle bell time.

The blond boy looked at his reflection in the mirror, he was quite unsure of how he felt about it. Of course, he still could cause a pregnancy with one of his famous looks, but he felt… weird out every time he looked at himself.

Junhoe touched his hair, regretting the fact that he had dyed it. Those bleached locks didn’t feel right to him even though everyone agreed that he was looking hotter than ever. Maybe he needed some time to get used to his new flawless image.

The boy sighed slightly, getting closer to the mirror to check his makeup once again. Everything seemed okay to him. He retreated with a pleased hum. If he were going to embarrass himself, then he would do it looking like a God.

Junhoe looked around the dressing room, ignoring the looks of the some other people that shouldn’t even be there and fixing his gaze in the second of the three doors at the back of the room. He almost bit his lip in anxiety before he caught himself in the act; the waiting was making him pick up old habits he fought hard to erase. The things that boy did to him…

“I could really use some tea right now,” he murmured lazily, turning back to the reflection in the mirror and inspecting every detail one more time.

He decided that he liked his new look. One of the few good things Hanbin made him do after all those years they knew each other, he mused.

 Oh, yeah, Kim Hanbin, the one cause of all the bad things happening in his life now. The squeaky idiot who was always around him, making sure to screw Junhoe’s sanity through all means possible, and, guess what, it was exactly what he was doing that moment.

It was “thanks” to him that he had bleached his hair, was going to get dressed in an obnoxious way, and would ruin his public image. What a great friend he was, no, what great friends they were. He should put the blame on Jiwon too, Hanbin’s dumber twin; after all, one wouldn’t do anything if the other wasn’t involved.

It was their entire fault, as always. It didn’t matter that Junhoe “willingly” accepted Hanbin’s offer and that, in theory, he could give up at any minute; it was all Hanbin’s fault and no one could tell him otherwise. From that stupid dance to his now bleached hair, then those hideous clothes, straight up to Junhoe’s inability to say “no” to a certain someone, the tall blond boy blamed his dumb hyungs for everything bad happening in the world. If anything, Junhoe was sure that Hanbin was involved with Global Warming, he just had to find the right evidence to back up his thesis.

Hanbin, and to some degree Jiwon, had talked him into joining them and pure innocent child Jung Chanwoo at a dance performance (“It’s not a dance cover, June. It’s a dance performance. It does not simply involve covering a dance; we will be performing a dance—which means acting, living our project.”) about some old movie he hadn’t even heard about.

It was stupid, plainly and simply stupid. Hanbin had been boasting about them going viral and famous after it but all Junhoe could see was that the older was going more and more nonsensical and dumb than he actually thought it was possible. Who would care about some random teenage boys reenacting an infamous scene from an old and probably already forgotten teenage movie—what the hell was Mean Girls anyway?

Junhoe sighed again, feeling like giving up on life the nth time that night.

He shouldn’t have expected any less from the dumb duo. However, that was a whole other level of dumbness that even Junhoe himself haven’t thought they could achieve. Apparently, those two would always find a way to surprise him in the most terrible ways possible. In addition, they had to drag him into the mess as well, didn’t they?

The handsome boy knew he should have walked away the moment Jinhwan introduced him those two fools, barely a year ago, saying that they would get along just fine. That, he mused, was his very first mistake of a growing long list of terrible missteps. The problem was that he didn’t do it back then and, unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to do it now either.

It wasn’t that he didn't want to give his middle finger to the world and quit, it was more as he couldn’t. He had promised to Chanwoo that he would give his all for that performance; there was also his pride, which wouldn’t allow him to drop out now when they were minutes away from performing.

Stealing a quick glance at the second door at the back of the dressing room again, Junhoe did his best to ignore the loud song boasting through the thick white walls. For a soundproof room, there was a lot of unwelcomed outside noise penetrating it.

“What am I still doing here to begin with...?” he mumbled to himself, massaging his temples. He just wished that he could get over with it, so he could go back home and hide for a decade.

Of course, Hanbin was at the center of that whole mess. It was all his fault, as always. A simple dance cover turned into such a huge and complicated confusion that Junhoe couldn’t even begin to measure it. If it weren't for his squeaky hyung, Junhoe would be doing a good amount of nothing somewhere else then the dressing room of his university’s huge auditorium.

≡

“I already told you, I’m not doing this,” Junhoe remembered saying, his last nerves were being pushed by two idiots.

Junhoe had quickened his steps. It was a stressful day, too bright and blazing to his taste; he really wasn’t feeling like dealing with the dumb twins, especially when he would have to face his class and his annoying professor later. However, it was to no use. He should have known those two would probably follow him to the cores of hell if that meant that they would get what they wanted.

“Come on, dude,” Hanbin wailed, sounding more and more high-pitched by the minute. “Don’t be such a about it!”

“Yeah!” the other dumb twin agreed, sounding dumber by the minute. “It’s not like you’ve never done worse! Remember Donghyuk’s birthday party?” Junhoe cringed. “It’s all over the Internet.”

The tallest of the three boys sighed deeply. Who he had to kill to have some peace for a single minute?! Hanbin and Jiwon had been pestering him about how they wanted him to join them in a quick dance presentation at a random dance competition their university was holding, but Junhoe wouldn't give in. He knew it would take only a simple favor to have them pestering him for the rest of eternity. The dumb bros tried everything they knew that could possibly persuade the tall boy but failed miserably each time. The list went: (1) shallow compliments, (2) food, (3) coupons, (4) actual money, (5) Jinhwan. They should know that if Jinhwan wasn’t able to persuade Junhoe, then nothing and no one else could. Of course, that didn’t mean they stopped trying.

 “That was different!” he defended himself, shooting displeased glares at the two boys surrounding him. “Now if you excuse me…”

“Please! We’re not asking for much, just a little tiny bit of your time!”

“He's right!” the dumber one sided with his other half again, much to Junhoe’s growing annoyance. “We could have asked you a kidney, your left eye, or even a vein from your heart! But, instead, we just want you to join us in a less than 3-minute dance!”

Junhoe’s eyes twitched slightly, he couldn’t begin to measure the amount of idiotic things Jiwon’s brain could produce. It still wasn’t worse than Hanbin’s less than unsightly expressions. A heavy headache was starting to grow at the back of his head, even the campus was more agitated than usual, was it the twins’ influence?

“What would you do with a vein from my heart anyway?” the boy began to argue but found it useless. “Whatever. Forget it. I’m not doing it. Ask someone else.”

Jiwon tried, keyword tried, to do those cute puppy eyes. Junhoe straight up laughed at his face.

“But you’re the only one who’s tall enough!” Hanbin fussed, clinging to Junhoe’s arms tightly. “Don't do this to us, man. I thought you loved us!”

The tall boy scoffed. “I never once said such a thing,” Then he proceeded to shake the squeaky twin off him.

“Donghyuk’s birthday party disagrees with you,”

That was it. No one had to know what happened at Donghyuk’s birthday party except the ones who were there and whoever watched that goddamn video on YouTube—he swore that he would find the bastard who uploaded it just to murder the person as slowly as possible.

“I’m going now,” he announced loudly and coldly enough so those with a brain would get the message. “Bye.”

Jiwon interrupted his escape by placing himself in front of him, pleading eyes on and all that stuff. “At least, think about it?”

Junhoe shoved the dumbest twin to the side. “No.”

“Man, you're no fun.”

He shrugged, walking faster than before just to get out of that conversation. He didn’t even want to be that early to class but, thanks to those two, he would have to deal with his classmates. One more thing the dumb duo ruined for him.

Junhoe was about to enter the classroom when someone dared to pull his arm. He was about to shot the subject down with the meanest of the glares when he notices it was the squeaky one trying to haul him. He then shot the meanestest glare he could execute.

Hanbin shot his arms up instantaneously.

“Hey, ok, you’re not doing it. I get it!” he exclaimed, looking extremely suspicious to Junhoe. “So… have some coffee with us after class?”

Of course, they wouldn’t let him go, would they?

“What are you planning?”

The strident brother had the decency to look shocked. “Nothing! It’s just some coffee between long time friends~”

Junhoe eyed his supposed “friend.” “We’ve met less than a year ago,”

“You’re really difficult, huh? Come on, man, do this for our friendship!”

If Junhoe’s level of annoyance with those two could be measured, it would be taller than Mauna Kea and bigger than the Sahara Desert. He had two options now: kill them right there, possibly be charged with homicide, have his entire academic record ruined; or simply ignore them until the end of the world—and that would be, oh, so simple. Okay, so Jinhwan would be really upset if he chose any of those two options, but the list that actually pleased his tiny hyung was as short as himself.

“Fine,” He decided that giving in wouldn’t cost him that much anyway. “You’re paying.”

The dull duo smiled so widely at him that he actually winced at the ugliness of it all.

“You’re the best, dude!” Jiwon had the nerve to hug him. “I love you!”

Junhoe grimaced at the display, he then proceeded to shove him with his index finger—yes, he was that good. “Don’t,”

Jiwon pouted, but was dragged away by a hyper Hanbin before he could say anything. The size of his grin was something that should have given Junhoe a hint that something was on but, sadly, for him, it didn’t. He was certain that he could outsmart the two of them at any time. If only he knew what he was dealing with at that time…

“Ok. I’ll text you the address!” one shouted happily.

“See ya~” the other bid farewell, beaming.

The tall boy rolled his eyes. He entered the classroom and turned his mind off until the professor walked in. Then, he turned his mind half on to listen halfheartedly to what he was being told.

The second his classes were over, Junhoe had an entire plan on his head and it consisted in (1) bankrupting both dumb brothers, (2) laughing at their faces straight away. He never felt so excited about meeting someone in his entire life, not even when Jinhwan said that he had found “two guys that cannot hate you even if you want them to” or when he thought that Yunhyeong would actually take him to an f(x) fan meeting. He would ask for two, scratch that, ten of all the drinks they sold at the place and give to everyone living in 100m² radiuses. Yep, it sounded like a perfect plan. Those two would learn not to annoy him to near death.

The boy walked calmly to the address he barely remembered going to celebrate Yunhyeong’s surprise welcome back party, feeling slightly less annoyed than in the morning—the wonders a couple of hours without bothersome people not talking to him could do. It was a pretty neat and modern cafe if he could recall well; he really liked their cookies when he went there.

He entered the cafe, relatively satisfied that the idiots didn’t choose to sit outside—the sun was too hot for him to stand even for a couple of minutes. The establishment was almost the same, the fairly rustic gray ceiling matching extremely well with the floor that mimicked wood, the various introspective round tables, and comfortable chairs were tracing a large corridor so the waiters could walk freely. There were some metallic balls hanging from the ceiling, it was quite odd that Junhoe liked it. The best thing about that place, the handsome boy decided, was that it was divided into two distinctive “moods”: one, to his left side, was bathed in the sunlight, the other, on his right side, was much darker and sophisticated, full of books, magazines, and spacious chairs. The lively playlist playing in the background made him feel breezy, even though he wasn’t fond on Apink’s type of songs.

“Hey, June, you really came!” the dumbest one shouted the second Junhoe put his feet on the cafe.

Junhoe frowned; Hanbin and Jiwon were seated at the bright side of the café, way in the back. He made his way towards the duo, debating whether trying to get them to move would be worth of his time.

“Who’s June?” the tall boy inquired, not bothering to greet his hyungs. He then proceeded to sit on the chair right beside the window, which was in front of the squeaky one who was beside his other half. The sun wasn’t that bad and he could watch the people outside. “And, yeah, obviously,”

“You’re June~” Jiwon hummed, shooting an eye smile at the tall one. “It’s your new nickname! Don’t you love it?”

Junhoe refrained himself from grimacing, deciding that looking at the busy street through the huge window was better than to bother with those two. “Don’t call me that, I’m not a month.”

“Too bad, June,”

“It’s already settled~”

The younger groaned a little inside. “You guys .”

“We love you too!” he saw from the corner of his eye Jiwon and Hanbin making a heart with their arms; he scoffed.

The boy chose to ignore them, focusing on the neat menu instead. He debated with himself what he wanted to try first as his mouth occasionally made small talk with the two people in front of him. What would he ask for first? He wasn’t really in the mood for hot drinks as the sun was already heated enough.

“So why did you want me to meet you here?” he asked the idiot duo lazily, not bothering to look at them. “What is your plan?”

Maybe an affogato? He hadn’t had ice cream in weeks.

“What plan?” Hanbin sounded innocent, but Junhoe knew better.

“Yeah, why do you doubt us so much?!”

On the other hand, he should ask for a cappuccino first and then see how things went from there…

Junhoe shrugged. “I don’t trust you,”

“You hurt us, June.”

“So so badly,”

That mocha was looking extremely tempting.

“Spill the beans.”

“It’s nothing, man.” Something was fishy; Hanbin was excessively high-pitched even for himself. “We just wanted to gather for some coffee between friends~”

Junhoe looked at them over the menu and cocked an eyebrow.

“Yeah! You can order now, it’s on us, remember?” Jiwon interrupted the younger’s disapproving look with that magic sentence. Junhoe smirked to himself. That was what he was counting on. “We are just waiting for our other friend,”

Red alert.

“What other friend?”

Junhoe knew Hanbin and Jiwon wouldn’t give up that easily, they had that awful habit of being stupidly stubborn, but he was prepared. He wasn’t worried. Nothing could get past his defenses if Jinhwan didn’t. He settled with another dirty look before turning his attention to the menu again. Mocha it was.

“Oh, you know him.” Junhoe didn’t miss the smug tone the dumb one was using; he simply ignored it. “He’ll be here any minute now~”

They settled with a welcomed silence that had Junhoe slightly on the edge but said boy brushed it off by trying to decide whether he would ask for cookies or cake with his drink.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting, hyungs!” a cute hurried voice greeted them, breaking Junhoe’s internal struggle to decide on a simple side dish. “Eunbi held me for a few minutes.”

The tall boy cursed his terrible luck.

It had been a bad move, scratch that, it had been a god-awful move ignoring Hanbin and Jiwon’s tendency to screw up his life in any means possible.

The second Junhoe laid his eyes on the friend those two were waiting for, it was over, he knew he was doomed. His mind stopped working, refusing to acknowledge that the dumb brothers got the only other person that could actually make Junhoe do something against his will. Standing there, in all his innocent and adorable glory, was a high school student named Jung Chanwoo.

Junhoe couldn’t even begin to explain how screwed up he was. Actually, yes, he could. It was simple, simpler than he would like to admit to himself: Goo Junhoe kind of... liked Jung Chanwoo. The Goo Junhoe liked someone who he only saw sporadically; who was one year younger than he himself and was best friends with the three people Junhoe couldn’t stand for more than a couple of minutes. It was cliché, yes, he knew it, but the boy couldn’t help. Chanwoo was just too damn perkily adorable—and, God, how he had a soft spot for cuteness.

From the moment Junhoe set eyes on those cute big cheeks, those babyish lips, those round eyes and those killer dimples, he knew there was no escaping. He wasn’t even thinking about bailing out when Chanwoo turned to him.

“Junhoe-hyung, hi!” the younger boy bowed. There was a sweet but surprised smile on his lips.

The older one ignored his racing heart, choosing to play cool instead. “Hey, kid.”

“I’m just one year younger than you, hyung,” Chanwoo’s quasi-pout almost made him squeak, almost. “I’m not a kid!”

≡

Junhoe stayed. He stayed through all the torture of having to meet Hanbin and Junhoe every day and actually spend some time with them. He stayed through the recordings, bad inside jokes and horrible fashion choices (“Stop trying to make inside-out pants happen, Jiwon. It won’t happen!” “You’re wrong, it’s: ‘Stop trying to make inside-out pants happen, Jiwon. It’s not going to happen!’.” “What…?” “Oh, these poor cultureless bastards…” “Who are you calling a bastard?!” “So you agree.” “Huh?” “You think you are cultureless.” “WHAT THE HELL?!”) because of a single person…

God, it was depressing, Junhoe mused drearily, it only took Chanwoo and a half pout plus his natural cuteness to make Junhoe go through all that torture.

It couldn’t be helped, though, he countered in his mind, Chanwoo was the perfect representation of innocence—he could beat GFriend any day at their “pureness” concept. Therefore, Junhoe couldn’t bring himself to say “no” or do anything to displease the younger; it was like upsetting a part of his own soul.

Okay, now this was getting a little bit out of hand.

No, it was already a lot out of hand. It wasn’t as if Chanwoo was his soul mate or anything, no, God, no; Junhoe didn’t even believe that crap. Saying that antagonizing Chanwoo would trouble his soul was too much—saesang type of too much. What would he do next? Start stalking the poor boy and collect his body fluids? No, Junhoe was not an obsessed kind of lover; he was the laid back, handsome, hot, intelligent, and extremely breathtaking type of suitor. Besides, no Jung Chanwoo would make him change! If anything, Chanwoo should be the one having this internal struggle right now, not him. How outrageous!

“Nervous, princess?” that voice shred Junhoe’s train of thoughts to the ground.

Come on, Junhoe groaned inside, not even fighting the urge to break something in half, which he actually did. Of all people, God had to send him the worst one, right?

The loud crack traveled through the room and heads turned to him. Junhoe came back to reality to notice his poor state. He was red, his handsome face was contorted in somehow arousing scowl, his eyes were burning holes on the mirror, threatening anyone to come near him, and his pale hands, devoid of much-needed blood due to his strong grip, were strangling a broken comb.

Junhoe forced himself to come down. He was in public and a breakdown was the last thing he wanted—wasn’t it enough that he would be ruined by the end of the night?

It was hard, though. His brain was boiling in annoyance. If he could do a list of how many things he hated now, Hanbin and his stupid ideas would probably be at the number one spot, but Junhoe was sure that no one could beat the one and only devil’s spawn, Song Yunhyeong, in a regular day.

Junhoe smirked at the smiling boy behind him. Not today, Satan, not today.

“Shouldn’t you be on the crowd or something, hyung?” he asked in the most impertinent tone he could do, focusing on putting the comb back at its place and calming his breath down.

Junhoe saw as Yunhyeong grinned down at him, much to his growing distaste. It was already hard enough to look at that devil and be reminded that he looked so much like Chanwoo, but having to see him do things the younger, innocent boy wouldn’t possibly do in this life or on the next one was hard to ignore. Damn, Junhoe couldn’t even call him ugly because, well, it would be like calling Chanwoo ugly too, sorta.

“You hurt my feelings, Junie,” Oh, God, not him too. Hanbin’s stupid nickname would not become a thing. “I’m here to cheer on you guys~”

Junhoe rolled his eyes, choosing to grab another comb on the empty dressing table on his left side. “Is that so...?”

He could feel Yunhyeong pouting behind him, even though he wasn’t looking at him. His arms then started strangling Junhoe in what some would call a back hug, but the boy called a disgusting form of torture. “Don’t be mean, dongsaeng~”

“Hands off,” he hissed, jaw clenching as he pushed his hyung away with enough force to send him flying across the stage, which, sadly, didn’t happen. “Don’t touch.”

Yunhyeong grinned again, sitting beside him with a huge pout on his lips, looking all sulky and straight up odious.

“I love you too, Junie~” he blurted docilely, patting the younger’s head and receiving an actual growl in response. “Nice hair, by the way,”

Junhoe nodded halfheartedly, mumbling a lazy “Yeah, I know,” as he brushed his blonde hair methodically. He didn’t actually need to brush his hair as he would have to wear a stocking cap, but he would use anything to have a reason to ignore Yunhyeong.

The boy glanced quickly at the second of the three doors at the back of the room. He sighed. How long would they take to change? It was a simple outfit for God’s sake! Junhoe himself still had to put on his own wardrobe, but he was trying not to trash his public image just yet. God knew how much he hated those revealing clothes…

“Where are the others?” the devil’s son asked coolly, stretching himself and smiling at Junhoe.

“Changing.”

The boy hummed in response before turning to the doors at the back and shouting: “Hey, your favorite person is here! Get out already!”

Junhoe rolled his eyes.

“Yunhyeong-hyung is that you?!” Chanwoo shouted back enthusiastically, sounding like a child receiving a candy.

Yunhyeong smirked. “Who else?”

“Did you bring chocolates and flowers?” Hanbin inquired.

“Yeah, it’s our big debut tonight!” Jiwon yelled.

“Come out and see, kids~”

Junhoe wasn’t sure what was worst: Yunhyeong’s lack of politeness or that the idiots and Chanwoo actually responded in the same tone. God, how much more would he have to suffer before the night was over?

Just before Junhoe could enter in a self-pity spiral again, the three boys got out the dresser. Hanbin and Jiwon were the same as before; they were flashing abs through their open Santa jacket and mesh shirts with dumb smiles, loosened up red shorts were showing their pale legs for the world to see and there was the typical stocking cap to top it all. The dumb bros were the same as when they first tried on their outfits, so Junhoe barely looked at them. His eyes were immediately drawn to only high school student in that entire campus. Oh, boy, what a horrible idea.

The first thing Junhoe did was cover Yunhyeong’s eyes. It didn’t matter that he looked like a lunatic or that Chanwoo was looking at him as if he was crazy, but Yunhyeong wouldn’t see him dressed like that—at the back of his mind, something was telling him that he shouldn’t have to worry about that now, but later, when they would be in front of many, many people.

“What are you doing, June?!” Jiwon asked surprised, being the first one to recover from the shock.

“Yeah, June, what are you doing?” Yunhyeong half hissed, fighting to get Junhoe’s big hands out of his eyes. “Let me see!”

That was backfiring quickly and bad. Damn, he didn’t think when he did it. He just didn’t want Yunhyeong to see (his) Chanwoo as he was now, so… revealed—“y” was not something a high school student should be called, ever. What would be his excuse to get out of that situation…? Of course, why didn’t he think of that before?!

“I’m securing the surprise factor to our audience,” he spoke coolly, really wishing they would buy that lame excuse. “Am I not right, Hanbin-hyung?”

Yunhyeong stopped struggling for a moment, probably caught off hand by his dongsaeng’s statement.

“Really?” he questioned sarcastically; Junhoe grimaced at his tone.

“Absolutely!” the squeaky one agreed right away, seemly happy that Junhoe was taking their presentation seriously.

The main difference between Junhoe and everyone else was that, basically, he could get away with everything if he used his innocent plus big eyes comb. It wouldn’t be any different now, as he did exactly that. He could see the exact moment everyone’s sweat dropped. Fooling fools couldn’t be easier. Chanwoo was still looking at him in a weird way, but he could deal with that later.

Jiwon laughed the last hints of the awkward atmosphere away, walking to Junhoe, and patting his back affectionately. He seemed amused. Chanwoo too chuckled and got closer, eye smiling at Junhoe.

“Our June is so dedicated, right~?” Jiwon teased as he grabbed Junhoe’s cheeks and squeezed them hard, not caring about retaliation, as Junhoe was busy keeping Yunhyeong blind. “Such a cute dongsaeng~”

“But I came all the way here to see you guys,” Yunhyeong countered with a pout, sulking as Junhoe tried to bite Jiwon’s hands off. “So unfair!”

“Don’t worry, hyung, you’ll see us in a couple of minutes!” Hanbin said in what most people would define as “cute,” but Junhoe would rather call it a “frightening” tone. “Now you need to get back to your seat~”

“You wouldn’t want to miss us, right?!”

Junhoe sighed in relief when Hanbin and Jiwon led Yunhyeong out, one less problem to deal now. He turned to a quiet Chanwoo who was kind of staring at him and reddened deeply. Damn, that boy would be the death of him.

“Here, dress this.” he said to the younger, handing him an all-black, full-length coat he brought specifically to that occasion.

Chanwoo raised an eyebrow, a teasing smile on his pink lips. “Why would I~?”

Junhoe shrugged, which was an attempt to look cool and concealed but somehow came out awkward as hell. “So you won’t get cold…?”

An amused smile was all he got. “If you say so,”

He really needed to step up his lying game because he was failing spectacularly today.

 Chanwoo was looking especially dangerous with those clothes. Ok, so they were supposed to enhance some of their features, but putting a minor to do it was too much, even for Hanbin—no matter what anyone else said, if one was not old enough to drink, marry and smoke, one wasn’t an adult at all. He was in high school for God’s sake! He shouldn’t be a part of that at all! Chanwoo was nothing but a cute little baby and cute little babies did not rock the “ty Santa” concept, they rocked the “look at me, I’m the cutest” type of concept.

Junhoe felt a headache growing at the back of his head. He did have that argument with Hanbin and Jiwon right after he officially agreed to participate in that dumb contest, but he couldn’t just accept it. Why would they want to put Chanwoo in such clothes, have him dance to something so… not deemed for his age and, on top of that, in front of a whole bunch of people?!

“Everything’s alright, hyung?” the younger asked in a worried tone, making Junhoe come back from his thoughts. “Want some water or something?”

The tall boy smiled, trying hard not to break another comb. “Yeah, everything’s perfect. I’ll go put my clothes on.”

He grabbed his backpack and hurried to one of the dressers, ignoring whatever Chanwoo was saying to him. He had to keep his mind off the fact that many, many eyes would watch them (and Chanwoo, especially Chanwoo) if he wanted this whole thing to go as smooth as it could.

Yeah, he didn’t have to worry about such things now; it wouldn’t take him anywhere. He had to focus on looking his best and killing everyone on the stage with his awesomeness—and then no one would have to look at his child any longer.

HERE I AM, FOLKS!

I RISE FROM THE DEAD.

I. AM. ALIVE.

It's been such a long time that I don't even know where to begin. My computer broke down, I lost many things [the extra stuff from the “A (quite-one-sided) battle for Chanwoo’s (favorite leader spot) love”, for example] and I had to rewrite this whole thing from the beginning, it was a mess.

Anyway, after almost one whole month, I am back with 5k for you wonderful people! It’s not much after making you wait for such a long time, but I’m confident that you’re all going to like it (I really hope so)!

I was going to do three chapters, but then I thought about it and went with two instead because I would be dragging this if I wrote three chapters. There is a lot of information here because I wanted the next chapter to be as smooth and focused on Chanwoo and Junhoe’s “romance” and the whole dance performance; it may be hard to keep up with it. I tried to tone it down as much as I could (the boy’s outfit, for example, will be described thoroughly next chapter, so this Junhoe’s half-assed description is not the final one). Please do tell if there are parts you don’t get or you couldn’t imagine and I’ll revise it and try to make it clearer! Your feedback is really important!

It will not take a whole other month for the second chapters, I promise. I hope it will be up the next week or so. I’ll rush with it so I can complete this as soon as possible (this was supposed to be a Christmas fanfic for God’s sake!).

I hope you guys liked this chapter, it was tricky to write and it may not be as good as I expect it to be, but I’m counting on you to tell me if it was readable or not. Thank you for waiting for this and being patient and, because you are all amazing, you get the draft of what this would originally be! Have a great week, be happy and have this smiling cutie~

See you next time~

[Next chapter will be up until Wednesday (03/07) with amazing 7k!]

Draft.

All the red and white, the twinkly lights and the sickening Christmas spirit were getting on his last nerves. Junhoe was about to either punch someone—Hanbin’s dumb smile was asking for it—or throw up in the middle of the backstage, there was no in between. His stomach was upside de with own, his eyes were tearing and his hands were sweating nonstop. Why did he agree with that?

“Why the hell didn’t I bail out yet?” Junhoe mumbled to himself, losing all his cool. “I must be insane”

Damn, things weren't supposed to turn out this way. He was          sure he would go through that probably extremely embarrassing experience with his y smile on and an unshakable confidence so he could rub it on the dumb twins’ faces just because he could. Now, he was having second thoughts. Actually, he was having million thoughts. What the actual hell was he doing there? God, his public image would be ruined after this. Why couldn't he just walk away?!

“Don’t worry, hyung” a sweet voice brushed part of his jitteriness away. Chanwoo smiled warmly at him, being his usual cute and charming self. “Everything will work out just fine!”     

Oh, yeah. Junhoe unwillingly swooned a little inside. That.

He was being dumb; he knew that. He should have shut down the dumb twins, Hanbin and Jiwon, when he had the chance and called it a day, but, no, Chanwoo had to be there and mess everything up. There was no way in hell he could turn down or even think about the possibility of disappointing that ball of walking fluff, and he was pretty sure by now that those two knew that.

Damn, he was so screwed.

The tall boy took a better look at the boy beside him. He tried not to gasp. God, when did that outfit became so tight? Chanwoo was just a baby; he shouldn’t be dressed that way! He was pretty sure that the costume they agreed on was way less y, no, daring than that—Junhoe had made an agreement with himself that nothing related to Chanwoo would ever be considered y (at least until he turned 21, that is).

Damned be Hanbin and Jiwon, and their terrible, awful, horrible ideas.

Junhoe fought the urge to sigh and give up on life. He simply tried to smile back at the younger boy and wave him away with a nod. He didn't trust his voice to help him, or even his brain for the matter. All he wanted was to get over with that and go die alone in a mountain.

Chanwoo cheered on him, turned to one of the dumb brothers, and said something to him. Junhoe gulped a little as he eyed wearily all the cleavage the boy was showing, it didn’t help at all that the mesh shirt underneath just added a more seductive feeling than he initially thought it would. He didn't even want to start with how silky and soft his exposed legs were... Goddamn, that kid was really messing up with his mind.

What was going wrong? Who was trying so bad to kill his sanity over and over again? He made sure that their outfits for that stupid dance wouldn't be half as bad, and inappropriate, as Hanbin's original idea of only micro-shorts and a stocking but that was an apparent fail. He had assured himself that he wouldn't feel pressured about that dance but look at him now. He told Jinhwan that, no, he was totally not head over heels Chanwoo but, well...

Couldn't he just give up? He still had time. No one could blame him because he didn't even wan to do that to begin with. He just had to walk away and that was it. It was simple, right?

No, it wasn't simple. Junhoe couldn't move. Not because of some ulterior move like finishing something he started to please his mind, or because he wanted Chanwoo to think highly of him, but because he simply couldn't move at all. He was practically a wreck.

“Breath, Junhoe.” he whispered to himself, trying to regain his composure, “You can do this”

The boy closed his eyes for a second to gather enough courage to face the hundred people on the audience and to not thirst over a minor. He could do that, he was Goo Junhoe after all. Yeah, he would go to jail after that because he would murder that audience with all his appeal. There was no such thing as uneasiness in his dictionary. Goo Junhoe was above all those mundane feelings.

He opened his again, feeling slightly better. The boy breathed in and out and smiled a little. Yeah, he could do that.

Chanwoo looked at him with those big concerned eyes of him. That was all it took. One hell of a look and all the calmness he gathered were turned into dust.

Oh, come on.

Great, now he was a nerve wreck again.

Thanks a lot, Jung Chanwoo.

“Do you need anything, hyung?” he asked with apprehension, “We still have a couple of minutes before it’s our turn. Should I get you some water or—”

Why was Chanwoo always so helpful and cute? Couldn't he see that he wasn't helping at all with that concern of his? He was only making Junhoe more and more aware of their surroundings again.

“I’m fine. Just a little bit nervous.” he cut the younger, letting all the anxiousness he was feeling slide on his tone, “Please, stay.”

Chanwoo nodded even though his face showed that he wasn’t that confident Junhoe was just ‘a little bit’ nervous.

Couldn’t they just get over with it? God, he shouldn’t be suffering that much. Was it because Chanwoo was just so damn handsome and kissable?! Someone, please shoot him.

He shouldn't have agreed with that.

Bad idea.

The worst idea.

He should really get—

“Calm down, June” Hanbin ordered seriously, patting him on the shoulder, “You’re going to ruin everything if you keep on getting worked up.”

Junhoe's left eye twitched. Hanbin always had that awesome ability to point out the obvious, and that was the least thing the tall boy needed to hear on his state. He unconsciously ignored his stupid nickname.

“I am calm,” he hissed, feeling extremely defensive upon hearing the squeaky one, “Just want to get over with this.”

“Whatever makes you sleep at night” Junhoe could almost hear, the scoff explicit on the older's tone.

The fairest of them all ignored his friend and closed his eyes again. He needed to calm the hell down. Now. Taking one, two, three deep breaths before his heart began to slow down, Junhoe decided that he had enough of all that. He totally should get the hell out of there before all the madness could officially start. If only Chanwoo weren’t looking at him like that…

Damn, he was doomed.