Jingle bell time.

Yunhyeong was, at the same time, having the time of his life and perpetually unamused. The conflicted boy stood there, stuck in his chair, torn between laughing his off and scowling at the end of his friends’ dance performance. Of course, he was more inclined toward the “having the time of his life” feeling, but something at the back of his mind told him that he was exaggerating.

The boy clapped and half-heartedly cheered for his friends as they bowed to the audience and rushed out of the stage. He had to let the whole thing sink in before he could say if he enjoyed or not Junhoe’s public image murder.

Someone said something about a fifteen-minute break to let the judges decide the winner, but he was too absorbed in putting a finger on what he was feeling to care.

“I thought you’d be way more excited for this,” the boy heard a curious voice say. He turned to face his hyung, Jinhwan, who was currently holding a camera carefully.

Yunhyeong smiled at the small boy, trying to erase his slight frown. “Hanbin always finds a way to depress me,”

“Poor you,” the older boy patted his shoulder with an ironic half-smirk. “Want to meet them backstage?”

The younger nodded. “Sure. Someone needs to tease Junhoe, after all,”

He saw Jinhwan shake his head in disapproval and laughed lighthearted. The boy knew his short hyung wasn’t fond on his and Junhoe’s “friendly” interactions. He got up from his chair and patted his hyung on the back before they went to meet a smiling Donghyuk and headed to the backstage. He couldn’t wait to see how red Junhoe could get.

As they walked to meet their four friends, Yunhyeong allowed himself to think of the presentation he just saw.

The night started well, he was feeling all types of giddy and smiley. He had been preparing for that moment for a long time, longer than what would be considered “normal.” It was all in the name of having a good laugh at the expense of his dear stuck up friend, he told himself.

It had been a good move having Jinhwan and Donghyuk record his new blackmail material. He proudly patted himself on the back for being such a genius. Because of that, he was allowed to focus solely on the four boys in front of him, dancing and flirting with the audience shamelessly while, at the same time, providing good extortion material.

Oh, no, he would never let Junhoe forget about that. Ever.

Then again, he had to give some credits to Hanbin too. The young boy had done a spectacular job at advertising their part on that dance competition; possibly even Obama was aware of it. It was only because he had been boasting about it that Yunhyeong had prepared himself so diligently, by the way Hanbin talked about their dance, it would be the most amazing thing Earth ever seen.

However, at the same time, the boy also refused to show anyone outside his group a single thing of what they would do—how he had built such anticipation without spoiling anything was beyond Yunhyeong’s understanding. While this was a good a thing, Yunhyeong felt personally attacked, he was the one who practically gave the idea for the whole thing, so not being allowed to know more than other people was outrageous!

Of course, he did try to peek at their outfits earlier that night. If only Junhoe hadn’t thrown a fit of pure jealousy, he would have seen more than just legs and bright red clothes with what he thought were mesh shirts and Jiwon’s abs. It was okay, though, because it did nothing to change his enthusiasm. If anything, it just increased his overall enjoyment of Junhoe’s public image murder—and enjoy it, he did; Junhoe had been so pressed that it was a miracle he hadn’t died.

When a slender young woman with a perky smile started hyping the crowd to the next, and last, dance performance, Yunhyeong remembered that he was practically bouncing in his seat. He was feeling like a kid who entered a toy’s store for the first time. That was how excited he was.

What came next was easily one of the highlights of their performances; Yunhyeong started to be mesmerized by Hanbin’s perfectionism from that point on. The death of Goo Junhoe and his never-ending ego began right there.

“Bobby,” Junhoe’s voice echoed through the speakers, in a slightly y tone that suited him quite well. Yunhyeong gave a good lighthearted laugh remembering that. He was at the edge of his seat at that time, already knowing what to expect next but at the same time, not so sure about it. “Switch sides with Chanwoo.”

“But I’m always on your left,” Jiwon’s fake accent and over-the-topness had Yunhyeong snorting.

“Well, that was when there were three of us,” The older boy deliberated for how long and how much it took to make Junhoe act those lines. Thinking back at Chanwoo, he dared to say that it only took a single glance. “And now the tallest go in the middle,”

 “But the whole dance will be backwards! I’m always on your left.”

“And right now you’re getting on my last nerve,” And there it was, the tone Junhoe used whenever he was really pissed at either him, Jiwon or Hanbin. “Switch.”

“And finally, please welcome to the stage,” The voice, which belonged to the host that had left the stage moments before, announced. Hanbin had sure gone a long way to arrange that whole performance, Yunhyeong mused. “Santa’s helpers doing ‘Jingle Bell Rock’!”

It was just seconds after that, when the spotlights came back and the curtains started opening up and Yunhyeong tried to control his reactions, that he was really caught off guard. What he saw, got him breathless and completely taken back.

At the stage, his three friends and Junhoe stood in the exact original position of the movie’s actresses. Just by listening to the recording, Yunhyeong knew who was playing whom, but seeing them sure got him laughing his lungs out in amusement. He had to make sure to hug and kiss Hanbin the next time he has a chance to talk to him; the dude made sure to reproduce the spirit of “Mean Girls.”

They were all in crew white sock with red touches, wearing loose bright red mid-thigh Santa’s shorts, an opened Santa jacket with a tight mesh shirt underneath and a typical stocking cap. Their makeup accentuating their pink lips and pink cheeks were not missed either.

Jiwon had his shorts inside out, his mesh shirt was his mesh shirt was, without a doubt, the tightest one, outlining really well his toned stomach, and his hair was completely covered by the stocking cap. The smiling bunny boy was almost bending over, both hands on his right knee as his was shooting up; Yunhyeong could practically see the way his muscles contracted. The way he smiled so broadly and his eyes disappeared did help his over-the-top position.

Junhoe seemed totally in character as he displayed a confident, but not arrogant, grin and looked directly at the audience. Yunhyeong could see a hint of deep blue coming from his eyes, but he couldn’t really say that he was wearing contacts because he wasn’t close enough. His outfit, alongside Hanbin’s, was showing just the right amount of skin while covering pretty much all the rest. His mesh shirt was not as tight as Jiwon’s, but it did its work as it teased the boy’s in-development body, his shorts were not outside out and his now platinum hair was being represented by a bang while the rest was covered up by the cap. His right arm was shot up, as a sassy left hand was at his waist. He was stunning, which still wasn’t enough to cover for his awful personality.

Chanwoo was probably the one who suffered the most from Junhoe’s influence in the outfit. His shorts were almost knee-high while his mesh shirt was barely visible in the result of his Santa jacket being buttoned right in the middle. At least, Yunhyeong thought to himself, he was rocking the innocent concept that Junhoe probably saw in him. His dimples were right there as he smiled sweetly at the audience, his cheeks were bright pink, adding a nice touch to his adorableness, and his dark bangs were almost covering his eyebrows. His right arm was resting on his left shoulder as his left hand was at his waist.

Hanbin was probably the one who was the most normal in the group; he was portraying his character perfectly by being handsome but forgettable. He too was covering his hair with the stocking cap, wore inside out shorts and his mesh shirt was just as tight as Jiwon’s. The only problem, it seemed, was that he was being outshined by the other three, but, again, it was what happened in the movie so he was probably just taking his acting to the core.

Yunhyeong was sure, now that he was thinking things through, that everyone had a say in their clothes—if one excluded Chanwoo, of course. Junhoe’s influence was definitely the most screaming one: there was no way Hanbin and Jiwon would have so much skin not showing up. Yunhyeong was right when he guessed that the mesh shirts would be used for something else, as they didn’t really fit the outfits at all.

The cheers and whistles just got louder as Jiwon got out of his position and tiptoed exaggeratedly to the edge of the front of the stage where a 90s radio was placed. He winked at the audience as he “ily” bent over to “start” the song. Yunhyeong laughed his off as the bunny boy blew a kiss to the audience as he clumsily ran back to position.

This was going to be good, he thought back then.

And, oh, boy, he said to himself now, good it was.

Yunhyeong was given the best blackmail material on Earth as the four boys on the stage started to sway “ily” to the happy beat. Bobby Helms started singing and they began their dance.

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock

Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring

Snowing and blowing up bushels of fun

Now the jingle hop has begun

From there, a part of him said, it was when things started slowly going downhill.

Now, some would call Yunhyeong a nitpicking bastard because, well, he was. However, it wasn’t his fault that Hanbin promised the best Mean Girls’ Jingle Bell Rock dance cover. Also, the hype got the best of him and he couldn’t stop himself from wanting the best.

Okay, it wasn’t as if the whole dance performance was horrible or anything as that, but, for a fussy person such as Yunhyeong, it wasn’t what Hanbin said it would be either.

Everything was nearly perfect, their dance was hilarious, on-point, and 110% on synch and everyone was kind of living up for the characters they portrayed. Chanwoo was just the perfect mix of cuteness and quirkiness and his natural stage presence made up for his rather covered up body. Junhoe was the perfect Regina George: y, overconfident, and straight up odiously lovable. In addition, he was looking so good that Yunhyeong almost forgot about his awful personality. The costumes were on point, even though he was sure that there wasn’t enough skin being shown.

There were also several parts worth mentioning. The tight slap part, the part where Junhoe pushed Jiwon in irritation, Jiwon in himself, the part awkward silence before Chanwoo started singing and, most of all, Chanwoo singing were all the highlights of their performance.

The tight slap part was particularly funny because each one of them made a different “y” face that had the entire auditorium burst out laughing. Jiwon bit his lips exaggeratedly; Hanbin both his lips as slowly as the situation allowed him to; Chanwoo made a surprised expression as if he was just caught in the act, gasping a little and widening his eyes before blinking; and Junhoe was, well, regular Junhoe.

Then there was what Yunhyeong considered the of their dance. If Yunhyeong hadn’t known Junhoe better, he would have guessed that their acting was nothing but perfection, but Yunhyeong knew Junhoe. The boy guessed it was because Junhoe was just as annoyed as Regina had been on the movie because he didn’t even blink before he nonchalantly shoved Jiwon to the other side when said boy got the move wrong and collided with the blond one. Jiwon then exaggerated his moves, as always, and ended up kicking the 90s stereo off the stage.

Yunhyeong giggled when he remembered that part. It was funny exactly because Junhoe wasn’t acting at all, he probably liked what he was doing, and because Jiwon knew what comedy timing was. If it had been any other people in the shoes of those two, it would just feel staged.

The awkward silence that filled the stage and made everyone feel on the edge of their seats was the time to let Jiwon shine. He acted carelessly, in the right farfetched way, and it never crossed the cringe-y line—unlike some other person in his team. His expressions were dead on and his interactions with both his teammates and the audience were Oscar worthy.

Following that, Yunhyeong’s eyes were on Chanwoo. It was on him to deliver properly and lip-sync for his life. Just as he thought, his best friend was nothing but amazing as his body language and overall presence carried the rest of the performance. He was speechless, surprised, panicked, and awkward, all at the same time. Yunhyeong seriously didn’t know his best friend was such a good actor.

When Chanwoo started “singing” was as if the whole world had been blessed. His raw and untrained voice wasn’t awkward sounding at all, he sounded quite lovely. Yunhyeong didn’t miss the infatuated glance that Junhoe shot his friend.

As they finished their dance flawlessly, Yunhyeong was already cheering and clapping like a maniac. Hanbin had made sure to push his team to give the best performance of the night while providing good extort material.

If they had finished there, the boy thought a little bitterly, it would have been perfect. Of course, knowing Hanbin, they just couldn’t end on a nice note. Oh, no, the boy always found a way to turn Yunhyeong down in the slightest of the ways.

The crowd was already at their feet, whistling, cheering, screaming, and clapping, as the light died and they rushed out of the stage. However, it (sadly) didn’t end up there. Dubstep was soon heard and, after what Yunhyeong thought were 30 seconds, the lights slowly came back again, this time only Hanbin and Jiwon were on the stage. The two had inside-out black leather pants, no stocking caps, or Santa jackets to be seen. It was simply inside-out pants and mesh shirts covering their bodies.

Yunhyeong had a bad feeling at that time, and how he wanted to be wrong about it.

Things started getting sour the moment those two began dancing to a damned dubstep remix of “Jingle Bell Rock”. Now, who the hell would put dubstep in a Christmas song? Those two things did not work at all. Who the hell would still use dubstep in 2015?!

Yunhyeong thought the urge to slap his face out of pure frustration. It wasn’t that their dance was horrendous, they were very good dancers, but it was just because it was so predictable to anyone who knew those two. There was hip s, abs exposure, ual movements and that made Yunhyeong roll his at every second those two stayed on the stage—yes, he rolled his eyes throughout their whole two-minute performance.

He should have guessed that Hanbin and Jiwon just couldn’t fight their need to flash their abs at every given second.

The boy sighed, fighting the urge to get even more turned down. He could have overlooked how Junhoe kept winking and smirking at random places and looking much more arrogant than he should. He could have ignored how Hanbin was trying excessively hard to be funny that it was almost uncomfortable. Hell, he could have ignored all the other minor details his brain computed if Hanbin and Jiwon had not made that final act.

“You look so disappointed, it’s depressing,” Donghyuk commented with a raised eyebrow.

Yunhyeong pouted. “Blame Hanbin for it,”

“I thought their dance was cool,” Jinhwan said sheepishly.

“Of course you did,” Donghyuk snorted, “You have the hugest for Hanbin.”

In Jinhwan’s defense, he did not blush. However, his voice did go higher when he screeched a glass shattering “YA!” that had both Yunhyeong and Donghyuk laughing aloud.

As his hyung and his dongsaeng kept on bickering about whether Jinhwan love interests were that obvious or not, they successfully cheered Yunhyeong enough to make him look at the bright side of the situation. Yes, Hanbin and Jiwon screwed up with their, oh, so predictable dance, but Junhoe would be still dying of embarrassment at the end of the day.

He could even picture: Junhoe was red now, suffocating in shame and bitter attitude while Hanbin and Jiwon would be laughing their off and Chanwoo would be still be pretending to be the most innocent person that mankind ever saw.

Even if those two had somehow soured his blackmail, it didn’t truly matter. Who would even think that the almighty, fairest of them all, Goo Junhoe would ever do such something like that?

And to think that everyone thought he was going to lay low after Donghyuk’s birthday party… Yunhyeong thought diabolically, laughing loudly without a care in the world. He must be dying inside from embarrassment.

What a great time to be alive!

Yunhyeong lived for those precious times where his friends would embarrass themselves to death.

Oh, sweet Jesus, how blessed he felt right now. It was like Christmas all over again—only better, funnier and with more blackmail material involved. Junhoe was on the palm of his hand now.

≡

Junhoe had no time whatsoever to think about what he went through or about what he did when he rushed out of the stage. Instead, he made sure to help Jiwon put his tight, fancy, black leather pants on and take off his stocking cap and his Santa jacket. The hyper bunny boy smiled thankfully before he went back to the stage to finish his dance performance with Hanbin.

He couldn’t help but roll his eyes. It was very pointless, in his point of view, to have Hanbin and Jiwon dancing to a remix of “Jingle Bell Rock” and very predictable too. If anything, the judges would only question why he and Chanwoo weren’t there dancing with them. However, it wasn’t as if Junhoe would point that out, he had enough of dancing for the rest of his life, thank you very much.

The blond boy glanced over Chanwoo, who was happily watching their hyungs dance “ily”—Junhoe seriously couldn’t stop himself from snorting every time that word was linked to the dumb idiots.

“You okay?” he asked, getting closer to be heard properly.

They were currently at the green room, which was situated beside the right side of the stage, waiting for Hanbin and Jiwon’s part be over so the four of them could bow to the audience and exit to the green room. Chanwoo was carefully peeking from a half-opened door.

“Never felt better!” he answered enthusiastically, bouncing, and all. His huge smile made Junhoe instantaneously melt inside. “We were so cool back there, right, hyung?”

The blond boy wanted to argue that the only think cool back there was Chanwoo, but he just couldn’t argue with the younger one. Therefore, he simply nodded and forced his lips to reproduce a somewhat cool smile.

Chanwoo grinned cutely, showing his dimples, and Junhoe found out that he just couldn’t help but smile truthfully at him too. His features softened at the spot.

As the younger one turned his attention back to the dance of the other two, the blond one took that time to properly breathe and let all the information he been ignoring sink in.

The actual performance wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. The spotlights blinded him to no end, he had to stay in character otherwise, Hanbin would eat him alive and, well, the music was so loud that, after it started playing, he couldn’t hear anything else. Now that he thought of it, the rehearsals were as horrible as he remembered because two simple factor (1) Chanwoo’s overall adorableness, and (2) Hanbin’s crazy perfectionism. There were also Jiwon’s awful jokes, but he simply ignored those, so it wasn’t that much of an issue.

Yeah, their rehearsals were always so dragged because Hanbin just couldn’t be a regular person and accept that Junhoe and Chanwoo weren’t “exceptional” dancers as him and Jiwon. The boy had made an exhausting dance routine for them from day one, which was by far the worst day. On top of that, Chanwoo’s entire existence couldn’t give Junhoe a damn break. The younger one was just so charming that Junhoe caught himself, more than a couple of times, staring at him.

Thinking of Chanwoo, Junhoe’s eyes unconsciously focused on the boy in front of him, eyes so innocently concentrated at their hyungs’ dance. It felt quite a cliché, if the blond boy was honest with him, that he was so infatuated with the younger one to see no wrong in him. He obviously knew everyone had their fair share of imperfections, but with Chanwoo… it was as if he wasn’t human, putting in simple words. In Junhoe’s mind, the boy couldn’t do something that could be classified as “bad” in his book, no, that would go against everything Junhoe’s mind projected on the boy.

Maybe, just maybe, a small part of him remarked, he should try to get to know Chanwoo rather than build an idealized version of him. He was quick to dismiss such a thought. He was fine as things were, he didn’t need to worry about trying to win over Chanwoo because he was fine, period.

Ignoring his racing heart as he thought about the possibilities if he were dating the younger, Junhoe tried to come down. He blamed all those… bustling… feelings on the rushing adrenaline in his veins.

Yeah, he was right. It was because he was feeling so energized from his performance. He needed to calm down, let the adrenaline get out of his body so he can finally start thinking right. For example, he should be thinking about what he would do to prevent all the consequences of his actions that night instead of—

Dear God, he was so screwed.

Why the hell was he thinking about Chanwoo when he should be planning on how to escape Yunhyeong and all his bad intentions?! What was wrong with him?! He could already picture all his friends teasing him to the core of hell and back, Yunhyeong in especial. No one would let him live for the rest of his life!

What had he done?! Why did he accept that?! Some real brainwashing happened because he wouldn’t have done something so outrageous even if the president were willing to dedicate a holiday in his name!

He was so dead.

Before he could start sulk over his dead public image, Chanwoo grabbed his hand before they rushed back to the stage.

Junhoe was blinded again by the strong spotlight, but, this time, he could hear the crowd. The boy looked at the other three and they bowed to the audience, exiting shortly after. His heart was still racing from being at the stage once more.

Away from all that and close to the dumb bros again, however, his mood sank faster than the Titanic. Soon enough, just after he entered the Green room, he was sulking. He didn’t even pay attention to the countless pair of eyes glancing at them and the annoying voices talking among themselves; he was too busy feeling sorry for him. Nevertheless, he did find time to accio an all-black, full-length coat he brought especially for Chanwoo—no one was allowed to see his innocent body more than necessary. Of course, Chanwoo did fight against it, but Junhoe could be really persuasive when he wanted.

As he blatantly ignored any attempts Jiwon make in trying to lift up the overall mood of the room, Junhoe thought about fleeing the country. It would be tricky and he needed some money, but it wouldn’t be that hard. Where could he go? The Bahamas seemed like a good place or even Hong Kong. Okay, so he didn’t know Chinese, or where The Bahamas was, but he could work it out, anything to stay as far away as possible from Yunhyeong and Donghyuk. Hell, even Jinhwan himself would tease Junhoe when given the chance! God, he was surrounded by unreliable people.

His brooding/plans to flee the country was suddenly crashed when two people, in particular, made sure to screw with his life even more. They just couldn’t wait, could they? He asked himself bitterly, a bad taste in his mouth as a loud Donghyuk, a smirking, smug Yunhyeong, and an annoyed Jinhwan entered the green room. Junhoe couldn’t figure out how they managed to do that, he was sure that only authorized people were allowed there, but he didn’t want to argue with logic at that moment.

“Hey, there, Santa’s helpers!” Donghyuk greeted in an irreverent grin.

“You guys were awesome!” Jinhwan cheered with a happy smile.

Each one of them was holding a very expensive-looking camera carefully. Junhoe was sure that the recording of his shameful act was there. Now, if only he could put his hands on those cameras and “mysteriously” get them gone, his life would be simpler.

“Like, totally,” Donghyuk mimicked the perfect spoiled rich girl, getting some laughs from the group. “You guys, like, rock. Like, literally.”

“Duh, tots,” The dumber of the bros rolled his eyes in an exaggerated motion, putting a hand on his chest dramatically. “We are, like, the new deal or something,”

Junhoe could only scowl at their behavior. Of course, Chanwoo, as the good, innocent child he was, only laughed at the whole thing. He caught himself thinking that he couldn’t have his future boyfriend acting like those morons.

Trying to erase that train of thought, the blond boy grimaced at nothing, trying to think of ways to disappear.

“Aren’t we in such a bad mood?” Of course, the demon’s child was talking directly to him. Junhoe suppressed a sudden urge to die or punch someone very hard. “Why so moody, Junie~?”

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he simply allowed himself to kick Yunhyeong right in the face. He would be doing the world a favor.

However, Junhoe was a civilized person, and civilized people knew better than to start useless fights, even thought he would be totally right if he did. Looking at the demon right in his eyes and forcing a smile, Junhoe turned the other cheek. He would be the better person he knew he was.

“I’m not moody, hyung,” he stated simply, clinching his teeth.

Yunhyeong snorted. “Sorry, hyungs forgets sometimes. What you have is PMS, right?”

“It’s okay, hyung,” Junhoe felt his eyes twitching. He tried to keep calm. “Old people tend to forget things easily. It’s not your fault.”

Both boys shared a poisonous smirk as the tension between them thickened.

Yunhyeong, however, had the upper hand. “It’s good to know that you’re in a good mood, Junie. We wouldn’t want you so depressed after that amazing performance, right~? Don’t worry; I recorded everything so we won’t ever forget about it!”

Junhoe’s mind imagined various scenarios right now and, not so surprisingly, all of them ended up with Yunhyeong dead or in a coma state. It wasn’t that Junhoe was a violent person; it was more as he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to kick his hyung repeatedly. It was a good thing he had such a good grip over his instincts.

Probably sensing his dongsaeng distraught, the hyung beamed at him before turning to his best friend and hugging him for everyone to see. Junhoe could have broken the chair if its arms weren’t made of metal.

This damned idiot, the boy tried to keep his cussing PG-13, he wouldn’t lose his cool, not for Yunhyeong, at least.

“Try not to explode, Junhoe-ah,” the blond boy heard his only friend’s voice say in a lighthearted tone.

“You are a horrible friend,” Junhoe remarked, looking with disgust at the camera Jinhwan was holding. “You know that, right?”

His hyung laughed in his face, patting the both his shoulders as if Junhoe wouldn’t flip him away. He then grabbed both his cheeks and proceeded to make the blond boy bed for mercy—Jinhwan’s strong grip along with the camera smashing his face were just too much for the poor boy.

“And you,” Jinhwan stuck his tongue out, jokingly punching Junhoe in the face. “Are just too serious for your own good,”

Sometimes the blond boy just couldn’t believe the nerves of his small friend. “I hate you,” He massaged his poor, now tainted red, cheeks.

“Of course you do.”

Because his life couldn’t more more, the older one sat right beside him to discuss the last thing Junhoe wanted to think about. His eyes were filled with a dangerous curiosity the blond boy learned to avoid at all costs.

“So,” he started. His tone was a couple of tones lower as if they were telling the biggest of the secrets. “How are things?”

“Things…?”

Jinhwan rolled his eyes, pointing at Chanwoo with his head. “Yeah, things,”

The blond one sat straight in his chair, covering his hyung’s face with his body from whoever (Yunhyeong) wanted to peek (Yunhyeong) at their conversation (Yunhyeong). His widened eyes and warning expression weren’t enough to make Jinhwan change the subject.

“There is no thing, hyung,” he hissed, his voice barely a whisper. “Are you crazy?”

“You are way too tense about his, Jun. Relax,”

Junhoe grimaced. “You are crazy.”

Jinhwan rolled his eyes again, leaning back in his chair and just enjoying his dongsaeng anxious behavior. “So this means you just cowered, again,”

To his defense, the blond boy would argue back that, no, he was not able of doing such a thing as “cowering.” If anything, he didn’t even know the meaning of that word because he did not do such a thing. However, his hyung’s next words just stuck to deep with him.

“I just wanted to warn you that, if you don’t make a move soon enough,” he warned with a serious tone, “Someone will. Chanwoo is probably the most popular kid in the sandbox right now.”

Junhoe wanted to ask what he meant by time just for the sake of it, but he knew too well what those words what Jinhwan was telling him. It was just as he feared. Despite his attempts, there were still ert eyes on his angelic boy.

The blond one cursed in his mind, biting his lips in frustration. God dammit, when all he wanted was to make his moves slowly, and smoothly, things had to turn south.

Now he had to deal with that mess as well.

Great, just great!

“Well, we’ll be going now,” Jinhwan announced, as he practically dragged both Yunhyeong and Donghyuk away. “Good luck, guys!”

Junhoe and the rest of the group waved to their hyungs. The blond had a quasi-pout on his lips. It was just Jinhwan’s style to drop the bomb and run away afterward.

“We know we will win!” Jiwon and Hanbin shouted at the same time, earning many glares from the other people in the room.

The handsome boy was left with little to no time to think things through; they announced that everyone should get back to their seats because the judges reached an agreement. Then, a couple of people directed everyone from the green room to the stage again. In that time, Junhoe had approximately less than 5 minutes to think about what he would do. He just wouldn’t let anyone else ask Chanwoo out, no, that wouldn’t do.

Okay, so he had to ask the younger boy out… how? It wasn’t as if they knew each other very well. Hell, it wasn’t as if they even talked with each or saw each other without their friends around! They were rather awkward together; there were this uncomfortable silence and a shortage of good small talk.

What a disaster.

As everyone got into their positions and the host of the event started talking, Junhoe grew incredibly and impatient. He didn’t even care about that stupid award. He just wanted to talk with Chanwoo and possibly try to work things out!

Why was God so good at tormenting him?!

Oblivious to him, everyone around the blond boy was growing just as restless. They could sense Junhoe’s mood worsening by the second and couldn’t help but get away from the boy. Hanbin elbowed Chanwoo, who was the one beside the temperamental lad, and threw him a warning look.

“Are you okay, hyung?” the young one asked sheepishly, almost as if fearing the response.

Junhoe’s body instantaneously relaxed and his mood brightened up a little. He turned to the boy with a small, nervous smile on his lips.

“Just nervous, I guess,” he mumbled lowly.

Chanwoo gave him a sympathetic smile. “It’s okay, hyung. We all are.”

It was only when the boy offered his hand, which was so soft and warmer than Junhoe’s, was that the blond boy gathered enough courage to not think about anything anymore. He would have to act now.

“Hey, Chanwoo,” he got closer to the younger, whispering in his ear.

The young one shifted on his feet. “What is it, hyung?”

Junhoe breathed in slowly, trying so hard to pronounce his next words as best as he could. “Do you, huh, want to go out sometime?”

It was almost some sort of reflect that his grip tightened around Chanwoo’s hand. He was confident in his looks, skills and personality to make anyone fall in love with him, but Chanwoo was a completely different case. He just couldn’t know with the boy.

“Sure,” was all that Junhoe could hear through his building anxiousness.

“Cool,” his mouth let out some seconds after.

Junhoe blinked. His mind had yet to process the whole scenario. Chanwoo said… yes? The boy felt like he was robbed of something. It should be harder, something inside him protested, he should have moved mountains to deserve that date!

He peeked at Chanwoo’s serene expression; he dared to say pleased look. It didn’t seem like he misunderstood Junhoe’s request but one couldn’t be too sure.

“It’s a date, though,” he tried to say in his most cool, collected way.

Chanwoo snorted, apparently amused by something Junhoe couldn’t understand. “I know, hyung,”

“Hm,”

There was something wrong about that whole thing. It was just too easy.

Just when he thought Chanwoo couldn’t throw him off the boat anymore, the young boy’s next words totally crushed Junhoe’s soul. “Took you long enough, I almost thought you wouldn’t ask!”

That was not what innocent, cute little Chanwoo should say. Take a thousand steps back, boy, and get back to your pure self.

“Wha?”

“What about lunch?” he went on, ignoring the blond boy’s fight for his sanity. “There’s this new restaurant I want to try—”

“Wait, what?” Junhoe could whisper, his urgent tone made Chanwoo frown. “Are we actually going out?!”

“Why? Don’t you want?”

Junhoe’s eyes widened. “No. NO. I mean, yes. Wait. No…? Urgh!” Junhoe fought the urge to face-slap himself. “Forget it.”

Chanwoo seemed confused, and it wasn’t as if anybody could blame him.

“So are we going out or…?”

“Definitely!”

“Cool,”

What can I say now? FINALLY! Oh my God, I’ve never been happier when I finished any of my fanfics. It feels likes tons of weights were just lifted from my poor shoulders!

I don’t feel entirely confident about the first part of this, so please tell me if you liked. I’ll probably edit it later (much, much later) because Yunhyeong’s part is just too much information at once.

About the second part, it was SO much easier to write because I just let it flow and write itself. Junhoe and Chanwoo isn’t a couple I’m used to write (in fact, I don’t write any iKON pairings at all) so I’m not sure about their interactions. Because of that, I tried a different approach where Junhoe has this perfect image of Chanwoo in his head and then he just struggled through it to ask our baby Chanu out.

It’s been a pleasure to write this to you, I wouldn’t have made it without your support and I can’t thank you enough for that. Thank you for reading, subscribing, keeping up with my delays and everything else. Thank you so so much! Please do comment about what this chapter because feedback is always important!

Thank you for staying with me through all this madness and, hopefully, see you at my other fanfictions~

Have a baby Chanwoo as a thank you gift and a bonus scene!

 Bonus scene.

“Are you actually blushing?! I’m so telling everyone!”

Junhoe couldn’t help but growl, frown, and try to kick Jiwon out of the world. He was stopped by the amused boy holding his hard beside him, who just smiled cutely at him with those awesome dimples and made him behave.

However, that didn’t stop him from sending a threatening glare at the smiling idiot. “Shut up, Jiwon.”

Of course, when one was, there was the other. Therefore, Hanbin smirked at Junhoe with that ugly face of him and elbowed the irritable boy.

“Or is it because of something else—something involving our maknae over here?”

“Shut it, Hanbin.”

He would totally burn them to death. It would be the next thing he would do next morning. The blond boy tried to cover the growing blush taunting his cheeks and neck. Damn, these two…

Jiwon burst out laughing, pointing at Junhoe nonchalantly. “He is blushing!”

Couldn’t they just die?!

“That’s so inside-out pants!”