“Hello everyone!” Jonghyun greeted the room. He looked to his left to where Eunji was sitting and smiled at her. She still looked perfect though she had removed her veil, leaving her hair to flow in loose curls down her back. However, the rest of her outfit remained the same as it had during the ceremony.

“So, I’m the maid of honour,” He continued, eliciting a chuckle from the assembled reception guests. The large hall contained over a hundred of the happy couple’s closest friends and relatives. Each round table contained five or six people and were overlooked by the head table at the front of the hall. The couple, their parents and their best man – a stoic looking man who was a close friend of Youngho, apparently – as well as Jonghyun were seated. From his chair, to the right of the bride, Jonghyun could see everyone and, honestly, it was a little intimidating. Thankfully, Onew, from the table he shared with Jiwoong, Sodam and some of Eunji’s less easily offended relatives, was looking at him in support. It allowed Jonghyun to continue talking to the room without stuttering or freezing from embarrassment.

“I realise the maid of honour is usually a woman and clearly I am not that,” This once again resulted in a ripple of laughter around the room. A yell of ‘are you sure?’ from Jiwoong as the laughs started to peter off restarted them once again. “Clearly,” Jonghyun emphasised, shooting a pointed look at his old roommate, “I am not a woman. I do appreciate Eunji choosing me for this job though.” Jonghyun stuck his tongue out at the bride as she kicked him under the table. “Now, many of you may not know me. My name is Kim Jonghyun and I first met Eunji when she was a dorky literature student in her first year at university.”

“Says the teacher’s pet.” Enuji snipped, crossing her arms. “I regret asking you to give a speech now.”

“You love me really.” Jonghyun countered. “I met Eunji when she was nothing more than a broke student. Even then, her love for Youngho was obvious. He’d always wait until her classes were done and take her for coffee or a meal and she would always prepare these cute little cupcakes and not let any of us have any, because they were for Youngho. Honestly,” Jonghyun said conspiratorially, pretending to whisper to the rest of the room, “I was totally jealous. I was painfully single at the time and these two were the perfect couple. It was sickening and beautiful at the same time.”

“Aww, sweetie.” Eunji said, patting Jonghyun’s leg in comfort. As she was sitting and the blonde man was standing, it was all she could reach.

Jonghyun smiled at her and absently noticed the woman’s mother wiping her eyes at the end of the table. He hadn’t even brought out the big guns and he was already having an effect on the audience. That definitely gave him confidence. “Then, a year and a half into university, we all decided it was time to move out of our parents’ houses and strike out on our own. Which, considering I ended up living with Jiwoong, might have been a mistake.”

“Oy!” A yell sounded from the gathered crowd.

Jonghyun shot a heart sign with his hands at the artist and continued speaking like there hadn’t been any interruption. “However, I also ended up living next door to Eunji. Don’t look at me like that,” He admonished, “nothing happened. She wouldn’t even look at me, not when she had this hunk at her back and call,” He gestured at Youngho who, to be honest, was a very attractive man. “Not that anything bad happened there either!” He quickly defended, seeing the worried look his friend was shooting him. “Damn gentleman this one. He was always out of the house and heading home by ten, he wouldn’t let anything happen before they were married, even if Eunji wanted it.” The blonde winked obnoxiously at the girl prompting her to huff in false annoyance. From years of friendship, Jonghyun could tell the girl wasn’t actually angry. When she was truly angry, her eyebrows furrowed in a very particular way, resulting in a wrinkle forming in the centre of her forehead and right now her skin was as smooth and unblemished as ever. Chuckling he continued talking, “These two have been the centre of many bets among our friends.” Eunji looked at the composer strangely, unaware of the bets he was speaking of. “I won by the way, Jiwoong, Sodam, you owe me my money. We’ve known they’ll get married for years and years so that wasn’t even worth betting on. We bet about when the wedding would be. Jiwoong, over there, thought they would get hitched right after graduation. Sodam thought it would be once they both got stable jobs. Jinki and I both chose the same option, we both believed they would wait until they were fully financially stable and could afford a house together. And that is exactly what happened. I can see it now,” Jognhyun said, wiping a fake tear from his eye, “they get back from their honeymoon, they move into a new house – two bedrooms, two bathrooms, on the outskirts of Seoul, near a good school and a farmer’s market – they start a family with multiple little Eunjis and Younghos. It’s beautiful.”

“You’re a dork.” Eunji muttered. The wetness in her voice betrayed how accurate Jonghyun’s prediction was, however.

“So, I’ll stop talking because I am sure you are all hungry. I definitely am.” Jognhyun said, chuckling at Eunji’s sigh of relief as she realised he hadn’t said anything embarrassing or incriminating at all. “I would like to raise a toast to the couple, Youngho and Eunji. The most perfect couple I have ever seen.”

As Jonghyun got himself settled into his seat and the food began to be served, Eunji leant over to her friend and embraced him gently, “Thank you for that. It was perfect.”

“I’m glad.” Jognhyun said, softly, “Considering I winged it.” He winced as the woman’s hand impacted the back of his head in an admonishing slap. “Oww, come on! You just said it was perfect.”

“Could have been more perfect if you planned it in advance.”

“Yeah, yeah, eat your food, woman.” Jonghyun shrugged.

“Don’t be rude to my wife.” Youngho commented, leaning over to look at the composer.

Jonghyun chuckled, hearing the pride in the man’s voice at being able to address the woman as his wife. “Can you pass the potatoes please?"

 -

Jonghyun wanted to dance. He fully intended to dance. He was an awesome dancer and the room as a whole deserved to see him dance.

He was going to go do it.

Pushing himself up from his chair, the blonde made his way towards the dance floor. He didn’t even stumble or fall over or anything on the way. Honest.

Grinning, he made his way towards Onew, Sodam and Jiwoong who were casually chatting near the DJ. The idol had sat Jonghyun down in a chair on one side of the hall around ten minutes previous and told him to stay there whilst he went to grab him some water. Apparently Jonghyun needed some time to relax and sober up or something. Jonghyun thought that was ridiculous. However, he went along with it for a while – only partially because it helped make his head stop spinning. Onew had apparently forgotten the water however, or maybe Jonghyun imagined that part of the conversation, as he was nowhere near the bar.

Looking up, Onew looked surprised to see Jonghyun approaching him, “Jjong, I thought you were resting.”

“Why would I need to rest?” Jonghyun asked, scratching his head in confusion, “I see no reason why I need to rest. I need to dance. Dance with me, Jinks.” He exclaimed, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand and trying to pull him towards the sparsely populated dance floor.

“I… Jjong, come on. We can’t dance.” Onew protested, grounding his feet and stopping the blonde in his tracks.

“I always forget he’s such a bad drinker.” Jiwoong commented, rolling his eyes at the singer. “Come on Jjong, I’ll dance with you.”

Jonghyun’s eyes lit up and he grinned happily. Letting go of Onew’s hand he instantly grabbed the artist’s instead and jumped once in place, pulling the eccentric man with him. “Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.”

“I’ll be back,” Jiwoong said to Sodam and Onew. The artist was staying sober this evening; Sodam was unable to drive and hence Jiwoong was her designated driver. Onew was staying sober for the same reason and the two men were commiserating together.

Sodam, who was much better at modulating her alcohol intake, chuckled and waved mockingly. “Have fun, boys.”

Jonghyun pulled his sister’s boyfriend onto the dance floor and maneuvered the pair of them into the middle of the gathered family members. Placing his hands on the artist’s waist, Jonghyun ignored the strange looks a man he assumed to be Youngho’s grandfather was shooting them and started to sway his hips in time to the music.

“This song has a terrible melody.” He commented idly, pushing against Jiwoong’s hip to force him to start moving.

The artist grudgingly started to move along with his friend. Honestly, he acted annoyed by this but he didn’t mind hanging out with Jonghyun, even when he was drunk. He hadn’t had much time to hang out with the composer ever since the two men had gone their separate ways and stopped living together. He sort of missed their roommate days.

“I’m sure it does, Jjong.”

“It does,” Jonghyun said, starting to explain exactly why the melody was appalling. It made it a little difficult to dance, as evidence by his multiple stumbles and flails to stay upright, but he was willing to endure any hardships in order to explain the true horror that was the current song.

Onew watched from the side of the dance floor as his boyfriend tripped over his own feet as he attempted to dance. He appeared to be lecturing a very bored looking Jiwoong about something or other. Turning to Sodam he went to speak when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. Turning round confused, he smiled softly when he spotted the teenage usher from the church.

“Hi,” He greeted.

She looked at him with wide eyes and appeared to be struggling to think of what to say. Sodam snorted from behind the idol and Onew shot her an admonishing look.

“My name’s Jinki, what’s yours?” He asked, resorting to talking to her as he spoke to nervous fans at fan sign events.

“J- Jimin.” The girl stuttered. “Are you really Onew from SHINee?”

“Depends who’s asking.” Sodam chuckled.

“I’m Eunji’s cousin.” The girl said, looking nervous and like the girl would honestly send her away if she said something wrong.

“Sodam, don’t be mean.” The idol shushed her once more. “It’s nice to meet you Jimin. You have a very pretty name.”

“T-thank you.” The girl stuttered. “Can I, could you…” she trailed off, fiddling with the edge of her sparkly party dress nervously, “Could I have your autograph, maybe?”

“Of course,” Onew grinned, “do you have paper?” As he spoke the girl a notebook and a pen towards him, blushing heavily. Taking the thin book, he opened it to a blank page and scribbled out a quick note along with an autograph for the nervous looking girl.

“Thank you.” She said, looking like she was going to explode with excitement and implode with embarrassment simultaneously. It was an interesting look and more than a little amusing. Sodam especially found the girl’s conflicted facial expression funny and burst into a fit of giggles behind her brother’s boyfriend. Looking at the amused woman in worry, the teenager looked back at her favourite idol and spoke once more, “How do you know- Why are you here?”

Onew chuckled at the girl’s blunt question. “I’m friends with the couple,” he explained.

A strange expression stole across the girl’s face. “Eunji never told me.”

“She respects my privacy.” Onew said softly. He was a little surprised the woman had never mentioned him to her family. He had never explicitly told the group that they had to keep being his friend quiet. He knew Sodam usually did, in part because few people would believe her if she had claimed that fact but he had assumed the others had been less discreet.

“I guess that’s true.” The girl said, pensively. She appeared to be overcoming her nervousness at being around the idol and had completely stopped stuttering and tripping over her words by now. “Hey, could I get a selfie with you? My friends will never believe you were here.”

“Of course,” Onew agreed easily.

“Sweet!” The girl cheered, causing another chuckle to erupt from Sodam’s mouth. The girl shot another strange look at the woman and shrugged, getting into position next to the idol. Sitting next to him, she shifted closer until their chests were basically touching. “You’ll need to move closer to get in frame.”

Sodam coughed loudly as the girl shamelessly moved closer once again. “Oh Lord,” she wheezed through her giggles.

Onew smiled into the phone camera, ensuring he looked good. He wanted to give this girl the best photo he could give her, considering the circumstances. He shifted slightly as he heard the noise of the photo being taken. Turning to the girl he opened his mouth to speak before feeling a pair of arms sneaking around his neck and shoulders.

Looking back over his shoulder, he spotted the eye-catching blonde of his boyfriend’s hair. “Hello there, Jonghyun. How can I help you?”

The blonde mumbled incoherently into the idol’s shoulder. Even Onew, who was a master of understanding Jonghyun-speech – honed over many nights where the blonde stayed up far longer than he should have composing – was unable to understand what the man said this time. The coupling of his muffled voice, due to Onew’s shoulder, and the amount he had drunk made his words nothing more than an annoyed sounding grumble.

“He didn’t appreciate the kid practically sitting in your lap,” Jiwoong commented quietly, so the kid in question couldn’t hear. The artist then moved out the way to greet his girlfriend and allow the idol to deal with a grumpy blonde by himself.

Onew idly noticed the artist taking a seat behind him, close enough to intervene if need be. It was another thing about this group of people that Onew was always endlessly grateful for. They were always ready to step in and help out if it looked like the couple’s relationship was going to be revealed to people that it shouldn’t be revealed to.

“Who’re you?” Jonghyun questioned, still draped over Onew. He shot an annoyed look at the teen, like she was scum underneath his boots and shifted a little so he could see her better. “You think you’re hot but you’re not.” He mumbled into Onew’s neck. “Think you can get hot on my man but you can’t.”

Luckily, it seemed like the girl didn’t hear Jonghyun’s angry mumbling, although Jiwoong clearly did. The artist had stood up abruptly at the blonde’s last comment and moved closer to the trio, coming to stand behind the idol’s chair like some sort of strange bodyguard.

“What did you say?” The girl asked, looking confused.

“He said nothing,” Onew said, pushing the blonde’s face into his shoulder effectively muffling his speech further. “Ignore him.”

Jonghyun struggled out of his boyfriend’s grip and hissed like a cat in the process. “Don’t ignore me. I’m not ignore-worthy!”

Sodam, who was still sitting at the table behind them had finally got her giggles under control once her boyfriend had stood up to defend their friends. However, the pouty look on Jonghyun’s face and the way he puffed up like an angry cat made her lose it once more. She erupted into a fit of laughter that left her gasping for air and had Jiwoong looking back at her in worry. Flapping her hand at the artist, indicating he should focus on Onew and Jonghyun, she tried to control herself. However, it was a difficult task. Her brother was always amusing, doubly so when he had had something to drink – he became as whiny and pouty as a twelve year old at times and the rest of the time he was just ridiculous. It didn’t help of course, that she wasn’t exactly sober either.

“Sure you aren’t, loser.” Jiwoong mocked, patting the blonde’s head eliciting a growl from the blonde as he snapped at the artist’s fingers with his teeth.

 “Are you bothering my friends, Jimin?” Eunji asked, floating over from who knows where looking like an honest-to-God fairy. The teenager, who had been silently observing for the past five minutes, looked up at her cousin in confusion and shook her head a little dazed. Eunji chuckled, fully understanding the girl’s confusion. After all, she had spent years with these people and was well aware of what they were like. However, they could be a little overwhelming at times, especially to one so young.

Jonghyun looked up at his friend in shock. With wide eyes he looked her over and gasped, “You’re really pretty. Did you know that?”

Eunji blushed and giggled quietly, “And you are drunk.”

“Yes.” Jonghyun agreed, nodding emphatically.

“Come on, drunky. You too, guys.” She said, addressing the rest of the group of friends. “My mum wants photos of the crew.”

Jonghyun stood up abruptly, stumbling in place. “Awesome! Squad, roll out.” He called, pointing to the sky like a cartoon hero. The assembled friends chuckled indulgently and headed towards the head table where the happy couple’s parents were standing, leaving Jimin still standing there looking lost and confused.

Shrugging, the girl pulled out her phone once more and proceeded to tell everyone she knew about how her dorky cousin’s wedding had suddenly become a lot cooler.

 

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CHAPTER NOTES: This week has been hectic. You don't even know. Just ugh. Sorry it took me a whole 4 days guys. I wanted to get this out sooner, since it's part 2 of a chapter section thing.