I ed up.

Doyoung stares at the text, then just before he unlocks his phone, gets distracted from the presence entering through the doorway.

It's a tall woman Taeil has never seen before, wearing mismatched pajama wear, squinting her eyes as she turns on the adjustable light brighter to see who is in her living room. Taeil straightens himself out but the woman seems to have not noticed him at all.

"Doyoung~" She hums as she smiles at him, "Congrats on your performance. Your mother called to tell me all about it."

"Thank you," Doyoung returns the smile.

It is then that she notices Taeil, who stands awkwardly stiff with trouble breathing.

"Oh? Is this a new friend?"

"Hello, I'm Moon Taeil," Taeil speaks formally and bows, feeling his cheeks flare in heat, “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Seo. I’m sorry to have – “

Suddenly a burst of laughter comes from the hallway. Johnny with Ten following approach from behind his mother. His mother glares at Johnny and pinches his ear, pulling him back. Ten sneaks away from her second hand and falls down on the couch, cuddling over to Doyoung and mimicking Taeil.

Taeil fixes his shirt with his sweaty palms, his eyes shakily glancing over at Doyoung but seeing him laughing as well has him utterly embarrassed. Was he not supposed to do that? But wasn't it rude not to? He’s never met a friend’s parents!

"You should learn from him!" His mother shouts at Johnny as she puts his head into a choke hold and laughs as he struggles to get out of it.

"His mother is a gym trainer," Ten explains to Taeil, "She's not abusing him or whatever."

"Oh..." Ten simply says as he awkwardly remains standing up, his hands fiddling with the ends of his shirt and watching the two fight.

When Johnny finally escapes out of her grip and runs away, his mother finally introduces herself to Taeil formally.

"Hi Taeil," She smiles as she fixes her hair, "You don’t have to call me Mrs. Seo, just call me mom. If you're hungry, feel free to treat yourself. And if there's anything you need, don't be afraid to ask John or myself."

Taeil nods and bows again, Johnny's mother awing.

"Finally Johnny has a friend that is normal!" She shouts as she walks away and Yuta's yelp echoes from the hallway.

"How can you be captain if your feet are so stiff?!" Can be heard from the hallway.

Yuta comes over limping and falls on Ten, "She did that stupid foot trick again."

"Too bad she didn't break your leg," Ten mumbles, and the two start throwing flimsy hands at each other.

Doyoung leaves the two be as he sits on the other end of the couch. Then Jaehyun emerges in his loungewear, that consists of baggy sweats clinging lowly to his hips and a loose white shirt.

"Taeil, you need clothes to borrow right?" Johnny stands up again and looks over at Yuta, "And you too??"

"Me too," Ten calls out. The two are cuddling again, Yuta drumming on Ten's casually.

Johnny sighs, "You never like what I bring you. You're too picky. Just sleep ."

"I don't want my eyes scarred again," Doyoung cringes as his memories flood with the last time Johnny told him that.

"We have Taeil here for the first time so we can't leave him paranoid either," Jaehyun laughs as he tosses Taeil a can of Cola.

Ten catches Doyoung staring at the simple gesture, with a petty undertone to it. He giggles and whispers to Yuta about it. Johnny overhears the two and grimaces, before heading off to get the clothes asked for. He didn't mind sharing clothes to others, and for some reason, the thought of Taeil wearing his gigantic clothes on him had him literally sprinting to his room.

"Someone's excited," Ten coos when they hear the heavy thudding of footsteps.

"I wonder why~" Yuta teases as he glances over at Taeil, who is still awkwardly standing up.

"You can sit y'know," Ten laughs as he pats a seat beside him, welcoming him to sit beside him.

"Thanks..." Taeil hesitantly takes the offered seat, awing at how comfortable the couch is.

"You know what I just realized," Yuta sighs, "We forgot to get snacks."

The whole room is full of groans and when Johnny enters, they start yelling at him. Well, aside from Taeil, who silently watches the boys use Johnny as a scapegoat for the lack of snacks.

"We just ate!" Johnny tries to defend himself as he throws a ball of clothes at Yuta and Ten.

Yuta takes off his shirt in the middle of speaking, "Well, now we're ing hungry again!"

Taeil blushes, his eyes looking down as he sees a pair of pants fall onto the floor. He recognizes them as Ten's.

Jaehyun starts laughing, catching the attention of the boys to point at Taeil, who is looking at his lap, but his eyes shamelessly curious to see. He fights the urge to look, telling himself that he can't. He's already made a scene by being embarrassed from it. He should've acted nonchalant. Or maybe he should've done it himself.

"You can look up now," Ten calls out with a giggle.

"No, don't – "

Taeil obliviously looks up, only to be greeted by three beautifully chests and his neck quickly pulls his face to look away. He covers his face embarrassingly, a nervous laugh escaping his lips.

"Stop you guys," Doyoung mumbles as he looks over his phone, pretending not to be affected by Jaehyun's back dimples.

Ten and Yuta apologize quickly when Johnny gives them a threatening glare. Then Johnny walks over to Taeil and offers him a pair of neatly folded clothes, shaking his shoulder to catch his attention.

"You're not , right?" Taeil asks first before looking over.

The boys from a far laugh and Johnny does too. "I mean, if you're curious to see you can just say so~"

Taeil rolls his eyes and looks over, Johnny rubbing his shoulder. "This is just the beginning. I hope you're mentally ready. I'll show you where the bathroom is."

"Thanks..."

Johnny leads Taeil out of the room, shooting the other four a threatening glance again, as if warning them to hold back. Yuta rolls his eyes and sinks into the couch, bare chested and all, with Ten beside him with a huge oversized shirt covering his bottoms reaching for the remote and turning on the T.V.

"I'm going to scavage for some snacks," Yuta randomly says as he lifts himself up.

"I'll come with," Jaehyun says, "I want chips."

"When don't you?" Yuta snorts as the two walk out.

As they do, they overhear a pair of voices coming from the stairs.

"My bedroom isn't that impressive as yours," They overhear.

Yuta pulls Jaehyun so that they follow. Jaehyun fights back for a moment, until they hear.

"Johnny, w-what are you doing?"

Their erted minds go elsewhere, and like silent mice they scurry up the stairs trying their best to keep quiet.

They peek over the corner, then quickly retreat when they see Johnny walking over to them. They nearly trip down the stairs before they fall back to the wall.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Johnny asks raising a suggestive eyebrow, glancing at the two; Jaehyun pinning Yuta against the wall.

As he says that, Doyoung happens to enter the long hallway they're in, seeing the two and his face darken. Yuta shrugs it off, hoping that the two won't cause a scene. Meanwhile, Jaehyun scurries over to Doyoung, practically begging him to forgive him.

"Jaehyun, calm down..." Doyoung mumbles, although he kind of likes the way Jaehyun looks all panicky and nervous, "I heard you two basically fall down the stairs."

"Fall down the stairs? Are you two okay?" Taeil asks as he walks down the stairs and join them. He looks adorable in Johnny's baggy Adidas sweats and oversized university sweatshirt.

However, Johnny's face didn't spare a slight glimpse of worry at the two. He looked at them with a menacing look, before Taeil walks past him and glances at the two – trying his best to ignore Jaehyun's biceps and Yuta's bare chest. He didn't know how he'd be able to survive an entire night with a bunch of good looking dudes when he felt he was just a piece of lint compared to them.

"We're fine. We just tripped on each other."

"Of course they did," Doyoung spat out pettily, although truthfully for once there wasn’t an inch of sincere pettiness in his bones at the moment, "I'm going to the bathroom."

"Wait, Doyoung – " Jaehyun pushes Yuta away from him and chases after Doyoung.

"Jaehyun, I'm fine! Go get your chips or whatever."

But seeing Jaehyun still hesitant to listen, Doyoung groans and pushes Jaehyun towards the kitchen, leading the other into it to help find his dear chips.

"He's so whipped," Yuta cringes, "And to think two weeks ago he probably banged two girls in one night. What the hell did Doyoung slip into his drink?"

Taeil shrugged, "It's sweet to watch though."

"Sweet?" The other two repeat simultaneously.

Taeil looks startled a bit but nods, "Yeah, how much he tries. How much Doyoung does, too. I don't know..."

Taeil then walks away from the two when he senses their confusion – and his own creeping onto him too – back into the living room, instantly being complimented by Ten with how cute he looks. It was a first he was complimented that way, it felt different. Not that he hated it though. Being complimented by Ten was an accomplishment most of the students at their school couldn’t say they’ve dealt with.

“Hey,” A voice from the hallway calls out. The two look over to see its Johnny, Yuta, and Jaehyun crowding around the door. They were putting on big jackets and hoodies when Johnny explained, “We’re going out for a bit to look for something to eat. We’ll be back.”

Doyoung pushes past them into the living room with a simple shrug, the other two shrugging.

“Taeil,” Johnny calls out to the said boy’s name, waiting for him to look over at him before he spoke again, but when he did, he suddenly froze.

“Johnny?” Jaehyun pokes the other.

“U-Uh…” Johnny starts taking off his coat, “Yuta, here’s my keys. I have to stay.”

“Huh? What, why?” Yuta furrows his eyebrows, but when Jaehyun bumped his arm and glanced over at Taeil secretively, he suddenly understood.

“We’ll be back, then…” Yuta says as he opens the door, the sound of the rain intensifying.

The car ride began as silent. Neither of the boys had anything to say to each other, not when the rain fell on the roof of the car and the night was heavily darkened by clouds and the moon hidden behind them. They both had things busying their heads that they were both afraid to share aloud. That is, until one of them gained enough courage to break the silence and ask a generic question.

“You like Doyoung a lot, don’t you?” Yuta asked as he rotated the wheel to take a turn.

“I love him,” Jaehyun answers straightly, yet his chest is already heaving and he can feel the blush on his cheeks.

It stays silent for a while. Then, Yuta asks again.

“How?” He simply blurts out, “Just, how?”

“How, what?” Jaehyun furrows his eyebrows confusedly, “How do I like Doyoung?”

“No,” Yuta says, and when a familiar face appears in his head, he asks rather harshly, “How did you get him to stay?”

Jaehyun, startled from the abrupt tone of his voice, simply shrugs his shoulder. He really didn’t know how Doyoung somehow stayed – although he wasn’t sure if he truly had or not, but at least, how was he so willing to come back? Jaehyun was nothing close to a saint, nor towards the love of his life. He didn’t understand how his one-sided lover could endure so much pain for a boy he despised. Why hadn’t he left him earlier, Jaehyun began wondering.

“You hurt him so much and yet… He stays, for some reason.” Yuta sighed, “I just don’t understand. He’s not the type to keep people in his life that are no good to him – no offense. How do you do it?”

Jaehyun shrugged his shoulders again, “It’s hard to let some people go, I guess.”

Yuta nodded his head, and for once in his own eyes, Jaehyun could see Yuta really felt him. He really felt the pain of never wanting to let go, but having to. And his mind wondered, who could have possibly had Yuta feel this pain? He was so… Independent, and free from the grip of love. Well, he didn’t know if it was love. But just the way Yuta seemed to drive with no sense of real direction of where he was heading, with his mind preoccupied somewhere else and his muscles simply leading the way, he understood. It was love.

“Why do you ask?” Jaehyun asks, when they park in front of a 24-hour liquor store.

“No reason,” Yuta simply responded, unbuckling his seat belt and sighing while doing so, “Alright, let’s make this quick. I don’t want to get mugged.”

Jaehyun presses the unlock button though. Then he turns to look at Yuta, dedicated to get an answer.

“Are you trying to get someone to stay?”

Yuta furrowed his eyebrows, yet Jaehyun can see the slight glint of truth behind it all – that he’s right – but before he could ask another question, Yuta unlocks his own door and walks out. He can see Yuta look frustrated, but not at him. Jaehyun sighed, unsatisfied with the lack of answer, but following the other inside. He was sure not to let the topic wither away so quick, when it was clear Yuta was asking for himself, rather than to him.

Back in Johnny’s household, the four boys lazed around individually. Unlike most of their sleepovers – they were all drained mentally and physically for some awful reason to themselves. Ten stared at his phone – contemplating whether he should go to the extent of getting Taeyong’s number from someone and asking him the millions of questions he had for him that he couldn’t answer himself. Doyoung, clearly, was thinking of Jaehyun, easily told from his furrowed eyebrows and small note in his hand. Taeil was simply laying down, probably falling asleep already, with the various emotions in his head expertly hidden away from the other three boys.

Johnny, laying on the ground while watching intently the movie Finding Nemo, decided to crawl over to Taeil, sitting up with his back leaning on the couch. Taeil lifted his head up from the pillow a bit, then letting it fall back down when he realized it was just Johnny. The taller of the two peaks over to the other bodies across the body, all busy with their own business to care for others, that he gains the courage to ask again.

"So, Taeil," Johnny looks over at Taeil, whose eyes flutter back open that he feels bad to disrupt the elder from going to sleep. But his curiosity is almost deafening in his head that he goes on to say, "About your ideal type... Is it someone maybe like, Doyoung? Someone who’s like intelligent and book smart?"

"... Definitely not Doyoung," Taeil emphasizes, “But yeah, sure. Preferably intelligent.”

"Oh..." Johnny's remainder of his heart crumbles bit by bit, "And what else? How about Jaehyun? He works hard in basketball. And Doyoung"

"I don't know," Taeil shrugs – he never thought deeper to this topic until now, that his answers suddenly became untrustworthy to himself the more he looked at Johnny, "If I have to think about it, I’d like someone… Who studies hard, manages time well, someone who doesn’t really need me. I don’t think it makes much sense...”

Johnny shakes his head with a small understanding smile that for some reason, makes Taeil feel sadder than he had before. “I get you. So you’re saying you’ll like someone like... Yourself?"

Taeil shrugs, “Definitely not. Can we just... Change the subject?"

"Oh yeah," Johnny laughs, "I get it. Yeah."

Taeil disagreed, but of course he did. That’s the type of person Taeil deserved. Someone modest and responsible, someone who is independent. Johnny didn’t know why knowing this made him feel six feet deep underground, and regret staying home. In any other case, he can’t imagine being sad for staying in his cozy, warm home.

"Johnny, isn't your ideal type someone like Taeil?" Ten suddenly chirps in.

Johnny kicks a pillow at his face. Luckily, it seemed like Taeil didn't hear because his attention was over to the movie, just as Nemo gets trapped in the fish tank’s filter system.

Mark and Taeyong sit on swings in a neighborhood park, in complete darkness other than the street light, in silence. Hansol sat on the woodchips, throwing a few to see how far they can go before he can't see them in the air. Each of them have their own individual umbrellas, but still slightly shiver with the cold air. None of them made an effort to speak until Mark randomly sprouts out,

"Did you accept Ten's confession?"

"Huh?" Taeyong flinches a bit with the random voice speaking from the abyss, "Oh, right you saw. But you knew what we were talking about?"

"Well, when I saw him kiss you I got the idea.”

“Oh, well I don’t think I did. I kinda, just left…” Taeyong said. Saying it aloud made it seem a lot crueler than he initially thought it was. He just left Ten hanging, confused and alone.

“I figured you did with the way you just walked away. It was crazy. Kinda sad, too."

"Sad...?"

"Yeah. Because well, he got rejected," Mark shrugged, "It's just something that's just sad whoever it is. I imagine it takes a lot of courage to do it, but he made it seem like nothing in my eyes. So I give him props for that."

"He did make it seem that way," Taeyong sighs, "I think that's why I couldn't believe him. But he's exactly like that."

"Why didn't you accept it?" Hansol joins in, his tone sullenly darker than usual.

"Why didn't...?" Taeyong trails off as he thinks why. He had no real reason to. Nothing was holding him back other than his doubt. Doubt, of course it was, that made him reject Ten not once, but twice in just one day, even when Ten elaborated that he was telling the truth. He felt terrible to not believe him, but it was hard to believe in someone who generally liked him. It seemed so far fetch to him.

He recounts just hours earlier, when they were kicked out of the diner. The three of them hurdled under a roof so they didn't get soaked. Then Ten started speaking again, and whenever he speaks now, Taeyong can't help but let his mi