When their manager had come in to wake them the next morning and found Changkyun asleep with his head on Jooheon’s chest, drooling on his shirt, he hadn’t been too pleased. Once he’d managed to wake them he’d told Changkyun that staying up all night chatting had been incredibly stupid when he’d already been losing his voice and had forbidden him from speaking to anyone for the rest of the day. Then he’d told Jooheon he would have no sympathy for him whatsoever if he ended up ill because it would be entirely his own fault.

But he needn’t have worried. Changkyun sounded a little croaky for the next couple of days but simply getting to rest had done him a world of good. His fever went first, then his cough, soon followed by his sore throat. By the end of the week he was achy and a little bit tired but that was all. And Jooheon was showing no signs at all of picking up whatever he’d had. Minhyuk hadn’t been so lucky and was walking around with a pocket full of throat lozenges and a vitamin drink in one hand at all times but Jooheon seemed absolutely fine.

And these were both good things, obviously. He was glad he was feelign better, being ill had especially since he hadn't been granted much time to recover and he hadn’t wanted Jooheon to end up sick because of him. It was just that now that he was no longer ill Jooheon didn’t feel the need to hover around him anymore, something he'd taken to doing. When he'd still had the flu Jooheon had never been far away, whenever he'd needed someone to complain to or collapse against he'd been there. And to be honses Changkyun kind of missed that. Being looked after had been nice.

And because Jooheon hadn't caught the flu and was perfectly… well that meant that as soon as Changkyun was better the older man was free to go back to looking for proof that Hyunwoo and Nayeon were dating.

After another couple of weeks of helping Jooheon with his research (or you know, walking that fine line between supporting him in his work and stopping him from doing something stupid) Changkyun was starting to come around to the idea that Hyunwoo was dating someone. For one there was all the daydreaming and the constant texting. In that respect he was acting very much like someone caught up in a new relationship. And on top of that they’d lost count of the number of times their leader had slipped out of wardrobe or hair and make-up unnoticed (by anyone but them anyway), phone in hand, which wasn't like him at all. He was usually the one telling them to keep of their phones and stay focussed. And on the few occasions one of them had been able to follow they’d found him talking to someone with a smile, the kind of that reached his eyes and lit up his whole face. Jooheon had apparently even heard him say “I miss you”once, something Changkyun might have dismissed as an exaggeration if he himself hadn’t heard him say “I can’t wait to see you” on a seperate occassion.

Then there’s been the handful of times Hyunwoo had offered to go on a snack run when they made it back to the dorm and had taken way longer than he needed to. That wasn't like him either. He was all about healthy eating so offering to buy snacks was something he did very rarely and even when he did he often sent one of the younger members out on his behalf.

And even more suspicious there had been the time they’d headed back to the dorm and Hyunwoo had pleaded a headache and headed straight to bed. Half an hour later Jooheon had decided to brave knocking on the door, on the pretence of checking if Hyunwoo was okay but mostly because he wanted to go in and see if he’d left his headphones in there, he wanted to listen to music and couldn’t find them. But there’d been no answer. And when he’d gingerly pushed open the door expecting to find Hyunwoo asleep he hadn’t found anyone at all. The room had been empty.

More than a little excited Jooheon had gone back to their room and dragged Changkyun away from the variety show he’d been watching on his laptop. He’d grabbed his phone and brought up ‘Find Friends’. But when he’d clicked Hyunwoo’s name only for the map to come up showing Got7s dorm his face had fallen. “Oh.” He’d said, clearly disappointed. Changkyun had patted his shoulder in consolation.

And then Jooheon’s expression had brightened. “Jaebum hyung’s acting as his cover. He’s got to be.” He said and Changkyun had to applaud his optimism even if it was bordering on delusion. “He’s arranged it so they can meet at their dorm. That way if anyone sees Hyunwoo hyung leaving he can just say he was visiting friends. And remember when they met at the park? Jaebum probably had a message or a gift from Nayeon to give him.”

“That sounds a little…” Changkyun started to say intending to say ‘far-fetched’ but Jooheon wasn’t listening.

“I’ll call Jackson.” He said, cutting him off. It seemed to be his automatic reaction to most things these days Changkyun thought with a sigh. “He’s not home but he might know something about it.” Jooheon added as he brought up Jackson’s number on his phone.

And Changkyun sat listening to them both over-excitedly speculate about Jaebum covering for Hyunwoo with a frown. He wished Jackson wouldn’t encourage him, Jooheon was bad enough all on his own.

Thankfully though Jackson hadn’t been able to offer up any proof to validate Jooheon’s new theory. Apprently he was out eating with BamBam and Mark and no one had forced them out the door. Going out had been their own idea. Unfortunately, that did little to change Jooheon’s mind. He still thought he was onto something and spent the rest of the week in constant contact with Jackson as they kept each other updated on what their leaders were up to, trying to catch them out. Jaebum had been on his phone a lot lately too, according to Jackson and he and Jooheon were convinced that this was because he was plotting with Hyunwoo, trying to facilitate another meeting between him and Nayeon.

After a week of thinking about it more carefully Changkyun wasn’t so sure. He could agree on the fact that they were both acting suspiciously he just didn’t think Nayeon was the one Jooheon should be worried about. If Hyunwoo really was dating a member of Twice then surely using Jaebum as a middle man would just over-complicate things. It would just mean one more person would get in trouble if news of their relationship got out.

If anything it was more likely Hyunwoo was dating Jaebum than it was he was dating Nayeon. They knew for a fact Hyunwoo had met up with him to eat and they knew he’d also visited Jaebum’s dorm at least once. And as Changkyun had told Jooheon right back in the beginning he was sure Hyunwoo was as interested in boys as he was interested in girls. And then there was the fact they'd known each other for a long time. They were already friends. And in Changkyun's eyes that was how most people ended up together, they were friends first and then it grew into something more.

He couldn’t share his thoughts with Jooheon though, not without proof. It was hard enough keeping Jooheon and Jackson in check with Nayeon being the possible girlfriend, it would be nigh on impossible if their main suspect became Jaebum instead.

But on the other hand, whether he shared his suspicions with Jooheon or not, he was going to have to look into it more. Because if Jaebum and Hyunwoo really were dating then he’d have to talk to Hyunwoo, ask him if he knew what he was doing and if he was being careful. If news got out that Monsta X’s leader and Got7’s leader were in a relationship… well he dreaded to think what headlines might come out of that and how it might impact on their careers, all of their careers. They weren’t the only two people who would suffer if the story broke before the fans were told, there were six other people in each group who would feel the impact of that too.

But again he couldn’t approach Hyunwoo unless he had actual proof to back up his assumptions and he had no idea how he was going to get it.

~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

A/N: So this is a bit of a shorter chapter but it seemed like a logical place to cut off before moving onto the next part. Things should speed up from Chapter Six onwards. I just want to say thanks again for subscribing, if you have and to say thank you so so much to the people who have commented so far. I love hearing what people think of the story and their ideas about what might happen next.