the boys are gathered, each grabbing a chair and getting comfortable. midnight drink it is, just a bunch of boys who want to have fun and be loved. eunkwang and junmyeon walk off to order the drinks and the rest engage in small talk. chanyeol yells across the room, telling hyunsik and ilhoon to stop whispering in each other’s ears like they are lovers.

“we all know you two broke up from your supposedly serious one-way relationship 2 years ago, so cut it out already.”

hyunsik and ilhoon laugh, they barely spoke.

“i must say the same for you and baekhyun, i remembered you two saying you were seeing each other 6 months ago? no?” hyunsik counter attacks. chanyeol swears out loud.

minseok asks minhyuk how he’s been, if his workout plans were still going well. minhyuk shakes his head dramatically and everyone laughs. he never keeps his word when it comes to strict diets. minseok gives him a pat on the shoulder, with a sympathetic smile. sungjae gestures towards sehun.

“so are you and baekhyun still ing around without me?” sehun bursts out into laughter.

“same with your side hoes ilhoon and changsub, no?” sungjae’s eyes widen and he brings a hand up to cover his mouth. everyone’s laughing again. they all know those 5 are in some confusing shared relationship. it’s all healthy though.

eunkwang and junmyeon return to the table with the drinks, minseok and jongdae lending them a hand, passing the drinks on. 16 is a big group.

yixing tells peniel he’s been watching the vlogs. “it’s cool that you share how you make your music, i’m not even daring enough to put it all out there man.” peniel tells him it’s cool, everyone’s different and all. “well i have to admit the most different thing to me is south korea, even after like 7 years of being here.” peniel giggles and nods in agreement.

hyunsik turns to kyungsoo. they’ve known each other for the longest time out of all of the boys here.

“it’s still crazy to think that we both lived our dreams after all that hard work, huh?” kyungsoo smiles softly, his hand on top of hyunsik’s. chanyeol squints at hyunsik across the table, hyunsik shrugs. those two are always fighting over who gets to be all over kyungsoo. childish but endearing. kyungsoo always ends up joining eunkwang and the older ones anyways, he finds himself more comfortable there somehow.

ilhoon finally turns up, taking off his sunglasses. he's almost an hour late. everyone's jeering, it's the usual thing.

"sorry i'm late, just got better things to do than to hang out with losers like you guys." jongin chuckles, like he does with everything ilhoon says. everyone else rolls their eyes and let's him settle down and grab his drink anyway.

by 3am they’ve all had a fair amount of drinks, everyone’s kind of tipsy. baekhyun sneaks a hand onto changsub’s thigh, looking towards him suggestively. changsub’s cheeks flush to a rosy red. not because he’s taken aback, he’s just drunk. besides, it isn’t the first time these two have been intimate, thanks to sehun and sungjae. yixing’s resting his head on peniel’s shoulder, both half-conscious. jongdae’s drawing circles on the back of minhyuk’s hand, junmyeon’s running his hand through eunkwang’s hair. minseok calls the meetup off, being the last one standing. chanyeol pulls kyungsoo up from his seat, both staggering. hyunsik gathers the rest of s and they all bid farewell.

every meetup, the feeling’s the same. they sit around, have a few drinks, tease one another, and they never feel this comfortable. maybe it’s something about the freedom in all their relationships, everything’s carefree and out of pure fun. polyamory isn’t always messy, the right words are consensual, ethical and responsible.

love is a simple thing in these boys’ world, being  each other’s ride or die.