Chen can't remember when it happened, but the funny, fluttery feeling in his chest feels likes it's been there forever.

He can't remember when he started thinking Suho's dumb dad jokes were hilarious, even though everyone else groans and tells Suho to shut up already.

He wonders when his heart started beating furiously whenever a sheepish or silly smile shows up on Suho's face every time they beg him to stop.

Chen doesn't know why he finds their leader adorable, even when he does dumb things that embarrass them in public.

It confounds Chen, the way he notices little things, like how Suho's eyes light up when he talks about Star Wars or elaborates on One Piece theories with Chanyeol. It's a quiet kind of happiness that settles around Suho as he happily discusses things he is passionate about.

At one concert, Suho turns to Chen and grins at him with such exhilaration that it takes all of Chen's self control to not kiss him right then and there. Instead, he grins back before burying his face into Suho's shoulder to hide all the emotions he's been keeping inside.

That day makes Chen realize he's got an enormous amount of feelings for their dumb leader buried deep inside that he didn't even know existed.

One night, after too many rounds of soju with the group, Chen corners Suho in the bathroom and drunkenly tells him he loves him. Suho smiles and gently thanks him, before hauling one of Chen's arms over his shoulder to drag him to his bedroom.

Chen feels a gentle hand pat his face and maybe a whisper of "I love you, too" but he isn't sure because the bed is soft and warm and he's drifting off into dream land already.

The next day is just another ordinary day of vocal and dance practice and running around to meet schedules, except Chen has a pounding headache and the nagging feeling that he's forgotten something important. He tries all day to remember, but the headache just gets worse when he tries.

On more than one occasion, he catches Suho staring at him with an inscrutable look on his face and Chen quietly panics as he tries to remember if he did anything stupid while he was drunk, but his head really hurts and everything from the night before is all a blur.

After a particularly grueling dance practice (in which Chen vows never to drink again because all that moving around practically killed him), he trudges back to his room to quietly die for the rest of the day.

He spies a glass of water and some aspirin on his desk, and as he nears the table, he finds a folded note under the glass.

There's only one sentence written on the note, but it's enough to make Chen's heart leap into his throat and his headache magically disappear.

"Just in case you forgot what happened last night, I said I love you too. ㅋㅋㅋ"