“I swear, the only thing that would bring Jisoo and Jihoon together is a miracle,” Soonyoung claims, slamming his hand on the table. “A Hail Mary.” Slam. “The apocalypse.” Slam. “Magic.” Slam.

“Okay, would you stop trying to break the table? I’m trying to eat here!” Mingyu all but yells, echoing the same sentiment as most of the table.

“Oh c’mon, don’t you think it’s true?” Soonyoung asks, looking for any response. “It would take nothing short of a miracle to get those two to even talk to each other.”

Seokmin and Seungkwan seem interested, but he knew that already, has already talked to them about this. No one else seems to care, though.

“Calm down, Soonyoung,” Jeonghan scolds lightly, while everyone else stuffs their mouths to avoid answering directly. “You’re getting worked up over nothing.”

“It’s not nothing!” the teenager insists. “Haven’t you noticed that even though we hang out with both Jihoon and Jisoo, they don’t really talk? It’s one thing if they hate each other--that’s a feeling. But it’s like the other doesn’t exist for them! They don’t seem interested in each other at all!”

“I’m confused,” Minghao interjects. “Hyung, do you want them to be friends, or boyfriends?”

“Both? I don’t know! I want them to at least be friends, but hey, if they happen to become boyfriends, I won’t be complaining!” Soonyoung rambles, practically frothing at the mouth. “Better for me!”

“Soonyoung, you’re crazy,” is all Wonwoo says before the bell rings.

Everyone disperses quickly, wanting to get away before they get implicated in a BooSoonSeok investigation. It was an unspoken rule for the Gag Trio that if one person went on the hunt, the other two would be sure to follow, as well as any and all victims they managed to drag into their craziness. That’s why, when the bell rings, all of them shoot out of their seats and run to the door like their life depends on it, hoping to be lucky enough to escape the trio’s hunt.

“Hey, maknae!”

Chan’s not so lucky.

“Hey... middle.”

“Hyung.”

Chan’s nervous voice breaks through the music blaring through Jihoon’s headphones. He takes them off, and turns to face the maknae. “Yes, Chan?”

“Um... u-uh... I don’t know how to phrase it...” the boy stammers, hands fidgeting with each other.

“Spit it out, Chan,” Jihoon replies shortly, making additional adjustments to the composition he was working on.

“What do you think of Jisoo-hyung?” Chan finally says, now rocking back and forth on his heels.

The short boy huffs, annoyed. “He’s nice to a fault, too polite for anyone to understand him, and sometimes too weird for me. That enough for you?”

“Y-Yes! Thank you, hyung!” Chan all but yells before running out of the room.

As Jihoon stares at the door his dongsaeng ran through, he almost hears someone else hiss, “well that was a dead end.”

He doesn’t care enough to investigate, so he puts the headphones back on.

Jisoo is playing his guitar in the music room when Chan walks in, only slightly nervous. “Hello, Chan,” he greets easily, fingers still picking at the strings of his guitar. “How’s it going?”

“Good, hyung,” Chan replies. “Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead,” he agrees, not stopping his playing.

“What...” Chan takes a deep breath, calming himself (though Jisoo has no idea why,) and saying, “What do you think of Jihoon-hyung?”

Finally, Jisoo stops playing, turning to give Chan his full attention, as well as a very confused look. “Jihoon-ah? Why do you want to... Why are you asking me?”

“Soon--I-I mean, I--was curious be-because you and Jihoon-hyung hang out, bu-but you aren’t fr-friends. You--You don’t even talk to each other when you hang out with him!” Chan stammers, making Jisoo even more suspicious.

“Why do you want to know so badly?” Jisoo questions, still confused.

“I... uh... I just want to know,” Chan’s response is lame and flimsy at best, and Jisoo’s not that dumb. Nevertheless, he should cut the maknae some slack, so he does.

“Jihoon is a nice guy,” Jisoo replies truthfully. “He’s very caring towards his friends, even if he doesn’t show it.”

“Okay, thanks hyung!” Chan grins, no longer a stuttering mess, and runs out of the room.

“That was weird,” Jisoo mutters to himself before returning to playing the guitar.

“Everything’s coming up inconclusive, Soonyoung-hyung,” Seokmin reports, typing away at his laptop.

“Nothing?” Soonyoung asks, frustrated.

“Nothing,” Seokmin confirms. “The data Chan-ah collected doesn’t prove anything. Jihoon said everything that everyone knows about Jisoo, and we all know that Jisoo can’t say a bad thing about anybody. Chan’s mission was a disaster.”

Chan wants to slam his head on the desk in front of him. Why is he still here? Why can’t they leave him be. He did his job, didn’t he? For the 287th time since he had been roped into this, he wishes he had been just a little bit faster booking it out of the cafeteria that day. And yet here he is, sitting on Soonyoung-hyung’s bed while he, Seokmin-hyung, and Seungkwan-hyung pour over their notes with an intensity their teachers wish they could have for their classes. He hadn’t been released from his duties yet, making him wonder what he needed to do to get out of this as soon as possible. He was starting to think death would be the quickest answer, but Jeonghan would definitely find his soul and slam it back into his body if he could. He would probably kill him again after for doing it in the first place, too.

“So, what’s the next plan, boss?” Seungkwan asks lazily, lying on the bed next to Chan, scrolling through his phone. He’s the least interested in this plot for some reason, despite his tendency for the dramatics and getting into people’s personal lives.

“Let me think,” is Soonyoung’s response, as the eldest took the pose of the “Thinker” statue, which, on him, was pretty ridiculous.

“We could send Chan-ah out again to talk to the hyungs,” Seungkwan suggests, sending Chan a smirk.

Death is really starting to sound more and more appealing.

“No that won’t work, they’ll get suspicious,” Soonyoung shoots down the idea quickly. “Both of them are already suspicious enough as it is: if Chan goes back to them, they’ll catch on quickly.”

“Then why don’t we ask ourselves?” Seokmin asks.

“They won’t take us seriously,” the eldest rejects the idea. “They might think we’ll prank them, and then they’ll catch on.”

“Then what can we do?” Seokmin’s lost, confused on how to proceed. “If we can’t gather more research, how can we figure out how to make them friends-slash-boyfriends?”

“Why don’t you follow them?” Chan finally speaks up, finally done with the idiocy of his hyungs. “One of you trail Jihoon-hyung, the other tracks Jisoo-hyung, and see what they say about each other when they’re alone.”

The Gag Trio share a long gaze, eyes wide, realizing the ingenuity of the maknae’s plan.

Finally, Soonyoung groans. “I can’t believe the maknae made a better plan than the rest of us.”

Chan shrugs. “It’s not that hard. You guys aren’t the smartest.”

“Yah!”

“This is Horse, checking in with Hoshi, over.”

Chan has changed his plan from death to faking his death. Death is too permanent, and Chan’s still young. That doesn’t mean he still wants to deal with this bull any longer.

“Why am I here?” He asks his hyung loudly, uncaring of where they are (in the quad) what time it is (6 in the evening), or who’s around them (a few random friend groups he doesn’t care about.)

What he does care about, is the fact that Hoshi is crouched in front of a bush and behind the bench where Chan’s sitting, wearing sunglasses and all black clothing, from his baseball cap to his sneakers. If he’s trying to be inconspicuous, he’s failing miserably: Chan has to deal with all the strange looks passerby gives him because there’s a maniac just behind him.

“Hold on, Chan-ah,” Soonyoung quiets the younger, before turning on the mic on his walkie talkie. “This is Hoshi and Dino, checking in on Horse and Diva, over.”

“This is ridiculous,” he mutters. “Why am I still here?”

“Because you’re involved in this, and if we go down, we’re taking you down with us,” Soonyoung retorts before turning his attention back to the walkie talkie. “Hoshi to Horse, what is the status of the subject?”

There is a brief moment of silence before the walkie talkie crackles to life and Seokmin’s voice comes through the speaker. “Horse to Hoshi and Dino, subject has just walked out of class.”

“Hoshi to Diva, report?”

“Diva to Hoshi and Dino, subject was talking to classmates about classwork, but is now on the move.”

Chan sighs before pulling out his textbook. Even if he’s on this crazy mission with the three, he still needs to get homework done.

“Are you seriously doing homework right now?” Soonyoung hisses. “At a time like this?”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” Chan hisses right back.

“Be a lookout!”

“What do you think I’m doing? All I’ve been doing is keeping an eye out!”

“Horse to Hoshi and Dino, subject is now approaching Diamond Street.”

“Diva to Hoshi and Dino, subject is now approaching Shining Avenue.”

“Wait, isn’t that close to the quad?” Chan asks Soonyoung, who meets his eyes with a shocked gaze before nodding quietly.

Only a few minutes pass before the walkie talkie crackles to life again.

“Subject is approaching the quad!”

Both of them hadn’t identified themselves, but to be honest, they never really had to (they just get too into things.) The urgency in their voice is clear, though.

“Shoot!” Soonyoung is panicking, trying to find a hiding place.

“What do I do?” Chan asks, feeling the panic rising in his chest. He hadn’t wanted to be involved in the first place, but he was going to be the first casualty. Jihoon-hyung was going to kill him.

“Just act normal!” are Soonyoung’s last words before he dives into the bush behind him.

“What?” Chan hisses at the gaping hole in the bush before whipping his head around to see Jihoon and Jisoo approach each other.

“Hi, Jihoon,” Jisoo greets the younger easily, a soft smile on his face.

“Hello, hyung,” Jihoon replies.

“How are classes?” He asks politely, sitting on a nearby bench, gesturing for the other to sit down.

Jihoon does so without complaint, saying, “They’re okay. My Music Composition class is killing me, though.”

“Is it because of the coursework, or your perfectionist attitude?” Jisoo asks knowingly.

The shorter snorts. “Both.”

The two fall into a stilted silence (awkward because Jisoo + Jihoon = awkwardness + social ineptitude = stilted silence) for a few more seconds before Jihoon asks, “Did Chan come to talk to you about something?”

“Yeah, he asked me about you,” Jisoo answers. Then he frowns. “Did you ask you...”

“About you? Yeah,” Jihoon nods. “He was really nervous about it, too.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” the taller muses. “He stuttered a lot, which is weird. Chan’s always too confident to stutter.”

“Yeah, same for me too,” Jihoon confirms. “Why did he ask?”

“Who knows?” Jisoo shrugs. “It’s just really suspicious.”

There’s another pause, and then--“Hey, isn’t that Chan over there?”

Jisoo squints a little, before he agrees. “Yeah, that’s Chan. Want to go ask him?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re coming over here!” Chan hisses.

“Subjects are heading to your location!”

“Shut up!” The maknae whisper shouts. “Be quiet until Soonyoung says it’s safe!”

“Yah, I’m your h-” Soonyoung doesn’t get to finish before Jisoo and Jihoon reach Chan.

“Hi, Chan!” Jisoo smiles at the youngest of their group, always kind, even when he’s about to interrogate the other.

“H-Hi, hyungs,” Chan stammers, and his heart picks up when he sees the two share a pointed glance.

“We just wanted to know why you asked us about each other the other day,” Jisoo continues, elbowing Jihoon before he can say something harsher.

“O-Oh! U-Um,” Chan stalls, brain whirling. What could he say? “I j-just noticed th-that even though you guys hang out with the rest of us, you d-don’t really talk to each other. I didn’t know if you guys hated each other or something, so I just wanted to ask.”

“Oh, was that it?” Jisoo asks, gentle smile still on his face but skepticism dancing in his eyes.

“Yeah, it was,” Chan reassures the both of them, gathering a little more confidence. “I was nervous because Jihoon-hyung isn’t...” he glances at Jihoon nervously, afraid to say it.

“Easy to hang out with?” Jisoo apparently has no qualms. When Jihoon glares unreservedly at his hyung, Jisoo doesn’t back down, saying to the younger. “You know you don’t make it easy to people to feel too comfortable with you, especially your dongsaengs. It’s just that we’re too stubborn.”

Jihoon glares for a few moments more before sighing and conceding. “True.”

Then Jisoo notices something behind Chan. “Hey, the bush is broken back there.”

“Wha-?” Chan almost forgets for a minute that Soonyoung had thrown himself in a bush back there, and scrambles for another excuse. “Oh yeah, I think some animal’s made its nest back there. I keep hearing rustling. I don’t really want to find out what’s back there.”

“Maybe we should report it,” Jisoo comments.

“I’ll report it tomorrow if I see it,” Chan promises.

“Well, alright then, I’ll see you later, okay, Chan-ah?” Jisoo ruffles Jihoon’s hair goodnaturedly, despite the maknae’s protests, and the two walk off.

A few moments pass as Chan makes sure the two are gone before he says, “All clear, Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung clambers out of the bush, covered in scrapes and looking worse for wear. “That was so nervewracking.”

“You might want to treat all your cuts, hyung,” Chan advises the older boy. “I can go now, right?”

“Definitely,” Soonyoung nods as he pulls out his walkie-talkie to call off the mission. “This whole thing has been a bust.

“Sorry, hyung,” Chan pats him on the shoulder before leaving.

As soon as Chan is out of eyesight, he smirks.

All according to plan.

As soon as the quad fades out of view behind them, Jisoo lets his hands brush against Jihoon’s as they walk: they’re not quite holding hands, but there’s still a level of skinship between the two that’s abnormal for both of them.

“Do you think that was believable?” Jisoo asks.

Jihoon shrugs. “I think so.” Then his face changes, becomes one of anger. “I can’t believe we almost told them we were dating.”

“I mean, they’re not that bad,” Jisoo defends weakly, “but yeah, the Gag Trio is definitely not my first choice to tell. Thank god Chan told us about their plan.”

“I would have paid to see Soonyoung jump in a bush,” Jihoon snorts.

Jisoo laughs as well, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth. “I hope he’s okay. That bush looks painful.”

“I don’t care,” is Jihoon’s unsympathetic reply. “If they want to spy on us to find out something private like our relationship, then they don’t deserve my sympathy.”

Jisoo would comment on his boyfriend’s harsh words, but a thought occurs to him. “Jihoon-ah,” he calls. “What do you think about getting revenge?”

The younger turns to face him, curiosity shining in his eyes. “I like the way you think,” he answers, starting to look mischievous. “What did you have in mind?”

A week later, Chan is trying his best to keep a smile from breaking out on his face as the BooSoonSeok trio bounds into the cafeteria, triumphant looks on their faces. Everyone at the table composes themselves, prepared to do their part in getting revenge on the Gag Trio.

“Guys, guess what?” Soonyoung all but yells, slamming his hands down on the table.

Mingyu instantly complains. “Why can’t we have one day of peace to eat lunch? One day!”

“Lunch isn’t important right now! Guess who we saw?” Seungkwan grins from ear to ear. He doesn’t wait for anyone to say anything before he continues, “Jisoo and Jihoon! Together! As in dating!”

Instead of the shock or disbelief any of the Gag Trio expect, the entire group simply look unamused.

“O...kay?” Mingyu shoots the three a confused look before returning to his food. Everyone else does the same, ignoring the three.

“What?” Seokmin asks, the three of them now confused.

“We all knew already,” Jeonghan informs them. “We thought you knew too.”

“What?” The three echo, their voices loud in the cafeteria.

“Are you kidding me?” Seungkwan continues. “When did he tell you guys?”

“Like, last week?” Minghao says, thinking to himself. “Yeah, last week.”

Wonwoo nods, as does everyone else. “I mean, we were just as surprised as you were, but they’re good together. I even saw Jihoon be a little softer, which was really... something.”

Soonyoung stares, mouth wide open, before he turns to Chan, eyes narrowing. “Did you know?”

“What? No,” Chan replies honestly. “I didn’t know at the time. I mean, if I did, I wouldn’t have let myself get dragged along in your stupid missions.”

“Yah, I’m your hyung,” Soonyoung retorts. Chan rolls his eyes

Before Chan can say anything else, Jisoo and Jihoon themselves walk in, still just letting their hands brush, but standing closer to each other than they would with anyone else.

“Hey guys,” Jisoo greets everyone as the two of them sit down next to each other. Jihoon doesn’t even blush as Jisoo opens his lunch, revealing that he had made both of them lunches, and the two of them share their food like they’ve been doing it forever.

“When did you tell us you two were dating?” Seungkwan demands, making Jisoo look at him, his doe eyes full of innocence.

“Last week,” he replies, echoing the same words the others having been saying.

“Why didn’t you tell us? Why weren’t we told?” Soonyoung asks, looking mildly betrayed. “When were you going to tell us?”

The smile on Jisoo’s face turned slightly cold. “Depends. How far were you three planning to go to find out if we were dating?”

The three of them froze, as did everyone else. No one had ever heard Jisoo speak so coldly, so harshly. No one knew what to do.

“Were you planning on breaking into my house? Jihoon’s house? Were you going to plant a bug on either of us?” Jisoo continues, eying the three of them with contained anger. “How far would you three go to find out a private part of my life? What if neither of us didn’t want to reveal our relationship just yet? You’re lucky we were planning on coming out anyway.”

“We... we weren’t trying to see if you guys were in a relationship,” Soonyoung explains hastily. “We were trying to get you two to at least be friends, because you guys didn’t seem to care about each other.”

“Oh?” Jihoon raises his eyebrow.

“Yeah, hyung was saying that nothing short of a miracle would bring you two together,” Seokmin recalls, not realizing he was condemning Soonyoung to Jihoon’s wrath and ignoring Seungkwan’s warnings. “He said that about... two weeks ago? Yeah, because that’s when we started trying to figure it out.”

Jihoon growls. “Nothing short of a miracle?” He asks. “Is that a height joke?”

The three immediately backpedal, eyes widening again. “What? No! We-we didn’t mean it like that! Hyung, don’t get your guitar!”

Jisoo laughs, hiding his mouth behind his hand as Jihoon rises to his feet menacingly, fists clenched. “I should beat you into oblivion right here and now,” he hisses at the cowering trio.

Everyone watches in amazement as Jisoo just sits there, not making a single effort to placate his boyfriend like he had before, whenever Jihoon got violent. Instead, he just watches Jihoon, eyes full of fondness and love as he absentmindedly eats his food.

Finally (at last in everyone else’s opinion) Jisoo intervenes. Picking up a sushi roll, he holds it up to Jihoon’s lips. “C’mon, Hoon, eat before I eat it all.”

The shorter holds his glare on the three for a few more moments before reluctantly opening his mouth, accepting Jisoo’s offering, and sitting back down, face impassive.

Jisoo beams at his boyfriend before turning back to the Gag Trio. “I think you three have learned your lesson. Don’t try to investigate our personal, private lives again.” The warning is stern, and the three nod eagerly. They went too far this time, they knew that.

Revenge over, Jisoo leans slightly into Jihoon, who also turns marginally towards Jisoo, beginning to wrap themselves in their own little bubble, something no one would ever see Jihoon doing.

Before that happens, though, Jisoo makes eye contact with Chan. His eyes convey success, happiness, mischief, and gratitude.

Chan smiles at him. Even if not everyone knows that Chan has just pulled off the impossible--double crossing Boosoonseok--he still feels proud of himself.

No one should underestimate the maknae.

So... what do you guys think? 

I left some details of Chan's plan vague, just to see what you guys would think. How much of Chan's perspective was acting? Was he really that scared to talk to Jihoon and Jisoo? Did he tell 2ji to meet at the quad to freak Soonyoung out? Was he really panicked when the two came to talk to him?

Let me know what you think! I'm really curious to know.