Minhyuk breaks away from Changkyun, heaving in air. His eyes are wide, his palms beginning to sweat. It’s quiet in the room, though the silence is deafening. The sound of his own heart races in his ears, and he can’t think of or see anything passed the rapper frozen in the doorway to the bedroom, his small eyes blown open by what he’s just walked in on.

Changkyun moves first, holding his hands out and waving them, blabbering how this isn’t what it looks like. Minhyuk finds the nervous, frantic instinct adorable and endearing, despite it being futile. Jooheon scoffs, shakes his head. Asks how this could be anything else.

Minhyuk doesn’t watch him, only sees Changkyun... He’s only ever always seen Changkyun.

“J… JUST STOP IT!” Jooheon practically shrieks, waving his own hands in front of him and sounding almost panicked. Changkyun blinks rapidly as if trying to fight off tears, his lips pressed into a thin line. Jooheon heaves a deep breath, shaking his head as he retracts his hands to press the tips of his fingers against his temples.

“Do Hyunwoo and Kihyun know?” Jooheon asks after a moment, not meeting either of the men’s eyes. The following silence is answer enough for him, and he gives an exasperated sigh as he turns on his heel. He just can’t look at either of them, unable to fathom how they thought they could get away with something like this, how they could think something like this was even remotely okay…

He’d thought he’d known them better than this…

“Just tell them.” His tone is short, clipped, and he marches out of there with a huff. He passes Hyungwon on his way out, but he doesn’t answer when he’s asked where he’s going. Hyungwon’s gaze follows after him, brow furrowed.

Two days.

It’s been two days since they were walked in on. Jooheon’s been avoiding the dorm at all costs, unable to trust himself to be around anyone without saying anything. However, it’s their preplanned group dinner to celebrate the nearing comeback, to congratulate each other on their hard work up to this point, and Jooheon just knows he can’t get out of it without raising suspicion.

Though, he doesn’t know if he can make it through this dinner without raising suspicion as far as this new… predicament goes, either. He can’t help but glare at them every time either passes him, and he’s been ignoring their calls and texts.

He knows they’d only ask him to keep from telling anyone, and such a plea would only make him more compelled to tell the two men who really deserve to know: Hyunwoo and Kihyun.

He just hopes this dinner goes by smoothly… a hope he knows is doomed from the beginning.

“Is anything the matter, Heon?”

Jooheon glances over, breaking his unyielding glare on Changkyun and Minhyuk to meet Hoseok’s anxious gaze. Jooheon gives a short nod, trying to smile though he knows it doesn’t quite come across well, judging by the way Hoseok pouts in response. The rapper feels bad about being so short with his hyung, he does, but he just can’t help it.

Kihyun’s doting on Changkyun, and the maknae just keeps looking at Minhyuk while Hyunwoo and his own boyfriend are right there , the meaningful looks hardly guarded. Jooheon can’t believe he’s missed all these signs before, because surely this isn’t the first dinner they’ve had together. He’s always brushed off these looks to be ones passed between two friends. Only two people who held inside jokes, completely innocent and loving of the people they were joking about…

Now, he knows just why they’re so familiar.

The main rapper gets up, unable to stand it anymore. His insides are boiling, his gut twisting in on itself and making it impossible for him to eat, anyway. So, he mutters a soft excuse to Kihyun’s curious eyes, takes his plates to the sink, and then heads off to his room. He feels Hoseok pouting after him, but he thinks that’s the most prying he’ll get from the older.

Sadly, he’s proven wrong when Hoseok enters his room a moment later, only giving a single hesitant knock as warning.

“Hyung...” Jooheon starts, his lips nervously. He can’t outright lie, he just knows he can’t. And Hoseok seems just determined enough to call him out on it.

“I don’t want to force you to tell me anything,” Hoseok interrupts, striding close to him and setting his calloused hands against Jooheon’s forearms. He grips the rapper a bit, as if in silent reassurance. “I’m just… worried about you, Heonney. You’re barely ever at home lately, and whenever you are you seem so angry. I want to help if I can…”

Jooheon practically melts at the concern in Hoseok’s voice. He avoids the man’s bunny-like eyes, shifting where he stands as he struggles to figure out something to say. But, the only thing that comes to his mind, the only thing wanting to be spoken, is the truth.

“... Promise you won’t say anything to the others,” Jooheon says, finally bringing his eyes back up, resolute. Hoseok still seems confused at the request, though he nods solemnly, anyway, and the rapper sits down on his bed with a sigh. Hoseok moves with him, keeping a steady gaze on him as he takes a moment before he starts speaking.

Changkyun’s doing the dishes in the kitchen, giving Kihyun the night off from the chore in—lowkey—guilt. He chews anxiously on his bottom lip, shuffling where he stands as he runs the sudsy plates under warm water.

He tries not to think of what Hoseok and Jooheon could possibly be talking about for so long, only one thing coming to mind. And it’ll serve him right, too, he knows that. He knows he should’ve told Kihyun a long time ago, when all this started. He should’ve been up-front with the older and not have let things get to where they are…

He should’ve just manned up and been honest from the beginning.

But, he didn’t, and now he’s having to suffer the consequences…

He hears footsteps behind him, and he turns, expecting to see either Minhyuk or Kihyun, though his heart yearns for the latter. But, he’s gravely disappointed at seeing neither of them, but Hoseok instead.

The second-eldest vocal of the group sets his eyes onto the maknae, a defeated chill in his eyes as he marches forward. Changkyun gulps, paralyzed where he stands. He’s never seen Hoseok seem so angry before, so unyielding and certain. The man leans down to speak right into Changkyun’s ear, speaking the two words that could make Changkyun’s heart stop for as long as they do.

“I know.”

Changkyun gulps thickly, eyes becoming petrified. He starts to blabber that he doesn’t know what the older is talking about, that he’s sorry, anything that comes to his mind. Hoseok pulls away, frowning at the maknae, and there’s something even worse than fury in his gaze: Disappointment.

“Changkyunnie~” comes the call of the lead vocal, Changkyun’s technical boyfriend, as it lilts through the air. Changkyun blinks rapidly, hating how that sound once so beloved by him now fills him with such dread. His chest aches, and Hoseok only moves to stand beside him at the sink.

“Go and t-talk, Kkungie,” Hoseok stutters out, plunging his hands into the dishwater. “I’ll f-finish up here.”

Changkyun nods, wiping his hands on his shirt as he shuffles off towards Kihyun. He knows that, if Jooheon’s told Hoseok, then Jooheon has also told Kihyun and Hyunwoo… He passes the two on the couch on his way, shooting Minhyuk a meaningful glance: It’s time .

Minhyuk’s eyes grow wide, glancing between Hyunwoo and Changkyun as the maknae shuffles languidly through the dorm to his boyfriend… He swallows a ball of nerves, looking to Hyunwoo. If Changkyun’s going to confess everything to Kihyun, then he’ll follow the maknae’s lead and tell Hyunwoo, too. For better or for worse.

“Um, hyung… we need to talk.”