Hak Yeon knocked on the door gently, his knuckles barely grazing the wooden surface as he alerted the lone occupant inside of his presence before silently entering and closing the door behind him. His beau was lying stretched out with one elbow propping his long torso up, earphones plugged in and reading a book intently as he propped his casted right leg up on a cushion. He was already dressed in his sleepwear of a simple oversized shirt and sweatpants slung low on his narrow hips and he appeared to be ready to turn in any moment.

It was a difficult topic to breach and, though placed in the ideal situation to talk about the issue with only the two present in the room and undisturbed silence between them, Hak Yeon didn’t even know when to start. The leader toyed with the edge of the futon for minutes as he formulated his speech in his head, knowing full well that precious time left till the younger members returned was slipping away, before finally opening his mouth.

Taking a deep breath, the dark-skinned leader crawled over the spread out futons and sat right at the Taek Woon’s bare feet. “Taek Woon, Taek Woonie,” The aforementioned singer removed the ear bud in his left ear upon prompting from the elder and tucked his index finger between the pages as a makeshift bookmark, closing the paperback. Taek Woon sat up straighter and shuffled backwards until his back hit the wall and lifted his eyes to his boyfriend to give the elder his fullest attention. “I… I was just wondering…”

“What is it, Hak Yeon? Are you feeling unwell anywhere? Do you need me to inform manager hyung?” Taek Woon took a good look at his beau’s conflicted face for a few seconds before the elder’s troubles registered in his mind and he sat up straight, folding his lengthy legs beneath him and properly stowing his book. “You want to tell the other members about our relationship?”

“Wait, how did you…?” Hak Yeon stopped himself from asking a redundant question. Of course Taek Woon knew. They were, after all, lifelong. They were soulmates. The elder’s surprise simmered away and he nodded solemnly, chewing down on his lower lip nervously. “Yeah… Do you think that’s a good idea? Will they accept us?”

Taek Woon was contemplative before he answered. “I don’t see why not. They were pretty receptive about the fan service we’ve been doing recently. This is… In a sense, an extended form of fan service, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but it is still different. It would be…” Hak Yeon fumbled trying to find an accurate descriptor to fit his sentence, finally settling for – “Real, this time and not just all for show. They would know that there are actual feelings invested in our actions. Wouldn’t it, I don’t know, wouldn’t it weird them out? Especially Hyukkie, since he’s still so young. Plus, we don’t actually make out for the fans to see, you know.”

“What are you talking about, Hak Yeon ah?” Taek Woon chuckled as he manoeuvred his body around with much effort, crawling to his knees and began advancing towards the rapidly reddening leader. “We don’t make out for anyone to see. In fact, we’ve never even made out before. Unless… Is that what you’re thinking of? Should I, then?”

“Yah, that’s not what I meant,” Hak Yeon punched the other’s chest lightly and whined. His cheeks burned scarlet as he willed himself not to imagine scenes of the two of them kissing heatedly. It didn’t work and he groaned, feeling a rush of blood down south, pooling at his nether regions. It was a fire he needed to quench quickly. “Aish… It’s not like that…”

“Then why are you blushing so hard, love?” Taek Woon teased, their faces now inches away from each other’s. He cupped the leader’s flaming red cheek in his palm and smoothed his fingers over the heated skin. “You seem ually frustrated. Maybe we really should try it out sometimes. You really are delectable. I don’t know how I control myself around you sometimes.”

“No, what are you – Woah!” Hak Yeon jerked back on reflex when he finally snapped out of his reverie and found Taek Woon’s face suddenly hovering dangerously close to his, causing him to fluster and his mind to throw all sensibility out of the window as he couldn’t help but focus on the younger’s enticingly moist lips. “Yah, Jung Taek Woon, what are you doing!”

“What?” Taek Woon questioned as he blinked angelically, thumb soothingly drawing circles on the back of the leader’s hand. Hak Yeon almost could’ve been misled by the innocent gesture if it hadn’t been for the mischievous glint present in the singer’s eyes. “We’re going to tell the kids, aren’t we? You can’t be this nervous when we do, Hak Yeon ah. I’m helping you relax now, aren’t I? Besides, the rest of them aren’t home now, so this is probably the only opportunity we can get.”

“And what do you think I’m getting tense about…” Hak Yeon grumbled under his breath, cheeks flushing an even brighter shade of red. He peeked up at the younger nervously before darting his gaze away again. “It’s because you make me nervous, pabo! You have no idea how erratic my heartbeat is now because of your close proximity…”

“You’re unbelievably cute right now and you don’t even know. And you’re mine, all mine,” Taek Woon breathed tenderly as he ran his knuckles down the side of Hak Yeon’s face and tilted the other’s chin up with his index finger. Slowly, he guided the leader to him and closed the distance between their mouths, smiling naturally as their lips met.

The kiss started off slow and unhurried. Taek Woon and Hak Yeon took their time to taste each other innocently, the latter albeit more shy than the other, before finally slipping their tongues in to explore each others’ mouths. Hak Yeon’s eyes fluttered shut, the feathery feeling of the other’s eyelashes brushing against his cheek causing Taek Woon to let out a groan.

Taek Woon s his arms around the elder’s waist and drew him closer, holding the other’s torso in place against his own as he slowly settled himself back against the wall, guiding Hak Yeon along with him. His nimble hands locked and rested on the small of the leader’s back. Hak Yeon in response got to his knees and crawled forward until he straddled the singer’s legs and sat down in his lap, palms cradling the singer’s face tenderly as though he was the most precious thing in the world.

They were so into the mood they hadn’t realised the other members had arrived home. Like a throng of fluffy little baby chicks they filed into the dorm one by one, shuffling about the place as they dropped off random items at different spots. The commotion grew louder as they got closer to the main bedroom, but the pair still remained blissfully unaware of the nasty surprise that laid beyond the shut wooden door.

“It’s awfully quiet in here, and unusually so. You’d think Hak Yeon hyung would be yapping away at something irrelevant again. Do you think the hyungs would have slept by now? Since they came home first they might have. It’s still kind of early thou – Oh my goodness!”

It had been Sang Hyuk who discovered the eldest two in the intimate position. His sudden outcry caught the attention of the three remaining members, who flocked into the room wondering what the uproar was about. At the sound of the maknae’s voice Hak Yeon and Taek Woon sprang apart like two guilty individuals (because really, they were), but the damage had already been done. It didn’t take much for Jae Hwan to figure out what had just happened.

“Yah, Hak Yeon hyung, Taek Woon hyung, didn’t I tell you to be careful?” Jae Hwan nudged past the shell-shocked younger ones and popped out of the bunch, gaining an unrestricted view of the two men. At once he went into Ken-jumma mode and began berating the two eldest members, who sat awkwardly at opposite ends of the room looking like scolded puppy dogs. “Well, congratulations. Everyone knows now, so there isn’t a point to hide anymore.”

“Well, we were kind of planning to let you guys know tonight anyway…” Taek Woon muttered sullenly as a form of a weak rebuttal. He glanced up at the younger members fleetingly before looking away again towards his boyfriend, who looked like he was about to die from mortification. “Uhm, well, at least, before Sang Hyuk walked in on us and found out inevitably…”

“But still!” Jae Hwan threw his hands up in the air in frustration. “Aish, imagine if it’d been manager hyung who came in instead. You would never be able to live down the embarrassment and more likely than not, you two will be forced to break up! And even then, this is not the way to let the kids find out! Just look at them! Hong Bin looks like he wants to throw up and maknae’s about to burst into tears any moment!”

“Ah, actually, Jae Hwan hyung, this has nothing to do with them. I think I just ate too much at the restaurant just now.” Hong Bin corrected hastily, a permanent grimace set over his furrowed brows as he grew paler by the second, his dewy eyes darted about the room. “Kimchi stew and mocha ice-cream is not a good combination, apparently. I really do feel–”

“–Sick!” The visual member clapped a hand over his mouth and shouldered past all the members gathered by the door, making a beeline for the bathroom. The other five cringed at the sound of gag reflex being triggered and vomit hitting the ceramic bowl echoed by from across the hallway and tried not to picture the lovely palette of colours Hong Bin had just heaved from his stomach.

Won Shik eyed the direction his same-aged friend had just dashed off in with concern before turning back to the two oldest members of the group pensively. “Hak Yeon hyung, Taek Woon hyung, what’s the meaning of this? Are you two, really, like what Jae Hwan hyung said…? And Jae Hwan hyung, how did you even find out? Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Let’s… Let’s just all move to the living room first, shall we?” Hak Yeon offered timidly, refusing to make eye contact with anyone in the room. “I think we have a lot of things to clear up tonight.”

~~~

It took nearly an hour – half of the time accounted for with Taek Woon being rendered partially immobile and requiring assistance from Hak Yeon to be aided to his feet, and the other half from Won Shik helping Hong Bin clear up the mess in the bathroom made from his dinner misadventures – before the six members of VIXX were solemnly gathered in the living room with solemn expressions painted on their faces.

“Firstly… Even though the cat’s already been let out of the bag… Because the four of you are essentially like family to us,” Hak Yeon glanced shyly to the left at his beau, who in response slid his hand over and curled their fingers together reassuringly. “Taek Woon and I still want to officially announce it to all of you that we’re romantically involved with each other.”

“He asked me out on the night of our debut and we’ve been together ever since.” Taek Woon added softly for good measure.

The singer hadn’t even flinched when his hand made contact with the leader’s, and he had been the one who initiated the skinship. Taek Woon, possibly the straightest guy in all of K-Pop (now ex-straightest guy given his current status), had comfortably initiated skin contact with another male as though it was second nature. This new piece of information left the younger members stumped and it took them a full minute for them to wrap their brains around this and process it.

“I… Okay… I’m not homophobic. I can… I can accept that.” Won Shik looked like he wanted to say something but decided to hold his tongue and turned to the other main vocalist instead. “Then Jae Hwan hyung, how did you find out?”

“Honestly… Well…” Jae Hwan began awkwardly. “There was this one night after midnight when I couldn’t sleep. I got up and wanted to get a drink of water when I heard Hak Yeon and Taek Woon out quarrelling in the living room. And… Eh heh, it had been because of me. Apparently my clinginess to people has caused Taek Woon hyung a lot of trouble.”

“I’m glad you finally realised it, you brat.” Hak Yeon huffed. He loosened Taek Woon’s grip on his fingers and folded his arms across his chest, staring down the other. “We even broke up momentarily because of you.”

“Oh,” The maknae looked like he just had an epiphany and he shot up straight, face alit with enlightenment. “So that period of time when Hak Yeon hyung was really depressed but he simply passed it off as stress and lack of sleep, was that the time when the two of you were having your cold war?”

Hak Yeon didn’t know how else to react but to blink. “Wait, you noticed?”

“Even the blind would have realised it. You weren’t exactly the most subtle with your actions, love.” Taek Woon inputted oh-so helpfully, earning a half-hearted glare and a light pinch in the side from his beau.

“Oh my goodness, did you hear that? They have pet names for each other!” Hong Bin suddenly squealed before collapsing in fits of hysterical giggles behind Won Shik’s back, occasionally slapping the wooden floor with his hand. “So what, do you call each other those disgustingly cheesy names like ‘sweetie’ or ‘dear’? Hey, didn’t Taek Woon hyung say before that he likes the name ‘boo’?”

The leader’s jaw slacked in disbelief as his head snapped towards Taek Woon, eyes burning accusatorily into the side of the younger’s face. “Yah, Jung Leo! You never told me anything like that! Who’s your boyfriend here?” Hak Yeon protested childishly as he smacked the main vocalist on the arm, his hand promptly caught by the singer and held in the latter’s lap. “Now since you already have a pet name for me I want to call you ‘boo’ too!”

“I never told you that because I’ve never said anything like that before in my entire life.” Taek Woon hissed menacingly, the aura surrounding him suddenly getting really dark as he squinted at the manically grinning visual member. “Yah, Lee Hong Bin, stop making up things like this. Do you want to die?”

“So you don’t like pet names?” Hak Yeon tried timidly.

Taek Woon shrugged as he ran the pad of his thumb over the back of Hak Yeon’s hand, drawing mind-numbing circles (in Hak Yeon’s case) against the olive skin. “I don’t have any penchant for any of them, really. Just ‘love’ is fine, babe. Whatever you’ve been calling me before works.”

“Oh my goodness, did you guys just hear that too? Taek Woon hyung called Hak Yeon hyung ‘babe’!” Won Shik roared before collapsing on top of the team visual who had upgraded to peels of maniacal laughter. “Now we know who wears the pants in the relationship! And there you are expecting that the elder would be the one to top.”

“I–I… No!” Hak Yeon turned a pretty shade of salmon pink at the words, which only succeeded in causing a bigger uproar amongst the members, now falling over each other and supporting one another up as they held their hurting sides. “Yah, it’s nothing like that! Kim Won Shik! Lee Hong Bin! W–we haven’t even done anything yet! Taek Woonie, tell them!”

“Gosh, Hak Yeon hyung, you are so whipped.” Hong Bin sniped, shielding the giant smirk on his face with the back of his hand as the last of his laughs melded into short gasps for breath. “I don’t think I can ever look at you the same.”

“I don’t get it. What did Won Shik hyung just say?” Sang Hyuk asked innocently. “Top? Top what?”

“Nothing, maknae!” Five voices exclaimed immediately, adamant on keeping the maknae innocent.

Sang Hyuk frowned before an adorable little pout formed on his pink lips. “You guys never tell me anything.”