Playing the Silent Game

alternative title: The Key

                “Noooooooo!”

                Junhyung almost spat out his coffee when he heard the loud, familiar wail coming from the dorm’s dressing room. It was Yoseob’s loud, familiar wail, and Junhyung got up from his seat in the kitchen and went toward the direction of the screams.

                “Noooooo!” Yoseob wailed again, and when the rapper stood by the doorway, he found Yoseob pounding his hands and feet on the floor as he complained over the GAME OVER mocking him from the laptop screen.

                “You couldn’t beat Dongwoon’s high score, huh?” The older boy raised an eyebrow.

                Yoseob frowned and nodded with a glare at the screen.

                Junhyung shrugged and turned to walk away.

                “Wait, hyung! Where are you going?” Yoseob scrambled after him. He placed both hands on Junhyung’s shoulders and jumped around behind him. “What are you going to do? Can I help? I’m bored! Let’s play a game! What do you wanna play? Can we include Kwangie, too?”

                In one swift motion, Junhyung spun around and grabbed his wrists. “Let’s play the silent game, Yoseobie,” he muttered with a tinge of frustration and impatience over the boy’s never-ending excitement for everything.

                “Oooh, how do we play that? What happens if I win? What happens if I lose? Is it just the two of us playing? It’s not fun if it’s just the both of us!”

                Junhyung shook his head, completely exasperated. With Yoseob’s wrists still in his grasp, he sat down on the couch and pulled Yoseob down as well. The boy sat next to him, silent for once, and looked at him expectantly with his large eyes. “Okay, the silent game,” Junhyung began and let go of Yoseob, “is a really fun game to play.”

                Yoseob’s head bobbed up and down in excitement.

                “All you need to do…” he paused again to further build the boy’s eagerness. “…is be quiet for as long as you can. That’s how to win!” He smirked, waiting for Yoseob’s face to drop and for him to start complaining about how boring a game it is.

                Yoseob nodded again, then pretended to zip his lips and lock it with the key. He placed the “key” on his palm and held it out to Junhyung.

                The rapper’s jaw dropped slightly and he looked at Yoseob as if he was crazy. But Yoseob just nodded once more and moved his palm closer to Junhyung. “What the heck, Seob—”

                The vocalist placed one finger in front of his lips, telling Junhyung to be quiet—they were playing the silent game after all. He opened Junhyung’s palm and dropped his invisible key into it. Then he got up from the couch and skipped away to the dressing room, still in complete silence. A few minutes later, he returned to the living room with the laptop and he lay down on his stomach on the floor.

                Junhyung recognized the sounds from the machine as that video game Yoseob tried to outdo Dongwoon in. The rapper grabbed a nearby book and started to read, arrogantly waiting for Yoseob to start screaming his lungs out and lose their silent game.

                An hour passed and Junhyung finally looked up from his book. He’d heard no sound at all during the past sixty minutes, and he saw Yoseob still on the floor. This time he was on his back and his arms and legs were waving around in the air as he wore a great big grin on his face. Junhyung looked to the laptop and saw the bold letters. NEW HIGH SCORE.  The rapper laughed—noiselessly—at Yoseob’s silent celebration.

                All through the evening, Yoseob was quiet. When Hyunseung and Doojoon returned from their schedules, he didn’t greet them with the routine “Hi hyuuuuungs!” in his usual hyperactive voice, but instead with an equally hyperactive wave of his hands. The older boys’ eyebrows rose as they noticed how quiet this loud boy was being, but they dismissed it immediately and took comfort in the silence.

                “Hyung?” Dongwoon approached Junhyung in the kitchen some time that night.

                Junhyung looked at the maknae without a word. The game was still on between him and Yoseob, and as far as he knew, Yoseob was sitting silently on his bunk in the bedroom.

                “Hyung, what’s going on?”

                The rapper’s shoulders shook with muted laughter.

                “No, really. What is it? How come Yoseob’s being so quiet all of a sudden?”

                Junhyung stopped laughing and glared at Dongwoon. So it was an odd event for Yoseob to be quiet, but not him? Dongwoon shrugged and repeated his question. The older boy shoved his hand into his pocket and pretended to rummage around for a moment. Then he pulled his hand out again and opened his palm.

                Dongwoon looked strangely at his hyung. “You do know there’s nothing in your hand, right?”

                Junhyung laughed again and leaned closer to the younger one. “I’ve got the key, Dongwoon,” he whispered.

                The maknae’s face was contorted with huge confusion. “To his heart?” he gasped.

                The rapper had to cover his mouth to muffle the laughter that escaped his lips. He shook his head. “To his voice,” he corrected.  “We’re playing the silent game.”

                An O formed on Dongwoon’s lips and he nodded. After a quick second, he sprinted to the room. “Junhyung hyung lost your game, Yoseob hyung! You win!”

                “Yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Yoseob burst out.

                Junhyung shook his head in amusement. “That traitor,” he muttered.

                “Hyuuuuuuuuuung!” Yoseob ran to the kitchen and embraced him. “I won! I won I won I won I won!”

                “Yep, you did, kiddo.” He ruffled the younger boy’s hair. “Congrats. Oh, but you forgot one thing, Yoseobie.”

                Yoseob pulled away. “What’s that?”

                “I didn’t return the key to you yet.” Junhyung smiled.

                Yoseob covered his lips with both hands. “Oops, I’m sorry. That’s okay hyung, you can keep the key.”

                “What? If I keep the key, then that means you shouldn’t be able to talk!”

                “Oh right.” Yoseob chuckled. He took Junhyung’s hand. “Give me the key to my voice.”

                Junhyung rolled his eyes and opened his hand.

                Yoseob grabbed the air upon Junhyung’s palm and released it into his pocket. When he pulled out his hand, he dropped another invisible item into the rapper’s hand. “Here, you can keep this one instead.” He started walking back to the bedroom.

                Junhyung looked down at his hand. “What’s this one?”

                “The key to my heart,” the boy giggled.

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a/n: lol yes, I have an alternative title to this story XP This wasn't how I originally wanted the story to be. Actually, this was supposed to be part of the original plot I had in mind, but I separated it because it grew too long :P Nyahahaha, Junnie has the Key to Seobie's heart <3 That's close enough to having the heart itself xDDD

Also, I finally made a poster thingy for this collection of oneshots! It's on the foreword. :) Not my best Photoshop creation, but I'm okay with it. =D