Jongdae winced slightly when something cold touched the back of his neck. He lifted his head and looked up at Joonmyeon. "Are you okay?", asked the older one with slight concern in his voice. The younger man didn‘t answer immediately. He simply let his gaze wander through the practice room. His eyes remained on Minseok for a brief moment before shifting back to the leader. His hyung stood by Luhans side and laughed at something the other had just told him. "I’m alright.", he murmured in reply while reaching for the water bottle that was still held against the back of his neck. The older of the two sat down next to his friend and looked at him. "You shouldn‘t keep everything to yourself, Jongdae.", he scolded while opening his own water bottle. His eyes never left Jongdae while he took a sip. Chen laughed shortly, but it wasn’t as bright and happy as usual. It was more forced then what it normally would be. "You shouldn’t scold others for things you do yourself, hyung.", Jongdae replied with a slightly amused voice. His eyes went back to Minseok, who was still standing on the other side of the room. It was a reflex. A very annoying one at that, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible to switch it off. That was the disadvantage of being (unhappily) in love with a fellow band member. You couldn’t really hide, because you were forced to be around him 24/7. Escape wasn’t an option.

To say that it was love at first sight would have been a big fat lie and even thought Chen loved to make jokes he didn’t think high of liars. He hadn’t fallen in love with Xiumin until they had been promoting in China for the first time. Of course they also had good relationships with the other members of EXO-M, but it was different after all. The fact that they could hardly communicate with strangers brought Minseok and Jongdae closer. Together they wouldn’t be as alone as without each other. The younger never dared to tell Xiumin how he felt thought. He didn’t want to jeopardize a perfectly fine friendship and gay relationships are still a taboo. They aren’t a regular or normal thing and may would never be. Chen definitely didn’t want Xiumins and his relationship to turn out strange. Even if there was this small chance of not being rejected, Chen couldn’t really imagine dating the older. Thanks to their contract he already had his problems differentiating between friendly affection and affections of a lover. Indicating skinship with everyone in the group wasn’t an easy thing to do. At least not in the beginning. They got used to it thought, more or less at least. A real relationship would simply be weird thought. Who wanted to be in a relationship with someone who’s all touchy with his friends? He wasn’t like Chanyeol and Baekhyun who started dating some time ago. Jongdae was jealous of Chanyeols bravery, but he wasn’t all too sure if the giants confession hadn’t happened out of mistake (and probably stupidity…). Chanyeol had this habit of not thinking before he talked, but in the end it didn’t matter. Baekhyun shared his feelings and the two started dating. Supposedly in the hiding, but Chen was pretty sure that everyone knew about those two. They didn’t hide it that well…

"Do you want to hear an advice?" Suhos voice brought Chen back from his thoughts and he quickly turned his gaze back to his friend. "Aren’t you going to tell me your advice anyway?", Jongdae asked with a grin. Joonmyeon simply grinned in amusement, too. He was probably right. However, the leader really wanted to help him. "You know, Jongdae. Sometimes we overlook what is right in front of our eyes , because we’re too busy chasing after something we can’t have.", Suho told Chen with a gentle smile. The younger started to laugh loudly. "Is that so, hyung?", the younger wanted to know amused while he stood up and looked down on the older, "I don’t think I missed something, hyung." It was a definite declaration, no room left for any discussions. With these words he turned away and walked over to Chanyeol , Sehun and Kris, who had made themselves comfortable on the only couch in the practice room. Suho shook his head slightly. "You do, Jongdae. You do…", he said quietly with a soft sigh as he looked after him and let his gaze wander to Minseok afterwards. Why did it have to be Xiumin? Why couldn’t he be as important for Chen as he was for him?