Mentions of Seho in this chapter!

Jonghyun finished his performance with a short bow and down the stairs with wobbly legs. After he had gotten off the stage, a bunch of drunk students tried giving him high-fives and 90% of them completely missed his hand. A few sober kids complimented him, some even tried flirting, but he politely thanked them and turned them down. He was a little more than frustrated to find that the table he had previously been sitting at had been taken by complete strangers and that Kibum, Taemin, and Minho were nowhere to be seen.

“I swear to god, can’t even wait one minute…” He mumbled under his breath, meandering through the crowd to find his ”friends”.

Underneath a nearby patio, Kibum played beer pong with some jocks as Minho watched with his head against a girl’s shoulder.

“Have I ever told you you’re my favorite cousin?” Minho said to the girl sitting beside him.

“Choi Minho, get off your lazy and get your own soju.” She replied.

“I didn’t even ask you to do anything!” He whined.

“You should know by now that I know everything.” She smirked and poked his forehead. “Get your own soju.”

Minho scrunched his nose and stood up to walk towards the closest refreshment table. He grabbed the first bottle he saw, not really caring at this point what kind he got, and turned back towards his cousin. As he approached, he realized she was talking to a short party-goer with their arm around a much taller, lankier person’s waist.

“And how’s your partner, Sooyoung?” The shorter one asked Minho’s cousin.

“They’re great, but they couldn’t make it to the party, unfortunately.” Sooyoung pouted. She turned her head and made eye contact with Minho, trying to signal him to walk away while he still can, but the short person saw this and smiled when he saw Minho standing there.

“Hi, Minho! Enjoying the party?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s really great, Suho.” He clutched his soju bottle tighter than he needed to.

“I don’t think you two have met yet.” Suho said, tilting his head towards the man on his side. “This is Sehun, my boyfriend.”

“Do you have to be so proper? It’s a party.” Sehun rolled his eyes. Suho awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Uh, anyway, how’ve you been doing lately?” Suho asked.

Dammit, Minho thought, why does he have to be so ing polite? It’s making it very difficult to hate him. “Um, great, yeah.” An idea flickered into his mind. “I actually came here with my boyfriend, too.”

Sooyoung gasped. “Choi Minho, why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?!”

“I thought you knew everything.” Minho replied.

“Stop being a smartass and introduce him to us.” She shooed him away.

“Oh, right.” Minho walked away from the group and took a swig from his bottle. He can’t be sober and talk to them at the same time. Then he stopped and thought about what Sooyoung had just asked. He doesn’t have a boyfriend.

.

Feeling the group’s eyes on his back, he continued walking, his mind racing. He’d have to find someone to pretend to be his boyfriend or they’ll find out he lied. Sooyoung would never let him live that down. There was only one person he knew who was hopefully drunk enough to play along with his idea…

Putting his arm around Kibum’s shoulder, who had been standing around a table watching kids play beer pong, Minho whispered into his ear, “Please pretend to be my boyfriend in front of my ex.”

“Ooh, devious, I like it.” Kibum replied in a voice that was way too loud to be considered a whisper, patting Minho’s chest as he led them back to the group of people.

“Everyone, this is my boyfriend, Kibum.” Minho gestured to the man under his arm. They all greeted him.

“Which one of you broke the hotties heart?” Kibum demanded. Minho froze as the other’s gaped at him. Finally, Suho spoke up in a quieter voice than usual,

“We broke up by mutual agreement, actually…” Minho took a swig of soju.

“Ah, whatever. Your loss.” Another swig. Sensing the awkward tension in the air, Sooyoung spoke up from her chair. “Can I get either of you some soju?” She inquired.

“No thank you, I’m Buddhist, actually.” Suho answered.

“I’ll take one.” Sehun spoke up.

“You can’t drink yet!” Suho scolded and nudged his side.

“Stop being such a ing grandpa.”

“Wow, I can really sense the love between you two.” Kibum said. Minho took another swig.

“Oh hey, I think I heard my partner calling for me!” Sooyoung stood up from her chair and got the hell out of dodge.

Sehun turned and whispered into Suho’s ear, “I thought she said her partner couldn’t make it?”

The sound of hurried footsteps caused Minho and Kibum to turn around. Jonghyun was jogging towards them, scowling in anger. He stopped before them, resting his hands on his knees, panting out. Kibum grimaced a little, wondering how in the world anyone would think running was necessary at any time.

“Where the hell were you?!” Jonghyun breathed.

“We were here, duh.” Kibum scoffed.

“You couldn’t have waited for me to come back before running off?!” Jonghyun shouted, pointedly looking at the people in front of him. Then he stood up, alert, realizing there was someone missing in the crowd. “Where’s Taemin?” He asked.

“The prince?” Suho asked from the side.

“No, the pope.” Sehun answered.

Kibum rolled his eyes at them. “I don’t know, he’s probably himself somewhere.”

“Ugh, thanks for the mental image, .” Minho said, taking a swig of his drink.

“I’m gone, I’m leaving right now.” Sehun threw his hands up in the air, walking away from the group of oddballs. Suho followed after him, trying to grab his arm and reason with him.

Jonghyun rubbed the sweat off his forehead. “For god’s sake, Kibum, you were supposed to be watching him!”

“I’m supposed to do a lot of things.” Kibum joked. Jonghyun kept glaring at him, so the younger just waved his arm and said, “He said he wanted to dance, so he’s probably on the dance floor. Go find him if you want him so bad.”

“Ugh, don’t say it like that.” Jonghyun blushed, and took off towards the dance floor, leaving Minho and Kibum by themselves.

Minho turned and looked at the older man still under his arm. “Did you just call me a hottie?”

“Taemin!! Taemin, where are you?!” Jonghyun yelled into the crowd of dancers. He didn’t even know why he bothered shouting, it’s not like anyone could hear him over the thumping bass. But he tried anyway, all while pushing through the mass of people, trying to find that familiar mop of black hair.

As he approached the approximate center of the dance floor, he noticed there was a circle of students all standing around a clearing. Getting on his toes to try and see over their shoulders, he saw a pair of pale arms moving in the air. He hopped in the air to get a better view, and saw that the person dancing in the middle of the floor was none other than the prince.

“Taemin!” Jonghyun cried out as he pushed through the students in front of him. Taemin looked at him and laughed.

“Oh, hey hyung, what’s up?” Taemin asked, still smiling and moving to the rhythm. He ran his hand through his hair, then continued his dance, bringing his arms out wide and crossing his legs together, each movement perfectly reflecting the deep beat of the song.

Jonghyun swallowed and tried to look at anything besides Taemin’s swaying hips. “Um, it’s just, I was looking for you…”

“Really?” Taemin asked, a playful tone to his voice.

“Taemin, how much have you drank?” Jonghyun said, suddenly very aware of all the eyes on the prince right now. If he did something stupid, the students would take notice and possibly contact the news again.

“Don’t be such a prude!” Taemin laughed. He walked over with unsteady legs, and Jonghyun wondered how he could keep his balance while dancing when he could barely walk straight. “You should dance with me!” Taemin put his hands around Jonghyun’s broad shoulders and attempted to pull him closer, but Jonghyun grabbed Taemin’s wrist and pulled him back.

“Taemin, you reek of alcohol.” He said, voice barely above a whisper.

“What’s your point?” Taemin tried pulling Jonghyun closer again. “Come on, let’s have fun.”

Jonghyun turned an even deeper shade of red than he already was. “I-I think we’d better go home.”

Taemin gasped and whacked his shoulder. “Jonghyun, you ert! You should at least buy me dinner first!”

Now Jonghyun looked like a tomato. “I didn’t mean it like...” He looked to the side and bit his lip. “Let’s just go.” He grabbed Taemin’s hand and led him through the crowd.

“But hyung, I still wanted to dance some more!” Taemin pouted, but did nothing to resist the man pulling him forwards. Everyone they passed turned and stared at the display before them, but Jonghyun couldn’t care less at this point. Taemin was a mess and needed to be somewhere safe.

Taemin was still whining by the time they made it to the limo, but Jonghyun ignored him and instead gently lead him into the back seat.

“Stay here, okay? Don’t go running off and make sure you lock the doors once I’m gone.” Jonghyun looked for a sign of understanding in Taemin’s clouded eyes but found none. He sighed and lightly brushed Taemin’s hair to get his attention, resting his hand on Taemin’s cheek, . “Taemin, look at me. I’m going to go find Minho and Kibum and then be right back. Stay. Safe.” He tried to communicate his seriousness through his eyes and got a light nod from the younger in response. Jonghyun mumbled an “okay” and pet the top of Taemin’s head before leaving the car to find his friend.

Jonghyun had been searching for over 15 minutes before he got the idea to look in the bathroom. It was the most likely place for them to be, probably pissing or hacking their guts out. What he didn’t expect to find was some couple making out against the tiled walls.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” He blushed and slammed the door, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest. It’s always the most awkward thing when you walk into a couple’s intimate time together, even if it was in a place they had no business being intimate in. He blushed even harder when he realized he could still hear them and their lips smacking through the metal door.

A voice behind the door whimpered. “Kibum…” Wait, what? Did Jonghyun hear that name right? He opened the door a smidge and peered inside. Ah yes, that was definitely the he was looking for. But who was he…

“ALRIGHT, BREAK IT UP!” Jonghyun yelled, forcibly separating Minho and Kibum from each other with his forearms. He turned and looked at his friend’s red and swollen lips before smacking him upside the head.

“Yah, what the hell was that for!” Kibum glared and rubbed the back of his head.

“For being a goddamn , that’s why!” Jonghyun pushed the two by their backs towards the door and led them outside. “We’re going home, now!” He continued pushing them forwards, making sure they kept enough distance between them, all while listening to Kibum and Minho just blabber confusedly. He really should get a medal for putting up with this bull-ery.

And to top it all off, there was a pile of Taemin’s bile outside of the car. Great. Perfect. At least he had the sense to do it on the pavement instead of the interior of the limo.

The ride home was full of drunken shouting and yelling, but at least they made it home in one piece. The next day, Jonghyun will definitely request for a medal from King Jinki. But for now, he’ll just let the workers deal with the intoxicated kids while he lays on his bed. He thinks he may actually get a few hours of sleep that night.

I just really want to apologize for this taking so long to get out. I had exams, then I had double pneumonia, and then my friend was in the hospital...not exactly a lot of time for me to write. I'll try to be quicker in the future. Thanks for reading!