Sehun wonders if they think they're being subtle. Jongin can hide a lot, has hidden a lot from his best friend in the past few years they've been together, but Chanyeol and subtlety don't go in the same sentence unless there's a "not" or "never" or " no" also present in there somewhere. His entire demeanor is focused on Jongin; his body is turned towards Jongin, his ankle casually pressed against Jongin's, his arm swung over the back of the couch behind Jongin where they're all gathered in the living room watching Kyungsoo's drama, and it wouldn't surprise Sehun to learn that Chanyeol has Jongin's name tattooed on him somewhere.
 

He's sitting on a pillow on the ground with his back leaned up against the couch, Tao's legs resting on his shoulders where he's situated next to Chanyeol, and Sehun is at the perfect angle to watch as Jongin shifts to get more comfortable, and his shoulders fall into Chanyeol's chest so he's curled against Chanyeol.
 

Sehun makes a noise -- he knows they're all touchy, you can't not be when you have people like Tao and Yixing and Junmyeon in your group -- but how the hell does everyone else not see that Chanyeol and Jongin are in gross sappy love with each other?
 

(He'd just had a conversation with Lu Han about it the other day, where he'd tried to convince his hyung that Chanyeol and Jongin were a thing.
 

Lu Han had only looked at him with wide eyes before he'd laughed and clapped Sehun on the shoulder in a fatherly manner that was simultaneously offensive and creepy, shaking his head and saying, "You've been watching too many dramas again, Sehun."
 

He doesn't even watch that many dramas, okay.)
 

Chanyeol shifts at the noise, curious, and catches Sehun's eye just as Jongin's head tips sideways to rest on Chanyeol's shoulder and he snuggles closer into Chanyeol in a way that he has never snuggled with Sehun.
 

Not that Sehun even likes snuggling, like at all, even Tao's incessant touching can get to be a bit too much for him, but still. The point still stands.
 

Chanyeol watches Sehun with wide eyes, glances in between himself and the mess of black hair that is all either of them can see of Jongin's head, and then sends Sehun a eating grin that leaves Sehun absolutely appalled.
 

He spends the rest of the night steaming that Chanyeol and Jongin are so blatantly obvious and no one but him seems to see it, and when Baekhyun wanders over after they've finished watching the drama and asks him about a particular scene, Sehun can't even answer.





 

All joking aside, he'd known from the beginning that Chanyeol and Jongin were one day going to be ChanyeolandJongin, even if no one else seemed to see it. The two had always been magnetic, gravitating towards each other with the sort of single minded intensity that, had Sehun been that type of person, he might have called fate.
 

There was something about them that just seemed to fit, even with their clashing personalities that really weren't so clashing after all; Chanyeol is wild and a bit overbearing, a constant ball of energy and go go go, and Jongin is not as much, with a flipside to his personality that leaves everyone a bit stunned when there's the shift from one to the other, on and offstage.
 

But Chanyeol seems to mellow out with Jongin, and Jongin always seems to smile more when he's with Chanyeol; wide, bright gummy smiles that leaves Sehun's cheeks hurting in sympathy. Jongin becomes a brighter person with Chanyeol, like he's feeding off Chanyeol's energy, like a parasite. An adorable parasite, but a parasite nevertheless.
 

(Sehun isn't sure whether Jongin would be more upset at being called adorable or a parasite. He's not sure he cares.)





 

"Jongin!"
 

It's Chanyeol, who else, arms waving in the air as though trying to catch Jongin's attention even though Jongin is literally less than five feet from Chanyeol, deep in conversation with Kyungsoo, who looks both relieved and annoyed at the interruption. He sends Chanyeol a glare regardless, and Chanyeol nearly physically flinches, arms lowering slowly to his sides from they were pinwheeling wildly above his head, droplets of sweats flying everywhere when he shakes his head like a wet dog. Sehun grimaces, wipes the sweat off his arm with distaste, and shoots Chanyeol a look from beneath his fringe that Chanyeol completely ignores, the .
 

Admittedly, his glares aren't nearly on caliber with Kyungsoo's, who would win Olympic gold in the most malicious look on such a baby face, if that were an actual thing, but that doesn't mean Chanyeol can't at least pretend to be hurt.
 

"Can you help me with the moves we just learned today?"
 

That's almost polite, per Chanyeol's standards. Usually he just grabs Jongin's arm after practice and holds him there until everyone else has left, fingers curled loosely enough around Jongin's bicep that Jongin could slip out if he wanted to.
 

Jongin never does, of course.
 

At some point, it had become habit for Jongin and Chanyeol to stay in the practice room long after the others leave, where Jongin goes through the dance routines one step at a time, curls and twists in ways that the rest of them can only dream of, because nobody's body will ever move the way Jongin's does.
 

(Sehun has seen Chanyeol throw looks at Jongin after they exit practices and stages, looks that are part admiring and part jealous and part something dark that Sehun tends not to dwell on too much, because if his level of attention to detail about ChanyeolandJongin is already bordering on creepy, that would take it to places his thoughts never need to go.)
 

It doesn’t stop Jongin from trying to teach Chanyeol, though. Sehun had gone back to the practice room to grab the sweater Tao had left there and had peeked in to find Jongin with his pressed hand against Chanyeol’s elbow and pushing out, kicking at the inside of Chanyeol’s foot to widen his stance, leaning in to murmur something in Chanyeol's ear that Sehun can't make out.
 

Chanyeol’s laugh is more of a stutter of air in his throat, and when he mutters back (which is really just low talking, the depth in Chanyeol's voice discernible even across the practice room and through the glass window), Sehun can hear, “and whose fault do you think it is, hmm, Jongin?”
 

Sehun had scurried out of there as fast as his feet could take him, but he still thinks about that, sometimes; about the way they were pressed so close together, hard angles softening against each other, and Sehun wonders if that's what he and Zitao look like.
 

He's never gotten the courage to ask.
 

It's their first comeback stage after... well, after, and it's a beautiful success. Tao is nearly in tears before they even get off the stage, and Sehun can feel his body humming with energy, blood pumping faster than ever as he practically vibrates, and a small, absent part of him wonders if this is what it feels like to Chanyeol on a regular basis.
 

Junmyeon allows them all to go out for drinks afterwards, to a hidden bar just a block from the studio that Sehun is half certain he probably owns. There's nobody there as they stumble in, laughing and clinging onto one another as though they're already drunk, endorphins running high as they bask in the glow of triumph.
 

It's approaching nearly two in the morning, and for all their talk, Lu Han and Jongdae are complete and total lightweights, dancing out on the floor to whatever cheesy English pop song their invisible DJ is playing now. Junmyeon is watching them with drunk fondness from an unsteady barstool, eyes slightly lidded, Yixing is sprawled on the booth next to them, hand slung over the back, and the rest of them are still crowded around a table too small for 7 grown men.
 

Wait. There isn't 7 of them here.
 

"Where's-" he gestures wildly above his head, and Baekhyun pipes in "Chanyeol?" from across the table, half slurring his words already as he sinks further into his chair.
 

Sometimes Sehun loves Baekhyun.
 

"Yeah! And Jongin?"
 

Baekhyun looks around the table, as if expecting them to be there, and Kyungsoo takes another shot without even blinking.
 

It's no big deal, really, but Sehun feels something like panic freeze in his chest, cold and heavy because this isn't right, they're all supposed to be here, all of them, and he pushes himself back from the table and stands on unsteady feet, announcing to the whole building at large, "I'm gonna go find the lovebirds."
 

Tao sends him a concerned look, the least drunk of all of them save Kyungsoo, and Sehun pats him on the head reassuringly.
 

(It's actually more like Tao's face, and it's not so much a pat as him dragging his palm down Tao's cheek, but it's the thought that counts.)
 

"Where the are they?"
 

Sehun's gone around this place twice, poked his head into every place his drunk mind thought would be a good hiding spot, and he has yet to see even a flash of his bandmates.
 

He thinks about calling out for them, which is a great idea how on earth did he not think about doing that before, when he hears rustling and a whisper. It's coming from behind a large stack of boxes that Sehun completely missed in his searching, hidden by a curtain that must be for some kind of show they do when this place is open to the public, and Sehun tiptoes over as quietly as he can. He has no clue why he's tiptoeing, but it seems right, and Sehun has learned to trust his instincts.
 

He nearly loses his balance on a layer of glitter on the ground when he steps closer, and the whispering has become louder now, although he still can't understand it.
 

When he tips his head around the closest box hiding the alcove from view, hands curled around the rim to keep himself steady, he almost wishes he hadn't.
 

Because there are Jongin and Chanyeol, not doing anything but standing there, Jongin's arms looped around Chanyeol's waist and Chanyeol's hands cradling Jongin's head. His fingers card through Jongin's blonde hair softly, sliding down his neck to trace the faint patterns of ink still there, and Jongin leans forward, presses his forehead against Chanyeol's and murmurs, "we did good."
 

The laugh that bubbles from Chanyeol's throat is nothing Sehun has ever heard before, surprised and astonished and amused and affectionate all at once, and Sehun watches as Jongin's hands trail up and down the sides of Chanyeol's shirt, tapping on Chanyeol's ribcage in a way that's so absentminded he must have done it a thousand times before.
 

"Yeah," Chanyeol murmurs, leaning in even closer so their noses brush, gaze so fond that something in Sehun's chest aches. "We did."
 

He leans in for a kiss that Jongin meets halfway, and Sehun finally comes back to himself as though he was in a dream, wrenching his hands away from the box and almost running as he hurries away, breath coming in hot pants. He feels as though he just did the ice water challenge, completely sober now and almost shaking, hand pressed to his chest.

He feels like a voyeur, like a creep, because that was... not something that he should have seen. That was so much more than anything else Sehun has seen, because it was intimate, and familiar. A small part of Sehun's brain keeps supplying the word "beautiful," and if he didn't think it was so sappy, he would say it fits. They fit.
 

They just looked so happy, and so absorbed in each other that if the world came crashing down around them, they wouldn't even notice. It was the kind of embrace that people dream about, being that loved. it was the kind of love that didn't need to be put into words, that "I love you" would have felt cheap, because it doesn't need to be said. There, in Chanyeol's eyes and Jongin's lips and the lines of their bodies, it spelled it out.