*Accidentally updates bonus chapter three years later* And it's not even good. Whoops.

“I don’t think he wants to talk to you right now, Junhui.”

Jisoo pushed him out of the way and climbed into the car, shutting the door behind him. Through the window he could see the other slide in next to Minghao and immediately start rubbing his back. Junhui felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. Watching his best friend like that, curled in on himself and looking like he was trying to hide, was enough for him to realize that maybe this whole situation wasn’t so funny anymore.

Jeonghan placed a hand on his shoulder, “Just ride in my truck with me. We have some things to discuss anyway.” He led him to the vehicle, squishing him into the back with Soonyoung and Jihoon. Seungkwan and Mingyu sat on the bench up front with Jeonghan.

Nobody said a word as they pulled out of the parking lot of the orthodontist’s office. The radio wasn’t and Junhui wasn’t about to ask for it to be, not with the tense air around them. He sat with his hands in his lap, head down, trying to ignore how awkward he felt.

“What are you thinking about, Jun?” Jeonghan broke the silence. Everyone’s eyes him.

“Oh...uh… it’s just, I feel really bad now.” Junhui tried to let out a chuckle but it wasn’t very convincing. “I think we went way too far. I want to apologize but Jisoo wouldn’t let me in the car.”

Jeonghan hummed. “You know how Minghao is. He’s easily embarrassed. He’ll be okay.”

Junhui didn’t think so. He could feel the guilt building up inside him. What if he’s crying right now? What if he won’t talk to him anymore? Oh god, what if Jisoo never lets Jun near him again?!

“How was it?” Soonyoung asked, gaining everyone’s attention.

“How was what?” Jun stared dumbly at his friend beside him.

“You know,” he nudged Junhui with his shoulder, “The kiss. Besides the whole braces thing of course.”

Junhui wasn’t the type to get flustered talking about this kind of thing, but for some reason, he could feel his entire face heat up. “Um, well… it was nice… I guess.”

“Nice enough that you’d want to do it again?” Soonyoung probed, invading Junhui’s personal space. And that was saying something, because when it came to Junhui, he didn’t have personal space.

“Alright, get to the point. What are you on about?”

Soonyoung pouted. “Fine, ruin the fun. Just tell us. Do you or do you not like Minghao?”

The gears in Junhui’s brain stopped working. He felt himself completely shut down. “What?” he asked lamely.

Seungkwan scoffed and twisted his body around in his seat, effectively elbowing Mingyu in the ribcage. “DO.YOU.LIKE.MINGHAO.YES.OR.NO.” he spoke loudly and slowly, like Jun was dumb.

“I… what? Why are you guys asking so suddenly?” It was an understatement how taken aback he felt.

“Well…” Mingyu giggled like a little kid. “It’s just that you looked sooooo into it and seeing as how you usually act towards Minghao… well let’s just say we weren’t really all that surprised.”

“How I… usually act toward him?”

“Oh please, don’t tell us you haven’t noticed yourself.” Jeonghan piped in.

“What are you guys talking about?” Jun asked, genuinely confused. He shifted uncomfortably, not liking where this seemed to be going.

Jihoon rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe we have to spell this out for you.”

Soonyoung nodded. “Jun. Hasn’t it ever occurred to you before that you maybe… I don’t know… like your best friend?”

No. That thought had never occurred to Junhui before. Of course he had thoughts sometimes like, “Wow, Minghao’s so cute I’d just like to hold him.” or “What if I just kissed him on the cheek right now?” but those weren’t something to make a big deal out of.

“You make googly eyes at him practically twenty-four seven, flirt with him all the time, you always have to be sitting next to him, and last week Minghao mentioned you telling him all of us were too busy to go to the mall with you guys on Saturday but the thing is you never once asked us about it.” Jihoon spoke up for the first time since the car ride began, ticking everything off on his fingers like the rest of them had already talked about this before… which surely they hadn’t, had they?

Jun spluttered. “That doesn’t mean anything. Can you blame me for not wanting to get kicked out of the mall again because one of you broke something?” Which was something that indeed has happened before. More than once.

        Seungkwan narrowed his eyes. “Then why did you lie about it?”

    Silence. He didn’t have anything to say about that.

    “Exactly.” Jeonghan said with a smug grin. “You just wanted to be alone with him, didn’t you?”

    Jun threw his hands up into the air. “So what if I did! That doesn’t have to mean anything.”

    “But it could!” Mingyu chimed.

    Soonyoung nodded along. “So does it? Do you like him?”

    More silence. The others took that as a yes.

    “Ha! I knew it!” Seungkwan shouted, bouncing in his seat and pumping his fists into the air.

    Junhui was quiet, his mind being deep in thought. Did he like Minghao? Had he just not noticed this whole time? Minghao was adorable and cute sure but also just his friend who had his back through everything and was so strong and independent and so smart and so fun to be around and he looked so peaceful when he was slept and sometimes when they sat by that big window at school during lunch and the light hit him in just the right way he looked like an angel and- Holy . Maybe he did like Minghao.

    “Oh my god,” he gasped out. “What do I do?”

    Jihoon rolled his eyes. “Um… tell him?”

    A snort came from up front. “After what just happened? That would go over horribly.” Jeonghan stated, peering at those in the back through the rearview mirror. “No. We gotta start subtle. Imply to him there might be romantic feelings there. Get them alone, in date-like situations where Jun can work his charm. But we have to be really sneaky about it, so he doesn’t know we’re planting ideas in his head.”

    The others nodded along in interest. Junhui looked around at all of them. Apparently they were doing this now.

…

    The New Year’s party was a mess.

    When Seungcheol told them a different one of his relatives was hosting it, everyone assumed it’d be much like the Christmas party.

    As it turned out, one of Seungcheol’s cousins or nieces or nephews or somebody had invited every kid their age they knew. And there were a lot of them.

    Minghao assumed the adults we probably upstairs trying to drown out the din or had just straight up left and found somewhere else to celebrate.

    Despite the number of people in the, frankly, much smaller house than the last (not that that was a bad thing), nothing too wild was going on. Too wild as in, the cops hadn’t been called. It was just crowded. And for the past twenty minutes, Minghao had been standing in the corner of the main room trying to catch site of any of his friends while sipping on a glass of water. Water. Because he was a party animal.

    He wasn’t even sure how he’d lost them in the first place. One minute he was just chilling with Hansol and Jihoon and the next he was suddenly all alone.

    Sighing down at his empty cup, Minghao started to move in the direction of the kitchen with the hopes of spotting someone he knew. And lucky him, he ended up walking right into Junhui.

    “Hey! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! It’s almost midnight.” Jun beamed at him.

    Minghao pulled out his phone to look at the time. Sure enough, it was 11:48.

“Where have you been?” he asked. “I couldn’t find anybody.”

    “Just… looking around. Follow me. I want to show you something.” He then grabbed Minghao’s hand and started leading him through the mess of people.

    When he saw that they were heading in the direction of the staircase, he stopped.

    “Jun. Are we even allowed up there?”

    Jun turned to look at him and smirked. “I have no idea. But it’ll be fine.”

    So Minghao let him drag him upstairs and into what appeared to be the master bedroom. On the opposite side of the room from the doorway where big glass sliding doors that led to a balcony overlooking the backyard. Down below, a number of the kids were sitting around watching as a few others were setting up fireworks.

    Jun turned to face him. “I thought you and I could watch from up here when the clock strikes midnight.” he grabbed Minghao’s hands in his own. “Just the two of us.”

    Something in Minghao’s chest tightened. It had only been a couple weeks since they began dating but he still wasn’t used to the feeling. Living with other roommates, the two were hardly ever alone, so they never really… talked about it. It wasn’t like Minghao didn’t know where they stood because they already had that conversation; and it wasn’t like nothing was different between them. They sat closer together, exchanged long looks with one another, sometimes slept in the same bed together. But other than the night of the Christmas party, they never outwardly acknowledged the fact that they were dating. All their friends knew, it wasn’t a secret. It was just that they never really did coupley things.

    Minghao shifted his feet. “You just want that kiss at midnight, don’t you?”

    Jun giggled. “Maaaaybee.” he sang, swing their arms back and forth.

    “What makes you think I’m gonna kiss you?” Minghao raised his eyebrows.

    “Because…” Junhui pretended to be in deep thought. “Because you love me?”

    “Mmm…” Minghao hummed. “Why are we up here?”

    “Because we get to watch the fireworks.” he paused. “And because I just wanted be alone with you without the guys teasing us. We never really get privacy at home.”

    Minghao chuckled and looked down at their hands. “Yeah… we don’t.”

    There was no response, he looked up to find Jun staring at him.

    “What is it?” he asked, staring to feel self-conscious. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

    Jun shook his head. “Just… like looking at you.”

    Minghao glared at him. “Stop.”

    “What am I doing?” he laughed.

    “You’re saying embarrassing things.”

    “Am I making you feel shy?” Jun was smirking at him now.

    Minghao didn’t answer, just continued to glare at him.

    “Aww… you are!”

    “Shut up. No, I’m not.”

    “You are! Your face is turning red!”

    “Shut up.” he repeated.

    “You are.”

    “No.”

    “Yes.”

    “No.”

    “Yes.”

    “N-” Minghao was cut off by Jun darting forward to kiss him.

    “You are.” he said, pulling back and smiling.

    Before he could respond, they heard somebody down below shout “ONE MINUTE ‘TIL MIDNIGHT.” and then everybody started cheering.

    Jun pulled him into a hug. “Let me hold you into the new year?” he asked softly, starting to rock them back and forth.

    “You’re embarrassing.” Minghao huffed, but wrapped his arms around him anyway.

    They stood there like that in silence while they waited. The people started counting down from ten.

    “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!” and then the fireworks went off.

    They exploded into the air with flashes of green, red, and blue. Jun and Minghao watched in awe.

    Minghao looked back down. “Happy New Year, Junhui.”

    Their gazes met. “Happy New Year, Minghao.”

    They stared at each other for a few seconds before both closing the gap. This time in a deeper kiss.

    The glass doors slid open.

    “Now THAT is what I’m talking about!” Jeonghan voice yelled.

    All their friends were standing in the bedroom, whooping and clapping.

    Seungkwan wheezed and spoke in a nasally voice. “Excuse me! At our good Christian school dance, you are not allowed to be that close! Face to face, leave some space!”

    Minghao broke away from Jun and buried his face in his hands. “I hate you all so ing much.”