“Stupid Kim Jongdae and Do Kyungsoo. Why’d they have to date now? They still have next year to be perfect together with their similar heights and Jongdae’s cheekbones and Kyungsoo’s lips making everyone lust after them but I—we—only have from now until May! I have to suffer through three hours a week of their dumb angelic voices in choir too and—Yah! Park Chanyeol! Are you even listening to me?”

Chanyeol blinked when he heard his name. “Sorry, what?”

Baekhyun stopped pacing the length of the cheerleading club room to cross his arms over his chest and glare at his boyfriend fiercely. The sheer amount of fire in such a small body was adorable and amusing, but Chanyeol knew better than to laugh, especially when Baekhyun raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“Yeah, yeah.” Chanyeol waved a hand lazily from his seat on top of the room’s lone table. “Jongdae and Kyungsoo. They’re pretty and we hate them.” He shot Baekhyun a knowing look when the shorter boy opened his mouth to protest. “Right?”

“Fine; you’re right,” Baekhyun harrumphed in annoyance, but uncrossed his arms and resumed his frantic steps back and forth. “They’re pretty.” He grimaced like admitting that fact was extraordinarily distasteful. “And we hate them.”

Chanyeol waited a minute before venturing curiously, “Because we’re boyfriends? Or because they are?”

“Let’s put it this way,” Baekhyun suggested, “if we’re Bennifer, they’re, like, awkward, High School Musical-era Zanessa.”

From his blank expression and furrowed forehead, it was obvious that Chanyeol didn’t get the allusion. Baekhyun scoffed loudly, rolled his eyes, and walked with clear purpose to stand in the open space between his boyfriend’s legs.

“You and I,” he spoke slowly, “We’re the It-couple on this campus, okay?” When Chanyeol nodded, face a breath away from Baekhyun’s own, Baekhyun his lips and continued. “And I’m not going to let them change that.”

The taller boy’s lips parted in understanding and Baekhyun stood on his tiptoes to steal a quick kiss before pulling away with smug satisfaction at Chanyeol’s sharp inhale and flouncing out the door. Chanyeol slid off the table, gathered both of their school bags, and trailed after Baekhyun with a sigh.
 

In a little corner on the second floor of the library, far across the campus from the recently vacated cheerleading headquarters, Kyungsoo heaved an exasperated sigh of his own.

“This is high school, Dae, not a drama,” the junior said, a disinterested expression gracing his features. He sat with his head propped up by a fist against his cheek and remained resolutely steadfast against his boyfriend’s whines.

“But, Soo!” Jongdae wailed, his voice sounding with incriminating volume against the dark wood of the bookshelves. “Byun Baekhyun has it in for me! And you’re dating me, so you’re on his hit list too! I’m worried for our lives,” he stage whispered, clutching his neck dramatically.

This earned him a harried “Shh!” and an unapologetic poke to the cheek when the enactment of his untimely end took him a little too far into Kyungsoo’s personal space. Jongdae turned his head a little to the side to bite the tip of his boyfriend’s offending finger, and grinned in feline satisfaction when Kyungsoo’s ears turned a pretty shade of bright pink.

“Baekhyun-sunbaenim is bite-sized at best,” Kyungsoo pointed out through his blush. He had his assaulted finger cradled protectively in his lap and a withering glare in his gaze. “I don’t know what’s got you so stressed.”

“I’m bite-sized!” Jongdae howled in mock terror. “And you’re even worse!” He let out a whimper of fear and pouted pathetically until Kyungsoo’s expression softened and he reached across the table to entwine his and Jongdae’s fingers together.

“You are perfect,” Kyungsoo told Jongdae confidently. “Hating you is impossible, okay? Believe me, I’d know.”

Jongdae smiled. Kyungsoo always had good intentions but comforting wasn’t a strength of his, so Jongdae appreciated the effort. “Thanks, Soo.” He lifted their connected hands and brought them close to his mouth as if to kiss Kyungsoo’s knuckles. Instead, he winked mischievously at the very last second and bit down hard on Kyungsoo’s finger once again.

“Yah! Kim Jongdae!” Kyungsoo yelped. He was in pain and furiously indignant, especially when his shout—and not any of Jongdae’s earlier antics—got both boys kicked out for disturbing the silent sanctity of the library. Jongdae gave Kyungsoo many little pecks of apology, but then he ruined it by telling his boyfriend as they walked outside hand-in-hand, “I’ve got cheerleading in 15 minutes anyway, so…Sorry, not sorry?”

Kyungsoo growled, annoyed at his childish boyfriend, and happily chased a shrieking Jongdae all the way from the library to the gym.
 

“Okay, guys, circle up!” Baekhyun’s shrill call echoed around the gymnasium as he brought the cheer team’s practice to a close. “I know this is the first day back to school after winter break and I know you’re all probably going to be really sore tomorrow—”

Jongdae couldn’t resist interrupting to shout cheekily “Like when you sleep with your boytoy?”

The glare Baekhyun pinned him with was pure ice. “Or maybe after you bottom for yours?” he shot back, earning a few appreciative chuckles from the rest of the team before he continued his pep talk.

“But I’ll make sure we’re all back in shape in no time, okay? Nice job today, everyone! All of you except Jongdae are free to go!”

The rest of the team seemed loathe to miss the confrontation between their captain and their best flyer, but a matching set of glares was enough to empty the gym in a matter of minutes. When they were the only two left, Jongdae crossed his arms over his chest and took a step toward Baekhyun, his stance clearly confrontational.

Surprisingly, it was Baekhyun who spoke first. “What is your problem, Kim?”

“My problem? Seriously?” Jongdae chuckled darkly in disbelief. “You’re the one who hates me!”

Baekhyun scoffed and sat down to stretch, not even deigning to look at Jongdae as he spoke. “Hating you isn’t worth my time.”

Jongdae rolled his eyes but instinct had him sinking to his knees by the senior’s feet to press down on Baekhyun’s toes while he pointed them. “What, then? You’d rather someone else was flyer?” No response. “Do I get better grades than you in Calc?” Offended, Baekhyun pulled his feet out of Jongdae’s hold and frowned. “I’ll take that as a no. Um, I’m dating Soo?”

There was an almost imperceptible freeze in Baekhyun’s steady movements and Jongdae exhaled in surprise. “You’re not in love with him, are you?” He ventured suspiciously.

Baekhyun kicked out, his foot meeting Jongdae’s shin with a satisfying thud before he stood up to leave. “We have practice tomorrow,” he reminded the younger boy through Jongdae’s overly pronounced moans of pain. “Don’t forget.”
 

“I’m not going. You can’t make me!” Jongdae argued vehemently before practice the next day, even as Kyungsoo’s dragged him by the wrist into the locker room.

“You could have been in the environmental protection club with me,” Kyungsoo reminded his boyfriend, completely unsympathetic to Jongdae’s complaints.

Jongdae disagreed. “Soo, you literally bribed me with kisses to not join the same club as you because, quote: “I need space for myself”!”

“It’s not my fault that you’re more interested in making out than in watching cute videos of penguins and baby polar bears,” Kyungsoo retorted, unimpressed with his boyfriend’s reasoning.

There was a startled laugh from someone by the sinks, and Kyungsoo used his free hand to wave hello when he recognized Chanyeol’s floppy ears and curly, ramen hair.

“I love baby polar bears!” The lanky senior crowed in obvious excitement. He moved to dry his hands on his pants and then paused when something occurred to him. “But maybe not as much as I like making out,” he admitted with a lopsided grin.

Jongdae grinned too—“See, babe!”—and at the same time a voice called out to Chanyeol, “You don’t even recycle, you pabo!” It was Baekhyun, emerging from one of the bathroom stalls with laughter in his voice. His countenance soured instantly, though, when he looked toward where his boyfriend now stood and saw Kyungsoo with Jongdae in tow.

“Oh look,” he sneered derisively, “Kimye’s here.”

Kyungsoo didn’t register the Western pop culture reference, but Jongdae did and he flashed his middle finger to Baekhyun’s frowning face. “We’re Brangelina, .”

When Baekhyun spat out an offended “You wish!”, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol exchanged a weary look and then snuck out together.

“Think they’ll claw it out?” Chanyeol wondered aloud as he settled himself into a cross-legged seat against the locker room’s outside wall. He patted the spot next to him; Kyungsoo gave it a skeptical glare but at Chanyeol’s insistence eventually joined the taller boy on the floor.

“Probably not,” Kyungsoo decided after a moment of careful deliberation. “Dae would freak if he got scratches on his face.”

Chanyeol totally understood. “Baek too.” He was quiet for a moment before he mused, “It’d be kind of hot though.”

To his surprise, Kyungsoo nodded. “I was literally just thinking that it’s such a shame boy cheerleaders don’t have to wear those tiny pleated skirts.”

“Oh my god.” Chanyeol let out a strangled gasp of laughter. “Marry me, please.”

Kyungsoo winked. “Let me talk to my boyfriend and get back to you on that.”
 

“I have a plan,” Baekhyun informed Jongdae three days of furious brainstorming later. They were stretching again—Baekhyun lying on his back with one leg stretched out and the other in the air as Jongdae straddled him with his hands spread wide to press against Baekhyun’s thigh—and Jongdae had half a mind to knee Baekhyun in the balls when the elder suggested “Let’s date.”

“What the hell?!” Jongdae spluttered. “I have a boyfriend! And so do you!”

At the mention of their existence, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol looked up from the cat video they were watching on Chanyeol’s phone and waved from their spot by the gym door.

Baekhyun waved back, then rolled his eyes like he thought Jongdae was being dense on purpose. “They can date too,” he deadpanned, the “Duh” implied in his tone. “You and me; Yeol and Kyungsoo; me and Kyungsoo; and you and Yeol. We’ll all be boyfriends together.”

At that, Jongdae really did knee Baekhyun’s crotch. “You’re insane,” he told a groaning Baekhyun.

“Why?” Baekhyun asked, sitting up once he could feel his again and was sure Jongdae hadn’t killed it. “Yeol and I are gorgeous together! Who wouldn’t want to date us?”

“Me!” Jongdae responded shrilly. “I wouldn’t want to date you!”

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes in a halfhearted glare but hummed in consideration. Though he hadn’t expected Jongdae to immediately agree, such violent opposition wasn’t expected either.

“I’ll make you co-captain,” he conceded, albeit begrudgingly.

Like Baekhyun knew they would, Jongdae’s kitten lips curled upward in satisfaction. “And? What else?”

Baekhyun was at a loss. “What else is there?” he wondered, not convinced that he had anything else Jongdae might want. Looking up pleadingly at Jongdae through his lashes, Baekhyun deliberated for a while before offering skeptically, “Um…more people to kiss?”

Jongdae pushed at the senior boy’s shoulder, knocking Baekhyun back onto the mat so that he could crawl his way up the other’s body to straddle his thighs again. “I’ll take it,” he accepted, grinning devilishly as he leaned forward until his chest was flush against Baekhyun’s and his hands were placed on either side of Baekhyun’s head. “Let’s seal it with a kiss,” he suggested, his lips once before doing the same to Baekhyun’s and finally bringing their mouths together.

The kiss was messy and rough, and lasted long enough for Kyungsoo to catch the illicit exchange with wide-eyed interest. He looked over at the boy sitting next to him and observed evenly, “I’m pretty sure your boyfriend and my boyfriend are making out.”

Kyungsoo thought it was strange that Chanyeol didn’t even seem surprised, at least until he muttered a relieved, “Oh, thank god! Their while stretching? I could practically taste it!”

One of the two cheerleaders who were still kissing fervently in the middle of the gym let out a breathy moan and Kyungsoo gaped at Chanyeol openmouthed.

“You didn’t know?” Chanyeol was apparently perplexed by this. He looked thoughtful for a minute and chewed his bottom lip between his teeth. Humming, he mumbled sheepishly, “I might have forgotten to mention Baek’s brilliant plan?” When Kyungsoo nodded and gazed at him expectantly, Chanyeol continued, “He said that the way to keep our status as the ‘power couple’, or whatever, is for all of us to date each other.”

Kyungsoo grunted in surprise. “Oh, really now?” He didn’t sound mad, merely amused, so Chanyeol agreed eagerly. “And I guess that,” he pointed to Jongdae hovering over a flustered Baekhyun, “means Dae took Baekhyun up on it?”

“I guess so,” Chanyeol murmured, unsure. Suddenly nervous, he ran a hand through his hair and studiously avoided Kyungsoo’s gaze until Kyungsoo held out his left hand for Chanyeol to shake and smiled brilliantly.

“It’s nice to date you, boyfriend,” he said, the tease in his voice breaking the tension that Chanyeol had singlehandedly managed to create.

Chanyeol grasped Kyungsoo’s fingers with his right hand and swung their hands back and forth jovially. He glanced across the gym at his old boyfriend and his new as they returned to stretching, and dragged Kyungsoo’s hand in his to rest on the ground between them. “You too…boyfriend.”
 

Epilogue:

“It’s a good thing we had the weekend to get to know each other,” Chanyeol commented between large mouthfuls of the tuna kimbap his mother made him for lunch that morning. “I’d be too nervous to do this otherwise.” He held up the hand that was holding Jongdae’s to indicate what he meant by this, and laughed boisterously when a couple of freshmen one table over gasped.

“He’s my boyfriend,” Jongdae announced to the scandalized underclassmen. When Baekhyun and Kyungsoo chorused “Mine too!” the poor kids looked about to pass out.

“Think we’ve given them enough of a gossip scoop?” Baekhyun was being sarcastic but Kyungsoo nodded anyway.

“We’ll be the talk of the school by last block,” he agreed with satisfaction.

Baekhyun lifted his free hand—the other was tightly entwined with Kyungsoo’s—and waved it in an arc in front of his face to paint an invisible picture. “Imagine it,” he prompted his three boyfriends, “BaekChanChenSoo!”

“Of course you’d put yourself first,” Jongdae whined indignantly. “Typical.”

“Now, now, boys,” Chanyeol tried to mediate. “We’re all friends here.”

“Technically more than friends,” Kyungsoo corrected, only half paying attention to the conversation as he focused most of his energy on eating lunch with only one free hand.

“Exactly!” Chanyeol released Jongdae’s hand just long enough to reach across the table and pinch Kyungsoo’s cheek in thanks. The fact that the junior boy only glared fiercely at him was enough to set the freshmen eavesdroppers whispering furiously once more.

“Fine. Boyfriends; no fighting. Got it.” Jongdae rolled his eyes when the other three snickered. “Still, why do you get to be first?” he asked, turning on Baekhyun again.

“It’s alphabetical,” Baekhyun informed Jongdae smugly. “So there.”

“I hate you,” Jongdae grumbled, his pout overly pronounced and his gaze purposely downcast to show that he wasn’t really upset.

“No you don’t,” Baekhyun teased as Jongdae clenched his fist and raised it at Baekhyun in faux fury.

“Hey!” Chanyeol intervened before things could turn violent. “Boyfriends!” he reminded the bickering cheerleaders. “No fighting!”