jin pov:

it all started with the mansae choreo. jinho had the amazing idea to incorporate the hug part at the beginning of the second chorus. jinho again had the amazing idea to nominate taeyeong to do the part. 

"so who wants to hug yeongie?" jinho scans across the room. he passes over excited members as his eyes set on me, the only one not interested in the part. 

"ah! jin hyung you look super excited to hug taeyeong! give it a go why won't you!" jinho sends a snaggletooth grin as he looks over at taeyeong who's ears were now bright red. 

"uh no thanks jinho i'm okay. it seems like-" 

"don't be a party pooper hyung~" sungyeol smiles mischievously while nudging my arm suggestively and raising his eyebrows at me. i look over at taeyeong with an unspoken permission and taeyeong just shyly looks back at me, face growing redder by the second and frozen stiff.

"yeongie are you okay?" bonggeun sits up, walking towards taeyeong and placing a hand on his forehead. "you're not getting sick again, right? we just got you recovered and the fans are excited to have you back." the motherly figure presses taeyeongs cheeks together and hands him a water bottle, pressing it against his face. taeyeong flinches from the cold surface, sending bonggeun a reassuring smile before muttering a few words quietly. 

"i'm okay hyungie, thank you though. i'm just a little flustered after getting the part of the hug you know?" bonggeun nods worriedly before sending me a second glance and sitting down. 

"okay. now JINNIE!" jinho jumps onto my back and loops his legs around my torso, hugging the back of my neck. 

"hyung" i correct him with a grunt

"tomaeto tomahto, come on hyung just say yes! you're making this so much more difficult than it has to be." jinho yells in my ear. i cringe away from his volume and bring my arms back to taze his torso. 

"fine, i'll do it. only if it's okay with taeyeong though." i exclaim exasperatedly, tired after carrying jinho who was now clutching his sides and grimacing in mock pain. taeyeong just nods quietly, looking up at me with confused eyes. i shake it off, looking towards the others as they start to "sober" up. 

"okay we're taking it from the top, we need to get this choreo down before the busking on tuesday so we're going to run through the whole set list one more time after this." i speak, mouth heating up from the mask placed over the bottom half of my face. i hear groans from each member, all of them loosening up and slouching their shoulders. "no complaints guys, you know we can't be performing our stage looking like a rookie group." they all repeat moans and tiredly reassure me that we'll be fine. i walk over to the speakers to turn the song and start a count off before we start to move in sync. 

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my arms stiffly hold taeyeong to my chest for the nth time as i look at jinho for approval. he shakes his head, eyes closing as he shakes his head, face in hands. 

"i don't get it, it's just a hug what's the big deal?" i look down at taeyeong for answers and he just shrugs up at me with a soft smile on his face. i regist the urge to smile back. 

"you guys! anyone can see that you two are completely stiff. you're gonna need to be more natural than that to perform these parts! just practice, do it around practice time and like when we're out and stuff." 

we both whip our heads around to stare at jinho crazily. 

"what?" both of our voices coincide with each other as we turn to look at our position in the mirror one more time. 

"i don't know don't we look natural to you taeyeong?" i question, looking down at the smaller in my arms. 

"of course i don't see any signs of stiff at all hyungie." he replies, face reddening as he realizes what he called me. i stare at the crown of his head as he lowers his face in embarrassment and i quietly chuckle in my head. 

"okay break it up love birds and start hugging. if i don't see you guys hugging when we;re around i'm going to force you guys to live together or something." jinho nods to himself, finding that the perfect punishment for not cooperating. 

"how are you going to be able to do that, you can't control where we live." i raise an eyebrow at him, releasing taeyeong from my arms. i shake out the warmth in my sleeves as i steal a glance at the younger bashfully standing next to me. 

"or can i." jinho sends a grin before skipping towards the door. "don't forget to initiate skinship, it's not that difficult! see you tomorrow!" jinho giggles before letting the door slam shut behind him. i sigh in defeat, turning to look at taeyeong and awkwardly smiling at him. 

"well do u want to like hug before we leave or something?" i ask awkwardly, scratching the back of my neck as i look anywhere in the room but at taeyeong. he doesn't reply but just walks towards me, squeezing his arms around my torso. the skin underneath my clothes burn with heat, unused to any form of skinship from the past 20 years of my life. i wrap my arms around his shoulders, cradling the back of his head as i bring it into the bottom of my neck. we stand there, molded in each other's bodies for 4 seconds before i let go and mutter words awkwardly. i pretend to check my phone before turning to look back at a red taeyeong. 

"well i gotta go now so i'll see you round?" i ask, playing with the case on my phone as i glance back up at his face for a few seconds. he just nods once again, waving with a hand covered from the sleeves of his oversized sweater. 

"bye hyungie." he smiles, red face glowing bright. i blush under my mask and move my hands up to play with my hair before i send him a quick wave and turn around, grabbing my duffle bag and heading towards the door. my hot hand wraps around the freezing cold door knob as i twist to meet my hand being met with an opposing force. 

"what." i mutter out loud, causing taeyeong's shuffling behind me to cease. i tug at the doorknob a few more times before i groan in annoyance, tugging out my phone to call the front desk. i glance at the time on my clock which reads '1:38AM". i cringe at my lack of time management before i let out another moan in annoyance. 

"we got locked in taeyeong. someone probably didn't notice that we were still here." i turn to look at his reaction. he's frozen, holding his phone in his hands as he shakely beckons for me to come closer. i my head in confusion before i walk over to him, long legs bringing me there in less than a few seconds. he shows me a text message on a disgustingly bright screen. i squint my eyes to read the thin black text. 

from: jinho hyungie :)

> taeyeongie, i may have locked you two in there to make sure that you spend some quality, skinship heavy, time together. have fun! i'll let you out tomorrow! make sure jin hyung doesn't get mad at me!!! :***** 

i stare at the message in disbelief, rubbing my eyes to check in one more time. 

"what." i whisper yell, turning to look at taeyeong. 

his eyes hold an emotion of fear and excitement. 

A/N: hallo! sorry for such a long hiatus, stuff was going on and i couldn't really get any inspiration from this. thank you for all the positive feedback, really inspired me to finish writing this chapter. i really appreciate you guys so much! see you hopefully soon!