liestotheheart@tumblr: Jihancheol. Fighting for his attention

I’m so sorry you probably meant like… competing against each other for his attention… but it turned into this i’m so sorry

“What do you want to do today?”

Yawning, Seungcheol curls into Jeonghan’s side. “I don’t know. It’s weird- during concerts I was wishing for free days and now that we actually get a break, I don’t know what to do.”

“I get you. Want to go outside?”

“And do what?”

“I don’t know. Want to go shopping?”

“Wherever we go, we should bring Jisoo along. And I think he went shopping last week with Jihoon.”

“Without us?” Jeonghan pouts.

“Without us. Speaking of Jisoo, where is he? I haven’t seen him since breakfast.”

“I don’t know. Want to go find him?”

“Sure.”

Jisoo’s in the living room, sitting cross-legged on the carpet next to Wonwoo despite there being a perfectly good leather sofa behind them. Both are holding books, though Wonwoo seems more engrossed in petting Jisoo’s hair. The colour is fading from a solid pink to a motley of corals, blonds, and dull peaches.

Seungcheol scowls and clears his throat. Wonwoo looks up.

“Uh… hello?”

“Not you,” Seungcheol clarifies. “Jisoo?”

Jisoo seems too absorbed in his book to notice them, so Jeonghan tugs Seungcheol’s sleeve.

“Let’s come back later. He’s busy now.”

For lunch, they order in. One of the managers is kind enough to give them his credit card, and Jeonghan makes a call to a local chicken place.

“One, two, three- where is everybody?” Seungcheol wonders above the noise, as Jihoon and Junhui fight over possession of the box of honey barbeque. “I know Chan and Mingyu are with their families-”

“Seungkwan, Soonyoung, and Seokmin went to that new pizza place.” Wonwoo sets out six styrofoam cups and twists the cap off of the raspberry lemonade, filling each cup almost to the brim. “And Minghao dragged Hansol out to some sushi restaurant.”

“Great.” Seungcheol shakes his head. “Wait, where’s Jisoo?”

“Still reading.” Wonwoo sips on his drink.

“What? How good is that book?”

“I gave him Me Before You, so it’s a pretty good book.”

“Well, thanks to your good book, Jisoo’s not eating lunch,” Seungcheol mutters. “Jeonghan, c’mon, let’s go get Jisoo.”

Jisoo hasn’t moved since from his spot since they last saw him. He’s still on the carpet, eyes focused on the book, moving only to flip the page.

“Do you think he’s blinked?” Seungcheol says.

“Don’t be silly.” Jeonghan sets a cup of lemonade on the table beside the sofa. “Jisoo, c’mon, let’s go eat lunch.”

No response.

“Jisoo?”

“You’re right, I really don’t think he’s blinked,” Jeonghan says.

Jisoo flips a page.

“Jisoo, there’s barbeque chicken,” Seungcheol coaxes. “Your favourite. You’d better hurry, or Jihoon will eat all of it.”

“There’s also rice and soup on the way.”

“Yup. And you know how the kids are- they eat everything they see. They’ll finish everything before you finish that book.”

“I didn’t get to finish my drumstick before we left. Jihoon’s probably going to eat it.”

“It’s not working.” Seungcheol scratches his head. “What do we do?”

“Jisoo,” Jeonghan says, “if you don’t come with us and eat, Seungcheol’s going to cry.”

“What? Why me?”

“Because it’s true. C’mon, Jisoo. You don’t want to see Seungcheol crying all over your book, right?”

“You know he can’t hear you, right?” Wonwoo assumes his old spot beside Jisoo, pulling a book from the table. “He’s in a totally different world.”

“I can tell.”

“Well, if words won’t work, we’ll have to physically move him,” Seungcheol decides.

“Only if you want to get scratched,” Wonwoo says. He raises a bandaged arm.

“Great,” Seungcheol sighs. He kneels down, reaching out to brush the bangs out of Jisoo’s eyes. “What about tickling?”

Wonwoo just waves the same arm in response.

Jeonghan picks up his drink and looks down at the two of them, with mixed fondness and frustration.

Just then, Jihoon lets out an ear-piercing dolphin shriek from the kitchen.

“Junhui, you , that was my chicken!”

Jeonghan winces, impulsively tightening his grip on the cup. Seungcheol’s head snaps up and he stares at Jeonghan.

“Wait, Jeonghan, don’t-”

It’s too late; the styrofoam cup snaps down the middle. Jeonghan and Seungcheol watch in horror as raspberry lemonade trickles down Jisoo’s cheeks and drips off his chin.

“Oh, ,” Wonwoo says under his breath, scooching away from Jisoo and ducking under his book.

Everyone holds their breath as Jisoo slowly looks up, eyes blank.

“Oh my god,” Jeonghan blurts out, “Jisoo, dude, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to- it’s just- I got startled-”

He’s cut off by a soft laugh. Jeonghan looks down in surprise to see a smiling Jisoo, eyes crinkled and lips curled up.

“You didn’t need to pour your drink on me to get my attention. I was at the end of a chapter.”

“Oh,” Jeonghan says, relieved. And then, ruefully, “I ruined your clothes.”

“At least you didn’t ruin the book. Wonwoo would have killed me. Right?”

Wonwoo nods slowly, still in shock and half-curled behind his book.

“Your hair,” Seungcheol says, patting the sticky pink strands.

“It’s fine, I needed a touch-up anyways.” Jisoo’s tongue darts out to swipe across his upper lip. “‘Sides, it tastes good.”

Jeonghan eyes Jisoo’s raspberry-reddened lips. “Can I taste?”

The new shade of Jisoo’s cheeks rival his sugar-sticky hair.