He wakes up at noon the next day for reading ‘Phantom of The Opera’ until dawn. He hears shuffling noises outside his bedroom even amidst his half-awake state. 

Still bundling up in his blankets and pile of pillows, he squints his eyes from the bright sunlight penetrating through his blindfolds. He still hears the shuffling noises clearly, as if it comes right in front of his room.

Thinking that it’s probably just Jongdae or Minseok—or maybe both—, he lies back down again and reaches for his phone on the drawer beside his bed. He unlocks it and sees a text message. There’s a half sleepy smile when he reads the name of the sender.

From: Sehun-ah

reminding u again that the show starts at 7:00 pm so there’s plenty of time for u to dress up. I’m expecting u in a suit or some other formal outfit when I pick u up, jongin. YOU BETTER BE.

From: Jongin-ah

ye whatever. I’ll dress up as u requested then, monsieur. what time will u be here exactly?

From: Jongin-ah

ON A SECOND THOUGHT, CAN U NOT COME HERE? I don’t want my brothers to make up something of us wearing formal outfits, and it’s enough tease already for going out alone in a suit in front of them ;;^;;

From: Sehun-ah

I’ll be there at 6 and idc what ur brothers think lmao it’s amusing anyway to see u freak out ;)

He curses underneath his breath, foreseeing in his mind how Jongdae and Minseok will react to both Sehun and him wearing formal suits. Speaking of the two of them, the shuffling noises hadn’t stopped even until now.

“Jongdae or Minseok, whoever is outside my room, cut it out!” But the shuffling noises goes on, so he ignores it and rummages through his drawer for his earphones. 

Just when he can feel the earphones underneath his fingertips, the door bursts open and comes in Baekhyun and Chanyeol running to him, jumping onto the bed and piling onto a half-awake Jongin.

Junmyeon comes in calmly, rolling his eyes at Baekhyun and Chanyeol before he smacks them both, “Get up, you’re killing Jongin.”

“No, we need to pile onto this bear. Come join us, Junmyeon,” Chanyeol responds, snuggling his head into Jongin’s neck.

After a whole 10 minutes of Jongin struggling to push both Baekhyun and Chanyeol off of him, he squints his eyes in suspicion, “What are you guys here for?”

“We need you to tell us everything about you and Sehun,” Baekhyun ends it with a ‘duh,’ as if it’s obvious why they’re there and Jongin should know already.

“It’s only been three days since I met Sehun, why are you guys so nagging?”

“Jongin, I never thought you could be even dumber,” Chanyeol sighs exasperatedly, shaking his head, “It’s your first ever potential boyfriend!”

“Once again, it’s been three days only and we’re not even close to being best friends.”

“You don’t have to be best friends first to be boyfriends, you know,” Baekhyun’s voice chimes in, smiling gleefully.

Jongin has the urge to smack both of them but then he notices Junmyeon keeping his silence. He’s sitting on the couch and his face impassive. “Junmyeon, are you okay?”

Junmyeon perks his head up at the mention of his name, smiling sheepishly, “Sorry, I was just spacing out. What’s up?”

“Like you don’t know mother hen at all, Jongin. He was pretty excited to meet you actually,” Baekhyun accentuates saying this by tugging Junmyeon’s wrist.

Chanyeol nods gleefully, “He was! Junmyeon, sit here with us, we’re going to nag at Jongin to oblivion.”

Jongin isn’t in the mood to serve his best friends with scoops on what he did with Sehun because god dammit I’m going out with him again tonight….. 

But he damn well knows for sure that if Chanyeol says he’ll nag to oblivion, he definitely will and Jongin isn’t up to the task of handling a nagging Chanyeol—with an additional Baekhyun—. They had even started poking at his shoulder, chanting either ‘Jongin’ or ‘Baby Bear.’ 

Since when they even started joining the ‘Baby Bear’ bandwagon from Jongdae and Minseok?

Jongin closes his eyes, feeling like his head will explode if they go on further with poking and chanting his name, “For the love of god, shut up!”

Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun has that victorious grin, and Jongin honestly wants to smack them both, but he doesn’t, and proceeds in starting his story.

“Fine, I’ll tell you everything about Sehun—,“ He stops mid-sentence when he notices the mattress dipping even more, and sees Junmyeon sitting silently in between Baekhyun and Chanyeol.

“Why are you stopping?” Junmyeon asks, shrugging as he adjusts his sitting position.

“You were suddenly creeping closer to Jongin,” Chanyeol snorts, and Junmyeon smacks him.

Jongin ends up telling everything about what happened in the past three days he spent with Sehun. He pauses a few times for Chanyeol’s nonstop bladder and Baekhyun’s excuse to get water for ‘screaming too much at you and Sehun.’

Feeling his throat getting dry from talking nonstop, he steals the mug Baekhyun’s holding and gulps it all down. In response, Baekhyun whines at him but stops right away when Jongin threatens to end the story.

He leaves the detail about him going out again tonight when he ends the story, a little of his mind thinks they will be going home soon anyways. But what Jongin forgets, is he’s with Chanyeol and Baekhyun, they’ll go back when they want to.

“I’m rooting for you both more than I root for Chanyeol and Kyungsoo,” The mentioned boy smacks Baekhyun, offended at the remark and Baekhyun grins playfully.

Junmyeon speaks up after being quiet the whole time Jongin tells his story, “He sounds like a good guy. I hope you’re happy with him.”

Baekhyun squeals, followed by Chanyeol laughing as he asks for a hi-five from Junmyeon, who’s busy winking at Jongin. “You have mother hen’s blessing, Jongin. You better get it going.”

“Yeah, whatever fits best for you, Chanyeol. Now can you all go home?”

“We’re staying until whenever we like, Jongin. There’s no use kicking us out, and your brothers will let us in anyway.”

“I want to sleep in for the day, and you’ve all heard my story as you requested. Please get out now.”

“Jongin, you can still sleep with us around, and there’s nothing we’ve never seen from you,” Junmyeon’s voice chimes in, and Chanyeol nods in approval, continuing what he said, “We’ve seen it all. We’ve seen you drooling, snoring, your mouth gaping, and more that had left us scarred for life.”

“,” Jongin mutters under his breath, “That’s not it, I just want to—.” Baekhyun cuts in with a loud gasp as if something just dawned on him and he looks at Jongin in disbelief.

“You’re going out with Sehun again, aren’t you?” Baekhyun points his fingers accusingly at Jongin’s face, his eyebrows wiggling teasingly.

What is it with everyone reading me so well? Am I that obvious…?

Junmyeon who’s laying down on the bed gets up into a sitting position immediately, eyes wide in surprise. Chanyeol joins Baekhyun by pointing his finger right at Jongin’s face, and Jongin curls up in embarrassment.

Baekhyun then screams again when he sees Jongin neither agrees or denies which he had taken it as one of Jongin’s trait if it’s true. So that means Jongin is going out with Sehun again.

Chanyeol claps in excitement, and Junmyeon scoots closer to Jongin, his arm around Jongin’s shoulder as he pulls Jongin towards him, smiling proudly.

Jongdae bursts in suddenly, his eyes squinting in suspicion with all the screams he heard, “What’s up with you guys screaming nonstop?”

Jongin perks up from his folded arms, and he’s a second too late in stopping Baekhyun from blurting out, “Jongin is going out with Sehun again later!”

Jongin had never felt like he’s closer to death than what he feels at that moment. He stares blankly on the blanket covering him. He hears Jongdae calling out for Minseok and telling him about Jongin going out with Sehun.

A minute later, they all crowded around Jongin on the bed, each of them waiting for Jongin to speak up. He groans since there’s nothing left he can do to get away, he might as well let them know.

“Yes, we’ll be out watching a Broadway musical called ‘Phantom Of The Opera,' and it’s his favorite,” Jongin pauses when he hears Jongdae cooing, “He’ll be here at 6, and he’ll be wearing a tuxedo, so I’ll be wearing one too.”

Jongin lets them squeal and scream again, as they gush on how they’ll be such boyfriends dressed in a tuxedo and watching musical together. 

“I’ve never thought I’ll be able to witness the day Jongin goes out with someone,” Baekhyun clasps his hands together in gratitude, his voice edging in awe and pride. Behind him, Jongdae and Minseok agree as they hi-five each other.

“Since I’m already too deep in the lion’s den right now, you guys can help me choose the tuxedo I’ll be wearing.”

The next hour is what Jongin thinks is a living hell because everyone is busy picking a suit for him and had him trying out all of them—in which he’s glad he only has three tuxedos—. 

Junmyeon and Minseok stay back on Jongin’s bed, opting not to fuss and crowd Jongin too much. They all end up agreeing with the burgundy colored tuxedo, and they ushered Jongin to take a shower. 

Just as he finishes drying himself from showering, they asked—more like commanded—Jongin to fit into the suit and their choice of a black colored bow tie and leathered oxford shoes. They all step back for a moment, admiring how Jongin looks even with his hair still wet and clinging to his forehead.

Minseok exclaims, showing his thumbs up and Junmyeon nodding beside him, “Looking good baby bear!”

They force Jongin to sit down in front of the mirror, and Baekhyun argues that he’s the best hair stylist than any of them, which explains why he sees Baekhyun busy drying and styling his hair with a hair dryer—but he doesn’t quite know whose hair dryer is that—.

Jongin silently hopes Baekhyun doesn’t fry or tangle his hair, because he loves his hair and after he doesn’t know how long and whatever cream he applied on, his hair is dry, and he subtly recognizes that Baekhyun is styling his hair up. 

After for what seems like agonizing minutes passing by of Baekhyun styling and combing his hair, and spraying a little hairspray, he finally announces that he’s done and everyone comes crowding behind Jongin. 

Jongin opens his eyes, and he’s stunned to see how nicely done his hair is. Everyone is praising Baekhyun, as the boy smiles proudly and asks, “What do you think, Jongin? Pretty damn good right?”

“I’m stunned. You styled my hair good. Thanks, Baekhyun, I owe you.”

“You only owe me stories, Jongin. Now one more thing left to do, your brows.”

Baekhyun pulls out his brow liner, and Jongin leans back, his hands pushing away Baekhyun’s hand from going closer to his brows. He likes his eyebrows the way it is, and it’s thick and arched already. Sadly, everyone is helping Baekhyun by holding him back, and Baekhyun smiles in victory as he starts doing his brows.

“Don’t worry I’m not going to make it bushier than it already is. I’ll make it better.”

Jongin closes his eyes, feeling terrified for the outcome, before Baekhyun steps back and sighs in content, “It’s done, go look in the mirror. Honestly, Jongin, I’m offended that you’re scared of my brow defining game.”

He opens both his eyes and finds himself surprised, again. His eyebrows look fuller and more defined. Jongin keeps quiet in his seat as everyone around him praises Baekhyun again.

“Jongin put on the shoes and stand up, so we can all have a better look at you,” Minseok nudges his shoulders, pacing back a few steps so he can have space to fit in the shoes.

He crouches down to fit in his shoes before he stands up, dusting off the wrinkles on his tuxedo. He looks up only to see everyone looking at him in admiration and smiling.

“Cut the weird smile, I feel embarrassed,” Jongin exclaims, feeling his cheeks heating up as he averts his gaze to his shoes.

Jongdae snorts, “You look like a model straight out of Vogue. I can’t believe you’re my brother.”

“Say that again, Jongdae,” Jongin looks up, grinning victoriou