“[...] Put down everything just for a bit, it’s okay, it’ll work out somehow. My burned-out heart fills up completely. Let’s only think comfortable thoughts together now, so there’s no more worries...”

On the top of the large building, two silhouettes could be seen through the window of one of the hotel’s rooms. Soonyoung and Chan, who had arrived that day in the city, decided to share the apartment, as they always did.

“What are you doing?” The oldest of them asked, pouting as he watched Chan's back towards him, while he typed something on his phone.

“I’m just organizing some things and talking to my brother.” Chan answered, his back still facing Soonyoung, who was lying in bed on the right side of the room.

“Mmm” Soonyoung murmured. “Tell him I said ‘hi’.” The other boy just nodded briefly and gave him a low chuckle, which Soonyoung wasn’t sure if it was because of his comment or because of something his brother had said.

Then, the room went silent again, causing the Leader of the Performance Unit to sigh. He was so bored! Okay, he loved when Chan talked to his family, he did the same whenever he had a time to rest, but the maknae was standing, typing on his phone, for at least 20 minutes! Soonyoung just wanted to have a moment with him before they had to go to sleep, but it was almost impossible.

So, thinking for a few seconds, he had a brilliant idea. He picked up the two cameras that were on the nightstand, got up, put one on the bed beside him and then placed the other on the dresser next to Chan, who didn’t even move. Laughing mischievously to himself, Soonyoung opened his arms and hugged the younger by the waist — being welcomed by a warm smile in the process, since Chan was used to his habit of doing that when they were alone —, pulling him backwards.

“That's how I play with the maknae!” Soonyoung said to the camera before throwing his body against the bed behind him with Chan in his arms, making the mattress creak with the weight of both of them.

The boy’s melodious laughter echoed through the room and Soonyoung couldn’t help but do the same, feeling as if that sound could fill him completely. Listening Chan laughing like that, so casually, never failed to make him extremely happy, too.

“I want to leave!” Chan tried to get up, still chuckling, but was grabbed again by Soonyoung, which, in turn, tried to hold him by tangling their legs.

“Where do you think you're going?!” Soonyoung pulled the maknae again, who laughed louder, already giving up.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door and, finally, Chan managed to disentagle himself from Soonyoung’s arms and legs. Panting, he got out of bed and headed towards the entrance of the room to meet whoever was calling them. Meanwhile, Soonyoung, that was still laughing, hung up the two cameras that had recorded the entire scene and returned to lie on the bed, throwing his body hard on the mattress.

When Chan opened the door, he found Hansol leaning against the doorframe, looking at him slightly surprised.

“Hey!” Hansol greeted him, drawing a small smile. “What’s with the happy expression?”

“Hey!” Chan said, smiling brightly. “Hoshi-hyung and I were playing on the bed.”

Hansol raised an eyebrow and smirked. Chan, realizing the double meaning behind what he said, got all embarassed.

“Hyung, it’s not like that!” The boy started shaking his hands hurriedly, making Hansol burst into laughter.

“I'm kidding, Chan!” He said, sighing when his chuckling stopped. “Anyway, I just came to tell you that Doogi PD asked us to wake up early tomorrow, okay? He said we have a lot to do.”

“Oh, okay! Thank you for the warning.”

“Alright. So, see you tomorrow.” Hansol shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants and started to gradually moving away from the maknae. “Good night, Chan!”

“Good night, hyung!” When Chan was about to close the door, he heard Hansol calling him again. “Yes?”

“We can hear you two from down there, okay?” And, without another word, he went out giggling, leaving a very flushed Chan standing by the door.

After muttering under his breath for a few times and trying to take down the flush of his face, the boy closed the door behind him and returned to the room. But when he got closer to the two beds, he noted that Soonyoung was still lying there, seeming to be asleep. Unable to contain the smile that was spreading across his face as he watched that scene, Chan walked over and sat beside him on the mattress.

“Aish, hyung! You slept without bathing, didn’t you?” Chan whispered, smiling to himself as he took some bluish locks from the other’s face.

But if the maknae thought that Soonyoung was already in his deepest sleep, he was proved wrong the moment he was welcomed by two pairs of wide brown eyes and a sly smile that indicated that he wouldn’t escape from him that time. And, indeed, he didn’t escape.

Soonyoung pulled Chan to the bed again, being received by a loud guffaw, and climbed on top of him, tickling his belly. The younger tried to get away by moving his legs and swinging his arms, but it was all in vain. When, finally, he could climb on top of Soonyoung, the latter would throw him again on the mattress and continue to tickle him, his boisterous laughter echoing through the not-so-thick walls of the hotel.

After a few minutes of rolling and laughing, they stopped, tired. Chan had been totally defeated in that battle and panted, exhausted, with a smile on his face. Soonyoung, in turn, lied beside him, also smiling, with his left arm over his chest.

“Tired?” Soonyoung asked, feeling Chan’s hearbeat under his hand.

“Of... course… not….” The boy replied with a shaky breath, making Soonyoung smile even more.

They remained like that for a while, just listening to each other’s breathing, until Soonyoung raised his upper body a little and rested both elbows on each side of Chan's face, who opened his once closed eyes and stared at him in response.

“Hansol-hyung told me that we need to wake up early tomorrow” The boy said, in which Soonyoung just nodded, as he took a few brown locks off of his eyes, “and he said that they can hear us from down there.” Soonyoung snorted.

“And you got all shy because of that, right?” He asked, smiling.

“Aish!” Chan looked away, pouting.

“Aish!” Soonyoung mimicked him, smiling even more. Putting both hands on each side of Chan’s face, he began to squeeze his cheeks. “You're such a baby.”

“I’m not!” Chan complained, trying to get him to stop that.

“Yes, you are!”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, you are!”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, you are…” Soonyoung let out his cheeks and moved his fingers down the sides of his face, gently the top of his neck. Then, tilting his face until he was closer enough to feel Chan’s breath, he whispered, “You’re my baby.”

Brushing their lips together, as if they were searching for the perfect fit, Chan placed an almost chaste kiss on the corner of Soonyoung’s mouth, causing him to almost believe that, if he didn’t know exactly who he was dealing with. When their lips finally met, he felt all the tension from his body fade and a sense of calm take him entirely. That wasn’t the first time they kissed, but every time they did that, it seemed like a new and brighter spark would just flick inside them.

Chan then moved a hand to Soonyoung's neck in order to deepen the kiss, while the latter drew imaginary circles on his cheek with his thumb, gently trying to soothe him. Chan was very eager to learn, he wanted to try everything at once, and Soonyoung knew he couldn’t (and shouldn’t) be taken in by it. At that time, although they had very similar personalities, they were also like two opposites together, shaped into one.

Biting Soonyoung’s lower lip when he backed away so they could breathe, Chan opened his eyes to admire his face from his point of view, with all the perfect imperfections that someone could have, letting their foreheads rest on each other’s and their breath mingle in the air. Soonyoung slowly opened his eyes and backed away even more, to be able to face him in a better way.

Even more than kissing the maknae, the leader of the Performance Unit liked to look at him, especially when no one was paying attention, and just stay like that, listening to every sound of his breath. Even if he had been the first one to actually kiss him, being so close, with Chan in his arms, made him feel like that was real, mutual.

Feeling Chan’s warm fingers touching his cheek, Soonyoung turned his face a little and placed a kiss on his palm.

“Hyung, we need to take a shower and go to sleep.” Chan said softly. Soonyoung just smiled and hung his head.

“And once again, Kwon Soonyoung was defeated by the instructor Lee Chan!” He said, getting off the younger and lying beside him.

“Sometimes it seems like I'm older than you!” When Chan got up from the bed, Soonyoung pushed his dorso up and sat on the mattress, holding Chan’s wrist before he could move away.

“So sleep here with me. The night is so cold, I don’t want to sleep alone in this huge bed!” Soonyoung dramatized, making Chan roll his eyes.

“Hyung, my bed is next to yours.”

“Please! You can be the little spoon!” Soonyoung joined his hands, almost pleading.

Chan looked at him for a moment, as if pondering the invitation. Then, approaching Soonyoung once more, he placed a quick kiss on his lips and smiled, making Soonyoung do the same, but in a silly way.

“I'll think about it.” And with one last wink, he ran and locked himself in the bathroom, leaving Soonyoung completely speechless.

After blinking a few times and realizing that he had been deceived by the younger, Soonyoung frowned.

“Aishhhh, this brat!” He shout out, raising his fist in the air as if he was an old man lifting his stick in protest.

Fully defeated, Soonyoung looked around for something that could entertain him, and saw one of the cameras that were used before. Grabbing it, he began to look at the pictures and stopped when he reached the video they had recorded a few minutes before. Clicking the “play” button, he soon was greeted by his own voice followed by Chan’s, who laughed loudly, making him laugh too.

Many say that when you fall in love, your world changes and you begin to see life in another way. Soonyoung never quite understood what that meant, because how do you know that what you feel for someone can be called “love”? But at that moment, listening to Chan’s laughter again and feeling his heart warm so intensely, maybe he finally found the answer.

Or maybe he needed a few more kisses to confirm his hypothesis.

Yeah, it was a better idea.

A much better idea.

 “[...] Don’t stop this healing, now dive in, dive in, dive in. It’s okay to throw up your body into an ocean called ‘rest’, you can take a break. Our healing, healing, no one can say a thing. Don’t stop this healing, now dive in, dive in, dive in. This time is all yours, so don’t worry about a thing, this is all healing, healing [don’t stop it]. Don’t stop this healing.”

(Healing - Seventeen)

FIN