Seokmin pursed his lips together when he opened his drawer to find that yet another pair of his underwear had vanished. And this time it was his favorite bright teal one with sunflower patterns on it. At this point, he couldn’t blame the washing machine for eating it up, since by now, more of his underwear had gone missing than his socks. And washing machines were notorious for eating socks… but underwear? Moreover, he never heard any of the other members complain about missing underwear. At least not more than once. Too many times had this happened for Seokmin for him to blame it on chance. Only one conclusion could come from this: there was an underwear thief amongst the boys.

But the question was, who?

Desperate times called for desperate measures. There was only one way to find out when the Underwear Thief was.

Seokmin made a makeshift hideout at the top of the bunk that gave him the clearest view of the dresser. With a thick blanket to cover him, and a pair of binoculars for and even closer look, he went undercover. It would only be a matter of time before he caught the culprit. It was planned out perfectly in his head. He would catch the culprit in the act of stealing his underwear, and then Seokmin would jump out, revealing his hidden location. And then from there, the culprit would confess his sins and return all the stolen underwear.

Seokmin chuckled. His plan was perfect. All he had to do was wait. Yes, just wait. Just…

He was woken up by a tap on the leg. “Seokmin, what are you doing on my bed?”

Seokmin sprang up, knocking his binoculars to the floor. He saw Mingyu look toward the ground where the binoculars bounced under the bunk.

He failed. He waited for so long he actually fell asleep! And being so warm and comfortable under Mingyu’s sheets… He was a fool for not taking these factors into account. But right now, it was just him and Mingyu in the room. Though he didn’t catch the Underwear Thief in the act of stealing, maybe he could catch him in the act of wearing.

He lunged at Mingyu’s pants, quickly pulling the elastic band to take a peek. He frowned in disappointment. Calvin Klein. Much more fancy of a brand than he would ever be able to buy with his own money. Mingyu wasn’t the Thief. Which meant there were 11 potential culprits left.

“Dude… what are you doing?” asked Mingyu once he recovered from his shock.

Seokmin sighed… But then an idea popped into his head. If Mingyu wasn’t the culprit, then he could help Seokmin find the Thief. Two heads were better than one, and Mingyu would surely help him out.

“Okay, so there’s someone in this household that’s been stealing my underwear…”

The two of them were atop Mingyu’s bed, hidden under the covers. Seokmin was watching the dresser intently with the binoculars he had before, and Mingyu was using binoculars made by simply curling his hands into circles and pressing them against his eyes. It worked well enough. And so they waited.

But Mingyu’s bed was much too comfortable, because the two of them were soon being woken up by Seungcheol, who was wondering why they were both sleeping there when it was almost dinnertime, with both Seokmin and Mingyu being known for their large appetites.

Seokmin and Mingyu shared a glance before attacking Seungcheol to see what underwear was beneath his pants. Seungcheol was wearing jeans, so it took longer to be able to reveal what was there, but with Seokmin and Mingyu working together, they managed to unbuckle and the thick pants, only to be faced with disappointment. They were bear-patterned briefs, much too corny for even Seokmin to wear. And so, Seungcheol was let in on the secret, and the three of them observed the dresser from Mingyu’s bed, Seokmin with his real binoculars, and Mingyu and Seungcheol with their hand binoculars.

Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long for the next member to come into the room. Nor did they have to wait for anyone to take anything from the dresser. Soonyoung walked into the room, shaking a towel in his wet hair, clothed with a white shirt and boxers. Teal, sunflower-patterned boxers. Seokmin’s boxers. Kwon Soonyoung was wearing Lee Seokmin’s boxers…

Kwon Soonyoung was the Underwear Thief.

“Kwon Soonyoung!” Seokmin bellowed.

“Lee Seokmin!” Soonyoung yelled back.

Seokmin pointed a finger at the boxers Soonyoung was wearing, and Mingyu and Seungcheol followed his lead.

“You’ve been stealing my underwear, haven’t you?”

The accused suddenly squeaked and ran out of the room, but thankfully Seungcheol was fast on his feet. He caught the culprit before long and dragged him back, where Seokmin and Mingyu were waiting.

“Running is the same as admitting your guilt,” said Mingyu confidently. “Now tell us, why have you been stealing Seokmin’s underwear?”

“Uh…”

The boys waited for a response.

“I didn’t know they were yours… I have the same ones, so…”

Seungcheol scoffed. “Please. We all know you have nothing but tighty whities.”

Soonyoung flushed pink as he looked down at the sunflowers gracing him. “Okay… maybe I just really like Seokmin’s underwear…”

Seungcheol and Mingyu looked at Seokmin for the next set of instructions. But Seokmin didn’t have anything else to say.

“Oh, yeah, I guess I like them too…”

Silence followed, but then Seungcheol and Mingyu seemed to have gotten bored.

“Well, that was anticlimactic…”

“Do you want to go eat?”

“Sure.”

Seokmin and Soonyoung were then left alone in the room, and the air was a little awkward.

“So… you like my underwear?”

Soonyoung shrugged. “Yeah… they’re cute. I mean, the sunflowers just look so happy, so…”

Seokmin looked at the boy for a moment, trying to assess the truthfulness of his words. When he realized they were genuine, he brightened. “Don’t they? And they’re so vibrant against the teal!”

Soonyoung smiled. “And your panda one with the baby pandas rolling on the grass, everything looks so fluffy and it gives me fuzzy feelings!”

The next few hours consisted of nothing but talks of underwear, which patterns and colors were the best, what designs should be on underwear, and the softness of the fabric used. By the end, Seokmin was glad to know that someone else appreciated his underwear as much as he did, and so he and Soonyoung made plans to go underwear shopping together.

And after Soonyoung had his own pairs of brightly colored and patterned pairs of underwear, he no longer stole Seokmin’s. Rather, the two shared everything they had with each other, and called each other their “underwear soulmate”. Though, when that became too much of a mouthful, they then deemed each other “soulmates”.

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