“Hm, Mingyu?”

Joshua steps forward as Mingyu steps back in surprise, pupils blown wide.

“How about now?”

He crowds into Mingyu’s space making him feel small, which should be an impossibility. From here, Mingyu can faintly smell the alcohol on his breath. Involuntarily, he pulls a face at the smell of what he believes is tequila. It isn’t that Mingyu doesn’t like alcohol, that’s far from the truth, but he’s feeling strangely sober after one martini and half a beer tonight. Nearby, Minghao lifts his glass into the air towards Mingyu to catch his attention.

There’s no way he could hear Minghao over the music since he can hardly hear Joshua’s eerily calm voice, but he tries to decipher whatever Minghao might be trying to communicate with him from this distance. He thinks that the other male is asking if he’s alright, or if he needs to come swoop in to create distance between Joshua and him. Mingyu shakes his head, then lifts his own beer off the counter beside him. His company drunkenly tips his head towards Minghao, but then returns his attention back to Mingyu. He’s stubborn, Mingyu gives him that.

“Just once.” He smiles, but it is as lopsided as his world seems to be currently. His smile lacks its usual warm mischievousness.

Mingyu puts his beer back down, sighing. “If you drink some water,” he taps the bar until he gets the attention of the bartender. A glass of water is quickly put down before them and he tilts his head towards it, waiting.

There is a split second where Joshua looks as though he’s going to walk away from this deal, but to Mingyu’s horror (and deeply internal relief) he wraps both of his hands around the glass and puts it to his lips, then chugs the whole glass. When he puts it back onto the counter, the look on his face is smug. He wipes off stray droplets from the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. Mingyu realizes too late that he’s staring at him in a combination of clashing emotions. Surprise wins out.

He was trying to get Joshua to sober up, but he’s pretty sure that chugging water will have little short-term onset, except maybe by sending him to the bathroom sooner rather than later.

“Now!” Joshua exclaims, giving Mingyu no time for reaction as he takes his hand and pulls him to the dance floor. The bright, flashing lights could barely reach them before, but now they were in the spotlight. As he drags the taller male through the throngs of people, he tips his head back and laughs. Mingyu can’t hear it over the music, but he doesn’t have to. He has Joshua’s laughter imprinted in his memory. The older man laughs much more than is expected from his professional image. At work, he’s more likely to play pranks and tell jokes than he is to uphold his professional image.

Mingyu wonders if this is a joke too.

People push against them until they break through the crowd to find a small, self-contained section where they fit comfortably without bumping too much into strangers. He catches Minghao and Junhui near them; they are hovering, but Mingyu cannot say that he doesn’t appreciate it.

The songs blend into each other, woven together like a canvas. Joshua puts his hands in the air and turns around until he’s grinding against Mingyu’s front. Deep in his throat, Mingyu’s breath sticks uncomfortably so that he feels like he’s suffocating. His hands resting at his sides know where they should be, but he’s hesitant. This is his work friend, not some stranger (and there’s that whole issue of Joshua not being a woman, but with his subtle curve pressing into him, Mingyu doesn’t know how much that matters-- he’s never known how much that has mattered, since he’s always had somewhat of a thing for Joshua.) and he doesn’t trust himself with him: not now, not ever.

Somewhat of a tempo is set between both bodies, but Mingyu doesn’t seem to be as into it. Joshua apparently notices this as he turns around to hook his hands around Mingyu’s neck; it’s a stretch, but he manages as he continues to sway to the beat. Their bodies are touching too much, but not enough for either of them. Sweat gathers on their skin where they touch and it all only makes Mingyu so much more uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?” Joshua knits his eyebrows together, looking drunkenly concerned.

“Nothing,” Mingyu lies, not looking towards Joshua. He’s looking anywhere but at him. The ceiling holds his gaze until he feels Joshua’s arms slipping away from him. There’s that weight off of his shoulders, but he immediately feels the emptiness in his stomach set in. None of this will end well for him.

What he expects is for Joshua to say is but you promised, but when he pulls his gaze away from the ceiling, he catches the pout of Joshua’s lips before he’s watching his retreating form as he disappears back into the crowd of people. Minghao manages to maneuver around the dance floor until he’s sidling up next to him, moving his hips to the beat.

His lips are suddenly at Mingyu’s ear. “Way to blow that chance.”

Minghao isn’t looking at him with pity or malevolence, but there is annoyance in his features. He stops dancing when Mingyu doesn’t respond to his quip, grabbing Mingyu by the arm and hustling him out of the busy club and expelling him out into the chilly night air. Junhui and Joshua both abandoned somewhere.

Their ears ring uncomfortably. Mingyu wraps his arms around himself to ward off the wind.

When Minghao speaks, his voice is too loud. “I understand that he wasn’t the most sober, but I expected you not to just flat-out reject him!” There are people smoking outside and they peer towards the rather loud conversation that is occurring.

“You just left Junhui in there,” Mingyu responds, holding a finger to his ear in attempt to restore his hearing to normal.

“Yeah, to try to convince your sorry that you just made a wild mistake.” Minghao presses his fingers against the bridge of his nose as though he feels a headache coming on, which probably isn’t far from the truth. “Plus you invited him, so Jeonghan isn’t here to take care of him when he decides to walk home, which, if you need reminding, is a fifteen minute drive, plus he has no coat.”

Everything that Minghao is saying resonates with Mingyu, but he’s hesitant about going after Joshua. He isn’t even sure if Joshua left the club. For all they know, he could be in the bathroom or back at the bar. “Well, I guess… I’ll go look for him,” he says finally. Minghao purses his lips in response. “What?”

“Since there’s a hundred different routes he could have took, I’m going to get Junhui and we’ll look opposite of you. I’ll check the club and text you if he’s still there.” He responds with an exasperated look. “You head that way.” Minghao points behind Mingyu, the stretch of sidewalk seems to run forever towards the invisible horizon. There are not enough street lamps to illuminate the way well enough to be safe. There are a million reasons why he shouldn’t go after Joshua, especially when he may have not even headed this way, but he knows that he’d be an idiot if he didn’t go after him.

--

It takes an hour before anyone finds him. Mingyu gets a text from Minghao informing him that he’s been acquired and that Minghao would just take him home. Also, he sends another one after a moment asking if Mingyu needs to be picked up. Mingyu thinks about the awkwardness of the car ride, then decides to decline the offer. He lies easily, telling Minghao that he circled back around at some point and was closer to his car anyway.

With the news that Joshua was safe, Mingyu’s heartbeat could steady. The prospect of anyone else finding the drunken, stubborn mess that he was meant that anything could happen to him, but now that Minghao and Junhui have him, Mingyu has nothing to worry about now, except getting home.

On the quiet walk back to his car, he allows his thoughts to wander. He tries to figure out why Joshua left so readily. Where he was usually so stubborn, especially when he was drunk, he wasn’t tonight. There was a type of impatient patience offered to Mingyu, but he had refused it, had refused him. “Idiot,” he berates himself underneath his breath. For too long now, Mingyu had had a bit of a crush on Joshua. It was the way he assisted everyone when they needed him, the way that he smiled like a confession would follow from those lips, the way he was so complicated when Mingyu was so uncomplicated. He was used to Joshua reminding him that he was not complex; he knew how to read him like a book. His eyes would shine with some secret that Mingyu was not privy to every time they spoke.

There were many things that Mingyu liked about Joshua, but with every one of those reasons came a reason to stay away from Joshua, especially when the older male seemed to have a type that was a lot more sophisticated than him.

Until tonight, he thought his crush was hopeless. Now he’s stuck, struggling to figure out if Joshua was joking with him or if tonight had been genuine. Maybe Joshua had felt some type of pity for Mingyu’s crush on him when he heard about it, so he extended the offer, but when he was rejected, he felt embarrassed. Maybe Joshua just wanted to flirt with him to see what his response would be, or maybe he was just drunk and flirtatious.

All Mingyu knows is that he wishes he had caught Joshua by the arm when he had tried to leave, because it would have been nice to get to dance with him.

“Idiot…” He says again.

--

The next time they are able to talk isn’t at work, but instead Jeonghan decides to host a house party since Jihoon’s birthday is upcoming. (Also, just for the hell of it, but he doesn’t want to seem like any less of a hard worker.) He emails an invite to everyone, except Mingyu. It’s Wonwoo that he hears about it from.

“Hey, are you going to Jeonghan’s house tomorrow night?” He asks simply while they are having lunch. Mingyu shrugs in response.

Then… “Why?” he asks, furrowing his brow.

It’s Wonwoo’s turn to look confused. “The party for Jihoon? He scheduled it for tomorrow night, I’m pretty sure. I can check my calendar.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket to double check.

“Did Jeonghan invite you?” Mingyu asks, interrupting him. Wonwoo looks up from his phone, mouth slightly agape.

“What?” He shakes his head. “No, Jeonghan emailed everyone.”

“I didn’t get that email,” Mingyu pouts, pulling out his own phone to make sure that it hadn’t went to his spam folder. “Is there really a party for Jihoon tomorrow?” Mingyu leans towards Minghao when he asks.

Minghao slurps his ramen before answering. “Yeah, he sent it a couple days ago. I noticed you weren’t on the email list, so I figured that this is probably about Joshua.”

Wonwoo starts at that, lifting his head from his phone. “Joshua?”

“Yeah, the weekend before last, Mingyu totally rejected Joshua. Apparently Jeonghan heard about it.” Minghao answers lackadaisically, causing Mingyu to fidget uncomfortably in his seat.

“Hey,” he starts, but is immediately interrupted.

Wonwoo snorts. “You deserved this then.”

“Also if you are worried that I just unearthed some great secret to Wonwoo, then you are wrong there. Everyone knows about your crush on Joshua,” Minghao adds as an afterthought. “Everyone.” He repeats for emphasis. Mingyu decides to focus on his food rather than his friends, but he feels strangely nauseous now that he knows that Jeonghan is passively pissed at him.

“You could talk to Jeonghan about it. Try to clear the air,” Wonwoo says, sensing Mingyu’s anxiety. “Or you could just show up, maybe it’ll be like a white prince entrance and you two can go off somewhere together.”

Minghao snorts, then falls into laughter at the image of Mingyu being able to woo anyone, let alone Joshua, especially by showing up to a cheap house party. “I’d just try to talk to Jeonghan or Joshua about it. It’ll cool at least one of them down. Unless… you want me to talk to Jeonghan, then I can tell him that you are crazy in love with his bestie, Joshua, and then maybe he’ll dish about Joshua’s feelings and I can report back to you.” Just as Mingyu is ready to take that as a solution to his problem, Minghao waves his hand in the air. “This is your problem though, plus after talking to Joshua the night you rejected him, I’d say you have a pretty good chance at getting back on good terms with him, unless he was really drunk.”

The conversation falls away from Mingyu’s failure when Soonyoung joins the group.

While they start up a new conversation, Mingyu allows his gaze to travel until he’s found Jeonghan nestled right next to Joshua. He watches them too closely during lunch and when they get up, Mingyu waits until they pass his table. Then, he reaches out to catch Jeonghan’s elbow. “We need to talk,” he says.

Joshua looks surprised, but he simply ducks his head and continues towards the recycling bins, taking Jeonghan’s things with him. Jeonghan looks bored as he leans in. “Alright?”

“About your party…” Mingyu starts, unsure how to go about this now that he’s reached out to him. “I’d like to go.”

Jeonghan scoffs, running a hand through his hair. “Not even an apology prefacing that request? If you want to go to the party, then I can’t stop you. You just aren’t invited. You don’t work that closely with Jihoon, that’s all.” He says.

“But Wonwoo does?” He replies.

All he receives is a shrug in response.

“I’m not trying to force you into inviting me, but there was a misunderstanding between Joshua and me. He hasn’t been answering my calls, or I would have apologized already.” Mingyu sighs. Jeonghan smiles softly down at him. “Is he that upset with me?” Mingyu whispers.

Wonwoo tries not to peer at Jeonghan’s falling expression. “More than you realize, but he’s over it, I’m sure. I’ll send you the details, but I expect to definitely see you there now that you’ve personally asked.” He bites his lip as he turns away to head in the same direction as Joshua.

None of his friends comment on the exchange that has just occurred. Lunch ends.

--

It’s a birthday party, so Mingyu picks out a gift to bring to the party. His shopping is last minute and he hasn’t asked any of the others what they might have gotten for Jihoon, so he’s stranded upon the aisles of clothing. While he’s searching through clothes that are Jihoon’s size, he realizes that he could have just baked a cake or went over early to Jeonghan’s to prepare some type of dinner or snack, but instead he’s here trying to shop for someone he doesn’t know enough about to be shopping for.

“Mingyu?” He hears a voice from behind him.

When he turns, he thinks that fate must hate him. “Joshua, oh, hey.”

“Shopping for Jihoon?” He asks, a pleasant smile on his face. He lifts up his own shopping bag. “Me too, I hope he likes my gift, but I only recently started working close to him. I’m sure he’ll thank us no matter what we get him so long as it isn’t… totally inappropriate.” He chuckles, probably thinking about when someone thought that getting Seungkwan a was the right move for his birthday. That party didn’t last long.

Mingyu chuckles too. “That was pretty bad. I don’t think that Seungkwan ever found out who it was…” He purses his lips, trying to think if anyone had taken the blame for it, but he couldn’t recall it ever happening. It was because Seungkwan wanted to forget about it that it faded from everyone’s memories. “It wasn’t me though,” he adds as an afterthought.

Joshua raises an eyebrow. “Sounds suspicious to me.” He waves a hand in the air. “You wouldn’t have even thought of it. It wasn’t Jeonghan or me either, so that still leaves a bunch of people it may have been.” He shrugs. “I’m not feeling very detective-like at the moment though.”

“Why haven’t you returned my calls?” Mingyu asks suddenly. He can feel the tension slip into the air between them when he asks. Joshua bites down on his lip, then immediately turns away to shift through the clothing that Mingyu had just been looking through before he had come into the store. “I’m not mad, I’m just confused.”

Joshua shrugs, still not looking at Mingyu. “It was nothing. I don’t really want to talk about what happened, especially because I was drunk. If I was sober and that happened, then I would sit down and handle it, but I think I just wasn’t using my judgement, you know? I should have noticed that you were uncomfortable from the beginning of the encounter, but when I think back on it, I can’t even remember it clearly. It’s all fuzzy.” It’s only when he’s done talking does he turn around to look at Mingyu.

He nods. “You were drunk, yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” Mingyu nods, then starts off towards the exit. “I’ll see you tonight then. I just realized that I was going to bake something and I think that’ll be enough.”

It’s Joshua’s turn to reply awkwardly. “Okay, I’ve got to go home and get ready anyway. So… see you later, I guess.” He lifts a hand to wave.

Then he reaches forward to grasp Mingyu’s wrist with his free hand. “Wait, no.” Mingyu cannot believe that they are having this back-and-forth within this store. “I’m not okay with you not understanding what I meant. I was drunk, but that did not mean that I didn’t want to dance with you. I did, and it was embarrassing when you refused, but it was my fault for not noticing that you were uncomfortable. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea and think that I was just drunk and trying to flirt with the first person I saw.” He explains, then drops Mingyu’s wrist from his grasp.

His hand was cold when it was on him, so when it falls, Mingyu feels its absence. Instead of having some confessional in public, he decides to joke instead. It might also relieve the tension between them. That’s what he thinks. “Oh, you were trying to flirt with me?” He quirks an eyebrow playfully.

He’s never seen Joshua flush, and not only does pink scatter his cheeks, but he falters in his response. Mingyu thinks that he is adorable, especially when he’s made him speechless. It’s nearly an impossible feat to silence Joshua, but here he is, fumbling before him, somewhat. Mingyu thinks he must look smug because he certainly feels that way. However, all the smugness in his expression disappears when Joshua defiantly looks him in the eyes, expression honest, and says, “That’s exactly what I was trying to do.”

However, before Mingyu can even respond, Joshua leaves, rushing out of the store just as quickly as he had ran out of the club that night. Honestly, Mingyu cannot keep up with what might make Joshua stay; he’d rather not have to watch as he walks away time after time. For now, there’s little he can do.

Mingyu goes home without a present for Jihoon and with the onset of a headache.

--

He goes straight to Jeonghan’s house after picking up some ingredients. He figures that this is at least better than being empty-handed. When Jeonghan answers the door, he almost expects Joshua to be there, but instead it’s Seungcheol at his side. “Yo,” he says, “the party isn’t starting for another hour.” Mingyu holds up his groceries bags as though they are a peace offering. Jeonghan smiles and lets him in.

“You’ll have to clean up any mess you make in there!” He calls after Mingyu.

Mingyu immediately turns into the clean kitchen and breathes a sigh of relief. It looks nothing like how he imagined it, especially after Joshua had confided in him that Jeonghan could be quite lazy. “Alright,” he agrees back to him. Seungcheol follows him into the kitchen, folding his arms as he leans against the counter.

“Glad you could make it,” he smiles easily at his friend and coworker. Mingyu nods, setting out his groceries carefully, separating them into dry and wet ingredients. “Heard about what was going on, I’m glad that Joshua and you worked it out.”

At the mention of Joshua, Mingyu knocks over the sugar which is thankfully closed. “Yeah,” he nods, but does not further that subject. “I’m glad I could be here too. I bet Jihoon’s going to enjoy it. Are you helping Jeonghan clean?”

Seungcheol nods. “Someone’s gotta. Joshua had to go out shopping, so he wasn’t really going to be much help.”

“He was completely useless today!” Jeonghan dramatically says, entering the kitchen. “I’m firing him as Jeonghan’s best friend.”

Jeonghan is just enough for Mingyu to not think about Joshua and his interaction at the store. He was trying to flirt with me… Does that mean…? He chews on his lip while he tries to stay focused solely on baking for Jihoon. His new objective was to not think about the auburn-haired man that he was harboring feelings for currently. His whole body feels strange when he thinks about their most recent interaction.

Luckily that ceases being their latest interaction: unluckily as well.

“Oh yeah! Party!” Joshua says in clear, clean English as he walks in without knocking. Jeonghan chuckles, watching Mingyu closely as he turns around at the sound of Joshua’s voice. His whole body jolted when he heard Joshua and everything that hadn’t already clicked for Jeonghan, suddenly did.

He quirks an eyebrow at Mingyu as he calls to Joshua, “We’re in the kitchen, Josh!’

“Oh, did Seungcheol pick up finally?” He chirps as he enters the kitchen. He appears to be ready to make some smart remark towards Seungcheol, but as soon as he sees Mingyu, he inhales sharply. “Hey,” he whispers.

Jeonghan claps a hand against his back. “Mingyu’s gonna make us some food. Come on, you can help me set up the movie.”

“Yeah,” he says, turning around and leaving the kitchen.

Seungcheol pats Mingyu’s shoulder sympathetically. “It could be worse, I guess.” Mingyu turns to him with wide eyes, mouth falling open in surprise.

“Even you?”

“That really made sense of everything when he walked in and looked like a lost puppy, and then you also looked like one.” He shrugs, pursing his lips as examines all the foodstuffs that Mingyu has brought over. “Do you mind if I hang out here? I don’t think they need me hovering out there.”

Mingyu smiles at him. “It’s fine.”

It’s the exact opposite of fine.

Seungcheol only talks about Joshua at first. It seems orchestrated by Jeonghan. How pointed the questions are and how invasive they are, it all seems like Jeonghan.For awhile, Mingyu entertains the questions as well as he can, brushing them off easily, but the more that he pries, the more that Mingyu feels uneasy, queasy, unsure.

“You know, feelings are hard, but I’m sure it’ll all work out. Joshua and you are pretty easy-going guys, so if things fall apart here and there, then the most drama you’ll have is Jeonghan starting stuff.” He’s trying to be supportive, but Mingyu doesn’t need any support on this front, especially when his main support system is Minghao and Wonwoo. Both of them would rather make fun of him than actually give him advice that he can use. Minghao seems to be full of information, but sometimes Mingyu cannot work past the sarcasm and jokes. “Not saying that you two even have anything to work out.”

Jeonghan reenters the kitchen.

“He’s not helping, swap me.” He pleads immediately, looking to Seungcheol. He nods, mouthing a good luck to Mingyu before leaving.

Mingyu is finishing prepping the dish by the time that Joshua reenters the kitchen. “I was totally helping, I don’t think that Jeonghan knows how to work the television very well.” He says, then, “that smells good.”

“Thanks,” Mingyu nods. “I could take a look if you are having electrical problems.”

Joshua shakes his head in response. “No, just relationship problems here.” He’s trying to be funny, but his anxiousness is palpable. “You know,” he says in English, then quietly returns to Korean. “The problem of us.”

At least they aren’t dancing around it any longer, but still it makes Mingyu feel nauseous at the mention of them as an us. “Yeah.” He his lips; they feel too dry. His whole mouth feels too dry. He pours himself a glass of water as music kicks up in the living room. It drifts into the kitchen; it’s fun, but not obnoxious. They hear Seungcheol giggle from the living room and both of them smile at each other.

“I can solve a subproblem,” Mingyu says, but feels silly after he says it. It sounded smoother in his head, but he still reaches out for Joshua. The song that drifts in is not any type of y, but it’s fun. He pulls Joshua close by his hips and moves his body to the beat. His dancing is a little awkward at first, he hasn’t done it in awhile, but he quickly falls into the familiar movements. Being friends with Minghao had only furthered his knowledge of dancing, but most of that was inapplicable here in Jeonghan’s cozy kitchen. Mingyu and Joshua both still wearing their socks as they slide across the hardwood: a tangle of limbs and movements.

He realizes how petite Joshua’s features are when he is this close. Joshua’s eyes hold something mischievous in them as he dances closer to Mingyu until he’s up in his space once again. This time, they are both incredibly, painfully sober. There’s a yearning in Mingyu’s chest that tells him that this is exactly where he needs to be. It pulls him towards Joshua, comforts his anxiety. His hands are able to sit on Joshua’s hips now; when he moves closer, Mingyu is able to further pull him in until they flush against one another. Joshua’s hands are hooked around his neck again, but this time Mingyu does not stare at the ceiling. Instead, he looks at Joshua.

He can’t stop looking at Joshua. He’s never been able to shift his gaze from him so easily. It’s too easy to watch him. The way his lips quirk up when he realizes that he’s watching him; the way his face changes imperceptibly with new stimuli. His expressions are endless; Mingyu’s interest in him is endless. He’s underestimated his feelings, greatly underestimated them.

His heart aches. Joshua seems to be breathless. Mingyu is breathless.

Mingyu takes care not to dig his fingernails into Joshua’s skin, but he cannot’ help but to tighten his grip on him. His whole body shivers as Joshua moves against him in time with the music. Mingyu moves back against him. It’s just dancing, so Mingyu is able to restrain himself, but there’s a hot feeling at the pit of his stomach which is the reason he has to stop Joshua before he ends up on Jeonghan’s counter.

“Joshua, Joshua,” Mingyu manages to find his voice again. “Hey.”

He looks up at him, momentarily stopping his ministrations. There’s already a smile gracing his lips.

Then Mingyu kisses him. He makes sure to steal any possible smug words that Joshua could have thought of, so he kisses him hard with both of his hands cradling Joshua’s cheeks. He feels Joshua kissing him back, lifting himself onto his tiptoes as he does so. He opens his mouth and Mingyu slides his tongue against Joshua’s own. He doesn’t taste like much, but the sensation of kissing him makes Mingyu feel as though he’s burning. His hands drop back down to his hips to pull him closer. Joshua stumbles ungracefully towards him, falling into him.

He keens when Mingyu nips at his bottom lip before he pulls away.

Joshua immediately goes back in for another kiss. He doesn’t want it to end; Mingyu doesn’t know how to stop once it starts. His hands can’t sit still anywhere. He reaches up to run his fingers through Joshua’s hair, messing the style up. Joshua pulls him down by his neck so that the distance isn’t so fair. They aren’t touching enough, but they are touching too much.

When they separate, Mingyu’s lips are trembling.

Just when he thinks that Joshua is going to say something, he kisses him again. They don’t separate again except to inhale shakily, then dive back under. It is as though they are trying to make up for every lost moment, every lost opportunity when their lips could have met again and again and again. These moments are timeless except for the food that Mingyu knows that he needs to finish before it’s ruined. He can’t stop touching Joshua, can’t stop kissing him. Joshua has crowded up into Mingyu’s space and now he doesn’t want him to leave.

Jeonghan walks in just as Joshua is tugging on Mingyu’s shirt.

Mingyu immediately goes red in the face. “If you needed a room, I don’t think the kitchen is ideal,” Jeonghan comments, crossing over to the fridge to pull out a cola. Joshua’s cheeks are pink, but he looks relatively unphased by Jeonghan’s entrance. He looks completely phased by Mingyu.

“Sorry,” Joshua lets go of Mingyu’s shirt, but doesn’t move away from him. “I was just helping him in the kitchen like you told me to do.” He winks at Mingyu. Jeonghan opens his drink, then lightly taps it against the back of Joshua’s head.

“Don’t help him in the kitchen if it involves removing clothing.” He chastises, clucking his tongue. Joshua chuckles, giving him a thumbs-up in understanding. Mingyu laughs breathlessly, kissing the top of Joshua’s head in a sickeningly domestic manner. Joshua looks up to him immediately, mouth slightly agape. That’s when Mingyu notices that his lips are swollen slightly; he smiles smugly at that. There’s nothing that seems put together about Joshua any longer now. “Come help me finish cleaning and setting up,” Jeonghan finally says, putting his drink down on the counter.

The look that Joshua gave him after he had kissed the top of his head lingers with him as they leave the room. Still no words have passed between them, but he’s confident that the party will allow him to rid himself of his awkwardness. He hopes, at least.

He continues cooking for the party.