Chanyeol threw himself onto the couch beside Junmyeon, and resisted the urge to groan when he saw Kris enter the room a just few minutes later. Not that he wasn’t glad to see the man, really, it had been a long time since the twelve of them had been gathered together in one place and he’d almost forgotten how fun it was, but it was kind of stressing to see the drama between their two leaders.

Well, technically one was an ex-leader but Chanyeol and everyone else were kind of avoiding the “ex” word.  "Ex" all reminded them too much of how Kris was acting much like a jilted ex, and honestly, Chanyeol was starting to get secondhand embarrassment on his behalf.

Speaking of second-hand embarrassment, the reason for it unfolded before his eyes. The moment Kris entered the room, Junmyeon’s shoulder’s started tensing up. Kris either didn’t notice, or preferred to ignore it, because he sat right beside the smaller man, immediately trying to engage him in conversation.

“What are you reading?” the Chinese man asked, and Chanyeol couldn’t help but think it was a dumb conversation opener considering that Junmyeon had been reading (or trying to, really, since he always got interrupted… just like now) the same book for two days now.

“The Door to December. It’s the only book I brought with me.”

"Oh." Kris sat back, and Chanyeol held his breath hoping that it would end there when—

"Do you want anything to eat? I could cook something. And there's coffee brewing if you want some."

The youngest in the room resisted the urge to smack himself. Instead, he waited until Junmyeon had declined and given his usual excuses before releasing a sigh. “You should try another line of conversation next time,” he advised.

Kris scowled at the wall opposite him. Chanyeol absently wondered if it would melt from the intensity of the elder’s glare. “But I don’t know what else to say. Everything else seems like a potential argument-starter, and at least he’s not just ignoring me or outright running away from me now.”

“Why don’t you try talking about whatever you talked about that got him to stop running away in the first place?”

“We didn’t talk. I just cooked him some breakfast before he went to sleep.”

“Breakfast? Before sleep?” Chanyeol asked, extremely confused.

Kris hummed a bit. “He didn’t sleep during our first night here. I saw him in the kitchen on our first morning here, about to fall asleep into his coffee. I cooked him some breakfast—you know how fast he gets sleepy after a meal—and he barely finished it before going to bed.”

“Oh.” Chanyeol took a moment to appreciate how well Kris still knew Junmyeon even after years of being apart before saying, “I’m pretty sure Junmyeon hyung didn’t stop avoiding you just because you cooked for him. He isn’t the type to be swayed with food when he’s really mad. You must have said something.”

Kris sighed. “Yeah, but since I don’t know what I said that got him to acknowledge my presence, I’m still stuck.” He stood up. “Anyway, I guess I’ll try to find another way to talk to him. Thanks, Chanyeol.”

The younger one acknowledged the grateful pat on his shoulder with a nod, then flopped onto the couch as soon as the other was out of the room. He buried his face in a pillow before letting out a loud groan.

“That was heavy,” Minseok commented from the doorway.

Chanyeol sent him a pitiful look. “I got caught in one of their episodes.”

The oldest of their group chuckled softly, entering the room with Tao trailing behind him. Both bore steaming cups of coffee, and Chanyeol eyed those hopefully. Tao sighed but, knowing Minseok wouldn’t share and Chanyeol would just keep begging until he got what he wanted, handed the elder his cup for a sip.

“I almost pity you, having to deal with that so early in the morning,” Tao said as he took back his cup, “but dealing with Baekhyun hyung after encountering those two together is harder.”

“Why are they being like this?!” Chanyeol whined. “Baekhyun, Sehun and I planned this vacation so that we could all relax, but instead they’re stressing us out even more than a week’s worth of variety schedules!”

“Are we talking about Kris and Junmyeon?” Lu Han asked as he entered the room. Jongdae and Yixing followed in his wake.

“Chanyeol was unfortunate enough to spend the morning with one of their episodes,” Minseok explained.

“Ouch,” Lu Han said. Jongdae winced sympathetically, having been a victim of the same unfortunate circumstance just the night before.

Yixing gave a soft hum as he flopped down on the floor. “Sometimes I wonder if they were actually together before.”

“With how close they were, and how Junmyeon acted after Kris left, I wouldn’t actually be surprised,” Minseok commented.

“Didn’t they both have girlfriends before, though?” asked Jongdae. He flopped down beside Yixing, pressing his whole body against Chanyeol’s leg.

“They did,” Baekhyun confirmed as he walked in. He’d been able to hear the whole conversation from the kitchen. “But that was way before we debuted, and neither of them dated when we were trainees, or after.”

“Kris never got a girlfriend after he left, either,” Lu Han added from his seat—on the arm of Minseok’s chair.

“When you put it like that…” Chanyeol thought for a moment. “Remember that time when we were having promotions, and Kris hyung kissed Junmyeon hyung’s hand as thanks for opening his water for him?”

“Gege was so flustered when he found out that fans saw that,” Tao said with a snicker. He occupied the long sofa with Chanyeol, passing the cup of coffee between the two of them. “Especially when he found out that there was a video. I swear he looked ready to die of embarrassment, he was so red!”

“For someone raised in the West, Kris is strangely comfortable with touching Junmyeon,” Lu Han pointed out. “I mean, skinship between is normal here in Korea, and encouraged among idols for fan service—” at this, he pointedly eyed Baekhyun, who was perched comfortably on top of Chanyeol and Tao “—but I’ve never seen him initiate as much skinship with us as he does with Junmyeon.”

Minseok nodded frantically, swallowing the mouthful of coffee he had before adding, “Yeah, remember that time when we had a drinking party at the dorm when we had a break from training for Overdose? Everyone else had passed out, but I’d gotten up to get some water. I saw them in the living room, basically cuddling each other. And they weren’t asleep either, I heard them talking.”

“Actually, I used to see Kris hyung lean on Junmyeon hyung a lot of the time, when he thought no one was looking,” Chanyeol confessed. “I just never brought it up, I thought I was just seeing too much into it.”

“I noticed that too. It’s like Kris hyung has this radar when it comes to Junmyeon hyung,” Jongdae piped up. “He always notices when hyung walks into the room.”

“Not only that, he’s really, really helpless when Junmyeon hyung pouts at him,” Baekhyun added with a laugh. “That time when we were filming at the beach for Showtime, and we were pushing him to run into the water? We weren’t really going to make him do it since it was freezing, but he saw Junmyeon hyung pouting and went right in.”

“Kept complaining about it too, but he shut up real fast whenever Junmyeon would look at him. And his face when he got out of the water and Junmyeon hugged him! It was kinda like watching a lovesick teenager,” Minseok commented wryly. Everybody laughed. A few moments of comfortable silence passed before Tao spoke up.

“Hearing all of this though, it really sounds like they were together. Or at least, that Kris hyung liked Junmyeon hyung.”

Yixing was shaking his head even before Tao finished speaking. “It’s not just Kris hyung. Junmyeon doesn’t really like to show it to you guys, but he worries for the group a lot. But since we’re the same age, he would talk to me sometimes. He used to always worry about Kris hyung, especially when K and M promoted separately. He’d call me, ask after Kris, and ask me to look after him, then request that I don’t tell Kris about it. He said he was worried because sometimes Kris hyung would forget to eat, or would push himself too hard during practice.”

“He got really bad after Kris hyung left, too,” Baekhyun added quietly, biting his lip. “He didn’t sleep well, and pushed himself really hard. I almost thought he would end up getting sick during promotions, maybe just pass out during one of the stages. And he didn’t mention Kris hyung at all. He’d just walk out of the room if any of us even mentioned it.”

Chanyeol nodded. “He had me pack and ship off Kris hyung’s stuff. I remember when he told me to do that, because he wouldn’t even mention hyung’s name. He just said, ‘Chanyeol, please gather all of his things and send them to him.’ Didn’t even wait for me to answer. Then the next day, I found a box of Kris hyung’s stuff that I didn’t pack with the ones I’d left in the living room. No one else admitted to packing those, so I assumed that those came from Junmyeon hyung.”

They all processed the implications of that, the atmosphere subdued as they all thought back to the days of Kris’ leaving. Then Jongdae broke the tension by asking, “Assuming they were together, do you think they actually, you know, did the deed?”

It took them a moment to understand what he meant, and when they did, the room exploded with reactions. Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Lu Han and Yixing all burst out laughing, while Tao did an excellent impersonation of a tomato, yelling about how he did not want that image in his head, thank you very much! Minseok slapped the back of Jongdae’s head, resulting in a yelp and loud protests from the younger, but he was laughing too.

“That,” Chanyeol wheezed, taking great gulps of air to regain his breath, “is something I would pay to see you actually ask them.”

Lu Han snickered on the floor, having fallen to his knees while laughing. “I’d contribute to that payment.”

Jongdae smirked. “How much are you willing to pay?”

Chanyeol and Lu Han looked at each other. “Ten thousand won,” Chanyeol decided.

“Each,” Lu Han added.

“You’ve got a deal.”

I'm on Twitter, AO3, and Ask.fm