The day after the whole fiasco with Jeonghan getting flustered and leaving the room, Jisoo found himself without the boy’s presence for once. He wasn’t sure if he was glad or worried about the fact; a little space to breathe and be alone wasn’t so bad, but the lack of Jeonghan’s nosy self could also mean he wasn’t interested in the bet anymore. That would have led to a very bad turn of events on his side. He might not even win if that were the case. Still, he was fairly positive that things were going smoothly, if yesterday was anything to judge by. 

The other boy had blushed, that much was clear. 

His reactions were okay, but whether or not his thought process followed suit is the question. Jeonghan could always just dismiss what he felt and not dwell on it further, choosing to ignore the situation at hand instead; he could even be too blinded by the bet and his will to win to focus on anything else. Hopefully that wasn’t the case.

“Hey, Josh,” a voice came from the doorway, interrupting Jisoo’s musings for a while. Hansol’s head peeked through, silently asking for permission to join the older boy in the studio room. 

Jisoo motioned for him to come inside, “what’s up? Do you need to use the room?”

“No, I came here looking for you actually,” Hansol said as he entered, looking around the room with a surprised expression on his face that made Jisoo wonder. His curiosity doubled (but at the same time, got at least one of his questions answered) when Hansol followed up his statement with the question, “Jeonghan’s not here with you?”

When the older boy shook his head, Hansol visibly relaxed, which made Jisoo pause to think— did they fight or anything? Was there something he wasn’t updated on? Where was Jeonghan anyway? When he voiced out a few of his questions— leaving out only the last one, the other boy took a seat next to him, regarding him with a rather serious look.

“We’re good friends, right? You could tell me anything,” the younger boy began to say. 

Jisoo gave him a look, “yeah, I know, dude. What’s going on though?”

“Well, Seungkwan heard from Seokmin who heard from Soonyoung who heard from Junhui and Minghao that you and Jeonghan were a thing now. It’s just that you guys weren’t telling any of us— which is cool, we get the privacy thing— but also you know we won’t mind at all. Seungcheol’s been whining about being left out, though. Most of us kind of saw it coming, too, but—“

“We’re not dating,” Jisoo said, biting back a laugh when Hansol stopped talking to stare at him with an expression that said he must be lying. “No, really, we’re not.” 

“Don’t you like him?”

The pink haired boy nodded, remembering what he told Hansol since a few years back; he didn’t mean to expose himself to the younger boy, at first, but Hansol had managed to bribe it out of him with burgers and fries. Who was he to say no to the sweet temptation of burgers and fries? Hansol was more surprised than Jihoon was— if the latter was surprised at all— thankfully (at least that meant he wasn’t completely obvious).

“You’re really not together?” Hansol asked again, expression still doubtful.

The older boy sighed, “as much as I would like to say that I’m kidding, I’m really not. He’s only been around me because of a bet.”

“A bet?”

Jisoo contemplated telling him everything for a few seconds before realizing this was Hansol he was talking about. It’s not like he has anybody else he could tell it to except for Seungkwan— that was probably the only problem, but Jisoo figured that with only less than two weeks to go, he can risk it being exposed to the younger member and then eventually to the rest of the group. Maybe. Maybe not. He asked Hansol to make sure not to mention a word to anybody except Jihoon and when the younger boy nodded, began to explain.

He added in even recent events and happenings and basically everything he’s been doing to try and subtly get Jeonghan’s attention. Hansol took in every bit of information with a mix of surprise, amusement, and genuine awe at how things were going. It was a slow path and it’s not even sure if Jisoo was going to win in the end just yet, but he admired the older boy for his constant patience and dedication to Jeonghan. Even if it was still weird how they both dated Seungcheol. 

“You’re sure about this, aren’t you?” Hansol asked. When Jisoo just nodded, he continued with a follow up question, “so why the bet? Why didn’t you just straight up ask him out?”

“I guess it’s kind of a safer plan, this way,”