Someone has been stealing Kino’s chocolate.

First couple of times he got slightly annoyed, but decided not to be petty about it and just ignored it. However, it just continued happening and he started getting more annoyed, finally starting complaining about it. There were nine suspects, but Hyunggu was pretty sure the older part of the Pentagon family wouldn’t be so shameless to eat it and not buy some more for him. Or at least admit they were the culprit. It was a bit strange, but even though it was getting on his nerves he didn’t do anything to actually find out who it was. Counting the lost pieces made him anxious with his craving – he didn’t even like sweets that much, he just appreciated his chocolate after a long day – it was something like an energizer to him, maybe even a small childish reward for the end of a hardworking day. And the whole ordeal with someone stealing those rewards from him was almost a game by now. At least the culprit had the decency to never take the last piece of chocolate, Hyunggu was never completely left out of his precious sweets.

Someone has been eating one piece of pizza less, so Kino could take it instead.

The first time it happened Hyunggu was staring at the last piece of pizza in front of them with what must have looked like a longing expression, so Wooseok just told him it’s his. The shorter maknae didn’t think much about it and just happily grabbed it. Of course he wouldn’t be counting how much his hyungs ate – who does that anyway? But after it had happened a couple of times he started to wonder if someone was doing that on purpose. It never happened with any other food they were eating together and everyone knew he adored pizza. He tried to pay more attention to it, but his hyungs were either clueless or excellent actors as no one really acted out of the ordinary to him. It didn’t take him much time to figure out Wooseok didn’t eat much, but when he asked him about it the younger just dismissed it, saying he’s not a big fan of pizza – which was blasphemy itself in Hyunggu’s world, but he wouldn’t complain if it meant more pizza for himself.

Pentagon maknae line was a crew of its own. As the youngest ones in a group as loving as Pentagon was they were smothered with love and care, each in their own way. Yuto and Wooseok were the quiet ones – especially considering their age, but Hyunggu made sure to make up for that, making a nice balance. Hyunggu was a lot of things really, a lot of times a true baby maknae, but a lot of times being more mature than some of their hyungs. He still couldn’t beat Wooseok when it came to being thoughtful and calm and it was a trait Hyunggu secretly admired. The giant maknae knew how to be playful and up for mischief, but he knew when was the time for everything – when he was allowed to be a little harmless troublemaker and when it was important for him to be serious and mature. Wooseok was reliable and that was one of the things that made him so lovable. It wasn’t a surprise he was the one that kept the maknae line together and, in a way, provided strength to both Yuto and Hyunggu.

The Japanese boy obviously felt out of place when they have first met him. They bonded well, but Yuto pretty quickly found comfort and strength in Jinho hyung and that pretty much made Hyunggu and Wooseok to turn to each other. They didn’t mind it, it was comfortable from the start even if they were quite different and it was only natural to become best friends in no time. Kino was there to help Wooseok out when it came to practicing dancing and Wooseok provided useful input on Hyunggu’s songs, both of them quite often turning to Hyojong for help or practicing together. Free time – when they had some – was spent together as well, without questioning. Hyunggu found his and Wooseok’s friendship to be something precious, something that completed his life with Pentagon family and he suspected not having the younger one in it would’ve made it pretty dull and definitely more scary.

On the other hand, Kino was a ray of sunshine in Wooseok’s eyes. A ray of much needed sunshine – the one that shooed away the darkness, the one that provided life. Some time after they have finally debuted the younger one has realized how much exactly that ray of sunshine was needed by him and it was pretty terrifying in a lot of ways. He was thankful for his own ability to hide his feelings and act cool about it and he soon found a way to subtly take care of the dancer as well as teasingly annoy him – just to be rewarded by the reactions and expressions he found extremely adorable. It was his food – much more satisfying than chocolate he was constantly stealing or pizza he willingly gave up on.

There was no way to tell Hyunggu how deeply he felt for him, fear was too big, not leaving place for Wooseok to rationally think about their friendship and the possibility of it developing into something else. He highly doubted the older boy had any thoughts about liking him as anything other than a friend. Maybe with time something would change, but thinking about it, hoping only gave Wooseok headache and he had neither time nor energy to deal with headaches. It was easier to just give himself small portions of happiness by his silly actions and not think much about it.

Hyunggu had an idea that his taller best friend might be messing with him, but if that was true he wasn’t sure what the reason might be. Maybe Wooseok was just being his playful self – that side of his was well known to Kino, certainly better than to the rest of the Pentagon family, but the joke was going on for too long – to the point when it really didn’t feel like a joke. But then what was it? The dancer just couldn’t understand the intention behind his best friend’s actions – that is if he was the one behind it. But did it really matter? The whole thing really wasn’t such a big deal – making it a big deal was so petty and childish and Hyunggu so didn’t want to be a kid like that. Still, no matter how hard he wanted it to not bother him it definitely did.

So, he was thinking about actually approaching the younger boy with the issue, but he really had no idea how to do it without making himself look ridiculous. Not that it would be a problem – they were best friends after all, but it still felt somewhat embarrassing to Hyunggu. Going on in circles, from wanting to talk about it to listing all the reasons why that was a bad idea made Hyunggu feel a mixture of feelings. A part of him wanted to find out and make things clear and the other one wanted to keep it a mystery, no matter how much he disliked his little end-of-day treats missing, it was strangely exciting wondering if the thief stayed loyal to them or not. Did Hyunggu have too much time on his hands? Did he lead a boring life where the only exciting thing happening was his chocolate miraculously disappearing? Certainly not. But it was still weirdly thrilling and the dancer wasn’t entirely sure if he was willing to solve that mystery. And then he would remember that there might be some other reason behind it and the circle of contemplation would start again.

Hyunggu was sitting on Wooseok’s bed, watching some of their performances and waiting for the younger one to come back from taking his shower, so they could hang out. He spent all his time in his friend’s room ever since Yuto got together with Jinho, going back to his own room only to sleep.

A couple of minutes later the tall maknae walked in, drying his hair with his towel before sitting down next to Hyunggu and looking down at what he was watching.

“Again? We monitored this together already.” He frowned a bit, looking up at his friend. “Stop working, let’s watch some movie or something…” He blinked when Kino moved closer, suddenly looking suspicious as he sniffed.

“You smell like chocolate.” The older one narrowed his eyes slightly and Wooseok raised one of his eyebrows, defensively.

“So?”

Hyunggu paused, contemplating for a whole three seconds if he should go there.

“My chocolates are missing.” Everyone knew that. “Are you stealing them?” That sounded exactly how Hyunggu didn’t want it to sound – like a childish complaint – but it was too late now.

Wooseok watched him, trying to keep his gaze steady, but feeling so stupid for having his conversation now. Denying would be dumb and he really didn’t want to lie to Hyunggu anyway, making up some excuse was lying as well. He didn’t think he’d get caught like this, or at least he didn’t really expect for Kino to make him talk about it. It was a childish thing he did and actually discussing it was kind of weird. He was a bit tired of hiding as well. Of course he was still afraid of his feelings getting discovered, or well, talking about them – especially to Hyunggu, but since recently he had started thinking that he won’t be able to hide them forever and that maybe he should just let them out and deal with the situation finally.

“Yes.” He nodded firmly, watching Hyunggu’s big eyes stare back at him. The older one involuntarily pouted as he spoke again.

“Why?”

“Because I want to see that face of yours.” The giant maknae motioned at the face his best friend was making and Kino furrowed his eyebrows in confusion again. The reason was so random, but this whole situation was, so he didn’t even know where to start in questioning it. Wooseok’s piercing gaze was on him the whole time and he wasn’t sure how that made him feel, the look the younger was giving was something new.

“What does that even mean?” Hyunggu finally asked, trying to respond in some way, but just being completely confused by his friend’s words.

“I… you’re cute.” Wooseok blurted out, watching Kino’s face suddenly turn red. There was no stopping now. “I want to give them back to you though. I’ll give them back if you want to… if you let me…” He wasn’t sounding like he wanted to either, tripping over his words and then took a deep breath, trying to regain his courage. “If you let me continue having these feelings for you.”

“What are you talking about?” The older one asked again, feeling his cheeks burn as he was getting an idea what Wooseok was thinking.

“I like you.” The younger one tried his best to continue looking at him, nervously gripping the bed sheets beside him, bracing himself for Kino’s reaction. His best friend was still staring at him.

“Oh god, where did this come from?” Hyunggu blurted out without thinking, voice small as he was met with the silence. Wooseok waited as he could basically see the older one’s brain working. “How? Since when?” He said next, trying to remember all the situations that might have indicated those feelings the giant maknae said he has for him.

“Um… November? Maybe?” Wooseok replied, uncertain, knowing it might be important for Kino to know even if it wasn’t important to him.

“November? Really?” The dancer widened his eyes even more and then paused again, as if he finally understood the weight of Wooseok’s words. He looked at him carefully, as if studying him for the first time in his life. The rapper was gorgeous, he knew that and he was his best friend, the person he understood and loved the most in Pentagon. The way he was looking at him now spoke even more than his words. It was like Wooseok threw away some kind of mask he was keeping on for apparently months now. Hyunggu felt like he could actually see him for the first time, those emotions clear on his face, in his dark eyes and strangely, it didn’t make him feel uncomfortable. It felt liberating instead, it was making him excited, making him feel things he had no idea existed.

“It’s too much, I know.” The younger one said softly, feeling like he should take a step back, this didn’t look like such a good idea now, but he wasn’t regretting that he let Hyunggu know the truth. There was no turning back, it was there and he was sure he didn’t want to take it back. He was tense, facing rejection, perhaps ruining their beautiful friendship and he was afraid to think about it all.

Hyunggu reached down, putting his hand on top of the rapper’s. The touch was soft, but firm, saying he won’t back off and, more importantly, won’t let Wooseok back off either.

“It’s too much, but I want that chocolate.” He chose his words carefully, blushing still, feeling so timid, so unlike himself.

“What?” Wooseok let out a light chuckle, not believing what he was hearing.

“Let me taste it.” Hyunggu quickly added, almost getting impatient. He didn’t want to think much about it, instead he wanted to be careless and just go with it, see where it could take him. Thinking about how it might possibly hurt the one person he didn’t want to hurt under any circumstances was too much at the moment and he didn’t want those kind of thoughts to turn him into a coward as they surely would.

He moved slightly closer, but Wooseok moved faster and quickly met his lips with his own, partly feeling like he was taking advantage of the moment, going fast in fear Hyunggu will change his mind when he needed this so badly. The older one didn’t change his mind though, he let him kiss him and responded too and Wooseok’s heart was racing, clouding his mind and taking over his senses.

The tall maknae tasted like chocolate, like a sweet thief he was, with warm hands that made his cheeks burn even more and soft hair his own fingers couldn’t help but play with. Hyunggu smiled briefly and kissed him harder, it was too hard to resist.

“What are we doing?” Wooseok breathed in between kisses, a small part of his brain actually trying to rationalize what was going on.

“You’re seducing me with chocolate you stole from me.” The dancer joked breathlessly. “You’re a professional thief… and a blackmailer… and it’s working.”

“I can see that.” The younger one pulled away slowly, biting his lip. “But what are we doing?”

“I… I’m willing to take them back.” Hyunggu smiled warmly, meeting Wooseok’s eyes with his own again. “And I think I want to get some more on top too.”

“You think?” The rapper looked at him hopefully.

“I didn’t know you could look at me like that.” Kino moved his hand to caress Wooseok’s cheek, feeling like there really was a big fat chance for him to fall for those eyes – and very fast too, it felt like those feelings are there, but that was too dangerous of a thought to deal with. The rational part of him wanted to take it slow.

“It was very hard not to until now.” The younger one stated the obvious and smiled back.

“Don’t hide anymore.” Hyunggu simply said, moving again until he was partly resting on Wooseok’s lap, hugging him tightly.

“I’ll free you.”

The tall rapper was surprised by those words, the gentle, yet strong way in which Hyunggu said them. They were a promise that erased all the insecurities and allowed him to just be whatever he needed to be. This was his best friend, the boy he loved, proving him that everything he was feeling, everything he was worried about and sometimes felt wrong about was exactly right. Those words hit him so hard it felt like his whole being was engulfed with the pure love Hyunggu has just offered to him – the feelings he wasn’t sure if the older one was even aware of, but he could feel them and they left him breathless.

Later that night he was met with another question.

“You actually love pizza, don’t you?”

“I love you more.”

When Hyunggu woke up the next day the only trace of Wooseok was the scent of chocolate lingering in the air along with a single piece of chocolate on the pillow next to his head. The first of many to come.