His first mistake was trying to move, which did nothing but started the hammer that began to pound his mind senseless. The second mistake was attempting to open his eyes, letting in the rays that was causing his brain to bleed. He immediately shut his eyes, but it was too late, the throbbing seems to have heightened since then. He rolled over, groaning pain, trying to shut everything out. Trying to get rid of that sour taste on his tongue.

  He barely acknowledged the sound of the bedroom door opening, hoping it was just someone about to give him a cure. What he got was someone rolling him over on to his back, and a cool glass pressed to his forehead.

  “Come on, get up,” said, a very familiar voice. Yet not familiar enough for it to be the first voice he hears in the morning.

  Mingyu looked at the older through bleary eyes, wondering if he was mistaken. But no, he wasn’t, because there stood the scary music senior that he’s heard his friends talked about. On instinct, he quickly sat up, regretting midway when that only brought back the reminder of his pounding headache. He took the glass of cold water gratefully, and chugged it down in one go, wiping his lips with his sleeves when he was done.

  “You were supposed to drink that with these,” Jihoon told him, gesturing to his other open hand, where he held two aspirin.

  “I could- I could just take them,” Mingyu said, slowly, trying to not further his embarrassment.

  “Don’t be silly. I’ll get you another glass,” the older said, not giving him the pills. “Just get dressed.”

  “Okay,” the younger said, dumbly, watching the older leave the room. It was then, he realized that he was down to his boxers in a room he didn’t recognize. He glanced around to see his clothes were thrown around carelessly. A thought hit him, as he was pulling up his pants. He glanced to the bedroom door, the only door that separated him and Jihoon, then.

  Did they-?

  He tried to think back to what happened last night to no avail. In the end he gave up, and figured there was no point in pushing this even farther – despite the part of him that wanted to jump out the window and never step foot in this unfamiliar place ever again. He dressed himself, as quickly as possible, and got out of the room.

  By then, Jihoon had already anticipated the confusion and turmoil the younger was going through. He realized it was better to give the kid space to think things through, and enjoy his morning shows while he could, with a nice bowl of cereal. He had left the glass of water and pills on the dining table for the younger.

  Though judging by how Mingyu looked, when he finally got out of the room, the younger didn’t need it. Lucky bastard must be one of those people whose hangover passes far quicker than others.

  “I should go,” Mingyu said, just as his eyes landed on the table. Figured it would be impolite for him to leave them untouched, he immediately downed the water pills in one go. “Thank you. For this. I’ll just- Bye.”

  “Bye,” Jihoon said, after the younger shut the door behind him. He heaved a sigh, wondering if maybe he should have said something. Ask him, if he’s okay after what happened last night. But he wasn’t used to this, talking to people the morning after.

  Jihoon barely had time to dwell on it, when the front door open again, only this time it wasn’t Mingyu. It was Soonyoung frowning through the slits of his eyes, trying to shake off the aftereffects of last night. His blonde hair a disheveled mess, to say the least and his clothes looked like they had been put on in a rush. Even then, he still managed to muster a smile at the sight of Jihoon eating breakfast.

  “Hey,” he greeted, a little too cheerful. When he was met with nothing more than a glare, he asked, “Did I just see Mingyu leaving?”

  Not wanting to deal with it at the moment, Jihoon chose to get up and went to his room wordlessly, slamming the door behind him, because he knew Soonyoung was still a little hungover.

  Soonyoung winced at the sound, rubbing his temples slowly, “Okay. I’ll just make myself coffee.”

***

  Minghao wasn’t sure what to expect that evening. He had woken up with a hell of a hungover that took a lot of coffee and one of Seokmin’s ridiculous concoction to ease. He had crawled out of bed, and slowly sipped the disgusting drink, when he realized his roommate was being a little too quiet than usual. He figured the other must be suffering as much as he was, but when he glanced up, Seokmin seemed to be more lost in thought than suffering a headache.

  “You alright?”

  Seokmin snapped out of reverie, and looked up to his roommate, blinking, “Oh, oh yeah. Just trying to piece together what happened last night. That was some party.”

  “Yeah, it was,” the Chinese agreed, and the two simultaneously sipped on their drink together.

  Seokmin immediately gagged at the taste, “Oh god, this is awful. Where did you get this?”

  “You made it,” Minghao reminded him, frowning at the taste himself. “You said, it was the cure to all hangovers.”

  “Well, it’s disgusting,” he said, and immediately poured the drink down the drain. Minghao followed suit, figured if the maker can’t take it, neither can he. He went to shower, getting rid of the stink of last night. The memories of last night were slowly coming back to him, the music, the endless reasons people gave to drink, the stupid games they played. He thinks he remembered someone stripping at one point. Maybe he did as well.

  Unfortunately those were the ones he could live with.

  “No, I like really like you. Like I love you soooo much. If Hanahaki was real, I’d be dead right now.”

  Which was the reason for his nerves as he walked through the dance studio that evening. He tried to think of various excuses to not show up. From a hangover so bad, he could barely walk, to spraining his ankle. He knew any of those would work on Soonyoung. But still the guilt of letting the team down because he was being a coward, didn’t sit too well with him.

  So he braved himself as he went to the dance studio which was already pulsing with music when he got there. The light tune a clear contrast to the pounding beat last night. He found himself greeted by the sight of an older Chinese student stretching to the music. A sight that had him wondering of all the possibilities if things went a little different last night.

  As if sensing the younger’s presence, Jun turned with a bright smile on his face as he cheered, “You survived!”

  Minghao quickly shook away the sinful thoughts and smiled weakly at the other, “So did you.”

  “Yeah, you had me worried there. Especially when you started to play strip poker with Jeonghan, Joshua and Seungcheol.” When he got no response, Jun added, “I think the sight of Seungcheol plump will forever be imprinted on my brain now.”

  Minghao chuckled, because that was the expected response. Even if he was mentally freaking out at the moment. Gathering all the courage he could muster, he asked, “Do you remember anything that happened last night?”

  “Bits and pieces,” Jun shrugged. “I think I out sometime during beer pong. You?”

  “Bits and pieces,” he replied.

  Jun threw his arm around the younger and assured him, “Don’t worry about it. Nobody really remembers what happen at the party anyway. Besides, we’re just going to do it again at the next one anyways.”

  Minghao laughed, because he’s right. He shouldn’t worry about it. Everything will be forgotten the next day, including his drunken confession. He’s got nothing to worry. Nothing’s going to change. Everything will be fine.

  He’s just not sure whether he should be upset or relieved about it.

  At least they were fine. Jun kept on talking about the routine, smirking at his reflection while commenting on which angles would make him look good. Minghao tried to ignore the butterflies, as he sighed and acted like the smirks didn’t have any effect on him. Seeing that it was just the two of them, they chattered in their mother tongue. It brought them comfort that neither of them ever admitted out loud.

  Which was how Soonyoung found them, laughing about something in a language he can’t even understand. Any other time he would join in on the fun, especially when Jun is currently pouting and prodding Minghao for attention the younger is fighting hard to not give. But this time, he just threw his bag to the corner, and tried to take his mind off things.

  Naturally the two younger members noticed immediately. They exchanged glances, before Jun asked, “Everything alright, Soonyoung?”

  “I think Jihoon’s mad at me,” Soonyoung sighed, slumping down on the floor next to them.

  “Why? Did you do it wrong?” Jun asked. Before the other could answer, he added, “Did you get caught up with the again? You know you can’t tell a story well, let alone in bed. Was he too quiet? Or were you too quiet? Right, no way, you were the quiet one. Maybe you just talked too much. Or maybe, it finished sooner than he expected. Or you could just be thinking too much. Maybe-”

  “No, stop, what- no!” Soonyoung exclaimed, offended that the Chinese could even think of him like that. “Nothing happened between me and Jihoon.”

  There was a beat of silence, before Minghao asked, quietly, “Didn’t you two leave together?”

  “No, we,” he stopped, hesitant to tell, waving his hand about hoping to convey the message as such. “We kissed. That’s it. We didn’t- we didn’t get very far.”

  “You got excited too fast?” Jun asked, unable to hide the grin, despite the glare he was receiving. Minghao nudged the older to drop it. They won’t know what happened if he keeps it up.

  “Let’s just practice,” Soonyoung said, not in the mood to talk about it. He didn’t come to mull over why his best friend was suddenly giving him the cold shoulder. "We don't have much time left."

___

the ending is a little iffy. I might add to it later.