-

The day starts just like any other.

Nothing is out of normal. Taemin spends his time recording and practicing, going to a couple meetings here and there to discuss this and that. He goes home, changes his clothes, picks up Jongin at his dorm, and heads over to the restaurant where their friends are waiting. 

Everything is normal.

When they arrive, Moonkyu and Kwonho are sitting at the table in their usual corner, with multiple plates of meat and other things laid out on the table. 

"Oh, our resident married couple is here!" Kwonho waves them over.

Moonkyu looks up from where he’s cooking the meat on the barbecue pan, sending them a smile. "Took you guys long enough." 

"We're not a 'married couple'." Taemin laughs as he sits at the table, Jongin taking the seat next to him as he always does.

"Okay, not married, just in love," Kwonho grins at their glares. Moonkyu laughs and leans back, letting the meat sizzle on the pan.

This, too, is actually quite normal. 

Eighty percent of the dating rumors surrounding Taemin and Jongin probably comes from the way their best friends tease them all the time. However, the fact is that they are absolutely not in love. 

They love each other, sure. Like friends do. It's called platonic love. 

Rolling his eyes, Jongin scoffs. "Yes, yes, we love each other."

"Platonically," Taemin adds. For good measure.

"Definitely." Jongin pokes at the side dishes on the table, picking up one or two for a nibble. "One hundred percent platonic."

Moonkyu flips over a piece of short rib, laughing. "One hundred percent? Are you sure?"

"Don’t worry, we love you guys too," Taemin chuckles, and the conversation ends there.

Or that’s what he thought.

They ate their food and talked about other things for about an hour. Today, however, their two friends seem unsatisfied with leaving the topic alone.

"Can you prove it?" Kwonho eggs them on all of a sudden, somewhere in between his second and third glass of beer. "That it’s a hundred percent platonic."

"What?" Taemin almost chokes on his food. "We're talking about this again ?"

"How do you even prove something like that?" Jongin stares at their friends in disbelief. Moonkyu hums, his mouth full of food, gesturing at Kwonho to look at his phone.

"Show them the thing." Kwonho sends him a confused look, so he swallows all the food and repeats himself. "That thing. That we found earlier?"

Kwonho exclaims in understanding and grabs his phone, searching for who knows what. Taemin glances at Jongin to see if he knows what's going on, but Jongin looks as clueless as he is.

"It's a game. It's fun." When Kwonho finally finds whatever he's looking for, he shoves the phone into Taemin’s hands. "Here. Read it."

Taemin does. Jongin leans over to read it, too. His face gets merely inches from Taemin’s and he's literally breathing on his cheek, but Taemin ignores it.

"What the hell?" Jongin finishes reading and sends their two friends a death glare. "Will today be the day I finally kill you guys?"

Moonkyu laughs, unfazed. "Doesn’t it sound fun? You guys practically do this already, anyway."

"This game doesn’t prove anything," Jongin argues.

Kwonho takes a sip of his beer. "But it does. Just play and win. No harm done."

Jongin's jaw drops.

"You’re saying this because you’re not the ones doing it."

"Of course," Kwonho barks out in laughter, "You guys are the ones in denial, not us."

Jongin sputters and finally turns to Taemin, his jaw dropped as if saying 'can you believe this?' Taemin agrees with Jongin, but if he has to be honest, it really doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

As Kwonho says, they just have to play and win—no harm. However, Jongin stays unconvinced.

"How about this? The loser pays the winner a hundred bucks," Kwonho suggests.

Taemin lifts an eyebrow and finally decides to voice his thoughts. "Just a hundred bucks?"

"—Wait, you’re agreeing to this?" Jongin redirects his glare to Taemin. "Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?"

"What’s the harm?" Taemin sends him a taunting smirk. "I dare you to play the game. Unless you’re not confident enough?"

Jongin always gets competitive over the strangest things, especially when Taemin's involved. So, when the younger man scrunches his face, Taemin already knows what his answer will be.

"Fine." Jongin pouts and leans back, making an effort not to look at any of them.

Taemin grins. "A hundred bucks. Deal?"

"... Deal."

Moonkyu claps—seal-claps, to be exact—at both of them. "Great, start tomorrow!"

Jongin’s grumble next to him sounds suspiciously like 'why am I friends with you guys' but as always, Taemin ignores it. 

-

Jongin wakes up to his phone ringing and vibrating next to his pillow.

He turns over and covers his ears, but it just keeps ringing. He groans.

"What do you want?" Jongin grumbles into the phone. The only reason he picked up is because the caller is Taemin, but he already regrets it.

"Good morning, babe."

Taemin is giggling. At ten in the morning.

Something is not right. Taemin is never this