Jeonghan placed the last drink of the order on the tray as he looked over at the table he had been keeping a close watch on all night. He had gone up to Jihoon the moment he had brought them their first round of drinks to inform him of their guests. He had instructed him and the rest of the Daebak gang to keep an eye on them and report back to him. So far nothing had happened really, besides all of them getting progressively less sober. Jeonghan picked up the tray and walked over to Minghao, who was glaring in the same direction.

“Here, take this tray up to their table will you.”

Minghao looked at him and scoffed, “I'm not a server.”

“I know, but I'm absolutely swamped and all you've been doing all night is stare at them anyway. Besides, I'm pretty sure Mingyu doesn't want to see me. I wasn't very nice to him the last time we met. I'm sure he'll be much happier seeing your pretty face. So...” he shoved the tray in the other man's hands, “...be a dear and bring this to their table.”

Minghao sighed, “Fine.”

“Oh and be nice, Hao.”

<>

“Come on Hansol, let's go dancing!”

Hansol smiled at his boyfriend but shook his head, “Not tonight, babe. I'm not ready for you to see my dance moves.”

When asking again and pouting didn't work Seungkwan stood up, somewhat unsteady, “Fine! I'll just go dancing by myself.” Apparently by himself meant with people that weren't Hansol because he grabbed the closest other person and dragged them along. It happened to be Seungcheol who effectively dragged Jisoo along with them because the two of them had been getting closer and closer all night and by this time Jisoo was half-wrapped around Seungcheol's body.

“Wait up guys,” Mingyu said as he also got ready to stand up, “I want to dance too!” As he stood up and turned around he almost bumped right into Minghao who was holding a tray of drinks. Luckily Minghao wasn't drunk and had fast reflexes and so was able to skillfully place the tray of drinks on the table instead of splattered on the floor.

“Wooow, nice moves there, dude!” A drunken Soonyoung yelled from across the table. Minghao gave him a look that was filled with disdain, “Don't call me dude.”

He was too busy staring down the people at the table that he didn't notice that he was still blocking Mingyu's path to the dance floor. Mingyu, being a bit drunk and a bit clumsy, tried to make his way passed him, but instead tripped over his own feet and fell forward. On reflex Minghao reached out an arm to prevent the tall, beautiful (beautiful? Minghao didn't think he was beautiful, what are you talking about?), man from falling to the floor. He found himself vividly aware of the heat coming from Mingyu's body and the smell of his cologne. As soon as he realized it and caught himself thinking that it smelled nice he pulled back his arm and let Mingyu fall to the floor.

Soonyoung was laughing his of seeing his friend trying to crawl back up, but Chan stood up and got in Minghao's face. “You gonna help him up?”

“Your friend here tripped over his own stupidity. That's not my responsibility. I suggest you sit back down before I break a knee or two.”

For a moment the situation got tense. Jeonghan, who had been looking from across the room, almost made a move to go over there to defuse the situation but it wasn't necessary. Mingyu, blissfully unaware of what was happening, was still getting his drunken self off of the floor. Looking for something to hold on to so he could pull himself up he grabbed the closest thing, Minghao. He managed to get himself upright and with one hand on Minghao's shoulder he chuckled, not noticing how tense the other man had gotten.

“G-get off me, you freak!” Minghao returned to his senses. He slapped Mingyu's hand away and stormed off. He walked over to the bar and shot a dirty look to Jeonghan who had a grin on his face. “What are you looking at? I thought you were busy?”

<>

Things had calmed down again. Mingyu had made his way onto the dance floor and Hansol looked at him and Seungkwan dancing like idiots. He had refused to go dancing for two reasons. One of them being that he wasn't sure how comfortable Seungkwan would really be dancing together so openly in a club. If he was going to dance with his boyfriend he wasn't going to keep a respectable distance. He wanted to hold him and get close to him, he wanted to dance with Seungkwan like some of the straight couples were doing. But the second and main reason was that Hansol had noticed that Soonyoung was a talkative drunk and he planned to find out a bit more about the Seungkwan from before they got together. He scooted over so he was closer to him (and a bit further away from the others still at the table, although Chan and Jun seemed to be pretty engaged in their own conversation).

“Hey, Hoshi?”

“Duuude, you can call me Soon. Not on my phone though, I'm not hitting on you.” Lucky for Hansol Soonyoung seemed to be in a good mood because he sure thought his own joke was funny judging by the way he was laughing right now.

“O...kay. Soon. Ehm, can I ask you something? Today Seungcheol told me that Seungkwan doesn't have the best record of making good decisions. What do you think he meant by that?”

Soonyoung shrugged, “He could have meant many things to be honest. Seungkwan comes across like he's got it all together and , but honestly he's a bit of a mess sometimes.”

“Like how?”

“Like...how he tried to convince himself that a dude who was clearly only into him for the money and the really liked him or thinking that taking Adderall was a good way to get through high school and the first year of college.”

“Wait what?”

“Yeah no that dude was the worst. He made Seungkwan buy him expensive and take him to expensive places only to dump him right after he finally got him to have with him. Seungcheol punched the guy in the face the next day and somehow got him expelled for fighting. That was awesome.”

Seungkwan had never talked about his past relationships with Hansol. It's not that he had assumed he was Seungkwan's first, but it was hard for him to imagine Seungkwan with anyone else. But right now he was more interested in the other piece of information Soonyoung had let slip.

“What was that about the drugs you mentioned?”

“Well, during like the last year of high school we found out Seungkwan was taking Adderall, you know the drugs that give you energy and focus and , so he could keep up with all his work. It got a little out of hand. We thought we got him clean during the summer but after a few weeks in college it started happening again. He's been off it for a while now though.”

Hansol was startled when Soonyoung suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders, “Don't tell him I told you this! I didn't mean to tell you all this, I'm just super wasted right now. Please, I don't want him mad at me again!”

“Okay, okay relax. I won't tell him you told me.” Soonyoung threw himself at Hansol in a weird hug type of bodily contact and Hansol awkwardly patted his back not sure what to make of the situation. For a moment he was afraid Soonyoung would fall asleep on top of him, but the hug ended as abruptly as it had started. Soonyoung stood up and looked around in confusion, “Where is the bathroom in this place? It's like a freaking maze!”

After Hansol had pointed in the direction of the very obvious restroom sign right across from them and Soonyoung had walked away he turned his attention to the dance floor again. Jisoo and Seungcheol seemed to get along quite well seeing as they were dancing awfully close to each other. Seungkwan was still happily dancing around with Mingyu. Hansol couldn't help but smile and thought of joining them when he saw a man tapping Seungkwan on the shoulder. The man gestured between him and Mingyu and Seungkwan immediately started shaking his head. Hansol was too far away to hear what they were saying or too clearly see their faces. It looked like the other man was smiling. Seungkwan smiled back but gave the man an apologetic nod and turned away from him, back to Mingyu. The man didn't leave, instead he got closer to Seungkwan. The moment he placed a hand on his boyfriend's lower back and leaned in Hansol shot up from his seat. He kept his eyes on the dance floor but he knew Jun and Chan were right behind him. Seungkwan tried to shrug the man off but it wasn't working. Just as the man moved his hand lower to grab Seungkwan's Hansol got close enough to grab him and pull him off.

“Wow, what gives man, who the fu-” He was not allowed to finish talking as he was interrupted by Hansol's fist in his face. The man fell back. By this time the rest of their group had joined them, most of them unaware of the situation.

“What's going on?” Seungcheol asked.

“He was harassing Seungkwan!” Hansol yelled.

“ man, I wasn't harassing anyone!” The man, still on the floor wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, yelled back.

Seungcheol exchanged a look with Seungkwan after which he approached the man. “Get up.”

The man did so and found eight pairs of eyes staring at him. “L-look I wasn't harassing him. I just thought he was someone I knew, but I was wrong, okay?” He stopped talking when Seungcheol raised his hand. Without looking away Seungcheol said, “Seungkwan?”

“He asked me to dance and I said no thank you.”

“No, thank you.” Seungcheol repeated calmly, getting a bit closer to the man. “And what did you do?”

“I didn't ask him to dance! Why would I ask another man to dance? This isn't some gay club!”

“Seungkwan?”

“He approached me from behind when I turned my back to him and he put his hands on me.”

“No I didn't! He's lying! ing !”

“Careful now. You put your hands on my friend and now you're also calling him a liar. Not to mention you dropping the f-word and I'm not talking about . I think we're going to have to have a little talk about proper manners. Outside.”

The man desperately tried to lay a punch on Seungcheol, but he easily got out of the way. This time it was Soonyoung who punched the man. Before he could fall down again Seungcheol grabbed his arm with a tight grip.

Jeonghan, always watching, finally gestured to the others to intervene. He had wanted to see how this would play out but he knew better than to let a fight escalate any further inside the club.

<>

Jihoon stared at the four men standing across from him in his office. Scoups and Hoshi from the Rubies, Vernon from the Carrot gang and a man he had never seen before. “That's quite a scene you were making down there. Care to explain to me why you're making trouble in my club?”

“Not really.” Soonyoung replied.

Annoyance. Jihoon felt nothing but annoyance when he looked at his face. He took a deep breath. As he was thinking about what he was going to do to them the door opened and Jeonghan entered. He walked over and whispered something in his ear. Jihoon nodded and gestured to Minghao by the door to step aside.

“You three,” he pointed at the two Rubies and Hansol, “get out of here. I suggest you don't come here again.”

Soonyoung scoffed as he started to walk away, “Like we want to come back here where people get drugged or harassed.”

“What did you say?” Jihoon asked with venom in his voice.

Soonyoung turned back to face him, “I said you run a ty place. Don't know why we came here again in the first place. You can't even keep your own people safe.”

Maybe it was his imagination but Jihoon could swear that as he said it his eyes quickly darted over to Jeonghan standing behind him. He took a few steps in Soonyoung's direction and stared him straight in the eyes, “Are you threatening me?”

Soonyoung stared right back, “No need to make threats about things that already happened.”

“You better watch your back, rich boy. If I see you or any of your pathetic friends anywhere near this place I'll send The8 as a welcoming party. He's been dying to break some kneecaps.”

Seungcheol placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, “Come on. Let's get out of this hole.”

<>

“Tonight didn't really go as expected, did it?”

Hansol and Seungkwan were back at their apartment after having been dropped off by the car Seungcheol had arranged.

Seungkwan shrugged, “I wasn't sure what to expect of this night anyway.”

Hansol sat down on one of the chairs and reached out his hand to Seungkwan so he would join him. Seungkwan sat down on his boyfriend's lap and took the hand he had punched the guy with in his own. 'Is your hand okay?” He it softly with his thumb.

“Yeah, it's fine. Not the first time I punched someone.” He reached up and cupped Seungkwan's cheek. “Are you okay, too?”

Seungkwan nodded and leaned in for a quick kiss. “It's kinda weird how Woozi just let you guys go though. Why did he even have you in his office to begin with?”

“I dunno. That one pretty guy, Jeong-something came in and whispered in his ear and then he told us to get out. He didn't let that guy who harassed you go though.”

“He came to talk to me...”

“Who did?”

“Jeonghan. He took me to a quiet place and asked me what happened.”

“What!? You went with him by yourself?”

“Please, I'm not stupid. Mingyu and Jisoo were there too.”

“Oh. Good. So, what did you tell him?”

“I told him what happened. When the guy first approached me he started by asking if me and Mingyu were together. I was a bit scared at first because I thought it might be some anti-gay , but he quickly explained he just wanted to ask me to dance with him. I politely turned him down, but when I turned away from him he suddenly came super close and started whispering crazy things in my ear and-”

“What kind of things?”

“How he...how he liked my moves and he wanted to me in the bathroom.”

“Wow, that escalated quickly. Damn, now I regret not punching him more.”

“Jisoo also told him about the fight and how he called me a . Anyway, after that Jeonghan apologized that this happened at their club, but that we had to leave and not come back.”

Hansol hugged Seungkwan to his chest, “Sorry I didn't go dancing with you.”

They sat there in silence until Seungkwan sat up straight, “Okay, well, time for bed.”

Hansol checked the clock on the microwave, “It's not that late, do you want to stay up and watch a movie or something?”

“No, I'd better get some sleep. I have to get up in a few hours.”

“What? Why? It's Sunday, you don't have any classes or anything.”

“No, but I have to go to work.”

“Work? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, right! I haven't told you yet. It's perfect Hansol! I was walking home from the grocery store and I went by that bakery, you know. The place is run by this old lady, right? Normally we don't talk past a polite greeting, but she must have noticed me being around the neighborhood more because she asked me if I moved here. Anyway, we got to talking and it turns out she's been having a really hard time running the place. Her children don't live in the city anymore and her husband passed away some time ago. So I'm going to help her out.”

“Why?” Hansol didn't mean for it to come out as harsh as it did.

“What do you mean why?” Seungkwan got up from Hansol's lap and looked down at him. “She needs help and I needed a part-time job anyway. It's perfect.”

“You don't need to get a job.” Hansol also stood up to be at eye-level with him.

“Of course I do! I don't expect to live here for free and-”

“I could pay the rent before you moved in so I can pay it now.”

“It's not just rent! We use more groceries together, more utilities, and, no offense, but you could use some new clothes. We could use some extra money. I honestly don't see what the problem is, Hansol!”

“What about your classes and other stuff?”

“I'll manage. She mostly needs help on the weekend, mornings, and at the end of the day. She said it's totally fine to just work when it fits my schedule best. So-”

“What if you get so busy that you'll-”

“That I what?”

“...get super stressed out and like that.”

“Honey, I'm super stressed out most of the time anyway. Not contributing financially has me more stressed out than that little job will.”

“I think it's a stupid idea.”

“Oh yeah!? Dammit, Hansol! I was feeling really good about this! Why are you being so negative? If we're going to live together we need to share the financial load as well as the household chores and stuff. That's just how it is. I'm sorry if you thought you brought home a rich boy with a lot of money who doesn't need to work, but-”

“Don't twist my words, Seungkwan! I'm just worried about you!”

“Well, don't be. I can handle it! I'm not going to live here and be a mooch!”

“Maybe you shouldn't live here.”

Seungkwan immediately went quiet. “W-what?” He asked with a small voice, “You...you don't want me living here anymore?”

“No, that's not what I mean. Not really. It's just...we moved so fast and...I don't know. It's not that I don't like living with you, really it's not, but...I'm just not sure if it's for the best for us right now.”

“Oh...”

Hansol sighed and ran his hand through his hair, “Look, just forget it for now okay. Let's just go to bed, you'll go to the bakery tomorrow and we'll just see how it goes, okay?”

He walked closer to Seungkwan who was fighting back tears and lifted his chin. “Okay?” He pecked his cheek.

<>

Jihoon was pissed off to say the least. “If those ers ever show up here again, either in a group or by themselves or whatever, don't let them in. If they give you any trouble, Hao, feel free to do whatever you see fit in the situation.”

“Now, now, just sit down and relax. How about some tea?” Jeonghan pushed Jihoon down onto his chair. “Seokmin, be a dear and go make some tea for our stressed out leader.”

“Especially that Hoshi guy.” Jihoon continued his rant, “He really rubs me the wrong way.”

“If you hate them so much why did you just let them go?” Wonwoo asked from the couch.

“Because judging by what happened they weren't in the wrong. That and those asshats already shut clubs down in the past using their money and connections. But still, I regret it now. You heard what he said, right!? About people getting drugged in here and me not being able to take care of my own. That er knew something!”

Jeonghan placed his hands on Jihoon's shoulders from behind and started massaging him, “Shhh, it's okay. They're not worth you getting so worked up over.”

By the time the door opened and Minghao entered Jihoon looked and felt a lot more relaxed. “You done?” he asked Minghao.

“Yeah, we had a nice chat about how one shouldn't ually harass others and then call them names. Not sure if he heard me over the sound of his bones breaking though.” He sat down on the couch next to Wonwoo. “What about the Rubies and Carrots? You want me to pay them a visit?”

Jihoon shook his head, “Nah, we'll leave them be. For now.”

---------------------------

-Jeonghan is just watching everyone all the time, lol
-Do you think Seungkwan and Hansol will work it out or will Seungkwan move out?? Also, don't do drugs kids!
-Part of me wanted to have Soonyoung pass out drunk on the toilet, but a bigger part of me wanted him to punch that guy and have a run in with Jihoon
-When will Jisoo and Seungcheol stop their obvious flirting and do something about it??
-Poor Minghao is so confused and conflicted about his feelings for Mingyu, why does he even have these feelings? Have they actually ever even talked before?? XD

Side note: Who is excited for the comeback!!?? D: