They all waited for the door to close before rounding on Joshua.

“Oh my god! How did you bump into him?” Seungkwan asked.

“His arm was around you?” Hoshi questioned, remembering arms.

“Hyung why are you so red?” The way Dino asked it sounded so innocent.

Joshua pressed his hands against his cheeks, feeling the heat that emanated from them. “He walked me back because I got lost,” Joshua explained.

“Doesn’t explain the redness,” Mingyu teased.

“His aura is…powerful.” Joshua cleared his throat. “It’s not a big deal. Stop crowding me,” he said, waving his hands at them. “We need to get ready for rehearsals.”

“Did you get his number at least?” Seungkwan looked excited, apparently the idea of making friends with sunbaes was interesting.

Joshua said nothing, feeling his phone almost burn in his pocket.

"Name tags on kids,” their manager said. “We need to go.”

Joshua watched Jeonghan’s group on the tv screen. An already debuted group was way different than their rookie group. The songs, the style of music, their choreo was…ier.

“Are you that into him?” Woozi asked, watching the tv as well.

“No,” Joshua denied, shaking his head. “I just wanted to see what’s the difference between an established group and us.”

“ appeal,” Woozi deadpanned as his eyes widened taking in the choreo where they hip ed into the air.

Hoshi whistled in appreciation. “One day I’ll incorporate that into our choreo.”

“Not yet,” Joshua said, “we’re going for a young love feeling right now. And Dino is so young still.”

Seungkwan snorted, coming up to join them. “Not like he doesn’t know how to do it already.” He handed Joshua’s phone out to him. “You have a message. From a Jeonghan,” he said, a smirk on his face. “Sunbaenim is rather friendly isn’t he?”

Snatching his phone, Joshua tried to not blush, knowing he failed as he felt his face heat up. “He wants to be friends. That’s all.”

“It doesn’t matter if he wants to be more than that,” Woozi said, “he can’t have you.”

Hoshi glommed onto him, nuzzling his cheek. “We must protect our precious Joshua hyung.”

Seungkwan nodded, agreeing with him.

“Woozi needs protection too,” Joshua muttered. “Their leader had bad eyes when he was looking.” Opening his phone to check his messages, his eyes widened. He sputtered out, “Where’s hyung?”

“Why?” They looked at Joshua.

“In-invite.” He held up his phone, the text message from Jeonghan showing.

“Who are you texting now? I thought you had your little deer.” Jun looked over Jeonghan’s shoulder, curious.

Jeonghan scoffed. “I am texting my lost deer. And his name is Joshua.” He shot Seungcheol down before he could even get a word out, “And no I didn’t get cotton candy’s number either. I just wanted Joshua’s.”

Wonwoo whistled. “Lucky that they have phones.”

Nodding in agreement, Jeonghan smiled as he got back a reply.

“What do you even plan to do with him? He looks like he’s a baby,” Seungcheol said, his voice in a half whine. No doubt because Jeonghan shut him down so quick.

“You’re one to talk,” Jeonghan snapped back, “cotton candy looks like jail bait. Joshua is our age.”

“No ,” Vernon said, eyes wide. “He looks like he could be my age.”

“You mean even younger,” Dokyeom laughed. “Guess he has a baby face.”

“It’s the clothes,” Jun said. “And the image they’re going for.”

“It’s both,” Wonwoo argued, copping a feel of Jun’s . “Remember our debut.”

Jun let him feel his up. “Oooh. Right.”

“It makes Jeonghan hyung look like a cradle robber,” Vernon teased.

Jeonghan ignored all of this though, choosing to look at his phone instead and the new contact he made. He decided to be cheeky and put Joshua in as Deer Shua, as Joshua looked like a cute lost deer. A skittish one. All Jeonghan had to do now was coax the skittish deer to come to him.

Grinning, Jeonghan punched his arm into the air. He texted Joshua back, his grin getting wider.

“Deer hunting successful?”

Deer Shua: I got the ok from the manager.

Jeonghan: Perfect. We’ll see you guys there.

“We’re going to hang out with Seventeen this weekend. A little eating get together,” Jeonghan said, putting his phone back in his pocket.

“Really?!” Seungcheol perked up.

Jeonghan gave him a patronizing look. “Yes, really. I would’ve invited him out by himself but he’s shy and I don’t think he’d say yes so this is safer. Once he gets comfortable with me we’re going on dates alone.”

“Dates? I thought you weren’t the serious type.” Vernon questioned him.

“Dates to get him to like me. It doesn’t mean I’m serious about him,” Jeonghan pointed out.

“God you’re an ,” Wonwoo murmured, snuggling into Jun’s hand that had taken to petting him.

“Not like that’s new news,” Jun said, laughing.

Jeonghan narrowed his eyes. “I don’t plan on being super cruel to him. I plan on wooing him—”

“And then dropping him after you taken what you wanted,” Dokyeom pointed out, remembering Jeonghan’s string of people.

“Maybe he’ll fall in love,” Seungcheol teased, “and then lose his heart to the baby idol.”

Jeonghan scoffed. “That’ll happen when you get on your knees begging for forgiveness.”

All of them started laughing, clutching at their stomachs.