Hyungwon sighs, looking at himself in the mirror. His hair has gotten a bit long so it’s harder to manage, but he thinks he managed to style it pretty well. He’s dressed in tight black jeans and a shirt that hangs off his thin frame just right, black lining his big eyes. He purses his lips, leaning closer to make sure so acne is popping up on him last minute.

He’s put more effort into this look than he has any other in all his life, and he won’t have it ruined by anything, much less something as lame as a zit.

The teenager steps back, twirling his lace choker thoughtfully in his fingers as he tries to think of something else that he could add that he knows Kihyun would appreciate. But, unfortunately, nothing comes to mind… He just prays this is enough to woo Kihyun over to his side, and to make the older ignore any thoughts about dating his mystery crush.

He glances at the window reflected in his bathroom mirror, the window in his bedroom just across the property line into Kihyun’s bedroom window. His pout falls, his expression morphing into a blank slate as, for the slightest of moments, he contemplates defeat.

But, then Hyungwon shakes it off, reminding himself of how well they go together, how his own shortcomings don’t matter, just because he knows he can make Kihyun happy for as long as the older will let him…

Hyungwon then turns on his heel, sauntering out of his home to go to their usual meet-up spot, ready to get this party started.

 

Kihyun stands in his own bedroom, staring at himself in the floor-length mirror, surveying the fifth outfit he’s put on for the night. It isn’t as if jeans particularly accentuate any sort of length on his legs, but he really feels like shorts would give the wrong vibe, so he sticks with the first option. He goes for a baggy tee-shirt, but pairs it with a leather jacket, just to give off an air of badboy, for once.

“Come on , Kihyun,” Minhyuk groans from his bed, throwing himself down in annoyance. “This is, like, the billionth thing you’ve put on. You look fine , let’s just go.” Kihyun scowls, whirling about to glare at him. Minhyuk’s been whining at him for the past hour, and he’s so nervous about this party with Hyungwon, he’s just had enough .

“It’s your fault I’m like this!” he snaps, wagging an admonishing finger at the slightly-older as he steps closer. “ You’re the one that talked me out of telling Hyungown how I feel, and now you’re the one that’s going to wait on me to get ready so I look good enough for him to finally accept! GOT IT?”

Kihyun doesn’t realize what he’s said until after he’s said it, until after he sees the wicked smirk that twists at Minhyuk’s lips. He quickly shuts his mouth, even taking a step back.

“I… I didn’t mean,” he mutters, looking anywhere but Minhyuk’s eyes, but it’s too late. He’s confirmed everything.

“I knew it!!!” Minhyuk shrieks, leaping up to clap his hands victoriously. He then pauses, growing beyond confused. “Dude, why didn’t you just confess to him the other day?? You know he would’ve said yes.” Kihyun scoffs, shaking his head as he turns his back to the other boy.

“You said it yourself, Min,” he reminds his friend, picking his eyeliner up from his desk and leaning so close to the mirror he fogs it up as he speaks. “Wonnie and I are so different… He could literally have his pick of any one at the school… I don’t see why he’d pick me, of all people. All I do is nag him about his uniform and how he doesn’t eat enough… He probably just thinks I’m annoying.”

“Jesus Christ,” Minhyuk sighs dramatically, rolling his eyes so far back in his head they feel as if they’ll fall out. “Kihyun, you have got to be the blindest human in the history of the human race, you must’ve given Tiresias lessons!!!” Kihyun hears the other boy stand from his squeaky mattress, but he doesn’t dare glance away from his delicate work to watch. “Hyungwon has such a bad crush on you it hurts to watch… He’s gonna fall in love with you by next month if he hasn’t already!”

Kihyun’s so surprised he messes up his eyeliner, looking over to his friend with a harsh black line going across his bottom lid and swerving out to his temple. He turns around, eyes wide and jaw dropped. The look would be almost comical to Minhyuk if he weren’t so befuddled concerning his friend’s general obliviousness.

“So, come on!” Minhyuk repeats, ignoring Kihyun’s bewildered look. “Get the ready so we can go and get your man!”

Needless to say, it only takes Kihyun a moment more to finish getting reach before he’s pulling Minhyuk out of his house to meet Hyungwon and head to the party… Though, judging from the way both boys seem to oddly clam up whenever they see each other, Minhyuk knows his work isn’t done yet.

As they walk to the bus stop to catch a ride to the other side of town, he starts to think of a plan that’ll just work perfectly … or, at least, it does in the movies. After all, since when have movies ever steered him wrong?

 

“... Spin the bottle?” Changkyun asks, glancing around at his other hyungs. The party rages on upstairs, ty music of their generation blaring through audio equipment someone must have brought, ‘cause God knows Hyunwoo doesn’t own anything like that. The circle of friends sits in the basement, all in a huddle to avoid the couples that have begun to trickle down to have a quiet place to make out.

“Yeah!” Minhyuk answers, nodding adamantly. He pulls out his phone, setting it in the middle of their circle. On the screen is a tily animated beer bottle pointing towards the top of the phone. “It’s a normal game, Changkyun. There’s no harm in it.”

Kihyun glares at Minhyuk, though he doesn’t say anything. He wonders if Minhyuk’s somehow rigged the phone, mysteriously figured out some way to get the virtual bottle to land on himself and Hyungwon, engineering the perfectly stereotypical first kiss to start their relationship. It’s like something off those assinine teen dramas on tv…

“Okay,” he finds himself agreeing before anyone else can speak. Hyungwon looks at him for the first time since meeting up to catch the bus together, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. Kihyun’s pretty sure the others are looking at him similarly, but he’s only looking at Hyungwon.

Minhyuk smirks, leaning down to spin the phone. He focuses hard on it, almost as if telepathically willing it to land on the first choice: Kihyun. It does so, and he can literally hear Kihyun’s shoulders drop in relief. Minhyuk’s heart beats a little in faster in victory, reaching out to spin the bottle again and bring his plan into fruition… He watches it go round and round, the sound of a bottle scraping against a wooden surface projecting from his phone’s speakers, until finally it slows and lands on none other than Hyunwoo…

Wait… Hyunwoo????

Minhyuk glances between the device and the oldest in their group, utterly flabbergasted. What the ??? What just happened??? Hyungwon and Kihyun look just as astonished and confused and about fifty other things, their jaws on the floor.

Hyunwoo doesn’t seem to pick up on the shift in them, leaning forward instead for the kiss. Kihyun actually lurches back, still in shock, before Hyunwoo settles on his hands, sighing softly under his breath.

“It’s the rules,” he says softly, the light in his eyes almost reassuring.

Kihyun his lips nervously… This isn’t how he’d wanted his first kiss to go, with someone he didn’t care about like that in the middle of a game, a party raging on upstairs and people making out all around them. He’d wanted a first date, to take out the boy he liked more than any other to the museum or the fair, to kiss in front of some auspicious painting, or at the top of a ferris wheel.

It’d be romantic, typical, perfect.

This isn’t the right place, the right time, or the right boy. But… Hyunwoo’s right. It’s the game.

Kihyun doesn’t look at Hyungwon when he leans towards Hyunwoo, doesn’t glance over at him when he presses his lips to the older’s. His heart practically screams in outrage, feeling as if it leaps out of his chest and jumps into the hands of the boy watching them with nothing but betrayal in his big, beautiful eyes.

Hyunwoo’s lips are chapped, rough against Kihyun’s and unpleasantly salty. Kihyun feels like it’d be the exact opposite with Hyungwon, like he’d be kissing clouds instead of sandpaper.

When he pulls away, he doesn’t even have a full moment to settle back in his seat before Hyungwon’s standing up, muttering out something unintelligible. The younger clamps his long fingers around Kihyun’s wrist and pulls him up, away from the group, and towards the stairs.

Minhyuk only watches, sighing. Well… that wasn’t how he’d wanted his plan to happen, not really, but if it works, it works.