“I’ll get him for you!”

“Yeah Youngbae, don’t worry, we got your back!”

“It’ll be simple.”

He really didn’t want them to ‘have his back’. Not right now, and not like they were planning. He loved his band mates dearly (and, admittedly, one a little more so), but he would rather that they stuck behind him in the ‘we totally support your existence’ kind of way instead of in the ‘we will hit on him for you’ kind of way. There was no way that he could get them to stop, they had already apparently come up some sort of mad-cap plan (and he was trying to convince himself that they would forget), so why would he bring it up again?

“Alright, guys! Ready to meet Tempo so we can head to the club?” JiYong asked excitedly. He truly adored going out with everyone, and you could tell by just the way that he spoke.

Unfortunately, Youngbae was not looking forward to this. He normally also adored going out with everyone, but he was still kind of terrified of what everyone would do when they got there. As they trouped out of the building, Youngbae got the feeling that the other three were looking at him funny.

***

“Oh God, why am I here.” Mumbling almost crazily to himself had become Youngbae’s only way to let out his frustrations. They had only been in the club for an hour or so; hidden away from all of the dancing people up and tucked away on one of the balconies (he usually loved looking out over the crowd, feeling the excitement), but tonight was…different.

JiYong had been staring at him for the last half an hour and the intensity had been increasing with every drink Youngbae downed (which had only been four…more than he normally ever drank, ever). He couldn’t be blamed, though, he refused to be blamed, he was just so terribly nervous. The fact that JiYong was staring at him like that made him remember all too keenly the plans that his friends had been making. It forced him to admit that they most definitely had not forgotten, at all. He wanted to be drunk when they put it into action, but he somehow knew that that was not going to happen (he never seemed to get ‘drunk’ anyway, what was he even thinking).

“Hey TOP-hyung!” Youngbae cringed over-dramatically at the sound of Seungri’s voice. He forced himself to look up as T.O.P looks up at the boy and his head to the side in silent question. T.O.P had been leaning against the railing a good 20ft away from Youngbae; watching all of the people dancing. He was clearly startled by Seungri, but he smiled as he looked up.

Seungri didn’t even have the decency to falter as he walked forward and stopped (boldly?) in front of him. Youngbae couldn’t see exactly what Seungri was doing, but the questioning look on T.O.P’s face solidifies his worries:  Seungri had locked eyes with T.O.P and then let them travel down and then slowly back up until their eyes met again (Oh Lord he didnot just check him out, he didn’t).

“You should go talk to Youngbae” Seungri says nonchalantly, hooking his thumb back behind him, as though he hadn’t just given one of his good friends a complete once-over.

Youngbae can practically feel the heat radiating off of his face, “oh God, I didn’t just hear that. I didn’t!”

“Going crazy Bae?” JiYong says, eliciting an amusing “squeak!” of fear from the very flushed Youngbae.

“I’m not crazy, I just…did you see..?” He can’t even finish sentences now, what was his problem? JiYong just pat him on the back absentmindedly as he raised his other hand in a nonchalant gesture at T.O.P (who was totally watching them, and was totally confused).

“Of course I saw. Maknae’s got no skills is all. I’ve got your back, no worries” He had so many worries, but he was unable to voice them because before he was even able to form a response, JiYong had moved across the floor and stopped in front of T.O.P.

“Hey, so” Youngbae could almost feel the pause that Ji had forced into his sentence. He could see that JiYong was staring very intently at T.O.P’s face, and kept the eye contact for several seconds before; “you should go over and talk to YoungBae.”

He ended the interaction with a nod in YoungBae’s direction, and then swept off to sit with Seungri and watch what would happen. But nothing happened, just like before. This time T.O.P made sure to direct his confused gaze toward YoungBae, he seemed to be thinking really hard about what was happening, but YoungBae didn’t want to think about that.

After about three minutes (it felt like an hour, honestly) DaeSung ambles happily out of his corner (where the hell had he been hiding?) and straight up to T.O.P; “It’s your first time” he says very pointedly.

Confused again (it’s been a weird ten or so minutes) T.O.P swallows the last of his drink and asks; “for what?” as he asks it, his eyes travel over to YoungBae; as if he knows where this is going to lead.

He’s right of course, and DaeSung wastes no time and beams brightly at him before saying; “oh, I think you know!” and walking away toward Ji and Seungri.

Both boys had been watching the scene almost as intently as YoungBae, who turned his attention to them the second that DaeSung had walked away. He expected to see what he had before, but instead of talking like he expected, they were now openly congratulating DaeSung. Confused, and just a little concerned, he doesn’t notice that T.O.P was no longer standing along the railing. He doesn’t notice anything really until he hears something clatter onto the floor behind him.

He looks around to find the source and sees T.O.P walking slowly away from, and behind, him. He looks down at the ground trying to discover the source of the noise, when he sees what looks like a cellphone lying on the floor next to him. Intrigued, he picks it up and recognizes it immediately as T.O.P’s, and stands up to go and give it back to him.

“Hyung? You dropped your phone.” YoungBae says as he approaches a small couch that looks out over the rest of the club. He almost freezes when T.O.P looks up at him, a cocky grin plastered across his face.

“Ah” he responds, reaching forward and brushing YoungBae’s fingers as he grabs it. YoungBae immediately turns red, and tries to remove his hand quickly, but T.O.P reacts faster and grips his hand along with the phone; “I’m surprised you could do that; especially when just talking to me seems to have become a problem for you.”

Breathing is hard, and you don’t normally notice how hard it actually is. YoungBae would currently like to believe that it is one of the hardest things in the world, because when T.O.P pulled him down to sit beside him, he realized that he had ceased to breathe (he couldn’t even remember how, what was wrong with him).

“I…uh…you’re holding my hand” YoungBae manages to stutter out when he finally remembers how to take in breaths.

“Yeah, yeah I am” T.O.P smiles over at him, “and I’m pretty certain that I’m going to keep it like that unless you are going to complain.”

YoungBae manages to reign in his ability to breathe like a normal person (he truly hopes) but immediately loses his ability to speak (what a terrible trade-off). He just shakes his head mutely and stares out over the club, allowing his mouth to fall into a smile.