I tried my best to hold onto anything that I could grab to prevent myself from being dragged by Yongguk-hyung with his unfaltering superhuman strength. Himchan-hyung and Junhong followed behind us while chattering animatedly about Daehyun’s possible feelings towards me. As we got to our floor’s elevator lobby I immediately clung onto a fire extinguisher case that was hung on the wall next to the emergency exit’s door.

“Stop. Resisting.” Yongguk-hyung grunted as he tightened his arms around my waist and pulled me with more strength. I shook my head frantically and put on my best pleading look. “Hyung, please. This is too sudden okay! You can’t just expect me to knock on his door and casually confess to him!”

“I was expecting you to do that.” Yongguk-hyung deadpanned and I scoffed in disbelief. I heard Junhong sighing and muttered ‘this is taking too much time’. He had his arms around Yongguk-hyung’s waist and just like that the elder knew what to do and then they both pulled, and with double the strength, successfully yanking me away from the fire extinguisher case.

“Alright. Now tell us where that kid’s apartment is.” Himchan-hyung commanded. I felt like flipping him the bird but I knew better, considering his boyfriend had me in his arms and he could just snap my waist in half as if I was a match stick if I did that. But I wasn’t going to give up just yet.

“I’m not telling.”

“Fine. Is he living on this floor?” Himchan-hyung asked.

“I’m pretty sure he is because I’ve seen Youngjae-hyung with him on this floor’s lobby a few times.” Junhong replied.

“Alright since Youngjae’s not telling, we’ll just have to knock on every door on this floor.”

My jaws went slack when I heard that. “No. NO. You’re not serious.”

“We are, though.” Yongguk-hyung replied curtly and started to drag me again towards the south-wing hallway. I knew I couldn’t get myself out of this so I dejectedly let them take me across the hallway, my sneakers scraping against the concrete floor, towards the first door that was in our view. It wasn’t Daehyun’s so I was kind of glad. All of us stopped in front of the door and shortly after, Himchan-hyung raised his hand to knock on the door.

“Youngjae?” my eyes widen in horror as I recognized the voice that was calling my name. I whipped my head to the left and there he was, Jung Daehyun, standing just a few feet before us, head tilted to his right as he studied our party curiously.

“And you are?” Himchan-hyung asked, his eyes narrowed at Daehyun and I swear I could see him shrinking under hyung’s intense (psychotic) glaze.

“That’s him! Himchan-hyung, that’s Jung Daehyun!” I slapped my palm onto my face when Junhong piped up. Really. He just had to tell the world. Daehyun raised his eyebrows at the mention of his name and then he looked at me. “Don’t ask,” I mouthed the words.

Yongguk-hyung’s grip on me went slack and I took the chance to wriggle out of his arms. “Well then, this makes our job even easier.” He announced cheekily as his gummy grin went on full blast and I just knew this won’t turn out good. I immediately half-stalked half-ran towards Daehyun, took his hand into mine and bolted away with him, Himchan-hyung’s commands to stop us fading into oblivion.

---

We were both panting heavily since we ran away from the stupid-hyungs-and-a-dongsaeng team and went down about 9 floors just to be safe. We were still in the emergency exit staircase, hiding from them. Daehyun let out an airy laugh as he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

“That was a good afternoon exercise.” He breathed. I chuckled nervously, fiddling with the hem of my shirt. It felt even more unnerving being with him alone, in a not-so secluded place after knowing my feelings toward him. Damn you Choi Junhong and Kim Himchan. And Bang Yongguk as well. (Moon  Jongup is forever innocent in my book, mind you.)

“Sorry… My friends are a bit… strange, to say the least.” I apologized and was worried that he’d thought I was surrounded by creepy idiots (which were true at some point) and had some of their idiocy rubbed on me and decided to ignore me from then on. Apparently he didn’t think so, though.

“Ah well, everyone has a strange side in them.” Daehyun shrugged.

My face muscle worked on its own and stretched my lips into a huge grin and it seemed to have affected him too because he was grinning as well and we just sat there in silence, looking into each other’s eyes and then the grin slowly faded from our face and his expression turned into something I couldn’t read. I swore I felt as if there was some kind of magnetic field emanating from him and I was slowly pulled closer and closer towards him and he too was leaning in closer and our faces were just centimetres apart, so close that I could count his eyelashes. My heartbeat rate was skyrocketing and it was too much for me to handle so I closed my eyes. I could feel his breath ghosting over my lips and we were so close, so ing close, until my phone just had to ring, vibrating inside my pocket and we both instinctively pulled apart, Daehyun turning his heard towards the wall on his right and clearing his throat while I fumbled with the damned piece of electronic device in my pocket.

There is a special place in hell for ers and I was 99.9 per cent sure that a certain group of people – or one specific person – would occupy that special place.

“What is it?” I growled into the phone and received a chuckle instead.

“Oh ho… Did I interrupt a special, moment?” I could hear the grin in Himchan-hyung’s voice and I heard two familiar voices cackling in the background. I glanced at Daehyun. His cheeks were flushed pink and he was trying his best to look anywhere but me. I gritted my teeth and whispered into the phone, covering my mouth from my own company’s view.

“Seriously hyung, what the hell do you want?”

“Have you told him yet?”

“Told him what?” wrong thing to ask.

“THAT YOU ING LIKE HIM, IDIOT. WHAT ELSE?” I winced at the sudden shriek from the other end of the line and sighed. I silently prayed that Daehyun didn’t hear Himchan-hyung’s voice, although it was probably very unlikely. He kept a straight face and bit his lips, eyes still avoiding me. I lowered the volume of the phone, just in case Himchan-hyung decided to show the world what impressive set of lungs he had again.

 “I can’t okay? I’m just… I don’t know. Unprepared?”

“Lord please help this child” A sigh. “How about this? We’ll give you some time – but not too much – for you to gather some balls to confess to him. Then you invite him to Yongguk’s gig this Saturday, after you’ve done performing both of you can get the hell out of the club and go somewhere private where you can finally tell him what you feel and maybe get yourself laid by midnight.”

I could feel the blood rushing up to my face when I heard the last sentence and I was pretty sure I resembled the cherry tomatoes that Junhong loved so much. I spared another glance at Daehyun and the sudden waves of mental images of him hovering over me, grinding inside me flooded my brain, making me dizzy and I had to scrunch my eyes shut to push all of those thoughts away. I felt like a total ert and that I was violating him. Not good.

ING GODDAMN IT KIM HIMCHAN.

“F- fine. I’ll – I’ll see what… what I can do.” I stammered and quickly ended the call. For a while we just sat there in an awkward silence, Daehyun was slowly rocking back and forth in his position, probably out of habit while I was recovering from the initial shock of the inappropriate mental images of him. On top of me. Stop it Yoo Youngjae.

 “Um…” I started. He stopped his actions and turned to look at me. I knew he was nervous and felt awkward because of what almost happened between us earlier. I could see it in his face and I felt the same too, if not worse. I hesitated for a while, opting to look at my lap instead. Then I thought that being quiet won’t do anything. the world.

“I was wondering if you… If you would want to um… Go to a gig?”

“S-sure.” He stuttered. “When?”

This time I looked up to him. “This Saturday, 10:30pm.” Then I added, “I’m one of the performers so…”

And he replied, a little too sudden, “I’ll be there at 9.”