“Hyung?”

            Joonmyun looked up from the carrots he was chopping. “Yeah, Jongin?”

            “Do you think you’ll get married?”

            Joonmyun put his knife down, looking confused. “Married? Aren’t you a little young to be thinking about that?”

            Jongin flushed. “But do you think you’ll get married?”

            Joonmyun started chopping again. “I don’t know. I might. Might not. Why?”

            Jongin shrugged. “Nothing. I was just curious.”

            Joonmyun laughed. “Okay.”

            Kyungsoo was reading one of his textbooks when Jongin went back to their room.

            “Kyungsoo?”

            “Hmm?” He didn’t look up.
            “Do you think you’ll get married?”

            At that, Kyungsoo did look up. “What?”

            “Do you think you’ll get married?” Jongin repeated.

            Kyungsoo furrowed his brow. “Married? I haven’t thought about it.”

            “Oh.”

            “Why?”

            “I–just curious.”

            Kyungsoo still looked confused, but let it drop.

            Jongin paused a second before entering Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s room. Baekhyun wasn’t there, but Chanyeol was, and Chanyeol was always playing really loud music.

            “Hyung!” Jongin yelled. Chanyeol glanced over at him and smiled.

            “Jongin. Hey.”

            “Turn your music off!”

            Chanyeol lowered the volume from 95 to 94, and Jongin rolled his eyes.

            “Do you think you’ll get married?”

            Chanyeol blinked. “What?”

            “Married. Do you think you’ll get married.”

            “Um, I don’t know?”

            “You haven’t thought about it?”

            “No.”

            “Oh.”

            Chanyeol laughed. “Relax, Jongin. We’re all still young. They’ll be time to think about that later.” He pat Jongin on the back, and Jongin found himself relaxing. Chanyeol always had that effect on him.

            As he left the room, he ran right into a surprised looking Joonmyun.

            “Are you seriously going around asking everyone if they think they’re going to get married or not?” Joonmyun asked.

            “Uh, maybe?”

            “Why?”

            “Nothing.”

            Joonmyun rolled his eyes. “You don’t do anything for nothing, Jongin. There’s always a reason.”

            Jongin shrugged. “I was just curious.”

            Joonmyun sighed. “You’re 22, Jongin. Relax. You’re not going to get married for a while.”

            “Okay.”

            Joonmyun looked even more surprised. “Okay?”

            Jongin nodded, and Joonmyun looked a little unsettled at how quick Jongin was to agree.

            Sehun was sleeping in his and Joonmyun’s room when Jongin found him. Jongin remembered how Sehun had squeezed his hand under the table when the marriage topic had been brought up, and wondered what it meant.

            Jongin hadn’t thought about it, not really. He had been content with what they had now, and he hadn’t wanted to push it.

            But Sehun’s parents obviously expected Sehun to marry and carry on the family name. Jongin wondered what his parents wanted for him to do. They had never had a real discussion about it, but he assumed that they would want the same thing Sehun’s parents wanted.

            Jongin bit his lip, looking at Sehun’s sleeping face. It was times like this that reminded him just how young they were. It was easy to forget that in the midst of the flashing lights and cameras and reporters and screaming fans.

            Jongin wondered if maybe it was better to do what their parents wanted them to do.

            He had accomplished his first dream: become a performer.

            Jongin thought that maybe it was selfish it want to accomplish more than one dream.

            Promotions ended, but the endless photoshoots didn’t. Almost every other day, all or at least two of them had to put on the heavy makeup and fancy clothes and pose for the camera. Jongin was booked the most, and there were days when he did up to four different photoshoots. Joonmyun worried, he always did, and Jongin thought that maybe he himself should be worried.

            Sehun lost weight, and Jongin fussed over him until Sehun pointed out that Jongin had lost weight too. Jongin realized this when he stepped on the scale, and saw the number.

            Luhan was booked for many of the shoots Jongin was, and they each learned how the other sold it for the camera. Luhan was muted, his lovely face covering the tough interior, and Jongin was the opposite; shining, his chiseled face covering the soft interior.

            They worked together well, and Sehun joined them more than half of the time.

            “Get lower,” Luhan hissed at Jongin. “I’m not as tall as you or Sehun.”

            Sehun covered his mouth with his hand, to hide his smile. “Well you’re short, aren’t you?”

            Luhan glared at him and Jongin rolled his eyes and lowered his body, leaning on the wall. Luhan and Sehun were on either side of him, and Jongin was aware of Sehun’s slender fingers slightly brushing his side.

            “Get closer together,” the photographer called out. “I need a closer shot.”

            Luhan and Sehun obliged, and now Sehun’s hand was pressed against Jongin’s side, and Jongin could feel the younger’s arm against his back. Luhan propped his elbow up on Jongin’s shoulder, and leaned his head against his arm.

            The camera clicked repeatedly and Jongin let his gaze wander, just a little bit. Photographers liked it when there were subtle differences in position from photo to photo.

            When the director announced that they were free to go, Sehun’s hand lingered on Jongin’s waist, and Jongin shivered, despite himself.

            “That wasn’t so bad,” Sehun said, when they had showered and changed into comfortable clothes. “You always seem to hate photoshoots.”

            “I don’t hate them,” Jongin said, which was true, kind of. “I just don’t like how fake I feel.”

            “You didn’t look fake.”

            Jongin looked over at him. Sehun was curled up on Kyungsoo’s bed, his knees tucked under his chin.

            “I feel fake though,” he said. Sehun wrapped his arms around his legs tighter, like he would always do when he was trying to decide how to say something.

            “You’re not fake,” Sehun said, and flushed when he heard himself. Jongin went over and sat down next to him.

            “Sehun,” he said. “Sehun, stop trying to hide your face.”

            Sehun looked up, and Jongin saw the red staining the younger’s cheeks.

            “Your face is so red,” Jongin said, laughing.

            Sehun flushed even more and tried to hide his face again. Jongin caught Sehun’s chin with his finger.

            “No, it’s cute,” he said, softly. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the younger’s, and this time, Sehun didn’t try to hide his face.

            “So do you know when you’re going back to school?” Kyungsoo asked, when Jongin came to the kitchen looking for something to eat.

            “Next week,” Jongin said, trying to sneak a couple bites of what Kyungsoo was cooking. The elder swatted his hand away and covered the pan with a lid.

            “Do you have all your homework done?”

            “You sound like a mother hen.”

            Kyungsoo glared at him. “Do you?”

            “Yes.”

            Kyungsoo opened his mouth and closed it again. “What?”

            “Yes, I do have everything done. I finished my last essay yesterday.”

            “How?”

            “I stopped taking naps.”

            “Oh.”

            Jongin smirked. “Surprised?”

            “Maybe just a bit. Is Sehun done with everything?”

            Jongin snorted. “If I’m done, he has to be done.”

            “True. Sehun was always the good child.”

            “And I wasn’t?” Jongin said, feigning hurt.

            “No.”
            “Well then.”

            Kyungsoo laughed. “Go get all the other members. Dinner’s ready.”

            “Or,” Jongin said, “I could stay here and eat it all by myself.”

            Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Maybe then you would gain weight and stop getting all those shoots,” he said, sarcastically.

            Jongin blinked. Kyungsoo was rarely sarcastic.

            “What?” Kyungsoo asked, when he noticed that Jongin was silent.

            “What? Oh, nothing. I’ll go get everyone else,” Jongin said hastily.

            “I miss school,” Sehun said, petulantly, as Jongin struggled to get through the next chapter of his English book.

            Jongin snorted. “Want to read this for me?”

            Sehun laughed. “I meant that I miss doing something.”

            “Modeling and performing is doing something.”

            “I know, but it’s just not the same.”

            “It’s not so bad, the performing.”

            “But not the modeling?”

            “You know I don’t like modeling,” Jongin said, turning to the next page of his book. “Can you hand me my dictionary?”

            Sehun tossed Jongin the small book. “What do you need it for?”

            Jongin flipped through the pages. “My vocab .”

            “Oh right.”

            “Don’t act like you’re any better. This is the only class that I might be able to get a higher grade than you.”

            “Emphasis on might.”

            Jongin smacked Sehun with the dictionary. “I don’t see you reading the chapters before they’re assigned.”

            “I’m tired,” Sehun whined, scrunching up his nose. Jongin laughed and put both of the books on his desk.

            “Then go to sleep,” he said, softly. Sehun’s bangs were falling into his eyes, so Jongin reached out and brushed them back. “You need a haircut.”

            Sehun snuggled under his blankets. “Photographers like long hair,” he said, sleepily.

            Jongin pressed his mouth to Sehun’s temple. “You look good either way,” he whispered. Sehun blinked, and Jongin quickly pecked him on the lips before leaving.

            Jongin liked the feel of school; how it was dependable. His classes always started at a certain time and ended at a certain time. His assignments were due on a certain day. There was no gray area, and Jongin liked it.

            Acting wasn’t so bad. Jongin could tell that his teacher, at first, had thought that he had no potential, but after a couple months, he improved. His teacher was surprised, but he managed to hide it as he patted Jongin on the back.

            “You’re pretty good,” he said. Jongin smiled, because that from his teacher was high, high praise.

            “Jongin?”

            Jongin looked up, and saw Joonmyun poking his head in the door.

            “Hey, hyung,” he said, rubbing his eyes and closing his textbook.

            “Manager hyung wants to talk to you,” Joonmyun said, smiling. “Actually, he wants to talk to both of us.”

            Jongin was confused. “About what?”

            Joonmyun just smiled and motioned Jongin to follow him.

            Sehun was already sitting at their dining room table, across from their manager. He looked up and smiled at Jongin and Joonmyun when they walked in.

            “Well?” Joonmyun asked, eagerly.

            Their manager smiled. “All three of you have been cast in dramas.”

            Sehun sat up. “You can’t be serious.”

            “But I am,” their manager said.

            “All three of us?” Jongin asked. “In the same drama?”

            “No,” their manager said. “Two different dramas.”

            “How?” Suho asked.

            “Jongin and Sehun are going to act as high school students, friends, in an upcoming sitcom. Joonmyun is going to be in a different drama as a medical student.”

            “Oh god, high school students,” Sehun said.

            Joonmyun laughed. “Aren’t you excited?”

            “Well yes,” Sehun said. “Has this been announced yet?”

            “No. We just need to confirm with the producers and director of each drama,” their manager said. “Here’s more of the confirmed cast.”

            He handed Jongin and Sehun one sheet of paper, and Joonmyun another.

            “I haven’t heard of half of these people,” Sehun said, looking up from the cast list. They were back in Jongin’s room, while Kyungsoo was at the library studying.

            “Well, it’s not all the cast,” Jongin said. “And I think we’re supposed to be the headlines for it anyway.”

            “No pressure or anything,” Sehun said, laughing.

            Jongin sat down next to him, resting his head on the younger’s shoulder.

            “We’re graduating next year,” he said, suddenly.

            “Yes,” Sehun said, “and Kyungsoo’s graduating this year, which is why he’s MIA all the time. Because studying.”

            “Yeah, but still,” Jongin said. “It all went by so fast.”

            “You obviously missed all the allnighters we pulled together, if that’s even possible.”

            Jongin laughed. “No, it’s just, I thought that college was going to last forever. And now already it’s almost over.”

            “We still have senior year. I asked Kyungsoo hyung about it, and all he said was ‘prepare to die’. He had dark circles too.”

            “But he never gets dark circles.”

            “Exactly.”

            Jongin reached over and twined their fingers together. “But we’ll have each other, right?”

            Sehun smiled. “Right.”