Sehun woke Jongin up on his birthday at 6 in the morning, screaming, “Jongin! It’s your birthday! You’re 18! Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthdayhappybirthdayhappybirthd–”

            Jongin buried his head in his pillow, groaning, but he was smiling. Kyungsoo sat up groggily in his bed and rubbed his eyes. “What’s going on?”

            “It’s Jongin’s birthday!”

            Kyungsoo laughed. “Of course it is. Looks like someone’s finally 18.”

            Sehun pouted. “I’m not 18 yet.”

            “No,” Joonmyun said, coming in the room. “You’re staying home for now.”

            Sehun pouted some more. “While Jongin gets to go out?”

            Jongin laughed. “Oh, definitely. This means clubs every night.”

            Sehun hit him with a pillow, and Jongin laughed again and put his arms around the younger.

            “Kidding,” he said, into the younger’s ear.

            Sehun made a face at him. “You better be.”

            They were almost finished with the filming of their second music video when Sehun tripped over something, possibly his own feet, and almost broke his nose on the floor. He threw his arms out at the last second, so there wasn’t any major damage, but Jongin still ran to his side.

            Sehun grimaced and picked himself up, and Jongin helped him, steadying the younger.

            “You okay?”

            Sehun nodded, but his face was twisted in pain.

            “Where does it hurt?”

            “Ankle,” Sehun managed to say.

            The director let them have a break, so Jongin made Sehun sit down and took a look at his ankle. It was swollen, so Jongin put some ice on it, hoping that it wouldn’t swell more.

            “We only have a couple more takes, Sehun-ah,” Joonmyun said. “Can you make it through?”

            Sehun nodded, and Jongin thought that this might be how Sehun felt about him and his back.

            Jongin watched Sehun out of the corner of his eye during the takes. He seemed to be doing fine, but the director wasn’t as pleased as he usually was. They did a couple more takes than they expected, and Jongin saw Sehun grit his teeth and dance.

            The director was pleased after that.

            Jongin made Sehun sit on the couch the second they got back to their dorm, and brought him ice for his ankle. It wasn’t any more swollen, but it was red, and Jongin didn’t like to look at it.

            He went to wash his face in the bathroom, and when he came back to the living room, Kyungsoo was talking.

            “I don’t know what else we can do for it, Sehun-ah. I mean, icing it is the best we can do. I don’t think it’s sprained, but if in a couple days it doesn’t go away, then make sure to tell Joonmyun hyung or manager hyung.”

            Sehun nodded and Kyungsoo smiled and ruffled his hair.

            Sehun’s ankle turned out to be fine, and in two days, he was up and running again.

            “See? It didn’t really matter,” Sehun said.

            Jongin reached out and brushed Sehun’s hair out of his eyes. “Of course it mattered.”

            While they were filming their third and final music video, their stylist sat Jongin down and painted his face and chest. Jongin watched his reflection in the mirror become something that he didn’t recognize.

            He liked it, though.

            Sehun didn’t like it. He told Jongin that he looked scary. He wouldn’t even look in the mirror while he had his own face paint on.

            Jongin thought that scared Sehun was the cutest Sehun.

            A couple nights later, Jongin suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. Squinting, he made out from the bedside clock that it was almost four in the morning. Running his hand through his hair, he made his way to the kitchen, quietly, to not wake Kyungsoo.

            He realized that someone else was up only when the living room light flicked on. Jongin whirled around, a milk carton in his hand, and stared at the person in the living room.

            Sehun stared right back.

            Jongin recovered first. “What are you doing up? And why are you dressed? It’s like four in the morning.”

            Sehun hung his coat on the coatrack. “I was out.”

            “Out…where?”

            “Luhan was hungry so we got something to eat.”

            “At four in the morning?!”

            Sehun looked defensive. “It was two when he called me.”

            “Two in the morning?!”

            Sehun flushed. “I was hungry, too.”

            “You’re always hungry.” Under other circumstances, the words would have been endearing, but right then they sounded accusing.

            Sehun flushed again. Jongin turned away from him, opening the fridge and putting the milk carton back in. “I’m going to bed.”

            Sehun looked hurt. “Jongin–“

            Jongin left him standing there, in the middle of the living room.”

            Joonmyun let him sleep in, so it was almost one when Jongin got out of bed. Kyungsoo sighed but ruffled his hair endearingly when he saw that the younger was up.

            “About time.”

            Jongin squinted at Kyungsoo, not quite awake. “What were you doing?”

            Kyungsoo held up a thick textbook. “Studying.”

            “Oh.”

            “Are you going to start soon? Or are you putting off college for a while?”

            Jongin shook his head. “I don’t know yet.”

            Kyungsoo just reached out again and brushed Jongin’s hair out of his eyes.

            “Come on,” he said, softly. “You must be hungry. I’ll make you something.” He gave Jongin’s cheek a little, endearing pat before leaving the room. Jongin followed, putting his hand on his cheek over the place Kyungsoo’s hand had been.

            Jongin avoided Sehun for the next couple of days, but Sehun still tried to talk to him.

            “There’s nothing to talk about,” was all Jongin said to him. Sehun bit his lip, but when he opened his mouth to say something, Jongin just turned away.

            About a week later, Sehun succeeded in cornering Jongin in his closet, while Jongin was trying to get dressed. Just as Jongin pulled his shirt over his head, Sehun slipped in the closet and locked the door behind him. He pushed Jongin against the wall and held him there, trapping him with his arms.

            Jongin glared at him, feeling the chill in the air on his bare skin. “What’s your problem?”

            Sehun flushed, angrily. “What’s my problem? Oh, you’ve only been ignoring me for the last week or so, and you don’t listen to me when I talk to you. You haven’t even looked at me for the last week. That’s my problem.”

            Jongin was silent. Sehun took his silence as acceptance and plowed on. “I don’t know why you’re ignoring me, really. If you listened to me, you would’ve known that I only went out with Luhan hyung that night because Minseok was sick and couldn’t, and that’s who Luhan usually goes out with. I didn’t want Luhan going around the city by himself, especially at night–”

            “And you going with him would have made a difference?”

            Sehun paused, his lips parted slightly. “What?”

            Jongin pushed him away. “No offense, Sehun, but you’re not really a formidable opponent. If Luhan needed someone to protect him, Tao’s right there.”

            Bright spots colored Sehun’s cheeks, and part of Jongin wanted to reach out and comfort him. But the other part of him, the bigger part, was angry. Angry because Sehun wasn’t his, and there was nothing he could do about it.

            “Get out of my closet, Sehun.”

            Sehun drew back, looking hurt. “Jongin–”

            Jongin sank down onto the floor, burying his head in his arms. “Just go.”

            He heard the door click behind the younger, and thought, what have I done?

            Kyungsoo found him curled into a ball, his cheeks wet, hours later. He poked his head into the closet, clearly expecting to see, well, clothes. Instead, he saw a half dressed Jongin on the floor. When Jongin saw him, he quickly wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand, trying to hide the wetness.

            It didn’t work, and Jongin didn’t resist when Kyungsoo pulled him up and hugged him, his chin straining to reach Jongin’s shoulder.

            “It’s okay,” Kyungsoo murmured. “You’re going to be okay.”

            Jongin was silent.

            Sehun didn’t mention anything that happened to any of the other guys, and neither did Jongin. It was better left alone.

            When Joonmyun asked him if anything was wrong, Jongin forced a laugh and convinced the elder that nothing was wrong, he was just tired. Joonmyun didn’t look like he believe him, but he accepted the answer. “Go to bed earlier,” was all he said. Jongin nodded and Joonmyun smiled his smile and ruffled his hair.

            They were preparing for their showcase before Jongin really talked to Sehun again. They would be performing their dance duet, and there was no way of getting around the one on one practice sessions. Jongin grit his teeth and told himself that he would get through it. He had to.

            When Jongin cried out from a particularly painful shock to his back, Sehun immediately reached out to him, putting an arm around his shoulders to steady him.

            “Try not to move too much, Jongin,” he said, still breathing hard from the dancing. “Relax. I’ll get you some water.”

            Jongin accepted the water, and sat down against the wall, so his back wouldn’t be disturbed. He looked up to see Sehun chewing on his lip worriedly.

            “Do you still have that muscle cream?”

            Jongin looked at his feet. “Yeah. It works most of the time. It’s enough.”

            Sehun knelt and used his finger to tilt Jongin’s head up. “No. It’s not enough. Anything less than perfection isn’t enough.” He smiled a little, sadly. “I’m pretty sure you were the one to say that.”

            His face was close. Too close Jongin could see himself reflected in Sehun’s eyes.

            He turned his head and got up, ignoring the shoot of pain up his back. “Let’s do another runthrough. I think we’ll be fine after that.”

            Sehun looked upset, but didn’t push it.

            Jongin lay in bed later, thankfully pain-free, because the muscle cream had kicked in. Kyungsoo came in the room, rubbing his eyes sleepily. “You’re here before me? That’s a first.”

            Jongin turned in his bed, and laughed, because sleepy Kyungsoo had significantly smaller eyes.

            Kyungsoo almost fell into his bed, he was so tired. Jongin shivered, because it was colder in their room than it usually was. He snuggled under his blankets and closed his eyes, willing for sleep to come.

            He woke up a couple of hours later, feeling significantly warmer. He saw that there was another person sleeping next to him, and at first, he thought that it was Sehun.

            “Sehun–“

            But it wasn’t Sehun.

            It was Kyungsoo.

            Kyungsoo was smaller than Sehun, and he fit next to Jongin’s body perfectly. Kyungsoo had tiny hands that curled into Jongin’s perfectly. Kyungsoo’s head snuggled into Jongin’s neck perfectly.

            Jongin closed his eyes, and felt Kyungsoo’s lips ghost on his cheek. He reflexively turned his head, and Kyungsoo took the chance to press his lips to the younger’s. Jongin’s breath caught in his throat, because this was Kyungsoo, and he didn’t like Kyungsoo like that.

            Or so he thought.

A/N: i d e k

I was going to post this tomorrow but I'm not going to be home soooo ><

but omg so much sekai today

like this this and this omg /insert ugly sobbing

and so much Kyungsoo omg a;sldkfj 

but then this happened and idek

I SWEAR TO GOD THESE BOYS WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME

and you can send me prompts on tumblr if you want lol