Sungmin opened the oven door to look in on the appetizers.  “They need a few minutes yet,” he said to Ryeowook, who was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee.  Sungmin went to the coffee machine and filled his mug.  “Do you need more?”

            “No, I’m good,” he said, leaning a little to the right so he could get a glimpse of the game tournament out in the living room.  “I can’t believe they’re so energetic after our extra-long practice today.”

            “Hyuk and Donghae are still a little sour over losing the last time.”

            “As long as the neighbors don’t complain again.”

            Ryeowook shook his head as Sungmin sat back down at the table and snuck a cookie off the plate.  He’d already had more than he should but when they were just sitting on a plate in front of him, they were impossible to resist. 

            “Even Jongwoon is getting loud, that’s not normal,” Sungmin said, glancing over his shoulder at the boys as they loudly yelled at the screen and each other.  When he turned back to Ryeowook, he found himself being stared at.

            “You and Jongwoon seem to be closer since you moved into his bedroom.  That’s the opposite of what I thought would happen,” Ryeowook remarked.

            “Yeah, that is kind of different, isn’t it?  Kyuhyun and I were getting sick of rooming together—for a few years now—and I think that he and I will like each other more once we’ve been out of each other’s business for a while but I didn’t expect to feel closer with Jongwoon.  I think it’s just the fascination of having someone new around you.”

            “But you’ve been living in the same apartment for a long time.  It isn’t as if he isn’t in your business every day as well.  And you might not have had to share a sleeping space with him but we all share the rest of the apartment.”

            Sungmin just smiled and shrugged his shoulders.  “Perhaps we’re just more compatable than me and Kyuhyun.  I think, if the initial arrangement had been looked at by pairing people that got along better, I would have been better rooming with Jongwoon and you with Kyuhyun.”

            “What about Hyukie?”

            “He should be on the top floor with Donghae…but I’d miss him, so I refuse to tell him that.”

            “Actually, I think they’re as close as they are because they don’t live in the same apartment.  I think they get the chance to miss each other a little bit when they don’t see each other all day long and get along better,” Ryeowook concluded.

            “Well, Jongwoon and I may get tired of rooming together as time goes by but so far, I really like rooming with him.  He doesn’t play the computer until late at night or toss and turn in bed the way Kyuhyun does.”

            “I happened to notice, when I was returning some of Jongwoon’s laundry to his room earlier, that your bed is in pieces.  Have you been sleeping on the floor?”

            Sungmin’s face turned red, no need work at it, “Um…well, actually…Jongwoon’s been nice enough to let me sleep in his bed the last couple nights.  My bed fell apart after we moved it and we haven’t gotten around to fixing it yet.”

            “Really?  In bed with him?”

            “Yeah,” Sungmin said, trying to sound nonchalant.  “You know, just like how you and Kyuhyun sometimes fall asleep together in your room.”

            Ryeowook began to cough a bit after drinking some coffee.

            “You okay?”

            Ryeowook nodded, trying to calm his throat while Sungmin checked the oven again and took out the trays of snacks for the gamers.  He set them on the stovetop to cool for a minute before transferring them to plates. 

            “Do you want help?”

            “No, but I am afraid that they’re going to tackle me the minute they see the food.”

            “Probably,” he said, trying to clear his throat and drank some more coffee.

            Sungmin carried out the plates and waited until Donghae and Hyukjae stopped jumping around and making fun of Jongwoon and Kyuhyun before he walked between them and set the food down on the coffee table.  “Who’s winning?”

            “Yours truly,” Hyukjae said, pointing to himself.  “And my sidekick.”

            Kyuhyun wasted no time to refute the claim or vow his revenge; he was already on his fourth piece when the braggers finally started eating.  Jongwoon was still hitting buttons on the remote, making some kind of adjustment, so Sungmin grabbed a piece and held it up to his mouth.  Jongwoon looked on the verge of laughing but opened his mouth and let Sungmin feed him.

            Sungmin could feel the others’ eyes on them but dared not to look over at them for fear that he would start cracking up and their pretend flirtations would be uncovered.  “Is it any good?”

            “Mmmm,” Jongwoon moaned.  Once he was done chewing, he opened his mouth for another and Sungmin quickly obliged him.  He then ruffled his hair before returning to the kitchen.

            Hyukjae noticed that Jongwoon watched Sungmin until he disappeared into the kitchen and then seemed perfectly capable of grabbing his own food while punching in the player info for their next game.  They were definitely sleeping together.  As if seeing them in each other’s arms in bed and kissing wasn’t convincing enough, their behavior the last couple days cemented his opinion on the matter.  What he couldn’t figure out was if they’d been together before their talk the other night or if moving into the same room suddenly triggered romantic feelings for one another.

            As tempted as he was to ask one of them about it, he didn’t want to admit to spying on them.  Besides, the maknaes seemed to think that questioning them about their relationship would be too traumatic.  But neither of them seemed traumatized.  In fact, they almost seemed not to care if anyone was onto them or not.

            What he wondered most was, if Jongwoon and Sungmin ended up openly admitting to being together, would Kyuhyun and Ryeowook do the same?  Then the secrets would end and Hyukjae could finally relax.  Ever since he found out about the maknaes, he’d helped protect their relationship.  He even offered to go with them on their trip to Greece so that it wouldn’t look too suspicious to their fans.  Despite their naughty pranks which irked him from time to time, he thought of them as two of his closest friends and wanted to see them happy. 

            They exerted so much energy trying to keep their relationship a secret, he wondered if it didn’t detract from it a bit.  Were they perfectly happy?  He knew that they wanted each other without question but this wasn’t exactly how they wished to live either.  Of late, Kyuhyun had complained about how tired he grew of finding excuses for why he was always with Ryeowook to reporters or staff members.  The only place that the public wasn’t watching them like hawks was in the apartment but with Jongwoon and Sungmin still in the dark, they had to watch themselves in their only haven too.  If only they knew that their hyungs wanted to see them happy, unconditionally.  It crossed his mind every now and then to sit the whole group of them down and lay it all on the table but he was worried they’d evict him. 

            Kyuhyun looked over at him and raised his brows after watching Sungmin feeding Jongwoon.  “Hyukie, will you feed me too?”

            “Sure, my dear,” he said, picking up an appetizer and placing it in Kyuhyun’s open mouth. 

            “Me too, me too,” Donghae said, turning his head towards Hyukjae. 

            Hyukjae set one in Donghae’s mouth and Donghae closed his mouth so fast, he bit Hyukjae’s fingers.  “Ow!”

            “Oooh,” he said, chewing with his mouth open. “Here, let me kiss it.”

            Donghae grabbed hold of Hyukjae’s hand and brought it to his lips, kneeling down on one knee as he made his exaggerated apology.

            Jongwoon rolled his eyes at them and finished typing in everyone’s info for the car racing game they were about to start.  Once everyone was full—meaning all the food was gone—they began the race.  Each time one of them rammed their car into someone else’s, they leaned over.  Therefore, they kept banging into each other’s shoulders, except Donghae, who was sitting on the floor on the other side of Hyukjae.  Jongwoon was stuck between Kyuhyun and Hyukjae and found himself squished by both of them at the same time more than once.
            “I think you just wanted to play this game to beat me up,” he complained, purposely banging into Kyuhyun hard.

            “Hey, you’re on my team!” Kyuhyun reminded him, as his car was hit as a consequence of being slammed into my Jongwoon and not hitting the right buttons for a second.  He rebounded quickly though, still well ahead of any of them.

            “What about shooting me in the last game?”

            “That was an accident.”

            “I think you’re just getting revenge on me for stealing your roommate.  You’re jealous that Minnie never hand fed you,” Jongwoon said, hitting Hyukjae’s back bummer, making him spin out and ending his run.

            “Ah!”

            “I’m on him,” Donghae shouted, his car trailing Jongwoon’s.

            “He never cuddled with me either,” Kyuhyun said, pretending to sniffle.

            “Don’t cry, Kyu.  I’ll come in later tonight and cuddle with you,” Hyukjae offered.

            “Thanks, Hyuk,” Kyuhyun said, tilting to the side and bumping Jongwoon.

            Jongwoon elbowed him back, keeping his eyes on the screen.

            The three still raced around the track and Ryeowook came out and sat on the armrest next to Kyuhyun to watch the game as Donghae finally caught up to Jongwoon and banged into him from the back and then the side as they rounded a corner and Jongwoon’s car finally lost control and crashed into the wall, ending his turn.

            Jongwoon set down his controller and jumped over the back of the couch and headed for the kitchen.  Donghae was still in the running until the very end but Kyuhyun beat him by two laps and raised his hands in victory.

            “Undefeated, once again!”

            Racing was one of Kyuhyun’s best games.  They were taking turns picking games to play and this one was always a loss for them.  Ryeowook was patting Kyuhyun on the back when he glanced back at the kitchen and suddenly his mouth fell open.  He grabbed Kyuhyun’s head and turned it around.  Donghae and Hyukjae noticed and followed suit, looking back into the kitchen where Jongwoon was kissing Sungmin, whose hands were still full of soap bubbles from washing dishes.

            Kyuhyun grabbed Ryeowook’s arm and told him to turn away so they wouldn’t know that they’d seen anything.  Of course, Ryeowook immediately looked back down at Kyuhyun, trying to keep a straight face but Donghae, who knew nothing of the new relationship, stared at them with wide eyes and pointed to the kitchen.  He opened his mouth to say something and Hyukjae tackled him, covering his mouth with his hand as Donghae landed on his back. 

            “Shhh,” Hyukjae whispered.  “They don’t know we know, so be quiet.”

            Donghae pointed again at the kitchen although now he was blocked from its view by the couch.

            “I’ll explain later, just pretend that you never saw that,” Hyukjae quietly ordered him.

            Donghae tried to get up and Kyuhyun motioned with his head that Donghae look at the screen instead.  He looked at Hyukjae, who nodded, and then sat with his back to the couch and began to fan himself with a magazine sitting on the table.

            “Hurry up, Woon,” Kyuhyun hollered, “we’re going to start again.”

            Jongwoon walked into the kitchen from the living room, finding Sungmin humming a song while he washed the dishes.  “How’s the progress?”

            Sungmin looked over his shoulder at Jongwoon, his eyes dancing.  “Very good.  Yours?”

            “Not bad but about to get a hell of a lot better.”

            “How so?” he asked, still scrubbing the pan with a sponge.

            Jongwoon turned Sungmin to face him, moved closer until Sungmin was sandwiched between him and the sink, and then brought his lips down to kiss him.  He took his time exploring Sungmin’s mouth with his tongue so that they’d have plenty of time to notice in the living room.  He could hear Kyuhyun bragging about his win and knew they’d eventually look for him.  When he heard them go quiet, he was sure that they were watching them kiss.

            It wasn’t until Kyuhyun called for him to hurry back that Jongwoon finally broke away from Sungmin and noticed Sungmin frown, looking over his shoulder.  Not a single one of them was looking their way.

            “Did you see them look at all?”

            Sungmin shook his head.  “I had my eyes closed.”

            Jongwoon sighed.  “We can’t be obvious, or I would have kissed you out there.  We need them to catch us doing something accidently.”

            “There’s too many of them out there, they’re distracting each other,” Sungmin guessed.  “We’ll have to try to get just one of them to see us.”

            Jongwoon nodded and squeezed Sungmin’s shoulder before heading back to the living room.  When he sat back down, he looked around at the four, just to see if anyone appeared to have noticed but Hyukjae was busy messing with Donghae and making him ticklish and Kyuhyun was in the middle of recapping the game tournament so far to Ryeowook.

            This was going to be harder than he thought if his roommates were this oblivious.  Then again, Kyuhyun and Ryeowook still hadn’t figured out they were in love with each other, so he shouldn’t expect much from them.  At least he wasn’t about to get bored kissing Sungmin anytime soon.