Myungsoo didn’t really know why he said it, it just came out suddenly.  Sungjong had followed him into the kitchen, not understanding why, but was there nonetheless.

“Ah, Myungsoo-hyung, is it?  I don’t think we’ve properly greeted each other yet?  I’m Lee Sungjong~”, Sungjong smiled and extended a hand out towards him.

Myungsoo nodded and shook Sungjong’s hand, earning an even bigger smile from the boy.  Myungsoo wondered what it was about Taemin that garnered his Minho-hyung’s affections more than this dancing twin in front of him.  Was it looks?  Myungsoo started looking over Sungjong’s features while Sungjong started to fidget in place.

“You’re cute.”

Sungjong looked at Myungsoo with wide eyes before letting out a shrill “What?!”  Myungsoo shut his eyes from the sudden outburst and rubbed at his temple.

“Why did you yell?  Aish, that was loud…” he continued to rub at his temple.

“You – you just said,” Sungjong gaped at Myungsoo, a loss for words.

Myungsoo opened his eyes and took in Sungjong’s shocked face.  ‘Like a fish,’ he thought amusedly.  He reached a hand over and patted Sungjong’s chin up, making the other close his mouth.  He had a thought about ruffling the other’s hair when Minho, Kibum, and Taemin came into the kitchen with concerned looks on their faces.

“Sungjong, are you okay?” Taemin went to Sungjong’s side and rubbed at his back.  Sungjong quickly switched the shocked expression on his face with his usual smile.

“I’m fine!  I just remembered something suddenly and accidentally yelled out, haha...”

Myungsoo looked over to see Minho mouthing ‘what did you do’ and replied with a small shrug of his shoulders.  Sungjong wouldn’t look at Myungsoo for the rest of the afternoon, nor did he try interacting with him.

~~~~~

As expected, Sungyeol found yesterday’s predicament to be one of the most hilarious things he’s ever heard.  Oh was Myungsoo ever so grateful to have such an understanding best friend.

“You should invite me over sometime so I can witness this comedy in action!” Sungyeol says as he wipes away invisible tears.

Myungsoo pushed at Sungyeol’s shoulder, nearly causing the other boy to drop the camera sitting in his lap.  Maybe he was hanging out with Sungyeol too much, because he was starting to become as choding as him at times.

“We have a photography project to do, remember?” Myungsoo pointed to his own camera that was set beside him on the bench where they were sitting.

“It’s just to take portraits of people!  We can use each other as models for this.  It’ll take less than a day if we do!”

Myungsoo hummed in agreement before getting up from his seat and catching Sungyeol off guard with the flash.

“I’m going to take unflattering pictures of you then!” he laughed as Sungyeol proceeded to chase after him with his own camera, snapping away.

~~~~~

Minho’s father was away overseas on business and Myungsoo’s mother was away on a mission with her organization helping the less fortunate, therefore leaving the house free to the invasion of a choding and some dancing twins.  The boys pushed the sofa and chairs alongside the wall and relocated the table elsewhere in order to make room for a makeshift stage.

“Dance contest!” Kibum waved his arms in the air.

“Two art majors and a theatre major against three dance majors.  Sounds fair,” Minho droned and Kibum threw a pillow at him.

“How about we divide into teams?  Losing team goes out and buys food, second losing team makes the food, and winning team gets to lounge?” Taemin spoke up before an imminent pillow fight started.

“Taeminnie, that’s a great idea~” Kibum gushed and Minho narrowed his eyes at Kibum when he heard the nickname.

The teams were decided after a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors.

Kibum-Sungjong

Myungsoo-Taemin

Sungyeol-Minho

Minho kept shooting Myungsoo a ‘please switch with me I don’t want to dance with your weird friend’ look and Myungsoo tried hard not to break his usual indifferent facade.  It was that one game where a pair would dance around a piece a paper and step onto the paper whenever the music stopped.  Each round would have the piece of paper being folded in half, causing the pairs to carry each other in order to fit on the shrinking platform.

Kibum and Myungsoo had no problem carrying either of the dancing twins, but Sungyeol and Minho miscommunicated in who was going to carry who and ended up headbutting into one another and falling to the floor.

“The giants have fallen!” Kibum twirled around the room with a giggling Sungjong.

Myungsoo didn’t realize he had fallen to the floor laughing until he felt two feet kicking at his side, one being Minho and the other being Sungyeol.  Myungsoo’s laughter was short-lived as he ended up slipping and tearing up him and Taemin’s sheet of paper in a later round, announcing Kibum and Sungjong’s team to be the winners.

Minho and Sungyeol walked out of the house after being given a shopping list by Kibum.  The four remaining boys in the house, or mainly Kibum for that matter, decided to start a little chat about the pair that just left.  Myungsoo leaned back on his hands as he listened and watched his cousin Kibum animatedly talk about his hyung and best friend.  Sungjong and Taemin nodded in reply at times to Kibum, but never really added any input to the conversation.

Myungsoo got up after a while and wandered into the kitchen.  He saw the ingredients Kibum wrote down earlier were for pasta, so he started looking around for the possible utensils he and Taemin would have to use to make the dish.

“What’re you…” Myungsoo turned around to find the younger of the dancing twins peering curiously behind him.

“Ah.  Getting this,” Myungsoo took out a colander from the cabinet and set it on the kitchen island.

Sungjong took a seat upon a countertop adjacent to the island and nodded his head ‘ohh’.  Myungsoo continued to look through cabinets and drawers for utensils and kitchenware as a silence took over the two.

“Last time, um,” Sungjong started as Myungsoo came face to face with him.

Myungsoo need to get something from the cabinet that Sungjong was blocking, but Myungsoo waited for the other boy to continue.  Sungjong just seemed to stare at Myungsoo with his mouth open, words not wanting to come out.

“Last time what?” Myungsoo prompted.

“You called me ‘cute’,” Sungjong finally said.

Myungsoo blinked for a moment.  “I did, yes,” and he blinked again.

Sungjong closed his eyes and pursed his lips together.  Minho and Sungyeol would be back soon with groceries, so Myungsoo needed to get something from the cabinet behind Sungjong.  Sensing that the other boy wasn’t going to move anytime soon, Myungsoo reached for the cabinet knob.  However, Sungjong conveniently chose to open his eyes at that same moment, and the two froze in place.

“Yah!  Are you making a love line in the kitchen?!” and there was his choding best friend, loud voice and all.

Sungjong hopped off the counter and scurried past Sungyeol into the living room.  Myungsoo saw that the tips of Sungjong’s ears were red, but couldn’t think any more about it as Sungyeol started ruffling his hair. 

“Chef-nim, people aren’t food!” he joked.

Myungsoo smiled and shoved Sungyeol away before opening the cabinet and finally getting the thing he needed for the pasta.

~~~~~

Kibum switched places with Taemin after seeing how…uniquely Taemin was chopping the tomatoes.  Minho placed a hand on Taemin’s shoulder and asked if he wanted to help set the table, to which Taemin agreed. 

Dinner went off without a hitch and the boys placed the furniture in the living room back in its original place to watch a movie for the rest of the night.  Everyone was surprised to learn that Taemin and Sungjong were deeply fond of the horror genre, to which Kibum shrieked in defiance at all the suggestions.  They ended up watching a horror movie though, and Kibum smacked Sungyeol several times throughout because the choding boy couldn’t resist scaring him.

Myungsoo didn’t like horror movies at all either, but he didn’t show his discomfort as vehemently as Kibum did.  Halfway through the movie he decided to see how the others were faring and his eyes landed on his hyung and a certain dancing twin, whispering to each other while looking back and forth from the screen to each other.

Ah.

Myungsoo quickly turned his attention to the other dancing twin, who was watching the movie intently, almost not blinking at times.  It was then he noticed that Sungyeol had moved next to Sungjong, Kibum using a pillow now as a shield and punching bag.  Sungyeol tried scaring Sungjong as well, but the younger boy merely laughed at the choding boy’s silly attempts.  Myungsoo found he wasn’t even interested in watching the movie anymore.