Zhou Mi sent a text that said exactly this: whaddup xmas partay!!!!!!!! BE THERE OR BE SQUARE HIPPEST SAS REUNION EVAAAAAA

Kim Jongdae RSVP-ed fifteen minutes later with a yes. 





The winter was cold and biting, and Jongdae wanted to go back home. It was Christmas break, but he had opted to stay because so many of his friends did as well. Singapore was devoid of familiar faces this winter mostly since everyone in the States had it in their heads to party hard before the finals. So he stayed, with nothing much to do except study, until Zhou Mi texted him.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol were flying up from Austin together too. Jongdae envied them, a bit, since they were in the same university and housemates. But they also drove each other crazy on a daily basis, so that tempered the envy a lot. When he chose to go to Boston he’d known that he would be alone. Everyone else had chosen schools elsewhere, and the nearest people in NYC were the seniors that he liked but also didn’t know too well. Zhou Mi though, negated that when he made a trip up to meet Liyin, and he had been dragged along as part of the welcoming party (pun intended, Jongdae thought). 

Liyin. Jongdae clicked on the Purchase button on the airline page, and watched as the money trickled out of his credit card account for a ticket to New York City. She was probably not at home now, he figured, but Zhou Mi had promised that she would turn up for the Christmas party as well. Zhang Liyin was in the year before his, a senior when he was a junior, and one of the two other Singapore American School graduates that were also studying in Boston. She lived with Stephanie, who was a ballet major at some really prestigious ballet academy, two floors down from his apartment unit. 

“Garrett?” He looked up to find his housemate in the frame of his door, box of frozen pizza in hand. “It’s either this or instant pasta for dinner.”

Jongdae mentally cringed. They could call for takeout, but he had just ordered a really expensive ticket to NYC. His housemate--Jay was Hispanic, from Colorado, and spoke curiously unaccented Japanese--waved the box of pizza again. He nodded, resigned, and wished really hard that the Christmas party would be good. 








“Chanyeol would have driven here if his car wasn’t broke.” Baekhyun crashed into his bed as soon as Jongdae let them in. “Can you believe this crazy dude? Man, those tickets are expensive.” 

Chanyeol put their bags down and closed the door. “Which is why I said to fly directly to New York! Stop complaining when you’re the one throwing money around like it’s nothing, you little .”

Jongdae watched them bicker as he checked his phone for new messages. He had gotten a reply from Liyin earlier, from his text asking politely if she was flying to New York alone. She said no, she was going with Stephanie, but hadn’t replied since. Jongdae chalked it up to her being on the plane, but was fidgety all the same. 

“So apparently Zhou Mi hyung has invited everyone. Kris, Lu Han, Segyun and Minseok are flying down from Chicago tonight, and like everyone in New York is going to be there. Everyone.” Baekhyun was excited, because he had been quite the social butterfly back in Singapore. “Yubin nuna, man. I’ve missed the hotness of the class of 2009.”

“You miss the hotness of every class, .” Jongdae plugged his phone into his charger, and threw a stray pillow at Baekhyun. He caught it with relative ease, before hurling it at Chanyeol. They were flying out in the morning, mainly because it was the cheapest one the airline had. Once they were in New York, they were going to crash at Kyuhyun’s place. 

“Taecyeon hyung’s fist is the size of your head.” Chanyeol said to Baekhyun pointedly. He had draped his legs onto Jongdae’s desk, and they extended far beyond its actual length. “He will beat the crap out of you.”

Jongdae snorted loudly. Baekhyun reached for another pillow, and then his phone vibrated. He rushed to pick it up, and didn’t miss the look Chanyeol gave him. Liyin had landed safely, and they were in a cab now with Younha, who had picked them up from the airport. He punched in a see you tomorrow then!, and looked up to see Chanyeol grin at him. It was a eating grin that he did not like at all.

“‘Sup dudes.” Jay poked his head in just in time. “Chinese or Thai tonight?” 

“We’re Korean.” Chanyeol deadpanned in his slight Texan manner, before they both laughed. Jay had hung out with them a few times, and told Jongdae that he found them pretty cool. Jongdae wanted Jay to see them back in high school, when Chanyeol was still in braces and Baekhyun in weird glasses, but refrained. 

“Chinese then.” Jay decided for them. “Wang’s just down the corner. Five or never, guys.” 





The flight was short but unpleasant. Jongdae fell asleep and found himself waking up somewhere on Chanyeol’s head, because he had too fallen asleep and slouched himself onto his shoulder. Zhou Mi had sent Taecyeon and Yubin in his stead to pick them up, and Jongdae could spot Yubin waving enthusiastically as they pushed their trolley across. Chanyeol snuck a sly look at Baekhyun, and both he and Jongdae waved a fist up at the same time. Baekhyun got the hint pretty quick. 

“You s.” Baekhyun whispered, teeth gritted, as they piled into the car. It was co-owned by the SAS people who studied in New York, small but rather hardy. “You bast--”

“Excuse me?” Taecyeon looked at them through the rear view mirror and Baekhyun kept quiet as fast as he could. Jongdae couldn’t stifle a laugh. It took a while, but they were soon on a highway out and towards the city itself. 

“Welcome to New York!” Yubin turned around in her seat, smiling at them. Out of the corner of his eye Jongdae could see Chanyeol surreptitiously showing Baekhyun his fist again. “Nasty flight, wasn’t it?”

Yubin’s accent was blatantly Australian and she never bothered to hide it. In the driver’s seat Taecyeon was handling the wheel and mimicking the way she said “wasn’t”. Jongdae nodded and thought of Liyin and her gentle British one. In American school they usually had fun ribbing the ones who didn’t sound like them, but Jongdae thought Liyin’s voice to be the most fantastic thing in the world. And it was, seeing how she was singing at Berklee. It made him feel small, sometimes, if he walked in on her practicing in school or in the laundry room of their apartment building. 

“Shut up, Taec. Stop copying me.” Yubin snapped, and Taec imitated the twang in her voice again before Yubin smacked him soundly on the arm. Jongdae had no idea if he was witnessing a rather violent public display of affection, but Chanyeol sniggered beside him. 

“You know, Baek’s right,” Chanyeol whispered in his ear as Yubin wrung down hard on Taecyeon’s arm, “Yubin nuna is hot.”

Jongdae rolled his eyes.






“Some house rules first,” Kyuhyun clapped his hands and Jongdae dropped his bag onto the floor, ready to listen, “hey Byun Baekhyun, I said house rules first!” 

Baekhyun scampered right back from the kitchen, a glass of orange juice in hand. Younha--the one everyone knew to be both the joy and bane of Kyuhyun’s existence--followed behind with Korean snacks and a huge jug of something that had to be Korean just from the colour alone. Kyuhyun sized all three of them up, and Jongdae felt like this was high school all over again. 

Kyuhyun and Younha were three years ahead of them, and when he was in junior high, he had made the mistake of joining the choral group without first finding out who was in charge (it was Kyuhyun). Kyuhyun kept him there all the way till he graduated, and Jongdae had to take over until he graduated. It was a thankless chore, but somehow also managed to get him into college. So Jongdae was grateful, somewhat, and even though Kyuhyun was nasty sometimes, he was also mostly nice and helpful when he wanted to be. 

“First, everyone sleeps in the living room.” Chanyeol groaned, and Kyuhyun glared at him very briefly before he kept quiet. Jongdae didn’t have any problem with that, mainly because he wasn’t as tall as Chanyeol was and could fit into small sofa-beds quite easily. Baekhyun sipped at his juice and nodded. 

“Second, someone has to do my laundry. I’m not taking rent from you so this is mandatory.” Kyuhyun received a smack from Younha as soon as he finished, and she immediately negated that. “Fine, then someone has to do the dishes at all times.” He amended it, and Jongdae had no problem with that either, seeing how they were all students who lived thousands of miles away from home and their moms. 

“Third… we’ll drink soju every night.” Kyuhyun grinned at them, and Baekhyun raised his empty glass in an energetic toast. 




Jongdae managed to catch Younha in the balcony while Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Kyuhyun were converged around the laptop playing Starcraft. She was watering her plants, and welcomed him with a smile. 

“What’s up? Mi oppa is seriously making way too big a deal of this party.” She laughed, and Jongdae did too. 

“Nuna,” he said after a while, and they must have won or something, because he heard Chanyeol cheer something really obscene in Korean and English, “are Liyin and Stephanie nuna settling in well?”

Younha paused for a really long moment, before looking up at him with a smile that he found way too knowing for his liking. She put down her watering can and nodded. Jongdae felt a small wave of relief. Liyin hadn’t replied in very long sentences after the last few messages, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was a little upset. And worried. But mostly worried. 

“They’re okay. Jia’s taking care of them, and she knows her way around New York better than any of us do. Don’t worry too much okay, Jongdae?” 

Younha patted him on the shoulder as she walked out, and he felt a hot rush behind his ears. 






The Chicago kids arrived half an hour later. There was a lot of noise as they did body bumps and high fives and half-hugs, but more than anything else Jongdae was happy to see his old classmates and friends. Kris, Lu Han, and Minseok were all in the same college, while Segyun was a little further up in Chicago, and they were far away enough that Jongdae hadn’t been able to visit yet. 

“Doing okay, big guy?” Kris drawled as they sat in Kyuhyun and Younha’s living room, the television turned to some replay of a basketball game earlier that week. Chanyeol and Lu Han were discussing it intently, while Segyun was playing a game on his phone, Baekhyun watching over his shoulder. Minseok was asleep, almost, on Segyun’s other shoulder. “How’s singing and Boston?”

“Good. Did you break up with your girlfriend again? Because your Instagram feed’s been kind of depressing lately. I never knew there were so many ways to take pictures of shoes.” Jongdae did his best not to laugh as Kris glared at him. Kris was a serial monogamist, and a lousy one at that. He wanted to be in a steady relationship at all times, but failed more often than not. 

Kris scooted away for a drink in the kitchen, and Minseok slid in his place, apparently awake now. Jongdae exchanged a fist bump with him, something that they always did in high school for reasons he couldn’t remember anymore. Segyun’s phone beeped and rang with sounds that sounded weirdly like “run, run, run!”. He always played the weirdest games. 

“So… Boston.” Minseok’s smile was too-knowing. Jongdae was slowly getting frustrated at the number of people who kept giving him that look. He had no idea what they had caught on to, and it made him feel kind of stupid. “Boston. Yeah, Boston.”

“Minseok.” Jongdae looked at him out from the corner of his eyes. “Please be straightforward. I am not Kris.”

“Ok sure. How are things between you and Liyin nuna? Bad? Yeah I knew it.” Minseok laughed and Jongdae couldn’t answer. Things weren’t bad, per se, but they were also just okay. Liyin was the person that he had sought out when he was applying to colleges, and she had been the most helpful senior ever. She walked him through everything when he arrived in Boston, and it took seven months and fifteen days before he realised that she was the most perfect human being on Earth. He was a goner, but Liyin was out of his reach. 

“Not---bad.” Jongdae answered stiffly, and Baekhyun yelled at Segyun just then for losing the game. 

“Dude, you are worse of a liar than Kris is.” Minseok waggled his eyebrows at him, and Jongdae socked him in the shoulder. 





Zhou Mi had decreed that everyone dress up for the party. Jongdae had dug up a reindeer horn headband to go with his green plaid shirt, and then he was done. Baekhyun was decked out in an outrageous elf hat that matched Chanyeol’s. The Chicago kids all wore variations of the Santa hat (Minseok’s was too small for him and sat perched on top of his hair like some lost sparrow), and Kris actually looked the part for some reason. It might have been the beard he whipped out of nowhere. Lu Han offered to exchange his hat with Jongdae’s horns, and they swapped after some debating. In the end Jongdae now looked like a hardware store version of Santa, while Lu Han resembled his namesake, a deer with pretty eyes and all that. The heavens were against him tonight. 

They walked to the party, which was down the street in another apartment building. Zhou Mi, Jia, and another one of their friends shared an apartment, and when Zhou Mi pulled the door open, big white smile and crazy tinsel in his hair, everyone was in awe of the decorations. He had pulled all the stops out, and the place looked like some sort of psychedelic neon version of Santa’s lair. Zhou Mi had locked both Kyuhyun and Younha in a tight hug when Jongdae pushed his way through with Baekhyun’s arm threaded through his. There was music playing, some sort of house beat, and he took a while to recognise everyone in the room. 

“My man! Garrett! Jongdae! Oh yeah!” Before he could react someone had crushed him in a hug. It took three seconds for him to realise it was Henry, who at Zhou Mi’s orders had flown down from Toronto (according to gossip headquarters Chanyeol), and one of the guys he’d hung out with regularly in high school. “Long time no see! Oh god you’re still so small!”

“God Henry you’re crushing my arm!” Baekhyun yelped and Henry let them go, still grinning widely. They exchanged the usual bro-code side hugs, and Henry yapped on about not seeing them for such a long time. Baekhyun and Henry were talking about some console game (topics changed quickly with them) when Jongdae decided to give them the slip. He had spotted Liyin in the corner, glass of beverage in hand and talking to Jia. 

He was halfway across the room when he was accosted by more people from high school that he hadn’t seen in over a semester. Amber and Joonmyun handed him a cup of something that he quickly swigged, and then Joonmyun wouldn’t let him go because he had started on the topic of something he couldn’t talk about at all. Beyond them he could see Yixing approaching Liyin when Jia left, and then them talking and laughing about something he frankly was more interested in. (Besides, why were all the people on the West Coast even here? Jongdae thought he might have severely underestimated Zhou Mi’s charm and sway over his juniors)

When Joonmyun was distracted by his brother (also here somehow because Zhou Mi was Siwon’s friend and Siwon did everything for friends), Jongdae took the opportunity to run. Amber though, walked with him, and had that infuriatingly knowing smile that so many people before her did too. Jongdae stopped a few steps before he could reach Liyin, and turned to ask her why. 

“Jongdae,” Amber sighed and punched him in the shoulder, “you are so dense. And sometimes kind of stupid too.”

What? Jongdae couldn’t figure out how to respond, and by the time he looked up the party had moved to him. Yixing said hi, and they hugged each other for a while. He was in Vancouver now, reading something in biometrics, and they used to be on the soccer team together. Liyin was watching them with a small smile as they spoke, and he wanted to say something cool but couldn’t. So maybe Amber was right--he was dumb.

She looked extra pretty tonight. He liked the way she was wearing a headband that had ridiculously fancy Christmas trees on them, the way it brought out the sparkle in her eyes and made her look way too young for that drink in her hand. Again he was painfully aware of his lame Santa hat. Curse Lu Han and his persuasiveness. 

He kept quiet for a moment as the three of them chatted in Mandarin. He had taken classes in high school, but Jongdae wasn’t very good at speaking it. He caught snatches of conversation that sounded like Liyin was concerned about Yixing’s classes or something, but he wasn’t sure. Suddenly he felt too left out to be happy about it. He was about to try and attempt to divert the conversation back to English, when Lu Han called out for Yixing to join them over at the poker table. Jongdae never knew Santas played poker, but he was okay with that. Liyin glanced at him, then at the mightily busy poker table where Zhou Mi stood guard with his friend (Jongdae thought he looked intimidating but then he also thought that of Stephanie), before they laughed together.

“Crazy party, right?” Liyin said and looked at what he was drinking. He proffered it to her, but she shook her head nicely. “Gege has to have been really bored for the last few weeks.”

“Yeah. I mean, look at everyone.” He swept his hand broadly across. “I know at least eighty percent of the people here, but man, Zhou Mi hyung has way too many friends.”

She nodded and they walked together to the food table, slowly. “Sorry I didn’t manage to reply most of your messages, though. My phone’s been acting up on me recently. Maybe the iPhone doesn’t like me too much?” She wondered aloud and Jongdae loaded up her plate with cookies. 

“You should really switch to Samsung.” Jongdae suggested as they headed off to watch the poker game. “Anything Korean will never fail you.”

Liyin looked like she was going to laugh. “How come all of you manage to say the exact same thing? You guys are either really united or have great telepathy skills.”

“But it’s true,” he insisted as he nudged Baekhyun in the neck for his seat, “anything that is Korean will never, ever let you down. Products, makeup, music, uh, people.”

Liyin looked at him strangely for a moment, as Baekhyun gave up his seat for her and sniggered in his ear. Jongdae paused before belatedly remembering that she would know. She would know because she used to date Donghae, who was way older than any of them were (actually he was Zhou Mi’s age) and Korean and the person who was so inept at romance they broke up after six months of maybe-maybe-nots. 

“Uh,” he began and Baekhyun laughed in his ear again, “maybe not everything, then.”

It was a lame finish but still an honourable attempt at salvage. Baekhyun made for Chanyeol after nudging him and winking shiftily, and Jongdae was left standing alone with a cup of punch in his hand, wondering if disappearing in a hole or pretending nothing had happened would be a better option. 

The poker game was intense, as much as Jongdae could make out of it anyway. Zhou Mi’s friend Heechul was holding fort as the banker, and his only worthy opponents seemed to be Kyuhyun and Younha on the right. Chanyeol had already folded (with much chastising from Baekhyun), Sungmin (up from D.C. with Sunny, again by the magical force of Zhou Mi’s charisma) was watching with half-interest, and the Taecyeon-Yubin duo had completely given up, cards open on the table in front of them. 

“Easy, Heechul,” Zhou Mi had more strands of tinsel in his hair now, “they still need money to get back home.”

Heechul laughed, and Kyuhyun looked outrageously offended at that. Opposite them Yeeun had said something along the effect of Heechul bullting his way through this hand, and the room burst into cheers. Heechul attempted to defend himself through very loud, Californian-accented English, but everyone joined in the booing. 

“Come on, Heechul oppa. Show us what you’ve got.” Sunye winked up at him, and turned around to hi-five Younha. 

“Are you guys ganging up on me solely because I wasn’t from the same school?” Heechul took another quick look at his cards and yelled. “I’m so winning this!”

“You think?” Jongdae whispered to Liyin, who was watching rather amusedly. 

“I think you should stop the whispering game, Jongdae.” This came from his other side, and Jongdae jumped to find Segyun leaning in towards him. He and his brother Sehun looked almost like identical twins, except that Segyun was three years older, lankier, and had the annoying habit of wearing hipster glasses. 

“And you should stop listening in on conversations.” Jongdae elbowed him in the ribs and Segyun immediately doubled over in pain. “Seriously. What would Sehun say?”

“You bastard, your elbow could cut a can of tomatoes open and you shoved that into my stomach?” Segyun hung onto Lu Han for support, whose eyes were darting back and forth from the game to them. “And Oh-hun is way worse than I am, just so you know.”

“If Sohee hears that, you’re dead.” Lu Han added on wisely. It was a fact that Sehun and Sohee were best friends, and that Sohee wore the pants in the friendship. 

Minseok’s head popped out from beyond Lu Han, where he was sitting with Kris, mouth set in an annoyed frown. “Please stop talking about my sister like I’m not here.”

“He started it!” Jongdae and Segyun pointed to each other at the same time, and he could hear Liyin laughing softly beside him. It was great that she was happy, but Jongdae also made the embarrassing realisation that she was likely laughing at him instead of with him. 

“You should play nice with brothers-in-law, Minseok.” Liyin said, and Jongdae liked the way she pronounced “law” too much to be comfortable with it. Minseok scowled again, and didn’t say anything else apart from two separate sets of warning glares at the both of them. 

“Sohee and Sehun are practically half married already, anyway.” Lu Han had to tack on a thoughtful afterthought, and Minseok leapt on that in an instant. Jongdae was happy that the spotlight was off him, now, and turned around to talk to Liyin again. She was swirling her cup of booze around slowly, still smiling, and something in his chest jolted again. 

“Do they do this all the time?” She asked him in a hushed voice as Minseok repeatedly educated Lu Han on the importance of remembering that his sister was only sixteen. Jongdae nodded and she tipped her cup to him in a tiny toast. He clinked right back. “You guys are so cute.”

“Really?” Was he really cute to her? Jongdae cleared his throat quickly. “I mean, thanks.”

Liyin winked, and the table erupted in a stupendous roar as Kyuhyun won the game and swept everything off it He laughed at the sight of Heechul’s face, but more at the way Liyin was hi-fiving everyone in sight and giving out toasts with her red cup. It was adorable, but he bet that she didn’t know it either. 








Jia must have had magically enhanced ears, because she was the one who overheard Segyun saying that he was “bored” and wanted to play “things we did in high school”, and made sure that he got his wish fulfilled. Zhou Mi and her now stood in the center of the living room, where they were all gathered in a circle, and Jia held up an empty bottle of vodka (finished off by Kris, no doubt). 

“Turn the bottle, guys!” 

Everyone was gamely supportive. Baekhyun looked half drunk as he slung himself onto the couch, and Jongdae moved over so that Liyin could have more space to sit down next to him. By the time everyone sat down, Segyun had nestled between him and Yixing on the other side. The rest of the Chicago kids were opposite with the NYC seniors, while Chanyeol was forced to be by Baekhyun’s side, since he was almost knocked out now. Jia was spinning the bottle in a test run, and Jongdae watched it apprehensively. 

Clearly no rules needed to be decided first, because as soon as Zhou Mi yelled “let’s go”, the bottle started spinning. It landed on Junho first, who yelped and then resigned himself to his fate. Jia spun it again, and this time the tip pointed towards Amber. The silence lasted for about just a second, before everyone started clambering for them to kiss. 

“Do it well,” Heechul warned from his place beside Sunye, “we’ll be grading you. at it and I will make sure that we all see tongue tonight.”

Junho and Amber took it well though. Jongdae’s mouth hung open as he cringed internally. It wasn’t horrible to watch per se, just awfully goosebump-inducing to see two people who had known each other forever kissing. Junho looked like he was a good sport about it, and Amber was all smiles after it ended. Heechul made everyone call out a score, and Liyin held up a nine with her fingers. Jongdae gave the same score, and Jia booed him for it. 

“I say seven. Barely passing, you guys! Put your backs into it!” Heechul roared, and set the bottle spinning again. 

The next turn landed on Sungmin. As the bottle spun for a second time, Jongdae motioned for Liyin to come nearer. She was smiling widely, and leaned in to listen to what he had to say. A little too closer than he’d expected, in fact, and Jongdae was startled for a moment before remembering that he had to speak. 

“We could leave if this is getting too much for you?” He suggested, and she looked up at him a little weirdly. Jongdae realised that he might have made the wrong inference, and wanted to crawl into a hole. “Okay, maybe not then.”

“I’m good. This is fun, Jongdae. Don’t worry.” She patted him on the small of his arm, and the bottle now landed on Sunny. Everyone booed, and Jongdae tried joining in awkwardly. Sungmin and Sunny had been together for a few months now, and this apparently made the game boring to watch.

“Eh, I personally want to see tongue.” Kyuhyun offered up, and everyone else agreed. Sungmin gave him the stinkeye, but Sunny seemed all right with the idea. So in the end she was the one who pulled Sungmin over, and the kiss was hot. At least Jongdae thought so, as Segyun hung onto his arm squealing like his life depended on it. 

“Ten, man, ten all the way!” Henry yelled as Minseok fell over him laughing. Jongdae snuck a look at Liyin, who was holding on to Stephanie’s hand and laughing hard into it. She was more into this than he’d thought she would be, and he stayed quiet for a while until Segyun tugged too hard at his arm and he had to swing him off. Opposite Lu Han had met his eye, and Jongdae felt a weird sense of getting caught as Lu Han gave him a creepy sort of smile. This game was clearly getting to everyone. 

Sunny spun the bottle next, and everyone watched as it swung towards Heechul at first, before moving two more spaces up to Yubin, who was on Sunye’s right. Jongdae choked back a laugh as Taecyeon’s face visibly blanched. Yubin looked cool with it though, but not Sungmin, who spun the bottle with a vengeance. It was so quick that when it stopped no one could believe it for a moment. 

“Seriously?” Chanyeol was the first one to react, hitting Baekhyun up the back of his head. “Baek?”

Jongdae could not stop laughing at the rapid changes in Baekhyun’s expressions, as it first dawned on him that he would get the opportunity to make out with Yubin in public, before realising that her boyfriend was also present and had biceps the size of his thighs, and then back to excitement over the kiss again. Baekhyun was going to get beaten up and Jongdae was happy to just stay and watch. Segyun obviously felt the same, laughing so hard into his shoulder he was shaking violently. 

“I will send flowers to whoever got him drunk before this game.” Segyun’s voice was still trembly from laughing, and Jongdae exchanged a fist bump with him. He would chip in too, naturally.

Taecyeon looked like he was having a hard time keeping his expression neutral as Yubin hit him good-naturedly on the arm and stood up to go over to Baekhyun. Baekhyun looked like he was going to keel over any moment as Yubin smiled at him first, and Chanyeol was the token bystander who couldn’t look away from an impending disaster. Jongdae and Segyun both clutched at each other as Yubin drew closer and closer, until they finally did it and Segyun squealed at a horrifying high pitch again. 

It wasn’t even as good as the previous kisses, but the blankly satisfied look on Baekhyun’s face was worth everything. 

Segyun had curled up into a ball and howling non-stop together with Yixing, and Jongdae couldn’t stop laughing at the way Baekhyun was staring into the distance like he had been struck. Liyin’s face was half buried in her hands, and she shook her head and laughed some more when Jongdae caught her eye. It was pretty to see, he thought, and immediately felt a rush of heat behind his ears. Yubin had taken the opportunity to cup Taecyeon’s face in her hands, saying things that nobody could hear over the combined noises Henry, Heechul, and Kyuhyun (mainly, anyway, since everyone was still in uproar about the relatively chaste kiss) were making, and Jongdae watched as Taecyeon seemed reasonably comforted by that. 

“That’s what we’re looking for, man!” Zhou Mi waved his hands up in the air in some sort of strange dance move as Heechul wolf-whistled. “The next pair has to top that or else there will be consequences.”

It wasn’t going to be hard, then, because the next person that the bottle chose was Siwon. Junmyeon on the other side looked horrified at the prospect of his brother kissing someone in public, and then promptly almost had a breakdown as the bottle stopped on Heechul for the second round. The seniors went crazy at that. Jia was pounding so hard on the floor in sheer laughter that Jongdae could feel it all the way across. 

“Heechul has been wanting to do this for a long time,” Zhou Mi announced and Heechul did a little Miss America wave, “so please beat Sungmin and Sunny’s kiss. For real.” 

Siwon looked lost, but still was plucky enough to stand up as Heechul approached. To his credit, Heechul did make it look visually pleasant enough. Jongdae and Segyun hugged each other in solidarity as they watched Junmyeon break down on the other side of the circle. Stephanie had covered Liyin’s eyes with her hands, and he could hear her squeak in protest. Heechul was right--he managed to top everyone else before him. 

The next few rounds saw Minseok pecking Yeeun very quickly and earning the wrath of everyone present, Yixing kissing Younha a little more seriously and earning the wrath of Kyuhyun, Chanyeol having to kiss Junmyeon because of sheer bad luck that they were sitting next to each other, and Jia making out with Kris for longer than was necessary. Jongdae and Liyin exchanged inquiring looks, before Stephanie grinned at them knowingly. Oh, he thought, as Segyun punched his arm repeatedly in what could only be excitement, Kris was on his way to another potentially devastating relationship now. 

Jia fluffed her hair out before sending the bottle on its way. It spun quickly, before lurching towards the side that they were seated on. Segyun looked positively terrified that it would be him, before it went past and stopped precisely in front of Liyin instead. Jongdae turned so quickly to look at her that something snapped in his neck. He rubbed it as she looked back at him, amused smile on her face, and clapped. Kris reached out for the bottle and spun it. It clattered around to the sound of Kyuhyun and Heechul chanting “Zhou Mi, Zhou Mi, Zhou Mi”, before it slowed down to stop right in front of Kris again. 

Jongdae’s mind went blank. And then the circle burst into chaos. 

“Why does he get to kiss Liyin?” It sounded like Kyuhyun or Taecyeon or Henry, but no matter who it was, Jongdae agreed wholeheartedly with it. Opposite Kris had stretched to his full length standing up, the most blatant cocky smile on his face, and he wasn’t even bothering to hide it. Why did he get to kiss all the good looking Chinese girls? Jongdae’s mind fired out distress signals but nobody seemed to get them except for Minseok and Lu Han, who were looking at him with grins that he did not like at all. 

Liyin had stood up as well, and the height difference between her and Kris was alarming when he had walked over. Jongdae felt like he should not be watching this, but Segyun had secured his arm and there was no way he could walk off without seeming like a complete jerk about the game. 

“Let go, Oh-gyun.” He hissed and Segyun only pressed harder. “Come on, ouch!”

“Nuh uh, you’re staying right here.” He could hear the smile in Segyun’s voice, and decided to give up struggling. Segyun had some sort of really high grade in taekwondo and he wasn’t going to take any chances. Even if it meant that he had to watch his best friend kiss Liyin. The thought of that made his heart sink for reasons he didn’t want to think about. 

Liyin was so small that Kris had to bend down almost halfway. And then he kissed her. It was very different from the way that he and Jia had did, and Jongdae thought for a moment that they were watching something out of a young adult novel movie adaptation, before he remembered that this was Kris and Liyin. 

“This height difference thing has to stop being so cute.” Younha said after the kiss was over. It hadn’t been long but seemed like a very long, cliched eternity to Jongdae. “You two are way worse off than us.”

Kris shrugged and tramped back to his seat, looking mightily pleased with himself. There was a glow in Liyin’s eyes as she sat down again, and Stephanie immediately accosted her with a barrage of questions. Jongdae stared at the floor for a moment, before Segyun let his arm go. It was a relief, but not quite. 

“Kris’s height is a freak accident of nature. You can’t compare him to all of us.” Kyuhyun was snappy, and reached for the bottle. “Who’s next?”





Henry suggested a shakeup when the potential match ups looked to be getting boring: an ultimate round that combined both spinning the bottle and locking a pair inside Zhou Mi’s cleaning utilities closet together for seven minutes. 

“Most excellent idea, my friend.” Zhou Mi drawled in what could only be an imitation of Liyin’s accent, and Jia pushed him on the forehead for that. “The stakes have to be raised for our entertainment, clearly.”

“Mi oppa, you’re horrible.” Yeeun said from her spot, red cup in hand. “Are you seriously going to lock two people inside an unventilated closet for seven minutes?”

Zhou Mi took all of two seconds to think about it before nodding vigorously. “Then why else are we raising the stakes for?”

Jia and Henry were clearing out the closet while there was a lull in the game. Everyone else was either at the food table, or having conversations with the people closest to them. Jongdae got up from his seat, and made straight for the door before anyone could catch him. Except that he did get caught, almost at the same time by the three-way trio of Minseok, Lu Han, and Segyun. Among the three of them they had multiple martial arts belt rankings, so Jongdae stayed still and lamented his extremely bad luck internally in a monologue. 

“Rude, Jongdae.” Lu Han shook a finger in his face, and Jongdae tried to elbow him in the ribs. 

“Have you had experience manhandling someone else in Chicago?” Jongdae asked as they dragged him back to the food table, where Kris and Chanyeol were standing by the punch bowl. Baekhyun seemed less drunk now, though he was still half passed out on the wall beside them.

“Nope, only just on you.” Minseok grinned, then shoved him into Kris, who caught him by the sleeve of his shirt. Jongdae shook him off and eyed the door again. Segyun popped into sight and shook his head. Great. He couldn’t leave now, not even when he thought it was going to be a long night of seeing things that he didn’t want to see anymore. Jongdae scowled up at Kris, who raised his plastic cup at him. He rolled his eyes, and got one cup of his own. 

“I personally want to see Junmyeon in there,” Lu Han said while munching on a cookie, “preferably with Sunye nuna so that she’ll get the chance to reject him once and for all.”

Minseok guffawed. “You will crush all his hopes and dreams.”

“Precisely.”

Kris was laughing at Lu Han’s deadpan, and Jongdae had never felt more irritated with him before. Not even when back in their sophomore year he had messed up their entire Chemistry AP project because he was such a dud, and Jongdae had to be the one to clean up because he was the only one savvy enough with a computer to restore all of their research data. Minseok had wanted to kill Kris back then and now Jongdae wondered why he had even bothered to stop any of them. 

“I’d go in if that meant I could sleep this headache away.” Baekhyun piped up from against the wall, and Chanyeol slapped him up the back of his head. 

“Says the one who got to kiss Yubin nuna.” Minseok sounded a little envious, maybe, and Baekhyun held up a victory sign that warranted him a few more beatings from Segyun and Chanyeol. Jongdae kicked him slightly just for measure, even though the person he wanted to be hitting was Kris, but Baekhyun would do for now. 

“Kris got to kiss Liyin nuna, though.” Segyun pointed out after he was done pummelling Baekhyun. Kris smiled and drank from his cup again, while Jongdae couldn’t help but glare at Segyun. Segyun didn’t care, though. “That must have been the highlight of your life thus far, eh?”

Kris tried to play it off by saying that it was “not bad” but everyone wouldn’t let him. Jongdae once again tried to leave, but nobody would let him either. In the end when the closet had been cleared out, Segyun took him by the arm and made sure that he would sit through the entire game. Once again Jongdae regretted the decision of saving Segyun from a broken arm during soccer boot camp in their senior year. 

“Honours goes to you, Heechul.” Zhou Mi handed the bottle over to Heechul, who spun it with a slightly crazy glint in his eyes. Jongdae wasn’t even looking at it, until it wobbled slowly to a stop to the space between Stephanie, and finally stopped at Liyin. There was silence for a moment, before Jia burst out into laughter. 

“Exciting moment, everyone!” Henry yelled as the bottle started spinning one more time. Liyin had pulled her knees up to her chest, chewing on her bottom lip. Jongdae felt like it would be good to leave now, again, but he figured that if he’d sat through Kris and Liyin, what was coming up next would be nothing, especially since it was going to be in a closet where he couldn’t see the specifics. But still, he wanted to leave. He had the worst friends ever. 

The bottle clattered and looked like it was about to stop, when there was a loud smash on the other side of the circle. Baekhyun had dropped the punch bowl while returning from the bathroom (why was he even gone, anyway?), and it was now everywhere. Yeeun leapt up immediately to grab some paper towels, while Jia ran to the kitchen for some more. Everyone was distracted for a few moments, and then when Baekhyun and the mess was finally settled, they turned their attention back to the bottle. 

“Oh.” The first person to say something was Amber. “Wow. Wow.”

“Well,” Zhou Mi continued, a little uncertainly, “it seems to be you then, Jongdae.”

What?






Jongdae was shoved in violently by someone, hands pushing so hard on the small of his back that he swore to get back at whoever it was. It sounded like either Segyun, or Minseok, or Lu Han, or Kris, but no matter what he was going to make all of them pay. He stumbled in, and someone laughed loudly before the door slammed shut behind them. It wasn’t completely dark, because Jia had left a portable light inside, but he could only make out outlines and the side profile of Liyin’s face. 

“Uh,” he began after a long while, “I’m sorry about this.”

“Why do you keep apologising for things that aren’t your fault?” He could hear Liyin say and laugh. He stood in the dark for a while, not knowing what to do, until she reached for his arm and pulled him down to sit on one of Zhou Mi’s cardboard boxes. Her hand was soft and small and he wanted to kill himself for thinking that. Jongdae gulped and exhaled as slowly as he could. 

“So… they’re not going to let us out until seven minutes later.” Liyin said, sounding a bit more resigned than he was. 

“I guess?” He stared at the shelves opposite them, eyes slowly adjusting in the dark. Zhou Mi had his vacuum cleaner up there, together with bottles of bleach and washing detergent. It was an odd way to store things, but then again the people who lived here had also stuffed them into this closet. “We could try to talk our way out of this? Maybe?”

She laughed. He could feel the acute height difference between her and him, even when seated, and suddenly thought of the way she had been so small in front of Kris. That made him feel more irritated than he wanted to be, so he shut that off instead. 

“Doesn’t this remind you of that one time when we had a blackout in our apartment building?” Liyin said suddenly. It did, as a matter of fact. The blackout had been set off by someone using their laptop in the laundry room--the building was far too old to support an electricity overload, and the entire building had tripped for about five hours. It was Jongdae’s first experience of having to shower in the dark.

“Jay was pretty pissed.” He laughed. Jay had met Liyin a few times, when she came up to pass them pies that Stephanie had baked, or Chinese stir-fry that she had cooked extra, and liked her enough because they were always tasty. “He had an exam the next day, and all the candles were dripping wax on his textbooks.”

“Stephanie yelled at the management a few times until they stopped taking her calls.” Liyin sounded amused at the memory. “What would I do without her?”

She would do completely fine, actually. Jongdae’s research for college was supplemented by the emails that she sent in reply to his questions, with Word document after document attached with information that he needed and way beyond that. If it weren’t for Liyin, he would have had a hell of a time dealing with all the application red tape. 

“That’s nice of you,” she sounded slightly like she didn’t believe him when he told her all of that, “thanks, Jongdae. You always seem to be able to see the positive in everything so easily. I guess that’s one of the things people like about you the best. For me, at least, anyway.”

He could feel that rush of heat behind his ears again. 

“You do that way better than I do.” The words spilled out before he could stop himself. “You’re always seeing the best in people, and trusting that they’re always putting in their best efforts. Like back in high school you never blame anyone if they didn’t do their assignments before homeroom tutoring? Even if it was Segyun, who obviously still doesn’t do work even now, because he’s both an and a sort-of genius.”

“And you’re constantly saying the nicest things and I know you mean it from the bottom of your heart. Our junior year you came to see us at soccer team practice once, and even though we were doing completely , you still told Lu Han we were great. That gave us pizza for dinner that day, by the way. And that time when I was stuck for that music theory test? I mean, your notes just about saved me from failing that class. And--”

There was a bang on the door and someone yelled “five more minutes!” before laughing extremely obnoxiously. It sounded like Chanyeol, maybe, and Jongdae swore revenge before he realised that he had been rambling on for too long. Liyin was smiling next to him, perhaps at him now, and he wanted to bury his face into his hands and never face her ever again. In fact he wanted the door to never open, just so she couldn’t see the way he was burning up. 

“I’m sorry.” He finally managed to squeak. 

“Been holding that in for a while now, huh?” 

Her voice sounded laughing. Again Jongdae wanted to strangle himself for saying way more than was appropriate. He didn’t have to burden her with his feelings, not when he had no idea how she felt about him. The divide between a junior and a senior still stood in their way, and for all he knew she could only think of him as a boy. Boys usually didn’t factor in romantic relationships. 

“Not--really.” He didn’t know what else to say that would salvage the situation. 

“Jongdae.” He heard her call, and turned automatically to face her. It was like an inbuilt instinct. “There are too many things that people like about you too.”

She paused for a while, and he could smell her perfume off her, magnified by the fact that they were in a closet so small it could only just fit the both of them in. Jongdae wanted to either stay in here forever or to leave now. But she reached out for his arm just then and his mind went blank (like it did so often tonight).

“That I like about you, I mean. You’re a great guy, Jongdae. Like… one of the best I’ve known. I like the way you take care of the people around you, the way you do things even if they seem too difficult, the way you manage to summon courage when things are looking tough, the way you dare to ask questions even if you’re embarrassed and worried about people not being willing to help--”

His breath hitched again. 

“So hey, don’t be afraid now. I’m not that scary, am I?” She smiled and he could see it in the dimness of the portable light. It was the most beautiful thing he had seen, ever, maybe, probably, definitely, and the feeling of her fingers on his shirt overwhelmed him. So when she leaned forward, just a little, he took a leap of faith--and kissed her. 

It was incredible, everything about it was, and when she pulled backwards for a while he could see the way her eyes were lighting up. This was different, because no one was watching or grading them. Kris had nothing on this. His hand was tangled in her hair because it was so long, and he loved the way it curled around his fingers. He could get used to this. She smiled at him again, a small, quiet smile, and then she pulled him in this time. 








“Well. Seems like they’re enjoying it very much.”

Jongdae let go of Liyin to the sight of light flooding in and blinding him. Liyin held up a hand to cover her eyes, and he held his up to them as well, just in case. Everyone was crowded in the frame of the door, and he could just about make out the cell phones they were all holding up. Segyun’s was emitting a beeping red light.

“Mission accomplished, folks.”

He could hear Lu Han say that, and Jongdae wanted to kill all of them. He would have lunged at the closest person (Segyun or Minseok, either one or since they were inseparable even in situations like spying on their best friend making out with the person he was irrevocably in love with), but Liyin started laughing from behind him, and he softened up before he even realised it. 

“Hey Jongdae, smile too. This is going on Instagram. Which is linked to Facebook, so basically like everywhere. You’ve got to look good man.”

Oh Segyun was first on his list of people to deal with, but for now Jongdae focused on the fact that Liyin has stealthily slipped her hand into his and squeezing it slightly. It made him feel more happy than he ever thought he could be, and maybe he could deal with everyone later. So he smiled, and everyone cheered, and then there were more flashes of light. Jongdae would have to handle the slew of Instagram photos later, because for now he tangled his fingers between Liyin’s, and savoured the moment.