There isn’t even a warning knock before the door is ripped open, creating a loud bang as the wood crashes against the wall. Startled, Jiho yells and ducks his head behind the back of the chair, hands automatically flying to protect his exposed neck. He struggles to swallow the sudden lump in his throat, feeling his fear transform into anger as he takes a few deep breathes before jerking his chair around, fully prepared to lash out at the intruder. However, the words die on his lips the second his eyes spot an absolutely seething Park Kyung. Staring him down, the blonde steps into the studio.

When Jiho hears the loud click of the door shutting and locking, he knows he’s screwed.

“Uh—”

A hand shoots up, palm facing the leader in an obvious command of shut the up. Even from across the room, Jiho flinches at the anger behind the movement.

“Don’t you even start, you ing !” Jiho tries to object, eyebrows scrunched and ready to fight, but he’s promptly talked over as Kyung’s face flushes bright red and his voice goes up several octaves. “Oh, shut up, Jiho! ‘I’ve got more important things’? Are you ing kidding me?” Loud slaps punctuate Kyung’s question as his hand hits the wall, refusing to break eye contact with the leader. “Did you suddenly forget that we’re best friends or something? Like, since the first in’ grade? And we’re bandmates too, who live together? Since when does the mighty Zi-ah-co not have any time for his best friend?!”

Jiho is thankful that Kyung chose to stay rooted by the door while shouting at him because otherwise the blonde would definitely notice the beginnings of tears pricking the corners of his eyes. Spinning away from the enraged rapper, Jiho quickly wipes at the tears and coughs, careful to appear as unbothered as possible while he ignores Kyung.

“Wha—you little—don’t you turn away from me, you ! Answer me, damnit!”

A loud slap alerts him that Kyung had hit the wall again, but Jiho refuses to look back. Picking up his headphones, he crams them into his ears and lets the deafening music overwhelm his hearing, drowning out the rest of Kyung’s rant. Unfortunately, the track isn’t long—Jiho is still working on piecing it together—so there’s a moment of silence before the next song starts, and he hears the one question that makes his heart shoot up into his throat.

“What the hell did I do?”

And Jiho hears it—that barely noticeable crack in Kyung’s voice that speaks more than his words ever can. Jiho has only heard it a few times, only when he’s royally screwed up and genuinely hurt his friend, and every time the sound electrocutes his nerves, compels him to do whatever he can to make things better. The sound shatters his heart, and his hands start to shake again. in a deep breath, he reminds himself that this is necessary, this needs to be done, and sighs.

“Just go away, Kyung.”

“Oh, drop the dramatic act and just talk, Jiho! Stop ignoring me!”

“You’re right.” Jiho responds without thinking, and he doesn’t need to look up to see the confusion on Kyung’s face.

“What?”

“I’m ignoring you.”

He hears a couple of dull thuds behind him, and then suddenly the headphones are ripped from his ears, nearly taking his neck along with the cord. Jiho lurches forward automatically to avoid choking himself, and Kyung’s hands shoot out to rest on his shoulders, steadying him. He has barely enough time to register the movement before the grip tightens and Kyung bends over to face-level, shaking him slightly as he growls out, “Just tell me!”

“Get off me!”

“No! Tell me!”

“Park Kyung!“

“Woo Jiho, just—“

“I think I love you and I’m ing scared!”

The words fall from his lips before Jiho can stop himself and he chokes on them, heart racing and panicked fingers scrambling at the desk as he tries to wheel himself away from Kyung’s stunned gaze. He whips his neck around, frantically looking at everything, anything, but his friend, too terrified to see what kind of expression he might be making. His feet kick at the ground to escape, the chair wheels catch on the edge of his sweatpants and Jiho nearly topples over, letting out a high-pitched squeak as he tries to grab the counter. Kyung’s next to him in a flash, his hands flying out to straighten the chair, but he quickly moves back when Jiho waves his hands at him. His entire face is bright red, both from his confession and from acting like a fool, and he just groans before collapsing forward to put his head in his hands. In-between his fingers, he can see Kyung’s feet shift uncertainly on the hardwood floor.

“Wha-what the hell are you talking about?”

Sighing, Jiho doesn’t move from his position, instead staring steadfastly at the floor as he explains, the pads of his fingers pressing into his face. “Uh…, Kyung, I don’t know any other way to say it! Goddamnit, I think you’re hot and you make me happy and like a damn idiot I—” Jiho scrunches his eyes shut and inhales harshly, his trembling hands now cradling his head. “A-and I know it’s wrong and I shouldn’t feel this way and I’m probably going to hell so I’ve been trying to just…ignore it or something because I don’t want to lose you but it’s hard. Ha-I—the more I try the harder I fall and I just—“ A stuttering sob escapes the leader’s throat and he coughs, letting the rest of his sentence die out. He’s beginning to see spots with how tightly closed his eyes are, but he refuses to open them. Kyung still hasn’t answered; the silence stretches on, only adding to Jiho’s anxiety.

“So…so you mean to tell me that you’ve been acting like a because you’ve got a crush on me?”

Jiho sniffs and gives a slow, tentative nod, only to immediately spring up from his prone position with a yelp after Kyung gives him a hard smack to the back of his head. He doesn’t have enough time to throw his hands up to protect himself from the second assault, and whines when Kyung hits him again, fingers tapping harshly against the side of his head before he falls back against the desk, looking thoroughly pissed. “Holy , I can’t believe you—you are seriously a ing five-year-old, you know that? We aren’t in daycare anymore, you ! Come here!”

Surging forward, Kyung grabs the leader’s arms and hauls him from the chair, forcing Jiho to stand in front of him. Panicking, he tries to resist, twisting his arms to get out of his friend’s grip, but Kyung holds on tight. “No! Stop that and stand here! Now confess like the responsible adult you are, Woo Jiho!”

Kyung crosses his arms and taps his foot, waiting, and Jiho goes still, mouth open and mind reeling because this is definitely not what he was expecting. Kyung was supposed to get mad at him for admitting that he likes him, was supposed to scream at him because how the leader feels is wrong and he needs to stop. That was the only way Jiho ever pictured this moment. Too focused on not losing his best friend to the point of pushing him away, he never thought that Kyung might get mad at him for simply confessing the wrong way.

Jiho would feel ashamed if he wasn’t too busy being thoroughly dumbfounded.

A blonde eyebrow goes up and Kyung shifts his weight from side to side, his confidence draining slightly. “Well? Are you just going to stand there or—“

Throwing his arms around thin shoulders, Jiho crowds into the other man’s space as he slams their lips together, their teeth nearly knocking together in excitement. Kyung immediately tilts his head to deepen the kiss, letting out a contented sigh that is stolen from him by Jiho’s tongue as he along the seam of Kyung’s lips. Jiho is ecstatic, his hands sliding up to gently cradle the blonde’s neck, fingers massaging along his hairline as Kyung clutches onto his arms to keep balance. The kiss makes his heart soar, makes his pulse vibrate throughout his body, makes his nerves buzz with warmth every time their lips connect. The moment is both euphoric and comforting, and the leader couldn’t be happier.

When they finally pull apart, Jiho wants to do nothing else but to lean forward again, feeling almost desperate to kiss Kyung again. He’s gone without for so long, felt the desire for so many years, that he’s not ready to stop yet. His eyes open slightly, and his lips curl into a smile when he sees just how blissful Kyung looks, his own cheeks and ears painted a faint pink as his tongue slips out to run along red lips.

The serene smile on the blonde’s face is quickly replaced with a smirk as he opens his own eyes. Running his hands over Jiho’s arms, Kyung chuckles, and the sound raises goosebumps on the leader’s bare arms. “Man, you call that a first kiss? You even kiss like some child. No experience.” Grabbing the front of the leader’s shirt, he pulls him back in and holds him there, stopping just centimeters away from Jiho’s lips to whisper: “Let me show you how a responsible adult does it.”