Geng and Heechul have been spending way more time together recently. Geng is totally fine – more than fine with this. Really. Or at least he’s totally fine with it until he figures it out.

He is halfway through the pull of a razor down one cheek when it hits him. He freezes.

“I’m in love with Kim Heechul.”

The razor falls from his hand, clattering into the sink. Geng’s mouth drops open in shock. He stares at himself in the mirror.

“I’m in love with Kim Heechul.”

From the sink beside him, Sungmin snorts in amusement.

“I knew you were gonna say that,” Sungmin grins, patting him on the shoulder sympathetically. “Good luck breaking the news to him. It was nice knowing you.”

Geng barely hears him, too dumbstruck to function. The implications of his realisation ricochet around his head.

What the hell is Geng going to do now?

Geng worries the rest of the day away, shuffling around the dormitory in a daze. It’s a good thing that he doesn’t have any schedules today, because he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to produce anything remotely resembling an intelligent response to anybody that tried to talk to him.

He wanders into the same room as Heechul by accident three times; but each time, as soon as he realises his mistake he beats a hasty retreat. He trips over himself the first time, and bits of furniture the second and third times in his rush to get out of the room. His toe still hurts from smacking it into the sofa the last time.

It’s really awkward.

Heechul definitely notices his weirdness.

Heechul gets this adorable, thoughtful frown on his face and – wait; did Geng just think that Heechul was adorable?

“Yes. And you just said all of that out loud,” Sungmin informs him archly.

Geng does a double take.

“Sungmin? What are you doing here?” Geng casts his eyes around the room, and then realises that he is in fact in Sungmin and Shindong’s room. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” Sungmin snarks, shaking his head. Shindong is sitting on his bed on the other side of the room, staring at Geng like he’s lost his mind.

Geng can’t deal with this right now.

“.”

In a puff of smoke, Geng pineapples right there on Sungmin and Shindong’s floor.

Sungmin lets out a long-suffering sigh.

“Heechul!”

Heechul picks him up, tutting softly.

“What’s gotten into you today?” he wonders aloud, looking even more confused when Sungmin giggles.

Geng refuses to talk.

“Okay,” Heechul sighs, cradling Geng in one arm and excusing himself from the room, “You don’t have to tell me now. Whenever you’re ready to talk though, I’m here.”

Geng feels even guiltier.

“Sorry,” he mutters.

Heechul pats his leaves soothingly.

He carries Geng all the way to their bedroom, and deposits him on his bed, before grabbing a book and climbing onto the bed next to him.

It takes Geng a good half hour to un-pineapple, but finally he does come back in a poof of yellow smoke.

Heechul lowers his book and glances over at Geng.

“Read to talk yet?”

Geng looks at him, anxiety churning in his gut. He opens his mouth, but then shuts it immediately, shaking his head furiously. He can’t do this.

Heechul frowns a little, but shrugs it off. He reaches out a hand to card softly through Geng’s hair. The soft scratch of fingernails against Geng’s scalp is soothing. Geng relaxes into his touch.

“Later then,” Heechul murmurs, turning his whole attention back to his book.

Geng manages to function a little more normally for the next couple of days, but the knowledge of his feelings for Heechul is like a heavy lump in his gut that won’t go away. He can’t even look at Heechul without feeling anxious and guilty. So he starts to avoid Heechul.

Heechul can’t completely hide the hurt in his eyes. The guilt is driving Geng a little mad.

It’s gotten to the point that Geng is pretty much pineappling every day, and Leader looks like he’s about ready to tear his own hair out. Especially when Geng pineapples twice during one TV show recording. That’s not one of Geng’s prouder moments.

It just doesn’t help when the host is going around asking every member what their ideal partner is, and all Geng can think about is Heechul.

It hurts even more when Heechul describes his perfect woman, charming the studio audience who giggle as he demands she be multilingual, super pretty, really like cats, able to cook French food, and also be able to do Korean tea ceremonies. The list gets longer and more bizarre as Heechul embellishes, his whole face and body animated as he describes the most ridiculously unachievably perfect woman he can think of, with long hair, a ridiculously tiny waist, and double-d cup s to boot.

The whole studio is in fits of uproarious laughter.

All Geng can think of is that he’s nothing that Heechul wants, and that Heechul deserves so much better than Geng can ever give him.

When Geng pineapples for the third time, later that evening, he doesn’t change back for a long time.

Donghae stays with him for a bit, his leaves in silent comfort, but Geng doesn’t feel any better. He eventually gives up though, surrendering Geng to Heechul’s care with one last pat.

Heechul tucks him into bed, running his hands over Geng’s leaves comfortingly as he pulls the blankets up around Geng, before heading off to his own bed.

It’s so quiet that Geng almost thinks he’s imagining it when Heechul’s voice pipes up from the other side of the room, “I wish you’d tell me what’s wrong.”

Geng feels sick.

“I can’t,” he whispers back, almost inaudible. And Geng’s heart breaks as Heechul lets out a tiny sigh, shuffling further under his own blankets.

Geng gets barely any sleep that night.

Geng is still a pineapple when morning rolls around.

Heechul scoops him up from his bed and carries him around all day. He acts as a personal translator for Geng when they have to do an interview in the afternoon, making him sound better and funnier and more charming than he is. He acts like there’s nothing wrong, like it’s totally normal for Geng to spend this long as a pineapple.

Geng doesn’t know if he’ll ever even want to change back. He is heartbroken.

By the end of the day, he is too heart sick to even attempt conversation, and eventually Heechul’s idle chatter fades into the awkward silence of their room.

Heechul looks over at where he’s propped Geng up neatly on his bed.

“Geng,” Heechul starts, and Geng braces himself. He’s not going to tell Heechul anything. He can’t. “Geng, can you please talk to me? Why are you shutting me out?”

“It’s nothing,” Geng replies, trying to keep his tone nonchalant – well, as best he can as a pineapple, given that he’s not technically talking.

“You’re saying it’s nothing, but you’ve been really weird all week, and you’ve been a pineapple for like the last,” Heechul checks his phone for the time, “twenty seven hours. You can’t tell me that this is normal for you.”

“Please just drop it, Heechul,” Geng tries, desperately wishing that the conversation could be over already.

“No,” Heechul says, his voice laced with irritation, “You’re being a moody little , and I really want to know why. I already tried threatening Sungmin into telling me the truth-”

“No!” Geng panics.

“-but the little wouldn’t say anything. He said it was your job to man up and tell me.”

Geng sighs inwardly in relief.

“So. Are you going to tell me? Or are you just going to be a miserable, sulking pineapple for the rest of your tragic life?” Heechul delivers his ultimatum firmly, with just a hint of frustration apparent in his stiff posture. Geng miserably holds his tongue.

“C’mon pineapple boy, I don’t have time for this. I’ll be old and grey by the time you get around to telling me at this rate.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you as a pineapple,” Geng sulks. Heechul rolls his eyes at him.

“Well then change back you tropical idiot.”

Geng hesitates, but at this point, he can’t really make things worse. He concentrates really, really hard, and-

Poof!

In a puff of yellow smoke, he’s sitting in one piece on his bed, staring at Heechul. Heechul tosses his hair back over his shoulder.

“Much better,” he declares. “Now, spill.”

Geng takes a shuddering breath. He guesses it’s time to man up about this.

“Okay,” he breathes, “Okay. Where to start?”

“How ‘bout you start at the bit where you decided it was going to be a great idea to try to avoid me, and then talk about the bit where you became a total emotional wreck that you spent more time as a pineapple than a human being, and then you can finish with explaining why you decided that being a pineapple for the rest of your life was an acceptable life choice?” Heechul snarks, one eyebrow arched high on his forehead. Geng winces a little. He wipes his sweaty palms on his pants.

“Okay. I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh, and you can’t interrupt me until I’m done because if you do I don’t think I’ll ever have the nerve to continue again.”

“Fine.”

“Good.” Geng wipes his hand over his face tiredly. He really doesn’t want to do this. But he’s only hurting himself and Heechul by remaining silent like this. And he really, really wants Heechul to be happy in life. And if coming clean about this ruins their friendship, then he guesses it’s a sacrifice he’ll have to make so that Heechul can be happy. Better to end things cleanly now before they get too attached and too messy.

“Okay, so the other day while I was shaving, I had a sudden realisation, and it kinda changed everything that I thought I knew about myself and my life,” Geng steels himself to look into Heechul’s eyes. “I’m in love with you, Kim Heechul. I thought that I liked you just as a friend, but the more I think about it, the more I realise that my feelings are deeper than just friendship, and that I really, truly do love you. And I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, or make you uncomfortable; I just want you to be happy. So I tried to bottle up my feelings, but I just couldn’t do it. So there it is. I, Han Geng, am completely, totally and irrevocably in love with you, Kim Heechul. And I totally understand if you don’t want anything to do with me after this, I’ll ask Leeteuk if I can swap rooms with somebody if it makes you uncomfortable or anything, and yeah. I just want you to be happy.” At that, Geng falls silent, staring down at his hands clenching and unclenching in his lap. He fights back the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. He won’t cry. Not now. Not till later.

Heechul tsks. Geng flicks his gaze up involuntarily, only to find that Heechul is looking at him with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. He freezes, his eyes locked on Heechul, totally unsure of what to do with this reaction.

“Of course you love me, you idiot,” Heechul chides him, shaking his head, “I could’ve told you that. Has it honestly taken you this long to figure it out?” Geng nods slowly, completely dumbstruck. Heechul tsks again. “Typical. You are so not in touch with your emotional side. Geez, is that all this drama is about? Get your stupid overly-dramatic over here.” He gestures impatiently, and Geng stumbles off his bed and over to Heechul’s. Heechul grabs his hand and drags him down onto the bed next to him.

“Idiotic Chinese boy,” Heechul mutters, and in a move that takes Geng’s breath away, reaches up to pull Geng’s head down to kiss him. Geng feels a tingly rush from the top of his head all the way to his fingers and toes. The kiss is over almost as soon as it begins; just a quick brush of lips, but Geng feels like he might be in actual heaven right now.

He pulls back just far enough that he can see Heechul’s face, and the trademark smirk plastered on his features.

“Heechul,” he murmurs, and then closes the distance between their mouths once more.

He’s so happy that he pays absolutely no mind to the tingles building up in his extremities until he feels his stomach lurch. His eyes snap open, just as the realisation hits him, and he poofs back into a pineapple in Heechul’s arms.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry,” he panics, but Heechul just laughs at him.

“Only you, pineapple-boy,” Heechul chokes out between snorts of laughter, “Only you would be so happy that you pineapple right after confessing.”

Geng would frown if he had a face, he swears.

“Of course only me; nobody else was born with this stupid excuse for a mutation.”

Heechul chuckles, his leaves fondly.

“You know what I mean,” he says. “It’s a good thing I love you too.”

If Geng wasn’t already a pineapple, the surge of emotion that fills him at that would’ve pushed him over the edge anyways.

“I love you, Heechul,” he says, and Heechul coos at him, scooping him up to cuddle him and pepper his leaves with butterfly kisses.