Confirmation of Involuntary Realizations

Pushing through the crowd of sweaty dancing bodies, Jungsoo cursed the rest of his bandmates for talking him into this. They had finished one of their Super Show concerts and had a few days free, intended for sightseeing as they'd never visited this particular country before. Apparently Donghae and Hyukjae had understood that as an invitation to tour every possible club they could get to, and had pestered him to make the whole group go with them, arguing that they'd never gone clubbing all together before and that there was a slim chance anyone would recognize them here. All of their fans probably thought they'd left the country already. When some other members had seemed to be on board with the idea (namely Youngwoon, Heechul and Kyuhyun, so Jungsoo thought there might be a drinking bet involved) and no one else had really protested, he relented, but under the condition that they went to only one club and for only one night. He did enough babysitting as it was.

That was why he was stumbling his way towards the toilets in the club of the dancers' choosing, his alcohol-influenced brain not really remembering the name. They'd made him drink a bit to loosen up, and he cursed them for that too. His limbs weren't coordinating as well as they should. He could already imagine what a nightmare it would be to get out of this place, and he didn't even want to think about waking up the next morning.

Finally exiting the sea of dancing bodies, he moved towards his destination. He thanked God for toilets being far enough and in another corridor so the pounding of the music wasn't so bad. In the absence of the hammering noise he coordinated better. To his luck, there was no waiting line in front of the men's bathroom, just a couple of guys making out against the wall next to it. He guessed it was a normal thing for this kind of place, so he paid them no mind.

 “Haah...Kyuhyun”

Jungsoo instinctively turned his head towards the direction from which the voice came and tried to find a figure that looked like their maknae. For a moment he was confused because he did not see anyone else, but then his eyes zeroed in on the couple and he realized that the two looked a lot like their maknae and lead vocal, with the younger trapping the other against the wall. Then again, Jongwoon didn’t look like he wanted to escape at all, judging from the way his hands were grabbing at maknae’s shirt, his mouth chasing after Kyuhyun’s whenever the maknae moved back slightly.

Jungsoo stared at them for a few seconds, not really comprehending what he was seeing. Then he remembered what he’d come there to do and entered the bathroom. It didn’t really hit him until he was already washing his hands. Those were his bandmates that were making out on the other side of the wall. He felt dread settle in. But maybe it wasn’t them, his brain supplied hopefully, maybe he’d just seen wrong. He’d had quite a lot to drink after all and it wasn’t impossible that his mind had just conjured familiar faces on strangers outside. Satisfied with his explanation he nodded to himself. Having dried his hands he left the bathroom.

The couple was still there. They were still making out and they were still undeniably Kyuhyun and Jongwoon. Not really knowing what to do in a situation like this, Jungsoo just watched as one of Jongwoon’s hands crept from its place on Kyuhyun’s neck and into his hair, pulling their lips apart only to scrape his teeth along Kyuhyun’s neck. The sound that came out of maknae’s mouth made Jungsoo decide that he’d seen enough. The best course of action seemed to be to just walk away, so he did, back to the dance floor. He’d deal with what he’d seen some other time. Or never, he thought as he ordered himself another drink, of his own accord this time. For all he knew that could have been just an elaborate hallucination. After all, chances that he would remember any of that tomorrow were slim.

And he didn’t. For full four days it did not cross his mind at all. He was too busy with everything that needed to be done on tour as they moved to the next location. Despite the fact that they’d had concerts here before and were pretty much all at home at the venue, Jungsoo still wanted to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible. That was why during their manager’s briefing after their rehearsal he was looking at the members instead of the man talking. He understood that they were all tired, especially after going through their whole routine, but that didn’t mean they could just zone out when their manager was talking. Donghae was staring off into space and Hyukjae and Donghee seemed more interested in poking him until he snapped out of it than listening. Jungsoo sighed internally. At least he knew exactly which members he would have to brief again later.

He quickly scanned the rest of the group. Siwon and Heechul looked really beat, while Youngwoon’s face made it clear that he just wanted their manager to shut his mouth so he could catch some sleep and possibly food before the main event that night. But at least they were still listening, as were the rest of members standing in the half circle formed around their manager.

Only Kyuhyun wasn’t standing, not exactly. He had made himself comfortable by hanging over Jongwoon, with his hands around his waist and his head resting on his shoulder, so that Jongwoon was practically supporting his whole weight. Jungsoo blinked. For a moment he was really concerned about why no one else was reacting. Back hugs were normal within the group, but this one just seemed more... intimate, especially with the way Jongwoon’s fingers were playing with the ones around his waist. Sungmin, who was the person closest to the pair, gave up on standing and dropped to the floor. He looked around to see if anyone would protest, and when they didn’t, just shrugged and made himself comfortable. That snapped Jungsoo out of it.

That hazy dream he’d had after their night out about the two making out must have influenced his brain into reading too much into the situation. He shook his head slightly. As he’d thought earlier - hugs were a normal thing between the members, and Kyuhyun was as spoiled as maknaes got, so it was no wonder he had sprawled himself over the person closest to him. He was just lucky that Jongwoon was such an indulgent hyung. Jungsoo smiled a little to himself. His dongsaengs could be so unintentionally cute sometimes. Seeing that everyone except for the dancer trio was listening, he turned his attention back to their manager.

Dismissing such thoughts as unfounded didn’t, however, stop him from further noticing things as days passed. He didn’t know if they’d upped their skinship or he’d just never noticed how close they were until now, but lately he seemed to catch on the interaction between their maknae and lead vocal a lot more. It would seem that that dream he’d had along with that back hug moment had made him overly aware of how close they were. They seemed to be touching a lot more, whether just holding hands, ruffling the other’s hair or just randomly placing their hands on whatever body part of the other was closest to them. Jongwoon seemed to be especially fond of randomly placing his hands on Kyuhyun’s face and not just in the I’m-gonna-molest-your-pilthrum way. He was also intent, at least it looked like that to Jungsoo, on informing Kyuhyun he was cute every chance he got. Or at least smiling at him in a way that made Jungsoo wonder if all of this really was just inside his head. Considering how little time they spent apart, Jungsoo really wouldn’t be surprised if they really were dating. If the idea itself wasn’t so absurd, of course.

He’d lost count of just how many times they’d fallen asleep against each other in the vans. They also seemed to always be within a few feet of each other, even if they were not interacting in any way. Frankly, it was getting ridiculous. He wished his mind would stop noticing such things and interpreting them in such a way. They were bandmates; they were supposed to be close. And everyone had that one person they were most comfortable with, nothing strange there. So why in the name of the Devil was his mind obsessing over something that was obviously not there?

In retrospect, maybe he shouldn’t have invoked the Devil when asking himself such a question. He should have expected that higher forces would try to prove him wrong. But he didn’t. So when Jungsoo woke up the next morning and went a floor down for breakfast, he expected nothing out of ordinary, just the chaos that half-asleep members usually were. For that reason he wasn’t even a bit surprised when rapid hand gestures from Youngwoon sent his spoon flying under the table. He just sighed and bent down to pick it up. He ended up hitting his head under the table when he tried to get up too quickly. Laughter that followed, along with Siwon and Youngwoon helping him up, made it impossible for him to go under the table again without arousing suspicion. And suspicious members could get really, really annoying, especially if they were Heechul, so he settled for confirming who was sitting across from him. Seeing Kyuhyun and Jongwoon didn’t surprise him in the slightest. Who else would his mind conjure holding hands under the table? The problematic part this time was that he hadn’t known it was them until he’d gotten up from under the table, and there really was no reason for them to do so. His only comfort was that, since it was only for a second, and he did hit his head afterwards, he might have seen wrong. Only he knew he hadn’t.

For the rest of the day he kept pondering just what his fellow members dating really meant. Well, as long as the management didn’t find out, he guessed there were no problems, and the fans seemed to encourage such things so he didn’t have to worry about them. It would, however, explain the recent increase in the fans that liked them together. What was their pair name again? Yekyu? Kyusung? Jungsoo snorted. If they really were dating, that would mean that the fans had picked up on it faster than he had, and that was just a bit discouraging. He was their leader, he was supposed to notice such things. And it wasn’t even that he was against them dating, it was just, they’d been together for so long that they were all brothers to him, and the notion of his brothers dating was, well, weird. He sighed. He’d sleep on it and then see how things went from there.

As the tour had only ended recently, most of the members had no morning schedules so Jungsoo had allowed himself to sleep in a bit. Luckily, no one had needed him for anything, so he was free to lazily make his way towards the lower dorm at ten thirty in hopes that there was still some coffee left. Both Jongwoon and Ryeowook living there made a big difference in the quality of the beverage.

Entering the other dorm he heard laughter coming from the living room and concluded that some other members had also decided to stay in. Closing the door, he made his way towards the kitchen. It wasn’t empty either. In it were two people he had spent the previous day mulling over. Kyuhyun was typing away on his computer while Jongwoon stood behind him and watched, occasionally taking a sip from his mug. That at least meant there was still some coffee left.

“Wouldn’t it be better if you attacked that thing first?”

Jongwoon pointed at something on the screen and Kyuhyun snorted.

“Seriously hyung, this is why you at gaming. You can’t just attack something, you have to have a strategy.”

“Yah!”

Jungsoo chuckled softly. Kyuhyun most definitely deserved that smack at the back of his head.

“If I attack that,” Kyuhyun nodded his head towards some other thing on the screen, “then I can easily break the enemy’s formation, see?”

The sounds of destruction coming from the laptop stopped as some cheery tune announced that Kyuhyun had won. He grinned as leaned back in his chair to look at Jongwoon.

“I won.”

Jongwoon rolled his eyes.

“So you did.”

“Don’t I deserve a reward?”

Jungsoo almost facepalmed. Just how spoiled was their maknae? Jongwoon just sighed, probably used to maknae’s antics, and bent down to press a kiss onto Kyuhyun’s lips. Instead of going into denial this time, Jungsoo just smiled. It was still hella weird seeing them like that, but they were obviously happy. Then Kyuhyun put his hand behind Jongwoon’s neck to angle their faces batter, and Jungsoo felt like clearing his throat. Seeing your friends, or siblings, making out was always a bit awkward. Thankfully, Jongwoon almost immediately pulled back and went to the sink to wash the mug. Kyuhyun his lips.

“Tasty.”

Jungsoo was lucky Jongwoon had snorted in the same moment as he did, because there was no way he could have held that one in. Apparently, their maknae had also become very cheesy.

“You don’t even like coffee.”

“No,” the maknae conceded as he got up from his chair. He back-hugged the lead vocal, who just leaned into the touch, “but you do, and that’s enough for me to tolerate it”

Jongwoon stopped drying the mug and turned his head a bit, connecting their lips again briefly. Jungsoo smiled again and made his way towards the living room. He’d get some coffee when the kitchen stopped being so occupied.

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