Hongbin sighed as Wonsik began to move, one hand in Hongbin’s hair and the other bracing himself by Hongbin’s head.

“Something’s wrong,” Hongbin said momentarily, small frown on his face.

Wonsik immediately slowed his pace, hips coming to a complete stop as he took in Hongbin’s faraway look.

“What’s the matter? Are you okay?”

Hongbin slid his hands down to Wonsik’s and nudged, wordlessly urging him to continue moving before he tightened his legs around Wonsik’s hips.

“I’m fine. I mean Taekwoon hyung and Hyukkie. Something weird happened yesterday, like, right in front of me.”

Wonsik dropped a kiss on Hongbin’s nose and shifted the angle of his hips, instantly rewarded by Hongbin’s fingers digging into his back.

“I love it when you do that,” Hongbin sighed, pressing his head back into the pillow to savour the tendrils of heat roiling through him. “Anyway, Hyukkie and Jaehwan hyung were fooling around like they always do, you know, Jaehwan hyung trying to kiss him and all that and Taekwoon hyung just grabs Jaehwan hyung and yanks him off Hyukkie-”

“Yanks? Really?” Wonsik asked, getting slightly breathless already.

Hongbin narrowed his eyes, his fringe falling over them as his body moved together with Wonsik’s s. “You better not be already close, Kim Wonsik. And yes, yanks, like really grabs his shirt and pulls him off Hyukkie like some jealous boyfriend and went ‘I thought I told you to stop it’ like, really coldly. And I mean, when Hakyeon hyung had Jaehwan hyung practically hanging off Hyukkie because of that stupid plan of his you could tell it wasn’t their normal kidding around, it was obvious - oh-”

“Bin,” Wonsik breathed, burying his head in Hongbin’s neck, hips snapping up faster and more erratically. Hongbin’s eyes fell shut and he let Wonsik hold him close until he came with a gasp, Hongbin thumbing at his s to help him over the edge while rolling his eyes internally at how fast Wonsik had come this time. Clearly they needed to do some stamina training.

Wonsik withdrew from Hongbin carefully after lying a few moments in his arms, Hongbin pressing featherkisses into his neck.

“Lucky you’d already made me come,” Hongbin said, earning him a muffled ‘hmph’. “I think that was a new record or something.”

Wonsik reached out and pinched Hongbin’s right hard, Hongbin quickly capitulating. “Okay, okay. It’s not your fault I’m so irresistible.”

“Continue the Hyuk-Taekwoon hyung story,” Wonsik said, ignoring him.

“Oh, right. Where was I?”

“Taekwoon pulled Jaehwannie hyung off Hyukkie and you were saying something about how this fooling around was very different from the fooling around when Hakyeon hyung was making Jaehwan hyung do it.”

“Oh yeah, yeah. Okay so, you could tell the difference, right? When Jaehwan hyung was all over Hyukkie and touching him in ways he doesn’t when they’re fooling around normally? Well, I say normally, but you know what I mean. I can tell the difference, the whole world can, but apparently Taekwoon hyung can’t. He was serious, Wonsik. Like he didn’t know that Jaehwan doesn’t actually have a thing for Hyukkie, that Jaehwan hyung is probably the straightest one out of all of us. You should have seen his face.”

“So what are you saying?” Wonsik asked, reaching out a hand to gently sweep Hongbin’s fringe away from his forehead, Hongbin catching it on its way down and entwining their fingers.

“I don’t know, man. But something’s up. Could it be – do you think Taekwoon hyung could actually be interested in Hyukkie?”

Wonsik frowned. “Yes. And then again, no.”

“Hakyeon hyung would know,” Hongbin mused. “This is amazing. This entire thing started to torture Sanghyuk and now look where we are.”

“Are we bad hyungs?” Wonsik asked, looking worried.

“Of course not,” Hongbin answered, scandalized. “We’re the very best of hyungs.”

*

“Taekwoonie.”

“Taekwoon-ah.”

“Jung Taekwoon.”

“Leoooooooo.”

Taekwoon finally put down his phone in defeat and looked up at Hakyeon, who immediately bounced in delight and scooted over closer to him on the couch, putting his arms around Taekwoon affectionately.

“Hello,” Hakyeon smiled fondly at Taekwoon, who answered with a sarcastic ‘annyeonghaseyo’.

“Taekwoonie, I’ve been thinking,” Hakyeon began, not letting Taekwoon go and beaming at the greeting, sarcasm notwithstanding. “You’ve been rather rude to Jaehwannie lately.”

Taekwoon squirmed out of Hakyeon’s embrace in order to stall, willing himself not to go red. He knew this was coming – there was no way he could have hidden it from Hakyeon of all people, Hakyeon who had superhearing and supersight and was probably omniscient, and if he could present his tangled ball of emotions to Hakyeon as is he would, because there was no way he was going to be able to explain any of it. Let Hakyeon sift through it and untangle it all for him then give him back the strands neat and separated so that he could then decide what to keep and what to repress.

Hakyeon watched Taekwoon take unnecessarily long to answer and decided to just bite the bullet. He was never one for beating around the bush, anyway.

“When are you going to tell him?”

“Tell who?” Taekwoon asked, feigning ignorance and feeling a deep sigh coming on. ing omniscient.

“You know who. Taller than anyone else. Younger than anyone else. That ‘who’.”

“I’ve got nothing to tell him,” Taekwoon replied stubbornly, wanting so badly to get back to texting his sister and locking Hakyeon away in the bathroom or something.

“Are you in denial or just being stubborn?” Hakyeon asked persistently, jiggling him.

“He told me he wanted Jaehwan to stop fooling around like that. It was making him uncomfortable.”

“Him or you?”

Taekwoon glared at Hakyeon out of the corner of his eye, and Hakyeon smiled back sweetly.

“Jaehwan’s not interested in Hyukkie, Taekwoon. You know that. He’s going to kill me for telling you this but he’s been trying to get with his vocal training coach noona for ages. That’s a secret, now.”

“I was just trying to help,” Taekwoon insisted, and Hakyeon fixed him with a stare. Taekwoon refused to back down, staring back until Hongbin who was coming out of the kitchen darted over and blew into Taekwoon’s face, making him blink in surprise.

“What are you doing?” Taekwoon half-got up in order to retaliate, but Hakyeon kept his arms firmly around Taekwoon and dragged him back down to the couch again, if a bit reluctantly because truth be told in his opinion Hongbin did need a good thumping now and again.

“Helping Hakyeon-hyung win your staring contest,” Hongbin said, and Hakyeon made a noise of dissatisfaction in his throat.

“We’re not having a staring contest, stupid child. We are having a discussion of extreme importance. Go make out with Wonsik, why don’t you?”

“Fine, I will,” Hongbin said, and walked off with more dignity than Hakyeon would have been capable of in the same situation. He was impressed.

“Getting back to business,” Hakyeon continued, and Taekwoon slumped in his arms, having both given up on getting Hakyeon to let go of him physically as well as figuratively. “Leave off Jaehwannie, okay? You’re just making yourself look silly. And there is a hundred percent nothing between them.”

“I don’t care what they have between them-”

“Then why don’t you look like you’re ready to kill Jaehwan when it’s Wonsik or Hongbin he’s hugging or kidding around with? Seriously,” Hakyeon scoffed. “You think you’re so lowkey. I saw the look on your face when he kissed Jaehwan that night. Just before he kissed you – I saw your face then, too.”

Taekwoon had woken up the morning after that night with the kiss on his mind. He’d thought about it while getting his morning coffee, while piling his laundry into the washing machine, during vocal practice, while staring at the back of Sanghyuk’s head during meetings with their choreographer. Sanghyuk’s alcohol-laced breath warm on his face as Sanghyuk giggled and swayed on his knees, hands tightening on Taekwoon’s shoulders and the feel of Sanghyuk’s thin wrists underneath Taekwoon’s hands as he instinctively reached out to steady him – and then the quick plush press of Sanghyuk’s lips to his. Up till the point Sanghyuk had actually kissed him he didn’t believe it was really going to happen; Sanghyuk kissing Jaehwan to fool him into thinking Sanghyuk would kiss him too and then faking out at the last minute for a laugh; typical of the stupid jokes and inexplicable things they all did because they were all various levels of Idiot. And then it happened and Taekwoon couldn’t do anything but sit there and blink in shock as Hakyeon came to cart Sanghyuk away and put him to bed. Taekwoon wondered if Sanghyuk remembered kissing him in the morning – sometimes he also imagined Sanghyuk waking up the next day, hungover and still muzzy, but breathing soft and slow and warm in his blankets and pajamas and thinking about what it felt like to kiss Taekwoon. He imagined Sanghyuk wanted to do it, and had smiled secretly to himself; Taekwoon imagined the curve of Sanghyuk’s lips and sleepy eyes and hands curling into the pillow, Hakyeon probably waking before him and going to get him water and an aspirin to nurse his hangover. Sanghyuk was Hakyeon’s baby – he was everyone’s baby, five years younger than him and Hakyeon – five years younger. Taekwoon sighed.

Hakyeon watched Taekwoon sigh and squeezed him one last time before letting him go.

“Tell him,” Hakyeon repeated.

“Tell him what?” Taekwoon stubbornly answered.

*

“Tell him,” Hakyeon urged, pursuing a fleeing Sanghyuk around the house.

“Tell him what?” Sanghyuk stubbornly answered, pretending he had no idea what Hakyeon was talking about. Hakyeon’s eyes narrowed as his resolve seemed to stutter somewhat and he muttered something that sounded like ‘for ’s sake, both of you’ under his breath.

Sanghyuk tried to hide in one of the bedrooms but Hakyeon followed him in before he could lock it – Wonsik opened one eye from where he was lying down and trying to nap inside it.

“Save me,” Sanghyuk begged.

Wonsik closed his eye. “No.” Hakyeon crowed in triumph and thanked Wonsik smugly before clamping a hand on Sanghyuk’s arm and dragging him out.

“Will you just trust me and tell him?” Hakyeon demanded, Sanghyuk managing to wiggle himself free and running away to the kitchen, Hakyeon following one step behind. “And for god’s sake stop trying to run away! This dorm is so tiny you know I’ll get you!”

“I’m helping you get enough exercise in your old age,” Sanghyuk sniped back over his shoulder, trying to hide behind their dirty clothes hamper.

“I can see you, Hyuk,” Hakyeon deadpanned.

“No, you can’t.”

“Don’t make me call him out here,” Hakyeon threatened, not having to explain whom he meant. “You two are driving me crazy.”

“Then leave us alone!”

“Do you not want to be happy? Are you allergic to happiness?”

“No, I’m allergic to you.”

“Han Sanghyuk.”

“Hyung.”

“You’re acting like a kid.”

“I am a kid.”

“I should record this for the next time you try to argue that you’re all grown up.”

“I am all grown up.”

Hakyeon took a deep breath. Why was he voluntarily ageing himself by trying to get these two together again?

“Hyuk, tell him how you feel.”

“What makes you think I want to tell him?” Sanghyuk asked, exasperated. “Why can’t I just let this remain a crush until it dies off? Maybe I like things this way!”

“Even if he likes you back?” Hakyeon countered, raising his eyebrows challengingly.

“What?” Sanghyuk faltered.

“Have you not been listening to me?!”

*

“Jaehwan hyung,” Wonsik started, voice low and affectionately attached to his back like a limpet, making Jaehwan waddle around their near-empty music show waiting room. They were too early – almost as bad as being late. “Is the bet off? Because nobody’s said a word about it for weeks and Hyukkie and Taekwoon hyung have been so excessively nice to each other lately, and Hakyeon hyung looks like he’s ready to smack me every time I bring up the subject. He nearly did the other day, too.”

Wonsik lowered his voice even more as Jaehwan wandered close by Hongbin and Sanghyuk trying to dance to 4minute, Sanghyuk overexaggerating the twerking moves until Hongbin was on the floor wheezing with laughter, Hakyeon proudly shouting encouragement from the nearby sofa he was sitting on with Taekwoon.

Jaehwan and Wonsik came to a stop, watching Sanghyuk try to dance and flip non-existent hair over his shoulder, Hongbin scrambling to his feet again to do the chorus with him. Hakyeon was clapping along like a beaming mother watching her child at his first school concert and even Taekwoon hyung was smiling, not usually one to be so outwardly amused by the maknaes’ antics. Hakyeon tried to get him to shout ‘C-R-A-Z-Y’ along with him which Taekwoon predictably refused to but he started to laugh softly once Hongbin and Sanghyuk launched into the chorus steps, Jaehwan also rushing up to do it with them and trying to tug Wonsik along.

Sanghyuk let his hyungs take over, stepping out of the formation in order to fall into a chair near Taekwoon to catch his breath. Taekwoon’s gaze flicked to him momentarily, taking in his flushed face and way he was lounging in his chair – one second, two seconds, three – and then flicked back down to his phone. Sanghyuk played with the arm of his chair for a while, fidgeting – one second, two seconds, three – and then quickly looked over at Taekwoon, watching his long fingers type out a message, face serious in his concentration. Four seconds, five – Sanghyuk got up and wandered over to Hongbin once again.

Anybody else would have noticed – Hongbin, Hakyeon, maybe even Jaehwan. Since it was Wonsik, it all went rather over his head.

*

“Taekwoon hyung giving Hyukkie the last piece of meat at lunch today, did you see? And he knew I wanted it.”

“Mm-hmm,” Hakyeon replied grimly, wiping away his sweat with the edge of his towel as he did three more squats facing Hongbin. “This is getting ridiculous and I’m going insane.”

Hongbin looked into the wall-to-wall gym mirror, pretending to check his form as he shifted his hold on the weights he was holding but he was actually spying on Taekwoon and Sanghyuk in the far corner, Taekwoon spotting for Sanghyuk as he did bench presses. Taekwoon said something animatedly – animatedly! – to Sanghyuk when he was done, making him smile in a way that kind of made Hongbin want to throw up.

It must have shown on his face, because Hakyeon snorted. “Yeah. That’s how we mostly feel about you and Wonsik.”

“Why?” Hongbin demanded, deciding to give up on his last few bicep curls. Looking good was so tiring. “At least if we’re disgusting we have a right to be, we’re together. What are those two?”

“Damn frustrating, that’s what,” Hakyeon shook his head, pulling over a mat to start his crunches. “Damn bloody frustrating.”

The door to the gym opened and a few new faces trooped in, all of them pausing their workout to see who else would come in so late at night. The newcomers looked rather taken aback to have chosen a gym full of industry seniors in it but immediately began bowing in greeting, Hakyeon predictably being the first one to recognize which rookie group they were from and greeting them kindly back. There was coincidentally one who used to be a trainee at Jellyfish and Jaehwan hailed him, going over to say hello and to save the others the pain of being scrutinized while the rest of Vixx went back to their weights and machines, clustering closer together to let the rookies have their choice of the machines without feeling like they were imposing. Sometimes it didn’t seem that very long ago that they were rookies themselves.

Sanghyuk sat down without warning on Hakyeon who was now doing pushups, making him fall flat on the mat with an ‘oof’ and then refusing to get up again despite harsher and more desperate threats until Taekwoon grabbed a madly giggling Sanghyuk’s hand to pull him up and save poor Hakyeon’s life before Wonsik and Jaehwan ran over to pile on top of him too. Sanghyuk dropped Taekwoon’s hand the moment he was upright but Hongbin didn’t miss the quick embarrassed look away before Sanghyuk ran his towel through his hair, acting totally fine.

They finished up their respective workouts amidst the usual banter and bickering and pointless showing off, Hongbin and Wonsik competing to see who could do the most sit-ups in thirty seconds and Wonsik cheating shamelessly by trying to distract Jaehwan the timekeeper. It was with their quite impressive wall of noise as the backdrop that one of the rookies shyly approached Taekwoon, gripping something in his hand and trying to respectfully get his attention while at the same time trying not to be obtrusive. Hakyeon nudged Taekwoon, who turned around in surprise.

“Sunbaenim?”

The rookie was young, maybe even younger than Sanghyuk, and he blushed prettily as he told Taekwoon what a big fan he was and how he watched all of Taekwoon’s solo performances and he really wanted to be able to perform like Taekwoon one day, would Taekwoon please sign his debut album it would really mean so much to him? The rest of s would be so jealous they didn’t come along to the gym tonight when he told them he’d met Taekwoon, and he really hoped to meet Taekwoon around the music shows and stuff if that wasn’t being too rude to say?

Taekwoon turned progressively redder through the rookie’s gushing speech, muttering protests over and over at the boy’s proclamations of Taekwoon’s superior singing talent and how handsomely he performed, clearly embarrassed to the point of nearly grabbing the album from the boy so that he could sign it and be rid of him. Jaehwan and Hongbin were both suppressing giggles as Hakyeon glared at them warningly, while Wonsik looked positively sappy, probably reliving memories of when they were that young and that starstruck by every senior they met. The rookie leaned in for a hug once Taekwoon handed over his signed album – forward, this one – and Hongbin wanted to laugh outright at the stony ‘pretending-nothing-is-wrong’ look on Sanghyuk’s face. For god’s sake, you both are the same kind of ridiculous.

“Oh, Chansung hyung was talking about you the other day, when we were watching Vixx perform on Music Bank,” the rookie said hesitantly, clearly unsure whether to part with this little bit of information or not about his own company’s senior. “He was saying he missed you and wanted to get in touch. I didn’t know you were friends.”

Taekwoon’s face froze for a moment, a frown appearing immediately after to the rookie’s alarm. “Yeah, okay,” he said, and half-turned away, clearly signaling it was time for the boy’s departure. The boy stood confused for a few seconds until Hakyeon smiled and took charge of smoothing over the awkwardness, a firm hand on Taekwoon’s shoulder for reasons that Hongbin did not know.

They packed up and left, Taekwoon going quieter than usual and sticking to Hakyeon who slung an arm around him and for once wasn’t pushed away. Like a mirror image Hongbin noted Sanghyuk’s slightly hurt aura, soft and flatter like the energy had gone out of him, so he pulled Sanghyuk to him in the van and let Sanghyuk rest his tired head on his shoulder, sweaty skin notwithstanding. Emotions were complicated. So, so complicated.

Current standings:

The bet: forgotten? Maybe. Probably?

Members in love in like/crushing on each other and refusing to tell the other one how they feel: 2

Members who know about the members in like/crushing on each other and refusing to tell the other one how they feel: 2

Members who are still mostly clueless about this and about life in general: 2

*

my god this was only supposed to be 2 parts what is this what is going on?? istg it will be finished in the next part or ELSE (yes, i'm threatening myself)