The most important thing here is that everyone is misunderstanding everything. Although they’ve crossed the “confess we have icky feelings for each other” stage, Seokmin and Soonyoung are most definitely not dating. 

So when they finally get up to the bright skies on a free day without schedules, it’s totally a coincidence that they decide to go and eat fast food together.

Greasy fries and burgers. Yum.

Seungcheol shakes his head with a long-suffering sigh. Why does it feel like they’ve been through this before?

“Call a date a date, Seokmin. And call Soonyoung baby already. Or does he prefer honey? ”

Jisoo drags his words out, eyebrows raising too high to be normal. Soonyoung thinks he needs to see a doctor. One for his eyebrows, the other for his head.

“Use those gross pet names on Jeonghan instead. And it is not a date.” Seokmin pulls the longest scarf from the hangers, wrapping it around Soonyoung’s neck carefully.

“Yeah. Keep your disgusting affections to yourselves.” Soonyoung says. “I like sweetheart better anyway.”

The muttered last line does not go unnoticed by Chan, who pounces.

“Hear him? Call him sweetheart, Seokmin. Do it.” 

Seokmin ignores the noisy gathering of members who have taken to chanting Call Him Sweetheart like fangirls chanted Call Me Baby at the music shows. Except more low-pitched and twenty times more annoying. Only Mingyu and Wonwoo have the sanity to leave, clearly more interested in each other than their non-existent love life.

Was it that unbelievable anyway? It wasn’t their fault they both had similar cravings for burgers. They were celebrating Jisoo’s and Hansol’s heritage. Burgers and fries are American, for crying out loud. (Or that’s what Hansol claims. Soonyoung has his doubts) Like how they liked to call Chinese takeout during practice. They were advocates for world peace and cultural equality.

Or something like that.

The wind was slightly chilly when they left the building, but nothing as cold as Wonwoo and Mingyu were making it out to be, holding hands and practically snuggling as they walked down the street.

What were they, mother and child?

Romance was really gross.

He can hear them. No matter how highly the members think of their high-level stalking skills and perfect stealth, they really . No grace at all. Explained why he had to spend so much time teaching them choreography. He needed a raise, now.

But it was a little cold. He leaned a little closer to Seokmin. Seokmin slowed down his footsteps, pulling out a jacket from his bag.

“Should have worn it just now. What did I tell you about the weather being cold?”

“But I look less cute in it.”

“You’re always cute to me.”

The breeze slows now that he’s snuggled in Seokmin’s jacket, surrounded by Seokmin’s scent. The edges of his lips tilt upwards into a soft smile, standing there just gazing into his warm eyes.

“And how is this not a date?” Junhui yells, groomed hair messy from tugging at it in frustration. God, how dense can people be? This has got to be illegal at the very least. 

“You spoiled the moment!” Minghao scolds. “Very rude to ruin dates just because you don’t have one.”

“Who says I don’t? ” Junhui loops his arm around Minghao, smiling in a way that knows makes him attractive. “And this is how you do it, damnit. Man up and call a date a date. And Soonyoung sweetheart.” 

They don’t even have the patience to fight with them, because going nine against two is very disadvantageous. Instead they share a gaze, before tearing down the streets together.

(Flight is always a better strategy than fight when it comes to Seventeen. They’re all stubborn as crap.)

They make it to the fast food places, Soonyoung checking the refection in the glass before stepping inside. Shook them off for now. Now for the burgers and sodas in peace--

Forget it.

He did not need the visual of Mingyu and Wonwoo feeding each other fries in his short lifetime. Really off-putting. He can feels his stomach churning.

“I’m not hungry.”

If this is what a date entails, then they can have all of it. It’s really disgusting, to see Wonwoo lean on Mingyu and them to look so foolish with their eyes wide at each other going ahhhh like fools while waiting for food to enter their mouths.

What else do they have hands for?

Oh right. Now he remembers. They have hands so they can hold them under the table.

“Let’s eat elsewhere.” Soonyoung holds the side of Seokmin’s shirt, pulling him back out onto the streets.

“THERE THEY ARE!”

Whoops. Bad move. The remaining members are charging full speed at them.

Even if the members wanted to witness their first not-date-date, there are definitely more discreet ways to do it then stalking them down quiet lanes while they tried to find good food to eat. It’s a little difficult to breathe with other members stalking them, even if Junhui and Minghao had gotten distracted by the smell of Chinese food and went off (see, them wanting to celebrate Jisoo’s and Hansol’s cultural heritage was totally legit!!) and Jeonghan and Jisoo found this cute little shop down the lane and gave up.

The others though, aren’t so easy to shake off. Probably because they’re a bunch of no-lifers who relish in making the lives of others miserable.

“Seungcheol, I’m pretty sure this borders on harassment. As a leader, shouldn’t you keep the others in line?”

This is what Soonyoung’s been waiting for all day. For Seokmin to guilt trip Seungcheol into taking the others away. Really, their off-days should include a protection order from all the members.

Seungcheol looks around, biting his lip as guilt slowly fills his eyes.

“I feel personally attacked by their inability to admit when a date is a date!” Hansol pipes out when he sees the leader’s gaze wavering, determination to ‘avenge the singles of Seventeen’ slowly washing away.

“Well, I feel personally attacked by your stalking. And you were the one who stepped on my bug. Go away.” This is it. Soonyoung’s last resort. Always remind them about all the evil they committed.

Hansol’s eyes widen. He didn’t think Soonyoung would still remember.

It works. Seungcheol spreads his arms out, holding the others back. “Go. Do whatever not-date-date things you want to do.”

They don’t look back.

Seven blocks down, they stop to catch their breaths.

“Did we lose them?”                

Wiping the blonde fringe that hands over his face, Seokmin smiles affectionately at him. Soonyoung is really cute like that, thin sheet of sweat on his face and adorable grin as he glances around.

“Yeah. Think so.”

The grin spreads across their faces and becomes mischievous. Lacing their hands together, they lean into each other’s warmth as their footsteps slow and walk down the leaf-littered pavement.

“Mission success. Thanks to you, sweetheart.”

Seokmin leans down and plants a kiss on Soonyoung’s cheek. Soft giggles fill the empty street.

“Now we can start our date for real.”

Romance isn’t as gross when you’re the one involved in it, that’s what Soonyoung realizes. Or maybe Mingyu and Wonwoo have the knack of making everything looks especially disgusting. Which wouldn’t be surprising, considering they’re not even half as cute as Seokmin, aspiring visuals or not.

They find another joint of the burger place, ordering fries and burgers. But they’re more creative then Mingyu and Wonwoo, who are both capital L-A-M-E. Why feed each other fries when you can eat the same fries?

It’s pretty obvious they’re the smarter couple. After all, acting stupid chased all the members away. Seokmin is pretty proud to say the least.

“If you don’t stop smiling like that I’m going to kiss you again”

“Then do it, sweetheart.”

Soft lips land on his cheeks. Soonyoung really is too adorable.

“Told you they knew it was date.” Wonwoo hits Mingyu’s chest, sticking out his hand. “Now buy me that beanie I wanted.”

“Why… How…” Mingyu can only stare through the glass in disbelief.

---

“So how was your date, hyungs?” Chan asks when the moment they walk through the door.

“It was not a date!” Soonyoung and Seokmin scream in unison.

Oh, if only these poor fools knew.

Their date was perfect, thank you very much. 

a/n: hope you enjoyed it! :> shamelessly promoting my tumblr you can find me here too ^-^