Please make sure you read Chapter 8 before reading this or it won't make any sense. This is the official last chapter, there is an epilogue that I will upload tomorrow, but yeah, originally this was it.

Chapter 9 – Was it hot?

“Are you going to talk to me so we can fix this or not?” N asks Ravi the day after the kiss incident occurred.

“I’ll fix it myself, hyung.”

Ravi is only half paying attention to the conversation. He’s got a song forming in his head. The lyrics. The melody. It’s good.

“You know that would involve talking to Leo, yeah?”

Ravi tries to ignore his heating cheeks at the mention of the shy main vocal. He fails.

“You’re blushing like Leo does,” N tells him.

N is leaning against the wall in Ravi’s room, legs stretched out in front of him, waiting patiently for Ravi to fess up. He had been for over an hour now…

“Just tell me why you kissed him.”

Ravi groans, fingers typing furiously, trying not to lose the song.

“I told you I don’t know yesterday.”

N scowled at the other member. At four o’clock Hongbin had made his return. Ravi had seen it as an opportunity and stuck by him all night, knowing that N wouldn’t talk about this with Kong there. Ravi had done his best to avoid N all night and Leo had done his best to avoid everybody. When N had announced that it was time for everybody to go to bed and cautiously entered the bedroom, Leo had already had his eyes closed in bed.

Ravi decides he’s got the gist of the song down and turns to stare at the leader. “I really don’t know.”

“Do you like him?”

N is just as surprised by the straightforwardness of the question as Ravi is. He doesn’t retract it though, instead he raises his eyebrows and waits.

“I don’t know,” Ravi replies honestly.

He really didn’t know if he liked Leo. Was how he liked Leo different to how he liked the other members? He supposed it was, but he’d always thought that it was simply because he was closer to Leo than the other members.

“Do you like men?”

Once again they’re surprised at the question.

“I-I don’t know.”

This time it’s a lie. Ravi has always known that he was attracted to men as well as women, he’d just never acted on it before. It was easier and more acceptable if he dated women. He knew he was attracted to Leo, was there anyone who wasn’t? Maybe he shouldn’t voice that question in public.

“You do, don’t you?” N demands.

Ravi tries to hold in a glare but fails. “You push too hard, hyung. That’s why Leo won’t talk to you, you know?”

N glares back, he couldn’t deny it but he could still be offended.

“So, do you?”

“Ugh, hyung!”

“Just tell me!”

“Okay! Yes, I do like men as well as women.”

A triumphant grin stretches across N’s face. Ravi crosses his arms over his chest and closes his laptop. “You really don’t know when to leave things alone,” he says.

N’s smile softens and he squeezes Ravi’s arm. “Sorry. Should we get dinner ready? I don’t think Leo will cook for us today either.”

Ravi purses his lips. “What am I going to do about Leo-hyung?”

“He’s pretty much convinced himself that you were somehow using him, so I think the sooner you sort this out, the better.”

“Using him?” Ravi asks, panic in his voice. “Why? How?”

“I don’t know.”

Ravi groans, hating himself. He decides what to do in a second. “I’m going to go talk to Leo-hyung.”

“I think he’s asleep,” N tells him but doesn’t attempt to stop him. N sighs to himself. “I guess that means I’m doing the cooking again tonight.”

Leo wakes up from the fingers soothingly brushing through his hair. It bothers him just a little that he knows the difference between N’s fingers and Ravi’s. Slowly he opens his eyes and meets Ravi’s gaze.

“I want to talk to you,” Ravi whispers.

“Why are you whispering?” Leo asks, his sleepy voice not much louder.

“I think Ken is outside the door, listening in.”

Ken had seen Ravi heading for the bedroom door and gotten excited. He’d been holding up and hadn’t told Hongbin a thing despite Hongbin asking why Leo and Ravi weren’t talking.

“N told me that you told him that you said that you thought I was using you,” Ravi bursts out, catching Leo by surprise.

“Whoa,” Leo mutters, sitting up. “What did you just say?”

Ravi took a breath to calm himself. “N said you thought I was using you.”

“You aren’t?”

“I’m not. I would never do that to you.”

Leo actively avoids Ravi’s attempt at eye contact. “Then why did you, w-why did you k-kiss me?”

The nervous laugh that escapes from Ravi’s lips is very un-Ravi, Leo decides. He doesn’t like it. His hand is already half extended towards Ravi’s when he realises that maybe it wasn’t the time for skinship. Ravi, however, noticed and meets Leo halfway, cupping his hyung’s hand in both of his.

“I don’t know why I kissed you, I really don’t. I didn’t think about it. I just did it.”

Ravi’s heart is pounding in his chest, watching Leo’s thumb brush over his hand. He’d almost talked himself into confessing when he decided it was a bad idea. What if Leo didn’t feel the same way and it created trouble for the group? What if Leo did feel the same way but it created trouble in the future? The happiness of the group was more important to Ravi than his own happiness.

“I like you,” Leo whispers completely out of nowhere.

“I like you too,” Ravi blurts as quickly as he can.

They sit there, avoiding eye contact and practically glowing due to their blushing. When Ravi does look up the first thing he notices is that Leo is covering his face with his free hand. The second thing he notices is the tiny smile on Leo’s lips.

Slowly, so that Leo can pull away if he so wishes, Ravi reaches over and removes his hand from his face. Heart pounding, and more nervous than he’d ever been with any girl, Ravi leans forward and presses his lips to Leo’s.

It’s short and sweet, but it’s enough for Leo to feel a little overwhelmed and pull away.

“It’s okay, hyung,” Ravi murmurs, fixing Leo’s fringe. “We can take it as slow as you want.”

Leo nods. “Okay.”

The door suddenly opening has the pair of them scrambling away from each other like teenagers caught by a parent.

“Did you talk?” It’s N. Of course it is. He can’t help himself.

Leo and Ravi nod and Leo tries to wipe the smile from his face.

“Hyuk just got back and dinner is ready.”

“Okay,” Ravi replies, clearing his voice. “We’ll be there in a second.”

“Got it,” N says with a knowing smile.

When the door closes Leo and Ravi look at each other. Both of them are embarrassed. Both of them are surprised. Both of them are a bit excited about suddenly being in this situation.

Leo bites his lip briefly before reaching up to pull Ravi closer, their lips meeting in their third ever kiss. This too is barely more than a peck but Ravi is practically elated that Leo had initiated it at all.

“Let’s go eat dinner,” Leo breathes as he pulls back.

Ravi nods and they head out to the table.

Hyuk is talking with Ken and Hongbin when they emerge and N is setting the last dish on the table. At the unspoken cue they all sit down at the table and start eating, thanking N for the food. He nags at them to help him more, but he had banned both Hongbin and Ken from the kitchen after the ‘burnt ramyeon’ incident soon after debut.

Throughout the meal Leo can’t stop his eyes from drifting to Ravi, and Ravi’s do the same. N is withholding a smile and focusses on devouring his food.

Hongbin nudges Hyuk towards the end of their meal and hides a smile. Hyuk also smiles.

“Hyung,” he murmurs as he leans across the table to Leo. “Was it hot?”

Leo looks absolutely scandalised as he turns the brightest red he’s ever been. Ravi also ducks his head as the other members begin laughing. The glare N gives Ken is only short-lived as Ken claps his hands together and bows in apology. It had taken him less than a day to tell Hongbin, and Hyuk had only been home for twenty minutes.

Catching sight of Leo after the laughter has died down, Ravi can’t resist. “You’re so cute, hyung.”

Leo hides his face. “Shut up.”