Curious
Title: Curious
Author: Althea 79_percent
Rating: PG-13
Form: One-shot
Fandom: SS501
Pairing: HyunSaeng
Genre: Fluff
A/N: First double S fic to see light!
Curious
"The HyunSaeng way"
It all started that one fated day when the double S boys were huddled in front of their communal PC in their living room.
Well, two out of five of the boys in particular.
"Hm."
"What?"
"Don't you find it annoying?" YoungSaeng finally asked after moments and moments of scrolling the webpage that he was scrutinising. He shifted slightly, almost falling off the chair that he shared with his companion.
"Hey, shift a little!" He gave an additional whine when he noticed that the other boy was slowly (yet surely) gaining dominance over the poor chair that had to withstand the weight of two growing teenage boys.
"Find what annoying?" HyunJoong asked, turning over to face YoungSaeng as he obliged. He shifted a little more to his left so his slightly younger companion would have more space, only to realise that half of his bottom is practically hanging in the air. "But I'm falling over too," he complained.
"Go grab your own chair."
"Too far!"
YoungSaeng gave his leader an incredulous look that would have put his impeccable royal image down the drain.
"Too far?!" He almost exclaimed, well-sculpted eyebrows rising in a flabbergasted expression. "It's just there!"
HyunJoong followed YoungSaeng's pointed finger to find another chair only about less than ten steps away from them.
"But it's more comfortable like this," he replied meekly.
Once again the young prince of the group gave HyunJoong a look before turning back to their forgotten screen, stifling an amused smile. "You're just so lazy."
HyunJoong grinned.
"So what was annoying?"
"Oh, this," YoungSaeng moved the cursor so that it made random big circles on the screen. "All these fanfics!"
"Fan- fanfics?"
The younger of the duo raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "You must have read some."
"Well... Yeah... I guess."
YoungSaeng failed to notice how the older boy was fidgeting uncomfortably in his already uncomfortable position. "I don't know, it's just that the more I read, the more I don't like them."
"Why not?"
"Because it always involves either one of us falling in love with some random girl, or getting killed in a car accident. Or us contracting some terminal illness."
For a short moment, HyunJoong stole the mouse from YoungSaeng's (delicate) hand and scanned the forum page himself, speed-reading the numerous titles involved and the short blurb that accompanied them.
"You've got a point."
"And, if it's not that..."
HyunJoong half-listened to YoungSaeng, half focusing his mind on the screen, clicking an arrow to let the next page load.
"If it's not that what?" He finally asked, noticing that his dark-haired companion was staring at the screen like he was.
"Click that link at the top of the page."
"Which?"
"That one. That sub-forum."
"This one?" HyunJoong found the pointed link and was immediately prompted for a password.
"Why would they password-protect this?"
"To protect the innocent minds," YoungSaeng answered absently as he took over the keyboard and typed strawberrypudding into the space given. HyunJoong did not ask how YoungSaeng got the password either. After pressing 'Enter', a seemingly innocent page loaded up.
"Ah!" HyunJoong gave a slight exclamation when he finally realised what page he was looking at. Almost immediately, beads of cold sweat began to form on his temples. He had a bad hunch about this whole thing.
"Yes." YoungSaeng smiled (albeit mischievously) as he looked at HyunJoong who gawked. "If it wasn't all those that I listed above, it's this."
To be perfectly honest, HyunJoong did not know how to react appropriately at the sight of the list of numerous permutation and combination of the possible pairings him and his team member could ever produce with each other. He thought he should just laugh it off, but he was too conscious that his voice would crack halfway as he found his mouth extremely dry all of a sudden. He thought he should keep quiet, but he was not sure how YoungSaeng would response to his newly found silence. As fourth-dimensional he was labeled to be, HyunJoong found it unusually and uncharacteristically hard to find a reply that would fit his ET-like personality.
After much internal battle, the leader of the popular quintet decided that a normal "oh!" would be as normal a response as was expected of him to give. Thankfully, YoungSaeng (the one and only person he did not want to notice his abrupt strangeness) did not seem to mind his lack of articulation.
"And even this, it seems like all they write is about love, love and more love. Can't they find another theme to write about?" YoungSaeng frowned.
"How- How did you know all these? Did you read all of them?"
YoungSaeng cocked his head to one side and gave his leader a quizzical look, asking back, "Don't you?"
At that (it did not matter what expression YoungSaeng wore for the leader of their team did have a very weak spot for his lead vocalist's extremely adorable face), HyunJoong finally blurted a slow "well, yeah... I guess", even if he physically found the words hard to roll out of his tongue.
Bad, bad feeling about this, he thought to himself. He should probably fake a yawn and escape to his bedroom pronto!
"So you do read them!" YoungSaeng exclaimed, his surprised face unmasked now that HyunJoong had given his affirmation to his earlier question.
"I-" The older black-haired boy tried to defend himself, but as soon as he turned to look at his companion (bad move!), he swallowed his own justification and muttered softly under his breath, "Well.. Yes, a little bit."
He really should learn how to be immune to YoungSaeng.
"What did you think of it?"
"Of what?"
"These pairings."
"Oh."
For a moment, they were silent. HyunJoong was busy thinking of an in-character answer so as to mask his own fluster whereas YoungSaeng, on the other hand, seemed to be more occupied with skimming through the pages of that particular subforum.
"It's hard to imagine, though, for me."
"What's hard to imagine?" HyunJoong was more than just relieved when YoungSaeng broke the (awkward) silence. Their young prince seemed quite talkative that night, he observed happily.
"HyungJoon liking me that way."
"Why not?" HyunJoong asked back, suddenly very, very interested. He was, well, he had always been interested in knowing what his members think of these pairings, but he never had a chance to really ask and delve into the issue. He figured that since this rare opportunity seemed to have fallen unsuspectingly from the clear, blue- no, dark, starry sky above, he should just seize it. Especially so since this involved getting to know what YoungSaeng (the one person's opinion he genuinely was interested in knowing) actually felt about this topic.
"I don't know." YoungSaeng shrugged. "I mean I know he's all touchy and feely and he’s the baby, but that's HyungJoon for us isn't it?"
"Hmmm..." HyunJoong nodded thoughtfully in agreement.
"Even if he does seem to run around trying to kiss all of us," YoungSaeng continued with a slight chuckle as he read a line in that particular page he was reading. "But I don't think that equalise to him loving us romantically."
"Hmmm..." HyunJoong nodded even more vigorously in agreement.
"What are you 'hmmm hmmm'-ing for?" The younger persona finally laughed as he elbowed his leader, unable to suppress his amusement.
"I was just having the same sentiments!"
YoungSaeng chuckled. "What about double HJ?"
"HyungJoon and me?"
"Ooh, you're quite well versed with these terms aren't you?"
"Not as good as you," HyunJoong grinned.
For some reason, the conversation seemed to have no end. And for an equally odd reason, HyunJoong forgot about all his awkwardness (and the very reason why he thought touching this topic was dangerous) and was enjoying the quality time he had with YoungSaeng.
"So, you're saying yes to doubleHJ?"
HyunJoong seemed to ponder. "I support MinJun."
YoungSaeng spared him a glance. "Why?
"I don't know. I just do."
"I prefer KyuMin."
"MinKyu?"
"KyuMin."
"No, it's MinKyu."
"Does it matter?!"
HyunJoong stopped to think. "... No?"
"Okay."
"But I support MinJun."
"And HyunKyu?"
HyunJoong gave YoungSaeng a look. "I don't think KyuJong would appreciate that."
YoungSaeng chuckled; HyunJoong loving every moment when that smile was etched on the other's face.
"They usually go hand in hand, so why not?" He asked, turning back to his screen and randomly clicking one link. "I think KyuJongie looks up to you."
"I think he looks up to you."
"Aww, are you jealous?"
For another moment, HyunJoong was at a loss for a smart answer. Truth to be told, he did, sometimes, get a little envious of the relationship those two shared. He, however, knew better than to admit that there and then.
"I think KyuMin deserve more support," YoungSaeng added, another playful smile tugged at the corner of his lips and his fingers flew across the keyboard and typed a short (yet definitive) reply (in a pro-KyuMin thread).
"Not KyuSaeng?" HyunJoong asked, craning his neck closer to see what YoungSaeng had typed.
"KyuSaeng should remain mutually neutral so Saeng can be Kyu's love advisor."
"Hmmm..." For some reason, HyunJoong was elated as it felt as if his biggest enemy was eliminated.
"Baby doesn't get paired with Kyu much, though, I wonder why."
"I don't see that a lot either," HyunJoong piped. "Nor MinSaeng."
"Nor HyunMin."
HyunJoong thought he sensed a trend. "What do you suggest?"
YoungSaeng shrugged, tilting his head to one side and graced the other boy with an impish smile. "More fanservice?"
HyunJoong resisted the urge to:
1. Brush those obstructing strands of onyx black and/or
2. Pinch those cheeks.
He did neither though, sadly. Instead, he meekly suggested that they should probably make KyuJong and HyungJoon be roommates for once.
"We could," YoungSaeng laughed. "One day we should."
HyunJoong did not know if making them two be roommates would increase the popularity of that pairing, but somehow, he thought anything he had said or done would be worth it if it could make his favourite member smile like that.
"What about HyunSaeng, then?"
HyunJoong froze.
There and then, he (belatedly) recalled why he wanted to avoid delving into this topic in the first place.
"What about HyunSaeng?" HyunJoong replied, almost mechanically. His sympathetic overdrive making itself known as he forced himself to swallow.
YoungSaeng seemed to ponder his next words very carefully. He turned to his left and gave HyunJoong a look that the latter never managed to decipher.
"Have you ever thought of us in that way?"
The question was innocent, the voice soft, the tone rather casual, and yet the combination of those three together was enough to make HyunJoong desperately want to fake a yawn and bolt back to the room he shared with KyuJong.
"Which way?"
"The HyunSaeng way."
By then, it was rather obvious that HyunJoong was more than reluctant to answer (no one knew why) but YoungSaeng seemed extremely persistent that night. When it was too difficult for them both to ignore the fact that HyunJoong was fidgeting very awkwardly in their shared seat, YoungSaeng turned his undivided attention away from his leader and instead focused on surfing his web. HyunJoong noticed that while YoungSaeng did not press for an answer, the younger boy did not close nor divert his question either.
For a moment there and then, when the silence dragged too long for comfort, HyunJoong prayed for a distraction to appear.
And true enough, that distraction materialised in the form of an eye-rubbing KyuJong emerging from the dark corridor.
"Hyung-deul, not sleeping?" He asked, speech slightly mumbled from his deep slumber. "It's three. Don't we have to wake up at seven tomorrow?"
If he was a manhwa character, his box would light up with angels blowing trumpets and decorated with colourful confettis while he himself would tear up in gratitude at KyuJong's appearance.
But he was not. So he gracefully (as graceful as he could after that extremely awkward exchange) rose from his seat, and declared that they all should head for bed as it was way past their healthy bedtime. A pretty lame excuse, he thought for someone his calibre, but there and then, HyunJoong could not care less, and instead fled back to his room.
About fifteen minutes after lying motionless in bed, a pair of gentle footsteps told him that YoungSaeng had returned to his own bedroom and HyunJoong finally released the breath that he had been (unconsciously) intermittently holding.
As he succumbed to Sleep's gentle lullaby, HyunJoong wished he had enough guts earlier to tell YoungSaeng what he really thought of them the HyunSaeng way.
When he woke up the next day, YoungSaeng did not act any different it made HyunJoong wonder if he had just imagined whatever happened the night before. However, tight schedules and more tight schedules somehow forced that question (and the root problem) to the very back of his mind, and soon enough, it was buried in one secluded corner of his memory, camouflaged safely with whatever dust that managed to accumulate there.
Almost two years since that conversation, when HyunJoong thought YoungSaeng had forgotten all about it, the brown-haired leader was more than just surprised when one unsuspecting night, a very familiar figure (yes, it was YoungSaeng) pounced on his unsuspecting self.
One fine night in the middle of July, in their shared room in their Japan apartment, YoungSaeng self-invited himself onto HyunJoong's bed (which was rare, since usually it was the other way around).
"What's wrong, YoungSaeng-ah?"
"You know," the younger boy started with his characteristic gentle alto voice. "It's okay that you made me wait for two years, but I'm getting really, really curious now."
HyunJoong looked up at the now brunette figure lying on his bed beside him.
"We made KyuJongie sleep in the same room with JungMin once," the lead singer started. "And we realised that it wouldn't work because JungMin needs to sleep alone."
YoungSaeng did not wait for HyunJoong to respond.
"We got MinJun up when we shot Idol World. Now we made HyungJoon and KyuJong share a bedroom."
YoungSaeng had always spoken in a language that was a little difficult for him to comprehend (but strangely, this duo had spent many sleepless nights together because they were sharing stories), yet he always prided himself in being able to understand the younger brunette, with or without words. That night though, HyunJoong found it a little hard to follow YoungSaeng's train of thoughts. He first blamed it on the fact that it was almost midnight, but soon realised that had nothing to do with his muddled state of mind and the barely suppressed escalating panic.
"Between the two of us, we have established that doubleHJ, HyunMin, HyunKyu, KyuSaeng, MinSaeng and SaengJoon wouldn't work."
HyunJoong blinked when he felt YoungSaeng resting his forehead at the tip of his shoulder.
"But I still can't figure out what you think about HyunSaeng."
The last bit of YoungSaeng's medium-length rant almost fell to a whisper when he spoke the very last syllable.
HyunJoong took two minutes and forty-seven seconds to gather his thoughts and courage, manually lift YoungSaeng's head from his shoulder and gave the other boy a fleeting kiss on his cheek.
"That's HyunSaeng to me." He said, unsure of what else he could do.
YoungSaeng stared at his leader for a long, long moment before he finally blurted out.
"I waited two years just for that?"
"Well there's more if you allow me to."
YoungSaeng raised one suspicious eyebrow.
"What?"
"This." HyunJoong pulled the other boy closer and let their lips meet.
YoungSaeng (of course) did not protest.
Sometime in the middle of the night, when YoungSaeng was drifting between sleep and consciousness, he thought he heard HyunJoong say something. He was actually too sleepy to listen properly because earlier in the night (after the kiss), the two of them ended up arguing as to why it took their leader so long (two freakin' years!) to decide what HyunSaeng actually mean to him. YoungSaeng, however, decided he should probably stay up for that few seconds to listen to what his leader wanted to articulate lest the older boy made him wait for another two years to hear something that he thought was (almost) obvious.
"What did you say?" The younger brunette asked, his voice glazed with sleep as he fought with the sleeping bug parading in front of his eyes.
"Did you remember me saying I support MinJun?"
YoungSaeng nodded, barely awake by then.
"I support HyunSaeng more, though."
That night, as he let himself drift to sleep, YoungSaeng thought it would not hurt to let HyunJoong wait for one night before telling him that he felt exactly the same way.
"Curious"
[ end ]
Author: Althea 79_percent
Rating: PG-13
Form: One-shot
Fandom: SS501
Pairing: HyunSaeng
Genre: Fluff
A/N: First double S fic to see light!
Curious
"The HyunSaeng way"
It all started that one fated day when the double S boys were huddled in front of their communal PC in their living room.
Well, two out of five of the boys in particular.
"Hm."
"What?"
"Don't you find it annoying?" YoungSaeng finally asked after moments and moments of scrolling the webpage that he was scrutinising. He shifted slightly, almost falling off the chair that he shared with his companion.
"Hey, shift a little!" He gave an additional whine when he noticed that the other boy was slowly (yet surely) gaining dominance over the poor chair that had to withstand the weight of two growing teenage boys.
"Find what annoying?" HyunJoong asked, turning over to face YoungSaeng as he obliged. He shifted a little more to his left so his slightly younger companion would have more space, only to realise that half of his bottom is practically hanging in the air. "But I'm falling over too," he complained.
"Go grab your own chair."
"Too far!"
YoungSaeng gave his leader an incredulous look that would have put his impeccable royal image down the drain.
"Too far?!" He almost exclaimed, well-sculpted eyebrows rising in a flabbergasted expression. "It's just there!"
HyunJoong followed YoungSaeng's pointed finger to find another chair only about less than ten steps away from them.
"But it's more comfortable like this," he replied meekly.
Once again the young prince of the group gave HyunJoong a look before turning back to their forgotten screen, stifling an amused smile. "You're just so lazy."
HyunJoong grinned.
"So what was annoying?"
"Oh, this," YoungSaeng moved the cursor so that it made random big circles on the screen. "All these fanfics!"
"Fan- fanfics?"
The younger of the duo raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "You must have read some."
"Well... Yeah... I guess."
YoungSaeng failed to notice how the older boy was fidgeting uncomfortably in his already uncomfortable position. "I don't know, it's just that the more I read, the more I don't like them."
"Why not?"
"Because it always involves either one of us falling in love with some random girl, or getting killed in a car accident. Or us contracting some terminal illness."
For a short moment, HyunJoong stole the mouse from YoungSaeng's (delicate) hand and scanned the forum page himself, speed-reading the numerous titles involved and the short blurb that accompanied them.
"You've got a point."
"And, if it's not that..."
HyunJoong half-listened to YoungSaeng, half focusing his mind on the screen, clicking an arrow to let the next page load.
"If it's not that what?" He finally asked, noticing that his dark-haired companion was staring at the screen like he was.
"Click that link at the top of the page."
"Which?"
"That one. That sub-forum."
"This one?" HyunJoong found the pointed link and was immediately prompted for a password.
"Why would they password-protect this?"
"To protect the innocent minds," YoungSaeng answered absently as he took over the keyboard and typed strawberrypudding into the space given. HyunJoong did not ask how YoungSaeng got the password either. After pressing 'Enter', a seemingly innocent page loaded up.
"Ah!" HyunJoong gave a slight exclamation when he finally realised what page he was looking at. Almost immediately, beads of cold sweat began to form on his temples. He had a bad hunch about this whole thing.
"Yes." YoungSaeng smiled (albeit mischievously) as he looked at HyunJoong who gawked. "If it wasn't all those that I listed above, it's this."
To be perfectly honest, HyunJoong did not know how to react appropriately at the sight of the list of numerous permutation and combination of the possible pairings him and his team member could ever produce with each other. He thought he should just laugh it off, but he was too conscious that his voice would crack halfway as he found his mouth extremely dry all of a sudden. He thought he should keep quiet, but he was not sure how YoungSaeng would response to his newly found silence. As fourth-dimensional he was labeled to be, HyunJoong found it unusually and uncharacteristically hard to find a reply that would fit his ET-like personality.
After much internal battle, the leader of the popular quintet decided that a normal "oh!" would be as normal a response as was expected of him to give. Thankfully, YoungSaeng (the one and only person he did not want to notice his abrupt strangeness) did not seem to mind his lack of articulation.
"And even this, it seems like all they write is about love, love and more love. Can't they find another theme to write about?" YoungSaeng frowned.
"How- How did you know all these? Did you read all of them?"
YoungSaeng cocked his head to one side and gave his leader a quizzical look, asking back, "Don't you?"
At that (it did not matter what expression YoungSaeng wore for the leader of their team did have a very weak spot for his lead vocalist's extremely adorable face), HyunJoong finally blurted a slow "well, yeah... I guess", even if he physically found the words hard to roll out of his tongue.
Bad, bad feeling about this, he thought to himself. He should probably fake a yawn and escape to his bedroom pronto!
"So you do read them!" YoungSaeng exclaimed, his surprised face unmasked now that HyunJoong had given his affirmation to his earlier question.
"I-" The older black-haired boy tried to defend himself, but as soon as he turned to look at his companion (bad move!), he swallowed his own justification and muttered softly under his breath, "Well.. Yes, a little bit."
He really should learn how to be immune to YoungSaeng.
"What did you think of it?"
"Of what?"
"These pairings."
"Oh."
For a moment, they were silent. HyunJoong was busy thinking of an in-character answer so as to mask his own fluster whereas YoungSaeng, on the other hand, seemed to be more occupied with skimming through the pages of that particular subforum.
"It's hard to imagine, though, for me."
"What's hard to imagine?" HyunJoong was more than just relieved when YoungSaeng broke the (awkward) silence. Their young prince seemed quite talkative that night, he observed happily.
"HyungJoon liking me that way."
"Why not?" HyunJoong asked back, suddenly very, very interested. He was, well, he had always been interested in knowing what his members think of these pairings, but he never had a chance to really ask and delve into the issue. He figured that since this rare opportunity seemed to have fallen unsuspectingly from the clear, blue- no, dark, starry sky above, he should just seize it. Especially so since this involved getting to know what YoungSaeng (the one person's opinion he genuinely was interested in knowing) actually felt about this topic.
"I don't know." YoungSaeng shrugged. "I mean I know he's all touchy and feely and he’s the baby, but that's HyungJoon for us isn't it?"
"Hmmm..." HyunJoong nodded thoughtfully in agreement.
"Even if he does seem to run around trying to kiss all of us," YoungSaeng continued with a slight chuckle as he read a line in that particular page he was reading. "But I don't think that equalise to him loving us romantically."
"Hmmm..." HyunJoong nodded even more vigorously in agreement.
"What are you 'hmmm hmmm'-ing for?" The younger persona finally laughed as he elbowed his leader, unable to suppress his amusement.
"I was just having the same sentiments!"
YoungSaeng chuckled. "What about double HJ?"
"HyungJoon and me?"
"Ooh, you're quite well versed with these terms aren't you?"
"Not as good as you," HyunJoong grinned.
For some reason, the conversation seemed to have no end. And for an equally odd reason, HyunJoong forgot about all his awkwardness (and the very reason why he thought touching this topic was dangerous) and was enjoying the quality time he had with YoungSaeng.
"So, you're saying yes to doubleHJ?"
HyunJoong seemed to ponder. "I support MinJun."
YoungSaeng spared him a glance. "Why?
"I don't know. I just do."
"I prefer KyuMin."
"MinKyu?"
"KyuMin."
"No, it's MinKyu."
"Does it matter?!"
HyunJoong stopped to think. "... No?"
"Okay."
"But I support MinJun."
"And HyunKyu?"
HyunJoong gave YoungSaeng a look. "I don't think KyuJong would appreciate that."
YoungSaeng chuckled; HyunJoong loving every moment when that smile was etched on the other's face.
"They usually go hand in hand, so why not?" He asked, turning back to his screen and randomly clicking one link. "I think KyuJongie looks up to you."
"I think he looks up to you."
"Aww, are you jealous?"
For another moment, HyunJoong was at a loss for a smart answer. Truth to be told, he did, sometimes, get a little envious of the relationship those two shared. He, however, knew better than to admit that there and then.
"I think KyuMin deserve more support," YoungSaeng added, another playful smile tugged at the corner of his lips and his fingers flew across the keyboard and typed a short (yet definitive) reply (in a pro-KyuMin thread).
"Not KyuSaeng?" HyunJoong asked, craning his neck closer to see what YoungSaeng had typed.
"KyuSaeng should remain mutually neutral so Saeng can be Kyu's love advisor."
"Hmmm..." For some reason, HyunJoong was elated as it felt as if his biggest enemy was eliminated.
"Baby doesn't get paired with Kyu much, though, I wonder why."
"I don't see that a lot either," HyunJoong piped. "Nor MinSaeng."
"Nor HyunMin."
HyunJoong thought he sensed a trend. "What do you suggest?"
YoungSaeng shrugged, tilting his head to one side and graced the other boy with an impish smile. "More fanservice?"
HyunJoong resisted the urge to:
1. Brush those obstructing strands of onyx black and/or
2. Pinch those cheeks.
He did neither though, sadly. Instead, he meekly suggested that they should probably make KyuJong and HyungJoon be roommates for once.
"We could," YoungSaeng laughed. "One day we should."
HyunJoong did not know if making them two be roommates would increase the popularity of that pairing, but somehow, he thought anything he had said or done would be worth it if it could make his favourite member smile like that.
"What about HyunSaeng, then?"
HyunJoong froze.
There and then, he (belatedly) recalled why he wanted to avoid delving into this topic in the first place.
"What about HyunSaeng?" HyunJoong replied, almost mechanically. His sympathetic overdrive making itself known as he forced himself to swallow.
YoungSaeng seemed to ponder his next words very carefully. He turned to his left and gave HyunJoong a look that the latter never managed to decipher.
"Have you ever thought of us in that way?"
The question was innocent, the voice soft, the tone rather casual, and yet the combination of those three together was enough to make HyunJoong desperately want to fake a yawn and bolt back to the room he shared with KyuJong.
"Which way?"
"The HyunSaeng way."
By then, it was rather obvious that HyunJoong was more than reluctant to answer (no one knew why) but YoungSaeng seemed extremely persistent that night. When it was too difficult for them both to ignore the fact that HyunJoong was fidgeting very awkwardly in their shared seat, YoungSaeng turned his undivided attention away from his leader and instead focused on surfing his web. HyunJoong noticed that while YoungSaeng did not press for an answer, the younger boy did not close nor divert his question either.
For a moment there and then, when the silence dragged too long for comfort, HyunJoong prayed for a distraction to appear.
And true enough, that distraction materialised in the form of an eye-rubbing KyuJong emerging from the dark corridor.
"Hyung-deul, not sleeping?" He asked, speech slightly mumbled from his deep slumber. "It's three. Don't we have to wake up at seven tomorrow?"
If he was a manhwa character, his box would light up with angels blowing trumpets and decorated with colourful confettis while he himself would tear up in gratitude at KyuJong's appearance.
But he was not. So he gracefully (as graceful as he could after that extremely awkward exchange) rose from his seat, and declared that they all should head for bed as it was way past their healthy bedtime. A pretty lame excuse, he thought for someone his calibre, but there and then, HyunJoong could not care less, and instead fled back to his room.
About fifteen minutes after lying motionless in bed, a pair of gentle footsteps told him that YoungSaeng had returned to his own bedroom and HyunJoong finally released the breath that he had been (unconsciously) intermittently holding.
As he succumbed to Sleep's gentle lullaby, HyunJoong wished he had enough guts earlier to tell YoungSaeng what he really thought of them the HyunSaeng way.
When he woke up the next day, YoungSaeng did not act any different it made HyunJoong wonder if he had just imagined whatever happened the night before. However, tight schedules and more tight schedules somehow forced that question (and the root problem) to the very back of his mind, and soon enough, it was buried in one secluded corner of his memory, camouflaged safely with whatever dust that managed to accumulate there.
Almost two years since that conversation, when HyunJoong thought YoungSaeng had forgotten all about it, the brown-haired leader was more than just surprised when one unsuspecting night, a very familiar figure (yes, it was YoungSaeng) pounced on his unsuspecting self.
One fine night in the middle of July, in their shared room in their Japan apartment, YoungSaeng self-invited himself onto HyunJoong's bed (which was rare, since usually it was the other way around).
"What's wrong, YoungSaeng-ah?"
"You know," the younger boy started with his characteristic gentle alto voice. "It's okay that you made me wait for two years, but I'm getting really, really curious now."
HyunJoong looked up at the now brunette figure lying on his bed beside him.
"We made KyuJongie sleep in the same room with JungMin once," the lead singer started. "And we realised that it wouldn't work because JungMin needs to sleep alone."
YoungSaeng did not wait for HyunJoong to respond.
"We got MinJun up when we shot Idol World. Now we made HyungJoon and KyuJong share a bedroom."
YoungSaeng had always spoken in a language that was a little difficult for him to comprehend (but strangely, this duo had spent many sleepless nights together because they were sharing stories), yet he always prided himself in being able to understand the younger brunette, with or without words. That night though, HyunJoong found it a little hard to follow YoungSaeng's train of thoughts. He first blamed it on the fact that it was almost midnight, but soon realised that had nothing to do with his muddled state of mind and the barely suppressed escalating panic.
"Between the two of us, we have established that doubleHJ, HyunMin, HyunKyu, KyuSaeng, MinSaeng and SaengJoon wouldn't work."
HyunJoong blinked when he felt YoungSaeng resting his forehead at the tip of his shoulder.
"But I still can't figure out what you think about HyunSaeng."
The last bit of YoungSaeng's medium-length rant almost fell to a whisper when he spoke the very last syllable.
HyunJoong took two minutes and forty-seven seconds to gather his thoughts and courage, manually lift YoungSaeng's head from his shoulder and gave the other boy a fleeting kiss on his cheek.
"That's HyunSaeng to me." He said, unsure of what else he could do.
YoungSaeng stared at his leader for a long, long moment before he finally blurted out.
"I waited two years just for that?"
"Well there's more if you allow me to."
YoungSaeng raised one suspicious eyebrow.
"What?"
"This." HyunJoong pulled the other boy closer and let their lips meet.
YoungSaeng (of course) did not protest.
Sometime in the middle of the night, when YoungSaeng was drifting between sleep and consciousness, he thought he heard HyunJoong say something. He was actually too sleepy to listen properly because earlier in the night (after the kiss), the two of them ended up arguing as to why it took their leader so long (two freakin' years!) to decide what HyunSaeng actually mean to him. YoungSaeng, however, decided he should probably stay up for that few seconds to listen to what his leader wanted to articulate lest the older boy made him wait for another two years to hear something that he thought was (almost) obvious.
"What did you say?" The younger brunette asked, his voice glazed with sleep as he fought with the sleeping bug parading in front of his eyes.
"Did you remember me saying I support MinJun?"
YoungSaeng nodded, barely awake by then.
"I support HyunSaeng more, though."
That night, as he let himself drift to sleep, YoungSaeng thought it would not hurt to let HyunJoong wait for one night before telling him that he felt exactly the same way.
"Curious"
[ end ]