distilled unwavering: 5/39 (ii/ii)
(( previous))
Of course the jokes don’t stop - like Junmyeon himself joked, that’s just not who they are as people. But they all bear through it and get through the week with minimal other incident.
'Come to my house loser, we’re planning on being incredibly inappropriate at Junmyeon's thing and we need to prepare', is what Lu Han texts him the day before the match. Which is typical, the planning on being incredibly inappropriate part at least. But basketball tryouts have finished and coach is letting them out early because all the notes and comments the current regulars have offered need to be evaluated to work out who's making the cut - and Yifan manages to get tentative parole from his mom - so at least he can make it. Tao picks him up, as freshly showered as Yifan is, apparently having come straight from his training hall to get him.
"Thank you for the ride, and also you smell great," Yifan tells him, hopping into the passenger seat while pulling out his phone to call Junmyeon on the ride over. He's finally got the free time to check on how Junmyeon's doing, after all.
"It's a new shampoo," Tao says grandly, and when Junmyeon answers over the speakerphone a half a second later, Tao plucks it out of his hand with a cutesy, "And thank you."
"Tao," Yifan says warningly as Tao turns it off speaker and holds the phone to his ear with his shoulder.
Tao waves his hand at Yifan. "Shh, I'm on the phone. Mama Junmyeon! How are you? ...Yes this is Yifan's number, thank you for noticing."
"Tao."
Eventually, after regaling Junmyeon on how wushu practice went today, Tao does turn the speaker back on, but Yifan still only gets about a minute of talking time (about enough time to say 'hi' and 'how are you' and get a 'pretty good' in return) before Tao decides to get the last word in and turns it off again.
“Anyway, we won't keep you, so get some sleep and don’t stay up all night,” Tao tells him authoritatively. Yifan can’t believe his minutes are being wasted like this - except it's Tao. So actually yeah, he can.
Tao pauses for a moment. “No, you aren't allowed to talk to Yifan anymore. You’ll see him tomorrow during school, and when he comes to your thing.” He pauses again. “No, think of this like an incentive thing. The sooner you go to bed the sooner you’ll get to talk to him. Sort of like a bride before their wedding day.”
Yifan frowns and, slumping back in his seat, stares up and the ceiling of Tao's car. Ridiculous.
"Love you! Bye!" Tao says happily, turning to wink at Yifan.
“You are outrageous,” Yifan grouses when Tao finally hangs up and tosses him his phone back.
Tao winks again, and then turns his eyes back to the road, switching on his turn signal. “Don’t be surly, this is good for him.”
Yifan grumbles, nothing of coherence, just to make sure Tao knows he's not impressed, and fiddles with his phone a little.
Tao sees him out the corner of his eye, and points accusingly at him. “Don’t you dare text him."
"Why?" Yifan bats Tao's hand out his face. "And both hands on the wheel."
Tao does as he's told, but then Yifan catches his eyes in the rear view mirror looking straight at him. "Honestly?" Tao says, wriggling his eyebrows. "I think it’s more fun this way. And Junmyeon needs to be put on his toes before a big challenge to get in the zone, anyway.” He flashes Yifan a huge grin in the mirror.
Yifan snorts. “Oh my god, please stop making things up and speaking complete nonsense.”
Tao bites down on his grin and shrugs, breaking their eye contact via rear view mirror to focus on driving again. “Only if you swear not to call or text Junmyeon tonight. Come on, it'll be fun.”
"Sure Tao," Yifan says, voice full of disbelief. "It'll be loads of fun."
'I think we’re gonna be horrible at your match tomorrow, we’re gathering en masse in preparation. I am potentially being held against my will? Or something, tell Jongin's dogs I love them.' Yifan texts while Tao’s distracted at a stoplight (mainly because Tao is texting as well).
'Better stop talking to me before Tao wushus you', Junmyeon replies back immediately. 'Also I don’t believe it’s against your will, you’re all horrible all the time, so… No, Jongin's dogs will never know of your love.'
Yifan scoffs and manages to send, 'you’re a sucky boyfirnndlk,,d' as Tao snatches his phone again and throws it in the backseat. Yifan hopes, typos aside, that Junmyeon understands the message loud and clear.
(That Yifan's kind of crazy about him.)
+++
Lu Han lives alone most of the time, his parents spending large chunks of the year back in China handling the big family business back there or something, and right now he’s in that lull of living independently. Which is great for the ten other teenagers currently flitting around the place. Right now most of them are mainly going between the living room and the adjacent kitchen.
Case in point, at this present moment in time Baekhyun is marching from the living room and into the kitchen, for some reason literally yelling at the top of his lungs into a closed water bottle as he follows Yixing. Yixing is one of the few who are actually still working on their ongoing project to make signs and cheer sticks, Yifan and a freshly recovered Kyungsoo included, and he’s moving wet paint brushes from where he’s been rinsing them in the bathroom sink to where they've set up a drying rack on the counter.
“Can you not?” Kyungsoo mumbles tiredly, making no attempt to be heard over Baekhyun’s shouting. Only Yifan and Jongdae, who’s sitting back to back with Kyungsoo and is playing some kind of foot game with Minseok while they discuss who needs to take home what to make getting it to the match easiest, seem to hear him.
Minseok stops mid-sentence about putting cheersticks in his trunk (ah, so he's heard Kyungsoo too) and nudges Jongdae's foot with his own meaningfully, which warns Yifan about exactly how this is going to go down a second before it happens. He accepts this inevitable outcome, and carefully and subtly re-positions himself so he’s not directly in Kyungsoo's warpath. Sure he's been sick, Yifan reasons, but Kyungsoo seems to have mostly bounced back already. If anything, whatever is leftover from Kyungsoo's illness is only going to make him easier to agitate.
“Hey Baekhyun,” Jongdae shouts gleefully, clearly goaded on. “Kyungsoo says shut up!”
“Yeah, well Kyungsoo can kiss my ass,” Baekhyun shouts back just as gleefully, from where he’s draped over Yixing's shoulders and messing with the brushes as Yixing sets them down and organizes them. "What's he going to do? cough on me?"
Chanyeol, who’s also in the kitchen and has been pressed up next to Jongin while they've been eating Lu Han’s popcorn for the past ten minutes, looks up from his conversation with Jongin and smiles wildly, like he can’t believe Baekhyun’s just said what he’s said. Yifan notices that Jongin easily makes the switch from holding a conversation to watching Chanyeol with quiet and affectionate amusement. Jongin seems to realize he's smiling gently at the way Chanyeol is vibrating with excitement next to him, and quickly stuffs a handful of popcorn into his mouth. Interesting, Yifan thinks.
Meanwhile, as Kyungsoo begins to frown and carefully sets his ruler down, Yifan finds himself giving Minseok his own meaningful look, because really? Could someone just help with cleaning up all the art supplies? That’s all Yifan wants - and also for Tao to come back downstairs from Lu Han’s room with Lu Han and Sehun from doing who knows what and give Yifan back his phone already. Why did Yifan think that he missed all this while he was grounded?
Minseok just shrugs in silent response and peaceably looks on, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Yixing is the first to react, sniffing daintily and saying, “Big talk for someone who’s halfway across the room.”
Chanyeol bursts out laughing at that while Baekhyun instantly rises to challenge the implication. “I’m not hiding behind you - "
“And the what, like five people between you and him?” Minseok throws in casually, adding fuel to the handiwork that is undeniably his fire.
“Like that means anything,” Kyungsoo says smoothly as he stands and brushes off his jeans, then begins to move through the living room and into the kitchen, face the picture of serene.
Maybe it’s Baekhyun’s yelping and Chanyeol's incredibly boisterous laughing, Yifan thinks, that draws Lu Han back downstairs, Sehun and Tao in tow.
“I leave to trades CDs and I miss a show?” Lu Han asks cheerily as he settles down next to Minseok and immediately nestles into his side. "Huh. So what's this one about?" Minseok, who’s apparently bored with it now, only shrugs as he types away on his phone, like he didn't have a hand in creating this mess.
“You’re awful,” Yifan tells Minseok solemnly. Minseok quirks a grin at him.
When Kyungsoo finally lets Baekhyun go and goes to join Jongin at the table, reaching for the popcorn, Baekhyun slinks his way back into the living room, Chanyeol close on his trail. “I don’t deserve such horrible friends,” he whimpers as he flops onto a not-vacant spot of the couch between Sehun and Tao. Sehun obediently scoots over while rolling his eyes, and Tao squawks.
“You deserved it,” Tao says decisively when Baekhyun solidly does not move after Tao tries to shove him off the couch. “I didn't even see what happened, but you deserved it.”
Chanyeol's folding himself up on the floor next to Yifan, resting his head on Yifan's upper thigh as he all but throws himself in Yifan's lap and looks over at Baekhyun. Yifan cards his fingers through Chanyeol's hair as a gentle 'hello' of sorts.
“Why don’t you and Kyungsoo just date already?” Chanyeol says teasingly. “Since you swear this is your version of flirting.”
Baekhyun opens one eye to look at Chanyeol, and he smirks. “We can’t date, he’s too busy trying to steal your man.”
“This again?” Kyungsoo's saying from the kitchen, sounding wholly unamused. “Get new material already, Baekhyun.”
“Jongin is literally feeding you popcorn right now,” Jongdae points out carefully, as Jongin places a kernel in Kyungsoo's waiting mouth. Kyungsoo chews and sends Jongdae a so what? look from across the room, though Jongin next to him looks less at ease with this new conversation topic. “And I’m not trying to set off that ‘should Chanyeol be girding his loins from the likes of Kyungsoo’ argument again, Baekhyun,” Jongdae pauses and sends Baekhyun a look, who’s opened his mouth to say something and now is promptly shutting it without a word. “But it isn't like this point is completely baseless or anything, is all.”
“I feel like most of us are missing a larger conversation here,” Sehun says, tapping Baekhyun on the nose.
“I completely agree with that,” Yifan throws in casually, looking down at Chanyeol and giving him a questioning eyebrow raise. Chanyeol is in Yifan's lap, for crying out loud, so he isn't entirely sure if Chanyeol actually is worried about Jongin returning his affections, not when he gets that practically hanging off of someone can so easily be a cornerstone of affection in friendship. Not when Chanyeol seems to really get it best that Kyungsoo and Jongin are super close, are like the best friend kind of soulmates. Yifan also isn't sure if Kyungsoo has shared his sentiments that Jongin totally like-likes Chanyeol back with anyone else, so he’s not trying to get himself in the middle of anything by revealing that.
Chanyeol only shrugs up at Yifan, but it's hard to ignore the weird hush that's fallen over the rest of them. Everyone's trying to see how this is going to play out.
Jongin is staying quiet and still, like that'll make him less of a target, and Kyungsoo sighs - but stops letting Jongin feed him - and offers nothing either. Chanyeol is noticeably flustered, but clearly trying to hide it, as he finally takes it upon himself to say something to break the tension. “It was a joke, the four of us were joking about something earlier forever ago, it’s totally not important.”
Baekhyun, of course, can't leave anything alone: he picks up on Chanyeol's discomfort and hones in on it with a devilish grin. “Oh? So should I return the favor and tell you that you and Jongin should just date already, or…?”
Chanyeol laughs and fidgets in Yifan's lap, instead of giving Baekhyun as good as he's given out. “Oh my god, come on Baekhyun, we’re totally not - I mean, why would you even think - ”
This is an unexpected development. Even Baekhyun looks surprised at the stuttering response he's gotten. Yifan winces, grimacing, and reaches now to pat Chanyeol on the head soothingly, because seriously this is getting painful to bear witness to.
"Oh dear," Lu Han whispers quietly to Minseok, who only nods in agreement, a frown on his face. Yixing is watching silently from the kitchen, eyes more alert than usual.
Baekhyun seems to regret the uncomfortable turn this has taken, because he’s frowning too. Tao nudges him and whispers (loudly enough that everyone in the room can hear him), “Good going, way to ruin the atmosphere.”
(“What do you even know about keeping an atmosphere?” Baekhyun stage-whispers back sharply.)
Chanyeol, who has always been very good at reading and impacting atmospheres even when they aren't as blatant as this particular one, laughs loudly to break the tentative silence that threatens to bubble up again, and Yifan's grimacing even more now because he can tell it’s forced.
When Chanyeol appears to be, shockingly, lost for words and only lets his fake laughter drag on, Yifan keeps petting his head and tries to help deflect. He looks to Lu Han desperately and asks, “Uh, so do you want to order takeout and split it, or should we be getting ready to leave now?” It's desperate, but best case scenario they talk about food for half an hour instead of whatever's going on here right now. Worst case, Chanyeol can make an immediate break for it if Lu Han kicks them out.
Lu Han is surveying the scene around him with something like amazement at the swiftness of this newest development. "Yeah," he says distractedly. “Yeah, if you all want to stay I’m totally for it. You know I hate eating alone.”
Unfortunately, this attempt at deflection backfires: Chanyeol can’t go back to laughing like a maniac after this, but there’s a very long lull between Lu Han’s words and anyone suggesting what to order that highlights the stagnant pause, and how it feels like everyone’s waiting for something to happen.
Apparently the pressure is too much on Jongin, who finally hisses out, “Oh my god, fine, we’re dating okay? Like officially, and everything.”
Chanyeol bolts upright and stares wide-eyed at Jongin. Yifan winces this time because the top of Chanyeol's head has collided with his chin - ouch.
Jongin just shrugs defensively and says, to maybe the room as a whole or maybe to just Chanyeol (it’s hard to tell), “There, you happy?”
Chanyeol's actually blushing faintly, looking shocked and pleased and a tiny bit confused. “No?” He says weakly, as Jongin also starts to blush - though much more fiercely. “Jongin you didn't have to - ”
"Oh my god," Sehun says, so hushed it sounds like an exhale. Yifan agrees with the sentiment because this is fascinating to watch - even though his chin is smarting.
Jongin glares at Sehun, and then at Chanyeol again, but there isn't so much malice as there’s affectionate annoyance in his tone (which means this is definitely directed just at Chanyeol) as he grumbles, “Whatever, shut up.”
“Kiss,” Baekhyun starts to chant, the first to stumble out of his shock and Lu Han joins in easily. “Kiss, kiss - ”
“Kiss,” Minseok says. “And also I want Thai food.”
Jongin no longer looks petulant but instead like he wants to disappear on the spot. Yifan reaches over to ruffle Chanyeol's hair congratulatory (Chanyeol grins thankfully at him), all while completely understanding Jongin's retrospective regret as he looks forlornly on at them all from his place at the kitchen table. Kyungsoo's patting his shoulder comfortingly, and then throwing in his lot of, “I want Chinese.”
“Pizza!” Tao shouts emphatically, and the chants are forgotten as everyone starts to bid for dinner.
Jongin is still frowning at them in annoyance when they all have to come into the kitchen to go through Lu Han’s drawer of takeout menus to decide on food, but still -
“Kiss,” Yifan whispers conspiratorially to Jongin when he slides into the chair next to Jongin at the table, and he grins when Jongin looks at him in disbelief, expression one of utmost betrayal.
Kyungsoo snorts and claps Jongin on the shoulder again. “Yeah, good job Jongin.”
“Shut up,” Jongin moans out quietly, and Yifan tries to make it up to him by sliding the menu of the Thai place over to him for easy access, promising to pay for an extra serving of the dish he chooses.
+++
According to the 'secret Junmyeon watch network' chat they've set up, where they update each other on Junmyeon sightings and whether or not someone needs to intervene before he accidentally self-induces a heart attack, Junmyeon spends the entire school day reviewing his notes and mumbling under his breath (and occasionally fielding the student council treasurer who's trying to get some kind of okay for a fall fundraiser and is running a bunch of numbers and dates past the rest of the council). He’s not frantic, but he’s very clearly in the zone and running through last minute preparation.
In a way, Yifan's proud of him. Now that they're in the last few hours before d-day, Junmyeon's shed all his nervous energy and traded it for the much more familiar (and much more preferred) calm, 'do or die' take charge attitude.
“You’re going to do great,” Yifan keeps telling Junmyeon anyway, whenever they have a moment where they catch each other in the halls. He and everyone else have been sending him pump up texts over group chat (the normal one, that Junmyeon's part of - not the 'secret Junmyeon watch network' one that Jongdae made last night that Junmyeon explicitly and obviously is not) all day. Maybe they're all overdoing it, but Yifan would rather that than the other extreme.
Junmyeon seems to get that too. Still, he does end up shrugging them off a little by the end of the day.
“I’m fine, everyone,” Junmyeon tells them laughingly as he heads out after school for student council - to hopefully sort out that fundraiser thing and get preliminary prom junk out the way for now. The match isn't until later in the evening, and they all still have their many various extracurriculars to get to and take care of.
“Of course you’re fine,” Kyungsoo says lightly, dismissively almost. Yixing nudges him meaningfully and Kyungsoo cracks a tiny little smile, the only break in his facade. “But good luck anyway.”
“We’ll see you at six-thirty,” Yifan tells as he leans in for a kiss and Junmyeon smiles and moves to meet him halfway.
"Thank you. Please don't be so obnoxious at the match that you get kicked out, though." Junmyeon says, quite dignified and put together for someone who not even a week ago couldn't stop bouncing argument run-throughs off of any and everyone.
As they pull apart, Yifan says, “Seriously, you’re going to do great.”
“I know,” Junmyeon replies, laughing a little again. “God, is this how you feel when we go to your games? It’s sort of unbearable in a way.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head with an almost inappropriate gravitas for the situation. "Wow, the gratitude here is astounding, Junmyeon."
Yixing nods, also grave, before reaching over to swat Junmyeon on the butt. “Yeah come on, we’re trying to support you.”
Junmyeon nods, very serious and grave too, though his eyes are scrunched up with mirth. “Of course of course, and again, thank you so much for it.” Yifan can't help but flick him lightly on the forehead because he's just too much. Also, the way Yifan feels about him is too much. Everything is too much, but in a good way. In the best of ways.
Yifan manages to get one more kiss out him, sneaking in more murmurs of 'just stay calm' and 'I'm so proud of you all the time, you know.' - before Junmyeon laughs and pulls away, saying, “As much as I adore being well taken care of and looked after, I really can’t be late to council again." So Yifan lets him go only a little reluctantly, something Kyungsoo rolls his eyes at and Yixing laughs quietly into his hand about.
"Thank you," Junmyeon tells them with a wave and a kind smile. "I’ll see you tonight.”
(As predicted Junmyeon's match goes great. They have noise clappers and cheer sticks and their huge signs and Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol have painted their faces the school colors. Most of the group hollers inappropriate things, all of them stand up and stomp their feet and cheer after each of Junmyeon's turns while the rest of the audience claps politely, and at one point Tao gets into a one-sided yelling match with the debate moderator - who he keeps calling 'the ref' - for 'making bad calls'. Junmyeon, who clearly has underestimated their ability to exceed expectations in being horrible and the worst, is too embarrassed to even look at them throughout the whole thing.
Ridiculous, Yifan finds himself thinking again. They’re all truly ridiculous - every last one of them.)
next>>
Of course the jokes don’t stop - like Junmyeon himself joked, that’s just not who they are as people. But they all bear through it and get through the week with minimal other incident.
'Come to my house loser, we’re planning on being incredibly inappropriate at Junmyeon's thing and we need to prepare', is what Lu Han texts him the day before the match. Which is typical, the planning on being incredibly inappropriate part at least. But basketball tryouts have finished and coach is letting them out early because all the notes and comments the current regulars have offered need to be evaluated to work out who's making the cut - and Yifan manages to get tentative parole from his mom - so at least he can make it. Tao picks him up, as freshly showered as Yifan is, apparently having come straight from his training hall to get him.
"Thank you for the ride, and also you smell great," Yifan tells him, hopping into the passenger seat while pulling out his phone to call Junmyeon on the ride over. He's finally got the free time to check on how Junmyeon's doing, after all.
"It's a new shampoo," Tao says grandly, and when Junmyeon answers over the speakerphone a half a second later, Tao plucks it out of his hand with a cutesy, "And thank you."
"Tao," Yifan says warningly as Tao turns it off speaker and holds the phone to his ear with his shoulder.
Tao waves his hand at Yifan. "Shh, I'm on the phone. Mama Junmyeon! How are you? ...Yes this is Yifan's number, thank you for noticing."
"Tao."
Eventually, after regaling Junmyeon on how wushu practice went today, Tao does turn the speaker back on, but Yifan still only gets about a minute of talking time (about enough time to say 'hi' and 'how are you' and get a 'pretty good' in return) before Tao decides to get the last word in and turns it off again.
“Anyway, we won't keep you, so get some sleep and don’t stay up all night,” Tao tells him authoritatively. Yifan can’t believe his minutes are being wasted like this - except it's Tao. So actually yeah, he can.
Tao pauses for a moment. “No, you aren't allowed to talk to Yifan anymore. You’ll see him tomorrow during school, and when he comes to your thing.” He pauses again. “No, think of this like an incentive thing. The sooner you go to bed the sooner you’ll get to talk to him. Sort of like a bride before their wedding day.”
Yifan frowns and, slumping back in his seat, stares up and the ceiling of Tao's car. Ridiculous.
"Love you! Bye!" Tao says happily, turning to wink at Yifan.
“You are outrageous,” Yifan grouses when Tao finally hangs up and tosses him his phone back.
Tao winks again, and then turns his eyes back to the road, switching on his turn signal. “Don’t be surly, this is good for him.”
Yifan grumbles, nothing of coherence, just to make sure Tao knows he's not impressed, and fiddles with his phone a little.
Tao sees him out the corner of his eye, and points accusingly at him. “Don’t you dare text him."
"Why?" Yifan bats Tao's hand out his face. "And both hands on the wheel."
Tao does as he's told, but then Yifan catches his eyes in the rear view mirror looking straight at him. "Honestly?" Tao says, wriggling his eyebrows. "I think it’s more fun this way. And Junmyeon needs to be put on his toes before a big challenge to get in the zone, anyway.” He flashes Yifan a huge grin in the mirror.
Yifan snorts. “Oh my god, please stop making things up and speaking complete nonsense.”
Tao bites down on his grin and shrugs, breaking their eye contact via rear view mirror to focus on driving again. “Only if you swear not to call or text Junmyeon tonight. Come on, it'll be fun.”
"Sure Tao," Yifan says, voice full of disbelief. "It'll be loads of fun."
'I think we’re gonna be horrible at your match tomorrow, we’re gathering en masse in preparation. I am potentially being held against my will? Or something, tell Jongin's dogs I love them.' Yifan texts while Tao’s distracted at a stoplight (mainly because Tao is texting as well).
'Better stop talking to me before Tao wushus you', Junmyeon replies back immediately. 'Also I don’t believe it’s against your will, you’re all horrible all the time, so… No, Jongin's dogs will never know of your love.'
Yifan scoffs and manages to send, 'you’re a sucky boyfirnndlk,,d' as Tao snatches his phone again and throws it in the backseat. Yifan hopes, typos aside, that Junmyeon understands the message loud and clear.
(That Yifan's kind of crazy about him.)
+++
Lu Han lives alone most of the time, his parents spending large chunks of the year back in China handling the big family business back there or something, and right now he’s in that lull of living independently. Which is great for the ten other teenagers currently flitting around the place. Right now most of them are mainly going between the living room and the adjacent kitchen.
Case in point, at this present moment in time Baekhyun is marching from the living room and into the kitchen, for some reason literally yelling at the top of his lungs into a closed water bottle as he follows Yixing. Yixing is one of the few who are actually still working on their ongoing project to make signs and cheer sticks, Yifan and a freshly recovered Kyungsoo included, and he’s moving wet paint brushes from where he’s been rinsing them in the bathroom sink to where they've set up a drying rack on the counter.
“Can you not?” Kyungsoo mumbles tiredly, making no attempt to be heard over Baekhyun’s shouting. Only Yifan and Jongdae, who’s sitting back to back with Kyungsoo and is playing some kind of foot game with Minseok while they discuss who needs to take home what to make getting it to the match easiest, seem to hear him.
Minseok stops mid-sentence about putting cheersticks in his trunk (ah, so he's heard Kyungsoo too) and nudges Jongdae's foot with his own meaningfully, which warns Yifan about exactly how this is going to go down a second before it happens. He accepts this inevitable outcome, and carefully and subtly re-positions himself so he’s not directly in Kyungsoo's warpath. Sure he's been sick, Yifan reasons, but Kyungsoo seems to have mostly bounced back already. If anything, whatever is leftover from Kyungsoo's illness is only going to make him easier to agitate.
“Hey Baekhyun,” Jongdae shouts gleefully, clearly goaded on. “Kyungsoo says shut up!”
“Yeah, well Kyungsoo can kiss my ass,” Baekhyun shouts back just as gleefully, from where he’s draped over Yixing's shoulders and messing with the brushes as Yixing sets them down and organizes them. "What's he going to do? cough on me?"
Chanyeol, who’s also in the kitchen and has been pressed up next to Jongin while they've been eating Lu Han’s popcorn for the past ten minutes, looks up from his conversation with Jongin and smiles wildly, like he can’t believe Baekhyun’s just said what he’s said. Yifan notices that Jongin easily makes the switch from holding a conversation to watching Chanyeol with quiet and affectionate amusement. Jongin seems to realize he's smiling gently at the way Chanyeol is vibrating with excitement next to him, and quickly stuffs a handful of popcorn into his mouth. Interesting, Yifan thinks.
Meanwhile, as Kyungsoo begins to frown and carefully sets his ruler down, Yifan finds himself giving Minseok his own meaningful look, because really? Could someone just help with cleaning up all the art supplies? That’s all Yifan wants - and also for Tao to come back downstairs from Lu Han’s room with Lu Han and Sehun from doing who knows what and give Yifan back his phone already. Why did Yifan think that he missed all this while he was grounded?
Minseok just shrugs in silent response and peaceably looks on, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Yixing is the first to react, sniffing daintily and saying, “Big talk for someone who’s halfway across the room.”
Chanyeol bursts out laughing at that while Baekhyun instantly rises to challenge the implication. “I’m not hiding behind you - "
“And the what, like five people between you and him?” Minseok throws in casually, adding fuel to the handiwork that is undeniably his fire.
“Like that means anything,” Kyungsoo says smoothly as he stands and brushes off his jeans, then begins to move through the living room and into the kitchen, face the picture of serene.
Maybe it’s Baekhyun’s yelping and Chanyeol's incredibly boisterous laughing, Yifan thinks, that draws Lu Han back downstairs, Sehun and Tao in tow.
“I leave to trades CDs and I miss a show?” Lu Han asks cheerily as he settles down next to Minseok and immediately nestles into his side. "Huh. So what's this one about?" Minseok, who’s apparently bored with it now, only shrugs as he types away on his phone, like he didn't have a hand in creating this mess.
“You’re awful,” Yifan tells Minseok solemnly. Minseok quirks a grin at him.
When Kyungsoo finally lets Baekhyun go and goes to join Jongin at the table, reaching for the popcorn, Baekhyun slinks his way back into the living room, Chanyeol close on his trail. “I don’t deserve such horrible friends,” he whimpers as he flops onto a not-vacant spot of the couch between Sehun and Tao. Sehun obediently scoots over while rolling his eyes, and Tao squawks.
“You deserved it,” Tao says decisively when Baekhyun solidly does not move after Tao tries to shove him off the couch. “I didn't even see what happened, but you deserved it.”
Chanyeol's folding himself up on the floor next to Yifan, resting his head on Yifan's upper thigh as he all but throws himself in Yifan's lap and looks over at Baekhyun. Yifan cards his fingers through Chanyeol's hair as a gentle 'hello' of sorts.
“Why don’t you and Kyungsoo just date already?” Chanyeol says teasingly. “Since you swear this is your version of flirting.”
Baekhyun opens one eye to look at Chanyeol, and he smirks. “We can’t date, he’s too busy trying to steal your man.”
“This again?” Kyungsoo's saying from the kitchen, sounding wholly unamused. “Get new material already, Baekhyun.”
“Jongin is literally feeding you popcorn right now,” Jongdae points out carefully, as Jongin places a kernel in Kyungsoo's waiting mouth. Kyungsoo chews and sends Jongdae a so what? look from across the room, though Jongin next to him looks less at ease with this new conversation topic. “And I’m not trying to set off that ‘should Chanyeol be girding his loins from the likes of Kyungsoo’ argument again, Baekhyun,” Jongdae pauses and sends Baekhyun a look, who’s opened his mouth to say something and now is promptly shutting it without a word. “But it isn't like this point is completely baseless or anything, is all.”
“I feel like most of us are missing a larger conversation here,” Sehun says, tapping Baekhyun on the nose.
“I completely agree with that,” Yifan throws in casually, looking down at Chanyeol and giving him a questioning eyebrow raise. Chanyeol is in Yifan's lap, for crying out loud, so he isn't entirely sure if Chanyeol actually is worried about Jongin returning his affections, not when he gets that practically hanging off of someone can so easily be a cornerstone of affection in friendship. Not when Chanyeol seems to really get it best that Kyungsoo and Jongin are super close, are like the best friend kind of soulmates. Yifan also isn't sure if Kyungsoo has shared his sentiments that Jongin totally like-likes Chanyeol back with anyone else, so he’s not trying to get himself in the middle of anything by revealing that.
Chanyeol only shrugs up at Yifan, but it's hard to ignore the weird hush that's fallen over the rest of them. Everyone's trying to see how this is going to play out.
Jongin is staying quiet and still, like that'll make him less of a target, and Kyungsoo sighs - but stops letting Jongin feed him - and offers nothing either. Chanyeol is noticeably flustered, but clearly trying to hide it, as he finally takes it upon himself to say something to break the tension. “It was a joke, the four of us were joking about something earlier forever ago, it’s totally not important.”
Baekhyun, of course, can't leave anything alone: he picks up on Chanyeol's discomfort and hones in on it with a devilish grin. “Oh? So should I return the favor and tell you that you and Jongin should just date already, or…?”
Chanyeol laughs and fidgets in Yifan's lap, instead of giving Baekhyun as good as he's given out. “Oh my god, come on Baekhyun, we’re totally not - I mean, why would you even think - ”
This is an unexpected development. Even Baekhyun looks surprised at the stuttering response he's gotten. Yifan winces, grimacing, and reaches now to pat Chanyeol on the head soothingly, because seriously this is getting painful to bear witness to.
"Oh dear," Lu Han whispers quietly to Minseok, who only nods in agreement, a frown on his face. Yixing is watching silently from the kitchen, eyes more alert than usual.
Baekhyun seems to regret the uncomfortable turn this has taken, because he’s frowning too. Tao nudges him and whispers (loudly enough that everyone in the room can hear him), “Good going, way to ruin the atmosphere.”
(“What do you even know about keeping an atmosphere?” Baekhyun stage-whispers back sharply.)
Chanyeol, who has always been very good at reading and impacting atmospheres even when they aren't as blatant as this particular one, laughs loudly to break the tentative silence that threatens to bubble up again, and Yifan's grimacing even more now because he can tell it’s forced.
When Chanyeol appears to be, shockingly, lost for words and only lets his fake laughter drag on, Yifan keeps petting his head and tries to help deflect. He looks to Lu Han desperately and asks, “Uh, so do you want to order takeout and split it, or should we be getting ready to leave now?” It's desperate, but best case scenario they talk about food for half an hour instead of whatever's going on here right now. Worst case, Chanyeol can make an immediate break for it if Lu Han kicks them out.
Lu Han is surveying the scene around him with something like amazement at the swiftness of this newest development. "Yeah," he says distractedly. “Yeah, if you all want to stay I’m totally for it. You know I hate eating alone.”
Unfortunately, this attempt at deflection backfires: Chanyeol can’t go back to laughing like a maniac after this, but there’s a very long lull between Lu Han’s words and anyone suggesting what to order that highlights the stagnant pause, and how it feels like everyone’s waiting for something to happen.
Apparently the pressure is too much on Jongin, who finally hisses out, “Oh my god, fine, we’re dating okay? Like officially, and everything.”
Chanyeol bolts upright and stares wide-eyed at Jongin. Yifan winces this time because the top of Chanyeol's head has collided with his chin - ouch.
Jongin just shrugs defensively and says, to maybe the room as a whole or maybe to just Chanyeol (it’s hard to tell), “There, you happy?”
Chanyeol's actually blushing faintly, looking shocked and pleased and a tiny bit confused. “No?” He says weakly, as Jongin also starts to blush - though much more fiercely. “Jongin you didn't have to - ”
"Oh my god," Sehun says, so hushed it sounds like an exhale. Yifan agrees with the sentiment because this is fascinating to watch - even though his chin is smarting.
Jongin glares at Sehun, and then at Chanyeol again, but there isn't so much malice as there’s affectionate annoyance in his tone (which means this is definitely directed just at Chanyeol) as he grumbles, “Whatever, shut up.”
“Kiss,” Baekhyun starts to chant, the first to stumble out of his shock and Lu Han joins in easily. “Kiss, kiss - ”
“Kiss,” Minseok says. “And also I want Thai food.”
Jongin no longer looks petulant but instead like he wants to disappear on the spot. Yifan reaches over to ruffle Chanyeol's hair congratulatory (Chanyeol grins thankfully at him), all while completely understanding Jongin's retrospective regret as he looks forlornly on at them all from his place at the kitchen table. Kyungsoo's patting his shoulder comfortingly, and then throwing in his lot of, “I want Chinese.”
“Pizza!” Tao shouts emphatically, and the chants are forgotten as everyone starts to bid for dinner.
Jongin is still frowning at them in annoyance when they all have to come into the kitchen to go through Lu Han’s drawer of takeout menus to decide on food, but still -
“Kiss,” Yifan whispers conspiratorially to Jongin when he slides into the chair next to Jongin at the table, and he grins when Jongin looks at him in disbelief, expression one of utmost betrayal.
Kyungsoo snorts and claps Jongin on the shoulder again. “Yeah, good job Jongin.”
“Shut up,” Jongin moans out quietly, and Yifan tries to make it up to him by sliding the menu of the Thai place over to him for easy access, promising to pay for an extra serving of the dish he chooses.
+++
According to the 'secret Junmyeon watch network' chat they've set up, where they update each other on Junmyeon sightings and whether or not someone needs to intervene before he accidentally self-induces a heart attack, Junmyeon spends the entire school day reviewing his notes and mumbling under his breath (and occasionally fielding the student council treasurer who's trying to get some kind of okay for a fall fundraiser and is running a bunch of numbers and dates past the rest of the council). He’s not frantic, but he’s very clearly in the zone and running through last minute preparation.
In a way, Yifan's proud of him. Now that they're in the last few hours before d-day, Junmyeon's shed all his nervous energy and traded it for the much more familiar (and much more preferred) calm, 'do or die' take charge attitude.
“You’re going to do great,” Yifan keeps telling Junmyeon anyway, whenever they have a moment where they catch each other in the halls. He and everyone else have been sending him pump up texts over group chat (the normal one, that Junmyeon's part of - not the 'secret Junmyeon watch network' one that Jongdae made last night that Junmyeon explicitly and obviously is not) all day. Maybe they're all overdoing it, but Yifan would rather that than the other extreme.
Junmyeon seems to get that too. Still, he does end up shrugging them off a little by the end of the day.
“I’m fine, everyone,” Junmyeon tells them laughingly as he heads out after school for student council - to hopefully sort out that fundraiser thing and get preliminary prom junk out the way for now. The match isn't until later in the evening, and they all still have their many various extracurriculars to get to and take care of.
“Of course you’re fine,” Kyungsoo says lightly, dismissively almost. Yixing nudges him meaningfully and Kyungsoo cracks a tiny little smile, the only break in his facade. “But good luck anyway.”
“We’ll see you at six-thirty,” Yifan tells as he leans in for a kiss and Junmyeon smiles and moves to meet him halfway.
"Thank you. Please don't be so obnoxious at the match that you get kicked out, though." Junmyeon says, quite dignified and put together for someone who not even a week ago couldn't stop bouncing argument run-throughs off of any and everyone.
As they pull apart, Yifan says, “Seriously, you’re going to do great.”
“I know,” Junmyeon replies, laughing a little again. “God, is this how you feel when we go to your games? It’s sort of unbearable in a way.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head with an almost inappropriate gravitas for the situation. "Wow, the gratitude here is astounding, Junmyeon."
Yixing nods, also grave, before reaching over to swat Junmyeon on the butt. “Yeah come on, we’re trying to support you.”
Junmyeon nods, very serious and grave too, though his eyes are scrunched up with mirth. “Of course of course, and again, thank you so much for it.” Yifan can't help but flick him lightly on the forehead because he's just too much. Also, the way Yifan feels about him is too much. Everything is too much, but in a good way. In the best of ways.
Yifan manages to get one more kiss out him, sneaking in more murmurs of 'just stay calm' and 'I'm so proud of you all the time, you know.' - before Junmyeon laughs and pulls away, saying, “As much as I adore being well taken care of and looked after, I really can’t be late to council again." So Yifan lets him go only a little reluctantly, something Kyungsoo rolls his eyes at and Yixing laughs quietly into his hand about.
"Thank you," Junmyeon tells them with a wave and a kind smile. "I’ll see you tonight.”
(As predicted Junmyeon's match goes great. They have noise clappers and cheer sticks and their huge signs and Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol have painted their faces the school colors. Most of the group hollers inappropriate things, all of them stand up and stomp their feet and cheer after each of Junmyeon's turns while the rest of the audience claps politely, and at one point Tao gets into a one-sided yelling match with the debate moderator - who he keeps calling 'the ref' - for 'making bad calls'. Junmyeon, who clearly has underestimated their ability to exceed expectations in being horrible and the worst, is too embarrassed to even look at them throughout the whole thing.
Ridiculous, Yifan finds himself thinking again. They’re all truly ridiculous - every last one of them.)
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