Everything is Pure Fiction

4.5

The room remained silent as Jooheon lifted his head from behind his pile as he finished reading his part.

Minhyuk stood up and went to one of their rooms to grab a pillow which he hugged as he sat back down. Everyone else remained seated quietly minding their own businesses with furrowed eyebrows just taking it all in.

"Where did you get this, Changkyun?" Hyungwon broke the silence, laying his hand on the youngest boy's neck.

"The internet," he replied. He pulled out a shy smile as he looked at his brother trying to look innocent. Hyungwon did not know how to respond at all. He just looked at the younger one and shook his head.

"Do you think..." Jooheon said in very hushed tones while he put his hat on his head and pulled the visor well over his eyes. His older brothers looked at him.

"Do you think that we will find love like that?" Jooheon leaned his head far back. "Do you think that kind of love is real?" He was sort of shy when he asked, but he was earnestly waiting for an answer.

"I think —" Shownu tried to answer but something started welling up in his throat.

Changkyun, who hadn't been picking his nails for a long time, started picking on it again. Shownu reached over to Changkyun and covered his hands to stop Changkyun from causing a wound. He quickly stopped.

The room grew silent again.

"I think it is possible," Shownu said. The air was getting heavy and with what he said, the room felt just a smidge lighter. "It's just that the person who deserves us has not come yet. And we are still not worthy of them. So, we wait."

He gave that reassuring smile again; that smile where his lips fall into an actual line and his cheeks rise up to a tiny bit.

"I like that," Wonho finally spoke after listening intently to everything and everyone. "We are good people. We deserve people who deserve us."

Minhyuk gave Wonho a slow but assuring nod. "I like that, Hoseok-ssi". Minhyuk said.

"I think," Wonho sat up from the couch, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees. "I think that Shownu-hyung HAS to find someone that is more or less, if not exactly, like him."

"What?" Minhyuk said with a sour face. "Like a man? Overtly manly?"

"Is a robot?" Hyungwon quickly followed.

"Eats a lot?" Jooheon joined in.

"Can stare out into space and look dumb?" Changkyun said causing all of his Hyungs to whip their heads to face him. They didn't know whether they had to scold him OR just let him be. They did the latter, but Wonho did grab hold of Chngkyun's shoulders and gave him a good shake.

"No!" Wonho cried in disbelief. "You are all rude but I am not going to correct any of you! What I meant was someone who is as caring as he is and someone who can love as much as he can love. He needs someone he can rely on and someone who can help him handle all the burdens that he has to carry."

"I agree!" Minhyuk shouted at the top of his lungs. Then he threw the pillow he was hugging and ran to Shownu to give him a hug instead.

Jooheon, seeing this, got a tad bit jealous and ran to Shownu. At first, he was trying to throw Minhyuk out but he saw no point in it and just finally squeezed himself in whatever space there was in between Shownu and Minhyuk.

Shownu pulled both of them a little bit closer cause he saw that those two needed a hug, especially Jooheon.

And then everyone wanted to join in. First it was Wonho who put his dead weight on Minhyuk, then Changkyun, then Hyungwon joined who tried to push Kihyun away before he could join the hug.

"I can't breathe," said Shownu, muffled through the pile that built up. "I guess it is my turn now."

"No!" The usual quiet Changkyun broke all expectations and screamed at the top of his lungs. He saw his hyungs bewildered, then he settled back down. "I mean, Shownu-hyung has to go last."

They all quizzically agreed.

"So who's next?"