FORTE → SOONGYUHOON

Day 9

The talent show was great.

Stunned by Seungkwan and Seokmin's stunning back-to-back ballads, not a dry eye was left in the dining hall from their moving performances. Even Jeonghan, hidden in the back corner yet paying rapt attention, could be seen wiping at his eyes in between rounds of applause.

Jihoon likes to think he clapped the loudest, impressed by their skills and proud of them for putting them on display with a confidence he has yet to learn. It fills him with determination to be like them one day and move an audience the way that they can.

What really left Jihoon with butterflies, however, was Soonyoung and Mingyu hovering around him the entire time.

Normally, Jihoon would scoff at how cheerful and clingy they were. He might have even scolded them for it and told them to leave him alone.

But after a week of push and pull between the three of them and their first practice together, Jihoon only feels burning endearment for them, even when Soonyoung throws an arm over his shoulders, his free hand holding Mingyu close like a leash does an overexcited puppy.

Jihoon hasn't been able to shake them off his tail since then. Even when Joshua approached him with a few questions regarding the draft of his lyrics he submitted yesterday, the two were reluctant to leave him be. They resigned themselves to waiting for him outside when he insisted that his project was private.

Now he's lying in a hammock listening to a particularly intense game of four square occurring in the nearby parking lot.

Wonwoo, Junhui, and Vernon are relaxing in other hammocks within the same patch of trees as him while the rest of Jihoon's friends are arguing, again, about whether a ball was in or not.

It's making it hard to concentrate on writing more lyrics for his song, but it's not like he was making a lot of progress to begin with. Vernon and Wonwoo are each reading a book and Junhui has curled up and gone to sleep. Jihoon wonders if they're as bothered with the noise as he is.

After several minutes of bickering and throwing around proposals, Jihoon finally hears Soonyoung declare, "Fine! I'm out. I'm taking a break."

He doesn't expect the dancer to come striding up to his hammock with a pout and paw at him with a whine of, "Jihoonie, they were being mean to me... now I'm lonely!"

Jihoon hums, closing his notebook for good and meeting Soonyoung's eyes. He's become remarkably tolerant of Soonyoung and Mingyu petulantly seeking his attention, but he tells himself that it's because of years of doing the same with Seungcheol and Junhui.

"I'm sure they were, but you were the one who made yourself lonely by walking away," Jihoon says.

"Really?" Soonyoung chirps. Then, realizing what he said, he resorts to whining again, "You're supposed to be comforting me right now!"

Jihoon nudges Soonyoung's side with his foot and teases, "Shouldn't Mingyu be doing that?"

"Mingyu's still playing, though! I don't want to play anymore, I want to sit with you."

Sensing his next move, Jihoon hurries to stop him, "Soonyoung, wait, don't-"

But it's already too late. With a devilish grin on his face, Soonyoung starts climbing into the hammock that is far too small to accommodate both of them.

Despite Jihoon trying to shove him off the entire time, Soonyoung gets both of his knees onto the swing. Seconds afterwards as he adds his weight, he loses balance and sends the entire hammock flipping.

It's all a blur. Before Jihoon can think about how he should land, he's falling face first into Soonyoung's chest.

When he gets up the nerve to open his eyes, he's horrified to find himself laying on top of the dancer, Soonyoung having taken the brunt of the fall by flipping their positions and holding Jihoon to his body.