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1.
This is going too far, Seungcheol thinks to himself as he stares at the hook on the wall that he is certain had, at one point, a hat on it. His brand new designer hat, to be precise.
“Heya Coups, what’s up?” Jeonghan asks as he slides up to him. He nudges Seungcheol’s arm slightly.
“My hat.” Seungcheol grumbles, moving his arm so Jeonghan can link his own around it.
“What hat?”
“Exactly! That’s the problem! I got a new hat, and someone took it.”
Jeonghan just hums in reply before calmly taking out his phone and tapping away on it with just one hand. His other hand is caressing Seungcheol’s arm. It’s weirdly comforting.
Seungcheol watches from the corner of his eye as Jeonghan opens Vlive on his phone, and then turns to properly watch as he sees Hoshi is live — and wearing Seungcheol’s new hat.
“Does it look like that?” Jeonghan asks innocently.
“Again?! That’s it, where is he, I’m gonna go there and get my hat back from that sneaky little-”
“You know,” Jeonghan interrupts, not budging at all while Seungcheol tries to pull his arm out. “It’s really interesting how your new hat has a tiger print on it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear tiger print before.”
“I’m allowed to try new things.”
“Hm,” Jeonghan hums again. Then he suddenly looks up at Seungcheol with a pout and impossibly big eyes. “Coups-yah. I’m hungry. Let’s go eat chicken. I’ll even take a boyfriend photo for you to put on Instagram.”
Seungcheol has always had a weak spot for those big eyes.
The next day, he posts a photo on Instagram and Weverse. The caption is simple:
Chicken is so good.
P.S. Hoshi-ya. My hat looks good on you. Keep it.
2.
“Alright, let’s take a ten minute break!” their choreographer announces, to Seungcheol’s relief. He might not be as easily tired as some of the other members, but they’re all really pushing themselves today and he can feel the beginnings of a headache coming on.
He waves tiredly at the camera following them around while slowly dragging himself over to the table where he -
Wait.
“Hey!” he shouts, turning back towards the room where several frozen people just stare at him. “Which one of you took my snacks?”
It stays suspiciously quiet for several seconds. Then before he can start talking again, he hears the distinct sound of a candy bar wrapper crinkling.
“You!” he shouts, going up to Seungkwan who looks at him with big eyes and a mouth full of chocolate.
“It wasn’t me, really! Vernon just gave me this!” he says with a quick glance at the camera that followed Seungcheol.
Vernon cuts in quickly. “Hyung, I swear I didn’t know it was yours. It was such a big pack, and it was just sitting there, so I assumed someone had bought it to share. And Seungkwan was hungry, so-”
“Alright, alright,” Seungcheol interrupts him. “It’s okay, I do have enough to share I suppose.”
“Everyone! Coups brought snacks!” he hears Jeonghan’s voice ring through the practice room, quickly followed by lots of cheering and “thanks!” coming from all directions.
“I’ll bring something next time,” Vernon says softly. “Thanks, hyung. Seungkwan was really hungry and didn’t bring anything, you know what he’s like.” Seungcheol does. He worries about Seungkwan a lot. Though maybe not quite as much as Vernon does.
“By the way, were you aware these are some of Seungkwan’s favourite snacks?” Vernon asks him later, after the pack has been emptied and the break is almost over. They’re sitting on the floor against the mirror, watching as Seungkwan is walking around, singing dramatically to the camera.
“I didn’t know,” he lies.
3.
Out of all the members, Seungcheol ranks Dino very low on the list of “most likely to steal stuff from me.” Dino usually has too much respect for most of his hyungs - Hoshi being a notable exception.
So when Seungcheol opens his phone to see a photo of Dino on Weverse with a bowl of tteokbeokki and a ‘thanks coups-hyung for paying!’ when Seungcheol is a) nowhere near any tteokbeokki and b) definitely not paying for anyone’s food at the moment, he is, to put it mildly, confused.
Thankfully, you can always count on Dino picking up his phone when you call.
“Hyung!”
“What do you mean I’m paying for your food?” He thinks he can hear Jeonghan laughing in the background, which would explain a lot.
“Jeonghan-hyung said he got money from you, so I thought I should thank you.” Ah, there it is. “Was I wrong?” Seungcheol can hear the worry in Dino’s voice. There’s some noise coming from the speaker then, as if someone is grabbing the phone. Then Jeonghan’s voice takes over.
“Coups! Thank you for the pocket money!”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t give you any!”
“Sure you did! You gave me some last month, and pocket money is usually a monthly thing. You’re the dad of this group, aren’t you? So, pocket money!”
“You can’t just-” Seungcheol stops, feeling the beginnings of yet another headache. He’s starting to wonder whether he should go see a doctor or stop being around Jeonghan.
“I’m using it for a good cause! Someone has to feed the children, after all.”
“Can you please give the phone back to Dino?”
There’s more noise and laughing as the phone is apparently passed back.
“Hyung, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know,” Dino starts.
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault. Just enjoy the food, okay? And next time Jeonghan comes up and says he got money from me to treat you, please text me.”
“Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!” Dino says cheerily. That boy sure stopped feeling guilty very easily.
“Oh, and hyung?” Dino suddenly continues.
“Hm?”
“Remember how I said on Going Seventeen that we’re not actually Jeonghan’s puppets and he’s not as manipulative as he thinks he is?”
“Yes?”
“Well, I’m excluding you from that. You’re whipped.”
Lies and slander, Seungcheol thinks as he hangs up the phone to the sound of Jeonghan cackling. Just because he gives Jeonghan money almost without a second thought doesn’t mean he’s whipped.
Well. Technically he didn’t give it to Jeonghan. He just ran some errands with him that included getting more cash money than he really needs, while talking about how hard it is being a leader and how he wishes he had more time to treat the maknaes to food, and then left his wallet on the table at a coffee shop while going to the toilet.
4.
“I promise I didn’t have anything to do with it this time!” Jeonghan pleads, his eyes big and innocent and his hands clapped together.
“You’re telling me you didn’t set up a betting pool to see how long you can all get away with stealing stuff from me?” Seungcheol asks, trying his best to look as angry and intimidating as he possibly can (which, admittedly, is not very when Jeonghan pulls out the puppy eyes).
“I didn’t!” Jeonghan swears, barely hiding a grin. “It was Hoshi’s idea, and Wonwoo did the actual setting up. I may have given some suggestions here and there, but that’s all, really.”
“So if I go ask Dino about this now, he will also tell me you had nothing to do with it?”
“Well, Dino doesn’t know about this either. He’s too righteous and honest; he would’ve told you almost immediately,” Jeonghan shrugs. “If I may ask though, how did you find out?”
“I saw Seungkwan try to sneak into my room when he thought I wasn’t home. He kept muttering something about ‘winning a bet’ and ‘only stealing something small.’”
“Ah,” Jeonghan sighs. “Seungkwan enjoys the sound of his own voice a bit too much, I think.”
“No, I’d say he enjoys it just enough.”
Seungcheol isn’t actually all that angry, he realizes. This back and forth between him and the rest of the members has been more fun than he thought.
“Alright, let’s strike a deal,” Seungcheol suggests. He’s not sure yet what deal he’s going to make, but it’s worth it just to keep this going a bit longer and, maybe, also to see Jeonghan’s face light up like that.
5.
Seungcheol figures this is bordering on too obvious, but at this point he’s not sure it really matters anymore. After all, Jeonghan knows he knows about the bet. It’s just a matter of time before he finds out Seungcheol is leaving stuff everywhere on purpose.
So when he’s washed the t-shirt Jeonghan keeps eyeing whenever he wears it, he just accidentally leaves it behind in the dorm’s laundry room and pretends to be surprised when Jeonghan is wearing it two days later.
“Oh, is this yours?” Jeonghan has the audacity to say with an innocent face, though Seungcheol recognizes the mischievous glint in his eyes very well. “I’m sorry, I ran out of shirts and saw this one just lying there.”
“Ah, it’s fine. I have so many shirts. You can keep it. It looks better on you than it does on me.”
It really is fine, Seungcheol figures, as he looks at Jeonghan’s slim figure in the slightly-too-big shirt. Jeonghan’s worth losing a shirt.
“You know,” Jeonghan starts, the mischievous glint getting more obvious. “It might be even more fun if you start stealing stuff from the members.”
“Absolutely not.”
+1
“I know what you’re doing,” Jeonghan says by way of hello as he comes into Seungcheol’s room without knocking.
“Um. I’m lying on my couch and scrolling on social media?” It’s true. He has the whole day off and he fully intends to spend it here, on this couch, in his pyjamas, with his phone.
“Not that,” Jeonghan sighs, walking over to the couch and slapping Seungcheol’s legs. “Move your legs, I want to sit here.” Seungcheol lifts his feet up just enough for Jeonghan to sit down, then plops them back down into his lap.
“I meant with your stuff.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Seungcheol says without even looking up from his phone. He’s also not looking at his phone anymore, but he doesn’t want to let Jeonghan know that.
“You’re buying things you know the members would like and pretending it’s yours while letting them steal it.”
“I have no idea what gave you that idea.” This is a lie.
“It’s very sweet of you,” Jeonghan says softly while fiddling with the bottom of Seungcheol’s pants.
Seungcheol is not sure why his heart is suddenly beating so hard in his chest, but he decides to just ignore it for now. He sits up and scoots closer to Jeonghan.
“You think I’m sweet?” He tries to add a silly grin, and hopes Jeonghan doesn’t pick up on how nervous he is. It’s one thing to be cute and do fanservice in front of fans or cameras. It’s a whole other thing to be this close to Jeonghan when they’re alone, without any cameras around.
“You are.” Jeonghan looks at him, eyes big and soft, and, well.
Seungcheol has always had a soft spot for those eyes.
So before he can think too much about what he’s about to do, he puts a hand on Jeonghan’s cheek, leans in, and kisses him. He only just sees Jeonghan’s eyes flutter shut before he starts kissing him back.
“So I took your advice,” Seungcheol says later, leaning his head on Jeonghan’s shoulder as they cuddle together on the couch. “I stole something from you.”
“Oh?”
“I stole a kiss.”
“Oh my god, you did not just say that,” Jeonghan groans.
“Gonna steal your heart next,” Seungcheol adds while waving finger hearts in front of Jeonghan’s face.
“Are you proud of yourself yet?”
“Yes, actually. I am.”