Chapter Text
The first rule of being in a band is this: do not date your bandmates.
It’s actually probably something more along the lines of ‘play an instrument’ or ‘be able to cooperate with other musicians’. But, not dating the other members is equally as important. It can lead to prioritizing certain members over others, and in the case of a breakup, things can turn very messy very fast.
Still, the rule doesn’t stop Jiseok and Jungsu from… whatever it is, that they’re doing. They’re not dating—they don’t specifically go on dates, they don’t call each other boyfriends, they just… exist. Jiseok and Jungsu, Jungsu and Jiseok, two separate entities that are never actually separate when they’re together.
Besides, being signed under JYP Entertainment means adhering to JYP Entertainment’s rules—as much as the band likes to see just how far they can bend them before they break. Jooyeon’s ‘if you seek it, why owe you?’ wordplay was one thing, Jiseok throwing an arguably censored ‘what the fuck’ into Man in the Box a couple of times so he could proudly shout it at concerts is another, but it’s still impressive that Seungmin was able to get away with straight up saying ‘I don’t care about the crap shit’ without so much of a slap on the wrist.
Maybe it’s because they’re under Studio J before JYP Entertainment, or maybe it’s because they’re the largely forgotten band children of the company, but their misdemeanors are able to fly under the radar regardless. Which is exactly what Jiseok and Jungsu are doing regarding the JYPE dating ban—flying under the radar.
Nobody hates the mandatory three-year dating ban quite like Oh Seungmin does. If there’s anybody counting down the days until it ends, it’s him. The fact of it is very apparent when the perilla leaf debate comes up during an 02z stream, Seungmin is the first (and only) to tell Jiseok to be quiet the moment he starts saying that none of them have ever been in relationships before.
It’s not like he was wrong, either. When it comes to the band’s dating history, they were all either too busy as idol trainees to date (Jungsu and Seungmin), too much of a weird nerd to successfully pursue a high school romance (Jiseok and Jooyeon), or simply had no interest in dating in the first place (Hyeongjun). The only member who has had dating experience is Gunil, which is to be expected more than anything. Being just a regular guy growing up in the United States, going to college, it’s understandable that he would’ve dabbled with relationships here and there. His dating history back in America is the entire reason why Good Enough even exists in the first place, this specific career path wasn’t exactly on his radar so there was no reason to hold back.
So, Jiseok and Jungsu aren’t dating, because they’re under a three-year-long company-mandated dating ban. It’s only logical.
It’s also only logical that, when you live, eat, work, sleep, and breathe the same space with somebody almost every second of every day, you’re inevitably going to end up having a bond that’s deeper than just ‘guys who are in a band together’. Not necessarily in a romantic sense; they all see Gunil as a reliable older brother, regardless of his position as leader and it literally being his job to look after them. There are plenty of groups that get along in public but have next to no care for each other behind closed doors. There was even that initial concern that Hyeongjun secretly hated the band when he first joined them, though it quickly settled into the realization that he was just that introverted and needed time to get comfortable around a group of complete strangers—mostly extroverted ones at that.
Just like how everyone naturally came to depend on Gunil as an older brother, Jiseok and Jungsu naturally came to be something… more. It’s like how if you joke about something for long enough it starts to become real—Jungsu saying his favorite birthday gift was a kiss from Jiseok, Jiseok responding to a live comment asking to be Jungsu’s girlfriend by saying ‘no, he’s mine’, they stop being entirely in jest and become more indicative of their real feelings toward each other.
It may have been building for so long that the transition from ‘best friends’ to ‘more than' is seamless, but there was a definite turning point.
✦•············•✦•············•✦
It starts with Jiseok getting sick.
The routine for a regular day is like this: wake up, breakfast, go to the company, an array of solo practice, band practice, and-slash-or lessons depending on the day, lunch thrown in somewhere in the middle, go to the dorms, dinner, sleep. More often than not ‘go to the dorms’ and ‘dinner’ are switched—not just for Jiseok, not just for the band, but for pretty much everyone in the company. Even the trainees. It's just convenient to go to the cafeteria to pick up something quick and head back to work, only to go home in the early hours of the morning.
Sure, it's unhealthy. There's no denying it. But everyone does it, it comes with the job, so you learn to live with it sooner rather than later.
It's so ingrained in the job that whenever Jiseok's health starts to tank, he has a habit of just ignoring it. Rough throat? Just lay off the vocal practice. Migraine? It's what ibuprofen exists for. Tired? An energy drink will fix that. If things get dire enough, there's nothing wrong with locking yourself in your individual practice room to have a nap for an hour or two.
It's only when Gunil is shaking him awake that Jiseok realizes he's slept through the alarm he set to wake himself up from said nap.
“Jiseok-ah, were you here all night?”
Jiseok opens his mouth to respond, cringing slightly when all that comes out is a cough. Clearing his throat, he goes to try again—wait. “What do you mean all night?”
“I just got to the company, it's a bit past ten right now.” Gunil speaks gently, brushing Jiseok’s bangs out of his face while a concerned expression is painted on his own. “Shit, Jiseok, you're burning up.”
“I'm fine, hyung,” Jiseok scowls, batting Gunil's hand away so he can push himself into a sitting position. The movement makes him dizzy, and his entire body aches, but that's just what happens when you sleep on a couch instead of in a proper bed. “I just slept through my alarm last night.”
Jiseok moves to stand but is quickly humbled by his legs giving out from underneath himself, thank god Gunil was there to catch him before he could collapse completely to the ground. He gently, always so gently, lowers Jiseok to sit back on the couch, using his hands to check the temperature of Jiseok’s forehead, his cheeks, the sides of his neck once he's settled.
“I'm gonna call the manager to come take you back to the dorms.”
“Hyung, I'm fine, I just need to eat something and-”
“Jiseok.” Gunil frowns, and ah, he's switched to his leader voice now. “You need to rest, if you keep overworking yourself it's just going to get worse.”
Jiseok doesn't respond, simply sighs and slumps back into the couch cushions while Gunil steps into the hall to call their manager. No less than ten minutes later Gunil is back, lifting him princess-style to carry him out to the car. Where he'd usually complain about being manhandled so easily, Jiseok is exhausted to the point that there's little more he can do than groan and bury his face in Gunil's neck when the fluorescent lights in the hall are too bright.
At the dorm their manager helps him inside with a hand at his back, puts him to bed, and orders him to stay there unless it's absolutely necessary before leaving to return to the company.
Jiseok feels guilty, for worrying Gunil like this. It's impossible not to. He's always putting the rest of the band before himself, the moment even the slightest thing happens to any of the members Gunil is always the first to volunteer to take the blame. Even when it's entirely out of his hands, he always manages to find a way that he was somehow lacking as a leader and vows to never let it happen again.
Jiseok will have to make it up to him when he's better. For now, there's nothing he can do but sleep.
Resting is supposed to make you feel better when you've overworked yourself to the point of exhaustion, but waking up, Jiseok feels worse than he did before drifting off in the first place. It must be evening, judging by the dampened noise of his bandmates being home while also trying to keep quiet enough for him to rest.
Groaning with the effort of prying open his eyes, the first thing Jiseok sees is Seungmin crouched beside his bed like a gargoyle, causing the guitarist to jolt slightly in surprise. Seungmin isn't affected at all, simply blinking at Jiseok slowly like a house cat.
For such a hot body, the person inside Seungmin is nothing but a weirdo. It's what Jiseok thinks, at least.
“Did you eat?” Jiseok shakes his head, screwing his eyes shut at the feeling of his brain rattling around in his skull, so Seungmin stares at him for a moment longer before standing to leave. “Hyeongjun made samgyetang.”
He says it like it's a threat, like there's an underlying message of you'd better get up and eat, our Junhannie put a lot of effort into making something just for you. Jiseok has known Seungmin long enough to know that there's no actual malice behind it though. Jiseok knows that if he hasn't gotten out of bed in the next five minutes somebody will simply bring a serving directly to him. Jiseok knows that if he can't bring himself to stomach even a little bit, Hyeongjun wouldn't be offended and nobody would be upset at him for wasting food.
He does manage to drag himself out of bed and stay upright long enough to shuffle into the open living area, all but collapsing into a dining chair to rest his head on the cool wood of the table.
Hyeongjun reminds Jiseok of his mother like this, flitting around the dorm’s tiny excuse of a kitchen with his long-ish hair tied back and wearing the cute pink bunny apron the band gifted him at one point. He’s another person Jiseok will have to make it up to once he’s better—Hyeongjun didn’t have to cook for him at all, or he easily could’ve just made something simple, like jook. But no, he went all out with making a dish as complicated as samgyetang without being asked, all because Jiseok was a little sick.
Hyeongjun gently places a bowl in front of Jiseok, and when he pushes himself into a sitting position, he feels like he’s about two seconds from crying. Hyeongjun didn’t just go to the effort of cooking and plating up samgyetang for him; he’d pulled the chicken breast apart into smaller pieces and laid everything out in their own areas of the bowl so Jiseok would have an easier time eating.
It takes an embarrassing amount of effort for Jiseok to pick up his chopsticks, it’s like he lost the entirety of his grip strength over the hours he’d been asleep. It’s difficult to not let it affect his pride when he drops more pieces of chicken than he gets into his mouth, but being alone in the dorm’s sorry excuse of a dining area lightens the burden. It’s when Jiseok accidentally drops one of his chopsticks (not for the first time that evening) that Jooyeon seemingly materializes in the doorway, Nintendo Switch in hand.
“Aw, does Jiseokie need help eating his dinner?” Jooyeon coos, making his way over to poke at Jiseok’s cheek, game entirely forgotten. Glancing at the screen, it seems that he’s in the middle of battling the Elite Four of the latest Pokemon game once again.
Jiseok loves Jooyeon. He really does. They’re best friends, partners in crime, the best pair of chicken nuggets in a box. Still, that doesn’t mean there aren’t times where their difference in age seems much wider than just eight months. Jiseok isn’t completely sure if he’s just playing up his role as the youngest or if it’s just innately his personality, but from time to time, Jooyeon doesn’t know how to properly read the room.
Such as, right now.
Brushing Jooyeon off, Jiseok reaches to pick up the abandoned chopstick, only to drop it—and its partner—once again. He lets out a frustrated huff before reaching to pick them back up, but Jooyeon acts faster, snatching the pair up before Jiseok’s hand could even get anywhere near them.
He makes a great show of collecting a sizable amount of chicken and rice, holding it up to Jiseok’s face, and prompting him to ‘say ah~’.
“I can eat by myself.”
“Come on Jiseokie, let me look after you!” Jooyeon all but giggles, prodding at Jiseok’s firmly closed mouth with the end of the utensils. “Let me be your hyung tonight!”
Jiseok can feel his irritation spiking, as much as he hates for it to. Strictly speaking, Jooyeon isn’t doing anything wrong, he’s just playing around in an attempt to try and cheer Jiseok up. But between the general exhaustion, the all-over body aches, the contradictory hunger and lack of appetite, it’s only working to sour Jiseok’s mood further.
Jiseok knows he’s about to do something he regrets and snap at Jooyeon, no doubt sparking a full-on argument, but is thankfully saved by Jungsu appearing. He’s acting like he just so happened to come in to refill his water bottle at that very moment, but Jiseok knows Jungsu better than that. He can almost guarantee that Jungsu’s innate mother hen senses could feel trouble brewing, and stepped in before it was too late.
“Oh, Jooyeon-ah, there you are.” Jungsu blinks quickly, offering a small smile to the pair. “Hyung said he’s gonna go for a walk, maybe you can show him how to play Pokemon Go?”
It works like a charm, Jooyeon instantly forgetting his initial goal of helping-slash-annoying Jiseok to instead scurry off to the hyung’s room at the mere mention of an opportunity to rope somebody else into playing Pokemon with him.
Jiseok watches Jungsu make his way around the kitchen, tipping the stale water from his bottle down the drain before moving to the fridge to refill it with the faucet in the door. Either he was following through with the task to try and shake Jiseok off, or he really did need to refill it and came along at the exact right time.
“That was a lie, wasn’t it?”
“A necessary one, but yeah.” Jungsu sighs, sitting in the chair to Jiseok’s right. “Hyung’s smart, he’ll know to play along.”
Jiseok simply hums in response, leaning to rest against Jungsu, who quickly notices and scoots his chair closer so he has an easier time. Jiseok knows he should really try to keep eating, but it just seems like a herculean task for his complete lack of energy. It’s easier to just stare at the bowl and hope its contents will somehow magically make their way to his digestive system.
“You don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to,” Jungsu starts, speaking quietly so as to not startle Jiseok. “But do you need help eating?”
Jiseok thinks about it for a moment, knowing Jungsu will give him all the time he needs. On the one hand, needing to be hand-fed is one of the most embarrassing things he can think of. On the other, though, if he absolutely had to be in that position, there’s nobody he’d rather be on the other end than Jungsu. He wouldn’t want any of the younger members to do it purely from a place of pride, so that wipes out a majority of the band. And sure, Gunil is their ever-dependable hyung, but a person can be on the receiving end of ‘here goes the airplane~’ only so many times. Definitely not enough to cover an entire meal.
So, that leaves Jungsu.
“That’d be great, actually.”
Jiseok sighs, moving to sit up properly, but Jungsu stops him to instead reposition him to lean further into his side, wrapping his arm around Jiseok’s shoulders. Jungsu feeds him just like this, small bite-sized portions at a time, and doesn’t try to push Jiseok to eat more when he’s announced that the minuscule amount of food that he could stomach was already more than enough.
✦•············•✦•············•✦
Jiseok wakes up.
It’s the middle of the night, and he’s absolutely freezing.
His entire body is shivering, to a point where it’s difficult to balance as he stumbles around his and Seungmin’s bedroom, swapping his t-shirt and shorts for a long-sleeved top, a hoodie, sweatpants, fuzzy socks. It helps for a moment, but he’s freezing again within minutes.
Rinse and repeat with one extra blanket, and then another. Logically, Jiseok knows there’s no reason for him to be so cold with the layers upon layers he’s swaddled himself with, but he isn't entirely there mentally at the moment. All he knows is I’m cold, I need to get warm, how can I get warm?
Seungmin’s softly snoring in the bunk above him, which is definitely an option, but possibly not the wisest one. To start off there’s the challenge of getting into the top bunk in the first place, which, with the way his body is behaving right now, it seems more likely that Jiseok would fall off the ladder and die. And if he does somehow manage to make it up there unscathed, what then? Wake Seungmin up to ask if he can share his bed, which would definitely annoy him? And if he says no, Jiseok would just have to go back down the ladder which, again, he might fall off and die!! Alternatively, he could just crawl into Seungmin’s bed without waking him, which there’s no telling how he’d react once he wakes up to find an intruder in his space.
Regardless, it’d still mean climbing the ladder. Jiseok could die.
So, cuddling up to Seungmin is out of the question. But it doesn’t change the fact that Jiseok feels like he's about ten minutes away from turning into a human popsicle. Top bunks in general are out of the question—on account of the whole falling and dying thing, which leaves the two other bottom bunk occupants.
In the maknae’s room, it’s Hyeongjun. Sure, he’s opened up a lot in the time that the band has been together, and Jiseok’s proud to say that it almost definitely had to do with his insistence on getting through to the more introverted guitarist. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that aside from Seungmin being the source, Hyeongjun is just innately touch adverse. Would he agree to sharing the bed, given Jiseok’s condition? Almost definitely, yes. But the last thing Jiseok wants is to be burdensome or make Hyeongjun uncomfortable, so he won’t put him in that position.
As for the hyung’s room… it all comes back to Jungsu, it seems.
It’s almost laughable, really. The six of them, hand-selected by executives of a major entertainment agency, individual pieces of a puzzle that slot together perfectly into one found family. You’d expect everybody to be considered of equal value—sure, some of the members are better suited to certain situations than others. Jiseok wouldn’t go to Seungmin to duo League, in the same way he wouldn’t go to Jooyeon for style advice.
Despite that, Jiseok finds himself inexplicably drawn to Jungsu over the others, more often than not. It doesn’t matter how many convoluted excuses he comes up with, Jiseok’s base desire is to always seek out Jungsu before anybody else.
Jiseok has a lot more strength than he did at dinner time, so while the short walk down the hall to the hyung’s room feels like an absolute hike, he manages to make it there without any trouble. He slips into the room and closes the door as quietly as humanly possible, thankful that he’s wearing socks to muffle the sound of his feet against the wooden floorboards. The last thing Jiseok wants is to accidentally wake Gunil, god knows his eldest hyung barely gets enough rest as it is.
Jiseok contemplates waking Jungsu to ask if it’s alright to sleep with him, but looking over his sleeping form, he can’t bring himself to. Jungsu’s curled onto his side, holding one of his plush toys close to his chest, quiet puffs of air escaping from his slightly parted lips—it’s all very cute. It’s not like there’s really any point in waking him anyway—Jiseok already knows that there isn’t a chance in hell that Jungsu would turn him down, especially with him being sick.
Pulling back the covers, Jiseok slides into the bed, pressing himself as close to Jungsu as possible. Almost as if he can sense Jiseok’s presence, Jungsu abandons his plush, instead reaching out to pull Jiseok closer, unconsciously nuzzling his face into his shoulder.
“‘Seokie…?” Jujngsu’s voice is quiet and gravelly from sleep, so much for not wanting to wake him up.
“Sorry, hyung… I’m freezing so I figured I could steal your warmth.”
Jungsu doesn’t answer right away, so Jiseok assumes he’d just fallen back asleep, if he could even be considered awake in the first place. A minute or so passes until Jungsu inhales deeply, letting go of Jiseok to instead prop his upper body up on his elbows to look at the guitarist properly.
“You’re cold?” Jiseok nods, but Jungsu just stares down at him, reaching to push Jiseok’s hair away from his face. “Jiseok, no, you’re absolutely drenched in sweat.”
Jiseok blinks, confused. He hadn’t even realized he was sweating, but now that Jungsu has pointed it out, he can’t help but feel the way his clothes are sticking uncomfortably to his damp skin. He can’t even get a word out before Jungsu is climbing over him, out of bed, and rummaging through his wardrobe. He returns to Jiseok with nothing but one of his t-shirts—well fitting on Jungsu’s own frame, but oversized when it comes to Jiseok.
“Change into this, alright? I’ll be right back.” Jungsu speaks softly as he places the t-shirt next to Jiseok, before leaving the room. Jiseok simply stares down at the folded item of clothing, trying to get his brain to catch up with the rest of him. It feels like only a handful of seconds have passed but Jungsu is already back, placing a few items on his desk before coming to crouch down in front of Jiseok, looking him in the eye.
“Do you need help?”
“I’ll be cold…” Jiseok frowns, still trying to piece everything together. Jungsu just sighs, standing to start pulling at the sleeves of Jiseok’s hoodie, essentially stripping the guitarist.
“I know it’ll feel like you’re cold, but it's just your body trying to fight the fever. Your brain will get the message to settle down when you’re not actively trying to boil yourself alive,” Jungsu manages to peel Jiseok’s long-sleeved top away from his body now, before scrunching the t-shirt to make it easier for Jiseok to put on. “You’re the smartest person here, you should know all this.”
“I’m sorry, hyung,” Jiseok slumps, he almost feels like crying. The worst part of whatever’s going on with him right now is definitely the fog that’s settled over his brain—Jiseok knows he’s smarter than this, but he just feels so stupid and useless having to get Jungsu to help him.
“No apologizing, you can’t help it.” Jungsu lightly slaps the side of Jiseok’s thigh, before petting it a few times soothingly. “Is it okay if I take your pants off? You can say no, but it’ll help your body get to the right temperature faster.”
Jiseok blinks, a smirk slowly overtaking his features, completely forgetting that he was even upset with himself in the first place. “Wow, hyung, didn’t realize you wanted to get into my pants so bad.”
At least the fever hadn't taken away his sense of humor. Still, he stands, holding onto Jungsu’s shoulders for stability.
“Not like that, brat.”
Jungsu finishes helping Jiseok out of his sweatpants and socks, leaving him in nothing but his boxers and the oversized t-shirt, before guiding him back to lie in the bed. He doesn’t join him right away, instead going to retrieve something he’d put on his desk before returning to Jiseok, gently pushing his hair away from his face. It’s an adhesive cooling patch, which Jungsu takes great care to apply to Jiseok’s forehead.
Now that he’s finished with his self-imposed mother hen duties, Jungsu finally climbs back into the bed to settle behind Jiseok, pulling him in to hug against his front like one of his stuffed dolls.
✦•············•✦•············•✦
Jungsu continues to look after Jiseok while he’s unwell. The day after he’d crawled into Jungsu’s bunk, Jiseok wakes up alone in the dorm, with a note left on Jungsu’s desk saying that their manager would be coming to take him to the doctor later that afternoon. The diagnosis is simple enough—a regular flu, with a prescription of over-the-counter medication and a good amount of rest.
It’s actually Gunil who suggests for Jiseok to continue staying in the hyung’s room while he recovers, saying that it’ll make Jungsu’s job of playing nurse easier, opting to set up a camp bed in the living room to free up his bunk. That, and it’ll prevent Seungmin from catching the flu off Jiseok too. Even if staying with Jungsu puts him at risk of falling ill, it’s much better to have only two of the members of the band out of commission compared to four. As much as they all love Hyeongjun and Jooyeon, if the band was whittled down to just those two, there was a pretty substantial chance that nothing of importance would actually get done.
It takes a week and a half, but Jiseok gets well enough to return to work. In that time Jungsu does, as Gunil had predicted, manage to catch the flu off of him—but it doesn’t hit him anywhere close to as bad as it got to Jiseok. It’s amazing what having a healthy diet and regularly exercising can do for a person, compared to Jiseok’s affection toward fruit jellies and gaming.
Still, despite the two of them both being back to perfect health, Jiseok doesn’t make any move to actually return to the ‘middle children’ bedroom in the dorm. If he’s being honest he hadn’t even left Jungsu’s bed. The first night Gunil had moved to the living room he took their eldest hyung’s bunk, as intended, but it didn’t last long—Jungsu woke Jiseok in the middle of the night to ask to move back down to share his bunk, claiming he couldn’t sleep without him. The next night Jiseok barely even made it to the ladder before Jungsu asked him to stay with him, and the rest is history.
Jiseok’s in his solo practice studio, strumming out some vague riffs in hopes that something will stick. The band is due to start getting ready for a comeback soon, and while they have mountains of material to pull from, there’s no reason to rule out going with something new entirely. That, and they’ll have to replenish said mountains of material regardless, so… it’s always a good idea to be brainstorming when there’s nothing better to do.
“When are you going to give hyung his bed back?”
Jiseok swears he jumps a solid ten feet in his chair, thank god he actually had Snoopy’s strap slung over his shoulder because he surely would’ve dropped his beloved guitar to the floor without it. Whipping his head around, Jiseok glares at the culprit of his near-heart attack, finding one very smug Oh Seungmin, fox eyes squinting slightly with his smirk.
“What?”
“Hyung’s bed,” Seungmin starts, making himself very at home on the two-seat sofa on the other side of the room. Seems he’d reached the point in the day where he didn’t want to work anymore and needed to bother somebody else to be able to reset his brain—said ‘somebody else’ evidently being one ‘Kwak Jiseok’. “You’re not sick anymore, and Jungsu’s not sick anymore, so don’t you think you should give hyung his bed back?”
Jiseok goes to say that Gunil could have taken his bed back whenever he wanted, it’s not like he was sleeping in it anyway, but promptly clamps his mouth shut before any sound could escape. Yes, he’d been sleeping with Jungsu, so yes, Gunil’s bed had been free the entire time, but it’s not like the rest of the band actually knew about that. Seungmin simply raised an eyebrow at him, obviously he’d noticed that Jiseok was going to say something—it was either spill the beans on the whole situation, or come up with a good excuse before Seungmin starts prodding.
Or, option three: diversion.
“Aww, does Seungminnie miss me?” Jiseok coos, batting his eyelashes in the most over-exaggerated way he possibly could. “Don’t worry, Sumi, your hyungie can come back to you, it must’ve been hard being without me for so long.”
“First of all, ew,” Seungmin looks absolutely disgusted, a win for Jiseok in this situation. “You’re barely five months older than me, that doesn’t really qualify you for ‘hyungie’ status.”
“Aish, such disrespectful kids in this band,” Jiseok sighs, shaking his head. “At least Jeongin addresses all his hyungs properly, no matter how small their age gap is.”
“Secondly,” Seungmin continues, completely ignoring Jiseok. “It’s actually been quite nice not having you in the room these past few weeks.”
Oof. That hurt just a little. “Why not just ask hyung to move in with you instead?”
“What? Why?”
“I mean, if I’m really that bad of a roommate, why not?” Jiseok grumbles. Sure, he’s being petty. Sue him. “Must be, if it was nice to have me out of the room.”
“Jiseok, you know that’s not what I meant.” Seungmin sighs, reaching out with his stupidly long arms to grab Jiseok’s leg where he sits on his computer chair, making use of the rollers to pull him closer to the sofa. “It doesn’t matter who my roommate is, it’s just nice being able to get some space alone in the dorms, you know?”
Jiseok doesn’t know, actually. Before coming to the company he’d shared a room with his brother his entire life, and after that he’d always shared with somebody—both in the trainee dorms, and then when he’d moved to the band’s own dorm. If anything, the idea of having an entire room to himself was a bit daunting, there was something so comforting about being able to hear another person simply breathing and sharing his space.
Still, Jiseok nods. It’s not worth arguing over.
“Okay, well…” Seungmin pats Jiseok’s knee, standing from the sofa to leave now that he was, evidently, done bothering Jiseok. “Talk to hyung about it, yeah? I just know that if I was him, I wouldn’t want to be stuck sleeping in the living room.”
As much as he’s loath to admit it, Seungmin is right—Jiseok had invaded upon Gunil’s personal space for far longer than he was supposed to. Sure, Gunil could’ve taken his bed back at any point, it’s not like Jiseok was using it. Not that he knew that, though… it simply wasn’t fair on him, as the eldest in the band, to be forced to sleep on a camp cot in their common area of all places.
Later that evening Jiseok is carrying his bedding, unused as it was, back to his rightful bedroom when Gunil runs into him in the hall. Jiseok hadn’t found the chance to talk to him since his meeting with Seungmin earlier in the day, not that there was really anything to talk about as it was anyway. The situation was perfectly clear cut.
It’s as good of an opportunity as any, though, for Jiseok to at least mention the whole ordeal in passing. Gunil was simply so soft for his kids that he’d probably assume that Jiseok was just swapping the bedding for a new set or something.
“Oh, hyung, you can have your bed back now.”
Gunil almost looks sad, hearing Jiseok say it. Though, it’s more likely that he's simply tired after another day of whatever additional duties he has to deal with as the leader of the band on top of his regular schedule.
“You’re not going to stay with Jungsu?”
“Nah, I realized I’ve kinda overstayed my welcome,” Jiseok laughs awkwardly, had Gunil seriously just expected to never get his bed back? “It’s not fair on you to force you to stay out here on a camp bed.”
“Actually, I prefer sleeping in the living room. It reminds me of when I was in college,” Gunil reaches up to ruffle Jiseok’s hair, before plucking the bedding from his arms. He turns and starts back to his and Jungsu’s room, leaving Jiseok no choice but to follow him to continue their conversation. “And besides that, I feel more at ease knowing I’m in the middle of the apartment in case anything happens and any of you need to get to me quickly.”
“Hyung, I doubt there’d ever be any kind of emergency where any of us would need to get to you that bad.”
“You never know!” Standing in the doorway, Gunil throws Jiseok’s bedding onto the bed—Jungsu’s bunk, specifically. Huh. “‘Su has been happier lately, too, sharing with you. I think it’d be worthwhile for you guys to be roommates again.”
Huuuh.
Choosing to ignore the implications of that last statement, Jiseok makes for his—now old—room, calling thanks out to Gunil over his shoulder. He’d have to organize a time with Gunil to properly swap their belongings between the two rooms. It makes more sense for Jiseok to have his things in his new bedroom, and Gunil’s stuff will need somewhere to go to make the space, but for now it’s a matter of just grabbing his essential items that hadn’t already migrated across.
Seungmin is perched on his bunk, making it very obvious that he’d been listening to the entire exchange.”You know, if you move out, I’m going to take the bottom bunk right?”
“Sure, go for it.”
“Really? Because if you come crawling back, you’re going to have to take the top bunk.” Seungmin’s already starting to gather whatever things he keeps up there and needs for his, apparently immediate, bed swap. “You’re gonna be a top bunk boy, no matter what. No take backs.”
Jiseok huffs out a quiet laugh. Considering the way Jungsu likes to sleep, chances are he wouldn’t be getting a whole lot of use out of the top bunk in his new room as it is anyway.
“Yeah, ‘Min. I’m cool with that.”