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Jay, Sunghoon, and Sunoo were returning from a program they had to record together. While the other members were still at the company, they were told it wasn’t necessary to go back to the company with them and could go directly home and take the rest of the day off.
Sunoo leaned back in the car's backseat, exhausted but satisfied after the long day. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky a soft orange as the vehicle moved through the streets of Seoul. Jay was sitting in the front seat, scrolling through his phone, probably looking at content Engene had posted about him on Twitter, while Sunghoon, in the seat next to him, gazed distractedly out the window.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you something funny that happened during the Live the other day," Sunoo said, breaking the comfortable silence in the car. Jay and Sunghoon turned their attention to him, interested.
"Someone commented, 'Should we kiss if we’re bored?' and I just thought… why would anyone do that out of boredom? So I told them I didn’t understand it and that they shouldn’t do that, even if they’re really bored, they shouldn’t just kiss anyone," he continued, with an innocent smile that made Jay laugh.
"Did you really say that?" Jay burst into laughter. "You’re too innocent, Sunoo. It’s just a joke they make, you know, to tease."
Sunoo shrugged, not entirely understanding why someone would joke about something like that. To him, kisses were something serious, not something you did out of simple boredom.
Sunghoon, however, remained silent, biting his lower lip as he processed what Sunoo had said. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was really that strange. Was there something he wasn’t seeing?
When they arrived at the apartment, Sunoo quickly said goodbye and went up the stairs to his floor, mentioning that he wanted to rest and watch a kdrama to enjoy some of his free time. As for Jay and Sunghoon, who shared the apartment downstairs, they entered their home with the same routine as always. But that night, something was different.
Jay headed straight to his room, while Sunghoon was restless. Sunoo’s words echoed in his mind, over and over, as he sat on the edge of his bed, analyzing those words. Do people really kiss when they’re bored? He wanted to see if it was true, but there was no one else in the room except Jay, and he wasn’t going to interrupt Sunoo just to satisfy his curiosity. So, he couldn’t ignore it anymore. He went straight to Jay’s room and knocked softly until Jay told him he could come in.
Jay was adjusting one of his guitars with the same relaxed attitude as always.
"Jay…" Sunghoon began, hesitating whether to go through with what he had in mind. He was rocking back and forth, clutching the door frame of the older member’s room. But curiosity got the best of him. "Do you think we should… you know, kiss if we’re bored?"
Jay looked up from his guitar, surprised, but a mischievous smile appeared on his face as he understood Sunghoon’s intent. "Are you bored, Hoon?"
Sunghoon nodded, feeling his heart start to beat a little faster. Jay set his guitar aside. "Come here," he said, patting the empty space next to him as a sign for Sunghoon to sit beside him. Once Sunghoon slowly approached the indicated spot, Jay leaned towards him, his eyes gleaming with a hint of challenge.
"Well, I guess there’s nothing wrong with trying, right?"
And without giving him time to think, Jay closed the distance between them, his lips finding Sunghoon’s in a kiss that began with simple curiosity but soon turned into something more. Something neither Sunghoon nor Jay had anticipated.
Jay’s hands went straight to Sunghoon’s back, while Sunghoon clung to the older boy’s hair.
Sunghoon thought it felt really good, some clashing of tongues and teeth got in the way. In the middle of the kiss, Sunghoon let out a small smile; he could do this all day and be happy, it definitely took away the boredom. Jay couldn’t help it, and he began to laugh too, his forehead resting against Sunghoon’s, their noses brushing together.
"What do you think, Hoon? Is it fun?" Sunghoon just let out another small smile before diving back into Jay’s lips, capturing them again to resume the kiss.
They stayed like that for what could have been minutes or hours until they slowly pulled apart, their breaths mixing as they tried to process what had just happened. The silence that followed was heavy, filled with a tension they hadn’t felt before. Jay was the first to speak, though his voice sounded a bit more uncertain than usual.
"That… was something," he murmured, trying to break the ice. But instead of a casual response, he found himself looking into Sunghoon’s eyes, filled with a mix of surprise and something deeper, something that made Jay’s heart beat faster.
"Jay…" Sunghoon began, his voice trembling, as if he was about to say something important, something that could change everything. "I think I’ve always felt something for you. I didn’t realize it until now, until this moment."
Jay felt a lump in his throat. He hadn’t expected that confession, although part of him had wished for it for so long. It was strange how a simple kiss, something that started as a joke, could reveal so much.
"You know?" Jay responded, moving closer to Sunghoon, taking his pale hands. "I’ve always felt something for you too. I guess I never said anything because I didn’t want to ruin what we have. I didn’t want to ruin this friendship we’ve had for years, so I decided to keep these feelings to myself."
They fell silent again, but this time, the tension had dissipated, replaced by a sense of relief. The weight of years of unspoken feelings seemed to lift.
Sunghoon smiled, the most genuine smile Jay had seen from him in a long time. Seeing Sunghoon smile was one of his favorite things in life. "Maybe being bored isn’t so bad after all."
Jay chuckled softly, and without thinking twice, he intertwined his fingers with Sunghoon’s. "I think we just found the cure for boredom."
"Seems like it," Sunghoon said as he threw himself into Jay’s arms. Sunghoon wasn’t usually a very affectionate person, but he felt the need to show his happiness somehow and buried his head in Jay’s neck, breathing deeply his masculine scent, while Jay’s hands moved to his waist to pull him closer.
From that moment on, things changed between them. There were no more doubts or awkward silences. For the first time, they allowed themselves to explore what they really felt, without fear, knowing they had finally found what they had always been looking for: each other.