Fanfiction [MASHIKYU]

2 - 7

Junkyu

"You are a heathen," I tell Jihoon the night after maze day in the practice room. We had some appearances on interviews and variety shows today, which was exhausting, and as if that wasn't enough we came to practise tonight as well because we have more appearances tomorrow. "An actual heathen."

"You are the heathen!" His voice has gone all squeaky. "I can't believe you think you're right. It's actually concerning, Junkyu."

"What's going on?" Junghwan asks, sitting down next to us.

I look him dead in the eyes. "Jihoon thinks peanut butter belongs in the fridge."

Junghwan scrunches up his nose. "What? No, it goes in the pantry."

"YOU ARE ALL STUPID!" Jihoon shouts as I beam and high five Junghwan. "It's peanut butter, don't tell me you put your butter in the pantry as well."

"Of course not," I say. "Butter goes in the fridge."

Jihoon looks at me like I'm the dumbest person in the world. "So then why doesn't peanut butter go in the fridge?"

He has me for a second and I start to doubt everything I believe in, but I don't let him see that. "Peanut butter is different. It's not like actual butter. It's a spread like Nutella and honey and stuff... don't they go in the pantry?" I fold my arms and stare him down.

He hesitates and I think I've won, but then; "Margarine is a spread. And yet it goes in the fridge."

I'm trying to think of my next comeback when Hyunsuk walks over and taps Jihoon on the shoulder. "Hey, should we tell them about the dorms now?"

Before getting up to talk to Hyunsuk, Jihoon grins triumphantly at me that he got the last word in. I scowl at him and Junghwan giggles.

Then I realise what Hyunsuk just said... what about the dorms? Are we moving?

I don't have to wait long to find out, because now Hyunsuk's calling everyone's attention from where we're scattered around the walls of the room, and we all bunch up closer to each other so he and Jihoon can tell us whatever they need to tell us.

"So we've been thinking," Hyunsuk starts, "and we've spoken to the staff about this and they gave us the green light... we've been thinking that maybe, since we're all doing so much work for our unit songs at the moment, that it would be best if the pairs could live together? Because right now literally no one is living with their partner."

I hadn't thought about that... I knew Mashiho and I didn't live together, obviously, but they're right— no one lives with their pair.

"How would we all feel about switching up the dorm arrangements, then?" Jihoon asks to everyone, looking all calm and professional and leader-ish despite our passionate peanut butter argument barely a minute earlier. "No one has to move if they don't want to."

I consider this proposal. Living with Mashiho... that would be... brilliant. We'd get to work more on the song, of course, and not just over phone or having to schedule time like we've been doing. And I know that's the thing I should be focusing on, but... I'm more excited at the thought of seeing him so much more every day. When I wake up and when I go to bed, he'll be there.

"I think it's a great idea," Jaehyuk says, smiling widely. I forgot about him and Asahi. I'm sure Jaehyuk's more excited than anyone with this new development.

More of us voice our agreement, and we come to a unanimous decision that we're going to move in with our pairs. We then decide that Jihoon, Mashiho and Asahi will move into our dorm with Hyunsuk, Jaehyuk and I, and Yedam, Junghwan and Jeongwoo will move into the other dorm with Doyoung, Yoshi and Haruto.

"You excited to live with me? You excited? You excited?" Jihoon asks repeatedly while we're leaving the agency, continuously bumping my hip with his.

I groan. "I didn't think about this. We are not moving our peanut butter to the fridge for you."

Jihoon then drops his voice, and we're far enough behind everyone that no one will hear. "Well, maybe you will, considering Mashiho's used to it in the fridge as well."

"You and Hyunsuk better not be embarrassing," I say in an even lower voice. "Maybe we should live in separate dorms."

He laughs. "Oh no, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this will unfold."

The way he says it makes me nervous; like Mashiho and I living together is going to change something. I think about when Hyunsuk sent me that message back when the pairs were first announced. Sure, I'm feeling closer to Mashiho now than I have in a while because of the time we're spending together and now it's about to get even more. But that doesn't mean I'm losing my senses. I'm still fully aware that nothing will ever happen between us, I'm still keeping my feelings in check. Everything's fine.

~

A few short days later, I'm sitting on the couch in the living room playing games on my laptop while Mashiho moves his stuff into my room... well, our room now. We have three rooms with bunkbeds and one with a single bed, so we have one bed extra when there's six of us living here. Previously, that had been my top bunk, but I told Hyunsuk he could have his room to himself this time.

"I would think this was you being generous, but I feel like that's not your motive," he said when I told him, giving me a knowing look that I hated.

So now Jaehyuk and Asahi are bunking together, as are Mashiho and I, Hyunsuk's alone in the room he used to share with Yedam and Jihoon's taking Junghwan's old room. I offered to help Mashiho unpack today, but he stared at me like I was insane and I figured he'd like nothing less than me ruining his intense, organised, Mashiho processes. However, my laptop is running out of charge and my charger is in my room, so I'm going to have to barge in on him for a bit.

When I push open the door to my— our— room, my jaw drops right down to the ground. I've lived in this room for a long time, and it has never looked like this.

"I... you...." I can't seem to form coherent sentences.

Mashiho winces, standing in the centre of the room with some accessories in his hands. "I hope you don't mind. It's just... it was so messy..."

He's reorganised everything. My room has always just been a clutter of stuff everywhere you look, and now, somehow, even with all his own things moved into it, it's insanely clean and tidy.

I let out a somewhat bewildered chuckle. "No, I don't mind. It was messy. I'm... just taking a moment to comprehend that this is actually my room."

I meet Mashiho's eyes and he still looks guilty. "I was going to leave your things as they were, but I just couldn't. I couldn't focus on unpacking when there was that much mess everywhere! It was bad, Junkyu. How do you live like this?" The guilt on his face is slowly replaced by genuine outrage that that's how my room was.

"It wasn't that bad!" I insist. "Jaehyuk and Jeongwoo's room was way worse than mine."

"How do any of you live like this?" Mashiho squeaks.

I lean against my wardrobe and take him in. This small, adorable boy who can't handle even the tiniest thing out of place and has just cleaned my entire room for me and will be sleeping in it with me tonight. In this moment it's like every concern I've ever had about anything lifts up and away from me, and as long as Mashiho's in this room with me, everything will be infinitely happier.

"Well, I guess I don't have to live like that anymore. Now I've got you here." I grin. "I promise I'll keep it tidy as long as you're my roommate."

He grins back at me and my heart skips a beat. "Yeah, now you've got me here." Then he checks his phone and gets a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "I'll be done in five minutes, then it's fanfiction time."