Work Text:
The television murmured softly in the background, playing some chaotic cooking competition that nobody had actually paid attention to in the last twenty minutes. Outside, rain tapped steadily against the glass, blurring the city into a soft smear of neon lights and wet reflections.
Jaehyun was halfway through typing a reply to a text message, his thumb hovering over the screen, when Johnny suddenly let out a sigh from the other end of the couch.
It was a long, rattling, deeply exhausted sigh. The specific kind of noise usually reserved for disappointing relatives, tax audits, and losing sports teams.
"Man," Johnny said, shaking his head with an expression of profound pity. "You are down so bad."
Jaehyun didn't even look up immediately, his eyes still glued to his phone. "What?"
Across the cushions, Johnny raised a hand and pointed a finger directly at his face. "That."
Jaehyun finally lowered his phone, blinking. "That what?"
"Your face."
"My face?"
"Yes, your face." Johnny tossed another piece of popcorn into his mouth, chewing slowly as he gestured vaguely in Jaehyun's direction. "Ten texts you that he's coming home earlier than expected and suddenly you're sitting there smiling like you just got proposed to."
Instinctively, Jaehyun’s hand flew up to touch his mouth, his fingers tracing the edges of his lips. "I am not."
"You are."
"I wasn't."
"You absolutely were."
"I literally wasn't."
Johnny didn't argue. He simply stopped chewing and stared at him with a deadpan expression that screamed 'are you listening to yourself?'
The silence in the room suddenly felt heavy. Doyoung slowly glanced up from his own phone, his eyebrows raised. From the armchair, Jeno tilted his head, looking over the top of his laptop screen with sudden, sharp interest. Even Renjun, who had been completely uselessly sprawled out face-first on the area rug, slowly rolled over onto his back.
Four pairs of eyes. All of them locking onto Jaehyun at the exact same time.
Jaehyun’s defensive guard went up instantly. He frowned, looking around the circle. "What?"
Nobody answered immediately, which was somehow infinitely worse than them yelling at him. They just watched him breathe.
Finally, Renjun sat up. He did it slowly. Deliberately. Like a supreme court judge preparing to read a life-altering verdict. He crossed his legs on the rug and pointed a finger straight at Jaehyun.
"Okay."
Doyoung’s eyes widened, and he immediately pointed right back at Renjun. "No."
"Yes," Renjun countered, his voice flat.
"No."
"Yes."
"Renjun, don't," Doyoung warned, rubbing his temples.
"I'm serious."
The living room collectively erupted into a chorus of groans. Jaehyun shifted uncomfortably on the couch, a sudden spike of genuine nervousness hitting his chest. Renjun only ever got that specific, glittering look in his eyes when he was about to become completely unbearable.
"You're doing the thing again," Renjun said, leaning forward on his knees.
"What thing?" Jaehyun snapped, defensive.
"The thing where you look at us like we're all stupid."
Jaehyun shrugged, his dimples flashing with a trace of arrogance. "Because you are."
"See?" Renjun shouted dramatically, turning to the rest of the room as if presenting evidence to a jury. "That! Exactly that!"
"That doesn't even make sense," Jaehyun muttered.
"It makes perfect sense."
"No, it doesn't."
Renjun dropped his head back, letting out a breath with the exhausted energy of a man completely abandoned by God. "I genuinely cannot do this anymore."
Jaehyun blinked, entirely bewildered. "Do what?"
"This." Renjun waved both of his hands aggressively in Jaehyun’s direction, encompassing his entire physical existence. "Watching you."
The room dissolved into absolute chaos. Johnny folded forward, burying his face in a throw pillow as he started laughing out loud. Doyoung hid his face in his hands, muttering prayers into his palms. Jeno closed his laptop halfway, looking thoroughly delighted by the impending trainwreck.
Jaehyun, however, just looked deeply offended. "Watching me what?"
"Be in love with my cousin."
The silence that followed the statement was incredibly brief. Mostly because Jaehyun broke it by laughing.
He laughed hard. A loud, breathy sound that bounced off the apartment walls. He wasn't laughing because the accusation was genuinely funny; he was laughing because the alternative was admitting that his friends had completely lost their minds.
This wasn't even a new conspiracy theory. For years now, the people closest to him had been fiercely insisting that he harbored secret, burning feelings for Ten. Johnny, Doyoung, Jeno, and now Renjun. It was especially insulting coming from Renjun, considering the guy was Ten’s actual flesh-and-blood cousin and should theoretically have more loyalty.
Unfortunately, he didn't. None of them did.
Ten was his best friend. They had known each other forever. That was the beginning, middle, and end of the discussion. Case closed.
Besides, the logic was completely broken.
If Jaehyun was supposedly so hopelessly in love with Ten, then somebody should probably explain why he had spent the last decade actively supporting every terrible romantic decision Ten had ever made.
Because he had. Every boyfriend. Every girlfriend.
Every situationship that should have ended after the first date but somehow survived three months. Jaehyun had listened to all of it. The late-night phone calls. The relationship drama. The breakups. The reconciliations. The inevitable disasters.
He had sat through every single chapter. And he had never once wanted Ten to choose him instead. That felt important. Very important. Because wasn't that what being in love was supposed to be? Wanting something? Hoping for something? Being disappointed when somebody chose another person? Jaehyun had never done any of that.
He'd wanted Ten to be happy. That was it. If Ten was happy, Jaehyun was happy. Simple. So simple, in fact, that he couldn't understand why everyone kept trying to complicate it. "The point," Jaehyun declared, throwing his hands into the air, "is that all of you are completely insane."
"No," Renjun said smoothly.
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
Johnny reached into his bowl and flicked a popcorn kernel across the gap between the couches. It bounced harmlessly off Jaehyun's shoulder.
"The point," Johnny said, leaning forward with a grin, "is that you invited us over exactly thirty-two minutes after Ten announced he was going on a date."
"Because I was bored."
Four people stared at him.
Unimpressed.
Entirely unconvinced.
Jaehyun sat up straighter.
"Because I was bored."
"Sure."
"That is the truth."
"Sure, hyung."
"I hate all of you."
"We know."
Renjun reached down into his pocket, his fingers wrapping around his phone. Jaehyun’s eyes tracked the movement instantly, and he pointed a warning finger at him.
"No."
"Oh, yes," Renjun grinned, pulling the device out.
"No."
"Oh, yes."
"Renjun, I swear to God—"
"Tonight," Renjun declared, his voice cutting through the room with terrifying authority. The grin spreading across his face was so wicked it truly should have been illegal. "Tonight we settle this once and for all."
"No, we don't."
"We do."
"We absolutely do not."
Renjun tapped his screen, unlocking the phone with a decisive click. Doyoung let out one final, agonizing groan, but he didn't look away. Johnny sat up straight, dusting the salt off his hands. Jeno closed his laptop with a soft snap, setting it aside entirely. All of them were suddenly looking far too interested, their eyes locked onto the glowing blue light of Renjun's screen.
It was a terrible sign. A truly, deeply catastrophic sign for Jaehyun's sanity.
Renjun cleared his throat dramatically, the light of the screen reflecting in his eyes as his smile turned victorious.
"Twenty-seven reasons why Jeong Jaehyun is hopelessly in love with Ten."
Jaehyun stared at him. Then he slowly turned his head to look around the room, watching his friends nod in violent agreement. Then he looked back at Renjun.
The idiot had actually made a list.
"Oh my God," Jaehyun breathed, the gravity of his situation finally sinking in.
"I know," Renjun said cheerfully.
"You made a presentation."
"I made a presentation."
"Why on earth would you make a presentation?"
Renjun’s smile widened, his thumb scrolling to the very top of the document as the rain continued to beat steadily against the windows outside.
"Because evidence matters, hyung. Let's begin."
"Reason number one."
Renjun adjusted his posture on the rug and glanced down at his phone screen. "You have a key to Ten's apartment."
Jaehyun immediately scoffed, tossing his arms over the back of the sofa. "That's your opening argument?"
"He gave you a key, hyung."
"Because he loses his!" Jaehyun threw his hands up, looking around the room for a single shred of support.
"Every month," Renjun deadpanned.
"Exactly."
Johnny raised a hand from the other end of the couch, pointing a finger directly at him. "That is not helping your case, man."
"It absolutely helps my case," Jaehyun insisted, crossing his legs stubbornly.
Before he could launch into a defense about key-holder safety logistics, Doyoung cut in from his spot by the armrest. "Reason number two. You know his coffee order."
Jaehyun turned his glare toward him, his dimples flashing with sudden, arrogant confidence. "I know your coffee order, Doyoung."
"No, you don't."
"I absolutely do."
Doyoung folded his arms tightly across his chest, raising a challenging eyebrow. "What is it?"
Jaehyun opened his mouth to supply the answer.
Then he paused. His gaze drifted to the ceiling, his mind suddenly entering a completely blank void.
Then he closed it again.
The room completely exploded into noise. Johnny fell sideways against the cushions, laughing so hard his shoulders shook violently, while Renjun slapped his knee in absolute delight.
"Okay, bad example," Jaehyun muttered, his face burning a faint pink.
"Reason number three," Jeno murmured. He looked up from his phone, his tone entirely level, which Jaehyun knew from years of experience was always incredibly dangerous. "You carry his allergy medication."
Jaehyun’s defensive walls went back up instantly. "It's spring."
Nobody spoke.
"It's allergy season," Jaehyun repeated, his voice hitting a slightly higher, frantic octave.
Still, nobody spoke. Johnny, Doyoung, and Renjun just stared back at him with identical, unblinking expressions.
"He forgets it," Jaehyun tried again, his hands gesturing wildly.
Johnny stared at him, his face a mask of utter bewilderment. "He is thirty."
"Exactly," Jaehyun yelled, completely exasperated. "He should know better, but he doesn't!"
By reason five, the entire intervention had already descended into absolute, chaotic shambles. Renjun was no longer even bothering to read the digital note in order, skipping lines rapidly just to keep up with Jaehyun’s increasingly desperate, high-pitched excuses.
"You drove him to the airport at four in the morning," Renjun read off the screen.
"He had a flight!" Jaehyun shouted back.
"You bought him a luxury weighted blanket," Doyoung chimed in, checking the note over Renjun's shoulder.
"He couldn't sleep!"
"You skipped a major project meeting because his cat was sick."
"The cat was genuinely sick!" Jaehyun defended, his hands flying in the air.
The room dissolved into complete and utter mayhem. Johnny was howling, and Doyoung was hiding his face in his hands. Even Jaehyun was starting to look personally, deeply offended—not because the accusations were actually working, but because the evidence was just so terrible. Absolutely terrible.
"Is this seriously the best you've got?" he demanded, looking around the laughing circle.
Renjun looked deeply insulted, pulling his phone close to his chest. "I spent three hours making this presentation!"
"Ask for a refund," Jaehyun snapped, slumping back against the cushions.
Johnny immediately sat forward, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye as he dusted the salt off his hands. "Oh, let's do my favorite."
"No," Jaehyun groaned, rubbing his face.
"Yes."
"No, Johnny."
"Reason ten," Johnny announced, pointing a dramatic, celebratory finger from across the couch. "You remember every single person Ten has ever dated."
Finally. An easy one. An actual, normal best-friend trait. Jaehyun relaxed completely, his shoulders dropping as a wave of immense confidence washed over him. He crossed his legs, letting out a satisfied huff.
"Of course I do," Jaehyun said flatly.
The room suddenly became still. Too still.
The laughter evaporated, replaced by a heavy, suffocating quiet. Jaehyun noticed the shift instantly, his heart giving a small, nervous thud against his ribs. He immediately knew he'd made a massive mistake.
Johnny leaned forward, resting his chin in his palms, his eyes glittering in the dim light. "List them."
Jaehyun blinked. "What?"
"List them."
"Why?"
"List them, hyung," Jeno urged quietly from the armchair.
Jaehyun rolled his eyes, trying to shake off the sudden tension. "Fine. Taeyong."
Johnny nodded once. "Current."
"Blue."
"Before him."
"Taemin."
"Before him."
"Kun."
"Before him."
Jaehyun paused. His brows knitted together as his mind traveled back a few years, carefully sorting through the mental timelines. The room watched him in horrified, breathless fascination.
"Technically Jungwoo," Jaehyun added thoughtfully, nodding to himself. "But they only lasted five and a half weeks."
Silence. Absolute, terrifying silence blanketed the living room.
Johnny slowly turned his head to look at Doyoung. Doyoung simply closed his eyes and looked up toward the ceiling as if asking the universe for strength. Renjun slowly lowered his phone, his mouth slightly open.
"It was five and a half weeks?" Johnny repeated, his voice dropping into a register of genuine, deep concern.
Jaehyun didn't even hesitate. "It wasn't six."
The living room completely exploded.
But as Renjun kept scrolling, the triumphant grin slowly, steadily disappeared from his face.
"Oh," Renjun looked up from his screen, an expression of pure, unadulterated delight breaking across his face. It was, by far, the absolute worst possible reaction. "Oh, we're definitely in the good section now."
"I don't like the way you said that," Jaehyun muttered, his eyes narrowing.
"You shouldn't," Renjun chirped. He glanced back down at his phone, his thumb tapping the glass with a slow, agonizing rhythm. "Reason fifteen. You always know when Ten is lying."
Jaehyun frowned, completely unimpressed. "So? Everyone knows when their close friends are lying. It’s basic social awareness."
"No," Johnny sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he injected himself into the conversation. "Everybody definitely does not. Last month I thought Doyoung was actually on his deathbed from a seasonal flu."
Doyoung immediately looked offended, his posture tensing against the armrest. "I was sick."
"You were literally spotted at a rock concert, Doyoung," Johnny countered flatly.
"I was emotionally sick!" Doyoung argued, throwing his hands up. "The music was therapeutic!"
Despite himself, Jaehyun let out a short, breathy laugh. The sharp tension in his chest eased just a fraction, the familiar comfort of their bickering acting like a shield.
Then Renjun destroyed it.
"How many times has Ten successfully lied to you?" Renjun asked, his voice entirely level.
The answer left Jaehyun’s mouth before his brain could even think to stop it. "Three."
The room froze.
Jaehyun froze.
The syllable hung in the quiet air like a physical weight. Jaehyun’s hand stopped mid-air, a cold spike of panic hitting his stomach as he realized exactly what he had just done.
"Oh," Johnny blinked, his eyebrows shooting up. "Three?"
"Maybe four," Jaehyun mumbled, his voice dropping into a defensive, quiet register as he stared intensely at the rug.
"YOU HAVE A NUMBER?!" Doyoung shouted, leaning so far forward he nearly tumbled off his seat. "You kept a running tally?!"
Renjun immediately began typing furiously into his note app, his screen clicking loudly in the silence. Jaehyun pointed an aggressive, trembling finger at him. "Stop updating the list."
"I'm making historical annotations," Renjun said smoothly, not looking up.
"You don't need notes!"
"I absolutely do." Renjun cleared his throat, scrolling past a few lines. "Reason sixteen. You can always find Ten in a crowd."
The last trace of the defensive smile completely slipped from Jaehyun's face. Just slightly. Just enough for the warmth to leave his eyes.
Doyoung leaned back, his tone dropping its previous teasing edge, becoming unusually grounding. "Remember the music festival last summer?"
Jaehyun groaned softly, burying his face in one hand. "No."
"Yes," Doyoung insisted quietly. "We got completely separated."
The room went completely quiet. Jaehyun remembered. Unfortunately, he remembered every single detail of that night. It had been a massive outdoor festival, forty thousand people packed shoulder-to-shoulder under the dark sky, loud music blasting, and the beer lines stretching for a mile. Ten had gone to grab drinks and completely vanished into the sea of identical festival-goers.
"There were thousands of people, Jaehyun," Johnny's voice was gentler now, stripped entirely of the mockery from earlier. "Jeno and I couldn't even get cell service to check his location. We were ready to just meet back at the car. But you didn't even hesitate."
Jaehyun looked away, staring toward the dark window. "The crowd was moving in a specific direction."
"No, it wasn't," Johnny said softly, letting out a heavy sigh. "You're doing the thing again, man."
Jaehyun blinked. "The thing?"
"The thing where you try to make something completely impossible sound normal," Johnny explained, looking at him with deep, quiet pity. "You walked straight into a crowd of forty thousand strangers, took three turns, and grabbed Ten by the shoulder within five minutes. You didn't even look around. You just walked like you had a literal compass in your chest pointing directly at him."
Renjun pointed a dramatic finger from the floor. "That is exactly what he does! Every single time!" He checked his screen again, his wicked grin returning in full force. "Oh, reason seventeen. This one made me furious."
Jaehyun rubbed his temples, bracing himself. "What now?"
"You recognized Ten by his footsteps," Renjun read.
A heavy silence followed. Jaehyun blinked twice, a forced, tight laugh escaping his throat. "That's ridiculous. It's a concrete apartment building. That’s physically impossible."
"Is it?" Renjun challenged.
"Yes."
Johnny folded his arms, his eyes locking onto Jaehyun’s. "My apartment building, two weeks ago."
The room erupted immediately into a chorus of noise.
"Oh my God!" Doyoung yelled, slapping his knee.
Jaehyun groaned, throwing his head back against the cushion. "No."
"YES!" Johnny insisted, pointing an accusing finger. "You literally stood up and opened my front door before he even reached for the doorbell! The hallway outside was loud because the people next door were having a party! You didn't even look through the peephole!"
"Because the acoustics in your hallway are terrible, Johnny!" Jaehyun defended, his voice hitting a frantic, high-pitched octave as he gestured wildly. "And Ten always wears those ridiculous designer platform boots with the hard rubber soles. They make a totally distinct thud-friction sound on the tile flooring. Anyone could hear it. It’s just basic observation."
"Exactly," Doyoung chimed in, a victorious grin breaking across his face as he pointed a finger at him. "You just admitted you knew exactly which unique shoes he was wearing that day just by hearing them through a heavy wooden door. Normal friends don't catalog their buddy's footwear inventory by sound, Jaehyun."
The room became entirely silent. Again.
Johnny stared at him. Doyoung stared at him. Renjun slowly lowered his phone, his mouth slightly open.
"Oh," Renjun whispered into the quiet.
Jaehyun slowly closed his eyes, his heart giving a violent, terrifying thud against his ribs. Oh no. Because apparently, the fact that Ten dragged his left foot when he was tired wasn't a piece of information that everybody else in the world knew.
"He’s right, hyung," Jeno murmured from the armchair, holding his gaze with a small, knowing smile. "You fell right into that one. Try again."
Renjun scrolled past the next few numbers on his phone, skipping nineteen and twenty entirely as the collective momentum of the room pressed down on Jaehyun's fraying logic. He stopped at twenty-one, a sharp spark in his eyes.
"Reason twenty-one," Renjun read aloud. "Every serious relationship you've ever had ended with somebody mentioning Ten."
Nobody laughed. Nobody made a joke. Nobody even breathed loudly.
Jaehyun stared blankly at the coffee table. A memory surfaced immediately, completely uninvited and devastatingly sharp.
“I can't compete with him, Jaehyun. I’m not going to try anymore.”
Another one followed right behind it, cutting through his chest.
“Sometimes I think if it came down to it, you’d choose him over me in a heartbeat.”
And another.
“You talk about him all the time. Do you even know you’re doing it?”
Jaehyun swallowed, his throat feeling completely dry, choked with a sudden, overwhelming weight. "They were wrong," he said, the words coming out softer, more fragile than he had ever intended.
"Were they?" Johnny asked. The question wasn’t mean. It was gentle, entirely devoid of judgment, just asking a hard, necessary question.
For the first time all evening... Jaehyun didn't answer immediately. He couldn't.
Renjun grinned, the playful, sharp energy returning to his face with terrifying force. "Reason twenty-two."
Jaehyun groaned, letting his head drop heavily back against the couch cushions. "Can we not?"
"We cannot," Renjun replied cheerfully.
"Why?"
"Because this one makes me angry."
That immediately caught Jaehyun's attention. He lifted his head and frowned. "Why would my alleged feelings make you angry?"
"Because," Renjun said, sitting up straighter on the rug and locking eyes with him, "you never tell Ten no."
The room immediately nodded in perfect unison. Every single person. Even Doyoung. Traitors. All of them.
Jaehyun looked around the living room in complete disbelief. "That's not true."
"It is," Renjun insisted.
"It isn't."
"It absolutely is."
Johnny pointed a finger toward him from the other side of the couch. "Name one time."
Jaehyun blinked. "What?"
"One time you told Ten no," Johnny challenged.
Jaehyun opened his mouth to supply a dozen immediate examples. Then he paused. Then he frowned, his brows knitting together. Then he opened his mouth again. Absolutely nothing came out.
The room instantly erupted into noise.
"Oh my God!" Doyoung yelled.
"That doesn't count!" Jaehyun shouted, his face heating up.
"It absolutely counts!" Johnny laughed.
"It doesn't!"
"Then answer the question!" Renjun crowed.
Jaehyun pointed an aggressive finger at his cousin. "I have boundaries!"
The laughter somehow got even worse.
"Remember the pottery phase?" Renjun asked, leaning forward on his knees.
Jaehyun immediately groaned, covering his eyes with his hand. "No."
"Yes," Renjun insisted. "You drove forty-five minutes every single Saturday."
"He didn't want to go alone!" Jaehyun defended loudly through his fingers.
"You hated pottery, hyung," Jeno chimed in from the armchair, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. "You complained to the group chat every single week."
"That's completely unrelated!"
Johnny sat forward, slapping his palms against his knees. "The bookshelf."
Jaehyun closed his eyes immediately. A terrible sign. A truly catastrophic sign.
"The bookshelf?" Doyoung asked, looking between them.
"The bookshelf," Johnny confirmed, pointing an accusing finger at the pacing man. "It was one bookshelf."
"You learned carpentry!" Renjun shouted, throwing his hands in the air.
"It was YouTube!" Jaehyun roared back, his ears burning bright scarlet.
"You learned carpentry from YouTube because Ten wanted a custom bookshelf, hyung," Jeno said, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle.
"It wasn't custom!"
"Then why did it take three entire weekends?" Doyoung asked smoothly.
The room dissolved into a wall of laughter again. Even Jeno was shaking his head now, completely amused. Jaehyun felt personally attacked. This entire intervention was biased. Deeply biased. Potentially illegal.
"Reason twenty-three," Renjun continued.
This time, Renjun's voice softened. Just slightly. It was just enough for everyone in the room to notice, and it caused Jaehyun to sit up straight, his defensive walls instantly snapping into a tighter formation.
"You always know when Ten is upset before anybody else," Renjun read quietly.
The room quieted down immediately. There was no more laughter, no more interruptions, and no more teasing comments. Just the steady, rhythmic sound of the rain tapping softly against the dark windows outside.
Jaehyun looked away first. It was a tactical mistake, and everyone in the room noticed the way his gaze dropped to the floor.
Doyoung leaned back against his armrest. "You remember the hot pot place last winter?"
Of course Jaehyun remembered. He remembered absolutely everything about that night. He remembered the rich, savory smell of the broth, the crowded, noisy restaurant, and the heavy steam rising from the table between them. He remembered the exact way Ten had laughed the second he arrived at their table.
"He looked fine," Johnny's voice was unusually gentle now, completely stripped of the previous mockery. "He was smiling when he sat down, man."
Jaehyun swallowed hard, his throat feeling incredibly tight. "He wasn't."
The answer escaped his mouth before his brain could even attempt to erect a defense. It left him raw.
The living room became entirely still.
"He wasn't smiling," Jaehyun whispered. Nobody said a single word. Jaehyun kept his eyes locked onto a single spot on the hardwood floor. "He was trying to."
The words sounded incredibly strange out loud, echoing in the quiet of his own apartment.
"He does this thing," Jaehyun muttered, his voice dropping into a quiet, vulnerable register.
"What thing?" Jeno asked quietly from his chair.
Jaehyun hesitated. His fingers curled tighter into his jeans as he slowly lifted his right hand.
"The corner of his mouth," he said, gesturing vaguely in front of his face. He was trying to explain a secret he had kept in his head for years—a microscopic code he’d never had to put into actual words before.
Everyone stared at him. The stillness in the apartment was absolute.
"What do you mean?" Johnny whispered.
"When he's actually happy..." Jaehyun’s hand moved gently, tracing an invisible curve in the air. "It lifts evenly on both sides. His whole face opens up."
Silence.
"But when he's pretending..." Jaehyun’s hand dropped back to his lap, his voice sinking even lower. "Only the right side moves. Just a few millimeters. He forces the muscles to mimic a smile so nobody asks him if he’s okay."
Nobody spoke. Doyoung closed his eyes, and Renjun slowly lowered his phone to his knee. It was a staggering confession, much worse than any logical argument they could have thrown at him. It wasn't just intuition. It was a terrifying, deeply intimate blueprint of another human being.
"Oh my God," Johnny whispered, staring at him in genuine shock.
Jaehyun’s shoulders tensed, his defense mechanism instantly flaring up in a panic. "What?"
"You have literal charts," Doyoung said, his voice entirely devoid of mockery now. "You have micro-expression emotional charts of his face, Jaehyun."
"I do not have charts!"
"You do," Jeno murmured from the armchair, his expression incredibly soft. "You absolutely do, hyung."
Renjun swallowed hard, clearing his throat to break the heavy gravity before Jaehyun could completely spiral. He tapped his screen again, his thumb trembling slightly."Reason twenty-four."
For the first time in several minutes, Renjun wasn't smiling. He glanced down at his phone, the blue light reflecting in his eyes, before looking up to lock his gaze squarely on Jaehyun.
"Who's the first person you look for?"
Jaehyun frowned, his defensive posture instantly stiffening. "What kind of question is that?"
"A simple one," Renjun said, his voice entirely level.
"It depends."
"No, it doesn't."
"It does."
Johnny immediately pointed a finger toward him from across the couch. "See? That's the answer of somebody who already knows the answer."
"I don't," Jaehyun insisted.
"You do."
"I don't."
"Then answer," Johnny challenged.
Jaehyun groaned, rubbing his face. This intervention was becoming increasingly invasive, stripping away his logic layer by layer. "What are we even talking about?"
"Anything," Renjun shrugged, his voice dropping into a quieter, more deliberate rhythm. "A good day. A bad day. A promotion. A breakup. A birthday. A funeral."
The room grew quieter with every single example.
Jaehyun shifted uncomfortably on the cushions, his hands flattening against his knees. Because suddenly, the question didn't feel ridiculous anymore. It felt strangely, devastatingly specific.
"Who do you want beside you?" Renjun asked softly.
Nobody laughed. Nobody interrupted. Even Doyoung stayed perfectly quiet, leaning off the armrest to watch him.
Jaehyun opened his mouth to supply a casual, easy answer.
Then he closed it again.
Because the answer came immediately. Far too immediately. And that, more than anything else, was the entire problem.
Renjun noticed the split-second hesitation. Johnny noticed. Unfortunately, every single person in the room noticed.
"Oh," Renjun whispered, leaning back onto his palms. "There it is."
Jaehyun rubbed a hand aggressively over his face, his skin burning. "That doesn't mean anything."
"Hyung," Jeno murmured from the armchair, his expression incredibly soft.
"It doesn't," Jaehyun snapped, his voice tight.
"Who?" Renjun pressed.
Silence blanketed the living room. A terrible, suffocating silence.
Then—
"Ten."
The word escaped his mouth before he could even think to stop it, leaving his lungs in a sudden, sharp breath.
The room collectively groaned. Not because they were surprised by the confession, but because they weren't. Not even a single bit. Johnny dropped his head back against the couch cushion with a heavy thud. Doyoung closed his eyes, looking personally, deeply exhausted. Jeno simply nodded his head once, like a scientist finally confirming a long-standing hypothesis.
Meanwhile, Jaehyun felt his stomach violently twist into a knot.
Because this one was different. The duplicate keys, the specific coffee order, the early morning airport rides—those all had logical explanations. Those were tasks. Those were actions.
This didn't have a single defense.
Because Renjun hadn't asked who Jaehyun took care of. He hadn't asked who called him first, or who he spent the most hours with on a weekend. He had asked something infinitely worse. He had asked who Jaehyun wanted there in the dark.
And somehow... the answer had been Ten before he'd even had time to think.
Renjun scrolled farther down the note, the wild laughter returning to his eyes as he hit the next line. "Oh, reason twenty-five. This one is actual gold."
Jaehyun didn't even look up, his voice barely a murmur. "Please stop."
"Reason twenty-five," Renjun cheered, his voice bouncing off the walls. "You keep aggressively telling people you're not jealous when nobody asked."
Jaehyun’s head snapped up, a sudden surge of desperate confidence rushing through him. This was it. His biggest, most bulletproof defense. "Because I'm not! I have never been jealous of anyone Ten has dated. Not once. Ask any of them. I’m literally glad he’s happy."
The room practically exploded, the words overlapping in a relentless, perfectly synchronized attack.
"Nobody asked!" Doyoung shouted.
Jaehyun blinked, caught off guard. "What?"
"Nobody asked you if you were jealous!" Johnny repeated, leaning forward. "You volunteer that information to the group chat every single time he goes out on a date!"
"I do not!"
"You absolutely do," Doyoung countered, leaning off the wall. "Taeyong buys Ten a bouquet of roses for their anniversary."
"I wasn't jealous," Jaehyun replied instantly, an automatic reflex.
"Nobody asked!" Doyoung yelled back.
"Blue takes Ten to Bangkok for a long weekend," Renjun chimed in, checking his notes.
"I wasn't jealous. I was glad he got a vacation."
"Nobody asked!" Renjun crowed.
"Kun spends every Saturday afternoon with him at the studio," Jeno murmured from the armchair.
"I wasn't jealous!" Jaehyun shouted, his voice hitting a frantic, high-pitched octave as his dimples flared in pure panic. "They were working on a project!"
"NOBODY ASKED, HYUNG!" Jeno laughed, finally breaking his calm exterior completely.
By now, Renjun was slumped on the rug, literally crying tears of pure amusement. Doyoung had abandoned the couch entirely, walking a small circle by the kitchen counter to catch his breath. Jeno had buried his face into a throw cushion to muffle his laughter, and Johnny looked seconds away from passing out from a lack of oxygen.
And for the first time all evening... Jaehyun felt the final, heaviest crack split through his worldview.
Because now that they mentioned it... he did say that a lot, didn't he? He had spent years proactively defending his lack of jealousy to empty rooms, assuring everyone who would listen that his heart was totally fine, completely unprompted. He had been screaming his innocence into a void that hadn't even accused him yet.
The breathless laughter slowly faded, trailing off into a quiet, heavy calm. One by one, they settled back into their seats, their faces turning serious as the reality of the evening finally landed. The playful, teasing energy vanished from the apartment, leaving only the steady, rhythmic patter of the rain against the glass outside.
Renjun looked down at his phone, his thumb hovering over the screen. He slowly looked back up at Jaehyun. The triumphant, wicked grin was gone now. Completely.
"Reason twenty-six," Renjun said quietly.
Nobody interrupted him this time. Nobody made a joke, and nobody laughed. Even Jaehyun stayed perfectly still, his hands resting heavily on his knees. Because suddenly, looking at the silent, expectant faces of his four best friends... he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear what came next.
"Describe your ideal future."
Jaehyun groaned immediately, rolling his eyes as he sank deeper into the couch cushions. "What kind of question is that?"
"Just answer," Renjun said smoothly.
"Why?"
"Because I said so."
"That's not a reason."
"It is today, hyung."
The room waited. Jaehyun looked around the circle, but Doyoung was tracking a pattern on the rug, Johnny was watching him intently, and Jeno remained completely still in the armchair. Nobody seemed willing to save him. Traitors. All of them.
With a heavy, dragged-out sigh, Jaehyun leaned his head back against the sofa. "I don't know."
"Try," Jeno urged quietly.
Another sigh passed Jaehyun's lips. Then, entirely reluctantly, he muttered, "Maybe a café."
Johnny blinked, his head tilting in surprise. "A café?"
Jaehyun shrugged, his shoulders relaxing slightly as the mental image came to him. Strangely, it arrived far more easily than he expected, the details painting themselves behind his eyelids. "Yeah. Somewhere near the sea would be nice. The weather would be warm. Not too crowded. Just enough people. Good coffee. Good food. A nice view."
Silence. A weird, heavy silence blanketed the living room. Jaehyun frowned, pulling himself out of the daydream to look at them. "What?"
Nobody answered. So, assuming they were just listening, he let his mind drift back into the house. "A house. Too small for an apartment because I'd want a cat. And a dog. And a library. And probably a painting studio."
This time, the silence wasn't just weird—it was immediate, complete, and absolute.
Jaehyun blinked, looking around the frozen circle. "What?"
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Finally, Johnny leaned forward, asking the question with terrifying care. "A painting studio?"
Jaehyun frowned. "Yeah."
"You don't paint."
Jaehyun opened his mouth to argue, closed it, and stared into space. "...that's true."
The room completely exploded.
"YOU DON'T PAINT!" Doyoung shouted, throwing his hands in the air.
"I KNOW!" Jaehyun roared back, his face instantly flushing a hot, rapid crimson.
"THEN WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU NEED A STUDIO?!" Renjun crowed from the floor.
Jaehyun opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Absolutely nothing came out. Because honestly? He didn't know. The image had simply always been there, resting quietly in the back of his mind for years.
The living room slowly went quiet again, the frantic energy dying down into something heavy and profound.
"You hate warm weather, too," Doyoung pointed out softly, pointing a firm finger toward the dark, freezing eight-degree window.
The apartment was starting to feel very small. Very uncomfortable. Very dangerous. But Jaehyun kept his chin up, stubbornly holding onto the remnants of his logic.
Nobody spoke for a long moment. Then, Jeno leaned back in his armchair, looking at Jaehyun carefully.
"You know what's weird?"
Jaehyun frowned, his brows knitting together. "What?"
"Every person you've ever dated has been different." The room remained silent. "Different jobs, different personalities, different hobbies."
Jaehyun frowned harder. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Jeno shrugged. "A lot, actually." His gaze drifted toward the future Jaehyun had just described. "Because no matter who you're dating, that future never changes." Something tightened painfully inside Jaehyun's chest.
Jeno continued. "Your partners change." The words landed softly. "They come and go. Relationships end, You move on." Jaehyun swallowed hard. "But somehow..." Jeno paused. "Ten never does." The room became impossibly quiet.
Nobody interrupted. Nobody joked. Nobody tried to soften the blow. Because for the first time all night, nobody needed to.
Jeno nodded toward him. "Do you realize now Hyung, the café was his. The warm weather was his. The painting studio was his." Another pause. "Somewhere along the way, they became yours too."
Jaehyun's stomach dropped. Not because the words were cruel. Because they were true. Terrifyingly true.
Jeno's expression softened. Just slightly. "That's why your exes always said they couldn't compete." The words echoed through the room. "Everyone else is interchangeable."
Jaehyun wanted to argue. Wanted to disagree. Wanted to tell Jeno he was being ridiculous. But he couldn't. Not anymore.
"Ten isn't." Then Jeno smiled sadly. "Your partners are visitors, hyung." A beat passed. "Ten is the house." A small, sharp gasp escaped Jaehyun's throat. The words hit him with the force of a physical blow.
It didn't prove romance nor jealousy. It proved something infinitely more terrifying. Permanence.
Ten, talking about opening a tiny boutique café someday. Ten, loudly insisting that he was going to retire somewhere tropical. Ten, complaining that city apartments were too small to hold multiple pets. Ten, sketching a blueprint in a notebook of a dream painting studio with massive floor-to-ceiling windows.
Ten. Ten. Ten. Ten.
A decade's worth of conversations. Tiny ones. Forgettable ones. The exact kind of casual late-night conversations people usually lost to time. Except somehow… Jaehyun hadn't lost a single one.
The realization arrived slowly like a tide. Quiet, relentless, unavoidable. Because he hadn't copied Ten's dream. And he hadn't spent years carefully building his own. Somewhere along the way—without him ever noticing—the two dreams had simply become the same thing.
Now, Jaehyun couldn't find a logical explanation. Couldn't find a defense. Couldn't find a way out. He was too busy staring at the future he had imagined for years... and wondering when Ten had become the foundation holding all of it together.
"Reason twenty-seven," Johnny said, breaking the silence so softly it almost made Jaehyun jump. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and laid it face-up on the coffee table, sliding it across the wood until it tapped against Jaehyun's knee. "The final proof."
Jaehyun slowly lowered his hands, his eyes tracking the glowing screen. Johnny tapped the glass, opening a video file.
On screen, the five of them were sitting around a campfire during their beach trip three months ago. Renjun was laughing, and Doyoung was tossing a piece of driftwood into the flames. Ten was sitting on a cooler in the center of the frame, the golden glow of the fire illuminating his face as he threw his head back in pure, unbridled laughter.
But the camera was panning, and it caught Jaehyun.
Jaehyun watched his own reflection on the screen. He was sitting completely still, a half-empty drink forgotten in his hand. He wasn't looking at the fire. He wasn't looking at Jeno or Doyoung. He was looking at Ten. The expression on his own face made Jaehyun’s breath catch in his throat. His eyes were incredibly soft, his mouth turned up in a gentle, unconscious smile, completely captivated by the simple sight of Ten breathing.
"We didn't even mean to film you," Johnny said, his voice cutting through the quiet. "We were just taking a video of the fire. But every single piece of media we have of the group for the last four years looks exactly like this. You are always looking at him like he hung the moon, Jaehyun. Every single time."
Jaehyun stared at the screen as the video looped over and over. His chest felt tight, the air suddenly scarce in the room. The walls of his denial hadn't just cracked—they had completely disintegrated.
"Shit."
Jaehyun stared at the phone. The device felt heavy against his knee, the screen glowing brightly in the dim light of the living room.
Then he looked at Johnny. Johnny didn't blink, just holding his gaze with a look of steady, unyielding quiet.
Jaehyun looked back down at the phone. On the screen, the video looped again. The campfire flickered in the background, a warm, golden aura illuminating the frame. Ten threw his head back and laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. And there Jaehyun was right next to him.
Looking at him.
Again.
"Shit," Jaehyun muttered a second time, the air suddenly feeling completely scarce in his lungs.
"Language," Johnny said automatically, leaning back against the couch cushions.
"Shut up."
"Fair."
"Shit."
From his spot cross-legged on the area rug, Renjun immediately lost it. He slapped a hand over his mouth, his shoulders shaking with the sudden, breathless energy of a man watching a historic monument collapse in real time. "Oh my God."
Jaehyun snapped his head toward him, pointing a frantic, warning finger. "Don't."
"No, please keep going," Renjun wheezed, waving a hand to urge him on.
"Don't, Renjun."
"You're literally having a breakthrough right now, hyung."
"I'm having a crisis!" Jaehyun shouted, his voice cracking slightly into a higher register as he shoved both hands deeply into his hair, gripping the strands tightly. The realization was pulling at him like a relentless tide, quiet and completely unavoidable.
He stopped pacing, his chest heaving as he looked around the frozen circle of his best friends. "How long?"
"What?" Doyoung asked, blinking up from the armrest.
"How long have you all known?" Jaehyun demanded, his voice dropping into a desperate, raw whisper.
The room instantly exchanged a series of rapid, telling glances. Johnny looked at Doyoung. Doyoung shifted his gaze to Renjun. Renjun looked at Jeno. Nobody answered. Nobody even breathed loudly. The heavy, suffocating silence blanketed the apartment, which was a massive, terrifying answer all on its own.
Jaehyun’s hands dropped from his hair, his eyes widening in pure horror. "Oh my God."
"Yeah," Johnny murmured softly from the couch.
"Oh my God."
"Yeah," Doyoung agreed, nodding his head in quiet sympathy.
"OH MY GOD."
Jaehyun turned his back to them, staring blankly at the dark, rain-streaked window. The ground floor of his denial had completely turned to dust, leaving him bare in the wreckage of his own architecture.
"I think..." he started, his voice barely a murmur against the glass.
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. The entire living room held its breath, the rhythmic patter of the rain outside sounding incredibly loud in the quiet.
"I think..." Jaehyun tried again. His voice cracked completely on the second syllable.
A sudden, sharp, disbelieving laugh escaped his throat. It was a breathless, hollow sound, because suddenly—suddenly, every single failed relationship from his past made sense. Every midnight argument, every intervention, every confusing accusation, every single unprompted defense of his lack of jealousy. Every piece of his life fell into place with a terrifying, heavy click.
"Oh my God." He covered his face entirely with both hands, his shoulders dropping in absolute defeat.
Then he groaned. It was a long, painful, deeply agonizing sound that echoed off the apartment walls.
"Oh my God," he muttered into his palms. Another heavy, miserable groan followed right behind it. He slowly lowered his hands, turning back to face the room. His ears were burning a bright, undeniable crimson, his chest tightening as he finally caught up with the rest of the world.
"I think I'm in love with Ten."
The confession hung in the quiet room, real and absolute. Jaehyun dropped back down onto the couch, looking thoroughly broken. "What do I do now?"
Johnny immediately stood up from his seat, his arms flying open in a frantic, wide-eyed, halting motion. "ABSOLUTELY NOTHING."
Jaehyun blinked up at him, completely bewildered and panicked. "What?"
"Ten has a boyfriend," Johnny pointed out aggressively, chopping the air with his hand.
"Right."
"You just discovered this information twenty seconds ago."
"Right."
"Sit down."
"Right," Jaehyun said, though he was already sitting down.
"And nobody panic," Johnny commanded, though his own posture was stiff with stress.
Jaehyun buried his face back in his hands. "I'm panicking."
"I can see that!" Johnny yelled.
"I'm serious, Johnny!"
"So am I!" Johnny fired back, pacing a small line in front of the coffee table.
Jaehyun peeked through his fingers, his eyes wide with a brand-new, terrifying thought that had just struck his brain. "What if everybody already knows?"
The words slipped out before Jaehyun could stop them. The room went quiet. Then Johnny blinked. Once. Twice. And started laughing. "Man."
Jaehyun immediately frowned. "What?"
Johnny looked around the room. Then pointed at himself. "I've known since college."
Jaehyun froze. "What?"
Johnny pointed at Doyoung. "Honestly, I thought you knew, because even Doyoung knew."
Doyoung lifted his hand. "I do."
"You knew in college?"
"Obviously."
Jaehyun stared at him in betrayal. Nobody had ever looked less apologetic.
Renjun snorted. "I figured it out after meeting you three times."
"THREE TIMES?" Jaehyun looked horrified. Then he turned toward Jeno. His own brother. His last hope. "Jeno."
Jeno didn't even pretend to think about it. "Probably after two years of being friends with Ten-hyung."
Jaehyun looked physically wounded. "TWO YEARS?"
Jeno shrugged. "I thought you knew."
The room immediately burst into laughter.
"I DIDN'T KNOW!"
"Exactly." Johnny was laughing so hard now he had to wipe his eyes. "That's the problem, man."
Doyoung leaned forward. "My mom thought you and Ten were already dating." The room exploded.
Jaehyun froze. "...what?"
Doyoung nodded. "She asked me once."
"Asked what?"
"If you and Ten had broken up."
Renjun immediately fell sideways onto the rug. Johnny buried his face in the couch. Even Jeno was laughing now.
Meanwhile Jaehyun looked like his soul had left his body. "Why would she think that?"
The room fell silent. A terrible silence. Then Johnny patted his shoulder. "Man."
Jaehyun narrowed his eyes. "Don't."
Johnny smiled. "You spent ten years convincing everybody except yourself."