Seungcheol

They're packing for their next destination. Their flight is in two days, but they want to be packed by tomorrow. The dorm is in chaos, last minute packers (much like himself) looking for the belongings they want to take with and ensuring they're not forgetting anything. Those who have already packed are helping. Seungcheol bumps shoulders with Jihoon on his way out.

"Cheol." Jihoon stops him, looking up. He looks upset. "Looking for something?"

"Earpods." He does a quick glance around the room before glancing back at Jihoon. "Is everything okay?"

Jihoon rolls his eyes. "Everything is fine, Cheol." They've been friends long enough for him to know that when Jihoon says everything is fine, it's not necessarily true. It just means he should stop asking or things won't be fine. Which he always does albeit reluctantly. Seungcheol tries to walk past him but is once again stopped.

"Chan's looking for you," Jihoon says. He pats Seungcheol's shoulder. "In the room, I think."

Seungcheol goes to the room where Chan is sitting on the edge of the bed. He's got his head tilted back, looking at the ceiling. Clothes, books, and shoes lay strewn across the floor, his suitcase wide open. When Seungcheol steps in, Chan's head turns, and a tired smile curves the shape of his mouth.

"Hyung," he murmurs softly. Chan's arm stretches out, hand opening and closing. Seungcheol takes his hand, their fingers intertwining automatically as Seungcheol settles down on the floor beside Chan, resting his head on the latter's knee. "I found your airpods."

"Did I loan them to you?" Seungcheol asks, relieved to have found it. He suspected it.

"Hm. I forgot." Chan runs a hand through Seungcheol's hair. "I want to do a last minute practice."

"You'll tire yourself out, Channie." Seungcheol says it as gently and as sternly as he can to get the point across that there's no way he'll let Chan go. Not tonight at least. It's already after nine and he wants the group to get their sleep in today and tomorrow before they're in another country, dealing with jetlag.

As the silence drapes over them, Seungcheol thinks of the dare. He wouldn't call it a dare, just a challenge. Funny enough, there isn't a rule that they can't tell their partner and yet there's this premise that they can't. Nobody else has told anyone as far as he can tell. He'd certainly be able to pick up whether Wonwoo and Jihoon knew about it. Mingyu would whine and Minghao would admit he'd told and just made the challenge all the more difficult for himself. Still, he wants to tell Chan, but at the same time, he just wants to get a picture and be done.

"You're thinking awfully hard about something," Chan comments. Seungcheol's eyes shoot open to find him being stared down at. He flushes red.

"Nothing," Seungcheol lies, moving away. He gets up from the floor and takes a look around the room. "Need help packing?"

Chan doesn't have to answer for Seungcheol to know that he does. They start with the shoes. Chan has a very particular way of packing so when Seungcheol asks to help, it's more that he's just following Chan's instructions and handing over what he asks for.

They clear half the floor when Chan stops.

"Is it silly that I'm nervous?" He folds his hands together, staring into his suitcase like it may distribute the answers he's looking for. He exhales a breath. "I mean, we're not new, but it still feels like we are and I always get nervous before going on stage. But I don't know if that's... If it's..."

Seungcheol shifts over, wraps an arm around Chan's shoulders and pulls him against his chest.

"There's nothing silly about it," Seungcheol reassures softly. His ears are red, face warm. When Chan pulls away, he's grinning.

"You get embarrassed so easily, hyung." Chan places a quick kiss on the tip of Seungcheol's nose. He loops himself out of Seungcheol's hold and goes back to packing. They're almost done.

"You know, you were a little weird throughout the concert," Chan says after a long moment. Looking up, Seungcheol catches him staring. Shit. "You've never tried taking that many pictures with me and you looked so embarrassed half the time. Usually you stop and hide away when you're embarrassed, but this time?"

"I just wanted a cute picture with you," Seungcheol says. He juts out his bottom lip, knowing Chan can't resist when he pouts. Emotional manipulation? No. He just needs to distract his boyfriend from where the topic is going. It's wavering too close to what his plan was.

He's failed multiple times. Every time he got close enough to get a picture with Chan, he'd either be caught and questioned by his boyfriend or he would get nothing more than a blur of them together. While he likes the blur couple pictures (and general ones) he sees on pinterest and instagram, these were too blurry to be considered cool.

"You like those blurry pictures we got?" Chan muses, looking up. Seungcheol silently curses. "'Cause you can just use those. Or does it need to be visible?"

"Does what need to be visible?"

"Us." Chan smiles like he's in on some big secret. Maybe he is. But how? Seungcheol looks down, too embarrassed to look at his boyfriend. He doesn't even look up when he hears the shifting in the room as Chan moves around. Only when Chan calls him does he look up.

Chan is beside him, inches away from Seungcheol's face. On the left side of his cheek is this bright red shape he doesn't recognize. Before he can say something, Chan presses their cheeks together and whips out Seungcheol's phone. He swipes for the camera and tells Seungcheol to smile. (He does not. He scrunches his face.)

"Whole damn time you could have said something," Chan chides, handing over the phone after a minute. Seungcheol opens his eyes, gingerly accepting it. The sensor acknowledges a touch to the screen and lights up, revealing his new wallpaper.

Him and Chan with their cheeks pressed together, the red (lipstick he has no idea where Chan got) forming a heart. Chan is smiling, one eye closed as he winks while Seungcheol is redder than the lipstick, eyes closed and nose scrunched.

"You..."

"I figured it out on the second day of the concert."

"You didn't say anything."

"Yeah, because it's fun to mess with you." Chan grins. Seungcheol tackles him into a hug.