After it was discovered that it wasn't only Mingyu who shipped Jihoon and Soonyoung together, but everyone as well –including the ever innocent China Line- Jihoon had walked off in the direction of their hotel rooms, leaving a wide eyed Soonyoung behind.

"Don't you like him, Hoshi?" Jeonghan asked, causing the other to blush faintly.

It made him all but happy to know that the pink haired boy had left so he wouldn't hear any of this.

But that had all occurred last night, ironically the last night before they'd left.

The next morning, Jihoon leaned against the wall nearby as everyone argued with Seungcheol who decided –even before they left- that it would be fun to switch around the seating and car arrangements.

"Hey Jihoon," came a soft greeting from behind.

The voice happened to belong to the bandana wearing, blonde hair fool with what Jihoon couldn't stop himself from thinking, the widest and most adorable smile.

"Jihoonie, is something wrong?" the boy asked, placing a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder lightly as he frowned in genuine worry and concern.

The smaller shook his head in response, not making eye contact with the boy in front of him.

"Tired," was all he muttered.

"I'm the leader and that makes it my decision!" he exclaimed, saying the exact words everyone knew he hated saying because in all honesty, even though those words shut everyone up, he hated them. He felt that things shouldn't be like that. That just because he was the leader didn't mean it was his decision alone. He always wanted it to be everyone's decision.

And everyone knew that.

So the names and the cars they were in were called out.

"In car one will be Jun, Minghao, Hoshi and myself. In care two will be Seokmin, Hansol, Seungkwan and Wonwoo and finally, in the last car will be Jeonghan, Joshua, Jihoon, Mingyu and Chan."

From some of the members such as Mingyu and Wonwoo, he received pointed glares whereas from others like Jihoon, for example, he just nodded and obediently walked to the car he would be in.

When he got to the car, he was met with a moody Mingyu, a grinning duo and a saddened Chan.

"I don't feel like barfing today. Do not flirt," Jihoon muttered as he got into the car first, impatient with having to wait for the others to still decide on who wanted to get in first.

After him, Chan slid in followed by Mingyu and of course, Jeonghan ad Joshua occupied the seat across from them.

"So..."

"Conversations can start when we have actually left the place. We may have nothing to end up saying otherwise," Jihoon pointed out which made Mingyu crack a smile before laugh, just as Jihoon had hoped; to make Mingyu more comfortable and less moody.

This of course didn't go unnoticed by Joshua.

"Jihoon is... Jihoon's not actually what you would think he is upon first meet," the boy said, earning a glare from Jihoon as he could not believe that of all people, Joshua had said that.

And he wanted to be furious, he did, but he couldn't as he knew Joshua was quite accurate; Jihoon could not deny it.

As he looked anywhere but at Joshua, his eyes settled on the sleeping Chan beside him who had his head rested against Jihoon's shoulder with one of the most relaxed expressions he had yet to see since Seungcheol's words at the camp fire.

He averted his gaze to Joshua and mumbled a soft, "Shut up," before looking away in an attempt to get out of the conversation.

Noticing this, Joshua turned his attention to Mingyu and smiled.

"So Mingyu, what made you bet on Woozi and Hoshi, if you don't mind me asking."

Jihoon sighed as he looked at the two across from him, already having expected that they would bring it up.

And he was a little curious as to why as well, so he didn't stop Mingyu from saying anything; he let the taller boy speak. Of course, after glancing at Mingyu he realized that the taller was making sure the shorter wouldn't flip out on him as he attempted to explain.

"Well we just... I 'ship' you two together and so does everyone else. You're the composer and he's the choreographer so you both work the hardest. You two just having that in common where you're both holding all of us on your shoulders and trying your best to make sure you don't fail. And you guys just fit. You usually hate skin-ship, but when it comes to Soonyoung, you wouldn't mind. You guys are really great friends and wherever the one is, the other isn't too far behind."

Jihoon was frowning as he processed this.

"What do you mean by that? We're not always together..." Jihoon trailed off, thinking back as he tried to reassure himself that he was in fact right and Mingyu was wrong.

"You tend to be together or near each other a lot. Obviously not all the time, but a lot of the time," Joshua explained and the more Jihoon thought about it, the more he realized how true it really was

"Oh my..."

"Do not finish that. You know what Vernon will say," Joshua interrupted quickly, not realizing that he too would have said what Vernon would have said.

"...gosh," Jihoon said, settling on the ever cliché word.

"You finally realize?"

Before Jihoon could reply, Mingyu snapped his fingers as he recalled another reason that everybody shipped them and why he bet on them.

"You guys are always looking at each other when the other isn't looking. And the look you guys give each other especially..." Mingyu trailed off as he met the confused looking Jihoon.

"You guys..."

Jihoon's eyes widened.

"Is it unusual to think about a person like that or think they're like really good looking or look at them randomly or miss them when they're not there to annoy you?"

This made the three boys smile, not saying anything as they waited for it to all click.

Nobody noticed that Chan had woken and was listening as well.

"I like Hoshi."

A small gasp sounded through the air and all eyes fell on the maknae as he asked, "You do?"

And soon, panic filled him.

"You cannot tell Hoshi, Chan," Jihoon practically begged, gently grabbing his friend by both arms ad shaking him gently.

"You cannot tell him. Please Chan, promise me you won't tell him. I know he is your unit leader but-"

Just then, Chan made a locking motion by the corner of his mouth and grinned at the boy before him as he said softly and cutely, "I won't tell a soul. What are friends for?"

His entire body relaxed slowly as Chan uttered those words and a small, thankful smile made way to his face.

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