"What about...... This one."

"No."

"This one?"

"Ew."

"I got it!........ This one -"

"Absolutely not," Woosung grabs the hanger with the fluffy and ugly ass tutu that Taehyung held up, "My child is not wearing that thing."

Taehyung scowls at him and glances to Ariana, who's quietly sipping her strawberry smoothie with one of Woosung's oversized black hoodies while staring at them with her wide eyes, "Come on, you've got to admit, it's cute!"

Ariana glances to Woosung, who translated with a heavy sigh, and her eyes glances to the pink t-shirt attached to the blue tutu before having her face twist, "I'm sorry but I'm with Woosung on this. My child ain't wearing that. We don't even know the gender yet."

"It doesn't matter," Woosung says this time, looking around, "They can decide eventually what they feel comfortable wearing."

"Exactly," Ariana says and looks at Taehyung, "But no tutu."

Taehyung pouts heavily and grabs the ugly outfit before putting it back, "I found it cute."

Ariana softly smiles at him, caressing his back affectionately before glancing at Woosung, "Where's Jeongguk and Minho by the way?"

Tracing across the large store, the two boys are in the mens section. They came with the purpose of wanting to buy something for their practices, and they did find a few things here and there to try on.

"What about this?"

"T-shirt get dirty easily, so no."

"And this color?"

"Hm.... Maybe."

Jeongguk looks at the tortoise shirt and decided with just putting it in his carry basket - that's already filled with a few clothes here and there. Minho only used his arms to carry the three t-shirts he got, and now the two are looking around for maybe a casual wear.

In the midst of their search, Minho did end up finding something that caught his eye, but not specifically for him.

Noticing Jeongguk was going in the other direction to look around, Minho hooked his finger to the back of his belt loops of his white jeans and drags him towards him as he lead the way to the other side. Jeongguk followed suit casually, his eyes suddenly brightening once he noticed the same thing Minho noticed.

It was a combination attire of pink shorts with a beige blazer, to which on the mannequin looks not bad with the white button up shirt.

"Pretty," Jeongguk beams, taking the blazer between his fingers as he studied the soft material, "This is giving me Taehyung senses."

"I thought that too," Minho chuckles, moving his hand from the belt loop of Jeongguk's pants and to his hip, studying the material of the clothing with his other hand, "But then again, Taehyung isn't much of the dressing up type."

"Could change," Jeongguk shrugs, taking it either way and shoving it in the basket, "I'll let Woosung or Ariana convince him, since they both are good at that - Wait, where are they?"

Minho looks around for a moment, as though they would appear just by being summoned, shrugging, "Don't know-"

The words were caught in Minho's throat when he really took a moment to look around, eventually catching a few stares from passing by customers, who was eying his hand on Jeongguk's hip while whispering to each other or giving the gesture a few...... Unwelcoming stares.

Minho noticed, and Jeongguk didn't.

This only brought back unwanting memories of how back home Minho would have to hide his relationship in the public because of how frowned upon it was seen, and just how scary it was to the thought of ever being caught doing something openly affectionate.

Not like he thinks anyone will do anything, but that familiar paranoia did overtake his senses and he eased away from Jeongguk wordlessly - trying to act casual about it and look around the other shelves.

But seems as though Jeongguk liked the simple form of affection because before Minho knew it, Jeongguk wrapped an arm around his torso with his chin on his shoulder, looking over the clothes along with him.

It sent shivers down Minho's spine.

He's so....... Neutral about these things.

Mainly because he just likes it, like a child liking specific toys without thinking what it can really be.

Does he happen to not see the stares?

Feeling the panic slowly start to escalate, Minho clears his throat and moves away, suddenly seeing familiar silhouettes entering the men area, "Oh look, they're here."

Quickly Minho walked towards them, aiming to reach the rest of their friends.

Until suddenly a hand interlaced with his.

And Minho couldn't help himself but react, yanking his hand away.

"Don't touch me!"

Fuck.....

That was too aggressive.

Jeongguk appeared obviously to be taken off guard by the sudden rejection of the other man, since he knows he likes being physically affectionate most of the time. However Minho didn't look at him, only smiles when he sees an enthusiastic Ariana skip towards him with a bag in hand.

"Look! I got your favorite snacks since I know you were running out because of me. I also got these ingredients to make s'mores and - Izuku? You okay?"

Ariana quickly shifted from her broken - very broken Korean that Woosung managed to teach her along the years - to very fluent Japanese, noticing immediately Jeongguk's sullen expression.

The raven haired boy didn't know how to respond to that, but he glanced at Minho for a long moment - seeing the boy not even look at him with an apologetic stare to the tone he used earlier - before looking back to Ariana, forcing a smile with a nod.

Ariana didn't buy it, but she wasn't about to pry into it in public.

So she twitched a reassuring smile and looks at Woosung, "I'm hungry, can we eat something?"

Woosung's eyebrows raised, "Hungry? But I cooked for you before we left."

"Hey I'm feeding two people and one of them is our child, I'm always going to be hungry."

Something about hearing Ariana say 'our child' did something to Woosung's chest. It's been a long time since the two have spoken casually, especially after the break up, and after their long talk last night and mending the broke pieces that was damaged, everything felt as though it was slowly going back into place.

Not the relationship, but the friendship at least.

This had Woosung smiling like an idiot, going over to wrap an arm around her shoulders into a hug while his other hand caresses over baby Moonlight.

He's going to be a dad.

Sure, he's very young for this and so is Ariana, but they'll figure something out to make it work.

They both want what's best for the baby after all.

To the affectionate act Ariana melts right into it with a relaxed smile, knowing she really missed this.

Woosung that is, she really did.

But it's hard to just..... Forget what happened.

The best they can do now is just try the best they can for their child, and knowing they aren't alone in the process.

Purchasing the items and exiting out of the mall, they decided to head to the food court. The second they got there, they immediately split up to find something suitable for their tastebuds of something similar to back home; which was a hard task because foreign food didn't appear so common here.

However they manage to get something and find a table, immediately devouring their food - especially Ariana.

Girl was definitely hungry.

Jeongguk watches her adoringly and throws one of his fries at her that he got at McDonalds, "Slow down and chew at least."

Ariana blinks at the dry that was thrown at her and how it fell to her food, taking it in hand and eats it slowly with a sarcastic smile.

"Happy?"

Jeongguk mimics her back while the two go at it. This is not an uncommon habit that the three roommates has caught on about them, so they let them be while Taehyung, Woosung and Minho got into their own bubble of conversation.

"Tests are killing me," Woosung mutters, picking on his food, "I know I'm failing a class."

Minho chews on his food and looks at him, "Why don't you talk to the teacher?"

"I did," Woosung sighs back, "I think I may need to drop soccer so I am focus on my studies."

Taehyung immediately chimes in, "No need for that. I can tutor you."

This immediately brightened up Woosung's eyes, softly smiling, "Really? Wouldn't that be too much though?"

"Dude, I study for living," Taehyung chuckles with a wink, "Wouldn't mind helping you out."

Woosung's smile widens, looking down to his food with a sudden shyness, "Thanks."

Feeling adored by the act, Taehyung reaches over and pinches his cheek, chuckling softly to his timidity. Minho watches the interact with a twitching smile but he suddenly froze when he caught Jeongguk's gaze glancing at him.

Okay, Minho knows he was probably being a little too harsh with him, but he just couldn't help the way he acted.

The stares, the people, it's just an instinct he has coped with for a while. Even more if he knows it's something that's not exactly welcomed here.

So he awkwardly looks at his food and avoids his eyes.

For the remainder of their hangout.

_________________________
A/N:
Oof-

I was actually going to make this a combined scenes with the locker room scene added, but decided to keep them separate (:

After all, this is very important.

I PURPLE YOU! <33