He found Jongin to be the only one in the dorm when he walked through the door.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

The younger idol pointed with his thumb to the back. "Yixing-hyung, Sehun and Kyungsoo-hyung are in the shower, Minseok-hyung and Jongdae-hyung left just before you arrived and Chanyeol-hyung and Baekhyun-hyung left early for their schedules," he informed.

Junmyeon nodded, dropping his bag on the couch next to him. "And what about you? Don't you have anything to do?"

Jongin shook his head. "Not much  schedule-wise," he said. "I was just going to go to the studio for a while and then go out with Soojung."

Junmyeon hummed in approval. Just as he made to go inside, a question from the younger made him stop in his tracks.

"So...did anything happen last night?"

He looked back to see Jongin looking at him with an expectant gaze. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Come on, hyung," Jongin said. "A man and a woman...alone in a hotel room...together..." he emphasized.

Junmyeon cocked an eyebrow. "I don't know what you're implying, Jongin-ah, but nothing happened last night."

"And am I supposed to believe that?"

"You better, because it's the truth."

Jongin sat up, putting aside the phone in his hand. "Hyung, give me a little something," he sounded like he was almost pleading for juicy gossip. "Something must have happened, right?" He then sat down, exhaling in frustration. "Well, what did I expect? You're the kind of person who'd take two separate rooms."

"Actually..." Junmyeon slowly said. "I ended up getting one room."

Jongin sat up once more, eyes wide. "One room?" he asked. "So what happened?" he exclaimed.

"Nothing happened," Junmyeon repeated himself. "They just...assumed I had money and booked us into a suite instead of two small rooms."

"So...?" Jongin asked. "Did you two sleep on the same bed?" He paused, eyes widening. "Did you sleep together?"

"Nothing of the sort that you're imagining happened last night, so stop going down such a route," Junmyeon said. "For your information, I slept on the couch."

Jongin actually looked disappointed. "Oh, really, huh? Right..."

Junmyeon folded his arms across his chest. "Don't tell me you're disappointed nothing between me and Eunji happened," he sighed. 

Jongin frantically shook his hands. "N-no-I-uh..."

Junmyeon heaved a breath. "Seriously," he said, running a hand through his hair, "it's almost like you kids are waiting for something to happen."

"We actually are, hyung," Jongin interrupts his thoughts.

Junmyeon raised his eyes to meet the dark brown of the second youngest. "Hyung, the guys and I have been following your relationship because we want you to be happy the way you always make us."

"I get it," Junmyeon said. "Baekhyun told me this before." He turned so that he was facing Jongin better. "But still, that doesn't excuse you virtually stalking someone else's love life."

"Do you know why we do that?" Jongin asked.

A moment of silence fell over the leader and his junior as neither broke eye contact. Junmyeon stayed silent, and then gestured for Jongin to say what he wanted to say.

"We do it because we want to know who our precious leader is falling for," he said.

Junmyeon let out a light scoff. "Falling? What do you mean?"

"This," Jongin said. "This is what I mean, hyung. You're so focused on EXO and other things that you deem important that you don't even realize you like Eunji."

"I don't!" Junmyeon protested. "I don't like her!"

Jongin's dark eyes bore into his soul, threatening to rip the truth out from him. "Hyung, Baekhyun-hyung and I noticed it. You think we can't tell the gaze of a man in love?"

Junmyeon calmly stared down Jongin. "You've mistaken this one, Jongin-ah," he said. "I'm not romantically interested in Eunji."

Jongin then shrugged and turned away, picking his phone back up. "Alright, hyung," he said. "I'll believe you, because it's you."

Junmyeon pursed his lips a bit before storming off to his room, passing a confused Kyungsoo on the way there. Kyungsoo turned back to see his slightly fuming leader slam his room door. He came into the living room.

"What's wrong with Junmyeon-hyung?" Kyungsoo asked the dancer.

Jongin lifted his shoulders up a bit. "He just can't come to terms with the fact that he's fallen hard for his virtual girlfriend."

***

Junmyeon fell down on his bed, Jongin's words still ringing in his ears.

You're so focused on other things that you deem important that you don't even realize you like Eunji.

He closed his eyes. He wasn't new to love, but it had been quite a while since he'd been in a relationship, during his trainee days, to be exact. 

And since debut, he had told himself that EXO would come before anything and everything else. He had promised that he would make EXO an international sensation, he'd bring smiles to people all over the world and entertain them. He'd bring the world a bit more closer with the help of music.

And in this grand, elaborate scheme, he'd told himself he wouldn't let distractions get in the way.

This meant no pets, no unneeded friends, and no relationships. He prioritized EXO and his family, anything else was just a distraction. 

He didn't know when Eunji crept into that list of priorities as well.

It wasn't like he hated her. In fact, he respected her as an artist. She was beautiful and talented, and deserved all the fame and love she received. She was also dorky and sweet and snarky, always challenging him to keep up his act or give in to her. In the months he'd known her, she'd never stopped smiling, and never failed to make him smile too. 

He felt something creeping up in his heart. 

He didn't know why, but he wanted to preserve that smile. He wanted to protect her, to make sure that smile never left her face. To hear her voice, only singing for him. He wanted to feel her touch, her body weight, on his shoulder again. He wanted to feel her again.

You think we can't tell the gaze of a man in love?

He rubbed his eyes. "Shit," he swore under his breath. "I like Eunji."

***

Sehun quickly left the room and softly closed to door to let his senior get some well deserved rest.

He walked into the living room to meet up with Jongin and Kyungsoo, as well as Yixing who had also apparently finished with his shower.

"Junmyeon's back?" Yixing lazily asked.

Sehun nodded. "He's knocked out," he said. "One of us needs to call Manager Hwang and tell him that Hyung's sick and can't work today." 

"I'll do it," Kyungsoo said, grabbing the phone and dialing their manager's number. 

"And also," Sehun said, "when did hyung get back exactly? I think I was still in the shower by the time he got back."

"Around twenty minutes ago," Jongin answered. "You had just walked into your room and shut the door when he walked in."

"Were you there?" Sehun directed the question to his senior.

Jongin nodded. "I was the only one here."

"Then, do you know why hyung was swearing?"

Yixing and Jongin shot him looks. Their Junmyeon wasn't the type to swear. Was he the same person?

"Yes, I heard him. He swore ad then said 'I like Eunji'." He imitated the frustrated and low tone of Junmyeon.

Kyungsoo, having just finished the call and returned, placed the phone down, his eyes wide (well, wide-er than they usually were). "Sehun-ah, did he really say that?" he asked.

Sehun nodded. "Heard it with my own two ears just as I stepped out of the shower."

Kyungsoo and Jongin exchanged looks. "Did he finally realize it?"

"It'd be a miracle if he did. you know how dense he is."

"We need to call Baekhyun."

"Will someone tell me what's going on?" Sehun asked, raising his voice slightly. 

Yixing blinked, turning to the other two. "Yeah, what's wrong with Junmyeon?"

Jongin sighed. "He's finally realized that he likes Eunji."

***

A/N: Interesting fact, just before the third scene, the word count was 999 words.

Like literally.

I almost wanted to stop it there just because the word count was 999 words.

Enough with my rambling. Enjoy this chapter!