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Ever since he was a child, a sickly one at that, Sunoo’s life mostly revolves around his family and most importantly his older sister.
If you haven’t guessed yet, a big chunk of Sunoo’s personality was greatly influenced by the two most strong headed women in his life. His love for all things pretty and sweet, his bright and loveable personality and even his ploys of cuteness was all picked up from his older sister.
Sunoo understood from a young age that acting cute and acting it right in the most perfect situation can get you to many places in life.
People might assume he’s dumb or stupid, but Sunoo was the exact opposite of those assumptions. In fact, his older sister is quite impressed by his amazing EQ ( And equally impressive IQ ) and control over the flow of conversations. That she can say to whoever meets her little gremlin of a brother should worry. Because he knows a lot of tricks under his sleeves.
After all he learned from the best.
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On a regular at the dorms a frustrated cry was heard somewhere.
Sunoo was screaming face first on his pillow, woefully crying out his deep seethed frustration, with Jungwon’s company.
The two decisively ordered the rest to not bother them while they preoccupied the bedroom.
“Hyung, I understand you’re frustrated but don’t you think you’re being to harsh,” the young leader said, hugging a pillow to his chest on the bunk across of Sunoo. The two were having one of those “Talks” again.
Sunoo pulled away from the pillow and blankly stared at his confidant, “This has been going on for months, Jungwon. Months! How oblivious can someone be to not pick up the damn signs?!?” He scoffed, irritation flaring up in the brunet’s chest. Just thinking of the topic in discussion annoyed him.
Jungwon felt bad for Sunoo’s crush that the older has been pining on since their debut and one of the subject of their “Talks”.
“I know hyung, I’ve seen you throwing all sorts of green flags at his direction but you just have to accept the fact the person you like is an idiot.” He pointed out, Jungwon has been subjected to all sorts of ranting sprees because of Sunoo’s insufferable crush. And at his words Sunoo threw his pillow at his direction which caught Jungwon off guard.
He quipped “Well at least my crush didn’t Brother-Zoned me!” Jungwon gasped at his remark. “Ya! Hyung that was low! A very low blow!”
Launching himself at Sunoo, he must get his revenge for ever mentioning his hopeless crush ( The other main topic of their “Talks” ) and mercilessly tickled the brunet’s sides.
Ticklish as ever, Sunoo laughed out loud, tears forming at the corner of his eyes from the exertion of his poor lungs. “Jungwon! Please! Stop!” He begged, squirming under his hold. God he was exhausted but Jungwon wasn’t about to let him off so easily. “Not until you say Sorry!”
Crying out, Sunoo surrendered, “I’m sorry okay! I’m sorry!”
Satisfied, Jungwon ceased his onslaught of tickles and laid next to Sunoo who was catching his breath.
“So what’s your next plan Hyung?”
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Concocting new plans after each attempt to get their crushes to make the first move was a given in their talks.
After they were done ranting to each other about the idiots they’ve fallen in love with. They would scheme new ways to drop hints at their crushes and tests the water out. Always feeling like their pining, which was painfully obvious, too complexe for anyone else in the group to understand. Even worse with their own crushes that blind fully and ignorantly bypass each of their hints they’ve given.
“I don’t know anymore Jungwonnie, I feel like I’ve used every trick in the book to get his attention. At this point, I might as well give up,” Sunoo sighed, the unwillingness to give up still laced onto his voice. Jungwon was surprised to see him so dispirited, usually after one failed attempt Sunoo was always quick to get back up again. Popping out new ideas left and right, for both himself and him. So Sunoo can’t have used up all his ideas, he did a roll call to confirm.
“Did you do ‘Baking together’ scenario?”
“Yes, where did you think those cookies from three days ago came from.”
“The ‘Let’s go on a midnight stroll’?”
“Yep! I even brushed up my hands against his so we can hold hands but nope!”
“What about ‘Hyung let’s go to a café’ that’s secretly disguised as a date?!”
“I did that already last Sunday! We even went to the movies after but he just said he really liked hanging out with me!”
The frustration that Sunoo released a while ago started to return bit by bit with each question out of Jungwon’s mouth. Reminding him of his fruitless endeavours.
“Jungwon please stop reminding me of my failed attempts,” he told running his hand through his hair. Jeering, “I might just march over to the living room and kiss him at this point if you keep talking; that I’ll also fully blame you on.”
Defeated by his negative attitude, Jungwon sighed and turned over to his stomach. “Maybe it’s because our attempts were too much like Dongsaengs with their Hyungs than actual attempts to be a potential ‘Lover’.” He digressed, prompting his chin over on the pillow.
Suddenly, a light bulb brightened in Sunoo’s mind.
Gasping out loud with his ground breaking realization. “Oh my god, Jungwon that’s it!” He cheered, enlightenment clear in his eyes.
“What’s it?”
“We’ve been making our attempts to vanilla for those idiots to understand!”
“Vanilla?”
“We’ve been doing things the wrong way since the beginning that’s why! We have to take a different approach! The proactive approach!”
“PROACTIVE?!”
The brunet didn’t waste anymore time before he rambled on about his new ideas he came up with. Speaking way to fast for Jungwon’s brain to process what he just said. He quickly stopped Sunoo on his train of ideas by holding onto his shoulder “Hyung what do you mean vanilla? Proactive! What are you going on about!” He questioned.
A dreadful feeling blossomed in Jungwon’s heart when he saw Sunoo’s sly smirk on his face.
“What I’m saying is, Wonie. Is that we have to go to the basics.” He affirmed.
Jungwon could only gulped.
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After explaining where things went wrong, Jungwon understood where Sunoo was leading on but he didn’t know how to feel about it.
“But Hyung, how are we supposed to go back to the basics?” He innocently asked.
Sometimes Sunoo forgets that Jungwon grew up quite sheltered under his grandmother’s care unlike him. Where his sister held nothing back in educating him in various subjects on life. He felt kinda embarrassed to even explain it to the younger.
Coughing, “I-uhm. I feel like I should show it to your first Jungwon-ah so you know what I mean.” Sunoo successfully diverted Jungwon’s attention off his previous question. “Oh? Then what are you gonna do then?”
With a grin, Sunoo grabbed his phone to make a call. He needed some help and he knew his sister will be happy to lend a hand.
“Just watch and learn Jungwon.” Sunoo stated, his mischievous grin never leaving his face.
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(Prior to Sunoo and Jungwon’s talk in the bedroom.)
Sunghoon and Jay were in the kitchen deeply engaged to whispering to each other in their weekly “Chats”.
“Jay, I don’t know anymore! Sunoo doesn’t seemed to be interested in me,” the former Ice skater cried, covering his face to hide his sadness. Jay couldn’t believe what he was hearing and slapped his shoulder in scolding. “What are you talking about! You’ve been pining on him for months, I’m sure Sunoo noticed and he doesn’t know what to do about it! You’re not exactly taking the lead either.”
Sunghoon uncovered his face to glare at his buddy who’s sailing the same sea as him. Rebuking, “I don’t want to hear that from someone who managed to get brother-zoned by their own crush.” Jay looked at his unit partner in disbelief, “That was very low of you,” he stated.
Both now wept in their own miserable fates. They have been pining on their crushes for months now and it doesn’t seem like they were interested or too oblivious to notice.
Sunghoon was the most “devastated” he’s ever been this week after Sunoo went out of his way to hang out with him. Causing the older boy to fall even more head over heels than he already had. From baking together - one of his romantic fantasies - to going on midnight strolls and hanging out that felt like a date! Sunghoon’s poor heart couldn’t take it anymore, he struggled to fight with his instincts to just pull the adorable boy in his arms and shower him with kisses.
“Did you see how cute he was last Sunday? It almost felt like a date,” said Sunghoon who’s heart was crying itself a river. “We went to a café, watched a movie and walked home together while stopping by at a park to watch the sunset.”
A wave of envy appeared in Jay’s chest as he listened to Sunghoon’s woes unable to hold his tongue back to snap: “Well at least your crush takes time to hang out with you! Jungwon has been too busy with Leader duties that we barely hung out anymore.”
The two stared at each other, eyes silently communicating their misery before patting each other on the shoulder in silent comfort.
It was a touching moment between two good friends - Until Heeseung suddenly popped in the kitchen.
“Hey guys! What are you talking about!” He asked, his classic Bambi smile plastered across his face.
The unit were pretty taken aback by the eldest sudden appearance and couldn’t mentally prepare themselves.
“We-I. Uhm, we-we just. We’re you know.” Sunghoon started, unable to spell out the perfect excuse for them.
Heeseung noticed how red his ears were and how his eyes constantly glanced at Jay who was blankly starting out into space. As if his spirit left his body and he was merely physically present amongst them.
It didn’t take long for it to click in Heeseung’s head to figure things out.
“Ah. You guys were talking about your crushes weren’t you? Well then I’m sorry for intruding.” He smiled, casually dropping a bomb on the two.
“I-We! We weren’t talking about that Hyung!” Jay sputtered, his cheeks dusted with a shade of red. Sunghoon felt scared and nervous. Will Heeseung say something to them? The thought of getting a talk with the oldest member about their crushes made him fear the worst. Embarrassment crawled across his body, his ears burning in the sentiment.
Heeseung was shock by their over reaction, they looked like he just said the world was ending by their faces. It made the older feel bad, everyone except for the four idiots knew about their pinning towards each other but Jake’s advised him and Riki to just ignore it. Leaving it to them to figure things out but Heeseung might lying if he said, he wasn’t curious. Of course, he won’t pry but he just wanted to keep up to date to what’s happening. But after seeing their reaction, Heeseung can guess why Jake said go just let the fools be.
“Relax guys, I won’t say anything about it,” he assured, showing them a good hearted smile. “Everyone - well me, Riki and Jake already kinda knew about your crushes.”
Again, Heeseung accidentally dropped a bomb on them.