[crow]

Ahhhh there it was. The kicked puppy look. Julian felt bad. It was so much easier to feel bad for Yeong-sik, damn it, because Yeong-sik was actually nice, and probably had real hopes and dreams and stuff, instead of going beep-boop and tucking himself away back into some immaculately clean closet at the end of the day. And yes, they lived together, Julian had seen Ji-won in his room; but the way he slept on his back, hands overlapped on top of his stomach, was basically the same thing. Ji-won slept like a corpse, or maybe a doll still pristine inside its plastic packaging in the toy aisle of a HomePlus.

So Julian wasn't fazed when Yeong-sik shrugged him off, though when Ji-won followed Yeong-sik's lead a moment later, Julian looped his arm right back over Ji-won's shoulders. "Come on, come on~" he said, leaning in way too close, and laughing when Ji-won shoved his face away with a hand. "Ramyeon~"

His mood was dampened when Jeremy cut in, but only slightly, and only because Jeremy sort of creeped him out, even when he wasn't actually being weird right this second. You just never knew with that guy. One second everything was fine, then next minute, bam--- he'd say the weirdest shit. Half the time Julian didn't know if he was hearing wrong because his Korean was bad, except everyone else would have the same look on their face...

But this, at least, was easy enough to deflect. Julian grinned wide. "Who said I was paying? Ji-wonnie's the famous one. He has so much money. Right?" He nudged Ji-won with his hip. "Hey, Sol! Se-jin! Let's all get ramyeon. Ji-won's treat!"

"I'm not treating any of you," said Ji-won matter-of-factly. But the trouble was, he'd been too quiet when he'd said it. From across the room, Sol, who ate like he had a goddamn tapeworm, perked up.

"Ramyeon? Sweet!" he said, trotting up to them looking eager. "Where are we going? The place across the street?"

[Night]

Yeong-sik squinted at the marginal space between Julian and Ji-won, gears turning in his head. He had the sudden, rather distinct feeling that he was missing something here. The frown that had appeared when Julian interrupted his plan deepened.

Se-jin, who had taken up residence sprawled across the floor near the speakers as he tried to catch his breath, shot up at the mention of food. "Did you say Ji-won was paying?" He loped over with all the grace of a newborn kitten, muscles protesting as he made a beeline to wrap Ji-won in an octopus like hug. He must have decided against it at the last minute, perhaps sensing the pending storm as he folded his arms around Jeremy instead. "If he's paying he should pick where we go. As long as we don't have to walk far, I'm pretty sure I'm dying." He groaned dramatically, pressing more of his weight onto Jeremy's shoulders.

Jeremy huffed, trying to wrangle his way away from the eldest's grip. He was, at least, successfully deterred from bothering Julian for the moment. Se-jin appeared happy enough to let him escape, turning his affection on Sol the moment Jeremy moved too far away to be within immediate range.

Yeong-sik shifted the weight of his bag to his other shoulder, suddenly far too tired to deal with the implication of Julian's actions and the idea that he may have been caught out in his own intentions. "You guys go ahead. I think I'm just going to go back to the dorms and turn in early." He waved off Se-jin's immediate insistence that he join them, and was out the door before any others could be made.

The walk back to the dorm was far worse by himself in the dark, but he'd rather just take the longer route through more well lit streets than watch Julian paste himself against Ji-won over what was supposed to be a date.

[crow]

Everyone turned to stare after Yeong-sik's departure. Sol blinked in confusion. "Is... he okay?" he said, frowning slightly, the beginnings of a concerned look on his face.

Julian was actually pretty sure that Ji-won wasn't exactly doing great, but talking to someone else was also probably not high on Yeong-sik's list of priorities right now. After Julian just torpedoed his attempt to ask Ji-won out, the least he could do was let the guy lick his wounds in peace. "He's on a diet," said Julian, which was true, but then so were Julian and Ji-won. But hey, what was idol life without a cheat day once in a while?

Ji-won sighed, peeling Julian off him and making for the door. Julian, his apparent good cheer unaffected by this latest rebuff, smiled and followed, making casual conversation with the others. By the time they came out of the building, they'd just about caught up with Ji-won, so the five of them looked like one big crowd instead of one lone ranger and four dudes who just incidentally happened to be travelling in the same direction.

Evidently Ji-won wasn't feeling adventurous. He led them across the street to the place that Sol had mentioned, probably due to its proximity... Or maybe because he didn't want to hear Se-jin whining about how much his everything hurt if they had to walk any further, which was definitely a smart call.

"Ramyeon! Ramyeon! Ramyeon!" chanted Julian as they walked in.

The middle-aged woman manning the counter smiled up at the lot of them. "What can I get for you boys?"

Julian had his order ready to go, but before he could say anything, Ji-won held up a hand. "Just a soda please, auntie," he said, smiling so disarmingly at the woman that she could do nothing for a moment but gape at him. "We're sorry we can't stay for long, since we're all on a diet."

The woman said that of course it was no problem, and wasn't Ji-won so handsome! And he looked so familiar, had she seen him somewhere before? Ji-won let it drop that he had been in a few dramas as a child once, at which point the jig was up, and it was all over. None of them could get a word in edgewise after that. Twenty minutes later, a girl--- probably the woman's daughter--- finally brought Ji-won his soda, which he paid for, and then they were ushered out of the store with instructions to stay healthy and take care of their bodies.

"You did that on purpose," Julian grumbled.

Ji-won calmly popped open his can of soda, his face a perfect mask of indifference. "Weren't you listening?" he said. "I said I wasn't going to treat any of you."

[Night]

---

Yeong-sik had been so incredibly wrong. While it was an experience that wasn't precisely new, it was still rather discouraging. It was as though Julian had anticipated his every move, and he was never left alone with Ji-won for more than a scant few moments at a time.

Every time that he'd managed to gather the confidence to make his move, Julian had been ready with another excuse or last minute addition to their plans. Yeong-sik had tried everything that he could think of that he actually had the guts to try and execute; sitting beside Ji-won on the way to or from schedules, hanging back after practice, and on one ill-fated occasion dredging up the nerve to knock on Jeremy and Ji-won's shared dorm room. It was as though Julian had been lying in wait for him, expecting him to eventually try more direct action and ready to open the door, entirely shirtless as if to remind Yeong-sik just how inferior he was in this situation.

It was almost like he knew about Yeong-sik's interest and was doing his best to head off any event that could feasibly allow him an opportunity. Faced with Julian's unusual behavior, and paired with the fact that Julian was closer to Ji-won than any of the rest of them could claim to be, it wasn't difficult for Yeong-sik to reach a certain conclusion.

Despite what image he liked to portray on stage, Yeong-sik wasn't precisely the most self-confident of individuals. He could see that Julian had his own motives for keeping Ji-won to himself, and in his own mind's eye he knew he couldn't present any sort of competition. He was younger, not as good looking, bad at almost everything; if Julian had decided he wanted to pursue Ji-won himself then the least that Yeong-sik could do was take that with whatever minimal amount of grace he could muster and try not to step on his toes.

So he had taken to doing what he did best - avoiding people. Ji-won wasn't difficult to avoid. They'd barely interacted outside of what was mandatory for nearly two years, and if Yeong-sik gave up on his shoddy attempts at contact then he doubted that Ji-won would even care. Julian was a little harder to stay away from. He was a bit more social, and a lot more observant of Yeong-sik's tells. But then, he supposed that Julian likely wanted him to stay away in this situation, so he had little reason to think that it mattered if Julian noticed him quietly slipping out of the room whenever he wasn't needed.

If he'd become a bit more reserved, he questioned whether the others would notice. He'd always been the quieter one, more likely to hole up in his room with a book than join in on shenanigans at the dorms. He used it to his advantage; it wasn't difficult to find a used book store near their company building. He returned home from recording with an armful of books and ready excuses. He hadn't had much of a chance to keep up with his reading, between the hectic schedule leading up to debut and their consecutive comebacks. Truthfully he didn't have the time now, but he figured that if he kept his nose buried in a book then he couldn't afford an opportunity to get himself on Julian's bad side.

Yeong-sik had never thought himself to be the sort of person that missed being around other people, but he was beginning to think that he was wrong in that too. He was wrong about a lot of things.

[crow]

Ji-won was pretty sure something was going on. He just wasn't sure what it was. His reasoning was mostly as follows: Julian had been really annoying lately. More than usual, even, which was already saying a lot.

"Ji-wonnie~ What'cha reading?"

"Hey, are you two going somewhere? I want to come too"

"Whew, I'm starving. Ji-won, you still owe me a ramyeon for last time. Let's go!"

It had been bad enough when Julian was just intermittently annoying, but this was a whole new level of interference. At first, Ji-won chalked it up to Julian being himself. Maybe it was hormones or something. He didn't know. He couldn't have explained half the nonsense Julian pulled, and he wasn't interested in trying either.

But then it just kept happening, and even though he was determined to ignore anything that had to do with Julian, even Ji-won started to suspect something was afoot after a while.

So Ji-won took Julian to ramyeon, and fixed him with a stare as he inhaled noodles across the table from where Ji-won was sipping a lemon soda.

"You're not going to try some? This is really good," said Julian. With his mouth full. Of course.

"Diet," said Ji-won, then sighed, closing his eyes as Julian wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Leaning back, Ji-won crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll get to the point. I don't know what you're up to, but it has to stop."

"I'm not 'up to' anything," said Julian, but his accent was thickening, the way it did when he started to deflect. Ji-won could feel a headache coming on.

"I know something must have happened," said Ji-won. He watched Julian carefully, measuring his next words. "With Yeong-sik."

Julian choked on his noodles, coughing ungracefully into the bowl. He came up wheezing, thumping his chest. "What?" he said. His voice sounded more than a little strangled. "What makes you think it has anything to do with Yeong-sik?" His eyes were wide, the wide-eyed look of a bad liar. It made him look like a guilty child.

"Well, that, for one," said Ji-won dryly. "And for the past two or three months, you've only gotten really interested in doing something with me when Yeong-sik was around. At first I thought you were interested in him."

"It definitely doesn't have anything to do with Yeong-sik," said Julian. "I just... wanted to get revenge. For the ramyeon. That was really mean of you, you know." He feigned a hurt expression. It was about as convincing as his lie.

Right, thought Ji-won. And the sun only comes up every day because a troupe of little men work some complicated series of levers to lift it up in the morning. Ji-won wasn't impressed, but he also wasn't surprised. People trying to lie to him wasn't anything new. In fact, he almost wished they were better at it. It might be nice to actually be fooled once in a while.

Julian hadn't come clean about it, but either way, Ji-won had gotten what he wanted to know. He finished the rest of his soda in peace while Julian snuck shifty glances at him over his bowl of noodles, then stood up and left without paying the bill.

"... Hey!"

---

Ji-won hadn't really meant to start paying more attention to Yeong-sik. He had just wanted to get to the bottom of Julian's latest bullshit, and now that he knew at least a little of what it was, he thought he would be able to just move on. Whatever Julian said about team spirit and the benefits of camaraderie with your group-mates, Ji-won didn't buy it. He was here to do a job, and as long as he delivered when the cameras were on him, that was all that mattered.

But then, Julian never elaborated on why he was suddenly interested in Yeong-sik, or at least interested in interfering with Yeong-sik, and so Ji-won started watching Yeong-sik out of curiosity if nothing else. And he wasn't sure if it was because Yeong-sik noticed the sudden scrutiny, or if he had just never noticed it before, but Yeong-sik certainly did seem to... trip up a lot.

Whenever he put on a sweater, he always ended up flailing around in it. One time his head got stuck in the wrong hole. Ji-won watched him walk into the side of the door once while he was saying something to Sol. He also saw Yeong-sik burn his hand on a plate fresh from the microwave; trip on his way up the stairs; and startle awake once when Jeremy surprised him with something while he'd been taking a nap.

Perhaps the most memorable moment was when they were doing a live stage for a music festival. Ji-won recalled it with perfect clarity; he had been at the back of the formation, and Yeong-sik had been center and point, dancing for all he was worth. And then--- Ji-won saw it before he heard the sound--- his pants had ripped right down the middle, exposing his underwear for the entire audience to see.

Yeong-sik had flushed bright red almost immediately, and spent the rest of the dance making tiny half-hearted movements and trying to wrap as much of his outfit around himself as possible. After the performance ended, he immediately holed up in the bathroom. It took and two managers and Sol the better part of an hour to convince him to come back out again.

At the time, Ji-won had a little laugh about it, then forgot about it. But funnily enough, his mind kept going back to that moment, and the way Yeong-sik had looked, ducking his head and making himself as small as he could for the rest of the day.

And Ji-won found himself... a little more curious about Yeong-sik, after that.

"Hey. Hey. Earth to Ji-wonnie," said Julian. Ji-won blinked, coming out of his thoughts as Julian waved a hand in front of his face. "Whoa. Was that a smile?" Julian feigned surprise. "Did something good happen, or is this just a sign of the End of Times?"

"If you're going to use things like 'End of Times', you can stop pretending to be bad at Korean," said Ji-won.

"Ah-ah, you don't get to shake me off that easily. What, did the chairman give you an extra special solo project or something? Did he pat your head and call you a good boy?" Julian grinned. How could someone look so punchable so often?

"Fuck off," said Ji-won. "I'm going to bed."

"Yeah you better run!" said Julian. The sound of his laughter followed Ji-won all the way to his room. "What, did a fan get you something expensive? Ooooh, wait, someone's got a crush, huh? That's what it is, isn't it? You can't fool me, Wonnie!"

---

Julian had really been hoping it wasn't a crush.

He liked Ji-won, he really did. Not that kind of like. More like... how you liked the family dog, even if he liked to bark at strangers and almost bit a toddler once. But that was just the thing--- if Ji-won was a dog, Julian wouldn't have trusted him not to bite toddlers. And he was pretty sure Ji-won wasn't ready for a crush. Heck, he was pretty sure Ji-won's crush, whichever poor unlucky soul they were, wasn't ready for Ji-won.

Thank god for small mercies, at least it wasn't hard to figure out who it was. Ji-won just wasn't the type of person who paid attention to other people. So when Julian spotted him watching Yeong-sik, with this mysterious little smile on his face...

Julian was tired. He was just so, so tired. In fact, he wasn't sure he could handle this one alone.

So that was how he ended up with Sol and Se-jin, all three of them gathered in the hyungs' room. "Look," he said. "What I'm about to tell you can't leave this room, okay? But I, uh... I need your help with something," Julian said. He was already grimacing. But, damn it, if he was going to even begin to instruct Ji-won how not to scare the ever loving crap out of Yeong-sik, then he was going to need all the help he could get.

[Night]

It was one thing to be proven wrong consistently, and another all together to be proven correct when one had the worst suspicions. Yeong-sik didn't like to stew in his own self pity, but the majority of the group didn't seem to notice his sudden disappearances from group activities. Sol had done his best, but the pitying, parental concern face had grown old fast.

He'd suspected that he was the weakest link for a long time, but he'd never given any consideration to the idea that they'd be better off without him around. He knew it took him a while to nail some (most) of the dance moves, and he couldn't sing for shit. But he was at least passable in the looks department, and he'd done what he could in writing his raps. He wasn't as good as Julian in either, but he didn't think he was awful. He tried his hardest to be nice and considerate. He kept his space clean. He wasn't the worst conversation in the world - certainly better than Jeremy, who rarely even strung words together in a way that any human should consider a sentence. But if anything, his withdrawal from the group had only brought the majority of them closer together. Before he realized it was happening, he was avoiding everyone by proxy of avoiding Julian and Ji-won. It seemed he had joined Jeremy on the fringes of their small group.

The only difference was that Jeremy really didn't seem to be uncomfortable being on the outside. Yeong-sik had returned home from the gym to find the living room suspiciously devoid of life; no one seemed to be around except for Jeremy, perched with his legs up over the back of the couch and his head hanging off the cushions. Watching TV upside down? Yeong-sik couldn't begin to guess. He slipped his shoes off and nudged them towards the pile of various sneakers that flooded their entryway.

"Hey, Hyung." He was going to regret this, but. "Where is everyone else?"

Jeremy shrugged, nearly slipping face-first off the sofa in the process. Stepping further into the room, Yeong-sik could see that the television was turned off. There went his best guess for what was happening here. "I think they're all in Julian-hyung's room." Jeremy supplied, shockingly helpful for probably the first time in recorded history.

"Oh." Yeong-sik frowned, a bit put out that he couldn't join in. Alright then... Do you know when dinner is?"

It was silent for a moment, and Yeong-sik was pretty sure that he wasn't going to get an answer. He clutched at his gym bag and began the process of slipping by the couch without interrupting Jeremy's view of... the wall? And staying far enough away that he couldn't possibly grab at Yeong-sik's t-shirt and try to yank it up.

Jeremy, evidently, was actually not finished with him. He flipped himself over, folding around in a way that looked distinctly uncomfortable until he was sitting the correct way up on the couch. Then, he held his hand out to Yeong-sik like he wanted to shake hands. The younger hesitated before reaching out to return the handshake, giving a startled yelp when Jeremy reeled him in with a surprising amount of strength for his small form until he was seated on the couch beside him. "Did you want to watch TV with me?" Jeremy asked. Belatedly, in Yeong-sik's opinion. He gestured towards the black screen with just enough hope in his eyes that Yeong-sik couldn't say no, and then they sat in the silent room for nearly ten minutes before Yeong-sik could find it in him to make his excuses and flee to his room.

He missed the others, but maybe not that much.

---

Se-jin flopped gracelessly onto his bed, shoving plush toys off the sides of it until he'd created a sizable enough space for him to comfortably sit. He was in this room so rarely anymore, normally just stepping in to raid his own closet and get dressed in the morning. He never spent any sort of time in here if he could avoid it; he'd almost forgotten that he had his own bed, buried as it was beneath gifts from fans and forgotten about stuffed animals his mother thought he wanted. He spotted an overstuffed dog amongst the pile and settled it in his lap as he made himself comfortable.

"What, are you going to tell us you're a spy on some sort of secret mission or something?" He laughed, holding the dog against his chest so he could rest his chin on top of its head. "If that's the case, you shouldn't tell me. I cave easily under pressure."

He was joking, of course; though he really did hope that Julian wasn't about to drop some sort of life altering secret on them. He wasn't sure he could keep it to himself if were something that wild, and he'd hate to blow Julian's cover. Not... that he was willing to believe Julian was a secret agent of some sort. That would just be silly.

[crow]

Julian opened his mouth to speak, but was immediately silenced by the first of what became a barrage of stuffed animals raining down on him from above. He managed three different half starts before a particularly large one smacked him full in the face, and he gave up. Sighing, he sat on the edge of his own bunk, taking shelter from the storm.

Sol sat on the floor, and picked up one of the bigger toys, a comically large stuffed bear that he hugged to his chest. Resting his chin on the bear's head, he said, "Is this about Yeong-sik? And Ji-wonnie hyung?"

Julian blinked at him, then sighed again. "I guess I really wasn't being very subtle, huh?"

Sol smiled. "No," he said, but not unkindly. "I've been wondering, to be honest, but I thought maybe you wanted to take care of it on your own."

Julian put his face in his hands. "Ugh," he said. "I wish I were a superspy. I feel like that would be easier. See, the thing is..." His features contorted into something of a grimace as he looked up again, elbows braced on his knees. "Ji-won is... I think Ji-won is, um, interested. In Yeong-sik."

Sol brightened immediately. "Oh, that's great! I---"

"No," said Julian, cutting him off. He closed his eyes for a moment. "No, I mean... Look, you've been living with them this whole time too. And you know how Ji-won... is. Do you really think this is a good idea?"

Sol thought about it for a moment, and leaned back again, his enthusiasm fading. "I guess I can see what you mean," he said. "But what do you want us to do? Stop him?"

"Well, that's one option. I won't lie, I definitely thought about it. But just..." He grimaced again. "I''ve seen Yeong-sik trying to talk to him too. If I thought Ji-won could do any of this without making a complete botch of it..." He knew he was talking around the problem. It was just that even Julian didn't really want to think about what he was proposing here. "I thought maybe we'd give Ji-won some... coaching. Like, on how to take someone on a nice date, and not make them cry. You know what I mean?"

[Night]

Se-jin maneuvered around until he was lying on his front, his head hanging just far enough over the edge that he could barely see the top of Julian's hair. He heavily considered tossing the dog down on him just for the fun of it; it really was the perfect opportunity. But the topic seemed serious, and Julian looked just tired enough that he knew he would probably feel bad afterwords. He tucked it beneath his chest to keep the wood of the bed frame from digging into his sternum.

"What do you mean Ji-won is interested?" He frowned, trying to catch up with the conversation that had carried on while he'd made himself at home. "I've never even seen him voluntarily talk to Yeong-sik. Isn't there supposed to be like, a friendship phase first? Getting to know each other?"

He paused, considering. "Do you think that Ji-won knows that rolling your eyes isn't an actual form of conversation?" He asked the room at large. He wasn't expecting an answer, but now he was legitimately curious.

Se-jin lit up at the mention of helping with Julian's "grand scheme." While he was the oldest, it wasn't often that the others came to him for advice. Except... "I'd love to help, but you do know that I have never actually been on a date right?" He caught his teeth against his lip. "I'm not really sure what help I'd be."

He toyed with the pointed ears of the plush sticking out from beneath him. "And not to be that guy, but Ji-won doesn't really seem like he'd be all that open to having a sit-down-talk over proper courting techniques, or whatever it is you're proposing. We'd probably be better off dressing up a badger in designer jeans and sending Yeong-sik out for ice cream with it."

[crow]

"You say that like that's not what we'd be doing if we leave this alone," Julian muttered under his breath. Sol shot him a questioning look, but Julian shook his head. If Sol didn't hear it, Julian wasn't about to say it louder to share it with the rest of the class.

He sighed, and tried to marshal his thoughts. "Yeah," he said, leaning back and bracing his weight on his hands. "Yeah, I know. Trust me. And Sol, you haven't been on any either, right?"

"Ahaha..." Sol's sheepish laugh told Julian all he needed to know about that. Great. So it was just him then, and all of Julian's experiences were from middle school, with girls, before he'd gotten scouted and flew off to Korea. Peachy.

Well, it wasn't like Jeremy was going to be the untapped resource of the century here, was it? And from the way Yeong-sik had been trying, Julian was willing to bet he hadn't dated anyone either. As for Ji-won... Yeah, Julian wasn't going to think about that. If Ji-won had any experience, it hadn't done a whole lot to help.

"As for whether he's interested, you're just going to have to trust me," said Julian. "Worst case scenario we're wrong, but better safe than sorry. But you know something?" Julian pushed himself up so he was leaning forward again, wide-eyed with insistence. "I caught him watching something on the phone the other day and smiling to himself--- like Ji-won even does that, I wasn't sure he could smile without a cameraman present. And you know what he was watching? A fancam of that time Yeong-sikkie's pants ripped."

Here Julian paused to grimace, then continued. "We're not trying to make him Prince Charming... I mean, I like Yeong-sik, but I don't like him that much. I just want him not to, you know, die. I feel like we could probably do that."

"You think Ji-won hyung is going to kill him?" said Sol, frowning slightly.

"No, but you know that 'kabedon' thing? I think Ji-won would do that unironically. You see where I'm going with this?" Julian mimed pinning someone against a wall.

Sol's frown gave way to a smile--- a wobbly one like he was trying to suppress it, and couldn't. "Okay," he said. "But Se-jinnie hyung is right, I think. I don't think he's going to listen to us if we try to talk to him."

"Actually, I was thinking something a little more... hands on," said Julian slowly.

"Like what?" said Sol.

"Like... practice. Like having him practice on us. People learn better that way, right? There's some science stuff behind it." And besides that, Julian wasn't sure he trusted that Ji-won would have internalized anything they said to him until he'd seen Ji-won perform it in person, but he chose to leave that part out.

"So... like one of us puts on a wig and pretends to be Yeong-sikkie?" said Sol.

"Shotty not," said Julian immediately.

[Night]

Se-jin wasn't going to take offense to that - though he felt like he could have easily dated someone by now if he'd really wanted. He just... hadn't had the time. Right.

"I feel like you're unusually optimistic about this. We are talking about the same Ji-won, yeah? The one that offered to buy us food and then made us sit and watch while he ordered a soda and nothing else? The one that threatened me for almost hugging him that one time? And you know, I actually believed him. Those don't exactly set up great precedents for romance. I don't think Yeong-sik's ideal first date is being faked out and then threatened with bodily harm." How was it possible that Se-jin was stuck being the voice of reason here?

He leaned over the edge of the bunk a little further, watching Julian's little demonstration. Unlike Sol, he wasn't able to contain his laughter. "You really think he would?" He let the image play out in his mind; Ji-won pinning in Yeong-sik's larger form against the wall. It would be pretty funny to see. But then, given Yeong-sik's shy and hesitant nature...

Julian was right. It probably wouldn't go well. He really couldn't see Ji-won being interested - or salvageable, at least in this department - but they probably did need to intervene if they wanted to keep everything from imploding. It wasn't like they were going to get another shot at this if their group dynamics completely fell apart.

While he'd been mulling it over, the other two had apparently come up with a game plan. Se-jin tuned back in at the tail end of the idea, and it took him just a moment too long to realize what was happening.

"Not --- Oh come on, you can't really expect me to..." Se-jin let the sentence trail, glancing between the other two with a look of betrayal. Then again, this could be his singular chance to hug Ji-won without being punched over it. Maybe...

He sighed. "Okay, fine. But I'm not wearing a wig." He buried his face between the stuffed dog's ears, his voice muffled. "And I'm not going to be the one to spring this on him, either."

[crow]

Julian rubbed at his face with one hand. He felt like he was really getting older these days. Was this what his parents felt like all the time? Tired? "Those are good points, but I think Yeong-sik might have been trying to ask Ji-won out a few months ago, and if there's even a chance that they're going to be a thing..." Julian really, really couldn't picture it, not even a little bit, but experience told him this wasn't something he wanted to leave alone. Experience with Ji-won, mostly.

His tired expression gave way to a grin when Se-jin got pegged as the sacrificial lamb though. He stood up and clapped a hand to Se-jin's shoulder. "Leader, fighting," he said. He didn't even have the grace to look as though he felt bad about it.

"Don't worry, hyung," said Sol. "If anything happens, we'll protect you." He probably meant for it to be reassuring, but from the look on Se-jin's face, it did more harm than good.

---

"You," said Ji-won, with the most skeptical expression known to man, "want me to help you with acting?"

"Yep!" said Julian, smiling at him full force. Ji-won's eyes narrowed still further. "Oh, but not that beginner stuff. Everyone knows that. Teach me... Hey! Teach me how to do those love scenes."

Ji-won's lips pressed into a thin line. "If you want something, just say it, and stop insulting my profession."

"I'm not---"

"Ignored," said Ji-won.

He looked like he meant it too. Julian made a couple more attempts to badger him, all to no avail. What, did he have an 'ignore mode' or something? Sighing, Julian said, "Alright, fine. I wanted... some dating advice, actually. How to ask someone out." He really sold it too, looking down at the floor like he was genuinely troubled, and having a hard time getting out the words.

That got Ji-won's attention. He lowered his smartphone, arching a brow at Julian. "You?" he said, as if he couldn't quite believe it. Julian didn't know whether to be insulted or not, but considering he'd gotten a bite, he decided to let it go for now. "Who is it?"

"Well, if you must know... I was thinking of putting the moves on Yeong-sikkie," said Julian. It was hard not to smirk as he said it. It was even harder not to smirk as he watched the expression come over Ji-won's face, which he could only really describe as 'constipated'.

Julian decided to lean into it. "He's cute. I'm cute. We could be really cute together. Just think of what our babies would look like. Beautiful and beautiful! I was thinking 'Seong-jae' if we have a boy. You know, like 'star material'. What do you--- Oof." He was cut off as Ji-won decked him in the face with a pillow.

Okay, maybe he deserved that, a little bit. Didn't stop him from smiling as he batted the pillow away though. "Were you jealous?" he said, finally letting himself smile now, a catlike grin spreading across his features. "Were you jealous? You were, weren't you? Someone's got a crush, huh?"

The glare Ji-won leveled at him could cut glass. No joke, Ji-won looked like he could probably kill a man right now. Still, Julian persevered, throwing an arm around Ji-won's shoulders and drawing him close. "Lucky for you, I'm a love guru. No really, what would you do without a hyung like me?" he said. "Come on, I have someone who's waiting to see you."

"I don't---" Ji-won began, but it was his turn to be cut off. Julian hauled them both to their feet, then bustled Ji-won off to the bedroom Julian theoretically shared with Se-jin. Out of the corner of his eye, Julian caught a flash of... Well, he wouldn't have called it panic, but Ji-won did look a bit... wide-eyed.

This was going to be good.

[Night]

"How come you only ever call me the leader when you're making me do something stupid?"

---

Se-jin probably would have laughed if he caught one of the others dressed like this. Considering that he was the one in the ridiculous get-up, he couldn't really, but had it been one of the others stuffed into Yeong-sik's favorite shirt wearing a wig that hardly looked like it was mirrored after a real human, let alone their second youngest, then he definitely would have lost it.

"Why do I have to wear this, again?" He shot the question at Sol, nearly overbalancing as he tried to step away from the closet wearing the world's clunkiest platform shoes. "Shouldn't Ji-won just be able to pretend I'm Yeong-sikkie? Everyone makes such a big deal about him being a child actor, he should put some of that acting to good use."

He wasn't whining. (Alright, he was whining a little bit. Who even designed these shoes? They were definitely not made for walking in.)

Too little, too late - Julian was already shoving Ji-won into the room. Se-jin tried to turn to face them more fully and lost his footing entirely. Sprawled across the floor, wig askew, he settled his chin on his palms and batted his eyes up at their new arrival - Hey, no one would be able to tell him he was out of character.

"Ji-won-hyng! It's me! I'm Yeong-sik. Wow, I'm just so embarrassed. And shy. And... I want to read a book?"

It's not like Se-jin had acting on his resume.

[crow]

Julian entered the room first, but it was Ji-won who took in the scene--- Julian was still focused on him, saying something inane, and it was only when Ji-won stopped short with a stupefied expression than before that Julian stopped too, and turned to look. And oh, what a sight it was. Even Julian was left at a loss for words.

Se-jin was sprawled on the floor in a shirt at least two sizes too large, in a a wig that had been knocked almost entirely off, presumably by the fall. In the spirit of rolling with it, he was now striking a pose, and... was he doing voices? Was that what that was? Was that what he thought Yeong-sik sounded like?

If Julian hadn't already committed himself to this idea, he would have smacked his palm right into his forehead. Maybe he would have started laughing. As it was, he tightened his grip on Ji-won, though as it turned out, if he was worried about Ji-won running away, he could have saved his energy.

"What," said Ji-won, "do you think you're doing?" Julian wasn't even looking at him, but he could feel the temperature in the room drop a couple degrees. Sol took a half step toward Se-jin, looking up worriedly between Julian and Ji-won.

It was starting to feel like all his fast thinking couldn't get Julian out of this one.

"Aw come on, Ji-wonnie," he said, laughing, though it sounded a bit weak even to his own ears, and it earned him nothing but the sudden laser-sharp focus of Ji-won's ire. But hey, at least he was drawing aggro, right? "We know you've been making eyes at Yeong-sik. We just, um, wanted to help?"

"I don't recall asking you to help me with anything," said Ji-won stiffly.

"Well, prove us wrong then! Show us how you'd do it. Ask him out!" Julian disentangled himself from Ji-won and pushed him forward instead. "Work that ol' actor charm." In fact, Julian was even half hoping that Ji-won would turn out to be a natural charmer, and then they could all forget this had happened and just move on. But he was also kind of dreading what was coming.

Ji-won was silent, and for a moment Julian thought he might refuse. But then he sighed, the tension leaving his shoulders. He looked... smaller for it somehow, almost defeated. "If I do this, will you promise to stop bothering me?" he said. Fortunately his voice still had plenty of bite, or else Julian might have started feeling bad for real.

"Sure! Absolutely. One hundred percent," said Julian. Well, he'd stop bothering Ji-won about this whole crush business anyway. He wasn't exactly lying.

Ji-won closed his eyes. Maybe he was getting into that 'actor space' they liked to talk so much about. Julian and Sol watched on with an air of mixed expectation and apprehension. Then Ji-won moved forward, kneeling beside 'Yeong-sik'...

"There's no need to be shy," he said. Picked up Se-jin's hand. It didn't even look like a death grip. So far, better than what Julian had expected, frankly. But then he kept going. "I'm going to see everything anyway, right? I'll take care of everything, just close your eyes..." He shifted, bracing his arms on either side of Se-jin's shoulders and leaning in...

[Night]

Se-jin was more than prepared for this to blow up. He braced himself for whatever was coming (a punch in teh face was what he would have put his money on) and screwed his eyes closed as though watching would make it worse.

When there wasn't any immediate impact, he peeked one eye open just a little bit to take in their positions. Ji-won didn't appear to be moving in for the kill; but then, he hardly looked happy about this, either. Se-jin let out a sigh of relief as he pulled the wig off and tossed it towards the corner of the room. He knew this was a stupid idea.

He turned back, ready to make his excuses and possibly to shove the blame in Julian's direction. Express once again that this had been a terrible plan. Apologize, maybe. But Ji-won was significantly closer than he had been a moment ago. Se-jin looked down at their hands with more than a little confusion written across his features. "Ji-won...?"

He hadn't expected Ji-won to go along with this - and he certainly hadn't expected that they would be this up-close and personal. A few badly worded pickup lines perhaps, or even a stolen hug; this was a level of forwardness that he couldn't have anticipated given the history of their interactions. There'd barely even been any coaxing!

But he had told Julian he would help, and it wasn't like Ji-won was doing anything completely wrong. He should just go with it, right? Se-jin closed his eyes once again - this time much less tightly - and leaned forward to meet him halfway.

[crow]

And it had been going so well too.

It wasn't enough that Ji-won was apparently already going in for the kill; Se-jin had to go and play along with it. Julian watched with growing horror as Se-jin angled himself upward, the space between the two of them shrinking at an alarming rate... But he didn't get to see what was going to happen next because by that point he had lunged for Ji-won and was pulling him off of Se-jin.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" he said. "Stop! Hey! Time out!" Okay, no harm done yet, so maybe he was overreacting a little bit, but... But... "What kind of way is that to ask someone out?"

"What was wrong with it?" The worst part was that Ji-won seemed to be genuinely wondering.

And, alright, maybe nothing was wrong with it... if you were already in a relationship. As far as Julian had been aware, the premise had been how to get them to that point in the first place, not this in media res approach that Ji-won was apparently taking. Maybe he hadn't been clear enough on that.

"You and Yeong-sik aren't dating, right?" he said.

"When have we ever gone out on a date?" said Ji-won.

"... Right, and this is how you'd fix that...?" said Julian. Ji-won just kept looking at him, as if waiting for him to get to the point. Julian, for his part, was starting to feel that he was well and truly out of his depth.

At this point, Sol, bless his heart, cut in. "I think maybe you should lead with something a little less intense," he said. "Surprising someone with a kiss is a pretty bold strategy if you're just asking them out... Oh, I know, maybe you can do it the way they do in your dramas!"

Ji-won glanced at Sol, then gave a shrug and approached Se-jin again. But this time he grabbed Se-jin by the front of his shirt, hauling him bodily to his feet. "You're so clumsy," he said, in a voice that was decidedly more abrasive than it had been in his last attempt. "Who told you to go around like that? Geez, you're really so clueless... Hey. Go out with me. That's not a request, got it?"

"Are you a gangster or something?" said Julian.

"Well... Now that I think about it, bad boy leads were really popular when Ji-wonnie hyung was still acting, so... Maybe that was a bad idea." Sol was the one who moved to interfere this time, and was firmly pulling Ji-won's hands off of Se-jin, or maybe off of Yeong-sik's poor shirt.

Julian sighed. "You know, that explains so much, actually."