Chapter Text
They all went to Minho, Hyunjin, and Jeongin’s dorm one-and-a-half weeks later for Seungmin’s shot. They didn’t go the following week because Seungmin wanted alone time with Minho, about which the older boy was not pleased. Seungmin didn’t get nearly as much information out of him as he wanted to, but he got something - just that Chan and Minho were official and he was the only person who knew. The fact made him feel very special.
The two older boys seemed nervous when they walked up to the dorm room. Seungmin had tried to tell them that it was okay if they didn’t want to do it, but they were both insistent.
“We need to know these things if we want to be together for a long time, right?” Jisung had asked him. “I want to help you however I can.”
“I guess. But if you don’t like it or anything, don't feel pressured. Jeonginnie isn’t confident enough to do it either.”
They promised him that they wouldn’t push themselves and he trusted them.
It was Hyunjin who opened the door when they arrived.
“Hey!” he greeted, stepping aside. “Minho hyung’s out with Channie hyung but he should be back within the hour.”
Seungmin smiled silently.
They entered to see Jeongin sitting on his bed with his phone, and he looked up with a smile.
Hyunjin closed the door and continued talking. “Do you care who does it, Minnie?”
He shook his head. “As long as you can show them how to do it.”
Hyunjin nodded and went to get the supplies while Seungmin turned back to Jisung and Felix. “I just sit on the counter while they do it because it’s easier that way. It doesn’t take long, only a few minutes.”
“Alright,” Felix said, giving him a kiss. He seemed more confident than Jisung did, which worried Seungmin a little.
They heard a gag and turned to Jeongin. “Gross,” the boy said, eyes not leaving Seungmin’s.
“Oh, shut up already. Just admit that you’re jealous.”
“Jealous? No way.” He set his phone down and looked at Jisung and Felix. “You have no idea how much of a pain it was listening to this guy pine over you guys for months. If anything, I’m relieved to not have to deal with that anymore.”
Seungmin groaned and pressed his palms against his cheeks. “In-ah, come on! You’re spending too much time with Minho hyung.”
“Minnie, I need them to know how much shit I went through for this relationship. They should be thankful that you had my guidance.”
Seungmin glared at him before turning to the older two. “Hyungs, don’t listen to him, please.”
Felix stared back at him. “Wait, how long did you like us for?”
Seungmin blushed. “Um…”
“It started, like, a month into our freshman year,” Jeongin piped in.
“Jeongin!”
“That long?” Jisung asked quietly. Seungmin looked at him and tried to calm down.
“Maybe?” he squeaked.
“I think I fell for you when I first saw you,” the older boy continued.
“Me too!” Felix exclaimed. “You’re telling me that we could have been together for a whole year?”
He sounded a little upset but Seungmin was just shocked. He hadn’t noticed anything that would point to them liking him back, and for an entire year of hanging out nearly every day? How?
Seungmin put his face in his hands. “Jeongin. Why can’t you just mind your own business?”
“This is my business, Minnie. After everything you put me through—”
“Jeongin-ah!” Seungmin shouted, stomping his foot. He wasn’t really mad, just embarrassed, and Jeongin knew that.
Felix put a hand on his shoulder with a nervous chuckle. “Okay, let’s calm down. We all had some part in our relationship forming. Let’s leave it at that.”
Jeongin let it go but kept the smirk on his face, causing Seungmin to frown and look away with a pout. He turned to the counter and saw Hyunjin leaning against it, arms crossed and lips curling upwards.
“Hyung,” Seungmin groaned quietly, “don’t start.”
The older boy held his palms up. “I’m not, I’m not. Just watching.” He patted the counter. “Come on, let’s do this.”
Seungmin sighed and walked over, hoisting himself up and crossing his arms. Hyunjin beckoned for Jisung and Felix to come closer.
“First you have to wash your hands, but I already did that. You have to clean his skin and we usually just use a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol.”
Hyunjin demonstrated by pouring the alcohol on a cotton ball and rubbing a circle onto Seungmin’s skin. The younger boy watched Jisung and Felix’s expressions carefully, but they were fully focused on Hyunjin.
“You’re supposed to wait for it to dry but it does quickly, so just get the needle ready.” He uncapped it and showed them. “There are a few other things to know too. Don’t poke the same spot every time, try to move it around a bit.”
He pointed at a few dots where previous shots had been administered.
“Then stretch his skin with your fingers to make it flat. I don’t want to make it last longer than it has to, so I’ll say the rest now. Stick the needle in quickly, then pull the syringe back. It might sound weird but you have to do it to make sure you don't hit a blood vessel. You’ll see red if that happens and you’ll have to get a new needle, but that usually doesn’t happen. If it’s all good, then push the syringe in slowly until it's all in, then pull it out. That’s basically it.”
Jisung and Felix looked a little overwhelmed, but they nodded. Hyunjin stretched the skin and they both looked up at Seungmin, giving him a smile when they met eyes. Then he winced when Hyunjin stuck it in and they looked back down to see what was happening. Seungmin looked at the ceiling.
Hyunjin finished and pulled it out. “It goes in this container over here.” Seungmin watched him throw the needle out before returning and pressing a clean cotton ball against his thigh. “It bleeds sometimes but not always.”
Felix looked up at Seungmin again. “Does it hurt?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, but not a lot. I’m used to it.”
Felix nodded and looked back down. “Well… maybe in a few months I can try?”
Hyunjin nodded, but unsurely. “There are things you can practice on if you want and one of us can tell you if you do it right. I don’t want to be rude, but… it makes me nervous thinking about someone else doing it, even if it’s you.”
“No, that makes sense. We don’t want to mess it up.”
Felix seemed confident, so Seungmin looked at Jisung.
“Sungie hyung?”
Jisung looked up. “Oh. Um… Yeah, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be ready to do this. I’d worry too much about hurting you or doing it wrong.”
Seungmin smiled. “That’s okay, you’re not expected to. Thanks for telling me.”
Jisung nodded with a smile. Hyunjin threw the cotton balls away and put everything back into its drawer.
“Help me down?” Seungmin asked Jisung, who smiled again. The older boy stood in front of him and held his arms out, gripping Seungmin’s biceps when the younger boy held his shoulders. Seungmin winced again when he landed and they looked a little worried.
“Is it sore?” Felix asked.
“Just a bit. It’ll be gone by tomorrow.” They nodded and looked a little unsure, so Seungmin pulled each of them into a kiss. “Thank you for being here, though. It means a lot to me.”
“Of course, baby.”
He heard another gag and took a deep breath to calm down, then he turned around slowly.
“I swear to God, if you don’t—” He cut himself off when he saw Minho standing next to Jeongin, clearly being the one to make the noise. He hadn’t noticed the older boy come in.
“Yah, watch that attitude.”
“Hyung, I thought that was Innie. You’re teaching him so many bad things.”
“Hey, I'm not teaching him anything. He’s just following in my footsteps because he knows that I’m the best and smartest out of all of you.”
“If I were his hyung, he would follow me without a doubt.”
“In your dreams, Seungmin-ah. Lord knows you would give him the worst advice. You can’t even cook or clean and you’re so incredibly annoying that—”
“At least I’m nice to him! And you’re so stubborn and mean that he’d—”
“Yah! Why can’t I decide who the best hyung would be?”
Everyone looked at Jeongin expectantly.
“Changbin hyung.”
There was immediately a chorus of groans and Jeongin raised his hands to shush them.
“Okay, there are a lot of reasons for that answer, but first of all, I’m sorry but everything hyung just said is true, Minnie. You’re lacking many qualities of a hyung. Let me know if you ever find a dongsaeng, yeah?”
Before Seungmin could get a word out, Jeongin continued. “And Minho hyung, Seungmin’s right too. You are stubborn and rude and even though you may have better survival instincts than him, he’s nicer to me.”
“I wish I wasn’t,” Seungmin grumbled petulantly. “You don’t deserve it.”
Jeongin gestured towards him. “Also, Minnie, you need more patience. Stop rushing me when you help me with homework!”
“At least I’m helping you! Minho hyung can’t do that.”
“Yeah, well, Binnie hyung is sweeter than Minho hyung and stronger than you, Minnie. He wins.”
Both Minho and Seungmin didn’t respond to that. Seungmin noticed Hyunjin grinning out of the corner of his eye, and Jeongin blushed when he made eye contact with the older boy. Seungmin filed that away for later.
“What about you, Minnie?” Jisung asked suddenly. “Who’s the best hyung to you?”
Seungmin froze. “Um…”
“Yeah, Minnie,” Jeongin said sharply. “Who is it?”
How am I supposed to answer that with my older boyfriends and best friends staring at me? he thought.
“Jeongin, definitely not. Binnie hyung, no. Minho hyung, obviously, no.” Those he was sure of - not that he had anything against Changbin, but he couldn’t choose him after Jeongin did. That wouldn’t be right.
He looked around at the other options - Hyunjin, Jisung, and Felix, as well as Chan who wasn’t in the room.
“Hyunjinnie hyung,” he decided. He heard one cheer and four complaints. “What? He’s always there for me!”
“And I’m not?” He turned to see Felix’s large pout.
“No, no, you are! I just…”
Jisung pouted behind him.
“Oh boy,” someone whispered.
Seungmin decided to pout as well, hoping that they would drop the topic. That wasn’t fair.
No one moved. “Come on,” he complained, “that’s not fair and you know it. See, Innie, this is what I was talking about! You’re so mean!”
Jeongin just grinned, but Seungmin could tell that he actually felt a little bad.
“Make it up to me,” Seungmin said, crossing his arms.
“What?”
“You heard me. Make it up to me.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
Seungmin smirked and opened his arms wide. Jeongin groaned and threw his head back against his headboard.
“Oh my God, Minnie, you’re insatiable.”
“How are they friends?” he heard Jisung whisper. He ignored it.
“Come here. Now.” Jeongin didn’t move and Seungmin sighed dramatically, dropping his arms. “Fine. I guess I’ll just keep that bear plushie of yours because you clearly don’t care about it—”
“Hey!” Jeongin exclaimed, finally standing. “You took my bear?”
“Maybe I did! You never said anything about it.”
“Why would I? I don’t just expect my friends to steal a stuffed animal from me whenever they come over.”
He had a point.
“What are you gonna do about it?” Seungmin teased. Jeongin huffed.
“If I give you one hug, will you put my bear on my bed after classes tomorrow?”
“Maybe.”
“Seungmin.”
“Okay, okay, I will. I promise.” He didn’t lie when he said that Jeongin was taking after Minho - he was actually a little scared of the other boy at least once every two weeks. It was becoming a problem, he thought.
Jeongin stared at him for a moment before walking closer, standing stiffly in front of Seungmin. Seungmin sighed and wrapped his arms tightly around the other boy.
“It’s not a hug if it’s one-sided, Jeongin-ah.”
Jeongin grumbled under his breath but lifted his arms to hold Seungmin’s waist. Seungmin squeezed him for a few seconds before letting him go with a smile.
“I’ll be here at three thirty.”
“You better be.”
He turned around to address Felix. “I told you,” he whispered. “Addicted.”
Felix just laughed and Jeongin muttered something under his breath about not being addicted, which Seungmin ignored. He knew that he was right; he was always right.