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“I have a great idea!”
About half the people in the living room groaned. It was never a good sign when Matthew had an “idea,” not to mention it was almost past midnight which meant that no idea was a good idea. Gyuvin narrowed his eyes at the bottle that Matthew was holding up, feeling even more strongly that it was definitely a bad idea.
Taerae poked his head out from his room, having heard the loud exclamation.
“What am I missing?” he asked sleepily.
“Nothing, Matthew has an idea,” Zhang Hao called back at him from his spot draped over Hanbin on the couch. Taerae made a face and disappeared back into his room. Hanbin gave Zhang Hao a light slap, chastising him about making too much noise and waking Yujin who was sound asleep in his room (though Gyuvin suspected he was most likely up playing games in bed instead of actually sleeping).
“Well, I for one want to hear him out!” offered Gunwook who was sitting up from his position where he had been laid out on the floor scrolling through his phone. Everyone’s eyes turned to Matthew, save for Ricky who still had his headphones on and was basically in his own world on the other side of the room.
“Okay, so I acquired something super secret,” Matthew started mysteriously. He then turned the bottle he was holding around quickly with a “Ta-da!”
“‘Truth serum’?” Zhang Hao read the English on the label slowly. “What’s that?”
“So basically you drink it and then you have to tell the truth to any question that is asked to you,” Matthew explained. “I thought it would be a great idea for team building!”
The group was silent for a moment, staring at him blankly. Gyuvin was intrigued by the idea, but really, the last thing he wanted was for anyone, even his beloved group mates, to hear his deepest darkest secrets with no filter. Without waiting for an answer, Matthew grabbed a mug from the side table and started pouring the contents of the bottle into it.
“Matthew…sweetheart…” Jiwoong started gently, taking the mug and bottle from him, “I’m not sure about this…”
“Yeah, and where did you even get that stuff, anyway? The black market?” Zhang Hao piped up.
“And even if we were to use it, we definitely would not want to be drinking it the night before we have a schedule,” Hanbin added diplomatically. “Who knows what the side effects could be?”
Matthew visibly deflated, and Jiwoong patted him on the head before leading him away into the kitchen. Zhang Hao shook his head with a sigh before laying back down on Hanbin’s chest. Ricky had not moved a muscle and had probably missed the entire discussion. Gunwook stood up, letting out a light chuckle.
“I honestly think it would be fun,” he mused, looking at Gyuvin. Gyuvin scrunched up his nose and shook his head, earning him another laugh from Gunwook. It’s not that Gyuvin was a particularly secretive person, but…there were definitely a few things that he wanted to keep to himself. A truth serum was just about the last thing he needed.
Gyuvin yawned, rising from his chair and bidding the rest of his members good night. He spared an extra glance at Ricky, who still hadn’t looked up at him even to say good night. Gyuvin sighed before making his way to his room to turn in for the night.
***
Gyuvin rubbed his bleary eyes, searching their barren fridge for something, anything to eat for breakfast. He heard light footsteps behind him, but he was too preoccupied with the sad task at hand to look up and see who had joined him in the kitchen. None of the few leftovers that stared back at him looked appetizing, so he closed the fridge with a sigh. Turning his attention to the kitchen table, he saw a familiar messy mop of blonde hair. Gyuvin’s first reaction was to smile, but his second reaction was sudden panic.
Ricky had raised a mug to his lips, a seemingly innocent action, but the events of the night before had flooded back into Gyuvin’s head when he spotted that familiar bright blue mug.
“Don’t drink that!” Gyuvin screeched, but the damage was already done. Ricky blinked up at him with a puzzled expression.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said lightly. “Was this yours? I thought you had made this coffee for me. Now that I think about it, it did taste a little weird but I wasn’t going to say anything…” Gyuvin stared open-mouthed at him, at a loss for words. Ricky really hadn’t been paying attention the night before, that much was very clear. He continued to stare at Ricky, trying to figure out how to explain to him what he’d just done. Then, a thought occurred to him. How long did it take this stuff to start working, anyway?
“How are you feeling?” Gyuvin asked slowly.
“Tired,” Ricky answered immediately. “I’m really not in the mood for today’s schedule but I’m just gonna pretend like I don’t care.” His eyebrows suddenly furrowed. “Huh. I don’t know why I said that, I was gonna keep that to myself.”
Gyuvin pursed his lips, trying really hard not to laugh. Oh, this was too good.
“Do you think you’re cute?”
“Objectively, yeah, I mean, would I be this popular if I wasn’t?” Ricky slapped his hands over his mouth. “Gyuvin, what the hell is going on?!” Gyuvin was fully doubled over laughing now, trying hard to pull himself together as he turned the bottle on the table around so that the label faced Ricky.
“‘Truth serum’? Oh hell no…”
Gyuvin banged his fists on the table, tears dotting the corners of his eyes. Ricky glared at him, and if looks could kill Gyuvin would no longer be in this world…
“Well that just means you have to drink some too, to make it fair,” Ricky pointed out, pushing the mug towards Gyuvin. “Since you didn’t warn me about it or anything.” It seemed like sound logic to Gyuvin, so he accepted the mug and downed the rest of it without any further questions. When he put the mug down, he was met with Ricky’s incredulous expression.
“I didn’t…I didn’t really mean it…” Ricky sputtered. “Why did you do that?!”
Gyuvin shrugged. “Bro solidarity, I guess.” He could feel that the drink hadn’t really taken effect yet, so he added, “Ask me some simple questions, I wanna know how long this takes to start working.”
“What’s your name?”
“Eumppappa.”
“What year were you born?”
“1904.”
“Did you use the last of my toothpaste last week and then not replace it?”
“Yes, I was too lazy to replace it-“ Gyuvin’s eyes went wide and he slapped his own hands over his mouth. Now that was a weird sensation, having words leave your mouth without your permission. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“Yeah, this is a terrible idea,” Ricky said as if he was reading Gyuvin’s mind. “We’re gonna have to stay real quiet during our schedule today and then we’ll really have to try to avoid the members for the next…” He turned the bottle around to look at the warning label. “TWENTY-FOUR HOURS?!”
Gyuvin’s heart dropped all the way to his stomach.
“Ohhh Ricky…” Gyuvin groaned. “We are so fucking screwed.”
***
Gyuvin put on his best smile, knowing that all he had to do was get through this radio show, and then he and Ricky would be home free. They just needed to keep quiet and hope that the host wouldn’t ask them too many questions.
The interview started simple enough, with the members going around and introducing themselves. There wasn’t anything that Gyuvin had to lie about there. He started to get nervous, though, when the host started the TMI section. As long as no one asked him any questions during his turn, he would be safe to say whatever he wanted. He leaned towards the mic, thinking desperately of something safe he could talk about that wouldn’t lead to any questions. However, he must have taken too long because the dreaded words soon left the host’s mouth.
“Did anything embarrassing happen to you this past week?”
Gyuvin felt the words bubble up in his throat and leave his mouth before he could stop them.
“I walked into the bathroom while Ricky was coming out of the shower and accidentally saw him completely naked!”
The room fell silent. Several members’ mouths dropped open. Ricky slid himself as far down his chair as he possibly could. Gyuvin heard the host quietly ask a staff member if they could edit that part out. Gyuvin wanted nothing more than to disappear. He was a rookie, for crying out loud, what was he doing sharing a story like that…
The rest of the segment went by awkwardly. Ricky, the lucky bastard, got away with a simple TMI since nobody asked him a question. They moved on to the next segment which was a game portion. Gyuvin sighed in relief. This was much safer and if this was the last segment of the show then he was in the clear.
The first moment that came to bite them in the ass was when the host asked Ricky, “Are you excited for the game?” and Ricky answered with a “Not really.” Gyuvin caught the host out of the corner of his eye making another “cut” symbol to the staff and he thanked his lucky stars that this man had the sense to help them keep their reputations intact. Gyuvin was practically sweating buckets by this point and Hanbin clearly noticed how uncomfortable he was.
“Gyuvin-ah, are you okay?” Hanbin asked under his breath.
“No, I am not okay, this is the worst!” Gyuvin hissed back. Hanbin gave him a concerned look and a pat on the shoulder, but couldn’t do much more as it was time to start flicking bottle caps across a table or some shit.
As they finished up the interview, Gyuvin bowed quickly to the staff, then rushed out of the studio before anyone else could try to talk to him. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse. He couldn’t take back his embarrassing story from the members’ minds, but at least the host had his back so he would be spared from the whole world hearing it.
Gunwook caught up to him first as he opened the van door and attempted to get inside.
“What a story, hyung, did that really happen?” he teased.
“Yes, of course it really happened,” Gyuvin answered, not of his own free will of course. Gunwook, not having a clue that anything was amiss, continued his teasing.
“And how was the lovely Ricky’s body after a shower, huh?”
“It was really nice, it was so toned and it-ahhhh….” Gyuvin forced the sentence to stop before it could go any further, burying his face in his hands. When he peeked up again through his fingers, Gunwook’s eyebrow was raised. Luckily, he was saved from any more scrutiny by the other members’ noisy appearance. Gyuvin took the opportunity to slip into the front seat to avoid any more horrific conversation. Ricky, though, got stuck in the back and Gyuvin prayed that at least he would be spared.
Fortunately, the members were into their own conversations, leaving Ricky and Gyuvin out of it. That is, until they were pulling into the dorm’s parking lot and Yujin turned to Ricky to ask “Hyung, do you want to have jjajangmyeon with me?”
Ricky, who always gave in to everything their maknae wanted, had to answer, “No, I’d rather go to sleep.” The manager parked the car and Gyuvin turned his head to see the members giving Ricky some weird looks. Zhang Hao gathered the maknae up in a tight embrace, saying, “Don’t worry about him, I’ll have some with you, little one.” Gyuvin gave Ricky the eyes and a head tilt, signaling that they had to get out of there fast. They were the first two to exit the van, and they immediately started speed-walking towards the dorm.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute!” came Gunwook’s voice behind them. Gyuvin and Ricky stopped short. Dread creeped up the back of Gyuvin’s neck.
“I think I finally know what’s going on here,” Gunwook continued, smirk spreading across his face. “These two have been acting weird all day, and at first I thought they were just tired but now it all makes sense to me. Gyuvin and Ricky, did you take the truth serum this morning?”
“Yes,” Gyuvin and Ricky answered in unison. Damn that kid, he really was too smart for his own good.
“Oh, this is going to be fun…” Gyuvin heard Matthew start to say. There was only one option left. He turned to face Ricky.
“Run!”
The two of them sprinted towards the door, a rush of adrenaline taking them there faster than the other members. Gyuvin typed the passcode with shaking hands, rushing into the dorm and closing the door behind them to buy them some time. They flung their shoes off in a rush before bolting to their shared bedroom, closing the door and locking it. Gyuvin flopped onto his bed with a breathless laugh and Ricky did the same beside him.
“There is no way in hell we’re gonna let the members take advantage of this,” Gyuvin emphasized. “Guess we’re stuck in here until this shit wears off.” The two of them laid still for a while longer, breathing heavily. Then, Ricky asked, “Do you have your phone?” Gyuvin thought about it for a moment before slapping a hand over his forehead.
“Fuuuck, I left it in the living room before we went to our schedule,” he whined. Ricky shook his head.
“Me too,” he sighed. It was certainly going to be a long evening, with Gyuvin’s nonexistent attention span. He moved into a sitting position on his bed, patting the comforter beside him so that Ricky would do the same.
“Well, I guess we’re just going to have to talk to each other like people used to do in the olden days,” Gyuvin concluded, feeling bored already. “Hey, we should ask each other questions! It’s not every day that you find yourself under a truth serum.”
“How about we don’t do that and just sit here in silence until this wears off, please,” Ricky countered. Gyuvin pouted. He then turned his best, most adorable puppy dog eyes towards Ricky and gave him a “Pleeease?” He could tell he was breaking Ricky down so he let a few tears well up for good measure and that certainly did it.
“Fine, fine!” Ricky said, “Just stop doing that please!”
Gyuvin pumped his fists up triumphantly, leaning away. “Why, was it too cute to handle?”
“Yes, it was extremely cute—“ Ricky answered before he could stop himself. “Gah, no more questions like that, please!”
It was too late, Gyuvin’s ego had already been enormously inflated. However, he decided to respect Ricky’s wishes and keep it easy for the time being.
“What’s something that you’re curious about me?” Gyuvin asked. Ricky thought about it, as it wasn’t really a question with one simple answer. He wouldn’t be able to lie, of course, but he could at least pick his answer.
“Is the idol life as great as you expected?” Ricky asked.
“Yes and no,” Gyuvin found himself saying. “Of course, there’s aspects of it that I love, which is why I’m doing this job in the first place. I love the attention from the fans, I love performing onstage, I love being with you guys. But there are other aspects that are a lot harder than I expected…being constantly scrutinized, having to deal with things like stalkers, and just the basic feeling of being exhausted even though everything is so exciting.” Talking under the influence of the truth serum was very interesting to Gyuvin. He’d been so swept up in his desperate desire to debut, and then the thrill of debuting, that he’d never had a chance to really think about whether or not he was happy in the path that he’d chosen. He’s not sure he could have come up with that answer by himself if he’d tried. This serum stuff really seemed to dig into his inner feelings…
“That was a little too serious.” Gyuvin cleared his throat awkwardly. “Sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry, I asked the question,” Ricky pointed out.
“I know, but I don’t like to be so serious…” Gyuvin looked away sheepishly. “Anyway, let’s change the subject! I wanna know something juicy! Like…do you like someone?”
He had only asked it to tease Ricky. They were so busy all the time, and they never met anyone, who would Ricky even have time to like? To be fair, Gyuvin apparently had some time to like Ricky, but it was just a little bit! In any case, he really hadn’t expected Ricky to immediately respond, “Yes.”
Gyuvin’s head whipped around to look at Ricky, who was staring back at him, eyes wide. Gyuvin wiggled his eyebrows. This was definitely juicy, even if Gyuvin did feel a bit of jealousy bubbling up.
“Don’t you dare!” Ricky warned. “Don’t you dare think about asking who it is.” But this was just too good to give up.
“Do you like someone in this group?” Gyuvin decided to ask instead, knowing this would shut everything down as it was probably a celebrity crush or someone Ricky had met on Boys Planet. However, Ricky’s answer was again “Yes.”
Ricky’s expression was pained. “Gyuvin…” Gyuvin felt his stomach do a flip. He felt his gaze unable to leave Ricky’s face. He was itching to ask something but he didn’t quite know how to ask it.
“Gyuvin, please don’t…” Gyuvin glanced down momentarily to see that Ricky’s hands were shaking. Gyuvin felt so guilty, he felt so terrible, but he couldn’t stop. Maybe it was the influence of the serum, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking more.
“Who is it?” Gyuvin whispered.
“Who is what?” Ricky’s voice was strained. He was clearly fighting against the pull of the serum, but he hadn’t technically answered Gyuvin’s question incorrectly.
“Who is it that you like?”
“It’s…it’s a person that I know…” Ricky gritted out through his teeth. “Gyuvin, please don’t ask me.” But Gyuvin’s mouth was moving of its own accord at that point.
“Do you like…me?”
“Yes!” Ricky’s answer came out in a loud burst, unable to fight against the serum any longer. “Yes, yes, I like you, okay? Are you happy?”
“Yes, I’m very happy!” Gyuvin fired back before he could stop himself. “Fuck! You’ve got to be kidding me!” But the words had already left his mouth and he couldn’t take them back if he tried. The shock was evident on Ricky’s face, and Gyuvin was sure that he was mirroring Gyuvin’s own mortified expression.
“Gyuvin…what?”
“Well, this is a turn of events I certainly did not see coming…” Gyuvin stared up at the ceiling, knowing that he’d brought this upon himself.
“Oh who’s got the upper hand now…” He could feel Ricky’s teasing starting up and he knew that he was absolutely screwed.
“So how long have you liked me, then?” Ricky asked smugly. Gyuvin resigned himself to whatever fate the truth serum had in mind for him.
“Honestly, since the day we met, but like it wasn’t that serious back then and to be honest it’s not even that serious now but I don’t know it’s always just kind of been there and oh my god why am I still going shut the fuck up Gyuvin!”
Ricky was fully laughing and it took Gyuvin everything in him not to choke him out. “Okay, well what about you?! I’m not going down alone, how long have you liked me?!”
“I didn’t really realize it until recently but then I figured out that everything I’ve felt for you is a bit more than platonic and I- oh my god, screw you!” Ricky shoved Gyuvin. Gyuvin laughed, suddenly feeling a bit light headed.
“Oooh, you wanna kiss me so bad right now, don’t you!” Gyuvin teased, quoting one of his favorite memes.
“Yes I do.” Ricky buried his face in his hands as soon as he said it, but Gyuvin immediately stopped laughing. He wanted to ask if Ricky was serious, but that was a really stupid question given their situation. Instead, he tapped Ricky on the top of the head until he looked up. He held Ricky’s eye contact, feeling way out of his element, but not willing to let the moment go.
“Do you?” Ricky’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“Do I what?” Gyuvin couldn’t help himself. Ricky glared at him, but it was more adorable than anything.
“Do you want to…kiss…me?”
“Yes,” Gyuvin breathed out, not waiting for Ricky’s response before leaning in and meeting Ricky’s lips. Ricky responded immediately, hands migrating to rest on the tops of Gyuvin’s thighs while he kissed him back. Gyuvin held Ricky’s head with his hands, tilting so that he could deepen the kiss. He sighed contentedly into Ricky’s mouth, letting himself do something that he’d never dreamed that he’d be allowed to do.
It was quite a while before they pulled away from each other, and when they did they were both breathless. A smirk started playing across Ricky’s face.
“So, was it good?” he asked.
“Yeah, you’re a really good kisser…ugh, whatever.” Gyuvin pushed him away in faux anger. All thoughts of annoyance melted away as Ricky slid his hand into Gyuvin’s hand, interlacing their fingers gently. A longing pang hit Gyuvin’s heart. He brought their hands up to his lips and kissed the back of Ricky’s hand.
“I have so much I want to ask you,” Gyuvin started. “But let’s wait until this stuff wears off, yeah? I don’t want us to say anything we might regret.”
“You didn’t really seem to care about that when you were forcing me to spill my feelings…”
“Okay, well!” Gyuvin tried to defend himself. “What, do you regret this?”
“No, not at all,” Ricky answered truthfully, then scoffed. “Man, I hate this. No more talking for the night. Talking is banned.”
“But what if I want to hear more of this…”
“Have you ever fantasized about dating me?”
“Yes, all the time— okay, yeah, no more talking,” Gyuvin finally agreed. Ricky smirked again, but still pulled Gyuvin closer to him. Gyuvin rested his head on his friend’s shoulder. Friend? Weren’t they more than friends now?
Guess he’d have to thank Matthew and his bad idea for that.