Chapter Text
Juntae is a nosy fucking person.
He always has been, since he’s always been the quiet, shy type people tended to forget was even there, which actually had its advantages, one of those being that he got to hear all the gossip since he was able to fade into the background. He remembers back when he was younger, he would listen in to all the gossip from the popular kids and write it down in his notebook if he found it interesting enough. Nowadays, he actually has a solid group of friends that he can pass the information on to—not gossip, he wouldn’t stoop that low, he is simply relaying information.
Most of the group would actually be intrigued about his findings about their classmates and others, except Sieun, who would roll his eyes and ask, “What does that matter to me?” Unfortunately, Juntae just can’t help himself, he needs to know 100% of the drama at all times.
Maybe it is a little intrusive, so he’d like to say he’s working on it. (He’s not.)
Regardless, other people’s business is his too as far as he’s concerned. Especially his friends’ business.
Unfortunately for Juntae, his friends actually live quite mundane lives contrary to popular belief. Sure, they all used to get into fights a lot, but that stuff has basically stopped now, meaning they all just get on with normal teenage stuff. Still, Juntae craves a little drama in his life—maybe he’s read too many manhwas.
So when Juntae starts noticing a certain two people in the friend group acting weird around one another, he can’t stop noticing.
Of course, he already knows how close of a bond Suho and Sieun have, which he finds endearing truly. With all that they’ve been through together before either of them even knew anyone else in the group, it makes sense for them to be closer with each other than the rest of them.
Sieun, with Suho, acts nothing like the Sieun he and the others know, in the way that he allows Suho to touch him easily without hesitation or annoyance, which is almost impossible for the others to do. (Seriously, he’s like an anti-social cat!) He also seems to talk much more with Suho, which for Sieun’s standards is still not a lot, but his answers tend to be longer than just a single word, which is definitely something. For all these changes, Juntae doesn’t suspect anything though since, like he said, they have been through a lot together and understand each other in a way that Juntae has never seen before, in a platonic way of course.
However, it’s been almost two years now since Suho woke up from his coma, and in that time Juntae would argue that if anything, they’ve only gotten closer! Suho has also been introduced and integrated into the little friend group they have formed, but no matter how great friends they all are now, none of them have anything like what Suho and Sieun have.
Unfortunately, Juntae hasn’t got enough evidence yet to say for certain that there is something going on between the pair, so he decides to start analysing their interactions very carefully. Is this an invasion of privacy…? Well, that’s irrelevant, this is journalism, and in order to be a good journalist you have to dig deep, Juntae concludes. So on their next outing as a group, Juntae looks out for anything suspicious…
The five of them are in a Korean BBQ restaurant, with Gotak sitting between him and Baku, with Sieun and Suho opposite them. The perfect view for his investigation.
It’s a Friday evening, so they all finally get a chance to relax from the busy week. The air is warm from meat sizzling on tables and there is a quiet hum of chatter throughout the restaurant. Suho is talking animatedly about some annoying customers at his job at a different restaurant while simultaneously cooking some pork for the group.
“It was well past when my shift ended at this point, but they literally refused to leave! It was infuriating! And I couldn’t even tell them to just fuck off. I had to be all polite asking if everything was still ok for them, all while they were spilling shit all over the floor that I would have to stay longer to clean up once they left! I mean I don’t even—“
“Suho!” Sieun interrupts him, pulling the tongs out of his hand.
“Huh?” Suho whips his head around to Sieun, who is now rescuing the burnt pork. Juntae can’t help but giggle slightly at Suho’s confused face compared to Sieun’s irritated one.
“You should’ve just let me do it,” he grumbles.
“Yes, but as the hyung—” Suho stops upon noticing Sieun’s stern look directed at him.
Gotak huffs. “Dude, I swear Sieun is literally older than you?”
“It’s not about age, it’s about maturity,” Suho explains, which earns another yelp of laughter from Baku.
“Well then you most certainly aren’t the hyung!” he cackles.
Suho looks very displeased now. “Hey, I’ll have you know—” For the third time, Suho is cut off by Sieun jabbing him in the ribs with his elbow this time.
“Yah! What was that for?!”
“Pork is ready,” Sieun states, handing him some fresh, non-burnt slices of pork.
Argument suddenly forgotten, Suho starts shoving food in his mouth once again. It is truly impressive the speed he can eat at.
“That’s not a very nice way of letting me know though,” Suho complains once he swallows his food.
“Well it was definitely deserved,” Gotak mutters. This makes Juntae laugh for real and he covers his mouth with his hand out of habit.
From here they start bickering again for a while. It isn’t until a little later in the evening, with almost all their food now finished, that Juntae really locks in on the pair diagonal to him.
Sieun has just made a sarcastic comment about something. Juntae hadn’t even heard it properly, all he knew was that it was somehow so funny that Suho was now in a fit of laughter, clutching Sieun’s shoulder and leaning his head against him, bringing them even closer together than they previously were, and practically rocking Sieun with how hard he was laughing.
Bewildered, Juntae glances at Gotak and Baku, who are looking equally perplexed.
“Alright, it wasn’t that funny,” Gotak says as tears start rolling down Suho’s face.
“He’s too far gone,” Baku not-so-quietly whispers.
Juntae looks at Sieun, who keeps his neutral expression as always, the only indicator that he is affected by this being the slight blush tinting his cheeks.
Juntae smiles knowingly.