↱FORBIDDEN COLORS↲ ⇾seongjoong⇽

breathe

The comeback kept them all busy over the next few months, making it easy for the incident with the ring and the kiss to slip Hongjoong and Seonghwa's mind.

Made it easy for them to go unaware of their fellow groupmates private meetings late into the night that didn't include them, and made their plotting go unnoticed.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong didn't even seem to catch onto the (not so subtle) attempts from their closest friends to get Seonghwa and Hongjoong to open up about what was going on between them.

They did notice that they talked more about it, did notice that everyone continued to ask them questions about their relationship, that the others had even begun to casually tease Seonghwa and Hongjoong for how they would look at each other or talk to each other or — god forbid — something they'd told the members about the other.

"So, this Hyung kink?" Yunho started one lovely dinner with as he sat down by Hongjoong, making the older choke on his rice while Seonghwa stood up to defend Hongjoong's honor, slapping his best friend on the arm.

And, oddly enough, it felt...

Normal.

It felt exactly as it should've since the first day.

But comebacks were stressful and busy as hell, so the normality of their situation seemed to slip under the radar.

But San and Wooyoung were keeping tabs, the shift in the dynamic not escaping their awareness.

"They're laughing more," Wooyoung commented to San as he took a break from their rigorous dance practice.

Even as Wooyoung spoke, Hongjoong said something to Seonghwa that had him cackling, throwing his whole body into the laughter as he tended to do.

"It's nice," San said.

And Wooyoung would just grin.

Would just grin because his plotting was far from over.

__

Their comeback went off without a hitch.

The days were full of interviews, shows, performances, and running around.

The group was constantly on top of each other and running into each other and for the first time in a small eternity, it didn't feel weird.

As concerts began in Korea, Seonghwa and Hongjoong made sure not to end up in the same room together.

San tried to give his 'it's okay' and 'we trust you' speech, but Hongjoong shook his head, Seonghwa admitting to the whole group after their first concert (and after a couple of drinks in the hotel after) that, "You guys really do not get it. We have the combined self-control of a three-year-old. Do not let us sleep in the same room without supervision." To which Wooyoung snorted and Jongho made an exaggerated frowny face.

As their tour concluded in South Korea, they made a video for their fans watching their first music video they ever made, "From", and commenting on the silliness of their youthfulness.

Seonghwa felt high off the tour, high with exhaustion and laughter.

After their video to the fans ended and the cameras left the room, Yunho mentioned something about watching their other old music videos and within moments of the last person leaving them in the room, their music video for "Inception" was on the TV screen in front of them while they continued to cram onto a couch way too small for all of them.