"We bet on everything." Tae-min said it from the couch without looking up from his game, though I caught the way his lips twitched into a smirk. "It's how we stay entertained between schedules. Currently the odds on how long before you accidentally trigger the smoke alarm are three to one."
"I take offense to that." I tried to sound indignant, but the smile creeping onto my face probably ruined the effect.
"You should. Min-jun-hyung set the line, and he's seen you in the kitchen." Tae-min finally paused his game, glancing over with a grin that made him look younger than his twenty-two years. I tried to muster outrage, but a laugh escaped instead. Something had shifted in me over the past few hours. Something had loosened. And when Hwan finally released my hand and I moved to settle on the couch beside Tae-min, I didn't feel the urge to flee.
I just felt... warm.
Jae-won caught my eye across the room. His expression was carefully neutral, but I could see something softer beneath it. Approval, maybe. Or hope. His indigo bond pulsed gently in my chest, steady and patient.
"Tomorrow is Jin-ho." He said it matter-of-factly, and it wasn't a question. I nodded, glancing at Jin-ho, who had looked up from his notebook with those intense, unreadable eyes. The violet bond pulsed in my chest — different from the goldenamber, deeper and more mysterious, like looking into still water and not being able to see the bottom.
"Tomorrow is Jin-ho." I agreed, and my voice came out steadier than I expected.
For the first time since my mark had appeared, I wasn't dreading what came next.
Chapter Twenty-One
KEIRA
I couldn't stop touching my wrist. It had been hours since Hwan had pressed his scent into my skin, but I kept catching myself running my fingers over the spot where his lips had brushed my pulse. The smell of sunshine and vanilla clung to me like a second skin, and every time I breathed it in, something warm bloomed in my chest.
The bond hummed contentedly, settled in a way it hadn't been since it first triggered. Like a cat that had finally found a patch of sunlight to curl up in. I was curled up on the couch with a book I wasn't really reading when Hwan's phone buzzed again. He glanced at the screen, and I watched his expression shift — that subtle tightening around his eyes that I was starting to recognize as his "work face."
"V-Live in twenty minutes." He announced it to the room as he pushed himself up from where he'd been sprawled on the other end of the couch, his body shifting from relaxed to alert in an instant. "Manager says the fans have been asking. Can't push it again."
"You pushed it once already?" I lowered my book, curiosity pulling my attention fully away from the pages I hadn't been absorbing anyway.
"Twice, actually." Min-jun called out from the kitchen, where he was doing something that smelled like garlic and ginger, his voice carrying warmth and gentle teasing. "He was supposed to go live yesterday, but someone was too busy hovering outside the nest room."
"I wasn't hovering." Hwan's ears went pink as he protested, the flush creeping down to his neck in a way that made him look younger, more vulnerable. "I was... strategically positioned."
"You were hovering." Tae-min said it without looking up from his game, his thumbs still moving across the controller even as his lips twitched into a smirk. "We all were. But you were the most obvious about it."
"At least I wasn't fake-walking past the door every five minutes pretending to need something from the kitchen." Hwan shot back, crossing his arms with mock indignation, one eyebrow raised in challenge.
"I was hungry." Tae-min's ears turned red, betraying him even as his voice stayed deliberately casual. "Multiple times. It happens."
"You walked past seventeen times in two hours." Jin-ho spoke from the armchair in the corner, his pen still moving across the notebook in his lap, not bothering to look up. "I counted."
"Why were you counting?" Tae-min finally paused his game and twisted around to stare at Jin-ho, accusation written across his features.
"Because I was also watching the door." Jin-ho said it matter-of-factly, finally lifting his gaze to meet Tae-min's with calm certainty. "And I needed something to do besides worry."
I felt heat creep into my own cheeks at the image — all five of them taking turns hovering outside my door, counting each other's passes, too worried to stay away but too respectful to barge in. The thought of them watching over me like that, postponing schedules and losing sleep...
"You should have done your schedule." I tried to sound stern, but it came out softer than I intended, betraying the warmth spreading through my chest.
"I should have done a lot of things." Hwan was already heading toward his room, probably to change into something more camera-ready, his voice floating back to me as he walked down the hallway. "But I wanted to be here more."
He disappeared around the corner before I could respond.
"He really was the worst." Tae-min had turned back to his game, but his voice carried fondness beneath the teasing, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Kept asking Min-jun-hyung to make soup in case you woke up hungry. We have like six containers of soup in the fridge now."
"Seven." Min-jun corrected from the kitchen, and I could hear the smile in his voice even without seeing his face. "I made another batch this morning."
"You're all ridiculous." I said it quietly, shaking my head even as warmth spread through my chest, something tight loosening behind my ribs.
"We prefer 'devoted.'" Jae-won's voice came from behind me, and I turned to find him standing in the doorway to the hallway, his dark eyes soft as he watched the exchange, arms crossed loosely over his chest. "Or 'appropriately concerned.' Ridiculous works too, though."
