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Seokmin paced around his apartment, running a hand through his hair for the fiftieth time. His friends would be here any minute, and he still had no idea how he was going to pull this off. Joshua told him not to tell anyone else about their "arrangement" but Lying wasn’t exactly his strong suit, and the idea of convincing his closest friends that he’d been secretly dating Joshua Hong-the man he regularly ranted about-felt like digging his own grave.

The sound of Seungkwan’s voice echoing down the hall snapped him out of his panic.

“Seokmin hyung! Open the door before I break it down!”

With a deep breath, Seokmin puts on the most convincing smile he could muster and opened the door. Seungkwan barged in first, as expected, followed by hansol and Chan, who always trailed behind their fiery mate. Minghao entered last, his sharp gaze already assessing Seokmin’s face.

“You look like you haven’t slept,” Minghao said, setting down his bag on the table. “What’s going on?”

“I slept fine!” Seokmin lied quickly, his voice a little too cheerful. Ah he was really bad at lying , “Actually, I have some exciting news!”
Seungkwan perked up immediately, dropping his bag on the couch. “Exciting? Spill it.”

Seokmin rubbed his hands together nervously, trying to keep his composure. “Well… I’ve been seeing someone. Secretly. For a while now.”

The room fell silent for a moment before Chan leaned forward, his eyes wide. “Wait, what? You’ve been dating someone and didn’t tell us, Hyung?” Seungkwan looked personally offended. “You’ve been hiding a relationship from me? Me? Your best friend? The one who hears all your complaints about life?”

“I… I wanted to keep it private,” Seokmin stuttered, laughing nervously.

Minghao raised an eyebrow. “Private? Since when do you know how to keep anything private?”

Seokmin ignored him and continued. “It’s someone from work. Someone you probably wouldn’t expect.”

“Someone from work?” hansol asked, tilting his head. “Is it that nice guy from HR you mentioned once? What was his name... Minhyuk?”

“his name is Mingyu, no, not him,” Seokmin said quickly. “It’s, um… it’s Hong daepyo aka Hong Joshua.”

Seungkwan choked on air, coughing so hard that Chan had to pat his back. Minghao froze, lowering his cup of water slowly. hansol just blinked,

“Joshua Hong?!” Seungkwan finally screeched, “The Joshua Hong? The one you complain about every single week?”

“Y-yeah,” Seokmin stuttered, laughing awkwardly. “....Surprise?”

“No, no, no,” Seungkwan said, shaking his head furiously. “This doesn’t make sense. You’ve been crying about how he’s the worst boss in the universe and now you’re telling me you’re secretly dating him? Are you hearing yourself?”

“I-It’s complicated,” Seokmin stammered, scrambling to come up with a convincing excuse. “We didn’t start off… great. But things changed, okay?” Minghao’s sharp eyes narrowed. “Changed how?”

“Well,” Seokmin said, fumbling for words, “he’s… not as bad as I made him sound. He’s actually… really sweet once you get to know him. And… and supportive! Yeah, supportive. He’s just a little… misunderstood.”

“Misunderstood?” Seungkwan repeated, crossing his arms. “The man who made you rewrite an entire report because he didn’t like the spacing between paragraphs? That man is misunderstood?”