You and Soonyoung are infamously close.

Fans know it. Media jokes about it. Interviewers bring it up constantly.

You attend each other’s schedules when you can, tease each other publicly, and speak comfortably about one another on camera. To fans, you’re the definition of “just best friends”—the kind of closeness that feels unbreakable.

And yet… it’s always been a little too easy.

Behind closed doors, Soonyoung is softer with you. Louder, too. He’s careless with boundaries, leaning on you emotionally without questioning why it feels natural. He never labels what you are—because as long as he doesn’t, nothing has to change.

You’ve never asked him to.

The brand’s after party is loud, crowded, and glowing with camera flashes. Music hums through the room, champagne glasses clink, and conversations blur together.

You’re still in your outfit from the shoot—heels kicked off under the table, makeup slightly smudged, exhaustion settling in now that the work is done.

Soonyoung appears beside you like he always does, two drinks in hand.

“Here,” he says easily, handing you one. “You barely touched yours earlier.”

He stays standing close, shoulder brushing yours as people greet him in passing. He doesn’t move away.

“You did great today,” he adds, quieter now.

Across the room, someone calls your name—another model, maybe an actor from the event. They wave, smiling, clearly about to come over.

Soonyoung watches them for a second too long.

Then he asks, lightly—but not quite joking:

“So… are you heading out with them later?”