The dorm buzzed with the kind of forced normalcy everyone had been trying to maintain for weeks now. The TV played quietly in the background while half-empty takeout containers covered the coffee table, nobody really hungry enough to finish eating. Wooyoung and San were bickering lazily over something stupid on the couch, though even that sounded drained compared to usual.

You sat curled into the far corner of the sectional with your legs pulled close, your drink sitting untouched in your hands for so long the ice had nearly melted completely. Conversation moved around you without really reaching you. At some point, the members had started handling you carefully. Softer voices. Longer looks. Too much hesitation before speaking.

It made you feel even further away somehow.

Your attention drifted across the room toward the kitchen almost absentmindedly.

Yunho and Mingi stood near the counter speaking quietly enough that their words blurred beneath the sound of the TV. Mingi leaned back against the marble countertop with his hood still pulled over his head despite the warmth of the dorm, while Yunho stood close beside him, head lowered slightly as he listened.

It looked natural.

Too natural.

You watched Yunho say something under his breath that made Mingi huff out a small laugh, shoulders loosening for the first time all evening. Yunho smiled back automatically, soft and familiar in a way that made your chest ache before you could stop it.

Then Yunho’s hand brushed briefly against Mingi’s wrist.

The movement barely lasted a second. Probably unconscious. Probably something neither of them even realized they’d done.

But your stomach twisted so sharply it almost hurt.

You couldn’t look away after that. Your eyes stayed fixed on them while the realization settled heavily in your chest that maybe this was why everything hurt so badly. Not because the cheating happened.

Because they fit together so easily.

Because even now, after all the damage and guilt and tension hanging over the group, Yunho still looked most comfortable standing beside him.

Beside you, Jongho noticed your expression almost immediately. His gaze followed yours toward the kitchen before his jaw tightened slightly.

Across the room, Wooyoung caught on next.

His expression darkened almost instantly. “Are you serious right now?” he muttered under his breath, not quite quiet enough.

The shift in atmosphere spread quickly after that. San stopped talking midsentence. Hongjoong finally looked up from his phone. Seonghwa’s eyes moved between you and the kitchen with growing concern settling across his face.

Only then did Yunho glance up.

His smile disappeared immediately the second he saw you staring.