the sunki

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/25987348.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Category: M/M
Fandom: I-LAND (Korea TV), ENHYPEN (Band)
Relationship: Nishimura Riki | Niki/Kim Sunoo, Park Sunghoon/Shim Jaeyoon | Jake
Character: Nishimura Riki l Niki, Kim Sunoo, Park Jongseong | Jay, Ta-ki, Park
Sunghoon, Lee Heeseung, I-Land boys, K (I-LAND), Yang Jungwon,
Shim Jaeyoon | Jake, Ngô Ngọc Hưng | Hanbin, Nishimura Riki | Ni-ki
Additional Tags: sunoo is korea's it boy, niki has a crush, Canon Compliant, don't
sexualise them they're minors omg, sunoo comforting niki, confident
gay sunoo, panicked gay niki, confident gay niki, panicked gay sunoo,
iland and enhypen eras, sunki just think eachother are so talented and
amazing, they admire eachother so much and im here for it
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2020-08-19 Updated: 2022-01-05 Chapters: 7/? Words:
11474

the sunki
by noyasryuu

Summary

Niki thought being on I-LAND would be simple. He's used to being the best.

And he doesn't like boys. Enter Kim Sunoo, South Korea's it-boy.

Or: Canon-compliant Sunki from I-LAND to ENHYPEN

Notes

This is for all the sunki-ers because there aren't any sunki fics on ao3 as far as I know, and I
know we need them !! :3 Enjoy x

(((UPDATE: I'm writing more bits for this cos you asked for it, so stay tuned! )))
 Chapter 1

Nishimura Riki was used to being the best.

Well, okay. To clarify:

First, at dance was an important addition to that claim.

Confidence flowed off him in waves. It bled into the pulse of the music itself, made the moves his,
and no one could dispute that when he danced all eyes were on him. He could feel the buzz of the
other trainees after he finished his part in the I-LAND entry level test, could sense the voting hands
raised in approval.

When he danced, he felt like the still point of a turning world, and that feeling tasted like freedom.

The second thing was that there’s a difference between being the best and knowing you are, or
could be, given the couple of extra years training others in the room usually had on him at any
given time.

But that was the whole point: Niki was there, with them, anyway. He was good enough to be called
competition. He was good enough to be a threat.

And he’d known this when he’d elected to compete in I-LAND. The producers would be mercurial,
and the challenges would be demanding, and the other trainees- heck, his future group mates-
would be talented in their own ways.

But as long as he could dance, he’d succeed. That, and his competitive streak, would push him into
the final lineup. He could even be number 1.

He’d thought it was that simple.

The training room at I-LAND is empty at this hour. Niki doesn’t know exactly what time it is, but
too late seems to cover it. He flops to the floor after running through the DNA choreo for the
umpteenth time, chest rising and falling rapidly, oxygen scraping through his lips.

The mirror before him is brushed in condensation, a thin trickle of water cutting through it near
where he’s sprawled. He stares as it creeps down the glass, feeling his pulse steady even as the lino
floor seems to dissolve under his sticky palms. Feeling, perhaps, that he should’ve gone to bed an
hour ago….

“Niki?”

The floor is solid all of a sudden. Niki’s heart lurches forward in surprise, as he glances up into the
mirror wall, to find the source.

A figure in black sweatpants and the bright yellow hoodie he’d been wearing earlier at dinner,
leans against the doorframe, lips pursed.

Niki’s gaze meets Kim Sunoo’s in the mirror. Then he twists his head around, and it’s in real life.

“You’re still up?” says Sunoo, his voice rising. Niki can’t tell if he’s surprised or… something else
— something bordering on upset. Worried.

Niki runs a hand through his hair and looks away from the older boy. He laughs very softly- not a
laugh at all really but a tattered sigh.

“Yeah, hyung,” he replies, the honorific feeling a little more natural on his lips than it had months
ago. He glances up once again at Sunoo.

“You’re up too,” Niki adds, mustering a grin.

Sunoo is still biting his lips in that way he does when he’s anxious, that no doubt the cameras had
picked up countless times during the many intense moments of I-LAND. That was Sunoo, after all;
barely ever reserved in his emotions; bright, dynamic, quick to tear up, upfront in the best way and
the worst.

The thought of Kim Sunoo being worried, upset, with him makes his stomach turn.

Then the dark-haired elder sighs too, and smiles a very small smile. “Yeah, me too,” says Sunoo.
“I guess we’re both worried about the same thing, huh?”

Niki nods. “Three days till the BTS challenge.”

Sunoo pads towards the mirror.

“So,” he starts casually, “How’s it going?”

He pretends to do a fouetté while looking at his reflection, like the ice skating turns Sunghoon
does. Niki’s eyes are trained on him. Of course, Sunoo topples, losing his balance, giggling.

Niki is tired… too tired….

He wants to get up and join Sunoo in mucking around, but instead he laughs and stares at him
while a second part of him, the less fatigued, more rational part, prays Sunoo doesn’t notice the
way he looks at him.

“Oh, you know,” replies Niki. His Korean has improved so much since they started filming, but his
accent is more pronounced with his exhaustion. “I already knew the choreo… and it’s not as hard
as Fake Love,” he trails off, still watching Sunoo go over the moves to the chorus of Fake Love in
the mirror, his arms rising up and snapping down at a right angle. He’s good, thinks Niki. Better
than he gets credit for.

“...But I feel like I’m gonna stuff up the connecting wave part or something.”

Sunoo flops to the floor beside him and gapes at him.

“You’re kidding right?” He states. His lips are bitten red, and his black fringe is fluffed up from
spinning.

Niki gulps. Frowns. “What?”

Sunoo shakes his head. “You guys have like… one of the most solid teams for this round in terms
of dance. I mean,” he drops his hands in his lap from where they’d been fiddling.

“K hyung, Jay-hyung, Hanbin-hyung, …. and you.”

Niki scoffs, eyes dancing as he looks at Sunoo. “I guess I’m just an afterthought huh?”

Sunoo flails his foot out, bumping Niki’s. It reminds the younger of a moment from when they
were in the Ground together, and Niki had been the one comforting Sunoo when he was unwell,
not the other way around.

“C’mon, you know that’s not what I meant,” says Sunoo. He pauses. “I don’t think I’ve met a
better dancer than you.”

And yes Niki’s heard it before, but his pulse lurches anyway and it’s got nothing to do with surprise
now. When Taki or Jay said the same thing, did it do that? He can’t remember.

Niki laughs it off.

“Says the boy ranked number 1 world wide,” he teases back.

“God,” Sunoo groans, kicking him harder this time. “Not you too!”

Because yes, that explains why he feels different around Sunoo. Why he makes him oddly
breathless, short of words, and it’s not just his Korean literacy. Of course Sunoo is charming and
likeable; the entire nation, or world, agreed.

Niki smirks, his flame of embarrassment flickering to dimness for now as he teases Sunoo.

“Kim Sunoo, Korea’s It-boy!” he sings, clutching his heart with one hand.

Sunoo looks at him with a challenge in his eyes. “Oh yeah?” He says. Then something shifts, and
he tilts his head with a slow smile, and Niki searches his friend’s face, knowing somehow that this
is dangerous.

“And would you have voted for me?” He bats his eyelashes and moves his head inches closer.

Niki stares at him.

“I’d never vote for someone who says Save Me is their favourite BTS song,” he replies sweetly,
teasingly, but his breath is short. “Idol all the way.”

Sunoo erupts into laughter and he’s back, suddenly, no longer taking up Niki’s air.

“Come on,” says Sunoo, offering a hand to Niki after he’d standing himself. “Let’s go to bed.”

He should practice more. But Niki takes the hand after a moment, gulping as he does. They turn
the light off in the training room, and the darkness closes like curtains around them.

So yes, Niki is used to being the best. He’s used to things being simple. But maybe he was naive to
think this leap towards his dreams would be so; that there wouldn’t be some catch.
Enter Kim Sunoo, I-LAND’s It-Boy.
 Chapter 2
Chapter Summary

sunki part 2 !!! brace yourself for some light angst :'(

Chapter Notes

since people wanted more (and honestly, I had already started this)..... i just love
cluelessly affectionate niki who realises his feelings waaay too late to avoid
embarrassment.

basically un-beta-ed ...listen i just finished writing this now :)

The thing is Niki and Sunoo are just friends.

Really good friends. It happened so quickly, Niki can’t quite pinpoint the moment they shifted
from being friendly acquaintances in a survival show to friends who hug and rest their heads on
eachothers shoulders and play footsies and hold hands.

Perhaps it was when they were preparing for the final evaluation, and the grounders were arm
wrestling during their afternoon break; Sunoo hadn’t detached his hand from Niki’s after they
competed (Niki swears he won, Sunoo disagrees), instead lacing their fingers together and resting
it on one of his knees as they watched other boys compete.

Of course, Sunoo was naturally affectionate, so it was nothing remarkable.

Or maybe it was earlier, during the unit evaluation, when Save Me was announced as the vocal
unit song, and Niki hadn’t been able to contain himself, pointing at Sunoo, mouthing ‘you’ and
grinning, feeling a thrill in his chest everytime the other boy flushed and laughed and batted away
his hands. He’d shouted “Ah, stop it!” until eventually succumbing to Niki, bouncing up and down
with excitement. The younger hadn’t been able to help himself from trapping Sunoo in a hug.

Or maybe it was all of those times.

“Sunoo-hyung!” calls Niki as he skips up to the elder from behind. Before Sunoo can react, Niki
flings his arms round him, half choke-hold half back-hug.

The thing is, sometimes Niki just can’t keep his hands off Sunoo.

Sure, he’s touchy with many of the trainees, but Sunoo in particular.

“Ah!” Sunoo laughs, dropping the ramen seasoning sachet onto the bench. They’re in the kitchen,
a day after filming Episode 1 of Part 2, which was now some time ago.

“I’m trying to make ramen, get off me!”

But there is no malice in Sunoo’s voice; if anything, his tone seems to communicate the opposite of
his words.

“No way,” Niki murmurs closer to Sunoo’s ear in false- warning, his grin still wide as ever.

And yes, he’s enjoying this. He enjoys teasing people. Particularly when people are Sunoo.

Sunoo lets the younger hold onto him as he tips the sachet’s contents into the ramen cup and then
leans over the bench to pour in boiling water.

“Nikiiii,” he whines as the younger’s weight pulls him back, limiting the mobility of his arms.

Niki clings on, still finding the situation alarmingly funny despite the fact he’d been playing at it
now for about a minute.

(And maybe it should even feel weird at this point— wouldn’t it with any other trainee?— but it
doesn’t.)

“Niki,” Sunoo says now. The word seems to hang there like a note.

“...I’d really like to eat now.”

Maybe Niki is imagining things, but Sunoo’s tone shifts slightly.

Niki blinks into empty space— that is, the space not full of Sunoo’s neck and the back of his soft
hair.

Oh, right.

He unlatches himself and takes a step back, but not far enough he realises, as Sunoo turns to
properly look at him, leaning one hand on the bench as he looks over his shoulder. A beat passes in
which the corners of Sunoo’s lips curl up, not quite smiling but… softening. That’s the only way to
put it.

Niki blinks back. Surely he’s imagining things.

Then the elder turns back around and scoops up the cardboard ramen container, sashaying off to
the table where the other trainees have congregated.

“Eat up before we need to go back to practice,” he sings back at the younger.

Niki hovers by the bench with his arms dangling. Somehow, he is deflated, like a pricked balloon.
He brushes a palm through his hair, shaking himself until he finds sense.

Lunch time, right.. He totters over to the pantry to find something to eat until he realises he isn’t all
that hungry. So instead, he spots Taki on the couch, and skips over to him. Whining ensues.

And of course, the strange knot in his chest, the draining of fuzzy warmth from his limbs, are just
side effects of the competition. Anxiety and overexhaustion.

Niki and Sunoo are really good friends.

Niki just enjoys doing most things that friends do with Sunoo more than with anyone else.

-x-
Niki doesn’t tell anyone, but he was jealous when Sunoo ranked number 1.

Jealous…. And not.

At first he thought it was jealousy towards the position— of course, what I-LAND contestant
wouldn’t want first place in the global ranking?

He remembers the conversation in Room 7-8-9 with Jake and Jungwon the night after filming
episode 1 of Part 2.

Niki was sprawled on his bed in Jungkook’s modernised hanbok gift, scrolling through Youtube on
one of the iPads, fully feeling the ARMY spirit as he searched for a BTS fancam to watch.

He’d promised himself he wouldn’t over-wear the hanboks, to keep them special, but he couldn't
resist just for today. Already, this season felt better than the last (mostly because of BTS; the gift,
and Jung Hoseok saying he was a great dancer on national television. He’d never imagined it in his
most far-flung dream.)

“But wow, I’m still processing that Sunoo-hyung really got 2.6 million votes,” Jungwon suddenly
piped up from where he was wrestling his hair dry with a towel.

Jungwon paused the action, looking into space. “I can’t even imagine how much that is…”

Niki stirred at the mention of Sunoo’s name, and hummed in acknowledgement. His eyes stayed
glued to the i-Pad screen, where he was typing in ‘BTS J-Hope dance fancam’.

Jake padded into the room, fresh from the shower, in a black shirt and lime green sweatpants.

“What are we talking about?” he piped up, running a hand through his damp hair.

“Jungwon was just fanboying over Sunoo getting so many votes today,” Niki stated dryly, attention
still fixed on selecting a video.

He eventually settled on one from Fake Love era with 1.2 million views. The music started playing
softly.

Jungwon scoffed then. “I wasn’t fanboying,” he protested, “I was just saying that it’s incredible. I
didn’t even know that many people watched our show. Or that Sunoo was so popular.”

Jake nodded, walking over to his bedside table where a small crowd of product bottles were
arranged.

Niki watched Hoseok’s fluid movements, unable to comprehend how this man had complimented
his dancing. It was absolutely insane. He would work even harder to meet his standard now he
knew his sunbaenim watched their show, and him specifically.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Jake agreed with a faint smile. “I was surprised it wasn’t Heeseung. Of
course, Sunoo still deserved it.”

“Of course he did,” Niki interjected from his bed, without thinking. Then, he added, more casually,
“I wasn’t all that surprised.”

Jungwon, laying on the bed now, propped himself up on one elbow.

“Look who’s fanboying now, huh?” he teased with a smirk. Jake looked at Jungwon and mirrored
the expression, as though some wordless communication passed between the two.
Niki paused the fancam to roll his eyes at Jungwon.

“I just mean he’s got that... reverse charm,” he explained. “Is that what you call it? When you’re
one way off camera and another on. Sunoo-hyung is super bright and bubbly off camera but he’s
totally cool on stage.”

Jake chuckled.

“Right,” he said, and for a moment Niki thought they’d just agree with him and leave it there, but
there was something else in the other boys’ eyes.

“Anything else you wanna add, Niki?” Jungwon sang from his sideways pose.

Niki paused.

“He deserved it,” he eventually said, shrugging. And then in a lower voice, “He would’ve been my
pick.”

The two other boys giggled.

“Ooooh,” they cooed.

Niki averted his eyes to the screen quickly now. He could feel the tips of his ears burning, and he
didn’t even understand why.

“Shutup,” he grumbled.

He dropped the i-Pad since ignoring them wasn’t doing anything, and sent a pillow flying at
Jungwon’s head.

“You guys are just jealous of Sunoo-hyung,” Niki protested, voice raising.

It only made them laugh more.

“I mean,” Jake finally said, recovering himself, “Who wouldn't’ be? Even Heeseung, the humblest
of the humble, was disappointed he wasn’t number 1.”

“Hey hyung, aren’t I the humblest?” Jungwon griped, before dissolving into laughter again with
Jake.

Niki puzzled over the laughing pair.

“I guess I was jealous too…” Niki trailed off.

But was he?. He tried to imagined himself in the first position and Sunoo in his ninth, and his gut
twisted.

No. That wasn’t right.

It wasn’t until later in the night when he, impulsively, clicked on Sunoo’s ‘FIRE’ fancam with
259k views and 2.8k comments, that Niki realised. What he was jealous of wasn’t Sunoo being
number 1.

It was the fact that Kim Sunoo was now everyone’s Kim Sunoo. Not just that, but the little things
about Sunoo that endeared him to Niki— his bright, clear laughter, his bashfulness, his easy
affection, his slight dimples, his voice— they were everyone’s now too. They had been for a long
time, Niki just hadn’t realised it.

He hadn’t realised that he’d made Sunoo special, and unique, in his eyes; a version of Kim Sunoo
that was just his.

And he didn’t want to share that version of Sunoo with just anyone— or rather, everyone.

-x-

The days before the first challenge pass like seconds.

The night before their first unit evaluation of Part 2, Niki can’t sleep. Or if he does, it’s very little,
and poorly, like waking and rest were playing tug of war over his body.

He comes to some point after midnight and, without anything to do and sleep teetering out of reach
for now, walks down to the bathroom.

The I-LAND facility is polished and clinical in the day and the night. Despite the ‘ghost’ scare
during the first season (Niki had cracked up watching back the episodes where he’d been in the
Ground, and the I-LAND boys, particularly Jay, died over spooky stories and imagined noises)—
there is nothing frightening about I-LAND’s stark, pragmatic lines, the covering of white on each
surface like a layer of snow.

If anything, the most frightening part was the bareness of it all. Like living in a hotel. Each blank
wall, block coloured furniture piece, or tech gadget was a reminder that this indeed was not home.

And Niki, despite knowing he needs to be here, wants to go home.

He pads into the bathroom, and hangs his head over a wash basin. He runs warm water, and
splashes it over his face. His features look strange in the dark, the shadows under his eyes and the
dips of his temples deeper and sharper, as though he were more seeing the shape of his skull itself,
the skin stretched over it grotesquely.

Niki feels like he’s losing himself the longer he stares at the mirror.

And yet he can’t stop.

Then suddenly, the image vanishes.

Cold light floods the room, stinging his eyes.

His first thought is someone followed him from his room; he turns around, disoriented.

And then a wave of deja vu hits him.

Sunoo, again. A mirror, again. Past midnight, again.

Sunoo again.

“Why do we keep meeting like this?” Sunoo asks, his lips teetering on a smile.

His hair is fluffed up from sleep. He’s in a white tee a few shades lighter than his skin.

Then he catches Niki’s expression, and that smile vanishes. “Oh shit, are you okay, Niki?”

Is he okay? Niki doesn’t know. He doesn’t want to say the truth, ”No, but maybe now that you’re
here,” either. He couldn’t.

“I don’t know,” he replies. Then adds, “And yeah, we should really stop meeting like this.”

Niki smiles, but it’s wobbly. He feels the realness of himself, more there than he was before.

But there’s still something missing, and that something is home. So many miles away, so much
water to cross. His chest aches for it like an open wound amplified by the stress of the competition.

And before Niki knows it, his cheeks are wet.

“Oh,” Sunoo blurts, and then he’s in front of him in a second, and Niki is burying his cheek into
Sunoo’s shoulder, where it fits perfectly.

Sunoo is the perfect height to hug, he registers faintly.

“It’s okay,” hushes Sunoo. “Niki, it’s okay, shit.”

He’s never heard Sunoo swear. Actually, Niki thinks he hears the crack in Sunoo’s voice, but
doesn’t pull back to check as he gulps down his own tears. God, he didn’t even know where they
came from.

They stay like that in the bathroom light for what seems like a long time.

The thing is, Niki is young but he’s always felt older. He’s used to being the one who comforts
others, not the other way around.

And yet, Sunoo is warm and smells like strawberries. (Probably some lotion that Mnet sent them).

And yet, Sunoo is here, comforting him for a second or third time— he’s lost count.

And no matter how Niki feels about Sunoo in his tangled mess of emotions, right now they fit
together perfectly.

-x-
 Chapter 3
Chapter Summary

More I-LAND, more sunki, but this time it's Sunoo's POV. (Also, I'll be fast tracking
the I-LAND stuff after this since the show is over so I'm sorry if I miss a few cute
moments)

Chapter Notes

WOOOO ENHYPEN DEBUT!!!! i just realised i haven't updated this in a month...

honestly was thinking for a while it would just end as it did but alas, we have a
wholeass sunki in a debuting group and alot of new moments too... so here we go <3

There are nights when Kim Sunoo can’t sleep.

It started when he arrived at I-LAND. And despite the fact practice usually sapped every ounce of
energy from him, knocking him out halfway before he even set foot in his bedroom, some nights
he would lie awake listening to the breathing of the other boys in the room, overpowered only by
the sound of his own thoughts.

Like: who would make it, and who inevitably wouldn’t?

Would he make it, despite all his shortcomings? Despite the fact he was a regular student just a
year ago? (It feels like a different lifetime.)

And worst of all, Sunoo wonders if he deserves it all. Not just debut, but the intense love from
global voters he’d received during Part 2 so far.

He still remembers the way his mind short circuited when his name was announced in episode one
as first place, the way his heartbeat grew louder as each popular member was crossed off leaving
only him and Daniel.

So this— all of this— is what forces Sunoo out of bed night after night to wander the I-LAND
dorms.

It’s what inevitably leads him to Niki, not just once but twice. And it’s Niki who, somehow, (it
seems like he does nothing in particular, or maybe Sunoo just can’t put his finger on it) leads him
back to his bedroom, back to that long desired sleep, maybe not directly but through his presence.

Weeks pass since the DNA test, and since Sunoo and Niki hugged in the bathroom.

They don’t talk about it the next day or any day after. It’s not necessarily awkward or anything, but
it doesn’t feel like something they can just bring up in front of the other members.

Sunoo tries to figure out if they’re closer, somehow.

The answer is, well— maybe.

But Niki gets harder to read every day, and Sunoo isn’t sure why.

Like when they’re sitting on the floor of the practice room for Dive Into You, taking a breather,
and Niki catches Sunoo’s eyes on him (not that Sunoo is staring, not after Niki has just redefined
the word dance in a baggy T-shirt and sweats at 2 in the afternoon and Sunoo can’t quite look
away)— and Sunoo will hold his breath for a second, not quite sure what he’s hoping for, before
Niki looks away.

Niki is hard for him to read— and it’s odd now, because Sunoo is the one who gets all the attention
these days while Niki— phenomenal, show-stopping, one in a million performer Niki (at least in
Sunoo’s eyes)— seems to lose some of the fire he had in the first half of the show.

Of course, his movements are still tight and precise and shimmering to watch, but his ranking
dwindles with DNA, and then, when he hits a sweet spot with Dive Into You, it’s not even the
producers choosing but the global voters. Sunoo is frustrated for him. Wants better for him, and
even tells him so, one day when they’re sitting alone together on the lounges.

“But only I can do better for myself, hyung,” is Niki’s reply, as he wrings his fingers in his hands.

Sunoo grabs for one of them, playing with Niki’s fingers. Warm.

“This is down to me,” says Niki. “Don’t worry yourself about it.” He cracks a goofy smile, but it’s
not convincing to Sunoo, who’s seen his real one too many times to count.

Now all the I-LANDERS are lazing around the living room, about a week before the semi-final.
They’re worked to the bone, craving some diversion from the numbing cycle of practice, eat,
sleep.

It starts with Jay tossing his empty water bottle on the floor in front of the lounges. A few members
are finishing their meals at the dining table, others sprawled on the lounge talking, watching
youtube on the ipads, toying with the strings of their hoodies.

Heeseung, Jungwon and Daniel sit in a sketchy circle on the floor, the latter two clutching their
stomachs through fits of laughter as Heeseung impersonates Sungdeuk and Doobu, before moving
onto the I-LANDERS as prey (Jay being one).

At first the motion seems like Jay jabbing back at Heeseung, the bottle landing in the middle of the
circle. But then Jay jumps off the lounge and plonks on the floor.

“Yah, guys,” he asserts.

The other three take a moment to come to their senses. Jungwon wipes a tear off his face.

“Sorry hyung,” he sings, “it’s kind of hard to take you seriously right now.”

Jay groans, resting his head in one hand for a moment before he recovers, clearing his throat and
sitting up.

“Have you played spin the bottle before?” he announces.

Jay tosses the bottle up a centimetre and catches it.

Sunoo had been watching the situation out of the corner of his eye, only half-focused. He’s lying
on the lounge on his stomach, feet kicking in the air as he stares at the iPad.

Niki is sitting right by his legs, leaning against them ever so slightly every time he rears back to
laugh with Jake and Sunghoon.

“Oooh,” exclaims Sunoo. “I’ve heard of it in American movies!” He rolls to the side to face Jay
and Co.

The four faces turn his way.

“It seems fun!” he adds, sitting up and putting the iPad to one side. Jay raises an eyebrow.

To be honest, Sunoo doesn’t quite know what spin the bottle comprises, just that he’s in a fidgety
mood.

“Are we playing?”

Heeseung nods slowly, lifting his hand into the air, “I’ve actually played too,” he says. “A long
time ago, in middle school.”

Jay laughs and nods. “To be honest, same,” he says, slapping palms with Heeseung.

“Isn’t that game kinda…. old?” Jungwon chips in.

There’s a mischievous glint in his eye, even as he fiddles quite innocently with his hoodie strings.

“Yang Jungwon I’m only 2 years old than you! 2 years!" shouts Jay.

This has everyone cackling, including Jake, Sunghoon and Niki, who’d stopped talking to tune into
the conversation.

K and Hanbin materialise from the kitchen seemingly on cue at the mention of age.

After some more light jabbing, Jay has them sitting in a circle like it’s a dance formation.

“Wait,” interrupts Niki, who had wordlessly sat himself next to Sunoo.

All eyes settle on him.

“I’m confused,” says the second youngest. He pulls his hoodie off his head, ruffling his hair so it
doesn’t spike up everywhere.

“We spin the bottle, it lands on someone, and then…..” he trails off. “What do we do?”

K, Hanbin, and Heeseung all exchange a look, snickering softly. Jay pressed his lips together.

“Oh, yeah,” he scratches the back of his head. “I was getting to that.

“You have to kiss the nearest person on your right. It could be a small peck on the cheek. Or, you
know.”

A symphony of groans are elicited from around the room from the younger members.

Sunoo squeaks. A kiss? With one of the boys here?.

“You’re kidding,” mumbles Park Sunghoon.

Jake buries his face in Sunghoon’s shoulder.

Niki falls backwards dramatically, making Sunoo laugh abruptly, one palm coming up to cover his
mouth while the other reaches to Niki’s hand to tug him.

“Oh come on,” he teases, “A kiss on the cheek isn’t that bad.”

Niki lifts his head up to eye Sunoo, before dropping back dead.

Sunoo pats his stomach with a “tsk” sound.

(But maybe it’s his own stomach that needs some calming).

They spin the bottle. Everyone holds their breath, but eventually it lands on Jake, who yells like
he’s been shot and falls back. Sunghoon, on his right, laughs before realising the dire situation, and
half-way sprints out of the room before the others yell at him to come back.

There’s a lot of squirming and Jay and Daniel have to even push their heads in the same direction
at one point, some of the members watching secretly through the gaps between their fingers, the
others straight up staring, intrigued.

Eventually Jake kisses Sunghoon on the cheek.

Chaos erupts. Niki buries his face into Sunoo’s shoulder. Sunghoon dives away and wipes his hand
across his cheek. Jake punches the air and shouts. Sunoo watches them all, laughing and clapping
his hands. Okay, perhaps he’s enjoying this a little bit too much.

The bottle spins.

Jay and K. A cheek kiss before K chaotically turns his head to face Jay at the last second.

The bottle spins.

K and Heeseung.

The bottle spins.

Niki and Jungwon. Sunoo might be hallucinating but he could swear Jungwon’s ears are pinker by
the end of it.

Sunoo feels odd.

The bottle spins.

“Kim Sunoooooo!” yells Heeseung.

“A kiss with Korea’s number 1 pick!” Sunghoon says, pretending to swoon.

“Poor Niki,” interrupts Hanbin, “he just had to kiss Jungwon. Now Sunoo has to kiss him.”

And this.

Oh. Sunoo thinks. And then, blankness.

But before either of them can make a move— “Oh shit guys!”

All eyes go to K.
“What?” they respond in chorus.

“We have mid-way evaluation like tomorrow morning,” he blurts.

“It’s eleven pm!” Jay interrupts, glancing up from one of the iPads.

And they’re all clambering over each other, secretly sighing in relief, picking up iPads and hoodies
from lounges and chairs.

Sunoo realises too late that he may be the only one who doesn’t quite feel that way, quite so
relieved, as he maybe should.

-x-
 Chapter 4
Chapter Summary

Sunoo is just about as triggered by Niki's Flame On stage as I-LAND viewers, and
they share a .... moment. Or, Niki is suddenly a confident gay and Sunoo gay panics.

(Also i PROMISE this will be the second last I-LAND chapter, the finale and stuff will
be next chapter so we can move onto ENHYPEN sunki)

Chapter Notes

Someone please explain why I don't update this for a whole MONTH and then return
with 2 chapters in 2 consecutive days. Beats me.

BIG SPECIAL THANKS TO: sunki (duh) for posting two selcas today and declaring
24/9 #Sunki day. Yeah they know about sunki everybody stay calm.

I also really miss writing in Niki's perspective (sorry Sunoo) but now I've made it so it
alternates, ugh. Anyway, thank you so much for all the wonderful comments it really
means so much to me!

The semi- finals dawn, and Sunoo feels everything as though he’s on fire; the stage lights on his
skin, the pulse of the music, the thick anxiety in the air as the rankings are announced.

This is it, he thinks, as he finishes his thank you speech for rank three. This is the second last
stepping stone of a three month journey to his dreams, that faint mirage that had shimmered in the
distance for so long suddenly solidifying, becoming something graspable.

Most of all though, he notices Niki— who really is on fire, ranking 2nd and receiving immense
praise from the judges.

Sunoo swells with pride like they’re his own compliments. He wants to rush over and hug the
younger and tell him how much he deserves it.

But most of all he wants to replay the few moments Niki was on stage for himself.

He doesn’t think too much about what that means. After all, he’s a teenage boy. (They all are).
As much as ILAND forces them to appeal to an idol-fit image of purity, playfulness, and onstage
perfection, they’re no different from other teenage boys too; changing physically and emotionally
— and above all else, pretty horny.

Except, in mainstream Korean media, desire and romance, at least among men, reflexively fell onto
the pronoun of ‘she’. Questions about dating always circulated a man’s ideal type of girl; or who
they’d introduce their sister to among a group of boys.

Sunoo didn’t question it openly, but he’d thought about it.

Kim Sunoo, maybe to some peoples’ disbelief, had been one of the top students in his highschool
class.

He thought often; for instance, what was it that had made him so appealing to global voters; what
was his own personal charm, and how did he make the most of it?

Or, when he was choosing the team for Chamber 5, including Park Sunghoon; how did he form the
perfect team?

Thinking was part of survival too after all, and maybe Sunoo was ILAND’s secret brain behind a
pretty face.

But thinking also led to problems for him. Sometimes, Sunoo wished he could turn off his brain
completely. Especially thoughts about certain people.

The world is numb, indistinct just before Sunoo fully wakes. In the first few weeks of ILAND,
he’d forget entirely about the reality show in those moments. He’d believe he was at home, in his
own bed, prior to a normal day of school, where he’d be a student and nothing more.

There are fleeting moments when Sunoo wishes for normalcy to return. But then he remembers
how much he loves being an idol, or almost one; the flush of joy that being on stage and
entertaining people brings him.

“Sunoo. Wake up.”

Reality, sunken in sleep, rushes to the surface all at once.

He cracks open an eye, wincing at the light falling through the door from the rest of the ILAND
complex. That's one thing he’ll never get used to here; the constant artificial, white light.

Then a face covers his line of sight.

“Jay hyung, do you even sleep,” Sunoo mumbles, groaning softly and burying his face in a pillow.

He hears the figure chuckle— and his heart skips a beat.

Because the chuckle sounds nothing like Jay.

Is he really awake? He wonders, shifting slightly in the bed.

Probably not. It’s probably a spectre from his dreams. A figment of his subconscious.

“Sunooooo-hyung,” the figure says now in a low, sleepy voice that plucks on something inside
him.

As Sunoo opens his mouth to respond, he feels body-weight crush him from the top.

“Yah!” he shrieks.

So, definitely real, he figures. Definitely not a dream.

“What would you do if I never got up?” says the person on top of him, and he can hear their
cheeky, shit-eating grin— almost see it.

Sunoo huffs, squirming. “I’d do this-” he begins.

And then suddenly, he turns over and he’s face to face with the own of the body on top of him.

“—Oh,” Sunoo, finishes, cutting off as the words die in his mouth.

Yes, the person is real, and solid, and….

Sunoo sees Niki’s face like it’s all in HD, zoomed in tight; long eyelashes and the mole under his
right eye, face and lips slightly puffy with sleep, the mole on his chin.

“Morning,” Niki breathes after a moment, grinning right up in Sunoo’s face.

And Sunoo feels on fire again.

Actually, he would be lying if he said he hadn’t stopped feeling that way since Flame On’s
performance, since seeing Niki tear up the stage in that leather jacket, since Niki had pinched his
cheek the other day at the dining room table and looked at him like was about to kiss him.

Now though, Sunoo groans and pushes Niki off.

“YOU’RE SERIOUSLY KIDDING ME,” he laments, voice rising in pitch. The other boy yelps as
he goes flying off the side of the bed.

Sunoo sits up in the bed, shooting daggers at the forlorn, hoodie-wearing figure now sprawled on
the ground.

“Did you wake up early just to torment me?” Sunoo demands, crossing his arms.

Niki laughs. It’s then Sunoo notices that the other beds in the room are empty.

“Wait, what time is it?”

Niki, standing, leaps for the end of Sunoo’s bed. “You slept in but the hyungs felt bad waking
you,” he replies, pushing his hoodie off his head. “It’s past nine.”

Sunoo gasps. “What?”

It was the day before their final stages today. The final day to practice before the round that would
determine whether he had a chance to debut or not.

Sunoo is so busy panicking it takes him a moment to notice Niki still sitting at the end of the bed,
staring intently at him.

Their eyes meet, and Sunoo gulps, expecting the younger boy to look away.

But Niki tilts his head. His hand lifts. Before the elder realises what’s happening, Niki pinches
Sunoo’s cheek.

It’s not painful or anything, but Sunoo feels like he’s been shocked.

“Yah,” Sunoo blurts, touching his cheek. “What was that for?”

“Oh nothing,” says Niki, face blank. Then he smirks. “Your cheeks were just red.”

Sunoo’s hands fly up to cover his face. “Not true,” he shoots back.

Niki springs off the bed, giggling. “Sure thing.”

“You forgot to use honorifics this morning too!” Sunoo replies, trying to inject warning into his
tone. “Don’t think I didn’t notice, Niki!”

Niki skips off across the bedroom, “Whatever you say Sunoo hyung,” he calls over his shoulder.

Sunoo runs to the bathroom once Niki is gone and splashes his face with cold water.

Surviving I LAND was one thing. Surviving a new Nishimura Riki who knew how to tease him
was another story entirely that Sunoo did not want to contemplate.
 Chapter 5
Chapter Summary

"Let's debut together, Niki."

Or its the I-LAND finale, and Niki wants to debut with everyone, but Sunoo the most.

Chapter Notes

woooo here's to me not doing my uni assignments, writing this in between my work
breaks, and being sad bc of the niki drought (a drought of like, one day, but still).

NEXT CHAPTER WILL FOCUS ON ENHYPEN SUNKI'S PREDEBUT

ACTIVITIES YAY!

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE COMMENTS THEY MAKE MY DAY HONESTLY
:333

When Niki was nine he chose his stage name.

As he announced it proudly at the dance studio his parents owned one morning, there were amused
looks from the older kids; hair- ruffles and fond smiles. Yes, little Riki being eccentric again. Just
like his obsession with Michael Jackson.

But still, beneath it all, they knew, because they’d seen him dance. They understood.

Because when people saw Niki dance, they were struck by a simple fact; that the boy standing
before them was the beginning of something bigger than that particular moment, or stage, or room
— even if that something wasn’t quite clear yet.

The way Niki danced was simply…. different.

And for Niki, wearing his new name was a starting point too. If dance was his reason for living,
then Niki was the person he wanted to become in that life.

Nishimura Riki was always used to being the best at dance.

No matter what happened at I-LAND, some part of him had still believed he’d debut because of
that.

But Niki from ILAND had grown used to ranking low.

There was a moment, right before Taki was eliminated, that Niki had simply let go and waited to
not make the cut.

Then, he’d wondered if he’d missed something along the way, some vital piece of information,
because every other ILANDER had worn the debut badge by now— except him.

He’d felt so alone, so far from home, so far from Niki, the boy who had created the name, despite
being Niki, the boy known by more people around the world now than ever before.

Sunoo had comforted him. The others had comforted him.

But it wasn’t quite enough.

Then one week later, he’s under bright stage lights again for Flame On, beneath a panel of judges
again, and his heart is racing and his body is vibrating and he feels as euphoric as he always does
after performing— and that’s when he realises he hasn’t lost anything at all, really.

This is who he is; a dancer after the show still soaring on a stage high, a small boy from Japan
leaning towards the bright lights of Seoul, an I-LAND semi finalist staring the team behind BTS in
the face, and them telling him he was amazing. Like they knew he had it in him all along.

Time blurs together like the sky above a playground swing as you fling yourself into it, then drop
back to the ground.

Suddenly, it’s the finale.

The performances are over. Niki is beyond thinking of rankings, or global voters, or the way he
performed tonight (he doesn’t even remember because it flashed by in seconds).

Heck, he can barely concentrate on the fact that BTS, his idols, are literally right there watching
him.

All he wishes is that he could remain like this, nine of them, forever.

Backstage, he catches Sunoo’s eye as the pre-recorded content rolls over just before they’re called
out for the debut lineup announcement.

Wordlessly, the other boy slips his hand into Niki’s. Squeezes it.

Maybe it’s the adrenaline, but Niki is met with a film reel of the moments they’d spent together in
I-LAND.

Sunoo grinning and introducing himself to Niki after the entry evaluation, as Niki nodded and
replied shyly, his Korean far less fluent than now, Sunoo’s smile new and dazzling. Sunoo
cheering him on for the dance unit in Part 1; Sunoo finding him before the BTS test in the practice
rooms that one night; Sunoo feeding him bites of his own dinner, Sunoo complaining when Niki
was being clingy, Sunoo being, well, Sunoo— bubbly and caring and selfless and stupidly
gorgeous ....

(But Niki doesn’t like boys. Or is it Riki Nishimura? These days he can’t find the lines between the
two, whether Niki has become more like Riki or Riki has dissolved entirely into Niki.
Maybe he’s too young to understand that he can be both.)

Niki remembers one night when he and Sunoo had been practicing late for the finale, ‘Calling’.

Actually, Niki had replayed it endlessly without telling anyone, taking it out like a photograph and
turning it around in his mind for comfort. As they sat facing each other, bone-tired but still pumped
up from the music, the words had finally spilt out of his lips;
“I want to debut with you more than anyone, hyung.”

There was a moment when Niki had held his breath. Almost feared what Sunoo would say.

The thing is, Niki knows he can be impulsive and a little daring sometimes— it’s what makes him
so good on stage— but sometimes he blurs lines that shouldn’t be blurred because heck, he can’t be
bothered polite vagueness.

But Sunoo makes him second guess his principles. Maybe because he really does care about what
he thinks and says now.

After a beat, Sunoo’s face broke into a smile. Not just a Sunoo smile, thought Niki, but something
even warmer if that were possible. The smile Sunoo reserved especially for…. for…

“You too, Niki,” he’d replied, resting his hand on Niki’s shoulder and squeezing it.

Niki’s chest had soared with something completely different to a stage high, but not at all
unfamiliar.

Of course he doesn’t vocalise this part— he’s not that out of it. And he thinks it’s not exactly
something Sunoo would smile at. Niki winces at the notion.

Then Niki falls back into this moment. This last, perfect, untouchable moment in which the world
of I-LAND still exists in the present tense, and he is a part of it. A moment like glass.

In the dim lights of backstage, its Sunoo who now says it softly:

“Lets debut together, Niki.”

And that’s all that matters.

Niki nods, squeezing Sunoo’s hand back, the thought of spending more months— the defining
years of his life possibly— with the elder, flooding his mind as he allows himself to dream for a
second…

(When Niki is announced Rank 4 he feels everything as though he’s just been pulled out of thick,
sluggish water; the lights blinding, the cheers of the others ear-splitting, reality like a siren wailing
down a road. He breaks down, and the first person he falls on is Sunoo.

Always Sunoo.

He cannot believe it, and yet he must— yes, there’s a mic being pushed into his hand and he’s
saying thank you even though he’s not even sure what it’s for...

When the final member is between Sunoo and K, Niki feels like the universe has played a cruel
trick on everyone, but maybe especially him and the two boys who mean so much to him. Without
whom he maybe wouldn’t have survived I-LAND in one piece. But although Niki will debut, he
can’t have everything. It’s not the first time he’s been taught that chasing your dreams is
bittersweet.)

”Let’s debut together Niki,”says Sunoo......

…...And they do.

 Chapter 6
Chapter Summary

Niki realises he is whipped as fuck. Niki panics.

Chapter Notes

CHAPTER 6 FINALLY ! I'm sorry I've been so busy with uni and kind of didn't write
this for a while so this chap's a little bit longer.

In this chapter Niki, the dumbass he is, finally has a revelation (no surprise as to what
it is).

But, like the dumbass he is, probably won't do anything to stop the endless pining.

(just fixed a typo- should be JAY not Jake solo in the cooking comp lol)

Life after I-LAND is not what any of the seven expect it to be.

Well, to be fair, they’ve never experienced anything like it—fame or idol life— before.

Niki supposes that leaving I-LAND is a lot like starting a new chapter of his life. But he also hasn’t
debuted yet. It is an odd, in-between stage.

A stage where he, primarily, feels different for the first time. Not a fundamental shift in the
aerodynamics of the world. No, something more subtle than that, that he can’t put his finger on.

It really hits him on their first vlive as a group. Hundreds of thousands of viewers, the numbers and
hearts trickling up in real time for him to watch. He’d never had the liberty of experiencing it
filming I-LAND; of watching himself quite literally become famous, in real time.

It’s almost surreal. For example, ss he introduces himself to the camera propped on a table before
the seven of them, a staff member standing behind to supervise, and introduces himself as
ENHYPEN‘s Ni-ki. Or when he tweets a selfie and the like count climbs in seconds.

All the signs tell Niki something has changed, and maybe it’s easy to confuse that with the notion
that he himself has irrevocably changed.

Except they haven’t— because some things never do.

Some things never do— like staying up for hours with the lights off, talking into the night with the
other members in their shared dorm about all their anxieties, depending on who’s the last to fall
asleep.

(Niki usually stays awake for most of it, which is why he finds it so hard to wake up in the
mornings).
Some things never do— like Sunoo in a hoodie with bed hair at 8am smiling at him across the
table in their dorms, oblivious to the smear of milk on his top lip, and Niki leaning in to swipe it off
with his thumb before he thinks about what he’s doing, telling himself the red flooding Sunoo’s
cheeks and neck are just coincidental as he pulls away and resumes eating his cereal.

Niki didn’t know what to expect of…… this.

“This” being all the extra time spent together with the six others, un-interrupted by insane,
intensive rehearsal schedules for weekly performances or by team groupings and the ranked room
system.

He’d worried, maybe, he’ll find some of them a bit annoying after a while, being fourteen and
technically in his slamming-door phase and all.

But what he hadn’t considered were the possible consequences of spending so much extra time
with one Kim Sunoo.

(That’s to say, almost every waking minute).

He’d thought it was nothing. This… thing.

(Is it a thing?)

(It’s definitely a thing.)

In I-LAND it had been a murmuring, maybe. Something that lingered just on the surface.
Something who’s potential for more was somehow both frightening and exciting.

He realises now, with every moment he and Sunoo end up alone together (accidental and not) that
maybe because during the show he knew nothing could…. happen, since they had cameras on them
24/7, not to mention they were always busy.

That’s to say— well, nothing would’ve, could’ve, will happen anyway, right?

Because what Niki feels is just… deep platonic appreciation. Sunoo had comforted him at his
lowest points. Sunoo was Korea’s It-boy. Sunoo was light and Niki was a dark horse.

Sunoo is also maybe Riki Nishimura’s best friend right now.

“What are you thinking of right now?” asks Sunoo, one of the times they end up alone together in
the dorm bedroom.

It’s really not Niki’s fault Jay had decided to cook Soondubu soup and somehow entangled Jake,
Sunghoon, Heeseung and Jungwon in a fully-fledged cooking competition (teams of two, Jay solo
of course) after Heeseung challenged that his ramen was better than Jay’s soup, and Jake and
Sunghoon stated that they were BOTH better cooks than the elders.

Sunoo and Niki, disasters in the kitchen as they were, had politely declined. (Okay, maybe the
other members had quite literally deposited them in the bedroom and shut the door. Not without a
snicker from Jungwon though, whatever that meant.)

At Sunoo’s question, Niki twists his head from facing the underside of the top bunk, to the floor
where Sunoo is sprawled on a beanbag with his phone, though now it’s turned off in his lap and
he’s staring at Niki.
“How little faith the members have in our cooking abilities that it’s almost offensive,” he replies
flatly.

Sunoo grins, and then, dramatically, pretends to look lamentful.

“It really is rude of them. They even shut the door on us.”

“Truly,” Niki agrees, his lips twitching, propping his head on his elbow as his gaze fastens on
Sunoo.

“Jungwon betrayed the maknae line,” Sunoo adds, but his mouth is also curling with amusement.

Niki lets out a giggle in unison with Sunoo.

The truth is, Niki hadn’t been thinking about the other members at all, only the way Sunoo had
been on his phone for 20 minutes and Niki, for some reason, was desperate to talk to him; he
couldn’t figure out why, because they spent everyday together, and this thought trajectory led him
into a downward spiral about what he mentally called the Kim Sunoo thing. And then, irrationally,
he’d imagined the elder could hear every thought in his mind.

“Oh my god I have an idea!” Sunoo exclaims suddenly, causing Niki to almost levitate off the bed
with surprise.

“What?” He manages back.

“It’s the 24th of September,” says Sunoo. “24/9.”

Sunoo looks at Niki, tilts his head as if to prompt him to finish the thought.

Niki’s brow furrows. One second. Two seconds.

“Oh!” the younger exclaims, springing up in the bed to upright and almost banging his head.

“It’s…… your birthday and mine!” says Niki. “It’s us day!” he adds, barely managing not to
stutter.

Sunoo smiles at him so warmly then.

And Niki’s brain does that silly thing where it tries to convince him that Sunoo smiles at him
differently which can’t be true, yet his heart still runs amuck in his chest.

“It’s us day,” Sunoo concedes. And then, casually, “we should post something on Twitter.”

Niki jumps off the bed and seats himself on the bean bag with Sunoo.

He puts on a cap to hide his hair, and Sunoo holds up the selfie camera and snaps a few photos of
them. Something about the two of them in one frame kind of is… a lot for Niki to process. He
realises they haven’t really taken a lot of selfies together.

“What are you gonna caption it?” the younger wonders out loud.

Sunoo bites his pink lips. “Hmm… Sunoo... Niki…..” His fingers hover the keyboard. “Sunki
sounds really cute.”

“Sunki?” this time Niki does stutter. He laughs, but it’s awkward even to his own ears. “Oh of
course.”
His eyes flicker over to Sunoo’s face, finding the younger boy absorbed in typing out a caption and
hashtag so he doesn’t notice. They flicker away. He gulps.

Sunoo gasps during dinner when he checks his phone, prompting Niki to look up. “Sunki is
trending!” he exclaims, waving the phone at Niki and, because they’re sitting around the table, the
other members too. Of course the motion is so frantic Niki doesn’t see a thing but he gasps too.

“Really? You’re kidding,” he blurts out.

“Wah, no way,” laughs Jake.

“Sunki couple is the best,” declares Sunoo, reaching out for a hi-five from Niki, which the younger
returns beamingly, despite himself.

Of course, some things don’t change. The only things that change, Niki realises the day later, are
the way we see things.

He’s talking to Jay during a short break in their schedule between two photoshoots, while the two
of them are washing their hands in the bathroom.

“Hyung,” Niki pipes up.

Jay turns to him, “what’s up?”

And where does he start? Somewhere along the lines of: the truth is I’ve been looking at those
Sunki selcas for hours since we took them and there’s something about Sunoo hyung in the same
frame as me that makes me want to keep us together like that, forever…….?

Yeah. Maybe not.

Niki directs his gaze down to his hands, scrubbing them with soap as he speaks slowly.

“What does it mean if you want to… be with someone. All the time.”

Jay pauses, turns off the tap. He turns to Niki as he shakes his hands dry, water droplets flicking
over the basin.

“As in, all the time?”

“Even if you already spend a lot of time with them,” Niki adds, then bites his lip, worrying he’s
given away too much. He glances up at Jay.

Jay looks thoughtful. “I’d say… you like being around them?”

“Well duh,” Niki replies, pushing his hyung’s shoulder with his wet hand slightly to alleviate the
tension. It doesn’t really work.

“But you also feel kind of sick around them too,” Niki goes on. “In a good way.”

Jay gives him an odd look as he wipes his palms on his jeans.

“Not that I’ve had much experience,” he starts carefully. “But that sounds like a crush. Like you
want to… date them.”

Before these words have their full effect on Niki, Jay’s lips twist into a conspiring smile.
“Yah, have you been sneaking off to meet with girls in between schedules?” He chuckles. “I’m not
even surprised. Damn, wish I could say the same.”

And Niki knows he’s joking but he winces anyway, the words like blows.

“No no!” he blurts. “Nothing like that.” Shit. He can feel his cheeks burning. “Just curious.” Now
Jay thinks he’s a fuck boy or something.

Jay hums in a way that suggests he is not at all convinced, and …..

And then his words fully hit Niki.

A crush.

And oh, shit.

Shit, shit shit.

Niki wants to be with Sunoo.

Niki likes Sunoo, a boy. Is Niki gay? He can’t remember having crushes on boys per-se before, not
like his crushes on girls, but then, was that only because adults and other kids made a bigger fuss
when it was a girl, automatically assumed it was romantic?

But it explains the way he feels around the elder. Like… like his entire world is spinning, expect
for Sunoo, a still point in the middle of it all.

Niki wants to hold Sunoo’s hands and cuddle with him and more. Maybe he wants to … to kiss hi
—

He’s pretty sure he’s straight up frozen and malfunctioned in front of the wash basin. Jay gives him
a funny look but Niki doesn’t even notice it.

Niki wants to date Sunoo, his group mate.

Niki is fucked.
 chapter 7
Chapter Summary

It's a well known fact that Niki likes to sleep in Sunoo's bed.

Chapter Notes

Holy shit so I haven't written this since 2020 and it's now 2022. I didn't think I'd ever
come back to it but I kept getting comments every few weeks asking for more, even
now. I also lately got back into this ship/ ENHYPEN since I'm on my uni break and
just felt the need to write more. Sunki deserve it.

So here we are in 2022 with a Sunoo POV chapter. Hope whoever is still reading this
enjoys. Who knows, maybe ill keep going!

Kim Sunoo has known three things for as long as he can remember.

One, that he was born to make people smile— to be on stage, to warm the crowd with his light.

Two, that he liked boys more than other boys liked boys.

And three, that he could never talk about the last thing.

As a highschooler and, later, a trainee, it was not that hard to conceal it. Especially due to the fact
he was still young, and hadn’t met many others who were self-aware like him (though undoubtedly
alot were closeted), beside one boy from his highschool, who in his freshman year shoved a
Valentines card into Sunoo’s hands and ran away, cheeks a furious shade of pink. It had been
bewildering, to say the least. Sunoo had read the letter in secret later, something confused but warm
unfurling in his chest.

But he wouldn’t say he’s had a proper crush before. Most of his highschool friends were girls; they
would cover girl group dances together and hover over him in class, cooing at his handsomeness.
But he’s never had a crush, no, other than idols like BTS, who were ever-unreachable.

But privacy was not the same when one was an idol compared to predebut. It was not the same as
having cameras scrutinising him constantly, his relationships analysed by netizens, and a legion of
female fans constantly positioning him as boyfriend material.

Of course, he was extremely grateful for it all. He lived for it. But he should’ve factored in that
being an idol also equated to many cute and talented boys constantly in his space. Cute boys
showering in the next room, sweating in the practice room, sneaking into his bed to cuddle, kissing
his cheeks for entertainment on variety shows….

But they’re shooting the last jacket photos for their debut album today, and he really doesn’t have
the bandwidth to fret over cute boys . He is a… professional now, after all.
Right.

It’s not like all his members look incredible and hot, especially one in particular, and he does not
need the cameras to capture his pink cheeks or ears. He can handle his stupid teen hormones. (Even
if some people can’t).

The costume and makeup department has put them in white button ups with frilled V-necks and
soft neck ties. Their make-up is light and hair softly blown-out. They look ghostly against a ruby
background, all high cheekbones and shadows and gold-alabaster skin.

The boys take turns monitoring each other's shots. Sunoo has always been good at posing for
cameras; he would compulsively take selfies in highschool and the internet has a way of digging
them back up to haunt him now. Sunoo may let his authentic self shine through to fans, but he also
loves to act, to pose, to perform. It comes naturally.

Niki and Jungwon monitor his shoot. Their exaggerated reactions border on teasing, though Niki
seems to only be half in it (when he would normally be all-in), watching Sunoo intently while
Jungwon gasps “wah”, and “so handsome”.

When Sunoo walks off the set and back towards them to see the results, he unintentionally meets
Niki’s eyes, and smiles despite the surprising intensity in them. Niki smiles back, but only after a
beat, a moment of what Sunoo would call hesitation if he didn’t know better. The younger claps a
hand on Sunoo’s shoulder.

“Nice work hyung,” he says, his eyes still on Sunoo. Sunoo laughs, thanking him, and swallows
thickly.

Next it is Niki’s turn. Sunoo and Jungwon are joined by Jay and Sunghoon, having already
completed their shoots beforehand. Niki is the last one to be photographed before they pack up for
the day, and Sunoo should be feeling sleepy by now, the sun drooping below the treeline outside
the warehouse. But as Niki steps in front of the curtains and red beam lights, his bleached hair
turning gold-ash under the photographer’s light, Sunoo might as well be anything but that.

Since Sunoo met him in I-land, Nishimura Riki has always been the sort of pretty that precedes
itself; a face you know will mature well, but for now still soft-edged and childish, with features
that must be grown into.

However, with makeup and styling, Niki’s features are more defined than ever. Not only that, but
he has been growing at a scary pace— and everyone in the group noticed it. Sunoo and Jungwon
were growing too, but Niki had gained at least a few centimetres on his height and shoulder width
since they finished the survival show.

Not that Sunoo has been specifically been keeping an eye on Niki. Niki, who is something like a
knot of nerves buried deep in his belly since I-land.

And well, lately Sunoo can’t tell if lately something has shifted between them or settled to where it
was always meant to be. He can’t tell if he’s waiting for something or if they’re already there.

It starts with Niki creeping into his bed one night because he was homesick, giving Sunoo deja vu
of their bathroom run-ins at I-land. And then the next night, again, because of Jay’s snoring. Niki
has probably fed Sunoo twenty excuses by now and Sunoo has taken them all. He would be dozing
off and suddenly hear one of the bunks groan as Niki climbed down from his bed, the padding of
feet on the carpet and the soft rasp of “hyung?”, the creak of wood as Niki sat on the edge of the
bed, Sunoo stirring awake and wordlessly folding open the covers for Niki to climb in. Niki
snuggling to Sunoo’s side while the elder pretended to be nonchalant, tucking his head into the
space between the nape of Sunoo’s neck and the mattress, his soft exhales against the skin there
sending shivers down Sunoo’s spine as tried his best to fall back asleep.

Like everything with Niki, Sunoo let something that would usually have bothered him— the
invasion of his space— slide.

But here is Niki, stepping in front of the camera and changing. The soft goofiness of boyhood
vanishes and is replaced by something else.

On the monitor, Niki tips back his head, exposing pearly white throat and collarbones. He tilts his
head to the side, milky-brown doe eyes holding the camera’s gaze, deepened by the softest
eyeshadow. If Sunoo is the sun, sharp and radiant, Niki has the quality of moonlight touching bed
sheets or a still lake, tender and luminous.

Sunoo realises he hasn’t blinked in forever. His eyes hurt, and it’s because he can’t unfix them
from the monitor or Niki.

As soon as the director calls ‘cut’ Niki’s demeanour transforms back into his puppy-like
playfulness. He grins as he exits the set, greeting the four of them.

“Wah, you looked great Niki,” blurts Jungwon, smiling and patting Niki’s back as the younger
looks sheepishly down.

Sunoo’s mouth is a little ajar as he lets slide; “Really, Niki, how are you so good at this?”

Niki looks up, catching his eye then, beaming a little more.

“Ah no,” Niki grins back, enveloping him in a half-hug. “You’re the handsome one hyung,” he
adds, softly, when his mouth is closest to Sunoo’s ear, then pulls away again as Jay and Sunghoon
praise him and clap him on the shoulders.

Sunoo bites his lip reflexively, not expecting the proximity or the words. He doubts anyone else
would’ve heard them either. He will never get used to Niki’s boldness. But it's not bold really, is it?
This doesn’t mean anything to Niki, right? They’re just friends. This is how he always is.

Sunoo blinks back to life as a staff member calls for them to head back to the dressing rooms to
have their makeup and clothes removed. He moves off, oblivious to the suspicious look on
Sunghoon’s face as he stares at his back.

Later they eat together at the dorms, a quickly-pulled-together meal of instant ramyun. Sunoo and
Niki joke around like usual; Niki ripping open a packet of ramyum and spilling stray noodles over
the table while Sunoo chastises him; Niki blowing on a mouthful of the hot noodles to cool them
before feeding them to Sunoo. It’s normal, and it’s simple, and it's them. Niki and Sunoo.

Now he’s messing around on his phone while the other members shower and wash their faces.

Lying in bed, Sunoo lets excitement simmer in his belly, the days of preparation and recording
quivering in his mind like a row of bright flags. Their debut is in just under three weeks. In a way,
it’s almost dragging on. He wants to debut now. It’s stranger still because of I-LAND, and them
already having a solid fanbase and experience on TV. Sunoo almost feels like he has nothing to
show for it, no song or music video to his name to ground that fame. He wants the date to come
faster.

But he also worries how everything might change. Will change.

Sunoo props himself up on an elbow. Sunghoon is the only one in the room, lying on the bunk
across from him, focused intensely on a game on his phone.

“If you don’t say what you want to say I’ll have to make you, Sunoo-ah,” says the elder abruptly.

Sunoo startles, then laughs. “Ah sorry hyung,” he replies. “I was just… thinking.”

“Yeah, you were thinking so hard I could hear you from over here,” replies the elder. He taps the
screen in a frenzy for a moment, then groans and sighs, dropping it listlessly on his chest. “Damn,”
he mutters.

Undeterred, Sunoo asks, “Hyung, don’t you wish we could debut faster?”

Sunghoon stares at the underside of the top bunk.

“Yeah, definitely,” he says, huffing. He is silent for a moment. Then he turns his head to eye
Sunoo. “But I also kind of like the way things are right now too. Which sounds so weird, because
we worked our asses off for months to debut, but…” he trails off, drumming his fingers on his
chest.

Sunoo nods even though his hyung can’t see it, bringing his legs closer to his chest and hugging
them.

“That’s what I was feeling a bit, yeah. It’s probably just nerves.”

Sunghoon hums. “For me it’s also perfectionism. Something that stuck with me even after I
stopped ice skating. I just never feel like I have enough time to make the performance exactly how
I want it to be.”

Sunoo makes a surprised noise. “You seem so chill and cool on stage though hyung,” he replies.

Sunghoon stops fiddling with his hands and turns to face Sunoo, propping himself up on an elbow.

“Nah I’m just good at hiding it,” he grins, “fake it till you make it,” and winks, making Sunoo
snort.

“Park Sunghoon!” comes a familiar voice from the hall, and the two of them immediately smirk.

“You’ve stolen my lavender sleeping oil again dammit, where is it!” Jay yells, and the pair in the
bedroom dissolve into giggles just as Jongseong marches in, hand on hip.

Sunghoon raises his hands in innocence. “I swear it wasn’t me! I thought I saw Jungwon using it-”

“Jay-hyung sorry!” comes another voice from the bathroom— Yang Jungwon. “I’ve got it! I had
trouble sleeping this week!”

Jay pauses just as his mouth opens again. The annoyance on his face melts instantly. He shakes his
head, mutters something, and leaves the bedroom again. “Yah, Jungwonie…”

Sunoo and Sunghoon smirk conspiratorially at each other.

The members return to their combined room of seven one by one and then the lights are turned out.
Niki is the last to get back. Sunoo is lying dead still but he cracks an eye open, watching the fuzzy
outline of the younger climb up the bunk bed adjacent to his own and flop onto the mattress.

It must be only hours later, when Sunoo is barely sleeping, that a shuffle, a creak, and a warm
pressure on his shins stirs him.

Neither of them speak tonight. They know the ritual so well it can be done wordlessly. Sunoo
shuffles over to his edge— he’s been told he sleeps very still and takes up very little space, so it
works out because Niki likes to spread out. He is facing the wall, and feels the bed dip behind him
where the other boy settles onto the mattress.

Niki sighs, ever so softly, as though this bed wasn’t literally the exact same as his own and the five
others in the room, but somehow softer. It does something to Sunoo’s heart that it probably
shouldn’t. Same as the boy’s smell does something to him that it shouldn’t. Same as the soft
pressure of his exhales on Sunoo’s neck, making the hair tickle there.

And here is the part where Sunoo knows, always knows, that if he turns over he will be face to
face with Niki. But he won’t bring himself to do it. He won’t. He can’t, for his own sanity.
Everything is already too much as it is.

And then, after a beat where Sunoo thinks they will just fall back into sleep like that, Niki shuffles
closer and wraps his arm around Sunoo’s torso. It takes everything in the elder not to yelp because
Niki hasn’t done that before. The younger is snoring lightly in seconds— probably only hugging
him through the haze of half-sleep, like a soft toy or a pillow, Sunoo reasons with himself. He just
hopes Niki is asleep enough not to feel the thud of his heart through the thin cotton of his T-shirt,
inches from where Niki’s hand rests on the bottom of Sunoo’s rib cage.

He hopes it is enough. Sunoo is scared that everything will change with their debut. But most of all
he is scared of losing this space of his; not a real space but the intimate details of his life,
speculated about online and exposed in variety shows. He is afraid of what it means to like boys
and be an idol. He is afraid of what it means to be falling so fucking hard for the boy lying next to
him, debuting with him, bound to him and the five others. Sunoo is afraid of how much longer he
can hide it from him.

Please drop by the archive and comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!