chapter nineteen;
getting too steamy
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"Okay, so explain to me why we're here at nine in the night? Like after a long day when I'd rather collapse within the firm hold of my bed?"

"Because late night baths are the best kind, Renjun. Duh?" Hyuck scoffed as he freely flung his clothes off his body and wrapped a towel around his hips. "Now hurry it up, ladies. We must bond."

"Ladies...?" Chenle frowned, pretty offended that he'd been ripped from a potentially exciting time with Jisung for this. Not once in his life had he considered smacking someone, yet there was always a sparking moment in a man's life (or woman's if tested enough) where war needed to be unleashed. He wrapped a towel around his small waist as well and folded his arms before turning around and watching the other two shove their things into a wooden locker to the side. "Ready to go?"

"But of course," Donghyuck hummed and took their hands happily. They had to grant it to the boy though, he did raise moods. He was far too positive and sunny not to be appreciated. As they edged out of the changing rooms and waddled towards the hot springs, Renjun couldn't help but carefully glance over his shoulder at the sound of more visitors arriving. He didn't question it though, and instead returned his attention to the large open space he'd been led to.

The stars were out and the heat was intense. There were three adjacent springs lined in the centre, and a few doors off towards the building again for saunas. His breath was quite literally caught in his throat, for it was rather difficult to breathe.

"Wow," the second oldest beamed, "I always imagined coming to one of these. I've been planning this trip for a year, did you know?"

"That's...a lot of thought," Chenle noted. "Not something I expected from you."

"Eh, I work hard when I care about the task or whatever. Anyway, enough about that. Hop in!"

They were alone for now. The other two pools bubbled and radiated thick steam with no people to enjoy them, but that couldn't be helped when most guests were either enjoying the nightlife in Japan or sleeping to prepare for another day of adventures. This was an odd time.

Hyuck leapt in first, not taking the typical and more acceptable method like descending the steps by the rail, but instead cannonballing like the damn thing was deep enough.

"Ow," he gasped quietly after surfacing and shaking out his hair. The bubbles congregated around his body like foam and his eyes blinked rapidly. "I hit my ass."

"Not surprised," Renjun hummed, though was smiling softly and slowly wandering towards the spring as well with his hands wound around his body. He seemed nervous, having probably never done this before. Chenle appeared more delicate when dipping his foot in first to make sure he wasn't about to dive into a mistake, and carefully inched into the water via the small steps. The towel was still around his waist like it should've been...not like the floating white cloth Hyuck had lost after his cannonball and went to grab at.

"Renjun, get in!" The blonde chirped, now relaxed against the edge with his arms stretched across its expanse. The shorter nodded firmly and did as he was instructed, shivering against the new heat once his hips were submerged and eventually his chest.

"It's hot," he merely mumbled the obvious, swirling his arms under the surface and leaning back as well to rest.

"Kinda the point," Donghyuck hummed. Chenle's lips curved into a cute smile, and he lifted some of the steamy aqua into his palms to watch it dribbled back into the tiny pool. The childish fascination was actually a beautiful trait, and Renjun was going to point it out had there not been an unwelcome interruption.

"Oh my God~" a certain, familiar voice cooed as if surprised when it was clear they weren't at all. "Fancy finding you secretive munchkins in here."

"Dude, you're ruining our sauna vibes," Hyuck managed to say with a dead and straight face. "This may not be a sauna, but the vibes have been demolished."

"I can tell you a thing or two about the vibes you ruined," the youngest of the four to appear gushed irritatedly, but stayed behind Jaemin with folded arms. They were all dressed in towels as well, as exposed as each other. Funnily enough, it didn't settle the trio within their hot spring's nerves.

"Use that one," Renjun pointed to the second of the row. "It's free, and I don't feel like fighting back feet right now."

"You're no fun," Nana mumbled with a sour pout and glanced to the middle spring. He didn't want to miss out on this time with anyone, especially the smallest of their group. He posed the most entertainment, after all. "Who's to say seven couldn't squeeze in there?"

"Uh, me?" Mark furrowed his brows. "I don't want to test that theory either, being completely honest—"

"Invalid opinion. Does anyone else object?"

Jeno and Jisung held back and didn't really voice their concerns for it. The three currently inside the hot spring were already arguing with the driver that he was a moron and that seven in a spring this size was not happening. The youngest fiddled with the ring on his finger, still in a trance as he thought of the moment in the bedroom only a little while prior.

"Why did you guys come down, anyway?" Donghyuck enquired. "Like, I made it pretty obvious that I wanted to hang out with Renjun and Chenle. You lot can't get enough of us."

"In your dreams, Sunshine. It's our last night in this hotel and we wanted to make the most of it," Mark suddenly scoffed. "Try to deflate that ego just a little, you might find a brain somewhere that way."

"Wow, a low blow. If I search your room and find a laptop, you know where that bad boy will end up — the pond."

They're getting nowhere with this, Chenle blinked and shyly tilted his head back to see if he could spot Jisung who was pretty hidden behind the two brazen boys up front. Luckily, there he stood with his pretty torso on show; the adorable youngest with a moody expression.

The bickering continued as expected, and really it was between three or four of the mouthiest boys...so the quieter few decided to ignore it all and get on with what they were here for to begin with; to relax. Jeno and Jisung trailed to the middle spring excitedly and weren't quite as skeptical as the others when getting inside one after the other. The steam was hot on their faces, but they didn't mind at all. It felt quite nice.

"Yo," Chenle waved from the first circular crevice of natural water, capturing the duo's attention. Renjun pushed himself over to perch beside him and with this they were able to chat. "Why did you guys actually come down, though? Not that I'm complaining, but there's no way Mark just agreed without being dragged."

"Dead right," Jeno hummed. "Jaemin was really insistent that we come down to see you guys, and I personally didn't mind the idea at all. Jisung didn't want to, did you?"

"Nah."

"And Mark thought Donghyuck would pull something weird on him, so he was equally as reluctant."

"Makes sense," Renjun nodded faintly. "I wasn't fussed on coming either, to be honest...but sometimes I change my own mind."

"How?" Chenle chuckled airily, bubbles gathering around his body and that gorgeous smile of his lighting up the boy's face.

"Every time I think 'only one month', I get a little depressed. It's been a week or whatever, and I can't believe we don't have forever to be a group. When Hyuck knocked on my door and said he wanted to bond, I said 'no'. But he gave me these puppy eyes and said something like 'you'll regret it when we're saying our goodbyes in three weeks'...and it just resonated with me."

"Dude, don't be so deep. I thought you didn't like us," Jisung frowned. "Now I feel sad."

"I don't 'not like' you. I just have a different way of showing affection."

As they chatted, Mark ended up sliding in quietly with the youngest and Jeno, while Jaemin resorted to joining Renjun and Chenle with Donghyuck. All was well...until it wasn't.

"What was the plan for tomorrow?" The conversation merely continued, though this time all seven were participating. All except the oldest Chinese male who's face went unrealistically pale for someone in a near-scalding pool of hot water.

"We're moving across Japan again. Sounds like it could be a bit of a journey," Jeno responded to Mark's question. "Maybe we should pack extra cold water and store it somewhere dark...shaded, y'know?"

Renjun slid his hand around him subtly and a little beside Chenle while looking for his towel. He wasn't sure how, but the stupid thing unraveled from around his hips and was now snagged near his thighs, he presumed.

"I want to do something chill tomorrow. No more action or adventure, please," Jisung yawned with apparent exhaustion while a couple of them agreed and others would've had different opinions. Donghyuck scoffed and picked at his nails while describing in detail once again how he wanted this trip to go. It seemed the 'Japanese boy' had somehow morphed into 'guy' over the course of a few days, and they all knew (aside from the culprit) who was to blame for that.

"Le," Renjun mumbled and tried to switch into Chinese without getting noticed by the other two who were conversing away. "I don't know where my towel is. Can you feel it?"

"I was actually wondering what it was. Yeah, it's between my side and the edge."

"Thank God. Of all the people to potentially see me naked, Jaemin..."

"Hehe, I understand. Here, take it before he or Hyuck notice."

"What are you secretive squirrels discussing in Greek without us understanding?" The tanned boy beside them suddenly outed their chat. "Fess up."

"It wasn't Greek, Numbscull," Chenle huffed. "And nothing, really. Talking about home."

"You miss it?" Jeno cooed, falling for the blatant lie entirely. Renjun dove his hand down to grab the towel from his friend's side and tugged quickly to get this ordeal over with. The unexpected gasp-slight-moan that left the younger's mouth was an unforeseen obstacle, and they both stared at each other in shock.

"That was mine," the taller blushed. "Now we're both in trouble."

"What? You're kidding!"

"Did you touch his dick?" Jaemin shamelessly enquired. "And so obviously?"

"I didn't t—" the older scowled, yet ended up rolling his eyes and massaging his left temple. "You know what? Never mind. Everyone turn around, my towel is no longer covering me and I've just yanked Lele's off as well. Be respectful and close your eyes, please."

Of course it wasn't quite so easy to get the reaction they desperately wanted and needed. Jaemin instantly looked down...and so did Donghyuck.

"Guys!"

"It's...oh," the blonde hummed and smirked excitedly. "Yes! This is the bonding I spoke about~"

"Stop looking at me!"

"You too Chenle, not bad."

"DONGHYUCK!"

"Anyone else feel both left out and uncomfortable?" Jisung mumbled to the other two in his spring. They nodded bashfully and looked anywhere but the duo who were flushed deep scarlet. At least they had common decency, which was completely lost on the pair shamelessly comparing themselves and their new friends. The real drama hadn't even begun apparently until the driver and the sunny, carefree boy both decided now was the time to exhibit themselves.

"What's done is done," Jaemin spoke with utter seriousness and pulled off his towel as well. "We shall all be naked together. Bros."

"Agreed," Hyuck grinned. "Look, aren't we like, even closer now? Nice Jaem, real nice."

"Holy fuck, get out. Get. Out," Chenle wailed. "My fucking eyes!"

"I'm hyperventilating," Renjun screamed. "My lungs. My eyeballs. My pride!"

"Wanna go over?" Mark whispered.

"Definitely," Jisung nodded whilst standing up already. "No way am I about to miss this."

Jeno's expression was that of uncertainty, but he too didn't want to be the one on the sideline of the drama, so he joined them. It was a mess, to say the least...

But a pretty entertaining one.

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Hey guys, sorry for the incredibly late update. I know I'm getting slower and slower, but I'm trying my best. Thanks so much for the patience so far, and thank you even more for reading!

Stay safe and healthy me~
-lily