"what the duck.. how on earth have you managed to destroy the high striker, jeno??", chenle exclaimed in shock after the two groups had reunited again and haewon shared the anecdote about jeno cena proving his strength once again.

"it was an accident!", the blond haired boy responded honestly with a sincere and pure facial expression, "i still feel sorry for the owner..."

"disappointed but not surprised", donghyuck remarked teasingly while jaemin shook his head silently.

"a sign to end your gym membership", yejoon chimed in, "or you might as well accidentally destroy the ferris wheel."

"god, please not", mark commented in a light-hearted tone, placing his hand on his chest.

"by the way, do you guys want to take a ride on the ferris wheel?", renjun suggested, turning towards his friend group, "the view up there is gorgeous, especially when it's evening."

"sounds like an awesome idea!", jaemin answered happily, a bright smile adorning his face.

the rest of the group agreed as well as they headed towards the ferris wheel, joining the queue of the attraction.

━━━ ☆★☆ ━━━

the friend group had to split up once again as one ferris wheel car could hold only four people at a time.

therefore, they created three little groups.

the first group that got to take the ride first consisted of haewon, jieun, chenle and jisung.

"mom, pick me up. i'm scared", the youngest among them whined as soon as they all sat down, watching their car lifting up.

"momma nana ain't here, ji", chenle responded giggling and put his arm around jisung's shoulder, "but your wonderful bestie is here for you!"

"we're here for you too!", jieun chimed in, a cheerful smile spread across her face.

"yup, momma haewon is here to take care of you", the oldest among them added jokingly.

"thank you guys", jisung smiled sweetly, cherishing his friends' support. thanks to their reassuring words, his tense body loosened up a bit. nonetheless, he didn't dare to look down — not yet at least.

"momma haewon? nah, more like grandma haewon", chenle teased mischievously, seeing the offended look of haewon and the shocked faces of jieun and jisung.

"HEY, DON'T BE RUDE. YOU NAUGHTY KID."

"the way you've spoken sounds quite old-fashioned, boomerwon."

"EXCUSE ME, THE DISRESPECT??? DON'T MESS WITH ME. REMEMBER I GOT INTO DETENTION BECAUSE-"

"you got into detention??", jieun asked in surprise, making the older girl calm down.

"not only once, sweetheart", haewon responded nonchalantly, wearing a lazy smirk on her face.

"really?", the female junior asked in disbelief with her mouth opened agap. the older girl chuckled, her reaction amused her a lot.

"but don't worry. i would never hurt any one of you, guys", haewon reassured and leaned in closer to jieun, "especially you. i would never dare to hurt a cutie like you."

a wink from the latter followed, resulting jieun to feel flustered. the younger girl didn't know how to react or reply which is why she just flashed her a sheepish smile.

a smug grin was plastered on haewon's face as she pulled away from her again. the female senior had a bit too much fun with jieun's reactions, finding it lovely how responsive she was.

"YOOOO SMOOTH, HAEWON", chenle exclaimed and hyped up the older girl. however, he was soon shut up by his best friend who covered his mouth with his hands. jisung did that for the sake of his poor ears.

haewon laughed in amusement, thanking the orange haired boy for the compliment.

"wanna hear some of my detention stories, jieun?", the female senior offered and glanced at her seatmate, "it's gonna take a while tho."

"sure thing!", the younger girl agreed softly, curiosity was written on her face. she was eager to find out more things about haewon.

"oh god, haewon's detention stories are crazy...", jisung sighed with chenle bursting into loud laughter right next to him, making his poor ears suffer.

━━━ ☆★☆ ━━━

"HEY! I WANTED TO SIT HERE, SONGDICK", jeno yelled when donghyuck snatched his wanted seat in the car.

"TOO SLOW, LOSER", the purple haired boy sticked out his tongue and created a L with his fingers, showing proudly the hand gesture to his best friend.

the blond haired boy wore an insulted look on his face and responded with a middle finger towards him. "fuck you, asshole."

"kind of you honey but no, thank you", donghyuck flashed him a mischievous smile and sent him a flying kiss, resulting in jeno rolling his eyes in annoyance.

sooyun and mark giggled when they witnessed the bickering between them, entertained by their hilarious banter.

the blonde girl took a seat next to her pretend boyfriend while the canadian sat opposite to donghyuck.

jeno sat across his best friend and gave him an offensive side-eye. hyuck replied by forming a heart with his fingers.

"yay! we're about to raise the roof!", mark exclaimed as the car in which they were seated lifted up.

"raise the roof? we're not on a roof...", sooyun questioned confusedly, furrowing her brows.

"don't question everything what marks says. he's both a yapper and a poet. everything he says might be a hidden message, secret reference, metaphor or possibly none of that", donghyuck whispered to her and giggled when looking back to the beaming canadian.

the blonde girl nodded understanding before shifting her attention to the view they were exposed to.

"woah, it's insane up there!", mark stated in astonishment, his eyes were widened at the sight

"renjun was right! the view is even prettier at evening", jeno gasped, taking in the look of the theme park and city from up there.

"the lights of the city are beautiful", sooyun admired before glancing at hyuck, a smirk crept up her face. "but you are more beautiful", she added teasingly, making him blush.

"damn, sweetheart, i feel flattered", hyuck responded giggling, internally freaking out at her pick-up line.

butterflies were fluttering in his stomach while his heart was racing. he didn't expect that at all, nonetheless, he wasn't complaining about it. he was just wondering whether it was just a joke or serious flirting.

"oh wow! jumping down from the ferris wheel sounds tempting!", jeno chimed in, causing everyone to laugh.

"let the lovebirds live, jeno", mark teased grinning and nudged the blond haired boy.

"what?? lovebirds?!", donghyuck asked in shock and kicked the canadian with his feet, making him chuckle.

"i mean, you guys gotta keep up your image as fake couple, right? so act like them. keep doing your job, lovebirds!", the black haired boy reasoned and gave him a bittersweet smile.

"right", the younger male nodded briefly and smiled shyly when he was reminded of that fact.

"should i take any pictures of our fake couple here? you could maybe annoy geon again with your couple pics", mark suggested and took out his phone, hinting that he was working as wingman and was aiming to create sweet moments between them.

hyuck understood his signs and cherished the efforts of his friend. a soft smile was plastered on his face as he nodded in approval.

"sounds great! don't you think so, sooyun?", the purple haired boy turned to his pretend girlfriend. "yeah, totally. let's do this", the blonde girl agreed happily, grinning mischievously.

the pretend couple started to pose for the camera as mark began to take several pictures.

a pink tint was visible on donghyuck's cheeks during the photo session. the purple haired boy felt shy but also happy about the opportunity he was given.

the photographer suppressed his smile when he noticed hyuck's blush, finding it utterly adorable about him.

when donghyuck and sooyun decided to do extremely cringe couple poses, jeno couldn't help but make gagging sounds.

the blond haired boy couldn't handle watching his best friend acting like that. it gave him the shivers.

"oh hell, get a room. i can't do that anymore", jeno complained, causing the others to erupt in laughter.

"hey, it's not that bad", donghyuck defended sulking, crossing his arms with a pout.

"damn, you're right. you doing aegyo is worse", the blond haired boy agreed and was now the one to burst out in laughter.

"EXCUSE ME???", hyuck gasped loudly, wearing an offended look on his face with mark laughing even harder.

"is hyuck's aegyo that bad?", sooyun asked amusedly. jeno nodded rapidly with widened eyes, a terrified expression was plastered on his face.

"BRO?? YOUR AEGYO AIN'T ANY BETTER THAN MINE."

and thus, they had a heated discussion about whose aegyo is the worst while driving the ferris wheel.

━━━ ☆★☆ ━━━

the remaining three occupied one ferris wheel car. jaemin and yejoon sat next to each other while renjun took a seat opposite to them.

they chatted a bit as the car was slowly lifted up. excitement was written on renjun's face as he shifted his gaze and attention to his surroundings.

the chinese was eager to see the amusement park and parts of the city from up there. jaemin admired secretly the older boy, finding it endearing how joyfully he was beaming.

"guys, look! it's so gorgeous up there! even though it's dark by now, the lights of the theme park and the city shine so beautifully", renjun highlighted smiling and pointed at the lights.

"and so do you", jaemin added with a smug grin, making the two-toned haired boy turn back to him with widened eyes.

renjun was caught off guard after hearing his flirty words. his cheeks turned slightly pink as his heart skipped a beat.

yejoon gasped as well and was taken aback as well. he didn't expect jaemin to drop randomly a pick-up line out of nowhere. but damn, yejoon found that hella attractive.

the pink haired boy was truly amused by a flustered renjun. he enjoyed it a lot, maybe a bit too much.

"have i made you speechless, renjun?", jaemin teased and tilted his head. the older boy shook his head as answer.

"uh... no, you have just surprised me with that. that's it", renjun excused himself and cleared his throat, feeling shy all of the sudden.

"surprised? i thought you were used to my flirty side...", the pink haired boy wondered before a smirk crept up his face, "guess i should drop more pick-up lines, don't you think so?"

renjun's face became all flushed when he heard those words and saw the confident smirk that jaemin wore.

he knew that the pink haired male was just joking and flirted for fun. however, renjun couldn't help but wonder why he was so good at this and why his flirting was suddenly so intense, so different than before.

"oh my god, jaem. why are you so flirty all of the sudden??", the two-toned haired boy asked chuckling and shook his head, trying to hide his flustered side, "i think the air up there is not doing you any good."

"hey! i'm totally good. i'm just flirting as joke with my homies, can i not do that?", the pink haired boy shrugged his shoulders and couldn't hide his smile, making up an excuse to flirt with them.

"i feel like i'm interrupting something", yejoon remarked sighing, "damn, is that how third-wheeling feels like?"

"aww, is someone jealous?", jaemin's grin grew wider as he spotted his next victim to tease and attack with pick-up lines.

"what? me? jealous? honey, you're definitely mistaken", the curly brown haired boy denied even though it was true. he was utterly jealous.

"i can also spoil you with pick-up lines so that you don't feel left out, pretty boy", jaemin offered and gave him a wink, "then you won't feel like a third-wheel either."

heat shot up yejoon's face as his heart started to race as well. the way he called him and the confidence boasting from him was too much for him to handle.

"why is he such a flirty tease... an attractive one too?!", the sophomore thought, trying not to gay panic too much.

"kind of you but i'm good. i'm normally the one who flirts jokingly with his homies and says all those lines", the curly brown haired boy mentioned with a cheeky grin, although, he wouldn't mind to receive pick-up lines from jaemin.

"oh? is that so, little fairy?", the pink haired boy wondered and leaned in closer, wanting to tease him a bit.

jaemin didn't know it himself why he was suddenly so bold and confident about flirting but well, maybe the air has something to do with that. perhaps love is in the air?

yejoon widened his eyes when jaemin came closer to him. the proximity and the teasing tone of the older boy drove him crazy.

"hey, don't call me fairy!", the curly brown haired boy complained, feeling internally super shy.

"why should i stop calling you a fairy when you are as mesmerizing and cute as one?", jaemin replied winking and smirked when he succeeded in making the sophomore be flustered.

"uh... uhm... the fairy dress was just an one-time thing!", yejoon tried to response, his cheeks were tinted in complete pink.

"that might be true for that but it doesn't apply for us", the pink haired boy took not only his flirting to another level but also took yejoon to another level of gay panic.

the sophomore couldn't comprehend jaemin's flirting as it was too much for his heart and mind to handle.

whereas the pink haired boy wore a satisfied grin on his lips. he was surprised but proud of himself.

"gosh, jaemin the rizzler...", renjun noted after having witnessed the flirt attacks from the younger boy.

"your flirt skills are indeed good. you have definitely beaten yejoon at flirting... you are even better than him to be honest", the chinese added, wanting to (playfully) bully the sophomore as always.

"oh, wow? i am?", jaemin felt honored and let out soft chuckles, feeling totally amused.

"yeah, yejoon's flirting is just cringe and bad", the two-toned haired boy roasted his friend who gasped loudly.

"HEY! THAT'S MEAN, RUDEJUN."

"that was my intention."

"oh, fuck you. you are so yejoonphobic."

and we are back with yejoon and renjun bickering once again. the pink haired boy giggled the whole time while observing them bantering.

his eyes shifted forth and back between the two of them. at first, he started to listen attentively to them until he slowly drifted off.

at some point, he was mindlessly admiring them. his heart warmed up at the sight of the two of them and he couldn't help but feel giddy around them.

those strange unknown feelings came up again, making it hard for him to think straight.

until he realised that he wasn't straight.

besides, those odd and uncertain feelings might be a sign for him. a sign that he had fallen for his first boy crushes.

━━━ ☆★☆ ━━━

[ author's note ]
GODDAMN DID I STRUGGLE TO WRITE THIS CHAPTER (except for the gay sweet part between jaemin, yejoon and renjun. they are so cute oml i stayed up until 1:30 AM to write that and do not question how the gay flirting scene escalated)

it's so funny to me that jaemin has finally realised and admitted to himself that he isn't straight after around 74 chapters BAHAHAHHA

but actually that's the cue to remind y'all to take your time to figure out your sexuality ☝️ even if that might take long, it's totally alright <3

oh and it's my perfect cue to say:
happy pride month y'all 🩷✨️
(ik i'm a bit late)