Taeil is in the back seat of Johnny's car, squished between Mark and some tall guy named Jaehyun, and feeling a little of place as he is the only one in the car who isn't belting out the lyrics to Blue Velvet's Red Flavor at the moment. It's deafening, not to mention mildly scary that they're so in sync.

He leans forward to tap Johnny's shoulder.

"Hey, Johnny? Johnny? Johnny,"

It takes several tries before he finally raises his voice loud enough, and the volume gets turned down.

"Yes, Tae?"

"Are you sure you should be dancing and driving at the same time? That seems kinda unsafe."

Mark sobers up instantly and shoots up in his seat to join Taeil, peeking over Johnny's other shoulder.

"Yo, you can't do that hyung, isn't that against the law?"

"The law only says he can't text and drive," Ten points out. "It doesn't say anything about whether we can or can't praise our queens and saviors Blue Velvet."

"Amen," Jaehyun pipes up.

Johnny suddenly jerks, swatting away Mark. "Ew, so breathing in my ear is a safer alternative?"

"I wasn't breathing in your ear,"

"I know what I felt, Mark!"

Taeil peels his fingers off of the back of the driver's seat and sits back, opting to watch the two tease each other and hope neither of them bring him into this. At least the impromptu dance session is over.

Ten raises his hand in the middle of Mark's point to accuse, "Matter of fact! Someone in this car wasn't singing along, was he?"

All eyes turn to Taeil (he meets Johnny's eyes in the rearview mirror and intentionally shrinks in his seat just so he can't see him).

"Do you not know the lyrics to the one and only Red Flavor?" Jaehyun asks, incredulous and pacing the sentence a little weirdly, like Johnny does at times. That means it's a joke, right?

He scratches his neck and hopes they won't kill him. "I don't...listen to it very...often..."

Everyone gasps in unison, and the car stops at the light more abruptly than at the previous red lights.

"Taeil hyung, we have to fix that," Johnny insists. "Who has the aux cord?"

Ten raises his hand again, holding up his phone as well to show he's plugged in. "I'm feeling Rookie."

"Russian Roulette's way better though," Mark frowns.

"Red Flavor is superior, we were talking about Red Flavor," Jaehyun speaks up.

The car is immediately filled with cries of "Rookie!" "Russian Roulette!" "Red Flavor!" and Johnny honks the car horn briefly to get them to quiet down.

"Sorry, hyung, we're usually more united over our love for Blue Velvet. Were you going to say something?"

Not really, he's mostly wondering how far away this restaurant is. Traffic seems awfully bad considering it's noon on a Saturday.

"No, I'm just listening."

"So if you don't listen to Blue Velvet, who do you listen to? Are you a girl group stan or more of a SPARKLee and Exoplanet guy?"

He's definitely a SPARKLee and Exoplanet kind of guy, but he doesn't feel like exposing himself today, even though the question was completely neutral.

"I like ballads," he says instead. Which is still true, his favorite songs are all ballads.

"Oh." Ten says flatly. "Ballads are good, yeah."

The car is completely silent for the first time, and they all shift slightly in discomfort.

"Maybe you should put on Red Flavor again," Taeil suggests.

"That sounds good, let's do that then."

He assumes Ten put on a Blue Velvet playlist since it isn't long before Mark and Johnny are singing along to Russian Roulette with far more emotion than Taeil ever thought would be possible for a pop song. Jaehyun pulls out his phone to record them just as they come to a stop, parked by a Pizza Hut.

Jaehyun sighs in disappointment and puts his phone away as Taeil laughs, "Maybe next time,"

"Maybe next time," the taller agrees.

As they walk up to the front, Johnny deliberately slacks behind so he can put his arms around Taeil and Jaehyun's shoulders.

"So do you think the guys are already here or are we early?"

"Well, I see Taeyong's car over there and Doyoung's across the parking lot with the freshmen, so I'd say no." Jaehyun says, waving with his entire arm at said group.

"Foiled again," Johnny says wistfully.

He takes his arms off of the two of them to hold open the door, then he's back to guiding them through the booths and tables until they find the others, tables already pushed together. Those already seated (mostly Taeyong, Sicheng, and Yuta) cheer and welcome the five of them to sit down.

"Fancy seeing you here, Taeil." Yuta teases, pulling out a seat for him nonetheless.

He notes that sitting there at the corner also means sitting next to Taeyong, who still intimidates him as hell, but he sits down next to Yuta anyway. Johnny takes the seat next to Taeyong, across from Taeil.

Sicheng leans forward to look around Yuta. "We couldn't find you, so we thought you went home."

"I forgot to text again, didn't I?"

Yuta nods, handing him a menu with a smile. "You forgot to text again, hyung. That's fine though, we're glad you came."

They make small talk as they wait for everyone to show up, occasionally getting texts on the group chat that someone went home instead. Taeil avoids meeting Taeyong's gaze at all costs, playing with his hoodie sleeves (Johnny had let him take the hoodie again once Taeil said he'd carpool with him) and trying to keep up with Yuta and Sicheng's or Johnny's conversations instead.

Of course, talking was probably inevitable.

"I don't think we've really talked before. Taeil, right?"

He nods and finds he still can't keep eye contact for longer than a few seconds at a time.

"I'm Taeyong, nice to meet you."

His smile is friendlier than Taeil expected, and it reminds him of how much...less scary he looked when he introduced himself to the team on the first day of practice. It's a little easier to look at him now.

"Nice to meet you too."

"So is this your first year on the team?"

"Yeah, I haven't ever swam before so everything's very new to me."

Taeyong's jaw drops a little, reminding Taeil of those cute, shocked emoticons he sees online sometimes. He really misjudged what Taeyong is like, didn't he?

"Really? You haven't been on a summer team or anything?"

"No, this is my first time."

"Wow, that's great! What made you decide to join so suddenly?"

Taeil hesitates a little. Come to think of it, telling a captain--who most likely genuinely loves the sport--that he joined just for money probably isn't the best idea, but he caves anyway, even though it's probably a little insulting to hear.

"Well, I was hoping I could get a scholararship," he admits. "And I wanted to spend more time with Yuta and Sichengie."

Taeyong nods, playing with the corners of a menu. "A scholarship? I haven't heard of someone joining for that before. University's expensive though," he says, frowning sympathetically. "I get what you mean. But I'm glad you get to spend more time with your friends! Hopefully you'll make a lot of friends, too,"

Johnny happens to catch his eye just in time to send him a wink, smiling as Taeil just stares back in surprise.

He forces himself to snap out of it and turn back to the other captain. "Right, right. Hopefully,"

After that, the pizza arrives and conversations don't feel as hard as they did earlier. He talks to Yuta and Sicheng the most, of course, but he also talks to Johnny and his friends, and he and Taeyong exchange comments from time to time too.

It's been an hour or two when Ten exclaims, "So! Filthy Americans and Canadian, respectively: give us an authentic pizza review,"

"Hm...well, generally in Canada, we don't put corn on our pizza, but this is pretty good!" Mark speaks through a bite of pizza, pointing at his slice. "Maybe like a nine out of ten?"

"Absolutely wrong," Johnny interjects. "As a native from Chicago, this is a solid eight, even ignoring that this is not a deep dish pizza. The crust is a little chewy and it's lacking that Chicago pinache,"

"I thought it was pretty good," Jaehyun mumbles.

"Wait, you're from Chicago?" Taeil asks.

"The one and only," Johnny grins. "Why?"

"I dunno, you never really mentioned it so I thought you were from here,"

Mark and Jaehyun exchange a glance and return to their pizza, seemingly backing out of the conversation. Ten looks unsatisfied with the reviews, sipping his soda shadily and bringing up his phone.

"I'm just surprised I haven't mentioned it around you before, I never shut up about Chicago. America may have a lot of flaws but Chicago,"--he pauses to kiss his fingers like a chef--"Beautiful."

"What's it like?"

Johnny's eyes take on a warm glow and he starts with, "Well, it's cold and windy, for one," as though it was the most amazing thing in the world and not a facet most people would find bad or annoying. The more he talks--or rather, rambles--the warmer and warmer his expression is and the bigger his gestures get, almost knocking into Taeyong at one point.

"Wow, he's in an even bigger Chicago mood than usual," Jaehyun teases. "You don't see me talk about Conneticut like that,"

Johnny lightly shoves his shoulder in retaliation, still looking at Taeil. "Sorry, I can stop now if you want."

"No, no, it's fine. I think I learned a lot,"

A bright grin spreads across his face again. "Okay, that's good then."

Taeil's driven halfway home before he realizes he's still in Johnny's hoodie.

...He'll return it Monday.

a/n: happy chapter ten! :v ten may not have been the star of this chapter but he's still the star of our hearts so that's ok