ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬-𝗧𝗪𝗢
─◌✰್ 𝖻𝖾
❝𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗽𝗹𝗲. 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼 𝗶 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵...?❞

You had never struggled to sleep like this before.

It wasn't the bed, that had been clear the first time you laid down. Renee and Robin weren't snoring, which was a relief. There were no lights on, no other noises.

Were you some kind of princess and the pea?

No, of course not. You were quite the deep sleeper. Once, one of Kai's friends had broken your bedroom window with a rock, and you'd just kept on sleeping, glass coating your blankets. No, tonight your mind was preoccupied by something so distracting, you couldn't fall asleep to save your life.

The damn room assignments.

You weren't sure why you gave a shit about them, but you couldn't stop picking apart each group of people, trying to figure out why Yeonjun had paired them together. And you couldn't come up with anything that made even a bit of sense.

Fuck it.

Glancing over at your sleeping friends, you decided you might as well make your lack of sleep productive. You pushed your warm blankets off you, and stood up. Maybe a little walk around the mansion would do you some good, tire your brain out. Then you could come back, and sleep properly. You were so tired of closing your eyes, and your thoughts forcing you awake.

You crept out of your room, closing the door as quietly as you could behind you.

Without thinking about where you were going, your legs carried you down the stairs, until you were standing outside the lounge. Maybe you just needed to be in the room where Yeonjun had given the room assignments to figure out what the hell was going on.

You pushed the door open with much less care than you had with your bedroom door. Surely no one would be awake at such an early hour?

But you were given the scare of your life when you almost ran face-first into an exhausted Lee Minho. He was standing in the doorway, like he was about to leave.

"Oh!" Your pulse quickened at the sight of him, and you backed up to let him out. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you." You ducked your head, not wanting to make eye contact.

You hadn't been the nicest to him that afternoon. And while you still didn't forgive him for humiliating you in front of everyone a few days ago, you might just feel the teensiest bit bad about snapping at him about Alaska. It wasn't fair of you. You had promised yourself you'd be the bigger person.

Minho stared at you, the shock on his face mirroring yours. "No, no come on in!" he exclaimed with a shaky smile as he stepped further into the room.

"You weren't about to leave?" You raised an eyebrow cautiously. You didn't want to intrude, or ruin his night. Besides, hadn't you wanted some peace and quiet for yourself, too?

"Ah, well I was, but I don't mind staying," he chuckled softly. "I can't sleep anyways, and I wouldn't mind having company. If you're okay with that, of course."

You nodded slowly, following him in and sitting on the chair across from the loveseat. You weren't sure you were ready to sit on that thing with him again.

Minho watched you carefully, before taking a spot in the loveseat by himself.

After a nervous silence, he finally said, "you couldn't sleep either, I assume?"

You shrugged. "Nah, my brain won't shut the fuck up."

"You're always thinking, aren't you?" he mused.

"Yeah..." you trailed off, unsure of what to say, and the two of you lapsed into silence once more. You sat there, rubbing your hands together nervously, brain going haywire over the combination of your thoughts, and the surprise of Minho appearing out of nowhere.

"S-so, what do you think about the room assignments?" you blurted, both to fill the silence and because you couldn't help yourself.

Minho frowned, crossing one leg over the other as he thought. "I'm not so sure," he began. "They do seem weird, don't they?"

You nodded. "Yeah, they do. Why do you think you were paired with Hyunjin and Seungmin?"

"It could have been random..." He eyed you for a moment, before adding, "but you think that he did it on purpose, don't you?"

You shrugged, trying to be covert. "I really have no idea. I just can't stop thinking about it."

He chuckled and shook his head. "I'm not surprised. But I trust you. What conclusions have you come to with that big brain of yours?"

Despite yourself, you found your lips turning up at the corners. You forced yourself to stop smiling. What the hell were you doing, being charmed by him, again? That couldn't happen. You pushed yourself to think about the room assignments.

"Well, I have a weird theory that Yeonjun knows way more than he's letting on," you began. "That he might know secrets about us, and he's trying to use our room assignments to get more secrets to come to light. Does that make any sense?"

Minho nodded slowly. "I think it makes a lot of sense, actually."

You wrinkled your nose. "Okay, what do you know that I don't?"

A smile lit his face, and your cheeks warmed at the sight. He looked so handsome like this, half-swathed in the moonlight filtering through the window, a sarcastically amused expression gracing his features. That was the Minho you knew, and you were coming to realize you had gravely missed it.

"Why would you think I'm hiding something from you?" he challenged.

You rolled your eyes, trying not to smile back. "Because I can read you like an open book, Lee Minho."

He sat forward in his seat, that glint in his eyes again. "Okay, what if I told you when I was hanging out with Chris and Jisung, they both spilled some information that I think might be really important?"

You tucked your legs underneath you, glancing around for a blanket. It was a little cold in this huge mansion, and since you only wore a pair of skimpy sleep shorts and a tank top, you were close to shivering.

Minho must have noticed your lack of clothing at the same time as you, because his eyes flickered down to your body, lingering on your chest and hips for much longer than was natural.

Was he... checking you out?

You pushed the thought from your mind. Minho, the guy who had rejected your advances countless times and even crushed on your friend, would never check you out. You needed to get your head out of your ass, and start asking the important questions.

"Okay, what did they both say??" you demanded, heart racing at his perusal.

Minho glanced back up at you slowly, as if he wasn't the slight bit embarrassed at getting caught staring at your tits.

"Well, we were talking about girls, typical guy stuff. And after they were done grilling me about you, Chris finally admitted what was going on with Riley. He said that they were really close as kids, but something happened, and Riley won't talk to him anymore."

"Did he say what happened?" you questioned.

"He said it had to do with family. Apparently, they might have gotten married, kind of like Alaska and Felix. But obviously that didn't happen. I'm not really sure what any of that means, but it felt like a secret. It was obvious he'd never told anyone before."

"Well, okay then, what happened with Jisung?" You changed topics. None of what Minho was saying made any sense. Why would Riley and Chris have gotten married? And since when had they been friends?

"I think you're gonna like what he had to say a lot more." Minho grinned at you. "He said that his family is making him do something that he doesn't want to do. And even though I failed to get him to tell us what they were making him do, it sounds like whatever it is, he's gonna do it here, at the mansion."

"He said that??" you exclaimed incredulously. There was no way they hadn't been on camera. Would he really say something as crazy as that on live television? That would probably send off major red flags.

Unlike right now. It felt really nice being alone with anyone - even if it was Minho. It felt like you could say anything to him. And you weren't sure how that made you feel.

Minho shook his head. "No, he didn't say anything when we asked him. Actually, he sort of shut down. But I know he's a terrible liar, so I think we can connect the dots. Whatever he's up to, his parents are making him do it this month."

You sat on your feet, scooting closer to Minho, who was already sat so far forward he was practically falling off the loveseat.

"So we need to figure out what he's doing, as soon as possible," you said, heart racing. "It could be something bad, couldn't it? After I heard Robin's parents say something about death, I knew it couldn't be good."

"Do you think Jisung is going to kill Robin?" Minho asked, brows furrowed.

"He wouldn't, would he?"

Minho shrugged. "I think I'm coming to the realization that I know nothing about either of my 'friends' anymore."

"Well, I'm rooming with Robin, so I'll try and find out anything I can about her, and how much she knows," you pondered. "If she doesn't know what Jisung is up to, she could be in danger."

"And I'll try and talk to Jisung and Chris some more," Minho offered. "I don't know how much Jisung will tell me, but he's more comfortable with us than anyone else."

"And you'll try and get more info on Chris too?" you prodded. "I know we don't know as much about his and Riley's situation, but it could be important too."

Minho cracked a smile, rolling his eyes. "Yeah yeah, I'll find out more about that too."

You nodded at him, pursing your lips in order not to smile back. But something that he'd said earlier still stuck in your mind, and you couldn't help but blurt out, "Why were they grilling you about me?"

Minho stiffened, eyes shifting back and forth as he refused to meet your gaze. "What?"

You frowned, studying his face. He was evading your questions. "You heard me, Mr. Lee. What were they saying about me? What were you saying about me?"

He sighed, resting his head on his hand. "They were asking about our wedding, and how I felt about it, nothing big. They were just being guys, ya know?"

"Oh?" Your eyes widened. So everyone was talking about your wedding now. Everyone probably either felt bad for you, or thought you were trying to steal the Obsidian throne.

But you didn't really care what they thought. You only cared about one person's opinion on your wedding.

"And... what did you say? About the wedding?"

Minho stared so hard at the carpet, he might laser through it. "I mean, it was a bit of a surprise. I couldn't tell them much, with the cameras there."

"Okay, well the cameras aren't here," you challenged. "What would you say to them now?"

He opened his mouth, then shut it again, as he tried to think of something to say. "I would have told them... that I felt like it was a long time coming. But that I don't know you very well anymore."

You stared at him, blood roaring in your ears. What was he saying? "A long time coming"? You'd been waiting since you were six years old, and he'd always shown negative signs of interest. If it was indeed a long time coming, you wouldn't have seen it from a football-field away.

"Why would you say that?" Was all you could muster.

Minho shrugged, shoulders slumped. He looked uncharacteristically uncomfortable, nervous even. You weren't sure what he was thinking about, or what he wanted to say.

But nothing you would have guessed could have prepared you for what came out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry, Tessa. For everything that's happened. It might have sounded like I was talking about Alaska during that stupid secrets game, and I-" For the first time since you started talking, he met your eyes with an earnest gaze.

"And were you?" You stared back at him, shocked. There had been so many times that all you'd wished was for him to say those words. But now... you weren't sure.

His gaze cut away from yours, back to the floor. "I'm not sure anymore," he echoed your thoughts.

You bit your bottom lip, glad to break eye contact. This was too intense, making you feel things - real things - that you weren't sure you were fully ready to feel.

He wasn't sure. A smile ghosted across your lips as you stared at your hands. You still had so many questions but...

"You don't need to apologize. I forgive you."

laska's note —
no words 😭 absolutely no words. i love scenes like this, and i hope i was able to it a unique spin on it for you! tessho is becoming one of my fave ships, they just get each other so well, and they're both very deep, while also being able to be silly. and now, they're finally connecting. a mix between going back to their original friendship and potentially becoming something new. i can't wait to hopefully see them blossom into something! but just know that this pier story is far from over, and there's so much more to come 😉 give me your thoughts in the comments, because i've still got a bunch of fun planned!

𝖭𝖤𝖷𝖳 𝖴𝖯：
𝟮𝟯 - 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗻
┊ ⇄ ◁◁ II ▷▷ ↻ ┊