Chris's words finally broke our trance-y state and we all attacked Do-hyun who was still frozen in the middle of the room at the same time. I was the first to reach him and grabbed him to a tight hug and whispered three simple words into his ear: "Good job, hyung."

That made him finally loosen up. A wide grin spread to his lips. He only had time to flash me that quick smile before the rest of them reached us and pulled us both into a tight group hug though. I didn’t mind—that little gesture Do showed me and me only, had already started to mean the world.

Gosh, I was whipped. Luckily today I would be able to show it at little. Later in the evening, but still. Not that I wouldn’t regret everything after—seriously if I remembered correctly, the hangover following a big live concert was much greater than any hangover caused by alcohol.

But I had to save the agonizing until later, since we were supposed to get going fairly soon. When everyone else finally realized it, too, it was basically a big hassle. Everyone yelled on top of each other; Tae yelling instructions, Joonie about the schedule and stage outfits, Jiwoo shouting something about calming down… None of us listened. 

It took us a long while to chill out.

“I shouldn't have told you anything,” Noona said, now rubbing her temple in a tired manner. “I forgot how chaotic y’all are.”

“Oh please, you brought this on yourself,” Joonie said, walking over to our liquor shelf with his hips swaying a bit more than usual. “Now, how about some celebratory champagne?” he continued, grabbing a bottle off the said shelf.

“Why not,” Chris shrugged, already scurrying off to the kitchen part of the open space to grab us glasses. 

“Absolutely not!” Tae said, eyeing us all in turns disappointed. “We have one of our most important gigs tonight!”

Joonie rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, it’s not like we’re gonna get drunk from one little glass.”

I turned my eyes to Tae while grabbing a glass from Chris. I did want to have a drink to celebrate, but I certainly wasn’t going to go against Tae. I had to be on his good side. He was my way out of the difficult situation with Do-hyun, after all. 

Thankfully Tae could never say no to Joonie if he insisted on something. Thus, he nodded stiffly, giving up. 

“Yuss, it’s settled then,” Jiwoo cheered and grabbed a glass from Chris as well. 

Joonie started to fill up the glasses and surprisingly enough, Tae took a glass, too. Hypocrite. Then again he rarely ever consumed any alcohol, so I decided to let it go. So did anyone else and we raised our glasses.

“To a successful comeback!” Jiwoo said, while the rest of us replied almost on top of her with, “Geonbae!”

After that, Tae decided we should go over the whole evening one more time. Not that we didn’t remember it, but it was supposed to be calming. So we agreed and gathered around the kitchen’s bar table. It didn’t take us long and soon noona ushered us to get moving. 

There was a white, luxurious limo waiting for us downstairs. 

Somehow, I ended up sitting between Tae and Do-hyun in the middle. Aish, it was almost like I was sitting between my ex and the new guy—if the fanservice pairings would’ve been real, that is. 

To make matters even worse, Tae noticed my mint-colored bracelet. 

“Nice touch,” he said, nodding towards my wrist, winking. “You don’t happen to have another? We’d match.”

“Well, it’s braided, so I could undo it and give one strand to you,” I said, shrugging.

“Really?” Tae said, almost too enthusiastically. “Then what are you waiting for?” 

I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he serious? 

Do-hyun also reached over me to glance at Tae. “Wait, you two aren’t serious with this Mint thing, are you?”

“Why not?” Chris hollered from the back, laughing. “Let’s change things up a bit. You be the lonely guy for once, I’ll be with Joonie…” he continued, circling his arm around a giggling Joonie. “...and Tae gets Minjae.”

“Oh really, well how about the ship between Joonie and Tae then?” Do-hyun countered.

“We’re good,” Joonie replied, laughing. “Ain’t we, honey?” He then boldly proceeded to ask Tae with a wink. 

Tae sent him a flying kiss back. They had always been more comfortable with the whole fanservice thing than me and Do had ever been. The fans had declared them to be the “eomma and appa” of GRiD, even. For a brief moment I felt like a homewrecker, before reminding myself of the fact that for the rest of them, all the ships were totally fake.

I rolled my eyes. “Calm down, everyone. It’s a damn bracelet.”

“Minjae’s right, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Tae said.

“Ugh, I don’t like any of this,” Do-hyun muttered but calmed down nevertheless. 

I, however, was so annoyed at Do at that point that I did start to unbraid the bracelet. Who was he getting pissed at everyone over just some fucking fanservice, acting as if it was way bigger of a deal. That shit was dangerous to my heart.

Wordlessly, I proceeded to tie the detached cord on Tae’s hand. 

No one dared to say anything—well, Tae did wink at me. I smiled.