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The Pride float had been designed for maybe twelve people. There were currently sixteen idols, two gigantic speakers, enough glitter to possibly violate multiple environmental laws… And exactly one collective brain cell, of which the owner was yet to be found.
Changbin looked around at the increasingly dooming situation, half of the group was dancing, while others were arguing over who stole the last rainbow flag. Even the leaders of both groups had given up trying to control the situation.
"Who thought putting all of us together was a good idea?" Changbin asked, staring at the increasingly crowded float.
"The same person who wants to watch the world burn," Hongjoong replied without missing a beat as he tried to untangle a rainbow boa from the DJ equipment.
Meanwhile, Felix had cornered Minho. There was no more escape.
“No.”
“Yes.” Felix grinned.
“NO.”
“But you’d look so adorable, hyung!”
“I don’t want to look adorable. I am not adorable!”
“Yes, you are!” Felix smiled, giving his best puppy eyes.
“Now that’s just mean…” Minho sighed as he slowly gave in.
"Hyung, hold still."
"I am holding still!"
"No, you just moved." Felix answered as he continued braiding tiny rainbow ribbons into Minho’s hair.
“This is bullying.” Minho sighed dramatically.
“It’s called self-expression.”
Growing desperate, Minho looked toward the only person who should have been on his side.
"Jisung-ah, please help me out here."
Jisung looked up from where he was eating a rainbow-colored waffle he’d somehow acquired from somewhere.
"Nah," he smirked. "It looks kinda cute."
Minho stared at him in betrayal. “Traitor.”
“I support gay rights.” Jisung shrugged.
“I AM GAY.”
“I know.”
“THEN HELP.”
‘Hmm, no.” Jisung shook his head.
Felix finished the final braid with a big smile. “There!”
Minho reached up to feel it, checking it out in the mirror. “It looks… fine.”
“Oh, he likes it!” Felix gasped.
“No, I didn’t say that.”
“You’re also not trying to take it out yet.” Jisung pointed out.
“Shut up…” Minho muttered as he slowly lowered his hand.
“Oh my god!” Hyunjin yelped as he appeared out of nowhere., making everyone turn towards him.
“Lixie, angel.”
“What?”
“Minho-hyung is matching you!”
Felix blinked as he looked back at Minho, realizing that their hairstyles were now, indeed matching.
“Couple goals!” Hyunjin sniffled.
“Ye- HEY!” Han looked at Hyunjin.
“Wait… Aren’t Hyunjin and Felix like a thing?” Yunho asked confused.
“Yeah…” Seungmin sighed.
“So why is he calling Felix and Minho’s hairstyles couples goals?”
“Because he’s paboracha’s leader” Seungmin shrugged.
“Got it” Yunho nodded.
“We do match…” Felix smiled brightly as Minho quietly tried to hide the fact that his ears had turned bright red, which, Jisung absolutely noticed.
“So…”
“No.”
“You look cute, hyung.”
“I hate you.” Minho muttered.
“You love me.”
“Unfortunately.” Minho sighed deeply.
At the other side of the float, Wooyoung had found his newest victim, San, as he held up a pair of obnoxiously oversized heart-shaped rainbow sunglasses.
“Wear them.”
“Okay.” San shrugged.
“That’s it?” Wooyoung blinked slowly.
“You asked.”
“And you’re not gonna complain whatsoever?” Wooyoung narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“I trust your fashion sense.”
“Oh you really shouldn’t!” Hongjoong laughed from across the float.
Wooyoung ignored him as he carefully placed the sunglasses on San’s face before stepping back.
"Be honest." Wooyoung said, "You look amazing."
"I always do." San winks as he checks his reflection in his phone camera.
“Ah, that’s so true.” Wooyoung answers, dramatically placing his hand over his heart before kissing San, quick and sweet.
Unfortunately, nothing involving Wooyoung could remain normal, especially when the crowd started reacting.
“KISS AGAIN!” someone started chanting, causing Wooyoung to bow.
“I think they like us.” San looked genuinely pleased with himself.
“They do have excellent taste.” Wooyoung grinned before kissing him again.
Meanwhile, Hongjoong had lost Seonghwa.
“Hwa?”
No answer.
“Star?”
Still nothing.
“He escaped…” Hongjoong sighed.
Chan frowned deeply. “How does Seonghwa keep disappearing? That dude is huge…”
“No one knows how he does it.” Hongjoon shrugs.
Just then, someone walked past, wearing about fourteen rainbow flower crowns. Hongjoong squinted.
“Hwa?”
“Oh, there you are!” Seonghwa smiled as he removed one of the crown to place it on Hongjoong’s head instead. “I’m glad you found me.”
“I only got eyes for you, star. Plus, you glitter, a lot…”
Seonghwa looked down at his outfit and chuckled. “Yeah… That’s fair…”
“Come on…” Hongjoong smiled as he grabbed his hand. “Let’s go back before another float adopts you.”
Once back on the float, Chan clapped his hands.
“Alright, roll call!”
“Here!” Felix called out.
“Yep!” Hyunjin raised his hand.
“Mhm.”
“Still alive!” Jisung chimed in.
“What about Mingi?” Hongjoong asked.
Everyone looked around in silence.
“Great,” Chan blinked. “We lost another one… At least it’s not my kids wandering off this time.”
“No one knows where Mingi is?” San asked.
A loud crash echoed from the opposite end of the float making everyone turn around. The Pride banner shook violently, a speaker wobbled, and someone screamed. Then Mingi emerged from behind the collapsed banner, covered in feathers of boas, and holding a bubble machine he somehow got his hands on.
"I'm okay!" He called out.
“How…” Yunho shook his head with a soft chuckle as he goes to remove the feathers from Mingi’s hair.
“I found bubbles!”
Chan pinched the bridge of his nose while Hongjoong looked toward the sky as if searching for strength.
“What even happened?” Jongho asked.
“I had to sneeze…”
“And?”
“I fell…” Mingi answers sheepishly.
“… and?”
“The banner decided to attack me.”
“You know, that sounds legit.”
“No.” Hongjoong shook his head. “No it does not.”
The float finally started moving again. Music was blasting as the crowd screamed their names. Withing five minutes, Wooyoung had decided to climb the safety railing.
“WOOYOUNG!” San shouted.
“Look Sannie, I’m flying!”
“YOU’RE FALLING!”
San casually grabbed the back of his shirt before gravity could take over, while Wooyoung kept dancing like nothing had even happened in the first place.
“My hero, you saved me.” He smiled at San, kissing him once more.
Hyunjin spotted Felix fixing one of Minho’s braids and immediately pulled out his phone.
“Oh, this is the perfect blackmail material.”
“No, those are memories.” Felix corrected.
“It’s evidence!” Minho lunged as Hyunjin dodged effortlessly.
“You’ll never catch me!”
Not even five seconds later, Hyunjin ran into Changbin, who held him.
“Found him!”
“God, I have been betrayed!” Hyunjin slumps dramatically.
By the end of the parade,
Wooyoung had stolen multiple flags,
San had accidentally become a mascot after kids kept asking for pictures because of the sunglasses.
Felix had somehow convinced Minho to keep the ribbons in.
Hyunjin took about eighty-seven pictures.
Chan and Hongjoong both had developed a stress headache as they stood at the front of the float, watching fourteen grown men collectively behave like they had been left unsupervised in a craft store.
“You know…” Hongjoong sighed.
“What?” Chan looked over.
“I think the person who organized this owes us compensation.”
Chan laughed. “For what?”
Hongjoong gestured vaguely behind him at Wooyoung and San, and Hyunjin and Felix who were making out, Minho and Jisung who were arguing over whether matching hairstyles counted as flirting or not, and Mingi somehow, accidentally setting off the bubble machine directly into the speakers.
“Emotionaly damages? Welcome to my life.” I.N chuckled
Another loud crash echoed behind them.
“I’m okay!” Mingi shouted again.
“We both are!” Changbin added.
Hongjoong didn’t even turn around anymore, just rubbing his temples as he answers. “I’m starting to believe you less every single time you say that…”
“I’m retiring.” Chan sighed.
“You said that after rehearsal yesterday, too.” Changbin reminded him.
“I meant it then too.”
A few meters away, Hongjoong finally let himself collapse onto an empty chair. His legs ached, his throat hurt from yelling over the music, and there was glitter in places glitter should never even reach.
“Long day?” Someone asked as he closed his eyes for a moment.
He didn’t even have to look up to know who it was. Seonghwa stood beside him, already holding out a bottle of water which Hongjoong accepted with a tired smile.
“You’re a lifesaver.”
“Don’t I know it.” Seonghwa smiled as he unscrewed the cap for him.
Hongjoong laughed quietly before taking slow sips, feeling peaceful for the first time all day.
“WHO TOOK MY BUBBLE MACHINE?!” Mingi shouted in the distance.
“I think Yunho took it!” Yeosang yelled back.
“FOUND IT!”
“Well that peace lasted long…” Hongjoong sighed.
Seonghwa chuckled before gently brushing a piece of glitter from Hongjoong’s cheek.
“You missed about five thousand others… We’ll be finding glitter everywhere for months.”
“Probably.” Seonghwa nodded.
“I swear I’ve aged like ten years today…”
“Only ten?”
“Maybe twenty.”
“Yeah, that sounds more accurate.” Seonghwa agreed as he stepped between Hongjoong’s legs with a soft smile. Without asking, he rested his hands on Hongjoong's shoulders.
"Tense?"
"Very."
His thumbs pressed gently into the knots at the base of Hongjoong's neck, causing him to make a sound that was embarrassingly close to a whine.
"...Don't laugh."
"I wasn't going to."
"Ooof..." Hongjoong let his head fall forward as Seonghwa continued kneading the tight muscles in his shoulders.
"There it is."
"What?"
"The sound you make when you stop pretending you're not exhausted."
"I don't make a sound."
"You absolutely do."
"I have dignity."
Seonghwa raised an eyebrow. "You spent twenty minutes today chasing Wooyoung with a feather boa."
"...That was leadership."
"You were also wearing a glittery cowboy hat."
“Also leadership…” Hongjoong asked.
Seonghwa couldn't hold back his laugh this time, Hongjoong smiled despite himself. The massage continued in comfortable silence.
The noise of the others faded into the background. Wooyoung's unmistakable cackle, Felix's camera shutter, Jisung complaining that Minho had stolen his water, Mingi insisting the bubble machine had "chosen" Yunho…
It all sounded distant.
For once, Hongjoong wasn't trying to keep track of everyone.
He was just... Still.
"You did well today." Seonghwa leaned down, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of his head.
Hongjoong let out a slow breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "...Thanks."
Another kiss, this one against his temple.
"You don't have to supervise them every second."
"I know."
"You still will."
"...Probably."
"I'll help."
Hongjoong looked up at him. "You always do."
Seonghwa smiled, that warm, impossibly gentle smile that somehow cut through even the worst kind of exhaustion.
"Come on."
"What now?"
"The others are trying to take one last group photo."
Hongjoong groaned dramatically. “Do I have to?”
"You'll regret it if you don't."
"...Will Mingi still have the bubble machine?"
"I can almost guarantee it."
Hongjoong sighed, standing with Seonghwa's help.
"I've made peace with the fact that this is my life."
Seonghwa intertwined their fingers as they walked back toward the others. "You say that every event."
"And every event somehow gets worse.”
Behind them, Chan shouted, "MINGI, DON'T POINT THE BUBBLES AT THE CAMERA!"
A chorus of laughter erupted as the photographer gave up entirely. Hongjoong looked at the scene, then at Seonghwa.
"...Maybe not worse."
Seonghwa squeezed his hand.
"Just louder."
“Yeah…” Hongjoong smiled.