"James..."

A tired groan from Juhoon travels through the room, landing on the boy whose phone screen is still shining bright despite the way midnight is staring right at him.

They had just gotten back from a long flight from Japan two hours ago. Everyone was undoubtedly exhausted, their luggage still neatly packed in the living room. Five suitcases sat next to each other, lined up one by one, showing that their owners hadn't even bothered taking their things out yet.

Right now, Cortis' only priority was their beds - their sweet, sweet rectangular gates to heaven tonight.

"Just 15 minutes. I have something to check. You go to sleep."

James said while his eyes could barely stay open. In the darkness of the room, only his phone screen provided light, perhaps even brighter than the moon outside tonight.

The reason?

Simple.

He didn't know how to enable the website's dark mode.

Or, more truthfully: he was too lazy to look it up, despite having used the website for years.

Nighttime was when his secret interest could finally bloom and have its way.

He was usually never awake this late. Being an idol meant sleep was something he had to manage carefully. He tried his best to sleep whenever he could, or else he would never get enough. So he always made sure to do whatever he needed beforehand.

For example:

Read whatever he wanted to read before sleeping.

Tonight was a rare exception.

His favorite fanfic from three years ago got an update.

Not some announcement.

An actual chapter.

Who could resist rereading everything all over again?

He might not look like it, but adrenaline completely took over his brain the moment he saw that notification.

He told himself it would only be a quick 15 minutes.

But it had already been an hour since he said that.

"Go to sleep soon. I can't fight the sleep angel anymore..."

- 1 player has fallen asleep. Juhoon has been defeated.

"Hmm."

A tiny sound escaped James' lips before he completely forgot about their short conversation and returned to being absorbed in the story.

He didn't remember exactly when it started, but the moment it happened, it became an important part of his life.

Not many people noticed this, but fanfiction actually teaches you things. How to think, how to understand social interactions, what to expect from relationships, and sometimes even gives advice.

He didn't know what he would have become if he had never discovered this side of the internet.

The fic itself wasn't anything dramatic.

No action scenes.

No grand love confession.

Nothing grand.

It was simply the interactions between his two favorite characters as they secretly developed a crush for each other through letters.

And somehow, that alone was enough to make him squeeze his poor pillow and tug at his favorite worn-out shirt like his life depended on it.

Nothing extraordinary.

Those two people were enough to make him lose his mind.

Oh no...

The screen was blurry now.

His body was fighting back, screaming for rest.

He dropped his phone onto the bed carelessly, surrendering to his natural instincts, and fell into a deep sleep.

More accurately, he completely passed out because he was too tired to even stretch himself out of his shrimpy position.

Tomorrow was a rare day off.

He would be fine.

---

"It's because I love you, dumbass. I love you so much that my heart aches whenever I meet your gaze. Every flower I see is just you smiling in a different way, and the scent of-"

"...fried eggs?"

What?

Fuck you mean fried eggs-

James suddenly sat upright with the most obvious confused expression ever.

"What the fuck?"

He said it while his nose slowly regained its power, finally sensing something in the air.

Something was coming from the kitchen.

Someone was cooking.

Five guys living together and someone actually making food?

Now that was something worthy of being on the news.

The realization hit him, snapping him out of his confusion.

Lazily getting up, with his hair somehow sticking up in every direction, his eyes barely open, his shirt completely wrinkled, and his body dragging itself toward the bathroom-

That was our beloved James.

---

Meanwhile, Martin was making breakfast for himself, for James, for Juhoon.

Nothing too complicated: sunny-side-up eggs, a couple slices of toasted sourdough, and some cherry tomatoes.

Simple enough for an 18-year-old boy to handle without making a mess in the kitchen.

He was actually very proud of his work.

In fact, dancing to some music while cooking was surprisingly therapeutic in the morning.

Except...

It wasn't morning.

It was 11 AM.

Despite being an unusual time to call it breakfast, it was understandable.

They got home at 10 PM, took some time to settle down, and before they knew it, exhaustion caught up with them. They ended up waking when the sun was already bored of the day.

Sean and Keonho had already gone out the door at 9, claiming they had somewhere important to be.

Only the three oldest members remained in their beds.

By the time James came out of the bathroom, three plates were already neatly placed on the table.

Martin looked at him with a smug expression.

"How's that? Master chef cooking isn't something you get to see every day for breakfast."

"Yeah, breakfast at 11. You tripping?."

James chuckled slightly as he said it.

He sat down on the opposite side of the table, letting the younger two sit together.

And then-

Lo and behold.

The mighty phone returned to his hands.

This time, not for fanfiction.

Even though he really wanted to.

He simply scrolled through TikTok on his personal account, one he had created back in 2019.

His social media accounts belonged to someone who was chronically online.

Almost everything you could possibly watch had appeared on his FYP at least once.

His interests could mainly be divided into three things:

Novels and manga.

Memes.

And weird POV videos.

For example:

POV: You're a fairy trapped in a jar.

Or:

"KDJ has child-bearing hips omg."

Maybe Coconut Wadah.

And very, very rarely-

K-pop.

He was certain that if anyone ever discovered the account belonged to him, they would gaslight themselves into refusing to believe it.

Because what kind of idol was this?

He was more like an average reader.

The things he reposted were ridiculous, random, and hilarious. Some of them dated all the way back to 2019, making the account look like it belonged to a completely normal person.

Today, something caught his eye.

An edited video of Martin with Juhoon sitting on his shoulders while dancing to RedRed from the sleep party show.

Cute background music played over the clip. Martin's hands rested securely on Juhoon's thighs, while Jju's focused expression made the whole thing look strangely adorable.

Juhoon was wearing soft pastel yellow pajamas, making him look even gentler.

A thought suddenly crossed James' mind.

They look kind of cute together.

I ship.

Wish there was something to read about them, haha.

Then it hit him.

THERE IS SOMETHING TO READ.

Think about it.

Everything made sense.

They had debuted for quite some time.

They had enough fans.

They were all attractive.

There would definitely be something.

If not a lot of them.

I'm sorry my baby brothers but I must.

Anime is getting quite boring these days.

Heh

---

His face immediately lit up.

He saved the video and put his phone down, quickly finishing his food.

Across the table, Martin picked something off Juhoon's cheek.

Probably some bread crumbs from the sourdough.

Because apparently Juhoon couldn't find where the crumbs were himself even after Martin had already pointed them out twice.

Doing it himself was simply more efficient.

Hence the scene.

This was dangerous.

James stared at them as excitement rushed through his brain with absolutely no resistance.

"Huh?"

Juhoon looked confused.

Why was his hyung staring like that?

Was a crumb on someone's face really that fascinating these days?

"No, nothing. My eyes just feel comfortable in this direction."

James quickly made up an excuse and shifted his attention back to his food.

"Just leave the dishes there. I'll take care of it in a bit."

After finally finishing, James stood up and placed his plate in the sink.

"Sure-"

Martin didn't even finish his sentence before James crashed onto the couch and curled himself into a shrimp again.

Martin stared.

What suddenly got him this excited?

"Now, let's see..."

James mumbled after sinking deeper into the soft couch, opening the holy ground of the internet.

AO3.

He began by searching his group's name:

Cortis.

Around 4,000 results appeared.

Oh.

There were more than he expected.

Most of them were about the 09 twinski.

Now Martin with one of them.

Juhoon with one of them.

...

He had actually read some of them before continuing his search for what he really wanted.

Surprisingly, he was mostly the funny and unhinged support brother in those stories.

And honestly?

He was happy with that role.

He finished two twinski one-shots before finally finding what he was looking for.

Marhoon.

Aha.

A pretty little fanfic.

Come to papa.

Hi there! Took me awhile to write but here you go. I write whatever comes to mind so the story might be a mess tho. The comments really helped! Knowing that a lot of people are waiting for me to publish a chapter really motivated me when the thought of just abandoning it like the fic before happens to appear.

So yeah, thank you for reading! Comments helps push the chapters out faster so don't be shy. I read every single one of the comments, don't worry!

Bai bai 😋❤️