Archive of Our Own

It started, like most things tend to do in their dorm, with a prank. Honestly, it was one of the more mild pranks they played on one another. With eight boys sharing a two bedroom dorm unit, pranks were bound to be plentiful. They did their best to keep their pranks harmless— they never messed with assignments or things with a due date, tried not to cause any monetary damage, and respected when one of their roommates were emotionally high strung and did not mess with them until their stressors had passed. 

This particular prank was the product of combined masterminds, Minho and Jeongin, and three days without any of their roommates due to the happy coincidence where nearly everyone chose to use their three-day weekend to go home and visit their families. The only other one besides the two who had chosen to stay in town was Chan, who had taken the severe lack of overprotective friends in his immediate vicinity to seclude himself in one of the campus recording studios and work himself into exhaustion. 

Of course, seeing as Minho and Jeongin were neither completely evil nor oblivious, his plans backfired for the most part when they dragged him home each night. The thing was, however, that Chan, along with Changbin, shared a bedroom with the masterminds in question, so, for three days, the ‘00 line’s bedroom remained... unoccupied. 

Seungmin was the first to return on Sunday night. He took two steps into his bedroom before sighing heavily and backing out, ignoring the cackling of Minho and Jeongin from the sofa as he made his way to the other bedroom. 

“I’m sleeping with you tonight, Innie,” Seungmin called over his shoulder, already slinging his backpack onto the floor by Jeongin’s bed as he ignored the younger’s indignant yelp. 

Hyunjin, on the other hand, didn’t give the room more than an annoyed huff before shuffling through the post-it covered floor to his bed and flopping down, causing a flurry of bright yellow post-its to flutter up into the air. 

Jisung threw up the biggest fuss of the bunch, pouting and huffing as he whined about the injustice of it all and “How am I supposed to find my school books in all of this? Everything is covered in sticky notes! Everything!”  

“Sungie— Sungie, look,” Felix called, bright smile adorning his face as he stood in the middle of their trashed room. He giggled, slapping another brightly colored post-it onto his chest. “Look at me! I’m camouflaged!”

Jisung just pouted harder, though if anyone looked close enough, they would have seen the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Chan, the ever-doting hyung that he was, collected Jisung into his arms and led the boy into the other bedroom stating, “You can sleep with hyung tonight, Sungie. We’ll all help you guys clean up tomorrow.” Of course, Chan couldn’t deny the impressive lengths that his two dongsaengs went to for this prank, especially seeing as every single thing was covered in sticky notes, and couldn’t help the small, amused giggle that escaped his mouth as he shuffled the distraught Jisung out of the bedroom. 

And of course, it would never have happened without Changbin’s late night words of wisdom. The junior had been the last to arrive home that night, nearing almost eleven o’clock, he had just wanted to pop his head into the ‘00 liner’s room to bid the boys goodnight. Instead, he leaned heavily on the door frame, sighing as though it were his room that had just been pranked while he watched Felix carefully collect the sticky notes into neat piles while Hyunjin slept undisturbed on the paper-covered bed next to him. 

“Hi, hyung,” Felix greeted much too cheerfully for someone who was sitting in the middle of a destroyed bedroom. 

“What a waste,” Changbin sighed, peeling one of the post-its off of the wall near the door frame. “These could have been used for ‘kick-me’ notes instead.”

Felix frowned, cocking his head cutely. “Kick-me notes?” he asked. “What are those?”

Changbin rolled his eyes. “You know,” he explained tiredly, waving his hand with the post-it note around blindly. “Where you write things on sticky notes and then sneak them onto someone else’s back for other people to read. Normally they say ‘kick me’ and then you kick the person.”

“That’s not nice, hyung!” Felix fussed, staring at the elder in horror. “Why would you put something like that on someone’s back?”

“It’s just a thing people do,” Changbin shrugged, reaching for the younger and pulling him to his feet. “They don’t have to say ‘kick me’. You can make them say whatever you want. But not tonight, Lixie, come on, you can sleep with hyung.”

Felix abandoned his piles of post-its a bit morosely, a thoughtful look creeping onto his face as he allowed the elder to lead him to bed. 

And thus, the Stickening was born. 

His first victim cropped up a week later. 

Chan was known as an affectionate guy, especially to his roommates. Not a day went by without the elder draping himself across at least one of his friends or asking someone for a hug that always ended up lasting much longer than either of the parties anticipated (not that anyone ever really complained about that particular outcome). The only exception to his unending well of affection was when he had a deadline due. He became grouchy and closed off, never seeking out the physical affections he typically would from his friends. That didn’t mean he didn’t still need them however. When Chan got stressed, he wanted cuddles more than usual but found himself unable to ask for it. Most of the boys had learned this little quirk of the elder’s and had learned to accommodate for it. 

It did not, however, mean that Felix couldn’t produce a... helpful reminder for the rest of his roommates. 

Because the sticky notes he had collected were used, Felix realized rather quickly that his message was going to need a bit of extra support if he wanted it to stick to Chan. And when all he could find was some hot pink washi tape? Well, Chan was never one to get all huffy about pretty colors anyways. 

Once the tape was in place on the stick note, Felix ventured out to find his wayward hyung, note hidden carefully behind his back, resting delicately in his sweaty palm. He came across the elder in the kitchen, hunched over the coffee pot as he watched it brew with an intensity usually only reserved for when he was writing songs. 

“Hyung,” Felix sang, sliding up next to the elder and startling him out of his stupor. “Good morning, hyung,” he continued, wrapping his arms around Chan’s back in a tight hug once the senior was facing him.

“Ah— Morning, Lix,” Chan stuttered, his hands awkwardly gripping the back of the younger’s shirt as he tried to return the hug, his brain not functioning enough to fully recognize the action for what it was but appreciating it all the same. 

Felix clutched him tightly, rubbing his cheek against Chan’s shoulder for added measure. He held on for a few minutes, rocking them gently, until the coffee machine beeped, signaling it’s completion. He let the elder go with a few final pats to his back, securing the note, and went off to class, content with what he had accomplished that morning. 

Chan, on the other hand, had a very odd day. It started when, as Hyunjin was going to leave the dorm room that morning, the younger snorted before wrapping his long arms around Chan in a tight hug. He squeezed the elder securely for a few long seconds before releasing him and going on his way without so much as a backwards glance. Hugs from Hyunjin weren’t exactly rare so Chan wasn’t too alarmed at first, but when Jeongin did the same exact thing, he started to think something was probably just a bit fishy. 

He was, however, also dog-tired and had two exams to attend to so he brushed off his dongsaengs’ odd behaviors and went on his merry way. Things really ramped up during his classes though. One of his classmates, Jungkook, gleefully wrapped him up in a hug from behind, resting his chin on Chan’s shoulder as he asked the other about the reading. Chan, more than a little confused by Jungkook’s actions, answered all of his questions diligently and waved goodbye to the other boy when he made his way to his own seat. 

In his next class, as he was turning in his completed exam, another classmate who had finished at the same time as him by the name of Eunwoo, wrapped his arm around Chan in a side hug as they walked out of the classroom. 

“How you doing, Chan?” he asked, squeezing Chan’s shoulder a final time before pulling back to a respectable distance.   

“I’m, uh— good?” Chan asked, raising a questioning eyebrow at the other. “You?”

Eunwoo nodded his head, biting back a smirk before he quickly took his leave, leaving behind a bewildered Chan in his wake. 

Of course, this wasn’t the end of Chan’s confusion either. Throughout the rest of his classes, Chan found himself on the receiving end of many hugs from acquaintances and friends alike wherever he went. By the time he got back to his dorm room that evening, he was at his wits end. 

“Hug you?” Minho crowed playfully, when the elder walked past him in an attempt to get to his bedroom. “Don’t mind if I do!” He stood up, quickly collecting Chan in a tight hug despite the elder’s confused chirp, and tucked Chan’s head under his chin. 

After a few minutes, Chan started to shift in Minho’s grip, unable to dislodge the other’s arms from around him as he muttered, “Not that I don’t appreciate it, but—why are you hugging me?”

Minho pulled back, a wide grin stretched across his face as he peeled a sticky note off of the elder’s back and held it up in front of Chan’s face. “Because you told me to,” he cackled, passing the bright yellow post-it note over to the senior student.

“‘Hug me’?” he read, cocking his head in confusion. “When did someone stick this on me?” He paused, thinking back before sighing in defeat. “Ah— so many people have hugged me today. I have no clue who it could have been.”

The younger just chuckled, wrapping his arm around Chan’s shoulders and leading the elder to the couch. “Ah, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, or whatever, hyung,” he chided, pulling Chan to cuddle against his side. “You got a bunch of free hugs today. That seems like a win to me.”

Chan nodded his head slowly, unable to disagree with Minho’s logic. “Yeah,” he agreed. “It was a pretty nice day.” In fact, it had been exactly what he had needed.

Felix, after hearing the good news of his first victim, decided to up his game. A few days later, he had two sticky notes ready and waiting. He caught Jeongin first, the younger’s head firmly planted two inches in front of his morning coffee as he stared into the dark depths with sleep crusted eyes. He barely even grunted when Felix gave him a good morning pat on his back on his way out the door. 

Changbin, his other victim, was a bit harder to get, though Felix, the clever underclassman that he was, prevailed by kicking up a fuss about being too tired to walk as they made their way towards the performance building that morning until Changbin relented and gave the younger a piggyback ride the rest of the way there. Felix squealed in delight, pressing close to his back and snaking his head around to press an appreciative kiss to the elder’s cheek in thanks, admiring the nice red that crept up Changbin’s neck at the action. 

He hopped off of Changbin’s back when they reached his classroom, giving the elder one more self-indulgent kiss to the cheek before ducking into the room. He didn’t see the upperclassman for the rest of the morning, though he heard hushed whispers through the halls of the performance building that made him light up like a christmas tree. By the time he met up again with the elder for lunch, Felix was trying desperately to suppress the wide, excited smile from stretching across his lips and spilling all of his secrets. 

He succeeded, but only just, and mostly due to the fact that Changbin was unable to meet his eyes the entirety of their free hour. Minho and Chan ended up joining them halfway through their meal, approaching the two from behind as they crowded around Changbin with large, mischievous smirks painted across their faces. 

Minho was the first to bend down, planting a loud, wet kiss to Changbin’s cheek, cackling fiercely when the younger man squawked loudly in complaint as he scrubbed at his assaulted cheek. 

While he was preoccupied, Chan snuck onto Changbin’s other side and gave the younger a much more reserved, but no less boisterous, kiss to his opposite cheek.

Changbin whined, much to his three roommate’s immense amusement, as he buried his head in the folds of his arms on the table, meal pushed away from him in his distress. “Why?” he muttered, voice muffled by his arm.

Chan slipped into the seat on Changbin’s free side, rubbing the younger’s back consolingly. “Because we love you, Binnie,” he teased. “Your cheeks are just too cute not to kiss.”

He huffed, shifting in his seat to lean on Chan’s shoulder instead of his arms. “But why? All day— all day, hyung! People have been kissing me! I don’t— why are people kissing me suddenly?”

The elder shrugged, hiding his smile in the younger’s hair as he continued his petting. “You’re just that kissable, Binnie,” he replied, pulling back just enough to press another kiss to the tip of Changbin’s scrunched nose. 

Minho was still cackling as he took a seat across from the two of them next to Felix, pulling the younger into his side and squeezing his shoulder. “Have you given Bin-ah his well-deserved kisses, Lixie?” he asked. 

Felix pretended to think about it for a moment before replying, “Well, I gave him a kiss this morning but... I haven’t given him any more than that.” He smirked, wiggling out of his seat to make his way around the table to get to Changbin’s side. 

“No,” the elder hollered dramatically. “No more kisses!” He crossed his arms over his face in an ‘x’ as if to ward off Felix and his playful lips.  

The younger giggled, pursing his lips as he swayed back and forth playfully. The older two of their group were in stitches, Minho had fallen off of his chair and was using the table to hold himself up enough to watch while Chan had shifted to help Felix by holding down Changbin’s struggling arms.

Felix grinned blindingly, using his own hands to cup Changbin’s face before planting a sloppy kiss on either cheek. He skipped back to his seat and helped a still-chuckling Minho back up as he settled back into his meal. 

Changbin sputtered, huffing in irritation as Chan finally released him, giving him a few sympathetic pats on the back that also reattached the sticky note that had dislodged in his struggle. The other two did their best to stifle their chuckles behind their hands while Changbin threw a fit. 

Their tiny friend huffed dramatically before slumping into Chan’s side, eating the rest of his lunch moodily. He stole the elder’s drink petulantly, pouting when Chan slid the cup closer to him in an offering. 

When it was time to go to their next classes, the three crowded around Changbin to give him one more final kiss each before parting. 

Felix didn’t see Changbin again until he got home from his classes that evening. The elder was sprawled across the couch when he entered the dorm room, his head in Jisung’s lap while his feet rested on top of Hyunjin’s thighs. He stared despondent at the television, mindlessly watching whatever drama Hyunjin had put on that afternoon. 

“Hello, friends!” Felix greeted, skipping across the room to chuck his backpack into his bedroom before joining the small group on the couch. He slid into the small area between Jisung and the arm of the couch, making his same-aged friend grunt in displeasure before shifting over to give Felix more room. He grinned in thanks, leaning over to press a kiss to the other’s cheek which pulled an irritated grunt from Changbin below them. 

“Ignore him,” Jisung murmured, leaning over to plant a small but sloppy kiss onto Felix’s cheek in return. “He’s just had a very lovely day and is still processing all the good vibes he had to endure.”

Changbin grunted again, shifting his head to glare up at the younger. “‘Good vibes,’ my ass,” he hissed. “I have been assaulted. Repeatedly. By dozens of different people. And for why? What did I do to deserve this?”

Felix glanced down at the elder, noting the pleased note hiding in Changbin’s eyes as he spoke and the light blush that slowly crept up his neck. “Oh?” he asked innocently. “Did you receive more kisses, Binnie-hyung?”

“Of course, I received more kisses,” he griped. “It’s like I have a note on my forehead telling everyone to invade my personal space. It’s completely ridiculous.”

The three younger friends giggled, Hyunjin reaching down to pinch Changbin’s big toe fondly as Jisung and Felix hid their faces in each other’s shoulders. 

It wasn’t until Jeongin came bursting through the door that their evening really kicked off. The youngest was red in the face and huffing as though he had just run all the way across the campus with the demons of hell chasing after him. “Can anyone—” he gasped, bending over to rest his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. “Tell me... why Wooyoung-hyung just kissed me?!” He stood up straight, a fire in his eyes as he marched towards his small collection of attentive roommates on the couch. “All day— all day— I have been attacked with— with kisses by complete strangers!”

“You too?!” Changbin exclaimed, sitting up so fast his forehead almost knocked with Jisung’s chin. Changbin stood up, making his way over to Jeongin and grabbing at the younger’s shoulders desperately. “You’ve been getting kisses today too?”

Jeongin nodded frantically, his hands coming up to grip Changbin’s biceps. “Did we— miss a holiday or something, hyung?” he cried, pressing his face into Changbin’s chest in his exhaustion. “Was there, like, a group chat or something that we weren’t invited to?”

Changbin pulled Jeongin in close, wrapping his arms around the younger’s back. “I don’t know what’s going on, Innie. I—” He froze, his hands stiff against Jeongin’s sweatshirt. Slowly, he pulled away, the sound of tape being ripped off of fabric following his movement. 

He brought the sticky note down between the two of them so that they could both investigate it. The paper was yellow and crinkled, framed by sparkly pink washi tape with an equally sparkly penned ‘kiss me’ written in the center of the sticky note.

“Oh,” Jeongin breathed, taking the paper into his own hands to examine it more closely. “That was on my back?” he asked. He looked up suddenly. “Turn around hyung,” the younger demanded. Changbin obeyed, releasing a startled little yelp when Jeongin ripped off a similar note stuck to his own back. 

“Does it—”

“Yeah,” Jeongin replied, cutting the elder off. “This— this explains so much. Binnie-hyung, who would have done this?”

Changbin shrugged, turning back around to face the younger again as he took both of the notes and tucked them into his pocket. “I don’t know. But the real question,” he started, turning his head to glare at the three younger boys still sitting on the couch. “Is  why no one felt the need to inform us.”

Jisung and Hyunjin broke down into giggles, falling into one another while Felix did his best to suppress his smile as he watched Changbin and Jeongin look at them in betrayal. “But you love kisses, hyung,” he finally got out. “Who were we to deny you or our precious Innie from receiving kisses?”

“Wooyoung-hyung kissed me,” Jeongin growled. “On the lips.”  

Changbin patted his shoulder sympathetically. “He does that,” he stated. “Wooyoung will kiss anyone he can, if you give him the chance.” He wrapped his arm around the younger, pulling him into their bedroom. “Come on, Innie, let’s just go hang out on hyung’s bed and leave these mean enablers to themselves.”

“That’s dangerous,” Jisung called to the closing door, still cackling. “We could die if left on our own!”

The elder’s barely audible, “I hope you perish then,” sounded through the door, sending the three into another round of loud, raucous laughter. 

Minho was Felix’s next victim. The elder had been bogged down with assignments and tests and projects for weeks and the workload had been taking a toll on him. The second eldest in their dorm room was decidedly not himself and Felix knew just how to fix it. 

The morning after Minho’s hell week dawned dark and dreary and Felix wrapped himself around Minho’s back like an octopus. “Morning, hyung,” he murmured, squeezing the elder tightly while being careful not to disrupt the coffee held in his hands. 

Minho grunted, leaning back against Felix’s chest heavily while he continued to drink and gaze out the window despondently. 

“What are your plans today, hyung?” he continued, keeping his voice low in case the elder had a headache. 

“Mhmm,” he hummed, pulling away from Felix to refill his mug. “Got a class in half an hour and then I’m going out with my groupmates for lunch to celebrate surviving the project from hell and then... then I’m going to fucking sleep for like— ten thousand years. I’m exhausted.”

Felix nodded, shifting to hug Minho properly and patting the elder’s back in sympathy. Minho sagged against him, relishing in the close contact for a few more minutes before pulling away regretfully and grabbing his backpack from the table and leaving for class. Felix watched him go, smiling fondly at the bright pink poking out from behind the top of the elder’s bag. 

He hoped Minho appreciated his efforts. 

Minho was pleasantly confused as he slumped back into his shared dorm room. San was wrapped around him from behind, much like he had been the entirety of their lunch, and had insisted on walking the elder back to his dorm. Between him and Seungkwan, Minho hadn’t been alone since he had gotten to class that morning. Seungkwan had taken one look at him once he had settled into his chair and had immediately wrapped his arms around his classmate in a tight hug that had lasted the entire lecture. 

Minho had allowed it, relishing in the affection in his exhausted state, even if it wasn’t from one of the people he would usually seek out affection from. When they got to the restaurant, Seungkwan had handed him off to San and Seonghwa who had cuddled him between the two of them, even going so far as to try to feed him bits of their meal. 

San backed Minho into his own dorm room, hearing the muffled chuckle that could only belong to Chan from somewhere behind him. Chan stepped up to the two of them, collecting Minho into his arms with a playful smile. “Thank you for delivering Minho-ah, San-ah,” he said in lieu of a greeting. 

The younger just bowed, a large smirk firmly planted on his face, before leaving the two of them alone. Minho sagged against Chan tiredly as he allowed the elder to lead him into their shared bedroom. “I must look more tired than I thought,” he started. “Between San-ah and Seungkwan, I’ve had someone holding me up all day.”

Chan just chuckled, helping Minho into bed before joining him and wrapping his arms around the younger in a tight hug. “You just look like you need a good cuddle, is all, Minho-ah.”

Minho nodded his head, already half asleep against Chan’s chest while the elder threaded his fingers through his hair. They stayed like that until their younger roommates got home from their classes. Hyunjin gasped when he spotted Minho sprawled out across their hyung, immediately joining them on the bed and octopusing his limbs around Minho’s back. 

For the rest of the evening, Minho was passed around his friends like a ragdoll. No one let him sit on his own for a second, the only exception being when he begged to go to the bathroom only to be glomped by Jisung the second he stepped back into the main room. He fell asleep that night tucked against Jeongin’s chest, his dongsaeng’s hold just on the right side of secure to keep him comfortable while he slept. 

It wasn’t until he was putting his clothes in his laundry basket the next morning that he found the crinkled sticky note barely hanging onto the back of his t-shirt with the message ‘cuddle me’ scrawled across it.

He couldn’t stop the fond smile from spreading across his face as he tucked the note into his pocket before continuing on with his chores. 

Felix didn’t realize that Seungmin needed a note until halfway through their math class. His slightly younger roommate had been sitting a bit stiffly throughout their lecture and it wasn’t until he flinched at a dropped textbook that Felix finally connected the dots. Seungmin was known for getting migraines when he was stressed and considering midterms were just around the corner, Felix almost wanted to slap himself for not seeing the signs sooner. 

Felix snuck down to the front of the lecture hall, sweet talking his way into stealing one of his professor’s sticky notes and some tape before making his way back to Seungmin who had put his head down on his folded arms on top of the desk the second the professor had switched from lecturing to free-work time. He scribbled on the post-it, making sure the letters were thick and bold, unable to be missed before gently placing his hand on his friend’s back and rubbing small soothing circles to stick the note firmly to Seungmin’s sweatshirt without the other noticing. 

“Do you want to go back to the dorm, Minnie?” he asked, keeping his voice just above a whisper despite the continuous hum of the lecture hall around them nearly drowning out his words. 

Seungmin shook his head, not bothering to pick his head up from where it was resting as he mumbled, “No. Got a... presentation for history this afternoon.”

“Ibuprofen?” Felix suggested, already reaching towards his bag. At Seungmin’s pathetic nod, he grabbed the bottle and tipped two of the tiny pills into his hand before passing them over to the younger and uncapping his water bottle for Seungmin to wash them down with. 

Seungmin collapsed against Felix’s shoulder once he recapped the water bottle, sighing in exhaustion. Felix kept up his rubbing, soothing Seungmin into an almost-sleep for the rest of the lecture. He regretfully nudged the slightly younger boy awake when their professor dismissed them. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the dorm, Minnie?” he murmured, keeping his voice just above a whisper as he helped Seungmin gather his things. 

“No,” he muttered, flinching at the sound of his own voice. “Can do it.”

Felix sighed, wrapping his arm around Seungmin’s waist as he guided him out of the lecture hall. He kept a firm hold on his friend as he led him to the history building and to the door of his class room. “I’ll be here waiting for you when you’re done, Minnie.”

Seungmin frowned, shaking his head. “You have class too, Lix.”

Normally, Felix would have just blown off class for Seungmin—or any one of his roommates, for that matter—but he had an exam that he really shouldn’t miss and Seungmin knew it too. “Okay,” he relented. “But someone is gonna be here waiting for you, Minnie. And they’ll walk you home.” He pointed at the younger sternly until Seungmin nodded his head in acquiesce, leaning forward to press an appreciative kiss to Felix’s cheek before stepping into the classroom. 

Felix quickly messaged the group chat as he made his way towards his own lecture hall, intent on finding Seungmin a guardian before he delved into his exam. Luck was with him as Jeongin responded almost instantly, informing him that he was done for the day and would ensure Seungmin got home safely and was taken care of. 

A few more of their roommates quickly chimed in with worried messages as he took his seat so he sent off a quick explanatory message, if a bit vague and foreboding in hindsight, before turning off his phone and settling in for his exam. 

True to Felix’s word, Jeongin was waiting just to the left of the big double doors of the lecture hall when Seungmin exited. The ibuprofen the Australian had given him had helped some, but overall his head was still killing him so when Jeongin wrapped a strong arm around his waist and guided him towards their dorm, he did little more than sink further into the younger’s hold. 

Chan and Minho were waiting for the two of them when they got back to the dorm, the two older immediately collecting Seungmin between them as they shuffled him off to his bedroom. The blinds were already closed and Chan had set up a glass of water with some more medicine on the desk next to the younger’s bed. 

Jeongin hovered near the door until Minho waved him in, already sitting on the edge of the mattress and carding his fingers through Seungmin’s hair. 

“Is it just a stress headache, Min-ah?” Chan whispered from his perch on the end of the bed where he was massaging Seungmin’s feet gently. At the younger’s nod, Chan sighed, reaching up to rub at his calf fondly. “Guess we’ll have to go back to the study chart,” he murmured. “Probably for the best, honestly. I guarantee you’re not the only one in this house that’s losing too much sleep to cramming sessions.” He smiled, pinching Seungmin’s big toe affectionately before standing up. “We’ll leave you to sleep, Minnie. Please rest, baby.”

Minho stood up too with one final comb through the younger’s hair that ended with a fond kiss to Seungmin’s forehead. He stretched his hand out for Jeongin to take but the younger just shook his head and laid down in the free space next to Seungmin, wrapping his arms around his youngest hyung and helped Seungmin to settle against his shoulder. Minho and Chan stood at the end of the bed, smiling like fond parents as they watched their two youngest friends cuddle together on Seungmin’s bed. 

It was rare to catch either of them being overly affectionate and Minho couldn’t help but snap a quick photo of the two while their eyes were closed before leaving them to rest.

Seungmin noticed the crinkled note stuck to his shirt when he went to change later that night, smiling fondly at the hastily written ‘please speak softly, my head is killing me’ hanging off of the fabric of his t-shirt. 

Thinking back on the day, Seungmin realized that he must have received the note before his history presentation because as he had walked down to the front of the hall, everyone had gone silent. He even distinctly recalled one classmate rushing over to dim the lights. At the time, he hadn’t put together that everyone knew of his migraine but hindsight was, after all, twenty-twenty, and he felt immensely grateful to the culprit of the note. 

It didn’t take much brain power to then deduce who exactly had written the note in the first place. He had no doubt that the note was made by Felix and, by processes of elimination, deduced that he was also responsible for the other notes as well though he wasn’t about to out his sweet friend to his shenanigans. Instead, he rewarded Felix silently by climbing onto his affectionate roommate’s lap that evening and indulged in some warm, well-earned cuddles. 

Hyunjin came into the dorm room with Jisung clutching him with a death grip the next night. Midterms had really come for them all. Jisung was pale and clammy, his hands shaking in the folds of Hyungjin’s sweatshirt. The elder led Jisung over to the couch and eased him down onto Felix’s lap. 

“He had a panic attack,” Hyunjin explained softly, helping tuck the thick fluffy blanket that normally laid across the back of the couch over the two self-declared twins. 

Jisung just nuzzled further into Felix’s neck, trying to tune out the other two’s hushed conversation. They ended up in the same bed that night, curled around one another as though they were one single entity. 

When morning came, Jisung felt as though his insides had been rubbed raw and if he hadn’t had two tests that he needed to attend he would have just gone right back to bed, maybe even coerced one of his roommates to cuddle with him all day. As it was, Jisung reluctantly pulled himself from the bed and went about getting dressed for the day, if a bit more lethargically than usual. 

Felix joined him in the kitchen a few minutes later, wrapping himself around Jisung’s back as though he were an octopus while Jisung sipped on his coffee. “How are you feeling, Sungie?” he asked, his deep voice soft and gravely with sleep as he pressed their cheeks together. 

“Like shit,” Jisung muttered honestly. “I feel like I'm two seconds away from crying. The second anyone even looks at me wrong I’m going to have a full-on breakdown. I hate my brain sometimes, Lix.”

The blonde nodded his head in agreement, pressing a kiss to Jisung’s cheek before pulling back. “Can I walk you to class?” he asked, already slipping his shoes on. 

Jisung gave him a wobbly smile, linking their fingers together as they made their way out of the dorm building. Felix made sure he was comfortable in his lecture hall before finally parting from Jisung for his own classes. 

All throughout the day, everyone that Jisung talked to spoke in soft, sweet voices and only said nice things. It was... relieving. He also received a lot of hugs and reassuring pats on the back. Near the end of his final class, he turned to Jongho, who had tucked Jisung under his arm the second he came up behind him to join him for their lesson. 

“Do I— is it that obvious that I need kiddie gloves today?” he asked, ducking his head to look at his trembling hands the second the words had left his lips.

“You look tired,” Jongho admitted, squeezing Jisung’s shoulders reassuringly. “But like, emotionally more than physically.” He paused, seemingly fiddling with something on Jisung’s back. “Besides, the note kinda makes it obvious.”

Jisung frowned. “Note?” he asked. 

Jongho chuckled, peeling the taped-on sticky note off of Jisung’s back and handing it to the other for him to read. 

‘be extra kind pls’

He released a near-silent “oh” making Jongho chuckle. Jisung spent the remainder of class examining the note. He was sure he knew that handwriting but he couldn’t place who’s, exactly, it was and it was aggravating to say the least. 

How was he supposed to thank them if he didn’t know who had left such a nice note on him? The fact that someone had noticed him struggling and had taken the time to make sure others would notice and help him, however small, nearly brought him to tears. He wanted to hug the note-writer, maybe give them a little kiss as a thank you, too. 

He still had the note clutched between his fingers when he returned home from class, startling when Hyunjin wrapped himself around his back. “What have you got there?” he asked, pressing his mouth to Jisung’s cheek in greeting before pulling back to face the other properly. 

Jisung turned the sticky note just enough for Hyunjin to see, fingers trembling slightly. “Someone stuck this on my back at some point today,” he whispered, eyes still glued to the note. 

Hyunjin laughed, bright and fond as he read the message. “There’s been a lot of that going around lately, huh,” he mused. “It’s gotta be one of us, don’t you think? I’ve only seen our roommates receive this treatment so far.”

The younger nodded hesitantly, still unsure as he said, “Maybe? But—there could have been others and we just don’t know? It is a pretty big campus.”

“Maybe,” Hyunjin shrugged. “Whoever it is won’t be able to stay in the shadows forever. And then, I think they’re going to get the cuddle of a lifetime after all of the considerate messages they’ve been sticking on people.”

Jisung grinned, nodding his head. “Hell yeah, I’m gonna hug the shit outta them once I find out who did this.” He stepped towards their bedroom, Hyunjin following behind. They had a little corkboard between Jisung’s and Seungmin’s desks that they used for important reminders and mementos. Jisung grabbed a tack, sticking his note up right underneath Seungmin’s from a few days prior. 

“I can’t wait until Felix and I get our own notes,” Hyunjin murmured, admiring the small collection of nice messages. “We gotta fill our board up too.”

Jisung rolled his eyes fondly, reaching out to push at the other’s shoulder blindly. “Minnie’s and my board will always be cooler than yours,” he declared, already pulling Hyunjin down onto Seungmin’s mattress for a cuddle. He knew Seungmin would put up a fuss when he found them in his bed later but he also knew that he would also inevitably join them after complaining and he couldn’t wait for the extra cuddles after such a pleasant post-panic-attack day.

Felix’s next victim didn’t really come with a purpose behind his actions. The idea came to him at three in the morning as he was frantically trying to finish his literature essay in the library while fielding away the worried text messages from his roommates. He jotted the idea down on a scrap bit of paper before shoving it in his phone case for safe keeping. 

It wasn’t until a week later that he found it again and immediately ran over to his stash of sticky notes to enact his plan. 

It was a Wednesday, the week after midterms and everyone had finally been able to take a deep, much needed breather from exams and projects before delving headfirst into the second half of the semester. Felix wandered out of his bedroom that morning with a mission, the note burning hot behind his back as he glanced around the communal living space that the eight of them shared. 

“Morning, Binnie-hyung,” he greeted, giving the elder a sleepy hug. “Where is everyone?”

Changbin returned the hug halfheartedly, more concerned with consuming the eggs in front of him than anything else in that moment. He swallowed, glancing around the room in confusion for a few seconds before responding. “Chan-hyung went to go workout this morning with Hyunjin about a half hour ago, I think? Innie is still sleeping. I saw Jisung for a second but... I think he left for something. Minho-hyung is in the bathroom getting ready and I don’t think I’ve seen Seungminnie yet. Is he still asleep too?”

Felix nodded, taking the seat next to the elder and stealing a sausage from his plate. “Yeah, he doesn’t have class until this afternoon and threatened us all with loss of limb if we woke him up before eleven.”

“Smart man,” Changbin hummed, shifting his plate over to give Felix easier access to the food. “I wish I didn’t have class until the afternoon.”

“Don’t we all,” Felix agreed, nearly jumping out of his seat when Minho appeared. “Morning, hyung!” he called, a bit too enthusiastically for the early hour. 

Minho raised an eyebrow in question, coming over to ruffle his hair in greeting before making his way to the coffee machine. “Morning, Lix,” he mumbled, sounding much more tired than he looked. 

Felix was near vibrating in his seat, the note feeling like a led weight where it was tucked away behind his back. He didn’t want to stick it to Minho while Changbin was in the room otherwise he wouldn’t be able to get away with his anonymous shenanigans anymore so he had to exercise careful patience which he did not have a lot of.

Somehow, Felix managed to contain himself and was able to wait it out until Changbin slumped off to class while he and Minho still lazed around their kitchen table with breakfast before they too needed to leave. Before he parted, Felix pulled Minho in for a goodbye hug in typical Felix-fashion, going so far as to plant an obnoxious kiss to the elder’s cheek before scurrying out the door. 

Minho was in seventh heaven. All day, random people had come up to him with their phones and, in some cases, literal photos, to show him their cats. He had seen more pictures of cats in the last six hours than he had all week and Minho honestly couldn’t be more happy with the outcome. It was like the gods had looked down on him and declared that he deserved to be rewarded. 

Seonghwa even took him out for lunch at the local cat cafe and he spent a few hours between classes buried under a pair of little orange kittens. Seonghwa took lots of photos for him on his phone and he couldn’t be happier. By the time he got back to his dorm that evening, he was practically floating on air. 

The only one home when he got there was Jeongin who had sprawled out across the couch with three separate textbooks. “What’s got you so giggly, hyung?” he asked, tearing his eyes away from the text in front of him as Minho collapsed on the floor next to him. 

“It’s just been a really good day,” he mumbled into the carpet, still smiling at the last photo he had been shown down in the lobby of the building. An all white long haired beauty; if Minho didn’t love his three furballs back at home so much he might have tried to claim that that one was the most beautiful cat on the planet. 

“Did you get to see lots of pictures of cats?” Jeongin asked, biting at the inside of his cheek to try to suppress his smile. 

Minho pulled his head from the carpet, rolling it to look at Jeongin in accusation. “How did you know?” he asked. “I mean, I know I love cats more than life itself but, like, how did anyone know how much I’d appreciate seeing their cats? It’s like I have ‘I love cats’ tattooed on my forehead... Wait—” He sat up, pulling at his hoodie as he tried to feel around his back. Minho yelped when he came into contact with the sticky note with reinforced washi tape. 

‘Show me pictures of your cats’ was written in the same handwriting as his ‘cuddle me’ note had been a few weeks prior. 

“Oh,” Minho groaned, flopping back onto the ground while Jeongin cackled above him. “I can’t even be mad about the note— this is too cute!” He huffed, raising his eyebrow at the younger from his position on the floor. “Do you know who’s doing this?” he asked. “It’s got to be one of the eight of us. There’s too much coincidence to not be one of you.”

Jeongin raised his hands innocently. “It’s not me, hyung,” he said, still laughing. “You know I wouldn’t put such sweet things on my hyungs’ backs.”

Minho nodded sagely. “Yes, I’m afraid I do. I raised you a little too well, my child.”

The younger scrunched his nose in disgust, shaking his head as he turned back to his textbooks. “Don’t call me that— it’s weird.”

Minho just cackled and resumed staring at the ceiling, determined to figure out who was behind the notes.

Hyunjin had been spending a lot of time in front of the mirror lately. Normally, his roommates wouldn’t worry about such an occurrence except for the deep, serious frown that always marred his pretty face whenever he examined himself. It was starting to cause a lot of concern between the seven of them as they watched Hyunjin pick himself apart piece by piece and they knew that they needed to do something about it before he got too bad again. No one wanted a repeat of Hyunjin’s first year where the boy had tried to starve himself after one too many nasty comments from the seniors on his dance team who were jealous of his talent as a freshman. 

They each found different ways to try to reassure Hyunjin of his beauty. The most successful, however, was Felix’s idea— not that anyone knew it had been him specifically at the time— because it involved unbiased strangers instead of just the reassurances of his closest friends.

It started with a hug from Felix as he was leaving for class. The slightly younger boy squeezed him tightly and sang, “Goodbye, beautiful!” 

Hyunjin waved back, if a bit more subdued than he typically had in the past, and left for the day. He nearly tripped over his feet when he heard a wolf whistle from behind him. His head whipped around so fast he nearly snapped his neck. 

A girl from the track team came jogging up behind him, giving him a wink as she shouted “Looking good, hot stuff” when she passed him. Hyunjin felt the heat crawl up his neck rapidly at the compliment, coughing to try to distract himself from his embarrassment. 

All throughout the day, Hyunjin received a plethora of compliments from classmates and strangers alike. Everything about him was commented on: his hair, his physique, even his ass. He felt like he had a permanent blush painted across his cheeks from all of the positive feedback he received. 

It wasn’t until he was in the practice room for his dance class that evening that he realized why he had been receiving so many compliments. There, on the back of his sweatshirt, was a post-it note framed in sparkly pink washi tape that declared ‘Tell me I’m beautiful because I am and I deserve to hear it.’  

Hyunjin felt frozen as he stared down at the note, unsure how to feel about it until Wooyoung came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist, squeezing him tightly. “Everything that’s been said to you today? It’s what people think when they look at you but don’t have the guts to actually say it out loud. The note just gave people the confidence to tell you what they really thought about you,” he whispered, squeezing Hyunjin’s waist comfortingly before pulling back so that the younger could face him. 

“You really think so, hyung?” he asked, his voice sounding much too warbly for his liking. 

Wooyoung just nodded his head, leaning forward to press a kiss to the younger’s cheek fondly. “I know so,” he replied sagely. “The amount of times I’ve had to hear about how sexy your thighs are from Chaeyoung is alarming. If I have to hear it one more time I may just end up joining your fan club too.”

Hyunjin shook his head, hiding his face in Wooyoung’s chest while the elder just laughed goodnaturedly at him as he tucked him closer. 

“You’re beautiful, Hyunjinnie. Just the way you are,” Wooyoung whispered. “And you should believe your friends when they tell you that.”

The younger nodded, taking a deep, steadying breath before pulling back and scrubbing at the few stray tears that had escaped the corners of his eyes before finally turning his attention to where the instructor had just started talking. 

He held the note between his hands tightly as he entered the dorm room, pleased to see nearly everyone already present in the main room. “Where’s Felix?” Hyunjin asked after he had greeted his friends. 

“He said he was going to take a nap,” Chan said from where he was frying some beef. “But I’ve heard him giggle more than once since then so he’s probably just playing a game on his phone.”

Hyunjin nodded, already making his way towards the bedroom. “Good,” he said. “I’m going to get him. There’s something I want to say to everyone.” 

Just like Chan said, Felix was playing on his phone in bed, though instead of his own, the blonde was sprawled across Hyunjin’s mattress, his feet kicked up on the pillow while his head dangled off the foot of the bed. “Comfortable?” Hyunjin asked, raising an eyebrow at Felix while he leaned against the door frame. 

Felix shot up, smiling guiltily at his slightly older friend. “Hi, Jinnie,” he greeted, sliding off of the bed and wrapping his arms around the taller boy in a tight hug. “How was your day?” 

“Good,” Hyunjin replied, returning the hug firmly before tugging Felix towards the living space. “Come with me, I want to say something to everyone.”

He led the way back out to the living room where everyone was waiting patiently but curiously. Hyunjin stood in front of the couch, suddenly feeling much more nervous than he had when he first declared he wanted to tell them something.

“I wanted to say thank you,” he started, looking firmly at the floor so he didn’t have to face any of his friends head on. “For taking care of me and reassuring me even when I’m difficult and don’t listen. I appreciate you all doing your best to help me when my brain doesn’t let me see myself for who I really am and... thank you to whichever one of you put this note on my back and helped me see myself through everyone else’s eyes today. It— it really helped.”

The silence in the dorm room was deafening for all of five seconds before suddenly there was a litany of praises and coos and feet stomping as the seven of them all crowded around Hyunjin in a giant, messy group hug. 

No one confessed to being the note writer though Hyunjin didn’t care. He loved every single one of his roommates, enormous, sappy hearts included.

Chan was a literal walking zombie around campus, having spent one too many nights holed up in front of the computer working on a project for his experimental music theory class. 

Felix found him lumbering through the library stacks at nearly eight thirty in the morning and not anywhere near where his first lecture of the day would take place. The younger clapped Chan on the back before hooking their elbows together and guiding the exhausted senior to his class, but not before buying him a coffee from the vending machine of course.

Throughout the day, Chan received multiple gifts from his classmates that consisted of canned coffees, energy drinks, and protein bars and while this confused the music major, he didn’t have nearly enough coherency to puzzle out why exactly his classmates were being so kind or how they knew what he needed. Overall, he was just thankful for the pick-me-ups. 

It wasn’t until Jeongin tracked him down at seven that night, once he had sequestered himself in one of the study rooms in the library after his last class got out, that he started to piece together the odd behavior exhibited throughout the day. 

He was jittery from all of the caffeine he had consumed, another gifted coffee sitting innocently on the table next to his laptop just waiting to be opened, and therefore didn’t have the motor control to prevent his maknae from taking away his equipment from him. 

“It’s time to come home, hyung,” Jeongin declared, slipping the elder’s laptop into his backpack before tugging his friend up. “You need real food— and sleep.”

“ ‘m fine, Innie,” Chan mumbled, fighting uselessly against his much more stable dongsaeng. “ ‘ve got— got energy drinks from my... friends. Am good to go. I wanna finish this project.”

Jeongin snorted, rolling his eyes fondly as he tugged the elder along. “I know you do, hyung. But I’m under strict orders to bring you back to the dorm— dead or alive.”

Chan blinked at the younger in confusion, his tired mind taking longer than he’d care to admit to comprehend that statement. By the time he understood enough to react, they were already climbing the stairs to their dorm, so Chan just shrugged instead and allowed Jeongin to lead him into their living quarters. 

Minho snorted when the maknae led Chan past the majority of their roommates crammed together like sardines on the couch, reaching out to pluck a sticky note from the elder’s back. “‘I need caffeine,’” he read, chuckling fondly. “Clearly, hyung. Next time, put a limiter on it though seeing as you’re incapable of pacing yourself.”

The elder just pouted goodnaturedly, if a bit exhaustedly, happily following Jeongin into their shared room and curling up on his bed. He whined when the youngest tried to leave, reaching out with grabby hands until Jeongin relented and allowed himself to be dragged onto the bed and used as a life-sized teddy bear. 

The next morning, Chan woke up with a migraine and the startling realization that someone, most likely one of his roommates, had stuck a note to his back that had been intended to help him get through his day. The thought made him smile, his heart warming at his friends’ capacity to be nice when they wanted. Someone was looking out for him. 

And he was going to find out who.

Normally, Changbin was rather level headed when it came to producing. Audio production wasn’t his major like it was for Chan and Jisung, his parents would have never allowed it, but that didn’t mean he was any less committed to the craft. Not majoring in music, however, tended to result in some insecurities in Changbin. He was constantly comparing himself to Chan and Jisung and struggling to find the free time to work on projects between his coursework while the other two had the flexibility of incorporating their personal projects into their coursework. 

It often meant that he produced at a slower rate and usually needed more fine tuning than something Chan or Jisung presented to him (not that he got to see the multitude of revisions the other two went through before showing him their finished product). Changbin tried not to compare himself to the others but every once in a while the stress got to him and he found himself questioning why he even bothered trying to pursue music in the first place. 

“There just doesn’t seem to be a point, Lix,” Changbin muttered, curling against Felix’s warm side as they cuddled on one of the park benches on campus a little before midnight. “I think maybe it’s time I just retire this dream and focus on what I’m actually here to study.”

“That’s your father talking, Binnie-hyung,” Felix chided, pinching the elder’s side gently in reprimand. “You’re brilliant and so incredibly talented. Sungie and Chan-hyung think so too. You’re one third of 3RACHA. What would they be without you?”

“I’m not nearly as talented as they are though,” the elder argued weakly. “I can’t do what they do. I feel like all I’m doing is holding them back.”

Felix shook his head. “Have you asked them what they think about your skills? Because I’m pretty sure Jisung would go blue in the face praising your rapping and producing skills and Chan-hyung would start crying if he heard how you talk about yourself. Just because you don’t have the same amount of time to put towards your music doesn’t make you any less talented and every single person who has heard your songs would agree with me, hyung.” He squeezed Changbin’s waist comfortingly. “You are crazy talented.”

Changbin sighed, pressing his face against Felix’s neck as he breathed in the younger’s comforting scent. “We should get home,” he murmured after a few minutes of silence. “It’s late.”

With a heavy, dejected sigh, Felix agreed, helping the shorter man up before making their way back to their shared dorm. Chan was waiting for them, laptop sitting open and abandoned on the cushion next to him on the couch. He raised a questioning eyebrow at the two of them before taking over guiding Changbin into their bedroom. A few minutes later he came back out and pulled Felix into a hug. 

“You ready for bed, too?” Chan asked, pressing his cheek into the younger’s hair.

Felix shook his head. “No, there’s something I gotta do first. But you should go to sleep, hyung. You look exhausted.”

“So do you, Lixie,” the elder scolded fondly. “Come on. You know I sleep better when I have someone next to me. Whatever you have to do can wait until the morning.”

The blonde sighed, sagging against Chan in defeat before allowing him to tug him off to the elder’s bed. He cuddled against Chan’s chest in their dark bedroom, Changbin’s soft snores already audible from the bed across from them. The two fell asleep easily, though Felix’s brain burned with what he knew he needed to do come morning. 

It was time for another note. 

Changbin’s day started out pretty normal. Well, as normal as it could get with seven very rambunctious roommates and a severe lack of caffeine-to-sleep ratio. He was hunched over his desk as he waited for his first lecture to start, staring blankly out the window. He was interrupted by a light tap on his shoulder. 

His head snapped up, raising his eyebrow at the unfamiliar woman in front of him. “Changbin-ssi?” she started, stuttering awkwardly as she spoke. “I, uh— just wanted to tell you that your last single... that you posted on Soundcloud? Was, ah— really good. I listen to it all the time.” She wrung her hands uncertainly before bobbing her head and taking a step back. “That’s all, I just— I thought you’d want to know, you know? That— that I— people— enjoy your music... a lot.” With that, she scurried back towards the front of the classroom and sat down with her friends, a dark blush high on her cheeks. 

Changbin felt his own blush creeping up his neck as he stared after her for a moment before tucking his head back into the crook of his arm. It was too early to try to decipher whatever that just was. 

When the same thing happened in his next class, this time with an upperclassman named Vernon, he started to suspect. It wasn’t that he was unpopular, per say, but people didn’t just... walk up to him and start conversations. Changbin was known as a more closed off student; diligent and serious while in classes, very rarely did he smile, especially if he didn’t have one of his seven sunshine roommates by his side. For not one, but two, people to come up to him in one morning and compliment his music seemed incredibly suspicious. 

Oddly enough, though, Changbin didn’t try to remove the sticky note he was sure was taped onto his back. He had seen and experienced it enough over the last few months to know that that was the most likely explanation for his classmates’ odd interactions but a part of him relished in the strange newness of it all. Everyone who approached him seemed genuine in their compliments, Kim Namjoon, a masters student who was also a student teacher even came up to him on his break that afternoon and discussed his music with him until Changbin had to leave for his next class. Namjoon was known to be sincere in everything he did and said, not afraid to tell someone where they lacked in certain areas while simultaneously building up their self-confidence. 

Changbin walked away from their conversation feeling lighter than air and his brain buzzing with all of the helpful suggestions and encouragements the elder had given him. As soon as he was done with classes, Changbin made his way to the studio Chan had permanently checked out that he shared with Jisung and Changbin, eager to start implementing Namjoon’s ideas. 

Chan was already there when he entered, headphones firmly secured over his ears as he stared intently at his screen. The elder barely acknowledged Changbin as he settled in the space next to him, though Changbin was very used to Chan’s nuances at this point and only slid an iced coffee from the campus cafe towards him who hummed gratefully before settling in and getting to work. 

The two were pulled from their work when the door opened again and arm reached around their heads to switch off their monitors. They turned their heads up in sync, looking at Felix and Seungmin’s disappointed frowns in confusion. 

“Time to go home, hyungs,” Felix chided gently once they had removed their headphones from over their ears. “Minho-hyung made dinner and it’s going to get cold. Besides, you both have class in the morning.” He tugged on Chan’s arm who huffed and switched the monitor back on, starting the tedious task of saving his work and shutting his programs down. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Chan grumbled, allowing the other Australian to pull him out of his seat once everything was off and packed away. “We’re coming.” He paused once he caught sight of Changbin’s back, still hunched over his own computer as he diligently saved his progress. “What’s this?” he asked, peeling the post-it note off of the younger’s back. “‘Will you remind me that I’m talented?’” he read, unable to stop the smile from stretching across his lips. 

Changbin hummed, finally standing up, himself. “Is that what it says?” he asked, taking the note to see for himself. “I thought it was going to say, like, ‘compliment my music’ or something. Wow. That’s... a lot more...” he trailed off, smiling down at the sticky note as he allowed Seungmin to guide him out of the studio. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “But, that’s really considerate— genuine. I need to thank whichever one of you hooligans decided that I was your next victim. I... really needed this today.”

“You knew?” Felix asked, trying to keep the worry out of his voice at being found out. “That you had a note on your back?”

“It wasn’t that hard to figure it out,” the elder shrugged, squeezing Seungmin’s waist as they walked. 

“And you didn’t take it off?” 

Changbin shrugged again, trying in vain to hide the blush slowly creeping up his neck. “It was sweet... and it wasn’t hurting anybody. Besides, I enjoyed talking about my music with people. It’s weird though, I really thought the note said something about my music not just ‘remind me I’m talented.’ I guess it’s just really reassuring to know that others see my music as something worth complimenting.”

“It’s because you’re crazy talented, Binnie,” Chan reminded. “I think almost anyone would immediately think of your musical accomplishments when they hear about your talents. You really have a gift.”

The younger ducked his head, feeling better than he had in a long while.

The next Stickening occurred in the hospital and Felix had had zero plans on getting any of his friends that day but a twisted ankle during dance practice and pain meds that were a bit too strong was a recipe for note-sticking. 

He had been goofing off with Hyunjin and Minho, trying their hand at a new tiktok dance when Felix had misstepped and stepped on his ankle wrong. He fell, biting back his whimpers even as the two and Jisung, who had come to collect them when they lost track of time, ran over to him. Minho immediately helped him onto his back and they found an upperclassman, Jimin, a dance major who ran their dance class, to take them to the hospital. 

Felix couldn't recall much after that, he was given pain medicine, the good stuff, because resetting his ankle wasn't going to be a pleasant experience, and had been set up in a bed while they waited for it to kick in. In that time, the rest of their roommates had heard about the accident and had made their way to Felix’s hospital room as well. 

Chan had immediately cuddled the younger to his chest, much to Felix’s delight. Soon though, Felix turned fidgety, squeezing Jisung’s hand and turning it back and forth while asking for a sticky note and a pen. "I have... something important, hyung," he pleaded with Minho, who was standing a bit away next to the amused nurse. "I need it."

The nurse chuckled, handing over the requested items when Minho gave the go-ahead. Felix immediately squealed, accepting the items and immediately got to work as he shakily wrote 'I'm cute uwu.'

"Sungie," he demanded, whipping his hand theatrically towards his almost-twin. "Sung-ah. Jisungie. Turn— turn around." 

Jisung did, unable to hide the overly fond smile from stretching across his lips. He even squatted down so that his injured friend wouldn't have to stretch to reach his desired target. He felt the sticky note make contact with his shirt, Felix giving it a final pat before pulling back. 

"Don't tell Jisungie," Felix whispered conspiratorially, even as said Jisung turned around to face him. "It's a kick-me note but nicer. 's gotta be a surprise."

The nurse chuckled, stepping forward to gently herd the group out of the room. "Alright. I think the meds have kicked in enough. We'll call you back once his ankle is set."

Felix was still pretty out of it by the time they got back to the dorm, the boy hitching a ride up the stairs on Chan’s back while Changbin carried his newly acquired crutches. Seungmin and Jisung raced ahead of them, opening the doors before they got to them which made Felix laugh. 

He didn't, however, laugh once he spotted the sticky note on Jisung’s back. "Who did that?" He demanded, pointing at the note in offense. 

"The note?" Seungmin asked, much too amused for Felix's liking. 

"Yes," he hissed, turning his glare onto the slightly younger boy. "Only I get to put cute notes on my friends."

None of the boys could hold back their laughs at that, Chan gently depositing Felix on the couch before collapsing next to him. He ignored the glare directed at him that quickly turned into a pout once Felix realized that his friends were laughing at him.  

"Lixie— baby," Minho chuckled. "You did write that note. Don't you remember?"

Felix shook his head, still pouting at his roommates who had all settled down around them in the living room. "Don't worry, Lix," Jisung reassured. "You're the only one I'd allow to stick me with a note."

Said boy nodded, seemingly content with that answer as he tucked himself against Chan’s chest, his still-hazy brain demanding sleep that he happily surrendered to. 

Come morning, Felix couldn't recall anything that had happened after they had arrived at the hospital. The rest of the boys had quickly agreed not to let Felix onto the fact that they knew he was the note writer. The notes were much too cute and wholesome for Felix to get embarrassed and stop. 

They'd keep playing dumb if it meant Felix would keep leaving sweet messages on their backs whenever they were having a bad day. 

Hyunjin came back from his dance class floating on cloud nine. Felix had chosen him as his next victim nearly two weeks after his accident. The blonde was still on crutches and had not been as subtle as he thought he was when he had attached his note that morning but Hyunjin had had such a rough night that he was more than thankful for the thoughtfulness of the younger. 

He had applied for an elite dance program earlier in the year and had received his rejection letter the night before. Hyunjin spent the whole night crying, cradled between his friends’ warm embraces. 

All the next day, however, classmates came up to him and enthusiastically told him how much they loved his dancing, how talented he was, and how much they hoped only good things for him and his career in the future. 

The best part was how genuine everyone was when talking to him about his talents. Even Taemin, the student teacher that directed his contemporary dance class, had spent nearly half an hour after class discussing his strengths and weaknesses and how he could improve. 

“Don’t be too bummed that you didn’t get into the program,” Taemin had said. “They never accept first time applicants. Take the year to practice and improve and apply again next year. They look for that: the drive to improve and the commitment to the art. You apply again and you’ll get in for sure.”

By the time he got home, he felt much less like a failure than he had twenty-four hours prior. 

He got Chan to pull the sticky note off of his back, smiling fondly at the sweet ‘I’m an amazing dancer and you should tell me’ before sticking it on his bulletin board. 

Jeongin woke up angry. He wasn’t sure why, exactly, he was so ornery but he knew that he was ready to fight the world so when he felt the telltale press of Felix's tiny hand on his back as the elder stuck a note to his back, he nearly turned around and decked his sunshine hyung. He swallowed back his rage and took a deep steadying breath instead, talking himself off of the ledge and instead allowed himself to lean back, if a bit stiffly, into the elder’s grasp, telling himself that Felix most likely put a ‘DO NOT TOUCH. RABID ANIMAL ’ on the back of his shirt (though, knowing his hyung, it was written much nicer than what his own brain would have decided on).

He sighed, relaxing into Felix’s embrace for a few minutes before pulling back and leaving for class. 

All day, Jeongin received a plethora of amused glances and more than a few spontaneous cuddles from his friends. Wooyoung glued himself to the younger’s side while they were eating, much to their friends’ delight. 

Jeongin was furious— at first. 

He had immediately gone into defense mode, ready to bite off Wooyoung’s hand the second it got close enough but the longer the elder held him, the more Jeongin sunk into his hold. By the time they had to separate for their next class, Jeongin’s eyes were closed and his head securely pressed against Wooyoung’s collarbone. 

Hyunjin, who shared his next class with Jeongin, gently tucked the younger into his chest and murmured, “Don’t worry, hyung. I’ve got him from here.” He held Jeongin throughout their afternoon set of classes, ignoring his prickly demeanor whenever Jeongin remembered that he was supposed to be angry. 

By the time their classes were done and they were supposed to be packing up to go home, Jeongin was nearly asleep against Hyunjin’s side. Jisung and Felix appeared a few minutes later, wide smirks stretched across their faces when they collected the other two’s backpacks. Hyunjin gently nudged a sleepy Jeongin who whined at the movement until the elder presented his back for him to climb onto. 

Jeongin wrapped himself around Hyunjin, allowing the elder to piggyback him back to their dorm with Felix and Jisung bracketing them. By the time they got home, Jeongin was asleep, head cradled on Hyunjin’s shoulder. 

Minho and Changbin were home when they arrived, Minho snorting at the cute scene in front of him. “That’s fucking adorable,” he whispered, careful not to wake their maknae. “Bring him over here. It’s my turn.”

Hyunjin chuckled, stepping over to the couch to help ease Jeongin’s limp form off his back and onto Minho’s lap. The elder immediately wrapped his arms around the youngest’s waist and helped him snuggle against him. He nodded his head in thanks when Jisung draped a fuzzy blanket over them. 

Jeongin woke up a few hours later, eating the dinner Chan had made while sleepily pressed against Changbin’s side as they sat around the dinner table. Felix, from the other side of the table, shot Jeongin a bright smile, sending him a little finger heart between bites. 

The rest of the evening was spent cuddled against his hyungs and Jeongin felt the dark cloud that had followed him all day slowly evaporate. 

Nearing midnight, well after everyone had retired to their beds, Felix felt his blankets lift and a body slide in next to him. He wrapped his arms around the warm body, pulling them against his chest. 

“Innie?” he asked sleepily, nuzzling against the younger’s chest once he realized who he was holding onto. 

Jeongin hummed in acknowledgement, pressing his face against Felix’s neck. “Yeah,” he mumbled, his voice barely audible even next to the elder’s ear. “Thank you— for today. That was... exactly what I needed.”

Felix smiled knowingly, pressing his lips to the younger’s hair in a feather light kiss. “Anytime, Innie.” He closed his eyes, keeping a tight hold on the younger as he dropped off to sleep.

The next morning, Jeongin added his sticky note message to the board in the ‘00 liner’s room. The bright, colorful ‘Don’t be fooled, I crave cuddles’ pinned proudly in the center of all of the notes.  

It was nearing their spring break when Seungmin got the news. He was distraught when he found out his grandma had passed and spent every waking moment following the phone call glued to his friends’ sides. He couldn’t go back home until the weekend when his break would start. He had too many projects due that week to be able to realistically skip out early. 

Felix didn’t care who saw him when he stuck his newest note to Seungmin’s back before the younger left for class the following morning, more concerned with making sure their puppy would be taken care of even while none of them could be present with him. 

Everyone treated Seungmin as though he were made of glass and, for once, he was appreciative of being handled so carefully. He felt as though he were seconds away from breaking down and the soft words and kind hugs from his peers, even though most of them didn’t know what was going on with him, helped ease him and get him through the week. 

When he got back to the dorm that evening, Seungmin immediately fell into Felix’s arms, already knowing who the culprit behind his treatment was. Felix made a confused noise at being picked by Seungmin to cuddle though he still held his friend as close as possible, tucking Seungmin’s head in the crook of his neck so that the younger could hide away from the world for a bit. 

The next morning, the seven of them walked Seungmin to the train station, each giving him a tight hug before he left. When they got home, Felix’s eye caught the bright pink of the sticky note from the day prior sitting on his pillow. He read the neatly printed ‘Please be gentle with me today’ in his own handwriting, the paper slightly crinkled after being worn all day though the washi tape outlining it had done its job and kept it from falling off. Underneath the note, was another, much newer, sticky note, sitting innocently on his pillow. Seungmin’s own neat handwriting a dead giveaway as to who left the note.

Felix smiled, holding the tiny ‘thank you, Felix’ against his chest, glad that his note had done its job. 

The sticky notes became a Thing on campus. Over the course of the year since the first Stickening, it slowly became commonplace to see sweet messages or reminders taped onto students’ backs as they walked around the campus. Felix couldn’t help but fall in love with the concept a little more every time he spotted another kind message on an unsuspecting classmate. He had received a few himself, coming home with little ‘hug me’s and ‘tell me I’m cute’s being the most common. He caught Hongjoong sticking him more than once with a hastily scrawled ‘I love head scritches’ on the first scrap bit of paper he could find. 

Felix let the older have it, Hongjoong’s pout hard to ignore, smiling as he closed his eyes and gave the elder the go-ahead to continue his shenanigans. 

It wasn’t until one unassuming Tuesday, mere weeks before finals, that Felix finally received a note that he didn’t want. He met up with Wooyoung and Mingi in the library for a cram session. The two older boys immediately started giggling the second Felix’s back was turned before pulling him down between them. 

As if they had planned it, the two leaned down to press a kiss to each of Felix’s cheeks simultaneously. Felix sighed, raising an eyebrow at Mingi’s cheeky smirk in question. 

“What’s it say?” he asked exasperatedly. “I’ve been getting mixed results all day but I haven’t had a chance to see what I got stuck with.”

“‘I crave love’,” Wooyoung read, gently peeling the note off of his back so that the younger could see for himself.

Felix groaned, recognizing the handwriting as Minho’s as easily as if it had been his own. “Of course hyung would write that,” he mumbled dejectedly, flicking the note across the table.

“What’s wrong with it, Lixie?” Mingi asked, immediately falling into hyung-mode as he rubbed at Felix’s back. “It’s not wrong— you love affection.”

“I do,” Felix agreed, feeling more than a bit exhausted. “But— that makes it sound like I’m desperate— that I just want—want anyone to love me or something, but I don’t.”

Wooyoung chuckled, pulling Felix into his lap as he nodded his head. “You crave affection from everyone,” he translated. “But you only crave love from your seven very dense roommates.”

Felix’s head shot up, starting at the elder in shock as Mingi muffled his laughs with his hand behind him. “How— I don’t know what you mean, hyung,” he stuttered. 

“You can’t fool me, Lee Felix,” Wooyoung chastised playfully. “I’ve seen the way you look at them— like they carry your heart in their hands. It’s sickeningly sweet. And your poor roommates are dense as shit. Just like you.”

“Match made in heaven,” Mingi agreed sagely, laughter subdued for the moment. “The eight of you are disgustingly in love with each other. I’m pretty sure everyone on campus would agree with that statement too. I mean— just look at what you started with your own infatuation. Your weird courting dance is going to go down in the history books.”

The younger yelped, reaching around to smack Mingi’s shoulder pathetically. “I wasn’t courting them,” he whined. “I just wanted to make sure they had a good day when they maybe weren’t feeling the best.”

Mingi shrugged, plucking the note back up from the table and examining it closely. “Well,” he said, pulling out a sparkly purple gel pen from his backpack. “This is easily fixable.”

Felix whined, wriggling uselessly in Wooyoung’s stronger hold as the elder frogmarched him back to his dorm room, a cackling Mingi in tow with the younger’s backpack in hand. 

“Hyung,” Felix whined, giving up on escaping to instead pout at the elder in the hopes of suckering him enough to release him. “Don’t do this. It’s so embarrassing! What if they don’t feel the same? How am I supposed to live there if that happens?”

Wooyoung rolled his eyes, knocking on the door despite the younger’s protests. “If that happens— which it won’t— then you can come live with hyung, okay? But they’re gonna feel the same way, Lixie. Trust hyung, okay?”

The door opened, revealing a very confused Chan when he realized who was at their dorm. “Uh, hi?” he greeted, glancing between the three of them in thinly veiled concern. 

“Good afternoon, hyung,” Mingi greeted cheerfully, chucking Felix’s bag inside the dorm against the side wall where no one would trip over it. “We found something that belongs to you.”

With that Wooyoung shoved Felix into the elder’s arms before waving cheerfully and making a break for it with Mingi, ignoring Felix’s indignant shouts behind them. 

Felix kept his head buried in Chan’s chest long after the door had closed behind them and the elder had shuffled them awkwardly into the living room where the rest of their roommates were congregated. “What was that about, Lixie?” Chan asked, petting the younger’s blonde locks soothingly. 

“Oh,” Minho whispered, stepping up behind them and peeling off his note from that morning. “My note’s been altered.”

“What’s it say, hyung?” Jeongin asked, coming up to press his cheek against the elder’s shoulder even as Felix whined desperately. 

“I wrote ‘I crave love’,” Minho declared, raising his voice so that the rest of the room could hear him clearly. “And someone added ‘specifically from my seven roommates’ underneath it.”

Chan hummed, squeezing Felix tighter to his chest. “Is that true, baby? Do you just want our love?”

Felix nodded, unable to lift his head from the elder’s comforting embrace. “I love you all a lot,” he admitted, words slurring slightly against Chan’s t-shirt. “And I don’t crave love from anyone else but you seven.”

Jisung squealed, budging into their embrace to wrap himself around Felix’s back. “We love you too, Lixie. Minho hyung was agonizing over his note last night wondering if it would be enough for you to see how much we want you.”

“Really?” Felix asked, pulling back from Chan just enough to make eye contact with all of his closest friends. “You want to be with me? All of you? Like— more than friends? We can— the eight of us—?”

“Really,” Changbin reassured, stepping into the quickly forming group hug to press a gentle kiss to Felix’s lips. 

The next day Felix walked around campus with a rainbow of sticky notes covering his back and a bright smile stretched across his face. He was very careful not to lose any of them throughout the day, determined to add them to their ever-growing collection of notes back home because these— these were special. 

They were from his boyfriends after all.