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Hui doesn’t assume, necessarily, but he guesses--and his guesses are usually quite good. They’ve certainly saved his hide from time to time. Still, when he stumbles in from another late-night afterparty (which are ostensibly about gathering more information, but also a welcome distraction) and opens the wrong door, there’s a dawning realization of what he’s looking at when he sees E’dawn and Hyuna intertwined in front of him. “Shit,” Hui says, senses still dull from the drink and dance of the party. “Ah, I’m just trying to...I’ll make my way out,” he says, turning back around to go through the doorway.He walks out, trying to also leave behind the images of Hyuna on E’dawn’s lap, arms thrown behind his shoulders, and E’dawn below her, expression inviting and open even as Hui had barged in on them. Hyuna with a feline smile as she stared intently into E’dawn’s eyes, then turning the look on Hui. E’dawn, grinding up as he grasped Hyuna’s leg on top of his own bare thighs.Hui gets into the shower to wash off the night’s grime and sweat, finally in his intended destination.It’s as he expected, and so, Hui tries to focus on sobering up rather delve into than his feelings on the matter. He tells himself that it means little to him except for what effect it might have on the job, and on their prospects after it. Somehow, though, Hui doubts that Hyuna and E’dawn could have worked as well together as they have without their relationship, or a precursor to it, already in place.He gets out of the shower, towels off, and dons a robe. It is what it is, he thinks, stepping out of the bathroom. It feels like the coolness of water on his skin is clearing his head already.Here’s what Hui didn’t expect: opening his door to find Hyuna sitting on the edge of his bed, E’dawn at his desk. An offer, followed by Hyuna and E’dawn approaching him, dreamlike. Touches on his hair, face, soft tugs toward his bed accompanied by a duet of quiet phrases, invitations. Promises.“I've, I’ve never--” Hui stammers, trying not to disrupt the momentum of whatever is happening right now. “I mean, I don’t know if I can? With you two--”E’dawn stops rubbing circles into Hui’s arm. Then, thoughtfully, he starts up again, but lighter. More soothing. “It’s okay.”“It doesn’t have to happen now,” Hyuna says from where she’s half-straddling Hui’s lap. She sounds like she couldn’t care less either way, but the way her gaze slides off of Hui to some invisible spot on the bed sheets tells Hui otherwise. “Well,” she tosses out, “it doesn’t have to happen at all. If it’s not what you want.”Hyuna can be described in many ways--strong, direct, confident--but this measure of uncertainty seems contradictory to what Hui is used to seeing from her. Oddly, he feels like he should make up the gap. “No,” he says hurriedly, but then finds he doesn’t have an explanation to follow.“Then...what is it?” Hyuna asks, prodding.“Er,” interjects E’dawn, his awkwardness a small reflection of Hui’s own, “it’s not that we expect you to.” He ignores Hyuna’s muttered “I did expect that he would, though.”“I...” Hui hesitates. “I don’t know,” he says finally, and hearing it is like a revelation even to his own ears. “I thought I didn’t, that I’d be fine with just seeing you two together. But something just...I felt like I wanted...it felt like there should be more.”“Maybe this is what you do want,” says Hyuna, gentler this time.“Maybe,” Hui says. Hyuna and E’dawn finally release Hui from their stares, and lie down on either side of him. It’s a more comfortable position than Hui would have thought, the three of them lying on the bed shoulder to shoulder, and now that none of them are looking at each other it suddenly feels easier to speak the rest of his sentence into the muffled quiet of the night. “But I’m willing to try it.”There’s no verbal answer, but E’dawn squeezes his arm in silent reassurance.“Promise?” Hyuna asks suddenly, voice stern, but really it’s more of a demand. Hui almost laughs; this is the Hyuna he’s used to. “Promise what?” he asks.Hyuna’s reply is immediate. “That you won’t take it back in the morning.”“Or get all analytical and find some excuse why it won’t work,” adds E’dawn.“He does do that a lot,” Hyuna says, like it’s a matter of fact. “Shot down my aluminum idea, even if it would’ve been the fastest way to go.”“Hey now,” Hui says, feeling like he needs to interrupt the two of them nodding along to each other’s words. “That was context-specific, and besides the aluminum would’ve gotten us caught long before…” He trails off, then tries to bring the conversation back on topic. “A promise, then.”“Just for the morning?” E’dawn offers.“Alright,” Hui says. “But you have to promise me that it will work.”E’dawn looks between Hui and Hyuna. “The relationship, or the job?” And this time, Hui does laugh.
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In the morning, Hui wakes up first, staring at the ceiling. He’s still fully dressed, flannel robe and all, and Hyuna and E’dawn are still sleeping, with their hands linked over his chest. He feels a flash of emotion dart across his heart, following along the lines of Hyuna and E’dawn’s arms. It’s not something as negative or easily identifiable as jealousy, but it’s not entirely foreign, either. The feeling stirs in his chest, a tendril uncurling tentatively, warm.“What are you smiling about?” comes a voice from his left: E’dawn.Hui startles a little, then closes his eyes. “You’re going to wake up Hyuna.” E’dawn looks up at Hui from sleep-crusted eyes, and stretches and yawns, unbothered.Hyuna’s voice, a little soft but not nearly as drowsy as a freshly-awoken person should be, rings out from Hui’s right. “Hyuna is awake,” she says. “Besides, you didn’t answer the question.” E’dawn, sitting up now, turns back to incline his head and give Hui a meaningful look, like he’s saying: see. “What’s it to you, anyway,” Hui grouses, but without heat. “Honestly? I was thinking about you two.”Hyuna props herself up on her elbow. “Yeah?” she asks, interest aroused.“Well,” Hui says, casting about for something to say that doesn’t have to poke at the not-yet solidified feeling he’s still trying to name. “Since we’ve almost reached the end of the job already, you want to share names?”“Names?” asks Hyuna, rolling away from Hui and sitting up, the edge of the sheets twisting around her stomach. She reaches for a small hair band on the nightstand and starts putting her hair up to tie it.“You know, real names,” Hui says, then addresses E’dawn. “Like I don't think your parents named you E’dawn, right?”E’dawn, who’s been watching Hyuna with a dreamy smile on his face, takes a moment to consider. “I guess, but is it really all that important?”Hyuna interrupts before Hui can answer. She’s always been willing to get straight to the heart of the matter, lay her hand on the table, and deal with the consequences later. “I can start. My full name is Kim Hyuna.”“It’s not fair if you're already using your real name!” Hui complains, though he had already guessed this would be the case. He sneaks a backward glance to E’dawn, wondering if he knew all along.“I wasn’t the one who brought it up, Hwitaek.”Hui--Hwitaek--splutters. Another thing he couldn't have expected. “How do you know that?”E’dawn laughs. Hyuna just smiles.