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“Do you really think it’s a good idea for us to play in the same room?” Mark asked, glancing between his group of friends as he walked to the couch. He settled on the sofa beside Jeno, leaning against his boyfriend to get comfortable.
“I don’t see why not,” Chenle said. “As long as we all stay far away enough from each other to keep our phone screens hidden and don’t talk it’s fine.”
“I don’t wanna move,” Donghyuck whined from his perch on Jaemin’s lap.
“But babe, you have to for us to play,” Jaemin argued, running a hand through Donghyuck’s hair.
Mark laughed as Donghyuck glared up at Jaemin. He looked as if he was about five seconds away from biting Jaemin’s fingers—Mark wouldn’t put it past him to do it.
“We could try moving to different rooms?” Jisung offered, his tone rising at the end as he pointed to the kitchen.
“This is a studio apartment, what rooms?” Renjun laughed, earning a glare from Mark.
“There would still be two people in each room! What if the imposters end up together and plot against us!” Chenle shouted, standing up from his spot on the chair, knocking into Jisung on the arm rest.
“Chenle,” Jisung whined, rubbing his shoulder as he went ignored.
Mark glared at Renjun and Chenle, annoyed at being ganged up on. “Leave our apartment out of this, you know how expensive rent is.”
“They’re kind of right though babe. We literally decided not to get a cat because of the size of our apartment,” Jeno argued, defending Renjun.
“That doesn’t mean they need to make fun of our home,” Mark huffed, sitting up straight and pulling away from Jeno.
“No, Mark’s right,” Renjun said, walking up to Mark and laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Sorry Markie.”
“It’s okay,” Mark responded, reaching up and squeezing Renjun’s hand. “But you better watch out if I become imposter,” he warned, snickering
“Oooo so scary,” Renjun teased, shaking his hands in front of his chest in mock fear.
“We should start,” Jaemin said, jostling Donghyuck off of his lap, causing him to whine.
“If I’m the imposter I’m taking you out first Jaem,” Donghyuck grumbled, standing up and walking to sit in front of Mark and Jeno’s 30 gallon fish tank.
“Then we would all know who's the imposter,” Jisung laughed.
“And if we target Jaemin just to pin it on Hyuck?” Chenle responded, smirking at Jaemin.
“Why am I being victimized?” Jaemin bemoaned, sinking into the couch dramatically.
Renjun cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention away from Jaemin. “Should we start for real?” He waved his phone, among us open and loaded on a private waiting room.
They all nodded, Mark was about to move over to the other end of his and Jeno’s couch but before he could his boyfriend caught his arm. Jeno’s fingers dug lightly into Mark’s bicep, his nails leaving small indents in the skin.
“Sorry for not backing you up before,” Jeno whispered, his eyebrows furrowed, gazing at Mark apologetically.
Mark shook his head, placing his hand atop Jeno’s. “It’s okay, I was being over-sensitive.”
“No you weren’t,” Jeno argued vehemently, keeping his voice down. “You’re allowed to get upset.”
Mark could feel his face slacken in surprise, before he gave Jeno a gentle smile, his lips turning slightly upward as he leaned closer to Jeno. “I love you,” he whispered, placing a quick kiss on Jeno's cheek.
“I love you too,” Jeno said, voice barely audible as he smiled gently at Mark, the tension visibly draining from his shoulders.
“Hey love birds!” Donghyuck piped up, abruptly breaking the atmosphere. Mark and Jeno practically jumped apart, surprised. “You guys ready or what? We’re waiting on you.”
“Yeah…sorry,” Jeno said sheepishly, scooting over to the left side of the couch.
Mark followed his lead, moving over to the right side, far away enough that he wouldn’t see Jeno’s phone screen. Mark opened up the app loading the North America server before glancing up at Renjun. “What’s the code?”
“aytcvf.”
“Thanks dude,” Mark said, popping into the waiting room and selecting his color. Jeno got there just after Mark changed to blue.
“Rules before I start,” Renjun said, gaining everyone’s attention. “No talking out loud until after you die or during meetings, and you can’t say or hint at who the imposter is if you died, that’s cheating.”
Everyone choroused their consent, nodding as Renjun settled down into the bean bag chair on the floor. He started the game and everyone focused. Mark was surprised to see he and Jaemin were the imposters, but tried to keep his expression neutral. He was always the most obvious when he was imposter, especially since he was usually targeted first.
Donghyuck always said it’s what he got for being good at these games and being the first to figure out who the imposter was.
He had intended to stick close to Jaemin but he saw Renjun go off alone inside the skeld, he stopped for a few seconds, pretending to check the map to see if anyone followed and quickly running back down the same path Renjun had. He passed Renjun and quickly hit the kill button. Renjun yelped, involuntarily drawing everyone’s attention to him. Mark glanced at him but continued to run to the vent inside surveillance, afraid to be caught now that the others would probably be looking for Renjun. He managed to slip into it, barely avoiding being spotted by Jeno as he reached Renjun’s body on the edge of security.
Jeno reported the body and chaos broke loose as they all started arguing. Donghyuck and Jeno were talking over one another, incomprehensible amongst the arguing.
“Guys!” Renjun practically shouted, interrupting the arguing. “One at a time, c’mon.”
“Did you see anyone pass you Jeno?” Jaemin asked.
“No I didn’t,” he responded, frowning.
“Did anyone see someone follow him?” Jisung asked.
Chenle spoke up, looking at Jeno. “Where was he?”
“Outside surveillance, he was in front of the wires.”
“I didn’t see anyone go down that way,” Jaemin said. Everyone else echoed him and Mark followed quickly once he was sure no one had seen him, not wanting to contradict anyone.
Jaemin glanced at Mark, a small quirk to his brows but Mark did his best to ignore him, looking back out at the group, avoiding eye contact with Renjun. “Should we skip vote?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Jaemin said, supporting Mark. No one argued so Mark and Jaemin both hit skip vote, thankfully everyone other than Chenle had hit skip vote, however he selected the wrong person, voting for Jeno.
“What? Why me?” Jeno whined, looking at Chenle in betrayal.
“I think you self-reported,” Chenle said petulantly.
“I didn’t,” Jeno huffed, crossing his arms and pouting.
“Guys, the game started,” Donghyuck laughed.
Mark shook his head, focusing on the game as he followed Jaemin. The two of them ran together, but Jaemin jumped into a vent a few steps ahead of him. Mark was about to follow him when Jisung came around the corner. Mark continued to run, heading to the observation deck as Jisung skirted around him.
Mark ran onto the deck, standing by the board and pretending to do a task. Donghyuck came into the room. Mark turned around, ready to kill him but before he had the chance a body was reported.
The body on screen was Jisung’s. The youngest had done a better job of hiding his reaction to the kill than Renjun had, but maybe it had more to do with the fact Jaemin hadn’t given him time to react, having been the one to report the body himself.
“I found him by the trash chute,” Jaemin said, frowning as he looked at Jisung. Mark had to hold himself back from laughing. Jisung was obviously flustered, trying not to tip off that Jaemin was the imposter.
Mark glanced at Renjun and if the look on his face was anything to go by, he definitely knew Jaemin was the imposter.
Jeno, Chenle, and Donghyuck all appeared to be none the wiser though.
“Did anyone pass you on your way to the body?” Mark asked.
“No, I didn’t see anyone.”
“What if it was a self report?” Chenle said, narrowing his eyes at Jaemin.
“You always say it’s a self report Lele,” Donghyuck accused, rolling his eyes.
“What if he’s trying to throw us off because he’s the imposter,” Jeno gasped, glancing at Donghyuck conspiratorially.
“I would never!”
“You’ve done it before,” Mark accused, referencing their previous game together.
“Yeah but I wouldn’t do that two times in a row! That would make it too obvious!” Chenle argued.
“You know what, that's fair,” Jeno commiserated, nodding softly. Mark couldn’t help but coo at his boyfriend, holding his phone to his chest and reaching over to pinch Jeno’s arm.
“You’re so cute,” Mark said, laughing as he tugged at Jeno’s skin.
“Guys, focus,” Renjun said, redirecting them back to the game.
“I say vote Jaemin, or skip,” Chenle said. Everyone glanced around, trying to gauge the groups reaction. Mark looked down, tapping on his screen and voting for Chenle. When the vote ended there were two votes for Chenle, two for skip, and one for Jaemin. He and Jaemin had both voted Chenle.
“Why are you guys trying to off me! That's so unfair,” Chenle grumbled.
“All is fair in love and war!” Jaemin laughed, running off with Donghyuck and Jeno as the game started. Mark went the same direction as Chenle, it took him a while to catch up with him, trying to stay off of Chenle’s screen as he followed. When he finally caught up he killed him but the rest of the group ran into him just as he did, earning a screech from Chenle and Donghyuck at the same time.
“Mark Lee!” Donghyuck shouted, quickly running away. Mark followed Donghyuck and Jeno down the hallway but they ran into Jaemin who had been following them. Donghyuck passed Jaemin first and as he did, Jaemin killed him, ending the game.
“No,” Donghyuck whined, dragging out the ‘o’ as he flopped against the floor, falling with his head at an awkward angle against the fishtank stand. “Babe, why would you do this to me?”
“It was you or the game,” Jaemin said solemnly.
“You should have chosen the game!” Donghyuck yelped, sitting up and pointing a finger at Jaemin.
“I don’t know how you guys didn’t figure out it was Mark,” Renjun said, ignoring the arguing couple. “He literally said, and I quote you better watch out if I become imposter. Like how did you guys not put two and two together.”
“Mark never follows through on that stuff,” Jeno said, shrugging as he crawled over to Mark and leaned against him. “He’s usually all talk,” he teased, playfully poking Mark’s sides, causing him to wriggle.
“You’re only happy because you weren’t killed by your own boyfriend,” Donghyuck bemoaned. “Your own partner, your own lover, your own hole, your own d-”
“Donghyuck!” Jaemin yelped, standing up from the couch.
Renjun shook his head, muttering to himself as Jisung gaped at the two of them in shock.
“I’m surrounded by crazy gay people,” Mark shook his head.
“Babe, we’re crazy gay people,” Jeno laughed, poking him again.
“That’s not the point.”
Jeno shook his head, mollifying Mark as he placed a kiss to the shell of his ear. “Maybe, but you can’t get mad about being surrounded by crazy gay people—and Chenle—when we’re the crazy gay people.”
Chenle yelped, sitting up straight in his seat. “What do you mean and Chenle?”