Then comes love for candyd1ve
Title: Then comes love
For: candyd1ve
Pairing: Zico/B-Bomb
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: none
Word count: 10061 words
Summary: Jiho needs a job. Minhyuk can offer him exactly that, and possibly a little more.
Notes: i really hope you don't mind my take on the prompt and that you'll be able to enjoy this anyway - i kinda got carried away while writing ;; huge thanks to p and k, my lovely betas for their skills and moral support, it was definitely needed<3
Jiho comes into the same cafe at least once a week to work. He always orders something simple to drink, something cheap, and something he can take his time with so he has a reason to stay, and, depending on the time of the day and the weight of his wallet, he’ll have a small lunch too. He can’t afford to rent a studio every day to do his work; instead he sets himself up in his own small apartment. It’s very humble, but it works for the simple things. It suffices when he has to make samples and the likes, and if he has to be honest, he’s rather happy with it.
When he’s out like right now, he writes lyrics.
There are advantages in working out in public compared to when he’s locked up in a studio or his apartment. There’s no particular reason he chose this cafe other than it gives him free access to Wi-Fi. He finds inspiration in his surroundings. He always take a table at the window, his eyes often wandering from his notebook to the busy street outside, hundreds of people always passing by every day, each with their own story. He finds inspiration in the air, light and cool with the faint smell of food coming from the kitchen and the dish on the table next to him. He finds it in the sounds, the clatter of utensils and softly spoken words exchanged between the other customers, sometimes guilty of eavesdropping. When it gets too noisy, when that one group of friends comes into the cafe and speaks unnecessarily to each other a little too loudly, Jiho will pull on his headphones and suffocate the sounds with his own. It’s easy for him to isolate himself even in public.
His very first meeting with Minhyuk is inside that cafe. He’s just packed up his things and is on his way out when someone behind him drops something and it makes a loud, concerning sound as it hits the floor. He turns around, instinctively, to see what the cause of the sound is, and he walks right into the man in front of him. It’s only a soft collision, but it knocks the breath out of Jiho’s lungs and he drops the notebook in his hand, pages flying open in the air.
He gives a hurried apology while the other just drops down to pick up his notebook for him. It’s discreet, but Jiho sees his eyes skim over the context of the open pages, before he closes it and gives it back to Jiho.
“Thanks,” he says, taking it into his hands again.
“No problem,” the stranger replies. “What were you writing?”
“Lyrics.” He gives a short and direct reply, not really one to share his work with people he doesn’t know, people he doesn’t trust, but it’s not over yet.
“Oh, are you a singer or something?”
Jiho shakes his head, “Songwriter and producer sometimes. I rap mostly.”
“Have you made anything I know?”
He can think of a few songs he’s managed to sell some years ago, none that have ever made it to the top of any hit lists but are popular enough to be played in the radio and at the clubs for a short while. None of them he wants to talk about though. He hasn’t been happy with any of the songs that have come out in the end, the performers never capable of singing his lyrics right, the way they should be sung or understand them like he does. So he lies, saying no, though the probable answer would be a yes.
Jiho stuffs his notebook back into his bag where it’s safe and that’s the end of it. The two men go each their way without exchanging another word.
Jiho has a good memory, so the second time he meets Minhyuk, he recognises him almost right away. Almost, because it’s dark and he looks a little different, hair styled and eyeliner drawn thick around his eyes. Minhyuk recognises him too, pointing at him from where he stands and says something Jiho can’t hear through the music. The bass of the song makes the floor shake, and Jiho feels it in his body as well. He can feel the tremble in his chest and it travels through his entire body, from the tip of his toes and up to the top of his head as if he was nothing but a void. This is the night he learns Minhyuk’s name.
It’s not yet though, because now he’s being pulled away, deeper into the dance floor by someone Jiho assumes to be his friend, and he disappears out of sight in the crowd. It’s later, when he’s already long slipped away from Jiho’s mind, and the sky is a little lighter, just barely, and outside a different club.
“Do you know how to use a mixer?” he asks Jiho, almost shouting, though it isn’t needed outside, and Jiho has barely spoken out a reply, before he continues, “Do you want a job?”
Yes, Jiho would want a job very much, barely making enough to pay the rent of his apartment in his current situation. It’s not that he hasn’t ever been able to sell anything he has produced, but he hasn’t for a long time now. He had been too young and naive two years back, not realising he was being screwed over in terms of payment. It’s just that he’s not entirely certain he wants to take a job from this guy.
“Uh, sure,” he answers anyway, because he might as well hear him out, and he slips Jiho a card, telling him to call him about it, because his ride is here and his friends are already in the car and far too drunk to be patient.
He has a fucking card, is all Jiho can thinks, feeling the hard smooth paper between his fingers. It reads Lee Minhyuk in bold letters, but he turns it around before he reads any further. There’s a logo on the back, one he doesn’t recognise. He can’t recall having heard the name of the company either. He flips the card around and reads it again. This is how he learns Minhyuk’s name.
It’s 2 in the afternoon when Jiho wakes up with a groggy mind and a fatigued body. His hangover is pressing lightly against his forehead, but mostly it’s the nausea he feels in the pit of his stomach that’s bothering him right now. That, along with Kyung’s snoring from his couch. He sits up tiredly and rubs his eyes with the back of his hand, mind blank. It’s Sunday, he thinks slowly. It doesn’t mean anything, he doesn’t have any plans. It’s just another day. Sunday is just Sunday.
Jiho had completely forgotten about Minhyuk and the card until he finds it on the floor later in the evening. It’s fallen out of the pocket of his jacket when he threw it off and it’s been lying there for most of the day without his notice. He picks it up, momentarily wondering what it is until it comes back, his gaze falling to the inked words. With the card in his hand, the corners pressing into the pads of his index finger and thumb, he speculates what kind job Minhyuk could be offering him. He wishes he had found the card sooner, before Kyung had gone home, so he could’ve asked him about it.
He decides not to call the number today. It’s for a work phone, he figures, if not to an office, and it’s already past nine. Sunday at that too. He tries to remember if he’s ever heard the name of the company written on the card now that he has a clear head, but nothing comes to mind. Google has a lot of results in his place though and the first suggestion is their own official website, but Jiho clicks the second suggestion in the row, their wiki page. The page isn’t very long, so he reads through all of it, fast and carelessly. Hitting backspace, he returns to the Google results page and clicks on the first link, looking at the website, going into random pages there. He can’t think of any kind of job Minhyuk would want to offer him.
It’s Monday, one of those days where Jiho doesn’t feel like working and only wants to stay in bed and hide from the sunlight, but somehow he manages to pull himself out of bed before noon. He goes to work less than an hour later, a snack bar in his hand when he falls into the chair at his work desk. His home studio is situated in what’s supposed to be the bedroom in his apartment, but instead he’s built his studio in there, his bed instead in the living room that’s joint with his kitchen. He taps his hand against the wood of the table and takes a bite of his food, trying to figure out where to start his day. He doesn’t have an agenda today, nothing particular he’s thought about working on.
The business card, the one he got from Minhyuk is lying next to his mic. He had purposely put it there so he wouldn’t forget about it. Not that he has though, because he’s been thinking about it since he went to bed last night. He slides it closer to himself and finds his phone, dialling the number that’s written on the card, still clueless about what kind of job offer he’s going to get and only becomes more uncertain of the situation. He stares at the number when he’s done, making sure it’s the correct one, trying to gather his thoughts. He takes a deep breath and hits call. It rings twice before someone picks up. It’s Minhyuk on the other end of the phone, and Jiho is somehow surprised when he hears his voice. Had he expected someone else though?
“Hello, this is Woo Jiho,” he says into the phone, but then remembers that he’s never told him his name before, so he adds, “The producer.”
“Oh, yes!” Minhyuk answers, sounding happy.
“You said, you had a job for me?”
“Yes. I’m throwing a party on Friday, next Friday, and I was thinking of getting a DJ to take care of the music this time. Is that something you’d be able to do?”
Oh, is all Jiho thinks, falling silent. The job has nothing to do with the company he works at. He doesn’t know why Minhyuk is suggesting him to take a DJ job though, when he had presented himself as producer. Minhyuk had even seen his lyrics book.
“I’m not a DJ,” he says to clarify, then adds, “but yes, I can do it if you get the equipment for it.”
The pay Minhyuk offers him per hour is already a lot more than what Jiho used to earn when he tried DJ’ing in his teens, playing at private parties held by his friends or by the friends of his friends. He doesn’t know how rich Minhyuk is, but he knows enough to understand that he’s loaded, and it’s confirmed when Jiho tries to raise the pay, just to see if he can, and Minhyuk doesn’t show any signs of protest, agreeing right away. After they hang up, Jiho falls back into his chair, laughing incredulously, just quietly to himself and thinks about the money he’s just managed to pull in. He’s supposed to email Minhyuk a list of what he needs along with his bank account info so Minhyuk can transfer the money to him. Jiho glances at the business card with the email address.
Minhyuk sounds like one of those rich kids Jiho tries hard to not stereotype and judge but can’t help but to, except that Minhyuk isn’t really a kid. Jiho doesn’t know how old he is, but he knows he must be close to his own age, somewhere in his twenties, still very young, even with the fancy job description written on his card.
Jiho stretches his arms, cracks his knuckles and grabs the notepad at his side, a pen lying on top and starts writing. He writes about their society and the people in it, those who are surviving and those who are living the life. He writes about the misfits and the ones that have it too easy, those who are truly the ones without a place here. It’s aggressive, negative connotations and curses blending in naturally with the flow, but it's not only in the phrasing of the words. It's aggressive visually on the paper too, the pen pressing hard against the thin paper and making an imprint on the next page and faintly on the next ones too. His writing is messy, hand scribbling fast, sometimes too fast, and he has to go back to strike out words, sometimes entire verses, and the ink is messily smudged against the paper and his hand.
When he’s finished, he drops the pen and his fingers are sore. He flips it back to the first page, staring at the words as he leans forward, pressing the power button to his computer. He has something to record.
Minhyuk’s party starts at 9 o’clock, but Jiho is told to come early so he can set everything up. He takes the bus to Minhyuk’s house, to a district of town he never thought he’d find himself in. People like him, who can barely afford to pay the monthly rent of a one bedroom apartment located just outside of town, because central would be too expensive, don’t come to these neighbourhoods. He has to walk a little before he finds Minhyuk’s house, and he feels oddly self-conscious until he gets there, in a way he’s never experienced before. Even after he arrived, he still can’t shake off that feeling. Maybe it’s because he feels he’s strongly outnumbered and in strange territory. He shakes it off, tells himself that he doesn’t give a shit, and it’s not difficult to convince himself.
He’s pretty sure this isn’t Minhyuk’s own place when he’s let inside the port, his eyes continuously wandering as he steps further into the resident. It’s not Minhyuk who greets him when he enters through the front door, but someone from the staff of the household. She guides him up the stairs and through a long hall, then another, and Jiho wonders if he’ll be able to find his way out again later. He’s led into a big assembly room, more staff members busy setting up the decorations though Minhyuk is nowhere in sight. Jiho sees a table set up at the far end of the room, in the center close to the wall with everything he asked for. He doesn’t really want to, but upon seeing the equipment, he can’t help but feel a little excited, a smile pulling at his lips.
Jiho feels good. He’s had a few drinks, Minhyuk coming up to him and telling him he’s doing an amazing job with a beer in hand for him or something else that’s stronger and burns when it passes through his throat, even though he’s only been asking the staff for water. He’s having fun with what he’s doing, because even if he’s not one of the guests on the floor dancing and swaying to the music, he feels it too, enjoys it as much as them, and possibly even more. He plays songs from the charts, even the trashy ones, because it’s what people want to hear, some of the guests coming up to him with a song request. He plays some classics too, old hits he listened to when he was a teen and some from even before that. It riles his audience, just like he had hoped, some of the screaming in nostalgia. He mixes it all with some tracks he knows they couldn’t possibly have listened to or heard before as well, music they wouldn’t know unless they indulge in the genres. Some of them are timeless in Jiho’s own opinion, but they had never made it to the mainstream here. He can see it too, how they don’t recognise everything he’s playing, because he expects it, but it doesn’t matter to them, not as long as they can dance to it. Jiho has played a few of his own tracks, too. It was by Minhyuk’s request, or rather, it was a suggestion, when he’d come up to him the first time, and said, “Hey, why don’t you play some of your own stuff?”
He had added a few more things that Jiho couldn’t hear through the music, and he hadn’t bothered to ask Minhyuk to repeat it. When the song ended, he put on another one from the hit list and Minhyuk had shaken his head and left. Jiho had done it eventually though, three of them completely his own, even if a little unpolished, wondering if Minhyuk would be able to recognise his voice.
There’s a guy who’s been coming up to his table several times during the hours he’s been there that isn’t Minhyuk and he stays there for longer too. Jiho has seen him before, once, on the night Minhyuk was about to offer him this job and gave him his card. The man is very drunk, but he’s also very attractive, pretty eyes, little nose, and strong bone structure. There’s something very boyish about him that makes him look sweet, innocent, but the several piercings on both ears and the glint in his eyes tells him otherwise. He starts off by telling Jiho that the music he’s playing is awesome, or at least Jiho thinks that’s what he’s saying, because he can barely hear a word he’s shouting despite their proximity. He tries to converse with Jiho, but he really can’t hear shit, not even managing to get his name. The guy catches on and finds other ways to flirt with Jiho, running his hand through his hair, flashing him a big smile, tongue pressing teasingly against his teeth. Even after he leaves, Jiho finds him in the crowd sometimes, their eyes meeting once or twice. Jiho does his best to resist.
It’s past midnight, almost one in the morning, but the party is still far from dying out. Jiho leaves his table, needing some fresh air, because it’s hot and crowded in the room, and he’s only been out of it once to go to the bathroom. He’s walking down an empty hall, having had to ask someone for the way out, just turning a corner when someone crashes into him, almost knocking themselves over. Jiho grabs his arm just in time to save him from falling to the floor. It’s Minhyuk.
“What are you doing here?” asks Minhyuk, letting go of Jiho’s arm, swaying a little.
“Just giving myself a break,” he says, and Minhyuk nods.
“Tense?” he asks then and grabs Jiho’s arm again, pulling him across the room.
Jiho lets himself get dragged away, feet stumbling as he follows Minhyuk’s lead. He’s taken into a bathroom and pushed up against the door, Minhyuk pressing himself against him and making his back bounce back into the door. Minhyuk kisses him hard. It surprises Jiho so much he doesn’t even think about reacting and he freezes on the spot. When he blinks, Minhyuk’s lips are gone from his mouth, but he’s leaning heavily against him, bodies close and legs aligned.
His body reacts instantly, blood rushing through his veins and a tingling heat pooling down in the pit of his stomach. He presses back against Minhyuk and he doesn’t know what’s happening, but he lets it anyway, no reason in his head telling him to stop. Minhyuk lets out a soft sound, a sigh akin to a moan, and a click sounds when he locks the door behind Jiho. His hands find Jiho’s chest, resting there as he kisses him again, and then they travel down until they hook onto his jeans, fingers pulling at the thick material and pressing their hips together. He grinds against Jiho for just a short moment before he pulls back, fingers on his belt and unhooking it. The button on top comes undone quickly and the zipper is easily pulled down, though his fingers fumble a little.
Jiho’s jeans are yanked down to his knees along with his boxers and Minhyuk kneels down, taking his half hard cock into his hand and licking a hot stripe from the base to the tip, his tongue pressing against the slit. Jiho’s cock twitches and it doesn’t take him long to get fully hard with Minhyuk’s mouth on him. One of his hands are threading through Minhyuk’s hair while the other one is pressed against the door he’s leaning against, searching for some sort of leverage, his legs beginning to feel weak. He comes inside Minhyuk’s mouth with a shudder and the heat of it leaves his cock not long after, Minhyuk moving away from him. He spit into the sink and turns the water tab on, lowering his head, lips against the stream of water and cleans his mouth.
He stares at Minhyuk’s back bent over the sink, eyes wandering down to his ass before Jiho has a chance to catch himself in the act and resumes to pull his clothes back on. His body is heavy, the weight of it leaning against the flat surface and holding him up. Seconds later Minhyuk steps up to him again and the distance between them is short. Jiho has no idea what’s going to happen next, letting out a shaky breath, and Minhyuk leans forward, hand reaching out. The lock makes a soft sound when Minhyuk turns it open. He’s still looking Jiho in the eyes, and Jiho keeps the contact at he moves to the side, letting him open the door and exit the room, leaving Jiho alone.
What the fuck just happened?
“Your hair is blond,” Jiho says with wide eyes and Kyung smiles as he walks into Jiho’s apartment.
“Yeah, I got it done this weekend. It’s good, right? It suits me.”
“Yeah, but it’s… Blond.”
“So? You’ve had blond hair too,” he answers, throwing himself onto the couch.
“I know, but-” he halts, pausing, “I just hadn’t expected it, s’all. You didn’t say anything”
“I think it looks good, I look cute with this hair.”
“Right,” Jiho says, he’s not about to give him any compliments to worsen his ego.
“So, how was your big gig this weekend?” Kyung bounces in his seat after asking, and Jiho grins.
“I’ll tell you all about it over lunch. It’s on me.” That really seems to bring out a big smile from his friend. He owes Kyung a meal from when they went out for dinner a while ago, but he’s always making up excuses about paying it back. Kyung understands that Jiho’s always a bit short of money, so he doesn’t push him. However, he does keep whining about it.
“Seriously, that good? Damn.”
Jiho only smiles.
The first time Minhyuk calls him, Jiho’s only just stumbled out of bed and is looking for something to wear. The sound of his ringtone surprises him in his still sleepy state, and he squints his eyes when he reads the number on the screen, letting it ring another time. It’s not saved to his phone and he doesn’t know if he wants to take it, but it’s not like there’s any harm in it. He knows who it is as soon as he picks up, Minhyuk’s voice soft against his ear. He compliments Jiho for what he did Friday, like he had just before he’d left, but adding one more comment about how great his friends thought he was, so maybe Jiho should’ve seen it coming, but he doesn’t and he’s surprised when Minhyuk’s asks him for another DJ job this Saturday, to repeat the success.
Of course, Jiho doesn’t say no, but he hopes he doesn’t sound too eager when he says yes almost right off the bat. He hadn’t showed any sort of eager attitude the first time, and he doesn’t want to now either, but he does want the job pretty badly. He just wishes it was only for the money.
When Jiho arrives at Minhyuk’s house the second time, it’s only an hour before the party is supposed to begin. He knows the way this time, but there’s still a women at the door showing him the way inside. What surprises him is that Minhyuk is in the room, by one of the tables lined up, eyeing the welcome drinks. His eyes come to life upon seeing Jiho at the door and he takes one of the glasses and approaches him.
“Welcome,” Minhyuk says and hands him the colourful drink, his smirk small and lopsided. Jiho never noticed that he had a dimple up till now.
“Thanks,” he says and takes the glass. Minhyuk raises his brows, so Jiho lifts the glass to his lips, taking a sip, and he finally looks satisfied, leaving the room.
As the night progresses Jiho doesn’t see much of Minhyuk again. He comes up to him, but only twice, and Jiho tries to think of a way to make him stay there with him for a little longer, but there isn’t anything he can do. Technically, he’s on work and it’s almost impossible to speak over the music, so Minhyuk is gone from his side within seconds. The guy who flirted with him from the last time is there again, but Jiho barely pays him any mind, and the guy notices. He doesn’t bother to waste more time by going up to Jiho again. As for Jiho, he takes the liberty to leave his spot more often than the last time. His eyes scan the room, looking for Minhyuk and making sure he’s not in there and hopes he somehow runs into him. He doesn’t. Not even once. He finishes at three in the morning like they had agreed on, but unlike the first time no one comes up to him, the man he’s hoping to see is nowhere in sight. Even though Jiho pushes it another fifteen minutes as if he hadn’t noticed the time. The party continues even without the DJ, music still loud from the speakers and Jiho tells himself he isn’t disappointed.
It’s morning. Jiho doesn’t know what time it is, because he was sleeping, but it’s morning and his phone is ringing. He doesn’t know the number, but he also knows it isn’t Minhyuk, so he hopes, whoever it is, that they’ll make it short so he can go back to sleep. His voice is hoarse, raw from sleep when he speaks into the phone. The man introduces himself as Ahn Jaehyo, he’s one of Minhyuk’s friends, and he wants Jiho to come play at one of his own parties. He’ll pay as much as Minhyuk did, and that’s a hard one to resist, but the thing is that Jiho doesn’t actually want to go back to DJ’ing and taking a job from someone that isn’t Minhyuk means he might get more offers, which will be going back to that path. Yet, it’s good money.
He ends up saying yes to play for three hours at Jaehyo’s party in two weeks and tells him to ask Minhyuk to forward the first mail he sent him with what he needs and bank account info for the money. After hanging up, Jiho throws his phone away and falls back to bed, spreading his arms to the sides. He intends to go back to sleep, but it never comes, so he sits back up, checking the clock. It’s almost nine in the morning and way too early for him to be awake.
Hours later he’s writing in his usual cafe. There are more customers than usual, probably because he’s there earlier than what he’s used to. It’s only minutes to noon, lunch time. Breakfast for him. He’s writing lyrics, but not a song, the text written not working together. His inspiration level is at a low at the moment and it’s not long before he starts doodling on the pages instead of writing. He’s wearing his headphones, but he takes them off as they begin to feel uncomfortable. The voices are just a stream of noise until he focuses on one of them, the words “but I love you” that catch his attention. He tries not to turn his head as he looks over at the couple further down the cafe on his left side. The girl is breaking up with her boyfriend he realises.
For this, Jiho feels a little bad for eavesdropping, like he’s intruding, but he’s also a little worried. The guy isn’t taking the break-up very well, insisting that they should stay together, his voice rising while people around them are falling silent. Jiho feels himself twitch in annoyance, relieved when the girl suddenly stands up and is about to leave, but he tenses up immediately when the guy grabs her arm. He’s about to jump out of his seat and approach the scene, but stops himself when an employee is there in the split of a second. He argues with the man, who’s forced to leave in the end. The girl stays, still looking anxious when she sits down, but Jiho sees that she manages to smile at the employee when he asks her something, nodding her head and replying before he leaves her table. Falling back onto his chair, Jiho sighs and picks up his notebook and skips to a new page, glancing over at the girl before he starts writing.
There’s no beat or melody to the song he’s written. He looks over at the girl again. She’s finished with her coffee, he can tell from the way it’s pushed away from her body. With another sigh, he reads the lyrics again, trying to get a vision of what it’d sound like. It’s been long since he’s written something like this, about admiration and infatuation, about desire and about love. He reads it another time, liking it a little more each time and smiles. Maybe he can sell this one. It’s been a while.
Jaehyo doesn’t live in a mansion like Minhyuk does, but his place is still very big, very impressive. It’s his parents’ he explains, his own apartment wouldn’t be big enough or allow him to play music as loud as he wants to. Jiho just nods, not interested about the first world problems of the filthy rich. He doesn’t actually think Jaehyo means anything by it when he asks him if it’s true that he makes his own music, so he only gives a short yes as reply, but Jaehyo keeps asking, about some of the tracks he had played before because he hasn’t heard them before. He even asks if Jiho can play some of them for him right now so he can listen to them again before the party begins. He keeps Jiho company as he sets up his things and unexpectedly, after that as they wait for people to arrive. The first few come in around ten, but Jiho doesn’t start until eleven, so he’s told to just enjoy the party until then as long as he doesn’t get so wasted that he can’t DJ.
About a half hour into the party, Jiho notices Minhyuk. He hadn’t noticed his arrival, but he sees him now, dancing with some people he supposes are his friends. He contemplates walking over to him, but there’s also something inside of him that doesn’t want to bother, doesn’t want to get further involved with Minhyuk. What Jiho doesn’t know yet is that he’ll end up alone with Minhyuk in Jaehyo’s bedroom. It’s after he’s finished playing- Jaehyo has come up to him and told him he should stay because there’s someone he wants to introduce him to. It’s while he waits that Minhyuk comes up to him instead, complimenting him though it’s hard for Jiho to tell if he’s genuine or not. He drags Jiho with him, backing out of the room and Jiho follows willingly though he’s supposed to wait for Jaehyo to come back with that friend he wanted him to meet.
He’s on top of Minhyuk after he’s been pulled down to the bed by him, pressing their bodies together and he’s already hard, has been since before they fell onto the bed. He hisses when Minhyuk bucks his hips upwards, legs spread so he can fit between them. They both help Jiho’s shirt off and Minhyuk lets his hands smooth over his torso before he pulls him down again, pressing their lips together. They’re both naked within minutes and with Jiho almost sober he becomes too aware of how Minhyuk isn’t at all. There’s a nagging feeling in the back of his head, as if he’s taking advantage of him because he’s drunk, but then he’s suddenly pushed up in a sitting position, Minhyuk following him and sucking on his neck like he wants to bruise it, his hand wrapping around both of their cocks, and Jiho gets the feeling that he’s the one being used.
It’s hot in the room, and although Jiho suspects it to be bigger than his own apartment alone, it feels stuffy. He's panting, cursing under his breath as Minhyuk works their cocks, sliding them against each other, the underside of his cock pressing against Jiho’s. The friction is slicker after he smears their precome down the shafts and Jiho watches them and the way Minhyuk’s fingers ride up to squeeze lightly at the head. He stops watching when he throws his head back and gives a breathless moan, overwhelmed when Minhyuk begins to thrust into his own hand. His other hand comes up to cup the back of Jiho’s neck, pulling him in for a hard kiss. He kisses Minhyuk back, but it’s sloppy, the hand around them moving faster and more erratically, Jiho’s own movements becoming jerky as his orgasm approaches. The other moans softly against his mouth, sinking his teeth into his lower lip, sensitive and kiss swollen. Jiho comes in his hand, between their bodies with a small cry that Minhyuk swallows with another kiss. He keeps stroking them, helping Jiho through his release while he searches his own.
When they’re both spent, their bodies leaning heavily against each other and breaths calm again, Minhyuk pulls away, returning quickly with tissues in hand, apparently familiar with the room. They clean themselves up, Minhyuk throwing the used tissues away for them afterwards and then comes back to bed where Jiho’s still sitting, not knowing what to do with himself. Minhyuk seats himself in front of him and kisses him again. This time it’s slow, languid and Jiho melts into it, relaxing and circling his arms around Minhyuk’s lean body. The moment is ruined when they part and Minhyuk tells him that Jaehyo’s probably looking for him, like the thought suddenly occurred to him and Jiho almost jumps out of the bed. He pulls his clothes on quickly, stumbling while Minhyuk watches him in amusement, getting comfortable in the bed alone. He’s out of the room so fast he doesn’t see Minhyuk waving at him, playful smile on his lips.
Jiho has an audition today and it’s all thanks to Jaehyo. He’s still considering not to go even if he promised he would, because he’s not quite sure he wants to be part of an entertainment label that sells idols. He loves music and he wants to make a living of it, but he doesn’t know if being an idol is the way he wants to do it. In the end he goes, because a promise is a promise and he’s not the type to back out of one. Idol rappers don’t rap the way he does, and he knows he’s nailed his audition, not to sound arrogant, but of course they won’t tell him that straight to his face either. However, they do praise him and give him a briefing about why he should sign with them, why it’d be a good idea for him to sell them his soul.
What’s interesting is what happens after he’s left the room. He’s still uncertain whether he wants to sign anything with this label though he’s warmed up to the idea some more. Deep in thought on his way out of the building, he runs into Bang Yongguk, someone he knows by name from the underground scene. Yongguk recognises him too, because he stops Jiho in his tracks, curious to know what he’s doing here. He lets him know about the audition and his own reluctance, and Yongguk nods understandingly. He does understand, Jiho realises, so he accepts when Yongguk tells him he has a proposition for him and invites him to his studio. The decision turns out to be a good one, something that’ll later turn into the stepping stone of Jiho’s career.
Later, when Jiho is home and doing nothing in particular, he receives a text from Minhyuk. He can tell it’s from him, because it has his name at the bottom of the message, but it takes him about a minute to figure out that it’s sent from Minhyuk’s own private number. The message asks him to come over because of what Jiho knows to be a blatant cover for getting him to come over it and that alone makes him unwilling. Still, he’s wondering what Minhyuk wants from him and his curiosity gets the better of him in the end.
Jiho’s curiosity eventually leads him into Minhyuk’s room, his tee already off by the time Minhyuk pushes him down to his bed and crawls on top of him.
“Is this a good idea?” he catches himself asking, and Minhyuk stares at him, eyes big before he smiles at him innocently.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
Jiho’s only victory is that they’re both sober this time, and for once he remembers everything he’s learned about unprotected sex and STDs and asks Minhyuk if he’s got a condom. It’s the first time they fuck, foreplay cut short, and Jiho is thrusting into Minhyuk. He has his legs hooked around his waist until Jiho hoists them up to let them rest on his shoulders, leaning forward, so he can rock faster into him. He keeps fucking into him, slowing down again and keeping him on edge until he finally lets Minhyuk come all over himself, Jiho’s hand on his cock, back arching off the bed. The second time they fuck, four days later, happens because Minhyuk calls him again, this time more honest with what he wants from him. It’s a booty call, Jiho grasps while he’s on the phone with him, but he goes anyway. He retaliates by making one of his own the next week, feeling slightly triumphant when Minhyuk shows no signs of refusal even if it’s at Jiho’s place. Third time proves to be a charm.
In between the sex, Jiho also gets to learn more about the man other than his name. It’s after they fuck, but before they get dressed and one of them leaves that they begin to talk to each other. Minhyuk isn’t very talkative, and at first Jiho thinks it’s because he simply doesn't want to share anything with him about himself, but he soon learns that he’s simply a little quiet by nature. Most of the time, if Jiho asks him something, he’s not one to refuse to answer. He learns that Minhyuk’s position at the company he works at isn’t anything much, other than an empty title. His father owns the company he works at, which is how he got the job in the first place. He’s in university, studying to get his second bachelor degree, and then he’ll continue to get a master in the same subject. Minhyuk doesn’t seem the slightest bit offended when his intellect is questioned by Jiho. He doesn’t do a lot now, he explains, studying comes easy, but in twenty years or so, when his father is ready for retirement, he’ll be the new head of the company. It’s so ridiculously cliché in Jiho’s ears that he starts questioning what they’re doing, what he’s doing, because he’s only adding to the cliché, the unpolished and financially troubled guy Minhyuk seeks excitement in. Or something like that. Despite it all, they don’t stop, calling each other at least twice a week.
Things begin to become more complicated after a couple of months, and Jiho doesn’t notice until he realises he finding the time to spend with Minhyuk. In the beginning they’d get together if they were both free, drop it if if they weren’t, but Jiho is finding himself cancelling on Jihoon, because Minhyuk just called literally ten minutes ago, saying he was in the neighbourhood. Maybe it’s because lately Jiho gets to see Minhyuk smile too, hear his laugh and feel the vibrations of it against his own chest, making his heart race. Kyung hasn’t met Minhyuk, but he knows about him and he calls him Jiho’s fuck buddy. That’s what they are, but Jiho knows he’s in trouble when he starts thinking about Minhyuk’s eyes and the way he speaks instead of about his ass or his thighs.
It’s already pretty bad that he’s been writing more lately and it’s all about Minhyuk. Some of it isn’t very different from what he first wrote after meeting him. They’re tracks about who he is, not as a person, but as a man in the city they share, what kind of role he has there, but some of them are about their relationship. He has lyrics written in his notebook about what they have, but the problem is that some of them are about what they don’t have, what Jiho wishes they were to each other. He has verses that embarrass him the second time he reads them, because he realises what and who are about, lyrics he can’t muster to throw away, because they’re damn good. It gets worse when he lets Yongguk read through them while they’re working on their collaboration and he’s doing it with a smile, asking him if the songs revolves around anyone specific.
The cliché spirals.
Minhyuk is a good dancer and although Jiho has already figured that out by himself from listening to him talk about it, he finally gets to experience it one night. It’s not the kind of dancing Minhyuk has spoken to him about though. They’re at a club, not together, Minhyuk dancing out on the floor, Jiho seated at a table with Jihoon to his left and the remnants of Kyung’s beer to his right. He stares at him from where he sits, making sure it’s not just his imagination and Jihoon tries to see where he’s looking, who he’s looking at, but gives up when Jiho turns his head and refuses to tell him. In an attempt to distract his friend, Jiho forces a conversation between them, and when he looks over to the dance floor again, Minhyuk is gone.
He’s alone when Minhyuk joins his table about twenty minutes later, Jihoon in the restroom while Kyung had never returned after going there a half hour ago. Minhyuk has a beer in his hand, the glass full and some of it almost spills over as he puts it down on the table. Jiho doesn’t know how long they speak, his sense of time completely gone, but Minhyuk has finished his beer and he stands, ready to leave.
“Dance with me?” he shouts, pointing to the background, and Jiho shakes his head. He’s not a dancer, and his friends’ drinks are still on the table. Stepping over to his side of the table, Minhyuk grabs the collar of his shirt and leans down, kissing him with parted lips, tongue licking against Jiho’s bottom lip. He mouths a “please” against him and Jiho desperately wants to say yes, but his body decides to shake his head no instead.
They do end up dancing together that night, but it turns into something closer to grinding against each other to the beat of the song blasting through the speakers. Jiho has his lips pressed to the top of Minhyuk’s jaw, just below his ear and he’s not hard, but he’s slowly getting there. Minhyuk doesn’t drag him to the direction of the restroom like Jiho had expected him to after the song has finished, instead pulling them outside, the chilly wind of autumn hitting them straight on, and pushes him against a wall in some random alley, kissing him hard. Someone shouts at them, Jiho knows it’s at them, and it fuels him, his hand travelling to Minhyuk’s ass, squeezing it and pressing him closer.
They don’t do anything more than that, and by the end of the night, not one of them has gotten off. It’s another first, but neither of them notice.
One afternoon, on a day that’s started out no different than any other, Minhyuk calls him and for once it’s not for a fuck. His birthday is coming up and he’s celebrating, his point being that he wants Jiho to attend. Apparently he’s able to sense Jiho’s stress regarding a present, or perhaps he just knows him so well at this point he sees it coming, the idea unnerving him slightly, because Minhyuk tells him not to worry about it.
Jiho is about as nervous at meeting Minhyuk’s friends as he’d be if it was his parents he was meeting. He only knows a few of them by name and the only one he’s even the littlest bit familiar with is Jaehyo. It comforts Jiho that he knows Jaehyo is friendly. He hopes the others are too. He wonders if they know about their relationship, what kind of relationship it is and finds that he both worries and that he doesn’t care at the same time.
He’s by far not one of the first to arrive, but he’s seen Minhyuk’s parties before and he knows there’ll be more. He sees the gift table, boxes and packages in all kinds of sizes, and he feels guilty again for not buying a present. Jiho celebrates him in his own way when the party is over, in the only way he can, staying the night, not unlike some of the others, but, and as the only one, in Minhyuk’s own bed, a fist in his hair as he fucks him into the mattress. That’s later though. The present calls for Jiho to behave and think straight. He’s surprised when some of Minhyuk’s friends recognise him from the last time he was there even though it was months and months ago, asking him if he’s there to DJ again. To their disappointment he’s not, but it doesn't lessen their interest in him.
The more he speaks to the guests there, the more Jiho realises how different his and Minhyuk’s lives are, and he tries not to talk and interact with too many of the guests. He spends a lot time speaking with a short guy named Taeil. He doesn’t make Jiho as uncomfortable, doesn’t really talk like the other high society class people he’s met there so far, and, most importantly, Taeil likes music. Jiho is in the middle of trying to convince him to sing for him when their conversation is interrupted. At that time, he figures out that no one there knows about him and Minhyuk when a familiar face presents himself to him as Yukwon and begins to flirt with him. He doesn’t know whether the confirmation is a relief or not. Yukwon is a name that Jiho recognises, almost always mentioned every time Minhyuk talks about his friends. He hasn’t seen much of Minhyuk tonight, understandable considering it’s his party and he’s the center of it, but he’s suddenly there now, between him and Yukwon. It takes Yukwon some minutes and a few less subtle hints before he gets that Minhyuk wants him to lay his hands off Jiho. Jiho has to bite his lip from stopping himself from smiling.
He hasn’t figured out how to do it yet, but he feels that he ought to return Minhyuk’s favour and introduce him to some of his own friends. He can’t do it like Minhyuk did, his birthday having already passed months ago and, honestly, he’s not about to throw one himself anyway. He’s not sure if it’d be appropriate to invite him to someone else’s party either- wouldn’t that be like bringing him as a date of some sort? He’s not sure if Minhyuk would like that and he easily discards the idea. He finds his answer while he’s at home, working, listening to a record, when Kyung storms into his apartment. Jiho often regrets giving him the spare key and now is one of those times.
That’s where the idea springs. Kyung is very eager to meet Minhyuk, has been for a small while now, and though he doesn’t have anything against preventing Jiho from getting laid, he’s not very into the idea of walking in on him in the middle of it. There’s no real way to time it, but Kyung decides to risk it, for the greater good, and the outcome is Kyung walking into Jiho’s home every other day at different times in hopes of finding Minhyuk there. Jiho has told him that he’s probably able to give him a few pointers, maybe even tell him exactly when he should be there, but his friend has already decided to make a game of it, continuously disturbing him for two weeks until one day he arrives there only short minutes after Jiho has made himself and Minhyuk come. Their breaths have settled, but they’re still naked on his bed, and Jiho, having momentarily forgotten about Kyung’s personal mission, shouts out when he stomps inside. Minhyuk jumps, mostly because he’s surprised by the loud “fuck” Jiho explains, and he covers himself up, watching the display with a mix of confusion and amusement. That’s how Minhyuk meets his best friend.
Jiho hopes it’ll never happen again.
Jiho can’t remember the last time he was on a stage, and he’s never been on one as big as this or performed in front of as many people he is now. Adrenaline is rushing through his body and the screams of the audience adds to his ecstasy as he speaks into his mic. There’s more screaming, more yelling, and Jiho feels amazing. He had recorded two tracks with Yongguk, generally aiding with the rest of the album, and one of their collaborations had been released as a single, well received and hitting the top of the charts, much to his own, but not Yongguk’s surprise. Now he’s performing at a concert, although not his own, and the venue is huge, filled with people who are cheering for him as well.
A little less than an hour later, Yongguk joins him backstage, today's concert over. He's still sweating, unlike Jiho who's had time to dry up, and even if the concert has exhausted him, Yongguk’s spirit is still at the roof.
"So how'd you like being on stage?" Yongguk asks him.
"It was… Incredible. Thank you so much," he replies genuinely and he can't help but smile back.
"Great, I'm happy to hear that because there's something I want to ask you," he says, pausing to hear if Jiho has something to say first, but he only waits. "The tour has some stops around Asia, as you know, and I was wondering if you'd come with me and perform our song, in Japan."
Jiho cracks a big grin before he has a chance to stop himself, already excited. Yongguk has two stops in Japan with one day between them, which calls for Jiho to spend four days in Japan. He makes his own arrangements, expanding the trip to three weeks instead. He’s always wanted to go to Japan and he finally has the money to afford it.
Minhyuk stops by Jiho’s place around six in the evening the day before he leaves. He had sent a text beforehand, letting him know he’d be there, but he’s there much earlier than promised, and to Jiho’s surprise he’s brought dinner for both of them, the water he’s just finished boiling for his instant ramen going to waste. Minhyuk’s begun doing that lately, bringing him food when he stops by, but normally he announces it, usually asking Jiho if he’s already eaten yet. It’s always sex first, then eating dinner together after Minhyuk has borrowed his shower, and Jiho has learned to reheat the food in the meanwhile to save time, because it’s never hot anymore by the time they’re done.
Tonight, when Minhyuk comes out of the shower, a towel around his hips, Jiho is on the bed, thinking about tomorrow as he waits for his microwave to finish. Minhyuk seats himself on the edge of his bed, back facing him and Jiho lets his eyes wander the length of his spine, travelling down the distinct path and he’s curious to know how Minhyuk would react if he embraced him now, if he asked him to stay the night, but he doesn’t have the courage. The microwave beeps, and they both stir at the sound, Minhyuk getting up from the bed to fetch their food. The moment is lost.
Jiho follows Yongguk to the airport to bid him goodbye though he’s staying in the country for a little while longer, because he might as well, needing to check out of the hotel too. He can’t afford to stay there by himself, it has too many stars. He hasn’t made a lot of arrangements yet for what he’ll be doing for the next two weeks and a half, but he’s booked a new hotel and he’s hoping they can help him out a bit. There are definitely some places he needs to see and experience while he’s there, miles to travel.
He hasn’t been thinking about Minhyuk a lot, except for the fact that he does keep thinking about how he hasn’t seen him for what feels like a long time and how won’t be able to see him again until he gets back home. His phone has been quiet for two entire weeks, no texts or incoming calls, and neither does he make any calls of his own, simply updating his SNS to let his family and friends know that he’s still breathing and safe. Japan in itself is a good distraction, keeping his body and mind both busy and distracted until he gets back to his hotel room. He’s not lonely, not at all, but being alone isn’t easy once you’ve started being sexually active again. That’s all it is, of course. Sexual deprivation.
Minhyuk has it too it turns out, because he calls him a day later. He’s polite enough to ask how Jiho is doing and what he’s been up to before he asks him when he’s coming back. The line goes quiet after he answers and for a moment he think the connection died or that Minhyuk has hung up on him, but then he speaks up again, surprising Jiho.
“What are you wearing right now?”
The flight from Tokyo back home takes little more than 2 hours, but Jiho sleeps almost the entire way. He wakes up during the landing, feeling more tired and more exhausted than he did when he had gotten on the plane. He squirms in his seat, wants to push it down again, but he’s forced to keep it at an upright position. Taking his time getting out of the plane, he tries to gather a bit of energy, feel a little excited about going home. It helps a bit once he’s gotten out of the plane and away from the stiff air. There’s a text from Kyung waiting for him when he turns on his phone and he’s disappointed to see that Kyung isn’t coming to pick him up like he had promised, sending Jihoon in his place instead. The message doesn’t offer any explanation, but it doesn't matter as long as someone comes to get him. He sends a text to Jihoon, telling him he’s arrived and waiting for his luggage, asking him if he’s there yet and when he doesn’t receive an immediate reply, he assumes he’s still on his way.
His eyes find Jihoon as soon as he’s out of the exit door, too tall to go unnoticed, his sense of fashion quite eye-catching as well. He greets Jiho with a hug that’s a little too tight for comfort, but he takes it with a smile, hugging his friend back. He feels a little better as they get into the car, Jihoon’s bright mood affecting his own. Jihoon asks him about the concerts, about the time he spent alone, and he’s not finished telling him about it by the time they reach his apartment, so Jiho invites him up to finish his story-telling and for a cup of whatever he has left in his kitchen that isn’t too old, but Jihoon declines, having his own plans for the night. This also means that Jiho has to drag his luggage up the stairs by himself, but he manages, eventually, breath short when he’s finally in front of his door.
Home looks exactly the way he left it, or at least it does at first glance, until he steps into his apartment, turning the corner out of the short entry and catches sight of his visitor. Minhyuk is lying on his bed, legs bent off the side with his feet touching the floor, his arms stretched and his phone in his hands, fingers tapping the touch screen. He cranes his head to see Jiho, his entrance impossible to go unnoticed. Jiho stops, surprised and very confused.
“How’d you get in?” he asks, and Minhyuk pushes himself up to face him, putting his phone away.
“Your friend Park Kyung.” Jiho snorts. Right, it had to be him.
“How long have you been waiting?”
Minhyuk checks his clock, shrugging when he answers. “An hour.”
Jiho seats himself next to Minhyuk on the bed, their bodies turning to face each other, and Minhyuk leans in, kissing him slowly, their lips moving against each other. His hands are on Jiho’s waist and Jiho’s own arms wrap around Minhyuk, and he takes a deep breath through his nose before he’s pulling him closer. He heaves him up to sit on his lap, craving the physical contact, and Minhyuk follows him willingly. His fingers are soft against his skin where they’ve slipped under the hem of Jiho’s tee, tickling him lightly as they ride up the sides of his waist, feeling the bumps of each rib. When he pulls away, their eyes meeting, Minhyuk looks at him expectantly, like he’s ready to have him flip them over, or maybe like he’s ready to do it himself and drag Jiho down with him on the bed, but Jiho stops him before they get that far.
“Tired,” he mumbles and presses their foreheads together, resting against the other. He feels like the exhaustion he’s been building up ever since he went to Japan is finally beginning to crash over him. Half expecting Minhyuk to push on and half expecting him to leave, he’s surprised when he does neither, instead sighing, his hands still on Jiho’s waist as he lays them down on the bed. Silently he hugs him a little closer and Jiho shifts his body, edging closer to Minhyuk and making himself comfortable. His eyes feel heavier with each passing second and he finds himself comfortable like this, in Minhyuk’s arms, the heat of his body like a soft blanket, the sound of his breath lulling him to sleep quickly. Minhyuk isn’t far behind him, his body relaxing where he comfortably lies, his eyes falling close, and just like that, only a couple of minutes past 4 o’clock, the sun still high in the sky, the two of them fall asleep together. For the very first time.
For: candyd1ve
Pairing: Zico/B-Bomb
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: none
Word count: 10061 words
Summary: Jiho needs a job. Minhyuk can offer him exactly that, and possibly a little more.
Notes: i really hope you don't mind my take on the prompt and that you'll be able to enjoy this anyway - i kinda got carried away while writing ;; huge thanks to p and k, my lovely betas for their skills and moral support, it was definitely needed<3
Jiho comes into the same cafe at least once a week to work. He always orders something simple to drink, something cheap, and something he can take his time with so he has a reason to stay, and, depending on the time of the day and the weight of his wallet, he’ll have a small lunch too. He can’t afford to rent a studio every day to do his work; instead he sets himself up in his own small apartment. It’s very humble, but it works for the simple things. It suffices when he has to make samples and the likes, and if he has to be honest, he’s rather happy with it.
When he’s out like right now, he writes lyrics.
There are advantages in working out in public compared to when he’s locked up in a studio or his apartment. There’s no particular reason he chose this cafe other than it gives him free access to Wi-Fi. He finds inspiration in his surroundings. He always take a table at the window, his eyes often wandering from his notebook to the busy street outside, hundreds of people always passing by every day, each with their own story. He finds inspiration in the air, light and cool with the faint smell of food coming from the kitchen and the dish on the table next to him. He finds it in the sounds, the clatter of utensils and softly spoken words exchanged between the other customers, sometimes guilty of eavesdropping. When it gets too noisy, when that one group of friends comes into the cafe and speaks unnecessarily to each other a little too loudly, Jiho will pull on his headphones and suffocate the sounds with his own. It’s easy for him to isolate himself even in public.
His very first meeting with Minhyuk is inside that cafe. He’s just packed up his things and is on his way out when someone behind him drops something and it makes a loud, concerning sound as it hits the floor. He turns around, instinctively, to see what the cause of the sound is, and he walks right into the man in front of him. It’s only a soft collision, but it knocks the breath out of Jiho’s lungs and he drops the notebook in his hand, pages flying open in the air.
He gives a hurried apology while the other just drops down to pick up his notebook for him. It’s discreet, but Jiho sees his eyes skim over the context of the open pages, before he closes it and gives it back to Jiho.
“Thanks,” he says, taking it into his hands again.
“No problem,” the stranger replies. “What were you writing?”
“Lyrics.” He gives a short and direct reply, not really one to share his work with people he doesn’t know, people he doesn’t trust, but it’s not over yet.
“Oh, are you a singer or something?”
Jiho shakes his head, “Songwriter and producer sometimes. I rap mostly.”
“Have you made anything I know?”
He can think of a few songs he’s managed to sell some years ago, none that have ever made it to the top of any hit lists but are popular enough to be played in the radio and at the clubs for a short while. None of them he wants to talk about though. He hasn’t been happy with any of the songs that have come out in the end, the performers never capable of singing his lyrics right, the way they should be sung or understand them like he does. So he lies, saying no, though the probable answer would be a yes.
Jiho stuffs his notebook back into his bag where it’s safe and that’s the end of it. The two men go each their way without exchanging another word.
Jiho has a good memory, so the second time he meets Minhyuk, he recognises him almost right away. Almost, because it’s dark and he looks a little different, hair styled and eyeliner drawn thick around his eyes. Minhyuk recognises him too, pointing at him from where he stands and says something Jiho can’t hear through the music. The bass of the song makes the floor shake, and Jiho feels it in his body as well. He can feel the tremble in his chest and it travels through his entire body, from the tip of his toes and up to the top of his head as if he was nothing but a void. This is the night he learns Minhyuk’s name.
It’s not yet though, because now he’s being pulled away, deeper into the dance floor by someone Jiho assumes to be his friend, and he disappears out of sight in the crowd. It’s later, when he’s already long slipped away from Jiho’s mind, and the sky is a little lighter, just barely, and outside a different club.
“Do you know how to use a mixer?” he asks Jiho, almost shouting, though it isn’t needed outside, and Jiho has barely spoken out a reply, before he continues, “Do you want a job?”
Yes, Jiho would want a job very much, barely making enough to pay the rent of his apartment in his current situation. It’s not that he hasn’t ever been able to sell anything he has produced, but he hasn’t for a long time now. He had been too young and naive two years back, not realising he was being screwed over in terms of payment. It’s just that he’s not entirely certain he wants to take a job from this guy.
“Uh, sure,” he answers anyway, because he might as well hear him out, and he slips Jiho a card, telling him to call him about it, because his ride is here and his friends are already in the car and far too drunk to be patient.
He has a fucking card, is all Jiho can thinks, feeling the hard smooth paper between his fingers. It reads Lee Minhyuk in bold letters, but he turns it around before he reads any further. There’s a logo on the back, one he doesn’t recognise. He can’t recall having heard the name of the company either. He flips the card around and reads it again. This is how he learns Minhyuk’s name.
It’s 2 in the afternoon when Jiho wakes up with a groggy mind and a fatigued body. His hangover is pressing lightly against his forehead, but mostly it’s the nausea he feels in the pit of his stomach that’s bothering him right now. That, along with Kyung’s snoring from his couch. He sits up tiredly and rubs his eyes with the back of his hand, mind blank. It’s Sunday, he thinks slowly. It doesn’t mean anything, he doesn’t have any plans. It’s just another day. Sunday is just Sunday.
Jiho had completely forgotten about Minhyuk and the card until he finds it on the floor later in the evening. It’s fallen out of the pocket of his jacket when he threw it off and it’s been lying there for most of the day without his notice. He picks it up, momentarily wondering what it is until it comes back, his gaze falling to the inked words. With the card in his hand, the corners pressing into the pads of his index finger and thumb, he speculates what kind job Minhyuk could be offering him. He wishes he had found the card sooner, before Kyung had gone home, so he could’ve asked him about it.
He decides not to call the number today. It’s for a work phone, he figures, if not to an office, and it’s already past nine. Sunday at that too. He tries to remember if he’s ever heard the name of the company written on the card now that he has a clear head, but nothing comes to mind. Google has a lot of results in his place though and the first suggestion is their own official website, but Jiho clicks the second suggestion in the row, their wiki page. The page isn’t very long, so he reads through all of it, fast and carelessly. Hitting backspace, he returns to the Google results page and clicks on the first link, looking at the website, going into random pages there. He can’t think of any kind of job Minhyuk would want to offer him.
It’s Monday, one of those days where Jiho doesn’t feel like working and only wants to stay in bed and hide from the sunlight, but somehow he manages to pull himself out of bed before noon. He goes to work less than an hour later, a snack bar in his hand when he falls into the chair at his work desk. His home studio is situated in what’s supposed to be the bedroom in his apartment, but instead he’s built his studio in there, his bed instead in the living room that’s joint with his kitchen. He taps his hand against the wood of the table and takes a bite of his food, trying to figure out where to start his day. He doesn’t have an agenda today, nothing particular he’s thought about working on.
The business card, the one he got from Minhyuk is lying next to his mic. He had purposely put it there so he wouldn’t forget about it. Not that he has though, because he’s been thinking about it since he went to bed last night. He slides it closer to himself and finds his phone, dialling the number that’s written on the card, still clueless about what kind of job offer he’s going to get and only becomes more uncertain of the situation. He stares at the number when he’s done, making sure it’s the correct one, trying to gather his thoughts. He takes a deep breath and hits call. It rings twice before someone picks up. It’s Minhyuk on the other end of the phone, and Jiho is somehow surprised when he hears his voice. Had he expected someone else though?
“Hello, this is Woo Jiho,” he says into the phone, but then remembers that he’s never told him his name before, so he adds, “The producer.”
“Oh, yes!” Minhyuk answers, sounding happy.
“You said, you had a job for me?”
“Yes. I’m throwing a party on Friday, next Friday, and I was thinking of getting a DJ to take care of the music this time. Is that something you’d be able to do?”
Oh, is all Jiho thinks, falling silent. The job has nothing to do with the company he works at. He doesn’t know why Minhyuk is suggesting him to take a DJ job though, when he had presented himself as producer. Minhyuk had even seen his lyrics book.
“I’m not a DJ,” he says to clarify, then adds, “but yes, I can do it if you get the equipment for it.”
The pay Minhyuk offers him per hour is already a lot more than what Jiho used to earn when he tried DJ’ing in his teens, playing at private parties held by his friends or by the friends of his friends. He doesn’t know how rich Minhyuk is, but he knows enough to understand that he’s loaded, and it’s confirmed when Jiho tries to raise the pay, just to see if he can, and Minhyuk doesn’t show any signs of protest, agreeing right away. After they hang up, Jiho falls back into his chair, laughing incredulously, just quietly to himself and thinks about the money he’s just managed to pull in. He’s supposed to email Minhyuk a list of what he needs along with his bank account info so Minhyuk can transfer the money to him. Jiho glances at the business card with the email address.
Minhyuk sounds like one of those rich kids Jiho tries hard to not stereotype and judge but can’t help but to, except that Minhyuk isn’t really a kid. Jiho doesn’t know how old he is, but he knows he must be close to his own age, somewhere in his twenties, still very young, even with the fancy job description written on his card.
Jiho stretches his arms, cracks his knuckles and grabs the notepad at his side, a pen lying on top and starts writing. He writes about their society and the people in it, those who are surviving and those who are living the life. He writes about the misfits and the ones that have it too easy, those who are truly the ones without a place here. It’s aggressive, negative connotations and curses blending in naturally with the flow, but it's not only in the phrasing of the words. It's aggressive visually on the paper too, the pen pressing hard against the thin paper and making an imprint on the next page and faintly on the next ones too. His writing is messy, hand scribbling fast, sometimes too fast, and he has to go back to strike out words, sometimes entire verses, and the ink is messily smudged against the paper and his hand.
When he’s finished, he drops the pen and his fingers are sore. He flips it back to the first page, staring at the words as he leans forward, pressing the power button to his computer. He has something to record.
Minhyuk’s party starts at 9 o’clock, but Jiho is told to come early so he can set everything up. He takes the bus to Minhyuk’s house, to a district of town he never thought he’d find himself in. People like him, who can barely afford to pay the monthly rent of a one bedroom apartment located just outside of town, because central would be too expensive, don’t come to these neighbourhoods. He has to walk a little before he finds Minhyuk’s house, and he feels oddly self-conscious until he gets there, in a way he’s never experienced before. Even after he arrived, he still can’t shake off that feeling. Maybe it’s because he feels he’s strongly outnumbered and in strange territory. He shakes it off, tells himself that he doesn’t give a shit, and it’s not difficult to convince himself.
He’s pretty sure this isn’t Minhyuk’s own place when he’s let inside the port, his eyes continuously wandering as he steps further into the resident. It’s not Minhyuk who greets him when he enters through the front door, but someone from the staff of the household. She guides him up the stairs and through a long hall, then another, and Jiho wonders if he’ll be able to find his way out again later. He’s led into a big assembly room, more staff members busy setting up the decorations though Minhyuk is nowhere in sight. Jiho sees a table set up at the far end of the room, in the center close to the wall with everything he asked for. He doesn’t really want to, but upon seeing the equipment, he can’t help but feel a little excited, a smile pulling at his lips.
Jiho feels good. He’s had a few drinks, Minhyuk coming up to him and telling him he’s doing an amazing job with a beer in hand for him or something else that’s stronger and burns when it passes through his throat, even though he’s only been asking the staff for water. He’s having fun with what he’s doing, because even if he’s not one of the guests on the floor dancing and swaying to the music, he feels it too, enjoys it as much as them, and possibly even more. He plays songs from the charts, even the trashy ones, because it’s what people want to hear, some of the guests coming up to him with a song request. He plays some classics too, old hits he listened to when he was a teen and some from even before that. It riles his audience, just like he had hoped, some of the screaming in nostalgia. He mixes it all with some tracks he knows they couldn’t possibly have listened to or heard before as well, music they wouldn’t know unless they indulge in the genres. Some of them are timeless in Jiho’s own opinion, but they had never made it to the mainstream here. He can see it too, how they don’t recognise everything he’s playing, because he expects it, but it doesn’t matter to them, not as long as they can dance to it. Jiho has played a few of his own tracks, too. It was by Minhyuk’s request, or rather, it was a suggestion, when he’d come up to him the first time, and said, “Hey, why don’t you play some of your own stuff?”
He had added a few more things that Jiho couldn’t hear through the music, and he hadn’t bothered to ask Minhyuk to repeat it. When the song ended, he put on another one from the hit list and Minhyuk had shaken his head and left. Jiho had done it eventually though, three of them completely his own, even if a little unpolished, wondering if Minhyuk would be able to recognise his voice.
There’s a guy who’s been coming up to his table several times during the hours he’s been there that isn’t Minhyuk and he stays there for longer too. Jiho has seen him before, once, on the night Minhyuk was about to offer him this job and gave him his card. The man is very drunk, but he’s also very attractive, pretty eyes, little nose, and strong bone structure. There’s something very boyish about him that makes him look sweet, innocent, but the several piercings on both ears and the glint in his eyes tells him otherwise. He starts off by telling Jiho that the music he’s playing is awesome, or at least Jiho thinks that’s what he’s saying, because he can barely hear a word he’s shouting despite their proximity. He tries to converse with Jiho, but he really can’t hear shit, not even managing to get his name. The guy catches on and finds other ways to flirt with Jiho, running his hand through his hair, flashing him a big smile, tongue pressing teasingly against his teeth. Even after he leaves, Jiho finds him in the crowd sometimes, their eyes meeting once or twice. Jiho does his best to resist.
It’s past midnight, almost one in the morning, but the party is still far from dying out. Jiho leaves his table, needing some fresh air, because it’s hot and crowded in the room, and he’s only been out of it once to go to the bathroom. He’s walking down an empty hall, having had to ask someone for the way out, just turning a corner when someone crashes into him, almost knocking themselves over. Jiho grabs his arm just in time to save him from falling to the floor. It’s Minhyuk.
“What are you doing here?” asks Minhyuk, letting go of Jiho’s arm, swaying a little.
“Just giving myself a break,” he says, and Minhyuk nods.
“Tense?” he asks then and grabs Jiho’s arm again, pulling him across the room.
Jiho lets himself get dragged away, feet stumbling as he follows Minhyuk’s lead. He’s taken into a bathroom and pushed up against the door, Minhyuk pressing himself against him and making his back bounce back into the door. Minhyuk kisses him hard. It surprises Jiho so much he doesn’t even think about reacting and he freezes on the spot. When he blinks, Minhyuk’s lips are gone from his mouth, but he’s leaning heavily against him, bodies close and legs aligned.
His body reacts instantly, blood rushing through his veins and a tingling heat pooling down in the pit of his stomach. He presses back against Minhyuk and he doesn’t know what’s happening, but he lets it anyway, no reason in his head telling him to stop. Minhyuk lets out a soft sound, a sigh akin to a moan, and a click sounds when he locks the door behind Jiho. His hands find Jiho’s chest, resting there as he kisses him again, and then they travel down until they hook onto his jeans, fingers pulling at the thick material and pressing their hips together. He grinds against Jiho for just a short moment before he pulls back, fingers on his belt and unhooking it. The button on top comes undone quickly and the zipper is easily pulled down, though his fingers fumble a little.
Jiho’s jeans are yanked down to his knees along with his boxers and Minhyuk kneels down, taking his half hard cock into his hand and licking a hot stripe from the base to the tip, his tongue pressing against the slit. Jiho’s cock twitches and it doesn’t take him long to get fully hard with Minhyuk’s mouth on him. One of his hands are threading through Minhyuk’s hair while the other one is pressed against the door he’s leaning against, searching for some sort of leverage, his legs beginning to feel weak. He comes inside Minhyuk’s mouth with a shudder and the heat of it leaves his cock not long after, Minhyuk moving away from him. He spit into the sink and turns the water tab on, lowering his head, lips against the stream of water and cleans his mouth.
He stares at Minhyuk’s back bent over the sink, eyes wandering down to his ass before Jiho has a chance to catch himself in the act and resumes to pull his clothes back on. His body is heavy, the weight of it leaning against the flat surface and holding him up. Seconds later Minhyuk steps up to him again and the distance between them is short. Jiho has no idea what’s going to happen next, letting out a shaky breath, and Minhyuk leans forward, hand reaching out. The lock makes a soft sound when Minhyuk turns it open. He’s still looking Jiho in the eyes, and Jiho keeps the contact at he moves to the side, letting him open the door and exit the room, leaving Jiho alone.
What the fuck just happened?
“Your hair is blond,” Jiho says with wide eyes and Kyung smiles as he walks into Jiho’s apartment.
“Yeah, I got it done this weekend. It’s good, right? It suits me.”
“Yeah, but it’s… Blond.”
“So? You’ve had blond hair too,” he answers, throwing himself onto the couch.
“I know, but-” he halts, pausing, “I just hadn’t expected it, s’all. You didn’t say anything”
“I think it looks good, I look cute with this hair.”
“Right,” Jiho says, he’s not about to give him any compliments to worsen his ego.
“So, how was your big gig this weekend?” Kyung bounces in his seat after asking, and Jiho grins.
“I’ll tell you all about it over lunch. It’s on me.” That really seems to bring out a big smile from his friend. He owes Kyung a meal from when they went out for dinner a while ago, but he’s always making up excuses about paying it back. Kyung understands that Jiho’s always a bit short of money, so he doesn’t push him. However, he does keep whining about it.
“Seriously, that good? Damn.”
Jiho only smiles.
The first time Minhyuk calls him, Jiho’s only just stumbled out of bed and is looking for something to wear. The sound of his ringtone surprises him in his still sleepy state, and he squints his eyes when he reads the number on the screen, letting it ring another time. It’s not saved to his phone and he doesn’t know if he wants to take it, but it’s not like there’s any harm in it. He knows who it is as soon as he picks up, Minhyuk’s voice soft against his ear. He compliments Jiho for what he did Friday, like he had just before he’d left, but adding one more comment about how great his friends thought he was, so maybe Jiho should’ve seen it coming, but he doesn’t and he’s surprised when Minhyuk’s asks him for another DJ job this Saturday, to repeat the success.
Of course, Jiho doesn’t say no, but he hopes he doesn’t sound too eager when he says yes almost right off the bat. He hadn’t showed any sort of eager attitude the first time, and he doesn’t want to now either, but he does want the job pretty badly. He just wishes it was only for the money.
When Jiho arrives at Minhyuk’s house the second time, it’s only an hour before the party is supposed to begin. He knows the way this time, but there’s still a women at the door showing him the way inside. What surprises him is that Minhyuk is in the room, by one of the tables lined up, eyeing the welcome drinks. His eyes come to life upon seeing Jiho at the door and he takes one of the glasses and approaches him.
“Welcome,” Minhyuk says and hands him the colourful drink, his smirk small and lopsided. Jiho never noticed that he had a dimple up till now.
“Thanks,” he says and takes the glass. Minhyuk raises his brows, so Jiho lifts the glass to his lips, taking a sip, and he finally looks satisfied, leaving the room.
As the night progresses Jiho doesn’t see much of Minhyuk again. He comes up to him, but only twice, and Jiho tries to think of a way to make him stay there with him for a little longer, but there isn’t anything he can do. Technically, he’s on work and it’s almost impossible to speak over the music, so Minhyuk is gone from his side within seconds. The guy who flirted with him from the last time is there again, but Jiho barely pays him any mind, and the guy notices. He doesn’t bother to waste more time by going up to Jiho again. As for Jiho, he takes the liberty to leave his spot more often than the last time. His eyes scan the room, looking for Minhyuk and making sure he’s not in there and hopes he somehow runs into him. He doesn’t. Not even once. He finishes at three in the morning like they had agreed on, but unlike the first time no one comes up to him, the man he’s hoping to see is nowhere in sight. Even though Jiho pushes it another fifteen minutes as if he hadn’t noticed the time. The party continues even without the DJ, music still loud from the speakers and Jiho tells himself he isn’t disappointed.
It’s morning. Jiho doesn’t know what time it is, because he was sleeping, but it’s morning and his phone is ringing. He doesn’t know the number, but he also knows it isn’t Minhyuk, so he hopes, whoever it is, that they’ll make it short so he can go back to sleep. His voice is hoarse, raw from sleep when he speaks into the phone. The man introduces himself as Ahn Jaehyo, he’s one of Minhyuk’s friends, and he wants Jiho to come play at one of his own parties. He’ll pay as much as Minhyuk did, and that’s a hard one to resist, but the thing is that Jiho doesn’t actually want to go back to DJ’ing and taking a job from someone that isn’t Minhyuk means he might get more offers, which will be going back to that path. Yet, it’s good money.
He ends up saying yes to play for three hours at Jaehyo’s party in two weeks and tells him to ask Minhyuk to forward the first mail he sent him with what he needs and bank account info for the money. After hanging up, Jiho throws his phone away and falls back to bed, spreading his arms to the sides. He intends to go back to sleep, but it never comes, so he sits back up, checking the clock. It’s almost nine in the morning and way too early for him to be awake.
Hours later he’s writing in his usual cafe. There are more customers than usual, probably because he’s there earlier than what he’s used to. It’s only minutes to noon, lunch time. Breakfast for him. He’s writing lyrics, but not a song, the text written not working together. His inspiration level is at a low at the moment and it’s not long before he starts doodling on the pages instead of writing. He’s wearing his headphones, but he takes them off as they begin to feel uncomfortable. The voices are just a stream of noise until he focuses on one of them, the words “but I love you” that catch his attention. He tries not to turn his head as he looks over at the couple further down the cafe on his left side. The girl is breaking up with her boyfriend he realises.
For this, Jiho feels a little bad for eavesdropping, like he’s intruding, but he’s also a little worried. The guy isn’t taking the break-up very well, insisting that they should stay together, his voice rising while people around them are falling silent. Jiho feels himself twitch in annoyance, relieved when the girl suddenly stands up and is about to leave, but he tenses up immediately when the guy grabs her arm. He’s about to jump out of his seat and approach the scene, but stops himself when an employee is there in the split of a second. He argues with the man, who’s forced to leave in the end. The girl stays, still looking anxious when she sits down, but Jiho sees that she manages to smile at the employee when he asks her something, nodding her head and replying before he leaves her table. Falling back onto his chair, Jiho sighs and picks up his notebook and skips to a new page, glancing over at the girl before he starts writing.
There’s no beat or melody to the song he’s written. He looks over at the girl again. She’s finished with her coffee, he can tell from the way it’s pushed away from her body. With another sigh, he reads the lyrics again, trying to get a vision of what it’d sound like. It’s been long since he’s written something like this, about admiration and infatuation, about desire and about love. He reads it another time, liking it a little more each time and smiles. Maybe he can sell this one. It’s been a while.
Jaehyo doesn’t live in a mansion like Minhyuk does, but his place is still very big, very impressive. It’s his parents’ he explains, his own apartment wouldn’t be big enough or allow him to play music as loud as he wants to. Jiho just nods, not interested about the first world problems of the filthy rich. He doesn’t actually think Jaehyo means anything by it when he asks him if it’s true that he makes his own music, so he only gives a short yes as reply, but Jaehyo keeps asking, about some of the tracks he had played before because he hasn’t heard them before. He even asks if Jiho can play some of them for him right now so he can listen to them again before the party begins. He keeps Jiho company as he sets up his things and unexpectedly, after that as they wait for people to arrive. The first few come in around ten, but Jiho doesn’t start until eleven, so he’s told to just enjoy the party until then as long as he doesn’t get so wasted that he can’t DJ.
About a half hour into the party, Jiho notices Minhyuk. He hadn’t noticed his arrival, but he sees him now, dancing with some people he supposes are his friends. He contemplates walking over to him, but there’s also something inside of him that doesn’t want to bother, doesn’t want to get further involved with Minhyuk. What Jiho doesn’t know yet is that he’ll end up alone with Minhyuk in Jaehyo’s bedroom. It’s after he’s finished playing- Jaehyo has come up to him and told him he should stay because there’s someone he wants to introduce him to. It’s while he waits that Minhyuk comes up to him instead, complimenting him though it’s hard for Jiho to tell if he’s genuine or not. He drags Jiho with him, backing out of the room and Jiho follows willingly though he’s supposed to wait for Jaehyo to come back with that friend he wanted him to meet.
He’s on top of Minhyuk after he’s been pulled down to the bed by him, pressing their bodies together and he’s already hard, has been since before they fell onto the bed. He hisses when Minhyuk bucks his hips upwards, legs spread so he can fit between them. They both help Jiho’s shirt off and Minhyuk lets his hands smooth over his torso before he pulls him down again, pressing their lips together. They’re both naked within minutes and with Jiho almost sober he becomes too aware of how Minhyuk isn’t at all. There’s a nagging feeling in the back of his head, as if he’s taking advantage of him because he’s drunk, but then he’s suddenly pushed up in a sitting position, Minhyuk following him and sucking on his neck like he wants to bruise it, his hand wrapping around both of their cocks, and Jiho gets the feeling that he’s the one being used.
It’s hot in the room, and although Jiho suspects it to be bigger than his own apartment alone, it feels stuffy. He's panting, cursing under his breath as Minhyuk works their cocks, sliding them against each other, the underside of his cock pressing against Jiho’s. The friction is slicker after he smears their precome down the shafts and Jiho watches them and the way Minhyuk’s fingers ride up to squeeze lightly at the head. He stops watching when he throws his head back and gives a breathless moan, overwhelmed when Minhyuk begins to thrust into his own hand. His other hand comes up to cup the back of Jiho’s neck, pulling him in for a hard kiss. He kisses Minhyuk back, but it’s sloppy, the hand around them moving faster and more erratically, Jiho’s own movements becoming jerky as his orgasm approaches. The other moans softly against his mouth, sinking his teeth into his lower lip, sensitive and kiss swollen. Jiho comes in his hand, between their bodies with a small cry that Minhyuk swallows with another kiss. He keeps stroking them, helping Jiho through his release while he searches his own.
When they’re both spent, their bodies leaning heavily against each other and breaths calm again, Minhyuk pulls away, returning quickly with tissues in hand, apparently familiar with the room. They clean themselves up, Minhyuk throwing the used tissues away for them afterwards and then comes back to bed where Jiho’s still sitting, not knowing what to do with himself. Minhyuk seats himself in front of him and kisses him again. This time it’s slow, languid and Jiho melts into it, relaxing and circling his arms around Minhyuk’s lean body. The moment is ruined when they part and Minhyuk tells him that Jaehyo’s probably looking for him, like the thought suddenly occurred to him and Jiho almost jumps out of the bed. He pulls his clothes on quickly, stumbling while Minhyuk watches him in amusement, getting comfortable in the bed alone. He’s out of the room so fast he doesn’t see Minhyuk waving at him, playful smile on his lips.
Jiho has an audition today and it’s all thanks to Jaehyo. He’s still considering not to go even if he promised he would, because he’s not quite sure he wants to be part of an entertainment label that sells idols. He loves music and he wants to make a living of it, but he doesn’t know if being an idol is the way he wants to do it. In the end he goes, because a promise is a promise and he’s not the type to back out of one. Idol rappers don’t rap the way he does, and he knows he’s nailed his audition, not to sound arrogant, but of course they won’t tell him that straight to his face either. However, they do praise him and give him a briefing about why he should sign with them, why it’d be a good idea for him to sell them his soul.
What’s interesting is what happens after he’s left the room. He’s still uncertain whether he wants to sign anything with this label though he’s warmed up to the idea some more. Deep in thought on his way out of the building, he runs into Bang Yongguk, someone he knows by name from the underground scene. Yongguk recognises him too, because he stops Jiho in his tracks, curious to know what he’s doing here. He lets him know about the audition and his own reluctance, and Yongguk nods understandingly. He does understand, Jiho realises, so he accepts when Yongguk tells him he has a proposition for him and invites him to his studio. The decision turns out to be a good one, something that’ll later turn into the stepping stone of Jiho’s career.
Later, when Jiho is home and doing nothing in particular, he receives a text from Minhyuk. He can tell it’s from him, because it has his name at the bottom of the message, but it takes him about a minute to figure out that it’s sent from Minhyuk’s own private number. The message asks him to come over because of what Jiho knows to be a blatant cover for getting him to come over it and that alone makes him unwilling. Still, he’s wondering what Minhyuk wants from him and his curiosity gets the better of him in the end.
Jiho’s curiosity eventually leads him into Minhyuk’s room, his tee already off by the time Minhyuk pushes him down to his bed and crawls on top of him.
“Is this a good idea?” he catches himself asking, and Minhyuk stares at him, eyes big before he smiles at him innocently.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
Jiho’s only victory is that they’re both sober this time, and for once he remembers everything he’s learned about unprotected sex and STDs and asks Minhyuk if he’s got a condom. It’s the first time they fuck, foreplay cut short, and Jiho is thrusting into Minhyuk. He has his legs hooked around his waist until Jiho hoists them up to let them rest on his shoulders, leaning forward, so he can rock faster into him. He keeps fucking into him, slowing down again and keeping him on edge until he finally lets Minhyuk come all over himself, Jiho’s hand on his cock, back arching off the bed. The second time they fuck, four days later, happens because Minhyuk calls him again, this time more honest with what he wants from him. It’s a booty call, Jiho grasps while he’s on the phone with him, but he goes anyway. He retaliates by making one of his own the next week, feeling slightly triumphant when Minhyuk shows no signs of refusal even if it’s at Jiho’s place. Third time proves to be a charm.
In between the sex, Jiho also gets to learn more about the man other than his name. It’s after they fuck, but before they get dressed and one of them leaves that they begin to talk to each other. Minhyuk isn’t very talkative, and at first Jiho thinks it’s because he simply doesn't want to share anything with him about himself, but he soon learns that he’s simply a little quiet by nature. Most of the time, if Jiho asks him something, he’s not one to refuse to answer. He learns that Minhyuk’s position at the company he works at isn’t anything much, other than an empty title. His father owns the company he works at, which is how he got the job in the first place. He’s in university, studying to get his second bachelor degree, and then he’ll continue to get a master in the same subject. Minhyuk doesn’t seem the slightest bit offended when his intellect is questioned by Jiho. He doesn’t do a lot now, he explains, studying comes easy, but in twenty years or so, when his father is ready for retirement, he’ll be the new head of the company. It’s so ridiculously cliché in Jiho’s ears that he starts questioning what they’re doing, what he’s doing, because he’s only adding to the cliché, the unpolished and financially troubled guy Minhyuk seeks excitement in. Or something like that. Despite it all, they don’t stop, calling each other at least twice a week.
Things begin to become more complicated after a couple of months, and Jiho doesn’t notice until he realises he finding the time to spend with Minhyuk. In the beginning they’d get together if they were both free, drop it if if they weren’t, but Jiho is finding himself cancelling on Jihoon, because Minhyuk just called literally ten minutes ago, saying he was in the neighbourhood. Maybe it’s because lately Jiho gets to see Minhyuk smile too, hear his laugh and feel the vibrations of it against his own chest, making his heart race. Kyung hasn’t met Minhyuk, but he knows about him and he calls him Jiho’s fuck buddy. That’s what they are, but Jiho knows he’s in trouble when he starts thinking about Minhyuk’s eyes and the way he speaks instead of about his ass or his thighs.
It’s already pretty bad that he’s been writing more lately and it’s all about Minhyuk. Some of it isn’t very different from what he first wrote after meeting him. They’re tracks about who he is, not as a person, but as a man in the city they share, what kind of role he has there, but some of them are about their relationship. He has lyrics written in his notebook about what they have, but the problem is that some of them are about what they don’t have, what Jiho wishes they were to each other. He has verses that embarrass him the second time he reads them, because he realises what and who are about, lyrics he can’t muster to throw away, because they’re damn good. It gets worse when he lets Yongguk read through them while they’re working on their collaboration and he’s doing it with a smile, asking him if the songs revolves around anyone specific.
The cliché spirals.
Minhyuk is a good dancer and although Jiho has already figured that out by himself from listening to him talk about it, he finally gets to experience it one night. It’s not the kind of dancing Minhyuk has spoken to him about though. They’re at a club, not together, Minhyuk dancing out on the floor, Jiho seated at a table with Jihoon to his left and the remnants of Kyung’s beer to his right. He stares at him from where he sits, making sure it’s not just his imagination and Jihoon tries to see where he’s looking, who he’s looking at, but gives up when Jiho turns his head and refuses to tell him. In an attempt to distract his friend, Jiho forces a conversation between them, and when he looks over to the dance floor again, Minhyuk is gone.
He’s alone when Minhyuk joins his table about twenty minutes later, Jihoon in the restroom while Kyung had never returned after going there a half hour ago. Minhyuk has a beer in his hand, the glass full and some of it almost spills over as he puts it down on the table. Jiho doesn’t know how long they speak, his sense of time completely gone, but Minhyuk has finished his beer and he stands, ready to leave.
“Dance with me?” he shouts, pointing to the background, and Jiho shakes his head. He’s not a dancer, and his friends’ drinks are still on the table. Stepping over to his side of the table, Minhyuk grabs the collar of his shirt and leans down, kissing him with parted lips, tongue licking against Jiho’s bottom lip. He mouths a “please” against him and Jiho desperately wants to say yes, but his body decides to shake his head no instead.
They do end up dancing together that night, but it turns into something closer to grinding against each other to the beat of the song blasting through the speakers. Jiho has his lips pressed to the top of Minhyuk’s jaw, just below his ear and he’s not hard, but he’s slowly getting there. Minhyuk doesn’t drag him to the direction of the restroom like Jiho had expected him to after the song has finished, instead pulling them outside, the chilly wind of autumn hitting them straight on, and pushes him against a wall in some random alley, kissing him hard. Someone shouts at them, Jiho knows it’s at them, and it fuels him, his hand travelling to Minhyuk’s ass, squeezing it and pressing him closer.
They don’t do anything more than that, and by the end of the night, not one of them has gotten off. It’s another first, but neither of them notice.
One afternoon, on a day that’s started out no different than any other, Minhyuk calls him and for once it’s not for a fuck. His birthday is coming up and he’s celebrating, his point being that he wants Jiho to attend. Apparently he’s able to sense Jiho’s stress regarding a present, or perhaps he just knows him so well at this point he sees it coming, the idea unnerving him slightly, because Minhyuk tells him not to worry about it.
Jiho is about as nervous at meeting Minhyuk’s friends as he’d be if it was his parents he was meeting. He only knows a few of them by name and the only one he’s even the littlest bit familiar with is Jaehyo. It comforts Jiho that he knows Jaehyo is friendly. He hopes the others are too. He wonders if they know about their relationship, what kind of relationship it is and finds that he both worries and that he doesn’t care at the same time.
He’s by far not one of the first to arrive, but he’s seen Minhyuk’s parties before and he knows there’ll be more. He sees the gift table, boxes and packages in all kinds of sizes, and he feels guilty again for not buying a present. Jiho celebrates him in his own way when the party is over, in the only way he can, staying the night, not unlike some of the others, but, and as the only one, in Minhyuk’s own bed, a fist in his hair as he fucks him into the mattress. That’s later though. The present calls for Jiho to behave and think straight. He’s surprised when some of Minhyuk’s friends recognise him from the last time he was there even though it was months and months ago, asking him if he’s there to DJ again. To their disappointment he’s not, but it doesn't lessen their interest in him.
The more he speaks to the guests there, the more Jiho realises how different his and Minhyuk’s lives are, and he tries not to talk and interact with too many of the guests. He spends a lot time speaking with a short guy named Taeil. He doesn’t make Jiho as uncomfortable, doesn’t really talk like the other high society class people he’s met there so far, and, most importantly, Taeil likes music. Jiho is in the middle of trying to convince him to sing for him when their conversation is interrupted. At that time, he figures out that no one there knows about him and Minhyuk when a familiar face presents himself to him as Yukwon and begins to flirt with him. He doesn’t know whether the confirmation is a relief or not. Yukwon is a name that Jiho recognises, almost always mentioned every time Minhyuk talks about his friends. He hasn’t seen much of Minhyuk tonight, understandable considering it’s his party and he’s the center of it, but he’s suddenly there now, between him and Yukwon. It takes Yukwon some minutes and a few less subtle hints before he gets that Minhyuk wants him to lay his hands off Jiho. Jiho has to bite his lip from stopping himself from smiling.
He hasn’t figured out how to do it yet, but he feels that he ought to return Minhyuk’s favour and introduce him to some of his own friends. He can’t do it like Minhyuk did, his birthday having already passed months ago and, honestly, he’s not about to throw one himself anyway. He’s not sure if it’d be appropriate to invite him to someone else’s party either- wouldn’t that be like bringing him as a date of some sort? He’s not sure if Minhyuk would like that and he easily discards the idea. He finds his answer while he’s at home, working, listening to a record, when Kyung storms into his apartment. Jiho often regrets giving him the spare key and now is one of those times.
That’s where the idea springs. Kyung is very eager to meet Minhyuk, has been for a small while now, and though he doesn’t have anything against preventing Jiho from getting laid, he’s not very into the idea of walking in on him in the middle of it. There’s no real way to time it, but Kyung decides to risk it, for the greater good, and the outcome is Kyung walking into Jiho’s home every other day at different times in hopes of finding Minhyuk there. Jiho has told him that he’s probably able to give him a few pointers, maybe even tell him exactly when he should be there, but his friend has already decided to make a game of it, continuously disturbing him for two weeks until one day he arrives there only short minutes after Jiho has made himself and Minhyuk come. Their breaths have settled, but they’re still naked on his bed, and Jiho, having momentarily forgotten about Kyung’s personal mission, shouts out when he stomps inside. Minhyuk jumps, mostly because he’s surprised by the loud “fuck” Jiho explains, and he covers himself up, watching the display with a mix of confusion and amusement. That’s how Minhyuk meets his best friend.
Jiho hopes it’ll never happen again.
Jiho can’t remember the last time he was on a stage, and he’s never been on one as big as this or performed in front of as many people he is now. Adrenaline is rushing through his body and the screams of the audience adds to his ecstasy as he speaks into his mic. There’s more screaming, more yelling, and Jiho feels amazing. He had recorded two tracks with Yongguk, generally aiding with the rest of the album, and one of their collaborations had been released as a single, well received and hitting the top of the charts, much to his own, but not Yongguk’s surprise. Now he’s performing at a concert, although not his own, and the venue is huge, filled with people who are cheering for him as well.
A little less than an hour later, Yongguk joins him backstage, today's concert over. He's still sweating, unlike Jiho who's had time to dry up, and even if the concert has exhausted him, Yongguk’s spirit is still at the roof.
"So how'd you like being on stage?" Yongguk asks him.
"It was… Incredible. Thank you so much," he replies genuinely and he can't help but smile back.
"Great, I'm happy to hear that because there's something I want to ask you," he says, pausing to hear if Jiho has something to say first, but he only waits. "The tour has some stops around Asia, as you know, and I was wondering if you'd come with me and perform our song, in Japan."
Jiho cracks a big grin before he has a chance to stop himself, already excited. Yongguk has two stops in Japan with one day between them, which calls for Jiho to spend four days in Japan. He makes his own arrangements, expanding the trip to three weeks instead. He’s always wanted to go to Japan and he finally has the money to afford it.
Minhyuk stops by Jiho’s place around six in the evening the day before he leaves. He had sent a text beforehand, letting him know he’d be there, but he’s there much earlier than promised, and to Jiho’s surprise he’s brought dinner for both of them, the water he’s just finished boiling for his instant ramen going to waste. Minhyuk’s begun doing that lately, bringing him food when he stops by, but normally he announces it, usually asking Jiho if he’s already eaten yet. It’s always sex first, then eating dinner together after Minhyuk has borrowed his shower, and Jiho has learned to reheat the food in the meanwhile to save time, because it’s never hot anymore by the time they’re done.
Tonight, when Minhyuk comes out of the shower, a towel around his hips, Jiho is on the bed, thinking about tomorrow as he waits for his microwave to finish. Minhyuk seats himself on the edge of his bed, back facing him and Jiho lets his eyes wander the length of his spine, travelling down the distinct path and he’s curious to know how Minhyuk would react if he embraced him now, if he asked him to stay the night, but he doesn’t have the courage. The microwave beeps, and they both stir at the sound, Minhyuk getting up from the bed to fetch their food. The moment is lost.
Jiho follows Yongguk to the airport to bid him goodbye though he’s staying in the country for a little while longer, because he might as well, needing to check out of the hotel too. He can’t afford to stay there by himself, it has too many stars. He hasn’t made a lot of arrangements yet for what he’ll be doing for the next two weeks and a half, but he’s booked a new hotel and he’s hoping they can help him out a bit. There are definitely some places he needs to see and experience while he’s there, miles to travel.
He hasn’t been thinking about Minhyuk a lot, except for the fact that he does keep thinking about how he hasn’t seen him for what feels like a long time and how won’t be able to see him again until he gets back home. His phone has been quiet for two entire weeks, no texts or incoming calls, and neither does he make any calls of his own, simply updating his SNS to let his family and friends know that he’s still breathing and safe. Japan in itself is a good distraction, keeping his body and mind both busy and distracted until he gets back to his hotel room. He’s not lonely, not at all, but being alone isn’t easy once you’ve started being sexually active again. That’s all it is, of course. Sexual deprivation.
Minhyuk has it too it turns out, because he calls him a day later. He’s polite enough to ask how Jiho is doing and what he’s been up to before he asks him when he’s coming back. The line goes quiet after he answers and for a moment he think the connection died or that Minhyuk has hung up on him, but then he speaks up again, surprising Jiho.
“What are you wearing right now?”
The flight from Tokyo back home takes little more than 2 hours, but Jiho sleeps almost the entire way. He wakes up during the landing, feeling more tired and more exhausted than he did when he had gotten on the plane. He squirms in his seat, wants to push it down again, but he’s forced to keep it at an upright position. Taking his time getting out of the plane, he tries to gather a bit of energy, feel a little excited about going home. It helps a bit once he’s gotten out of the plane and away from the stiff air. There’s a text from Kyung waiting for him when he turns on his phone and he’s disappointed to see that Kyung isn’t coming to pick him up like he had promised, sending Jihoon in his place instead. The message doesn’t offer any explanation, but it doesn't matter as long as someone comes to get him. He sends a text to Jihoon, telling him he’s arrived and waiting for his luggage, asking him if he’s there yet and when he doesn’t receive an immediate reply, he assumes he’s still on his way.
His eyes find Jihoon as soon as he’s out of the exit door, too tall to go unnoticed, his sense of fashion quite eye-catching as well. He greets Jiho with a hug that’s a little too tight for comfort, but he takes it with a smile, hugging his friend back. He feels a little better as they get into the car, Jihoon’s bright mood affecting his own. Jihoon asks him about the concerts, about the time he spent alone, and he’s not finished telling him about it by the time they reach his apartment, so Jiho invites him up to finish his story-telling and for a cup of whatever he has left in his kitchen that isn’t too old, but Jihoon declines, having his own plans for the night. This also means that Jiho has to drag his luggage up the stairs by himself, but he manages, eventually, breath short when he’s finally in front of his door.
Home looks exactly the way he left it, or at least it does at first glance, until he steps into his apartment, turning the corner out of the short entry and catches sight of his visitor. Minhyuk is lying on his bed, legs bent off the side with his feet touching the floor, his arms stretched and his phone in his hands, fingers tapping the touch screen. He cranes his head to see Jiho, his entrance impossible to go unnoticed. Jiho stops, surprised and very confused.
“How’d you get in?” he asks, and Minhyuk pushes himself up to face him, putting his phone away.
“Your friend Park Kyung.” Jiho snorts. Right, it had to be him.
“How long have you been waiting?”
Minhyuk checks his clock, shrugging when he answers. “An hour.”
Jiho seats himself next to Minhyuk on the bed, their bodies turning to face each other, and Minhyuk leans in, kissing him slowly, their lips moving against each other. His hands are on Jiho’s waist and Jiho’s own arms wrap around Minhyuk, and he takes a deep breath through his nose before he’s pulling him closer. He heaves him up to sit on his lap, craving the physical contact, and Minhyuk follows him willingly. His fingers are soft against his skin where they’ve slipped under the hem of Jiho’s tee, tickling him lightly as they ride up the sides of his waist, feeling the bumps of each rib. When he pulls away, their eyes meeting, Minhyuk looks at him expectantly, like he’s ready to have him flip them over, or maybe like he’s ready to do it himself and drag Jiho down with him on the bed, but Jiho stops him before they get that far.
“Tired,” he mumbles and presses their foreheads together, resting against the other. He feels like the exhaustion he’s been building up ever since he went to Japan is finally beginning to crash over him. Half expecting Minhyuk to push on and half expecting him to leave, he’s surprised when he does neither, instead sighing, his hands still on Jiho’s waist as he lays them down on the bed. Silently he hugs him a little closer and Jiho shifts his body, edging closer to Minhyuk and making himself comfortable. His eyes feel heavier with each passing second and he finds himself comfortable like this, in Minhyuk’s arms, the heat of his body like a soft blanket, the sound of his breath lulling him to sleep quickly. Minhyuk isn’t far behind him, his body relaxing where he comfortably lies, his eyes falling close, and just like that, only a couple of minutes past 4 o’clock, the sun still high in the sky, the two of them fall asleep together. For the very first time.