Exuberanced (2/2)
Exuberanced (2/2)
Suho/Kai, Sehun/Luhan, Kai/Lay, Xiumin/Chen, Lay/Kris, Baekhyun/Chanyeol
R (for mentions of activity of the sexual nature)
Jongin wanted a part time job; he ended up getting a lot more than he could have ever hoped for.
A/N: I played around with their ages because I'm a loser like that. Oh and I really think Baekhyun might be in the '94 line and they're just lying to us about it. Plus get ready to fall in love with Minseok hard core. That is all.
Part 1
Suho's house was the type of house you'd expect to see in an issue of those home decor magazines they put in the doctor's office for the moms. It didn't look lived in; it barely seemed suitable for a bachelor to have been sleeping there for almost a month. He actually had white sofas, which seemed ridiculous because what if he brought in sand and dirt, but then Jongin realized Suho didn't drag sand and dirt around because he well, just didn't.
"Wow, quite the pad you've got here," Baekhyun said, looking around. "It's like our beach house in Spain but ours has a bigger terrace and a barbecue and this really awesome shower thing in the middle of the porch."
"Why did you invite him?" Suho asked Jongin subtly. Jongin shrugged. "We don't really do anything apart during the afternoons. Besides, he never gets homework because his school enforces them to actually do work during study hall."
Suho gave him a slight 'shut him up' look so Jongin went up to Baekhyun. He was still rattling on and on about how his beach house had this and that, but that his house on some ski resort had this other thing. Jongin touched his elbow.
"Baekhyun," Jongin said softly, "come back to us."
Baekhyun sighed. "Sorry."
Sehun was already sitting at the dinning table, his notebook and laptop out to start working on the project. "Guys, come over here, I don't want to spend the rest of my life working on this shit."
Suho stood in the kitchen and watched as they shuffled around his dinning room in his house, or well temporary house. This was all so weird to Jongin. First the guy was a jerk to him, then he kissed him, then he pushed him away, then he invited him to his house. It made less and less sense as time went on.
Jongin slung his bag on the table and went into the kitchen with Suho.
He stood behind him for a second and then cleared his throat. Suho turned around and actually backed into the counter.
"I'm not going to attack you," Jongin said, actually offended.
"I know," Suho muttered. Did he really have to go all mousy now? After a pause he asked, "Do you want something to drink?"
Jongin looked back at the dinning table where Baekhyun and Sehun were giggling about something on the laptop, definitely not working. Jongin hurried and closed the little wooden window divider between the kitchen and dinning room.
"Jongin-"
"I just want to know what your problem is."
"My problem?" he asked, like he'd never had a problem before and this was a new concept.
"Yeah, why did you tell us to come here?"
Suho looked genuinely perplexed. How cute. "I thought you guys needed a place to finish your project."
"Yeah, but if worst came to worst, we could've gone to the library."
"I thought you needed Internet."
"What place doesn't have wifi now a days?"
Suho bit lis lip.
"Do you even like me?" Jongin asked.
"Of course." The way he answered so quickly made Jongin smile. "I mean, yeah, I do, I guess" he said, trying to soften his exuberance, but the damage was done. After you exuberanced, there was no going back.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Why were you so weird after we," he felt stupid doing it, but he whispered the last word, "kissed?"
"Because," Suho said, whispering as well. "You're 18 and I'm...older."
"Oh God you're only 21 or something. It's not like you're 45."
"I'm going to be 22 in May." Suho said, like he was almost embarrassed to say it, the way one might say they were 40 and still a virgin.
"Yeah, so? Sehun is dating Luhan and they have the same age difference as us."
"Really?" Suho asked. "I could've sworn they were the same age."
"Yeah it's the matching blonde hair," Jongin said with a shrug. "They both look 16 because of it. It's kinda gross that they insist on always having the same hair color and style. It's like they want people to think they're brothers who make out. There must be something deeply wrong with both their psyches. I'm sure a psychologist would get a kick out of their relation-"
"Jongin," Suho cut in, looking at him with soft but demanding eyes. It seemed like hard look to give so Jongin shut up.
"Look," Suho started. "I like you, I do. But I'm leaving as soon as Jongdae comes back and that's going to be soon, and you're finishing high school. You should be enjoying your last months and, I don't know, thinking about college, not about some stuffy old business man."
"Now when you put it like that, how can I think about anything else?" Jongin asked, stepping forward. "You see, I have a very overactive imagination so I can't help but picture me bent over your desk in your luxurious office looking over the city while you-"
"Please, I beg you not to finish that sentence."
Jongin smirked. "You really enjoy begging me, don't you?"
Suho glared at him, and then Sehun yelled at Jongin to get them some coke, and their flirting disappeared into the air. Suho took out three glasses and put them on the counter and took out a Coca-Cola bottle from the fridge and all Jongin could do was stare at him. The bottle was new so he'd clearly bought it just for them.
"Why do you do this?" Jongin asked while pointing at the bottle.
"What?"
"Do sweet shit like buy stuff you wouldn't buy for yourself just to please my stupid friends?" Jongin sighed. "Why do that and not let me kiss you for it?"
Suho was silent for a long time and then met Jongin's gaze with a glint that hadn't been there since they kissed. "I never said you couldn't kiss me." Suho smiled slightly, and it was the cutest thing Jongin had ever seen.
Jongin crossed the distance and kissed Suho gently, letting their lips slide slowly until the sound of something dropping had them breaking apart.
"Shit," Jongin muttered against Suho's delicious lips. They tasted so nice. Like coconut and orange juice and peaches and shit shit shit.
"If your friends broke something I'm making the rich little one pay for it," Suho said mildly.
"I wouldn't hold you against it, we make him pay for everything."
They separated, with a lot of difficulty if you asked Jongin, and went into the dinning room to see what had happened.
Sehun and Baekhyun were standing, looking down at...Baehyun's cellphone?
"What happened?" Jongin asked.
"What the hell?" Sehun asked. What, he didn't know? He turned his eyes on Jongin and pointed at Baekhyun accusatorially. "Baekhyun just totally freaked out and threw his cellphone on the floor."
Baekhyun looked at it angrily and Suho went back into the kitchen to bring them their sodas.
"Baekhyun," Jongin said, bending down to pick up the sim card and a few small pieces of glass from the broken screen. He accidentally grabbed one wrong and he ended up cutting his finger. "Shit!"
"What now?" Suho asked, looking clearly annoyed, but then when he saw the blood he rushed over with a worried expression that if Jongin weren't bleeding he would've kissed him because it was too damn adorable. "What happened?" Suho asked, falling into major concerned mode.
Baekhyun looked down and his eyes widened. "Oh fuck, no Jongin, you're hurt because of me? Why do I hurt everyone I care about?"
Jongin squeezed his finger with his shirt and winced at the shard of glass that was still lodged under his nail. "Forget about me, Baekhyun. What made you so upset you felt you had to throw your phone?"
Baekhyun squirmed for a second. "Chanyeol's parents found out about us and are going to make him study business instead of music like he'd planned since like ever and now he probably hates my fucking guts."
"Who's Chanyeol?" Sehun asked.
"My boyfriend," he said sheepishly.
"Your boyfriend? You guys are together and you didn't tell us?"
"Well he is...ughh was, my secret boyfriend so I had to keep it a secret."
Suho put a hand on Jongin's back which momentarily helped him forget that he was bleeding to death. "Jongin, we should go check that out."
He helped Jongin up and lead him down a corridor to the bathroom. The walls were covered in white tiles with little blue seashells on them. Suho looked strange inside the bathroom, but even weirder taking out a first aid kit and rummaging around it like a..."You look like a boy scout," Jongin felt like telling him.
Suho smiled. "That's cause I was."
"You were?" Jongin was totally delighted. "That's just about the cutest thing."
Suho's brow furrowed. "Do you feel woozy?"
"A little? I don't know. But you were a boy scout. That is just the best." Jongin couldn't get over it. "Did you have a little hat with a tassel?"
"I think you're confusing your associations."
"Did you ever dissect a squirrel?"
"I was a boy scout, not a veterinarian. Now hold still." Suho had a pair of tweezers in his hand and he was looking at Jongin with a menacing, determined gaze.
"Are you going to pluck my eyebrows?" Jongin asked.
"No, I have to get that piece of glass out before you get infected." Suho bit his lip, but in a concentrated way that was really hot.
"Why can't you pluck my eyebrows instead? I'm sure that would be more pleasant."
Suho ignored him and put the tweezers on Jongin's index finger. "Take a deep breath."
Jongin obeyed, and took the deepest breath of his entire life. Suho plucked the piece of glass and for a second Jongin thought he was going to drive it in, because maybe Suho was a maniac and he really just hated Jongin's guts, but instead he pulled it out. Quite flawlessly actually.
"How was that?" Suho asked, taking the disinfectant and the cut medicine and a bandaid and settling them around the sink.
"It wasn't that bad," Jongin confessed. Suho finished aiding Jongin's finger and then held his wrist for a moment and looked down at the band aid he'd just placed on his fingertip. Jongin looked at him and waited and then finally Suho kissed his finger over the bandaid. He had this stupid cute look on his face so Jongin grabbed his chin and kissed him. Jongin had to bend his knees a bit to kiss him comfortably, and that just made him so happy, because Suho was so small, he fit against Jongin's chest like he was made to be there. Suho clung to him, his nails digging slightly into his back and shoulders through the thin material of his t-shirt. Jongin moved against the sink and hoisted him up until he was sitting on the edge of the sink. As if the kiss couldn't get any better, Suho smiled against Jongin's mouth, causing Jongin to smile too and they were smiling at each other like morons for a while.
When they were ready to kiss again, the door opened and Sehun stood there like he'd caught them doing some weird S&M shit.
"Oh, wow, sorry," Sehun said, although he didn't seem all too apologetic. "I just came to tell you that Baekhyun's really upset so I'm taking him out drinking with Luhan. You wanna come?"
Jongin sighed, but he didn't bother pulling away from Suho, he quite liked him sitting on the sink with his legs hanging loosely around Jongin's thighs.
"What about our project?" he asked, knowing he was asking the wrong person because Sehun clearly didn't care.
"I don't know, our friend is in need, what's really important here?"
Suho pushed Jongin's shoulder, but in a friendly, sweet, I-care-for-you-and-your-dumb-friend's-problems way. "You should go. You can always come over and finish it tomorrow."
Jongin scratched his forehead and sighed. "We'd have to start it to finish it."
"Come on," Sehun said," he's really upset. He keeps babbling about this Chanyeol dude. He needs alcohol in his system. STAT!"
Suho got off the sink and packed up the first aid kit. He did it with such precision that it made Jongin smiled. He looked at Sehun and shooed him away. "Give us a second here, I'll be right there."
Sehun narrowed his eyes, and then shrugged and left. He was so unaffected.
"Go be there for your friend," Suho said, smiling at him, "but don't drink too much because I expect you in the store tomorrow, and alcohol is just empty calories."
"Yes, boss man," Jongin sighed against Suho's skin before kissing his cheek and and then his mouth. He kept the kiss short, but he was so glad he got three kisses in one day. If Suho had an epiphany overnight and decided they couldn't do this anymore, at least Jongin had these three kisses.
"Goodbye," Suho whispered.
"Bye," Jongin whispered back. He gave Suho another quick kiss-it didn't hurt to have an extra one just in case-and left the bathroom feeling very happy, on top of the world almost.
A few hours later, when he was assisting a severely drunk Baekhyun, as he peed in a very smelly urinal, that feeling came crashing down.
*
"And then he puked in his mother's rose bush?"
"No, that was before. He climbed the fence after and then he tried to have sex with his garden gnome."
"Who still owns a garden gnome?"
"I know, right?"
"So what happened next?"
Jongin smiled. He was in the middle of retelling the scandalous events of last night to Suho, who seemed really interested. Fascinated even.
"You're really digging all this," Jongin said.
"I'm really digging you," Suho responded, truly a man with wonderful come backs stored in his beautiful head. "And did you know you pucker your lips when you talk? Like you're just ready to kiss anyone with every word."
"Well not just anyone," Jongin said, leaning over the counter to kiss Suho. It was nice, kissing Suho whenever Jongin felt like it, but what was better was when someone interrupted them by calling Suho on his phone. Not really.
Suho pulled away and passed a hand over Jongin's pouting lips. "Just a sec."
He looked down at the caller i.d. and matched his frown. "It's Jongdae."
And just like that their entire fairytale/paradise/fucking good time exploded and boiled over with lava at the realization that Suho had to leave soon. To make things worse, Suho went into the storage room to take the call, as if to soften Jongin's blow. Why did he have to be so fucking considerate?
Jongin looked at the tv and didn't focus on anything. He could barely think a straight thought until Suho came out, crest fallen.
"What did he say?" Jongin asked.
"He said he was coming home mid-April."
"Mid-April?" Jongin asked. "Why do you look so sad? That's awesome. That's like 3 more weeks at least."
"Yes, 3 more weeks and then what?" Suho asked, walking up to Jongin and taking his hands. "What happens after those 3 weeks? I go back and we never see each other again? That's doesn't sound too peachy to me. How about you?"
Jongin rolled his eyes and tightened his fingers around Suho's. "Look, we're together now so I'm going to tell you a little fact about me. I don't look too ahead into the future."
Suho frowned. "That's not very reassuring."
"The future isn't assured," Jongin said.
Suho's eyes widened. "If you tell me to be all YOLO, I'll scream, because frankly that saying is so stupid and a dumb version of carpe diem. Seriously kids, it's not too hard to say two words in Latin."
Jongin stared at him in amusement. "You done?"
Suho nodded.
"What I was going to say before you so rudely interrupted me is that worrying just takes away from the time we have together right now. Would you rather bite your nails over what's going to happen once Jongdae comes or do you want to enjoy the next three weeks with me?"
Suho thought it over in his head for a while and then frowned. "I don't bite my nails."
"I'm sure you don't, what with your perfect posture and general tidiness and absolute control of everything."
"I don't have control over everything."
"Oh really?" Jongin asked, actually curious at this sudden confession.
"I had no control over liking you," Suho said and gave him the smallest of embarrassed smiles Jongin had ever seen.
Jongin decided to take that as a compliment and kissed him.
*
"Motherfuckerrrrr!" Sehun shouted as soon as Jongin was within earshot. He was thrown on Luhan and Minseok's sofa in their apartment like the half-human he was after a night of drinking. He'd skipped school two days straight and their project was due tomorrow.
"Sehun, I don't have time for your bullshit, we need to finish this project tonight."
Sehun rolled over and his blanket slipped, revealing his bare, pale ass.
"Oh God, cover that up," Baekhyun moaned from the futon. He had ditched school too because he was afraid of facing Chanyeol. Jongin was the only upstanding student within his group of friends; things were in dire conditions.
"Just ditch tomorrow," Sehun said and ignored Baekhyun's horrified noises at the sight of his ass. "The teacher won't notice."
"Sehun, Mr. Carter has had it out for me since the first day of class freshman year when he couldn't pronounce my name and I laughed at him for it. I can't not hand in this project. Fuck my entire life, why did I agree to be your partner?"
Sehun groaned and snorted, the picture perfect image of a gentleman. "I don't caaaare."
Luhan came in from the kitchenette with two mugs filled with tea. "Do you want one, Jongin?" He went over to Sehun and covered his ass, then slapped a butt cheek for good measure.
"No, I have no intention of staying with these drunktards. I'll go see if Yixing can help me and if not I'll just tell the teacher my partner is a total asshole with a pimple near his actual one."
Sehun gasped and ripped the blanket off to try and inspect, but no matter how abnormally long his neck was, he couldn't actually see anything from his position. Jongin left them and vaguely heard Sehun asking Luhan to check for the pimple as he closed the door. Really. His friends. The grossest.
Yixing was sitting on his porch when Jongin came to bug him for help.
"I'm not going to help you."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please with lots of sprinkles and that weird syrup shit you like on your ice cream on top."
"Raspberry sauce is not weird syrup shit."
"Okay, I take it back, that delicious, amazing, glorious, syrup shit."
Yixing laughed but Jongin knew he wasn't budging. "Why won't you help me?"
"Let's see, maybe because you only come to me when you want something?"
"What? No wayyyy," Jongin said, but the way he elongated his words made it obvious that he had in fact been doing that. "Okay, I'm sorry. I guess I've been negligent to your needs and I also wanted to talk to you about that."
Yixing gave him a look that meant he had some explaining to do.
"I...well you remember I told you Suho and I kissed?"
"Yes."
"Well we kissed again."
"Really?" He seemed genuinely happy for Jongin. Damn, Yixing was the best person ever.
"Yeah, a couple times actually, and well I really like him and well we've agreed to just...hang out for the next few weeks before Jongdae comes back."
"And you're okay with that?"
"Yeah, it was my idea."
"And he's okay with it?"
"I think so? For now he is. I don't know what the future holds but I don't really want to care for the time being."
"Classic Kim Jongin," Yixing said with a pleasant smile.
"So I was thinking maybe-"
"That we should end this benefits thing?"
"Yeah," Jongin said. "I feel horrible asking you like this so abruptly. I don't want to be a total dick, but I really like-"
"Jongin, it's fine. We both got into this with the knowledge that we're both two horny guys with super high standards to date some rando skeezeballs. This isn't some epic romance. I haven't been pining after you this whole time."
Jongin read his expression and he was being sincere. His tone was so incredibly mocking that if Jongin didn't love him so much he'd hate him a little. "Besides," he said, more sheepish this time. "I met this really hot guy while I was on my way to dance rehearsal last month and we've been...talking."
"And by that you mean fucking?"
"A little." Yixing said, and blushed. He actually blushed! Jongin had never seen him do that before. "He's so beautiful, Jongin. Like in this really, in-your-face way, but he's so cute when he smiles which isn't often with other people but he seems to smile a lot with me."
"He luuuurves you," Jongin said in a gross baby voice. Yixing went into a giggling fit.
"What's his name?"
"Kris," Yixing said happily, as if his name was the nicest name on the entire planet.
"Oh, I've seen him. Tall, blonde, Cambodian?"
"He's Canadian," he corrected but nodded to the rest.
Jongin smiled at how serious he looked. "I know he's not Cambodian." But Yixing wasn't listening because his eyes had gone dreamy and he continued to discuss how lovely his entire being was.
After a while Jongin said, "So we both have new men in our lives," And he nodded appreciatively at both their conquests.
"It looks like we do," Yixing said and joined him in his nodding.
"So no more hooking up after long dance sessions?" Jongin asked him, making sure to get everything clear.
"Yeah, no more dance sexxions." Yixing frowned a little. "Is it weird that I'm a little sad?"
"I don't think so. I'm a little sad too."
"It's the end of an era."
"A horny era."
Yixing chuckled. "Well then, let's agree now that if we're single after we graduate and we bump into each other we should spend a night together for old time's sake."
Jongin nodded. "You better not get fat."
Yixing shoved his shoulder in response.
Jongin showed up on Suho's porch after dinner. Suho had given him the afternoon off to finish his project but that didn't look like it was going to happen so when he texted him that he wanted to hang out, Suho told him he was home.
"Why didn't you open the store today?" Jongin asked as soon as he opened the door.
"Well hello to you too." Suho stepped aside to let him in. "I had stuff to do and I didn't feel like getting out of my pajamas."
Jongin took a look at him. His "pajamas" consisted of this indigo silk matching top and bottom set. Jongin swore everything about Suho made him look like he'd plucked his life out of a magazine.
"You look like a million bucks," Jongin said with a kiss. Suho shrugged, but he was smiling. "Do you want some tea?"
"I don't really bother with anything other than Gatorade or Coke."
"Oh God," Suho looked mortified. "How has your entire body not shut down? You need some health in your body. I'll make you some green tea."
Jongin watched with huge buckets of amusement as Suho shuffled into his kitchen in a pair of matching loafers to go with his pajamas. Suho took the kettle and started preparing the tea like a doctor might prepare for surgery.
"What are you doing, old man?"
"I'm making you some healthy, immune boosting, metabolism revving tea. You can't drink so much sugar without expecting some type of consequence. I know you're young, but drinking your calories can be very harmful to your body in the long run. I can't believe I almost contributed to that on Tuesday," Suho said, ignoring his insult. Jongin was going to have to try again.
"So does this tea also help you with your senescence?"
Suho turned to him with a proud smile. "You know that word?"
Jongin rolled his eyes. "I picked it up from my SAT prep last year."
Suho nodded, but he still looked very proud that it had stuck with Jongin. So proud that he didn't seem to notice Jongin insult him until, "Hey! I'm not senile, you brat."
"I bet you say words like hoodlum and persnickety."
"You are such a rascal."
"Was that on purpose?"
"Maybe."
"C'mere," Jongin said and pulled him closer while the water boiled. "You're the hottest gramps I've ever known."
"Please don't call me gramps ever again."
"Yeah, I'm gonna call you gramps from now on."
Suho growled in the back of his throat out of frustration and it was legitimately the hottest thing Jongin had ever heard.
After the tea was done they moved to Suho's room to watch tv on his gigantic plasma screen. Well, they tried to watch tv, but playing footsies was infinitely more fun. Jongin was cuddled against Suho like there was no place he'd rather be, and there wasn't. Suho had his arms around Jongin so comfortably, he'd never felt so safe and wanted in his entire life. The channels blurred as Suho fought to find something that didn't have a drunk reality star or a pregnant pageant mom. When he came to the news he stopped but then kept flipping.
"You can put it on the news if you want," Jongin told him.
"Yeah but you don't like it."
"Not anymore," Jongin snuggled into his chest. Damn those fucking pajamas were fucking soft. "I watch the news now in the morning as I get ready for school."
"You do? Because of what I said?"
"No, I have a huge crush on Anderson Cooper."
Suho frowned. "He doesn't even do the news anymore."
"I was joking, you know, joke. Haha."
Suho shoved him but then pulled him close again. "You make lame jokes."
"No, they're just too cool for you to understand, gramps."
"Could we not?" Suho asked, but he was smiling beautifully. "I can't believe something I said stuck with you."
"Everything you've ever told me has been running through my head since we met."
"I'm touched."
"You should be, fucker." Jongin said and attacked his mouth with kisses. Suho laughed and squirmed when Jongin found out he was ticklish. Ohhh he would use this new information only for evil, glorious, amazing evil.
Once Suho had successfully kicked Jongin off of him, literally, he told him he had something to give him.
"Is it a bouquet of flowers? Because I don't really do mushy crap well."
"I can tell," Suho said as he got up to his desk on the other side of the room. "You called me a fucker before kissing me."
Jongin smiled cheekily. Suho came back and sat down beside him on the mess of sheets before showing him what he had behind his back.
"I saw what your assignment was about so I did some research."
Jongin looked down at the folder in his hands. "You did my homework?"
"I started by just looking it up because I was curious about this disease," he said, looking adorably embarrassed. "But then I couldn't stop so I looked up the causes and then I asked Sehun to send me the assignment so I just looked it all up."
Jongin stared at him.
"I didn't edit anything at first," Suho continued. "I just copy-pasted but I thought that was better than to get a solid F."
Jongin just kept staring at him.
"But then I thought your teacher would notice if it was straight from the Internet so I went back and changed up some words."
Jongin's mouth was hanging open now.
"It's nothing spectacular. I'm not good with science terminology so I just winged it." Suho looked at Jongin. "Why aren't you saying anything? Make fun of me. Say I'm acting like your grandma."
Jongin kissed him first, and then laughed a little. "This is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me."
"Do your homework?"
"No, get so flustered over helping me. I can't believe Sehun didn't tell me you asked for the homework."
"He probably thought I was being weird," Suho said with a laugh. "I felt weird. I had to get his number through Minseok."
"Look at you being all sleuth-like." Jongin said and kissed him again. "You're so getting laid for this."
Suho's smile fell and he looked at Jongin with dead seriousness. "Really?"
"Yeah," Jongin whispered. "Don't you want to?"
"Well damn, I might have to do your homework more often."
Jongin laughed so hard, he couldn't stop laughing until Suho's hands were doing wondrous things inside his pants.
After that he only laughed again when Suho made a mess with the lube and threw a condom across the room in frustration when he couldn't get it on.
"You have done this before, right?" Jongin asked.
Suho puffed out air and took another one from his drawer. "You give it a try."
Jongin put it on in one smooth move.
"You've done this before," Suho accused.
"Well duh," Jongin said, but then he stiffened, and not in the good way. "Wait, you're a...a virgin?"
"Yeah." Suho said simply.
"Oh my god no wonder!"
"No wonder what? I have no idea how to put on a condom? Well it's slippery and weird because it's like putting s glove on a penis."
"No, like no wonder you were so uptight when we met. You've been 21 years without sex."
"Almost 22," Suho muttered. "But you clearly haven't been so long without it."
"Why, did you want to be my first?" Jongin mocked, but when Suho visibly deflated Jongin felt like a dick. A grade A dick. "Wait, you did?"
"I thought it would be romantic," Suho muttered.
"Oh god, no, Suho. There's nothing more unromantic than two unexperienced dudes fumbling around during sex. That's really sweet of you though."
"Don't patronize me," he said, sounding vaguely Boss Suho instead of the Cute and Awkward Suho he'd been a few minutes ago. Jongin wanted him back.
"I'm not patronizing. I really think it's sweet."
Suho sat down and crossed his arms over his chest. "I bet you don't want to be with me anymore."
"Why would you say that?"
"I'm an old virgin."
Jongin tried not to laugh. "You are not old and dear sweet Mary and Jesus, having sex too young is stupid and awkward anyway." He put his hands on Suho's thighs and kissed his knee. "Please, can we get back to our sexy adult sex?" He threw a pout in there for good measure. Suho gave in to that. Fuck yeah!
Their adult sex was definitely sexy and so wonderful they did it again...and again.
*
Jongin handed in Suho's assignment with such immense satisfaction even though, technically he'd cheated, but no one cared about technicalities. Except for Luhan. He really cared.
"So who topped?" he asked, leaning on the counter of the snack bar as Minseok made them all celebratory churros. Nothing was better than freshly made churros. Well maybe except sex...with Suho.
"Does it matter?" Minseok asked, forever the demure sex flower within a garden of open 24/7 mini marts.
"Of course it does," Sehun said, gulping down a slurpee. "Everyone can tell when I've topped Luhan."
"Yeah, he looks fine the next day, because he can't feel anything," Baekhyun thew in playfully. He was feeling better. He'd talked it out with Chanyeol and his parents wanted to meet him. It turned out his life was a gay teen romance novel after all.
"Ah ha ha ha," Sehun said, eyes half lidded in disgust. "Funny little man."
Baekhyun smiled and shared a discreet high five...with himself.
"No, but really Jongin, tell us who topped."
"No."
"I can picture it going either way."
"Good."
"Just tell us."
"Not gonna happen."
"What's not gonna happen?"
They all turned around to find Suho standing on the sidewalk peering over at them like there was an invisible force field around the snack bar. Maybe they were shooing away Minseok's customers. Jongin's face lit up and he walked over to Suho to give him a kiss. Jongin had left quickly in the morning to go to school and Suho had stayed in bed to relax but Jongin knew he really just meant recover.
"I was going to come over later to your house," Jongin murmured into his ear, going for a sexy, alluring voice. It seemed to work cause Suho gripped his arm a little.
"Yeah, but I wanted to come over and hang out."
Jongin looked at him. "You? Hang out? At the beach? I can't imagine such a world."
Suho sighed and Jongin stepped back to look at him. He was wearing a pair of red shorts that went to his knees and a white t-shirt with some brown loafers. The t-shirt had the name of Jongdae's store.
"What's this?" Jongin asked, pulling him closer by his shirt.
"Doing some promotion. I found it in a box in the back. Apparently we were supposed to wear them for work."
Jongin laughed and kissed him. He turned around when Sehun made a loud throat clearing noise.
"You know the guys," Jongin said casually, putting his arm around Suho's waist.
"How's everything with Chanyeol?" Suho asked Baekhyun and oh God he was so attentive and perfect.
"It's good," Baekhyun said, smiling. "I'm meeting his parents tomorrow night."
"I'm sure everything will go over well," Suho told him.
Luhan gaped.
"What?" Jongin asked him.
"He's so nice," Luhan turned to Suho. "You're so nice."
"Yeah, he is."
"Why did you say he was a prick?"
"I was so madly in love with him I couldn't handle my emotions so I projected them as hate," Jongin said with a shrug.
"Ditto," Suho told him and kissed his cheek.
"This is so weird," Sehun said. "You know, you're the first person Jongin's ever dated."
Suho looked at Jongin with wide, smiley eyes. "Really? So I am your first after all."
Jongin flushed and bumped him with his hip. "Yeah yea, okay, gramps, you're my first boyfriend, congratulations."
Suho wrapped his arms around him but went totally slack when Minseok said their churros were ready.
"You're not going to...eat that right?" Suho asked.
"Naw, I was gonna stick it in my bellybutton. Of course I'm going to eat it."
At Suho's horrified look Jongin laughed. "I'm not sure which option sounds worse."
"Have you ever even had a churro?"
"No."
"Oh my god what?" Jongin leaned over the counter, almost flying into the snack bar. "Minseok, make Suho a churro please."
"Oh that's not necessary."
"At least try it."
"I don't have to try it. I know it's horrible health wise."
"But it's delicious taste wise. Especially the way Minseok makes them all crispy and delicious. And he uses vegetable oil, don't you, Minseok?"
Minseok looked at him like he was crazy and shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
Suho sighed as Jongin took a bite of his churro. "Mhhh," Jongin moaned. "So good."
"What tastes better?" Suho asked, lowering his voice. "That or..."
He trailed off and Jongin had to stop himself from ripping his clothes off right there. "Your churro is definitely more delicious. No contest."
Suho made a face and frowned. "I die a little inside each time you take another bite of that."
"What? Your churro?"
Suho slumped his shoulder forwards and rested his forehead on Jongin's chest. "I'm dead. It's official, you have killed me."
Sehun ate his churro like he was deep throating it and the only one not completely disturbed by it was Luhan, because he loved when Sehun did gross shit like that.
"See?" Minseok said pointing at Sehun's obscene display and Luhan laughing his ass off. "This is why you boys are bad for business. If only you were pretty flower boys, girls would be here every afternoon, but no, I get stuck with vile, perverted Neanderthals."
Suho nodded in agreement. "I'm glad you didn't ask Sehun to work at the store." He looked at Jongin with a little smile.
"Me too," Jongin whispered in his ear. "So so glad."
Suho almost gagged after the first bite of his churro, but later on as they talked, he ate the whole thing without realizing and made Jongin pay in the form of reading him a section out of one of his business books for an hour afterwards.
*
Cute Boyfriend Activity #1
Jongin tried to teach Suho how to surf. He took him out to the waves early on a Saturday when the sun was barely in the sky. It was getting warmer in April, and Jongin thought watching Suho fumble for a while would be kinda cute.
How wrong he was.
Suho drank enough ocean water for a year and cried tears of frustration after his board hit him in the elbow for the 253rd time.
Cute Boyfriend Activity #2
Suho invited Jongin to a vegan restaurant in LA. Jongin spent the date pushing his soba noodles around and dipping his fried tofu in so much soy sauce they tasted like sodium itself. Suho let Jongin pick the dessert place and Jongin detoured into a McDonalds to get a hamburger. Jongin could tell Suho was trying not to barf and die all at once. In that moment, he knew Suho really liked him. They stayed in a hotel that night and Jongin taught him the benefits of sex on a satisfied stomach.
Cute Boyfriend Activity #3
Jongin thought Suho would have better luck on land with his skateboard.
His bruised body indicated otherwise.
Cute boyfriend Activity #4
Suho and Jongin found that fooling around in the storage room of the store was their favorite activity so far.
Sex in the shower was a close second followed by embarrassing stories during pillow talk.
Jongin loved listening to Suho, especially when he talked about his life before Jongin because he seemed like a completely different person. One night, he was talking about his summer after high school.
"I was scared out of my mind," he confessed, talking softly as he tended to do after sex, and also because it was three in the morning. Jongin slept over at Suho's house almost every night and his parents had been suspicious but they left him alone. He was going to college soon anyway, and they never bothered getting to know his friends so they didn't even ask who he was staying with.
"My parents were very proud of me for getting into Columbia," he continued, his fingers waltzing along Jongin's chest and leaving him tingling. "I still didn't have any idea what I wanted to study but my parents kept pushing for business so that's how I ended up doing that. I hated it so much, I tried to finish as soon as possible. I was out of there in three years by doing summers and piling on credits like it was my life's duty."
Jongin marveled at him. "Damn, I have one fucking smart boyfriend."
Suho shook his head. "And modest to boot," Jongin said and tickled under his chin.
"Well anyway, my dad had a friend who pulled some strings and I had a job as soon as I was out. As weird as it sounds, I was looking forward to the post-grad, jobless depression. I really just wanted to sit on my parent's couch and eat oatmeal all day."
"Oh god you even make lazing around sound boring," Jongin laughed. "Oatmeal, really? This is why I call you gramps."
Suho ignored him, but he was smiling. "My job is such a pain. I work with old stuffy men twice my age that all hate me because of how I got the job. Frankly, I hate me too."
"Oh come on, you're an incredibly smart and successful young...grandpa. You thought I was going to say man didn't you?"
Suho pinched his nipple hard. Jongin tried not to cry like a wuss.
"That's why I jumped at the opportunity to leave my job to come here. Then when I got here it sunk in that I didn't quite fit in and I hate not fitting in."
"I think you fit in pretty damn well now." Jongin kissed his chin and then trailed down to his neck slowly. Suho curled into himself a little, trying to fight against the ticklishness of Jongin's lips hovering over his skin.
Suho tangled his legs with Jongin's and breathed against the top of his head. "You used my shampoo," he said, his voice small and distant, like he'd thought it and the words slipped out.
"I did, is that a problem?" Jongin asked.
"No, of course not. I just like how your's smells."
"Are you gonna buy a bottle now and smell it like a weirdo?"
Suho was quiet for a while then whispered, "Maybe it would be nice for when I leave."
Jongin looked up at him and sighed. "No, please, don't bring that up."
"Jongdae comes home in two days, Jongin. We can't ignore it anymore. I leave the day after tomorrow."
"Ugh, no don't say that. I'll just hate that movie more than I already do."
"Not a big Jake Gyllenhaal fan?" Suho asked, doing an awful job at steering the conversation away from their expiration date.
"I could care less about him, it was just a dumb movie and you're dumb for mentioning it so don't."
"I just-"
"Please?"
Suho looked like he wanted to say something else on the subject, but he simply kissed Jongin's forehead and snuggled closer to him. "Want to know a secret?"
"What?" Jongin mumbled into his chest.
"I think Cyndi Lauper might be my favorite 80's singer."
Jongin smiled against his better judgement. "Are you trying to make me make fun of you so I'm not sad?"
"Oh no wait, I lied, it's probably John Waite. Well maybe they could be the king and queen, tied at first place."
"You are so weird," Jongin laughed.
"That's actually not what I wanted to tell you," Suho confessed. "I just think it sounds silly."
"What is it?"
"Okay, well, my real name is Junmyeon, but when I started working at my job, the other guys would make fun of me for it so I changed it to something easier to pronounce, but I really like my name. I don't know, I guess I just wanted to ask you: Could you just call me Junmyeon once?"
"Sure, why not. I can call you Junmyeon, gramps. I can call you Junmyeon all night long."
Suho smiled wide and kissed his temple. "Once is enough." He went silent for a moment, but he was still smiling. "Thank you."
Jongin stared at him for a long time. He wondered how he was so lucky to have met such a fascinating and humble person and then he kissed him for as long as their expiration date would allow him to.
*
"Are you going to call me as soon as you get there?"
"Not a second after."
"And don't worry about making my phone bill go up, my parents are used to it because of all the late night phone sex services I call."
"Please tell me you're kidding."
"I guess you're going to have to trust me on this one."
Suho rushed in to hug him. Although he was a tiny man, he had a deadly grip when he wanted to. "Please try to get at least one solid, real vegetable into your meals once a day."
Jongin hugged him back, and his laugh came out breathy because of it. "I will do no such thing, but I'll cut down on the sugar if it makes you feel better."
"It does actually."
They held each other for a long while. They were in the store, Jongdae was back in his apartment and Suho's flight was in the afternoon. Jongin had ditched school because there were more important things than education. Like Suho for instance. Suho was more important than a lot of things in Jongin's life.
When Suho pulled away he looked teary eyed.
"Please don't cry," Jongin insisted. "If you cry I might have to fit myself into your luggage and ditch graduation and you don't want a dropout boyfriend now do you?"
"I certainly don't," he mumbled into the sleeve of his sweater. He was wearing one of Jongin's sweaters and he looked really fucking good in it. Jongin wasn't going to miss the sweater as much as he'd miss Suho in it.
"And besides, it's just three months. We get the entire month of August afterwards and if I get into NYU, then we're set. Thank the Big Bang that created us all that I applied to that as a backup school."
"Don't you want to go to UCLA? I don't want you to go to a school because of me."
"Suho, I would walk on a bed of hot rocks for you, and without the whole voodoo shit. I would experience the actual pain for you." Jongin cupped his hand over Suho's cheek. "Don't sweat it, I'm a communications major, I can do that shit anywhere."
Suho smiled a little. He looked down at his watch and sighed. "My flight is in 2 hours."
"Don't you want to take a burrito with you first?"
"I think I'll pass."
"Okay, a churro then?"
"No, really Jongin, I'm good. I've had enough junk food during my stay to last me a lifetime."
"You, boss man, don't know how to live the life."
"I'm not your boss anymore," Suho said, looking a little sad about it. No more storage room make-outs. Jongin was very sad that they had to end.
"Yeah, now you're just gramps," Jongin said with a cheeky smile. "Good thing I always have a new nickname ready for you, huh?"
Suho was going to say something when a car parked in front of the store. "That's probably Jongdae now to take me to the airport."
Jongin nodded, taking one of his suitcases. He didn't want to go to the airport because he had told Suho about his theory that they probably dusted something through the air vents to cause tears. It was impossible to go to the airport and not cry.
"Wait," Suho said, pulling on Jongin's sleeve. He turned him around and got close to him, pulling him down and pushing himself up to meet him halfway. "Goodbye, Jongin."
"Goodbye, Junmyeon," Jongin whispered back and kissed him enough to last him two months.
*
During graduation, Jongin sat in between two Kims he'd never spoken to during his entire high school career. One was a girl, Jenny Kim, who he'd shared Math class with. The other was a guy, Patrick Kim, who smoked more weed than Bob Marley. Jongin could smell it now as Patrick shifted awkwardly in his chair. Jongin turned around as the principal droned on and on about their unique and wonderful accomplishments to check on Sehun. He was seated between two girls who kept leaning over him to talk to each other. He looked like he was in Hell, which made Jongin happy as hell. He looked towards the bleachers and spotted Baekhyun sitting next to his boyfriend Chanyeol. The dinner with his parents had gone over well, they'd loved him to pieces because it was hard to hate Baekhyun once you got to know him and now they were really happy together. Their graduation was next week and would probably be a thousand times swankier than this one. Luhan and Minseok sat next to them, and Luhan held a tremendously glittery banner with Sehun's name on it like a deranged teenage fangirl at a concert. When he saw Jongin looking at him, he turned it around to reveal Jongin's name on the other side. He tried not to laugh too hard as to not distract from his principal's heartwarming speech.
Jongin had been doing relatively well since Suho left. He had his friends and his health and he was doing okay. Sure, he missed him like hell and every time he heard his voice on the phone, he could really feel the miles between them. But he wasn't as bad as he thought he'd be. That was until...their class valedictorian decided to play a tribute for everyone. It was supposed to make them all reminisce on the last fours years and get all sappy about leaving high school, but all it did was make Jongin feel like a moron because he actually cried. He wasn't in any of the pictures, but the song, the fucking song was the culprit. He hated that fucking song and how ironic it was.
The song was Missing You by none other than Suho's best buddy John Waite himself.
The only other time Jongin had cried while thinking of Suho was when True Colors by Cyndi Lauper had played at an 80's themed party a week ago. The universe was out to fuck him in the ass, he was sure of it. What put the cherry on the sundae, however, was when Patrick Kim clasped his hand on Jongin's knee, weeping as well, and said, "Isn't this such a touching song? I'm so fucking touched, dude."
Jongin tried with all his might not to respond with a, "Bite me."
*
Epilogue
One year later
The sun hit Jongin's back as he rode on his skateboard. It was warmer than it had been this time last year, so he swerved under the shades of trees every chance he could. His phone buzzed and he stopped momentarily to read the text.
"Waiting for you. Thinking of you."
Jongin laughed at the perfect grammar. Suho couldn't spell 'you' as 'u' even if his life depended on it. Jongin swerved down a corner and extended his arms out to the sides in happiness. He wasn't worrying about his oral report on Monday or his dance recital next month, all he felt was bliss. His life was really just perfect.
"Hey, biyotch," Sehun called out as he tried to catch up. "Why are you swerving so much? Do one thing right in your life and skate in a straight line."
Jongin shrugged him away and kept swerving. He only saw Sehun during the weekends because he went to a community college in town while Jongin went to UCLA, but it was just the right dose of Sehun for one person to handle.
"I'm going to drop by the store," Jongin told him as they reached the corner before the snack bar.
"Of course you are," Sehun said and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, go, I'll just eat Minseok's sausage while I wait."
"You never stop being gross, do you?" Jongin asked, but he skated away before he could hear his (no doubt gross) answer.
He arrived in front of the store a few minutes after that and he smiled. Inside the place had been remodeled and the walls had been painted a nice, warm, yellow. Jongin took his board in one hand and opened the door with the other.
The man behind the counter smiled at him when he came in.
"Hello, can I help you with anything?" he asked.
"Yes, actually. I was looking for this really stellar piece of merchandise. I'm not sure how much it could cost or what to call it but it's probably in the back somewhere in a box or something labeled "My boyfriend"? Is that still in stock?"
The man looked at him with a confused expression. "I don't know-"
Suho peeked out of storage room and came over with a huge smile on his face. He waved a hand at his new employee. "Don't worry about him, Kyungsoo. My boyfriend has a weird sense of humor."
"I like to call it unique and splendid. Weird is just offensive."
Suho locked his arms around Jongin and kissed him. "Nice to see you. How was school this week?"
"It was good. I got a solo for my recital next month."
"No way? Ugh, you sexy, amazing man, I'm so happy for you," Suho kissed him. He passed a hand over Jongin's chin and smiled. "I have to say, the stubble looks nice on you."
"Good, because I'm too lazy to shave." Jongin returned the gesture and patted Suho's soft cheeks. "On the other hand, you look marvelous clean shaven and should remain this way forever."
Suho frowned. "I shaved this morning out of accident. I would've let the beard grow out a little more but I was so sleepy I shaved out of habit."
"Thank Mary and Joseph for your anal retentiveness when you're sleepy." Jongin told him with a kiss. "Dinner tonight?"
"Sure, can I pick?"
"Anything as long as it isn't microwavable."
Suho gave him a look. "When would I ever willingly eat anything that can be made in a microwave?"
"You're right, microwaves didn't exist in your time."
"If you call me-"
"Don't get angry, gramps. Just face the truth that you can't handle how the time's are changing."
"I don't want to murder you in front of Kyungsoo, but if you push me, I think I may have to."
"Oh please, Kyungsoo's probably seen worse. Haven't you, dude? You look like you rough it up with ruffians during the weekends."
Kyungsoo looked between them with wide eyes like they were speaking another language.
"Don't scare the poor boy," Suho said. "Go back to your phone game, Kyungsoo."
"It's called an app, gramps," Jongin told him. "I stopped by here before going to see Minseok. How are he and Jongdae doing?"
"They're doing well. You know, I think their getting back together was a great business plan."
“Oh? How so?" Jongin asked.
"Well because now they want to expand and are planning on buying a van so they can sell throughout the city."
"And you left your job and got stuck with this dingy place," Jongin said, leaning down to whisper in his ear.
"I don't regret it at all," Suho told him, nibbling on his ear for a moment, letting him know what awaited him later on. "Not even for a second."
Jongin couldn't have hoped for a better response from his beautiful boyfriend's beautiful head.
Suho/Kai, Sehun/Luhan, Kai/Lay, Xiumin/Chen, Lay/Kris, Baekhyun/Chanyeol
R (for mentions of activity of the sexual nature)
Jongin wanted a part time job; he ended up getting a lot more than he could have ever hoped for.
A/N: I played around with their ages because I'm a loser like that. Oh and I really think Baekhyun might be in the '94 line and they're just lying to us about it. Plus get ready to fall in love with Minseok hard core. That is all.
Part 1
Suho's house was the type of house you'd expect to see in an issue of those home decor magazines they put in the doctor's office for the moms. It didn't look lived in; it barely seemed suitable for a bachelor to have been sleeping there for almost a month. He actually had white sofas, which seemed ridiculous because what if he brought in sand and dirt, but then Jongin realized Suho didn't drag sand and dirt around because he well, just didn't.
"Wow, quite the pad you've got here," Baekhyun said, looking around. "It's like our beach house in Spain but ours has a bigger terrace and a barbecue and this really awesome shower thing in the middle of the porch."
"Why did you invite him?" Suho asked Jongin subtly. Jongin shrugged. "We don't really do anything apart during the afternoons. Besides, he never gets homework because his school enforces them to actually do work during study hall."
Suho gave him a slight 'shut him up' look so Jongin went up to Baekhyun. He was still rattling on and on about how his beach house had this and that, but that his house on some ski resort had this other thing. Jongin touched his elbow.
"Baekhyun," Jongin said softly, "come back to us."
Baekhyun sighed. "Sorry."
Sehun was already sitting at the dinning table, his notebook and laptop out to start working on the project. "Guys, come over here, I don't want to spend the rest of my life working on this shit."
Suho stood in the kitchen and watched as they shuffled around his dinning room in his house, or well temporary house. This was all so weird to Jongin. First the guy was a jerk to him, then he kissed him, then he pushed him away, then he invited him to his house. It made less and less sense as time went on.
Jongin slung his bag on the table and went into the kitchen with Suho.
He stood behind him for a second and then cleared his throat. Suho turned around and actually backed into the counter.
"I'm not going to attack you," Jongin said, actually offended.
"I know," Suho muttered. Did he really have to go all mousy now? After a pause he asked, "Do you want something to drink?"
Jongin looked back at the dinning table where Baekhyun and Sehun were giggling about something on the laptop, definitely not working. Jongin hurried and closed the little wooden window divider between the kitchen and dinning room.
"Jongin-"
"I just want to know what your problem is."
"My problem?" he asked, like he'd never had a problem before and this was a new concept.
"Yeah, why did you tell us to come here?"
Suho looked genuinely perplexed. How cute. "I thought you guys needed a place to finish your project."
"Yeah, but if worst came to worst, we could've gone to the library."
"I thought you needed Internet."
"What place doesn't have wifi now a days?"
Suho bit lis lip.
"Do you even like me?" Jongin asked.
"Of course." The way he answered so quickly made Jongin smile. "I mean, yeah, I do, I guess" he said, trying to soften his exuberance, but the damage was done. After you exuberanced, there was no going back.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Why were you so weird after we," he felt stupid doing it, but he whispered the last word, "kissed?"
"Because," Suho said, whispering as well. "You're 18 and I'm...older."
"Oh God you're only 21 or something. It's not like you're 45."
"I'm going to be 22 in May." Suho said, like he was almost embarrassed to say it, the way one might say they were 40 and still a virgin.
"Yeah, so? Sehun is dating Luhan and they have the same age difference as us."
"Really?" Suho asked. "I could've sworn they were the same age."
"Yeah it's the matching blonde hair," Jongin said with a shrug. "They both look 16 because of it. It's kinda gross that they insist on always having the same hair color and style. It's like they want people to think they're brothers who make out. There must be something deeply wrong with both their psyches. I'm sure a psychologist would get a kick out of their relation-"
"Jongin," Suho cut in, looking at him with soft but demanding eyes. It seemed like hard look to give so Jongin shut up.
"Look," Suho started. "I like you, I do. But I'm leaving as soon as Jongdae comes back and that's going to be soon, and you're finishing high school. You should be enjoying your last months and, I don't know, thinking about college, not about some stuffy old business man."
"Now when you put it like that, how can I think about anything else?" Jongin asked, stepping forward. "You see, I have a very overactive imagination so I can't help but picture me bent over your desk in your luxurious office looking over the city while you-"
"Please, I beg you not to finish that sentence."
Jongin smirked. "You really enjoy begging me, don't you?"
Suho glared at him, and then Sehun yelled at Jongin to get them some coke, and their flirting disappeared into the air. Suho took out three glasses and put them on the counter and took out a Coca-Cola bottle from the fridge and all Jongin could do was stare at him. The bottle was new so he'd clearly bought it just for them.
"Why do you do this?" Jongin asked while pointing at the bottle.
"What?"
"Do sweet shit like buy stuff you wouldn't buy for yourself just to please my stupid friends?" Jongin sighed. "Why do that and not let me kiss you for it?"
Suho was silent for a long time and then met Jongin's gaze with a glint that hadn't been there since they kissed. "I never said you couldn't kiss me." Suho smiled slightly, and it was the cutest thing Jongin had ever seen.
Jongin crossed the distance and kissed Suho gently, letting their lips slide slowly until the sound of something dropping had them breaking apart.
"Shit," Jongin muttered against Suho's delicious lips. They tasted so nice. Like coconut and orange juice and peaches and shit shit shit.
"If your friends broke something I'm making the rich little one pay for it," Suho said mildly.
"I wouldn't hold you against it, we make him pay for everything."
They separated, with a lot of difficulty if you asked Jongin, and went into the dinning room to see what had happened.
Sehun and Baekhyun were standing, looking down at...Baehyun's cellphone?
"What happened?" Jongin asked.
"What the hell?" Sehun asked. What, he didn't know? He turned his eyes on Jongin and pointed at Baekhyun accusatorially. "Baekhyun just totally freaked out and threw his cellphone on the floor."
Baekhyun looked at it angrily and Suho went back into the kitchen to bring them their sodas.
"Baekhyun," Jongin said, bending down to pick up the sim card and a few small pieces of glass from the broken screen. He accidentally grabbed one wrong and he ended up cutting his finger. "Shit!"
"What now?" Suho asked, looking clearly annoyed, but then when he saw the blood he rushed over with a worried expression that if Jongin weren't bleeding he would've kissed him because it was too damn adorable. "What happened?" Suho asked, falling into major concerned mode.
Baekhyun looked down and his eyes widened. "Oh fuck, no Jongin, you're hurt because of me? Why do I hurt everyone I care about?"
Jongin squeezed his finger with his shirt and winced at the shard of glass that was still lodged under his nail. "Forget about me, Baekhyun. What made you so upset you felt you had to throw your phone?"
Baekhyun squirmed for a second. "Chanyeol's parents found out about us and are going to make him study business instead of music like he'd planned since like ever and now he probably hates my fucking guts."
"Who's Chanyeol?" Sehun asked.
"My boyfriend," he said sheepishly.
"Your boyfriend? You guys are together and you didn't tell us?"
"Well he is...ughh was, my secret boyfriend so I had to keep it a secret."
Suho put a hand on Jongin's back which momentarily helped him forget that he was bleeding to death. "Jongin, we should go check that out."
He helped Jongin up and lead him down a corridor to the bathroom. The walls were covered in white tiles with little blue seashells on them. Suho looked strange inside the bathroom, but even weirder taking out a first aid kit and rummaging around it like a..."You look like a boy scout," Jongin felt like telling him.
Suho smiled. "That's cause I was."
"You were?" Jongin was totally delighted. "That's just about the cutest thing."
Suho's brow furrowed. "Do you feel woozy?"
"A little? I don't know. But you were a boy scout. That is just the best." Jongin couldn't get over it. "Did you have a little hat with a tassel?"
"I think you're confusing your associations."
"Did you ever dissect a squirrel?"
"I was a boy scout, not a veterinarian. Now hold still." Suho had a pair of tweezers in his hand and he was looking at Jongin with a menacing, determined gaze.
"Are you going to pluck my eyebrows?" Jongin asked.
"No, I have to get that piece of glass out before you get infected." Suho bit his lip, but in a concentrated way that was really hot.
"Why can't you pluck my eyebrows instead? I'm sure that would be more pleasant."
Suho ignored him and put the tweezers on Jongin's index finger. "Take a deep breath."
Jongin obeyed, and took the deepest breath of his entire life. Suho plucked the piece of glass and for a second Jongin thought he was going to drive it in, because maybe Suho was a maniac and he really just hated Jongin's guts, but instead he pulled it out. Quite flawlessly actually.
"How was that?" Suho asked, taking the disinfectant and the cut medicine and a bandaid and settling them around the sink.
"It wasn't that bad," Jongin confessed. Suho finished aiding Jongin's finger and then held his wrist for a moment and looked down at the band aid he'd just placed on his fingertip. Jongin looked at him and waited and then finally Suho kissed his finger over the bandaid. He had this stupid cute look on his face so Jongin grabbed his chin and kissed him. Jongin had to bend his knees a bit to kiss him comfortably, and that just made him so happy, because Suho was so small, he fit against Jongin's chest like he was made to be there. Suho clung to him, his nails digging slightly into his back and shoulders through the thin material of his t-shirt. Jongin moved against the sink and hoisted him up until he was sitting on the edge of the sink. As if the kiss couldn't get any better, Suho smiled against Jongin's mouth, causing Jongin to smile too and they were smiling at each other like morons for a while.
When they were ready to kiss again, the door opened and Sehun stood there like he'd caught them doing some weird S&M shit.
"Oh, wow, sorry," Sehun said, although he didn't seem all too apologetic. "I just came to tell you that Baekhyun's really upset so I'm taking him out drinking with Luhan. You wanna come?"
Jongin sighed, but he didn't bother pulling away from Suho, he quite liked him sitting on the sink with his legs hanging loosely around Jongin's thighs.
"What about our project?" he asked, knowing he was asking the wrong person because Sehun clearly didn't care.
"I don't know, our friend is in need, what's really important here?"
Suho pushed Jongin's shoulder, but in a friendly, sweet, I-care-for-you-and-your-dumb-friend's-problems way. "You should go. You can always come over and finish it tomorrow."
Jongin scratched his forehead and sighed. "We'd have to start it to finish it."
"Come on," Sehun said," he's really upset. He keeps babbling about this Chanyeol dude. He needs alcohol in his system. STAT!"
Suho got off the sink and packed up the first aid kit. He did it with such precision that it made Jongin smiled. He looked at Sehun and shooed him away. "Give us a second here, I'll be right there."
Sehun narrowed his eyes, and then shrugged and left. He was so unaffected.
"Go be there for your friend," Suho said, smiling at him, "but don't drink too much because I expect you in the store tomorrow, and alcohol is just empty calories."
"Yes, boss man," Jongin sighed against Suho's skin before kissing his cheek and and then his mouth. He kept the kiss short, but he was so glad he got three kisses in one day. If Suho had an epiphany overnight and decided they couldn't do this anymore, at least Jongin had these three kisses.
"Goodbye," Suho whispered.
"Bye," Jongin whispered back. He gave Suho another quick kiss-it didn't hurt to have an extra one just in case-and left the bathroom feeling very happy, on top of the world almost.
A few hours later, when he was assisting a severely drunk Baekhyun, as he peed in a very smelly urinal, that feeling came crashing down.
*
"And then he puked in his mother's rose bush?"
"No, that was before. He climbed the fence after and then he tried to have sex with his garden gnome."
"Who still owns a garden gnome?"
"I know, right?"
"So what happened next?"
Jongin smiled. He was in the middle of retelling the scandalous events of last night to Suho, who seemed really interested. Fascinated even.
"You're really digging all this," Jongin said.
"I'm really digging you," Suho responded, truly a man with wonderful come backs stored in his beautiful head. "And did you know you pucker your lips when you talk? Like you're just ready to kiss anyone with every word."
"Well not just anyone," Jongin said, leaning over the counter to kiss Suho. It was nice, kissing Suho whenever Jongin felt like it, but what was better was when someone interrupted them by calling Suho on his phone. Not really.
Suho pulled away and passed a hand over Jongin's pouting lips. "Just a sec."
He looked down at the caller i.d. and matched his frown. "It's Jongdae."
And just like that their entire fairytale/paradise/fucking good time exploded and boiled over with lava at the realization that Suho had to leave soon. To make things worse, Suho went into the storage room to take the call, as if to soften Jongin's blow. Why did he have to be so fucking considerate?
Jongin looked at the tv and didn't focus on anything. He could barely think a straight thought until Suho came out, crest fallen.
"What did he say?" Jongin asked.
"He said he was coming home mid-April."
"Mid-April?" Jongin asked. "Why do you look so sad? That's awesome. That's like 3 more weeks at least."
"Yes, 3 more weeks and then what?" Suho asked, walking up to Jongin and taking his hands. "What happens after those 3 weeks? I go back and we never see each other again? That's doesn't sound too peachy to me. How about you?"
Jongin rolled his eyes and tightened his fingers around Suho's. "Look, we're together now so I'm going to tell you a little fact about me. I don't look too ahead into the future."
Suho frowned. "That's not very reassuring."
"The future isn't assured," Jongin said.
Suho's eyes widened. "If you tell me to be all YOLO, I'll scream, because frankly that saying is so stupid and a dumb version of carpe diem. Seriously kids, it's not too hard to say two words in Latin."
Jongin stared at him in amusement. "You done?"
Suho nodded.
"What I was going to say before you so rudely interrupted me is that worrying just takes away from the time we have together right now. Would you rather bite your nails over what's going to happen once Jongdae comes or do you want to enjoy the next three weeks with me?"
Suho thought it over in his head for a while and then frowned. "I don't bite my nails."
"I'm sure you don't, what with your perfect posture and general tidiness and absolute control of everything."
"I don't have control over everything."
"Oh really?" Jongin asked, actually curious at this sudden confession.
"I had no control over liking you," Suho said and gave him the smallest of embarrassed smiles Jongin had ever seen.
Jongin decided to take that as a compliment and kissed him.
*
"Motherfuckerrrrr!" Sehun shouted as soon as Jongin was within earshot. He was thrown on Luhan and Minseok's sofa in their apartment like the half-human he was after a night of drinking. He'd skipped school two days straight and their project was due tomorrow.
"Sehun, I don't have time for your bullshit, we need to finish this project tonight."
Sehun rolled over and his blanket slipped, revealing his bare, pale ass.
"Oh God, cover that up," Baekhyun moaned from the futon. He had ditched school too because he was afraid of facing Chanyeol. Jongin was the only upstanding student within his group of friends; things were in dire conditions.
"Just ditch tomorrow," Sehun said and ignored Baekhyun's horrified noises at the sight of his ass. "The teacher won't notice."
"Sehun, Mr. Carter has had it out for me since the first day of class freshman year when he couldn't pronounce my name and I laughed at him for it. I can't not hand in this project. Fuck my entire life, why did I agree to be your partner?"
Sehun groaned and snorted, the picture perfect image of a gentleman. "I don't caaaare."
Luhan came in from the kitchenette with two mugs filled with tea. "Do you want one, Jongin?" He went over to Sehun and covered his ass, then slapped a butt cheek for good measure.
"No, I have no intention of staying with these drunktards. I'll go see if Yixing can help me and if not I'll just tell the teacher my partner is a total asshole with a pimple near his actual one."
Sehun gasped and ripped the blanket off to try and inspect, but no matter how abnormally long his neck was, he couldn't actually see anything from his position. Jongin left them and vaguely heard Sehun asking Luhan to check for the pimple as he closed the door. Really. His friends. The grossest.
Yixing was sitting on his porch when Jongin came to bug him for help.
"I'm not going to help you."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please with lots of sprinkles and that weird syrup shit you like on your ice cream on top."
"Raspberry sauce is not weird syrup shit."
"Okay, I take it back, that delicious, amazing, glorious, syrup shit."
Yixing laughed but Jongin knew he wasn't budging. "Why won't you help me?"
"Let's see, maybe because you only come to me when you want something?"
"What? No wayyyy," Jongin said, but the way he elongated his words made it obvious that he had in fact been doing that. "Okay, I'm sorry. I guess I've been negligent to your needs and I also wanted to talk to you about that."
Yixing gave him a look that meant he had some explaining to do.
"I...well you remember I told you Suho and I kissed?"
"Yes."
"Well we kissed again."
"Really?" He seemed genuinely happy for Jongin. Damn, Yixing was the best person ever.
"Yeah, a couple times actually, and well I really like him and well we've agreed to just...hang out for the next few weeks before Jongdae comes back."
"And you're okay with that?"
"Yeah, it was my idea."
"And he's okay with it?"
"I think so? For now he is. I don't know what the future holds but I don't really want to care for the time being."
"Classic Kim Jongin," Yixing said with a pleasant smile.
"So I was thinking maybe-"
"That we should end this benefits thing?"
"Yeah," Jongin said. "I feel horrible asking you like this so abruptly. I don't want to be a total dick, but I really like-"
"Jongin, it's fine. We both got into this with the knowledge that we're both two horny guys with super high standards to date some rando skeezeballs. This isn't some epic romance. I haven't been pining after you this whole time."
Jongin read his expression and he was being sincere. His tone was so incredibly mocking that if Jongin didn't love him so much he'd hate him a little. "Besides," he said, more sheepish this time. "I met this really hot guy while I was on my way to dance rehearsal last month and we've been...talking."
"And by that you mean fucking?"
"A little." Yixing said, and blushed. He actually blushed! Jongin had never seen him do that before. "He's so beautiful, Jongin. Like in this really, in-your-face way, but he's so cute when he smiles which isn't often with other people but he seems to smile a lot with me."
"He luuuurves you," Jongin said in a gross baby voice. Yixing went into a giggling fit.
"What's his name?"
"Kris," Yixing said happily, as if his name was the nicest name on the entire planet.
"Oh, I've seen him. Tall, blonde, Cambodian?"
"He's Canadian," he corrected but nodded to the rest.
Jongin smiled at how serious he looked. "I know he's not Cambodian." But Yixing wasn't listening because his eyes had gone dreamy and he continued to discuss how lovely his entire being was.
After a while Jongin said, "So we both have new men in our lives," And he nodded appreciatively at both their conquests.
"It looks like we do," Yixing said and joined him in his nodding.
"So no more hooking up after long dance sessions?" Jongin asked him, making sure to get everything clear.
"Yeah, no more dance sexxions." Yixing frowned a little. "Is it weird that I'm a little sad?"
"I don't think so. I'm a little sad too."
"It's the end of an era."
"A horny era."
Yixing chuckled. "Well then, let's agree now that if we're single after we graduate and we bump into each other we should spend a night together for old time's sake."
Jongin nodded. "You better not get fat."
Yixing shoved his shoulder in response.
Jongin showed up on Suho's porch after dinner. Suho had given him the afternoon off to finish his project but that didn't look like it was going to happen so when he texted him that he wanted to hang out, Suho told him he was home.
"Why didn't you open the store today?" Jongin asked as soon as he opened the door.
"Well hello to you too." Suho stepped aside to let him in. "I had stuff to do and I didn't feel like getting out of my pajamas."
Jongin took a look at him. His "pajamas" consisted of this indigo silk matching top and bottom set. Jongin swore everything about Suho made him look like he'd plucked his life out of a magazine.
"You look like a million bucks," Jongin said with a kiss. Suho shrugged, but he was smiling. "Do you want some tea?"
"I don't really bother with anything other than Gatorade or Coke."
"Oh God," Suho looked mortified. "How has your entire body not shut down? You need some health in your body. I'll make you some green tea."
Jongin watched with huge buckets of amusement as Suho shuffled into his kitchen in a pair of matching loafers to go with his pajamas. Suho took the kettle and started preparing the tea like a doctor might prepare for surgery.
"What are you doing, old man?"
"I'm making you some healthy, immune boosting, metabolism revving tea. You can't drink so much sugar without expecting some type of consequence. I know you're young, but drinking your calories can be very harmful to your body in the long run. I can't believe I almost contributed to that on Tuesday," Suho said, ignoring his insult. Jongin was going to have to try again.
"So does this tea also help you with your senescence?"
Suho turned to him with a proud smile. "You know that word?"
Jongin rolled his eyes. "I picked it up from my SAT prep last year."
Suho nodded, but he still looked very proud that it had stuck with Jongin. So proud that he didn't seem to notice Jongin insult him until, "Hey! I'm not senile, you brat."
"I bet you say words like hoodlum and persnickety."
"You are such a rascal."
"Was that on purpose?"
"Maybe."
"C'mere," Jongin said and pulled him closer while the water boiled. "You're the hottest gramps I've ever known."
"Please don't call me gramps ever again."
"Yeah, I'm gonna call you gramps from now on."
Suho growled in the back of his throat out of frustration and it was legitimately the hottest thing Jongin had ever heard.
After the tea was done they moved to Suho's room to watch tv on his gigantic plasma screen. Well, they tried to watch tv, but playing footsies was infinitely more fun. Jongin was cuddled against Suho like there was no place he'd rather be, and there wasn't. Suho had his arms around Jongin so comfortably, he'd never felt so safe and wanted in his entire life. The channels blurred as Suho fought to find something that didn't have a drunk reality star or a pregnant pageant mom. When he came to the news he stopped but then kept flipping.
"You can put it on the news if you want," Jongin told him.
"Yeah but you don't like it."
"Not anymore," Jongin snuggled into his chest. Damn those fucking pajamas were fucking soft. "I watch the news now in the morning as I get ready for school."
"You do? Because of what I said?"
"No, I have a huge crush on Anderson Cooper."
Suho frowned. "He doesn't even do the news anymore."
"I was joking, you know, joke. Haha."
Suho shoved him but then pulled him close again. "You make lame jokes."
"No, they're just too cool for you to understand, gramps."
"Could we not?" Suho asked, but he was smiling beautifully. "I can't believe something I said stuck with you."
"Everything you've ever told me has been running through my head since we met."
"I'm touched."
"You should be, fucker." Jongin said and attacked his mouth with kisses. Suho laughed and squirmed when Jongin found out he was ticklish. Ohhh he would use this new information only for evil, glorious, amazing evil.
Once Suho had successfully kicked Jongin off of him, literally, he told him he had something to give him.
"Is it a bouquet of flowers? Because I don't really do mushy crap well."
"I can tell," Suho said as he got up to his desk on the other side of the room. "You called me a fucker before kissing me."
Jongin smiled cheekily. Suho came back and sat down beside him on the mess of sheets before showing him what he had behind his back.
"I saw what your assignment was about so I did some research."
Jongin looked down at the folder in his hands. "You did my homework?"
"I started by just looking it up because I was curious about this disease," he said, looking adorably embarrassed. "But then I couldn't stop so I looked up the causes and then I asked Sehun to send me the assignment so I just looked it all up."
Jongin stared at him.
"I didn't edit anything at first," Suho continued. "I just copy-pasted but I thought that was better than to get a solid F."
Jongin just kept staring at him.
"But then I thought your teacher would notice if it was straight from the Internet so I went back and changed up some words."
Jongin's mouth was hanging open now.
"It's nothing spectacular. I'm not good with science terminology so I just winged it." Suho looked at Jongin. "Why aren't you saying anything? Make fun of me. Say I'm acting like your grandma."
Jongin kissed him first, and then laughed a little. "This is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me."
"Do your homework?"
"No, get so flustered over helping me. I can't believe Sehun didn't tell me you asked for the homework."
"He probably thought I was being weird," Suho said with a laugh. "I felt weird. I had to get his number through Minseok."
"Look at you being all sleuth-like." Jongin said and kissed him again. "You're so getting laid for this."
Suho's smile fell and he looked at Jongin with dead seriousness. "Really?"
"Yeah," Jongin whispered. "Don't you want to?"
"Well damn, I might have to do your homework more often."
Jongin laughed so hard, he couldn't stop laughing until Suho's hands were doing wondrous things inside his pants.
After that he only laughed again when Suho made a mess with the lube and threw a condom across the room in frustration when he couldn't get it on.
"You have done this before, right?" Jongin asked.
Suho puffed out air and took another one from his drawer. "You give it a try."
Jongin put it on in one smooth move.
"You've done this before," Suho accused.
"Well duh," Jongin said, but then he stiffened, and not in the good way. "Wait, you're a...a virgin?"
"Yeah." Suho said simply.
"Oh my god no wonder!"
"No wonder what? I have no idea how to put on a condom? Well it's slippery and weird because it's like putting s glove on a penis."
"No, like no wonder you were so uptight when we met. You've been 21 years without sex."
"Almost 22," Suho muttered. "But you clearly haven't been so long without it."
"Why, did you want to be my first?" Jongin mocked, but when Suho visibly deflated Jongin felt like a dick. A grade A dick. "Wait, you did?"
"I thought it would be romantic," Suho muttered.
"Oh god, no, Suho. There's nothing more unromantic than two unexperienced dudes fumbling around during sex. That's really sweet of you though."
"Don't patronize me," he said, sounding vaguely Boss Suho instead of the Cute and Awkward Suho he'd been a few minutes ago. Jongin wanted him back.
"I'm not patronizing. I really think it's sweet."
Suho sat down and crossed his arms over his chest. "I bet you don't want to be with me anymore."
"Why would you say that?"
"I'm an old virgin."
Jongin tried not to laugh. "You are not old and dear sweet Mary and Jesus, having sex too young is stupid and awkward anyway." He put his hands on Suho's thighs and kissed his knee. "Please, can we get back to our sexy adult sex?" He threw a pout in there for good measure. Suho gave in to that. Fuck yeah!
Their adult sex was definitely sexy and so wonderful they did it again...and again.
*
Jongin handed in Suho's assignment with such immense satisfaction even though, technically he'd cheated, but no one cared about technicalities. Except for Luhan. He really cared.
"So who topped?" he asked, leaning on the counter of the snack bar as Minseok made them all celebratory churros. Nothing was better than freshly made churros. Well maybe except sex...with Suho.
"Does it matter?" Minseok asked, forever the demure sex flower within a garden of open 24/7 mini marts.
"Of course it does," Sehun said, gulping down a slurpee. "Everyone can tell when I've topped Luhan."
"Yeah, he looks fine the next day, because he can't feel anything," Baekhyun thew in playfully. He was feeling better. He'd talked it out with Chanyeol and his parents wanted to meet him. It turned out his life was a gay teen romance novel after all.
"Ah ha ha ha," Sehun said, eyes half lidded in disgust. "Funny little man."
Baekhyun smiled and shared a discreet high five...with himself.
"No, but really Jongin, tell us who topped."
"No."
"I can picture it going either way."
"Good."
"Just tell us."
"Not gonna happen."
"What's not gonna happen?"
They all turned around to find Suho standing on the sidewalk peering over at them like there was an invisible force field around the snack bar. Maybe they were shooing away Minseok's customers. Jongin's face lit up and he walked over to Suho to give him a kiss. Jongin had left quickly in the morning to go to school and Suho had stayed in bed to relax but Jongin knew he really just meant recover.
"I was going to come over later to your house," Jongin murmured into his ear, going for a sexy, alluring voice. It seemed to work cause Suho gripped his arm a little.
"Yeah, but I wanted to come over and hang out."
Jongin looked at him. "You? Hang out? At the beach? I can't imagine such a world."
Suho sighed and Jongin stepped back to look at him. He was wearing a pair of red shorts that went to his knees and a white t-shirt with some brown loafers. The t-shirt had the name of Jongdae's store.
"What's this?" Jongin asked, pulling him closer by his shirt.
"Doing some promotion. I found it in a box in the back. Apparently we were supposed to wear them for work."
Jongin laughed and kissed him. He turned around when Sehun made a loud throat clearing noise.
"You know the guys," Jongin said casually, putting his arm around Suho's waist.
"How's everything with Chanyeol?" Suho asked Baekhyun and oh God he was so attentive and perfect.
"It's good," Baekhyun said, smiling. "I'm meeting his parents tomorrow night."
"I'm sure everything will go over well," Suho told him.
Luhan gaped.
"What?" Jongin asked him.
"He's so nice," Luhan turned to Suho. "You're so nice."
"Yeah, he is."
"Why did you say he was a prick?"
"I was so madly in love with him I couldn't handle my emotions so I projected them as hate," Jongin said with a shrug.
"Ditto," Suho told him and kissed his cheek.
"This is so weird," Sehun said. "You know, you're the first person Jongin's ever dated."
Suho looked at Jongin with wide, smiley eyes. "Really? So I am your first after all."
Jongin flushed and bumped him with his hip. "Yeah yea, okay, gramps, you're my first boyfriend, congratulations."
Suho wrapped his arms around him but went totally slack when Minseok said their churros were ready.
"You're not going to...eat that right?" Suho asked.
"Naw, I was gonna stick it in my bellybutton. Of course I'm going to eat it."
At Suho's horrified look Jongin laughed. "I'm not sure which option sounds worse."
"Have you ever even had a churro?"
"No."
"Oh my god what?" Jongin leaned over the counter, almost flying into the snack bar. "Minseok, make Suho a churro please."
"Oh that's not necessary."
"At least try it."
"I don't have to try it. I know it's horrible health wise."
"But it's delicious taste wise. Especially the way Minseok makes them all crispy and delicious. And he uses vegetable oil, don't you, Minseok?"
Minseok looked at him like he was crazy and shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
Suho sighed as Jongin took a bite of his churro. "Mhhh," Jongin moaned. "So good."
"What tastes better?" Suho asked, lowering his voice. "That or..."
He trailed off and Jongin had to stop himself from ripping his clothes off right there. "Your churro is definitely more delicious. No contest."
Suho made a face and frowned. "I die a little inside each time you take another bite of that."
"What? Your churro?"
Suho slumped his shoulder forwards and rested his forehead on Jongin's chest. "I'm dead. It's official, you have killed me."
Sehun ate his churro like he was deep throating it and the only one not completely disturbed by it was Luhan, because he loved when Sehun did gross shit like that.
"See?" Minseok said pointing at Sehun's obscene display and Luhan laughing his ass off. "This is why you boys are bad for business. If only you were pretty flower boys, girls would be here every afternoon, but no, I get stuck with vile, perverted Neanderthals."
Suho nodded in agreement. "I'm glad you didn't ask Sehun to work at the store." He looked at Jongin with a little smile.
"Me too," Jongin whispered in his ear. "So so glad."
Suho almost gagged after the first bite of his churro, but later on as they talked, he ate the whole thing without realizing and made Jongin pay in the form of reading him a section out of one of his business books for an hour afterwards.
*
Cute Boyfriend Activity #1
Jongin tried to teach Suho how to surf. He took him out to the waves early on a Saturday when the sun was barely in the sky. It was getting warmer in April, and Jongin thought watching Suho fumble for a while would be kinda cute.
How wrong he was.
Suho drank enough ocean water for a year and cried tears of frustration after his board hit him in the elbow for the 253rd time.
Cute Boyfriend Activity #2
Suho invited Jongin to a vegan restaurant in LA. Jongin spent the date pushing his soba noodles around and dipping his fried tofu in so much soy sauce they tasted like sodium itself. Suho let Jongin pick the dessert place and Jongin detoured into a McDonalds to get a hamburger. Jongin could tell Suho was trying not to barf and die all at once. In that moment, he knew Suho really liked him. They stayed in a hotel that night and Jongin taught him the benefits of sex on a satisfied stomach.
Cute Boyfriend Activity #3
Jongin thought Suho would have better luck on land with his skateboard.
His bruised body indicated otherwise.
Cute boyfriend Activity #4
Suho and Jongin found that fooling around in the storage room of the store was their favorite activity so far.
Sex in the shower was a close second followed by embarrassing stories during pillow talk.
Jongin loved listening to Suho, especially when he talked about his life before Jongin because he seemed like a completely different person. One night, he was talking about his summer after high school.
"I was scared out of my mind," he confessed, talking softly as he tended to do after sex, and also because it was three in the morning. Jongin slept over at Suho's house almost every night and his parents had been suspicious but they left him alone. He was going to college soon anyway, and they never bothered getting to know his friends so they didn't even ask who he was staying with.
"My parents were very proud of me for getting into Columbia," he continued, his fingers waltzing along Jongin's chest and leaving him tingling. "I still didn't have any idea what I wanted to study but my parents kept pushing for business so that's how I ended up doing that. I hated it so much, I tried to finish as soon as possible. I was out of there in three years by doing summers and piling on credits like it was my life's duty."
Jongin marveled at him. "Damn, I have one fucking smart boyfriend."
Suho shook his head. "And modest to boot," Jongin said and tickled under his chin.
"Well anyway, my dad had a friend who pulled some strings and I had a job as soon as I was out. As weird as it sounds, I was looking forward to the post-grad, jobless depression. I really just wanted to sit on my parent's couch and eat oatmeal all day."
"Oh god you even make lazing around sound boring," Jongin laughed. "Oatmeal, really? This is why I call you gramps."
Suho ignored him, but he was smiling. "My job is such a pain. I work with old stuffy men twice my age that all hate me because of how I got the job. Frankly, I hate me too."
"Oh come on, you're an incredibly smart and successful young...grandpa. You thought I was going to say man didn't you?"
Suho pinched his nipple hard. Jongin tried not to cry like a wuss.
"That's why I jumped at the opportunity to leave my job to come here. Then when I got here it sunk in that I didn't quite fit in and I hate not fitting in."
"I think you fit in pretty damn well now." Jongin kissed his chin and then trailed down to his neck slowly. Suho curled into himself a little, trying to fight against the ticklishness of Jongin's lips hovering over his skin.
Suho tangled his legs with Jongin's and breathed against the top of his head. "You used my shampoo," he said, his voice small and distant, like he'd thought it and the words slipped out.
"I did, is that a problem?" Jongin asked.
"No, of course not. I just like how your's smells."
"Are you gonna buy a bottle now and smell it like a weirdo?"
Suho was quiet for a while then whispered, "Maybe it would be nice for when I leave."
Jongin looked up at him and sighed. "No, please, don't bring that up."
"Jongdae comes home in two days, Jongin. We can't ignore it anymore. I leave the day after tomorrow."
"Ugh, no don't say that. I'll just hate that movie more than I already do."
"Not a big Jake Gyllenhaal fan?" Suho asked, doing an awful job at steering the conversation away from their expiration date.
"I could care less about him, it was just a dumb movie and you're dumb for mentioning it so don't."
"I just-"
"Please?"
Suho looked like he wanted to say something else on the subject, but he simply kissed Jongin's forehead and snuggled closer to him. "Want to know a secret?"
"What?" Jongin mumbled into his chest.
"I think Cyndi Lauper might be my favorite 80's singer."
Jongin smiled against his better judgement. "Are you trying to make me make fun of you so I'm not sad?"
"Oh no wait, I lied, it's probably John Waite. Well maybe they could be the king and queen, tied at first place."
"You are so weird," Jongin laughed.
"That's actually not what I wanted to tell you," Suho confessed. "I just think it sounds silly."
"What is it?"
"Okay, well, my real name is Junmyeon, but when I started working at my job, the other guys would make fun of me for it so I changed it to something easier to pronounce, but I really like my name. I don't know, I guess I just wanted to ask you: Could you just call me Junmyeon once?"
"Sure, why not. I can call you Junmyeon, gramps. I can call you Junmyeon all night long."
Suho smiled wide and kissed his temple. "Once is enough." He went silent for a moment, but he was still smiling. "Thank you."
Jongin stared at him for a long time. He wondered how he was so lucky to have met such a fascinating and humble person and then he kissed him for as long as their expiration date would allow him to.
*
"Are you going to call me as soon as you get there?"
"Not a second after."
"And don't worry about making my phone bill go up, my parents are used to it because of all the late night phone sex services I call."
"Please tell me you're kidding."
"I guess you're going to have to trust me on this one."
Suho rushed in to hug him. Although he was a tiny man, he had a deadly grip when he wanted to. "Please try to get at least one solid, real vegetable into your meals once a day."
Jongin hugged him back, and his laugh came out breathy because of it. "I will do no such thing, but I'll cut down on the sugar if it makes you feel better."
"It does actually."
They held each other for a long while. They were in the store, Jongdae was back in his apartment and Suho's flight was in the afternoon. Jongin had ditched school because there were more important things than education. Like Suho for instance. Suho was more important than a lot of things in Jongin's life.
When Suho pulled away he looked teary eyed.
"Please don't cry," Jongin insisted. "If you cry I might have to fit myself into your luggage and ditch graduation and you don't want a dropout boyfriend now do you?"
"I certainly don't," he mumbled into the sleeve of his sweater. He was wearing one of Jongin's sweaters and he looked really fucking good in it. Jongin wasn't going to miss the sweater as much as he'd miss Suho in it.
"And besides, it's just three months. We get the entire month of August afterwards and if I get into NYU, then we're set. Thank the Big Bang that created us all that I applied to that as a backup school."
"Don't you want to go to UCLA? I don't want you to go to a school because of me."
"Suho, I would walk on a bed of hot rocks for you, and without the whole voodoo shit. I would experience the actual pain for you." Jongin cupped his hand over Suho's cheek. "Don't sweat it, I'm a communications major, I can do that shit anywhere."
Suho smiled a little. He looked down at his watch and sighed. "My flight is in 2 hours."
"Don't you want to take a burrito with you first?"
"I think I'll pass."
"Okay, a churro then?"
"No, really Jongin, I'm good. I've had enough junk food during my stay to last me a lifetime."
"You, boss man, don't know how to live the life."
"I'm not your boss anymore," Suho said, looking a little sad about it. No more storage room make-outs. Jongin was very sad that they had to end.
"Yeah, now you're just gramps," Jongin said with a cheeky smile. "Good thing I always have a new nickname ready for you, huh?"
Suho was going to say something when a car parked in front of the store. "That's probably Jongdae now to take me to the airport."
Jongin nodded, taking one of his suitcases. He didn't want to go to the airport because he had told Suho about his theory that they probably dusted something through the air vents to cause tears. It was impossible to go to the airport and not cry.
"Wait," Suho said, pulling on Jongin's sleeve. He turned him around and got close to him, pulling him down and pushing himself up to meet him halfway. "Goodbye, Jongin."
"Goodbye, Junmyeon," Jongin whispered back and kissed him enough to last him two months.
*
During graduation, Jongin sat in between two Kims he'd never spoken to during his entire high school career. One was a girl, Jenny Kim, who he'd shared Math class with. The other was a guy, Patrick Kim, who smoked more weed than Bob Marley. Jongin could smell it now as Patrick shifted awkwardly in his chair. Jongin turned around as the principal droned on and on about their unique and wonderful accomplishments to check on Sehun. He was seated between two girls who kept leaning over him to talk to each other. He looked like he was in Hell, which made Jongin happy as hell. He looked towards the bleachers and spotted Baekhyun sitting next to his boyfriend Chanyeol. The dinner with his parents had gone over well, they'd loved him to pieces because it was hard to hate Baekhyun once you got to know him and now they were really happy together. Their graduation was next week and would probably be a thousand times swankier than this one. Luhan and Minseok sat next to them, and Luhan held a tremendously glittery banner with Sehun's name on it like a deranged teenage fangirl at a concert. When he saw Jongin looking at him, he turned it around to reveal Jongin's name on the other side. He tried not to laugh too hard as to not distract from his principal's heartwarming speech.
Jongin had been doing relatively well since Suho left. He had his friends and his health and he was doing okay. Sure, he missed him like hell and every time he heard his voice on the phone, he could really feel the miles between them. But he wasn't as bad as he thought he'd be. That was until...their class valedictorian decided to play a tribute for everyone. It was supposed to make them all reminisce on the last fours years and get all sappy about leaving high school, but all it did was make Jongin feel like a moron because he actually cried. He wasn't in any of the pictures, but the song, the fucking song was the culprit. He hated that fucking song and how ironic it was.
The song was Missing You by none other than Suho's best buddy John Waite himself.
The only other time Jongin had cried while thinking of Suho was when True Colors by Cyndi Lauper had played at an 80's themed party a week ago. The universe was out to fuck him in the ass, he was sure of it. What put the cherry on the sundae, however, was when Patrick Kim clasped his hand on Jongin's knee, weeping as well, and said, "Isn't this such a touching song? I'm so fucking touched, dude."
Jongin tried with all his might not to respond with a, "Bite me."
*
Epilogue
One year later
The sun hit Jongin's back as he rode on his skateboard. It was warmer than it had been this time last year, so he swerved under the shades of trees every chance he could. His phone buzzed and he stopped momentarily to read the text.
"Waiting for you. Thinking of you."
Jongin laughed at the perfect grammar. Suho couldn't spell 'you' as 'u' even if his life depended on it. Jongin swerved down a corner and extended his arms out to the sides in happiness. He wasn't worrying about his oral report on Monday or his dance recital next month, all he felt was bliss. His life was really just perfect.
"Hey, biyotch," Sehun called out as he tried to catch up. "Why are you swerving so much? Do one thing right in your life and skate in a straight line."
Jongin shrugged him away and kept swerving. He only saw Sehun during the weekends because he went to a community college in town while Jongin went to UCLA, but it was just the right dose of Sehun for one person to handle.
"I'm going to drop by the store," Jongin told him as they reached the corner before the snack bar.
"Of course you are," Sehun said and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, go, I'll just eat Minseok's sausage while I wait."
"You never stop being gross, do you?" Jongin asked, but he skated away before he could hear his (no doubt gross) answer.
He arrived in front of the store a few minutes after that and he smiled. Inside the place had been remodeled and the walls had been painted a nice, warm, yellow. Jongin took his board in one hand and opened the door with the other.
The man behind the counter smiled at him when he came in.
"Hello, can I help you with anything?" he asked.
"Yes, actually. I was looking for this really stellar piece of merchandise. I'm not sure how much it could cost or what to call it but it's probably in the back somewhere in a box or something labeled "My boyfriend"? Is that still in stock?"
The man looked at him with a confused expression. "I don't know-"
Suho peeked out of storage room and came over with a huge smile on his face. He waved a hand at his new employee. "Don't worry about him, Kyungsoo. My boyfriend has a weird sense of humor."
"I like to call it unique and splendid. Weird is just offensive."
Suho locked his arms around Jongin and kissed him. "Nice to see you. How was school this week?"
"It was good. I got a solo for my recital next month."
"No way? Ugh, you sexy, amazing man, I'm so happy for you," Suho kissed him. He passed a hand over Jongin's chin and smiled. "I have to say, the stubble looks nice on you."
"Good, because I'm too lazy to shave." Jongin returned the gesture and patted Suho's soft cheeks. "On the other hand, you look marvelous clean shaven and should remain this way forever."
Suho frowned. "I shaved this morning out of accident. I would've let the beard grow out a little more but I was so sleepy I shaved out of habit."
"Thank Mary and Joseph for your anal retentiveness when you're sleepy." Jongin told him with a kiss. "Dinner tonight?"
"Sure, can I pick?"
"Anything as long as it isn't microwavable."
Suho gave him a look. "When would I ever willingly eat anything that can be made in a microwave?"
"You're right, microwaves didn't exist in your time."
"If you call me-"
"Don't get angry, gramps. Just face the truth that you can't handle how the time's are changing."
"I don't want to murder you in front of Kyungsoo, but if you push me, I think I may have to."
"Oh please, Kyungsoo's probably seen worse. Haven't you, dude? You look like you rough it up with ruffians during the weekends."
Kyungsoo looked between them with wide eyes like they were speaking another language.
"Don't scare the poor boy," Suho said. "Go back to your phone game, Kyungsoo."
"It's called an app, gramps," Jongin told him. "I stopped by here before going to see Minseok. How are he and Jongdae doing?"
"They're doing well. You know, I think their getting back together was a great business plan."
“Oh? How so?" Jongin asked.
"Well because now they want to expand and are planning on buying a van so they can sell throughout the city."
"And you left your job and got stuck with this dingy place," Jongin said, leaning down to whisper in his ear.
"I don't regret it at all," Suho told him, nibbling on his ear for a moment, letting him know what awaited him later on. "Not even for a second."
Jongin couldn't have hoped for a better response from his beautiful boyfriend's beautiful head.