π
mercy rule
10,500; nc-17
jonghyun/minho
"try staring a little harder," kibum advises him. "he doesn't have holes in the back of his head yet."
minho isn't sure he wants to dignify something like that with a response.
-
minho comes back from working out hungry and thirsty, finds taemin and jinki already sitting and eating breakfast in the kitchen.
"minho! how was your jog?" jinki eagerly asks once he catches sight of him in the doorway.
minho looks on helplessly as jinki unfortunately forgets that his mouth is full of foood in the process of greeting him, spraying half-chewed bits of egg and rice all over taemin's arm.
instead of swallowing the remaining food in his mouth, jinki starts apologizing to taemin profusely and manages to repeat the same mistake again. taemin puts his hand on jinki's and calmly reassures him, "hyung it's okay, really, it's okay, just please don't choke, here, drink some water," finally getting him to swallow and regain his composure.
minho can't seem to fight the little smile that starts playing on his lips as he watches taemin effectively avert crisis and jinki glow gratefully at him afterwards.
"are you okay, hyung?" minho asks, once he's sure jinki's fully recovered.
"yeah!" jinki grins at him. "we left some food for you over here."
minho nods and goes to the refrigerator, pours out the last of the orange juice into a glass and throws away the carton.
he's a few bites into his breakfast when jonghyun comes into the kitchen freshly showered and leans on the table with his elbows, chin in hands.
"good morning!" he announces cheerfully to minho in particular. "how was your workout?"
minho nods, "it was good."
"good!"
jonghyun starts to reach his arm for something and minho quickly deduces that jonghyun's going for his juice. minho beats him to the punch just in the nick of time and slides the glass away from jonghyun's hand.
"just a sip!"
jonghyun repositions himself and reaches out in another attempt. when jonghyun's fingers are millimeters away from touching the glass, minho grins and slides it away again, relocating the glass to a new position near taemin's plate, just out of the range of jonghyun's outstretched arm.
"minhoooo come on i just want a little!"
jonghyun wiggles his fingers in frustration and gives minho what jonghyun clearly thinks is an irresistable combination of pouting and puppy-eyes. minho isn't so easily impressed.
but he pretends to give in anyways, sighing and slightly inching the glass towards jonghyun. minho watches in secret glee as jonghyun's expression evolves from despondent to victorious-and as minho quickly snatches the glass back the other way-to dumbstruck.
jonghyun lets out a high-pitched, obnoxious whine before he settles into something like determination, making a mad dash around jinki to get to the other end of the table. minho's already one step ahead of him though, chuckles at jonghyun's obvious frustration at being foiled yet again.
the wear of constant defeat starts to take an obvious toll on jonghyun's morale, but minho thinks it's kind of endearing how the other boy keeps on trying his hand. jonghyun's persistence is admirable, minho observes, but strategy is his downfall. it's predictable and straight-foward, so much so that minho starts getting complacent after figuring out jonghyun's pattern of movement and retaliation.
there's finally a lull and minho looks up at jonghyun, thinks he's ready to quit when jonghyun suddenly leaps across the table, shoving and almost knocking taemin out of his chair in one last balls-to-the-wall, all or nothing attempt at the prize.
minho's initially caught off-guard but he recovers quickly, holding on to the edge of the table for support as he pushes off his chair and using his height as leverage to push the glass as far away from jonghyun as he can. minho's counter-attack is sloppy-some of the juice splashes on the counter and the glass almost tips over before minho is able to readjust his grip.
it's admittedly not his best work, but it's successful. jonghyun got close, but not close enough.
minho simpers as he slides back into his seat, juice safely in hand.
jonghyun straightens and dusts off the front of his shirt before looking at minho, nobly unaffected, and stating:
"you can take my juice, choi minho, but you can't take my dignity."
"hyung," taemin grumbles, sounding slightly annoyed (minho guesses it's probably related to him being discarded as collateral damage after jonghyun's subtle manueverings), "i think both of you lost your dignity about five minutes ago."
minho glosses over the unexpected jab from their youngest and instead locks eyes with jonghyun as he takes an exaggerated gulp of his now lukewarm juice, smacking his lips. minho turns to taemin and jinki and says,
"taemin, i don't know if it's just the brand or the sweet taste of victory, but this juice is the best juice i've ever had in my entire life."
jonghyun's expression is oddly unreadable when minho looks back up at him. he presses his shoulders back, reminds the rest of them that they had to be ready to leave for an interview by noon, and his voice is unusually listless. minho feels a pang of remorse as he watches him walk back to the bedroom.
minho was used to jonghyun's limited range of reactions after they did things like this-it ended in either annoyance, flippancy, awkward backing up, or the occasional bout of physical retaliation. minho's sure he didn't he see any of those just now.
"minho?" jinki waves at him across the table to get his attention.
"hmm?"
"are you okay?"
"yeah."
jinki looks at him thoughtfully before he reaches across the table for minho's glass of juice, slowly sliding it towards himself, before bringing it even more slowly to his mouth to take a sip. jinki keeps his eyes on him the entire time and it feels more than a little bizarre, like being subjected to scrutiny underneath a microscope. minho's not sure what jinki is doing, but since that isn't really new, he waits for it to end before bothering to ask.
jinki sets the glass back down.
by the time minho realizes that jinki is waiting for him to do something--instead of the other way around-minho is confused enough to look to taemin for help deciphering the situation. but taemin looks like he's working with jinki and minho is given no answers.
minho decides to venture an uncertain, "hyung?"
"aren't you mad?" jinki finally asks.
"why would i be mad?" minho replies.
"well, because," jinki takes care to enunciate every syllable as he points animatedly to the glass in front of him, as if minho had by chance forgotten it was there. "because. i just. drank. your. juice."
"and?" minho still doesn't get it, is starting to get annoyed, and is also not quite sure why jinki is talking to him like he has a hearing problem.
"hyung, you really wanted that glass of juice." it's taemin this time, in the same slow, measured tone as jinki, giving minho a look of support. "it seemed really special to you."
"what." minho shifts uncomfortably in his chair.
jinki and taemin simultaneously turn from minho to look at each other meaningfully, like they've come to at some deep understanding about something important. minho watches in disbelief as the two of them conduct what seems like an an entirely telepathic conversation across the table, devoid of any spoken word. jinki widens his eyes at taemin, tips his head in minho's direction and taemin widens his eyes back in reply. minho leans back in his seat and watches while they carry on for the good part of a minute. if the enthusiastic nodding and smiling is anything for minho to go on, they finally seem to arrive at an agreement about something,
at last, it dawns on minho, and he quickly steals a glance over his shoulder to see if he can catch the blinking red of a hidden camera behind him.
he doesn't see one, and after a couple more stolen inspections of the kitchen cabinets and doorway, minho doesn't really notice anything out of the ordinary, and he mentally congratulates the producers for blending into the surroundings so well. it was odd that their manager had failed to mention anything at all about it on their daily itinerary, but minho rests a little easier anyways, finally having some sort of explanation for everyone else acting so strange.
"minho," jinki turns to him cheerily, suddenly reverting back to normal speech mode. "so what do you want to do now? we still have 2 hours until we have to get ready. what do you like to do?"
"you like so many interesting things, hyung. let's do something you like." taemin adds in, nodding energetically.
"you already know what i like." minho is skeptical, still not sure how an actual television network approved the script for a hidden camera as undisputedly unfunny and confusing as this one. was he somehow supposed to be the butt of the joke? he starts thinking about how jonghyun was in on it the whole time and that's why he gave him that look, wanted his orange juice so bad-
taemin and jinki look at each other impatiently again.
"minho!" jinki suddenly shouts. "i just forgot all the things you like. why don't you make a list for us?"
"i remember soccer!" taemin starts him off. "now what else, hyung?"
minho thinks. "i like other sports too."
"yes, yes, sports, of course you like sports, sports all sports, what else?"
"um."
"and?"
"books."
"yes and?"
"my family."
"uh-huh and?"
"um."
minho doesn't want to look boring on national television, even if this hidden camera was probably already going to be a certified dud in the ratings, so he starts thinking really hard about an interesting, clever answer that everyone hasn't heard already, something kibum would say, maybe if he said something about-
"HI JONGHYUNNIE," jinki shouts. "WELCOME BACK. WE ARE CURRENTLY HELPING MINHO LIST THINGS THAT HE LIKES. WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN IN? AND I MEAN JOIN IN AND HELP LIST THINGS, NOT ACTUALLY JOIN THE LIST OF THINGS HE LIKES. OR MAYBE THAT. IF YOU'RE INTO THAT. BY THE WAY, WHAT WOULD YOUR THOUGHTS BE ON THAT."
minho looks up and sees jonghyun standing across from him, looking just as confused as minho feels.
"why are you shouting, hyung?" jonghyun asks.
jinki sheepishly goes back to his inside voice. "oh. um. yeah, i just wanted to make sure minho was paying attention. and i see that you both are-paying attention. both of you. so, uh. okay. carry on."
jonghyun glances at minho. "so what exactly do you need my thoughts on?"
"i'm...not sure." minho admits slowly. "i'm not really sure what's going on. i was listing things that i liked for the hidden camera-"
"wait, what hidden camera? where?" jonghyun starts looking around nervously, "nobody told me abou-wait did kibum-"
"WAIT WHAT THERE'S A HIDDEN CAMERA?!" jinki suddenly shouts again, the lag time of his response startling the rest of them. "THEY HEARD ALL-"
"NO," taemin quickly cuts in and clarifies, "there is no hidden camera."
taemin looks at minho in what looks troublingly like exasperation.
"oh."
minho feels a little like an idiot, but he's mostly just relieved. he's not sure the events of the past hour were among his best moments.
"wait, so why were you two acting like that?"
"acting like what?" jinki asks minho, tilting his head and sounding genuinely curious.
"you know."
"we don't, really."
minho knows they know, but he gets tired dealing with both taemin and jinki acting like they're both afflicted with short-term memory loss after a while and gives up.
taemin eventually pulls jinki into the living room, saying that he wants to watch some tv before they have to get ready, leaving minho alone with jonghyun. minho feels like he has to say something, even though he doesn't really want to.
"hyung, you're-you're not mad, right?" minho asks slowly. "you know, about the juice?"
"um, no, not really, " jonghyun looks a little taken aback as he answers awkwardly, tapping his toes against the leg of the table and looking down at the floor before adding and tapping some more, "but it was kind of mean though."
"i didn't mean to be mean." minho tells him quietly.
"i know you don't mean to be," jonghyun quickly looks up from the floor at minho then back down again, still tapping his foot against the wood, "but sometimes you just are."
-
minho almost doesn't remember what his bed looks like, they've been stuck in the sm building for so long. he's been stealing quick naps on tables while jonghyun and jinki record their parts over and over again in the soundbooth, dozing off against the practice room mirror when jinki has to work one on one with the choreographer to get his heel groove, twist, pop and lock back in time with the rest of them. he's exhausted, all of his muscles soaking in their own acid, a tired ache working up to his head as their new single works circles between his ears.
"since not all of us are quite awake, we're going to break. meet back here in an hour."
the choreographer's voice jerks him awake, and minho opens his eyes quickly, nods seriously to nobody in particular, trying to pretend that he's been awake the entire entire. minho knows he isn't fooling anyone as he notices the rest of the room staring back at him, half in appreciation, half in annoyance. taemin giggles a little, and jinki audibly breathes out a whoosh of air. they all give a bow of thanks to the dance coach as he leaves.
"ugh finally. let's eat!" says kibum, wrapping his arms around taemin and jonghyun's shoulders, walking them towards the door.
jinki jogs after them, "cafeteria-ho!"
"oh, hey, um," jonghyun ducks under kibum's arm and hangs back. "you guys go ahead, i want to go to the weight room and get some sets in before i cool down."
"what?" kibum looks at him in disbelief. "why?"
"hyung, come on just let him." taemin whines, pulling on his arm.
"ok, fine." kibum concedes and starts walking again before shouting over his shoulder, "but don't think i didn't hear you asking the 2pm hyungs about getting ripped!"
"what!" jonghyun flushes red as minho hears the rest of them laughing down the hallway. "that's not. no."
minho laughs along, but he's been noticing jonghyun a lot more too.
it isn't that his body wasn't good before, but minho's somehow more aware of it lately. he's caught himself taking silent notes on the shape of jonghyun's arms when he sings, the beat of his chest contracting and expanding after a particularly grueling dance routine, counting the number of times he wears the jeans that look best against his hips, thighs. it's perfectly normal, minho reassured himself, to know these things about a person you spend every day with.
"aren't you going?" jonghyun asks, looking down at him.
he'd snuck a soda and a couple of mouthfuls of microwaveable ramen in the break room after excusing himself to the bathroom not too long ago, so minho shakes his head no.
"okay then," jonghyun says, bouncing on the balls of his feet, keeping his blood running. "see you later."
jonghyun leaves and for a few minutes, minho considers lying down right there and taking a nap against taemin's sweatshirt before he realizes he's not really tired anymore, weirdly energized at the prospect of wandering around the building on his own.
minho shakes out the sleep in his legs, stretches out his back, works out the kinks in his neck with some head rolls before finally using the wooden ballet barre to heave himself up.
the building is quiet for the most part, empty of the usual crowd of trainees, techs and the random assortment of sunbaenim and their respective managers. minho walks aimlessly past deserted practice rooms, looking through the glass, hoping for a glance of someone that he might know. he walks past a door and there's a flash of movement, so minho backs up and peeks in and it's jonghyun.
he's in the weight room, like he said he would be, lying on a mat with two dumbbells-minho guesses they're 30s-next to him. minho shuffles a little to the side so his feet won't show under the door, leans over to look at him again, and he's doing sit-ups, arms crossed over his chest, cheeks puffed out in concentration.
minho almost feels like he shouldn't be watching, that it's not right, but it's stupid, because it's just jonghyun-hyung and all he's doing are some sit-ups. there's nothing special about sit-ups, minho thinks, and before he knows it, he's turned the doorknob and walked in.
jonghyun freezes mid-air and whips his head around, nervous. "who- ah, minho!" jonghyun starts laughing and collapses back on the mat, breathing heavy. minho sees his shirt soaked through, sweats tucked low under the bones of his hip. "you scared me!"
minho walks into the room and stands over jonghyun awkwardly, not sure what to do. "sorry."
"no, it's okay. i was almost done anyways." jonghyun smiles at him before getting up off the mat and starting to roll it up.
minho wants to do something, so he leans down and takes the weights in his hands, walks over to the rack and puts them back for him.
"oh, hey, thanks."
minho nods and watches as jonghyun puts his mat back with the rest of them into the bin, walking back over to minho and wiping the sweat off his brow with a towel. "did you eat? you want to go and-"
"no!" minho hears himself almost shout, the thought of going back to find the others making him him nervous, angry.
jonghyun is looking at him weird and minho tries to clarify. "i mean, um. i wanted to ask what you were doing."
"oh, uh." jonghyun chuckles nervously, dropping his towel on the floor.
"i'm trying to get more definition on my internal obliques," he says, lifting up his shirt so it bunches up around his armpits, and looks back up at minho to make sure he's paying attention before he continues, "girls totally dig abs."
the skin across jonghyun's stomach looks soft, is a shade or two lighter than the rest of him, and minho finds himself swallowing back something in his throat. jonghyun gestures to the juts of muscle above his navel with his index finger.
"like, see? right here, i think i could work on this a little more."
minho doesn't know what possesses him to do it, but he reaches out with his fingers so that they brush against jonghyun's, pressing them against his stomach under the context of seeing for himself.
jonghyun's head snaps back up, his teeth biting against this lower lip, and asks minho, "so um. what do you think?"
jonghyun fists his shirt with both hands, holding it up over his chest to allow minho more access. minho presses his fingers against his stomach with more conviction this time, tracing the edges and walking his fingers up towards jonghyun's ribcage on the right side then moving over to the left. jonghyun's skin is shiny from sweat, damp and chilly against minho's fingertips.
minho drags his fingertips down, taking his time to memorize the subtle striations and countours, stopping himself a good couple of inches above the waistband of jonghyun's sweatpants. he should pull away, but the moisture between his fingers and jonghyun's stomach is almost sticky, telling him to stay, so minho keeps his fingers lightly brushing against his skin even when he mumbles,
"it's good, hyung."
minho waits for jonghyun to pull his shirt down, but he doesn't. minho waits for jonghyun to thank him for his affirmation so he can pull away his fingers, but he doesn't, so they stand like that, quiet, for what seems like forever. jonghyun still has his head down so minho can't look him in the eye. minho thinks and think and thinks, and then finally does
minho steps forward so his entire hand splays against jonghyun's stomach. jonghyun doesn't move or say anything, and minho takes this as a sign to continue, moving lower, so the heel of his hand brushes against the line of soft hair, nudges the gray cotton waistband. he stops when he feels jonghyun's stomach quiver.
the only sound in the room is their breathing, mismatched, and the soft whir of ventilation.
minho hears the thudding of his own heart, begins to reconsider, moves to pull away but jonghyun's hand comes down from his shirt, tightening around minho's wrist and holding him there. jonghyun waits before he whispers to minho, still not lifting his head,
"you could. if you want."
minho wants. he can't put it into words what it is though, what exactly jonghyun is giving him permission to do. minho nods, and jonghyun's hand drops. minho takes his hand lower, applying more pressure and the feel of bone, hair and skin tells him that there's only one layer of clothing between his hand and jonghyun. jonghyun's cock twitches against minho's fingers.
minho feels like he isn't even in his own body anymore, wants to blame what he's doing on exhaustion, that he's not thinking straight but his mind is racing, giddy, like it knows, like it's been waiting.
minho presses his palm harder, gets dizzy when a soft whimper makes its way past jonghyun's throat.
a combination of adrenaline, curiosity, and minho's own dick starts telling him to fill up the space between them, wrap his arm around the other boy's waist and pull him closer, so it's not just his hand connecting them, but his ears suddenly pick on a chorus of muffled laughter in the distance and before he can even pull his hand away, jonghyun's already on the other side of the room, his back turned.
minho's arm is still outstretched when the rest of them pile excitedly into the room, hands full with smuggled food from the cafeteria.
"we thought we'd all eat together!" jinki announces happily, putting down an armful of plastic containers and settling down indian-style on the floor next to minho. "we have to be quick because we have to get rid of all the evidence before going back."
"oh you're here, minho-hyung!" taemin smiles at him. "we couldn't find you anywhere."
"oh, yeah." minho glances over at jonghyun, kibum already by his side. "i just wanted to see what jonghyun-hyung was doing."
minho watches as kibum pokes at jonghyun's bicep. "ew, jjong. if you get too beastly. you'll look weird next to the rest of us." jonghyun laughs, but it's forced, short.
they sit in a circle, minho between jinki and kibum. he takes the chopsticks handed to him by jinki but doesn't split them. he still isn't hungry.
kibum starts telling a story between mouthfuls, something about a new girl group trainee and a bad bleach job. jinki nods along eagerly like he usually does, even though he's probably already heard three versions of the same story on their way here. taemin is busy stuffing his face, looking up every once in a while to nod at kibum attentively so as not to incur his wrath. jonghyun is eating slowly, trying to keep up with kibum but minho can see that he's distracted.
when jonghyun misses one too many of kibum's cue-for-laughter pauses, kibum stops talking. when he looks up, minho realizes that kibum is staring at him, then at jonghyun, then back at him.
"what's with this atmosphere?" asks kibum, suspicious, eyes darting between them.
jinki nods in agreement. "yeah, it is kind of smelly in here. i mean it makes sense since it is the-"
"no." kibum cuts him off and waves a dismissive hand. he points from jonghyun to minho. "i mean you two."
jonghyun looks up at minho and laughs. minho forces himself to crack a smile as jonghyun turns back to kibum.
"me and minho we were just seeing which one of us could bench press more weight," jonghyun looks over at minho and makes sure he's onboard with the story before continuing, "and he's just mad i beat him because i beat him."
"uh-huh," says kibum, obviously unconvinced. he's looking at minho again.
minho shrugs his shoulders like he couldn't care any less, tries to put a little supressed bitterness into his voice. "hyung only won because his muscles were still warm from working out and i was already cold."
"really." kibum exchanges glaces with taemin, but it looks like he's bought the act. "only you two would have a weight-lifting competition during the only break we've gotten all day."
jinki looks at minho meaningfully. "you shouldn't fight about small things like that."
minho shrugs. "we didn't fight. i'm not mad. we're going to have a rematch anyways."
jonghyun looks up in surprise and coughs a little. "we are?"
"chicken?" he challenges. minho's not really sure that he knows what he's even talking about anymore. provoking jonghyun is the only way he can think of getting a response.
"i'm not chicken." jonghyun puts down his chopsticks, sets his jaw, and looks at minho with clear eyes. minho looks back, tries to find meaning in his expression as they stare each other down. minho knows that the others have stopped eating in favor of watching them, like a spectator sport.
it's another uncomfortable couple of seconds before kibum interrupts.
"what is even going on right now."
"it's like," jinki flaps his arms in excitement, "in those animal shows where they circle each other, right before they-"
"hyung, i think," taemin says urgently, pointing up at the clock, "it's time to go."
the rest of them turn in unison to look at the direction of his finger. minho realizes they were supposed to be due back almost ten minutes ago.
even though furiously scrambling to throw away containers, wiping the mess off of floorboards and deciding to sprint back to the practice room effectively takes care of their warm up, their choreographer still isn't very impressed.
-
minho wakes up on his stomach and only has to shift his weight slightly to realize that he's hard. he's pretty sure he wasn't dreaming about anything particularly interesting - at least nothing interesting enough to warrant the current friction between the head of his cock and a well-placed bunch in the fabric of his sheets.
minho works a hand between his legs and he doesn't really know what he's thinking about, flipping through a patchwork of breasts and legs and wet pink shuddering girls before settling on last night but this time no one interrupts them and he gets jonghyun's sweats around his ankles, hears him make that sound again and again and minho comes, hard and fast, into his own hand.
-
jonghyun doesn't bring it up.
there's not really enough space to avoid each other anyways, but jonghyun doesn't act any differently either which is fine and whatever, because it's not exactly the kind of thing that minho wants to especially discuss in great detail.
-
kissing is messy, embarrassing. it's embarrassing when his tongue swipes against jonghyun's chin instead of his bottom lip, when their teeth knock together when both of them tilt their head the wrong way, when minho breathes through his mouth instead of his nose. there's intuition and then there's technique, and minho knows he has neither. jonghyun wants to set the pace, minho can tell, and minho doesn't let him because why should he be the one when minho asked in the first place and it's his fault that there's no rhythm, just false starts and awkward pauses and smushes of lips and teeth and spit. minho knows he's trying too hard, overthinking it, ruining it. kissing is messy and embarrassing but he feels his stomach drop anyways when jonghyun pulls back.
"hey do you even want-"
"no, y-yeah. i want."
"oh, ok good. i mean you were-"
"yeah, no, i know. i know i'm not good."
jonghyun isn't too great either, minho thinks, but jonghyun is eager and here with him and being a really good sport and he opens minho's mouth with his tongue again, making noises in his throat that sound kind of funny, kind of like come on do this with me. jonghyun pulls closer to minho to lick deeper into his mouth and minho lets himself relax, starts to follow the pace jonghyun's started, because he likes how jonghyun has to tilt his head up to kiss him, really likes how jonghyun is blushing because minho can feel the heat coming off his face.
jonghyun's tongue is slippery against his own and minho notices jonghyun doesn't really taste nice because jonghyun's mouth is like the sourness of waking up in the mornings, the taste in minho's mouth when he hasn't eaten anything all day. it's dirty and soft and minho surprises himself when he hears a low rumble come up from his own throat when jonghyun's starts to slowly suck on his tongue. he can feel jonghyun smile at the sound, the sound that gets out out of him.
minho feels a little bubble of annoyance rise up and before jonghyun has a chance to get smug, minho rubs his hand against the front of jonghyun's cotton-thin pajamas and jonghyun gasps. it isn't fair of him, minho thinks, to be the only one getting reactions.
they're both already half-hard, minho realizes, now that jonghyun's stopped kissing him and he can hear a throbbing rush in his ears, his chest, between his legs. minho's never started something he couldn't finish before, but it's scary now that jonghyun is looking at him and he has no idea what it means. it's scary because both of their eyes are open and it isn't just kissing anymore. minho pulls his hand away, says
"hyung."
jonghyun doesn't answer. minho's hands are clammy so he wipes them against the sheets instead of looking at jonghyun again. the bed shifts and minho knows that jonghyun is leaving, because this is jonghyun-hyung, not whoever minho thought he was a couple minutes ago. he waits and waits and waits so he can go to the bathroom, jerk off and get rid of this feeling.
but jonghyun doesn't leave, and when minho looks up, jonghyun's shirt is off, and he's pushing down his pajamas past his knees and kicking them off the bed. minho's seen jonghyun naked before, but never almost shy like this, ducking his head down, covering himself with his hands. he looks at minho, voice trying to be in charge
"you. now you."
it takes minho a second to get what he means, but he pulls off his shirt and takes off his pants and boxers in one go, and when minho looks back up, jonghyun has his fist loosely curled around his own dick, his thumb sticking out a little and something surges through minho, making all the hairs on his neck go prickly when he realizes that jonghyun is waiting for him.
minho's done this before, doesn't have to think about something this automatic. he licks his palm and starts jerking off, slow and unhurried, closing his eyes and bringing his chin to his chest. the wetness in his hand isn't his usual lotion, but the coarseness and friction of his palm reminds him of jonghyun's tongue, gets him hard fast. minho can feel the other side of the bed moving, jonghyun mimicking his motions, following.
minho spreads his legs farther apart before he opens his eyes to look at jonghyun, leaning back and watching him under hooded eyelids, head cocked to the side. jonghyun's eyes flutter back between closed, watching minho and then finally staying closed. jonghyun's hand isn't moving that fast, and minho sees that jonghyun fully hard is a little smaller compared to his, but thicker around. jonghyun's left hand is full and wet and his right is gripping the sheets tight and minho feels himself getting close, steadies up his wrist and starts on what he knows is the final stretch.
jonghyun's close too, lifts his hips off the bed and fucks up into the wet circle of his fist, biting his lip, making these low grunting noises and minho can't close his eyes because this is important, this is what jonghyun-hyung looks like when he comes. minho doesn't notice the soft string of murmured hyunghyunghyunghyungs tumbling out of his mouth while his hand pumps updownup for the last time until jonghyun's eyes snap open and meet his.
jonghyun comes looking at minho, his hand trembling, cupping the head of his dick with his fingers to avoid ruining the sheets, smearing it back down his shaft for the last few strokes. minho wants to reach out and touch jonghyun but he stays still and watches his dick get soft instead, the entire situation coming back into an awkward, uncomfortable focus.
jonghyun pushes himself out of the bunk, locating and clumsily pulling up his pants with his clean hand. minho lets himself look at jonghyun bent over and he finds himself having to swallow back a sudden rush of guilt and disgust, whips his head around before he can get caught.
while he waits for his turn in the bathroom, minho picks at the flakes of dried come on his stomach, tries to think about things that aren't humiliating.
-
"hyung, you, uh," minho bites back a smile, "trimmed your hair. down there." as jonghyun turns red, minho pulls down his pants a little and inspects it from a better angle, the hair definitely shorter but not completely shaved off. he runs his fingers across jonghyun's pubic bone and it's a little rough but minho decides he likes it, scratching his fingernails lightly across the stubble and feels jonghyun begin to fidget and try to get away.
"er yeah. i mean since we're doing this a lot and all- i thought it would be nicer if. yeah." jonghyun is mortified, pulls up his pants and swats minho's hand away.
minho doesn't let him get too far, because jonghyun was thinking of him, of them, and he's really happy about that, if his own hard-on is any indication. minho pulls playfully at the back of jonghyun's sweats, pulls it intentionally down over the curve of jonghyun's ass and chuckles at the yelp of protest he gets in reply. jonghyun is smiling though, and minho's heart starts beating with an uncontrollable affection when jonghyun turns back to him, mock-stern.
jonghyun shakes a finger at him. "choi minho, you are the rudest dongsaeng i've ever had the displeasure-"
minho kisses him mostly to shut him up, because jonghyun looks and sounds pretty stupid when he's naked and doing something other than getting off. jonghyun mmmphs against his mouth then lets him lead the kiss, and minho feels the little puffs of air from his nose against his cheek just as he's really getting into it.
minho pulls back after a few seconds, waits until jonghyun opens his eyes in confusion.
"what's wrong?"
"hyung," minho starts seriously, "you only did that so that your dick would look bigger than mine, right?"
jonghyun's eyes widen and he pokes minho hard between the ribs.
"shut up, not even." jonghyun grumbles underneath his breath defensively. "like i would even think of something that stupid."
minho likes jonghyun's dick just fine - likes it a whole lot actually - but having jonghyun insecure like this underneath him is hilarious, and he going to milk it for all it's worth, wrapping his hand around jonghyun's cock and squeezing a little,
"it's okay, hyung. we all have shortcomings. it's a pity, though, that you have to deal with both an altitude deficit and a small-"
"minho, can you-" jonghyun grits out through his teeth, "-can you go back to never talking."
"you're just jealous." minho says fondly.
jonghyun's annoyed now, he observes, pleased. he's sweaty and his nose is scrunched up, face turned away, but minho can feel jonghyun's precome thin and wet against his fingers so he speeds up a little, torquing his wrist on every downstroke.
minho can tell that jonghyun's trying really hard to pretend that he isn't enjoying this, biting his tongue, but minho knows better. he's watched jonghyun's hand move indiscreetly underneath his blanket enough times to write the sheet music for it, knows the exact time signature when he starts climbing into his crescendoes and slurs. minho tries to ignore the almost painful throb between his own legs because he's got to do this right first.
jonghyun's close when his stomach starts sucking in and out, and his breath starts hitching, so minho slows down half a beat and clenches his fist that much tighter around jonghyun's cock. the pressure of his grip is met by this obscene throb and twitch that works its way like fire up through minho's arm, down through his stomach and minho comes without even touching himself, hits him so suddenly that he feels himself trip over the rhythm that he'd been working so hard to perfect, but he recovers quickly, and minho estimates his margin of error can't be more than split seconds. he glances back up at jonghyun to see if he's noticed-
-and the way jonghyun looks back at him, strained and appreciative and secret, makes minho's head feel light, dizzy so he swallows, darts his eyes back to finish the task at hand. he doesn't know why he's feeling flushed and on edge again, doesn't know how to hide his shiver when jonghyun digs his fingers painfully into his arm.
minho lets out the breath he didn't know he was holding when jonghyun finally comes, groaning and bucking his hips, once, then twice. minho gets most of it on his hand and uses it to slick up the last few courtesy strokes, letting jonghyun ride it out. once jonghyun's flopped back onto the bed, minho wipes his hand on his pants that are already ruined and getting colder and stickier by the minute. he doesn't mind it too much though.
"woah," jonghyun finally breaks the silence, "that was really good."
minho nods, because yeah, it wasn't bad.
jonghyun wipes himself off with his t-shirt and drops it off the the side of the bed before covering himself with minho's pillow, pulling himself up onto his elbows. "you, uh. already. you know. right?"
"yeah. i did."
minho wonders if they have extra pillowcases in the laundry room.
"that's good." jonghyun nods in approval and lays back against the wall like he's just rsvp'ed an engraved invitation to stay the night in minho's bed. minho raises his eyebrow, sighs inwardly.
"hyung, your bed is over there."
"yeah, i know."
"and that's the pillow i sleep on."
"oh. sorry."
"they're probably going to come back soon too."
"yeah, probably."
jonghyun isn't moving yet, and minho doesn't really know how to make it any clearer. his arm is kind of sore and he wants to sleep it off and not have to look at or think about jonghyun for a while because now his head is starting to hurt. minho stares at taemin's unmade bed and waits for him to get the hint.
"hey. minho."
"yeah?" minho turns around to look at him.
"you didn't have to do all that. so, uh," jonghyun scratches the back of his neck, "thanks."
the gesture is lame and sincere and enough for minho to start laughing in his face. jonghyun blinks at him in confusion.
"what?"
minho shakes his head and pats jonghyun's ankle, feeling a little less sorry for himself. "you're welcome. besides, i wanted to."
jonghyun looks relieved and starts getting cozy again, fluffing up another one of his pillows to put behind his head.
"hyung, seriously though. get out of my bed."
jonghyun looks offended.
"fine i will. but do you even know how many girls would kill to be where you are right now? next to a naked kim jonghyun? just, you know. food for thought."
"how would you feel if i jerked off onto your pillow? next to the face of a sleeping kim jonghyun? just, you know. food for thought."
"...alright, fine. i get it."
-
jonghyun pulls his mouth off of minho's cock, his face drunken contemplation as he leans back on the balls of his feet. minho stares down at him, but he can't see much of jonghyun besides his gel-stiff hair and the slow way his forehead creases as he giggles to himself. minho thinks just feeling vulnerable isn't the half of it, because he's just standing there, the room being cold, him being painfully hard, and jonghyun's being eye-level with his dick, eyebrows furrowing like he's confused about something.
finally, after what seems like forever, jonghyun slurs out,"hey d'you think i can- wait. i'm totally gonna try."
some of the extra spit from jonghyun's mouth hits minho's thighs and the rest run down his chin as he looks back up at minho. minho's mouth goes completely dry, his tongue like cotton against his teeth, while he watches jonghyun wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. he grabs minho again, shuffles forward on his knees, "jaejoong-hyung told me a girl did this for him once."
minho's mind is too busy wrapping itself around the fact that jonghyun's mouth is back on cock to bother asking what exactly the girl did, but he gets his answer when jonghyun starts humming around the head of his cock. the vibrations push minho off balance even though he's leaning against the wall, and his legs wobble embarassingly as he tries to regain his footing. it's overstimulating and blurry and amazing so minho tries to ground himself by
minho's about to come and jonghyun is too drunk and into his blowjob and singing combination to notice the signs that he's close. minho's not sure how much jonghyun wants a mouthful of come and he wants to be considerate, he really does, but his legs tremble and his balls tighten and he's coming faster than he can say "hyung, get off."
jonghyun's eyes widen in surprise and his nostrils flare as he pulls off coughing and choking. he doesn't move his head fast enough though, and the second string of come splatters against his cheek. under normal circumstances, this would be the most hilarious thing that minho's ever seen and now that he's still slightly drunk, it's even more so.
"this isn't funny-" jonghyun glares at him, then coughs, splutters, "-why didn't you warn me-" and starts coughing again.
minho pulls up his pants before kneeling down on the floor next to jonghyun, thumping his back with one hand and filling up a glass in the sink with the other.
"here." minho says, handing over the glass of water.
jonghyun glares at him again before snatching the glass out of his hands and downing it all in one gulp. minho tries to keep a straight face as he apologizes.
"sorry hyung."
"you did this on purpose!"
"i didn't though."
minho watches as jonghyun transitions from accusatory to shell-shocked. "i can't believe i just did that."
"you didn't have to swallow."
"how could i not! it was already halfway down my throat!" jonghyun angrily replies before falling silent. minho mentally remarks on how quickly he's managed to sober up before jonghyun speaks up again, quieter this time.
"besides, i didn't mean the swallowing part. i meant the. you know."
"blowjob?" minho fills in the blank helpfully.
"yeah. that."
"but it was really good, hyung. was that really your first time?" minho's knows a little well-meaning flattery goes a long way.
"of course it was my first time! i don't go around doing this with everyone. i'm not gay." jonghyun snorts in disbelief, but visibly perks up anyways.
"does this mean i'm special?" minho smiles and nudges the other boy with his leg, feeling weirdly content.
"no, it means i'm never going to do it again." declares jonghyun. he starts to get up but wobbles a little on the take-off, almost falling over before grabbing onto minho's shoulder for support.
"that's too bad," minho grinning up at him, "it was very enjoyable for me."
"yes, i'm sure it was." jonghyun huffs as he turns the doorknob to leave when minho suddenly remembers.
"wait, hyung. before you go, you've got a little, uh, something on your cheek."
"what?" jonghyun turns around and walks to the bathroom mirror. "wait what- is this- ugh GROSS."
minho offers him some toilet paper in consolation.
-
after that, it's a lot of sloppy, fake it 'till you make it open-mouthed tip-toed back against walls and sinks and counters because things like boundaries and waiting for the other shoe to drop are fuzzy and too easy to forget on top of beds and blankets.
-
minho likes having something to work towards, linear progressions in general. he knows his penchant for curtness and getting to the point isn't too good for his comedic timing, but he's been working on that, working on making the people around him comfortable and playing along. it seems like the least he can do because he really isn't naturally good at anything, doesn't have the talent for singing like jinki and jonghyun or the talent for crowd-pleasing like kibum and taemin. minho knows he's lucky that he's tall and has a pretty face and he isn't sure that he'd even have a chance without those.
his father once told him that playing sports didn't require talent, because talent was just a nicer, shorter word for hours of painstaking practice. sometimes minho gets angry thinking about it, because sports had to be something he was good at naturally, not just something he'd picked up because he's practiced instep drives more times than he can care to remember. he's okay with it now.
-
jonghyun pokes his head through the door.
"hey are you ignoring me? just making sure."
minho thinks for a moment and prides himself for going the clever route.
"if i answer yes, does that mean that i'm not ignoring you by virtue of having answered or is the question exempt from the normal rules of ignoring so that after i answer yes i can go back to ignoring you properly without having disqualified myself?"
jonghyun grins. "if you were really ignoring me, you wouldn't have said anything."
"clarification on the rules falls outside of actual gameplay. everyone knows that."
"but you're still talking to me."
"yes because we're determining-"
"still talking to me."
"-determining whether or not-"
"still talking!"
minho starts to calculate the angle and initial velocity that his book would need to successfully hit jonghyun in the face and get him to shut his mouth without breaking his nose, but he's regrettably a little dusty on his projectile motion notes and doesn't want to give jonghyun the satisfaction of getting him all keyed up.
instead minho returns to his place in the book and doesn't reply. he waits patiently until it starts to sink in, and as minho expects, it takes jonghyun a while.
"yah, minho. can you hear me? minho." jonghyun shuffles his feet in the doorway. "wait. so are you really ignoring me now?"
minho is really ignoring him now.
"you know it doesn't count now, right? you can't just start ignoring someone in the middle of a conversation. doesn't work that way."
minho is ignoring him now and it definitely counts because he's doing it right this time.
"we were clarifying the rules! you can talk! i call time out! team huddle!"
minho turns the page because he is paying close attention to what is happening in his novel. it's riveting and filled with intriguing twists and turns so he busies himself by focusing on following those because he is not busy ignoring jonghyun.
"wait, so why were you ignoring me in the first place?"
minho doesn't remember either, but he trusts there's a good reason behind it and continues ignoring.
"you don't remember, do you? i bet you don't even remember."
minho thinks this ignoring business would be a lot easier if jonghyun could just leave already.
but he wasn't really expecting an easy triumph anyways, so minho steels his resolve and digs in his heels for the long haul, anticipating another round coming soon. but jonghyun doesn't say anything, not even after minho turns another page.
minho waits and waits, stares hard at the white space between the black letters on the page until he can't take it anymore.
against all his better judgement, minho sneaks a glance at the doorway to see if jonghyun's left.
he hasn't. their eyes meet and minho knows he's just forfeited.
jonghyun quirks his eyebrow and grins, but doesn't say anything. minho goes back to his book.
-
minho feels weird when he compares his situation with the various accounts he's overheard from all the other hyungs he's worked with, feels even weirder when he has to answer, 'no, not yet,' to both the scripted on-camera and nosy off-camera questions.
when eunhyuk and donghae leer, wink wink nudge nudge him and ask hey, has he got his eye on someone, because if not, they've got a lot of interested parties they can hook him up with, minho gives them the same answer he gives everyone because he's not sure he wants to risk his standing with them by telling the truth.
they stare at each other in incredulity when they hear minho isn't really looking for anything at the moment. they tell him that yes, working hard to be successful is important and all but he shouldn't waste away his youthful good looks-'especially you, minho! i'd even date you if i were your age.' they tell him that there are lots of ways to date without getting in trouble with management nowadays, if that's what he's worried about.
but minho still shakes his head, says that for now, he wants to focus on studying and he'll be sure to let them know when he's ready to enter the market. eunhyuk leans over and whispers that he predicts minho will be changing his mind very soon, that boys his age have needs.
"yeah," donghae laughs and hip checks eunhyuk into a nearby table. "you of all people would know about needs."
-
when it comes down to it, minho is very okay with what they've been doing, but sometimes he can't help but think that if it was a girl he was with, they'd have already slept together by now.
he knows it'd work differently but it's not like minho hasn't thought about it, because he has.
he's thought about it so many times that he's committed each step to memory after having planned and revised countless times.
he's thought about it so many times that even when he can barely think or stand straight in the bathroom before bed or in the shower in the mornings, it only takes a casual curl of his fingers around his dick before the scene starts automatic playback.
he's thought about looking down at jonghyun with bleary morning eyes, tired enough to look at him in a certain way, the edges of their skin pixellated and indistinct as their stomachs, hips, thighs touch. there'd be no hurry, no rush, and minho wouldn't be able to think straight because he'd have nothing to prove.
jonghyun's hair would be wrecked and stuck to his face, pillow creases against his cheeks and he'd be quiet too, maybe not even fully awake as minho sucked and pulled little bites across his stomach, bringing the blood up to the surface until the skin turned pink and flushed under his teeth.
minho would be tucked underneath the sheets, recycling the same air over and over while he mouthed against the dry heat of jonghyun's cock, bumping his nose up against his balls, licking slow and experimental, alternating between the controlled, flexed licks with the tip of his tongue and the broader, wetter stripes with the flat of it, jonghyun tasting like sweat and savour against sleepy tastebuds.
jonghyun wouldn't ever beg, but minho would try and get him to anyways, going even slower as jonghyun's breath got ragged and his hand worked under the sheet to rest on minho's head, confused between pushing him to go further and holding him there. minho wouldn't be able see jonghyun's face and that'd make him even more powerful, letting him work jonghyun's thighs up and further apart like he'd always wanted to. jonghyun's legs would probably tense and he'd clutch at minho's hair as he finally figured out what he was angling for, but minho wouldn't let him back out, not now that he'd already gotten this far, and push his thighs apart until he gave.
minho would chuckle at the strangled whimper of embarassment above him as he would drag the pad of his thumb down between jonghyun's balls, the skin behind it, before pressing it into him, just a little, gauging his reaction. minho would breathe hot and measured against him too, a reminder that his mouth was also there, waiting, while his other hand would dig into jonghyun's ass and spread him apart, so minho could watch him start to relax. he wouldn't even think twice about doing it, because it would just be the two of them and it would be nobody else's business.
jonghyun wouldn't move too much because he'd still be embarassed, too flustered to say anything, but by then, minho would already know what consent felt and sounded like.
minho's mouth would already be dirty so he wouldn't taste much except salt and the staleness of his own spit when he licked around his thumb. jonghyun would move his hand from minho's hair to curl his fingers loosely around the base of his own cock and would lazily start to jerk himself off as a counterpart to minho's tongue.
after a little bit, minho would pull out his thumb and suck it into his mouth, coat it with the good kind of spit, the sticky, wet kind of spit that he has to pull up from the back of his throat and he'd press it back into jonghyun, push right past the initial stretch of resistance until it was all in.
jonghyun would jerk his hips and clench at the unfamiliarity but minho would see the shine of precome against the head of his dick and decide that yeah, he liked it, and was ready for more. he'd pull out his thumb again, this time quickly slicking up his index finger the same way in his mouth and working it in past the first knuckle, then the second, before jonghyun can close up again.
minho would be able to move around a lot more in this position, and he'd be able to corkscrew his finger so he'd get to stretch and push and tease into jonghyun, tight and cushioned and pulsing around him. like a reflex, jonghyun would thrust back onto his finger, fucking himself on it after minho turned his finger just the right way and he'd moan his name like he needed it and minho would hear and know he was close, start to lick wet and hot around the base of his finger before pushing himself up a little so he can get up onto his knees and reach down to his dick.
but that would make the sheet covering them slip off the bed, and he'd have to fight to stay upright to try and watch jonghyun and finger fuck him and jerk himself off all at the same time.
minho would close his eyes right before he came and think about another time, next time.
next time he'd stretch jonghyun quicker and wider and surer so he could fuck him with his cock instead of his finger, and he'd be that much tighter, that much louder.
-
before kibum goes to pick out the movie for their version of family night, he finds minho napping on the couch, wakes him up none too delicately and proceeds to assign him the task of hooking up the dvd player because everyone else is conveniently occupied.
minho is tempted to close his eyes and pretend like he dreamed the entire exchange, wonders if he can skip out on the movie altogether and go to sleep early because kibum's choices have never really been up his alley anyways. his conscience eventually gets the best of him though, as he remembers how irrationally passionate jonghyun and jinki get over group bonding time - "emphasis on group, as in all of us. yes, minho. even you." - and minho decides that he'd rather doze off peacefully and guilt-free during some random movie instead of having to endure the inevitable onslaught of disappointed pouting that would be directed his way if he bailed.
hooking up the dvd player doesn't take too long. minho ignores the nasty tangle of the game console wires and indiscriminately pulls out all the connected cables, starting to match up the colors of the rca cable of the dvd player to the inputs on the back of the television. he's squinting and trying to tell if a certain plug is white or yellow when someone taps his shoulder with a dvd case. minho looks up to see jonghyun.
"here, we're watching this."
minho turns back to the tv and pushes in the rest of the plugs before he takes the case from jonghyun's hands, doesn't even look at the cover before joking, "what's this, audrey hepburn's greatest hits?"
minho's allusion to kibum's three-month obsession with the actress doesn't tickle jonghyun as much he'd hoped it would, and minho watches gloomily as jonghyun makes his way to the couch and claims the end with the armrest that fits particularly snug against minho's neck for himself.
with his place on the couch already usurped, it's the realization that they're going to watch moulin rouge after he cracks open the dvd case that manages to deliver the fatal blow and shatter minho's already cracked spirit. the chances of him catching some shut-eye during the movie were now shot to zero, as there was absolutely no way he was going to be able get any peace with the rest of them breaking out in song every twenty minutes.
he's bending down to put the dvd in the player when jonghyun interrupts.
"hey, that dvd's scratched up, clean it before you put it in."
minho gives the dvd a quick, perfunctory swipe with the bottom of his t-shirt and starts to place it back into the open tray when jonghyun interrupts him again.
"but, um, really. it's like seriously scratched. you should breathe on it," jonghyun demonstrates by exhaling into the palm of his hand, "then wipe the surface in a linear back and forth motion, not in a circle like you just did-that might ruin the dvd."
minho stares at jonghyun.
jonghyun looks back at him expectantly, waits for minho to put his sage advice to use.
minho has to forcibly recall everything his mother taught him about manners to stop himself from flinging the dvd at jonghyun and telling him to breathe on his own stupid movie.
minho takes in a deep inhale, tells himself that he's doing it mostly to calm down, not just because he's going to do the idiotic exhale that jonghyun wants him to do. minho looks over at him, lounging on his side of the couch, leisurely resting his elbow on his armrest, like someone just died and made him king.
minho exhales on the disc, but does it while rolling his eyes as far back into his head as he can without hurting himself, keeps rolling them as he wipes the surface in a linear back and forth motion, exaggerating and dragging out the action.
after a lot of fanfare, he finally sticks the dvd back into the reader and pushes the tray back in, plopping down on the part of the couch farthest away from jonghyun. they're both quiet for a little while before jonghyun turns to him, obviously wounded, and says,
"i saw that."
"saw what?" minho replies, feigning ignorance as the disc menu loads up.
"you were rolling your eyes at me."
"no i wasn't."
"you were, don't lie. what did i ever do to you?"
"nothing."
he watches as jonghyun clenches his jaw and pushes down on the play button with a lot of unecessary force. minho decides against asking jonghyun why he didn't wait for the others to show up before starting the movie and turns his attention to the television instead.
the disc starts skipping in the middle of the opening credits.
minho glares at the traitorous screen, curses the traitorous dvd player, damns the traitorous dvd and its traitorous owner to someplace worthy of their company. he can already sense jonghyun itching to say something, something obnoxious and infuriating like-
"see i told y-"
"why don't you just go and fix your own dumb movie yourself," minho snaps.
jonghyun doesn't miss a beat. "yeah because you did such a great job."
minho has no good answer to that, crosses his arms over his chest and slumps down into the cushions instead. jonghyun doesn't show any signs of budging either, so the disc keeps on skipping.
the same frame hiccups across the screen over and over until it starts to look like some kind of optical illusion. while minho stares defiantly at the screen, the rest of room quickly fills up with the whine and whir of the dvd player's spindle motor overexerting itself and the frantic looping of a split-second clip from the movie's score.
minho's about to go cross-eyed when he hears jinki and taemin finally come out of the bedroom and walk into the living room.
"so guys, what are we watchi-" jinki stops short by the sofa and looks over at the two of them. "um. the dvd's skipping."
"yeah." jonghyun confirms, voice neutral.
"for how long?"
jonghyun shrugs. "i dunno, a while."
"and you're not going to get up to fix it?" jinki looks at minho while asking the question, as if jonghyun acting weird is somehow his resposibility.
it's taemin who finally hands minho the blanket in his hands before going over to the dvd player and ejecting the dvd. minho watches in dismay as he perfectly executes the jonghyun method of exhaling and linear wiping back and forth without any sort of prompting. when taemin returns back to the couch, jonghyun reaches out and pulls him down onto the seat next to him, lovingly ruffling his hair.
"taeminnie! you're so good," jonghyun gazes deep and soulful into taemin's eyes, "you'd never roll your eyes at me, right?"
taemin looks confused for a second before he throws a quick, almost imperceptible glance minho's way, rolling his eyes in understanding before smiling indulgently back at jonghyun.
"never, hyung."
"i totally saw that!" jonghyun gasps at the unexpected betrayal.
"saw what hyung?" taemin smiles sweetly at him.
"y-you! you know! what you and minho just!"
kibum saunters into the room, "taeminnie and minho just what?"
jonghyun sulks in his seat. "no one in this house likes me. i thought at least taeminnie did-" jonghyun mumbles into his chest, "but i guess not."
they all look at jonghyun in undisguised amusement before jinki signals taemin to switch seats with him. jinki cozies up to jonghyun, snuggling his head into the side of his neck.
"i like you a lot, jonghyunnie!"
jonghyun grunts.
kibum, not to be outdone, forces his way into jonghyun's lap and stretches his legs out across the top of jinki's thighs.
"i like you a lot too."
"me too!" taemin pipes up next to him.
jonghyun fails to conceal a little smile of pleasure, but remains silent. everyone else turns to look at minho, eyebrows raised.
minho sighs.
"i. uh. i like you too, jongh-hyung."
jonghyun makes a sound that resembles a sniffle. "really?"
"are you going to cry if i say no?" minho knows it's not really the right time for that particular crack, but he can't seem to resist.
jonghyun shoots him a dirty look that minho reciprocates in full as the rest of them start to snicker. jonghyun possessively wraps his arms around kibum, trying hard for casual and failing miserably. "whatever, three out of four members is enough for me anyways."
this time, it's kibum who sighs.
"i thought we were watching moulin rouge, not rominho and jonghyunette."
"wait what why am i the gir-"
jinki clamps his hand over jonghyun's mouth as kibum snatches the remote out from his hand and starts the movie.
"taeminnie, lights!"
during the movie, minho finds he doesn't mind the musical sing-alongs as much as he originally imagined he would, doesn't even call jonghyun out on the suspicious liquid that he sees pool in the corner of his eyes when the girl dies of consumption.
-
"say it."
"no."
"say it."
"no."
"i know you like me."
"no."
"i'm going to ask kibum to make couple rings for us anyways."
"jeez, yes, okay, yes."
"yes what?"
10,500; nc-17
jonghyun/minho
"try staring a little harder," kibum advises him. "he doesn't have holes in the back of his head yet."
minho isn't sure he wants to dignify something like that with a response.
-
minho comes back from working out hungry and thirsty, finds taemin and jinki already sitting and eating breakfast in the kitchen.
"minho! how was your jog?" jinki eagerly asks once he catches sight of him in the doorway.
minho looks on helplessly as jinki unfortunately forgets that his mouth is full of foood in the process of greeting him, spraying half-chewed bits of egg and rice all over taemin's arm.
instead of swallowing the remaining food in his mouth, jinki starts apologizing to taemin profusely and manages to repeat the same mistake again. taemin puts his hand on jinki's and calmly reassures him, "hyung it's okay, really, it's okay, just please don't choke, here, drink some water," finally getting him to swallow and regain his composure.
minho can't seem to fight the little smile that starts playing on his lips as he watches taemin effectively avert crisis and jinki glow gratefully at him afterwards.
"are you okay, hyung?" minho asks, once he's sure jinki's fully recovered.
"yeah!" jinki grins at him. "we left some food for you over here."
minho nods and goes to the refrigerator, pours out the last of the orange juice into a glass and throws away the carton.
he's a few bites into his breakfast when jonghyun comes into the kitchen freshly showered and leans on the table with his elbows, chin in hands.
"good morning!" he announces cheerfully to minho in particular. "how was your workout?"
minho nods, "it was good."
"good!"
jonghyun starts to reach his arm for something and minho quickly deduces that jonghyun's going for his juice. minho beats him to the punch just in the nick of time and slides the glass away from jonghyun's hand.
"just a sip!"
jonghyun repositions himself and reaches out in another attempt. when jonghyun's fingers are millimeters away from touching the glass, minho grins and slides it away again, relocating the glass to a new position near taemin's plate, just out of the range of jonghyun's outstretched arm.
"minhoooo come on i just want a little!"
jonghyun wiggles his fingers in frustration and gives minho what jonghyun clearly thinks is an irresistable combination of pouting and puppy-eyes. minho isn't so easily impressed.
but he pretends to give in anyways, sighing and slightly inching the glass towards jonghyun. minho watches in secret glee as jonghyun's expression evolves from despondent to victorious-and as minho quickly snatches the glass back the other way-to dumbstruck.
jonghyun lets out a high-pitched, obnoxious whine before he settles into something like determination, making a mad dash around jinki to get to the other end of the table. minho's already one step ahead of him though, chuckles at jonghyun's obvious frustration at being foiled yet again.
the wear of constant defeat starts to take an obvious toll on jonghyun's morale, but minho thinks it's kind of endearing how the other boy keeps on trying his hand. jonghyun's persistence is admirable, minho observes, but strategy is his downfall. it's predictable and straight-foward, so much so that minho starts getting complacent after figuring out jonghyun's pattern of movement and retaliation.
there's finally a lull and minho looks up at jonghyun, thinks he's ready to quit when jonghyun suddenly leaps across the table, shoving and almost knocking taemin out of his chair in one last balls-to-the-wall, all or nothing attempt at the prize.
minho's initially caught off-guard but he recovers quickly, holding on to the edge of the table for support as he pushes off his chair and using his height as leverage to push the glass as far away from jonghyun as he can. minho's counter-attack is sloppy-some of the juice splashes on the counter and the glass almost tips over before minho is able to readjust his grip.
it's admittedly not his best work, but it's successful. jonghyun got close, but not close enough.
minho simpers as he slides back into his seat, juice safely in hand.
jonghyun straightens and dusts off the front of his shirt before looking at minho, nobly unaffected, and stating:
"you can take my juice, choi minho, but you can't take my dignity."
"hyung," taemin grumbles, sounding slightly annoyed (minho guesses it's probably related to him being discarded as collateral damage after jonghyun's subtle manueverings), "i think both of you lost your dignity about five minutes ago."
minho glosses over the unexpected jab from their youngest and instead locks eyes with jonghyun as he takes an exaggerated gulp of his now lukewarm juice, smacking his lips. minho turns to taemin and jinki and says,
"taemin, i don't know if it's just the brand or the sweet taste of victory, but this juice is the best juice i've ever had in my entire life."
jonghyun's expression is oddly unreadable when minho looks back up at him. he presses his shoulders back, reminds the rest of them that they had to be ready to leave for an interview by noon, and his voice is unusually listless. minho feels a pang of remorse as he watches him walk back to the bedroom.
minho was used to jonghyun's limited range of reactions after they did things like this-it ended in either annoyance, flippancy, awkward backing up, or the occasional bout of physical retaliation. minho's sure he didn't he see any of those just now.
"minho?" jinki waves at him across the table to get his attention.
"hmm?"
"are you okay?"
"yeah."
jinki looks at him thoughtfully before he reaches across the table for minho's glass of juice, slowly sliding it towards himself, before bringing it even more slowly to his mouth to take a sip. jinki keeps his eyes on him the entire time and it feels more than a little bizarre, like being subjected to scrutiny underneath a microscope. minho's not sure what jinki is doing, but since that isn't really new, he waits for it to end before bothering to ask.
jinki sets the glass back down.
by the time minho realizes that jinki is waiting for him to do something--instead of the other way around-minho is confused enough to look to taemin for help deciphering the situation. but taemin looks like he's working with jinki and minho is given no answers.
minho decides to venture an uncertain, "hyung?"
"aren't you mad?" jinki finally asks.
"why would i be mad?" minho replies.
"well, because," jinki takes care to enunciate every syllable as he points animatedly to the glass in front of him, as if minho had by chance forgotten it was there. "because. i just. drank. your. juice."
"and?" minho still doesn't get it, is starting to get annoyed, and is also not quite sure why jinki is talking to him like he has a hearing problem.
"hyung, you really wanted that glass of juice." it's taemin this time, in the same slow, measured tone as jinki, giving minho a look of support. "it seemed really special to you."
"what." minho shifts uncomfortably in his chair.
jinki and taemin simultaneously turn from minho to look at each other meaningfully, like they've come to at some deep understanding about something important. minho watches in disbelief as the two of them conduct what seems like an an entirely telepathic conversation across the table, devoid of any spoken word. jinki widens his eyes at taemin, tips his head in minho's direction and taemin widens his eyes back in reply. minho leans back in his seat and watches while they carry on for the good part of a minute. if the enthusiastic nodding and smiling is anything for minho to go on, they finally seem to arrive at an agreement about something,
at last, it dawns on minho, and he quickly steals a glance over his shoulder to see if he can catch the blinking red of a hidden camera behind him.
he doesn't see one, and after a couple more stolen inspections of the kitchen cabinets and doorway, minho doesn't really notice anything out of the ordinary, and he mentally congratulates the producers for blending into the surroundings so well. it was odd that their manager had failed to mention anything at all about it on their daily itinerary, but minho rests a little easier anyways, finally having some sort of explanation for everyone else acting so strange.
"minho," jinki turns to him cheerily, suddenly reverting back to normal speech mode. "so what do you want to do now? we still have 2 hours until we have to get ready. what do you like to do?"
"you like so many interesting things, hyung. let's do something you like." taemin adds in, nodding energetically.
"you already know what i like." minho is skeptical, still not sure how an actual television network approved the script for a hidden camera as undisputedly unfunny and confusing as this one. was he somehow supposed to be the butt of the joke? he starts thinking about how jonghyun was in on it the whole time and that's why he gave him that look, wanted his orange juice so bad-
taemin and jinki look at each other impatiently again.
"minho!" jinki suddenly shouts. "i just forgot all the things you like. why don't you make a list for us?"
"i remember soccer!" taemin starts him off. "now what else, hyung?"
minho thinks. "i like other sports too."
"yes, yes, sports, of course you like sports, sports all sports, what else?"
"um."
"and?"
"books."
"yes and?"
"my family."
"uh-huh and?"
"um."
minho doesn't want to look boring on national television, even if this hidden camera was probably already going to be a certified dud in the ratings, so he starts thinking really hard about an interesting, clever answer that everyone hasn't heard already, something kibum would say, maybe if he said something about-
"HI JONGHYUNNIE," jinki shouts. "WELCOME BACK. WE ARE CURRENTLY HELPING MINHO LIST THINGS THAT HE LIKES. WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN IN? AND I MEAN JOIN IN AND HELP LIST THINGS, NOT ACTUALLY JOIN THE LIST OF THINGS HE LIKES. OR MAYBE THAT. IF YOU'RE INTO THAT. BY THE WAY, WHAT WOULD YOUR THOUGHTS BE ON THAT."
minho looks up and sees jonghyun standing across from him, looking just as confused as minho feels.
"why are you shouting, hyung?" jonghyun asks.
jinki sheepishly goes back to his inside voice. "oh. um. yeah, i just wanted to make sure minho was paying attention. and i see that you both are-paying attention. both of you. so, uh. okay. carry on."
jonghyun glances at minho. "so what exactly do you need my thoughts on?"
"i'm...not sure." minho admits slowly. "i'm not really sure what's going on. i was listing things that i liked for the hidden camera-"
"wait, what hidden camera? where?" jonghyun starts looking around nervously, "nobody told me abou-wait did kibum-"
"WAIT WHAT THERE'S A HIDDEN CAMERA?!" jinki suddenly shouts again, the lag time of his response startling the rest of them. "THEY HEARD ALL-"
"NO," taemin quickly cuts in and clarifies, "there is no hidden camera."
taemin looks at minho in what looks troublingly like exasperation.
"oh."
minho feels a little like an idiot, but he's mostly just relieved. he's not sure the events of the past hour were among his best moments.
"wait, so why were you two acting like that?"
"acting like what?" jinki asks minho, tilting his head and sounding genuinely curious.
"you know."
"we don't, really."
minho knows they know, but he gets tired dealing with both taemin and jinki acting like they're both afflicted with short-term memory loss after a while and gives up.
taemin eventually pulls jinki into the living room, saying that he wants to watch some tv before they have to get ready, leaving minho alone with jonghyun. minho feels like he has to say something, even though he doesn't really want to.
"hyung, you're-you're not mad, right?" minho asks slowly. "you know, about the juice?"
"um, no, not really, " jonghyun looks a little taken aback as he answers awkwardly, tapping his toes against the leg of the table and looking down at the floor before adding and tapping some more, "but it was kind of mean though."
"i didn't mean to be mean." minho tells him quietly.
"i know you don't mean to be," jonghyun quickly looks up from the floor at minho then back down again, still tapping his foot against the wood, "but sometimes you just are."
-
minho almost doesn't remember what his bed looks like, they've been stuck in the sm building for so long. he's been stealing quick naps on tables while jonghyun and jinki record their parts over and over again in the soundbooth, dozing off against the practice room mirror when jinki has to work one on one with the choreographer to get his heel groove, twist, pop and lock back in time with the rest of them. he's exhausted, all of his muscles soaking in their own acid, a tired ache working up to his head as their new single works circles between his ears.
"since not all of us are quite awake, we're going to break. meet back here in an hour."
the choreographer's voice jerks him awake, and minho opens his eyes quickly, nods seriously to nobody in particular, trying to pretend that he's been awake the entire entire. minho knows he isn't fooling anyone as he notices the rest of the room staring back at him, half in appreciation, half in annoyance. taemin giggles a little, and jinki audibly breathes out a whoosh of air. they all give a bow of thanks to the dance coach as he leaves.
"ugh finally. let's eat!" says kibum, wrapping his arms around taemin and jonghyun's shoulders, walking them towards the door.
jinki jogs after them, "cafeteria-ho!"
"oh, hey, um," jonghyun ducks under kibum's arm and hangs back. "you guys go ahead, i want to go to the weight room and get some sets in before i cool down."
"what?" kibum looks at him in disbelief. "why?"
"hyung, come on just let him." taemin whines, pulling on his arm.
"ok, fine." kibum concedes and starts walking again before shouting over his shoulder, "but don't think i didn't hear you asking the 2pm hyungs about getting ripped!"
"what!" jonghyun flushes red as minho hears the rest of them laughing down the hallway. "that's not. no."
minho laughs along, but he's been noticing jonghyun a lot more too.
it isn't that his body wasn't good before, but minho's somehow more aware of it lately. he's caught himself taking silent notes on the shape of jonghyun's arms when he sings, the beat of his chest contracting and expanding after a particularly grueling dance routine, counting the number of times he wears the jeans that look best against his hips, thighs. it's perfectly normal, minho reassured himself, to know these things about a person you spend every day with.
"aren't you going?" jonghyun asks, looking down at him.
he'd snuck a soda and a couple of mouthfuls of microwaveable ramen in the break room after excusing himself to the bathroom not too long ago, so minho shakes his head no.
"okay then," jonghyun says, bouncing on the balls of his feet, keeping his blood running. "see you later."
jonghyun leaves and for a few minutes, minho considers lying down right there and taking a nap against taemin's sweatshirt before he realizes he's not really tired anymore, weirdly energized at the prospect of wandering around the building on his own.
minho shakes out the sleep in his legs, stretches out his back, works out the kinks in his neck with some head rolls before finally using the wooden ballet barre to heave himself up.
the building is quiet for the most part, empty of the usual crowd of trainees, techs and the random assortment of sunbaenim and their respective managers. minho walks aimlessly past deserted practice rooms, looking through the glass, hoping for a glance of someone that he might know. he walks past a door and there's a flash of movement, so minho backs up and peeks in and it's jonghyun.
he's in the weight room, like he said he would be, lying on a mat with two dumbbells-minho guesses they're 30s-next to him. minho shuffles a little to the side so his feet won't show under the door, leans over to look at him again, and he's doing sit-ups, arms crossed over his chest, cheeks puffed out in concentration.
minho almost feels like he shouldn't be watching, that it's not right, but it's stupid, because it's just jonghyun-hyung and all he's doing are some sit-ups. there's nothing special about sit-ups, minho thinks, and before he knows it, he's turned the doorknob and walked in.
jonghyun freezes mid-air and whips his head around, nervous. "who- ah, minho!" jonghyun starts laughing and collapses back on the mat, breathing heavy. minho sees his shirt soaked through, sweats tucked low under the bones of his hip. "you scared me!"
minho walks into the room and stands over jonghyun awkwardly, not sure what to do. "sorry."
"no, it's okay. i was almost done anyways." jonghyun smiles at him before getting up off the mat and starting to roll it up.
minho wants to do something, so he leans down and takes the weights in his hands, walks over to the rack and puts them back for him.
"oh, hey, thanks."
minho nods and watches as jonghyun puts his mat back with the rest of them into the bin, walking back over to minho and wiping the sweat off his brow with a towel. "did you eat? you want to go and-"
"no!" minho hears himself almost shout, the thought of going back to find the others making him him nervous, angry.
jonghyun is looking at him weird and minho tries to clarify. "i mean, um. i wanted to ask what you were doing."
"oh, uh." jonghyun chuckles nervously, dropping his towel on the floor.
"i'm trying to get more definition on my internal obliques," he says, lifting up his shirt so it bunches up around his armpits, and looks back up at minho to make sure he's paying attention before he continues, "girls totally dig abs."
the skin across jonghyun's stomach looks soft, is a shade or two lighter than the rest of him, and minho finds himself swallowing back something in his throat. jonghyun gestures to the juts of muscle above his navel with his index finger.
"like, see? right here, i think i could work on this a little more."
minho doesn't know what possesses him to do it, but he reaches out with his fingers so that they brush against jonghyun's, pressing them against his stomach under the context of seeing for himself.
jonghyun's head snaps back up, his teeth biting against this lower lip, and asks minho, "so um. what do you think?"
jonghyun fists his shirt with both hands, holding it up over his chest to allow minho more access. minho presses his fingers against his stomach with more conviction this time, tracing the edges and walking his fingers up towards jonghyun's ribcage on the right side then moving over to the left. jonghyun's skin is shiny from sweat, damp and chilly against minho's fingertips.
minho drags his fingertips down, taking his time to memorize the subtle striations and countours, stopping himself a good couple of inches above the waistband of jonghyun's sweatpants. he should pull away, but the moisture between his fingers and jonghyun's stomach is almost sticky, telling him to stay, so minho keeps his fingers lightly brushing against his skin even when he mumbles,
"it's good, hyung."
minho waits for jonghyun to pull his shirt down, but he doesn't. minho waits for jonghyun to thank him for his affirmation so he can pull away his fingers, but he doesn't, so they stand like that, quiet, for what seems like forever. jonghyun still has his head down so minho can't look him in the eye. minho thinks and think and thinks, and then finally does
minho steps forward so his entire hand splays against jonghyun's stomach. jonghyun doesn't move or say anything, and minho takes this as a sign to continue, moving lower, so the heel of his hand brushes against the line of soft hair, nudges the gray cotton waistband. he stops when he feels jonghyun's stomach quiver.
the only sound in the room is their breathing, mismatched, and the soft whir of ventilation.
minho hears the thudding of his own heart, begins to reconsider, moves to pull away but jonghyun's hand comes down from his shirt, tightening around minho's wrist and holding him there. jonghyun waits before he whispers to minho, still not lifting his head,
"you could. if you want."
minho wants. he can't put it into words what it is though, what exactly jonghyun is giving him permission to do. minho nods, and jonghyun's hand drops. minho takes his hand lower, applying more pressure and the feel of bone, hair and skin tells him that there's only one layer of clothing between his hand and jonghyun. jonghyun's cock twitches against minho's fingers.
minho feels like he isn't even in his own body anymore, wants to blame what he's doing on exhaustion, that he's not thinking straight but his mind is racing, giddy, like it knows, like it's been waiting.
minho presses his palm harder, gets dizzy when a soft whimper makes its way past jonghyun's throat.
a combination of adrenaline, curiosity, and minho's own dick starts telling him to fill up the space between them, wrap his arm around the other boy's waist and pull him closer, so it's not just his hand connecting them, but his ears suddenly pick on a chorus of muffled laughter in the distance and before he can even pull his hand away, jonghyun's already on the other side of the room, his back turned.
minho's arm is still outstretched when the rest of them pile excitedly into the room, hands full with smuggled food from the cafeteria.
"we thought we'd all eat together!" jinki announces happily, putting down an armful of plastic containers and settling down indian-style on the floor next to minho. "we have to be quick because we have to get rid of all the evidence before going back."
"oh you're here, minho-hyung!" taemin smiles at him. "we couldn't find you anywhere."
"oh, yeah." minho glances over at jonghyun, kibum already by his side. "i just wanted to see what jonghyun-hyung was doing."
minho watches as kibum pokes at jonghyun's bicep. "ew, jjong. if you get too beastly. you'll look weird next to the rest of us." jonghyun laughs, but it's forced, short.
they sit in a circle, minho between jinki and kibum. he takes the chopsticks handed to him by jinki but doesn't split them. he still isn't hungry.
kibum starts telling a story between mouthfuls, something about a new girl group trainee and a bad bleach job. jinki nods along eagerly like he usually does, even though he's probably already heard three versions of the same story on their way here. taemin is busy stuffing his face, looking up every once in a while to nod at kibum attentively so as not to incur his wrath. jonghyun is eating slowly, trying to keep up with kibum but minho can see that he's distracted.
when jonghyun misses one too many of kibum's cue-for-laughter pauses, kibum stops talking. when he looks up, minho realizes that kibum is staring at him, then at jonghyun, then back at him.
"what's with this atmosphere?" asks kibum, suspicious, eyes darting between them.
jinki nods in agreement. "yeah, it is kind of smelly in here. i mean it makes sense since it is the-"
"no." kibum cuts him off and waves a dismissive hand. he points from jonghyun to minho. "i mean you two."
jonghyun looks up at minho and laughs. minho forces himself to crack a smile as jonghyun turns back to kibum.
"me and minho we were just seeing which one of us could bench press more weight," jonghyun looks over at minho and makes sure he's onboard with the story before continuing, "and he's just mad i beat him because i beat him."
"uh-huh," says kibum, obviously unconvinced. he's looking at minho again.
minho shrugs his shoulders like he couldn't care any less, tries to put a little supressed bitterness into his voice. "hyung only won because his muscles were still warm from working out and i was already cold."
"really." kibum exchanges glaces with taemin, but it looks like he's bought the act. "only you two would have a weight-lifting competition during the only break we've gotten all day."
jinki looks at minho meaningfully. "you shouldn't fight about small things like that."
minho shrugs. "we didn't fight. i'm not mad. we're going to have a rematch anyways."
jonghyun looks up in surprise and coughs a little. "we are?"
"chicken?" he challenges. minho's not really sure that he knows what he's even talking about anymore. provoking jonghyun is the only way he can think of getting a response.
"i'm not chicken." jonghyun puts down his chopsticks, sets his jaw, and looks at minho with clear eyes. minho looks back, tries to find meaning in his expression as they stare each other down. minho knows that the others have stopped eating in favor of watching them, like a spectator sport.
it's another uncomfortable couple of seconds before kibum interrupts.
"what is even going on right now."
"it's like," jinki flaps his arms in excitement, "in those animal shows where they circle each other, right before they-"
"hyung, i think," taemin says urgently, pointing up at the clock, "it's time to go."
the rest of them turn in unison to look at the direction of his finger. minho realizes they were supposed to be due back almost ten minutes ago.
even though furiously scrambling to throw away containers, wiping the mess off of floorboards and deciding to sprint back to the practice room effectively takes care of their warm up, their choreographer still isn't very impressed.
-
minho wakes up on his stomach and only has to shift his weight slightly to realize that he's hard. he's pretty sure he wasn't dreaming about anything particularly interesting - at least nothing interesting enough to warrant the current friction between the head of his cock and a well-placed bunch in the fabric of his sheets.
minho works a hand between his legs and he doesn't really know what he's thinking about, flipping through a patchwork of breasts and legs and wet pink shuddering girls before settling on last night but this time no one interrupts them and he gets jonghyun's sweats around his ankles, hears him make that sound again and again and minho comes, hard and fast, into his own hand.
-
jonghyun doesn't bring it up.
there's not really enough space to avoid each other anyways, but jonghyun doesn't act any differently either which is fine and whatever, because it's not exactly the kind of thing that minho wants to especially discuss in great detail.
-
kissing is messy, embarrassing. it's embarrassing when his tongue swipes against jonghyun's chin instead of his bottom lip, when their teeth knock together when both of them tilt their head the wrong way, when minho breathes through his mouth instead of his nose. there's intuition and then there's technique, and minho knows he has neither. jonghyun wants to set the pace, minho can tell, and minho doesn't let him because why should he be the one when minho asked in the first place and it's his fault that there's no rhythm, just false starts and awkward pauses and smushes of lips and teeth and spit. minho knows he's trying too hard, overthinking it, ruining it. kissing is messy and embarrassing but he feels his stomach drop anyways when jonghyun pulls back.
"hey do you even want-"
"no, y-yeah. i want."
"oh, ok good. i mean you were-"
"yeah, no, i know. i know i'm not good."
jonghyun isn't too great either, minho thinks, but jonghyun is eager and here with him and being a really good sport and he opens minho's mouth with his tongue again, making noises in his throat that sound kind of funny, kind of like come on do this with me. jonghyun pulls closer to minho to lick deeper into his mouth and minho lets himself relax, starts to follow the pace jonghyun's started, because he likes how jonghyun has to tilt his head up to kiss him, really likes how jonghyun is blushing because minho can feel the heat coming off his face.
jonghyun's tongue is slippery against his own and minho notices jonghyun doesn't really taste nice because jonghyun's mouth is like the sourness of waking up in the mornings, the taste in minho's mouth when he hasn't eaten anything all day. it's dirty and soft and minho surprises himself when he hears a low rumble come up from his own throat when jonghyun's starts to slowly suck on his tongue. he can feel jonghyun smile at the sound, the sound that gets out out of him.
minho feels a little bubble of annoyance rise up and before jonghyun has a chance to get smug, minho rubs his hand against the front of jonghyun's cotton-thin pajamas and jonghyun gasps. it isn't fair of him, minho thinks, to be the only one getting reactions.
they're both already half-hard, minho realizes, now that jonghyun's stopped kissing him and he can hear a throbbing rush in his ears, his chest, between his legs. minho's never started something he couldn't finish before, but it's scary now that jonghyun is looking at him and he has no idea what it means. it's scary because both of their eyes are open and it isn't just kissing anymore. minho pulls his hand away, says
"hyung."
jonghyun doesn't answer. minho's hands are clammy so he wipes them against the sheets instead of looking at jonghyun again. the bed shifts and minho knows that jonghyun is leaving, because this is jonghyun-hyung, not whoever minho thought he was a couple minutes ago. he waits and waits and waits so he can go to the bathroom, jerk off and get rid of this feeling.
but jonghyun doesn't leave, and when minho looks up, jonghyun's shirt is off, and he's pushing down his pajamas past his knees and kicking them off the bed. minho's seen jonghyun naked before, but never almost shy like this, ducking his head down, covering himself with his hands. he looks at minho, voice trying to be in charge
"you. now you."
it takes minho a second to get what he means, but he pulls off his shirt and takes off his pants and boxers in one go, and when minho looks back up, jonghyun has his fist loosely curled around his own dick, his thumb sticking out a little and something surges through minho, making all the hairs on his neck go prickly when he realizes that jonghyun is waiting for him.
minho's done this before, doesn't have to think about something this automatic. he licks his palm and starts jerking off, slow and unhurried, closing his eyes and bringing his chin to his chest. the wetness in his hand isn't his usual lotion, but the coarseness and friction of his palm reminds him of jonghyun's tongue, gets him hard fast. minho can feel the other side of the bed moving, jonghyun mimicking his motions, following.
minho spreads his legs farther apart before he opens his eyes to look at jonghyun, leaning back and watching him under hooded eyelids, head cocked to the side. jonghyun's eyes flutter back between closed, watching minho and then finally staying closed. jonghyun's hand isn't moving that fast, and minho sees that jonghyun fully hard is a little smaller compared to his, but thicker around. jonghyun's left hand is full and wet and his right is gripping the sheets tight and minho feels himself getting close, steadies up his wrist and starts on what he knows is the final stretch.
jonghyun's close too, lifts his hips off the bed and fucks up into the wet circle of his fist, biting his lip, making these low grunting noises and minho can't close his eyes because this is important, this is what jonghyun-hyung looks like when he comes. minho doesn't notice the soft string of murmured hyunghyunghyunghyungs tumbling out of his mouth while his hand pumps updownup for the last time until jonghyun's eyes snap open and meet his.
jonghyun comes looking at minho, his hand trembling, cupping the head of his dick with his fingers to avoid ruining the sheets, smearing it back down his shaft for the last few strokes. minho wants to reach out and touch jonghyun but he stays still and watches his dick get soft instead, the entire situation coming back into an awkward, uncomfortable focus.
jonghyun pushes himself out of the bunk, locating and clumsily pulling up his pants with his clean hand. minho lets himself look at jonghyun bent over and he finds himself having to swallow back a sudden rush of guilt and disgust, whips his head around before he can get caught.
while he waits for his turn in the bathroom, minho picks at the flakes of dried come on his stomach, tries to think about things that aren't humiliating.
-
"hyung, you, uh," minho bites back a smile, "trimmed your hair. down there." as jonghyun turns red, minho pulls down his pants a little and inspects it from a better angle, the hair definitely shorter but not completely shaved off. he runs his fingers across jonghyun's pubic bone and it's a little rough but minho decides he likes it, scratching his fingernails lightly across the stubble and feels jonghyun begin to fidget and try to get away.
"er yeah. i mean since we're doing this a lot and all- i thought it would be nicer if. yeah." jonghyun is mortified, pulls up his pants and swats minho's hand away.
minho doesn't let him get too far, because jonghyun was thinking of him, of them, and he's really happy about that, if his own hard-on is any indication. minho pulls playfully at the back of jonghyun's sweats, pulls it intentionally down over the curve of jonghyun's ass and chuckles at the yelp of protest he gets in reply. jonghyun is smiling though, and minho's heart starts beating with an uncontrollable affection when jonghyun turns back to him, mock-stern.
jonghyun shakes a finger at him. "choi minho, you are the rudest dongsaeng i've ever had the displeasure-"
minho kisses him mostly to shut him up, because jonghyun looks and sounds pretty stupid when he's naked and doing something other than getting off. jonghyun mmmphs against his mouth then lets him lead the kiss, and minho feels the little puffs of air from his nose against his cheek just as he's really getting into it.
minho pulls back after a few seconds, waits until jonghyun opens his eyes in confusion.
"what's wrong?"
"hyung," minho starts seriously, "you only did that so that your dick would look bigger than mine, right?"
jonghyun's eyes widen and he pokes minho hard between the ribs.
"shut up, not even." jonghyun grumbles underneath his breath defensively. "like i would even think of something that stupid."
minho likes jonghyun's dick just fine - likes it a whole lot actually - but having jonghyun insecure like this underneath him is hilarious, and he going to milk it for all it's worth, wrapping his hand around jonghyun's cock and squeezing a little,
"it's okay, hyung. we all have shortcomings. it's a pity, though, that you have to deal with both an altitude deficit and a small-"
"minho, can you-" jonghyun grits out through his teeth, "-can you go back to never talking."
"you're just jealous." minho says fondly.
jonghyun's annoyed now, he observes, pleased. he's sweaty and his nose is scrunched up, face turned away, but minho can feel jonghyun's precome thin and wet against his fingers so he speeds up a little, torquing his wrist on every downstroke.
minho can tell that jonghyun's trying really hard to pretend that he isn't enjoying this, biting his tongue, but minho knows better. he's watched jonghyun's hand move indiscreetly underneath his blanket enough times to write the sheet music for it, knows the exact time signature when he starts climbing into his crescendoes and slurs. minho tries to ignore the almost painful throb between his own legs because he's got to do this right first.
jonghyun's close when his stomach starts sucking in and out, and his breath starts hitching, so minho slows down half a beat and clenches his fist that much tighter around jonghyun's cock. the pressure of his grip is met by this obscene throb and twitch that works its way like fire up through minho's arm, down through his stomach and minho comes without even touching himself, hits him so suddenly that he feels himself trip over the rhythm that he'd been working so hard to perfect, but he recovers quickly, and minho estimates his margin of error can't be more than split seconds. he glances back up at jonghyun to see if he's noticed-
-and the way jonghyun looks back at him, strained and appreciative and secret, makes minho's head feel light, dizzy so he swallows, darts his eyes back to finish the task at hand. he doesn't know why he's feeling flushed and on edge again, doesn't know how to hide his shiver when jonghyun digs his fingers painfully into his arm.
minho lets out the breath he didn't know he was holding when jonghyun finally comes, groaning and bucking his hips, once, then twice. minho gets most of it on his hand and uses it to slick up the last few courtesy strokes, letting jonghyun ride it out. once jonghyun's flopped back onto the bed, minho wipes his hand on his pants that are already ruined and getting colder and stickier by the minute. he doesn't mind it too much though.
"woah," jonghyun finally breaks the silence, "that was really good."
minho nods, because yeah, it wasn't bad.
jonghyun wipes himself off with his t-shirt and drops it off the the side of the bed before covering himself with minho's pillow, pulling himself up onto his elbows. "you, uh. already. you know. right?"
"yeah. i did."
minho wonders if they have extra pillowcases in the laundry room.
"that's good." jonghyun nods in approval and lays back against the wall like he's just rsvp'ed an engraved invitation to stay the night in minho's bed. minho raises his eyebrow, sighs inwardly.
"hyung, your bed is over there."
"yeah, i know."
"and that's the pillow i sleep on."
"oh. sorry."
"they're probably going to come back soon too."
"yeah, probably."
jonghyun isn't moving yet, and minho doesn't really know how to make it any clearer. his arm is kind of sore and he wants to sleep it off and not have to look at or think about jonghyun for a while because now his head is starting to hurt. minho stares at taemin's unmade bed and waits for him to get the hint.
"hey. minho."
"yeah?" minho turns around to look at him.
"you didn't have to do all that. so, uh," jonghyun scratches the back of his neck, "thanks."
the gesture is lame and sincere and enough for minho to start laughing in his face. jonghyun blinks at him in confusion.
"what?"
minho shakes his head and pats jonghyun's ankle, feeling a little less sorry for himself. "you're welcome. besides, i wanted to."
jonghyun looks relieved and starts getting cozy again, fluffing up another one of his pillows to put behind his head.
"hyung, seriously though. get out of my bed."
jonghyun looks offended.
"fine i will. but do you even know how many girls would kill to be where you are right now? next to a naked kim jonghyun? just, you know. food for thought."
"how would you feel if i jerked off onto your pillow? next to the face of a sleeping kim jonghyun? just, you know. food for thought."
"...alright, fine. i get it."
-
jonghyun pulls his mouth off of minho's cock, his face drunken contemplation as he leans back on the balls of his feet. minho stares down at him, but he can't see much of jonghyun besides his gel-stiff hair and the slow way his forehead creases as he giggles to himself. minho thinks just feeling vulnerable isn't the half of it, because he's just standing there, the room being cold, him being painfully hard, and jonghyun's being eye-level with his dick, eyebrows furrowing like he's confused about something.
finally, after what seems like forever, jonghyun slurs out,"hey d'you think i can- wait. i'm totally gonna try."
some of the extra spit from jonghyun's mouth hits minho's thighs and the rest run down his chin as he looks back up at minho. minho's mouth goes completely dry, his tongue like cotton against his teeth, while he watches jonghyun wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. he grabs minho again, shuffles forward on his knees, "jaejoong-hyung told me a girl did this for him once."
minho's mind is too busy wrapping itself around the fact that jonghyun's mouth is back on cock to bother asking what exactly the girl did, but he gets his answer when jonghyun starts humming around the head of his cock. the vibrations push minho off balance even though he's leaning against the wall, and his legs wobble embarassingly as he tries to regain his footing. it's overstimulating and blurry and amazing so minho tries to ground himself by
minho's about to come and jonghyun is too drunk and into his blowjob and singing combination to notice the signs that he's close. minho's not sure how much jonghyun wants a mouthful of come and he wants to be considerate, he really does, but his legs tremble and his balls tighten and he's coming faster than he can say "hyung, get off."
jonghyun's eyes widen in surprise and his nostrils flare as he pulls off coughing and choking. he doesn't move his head fast enough though, and the second string of come splatters against his cheek. under normal circumstances, this would be the most hilarious thing that minho's ever seen and now that he's still slightly drunk, it's even more so.
"this isn't funny-" jonghyun glares at him, then coughs, splutters, "-why didn't you warn me-" and starts coughing again.
minho pulls up his pants before kneeling down on the floor next to jonghyun, thumping his back with one hand and filling up a glass in the sink with the other.
"here." minho says, handing over the glass of water.
jonghyun glares at him again before snatching the glass out of his hands and downing it all in one gulp. minho tries to keep a straight face as he apologizes.
"sorry hyung."
"you did this on purpose!"
"i didn't though."
minho watches as jonghyun transitions from accusatory to shell-shocked. "i can't believe i just did that."
"you didn't have to swallow."
"how could i not! it was already halfway down my throat!" jonghyun angrily replies before falling silent. minho mentally remarks on how quickly he's managed to sober up before jonghyun speaks up again, quieter this time.
"besides, i didn't mean the swallowing part. i meant the. you know."
"blowjob?" minho fills in the blank helpfully.
"yeah. that."
"but it was really good, hyung. was that really your first time?" minho's knows a little well-meaning flattery goes a long way.
"of course it was my first time! i don't go around doing this with everyone. i'm not gay." jonghyun snorts in disbelief, but visibly perks up anyways.
"does this mean i'm special?" minho smiles and nudges the other boy with his leg, feeling weirdly content.
"no, it means i'm never going to do it again." declares jonghyun. he starts to get up but wobbles a little on the take-off, almost falling over before grabbing onto minho's shoulder for support.
"that's too bad," minho grinning up at him, "it was very enjoyable for me."
"yes, i'm sure it was." jonghyun huffs as he turns the doorknob to leave when minho suddenly remembers.
"wait, hyung. before you go, you've got a little, uh, something on your cheek."
"what?" jonghyun turns around and walks to the bathroom mirror. "wait what- is this- ugh GROSS."
minho offers him some toilet paper in consolation.
-
after that, it's a lot of sloppy, fake it 'till you make it open-mouthed tip-toed back against walls and sinks and counters because things like boundaries and waiting for the other shoe to drop are fuzzy and too easy to forget on top of beds and blankets.
-
minho likes having something to work towards, linear progressions in general. he knows his penchant for curtness and getting to the point isn't too good for his comedic timing, but he's been working on that, working on making the people around him comfortable and playing along. it seems like the least he can do because he really isn't naturally good at anything, doesn't have the talent for singing like jinki and jonghyun or the talent for crowd-pleasing like kibum and taemin. minho knows he's lucky that he's tall and has a pretty face and he isn't sure that he'd even have a chance without those.
his father once told him that playing sports didn't require talent, because talent was just a nicer, shorter word for hours of painstaking practice. sometimes minho gets angry thinking about it, because sports had to be something he was good at naturally, not just something he'd picked up because he's practiced instep drives more times than he can care to remember. he's okay with it now.
-
jonghyun pokes his head through the door.
"hey are you ignoring me? just making sure."
minho thinks for a moment and prides himself for going the clever route.
"if i answer yes, does that mean that i'm not ignoring you by virtue of having answered or is the question exempt from the normal rules of ignoring so that after i answer yes i can go back to ignoring you properly without having disqualified myself?"
jonghyun grins. "if you were really ignoring me, you wouldn't have said anything."
"clarification on the rules falls outside of actual gameplay. everyone knows that."
"but you're still talking to me."
"yes because we're determining-"
"still talking to me."
"-determining whether or not-"
"still talking!"
minho starts to calculate the angle and initial velocity that his book would need to successfully hit jonghyun in the face and get him to shut his mouth without breaking his nose, but he's regrettably a little dusty on his projectile motion notes and doesn't want to give jonghyun the satisfaction of getting him all keyed up.
instead minho returns to his place in the book and doesn't reply. he waits patiently until it starts to sink in, and as minho expects, it takes jonghyun a while.
"yah, minho. can you hear me? minho." jonghyun shuffles his feet in the doorway. "wait. so are you really ignoring me now?"
minho is really ignoring him now.
"you know it doesn't count now, right? you can't just start ignoring someone in the middle of a conversation. doesn't work that way."
minho is ignoring him now and it definitely counts because he's doing it right this time.
"we were clarifying the rules! you can talk! i call time out! team huddle!"
minho turns the page because he is paying close attention to what is happening in his novel. it's riveting and filled with intriguing twists and turns so he busies himself by focusing on following those because he is not busy ignoring jonghyun.
"wait, so why were you ignoring me in the first place?"
minho doesn't remember either, but he trusts there's a good reason behind it and continues ignoring.
"you don't remember, do you? i bet you don't even remember."
minho thinks this ignoring business would be a lot easier if jonghyun could just leave already.
but he wasn't really expecting an easy triumph anyways, so minho steels his resolve and digs in his heels for the long haul, anticipating another round coming soon. but jonghyun doesn't say anything, not even after minho turns another page.
minho waits and waits, stares hard at the white space between the black letters on the page until he can't take it anymore.
against all his better judgement, minho sneaks a glance at the doorway to see if jonghyun's left.
he hasn't. their eyes meet and minho knows he's just forfeited.
jonghyun quirks his eyebrow and grins, but doesn't say anything. minho goes back to his book.
-
minho feels weird when he compares his situation with the various accounts he's overheard from all the other hyungs he's worked with, feels even weirder when he has to answer, 'no, not yet,' to both the scripted on-camera and nosy off-camera questions.
when eunhyuk and donghae leer, wink wink nudge nudge him and ask hey, has he got his eye on someone, because if not, they've got a lot of interested parties they can hook him up with, minho gives them the same answer he gives everyone because he's not sure he wants to risk his standing with them by telling the truth.
they stare at each other in incredulity when they hear minho isn't really looking for anything at the moment. they tell him that yes, working hard to be successful is important and all but he shouldn't waste away his youthful good looks-'especially you, minho! i'd even date you if i were your age.' they tell him that there are lots of ways to date without getting in trouble with management nowadays, if that's what he's worried about.
but minho still shakes his head, says that for now, he wants to focus on studying and he'll be sure to let them know when he's ready to enter the market. eunhyuk leans over and whispers that he predicts minho will be changing his mind very soon, that boys his age have needs.
"yeah," donghae laughs and hip checks eunhyuk into a nearby table. "you of all people would know about needs."
-
when it comes down to it, minho is very okay with what they've been doing, but sometimes he can't help but think that if it was a girl he was with, they'd have already slept together by now.
he knows it'd work differently but it's not like minho hasn't thought about it, because he has.
he's thought about it so many times that he's committed each step to memory after having planned and revised countless times.
he's thought about it so many times that even when he can barely think or stand straight in the bathroom before bed or in the shower in the mornings, it only takes a casual curl of his fingers around his dick before the scene starts automatic playback.
he's thought about looking down at jonghyun with bleary morning eyes, tired enough to look at him in a certain way, the edges of their skin pixellated and indistinct as their stomachs, hips, thighs touch. there'd be no hurry, no rush, and minho wouldn't be able to think straight because he'd have nothing to prove.
jonghyun's hair would be wrecked and stuck to his face, pillow creases against his cheeks and he'd be quiet too, maybe not even fully awake as minho sucked and pulled little bites across his stomach, bringing the blood up to the surface until the skin turned pink and flushed under his teeth.
minho would be tucked underneath the sheets, recycling the same air over and over while he mouthed against the dry heat of jonghyun's cock, bumping his nose up against his balls, licking slow and experimental, alternating between the controlled, flexed licks with the tip of his tongue and the broader, wetter stripes with the flat of it, jonghyun tasting like sweat and savour against sleepy tastebuds.
jonghyun wouldn't ever beg, but minho would try and get him to anyways, going even slower as jonghyun's breath got ragged and his hand worked under the sheet to rest on minho's head, confused between pushing him to go further and holding him there. minho wouldn't be able see jonghyun's face and that'd make him even more powerful, letting him work jonghyun's thighs up and further apart like he'd always wanted to. jonghyun's legs would probably tense and he'd clutch at minho's hair as he finally figured out what he was angling for, but minho wouldn't let him back out, not now that he'd already gotten this far, and push his thighs apart until he gave.
minho would chuckle at the strangled whimper of embarassment above him as he would drag the pad of his thumb down between jonghyun's balls, the skin behind it, before pressing it into him, just a little, gauging his reaction. minho would breathe hot and measured against him too, a reminder that his mouth was also there, waiting, while his other hand would dig into jonghyun's ass and spread him apart, so minho could watch him start to relax. he wouldn't even think twice about doing it, because it would just be the two of them and it would be nobody else's business.
jonghyun wouldn't move too much because he'd still be embarassed, too flustered to say anything, but by then, minho would already know what consent felt and sounded like.
minho's mouth would already be dirty so he wouldn't taste much except salt and the staleness of his own spit when he licked around his thumb. jonghyun would move his hand from minho's hair to curl his fingers loosely around the base of his own cock and would lazily start to jerk himself off as a counterpart to minho's tongue.
after a little bit, minho would pull out his thumb and suck it into his mouth, coat it with the good kind of spit, the sticky, wet kind of spit that he has to pull up from the back of his throat and he'd press it back into jonghyun, push right past the initial stretch of resistance until it was all in.
jonghyun would jerk his hips and clench at the unfamiliarity but minho would see the shine of precome against the head of his dick and decide that yeah, he liked it, and was ready for more. he'd pull out his thumb again, this time quickly slicking up his index finger the same way in his mouth and working it in past the first knuckle, then the second, before jonghyun can close up again.
minho would be able to move around a lot more in this position, and he'd be able to corkscrew his finger so he'd get to stretch and push and tease into jonghyun, tight and cushioned and pulsing around him. like a reflex, jonghyun would thrust back onto his finger, fucking himself on it after minho turned his finger just the right way and he'd moan his name like he needed it and minho would hear and know he was close, start to lick wet and hot around the base of his finger before pushing himself up a little so he can get up onto his knees and reach down to his dick.
but that would make the sheet covering them slip off the bed, and he'd have to fight to stay upright to try and watch jonghyun and finger fuck him and jerk himself off all at the same time.
minho would close his eyes right before he came and think about another time, next time.
next time he'd stretch jonghyun quicker and wider and surer so he could fuck him with his cock instead of his finger, and he'd be that much tighter, that much louder.
-
before kibum goes to pick out the movie for their version of family night, he finds minho napping on the couch, wakes him up none too delicately and proceeds to assign him the task of hooking up the dvd player because everyone else is conveniently occupied.
minho is tempted to close his eyes and pretend like he dreamed the entire exchange, wonders if he can skip out on the movie altogether and go to sleep early because kibum's choices have never really been up his alley anyways. his conscience eventually gets the best of him though, as he remembers how irrationally passionate jonghyun and jinki get over group bonding time - "emphasis on group, as in all of us. yes, minho. even you." - and minho decides that he'd rather doze off peacefully and guilt-free during some random movie instead of having to endure the inevitable onslaught of disappointed pouting that would be directed his way if he bailed.
hooking up the dvd player doesn't take too long. minho ignores the nasty tangle of the game console wires and indiscriminately pulls out all the connected cables, starting to match up the colors of the rca cable of the dvd player to the inputs on the back of the television. he's squinting and trying to tell if a certain plug is white or yellow when someone taps his shoulder with a dvd case. minho looks up to see jonghyun.
"here, we're watching this."
minho turns back to the tv and pushes in the rest of the plugs before he takes the case from jonghyun's hands, doesn't even look at the cover before joking, "what's this, audrey hepburn's greatest hits?"
minho's allusion to kibum's three-month obsession with the actress doesn't tickle jonghyun as much he'd hoped it would, and minho watches gloomily as jonghyun makes his way to the couch and claims the end with the armrest that fits particularly snug against minho's neck for himself.
with his place on the couch already usurped, it's the realization that they're going to watch moulin rouge after he cracks open the dvd case that manages to deliver the fatal blow and shatter minho's already cracked spirit. the chances of him catching some shut-eye during the movie were now shot to zero, as there was absolutely no way he was going to be able get any peace with the rest of them breaking out in song every twenty minutes.
he's bending down to put the dvd in the player when jonghyun interrupts.
"hey, that dvd's scratched up, clean it before you put it in."
minho gives the dvd a quick, perfunctory swipe with the bottom of his t-shirt and starts to place it back into the open tray when jonghyun interrupts him again.
"but, um, really. it's like seriously scratched. you should breathe on it," jonghyun demonstrates by exhaling into the palm of his hand, "then wipe the surface in a linear back and forth motion, not in a circle like you just did-that might ruin the dvd."
minho stares at jonghyun.
jonghyun looks back at him expectantly, waits for minho to put his sage advice to use.
minho has to forcibly recall everything his mother taught him about manners to stop himself from flinging the dvd at jonghyun and telling him to breathe on his own stupid movie.
minho takes in a deep inhale, tells himself that he's doing it mostly to calm down, not just because he's going to do the idiotic exhale that jonghyun wants him to do. minho looks over at him, lounging on his side of the couch, leisurely resting his elbow on his armrest, like someone just died and made him king.
minho exhales on the disc, but does it while rolling his eyes as far back into his head as he can without hurting himself, keeps rolling them as he wipes the surface in a linear back and forth motion, exaggerating and dragging out the action.
after a lot of fanfare, he finally sticks the dvd back into the reader and pushes the tray back in, plopping down on the part of the couch farthest away from jonghyun. they're both quiet for a little while before jonghyun turns to him, obviously wounded, and says,
"i saw that."
"saw what?" minho replies, feigning ignorance as the disc menu loads up.
"you were rolling your eyes at me."
"no i wasn't."
"you were, don't lie. what did i ever do to you?"
"nothing."
he watches as jonghyun clenches his jaw and pushes down on the play button with a lot of unecessary force. minho decides against asking jonghyun why he didn't wait for the others to show up before starting the movie and turns his attention to the television instead.
the disc starts skipping in the middle of the opening credits.
minho glares at the traitorous screen, curses the traitorous dvd player, damns the traitorous dvd and its traitorous owner to someplace worthy of their company. he can already sense jonghyun itching to say something, something obnoxious and infuriating like-
"see i told y-"
"why don't you just go and fix your own dumb movie yourself," minho snaps.
jonghyun doesn't miss a beat. "yeah because you did such a great job."
minho has no good answer to that, crosses his arms over his chest and slumps down into the cushions instead. jonghyun doesn't show any signs of budging either, so the disc keeps on skipping.
the same frame hiccups across the screen over and over until it starts to look like some kind of optical illusion. while minho stares defiantly at the screen, the rest of room quickly fills up with the whine and whir of the dvd player's spindle motor overexerting itself and the frantic looping of a split-second clip from the movie's score.
minho's about to go cross-eyed when he hears jinki and taemin finally come out of the bedroom and walk into the living room.
"so guys, what are we watchi-" jinki stops short by the sofa and looks over at the two of them. "um. the dvd's skipping."
"yeah." jonghyun confirms, voice neutral.
"for how long?"
jonghyun shrugs. "i dunno, a while."
"and you're not going to get up to fix it?" jinki looks at minho while asking the question, as if jonghyun acting weird is somehow his resposibility.
it's taemin who finally hands minho the blanket in his hands before going over to the dvd player and ejecting the dvd. minho watches in dismay as he perfectly executes the jonghyun method of exhaling and linear wiping back and forth without any sort of prompting. when taemin returns back to the couch, jonghyun reaches out and pulls him down onto the seat next to him, lovingly ruffling his hair.
"taeminnie! you're so good," jonghyun gazes deep and soulful into taemin's eyes, "you'd never roll your eyes at me, right?"
taemin looks confused for a second before he throws a quick, almost imperceptible glance minho's way, rolling his eyes in understanding before smiling indulgently back at jonghyun.
"never, hyung."
"i totally saw that!" jonghyun gasps at the unexpected betrayal.
"saw what hyung?" taemin smiles sweetly at him.
"y-you! you know! what you and minho just!"
kibum saunters into the room, "taeminnie and minho just what?"
jonghyun sulks in his seat. "no one in this house likes me. i thought at least taeminnie did-" jonghyun mumbles into his chest, "but i guess not."
they all look at jonghyun in undisguised amusement before jinki signals taemin to switch seats with him. jinki cozies up to jonghyun, snuggling his head into the side of his neck.
"i like you a lot, jonghyunnie!"
jonghyun grunts.
kibum, not to be outdone, forces his way into jonghyun's lap and stretches his legs out across the top of jinki's thighs.
"i like you a lot too."
"me too!" taemin pipes up next to him.
jonghyun fails to conceal a little smile of pleasure, but remains silent. everyone else turns to look at minho, eyebrows raised.
minho sighs.
"i. uh. i like you too, jongh-hyung."
jonghyun makes a sound that resembles a sniffle. "really?"
"are you going to cry if i say no?" minho knows it's not really the right time for that particular crack, but he can't seem to resist.
jonghyun shoots him a dirty look that minho reciprocates in full as the rest of them start to snicker. jonghyun possessively wraps his arms around kibum, trying hard for casual and failing miserably. "whatever, three out of four members is enough for me anyways."
this time, it's kibum who sighs.
"i thought we were watching moulin rouge, not rominho and jonghyunette."
"wait what why am i the gir-"
jinki clamps his hand over jonghyun's mouth as kibum snatches the remote out from his hand and starts the movie.
"taeminnie, lights!"
during the movie, minho finds he doesn't mind the musical sing-alongs as much as he originally imagined he would, doesn't even call jonghyun out on the suspicious liquid that he sees pool in the corner of his eyes when the girl dies of consumption.
-
"say it."
"no."
"say it."
"no."
"i know you like me."
"no."
"i'm going to ask kibum to make couple rings for us anyways."
"jeez, yes, okay, yes."
"yes what?"