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headhunting (part ii of iii)
23,053; nc-17
jonghyun/minho
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he's not sure whose genius idea it was to make them all sleep in the same room in the first place, because despite whatever their intention was, or whatever group bonding and brotherly closeness that was supposed to blossom between the members, the reality was that the novelty of sleeping with four other people that he already saw too much of already quickly wore off after the first month.
but he's gotten so used to it that when their manager says that they can split up, finally presenting a means of escape for two of them, minho finds himself a little dumbfounded while the rest of them start to shout around him.
he feels himself being pulled across the couch, finds himself smushed against jonghyun's side, and being asked, "you wanna be roommates right?" before jonghyun starts shouting some more in kibum's direction, then the manager's.
jonghyun's question is purely rhetorical, because minho doesn't seem to have any choice in the matter but he's kind of proud and happy that jonghyun chose him, especially when he thought for sure jonghyun'd rather go for either jinki-hyung or kibum instead of him for first pick.
minho sits back and watches the rest of the chaos unfold, and after an hour of burnt bridges, bribe solicitations and a couple dozen rounds of rock-paper-scissors, it's finally determined that he and jonghyun get the double.
jonghyun is careful not to rub it in anyone's face while he's in the room, but after he drags minho out of sight, supposedly to go to the bedroom to start packing their things, he gleefully fist-pumps the air before holding up his hand for a high-five.
minho happily obliges.
✖
if minho kept weird hours before, jonghyun reflects despondently, his dream team schedule did nothing but make it worse.
it didn't really bother jonghyun at first, and he even got the hang of navigating their constantly pitch dark room on tiptoe pretty quickly (jonghyun stopped bothering to pull up the shades after realizing that like clockwork, minho would pull them back down as soon as he stepped out of the room).
he doesn't mind accommodating minho's pre-shoot naps, or his post-shoot naps or even his pre-pre-shoot naps, but lately jonghyun feels like all he's seen of minho in the past week is the occasional limb sticking out from under the lump of blankets in his bunk. he knows it's embarrassing and more than a little pathetic, but it's not like he can help feeling a little deserted sometimes, especially when it seems like minho is giving him only the most cursory of greetings after spending hours endlessly hobnobbing with anyone that would have him while doing some vaguely sports-related things on the side.
jonghyun's not sure how he misses someone who he lives with and sleeps directly over, but he kind of does anyway. so after an early shoot, jonghyun invites minho to go out shopping with him.
"you know, for old times sake, just like we did back in the day, har har," jonghyun jokes but it sails way past minho, who looks at him and says,
"but we went shopping just two weeks ago, hyung."
minho then turns to eye his bed with far more interest than he ever did jonghyun and jonghyun gives up then and there, knowing too well that he'd never emerge the victor in a head-to-head between minho's bed in a million years.
"okay, then," jonghyun says as he switches off the light for minho on his way out, "sleep well."
"thanks, hyung."
it's freezing cold outside but jonghyun has a great time anyways. he sees a couple of things he likes and buys them, but mostly he hops from one food cart to another, tasting what each seasonal vendor has to offer until he's full.
he comes back to the dorm giddy and excited, first getting kibum's seal of approval on his purchases, then saying hello to jinki and taemin in the living room, stopping to watch a few minutes of their television show until he walks to his room.
jonghyun turns the knob slowly and pushes open the door, gets himself inside and closes it before the light can bother minho. jonghyun is still for a beat before he thinks, no. enough is enough.
he skates across the room still in his socks and mittens and wool beanie and collapses over minho, shimmying on top of him like a butterfly coming out of his winter cocoon, starts to sing,
"minho, wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up c'mon wake up wake up,"
minho grunts into his pillow, flips over onto his back and almost gives jonghyun a concussion before he forms a full sentence.
"are you kidding me with this right now?"
"nope," jonghyun grins, sitting on minho's knees. "you've had enough sleep for today."
"no," minho whines as he pulls the covers back over his head, "i'm still tired."
"no!"
jonghyun shouts and makes a grab for the covers too and the contact sets off a tiny explosion of light where his fingers are touching minho's cheek, the jolt of the little spark between their skin surprising them both into stillness.
jonghyun knows a handicap when he sees one, so he recovers and quickly takes advantage of his arsenal's latest addition for operation: get minho out of bed-jonghyun straddles him around the midsection and secures his position on top of minho's solar plexus before rubbing his mitten mercilessly against his hair.
"BZZT." jonghyun helpfully adds his own sound-effects when he shocks minho against the cheek again, this time the spark a little bigger, the charge a little stronger.
"ow," minho reacts, knocking his head against the wall in an attempt to throw jonghyun off of him, "hyung, i can't believe you're doing this."
"you've forced me to take drastic measures," jonghyun replies before zapping minho against a particularly vulnerable spot on his neck, "BZZT."
"hyung," minho replies , "how am i going to get up if you're. sitting. on. top. of. me."
jonghyun stops and begrudgingly concedes that minho's logic is not wholly without merit; he mulls over the conditions of the cease-fire, the delicate and careful negotiations that would have to go into it, minho's torso cozy and warm underneath him.
when minho's eyes start to take on a dangerous slant, jonghyun tentatively places his offer-which is incredibly reasonable and gracious even if he does say so himself, considering some of the things he could've asked for-on the table.
"if i get up, will you get up too?"
minho thinks about it for a second.
"yeah."
jonghyun gives minho a look he hopes gets across that he's being serious, that it was in minho's own best interest to follow through or otherwise-well, jonghyun doesn't really know what the 'otherwise' would entail, but he's sure it isn't anything pretty.
minho matches his stone face perfectly and jonghyun's never had reason to doubt minho's word before.
"...okay."
jonghyun is barely a centimeter off of minho before he finds himself pushed onto his stomach and silenced with a mouthful of cotton bedding, arms pinned behind him, and minho anchored on the the backs of his thighs.
to further add insult to injury, minho starts to use jonghyun's own beanie against him, rubbing it painfully against his scalp, and jonghyun's sure he's using knuckles because it feels a lot more like a revenge noogie and a lot less like the continuation of a harmless game of static shock.
minho is unrepentant in his quest for reparations, and jonghyun's positive that a few of his major body parts have lost circulation, not that he'd expected anything less out of minho.
well, jonghyun thinks, as minho's knee digs painfully into his side, at least he managed to get him up.
✖
the first time minho wakes up that night, it's because of some vague nightmarish dream involving him wetting the bed over and over again, with everyone else getting angry and sending him outside until he learned to behave good and housebroken.
he feels silly thinking about it awake, nothing like how it was when he was in it.
the dream isn't completely without basis in reality either, minho realizes when he tries to shift onto his side and his sheets won't let him.
his bed is damp with his sweat, and his sheets are so stubbornly stuck onto his skin that he has to peel himself out them, considers on the off chance that his bodily fluids actually had some superhero magic properties, he'd call it superglue sweat, then get a patent or something.
minho hasn't heard anything from jonghyun all night, thinks a little bitterly about how nice it must be to sleep on a cool, fluffy cloud above everyone else, until he falls back asleep.
the second time minho wakes up, his mouth is wide open, his breath trapped in barren desert of dehydration. it hurts him to swallow, isn't anything in his mouth to swallow, guesses all the liquid in his body was sweated out and sucked up by his aggressively absorbent sheets.
he can't ignore the thirst like he can the heat, has to get up for water.
even though he's down to the bare minimum clothing-wise, sporting a drafty, worn pair of boxers, minho considers upping his maximum nudity threshold, just for tonight, just so he can sleep.
he wonders what jonghyun is wearing that is so comfortable, stands up slowly and looks over, but jonghyun isn't in his bed.
minho goes to the kitchen and gets some water and still doesn't see him.
the bathroom door is open and the lights are turned off. all of jonghyun's shoes are accounted for on the rack, and he's about to knock on the manager's door when jonghyun suddenly appears in front of him like a mirage, sitting quietly on the couch.
"hyung?"
jonghyun turns to look at him, waves, "oh, minho, hey. couldn't sleep either?"
"yeah," minho replies, a little awkwardly, really wanting to ask what jonghyun was doing sitting alone in the dark, but he knows he shouldn't.
minho remembers the glass of water still in his hand, asks
"do you want something to drink?"
"no, i'm okay."
"okay."
minho sets the glass down, walks over to jonghyun and aims his fingers a little below where jonghyun's heart should be.
he finds the nub of skin underneath the thin fabric of jonghyun's wifebeater on the first try, squeezing jonghyun's nipple before twisting it as far clockwise as he can get it before jonghyun slaps his arm away.
jonghyun almost shouts, then cuts himself off when he remembers where they are and what time it is, instead hisses at minho venomously,
"jesus, ow, that hurt, what the actual fuck is wrong with you," jonghyun winces and rubs at his chest a little and minho has to try hard not to laugh, "why would you even do something like that."
minho doesn't tell jonghyun the truth, that he doesn't like when jonghyun gets in his moods because minho wasn't as good as jinki or kibum when it came to dealing with a quiet, unsure jonghyun, that there were parts of jonghyun that he might never feel comfortable showing minho and that minho might never know.
minho says, "because it's you." instead.
"you are a freakshow," jonghyun grumbles, his arms crossed against his chest.
minho can't tell whether it's to protect himself from any future attacks or if he's actually mad at him.
"who even does things like that, seriously."
jonghyun's insults don't bother minho, because minho is back in familiar territory with grumpy jonghyun.
while grumpy jonghyun looked like only grumpy jonghyun to the naked eye, minho knows better, his careful recon having led him to the conclusion that grumpy jonghyun was just a well-camouflaged version of a reluctant, but still wanting someone to cheer him up jonghyun.
it was definitely too hot to sleep, minho chuckles to himself, but for a little casual fraternizing, the climate was ideal.
he sits uncomfortably close to jonghyun on the couch and the leather immediately sticks to any accessible inch of his bare skin.
minho finds jonghyun's right hand with his left, intertwines their fingers together, both their palms sweaty and sticky.
it's a funny sort of rendezvous, minho thinks, then thinks about his superglue sweat and what would happen if he and jonghyun got stuck together, accidentally-
"um, what are you doing?"
jonghyun is staring at his hand in minho's like it's somehow detached from the the rest of his body.
"holding hands." minho explains simply, like it's the most normal and obvious thing the two of them could be doing in the entire world.
"okay...um, cool. but why?"
"so you don't get lost."
"in the living room?"
"yeah," minho nods seriously, giving jonghyun's hand a squeeze of reassurance, "you're lucky to have me, you know."
minho can see jonghyun grinning at him in the dark, making all of his work worth it.
jonghyun gets off the couch, pulling minho with him.
"can you hold my hand on the way to the bedroom?" jonghyun asks him.
"yeah, sure?" minho agrees but he thought the joke was over already, having already served its purpose.
but he can't see anything wrong with holding jonghyun's hand a little bit longer, no matter how gross it was getting, the chances of them actually being stuck together getting higher by the second.
"thanks, it gets dangerous out here sometimes," jonghyun says as he walks in the direction of their room, minho trailing a little behind him, letting himself be led.
jonghyun turns to look at him over his shoulder, "and have you seen that crazy nipple attacker on the loose? i hear he's a real creep."
minho lets jonghyun yuck it up.
✖
minho knows that the delicate art of seduction is supposed to be a lot more organic and natural than the way he's going about it but organic and natural also meant a lot of waiting around-something he's never been keen on-so he's willing to cut a few corners to expedite the process.
minho stares at the listings, carefully tries to find a movie that'd been out for a while so the theatre wouldn't be crowded, but one not too outdated that he'd have already heard everything about it.
he reads each summary and crosses off the romantic comedies, the romantic dramas, the slightly romantic, eliminating anything that could be remotely construed as touchy-feely, to settle on an explosion and testosterone-filled action thriller that wouldn't make either of them think too much and leave them feeling energized.
an afternoon showing would be too casual, late evening too obvious, and minho chooses a 6:30 showing, the movie ending just in time for him to casually suggest dinner and make it seem convenient and spur of the moment.
he finishes mapping out and cross-referencing transportation times and scenic routes just as jonghyun comes into the room.
minho closes his laptop discreetly, goes, "hey."
"hey." jonghyun replies, hopping up onto his bunk. "what's up?"
"nothing." minho says, then quickly adds his lead, "i'm pretty bored. what about you?"
"yeah, me too i guess." jonghyun agrees, not really paying attention as he types something into his computer.
"so, do you wanna go see a movie tomorrow? it's been a while."
"huh?"
minho swallows and steels his resolve.
"movie. tomorrow. see one."
"oh yeah sure," jonghyun says, still typing, then pausing. "i don't think jinki-hyung can come tho-"
"no jus-" minho blurts out, then stops to continue a little less obviously, "i meant just us."
"oh okay that's cool too."
✖
when minho very nicely escorts him on their way out, jonghyun repays him with a grimace and crinkle of his nose.
"is that cologne?"
while yes, he'd admittedly splashed on some fancy aftershave that he'd gotten as a gift after his shower, it was aftershave and aftershave wasn't cologne, so jonghyun was still wrong and incredibly rude and minho technically wasn't lying when he glares at him and shakes his head no.
on the way to the theater, minho leaves the teasing jabs to a minimum, keeps agreeable and friendly and is generally having a good time, almost to the point where he doesn't even realize that he's being different.
"okay what's the catch?" jonghyun asks him a little mistrustfully, peering suspiciously at him as he holds open a door for jonghyun, which was apparently something no one had ever done for him. "where are you taking me?"
minho is honestly a little hurt when jonghyun calls the purity of his intention into question, but shrugs like jonghyun is making things up.
"what are you talking about. we're going to see a movie, paranoid."
jonghyun is still blocking the doorway, studies minho intently.
"are you sure."
"yes, i am sure. can we please move now."
"well then," jonghyun says as he walks ahead, momentarily convinced and mirroring minho's shrug from before, "i guess chivalry isn't dead."
strength of habit overrides minho's self-imposed no-insulting-your-kind-of-date rule and before he can censor himself, minho mumbles,
"not everyone's rude like you."
jonghyun turns around to grin widely at him, "now that's the minho i know," and then takes him much less guardedly by the arm to go stand in line.
after getting their tickets, minho makes sure to send jonghyun to go find seats while he buys their carefully calculated light movie going snack, consisting of only a couple sodas and one extra-large popcorn, the perfect proportion of food to leave them both sufficiently hungry afterwards.
when he gets to their seats, jonghyun complains about him being too stingy to buy one for each of them and then proceeds to make a cutting observation about two guys sharing popcorn in a dark theater being fruity-right before he shoves his hand into the bag next to minho's for a handful anyways.
the movie ends and the first thing jonghyun says is, "that was awesome," followed immediately by, "i'm starving, let's eat," and does all of minho's work for him.
the theater is far enough from their dorms so that jonghyun doesn't feel obligated to invite the rest of the group to join them, assures minho that the hassle of getting them there wasn't worth the trouble,
"i guess it's just the two of us then."
minho says he knows a restaurant close by that he heard was good, and jonghyun is quickly on board.
the restaurant isn't too fancy, but it's still pretty nice, somewhere cozy and family-style where they can sit down.
the tables are small enough so minho can still lean over and steal food off of jonghyun's plate, but minho makes it up to him by letting him choose two desserts.
when the bill comes, minho quickly takes it and pays for all of it.
when jonghyun protests and tries to put down some of his own money, minho lies and tells him that it's company money, that manager-hyung had agreed to give him some allowance for their outing.
jonghyun is skeptical, but minho insists.
after leaving the restaurant, minho suggests a walk to help digest their food, but only if jonghyun's not tired, and jonghyun shakes his head no, happy to go on a casual evening stroll.
minho walks them through some elaborate shortcuts and alleyways before they end up in front of the river.
"wow..." jonghyun sighs, stepping up onto the railing and drifting off into his own thoughts. "isn't this really romantic? the perfect place to be alone with a girl you like."
minho awkwardly shuffles his feet, says, "yeah, i guess," because even though he pulled off the entire thing perfectly, he suddenly feels like nothing went right at all.
"but," jonghyun steps down and walks over to stand next to him, still looking at the water, "being here with you isn't too bad either."
minho feels himself giving jonghyun that slow, disarming smile that he knows jonghyun is still not quite used to.
when jonghyun turns to look up at minho and sees him, jonghyun's face gets uneasy and awkward like it always does, and he trains his gaze back forward, quickly amending his previous statement.
"still, a girl would be better."
✖
he's in a slow but steady drift towards sleep before suddenly being jolted out of it by a loud gasp.
jonghyun's gasp immediately disintegrates into a series of wheezing and hacking coughs and minho is patient-crossing his legs, folding his arms underneath his head and turning to look at clock to mentally record the time of arrival to be painfully overdue at approximately a quarter past midnight-while he waits for jonghyun to come to terms with his epiphany.
"you-" jonghyun starts.
"what?"
"today-when we-when you-” jonghyun stumbles over the words, as if he’s not exactly how to verbalize the incredulity of his notion, “were you wooing me?"
"no." minho replies with a dismissive grunt, turning over in his bed.
"i definitely felt like you were wooing me."
"i wasn't. but good for you anyways."
“you were, weren’t you?” jonghyun wheedles. "it all makes so much sense now."
“if that's what you need to hear to sleep at night, then yes,” minho says, careful to mask his confession as exasperation, “you were wooed.”
jonghyun's still for a while before he replies, quiet and puzzled and earnest, as if thinking aloud to himself
“i think…no, i did. i did enjoy it.”
minho picks up his head off the pillow and find himself unable to stop the curiosity in his voice from betraying him, risking, as he asks jonghyun,
"you did?”
jonghyun swallows.
"yeah."
minho eases his tone back into a casual disinterest.
"well i wasn’t, so."
"yeah, i know. but if you were-"
"maybe in your dreams."
"i dunno," jonghyun replies, unswayed. "it felt pretty real to me."
✖
jonghyun starts to formulate a theory laying on his bed when he's restless and little stir crazy, a theory about being in a room alone with minho, a room where all of minho's stupid little quirks and offhand comments and personality and sponsored sportswear are magnified tenfold and always right there, the first thing jonghyun sees when he woke up, the last thing he hears before falling asleep.
jonghyun thinks the general gist of his hypothesis is pretty simple-there had to be something about the synthesis of two bunk beds, four walls, a door, minho and him that must've been the perfect breeding ground for some mutant strain of stockholm syndrome, the only thing that jonghyun can think of to explain the increasingly frequent instances (pangs? waves?) of like-no other word really fit, and it's the only way jonghyun can come up with to describe it.
or maybe it was just a cut and dry case of sympathizing with one's captor, extended exposure and proximity causing him to misdirect affection and yeah, probably, jonghyun thinks, that was probably it.
satisfied with his conclusion, he gets up and sits with his legs hanging over the edge of the top bunk and swings them back and forth, bending the top half of his body to check and see if he's bothered minho enough for him to engage yet.
a hand encircles and stills jonghyun's right ankle, holding it firm.
jonghyun smiles, keeps swinging his left foot until that one is captured too, and minho sticks his head out of his bunk to look up at him, the amusement in his expression obvious despite the irritation in his voice.
"what, hyung?"
jonghyun shrugs and smiles, "nothing. just hanging out."
minho sighs and releases his grip on jonghyun's ankles and goes back in his bunk to do whatever he was doing.
jonghyun keeps on swinging his legs, back and forth, left to right, even in circles and this time humming a made-up song to further enhance his (and minho's) experience.
minho grabs both his ankles again, a little harder this time, jonghyun notices.
"what?" minho asks again, this time all business.
jonghyun looks down at his shackled, imprisoned feet and wiggles his toes instead, his form of protest against minho's unjust incarceration.
"i think," jonghyun says as he tilts his head to side, "i think my toes are lonely."
"your toes are lonely." minho echoes back at him, voice hollow and disbelieving.
"yeah." jonghyun wiggles them again for good measure. "don't be mean to them."
minho's disembodied head emerges from the bottom bunk again and he proceeds to frown hard at him, jonghyun trying desperately to keep straightfaced during the ordeal.
after a little while, minho lets go of his feet for what seems like good and jonghyun leans back, moves to pivot his legs back up to his bunk but he suddenly feels something sharp and wet around the circumference of his left foot's big toe, holding it in place with something that felt like the jagged teeth of a foothold trap.
"the fu-"
jonghyun almost falls out of his bunk in shock, and after he's properly anchored himself back on the bed, the pressure on his toe is still there and he leans over to see his toe in minho's mouth.
he doesn't actually see the toe, just minho's top lip wrapped around the junction of where his big toe used to be and the rest of his foot.
he can't think of anything to say and gapes stupidly instead as minho starts to chew playfully on it, his tongue rough and ticklish against the flesh on the bottom part, and then there's the sensation of suction and when jonghyun finally gathers what little wits he has left about him he finally pulls his foot back, feeling minho's teeth dragging against the pronounced grooves of skin there, the wetness of minho lips the last thing his toe touches before hitting the open air.
minho wipes his mouth, his face filled with all of jonghyun's previous playfulness, a coy lilt to his voice when he asks,
"toes still lonely?"
"uh, no, not after that," jonghyun replies, sounding as unfazed as he can muster.
he wipes the excess spit off the toe with his top sheet, poking awkwardly at the skin. "not after you ju-just violated my toe."
"your toe was asking for it, hyung."
jonghyun doesn't think minho's reply is cute or charming at all.
there was no way jonghyun was going to be charmed by minho now, especially since it was all minho's fault there were all types of weird, subversive thoughts running through his head now, suggesting that what he felt, was still feeling, wasn't all disgust-thoughts that were going to to require endless sessions of trauma counseling before he'd be able to repress them back into the recesses of his subconscious.
he'd make minho foot the bill, see how funny he thought it was then.
"just because a toe wiggles a little bit doesn't mean it wants to be taken advantage of, you brute."
minho chuckles and then they're both quiet for a while, and jonghyun can't stop touching his big toe, pressing hard against the skin with his finger, first blooming white, then back to pink when the blood rushed back in.
"hyung?" minho asks.
"yeah?"
"maybe next time you could try your hand at more evolved ways of seeking attention."
jonghyun snorts loudly enough to make sure minho understands the sheer implausibility of what he's just said to be in any way true.
jonghyun decides to further express his displeasure by pulling a dirty t-shirt off his bedpost, balling it up and chucking it into minho's bunk.
"what makes you think i want your attention, conceited?"
minho doesn't throw the shirt back, just laughs and laughs until he's breathless.
✖
"you know, minho, you have all the trappings of a ladykiller," jonghyun muses aloud above him one night, and minho marvels at how in the world jonghyun could magically deduce that he wasn't asleep even though he hadn't moved or made any sort of noise for at least a good half an hour.
before minho can give him any sort of affirmative response, jonghyun continues on with his tangent, speculating wildly.
“being all tall, dark and handsome and such you'd naturally drive a sweet car and run international heists," and even though minho can't see jonghyun, he can still feel the resonance of his animated gesturing through the shared wooden framework of their connected bed, "then you could, like, scam hot broads and say things like 'hello there, stranger' or 'i'll have what she's having,' and other equally awesome turns of phrase."
“have you, uh,” minho bites back a chuckle, “put a lot of thought into this, hyung?”
minho hears jonghyun shift on the bed before answering.
"uh no, i have a life," jonghyun retorts, "it's just that i've always thought you'd be perfect for that kind of thing."
minho indulges him and thinks about it.
jonghyun was right, he would probably be good at the sneaky spying parts, really good at maintaining a shadowy incognito until it was time to make his move but he's not too sure about the ladykilling bit.
“i don’t know how to flirt very well though.”
"you don't have to! the best part is that all you have to do there is sit there and smolder mysteriously like you always do and they’ll flock to you like moths to flaming charisma.”
jonghyun replies with the kind of confident preparation that convinces minho that this scenario is not just an afterthought like he made it seem like it was, makes minho smile against his fist in the dark.
“hyung, you think," minho ventures a little further, "you think i smolder?”
the question catches jonghyun off-guard because minho feels the fidgeting stop and for a little longer than usual, he can't hear the rhythmic inhales and exhales of jonghyun's breathing.
“...kinda. sometimes." jonghyun answers cryptically, before finally admitting, "okay, yeah, you do.”
minho has to fight the sudden flicker through his muscles pushing him to climb into jonghyun's bed, get underneath the covers and tangle their legs together and instead shows his appreciation by settling for a simple
"thanks."
"thanks for what? it was just an observation."
minho doesn't have anything else to say after that, but he doesn't want them to stop talking if he can help it and even if it was just some random daydream or jonghyun's voice making him feel like his bones were the only thing keeping him in place while everything else melted into each other, those were enough.
"how long have you been waiting to use that line, hyung?" minho asks before jonghyun can fall asleep.
"which one?"
"the moths to flaming charisma one."
"i thought of it just now."
"really?" minho prods.
"yeah really." jonghyun replies, slightly affronted.
minho decides not to push it.
it's quiet again and minho's sure he just blew it, until he hears jonghyun chortle above him, coming clean.
"okay, since like we debuted. you never let me have anything, jeez."
"it is a pretty great line." minho chuckles in agreement.
"i know! can you believe i still haven't gotten to say it on air somewhere?!"
"someday, hyung. someday."
"yeah. oh and while i have deemed your mortal ears worthy of beholding this soundbite fashioned from the very gods themselves," jonghyun pauses dramatically for effect, "you are forbidden from ever repeating it. even though it is technically about you."
"don't worry, flaming charisma is all yours."
"that's right and don't forget it. flaming chari-uh, moths to flaming charisma is all mine."
✖
"minho, have you seen my shirt?" jonghyun asks urgently while walking into the room shirtless, first looking in the closet, then kicking aside some bags on the floor.
minho glances over.
"which one?"
"the one, that's, uh," jonghyun distractedly starts pawing through their dresser, doesn't concern himself with minor details like pushing one drawer closed before opening another one or trying not to mess up minho's freshly laundered and folded clothes.
"you know, the red one i really like,"
jonghyun kicks the bottom drawer closed with his foot before crouching down and looking under minho's bed.
"ugh minho have you ever heard of a broom," jonghyun whines at him, unnecessarily.
"there are dust balls well on their way to becoming sentient beings under here, wait what the," jonghyun's voice muffling as he disappears a little further underneath minho's bed,
"well what do we have here!"
jonghyun comes out from under him with the frog he'd forgotten about months ago, looking no worse for the wear, except for a layer of gray dust and hair.
"i thought you threw this out!"
minho shrugs, honestly having forgotten about it.
jonghyun shuffles up to his bedside, shakes off the dust and debris of the frog on his pillow, some of it drifting unpleasantly up minho's nose, while jonghyun starts moving the frog from side to side.
"ribbit ribbit i protect minho from the scary monsters underneath his bed ribbit ribbit,"
minho blinks at jonghyun, but it quickly proves to be an ineffective deterrent, as jonghyun proceeds to gleefully venture upon insult.
"ribbit ribbit is minho a wittle scaredy-waredy? ribbit ribbit minho you know you can just ask hyung to protect you right?"
minho makes an unsuccessful grab at the frog, which obviously spurs jonghyun to continue.
"ribbit ribbit why doesn't minho like me? why did he steal his hyung's shirt? ribb-"
minho lunges for the the frog but jonghyun pulls it away and minho tumbles out of his bunk, falling ungracefully on top of jonghyun.
jonghyun is laughing, keeps on impersonating what he thinks is a low croaky frog sound,
"ribbit ribbit don't be ashamed of me, minho-goon-"
minho gets a knee between jonghyun's legs and pins his free arm down onto the floor, reaching over his head for the frog but jonghyun's holding it too far away.
jonghyun wiggles the frog so it's legs do a macabre little jig and its googly-eyes wobble back and forth with the unique mobility of someone in the throes of epilepsy, and the entire display takes jonghyun's entire ventriloquism act to another level of creepy.
"miiiinhoooo why do you wish to hide me from from the world ribbit ribbit-"
minho charges for the frog again but jonghyun flings it across the room, extracts his arm from minho's loosened grip and wraps his arms around minho and traps minho against him.
"oof," minho says as he gets the breath knocked out of him, jonghyun's legs curling around his own like twin boa constrictors as his villainous laughter echoes, then rumbles into minho's chest,
"mwahaha i have discovered the terrible secret you have buried deep underneath your bed," jonghyun cackles.
"you're crazy," minho replies, cants his hips up to get some height, pushing his toes-the only part of him jonghyun can't reach far enough to subordinate-against the wooden floor to steer himself into a less disadvantaged position, "a complete lunat-"
but he snaps back against himself like a rubber band launched wrong, and he only succeeds in cracking his nose painfully against the floor between jonghyun's ear and shoulder and he can at least feel jonghyun's full-body hold relax a little, just to ask
"shit, you okay?"
minho rubs a finger underneath his nostril to make sure he's not bleeding then says,
"yeah."
the intermission and the setting in of a dull throb in the vicinity of minho's nose pulls him out of that particular bout of roughhouse, and when jonghyun decides minho's convalescence period is over and resumes his teasing, minho can't hear anything, like someone hit the mute button, just feels jonghyun's breath is giggly and hot next to him.
it slowly dawns on minho that somewhere between his attempts to get jonghyun to cease and desist, his dick had decided to send mixed signals and was already embarassingly well past the stage where he could play it off as just a passing interest on his way to the bathroom.
the sheer hilarity of the notion that jonghyun's idiotic amphibian impersonation might've actually turned him on is only a fleeting distraction before minho hears his head shouting at him to get off, to get off of jonghyun before he figured it out.
minho makes a weak attempt at escape, grateful that jonghyun can't see his face right now, but the weight of his condition sucks the fight right out of him and when he falls back down, his position a little different this time,
jonghyun hisses, "fuck,"
and minho instinctively adjusts-then stills-when he feels the throb of jonghyun's dick burn against his hip and minho lifts his hips back up, putting space between them.
he waits, swallows, before looking at jonghyun, but his eyes are screwed shut, gives minho nothing to go on, no yes, no, i want, or no don't in his expression, making what would happen next entirely minho's call.
there was no yes, but there was no no either so minho lowers his waist back down, moves his body to displace the waiting centimeters between them, nudging himself slowly against hipbones and thighs, and he's careful not to impose, keeps it an open-ended offer, a suggestion-
"fuck," jonghyun says again while gasping in a whoosh of air, his eyes opening to look at minho, glassed over a little bit.
jonghyun's legs loosen around minho's, and his arms drop to his sides.
minho hoists himself up onto his arms, palms on the floor, peels his upper half away from jonghyun's but keeps their stomachs touching, and instead of the new angle snapping him out of it like he hopes it will, a rush of vertigo runs through him from seeing jonghyun from up high, empties minho's head and rings in his ears, makes him feel like all the blood in his body is clotting around his bellybutton.
jonghyun's expression changes and it looks like he wants to say something and suddenly, waiting any longer seems like a bad idea.
minho pushes down and even though their dicks aren't lined up all the way, the denim material of jonghyun's jeans chafe against the bare part of minho's skin where his shirt's ridden up, the contraction of muscle in his forearms ache, the lock of his elbows awkward-it's still lightyears better than all the jerkoff scenarios he's ever painstakingly directed in his entire life.
when jonghyun's eyes close again, minho decides he doesn't want to see him like that and lowers himself to settle back down onto jonghyun's chest, rests his head to focus on the maze of delicate twisting cartilage of jonghyun's ear, and rests loose fists on opposite sides of their heads while letting his hips keep moving.
at first, it's like going in circles, aimless and silly, his thrusts erratic and without rhyme or reason. minho doesn't fool himself and knows it, knows that it's not any good for either of them but it's all he can think of doing to avoid stopping, stopping and giving jonghyun the chance to push back and maybe push away. if it meant avoiding the worst, minho could live with not good.
it's only when jonghyun bites back a groan after a particularly forceful impact of their hips, stifles a groan that minho can't convince himself is just from being turned on and isn't undoubtedly from pain, that minho finally lets himself slow down a little, slows down just enough so he can diagnose and repair, makes sure it's not slow enough for jonghyun to pull out of the deal.
minho swallows, imagines himself headless.
he forces himself to not think, no, he couldn't think, and the unnatural latency of something he'd always known as instinctual and reflex-easy pours out of him like a flash flood and minho starts moving again, fluid and persistent, and it starts to finally feel a little like how fucking should feel like.
minho listens to their chests, and even though jonghyun's heart is moving at exactly at the same speed as his, no matter how hard he tries, minho can't get them to match up, can't adjust his breathing to fix it, can't even tell which thud is straggling behind the other, and gives up, reluctantly.
instead, he tries timing his drags and pushes against jonghyun to put sound in the quiet between their mismatched heartbeats, hurrying to fill the empty space of each missed encounter, letting each slow, perfect rub of his cock from jonghyun's belly down to where the elastic of jonghyun's skintight jeans strained make up for each time they couldn't manage to synchronize.
it works and jonghyun starts to make little noises of approval, relaxes his neck so his cheek accidentally brushes against the tip of minho's nose before he quickly moves it back away, but still letting his dick rock back against him and it was even better that way, when it wasn't only just him, and the reciprocity sharpens the phantom tug in his stomach into something much more immediate.
"i'm gonna," minho hears himself warn, raspy and loose like gravel in the air between them, the vibrations of his voice rippling slowly into jonghyun's ear-and even though minho knows they came from his mouth, the words don't sound like his words, transmitted in a frequency meant for someone else.
jonghyun shivers, chokes out a "yeah," and fists his hand into the back of minho's shirt to bring them all the way together, "yeah me too, fuck," surges his hips up off the floor, pushes himself in a violent grind against minho.
momentary discomfort flares into a fuck, he's getting so close and then jonghyun's fist is pulling down on the back of his shirt to move him so he rubs further down on jonghyun's cock and the collar of minho's shirt presses up against his adam's apple, cuts off his breath and when there's no air and only jonghyun coming so hard that that minho feels the edges of his fingernails digging past the fabric and into sweat and skin and even bone, minho comes too.
it feels like they're both somehow suspended in mid-air, frozen and hypersensitive, and even through pants and zippers and underwear, minho feels every jerk and tremble of jonghyun's cock against his like he'd feel it if there was nothing there.
but before minho's ready for it, there's gravity again and jonghyun drops back down onto the ground, thunking his head against the wood floor and eyes squeezing shut even tighter as he winces.
minho doesn't realize that somewhere along the way he'd been putting all his weight on jonghyun, that jonghyun had been holding them both up off the floor, bolstering them through the strain of his arms and legs until he finds himself off-balance and collapsing himself, back on top of jonghyun.
his head lands back against jonghyun's ear, minho's nose cushioning the fall in a strange kind of karmic full-circle way, but the light is different now and the sun makes it so minho can see the tiny, translucent hairs on jonghyun's earlobe, and he didn't know people's ears could be so fuzzy, leans in to maybe see what it felt like-
"i need you to get off me now," jonghyun asks impatiently from underneath him.
minho rolls off of jonghyun, and once he's far away enough to not be able to touch him, jonghyun angrily pops open the metal button of his jeans, tilts his hips up, hooks his hands down the band of his underwear and pushes the fabric of both pieces of clothing as far down his thighs as he can get them.
minho almost asks jonghyun if he's getting ready for round two, but when jonghyun brings himself gingerly back to the floor, the joke withers in his throat.
jonghyun presses his dick down against his balls, and minho adjusts the angle of his head, looks past where jonghyun's come has clumped his pubic hair into a wet, sticky tangle, to the raised, angry streaks of red plateauing against his stomach.
jonghyun hisses as he ghosts his fingers across them, mumbles without looking at him,
"you could've let me take my fucking jeans off."
minho's pretty sure "sorry" is not what jonghyun wants to hear or the right way to answer reply to that kind of statement, so he doesn't say it, can't think of anything to say at all when there were patches of jonghyun's skin where the pattern of denim stitching had been imprinted on top of each other and over and over again, until the patterns blurred and bled into each other, and only left behind skin rubbed raw.
and even though the evidence against him was all circumstantial, and he'd never even physically touched jonghyun in those places, jonghyun gets up and minho's nose still hurts.
when minho shifts his weight to get up too, the floorboards creak underneath him like eyewitnesses, the frog's lopsided stare from across the room almost accusatory.
✖
jonghyun settles into his stance and has his dick in hand ready for action when he hears the door swing open, footsteps shuffle next to him, and a deep, unmistakable voice strike up conversation.
sometimes, jonghyun thinks, minho lacked a little self-awareness and while sometimes it was kind of endearing-other times, he's pretty sure minho was doing it on fucking purpose, like he's somehow intent on getting underneath his skin, like right fucking now, in an especially weird and dangerous place.
jonghyun thought there were certain standards regarding urinal decorum that everyone just knew, but apparently he was wrong, and can't seem to do anything but stare awkwardly at the drain of the urinal as he despondently realizes his previous urge to piss is nowhere to be found.
"hyung."
jonghyun grits his teeth and nods in acknowledgment of minho's entirely unwelcome greeting, closing his eyes and forcing himself to think about something other than the fact that there was no buffer urinal between him and minho or minho talking to him or the possibility that minho was looking at his dick, things like niagara falls and typhoons.
jonghyun hears minho unzip his jeans, the rustle of fabric, and after a few tense seconds of excruciating silence, he hears a slow trickle on minho's end and jonghyun wills himself to follow suit, adjusting his grip on his dick and shifting from one foot to another.
the worst part was that jonghyun could feel every puzzled glance minho was giving him, and jonghyun knows he looks ridiculous just standing there and doing nothing.
minho finishes up after what seems like an eternity, and jonghyun hears his belt buckle clinking a little as he does it back up.
minho flushes and proceeds to wash his hands at the sink for 30 seconds more than any other person jonghyun knows and just when he thinks he's home free, thinks that can finally just take a piss, minho is behind him.
"hyung? are you okay?"
"yeah," jonghyun chokes out as casually as he can manage, "totally fine."
"you sure?" minho asks, and this time, he supplements his concern with a palm on the small of jonghyun's back.
the touch, soft and worried, makes jonghyun want to do nothing more to keel over in shame and embarrassment if he weren't already frozen in place by mortification.
"yeah, yeah. you go and have your break."
jonghyun can almost hear minho thinking, debating on what to do.
"okay," minho takes a breath, "just look at me and tell me you're fine and i'll leave."
jonghyun knows he should've given up and fled the scene when he still had the chance, but now it was too late.
now his dick had been out in the open far longer than he ever wanted it to be, and now, jonghyun knew what gooseflesh looked like on his balls. now, there was no way of getting minho to leave without having to brave that final frontier of urinal interaction, that forbidden territory of direct eye-contact.
jonghyun turns his head slightly and looks over his shoulder, taking a small breath through his nose and he approaches it the band-aid way, less painful if done quickly, without thinking, so he quickly meets minho's open eyes with a forced smile before swiveling his head back so fast he could've swore there was whiplash, grimacing.
minho continues to hesitate behind and doesn't leave, and just when jonghyun is about to throw in the towel, his bladder finally decides to regain functionality, a small trickle making it's way into the urinal.
jonghyun exhales in relief, tips his head upwards in gratitude, forgetting the past few minutes and letting himself ride the sweet surrender of nature's call.
"okay, um," he hears minho saying behind him, heading towards the door, "i'll see you back outside."
✖
minho notices jonghyun jerks off with his left hand. he tries it once, first lying on his back, then on his side, then again on his back because the angle is less weird that way.
his left hand feels like someone else's hand, and his dick doesn't feel like his dick against his fingers, like it's a forgery, a counterfeit.
after a little trial and error, he gets used to the different curl of fingers and works his way through it and comes, but it isn't like it usually is, and his body chills and congeals into a sad guilty feeling, into that strange textbook condition of post-coital tristesse.
he's only felt it once or twice before, and thinks maybe this time it's punishment for settling for a cheap imitation of the real thing.
✖
so now, apparently, he and minho were destined to be roommates forever, jonghyun can't help but think a little bitterly, after their manager hands out room assignments in the hotel lobby and jonghyun isn't even given the common courtesy of being asked his opinion before automatically getting paired off with minho.
no one bothers to ask him if he'd rather room with key or jinki hyung or taemin, or maybe even the manager, everyone just assuming he'd pick minho.
okay so maybe he would, and he wonders when he got so predictable, but those were under normal circumstances and the circumstances between him and minho weren't really normal anymore.
but it's nothing jonghyun can say out loud, and he carefully avoids minho's gaze all the way back to room 909.
jonghyun takes the bed closest to the door.
"are you okay with that one?" he asks.
minho nods, setting his backpack down on the floor next to the other bed, and then standing awkwardly in front of jonghyun.
jonghyun desperately tries to thinks of things to fill the dead air.
"is." minho starts, then stops, starts again. "is it okay if i shower first?"
jonghyun exhales, secretly grateful that minho thought of something before him, nodding enthusiastically as he says,
"yeah, yeah of course. go ahead."
jonghyun isn't sure if it's twenty seconds or twenty minutes later when minho comes out of the shower.
it wouldn't have made much of a difference anyways, because he's still nervous like he was before minho left and hasn't thought of any distractions good enough to last the entire night.
"oh hey, you're out," jonghyun notes, voice strangely robotic. he sees the phone and reaches for the handle, because of course, how could he even forget, "i'm gonna call the desk for our wake-up call, 6 okay?"
minho is quiet as jonghyun goes on by himself, walks across the room and sits next to jonghyun on the bed.
jonghyun swallows down his panic as the operator picks up the phone.
"hello?"
"uh, yeah, hi," jonghyun stumbles, "can we have a wake-up call at 6 for room 909?"
"sure."
"okay, great."
jonghyun puts the phone back on the receiver, takes a deep breath, and turns to minho.
"okay, yeah, so 6. all set."
minho looks at him, starts to leans down and closer, and jonghyun is no no not ready and backs up into the lacquered headboard, but there's no space to go anywhere and minho's lips manage to catch the corner of jonghyun's mouth and however misfired, he knows it's still a kiss.
"oh." minho says, when he opens his eyes, looks at jonghyun and figures it out.
minho sounds sad and confused and guilty, and jonghyun wants to say no, no you shouldn't feel guilty, but the words won't come out, and he can only blush furiously and clench his fists against his sides.
minho exhales, starts to say something in a quiet mumble jonghyun has to strain to hear.
"i just uh, thought," minho says, "that before when we-you seemed, you know," finally looking up to meet jonghyun's eyes. "into it."
he knows how unfair it would be for him to lie to minho, can tell how angry minho is with himself and even though he knows what the brave, right thing to do is, jonghyun can't bring himself to do it, rushes past minho and goes into the bathroom.
he starts filling up the bathtub as soon as he clicks the lock closed, takes off his clothes slowly.
jonghyun stays in the bath and doesn't get up until his fingers are all pruny, until he hears minho turns off the television, until he can't see anymore light seeping in through the bathroom door, doesn't creep open the door and quietly get underneath his covers until he's sure minho's asleep.
after jonghyun is in his bed, he imagines that if maybe he had gone along with it, it couldn't have been entirely bad.
✖
he knows that jonghyun is awake and that jonghyun knows he's awake.
it's still enough that minho can hear the faint little clicks of his watch on the nightstand, trekking its way through each miserable second, but even listening to that doesn't get him anywhere near sleep.
he'd known it'd turn out to be something like this, curses at himself for still going ahead and doing it anyways but the more he thinks about it, it feels like he couldn't not do it either, couldn't not try and see, couldn't not go all in on a what if.
he's almost come to terms with bygones being bygones when he hears jonghyun rustle above him, then say:
"i'm coming down."
minho quickly shrugs off the hopeful little his heart makes, scoots backwards toward the wall in his bed to make room for jonghyun, pulling out some slack in his covers so there'll be enough for the both of them.
jonghyun takes his time coming down the bunk and when he reaches the floor, he bends over, takes one look at him and slides in, hooking one leg over minho's side, then the other, clambering over him and wedging himself between minho and the wall.
minho doesn't risk jynxing his luck by asking jonghyun why he's going through all the trouble of pushing and shoving when he'd already made space for him right here in front of him, lets himself be jostled forward.
jonghyun finally gets where he needs to be, and everything is still like before, until he says,
"i want to be here."
jonghyun's thoroughly skewed the mechanics of the entire big spoon/small spoon blueprint, compromised the integrity of his position, is all sweaty behind him, shoved the covers off the bed
he feels the still-damp spikes of jonghyun's hair from his shower against his neck, poking through the fabric of his shirt and it reminds him of a turf in the morning, the dew-fresh blades of grass brushing underneath the cuff of his pants and against his socks.
it's nothing direct or sure or even comfortable and it's definitely one of the worst cuddles minho's ever participated in, not always concave where jonghyun is convex, the curl of jonghyun's knees awkwardly fitting against his own legs, jonghyun's toes only reaching to his ankles, a conspicuous, awkward distance between jonghyun's hips and his back, but minho can't bring himself to care and even if every inch of their skin isn't quite matched up, it's still perfect because this time, jonghyun is finally in his space.
he feels jonghyun breathe deep, then carefully commit to circling his arm around minho's side in a tenuous kind of embrace, resting his palm lightly against his chest.
minho's still getting used to the touch when,
"i think," jonghyun says slowly, "i think i like you like you like me."
minho's mouth goes dry and he can't reply, and after some seconds of nothing, jonghyun lets himself assume, his voice both hesitant and resolute as he asks,
"if," jonghyun says very bravely, braver than minho could ever be, "if i'm wrong-"
"no," minho interrupts before he can finish, breathes out his panic when he finally feels jonghyun relax behind him. "you aren't."
"okay."
minho cranes his head back, moves to face him, but jonghyun's grip suddenly tightens to keep him in place, "don't."
"no i mean," jonghyun quickly clarifies, "don't turn, okay? don't turn around."
minho nods, swallows his okay.
"i mean, you're always the one behind me," jonghyun chuckles nervously, "so this is kinda new."
and finally, finally minho thinks it's safe enough to let himself tell jonghyun what he's been wanting to tell him the entire time, lets himself be silly and grin and laugh and say-
"hyung, i'm really happy,"
when he feels jonghyun's chest swell behind him, minho laughs even harder.
»
23,053; nc-17
jonghyun/minho
«
he's not sure whose genius idea it was to make them all sleep in the same room in the first place, because despite whatever their intention was, or whatever group bonding and brotherly closeness that was supposed to blossom between the members, the reality was that the novelty of sleeping with four other people that he already saw too much of already quickly wore off after the first month.
but he's gotten so used to it that when their manager says that they can split up, finally presenting a means of escape for two of them, minho finds himself a little dumbfounded while the rest of them start to shout around him.
he feels himself being pulled across the couch, finds himself smushed against jonghyun's side, and being asked, "you wanna be roommates right?" before jonghyun starts shouting some more in kibum's direction, then the manager's.
jonghyun's question is purely rhetorical, because minho doesn't seem to have any choice in the matter but he's kind of proud and happy that jonghyun chose him, especially when he thought for sure jonghyun'd rather go for either jinki-hyung or kibum instead of him for first pick.
minho sits back and watches the rest of the chaos unfold, and after an hour of burnt bridges, bribe solicitations and a couple dozen rounds of rock-paper-scissors, it's finally determined that he and jonghyun get the double.
jonghyun is careful not to rub it in anyone's face while he's in the room, but after he drags minho out of sight, supposedly to go to the bedroom to start packing their things, he gleefully fist-pumps the air before holding up his hand for a high-five.
minho happily obliges.
✖
if minho kept weird hours before, jonghyun reflects despondently, his dream team schedule did nothing but make it worse.
it didn't really bother jonghyun at first, and he even got the hang of navigating their constantly pitch dark room on tiptoe pretty quickly (jonghyun stopped bothering to pull up the shades after realizing that like clockwork, minho would pull them back down as soon as he stepped out of the room).
he doesn't mind accommodating minho's pre-shoot naps, or his post-shoot naps or even his pre-pre-shoot naps, but lately jonghyun feels like all he's seen of minho in the past week is the occasional limb sticking out from under the lump of blankets in his bunk. he knows it's embarrassing and more than a little pathetic, but it's not like he can help feeling a little deserted sometimes, especially when it seems like minho is giving him only the most cursory of greetings after spending hours endlessly hobnobbing with anyone that would have him while doing some vaguely sports-related things on the side.
jonghyun's not sure how he misses someone who he lives with and sleeps directly over, but he kind of does anyway. so after an early shoot, jonghyun invites minho to go out shopping with him.
"you know, for old times sake, just like we did back in the day, har har," jonghyun jokes but it sails way past minho, who looks at him and says,
"but we went shopping just two weeks ago, hyung."
minho then turns to eye his bed with far more interest than he ever did jonghyun and jonghyun gives up then and there, knowing too well that he'd never emerge the victor in a head-to-head between minho's bed in a million years.
"okay, then," jonghyun says as he switches off the light for minho on his way out, "sleep well."
"thanks, hyung."
it's freezing cold outside but jonghyun has a great time anyways. he sees a couple of things he likes and buys them, but mostly he hops from one food cart to another, tasting what each seasonal vendor has to offer until he's full.
he comes back to the dorm giddy and excited, first getting kibum's seal of approval on his purchases, then saying hello to jinki and taemin in the living room, stopping to watch a few minutes of their television show until he walks to his room.
jonghyun turns the knob slowly and pushes open the door, gets himself inside and closes it before the light can bother minho. jonghyun is still for a beat before he thinks, no. enough is enough.
he skates across the room still in his socks and mittens and wool beanie and collapses over minho, shimmying on top of him like a butterfly coming out of his winter cocoon, starts to sing,
"minho, wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up c'mon wake up wake up,"
minho grunts into his pillow, flips over onto his back and almost gives jonghyun a concussion before he forms a full sentence.
"are you kidding me with this right now?"
"nope," jonghyun grins, sitting on minho's knees. "you've had enough sleep for today."
"no," minho whines as he pulls the covers back over his head, "i'm still tired."
"no!"
jonghyun shouts and makes a grab for the covers too and the contact sets off a tiny explosion of light where his fingers are touching minho's cheek, the jolt of the little spark between their skin surprising them both into stillness.
jonghyun knows a handicap when he sees one, so he recovers and quickly takes advantage of his arsenal's latest addition for operation: get minho out of bed-jonghyun straddles him around the midsection and secures his position on top of minho's solar plexus before rubbing his mitten mercilessly against his hair.
"BZZT." jonghyun helpfully adds his own sound-effects when he shocks minho against the cheek again, this time the spark a little bigger, the charge a little stronger.
"ow," minho reacts, knocking his head against the wall in an attempt to throw jonghyun off of him, "hyung, i can't believe you're doing this."
"you've forced me to take drastic measures," jonghyun replies before zapping minho against a particularly vulnerable spot on his neck, "BZZT."
"hyung," minho replies , "how am i going to get up if you're. sitting. on. top. of. me."
jonghyun stops and begrudgingly concedes that minho's logic is not wholly without merit; he mulls over the conditions of the cease-fire, the delicate and careful negotiations that would have to go into it, minho's torso cozy and warm underneath him.
when minho's eyes start to take on a dangerous slant, jonghyun tentatively places his offer-which is incredibly reasonable and gracious even if he does say so himself, considering some of the things he could've asked for-on the table.
"if i get up, will you get up too?"
minho thinks about it for a second.
"yeah."
jonghyun gives minho a look he hopes gets across that he's being serious, that it was in minho's own best interest to follow through or otherwise-well, jonghyun doesn't really know what the 'otherwise' would entail, but he's sure it isn't anything pretty.
minho matches his stone face perfectly and jonghyun's never had reason to doubt minho's word before.
"...okay."
jonghyun is barely a centimeter off of minho before he finds himself pushed onto his stomach and silenced with a mouthful of cotton bedding, arms pinned behind him, and minho anchored on the the backs of his thighs.
to further add insult to injury, minho starts to use jonghyun's own beanie against him, rubbing it painfully against his scalp, and jonghyun's sure he's using knuckles because it feels a lot more like a revenge noogie and a lot less like the continuation of a harmless game of static shock.
minho is unrepentant in his quest for reparations, and jonghyun's positive that a few of his major body parts have lost circulation, not that he'd expected anything less out of minho.
well, jonghyun thinks, as minho's knee digs painfully into his side, at least he managed to get him up.
✖
the first time minho wakes up that night, it's because of some vague nightmarish dream involving him wetting the bed over and over again, with everyone else getting angry and sending him outside until he learned to behave good and housebroken.
he feels silly thinking about it awake, nothing like how it was when he was in it.
the dream isn't completely without basis in reality either, minho realizes when he tries to shift onto his side and his sheets won't let him.
his bed is damp with his sweat, and his sheets are so stubbornly stuck onto his skin that he has to peel himself out them, considers on the off chance that his bodily fluids actually had some superhero magic properties, he'd call it superglue sweat, then get a patent or something.
minho hasn't heard anything from jonghyun all night, thinks a little bitterly about how nice it must be to sleep on a cool, fluffy cloud above everyone else, until he falls back asleep.
the second time minho wakes up, his mouth is wide open, his breath trapped in barren desert of dehydration. it hurts him to swallow, isn't anything in his mouth to swallow, guesses all the liquid in his body was sweated out and sucked up by his aggressively absorbent sheets.
he can't ignore the thirst like he can the heat, has to get up for water.
even though he's down to the bare minimum clothing-wise, sporting a drafty, worn pair of boxers, minho considers upping his maximum nudity threshold, just for tonight, just so he can sleep.
he wonders what jonghyun is wearing that is so comfortable, stands up slowly and looks over, but jonghyun isn't in his bed.
minho goes to the kitchen and gets some water and still doesn't see him.
the bathroom door is open and the lights are turned off. all of jonghyun's shoes are accounted for on the rack, and he's about to knock on the manager's door when jonghyun suddenly appears in front of him like a mirage, sitting quietly on the couch.
"hyung?"
jonghyun turns to look at him, waves, "oh, minho, hey. couldn't sleep either?"
"yeah," minho replies, a little awkwardly, really wanting to ask what jonghyun was doing sitting alone in the dark, but he knows he shouldn't.
minho remembers the glass of water still in his hand, asks
"do you want something to drink?"
"no, i'm okay."
"okay."
minho sets the glass down, walks over to jonghyun and aims his fingers a little below where jonghyun's heart should be.
he finds the nub of skin underneath the thin fabric of jonghyun's wifebeater on the first try, squeezing jonghyun's nipple before twisting it as far clockwise as he can get it before jonghyun slaps his arm away.
jonghyun almost shouts, then cuts himself off when he remembers where they are and what time it is, instead hisses at minho venomously,
"jesus, ow, that hurt, what the actual fuck is wrong with you," jonghyun winces and rubs at his chest a little and minho has to try hard not to laugh, "why would you even do something like that."
minho doesn't tell jonghyun the truth, that he doesn't like when jonghyun gets in his moods because minho wasn't as good as jinki or kibum when it came to dealing with a quiet, unsure jonghyun, that there were parts of jonghyun that he might never feel comfortable showing minho and that minho might never know.
minho says, "because it's you." instead.
"you are a freakshow," jonghyun grumbles, his arms crossed against his chest.
minho can't tell whether it's to protect himself from any future attacks or if he's actually mad at him.
"who even does things like that, seriously."
jonghyun's insults don't bother minho, because minho is back in familiar territory with grumpy jonghyun.
while grumpy jonghyun looked like only grumpy jonghyun to the naked eye, minho knows better, his careful recon having led him to the conclusion that grumpy jonghyun was just a well-camouflaged version of a reluctant, but still wanting someone to cheer him up jonghyun.
it was definitely too hot to sleep, minho chuckles to himself, but for a little casual fraternizing, the climate was ideal.
he sits uncomfortably close to jonghyun on the couch and the leather immediately sticks to any accessible inch of his bare skin.
minho finds jonghyun's right hand with his left, intertwines their fingers together, both their palms sweaty and sticky.
it's a funny sort of rendezvous, minho thinks, then thinks about his superglue sweat and what would happen if he and jonghyun got stuck together, accidentally-
"um, what are you doing?"
jonghyun is staring at his hand in minho's like it's somehow detached from the the rest of his body.
"holding hands." minho explains simply, like it's the most normal and obvious thing the two of them could be doing in the entire world.
"okay...um, cool. but why?"
"so you don't get lost."
"in the living room?"
"yeah," minho nods seriously, giving jonghyun's hand a squeeze of reassurance, "you're lucky to have me, you know."
minho can see jonghyun grinning at him in the dark, making all of his work worth it.
jonghyun gets off the couch, pulling minho with him.
"can you hold my hand on the way to the bedroom?" jonghyun asks him.
"yeah, sure?" minho agrees but he thought the joke was over already, having already served its purpose.
but he can't see anything wrong with holding jonghyun's hand a little bit longer, no matter how gross it was getting, the chances of them actually being stuck together getting higher by the second.
"thanks, it gets dangerous out here sometimes," jonghyun says as he walks in the direction of their room, minho trailing a little behind him, letting himself be led.
jonghyun turns to look at him over his shoulder, "and have you seen that crazy nipple attacker on the loose? i hear he's a real creep."
minho lets jonghyun yuck it up.
✖
minho knows that the delicate art of seduction is supposed to be a lot more organic and natural than the way he's going about it but organic and natural also meant a lot of waiting around-something he's never been keen on-so he's willing to cut a few corners to expedite the process.
minho stares at the listings, carefully tries to find a movie that'd been out for a while so the theatre wouldn't be crowded, but one not too outdated that he'd have already heard everything about it.
he reads each summary and crosses off the romantic comedies, the romantic dramas, the slightly romantic, eliminating anything that could be remotely construed as touchy-feely, to settle on an explosion and testosterone-filled action thriller that wouldn't make either of them think too much and leave them feeling energized.
an afternoon showing would be too casual, late evening too obvious, and minho chooses a 6:30 showing, the movie ending just in time for him to casually suggest dinner and make it seem convenient and spur of the moment.
he finishes mapping out and cross-referencing transportation times and scenic routes just as jonghyun comes into the room.
minho closes his laptop discreetly, goes, "hey."
"hey." jonghyun replies, hopping up onto his bunk. "what's up?"
"nothing." minho says, then quickly adds his lead, "i'm pretty bored. what about you?"
"yeah, me too i guess." jonghyun agrees, not really paying attention as he types something into his computer.
"so, do you wanna go see a movie tomorrow? it's been a while."
"huh?"
minho swallows and steels his resolve.
"movie. tomorrow. see one."
"oh yeah sure," jonghyun says, still typing, then pausing. "i don't think jinki-hyung can come tho-"
"no jus-" minho blurts out, then stops to continue a little less obviously, "i meant just us."
"oh okay that's cool too."
✖
when minho very nicely escorts him on their way out, jonghyun repays him with a grimace and crinkle of his nose.
"is that cologne?"
while yes, he'd admittedly splashed on some fancy aftershave that he'd gotten as a gift after his shower, it was aftershave and aftershave wasn't cologne, so jonghyun was still wrong and incredibly rude and minho technically wasn't lying when he glares at him and shakes his head no.
on the way to the theater, minho leaves the teasing jabs to a minimum, keeps agreeable and friendly and is generally having a good time, almost to the point where he doesn't even realize that he's being different.
"okay what's the catch?" jonghyun asks him a little mistrustfully, peering suspiciously at him as he holds open a door for jonghyun, which was apparently something no one had ever done for him. "where are you taking me?"
minho is honestly a little hurt when jonghyun calls the purity of his intention into question, but shrugs like jonghyun is making things up.
"what are you talking about. we're going to see a movie, paranoid."
jonghyun is still blocking the doorway, studies minho intently.
"are you sure."
"yes, i am sure. can we please move now."
"well then," jonghyun says as he walks ahead, momentarily convinced and mirroring minho's shrug from before, "i guess chivalry isn't dead."
strength of habit overrides minho's self-imposed no-insulting-your-kind-of-date rule and before he can censor himself, minho mumbles,
"not everyone's rude like you."
jonghyun turns around to grin widely at him, "now that's the minho i know," and then takes him much less guardedly by the arm to go stand in line.
after getting their tickets, minho makes sure to send jonghyun to go find seats while he buys their carefully calculated light movie going snack, consisting of only a couple sodas and one extra-large popcorn, the perfect proportion of food to leave them both sufficiently hungry afterwards.
when he gets to their seats, jonghyun complains about him being too stingy to buy one for each of them and then proceeds to make a cutting observation about two guys sharing popcorn in a dark theater being fruity-right before he shoves his hand into the bag next to minho's for a handful anyways.
the movie ends and the first thing jonghyun says is, "that was awesome," followed immediately by, "i'm starving, let's eat," and does all of minho's work for him.
the theater is far enough from their dorms so that jonghyun doesn't feel obligated to invite the rest of the group to join them, assures minho that the hassle of getting them there wasn't worth the trouble,
"i guess it's just the two of us then."
minho says he knows a restaurant close by that he heard was good, and jonghyun is quickly on board.
the restaurant isn't too fancy, but it's still pretty nice, somewhere cozy and family-style where they can sit down.
the tables are small enough so minho can still lean over and steal food off of jonghyun's plate, but minho makes it up to him by letting him choose two desserts.
when the bill comes, minho quickly takes it and pays for all of it.
when jonghyun protests and tries to put down some of his own money, minho lies and tells him that it's company money, that manager-hyung had agreed to give him some allowance for their outing.
jonghyun is skeptical, but minho insists.
after leaving the restaurant, minho suggests a walk to help digest their food, but only if jonghyun's not tired, and jonghyun shakes his head no, happy to go on a casual evening stroll.
minho walks them through some elaborate shortcuts and alleyways before they end up in front of the river.
"wow..." jonghyun sighs, stepping up onto the railing and drifting off into his own thoughts. "isn't this really romantic? the perfect place to be alone with a girl you like."
minho awkwardly shuffles his feet, says, "yeah, i guess," because even though he pulled off the entire thing perfectly, he suddenly feels like nothing went right at all.
"but," jonghyun steps down and walks over to stand next to him, still looking at the water, "being here with you isn't too bad either."
minho feels himself giving jonghyun that slow, disarming smile that he knows jonghyun is still not quite used to.
when jonghyun turns to look up at minho and sees him, jonghyun's face gets uneasy and awkward like it always does, and he trains his gaze back forward, quickly amending his previous statement.
"still, a girl would be better."
✖
he's in a slow but steady drift towards sleep before suddenly being jolted out of it by a loud gasp.
jonghyun's gasp immediately disintegrates into a series of wheezing and hacking coughs and minho is patient-crossing his legs, folding his arms underneath his head and turning to look at clock to mentally record the time of arrival to be painfully overdue at approximately a quarter past midnight-while he waits for jonghyun to come to terms with his epiphany.
"you-" jonghyun starts.
"what?"
"today-when we-when you-” jonghyun stumbles over the words, as if he’s not exactly how to verbalize the incredulity of his notion, “were you wooing me?"
"no." minho replies with a dismissive grunt, turning over in his bed.
"i definitely felt like you were wooing me."
"i wasn't. but good for you anyways."
“you were, weren’t you?” jonghyun wheedles. "it all makes so much sense now."
“if that's what you need to hear to sleep at night, then yes,” minho says, careful to mask his confession as exasperation, “you were wooed.”
jonghyun's still for a while before he replies, quiet and puzzled and earnest, as if thinking aloud to himself
“i think…no, i did. i did enjoy it.”
minho picks up his head off the pillow and find himself unable to stop the curiosity in his voice from betraying him, risking, as he asks jonghyun,
"you did?”
jonghyun swallows.
"yeah."
minho eases his tone back into a casual disinterest.
"well i wasn’t, so."
"yeah, i know. but if you were-"
"maybe in your dreams."
"i dunno," jonghyun replies, unswayed. "it felt pretty real to me."
✖
jonghyun starts to formulate a theory laying on his bed when he's restless and little stir crazy, a theory about being in a room alone with minho, a room where all of minho's stupid little quirks and offhand comments and personality and sponsored sportswear are magnified tenfold and always right there, the first thing jonghyun sees when he woke up, the last thing he hears before falling asleep.
jonghyun thinks the general gist of his hypothesis is pretty simple-there had to be something about the synthesis of two bunk beds, four walls, a door, minho and him that must've been the perfect breeding ground for some mutant strain of stockholm syndrome, the only thing that jonghyun can think of to explain the increasingly frequent instances (pangs? waves?) of like-no other word really fit, and it's the only way jonghyun can come up with to describe it.
or maybe it was just a cut and dry case of sympathizing with one's captor, extended exposure and proximity causing him to misdirect affection and yeah, probably, jonghyun thinks, that was probably it.
satisfied with his conclusion, he gets up and sits with his legs hanging over the edge of the top bunk and swings them back and forth, bending the top half of his body to check and see if he's bothered minho enough for him to engage yet.
a hand encircles and stills jonghyun's right ankle, holding it firm.
jonghyun smiles, keeps swinging his left foot until that one is captured too, and minho sticks his head out of his bunk to look up at him, the amusement in his expression obvious despite the irritation in his voice.
"what, hyung?"
jonghyun shrugs and smiles, "nothing. just hanging out."
minho sighs and releases his grip on jonghyun's ankles and goes back in his bunk to do whatever he was doing.
jonghyun keeps on swinging his legs, back and forth, left to right, even in circles and this time humming a made-up song to further enhance his (and minho's) experience.
minho grabs both his ankles again, a little harder this time, jonghyun notices.
"what?" minho asks again, this time all business.
jonghyun looks down at his shackled, imprisoned feet and wiggles his toes instead, his form of protest against minho's unjust incarceration.
"i think," jonghyun says as he tilts his head to side, "i think my toes are lonely."
"your toes are lonely." minho echoes back at him, voice hollow and disbelieving.
"yeah." jonghyun wiggles them again for good measure. "don't be mean to them."
minho's disembodied head emerges from the bottom bunk again and he proceeds to frown hard at him, jonghyun trying desperately to keep straightfaced during the ordeal.
after a little while, minho lets go of his feet for what seems like good and jonghyun leans back, moves to pivot his legs back up to his bunk but he suddenly feels something sharp and wet around the circumference of his left foot's big toe, holding it in place with something that felt like the jagged teeth of a foothold trap.
"the fu-"
jonghyun almost falls out of his bunk in shock, and after he's properly anchored himself back on the bed, the pressure on his toe is still there and he leans over to see his toe in minho's mouth.
he doesn't actually see the toe, just minho's top lip wrapped around the junction of where his big toe used to be and the rest of his foot.
he can't think of anything to say and gapes stupidly instead as minho starts to chew playfully on it, his tongue rough and ticklish against the flesh on the bottom part, and then there's the sensation of suction and when jonghyun finally gathers what little wits he has left about him he finally pulls his foot back, feeling minho's teeth dragging against the pronounced grooves of skin there, the wetness of minho lips the last thing his toe touches before hitting the open air.
minho wipes his mouth, his face filled with all of jonghyun's previous playfulness, a coy lilt to his voice when he asks,
"toes still lonely?"
"uh, no, not after that," jonghyun replies, sounding as unfazed as he can muster.
he wipes the excess spit off the toe with his top sheet, poking awkwardly at the skin. "not after you ju-just violated my toe."
"your toe was asking for it, hyung."
jonghyun doesn't think minho's reply is cute or charming at all.
there was no way jonghyun was going to be charmed by minho now, especially since it was all minho's fault there were all types of weird, subversive thoughts running through his head now, suggesting that what he felt, was still feeling, wasn't all disgust-thoughts that were going to to require endless sessions of trauma counseling before he'd be able to repress them back into the recesses of his subconscious.
he'd make minho foot the bill, see how funny he thought it was then.
"just because a toe wiggles a little bit doesn't mean it wants to be taken advantage of, you brute."
minho chuckles and then they're both quiet for a while, and jonghyun can't stop touching his big toe, pressing hard against the skin with his finger, first blooming white, then back to pink when the blood rushed back in.
"hyung?" minho asks.
"yeah?"
"maybe next time you could try your hand at more evolved ways of seeking attention."
jonghyun snorts loudly enough to make sure minho understands the sheer implausibility of what he's just said to be in any way true.
jonghyun decides to further express his displeasure by pulling a dirty t-shirt off his bedpost, balling it up and chucking it into minho's bunk.
"what makes you think i want your attention, conceited?"
minho doesn't throw the shirt back, just laughs and laughs until he's breathless.
✖
"you know, minho, you have all the trappings of a ladykiller," jonghyun muses aloud above him one night, and minho marvels at how in the world jonghyun could magically deduce that he wasn't asleep even though he hadn't moved or made any sort of noise for at least a good half an hour.
before minho can give him any sort of affirmative response, jonghyun continues on with his tangent, speculating wildly.
“being all tall, dark and handsome and such you'd naturally drive a sweet car and run international heists," and even though minho can't see jonghyun, he can still feel the resonance of his animated gesturing through the shared wooden framework of their connected bed, "then you could, like, scam hot broads and say things like 'hello there, stranger' or 'i'll have what she's having,' and other equally awesome turns of phrase."
“have you, uh,” minho bites back a chuckle, “put a lot of thought into this, hyung?”
minho hears jonghyun shift on the bed before answering.
"uh no, i have a life," jonghyun retorts, "it's just that i've always thought you'd be perfect for that kind of thing."
minho indulges him and thinks about it.
jonghyun was right, he would probably be good at the sneaky spying parts, really good at maintaining a shadowy incognito until it was time to make his move but he's not too sure about the ladykilling bit.
“i don’t know how to flirt very well though.”
"you don't have to! the best part is that all you have to do there is sit there and smolder mysteriously like you always do and they’ll flock to you like moths to flaming charisma.”
jonghyun replies with the kind of confident preparation that convinces minho that this scenario is not just an afterthought like he made it seem like it was, makes minho smile against his fist in the dark.
“hyung, you think," minho ventures a little further, "you think i smolder?”
the question catches jonghyun off-guard because minho feels the fidgeting stop and for a little longer than usual, he can't hear the rhythmic inhales and exhales of jonghyun's breathing.
“...kinda. sometimes." jonghyun answers cryptically, before finally admitting, "okay, yeah, you do.”
minho has to fight the sudden flicker through his muscles pushing him to climb into jonghyun's bed, get underneath the covers and tangle their legs together and instead shows his appreciation by settling for a simple
"thanks."
"thanks for what? it was just an observation."
minho doesn't have anything else to say after that, but he doesn't want them to stop talking if he can help it and even if it was just some random daydream or jonghyun's voice making him feel like his bones were the only thing keeping him in place while everything else melted into each other, those were enough.
"how long have you been waiting to use that line, hyung?" minho asks before jonghyun can fall asleep.
"which one?"
"the moths to flaming charisma one."
"i thought of it just now."
"really?" minho prods.
"yeah really." jonghyun replies, slightly affronted.
minho decides not to push it.
it's quiet again and minho's sure he just blew it, until he hears jonghyun chortle above him, coming clean.
"okay, since like we debuted. you never let me have anything, jeez."
"it is a pretty great line." minho chuckles in agreement.
"i know! can you believe i still haven't gotten to say it on air somewhere?!"
"someday, hyung. someday."
"yeah. oh and while i have deemed your mortal ears worthy of beholding this soundbite fashioned from the very gods themselves," jonghyun pauses dramatically for effect, "you are forbidden from ever repeating it. even though it is technically about you."
"don't worry, flaming charisma is all yours."
"that's right and don't forget it. flaming chari-uh, moths to flaming charisma is all mine."
✖
"minho, have you seen my shirt?" jonghyun asks urgently while walking into the room shirtless, first looking in the closet, then kicking aside some bags on the floor.
minho glances over.
"which one?"
"the one, that's, uh," jonghyun distractedly starts pawing through their dresser, doesn't concern himself with minor details like pushing one drawer closed before opening another one or trying not to mess up minho's freshly laundered and folded clothes.
"you know, the red one i really like,"
jonghyun kicks the bottom drawer closed with his foot before crouching down and looking under minho's bed.
"ugh minho have you ever heard of a broom," jonghyun whines at him, unnecessarily.
"there are dust balls well on their way to becoming sentient beings under here, wait what the," jonghyun's voice muffling as he disappears a little further underneath minho's bed,
"well what do we have here!"
jonghyun comes out from under him with the frog he'd forgotten about months ago, looking no worse for the wear, except for a layer of gray dust and hair.
"i thought you threw this out!"
minho shrugs, honestly having forgotten about it.
jonghyun shuffles up to his bedside, shakes off the dust and debris of the frog on his pillow, some of it drifting unpleasantly up minho's nose, while jonghyun starts moving the frog from side to side.
"ribbit ribbit i protect minho from the scary monsters underneath his bed ribbit ribbit,"
minho blinks at jonghyun, but it quickly proves to be an ineffective deterrent, as jonghyun proceeds to gleefully venture upon insult.
"ribbit ribbit is minho a wittle scaredy-waredy? ribbit ribbit minho you know you can just ask hyung to protect you right?"
minho makes an unsuccessful grab at the frog, which obviously spurs jonghyun to continue.
"ribbit ribbit why doesn't minho like me? why did he steal his hyung's shirt? ribb-"
minho lunges for the the frog but jonghyun pulls it away and minho tumbles out of his bunk, falling ungracefully on top of jonghyun.
jonghyun is laughing, keeps on impersonating what he thinks is a low croaky frog sound,
"ribbit ribbit don't be ashamed of me, minho-goon-"
minho gets a knee between jonghyun's legs and pins his free arm down onto the floor, reaching over his head for the frog but jonghyun's holding it too far away.
jonghyun wiggles the frog so it's legs do a macabre little jig and its googly-eyes wobble back and forth with the unique mobility of someone in the throes of epilepsy, and the entire display takes jonghyun's entire ventriloquism act to another level of creepy.
"miiiinhoooo why do you wish to hide me from from the world ribbit ribbit-"
minho charges for the frog again but jonghyun flings it across the room, extracts his arm from minho's loosened grip and wraps his arms around minho and traps minho against him.
"oof," minho says as he gets the breath knocked out of him, jonghyun's legs curling around his own like twin boa constrictors as his villainous laughter echoes, then rumbles into minho's chest,
"mwahaha i have discovered the terrible secret you have buried deep underneath your bed," jonghyun cackles.
"you're crazy," minho replies, cants his hips up to get some height, pushing his toes-the only part of him jonghyun can't reach far enough to subordinate-against the wooden floor to steer himself into a less disadvantaged position, "a complete lunat-"
but he snaps back against himself like a rubber band launched wrong, and he only succeeds in cracking his nose painfully against the floor between jonghyun's ear and shoulder and he can at least feel jonghyun's full-body hold relax a little, just to ask
"shit, you okay?"
minho rubs a finger underneath his nostril to make sure he's not bleeding then says,
"yeah."
the intermission and the setting in of a dull throb in the vicinity of minho's nose pulls him out of that particular bout of roughhouse, and when jonghyun decides minho's convalescence period is over and resumes his teasing, minho can't hear anything, like someone hit the mute button, just feels jonghyun's breath is giggly and hot next to him.
it slowly dawns on minho that somewhere between his attempts to get jonghyun to cease and desist, his dick had decided to send mixed signals and was already embarassingly well past the stage where he could play it off as just a passing interest on his way to the bathroom.
the sheer hilarity of the notion that jonghyun's idiotic amphibian impersonation might've actually turned him on is only a fleeting distraction before minho hears his head shouting at him to get off, to get off of jonghyun before he figured it out.
minho makes a weak attempt at escape, grateful that jonghyun can't see his face right now, but the weight of his condition sucks the fight right out of him and when he falls back down, his position a little different this time,
jonghyun hisses, "fuck,"
and minho instinctively adjusts-then stills-when he feels the throb of jonghyun's dick burn against his hip and minho lifts his hips back up, putting space between them.
he waits, swallows, before looking at jonghyun, but his eyes are screwed shut, gives minho nothing to go on, no yes, no, i want, or no don't in his expression, making what would happen next entirely minho's call.
there was no yes, but there was no no either so minho lowers his waist back down, moves his body to displace the waiting centimeters between them, nudging himself slowly against hipbones and thighs, and he's careful not to impose, keeps it an open-ended offer, a suggestion-
"fuck," jonghyun says again while gasping in a whoosh of air, his eyes opening to look at minho, glassed over a little bit.
jonghyun's legs loosen around minho's, and his arms drop to his sides.
minho hoists himself up onto his arms, palms on the floor, peels his upper half away from jonghyun's but keeps their stomachs touching, and instead of the new angle snapping him out of it like he hopes it will, a rush of vertigo runs through him from seeing jonghyun from up high, empties minho's head and rings in his ears, makes him feel like all the blood in his body is clotting around his bellybutton.
jonghyun's expression changes and it looks like he wants to say something and suddenly, waiting any longer seems like a bad idea.
minho pushes down and even though their dicks aren't lined up all the way, the denim material of jonghyun's jeans chafe against the bare part of minho's skin where his shirt's ridden up, the contraction of muscle in his forearms ache, the lock of his elbows awkward-it's still lightyears better than all the jerkoff scenarios he's ever painstakingly directed in his entire life.
when jonghyun's eyes close again, minho decides he doesn't want to see him like that and lowers himself to settle back down onto jonghyun's chest, rests his head to focus on the maze of delicate twisting cartilage of jonghyun's ear, and rests loose fists on opposite sides of their heads while letting his hips keep moving.
at first, it's like going in circles, aimless and silly, his thrusts erratic and without rhyme or reason. minho doesn't fool himself and knows it, knows that it's not any good for either of them but it's all he can think of doing to avoid stopping, stopping and giving jonghyun the chance to push back and maybe push away. if it meant avoiding the worst, minho could live with not good.
it's only when jonghyun bites back a groan after a particularly forceful impact of their hips, stifles a groan that minho can't convince himself is just from being turned on and isn't undoubtedly from pain, that minho finally lets himself slow down a little, slows down just enough so he can diagnose and repair, makes sure it's not slow enough for jonghyun to pull out of the deal.
minho swallows, imagines himself headless.
he forces himself to not think, no, he couldn't think, and the unnatural latency of something he'd always known as instinctual and reflex-easy pours out of him like a flash flood and minho starts moving again, fluid and persistent, and it starts to finally feel a little like how fucking should feel like.
minho listens to their chests, and even though jonghyun's heart is moving at exactly at the same speed as his, no matter how hard he tries, minho can't get them to match up, can't adjust his breathing to fix it, can't even tell which thud is straggling behind the other, and gives up, reluctantly.
instead, he tries timing his drags and pushes against jonghyun to put sound in the quiet between their mismatched heartbeats, hurrying to fill the empty space of each missed encounter, letting each slow, perfect rub of his cock from jonghyun's belly down to where the elastic of jonghyun's skintight jeans strained make up for each time they couldn't manage to synchronize.
it works and jonghyun starts to make little noises of approval, relaxes his neck so his cheek accidentally brushes against the tip of minho's nose before he quickly moves it back away, but still letting his dick rock back against him and it was even better that way, when it wasn't only just him, and the reciprocity sharpens the phantom tug in his stomach into something much more immediate.
"i'm gonna," minho hears himself warn, raspy and loose like gravel in the air between them, the vibrations of his voice rippling slowly into jonghyun's ear-and even though minho knows they came from his mouth, the words don't sound like his words, transmitted in a frequency meant for someone else.
jonghyun shivers, chokes out a "yeah," and fists his hand into the back of minho's shirt to bring them all the way together, "yeah me too, fuck," surges his hips up off the floor, pushes himself in a violent grind against minho.
momentary discomfort flares into a fuck, he's getting so close and then jonghyun's fist is pulling down on the back of his shirt to move him so he rubs further down on jonghyun's cock and the collar of minho's shirt presses up against his adam's apple, cuts off his breath and when there's no air and only jonghyun coming so hard that that minho feels the edges of his fingernails digging past the fabric and into sweat and skin and even bone, minho comes too.
it feels like they're both somehow suspended in mid-air, frozen and hypersensitive, and even through pants and zippers and underwear, minho feels every jerk and tremble of jonghyun's cock against his like he'd feel it if there was nothing there.
but before minho's ready for it, there's gravity again and jonghyun drops back down onto the ground, thunking his head against the wood floor and eyes squeezing shut even tighter as he winces.
minho doesn't realize that somewhere along the way he'd been putting all his weight on jonghyun, that jonghyun had been holding them both up off the floor, bolstering them through the strain of his arms and legs until he finds himself off-balance and collapsing himself, back on top of jonghyun.
his head lands back against jonghyun's ear, minho's nose cushioning the fall in a strange kind of karmic full-circle way, but the light is different now and the sun makes it so minho can see the tiny, translucent hairs on jonghyun's earlobe, and he didn't know people's ears could be so fuzzy, leans in to maybe see what it felt like-
"i need you to get off me now," jonghyun asks impatiently from underneath him.
minho rolls off of jonghyun, and once he's far away enough to not be able to touch him, jonghyun angrily pops open the metal button of his jeans, tilts his hips up, hooks his hands down the band of his underwear and pushes the fabric of both pieces of clothing as far down his thighs as he can get them.
minho almost asks jonghyun if he's getting ready for round two, but when jonghyun brings himself gingerly back to the floor, the joke withers in his throat.
jonghyun presses his dick down against his balls, and minho adjusts the angle of his head, looks past where jonghyun's come has clumped his pubic hair into a wet, sticky tangle, to the raised, angry streaks of red plateauing against his stomach.
jonghyun hisses as he ghosts his fingers across them, mumbles without looking at him,
"you could've let me take my fucking jeans off."
minho's pretty sure "sorry" is not what jonghyun wants to hear or the right way to answer reply to that kind of statement, so he doesn't say it, can't think of anything to say at all when there were patches of jonghyun's skin where the pattern of denim stitching had been imprinted on top of each other and over and over again, until the patterns blurred and bled into each other, and only left behind skin rubbed raw.
and even though the evidence against him was all circumstantial, and he'd never even physically touched jonghyun in those places, jonghyun gets up and minho's nose still hurts.
when minho shifts his weight to get up too, the floorboards creak underneath him like eyewitnesses, the frog's lopsided stare from across the room almost accusatory.
✖
jonghyun settles into his stance and has his dick in hand ready for action when he hears the door swing open, footsteps shuffle next to him, and a deep, unmistakable voice strike up conversation.
sometimes, jonghyun thinks, minho lacked a little self-awareness and while sometimes it was kind of endearing-other times, he's pretty sure minho was doing it on fucking purpose, like he's somehow intent on getting underneath his skin, like right fucking now, in an especially weird and dangerous place.
jonghyun thought there were certain standards regarding urinal decorum that everyone just knew, but apparently he was wrong, and can't seem to do anything but stare awkwardly at the drain of the urinal as he despondently realizes his previous urge to piss is nowhere to be found.
"hyung."
jonghyun grits his teeth and nods in acknowledgment of minho's entirely unwelcome greeting, closing his eyes and forcing himself to think about something other than the fact that there was no buffer urinal between him and minho or minho talking to him or the possibility that minho was looking at his dick, things like niagara falls and typhoons.
jonghyun hears minho unzip his jeans, the rustle of fabric, and after a few tense seconds of excruciating silence, he hears a slow trickle on minho's end and jonghyun wills himself to follow suit, adjusting his grip on his dick and shifting from one foot to another.
the worst part was that jonghyun could feel every puzzled glance minho was giving him, and jonghyun knows he looks ridiculous just standing there and doing nothing.
minho finishes up after what seems like an eternity, and jonghyun hears his belt buckle clinking a little as he does it back up.
minho flushes and proceeds to wash his hands at the sink for 30 seconds more than any other person jonghyun knows and just when he thinks he's home free, thinks that can finally just take a piss, minho is behind him.
"hyung? are you okay?"
"yeah," jonghyun chokes out as casually as he can manage, "totally fine."
"you sure?" minho asks, and this time, he supplements his concern with a palm on the small of jonghyun's back.
the touch, soft and worried, makes jonghyun want to do nothing more to keel over in shame and embarrassment if he weren't already frozen in place by mortification.
"yeah, yeah. you go and have your break."
jonghyun can almost hear minho thinking, debating on what to do.
"okay," minho takes a breath, "just look at me and tell me you're fine and i'll leave."
jonghyun knows he should've given up and fled the scene when he still had the chance, but now it was too late.
now his dick had been out in the open far longer than he ever wanted it to be, and now, jonghyun knew what gooseflesh looked like on his balls. now, there was no way of getting minho to leave without having to brave that final frontier of urinal interaction, that forbidden territory of direct eye-contact.
jonghyun turns his head slightly and looks over his shoulder, taking a small breath through his nose and he approaches it the band-aid way, less painful if done quickly, without thinking, so he quickly meets minho's open eyes with a forced smile before swiveling his head back so fast he could've swore there was whiplash, grimacing.
minho continues to hesitate behind and doesn't leave, and just when jonghyun is about to throw in the towel, his bladder finally decides to regain functionality, a small trickle making it's way into the urinal.
jonghyun exhales in relief, tips his head upwards in gratitude, forgetting the past few minutes and letting himself ride the sweet surrender of nature's call.
"okay, um," he hears minho saying behind him, heading towards the door, "i'll see you back outside."
✖
minho notices jonghyun jerks off with his left hand. he tries it once, first lying on his back, then on his side, then again on his back because the angle is less weird that way.
his left hand feels like someone else's hand, and his dick doesn't feel like his dick against his fingers, like it's a forgery, a counterfeit.
after a little trial and error, he gets used to the different curl of fingers and works his way through it and comes, but it isn't like it usually is, and his body chills and congeals into a sad guilty feeling, into that strange textbook condition of post-coital tristesse.
he's only felt it once or twice before, and thinks maybe this time it's punishment for settling for a cheap imitation of the real thing.
✖
so now, apparently, he and minho were destined to be roommates forever, jonghyun can't help but think a little bitterly, after their manager hands out room assignments in the hotel lobby and jonghyun isn't even given the common courtesy of being asked his opinion before automatically getting paired off with minho.
no one bothers to ask him if he'd rather room with key or jinki hyung or taemin, or maybe even the manager, everyone just assuming he'd pick minho.
okay so maybe he would, and he wonders when he got so predictable, but those were under normal circumstances and the circumstances between him and minho weren't really normal anymore.
but it's nothing jonghyun can say out loud, and he carefully avoids minho's gaze all the way back to room 909.
jonghyun takes the bed closest to the door.
"are you okay with that one?" he asks.
minho nods, setting his backpack down on the floor next to the other bed, and then standing awkwardly in front of jonghyun.
jonghyun desperately tries to thinks of things to fill the dead air.
"is." minho starts, then stops, starts again. "is it okay if i shower first?"
jonghyun exhales, secretly grateful that minho thought of something before him, nodding enthusiastically as he says,
"yeah, yeah of course. go ahead."
jonghyun isn't sure if it's twenty seconds or twenty minutes later when minho comes out of the shower.
it wouldn't have made much of a difference anyways, because he's still nervous like he was before minho left and hasn't thought of any distractions good enough to last the entire night.
"oh hey, you're out," jonghyun notes, voice strangely robotic. he sees the phone and reaches for the handle, because of course, how could he even forget, "i'm gonna call the desk for our wake-up call, 6 okay?"
minho is quiet as jonghyun goes on by himself, walks across the room and sits next to jonghyun on the bed.
jonghyun swallows down his panic as the operator picks up the phone.
"hello?"
"uh, yeah, hi," jonghyun stumbles, "can we have a wake-up call at 6 for room 909?"
"sure."
"okay, great."
jonghyun puts the phone back on the receiver, takes a deep breath, and turns to minho.
"okay, yeah, so 6. all set."
minho looks at him, starts to leans down and closer, and jonghyun is no no not ready and backs up into the lacquered headboard, but there's no space to go anywhere and minho's lips manage to catch the corner of jonghyun's mouth and however misfired, he knows it's still a kiss.
"oh." minho says, when he opens his eyes, looks at jonghyun and figures it out.
minho sounds sad and confused and guilty, and jonghyun wants to say no, no you shouldn't feel guilty, but the words won't come out, and he can only blush furiously and clench his fists against his sides.
minho exhales, starts to say something in a quiet mumble jonghyun has to strain to hear.
"i just uh, thought," minho says, "that before when we-you seemed, you know," finally looking up to meet jonghyun's eyes. "into it."
he knows how unfair it would be for him to lie to minho, can tell how angry minho is with himself and even though he knows what the brave, right thing to do is, jonghyun can't bring himself to do it, rushes past minho and goes into the bathroom.
he starts filling up the bathtub as soon as he clicks the lock closed, takes off his clothes slowly.
jonghyun stays in the bath and doesn't get up until his fingers are all pruny, until he hears minho turns off the television, until he can't see anymore light seeping in through the bathroom door, doesn't creep open the door and quietly get underneath his covers until he's sure minho's asleep.
after jonghyun is in his bed, he imagines that if maybe he had gone along with it, it couldn't have been entirely bad.
✖
he knows that jonghyun is awake and that jonghyun knows he's awake.
it's still enough that minho can hear the faint little clicks of his watch on the nightstand, trekking its way through each miserable second, but even listening to that doesn't get him anywhere near sleep.
he'd known it'd turn out to be something like this, curses at himself for still going ahead and doing it anyways but the more he thinks about it, it feels like he couldn't not do it either, couldn't not try and see, couldn't not go all in on a what if.
he's almost come to terms with bygones being bygones when he hears jonghyun rustle above him, then say:
"i'm coming down."
minho quickly shrugs off the hopeful little his heart makes, scoots backwards toward the wall in his bed to make room for jonghyun, pulling out some slack in his covers so there'll be enough for the both of them.
jonghyun takes his time coming down the bunk and when he reaches the floor, he bends over, takes one look at him and slides in, hooking one leg over minho's side, then the other, clambering over him and wedging himself between minho and the wall.
minho doesn't risk jynxing his luck by asking jonghyun why he's going through all the trouble of pushing and shoving when he'd already made space for him right here in front of him, lets himself be jostled forward.
jonghyun finally gets where he needs to be, and everything is still like before, until he says,
"i want to be here."
jonghyun's thoroughly skewed the mechanics of the entire big spoon/small spoon blueprint, compromised the integrity of his position, is all sweaty behind him, shoved the covers off the bed
he feels the still-damp spikes of jonghyun's hair from his shower against his neck, poking through the fabric of his shirt and it reminds him of a turf in the morning, the dew-fresh blades of grass brushing underneath the cuff of his pants and against his socks.
it's nothing direct or sure or even comfortable and it's definitely one of the worst cuddles minho's ever participated in, not always concave where jonghyun is convex, the curl of jonghyun's knees awkwardly fitting against his own legs, jonghyun's toes only reaching to his ankles, a conspicuous, awkward distance between jonghyun's hips and his back, but minho can't bring himself to care and even if every inch of their skin isn't quite matched up, it's still perfect because this time, jonghyun is finally in his space.
he feels jonghyun breathe deep, then carefully commit to circling his arm around minho's side in a tenuous kind of embrace, resting his palm lightly against his chest.
minho's still getting used to the touch when,
"i think," jonghyun says slowly, "i think i like you like you like me."
minho's mouth goes dry and he can't reply, and after some seconds of nothing, jonghyun lets himself assume, his voice both hesitant and resolute as he asks,
"if," jonghyun says very bravely, braver than minho could ever be, "if i'm wrong-"
"no," minho interrupts before he can finish, breathes out his panic when he finally feels jonghyun relax behind him. "you aren't."
"okay."
minho cranes his head back, moves to face him, but jonghyun's grip suddenly tightens to keep him in place, "don't."
"no i mean," jonghyun quickly clarifies, "don't turn, okay? don't turn around."
minho nods, swallows his okay.
"i mean, you're always the one behind me," jonghyun chuckles nervously, "so this is kinda new."
and finally, finally minho thinks it's safe enough to let himself tell jonghyun what he's been wanting to tell him the entire time, lets himself be silly and grin and laugh and say-
"hyung, i'm really happy,"
when he feels jonghyun's chest swell behind him, minho laughs even harder.
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