[DBSK] - [FIC][C] Occupational Hazards and Workers' Compensation - 1/2
complete
Disclaimer: clearly i don't own DBSK... not intended for profit, just for fun.
Rating: R (for violence and language)
Genre: action, a bit of romantic comedy
People: Changmin, Jaejoong, cameos by Yunho and Junsu
Pairings: JaeMin
Warnings: none? Changmin has a girlfriend in the beginning, but she only appears briefly in part 2. ^^;;;
Beta: miyun
Dedication: frayen for the hug______ 2010 Holiday Fic Exchange.
They were running, Jaejoong in front and Changmin propelling him forward from behind. The sound of gunfire chased them as they pelted down a narrow street, a spray of bullets narrowly missing them as they ducked into a side alley.
“I thought you said we were at a safehouse!” Jaejoong shouted over his shoulder.
“I thought I told you to watch your head!”
Changmin reached out with one long arm and shoved Jaejoong’s head down, forcing him to run half bent over. He kept Jaejoong in that position as he steered them deeper into the maze of alleyways and sidestreets. They burst forth from the last alley at the edge of a construction site. The project was mostly completed, condominiums by the look of it. The hour was late enough now that the site was completely deserted, and Changmin breathed a word of thanks to whatever deities might be looking out for them.
They picked a house at random and scrambled in, making sure to carefully close the door behind them even though it was still unfinished. Changmin hoped that from the outside, it wouldn’t be immediately apparent which house they were in.
He urged Jaejoong up to the second floor and into the bedroom that faced the street. Changmin didn’t like to leave the back of the property undefended, but there was only so much two people could do, especially since one of the two was supposed to be in the ‘protective’ custody of the National Intelligence Service.
As it was, they were both feeling pretty damn fortunate that Changmin’s training had him leave a packed duffel bag of weapons and defense gear ready by the emergency exit of their original safehouse.
From the bag, Changmin pulled two light bulletproof vests. They wouldn’t protect them from anything heavier than the standard range of handguns, but it was better than nothing. He positioned Jaejoong against an inside wall, away from and out of direct line of the windows, and gave him strict instructions to stay put.
After a quick glance at the street and determining that there were no crazy vehicles careening about the construction site (yet), Changmin scurried back downstairs and set two small charges with trip wires against each of the front and back doors. They were designed to protect entry points to concrete high-rises, but beggars couldn’t be choosers at this point. Changmin just hoped that if their pursuers set them off, they wouldn’t bring the entire townhouse down on Changmin and Jaejoong’s heads.
Then it was back upstairs and praying for the backup that he’d called for twenty minutes ago to arrive before--
“Do you want to call in our new location?” Jaejoong whispered.
Changmin gave him a long look, before settling back against his chosen wall and returning his gaze to the streets below them.
“I’m just making a suggestion. Does your phone have a tracker? Are you sure you didn’t drop it while we were running? Maybe you should check again?”
“Maybe I should I have dropped *you* while we were running,” Changmin muttered under his breath.
And then there was nothing but the sound of their breathing in the quiet night.
===
Special Agent Shim Changmin strode into his boss’ office and slammed a folder down onto his desk.
“What is this? I’m babysitting a rock star? This is the National Intelligence Service. I didn’t realize that who’s going to win at the next Inkigayo was a matter of national security.”
Special Agent Jung Yunho sighed and pushed the folder back at Changmin.
“You know Assembly Member Park? The one who’s taking a hard line on political funding? He’s got inside information that implicates at least twenty Members of the majority party sitting in Assembly right now and two of the big conglomerates. He’s majority shareholder of one of the conglomerates so he’s kind of pissed, but it means he can get access to a lot of private information. He was preparing to come in for his first deposition but word got out and now there’s a hit on him.”
Changmin blinked very slowly, then he carefully reached out and tapped the folder that he’d dropped on Yunho’s desk.
“The pansy-ass rock star?”
“Right, so apparently Park says his entire family is being threatened. And that includes his pretty boy cousin, Kim Jaejoong, who, in addition to being a singer, actually has equal stakes in the Park estate, including shares in that conglomerate against which Park is testifying. Park thinks someone’s trying to take out all the Park heirs so that they can break up the estate and hide the funding scandal.” Yunho smiled winningly at Changmin and pushed the folder harder in his direction. “So everyone in my unit is getting assigned one member of the Park party.”
“But how come I have to babysit the rock kid and not Park? I’m first in our entire division. Where’s Junsu? He’s better at putting up with spoiled types. He can charm birds out of trees.”
Yunho looked a little uncomfortable, but Changmin kept staring him down.
“Junsu’s looking after Park. Uh... they have a past and Junsu talked to the Director... and you know, Junsu really can charm the birds out of the trees.”
“Shit, you mean ‘Park’ is Park Yoochun, Junsu’s ex?”
“Uh... Yeah...”
“That’s against regulation. Guarding someone you’re emotionally involved with.”
“Used to be emotionally involved with...” said Yunho. “And you know, Junsu’s got just as many commendations as you do, so really... It’s not like he’s not qualified...”
“Whatever! Stupid Kim Junsu..”
===
“Stupid, stupid Kim Junsu--”
“Oh hey! You know Junsu? Cute kid with a huge smile?” Jaejoong was beaming at him. “He’s with NIS too, so I guess you must have run into each other before, right? I like him. He’s nice.”
Changmin scowled. “Yeah? Then you should have requested him to be your bodyguard, and *he* could have been the one trapped like a rat in a hole with a non-combatant awaiting death by some low level thug wielding a sawed-off shotgun.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Hey, Changmin? I know we’re in a shitty situation, and I know you’re risking your life for me. I appreciate it, believe me, I do. But I’m still older than you, so you better treat me with some respect, kid, before I beat you down.” Jaejoong’s tone was light, conversational, but there was a hard edge to it. “Besides, they’re using USAS-12s, not ‘sawed-off shotguns’ like in an American movie from the ‘80s.”
Changmin took his eyes off the street again to stare, wide-eyed, at Jaejoong.
However, whatever retort he might have given was preempted by the arrival of their pursuers.
Their Hummer rounded the corner at the end of their block fast, and Changmin hoped that they’d just do a cursory drive-through of the construction site.
“Are they gone yet?”
Changmin jerked at the whisper that came way too close to his ear for comfort.
“I thought I told you to sit down and *stay* down over *there*!”
Jaejoong ignored him and peered out the window, his expression startlingly serious.
“I think they’re just going to drive by... They’re going way too fast.”
The Hummer screeched to a halt and four men jumped out.
Changmin glared at Jaejoong.
“Ah, fuck...”
There were shouts and then there was gunfire, sharp sounds that bled into a messy cacophony as they echoed in the empty courtyard.
It looked like they were shooting out the townhouses at random, and Changmin wondered if it was best to stay quiet or to give their position away by returning fire. There were only four gunmen and Changmin had the higher vantage point, which meant that Changmin could likely put them all down with little or no damage to himself or his charge.
He shifted position and took his first shot.
His target fell to his knees, but instantly, the remaining three gunmen focused their fire on the house in which Changmin and Jaejoong had taken refuge. They were faster than Changmin had given them credit for, professionals.
Changmin shrank back to a side wall, away from the front of the house which was only covered with aluminum siding. Jaejoong was shoved towards the back of the room.
There was a lull in the assault coming from outside, and Changmin peeked out to take another shot. He heard it hit the pavement and he cursed out loud. He took a breath, re-focused, and braced himself to fire again. Once, twice. And the gunmen took refuge behind the giant bins of construction garbage that lined the street.
Changmin retreated as well and waited for their assailants to reveal themselves.
When they started shooting again, Changmin, too, returned fire as before. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, there was no discernible decrease in the rate of fire against them and Changmin had no idea how many men, if any, he’d managed to hit.
After a couple of rounds, Changmin noticed that for every four or five of the rapidfire shots he took, a strange single gunshot would reverberate around the room. He pulled back and looked around. To his extreme surprise, Jaejoong was holding one of the K1 rifles from the duffel bag like a sniper and calmly picking off targets below when Changmin’s fire drew them out.
“What the fuck is this?”
Jaejoong paused only to double check his line of sight before firing again.
“You don’t read your files very well? You should know that I did my military service before debuting as a singer,” he said casually.
Jaejoong carefully shifted his weight and kicked Changmin so that he fell out of his crouch to sprawl on the floor.
The wall where Changmin had been leaning was suddenly riddled with bullet holes.
“I have a pretty good eye.” Jaejoong re-balanced himself and focused again on the street below. “So I trained with the sniper division.”
The enemy fire stopped completely with Jaejoong’s last shot.
“That should be it. Four hostiles, right?”
Changmin took a hard look at Jaejoong. The singer’s white-blonde hair was a little mussed, but still perfectly smooth, the bangs long and covering one of his wide eyes so stylishly. His lips were pursed cutely just like in all the variety shows on TV and a faint blush from the adrenaline rush made his skin glow just like in all his posters. Yet for all that fluffy nonsense, Kim Jaejoong also looked perfectly at home holding his rifle as if it was an extension of his body, like he was a soldier.
“Wait.” Changmin held out a hand. “You can’t even walk down stairs without tripping. In fact, you fell over while standing in the kitchen talking to me last night!”
Jaejoong hid his laugh behind the barrel of his gun.
“Snipers don’t move a lot, kid. You think I don’t know my own limits?” Jaejoong smiled. “I was only good at very specific tasks, like shooting.”
Changmin sucked in a deep breath, gritting his teeth to stop from saying something inappropriate.
“Don’t hurt yourself trying to imagine it, baby dongsaeng,” said Jaejoong, laughing still. “Let’s just chase down your back up.”
“Stop calling me ‘kid’ and ‘baby’!” Changmin finally bellowed.
“Prove to me that you’re mature enough to be treated like an adult, Agent Shim. Stop pouting about being assigned to babysit a pansy-ass rockstar.”
Changmin blinked.
“You know Yunho-sunbae.”
Jaejoong beamed extra brightly.
===
It was four hours later that Changmin and Jaejoong were finally done debriefing at NIS headquarters. They found themselves sitting in SA Jung’s office staring blankly at each other as the sun rose. Well, Jaejoong stared blankly and Changmin glowered. It was awkward, but both parties seemed okay with it.
Until Jaejoong blurted out: “When I was a kid I wanted to own a grocery store. But I’m not very good at tennis.”
Changmin was a bit taken-aback by this declaration and a little unsure of how to respond.
Luckily he was saved by the arrival of Yunho.
The senior Special Agent looked wearier than the two waiting in his office felt. He scrubbed his face with his hands and then slumped into his chair. He refused to look at either of his guests for several minutes.
“We have a leak.”
Jaejoong looked at the ceiling.
Changmin threw a small notepad at Jaejoong’s head while nodding sagely at Yunho. “Of course. That’s how the safehouse location was compromised.”
“We’ve been looking into it since you first called in the emergency extraction and we *still* don’t know where the leak is. The safehouse locations are only known to a select few with Level 5 security clearance. Even I don’t know where all the safehouses are, and I didn’t know which one you were at. The choice of safehouse for each case is done at random by a computer program. We’ve got techs on it, but it doesn’t look like we were hacked, so it was probably an insider.”
Groaning with frustration, Changmin flung himself backwards in his seat.
“Where are Yoochun and Junsu?” asked Jaejoong, his cheeky grin suddenly gone.
Yunho smiled a tight smile at Jaejoong.
“They won’t say, but they’re safe. We contacted them as soon as we got Changmin’s call. No one should have known where the two of you were so we were instantly on alert. Junsu says he’s going dark, but his brother will call my parents or cousins at random intervals to check in. We’re going to try to keep everything offline and out of headquarters.”
Jaejoong nodded.
“Wait, what... what?” Changmin sat up and stared at Yunho in confusion.
“Oh, didn’t Yunho tell you?” Jaejoong explained, in a matter-of-fact tone. “We don’t advertise it because it sounds like it’s a total scandal in the making, but me, Yoochun and Yunho were in the same graduating class in high school. And then Yoochun started dating Junsu in university. Now even our parents are all friends. So we won’t have to go through official channels to talk to each other as they may or may not be compromised.”
There was silence while Changmin digested this new information.
“No wait, what?” he blurted out.
Jaejoong arched an eyebrow at Changmin. “How hard was that to understand?”
Changmin threw a pen at him.
Jaejoong threw the notepad from earlier back at Changmin.
“Work it out in your head later, Changmin. The solution for right now is, you need to go underground too. Take Jaejoong somewhere of your own choosing, off our grid, and keep him there until I tell you that we’re good to go. I’ll leave a message with someone in my family. Jaejoong will know how to contact them.”
There was another pause before Changmin could finally work out a coherent sentence.
“Wait. How do I know *you’re* clean?”
This time it was Yunho’s turn to throw a pen at Changmin.
Jaejoong tried to cover his chuckle with his hands but his eyes curved into happy crescents, giving him away. So Yunho threw a pen at him too.
“You two deserve each other,” he grumbled.
However, despite Yunho being a superior agent and marksman, the second pen missed its mark completely because Jaejoong had spontaneously darted over to the window to point at something on the street below.
“Yunho! Is that the street vendor with the really good ‘toasto’ sandwiches that you used to bring home after working graveyard shifts back in the day? I could totally use one right now. Maybe two. Don’t tell my manager.”
Changmin blinked at Yunho.
Yunho blinked back.
“We, uh... Jaejoong and I were flatmates when I first started at NIS.”
“I don’t want to know.”
And even though Yunho was the senior agent in the room, he pouted.
“Changminnie...”
“No seriously. Stop it.”
“It’s not what you--”
“Zip. It.”
Jaejoong put his hand up like a student in school.
“Can I go get a toasto sandwich now?”
Both NIS agents turned to Jaejoong and simultaneously shouted: “NO! And get away from the window!”
He huffed, exasperated, and sat back down in the chair he’d so recently vacated.
“When you two are done dancing around the topic of homosexuality and one which of the three of us might be gay, I want breakfast..”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHICH OF THE *THREE* OF US?” Changmin bellowed, gesturing wildly.
Yunho sighed and held his hand out to Jaejoong.
“Come on, I’ll take you to get a ‘toasto’. Changmin, go down to the armoury and gear up. Don’t tell anyone what you’re doing or where you’re going. The Director’s given you clearance to sign out whatever you need short of a tank. And don’t tell anyone what you just heard about Yoochun, Junsu, Jaejoongie, and me. We need to be careful about the leak.”
“THEN WHY ARE YOU HOLDING HANDS IN PUBLIC?” Changmin’s wail was cut off when the door to Yunho’s office slammed shut behind the two men.
===
The generic rental sedan that Yunho had procured for Changmin rolled into the underground parking lot of a glass and and steel monster of a high-rise complex exactly thirty eight minutes after Yunho, Jaejoong, and Changmin had finished their breakfast sandwiches at NIS headquarters. They parked in the secured visitor parking area, but Changmin guided them into the lobby through the residents’ entrance rather than through the front doors.
With a familiar nod to the security guard at the front desk, Changmin guided Jaejoong straight to the private elevator in the back.
When they reached the 58th floor, the shining mirrored doors opened directly into the sole penthouse unit.
Even Jaejoong, international idol and superstar, looked impressed.
“Come on in.” Changmin strode into the foyer casually.
“Well, shit, kid...” Jaejoong’s sentence trailed off and he whistled softly instead.
Changmin rubbed the back of his neck and flushed a pale pink.
“My family has money,” he said with an awkward little smile.
“You live here?”
“It’s sort of a present from my grandparents. I think they’re hoping it’ll encourage me to settle down and start a family.” Changmin shrugged. “I only just moved in a couple of weeks ago, and I haven’t even had time to change any of my official records yet.”
“So no one can connect you with this property?”
Changmin shrugged. “Probably not. I think it’s in my grandma’s name. I was supposed to go sign some papers at the lawyer’s office last week, but you know... *you* happened and I had to prep for the mission. Even if they did make the association, it’s against NIS protocol to use our own personal residences as safehouses; it’s actually a pretty stupid move. But sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. People rarely suspect it.”
“That... kind of makes sense.”
“I’m not just a ‘kid’ playing ‘special agent’, Kim Jaejoong-ssi. I put some thought into choosing this location.”
After a second, Jaejoong chuckled and reached up to ruffle Changmin’s hair.
“I gotcha, dongsaeng. Thanks for looking out for me. Even if it’s just your job.”
Changmin’s face turned a deep red and he quickly ducked away from Jaejoong.
“Make yourself at home. There’s a bathroom down that hall, and the guest bedroom is across from it.”
After both men took showers and changed into fresh clothing, they slept for a bit, the stress of the previous night finally catching up with them.
It was late afternoon by the time they emerged from their respective bedrooms, sleep-mussed and fuzzy-headed. Jaejoong had a small white dog tucked casually under one arm.
“I found this in my bed,” he said, holding it out to Changmin.
“Oh, sorry about that.” Changmin looked genuinely apologetic and moved to take the dog from his guest. “That’s Mangdoongie. I forgot about her.”
Jaejoong waved him off and resettled the little puppy more comfortably in his arms. “You shouldn’t name such a pretty girl after a fish. It’s cruel.”
“I think you meant to say ‘charming’,” Changmin countered.
Jaejoong laughed and carried Mangdoong into the kitchen. Changmin followed along to make sure that Jaejoong didn’t set her down on the counter. Together they dug through the cupboards for a quick and easy snack.
In the end, they found themselves sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen eating instant noodles from styrofoam bowls. Jaejoong swung his feet a little bit, the legs of his borrowed sweatpants extending beyond his toes. Mangdoong was gnawing on a dog treat under Jaejoong’s stool. Other than the occasional thump of Jaejoong’s feet hitting the island, and the steady slurping noodles, the two men ate in silence.
Just as Changmin was starting let go of the tension from the last forty eight hours, Jaejoong spoke.
“For the record, I never slept with Yunho.”
Changmin choked a little and Jaejoong scrambled to get him a glass of water.
“I--” Changmin coughed. “I don’t care who you sleep with or slept with or whatever.”
“Well, if we’re going to be forced to live with each other for an unknown amount of time, I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.” Jaejoong peered at him earnestly with wide, shining eyes.
“I said I don’t care if you sleep with guys.”
“I meant that I didn’t want you to think about Yunho and I having raw sweaty sex every time you looked at me.”
Changmin started coughing again.
Jaejoong smiled sweetly and rubbed Changmin’s back in soothing circles.
“Did that creep you out, little dongsaeng?”
Changmin glared at Jaejoong.
“YOU creep me out. It has nothing to do with your sexual activities.”
Jaejoong pouted, but didn’t withdraw his hand.
Changmin waited a full minute, his gaze steadily holding Jaejoong’s in a silent challenge. When Jaejoong still did not take his hand back, Changmin slowly reached over, stabbed his chopsticks into Jaejoong’s bowl, and stole the giant clump of noodles remaining in his soup.
To Changmin’s surprise, Jaejoong let out a cry of victory rather than indignation.
“Indirect kiss!” he crowed.
Changmin promptly slugged him in the shoulder, but finished eating the noodles anyway.
===
The next morning Changmin was highly alarmed to wake up to Jaejoong’s face a mere inch from his own.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY BED?” he screamed as he hastily backed away from Jaejoong’s pursed lips.
Jaejoong snuggled down a bit further before slowly blinking his way to wakefulness.
“Hi, Changmin-ah,” he mumbled softly.
“Don’t greet me so casually!”
Jaejoong scrunched his face this way and that a couple of times as if to stretch the muscles. Then he put on an exaggeratedly serious expression and said very formally: “Annyong ha shimnikka, Shim-ssi.”
Changmin kicked him off the bed with one swift move.
Though Jaejoong was sort of all over the place, jumping from serious to silly, worried to happy, clever to dumb as a rock to gross sleazy bastard, the underlying elements of his personality that remained constant were his good nature and sincerity. Sp despite being deposited on the floor so unceremoniously by Changmin at 8 in the morning, Jaejoong popped up laughing.
“Stay in bed, Changmin-ah. I’ll go get breakfast ready. It’s the least I can do after putting you through such inconvenience.”
Changmin tried not to let his surprise show, but he couldn’t help smiling at Jaejoong in thanks.
“You’re such a cute kid when you’re not being so sarcastic.”
Changmin threw a pillow after him. “You still haven’t told me why you were in my bed!”
===
After breakfast, Changmin set about securing their position. He gave Jaejoong one of the disposable cellphones that he always kept close at hand in case of emergency and instructed him to touch base with one of the contacts that Yunho had mentioned. They needed food for the both of them, clothes for Jaejoong, and... hair dye.
Jaejoong made a face.
“You have to okay appearance changes with my agency, you know that right?”
Changmin made the same face back at Jaejoong.
“You know someone almost killed you last night because they probably saw your blonde hair when you peeked through the window over my shoulder, right?”
Jaejoong ducked his head and ran a hand through his hair. Changmin tried not to admire how softly it framed his face now that it wasn’t styled and gelled into gravity-defying shapes.
“Your hair was black just last year. Girls loved it. Don’t worry about your stylists and image coaches.”
Jaejoong beamed at Changmin like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. It was almost blinding.
“You’re a fan of mine!”
“I watch TV.”
“You watch me on TV!”
“Call Yunho-sunbae’s sister or cousin or whatever!” Changmin snapped before he stormed back into his study to continue cataloguing supplies.
He was interrupted a few minutes later by Jaejoong throwing himself prettily across Changmin’s desk, and striking a pose.
“Junho’s coming over in two hours with groceries and stuff. He’s got some of Junsu’s old clothes that will fit me. I told him to leave it with the security desk.”
“Kim Junho. My partner Junsu’s brother. That Kim Junho.” Changmin looked skeptical.
Jaejoong shrugged and lay back on Changmin’s desk, hands behind his head.
“I told you that we were all connected. You just don’t listen to-- Hey, is this your girlfriend? She’s pretty!” Jaejoong was still lying down but had picked up a picture frame that had been on Changmin’s desk. “You two make a cute couple. Is this Japan? I’ve been to Japan. I have a fanclub there too.”
Changmin snatched the photo out of Jaejoong’s hand and set it back neatly on the desk.
“Thanks. We’ve been dating for a little over a year.”
Jaejoong sat up and stared at Changmin, eyes wide.
“Only a year and you’re already living together? Scandalous.”
“How do you know we’re living together?” asked Changmin, surprised. After all, they’d only just moved into this apartment and the furniture and fixtures were relatively generic, not really indicative of the gender of the resident(s).
Jaejoong smiled slyly and replied: “I was grabbing an extra blanket from the hall closet and I saw a bunch of panties in the laundry hamper. I was all excited about your secret kinky side, but then I realized that they looked a little too small for you in the waist. Too bad.”
He hopped off the desk and shuffled out into the hall, calling for Mangdoong to play with him.
===
“Is your girlfriend going to mind that I’m staying with you guys for who knows how long?” Jaejoong’s voice was muffled against Changmin’s chest. “Where is she anyway?”
Changmin took a step back so that he could look down at Jaejoong’s face, but he couldn’t go too far as his hands were covered with black hair dye.
“She’s in Japan for another four months. Her company asked her to help set up a new branch office in Tokyo. I think she’s going to be too busy to call me, let alone mind the fact that I seem to have shacked up with another man.”
Jaejoong laughed hard, sprinkling little droplets of dye onto his bare shoulders and around his seat.
“Are you going to tell her about straddling my naked lap with your hands in my hair?” He tugged at Changmin’s elbow playfully, grinning when the Special Agent blushed.
The hair-dying process had started with Jaejoong trotting obediently into the bathroom clutching the stuff that Junho had brought over.
But not five minutes later he’d shuffled back out, stripped down to his underwear, and only his bangs covered with the dye.
“I can’t see if I’m getting the back covered properly,” he whined. “And, I think you might shoot me in the face if I get black dye all over your bathroom.”
Changmin was instantly up and ushering Jaejoong back into the bathroom.
He’d directed Jaejoong to sit on the edge of the tub and lean back slightly so that he wouldn’t drip onto the bathroom floor. Then Changmin took the plastic gloves from the dye kit and got to work, slowly massaging the dye into Jaejoong’s hair, making sure that all the platinum blond strands were evenly coated.
“I think that’s it,” said Changmin, surveying his handiwork. “Well, at any rate, we’re out of dye, so it’s going to have to be good enough.”
Jaejoong made to get up and look in the mirror, but Changmin pushed him back down just as quickly.
“You’re still drippy. Stay in the tub area,” he commanded.
Jaejoong rolled his eyes but didn’t argue.
“We have to let the dye sit for thirty minutes before we can rinse,” said Changmin, carefully reading the instructions from the side of the box before tossing it and the soiled gloves into the garbage. “Don’t move. I’ll go grab you something to drink.”
Jaejoong wriggled his toes but didn’t say anything else.
When Changmin returned with two bottles of water, Jaejoong smiled happily and waved at him, like a little boy.
“I was hoping for beer, but I guess drunk hair-dying isn’t really advisable.”
Changmin laughed and shook his head ‘no’.
They toasted each other with their water and raised their bottles to drink.
“Oh, shit,” Jaejoong paused with his water halfway to his mouth. “I totally must have leaned on you or something. I think I ruined your shirt...”
Changmin looked down to see a large black/grey smear across his lower chest and upper abdomen.
“Ah, nothing worth swearing over,” he said flippantly. “It’s just a cheap tank that I got at the department store.”
He stripped it off and tossed it into the garbage.
“I’ve got others. Don’t worry about it. It’s one of the risks of hair dye.”
“Putting your life *and* wardrobe on the line for me. The sacrifice, it’s too much.”
And Changmin laughed again, a full hearty laugh that forced him to put down his water before he spilled it.
“Stay and chat with me while I wait?” Jaejoong pleaded, putting on his best ‘cute puppy’ expression.
“Fine,” Changmin conceded. “But I’m not helping you rinse it out.”
Jaejoong flashed him a sleazy look. “You might change your mind when you see me dripping wet.”
Chagnmin splashed some water on Jaejoong’s torso from his bottle, cocked his head, and stared for a long second.
“Nope. Haven’t changed my mind. Still not going to help you rinse it out.”
This time Jaejoong was the one who doubled over with laughter.
And so they talked casually for exactly thirty minutes, whereupon Jaejoong stepped into the shower properly, by himself, closed the curtain, and rinsed out his hair. If he noticed that Changmin stayed in the small room to continue their conversation, he didn’t draw attention to it.
===
Part 2
Disclaimer: clearly i don't own DBSK... not intended for profit, just for fun.
Rating: R (for violence and language)
Genre: action, a bit of romantic comedy
People: Changmin, Jaejoong, cameos by Yunho and Junsu
Pairings: JaeMin
Warnings: none? Changmin has a girlfriend in the beginning, but she only appears briefly in part 2. ^^;;;
Beta: miyun
Dedication: frayen for the hug______ 2010 Holiday Fic Exchange.
They were running, Jaejoong in front and Changmin propelling him forward from behind. The sound of gunfire chased them as they pelted down a narrow street, a spray of bullets narrowly missing them as they ducked into a side alley.
“I thought you said we were at a safehouse!” Jaejoong shouted over his shoulder.
“I thought I told you to watch your head!”
Changmin reached out with one long arm and shoved Jaejoong’s head down, forcing him to run half bent over. He kept Jaejoong in that position as he steered them deeper into the maze of alleyways and sidestreets. They burst forth from the last alley at the edge of a construction site. The project was mostly completed, condominiums by the look of it. The hour was late enough now that the site was completely deserted, and Changmin breathed a word of thanks to whatever deities might be looking out for them.
They picked a house at random and scrambled in, making sure to carefully close the door behind them even though it was still unfinished. Changmin hoped that from the outside, it wouldn’t be immediately apparent which house they were in.
He urged Jaejoong up to the second floor and into the bedroom that faced the street. Changmin didn’t like to leave the back of the property undefended, but there was only so much two people could do, especially since one of the two was supposed to be in the ‘protective’ custody of the National Intelligence Service.
As it was, they were both feeling pretty damn fortunate that Changmin’s training had him leave a packed duffel bag of weapons and defense gear ready by the emergency exit of their original safehouse.
From the bag, Changmin pulled two light bulletproof vests. They wouldn’t protect them from anything heavier than the standard range of handguns, but it was better than nothing. He positioned Jaejoong against an inside wall, away from and out of direct line of the windows, and gave him strict instructions to stay put.
After a quick glance at the street and determining that there were no crazy vehicles careening about the construction site (yet), Changmin scurried back downstairs and set two small charges with trip wires against each of the front and back doors. They were designed to protect entry points to concrete high-rises, but beggars couldn’t be choosers at this point. Changmin just hoped that if their pursuers set them off, they wouldn’t bring the entire townhouse down on Changmin and Jaejoong’s heads.
Then it was back upstairs and praying for the backup that he’d called for twenty minutes ago to arrive before--
“Do you want to call in our new location?” Jaejoong whispered.
Changmin gave him a long look, before settling back against his chosen wall and returning his gaze to the streets below them.
“I’m just making a suggestion. Does your phone have a tracker? Are you sure you didn’t drop it while we were running? Maybe you should check again?”
“Maybe I should I have dropped *you* while we were running,” Changmin muttered under his breath.
And then there was nothing but the sound of their breathing in the quiet night.
===
Special Agent Shim Changmin strode into his boss’ office and slammed a folder down onto his desk.
“What is this? I’m babysitting a rock star? This is the National Intelligence Service. I didn’t realize that who’s going to win at the next Inkigayo was a matter of national security.”
Special Agent Jung Yunho sighed and pushed the folder back at Changmin.
“You know Assembly Member Park? The one who’s taking a hard line on political funding? He’s got inside information that implicates at least twenty Members of the majority party sitting in Assembly right now and two of the big conglomerates. He’s majority shareholder of one of the conglomerates so he’s kind of pissed, but it means he can get access to a lot of private information. He was preparing to come in for his first deposition but word got out and now there’s a hit on him.”
Changmin blinked very slowly, then he carefully reached out and tapped the folder that he’d dropped on Yunho’s desk.
“The pansy-ass rock star?”
“Right, so apparently Park says his entire family is being threatened. And that includes his pretty boy cousin, Kim Jaejoong, who, in addition to being a singer, actually has equal stakes in the Park estate, including shares in that conglomerate against which Park is testifying. Park thinks someone’s trying to take out all the Park heirs so that they can break up the estate and hide the funding scandal.” Yunho smiled winningly at Changmin and pushed the folder harder in his direction. “So everyone in my unit is getting assigned one member of the Park party.”
“But how come I have to babysit the rock kid and not Park? I’m first in our entire division. Where’s Junsu? He’s better at putting up with spoiled types. He can charm birds out of trees.”
Yunho looked a little uncomfortable, but Changmin kept staring him down.
“Junsu’s looking after Park. Uh... they have a past and Junsu talked to the Director... and you know, Junsu really can charm the birds out of the trees.”
“Shit, you mean ‘Park’ is Park Yoochun, Junsu’s ex?”
“Uh... Yeah...”
“That’s against regulation. Guarding someone you’re emotionally involved with.”
“Used to be emotionally involved with...” said Yunho. “And you know, Junsu’s got just as many commendations as you do, so really... It’s not like he’s not qualified...”
“Whatever! Stupid Kim Junsu..”
===
“Stupid, stupid Kim Junsu--”
“Oh hey! You know Junsu? Cute kid with a huge smile?” Jaejoong was beaming at him. “He’s with NIS too, so I guess you must have run into each other before, right? I like him. He’s nice.”
Changmin scowled. “Yeah? Then you should have requested him to be your bodyguard, and *he* could have been the one trapped like a rat in a hole with a non-combatant awaiting death by some low level thug wielding a sawed-off shotgun.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Hey, Changmin? I know we’re in a shitty situation, and I know you’re risking your life for me. I appreciate it, believe me, I do. But I’m still older than you, so you better treat me with some respect, kid, before I beat you down.” Jaejoong’s tone was light, conversational, but there was a hard edge to it. “Besides, they’re using USAS-12s, not ‘sawed-off shotguns’ like in an American movie from the ‘80s.”
Changmin took his eyes off the street again to stare, wide-eyed, at Jaejoong.
However, whatever retort he might have given was preempted by the arrival of their pursuers.
Their Hummer rounded the corner at the end of their block fast, and Changmin hoped that they’d just do a cursory drive-through of the construction site.
“Are they gone yet?”
Changmin jerked at the whisper that came way too close to his ear for comfort.
“I thought I told you to sit down and *stay* down over *there*!”
Jaejoong ignored him and peered out the window, his expression startlingly serious.
“I think they’re just going to drive by... They’re going way too fast.”
The Hummer screeched to a halt and four men jumped out.
Changmin glared at Jaejoong.
“Ah, fuck...”
There were shouts and then there was gunfire, sharp sounds that bled into a messy cacophony as they echoed in the empty courtyard.
It looked like they were shooting out the townhouses at random, and Changmin wondered if it was best to stay quiet or to give their position away by returning fire. There were only four gunmen and Changmin had the higher vantage point, which meant that Changmin could likely put them all down with little or no damage to himself or his charge.
He shifted position and took his first shot.
His target fell to his knees, but instantly, the remaining three gunmen focused their fire on the house in which Changmin and Jaejoong had taken refuge. They were faster than Changmin had given them credit for, professionals.
Changmin shrank back to a side wall, away from the front of the house which was only covered with aluminum siding. Jaejoong was shoved towards the back of the room.
There was a lull in the assault coming from outside, and Changmin peeked out to take another shot. He heard it hit the pavement and he cursed out loud. He took a breath, re-focused, and braced himself to fire again. Once, twice. And the gunmen took refuge behind the giant bins of construction garbage that lined the street.
Changmin retreated as well and waited for their assailants to reveal themselves.
When they started shooting again, Changmin, too, returned fire as before. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, there was no discernible decrease in the rate of fire against them and Changmin had no idea how many men, if any, he’d managed to hit.
After a couple of rounds, Changmin noticed that for every four or five of the rapidfire shots he took, a strange single gunshot would reverberate around the room. He pulled back and looked around. To his extreme surprise, Jaejoong was holding one of the K1 rifles from the duffel bag like a sniper and calmly picking off targets below when Changmin’s fire drew them out.
“What the fuck is this?”
Jaejoong paused only to double check his line of sight before firing again.
“You don’t read your files very well? You should know that I did my military service before debuting as a singer,” he said casually.
Jaejoong carefully shifted his weight and kicked Changmin so that he fell out of his crouch to sprawl on the floor.
The wall where Changmin had been leaning was suddenly riddled with bullet holes.
“I have a pretty good eye.” Jaejoong re-balanced himself and focused again on the street below. “So I trained with the sniper division.”
The enemy fire stopped completely with Jaejoong’s last shot.
“That should be it. Four hostiles, right?”
Changmin took a hard look at Jaejoong. The singer’s white-blonde hair was a little mussed, but still perfectly smooth, the bangs long and covering one of his wide eyes so stylishly. His lips were pursed cutely just like in all the variety shows on TV and a faint blush from the adrenaline rush made his skin glow just like in all his posters. Yet for all that fluffy nonsense, Kim Jaejoong also looked perfectly at home holding his rifle as if it was an extension of his body, like he was a soldier.
“Wait.” Changmin held out a hand. “You can’t even walk down stairs without tripping. In fact, you fell over while standing in the kitchen talking to me last night!”
Jaejoong hid his laugh behind the barrel of his gun.
“Snipers don’t move a lot, kid. You think I don’t know my own limits?” Jaejoong smiled. “I was only good at very specific tasks, like shooting.”
Changmin sucked in a deep breath, gritting his teeth to stop from saying something inappropriate.
“Don’t hurt yourself trying to imagine it, baby dongsaeng,” said Jaejoong, laughing still. “Let’s just chase down your back up.”
“Stop calling me ‘kid’ and ‘baby’!” Changmin finally bellowed.
“Prove to me that you’re mature enough to be treated like an adult, Agent Shim. Stop pouting about being assigned to babysit a pansy-ass rockstar.”
Changmin blinked.
“You know Yunho-sunbae.”
Jaejoong beamed extra brightly.
===
It was four hours later that Changmin and Jaejoong were finally done debriefing at NIS headquarters. They found themselves sitting in SA Jung’s office staring blankly at each other as the sun rose. Well, Jaejoong stared blankly and Changmin glowered. It was awkward, but both parties seemed okay with it.
Until Jaejoong blurted out: “When I was a kid I wanted to own a grocery store. But I’m not very good at tennis.”
Changmin was a bit taken-aback by this declaration and a little unsure of how to respond.
Luckily he was saved by the arrival of Yunho.
The senior Special Agent looked wearier than the two waiting in his office felt. He scrubbed his face with his hands and then slumped into his chair. He refused to look at either of his guests for several minutes.
“We have a leak.”
Jaejoong looked at the ceiling.
Changmin threw a small notepad at Jaejoong’s head while nodding sagely at Yunho. “Of course. That’s how the safehouse location was compromised.”
“We’ve been looking into it since you first called in the emergency extraction and we *still* don’t know where the leak is. The safehouse locations are only known to a select few with Level 5 security clearance. Even I don’t know where all the safehouses are, and I didn’t know which one you were at. The choice of safehouse for each case is done at random by a computer program. We’ve got techs on it, but it doesn’t look like we were hacked, so it was probably an insider.”
Groaning with frustration, Changmin flung himself backwards in his seat.
“Where are Yoochun and Junsu?” asked Jaejoong, his cheeky grin suddenly gone.
Yunho smiled a tight smile at Jaejoong.
“They won’t say, but they’re safe. We contacted them as soon as we got Changmin’s call. No one should have known where the two of you were so we were instantly on alert. Junsu says he’s going dark, but his brother will call my parents or cousins at random intervals to check in. We’re going to try to keep everything offline and out of headquarters.”
Jaejoong nodded.
“Wait, what... what?” Changmin sat up and stared at Yunho in confusion.
“Oh, didn’t Yunho tell you?” Jaejoong explained, in a matter-of-fact tone. “We don’t advertise it because it sounds like it’s a total scandal in the making, but me, Yoochun and Yunho were in the same graduating class in high school. And then Yoochun started dating Junsu in university. Now even our parents are all friends. So we won’t have to go through official channels to talk to each other as they may or may not be compromised.”
There was silence while Changmin digested this new information.
“No wait, what?” he blurted out.
Jaejoong arched an eyebrow at Changmin. “How hard was that to understand?”
Changmin threw a pen at him.
Jaejoong threw the notepad from earlier back at Changmin.
“Work it out in your head later, Changmin. The solution for right now is, you need to go underground too. Take Jaejoong somewhere of your own choosing, off our grid, and keep him there until I tell you that we’re good to go. I’ll leave a message with someone in my family. Jaejoong will know how to contact them.”
There was another pause before Changmin could finally work out a coherent sentence.
“Wait. How do I know *you’re* clean?”
This time it was Yunho’s turn to throw a pen at Changmin.
Jaejoong tried to cover his chuckle with his hands but his eyes curved into happy crescents, giving him away. So Yunho threw a pen at him too.
“You two deserve each other,” he grumbled.
However, despite Yunho being a superior agent and marksman, the second pen missed its mark completely because Jaejoong had spontaneously darted over to the window to point at something on the street below.
“Yunho! Is that the street vendor with the really good ‘toasto’ sandwiches that you used to bring home after working graveyard shifts back in the day? I could totally use one right now. Maybe two. Don’t tell my manager.”
Changmin blinked at Yunho.
Yunho blinked back.
“We, uh... Jaejoong and I were flatmates when I first started at NIS.”
“I don’t want to know.”
And even though Yunho was the senior agent in the room, he pouted.
“Changminnie...”
“No seriously. Stop it.”
“It’s not what you--”
“Zip. It.”
Jaejoong put his hand up like a student in school.
“Can I go get a toasto sandwich now?”
Both NIS agents turned to Jaejoong and simultaneously shouted: “NO! And get away from the window!”
He huffed, exasperated, and sat back down in the chair he’d so recently vacated.
“When you two are done dancing around the topic of homosexuality and one which of the three of us might be gay, I want breakfast..”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHICH OF THE *THREE* OF US?” Changmin bellowed, gesturing wildly.
Yunho sighed and held his hand out to Jaejoong.
“Come on, I’ll take you to get a ‘toasto’. Changmin, go down to the armoury and gear up. Don’t tell anyone what you’re doing or where you’re going. The Director’s given you clearance to sign out whatever you need short of a tank. And don’t tell anyone what you just heard about Yoochun, Junsu, Jaejoongie, and me. We need to be careful about the leak.”
“THEN WHY ARE YOU HOLDING HANDS IN PUBLIC?” Changmin’s wail was cut off when the door to Yunho’s office slammed shut behind the two men.
===
The generic rental sedan that Yunho had procured for Changmin rolled into the underground parking lot of a glass and and steel monster of a high-rise complex exactly thirty eight minutes after Yunho, Jaejoong, and Changmin had finished their breakfast sandwiches at NIS headquarters. They parked in the secured visitor parking area, but Changmin guided them into the lobby through the residents’ entrance rather than through the front doors.
With a familiar nod to the security guard at the front desk, Changmin guided Jaejoong straight to the private elevator in the back.
When they reached the 58th floor, the shining mirrored doors opened directly into the sole penthouse unit.
Even Jaejoong, international idol and superstar, looked impressed.
“Come on in.” Changmin strode into the foyer casually.
“Well, shit, kid...” Jaejoong’s sentence trailed off and he whistled softly instead.
Changmin rubbed the back of his neck and flushed a pale pink.
“My family has money,” he said with an awkward little smile.
“You live here?”
“It’s sort of a present from my grandparents. I think they’re hoping it’ll encourage me to settle down and start a family.” Changmin shrugged. “I only just moved in a couple of weeks ago, and I haven’t even had time to change any of my official records yet.”
“So no one can connect you with this property?”
Changmin shrugged. “Probably not. I think it’s in my grandma’s name. I was supposed to go sign some papers at the lawyer’s office last week, but you know... *you* happened and I had to prep for the mission. Even if they did make the association, it’s against NIS protocol to use our own personal residences as safehouses; it’s actually a pretty stupid move. But sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. People rarely suspect it.”
“That... kind of makes sense.”
“I’m not just a ‘kid’ playing ‘special agent’, Kim Jaejoong-ssi. I put some thought into choosing this location.”
After a second, Jaejoong chuckled and reached up to ruffle Changmin’s hair.
“I gotcha, dongsaeng. Thanks for looking out for me. Even if it’s just your job.”
Changmin’s face turned a deep red and he quickly ducked away from Jaejoong.
“Make yourself at home. There’s a bathroom down that hall, and the guest bedroom is across from it.”
After both men took showers and changed into fresh clothing, they slept for a bit, the stress of the previous night finally catching up with them.
It was late afternoon by the time they emerged from their respective bedrooms, sleep-mussed and fuzzy-headed. Jaejoong had a small white dog tucked casually under one arm.
“I found this in my bed,” he said, holding it out to Changmin.
“Oh, sorry about that.” Changmin looked genuinely apologetic and moved to take the dog from his guest. “That’s Mangdoongie. I forgot about her.”
Jaejoong waved him off and resettled the little puppy more comfortably in his arms. “You shouldn’t name such a pretty girl after a fish. It’s cruel.”
“I think you meant to say ‘charming’,” Changmin countered.
Jaejoong laughed and carried Mangdoong into the kitchen. Changmin followed along to make sure that Jaejoong didn’t set her down on the counter. Together they dug through the cupboards for a quick and easy snack.
In the end, they found themselves sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen eating instant noodles from styrofoam bowls. Jaejoong swung his feet a little bit, the legs of his borrowed sweatpants extending beyond his toes. Mangdoong was gnawing on a dog treat under Jaejoong’s stool. Other than the occasional thump of Jaejoong’s feet hitting the island, and the steady slurping noodles, the two men ate in silence.
Just as Changmin was starting let go of the tension from the last forty eight hours, Jaejoong spoke.
“For the record, I never slept with Yunho.”
Changmin choked a little and Jaejoong scrambled to get him a glass of water.
“I--” Changmin coughed. “I don’t care who you sleep with or slept with or whatever.”
“Well, if we’re going to be forced to live with each other for an unknown amount of time, I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.” Jaejoong peered at him earnestly with wide, shining eyes.
“I said I don’t care if you sleep with guys.”
“I meant that I didn’t want you to think about Yunho and I having raw sweaty sex every time you looked at me.”
Changmin started coughing again.
Jaejoong smiled sweetly and rubbed Changmin’s back in soothing circles.
“Did that creep you out, little dongsaeng?”
Changmin glared at Jaejoong.
“YOU creep me out. It has nothing to do with your sexual activities.”
Jaejoong pouted, but didn’t withdraw his hand.
Changmin waited a full minute, his gaze steadily holding Jaejoong’s in a silent challenge. When Jaejoong still did not take his hand back, Changmin slowly reached over, stabbed his chopsticks into Jaejoong’s bowl, and stole the giant clump of noodles remaining in his soup.
To Changmin’s surprise, Jaejoong let out a cry of victory rather than indignation.
“Indirect kiss!” he crowed.
Changmin promptly slugged him in the shoulder, but finished eating the noodles anyway.
===
The next morning Changmin was highly alarmed to wake up to Jaejoong’s face a mere inch from his own.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY BED?” he screamed as he hastily backed away from Jaejoong’s pursed lips.
Jaejoong snuggled down a bit further before slowly blinking his way to wakefulness.
“Hi, Changmin-ah,” he mumbled softly.
“Don’t greet me so casually!”
Jaejoong scrunched his face this way and that a couple of times as if to stretch the muscles. Then he put on an exaggeratedly serious expression and said very formally: “Annyong ha shimnikka, Shim-ssi.”
Changmin kicked him off the bed with one swift move.
Though Jaejoong was sort of all over the place, jumping from serious to silly, worried to happy, clever to dumb as a rock to gross sleazy bastard, the underlying elements of his personality that remained constant were his good nature and sincerity. Sp despite being deposited on the floor so unceremoniously by Changmin at 8 in the morning, Jaejoong popped up laughing.
“Stay in bed, Changmin-ah. I’ll go get breakfast ready. It’s the least I can do after putting you through such inconvenience.”
Changmin tried not to let his surprise show, but he couldn’t help smiling at Jaejoong in thanks.
“You’re such a cute kid when you’re not being so sarcastic.”
Changmin threw a pillow after him. “You still haven’t told me why you were in my bed!”
===
After breakfast, Changmin set about securing their position. He gave Jaejoong one of the disposable cellphones that he always kept close at hand in case of emergency and instructed him to touch base with one of the contacts that Yunho had mentioned. They needed food for the both of them, clothes for Jaejoong, and... hair dye.
Jaejoong made a face.
“You have to okay appearance changes with my agency, you know that right?”
Changmin made the same face back at Jaejoong.
“You know someone almost killed you last night because they probably saw your blonde hair when you peeked through the window over my shoulder, right?”
Jaejoong ducked his head and ran a hand through his hair. Changmin tried not to admire how softly it framed his face now that it wasn’t styled and gelled into gravity-defying shapes.
“Your hair was black just last year. Girls loved it. Don’t worry about your stylists and image coaches.”
Jaejoong beamed at Changmin like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. It was almost blinding.
“You’re a fan of mine!”
“I watch TV.”
“You watch me on TV!”
“Call Yunho-sunbae’s sister or cousin or whatever!” Changmin snapped before he stormed back into his study to continue cataloguing supplies.
He was interrupted a few minutes later by Jaejoong throwing himself prettily across Changmin’s desk, and striking a pose.
“Junho’s coming over in two hours with groceries and stuff. He’s got some of Junsu’s old clothes that will fit me. I told him to leave it with the security desk.”
“Kim Junho. My partner Junsu’s brother. That Kim Junho.” Changmin looked skeptical.
Jaejoong shrugged and lay back on Changmin’s desk, hands behind his head.
“I told you that we were all connected. You just don’t listen to-- Hey, is this your girlfriend? She’s pretty!” Jaejoong was still lying down but had picked up a picture frame that had been on Changmin’s desk. “You two make a cute couple. Is this Japan? I’ve been to Japan. I have a fanclub there too.”
Changmin snatched the photo out of Jaejoong’s hand and set it back neatly on the desk.
“Thanks. We’ve been dating for a little over a year.”
Jaejoong sat up and stared at Changmin, eyes wide.
“Only a year and you’re already living together? Scandalous.”
“How do you know we’re living together?” asked Changmin, surprised. After all, they’d only just moved into this apartment and the furniture and fixtures were relatively generic, not really indicative of the gender of the resident(s).
Jaejoong smiled slyly and replied: “I was grabbing an extra blanket from the hall closet and I saw a bunch of panties in the laundry hamper. I was all excited about your secret kinky side, but then I realized that they looked a little too small for you in the waist. Too bad.”
He hopped off the desk and shuffled out into the hall, calling for Mangdoong to play with him.
===
“Is your girlfriend going to mind that I’m staying with you guys for who knows how long?” Jaejoong’s voice was muffled against Changmin’s chest. “Where is she anyway?”
Changmin took a step back so that he could look down at Jaejoong’s face, but he couldn’t go too far as his hands were covered with black hair dye.
“She’s in Japan for another four months. Her company asked her to help set up a new branch office in Tokyo. I think she’s going to be too busy to call me, let alone mind the fact that I seem to have shacked up with another man.”
Jaejoong laughed hard, sprinkling little droplets of dye onto his bare shoulders and around his seat.
“Are you going to tell her about straddling my naked lap with your hands in my hair?” He tugged at Changmin’s elbow playfully, grinning when the Special Agent blushed.
The hair-dying process had started with Jaejoong trotting obediently into the bathroom clutching the stuff that Junho had brought over.
But not five minutes later he’d shuffled back out, stripped down to his underwear, and only his bangs covered with the dye.
“I can’t see if I’m getting the back covered properly,” he whined. “And, I think you might shoot me in the face if I get black dye all over your bathroom.”
Changmin was instantly up and ushering Jaejoong back into the bathroom.
He’d directed Jaejoong to sit on the edge of the tub and lean back slightly so that he wouldn’t drip onto the bathroom floor. Then Changmin took the plastic gloves from the dye kit and got to work, slowly massaging the dye into Jaejoong’s hair, making sure that all the platinum blond strands were evenly coated.
“I think that’s it,” said Changmin, surveying his handiwork. “Well, at any rate, we’re out of dye, so it’s going to have to be good enough.”
Jaejoong made to get up and look in the mirror, but Changmin pushed him back down just as quickly.
“You’re still drippy. Stay in the tub area,” he commanded.
Jaejoong rolled his eyes but didn’t argue.
“We have to let the dye sit for thirty minutes before we can rinse,” said Changmin, carefully reading the instructions from the side of the box before tossing it and the soiled gloves into the garbage. “Don’t move. I’ll go grab you something to drink.”
Jaejoong wriggled his toes but didn’t say anything else.
When Changmin returned with two bottles of water, Jaejoong smiled happily and waved at him, like a little boy.
“I was hoping for beer, but I guess drunk hair-dying isn’t really advisable.”
Changmin laughed and shook his head ‘no’.
They toasted each other with their water and raised their bottles to drink.
“Oh, shit,” Jaejoong paused with his water halfway to his mouth. “I totally must have leaned on you or something. I think I ruined your shirt...”
Changmin looked down to see a large black/grey smear across his lower chest and upper abdomen.
“Ah, nothing worth swearing over,” he said flippantly. “It’s just a cheap tank that I got at the department store.”
He stripped it off and tossed it into the garbage.
“I’ve got others. Don’t worry about it. It’s one of the risks of hair dye.”
“Putting your life *and* wardrobe on the line for me. The sacrifice, it’s too much.”
And Changmin laughed again, a full hearty laugh that forced him to put down his water before he spilled it.
“Stay and chat with me while I wait?” Jaejoong pleaded, putting on his best ‘cute puppy’ expression.
“Fine,” Changmin conceded. “But I’m not helping you rinse it out.”
Jaejoong flashed him a sleazy look. “You might change your mind when you see me dripping wet.”
Chagnmin splashed some water on Jaejoong’s torso from his bottle, cocked his head, and stared for a long second.
“Nope. Haven’t changed my mind. Still not going to help you rinse it out.”
This time Jaejoong was the one who doubled over with laughter.
And so they talked casually for exactly thirty minutes, whereupon Jaejoong stepped into the shower properly, by himself, closed the curtain, and rinsed out his hair. If he noticed that Changmin stayed in the small room to continue their conversation, he didn’t draw attention to it.
===
Part 2