inbox #20

[kpopv]

inbox #20
1. super junior/f(x), henry/amber, bickering roommates, g-pg13
2. super junior, heechul/hankyung, "i owe you a punch in the face", g-r
3. smtown, anyone (except exo), sherlock bbc/elementary!au (go wild), g-r
4. f(x), bffs!amber/krystal, "you're my 2am", g-r
5. super junior, eunhyuk/sungmin, this, g-r

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[perfectiontales]

Swim Good; Super Junior. Heechul/Hankyung. G. 740 words.

Things don't change until two years after Super Junior's disbandment. Jungsoo gets married, and so does Siwon. Hyukjae ends up hosting multiple variety shows, his face still on billboards, alone, and Kibum calls more often. Life slows down but things don't change for Heechul, not for a long, long while. It doesn't happen on a drunken Friday night, nor does it happen on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Instead the lethargic routine breaks, or rather, a new one shows signs of coming together on a hot Wednesday morning. The sun is shining too brightly and the back of Heechul's shirt is sticking to his back the same way the bitterness of the coffee is still hugging his tongue when Donghae calls him, frantic, whispering, "He's coming back."

"What?"

"He's coming back," Donghae says again, once, twice, and once more, almost chanting it to himself more than Heechul.

Heechul rolls his eyes and picks up his empty coffee mug with a shake of his head. Back in the days, Donghae would do the same whenever they won an award, or hit a milestone, whispering the words and over again for hours. He'd fidget in his spot for hours and oftentimes, he'd cry, too.

"Who's coming back? Yah, Donghae, did you read something funny again-"

"Hankyung-hyung," comes the reply. "I sent Hankyung hyung an invitation. He's coming back."

"I didn't think he'd respond, you know?" Donghae says, breathless, and hopeful. Excited, even if his voice sounds as raspy as Heechul's throat feels. "But he emailed me back." Sandpaper and bitter coffee doesn't go well together. "He said that we were still brothers after all and that - that he wouldn't miss it for the world, not since the media has finally taken a step back."

"I - um."

Heechul can talk for hours in one go but he has never been good at expressing himself. Not in unexpected situation. Not when Hankyung is mentioned. He is closer to forty than he is to thirty then, standing out on his balcony in a pair of worn-out sweatpants and a mug of instant coffee in hand, silent.

"Do you want to pick him up?"

"Yeah," Heechul hears himself say in an instant. It is the twenty seven year old himself speaking, the one still clinging onto miniscule bits of hope. "Sure."

Yeah, sure. He doesn't know how he let the words slip past him. He doesn't know why he didn't call back to decline immediately - Donghae would have understood and Heechul would've saved him from numerous sleepless nights. He also doesn't know what to expect, a week later, as he stands in front of the International Arrivals gate. It's alarming, being reminded that there's still so much he doesn't know.

He doesn't know what to expect, and that scares him a little, but Hankyung still looks the same when he steps out.

Brown, wide eyes catching hold of Heechul's dull black ones, tongue slipping out to lick his lips, it's all the same.

"Just for the record," Heechul begins as soon as Hankyung is within earshot. Heechul has spent enough hours wondering where he'd gone wrong to last him multiple lifetimes. Hankyung's probably practiced his apologies in front of a mirror too many times as well. They can't afford to let things to go wrong this time around. "I owe you a punch in the face, asshole."

The smile that spreads across Hankyung's lips is still as contagious as Heechul remembers it to be. He looks relieved, and amused, "I see you haven't changed at all," he says, Korean sounding better than it ever has, but more foreign, too.

"I am serious."

A laugh, and then, "So am I."

"Make that at least three more punches."

"Are we heading straight to the hotel?" Hankyung asks instead. He always lets Heechul have the last word in an argument and there is an odd sense of satisfaction in the familiar way with which Hankyung raises an eyebrow at him. "You didn't have to come pick me up."

"I know," Heechul says. I wanted to come. Hankyung knows. "It's been so long. Your hair is too short now."

"Ten years is too long to be cursed with unruly bleached hair," Hankyung says. "And Beijing is awfully hot." A pause. Heechul looks up at him again. "But here we are now."

Heechul takes hold of Hankyung's bag and begins to tug them towards the parking lot, looking away. "Here we are now."