#93 42 (Between) {1/2}
Title: 42 (Between)
Prompt: #93
Rating: PG
Length: ~12400 words
Side pairings: very brief mentions of past Kai/Krystal, Kai/Lay
Summary: Sometimes you have to spend money to meet your true love aka Jongin meets Sehun through a matchmaking site.
Notes: Dear prompter & readers, hope you all will like this. And dear mod, sorry for all the troubles I've caused!
As a 30 year old, single, Korean male, there are several problems in life that Jongin is facing. Like every other individuals in the workforce, Jongin is struggling with his career coming to a standstill after a few years. Unlike his friends working in MNCs, there are only three career levels available for Jongin - trainee dance instructor, dance instructor, and senior dance instructor. With a lot of talent and a random stroke of luck, Jongin got promoted to dance instructor within 3 months of joining this studio. However, it had been 5 years and Baekhyun had managed to work his way up to become the vice-manager of Jaws while Jongin is still stuck at the same spot he was years ago. There are negligible differences in the classes he'll be able to teach, or the number of students he'll attract, but Jongin can definitely do with the extra 1 million won he'll get with that promotion.
The next problem, and the next next problem has something to do with his social life. Jongin in no way thinks that he's antisocial. He talks to his students every day, hangs out with his buddies every Saturday, and he eats lunch, and sometimes dinner with his colleagues. On Sundays, he walks his poodles - Janggu, Monggu, and Jangah - around the neighborhood, and talks to all the old ladies he meets along the way. In fact, Jongin thinks that he interacts with more people than Chanyeol does on a daily basis.
But, no.
Chanyeol is the one who talks of meeting new friends every weekend even though he is a writer who supposedly sees nothing other than the four walls of his house every day. Jongin doesn’t know how Chanyeol manages to make so many friends but Chanyeol does while Jongin’s social circle hasn’t expanded since the day he graduated from college. And this results in the second problem - not meeting any new friends around his age. Well, not meeting any friends close to his age is not a big problem for Jongin, but things are a tad different for his mum who worries about her son not dating for the past few years. Thus, Jongin’s tiny social circle led to his third problem - the need to go matchmaking.
“Mum,” Jongin raises his shoulder to secure his phone as he tightens the shoelaces of his sneakers, “I’m working on it already. Chanyeol promised to introduce me to his friends next week.”
His mum instantly launches into a rant about the girlfriend Chanyeol introduced to him a few years back, and how she is the most indecent girl she has ever seen. Jongin is pretty sure there’s nothing inappropriate about the things Soojung wears, and all the girls in their school dyed their hair in various shades of red that year, no thanks to a girl group named f(x). But somehow, his mum had issues with Soojung, starting with her piercings (for god’s sake, she only had three), to her attitude, and needless to say they didn’t manage to last long under all those negativity.
“No, mum,” Jongin hurries to cut his mum off before she can starts a tirade on how meeting the right person is important for marriage, “I’m pretty sure she’s someone nice. She’s working in SM as one of the managers.”
“What?!” His mum screams into the phone, threatening to burst his eardrums. Jongin hears a sigh and he envisions his mother working the floor thin with her relentless pacing, “Those managers are always too busy for their own good, and some of them even have violent tendencies. Didn’t you see the videos of them hitting fans online?”
“I heard from Chanyeol that she’s really nice and caring though,” Jongin tries, praying that his mother wouldn’t suggest another matchmaking session with her friend’s daughter. The previous one was nothing short of disastrous with the girl leaving halfway through lunch claiming that Jongin is not doing anything productive with his life and has no goals for the future.
His mother continues listing out her concerns as Jongin makes his way out of his apartment, the sound of his sneakers screeching against the marbled floor providing some comfort as his ears undergo a gruesome torture. Jongin is tempted to hang up the call, but the consequences are something he doesn’t want to face. He did that once in high school, and immediately his phone gets bombarded with KaTalk messages from his sisters and calls from his father berating him for being a bad son, and yes, he doesn’t need a repeat of that experience.
The suggestion of a blind date pops up soon enough, and his mum rattles off a list of names (his scary neighbor included). Before she can propose the idea of having a trial date, or pressurize Jongin into moving home so that they can evaluate the options together, Jongin quickly cuts in, “Mum, there is this application I had been using actually. They help you find your match based on your interest, and Junmyeon managed to date someone from there.”
“Hmm,” Mrs. Kim hums on the other side of the phone, and Jongin knows half of his battle is already won. Out of all his friends, Junmyeon is the only one that his parents trust (it’s not a surprise given Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s track record), and they seem to have this weird belief that whatever Junmyeon does is foolproof and should be emulated. “I expect you to really use it, Kim Jongin,” his mum finally relents, and Jongin couldn’t help sighing in relief, “Send me a screenshot as proof later or I’ll arrange a meeting with Jihye next week.”
A strangled groan escapes, and Jongin quickly muffles it under the pretense of a cough, “Okay mum. Class is starting soon, I gotta go.”
On any other Thursday night, Jongin would be ordering fried chicken while flipping between Cartoon Network and Animax, trying to decide which animation to watch for the night. But, due to his irrational fear of his mum and the promise he made earlier, Jongin is forced to comb through the web, looking for a non-sleazy reputable matchmaking website. His colleagues offered him a few suggestion after hearing about his predicament, but their recommendations led him to websites which are excessively pink with glitters exploding across the screen whenever he moves his cursor, and Jongin doesn’t want to entrust his fate into something that looks so unreliable.
After half an hour of navering and some very traumatizing experiences later, which may or may not include chancing upon photos of scantily clad human beings, Jongin gives up his search and signs himself up for the most reputable matchmaking company South Korea boasts of - 42, the company that set him back 150,000 KRW for the month. Maybe, Jongin laments as he devour his box of chicken, he should had continued his search, and spend that money on 7 boxes of Honey Combo instead.
The process of signing up is ridiculously complicated. Jongin receives a confirmation email from 42 shortly after his payment is approved by the bank and the link given in the email brings him to a website that is about 10 pages long. There are a lot of excessively personal questions that ranges from the number of relationships he had to how often he cleans the house on a weekly basis. At some point in time, Jongin considers closing the page and stopping the madness - there’s no way it can be safe for an unknown stranger at the other side of the web to know so much about his daily habits - but he had already paid, and if this website is as good as what everyone claims, it can be his easiest solution to get out of his mother’s incessant nagging. So Jongin dutifully puts up with all the intrusive questions, answering most of them as accurately as possible while making up model answers for those questions regarding his dietary preferences (he can pretend to love sushi if the situation calls for it).
It is close to 11 when Jongin is finally done with the questionnaire, and the floor is littered with a few hundred strands of hair that fell victim to his pulling as he cursed and swore at the website for the past two hours. He had pressed on the back button at least twice, and being a non-user friendly site, they don’t cache any of the information Jongin had filled in and he had to redo them from the start. There is no happiness erupting in his chests, or excitement over meeting a prospective partner when a long paragraph of text congratulating him for finishing the process pops up. Maybe, if Jongin digs deep enough, the annoyance that he had been holding onto for the past hour is still around. His keyboards are sticky with fried chicken crumbs lodging themselves at the most inconvenient places, but Jongin couldn’t bring himself to care, simply wiping his oily hands on his sweatpants before taking a screenshot of those words and sending it to his mum.
Jongin gets a call from the agency two weeks later when he is halfway through a class. He didn’t hear his phone vibrating over the loud music and by the time he checks his phone after class, there are 20 missed calls and a text message urging him to return the call at the earliest time possible. Despite having friends who successfully met their life partners through matchmaking agencies, Jongin draws a blank when it comes to his personal impression of these agencies, but today, he realizes that these agencies are probably the equivalent of a mum - overly helpful, highly efficient, and likes calling people till they get a reply.
“Good afternoon,” a cheerful voice greets Jongin when he finally decided to stop procrastinating and returns the call. Jongin isn’t scared, after all he had gone through worse situations where his student’s parents screamed at him over the phone, but he is a tad apprehensive since making the call will mean that he is really putting his future in the hands of some strangers he had never met before.
“Good afternoon, I’m Kim Jongin,” Jongin mumbles unconsciously, “I received several missed calls from you earlier.”
“Please give me a moment.” After several clicks of the mouse and the therapeutic sound of the operator typing away on the keyboard, “Congratulations Mr.Kim, we’ve managed to find a match for you. Will you be free next Wednesday evening for a meeting with your designated partner?”
“Next Wednesday?” Jongin repeats. He has classes till 3PM on Wednesdays and he definitely doesn’t have any plans after that, but it is already Friday and he isn’t sure if he will be mentally prepared by the time next week rolls by.
“Yes,” the staff repeats, “We’ve already ran it through with your partner and Wednesday is the best time slot we can come up with.”
“Oh, okay. I’m free on next Wednesday too.”
“Great,” the voice over the phone brightens significantly once Jongin affirms his availability. “To prevent any issues stemming from the inability to compromise on a location, we have chosen a restaurant in Apgujeong for the both of you. I’ll be sending the exact location to you after this call. The meeting will be at 6PM, so please don’t be late.
If there are no more questions, have a good day Mr.Kim and good luck for your date.”
“Wait,” Jongin quickly interrupts the other before she can hang up on him. “I haven’t gotten the name of the one I’m matchmaking with. How should I recognize her?”
“Don’t worry about that. There will be more follow-up instructions in the email, and you will have to send us information on what you’ll be wearing by Tuesday so that we can inform your partner.”
“Can I get her, “” Jongin adds for good measure, “or his number then?”
“I’m sorry, but it is our company’s policy to not give out number before first meetings. This is to protect our company’s rights and to ensure that both parties at least had a first meeting before any decisions are made. I can give you the name though, it’s Oh Sehun.” The staff doesn’t sound apologetic in the least. Instead, it feels like she’s gloating over the fact that she knows stuff that Jongin doesn’t know about even though those information are of high importance to Jongin. But Jongin has no time to be upset over that. Not when he has a name to work with.
Come Wednesday morning, Jongin makes sure to pack an extra set of clothes before leaving for the dance studio. He had spent the weekends Facebook stalking, attempting to find information about his potential match but all he got are profiles of guys when he searches for Oh Sehun. Naver isn’t of much help either, simply providing him with statistics of people who own this name; and honestly, the male to female doesn’t look hopeful. Even though Jongin chose the bisexual option when 42 asked for his sexual preference, they wouldn’t had assigned him a male partner right? This is definitely not going to go well with his parents, Jongin thinks as he prays that this Oh Sehun will be a female.
However, like how Murphy’s Law always goes, 42 assigned Jongin to a male partner. Their meeting location is a quiet restaurant located in Garosu-gil, situated on the second-storey of a popular cafe. The bell tinkles brightly when Jongin pushes the door open, and Jongin winces at the loud noise. The restaurant is dimly lit, dark colored drapes covering every possible surface and Jongin can barely see the blue t-shirt and white ripped jeans he is supposed to look out for.
“Excuse me,” Jongin approaches the lady sitting near the door, “Are you Oh Sehun?” The lady shakes her head, and Jongin smiles apologetically in disappointment before moving away. The restaurant is relatively empty with only 3 tables filled, and the other table is occupied by a couple. That must mean that his partner is the guy sitting by the window.
Jongin takes a deep breath, scrunching his eyes shut to still his nervousness before making his way to the table. It wasn’t obvious from far, but now that Jongin is closer, he realizes that Sehun’s hair is a light shade of pink - it’s pretty but Jongin already doesn’t like this Sehun based on his hair color. It is too wild and excessive. Before Jongin can decide on his introduction, or the expression he should wear while greeting his date, Sehun turns around and gives him a smile.
“Hi,” Jongin greets awkwardly, wincing at the loud screech his chair made as he moves to sit down, “I’m Kim Jongin.”
In contrast to Jongin’s awkwardness, Sehun seems completely at ease with the situation, propping his head on his palm while smiling at Jongin amusedly. “I’m Oh Sehun.”
“Oh. How old are you?” Sehun looks like he can easily be over 25, but he can easily blend in with the rest of the college kids with a snapback and varsity jacket.
“I’m 23, a final year student at K-ARTS but I’m taking LOA right now, so technically I’m doing nothing.
What about you?” Sehun asks.
“I’m a dance instructor.” Jongin had known that there is a possibility for Sehun to be a student, but it still comes as a shock since 42 is known to put people of good matches together. He had half-expected to be matched with a fellow teacher, or an online shopping mall owner, but never did it cross his mind that his partner will be a student, especially when the other is so much younger.
“Ehhh, really?” Sehun grins with excitement, his eyes crinkling into half-moons, “I’m a dance major, teach me some moves next time.”
“I’m not that good at it to be honest,” Jongin scratches the back of his head embarrassedly, “and I mainly do Ballet.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re awesome,” Sehun praises without reserve.
Dinner went a lot better than Jongin had expected. Sehun’s enthusiasm makes up for Jongin’s lack of social skills, and they never ran out of topics to talk about, or rather Sehun kept the conversation running since the younger boy has such a wide variety of hobbies that ranges from online games to sports.
“So what do you do on weekends?” Sehun asks with his mouth half-full, and while that turns Jongin off normally, Sehun is fairly attractive (Jongin had learnt to appreciate his hair color in the past hour though he still doesn’t like it), and he reminds Jongin of Janggu who will hoard all the food in his mouth while pretending that he didn’t get any treats.
“I stay at home and sleep, meet my friends and walk my dogs.”
Sehun hums, nodding in reply and for a moment, no one says anything as they finish their dinner. “Can I come over this weekend?” Sehun asks when Jongin is sipping on his cup of soft drink,causing the other boy to choke on his drink. Thankfully, the restaurant is empty except for them and the waitress at the counter is too engrossed with her phone to pay them any attention.
“What?” Jongin asks incredulously, grabbing a napkin to clean up the mess he made. Why will Sehun suggest to meet at his place?!?! Are all youngsters this straightforward these days??
“Teach me how to dance, please.”
“Oh, okay, okay,” Jongin quickly pulls his mind which had been conjuring all sorts of situations back, “We can do that.”
Being the gentleman Jongin is, he offers to pick up the tab for dinner, and when he hands his credit card over, Jongin is glad that he didn't venture into the world of dating earlier.
“Where do you live?” Jongin asks when they step out into the chilly spring air.
“Near the Anguk station,” Sehun pulls his jacket tighter, drowning himself in the oversized clothing. “Let's grab a drink,” Sehun drags him into an alley before Jongin can suggest going home for the day. Sehun's definition of a drink turns out to be Gongcha, something Jongin hasn't had since college.
“You need to drink this,” Sehun insisted on ordering for the both of them since Jongin paid for dinner earlier on, “It's the best thing in the world.”
Jongin takes a tentative sip at the brown drink in front of him, grimacing when he tastes the excessively sweet drink.
“What's with your expression?” Sehun kicks him under the table in displeasure, a visible pout on his face. Sehun's pink lips glistens from the drink, and Jongin quickly looks away before he Sehun can catch him staring.
“It's too sweet,” Jongin shakes his head to clear any inappropriate thoughts before kicking Sehun back, earning an astonished look from the younger, “And that's revenge for being rude to your elders.”
“Woah,” Sehun exclaims exaggeratedly, “I didn’t know you’re capable of loosening up. You were so tense throughout dinner.”
“Was I?”
Sehun chooses to send him a judgmental look in reply, and Jongin reaches out to ruffle the other’s hair, not realizing it until he sees the stricken expression on Sehun’s face.
“Let’s go,” Jongin retracts his hand in embarrassment, jamming his hands into the tight jeans he is wearing to ensure that there’ll be no more incidents of wandering hands happening.
The sweet taste of bubble tea lingers in Jongin’s mouth hours later, even after he had brushed his teeth, twice. 42 had sent a text message earlier, enquiring about his dinner date and if they should find a new match for him. Jongin knows that the logical action will be to request for a change of partner, one that will fit into his mum’s expectations, but he has this inexplicable attraction for Sehun and his pink hair.
Sehun, as expected, is a phone addict. On a good day, it takes Jongin about 4 hours to reply to a text, but Sehun seems glued to his phone, replying to all of Jongin’s messages within 5 minutes and even sending Jongin random photos throughout the day.
“Don’t you have anything to do???” Jongin texts back when he receives 5 messages from Sehun within 3 minutes.
“No, I’m a jobless student.” Comes the reply a few seconds later.
Jongin doesn’t bother replying, choosing to be less of a social recluse and join in his friends’ conversation, but Sehun continues bombarding Jongin with messages causing his phone to vibrate every other second.
“For god’s sake,” Baekhyun complains 10 mins into the dinner, “Can you put your phone on silent mode or just reply the goddamn text so that we can have some peace.”
“No and no,” Jongin retorts back. “Even if I reply him, will we ever get any peace with you around?”
“You.” Baekhyun, as always, resorts to violence and tries to hit Jongin on the head. However, he falls a bit short and ends up hitting Jongin’s neck instead. “You need to learn to stop being so picky. It’s not every day that someone is interested in you. You’re turning into the second Junmyeon and before you know it, you’ll be a fossil.”
“Shut up,” Despite his response, Jongin takes out his phone and sends Sehun a quick reply. What Baekhyun said isn’t far from the truth. Jongin’s social circle is ridiculously small and the only people he meet outside of work are his middle school friends, namely Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Junmyeon. But at the very least, he goes out on weekends to walk his dogs unlike Junmyeon who locks himself in the office 24/7.
“You’ll thank me for this eventually,” Baekhyun says confidently and Jongin doesn’t doubt that.
Vacuum the floor. Check. Fold the laundry. Check. Wash the dishes. Check. Straighten the cushions on the couch. Check. Now all there's left to do is to pace around the living room and try not to wear a hole in the carpet while waiting for Sehun to arrive.
Jongin had cleaned the house at least twice this morning, but somehow, the air pollution is Seoul is too serious these days and he can still see specks of dust littering the window sill.
“Monggu, get off the couch,” He screams at his dog in frustration. Now, he will have to get rid of the dog fur again.
The doorbell rings before Jongin can do anymore cleaning, and the security screen shows a cheerful Sehun waving at the camera. Sehun is dressed extremely casually - white shirt with blue sweatpants - something suitable for dance practice, but he looks amazing in the simple getup and Jongin couldn’t help but worry about what he is wearing. However, he doesn’t get any opportunity to fret about it as Sehun enters the apartment.
“Hey,” Sehun waves brightly, holding up the bag he’s carrying, “I brought fried chicken.”
“What did you get?”
“Honey combo.” At that answer, Jongin feels his adoration for Sehun raising exponentially.
He mentioned loving fried chicken when they were chatting over the phone last night, but he didn’t expect Sehun to buy it over or to guess his favorite brand correctly.
“Wow.”
“Do you like me a little more now?” Sehun tries winking, but fails horribly and ends up with both of his eyes closed, and as embarrassing as it is, Jongin finds that incredibly endearing.
Jongin chooses to avoid the question, ushering Sehun into his living room instead. Sehun is cute, his random KaTalk messages and suggestions brightening Jongin’s mundane life, but Sehun is incredibly young and as much as Jongin is not interested in settling down, he’s not sure if he’s up to dating someone that young.
“Are you hungry? Or do you want to practice first?”
Sehun opts for practicing and Jongin leads him to the full-body mirror apprehensively. Ballet is not a common genre for guys and he went through a fair share of teasing when he was younger. Even though he hadn’t been judged for it for years and Sehun sounds incredibly interested in ballet over the phone, but he is still wary of the laughter that might erupt once he starts his moves.
“Let’s stretch first.”
The practice goes amazingly as Sehun listens to every instruction of Jongin’s and allows the older dance instructor to move his limbs to the correct position without any protests. His moves isn’t as precise as Jongin’s but nonetheless, it’s already incredible for someone with no background in ballet to do so well.
“You’re so flexible,” Jongin praises after an hour of practice. They are both sweating profusely and Jongin has to resist the temptation of taking off his shirt, “Maybe you should consider taking ballet classes too.”
“Do you want to try how much more flexible I can be?” Sehun wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and crawls closer to Jongin.
Jongin quickly gets up and scrambles to grab Janggu as a shield, “Let’s eat.”
“I was queuing for the food earlier on, and it took me an hour,” Sehun complains while chewing his food and Jongin really wants to fix that bad habit of talking while eating, “There was two staff and like, ten thousand people in front of me. Okay, not ten thousand, but 15 people in front of me.”
“You should had gotten something else then.”
“I had a strong feeling that you’ll like Kyochon though, so I had to follow my intuition.”
Jongin laughs loudly at Sehun’s ridiculousness, startling his puppies off his lap, “You’re obsessed with things like blood types, intuitions and all those right?”
“Yes! Don’t you think they are super accurate?”
“Not really, I don't pay attention to those actually.”
“Is it?” Sehun seems disappointed for a moment, but his mood switches faster than Jongin can catch up, “It's okay, I'll update you with all those from now on.By the way,” The younger boy changes the topic, “Do you have any video games?”
“I only have Harvest Moon,” Jongin mumbles, hoping that Sehun wouldn’t hear the answer.
“Harvest Moon? The farming game?”
“Yeah.” Sehun laughs hysterically, falling off the chair as he claps exaggeratedly.
Jongin frowns instinctively, not liking Sehun's reaction. Even though Harvest Moon isn't the most mainstream choice for video games, but it's still pretty awesome especially with the improved graphics. And he don’t really like people who judges other people’s choices in life.
“You should frown more,” Sehun comments breathlessly, finally quelling his laughter when he realized Jongin isn't particularly impressed by it, “You look pretty cute like that.”
“Right.” Jongin answers, busying himself with clearing the table.
“Hey,” Sehun moves the box of chicken out of his reach, “Don’t get upset. Though I’m serious about you looking cute.”
“Okay.”
“I’m sorry,” Sehun apologizes and pouts purposefully when Jongin doesn’t seem to want to forgive him. It is probably a bad idea that Jongin finds Sehun attractive because as much as Jongin wants to stay upset with Sehun, Jongin finds himself breaking out into a smile, “Stop it.”
“Show me how to play Harvest Moon,” Sehun takes the plates from Jongin’s hands and set them aside, “I want to try it too.”
Sehun seems genuinely interested in the game, asking Jongin all sorts of question and marveling at the most basic things (such as fishing) but Jongin doesn’t let Sehun play the game for too long, snatching his console back as discreetly as he can before Sehun can save his progress and mess up two game days for him.
Time seems to crawl by after Jongin keeps his game console, the two man sitting on the couch awkwardly as they watch Jongin’s dogs run around the living room. Jongin wanted to suggest watching the television but his tv had been spoilt for months and he never got around fixing it. And Sehun, despite the chatterbox he is seems to have ran out of topics and is tapping random rhythms onto Jongin’s couch instead. Thankfully, Sehun’s phone rings just then breaking the awkwardness that was threatening to choke Jongin.
“I have to go now,” Sehun says after he finishes the phone call, “My mum wants me home for dinner.”
“Okay, you should go then,” Jongin stands up and shuffles to the door immediately, thanking the phone call in his mind. Jongin contemplated asking Sehun to stay for dinner, but they had ran out of topics to talk about for the day, and there’s nothing else they can do at his place.
Jongin holds the door wide as he waits for his guest to wear his sneakers, “I’ll see you then,” Jongin smiles.
“Yeah, I’ll text you again.” Sehun waves and makes his way to the lift lobby.
The number above the lift changes slowly, inching its way to the tenth storey Jongin is living on. Before it reaches Jongin’s floor, Sehun turns back abruptly, startling Jongin who was watching the younger boy from his door. “Do you want to go for bubble tea with me tomorrow? I have nothing on tomorrow.”
“I have classes until 8 tomorrow though, and I need to go through some routines with my colleagues after that.” This isn’t exactly a lie; Jongin’s classes end at 8, but the routine discussion will take less than 15 minutes. It just feels a little unnerving to see Sehun every day when he hasn’t decided if he’s interested in continuing the relationship.
“What about Tuesday?”
“I already made plans.”
“Will Wednesday be good? Or any time when you’re free?” Sehun seems unfazed by Jongin’s reply, pressing on until he gets the answer he wants. Jongin would had found that annoying most of the time but with Sehun, it is somewhat adorable.
“Let’s meet on Thursday instead?” Jongin suggests.
“Okay!” Sehun agrees a little too quickly, “I’ll see you on Thursday.” The younger boy gives Jongin a little wave before running down the stairs, forgetting about the lift he had pressed for and Jongin couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on his face.
“What’s your favorite drink?” “Favorite movie?” “Beach or mountains?” It is becoming increasingly common for Jongin to receive messages asking about his preferences ever since he agreed to go out with Sehun again.
There are fleeting moments when Jongin feels guilty and feels tempted to ask Sehun about the things he likes too, but asking “Then what about you?” sounds insincere and Sehun is so open about sharing his likes and dislikes that Jongin gets notified of them without having to ask.
“Shall we watch a movie this Thursday?” Sehun asks.
“Okay. You can pick.”
“I got tickets to The Martian,” Sehun surprises Jongin outside his dance studio on Thursday. Admittedly, Jongin gave Sehun the name of his dance studio yesterday after the younger’s relentless begging, but they already made plans to meet at the theatre and he doesn’t recall telling Sehun what time he ends.
Jongin quickly pulls Sehun away from the studio, ducking his face as he walks so that there’s a lower probability of his colleagues noticing him before he manages to escape from the vicinity. His fellow dance instructors had been curious about his date, and seeing Sehun there will only fuel their curiosity, resulting in more questions for Jongin. “Aren’t we meeting at Yongsan?”
“I figured that you’ll be at the studio so I wanted to try waiting for you.”
“What if I wasn’t?”
“Then I’ll just head to Yongsan before the movie starts,” Sehun shrugs carelessly, “I’ve nothing better to do anyway.”
“Seriously,” Jongin pulls his hand away once he deems they’re far enough from his workplace, but before he can put some distance between them, Sehun slings an arm over his shoulder and it is casual enough that Jongin feels awkward to push it off, “What do you do in your free time?”
“Play LOL, go for a late night drive, and think about what I want to do in life.”
“So have you figured out what you want to do in life?” Jongin knows how difficult it can be to make such a major decision, especially after seeing his classmates’ frequent breakdown when they’re forced to make a decision back in high school.
“Not really, but there’s still time. I shall think about it next month”
Jongin frowns at that, disagreeing with Sehun’s statement. He had always believed in making use of every waking minute to work towards his dream and it leaves a bad taste in his mouth when people procrastinate about their future. “Everyone only gets a limited amount of time allocated to them in each lifetime. You may think that it’s okay wasting time on nothing right now, but in fact, you’re using up the time for your future.”
“You know what’s the best thing about youth?” Sehun asks. “Having lots of time, and thanks to that I can spend it on doing romantic stuff like waiting for you.
For privileged kids, youth is a very special thing. You can put a stop to it anytime you want. For example, I took a gap year this year and it acts like extra time for me. I can do whatever I want in this year and as long as it’s not too crazy, it won’t affect my future. It’s like time is frozen for me. All I have to do is go back to school next year and my life can continue from there and by the time I graduate, I’ll be thrown into society like the rest. Just like this, I don’t have to let go of youth so quickly.”
To say that Jongin is shocked will be an understatement. From their previous encounters, Sehun came off as a typical teenager - earnest, stubborn and a little reckless. But Sehun thinks way deeper than Jongin would had expected, even if he didn’t necessarily agree with what was said.
“I think that’s enough of serious conversations for the day,” Sehun announces, leading Jongin to a bench at the bus stop, “What flavor do you prefer for popcorns?”
“Even if I forget my way back to Earth, I’ll still remember the way to your house.”
Sehun had taken a liking to sending Jongin cheesy texts after their movie date and as a result, Jongin had successfully mastered the art of rolling his eyes.
Jongin is still not used to texting, constantly forgetting where he left his phone. And more often than not, he chooses to ignore the text messages Sehun sends him. But he still tries to make a conscious effort to reply to Sehun’s text(as long as it’s not too ridiculous) and answer the other boy’s goodnight call before they go to bed. It had only been a little more than a week, but Jongin finds himself looking forward to Sehun’s call, letting the younger boy’s voice lull him to sleep as Sehun recounts other interesting things he didn’t manage to tell Jongin over KaTalk messages.
“I went back to school today,” Sehun voice sounds even deeper over the phone, and Jongin finds himself succumbing to sleep slowly.
“Hmm? Why?”
“I went to see cherry blossoms.”
“Don’t lie.” Jongin fluffs his pillows, putting the phone on the speaker mode, “Spring has just started and it will take another two months before cherry blossoms starts blooming.”
“I’m not lying,” Sehun huffs indignantly and Jongin knows that there’ll be a pout on the other boy’s face, “Our department was painting one of the old walls with cherry blossoms, so technically, I did see it.”
“Oh, okay.” A silence follows Jongin’s reply, and this type of silence isn’t uncommon in their phone conversations. Jongin always runs out of things to say, letting his puppies distract him when he feels the conversation getting awkward while Sehun seems more subdued over the phone, and Jongin can almost hear the cogs turning in Sehun’s head as he thinks of what to say.
“When they bloom, do you want to go see them together?” Sehun asks after a long pause.
“Let’s see.” Jongin quickly changes the topic to prevent Sehun from bugging him about the previous question, “What are you doing tomorrow?” And thankfully, Sehun starts a full-on rant about how he has to help his dad tomorrow and how much he hates it.
Jongin knows that all the different occasions he hung out with Sehun are considered dates. However, it is easy to pretend that they’re simply two friends hanging out over movies and dinners, and Jongin wouldn’t feel so guilty if he decided to back out and break Sehun’s heart eventually. On the other hand, no suggestions of viewing cherry blossoms together are ever innocent - only couples or people who wants to get together will pop the question - and Jongin knows that Sehun isn’t simply looking for a friend to go together. Sehun wants to know if Jongin is interested in pursuing a relationship with him, and Jongin isn’t ready to answer the question, not till he’s sure that Sehun is the right one for him. Sehun is cute and attractive, and Jongin likes his company, but Jongin thinks he can never be sure.
Ever since Jongin gave Sehun his schedule (after lots of whining and bribery), Sehun will drop by occasionally, waiting by the door for Jongin to finish. His coworkers had cornered him, asking if he knows the hot, young kid waiting by the door but Jongin had always feigned ignorance, pretending to be clueless about Sehun’s existence.
“He’s always gone after you leave though. Are you sure you don’t know him?”
“Yeah,” Jongin digs through his bag, pretending to look for his phone. He doubts that he can continue lying if he looks into the eyes of his colleagues. Jongin knows that calling Sehun his friend is the right thing to do, but everyone knows that he doesn’t make friends easily and their age gap makes it impossible for Jongin to lie about Sehun being an old friend. They’ll then catch on that Sehun is his date, and he doesn’t want to introduce Sehun to his colleagues, only to get endless teases about Sehun when Jongin is unsure of his feelings.
“Maybe we should call the police then and report him for loitering.”
“Can you wait elsewhere?” Jongin makes sure that they are at least two streets away from his workplace before slowing down and talking to Sehun.
“Why? I like that spot.” Sehun takes a huge sip of his bubble tea, stuffing his cheeks with tapioca pearls. Rather than a drink, bubble tea feels more like an extension of Sehun or maybe an accessory for his daily fashion, just like how celebrities always like to hold overpriced Starbucks in paparazzi photos. Out of all the times they met up, Jongin had only seen Sehun without bubble tea once and even that was at the insistence of Jongin.
“My fellow dance instructors think that you’re creepy,” Jongin answers, leaving out the part where he pretends not to know Sehun on purpose.
However, Sehun catches on faster than Jongin expected him to, “You didn’t tell them that you know me?” And when Jongin fails to reply, a scowl appears on the younger boy’s face immediately.
“I just didn’t know what to tell them,” Jongin admits sheepishly, watching a myriad of expression flits through Sehun’s face - starting with hurt to resignation and his eventual poker face.
Sehun stops waiting for Jongin outside the studio after that, choosing to drop Jongin a message about his location and waits for the dance instructor to look for him instead. There is a slight pang of disappointment on the first day Jongin looks out of the door and notices that Sehun isn’t there anymore. But this current arrangement works better and Jongin is thankful that Sehun didn’t get angry with him over this.
“Let’s go and get meat tonight,” Sehun suggests, “I know a really good place in Apgujeong.”
“Okay, my treat tonight,” Jongin agrees readily. After their first date, Jongin had expected himself to pay for the majority of their meals, but in actual fact, Sehun insists on splitting the bill or paying for the food before Jongin can.
“Nice. You might have to spend your entire month’s pay on that meal.”
“I earn more than you think,” Jongin knows that his pay is pathetic as compared to a lot of people, but he still earns more than a school teacher and the bonus which he received last week makes him feel exceptionally generous.
They end up devouring 6 portions of meat between two people and while Jongin can still eat more, he’s glad that Sehun stopped him from ordering before he can spend his entire week of food money on a meal.
“Do you want to grab some ddeokbokki? There’s one down the street. It’s nowhere as good as the one in Hongdae but -”
“Let’s go,” Jongin gets up to pay, and allows Sehun to spray an excessive amount of Febreeze onto their jackets. The restaurant has relatively good air ventilation, however, just like most barbecue restaurant, they still end up smelling like grilled meat.
The food truck by the road is already full of office workers - gathering together to complain about their difficult working life - by the time they arrive and they end up having to sit at the table closest to the exit without the warmth from the heater.
The charm of a food truck is that you will end up ordering more than what you’d planned for initially and Jongin is no exception to that. Their tiny table creaks under the combined weight of ddeokbokki, sundae, fried food and soju and Jongin thinks his stomach will sag if they end up consuming all of it.
“Don’t pour your own drink,” Sehun grabs his wrist when Jongin is pouring their drinks, spilling some of the soju onto the table in the process, “Or I’ll be single for 7 years.”
“And where did you hear this myth from?” Jongin heard of this too when he was in university, but it is too troublesome having to wait for other people to notice his empty cup or having to pay attention to people’s drinking cups all the time.
“Somewhere,” Sehun takes the bottle away from him and finishes filling the cup, “Just let me pour it for you from now on.”
“You believe in quite a lot of stuff eh, from horoscopes to these myths,” Jongin teases, remembering the text Sehun sent him on Monday, informing him of his fortune for the week.
“It’s better to believe in them,” Sehun downs the shot and nudges at Jongin to pour him another one, “You adults are just too cynical.”
“We’re being realistic.There’s no proof or research done to substantiate these weird myths.”
“Adults are no fun. God,” Sehun whispers to himself, holding his hand together beneath the plastic table to pray, “Please don’t let me be like that in the future.”
“Your hair is too attention seeking,” Jongin complains, the slight nervousness he always feels when meeting Sehun ebbing away after a few drinks. Sehun’s pink hair always attracts excessive attention from passersby when they go out and Jongin isn’t a big fan of all the looks that come their way.
“It’s a form of expression,” Sehun retorts, his lisp which was unnoticeable previously slipping in. “I dye my hair when I want to make a statement.”
“So why pink?”
“Because pink is the color of love,” The younger boy throws his arms open exaggeratedly and gives Jongin a drunken smile, “Isn’t it befitting?”
“But have you found your love?”
“Yes!” Sehun pulls his chair to sit next to Jongin and in his drunken stupor, he knocks over the bottles of soju on their table. The glass shatters against the pavement loudly and the ahjumma rushes over immediately, complaining about their carelessness at the top of her voice. Jongin apologizes for their mistake profusely, quickly taking out his wallet to pay for their food before the ahjumma can start lecturing them in public.
“You troublesome kid,” Jongin chides without any real heat, letting Sehun lean on his side. Despite Sehun looking very skinny, he has long limbs and it makes holding him a lot more difficult that Jongin imagined.
“I’m not a kid anymore.” Sehun slurs, the alcohol affecting him a lot more after they stood up. “I came of age 3 years ago,” Sehun holds up three fingers and shoves it in Jongin’s face to prove his point, “THREE.”
“I know,” Jongin coaxes, placing Sehun’s left arm back on his shoulder. Sehun might still be somewhat naive and thoughtless with some of his actions but he clearly knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to act on it. Age-wise, Sehun is still too young for him but somewhere along the line, the gap caused by their age doesn’t feel that huge anymore.
“Jonginnie, Jonginnie, Jonginnie,” Sehun chants his name repeatedly, putting his entire body weight on Jongin making it difficult for both of them to continue walking. At first, Jongin tries to quieten Sehun, feeling embarrassed by his antics. However, he gave up after realizing that nobody will give a shit about two drunkards at 2AM and pulls Sehun down to sit on the pavement.
Jongin puts Sehun’s head to rest on his shoulder and runs his hand through the damaged strands carefully, “You’re too noisy.” Sehun’s hair is coarse to touch and more than half of it has split-ends but it’s still so pretty to look at and so comforting to touch.
“‘m not. Jonginnie,” Sehun mumbles against his neck, his alcoholic breath making Jongin feel slightly intoxicated, “Do you want to dye your hair pink too? Then we can have couple hair.”
Jongin isn’t a big fan of dyeing his hair, choosing to go for the most basic dark brown when he gets sick of his black hair and the thought of having pink hair had definitely never crossed his mind, until now. “I’ll think about it.”
Sehun holds out his pinky, folding Jongin’s fingers forcefully with his other hand, “Promise. If not I’ll steal everything you love and run away.”
“Okay.” Maybe when the time comes for it, he will be more afraid of Sehun disappearing than losing his prized possessions.
One | Two
Prompt: #93
Rating: PG
Length: ~12400 words
Side pairings: very brief mentions of past Kai/Krystal, Kai/Lay
Summary: Sometimes you have to spend money to meet your true love aka Jongin meets Sehun through a matchmaking site.
Notes: Dear prompter & readers, hope you all will like this. And dear mod, sorry for all the troubles I've caused!
As a 30 year old, single, Korean male, there are several problems in life that Jongin is facing. Like every other individuals in the workforce, Jongin is struggling with his career coming to a standstill after a few years. Unlike his friends working in MNCs, there are only three career levels available for Jongin - trainee dance instructor, dance instructor, and senior dance instructor. With a lot of talent and a random stroke of luck, Jongin got promoted to dance instructor within 3 months of joining this studio. However, it had been 5 years and Baekhyun had managed to work his way up to become the vice-manager of Jaws while Jongin is still stuck at the same spot he was years ago. There are negligible differences in the classes he'll be able to teach, or the number of students he'll attract, but Jongin can definitely do with the extra 1 million won he'll get with that promotion.
The next problem, and the next next problem has something to do with his social life. Jongin in no way thinks that he's antisocial. He talks to his students every day, hangs out with his buddies every Saturday, and he eats lunch, and sometimes dinner with his colleagues. On Sundays, he walks his poodles - Janggu, Monggu, and Jangah - around the neighborhood, and talks to all the old ladies he meets along the way. In fact, Jongin thinks that he interacts with more people than Chanyeol does on a daily basis.
But, no.
Chanyeol is the one who talks of meeting new friends every weekend even though he is a writer who supposedly sees nothing other than the four walls of his house every day. Jongin doesn’t know how Chanyeol manages to make so many friends but Chanyeol does while Jongin’s social circle hasn’t expanded since the day he graduated from college. And this results in the second problem - not meeting any new friends around his age. Well, not meeting any friends close to his age is not a big problem for Jongin, but things are a tad different for his mum who worries about her son not dating for the past few years. Thus, Jongin’s tiny social circle led to his third problem - the need to go matchmaking.
“Mum,” Jongin raises his shoulder to secure his phone as he tightens the shoelaces of his sneakers, “I’m working on it already. Chanyeol promised to introduce me to his friends next week.”
His mum instantly launches into a rant about the girlfriend Chanyeol introduced to him a few years back, and how she is the most indecent girl she has ever seen. Jongin is pretty sure there’s nothing inappropriate about the things Soojung wears, and all the girls in their school dyed their hair in various shades of red that year, no thanks to a girl group named f(x). But somehow, his mum had issues with Soojung, starting with her piercings (for god’s sake, she only had three), to her attitude, and needless to say they didn’t manage to last long under all those negativity.
“No, mum,” Jongin hurries to cut his mum off before she can starts a tirade on how meeting the right person is important for marriage, “I’m pretty sure she’s someone nice. She’s working in SM as one of the managers.”
“What?!” His mum screams into the phone, threatening to burst his eardrums. Jongin hears a sigh and he envisions his mother working the floor thin with her relentless pacing, “Those managers are always too busy for their own good, and some of them even have violent tendencies. Didn’t you see the videos of them hitting fans online?”
“I heard from Chanyeol that she’s really nice and caring though,” Jongin tries, praying that his mother wouldn’t suggest another matchmaking session with her friend’s daughter. The previous one was nothing short of disastrous with the girl leaving halfway through lunch claiming that Jongin is not doing anything productive with his life and has no goals for the future.
His mother continues listing out her concerns as Jongin makes his way out of his apartment, the sound of his sneakers screeching against the marbled floor providing some comfort as his ears undergo a gruesome torture. Jongin is tempted to hang up the call, but the consequences are something he doesn’t want to face. He did that once in high school, and immediately his phone gets bombarded with KaTalk messages from his sisters and calls from his father berating him for being a bad son, and yes, he doesn’t need a repeat of that experience.
The suggestion of a blind date pops up soon enough, and his mum rattles off a list of names (his scary neighbor included). Before she can propose the idea of having a trial date, or pressurize Jongin into moving home so that they can evaluate the options together, Jongin quickly cuts in, “Mum, there is this application I had been using actually. They help you find your match based on your interest, and Junmyeon managed to date someone from there.”
“Hmm,” Mrs. Kim hums on the other side of the phone, and Jongin knows half of his battle is already won. Out of all his friends, Junmyeon is the only one that his parents trust (it’s not a surprise given Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s track record), and they seem to have this weird belief that whatever Junmyeon does is foolproof and should be emulated. “I expect you to really use it, Kim Jongin,” his mum finally relents, and Jongin couldn’t help sighing in relief, “Send me a screenshot as proof later or I’ll arrange a meeting with Jihye next week.”
A strangled groan escapes, and Jongin quickly muffles it under the pretense of a cough, “Okay mum. Class is starting soon, I gotta go.”
On any other Thursday night, Jongin would be ordering fried chicken while flipping between Cartoon Network and Animax, trying to decide which animation to watch for the night. But, due to his irrational fear of his mum and the promise he made earlier, Jongin is forced to comb through the web, looking for a non-sleazy reputable matchmaking website. His colleagues offered him a few suggestion after hearing about his predicament, but their recommendations led him to websites which are excessively pink with glitters exploding across the screen whenever he moves his cursor, and Jongin doesn’t want to entrust his fate into something that looks so unreliable.
After half an hour of navering and some very traumatizing experiences later, which may or may not include chancing upon photos of scantily clad human beings, Jongin gives up his search and signs himself up for the most reputable matchmaking company South Korea boasts of - 42, the company that set him back 150,000 KRW for the month. Maybe, Jongin laments as he devour his box of chicken, he should had continued his search, and spend that money on 7 boxes of Honey Combo instead.
The process of signing up is ridiculously complicated. Jongin receives a confirmation email from 42 shortly after his payment is approved by the bank and the link given in the email brings him to a website that is about 10 pages long. There are a lot of excessively personal questions that ranges from the number of relationships he had to how often he cleans the house on a weekly basis. At some point in time, Jongin considers closing the page and stopping the madness - there’s no way it can be safe for an unknown stranger at the other side of the web to know so much about his daily habits - but he had already paid, and if this website is as good as what everyone claims, it can be his easiest solution to get out of his mother’s incessant nagging. So Jongin dutifully puts up with all the intrusive questions, answering most of them as accurately as possible while making up model answers for those questions regarding his dietary preferences (he can pretend to love sushi if the situation calls for it).
It is close to 11 when Jongin is finally done with the questionnaire, and the floor is littered with a few hundred strands of hair that fell victim to his pulling as he cursed and swore at the website for the past two hours. He had pressed on the back button at least twice, and being a non-user friendly site, they don’t cache any of the information Jongin had filled in and he had to redo them from the start. There is no happiness erupting in his chests, or excitement over meeting a prospective partner when a long paragraph of text congratulating him for finishing the process pops up. Maybe, if Jongin digs deep enough, the annoyance that he had been holding onto for the past hour is still around. His keyboards are sticky with fried chicken crumbs lodging themselves at the most inconvenient places, but Jongin couldn’t bring himself to care, simply wiping his oily hands on his sweatpants before taking a screenshot of those words and sending it to his mum.
Jongin gets a call from the agency two weeks later when he is halfway through a class. He didn’t hear his phone vibrating over the loud music and by the time he checks his phone after class, there are 20 missed calls and a text message urging him to return the call at the earliest time possible. Despite having friends who successfully met their life partners through matchmaking agencies, Jongin draws a blank when it comes to his personal impression of these agencies, but today, he realizes that these agencies are probably the equivalent of a mum - overly helpful, highly efficient, and likes calling people till they get a reply.
“Good afternoon,” a cheerful voice greets Jongin when he finally decided to stop procrastinating and returns the call. Jongin isn’t scared, after all he had gone through worse situations where his student’s parents screamed at him over the phone, but he is a tad apprehensive since making the call will mean that he is really putting his future in the hands of some strangers he had never met before.
“Good afternoon, I’m Kim Jongin,” Jongin mumbles unconsciously, “I received several missed calls from you earlier.”
“Please give me a moment.” After several clicks of the mouse and the therapeutic sound of the operator typing away on the keyboard, “Congratulations Mr.Kim, we’ve managed to find a match for you. Will you be free next Wednesday evening for a meeting with your designated partner?”
“Next Wednesday?” Jongin repeats. He has classes till 3PM on Wednesdays and he definitely doesn’t have any plans after that, but it is already Friday and he isn’t sure if he will be mentally prepared by the time next week rolls by.
“Yes,” the staff repeats, “We’ve already ran it through with your partner and Wednesday is the best time slot we can come up with.”
“Oh, okay. I’m free on next Wednesday too.”
“Great,” the voice over the phone brightens significantly once Jongin affirms his availability. “To prevent any issues stemming from the inability to compromise on a location, we have chosen a restaurant in Apgujeong for the both of you. I’ll be sending the exact location to you after this call. The meeting will be at 6PM, so please don’t be late.
If there are no more questions, have a good day Mr.Kim and good luck for your date.”
“Wait,” Jongin quickly interrupts the other before she can hang up on him. “I haven’t gotten the name of the one I’m matchmaking with. How should I recognize her?”
“Don’t worry about that. There will be more follow-up instructions in the email, and you will have to send us information on what you’ll be wearing by Tuesday so that we can inform your partner.”
“Can I get her, “” Jongin adds for good measure, “or his number then?”
“I’m sorry, but it is our company’s policy to not give out number before first meetings. This is to protect our company’s rights and to ensure that both parties at least had a first meeting before any decisions are made. I can give you the name though, it’s Oh Sehun.” The staff doesn’t sound apologetic in the least. Instead, it feels like she’s gloating over the fact that she knows stuff that Jongin doesn’t know about even though those information are of high importance to Jongin. But Jongin has no time to be upset over that. Not when he has a name to work with.
Come Wednesday morning, Jongin makes sure to pack an extra set of clothes before leaving for the dance studio. He had spent the weekends Facebook stalking, attempting to find information about his potential match but all he got are profiles of guys when he searches for Oh Sehun. Naver isn’t of much help either, simply providing him with statistics of people who own this name; and honestly, the male to female doesn’t look hopeful. Even though Jongin chose the bisexual option when 42 asked for his sexual preference, they wouldn’t had assigned him a male partner right? This is definitely not going to go well with his parents, Jongin thinks as he prays that this Oh Sehun will be a female.
However, like how Murphy’s Law always goes, 42 assigned Jongin to a male partner. Their meeting location is a quiet restaurant located in Garosu-gil, situated on the second-storey of a popular cafe. The bell tinkles brightly when Jongin pushes the door open, and Jongin winces at the loud noise. The restaurant is dimly lit, dark colored drapes covering every possible surface and Jongin can barely see the blue t-shirt and white ripped jeans he is supposed to look out for.
“Excuse me,” Jongin approaches the lady sitting near the door, “Are you Oh Sehun?” The lady shakes her head, and Jongin smiles apologetically in disappointment before moving away. The restaurant is relatively empty with only 3 tables filled, and the other table is occupied by a couple. That must mean that his partner is the guy sitting by the window.
Jongin takes a deep breath, scrunching his eyes shut to still his nervousness before making his way to the table. It wasn’t obvious from far, but now that Jongin is closer, he realizes that Sehun’s hair is a light shade of pink - it’s pretty but Jongin already doesn’t like this Sehun based on his hair color. It is too wild and excessive. Before Jongin can decide on his introduction, or the expression he should wear while greeting his date, Sehun turns around and gives him a smile.
“Hi,” Jongin greets awkwardly, wincing at the loud screech his chair made as he moves to sit down, “I’m Kim Jongin.”
In contrast to Jongin’s awkwardness, Sehun seems completely at ease with the situation, propping his head on his palm while smiling at Jongin amusedly. “I’m Oh Sehun.”
“Oh. How old are you?” Sehun looks like he can easily be over 25, but he can easily blend in with the rest of the college kids with a snapback and varsity jacket.
“I’m 23, a final year student at K-ARTS but I’m taking LOA right now, so technically I’m doing nothing.
What about you?” Sehun asks.
“I’m a dance instructor.” Jongin had known that there is a possibility for Sehun to be a student, but it still comes as a shock since 42 is known to put people of good matches together. He had half-expected to be matched with a fellow teacher, or an online shopping mall owner, but never did it cross his mind that his partner will be a student, especially when the other is so much younger.
“Ehhh, really?” Sehun grins with excitement, his eyes crinkling into half-moons, “I’m a dance major, teach me some moves next time.”
“I’m not that good at it to be honest,” Jongin scratches the back of his head embarrassedly, “and I mainly do Ballet.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re awesome,” Sehun praises without reserve.
Dinner went a lot better than Jongin had expected. Sehun’s enthusiasm makes up for Jongin’s lack of social skills, and they never ran out of topics to talk about, or rather Sehun kept the conversation running since the younger boy has such a wide variety of hobbies that ranges from online games to sports.
“So what do you do on weekends?” Sehun asks with his mouth half-full, and while that turns Jongin off normally, Sehun is fairly attractive (Jongin had learnt to appreciate his hair color in the past hour though he still doesn’t like it), and he reminds Jongin of Janggu who will hoard all the food in his mouth while pretending that he didn’t get any treats.
“I stay at home and sleep, meet my friends and walk my dogs.”
Sehun hums, nodding in reply and for a moment, no one says anything as they finish their dinner. “Can I come over this weekend?” Sehun asks when Jongin is sipping on his cup of soft drink,causing the other boy to choke on his drink. Thankfully, the restaurant is empty except for them and the waitress at the counter is too engrossed with her phone to pay them any attention.
“What?” Jongin asks incredulously, grabbing a napkin to clean up the mess he made. Why will Sehun suggest to meet at his place?!?! Are all youngsters this straightforward these days??
“Teach me how to dance, please.”
“Oh, okay, okay,” Jongin quickly pulls his mind which had been conjuring all sorts of situations back, “We can do that.”
Being the gentleman Jongin is, he offers to pick up the tab for dinner, and when he hands his credit card over, Jongin is glad that he didn't venture into the world of dating earlier.
“Where do you live?” Jongin asks when they step out into the chilly spring air.
“Near the Anguk station,” Sehun pulls his jacket tighter, drowning himself in the oversized clothing. “Let's grab a drink,” Sehun drags him into an alley before Jongin can suggest going home for the day. Sehun's definition of a drink turns out to be Gongcha, something Jongin hasn't had since college.
“You need to drink this,” Sehun insisted on ordering for the both of them since Jongin paid for dinner earlier on, “It's the best thing in the world.”
Jongin takes a tentative sip at the brown drink in front of him, grimacing when he tastes the excessively sweet drink.
“What's with your expression?” Sehun kicks him under the table in displeasure, a visible pout on his face. Sehun's pink lips glistens from the drink, and Jongin quickly looks away before he Sehun can catch him staring.
“It's too sweet,” Jongin shakes his head to clear any inappropriate thoughts before kicking Sehun back, earning an astonished look from the younger, “And that's revenge for being rude to your elders.”
“Woah,” Sehun exclaims exaggeratedly, “I didn’t know you’re capable of loosening up. You were so tense throughout dinner.”
“Was I?”
Sehun chooses to send him a judgmental look in reply, and Jongin reaches out to ruffle the other’s hair, not realizing it until he sees the stricken expression on Sehun’s face.
“Let’s go,” Jongin retracts his hand in embarrassment, jamming his hands into the tight jeans he is wearing to ensure that there’ll be no more incidents of wandering hands happening.
The sweet taste of bubble tea lingers in Jongin’s mouth hours later, even after he had brushed his teeth, twice. 42 had sent a text message earlier, enquiring about his dinner date and if they should find a new match for him. Jongin knows that the logical action will be to request for a change of partner, one that will fit into his mum’s expectations, but he has this inexplicable attraction for Sehun and his pink hair.
Sehun, as expected, is a phone addict. On a good day, it takes Jongin about 4 hours to reply to a text, but Sehun seems glued to his phone, replying to all of Jongin’s messages within 5 minutes and even sending Jongin random photos throughout the day.
“Don’t you have anything to do???” Jongin texts back when he receives 5 messages from Sehun within 3 minutes.
“No, I’m a jobless student.” Comes the reply a few seconds later.
Jongin doesn’t bother replying, choosing to be less of a social recluse and join in his friends’ conversation, but Sehun continues bombarding Jongin with messages causing his phone to vibrate every other second.
“For god’s sake,” Baekhyun complains 10 mins into the dinner, “Can you put your phone on silent mode or just reply the goddamn text so that we can have some peace.”
“No and no,” Jongin retorts back. “Even if I reply him, will we ever get any peace with you around?”
“You.” Baekhyun, as always, resorts to violence and tries to hit Jongin on the head. However, he falls a bit short and ends up hitting Jongin’s neck instead. “You need to learn to stop being so picky. It’s not every day that someone is interested in you. You’re turning into the second Junmyeon and before you know it, you’ll be a fossil.”
“Shut up,” Despite his response, Jongin takes out his phone and sends Sehun a quick reply. What Baekhyun said isn’t far from the truth. Jongin’s social circle is ridiculously small and the only people he meet outside of work are his middle school friends, namely Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Junmyeon. But at the very least, he goes out on weekends to walk his dogs unlike Junmyeon who locks himself in the office 24/7.
“You’ll thank me for this eventually,” Baekhyun says confidently and Jongin doesn’t doubt that.
Vacuum the floor. Check. Fold the laundry. Check. Wash the dishes. Check. Straighten the cushions on the couch. Check. Now all there's left to do is to pace around the living room and try not to wear a hole in the carpet while waiting for Sehun to arrive.
Jongin had cleaned the house at least twice this morning, but somehow, the air pollution is Seoul is too serious these days and he can still see specks of dust littering the window sill.
“Monggu, get off the couch,” He screams at his dog in frustration. Now, he will have to get rid of the dog fur again.
The doorbell rings before Jongin can do anymore cleaning, and the security screen shows a cheerful Sehun waving at the camera. Sehun is dressed extremely casually - white shirt with blue sweatpants - something suitable for dance practice, but he looks amazing in the simple getup and Jongin couldn’t help but worry about what he is wearing. However, he doesn’t get any opportunity to fret about it as Sehun enters the apartment.
“Hey,” Sehun waves brightly, holding up the bag he’s carrying, “I brought fried chicken.”
“What did you get?”
“Honey combo.” At that answer, Jongin feels his adoration for Sehun raising exponentially.
He mentioned loving fried chicken when they were chatting over the phone last night, but he didn’t expect Sehun to buy it over or to guess his favorite brand correctly.
“Wow.”
“Do you like me a little more now?” Sehun tries winking, but fails horribly and ends up with both of his eyes closed, and as embarrassing as it is, Jongin finds that incredibly endearing.
Jongin chooses to avoid the question, ushering Sehun into his living room instead. Sehun is cute, his random KaTalk messages and suggestions brightening Jongin’s mundane life, but Sehun is incredibly young and as much as Jongin is not interested in settling down, he’s not sure if he’s up to dating someone that young.
“Are you hungry? Or do you want to practice first?”
Sehun opts for practicing and Jongin leads him to the full-body mirror apprehensively. Ballet is not a common genre for guys and he went through a fair share of teasing when he was younger. Even though he hadn’t been judged for it for years and Sehun sounds incredibly interested in ballet over the phone, but he is still wary of the laughter that might erupt once he starts his moves.
“Let’s stretch first.”
The practice goes amazingly as Sehun listens to every instruction of Jongin’s and allows the older dance instructor to move his limbs to the correct position without any protests. His moves isn’t as precise as Jongin’s but nonetheless, it’s already incredible for someone with no background in ballet to do so well.
“You’re so flexible,” Jongin praises after an hour of practice. They are both sweating profusely and Jongin has to resist the temptation of taking off his shirt, “Maybe you should consider taking ballet classes too.”
“Do you want to try how much more flexible I can be?” Sehun wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and crawls closer to Jongin.
Jongin quickly gets up and scrambles to grab Janggu as a shield, “Let’s eat.”
“I was queuing for the food earlier on, and it took me an hour,” Sehun complains while chewing his food and Jongin really wants to fix that bad habit of talking while eating, “There was two staff and like, ten thousand people in front of me. Okay, not ten thousand, but 15 people in front of me.”
“You should had gotten something else then.”
“I had a strong feeling that you’ll like Kyochon though, so I had to follow my intuition.”
Jongin laughs loudly at Sehun’s ridiculousness, startling his puppies off his lap, “You’re obsessed with things like blood types, intuitions and all those right?”
“Yes! Don’t you think they are super accurate?”
“Not really, I don't pay attention to those actually.”
“Is it?” Sehun seems disappointed for a moment, but his mood switches faster than Jongin can catch up, “It's okay, I'll update you with all those from now on.By the way,” The younger boy changes the topic, “Do you have any video games?”
“I only have Harvest Moon,” Jongin mumbles, hoping that Sehun wouldn’t hear the answer.
“Harvest Moon? The farming game?”
“Yeah.” Sehun laughs hysterically, falling off the chair as he claps exaggeratedly.
Jongin frowns instinctively, not liking Sehun's reaction. Even though Harvest Moon isn't the most mainstream choice for video games, but it's still pretty awesome especially with the improved graphics. And he don’t really like people who judges other people’s choices in life.
“You should frown more,” Sehun comments breathlessly, finally quelling his laughter when he realized Jongin isn't particularly impressed by it, “You look pretty cute like that.”
“Right.” Jongin answers, busying himself with clearing the table.
“Hey,” Sehun moves the box of chicken out of his reach, “Don’t get upset. Though I’m serious about you looking cute.”
“Okay.”
“I’m sorry,” Sehun apologizes and pouts purposefully when Jongin doesn’t seem to want to forgive him. It is probably a bad idea that Jongin finds Sehun attractive because as much as Jongin wants to stay upset with Sehun, Jongin finds himself breaking out into a smile, “Stop it.”
“Show me how to play Harvest Moon,” Sehun takes the plates from Jongin’s hands and set them aside, “I want to try it too.”
Sehun seems genuinely interested in the game, asking Jongin all sorts of question and marveling at the most basic things (such as fishing) but Jongin doesn’t let Sehun play the game for too long, snatching his console back as discreetly as he can before Sehun can save his progress and mess up two game days for him.
Time seems to crawl by after Jongin keeps his game console, the two man sitting on the couch awkwardly as they watch Jongin’s dogs run around the living room. Jongin wanted to suggest watching the television but his tv had been spoilt for months and he never got around fixing it. And Sehun, despite the chatterbox he is seems to have ran out of topics and is tapping random rhythms onto Jongin’s couch instead. Thankfully, Sehun’s phone rings just then breaking the awkwardness that was threatening to choke Jongin.
“I have to go now,” Sehun says after he finishes the phone call, “My mum wants me home for dinner.”
“Okay, you should go then,” Jongin stands up and shuffles to the door immediately, thanking the phone call in his mind. Jongin contemplated asking Sehun to stay for dinner, but they had ran out of topics to talk about for the day, and there’s nothing else they can do at his place.
Jongin holds the door wide as he waits for his guest to wear his sneakers, “I’ll see you then,” Jongin smiles.
“Yeah, I’ll text you again.” Sehun waves and makes his way to the lift lobby.
The number above the lift changes slowly, inching its way to the tenth storey Jongin is living on. Before it reaches Jongin’s floor, Sehun turns back abruptly, startling Jongin who was watching the younger boy from his door. “Do you want to go for bubble tea with me tomorrow? I have nothing on tomorrow.”
“I have classes until 8 tomorrow though, and I need to go through some routines with my colleagues after that.” This isn’t exactly a lie; Jongin’s classes end at 8, but the routine discussion will take less than 15 minutes. It just feels a little unnerving to see Sehun every day when he hasn’t decided if he’s interested in continuing the relationship.
“What about Tuesday?”
“I already made plans.”
“Will Wednesday be good? Or any time when you’re free?” Sehun seems unfazed by Jongin’s reply, pressing on until he gets the answer he wants. Jongin would had found that annoying most of the time but with Sehun, it is somewhat adorable.
“Let’s meet on Thursday instead?” Jongin suggests.
“Okay!” Sehun agrees a little too quickly, “I’ll see you on Thursday.” The younger boy gives Jongin a little wave before running down the stairs, forgetting about the lift he had pressed for and Jongin couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on his face.
“What’s your favorite drink?” “Favorite movie?” “Beach or mountains?” It is becoming increasingly common for Jongin to receive messages asking about his preferences ever since he agreed to go out with Sehun again.
There are fleeting moments when Jongin feels guilty and feels tempted to ask Sehun about the things he likes too, but asking “Then what about you?” sounds insincere and Sehun is so open about sharing his likes and dislikes that Jongin gets notified of them without having to ask.
“Shall we watch a movie this Thursday?” Sehun asks.
“Okay. You can pick.”
“I got tickets to The Martian,” Sehun surprises Jongin outside his dance studio on Thursday. Admittedly, Jongin gave Sehun the name of his dance studio yesterday after the younger’s relentless begging, but they already made plans to meet at the theatre and he doesn’t recall telling Sehun what time he ends.
Jongin quickly pulls Sehun away from the studio, ducking his face as he walks so that there’s a lower probability of his colleagues noticing him before he manages to escape from the vicinity. His fellow dance instructors had been curious about his date, and seeing Sehun there will only fuel their curiosity, resulting in more questions for Jongin. “Aren’t we meeting at Yongsan?”
“I figured that you’ll be at the studio so I wanted to try waiting for you.”
“What if I wasn’t?”
“Then I’ll just head to Yongsan before the movie starts,” Sehun shrugs carelessly, “I’ve nothing better to do anyway.”
“Seriously,” Jongin pulls his hand away once he deems they’re far enough from his workplace, but before he can put some distance between them, Sehun slings an arm over his shoulder and it is casual enough that Jongin feels awkward to push it off, “What do you do in your free time?”
“Play LOL, go for a late night drive, and think about what I want to do in life.”
“So have you figured out what you want to do in life?” Jongin knows how difficult it can be to make such a major decision, especially after seeing his classmates’ frequent breakdown when they’re forced to make a decision back in high school.
“Not really, but there’s still time. I shall think about it next month”
Jongin frowns at that, disagreeing with Sehun’s statement. He had always believed in making use of every waking minute to work towards his dream and it leaves a bad taste in his mouth when people procrastinate about their future. “Everyone only gets a limited amount of time allocated to them in each lifetime. You may think that it’s okay wasting time on nothing right now, but in fact, you’re using up the time for your future.”
“You know what’s the best thing about youth?” Sehun asks. “Having lots of time, and thanks to that I can spend it on doing romantic stuff like waiting for you.
For privileged kids, youth is a very special thing. You can put a stop to it anytime you want. For example, I took a gap year this year and it acts like extra time for me. I can do whatever I want in this year and as long as it’s not too crazy, it won’t affect my future. It’s like time is frozen for me. All I have to do is go back to school next year and my life can continue from there and by the time I graduate, I’ll be thrown into society like the rest. Just like this, I don’t have to let go of youth so quickly.”
To say that Jongin is shocked will be an understatement. From their previous encounters, Sehun came off as a typical teenager - earnest, stubborn and a little reckless. But Sehun thinks way deeper than Jongin would had expected, even if he didn’t necessarily agree with what was said.
“I think that’s enough of serious conversations for the day,” Sehun announces, leading Jongin to a bench at the bus stop, “What flavor do you prefer for popcorns?”
“Even if I forget my way back to Earth, I’ll still remember the way to your house.”
Sehun had taken a liking to sending Jongin cheesy texts after their movie date and as a result, Jongin had successfully mastered the art of rolling his eyes.
Jongin is still not used to texting, constantly forgetting where he left his phone. And more often than not, he chooses to ignore the text messages Sehun sends him. But he still tries to make a conscious effort to reply to Sehun’s text(as long as it’s not too ridiculous) and answer the other boy’s goodnight call before they go to bed. It had only been a little more than a week, but Jongin finds himself looking forward to Sehun’s call, letting the younger boy’s voice lull him to sleep as Sehun recounts other interesting things he didn’t manage to tell Jongin over KaTalk messages.
“I went back to school today,” Sehun voice sounds even deeper over the phone, and Jongin finds himself succumbing to sleep slowly.
“Hmm? Why?”
“I went to see cherry blossoms.”
“Don’t lie.” Jongin fluffs his pillows, putting the phone on the speaker mode, “Spring has just started and it will take another two months before cherry blossoms starts blooming.”
“I’m not lying,” Sehun huffs indignantly and Jongin knows that there’ll be a pout on the other boy’s face, “Our department was painting one of the old walls with cherry blossoms, so technically, I did see it.”
“Oh, okay.” A silence follows Jongin’s reply, and this type of silence isn’t uncommon in their phone conversations. Jongin always runs out of things to say, letting his puppies distract him when he feels the conversation getting awkward while Sehun seems more subdued over the phone, and Jongin can almost hear the cogs turning in Sehun’s head as he thinks of what to say.
“When they bloom, do you want to go see them together?” Sehun asks after a long pause.
“Let’s see.” Jongin quickly changes the topic to prevent Sehun from bugging him about the previous question, “What are you doing tomorrow?” And thankfully, Sehun starts a full-on rant about how he has to help his dad tomorrow and how much he hates it.
Jongin knows that all the different occasions he hung out with Sehun are considered dates. However, it is easy to pretend that they’re simply two friends hanging out over movies and dinners, and Jongin wouldn’t feel so guilty if he decided to back out and break Sehun’s heart eventually. On the other hand, no suggestions of viewing cherry blossoms together are ever innocent - only couples or people who wants to get together will pop the question - and Jongin knows that Sehun isn’t simply looking for a friend to go together. Sehun wants to know if Jongin is interested in pursuing a relationship with him, and Jongin isn’t ready to answer the question, not till he’s sure that Sehun is the right one for him. Sehun is cute and attractive, and Jongin likes his company, but Jongin thinks he can never be sure.
Ever since Jongin gave Sehun his schedule (after lots of whining and bribery), Sehun will drop by occasionally, waiting by the door for Jongin to finish. His coworkers had cornered him, asking if he knows the hot, young kid waiting by the door but Jongin had always feigned ignorance, pretending to be clueless about Sehun’s existence.
“He’s always gone after you leave though. Are you sure you don’t know him?”
“Yeah,” Jongin digs through his bag, pretending to look for his phone. He doubts that he can continue lying if he looks into the eyes of his colleagues. Jongin knows that calling Sehun his friend is the right thing to do, but everyone knows that he doesn’t make friends easily and their age gap makes it impossible for Jongin to lie about Sehun being an old friend. They’ll then catch on that Sehun is his date, and he doesn’t want to introduce Sehun to his colleagues, only to get endless teases about Sehun when Jongin is unsure of his feelings.
“Maybe we should call the police then and report him for loitering.”
“Can you wait elsewhere?” Jongin makes sure that they are at least two streets away from his workplace before slowing down and talking to Sehun.
“Why? I like that spot.” Sehun takes a huge sip of his bubble tea, stuffing his cheeks with tapioca pearls. Rather than a drink, bubble tea feels more like an extension of Sehun or maybe an accessory for his daily fashion, just like how celebrities always like to hold overpriced Starbucks in paparazzi photos. Out of all the times they met up, Jongin had only seen Sehun without bubble tea once and even that was at the insistence of Jongin.
“My fellow dance instructors think that you’re creepy,” Jongin answers, leaving out the part where he pretends not to know Sehun on purpose.
However, Sehun catches on faster than Jongin expected him to, “You didn’t tell them that you know me?” And when Jongin fails to reply, a scowl appears on the younger boy’s face immediately.
“I just didn’t know what to tell them,” Jongin admits sheepishly, watching a myriad of expression flits through Sehun’s face - starting with hurt to resignation and his eventual poker face.
Sehun stops waiting for Jongin outside the studio after that, choosing to drop Jongin a message about his location and waits for the dance instructor to look for him instead. There is a slight pang of disappointment on the first day Jongin looks out of the door and notices that Sehun isn’t there anymore. But this current arrangement works better and Jongin is thankful that Sehun didn’t get angry with him over this.
“Let’s go and get meat tonight,” Sehun suggests, “I know a really good place in Apgujeong.”
“Okay, my treat tonight,” Jongin agrees readily. After their first date, Jongin had expected himself to pay for the majority of their meals, but in actual fact, Sehun insists on splitting the bill or paying for the food before Jongin can.
“Nice. You might have to spend your entire month’s pay on that meal.”
“I earn more than you think,” Jongin knows that his pay is pathetic as compared to a lot of people, but he still earns more than a school teacher and the bonus which he received last week makes him feel exceptionally generous.
They end up devouring 6 portions of meat between two people and while Jongin can still eat more, he’s glad that Sehun stopped him from ordering before he can spend his entire week of food money on a meal.
“Do you want to grab some ddeokbokki? There’s one down the street. It’s nowhere as good as the one in Hongdae but -”
“Let’s go,” Jongin gets up to pay, and allows Sehun to spray an excessive amount of Febreeze onto their jackets. The restaurant has relatively good air ventilation, however, just like most barbecue restaurant, they still end up smelling like grilled meat.
The food truck by the road is already full of office workers - gathering together to complain about their difficult working life - by the time they arrive and they end up having to sit at the table closest to the exit without the warmth from the heater.
The charm of a food truck is that you will end up ordering more than what you’d planned for initially and Jongin is no exception to that. Their tiny table creaks under the combined weight of ddeokbokki, sundae, fried food and soju and Jongin thinks his stomach will sag if they end up consuming all of it.
“Don’t pour your own drink,” Sehun grabs his wrist when Jongin is pouring their drinks, spilling some of the soju onto the table in the process, “Or I’ll be single for 7 years.”
“And where did you hear this myth from?” Jongin heard of this too when he was in university, but it is too troublesome having to wait for other people to notice his empty cup or having to pay attention to people’s drinking cups all the time.
“Somewhere,” Sehun takes the bottle away from him and finishes filling the cup, “Just let me pour it for you from now on.”
“You believe in quite a lot of stuff eh, from horoscopes to these myths,” Jongin teases, remembering the text Sehun sent him on Monday, informing him of his fortune for the week.
“It’s better to believe in them,” Sehun downs the shot and nudges at Jongin to pour him another one, “You adults are just too cynical.”
“We’re being realistic.There’s no proof or research done to substantiate these weird myths.”
“Adults are no fun. God,” Sehun whispers to himself, holding his hand together beneath the plastic table to pray, “Please don’t let me be like that in the future.”
“Your hair is too attention seeking,” Jongin complains, the slight nervousness he always feels when meeting Sehun ebbing away after a few drinks. Sehun’s pink hair always attracts excessive attention from passersby when they go out and Jongin isn’t a big fan of all the looks that come their way.
“It’s a form of expression,” Sehun retorts, his lisp which was unnoticeable previously slipping in. “I dye my hair when I want to make a statement.”
“So why pink?”
“Because pink is the color of love,” The younger boy throws his arms open exaggeratedly and gives Jongin a drunken smile, “Isn’t it befitting?”
“But have you found your love?”
“Yes!” Sehun pulls his chair to sit next to Jongin and in his drunken stupor, he knocks over the bottles of soju on their table. The glass shatters against the pavement loudly and the ahjumma rushes over immediately, complaining about their carelessness at the top of her voice. Jongin apologizes for their mistake profusely, quickly taking out his wallet to pay for their food before the ahjumma can start lecturing them in public.
“You troublesome kid,” Jongin chides without any real heat, letting Sehun lean on his side. Despite Sehun looking very skinny, he has long limbs and it makes holding him a lot more difficult that Jongin imagined.
“I’m not a kid anymore.” Sehun slurs, the alcohol affecting him a lot more after they stood up. “I came of age 3 years ago,” Sehun holds up three fingers and shoves it in Jongin’s face to prove his point, “THREE.”
“I know,” Jongin coaxes, placing Sehun’s left arm back on his shoulder. Sehun might still be somewhat naive and thoughtless with some of his actions but he clearly knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to act on it. Age-wise, Sehun is still too young for him but somewhere along the line, the gap caused by their age doesn’t feel that huge anymore.
“Jonginnie, Jonginnie, Jonginnie,” Sehun chants his name repeatedly, putting his entire body weight on Jongin making it difficult for both of them to continue walking. At first, Jongin tries to quieten Sehun, feeling embarrassed by his antics. However, he gave up after realizing that nobody will give a shit about two drunkards at 2AM and pulls Sehun down to sit on the pavement.
Jongin puts Sehun’s head to rest on his shoulder and runs his hand through the damaged strands carefully, “You’re too noisy.” Sehun’s hair is coarse to touch and more than half of it has split-ends but it’s still so pretty to look at and so comforting to touch.
“‘m not. Jonginnie,” Sehun mumbles against his neck, his alcoholic breath making Jongin feel slightly intoxicated, “Do you want to dye your hair pink too? Then we can have couple hair.”
Jongin isn’t a big fan of dyeing his hair, choosing to go for the most basic dark brown when he gets sick of his black hair and the thought of having pink hair had definitely never crossed his mind, until now. “I’ll think about it.”
Sehun holds out his pinky, folding Jongin’s fingers forcefully with his other hand, “Promise. If not I’ll steal everything you love and run away.”
“Okay.” Maybe when the time comes for it, he will be more afraid of Sehun disappearing than losing his prized possessions.
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