Sweet and Sticky (2/2)
She doesn't hear the end of it from Soojung. It was to be expected, but Jinri was hoping for at least a little break time before Soojung started with her incessant nagging, why am I even friends with you and she briefly considers mentioning how Jongin had voiced the exact same thought only hours earlier but that would be like adding fuel to the fire so she keeps her mouth shut and takes it all in.
Stupid cookies and their stupid fortunes.
Jinri offers to work overtime one afternoon at the gift shop, which surprises her boss because usually Jinri finds any sort of excuse to leave earlier, but Soojung is not letting up and she would rather deal with customers that she can't understand than the persistent roommate she can.
She gets home at around ten that night, and almost bolts right back outside when she sees three extra pairs of shoes thrown loosely at the entrance of her apartment.
Jongin's Nike's, Sehun's Vans, and a third pair of dress shoes she doesn't quite recognize. Jinri has a feeling she knows who owns them anyways.
All four of them are crowded in the small living area, and there is a suspicious smell of Chinese takeout coming from the kitchen. A movie playing on the television screen (jinri notices the open plastic box that has the familiar wear and tear of her favorite chick flick and mentally strangles all of them), at the coffee table Sehun and Jongin are engaged in a heated battle of arm wrestling, and Taemin and Soojung are sitting on the couch, talking. What the fuck.
Taemin notices her first and smirks, waving long, thin fingers, and then Soojung turns around to follow his gaze. She narrows her eyes when she finally spots Jinri and then stands up, walking over to pull her inside further. "Don't be so rude, Jinri, come and sit down."
"Uh, I'd rather not. You guys can have your little party as long as you don't make me join."
"Yeah, we don't want you at our party anyways," Jongin says, breaking his attention away from Sehun and wincing when Sehun slams his fist down on the table. "Ow! Fuck, Sehun, I wasn't ready!"
Sehun shrugs and Jinri snorts. "You're an asshole, Jongin."
"Fuck off."
"Jesus, you two, shut the hell up." Soojung turns to Jinri, sighing. "Jinri."
"I don't want to be a part of your stupid party. I don't even like anyone here."
Her roommate raises an eyebrow and Taemin sits in the back patiently, one foot bouncing with that stupid smirk on his face.
"Soojung."
"Okay, fine, jeez. Will you at least grab some drinks? These two dipshits," she motions at the pair on the floor now attempting foot wrestling, "forgot to bring them. Please?"
Her best friend just tries so hard. "Fine."
"I'll come with!"
Taemin practically flies up from the couch, running gracelessly towards them, and is already in the process of tugging on his shoes before Jinri can even protest. Soojung looks like she is about to burst from happiness, and as much as Jinri loves pissing her best friend off, she can't bring it to herself to wipe the smile off of her face. But she narrows her eyes at Taemin anyways, mustering up the nastiest look she can manage before stomping back outside.
Soojung calls a thanks jinri, i love you! from inside and Jinri snorts uncharacteristically.
"Thanks for letting me come with you," Taemin says when he finally catches up with her, bumping her at the shoulder.
"Don't count on it."
They are walking back from the convenience store, Taemin carrying both 12 packs of beer because he "insists," when Jinri shoves him into an alley and doesn't even glance around to make sure it's empty before she begins unbuttoning his shirt.
"Jinri, what the fuck-"
"Soojung won't get off my back for leaving you hanging, you stupid shit," she growls, fingering his belt buckle as she latches her mouth on to his neck, sucking on the pale flesh and hoping to leave a mark. "And I don't plan on hearing about you all the fucking time, so might as well get this over with now, right?"
His head drops back against the brick wall and it sounds like it hurt, but when his hands pull her head up to kiss her, Jinri doesn't think he even noticed.
His mouth trails down past her jawline and now Jinri is breathing heavily against his skin as he kisses her, pushing forward. "You know," he begins, panting just as hard as she is, "the other day, when you left me with Naeun, we didn't - shit, fuck - actually fuck."
"Shut up." She toys with the button of his jeans with one hand, raking her nails down the exposed part of his back with her other. "Shut up."
"I had the whole night planned out, I was gonna take you to my apartment-"
"Shut up, Taemin-"
"And we were gonna have dinner together, and I was gonna learn all about you, and you were gonna learn all about me-"
"Taemin-"
"And then afterwards we might have fucked, or we might have not, and you would've fallen asleep at my place, and in the morning-"
"Taemin." Jinri stops playing with the loops of his jeans, fingers now teasing the waistband of his boxers, and she presses her lips against his harshly, glad that this is all in the dark so he can't see how red she is, how she wishes it had been her and not Naeun, stupid newbie Naeun, and he bites down on her lip, swallowing the moan that had come out so suddenly. "Shut the fuck up."
He finishes messily fifteen minutes later, sticky and white all over the pale flesh of her fingers. Jinri wipes it off on the back of his jeans and doesn't kiss him before picking the beer up from where he'd dropped it in a haste and heading back to the apartment.
Taemin follows behind minutes later laughing.
Soojung crawls into her bed an hour after those stupid idiots leave, Taemin silent with a dumb smile on his face speaking for all and Jongin and Sehun being annoying as always while Jinri had shoved them out the door.
Soojung isn't wearing pants and her legs are cold when she entangles her long limbs with her own, and with the amount of skin she feels pressed up against her Jinri thinks Soojung probably isn't wearing a sleeping shirt either. Even though it's Jinri that does the sex stuff, Soojung is the one that can't seem to keep all her clothes on.
She feels Soojung smile against her back and she sighs. "I did it, you piece of shit." Jinri's pretty sure Soojung already knows, though.
"Yeah."
"Now can you leave me the fuck alone?"
Soojung doesn't say anything, but her smile grows a little bit and she tightens the grip she has around Jinri's waist, and Jinri thinks her best friend is really fucking weird, but she doesn't say anything either.
The manager decides to have a blowout sale before the Dragon Boat Festival rolls around and Jinri is stuck having to relabel all the tags of the gift shop items and strip down the New Year banners, replacing them with cheaply advertised decorations while Amber gets to man the counter, because Amber knows Chinese and doesn't do a shit job interacting with the customers. Sometimes Jinri just really, really fucking hates this job.
She's in the process of hanging up one of the posters near the lanterns section when the bells ring at the door and she hears Amber start off in a Chinese greeting and end in a Korean one. Hm.
Jinri struggles with maintaining her balance on the ladder and holding the poster up with one hand as she reaches for the tape on the counter next to her with the other. Her arms are aching from having done this all day and she's all about ready to give up on life when she hears a snort behind her, and she doesn't even have to turn around to know who it is, his arms probably caused all haughtily in front of him like the piece of shit he is.
"What do you want." It comes out as more of a statement than a question, but he doesn't seem to notice.
Jinri glances behind her once, craning her neck to get a proper look at his stupid face. Taemin is smiling, sure enough with his arms folded across his chest, and he looks like he's debating on whether to come to her aid or not.
"Well, are you gonna help me?"
Taemin shrugs. "Why not."
"Don't be such a dick!" From the front, she hears Amber click her tongue disapprovingly. "Will you please help me out?"
"If you put it that way."
Taemin is still smiling when he pushes her away from the stool gently, standing up to peel the tape first before readjusting the poster on the wall and pasting it down at the corners. When he's ironed out the crinkles and appears to be satisfied, he hops down from the stool and grins. "Lucky for you, I know how to hang up a poster."
Jinri rolls her eyes. "Yeah, because it takes working in the advertising department to know how to stick a piece of paper up on the wall."
"Because you obviously knew how to do it."
"I hung up most of the posters in this shop, you asshole. You just happened to come in at an inconvenient time."
"Which explains why all these posters look so shitty. At least one of them will look right."
Jinri huffs. "You're a dick, Taemin. What do you even want?"
"Dinner. And a movie, maybe, although that could be pushing my limits."
There's a whistle from the front and Jinri remembers suddenly why she likes working by herself. "You're not planning on leaving me alone, are you?"
"Hey, I helped you hang this poster up, didn't I? And you still owe me from when I paid off that little girl when the cash register wasn't working."
"I did. I gave you sex."
"To get Soojung off your back. That had nothing to do with me."
"What the fuck, Taemin."
"JINRI." She hates Amber.
Taemin snorts, hands sliding into his pockets, and he shuffles one foot back and forth against the tiled floor before looking up at her through his bangs, pouting, and the heavy pink of his lips contrasts so attractively with the pale color of his skin that she almost caves. "One dinner. Just us two. Please."
"No."
He flashes a smile anyways, like she hasn't just rejected his proposal for the millionth time, and Jinri thinks she's just surrounded by weirdoes, but she doesn't say anything and just snorts when he leans in and pecks her at the corner of her mouth before spinning around and half-skipping out the door.
It's silent, for a second, and she sighs to herself because this predicament probably isn't leaving her anytime soon.
"Well, he's cute," Amber notes when Jinri comes into view, breaking her from her thoughts. Jinri throws the stuffed horse from the Welcome the New Year! display at Amber's head and smirks to herself when it hits her target spot on.
Three days later, Jinri realizes Taemin's apparent influence on her shit friends.
"We're going on a double date!" Soojung announces, skipping inside of their apartment with three shopping bags in hand.
"Wait, what? Fuck. No."
"Me and you, Jongin and Taemin. Out for dinner."
"…. No?"
"I already have reservations."
"Are you - are you deaf? Because. No."
"I bought you an outfit and everything!"
"Soojung-"
She walks out the door wearing a too-short skirt and Soojung's new white blouse and wonders what she did in her past life to deserve this.
"You cleaned up nicely. Asshole." Jongin flips Jinri the finger and Soojung looks partly scandalized and partly fed up before shoving her best friend inside the booth. Jinri slides into the faux leather seat and ignores the way Taemin eyes her, a glint in his eyes that she has seen one too many times before, and she picks her menu up to prop in front of her face so he can't see her.
Soojung giggles and Jinri glances under the table to see the other pair link their feet together under the table. "We haven't even ordered drinks, you guys can't wait? What the fuck."
"You wanna do that too?"
Taemin's foot taps against hers and Jinri barely peers over the menu to narrow her eyes at him before pulling it back over her face, and he laughs, all charming and charismatic like the way she supposes people like him are.
The waiter arrives and takes their orders and Soojung and the two idiots manage to keep a conversation going, with Jinri making occasional rude comments that only Taemin laughs at, and she finishes her food in record time when it finally arrives. He's been looking at her with a smile toying at the ends of his lips the whole time, and Jinri thinks she might kill herself if she doesn't just wipe it off soon, that stupid smirk because he knows what she's thinking and she hates it.
Soojung wants dessert and so while her and Jongin are arguing over which flavor ice cream tastes better with chocolate cake, Jinri stands up and shuffles past Soojung. "Me and Taemin are going to the bathroom," she announces, a little louder than necessary, and his grin just widens as he stands up and follows her.
She hears Soojung snort behind them and Jongin whisper, "They're going to fuck, aren't they?" and Jinri wonders briefly why Soojung chose someone so dense.
She scans the girl's bathroom quickly before pulling Taemin in by his tie, locking the door behind him and pressing him against the tiled walls. His smile has taken up his whole face, a completely blown out expression with all of his teeth showing as he lets his head fall back against the door, pulling her with him so he can kiss her.
He tastes like hot noodles and searing flavor, and she licks inside his mouth, so focused on his lips and his smell and his hands tight on her hips that she doesn't notice he's turned them over until she's the one up against the wall, his leg between her thighs.
"Shit, you are fucking ridiculous, Taemin," she breathes against his lips, fiddling with his tie and popping open the buttons of his shirt so she can run a finger down his chest.
Taemin laughs. "Hey, you're the one that started it." He pulls the pins out of her hair and leans back to watch her short hair fall in curls around her shoulders, still smiling widely, and Jinri isn't so sure she wants to get rid of it now. "But I guess I can keep it going."
She rolls her eyes and Taemin laughs again, pressing his lips against hers once more before moving down past her throat, pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses against the skin over throat and the sliver exposed around her collarbones as he wraps her legs around his waist to hoist her up.
It's different, this time, but Jinri doesn't realize it until after they've finished, when she's panting heavily with her head thrown back and Taemin leans in to kiss her, and she lets him, soft and sweet and he doesn't taste so much like spicy noodles anymore. He tastes like cherry chapstick and the citrus drink she'd been drinking earlier and she thinks she likes it a little better.
Taemin comes back to the gift shop a week later, and he pretends not to notice her but strolls right inside, as if he has never been here before, as if Choi Jinri at the counter doesn't exist, and she just rolls her eyes and tries not to glance at him from the corner of her eye.
She's halfway done with the magazine she had been flipping through when he slams something down on the counter, startling her out of her thoughts. "What?"
"I'd like to buy this."
Taemin nods at the trinket in front of her - a white lucky cat facing towards her, its paw waving up and down as it beckons her. Jinri raises her eyebrow but doesn't say anything, just rings up the cat and begins wrapping it up, but he pulls it back before she gets the chance. "It's okay, I don't need it wrapped."
"Okay. It's 25000 won."
He hands her his card and when she's rung him up and he's tucking his card safely back into his wallet, Taemin pets the head of the cat once before pushing it towards her.
She had a feeling this was going to happen, but she asks anyways.
"What?"
"For you." He flashes a lopsided smile, and she resists the urge to brush his bangs out of his eyes, thick, dark locks that graze the tips of his eyelashes as he blinks at her. "Maybe one day you'll follow it." Taemin points at the paw, tapping against it once before shoving his hands back into his pockets and leaving.
Jinri stares at the cat for what feels like hours after he's left, the raised paw lifting up and down, up and down.
When the bells at the door ring again, she hides the cat behind the counter and pretends it never existed in the first place.
Soojung invites Jongin and Sehun over that same weekend for a slumber party, and Jinri walks into their shared apartment to see three sleeping bags on the floor, the pink one at the corner empty and Soojung's stupid friends occupying the other two, Jongin holding on to a bored Sehun's hand as they watch some lame horror movie.
She stalks into the kitchen where Soojung is microwaving popcorn, filing her nails as she leans back against the counter. "What the fuck, man."
"Oh, hey, you're back. How was work?"
"Shitty, and now it's shittier because what the fuck."
"My party? Is it because you wanna join my slumber party?"
"Uh, no? I'm not in the mood to join your sick threesome, thanks."
Soojung snorts. "Too bad, I think it would've been a pretty legit orgy if Taemin decided to come. It's Saturday sex marathon, don't you know?"
"I must've missed the memo. Sadly, because I've got other things to do."
Her best friend raises an eyebrow. "Oh, do you?"
Jinri smirks. "Yeah. Eating cheap ramen at the convenience store and waiting for your 'Saturday Sex Marathon' to give out."
"Hm. Not sure that'll be anytime soon, unfortunately."
"Sehun looks like he'd be more willing to fuck with your collection of stuffed animals than join in with you and Jongin, so I can't see it lasting that long."
"I DON'T FUCK STUFFED ANIMALS, WHAT THE FUCK JINRI."
"I think he heard you."
"Yeah. I think so too."
Jinri hands the cashier her card and watches as he rings up her snacks, a bag of chips and a cold bottle of vitamin water because her roommate's shitty friends probably polished off her collection at home. The store is almost deserted, surprisingly empty at one am for a corner street shop, and she wonders briefly if it's only her that has nothing to do on "sex marathon" nights.
Jinri grabs her bag of food, thanking the cashier, and she's just about to leave when she hears a shuffling in one of the aisles and glances behind her to see Taemin, scanning through a shelf of candy with his hands in his pockets. She snorts, and he looks up, catching her eye, and the smile that breaks out on his face makes her heart speed up a little bit.
"Following me now, are you?"
He smirks. "I think it was you that saw me first, no?"
"Who's to say you haven't just been hanging around my apartment to see me?"
Taemin shrugs. "Who's to say I haven't?"
His hands are still in his pockets when he walks over to her, and Jinri's seen that stance of his enough to know that he has no intention of buying anything, so she lets him follow her when she walks outside, holding the door open a little longer than she needs to and slowing down as she waits for him to catch up.
"What are you doing out so late, anyways?"
"Soojung threw a sexual slumber party at our apartment. Which, I heard you were invited to?"
"Yeah, but I thought you might be sick of seeing me, so I said no."
Her heart falls a little bit but Jinri pretends not to notice. "That's never stopped you before, though."
"And I suppose it didn't stop me right now either, because look where I am. Standing right next to you, walking you home."
"Is that where we were going? I was just following you."
"I was just following you, too."
Jinri looks up from her unfocused gaze at the pavement and sees Taemin looking at her, eyes bright and earnest, and she wonders if this is just lust or a simmering attraction bubbling into something more, if it was ever either of those things and maybe she's just imagining all of this in her head. "Well, we don't have to go home, if you don't want."
"What do you want?"
She shrugs. "Whatever you want, I guess." He wiggles his eyebrows and she rolls her eyes, bumping into his side and not moving away when he throws an arm over her shoulder. "Not whatever you want. You know what I meant, perv."
"Well, alright then. 'Whatever' I want it is."
They end up walking around the block until its nearing three in the morning, and her legs are about to give out, and Taemin all but drags her back to her apartment where the lights are off and Jinri doesn't hear any weird sexual noises emitting from inside.
Jinri stops in front of the door and turns to look at him, his eyes a little bloodshot and she thinks hers probably are too. "Do you wanna stay over? It's really late, and your apartment is kind of far away."
"Nah, I'm okay. I can take myself home."
"I'm sure you can, but I'd feel bad."
Taemin laughs. "Would you now? I'm honored."
"Don't be a dick, you can just sleep in Soojung's room. Her bed's empty, anyways."
"Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I've got things to do." She raises an eyebrow and he laughs, ruffling hair and pulling her hood up for her when she pouts. "I'll see you later, okay?"
"Whatever you say."
"Whatever I say. Okay." He smiles, leaning down just barely to kiss her, lingering a little longer than last time and she closes her eyes, smiling against his lips and she almost brings her arms up to wrap around his neck when he pulls away. His face is still dangerously close and their noses brush and Jinri can feel her skin heating up but he doesn't say anything, just kisses her again and then pulls back for real. "Good night."
"Good night."
He waits until she is inside and all the lights are turned off before he finally walks away from their apartment complex, and Jinri doesn't fall asleep that night.
"So, Jongin told me you and Taemin hung out on 'Saturday Sex Marathon.'"
Jinri pretends not to notice her roommate and scoops another spoonful of cereal into her mouth, eyes trained on the blank television in front of her.
"He said you guys just hung out the whole night?"
Maybe she should turn on the television. Isn't there like some new mystery drama airing on SBS? That sounds kind of interesting.
"And you invited him to stay over?"
She hears nothing. Soojung's mouth is moving, but Jinri hears nothing, only feels the cold milk run down her throat and the sugar from her cereal stain the tops of her teeth.
"And he said yes and then you guys fucked?"
"We didn't fuck, you piece of shit. I'm not the one that throws sex marathon slumber parties."
"I KNEW IT."
Jinri wonders briefly if a restraining order would do her any good.
It's two weeks before she sees him again, and Jinri almost forgets that Taemin is not a complete douche and that he has feelings until he stops by the gift shop one Friday afternoon, smiling not unlike usual. What is unlike usual, however, is the way he stops at the counter first thing when he walks in, Jinri fixing the figurines behind the glass counter as she waits for Amber to come back from her lunch break.
"Are you almost off?"
She raises an eyebrow even though she doesn't look up at him directly, opting to stay seated on the floor. "Off what?"
"For your lunch break."
"I'm waiting for Amber to get back."
"And I'm back, bitch. What do you want." Jinri glances up to see Amber walk in, her obnoxious snapback balanced precariously atop her equally obnoxious blonde hair, and scowls. "Oh, hello. I didn't know we had company," Amber says, nodding at Taemin.
"Shut up. I'm taking my break."
"So soon? But I just got back."
Jinri stands up from the floor and brushes the dirt off of her shorts, shooting a look at Amber. She walks out from behind the counter and grabs Taemin's hand. "Don't expect me anytime soon."
"But I just got back!" she repeats.
"Don't bother me. Come on, Taemin." She drags him towards the door, hearing Amber wolf whistle behind them, and refrains from flipping her coworker the finger because she can see a little girl staring at the three of them from where the action figures are displayed.
Taemin is staring at her with an amused look, hand still tightly wound in hers and refusing to let go. "What?"
"Do you just hate all of your friends, or…?"
"Amber's not my friend. And yes."
"Wow. That must be nice."
"Shut up. What did you want, anyways."
Taemin shrugs. "I don't know, to take you out for lunch? But you basically dragged me, so." Jinri raises an eyebrow at him. "I know of a really good Chinese restaurant?"
"Oh, really?"
"Really."
She finds herself outside of the restaurant Sehun and Jongin work at, and scowls. "I should've guessed."
"You should've. Now come on." He holds the door open for her and all but shoves her inside when she refuses to take a step, and seats them at the same corner table she had seen him at weeks before. Jongin wiggles his eyebrows at them and Jinri pretends like he doesn't exist.
"Hello, welcome to Ch - what the fuck, you're back already."
Sehun, Jinri later discovers, is the worst waiter to ever exist. Taemin smiles up at him sweetly and hands him the laminated menu already placed on the table. "I'll take the usual, dickwad. You can come back in a minute for my girlfriend's order."
Jinri gives Taemin a Look. "What the fuck. No."
"What?"
"Just - no. And just get me whatever he's getting," she tacks on, looking up at Sehun. He gives her a pointed look and she returns the expression, crossing her arms and leaning back in the chair. "And water, please. Thanks."
"God, you two are fucking weird. Okay." He leaves and sticks their order on Jongin's forehead, who almost falls off the stool he is sitting on. Jinri snorts.
"Your friends are really stupid. And they are horrible wingmen."
"Hey, at least I like my friends."
"Touché."
Taemin laughs and throws his arm around her shoulder, and she finds it kind of weird that they are sitting next to each other instead of across, and that he still manages to wrestle his legs in between hers, and when he leans down to whisper in her ear, she doesn't pull away.
"I don't need wingmen friends, considering I've gotten this far without them."
"Oh, really? And how far is that?"
He smiles and she feels the curve of his lips against the shell of her ear, soft and cool and just barely noticeable if not for the hot puffs of air he's blowing against her skin. "More than a one night stand, I'd say."
Sehun is back with their drinks, and he spills one of the glasses just before he reaches their table. Jinri raises an eyebrow but Taemin seems unfazed, throws a stack of napkins at Sehun and they watch as Jongin comes running forward to help him.
He drops their order too and Jongin punches him in the gut for wasting good food and Sehun scowls and replies with it’s not like i did it on purpose and even though they are extremely stupid she supposes they can be kind of amusing too.
Taemin gives her a bite of his food when it finally arrives in one piece, brushing away the piece of rice that clings to the corner of her mouth, and his expression holds something that she can’t seem to read.
Jinri just laughs and kisses him and tells herself it means nothing.
Jinri is curled up against one corner of her bed, the light on her nightstand flickering once as she switches it on. Her manager had assigned her and Amber a month's worth of readings on marketing strategies which she put off until the weekend before, complaining about the assignment until Soojung finally got annoyed and shoved her into her room to work on it alone.
She pushes her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and tucks the strand of hair falling out of her ponytail behind her ear, when there is a knock on the door and she doesn't have to look up to know who it is.
"Need help? Soojung said you might need some company, her and the duo went out for beer and karaoke."
Jinri glances up at Taemin, who is dressed in a faded band t-shirt and jeans that are ripped all though the front. "Aren't you cold? It's so windy outside."
"Kind of. Not really." He shuffles inside, socks sliding roughly against the carpet, until he is standing next to her bed. "Mind if I just…" Taemin smiles at her cheekily and Jinri rolls her eyes, pulling the covers back so he can crawl inside.
"You're so dumb."
"I know. What are you working on?"
"Some stupid reading assignment from my manager. He's opening up another gift shop on the other side of Chinatown and needs some help."
Taemin takes the papers from her and scans through them roughly. He looks different without that amused smile playing on his lips, a set sort of concentration that she's never seen before until he glances up and flashes her that dumb, pretty smile of his. "I can help you with this. Easy stuff."
Jinri pushes her bangs back away from her face. "Really?"
"Really. Lucky for you, this is another thing I'm good at." Taemin winks, nudging her with his arm, and Jinri doesn't stop herself from laughing. She shuffles over closer to him, leans her head against his shoulder and the seconds turn into minutes, the minutes into hours, the faded sky into a dark midnight blue, watching him work, and when she wakes up in the middle of the night her papers sit organized and her notes are set, glasses folded up at the corner of her nightstand.
The empty side of the bed is unnaturally cold and for the first time in her life, Jinri doesn’t think she is enough to fill it out on her own.
Taemin leans over the counter, spinning one of the new Chinese tops in his hand, a smirk playing at the corner of his lips. Jinri makes a face at him. "What do you want?"
"I had an epiphany the other night, when I was helping you out."
"Did you now?"
"I did," he affirms. "And it concerns you."
"Alright, let's hear it."
Taemin puts a finger to her lips, placing his other hand over her eyes, and she hears the top clatter to the floor. She's pretty sure it's broken, but she doesn't move away. "Are you ready?" Jinri nods. Taemin clears his throat, and with the way he is bracing himself she thinks she already knows what he's going to say. "We should date."
He pulls his hands away from her face in reaction and Jinri snorts. "Why would I ever do that?"
Taemin shrugs. "I don't know. I'm attractive, you're attractive, it's simple logic, really."
"You think you're attractive?" Jinri scoffs. "That's cute."
Taemin makes a face but he ends up laughing anyways, leaning over the counter with his head in his hands, peering up at her between his thin fingers. "Why do I like you," he mumbles, and she pretends like she didn't hear him, like this wasn't ever something that was supposed to spiral that far out of control. "Really, though," he begins again, "you should think about it."
Jinri shakes her head, and her hair is probably a mess but her heart is - has been, now that she thinks about it - much worse off and she doesn't know which one is a bigger concern. "I have commitment issues."
"We could fuck whenever you want to, if that's what you're worried about."
Jinri snorts and punches him in the arm, but even she doesn't know if that's the real concern.
Soojung cooks dinner for their surprise horror movie marathon she has planned, and Jinri is surprised to find that the Three Idiots haven't been invited when she comes home to her roommate setting up the living room area.
"I thought me and you should spend some quality bonding time," and Jinri shrugs and toes off her shoes and helps Soojung prepare whatever atrocious dinner she has planned.
They trash it after the second attempt and lucky for her Soojung has the chicken delivery on speed dial, and they choose out three movies while waiting for the order to arrive.
It gets there half an hour later and they huddle together at the bar of the kitchen, legs tangled together underneath the wooden chairs and Jinri thinks this is actually really nice. Her and Soojung spend half of their relationship bickering and threatening to kick each other out and she kind of likes this, likes sitting with her best friend, so close together and so content.
"How's the asshole doing?"
Soojung shrugs. "You know. Normal. We fuck around occasionally. Sometimes Sehun joins."
Jinri gapes. "Seriously?"
"No, fuck, no. We went on a date last weekend and I had to stop him from calling Sehun because it was apparently the first place those two went as best friends."
"Where did you guys go?"
"The club across the street from the bowling place."
"What the fuck."
Soojung shrugs. "Yeah, I don't know. They’re weird. Anyways, you and Taemin?"
Jinri snorts. "Are nothing. We fucked. That's it."
"You guys should date."
We should date. Jinri laughs, grabbing Soojung's soda because she has long finished hers, and she takes an irritatingly long time drinking. "Yeah," she begins after finishing, "he said that the other day too." Soojung giggles and bumps her at the side and she shrugs, because yeah, he's kind of cute. "He's kind of cute,” she voices. “I guess."
Soojung doesn't let her hear the end of it but that was to be expected. She supposes she doesn't mind talking about him anyways.
It's cold outside, and Jinri regrets not covering up, regrets choosing her favorite pair of shorts and her favorite crop top, regrets leaving her hair down to blow in the wind, regrets this whole stupid decision until she sees him lingering at the opposite end of the street, hands in his pockets and his hair tucked securely underneath the beanie she saw him wearing when they first met.
She stumbles over to where he is standing, and although Sulli does not stumble, Sulli walks like a runway model in her heels, entices in her one-sided relations, this is not Sulli anymore; this is Jinri, and she latches on to his arm when she finally gets close enough, and Taemin holds on just as tight.
They take the short route back to his apartment and it's different.
He waits until they are inside, and her heels are set on the shoe rack, and he's offered her a drink even though he knows she will decline, until he finally presses her up against the wall, wraps her legs around his waist and lifts her up, and presses a lingering kiss against her lips.
They move to his bedroom only minutes afterwards, and Taemin crawls into the bed slowly behind her, and it's different.
She wakes up to the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Jinri feels warm and secure underneath the thick blankets, and she almost feels tempted to stay, but she has the early lunch shift and if she doesn't get up now she's going to be late. She reaches blindly for her cellphone on the nightstand and begins forcing herself out of the bed when an arm flops around her waist and pulls her right back to where she started off.
"What."
“Come back to bed.”
“No, I can’t.” Jinri tugs at his arm, her attempt futile because he only tightens his grip and snuggles her closer.
“Just stay with me a little bit longer. Ten more minutes, that’s it."
Taemin presses a kiss against the back of her neck, and she shivers, the goosebumps running down her back at random. "I have to work, I need to leave, Taemin."
"Then five minutes. Please."
He kisses her again. "Taemin."
"Fine, fine, okay. Go." She rolls her eyes and squeezes his arm once before prying it off of her waist and shifting up out of the bed. "But before you leave, at least say yes to dinner. Maybe a movie, if you're feeling generous."
Jinri turns around and Taemin is staring at her haphazardly through the sunlight, incessant blinking and squinted eyes that she can barely see through his pale skin. She laughs, leaning down to press a kiss against his lips, and he grabs her arm just before she manages to pull away. “I’m not gonna let go until I get a response.”
“Fine, yes.”
“Yes to what, the dinner or the movies?”
She leans down and kisses him again, smiling against the curve of his lips. “I’m feeling generous, I suppose,” she whispers, and then Jinri finds herself back under the comfort of the blankets, wrapped tightly in his arms with his lips tracing kisses against her jawline. “Taemin, what the fuck. I have to work.”
“But I just got you.”
Her heart swells and Taemin probably senses it, brushing her bangs out of her eyes and pressing her back against the bed. He shifts over until he is hovering on top of her and Jinri lets her fingers dance against the jutting bones of his ribs, tracing patterns all along his milky skin.
She calls in sick and they don’t go out for dinner.
(jinri fingers the waistband of his boxers and grins when taemin glares at her, unable to bring himself to push her hands away. “fuck, jinri, can you stop doing that?”
“stop doing what?”
“touching me - jesus christ, when the fuck are you not horny.”
“never.” she presses her hand roughly against his crotch and then laughs when he groans, pulling her hands away and scooting to the far side of the bed. “you’re a little bitch, taemin.”
“YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME LIKE THAT-”
“your fault for making me miss work. now i don’t get paid.”
taemin crawls over to her side of the bed, pushing her flat against the mattress and pulling her shirt up and off over her head. “let me make it up to you, then,” he whispers, and taemin can’t do a sultry voice to save his life but jinri laughs anyways. she doesn’t point out that she just got her shirt back from their last round and tells himself this is all she was here for in the first place.
but she’s always been a pretty shitty liar.
“fuck you, taemin.”
“more like fuck you.”
she kicks him off the bed and doesn’t fight when he drags her with him.)