Sweet and Sticky (1/2) [naomi bday fic]
sweet and sticky
shinee/f(x) ; exo/f(x) - taemin/sulli ; sehun/krystal/kai - r
11832w~
they are stupid, really, most of her life choices. stupid and without much thought.
dedicated to onceuponataem, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIEND ♥ i know i bother the shit out of you 24/7 but that's just my way of showing love. and i have a lot of love. for you. that is. hehehehehe. don't judge me for the next 11k+ words and i hope it lives up to what you've been expecting. and once again, happy birthday ♥♥♥ also lol at the title wtf was i thinking
Three days in to the summer, right before her third year of university begins, Soojung takes her dancing. In a way, this is all Soojung's fault, and although her best friend will vehemently deny that statement for the rest of their life together, Jinri secretly thinks Soojung is the reason she's like this.
Jinri is left alone at the street corner because Soojung had fallen in love in the last fifteen minutes with the tall, dark haired wonder serving behind the bar.
It's then that Victoria spots her - she is the first of them to be immersed. Victoria eyes her over, smiles and notices perfect proportions, a long set of legs and a lean waist and pale, pale skin, the flesh she usually hides behind but is now brought to front and center, smooth and milky and to say the least her prime asset. She doesn't understand it, then, but by the end of the summer Choi Jinri has become cute, eye smiling Sulli with the mastered dominance, control in the form of quickened breaths, sweaty flesh and broken, torn moans under the covers.
It starts off as an escape, but once university ends and Jinri lands a meaningless job, it becomes a lifestyle. An addiction, if she were to be any less extreme.
At least she's good at what she does.
There's a first time for everything, Jinri reasons. First timers included.
His hands are shoved into the pockets of his skinny jeans and a beanie is covering his dark hair, messy around his thin face - it's evident that he has no idea what he's doing, but at least he seems kind of cute, and she can kind of make out his pale skin and the dark eyes scrutinizing her every move as he makes his way over to her side of the road.
The humidity is unbearable, she tells herself. That's the only reason she's waving her fingers at him, twirling a strand of her short hair and leaning against the wall like she knows is seductive. The only reason, Jinri repeats again.
When he's finally at her side of the street, she pushes herself up from the brick wall, blinking against the bright lights of the street and letting him come into view. Just as pretty as he was three meters down. "First time, yeah?" She takes a step towards him, reaching for his arm and smiling when he doesn't pull away.
"Obvious, was it?" he says, and there's a smile on his face that matches hers. The unwarranted confidence is also kind of cute, she thinks.
"A little." She leans in closer, breathing heavily out through her mouth and smiling at the way the goosebumps sprout underneath his skin where her breath meets his flesh. "But it's okay. I'm experienced enough for the both of us."
Jinri pulls back and there's this fire in his eyes that's missing, replaced with a sort of curiosity that she isn't often met with. Different, but irrelevant.
She's supposed to be having fun. "Where do you live?"
"Two blocks down, in the apartments across the movie theater."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Jinri links her arm through his and starts pulling him towards the direction he had just mentioned, but he stops her, eyes narrowed and glinting with that same wonder. "What?"
"Taemin," he says, breath hitched. "My name is Taemin."
She raises one eyebrow but doesn't loosen her grip. "I didn't ask."
"But you might, eventually." Jinri shoots him another look, but before she can say anything he's pulling at her, just as she had done only seconds earlier, dragging her down the street and if she wasn't so practiced she would've tripped over her heels by now, tall enough that she's grazing the ends of his hair comfortably.
Cute, Jinri thinks again. She'll give him that.
They manage to reach his apartment in one piece, but as soon as the door is shut Taemin has her against the wall, one hand on her waist and the other holding her neck as he presses his mouth against hers, tongue swiping against her lips and he tastes sweet and sticky, like he'd just been sucking on a lollipop. Jinri wrinkles her nose but holds him close against her anyways, reaching up to tangle her hands in his hair, curling against the thick ends until he finally pulls away. His eyes are dark and his lips are slicked with spit, but he's smirking. "What?"
"You're more impatient than I thought you'd be. I was hoping we would have something to eat first, or at least get to the bedroom before all of this happened."
Taemin chuckles, squeezing lightly at the skin of her neck and wrapping the other arm around her waist until they are face to face, Jinri having kicked her heels off during their impromptu make out session. "I'll meet your demands if you meet mine," he whispers, and then they are kissing again, stumbling through the hallways until they push past a door which she assumes leads to the bedroom.
The lights are shut but Jinri doesn't really mind, slowly undoing the buttons of his shirt as he leans her back against the bed.
The skin of his chest is even paler than his face, but she can't really say anything, being white as the sheets she's against herself, so she just chooses to run her cool palms over the heated flesh of his stomach, grazing the soft hairs just above the waistband of his jeans before she looks up at him and grins.
"Sulli," she mumbles. "That's my name. You'll need it."
Taemin likes to cuddle, Jinri realizes way too late, when he passes out ten minutes after their second round, limbs tangled in hers so tightly that she's beginning to sweat even more than she already was.
It starts getting annoying by around three in the morning, when she decides it's time to go home. And unlike her earlier assumptions, he is not an attractive sleeper.
His mouth is wide open, drool at the corner of his lips, skin all dry and discolored, and his hair is matted and oily against his forehead. Jinri wrinkles her nose and ignores the fact that his lips are still pink and probably just as sweet as when she'd first kissed him and he's most likely one of the few people to exist that doesn't have bad morning breath.
He's still really unattractive, she reminds herself.
Jinri grabs at her clothes that had fallen around the bed, glancing around his room as she pulls her skirt up over her thighs. He's got pictures framed up crookedly on the walls, sets of novels and textbooks lining two of the shelves, the occasional band poster and an assortment of collared shirts and skinny jeans littering the carpeted floor.
He seems normal enough, whoever he is.
Taemin.
Jinri runs a hand through her sweaty hair and fumbles with the last of her belongings, taking one last look at the sleeping figure on the bed before leaving his apartment. Her lips are tingling and Jinri wonders why she doesn't do this more often.
Her phone lights with twenty-seven missed text messages, thirteen missed calls and six voicemails and Jinri gets one good look at the time before her phone finally dies out on her.
3:36 am. Soojung is gonna be so pissed.
Her ears are ringing, an irritating banging noise interrupting her dreams every time Jinri tries to go back to sleep, loud and unwarranted and completely unnecessary because Soojung can be annoying as fuck when she wants to be. There's a clutter of plates falling, hitting the kitchen tiles in annoying succession, followed by a string of curses that is all too familiar after nights like these.
Jinri groans, throwing a pillow at the door. "SOOJUNG, STOP BEING SO FUCKING LOUD."
"THEN STOP BEING SUCH A FUCKING WHORE," Soojung yells back. Jinri winces and then laughs, because of course she knows, why would she assume anything got past Soojung.
She forces herself out of bed and follows the noise out into the kitchen, where Soojung is already dressed and furiously cooking eggs over the stove with her signature expression when she's completely pissed. Jinri's still smiling. "What's got you so worked up?"
"I can't believe you went out last night, Jinri," she mutters, completely skipping over the question. "And you didn’t answer your phone once. I thought you said you stopped."
Jinri walks up behind her, throwing her arm over her best friend's shoulder and holding her still even when Soojung tries to pry her off. "I thought I did too, but I couldn't help it. He just looked so vulnerable, and he was so cute, Soojung-"
Soojung throws Jinri off, then, giving her a nasty look that makes Jinri smile even wider because mad Soojung is Jinri's favorite kind of Soojung.
"You didn't even take off your makeup, you're gonna break out so much."
Jinri laughs, reaching up to pat at her face gingerly anyways because Soojung's a neat freak and Jinri is the natural disorder in her life.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop. I promise. No more sleeping around."
"You're such a fucking liar."
Jinri laughs again and pokes Soojung in the side, just under her rib where she knows it hurts the most. She presses in harder until Soojung finally yells and Jinri runs away, cackling the whole distance to the bathroom. "Fuck you and your stupid boy toys," Soojung seethes, and Jinri blows her a kiss on her way out even if Soojung will never catch it.
She wonders if it means something that she failed her two years of Chinese in high school and is now stuck working at the only legitimate Chinese gift shop in Chinatown. They are stupid, really, most of her life choices. Stupid and without much thought.
"I don't understand, do you want to buy the water fountain, or the statue? I don't know what you're pointing at." Jinri tightens her smile, motioning at the items in front of her, and the customer goes on speaking rapidly in Mandarin like the faster she'll speak, the more likely Jinri is to understand what she's saying. "I don't know what you're saying, ma'am, you'll have to-"
There's a tap on her shoulder and Jinri ignores it, it's probably one of those stupid Chinese boys that work at the clothing store next door that is always bothering her for free snacks from behind the counter, "Let me just find my boss, he'll help you with what you need."
There's a cough, and then another tap, and Jinri whips around, eyebrows furrowed because what the fuck, "Can't you see that I'm busy?"
She glances back at the woman before doing a double take, recognizing the dark hair, bangs falling into even darker eyes, pale skin that's just as smooth underneath the ugly fluorescent lights as it was three nights ago under the moon. "You. Can you speak Chinese, by any chance?"
Taemin laughs, shaking his head, and it just makes her more annoyed the fact that he thinks this is funny. She wonders how long he's been standing there.
Jinri scoffs and turns her back to him, leading the customer by the arm towards the back where she thinks her manager might be, and when she hears footsteps following after her she snorts even louder.
"You know, if you could speak Chinese, I might be half-impressed and a lot more willing to spend another night with you, but you obviously have nothing to offer so I don't know what you're still doing here."
He laughs again, and she hears it loud and clear over the Chinese woman's incessant chattering. Where the fuck is her boss. "I spotted you from down the street, I've got some friends that work in the Chinese restaurant just across this shop."
"Oh, really? How nice." There he is. Jinri hisses at her boss to come help her, and he turns around from whatever management he's doing in the back, a smile taking up half of his face as he greets the woman with a nod of his head and responds to her obvious annoyance in words Jinri doesn't understand.
Jinri turns back and heads to the front desk again. Why does she work here again? Taemin is still trailing after her, hands in his pockets with an evident intention of buying nothing, and he stops after she's behind the register, leaning over the barrier with his elbows resting on the glass countertop. "Jinri, is it? You have some kind of alter ego?"
"What?"
Taemin leans forward and fingers at her name tag, and she smacks his hand away despite the fact that they'd been much more intimate less than a week before. "Jinri, that's your real name? It's pretty. Not as cute as Sulli, but I like it."
"Is that all you came here for? To bother the hell out of me and find out my real name? Or do you actually have something you want?"
"No, I just wanted to see you, is all."
Jinri snorts. "Okay, well you've seen enough, you can leave now."
Taemin pushes back from the counter, smiling with those thin lips and they are still a bright pink color, even in the dry summer heat. "Whatever you say. I'll see you around." He winks, and then he turns on his heel and is off, bouncing out to god knows where because Jinri has no intention of staring.
"Hey, was the guy you slept with friends with Jongin?"
Jinri rubs at her eyes, and her nose itches too because the kitchen smells like burnt noodles and an overwhelming amount of spices, she really hopes Soojung is planning on ordering takeout because whatever she's attempting smells disgusting - "What?"
"The guy you were with the other night. Is he friends with Jongin?"
"How the hell would I know that?" She tosses her bag on to the counter and searches through the refrigerator for the vitamin water she'd bought the other day. "Did you see what happened to my drink? I left it here this morning."
"Jongin said his friend came over to the gift shop today to see you."
"WHERE IS MY DRINK."
Soojung sighs. "In the back. Maybe you should try moving things, you lazy ass."
"Why would I do that when I have you," Jinri mumbles, still poking through the refrigerator until she spots a bright pink bottle cap in the back. She grins. "Found ya." Soojung's still staring at her when she turns back around, arms crossed her chest with one eyebrow raised in that haughty Soojung way that only she can pull off, and Jinri frowns. "What?"
"You never answered my question."
"Oh, yeah, what'd you say again? Something about Jongin's friend?"
Soojung rolls her eyes but Jinri really couldn't care less about her best friend's stupid boy toy. He's annoying, anyways, him and his dumbass friend. Relationships are stupid, Jinri thinks. "The guy you slept, he's friends with Jongin, apparently."
"How do you know that?"
"Jongin said that guy came to see you at the gift shop."
"No one came to the-" Jinri stops, the rim of the bottle pressed against her lips before her eyes widen and she remembers stupid Taemin and his pink lips and how much she regrets this decision. "Shit. Fuck. No."
"What?"
"Now I remember why I stopped." Soojung raises the other eyebrow, but Jinri doesn't notice, slamming her vitamin water on the counter top. She isn't even thirsty anymore. "FIRST TIMERS ARE THE FUCKING WORST." She stomps out of the kitchen and Soojung's laughter is eerily similar to how she had been only days before.
Amber took the day off again - she takes a day off like once a week, Jinri doesn't understand how she's not fired yet - and Jinri is stuck at the cash register. Again.
"CAN YOU PLEASE HIRE MORE PEOPLE," she yells at no one in particular, considering her boss is nowhere in sight, and the Chinese woman from the other day turns around to give her a weird look. Jinri smiles at her awkwardly, what the hell is she doing back so soon anyways.
She's just about to take her lunch break when someone rings the bell next to the register, and Jinri glances over the counter to see a little girl holding a bag of candy in one hand and cash in the other, her hair done up in two little pigtails. "Can I buy this, please?" and her voice comes out all cute and squeaky, and Jinri feels herself lighten up. Little kids are her favorite.
"Sure thing. Where's your mom?"
The little girl turns around and points towards the back, where she sees a small woman bent over to look at some of the teapots in the corner.
She smiles at the little girl again and goes to ring up the purchase, pressing in the code to open the register when it beeps an ugly red color, INVALID flashing brightly on the screen. Jinri punches it in again and the same thing happens, what the hell. The little girl is rocking back and forth on her feet.
"Give me one second," she says, and she turns around to her manager's office, peeking inside only to see it empty. Jinri has no idea where he always disappears to and it's really fascinating how he manages to time it so perfectly with her incompetence.
Jinri turns back to the register and punches the numbers in again, and it flashes a bright yellow WARNING sign, the password has been entered in incorrectly too many times. What the hell is she supposed to do now.
The bells ring, then, as the door opens, and Jinri watches with distaste as Taemin strolls inside, hands still in his pockets as he throws her what he probably thinks is a winning smile. Jinri really hates him. "Do you know how to fix a cash register, by any chance?"
He laughs. "Nope. I work in advertising."
"Useless. You're useless to me."
The little girl looks a little frightened now, and Jinri almost just wants to return the money and let her run off with the candy, but the last time she did that her boss put her on Customer Service for two weeks and she is not going through that hell again. "What do you need?"
"The cash register isn't working and I need change."
"That's it?" Taemin nods his head, as if it's the simplest problem in the world, and pulls out his wallet, handing the little girl a couple of bills. "Here you go, little girl. Now take your candy and be off!" The little girl giggles and swipes the candy from the counter before running back to her mom. Jinri stares at Taemin. "What?"
"What the hell. What are you, anyways?"
He raises an eyebrow, sliding his wallet into his back pocket with a dumb expression on his face. All of his expressions are dumb, Jinri thinks. "Like, as in what I do, or...?"
"What do you want? Soojung says you're friends with Jongin, you told him you came and saw me? I hope you don't think this is a sort of - just, what do you want, like another round?"
"What? No, I just-"
Jinri stops him, raising one hand dramatically and closing her eyes. "No. Wait. Shut up." She opens her eyes and is met with Taemin biting back a smile, and she kind of hates him so she continues. "Leave my store and we can meet up at the same place we did last time, and you'll get what you're looking for. Now get out of my sight."
Taemin laughs and Jinri doesn't let herself admire the way his bangs fall into his eyes and his lips stretch out nicely over his perfect teeth. She loathes him, for many reasons, she tells herself. Plenty of reasons. More than enough reasons. His face only makes it worse.
Her manager walks into the store as soon as he steps out. Jinri is not quite sure these are coincidences anymore.
Victoria is standing outside by the time Jinri gets there, chatting with what looks like one of their regulars, the typical tall, dark and handsome type. Minho, Jinri recognizes. He waves at her when he sees her and Victoria turns around at the same time, tossing her thick black hair over one shoulder. "What's up? I thought you weren't coming back."
Jinri rolls her eyes. "Yeah, me too. Soojung wants me to stop, but I've got someone that I have to meet today, so."
Victoria raises an eyebrow at the same time Minho straightens his posture, smiling at the mention of Soojung's name. "How's your roommate doing anyways?"
"Wonderful." Jinri smirks. "She's hitting it up with this waiter guy, but he's annoying as fuck so you don't have to be jealous or anything."
Minho snorts. "Why would I be jealous? One time thing, just like all of the stuff that happens around here. She was too obsessed with commitment anyways."
Jinri is about to retort when Victoria pulls at her sleeve, and she looks over to where her older friend is pointing at across the street. "Isn't that the guy you were with a couple weeks ago, the newbie?"
Taemin. He looks dressed up, Jinri notices. "Yeah, that's him. He's back soon, don't you think?" She giggles to herself and ignores the weird look Victoria gives her, straightening up and clearing her throat. "Do you guys know where Naeun is?"
Naeun's the new girl amongst the rest of them, strangely inexperienced and one of the favorites among the first- and second-timers. Jinri grins.
"Yeah, she just got here, she's heading over right now." Victoria points in the opposite direction, where Naeun is walking over to the three of them, one hand brushing the hair out of her face and the other fiddling with the ends of her short dress.
"Naeun!" Jinri calls over to her, who looks up suddenly, waving with a bright smile spreading across her face. Taemin should be on their side of the street by now.
"Hey! I haven't seen you in forever!"
"Yeah, yeah, not important." Jinri glances behind her to see Taemin strolling forward, hands in his pockets, and his eyes are wide open and sparkling almost impossibly. She waves at him, and then turns back to Naeun, tugging none-too-gently on her arm as she pulls her forward. "You see that guy behind me, with the pale skin and the dark hair? Go seduce him." She shoves Naeun rather harshly in Taemin's direction, grinning uncontrollably, and Victoria makes this startled noise from behind her when the two bump into each other. Minho sounds like he's trying not to laugh.
The three of them watch as Naeun giggles, bowing her head slightly as she apologizes, lazily twirling a strand of brown hair around her finger. It works much better with her longer hair, Jinri thinks, but that isn't really the point right now. Taemin looks confused and somewhat flustered, glancing from Jinri to Naeun and back again, and when he tries walking past her, Naeun places her hands on his chest and leans in to press their lips together.
Well, fuck.
Taemin doesn't do anything for a couple of seconds, still blinking, but when Naeun curls her thin fingers into his shirt, Taemin closes his eyes and brings his own hands up to tangle in her hair, kissing back somewhat eagerly. When Naeun pulls back, nipping at Taemin's jaw as she fiddles with the buttons of his shirt, Jinri watches his mouth fall open and she swallows.
She turns around, then, tugging at Minho's sleeve and pulling him towards where she knows his apartment is because the sight of Naeun and Taemin making out is somewhat revolting. Victoria snorts but doesn't say anything at Jinri's sudden reaction and Jinri just quickens her pace, trying to erase the image of Taemin and Naeun kissing as she tightens her grip on Minho's sleeve.
He doesn't say anything and they make it into his apartment complex with her sleeves hanging off of her shoulders and Minho's shirt completely undone.
By the end of the night, she's forgotten all about Taemin and his pretty lips against Naeun's.
She gets back to the apartment later that morning - Minho is, unsurprisingly, not the clingy type, and much easier to converse with over breakfast and coffee like they hadn't just fucked recklessly the night before - and when Jinri isn't sneaking back inside at the dead hours of the night her roommate usually knows where to assume she's been.
Soojung is sitting in the dining room, reading through one of her textbooks for her nightly classes. "What's up, hoe," she greets when Jinri drops her bag on the kitchen counter, reaching for the bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet. Her head is throbbing and her whole body feels like a pile of bricks.
"Fuck off. And Minho says hi."
"Of course he does." Soojung pulls her glasses off and stands up to join Jinri in the kitchen. She looks irritatingly smug for so early in the morning, but Jinri just ignores her and busies herself with finding a water bottle, setting the aspirin to the side. "That was a dick move, by the way."
Jinri looks up from the refrigerator, raising an eyebrow. "What was?"
"If you told him you were gonna give him round two, you should have stuck to your word."
"What the fu - how do you even know any of this stuff?"
"Jongin, duh. He's best friends with your boy toy, remember?" Soojung pulls herself up from the counter and tosses her hair out of her shoulder in the irritating way that Soojungs do, smiling as she walks out of the kitchen. "Good luck getting rid of that asshole."
Jinri’s head falls against the refrigerator door and she winces when it comes in contact with the cold steel. She's pretty sure even aspirin is not going to chase this problem away.
He doesn't come over the next week she's at work, but Jinri does see him lingering around the street a good bit, and she catches him from her position at the counter occasionally peering into the gift shop.
Taemin finally enters the restaurant where Jongin and his weird friend work, and since she hasn't seen him exit by the time her lunch break hits, she figures she might as well go join him.
The freaky Chinese kid is working at the front, scowling with that ugly frown permanently etched on to his face. His hair is a dark blonde now, different from the last time she'd been here, and he seems to have gotten a thousand new piercings, studs dotting the linings of his ears so prominent that she sees more metal than she does actual skin. His eyes widen when he sees her and Jinri smirks because for some reason he's always been really scared of her.
She supposes it's all in good nature.
Jinri's about to ask where Taemin is at, when she sees him sitting near the window, chatting with Jongin and Sehun, the other blonde kid that works here. She shoves past the Chinese kid, who gurgles but doesn't really manage to get any intelligible words out, and walks over to their table.
"Move over, asshole," she says, pushing Jongin to the side, and Sehun snorts. He seems to be the only one immune to her distaste for Soojung's set of male friends.
Jongin splutters and Taemin looks a little caught off-guard, but his smug expression returns as soon as she seats herself across from him.
Sehun and Jongin are still standing there, the former disinterested and the latter huffing and fixing his vest with rather harsh tugs, and she raises an eyebrow at the both of them. "Are you two gonna leave, or...?"
"Why the fuck is Soojung friends with you anyways? Always pushing us around and shit, I swear if she knew she-"
"-wouldn't do anything, because she doesn't give a shit. Come on, asshole." Sehun grabs Jongin by the arm, nodding at Taemin and dragging Jongin away to bother the Chinese kid, who looks quite lonely standing at the door by himself. Taemin still hasn't said a word.
It's silent for a few seconds, Taemin toying with his chopsticks and Jinri not really knowing how to begin. He clears his throat. "So, I'm guessing that you didn't come here to apologize?"
"Uh, no."
"I didn't think so. You don't seem like the type, anyways."
Jinri gives him a pointed look. "What type do I seem like, then?"
"I don't know, I haven't had the chance to find out." Taemin smiles, kind of muted, and his bangs are brushed off to the side so she has a better look into his dark eyes. He'd be kind of handsome if he weren’t so irritating. "Maybe if you let me, we could-"
"No, not happening. Stop." Jinri holds her hands up because this is wandering into dangerous territory and she just wants this to be over with. "What I came here to tell you was that I don't do repeats, and I'm sure Naeun was a wonderful fuck last night, so I'd appreciate if you just kindly left me the hell alone. And maybe your friends too, I don't want to see them rubbing off on Soojung."
"Soojung?"
"My roommate. She's got this thing going on with Jongin, but to be honest both of them annoy the shit out of me."
Taemin laughs, all wide and pretty like Jinri just hasn't just told him she never wants to see him again, and she holds herself back until he finally composes himself. "Alright. I'll leave you alone, although I make no promises about my friends."
"Cool. Thanks."
"No problem."
She sighs and then stands up from the table, shuffling through the restaurant until she gets back to the front door, where the permanently-pissed kid is messing with the bowl of fortune cookies. Jinri stares at him for a second and he doesn't really know what to do, so he offers her one with an awkward smile on his face. She sighs, snatches it from his hand, and welcomes the heat from the sun as she strolls across the street back to the gift shop.
火 (huò) fire
bend the rod while it is still hot.
ii
shinee/f(x) ; exo/f(x) - taemin/sulli ; sehun/krystal/kai - r
11832w~
they are stupid, really, most of her life choices. stupid and without much thought.
dedicated to onceuponataem, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIEND ♥ i know i bother the shit out of you 24/7 but that's just my way of showing love. and i have a lot of love. for you. that is. hehehehehe. don't judge me for the next 11k+ words and i hope it lives up to what you've been expecting. and once again, happy birthday ♥♥♥ also lol at the title wtf was i thinking
Three days in to the summer, right before her third year of university begins, Soojung takes her dancing. In a way, this is all Soojung's fault, and although her best friend will vehemently deny that statement for the rest of their life together, Jinri secretly thinks Soojung is the reason she's like this.
Jinri is left alone at the street corner because Soojung had fallen in love in the last fifteen minutes with the tall, dark haired wonder serving behind the bar.
It's then that Victoria spots her - she is the first of them to be immersed. Victoria eyes her over, smiles and notices perfect proportions, a long set of legs and a lean waist and pale, pale skin, the flesh she usually hides behind but is now brought to front and center, smooth and milky and to say the least her prime asset. She doesn't understand it, then, but by the end of the summer Choi Jinri has become cute, eye smiling Sulli with the mastered dominance, control in the form of quickened breaths, sweaty flesh and broken, torn moans under the covers.
It starts off as an escape, but once university ends and Jinri lands a meaningless job, it becomes a lifestyle. An addiction, if she were to be any less extreme.
At least she's good at what she does.
There's a first time for everything, Jinri reasons. First timers included.
His hands are shoved into the pockets of his skinny jeans and a beanie is covering his dark hair, messy around his thin face - it's evident that he has no idea what he's doing, but at least he seems kind of cute, and she can kind of make out his pale skin and the dark eyes scrutinizing her every move as he makes his way over to her side of the road.
The humidity is unbearable, she tells herself. That's the only reason she's waving her fingers at him, twirling a strand of her short hair and leaning against the wall like she knows is seductive. The only reason, Jinri repeats again.
When he's finally at her side of the street, she pushes herself up from the brick wall, blinking against the bright lights of the street and letting him come into view. Just as pretty as he was three meters down. "First time, yeah?" She takes a step towards him, reaching for his arm and smiling when he doesn't pull away.
"Obvious, was it?" he says, and there's a smile on his face that matches hers. The unwarranted confidence is also kind of cute, she thinks.
"A little." She leans in closer, breathing heavily out through her mouth and smiling at the way the goosebumps sprout underneath his skin where her breath meets his flesh. "But it's okay. I'm experienced enough for the both of us."
Jinri pulls back and there's this fire in his eyes that's missing, replaced with a sort of curiosity that she isn't often met with. Different, but irrelevant.
She's supposed to be having fun. "Where do you live?"
"Two blocks down, in the apartments across the movie theater."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Jinri links her arm through his and starts pulling him towards the direction he had just mentioned, but he stops her, eyes narrowed and glinting with that same wonder. "What?"
"Taemin," he says, breath hitched. "My name is Taemin."
She raises one eyebrow but doesn't loosen her grip. "I didn't ask."
"But you might, eventually." Jinri shoots him another look, but before she can say anything he's pulling at her, just as she had done only seconds earlier, dragging her down the street and if she wasn't so practiced she would've tripped over her heels by now, tall enough that she's grazing the ends of his hair comfortably.
Cute, Jinri thinks again. She'll give him that.
They manage to reach his apartment in one piece, but as soon as the door is shut Taemin has her against the wall, one hand on her waist and the other holding her neck as he presses his mouth against hers, tongue swiping against her lips and he tastes sweet and sticky, like he'd just been sucking on a lollipop. Jinri wrinkles her nose but holds him close against her anyways, reaching up to tangle her hands in his hair, curling against the thick ends until he finally pulls away. His eyes are dark and his lips are slicked with spit, but he's smirking. "What?"
"You're more impatient than I thought you'd be. I was hoping we would have something to eat first, or at least get to the bedroom before all of this happened."
Taemin chuckles, squeezing lightly at the skin of her neck and wrapping the other arm around her waist until they are face to face, Jinri having kicked her heels off during their impromptu make out session. "I'll meet your demands if you meet mine," he whispers, and then they are kissing again, stumbling through the hallways until they push past a door which she assumes leads to the bedroom.
The lights are shut but Jinri doesn't really mind, slowly undoing the buttons of his shirt as he leans her back against the bed.
The skin of his chest is even paler than his face, but she can't really say anything, being white as the sheets she's against herself, so she just chooses to run her cool palms over the heated flesh of his stomach, grazing the soft hairs just above the waistband of his jeans before she looks up at him and grins.
"Sulli," she mumbles. "That's my name. You'll need it."
Taemin likes to cuddle, Jinri realizes way too late, when he passes out ten minutes after their second round, limbs tangled in hers so tightly that she's beginning to sweat even more than she already was.
It starts getting annoying by around three in the morning, when she decides it's time to go home. And unlike her earlier assumptions, he is not an attractive sleeper.
His mouth is wide open, drool at the corner of his lips, skin all dry and discolored, and his hair is matted and oily against his forehead. Jinri wrinkles her nose and ignores the fact that his lips are still pink and probably just as sweet as when she'd first kissed him and he's most likely one of the few people to exist that doesn't have bad morning breath.
He's still really unattractive, she reminds herself.
Jinri grabs at her clothes that had fallen around the bed, glancing around his room as she pulls her skirt up over her thighs. He's got pictures framed up crookedly on the walls, sets of novels and textbooks lining two of the shelves, the occasional band poster and an assortment of collared shirts and skinny jeans littering the carpeted floor.
He seems normal enough, whoever he is.
Taemin.
Jinri runs a hand through her sweaty hair and fumbles with the last of her belongings, taking one last look at the sleeping figure on the bed before leaving his apartment. Her lips are tingling and Jinri wonders why she doesn't do this more often.
Her phone lights with twenty-seven missed text messages, thirteen missed calls and six voicemails and Jinri gets one good look at the time before her phone finally dies out on her.
3:36 am. Soojung is gonna be so pissed.
Her ears are ringing, an irritating banging noise interrupting her dreams every time Jinri tries to go back to sleep, loud and unwarranted and completely unnecessary because Soojung can be annoying as fuck when she wants to be. There's a clutter of plates falling, hitting the kitchen tiles in annoying succession, followed by a string of curses that is all too familiar after nights like these.
Jinri groans, throwing a pillow at the door. "SOOJUNG, STOP BEING SO FUCKING LOUD."
"THEN STOP BEING SUCH A FUCKING WHORE," Soojung yells back. Jinri winces and then laughs, because of course she knows, why would she assume anything got past Soojung.
She forces herself out of bed and follows the noise out into the kitchen, where Soojung is already dressed and furiously cooking eggs over the stove with her signature expression when she's completely pissed. Jinri's still smiling. "What's got you so worked up?"
"I can't believe you went out last night, Jinri," she mutters, completely skipping over the question. "And you didn’t answer your phone once. I thought you said you stopped."
Jinri walks up behind her, throwing her arm over her best friend's shoulder and holding her still even when Soojung tries to pry her off. "I thought I did too, but I couldn't help it. He just looked so vulnerable, and he was so cute, Soojung-"
Soojung throws Jinri off, then, giving her a nasty look that makes Jinri smile even wider because mad Soojung is Jinri's favorite kind of Soojung.
"You didn't even take off your makeup, you're gonna break out so much."
Jinri laughs, reaching up to pat at her face gingerly anyways because Soojung's a neat freak and Jinri is the natural disorder in her life.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop. I promise. No more sleeping around."
"You're such a fucking liar."
Jinri laughs again and pokes Soojung in the side, just under her rib where she knows it hurts the most. She presses in harder until Soojung finally yells and Jinri runs away, cackling the whole distance to the bathroom. "Fuck you and your stupid boy toys," Soojung seethes, and Jinri blows her a kiss on her way out even if Soojung will never catch it.
She wonders if it means something that she failed her two years of Chinese in high school and is now stuck working at the only legitimate Chinese gift shop in Chinatown. They are stupid, really, most of her life choices. Stupid and without much thought.
"I don't understand, do you want to buy the water fountain, or the statue? I don't know what you're pointing at." Jinri tightens her smile, motioning at the items in front of her, and the customer goes on speaking rapidly in Mandarin like the faster she'll speak, the more likely Jinri is to understand what she's saying. "I don't know what you're saying, ma'am, you'll have to-"
There's a tap on her shoulder and Jinri ignores it, it's probably one of those stupid Chinese boys that work at the clothing store next door that is always bothering her for free snacks from behind the counter, "Let me just find my boss, he'll help you with what you need."
There's a cough, and then another tap, and Jinri whips around, eyebrows furrowed because what the fuck, "Can't you see that I'm busy?"
She glances back at the woman before doing a double take, recognizing the dark hair, bangs falling into even darker eyes, pale skin that's just as smooth underneath the ugly fluorescent lights as it was three nights ago under the moon. "You. Can you speak Chinese, by any chance?"
Taemin laughs, shaking his head, and it just makes her more annoyed the fact that he thinks this is funny. She wonders how long he's been standing there.
Jinri scoffs and turns her back to him, leading the customer by the arm towards the back where she thinks her manager might be, and when she hears footsteps following after her she snorts even louder.
"You know, if you could speak Chinese, I might be half-impressed and a lot more willing to spend another night with you, but you obviously have nothing to offer so I don't know what you're still doing here."
He laughs again, and she hears it loud and clear over the Chinese woman's incessant chattering. Where the fuck is her boss. "I spotted you from down the street, I've got some friends that work in the Chinese restaurant just across this shop."
"Oh, really? How nice." There he is. Jinri hisses at her boss to come help her, and he turns around from whatever management he's doing in the back, a smile taking up half of his face as he greets the woman with a nod of his head and responds to her obvious annoyance in words Jinri doesn't understand.
Jinri turns back and heads to the front desk again. Why does she work here again? Taemin is still trailing after her, hands in his pockets with an evident intention of buying nothing, and he stops after she's behind the register, leaning over the barrier with his elbows resting on the glass countertop. "Jinri, is it? You have some kind of alter ego?"
"What?"
Taemin leans forward and fingers at her name tag, and she smacks his hand away despite the fact that they'd been much more intimate less than a week before. "Jinri, that's your real name? It's pretty. Not as cute as Sulli, but I like it."
"Is that all you came here for? To bother the hell out of me and find out my real name? Or do you actually have something you want?"
"No, I just wanted to see you, is all."
Jinri snorts. "Okay, well you've seen enough, you can leave now."
Taemin pushes back from the counter, smiling with those thin lips and they are still a bright pink color, even in the dry summer heat. "Whatever you say. I'll see you around." He winks, and then he turns on his heel and is off, bouncing out to god knows where because Jinri has no intention of staring.
"Hey, was the guy you slept with friends with Jongin?"
Jinri rubs at her eyes, and her nose itches too because the kitchen smells like burnt noodles and an overwhelming amount of spices, she really hopes Soojung is planning on ordering takeout because whatever she's attempting smells disgusting - "What?"
"The guy you were with the other night. Is he friends with Jongin?"
"How the hell would I know that?" She tosses her bag on to the counter and searches through the refrigerator for the vitamin water she'd bought the other day. "Did you see what happened to my drink? I left it here this morning."
"Jongin said his friend came over to the gift shop today to see you."
"WHERE IS MY DRINK."
Soojung sighs. "In the back. Maybe you should try moving things, you lazy ass."
"Why would I do that when I have you," Jinri mumbles, still poking through the refrigerator until she spots a bright pink bottle cap in the back. She grins. "Found ya." Soojung's still staring at her when she turns back around, arms crossed her chest with one eyebrow raised in that haughty Soojung way that only she can pull off, and Jinri frowns. "What?"
"You never answered my question."
"Oh, yeah, what'd you say again? Something about Jongin's friend?"
Soojung rolls her eyes but Jinri really couldn't care less about her best friend's stupid boy toy. He's annoying, anyways, him and his dumbass friend. Relationships are stupid, Jinri thinks. "The guy you slept, he's friends with Jongin, apparently."
"How do you know that?"
"Jongin said that guy came to see you at the gift shop."
"No one came to the-" Jinri stops, the rim of the bottle pressed against her lips before her eyes widen and she remembers stupid Taemin and his pink lips and how much she regrets this decision. "Shit. Fuck. No."
"What?"
"Now I remember why I stopped." Soojung raises the other eyebrow, but Jinri doesn't notice, slamming her vitamin water on the counter top. She isn't even thirsty anymore. "FIRST TIMERS ARE THE FUCKING WORST." She stomps out of the kitchen and Soojung's laughter is eerily similar to how she had been only days before.
Amber took the day off again - she takes a day off like once a week, Jinri doesn't understand how she's not fired yet - and Jinri is stuck at the cash register. Again.
"CAN YOU PLEASE HIRE MORE PEOPLE," she yells at no one in particular, considering her boss is nowhere in sight, and the Chinese woman from the other day turns around to give her a weird look. Jinri smiles at her awkwardly, what the hell is she doing back so soon anyways.
She's just about to take her lunch break when someone rings the bell next to the register, and Jinri glances over the counter to see a little girl holding a bag of candy in one hand and cash in the other, her hair done up in two little pigtails. "Can I buy this, please?" and her voice comes out all cute and squeaky, and Jinri feels herself lighten up. Little kids are her favorite.
"Sure thing. Where's your mom?"
The little girl turns around and points towards the back, where she sees a small woman bent over to look at some of the teapots in the corner.
She smiles at the little girl again and goes to ring up the purchase, pressing in the code to open the register when it beeps an ugly red color, INVALID flashing brightly on the screen. Jinri punches it in again and the same thing happens, what the hell. The little girl is rocking back and forth on her feet.
"Give me one second," she says, and she turns around to her manager's office, peeking inside only to see it empty. Jinri has no idea where he always disappears to and it's really fascinating how he manages to time it so perfectly with her incompetence.
Jinri turns back to the register and punches the numbers in again, and it flashes a bright yellow WARNING sign, the password has been entered in incorrectly too many times. What the hell is she supposed to do now.
The bells ring, then, as the door opens, and Jinri watches with distaste as Taemin strolls inside, hands still in his pockets as he throws her what he probably thinks is a winning smile. Jinri really hates him. "Do you know how to fix a cash register, by any chance?"
He laughs. "Nope. I work in advertising."
"Useless. You're useless to me."
The little girl looks a little frightened now, and Jinri almost just wants to return the money and let her run off with the candy, but the last time she did that her boss put her on Customer Service for two weeks and she is not going through that hell again. "What do you need?"
"The cash register isn't working and I need change."
"That's it?" Taemin nods his head, as if it's the simplest problem in the world, and pulls out his wallet, handing the little girl a couple of bills. "Here you go, little girl. Now take your candy and be off!" The little girl giggles and swipes the candy from the counter before running back to her mom. Jinri stares at Taemin. "What?"
"What the hell. What are you, anyways?"
He raises an eyebrow, sliding his wallet into his back pocket with a dumb expression on his face. All of his expressions are dumb, Jinri thinks. "Like, as in what I do, or...?"
"What do you want? Soojung says you're friends with Jongin, you told him you came and saw me? I hope you don't think this is a sort of - just, what do you want, like another round?"
"What? No, I just-"
Jinri stops him, raising one hand dramatically and closing her eyes. "No. Wait. Shut up." She opens her eyes and is met with Taemin biting back a smile, and she kind of hates him so she continues. "Leave my store and we can meet up at the same place we did last time, and you'll get what you're looking for. Now get out of my sight."
Taemin laughs and Jinri doesn't let herself admire the way his bangs fall into his eyes and his lips stretch out nicely over his perfect teeth. She loathes him, for many reasons, she tells herself. Plenty of reasons. More than enough reasons. His face only makes it worse.
Her manager walks into the store as soon as he steps out. Jinri is not quite sure these are coincidences anymore.
Victoria is standing outside by the time Jinri gets there, chatting with what looks like one of their regulars, the typical tall, dark and handsome type. Minho, Jinri recognizes. He waves at her when he sees her and Victoria turns around at the same time, tossing her thick black hair over one shoulder. "What's up? I thought you weren't coming back."
Jinri rolls her eyes. "Yeah, me too. Soojung wants me to stop, but I've got someone that I have to meet today, so."
Victoria raises an eyebrow at the same time Minho straightens his posture, smiling at the mention of Soojung's name. "How's your roommate doing anyways?"
"Wonderful." Jinri smirks. "She's hitting it up with this waiter guy, but he's annoying as fuck so you don't have to be jealous or anything."
Minho snorts. "Why would I be jealous? One time thing, just like all of the stuff that happens around here. She was too obsessed with commitment anyways."
Jinri is about to retort when Victoria pulls at her sleeve, and she looks over to where her older friend is pointing at across the street. "Isn't that the guy you were with a couple weeks ago, the newbie?"
Taemin. He looks dressed up, Jinri notices. "Yeah, that's him. He's back soon, don't you think?" She giggles to herself and ignores the weird look Victoria gives her, straightening up and clearing her throat. "Do you guys know where Naeun is?"
Naeun's the new girl amongst the rest of them, strangely inexperienced and one of the favorites among the first- and second-timers. Jinri grins.
"Yeah, she just got here, she's heading over right now." Victoria points in the opposite direction, where Naeun is walking over to the three of them, one hand brushing the hair out of her face and the other fiddling with the ends of her short dress.
"Naeun!" Jinri calls over to her, who looks up suddenly, waving with a bright smile spreading across her face. Taemin should be on their side of the street by now.
"Hey! I haven't seen you in forever!"
"Yeah, yeah, not important." Jinri glances behind her to see Taemin strolling forward, hands in his pockets, and his eyes are wide open and sparkling almost impossibly. She waves at him, and then turns back to Naeun, tugging none-too-gently on her arm as she pulls her forward. "You see that guy behind me, with the pale skin and the dark hair? Go seduce him." She shoves Naeun rather harshly in Taemin's direction, grinning uncontrollably, and Victoria makes this startled noise from behind her when the two bump into each other. Minho sounds like he's trying not to laugh.
The three of them watch as Naeun giggles, bowing her head slightly as she apologizes, lazily twirling a strand of brown hair around her finger. It works much better with her longer hair, Jinri thinks, but that isn't really the point right now. Taemin looks confused and somewhat flustered, glancing from Jinri to Naeun and back again, and when he tries walking past her, Naeun places her hands on his chest and leans in to press their lips together.
Well, fuck.
Taemin doesn't do anything for a couple of seconds, still blinking, but when Naeun curls her thin fingers into his shirt, Taemin closes his eyes and brings his own hands up to tangle in her hair, kissing back somewhat eagerly. When Naeun pulls back, nipping at Taemin's jaw as she fiddles with the buttons of his shirt, Jinri watches his mouth fall open and she swallows.
She turns around, then, tugging at Minho's sleeve and pulling him towards where she knows his apartment is because the sight of Naeun and Taemin making out is somewhat revolting. Victoria snorts but doesn't say anything at Jinri's sudden reaction and Jinri just quickens her pace, trying to erase the image of Taemin and Naeun kissing as she tightens her grip on Minho's sleeve.
He doesn't say anything and they make it into his apartment complex with her sleeves hanging off of her shoulders and Minho's shirt completely undone.
By the end of the night, she's forgotten all about Taemin and his pretty lips against Naeun's.
She gets back to the apartment later that morning - Minho is, unsurprisingly, not the clingy type, and much easier to converse with over breakfast and coffee like they hadn't just fucked recklessly the night before - and when Jinri isn't sneaking back inside at the dead hours of the night her roommate usually knows where to assume she's been.
Soojung is sitting in the dining room, reading through one of her textbooks for her nightly classes. "What's up, hoe," she greets when Jinri drops her bag on the kitchen counter, reaching for the bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet. Her head is throbbing and her whole body feels like a pile of bricks.
"Fuck off. And Minho says hi."
"Of course he does." Soojung pulls her glasses off and stands up to join Jinri in the kitchen. She looks irritatingly smug for so early in the morning, but Jinri just ignores her and busies herself with finding a water bottle, setting the aspirin to the side. "That was a dick move, by the way."
Jinri looks up from the refrigerator, raising an eyebrow. "What was?"
"If you told him you were gonna give him round two, you should have stuck to your word."
"What the fu - how do you even know any of this stuff?"
"Jongin, duh. He's best friends with your boy toy, remember?" Soojung pulls herself up from the counter and tosses her hair out of her shoulder in the irritating way that Soojungs do, smiling as she walks out of the kitchen. "Good luck getting rid of that asshole."
Jinri’s head falls against the refrigerator door and she winces when it comes in contact with the cold steel. She's pretty sure even aspirin is not going to chase this problem away.
He doesn't come over the next week she's at work, but Jinri does see him lingering around the street a good bit, and she catches him from her position at the counter occasionally peering into the gift shop.
Taemin finally enters the restaurant where Jongin and his weird friend work, and since she hasn't seen him exit by the time her lunch break hits, she figures she might as well go join him.
The freaky Chinese kid is working at the front, scowling with that ugly frown permanently etched on to his face. His hair is a dark blonde now, different from the last time she'd been here, and he seems to have gotten a thousand new piercings, studs dotting the linings of his ears so prominent that she sees more metal than she does actual skin. His eyes widen when he sees her and Jinri smirks because for some reason he's always been really scared of her.
She supposes it's all in good nature.
Jinri's about to ask where Taemin is at, when she sees him sitting near the window, chatting with Jongin and Sehun, the other blonde kid that works here. She shoves past the Chinese kid, who gurgles but doesn't really manage to get any intelligible words out, and walks over to their table.
"Move over, asshole," she says, pushing Jongin to the side, and Sehun snorts. He seems to be the only one immune to her distaste for Soojung's set of male friends.
Jongin splutters and Taemin looks a little caught off-guard, but his smug expression returns as soon as she seats herself across from him.
Sehun and Jongin are still standing there, the former disinterested and the latter huffing and fixing his vest with rather harsh tugs, and she raises an eyebrow at the both of them. "Are you two gonna leave, or...?"
"Why the fuck is Soojung friends with you anyways? Always pushing us around and shit, I swear if she knew she-"
"-wouldn't do anything, because she doesn't give a shit. Come on, asshole." Sehun grabs Jongin by the arm, nodding at Taemin and dragging Jongin away to bother the Chinese kid, who looks quite lonely standing at the door by himself. Taemin still hasn't said a word.
It's silent for a few seconds, Taemin toying with his chopsticks and Jinri not really knowing how to begin. He clears his throat. "So, I'm guessing that you didn't come here to apologize?"
"Uh, no."
"I didn't think so. You don't seem like the type, anyways."
Jinri gives him a pointed look. "What type do I seem like, then?"
"I don't know, I haven't had the chance to find out." Taemin smiles, kind of muted, and his bangs are brushed off to the side so she has a better look into his dark eyes. He'd be kind of handsome if he weren’t so irritating. "Maybe if you let me, we could-"
"No, not happening. Stop." Jinri holds her hands up because this is wandering into dangerous territory and she just wants this to be over with. "What I came here to tell you was that I don't do repeats, and I'm sure Naeun was a wonderful fuck last night, so I'd appreciate if you just kindly left me the hell alone. And maybe your friends too, I don't want to see them rubbing off on Soojung."
"Soojung?"
"My roommate. She's got this thing going on with Jongin, but to be honest both of them annoy the shit out of me."
Taemin laughs, all wide and pretty like Jinri just hasn't just told him she never wants to see him again, and she holds herself back until he finally composes himself. "Alright. I'll leave you alone, although I make no promises about my friends."
"Cool. Thanks."
"No problem."
She sighs and then stands up from the table, shuffling through the restaurant until she gets back to the front door, where the permanently-pissed kid is messing with the bowl of fortune cookies. Jinri stares at him for a second and he doesn't really know what to do, so he offers her one with an awkward smile on his face. She sighs, snatches it from his hand, and welcomes the heat from the sun as she strolls across the street back to the gift shop.
火 (huò) fire
bend the rod while it is still hot.
ii