029.
Title: distance makes the heart grow fonder
Rating: r
Pairing/Focus: haemin
Summary: long distance relationships never work out -- both sungmin and donghae know this.
A/N: partially inspired by an episode of How I Met Your Mother.
-
"I don't believe in long distance relationships," Sungmin says abruptly when they're out drinking, twirling his straw.
Donghae's ready to say something, maybe laugh it off, maybe agree, maybe agree while laughing it off. His mouth is open before he snaps it closed, frowning.
"What makes you say that?"
Sungmin looks up from the ice cubes in the drink, bobbing and making small clinks as they move against each other. He imagines each of them as icebergs in the Atlantic or in Antarctica, mounds of ice causing waterfalls and tsunamis when a piece breaks off. Blue, ice blue, ocean blue, he sees Donghae's frown.
"I have to go back home for a while. Sungjin's sick."
Sick? Donghae wants to laugh it off, like he's sick? What, does he need his big brother to take care of him and feed him chicken soup? Except Sungmin's face is distraught, pinched around the edges and as Donghae leans in closer, he can see eye bags. Lips a bit red, like they've been bitten, and hair messy, falling over his eyes in distraction.
"How sick?"
Sungmin shrugs.
"Sick. He's been hospitalised. It might just be Mum overreacting, but it seems like a chest infection. It's not going away."
Donghae looks outside where the sun is just starting to set, and he sees the town they've spent their last year in. Trees dot every street they had cared to stroll along, ponds and statues seemingly essential every five streets, as if the town was obsessed with its own insignificance, its own history. Even the weather had been kind; sun shining in winter and now, the summer cool with a breeze.
"Is it serious?"
"The doctors are starting to think it. It's killing him."
Sungmin means it in an offhand matter, a joke like, this headache is killing me, god. And the smile he has on, small around the edges and absent minded, says so, too. But Donghae thinks of death like he thinks of work, and dancing, and his family. Never to be belittled.
"You going home then?"
"Yeah."
"When?"
Sungmin plays with the ice cubes, imagining a tidal wave.
"Sunday."
It's Friday. Sungmin doesn't believe in long distance relationships, and to be honest, neither does Donghae.
Sungmin emails him his flight details, six pm with a small note to arrive two hours earlier since it's an international flight. Donghae commits them to memory before he thinks of the past year.
Dandelions, he thinks suddenly. Small things to make wishes on, gone faster than the wind can take it, but still there on the forefront of your mind. Not to be forgotten, and too many small seeds to really remember all, but still there.
I made a wish on you, he thinks of emailing back. A wish that we'd be together forever.
But Donghae refrains. He's a romantic and he's going to do what he knows best; he can plan the rest of their two days together, make it wonderful and fulfilling, or just let go.
He knows what he's going to do.
Bright and early at six am, Sungmin gets a phone call.
I will always love youuuu, foreverrrrr, his phone croons at him, and he shields his eyes from the morning sun before flipping it open.
"Hello?"
"Come downstairs~" Donghae says enticingly, but Sungmin eyes the sun with squinted eyes and then looks at his room.
"Why?"
"Come downstairs and see~"
Sungmin snorts into his phone. "Oh okay, can I see in like, three hours then?"
He can imagine Donghae's pout forming before he protests loudly.
"HYUNG! Why are you so lazy all of a sudden, you're the one who always says I should wake up early and enjoy more of my day instead of sleeping at like, four, just because I can. The sun is out! The birds are singing! The sky is not raining! Hyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung."
Sungmin can't help the grin that he knows is creeping across his face. "Okay. Is coming downstairs code for going out, or can I just stay in my pajamas?"
"Stay in your pajamas, they're cute. Sort of. And embarrassing, but still cute."
Sungmin stays glued to his phone as he pulls on a jumper, stuffing his feet into fluffy slippers. Summer doesn't stop the morning dew and the bite of the wind.
"So why are you up so early?" Sungmin says into the phone.
"I'm enjoying more of my day! I'm following what you're saying, for once, aren't you going to appreciate it?"
Sungmin covers a yawn up with a hand, climbing into the lift. "Sure. Just. Six am is a bit early for a Saturday morning, you know?"
"Come on, you're leaving tomorrow. Have to make the best of it, yeah?"
Sungmin pauses when the doors open on the ground floor, Donghae smiling and waving from the glass door. He's still staring, frozen as the lift doors begin to close again, and Donghae's "HEY!" is delayed for a split second over the phone.
He jams his hand through the gap and slips out, Donghae smiling and then hanging up.
He's holding like, fifty helium balloons and a grin that threatens to break his face. Sungmin is just staring, hand poised above the handle of the glass door.
Donghae shakes the balloons. "Come on," he coaxes, and Sungmin blinks and pushes open the door before he falls into Donghae's arms.
Donghae is the first to step back, shoving the balloons into Sungmin's arms.
"Come on, time to cram a year into 36 hours."
The first place they visit is where they met, then where they had their first date, and they also go back to the store where they each bought their subsequent valentine's gifts.
"Chocolate!" Donghae pounces when he sees the store, and the store owner shakes her head at Sungmin.
"Never changes, does he?" And Sungmin shakes his head in reply, trying to keep a smile from his face.
Dinner is romantic, candlelit, and on the balcony of his favourite restaurant.
"Like it?" Donghae asks as Sungmin licks the spoon clean before digging into the ice cream.
"Love it." When he means to say love you.
They sit by one of the many fountains their town has to offer, on with lights playing under the surface. The ice cream from their crepes stick to their lips, and Donghae can't resist leaning over and licking it off before going in for a kiss.
"You're so inappropriate," Sungmin says as he pulls back, flushed.
"But you like it like that," Donghae says, sing-song, and Sungmin just laughs.
They spend the night making love, not having sex, not fucking. Just plain, old making love, because that's what they're made for.
At two am, Donghae produces caffeine pills and shakes them into Sungmin's hand.
"Two. I'm not going to waste a single hour with you." Sungmin shrugs and takes them. Not like anything is worse for his body than Donghae.
"Come on," Donghae says as he puts on his clothes. "Remember that time I called you out at three am because I couldn't sleep? And we ended up skipping stones on the river until the sun rose? Let's do that again."
"No," Sungmin says resolutely, still lying in bed and waiting for the caffeine to get to work.
"We could go clubbing instead, you know."
Sungmin sits up, then clutches his head, narrowing his eyes. "Ow, no, let's go to the river. Don't want clubbing right now."
Donghae grins happily as he zips up his pants, and Sungmin tries not to stare but he can't help it.
I've had that, he thinks happily before he slips out of bed and pulls on his own clothes.
They skip stones and trade stories for what seems like forever, but is really only a few hours. The bustle of the cafe setting up by the waterside prompts them to disentangle guiltily, or at least on Sungmin's side.
"What time is it!" Donghae calls to one of the waiters.
He gets six fingers up, then a pointed finger jabbed in the air, and then three counts of ten. He waves his thanks.
The rest of the day they spend shopping -- for clothes, for books, for video games and CDs and DVDs, and for necessities like milk and cereal.
"Fruit loops are bad for your teeth," Sungmin says, eyes narrowed. He tugs at the box.
"And oats are for pregnant women and health freaks." Donghae tugs at the colourful box, cheerfully smiling.
Sungmin sighs, letting go and putting his hands up in the surrender move. "One of each?"
"Deal!"
They ignore the fact that the oats will probably just whither away in the cupboard, unopened and untouched.
At three, Donghae disappears for a bit and Sungmin catches a cab back to his apartment. He packs away a few more things -- toothbrush, shampoo, and the spice he had promised his mother.
Half-past and Donghae knocks on the door, a single rose in his hand, wrapped in layers of soft tissue paper and plastic.
"Come on, let's go."
Driving with Donghae in the car is a challenge in itself. Donghae leaning over and giving Sungmin kisses, secretive licks on his collarbone is on a whole new level.
"Please stop," Sungmin says, gritting his teeth and trying to smile as the girl in the next car looked over.
"Always wanted to do this," Donghae says as he unzips Sungmin and deep-throats him no problem.
Sungmin chokes on what he was going to say next and has to dig his free hand into his thigh to keep from coming.
"What, gimme roadhead?" Sungmin asks in a small voice as Donghae licks the underside, sloppy.
"Mmmm." The hum makes Sungmin gasp and he presses on the accelerator as the lights turn green.
He goes faster, past the speed limit as Donghae speeds up his efforts, humming and swirling his tongue, using his hands to play with Sungmin's cock.
"Donghae," Sungmin says as warning as they turn off the main road and into one of the streets leading up to airport.
He tenses, back not even touching the chair and clutches at the wheel. Donghae hums when he swallows, licking him clean before tucking him back in.
"That was good," Donghae says, and Sungmin slouches, hands dangling from the wheel.
"If we crash, I'm holding you responsible."
Sungmin checks in without a fuss, and they sit in a cafe, the rose on a chair beside them.
"Sorry I'm so weak," Sungmin says, and Donghae wants to shake his head. Not weak, just realistic.
"It's okay. We'll stay friends, yeah?"
Sungmin smiles, takes his hand. "Of course."
Donghae squeezes it before he turns to the rose, propping it on the table.
"For you."
Sungmin takes it and looks at it. On the multitudes of plastic and paper are small scribbles he didn't notice before, memories of a year. Their first anniversary at one month, their first movie together, the time Donghae had been locked outside his apartment and they spent the night in front of it, waiting for the superintendent to arrive before Sungmin told him to move in with him.
When Sungmin peels the layers away, already feeling the tears gathering and he knows Donghae can't be tearless, he gets to the bare stem. On it, is a lonely, plain ring, silver and dull.
"Is this--"
"It's only if you want," Donghae says, hurried as he dabs at his tears. "Like. We're breaking up anyway. So just, friends, yeah?"
Sungmin takes the rose from it's wrapping, tossing the paper and plastic on the floor as he wriggles it from it's place. He slips it on, and it's perfect, of course. Perfect fit, shining before he takes it off again.
"A gift as a friend, a leaving present?"
Donghae smiles. "Yeah, that's right."
On the inside, engraved in cursive is; July '09-'10. A year to remember.
"Of course, Donghae." Sungmin leans over and gives him a hug, inhaling him, imprinting him to memory. "Friends forever."
Donghae laughs into his shoulder, shaky.
"Yeah, friends forever."
Rating: r
Pairing/Focus: haemin
Summary: long distance relationships never work out -- both sungmin and donghae know this.
A/N: partially inspired by an episode of How I Met Your Mother.
-
"I don't believe in long distance relationships," Sungmin says abruptly when they're out drinking, twirling his straw.
Donghae's ready to say something, maybe laugh it off, maybe agree, maybe agree while laughing it off. His mouth is open before he snaps it closed, frowning.
"What makes you say that?"
Sungmin looks up from the ice cubes in the drink, bobbing and making small clinks as they move against each other. He imagines each of them as icebergs in the Atlantic or in Antarctica, mounds of ice causing waterfalls and tsunamis when a piece breaks off. Blue, ice blue, ocean blue, he sees Donghae's frown.
"I have to go back home for a while. Sungjin's sick."
Sick? Donghae wants to laugh it off, like he's sick? What, does he need his big brother to take care of him and feed him chicken soup? Except Sungmin's face is distraught, pinched around the edges and as Donghae leans in closer, he can see eye bags. Lips a bit red, like they've been bitten, and hair messy, falling over his eyes in distraction.
"How sick?"
Sungmin shrugs.
"Sick. He's been hospitalised. It might just be Mum overreacting, but it seems like a chest infection. It's not going away."
Donghae looks outside where the sun is just starting to set, and he sees the town they've spent their last year in. Trees dot every street they had cared to stroll along, ponds and statues seemingly essential every five streets, as if the town was obsessed with its own insignificance, its own history. Even the weather had been kind; sun shining in winter and now, the summer cool with a breeze.
"Is it serious?"
"The doctors are starting to think it. It's killing him."
Sungmin means it in an offhand matter, a joke like, this headache is killing me, god. And the smile he has on, small around the edges and absent minded, says so, too. But Donghae thinks of death like he thinks of work, and dancing, and his family. Never to be belittled.
"You going home then?"
"Yeah."
"When?"
Sungmin plays with the ice cubes, imagining a tidal wave.
"Sunday."
It's Friday. Sungmin doesn't believe in long distance relationships, and to be honest, neither does Donghae.
Sungmin emails him his flight details, six pm with a small note to arrive two hours earlier since it's an international flight. Donghae commits them to memory before he thinks of the past year.
Dandelions, he thinks suddenly. Small things to make wishes on, gone faster than the wind can take it, but still there on the forefront of your mind. Not to be forgotten, and too many small seeds to really remember all, but still there.
I made a wish on you, he thinks of emailing back. A wish that we'd be together forever.
But Donghae refrains. He's a romantic and he's going to do what he knows best; he can plan the rest of their two days together, make it wonderful and fulfilling, or just let go.
He knows what he's going to do.
Bright and early at six am, Sungmin gets a phone call.
I will always love youuuu, foreverrrrr, his phone croons at him, and he shields his eyes from the morning sun before flipping it open.
"Hello?"
"Come downstairs~" Donghae says enticingly, but Sungmin eyes the sun with squinted eyes and then looks at his room.
"Why?"
"Come downstairs and see~"
Sungmin snorts into his phone. "Oh okay, can I see in like, three hours then?"
He can imagine Donghae's pout forming before he protests loudly.
"HYUNG! Why are you so lazy all of a sudden, you're the one who always says I should wake up early and enjoy more of my day instead of sleeping at like, four, just because I can. The sun is out! The birds are singing! The sky is not raining! Hyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung."
Sungmin can't help the grin that he knows is creeping across his face. "Okay. Is coming downstairs code for going out, or can I just stay in my pajamas?"
"Stay in your pajamas, they're cute. Sort of. And embarrassing, but still cute."
Sungmin stays glued to his phone as he pulls on a jumper, stuffing his feet into fluffy slippers. Summer doesn't stop the morning dew and the bite of the wind.
"So why are you up so early?" Sungmin says into the phone.
"I'm enjoying more of my day! I'm following what you're saying, for once, aren't you going to appreciate it?"
Sungmin covers a yawn up with a hand, climbing into the lift. "Sure. Just. Six am is a bit early for a Saturday morning, you know?"
"Come on, you're leaving tomorrow. Have to make the best of it, yeah?"
Sungmin pauses when the doors open on the ground floor, Donghae smiling and waving from the glass door. He's still staring, frozen as the lift doors begin to close again, and Donghae's "HEY!" is delayed for a split second over the phone.
He jams his hand through the gap and slips out, Donghae smiling and then hanging up.
He's holding like, fifty helium balloons and a grin that threatens to break his face. Sungmin is just staring, hand poised above the handle of the glass door.
Donghae shakes the balloons. "Come on," he coaxes, and Sungmin blinks and pushes open the door before he falls into Donghae's arms.
Donghae is the first to step back, shoving the balloons into Sungmin's arms.
"Come on, time to cram a year into 36 hours."
The first place they visit is where they met, then where they had their first date, and they also go back to the store where they each bought their subsequent valentine's gifts.
"Chocolate!" Donghae pounces when he sees the store, and the store owner shakes her head at Sungmin.
"Never changes, does he?" And Sungmin shakes his head in reply, trying to keep a smile from his face.
Dinner is romantic, candlelit, and on the balcony of his favourite restaurant.
"Like it?" Donghae asks as Sungmin licks the spoon clean before digging into the ice cream.
"Love it." When he means to say love you.
They sit by one of the many fountains their town has to offer, on with lights playing under the surface. The ice cream from their crepes stick to their lips, and Donghae can't resist leaning over and licking it off before going in for a kiss.
"You're so inappropriate," Sungmin says as he pulls back, flushed.
"But you like it like that," Donghae says, sing-song, and Sungmin just laughs.
They spend the night making love, not having sex, not fucking. Just plain, old making love, because that's what they're made for.
At two am, Donghae produces caffeine pills and shakes them into Sungmin's hand.
"Two. I'm not going to waste a single hour with you." Sungmin shrugs and takes them. Not like anything is worse for his body than Donghae.
"Come on," Donghae says as he puts on his clothes. "Remember that time I called you out at three am because I couldn't sleep? And we ended up skipping stones on the river until the sun rose? Let's do that again."
"No," Sungmin says resolutely, still lying in bed and waiting for the caffeine to get to work.
"We could go clubbing instead, you know."
Sungmin sits up, then clutches his head, narrowing his eyes. "Ow, no, let's go to the river. Don't want clubbing right now."
Donghae grins happily as he zips up his pants, and Sungmin tries not to stare but he can't help it.
I've had that, he thinks happily before he slips out of bed and pulls on his own clothes.
They skip stones and trade stories for what seems like forever, but is really only a few hours. The bustle of the cafe setting up by the waterside prompts them to disentangle guiltily, or at least on Sungmin's side.
"What time is it!" Donghae calls to one of the waiters.
He gets six fingers up, then a pointed finger jabbed in the air, and then three counts of ten. He waves his thanks.
The rest of the day they spend shopping -- for clothes, for books, for video games and CDs and DVDs, and for necessities like milk and cereal.
"Fruit loops are bad for your teeth," Sungmin says, eyes narrowed. He tugs at the box.
"And oats are for pregnant women and health freaks." Donghae tugs at the colourful box, cheerfully smiling.
Sungmin sighs, letting go and putting his hands up in the surrender move. "One of each?"
"Deal!"
They ignore the fact that the oats will probably just whither away in the cupboard, unopened and untouched.
At three, Donghae disappears for a bit and Sungmin catches a cab back to his apartment. He packs away a few more things -- toothbrush, shampoo, and the spice he had promised his mother.
Half-past and Donghae knocks on the door, a single rose in his hand, wrapped in layers of soft tissue paper and plastic.
"Come on, let's go."
Driving with Donghae in the car is a challenge in itself. Donghae leaning over and giving Sungmin kisses, secretive licks on his collarbone is on a whole new level.
"Please stop," Sungmin says, gritting his teeth and trying to smile as the girl in the next car looked over.
"Always wanted to do this," Donghae says as he unzips Sungmin and deep-throats him no problem.
Sungmin chokes on what he was going to say next and has to dig his free hand into his thigh to keep from coming.
"What, gimme roadhead?" Sungmin asks in a small voice as Donghae licks the underside, sloppy.
"Mmmm." The hum makes Sungmin gasp and he presses on the accelerator as the lights turn green.
He goes faster, past the speed limit as Donghae speeds up his efforts, humming and swirling his tongue, using his hands to play with Sungmin's cock.
"Donghae," Sungmin says as warning as they turn off the main road and into one of the streets leading up to airport.
He tenses, back not even touching the chair and clutches at the wheel. Donghae hums when he swallows, licking him clean before tucking him back in.
"That was good," Donghae says, and Sungmin slouches, hands dangling from the wheel.
"If we crash, I'm holding you responsible."
Sungmin checks in without a fuss, and they sit in a cafe, the rose on a chair beside them.
"Sorry I'm so weak," Sungmin says, and Donghae wants to shake his head. Not weak, just realistic.
"It's okay. We'll stay friends, yeah?"
Sungmin smiles, takes his hand. "Of course."
Donghae squeezes it before he turns to the rose, propping it on the table.
"For you."
Sungmin takes it and looks at it. On the multitudes of plastic and paper are small scribbles he didn't notice before, memories of a year. Their first anniversary at one month, their first movie together, the time Donghae had been locked outside his apartment and they spent the night in front of it, waiting for the superintendent to arrive before Sungmin told him to move in with him.
When Sungmin peels the layers away, already feeling the tears gathering and he knows Donghae can't be tearless, he gets to the bare stem. On it, is a lonely, plain ring, silver and dull.
"Is this--"
"It's only if you want," Donghae says, hurried as he dabs at his tears. "Like. We're breaking up anyway. So just, friends, yeah?"
Sungmin takes the rose from it's wrapping, tossing the paper and plastic on the floor as he wriggles it from it's place. He slips it on, and it's perfect, of course. Perfect fit, shining before he takes it off again.
"A gift as a friend, a leaving present?"
Donghae smiles. "Yeah, that's right."
On the inside, engraved in cursive is; July '09-'10. A year to remember.
"Of course, Donghae." Sungmin leans over and gives him a hug, inhaling him, imprinting him to memory. "Friends forever."
Donghae laughs into his shoulder, shaky.
"Yeah, friends forever."