The Harder The Work... (3/??)
Another installment completed. Getting up there in rating, I think...although [Embarrassed] I don't think my "dirty" scenes are anything to write home about. [Shakes head and laughs] Well...I guess as long as yunjae93-dongsaeng likes it...I have no regrets!
(Yes, this is the closest thing to smut I've ever written...so forgive me if it isn't up to par as some more 'experiened' writers. o//////o;;; I-I'll make it the very best I can for the final part, I promise...! [Which will probably be around 5 parts...we'll see as this goes on, though. But I'm pretty sure it will be.])
Okay. Less A/N, more story, right? [Laughs] Okay...let's start, then~
Three.
Summer arrived and continued on without much fanfare or big incidents.
Yunho supposed it had something to do with the fact that the season brought slow business to their department. Likely, people were too lazy from the blistering heat to pick up their phones and make complaints to the PRMC.
“I don’t blame them, it’s a fucking sauna in here.” Yoochun had brought a medium-sized fan into the office to offer them some relief from the settling steaminess. It barely even conjured an artificial tailwind. “Imagine what it’s like out there…”
“Worst of all, they’re still making us work with the air conditioning broken like this” Changmin settled back into his chair with a sigh, done looking out the window mournfully at the birds perched on the seventh story windowsill. “Slave drivers. That’s what all of those executive pigs are.”
“Mutinnnyyyy,” Junsu intoned, much like a dolphin suffering from heatstroke. Jaejoong nodded, for once not jumping at their ‘mascot’ member of the team’s suggestion like usual. “We should call for a mutiny, right, Yoochunnie?”
Yunho refused to take off his suit jacket, though it looked on the verge of being shed soon enough with the way he was sweating. ““I don’t think a mutiny’s going to help anyone here right now, guys. Don’t bother.”
“Listen to our fearless leader, Junsu.” Changmin, flopped over his desk with his chin tucked under his crossed arms, was the very picture of listlessness. “I am.”
Jaejoong suddenly stood upright, mouth opened as if he were about to say something.
“What’s up?” Yoochun could barely lift his head.
Flicking back blond-streaked brown bangs (his style for the season), Jaejoong tossed an easy smile in Yunho’s direction. “Yunhoyah. Come with me to get ice cream?”
Junsu squealed in protest, energy returning to him at the very mention of the cold treat. “L-Let me go with you, too! I didn’t know there was an ice cream place nearby!”
“There isn’t.” Changmin’s eyes were aglow. “But I think I know where Jaejoong-hyung is taking us to get some…”
“SweetTreats’!?” Yoochun stared at Jaejoong, incredulous, somehow not having expected Jaejoong to have known about the famous ice cream shop located on the downtown border where all Seoul’s denizens travel far and wide to taste their specialty flavors. “Jaejoongie, you’re a genius - why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because you’re not a genius,” Changmin quipped while they walked out, “like Jaejoong-hyung and I are.” To this, Yunho (who left the room last to hold the door open for everyone) couldn’t hold back his laughter, leaning against the doorframe to keep himself steady.
After they convinced their supervisor to cover for them, they manage to sneak out leave much earlier than expected. (They finished their work for the day; what else was there to do?) Junsu and Changmin led the group down the street with Jaejoong following close behind to guide them along. Yoochun spent the ten-minute walk hanging behind the pack with Yunho, reminiscing about their high school glory days.
It was halfway into Yoochun’s story about the only girl in senior year that lasted longer than three months that Jaejoong fell back in pace to interrupt them.
“I was thinking,” Jaejoong flopped both arms over Yoochun and Yunho’s shoulders, “should we all share a large waffle bowl?”
“Parfaits sound better.” Junsu raised his hand with Changmin in agreement of the protest. “Cheaper, too.”
“How about we let our ‘fearless leader’ decide?” A nudge to his lower abdomen on Yoochun’s part - was that supposed to be a signal? “-So. Since we all apparently can’t agree on one thing, pick something for us.”
Between Yoochun’s leering, Jaejoong’s pouting, Junsu’s abandoned puppy look, and Changmin’s barbed stares, Yunho didn’t know what to address first. He sighed.
It was hard to argue with all four of them at the same time. He didn’t even want to attempt it.
“How about you each get what you want,” he compromised, “and I’ll pay for whatever extra costs come up?”
Jaejoong nearly tackled him to the pavement with a joyous shout. Junsu and Changmin, grinning, flanked Jaejoong’s sides, Yoochun steadying Yunho by the waist and completing their perspiration-laced group hug.
“See? Told you he’d be happy…”
“Thank you so much, Yunho-nim…!”
“Hyung-or…whoever’s stepping on my foot better shove off…”
“If I haven’t mentioned lately that you’re amazing,” mumbled Jaejoong into the crook of his neck, effectively distracting him from all the other not-conversations sounding off around them, “then…you’re amazing.”
Yunho didn’t even want to attempt forming a coherent response. Besides, he reasoned, it would ruin their moment.
A moment belonging to all five of them.
--------------------------------------------
It was a midsummer afternoon - barely a minute after a departmental meeting - that Yunho stumbled upon something he wasn’t supposed to see.
He wasn’t expecting it, of course; though he probably should have seen the signs. But Yoochun and Junsu both snuck out of the meeting separately (as they usually did). So even though Changmin locked their office out of habit, he didn’t think much of the unlocked door at first.
That is, until he got quite an eyeful the moment he slid the door open.
He pulled it back closed just as quietly.
Okay. His face flushed, Yunho tried his best to process what he thought he just saw. What the hell is going on? Despite himself, his hand was already reaching for that knob again.
He had to be sure.
A glistening muscled back faced the doorway, leaning into the ghosting touches sliding across jutting hipbones, wandering lower with every passing second. The blinds were shut so the dim lamplight did little to cast light on their faces - but Yunho knew the voices coming from those shadowed forms all too well.
“…N-Not yet - ahhh -…” The smaller figure trembled, poised across the desk with his back facing Yunho. “-You know…we really s-shouldn’t be …- Jaejoong-nim’s…gonna come back any second…!”
“Relax…I sent Jaejoongie to go get lunch…” Almost indiscernible, a rich baritone chuckle reached Yunho’s ears. “Just relax, ‘Su - we’ll finish this up quick…”
The accompanying shuffle of fabric, along with a sharp pleased cry. “Yoochunnie…aahhh…please…!”
Two arms (one hand over his mouth, the other dragging him away from the door and swiftly shutting it), roughly pulled Yunho away. The bracelet on the arm pulling him gave his captor’s identity away at once.
“C-Changmin-?”
“I didn’t know you were such a voyeur, hyung.” When Yunho is released, he whirled around to meet Changmin’s amused smirk. “Liked what you saw?”
With a quick shake of his head (a valiant attempt to shake away the image of Junsu’s wanton expression as Yoochun knelt between his legs and-notthinkingaboutit,notthinkingaboutit,gah,whyamIstillthinkingaboutit?!), Yunho at last managed to form a coherent sentence.
“I-I’m not even going to answer that question. But…that still doesn’t explain why you’re out here.”
“I’m on lookout duty.” It was remarkable how Changmin could make this sound so ridiculous -- like they were discussing something as banal as the weather outside or the state of the stock market. “They asked me to.”
Yunho suddenly sensed another splitting headache coming on. “And you’ve known about this…” A sharp jerk of the thumb toward the now-closed office door. “…for how long?”
“Three weeks, give or take.” Their manknae’s glib reply. Yunho could tell when the boy was lying, though; and this wasn’t one of those times. “I kind of caught them in the act, too.”
Only one thing left to ask. “A-Am I the only one that didn’t know about this…?”
“Know about what?”
Yunho and Changmin both started, gaping at their genuinely curious(-sounding) visitor.
“J-Jaejoongah…”
A laugh pressed into the folds of his palm. “Yes, that’s me.” Jaejoong tilted his head to one side, this time in their youngest’s direction. “-So what didn’t Yunhoyah know, Changminah?”
“That Yoochun-hyung wanted you both to go pick up lunch for us.” Again, Yunho found it oddly humorous, the way Changmin could make even a cheap excuse like that sound so very convincing. “-If you need a third person to go with, though, I’m free.”
And Yunho suddenly realized what Changmin was doing.
“…N-No, it’s okay-” Taking Jaejoong as gently by the hand as he could, Yunho began to pull the elder man away from the office toward the elevator. “-we’ll be fine on our own. Just…hold down the fort while we’re gone, okay, Changmin?”
“Will do.” The brief smirk on Changmin’s face as they headed down the hall told him he had done the right thing. “Have fun.”
It wasn’t until they were both in the elevator heading to the ground floor of the company building that Jaejoong finally spoke up.
“I saw you two, you know. From the meeting room.” Yunho opened his mouth to explain but Jaejoong silenced him at length with a disarming smile. “It’s alright, Yunhoyah - it’s fine. Besides, I think I already know what this is about.”
Sputtering (he kicked himself inwardly for looking and sounding the part of a fool). “Y-You do?”
“You remember when I said Yooochunah thinks Junsuyah is everything in the universe to him?” Yunho nodded. “…I don’t think you need much more proof than what you just saw.” A wan grin. “Although it’s weird. I thought you two knew each other since high school?”
“Sure.” Yunho rubbed at the back of his neck. “But Yoochun never seemed interested in guys back in high school.” A nervous laugh. “Quite the opposite, actually.”
“…You know what they say about denial, don’t you, Yunhoyah?”
“…That it’s a river in Egypt?”
The sight of Jaejoong clutching his stomach and falling into hysterics for the rest of their ride downstairs served as distraction enough - for both of them.
(Later that night, he found himself unable to sleep, his overactive imagination making it far too easy to imagine the same scene he witnessed through a small space in startlingly clear detail; in calloused hands gliding across his body and soft lips curled around him in a familiar smile - it’s alright, just relax, Yunhoyah; in warmth disappearing by morning’s light, leaving behind only emptiness, save for an uncomfortable dampness between his legs; and in the heady realization of his heart beating fast in both the real world and in his dreams.)
- Part Three // FIN -