Chapter Text
Chenle, unfortunately, woke in the same state. The cotton-filled mouth, the throbbing brain, the crushing weight on top of him. Actually - the weight was comforting and warm, Chenle cracked open his eyes to see Jisung’s head on his chest. He was wrapped up in the older boy’s arms. Still peacefully sleeping.
Chenle brushed his fingertips across Jisung’s nose and cheekbones and eyebrows. He somehow looked younger, probably because he was sleeping. In his musing, he hadn’t even noticed Jisung’s eyes flutter open. “Feeling better, Lele?” Jisung’s lips caught on Chenle’s t-shirt as he spoke.
“I don’t know. Still have a headache,” Chenle let his hand fall into Jisung’s hair, soaking up the unusual behaviour from the older idol. Jisung nodded before mumbling that he would find some medicine for Chenle. “You picked a great weekend to be sick, if you had thrown up on Renjun-hyung one week earlier all of would be down for the count and the comeback promotions would have ended earlier. Jeno-hyung would have been upset - it’s his last comeback as the main rapper and informal leader after all.”
Jisung continued to babble to himself as he looked for pain relievers. Chenle decided to not pay attention to him, he was just as delirious as Chenle. Talk of Jeno and Renjun being older than them - Jisung was insane! Chenle shifted so he was comfortably laying on his stomach, his face was pressed into Jisung’s pillow just enough to still be able to breathe. He didn’t realise how much he missed this; the intimacy, the domesticity of being with Jisung on a lazy morning.
Chenle hasn’t acted like a couple with Jisung in months, comebacks and taking care of the younger members took up so much of his time that mornings like this became a rarity. Chenle almost wished he’d still be this sick come bedtime so they could do this again. “Lele, gotta sit up so you can take this.”
Jisung had come to sit on the edge of the bed. Chenle didn’t even realise the older singer found the medicine or got a glass of water for him. He thanked him as he sat up. The medicine wouldn’t take effect for at least an hour but just thinking about feeling better brought a small smile to his face. “Already feeling better, babe.”
Jisung’s hands came to rest on his chest and cheek. A thumb caressed his cheekbone and Jisung sighed. “You’re not my Chenle.” Jisung was searching his eyes, nose, lips, everything Chenle could offer in their bed. “Who are you?”
The question took a moment to register in Chenle’s brain. Another moment passed before his mind could conjure up a response. “I’m Zhong Chenle, leader of NCT, member of the iconic ‘95 line, your boyfriend. You’re Park Jisung, oldest of NCT and second-in-command, you’re part of the less fantastic ‘94 line, you’re my boyfriend. You know me. I’m your Chenle.”
Jisung furrowed his brows and gave his head a slight shake. “I’m Park Jisung, born in 2002, I’m one of the youngest in NCT - so I’m only part of NCT Dream - and while I am Chenle’s boyfriend but you’re not my Chenle. Your eyes are different, they’re older, they look pained and weary, Chenle has never looked at me this way.”
It was Chenle’s turn to sigh and his head pushed into the hand still placed on his cheek. Jisung didn’t pull away - was this a good sign? How could this man claim to not be Park Jisung? Where - or when - was he? “Please don’t joke about this, Sungie. I’m too sick to play along.” Jisung nodded, his shoulders slumped, and he pulled out his phone. It took him a while to type with one hand because his thumb was still caressing his cheekbone.
The phone was pushed into his line of sight and a Naver article with the headline of NCT 2020 Reveals First Group Shots of All 23 Members focused. He read through it, it broke down theories of the two members joining established units or creating new ones. There was a helpful diagram of who was in which unit - Chenle saw his name right under Haechan’s in the DREAM category. Jisung’s was also under his.
“Everything is backwards. This isn’t right,” Chenle muttered to himself. The hand, still warm against his face, moved Chenle’s gaze so they made eye contact. “Look me in the eyes, I’m different. Aren’t I? Don’t I look younger than 26?”
Chenle had been swept up in the feeling of Jisung loving him - his Jisung didn’t love him anymore, this wasn’t his Jisung. Jisung looked young, he had thought this when he was falling asleep. But now that he was awake and cognisant, Jisung’s cheeks were plumper, his nose and jawline weren’t as defined, but he also didn’t have his usual bulging biceps that took him months to cultivate. People can change the shape of their face with makeup but they can’t get rid of muscles in the span of twelve hours.
“You’re not my Jisung.”
An understanding nod.
“You’re not my Chenle.”
The hand, warm and reassuring, finally drifted away from his face (and even though this wasn’t his Jisung) Chenle missed the contact instantly.
----
The rest of the day held a certain amount of babying for Chenle. The ‘00 line continuously brought him food and water and tucked him into the couch. Kun and Ten came to their dorm a little after dinner with Yangyang on their heels. Kun had brought in homemade comfort food, “I already made some for Sicheng cause he’s homesick so I prepared some for you, too.”
Chenle hadn’t felt the need throw up since early morning - but the raging headache stayed with him. The Yangyang he knew was quiet, demure, subdued. This Yangyang was nothing like this, the older Chinese member, (“how is he older than me?” Chenle had asked with a scoff) practically bounced off the wall.
“Yangyang!” He yelled from the couch, “shut up! Sit down or leave. You’re being worse than Johnny and Taeyong.” It took a lot of comforting ‘baby’s from Ten - that was weird to him - before Yangyang stopped crying. Kun had glared at him and in response Chenle gave a half-hearted apology. Jisung shushed them politely before more yelling occurred and pulled Chenle into his lap.
Jisung’s hands kneaded his upset stomach gently. Chenle leaned into his body waiting for the members to leave. Another half hour passed until Jisung said, “hyung, we appreciate you coming but Chenle needs to rest so we can get back to rehearsing as soon as possible.” It was a nice way to say leave and Chenle couldn’t thank him more.
They left and Jisung led Chenle back to his - their - bedroom to actually get ready for bed. While they changed into pajamas, Jisung caught him up on the current state of NCT. Throughout the day, his boyfriend had shown him all of their songs and they compared tracks. Chenle sat on the bed and stared at Jisung’s lean back. In his sleepy state, he asked the stupidest question yet. “How far have we gone, Sung?”
The younger member whipped his head around. “We haven’t done anything. But my Chenle and I have only made out. We’re still both underage here. What about you?” Chenle hadn’t expected the question to be flipped to him.
“Jisung and I have gone all the way - we’re not babies like you - but Kun is more traditional and,” he paused to think of the right word, “conservative so we only kiss and Taeil won’t do anything unless the rest of us are there.”
Full honesty had Jisung sputtering. “Four of you? All together. How do you do that?” Jisung turned back to pull on a shirt. “Don’t answer that. Never mind, just sleep, Lele.” The lights were quickly turned off but Jisung still wrapped his arms around him when he got into the bed. Even in the dark, Chenle could feel the blush of Jisung’s cheek when his face was pressed into his neck. A small smile made its way to his lips.