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“What’re you dressing up for?” Jeno drawls from his side of the room, watching Renjun put on a hoodie and a pair of socks.
“Chenle wants Sichuan food,” Renjun explains with a shrug. “Wanna come?”
“You’re treating?”
“No.”
The sentiment makes Jeno sit up only to flop back down on the bed, closing his eyes. “No thanks.”
“Suit yourself.”
“Get me something,” Jeno says then cracks an eye open to look at Renjun. “Please.”
“If Sicheng hyung has money,” Renjun blows him off, mouth curling into a smirk as he does. He stuffs some money into the pocket of his jeans then waves his fingers at Jeno to say bye, closing the door behind him with a soft click.
Sighing, Jeno sinks further into his bed and takes out his fidget spinner, playing with it till it starts burning circles into the backs of his eyelids.
“Put that thing away, loser,” Donghyuck sneers, making Jeno jump.
“When did you get here?” Jeno demands.
“Why haven’t you been answering my texts?” Donghyuck demands back. He has his face all scrunched together in annoyance, which is—if Jeno is being completely honest—really fucking cute. Jeno only spares a second to glance around the room for his phone, finding the edge of it peeking out from the clothes he’d worn earlier and promptly taken off in favour of pyjamas as soon as he was back in the dorm. Donghyuck waves his hand in impatience. “Hello?”
“Sorry,” Jeno says, all sheepishly. “I didn’t even hear it go off.”
“It was important,” Donghyuck says. He pads to Jeno’s bed in socked feet and pushes Jeno further to the side so he could slip under the blankets then plucks the fidget spinner from Jeno’s hand, looking at it as if he wants to chuck it out the window but just places it on Jeno’s bedside table out of kindness.
“Wanna talk about it?” Jeno asks once Donghyuck’s all settled, face mere centimetres away, enough for Jeno to just tilt his head down and kiss him. Donghyuck goes cross-eyed before settling his gaze on Jeno’s lips, moving in to close the gap.
Guess he doesn’t wanna talk about it. Donghyuck wants to settle on top of Jeno and kiss the length of his jaw, and no, Jeno’s not complaining, definitely not. In fact, Jeno’s mind goes hazy trying to keep track of Donghyuck’s fingers and he tries to find something solid by digging his fingers into Donghyuck’s waist, in effect keeping him in place.
Donghyuck pulls away and looks at Jeno with lidded eyes, playing with a strand of his hair. “You know what?” he sighs. “I forgot that you’re, like, old.”
Jeno rolls his eyes. “Two months. Not even.”
“No, I mean, like, texting you is like texting my dad,” Donghyuck deadpans. Before Jeno could protest, Donghyuck continues, “Ugh, they’re rooming me with Youngho hyung in Osaka. We have a schedule, so we gotta fly out earlier.”
Jeno sticks his tongue out at him then sucks it back in his mouth before Donghyuck could nip it away with his teeth. “Loser,” he deadpans.
Osaka is nice. It’s really nice. It’s exciting yet has an oddly calming quality to it. And Jeno gets all of that by just watching the city move from his hotel room window, too overwhelmed to really go out.
His phone buzzes, rattling against a glass, and the sound of it makes Renjun throw the thing at him. (And Jeno supposes that Renjun doing it was a blessing in disguise, even if it did land squarely on his cheek.)
Lobby.
Jeno grins and stands up quickly, pawing through his luggage for a jacket, then swipes a room card from the table and some yen from the envelope the managers handed out to him when they arrived. He’s so antsy in the elevator and brisk walks to where Donghyuck was seated, scrolling through his phone.
“Got your text,” Jeno says. Donghyuck looks up from his phone and grins at him.
“Where are we going?” Jeno drawls in Donghyuck’s ear, the din of the subway swallowing his words. Donghyuck shushes him with a finger to his lips.
“I can’t remember the stop,” Donghyuck admits, eyes wide. “Holy shit.”
“Holy shit,” Jeno echoes. “The manager’s gonna kill us.”
“Doyoung hyung’s got my back,” Donghyuck says offhandedly.
“Who’s got my back?” Jeno asks.
“Me.”
Jeno rolls his eyes. “I feel totally secure with you,” he says drily.
Donghyuck smiles, looks quickly around the nearly empty subway car, and plants a quick kiss on Jeno’s cheek. “I love you, too.”
Donghyuck is an idiot and a romantic and that means getting down at Namba station after realising no wait, not this Namba station, the other one and taking a picture of Jeno’s sillhoutte against the iconic (cliché) Glico neon ad. It means Donghyuck treating him to a crepe of sliced bananas and melted chocolate that makes Jeno’s throat tacky, and Jeno could’ve sworn that Donghyuck would’ve licked away the chocolate on the corner of his mouth, his heart pounding so crazy fast that it could be comical. Donghyuck hands him a napkin.
“Why don’t you just stay with me tonight?” Jeno asks. They have the same call time tomorrow morning anyway.
“Where’s Injunnie gonna sleep?” Donghyuck asks.
“Like that was ever a problem,” Jeno deadpans.
“I want to,” Donghyuck sighs. “It’s just easier with you.” The gyoza he buys from a streetside vendor has steam rising up in curls, and Donghyuck holds the little paper plate in his palm like the dumplings aren’t burning through it. He makes a face. “What am I saying… Of course it’s easier with you.”
Jeno’s heart could leap out of his chest. “Like I said, you can if you want to,” he says. “Just wake up early for once in your life.” There’s a pregnant pause before they both burst out laughing.
“Funny, Jeno Lee.” Donghyuck stuffs a whole gyoza in his mouth and sucks in air as he chews on it. “As if Injunnie’s not the one making sure you’re awake,” he retorts with a mouth full of steam.
Around ten pm or so, when things are beginning to quiet down, Donghyuck pulls Jeno into an alley and lands him on the strip of wall between the vending machine and the dumpster. It's wet underfoot and something’s seeping. Romantic.
Donghyuck breathes out a laugh and steps in between Jeno's legs so that they're pressed flush together. He puts on the hood of his jacket, making Jeno do the same before grabbing Jeno by the hood and kissing him squarely on the mouth.
Jeno makes a startled noise against Donghyuck's mouth before his heart calms down and he's able to cup Donghyuck's face, licking the last of Donghyuck's strawberries and cream crepe from his lips and then some, sucking on Donghyuck's bottom lip till a strangled, breathy moan comes from him and his legs falter. Then Donghyuck stumbles unto Jeno and knocks Jeno's head against the brick wall.
“Fuck,” Jeno groans.
“Sorry,” Donghyuck apologises sheepishly. He twirls the little string of Jeno's hoodie in his finger then trails that finger down Jeno's chest. “Do you wanna stop?”
They're gonna get caught. Some Japanese fan will recognise their conspicuous hair and the slant of their noses and take pictures and show them off to the world. Someone will. “Do that thing again?” Jeno urges.
Donghyuck looks puzzled. “What thing?”
Jeno grabs his face and shows him.
Jeno has never dated before Donghyuck. He knows there’s protocol, must-dos, all that shit, but in front of Donghyuck and the way he just moves around like he’s a firecracker? Jeno’s incredibly at a loss. And it’s worse wanting to wrap an arm around his waist in public and not being able to do anything about the itch in his hands.
Stunned into silence, that’s what Jeno is. He watches wordlessly as Donghyuck buys knick-knack after knick-knack, shelling out thousand yen bills from his pocket like it’s nothing. Then he’d think that he needs to say something.
“Hey,” Jeno pipes up, voice low as Donghyuck peruses a whole wall of patterned plastic chopsticks. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” Donghyuck says, brows knitting together at the question. “Guess I’m just tired.”
Jeno places his hands on Donghyuck’s shoulder and leans into him from behind, feeling Donghyuck melt.
“I want a break. I don’t care if it makes me look bad—I want it,” Donghyuck admits in a low voice. “And you weren’t fucking answering your phone.” Jeno kisses the tip of Donghyuck’s ear, happy that they’re hidden by massive stuffed toy versions of Pokémon. It’s warm. “I was so excited that we were gonna be roommates.”
“Me, too,” Jeno says, now resting his chin on Donghyuck’s shoulder and wrapping his arms around him, mouth jutted out into a pout. “Next time.”
Donghyuck sighs. “Next time might not be till next year.” And who knows what could happen next year? Anyway. Donghyuck clears his throat and holds up a figurine he’s plucked from the shelf. “Do you think Mark hyung will like this?”
Once they step out of the Don Quijote, Donghyuck realises the subway’s on its last routes and starts off on a sprint, dodging tourists and bounding lightly down the stairs of the entrance, plastic bag of snacks and an absurd bean pillow rustling against his thigh as he ran. Jeno follows, lumbering slightly but managing to catch up with Donghyuck anyway. Donghyuck slumps against him, laughing till the train comes.
“Taeyong hyung’s gonna kill me,” says Donghyuck gleefully once they’re seated in the train, head resting on Jeno’s shoulder.
“Why are you happy?” Jeno asks.
“I can’t wait.”
“Again, why are you happy?”
“This was worth it,” Donghyuck explains. “Thinking we’re gonna get caught and—and looking at sex toys with you at Don Quijote”—Jeno flushes red—“and… you know how we always fucking go to Osaka but we never go anywhere? I had to wrangle this out of Yuta hyung.”
“The sex toys?”
“No! This place!” Donghyuck is so warm and heavy, entire body leaning on Jeno’s side. “I wanna see it with everyone, of course, but I wanted to go with you first.”
Jeno turns red again, but for a wholly different reason. “Sap,” he calls out.
“I am,” Donghyuck says then sticks his tongue out at Jeno, “so what, loser?”
“But you bought me a new fidget spinner. Who’s the loser now?” But Jeno has plans of sneaking Donghyuck in his and Renjun’s room, unwilling to hand him over to Youngho hyung, even if it means tiptoeing around the room because Renjun’s fast asleep, so that makes him a sap and a loser.
Donghyuck taps the end of Jeno’s nose with a gleeful finger. “You are.” He’s right.
(“You talk to manager hyung,” Donghyuck tells him pointedly. “I don’t care if I have to sleep alone for a night.” He digs his fingers into Jeno’s chest when Jeno curls his mouth at the thought. “Hey.”
“What’s wrong with Youngho hyung?” Jeno asks.
Donghyuck rolls his eyes then burrows his head into the crook of Jeno’s neck, curling his fingers on Jeno’s collarbone. “He’s not you,” he says, voice gone small. Jeno shuts up then and tightens his arms around Donghyuck, keeping him close, enough for Donghyuck to feel Jeno’s heartbeat.)