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"You want me to stalk your brother?" Jongdae asks, his loud voice attracting a number of stares from the other cafe patrons. Junmyeon comes to him requesting for favours all the time, like when he wants Jongdae to help pick up his dry cleaning or sometimes to bail him out of bad blind dates, but this is something new.
"Well, not stalk exactly," Junmyeon frowns, sliding just a little lower in his seat. "Just keep an eye out for him, by following him around..."
"Stalk our brother please," Minseok cuts in pleasantly. Behind him, a nice lady with her hair in a bun looks scandalised and Junmyeon quickly flashes her a sweet smile. It works and she starts patting her hair self-consciously, trying to calm the errant curls around her face. Junmyeon's smile always did have a calming effect on ladies, even if it came across sometimes as slightly sinister to Jongdae.
Junmyeon nudges Minseok with an elbow. "I thought you weren't on board with this."
“I’m not,” Minseok replies. He steals a fry from Junmyeon’s plate and chews noisily, as if to make a point. “But I just want to see how far you’re going with this.”
Jongdae watches them carefully, increasingly unnerved by how calm Minseok seems. Minseok is the stable one of the two Kim brothers, so if Minseok seems to roll along with whatever crazy idea Junmyeon has cooked up, something must be off. “I haven’t seen Jongin in what, five years now?”
"But you're an honourary Kim!" Junmyeon says, leaning closer for emphasis.
Jongdae snorts. "I am part of the Kim clan; my surname is Kim."
Junmyeon nods eagerly. "Yes, which is why you should extend your protective brotherly instincts to Jongin as well. Jongin's moving back to Seoul and starting the new semester at Hanyang University. We just want you to look out for him."
"He wants you to look out for him," Minseok corrects. Okay, so Minseok really isn’t on board with this. That fact alone has Jongdae relaxing.
"I want you to look out for Jonginnie." Junmyeon repeats, undeterred. He leans back in his chair and sips at his milkshake, trying and failing to appear nonchalant. "Anyway, Sehun has been yapping nonstop about Jongin lately. I just think we need to make sure our younger brother is doing okay, you know? Good company or what not."
Ah. Now Jongdae understands why Junmyeon suddenly asked him to ‘look out’ for Jongin, to see if there’s anyone bothering him or if he’s dating anyone, specifically Sehun. "They're best friends, of course they're close." He exchanges a grin with Minseok and adds, "Maybe he just wants to make you jealous."
"Why would I be jealous?" Junmyeon asks, frowning.
"No reason." He's letting Junmyeon off the hook today because he's in too good a mood. The cake in this cafe is absolutely divine and Junmyeon is paying.
"Also, Jongin will be here in 5 minutes so can you please leave?" Junmyeon says hopefully. At Jongdae's incredulous stare, he quickly amends, "If you take on this job-"
"-which I won't, because that’s weird."
"If you take on the job," Junmyeon says louder, "it's best if he doesn't recognise you."
"Would he even recognise me?" Jongdae wonders, because he’s changed so much in the past few years that his own mother comments on how different he looks. Bleached his hair, had braces in for a few years that corrected his jaw, and he’s filled out his scrawny frame with all the extra time in the gym.
Just to humour Junmyeon, he hops out of his seat. Luckily, he ordered his coffee in a takeaway cup. "My next cup's on you too, Kim."
unmyeon beams and actually gives Jongdae a thumbs up. "Now keep out of sight and I'll call you when he's here. Just hide around the corner or something until then."
Minseok scrunches up his nose at Jongdae apologetically. It makes Jongdae feel a little bit better.
Jongdae sulks as he hangs around outside the convenience store opposite the cafe and tries his hardest to appear casual. He’s skinny, but not thin enough to hide behind the lamp post by the store and the pimply kid running the store is starting to look at him funny.
As far as jobs go, Jongdae has a pretty easy life.
He studies full time as a Journalism major so working part time as a private investigator almost seems like second nature, or so he tells himself whenever he finds himself bogged down with another background check from an overprotective mother looking to scope out who her daughter is dating.
Right before he was pushed out the cafe, he asked Junmyeon what exactly he wanted Jongdae to look out for, and Junmyeon just went on a rant about how Jongin is in the formative time of his adult years and needs to have good company.
In other words, Junmyeon is exactly like a protective mother scoping out her potential son-in-law, but this case might pay his rent this month, so Jongdae bites his tongue and lets it go.
A few minutes later, just a few seconds short of the convenience store clerk coming outside to shoo him away, Junmyeon finally calls him.
"He's ordering at the counter," Junmyeon whisper-shouts. From where Jongdae stands, he can see Junmyeon ducking low on the table as Minseok watches him with amusement. Junmyeon would make a terrible spy. He would probably die on the first mission, that is if he even made it through the training. "Do you see him?"
Jongdae cranes his head and finally catches sight of Jongin. Or who he thinks is Jongin.
"He," Jongdae contemplates his choice of words and settles on the one least likely to make Junmyeon's protective side flare up. "He looks different."
Jongin does look different. Very different. Seems like puberty has done Jongin a lot of good, a far cry from the scrawny kid Jongdae faintly remembers. Where Jongin used to look awkward in his too lanky body, he now has more than a hint of muscle filling up his too tight t-shirt.
More than the defined body, it’s the toothy grin lighting up Jongin’s face that catches Jongdae’s attention, the force of the smile paired with his crinkly half moon eyes almost stealing Jongdae’s breath away. Jongin must have gotten braces done too sometime in the past few years, but the way his lips settle into a permanent pout is what makes Jongdae sure that this is the Jongin he knows.
Jongin squints up at the menu board, and the bartender says something that makes Jongin laugh again, his soft looking hair falling into his eyes. In that moment, Jongin looks much younger, and Jongdae is hit with flashbacks of chasing a giggling ten year old Jongin around the park while Minseok yelled encouragements.
Suddenly Jongdae wants to know what exactly made made Kim Jongin so amused.
"Yeah, all the time in the sun has toughened him up. We keep telling him to wear some sunscreen. Do you know how bad UV ratings are getting in seoul?" Junmyeon rambles on but Jongdae is no longer listening.
"Hey Junmyeon," Jongdae cuts his friend off. "I'll do it."
“What?”
“I’ll stalk your brother.”
Jongdae has been best friends with Junmyeon since they were placed in the same English class back when they were 10 and Junmyeon was assigned to help Jongdae catch up in classes. Jongdae's English never improved but in exchange, Jongdae claims he taught Junmyeon about life, important life lessons like how it's not cool to flip your collars up or rites of passages like come skip class with me, I feel like eating ice cream.
Junmyeon's older brother, Minseok was only a year above them but he didn't have the same sort of stand uppish aura that most seniors did. He rarely even rubbed his age in their faces, so they ended up hanging out together after school.
Jongdae knows of their little brother, Kim Jongin only vaguely. Every time he dropped by Junmyeon and Minseok's house, Jongin would be there, a quiet shadow whose presence was barely felt beyond casual greetings and Jongin scurrying back into his room filled with anime robots and thumping music. Apparently he dances, is pretty good at it even, but Jongdae can’t quite imagine little Jonginnie doing something like that.
Sometimes, Jongdae would eat dinner at their house and even then, his only impression of Jongin was that he was painfully shy, awkwardly getting used to his sudden growth spurt and worse still, was battling teenage acne along with its old friend, teenage angst.
Rather than Jongin, it was Jongin's best friend, Sehun, who dominated Jongdae's attention. Sehun was the opposite of Jongin, loud and colourful. In public, he was just as shy as Jongin, but when it was just them, he turned into a mouthy brat, made worse by how Junmyeon shamelessly indulged him.
Then Jongin accepted a scholarship to Anyang Arts School and left them behind to live as a boarder. Sehun never really left, choosing to continue making himself at home in the Kim residence, and since Jongdae goes to his best friend's house often, the four of them just settled to form a group of friends.
It's been five long years since he's seen Kim Jongin and it looks like he'll be seeing a lot more of him from now.
Day 1
Jongin brings his three dogs to the park for walks every weekend.
Jongdae already knows this because like any good private investigator, he spent some time browsing through Jongin's entire internet history, even the old Cyworld blogs and comments where Jongin posted bad Gundam fanart and spent many conversations arguing about Digimon vs Pokemon. (Jongin prefers Digimon, it seems. No one can be perfect.)
It's amazing how much information the average person reveals on the internet. Jongin himself is pretty private, aside from an active presence on an obscure gaming forum, but he has a friend named Chanyeol who seems to be into oversharing everything.
From Chanyeol's daily instagram updates, he also knows that Jongin works at the Ediya cafe around Hanyang University, where both Chanyeol and Jongin are business majors.
Jongdae's more of a cat guy even if Jongin’s poodles are kind of cute, so he hangs back on a bench and watches the poodles drag Jongin across the park.
He can’t help but wonder again what he’s even supposed to look out for, because while Jongin’s puppies are adorable, they can only remain endearing for so long before Jongdae gets bored. Fiddling with his phone, he shoots a quick text to Junmyeon.
dancingmachen
Jongin's friend chanyeol looks like a ostrich
bunnykingdom
D: we can't have any ostrich men date jonginnie!!
Jongin tries to push Chanyeol into the sprinklers and Chanyeol’s face scrunches into something that looks like a cross between the Kakaotalk peach emoji and a strangled chicken.
dancingmachen
dont worry i dont think jongins interested in ostrich men
Day 3
Jongin puts two sugars in his hot chocolate.
That's kind of disgusting, especially since Jongdae is a black coffee guy.
Jongin also fiddles his thumbs when he's bored and apparently makes a mean mint chocolate frappuccino, from the way the constant stream of customers are ordering it from him.
Jongdae has been not-watching Jongin for almost two hours. He has a paper to write and the cafe where Jongin works in is cozy and warm, so he’s been comfortable and inconspicuous in how he’s been watching Jongin, or so he hopes.
When he first walked into the cafe, he had been nervous that Jongin would recognise him, but it soon became apparent that he didn’t. Jongdae’s current hairstyle is a messy perm and he ditched the glasses for contacts years ago, so Jongdae only feels a little slighted at how he isn’t recognised. It’s been so long since they’ve met and Jongdae guesses he isn’t that memorable.
Jongdae sneaks a quick look at his watch and figures he has another 15 minutes before cafe etiquette wins over and he has to stop hogging the table for other customers to sit.
Leaning back into his seat, Jongdae watches Jongin unabashedly this time, taking advantage of how Jongin is busying himself with latte art practice.
His co-worker tries to jokingly feed him one of the freshly made cups of coffee and Jongin refuses loudly, his whine rising above the ambient music. “Get that poison away from me!”
So he not only adds an disgustingly amount of sugar to his chocolate drink, but refuses to drink coffee altogether. That’s another strike against him in Jongdae’s book.
As soon as the thought comes to him, he shakes his head to stop himself. This isn't Okcupid: Forbidden Friend's Brother edition. He isn't comparing Jongin against a checklist of turn ons and turn offs.
dancingmachen
does sehun like coffee?
bunnykingdom
No
bunnykingdom
Why are you asking?
bunnykingdom
Aren’t you supposed to be looking after Jongin?
bunnykingdom
Leave Sehun alone
Day 9
Jongdae has classes and a social life (barely), so no matter how much Junmyeon badgers him, he can't dedicate his whole days to “keep an eye out” for Jongin. Instead, he steals whatever time he has in between classes every other day to hang out at the cafe Jongin works at. It's a win-win situation, because Jongdae gets to work on his assignments and Junmyeon gets hourly updates on how Jongin is not dating Sehun.
At this point, Junmyeon isn't even paying him by the hour anymore, hasn't paid him since the first day in fact, but watching Jongin is nice and calming since Jongin... well, he doesn't do anything.
It's become clear to Jongdae that Jongin has an even stricter routine than he does. His life revolves around classes, his job and the few hours that he disappears together with Sehun. Jongdae is told that Jongin goes to dance practice in those hours and since Sehun is in the same dance club, Jongdae stays away from Jongin to avoid being recognised by Sehun.
Still, something about Jongin is just endearing to Jongdae. He has the kind of natural charm that makes people instinctively want to take care of him, as seen from how the manager of the shop, a cheerful grad student in her late twenties, always fawns over him and tries to send him on his lunch breaks early.
Jongin is quietly studious even when he’s taking his breaks, tucking away in a corner of the cafe and bopping along with his headphones on as he works on the readings he has for the week. Sometimes Jongdae finds himself tapping his feet along to whatever beat Jongin is expressing with his body, and he has to remind himself that he’s probably been staring at Jongin way too long to look natural.
Jongdae's in his usual spot, typing out his paper and not-watching Jongin when someone plops into the empty seat opposite him.
"So, when are you going to ask him out?" It’s the loud co-worker, the one who talks on his phone even during work hours and flirts shamelessly with all the blushing girls. For such a small guy, he sure has a louder than life personality, paired with a boyish grin and the brightest shining puppy eyes. It’s no wonder that girls flock to this cafe in droves, what with the pretty boy waitstaff.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Jongdae's gaze flickers down to the name tag on the coworker's chest, "Baekhyun." He already knows his name, of course, but keeping up appearances is important.
"You're not very subtle," Baekhyun says wryly.
Jongdae’s eyes dart to Jongin before he catches himself, and Baekhyun’s grin grows wider, until his pearly white teeth are glinting almost feral-like. Luckily, Jongin is busy with a customer and when he turns back to face Baekhyun, he knows he has let his gaze linger a second too long.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He can’t let himself fall for Baekhyun’s dangerous games. Jongdae starts gathering his things as casual as he can, determined to make his getaway look natural to everyone else in the cafe.
Baekhyun leans forward and props his chin up on the table with one hand. “Great. That leaves him available for me to ask out.”
Jongdae’s head snaps up and he knows he’s falling for it, he knows, but- “Jonginnie isn’t-”
Damn it.
There’s something about how sickeningly sweet Baekhyun’s tone is that sends chills down Jongdae’s spine. “Jonginnie?”
“Who’s that?” Jongdae asks as a last ditch effort and stuffs his laptop into his backpack, zipping it up fast. “If you’d excuse me, I have to get to class.”
“Jonginnie is single!” Baekhyun calls after him.
Jongdae ducks out the door before Jongin can see who he is.
September 2008
The Kim brothers snore like dinosaurs. Sleepovers with them are fun, but once the talking winds down and their bellies are full with too much coke and snacks, Jongdae lies awake in the laid out futon while the older Kim brothers snore loud enough to shake the room.
Hugging his blanket to his chest, he tiptoes out the door. The Kim residence is practically his second home now and he heads straight to the balcony, pushing the creaky door aside as quietly as he can.
On nights like this, he sits out on the long bench on the balcony, cuddled in his blankets and watches the stars in the night sky.
The door creaks loudly, piercing the silence and making Jongdae jump. A soft voice follows, soothing Jongdae’s surprise. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
The pajamas bottoms are much too short for Jongin, the result of a sudden growth spurt over the last summer. He’s only 13 years old but he has already caught up to Jongdae in height, which baffles everyone, most of all his horizontally challenged older brothers.
“Hey, come here,” Jongdae says on impulse.
Jongin blinks at him, hand still on the door.
Jongdae holds up his blanket to form a cave and pats the space next to him. “Come on, it’s cold.”
Jongin hesitates for only the briefest moments before he pads next to Jongdae, carefully settling himself in.
It’s so much more pleasant with two bodies sharing warmth and Jongdae feels pleased, drunk on sleepiness and the quietness of the night. “You’re a good kid, Jonginnie.” It just seems like the sort of thing that is appropriate to say in a situation like this, though he sounds more adult than he feels.
“Not a kid,” Jongin grumbles but he makes no move to push Jongdae away. He seems to do the opposite, pushing into Jongdae’s space until he’s tucked against his side.
Oh. Jongin’s a cuddly kid.
Too bad Jongin’s going away to boarding school next semester. It would be nice to finally hang out with Jongin now that he’s old enough to be fun.
Day 10
On day 10, Jongdae stops following Jongin around.
After yesterday’s close call, he texts Junmyeon with a curt message.
dancingmachine
dude
jongins a good kid theres rly no point in me doing this
bunnykingdom
:( who’s going to look out for jonginnie?
dancingmachine
maybe you can. in a less creepy manner
For a routine that’s barely over a week old, Jongdae finds it hard to snap out of it. After class, he automatically pads towards the cafe and is almost halfway there before he registers where he’s heading to.
He doesn’t want to admit this, but he misses Jongin. He got his results of his paper back today and Jongdae didn’t do as well as he hoped, so frustration was climbing up his throat and his first thought was to catch a glimpse of Jongin’s sunny smile. Just the sound of Jongin’s laugh alone makes Jongdae’s mouth curl up and words seem to flow easier whenever he writes in the cafe Jongin works in.
He settles for a quick peek through the windows. Jongin has his apron tied around his eyes and is playing what looks like a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, except the tail is a cupcake and the Donkey is a shrieking Baekhyun. They’re probably racking up a few health code violations but Jongdae has to stamp down the bubbling fondness in his chest that is threatening to spill over.
This is creepier than straight out following Jongin and Jongdae leaves, feeling more and more disgusted with himself.
Day 15
Jongdae moves on as best as he can with his normal life, stamping down his urge to go see Jongin by busying himself with his final year assignments. Never too early to get a headstart after all, and Jongdae would like to end up with a pretty grade by the end of the semester.
He doesn’t think about why he wants to see Jongin, instead chalking it off as nostalgia and old rose-coloured memories, and is mostly successful in distracting himself with working hard to make up for the bad grades on that one paper.
He’s so busy concentrating on not thinking about Jongin that he’s surprised when he stands at the crosswalk and looks up to see Jongin standing next to him.
It’s been 5 days since he last saw Jongin so the sight hits him like a sledgehammer, the full force of Jongin’s gorgeousness slamming into his gut.
Jongin is accident prone. Jongdae knows this from the times Jongin tripped over seemingly nothing, or knocked into the coffee machine again, or dropped a (thankfully) paper cup.
He’s absentminded too, and Jongin proves this by humming along to the music in his headphones and striding out into oncoming traffic even as the light hasn’t turned green.
Jongdae shoots his hand out, yanking Jongin back in by the arm. At Jongin’s startled yelp, Jongdae drops his hand and murmurs, “Be careful, now.” He doesn’t wait for Jongin’s reply and starts to cross the now empty street, trying to ignore the thumping in his ears.
"I know you," Jongin says, following right behind and rubbing his arm where Jongdae grabbed him.
Shit. It’s inevitable. Jongdae practically grew up in Jongin’s house after all, even if it’s been years since they’ve seen each other and Jongdae himself has changed.
Stamping down the little curl of panic, Jongdae ducks his head and puts on the deepest voice he can, “Really?”
“From the cafe?”
“Cafe?” Jongdae’s head shoots up and he stares at Jongin, who smiles back at him.
“Yeah, you’re a regular.”
Jongdae allows himself to relax. “Hey, yeah, I am.”
Jongin falls into step with him, matching Jongdae’s quick strides easily with his long legs. “Haven’t seen you around lately?”
“Busy with assignments.” Jongdae shrugs and quickens his footsteps, hoping to give off the impression that he has somewhere urgent to be.
“Aight, see you around then. Your next americano’s on the house.” Jongin waves and to Jongdae’s complete shock, winks before striding off.
He’s so fucked.
Day 18
The good thing about Jongdae’s new resolve to focus on his studies is how he’s actually being more productive than he has been all semester.
He even goes to the Friday 9am lecture he always skips because it’s his only lecture of the day and Jongdae quite fancies a three day weekend.
The lecture goes fine and he actually has fun engaging in a friendly debate with the lecturer about how equipped the university is in dealing with social media complaints. His good mood follows him all the way out of the building until he sees a familiar figure leaning against the statue outside.
Jongin looks up at the sound of students streaming out and his grin immediately brightens when their eyes meet. Before Jongdae can dart away, Jongin hops over to him, scarf flapping behind him like some manhwa hero. Jongdae is appropriately starstruck until he thinks about why Jongin is here in the first place.
“Wow, fancy meeting you here,” Jongin says enthusiastically, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Here, I made you- um, I have an extra coffee.”
Staring at the cup in mistrust, Jongdae carefully accepts it, noting how the cup has long gone cool.
Jongin is undeterred by how Jongdae is at loss for words and barrels ahead, “I noticed your textbooks and um, I have a friend? Studying journalism too? Kyungsoo, and I asked him for his class schedule.”
Do Kyungsoo, a kid who Jongdae had the misfortune of being stuck in a group project with once. Of course he would know Jongin.
“Your nose is all red.” Jongdae says, suddenly realising he never even told Jongin what his name is. “How long have you been standing here?”
Jongin sounds like he has a pout in his voice, though Jongdae can’t figure out why. “You don’t come by the cafe anymore.”
“Are you,” Jongdae pauses, because the idea is absurd, “stalking me?”
“Hyung,” Jongin says and Jongdae’s mind screeches to a stop. He says it with a familiarity that goes beyond whatever relationship the older Jongin and Jongdae have.
“I can call you that right?” Jongin continues, softening his sentence with a cheeky grin. ”It’s just so stuffy to address you as an upperclassman.”
“You’re just trying to get out of acknowledging seniority, brat.” It comes naturally to him, the years of pseudo-friendship just bubbling to the surface, and Jongdae can barely hold it in anymore.
"Okay, hyung. Can I have your number? And your name?" Jongin is blinking at him, eyes wide and expectant.
Jongdae's stomach swoops in two extreme emotions. First comes the elation, which is quickly washed over by dread, because what has he done?
“Listen, Jongin.” Whatever explanation dies on his lips when he sees Jongin smiling at him eagerly. Jongdae may be an aspiring journalist but the guilt of following Jongin around and being an all round creep is hard to be captured in mere words.
He doesn’t finish his sentence and just leaves.
Day 21
A human's memory can be iffy at times, malfunctioning at the most inopportune of times. For example, when Jongdae's habit rides over his memory and he strides into the Kim living room on Friday for a movie marathon, only to walk smack into a wet Jongin.
“I knew you were familiar.” Jongin’s smile is so bright and beautiful, and now that it’s directed straight at Jongdae, he almost forgets that his identity has been found out. “Jongdae hyung.”
All Jongdae can do is stare at Jongin, looking adorable and fresh from the shower with his ruffled damp hair.
“Jongdae- oh. Come help me make popcorn!” Junmyeon tugs him away from a confused Jongin and into the kitchen, voice going high pitched. Once they’re out of sight, Junmyeon shoves Jongdae against the dinner table. "Did he recognise you?"
"Jongin brought Sehun," Jongdae says instead in a weak attempt to distract Junmyeon, still feeling a little numb. It works because Junmyeon starts looking droopy and sad.
It’s enough to make Jongdae take pause. Any mention of Sehun usually results in a chipper Junmyeon or the more annoying version, a lovestruck Junmyeon. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Everything in that nothing sounded like something, so Jongdae gently nudges Junmyeon, temporarily forgetting about their situation.
“Sehun’s been coming over every day now but he heads straight up into Jongin’s room and shuts the door. What do you think they’re doing?”
Jongdae scoffs. They’ve been through this over and over again for years, starting from the time Junmyeon starting seeing Sehun as more than just than just his little brother’s best friend. Junmyeon hasn’t outright admitted his crush on Sehun and it’s torturous for Minseok and Jongdae to have to constantly listen to Junmyeon’s whining. “They’re best friends, like you and I, and have just been reunited after a four year separation. Do you see me wanting to suck your face?”
The joke is worth it to see how Junmyeon splutters in indignation, and Junmyeon slams the fridge with a bit too much might than necessary. “Yes, but it’s different. Sehun is very cute.”
“Jongin is very cute too,” Jongdae echoes before he thinks about what he’s saying.
“I am?” comes a new voice- no, not a new voice. Jongin’s voice. Jongin leans against the door frame of the kitchen, looking as delighted as he sounds. “You think I’m cute?”
Jongdae is a to-be journalist. His weapon of choice is the mighty pen, or rather, keyboard. In situations of fight or flight, Jongdae chooses to flee.
He pushes past a surprised Jongin and heads straight out the door, not stopping until he’s safe home in his bed, blankets pulled around himself to calm his shaking body.
Day 25
"I miss my best friend," Minseok says, after Jongdae finally picks up his call. His phone has been ringing all day and Jongdae finally caved. “Come over to eat pizza. It’s not the same without you picking all the olives off.”
Jongdae turned his phone off after Junmyeon called him twenty times and sent him a million texts in increasingly threatening tones. Somewhere in between those sixty unread messages, Sehun had chimed in to tell Jongdae how stupid he is. Jongdae already knows that well enough, so he doesn’t need more reminders.
"I don't want to go," Jongdae whines. He jabs his thumb into his phone and puts it on speaker, haphazardly throwing it somewhere on his bed. "Can't you come to me?"
It's 3pm on a Thursday, which means that Jongin is in dance practice. He won't be done until 5, and a shift at the cafe follows. It seems safe enough so after Minseok whines for a good ten minutes, Jongdae reluctantly agrees.
Something seems off the minute the door closes behind him.
His suspicions are confirmed when Jongin's head pops out behind Minseok. He’s all bright eyed and cheerful, and still so, so handsome and oh god, Jongdae is in over his head. "This is an intervention."
Jongdae gasps and jabs a finger at Minseok. “I trusted you!” He immediately turns to try to leave but he’s stopped from escaping again by Minseok, who grabs him by the arm and all but shoves him towards Jongin. Jongdae narrowly misses crashing into the shoe rack only by Jongin catching him.
Minseok settles a comforting hand on the small of Jongdae’s back, guiding them all into the living room and Jongdae is still in shock so he doesn’t even try to fight it. "Jongin here figured out himself early on and confronted me about it and I just came clean."
Jongdae can barely breathe, thinking about how pathetic he must look following Jongin around. He stops in his tracks while Jongin peers down at him, worry in his eyes. "How long?"
"I've been seeing you around a lot," Jongin says, worrying his bottom lip. "it clicked when you saved me from that car."
Jongdae is filled with a rush of shame and fear and he has to fight to keep the tremble out of his voice as he mumbles apologies, “I’m sorry, Jongin, I really didn’t mean to follow you around-”
“I missed you,” Jongin cuts in suddenly, and Jongdae forgets whatever he wanted to say.
“What?”
“I missed you a lot.” Jongin shuffles closer and gently entwines their fingers together. He pulls him towards the couch and settles them both down, leaning into Jongdae’s space like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“You missed me?” Jongdae echoes. It’s a little unnerving having Jongin upclose like this, their knees bumping together and Jongin must sense his apprehension, because he just cuddles up to him even closer, letting their shared warmth say everything he can’t.
Jongdae looks up at Minseok in alarm, a million thoughts in his head and Minseok nods his permission, biting in a grin. The same however, cannot be said for Junmyeon, who walks in just at that moment.
Everyone freezes for the few seconds that Junmyeon gapes at the two on the couch. Jongdae tries to pull his hand away from Jongin but Jongin isn’t having any of it, stubbornly putting on his best pout until Jongdae relents and relaxes back against him.
"How dare you sully my brother." Junmyeon demands, wide eyed. He spins to Minseok, immediately pinning him down as the culprit, “How could you set this up?”
"I never agreed with your antics." Minseok shrugs. “I just want to see Jonginnie happy, and Jongdae’s a pretty nice guy.”
"Betrayers, all of you!" Junmyeon shrieks and gets a pillow to the face courtesy of Minseok.
As the two older Kims start a play fight, Jongdae can only stare in disbelief at Jongin and their hands. “Welcome back, Jonginnie.”
"Hyung, did you know that you’re terrible at staying hidden?" Jongin smiles shyly and squeezes his hand in a way that makes Jongdae’s heart leap. It’s like he’s back in grade school again, holding hands for the first time on the school playground. It’s disgusting, but Jongdae loves it.
"That's really terrible." Jongdae smiles back, suddenly just as shy. "Because I’ll have to go into hiding now that Junmyeon is hunting me down for dating his brother."
The pillow Junmyeon throws in his face is totally worth it, especially when Jongin starts fussing over whether he gets hurt.
end.