Work Text:
10:32
leedaehwi: hyung hiiiiiiiiiiii
leedaehwi: good morning
leedaehwi: hope u slept well !!
10:34
baejinyoung: yes
leedaehwi: omg wait
leedaehwi: did i wake you up
leedaehwi: i'M SO SORR Y I
baejinyoung: nonono
baejinyoung: don't worry i was awake
baejinyoung: kind of at least
leedaehwi: oh
leedaehwi: still i'm sorry really!!
leedaehwi: but i wondered if i need to bring anything special today ?????
baejinyoung: no i don't think so
baejinyoung: a toothbrush might be to recommend
leedaehwi: well obviously
baejinyoung: i was thinking
baejinyoung: that maybe we could have dinner out
leedaehwi: YES
baejinyoung: there's this really good place really close
leedaehwi: sounds great
baejinyoung: shall we meet there or
leedaehwi: yours is better
leedaehwi: i need to drop of my bag and stuff
baejinyoung: oh right
baejinyoung: feel free to drop by around six then
leedaehwi: will do !!!
baejinyoung: :D look forward to it
As he presses send Jinyoung almost bangs his head to the refrigerator. But instead of killing any brain cells, he just slowly lets his forehead fall to rest against it. He wants to disappear into a dark hole and never see the sun again. Surely his brain should be more awake in the mornings, and surely he should be up already, and surely he shouldn't have to make Daehwi worry about things he has no control of before noon. As he mentioned, Jinyoung should have been awake, but he had somehow managed to sleep through three of the four alarms he had set.
Jinyoung wouldn’t even mind being woken up and answering Daehwi's chains of short texts even at three in the morning. At half past ten, barely awake and functioning, he was just happy to receive them, even though it wasn’t really expressed in his first one word reply. Done with his internal conflict (and embarrassment from sending that smiley), Jinyoung leans back slightly and opens the refrigerator, scans it quickly, and settles for some leftovers from yesterday's dinner to eat. He has already slept way past the time he usually eats breakfast during the weekdays, so he might as well just eat an early lunch.
If one were to see things from a more positive angle, he thinks as he tries to fix his disheveled hair in the reflection from the microwave, he had kind of landed himself a kind-of-date with his longtime crush. He could barely believe this was happening. Jinyoung had finally mustered up the courage to ask Lee Daehwi, the adorable, smart and mildly terrifying boy he had way too many mutual friends with, out on a date. Kind of.
He doesn't know what else to call it. While Jinyoung himself is still unsure about the other's feelings for him, his friends have made it clear that he has nothing to worry about. And sure, Daehwi clings to him a lot when they're all hanging out together and he always smiles softly at Jinyoung when someone speaks over him to show that he's listening, but maybe he's just doing that in a friendly way? Jinyoung has thought this over way too many times to the point where he’s just making up excuses for Daehwi not to like him simply because he’s completely terrified of confessing and getting rejected.
If his trusted best friend Park Jihoon had been sitting on the kitchen counter next to him while he reasoned like this, he would have beckoned Jinyoung to come closer, and he would have leaned in close enough so that he in a hushed whisper could tell him what an idiot he was before he would flick his forehead with more force than necessary. Jinyoung would pout but there would be no regret in Jihoon's eyes.
The microwave dings and Jinyoung takes his bowl and anxious thoughts with him to the couch in the living room. He turns the TV on but doesn't watch. Instead he eats, because worrying makes him hungry, and for a few minutes his focus lies solely on the food in front of him. That is, until he starts thinking about eating with Daehwi, which makes him think about the last time they ate together, which makes him wanna bang his head against something again.
Daehwi is too sweet for his own good. They had been out eating with their friends last week and Daehwi had secured his by now almost permanent place next to Jinyoung. They were all doing fine, great actually, until Daehwi had leaned over to remove a rice grain from the corner of his lips and Jinyoung had then proceeded to choke on the food he was chewing in surprise. It ended up with him turning completely red and coughing his lungs out and Daehwi throwing a thousand apologies at him. Sungwoon had been patting him a bit too harshly on the back and Minhyun had asked if he was okay from across the table before handing him his own glass of water. Woojin, who had watched the whole ordeal, had been laughing so hard he had sounded more dolphin than human.
Jinyoung truly thought that was the end of it. Daehwi would realise he was a horrible person and never sit next to him again, or alternatively Jinyoung would just die of embarrassment before he got to experience an alternative ending. But after Daehwi had apologised about a thousand times more and Jinyoung had said it was fine equally as many, that it was his fault for not chewing more carefully, he accidentally slipped out a 'if it makes you feel better we could have dinner together some other time where I promise not to choke'.
All that coughing couldn't had been good for his thinking ability, too little air to his brain or something, because under normal circumstances he never would have dared to suggest such a thing. But after seeing the way Daehwi's eyes lit up when he exclaimed a loud 'really!?' (which has Woojin confusedly asking what was going on), he decided it was kind of worth it.
Over the course of the week the plans had somewhat changed to them going out to eat and Daehwi sleeping over afterwards, since Woojin had announced he wanted Daehwi out of their shared apartment for the night because he and Jihoon apparently had ‘a top-secret operation to pull through’ (Jinyoung didn't ask).
He honestly have no idea of what to expect. Sure, he has been on dates before, but he has rarely been the one to ask someone out, and he has never been on a date with a friend before. He just hopes Daehwi's expectations aren't too high, he doesn't want to disappoint.
Jinyoung doesn't know when his feelings for Daehwi came to be. It sounds incredibly cheesy, but it happened so naturally he didn't even notice. Suddenly it was Daehwi he first spotted whenever he and his friends were to meet up, and it was Daehwi's reaction he focused on after he'd said something funny. It felt like he was slowly gravitating towards the sun without minding being burned, the way their eyes always seemed to find each other. Being close to Daehwi only made him feel fluttering in his stomach and warmth to his cheeks.
He realizes he’s been scraping at the empty bottom of his bowl for the past few minutes, and feels a little flustered even though there’s no one around to see him. He stands up and moves back to the kitchen where yesterday's dishes are waiting to get cleaned. He also needs to tidy the up the mess that is his bedroom. He might also have needed to do the laundry about three days ago, and he definitely have to take a shower. Just thinking about all of it makes him groan inwardly.
He almost considers sending Minhyun a text to ask if he could help him out. If he told him he was having some sort of crisis (which he kind of is) he has no doubt he would actually show up in no time. When he thinks twice about it, Minhyun might even come by without Jinyoung having a proper reason. But he couldn't ask that of his favourite hyung, he does enough as it is already.
(Minhyun was the only one Jinyoung had actually told about the date. When he had told him, ears red and eyes on the floor, Minhyun had crushed him into a hug much to Jinyoung’s horror and gushed over how happy he was for him. Even though Jinyoung had pretended that he hated it, it had actually been kind of nice to hear. He needed that kind of confidence boost if he was going to get through this. Not to mention Minhyun had sent him a good luck last night along with his good night text.)
Jinyoung picks up his phone that he'd left on the kitchen counter earlier, and sees that Daehwi had sent him a single text (judging by the time, it was right after Jinyoung had put his phone down) containing two red hearts. It isn't a big deal, but it still makes his heart flutter as he smiles at the screen.
Things do not go as planned.
Jinyoung had done the dishes. He had cleaned his room and vacuumed the entire apartment. He did the laundry (or some of it at least), took a shower and even had time to pick out a simple but decent outfit. By the time he was done there was a faint rumbling sounding throughout the apartment, and only then he notices how dark it has become outside. He walks over to the nearest window and feels his heart drop.
Out of all the things that could have betrayed him, it was the weather. Standing by the window he can see that it's pouring outside, and it seems to be quite windy too. Even though there is no flashes of lightning, the rumbling sound repeats itself and Jinyoung prays to the heavens he doesn’t have to deal with a power outage.
Just then his phone chimes.
17:47
leedaehwi: hi hyung it's me again
leedaehwi: so I've been on this bus for about half an hour
leedaehwi: and i really didn't check the weather
leedaehwi: it was barely falling when i left
leedaehwi: and yeah have u seen now it's raining so much
leedaehwi: honestly how is this even possible
leedaehwi: bUT point is
leedaehwi: ㅠㅠ
leedaehwi: i didn't bring an umbrella
He didn't bring an umbrella. Jinyoung smacks a hand to his forehead and winces. This scenario might have been kind of cute and exciting if it was only a drizzle, but the rain must be falling so hard it doesn't even have time to run down the drains.
17:48
baejinyoung: i'll come meet you
leedaehwi: if it's not to much of a hustle,,
baejinyoung: i'll survive some rain
baejinyoung: it's only water
leedaehwi: u say that now.....
baejinyoung: should i bring something with a hood
leedaehwi: that's a good idea i think
leedaehwi: it was a little cloudy when i left so i only took a sweater
baejinyoung: got you
baejinyoung: when are you at the nearest stop?
leedaehwi: the one by the corner right????
leedaehwi: about 10
baejinyoung: i'll be there when you arrive
leedaehwi: really it's fine if u meet me halfway
baejinyoung: no i'll be there
leedaehwi: aaahh thank you so much really ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
leedaehwi: bae jinyoung, my hero~~
Jinyoung writes out 'see you soon princess' but erases the last word before he sends it. Too embarrassing. He then immediately rushes into his room with some newfound adrenaline to change into a thick hoodie. He also digs out his yellow raincoat from the depths of his wardrobe to give to Daehwi. When he holds it up he realizes it might be a bit big, but it's still better than nothing.
He takes the jacket with him and walks to the door where he puts on his already tattered sneakers and takes the umbrella that's leaning next to the wall. Hopefully, it won't break in the wind, it’s the only one he has. Jinyoung checks his phone one last time (no new messages) before he takes his keys and wallet and heads out into the mild storm. He was probably going to come back as a changed man, if the weather even allowed him to return at all.
Once he gets outside, the sky rumbles as some kind of bad omen. And for half a second he almost freezes up completely, because today really can't go wrong. His instincts are telling him to just go inside and hide, but he bravely puts those thoughts behind him and raises his umbrella. He really can't mess things up with Daehwi, he wouldn't be able to live with himself afterwards (and Park Woojin would positively murder him).
He realizes quite soon the umbrella really doesn't help much and he spends most of his energy on angling it right so it doesn't break in the wind. His shoes and pants are almost completely soaked once he reaches the bus stop. There's already a couple of poor souls standing there waiting. Jinyoung joins them, and he's thankful he doesn't have to wait longer than a few minutes because he's starting to get uncomfortably aware of how wet his socks are.
He almost cheers out loud when he spots the bus in the distance. The bus arrives and Daehwi is one of the first people to get off. Jinyoung watches him miserably try to shield himself from the storm by lifting his hands above his head, but he realizes after about to steps outside that it's not going to work. He looks around before he spots Jinyoung where he's standing under his umbrella, his smile seems genuine even if it's slightly strained as he jogs over.
As Daehwi had told him over text, he's only wearing what seems to be a quite thin dark green sweater that is rapidly transforming into black in the pouring rain. Jinyoung quickly steps forward and meets Daehwi halfway.
"Thank you," is the first thing Daehwi says once he's standing a little too close to fit under the umbrella, his bangs are already beginning to stick to his forehead. Jinyoung is doing his best at keeping it cool, kind of thankful for his wet socks keeping him grounded to reality. "Really hyung, thank you so much for coming."
"No worries," he tries to assure with a smile while at the same time trying to hold the umbrella straight in the wind. "I brought you a jacket."
Jinyoung holds out the yellow raincoat and Daehwi takes it like it's a gift from above. He thanks him again and begins putting it on after handing Jinyoung his backpack to hold- Jinyoung wants so badly to help him button it up but he can't do that with his hands full.
"I didn’t think the weather would be this bad! You truly are a lifesaver, you know that right?" Daehwi says, more as a statement than a question as he takes his backpack back. Jinyoung feels the urge to hide so he rearranges his bangs with a shake of his head. He can feel his ears heating up.
"Really it's no big deal, I couldn't have let you walk around in this weather without at least wearing proper clothes. You could get sick." They start walking as Jinyoung talks, and Daehwi sneaks his arm around his. The sleeves of his borrowed jacket covers his hands completely and Jinyoung finds it incredibly endearing. He makes sure Daehwi is covered by the umbrella even if it means he has to endure the heavy rain falling on his shoulder and getting his hoodie wet.
Daehwi hums and seems to consider his statement before he answers nonchalantly. "Still, thank you," he concludes, and then jumps when the thunders rumbles again.
Jinyoung chuckles, feeling like some of his nervosity probably moved on to Daehwi, or maybe they're both a little nervous. Jinyoung decides to be a little brave, but he doesn’t dare to look Daehwi in the eye. "Hey, maybe we should just skip eating out and just grab something from the convenience store?"
He slows them down as they get closer to corner store until they come to a halt right outside the doors. It definitely would be easier if they just stopped by to buy things now. It took around ten minutes to get to the restaurant he had in mind, and ten minutes more in this weather meant getting completely soaked. Maybe it was just better to change things a little considering the circumstances. From the way Daehwi presses close to his side (to avoid the rain, nothing else, Jinyoung tells himself) and at least tries to avoid the puddles that have formed (Jinyoung just walks right through them at this point. His shoes are completely soaked, his feet doesn’t even feel like feet anymore) he guesses he's not too fond of the rain either.
Thankfully, he's right. "I was actually thinking the exact same thing," Daehwi smiles and unlinks their arms and goes ahead to open up the door while Jinyoung closes the umbrella again. Daehwi holds it open for him, looking like a helpful little sun. "Let's hurry, I'm freezing."
The warmth and dryness of the convenience store embraces them at once. Daehwi picks up one of the baskets next to the door and runs off to some corner before Jinyoung barely has set a foot inside. It feels like he’s been holding his breath ever since Daehwi stepped out of the bus, and he can finally breathe out.
Jinyoung takes of his hood and takes a look around the cramped space, they are the only shoppers there as of now (because really, who would go out in this weather voluntarily?). The only other person is the alarmingly familiar figure behind the desk, and Jinyoung suddenly feels very unsure of himself and tries to avert his gaze, but the other must have sensed him and their eyes meet and Jinyoung knows that this was most likely unavoidable from the start.
"Oh? Jinyoung hyung, what are you doing out?"
Guanlin meets him with a genuine smile and big eyes, and Jinyoung takes a few step closer the register. The kid looks tall even when he's sitting down, and he seems to have been watching some kind of video on his phone before Jinyoung and Daehwi walked in.
"Doing some last minute dinner shopping," Jinyoung says quietly, scratching his neck awkwardly. He hears Daehwi drop something and Guanlin strains his neck in chance to see whats going on, but Jinyoung guesses he can't see Daehwi from where he's sitting.
Guanlin is a quite new addition to their friend group and Jinyoung knows he works here, he visits the store at least a few times a week, but for a moment he had just forgotten. They hadn't really gotten the chance to talk a lot to each other when their entire friend group was assembled, and Jinyoung was just born to be extremely bad at small talking, so he used to always come up with some shitty excuse about how he was in a rush whenever he visited the store. It had gotten a little better in the more recent weeks though, and it felt like they were at the start of a nice friendship. Jinyoung does feel kind of bad for taking so long to get to know him. Of what he has been able to gather this far Guanlin seems like a genuinely good person.
Suddenly there's the sound of wet shoes making their way over and Jinyoung tries to keep his face as indifferent as possible. "Hyung, which one of these is the best?"
Daehwi appears down an aisle with not only two, but three different kinds of ramen in his hands. By the looks of it he has already picked out some drinks for them. He's still wearing the hood of his raincoat and he looks positively adorable when he pouts with obvious indecision and Jinyoung's brain is short circuiting (he's so whipped, it’s not fair).
Guanlin notices Daehwi before the other notices him. "Oh, you're also here, Daehwi? Hello!"
He smiles brightly and Daehwi is overjoyed to see a familiar face.
"I didn't know you worked here!" Daehwi exclaims before he makes his way over to the register where Guanlin is sitting. "Have you seen the weather outside? It's absolutely horrible!"
The two starts chatting about whatever has been going on in their lives recently. Jinyoung walks over to take the shopping basket and ramen packages which Daehwi hands over to him with a small smile. He then walks off down the aisles and returns one of the ramen packages and exchanges it for a new one. He also picks up some snacks, some water and whipped cream (because it was on sale and he thinks he has ingredients for pancakes at home, he guesses it would make a nice breakfast). He only catches snippets of the other two's conversation, but he's not really concentrating on what they're saying. It does make him think about how he wishes he could make friends as easy as Daehwi could, always finding something to talk about, or that he was confident in his speech the way Guanlin is even if when he's bound to make mistakes. Maybe one day, he thinks as he adds another bag of chips to the now quite heavy shopping basket.
When he returns, Daehwi and Guanlin are talking to each other in hushed tones and Guanlin gives him a smug look when he comes closer, which has Daehwi turning around to take a look at Jinyoung (with a slightly caught in the headlights expression) before turning back to hit Guanlin on the arm.
"What?" Jinyoung asks as he places the basket on the counter. Daehwi checks out the contents with interest.
"Nothing," Guanlin answers with a tone and smirk that clearly implies it's not nothing as he starts scanning their items. Jinyoung looks at Daehwi, who just shrugs and pats him on the head.
"We were just talking about you a little," he says, as if that would reassure him.
"What about me?"
Daehwi makes a motion as if he were zipping his lips together. "A secret."
Jinyoung pouts, but immediately stops when he hears Guanlin trying to control his laughter. His ears are heating up, and thankfully, Guanlin is almost done packing their stuff. While he takes out his card from his wallet, Daehwi has already dived into his bag for his own.
"I'll pay—" Jinyoung stresses out, "—seriously Daehwi, I'll pay."
"Quiet. You can pay next time." Next time. Jinyoung gets so hung up on the next time that he doesn't even register that Daehwi is actually paying even though they probably won't have a chance to eat all of it and suddenly Jinyoung regrets buying that extra whipped cream.
But then it's too late and Daehwi has paid and he strokes Jinyoung's arm fleetingly to let him know he’s done before he reaches out to take one of the bags Guanlin is handing them while Jinyoung takes the other and then they're turning around and waving their goodbyes and Guanlin grins and wishes them good luck on their date (and wait, what?).
Possible scenarios about the rest of the guys finding out about this flashes through his head as he takes on his hood again, both to protect him from the rain and his red face from Daehwi's observing eyes. This time Jinyoung is the one to push the door open. Sadly the weather has remained the same and he opens up the umbrella as quickly as possible. Thankfully his apartment is just a bit further down the street.
"You alright?" Daehwi asks as he takes hold of his arm again, and by now he wouldn't have been surprised if his ears turned permanently red. Daehwi makes him feel warm the same way hot chocolate under a cozy blanket would on days like this. From the inside and out.
"Yes?" he says, and it comes out more as a question. He knows he haven't been as talkative as he usually is. "I'm good."
"Just let me know if there is anything, okay?" Daehwi answers genuinely, rushing the end of the sentence. Jinyoung doesn't know how to explain exactly how scared he is to mess this up.
"I'm just a little nervous," he laughs, hoping it will be enough of an explanation.
"Me too," Daehwi states, and it comes as a surprise to him. Jinyoung looks at him, but Daehwi is keeping his eyes forward, voice steady. "I just don't show it the way you do."
And Jinyoung guesses they're different that way. Because when Daehwi says it, he kind of understands. Where Jinyoung closes in, Daehwi opens up. Jinyoung puts his walls up and hides inside while Daehwi puts up a smoke screen and hides in plain sight. But maybe that's okay, maybe they can complement each other that way, and in many others.
They walk in silence for the rest of the way. It doesn't actually take very long, but when you're fighting against strong wind and cold rain it feels a lot longer. But finally Jinyoung can punch in the code and they're able to step into the dry haven that is his apartment complex. Jinyoung ignores the elevator (it hasn't worked for weeks and he honestly have no idea why the landlord hasn't fixed it yet) and heads towards the stairs instead.
"What floor do you live on?" Daehwi asks as they reach the second. Their steps echoes emptily and it smells faintly of cigarettes even though you're not allowed to smoke in the building.
"Fourth," Jinyoung says and he's so glad he's not living higher up. His feet are about to give up on him, and he thinks the t-shirt he's wearing under his hoodie might have gotten wet too. At least their groceries aren't swimming in water.
"Thank god," Daehwi exclaims in a heavy breath. Jinyoung turn around for a second and gives him a breathy laugh. He almost trips afterwards, but it's okay, he can deal with it. If it makes Daehwi laugh he doesn't mind getting slightly embarrassed.
They reach the fourth floor and Jinyoung fumbles with the keys so much Daehwi offers to take his bag of groceries. Maybe he's a little more nervous than he’s going to admit. Maybe Daehwi is feeling the same, but he sure is a lot better at controlling his emotions if that's the case. Jinyoung fits the key and holds the door open for Daehwi, who heads inside and drops the plastic bags and his backpack on the floor before taking off his shoes. Jinyoung locks the door behind them and the silence lies heavy without the sound of the wind howling and rain pouring.
"Thank you so much for letting me borrow your jacket," Daehwi says once he has unbuttoned it and taken it off. Jinyoung takes it from him and hangs it on the coat rack in the hall. He then proceeds to take off his soaked shoes, which are probably completely destroyed by now.
"No worries," Jinyoung answers as he takes their food and starts walking further into the apartment. He hears Daehwi's expected footsteps following. They end up in the kitchen and Jinyoung places the bags on the counter. "I'm gonna go change into something dry, do you need to borrow anything?"
"No, I'm pretty much dry," Daehwi says and then gestures towards the groceries. "You go change and I'll start unpacking these."
Jinyoung shoots him a pair of finger guns in agreement before disappearing into his room, trying to walk at a normal pace.
Once he has made it to the door of his bedroom he closes it firmly behind him and doesn’t even bother to turn on the lights as he sinks to the floor and just breathes for like a minute. Because after a minute he realises he shouldn’t be keeping Daehwi waiting in his kitchen on his own so he practically jumps up with newfound energy and throws off his wet clothes and rummages through his wardrobe for something new to wear.
He settles on an other hoodie (it’s beige and oversized and one of his favourites) and a pair of black sweats. They weather won’t allow them to leave the house anyways, so he might as well just make himself comfortable. Who cares about perfect outfits?
Before opening up the door, he jumps up and down a few times trying to shake off his nervousness, and he tells himself it got be at least kind of effective. If he gets rid of some energy than he won’t have as much energy to spend on be nervous, right?
In the kitchen, Daehwi is rummaging through the drawers until he has found two pairs of metallic chopsticks. Jinyoung watches him from where he’s standing in the doorframe before he speaks up. “How’s it going?”
Daehwi visibly jumps. “Oh my god, you scared me. But it’s going good, I’m not that bad of a cook that I’m going to mess up instant noodles.”
They both laugh and Jinyoung feels warm.
“Where do you have glasses?” Daehwi asked and Jinyoung moves over to get them from one of the cupboards. He brings two glasses and takes them to the living room, placing them of the coffee table. In a new change of clothes he feels warm and comfortable. Maybe everything will be perfectly alright, after all.
Things goes smoothly, in Jinyoung’s opinion. They ate together in front of the television, and Jinyoung only choked on his food once, which he considered a to be a quite successful meal. Daehwi also became more and more comfortable as time went by. He did most of talking and it worked well for both of them. It gave Jinyoung a good excuse for letting his eyes linger on Daehwi’s features a little longer than what was probably appropriate. He’s sure Daehwi notices by the way he sometimes stops mid sentence and looks at Jinyoung with a slightly amused look on his face, and Jinyoung always flusters and looks away (and misses the smile his embarrassment brings to Daehwi’s lips).
Jinyoung is out in the kitchen taking care of the dishes and preparing the snacks when Daehwi creeps up behind him.
“Hi,” he says, right next to his ear and Jinyoung almost jumps out of his skin. He was close to dropping the bag of chips he's holding. Jinyoung guesses it’s revenge for earlier.
“Jesus,” Jinyoung exclaims and turns towards him. They are still standing very close. “I said you could wait in the living room.”
“Yes I know,” Daehwi said, and it looked like he was trying to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. It’s been like, what, 15 minutes?”
Jinyoung huffs and blushes. He hadn’t realized he had taken so long. “Just wanted to prepare the perfect chips.”
Daehwi laughs, and Jinyoung does too. He just needed to breathe a little, because being that close to your crush for that long is clearly not good for one’s health. Even though he really wanted to act on his feelings, he was scared it would screw things up. He didn’t want to ruin his first shot with Daehwi, not sure if he could get another one of he messed this one up. He could do friends, friends is fine, it’s great.
“That takes half a minute,” Daehwi laughs. He takes out a chip from the bag Jinyoung is still holding and puts it in his mouth. “But I appreciate your concern, these are really good.”
“G-great,” Jinyoung stutters, and changes to subject. “You wanna watch a movie? There really isn’t much to do when the weather is like this.”
Daehwi reaches his hand out and Jinyoung is confused for a second before Daehwi steals the bag of chips from him. “A movie sounds great, but I’m picking.”
“If you say so,” Jinyoung says, and puts his own hand out for the chip bag. He also wanted some, they were his favorite flavor. But instead of giving him the bag Daehwi picks out one chip and holds it out for him. Even though he’d rather have the whole bag, he accepts Daehwi's offering. “These are actually really good.”
“Don’t sound so surprised, you took 15 minutes preparing them, of course they’ll be good.”
“You’re not going to hold this against me forever, are you?”
“We’ll see,” he says. “Now let’s bring something to drink and watch that movie.”
Daehwi picks some emotional drama that neither of them has actually seen, but Daehwi is definitely hooked from the start. Jinyoung tries not to overthink the fact that Daehwi is sitting a lot closer to him than when they were eating. He is also starting to get really tired, but he tries his best to focus on the movie to stay awake.
About an hour into the film, Jinyoung can feel how Daehwi rests his head on his shoulder. He tries his absolute hardest not to freeze up and make Daehwi think he’s uncomfortable. Which he is slightly, mainly because he’s indeed freaking out internally over being so close to Daehwi. The feeling of his warmth against his side and the tickle of his hair against his neck is a lot to take in.
They stay like that until the movie ends, and Jinyoung forgets about being nervous and is eventually able to calm down and just enjoy this moment they are sharing. He had been about to fall asleep a couple of times, and with the end credits rolling Daehwi is breathing deeply against his shoulder.
“Daehwi,” he whispers, trying to not disturb the peace. “Are you awake?”
“Mhm,” he mumbles and nuzzles closer to Jinyoung. He isn’t entirely convinced himself he is actually awake. They stay like that for a while and Jinyoung wonders if Daehwi can hear how fast his heart is beating. He wonders if he minds.
Then suddenly, just as Jinyoung is about to fall asleep again, a bright flash and the loud sound of thunder startles them both and turns the entire room a lot darker. Daehwi jumps so high both he and Jinyoung loses their balance, and Jinyoung gets pushed to the side and into the couch, and Daehwi follows and barely saves himself from landing on Jinyoung and crushing him. The power must have went out, is the only thing Jinyoung has time to think before he becomes very aware of the situation they’re now in. He is suddenly laying down, wide awake with Daehwi caging him in, one arm next to his head and one gripping the low back of the couch. Their faces are incredibly close, and even with all the lights turned off Jinyoung would still be able to count every one of Daehwi’s lashes.
The power may be out, but there’s electricity all around them. It feels like they are both holding their breath, and Jinyoung’s wide gaze flickers all over Daehwi’s face, not sure where to settle. Jinyoung thinks he must see incorrectly in the dark, but it seems like Daehwi looks down, at his lips and Jinyoung inhales. Daehwi chuckles nervously and leans in, and Jinyoung closes his eyes.
It is not what he expected, his lips waiting for a touch that never came. Because Daehwi presses a kiss to his nose softly, and Jinyoung involuntarily scrunches it up. He opens his eyes and he needs no lights to see that Daehwi is glowing. In that moment, right before Daehwi breaks out into laughter, Jinyoung is sure he must be in love. And when he Daehwi laughs above him, Jinyoung gains some newfound courage and raises himself up a little, and Daehwi’s lips meets his halfway.
The kiss is short and sweet, and when they pull away Daehwi can’t stop giggling, and Jinyoung is just grinning as he let’s one of his hands cups his cheek. He’s sure he has never seen a boy so beautiful as the one he has right in front of him.
“This didn’t exactly go as planned,” Jinyoung says softly and strokes his thumb against Daehwi’s features.
“Would you change it, though?” Daehwi asks. He sits up and Jinyoung follows. He lets his hand fall from his face and finds the other’s hand, and Daehwi intertwines their fingers. It feels like he has butterflies all the way out in his fingertips.
Jinyoung thinks for a second. “Well, it would have been nice to buy you dinner.”
“You can always do that next time,” Daehwi chuckles. And there it is again, next time. “But I’m perfectly content with instant food.”
“Me too, if it’s you I’m sharing it with,” Jinyoung grins.
Daehwi laughs out loud this time and untangles himself to slap Jinyoung on the arm. “One kiss and suddenly you’re boldly flirting.”
Jinyoung hits him back lightly.“I was just scared to mess thing up, I felt like I was reading into it too much,” Jinyoung looks down a little, suddenly feeling shy again.
Daehwi squeezes his arm. “Hyung, I really like you, more than as a friend.”
Jinyoung swallows, it feels like the butterflies in his stomach are about to explode. He meets Daehwi’s eyes in the still dark room. More than he can actually see it, he can sense that Daehwi is tensely awaiting his answer, from how tight he grips his hand to how he refuses to look anywhere else but Jinyoung.
The words tumble out of him, because for once Jinyoung lets his feelings pour like the rain. “Me too. I really like you, too.”
01:23
baejinyoung: hyung, i confessed
baejinyoung: and he likes me back
hwangminhyun: Congratulations! I knew you could do it ( ≧ ∇ ≦ )/
hwangminhyun: Sleep well now, good night
baejinyoung: you too, good night
01:31
baejinyoung: wait hyung do you have a recipe for pancakes