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Jonghyun sucks in a deep breath as he hops along the large stepping stones in front of Taemin’s house. With it he inhales the scent of fremontias, yellow lilies, and primrose from the bouquet he’s holding in his hands. Their sweet aromas mingle and calm his nerves, a little, but he still shakes himself out and bounces on his toes when he reaches the doorstep. He breathes in and out quickly a few times before he lifts his hand to ring the doorbell and then hesitates. Heck.
He frowns at himself and squishes his cheeks lightly, looking down at his flowers. He can do this. It’s cute and sweet. They’re mostly yellow, with a clear border of smaller pink and blue cherry blossoms, bluebells, snapdragons. It smells lovely. He put a lot of thought into this bouquet and arranged it all really well. Taemin will love it. Hoo.
With a final steely breath, Jonghyun lifts his hand confidently this time and rings the doorbell. It’s silent inside for a few moments before he hears Taemin’s footsteps and he bites his lip eagerly. Heck heck heck, here he comes.
And here he is, opening the door curiously with his wavy black hair and deep brown eyes and gorgeous pretty face. Jonghyun feels a little breathless just like every time he sees him.
“Hi, Taem,” he says. “It’s Jo--”
“Jonggie, hi,” Taemin says immediately. He smiles at Jonghyun, who whispers a soft curse and hides half behind his flowers. Heck. He loves that Taemin recognizes his voice. He’s only come by to flirt for a few weeks but every time Taemin smiles a little wider when Jonghyun greets him. “What’s with the big yellow blob?” Taemin asks, gesturing vaguely at the bouquet. This time Jonghyun giggles into the flowers before he lowers them so Taemin can see him as a smaller tan blob instead.
“Uh,” he says, still nervous but fairly certain that he can get this out. “I got you flowers,” he says, jiggling the bouquet a little bit. “Because, I mean, you know, I think you’re really pretty, and flowers are pretty, and I know you can’t see them in any detail, but. I picked ones that smelled really good together, so, you know, you can still enjoy them.” He holds them out hopefully, bottom lip between his teeth. That was good, he explained that well.
Taemin just looks at them, though, for a moment that lasts so long that Jonghyun starts to get a little worried that maybe he fucked up. Then he bursts into laughter.
Like real, loud, genuine laughter, breathy gasps from a scrunched up face as he leans on his doorframe for support. Jonghyun’s smile falters as he looks at him. He’s. Confused.
“Um,” he says. “What, um. What’s… funny?” He can feel the pout on his face and he knows Taemin has to hear it, if the way he snorts and giggles and laughs harder means anything. Jonghyun shuffles his feet on the welcome mat, embarrassed now too. What the fuck.
“I’m--fuck,” Taemin gasps, and laughs more. He shakes his head, fans his face, struggles to push himself upright again. He winds up just leaning his shoulder on the doorframe as he muffles more laughter behind his hand. “I--I have anosmia too,” he gets out. More laughter bubbles out of him as Jonghyun only gets more confused.
“I, um,” he says quietly. He doesn’t. “What’s… that?” he asks. He’s never heard of that before. At his question Taemin breaks into his loud laughter again for a few seconds. He rubs his palms into his eyes and runs his fingers through his hair before trying to speak again.
“I can’t fucking smell,” he says.
“Oh,” Jonghyun says as Taemin breaks into more giggles, and immediately flushes pink all the way from his head to his chest. “Fuck,” he says. He lifts the bouquet to hide his face as his insides burst into flames. Frick. He did fuck up. “Um, sorry--”
“No no no, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Taemin says quickly. He steps forward, tugs the flowers from Jonghyun’s hand and hugs him around the waist. Jonghyun blushes darker, if that’s even possible, at the feeling of Taemin giggling into his shoulder. He slowly brings his arms to wrap around Taemin as well and tries to enjoy the experience of their first touchie. Despite his ginormous shame, it’s very nice.
“They’re lovely, thank you, really,” Taemin grins into his shirt. He rests his chin on Jonghyun’s shoulder and lifts up the bouquet behind him. “Is that--blue and… pink? Around the edges?” he asks curiously. Jonghyun nods and hums an affirmative noise, curling his fingers into the back of Taemin’s shirt. He’s glad that Taemin can make the accent colors out. He wasn’t exactly clear on the specifics of his residual vision and was worried they might have been either too obvious or too small.
“Yeah, because, I know yellow is your favorite color, and then, yellow and blue and pink is the pan flag, so, you know.” He shrugs. He thought it was nice.
“That’s so thoughtful, oh my god,” Taemin says. He pulls away from Jonghyun and steps back to hold the bouquet to his chest instead with gentle hands. His smile is bright and wide and just contagious enough to have a tiny one pulling up Jonghyun’s lips as well. Maybe he didn’t fuck this up too badly. “Thank you, Jonghyun,” he says again. “I’ll cherish them forever. Or, you know, until they wilt.” He shrugs easily. A little giggle bubbles up to Jonghyun’s lips. He’s so cute.
“You really like them?” he asks. He wants to be, like, really sure. Taemin nods. He reaches forward, cups Jonghyun’s cheek with a warm hand, slides his thumb down until he finds Jonghyun’s lips, and then leans forward and steals a tiny kiss.
“I really like you,” he says. Jonghyun flushes again and puts his face into his hands. Heck.