Chapter Text
"What the fuck, you stupid bitch?! What did you do?"
"Talk to me like that again and I'll murder your dog."
"What the fuck did you do?! I was gone for two seconds!"
Johnny was literally screaming in Sicheng's ear, repeatedly hitting him with the pillow, looking like he was ready to really hurt him. He had a crazy look in his eyes, and Sicheng started to fear for his life.
What he did, seemed like a great idea a minute ago, but now he was starting to think that maybe it wasn't worth it. Not if he's not gonna be there to see Johnny struggling to fix the mess Sicheng made. And by not being there, he means he'll be dead. And by dead, he means murdered. The murderer being Johnny, of course.
"That hurts, you giant moron, stop hitting me and I'll explain," he said, rapidly trying to think of a good explanation for his ultimate betrayal. There wasn't one, of course, he was just bored and a little tipsy, and maybe a little (a lot) sick of listening to Johnny pining for his crush of three years, every single day of the week. It had always been bad, but lately, it's become even worse. Johnny was insufferable, really, and he had to be stopped. Or taught a lesson.
"No, I'm gonna kill you, you ruined my life just now!" Johnny said dramatically and very loudly, making Sicheng think about their poor neighbours, Lucas and Jungwoo. "Are you even aware of that?" The hitting hasn't stopped, it only intensified. "Are you even aware of the fact that my life is now over, and it's all your fault?"
"I'm-“
"ARE" hit "YOU" hit "AWARE" hit "O-“
"All right, stop!" Sicheng screamed as loud as he could, nice neighbours be damned!
"OF, I SAID," hit "IT?" hit.
There was a moment of silence, when they were just looking at each other, but it was very brief, promptly interrupted by Sicheng's sudden attack and need to physically hurt his roommate. He jumped on Johnny and started suffocating him with that poor pillow, when Johnny's phone lit up and a loud noise interrupted their grunts and screams. He got a text.
They both backed away from each other quickly, looking at Johnny's phone in shock.
"What do I do, what do I do, you life ruining snake?" Johnny was shaking Sicheng’s shoulders now, a look of fear in his eyes. Sicheng felt kind of bad. He batted Johnny’s hands away forcefully.
"First of all, I hope you're aware that you're not allowed to touch me for a whole month at least, not after everything I went through in the last three minutes."
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, since Johnny now looked even more murderous than that one time when Sicheng and his boyfriend at the time, Renjun, went on a double date with Ten and his boyfriend at the time.
He quickly continued. "But that doesn't matter now, go and see who it's from. And if it's from Ten, I'm sure it's good news. And if it's not good news, I'm sorry and I love you, don't kill me!"
It's been a solid ten minutes since Sicheng texted Ten from Johnny's phone, basically confessing in a way that was too real and too personal to be able to pass as a joke, and he was definitely starting to feel guilty. It didn’t even seem that funny anymore. What if he really ruined their friendship? Johnny and Ten have been friends for years now, and Johnny has been crushing on him for at least half of it. Sicheng always suspected Ten liked him back, but he was always jumping from one relationship to another, so it was hard to tell. But, there were little things, like how Ten looked at Johnny when he thought no one's watching, how Johnny was always the first person Ten called for anything, basically, or how they were always touching and holding hands and couldn’t seem to stay away from each other, even when Ten was in a relationship.
Johnny never wanted to confess, always saying that he didn't want to ruin the best friendship he ever had by revealing his unrequited feelings.
The whole things was very delicate and a sensitive subject for Johnny, so Sicheng should've known messing with it would be a disaster. Things always were, when he was drinking and would suddenly get an idea. But, Johnny was the one who suggested they drank tonight, so really, it was his fault.
He was now silently staring at his phone, with a look that not even Sicheng, who considered himself an expert in all things Johnny, could decipher.
Slowly, he lifted his head up, looked at Sicheng with that damn unreadable expression and shoved his phone in his face.
from: Ten ❤
I can't tell if you're joking? Are you joking?? If you are that's cruel
Can we talk in person?
"You get to live another day." Johnny said suddenly, sounding unusually calm. With that, he dramatically turned away and started walking towards his room, not forgetting to bring with him a bottle of wine they were previously sharing.
"I wasn't finished with that" Sicheng pointed out, quickly changing his mind when Johnny peeped his head back into the living room with the challenging look on his face.
"You were saying something, bitch?"
"Isn't that a bit too much? And aren't we gonna talk about Ten's message?"
"YOU WERE SAYING SOMETHING, BITCH!?"
Yeah, even Sicheng knew it was time to stop when things got like this. It wasn't in his nature to do what Johnny says, or to listen to him, or to not make fun of him. But, maybe just this once, he could try.
"No, you go, drink our wine, I mean your wine. Have a good night."
"I thought so." Another dramatic exist and a loud door slam.
"Bitch." Sicheng muttered.
"I HEARD THAT!"
"Oh, whatever!"
If Sicheng thought Johnten (Yuta's brilliant idea) were bad before, that was nothing compared to how they were acting now, post mutual confession. The touches tripled in number and intensity, and the distance between them stopped existing. It would be cute if it wasn't disgusting. Ten was now always there, in Johnny and Sicheng's shared apartment, since they couldn't spend that much time in Ten's small dorm, who also had a crazy roommate. So, Sicheng was forced to spend most of his time at Yuta's. (Donghyuck was his first choice, but he soon realized that Markhyuck (that one was him) were almost as bad as the couple he was trying to get away from).
Yuta was a close friend, the third member of their little squad, which was formed years ago when they all met in high-school.
He was Japanese, and his parents, who stayed in Japan when Yuta moved here, bought him an apartment, so he was living alone. The three of them used to spend all of their free time back in high-school at Yuta's, watching movies and eating takeout almost every day. After high-school, Sicheng and Johnny decided to rent a place together, even though their relationship was a weird one. Johnny was one of Sicheng's closest friends, but the way in which they functioned seemed unconventional to a lot of people. They were fighting more often than not, they couldn't agree on anything, and insults were the best way they communicated with. But, Sicheng wouldn't live with anyone else, and there was no one that knew him better that Johnny.
"Okay, so I was thinking we should do something fun today, you know, get out of the house, get some fresh air."
"You always say that and we always stay inside."
"And whose fault is that, huh?"
They were sitting in Yuta's kitchen, drinking coffee. Well, Yuta was, Sicheng was drinking his favourite, green tea. There was this particular kind, some kind of fancy, expensive blend, that Sicheng once tried when he was visiting his brother, Doyoung, in China, where he was studying philosophy at the time. When Sicheng got back from the trip, he told Yuta and Johnny about how it was the best green tea he ever tried. Yuta didn't say anything then, but the next time Sicheng visited him, he had that exact tea. And every time after that.
"I don't know, Johnny's?" Sicheng said with his most innocent face.
Yuta got up from his chair and flung himself at Sicheng, throwing his arms around him from behind and holding him tight.
"Please, let's do something fun. I'm bored, I don't wanna stay inside today. Look at the weather, it's practically calling us," Yuta whined. He was still holding Sicheng in a grip, gently swaying his shoulders while speaking.
"Come on" he said softly, resting his head on Sicheng’s back.
If there was one thing about Yuta, it's that he was very persuasive when he wanted to be. If he wanted something, it was impossible to tell him no. And, it's not like Sicheng didn't want to go outside, he just wanted Yuta to beg him a little bit before he said yes.
"Okay, let's go. But, it needs to be something fun." Sicheng said while he was struggling to free himself from Yuta's hold.
"Of course, but when is it not fun when we're together?" He was now holding Sicheng’s hands behind his back, moving them to the rhythm of some annoying song he's been singing constantly for the last few days.
Sicheng turned his head around for the first time since the unnecessary attack and gave Yuta his deadliest look. "If you don't release me right now, we're staying in and watching the whole trilogy of high school musical in one sitting. I'm not even joking."
Yuta gave him one of his biggest smiles, let go of his hands, pinched his cheek, said "You're so cute" and then turned away.
"We're leaving soon, I just need to change first" he shouted from his room.
Stupid Yuta and his holding and pinching. Sicheng didn't even have time to hit him properly and wipe that stupid grin off his face.
He got up and went to open the window. It was getting too hot inside.
"You said the weather was nice and that it was calling us, but it's literally 15 degrees outside" Sicheng said while shivering and trying to warm himself. It didn’t work.
"You were the one who didn't bring a jacket cause you were too warm inside. You said you were sweating and you even opened the window. I told you to bring a jacket."
"Whatever, where are we going anyway?"
Yuta took off his jacket and put it around Sicheng's shoulders, not listening to his protests.
"I have a thick hoodie, and anyway, I can't have you freezing since we're going hiking!" he said happily, like he didn't know exactly how much Sicheng hated that kind of thing.
"Are you joking?"
"No, but trust me it's gonna be fun! When is it not when we're together?"
"Stop saying that" Sicheng said, not able to contain the laughter.
But it was true. Even if they were just lying around the house, not doing anything in particular, it was still not boring when it was just the two of them. Sicheng attributed that to the fact that they've been close friends for such a long time. They were used to each other and didn’t feel like they needed to constantly do stuff to make their friendship interesting. Still, it was nice to have adventures from time to time. Sicheng was not as opposed to this idea as he was pretending to be.
"But it's true!" Yuta protested, with a note of laughter in his voice.
Sicheng looked up at him and smiled. "It really is."
He stretched his hand and offered it to Yuta. "Let's go."
"Let's get it, you mean?"
"Sure."
As it turned out, hiking was actually quite fun. Yuta didn't choose a difficult trail and there was not a lot of people there, since the weather was not ideal. They spent their time walking slowly and talking about anything and everything. A few hours passed quickly for Sicheng, and he wondered if it had anything to do with the activity or if it was just due to the company.
"Are you hungry?" Yuta asked, while helping Sicheng jump off a big rock. He didn't let go of his hand even when they were safely on the ground. They were almost out of the woods, when they saw a cute little restaurant in the distance.
"I'm starving."
It was an Italian restaurant, almost hidden from the world, but still packed. There was a warm and cozy atmosphere inside, and Sicheng and Yuta found themselves surrounded by couples. Sicheng laughed.
"Is this like a couples only restaurant or what? I swear everyone here is on a date."
Yuta laughed nervously, which was a weird sight, since the guy was always confident and sure of himself. He looked up at Sicheng, but didn't say anything, as if he was trying to come up with the right words.
A weird feeling grew in Sicheng, something unspecified that could've been a mixture of confusion, expectancy and hope? Hope for what?
The strange ambiance was interrupted when their waiter arrived. Yuta ducked his head down and started looking at their menu like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Good evening, my name is Taeyong and I'll be your waiter tonight. What can I get you?"
And, if life was a movie, this scene would be in slow motion. Sicheng had never seen anyone as beautiful as this boy standing in front of him. The waiter gave him the prettiest smile and then turned to Yuta, who started questioning him about the menu. He was currently recommending Yuta their best dishes, and Sicheng knew that soon, it will be his turn to speak, but he honestly didn't know if what he'll say would even make sense. He was really affected by this person, and that had never happened to him before. Suddenly, the boy turned to him and Sicheng's breath hitched.
"I'll have a glass of prosecco and fettuccine alfredo, please," he muttered weakly, hoping his face didn’t reveal the way he felt inside.
The waiter smiled and turned away, and Sicheng couldn't take his eyes off of him. As he got to the bar and started pouring them their drinks, he looked at Sicheng again, quickly turning his head when their eyes met.
Across from him, Yuta cleared his throat."Sicheng, I need to tell you-
"Yuta, I think I just met my future husband."