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Sometimes when Seventeen goes overseas, they are given free time to enjoy the city as much as they want. Some members feel like exploring--like Jeonghan said, when else are we going to come and explore? Will there be another chance?--while some others choose to rest the whole day, whether it’s because they are tired, or they don’t like to go out.
Seungcheol is definitely one of them.
It’s not because he doesn’t like to explore new cities. He knows it’s rare to have free time to travel around where they want without worries of fitting the travel time to their busy schedule. He wants to relish in the beauty of new cities like here, New York. It’s not the first time they’ve been here, he knows there are parts of the town that he hasn’t explored yet. Even from the Going Seventeen episode of their trip in the city makes him want to visit the places others did.
It’s just, his knees are not doing so well. He knows he should go to the hospital and get it treated, but he really doesn’t want to make others worry, and the injections would be unbearable. He doesn’t want to get it somewhere he’s not familiar with. They’re going back to Seoul tomorrow anyway, might as well wait until he is home.
So here he is, just lazying around in his room, reading books while listening to some nice and slow music and he let the curtain open so he can see the beautiful view of downtown New York. He gets the single room again while others get a roommate. That’s fine with him. It’s easy to hide his grimace and flinch when his knees are suddenly acting up during this time.
It would be nice to share a room with Jihoon one of these days though. He learns to not hog Jihoon all for himself when they are overseas, but it’s been a while and he would rather be holding Jihoon to sleep in unfamiliar places like these hotels. Then again, he doesn’t want Jihoon to see him struggling with his dumb knees.
The sun is starting to set as the clock strikes 4PM. It’s early January now and winter is still having its best moments so the sun sets early. Seungcheol continues to read his book as the lights of New York City starts to illuminate the evening.
He realizes that he hasn’t been eating proper food since this morning. He went for the hotel’s buffet breakfast and had a hearty one so he skipped lunch and only ate some snacks to replace it because he was still full. It’s probably good to ask Jihoon if he wants to go out and eat later since it’s their last day here.
He knows Jihoon is not the type to go out either. Despite not knowing much about the city, Jihoon chooses to spend his time in his bed scrolling through his phone. He even asks others to bring him food and he eats inside his room. That’s just how Jihoon spends his free time mostly. But he really wants to take him out to the street of New York just like in the movies. Hansol said he is going to look for Duncan’s Toy Chest even though Christmas has passed. He wants to feel the magic like what he saw in Home Alone, he said. He secretly wants it too. Maybe not Home Alone. Something more romantic with Jihoon.
He hasn’t taken Jihoon out often these days. With their schedules being packed, they prioritize resting more than anything else. Most of the time they spend the day out with others as well. They have been overseas and they have several more cities to go. Jihoon also needs to work on his composition on some days, since he doesn’t get to stay in his studio as much due to being on tour. It’s understandable. Sometimes it’s like this, the busy schedule, the things they need to make priority, the lack of quality time. They had been here before.
The first time they went on a world tour like this was rough. They didn’t expect it to take a hit on their relationship like it did. The lack of rest, the arguments, the longing. It made them grow distant and stressed them out even more. Although, it made them learn how to cope with this kind of situation now. They trust each other even more ever since then. They matured together a lot, too.
Seungcheol really wants to spoil him at least once while they have the chance. To take him out on a nice dinner, holding hands stealthily inside the pocket of his coat and watch Jihoon’s eyes sparkle under the lights of New York City when he smiles. Seeing Jihoon’s reddening cheeks and nose due to the cold, and maybe warm those cold thin lips with his.
When he sees it’s 7PM, instead of texting Jihoon, he decides to go to his room him since he’s probably asleep or something. Hansol (Jihoon’s current hotel roommate) is probably still out too.
Knock knock.
“Jihoonie?”
Silence.
Knock knock. “Hoon?”
Weird. He usually answers after the first one.
Seungcheol heard a door opening behind him.
“Hyung?” It was Seokmin and Jeonghan’s room. “Are you looking for Jihoonie hyung?”
“Hey, Seokmin. Yeah, but he seems to be in a deep sleep. I haven’t tried calling him though.”
“He’s not in, Hyung. I saw him going out a few hours ago. He said he was just going to take a walk around since he doesn’t want to miss out.” Oh.
What?
“How long has it been since he went?” Seungcheol asks.
“Uh… Probably like, 3 hours or so? He went out when I came back with Jeonghan hyung.”
Damn it.
“Okay. I’ll try calling him. Thanks!” Seungcheol immediately walks toward his room to grab a coat and bag, maybe an extra jacket just in case.
He tries calling Jihoon, it’s connected but he’s not picking up. Seungcheol hopes Jihoon didn’t forget to bring his phone.
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
Seungcheol worries. Jihoon has this tendency of getting lost sometimes from only wandering around. He knows Jihoon isn’t a kid and definitely can find his way back and it’s dumb of him to go out on a whim to look for Jihoon without knowing where he actually goes. Jihoon’s “around” might as well mean “far away” since he doesn’t know where he is anymore every so often.
Jihoon just… gets lost. Like that one time in Japan, or lots of time where it was a big stage shared by many idols and they all wear similar things he ends up not being able to find his members for a long time before finally getting found or he’s lucky to see one of them.
It’s not Jihoon’s height, but it’s also his height. His boyfriend would not like the sound of that.
Seungcheol doesn’t know a good way to explain this.
Jihoon really just gets lost, especially in crowded places where people cannot see him and Jihoon just looks around like a little lost kitten who never loses his determination in order to find his owner.
There’s this one time where Jihoon was looking for his members and Seungcheol actually was looking for him as well since he wasn’t with the others, but they passed next to each other without noticing--Seungcheol actually didn’t see him, and neither did Jihoon--Jihoon ended up finding Seokmin and Seungcheol found them later on.
When it’s on the stage, that’s fine. He could wait at the stage exit for him or eventually Jihoon would make his way back to the backstage waiting room when everyone leaves the stage.
The Japan one? It leaves so many what ifs in his head. Like, what if they weren’t there to shoot One Fine Day and Jihoon had no one with him? Would he eventually find his way like how they showed? Would he be safe? Could he protect himself if someone creepy came up to him and did something? Seungcheol shudders, it’s just… I don’t know, protectiveness? Am I too worried for nothing?
Seungcheol exits the hotel and starts to walk around, when he realizes that he doesn’t even know what Jihoon is wearing at the moment. He shoots a quick text to Seokmin.
He wears his red tracksuit and his usual black hat :D
He thanks Seokmin once again for replying quickly and ended it with a please tell me if you see him coming back to his room and a quick “OK” emoji from Seokmin. Now he knows what to look for.
Seungcheol takes his time to observe the people who are passing around him, coming towards him, sometimes he look behind him to make sure that he’s not missing anyone.
Where are you, Jihoonie?
He takes a quick look at his phone again making sure that he isn’t missing any texts from Jihoon.
Half an hour into walking around the street of their hotel, looking into the restaurants of where Jihoon might be eating, and some shops along the way to make sure, he starts to think it’s a dumb idea.
There hasn’t been any texts from Jihoon nor Seokmin so he assumes Jihoon hasn’t made it back yet. And his knee is already refusing to cooperate. These fucking knees.
Seungcheol leans back on a wall for a bit, putting his weight on the leg that isn’t hurting while his hand holds on the knee that is hurting. It’s winter and it’s only getting colder as the night gets darker. He wishes his knees aren’t making it hard for him right now.
He hears someone approaching him, probably someone kind who wants to make sure he’s okay. Great. In a foreign country, in pain, searching for my boyfriend, and looking pitiful to strangers. Just great.
Slippers. Red pants. “Hyung? Seungcheol?” A familiar voice calls his name. He will recognize that voice anywhere.
Seungcheol looks up to see Jihoon bringing three bags full of… boxes?
“Seungcheol! I saw you from across the street so I wanted to make sur--” Jihoon is cut off from saying anything else as his face meets Seungcheol’s shoulder, the rest of his sentence ends up getting muffled and he whines at how sudden Seungcheol pulls him into a tight hug. Jihoon tries to adjust the shopping bags in his hands, making sure they’re not bothering others who are walking and still getting hugged by Seungcheol.
“Oh, goodness, thank God. Jihoonie… Baby…” Seungcheol chants, his lips keep on pressing a kiss to the side of Jihoon’s head. It’s covered with his usual black hat and it’s cold, but it’s fine. My Jihoonie is here. He’s safe. He’s with me, in my arms.
Jihoon is embarrassed and blushing hard, starting to realize they’re doing this in public, seen by people. “Cheol… It’s embarrassing! Everybody is looking!” and Seungcheol just squeezes him instead. “No, they are not. You can’t even look at them anyway. You’re looking at a wall.” Jihoon can hear the smile in Seungcheol’s voice, feeling more kisses planted on the top of his head. He’s right, he can’t look at what others are doing, and it’s not Korea, anyway. People here probably doesn’t even care a boy is hugging another boy and kissing his head repeatedly, clearly not in a platonic way.
Jihoon starts to relax against Seungcheol. He wishes he could hug him back and share their body warmth, but the shopping bags are in the way and they’re my precious, fragile figurines. He cannot put them on the ground carelessly. So he settles with snuggling to Seungcheol’s hug, tilting his head to meet the crook of Seungcheol’s neck and inhale the familiar smell he misses. Home, Jihoon thinks.
“Hey, Baby. I missed you.” Seungcheol mumbles on top of Jihoon’s head, Jihoon can feel Seungcheol rubbing his nose and cheek against it. He starts to pull away despite immediately missing Seungcheol’s warmth. Seungcheol feels Jihoon moving away so he loosens the hug to look at Jihoon in front of him, face inches away.
He can see how Jihoon’s cute button nose and cheeks have reddened, he doesn’t know if it’s from the cold, or the excess of his blushing earlier due to embarrassment.
“Hi.” Jihoon grins cheekily at him under the shade of this hat, and he really wants to kiss those lips so he starts to lessen the distance when suddenly Jihoon moves his head away. “Hey... Cheol, not here, okay?” Seungcheol can’t help letting the disappointment seep in, and maybe that’s shown on his face cause the next thing he knows Jihoon tilts his head and kisses him sneakily near his chin, on his jawline. “Don’t make that face, you know I can’t handle it.” Jihoon mumbles as he pulls away. Seungcheol grins at him, and look at Jihoon’s hands, realizing that he is bringing so many shopping bags and they are big.
“What are those, Hoonie? You shopped?” Seungcheol sounds surprised.
He sees Jihoon’s eyes brighten up. They twinkle. And it’s not from the lights because his hat covers it up. It’s just… Jihoon.
“Oh! You have to see these. Oh my, there are sooo many figures they have I really wanted to buy… They have lots of Marvel stuff! Some of them are soooo expensive, Hyung. Like, it was not normal. And I bought from this one store, then I saw another store that has anime action figures? I know we can find similar ones in Japan but--” Seungcheol starts to kind of lose his focus on listening to his boyfriend. He knows what Jihoon is talking about, but seeing him getting excited and happy, nudging each of his shopping bags trying to show Seungcheol what’s in there. Seungcheol can’t help but stare fondly at him. This happiness is what he wants Jihoon to feel all the time. He wants to make him happy, even happier, than this.
Jihoon’s eyes are looking at him after that series of gushing about his newly bought figurines. “But… What are you doing out here? I thought you were resting because you weren’t feeling too good?” The concerned look replaces his happy smile, a slight frown forms as he looks at Seungcheol’s face and down to his knees.
Now, he learned that he shouldn’t lie to Jihoon. Seungcheol has had the experience of doing so in order to make Jihoon not worry, but he ended up making things worse for both of them. He’s not going to go through that again.
“Umm… I was worried. Seokmin said you went out and you rarely go out whenever we are overseas, let alone going by yourself. I called but you didn’t pick up. I thought you didn’t bring your phone or… something happened.” Seungcheol sheepishly says. He doesn’t want Jihoon to think Seungcheol is babying him again thinking he can’t take care of himself.
Jihoon realizes what he means, carelessly puts one of his shopping bag on the ground (which Seungcheol urgently takes with his free hand that isn’t holding Jihoon cause he knows how important the figurines are to Jihoon) and look at his phone. “God, Hyung. I’m so sorry! I put my phone on silent and when I was walking back home I didn’t bother checking them anymore and I can’t because I have all these bags.” Jihoon says while looking through his phone, the messages and missed calls Seungcheol left him. He didn’t mean to make him worry and go out in the cold like this when he’s not feeling well. “I’m sorry, I should have messaged you before I went out… Why were you leaning here though, are you feeling sick?”
“Ah no, but I’ve been walking around and it’s cold so… you know.” He refers to his knees and he sees the way Jihoon’s frown deepens and his eyes dim, the twinkle from earlier, gone. It makes Seungcheol’s heart sinks. “Baby… It’s okay. I’m good now. I only needed to rest for a bit.” Seungcheol smiles, “Stop frowning or I will kiss you now.” Seungcheol leans closer to Jihoon’s face again and kisses Jihoon’s cheek repeatedly until Jihoon giggles and asks him to stop.
“I was gonna ask you out to eat dinner together, and maybe take a walk for a bit. But now…” Seungcheol gestures to the shopping bags. “I think with your ‘new babies’ here, we should go back to the hotel.” Jihoon looks for the shopping bag he dropped earlier but he finds it in Seungcheol’s hand now.
Seungcheol lets go of his arms around Jihoon’s shoulders and reach for Jihoon’s empty hand, interlocking their fingers together. “Your hand is cold.” Seungcheol lifts Jihoon’s hand and kisses it, feeling how cold it is on his lips. Jihoon blushes at the gesture. This is what Seungcheol does to him, to his heart. All these loving gestures he always receives from Seungcheol that makes him blush and makes his heart flutter endlessly, like the butterflies in his stomach are going crazy. Sometimes he feels like he’s not doing enough to reciprocate all that Seungcheol has done for him. He’s not the type to show things like how Seungcheol does. He told Seungcheol this a while ago, and he said it’s okay, he knows Jihoon loves him anyway. And Jihoon is thankful of that, because Jihoon truly loves him.
Seungcheol lets go of Jihoon’s hand and pulls out a jacket from his bag. He drapes it on Jihoon’s shoulders and takes the rest of the shopping bag from his hand. “Wear it properly, Hoonie”. There’s a slight nagging in Seungcheol’s voice and Jihoon just follows. He doesn’t want to make Seungcheol worry even more today.
He zips up the jacket and tries to take the shopping bags from Seungcheol’s hands but Seungcheol dodges him. “Let me bring them for you, you’ve been carrying these big bags for a bit, you must be tired.” But Jihoon will not accept such excuse, not when he already caused his boyfriend pain on his knees earlier. “Seungcheol, give them back!” Jihoon insists. “Okay okay, you can take this one, yeah?” Seungcheol hands him the smallest bag then reaches for Jihoon’s hand after, interlocking their fingers once again. He starts walking towards their hotel and tugs on Jihoon’s hand but he’s not moving. “I’m not moving unless you give me another one of those”. Seungcheol sighs, if there’s one thing he has learned about Jihoon from the first time they met, Jihoon’s determination is something he adores and feels frustrated about all the time. But Seungcheol lets him be most of the time as long as he’s taking good care of himself.
Seungcheol hands Jihoon another bag and Jihoon smiles at him. “Thank you.” Seungcheol pulls Jihoon close to his side and they start to walk together towards their hotel.
To people around them, a faint conversation of a worried and a whiny boyfriend could be heard as they are walking together.
“You sure your knees are okay?”
“Babyyyyy, how many times do I need to tell you?”
“Yes, Hyung. 2 double cheeseburgers and fries, a big bottle of cola, uh…” Jihoon talks to their manager, ordering some food after they took a shower. The phone is on speaker while he’s fussing over Seungcheol’s knees, who has his back against the headboard, watching Jihoon pressing warm towel against his knees to make Hyung feel better he said. Seungcheol cannot help but smile fondly at him at times like this. Despite him getting nagged at times, he would like to spend more time with Jihoon.
“Yep. That’s right, Hyung. I’ll be in Seungcheol hyung’s room. Thank you.” Unfazed, Jihoon hangs up the phone and keeps concentrating on trying to make Seungcheol feel as comfortable as possible.
Seungcheol’s hand reaches for his, stopping him from exchanging the towels to warm it up again. He looks at Seungcheol “It’s okay, I feel way better now. Stop doing that.” Seungcheol takes the towels from Jihoon’s hand and put them inside the basin on the night desk. “Come here, Baby.” Jihoon crawls next to Seungcheol and sits beside him. Seungcheol puts his hand on Jihoon’s waist and let him snuggle to his side.
Jihoon turned to him and pecked his lips. He rests his head on Seungcheol’s shoulder and hugs him, “I’m sorry we didn’t get to eat out and spend time together outside like you wanted. Instead we’re going to eat junk food and drink cola here in your hotel room.” Jihoon huffs. Seungcheol rests his hand on Jihoon's waist and his other hand reaches for Jihoon’s face, “Jihoon… Look at me,” he strokes Jihoon’s cheek and makes him look up, directly to his eyes. There, Seungcheol remembers, how Jihoon looked like earlier under the streetlights of New York.
Jihoon in his arms, smiling freely, eyes twinkling, snuggling to Seungcheol, not minding the passerby around them. His stubbornness, his happiness, his love for Seungcheol.
That’s all he wants.
He kisses Jihoon’s cheek and pecks his way towards Jihoon’s lips. Once his lips find Jihoon’s, he kisses them fully. Trying to tell how much love he feels for his boyfriend.
Seungcheol pulls away and look at Jihoon’s eyes now, they are sparkling. Warmth spreads through Seungcheol’s heart once again for the nth time that day.
“Those things don’t matter, there are more places for us to visit, we can spend more time together then. We can also go, just the two of us, if you want.” Seungcheol pauses and tucks a strand of Jihoon’s bangs behind his ear. His love, his Jihoonie, is so beautiful.
“I have all I want and need right here, Jihoonie.” he leans to kiss Jihoon’s forehead. “You.”
Seungcheol feels the arms around him tightened, Jihoon pulls away to straddle Seungcheol’s lap. Jihoon’s hands caress his face and chaste kisses land on Seungcheol’s lips for God knows how many times. He isn’t counting, and definitely not protesting. Seungcheol just slids his hands under Jihoon's shirt and thumbs the bare skin of his waist.
It’s the same thing as what Seungcheol did earlier, trying to tell how hopelessly in love they feel towards each other. His heart just feels so full beyond words, and he knows Jihoon’s heart feels the same way.
I love you.
No words needed to convey that. He knows. They know.
They’ve been together for so long and they’ve gone through so much, sometimes Seungcheol cannot believe how it’s possible for him to fall in love over and over again with the same amazing man.
But it happens, and Seungcheol really would not have it any other way.
When Jihoon pulls away, they’re both smiling widely. Their cheeks hurt, like they’re going to burst due to happiness.
“Hoon, aren’t you going to show me all the things you bought today?”
A bell seems to go off in Jihoon’s head as he remembers his new babies. “Right! Oh my God, Cheol, you have to see these amazing ones I bought. Wait. I’ll take that to the bathroom and we’re going to unbox them all!” Excitement immediately takes over Jihoon as he promptly gets off Seungcheol’s lap and takes the basin away.
He comes back bringing all his shopping bags to their bed, returning to his original position, leaning on Seungcheol’s side as Seungcheol hugs him from behind and rests his chin on Jihoon’s shoulder, looking at Jihoon who’s opening all the boxes and explaining all the things he bought from the store enthusiastically, filling their bed with action figures.
Here, beside Jihoon, loving him, and being loved by him, is where Seungcheol belongs.