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The only reason Minghao is here at the school fair is because Soonyoung promised he would pay for everything if Minghao would just, quote on quote, leave his room for a damn hour.
“Honestly, you should be thanking us for pulling you out of the house!” Soonyoung chastises. “I mean, it’s not even exam season, and you’re already acting like such a hermit!”
“Yeah, but you can never be too prepared—” Minghao begins to babble, but he’s cut off with the loud, obnoxious groan of Mingyu, who swings a careless arm around his shoulder.
“Enough talk about exams!” Mingyu whines, scrunching his nose, “We’re here to have fun!”
“Where should we go first?” Soonyoung asks excitedly, as he clings to Minghao’s arm. He wants to nudge him off. It’s supposed to be fun, but Minghao has a feeling that in a couple hours it’s going to feel like babysitting.
The fair is flooded with people, carefree teenagers laughing and yelling all around them. It gives Minghao a headache.
“So here’s the plan.” Soonyoung says. “Minghao has to do at least one thing out of his comfort zone.”
“No—”
“Yes!” Mingyu grins ecstatic, before the clock strikes twelve Minghao’s going to do something stupid.”
“Fuck both of you, what am I, Cinderella?”
“No, Cinderella was less bitchy.” Soonyoung says.
Mingyu suddenly punches Minghao in the arm to get his attention. Before Minghao can so much react, they’re in front of a rickety, wooden booth. Scribbled at the top of the booth was a sign in all caps that read: KISSING BOOTH! IT’S ONLY A DOLLAR, AND IT’S FOR CHARITY! And sitting at the booth was arguably—not even arguably, but factually—the prettiest boy Minghao had ever seen in his life.
“Hi.” The boy smiles at him. A tattered, nametag was pinned to his shirt: Junhui.
Minghao’s frozen. Who is he? He flips through the rolodex of people he knows in his head, but the list stops after Soonyoung. (Yes, his stupid list is alphabetical.) It’s idiotic for Minghao to be this flushed. It was just a boy, after all. A very, unnervingly attractive boy his age, whose voice was breathy and soft, akin to something heavenly. Perhaps an angel, but he was too sinfully pretty to be such. How has Minghao never noticed him before? Maybe Soonyoung and Mingyu had a point, and he should start paying attention to people more often.
Mingyu slaps him on the back, knocking him out of his daze.
“Okay, enough gawking lover boy.” Mingyu snickers, “We bought you enough for a whole minute.”
“Fucking pardon?”
“Hey, you promised!” Soonyoung grins, and Minghao squawks back, “I didn’t promise shit!”
“Enough stalling, we’re still going to do other things!”
The boy at the cashier looked up at them with a grim look. His nametag spelled in perfect, stilted handwriting that showed the name: Jihoon. Next to him was a boy holding onto rolls of change, who looked far too young to be doing any business with something as lucrative as a kissing booth. His name written with what looked like a purple crayola marker was: Dino.
Then there was, of course, the main attraction himself, his nametag with a cute doodle of a cat in the corner: Junhui. In brackets was scribbled the name, Jun!
Jihoon clears his throat, “Excuse me, but we’ll have other customers, so please kindly hurry this up!”
“Hold on, hold on— have you even thought about the safety of all this?” Minghao exclaims, as Soonyoung pushes him towards the booth, “I mean, surely this isn’t sanitary for any parties here! Kissing him would be like kissing the lips of everyone else in the town! And who knows where those people have been?”
“You’re actually our first customer.” Jun says quietly.
That instantly shuts Minghao up, his heart breaking at that sentence.
How? To be honest, it confused Minghao slightly that the line for the kissing booth wasn’t a mile long. The boy was gorgeous. How could anyone resist someone like that? It was mind-boggling that people weren’t fighting over him to be frank. Just as outrageous as how cheap the price was to kiss him.
“I guess… I’ll do it then.” Minghao mumbles, toying nervously with the cuffs of his coat. Mingyu and Soonyoung cheer, Dino and Jihoon high-fiving at their first sale.
“However, I have one request.” Minghao says, interjecting everybody’s moment of celebration, “Nobody’s allowed to look.”
“What?” Mingyu whines, “But Hao, we wanna see you get it on!” Soonyoung cackles along with the statement.
“Honestly? Deal.” Jihoon says, both Soonyoung and Mingyu looking at the shorter in shock.
Jihoon narrows his eyes, sending a death glare at the two, both of them looking shaken to their core. They sigh in defeat.
“Fine, we’ll go.” Soonyoung says, raising his hands up. He points at Jihoon, “But make sure this guy gets a good kiss, alright? He really needs one from all his isolation—”
“Shut up.” Minghao drones, and Jun can’t help but raise his eyes out of amusement.
Jihoon nods his head, shooing them away, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll make sure it’s the best kiss of his life.”
As Soonyoung and Mingyu find themselves preoccupied browsing the food trucks, Jihoon and Dino turn around, plugging their headphones in as they watch something. “We’ll be watching a movie, okay? It’s just the two of you.” Jihoon says, as he turns around, plugging the headphone in, ignoring the two.
Finally. It’s just Minghao, and this ridiculously, attractive boy.
Fuck.
Minghao tenses. Shit. Okay, he actually didn’t think this through. It’s probably clear that Minghao is starting to freak out because the boy grabs his hand, and looks up at him from the booth.
“We don’t have to kiss if you don’t want to.” Jun says quietly.
His voice should genuinely be illegal. It sounds heavenly. It’s the only word that should be used to describe it.
Minghao immediately shakes his head, “No, no, no— don’t get me wrong! I want to kiss you! It’s just…”
Minghao looks away to the floor, “I’ve never kissed anyone before.” He admits. He feels like he’s gonna crumble. God, how embarrassing is it to admit to someone as beautiful as that, about his stunted, pathetic love life?
“I’ve never kissed anyone either.”
“What?” Minghao blurts, “How? You’re so…”
“Ugly, right?” The boy jokes, but Minghao blurts at the same time, “Beautiful.”
Jun’s eyes widen at the comment, becoming even more flushed. It’s such a sight to see. Minghao, by no means, is a graceful being. He’s awkward, and constantly doubtful and unsure of himself when it comes to talking with others. Honestly, he was surprising himself by how accidentally smooth he was coming off.
Then again, was this even considered flirting? He was just stating facts.
“Your makeup is really pretty.” Minghao says. “Did you do it yourself?”
“Took everything from my Mom’s drawer.” Jun admits bashfully, “Watched a 30 second Wikihow video, then just winged it.”
Wikihow? Minghao is melting. He wants to buy an onion ring from the local stands and propose to this boy on spot.
“Did you Wikihow how to kiss someone before you agreed to this?” Minghao asks. Biology has taken over at this point. He slowly starts to find himself leaning in towards Jun like a magnet, and Jun seems to be weak to the gravitational pull.
“Nah,” The boy laughs. They’re inches apart. Centimeters now. “Figured, I’d just wing that too.” He says. The boy’s voice is stupid and breathless once more, and although Minghao would like to hear him talk forever and ever, he’d also really like to kiss the lipstick off Jun’s lips.
The kiss is less awkward than he thought it would be. Almost natural, the way Minghao sneaks into Jun’s space, as though the kiss were stolen.
Jun feels unreal. Minghao needs to stop doing that— putting this unsuspecting boy on a pedestal and fawning over him. But he can’t help it. He can’t help that Jun has the softest lips he’s ever felt in his life. That Jun just feels like the embodiment of warmth, a comforting contrast to the evening chill from this outdoor festival. He’s so warm, Minghao’s going to melt. The kiss feels light and fuzzy, like a tinge of warm sunlight streaming through a window sill or soup that’s already been cooled down by a loved one. That’s what this kiss felt like.
Jun feels like home and Minghao just got here.
When they pull out of the kiss, Minghao’s breathless. He wants to say something smart or cool, like he has his shit together. But to be frank, he’s a dissolving mess, falling weak to this pretty boy’s whims.
Before he even says anything, Jun clasps Minghao’s shirt, pulling him in for another kiss. This time, more desperate. More hungry. This kiss is longer, deeper, more full. Satisfying. Real. And for a moment, everything is truly still. Everything fades away to static as Minghao grips on Jun’s hair, pulling himself deeper into the kiss.
When they eventually pull each other out of the kiss, Minghao can’t help but gasp.
“Holy fuck.”
The other boy is a mess. Lipstick smudged, hair pulled out in all different places. Minghao can’t help but grin slyly. I did that.
“Holy fuck is right.” Jun giggles, slightly dazed. Minghao grins at Jun, brushing his hair back, as he wipes off the smudged lipstick from the corners of his lips. The two stand there for a while, close to each other, listening to the subdued laughter and chatter of the fair amongst them. Good memories in the making— this moment being one of them.
Jun suddenly breaks the silence with a soft, “Hey.” Minghao looks up. He can’t get over how breathtaking he looks.
“You wanna get out of here?” Jun asks.
“But… your stand.” Minghao says, gesturing weakly at the wooden booth. He knows his argument means nothing though. Not that he’s mad about that.
The other shrugs, “Business was practically non-existent without you anyways.” The boy says. He looks back at Jihoon and Dino who are too absorbed in the movie they’re watching, and Minghao’s friends are definitely long gone as well.
“Come on, you wanna take me out, don’t you?” Jun says slyly. Minghao can’t help but laugh.
“Oh? Who’s the forward one now?” Minghao says with amused eyes, as Jun leaves the booth, giddily coming to Minghao’s side, clinging to his arm just as Soonyoung did earlier. Yet this time, Minghao doesn’t want to nudge him off at all. If anything, he wants the extreme opposite— for him to never leave his side.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Jun waves dismissively, squeezing Minghao’s arm. He hums, looking at the other, “You know, you never introduced yourself.” Jun says.
Minghao’s eyes widen,“Shit.” A surge of guilt starts to pool in his stomach, but Jun just laughs it off loudly.
“It’s okay, better late than never, right?” He smiles, looking fondly at the other, “Let me properly introduce myself first. I’m Junhui, but just call me Jun.”
“Junhui. Jun.” Minghao repeats to himself, the name fits perfectly in his mouth. Safe and right.
“And you are?”
“Minghao.” Minghao says, and Jun looks equally as enamored by this simple piece of information.
Jun squeezes Minghao’s hand, “Okay, Minghao.” Jun says, looking a little more confident, now with his lips less red than they were earlier. “How about you kiss me up at that ferris wheel? Right at the top where we can see the whole town?”
He points at the giant ferris wheel, and Minghao’s eyes light up, as he squeezes Jun’s hand back.
He’s going to be kissing Jun for a long time.