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"Bracelet, where is it?” Soobin demands, a shadow of accusation darkening his otherwise radiant features. “You lost it, didn’t you? Just tell me,” he whines and lunges halfway toward Beomgyu, balled fists swinging aimlessly in the air.
“Again? I told you I hid it! It’s somewhere safe,” says Beomgyu exasperatedly, shifting his gaze back to the newfangled mobile game warming his palms.
It’s the truth. Somewhere tucked between the folds of his bed lies the bracelet Soobin had gifted him on his birthday. He doesn’t know why Soobin is up in flames about it. It’s his bracelet. He’s allowed to do whatever he wants with it. And that includes absolving from wearing it.
Soobin finally zeroes in on him with a smack on his knee, and then some. The older male’s hands are as heavy as they look, and Beomgyu isn’t able to resist curbing him with a shove. “What the hell, hyung!” His phone falls from his hands and slides into the heaping tangle of sheets in his bed, seemingly gone forever.
“Yah! Why don’t you ever wear it?” Soobin practically wails, hovering on top of Beomgyu with half of him still outside the bed. “I’ve been wearing the necklace you gave me! I’d expect you to return the favor,” he gripes.
“I told you, it doesn’t matter if I wear it! It’s safe!”
“No! Just say you hate it and get it over with,” Soobin shakes him.
That tears it.
Beomgyu wraps his arms and legs around Soobin’s neck and waist respectively, pulling him down for leverage until the taller male is completely out of balance and falling flat on top of him. He then uses this momentary lapse to roll them over so he’s the one caging Soobin down.
“You-”
“Shut up, hyung. Sorry but now I’m the one who’s going to do the talking,” Beomgyu jabs a finger between Soobin’s open mouth. “I don’t hate the stupid bracelet. I don’t wear it because I don’t want to lose it, okay? And I don’t want to accidentally tear it apart. It’s not that I don’t want to wear it for you. It’s not that I don’t want to return the favor. If I could have it surgically attached to my person, I would. I just don’t want to lose it. I plan on keeping it for a very long time. It’s very important to me- you’re important to me,” he punctuates his choleric spiel with a huff. “Now will you stop?”
His words were meant to be held captive somewhere in the deep seats of his mind where only the most fragile of hopes kept it company. Because feelings are funny little things. One moment they’re as calm as the fog that settles over the earth and the next they’re storm clouds amalgamating and threatening to pour over. Either way though, all Beomgyu sees is grey.
And that’s not even half of it.
Beomgyu could have lived without saying any of that, reigned them in like he did most days, but Soobin had left him no choice.
Soobin is looking at him like he’s contemplating something deeply, and then speaks, “What? What was that about? How embarrassing,” he says, his voice curling like he’s talking underwater. His cheeks are glowing a slight tinge of pink.
“You. Absolute. Asshole. Soobin!” Beomgyu smacks Soobin on the chest. “That’s all you have to say?” He hits him repeatedly, lightly, until Soobin catches his hands and pulls him in, until their faces are a measly two inches apart.
The heat that creeps up from Beomgyu’s chest to the tip of his ears is almost insufferable, like eating something incredibly spicy without any milk within reach. Oh he’s suffering.
“Are we about to kiss?” Is what comes out of his mouth next, his brain inwardly combusting that he’s absolutely sure it’s about to melt out of his ears. It’s a joke, please think it’s a joke.
(Unless it isn’t.)
Instead of insulting him or uttering any kind of retort though, Soobin’s eyes just move downcast, a direction suspiciously accurate to where Beomgyu’s lips are. He quietly murmurs something Beomgyu barely hears. “What?” He prods, growing increasingly embarrassed and mildly irritated.
“We are,” he says, a little louder. The way he says it is gentle, like listening to an entire spectrum of pastel. It shoots through the chaos ensuing in Beomgyu’s mind and rescues him.
Beomgyu’s entire body stiffens as soon as their lips touch, like the result of a brief electrical spark. But then he quickly eases in, every coil of tension in his body slowly yet surely unraveling.
Kissing Soobin feels like finally pressing stop on all the desperate songs Beomgyu has ever played for him up to this moment. It’s that tiny flicker of hope that’s somehow managed to flourish into something akin to the sun. And Beomgyu, for once, sees his own feelings in vivid color.
“I get it,” Soobin mumbles when they pull away. “I would still like to see it, though.”
Beomgyu breathes out, resigned, then reaches over Soobin’s head where there’s a tiny gap between the wall and his mattress. After a few seconds, with some difficulty considering their position, he’s able to dig out the aforementioned bracelet.
It’s a completely plain and unremarkable little thing, and yet it holds everything Beomgyu deems worthy of protecting.
“Wear it for me once?” Soobin asks, weaving his long fingers through Beomgyu’s.
Beomgyu takes one glance at their interlaced fingers and nods. “Okay, just this once.”