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“Gingerbread...?” Jihoon’s nose wrinkling as he steps into their apartment, Jaehyuk’s eyes lighting up when he spots the elder, a smear of flour on his rosy cheeks. Cute.
“Jihoon! You’re home early!” the younger man dusting his hands off on his Hello Kitty apron before beckoning Jihoon over, beaming, “Wanna try one?” but before Jihoon can reply, Jaehyuk’s taken it upon himself to drag Jihoon over, who somehow manages to fumble only slightly.
“Of course,” Jihoon grins, eyebrows furrowing as he surveys the cooling rack full of gingerbread men, “Wait, why are they naked?” which, in his defense, is a completely valid question to ask. He wouldn’t want to be naked if he was a gingerbread man.
“Because we ran out of powdered sugar before I could make the icing,” Jaehyuk replies, glancing over at the empty piping bags almost sadly, “So for now they’re just gonna have to remain naked until I can get some more,”
“Can’t you just use the frosting that we have in the pantry?” Jihoon frowns, lips twitching when he spots an especially tiny gingerbread man amongst the bunch, reminding him far too much of a certain fashion-loving hyung. “Doyoung likes that stuff, eats it straight from the tub,” Jihoon biting back a laugh as Jaehyuk grimaces, looking vaguely disgusted at the notion.
“Okay, first of all, that’s gross,” Jaehyuk mutters, breaking the leg off of one of the (naked) gingerbread men. “And second of all, no. Just no .”
Jihoon snorts. “But why not? Doyoung’s had no ill side effects...that I know of,” Jaehyuk swatting Jihoon’s hand away when he tries to snag the gingerbread man’s other leg, “Hey! You said I could try one!”
“Yeah, but this one is mine,” Jaehyuk pouts, cheeks puffing out, a subconscious habit of his that Jihoon found adorably endearing. “Here, you can have Hyunsuk-hyung,” the younger picking up the tiny gingerbread man that Jihoon had been eyeing, “I was gonna give him a cute little frosting skirt, but again, I’m out of powdered sugar, so I couldn’t-”
“So you couldn’t make the icing,” Jihoon finishes, accepting the cookie as Jaehyuk makes a dejected little noise in the back of his throat, “I know, I know,” the older watching as Jaehyuk nibbled on his lower lip, running a hand through his hair. Junkyu’s nagging of 'quit staring, you’re making yourself obvious' echoing from somewhere in the back of Jihoon’s mind. But it’s not like it’s his fault that Jaehyuk’s so-
“What time is it?” Jihoon blinks, fingers crossed that Jaehyuk hadn’t caught him staring.
“Huh?”
“I said, what time is it?” Jaehyuk repeats, and Jihoon briefly wonders how the younger manages to have such patience because anytime Doyoung spaced out when Jihoon was helping him with his chemistry homework was, well, let’s just say that it ended with Jihoon needing an aspirin...or two. (“I can’t help that I suck at chemistry, hyung!”)
“Um,” he glances down at his watch, “Almost eight—why?”
“I know that you just got home,” Jihoon promptly ignoring how Jaehyuk’s words (or rather, word ) have his mind drifting to places it shouldn’t be going. Home, our home. “But could you please run out and pick me up some more powdered sugar? Please?”
“I-” his phone vibrates, “Sorry, just give me a second,” Jihoon shoots Jaehyuk an apologetic smile as he unlocks his phone.
my kyu: my “jihoon is being a yearning bitch™” senses are tingling
my kyu: so spill 🗣️
Jihoon sighs, shoving his phone back in his pocket because yeah, no, now is not the time.
“You were saying?”
“Oh! Right!” Jaehyuk claps, flashing his canines (no, Jihoon is not getting horny over teeth, fuck off Junkyu) when he smiles, “Could you please run out and pick me up some more powdered sugar?” the younger giving Jihoon his best puppy dog eyes, what’s left of Jihoon’s resolve crumbling at the sight, “Please?”
He blinks again. “S-Sure.”
-- -- --
“You could always confess with a cookie cake,” Junkyu had so helpfully suggested, the psychology major swallowing a mouthful of burger as Jihoon groans, “You know, since that’s kinda Jaehyuk’s thing,”
Ah, that’s right. Because apparently Jaehyuk being a culinary arts major with a focus on baking and pastry arts automatically meant that he’d appreciate a cookie cake confession.
“Junkyu, aren’t you psych majors supposed to be, like, I don’t know, smart?” Junkyu muttering a “fuck you, Park Jihoon” as he throws a fry at Jihoon’s face. “Hey!”
“You asked for my advice, you ass!” Junkyu huffs, lips pursed in an overly exaggerated pout, “And shut up! We are smart!”
“Junkyu, he’s literally surrounded 24/7 by fucking cakes; I am not confessing to him with some shitty cookie cake,” Jihoon rolling his eyes when his best friend sulks, “Plus I don’t even know if he likes cookie cake,” he adds with an afterthought, but then again, who doesn’t like cookie cake?
“Whatever,” Junkyu says, sticking his tongue out at Jihoon like the little shit that he is, “But I totally think that you should.”
-- -- --
jae (≧◡≦): could u please also pick up some food coloring?
jae (≧◡≦): i promise that i’ll pay u back
Jihoon sighs, because he knows how picky Jaehyuk could be when it came to his food coloring.
(“Traditional is meant for egg dyeing! Gel-based is not! You should know this!”)
But he still texts back a 'sure. you need anything else?' as he begins trudging over to where the food coloring (if he remembers correctly) could be found.
jae (≧◡≦): nope!
jae (≧◡≦): thank u! ❤️
The heart emoji that Jaehyuk had sent him having Jihoon’s heart skipping a beat. Which, yes, is cheesy, but that’s the Jaehyuk effect for you-
Jihoon looking up from his phone just in time to see a little boy clutching a shinchan plushie nearly half his size come rounding the corner before he crashes into Jihoon’s knees with a thump. And it suddenly makes perfect sense as to why Hyunsuk insisted on leashing Junghwan every time they went out. (“You know kids get bullied for being leashed, right?”)
He squints, the kid tilting his head to the left as he simply stares up at Jihoon, wide-eyed and unblinking, the beginnings of a bruise already starting to form on his forehead. Fuck, that doesn’t look too good. Fuck fuck fuck.
“Um, are you, like, okay-”
“Haruto!” Jihoon whipping around to find a very panicked Yoshinori come running towards them, his cheeks flushed and rosy. “Haru-” Yoshi pauses, looking from Haruto, then to Jihoon, and then back to Haruto. “Wait, Jihoon?” Haruto lets out an excited squeak when he spots Yoshi, dropping his shinchan plushie as he races over to the flustered man, signing the word for “up” as he rocks back and forth on his heels. Yoshi mumbling something in Japanese before scooping the toddler up, Haruto burying his face into Yoshi’s shoulder with a whine, the soft fabric of Yoshi's hoodie gripped firmly in his little fist.
“That would be me,” he replies, his lips quirking upwards as he watches as Haruto snuggles even closer, because yeah, it’s cute—okay? Granted, it’s not Junghwan level cute, but it’s still cute nonetheless. “Ditching Hyunsuk to babysit?”
“N-no!”
“Uh-huh, I see,” Jihoon says, clicking his tongue disapprovingly, Yoshi flushing an even deeper shade of red, “Anyways, who’s this?” gesturing over to the little boy cradled in Yoshi’s arms with a smile.
“This here is Haru-chan!” Yoshi beams, bouncing Haruto when he begins to fidget, “He’s my nephew.” rubbing Haruto’s back, shushing him gently.
“Oh? So this is the infamous Haru-chan that Hyunsuk’s told me so much about?” Jihoon’s smile widening when Yoshi nods somewhat bashfully, and Jihoon wonders if Yoshi’s aware that Hyunsuk’s screensaver is a picture of him and who Jihoon presumes to be Haruto—the baby’s tongue sticking out, Yoshi’s head thrown back in laughter. “I see...so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when you end up being hyung’s baby daddy-”
“J-Jihoon!”
“Anyways, would you happen to know where I can find the food coloring?” Jihoon bending over to pick up Haruto’s plushie, the toddler signing a small “thank you” as he shyly takes it from him, cuddling it close.
“Um, aisle 12?”
“Thank you, Yoshi-yah!” he chirps, winking at the Japanese man as he waves bye-bye to little Haruto, “See you around, Haru-chan!”
-- -- --
“Absolutely not,” Asahi says, the blonde twirling his pencil around his thumb as he attempted to get through a PDF explaining the Bonny Method.
Jihoon gapes. “But you don’t even know what I was gonna say!”
“You were going to ask me for help on how to confess to Jaehyuk,” Asahi replies, his back still turned to Jihoon as he squinted at his computer screen, jotting down what little he understood in his notebook.
“I,” Jihoon opens his mouth, closes it, and then opens it again. “Did Kyu tell you?” at which Asahi scoffs, rolling his eyes as he turns to face the older, an unimpressed look on his face.
“Of course not,” he says, “You’re just that painfully obvious,”
And Jihoon visibly deflates.
“But I wouldn’t worry if I were you,” Asahi continues, thinking back to that one time when Jaehyuk had watered a fake plant for a whole six months before he had realized that it was fake. “Jaehyuk is,” he trails off, “Well, he’s Jaehyuk.”
“So he doesn’t know?”
Asahi sighs, because of course Jihoon is just as stupid as his crush is.
“What do you think?” Asahi mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose when Jihoon only shrugs, and boy does Asahi want to scream, “Actually, don’t answer that.” the blond hating how Junkyu’s offhanded comment of “Jihoon and I are soulmates because we’re both kinda dumb.” was, in fact, the truth.
“...Sooo, that means you’ll help me?” Jihoon asks with a grin, wiggling his eyebrows for some godforsaken reason.
“Please get out of my room.”
-- -- --
“I’m back!” Jihoon calls out as he gently sets the bags down on the flour speckled counter, frowning when he receives no reply, “Jae?”
“Coming!” Jaehyuk replies, Jihoon nodding to himself as he sets to unpacking the groceries, humming quietly.
Powdered sugar? Check. Food coloring? Check. Rainbow sprinkles because Jihoon is an actual child who couldn’t resist buying them? ...Check. A cookie cake that reads “I like you Yoon Jaehyuk. Please be my boyfriend?” in mediocre cursive? Maybe, but Junkyu doesn't need to know that-
“Did you get the powdered sugar?” Jihoon shoves the cookie cake away as Jaehyuk walks into the room, hair dripping wet, one of Jihoon’s old t-shirts hanging off his shoulder. Look away, Jihoon, look away.
“Yes! I did!” Jaehyuk thankfully choosing to ignore Jihoon’s out of character-ness as he takes a look at what Jihoon had bought, turning the food coloring package over in his hands, his nose scrunched.
“You remembered to get gel-based?” the younger man sounding genuinely surprised that Jihoon had remembered that little detail about his food coloring preferences, “Also, what’s with the rainbow sprinkles?”
“Those are for me,” Jaehyuk giggling when Jihoon snatches the container out of his hand, “And of course I remembered, you literally lectured me for fifteen minutes about why gel-based was better than traditional.” That and that I really like you and remember even the most mundane of details about you.
Jaehyuk flushes, muttering a small “Ah, right. Sorry about that.” as he slings an arm around Jihoon’s waist, leaning his head against the older’s, a comfortable silence falling over the two—and yeah, it is the kind of domestic that would have Junkyu gagging.
(“Ew! See, this is why everyone assumes that you guys are a thing!”)
“Well, I’m gonna go take a shower,” Jihoon coughs, ruining the moment as he awkwardly clears his throat, “Afterwards, I’ll help you with making the frosting, okay?" And maybe I'll even find the nerve to show you the cake....
“Okay,” Jaehyuk murmurs, pulling away, “Oh, and hyung,” Jihoon shortcircuiting when Jaehyuk presses a kiss to his cheek, “While that cake definitely doesn’t deserve rights, I’m free anytime you are."