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To his disappointment, Mingi doesn’t manage to stay asleep the whole night. He’s stuck staring at the ceiling, unable to fall back asleep.
He goes to the kitchen to get a glass of water. The dorm is completely dark and he has to flip several light switches on from and to his room.
Halfway through his path back, he decides to make a quick detour to the bathroom.
There’s a sliver of light coming out of the bathroom, but Mingi still in his groggy state is yet to realize it. Only when he actually opens the door does he realize it.
Wooyoung’s there, hunched over the sink. Mingi can’t see what he’s doing exactly so he assumes he’s washing his face. However there’s no sound of running water, or any water at all.
Wooyoung rises and Mingi sees his face through the mirror’s reflection.
“Oh—” Mingi breathes when he realizes he’s just walked in on Wooyoung putting lipstick on.
“Shit.” Startled by the voice, Wooyoung lifts his head and spots Mingi standing stock-still in the doorway. He hurries to shut the door in his face.
Mingi jumps back, blinking at the closed door. He expected that; he can’t imagine himself acting kindly in any instance of being caught doing something like that.
This time he does hear the running water as Wooyoung presumably washes the lipstick off. Mingi startles when the doorknob turns and there’s Wooyoung in front of him with his natural lips reddish, either from the stain the product left behind or because he scrubbed at them so furiously until they became raw.
Either way, Mingi can’t take his eyes off of Wooyoung’s lips, thinking about what they looked like before and what they look like now.
Wooyoung huffs quietly like he can’t believe him, drawing Mingi’s attention to his stern expression as a whole.
“Not a single word about this in the morning,” Wooyoung tells him, keeping his tone direct and steady. “Got it?”
Mingi zips his mouth shut and throws away the key.
Wooyoung behaves like his usual boisterous self in the daylight and Mingi accepts that they aren’t going to have a conversation about last night. If Wooyoung doesn’t want him to talk about it, then he won’t.
He’s very good at keeping secrets, but that doesn’t make him not curious about the secret he’s supposed to keep.
The next time Mingi wakes up in the middle of the night, he goes to the bathroom first.
More alert than before, this time he actually notices the light appearing beneath the door. He wonders how many nights Wooyoung has spent just doing this.
“Wooyoung-ah,” Mingi says, leaning his head against the door.
As expected, Wooyoung answers the door, his eyes only appearing from behind it. He opens the door wider, letting Mingi in.
Wooyoung is completely barefaced; a tube of lipstick stands on the edge of the sink.
“Lock it,” Wooyoung says. Mingi locks the door.
He sits on the closed toilet lid and watches Wooyoung uncap the lipstick and twist the product out. The tip of the bullet comes out significantly rounder than Mingi expects it to be.
Wooyoung hovers above the sink, getting close to the mirror. The tension in his face disappears and his lips part slightly, giving him a better canvas with his full lip shape.
There’s something mesmerizing about watching Wooyoung apply lipstick. Mingi can’t tear his eyes away from Wooyoung, watching him take two quick swipes to cover a good portion of his upper and lower lip each. Then he puts the tube down and does some touch ups with his fingers, smudging the color until it comes off to create a sharp line on his mouth.
“Pretty,” Mingi’s voice is quieter than a whisper as his mouth only forms the shape of the word without really saying it.
Yet Wooyoung hears him. He glances towards him, then back to the mirror. “What?”
“Nothing,” Mingi is quick to respond.
“Yeah, I look like a clown, you can say it,” Wooyoung brushes him off.
“I didn’t say that.” Mingi frowns. “I said something far from it.”
Wooyoung’s lip twitches from the compliment, pausing to get his face to relax again. He leans forward, trying to get the product to follow his cupid’s bow. “Thanks.”
“Is that the only color you have?”
“Duh. Where could I get more without someone recognizing me? Without someone questioning me? It’s already a stretch that I’m using one from our stylist.”
“I wish you didn’t have to worry about that,” Mingi says.
Wooyoung sighs. “So do I, Mingi.”
When they’re in the waiting room to rehearse soon, Wooyoung comes up to him and tugs on his sleeve wordlessly. Mingi looks up from his phone and tilts his head, engaging in the silent conversation. He’s massively improved at reading Wooyoung now, who’s tilting his head in return but with a purpose, jerking his chin in the direction of the door.
Mingi follows him out. Wooyoung leads him to a vacant corridor, next to a vending machine.
They won’t be seen or heard as the hum of the machine drowns out their voices. Mingi rubs the nervousness off of his hands against his clothes and asks, still in a whisper in case Wooyoung still wants to be quiet, “What’s wrong?”
“I lost it.”
“Lost what?”
“Mingi, the—” Wooyoung starts and stops. Using his finger, he traces a small ring around his mouth. Mingi understands the gesture immediately. “I can’t find it anymore.”
“What? How’d that happen?”
“I think someone found it while they were cleaning the bathroom. Then they threw it out. I only keep it in one place and it’s not there anymore.” Wooyoung breathes sharply and looks away from Mingi’s face. “I can’t believe it’s gone.”
“Hey, it’s alright,” Mingi assures, squeezing his hands.
“Someone else besides you knows now.” Wooyoung worries his lip between his teeth. “I don’t want them to know. I mean, I do plan to tell them eventually, but not right now.”
“You’re not comfortable enough right now and that’s okay. This is your thing so you deserve to have control over it,” Mingi says. “But I hope that you know that we love you no matter what.”
“Yeah. Yeah,” Wooyoung repeats, calming down. He wriggles his hands out of Mingi’s grip only to grab Mingi’s hands from the outside and squeeze them. “Thank you.”
Before Mingi can say anything, there’s footsteps rushing towards them.
“There you are!” Jongho exclaims in relief. He must have been sent to find them. He pauses in his tracks once he actually sees them. “Whoa, I didn’t know there’s a drama going on here.”
Mingi hurries to save their predicament, “But there’s no drama between us?”
“I meant, like, a K-drama. You guys are secluded in some corner and crushing each other’s hands,” Jongho points out. “Anyway, we have to go soon. Just a heads up.”
“Thank you, Jongho,” Wooyoung sing-songs, blowing him an air kiss. That sends Jongho running back to the waiting room in record time, but not before his face crumples up in disgust. “I guess we should head back, too.”
After filming, they all pour back into the waiting room to gather their things. Among the organized chaos, Mingi spots a small tube of tinted lip balm on one of the makeup tables and swipes it before going to find his bag.
He slides next to Wooyoung in the backseat of the van. When all the doors close after everyone’s entered and the lights inside dim down, Mingi taps Wooyoung’s shoulder and gives him the lip balm.
“What’s this?” Wooyoung asks, feeling the shape of the item.
“It’s not what you usually use, but, uh,” Mingi takes the tube and puts it to Wooyoung’s ear, unscrewing the cap. “Close enough?”
Wooyoung gasps quietly, recognizing the sound. “Mingi. Holy shit. You did not.” He covers his mouth with his hand and Mingi can see his delighted expression even though they’re in the dark.
Mingi grins, his giddiness building off of Wooyoung’s reaction, “And what if I did?”
Wooyoung smirks and leans in closer, until his lips are barely brushing Mingi’s ear. “Then I’d give you a surprise tonight,” he whispers, making Mingi speechless.
The surprise is a kiss, Wooyoung’s fingers curled in Mingi’s shirt, his lips pressed to Mingi’s so deeply that Mingi loses his mind and track of when this exactly all started. The fan is on, drowning out all the noises heard from outside, but there’s some thrill in it, even if they’re just making out in their bathroom.
Mingi is kind of glad he gave Wooyoung lip balm as a substitute because it’s flavored while looking like gloss, making Wooyoung’s lips appear full and shiny.
Where his lips are shiny is also where they’re slick and sticky from kissing. Mingi can’t get enough of it, shamelessly diving right back in after each break they take to breathe.
Wooyoung’s stopped gripping the front of his shirt now, his hands sliding across Mingi’s chest to wrap around his shoulders, drawing him in until the warmth from their bodies is tangible. Mingi stops leaning back against the sink to grab Wooyoung’s hips.
Wooyoung pulls back, slightly tilting his chin up to watch Mingi’s face. A wide smile makes its way across his features eventually, puzzling Mingi.
“What?”
“It got on you,” Wooyoung chuckles, running his thumb across the curve of his lower lip. Mingi wonders if he’s actually wiping it off or admiring what his lips look like with the lip balm on them.
To satisfy his curiosity, Mingi twists around to see himself in the mirror. His hair is certainly a mess from having gotten out of bed, but he’s more drawn to how pink his own lips look, slightly swollen and glossy from the product on Wooyoung’s mouth, and how much he likes it.
Can’t be recognized or leave a trace if they’re in a completely foreign country without any cameras, Mingi realizes. Of course, there’s still a possibility that he can be spotted, but he checked earlier back in the hotel room and doesn’t believe the extra disguise of his raised hood and face mask will make him look very conspicuous.
He blends right in with the ordinary shoppers, but maybe he sticks out a little because he doesn’t have a cart or basket with him.
He doesn’t plan on getting much until he actually gets to the aisle he wanted to visit and ends up with two handfuls of items. He hurries to one of the self-checkout stations and gets everything done pretty quickly before heading back to the hotel.
They decided on roommates through a game of rock-paper-scissors yet some of them still don’t abide by that. Mingi told Yeosang that he wouldn’t be coming back and Wooyoung all but evicted San to make room for Mingi’s overnight visit.
Mingi knocks on the door and puts his ear to it, hearing Wooyoung shuffling to answer it.
“What took you so long?” Wooyoung pokes his head out.
Mingi holds up the plastic bag from the store. “Went shopping.”
Wooyoung hurries him inside and then asks Mingi to quickly unload the bag and show him what’s inside.
Mingi starts with something he didn’t need that much but it reminded him of Wooyoung so he got it anyway: a set of matching headbands. He fits the headband over Wooyoung’s head and secures it between his hairline and his forehead, getting his bangs out of the way. Wooyoung does the same to him, cradling his face while fixing his hair and the elastic.
Next is the main event, where Mingi pulls out not one, but three tubes of brand new lipstick, red, black, and nude, a clear lip gloss to enhance all the colors, followed by a package of makeup wipes. Mingi’s too nervous to see Wooyoung’s exact reaction but he hears it beside him, his breath audibly getting caught in his throat.
“Mingi.” It may have just been his ear, but he thinks Wooyoung’s voice may have cracked.
“I don’t really know much about makeup so I just got whatever I thought would look good.” Mingi mumbles, picking at the hem of his pants.
“Mingi,” Wooyoung says again. His voice is certainly hoarse.
“But I hope you like them.”
“Mingi, could you look at me?”
Mingi is met with the most sincerely soft and loving gaze, which all belongs to Wooyoung. “I love them.”
“Really?”
“Yes, seriously!” Wooyoung takes Mingi’s face in his hands and kisses him. His lips feel just as good when they’re bare. When he pulls back, his eyes are shining. “I love you so much. Thank you.”
“I love you, too,” Mingi finds that it’s so incredibly easy to say that. He brushes his thumb across Wooyoung’s dry cheek, over his beauty mark.
Wooyoung enjoys the touch for a moment before getting back to the matter at hand. He gestures to the lipsticks now lying across the bed. “Do you wanna test if these are smudge proof?”
Mingi laughs. “Of course.”
Mingi gladly takes the opportunity to put lipstick on Wooyoung for the first time. His hands are shaking at first until Wooyoung cracks a joke and suddenly it’s not so bad, swiping the color across Wooyoung’s full lower lip before coloring his top lip without any issues.
To test, Wooyoung surges forward and pecks Mingi’s lips just once, pulling back to see if he left anything behind.
Wooyoung sounds disappointed if there’s nothing and gets excited when the color successfully transfers onto Mingi’s mouth.
He’s excited when Mingi lets him put lipstick on him, as well, scrambling to sit on his knees to get better leverage while holding his face still by his chin. Mingi lets his face relax and the color is applied easier and smoother that way.
Wooyoung puts on a very thin layer in case Mingi doesn’t like it and wants to get rid of it immediately but Mingi loves it, littering kisses across Wooyoung’s cheeks out of joy.
Between colors, Mingi also cleans Wooyoung’s mouth using one of the wipes. The color comes off cleanly, Wooyoung’s lips becoming less pigmented and raw compared to him scrubbing his lips back at home since they don’t have makeup wipes.
Once they’ve tested all they could, they fall back on the bed, holding each other. Wooyoung curls up against Mingi’s body and Mingi tucks his chin over Wooyoung’s head.
“I’ve been wondering something.” Wooyoung says.
“Mm?”
“How come you never laugh at me? When I do this.”
Mingi feels a pang at his heart, imagining Wooyoung expecting himself to be treated as a joke.
“I think you can be hilarious at times but I know you’re not trying to be funny when you put on lipstick. I might not know what it does for you but I’m not going to laugh if it makes you happy.” Mingi explains. He lifts his chin when he feels Wooyoung shuffling. Wooyoung’s looking up at him now. “Did you think I wouldn’t take you seriously?”
“No. I just appreciate you,” Wooyoung tells him and returns to his position from before, burying his face in Mingi’s shirt.
They doze off like that without even a blanket covering them. Mingi awakens in the middle of the night, disappointed that not even sleeping with Wooyoung could make him achieve a seamless sleep.
He realizes they didn’t even clean up and disentangles himself from Wooyoung’s arms to collect everything before one of their staffs would come in to wake them up, only to see the mess.
Mingi puts the lipsticks in Wooyoung’s suitcase and shoves all the used makeup wipes and headband wrappers in the shopping bag. Once he’s cleaned all he can, he goes back to Wooyoung on the bed to check for any remnants on his face. Wooyoung’s skin is completely bare, cleaned and free from product, to Mingi’s relief.
He gets on the bed again, this time taking the cover and pulling it up to their bodies. He holds Wooyoung close, tangling their legs together like before.
He lets go of his current worries about Wooyoung being too hard on himself and looks ahead at the morning in front of them, one where they’ll have their concert and explore the city a bit, taking plenty of videos and pictures for memories.
He looks forward to the morning after where they’ll head to the airport and go through a sixteen-hour-long flight home, where Mingi puts his sleep mask over his eyes but doesn’t catch a wink of rest because of turbulence.
And he really looks forward to the morning following that, where Mingi wakes up in his room groggy and jetlagged, and there’s Wooyoung jumping on his bed and greeting him by smothering him with tons of forehead kisses which soon turn into face kisses in general because he’s always ready to take on the world and give his unconditional love to Mingi.