Work Text:
“Hey,” Chenle says, plopping down in a chair next to Jisung’s, a curious little box in his hands. Jisung looks up from his phone long enough to peer into and observe what’s inside: temporary tattoos. A lot of them, and, in Chenle’s other hand, a hand towel and a bottle of water. Jisung has been sitting dutifully in his chair for a while, planted in front of the brightly lit mirror of his assigned vanity for the day as he waits for a makeup artist to work their magic on his face. He’s pretty sure that person isn’t supposed to be Chenle.
“Hey,” Jisung replies, “What are you doing?”
“Helping the stylists,” Chenle says. Jisung just looks at him, and Chenle jerks his chin in the direction of Jeno, who is doing as he’s told and letting a stylist apply temporary tattoos very deliberately all over his body.
“Did you ask?”
“Does it matter?”
Jisung sighs. “Chenle, what if you get in trouble?”
“I’ll tell them it was you,” Chenle deadpans, and Jisung rolls his eyes. “Come on, why not?” He’s pouting and Jisung feels a strong urge to run in the other direction.
“You know why,” he says, and now Chenle rolls his eyes. “It’s not a good idea.” To do something like this in front of everybody because they’ll figure it all out in an instant is what he doesn’t have to add, but Chenle doesn’t seem to care.
“You’re ridiculous.”
Jisung shrugs. Sensing that he’s won him over, Chenle scooches closer and takes Jisung’s arm in his hand, staring at it like he’s waiting for some inspiration to strike. Jisung yanks his arm back.
“Put them somewhere you can’t see,” Jisung mumbles, and he blushes when Chenle raises his eyebrows at him. “Not what I meant,” he huffs, and Chenle wisely doesn’t say anything.
“As you wish,” Chenle replies, and he digs around in his box until he finds a few small tattoos that he thinks he likes.
“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Jisung offers as an explanation, but Chenle acts like he didn’t hear him.
Chenle inches even closer, brushing some hair off of Jisung’s neck and pressing his finger right under the corner of his jaw. “Here,” he says, almost to himself, and then he turns away to dampen his hand towel. Jisung takes a nervous look around, just to make sure no one’s watching them, and then goes back to staring at Chenle’s fingers as he peels the plastic off of the tattoo. “Tilt your head back,” Chenle orders, and Jisung does as he’s told, leaning back in his chair and gripping the armrests of his chair.
Chenle hums as he places the temporary tattoo under Jisung’s jaw, holding it there with his damp towel and two of his fingers. They make eye contact and Jisung looks away.
“You’re being silly, Jisung-ah,” Chenle murmurs, clicking his tongue quietly. “You think if we don’t look at each other our little secret is safe?”
“I don’t like being reckless at work, Lele.”
“They know anyway.” Jisung hates when Chenle says that, even though it’s probably true. It’s not like he actually thinks they have anyone fooled, and he doubts their company cares enough to do anything about it. Still, he likes to put on some facade of trying at least a little bit to keep their relationship under wraps at work.
Chenle is done with the tattoo he’s placed carefully under Jisung’s jaw, but he grabs another one and places it in virtually the same spot, only a few millimeters to the left. He leans even closer as he does it, making a fuss about making sure it’s in the right spot and that the towel is wet enough, but Jisung knows he just likes getting him flustered when there’s nothing he can do to stop him. The heat radiating off of his cheeks says enough about how he himself feels about that.
Once Chenle seems satisfied that the second tattoo is done, he leans back and Jisung lets out a small sigh of relief. His anxiety is back almost immediately, though, because then Chenle smiles softly at him and places another tattoo under Jisung’s left eye. They’re close enough that Jisung could kiss him if he leaned forward just a little, and that knowledge is enough to make him blush deeper. Chenle holds the towel under his eye longer than he did with the others, long enough to make Jisung squirmy.
“Do you wanna do something later?” Jisung finds himself asking, grabbing Chenle’s hand and gently lowering it and the towel from his face. Chenle just uses his other hand to peel the tattoo backing off.
“Sweet,” Chenle says softly. “You look really sweet.” Jisung clears his throat and Chenle remembers his question. “Yeah. Like what?”
“We could watch a movie,” Jisung says meaningfully, and Chenle rolls his eyes, though neither of them miss how his cheeks turn red.
“Okay,” Chenle says. “I’ll tell the boys to leave us alone.” He won’t have to, because everyone in the dorm knows what it means when the two of them say they’re going to go “watch a movie,” but that’s just one more thing Jisung likes to think gives everyone else the illusion that he and Chenle are at least trying to be discrete.
“Your turn,” Jisung says, and he snatches the tattoos and damp towel from Chenle’s hands.
“I—” Chenle starts to protest, but faster than he knows what’s happening, Jisung has gotten out of his chair and instead forced Chenle to take his spot.
Jisung glances at himself in the mirror over Chenle’s head, noting the butterfly and orange star Chenle has placed just below his jaw. He turns back to Chenle and decides to do the same, flicking through the tiny pieces of temporary tattoo paper until he finds a similar butterfly, which he places a little lower than his own. Hardly enough to even be noticeable, which Chenle is quick to point out.
“I think us having the same tattoo in the same place says more than us just putting them on each other,” he murmurs, and Jisung ignores him, choosing to place an orange flower in a slightly different spot, the spot behind Chenle’s jaw, just below his ear. The spot Jisung knows is most sensitive. He leans in closer, truly just making sure that he’s got the whole thing covered with the towel, and when he pulls away again Chenle is staring at him with wide eyes.
Jisung can’t help what he does next— he really, really can’t. He leans in again and brushes his lips over Chenle’s ear, and for once, Chenle pushes him away, digging the knuckles of his clenched fists into Jisung’s stomach. Jisung gives him an amused smile, the towel in his hand long forgotten, and Chenle glares at him.
“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Chenle mocks, imitating him in a whiny tone, and Jisung can’t help but laugh. He might have responded, might have mocked him back, but then Jeno appears behind them and clears his throat, making both of them jump.
“Jeno,” Jisung says in greeting. Jeno gives him a look that says he knows exactly what he and Chenle were doing over here, and Jisung wisely averts his eyes.
“Hi,” Jeno says pointedly, “Chenle, they want you over there.” He gestures in the direction of the woman who was putting temporary tattoos on him a couple minutes ago, and Chenle dutifully gets up and walks off, not casting another glance in their direction. Jeno and Jisung stand next to each other, making eye contact in the mirror before Jisung looks away. Jeno doesn’t say anything else, just walks off.
Jisung follows him a few moments later.
⭑
Hours later, after Jisung has taken his own solo photos, he wanders back towards his dressing room to get changed. He was in the middle today, meaning Chenle and Jaemin had already gotten their photos taken after some group shots, but the other four boys haven’t yet.
He passes Renjun’s dressing room, then Jaemin’s, and he’s about to make it past Chenle’s when the door flies open and someone drags him inside. That someone being Chenle, of course, and Jisung can’t say he’s even a little bit surprised. He blindly locks the door himself, and Chenle’s fingers go from being wrapped around his wrist to being in his hair in a second.
“How much time do we have?” Chenle asks, and Jisung registers that he’s taken off his knitted cardigan and most of his makeup, too.
“Well, considering how long ours took…” Jisung trails off, not because he’s trying to be sarcastic, but because he’s staring at that area below Chenle’s jaw where he put those damn tattoos. “Those look really nice there,” he says, raising a hand to graze over them gently.
Chenle shoves him up against a wall in response, and Jisung smiles at him lazily, staring at Chenle’s lips as they ask him, “Jisung, did you lock the door?”
Jisung nods, and a grin spreads across Chenle’s face.
“Good.”