Work Text:
“You treat me like shit.”
For a second Yuta, thinks Jaehyun is talking to someone else, until he realizes that they’re the only ones in the apartment, and that would make absolutely no sense. But what just came out of Jaehyun’s mouth makes absolutely no sense either.
Yuta looks away from his phone only to be met with Jaehyun’s emotionless stare on the other side of the long sofa that they’re both sitting on. It’s odd really, because he can’t recall another time where his boyfriend had ever looked at him like this.
“What?” Yuta asks. He quirks up an eyebrow and gives him a quizzical half-grin.
“I-” Jaehyun pauses and averts his eyes.
The temperature had started to drop now, but it was still too hot to be fully decked out in fall clothes. That didn’t stop Jaehyun from sporting his favorite beanie even inside where it wasn’t necessary. He always did get cold easily.
Jaehyun takes a deep breath. In and out. In and out. Until he finally looks up and faces Yuta again.
“My instagram post.” His boyfriend begins. “All you did was comment about Mark.”
He racks his brain to remember what his boyfriend was talking about. Jaehyun is rarely active online and when he is, it’s always a perfectly curated post that shows off his aesthetic. Well, except the one he posted last week with Mark in the corner. You could barely see their mutual friend, but Yuta did, and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment with a surplus of heart emojis and a simple “Mark!”
“You’re mad at me because of Instagram?”
It’s ridiculous for Jaehyun to be genuinely mad at something so insignificant as an Instagram comment. Social media has never been their forte as a couple. He’s never posted Jaehyun on anything or vice versa. Why does an Instagram comment, or maybe the lack thereof in this case, matter now?
Jaehyun puffs out his cheeks like he always does when he needs time to think about what to say next.
“It’s not just because of that Yuta.”
Yuta rolls his eyes. It just seems a little bit dramatic to him that Jaehyun cares so much. His fondness towards Mark has been an inside joke between their friends for years. It had started way before he and Jaehyun had started dating, and Yuta had no plans of stopping anytime soon. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it makes their friends laugh.
Jaehyun sighs in frustration, ears flushed crimson like they get whenever he’s embarrassed.
“You invited all our friends to the trip I planned for just the two of us. I’m always the one making big romantic gestures. I plan all of our dates. I’m the one that confessed-”
“Where is this coming from?” Yuta interrupts his tirade.
It wasn’t like Jaehyun to be so insecure. Sure, he may seem somewhat jealous whenever he dotes on Mark, but it’s something Yuta can easily joke about with him, or at least that’s what he had thought. It had never been a problem that Jaehyun was often the one taking the initiative in their relationship. Why the sudden change now?
The room is silent again. Both of them stare at each other, but neither of them say anything until Jaehyun groans.
“I talked to Sicheng-” He starts, only to be cut off by Yuta again.
“You talked to Sicheng?!” Yuta all but shrieks.
“In case you didn’t know, he’s my best friend Yuta.” Jaehyun spits.
The red flush that usually stops at his ears has traveled all over and covered his face at this point.
“I know that.” Yuta shrinks into himself.
Of course he knew that, but Sicheng hadn’t been a common topic of conversation between them ever since he had moved back home.
“He told me you confessed to him.” Jaehyun whispers, so quietly that Yuta almost doesn’t hear him. “He said he never planned to, but when I came to him for advice about how to bring this up to you, he just had to.”
“That was years ago.” Yuta replies.
It was before Jaehyun was even a blip on his radar romantically, an unrequited confession that Yuta prepared for knowing it would lead to a rejection, but it was something he needed to say at the time.
“The way you treat Mark now is the same way you treated Sicheng then.” Jaehyun’s voice cracks. He’s as close to crying as Yuta’s seen him in years.
He takes another deep breath, aiming to control his composure as much as he can. “I don’t want to be a consolation prize or someone to waste your time on until who you really want is free.”
A consolation prize? Is that what Jaehyun thought he was to Yuta? Is that what Yuta made him think?
“Jaehyun, I want you. I’m with you. I chose you.” Yuta stresses. “You have to believe me.”
His boyfriend smiles at him, though it looks so heartbreaking it might as well be a frown.
“It’s not always easy to believe you.”
This time, Yuta can feel his own features morph into a frown. The running gag of him always lying was just for fun, it was never supposed to interfere in his romantic life. It was never supposed to make Jaehyun doubt him, doubt them.
“Mark and Sicheng got public displays of affection, declarations of love, all the attention they could ever want from you.” Jaehyun says. “I get jokes from our friends about how I’m a third wheel in my own relationship.”
“I love you.” This time, his voice cracks. Tears are collecting in his own eyes, matching the ones already spilling from Jaehyun’s.
“It doesn’t feel like you do.”
Yuta stares at his boyfriend (ex?) from across the couch. He’s desperate to reach out, but Jaehyun’s never been this tense around him. He doesn’t know if moving closer would change any of it.
“What can I do to fix it?” Yuta asks anyway. “I can stop joking around with Mark. I can start planning dates. I can do more. Tell me how to fix this.”
Jaehyun sniffs behind his tears and gives him one last sad smile. “I don’t think you can.”