Work Text:
“You have any plans for today?”
Yoo Joonghyuk asked, as they both sat on the carpet of their shared apartment, sorting through the clothes. Tossing Yoo Joonghyuk a shirt that was definitely not his, Kim Dokja snickered as it hit his friend’s face. Yoo Joonghyuk snatched the shirt off, eyed it carefully before he frowned:
“This isn’t mine.”
“Probably Hyunsung-ssi’s, you know, he was drunk last time and threw up everywhere?”
They both shivered at the memories, and Yoo Joonghyuk tossed the shirt to a corner like it was something radioactive.
“You haven’t answered my question yet.”
Kim Dokja shrugged, and Yoo Joonghyuk knew without his friend saying it outloud: that Kim Dokja had never have anyone to spend the special occasion with, that he already finished his deadlines so he didn’t have anything else to do, his web novel had yet to publish a new chapter, so he would probably fool around while re-reading the novels. Kim Dokja folded his legs and held them together with his hands, opening his mouth as if wanting to say something, but decided against it - Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t help but to follow every silly actions, the unusually smooth skin of his friend’s legs, or the way he bit down on one side of his lips (he always did that, Yoo Joonghyuk found it both cute and funny). Rubbing his neck, Kim Dokja then asked:
“Now what? You wanna play games or something?”
He probably wanted to ask if Yoo Joonghyuk had any plans, just to remember that he broke up with Lee Seolhwa less than a week ago - Yoo Joonghyuk just knew.
“Our fridge is empty.” Yoo Joonghyuk said instead, and - with a startling discovery - found that he liked the sound of that.
“I had my grocery list.” Kim Dokja said immediately. “So what do you say? You wanna do that now or later on?”
Yoo Joonghyuk stood up, and just like the way he was able to understand without a single word uttered, Kim Dokja was also able to understand that he would like to do that grocery right then.
“I’ll drive.” Said Yoo Joonghyuk, opening the wardrobe and threw Kim Dokja a coat. “Put this on.”
“Didn’t you say that you would drive?” Kim Dokja pouted, catching the coat with admirable timing and accuracy.
Held back the urge to pinch those lips (or just outright kiss them), Yoo Joonghyuk put on his own coat while glaring:
“You goddamn fool, don’t you have to walk to the car?”
Kim Dokja opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, just to close it again, like the goddamn fool that he is, and Yoo Joonghyuk could literally heard his thoughts: he did not want to put on too much clothes, but his roommate slash best friend was right - he does tend to get cold, but was it worth the hassle - they would drive there anyway, but he had to make a short walk to the car and into the supermarket and-
“Put the damn coat on.” Yoo Joonghyuk rolled his eyes.
“Fine…” Kim Dokja mumbled, obediently put on his coat.
And Kim Dokja really hated to admit it, but Yoo Joonghyuk was right: he nearly freezed on the short trip from their dorm to the car, and from the car into the supermarket. The heat inside was most welcomed, as long as he didn’t wander near the dairy and frozen product aisles, that was it (he would bestow that honor to his friend instead). Yoo Joonghyuk grabbed the shopping cart and walked towards the frozen food aisle, already knew his duty without being told, while Kim Dokja headed for the green aisle, grabbing things from his friend’s list. As usual, Yoo Joonghyuk would always make a grocery list full of fresh food, while Kim Dokja list was a mixture of snacks and necessities like detergent. Long ago, they had agreed that Yoo Joonghyuk would cook, Kim Dokja would clean, and they played rock-paper-scissor to determine who was gonna take care of the trash (which was a pain in the ass, considering that they can only bring the trash out at a designated time). Kim Dokja was fine with it, Yoo Joonghyuk did not protest, and both had refused to accept another roommate in their tiny dorm, so all was well.
“Joonghyuk-ah, can we have that steak you made last time?” Kim Dokja asked, dropping the chemicals (as Yoo Joonghyuk would like to call) onto the cart carelessly. “The one that was pink in the middle? With sauce?”
“It was a medium rare.” Yoo Joonghyuk rolled his eyes, carefully separating the food and the cleaning detergent. “And a mushroom sauce. What side dish?”
Kim Dokja hesitated, checking through the items in the cart. Yoo Joonghyu thought that his friend wanted to make sure that everything that they needed was included, but then he heard his friend said in the tiniest voice:
“Do we have budget to spare though?”
The steak was not cheap, and Kim Dokja knew that. Even when Yoo Joonghyuk can cook a perfect Michelin-worthy steak from scratch, the ingredients would still cost them a few meals. For Kim Dokja who worked two part-time jobs at once, and for Yoo Joonghyuk whose streams had yet to become a stable source while his fund was cut by his own parents the moment they learnt of his career choice, they had both tried to spend their money as wisely as they could. But it had been so rare for Kim Dokja to ask for a specific meal - normally, he was happy with anything that Yoo Joonghyuk made, it didn’t matter as long as it was nice and hot. The only time Kim Dokja had a request about food was when he asked for no tomatoes.
Yoo Joonghyuk remembered how much Kim Dokja enjoyed the steak that he made last time. So instead of answering directly, Yoo Joonghyuk had simply gone to grab some decent steaks and dropped them into the cart.
“We have some sweet potatoes, I can make a side dish with that.” Said Yoo Joonghyuk. “And we have cabbage already. Shouldn’t be that hard to make coleslaw.”
Kim Dokja beamed, and Yoo Joonghyuk thought that it was worth it. Maybe if he had more, he wouldn’t even hesitate to spend all the money that he had on his friend, for his friend. Right now, with the studying fee and dorm fee and everything else in between, it was all that he could provide.
(He could use some of his money from the tournament, but he had to be prepared for emergencies: the medical fee was not cheap - he learnt it the hard way when Kim Dokja had stomach ulcers. And what if something in their dorm room broke down and they couldn’t afford it? He will not let Kim Dokja hand-wash clothes in freezing temperatures, or let his friend curl up under a pile of blankets when the heater did not work properly.)
He just knew that they hadn’t come to a time where they could spend freely. Yet.
There was no need to rush, though. They are still young - having just entered university. They will have it figured out.
They.
Yoo Joonghyuk watched the cashier scanned their groceries absent-mindedly. He didn’t even realize when, but when he came to, he realized all of his future plans had Kim Dokja included. If he was heading to a tournament then he should book for a twin bed room, because his friend would definitely be there too. If he moved out of the dorm for somewhere more spacious then it should have enough space for his friend as well. If he got something nice for himself, he would start thinking if his friend would also like it. If he had a house on his own-
Then he hoped that Kim Dokja would be there, too.
“…Yah! Yoo Joonghyuk!”
Kim Dokja screeched, and Yoo Joonghyuk startled awake. He realized the cashier had already finished scanning their items, and both the cashier and his friend had been staring at him. The cashier gave Yoo Joonghyuk a customer-service smile upon realizing that his friend had successfully caught his attention. Hand gestured to the side, the cashier asked:
“Would you like one for your special someone? We have them fresh this afternoon!”
Yoo Joonghyuk looked over and suddenly he had an urge to flip the cashier off.
What the cashier mentioned were two shelves of mostly red roses, placed right next to the cashier counter, where people would definitely see them. The cashier didn’t lie when he said they were fresh: the stems were green, the petals were full and bright, some droplets of water can be seen on the flowers and the leaves. They were wrapped separately, tied delicately with colorful ribbons, Yoo Joonghyuk could smell them faintly from where he stood, but since he was never one to care for flowers, he only noticed them when they were pointed out.
Kim Dokja nudged him gently, his smile teasing as he mouthed the name of Yoo Joonghyuk’s ex-girlfriend, and all Yoo Joonghyuk could think of was how ridiculously cute his eyebrow wag looked like.
Lee Seolhwa didn’t like roses, preferring big, multi-colored hydrangeas instead. He himself didn’t like roses, but he spotted a peony, and he knew who would like it.
“For you.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, carefully placed the flower on Kim Dokja’s laps once they had both gotten into the car.
“Me?” Kim Dokja blinked. “Not Lee Seolhwa-ssi?”
Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t even bother replying, but when he drove the car out of the parking lot, he definitely heard Kim Dokja mumbled a soft thank you.
Kim Dokja didn’t like roses. He liked peonies. Yoo Joonghyuk found out about that thanks to (ironically) Kim Dokja’s bullies. Once, they came up with this lame tactic to send Kim Dokja one single rose everyday, pretended to be his “admirer”. It failed on the very first day, because if the other person was Kim Dokja’s “admirer”, they should have known that he hated roses, preferring peonies instead. It caused more outrage, because how dared someone like Kim Dokja dared to reject anyone? He was lucky that someone spared him a glance!
Things only stopped when Yoo Joonghyuk said he told Kim Dokja to do that. Because Yoo Joonghyuk was a stark contrast to his friend, favored by Gods and loved by everyone, to the point that throwing away some gifts were mere normal occurrences for him. Kim Dokja throwing rose away was unacceptable, but Yoo Joonghyuk throwing rose away was okay. The girl was just unlucky. The incident quickly died down, and Yoo Joonghyuk gained new knowledge that day: his friend hated roses.
Kim Dokja never told him why though.
They got back to their dorm room, and Kim Dokja hurried inside to put the peony somewhere. They didn’t have a flower vase, so by the time Yoo Joonghyuk finished putting away the groceries, he found his friend putting it in a glass bottle.
It was a single light-pink peony, with some random leaves for filler, all wrapped in cheap paper, but it looked charming, especially when the wrappers had hidden the bottle underneath. Kim Dokja seemed happy with it, and if Kim Dokja was happy, then Yoo Joonghyuk would also find himself in a good mood.
“Get to the sweet potatoes, you lazy ass.” He said, putting a peeler and a knife on the table.
Kim Dokja had not protest. Unusually pliant, he had gone to peel the sweet potatoes to make their side dish, a wide smile on his face remained for the rest of the night.
That is such a good look on him. Yoo Joonghyuk had thought. He can feel his ears heated up and prayed, that Kim Dokja wouldn’t notice that.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kim Dokja might have started his day by getting off on the wrong side of the bed, but by the time he came home, his bad mood had completely disappeared.
In fact, he felt like he was on cloud night as he received the bouquet of peonies from his husband. The house smelled absolutely amazing. Yoo Joonghyuk had definitely cleaned it with the lemongrass and lime floor cleaner. That other scent was definitely dinner. His husband smelled like the washing pods that they purchased together just a few days before, with a hint of the vanilla-wooden cologne that he bought. Kim Dokja went to bury his face into his husband’s neck first, inhaled greedily the scent of his beloved, then he gave his husband a loud kiss on the lips.
Every year ever since their relationship started, they would celebrate Valentine’s day like this: Yoo Joonghyuk got the peonies, cooked something fancy, Kim Dokja would either buy some really nice chocolate, or he got something else for his husband. This year, Yoo Joonghyuk served grilled cod with creamy coleslaw, and Kim Dokja brought his husband a brand new camera bag (“With wheels!”). As Kim Dokja began with his usual behavior of being a human squid while his husband prepared the coleslaw (“Baby, it must be fresh.”), he suddenly remembered their conversation from earlier that morning.
“How was your photobook contract?” Kim Dokja asked. “Did it go well?”
“Signed it as a private collection.” Said Yoo Joonghyuk. “They can publish it on our twenty-fifth anniversary, but for now-”
With a gloved hand, Yoo Joonghyuk fed the coleslaw to Kim Dokja, which the other happily accepted.
“-it’s ours and ours only.”
“You planned so far ahead Mister Kim.” Kim Dokja teased. “The sauce is so good. What’s in it?”
“I added some ketch- no, wait. Baby. Dokja-yah! I was just joking!”
It took fifteen minutes and Yoo Joonghyuk swearing on his most expensive camera set for Kim Dokja to finally believe that his husband had not tried to sneak any of that red abomination into the food that they were about to consume. Kim Dokja busied himself with the task of putting his peonies bouquet in a vase, while Yoo Joonghyuk served them dinner with some lime-like wine. Kim Dokja took a while to stand back and looked at the bouquet, before he sat down on the chair that his husband had already pulled out for him. His tilted head caught Yoo Joonghyuk’s attention when the latter corked up the white wine again.
“What was it?”
“You always know when I was about to say something.” Kim Dokja chuckled. “The flowers are lovely, dear, but why peonies?”
Yoo Joonghyuk gave him a look as if he had grown another head.
“…you said it once. That you liked peonies.” He said. “I thought- I got them for you because you said you liked them.”
Kim Dokja blinked at his husband, and Yoo Joonghyuk had this feeling as if he was an adventurer discovering the secret to the universe just to find out the recipe on how to cook some fast-food that ended up making everything tasted like carton boxes.
“You don’t like them?”
Kim Dokja paled at his husband’s expression. Yoo Joonghyuk looked surprised, devastated, like someone just spoiled his favorite series by saying that his favorite character got killed off five episodes from the one that he was currently on. Panicked, Kim Dokja took both of his husband’s hands in his own, words coming out of his mouth so fast he nearly bit on his tongue.
“Nonononono, I love them! I do! Joonghyuk-ah, husband, dear, I love the peonies. They are beautiful. I just- I like them because you gave them to me.” Kim Dokja said. “Because, because the first Valentine that we spent together in college, you have given me a single peony! Honey-”
“I bought it for you because you said you liked them once!” Yoo Joonghyuk groaned. “Back in highschool you mentioned it once when Sung-something sent you a rose to pretend as your admirer!”
Then it was Kim Dokja’s turn to look like someone had told him the Sun rises in the West.
“I was just improvising! I didn’t even know how peonies looked like until you gave me one!”
In perfect sync, they both let go of each other’s hands to cover up their faces and groaned.
Yoo Joonghyuk felt like pulling his hair out. All this time, he created a tradition based on what? A misunderstanding?? He was a goddamn fool!
A snicker came from Kim Dokja’s side, and then his face was buried into the gentle slope where the neck met the shoulder. Kim Dokja kissed Yoo Joonghyuk’s head while he laughed, and did he use that perfume I bought for him?
“Sung-something.” Kim Dokja repeated.
“Can’t remember that bitch’s name.” Yoo Joonghyuk mumbled.
“We all went through high school together, yet the only thing you remembered was some off-handed comment I said only once?” Kim Dokja cooed. “Joonghyuk-ah, I love you too much.”
Then, stopping for a while, Kim Dokja declared.
“Scratched that. There is no such thing as too much love for you.”
Holding Yoo Joonghyuk’s face, Kim Dokja peppered kisses on his face at least a dozen more times.
“Let’s eat honey. Your dishes look amazing.”
“…You don’t happen to not like cod do you?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked, sourly.
“I love everything that you cook. Except the thing which shall not be called under this roof.” Kim Dokja gave his husband another kiss. “And who said I don’t like peonies? I do. They looked so cute on our table.”
“Do they?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked, still very much upset that he gave his husband flowers - which he actually didn’t like very much until he was given.
“Ten times better when they were given to me by you.” Kim Dokja giggled, stroking his husband’s cheeks.
Sighing, Yoo Joonghyuk turned to the table, facing their Valentine’s Day dinner and the bouquet. Because he seemed upset still, Kim Dokja had decided to take it upon himself, and share the food between them.
“I still feel like a fool.” Yoo Joonghyuk said after a while.
“Oh baby… we both are.” Kim Dokja cooed, kissing his husband on the cheek again. “Now, do you still want me in that lingerie or not?”
Yoo Joonghyuk looked at his husband, then he raised an eyebrow, then he looked at their dinner, then back to Kim Dokja again.
“Yeah.”
”Then hurry up.” Kim Dokja winked at him. “The sooner, the more time we have, no?”
That, Yoo Joonghyuk agreed.