Chapter Text
Jooyeon was happy. Happier than he could ever imagine. Sure, it was hard to balance his and Hyeongjun’s relationship with work, but they were starting to get the hang of it. The two of them slipped away whenever they could. Any moment of peace the two could find was enough.
He was happy, but he was also frustrated. Besides the close call on their first date, they still hadn’t actually kissed, and it was beginning to get to Jooyeon. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking about how cute it would be to drag Hyeongjun away from practice to a small room hidden away and kiss him senseless.
He thought about it so much, it was beginning to affect his playing. The band were more and more often having to stop to let the bassist catch up. It was starting to annoy the others, but they were doing their best to remain patient.
"Hey!" Gunil called one afternoon, when they had all had enough. He stopped everyone, emerging from behind the drum kit to face the bassist. "Jooyeon, what's going on? What happened? You've been struggling with practice all week."
Jooyeon’s cheeks burned. Just over his oldest hyung's shoulder, Hyeongjun was blinking at him with big eyes. "U-uhm, no, nothing happened," he stuttered, trying his best to remain calm. He felt worse now that someone else had addressed it. "Sorry, I'm just tired. I'll try harder to focus from now on, I promise."
The drummer's frown just deepened. "You know you can talk to us all right? If something happened, you can say. We can take a break and we can all talk if you would prefer. We've been practising for hours, a break would be good for everyone."
"Yeah, of course," Jiseok beamed at Jooyeon, though his eyes were a swirl of emotions. "A break would be good." He dropped his guitar into its stand and collapsed down on the floor. "C'mon, let's lie here and chat." He gestured for the youngest to join him.
Instead, Jooyeon just shifted. "Maybe, instead…" He darted forward, grabbing Hyeongjun’s wrist and dragging him along as he ran towards the door. "We'll be back in 10 minutes for practice again!" he shouted as the two of them disappeared out the door.
As they ran down the hallway at JYP, Hyeongjun asked, "Jooyeon! Where are we going?"
The younger didn’t reply. He just kept running, eventually dragging the other into one of the small rooms used for practice. Once the door was closed, Jooyeon froze. What was his plan from here? Hyeongjun just stared at him, one of his eyebrows slowly raising. The younger couldn’t even look him in the eye.
The guitarist took his hand again, moving him to sit down on one of the available chairs there. He then took a seat next to him. “Hey, Joo. What’s wrong?”
Instead of replying, the younger just fell back against the chair with a loud groan. “Nothing… I’m just being an idiot…” He said eventually.
Hyeongjun shifted for a second before he said, "no matter how small or unimportant, you can tell me because I find everything about you interesting." Jooyeon turned his head to look over at him as he quickly added on the end, "but only if you're comfortable sharing! Otherwise, that's alright and we can just sit in silence… or something-"
He was cut off when Jooyeon tugged his hand, pulling him forward. They fell against each other, their lips connecting for a few blissful seconds. Hyeongjun’s lips were so soft and warm against his own, the feeling spreading happiness through his entire body. The emotion was quickly replaced with a stinging sense of regret though.
The younger moved back in an instant. "Wait no!" Hyeongjun watched, cheeks aflame as Jooyeon stuttered over his words, clearly frustrated about something. "This wasn't supposed to be like this! I kissed you without asking. No, I was meant to ask first in case you didn't want to. God, I'm so stupid…!" He trailed off, the older’s laugh ringing like bells through the room.
Hyeongjun stopped quickly, realising how his boyfriend's eyes were on him, a weird awe shining in them. "What?" he asked softly.
"You're just very beautiful." Jooyeon took the blushing man's hands in his own. "Can I kiss you? Properly this time?"
Hyeongjun felt almost light headed at how fast his heart was beating. "Yes," the word was barely there.
Jooyeon heard him, leaning forward to capture his lips once again. This time he let the happiness course through him freely, his head pounding and empty at the same time. He could feel it when Hyeongjun’s lips curled upwards into the smallest smile. He was happy. They were both happy.
The older pulled away first, and as soon as he did Jooyeon pulled him against his chest, arms wrapping around his shoulders like an octopus. Hyeongjun couldn’t help but smile at the youngest, ruffling his hair and hugging him back.
“I really like you,” Jooyeon mumbled into the other’s hoodie. “Like a lot.”
Hyeongjun just hummed. “Good. I like you a lot too.”
The younger tilted his head to look up at his boyfriend. “I’m so happy you’re confident enough to tell me that now without getting nervous.”
“Oh, I’m nervous, trust me.” He chuckled, unable to wipe the smile off his face. “But the nerves from the kiss help cancel out the nerves from telling you I like you.”
Jooyeon couldn’t help but snort at that. He sat up, taking the older’s face in his hands again and kissing his forehead. “You’re cute.” He took Hyeongjun’s hands in his own and looked into his eyes. “I want to stay with you for a very long time.”
The older’s cheeks flushed a few shades darker as he lowered his head. “I want that too.”
Leaning down, Jooyeon kissed his cheek gently. “We should get back to practice now. But first…” When Hyeongjun looked up at him quizzically, he brushed their lips against each other one last time. “Okay, now we can go,” he said as he dashed for the door, a playful smile on his lips.
“Hey! Come back here!” the older protested, though his words were soft. All the way back to the room, neither of them could stop grinning.