Work Text:
Taeyang is above begging for attention, let alone to his loser boyfriend.
That’s what he says to himself at least, as he paces through his whole apartment, ranging from his bedroom to his kitchen, not before stepping around his coffee table in the living room.
He stands in front of the mirror in the hallway, turns on the light switch of his housemate’s empty room and just observes the mess in it, right before he takes himself to the bathroom and plops himself on the toilet seat, staring at his noticeably empty notification overview.
Jiung doesn’t ghost him, no. They are in fact, on very good terms, just kissed each other two days ago, had a video call yesterday, sent each other silly memes, normal. It’s just, in the entirety of their relationship, it’s always Jiung who reaches out first, the one who does the first move.
Not saying that Taeyang doesn’t do anything, he does, Jiung is just very into cheesy romantic gestures and Taeyang is not complaining. It’s fun having someone that looks at you like you hung the moon and stars in the sky (or the sun, perhaps). It strokes his ego, just a tiny bit.
Maybe he looks at Jiung the same way too but at least he’s subtle about it, Jiung is not so he is obviously way better.
Better in what? Taeyang is not sure either but better.
They were on a call last night where Jiung has told him explicitly that he is going to need an entire day to focus on his lab reports that are due tomorrow. Taeyang, who is an amazing boyfriend, by the way, agreed to give him the space to work on his reports, even to the extent of leaving his precious boyfriend stranded with nothing to do (he too, has quite a few pending assignments).
Jiung told Taeyang to just call him if anything, that he doesn’t mind if Taeyang bothers him, so Taeyang, who again, is an amazing boyfriend, replied with a I won’t, I can live without my boyfriend for a day.
In fact, they don’t even meet each other everyday. Jiung and him have different courses, sometimes things get busy, sometimes they have to go on trips away or just simply exhausted that they need a breather from everything. They are not awfully clingy but they still update and communicate with each other well.
Jiung actually has done this, as in asking for a day for himself and his laptop on multiple occasions (had to study for a test, had to complete his paperwork for a dance recital, had to ready for a presentation and many more) but every time, he is the one who folds and contacts Taeyang in the first 3 hours of his self isolation.
He would send Taeyang his silly little eye selfies which only feature one of his eyes and the wall and ceiling of the room he is in, or a picture of his laptop with questionable scientific terms scattered on it when Taeyang tries to read, or just a simple voice note claiming I miss you .
Taeyang doesn’t have to do anything. Jiung is just always there for him to reach out.
That is why he is feeling a bit out of place, like something is missing when Jiung hasn’t contacted him since eight in the morning, only sending him a good morning text and nothing else. It is currently 4 p.m. and Jiung is still nowhere to be seen with not a single sign of life from him.
Taeyang pulls on his hair before resting his head in hands. If Jiung can be busy, he can be busy too. He’s not hyper-dependent on a mere man. Choi Jiung, at that.
Sure, Jiung is hot, and smart, and caring, and knows how to drive but that’s because Taeyang has standards, not that he misses him or anything, or that he would rather go on a date on the weekend instead of working on his assignments.
He huffs right as he stands up and goes into his room, shutting the door behind him and immediately grabs his guitar for emotional support.
Taeyang turns on his laptop and stares at his half finished music review of 60s music that has to be presented next week. It’s easy work, it isn’t that hard but right now, his eyes are more focused and constantly glanced towards his phone than making sense of his own writing.
It only takes him 10 minutes to give up.
Taeyang brightens up when he sees his phone light up from the corner of his eyes. He immediately puts away his guitar and grabs his phone.
He sighs in disappointment seeing it’s just Intak, his housemate, informing him that he will stay at his boyfriend’s place today which is to be expected because Intak hasn’t stopped gushing about how Keeho will finally be back from Canada after a month away to visit his family since a week ago.
At least someone is on a date. Unlike him.
Taeyang pouts as he starts to feel like there is no use of him trying to do his work, he rereads the one and only sentence he has typed; not only his grammatical errors are concerning, it contains at least 7 typos.
“This is awful, it’s going nowhere,” he whispers to himself so he stands up and gets out of his room and stares at his reflection.
If his assignments can’t make himself busy, he’s going to find a way to do so. He tunes in his guitar, vacuums the whole place, takes out all the expired food out of the fridge, also takes out the trash even when it’s supposed to be Intak’s turn, scrubs his bathroom clean, takes an hour long shower but at the end of the day, he still thinks of Jiung .
He tries to watch a movie about a zombie apocalypse but he can’t help but to think that Jiung would be the crazy scientist who causes the entire thing. He tries watching a drama but to his absolute demise, he sees Jiung playing the second lead, not because he’s pathetic but because he is too nice. Attack on Titan? Jiung. Barbie in the Twelve Dancing Princesses? Jiung. Paw Patrol. Jiung?
What the fuck is wrong with him?
He can’t help but to scream into his pillow as he lands himself on his bed again when he finds nothing else to do, except his assignments. They are always an exception.
He understands why his mom told him to study first and get into a relationship later because damn, this whole thing is really messing with his brain.
He doesn’t want to admit it but he really misses Jiung. It’s not a daily thing that he misses his boyfriend, no, but today especially, seems to be weird for him. Like, he just needs to see Jiung or he is going to die .
Maybe he is not above begging after all.
Taeyang buries his head in between his crossed arms and groans. When did he become so soft? Was it when Jiung started to offer his arm for Taeyang to link together during dates? Or was it when Jiung pulled him into a kiss backstage after he finished his solo routine for his dance recital? Or was it—
He knows when it was. He just doesn’t want to admit it.
(It was when Jiung rambled about dragons to him after 2 bottles of soju, about how if it was scientifically ethical and possible, he would have mated a bombardier beetle with a komodo dragon to birth a makeshift dragon with their best features merged together.
Taeyang thinks he’s a nerd and a bit wrong in the head but he’s so so cute.)
Taeyang takes his phone in his hand and sits down on his bed, waiting for Jiung to answer his call. “Taeyang?” Jiung’s voice breaks through the silence of the room through the speaker. Taeyang breaks into a smile because finally, he knows that his boyfriend is not dead.
“Jiung, what is taking you so long?” he huffs. Jiung just laughs as he probably goes through his report because he falls silent for a short while before replying, “The reports are just a lot but it’s almost done! I only need to compile the citations then I will be able to print these out. This professor is a hag.”
Taeyang pouts as he contemplates his choices to voice his need to see Jiung. “So, you’re free afterwards?” he mutters, cheeks heating up as he slowly tries to coax Jiung into coming to his house without him having to explicitly say it to his face.
“Yup.” Jiung cheerfully replies, purposely pops the ‘p’ at the end.
Silence.
“Taeyang?” Jiung asks as he hears nothing but rustling as Taeyang falls back into the mattress. Taeyang rolls himself until he is lying on his stomach and pushes his cheeks against his pillow, “Intak won’t be back until tomorrow,” he mumbles.
“Okay, you’re happy that you got the house to yourself?” Jiung’s tone starts to sound like he’s confused on where this is going. Taeyang is confused too, frankly.
“Kinda but Jiung…” Taeyang drawls his vowel longer, whining, almost begging but his pride as the better boyfriend holds him back from saying it out loud. Why can’t Jiung just read his mind on what he is trying to say?
“Why didn’t you send me any selfies? ” he asks, trying to act nonchalant but Jiung just retorts as quickly as the question comes out of Taeyang’s mouth. “You said your phone storage is getting full. I don’t want to add more to that.”
“Stupid, I don’t mind having a phone full of your face,” Taeyang mutters under his breath before he speaks louder so that Jiung can hear him, “Just send it to me, I never said you should stop.”
“Taeyang, what is it? I don’t understand,” Jiung says softly as the sound of his fingers pressing on his keyboard stops, probably to pay attention fully to Taeyang. Taeyang sighs before he turns away from the phone to let out a suppressed scream, right before he turns back to the phone.
“Come over,” he demands in the most monotone voice he can muster which causes Jiung to snort before letting out a loud laugh, clearly at the expense of Taeyang. Taeyang hears the sound of a chair being pushed and a laptop being closed as he giddily smiles to himself that finally, Jiung is catching on.
“So, that is what this is, you are so bad at this. Just say you want me there,” he laughs. “I will be there in 20 minutes. You want anything?” Jiung asks while he continues to chuckle to himself, like he can’t believe his boyfriend of 2 years is still shy about asking him to come over.
Well, Taeyang is sorry that he’s emotionally constipated. He’s trying!
“I want fried chicken and beer. Payment is on you for laughing at me.” Taeyang replies before he hangs up, not allowing Jiung to speak another word to him.
Taeyang lets go of his phone and feels himself smiling slowly, giggling and burying his face in his fluffy pillows as he does so.
He is not excited because his boyfriend is coming over.
Of course not.
˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
“Taeyang? I’m here with your fried chicken,” Jiung enters Taeyang’s apartment after he unlocks the door. He looks around the familiar empty living room as he takes off his shoes. “Taeyangie?” he calls out right before he sees a mop of black hair peeking out of Taeyang’s bedroom.
“Oh, Jiung.” Taeyang comes closer with his hand in his pocket and a resting blank face. Jiung would have thought that Taeyang hates that he is here if not for the fact that Jiung knows him well enough, he is trained for this.
Jiung's face lights up and he reaches out his arm towards Taeyang, trying to bring him in a hug.
“How was your— Oh! ”
Let’s just say the number of days they have kissed have gone back to zero.