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For all the nervousness he felt over asking for the date of their dinner, he was disappointed to find that Yunho didn’t have time for him. He shrugged off the other’s profuse apologies; it wasn’t like he didn’t understand Yunho had other commitments. However, that didn’t stop the pout from forming on his lips before he could wipe it from view. The corner of Yunho’s mouth quirked, showing him that the other had caught his slip. It irritated him that the other kept catching him when he slipped, literally and figuratively.
Calling a smile to his lips, he gave his coyest look to the other before licking his lips. The smile remained on Yunho’s lips and grew larger if nothing else. He was sure that look he just gave the other had stunned plenty of people before. Why wasn’t Yunho responding like he was supposed to?
Yunho had the guts to laugh out loud after that. He looked up to see what Yunho was laughing at and was puzzled to see nothing remotely hilarious around. When Yunho finally stopped laughing, he leaned closer to the slighter figure. He refused to be intimidated by the other’s greater height and mass, choosing to stand his ground and giving the other his steadiest gaze.
Yunho whispered into his ear, “You’re adorable when you’re grumpy and refusing to show it.” He was sure his ear was burning by the time Yunho moved away. He willed his face to remain impassive, he refused to blush. Yunho brushed a finger against his cheek, a more intimate gesture than he usually allowed others to perform on his person. As quickly as the touch was there, it was gone.
“I’ll be seeing you around then? I’ll contact you when I have time alright?” and with a careless backward wave he was dismissed. He didn’t know if he was annoyed at being dismissed or impressed at the other’s nonchalance.
For all the confidence that he displayed as he walked away, he was actually very apprehensive about leaving Jaejoong without a solid date planned. He hadn’t allowed himself to hope for anything besides the politeness bestowed upon acquaintances from Jaejoong, especially after the way the other left the day before. It was a surprise to have the other approach him about a dinner he didn’t think would happen. He was truly disappointed that his schedule didn’t allow him time to properly take Jaejoong out.
Heading over to the locker rooms, he allowed himself to replay their entire exchange in his head. He couldn’t believe how simple it was to see past Jaejoong’s masks now. Maybe his borderline obsession was paying off or perhaps Jaejoong’s meticulous façades were starting to fall away. Whatever the case, he enjoyed being able to fluster the other.
Recalling Jaejoong’s pout brought a smile to his face that not even his vigorous hapkido workout could erase. In his opinion, that pout was more delicious than the coy look behind lowered lashes that Jaejoong gave him. It was a much more honest expression than the calculated flirtations that Jaejoong had given countless others before.
That’s not to say he wasn’t completely unaffected by the lowered lashes and lip licking. It was the only reason he had invaded Jaejoong’s personal space to begin with. Having the other realize his false affections were working wonders on his body wouldn’t make Jaejoong open up to him. At least being close, Jaejoong could only see what he wanted him to see.
The fact that Jaejoong got shy at the close proximity was just an extra perk. He couldn’t even control his hand from touching the other and he berated himself for it. He needed to walk away before doing something he’d regret later. That was the reason he was throwing all the power he possessed into the practiced motions of control.
He was surprised when he found his mother and two of his sisters waiting for him at his apartment. He hadn’t expected to ever see them at his place, since he’d moved from where he initially roomed with the college student. Before he could speak, he was held in three pairs of arms and being cried on. He quickly unlocked his door and ushered the three women into his apartment before his neighbors could witness the drama.
Directing them to his small living room/dining area, he got out four mismatched cups and started the tea. He had no idea why his mother and sisters looked for him, but he wouldn’t get any answers out of them until they calmed down. By the time he could serve the tea, the women were down to an occasional sniffle and mostly dried eyes.
He was seized by the sudden thought that something horrible must have happened at home. In his panic, he asked frantically, “What happened? Is everyone all right? Is it appa?”
“No pabo! It was you!” his mother tapped him on the nose sharply as his sisters nodded in agreement.
“Me? What did I do?” he was embarrassed he could quite keep the whine out of his voice.
“You move away, you don’t call home, you don’t answer the phone. What were we supposed to think? You were out on your own. Something could have happened to you and none of us would have known.”
“Ah, well I’m fine. I just forgot about refilling the credits on the phone.” He lied. His phone was fully functional, he just wasn’t sure if he wanted to face his family. “How did you even find me anyway?”
“Your boss. You should stop working there Joong-ah. We didn’t even tell him we were your sisters and he just gave us your address. What if some creepy old man asks him the same and he let them know where you live?”
“Well he already knows, so whether I work for him or not is irrelevant now. Besides,” he glared at the pair “I’m a guy. I can take care of myself.”
“But Jaejoo—” their protests were cut off by their mother’s “How are you, Joongie?”
“I’m fine umma.” He didn’t pull away from the hand reaching for his cheek.
“You’ve gotten thinner. You should eat more. Umma brought some…” she groped inside her large bag for the containers of kimchi she prepared. “The white kind and the regular kind, extra spicy like you like it.”
“Thank you umma.” He lets out a genuine smile for the first time in a long while.
He was approached by his coach at the end of practice wearing a face that didn’t spell good news. The coach wasn’t a man to beat around the bush and stated his point directly. “Jung, one of our sponsors has pulled out due to economic reasons,” a grimace “so we need your help.”
“How can I help? How much money do we need?”
“We’re going to need several million1 to cover the traveling costs.”
“Several million?!” his eyes went wide “How are we supposed to raise that much money?!”
“So this is where you come in. There’s this clothing store that could sponsor us if we get them a model for their clothing line.” The coach looked meaningfully at him.
“Uh…sure. What clothing line is it?” he was never good at resisting a cry for help, especially when it came to someone he respected as much as his seonsaengnim.
“It’s a foreign brand trying to get into the market here. Anyway, I scheduled an appointment to meet with them after practice so you should go get ready.”
He nodded and hurried to shower and change. If the coach already made an appointment, then the deal was pretty much already sealed. He probably only needed to show up and sign the paperwork. He didn’t mind that the decision was already made for him, if he could contribute in any way, he was glad to help.
An hour later, he was posing in front of a camera and wondering what he had gotten himself into. The stylist ladies didn’t have him change clothes since it was only a test photo shoot, but had arranged his hair to feather over his face and applied makeup to his face.
He stood stiffly and awkwardly in front of the camera as the photographer asked him to pose. Determined not to make a fool of himself, he tried to follow directions as closely as he could. However, the instructions were only “look cool” and “relax”. Not really knowing what to do, he relaxed his posture and stuck his hand in his pocket. When he heard the shutter click, he changed the angle of his body and face.
He didn’t get any feedback from the photographer, so he just kept changing poses before the photographer deemed he had seen enough to make a decision. Pulling up the photos on his computer, he called the Evisu2 stylists over to discuss the pictures.
He was glad to be out of the spotlight and headed over to have his makeup removed. He assumed the excited chatter meant he passed the “interview” and would be modeling for them.
He was a bit shocked when Yunho finally contacted him for their long promised date. Although Yunho wasn’t hard on the eyes normally, the new haircut and auburn color made the man drool-worthy. He could already hear the girls tittering around them when Yunho flashed his usual smile.
“Jaejoong-ah!” he had to stop himself from grinning at being addressed and smiled politely instead.
“Yunho-sshi, what a pleasant surprise. I was starting to think you were avoiding me.”
“Avoid you?! Never~ and what’s with this ‘sshi’ business? Don’t we know each other well enough to drop the ‘sshi’?” he pouted exaggeratedly to show his hurt feelings.
“Really now, Yunho-sshi,” he caught himself before he laughed at the cute display “what made you think that?”
“I’m asking you on a date aren’t I?” Yunho’s triumphant smirk signaled his attempt to stop the blush from blossoming failed. The sudden silence around them made him realize they had an attentive audience listening for his answer. He suddenly wasn’t sure how he was supposed to respond.
In the past, he’d turned down invitations without hesitation but he’d never been approached for a date in front of so many people. Besides that, he didn’t really want to turn Yunho down since he was the one that suggested dinner in the first place. He was so distracted by his own thoughts, he didn’t realize Yunho was leaning closer until he felt the puff of air against his ear.
“I won’t force you to answer right now, but if you’re interested, I want to take you out this Saturday.” He whispered so close that Jaejoong could feel his lips make contact with the shell of his ear. Then Yunho turned his head and his lips brushed ever so slightly against his neck that he couldn’t hold back the shudder down his spine.
Yunho pulled back and gave him another smile before brushing past his shoulder and continuing his trek to class as if nothing happened. Jaejoong turned and watched him go dazed before he remembered the people still watching him. Pulling on an amused expression, he continued on his way to class as well.
“Omo! Did you just see that?!”
“It was freaking hot! Yunho and Jaejoong-sshi would make the hottest couple ever!”
“I knew those rumors were true! Ever since the tutoring, I knew something was going on between them. Remember when…”
“Oh shit! Does that mean Jung Yunho’s a fucking sissy?” a cruel laugh followed “He probably loves sucking cock and taking it up the ass.”
“That totally explains the ‘back injury’ he got last year then. You know, the one he said he got from landing wrong during practice. He was probably being fucked too hard to walk straight.”
He paused when he heard that one. “Excuse me?”
“What the problem pretty boy? Oh, I’m sorry, I meant pretty girl.” An ugly sneer crossed his face as his friends start to crowd his way.
“I couldn’t help but overhear you talking about Yunho-sshi and his apparently active sex life.”
“Oh I see, are you trying to get into his pants too?” A false look of sympathy “Oppa here can teach you much more than that fag could.”
“I’d have to decline. I was wondering how you knew so much about his sex life if you weren’t interested in him. Obviously you must have fantasized about him a lot to have all those stories to tell. For someone that so keen on being straight, you’ve certainly put in a lot of thought about gay sex starring Yunho-sshi.” He gave all of them his coldest glare then smiled a cruel smile, “He’s a nice guy, I’m sure he’ll turn you down gently so your closet homosexual heart won’t be shattered.”
He anticipated the fist thrown at his face but didn’t dodge it. His lip split on his teeth and he smiled back at the satisfied smirk on the other student’s face. “And now that you’ve thrown the first punch, you can’t complain about this.” Two quick jabs into the diaphragm and a left hook into the side of the neck had the larger student crumpling.
His friends tried to ambush him all at once, he let them all hit him a few times before fighting back. He’d been in enough bar fights to know how to defend himself from anger and ego. He also knew that people tended to underestimate him because of his looks. He rather liked that he was underestimated because it gave him a greater advantage when he got into situations like this, not that he often did. His quick reflexes and strength let him easily take on all the other students at once without too much trouble.
By the time the teacher reached the fight, he was sporting a split lip, a cut above his eye, and several bruises on his person. The other four weren’t as lucky and a couple were crumpled on the ground. The teacher immediately sent all of them to the school nurse while asking the students for the whole story and ushering them to class.
He got a warning for getting into a fight, but wasn’t suspended like the four others who had “started” the fight. Since all the students agreed that the bullies threw the first punch, his fighting was considered self-defense. A short chastisement later, he was free to attend classes again. He made sure to smirk at the homophobes on his way out.
He spent the walk to class thinking about Jaejoong’s exquisite responses to his request for the date on Saturday. Remembering the red tinting his face made him more bold and daring than he thought he could be. He wasn’t usually this forward when pursuing someone, but he liked drawing those flustered reactions from the seemingly always prepared man.
There was something truly amazing about the other that made him unable to control himself though. It scared him how much differently the other made him act from his usually disciplined self. He wasn’t guarded in his responses in the manner that Jaejoong was, but he certainly didn’t start flirting shamelessly when he was interested in someone.
Thinking back at the unplanned kiss he brushed on Jaejoong’s neck made his face burn too. He hadn’t meant to corner Jaejoong in public, but he was a bit desperate to finalize plans for their dinner before Jaejoong could make plans for the weekend. When he realized he cornered the other, he wanted to take away the pressure of having the gorgeous man respond if he was uncomfortable (and he wanted to be spared the public humiliation of a rejection).
What he didn’t realize was how much the other man affected him. While he was watching Jaejoong from afar, his interest was caught but he didn’t have an emotional investment with that interest. Having spent time with the other, he truly wanted to know more about him, wanted to know why he chose to hide himself, wanted to know more about him than anyone else had the privilege to know.
More than that, the other made him hungry in ways he wasn’t before. His hunger made him greedy and his greed was starting to manifest itself in physical ways. His eyes sought out the other whenever he could be around, fingers sought to touch the other when he was within reach, his lips wanted to kiss the other whenever they spoke. If he thought he had borderline obsession before, he surely crossed that line and entered addiction.
His musings were interrupted by the barrage of students entering the classroom talking about the fight that happened in the corridor. He caught Jaejoong’s name from one of the students and was instantly worried about the other. He immediately grabbed a student entering the classroom and started questioning him about the fight. He was absolutely furious when he heard of the school bullies ganging up on Jaejoong and was satisfied that Jaejoong ended up beating most of them. He was livid when he heard he was the possible reason for their fight.
“Kim Jaejoong, you stupid, stupid man!” he uttered under his breath. He wouldn’t be able to see the other student until after classes were over unless he snuck out. “Seonsaengnim, my back is bothering me again. Could I go to the clinic for a heat compress?”
“Jung Yunho, you need to take better care of yourself. Don’t you have a competition coming up soon?” he nodded, “Go to the clinic then.”
“Yeh, seonsaengnim.” He walked out the classroom before running the rest of the way to the clinic. Pulling open the door, he didn’t see Jaejoong lying on any of the cots there. After getting a hot compress, he wandered around the corridors looking for the other student. After circling a few times, he decided to return to his classroom and look for Jaejoong later.
He ran into Jaejoong on his way back to his room and caught the other before he fell. He took one look at Jaejoong’s face and dragged him into the closest restroom. Ignoring all of the shorter man’s protests, he pulled Jaejoong under the light and inspected his face with his lips set in a grim line. The cut above his eye was bandaged but there was nothing to hide the split lip from Yunho. He growled and tightened his grip on Jaejoong’s chin.
“It’s really not as bad as it looks.” Jaejoong said in a light tone.
“That’s because you’re still hiding most of it. Take off your shirt and let’s see the rest of it.” His voice brooked no argument.
“Uh…that won’t be necessary—” but he had already gotten a hold of the hem of Jaejoong’s shirt and was tugging it out of his pants. Once free of the pants, the shirt was lifted up to his chest as Yunho bend forward to scrutinize the bruises starting to form on his stomach and sides. Jaejoong’s hands clawed at Yunho’s grip on his shirt in vain. “It’s seriously not that bad, I’ll just be a bit sore.”
Jaejoong finally tugged his shirt back down to cover his stomach as Yunho turned around and tried to gather his bearings. When Jaejoong tapped him on the shoulder, he lost control. “You stupid, idiotic moron.”
Jaejoong blinked, he definitely wasn’t expecting that. “Uh well…”
“You could have gotten hurt badly! The hell were you thinking?!” his hands were clenched into fists as he yelled at Jaejoong.
“Well they weren’t really good anyway. I just let them hit me a few times so that I could claim self-defense and…”
“You let them hit you? You freaking—” he broke off to punch the wall. The pain rippling through his fist cleared his mind a bit. He turned around wanting to say something but stopped when he saw Jaejoong’s smile.
“What?”
“Does this mean you aren’t taking me out on Saturday anymore?”