Work Text:
film has always been special to sunghoon.
there’s a sense of vulnerability when you use a film camera— to sacrifice a frame of an expensive, limited roll of material to immortalise a moment, to love a fragment of time so dearly that you are motivated to capture it forever, burning its imprint and having an everlasting piece of it in its history.
sunghoon supposes he’s looking too much into it, that maybe taking film photos isn’t as significant or silently life-changing for other people. it’s just a film camera, a film roll, and a shutter— how terrifying can it be?
yet, sunghoon finds his hands shaking slightly whenever he raises his minolta, pressing down on the button with slightly stuttered breaths each time. his first concert in taiwan, taking in the new crowd and unfamiliar faces; their first encore of the tour, back in a familiar town but a different venue, so vast and so consumingly large that he had felt so small; a rare solo trip to the outdoors, meeting an orange cat that was endearingly grumpy that he couldn’t help coo at it.
his members tease him for carrying such an old-fashioned thing around, but they’re also the first ones to crowd around his laptop when he receives an email back from the studio, fawning over the green-toned pictures and elevated shadows. the graininess of the shots add to the vintage feeling of it all, making the photos seem like such a distant era ago, when they were in truth, freshly taken a week ago.
(a month later, he sees heeseung holding a red film camera around, a starter point-and-shoot model that’s easy for beginners.)
“happy birthday, sunoo-ah,” sunghoon breathes into his boyfriend’s ear, arms tightening around the latter’s waist. “happy birthday, my sun.”
sunoo giggles, a light, easy thing that makes its way into sunghoon’s ears, tickling his heart. “thank you, hoonie hyung.” he presses a kiss at sunghoon’s jaw, lips ghosting the expanse of skin there.
“i already told jungwon i wanna be the first one to post,” sunghoon grumbles, taking his phone out and scrolling through his gallery. “we hardly have any appropriate pictures together, though.”
it’s true— all his selcas and pictures of sunoo and him together involve one of them kissing each other in any way possible, on the cheek, the lips, the nose. if they’re not kissing, then they’re wrapped in each other’s arms too closely to be clocked as platonic cuddling by the fans.
“what about this one?” sunoo points at a photo of them in the practice studio.
(in the picture, sunghoon is already dressed for the airport, clad in a leather jacket and half-rimmed glasses. he looks ever like the nerdy boyfriend subtype their fans love, and sunoo loves the stylists for perming sunghoon’s hair, making him look softer than usual. sunoo, is still dressed in a comfy tracksuit, waiting for the stylist noona to pass him something from their sponsored brand deals.
sunghoon nudges him, asking softly, “don’t i look good, sun?”
“you look like engene’s boyfriend, hoonie-hyung,” sunoo answers, rolling his eyes. “they’ll eat this right up, don’t worry.”
he runs a hand down the lapels of sunghoon’s leather jacket, patting the latter’s shoulders with a smile.
“but i’m your boyfriend, baby,” sunghoon pouts. “you haven’t said what you think yet.”
“my boyfriend is sooo handsome,” sunoo coos, pressing a light kiss right under sunghoon’s eyes, right where his mole is.
the smile that overtakes sunghoon’s face is blinding, and he leans forward to intertwine his hands with sunoo’s, tugging him closer.)
“yeah, that works.” sunghoon tuts as he adds the photo to his favourites.
then, he taps on the folder containing his scanned film shots, scrolling through the multiple scenery pictures. finally, he finds a photo that he had taken of sunoo backstage during their tour, with the latter posing with a peace sign, his face only reflected in the mirror in front of him. what takes up a major portion of the picture is merely the back of sunoo’s head— a round, adorable thing that makes sunghoon chuckle as he shows the picture to sunoo.
“yah!” sunoo laughs as he takes in the picture, eyes crinkled into beautiful lines. he playfully slaps sunghoon’s arms with a pout of his face, “this is so unflattering, hyung!”
“no, you look so cute,” sunghoon insists, zooming in on sunoo’s face in the mirror. “your smile is my favourite thing about you too!”
“what a sap,” sunoo grumbles, turning around to face sunghoon. “what if one day, i stop smiling? are you going to abandon me when that day comes?”
sunghoon smiles, cupping sunoo’s cheeks in his hands and pulling him closer. he runs a thumb across sunoo’s cheeks, the flesh there soft and giving as he presses down slightly. his smile deepens as he feels sunoo’s skin flush warmer, pink painting the apples of his cheeks.
“then, i’ll make you smile, again and again. i’ll do everything to make you happy, to make you laugh.” sunghoon murmurs, cooing when sunoo tries to turn his head away, fire already burning at his ears.
“i’ll never let you lose your shine, my sun. even when your days get rainy, i’ll protect you forever. you will never be dull, my love.”
with that, he leans in to kiss sunoo, their lips meeting in the middle. sunoo tastes of mint toothpaste, so saccharine and intoxicating that sunghoon can never get enough of him. he slides a stray hand underneath sunoo’s oversized shirt, feeling the hot skin there. sunoo trembles in his hold, breath scalding as he pulls away slightly to look into sunghoon’s eyes.
“i love you, sunghoon hyung.”
“and i love you, my darling sunoo.”
they always say one should never fly too close to sun, to take icarus’ fate as a lesson, but sunghoon is the moon that revolves on his own axis around the sun, daringly close and greedy for more.