Chapter Text
Hanbin pulls away from the other’s lips, breathing out slowly in a failed attempt to calm himself down. There’s knocking on the door, shouts and rouses for them to hurry up and get out. Hanbin feels Jaehyun go to pull away and he tightens the hand he has on the younger’s jaw, leaning back in for a quick kiss. Jaehyun leans up into the kiss, both eager and shy at the same time. Hanbin laughs softly, pulling away. He blinks his eyes open, finding Jaehyun breathing steadily as he opens his eyes slowly.
“Hurry up, you horn dogs!” Matthew yells, knocking on the door again.
Hanbin pulls away fully, taking a step back. He remembers himself and where exactly they’re at, running his hands through his hair and trying to fix his shirt. He looks over at Jaehyun to see him doing the same, cheeks as equally pink as his.
“That was, um, good,” Hanbin says awkwardly, all previous bravado and suaveness out the window now that they’re no longer kissing. “Really good, yeah, thanks.”
He pauses, wanting to hit himself. Who the fuck thanks someone for seven minutes in heaven?
“I agree!” Jaehyun says quickly, clearing his throat. Hanbin’s still shocked at how low and gravel his voice is, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it. “That was, um, really nice, yeah.”
Great, so they’re both awkward after this. One of them has to be normal.
Hanbin forces a smile, projecting his inner Shen ‘Ricky’ Quanrui. He reaches out a hand, fixing a part of Jaehyun’s hair. “There, now you don’t look like you’ve been making out for an hour.”
Jaehyun lets out a deep laugh, pushing off against the wall. He unlocks the inside of the closet, screaming and ducking when the doors instantly get pulled open to reveal Sungchan and Matthew standing outside. Hanbin laughs, reaching a hand down to help Jaehyun up.
“It’s about time! That was almost eight minutes,” Wonbin calls from their circle. “Hurry up, the rest of us want to play still.”
Jaehyun lets go of his hand as they walk to the circle.
“Enjoyed it?” Matthew asks slyly, a greasy grin painting his face.
Hanbin can match his energy. He grins, meeting his gaze dead on. “Thoroughly.”
Matthew snorts, clearly seeing through his farce but not commenting on it as he sits back down. Hanbin does as well, a little ways away from Jaehyun in their large circle. Hao leans in close, inspecting him thoroughly.
“How are you not dead yet?” He asks, tilting his head in confusion.
“I channeled my inner Shen Ricky Quanrui. I am Shen Ricky Quanrui.”
Hao’s face turns conflicted at those words, clearly not knowing if he should laugh or not. Gyuvin hears him and starts snickering, causing Hanbin to let out his laugh and the two of them laugh quietly together. The game picks back up with Seunghan spinning the bottle in the center and Hanbin settles back in his place, leaning on his hands and looking around at the odd group they have going on. He looks down the line at Jaehyun, taking in the younger’s wide grin as their game continues to go on.
He’s never even met this boy before until now and he’s already locking lips.
Hanbin shakes his head, meeting Jaehyun’s eyes as he looks over. Jaehyun’s eyes widen slightly at the sudden eye contact and dart away quickly, leaving a smile on Hanbin’s lips.
Sungchan and some girl come out of the closet together, effectively pulling Hanbin from his staring.
Later in the night when the party dies down and people start to slowly trickle out, Hao suggests they get their group together and leave. Hanbin nods, tracking down Matthew and Gyuvin.
“We’re leaving already?” Gyuvin asks, eyes going wide. Hanbin told his eyes, pressing his hand into the other’s face and pushing him back.
“Yes, come on.”
“You’re too in love with Hao,” Matthew complains.
“Uh, huh, come on,” he says, grabbing his friend’s shoulders and pushing them in front of him.
They navigate the almost empty house, some people still sitting in groups drinking or playing a game on the TV. It’s quieter now, more hazy, less chaotic. Hao’s waiting at the door with Ricky and Taerae.
“Are we all good to go?” Hao asks, looking at all of them.
Hanbin nods, gesturing for the boys to get moving. He stops when his name gets called, looking around and scanning the area before he sees Jaehyun walk up to him, his friend lingering a few steps behind him.
“You guys are leaving?” Jaehyun asks, looking at his friends behind him.
“Yeah, it’s getting pretty late and we have kind of a drive back home,” Hanbin tells him with a small laugh and shrug. “When are you guys heading out?”
“Probably here soon,” Jaehyun says, looking at his friend with a hum. His friend raises an eyebrow, leaning against the wall. Jaehyun looks back at Hanbin quickly. “Actually, before you go I was wondering if I could perhaps get your number? Possibly?”
Hanbin’s eyes widen slightly at the question, shocked by it, but pleased nonetheless and it transfers through a wide smile. He digs out his phone to hand over to the other. “Yeah, definitely.”
Jaehyun grins widely, taking it from him and putting his number in. He holds it up to take a quick photo from a side angle, lips pouted and eyes wide, and then shoots himself a message. Hanbin laughs, taking his phone back.
“Cute.”
“Bin,” Hao calls softly, looking back at him from the doorway.
Hanbin smiles softly at Jaehyun. “I’ll text you later.”
A light blush dusts Jaehyun’s cheeks as he nods and walks back over to his friend, a small gait in it that makes Hanbin want to die just a little bit. He turns around, heading to his friends so they can track down Hao’s car.
“Hanbin’s got hoes!” Matthew calls loudly, laughing after Hanbin launches himself at him to keep him quiet. “He gets bitches.”
“Will you—?” Hanbin further wrangles his hands around his friend, almost pulling them to the ground. Matthew pulls away with a loud laugh.
“Get in the car,” Hao says, holding the back door open. “Hurry.”
Hanbin lets go of Matthew, crawling into the backseat where everyone is piled in. Taerae’s already passed out in the passenger seat, slinking further into the seat when Hao pulls away from the side of the road to drive them all home. Hanbin’s sober enough by the time they get to his house that he can successfully sneak back in through the back door. He closes the door to his bedroom quietly, leaning against it and pulling out his phone. He stares at Jaehyun’s contact, a slow smile taking over her face the longer he stares at it. Finally, he sends off a message and in a fit of anxiety, tosses his phone on his bed and rushes to get changed lest he die.
When he collapses on his bed, he grabs his phone to see a multitude of messages in their group chat, but also a message from Jaehyun. Hanbin stares at the notification for a good five minutes before he can hear Matthew yelling at him to stop being a little bitch and just open the message.
XXX-XXX-XXXX
hi hanbin :)
i hope you got home well and your hangover doesn’t kill you, that would be a pretty big shame
Hanbin smiles despite himself, laughing softly. He turns his phone off, deciding to respond to it in the morning.
𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚
Hanbin walks into orientation a few minutes before they’re about to start. He spots his friends quickly, walking over and taking a seat at their table.
Matthew is instantly on him, grabbing his shoulder and yanking him to him. “You will not believe this!”
Gyuvin’s already splayed on out the table laughing, floundering around like a fish while Taerae and Ricky try to hide their laughs. Even Hao has a somewhat amused smile on his face as he looks at all of them before meeting Hanbin’s eyes in fond exasperation.
Hanbin’s already on edge as the grip Matthew has on him tightens, looking at all of his friends in confusion and apprehension. “What’s going on?”
Matthew howls with another laugh, startling him. Hanbin scowls, shoving at him.
“Your boy is here,” Matthew tells him through his laughs.
Hanbin’s eyes widen as he scans the room. He’s here? “Jaehyun? He’s here? I thought he was away this summer.”
“Not Jung.”
Hanbin frowns, looking over at his friend.
Gyuvin finally lifts his head from the table to look at him, wiping under his eyes. “Dude, he graduated two years ago, get over it.”
“Never.”
“Myung Jaehyun is who I’m talking about,” Matthew says, hooking Hanbin’s chin in his fingers and turning his head to a table off to the side.
And yeah, sure enough there is Myung Jaehyun, sitting with his friends, hands flying over the place as he says something and his table starts laughing.
“Oh,” Hanbin breathes out, cringing as he thinks about the school year.
Matthew lets go of his face as he starts laughing again, twitching as he leans over and clutches onto Hanbin’s shoulder, but Hanbin keeps his eyes on the younger one who’s still talking, a war of emotions rising.
Jaehyun must feel eyes on him because when he stops talking to let his other friend speak, his eyes start scanning the room and Hanbin’s too late to look away when they land on him. Hanbin blinks, physically lagging before he realizes he’s just made eye contact with the boy he ghosted, intentional or not.
“Shit,” he whines, looking away and trying to hide in Matthew’s shoulder. It only causes his friends to laugh more in his misery and he brings his hands to his face to hide.
Since when was Myung Jaehyun volunteering as a counselor for this day camp? He lived on the other side of town, the exact reason why it was so easy to push all thoughts of him to the back burner as senior year ramped up.
Hanbin curses some more. Hao takes pity on him, setting a comforting hand on his shoulder and telling the other boys to knock it off.
“Regret ghosting him?” Matthew asks with a greasy grin, and boy, is Hanbin ready to strangle him.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Apologize?” Ricky suggests with a shrug.
“So, what? Just go up to him and say, ‘Hey, I’m so sorry I essentially ghosted you halfway through the second semester, I got really busy and my attention shifted elsewhere’?”
“Don’t forget your attention was on other people,” Matthew adds.
“Oh, yeah, perfect,” Hanbin grumbles, dumping his head on the table again.
“I mean, I think that works just fine,” Ricky tells them, voice a little indignant.
“Agreed,” Gyuvin adds, but Hanbin doesn’t count his opinion. Not with the way he’s literally obsessed with Ricky.
“We’ll think about this later,” Hao says, rubbing Hanbin’s shoulder more firmly.
Hanbin sighs, sitting up once again. The director of the camp stands up, walking to the front of the room and clapping her hands to get everyone's attention, but instead of looking at her, Hanbin turns back to Jaehyun’s table. He startles when he sees Jaehyun already looking at him, a war of emotions on his face that leaves Hanbin’s belly all twisted and gross.
“He definitely hates me,” he whispers, causing Matthew and Gyuvin to start laughing quietly again. Hanbin definitely can’t blame Jaehyun if he does hate him. He kind of led the younger on, even if it wasn’t his intention. Life just picked up, so while Hanbin was drowning in stress and preparation for college, he definitely turned his attention to people that were easier to handle.
“Focus on it later,” Hao reprimands, physically turning Hanbin’s head to face Anne as she starts explaining everything. He even scoots his chair closer to the table so he’s blocking Jaehyun from Hanbin’s sight.
Hanbin forces himself to focus. He’s going to be in charge of a bunch of tiny humans, so he needs to make sure none of them die on his hands or something. When Anne tells them to come look at who their partner counselor will be and the group of kids they’re in charge of before they leave, the only thing running through Hanbin’s mind is to not let it be Jaehyun, please, for the love, no Jaehyun.
Which is stupid because Jaehyun would be a great partner to counsel with, Hanbin’s just a coward, and he already requested to be with Hao.
“We’re going to be counselors of the older group of boys,” Hao says, pointing to their names on the paper. “12 to 14 year olds, again. Not bad, maybe they’ll be easier to handle this year.”
Hanbin doubts that majorly, but he appreciates the optimism. He turns to Sohee and Wonbin, asking who they’re in charge of, and then spends some time chatting with them and the others. Partly because it’s been a while since he’s had the chance to talk to them and mostly because he wants to make sure Jaehyun’s left before he leaves the building.
His friends see right through him because they shake their heads, leaving the building with each other and making sure Hanbin knows to meet them at the boardwalk later.
“It was nice catching up, Hanbin,” Sohee says at one point after his phone has gone off for a third time. “We’ve got to go, but we’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, of course!” He waves at the two of them as they leave, watching his only safety net walk away from him. He takes in a nervous breath, scanning the room for another potential victim to attack with mindless chatter, but when it only turns out to be adults and some kids he doesn’t mesh all that well with, he decides to face his fears head on and stop being a little bitch.
That quickly gets squashed when he sees Jaehyun pacing by the doors outside and he’s almost turning on his heel to bolt, but the other looks up and instantly hones in on him like he’s some drone locking in on his target. God, Hanbin needs to get a grip.
Hanbin watches as Jaehyun visibly psyches himself up and he wishes the younger would give in to his own cowardliness. Instead, he walks down the steps to meet Jaehyun at the bottom, nerves running wild and a strained smile coming to his face.
“Jaehyun, hey,” he starts, trying to maybe ease them into some small conversation where he can escape before Jaehyun calls him out on his bull.
Jaehyun seems to completely forgo any small talk and heads straight forward like some overeager puppy, disregarding all of Hanbin’s mental turmoil to ask, “we’re cool, right? Like, it’s not going to be awkward or anything?”
Maybe this is karma laughing in Hanbin’s face for being an idiot and a douche.
“Um…” Hanbin trails off at the sudden barrage of questions, staring down at the other in slight shock and mortification. Jaehyun seems to pick up on his feelings because his cheeks go pink and embarrassment shines clear, but he doesn’t back down or look away.
“Yeah, we’re good, Jaehyun,” he says, deciding he can’t really escape the other when they’re going to be working with each other this whole summer. “Don’t worry, we’re fine. I’m not really sure why we wouldn’t be.”
Oh, he definitely knows why they wouldn’t be. Hanbin’s attempted playboy stage senior year failed miserably and Jaehyun’s walking proof of it.
“Right, I just figured, you know, with everything that. I don’t know, we might’ve—” Jaehyun cuts himself off quickly, biting his lip nervously. He seems to be wanting to look away, but is forcing himself to hold Hanbin’s eye contact. He’s way stronger than Hanbin, that’s for sure.
Hanbin sighs, cringing slightly at himself. “I’m sorry for ghosting you, Jaehyun,” he says, making himself look at the other when his eyes start trailing away. “I got really busy toward the end of the year, but yeah, I’m sorry. Plus, you’re right, we’re not going to be awkward. That seven minutes in heaven was just a kiss. Nothing more, right? It was just a fun party game we both played.”
Jaehyun blinks and Hanbin watches a storm of emotions cross his face, not being fast or equipped enough to pick them apart. Jaehyun smiles up at him, a little strained at the edges and Hanbin can’t exactly blame him. This is the first time their kiss is being brought up so directly. Hanbin kind of wants to be eradicated from the Earth.
“Just a kiss, yeah,” he agrees, shoving his hands in his pockets. “It was nothing. You know, maybe we can be friends this summer!” Jaehyun pauses, nearly tripping when he takes a step backwards down the stairs. “Yeah, um, I’ll see you tomorrow, Hanbin. Glad to know everything’s chill between us.”
Hanbin nods, mumbling out some sort of agreement as the younger one throws up a peace sign and bolts off to a car waiting by the handicapped parking. Hanbin blinks, looking away when Jaehyun gets inside and shuts the door. He forces himself to walk to his own car that’s in the opposite direction, letting out a tired sigh and tipping his head back against the seat. It’s going to be a long summer, that’s for sure.
Matthew, predictably, starts dying when Hanbin recounts the interaction.
Hanbin sighs roughly, ignoring the urge to kick the other over. That would result in Taerae, who’s holding the menace up, falling over and Taerae is an angel. Most of the time.
“I seriously hate you,” he tells him, picking at his ice cream dejectedly. “Help me,” he whines.
“No, I told you Jaehyun was perfect, but you went and tried to pursue your bad boy phase thinking it would attract Jaehyun Jung,” Matthew tells him, standing up and shaking his head with a wide grin.
“It would’ve worked if I had more time,” Hanbin protests.
“He’s 20,” Ricky points out. “That’s almost the legal drinking age.”
“Okay, well!” Hanbin huffs, looking away from them.
“Ah, poor baby,” Jiwoong tsks, shaking his head.
“Just play it cool,” Gyuvin tells him. “You guys already agreed nothing would be awkward, so if you act awkward, that’ll make it awkward.”
“That should be turned into a shirt,” Matthew says, giving the other a high five.
“I know, I need a podcast,” Gyuvin agrees.
“That would get taken down instantly,” Taerae tells him.
“Gyu is right though,” Hao says, bringing their conversation back. “Just be chill and it’ll be fine. You apologized, so there’s not much else you can do.”
Hanbin hums, looking out in the distance. He knows that. He can only control his actions from here on out, but their conversation felt lackluster, like it left more missing pieces than pieces that were fixed.
“You’re right,” he decides anyway. “Plus, if someone were to make it awkward, it would be Matthew.”
Matthew lets out an indignant sound, nearly toppling over in his offense while their friends start laughing. Hanbin grins over at him, making it clear this is pure payback for all the flack he’s been getting.
“I’m not even a part of this!”
Hanbin shrugs nonchalantly. “You were the one that started the game at the party.”
“So?!”
Hanbin looks out at the setting sun on the ocean as they continue to joke around and make digs at each other. It’s definitely going to be a long summer. He better get some nice compensation out of this.
Preferably in the form of a marriage license with his and Jaehyun Jung’s names written on it.
Or maybe just surviving this summer with some good pay. Either will work, although he’s definitely rooting for the first option.