Work Text:
(Italics indicate a character switched to speaking English)
Matthew’s phone buzzed and when the screen lit up there was an incoming call from none other than his most reliable and closest friend Hanbin. Matthew was simply tidying up his space before he noticed his phone ringing and immediately paused to answer it.
“Yes, hyung?”
“Seokmae-ya!” Hanbin called out in a small, cutesy voice.
“What is it?” He asked, resuming his task at hand after putting the call on speaker and setting the phone on a nearby surface.
“What are you doing?” Hanbin responded to him with a question, but in English.
“Oh- just cleaning up my room a little bit, nothing important,” Matthew said, dusting off his PC setup.
“I miss you,” Hanbin replied once again in English despite the fact that Matthew had only spoken Korean the whole time.
“Haha, I miss you too hyung,” he answered, confused and furrowing his eyebrows but still smiling with amusement at the way Hanbin was acting.
“Come back to me, heheh,” he giggled, something so chipper and adorable about his tone, especially since he still used English instead of Korean.
“Okay,” Matthew agreed, using English himself this time, although ‘okay’ is commonly used as a borrowed word in Korean. He hung up the phone and headed over to the dorm where Zhang Hao, Hanbin and Gyuvin stayed. He made sure to greet Gyuvin who he spotted sitting down playing video games. He must have been playing online with Yujin since he immediately put his headphones back on to continue talking to him.
Matthew knocked on Hanbin’s door, snorting gently when he heard a small yet sing-songed “Come in” using English again.
Hanbin was simply sitting on his bed, phone in hand before he quickly put it down and smiled at his awaited guest.
“Hug me,” the black haired man opened up his arms for his smaller friend who was approaching the bed. He happily embraced him, falling back with him and petting his hair gently before pulling away. “Matthew! Do you know why I called you here?”
“Because you missed me?” He guessed. It was what Hanbin initially said on the phone so he figured that wanting his company would be the reason.
“Nooo,” he sang again with a very playful cadence to his word as he shook his head. He didn’t further clarify that he did miss his friend because that would always be a given. In this case he was just looking for a different answer.
“Then what?”
“I want to practice my English!” He finally replied.
“Oh yeah? You want me to teach you, hyung?” Matthew lit up at his request.
“Yes!” Hanbin nodded, sitting up and grabbing a small notebook and pencil off of his bedside table. He was so diligent about his foreign language studies and he was already flipping through pages of notes, seemingly in search of something. “I have a phrase that I want to know about, look.”
“You wanna learn how to say this?” Matthew peered at the words on the paper then back up at Hanbin who hummed in response. “Keep me in your dreams tonight,” he told him, effectively translating the phrase he presented to him.
“Ohhh~” Hanbin seemed genuinely amazed.
Matthew couldn’t really figure out why since it just happened that he, being born and raised Canadian, was a native speaker of the English language. It’s a widely used language even to the point of being taught in Korean schools so he didn’t think it was anything to be impressed about, especially considering Hanbin was building skills in languages like Chinese and Japanese.
“Yeah, that’s how you say it. Do you wanna try it?”
“Can you write it for me first?” Hanbin requested.
“Of course,” he answered, taking the pencil and writing the phrase next to the original Korean one. He took care to make it neat enough to be legible to the older’s non-native eyes. “There, can you read it?”
“Oh- actually can you say it again?”
“Hm? Sure!” Matthew was sure this was a sentence he could read no problem but there wasn’t any harm in repeating it. “Keep me in your dreams tonight,” he put effort in speaking clearly so that he could enunciate the syllables well enough. “Now, you try.”
“Keep me in your… dreams tonight,” Hanbin read aloud, a small pause in between his words as he was monitoring his own pronunciation. He looked up from the paper and trained his eyes back on the other for his reaction.
“Wow, you’re so good!” He grinned so brightly. “I don’t even know why you need my help, you’re a natural, hyung.”
“Oh no… not me,” the older shook his head, flipping to another page in his notebook. “Can you teach me this?”
“Yo, this is so sweet! Zerose will love this.” Matthew exclaimed. Somehow Hanbin always managed to come up with something so deeply meaningful to say when it came to the people he cared about. He truly had an extraordinary strength in conveying love through words.
“I’ll be the key to your heart.” Matthew translated as he proceeded to write the phrase in English below the original Hangul.
“Ohh~ nice!” Hanbin immediately reacted. Matthew was flattered, Hanbin seemed to listen and respond with so much interest and enthusiasm to the simple sentence. This was one of the things that Hanbin wasn’t the best at and it was something he could admire in his close-friend, a way he could rely on the younger for a change since he usually was the one that could be of service to Matthew. “Is there a way I can make that more lovely?” Hanbin asked.
“Well you can say, ‘I’ll be the key to your heart, Zerose!’ Y’know? Like that.” the younger demonstrated, nodding towards his current English student and awaiting his attempt at the new phrase.
“No, not like that,” Hanbin clarified, he was in search of a different answer, one that he wanted to hear his close-friend say specifically.
“Ah, well how about… ‘I’ll be the key to your heart, baby’?” Matthew proposed.
It never failed to impress Hanbin whenever Matthew took over to speak English for international fans and even now when he was doing it for him. Hanbin stared with his warmest heart eyes at Matthew. Everything he said sounded more intriguing and he seemed so confident and smart. When his best friend added the pet name to the expression it sent Hanbin over the moon, he felt his own heart flutter upon hearing Matthew make his English phrase come to fruition like he wanted.
When Matthew realized he didn’t receive an answer other than his usual ‘oh’s’ and ‘ah’s’ Matthew then shifted his gaze over and caught Hanbin looking at him like he was the sweetest thing he’d ever laid eyes on, admiration emanating from the sparkle in his dark brown eyes.
“What?“ Matthew blinked.
“You’re just amazing, Seokmae-ya,” the older answered earnestly.
“Oh no, this is nothing compared to you hyung-“
”No- listen. You are so amazing Matthew. I love you so much, my baby.” He tried his best to emphasize his words as he said them.
Hanbin always used English when he really wanted to reach Matthew, meeting him where he is most familiar and comfortable in his native tongue. He did so when he wrote him a letter to convince him to join the survival show just one last time instead of leaving for Canada and this time, though way less drastic, was no different.
To further drive his point home, he cupped the younger’s head between both of his hands and closed the space between them, joining their lips together in a soft kiss. Hanbin pulled his close-friend’s bottom lip between his own and sucked gently, sharing his warmth and his affection with him. Through their sheer closeness and connection their breathing began to match one another. Matthew happily accepted it all, kissing back and wrapping his arms around the older to hug him as he did, pressing as close to him as he could.
Hanbin separated his lips from his beloved before him and simply caressed his face. Matthew could only stare back, mouth slightly hung open, flustered and at a loss for words. Hanbin kissed him one more time just for good measure, making sure Matthew took in every ounce of love he had for him.
“Thank you, my best English teacher~” Hanbin nuzzled his forehead against Matthew’s before pinching his cheek.
“Y-you’re welcome hyung,” Matthew gulped and laughed, unable to really play off how his heart raced while his stomach was swarming with butterflies.
To Matthew’s dismay they both couldn’t spend much more time together because Hanbin was still wanted and needed elsewhere, so the older wasn’t able to help pet him to sleep for the night like he’d hoped. Thus, Matthew unfortunately made his way back to his own room.
He laid down and got comfortable—after all his social media scrolling, and after his last plus chat messages, he shut off his phone and laid it on the bedside table next to him. Just as he did, however, his phone screen lit up once more and when he checked it he couldn’t control the smile that spread across his face as his cheeks burned with delight.
한빈이 형
► •||·||||-|-|||||||| 0:16
Good night 💗
Hanbin sent him a short voice message.
“Matthew, I’ll always be the key to your heart. Keep me in your dreams tonight, baby.” He whispered, his flirty tone that sounded of his ever present endearing smile wrapping his words in a candy coating like tanghulu. It truly touched Matthew that Hanbin used his newly learned expressions on him, it was such a meaningful way to show his gratitude to him.
Right after, he sent him a text that read ’Good night’ in English as well with a heart emoticon following it, to which Matthew couldn’t resist giggling out loud at. He responded with hearts all the same, wishing him a good night as well before he finally put down his phone.