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jinki wakes up slowly, then all at once. there's the softest thumping of light footsteps against his floor. the campus funded dorms are more like apartments then anything else, and the sleek hardwood lining jinki's kitchen makes it awfully hard to sneak around at night without being noticed, or waking anyone else up.
he can hear minho's snores softly from the other end of the dorm - just loud enough to catch them. he blinks twice, trying to come to his senses and wake up enough to decipher what the footsteps are, if minho is asleep, then what’s making all the noise?
he doesn't have to think hard to reach a conclusion before he sits up, shifts on his bed and rearranges his dovet, yawning. it’s dim in the room, empty and bleak and jinki’s clean and crisp interior design leaving him with a bed, a desk and a wardrobe and not much else.
almost two seconds later, his bedroom door clicks open and slides softly, and a dainty white hand curls around the handle. taemin is timid when he walks - the shirt he's wearing is far too big for him, slipping off his shoulders so jinki can catch the dip of his collarbones even in the small rays of light that follow him as he closes the door quietly. taemin doesn’t really even notice that jinki is awake, soft tip-toes against the carpet seem to cement the fact that taemin doesn’t want to be heard.
when he spins, jinki is already sitting up, half yawning and half not. he doesn’t want to scare taemin, despite the fact that his room is the one being broken in to.
“how did you even get in here?” he asks, soft. like everything is this time of night; it could be thunder storming and still jinki would feel at peace, here, taemin’s skin stark white against the light peeking in from the windows. his head shoots up, and he’s instantly sheepish, collapsing on himself with his shirt pooling to low across his thin frame.
caught, jinki thinks, sitting up to pull at least a half smile as taemin comes to the quiet realisation that whatever he was doing has now been stopped and his attempts at sneaking around jinki’s room at some awful hour of the night has once again backfired.
“hey.” he murmurs, instead of saying anything else, pulling at the hem of his shirt cutely. jinki knows it’s not intentional - taemin tries too hard not to come off as cute but jinki sees it in him every day. he dips his head then, “i picked the lock.”
jinki collapses back on his bed, head resting on a pillow exasperatedly. “you picked the lock.”
“i didn’t think you’d be awake.” taemin admits, playing with his fingers now. it’s just as cute and twice as disarming.
jinki replies, amused. “what? you were just gonna sneak in and watch me sleep.” without thinking, he skirts over on the bed as if to invite taemin to lay down with him. it’s almost subconscious, jinki doesn’t even realise he’s whipped until taemin smiles meekly and wanders over. he yawns, tired.
“no. i just wanted -“ he cuts himself off, huffing. “i wanted to fall asleep next to you. i missed you.” he mumbles, jinki barely hears him, still attempting to wake up, despite taemin’s obvious intentions to drag them both back to sleep.
“don’t you have school tomorrow?” jinki questions, rearranging his pillows and tucking himself next to the wall, still comfortably exhausted.
taemin shakes his head, soft. he plays with his fingers again. “curriculum day. umma thinks i’m at jongin’s. i left my longboard by the fridge, by the way.”
“taemin,” he scolds. he didn’t need to know that. it’s refreshing to think taemin is so honest with him, but it’s shit like this - taemin constantly sneaking out, climbing down from his second story bedroom and long boarding down to jinki’s dorm room in the middle of the goddamn night, only to pick the lock and then slip away in the early morning to make sure he’s at his breakfast table before his umma can ask why he left his window open from the outside again.
“hyung,” taemin says back, sharp and sassy, slipping smoothly into the covers beside him. he’s small and soft and cold from the air biting at his skin. jinki tries not to get mad at the image of taemin longboarding in the dark, a too-big tee hanging from his thin collarbones, covering the small pair of loose shorts he’d pulled on last minute as he rushed out the window.
jinki doesn’t say anything for a while. taemin slips into his arms like he fits, a tiny little piece of freedom in jinki’s hold. the younger boy nuzzles his head into the gap between shoulder and head and stays there, breath hot against jinki’s neck. he winds his arms around taemin, rubbing up and down his back subtly to warm him up, closing his eyes and finding the familiar feeling of sleep return to him.
“it’s so late,” he brings himself to speak, because if he doesn’t reprimand taemin about this now he’ll forget about it and taemin will be gone in the morning and as much as he loves falling asleep next to taemin, he can’t stand the thought of him getting hurt in the dark in all of his teenage-angst ridden haste. “you shouldn’t keep sneaking out.”
taemin mumbles. it doesn’t sound much like agreement.
“i’m quite serious,” jinki says, in his best serious voice. “it’s important to get at least eight hours of sleep a night.” taemin squirms against him, and the way they fit together is so oddly satisfying and both calming at the same time and he’s so perfectly content, taemin wiggling a little to get more comfortable as he noses into jinki’s skin.
“yeah,” he huffs, “i can get eight hours of sleep here.” taemin seems to disregard all of jinki’s advice as a whole, choosing instead to worm closer into the centre of warm warm warm at the heart of jinki’s bed.
he laughs, but the sound is faded, because jinki doesn’t want to wake minho, so he buries the sound in taemin’s hair. it smells like coconut - the shampoo he always buys from the cosmetics store by the florist. jinki takes a second to realise how much he knows about taemin, how much of his life is consumed by the blonde boy, just how much time he spends thinking about taemin, stopping taemin from picking locks and everything else.
his eyes close of their own accord, and he’s still not done lecturing taemin yet. a warm intake of breath, and he’s tucked the younger boy’s head completely under his chin, keeping him there and revelling in the small moments of peace they’ll have together.
“you still have to stop sneaking out.” he manages. “picking the lock. how did you even learn to pick a goddamn lock?” jinki would be less amused if the situation wasn’t so wholly amusing.
“i dunno. i just know. pretty badass huh?”
jinki huffs. “taemin, you’re far from badass. you’re cute and young and you certainly should not be longboarding halfway across downtown seoul at three in the morning.”
this time, it’s more sharp. jinki’s seriously serious voice. he doesn’t use it often because he doesn’t have to. taemin is a serial not-listener, regardless, and jinki doesn’t think he’s going to stop breaking into his apartment anytime soon.
if he was looking at taemin, he’s almost sure the other boy would be pouting. like the big baby he is.
“i’m not cute hyung,” he grumbles “you’re mean to me.”
jinki guffaws. “you’re mean to me! you break into my house and you eat all my banana milk.”
“you bought it for me!?”
“still.”
taemin guffaws this time, his laugh prickling against jinki’s skin. it’s so dangerously intimate, the way taemin curls around jinki and smiles up at him like he hangs the goddamn stars. he’ll never be used to it; being adored in the way taemin gazes at him in flat out infatuation, pretty eyes crinkling in shyness as jinki notices him staring.
it’s not in jinki’s nature to show off, or be arrogant, but taemin is so dangerously precious and small and gorgeous and his, and it’s almost scarily satisfying.
“i have a 8am class tomorrow.” jinki mumbles, before he can forget. taemin makes an annoyed noise before burrowing deeper into the mess of blankets, warm and jinki’s arms. “so i have to be up early.”
taemin nods, sleepy. “can i hang around the apartment? i promise i won’t be annoying. it’s only that, i didn’t actually arrange to go jongin’s and if i did his umma would call my umma and i’d be grounded for like. the rest of my life.”
jinki smiles. “you’re never annoying.” he says, soft, kissing the crown of taemin’s head. sleepy and exhausted, resting his lips there for as long as he can.
“i think minho gets a bit sick of me.” taemin explains sheepishly, and jinki giggles a little. deep down, he knows his roommate is fond of his underage boyfriend. fond enough not to ban taemin from breaking in - which, he is well within his rights to do.
“all my friends adore you. don’t pretend like you don’t cajole food out of jonghyunnie when he’s at campus.”
“hey,” taemin squeaks, offended. “i only ask when kibum-hyung asks.”
“kibum is his boyfriend - he has to give his boyfriend food. you, you’re just being a brat.” jinki grumbles, triumphant. taemin squeaks again, this time far more offended then previously, and pokes jinki in the side.
he yelps, the sensation of being tickled reminding jinki that taemin really does have the mind of a five year old. he’s half determined to tickle back, but instead winds his arms big and all-encompassing around taemin’s waist, then pulling him up and flipping them, so that taemin’s back is flush against his chest, facing the wall.
it’s cosier like this, and jinki can convince himself that he’s protecting taemin, in his own silly way, from whatever might find them.
“go to sleep,” he murmurs into the crown of taemin’s hair. he wraps his hands around taemin’s waist to join their fingers, and the younger boy mumbles his assent quietly.
“goodnight hyung.” he says, barely there. jinki buries his smile into taemin’s slim shoulder.
“goodnight.” he kisses the joint between shoulder and arm. the skin is so so smooth and taemin is just so so soft and he hopes they stay like this forever.
/
incidentally, they can’t. jinki wakes up at quarter past seven for his morning lecture and taemin drags himself out of bed at seven thirty, almost like a zombie. he secures one of jinki’s loose hoodies around himself as he ventures into the kitchen as if it is uncharted territory, and taemin’s longboard isn’t rested against the fridge.
minho has a suspiciously calm aura. he’s dolled up for football training - joonmyun should be at the door any minute now, and seems relatively unfazed when taemin staggers into a chair at the dining table.
“good morning.” minho says, mouth full of protein shake. don’t speak with your mouth full, jinki wants to scold, like he normally would, but any odd-parent like behaviour would probably result in freaking taemin out and he just sighs with a heavy breath and goes about putting his mug in the sink.
“morning.” taemin yawns, unattractively attractive.
minho finishes the last of his protein shake, and jinki can’t take his eyes off of sleep-ridden taemin, cutely making paws with the sleeves of jinki’s own hoodie.
“did jinki let you in?” minho queries. don’t say it, jinki begs.
“nah. i broke in again.” taemin says. minho fixes jinki with a look like no other. it’s tired and done and please, get the boy a fucking key already.
“fine.” jinki concedes, verbally to the non-verbal challenge laid down by his roommate. taemin looks up, a little confused, then sticks his hand into the box of captain crunch on the table and starts eating the cereal dry in his hands. “i’ll go to the locksmith after class then.”
minho looks victorious. taemin simply remains confused. “what?” he says, loud. minho guffaws, subtly. there’s a knock at the door - joonmyun, and jinki checks the time on the microwave. time to go, he thinks dimly.
“nothing.” he smiles at taemin, just as minho picks up his duffel and heads out the door, waving at taemin and glaring at jinki as if mentally demanding he live up to his words and stop taemin from picking the lock all the time.
“i better get going.” jinki murmurs then, bending down to kiss taemin’s forehead. he pulls his knees up onto the seat and wrestles with the captain crunch box some more. it feels so oddly domestic.
heart wrenchingly normal. jinki can’t stop smiling.
“what’re you laughing at?” taemin presses, putting his fingers to his face as if to ask what’s wrong with it. he’s so cute, jinki thinks. he leans down to grab his backpack, then with it, kisses taemin on the nose this time.
“nothing. nothing. don’t forget to brush your teeth babe.” jinki says, another kiss to taemin’s nose. he’s swatted away with a sweater paw and a pout.
“my teeth are beautiful.” taemin remarks. jinki eyes the captain crunch rather conspicuously.
“shut up.” taemin says, jinki grins, and kisses him on the lips this time.
while he’s walking out the door, he calls over his shoulder, to a taemin still enamoured in the box of captain crunch. “brush your teeth! i’m serious - and make the bed!”
“you’re such a mom!” taemin yells back, ignoring jinki entirely. it will have to do.
/
two weeks later, taemin breaks in again.
“i thought you gave him a key.” minho’s oddly defensive of his captain crunch now. taemin’s been reduced to fruit loops. fruit loops. jinki’s not happy either.
jinki shrugs. taemin’s eating dry cereal for the millionth, but he’s moved onto a bowl and a spoon. one day jinki will get him to try cereal with milk. baby steps.
taemin points the spoon around wildly. “i lost it. besides, breaking in is like eight times funner.”
minho looks at jinki, and then back at his cereal. “i’m going to football training.” he grumbles. he has given up, and taemin waits until he’s gone to drain the milk from his captain crunch and pick at it with his fingers.
“brush your teeth.” jinki says, before he leaves. and this time, he means it.