Work Text:
It's become a routine, of sorts.
Everyday, after practice or recording or whatever their schedule is, there's a knock on Anton's door.
Everyday, he opens it to find Sohee. Fidgety. Tight-lipped. Eyes full of anticipation. Begging him to hurry up.
Everyday, Anton lets him in.
✧
"Cho-co-late," Sohee sounds out.
"No," Anton says, slightly exasperated but still bemused. "Don't hold the 'co' sound."
"But that's how it's spelled." He's annoyed. Again. Anton can't blame him. "That doesn't make sense."
“We’ve been over this. That's just how it works sometimes."
Sohee lets out a frustrated groan and flops back on the bed. "English is ridiculous."
"It is." He has far too many stories to tell in that department. "You've almost got it. Come on."
Anton hovers over him. There’s a certain telltale sign when Sohee sneers that tells him he’s good to try again.
"Cho-" he mouths, "-colate."
Sohee follows, imitating the movements as best as he can. "Cho-colate."
"Try it."
"Cho-colate. Cho-colate. Cho-colate,” the other drones, over and over again, getting used to the placement of his tongue on his palate. Enough times and he lands on it. “Chocolate."
"Good," Anton responds enthusiastically. "You've got it."
He leans down to give him a quick peck, enough time to swipe his tongue across Sohee’s bottom lip to get as much of the other’s taste, then retreats. In and out, just like that. Sohee watches him pull back, his mouth slightly parted.
"Onto the next one."
✧
It begins like this.
Anton is sitting at the dining table, munching away at his leftovers from lunch. Across from him is Sungchan, impatiently tapping his foot. Tonight is date night and he’s waiting for Shotaro to finish getting ready.
Sungchan laughs at something on his phone—probably some stupid meme, it usually is—then lays it face-down on the table. He folds his arms and rests his elbows on the table.
"How's it going?"
"Fine," Anton murmurs, not bothering to look at him.
To his credit, Sungchan has always been more perceptive than he lets on, so he follows Anton’s eyes. They land on Sohee, who’s sitting on the floor of their living room, papers sprawled around him. English homework. Every few minutes, he curses under his breath and runs a hand through his increasingly ruined hair. Not doing too hot, it seems.
"You should help him.”
"Tried,” he says, then takes another bite of the unfinished gimbap in his hand. It’s gone cold. Gross. "Said he can't focus when I'm around."
Sungchan guffaws. The kind of sound he makes when he acts all knowing and stuff. Anton isn’t sure what to make of the action but he doesn’t like it.
"Offer him an incentive," the other proposes, “like a kiss for every correct answer.”
Anton raises a brow. It’s oddly specific. Sungchan shrugs.
"Worked on Taro-hyung."
"Ah." Something tells Anton he isn’t just talking about the language lessons, though. "Okay?"
Shotaro appears from his room, then, to save him from the awkward conversation. "Sorry, I couldn't decide on jewelry to match my outfit. You ready to go?"
Sungchan walks over, wrapping his arm around the other's shoulders, and tells him he looks good. Then again, he always tells Shotaro he looks good. He would probably tell him that even if he didn't.
"Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," Shotaro says as Sungchan walks him towards the door.
"We won't," Anton answers for both him and Sohee. "Have fun on your date."
When the lock clicks, the sound echoes throughout the rest of the apartment. Unsurprisingly, the place is quiet when Shotaro isn’t here.
Anton leans back, stretching his arms. It's the first night in a while he's got nothing to do. And also the first night in a while without their eldest member's feet stomping around all over the place. He could have a night of proper sleep for once. A good eight hours and then some.
Another unintelligible noise from Sohee’s direction makes sure that won’t happen. When Anton looks, he finds the other reclining against the sofa, his head resting on the seat cushion. He’s looking up at the ceiling, empty and broken. Anton looks at his watch. Time of death: 7:32pm.
He finishes the last bits of his meal (still cold, still gross) then walks over. “Do you want my help?” he asks, waving a hand in front of the other’s face.
“No,” Sohee grumbles, blinking. “You’ll only make it worse.”
Well, that’s not nice. Actually, it kind of stings. Still, Anton persists. “Come on hyung, you literally have a free English tutor right here. Make use of me.”
“Fine,’ the other sighs. “I’m stuck on this one word.”
Anton joins him on the floor, taking the earbud from his hand. It’s a listening exercise. He has to listen to a paragraph then answer a few questions. Easy enough. Sohee must have thought so too, seeing as he’s finished most of it.
“Wednesday,” he says as plainly as possible. “Wednesday. You don’t pronounce the ‘d,’ it’s just ‘wens-day.’”
He’s met with squinting eyes. “That can’t be right.”
“I swear it is.” Even he understands how stupid it looks to have letters in a word that you don’t actually need to pronounce, but hey, he didn’t invent the language.
“This is stupid.” Sohee throws his hands up in defeat. He’s wearing a smaller shirt than he usually does, so when the fabric follows, it reveals just a sliver of skin on his waist. Anton wills himself to look away for his own sake.
“Wed-nes-day,” the other drawls. “Why would someone do that?”
“I know,” he says with a shrug. “You just need to get used to it.”
Sohee sits upright and steels his gaze on Anton. “Wens-day,” he enunciates. He looks silly. Always does, to be fair.
“Close,” Anton says. “Try not to hold the n-sound for too long.”
Sohee tries again and Anton watches closely, transfixed by the movement of his mouth. It's like slo-mo, or maybe the other's just saying things slowly for real. He can't tell. All he can see is how pink and plump his lips are. So pretty.
Kiss, his mind flashes. Then it goes. He realizes the other is waiting for a response.
“You’re–” he croaks. It forces him to clear his throat alongside his thoughts. “You're close.”
Sungchan’s words have definitely gotten to his head. That’s bad. Sungchan should never be in his head.
“I’m never going to get fluent at this rate.”
“Don’t give up.” He knows it sounds ridiculous coming from someone who is fluent but he’s trying not to break Sohee’s spirit. “Maybe you just need a little motivation.”
“Yeah?”
Don't say it.
“Sungchan-hyung said it worked with Shotaro-hyung.”
“What worked?”
Do not say the word.
“Kisses.”
It's out his mouth before he can stop it. Sohee looks at him with wide-eyes and oh. Oh. He shouldn’t have said that.
“Not that I’m suggesting we kiss or anything!” he stammers. There’s heat making its way all over his body—his cheeks, his chest, his hands. This is all Sungchan's fault. Anton's gonna need an exorcism. Or a lobotomy.
But first, he needs to save face, like, right now. “You just need to adopt a reward system! Like, candy. Or, those orange drinks you like. Or–”
“Let's do it.”
“What?”
“Kiss me.”
Huh?
He slaps the other on the shoulder and fakes a laugh. “You’re really funny, hyung.” Always funny. Always lightening the mood. That’s his Sohee-hyung.
The other sighs and pulls his knees close. Anton stops laughing.
“When was the last time you kissed someone?” Sohee mutters.
“I–” he starts, then pauses to think. “Like, that time with Eunseok-hyung?”
“That doesn’t count,” the other says bluntly. “When was your last proper kiss?”
“I don’t know,” he muses. It’s been a minute. Most days just blend into each other now, half the time he can’t even tell what happened last week.
“Same.” Sohee burrows his head further into his knees. “Kind of hard when you’ve got fans and managers watching you 24/7.”
“Yeah,” Anton sighs. He can’t remember the last time he’s had a day to be normal. Even back home, he stays guarded. His mom worries he’s taking on too much.
The thing is, he rarely has time to think these days, so it’s only when the idol mask comes off that he’s face-to-face with the reality of what he’s missing out on. He supposes that’s why his mom left with his dad all those years ago, before it could get any worse. Why Shotaro and Sungchan still do date nights. Why Wonbin steals Eunseok away whenever he finds a chance.
It gets lonely. And loneliness makes you do things.
“So, let’s do it.”
Oh. Right. They’re still talking about that.
Anton pauses to gather his thoughts. “Is… that what you want?”
“Isn’t that what you want?”
He flushes. That’s the signal Sohee needed, apparently, because in seconds he’s on his knees, enough to tower Anton a little bit, and cradling his face. “I’m going to kiss you now.”
“O-okay?” he gets out. It’s not meant to be a question but it sounds like one, and he mentally curses himself.
Of the hundred different scenarios he had played out in his head, this was absolutely not on the list. Anton was supposed to play it cool, take it slow and then sweep Sohee off his feet. Not stumble and trip. Not have the other literally directing this whole thing while he’s frozen in place.
Sohee must recognize the trepidation, because he leans forward to place another hand on Anton’s face. “You’re thinking too much,” he whispers, then places his lips on his.
Soft is the first thing on his mind. Sohee’s lips are soft. Cushiony. Just as Anton imagined they would always be. He tastes like crisp apples and salted chips and sickeningly sweet jellies.
It’s a short kiss—the other is pulling back before Anton can even settle into it—but it lingers. The taste. The feel. It’s all Sohee and he wants more. He wants all of him.
The other collects himself, wipes the spit off his lips with his thumb and smoothes the creases of his shirt, then says in perfect cadence, “Wednesday.”
Anton stares at him, blinking. “...You’ve got it?”
“Cool.” Sohee gathers his papers, gets up on his feet and saunters over to his room. “Thanks for your help.”
Anton’s eyes trail him as he disappears behind the door. He bites his lip.
His own bed’s calling to him, but first: a cold shower.
✧
A few days later, Sohee shows up outside his door this time, papers in hand.
“I need your help again,” he says, barging into his room without invitation. Anton was just about to tuck himself in for the night, but the sight of the other making himself cozy on his bed is like a caffeine shot to his system. Sleep can wait, his heart can’t.
They run through another one of his worksheets. Tenses this time. Anton answers his questions and clears up any misconceptions. They work on pronunciation until Sohee’s is practically one-to-one with his own. It’s… normal. Painfully so. Not that he was getting his hopes up or anything.
Right as Sohee leaves, as they’re standing outside the doorway, as Anton bids him good night, the other grabs him by the neck and steals a kiss.
“I will see you… tomorrow?” he says after, in perfect English. Anton is internally screaming when he does but he finds it in him to nod and tell the other exactly what he wants to hear. That he sounds perfect. That he’s getting better. Sohee grins, proud of himself.
When he’s out of sight, Anton closes the door and falls to the floor. He is so fucked.
And it goes from there.
Days turn into weeks. What goes from every few days turns into every other turns into every day. Without fail, whether he has homework or not, Sohee makes his way to Anton’s room and asks him to help with English. Without fail, Anton agrees. Without fail, they kiss.
Which is exactly how they’ve ended up here. Sohee on top of him, bony knees digging into his sides and arms wrapped around his shoulders, their lips chasing after each other. No matter how many times they’ve done it now, no matter how much he’s gotten used to it, he still craves like the first time. The hunger only grows.
“Neck,” the other says in between kisses, sliding a finger from Anton’s jaw to his collarbone. Then, it goes further down. “Chest.”
They’re working on anatomy this time. He’s not sure how that has turned into this all of a sudden, but he’s not complaining. Maybe Sohee’s a visual learner.
When the other’s hand grazes past his stomach, Anton giggles. “Stomach,” he says, smiling into the kiss. They haven’t gotten to that one yet. Maybe next time.
His hands threaten to go further, to go past the point of no return for both of them, but Sohee doesn’t let it. Only hovers. Teases.
The timer goes off.
Right, did Anton mention the timer? Well, they have a timer. It was Anton’s idea. Thirty minute lessons so they can be as efficient as possible. And so Sohee doesn’t get overwhelmed.
Of course, he hadn’t anticipated what they would be doing in those thirty minutes. Now he wishes he had never come up with it. Thirty minutes of making out with Sohee isn’t enough. When that alarm comes he feels like throwing his phone to the wall.
Sohee makes a move to get off him, then, ready to plant his feet in reality once more. It’s almost midnight. His Cinderella has to go.
He doesn’t want him too. “Wait,” he bursts out. “Can you stay?”
Sohee tilts his head. Questioning. It strikes Anton that this is the first time he’s ever asked for anything in this unspoken agreement. It’s always been Sohee barreling in. Always been Sohee making the move.
“I want you to stay with me,” he clarifies, one more time.
Let him be greedy for once, he doesn’t care. He wants this.
There’s a beat where he wonders if he’s just said the wrong thing. That he’s just tipped the scales of this careful balancing act they’ve put themselves in and it’s about to come crashing down at any minute. That he’s just ruined everything with Sohee and sentenced himself to blue balls for the rest of his seven-year contract.
The beat passes, though.
“Took you long enough,” the other says before pushing forward. They both crash onto the bed with an audible squeak.
Anton lies there, Sohee on his chest, feeling like he’s skipped a chapter in this book. “What just happened?”
Sohee’s drawing circles on Anton’s shirt with his finger when he pauses to snort. “You’re so slow, Chanyoung-ah.”
“Sorry?”
He feels Sohee crawl up his body and then he’s looking down at him. His hand moves up to caress Anton’s face, just like that first time, and Anton gulps.
“I’ll tell you tomorrow,” he says, before lowering himself to bring their lips together.
Okay. No more questions for tonight, Anton thinks. Let him enjoy this.
✧
“Who are you texting?”
“Hm? Oh,” Shotaro says, momentarily stopping his fingers. “Sorry, Sohee’s just asking for advice.”
“That’s funny,” Sungchan says. “Anton was just asking me for some earlier.”
Shotaro smiles. Of course he did. He doesn’t tell Sungchan that, though. He likes leaving him a little clueless.
shotaro-sensei: so he finally made a move huh
shotaro-sensei: i’m glad the plan worked :D
shotaro-sensei: me and sungchan will be out late so enjoy having the house to yourselves
shotaro-sensei: and remember to use protection!!!