Work Text:
Jun was lying down on the couch, comfortably warm and content under a heavy blanket, holding the book in a perfect position to not make his strong and muscly arms tired, glasses hanging low on his nose. He was fully immersed in the book, when Dylan's beautiful voice pulled him out of the imaginary world:
"Tch, so performative", the pink-haired rapper muttered.
In an alternative universe, where Jun was not in love with the adorably grumpy man, he would have continued on with his reading, paying no attention to the interruption.
However, this Jun was very much in love and found the mean-ish comment a perfect way to annoy his crush and get dome amusement. He grinned that famous grin of his that Nano said meant problems. But maybe Jun wanted problems, at least when they included interacting with Dylan.
Jun was little embarrassed to get caught reading by Dylan of all people. He had carefully crafted every tiny bit of his overly confident, asshole-ish, flirty personality - to hide his own insecurities - and reading classic literature didn't really fit the picture. Maybe Jun was performative, his whole life was, in a way.
But maybe Dylan would like the Jun that read classic literature more. He didn't really seem to be fond of the flirty confident Jun, instead finding him very annoying at times. So, maybe this different Jun would be more of Dylan's type? Dylan did like deep conversations and beautiful words...
Whether or not Dylan liked Jun, Jun loved the reactions Dylan gave him whenever he rage-baited the rapper. And Dylan looked very adorable when he was mad.
So, Jun decided to have some fun.
"What?" He acted as nonchalant as he could, and tried to be as annoying as possible. Rage-baiting always got Dylan's attention him. Jun would know, he was always trying to get Dylan's attention after all. And so far only annoying Dylan seemed to work.
"Nothing", Dylan muttered and continued walking towards his in-home studio, seemingly as fast as possible.
Dylan decided to get out of the situation quickly? Not if Jun gets to decide. And he does, this time. In Jun's imaginary dream world, where Dylan was his boyfriend, Dylan would get too decide everything for Jun if he so wished. He could in this world too, but so far he hadn't found out about that power. Jun was happy that his acting skills were good enough to hide how big of an effect Dylan had on him. But now Jun found it more important to get Dylan's attention.
"Did you call me performative? You? Dylan Zhou? The Dylan of MARS who performatively wears his headphones all the time to not talk to people? Who wears serious expression in his face while being all cute and cuddly inside?"
As if Jun really knew whether Dylan was cuddly or not. Cute he was, the cutest of all in Jun's eyes. But Jun did not in fact know, if Dylan was cuddly, he surely had never cuddled Jun, to the latter's devastation. It would be a dream come true for him, to hug Dylan to sleep, to cuddle him while watching those sappy romance movies he loved, to lay his head on Dylan's shoulder in the car after a long day of work...
Jun was getting distracted by his own thoughts, but the glare Dylan gave him brought him back. Jun's plan had worked, and Dylan turned back to glare at Jun with his beautiful brown eyes. Jun was so in love with those eyes even when - or more like especially when - they were glaring at him, they were truly the prettiest eyes Jun had ever seen. He could write poems of those eyes.
(He had written poems of them, hidden in the third drawer of his bedside table, in that light pink notebook that reminded him of the color of Dylan's hair. Secret poems no one would ever see, or so Jun thought.)
"Yes, you are performative for acting like you are reading Crime and Punishment. Really Jun? Usually you don't even read the back of a cereal box and now you think I'm going to believe you are reading Dostojevski? No one is believing that?"
Jun was getting cuteness aggression from the way Dylan's ears got the color of his hair, the way he pouted his lips with frustration, and the way his eyebrows scrunched just a tiny bit in the middle. He looked like he would explode if Jun kept on annoying him. Dylan was surely the most adorable human being in the world, and Jun wanted to squeeze his little cheeks and ruffle his cute pink hair until it was all over the place. He wanted to boop his nose and kiss that pout away, keep annoying Dylan until the pout came back again so he could kiss it away again and again. Sadly, he could not do the kissing, but the annoying was doable so, he continued.
"You think I'm just acting like I'm reading? Cute." Jun loved the way Dylan's cheeks got a tiny hint of pink in them. He surely was like a tiny little kitten. Jun wanted to kiss his cheeks and pet him until he purred and curled up on the couch beside him.
"Prove it then. Describe the plot to me." Even his annoyed voice was honestly so cute, Jun wanted to keep on talking to Dylan forever just to hear that voice.
"I can't tell you the plot yet. I'm still at the middle of the crime, Raskolnikov only just arrived at the crime place, see?" Jun lifted the book for Dylan to see. He really wasn't even half-way through the book.
"You think name-dropping the main character makes me believe you are actually reading? Think again", Dylan huffed. In his head, Jun was screaming about the cuteness of that huff, but he couldn't show it outside.
"Marmeladov then? He did that long ass dialogue couple chapters ago"
Dylan just rolled his eyes. Cute.
"How many characters do I need to name-drop to make you believe me? Do I need to write you an analysis or something?" Now Jun had made his mind. He would prove Dylan he was reading the book, whatever it takes.
"Whatever", Dylan muttered and walked away, hiding his smile. Screw Jun and his annoying smirk and those annoying big hands that made the book look tiny and Dylan's brain short-circuit. And screw those slutty little glasses that made him look so so good and intelligent, like a hot university professors from one of Nano's romance book covers.
Couple of weeks later Dylan was in his in-home studio, trying to work on a new masterpiece for MARS, when his phone pinged with a notification. An e-mail from Jun.
Why would Jun e-mail him? Dylan was confused. Jun only ever sent him those fan-made edits of him or other MARS members, just to annoy Dylan. Most of the time the edits were just thirst trap edits of Jun himself.
(Dylan secretly liked to watch those. But only because he was admiring the fans' editing skills, not because of Jun at all. Or so he would say if someone ever witnessed him watching them.)
However, Jun had never e-mailed Dylan before. How did he even know Dylan's e-mail address?
Dylan tried to make himself ignore the notification, but he was too curious.
From: [email protected]
Do Not Ignore Please :(
heres the analysis pls pls pls read it took forever
bookanalysis_crimeandpunishment_junntang.pdf
Youts truly,
Junn Tangsakultham
Dylan couldn't stop himself from smiling. Jun truly was a puppy in a human body. An intelligent one, that did read Crime and Punishment, and even went so far to write an analysis for Dylan to read. Adorable.
From: [email protected]
Re: Do Not Ignore Please :(
You know it’s even more performative for you to do all of this just to prove you read it right?
>Also do not contact me by email this is for work, dont fill it with nonsense.
Not even a full minute after Dylan had sent the answering e-mail, his phone pinged again. This time it was a text message from Jun.
Jun:
okay i wont
pls pls pls still read it pls it took forever
Dylan ignored the messages and opened the file. He really did want to know what Jun thought about the book.