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It was cold and Jongho was down right miserable. Whoever decided that they should be doing an outdoor photoshoot on a fucking roof top in January needed to have their head checked. This was ridiculous. They’d been up here for about an hour and a half and Jongho had been dreaming about his warm bed for at least an hour and twenty nine minutes.
Grumpily, Jongho snuggled further into the puffer coat he’d been allowed since he wasn’t the current subject of the camera. No, that honor currently went to Yunho and Mingi, neither of which Jongho envied. His turn was coming but for now he had a blissful few minutes to try to regain some feeling in his fingers.
He flexed the slowly warming digits in the depths of his coat pockets. Vaguely he was starting to be able to feel them beyond just numb stumps attached to his arm. As he uncurled his fingers again he became aware of what felt like a piece of paper brushing his right hand.
It was probably an old receipt or a wrapper. Except, Jongho was fastidious about cleaning out his pockets when he took off a coat. He’d learned that lesson after one too many frantic searches for his airpods. Curiosity getting the better of him, Jongho caught hold of the scrap. He steeled himself for a moment and then managed to pull his hand out of its warm little cocoon.
It was a bright pink post-it note, folded in half. The sticky band still had a little tackiness to it when Jongho’s thumb brushed against it. Clearly it hadn’t been in his pocket that long. On the opposite site from the glue, his name was written in neat strokes. Jongho flipped it over a few more times but he wasn’t missing anything. It was just a folded pink post-it note with his name on it.
Curiosity finally winning out, Jongho flipped it open. If he was hoping for a clear explanation, the little note did not have one for him. Cold momentarily forgotten, Jongho studied the pink paper and black pen ink in his hands. In messy English writing someone had written you are my across the top of the paper. Under it there were two doodles with a small plus sign between them. The one on the right was easy enough. Just a simple little heart. The one on the left was what was confusing Jongho.
It was a drawing of…something. That was for sure. Exactly what it was supposed to be was another question entirely. It appeared to be a small cylinder with little fanned bits on each short edge. Jongho furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at it. Trying to wrack his brain for what it possibly could be. The only thing he could think of was a piece of candy but that didn’t seem to make any sense. Who would call him candy heart? Chocolate certainly made less sense. But he really couldn’t come up with any better options.
“Aw, that’s sweet,” Seonghwa cooed in his ear suddenly.
Jongho startled and then processed what exactly Seonghwa had said. It made about as much sense as the note in his hand. He blinked at Seonghwa for a long moment, not at all sure what to say.
“What?” Seonghwa asked, gesturing at the note. “He calls you that all the time.”
“Who?” Jongho asked, glancing down at the note.
It wasn’t signed and Jongho had never been very good at identifying people’s English handwriting. For all he knew he could have never spoken to whoever had managed to slip this into his coat pocket.
“Yunho,” something about Seonghwa’s tone implied that it should be obvious.
Jongho blinked at the paper again. It made sense that his boyfriend of five months would slip him a note. He was also crazy enough to assume Jongho would actually know what the cryptic little drawings fucking meant. Still, Jongho didn’t think Seonghwa was making much more sense than the note in his hand.
“When does he ever call me candy heart?” Jongho asked skeptically, looking back up at Seonghwa. “What does that ever mean, hyung?!”
Now it was Seonghwa’s turn to blink in confusion. The confusion lasted for a brief moment before his lips pursed with a suppressed smile, cheeks bunching in amusement. His attempt at decorum was short lived however, giggles slipping through. Jongho frowned, looking between the note and his now belly laughing senior.
“Sweet,” Seonghwa managed to force out between giggles. “Sweet. Heart.”
“What?” Jongho demanded.
“Sweetheart,” Seonghwa gasped. “He calls you his sweetheart.”
“Oh.” Jongho’s cheeks suddenly felt very warm in a way that had nothing to do with his coat.
Distantly he remembered that another English word for candy was sweet. A sweet plus a heart, sweetheart.
You Are My SweetHeart
Leave it to Yunho to write a riddle in their second language using an uncommon use of a word. Cheeks still warm, Jongho glanced over at Yunho only to find him already looking at him. A small, shy smile crept onto Jongho’s face as Yunho cocked his head to one side. Jongho simply held up the little pink post-it and Yunho’s expression changed to something soft, warm, and so tender. Jongho ducked his head a little, suddenly shy under Yunho’s affectionate gaze. He peered under his bangs at Yunho and flashed him a little finger heart. A gesture that was returned quickly before Yunho was tugged back into position by Mingi.
Smile still pulling at his cheeks, Jongho carefully folded the note and tucked it safely back into his pocket. He’d find a safe place for it once he got back to his dorm.
“I’m telling him you said that,” Seonghwa said as he collected himself.
“Hyung,” Jongho whined.
“He’s gonna find it so funny.” Seonghwa was unperturbed by the whining.
“This is why Yeosang is my favorite hyung.” Jongho told him with a pout.
It was worth whatever teasing he got from Yunho just to see Seonghwa gape at him like a fish on dry land.