Work Text:
“I can’t believe you’re an anti-vaxxer.”
Jaemin looks crestfallen. Donghyuck wants to strangle him. “What the actual fuck. Did you even listen to what I said, I am not a fucking anti-vaxxer you fucker.”
“Language,” Renjun reminds him without looking up from his laptop, too busy typing down some notes for his next exam, and Donghyuck decides that Renjun’s gonna be the next person to get suffocated after Jaemin.
In Donghyuck’s opinion, there’s a drastic difference between denying vaccines completely for the most obtuse reasons, and forgetting about a booster shot. It’s not even an opinion, it’s a fact.
Jaemin still looks as shocked as three minutes ago, when Jeno revealed that Donghyuck’s last tetanus shot was about fifteen years ago. How does he even know about Donghyuck’s vaccination status? Donghyuck bets it was Mark who told him, that traitor. Which brings up the question, how exactly would Jeno and Mark even come to the topic of their friend’s vaccination status. Like… how?!
“I can’t be friends with an anti-vaxxer, my family would disown me.”
“Call me anti-vaxxer one more time I swear to—“
“Next Monday,” Jaemin disrupts him. “You’ll come to Jaehyun’s office next Monday to get that tetanus shot.”
“And who are you to decide that?”
“The nurse of this friend group.”
Donghyuck’s mouth opens and closes. “You…”
Jaemin takes Donghyuck’s hand over the table, making Donghyuck’s brain stop working. “Darling, please understand I just don’t want you to die because of your own irresponsibility. I’d miss you terribly.”
Donghyuck blushes so hard he’s pretty sure blood will shoot out of his ears any second, and Renjun snorts while Jeno gawks at their intertwined hand like this is his own personal rom com. Donghyuck looks down at their hands too and wonders why he didn’t just retreat his hand already.
“I-I’m… uh…”
Before he can make a fool out of himself any more, Jeno chimes in. “Jaemin has a point…”
Of course he’d agree with Jaemin, he always does. Donghyuck sends him a glare. “Don’t talk to me, Jeno, this is your fault.”
“…The fact that you’re not vaccinated?”
Donghyuck takes a deep breath, swiftly considering causing the worst scene ever known to mankind by taking Renjun’s laptop and hitting all his same-aged besties into the head with it, but then thinks better of it. He twists his hand out of Jaemin’s grasp, whose eyes fall down on his now lonely hand, almost wistfully. Donghyuck so cannot deal with this and gets up. “I hate all of you,” he declares while he gathers his stuff and throws it in his backpack. “I am terminating this friendship, don’t ever talk to me again.”
They all know he will probably text the group chat within the next ten minutes for some miniscule shit, therefore none of his friends react to his dramatic antics. Renjun keeps frantically typing notes into his laptop, not even gracing him with a judgy side-eye. “Text us when you get home.”
Jaemin’s eyes are still fixed on Donghyuck. He doesn’t look shocked anymore but Donghyuck likes the new expression in his eyes even less. It’s something between a mix of teasing, caring, and threatening, and Donghyuck might be a little scared. “Next Monday at Jae’s office. I’ll see you there.”
Now, why does that sound like a threat?
Donghyuck mumbles another few crude curse words under his breath and leaves the library.
“How have you two not fucked yet,” he hears Jeno ask, and Jaemin starts to cackle, before the door behind Donghyuck closes. He wants to scream.
What Donghyuck and Jaemin have is… complicated. They’ve been rivals ever since kindergarten because… honestly, Donghyuck doesn’t really remember what happened. But whatever it was, Jaemin started it, he’s sure.
Donghyuck calls it a fated enmity.
The rest of their friends call it unresolved sexual tension.
When Donghyuck arrives at the apartment he shares with Mark roughly half an hour later, the first thing he does is text the friend group that he’s home safely. Mark’s in the kitchen making ramen, the only food that he won’t fuck up. “Hey. How was your study session?”
“Why did you tell Jeno I don’t have a tetanus vaccination?”
Mark stalls, brows knitting together for a few moments before realization dawns on his face. “Oh, right. We watched a documentary about rabies and Jeno got worried and asked me if I’m vaccinated, which I am, of course, and then I asked him if he was vaccinated, and he said yes, of course, and then we—“
Donghyuck groans and raises his hands. “Ugh, whatever.” He grabs a plate and chopsticks and fishes some ramen out of the pot, not caring that it’s barely half-cooked. “Jaemin wants me to get a tetanus shot.”
Mark doesn’t even blink, just watches Donghyuck as he sits down and starts poking the still too hot noodles. “Okay. And?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Maaark,” Donghyuck whines. “You know why.”
It’s a badly kept secret. Actually, it’s not a secret. Pretty much every single one of his friends knows that Donghyuck is scared of needles, they all just pretend they don’t know, and Donghyuck pretends he doesn’t know that the others know. Mark is the only one who officially knows, and only because he’s known Donghyuck since he was born and has accompanied him to all his doctor’s appointments since then.
Mark, finally taking pity on his friend, takes a seat across from him. “Hey. Don’t worry, I’ll come with you, yeah? You don’t have to be scared, it will be over before you know it.”
Donghyuck rolls his eyes. Mark always says this. And it’s always true, but Donghyuck still cries during every appointment.
Mark tilts his head, a glint in his eyes that precedes evil.
“But honestly, is this about the shot itself? Or rather about Jaemin?”
Donghyuck splutters and malfunctions and unlearns breathing for a good ten seconds before he gets himself back under control. Mark is still staring at him, the hint of a knowing grin on his lips. Donghyuck kinda hates him.
He composes himself with a deep breath, looks at Mark very calmly, and says, totally not in self-denial, “It’s not about Jaemin.”
It totally is about Jaemin.
Jaemin, who is a challenge Donghyuck doesn’t know how to deal with, doesn’t know how to respond to all the sly grins and backhanded compliments – at least Donghyuck is convinced they’re backhanded, even though he can’t really find the hidden insult sometimes.
The way Jaemin talks and acts and looks at him makes his skin crawl and flush, his thoughts stagger and stumble so hard he barely finds witty responses.
It's as if Donghyuck must prove something to Jaemin, as if he has to win against him but doesn’t even know what the competition is about. And what’s even worse is that only Donghyuck seems to take it seriously. Jaemin, with his sparkling eyes and stupidly pretty smile, just looks at Donghyuck like a cat at its prey, not hungry but amused at the pathetic attempts to flee.
Every time Donghyuck is around Jaemin, he loses his cool, and he absolutely hates it. It’s so unfair that God made such an insufferable person this pretty—
“I say we lock Jaemin and Donghyuck in a room and let them fuck it out.”
Donghyuck didn’t quite catch the context of that statement, but he objects.
“I object,” he says.
“No one cares,” Chenle responds. “You and Jaemin are painfully into each other and it’s getting too annoying to witness. You need to do something about it.”
There is so much wrong with that statement, Donghyuck doesn’t even know where to start.
“Okay, first of all, fuck you. I’m not into Jaemin—"
“You look at him like you’re not sure whether to strangle or to fuck him,” Jisung disrupts him, and Donghyuck kinda wants to strangle him now as well.
“Both, probably” Chenle unhelpfully supplies, and he and Jisung start to snicker, as if anything about this is funny. As if Donghyuck’s suffering is funny to them. Today’s youth, really, beyond disrespectful.
He ignores the heat in his cheeks and stares his so-called friends down with a scathing gaze. “Why would you even talk about that? Weren’t we supposed to help you two with calculus—”
“Mark told us you got a doctor’s appointment next week and Jaemin’s going to be your nurse.” Chenle wriggles his eyebrows suggestively while Donghyuck shoots Mark a glare, and Mark looks down at the table as guilty as one can only look when they just got publicly exposed for betraying their best friend. At least he’s feeling bad about it, but that doesn’t help Donghyuck now, not when Chenle is still cackling and even Jisung’s face is taunting him with a badly supressed smirk.
“Maybe Nana can hold your hand for emotional support.”
Donghyuck hates everything about this. The smell of disinfectant that is penetrating his nose already causes his heart to beat thrice as fast as it should, and blurry childhood memories of grumpy doctors, stinging pain and lots of crying making him want to turn around and run. But Mark’s vice like grip around his hand isn’t just there for mental support.
“I hate this. And I hate you for dragging me here,” Donghyuck declares, not caring for the strange looks the other people in the waiting room shoot them. They probably think Mark and Donghyuck are a fighting couple that’s about to have a messy public breakup within the next five minutes.
Mark sighs. “Hyuck, please don’t act like child. This will take ten minutes at best. And I will buy you ice cream after.”
Donghyuck was about to fight Mark, but that last part was unknown to him until now. He shuts his mouth that already opened, ready to throw more complaints and curses at his best friend. Free ice cream, damn. Maybe that’s worth getting stabbed with a needle.
He remembers the main reason he dreaded this appointment in the first place, though, when said main reason opens the door.
Na Jaemin. Bane of his existence, tormenter of his dreams.
He’s looking way too hot considering he’s wearing a nurse uniform.
This is not worth free ice cream.
But Mark is already pulling Donghyuck up from his chair and after Jaemin who’s leading them to the nearest exam room. Even if he wanted, Donghyuck couldn’t follow the mindless small talk his two friends are making, because his heart is beating already so loud that it drowns out every other sound.
When Donghyuck told Mark this was not about Jaemin… yeah, he totally lied.
He has a problem with needles, yes, he’s scared of shots and doctors, yes, but he also has Mark with him, Mark who has always accompanied him to pretty much every doctor’s appointment, who made every experience bearable. Donghyuck’s never made such a fuss before, and Mark knows that, because he was there all the times before and that’s probably why he figured out what – or who – Donghyuck’s actual problem is.
(That, and Donghyuck is horribly obvious, according to Renjun.)
“It’s kinda like cute aggression,” Chenle once explained to him. “When we see cute things, we sometimes get so angry at their cuteness that we want to squish them until they die. And that’s what you want to do with Jaemin, only that you don’t find him cute but hot. You find him so hot you want to kill him.”
Donghyuck had agreed with the last five words. The rest, not so much. If that is what studying psychology does to a person, then maybe he should stop Chenle from attending his courses.
A sudden touch on his arm makes Donghyuck jump from the seat he didn’t remember taking, and he looks at Mark with big, confused eyes, who looks back a little concerned.
Jaemin is still preparing the syringe, and everything in Donghyuck curls together at the sight of the needle.
Mark’s fingers brush Donghyuck’s arm again, the reassuring smile on his face wordlessly signalling Donghyuck that everything will be okay. Donghyuck personally doesn’t think it will be, but there’s no going back now. Jaemin is already coming closer, armed with a syringe and a blinding smile. Donghyuck’s fate is sealed. “Alright, let’s get started.”
Thankfully, Jaemin first starts by taking some of his vitals, and while Donghyuck isn’t sure if that’s a necessary procedure, he lets it happen because it means another few precious minutes where the sharp needle will stay far away from his skin.
Jaemin’s fingers brush against Donghyuck’s upper arm when he puts that threatening blood pressure cuff around it, and Donghyuck’s whole body tenses involuntarily. Everything about doctors just makes him uncomfortable. Maybe that’s another reason why he’s always so nervous around Jaemin...
Despite the rubber gloves, Jaemin’s hands are warm, and Donghyuck hates himself a little for getting goosebumps, clearly visible on his naked arms.
The cuff tightens around his arm, and Donghyuck can feel his blood pumping through his veins in a rhythm that is probably not considered normal. Jaemin proves his thoughts correct.
“A little nervous, aren’t we?”
Jaemin is close again to remove the instrument, and once again, his hand touches Donghyuck’s arm, stays there a few seconds longer than necessary maybe, and once again Donghyuck shivers at the warmth that prickles his skin even through the gloves. He tells himself it’s not the proximity that makes his heart flutter.
He resists to follow his gut reaction, which would have been throwing a wholehearted fuck you at Jaemin, and just huffs instead. “I’m not nervous.”
“Whatever you say, darling.”
“I’m really not.”
Jaemin breathes out an amused huff. “Alright.” He puts the blood pressure measure instrument away and grabs for the syringe again.
“It would be totally fine if you were, though. Just saying.”
And Donghyuck hates that the words actually make him feel a little bit better.
Mark’s cell phone rings suddenly. He picks it up with an apologetic gaze.
“Hey, can I call back later, I’m—“ He quiets down and listens to the frantic surge of words from the other end of the line. If Donghyuck wasn’t completely busy with not freaking out over what’s about to happen to him, maybe he could even make out who Mark is talking to.
“Right now?” Mark glimpses over at Donghyuck, and something in Donghyuck’s stomach drops. That something immediately turns into full blown panic when Mark gets up. “Fine, give me five minutes.”
“Mark, don’t you dare—”
“I‘m really sorry, my sister just went into labour, and she needs me to drive her to the hospital, I’m really sorry.”
Donghyuck almost starts crying when Mark gathers his backpack and shoots him an apologetic smile.
“Please don’t do this to me.”
“I’ll be back soon, you’ll survive.” And with that, he’s out of the room.
The silence is suffocating. At least it feels suffocating to Donghyuck. Jaemin, though, seems weirdly unbothered by it.
“Jae’s gonna be here in a few minutes, don’t worry.”
Donghyuck would love to say he’s not worried, but that would be a lie. He’s about to get stabbed and Mark isn’t here to give him emotional support, he has every reason to be freaked out. If Jaemin wasn’t here, there’d be already be tears streaming down his face.
Despite his best efforts to hide it, his internal panic seems to translate to the outside. Jaemin is beside him all of a sudden, Donghyuck didn’t even notice him walking over.
“Want me to hold your hand?”
“Huh?”
“Do you want to hold my hand? During the shot? You look like you might need it.” Jaemin smiles, and Donghyuck isn’t entirely sure if it’s genuine kindness or if there’s a hint of condescension in the expression. He decides it’s the latter because that’s easier to deal with.
“Fuck off,” he says with a huff and apparently not convincing at all because Jaemin just laughs and grabs for his hand. Donghyuck lets him.
Jaehyun is nice enough to not comment on the way Donghyuck is trembling like a leaf. “It’ll be over before you know it,” is all he says, with the nicest smile and the cutest dimples, and it makes Donghyuck feel just the slightest bit better.
What also makes him feel better but also a whole new kind of worse at the same time is Jaemin’s hand in his. He’s taken off his gloves, and under different circumstances, Donghyuck could maybe appreciate how soft his skin feels against his. Jaemin’s hand is cool against his slightly clammy one, reassuringly squeezing, and Donghyuck kinda wants to jump out of the window to bring some distance between them, but he also wants Jaemin to hug him for whatever reason, to squeeze him tight so that he stops shaking, that he forgets what’s about to happen. It’s a weird mixture of feelings, and it’s so overwhelming that Donghyuck only feels the sting when it’s already over.
He looks down onto his left arm when Jaehyun retracts the needle.
“All done,” Jaehyun says cheerfully and pats Donghyuck’s shoulder. “You were very brave.”
Donghyuck only hums, trying to recover from the trauma.
“Do you feel okay?”
Donghyuck feels dizzy. He feels like he’s about to cry. Jaemin is so close to him, his body pressed against Donghyuck’s arm. They’re still holding hands because somehow, Donghyuck is unable to let go of Jaemin. He's squeezing Jaemin’s fingers so tightly it must hurt, yet the other is neither complaning nor making any move to retract his hand.
“I’m fine.”
Jaehyun smiles. “Great.” He turns towards Jaemin. “I’ll be a room over if you need me.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.” Jaemin’s free arm wraps around Donghyuck’s shoulder, making Donghyuck feel even more dizzy.
Jaehyun leaves after that confirmation, and once again it’s only Donghyuck and Jaemin in the room.
Donghyuck looks at the floor, trying desperately to stay sane. He can feel Jaemin’s eyes on his still trembling form.
“Do you want to lay down for a few minutes? You look pale.” He gently squeezes Donghyuck’s shoulders, trying to guide him down on the exam table.
Donghyuck’s body, caught up in fight or flight mode, takes that as active provocation. He can’t lay down. Laying down would seem weak. He can’t appear weak in front of Jaemin, under no circumstances. Jaemin would devour him like a snake.
He needs to flee.
“No, fuck off, I feel p-perfectly fine,” Donghyuck mumbles softly and gets up. Immediately, the world turns around and—
And…
Donghyuck is sitting again. On the floor. Black and white dots dance in front of his eyes, turning his world into a flickering screen. It takes a few more moments for his vision to clear completely.
He realizes that he’s not sitting, but lying on the floor. There are hands on his knees, holding up his legs.
“Are you with me again?” Jaemin’s voice sounds a little far away, even though he is right next to Donghyuck.
Donghyuck slowly sits up, still a little disoriented, head throbbing and face burning. Immediately, Jaemin’s arm wraps around his back to steady him. “Perfectly fine, huh?” Jaemin chuckles, sounding more goodhearted than usual.
Donghyuck raises his hand and pulls at his hair, hoping this is just a nightmare that he will wake up from any second. Did he really just faint? Because of a shot? In front of Jaemin? Oh God.
“Everything okay? I could catch you before you could fall and hit your head or anything, but…”
Donghyuck hides his face in his hands and starts sobbing.
For a few horrible seconds, it’s the only sound in the otherwise quiet room.
Then, Jaemin gasps. The arm around Donghyuck’s waist tightens. “H-hey now, what’s wrong? No need to cry.”
Donghyuck just sobs louder, shoulders shaking with how hard he’s crying. As if this situation wasn’t embarrassing enough.
He’ll never look Jaemin in the eyes again. He’ll also never talk to him again because he’ll literally leave the country as soon as he’s out of this office and then—
Oh.
Then Jaemin is hugging him. Not very professional of him. Donghyuck can’t say it feels bad, though.
“Shhh, hey, you’re okay, it’s alright. Everything’s okay. You’re okay.”
Donghyuck is pretty sure nothing is okay, nothing will ever be okay. First, he gets stabbed with a needle, then faints in front of his enemy and now he’s crying in front of his enemy and… okay, maybe he’s a tad dramatic here, but like, this is the worst day ever, literally.
But when Jaemin gently guides his head against his shoulder and soothingly runs his hand down Donghyuck’s arm, it does feel awfully nice and comforting.
“Please stop crying. Mark will skin me alive if he finds out I made you cry.”
The comment does make Donghyuck laugh, at least. He stays in Jaemin’s embrace for a few more minutes, gives in to the weird comfort, until his breath evens out and his tears dry. He slowly detaches himself from Jaemin, who keeps on holding onto him, as if scared Donghyuck will faint again immediately.
“Seriously, are you okay?” He sounds concerned. Donghyuck is shocked to find he feels a little bad for making Jaemin worry.
“Yeah, I’m... I think I’m fine.” Donghyuck brushes his hair out of his face. His forehead feels hot and sweaty. “Just. My arm hurts.”
He pouts as Jaemin’s worried expression makes room for a teasing smile. “Aw. Want me to kiss it better?”
Donghyuck feels his face heat up even more as he tries and fails to give Jaemin a deadpan stare. He remembers what Jeno once said.
“You always look at Jaemin as if you’re not sure whether you want to kill him or to kiss him.”
He finally understands what he meant.
“I hate you,” he settles for eventually, no heat behind the words.
Jaemin just giggles which is very rude and causes Donghyuck’s stomach to prickle with something that’s absolutely not butterflies. He gets up with the goal to get Jaemin’s gentle hands off him, because the touch somehow makes his brain stop working. But since his legs still feel like literally nothing, he staggers. Thankfully, Jaemin’s arms are there to wrap around his hips – very low, if Donghyuck may add.
He’s pressed against Jaemin, even closer than a minute ago when they were on the floor, only held up by Jaemin’s strong grip. Maybe this is not good for Donghyuck’s sanity.
“Careful there,” Jaemin mumbles, breath ghosting over Donghyuck’s cheek. “You know, if you want my hands on you that badly, you don’t have to faint right into my arms first, you can just ask nicely.”
Donghyuck needs a few seconds to process the words, then he groans. “Can you, like, be quiet?” He looks up at Jaemin, and regrets it instantly. Jaemin is grinning, pretty lips stretched so wide all his equally pretty teeth are exposed, and his even prettier eyes sparkle with mirth and demonic energy as he stares Donghyuck down. Okay, this is so not fine.
“I don’t know, can I?”
Donghyuck’s heart is currently trying to burst through his ribcage, and he just stutters helplessly like a fool. “I— You’re s-so annoying.”
“And yet you’re clinging to me like a koala.”
“Please just shut up—“
“Make me.”
And Donghyuck does, of course, in the most cliché way possible.
He grabs Jaemin’s shirt, his grip still lax due to his previous fainting incident, to pull him closer. He’s feeling lightheaded again, but can’t tell whether it’s due to the blood still not circulating right or because of Jaemin.
Jaemin, whose lips are soft and plush and perfectly fit against Donghyuck’s own, whose tongue tickles Donghyuck’s lower lip almost playfully, who smells like citrus, sweet spice, and also a little bit like disinfect, but Donghyuck will forgive that.
Jaemin, whose hand has found its way to the nape of his neck where he’s softly pulling at Donghyuck’s hair, making Donghyuck sigh into the kiss. He swears it’s not a moan, just a very heartfelt sigh.
“Jesus Christ, finally.”
Both Donghyuck and Jaemin jerk at the sudden voice, but only Donghyuck tries to pull away. Jaemin’s hands on him prevent him from getting very far, so he only gets to turn his head in the direction of the door. He gasps when he sees Mark, but also because Jaemin wastes no time attaching his lips to Donghyuck’s neck.
“W-what the fuck, you said your sister was in labour?” His voice is shaky as Jaemin’s teeth pull at his skin, and the angry stare he wanted to send Mark morphs into something entirely else when one of Jaemin’s hands sneaks down and squeezes his ass. Donghyuck squeaks.
Mark grins, triumphantly. “Dude, I lied. Me and the others just needed to get you and Jaemin alone in a room so you can realize your feelings for each other.”
Mark is actually Satan. There’s no other explanation. He is Satan. He will go to hell, Donghyuck will make personally sure of that.
“You—“
Before he can rip himself off from Jaemin and jump Mark, Jaemin wraps his arms tighter around Donghyuck. “Nooo, please just ignore him.”
The response on Donghyuck’s tongue gets replaced with a straight up moan when Jaemin softly bites his earlobe. A little embarrassed, he looks back at the door, but Mark is already gone again. Good for him, honestly. Donghyuck swallows down another needy sound as Jaemin’s mouth moves down to his jaw. While he’d really like to continue this, they’re still at the doctor’s office, Jaemin is still on shift, and Donghyuck just fainted a few minutes ago. And he will probably faint again if Jaemin keeps his mouth on him.
So, with a heavy heart, he detaches himself from Jaemin. Or tries to, at least.
“Jaemin,” he sighs as the younger keeps on placing kiss after kiss down his neck, as if they’re not in a public space that could be entered by a random bystander any second. “This is super unprofessional of you.”
Jaemin does not seem to give a fuck, just buries his teeth in the junction between Donghyuck’s neck and shoulder and starts sucking, making Donghyuck mewl. Donghyuck swears if he leaves that office with a hickey…
“Na Jaemin,” he says with finality and, in an impressive display of assertiveness, manages to push Jaemin away from him. “Don’t you have a job to do?”
Jaemin just looks at him with the most deranged bedroom eyes, and Donghyuck fears if he doesn’t take his leave right now, he and Jaemin will end up fucking on the exam table within the next five minutes. Which, in all honesty, Donghyuck wouldn’t be entirely against.
“I literally couldn’t care less, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this.”
Donghyuck can feel his legs go weak again, so he steps forward into Jaemin’s arms who welcomes him more than willingly. They share another heartfelt kiss that Donghyuck breaks before it can grow into something inappropriate again. Jaemin pouts, which is so cute it takes Donghyuck all his self-control to not instantly lean back in again.
“I need to find Mark first and curse his entire bloodline, okay?” Even though Mark leaving was the primary reason for the fortunate development of the last few minutes, it also put Donghyuck in the worst distress ever, and Mark needs to pay for that. “We can continue this when you get off your shift.”
Jaemin’s head tilts to the side, gaze turning hungry again. An almost devilish smile steals itself on his face, and Donghyuck isn’t sure whether to be scared or excited.
“I can’t wait.”