Work Text:
Jinu chews on his lower lip. He'd been staring at the blank document on his screen for well over an hour. His tea had gone cold. His notepad with scribbled notes in ink is now full of doodles and free-handed circles as he tried to will his ideas into being.
His phone alarm goes off, and he glances over to it.
Reminder! Heat incoming
Even better. He wrinkles his nose and groans softly to himself. He glares one last time at the screen before closing his tablet. Dinner needed prepping.
He unplugs the device, humming some bubbly pop melody under his breath as he pulls out ingredients to make sujebi. It'd kill a few hours, and it would be piping hot when Romance returned.
He groans out loud, and is careful to keep his hands moving on the dough. Didn't he promise that he'd have a page for his boyfriend to read over dinner tonight? Tch, well, one problem at a time. With all his frustrations are worked into the dough, working it well into the 'right' feel of elastic toughness.
Jinu lets it rest and he goes over the other ingredients with a knife: slicing up onions, mincing garlic, and chopping up potatoes. The motion of his hands lull him into a sense of safety and familiarity. His eomma taught him and his little sister this recipe, and it was the first thing he made for Romance that made him smile.
His phone lights up with a notification, just as the pot starts bubbling. Jinu blinks, slipping in the dried stock of fish and kelp. If his boyfriend was late or delayed, he'd call. A text is so impersonal. He reads through the message a few times, dismissing the thoughts of dread and abandonment.
(You date the wrong guy once and it stays with you forever, ugh.)
| Oppa ❤️ |
Oppa - 17:14
Sorry jagiya, Daesung dragged me to a bar
I'll try to escape as soon as I can!
Daesung—nicknamed "Abby" because of his 'hobby' in working out and being a gym rat—makes Jinu groan. A loudmouth Beta, sure, but his swagger made it seem like he was an Alpha.
His heat really must be coming if the thought of even a beta being around Romance had him seething with jealousy.
Jinu takes two slow inhaled breaths before sending a voice memo to his boyfriend: "I'll keep dinner warm. I made sujebi. Hurry back aein."
[ - ]
The pot simmers on the stove, and Jinu's screen has some words. Mostly cursing and inventing a number of creative ways to kill annoying coworkers. He immediately scrambles away from his workspace when he hears a key in the lock, and tackle-hugs his Romance. His greeting is muffled into a broad chest, "Welcome home."
"Thank you, Jinu." Warm, familiar. His lover smells of a soft sea breeze. Salt and the depths of where fish call home. But there were traces of other scents...
"You stink." He grumbles.
"The other bar patrons were smoking. I stayed for one drink." There's a kiss to the top of his head. "I'm starving. Did you eat earlier?"
"No, I waited for you."
"Aw... I love you too, Jinu."
He pulls back, and they share a gentle kiss. Jinu is the first to pull away again, "Now, eat before it gets cold."