Work Text:
1
It’s been a while since Heeseung has spent time with Jungwon. Between moving into his new apartment, dealing with work stress, and generally just adapting to life, he hasn’t been able to see his friends.
It kind of upsets him — they all used to spend every waking minute together but have gradually started to focus on their own lives post-grad. That’s usually how growing up goes, but it doesn’t mean Heeseung has to be happy about it.
Heeseung likes Jungwon. He thinks he’s a cute younger brother and he feels a little protective over him. Being a few years older, Heeseung’s taken it upon himself to be a good role model to Jungwon (although, he doesn’t really know if Jungwon sees it that way). They listen to each other. They understand.
It’s just been a while since he’s seen him.
This is what Heeseung thinks is the reason for why Jungwon seems skittish and just slightly more awkward than usual.
“Are you okay?”
Jungwon looks up at the question, eyes wide. “Yeah. Just tired, I guess.” His hand plays with the corner of the menu.
Heeseung hums in response, still not satisfied but he lets it go for now. He diverts his attention back to his menu in front of him.
“Hello, thanks for dining with us,” the waiter presents himself to their table. “My name is Taehyun and I’ll be taking care of you today. Can I get you started with anything to drink?”
Jungwon looks up at him — Taehyun — and shakes his head. “Just water, thanks.”
“Could I get an iced tea, please?” Heeseung requests.
Taehyun pivots to him. Heeseung first notices his big eyes. “Yeah, absolutely. I’ll have that out right away.” He walks away with a smile.
Heeseung looks across from him. Taehyun couldn’t be more than a couple years older than Jungwon. “He’s cute.”
“What? Oh. Yeah, sure.” Jungwon says. The corners of Heeseung’s mouth curve down a little. Jungwon’s not usually this dismissive, especially with him. Maybe he’s just being shy about a boy.
His thoughts are interrupted by a buzz on the table. It’s one of their phones, but neither of them check.
Not until the buzzing keeps coming, though.
Three notifications come in succession and they’re from from Jungwon’s phone. The younger picks his device up, looking slightly confused and ashamed with eyebrows furrowed but his face softens when he reads.
Heeseung notices Jungwon’s mouth go from a straight line to the smallest smile as his eyes dart across the screen. Interesting.
He indulges. “What is it?” He asks, revealing his curiosity.
Jungwon looks up at him before returning his gaze to his phone. “Nothing. Just my sister.” He swipes his phone open and types, seemingly giving his sister a response. “She’s complaining about work and screaming in all caps.”
“Ah.” Heeseung nods, looking back to the menu. He thinks he’ll get the dakgangjeong.
“Sorry.”
Heeseung looks up. He blinks. Jungwon’s not typically one to apologize — more often than not it’s because he doesn’t do anything wrong — so this is a little puzzling considering it’s out of the blue. “Hm?”
“If I’m being a little short with you. Or weird. It’s just been a … busy month.” Jungwon takes one last glance at the menu before setting it in front of him.
Before Heeseung can respond, Taehyun comes back with their drinks.
“Iced tea and water,” he sets them down, “Are you guys done looking or do you want a couple more minutes?”
“I think we’re good to go,” Heeseung starts, looking over at Jungwon who nods in confirmation. “I’ll get the dakgangjeong.”
“Can I do the bibimbap, please? With beef.” Jungwon closes the menu and looks to Taehyun, who Heeseung notes is staring at him.
The waiter takes a beat before nodding and “yes”ing, grabbing both their menus from them. He leaves when they say they don’t need anything else.
“I think he likes you,” Heeseung starts.
Out of all of them, Jungwon is the one to show the least amount of interest in dating. Jake mostly talks about attractive people he sees, Sunghoon pockets phone numbers he receives on night outs, Sunoo and Riki are in their honeymoon phase, and Heeseung himself has been on a few dates in the past couple months. It might be because of the lull in their group but no one really knows what Jungwon has been doing romantically.
The observation seems to startle him.
“What?” Jungwon’s ears turn red and his fingers stutter on the glass of water.
“I don’t know. His gaze just seems to linger on you for a bit. That’s all.”
“Hyung, do you have a secret psychology degree we don’t know about?”
Heeseung rolls his eyes. “No. I’m just saying.”
Jungwon smiles and shakes his head. “I don’t think he’s interested. Even if he was, I wouldn’t go for it.” He sips.
“Why not?” Heeseung opens a straw.
Jungwon shrugs. “He’s not really my type, I guess.”
“What is your type?”
Jungwon’s lips purse in thinking. “I don’t know.” He hesitates for a couple seconds. “I guess I haven’t really given it that much thought. I just like people who like me; someone who can take care of me and handle the mess.”
They share a small laugh at the last part. To put it simply, Jungwon is kind of … demanding, he’ll say.
“But visually … not Taehyun?” Heeseung swings an arm over the side of the booth.
“I mean, I didn’t say that. He’s cute, but just not right now.”
Heeseung knows Jungwon’s not saying he’s not cute to him right now, just that he’s probably not into the idea of a relationship right now. It seems like it’s been that way for a while now, though, having known him for a few years at this point. It makes sense, so he drops it for now.
And maybe Heeseung shouldn’t have put the idea of Taehyun being into him in Jungwon’s head.
Because when the waiter comes back with their food, he gives off the impression that Heeseung was right.
“There was a mistake in the kitchen and they had an extra bowl of kimchi jjigae. Thought I’d share it with you guys — it won’t be charged.” Taehyun shares.
Heeseung arcs an eyebrow. While Taehyun implied it was for the both of them, the bowl seemed to be placed closer to Jungwon’s bowl of bibimbap. He waits for the younger to speak.
“Oh. Um, thanks, I guess.” Jungwon looks at Heeseung before over at Taehyun who’s giving a soft smile at him.
“It pairs nicely with the bibimbap,” is all he says before walking away.
Heeseung just looks at Jungwon with a glint in his eye, fixing the chopsticks in his hand.
“Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Taehyun periodically checks on their table — three times, Heeseung counts, before giving them their check. Jungwon’s water gets refilled before he’s done drinking it all each time.
“I’ll come grab it in a second,” Taehyun places the bill folder on the table and clears their table.
“Here, I can get it,” Heeseung reaches for his wallet, but Jungwon beats him to it. He grabs the bill folder and sticks his card inside.
“I got it. You treated last time.”
Heeseung doesn’t remember when or what last time was but Jungwon holds onto the folder so he can’t even physically fight over the bill.
Jungwon’s phone buzzes again as Heeseung finishes his iced tea and this time Jungwon reads the notification right away. Another smile. He turns his phone off with a click and looks up to Heeseung.
“Sister?”
Jungwon blinks and nods, as if remembering that’s what he disclosed earlier.
Taehyun grabs the bill folder from Jungwon and comes back to return the receipt.
“You guys were great today. Thanks for coming in — I hope you come visit again.” Taehyun smiles at them with his hands behind his back and bows his head slightly.
Heeseung thanks him for both him and Jungwon while Jungwon reviews the receipt.
Looking over, Heeseung can see some writing in pen through the thin thermal paper. Jungwon’s face is unreadable.
“What?” Heeseung inquires. He’ll bite.
Jungwon looks at him, lips slightly parted. He moves his mouth as if to speak and stops again. Heeseung creases his eyebrows.
“He wrote down his number.” Jungwon slides Heeseung the receipt across the table and reaches behind him to put on his jacket.
Lo and behold, there’s a series of digits written across the top with a smiley face and the letters TH right underneath.
“What are you going to do with it?”
Jungwon shrugs. “Nothing.”
Heeseung hands him back the receipt. “Really?”
They both move to get out of the booth. “Yeah. I guess you were right, though.”
“I’m always right. I don’t have a secret psychology degree for nothing.”
Jungwon snorts. “Right.” He digs his phone out his pocket.
As they’re walking out the door and giving their last thanks to the staff, Jungwon’s thumbs furiously type away at his screen.
During the car ride when Heeseung’s dropping off Jungwon, he hears the younger man laugh to himself once in a while. His feet are shifty and he drums his fingers on his phone when it’s placed in his lap.
He pulls up to Jungwon’s apartment building and says goodbye. They make sure to pencil in a time to see each other again, and Heeseung loses a game of rock, paper, scissors to be the one to text their group chat of six to initiate something.
Jungwon gets out of the car and gives a peace sign through the car window before he walks away. And that’s when Heeseung realizes.
Jungwon hasn’t been skittish, he’s just happy. Happier than usual. More excited.
Heeseung can’t really be sure, but he begins to think that the person on the phone probably wasn’t his sister.
2
They have one vase.
When they were first buying shared furniture at a secondhand store, Sunoo spent most of the time looking at decor. Jungwon was categorizing their options with stuff they already had and things they decided they needed. Sunoo was a little scared of the intense organization and found it easier on the both of them if he stepped away from it.
So, he declared himself in charge of decor.
It was a year ago when he bought the vase. A pretty, delicate, porcelain vase. He found it in the back of a shelf at a thrift shop and mindlessly — but carefully — put it in the cart alongside picture frames and throw pillows.
The day they moved in, he put the vase with a single rose in it on their coffee table. A couple nights later, they had a small housewarming party where a couple of them (he won’t name names for now, but a certain teaching assistant needs to know his limits) got a little too intoxicated and Jungwon made them put away any fragile items right away.
Sunoo hasn’t given much thought to the vase, just keeping in the back of his mind that it’s in their highest cabinet courtesy of Riki.
Now, Riki has bought him flowers before. He comes and picks him up with some sort of gift, like chocolates, vitamins (Sunoo asks), or flowers. Sunoo loves them but he tries not to flaunt them too much.
He’s not sure if Jungwon cares that he’s dating, let alone if he’s okay with him dating within the friend group, but he’s not sure if flowers will ignite a conversation filled with passive aggression he doesn’t want to have.
Sunoo hangs the flowers upside down on a wall in his room and presses the older ones. A piece of Riki will always stay in his room.
All this aside, one can imagine Sunoo’s surprise when he wakes up one morning, sits down at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee, and turns to his right to see the vase, full of vibrant lilies, staring at him.
He knows Riki didn’t give them to him. He knows he didn’t get them. Sunoo narrows it down pretty quick, but is still perplexed.
Jungwon walks into the kitchen and makes himself an iced americano, unknowing to the appalled look on Sunoo’s face.
He looks up to Sunoo’s confused eyes, meeting him with blinking ones.
“What?” Jungwon asks.
Sunoo points to the vase with his thumb without looking away from his roommate. “Where did these come from?”
They both turn to look at the lilies, each one placed purposefully where it is. The vase shines against the overhead light, seemingly having been recently cleaned. It probably needed it, having been cooped up in a cupboard for a year.
“I saw it up there when I was cleaning the other day,” Jungwon points to the cabinet with his chin and shrugs, “Thought it’d be nice to put it out. No use for it to be collecting dust after buying it.”
Jungwon grabs a granola bar before returning to his room.
Sunoo watches him leave, still confused. Since when has Jungwon been the type to just … do that? Buy flowers just … because?
He leaves it be. The lilies are nice.
The next bunch of flowers come two weeks later and are orchids and baby’s breath. It’s also when Sunoo starts being suspicious again.
When he asks Jungwon, he says they’re from the farmer’s market that morning.
Sunoo realizes this vase, something he aimlessly bought, is letting him learn a lot about Jungwon: He cleans their cabinets and he goes to the farmer’s market.
Sunoo has known Jungwon for years — since their undergraduate days — and he does not clean or go shopping for organic eats early in the morning.
“Since when do you go to the farmer’s market?” Sunoo leans to smell the bouquet.
“A coworker wouldn’t stop talking about it, so I just tried it out,” Jungwon explains, sitting on the couch typing away on his laptop. His eyes are trained on his screen and Sunoo can see the slight outline of a split screen on the reflection of his glasses. “There’s some bread in the kitchen if you want some.”
Jungwon works in digital marketing. Sunoo hardly believes anyone in that field goes to the farmer’s market regularly, but there’s truly another world out there.
Sunoo walks inside the kitchen and sees a baguette next to their bowl of fruit. He opens the fridge and doesn’t really see any new ingredients. “Did you get anything else?”
“Just some apples. But I gave them to Sunghoon-hyung.”
Sunoo shuts the fridge. “When did you have time to go to the farmer’s market and see Sunghoon-hyung?”
“It’s 4 p.m., hyung,” Jungwon shuts his laptop and shifts his glasses to the top of his head as he stands up. Sunoo frowns and checks the clock. He’s supposed to meet Riki in an hour — time must’ve slipped away from him when he was painting.
“I’m not going to be home until late. Don’t wait up.” Jungwon drags the last syllable out in a cute tone as he slides toward his room in his fuzzy socks.
Sunoo lets out a breath and smiles.
This has been happening a lot recently. Jungwon will spend all day working and go out at night and not come back until after dinnertime, sometimes even after he gets home from seeing Riki. There have been times when Riki’s sleeping over and Jungwon bumps into him in the middle of the night (only twice from what Riki tells him, but two times is a lot more than none).
Usually on days when he doesn’t have to go into the office, Jungwon will sleep in a little, have a slow morning, and do work between breaks until he goes to bed. On the weekends, he’s out for “lunch” that lasts more than lunchtime should. Before Sunoo started dating Riki, he and Jungwon would often watch movies and lay out snacks and that’s how they both spent their nights.
Now, both of them seem to have their nights booked. Sunoo’s not sure what’s going on with Jungwon, but he’s not sure if it’s right to ask him.
Jungwon’s a reserved person, for the most part. He’s a great roommate and an even better friend, but he generally keeps to himself.
Sunoo doesn’t know what’s keeping his friend so busy, but ever since it’s started, he’s been better.
Better at smiling, letting things go, getting things done well and efficiently. Sunoo has never seen Jungwon like this, but if it means random flowers and homemade baguettes, he won’t prod.
The orchids are pretty.
The flowers switch again on Sunoo and Riki’s five-month milestone, and for such dainty items, they pose a problem for the first time.
For once in their apartment, there’s too many flowers.
Sunoo wanted to put Riki’s monthversary’s flowers in their vase, but also didn’t expect there to be new ones before he gets home. It’s fine, though. He still has his wall.
“Whose are those?” Riki points to the vase when they get inside.
“Jungwon’s. Not sure from where.” Sunoo takes the flowers in his hand out of the bouquet sleeve and heads to the kitchen sink. He pulls out a drawer to grab a pair of scissors.
“Who gave them to him?”
Sunoo pauses. He didn’t think about that possibility. Jungwon’s been saying he’s been buying the flowers himself. Sunoo carries on to trim the stems of his own.
“Well, the first batch, he said he bought himself. The second time, he said he got them at the farmer’s market,” Sunoo throws away the scraps, “and I don’t know about these ones.”
Riki hums in response. Sunoo watches him center the vase on the dining table where it now resides.
As if he knew, Jungwon walks through the front door holding a brown, paper bag of groceries.
“Hey,” he greets, meeting them in the kitchen. “What’s up?”
Riki waves and Sunoo just responds with not much as Jungwon starts putting green onions and tomatoes in the fridge.
“I have a question, Jungwon-hyung,” Riki pipes up after a couple seconds. Sunoo snaps his head over to his boyfriend, eyes wide and questioning.
“Where are these flowers from?”
Jungwon doesn’t seem fazed. He simply takes a glance at what Riki’s referring to and gets out a bowl and starts washing strawberries. “My mom. My family was in town yesterday and surprised me at work.”
Riki looks to Sunoo as though to ask for confirmation. Sunoo shrugs. He has no way of knowing if that’s true — he was painting all day and went to Riki’s dance practice before dinner.
“They’re nice,” is all Riki says before he drops it. Sunoo ties his bouquet and wraps a string around it. He’s running out of room on his wall for these, but five months is a long time. He’ll have to start pressing some of them again.
“I know, aren’t they?” Jungwon folds the brown paper bag and sticks it into a corner under the sink. His smile is genuine and his ears are pink.
Sunoo shares a look with Riki. “Yeah.”
Jungwon doesn’t clean their top cabinets, he hasn’t gone to a farmer’s market more than once, and Sunoo doubts his mom would surprise him with just flowers. Maybe he really is just buying flowers for himself. He hates the thought that Jungwon could be hiding something from him, but he’ll wait for when Jungwon’s ready to admit it.
In the meantime, Sunoo will just nod and keep the vase clean.
3
Jake is grading physics exams when Heeseung’s text to their group chat comes.
That was a month ago.
Their first free night in a while as six came in the form of a night out to dinner. Sunghoon suggested the new Korean barbecue place in the city.
Like you’re supposed to, Jake wore clothes he didn’t care much about for the rest of the week. He’s learned his lesson from last time, carrying the smell of smoke inside a movie theater once.
He’s situated between Jungwon and Heeseung at the round table and is four beers and six glasses of water in. Jungwon cut him off half an hour ago, muttering something about their housewarming party.
Jake has never had to use the restroom as many times as he’s had to in the past two hours.
He’s sober enough to realize this is the “breaking the seal” phenomenon, but tipsy still that he doesn’t really care for the gash on his lip. Jake doesn’t even notice he’s bleeding slowly and lightly from his bottom lip until Heeseung points it out and scolds him for drinking from a broken glass. The oldest leaves, presumably to get something to help it while Jake argues that beer is beer and Sunoo just points out he’ll drink whatever’s in front of him.
Truthfully, he doesn’t like to partake as hard as he is tonight but his first year being a teaching assistant for an advanced physics class has proven to be more taxing than people tell him. There’s a lot of students out there.
Heeseung comes back a minute later with a mini first aid kit and starts putting some sort of ointment on the cut. Jake is a little too flushed and out of it to comprehend if it stings or not.
When Heeseung’s done, Jake receives a look of bewilderment from everyone when he immediately chugs the rest of his water, likely undoing much of what Heeseung just heedfully fixed.
It’s when their last order of pork belly and perilla leaves comes to the table that Jake excuses himself for the restroom again.
While he’s washing his hands, he notices how disheveled he really looks. He dries his hands off by brushing them quickly against his jeans. There are no paper towels in sight and hand dryers are known for carrying more bacteria and germs (from what he’s read online).
Jake runs his hand through his hair and a stray piece gets caught in his watch. There’s a new voice outside, but the talking is a little blurred from the separation by the door. Still, it startles Jake enough that it stings when the stray strand rips out of his scalp, and he curses under his breath.
Someone else walks into the restroom just as he swears, and Jake awkwardly smiles at him through the mirror.
The door slowly closes from the way the hinges are installed and Jake can pick up a little bit of the conversation outside.
“… miss you …” is all he hears before the door closes again. The voice sounds oddly familiar, nasally and higher-pitched.
Jake doesn’t think much of it, just trying to stay awake while he lightly touches where the cut on his lip lies.
He hisses, realizing his liquid blanket is finally fading. He presses his lips together, seeing how the blood transfers. Jake sucks his lip, tasting the metallic flavor on his tongue. He brings up the hem of his shirt to dab at the cut, and the stranger from before meets him at the sink next to him.
Jake doesn’t usually care about his appearance in public, but this can’t look good. His face heats up and he tries not to look at the other man.
When the stranger leaves, mercifully, Jake can hear the voice from outside again.
“You’re sweet,” it says, giggling through the words. The door takes a second to close fully once more and the blood has stopped coming out from his lip.
Jake washes his hands once more and while waiting for the soap to foam up, he realizes why the voice is so familiar.
It’s Jungwon talking. And because he can’t hear anyone else, even through the muffling, he deduces he’s probably on a phone call. The barbecue place is full of customers, half of them inebriated in some capacity, so the hallway to the bathroom is a quiet area for a call.
Jake gives himself a mental pat on the back for figuring all that out, assuming he’s right. He’s totally sober.
His hands wave around in the air as he tries to dry them again and Jake prays that no one walks through the door again.
He fixes his hair, adjusts his watch, and gives one last look in the mirror before he moves to leave. He needs to ask Heeseung for another swab of ointment on his lip before he forgets.
Just as he’s about to open the door, he hears Jungwon again.
“… been thinking about you all day …”
This makes Jake pause a bit. Who could he possibly be talking with?
Jake and Jungwon haven’t really hung out as much as during their university days, and he knows he’s missed a few chapters in his life. Jungwon could also just be talking to his family, but, a bit strange, no?
Jake is fond of Jungwon. He’s energetic, a little silly at times, and he knows he’ll have a good time with him. He feels a little guilty for unknowingly eavesdropping on his conversation with this mystery person but his thoughts get interrupted when he hears the goodbyes coming from outside the door.
He snaps out of it and pulls the door open. It’s time for him to dial up his acting skills, and maybe he’ll just have to act more intoxicated than he feels.
“Oh, hey, Jungwon.” He blinks rapidly, trying to suppress his yawns.
Jungwon whips around and Jake gets a glance at him ending the call. “Hi, hyung.”
“Who was on the phone?” The words come out before he can stop them. Oops. Maybe he is actually more intoxicated than he feels. The line is getting more blurry and he just needs to remember to get the ointment from Heeseung.
“Uh — my mom. She put Maemi on the phone,” Jungwon explains. He pockets his phone and grabs onto Jake’s arm. “Are you feeling okay, hyung?”
Jake laughs and runs a hand over his face. “Yeah. I’m fine, Jungwonie.”
They walk back together and Jungwon sits him down. Most of the meat has already been eaten by the rest of the group, mostly Riki and Sunghoon, but Jake deemed himself full a while ago. He gets the attention of an auntie and politely asks for another refill of water.
He looks to Heeseung and has a nagging feeling he needs to ask him something, but he just can’t remember.
The next morning, Jake wakes up at 11 a.m. to a mild headache and a glass of water accompanied by a Tylenol pill and some sort of ointment tube on his nightstand. His hand skips past all that and reaches for his phone instead, which is at 4%.
There’s some emails at the top, most from his students and one from the physics professor. Jake scrolls a bit and sees a text from Heeseung that reads text me when ur up. use the ointment for the cut. Jake is sure he’ll remember what he means by “cut” in a minute, but he’s distracted by another text that comes from Jungwon.
hyung we should hang out soon (＾◡＾)
Jake slightly recalls talking with the younger last night at dinner, but he’s not entirely sure when. He also doesn’t know what inspired Jungwon to text him, but he opens his calendar app to see when he’s free next. He gets another email from a student and he regrettably remembers that he does have a job to do today. His phone dies before he can do anything and he groans.
Struggling to get out from under his mess of blankets, Jake swallows the pill and drinks the whole glass of water, which gives him a little bit of a déjà vu. He plugs in his phone and goes to brush his teeth.
Once he looks at himself in the bathroom mirror, all the memories come rushing back into his mind at once. The cut on his lip has diminished into a small scab and it stings less.
It’s when he’s scrambling some eggs and replying to emails — he makes a note to himself to not think about physics first thing in the morning — that he remembers he still needs to respond to his friends.
He chooses Heeseung first, offering him a thanks for the nightstand gifts and a time to call later to debrief.
Next, he opens Jungwon’s text and gives him some dates when he’s free and he knows that he won’t have teaching assistant duties looming over his head. When he sends the text, his mind becomes clear on how he knows he talked to Jungwon last night.
The call.
“… been thinking about you all day …”
“Uh — my mom. She put Maemi on the phone.”
Jake loves Layla. He misses her a lot, and he asks for pictures and videos from his family often. But unless he’s just a horrible pet owner — and he’s trying not to think about this too much — he has never spent a whole day just thinking about his dog.
He hopes Jungwon picks the soonest day Jake gave him to see each other because he needs an explanation as to why he lied to him. It’s in the back of his mind, but he’s thinking it’s probably some good news.
4
“Get your foot off my hand—OW!”
They all come tumbling down and Sunghoon hits his head on the ground first. His legs get tangled with Jake’s who accidentally(?) elbows him as he’s trying to get up, Sunoo and Riki use the failed game of Twister as an excuse to hug, and Jungwon’s already escaped from the pile. Their designated wheel spinner, Heeseung, bursts out laughing, covering his mouth as his head goes backward.
It’s game night and they all look ridiculous in animal pajama sets.
The reasons for the pajamas are two-fold:
- The parents of Riki’s toddler dance students in his studio gifted them to him as a thank you for the oddly popular choreography (among the adults) to “Roar” by Katy Perry
- No one can really say no to Riki
So here they are, a bunch of late-20 somethings in much-too-short matching animal pajama sets.
Sunghoon slaps Jake on the head and unravels himself from the group. He sweeps a hand through his hair and helps the rest of them up. He puts the Twister mat along with the wheel back in the box and shoves it aside. They’re going to have to be done with that for a while.
Jungwon stretches and snatches something from the coffee table and disappears into the kitchen.
After Riki graduated, they would all spend time together in the big dance studio because it has enough space for their messy antics and loud conversations. They would take up the space with their movements and thoughts alone.
A couple years ago, Heeseung moved into a nicer apartment on the top floor and started hosting them more often as Riki’s dance lessons picked up traction. The kitchen is the best part — it’s in a separate area of the residence from the living room, divided by a narrow hallway. The fridge is huge, the cabinets are full of ramen, and the island has a nice marble top.
It’s also where they go to sneak off for alone time, or just to take a break from the group’s havoc.
Sunghoon has noticed Jungwon’s been a little more jumpy tonight, especially for it nearing midnight, but he chalks it up to a caffeine boost and adrenaline from competitive gameplay.
Still, he’s feeling rather hot and follows Jungwon to get himself a glass of water. The others get a movie started and Heeseung compares takeout delivery times.
Jungwon’s fiddling with some sort of chain when Sunghoon sees him.
“What’s that?” Sunghoon asks, looking over his shoulder as he opens a cupboard to grab a glass.
“A necklace. I took it off for Twister but I think it got tangled on the coffee table,” Jungwon explains, not taking his attention away from the piece of jewelry he’s handling. Sunghoon notices how gentle he is with it, like it might break if he so much as breathes on it too heavily. Sunghoon didn’t even realize Jungwon was wearing a necklace all night.
“Want some help?” Sunghoon offers as he uses the water filter built into the fridge. The ice comes down, clanging, but Jungwon still hasn’t torn his eyes away from the necklace. The younger has the most adorable pout on his lips and Sunghoon feels his cuteness aggression powering up tenfold.
Jungwon doesn’t act for a moment, unanswering and hands still moving. Ultimately he seems to give up and reluctantly gives Sunghoon the necklace.
It’s a dainty, silver thing.
Sunghoon’s unsure if his proposition to help would actually do anything, seeing as his fingers are bigger than Jungwon’s and he probably has less dexterity and a shorter temper than the other. He starts his attempt at detangling, anyway. Sunghoon sees that there’s a knot within a knot.
Plus, there’s the added fact that Jungwon hesitated. It probably carries some significance, so Sunghoon will try anyway.
“Can you guys make some popcorn?” A voice yells from the other room.
Jungwon moves first, allowing Sunghoon to keep picking at the chain. The microwave popcorn bags are in one of the drawers, but Jungwon can’t seem to remember which so he just starts opening and closing anything with a handle.
“Where’d you get this necklace from?” If it seems precious to Jungwon, it must be worth something, material or otherwise.
“A boutique from home,” he finds the popcorn, “I had been wanting to go for a while because some hometown friends really like it.”
Jungwon carefully reads the instructions on the bag and throws it into the microwave and pushes some buttons. The familiar hum of the microwave fills the air.
Sunghoon hooks a nail under one of the knots and it reveals some sort of charm.
The letter J.
The first pops of the kernels startle Jungwon slightly and Sunghoon diverts his attention to him.
“An initial necklace?” Sunghoon asks him, getting ready to tease.
Jungwon’s eyes shift to Sunghoon immediately and the tips of his ears gain a little more color. He scratches the back of his head and lets out a laugh.
“I see people wear their own initial a lot,” Jungwon turns his head down a degree, “Wanted something new.”
Sunghoon just nods and goes back to picking at the necklace. He forgets about the teasing. He could never do that to Jungwon who’s just trying something new.
Jungwon takes the bag of popcorn out the microwave and sticks another one in. He goes to grab a large bowl and carefully dumps the hot snack into it. Jungwon whispers under his breath something about butter and salt.
Jungwon doesn’t usually wear jewelry. None of them really do, save for Heeseung and Riki who can spend hours together browsing luxury brand websites. Still, no one has a go-to necklace let alone one with their own initial on it.
Sunghoon doesn’t know Jungwon to be that sort of person. He’s always been the most selfless out of all of them and he shows his appreciation for his loved ones a lot. For Sunghoon’s birthday, Jungwon got him new skates after he briefly mentioned once that he wanted to visit the rink again. Jungwon’s always in charge of celebratory parties and makes their dinner reservations.
It’s nice to see Jungwon appreciate himself, too, even if it’s in the form of a metal charm.
Still interesting to see, though.
The second bag of popcorn finishes after a bout of silence in the kitchen as Sunghoon keeps untangling — he’s got one knot out and took a break to celebrate — and Jungwon sprinkles butter salt into the bowl, which they both shared a laugh over Heeseung owning something like that.
The second knot finally gets undone and Sunghoon moves the ‘J’ to the center of the chain and observes it a bit.
It’s simple, very Jungwon-like. The sterling silver ‘J’ is in a serif font attached to a snake bone chain. The design fits Jungwon well.
“Got it.” Sunghoon lets out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding and tightens his grip on the necklace, as Jungwon washes his hands free of popcorn, so as to not let it fall and break. The possibilities are endless and Sunghoon doesn’t really want his work to all end in vain.
Jungwon quickly dries his hands off with a stray kitchen towel and takes the necklace from Sunghoon. “Thank you so much, hyung.”
“Do you want help getting it on?” Sunghoon throws the empty popcorn bags with unpopped kernels away.
“No, thanks, I got it.” Jungwon says.
And he does. Jungwon rotates the necklace so the clasp is in front of his neck and he fastens the necklace in the blink of an eye. He spins it again until the ‘J’ is visible at the front. It surprises Sunghoon slightly — Jungwon didn’t even need a mirror or guidance. It’s like he’s memorized each centimeter of the necklace. It was so easy for him. Like it’s natural. Like he’s done it a million times before.
As the popcorn runs out and the movie goes on and the tteok gets eaten, Sunghoon realizes Jungwon touches the letter on his necklace quite often.
When Heeseung and Jake tell a funny joke, when Sunoo screams as the rest of them stay quiet, when he slips away to the kitchen again looking at his phone.
Sunghoon keeps this to himself.
Jungwon’s had to jump through a lot of hoops this past year. Transitioning jobs, deciding to move in with Sunoo on a whim, being apart from his family for a longer time than he’s used to. He’s young, and Sunghoon has watched him go through phases in life he’s already experienced. Sunghoon does his best to subtly offer his help and advice but Jungwon doesn’t like to talk about that vulnerable side of himself and Sunghoon thinks he just doesn’t want to worry anyone.
Even though it’s small and could be considered less significant than other material things, the necklace clearly holds some comfort to him. Sunghoon’s glad it does.
5
Riki hardly ever feels betrayed. He knows it’s partly due to the fact that none of his friends can really say no to him, something he uses to his advantage once in a while.
Other than his dance studio that he’s prided himself in building up and promoting for the past two years, Riki’s interest in fashion takes up a lot of his time. A fashion line is not anywhere near his future, at least right now, but he dabbles in the various areas of couture where he can.
(He also likes to dress up Sunoo, but that’s neither here nor there.)
None of his hyungs really ‘seek him out’ for help regarding their looks but Riki’s gifts to them during celebrations is always a new piece of clothing. He feels a sense of pride whenever he sees Sunghoon wear the blue wool sweater he picked out for him, when Heeseung decorates his fingers with rings he’s bought for him, or when Jake takes his advice on layering.
Apart from Sunoo, Riki has always thought Jungwon was the easiest to style. Riki sees Sunoo in every clothing store, but he thinks Jungwon would look good in anything. Whenever Riki gets the chance, he asks, begs, pleads Jungwon to go shopping together and add these additions to his closet. Jungwon’s wardrobe is very minimalistic and Riki thinks the only time he’s really dressed up for anything is in a suit for Heeseung’s brother’s wedding.
Riki hardly ever feels betrayed, especially in this area, but Jungwon’s on the couch and Riki’s close to confronting him.
For the past few weeks, Jungwon has shown up wearing something absolutely out of character.
The first time he noticed was after his and Sunghoon’s joint birthday party. Heeseung had all of them and a few other friends over for champagne, cake, and karaoke and Sunghoon told them to dress casually despite Riki’s wishes. Jungwon showed up wearing a simple T-shirt with a hoodie over it paired with ripped jeans.
It’s pretty normal for Jungwon, and Riki hardly cares but he noticed something a little different with the outfit.
First, the hoodie was definitely not his size. Jungwon likes oversized things, but not his heavy layers because he says “they’re already so heavy.”
Second, there were a few small stains on the hem of the sweater and the ends of the sleeves were a little frayed. The hoodie was black so lighter marks became visible and Jungwon kept tugging at the sleeves to hide his hands.
When he wore the hood, Riki and Jake kept whispering how cute he looked because the hoodie swallowed him up and his pink cheeks from the champagne accentuated made his face look rounder, reminding them of their university days.
The second instance of newer clothing made more sense. It was one of the nights when Riki was sleeping over with Sunoo and he went to brush his teeth.
Jungwon was in the bathroom doing the same. He hadn’t been home since Riki came a few hours ago, but he must’ve snuck in when he and Sunoo were watching YouTube in Sunoo’s room.
Jungwon spit out his toothpaste and rinsed his mouth out before he made eye contact with Riki through the mirror. “Hey.” He reaches for the floss.
Riki grabs the black toothbrush from Sunoo’s cup and squeezes the toothpaste onto the bristles and nods in response. He notices that Jungwon’s already washed his face and changed into his sleep clothes (he also notices it’s not the cat pajamas he graciously gifted him, but he’ll let it slide).
Jungwon moisturizes his face and adjusts his shirt so that it stops falling off his shoulder. It’s a grungy, big T-shirt with a faded rose and thorn design on the front. Jungwon says goodnight and Riki watches him leave for his room. The back says Bon Jovi in bold lettering with a picture of the band underneath.
Riki isn’t super acquainted with Jungwon’s music taste but whenever he’s on aux, he has never played a Bon Jovi song or expressed interest in the grunge rock genre. Riki rubs his eyes and closes the bathroom door and just shrugs to himself in the mirror.
It is strange, however. It just seems like Jungwon went thrifting or went to an unknown store under the ground and just stuck his hand out and bought what he first grabbed (No hate to Bon Jovi, though).
That’s especially clear now, as Riki sits on the floor and asks Jungwon why he’s wearing a blue button up that covers the top of his thighs.
“Do you not like it?” Jungwon frowns as he works on his laptop.
“It just doesn’t suit you. Your figure—” Riki stops at the look Jungwon gives him. “You know what I mean. You have broad shoulders and a small waist. I just don’t know why you would wear that, I guess, when there are other pieces that would suit you better.” Riki leans back on his hands and he feels the tension in his wrists.
Jungwon looks back to his computer. “Let’s go shopping, then. You can pick anything out.” Jungwon hits the enter key a couple times before closing his laptop and tossing it aside on the couch. He rolls the sleeves of the shirt down and Riki takes note of how it’s another too-big shirt.
He shoots up at Jungwon’s comment. “I’ve been asking you for this forever! What the—Nevermind. Let’s just go.” He gets up and grabs his keys.
“What, now?” Jungwon’s eyes widen and they look even bigger through his glasses.
“Yes. Please, just take that off.”
Riki texts Sunoo from the car telling him they’re gone and he can’t wait to see his painting when they’re done and he and Jungwon spend the next few hours together going from malls to shops to Riki’s favorites. He’s giddy and excited and doing something he loves.
Jungwon lets himself get dragged around and pushed into dressing rooms. They never established a budget, so Riki just goes crazy and his legs don’t stop moving. For every ten pieces Riki picks out, Jungwon buys one.
“I have a question, hyung.” Riki says from a stool outside the dressing room.
“What?”
“Bon Jovi?” Riki recalled their bathroom encounter a little bit ago and couldn’t help but wonder.
Riki hears a hanger fall on the floor. “What about them?”
“Do you like them?”
“Um. I don’t really know. They’re alright, I suppose.”
“Then why do you have a shirt of them?” A wandering customer gives Riki a look before entering one of the dressing rooms.
Jungwon comes out of his and he’s wearing a cream, waffle-knit sweater combined with straight-leg, pleated black trousers held up by a black belt with a silver buckle. Riki is astonished. He should do this for a living.
“I just found it in my closet. What do you think of this?” Jungwon dismisses the Bon Jovi shirt conversation and starts this new one with a twirl in front of the hallway mirror.
“You look great. You should always listen to me.”
Riki admires his Jungwon-hyung. Not just because he’s a pretty model, but because he’s letting him do this. A random rendezvous in the middle of his remote work day, and Jungwon just lets himself get dressed up with no complaint.
“Really? You don’t think the sweater’s too tight?” Jungwon looks at himself over the shoulder. “The belt’s a little big, too.”
“No, it sits well on your shoulders. If it doesn’t feel right, though, I can go grab it in the next size.” Riki stands up behind him. “Your waist is just really small, I think. If you want it, I can just poke a new hole where it’s needed.”
Jungwon spins around a couple more times and sticks his hands in the pants pockets. “Okay. I like the sweater. The pants are a little too short and I can just find another belt that’s smaller as is.” He walks into the dressing room and closes the door, shutting Riki out again.
Riki hums in agreement and makes a mental note to add a couple centimeters to Jungwon’s pant length.
The car ride home is quiet for the most part, and Riki lets Jungwon control the music. There’s a few bags, plastic and paper with a variety of brands spread across, sitting in the backseats. They go to the grocery store at Sunoo’s request to buy some snacks.
Jungwon doesn’t play any Bon Jovi the whole time.
+1
The first thing they notice about him is his jawline. Jake honestly can’t stop ogling and Heeseung rolls his eyes and jokes that he should stop drooling. Riki takes in the fact he came in a trench coat and appreciated the diligence in hanging it in the coat closet with care.
There’s also his taste. His watch is a Tag Heuer Monaco Evergraph, he doesn’t drink much throughout the night, and Sunghoon thinks his cologne is some sort of Jo Malone. He can smell the top notes.
The next thing that they take into note, and they’re all huddled near the couch to discuss this, is his charisma. When he smiles, it’s crooked and when he laughs he hangs his head slightly. Every word he says is intentional and he doesn’t trip up on anything or stutter at all. He’s confident and he exudes a certain charm and warmth everywhere he goes.
He is the man that Jungwon won’t let go of all night.
It’s Heeseung’s annual New Year’s Eve party and most of them made it early to help set up and decorate, but Jungwon couldn’t, saying he had another appointment and he was going to come to the party a short while after the start time.
It looks like the “other appointment” was a date, but they’ll wait until Jungwon tells them explicitly. Which doesn't look like it’ll be soon, by the way Jungwon won’t stop pulling him away from crowds. Sunoo notices how his grip tightens on his arm whenever they’re talking with someone new, or how the man never lets go of his hold on Jungwon’s waist.
They’re all huddled around the couch talking about it and they look like a crazy, antisocial group of adults wearing sparkly party hats.
Sunghoon’s the first to say something. “This isn’t right. We’ve got to mingle.”
“No, wait. I want to watch a little more,” Riki says, following Jungwon and the man’s every move in the kitchen. They’re chatting with one of Heeseung’s hometown friends. “This is insane.”
“This is bigger than insane. How long do you think they’ve been together? Are they even together?” Heeseung feels like he needs to lie down. He collapses against the back of his couch and chugs the rest of his flute.
“If they’re not, then Jungwon is more brazen than we all thought,” Jake stands up first and looks around. “No other couples are touching as much. Not even Riki and Sunoo are as gross as this.”
Sunoo slaps his arm in retaliation and Riki lays his leg over Sunoo’s thigh.
Heeseung makes eye contact with Jungwon and he raises his eyebrow at him. Jungwon turns to the man by his hip and whispers something in his ear, and they both turn to look at the group. Huddled by the couch, including the host, isolated from the rest of the party.
They excuse themselves from their current conversation and gradually make their way over to the rest. The other five straighten their backs and shush each other; Heeseung fixes his hair, Riki adjusts his bracelets, Sunoo keeps an incredulous look on his face. It doesn’t shock anyone that he’s more upset than surprised — Sunoo’s been Jungwon’s right-hand through university and he lives with him and yet he’s been in the dark along with the rest of them.
Sunghoon checks the time. It’s an hour before midnight.
Jungwon walks over with the new face and won’t stop laughing at something the latter said. His cheeks are pink, borderline red. They pause in front of the couch.
Despite the loud music and chatter from the other guests, the silence that follows when all seven of them are within arms length with each other fills the space.
Jungwon seems to recognize the awkward tension and snaps out of his giggly fit. “Right.”
He loosens his grip on the man’s arm and looks at him once before turning to the group. “Everyone, this is Jay.”
What follows are blank stares, still longing for more information other than just a name. Jake sticks his head out a centimeter as if asking.
“… My boyfriend.”
Silence still hangs in the air, but their faces show a little more emotion. Sunoo looks away, finding something on the ground much more interesting. Jungwon frowns at the lack of response, so Heeseung is the first to say something.
“Hey, man. I’m Heeseung,” he introduces himself, getting up to shake his hand, “Thanks for coming.”
The rest of them seem to come to their senses and follow Heeseung’s lead, taking turns greeting and presenting themselves. Jungwon gets a lot of looks from them and all he can do is smile nervously and stick to Jay’s side.
Jay, like they’ve observed, is incredibly easy to acquaint with. They spend the upcoming hour getting to know him and what he does outside his duties of being Jungwon’s boyfriend.
He’s the same age as Sunghoon and Jake, who have recruited him to an approaching lunch. Jay likes to golf and read in his limited free time but hasn’t picked up a book in a while. He’s in culinary school with an undergraduate degree in economics and Heeseung is appalled at how much school he’s doing. They also find out that Jungwon and Jay have been dating for almost three months, which garners more bewilderment than anything else they learn tonight.
Thirty minutes to midnight, Heeseung pops a new bottle and refills everyone’s glass but gets turned down when he gets to Jay.
“I gotta drive him back later,” Jay points to Jungwon who’s talking to Riki at the other end of the couch. “But thank you. And thank you for having me.” His smile is genuine and Heeseung reminds himself to congratulate Jungwon on finding the most gentlemanlike person on Earth.
At some point, Jake mentions Heeseung’s ramen obsession and Jay offers to teach him his special way of cooking store bought ramen which leads to a spiraling conversation of sharing tips and tricks.
During this, Sunghoon notices that Jay isn’t wearing much jewelry other than the Tag Heuer watch but his eye catches on something around his neck. It’s a very familiar snake bone chain with an even more familiar ‘J’ charm dangling right above his sternum. He looks over at Jungwon, who’s slowly approaching Sunoo, and sees the same one he untangled that one game night. He smiles to himself, knowing that the necklace probably wasn’t the only thing bringing him comfort at the time.
Fifteen minutes to midnight, Sunoo lets Jungwon sit next to him on the floor against the couch. Jungwon makes sure to avoid any small spills of champagne.
“I’m sorry.” Jungwon speaks first. Neither of them are looking at each other, just looking straight ahead.
“I don’t know why you couldn’t trust us with this new thing,” Sunoo mutters. There’s a hint of resignation in his voice. “I would’ve been so excited.”
“I know, hyung,” Jungwon scoots closer to him. “I just really liked him. I didn’t want to tell everyone and then suddenly something bad happened and everyone would just pity me. I didn’t want to mess anything up.”
Sunoo sighs. “No one would’ve pitied you, Jungwon-ah. We all understand how dating works. No one thinks you’re more emotional than normal, or whatever.”
Jungwon quiets. He plays with his necklace. “You and Riki were so sure of each other when you told me you were starting something up. I’m not like that. I have to make sure I’m not wasting my time and that it will go somewhere and that the other person won’t throw whatever we have right away. Jay … Jay makes me feel good about myself.”
At his own mention of Jay, Jungwon’s voice brightens. Sunoo can hear the smile in his speech even though he still hasn’t made eye contact with his roommate yet.
“I have so many needs. He helps me with all of them. He communicates with me when I’m being unreasonable without belittling me or diminishing my role in our relationship. He takes care of me so well. I … I’ve never felt this way about someone before and wanted to protect it. I wouldn’t be able to stand you guys meeting and something going awry. I wouldn’t have been able to handle it and I would’ve distanced myself.” Jungwon rambles, voice laced with emotion. “I can’t help but think that it’s going so well because I hid it.”
Sunoo takes a deep breath through his nose. “You’re not perceived as a mess, you know. You’ve known us all for years — none of us would’ve pressured you to talk about it, I know you know that. I would’ve done everything I could have to help you if something bad had happened. I would’ve done everything to help you keep comfortable in your relationship. Who did you go to when you wanted advice?” Sunoo talks and talks, with contempt, with broken faith.
“We would’ve seen you fall in love, Wonie. Why would you strip us of that? I would’ve loved to see you love and be loved.”
Sunoo turns to Jungwon, finally, and both of them try their hardest not to let any tears fall. Jungwon has the most apologetic look on his face and Sunoo speaks first before he can admit guilt again.
“I forgive you. I forgave you when Jay told me everything I already knew about you. I know you just wanted to protect yourself. He seems great. I just wish I don’t feel as blindsided as I do.” Sunoo moves closer to Jungwon so that their shoulders are touching. “You’re my best friend, Jungwon. I’m glad you have someone else who loves you as much as I do.”
Jungwon’s hand finds Sunoo’s and he squeezes. “I promise the three of us — you, me, Jay-hyung — will go out for brunch or something soon. And we’ll just talk. I promise. We’ll figure out a time before we leave tonight.”
Sunoo squeezes his hand back. “Okay,” is all he says. He doesn’t want to fight anymore.
Someone yells THREE MINUTES somewhere in the apartment and Sunoo turns to Jungwon and waits for him to look back. “The flowers were him, right?”
Heat immediately rises to Jungwon’s face and he can’t blame it on the champagne. “Yeah.”
Sunoo laughs. Wholeheartedly laughs for the first time tonight. He rests his head on Jungwon’s for a minute before Riki shows up in their eyeline, crouching before them.
“Can I steal Sunoo-hyung away for a second?”
Jungwon breathes. Midnight’s coming up. “Go. Go kiss your boyfriend.” Jungwon lets go of Sunoo’s hand and Riki’s takes his place. He helps them both up off the ground.
“Go kiss yours.” Sunoo says over his shoulder before getting whisked away into the crowd.
Jake yells happy New Year the loudest and Heeseung lightly hits the back of his head. Riki and Sunoo are modest with their kiss with light pecks after, and Jay and Jungwon’s is something you would see on a TV screen. Jay cups Jungwon’s cheek with his right hand and holds his waist with the other. Jungwon’s arms are swung around Jay’s neck and their matching ‘J’ charms also find each other.
When they pull away, Jay looks at Jungwon like he’s hung the moon. Jungwon has found someone who adores him for all things he comes with. Even if Jungwon hid their relationship, it’s hard to believe Jay would’ve done the same. He wears the face of someone truly infatuated and would shout it from the rooftops. And Jungwon would let him.
Like usual, the nonresidents of Heeseung’s apartments stay behind to help clean up and make sure any damage isn’t permanent. Jay stays without being asked.
It’s 2 a.m. and they’re back at the couch. Balloons are popped, half-full champagne bottles are corked, streamers are thrown away. Jake is still wearing his party hat and Heeseung is shoving water down his throat.
The Jay Interrogation starts up again, this time beginning with how he and Jungwon met. Apparently, meeting someone in the grocery store line can go a long way. Jay was buying ingredients for a culinary externship interview and Jungwon was buying medicine and chocolates when Sunoo was sick. Jungwon was a few won short and Jay kindly covered it.
Outside, Jungwon thanked him with a stammer and Jay said he could pay him back by going on a date with him. Jungwon, curled up against Jay, interrupted and said they didn’t need to know the rest, just that he’s eternally grateful for fate and Lotte Mart.
Later, Jay teases and mentions a receipt with a waiter’s number on it and Heeseung jumps up. Someone asks him what his music taste is and along with Harry Styles and John Mayer, Jay says he loves the song Always by Bon Jovi. At this, Riki’s head shoots up and looks to Jungwon who just gives him a sly smile and hides his face in Jay’s arm. Riki knew he wasn’t crazy.
Yawns increase in amount and noise, so Heeseung kicks everyone out after making sure Jake, who fell asleep during their late conversation, is well situated in the guest room.
Jay offers Sunoo and Riki a ride home, but Riki politely declines saying he needs to get his car so as to not get an overnight parking ticket. Sunoo can’t seem to stay awake, so he sleepily apologizes and says he’ll give him the best-friend-talk another time. Jay smiles and agrees.
The passenger seat in Jay’s car perfectly fits Jungwon and he hasn’t had to change the chair settings for three months. Jungwon’s eyes struggle to stay open and Jay buckles him in and gives him a kiss on the forehead before getting in the driver’s seat.
As Jay begins to back up, Jungwon lazily throws his hand over the center console and Jay takes the hint and links their fingers together. The silence in the car is more comfortable than the one at the party when Jay was introduced in front of the couch. Nothing but the sound of the car’s heating system, the ticking of the turn signals, and Jungwon’s sleepy comments can be heard.
Getting inside Jay’s apartment comes with Jungwon holding onto Jay’s arm tightly through the garage, up the elevator, down the hall, and into bed.
Jay helps Jungwon change and gets him a glass of water before completely letting him fall into slumber.
When Jay slips under the covers with him, Jungwon whispers something and Jay wouldn’t have picked it up if he wasn’t directly next to the boy.
“I’m sorry for keeping you away,” Jungwon buries his face in the crook of Jay’s neck. “I don’t want you to feel like a secret. You’ve been more than just a boyfriend to me.”
“You don’t have to be sorry.” Jay cards his left hand through Jungwon’s hair and drags his right hand up and down Jungwon’s torso. He holds him tighter. “You needed time. I would’ve given you more if you wanted.”
It’s always like this. Jay would move mountains for Jungwon.
Jungwon takes this as a green-light to fall asleep for good, and Jay kisses him on the head.
They don’t know if Jungwon locking this part of his life away is what kept their relationship off the rocks. When Jay first heard Jungwon didn’t want his friends to know about them, he didn’t mind. He continued to not mind for the next few months, letting Jungwon have the space he needed.
New Year’s Day saw Sunoo forcing Jay’s number out of Jungwon. Sunoo didn’t want to wait to tell Jay that if he ever found out Jungwon was hurt because of him, he wouldn’t hesitate to ruin his life. Jay found Sunoo incredibly adorable, and even more sweet. At the end of their lunch, Sunoo came to the conclusion by himself that even if Jungwon didn’t hide their relationship, Jay would’ve done anything to keep it strong. He has never seen anyone think so highly of his best friend and he’d bet billions that Jay would never hurt him.
Jake and Sunghoon took Jay out for lunch at the start of the weekend and besides talking about Jungwon, they had lengthy discussions about their hobbies and interests. Jake promised to set a tee time for the three of them and in turn Sunghoon wants to teach them to skate and Jay would take a day to teach them cooking.
On his day off, Heeseung was greeted by Jay who was holding an extremely nice bottle of bourbon as a thank you for hosting New Year’s. Heeseung invites him in and they share a glass while continuing their chat about ramen tips. Heeseung thanked Jay for the gift and reassured him not to do it again. Jay just shrugs and says it was the least he could do. Heeseung’s a little confused by that, but he thinks he’ll have a good friend in Jay.
Riki and Jay bump into each other at an outlet mall one day and spend the next hours picking things out for each other and comparing closets. Riki was elated and had to apologize to Sunoo for being late to their date. Sunoo reluctantly forgave him when he saw the cardigan he was gifted.
The first time they all hung out as seven after New Year’s was to watch Riki’s winter dance showcase which followed with dinner at Sunoo and Jungwon’s. Jay offered to cook but Jungwon insisted he and Sunoo “had it in the bag.” It didn’t stop Jay from supervising once in a while and making sure they didn’t set off any alarms, fire or otherwise.
Sunoo bought Riki flowers this time which ended up in their porcelain vase anyway. Jay heard about the excuses Jungwon made when saying where the new flowers kept coming from and joked that they should just buy another one. Sunoo didn’t take it as a joke, saying they should have a Jay-designated vase and a Riki-designated vase. Safe to say he ran out of space on his Riki flower wall.
Jungwon was a little nervous. This would be the first, official time he’d be bringing Jay to a gathering as his boyfriend. As they asked to pass dishes across the table and cheers’d their beverages together, though, Jungwon realized it didn’t have to be Jungwon’s friends and Jungwon’s boyfriend.
They’re all just friends. It makes him wonder why he was ever scared for it to be this way.
He knows Jay to be kind, sweet, caring, and selfless. Jay would give and give until he couldn’t anymore and Jungwon has made it his goal to take with compassion while also sharing bits of himself with caution.
Jungwon sees how Jay is already a close friend to Heeseung. He sees how Jake and Sunghoon found some sort of a leader to their mischief. He sees how Sunoo has someone else to look up to now. He sees how Riki finally has someone to share his interests with.
He sees it all through the end of dinner and Jungwon pouts, pretending that he’s upset that everyone seems to like Jay better than him. Everyone teases him and says it’s true with playful tones. Jay kisses his temple.
Jungwon and Sunoo see everyone out when they give their true remarks about Jay. “We like him for him but mostly we like him for making you happy.” Heeseung sums it up for the rest of them. Jungwon hugs them extra tight that night.
When Sunoo and Jungwon finish cleaning up, Sunoo wipes down the table and pauses at the vase. “I can respect your decision for keeping him while you bloomed your relationship. I just ask you not to hide any more because we all really like him.”
From then on, Jungwon swears to love Jay and let everyone see how much. It’s easy to.