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“Kim Dokja, bring it over here,” Yoo Joonghyuk tells him.
Kim Dokja shuffles a bit, carrying a box filled with his clothes into Yoo Joonghyuk’s room. “Here, Yoo Joonghyuk?”
Yoo Joonghyuk nods, and Kim Dokja places the box down, dusting off his hands together after. Then, he goes back to his room to get another box, leaving Yoo Joonghyuk alone with Han Sooyoung.
“Does it not bother you how you both use each other’s full names, aren’t you guys, like, dating now?” Han Sooyoung questions, sitting on the floor of his room because she decided that she wanted to be included with the moving process. “I’m surprised you two haven’t called each other pet names with how disgustingly in love you guys are actually.”
Pet names?
It’s a thought that hasn’t crossed Yoo Joonghyuk’s mind before, he’s always just called him ‘Kim Dokja’ or ‘that fool’, should he have been more affectionate with him, more romantic? Would Kim Dokja like that? Did Kim Dokja want that?
When he thinks about it, Kim Dokja himself has called him Joonghyuk-ah a few times, mostly when the two were alone or if he was being playful and decided he wanted to tease him, not that Han Sooyoung would know though. Yoo Joonghyuk never thought much about it before; was Kim Dokja trying to hint something this whole time to Yoo Joonghyuk and he was too dense to know it?
Pet names are used for couples, he knows this, but he never thought to use it with Kim Dokja or for any past person before.
Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t ever fond of pet names between couples. He didn’t care for them, since it still carried the same purpose as using the person’s name. He also found the notion to be cheesy, often internally cringing when he heard couples refer to each other as ‘honey’ or ‘sweetheart’. But, when he thinks about it, he does enjoy it when he and Kim Dokja are alone in their now shared room (that used to be just Yoo Joonghyuk’s), voice low and soft as he mutters a quiet and sweet ‘Joonghyuk-ah’.
It never fails to make Yoo Joonghyuk’s heart beat a bit faster, and for his mouth to get drier. He clearly enjoys it, so shouldn’t he do the same for Kim Dokja?
Kim Dokja never made any mention of wanting Yoo Joonghyuk to refer to him with a pet name, but knowing that guy, he would never ask him to do so explicitly, simply because that guy was the type to refuse to ask for anything for himself.
Thinking about it, it would be nice to see Kim Dokja smile at him if he were to call him a pet name. Yoo Joonghyuk’s heart aches at the thought. Would he like it?
Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t ever fond of pet names, but for some reason, he wants to try for Kim Dokja.
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ perks up at Han Sooyoung’s comment]
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ says that she thinks it would be cute if Yoo Joonghyuk used a pet name on Kim Dokja]
Yoo Joonghyuk looks up at the notification, furrowing his brows. Should he? He doesn’t even know what pet name to call him.
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ gives you a personal scenario!]
[Clear Conditions: Find a suitable pet name for your significant other!]
[Time Limit: none]
[Reward for Completion: a very happy archangel (❁´◡`❁) and an increased level of companionship between you and your significant other!]
[Penalty for Failure: ???]
Would something like this really help their relationship? Did their relationship need help?
Yoo Joonghyuk furrows his brows harder, deep in thought.
“Any more and your eyebrows are going to be permanently glued in that position.” Han Sooyoung snorts.
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ recommends that you start with something simple and classic, like ‘honey’]
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ says that she is personally particularly fond of that pet name herself!]
“Honey?” Yoo Joonghyuk tests out under his breath. It’s foreign when he says it. Would Kim Dokja like it?
“What about this one, Yoo Joonghyuk,” Kim Dokja asks as he steps in the room again, carrying another box of his clothes.
“There is good,”
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ nudges you]
Yoo Joonghyuk scowls, before gritting out, “right there… Honey.”
A loud thud resounds in the room, the box Kim Dokja was holding slipping from his hold. “Huh?” He stares at Yoo Joonghyuk. His eyes are wide, he notices. Was that a good reaction?
“Did you– Did you just? What did you–?” Kim Dokja asks bewildered, pointing a finger at him, before he breathes a breath in and laughs to himself, as if he thinks that he misheard Yoo Joonghyuk.
Yoo Joonghyuk tries again, “What’s wrong, honey.” The word doesn’t come naturally from his tongue, it feels unfamiliar and weird when he says it.
“Yoo Joonghyuk!” Kim Dokja splutters out before he hastily goes over and covers Yoo Joonghyuk’s mouth with his hands, the box on the floor forgotten. He then quickly glances down to Han Sooyoung whose eyes are bulging out of her head like she can’t believe what she just heard.
“When I said what I said earlier, I didn’t mean it like this! What the hell,” she fake gags, “I’m outta here you love birds, have fun! Or actually, don’t, please.” She gets up from her criss-cross sitting position and leaves the room, it’s the fastest Yoo Joonghyuk has seen her move.
Now alone, Kim Dokja asks, “Joonghyuk-ah, what?”
Yoo Joonghyuk coughs, eyes looking away from Kim Dokja, “do you not like it?”
“Like what?”
“Don’t play dumb, you fool,” Yoo Joonghyuk sweats and crosses his arm in feign nonchalance. “The pet name.”
“‘Honey?’”
And Yoo Joonghyuk himself can feel the tips of his ears warm up as Kim Dokja says the pet name, it already has this effect and he wasn’t even addressing it to him.
“Yes.”
Kim Dokja rubs the back of his head with his hand, and chuckles hesitantly, “what’s with this all of a sudden?”
Yoo Joonghyuk returns his attention back to his lover, “do you not like it?”
“Ah, well, It’s not– well I, I’m just personally not fond of that one, is all.” This time, it’s Kim Dokja who is the one to look away.
At that, Yoo Joonghyuk deflates, but obviously he doesn’t show it.
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ frowns]
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ says that there is still hope!]
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ suggests trying darli–
At that, he scowls and swats the notifications away.
“Oh, some kind of scenario,” Kim Dokja mutters, dejectedly, before he glares aimlessly at the air.
The notifications do go away, but then after, he gets another ping, this time coming from Midday Tryst.
[Kim Dokja: you don’t have to listen to them, Joonghyuk.]
Yoo Joonghyuk frowns. Then, another ping.
[Kim Dokja: were the rewards that good? You can just ignore them, you don’t have to play into their games.]
He gives a glare to the idiot next to him.
[Kim Dokja: what? Why are you glaring at me?]
“No, you fool.” he scoffs.
“Huh? I really don’t get it.”
Yoo Joonghyuk walks away from their room, arms crossed together. He is not sulking.
–
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ sends you pats on the back]
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ says it’s okay and that you just have to try again!]
“Give it a rest.” Yoo Joonghyuk thinks back to the facial expression Kim Dokja had made when he tried calling him that wretched pet name. It was a face of shock, neither a good thing or a bad thing.
Then, he imagines what Kim Dokja’s face would look like if he called him a pet name that he would like. He’d probably be shy about it, face heated with that beautiful red color, he’d probably tell Yoo Joonghyuk to shut up and then go hide his face in his neck. The idea of seeing Kim Dokja like that made him feel warm. He still really wanted to try, despite what he told Uriel.
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ insists that ‘darling’ is the way to go!]
Saying ‘darling’ was more palatable than saying ‘honey’ at least. He’ll try that one next.
–
Yoo Joonghyuk finds Kim Dokja still in their room, sorting through his stuff. Kim Dokja spots him from the doorway and says, “oh, you’re back. Here, take this and go wash it”
He goes to Kim Dokja and grabs the sheets that he gives him.
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ is looking at you expectantly.]
[Constellation, ‘Demonic Judge of Fire,’ is saying to go for it!]
“Alright… darling.”
At that, Kim Dokja coughs, sounding like he was choking. Yoo Joonghyuk drops the sheets and goes to look over at Kim Dokja concernedly.
“Bastard,” Kim Dokja lets out. Not that one then, Yoo Joonghyuk mentally notes.
What other terms of affection was he missing?
–
Throughout some couple of days, Yoo Joonghyuk not so subtly tries out different pet names for Kim Dokja. They either didn’t fit, or Kim Dokja’s reaction towards them was abysmal.
Here, they’re lying together on their now shared bed, huddling together underneath a thin blanket.
Yoo Joonghyuk tries, one more time, the last thing he could think of, “babe.”
Kim Dokja looks at him, deep in thought.
“Still with that scenario…?”
Kim Dokja grits out, “damn constellations trying to meddle with our relationship.”
“Biyoo,” Kim Dokja calls out.
“Baa-aht, ba-ah!”
“Turn off the stream just for a moment.”
“Ba-at!”
Kim Dokja turns to Yoo Joonghyuk and cups the sides of his face with his palms, expression serious.
“You don’t have to force yourself to do these things, y’know, Joonghyuk-ah.” His thumbs sweetly run over Yoo Joonghyuk’s face and he leans a bit into his caress, melting.
Yoo Joonghyuk frowns. But you deserve nice things too, he doesn’t say. “This is not by force,” he says instead. “...dear.”
Yoo Joonghyuk swallows, “I want to… I want to try a pet name too.”
The movements on his face stop, before Kim Dokja leans in and places a kiss on the bridge of his nose, once, then he plants a soft kiss on one of his cheeks. When he pulls away, Yoo Joonghyuk can see the fondness etched into his eyes, swirling with mirth. Kim Dokja lets out a small chuckle, a huff of breath, really.
“Ah, my Joonghyuk is so silly isn’t he?”
“I am not silly.”
“Hm, so cute too.”
Yoo Joonghyuk moves to wrap his arms around Kim Dokja and puts his head into his neck, breathing him in.
Arms wrap around his back, one hand reaching up to tangle with the strands of his hair.
“What did I say?”
“You didn’t say anything… sweetheart.”
Kim Dokja laughs at that one, still running his fingers through his hair. Is he getting made fun of? Yoo Joonghyuk bites at his neck.
“So, so, so cute.” Kim Dokja whispers to him. “You are so cute, Joonghyuk-ah, did you know that?”
Joonghyuk-ah, Joonghyuk-ah, Joonghyuk-ah, Yoo Joonghyuk loved when he said his name like that. Loved the special amount of fondness laced into that single word. Joonghyuk-ah, Joonghyuk-ah, Joonghyuk-ah, he could listen to that call on his name any time and instantly feel at ease, as long as it was the man in his arms who utters it.
Yoo Joonghyuk grunts in reply, wrapping his arms tighter around the smaller man, around Kim Dokja, around the love of his life.
Would Kim Dokja like to be called something similar? Dokja-yah?
“Dokja-yah,” Yoo Joonghyuk says into the quiet of the night.
The hand in his hair runs still, a small shaky inhale of breath can be heard.
Yoo Joonghyuk pulls out from where his face had been hidden in Kim Dokja’s neck.
“Kim Dokja?”
The man’s face was red, flushed with that lovely shade. Was it good then, Dokja-yah?
“No,” Kim Dokja says and Yoo Joonghyuk tries his hardest not to sulk, did he not like it, actually? Did Yoo Joonghyuk read wrong? “...no, go back,” his lover finishes
Yoo Joonghyuk thinks back to the last pet name he used on him, “sweetheart?”
“Ugh, no. Not that,” Kim Dokja says, embarrassed.
“Dear?”
“No, just now, you–”
There was only one answer.
“Dokja-yah?”
And Kim Dokja lets out a stuttering breath. “Yeah, that one.” he turns his head away, “that one is… good. Good.”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s heart beats, the rhythm of it beginning to turn unsteady. His heart clenches tighter. He grabs one of Kim Dokja’s hands wrapped around his back and holds it against his lips, pressing a kiss onto each finger.
“Dokja-yah,”
“Ah, that really is…” Kim Dokja attempts to release his hand from Yoo Joonghyuk, trying to hide his face away. When it doesn’t work, Kim Dokja tries to hide his face into his pillow, Yoo Joonghyuk still worshipping his hand all the while. “...It should be illegal for you to say it like that.”
“Do you like it, Dokja-yah?”
“Joonghyuk! Stop, really,” His face was so, so red. Yoo Joonghyuk moves Kim Dokja’s hand so that it cradles his cheek, like earlier. It causes Kim Dokja to get out from his hiding and attempt to glare at Yoo Joonghyuk in defiance.
“Dokja-yah,” Yoo Joonghyuk whispers, heart stuttering.
Kim Dokja leans forward to kiss him, aggressively, as if trying to stop him from speaking more.
When they lean back, Yoo Joonghyuk tries again, it really is addicting, seeing his lover like this, “Dok–”
Before he could finish, another kiss from Kim Dokja stops him.
He still tries to speak, “D–”
“Oh my god, Joonghyuk-ah!” Kim Dokja covers his mouth with the hand that was cradling his face. It’s not the hand that stops Yoo Joonghyuk from speaking, but rather that pet name.
“Yoo Joonghyuk, are you trying to kill me?” Kim Dokja breathes heavily.
“Dokja, love, baby,”
The last one causes Kim Dokja to close his eyes and groan, “Holy shit, what the hell.”
It causes Yoo Joonghyuk to raise an eyebrow, “baby?”
“No!”