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May 25th 2012, consisted of a beautiful American beach wedding. It's the stereotype, of course, and what was expected by everyone in the crowd who "knew" them.
Or at least, the couple everyone in the crowd thought they knew.
"You may now kiss the… groom!" The pastor said as Jinki tipped over Jonghyun, who this day, was posing as Hajoon, Jinki's "long term boyfriend."
Jinki was, of course, dressed as Jiho, an ordinary secretary who just so happened to be gay, and an undercover detective working to reveal all the threads on Korea's biggest money trafficking scandal yet.
Jonghyun was in it too, of course, both of them working together as partners.
And Jinki would be lying if he said he hadn't been waiting all year for this exact moment since their case was assigned to them. If anything, he might've been counting the exact days till this moment. The moment of which he could marry his best friend (platonically) and feel Jonghyun's lips on his own. Platonically of course.
Perhaps this was the reward for all the stressful work and effort he had been putting in for the past 5 years. Even if it wasn't, it surely made up for it, at least a little bit.
May 25th 2022, exactly 10 years after the wedding is when Jonghyun gets a letter in the mail that stresses the shit out of him.
"Hyung! I thought... what!?" Jonghyun practically yells into the phone. "What do you mean you didn't annul the marriage!"
“... Well… I just thought that-!” Jinki says, his heart practically falling into his ass at the revelation that he in fact, did not annul the marriage to his best friend like he thought he had.
He does not remember signing the divorce papers with Jonghyun about a year into their “married” life, after the case had finally been solved. If anything, he remembers getting tipsy with Jonghyun and each of them signing their very real, very much legal, full names on the marriage papers.
I mean, they were supposed to get divorced. And it’s okay. He can come back from this. Totally.
Their detectives afterall, there’s probably a real, legitimate reason as to why they’re still married.
But before Jinki can get another word in, Jonghyun’s voice peaks from the end of the line. “Thats it, I’m coming over. We are gonna solve this together, like we used to.”
“Jonghy-” The line dies before Jinki can even finish saying his husband’s name.
2:30pm, same day.
“Lee Jinki! Open the door!” The door to Jinki’s half basement shakes as the small force on the other end knocks loudly. For a second, Jinki had completely forgotten that Jonghyun said he was going to come over, and if anything, he took it as a joke, but no, here he is, in the flesh.
And ringing Jinki’s door bell like crazy.
Upon opening the door, he comes to find the source of the noise is dressed in an oversized black hoodie, jeans, and combat boots. Cute. But Jinki isn’t dumb, he's seen enough of Jonghyun’s outbursts to take him very seriously.
Even if he looks like Roo when she's being punished in her Superman pose.
“Jonghyun-ah, calm down, I’m sure we can figure this out. There has to be a kind of way we can get divorced or-” Jinki says, letting Jonghyun walk into the apartment. He kicks off his boots, by some miracle, and looks Jinki straight in the eyes.
“Divorce? Do you think that's why I’m angry?” Jonghyun says suddenly, slipping on his slippers that he totally does not leave here on purpose.
“What?” Jinki says, watching as Jonghyun paces around the apartment, looking everything but lost. If anything, he looks rather… anxious?
“Jinki.” He says, all serious. “I’ve been in love with you ever since I met you.” He stops for a second, looks up at Jinki to make sure he's still there, then looks away as he continues his anxious pacing.
“I mean I thought I made it obvious. I’m always staying over at your place, and I’m always sitting through some anime that you and Taemin like that I can’t understand the stupidly long plotline of.”
“Hey, One Piece isn’t that complicated.” Jinki says absent mindedly.
“Okay! But that's not the point!” Jonghyun whines, stopping his pacing right in front of Jinki. “I’ve loved you for so long, for so much time, that I may or may not have done something really stupid which is why we’re still married.”
“What…?” Silence.
Jinki looks down at Jonghyun, who is currently fiddling with his hoodie sleeve as tears start to form in his eyes. “Yeah. Uhm. I ruined our divorce papers.”
He doesn’t elaborate, because, at that exact moment, Jinki starts laughing.
“Huh…? Why are you laughing! I-” Jonghyun yells, shocked, backing up as Jinki giggles manically.
“I’m serious!”
It takes Jinki all but a moment to gather his composure. When he does, he tells Jonghyun the truth.
“I never submitted our divorce papers, because we never signed divorce papers.” He says earnestly, smiling.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me right now. We never…?” Jonghyun mumbles, eyes wide with shock.
“We never.” Jinki nods, walking up closer to Jonghyun.
Jonghyun stares at Jinki, eyes wide with the realization of what he and Jinki both just did and had done.
“Were you serious about it? Loving me?” Jinki asks softly, looking down at Jonghyun.
Jonghyun nods back slowly, cheeks read with embarrassment.
5:25pm, same day.
“So you seriously lied to me because you thought you remembered yourself spilling wine on our divorce papers?” Jinki says, giggly, as he strokes Jonghyun’s head on his lap.
They're still in his living room, the couch having become their residential area for the past 2 hours. They also may or may not have kissed their hearts out for the past 30 minutes. Neither party will confirm unless their lawyer is present.
“Well. A bit. Yeah. I just thought it was what made the most sense. I mean I remembered destroying a paper that day, so I assumed it was that one.” Jonghyun confirms, nuzzling his head deeper into Jinki’s thigh.
It’s quiet for a moment, save for the soft humming from Jinki’s AC as it runs on full blast. He continues to stroke Jonghyun's hair, leaning back on the soft white couch.
“Hm, then I wonder what paper it was that you destroyed.” Jinki says, humming softly as he leans down to place a kiss on Jonghyun’s forehead.