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"why do you think we won’t get along again?” shinyu worries his lip, tapping his foot under the table. the diner they’re waiting for hanjin’s friend in is crowded, and shinyu keeps glancing at the entrance, worrying he’ll be caught off guard. he wanted to ask hanjin for a basic description, but refrained in case his friend got any wrong ideas about shinyu being interested.
hanjin smiles and gives his leg a light kick under the table.
“because you guys are so similar. on second thought, i might be wrong. you’ll probably get on like a house on fire. and we —“ hanjin gestures to them, “we’re like this too, but we fit just fine.” he grins, proud.
shinyu hums doubtfully. “why’d hanjin ask him then?” he takes a gulp of his blue-coloured soda to wet his throat.
“well, he was kind of the only one free on such short notice.” hanjin looks apologetic, and shinyu softens. he knows his best friend would have gladly done the grunt work, if shinyu’s ex from hell didn’t already know him. in any case, he trusts any friend of hanjin’s to be decent. evidently, he has a much better eye for people than shinyu — he had been lukewarm to shinyu’s ex who shall not be named from the start.
“and he wanted to help,” hanjin adds, eager to reassure. “he really did. dohoon hyung loves doing favours for strangers. he’s that kind of person.”
“did i hear my name?” a voice behind them makes shinyu start. deep and low, a voice that curls into his ear like warmth.
“hyung,” hanjin cries, smiling from ear to ear. shinyu almost feels jealous. he’s supposed to be hanjin’s favourite hyung.
but as he glances up, shyly, what he feels isn’t jealousy. the stranger’s eyes are as warm as his voice, curious and dancing with humour. not arrogant, but no shyness in them.
“so you’re jin’s friend shinyu-ssi,” dohoon drawls, sliding into an empty chair opposite from shinyu and beside hanjin. “nice to meet you.” he salutes shinyu, then hails the waiter, his mind seemingly already on dinner.
“uh.” shinyu hopes he’s not blushing. “you —“ you’re really hot, he almost blurts, because holy shit. hanjin could have given him a warning.
hanjin is sipping his drink like a kid, eyes wide as he looks between them, as if praying they will hit it off. shinyu relents, almost laughs, finally relaxes.
“dohoon-ssi —“
the name sounds bold, foreign on his lips. shinyu licks them as dohoon glances over, really looking at him for the first time. his gaze is keen and open as he drinks shinyu's face in, but at the same time it seems to reveal nothing.
“thanks… for agreeing to help me out. this meal is on me.”
an awkward silence stretches among the three of them for a second. then shinyu’s breath leaves his chest as dohoon grins, broad and friendly.
“no prob.” the waiter arrives, and dohoon is distracted giving his order. when he’s done he returns his gaze to shinyu, that easygoing smile splitting his face again. “no prob, shinyu hyung.”
on the night of the gathering, dohoon arrives earlier than he had to their first meeting. shinyu doesn’t know if the uneasy flutter of his stomach is due to the impending meeting of his ex for the first time since their breakup, or how disgustingly gorgeous dohoon looks cleaned up. he’s only wearing an informal blazer, but he looks like a fucking chaebol or something. shinyu’s hormones need to calm down.
“you look nice,” dohoon says casually in the taxi — perhaps already getting into character. shinyu feels the compliment prickle his neck anyway. he’d picked the outfit before meeting dohoon, wanting to look good in front of his ex and his new squeeze, but it suddenly feels absurdly like he chose it just to receive his fake date’s praise.
“are you nervous, dohoon-ssi?” shinyu remembers to ask politely as they near their destination. “don’t be,” he adds, toying with the hem of his top. “it’s just a casual party.”
he hears a chuckle and looks up to see dohoon’s eyes dark with amusement.
“’m not nervous at all, hyung; i’ve done things like this lots of times.”
his breezy tone makes shinyu’s gut crawl with an unidentifiable emotion.
shinyu’s eyes uncontrollably seek out his ex the moment they step in. the sight that greets him makes his heart sink, being exactly as he expected — the guy he dated for half a year and broke up with one month ago, already canoodling with his new lover in plain sight.
honestly, he wouldn’t care so much — or at all — if the other party wasn’t one of shinyu’s closest friends. well, now ex-friend as well.
he must have tensed up or something because though they’re not touching and the place is dim, dohoon senses his change in mood. he touches shinyu’s elbow and tilts his head, making a beeline for the keg as if it’s not his first time here. shinyu trails after, mollified.
dohoon fills him a cup first, leaning against the wall with his hip cocked, surveying the place with almost boredom. his beautifully-shaped eyes look hazy in the halogen lighting. it’s pretty enough to distract shinyu from his thoughts for a bit.
“hungry?” dohoon asks after a moment of silence. shinyu nearly laughs. he’s met the guy twice and can already guess he has a huge appetite. it’s kind of endearing, though he’d never admit it. he wonders if dohoon has equally huge appetites in other areas, too, then flushes.
“not really.” he drains his cup and tosses it, the alcohol sloshing in his empty stomach. “if dohoon is, you can go ahead and grab some food. i mean, we’re here anyway, might as well get a free meal.
“i’ll wait here. you don’t have to babysit me,” he adds as dohoon seems tempted.
dohoon smirks at that. “all right, babe.” shinyu blinks at the endearment, before realising that dohoon, like the pro he mentioned he was earlier, is probably already method acting.
he smiles back and lifts his hands to dohoon’s shoulder blades, gives him a little push. hopes he looks natural.
he’s leaning against the wall, trying to keep his eyes from straying to dohoon wandering around the refreshments table, looking adorably thoughtful as he decides what to eat, when a hand on his shoulder makes shinyu leap out of his skin.
it’s he who shall not be named. shinyu instantly feels cold, suddenly wondering why he turned up at this stupid party and even dragged hanjin’s friend along. hanjin’s hot, incredibly kind friend dohoon.
“so…” shinyu’s ex drawls in that familiar but now irritating voice. “i see you moved on like lightning.” the words are like a kick to him, so hypocritical they are.
“you fucking…” shinyu has to struggle to speak. “you fucking cheated on me even before we broke up.”
that wasn’t what he wanted to say. he wanted the douche to know that what he’d been so heartbroken about, wasn’t his two-timing ass, but the fact that the two of them, whom he’d trusted unconditionally, betrayed him at once, together.
how he’d felt after he found out, was shaken deeply. he’d questioned his judgment of all his friends — except hanjin — and he’d just felt so... so stupid. so dumb. he felt, for a while, like he couldn’t trust anybody because his judgment was obviously impaired. maybe there was something wrong with him.
the ex close friend in question hasn’t even bothered to approach him, and probably won’t either. shinyu feels pathetic, realising it was a mistake, coming here. what was he trying to achieve, exactly why did he care whether these two lowlifes and their other mutuals knew he was doing fine after getting defrauded and mocked?
his ex hasn’t responded, probably for lack of a sound response. he only continues to eyeball shinyu insolently, with the insouciance shinyu stupidly used to find irresistible.
“junghwan looks good.” he echoes dohoon’s words from earlier, with the same low pitch of voice, but shinyu feels them with a hundred and eighty degree difference.
swivelling around in confusion when he feels another hand on his hip, shinyu finds dohoon holding a plate laden with snacks. he’s so unbothered, he pops a chunk of fried chicken into his mouth before speaking.
“who’s your friend, aegi?”
shinyu chokes on his spit but dohoon doesn’t see, carefully balancing the plate on the punch table beside them and dusting off his hands, finishing chewing.
“i’m his —“ shinyu’s ex begins, bristling, but dohoon interrupts him coldly.
“i’m shinyu hyung's boyfriend. it’s nice to meet you.”
the smile he bares his teeth in would appear real, if shinyu doesn’t already know how his genuine one looks.
shinyu clears his throat and jumps in to defuse the tension. “yeah, this is dohoon — um,” he trips up a little, getting flustered.
his ex sneers. “junghwan doesn’t know his last name?”
dohoon smoothly interjects, without batting an eyelash, “sweetheart, i know the plug in your ass is messing with your coherency; we’ll have it out real soon.”
shinyu nearly snorts. goosebumps rise across his skin as his eyes bug out at dohoon alongside his ex’s, especially when an affectionate slap lands across his ass. his cheeks warm.
shinyu’s ex has started to glare at them, resentment building in the line of his tensed shoulders. dohoon doesn’t seem to notice or care, boldly bracing one hand on the wall behind shinyu’s head and crowding him against it all of a sudden.
he leans in, making shinyu aware in his confusion of how tall he is, and mutters in shinyu’s ear, almost drowned out by the music.
“kiss me until he leaves?”
shinyu doesn’t need to be asked twice. with a shaky breath, he wraps fingers around the back of dohoon’s neck and joins their lips, first lightly, then gasping into the way dohoon’s lips fall open and his tongue sweeps over shinyu’s chapped mouth, hungrily.
they make out until after the sleazebag's gone. not that shinyu is looking or anything, but they french for so long, he can’t possibly still be watching.
so long shinyu loses his air and his heart thuds in his chest, crazily.
“dohoonie,” he breathes like an incantation as they finally disentangle, dohoon’s arm having snaked to clamp around his back sometime along.
in response, dohoon nuzzles the side of his neck, right below his ear, and whispers — much too softly for anyone else to hear — baby.
they bail after that, so quickly shinyu’s head spins. their hands never leave each other’s bodies, urgent, dizzy. he isn’t sure what’s an act and what’s real anymore. all he can feel is the heat of dohoon’s touch fluttering over his body, possessive, filled with promise.
he doesn’t even spare a glance around to see if the two traitors are gawking. actually, he can’t.
it’s only in the taxi when he can finally rip his eyes off dohoon — his tousled hair, pretty eyes and handsome smile, the very masculine body shinyu had briefly mapped under trembling fingers in their first clumsy and unplanned kiss.
“you know what i think?” dohoon pipes up, leaning close in the backseat. as if shinyu needed yet another reason to be screwed.
shinyu hesitantly meets his eye contact, feeling a shudder jolt through him. dohoon doesn’t flinch, though his gaze flickers as though surprised by the charged current too.
“what?” shinyu murmurs.
a smile touches dohoon’s lips though his eyes are serious. “that hanjin should have introduced us way earlier.”
shinyu opens and closes his mouth without words coming out. the slow grin spreads across dohoon’s kiss-puffy lips.
“tell me hyung thinks so too,” he shifts even closer and whispers in shinyu’s ear, breath warm. “and call me dohoonie again, will you.”
the air between them seems to have been sucked up by some vacuum, tension stretched like a rubber band.
“i thought you said you do stuff like this often,” he manages.
i don’t want to get hurt again.
the words are unsaid. shinyu wonders how much hanjin told him. he trusts hanjin, so he doubts it was much — but even though shinyu didn’t explain anything; even though dohoon should be put off by his childish and idiotic antics to spite two nobodies: dohoon’s eyes on his are more earnest than shinyu’s seen them, no judgment within at all.
“dohoon-ah.” the word escapes shinyu’s mouth, not because dohoon asked, but because he feels himself expiring to say it. the way dohoon’s whole face lights up punches the heartbeat out of him.
his hand tingles, and shinyu looks down to see dohoon intertwining their fingers. seeming unable to sustain eye contact, dohoon caresses shinyu’s knuckles with the callused pads of his fingers.
“i was bluffing,” he admits, almost too soft to hear. “i wanted to look cool in front of shinyu hyung. hyung flustered the heck out of me when we met — hanjinie never warned me how cute you are.”
the taxi picks up speed. shinyu smiles, the giddy feeling rising from his gut into his chest as dohoon leans over the front seat and tells the driver to take them directly to his apartment.
"i can’t believe you guys not only got along, but got together.” it’s the nth time hanjin’s repeated this statement in disbelief. dohoon and shinyu agreed they would treat him to the meal he deserved for introducing them — but nothing too fancy, since he didn’t introduce them earlier.
who are they kidding — they brought him to the most luxurious, extravagant restaurant, both vying to spoil their favourite dongsaeng more obnoxiously.
hanjin is in seventh heaven, after wolfing down three courses of his chosen foods. he spent most of the time eating watching shinyu and dohoon banter and bicker, eyes more on each other than the food. they’re still in the gross honeymooners phase.
“i know why you guys match now,” hanjin announces at the end of their date, slapping his forehead. “how could i not have realised earlier?”
“how?” shinyu questions, intrigued.
hanjin beams. “well, you love laughing and dohoon hyung has a great sense of humour. i mean, sometimes it’s kinda perverted but…” he ducks from dohoon’s smack.
not that dohoon’d admit it, but that’s rather true. shinyu hyung’s rare smile and his shy laugh is dohoon’s kryptonite. he’s guilty of going the extra mile to learn new wisecracks, gags and pickup lines, not even minding making a fool of himself, to draw that open-mouthed, dorky laughter dohoon can’t get enough of. he’s always loved making people laugh, but shinyu is... something else. special.
“was jin right — is that why you like me?” shinyu murmurs, eyes downcast and pale cheeks rosy as dohoon walks him home. dohoon looks around before holding shinyu hyung’s hand for a second, relishing how it fits into his like a glove.
dohoon grunts, not exactly sure how to answer. he loves so many things about shinyu besides his hearty laugh, it would take eloquence out of his command to list them all.
shinyu is the most soft-hearted person dohoon knows. he’s innocent, but at the same time incredibly badass. despite being older, he’s the only guy dohoon has ever felt an intense need to protect.
the night after shinyu’s party, they spent it at dohoon’s apartment but didn’t do anything more than kissing and petting. and lots of talking, getting to know each other. shinyu hyung isn’t just a pretty face. he’s really interesting, self-assured, confident and smart, and dohoon’s not being biased as his boyfriend.
dohoon had apologised for coming on too strong, especially when he knew shinyu was still fragile and vulnerable from a bad breakup. he didn’t want to take advantage of shinyu in that state.
it’s okay, shinyu reassured him, his voice low and honey warm. we’ll take it slow. he put a hand on dohoon’s shoulder and smiled so sweetly dohoon’s heart blocked up his throat.
he’s used to being aggressive, both physically and emotionally. brusque and bumbling. but with shinyu, he finds himself shy and tender, gentle in a way dohoon didn’t know he was capable of being.
oh, and shinyu’s quiet voice — is the cherry on top to make him perfect. dohoon could listen to the music of it until the end of time.
they’ve been dating for a while now and he’s met jihoon, shinyu’s only other friend besides hanjin he hasn’t ditched — after shinyu realised practically all the mutuals who had known of his ex’s cheating were fake friends. dohoon wanted him to have more people to talk to, so he introduced shinyu to a ton of his own friends too. he couldn’t be prouder when his boyfriend hit it off with everybody.
one of his closest friends, youngjae, in particular, takes a shine to shinyu. every time they meet, youngjae makes a point of complimenting and calling dohoon's boyfriend cool. he doesn’t seem to notice dohoon’s darkening expression.
when they get back to dohoon’s apartment, despite him asking shinyu over, he ends up sulking. shinyu catches on after an hour of monosyllabic replies, and stares at dohoon in bewilderment.
“dohoon's not jealous of your own friend, are you?” to dohoon’s consternation, shinyu starts chortling. “aww, you big teddy bear.” he punches dohoon’s arm.
“it’s not funny,” dohoon growls. shinyu sniggers louder.
shinyu hyung’s already learnt this by now, but under his calm and swagger dohoon sometimes gets insecure about the things he treasures. sometimes he wonders if he’s just a rebound for shinyu, if they tumbled into this passion too quickly and madly. he doesn’t want to hurt shinyu's feelings, so he never brings it up. still, sometimes he wonders if they’d ever have met if shinyu never asked hanjin to find him a fake date; if they’d have remained so near yet so far all their lives.
he likes to believe they’d have crossed paths anyway, somehow, eventually, because he can no longer imagine his life without shinyu.
shinyu clambers over him clumsily on the couch, taking up his field of vision. he takes dohoon’s face in his hands, straddling his lap, careful with his weight. he’s changed into his stupid watermelon pjs, implying without saying aloud that he wants to sleep over tonight. shinyu stares into his eyes for a long time. his usual amused and lively expression is searching.
dohoon reaches up with a shaky hand to cup shinyu hyung’s face. his straightforward and expressive eyes are bright, with awe and trust. it wrings dohoon’s heart. shinyu leans into his touch, looking utterly at home.
“dohoon,” he breathes worshipfully, lashes fluttering. dohoon’s favourite is shinyu calling him this.
shinyu shifts in his lap, shuffling in and grinding down a little, wrapping his legs around dohoon’s hips, and dohoon’s heart somersaults. his crotch twitches under their layers of clothes.
“fuck.” he can’t resist shinyu’s titillating position, reaching down to help him kick off his pants and cute boxers. everything about shinyu is so fucking cute, unlike appearances, and dohoon was never into cutesy things but he’s so, so into shinyu.
shinyu roughly pushes dohoon’s waistband down as he lifts his hips, taking him into his palm. dohoon throws his head back and groans. shinyu’s tongue peeks from his mouth in concentration as he clumsily moves his hand up and down their cocks. he bites his lip and frowns, shakily trying to wrap around both their dicks. dohoon breathes a choked laugh and helps him out.
“feels good, hoon-ah.” shinyu’s deep voice encourages him, moaning brokenly. his dick starts to leak, slickening dohoon’s grip. dohoon smears his own precum over shinyu’s cock, enjoying the filth of it. shinyu’s cock is as pretty pink as his cheekbones.
they both like frotting, another of the unlikely ways they complement each other. the intimacy of their dicks touching along the entire length is mind-numbing, brain-melting.
“yeah? then come.”
shinyu cums immediately after his order, like an obedient boyfriend. he pants harshly into dohoon’s collarbone, breaths hot and rushing straight to dohoon’s impending climax. shinyu hyung grips dohoon’s dick after he comes down from his high.
“finish already, big guy,” he laughs and twists his wrist, dark eyes flashing. dohoon spills into shinyu’s fist and over his fingers, shuddering with a noise in the back of his throat.
breathing raggedly, he brings his hand up to lick shinyu’s load off his fingers. he swallows and watches his boyfriend’s blood flood his cheeks.
shinyu hyung still gets so bashful even after they’ve shared everything. seen everything. he always looks so corrupted, under dohoon, in his bed, and somehow at the same time, breathtakingly pristine. he’s like an angel. dohoon’s never known anybody so pure. never desired anybody like this.
he leaves a hickey on shinyu’s delicate neck, thinking of how quiet, mysterious, calm, confident shinyu lives life with aching sincerity, throwing himself into all he does with every fibre of his being. even when he got burnt, he never changed or became guarded. there’s not a single drop of artifice in him.
dohoon never expected to meet anyone like that in his life. of course, it doesn’t hurt that shinyu is drop-dead gorgeous, more gorgeous than dohoon deserves.
dohoon peers into shinyu’s clear, doll-like eyes after they’re both dressed again. they should be watching tv but they’re watching each other. shinyu is so adorable he thinks he might explode.
“i love you,” dohoon blurts out suddenly.
the words are followed by a blanket of silence falling over the living room. shinyu blinks. his eyes shine and his face glows, radiantly. without warning, he lunges forward and smothers dohoon in a hug, burying his face in dohoon’s cable-knit sweater. dohoon strokes his hyung's hair, his ears hot as he realises shinyu can feel his pounding heartbeat.
“hyung doesn’t have to say it back,” he quickly adds as the stilted pause lengthens. shinyu looks relieved when he raises his red face, kissing dohoon’s temple sweetly. dohoon feels his heart drop, though he meant the words.
but the next morning, shinyu walks out of his bedroom with an oversized shirt of dohoon’s swallowing up his frame. dohoon stares with the frying pan in his hand, the breakfast he’s attempting to make shinyu forgotten.
shinyu walks right up to him, bathed in the gentle morning sunlight, leans in the slightest bit to plant a kiss on dohoon’s lips. dohoon licks off the taste of toothpaste, aching for more.
“i really, really like you a lot, kim dohoon,” shinyu says softly, sitting at the table as dohoon slides the eggs onto dishes. “hyung is so glad we met.”
his honest smile disarms dohoon. he tries not to let his eyes stray down to the way the collar of his tshirt is slipping down shinyu’s shoulder, revealing a sliver of tantalising clavicle. shinyu isn’t small, they're the same height and he’s so buff and masculine it actually surprised dohoon, but he looks more petite in some of dohoon’s clothes and his arms. dohoon loves that, too.
shinyu draws languid circles on dohoon's chest, through his threadbare tee after they finish eating, snuggling on the couch again. dohoon thinks about asking him to move in. he doesn’t want to scare him, though, so he tries to be patient.
“what do you like about me, dohoonie?” shinyu asks abruptly, with a playful ruffle of dohoon’s sleep-messy hair.
dohoon haltingly ticks off the answers on his fingers.
“you love poetry. you take such good care of me. you’re never condescending despite being older. you’re so generous and mature, and really cool too.” dohoon pauses, shinyu hides behind his eyelashes.
“you’re really cool, junghwan hyung,” dohoon repeats. “i want to grow up just like you.”
when shinyu raises his eyes, dohoon is the one blushing. there’s a diabolical glint in shinyu’s gaze that makes dohoon suspect he knows exactly what he does to him.
yes, shinyu hyung has that side too, dangerous and unpredictable, like a thrill ride dohoon is addicted to. he brought a splash of colour to dohoon’s previously humdrum, tedious existence, reminded him what it felt like to have fun and be carefree even when working seriously.
shinyu hyung receives a call from his mother, and dohoon distracts his hyung the whole time by rubbing his hands up and down his arms. after the call he filches shinyu’s phone and dangles it above his head, teasingly.
“oh my god. dohoon's so childish,” shinyu screeches, though he’s giggling uncontrollably. he’s right — he makes dohoon act like a boy with his first crush.
“give me a kiss, my junghwan hyungie,” dohoon demands, just so he can pretend he has the upper hand, that he isn’t hopelessly whipped for his gorgeous lover. clingy fool, shinyu grumbles and complains, rolling his eyes, but finally indulges him. dohoon can’t wipe the big dumb grin from his face, shoving finger hearts at shinyu until he socks him.
sooner or later they’ll have to confront their unique challenges as a couple, he knows. though he can’t imagine it now, maybe one day he will annoy the shit out of shinyu hyung. dohoon knows better than anyone how insufferable he himself can be.
he hopes shinyu stays, though. because dohoon knows he will.