Chapter Text
“Here?” Kihyun asked, digging his thumb into the space under Hyunwoo’s left shoulder blade. Hyunwoo sucked in a breath and arched away from his touch, then relaxed. The darkness in the tiny kitchen-slash-living room was tinged a deep blue. Shadows shifted in the corners. The Super Smash character selection screen was open on the TV. They’d stopped playing after Hyunwoo had beat him with Wii Fit Trainer twice in a row.
“Yeah. Right there,” Hyunwoo said, voice tight. “Ow. It isn’t usually this bad.”
Kihyun pressed harder and felt Hyunwoo tense up again. After a few seconds, he let go, and Hyunwoo exhaled back against him. His hair tickled Kihyun’s nose.
“You can’t sleep on this shitty couch any more, it’s messing up your back,” Kihyun said. “Sleep in my room.”
Hyunwoo turned to face him, frowning a little bit. “Where are you going to sleep?”
“Also in my room,” Kihyun said, smirking. “I don’t snore, I promise.”
Hyunwoo laughed a little bit, then rubbed his jaw, then shrugged. “Okay, if we fit.”
Kihyun grabbed his hand and dragged him to his room. Hyunwoo collapsed on the bed with a sigh of relief.
“Better, right?” Kihyun said, turning off the lights. He felt around in the dark. “Come here.”
It was exciting, pulling Hyunwoo in by the collar of his shirt in the dark, feeling him go quietly acquiescent as they kissed, warm and slow and faintly soda-flavored. Hyunwoo reached up to steady Kihyun’s face, drawing a thumb lightly across his cheekbone.
Kihyun wanted to memorize all of Hyunwoo’s habits, the warmth of his hands on his bare skin, the way he coaxed Kihyun’s mouth open while tracing small circles on his hip, the way he eventually settled back and let Kihyun take the lead. Kihyun finally let himself touch him, ran his hands down his arms and up his sides. He braced his hands on Hyunwoo’s thighs, bit softly at his shoulder, sighed out against his neck.
“Kihyunie,” Hyunwoo said quietly, and reached up and thumbed at Kihyun’s lower lip, pressed a lingering kiss to his open mouth. “I dropped the exchange.”
Kihyun pulled back to stare at him.
“I can’t see anything but the whites of your eyes,” Hyunwoo laughed. “Say something. It’s freaking me out. Ow, my legs, can you—”
“Oh my god,” Kihyun whispered, a grin breaking out over his face, tightening his grip on Hyunwoo’s thighs in excitement. “Really?”
It was almost 1 a.m., but it felt like sunrise.
-- -- --
minhyukie hyung <3
honey yah
let’s go shopping again
lee joo honey
7 eleven?
meet u there
-- -- --
Minhyuk put Kihyun’s car in park and opened the door. Jooheon was sitting on the bench outside the convenience store, staring down at his phone. He looked up as Minhyuk approached, sudden smile almost blinding. Minhyuk wanted to kiss his dimples so badly it hurt.
Instead, he held out a hand and pulled Jooheon to his feet, saying, “hey” in a voice much much too soft to be casual, but if Jooheon noticed, he didn’t show it.
They went inside and bought all the same shit, onions and cabbage and ice cream. They brushed shoulders in front of the ramen shelf again, shared sweet chocolate in the car, laughed into the hazy, golden space between them. Jooheon reached out to flick at Minhyuk’s earring and let his fingers linger on his shoulder before slipping off.
It hit Minhyuk that, if this moment was anything to go by, then things wouldn’t change, not really. It would always be them. Two stars in mutual orbit. Equal and opposite.
Minhyuk pulled out of the parking lot and steered carefully onto the road before glancing at Jooheon, gaze catching on his (perfect, perfect) side profile before he spoke.
“Hyunwoo hyung’s not going back to America,” he said, and it was a thinly veiled question. Not even close to subtle, but he had to know. Are you?
Jooheon let his head fall back. “Yeah,” he said, quietly. “I’ll miss him.”
Oh. Not that Minhyuk had been stupid enough to expect anything else. But. There had been a tiny spark of hope that he just couldn’t quash. Silence stretched between them.
“I’ll miss you,” he said, at last. His hands felt wiggly on the gear stick as he turned into the apartment lot and parked. He played with the keys for a little bit, then turned to Jooheon with a sunny smile. “Message me every day, okay?”
Before the moment could get any heavier than it already had, he got out of the car and grabbed the bag of groceries. Jooheon didn’t say anything, just followed him up the stairs and watched as he fumbled one-handed in his pocket for the keys outside the apartment door.
“Hyung,” Jooheon said softly, and Minhyuk turned to see something unfathomable and dark purple in his eyes, half sad and half amused, before he reached over and brushed Minhyuk’s bangs out of the way, slid his hand around to the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss. Jooheon’s fingertips were cold on Minhyuk’s neck, and his nose was cold on Minhyuk’s cheek, but his lips were warm warm warm and Minhyuk forgot to think for a little bit, forgot to do anything but stand there and clutch the grocery bag and drink Jooheon in.
When he pulled away with a tiny, embarrassed cough, Minhyuk’s brain kicked back into motion and he chased his touch, connecting a little more forcefully then he’d intended to. Maybe that fit, though, because their second kiss was deeper, messier, almost needy, and Jooheon licked into Minhyuk’s mouth and made him shiver. He reached for the lapels of Jooheon’s coat to pull him the tiniest bit closer, taste him more completely, because he tasted addictive, and he sounded addictive, and he gasped so prettily if Minhyuk bit his lip just so.
He reached blindly for the doorknob, sent them both stumbling inside, put the groceries down, and pressed Jooheon up against the back of the door, laughed against his mouth. This was it, wasn’t it? Their movie moment. Jooheon was sweet sunshiney solace and he was drowning, drowning in the hint of lemon on his tongue, the honey in his voice, and he didn’t give a shit.
Jooheon pulled away, reached up and traced the bridge of Minhyuk’s nose with a fingertip. “You’re so pretty,” he said, and he looked so serious that Minhyuk laughed. “No, seriously. You don’t believe me, but you are. Like. A star or something.”
Minhyuk had no choice but to kiss him again after that, short and sweet, then tilted his head and kissed his dimple (fucking finally), then the tip of his nose.
“Full circle, right?” Jooheon said. He trailed a finger down Minhyuk’s throat. “Of course I’ll message you every day, you idiot. I’ll call you every day.”
“It’s like we’re Ross and Rachel,” Minhyuk said. “But I’m not gonna be an asshole and stop you, don’t worry. Go do your music stuff, then come back. I’ll wait.” And he laughed when they crashed into a wall on the way to his room because they were embarrassingly wrapped up in each other, let Jooheon push his jacket off and pull his shirt over his head, shivered when Jooheon’s lips found the back of his neck, traced his tattoo one more time.
Pairbonding was dead, he thought dazedly, as they fell into his bed together and Jooheon balanced over him and leaned down to kiss him senseless. After all, he’d already waited. What was a little more?
-- -- --
hyungwon:
r we watching a movie today
lee joo honey:
yes pls
what r we watching
minhyuk:
empire strikes back
kihyunie:
oh nooooooo
incest
tonguekyun:
chill it’s not that bad they kiss once
lee joo honey:
hm
incest is incest tho
hyunwoo hyung:
you’re one to talk jooheon ah
minhyuk:
WHAT
tonguekyun:
WHAT
muscles hyung:
WHAT
hyungwon:
WAHT
lee joo honey:
HYUNG NO
kihyunie:
WHAT???
hyunwoo hyung:
did he never tell you why he broke up with his gf
minhyuk:
no :) he did not :)
tonguekyun:
omg why why why
lee joo honey:
hyung dont do this to me
hyunwoo hyung:
so he had a folder on his phone
that was pictures of minhyuk
and he let her add her fingerprint
and she found it
lee joo honey:
i swear im pure
it was just nice to see his face ;-;
muscles hyung:
gay
lee joo honey:
shut up
hyunwoo hyung:
and she was like whos this
and he panicked and was like
my cousin
so she got weirded out
kihyunie:
understandably
minhyuk:
oh my god
hyungwon:
oh my god
lee joo honey:
jUST TO BE CLEAR THAT WASNT THE MAIN REASON WE BROKE UP
she said she didn’t rly feel it anymore
and i never rly did
kihyunie:
no that was definitely the reason
lee joo honey:
hyunwoo hyung you’re so dead
hyunwoo hyung:
my bad
-- -- --
“What is it with you and early morning flights?” Minhyuk mumbled into Jooheon’s shoulder. He could almost hear Jooheon roll his eyes before he got up and shrugged Minhyuk off, gently enough that his face landed on a pillow.
“They’re cheaper,” Jooheon said, switching the lights on in Minhyuk’s bathroom. “Do you have an extra toothbrush? I don’t wanna open my suitcase.”
“Who do you think I am, Kihyun? I can barely find my own toothbrush half the time,” Minhyuk said, words disappearing into a yawn as he stretched and sat up.
Jooheon wrinkled his nose. “Yuck.”
Minhyuk halfheartedly threw a sock at him, then got up and got dressed. He stole out of his room and down the hall to the kitchen, balancing on his tip-toes to grab the last Twix and tuck it into his sleeve.
“Come brush your teeth,” Jooheon called from his room. “I can’t kiss you if you don’t.”
Kihyun’s door opened and he stuck his head out. “Can you guys not be gross first thing in the morning?” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.
“You’re just jealous,” Jooheon said, leaning into the hall with a smirk on his face, and threw Minhyuk’s sock back at him.
Somehow, they managed to get on the road on time. Hyunwoo and Jooheon fell asleep on the way there and Kihyun and Minhyuk made eye contact in the rearview mirror. It was weird to think about how, three weeks ago, they’d been in almost the exact same situation. But there were invisible lines drawn between the four of them now. Things had changed.
Minhyuk shook Jooheon awake when they got there. “Honey-ah. We’re here, you gotta check in.”
Jooheon blinked a couple of times, then reached over to pull Minhyuk in by the collar of his sweatshirt. They kissed in the backseat, and it said all the things Minhyuk couldn’t, and a good chunk of the things he could.
Kihyun knocked on the window and pointed at his watch, so they got out and Jooheon wrangled his suitcase from the trunk. “It’s just a couple of months,” he said, tugging his mask down to smile. Kihyun hugged him, and Hyunwoo hugged him, and Minhyuk hugged him a little bit too long and a little bit too tight. He slid the Twix out of his sleeve and gave it to Jooheon, saying, “for the road,” and winking. Jooheon laughed, and then he waved, and then he was gone.
Minhyuk felt the tiniest bit displaced on the way home, but he felt a tiny bit better as they made plans to stop somewhere for breakfast, as Kihyun shared a sad-ish smile with him in the mirror, as Hyunwoo started talking about how he was going to move back in with Jaebeom.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
lee joo honey:
takeoff soon
i already finished the twix :(
minhyukie hyung <3:
destination: my heart~
lee joo honey:
that was painful
minhyukie hyung <3:
but u love me anyway ;)
lee joo honey:
i do
Oh.
Minhyuk stared at his phone. Then smiled. Slid it back into his pocket. Leaned back and stared out the window.
He had a feeling the months would fly by pretty fast.