Chapter Text
"Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Jaehwan says brightly, tugging Taekwoon back inside their condo by their interlocked fingers. The front door swings shut behind them with a heavy click, and Taekwoon grunts.
“No, it wasn’t,” he says, and Jaehwan spins around, surprised by the agreement. But then he sees Taekwoon’s furrowed eyebrows and the cute downward curve of his pout, and he nearly laughs out loud at the words that follow. “It was absolutely awful.”
“Taekwoon,” Jaehwan gasps, pressing a hand to his chest in mock horror. “Are you saying my beloved family is awful?”
Taekwoon rolls his eyes as he pulls his scarf off and tosses it across the back of the sofa. “You know what I mean,” he says crossly, giving Jaehwan a little nudge to the side of the head. Jaehwan yelps and goes after the scarf.
“Hey! Don’t just throw your clothes all over the place again!”
Taekwoon shoots him an amused grin over his shoulder as he continues to discard his jacket, the cardigan, and the well-worn beanie onto various pieces of furniture. Jaehwan trails after his boyfriend, grumbling as he collects everything.
“Put your stuff away properly,” he complains as he pulls the coat closet open, only to chuck everything in and slam the door shut again without another glance. He joins Taekwoon in the kitchen, where the older man is sifting through the fridge for something to eat or drink again. “Hey! We just finished eating dinner with my family! Why are you snacking already?”
“I’m just getting a coffee,” Taekwoon sighs, straightening. He holds two bottles of iced frappuccinos in his hand, one coffee and the other caramel. Jaehwan swoops in for the caramel one immediately, because Taekwoon only likes the coffee fraps and brought a tray of the sweeter flavour just for Jaehwan. He knows a peace offering when he sees one.
They sit next to each together at the rectangular table in the kitchen, as opposed to sitting across from one another. Surprisingly, Taekwoon was the one who first decided they should sit side by side, but Jaehwan didn’t argue it. He scoots his chair closer and curl up happily by Taekwoon’s side, nuzzling into Taekwoon’s neck when Taekwoon wraps an arm around him. They sip their drinks in momentary silence.
“It was nice seeing your family again,” Taekwoon hums, giving the glass bottle a little swirl. “I never really know what to say to your parents, but they’re always warm towards me.”
“You don’t have to act so formally when you’re with them,” Jaehwan chuckles. “They’re fond of you and my mom practically sees you as her own son already.”
“They’re still your parents,” Taekwoon chides, his palm warm on Jaehwan’s thigh as he strokes his thumb over the fabric absentmindedly. “I want to make a good impression.”
“If you’re worried about that frowny face of yours scaring them off, don’t be,” Jaehwan grins. “According to dad, anyone that can stand me talking for longer than fifteen minutes without wanting to rip their own ears off has already passed the test. Besides, you’re such a sucker for babies. My brother calls you a gigantic teddy bear when you’re goofing off with my niece.”
Taekwoon raises an eyebrow. “Does he really?”
“Yup,” Jaehwan snickers and takes another sip. “You’re a big, harmless oaf in their eyes— ow!”
“I am not an oaf,” Taekwoon says, his voice soft with warning. Jaehwan whines and snuggles closer, almost pushing Taekwoon off his seat. “Stop that,” Taekwoon grumbles, wedging his butt back onto the chair.
“Take it back,” Jaehwan demands, sticking out his lower lip. Taekwoon rolls his eyes, and Jaehwan’s whines pitch dangerously high. “Don’t be mean to me, Jung Taekwoon!”
His efforts are rewarded with a sigh and then a kiss; a soft, simple one that presses reverently against his mouth. Jaehwan smiles, setting his drink aside as he reaches up to wrap his arms around Taekwoon’s shoulders. When Taekwoon voluntarily puts his coffee down as well, Jaehwan knows he’s got the green light to go a little further. He moves forwards, crawling up until he’s settled across Taekwoon’s lap without breaking their kiss. Taekwoon’s hands, still cold from their short walk outside, come up to cup Jaehwan’s face, pulling him closer. He nips at Jaehwan’s protruding lower lip, playful but firm, and Jaehwan opens his mouth as he lets Taekwoon lick into his mouth. The sensations makes his fingertips tingle, and he moans low, clutching at the hem of Taekwoon’s sweater.
“When are you going back to your apartment?” Jaehwan asks, momentarily breaking apart. Taekwoon blinks up at him, nose scrunching cutely as he tries to remember.
“Tomorrow morning,” he replies, his voice low with want. “I have practice at six... I’ll have to leave at four.”
Jaehwan closes his eyes and sighs, dragging his fingers up to the defined abs beneath Taekwoon’s second layer. “D’you have to go so early?”
Taekwoon nods, nudging his lips against Jaehwan’s again. “I can’t be late... so we’d better get right to it if I’m gonna wake up on time.”
Jaehwan’s eyes flutter back open and he grins, unfurling his legs as Taekwoon stands. He wraps his thighs around Taekwoon’s lean middle and chokes off a laugh when Taekwoon hefts him up, strong arms holding him steady as he carries them towards their bedroom.
“Work those hips, superstar,” Jaehwan teases when Taekwoon drops him onto the bed, and if those dark eyes raking down his body is of any indication, Jaehwan knows they won’t be sleeping until much later in the night.
+
He stirs when he feels Taekwoon getting out of bed, a mixture of Taekwoon’s beeping alarm and the movement on the mattress pulling him from his slumber. Rolling over, he cracks his eyes open and watches Taekwoon crawl sleepily out of their blanket cocoon, wearing nothing but a pair of blue boxer briefs. He nearly trips over his discarded jeans, and Jaehwan smiles sleepily to himself as Taekwoon grumbles and gathers their clothes up, tossing them into the laundry hamper as he heads towards the bathroom.
He dozes a little listening to the shower start and the sounds of Taekwoon brushing his teeth and shaving, but when Taekwoon comes out, changed into some of his practice gear already, Jaehwan slowly gathers his energy pushes himself up on wobbly arms.
“Taekwoon?”
The footsteps pause, and then change their route. A moment later, the bed dips as Taekwoon crawls over to him, a large hand reaching out to touch Jaehwan’s face.
“What are you doing awake?” Taekwoon asks, his voice soft. “Go back to sleep.”
“Wanted to see you out,” Jaehwan yawns, rubbing his eyes. Taekwoon laughs a quiet little laugh, thumb brushing the corner of Jaehwan’s eyes as he leans over to kiss Jaehwan’s forehead.
“I’ll be fine,” Taekwoon murmurs, gently pushing Jaehwan back against the sheets. Jaehwan whines; if he puts his head against the pillow now he’ll definitely fall back asleep. “Shh— you have to go to the studio today too. Go back to sleep and I’ll text you later on, alright?”
“Mmmfine,” Jaehwan mumbles, already sinking back into the warm embrace of sleep. He feels lips brush against his own, soft laughter tickling him, and Taekwoon’s whisper of “Sleepyhead,” before he’s falling back into his dreams.
+
The national soccer team practices at the indoor arena during the winter. It’s a nicely furnished place, complete with four indoor playing fields, two basketball courts, a gymnastics ring, and five squash courts. It’s also on the other side of town, so whenever Taekwoon has practice he’ll inevitably stay over at the apartment he rents in the area, thus leaving Jaehwan to practice his best starfish poses on the excessively empty space of their queen sized bed.
He hates off-season winter soccer practices, and tells Hongbin and Wonshik so when they meet up for lunch at a newly opened bakery and café someplace downtown.
“Well, they gotta take advantage of the time they have to practice, don’t they?” Hongbin says, slicing off a corner of his French Toast for Wonshik to eat. “I imagine they’ll be a lot busier once the season starts.”
“Exactly!” Jaehwan sighs, slumping over the table with another pout. “If Taekwoon’s busy now, imagine how often he’ll be away when they actually start competing.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s forgotten you,” Wonshik points out.
“I know,” Jaehwan mumbles as he tries to drown his waffle in syrup. “I just miss him like crazy, that’s all.”
“Cute,” Wonshik grins at him, and Jaehwan makes a bunch of kissy faces at Wonshik and Hongbin until Hongbin stuffs a piece of toast in his mouth to shut him up too.
He doesn’t have much to do right now in his down period between albums. He doesn’t model or act as often as Hongbin does, nor does he slip in and out of underground rap scenes as Wonshik is wont to do when he’s craving inspiration. Composing comes and goes for him, but he’s not one to shut himself into a studio and hack away at songs until there’s nothing left in his brain; Wonshik’s fond of that kind of no-distractions-singular-focus kind of work, but Jaehwan can honestly envision himself sitting still for about ten minutes before getting bored. And he hates being bored.
“What are you guys planning to do after this?” he asks the couple.
“Recording studio,” Wonshik answers predictably, cheeks bulging with the amount of toast Hongbin is still trying to shove into his mouth. “Songs, and stuff.”
“I’m gonna go to a meeting with Hakyeon,” Hongbin says. “Something about a new role on a show, or whatever, ten people were trying to talk to him while he was trying to talk to me so I figured I’d just go and try to work out what management is attempting to tell me too.”
“Fun,” Jaehwan pouts. “You guys make me feel like I need to get back into a crunch too.”
“The songs will come when they come,” Wonshik gurgles wisely, now trying to fend off Hongbin’s fork and toast. “Don’t think too much on it. What are you trying to write nowadays anyway?”
“Hmm,” Jaehwan hums thoughtfully. “I’m not quite sure yet. I think I’ll figure it out later on, when the words settle on the paper.”
“Send us a demo when you do then,” Hongbin grins, managing to pin Wonshik ‘s hand down long enough to hold the bit of bread out to the rapper, who groans and eats the toast anyway.
“Will do,” Jaehwan sing-songs, and that’s when he feels his phone vibrate against his leg. Pulling the device out of his pocket, his heart skips a beat when he sees it’s Taekwoon who texted him.
Hey. There was a power outage at the stadium, so we had to cut practice short. Are you busy right now?
He answers with a quick nope, just hanging out at a café with Wonshikkie and Hongbinnie, and Taekwoon’s response comes a moment later.
Want to go shopping for groceries? Let’s make dinner tonight.
His smile is giddy when he types out yeah, sure thing and fires off the address of the café to his boyfriend. When he looks up, Hongbin’s waggling his eyebrows at him.
“Good news?”
“Sort of,” Jaehwan laughs. “Taekwoon’s practice got cut off so he’s coming by the pick me up.”
“Cute,” Wonshik says again, and Jaehwan poses, making Hongbin cringe at his cheesiness.
When he’s leaving the café ten minutes later, he hears Wonshik scream, “Stop trying to feed me more toast!” and Hongbin’s maniacal cackle while the two of them wrestle.
He’s still laughing about it when Taekwoon pulls up by the curb in his sleek silver two-seater and unlocks the door for him. His boyfriend’s equipment is crammed into the trunk as usual, freeing up the space for Jaehwan in the front, and Jaehwan beams as he leans over to give Taekwoon a peck on the cheek. But Taekwoon swerves, ducking away from the kiss, and Jaehwan blinks at him, confused.
“I didn’t shower,” Taekwoon clarifies, gesturing to himself. Jaehwan takes in the damp strands of hair sticking up from his scalp and the old t-shirt Taekwoon’s thrown on. “There were no lights in the change room and I didn’t want to slip in the dark and crack my head open.”
Jaehwan chuckles, reaching out to cup Taekwoon’s face with both hands. Taekwoon’s eyes scrunch shut in a rather adorable way when Jaehwan leans forwards anyway, giving him a kiss on the tip of his nose.
“Guess you’ll have to shower at home then,” he grins.
“I will,” Taekwoon hums, putting the gear back into drive as he drives away. Jaehwan’s grin changes slowly into a little smirk, and he stretches his hand out, letting it casually rest on Taekwoon’s thigh, curling his fingers over the muscles honed out of hours and hours of training. Taekwoon shoots him a look out of the corner of his eyes, expression calm despite the redness at the top of his ears.
“Got room for me too?” Jaehwan asks innocently, and Taekwoon huffs, hiding the smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he does.
“If you’re good on the way back.”
Jaehwan bursts into a fit of giggles, batting his eyelashes as he does. “You know I’m good as gold,” he teases, giving Taekwoon’s thigh a squeeze before letting his hand slip off. He doesn’t miss the little hitch in Taekwoon’s breath, or the heated gaze that follows.
They end up making out in the backseat for a good ten minutes when they’ve finally parked in the garage before rushing back up to the condo for a much-needed shower.
+
He’s lying on the bed in the fluffy yellow bathrobe Taekwoon got him two Christmases ago, scrolling through some app recommendations on his tablet when one of the catches his attention. He checks out the user reviews, slides through a photo gallery of screen caps, and then downloads it anyway because it’s free.
He’s checking out some preliminary features when the mattress sinks next to him and Taekwoon’s kneeling in the blankets next to him, plopping his chin down onto Jaehwan’s shoulder as he peers at the screen.
“‘Smart Language Apps: Learn Chinese’?” Taekwoon reads, eyebrows rising. “What’re you learning Chinese for?”
“Why not?” Jaehwan asks, flicking through a basic set of characters on the introductory beginner’s chapter. “Mandarin is one of the most-spoken languages in the world nowadays.”
“True,” Taekwoon hums, curling an arm around Jaehwan’s waist. The two of them smell like a mash-up of Taekwoon’s organic herb soaps and Jaehwan’s fruity mango shampoo after spilling everything all over themselves in the cramped shower stall, bare skin against cold tile as they tried to maneuver their six-foot frames around without elbowing each other in the face.
“Besides, I took some Chinese in college,” Jaehwan says, tapping through the characters he already knows. “I should be able to pick it up again soon enough.”
“Is this going to be another hobby of yours?” Taekwon asks, slumping against Jaehwan’s side.
“If it is, it’ll be a productive one, right?” Jaehwan laughs, pulling Taekwoon to his chest as he rolls them over. He cards his fingers through the still-damp strands of hair as Taekwoon wiggles until he’s found a comfortable position to doze off in. He yawns, stretching long arms and legs like a cat, and Jaehwan resists the urge to coo at him.
“Better than your Pokemon card phase,” Taekwoon murmurs, stifling a chuckle when Jaehwan whacks him in the shoulder. “Or those— those soccer player collectable cards that comes with combo meals at the fast food restaurants.”
“You’re just mad that I didn’t collect your card,” Jaehwan jabs back, and Taekwoon sniffs indignantly, shooting Jaehwan one of his pouty glares. It’s the same one Taekwoon does when Jaehwan steals the last piece cookie from the jar, or when he takes the car out and doesn’t fill the tank back up, or when he’s going down on Taekwoon but inspiration strikes halfway and he’s hauling ass all over the bedroom, trying to find a pen and paper while Taekwoon throws a pillow over his face and groans from sheer sexual frustration. It’s a cute look on him.
“Why would I need a card when I have the real thing with me?” Jaehwan teases, fumbling to shut his tablet off as Taekwoon dozes on his chest. “You’re much better than a tiny paper version.” He gives Taekwoon’s bicep a quick squeeze, and laughs when Taekwoon makes a lazy sound of surprise. “See? Way more 3D, and so much cooler.”
“I am,” Taekwoon agrees sleepily, and Jaehwan reaches down to lace their fingers together, marvelling at the warmth of Taekwoon’s palm against his own.
“Let’s take a nap,” he suggests. “We’ll order in instead later of shopping.”
A vague mumble is the most coherent response he’s going to get, so Jaehwan just plumps his pillow into a comfortable lump, drags the covers up from the end of the bed with his feet, and settles in for another midday doze.