Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s the sound. The sticky and slimy rhythm that echoed the room. The creaking bed. The rope that began to slice up his wrists. And probably the man who’s leaking pre-cum all over his stomach. Jeno finds himself in a daze.

He adjusted his hung up hands, wincing when the ropes tightened.

“Weren’t you a virgin just 2 month ago?”

He can count the number of times they’ve had sex with one hand, so Renjun’s rapid descent from someone who’d cry about his dick being too big to using him as a sex toy is interesting to say the least. But understandable. His breath hitched when Renjun pinched his nipple, “so? Shut up and focus…”

It brings Jeno’s attention back. He thrusts his waist, refusing to be vanquished by some twink he picked up in a club.

“Turn around and ride me.”

Renjun is still a little clumsy being on top, with this being his first time doing it properly. But Jeno told him to just do whatever made him feel good, so he’s been whining his waist and massaging his prostate. He can feel his own orgasm waiting at the gates, but it feels like a waste to ejaculate too soon. This is only their first condom of the night after all. And Jeno’s dick feels great inside him.

“You know you’re the one tied up right?” Renjun stops moving, and looks down disdainfully.

Jeno pushes up again, harder this time, “come on, you’ve milked me long enough.” His ability to spit out lewd words with a straight face continues to disgust Renjun. He rolls his eyes and leans back, ready to let Jeno’s dick slip out. The image somehow hot wires Jeno’s eagerness, and instead of letting Renjun go he thrusts his hip up again.

“Wa- wait…ah… I can’t… I can’t…”

“Shit, this feels so good, this spot right here…” Jeno clenches onto the ropes that he wished to cut to pieces a second ago, moaning as his head falls back in pleasure, “your ass is so comfortable…” He pushes in harder, letting Renjun’s heated canal envelope his dick before repeating the movement again. Renjun’s body trembles at the sensation, his well-massaged prostate doesn’t seem to be getting used to this level of stimulation. He holds onto Jeno’s thighs, and tries to back away.

It’s right then that Jeno suddenly remembers his athleticism, and yanks his wrists free from the ropes as if his weakened state earlier was just for pose all this time. He grabs Renjun and forces him to sit back on his dick, declining Renjun’s plead to be let go just like how he ignored Jeno’s plead to orgasm.

“Jeno… enough…” Renjun cried out. His legs gave in the moment Jeno confined him, and he’s already near the edge. “Ah…ah…I don’t… I don’t wanna cum yet...ah…”

The sun comes up just in time as Renjun wakes up. Jeno is lying on his stomach next to him. They did it in the shower again last night. Jeno got too cheeky when cleaning out his cum-filled asshole, and made Renjun beg for more. He palms his face, hoping the memories of his shameless acts would fade with his eyes closed.

“Mmm…it’s too bright…shut the curtain…” Jeno turns and buries his head into the pillow after his whiny command. Renjun could see his wrists, still red. He bit his lips, caressing the swollen bits and feeling guilty that he got too carried away in the beginning. But his aching back reminds him that Jeno certainly got his revenge. So he shoves it away, and gets up.

“…where are you going?” A faint voice sounds behind Renjun after he pulls up his trousers. He looks back to answer, finding Jeno propping himself up on one arm. “See, I told you I was gonna go gentle last night.”

“…I think your gentle and my gentle has two different meanings…”

“You think? Hmm…” Jeno grabs his left wrist, stroking the reddened skin and hissing dramatically.

And this is when Renjun suddenly remembers that he was a virgin only two months ago. His face grows red, and he looks away, “so don’t buy cheap off-brand ropes…”

“Ah…should I invest in some shibari ropes?” He tilts his head innocently, and giggles when Renjun goes quiet.

He watches Renjun put his shirt on, not forgetting to check out the marks he left on the disappearing skin. Jeno was supposed to go out with his friends that day, but Mark coaxed him into going to the history club meetup. “Come on it will be fun! The club? Trust me this club we’re going to is better than any of the ones you’ve ever been, no seriously! Come on please I promised Haechan I would introduce you guys…” So there he was, standing amongst a group of people outside a club he wasn’t familiar with, waiting for Mark to come get him.

“Thank you so much for coming but please don’t sleep with any of them, not even the ones that understands the meaning of a one night stand.” Mark warned him, the memory of cleaning the ‘slut’ spray paint that coated their dorm window still vividly in his mind. Jeno promised half-heartedly, he wasn’t really feeling like it that day anyway. But this Huang Renjun that sat amongst the newbies in the booth caught his eyes immediately. He had seen him around campus, but he hung out mostly with the international students, so their paths rarely crossed. Until then that is. He didn’t fully promise anyway.

“…I would’ve joined earlier if I wasn’t too busy fixing up all the visa issues in my first year, yeah oh you have no idea, as strict as the laws here are it was-“

“Ah! Lee Jeno!” Renjun’s sentence was cut off by Haechan’s exclamation. But you couldn’t really blame his excitement. Mark had been boasting about a boxer friend for some time now, and Haechan had been nagging him about meeting him.

“Hi, you must be Haechan.” He smiled, turning his attention away from Renjun.

“Mark told you about me?” Haechan’s eyes glistened adoringly at the handsome boy in front of him as if Mark didn’t exist. Their friends all laughed at Mark’s sour reaction, “Ya, Lee Donghyuck, your boyfriend’s still here!” One of them teased. Mark shoved him and laughed awkwardly, telling them to shut up.

“Hey I still have eyes ok? I know a hot guy when I see one!” Haechan rolled his eyes, but moved closer to Mark and hugged his arm, “right baby?”

“Aha, yeah of course!”

Jeno kept glancing at Renjun who was still speaking to another girl about his visa issues.

“Do you guys want a drink?” He said, butting in their conversation and pointed at his cup.

“Um, yeah sure!” The girl answered first, Renjun was flushed from his glass already, but nodded anyway.

“Come with me, I can’t carry that many drinks all at once.” Jeno leaned down to say, the excuse was that the club is noisy, the intention was to breathe into Renjun’s ears. It worked, as Renjun covered his ears and giggled, “fine fine, my name is Renjun by the way.”

“I’m Lee Jeno.” He answered, pulling him into the crowd of people waiting for bartenders to notice them.

They didn’t hear the can of coke they bought fall into the pick up slot, Jeno was too busy groping Renjun’s ass while they made out. Dimming street light imprinted their entangled shadows on the walls beside the vending machine as the stars witnessed their insatiability. Their breaths were heavy, and Renjun could feel Jeno’s cold hand snaking inside his t shirt. He imagined a million ways to lose his virginity, and public indecency was pretty low on the list. Which meant he didn’t really hate it, and he trusted Jeno’s lean figure could definitely prop him up against the wall and fuck him into oblivion. Their trousers were halfway down, and Jeno held their dicks together in his palm. The tips rubbing against each other made Renjun shake uncontrollably, but Jeno hold was firm enough that he managed to hold on.

“You’re pretty sensitive…do you not masturbate?”

“I do! Of course…ha…I do…hmf!” Renjun’s groin tightened, and he couldn’t control what came next.

“Really? You’re already cumming…”

He buried his face in Jeno’s shoulder, “it’s…it’s my first time…”

“What?”

“It’s my first time!”

Jeno did not see that coming. Truly. The confidence Renjun had up until this point made Jeno feel like he was getting picked up and not the other way round. But all this time he was a virgin?

“You’re joking right?”

“Shut up…I know it’s embarrassing…” Renjun said, wiping the cum that was flowing down Jeno’s crotch with his sleeve, but stopped halfway when he realised what he was doing.

Jeno still didn’t want to believe it and opened his mouth when a group of people suddenly ran past laughing and screaming. He quickly hugged renjun close on instinct, hiding him from any possible exposure. Renjun’s heart raced and hugged Jeno back.

“They’re gone now.” Jeno ruffled his hair, grinning at how cute Renjun was when he didn’t budge.

“I know.”

This might be a jackpot, or the most boring fuck ever. Jeno thought. Virgins are unpredictable, but this one is definitely worth the shot.

“Do you want to try?”

“Try what?”

“Sex.”

“Didn’t we just-“

“No I mean, the whole thing, my dick in your asshole.”

“…when?”

“Give me your number, I’ll call you.”

And a few phone calls and meetups later, here is Renjun, kneeling down in front of him, waiting for his goodbye kiss after he came back from the bathroom. Jeno pulls him down, and gives him a sloppy kiss, and a peck on the cheek.

“…I’m gonna be pretty busy for the next few weeks.” Renjun said.

“Oh why?”

“Some things came up… but I’ll call you when I’m free?”

“Sure.”

Chapter Text

What Renjun left out of his visa-problem-free conversations is the how. He drags his feet on the concrete. The hill in front of him seems like less of a challenge than what he is about to face. Few more steps and he will be rid of his problems, but he stops in front of the restaurant. Is he really this desperate?

“Hello! Is it just you today?” A waitress cuts off his skyrocketing anxiety, he remembers to breathe, and decides to let the universe take the lead on this.

“I’m here to meet a friend.” He says.

“Ah yes, he’s already inside, follow me!” The restaurant is quite famous in the area, but no amount of good reviews can fill up a restaurant on a Monday. Let alone in the early afternoon. He scratched his head when he saw the meeting time. The invite text read like the person is reluctantly sparing the pitiful amount of free time they had in their day just so they can meet. It irked him a little. At this point just send him a zoom link. But it is what it is, and he can already see him at the table.

“Thank you.” Renjun says to the waitress before turning his attention back on the man.

“Hi, you must be Huang Renjun.” He stands up and holds up a hand. Renjun stares at it for a second, and shakes it, thinking it really seals the deal on the transactional side of it all.

“Yes, and you’re Jeong Jaehyun.”

“Have a seat. I haven’t ordered yet, I don’t really have time to eat I’m afraid.”

“Um, yeah no that’s ok.” Then why a fucking restaurant, this could’ve been an email!

“So.”

“Yeah, so.” Renjun takes a deep breath, “I was shocked that you accepted everything so quickly…”

“Well, it seems convenient doesn’t it.” Jaehyun irks him even more in person. Too bad for such a pretty face. His hair is a bit messed up, the long fringe fights with the thin glass frames he has on and it seems to be bothering him, as this is the second time he brushed them aside since Renjun sat down. So he got to see his face closely twice. Right now, that really is the only comforting factor. But it is also kind of confusing.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I’m not going to lie I was a bit shocked when my dad told me about the engagement.”

“That makes two of us…who knew a promise can hold for that long…”

“You’d be surprised. But in hindsight, it might be the best thing.” Jaehyun lets out a dry laugh.

“But, why did you accept? They gave us the option to reject it…” There was no reason for him to web himself into this mess in Renjun’s eyes, but a million reasons for himself to jump at the chance. And he’s still surprised to this day that he succeeded with only one chance.

“I know. I just think it makes everything easier, you know.”

“…true.”

“So we should talk about the proceedings. I know you are in a time crunch, so I’m thinking we could go register tomorrow-“

“Tomorrow???”

“Sorry, do you need more time to get your documents ready?”

“…no I just, I just need to print them out but,” Renjun takes a sip of water, “but are you a hundred percent sure you want to do this? You don’t think you’re rushing into this?”

“I wouldn’t be sitting here if I wasn’t, Renjun. Unless you’re not…?”

“No I am, I am hundred percent willing. I just feel bad cause I’m- technically using you... so I can stay in Korea…”

“This is a favour we’re doing for each other, so no need to feel bad. And from the sounds of it we’re doing our families a favour too.” He checks his wrist watch one more time, “sorry I really have to go right now. I’ll send you the address for tomorrow.”

It doesn’t feel right. He’s being led by the nose. The self-righteous snob of a Jaehyun is growing more and more intolerable, to hell with the looks. As much as he’s saying that Renjun is doing him a favour, he doesn’t show an ounce of gratitude. It might as well be an inconvenience for him. He is nothing like how Renjun’s mother described. He hasn’t even smiled. But it’s not like Renjun has any grounds to reject such an alluring offer, so he just smiles and nods, and bites back the insults.

“Ok.”

The conversation seems to have ended, as Jaehyun puts his phone in his pocket and gets up to leave. But suddenly, in a manner that makes Renjun thinks he just remembered the most insignificant detail, goes, “right, as for the wedding, I hope you won’t mind but I don’t really want one.”

The restaurant begins to fill up when Renjun leaves. He ordered a bowl of Fettuccine Alfredo and ate it begrudgingly. His happiness of ridding his visa issues forever is overshadowed by Jaehyun’s attitude towards the whole thing. He feels like he should’ve came with a contract, but then he’s a million percent sure that tomorrow Jaehyun will show up with a prenup with spots he needs to sign highlighted. He sniffs, and calls his mum.

“It’s all done. We’re getting married tomorrow.” He says as soon as she picks up.

“Ai yah! Finally! See I told you you’d get along. Will there be a wedding?”

“He said he doesn’t want one.”

“Of course, as busy as he is it’s probably impossible to get any days off. Doctors are like that Renjun you have to understand that!”

“Mum you know I’m only doing this for the visa right? I’m not in love with him.”

“Who knows? Sparks fly in these kind of situations, it happens all the time on TV!”

Renjun sighs and hangs up the phone after his mum nags him about eating well and staying healthy. At the moment, he thinks of the only thing he wants to do on his last day of being officially single. He’s going to cheat on his fiancee.

The boxing club Jeno trains at is in the middle of the city, a bit further out than their campus. Thankfully Renjun’s within walking distance, and before he knows it, he’s at the front door waiting for him. Standing beside him are some girls, probably his teammates’ girlfriends, or his fans. All of a sudden he isn’t sure whether it’s appropriate for him to be waiting like this, and if Jeno’s out yet, what if this gives him a bad rep? He’s embarrassed, and thinks about leaving, but he can already hear Jeno’s voice emerging at the doorway. The rowdiness meets with the girls’ ‘babies’ and ‘oppas’, and by the time they all comes outside, almost every player has a girl by their side, except for Jeno who’s chatting to another guy walking next to him. Renjun sighs in relief, and goes straight to Jeno.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was… I was just in the neighbourhood, and thought I should swing by…” Renjun’s voice gets quieter, he doesn’t understand his sudden need to lie.

“I thought you were gonna be busy?”

“Yeah, um, yeah but I finished earlier than I thought-“

“Who’s this?” A guy comes up behind Renjun, startling him.

“Jaemin we talked about this,” Jeno pulls Renjun closer to him, and the shorter one flushes at the warmth that touches his forearm, “this is the friend I told you about, Huang Renjun. And this is Jaemin, we train together.”

Renjun leans cozily onto Jeno’s arm, and gives Jaemin a smile. The recipient smiles back, and pinches his face, “you’re right, he’s cute as hell.”

“Hey! Get your own!” Jeno puts up his arm and hugs Renjun’s shoulders, shielding him from Jaemin’s ‘attacks’.

Renjun breaks loose from Jeno’s hold, and starts to pray that he isn’t too obvious with how flustered he is right now. But seeing how Jaemin seems to know what’s going on between him and Jeno, and that everyone has already left, he puts down the act and gets to the point, “what are you doing later?”

“Sheesh, he doesn’t waste any time does he.” Jaemin snorts.

Jeno shoves Jaemin aside and says to Renjun, “sorry, ignore him. I’m going home, do you want to come with?”

As much as Renjun likes to stay civil, he still throws Jaemin a dirty look before nodding at Jeno.

“This makes me feel like I will die alone.”

“Then start answering those love letters, come on let’s go, I’ll see you tomorrow!” Before Jaemin knows it, the couple is long gone. He curses a little.

The room is just how Renjun left it.

“How come you never have anything in your room?”

“Oh I haven’t told you have I?” Jeno says, putting down his water bottle, and lays down next to Renjun despite his damp hair, “I only stay at the dorm when I’m training with the club. My cousin thinks I’m too noisy in mornings.”

The fruity smell from his shampoo fills Renjun’s space, and he can’t help but turn to Jeno and take a quiet deep breath.

“Isn’t it a bit uncomfortable?” He says after a beat.

“Yeah…” Jeno sighs languidly, “but what can I do, he pays for the house. And my mum loves him so whatever he says goes.”

That Renjun can understand.

“He sounds like an asshole.”

“Haha, yeah he does doesn’t he. But he’s ok I guess, I heard he’s getting married soon.”

“Really? Does that mean you’ll have to move out for good?”

“It depends on the bride I would guess, if she doesn’t mind me there I rather not go through the trouble.”

“Have you not met her?”

“Oh no, he just randomly texted me and said he’s getting married. I thought he was joking but my mum confirmed it. Apparently it was a set up.”

“Wow, that seems pretty common nowadays.” Renjun says under his breath, feeling a little guilty.

“Really? I don’t understand it, is getting married that important? Why give up on love?”

Jeno’s romantic side earns a chuckle from Renjun, “love? I didn’t know you were such a sap!”

“It’s called being hopeful ok, if it was me I would never marry for any other reason than that.”

His determination is worth applauding, and it tickles Renjun’s unwavering resolution.

“What about you?” Jeno asks when he climbs on top of Renjun.

“What about me?” He says as he grabs his face.

“Would you marry for love?”

“…yeah, I hope I would.” He answers quietly, trying his best to hide the despair in his voice. Thankfully Jeno doesn’t catch it, and gives him a kiss, “right? That’s the only way!”

Chapter Text

Whatever brain Jaehyun used to get a scholarship at a top notch medical school then scoring a placement under the most prestigious gastroenterologist in all of South Korea was not present when he decided that today is going to be the day he gets married. He’s soaking wet, staring at a slouching Renjun in front of him, mouth hanging open with nothing he could say. If anyone walks pass they will probably think these two are finally realising that their relationship is coming to an end, it’s just too unfortunate that it got to the point where two of them are standing in front of the local council. In the rain, as if it doesn’t look dramatic enough. But that is not the case. Jaehyun wishes.

“I seriously don’t understand! Why do we need permission from our parents to get married?” Renjun shouts in frustration, hands squeezing the paperworks that lay safely in the plastic sleeve. Going to Jeno to alleviate his stress worked to some degree. When he reemerged from the warm bedsheets he was immediately hit by the sunken reality of what is going to happen in this day. He fled Jeno’s room and rushed back to his flat, grabbing all the documents his mother told him to prepare before stumbling out the door. He did bring an umbrella, though, so other than the momentary outburst, he’s mostly confused on where his umbrella went.

In the sheer sense of not wanting Renjun to destroy his documents before they can get their marriage sorted, Jaehyun grabs Renjun’s wrist, and says in the most comforting voice, “it’s ok.”

What Renjun cannot wrap his head around is the fact that a guy like Jaehyun would make such a stupid mistake. He almost feels smug. The golden child, the perfect son, the man he cannot compare to according to his mother, is the one who delays this very important matrimony. Even though he knows deep inside he could’ve also being more active in researching the law of this country, but he chooses to forgive himself. Let’s make this about Jaehyun.

“Why are we in a rush anyway! My visa won’t expire until the end of the year and you don’t have to fulfil the promise until next year!”

That makes Jaehyun go quiet. In truth, he just wants to get it over and done with. He cannot live with the anxiety of possibly losing his childhood home, the place that houses his most precious memories. It’s cruel what his grandpa did, he almost cursed out loud at his funeral when the lawyer uttered the sentence: “be wedded before the end of next year”. His aunt shook for him, and cried out on the unfairness. Then the match-making began. He ignored all the ‘just buy a new house’, ‘you don’t have to do this’, ‘your grandpa is weird’ comments, and met with several people. But they all retreated when they heard his request. Life is no tv drama, and people won’t just fall for a handsome face. So when Renjun became an option, his turbid head and heavy heart cleared within seconds. The way he lit up almost convinced his dad that it was love at first sight. But everything that goes too easily will alway come with trials and tribulations at some point. He just can’t believe that it has to be now.

“It doesn’t take long to get a signature, Renjun, just fill it out again and mail it to your mum.” He says plainly.

“…it does.”

“I’ll pay for the shipping, just get the express, China is right there-”

“My mum’s on vocation.” Renjun is trying not to laugh. Because what else can he do?

“…when is she returning?”

“End of this month.”

“What?”

“She went on a cruise.”

Jaehyun purses his lips, it’s his turn to glare. “In that case, I’ll keep these safe for you, and when your mum returns give me a call I’ll fill out the form with you.” He says, reaching for the paperworks.

“Are you holding me hostage?” Renjun hugs the files, turning away from him and questions him alarmingly.

“It’s just the copies, I won’t take your actual IDs.”

“Who knows what you’ll do with them!”

“Are you serious? You would marry me but won’t trust me?”

“Marrying you is one thing, giving you control is another!”

They’re gathering attention alright. Jaehyun could hear little gasps from people’s reaction to their little scene. He drops his head and clears his throat, and says quietly, “stop being dramatic.”

Renjun is still scowling. He looks at his document once more, then glares at Jaehyun before handing him the documents reluctantly. In the grounds that his mum actually already sent him Jaehyun’s passport and drivers’ license. So it’s a fair deal somehow. But it’s not going to stop him from being difficult about it. Especially when Jaehyun is getting his way once again.

“I’ll text you when my mum’s back then.” He mutters, and turns to leave. The rain already stopped and the cloud begins to clear. The sun rays beaming onto the buildings only pisses Renjun off more. He’s going to blame the weather for this weird morning. But before he can curse out loud, he hears Jaehyun calling his name. “What!”

“Is this yours?” It’s the umbrella. Still dripping wet from whichever puddle Jaehyun dug it out from. He takes it from him quietly, and nods in gratitude.

A disheveled kitten is what came to mind when Jaehyun gets a clearer look at Renjun. There isn’t a dining table separating them, or droplets of rain blurring his vision, it’s just Renjun’s expressionless face staring up at him. He really is short, he thinks. “…where do you need to go? I can give you a lift.”

“Please I’d rather crawl…” Jaehyun’s lip twitches at Renjun’s obvious disgust, and rolls his eyes, already sick of the unwavering sass.

“You know I can just not marry you, I can marry anyone.”

“Yeah right, say that to the eight people who rejected you.”

“There was only seven.”

“Same difference!”

“Just tell me where you’re going my car’s right there!”

“Hongdae!”

“Fine! Come on!”

They sit in silence for the journey. The car is nice and clean. Renjun was a little hesitant when he stepped inside, but Jaehyun didn’t seem to care. But the smell…

“Can you pull over…” Renjun says without turning his head away from the window.

“We’re two red lights away.”

“Please, I’m gonna be sick…” He coughs and swallows. Carsickness is rarely an issue now, but he hadn’t had breakfast, and Jaehyun chose lavender of all scents for his car fragrance. If it wasn’t the fact that he knows he can’t afford to get his car detailed, he would have thrown up all over the dashboard.

“Oh, ok, hang on.”

Jaehyun comes to a stop on the side of the road, and cracks open passenger side window. Renjun looks half dead. He had been coughing the whole trip, so Jaehyun feels a bit annoyed that he didn’t clock it as travel sickness.

“Thank you.” Renjun says, breathing in the fresh air to clear his nostrils of the obnoxious smell of lavender.

“Here, have some water.”

Without a word, Renjun gulps down from Jaehyun’s water bottle. He’s a bit surprised when he feels the warmth of the bottle.

“You’re really a different breed.” He holds the water bottle with both hands and looks at Jaehyun who’s checking his phone.

“What now?”

“What Korean drink warm water?”

“A gut surgeon.”

“Surgeon you say? I thought you’re only an intern.”

Jaehyun puts down his phone and glares, “a gut surgeon to be.”

“…should I worry about a prenup?”

“Your mum was very against it.”

“Ah.”

“Are you doing this for money?”

“Relax, if I was I’d marry an actually rich person. What am I gonna do with an old ass house?”

“Pft, yeah.”

“I heard it’s falling apart.”

“It is.”

“Why do you want it so bad anyway?”

“…do you feel better?”

“Not really, but I can walk from here, I really can’t stand this smell.” Renjun curls his lips, feeling a bit awkward when Jaehyun dodged the question. He doesn’t want to come across as nosy, but just like everyone else in the world, he too cannot understand and is dying to understand just what about this house that got Jaehyun so desperate. But Jaehyun had remained tightlipped since the funeral, he’s not going to slip up now. He looks at him one more time, and opens the car door.

He also doesn’t understand why Jaehyun is walking along with him. “I’m fine now, you can go.”

“You look half dead.” Ah, there it is, “your mum and my dad both told me to take good care of you.”

As much as Renjun wants to roll his eyes, he can’t ignore how earnest Jaehyun sounds. It’s telling. Snobby and unpleasant, sure, but he hasn’t cower one bit throughout all this. Maybe it’s too early to say, but Renjun is going to admit that he feels a little secure knowing it’s Jaehyun beside him. Maybe his mum is kind of right.

“Well, I’ll be sure to let them know.”

Chapter Text

Renjun thinks he has a nice flat. He really does. It has a window, a bed, a bathroom, a kitchen. And the sunlight hits the perfect spot in the room in the afternoons, making his canvas glisten under the rays of sunshine. The view is pretty enough to block out all the problem Renjun has with the flat. Like the leaking roof that he called the landlord six times about only to be left on read. The fact that he has to climb the Himalaya of a stair in order to get to it. The fact that his curtains don’t close all the way and the landlord refuses to let him swap it out. He did it anyway once, but he almost got evicted for it. And the fact that the water heater sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. If this was home he would’ve fought the landlord physically for making him go through all of this, but he doesn’t want to trouble his mum, and he was travelling most of the time so it was his sacred art corner and him against the world. Even Jeno played into his delusions when he visited for the first time. But that fantasy crumbled the moment Jaehyun saw the place.

“Um, you live here?” Jaehyun’s nose pinches as he examines the place, and he tries his best to ignore the bucket in the middle of the room.

“My landlord is kind of an asshole.”

“Still, this has to be illegal.” He declares, then sits down where Renjun points at.

“Yeah, well, it’s what I can afford.” Renjun sighs, and takes an apple and a bottle of water from the fridge.

“You should come stay with me.” The apple drops to the floor and rolls into Jaehyun’s feet, who picks it up and wipes it before taking a bite.

“What did you just say?” He stares at the man who just talked about the negative effects of iced water casually eating an unwashed apple.

“Come stay with me,” he swallows and continues, “I got plenty of room.”

“…we’re not married yet…” in a romantic scenario Renjun is supposed to blush, and Renjun is confused, and fails to come up with any other reaction, so he does anyway.

“What’s the difference?” Jaehyun is more than amused by his reaction, and decides to tease him more. “We’ll be sharing a bed sooner or later.”

“As if I’d ever end up in the same bed as you!” Ok he asked for that one.

“I had a roommate who moved out a few months ago. My cousin was gonna turn it into a mini gym but he’s barely home so the room is just sitting there right now..”

“O..k… how big is the room?”

“It’s like this place but without the kitchen.”

They talked a bit more about it, and Jaehyun said he’d send him some pictures to give him an idea. He falls in love with it right away when he sees them. It’s much brighter and less tragic than his cinderella’s attic of a room. Jaehyun was purely joking earlier, but they are bound to live together anyway. It was already decided that they’d be living together after they get their certificate. But Renjun had been thinking of excuses to get out of it. If they did end up living together what’s going to happen between him and Jeno? Would it count as cheating? Would Jaehyun care? He just wants the house anyway.

‘I’m a bit busy this few days but I’ll be able to give you a tour some time next week.’ Jaehyun says in the text. He reacts with a thumbs up and flops back onto his bed. He doesn’t have a good feeling about this. But there’s a bucket in the middle of his room.

“Thank god! You’re finally getting out of this hell hole.” Jeno says with a mouthful of pizza, and licks the sauce off his fingers.

“Hey, you said it was cute last time!” He shoves Jeno lightly, annoyed that Jeno doesn’t seem to care that they might not be able to see each other as much.

“I lied.” Jeno takes another bite, “your landlord wouldn’t even let you fix the roof.”

“…yeah, you’re right. Good riddance I guess.”

“Good riddance for sure. Where are you moving to?”

“This flat in...” Renjun reaches for his phone and scrolls through his chat with Jaehyun, “Mok-dong!”

“Really? I live there too!”

Unlike Jeno’s positive excitement, Renjun is filled with anxiety. What if they run into each other when he’s with Jaehyun? That’s some catastrophe he’s not willing to deal with.

“You do…?”

“Yeah, I’m moving back in a few days, so we can meet up more often.”

“Please you always say that and then leave me on read!” Renjun rolls his eyes.

“That’s only cause you always message me when I’m practicing!”

“I still won’t forgive you for leaving my nudes on read.”

“It was one time Renjun! And I told you I jerked off to it in the shower what more do you want!”

Renjun frowns at him, and puts the pizza box away before he could reach for another piece.

“Do you know how long it took for me to perfect the shot!”

“Yes yes, you had to clean your room for it I get it…”

“And then you completely ignored it!”

“I’m sorry I’m sorry ok! Can you please give me back my slice?” Jeno puts up both his hands impatiently, and begins slowly manoeuvring to the box when Renjun’s not looking.

“You don’t deserve this pizza.” Renjun pushes the pizza away further away, and stands in front of Jeno. “I’m gonna send the pics to someone who will actually appreciate it!”

“Yeah right, like who? The creep that keeps commenting on your instagram post?” Defeated, Jeno leans back onto the couch, and glares at Renjun.

“I might as well, since he actually cares to do that!” The creep is one of his classmates that he helped during a group project. He seemed cool at first but after the project he kept asking Renjun out for drinks, which he politely declined, sensing alternative motives. But since then he had been leaving flirty comments on every single pic he posts, to the point where he pretended to soft-launch Jeno only to him to keep him at bay. But that’s not important right now.

“Oh yeah? And then what?” Jeno crosses his arms, and watches Renjun smugly.

“And then… and then…” He quiets down, unable to think of a witty comeback.

“You’ll suck his dick in gratitude?”

“Fuck you, you suck.” Frustrated that he couldn’t think fast enough, he plops down next to Jeno.

“I’d gladly suck your dick in gratitude.” The change in tone gets a peer from Renjun, he grabs the hand that made its way onto his ass.

“Go away…” Renjun grumbles, not wanting to give into Jeno’s playful touches. But his struggle is to no avail, as Jeno is already between his legs, and taking off his hoodie, leaving the tank top underneath.

“Come on, let me show you how much I liked your picture.”

“Too late now…” He tries hard not to look down into Jeno’s chest as his hands slides up and down his thighs, making him tingle.

“Where did you find the white lube anyway, or was it your own cum that was dripping down your thighs?”

“It was lube… I’m not freaky enough to play with my own cum…”

“You know for a moment I thought you had sex with someone else,” Jeno ghosts his fingers over Renjun’s waist, making him shiver, “I thought you were showing off.”

He pinches Renjun’s hip bone, and smirks when he feels him jerk.

“Stop… that’s really itchy…”

Jeno lets go with mercy, and continues to whisper, “I thought how lewd that you found someone else so quickly…”

“Would you really be surprised?” Renjun refuses to back down even though he’s fighting every urge to grind on Jeno’s thigh.

“Yeah, I shouldn’t be right?” Chuckling, Jeno begins to unbuckles Renjun’s belt, “I’m surprised you haven’t invited someone else to this yet.”

“…”

“You almost fainted from excitement last time we did it in the av room.” He pulls Renjun’s trousers all the way down and takes his dick out, and grazes his callused hands on Renjun’s bulging tip, “you were hoping someone would walk in on us weren’t you.”

“…no…”

“Imagine someone is sitting right next to us, jerking off as I suck your dick right now...” It’s a battle Renjun is going to lose, and he doesn’t know how to put up a fight at the moment. Jeno’s voice rustling in his ears is like a pseudo masturbation stimulant, it’s getting harder to ignore the ensuing shockwaves travelling through his crotch to his chest.

“Be a good boy and spread your legs, give him a good view.” Renjun does what he says, a sign of defeat he’s willing to exhibit. Jeno holds the base of his cock with one hand, and massages the tip with his other. He moans comfortably, legs twitching when Jeno would suddenly pick up the pace.

“Do you want him to fuck you? Or just watch you?”

“…I, I want him to watch first… and then he can fuck-…hmf!” Jeno surprises Renjun with a lick on the tip he had been caressing this whole time, cutting off Renjun mid sentence. He holds onto the armrest and whines accusingly at Jeno who makes himself busy with kissing his inner thighs. He spreads his legs wider, as if he really has an audience, and lets his voice go, uncaring of his neighbours since he’s moving out anyway.

The finger in his ass is a response to his inviting hips. Jeno lets go of his dick with a pop, “lift up your legs.” They already did it once the night before, so it wasn’t too hard to slip two fingers in from the start. He curls his fingers, and Renjun cries out. It’s too easy at this point. What Jeno didn’t count for is his own bulge, and his desire to push Renjun down onto the couch and fucking him til his ass split open. Renjun has always being a slut, from day one he was. But today, with Jeno’s erotic whispers, Renjun’s waist wormed around like a snake in heat, his moans got louder and wetter, the eagerness is unprecedented. It’s annoying.

“Ah…Jeno, can you…mmm, it’s not enough…oh...” Renjun reaches out his hand and places it on Jeno’s toned shoulder, stroking it softly, and whimpers his complaints, “put your dick in here, please…” his half opened eyes stare at Jeno pleadingly, whose mouth is hanging open and staring back in awe. Later Renjun would say he felt like he waited an eternity, but Jeno would refute and say he jumped on him as fast as he could. But now, Jeno’s kneeling in front of Renjun with his trousers half down, and Renjun’s shirt is pushed up, waiting for Jeno’s dick to fully submerge in his ass.

The formality is that Jeno will give Renjun some time to prepare by starting slow, but Renjun starts grinding down the moment it goes in, “ah…ah….” So Jeno meets him with equal enthusiasm. But he doesn’t lose his mind yet.

“Tell me,” he says in between his thick breaths, “how do you want him to fuck you?”

“Ha…hmm…I…I want him to…to fuck my mouth…” Renjun digs his nails into the fabric underneath, tightening his legs at the thought of the scene. Jeno ponders for a moment, then put two fingers into Renjun’s open mouth. The mouthful somehow satisfies Renjun, as he grabs hold of Jeno’s wrist, and begin sucking them hungrily. It makes Jeno pick up his pace.

“Do you like having his dick in your mouth?”

“Mmf… ye…fu…” Failing to form any words, Renjun nods, and locks eyes with Jeno. He doesn’t speak anymore, only breathing heavy as he thrusts into Renjun, who whines and whimpers with every contact.

Renjun comes first, shaking as Jeno slowly pushes into him to give his prostate some more love, then he comes too.

“Does that feel good?” Jeno says.

“Yes…it feels really good…”

“I’m glad.”

Renjun huffs out a quiet chuckle, and perks up his lips, waiting for the kiss that’s long overdue.

Moving day comes sooner than later. Renjun had stayed up all night to pack up his art supplies as he wrapped everything with bubble wrap just in case something happens when he descents the shabby stairwell. As for his economics books, they’re somewhere. Jaehyun calls to tell him he’s arrived, he tells him to wait, but he can already hear him walking up.

“Is this everything?” Jaehyun points at the boxes.

“Yeah, I’ll take these and you— ah wait no that one’s too heavy!” He calls after Jaehyun who already picked up a box on his shoulder and walked out the door before he can even finish talking. “Show off…”

“Ok, that’s everything.”

“You really have a lot of stuff.” There is no more space left in the truck, Jaehyun somehow tetris-ed everything to fit.

“Hey, I’ve lived here for a long time!” He really tried to downsize. Even going as far as watching three Marie Kondo videos, but he felt love with everything he held in his hands. There is just no way he could let go of the magnet he got four years ago in Busan, or the cute shopping bags he collected over the years, or the half empty candles, or the journals, oh my god the journals.

“How did you even fit all this in your room?”

“I am very organised thank you very much.” Renjun cocks his head, and enters the passenger’s seat.

“This is a really nice truck, is it yours?” He declares when Jaehyun gets in.

“I wish, my friend lend it to me.” They pull out to the main road and drive off.

“Ah, please thank him for me it’s so convenient!”

“Sure, sure.”

They get to Jaehyun’s flat in ten minutes. It would’ve been less if it weren’t for the traffic. But Renjun is too busy admiring the building. He’s seen pictures of the room, but Jaehyun couldn’t make time to give him a proper tour. So when the dripping water from the broken rooftop woke him up again, he texted Jaehyun and told him he was ready to move in no matter what.

The area is really quiet, and has a few other building complex that looks the same with the building they’re walking into. Except it seems that the ground floor residents are very private, as tall hedges covered the narrow passage to the gate. Jaehyun tells him about the building code, when and where to use the key card, and how to operate the lift. He listens intently, but is still distracted by the sudden extravagance. The thought of never needing to climb a stair again puts him on cloud nine. He tails Jaehyun like an excited puppy, sniffing around the brand new life he’s introduced to. The fridge makes ice, the kitchen is big, there is always hot water in the shower, and his room. Oh his room! He thought Jaehyun’s picture over exaggerated on how big it actually is, so he’s pleasantly surprised with the amount of open space he got. Other than a double bed against the window, and a desk on the other side, and a built in closet, there’s a big unoccupied space in the middle of it all. He already began to think how his art equipments are going to lay out.

“Oh, and my cousin’s coming back today as well.” He adds as they make their way down to unload the truck.

“Really? Wait, does he know…”

“Yeah, he’s ok with a new roommate.”

“No not that! The other thing…”

“Oh, yeah, I mentioned it to him.”

“Ok, so no surprises then.”

“Nah. Come keep the door open for me.”

Renjun goes and stands against the door, and waits for Jaehyun to grab his boxes. Meanwhile, he goes on his phone, and sends a message to Jeno.

‘my new place is insane!’

‘Niceee, we should christen it, when are you free?”

‘I have roommates now :( can’t do it at my place anymore…’

‘Ah no worries, we can always do it at mine! :D’

‘I guess…’

Renjun is still typing out his reply when he hears someone coming, he pushes the gate open wider without looking up and says, “I’ll get the next one, you can keep-“

“Renjun?”

He freezes at the familiar voice, and looks up. It’s a jump scare.

“Jeno?!” The taller man looks surprised, dumbfounded at the fact that Renjun is standing at the gate to his building. Renjun gapes, and his eyes widens at the box Jeno’s carrying. It’s his box. The box he spent all night packing.

“Oi, what are you doing, put that down and help me with the rest!” Like the icing on a cake, Jaehyun emerges from the passage, “this is the cousin I was talking about.”

As if they have all been stupefied, they both stand still. Renjun feels like his heart is going to jump out and parish under Jeno’s discerning stare. Jeno manages to break away, and looks at Jaehyun one more time before going back to Renjun, then finally breaks the silence.

“…you’re the husband?”

Chapter Text

Jeno was ecstatic when he woke up this morning. The mid season rest notice came a few days ago when the match got postponed due to some cheating scandal. As a committed athlete it was definitely a terrible idea to stop training altogether, but him and his teammates cut the coach off before he could even finish, and promised they’d keep up with training individually. They really needed to take a break. With the next few temporary yet deserving days of sleeping in ahead, he swung the half empty gym bag over his shoulder, and pretty much flew out his dorm room.

When he got on the taxi he received a text from Jaemin: ‘R u going back today or tomorrow?’

‘I’m already omw back, byeeeeeee’ he replied.

‘Damn I wanted to borrow ur shirt for Camo tonight. What’s the password for ur room again?’

‘???Why dont u take my whole closet with u atp’

‘Is it my bday or ur bday’

‘Just buy new clothes its not that hard’

‘Dw I got in, still using my bday huh babes got me blushing over here’

‘Go fuck urself’

So he was less ecstatic. But he swore to make sure Jaemin goes home naked tonight. With that thought the taxi came to a stop, “is it ok here?”

“Just a little further down please, thank you!”

He saw Jaehyun unloading boxes when he walked towards his building and he groaned. The joy of his vacation made him completely forgot that his cousin’s fiance is moving in today. He wondered if they would mind him bringing people back to his room. It was certainly a problem for Jaehyun but he got over it, but he sincerely hoped he wouldn’t use the new tenant as an excuse to stop him from doing it altogether. He didn’t want to say goodbye to Renjun just yet.

“That’s a lot of stuff.” He said.

“Take this one.” Jaehyun handed him one of the boxes.

“But what if I get an injury and can’t box anymore?” Jeno blinked his Bambi eyes.

“Shut up and lift.”

And that’s how he got here. Sitting in the same living room with his fuck buddy and his cousin, who’s also his fuck buddy’s fiance.

“I should’ve realised you two would know each other.” The only person at ease says. But the lack of reaction yanks the carpet off under his feet and he too gets tangled into the awkward silence Renjun and Jeno had fallen into twenty minutes ago. His logical brain categorises the situation into Renjun being embarrassed about the whole thing, but cannot figure out where Jeno was coming from. His jokester of a cousin would jump at the chance to make fun of his friends. Maybe they dislike each other, which would be the worst coincidence possible.

“I know him really well.” The sentence is spoken in a coldness that brings chills down Renjun’s spine. Just a few nights ago he was begging Jeno to stop fucking him in the ass and somehow this is more humiliating.

“…we’ve known each other for a while.”

“Hmm. Then this might be awkward for you two.”

Renjun wants to scream ‘you don’t fucking say’, but instead he sips his tea, and picks at his thumb.

“I’m just a little shocked.” He says while looking at Renjun, and wonders just how exactly he’s going to make sense of this. He knows this is a marriage of convenience, he remembers the little discussion between him and Renjun. But even when one plus one equals two, he can’t help but curse the universe for the coincidental disaster it put him in.

“We’re not getting married yet…” Renjun says quietly, and earns a curious glance from Jaehyun, who adds, “yeah, we’re still waiting for the documents.”

Jeno leans back on the couch and kicks his feet up, and tries to sound as calm as possible, “when’s the wedding?”

“There won’t be one.”

He looks at Renjun with his brows fused together, “what why?”

“Becau-” The phone rings and cut off Jaehyun, he looks at the caller ID and stands up, “Renjun do you mind explaining? I have to get back to the hospital right now.”

“Already?” Renjun doesn’t know what will happen without Jaehyun as a buffer. At least with him here he can hide behind his logical reasonings, but if he’s by himself he’ll most definitely make the matter worse. His desperation shines glaringly in Jeno’s eyes, and he reaches for the cup and drinks.

“Jeno will show you how to use the shower and stuff.” Jaehyun is still typing away on his phone, and he’s gone before Renjun could make another sound. The silence looms over again. He purses his lips, and decides to lose all the cautions he previously had. It’s just Jeno.

“Watch it, you have a fiance.” Jeno scoots over dramatically when Renjun sits down next to him.

“I thought you knew it’s a marriage of convenience...”

“Still, there are principles.”

Renjun rolls his eyes, and covers his face, groaning, “this is so bad.”

“No shit.”

“Why does it have to be you…”

“I could ask the same thing.”

“Jeez can you stop sulking, it’s not like I made this happen!”

“I’ve been sleeping with my cousin’s fiance how the fuck am I supposed to feel?”

“It’s not like I’m sleeping with you both at the same time!”

“Oh my god please oh my god I can see it happening now…” Jeno makes a puking motion, catching the pillow Renjun threw at him.

“This is the worst….”

“Were you planning on cheating on hyung this whole time?”

“Relax we don’t even like each other, how would it count as cheating?”

“…true.”

“Plus I won’t stop him from fucking anyone else, we’re getting divorced as soon as I settle down.”

“It’s the principles!”

“I’m not his husband yet so I didn’t cheat on him with you, don’t worry.”

Jeno stops talking, he can’t find any argument against the cheating part. If there’s no love there’t nothing wrong with them branching out to other people. But with the cousin? It’s disrespectful and wrong. It’s way too close of a proximity and he can sense the drama building as he thinks. So the only solution would be——

“We can just stop having sex you know.” Renjun says it first.

“Yeah, that’s the only way I guess.”

They stop talking for a while. Jeno gets up first and mumbles something about the shower. Their interaction that follows is almost robotic. And it clicks in both their brains that they don’t really know how to be each other’s friend. After the second house tour, Renjun falls onto his mattress, and sighs. In the other room, Jeno stares at his loading computer screen, and sighs.

Camo is still as filthy and obscene as Jeno remembers. He nods at the security guard who gestures for him to come forward, and shows his ID.

“Where have you been? Everyone’s been asking for you!”

“I’m back now! Drinks on me later yeah?”

The security laughs and pushes him off, already paying his attention to the girls at the front of the line. A sweaty crowd emerges in Jeno’s eyes when he finally gets through the unusually cold entrance.

“Jeno? Oh my god Lee Jeno!” It’s his senior that graduated a year ago.

“Noona! How’s life?” He shouts back, trying to overpower the loud DJ set.

“As crazy as it gets! I gotta take this bottle to a table, so I’ll see you soon ok!”

She dashes off in her high heels, breaking into a loud yet flirty laughter when the group starts cheering at the bottle service. He checks out her figure, and remembers how her breasts felt when he would take ‘naps’ with her in between classes in his first year. Maybe he should call her again.

“Ahhh here comes the late comerrrr!!” His teammates are off their faces already, but it doesn’t mean Jeno could get away with the punishment. He downs the shots they lined up for him, and takes out his card, “next round on me guys!”

It almost makes him forget about the shitty morning he had, until Jaemin says, “where’s Renjun?I thought you were gonna invite him?”

“Ah, he said his busy.” There’s no way he can explain everything to Jaemin in this state, he waves him off, and take another sip of whatever drink Jaemin handed him. He coughs out, “dude how many shots of rum is in here?”

“I honestly don’t remember…”

He doesn’t know how time passed. There was dancing at some point, and a drinking game that couldn’t proceed because his friends couldn’t agree on the rules. His senior came and drank with them a little like she promised. And then there’s Eunji, who’s standing in between his knees. How can he forgot Eunji.

“You barely return my texts! I seriously thought you died.” She exaggerates, her voice echoing in the empty toilet stalls bangs on his brain. Jeno blinks hard, trying to focus on her.

“I was——busy with practice.”

“Oh please as if that ever stopped you!” She’s straddling him now, and his hands naturally holds onto her ass. It’s fuller and softer than Renjun’s for sure.

“Forgive me, alright?” He slurs his words. The rest happens accordingly. He’s too familiar with this body. The sensitive parts that gets her to make these provocative sounds. Like music to his ears. He bites her neck, and breathes out with Eunji’s hand touching his dick. And accordingly, Eunji’s bouncy breasts, and warm soft hands would satisfy his libido. But it feels like an itch under his skin that’s impossible to ease, it’s maddening.

He stops Eunji who’s about to open a packet of condom.

“What’s wrong?”

“Um…I think this one’s expired…”

“No it’s not——”

“Wait- um…”

“Come up with a reason fast or I’m gonna feel really really insulted.”

“…I’m gay?”

Eunji stares at him, before bursting out laughing, she looks at his softened dick, and flicks it, “you like someone don’t you?”

“No!”

“Didn’t know you were such a romantic!” She says, pulling down her skirt and fixing her top.

“That I’ve always been.” Jeno gets up and pulls up his jeans.

“Is Jaemin taken yet?”

“He’s gonna die alone.”

“Great, I’m taking this! See ya!” She waves goodbye with the condom still in her hand.

He doesn’t follow her, instead goes over to the sink. It’s only 2AM, but this means the weirdness carried itself to the next day somehow. He turns on the tap and washes his face with cold water. His head still dizzy from all the alcohol he downed. Wiping his face dry with his shirt, he thinks about what exercises he’s going to do in the morning to recover. He blinks his eyes again, attempting to feel sober. And then he takes out his phone, and types out a message.

‘Don’t go to bed yet.’

Jeno stumbles through the front door, it sucks when he feels like an audience trapped in his head, witnessing his clumsiness. He sits on the floor and kicks his shoes off, rubbing his face to try to rub off the drunkenness. A streak of light suddenly appears between his legs, he looks up to find Renjun standing at the door.

“Are you okay?”

“…what are you still doing up?” He asks stupidly.

“You texted me.”

“I did?” Jeno’s face looks comedic, but Renjun can hardly laugh. He walks over to him and helps him up.

“Do you want some water?”

“Yes please.”

Renjun pours a glass of water from the kitchen, and walks over to Jeno who found his way onto the couch. He looks at Renjun when he takes the glass from him.

“I’m going to bed now, you’ll be okay right?” Renjun says quietly, trying to hide his concern.

“Where’s Jaehyun?”

“He said he’ll be back in the morning.”

Jeno nods. His eyes follow Renjun into his room. Then he thinks about Eunji. Then for some unexplainable cosmic reason, according to Jeno when he tells Jaemin of this encounter later, he gets up and knocks on his door.

“What now?” Renjun sounds exasperated, he really is tired from all the cleaning.

“Can I come inside?”

“….We agreed to not have sex anymore remember?” Renjun says after a moment of silence, unaware that his voice grew quieter as he spoke.

Jeno doesn’t answer, his eyes observing Renjun. His long sleeved top that he always wears to bed is sliding off his shoulder, revealing his collarbone, the marks he left early this week still visible. He doesn’t hide his pure lust and anticipation, and leans his head on the door frame. It’s the look that he has on whenever he waits for Renjun to loosen up so he can start pounding. A look that Renjun cannot forget even if he tries. His breath thickens, and he swallows, sighing, “what happened to principles…”

“To hell with principles.” is all Jeno says before he closes their distance.

Chapter Text

“Yes ma’am, a stool sample.” Jaehyun repeats again, louder so the elderly lady can hear him this time. She finally nods, and takes the sample cup he’s holding up mid air. He gives her more instructions, and stands up to help her to the door, silently cursing her absent children.

It’s been a long shift at the hospital, and Jaehyun fights the urge to lay down on the changing room floor and go to sleep, “at this rate I’ll be as bitter as Doctor Song by the end of the year.”

“Aw you underestimate yourself, you’re practically his twin!” His fellow intern Kim Doyoung chimes in behind him.

“Lies, I still have my hair.” Jaehyun says without turning around, invested in trying to locate his car keys.

“That will go by the end of the year for sure.”

He pays Doyoung no mind, and pockets his car keys, “see you next week.”

“What? You have the rest of the week off?”

“Jealous?” He says before walking off, leaving Doyoung dumbfounded at the miraculous possibility of an intern having actual time off.

Renjun’s mother finally got back to him, and sent back the documents after signing them. It was not without some complaining and nagging for Renjun, Jaehyun couldn’t really understand what they were saying, but it was kinda funny to see Renjun sulking. He chuckles a bit in the car at the memory, and pulls into the parking lot. With the documents on hand, Jaehyun immediately asked for some day-offs so they can sort everything out once and for all. He also found out just how important people viewed marriages since he got the time off with zero contest, Doctor Song even congratulated him on the matter. It got him a little excited to think that this might be a new found excuse to get out of everything, and it was all working out too good. So he’s not going to allow a mistake like the last time, and carefully examines the documents at the dinner table.

“You already looked over them twice I’m sure it’s fine…” Renjun finally says, putting down his chopsticks.

“Just in case.” He replies, eyes still glued to the pages.

“My mum called again, said she wants us to call her tomorrow after we get…”

Jaehyun looks up, waiting for him to finish the sentence. The sudden gaze startles Renjun, so he turns his focus on the bowl.

“It’s not too late to change your mind.” He says impatiently.

This is where Jaehyun hits a brick wall. For weeks now, Renjun has always avoided him. His gaze, his small talks, just him in general. The most they talked was when Jaehyun offered him the empty room. Then it’s been like having an invisible roommate. Which kind of works out for Jaehyun, since the last thing he wants after a long shift is chit chat and entertain someone. It’s not like they’re ever compatible either. Jaehyun barely knows art, and Renjun has no interest in what Jaehyun does. And in this rare occasion of them sitting together at the dinner table, they spend most of it in silence. But Jaehyun’s annoyance at Renjun’s avoidance is at its peak.

“I’m not gonna change my mind… it’s just a little embarrassing to say it out loud.” Renjun says, and takes a piece of kimchi from the small plate.

“We’re only doing it for——“

“Our own benefits, yeah yeah...”

He closes his mouth, and stops talking.

“It’s just- there’s something morally wrong about this… like we don’t even have a contract? Aren’t you afraid I’m gonna take your stuff when we get a divorce?”

Jaehyun gives Renjun a questioning look, “are you going to?”

“Well- I don’t know! Did you know everything we buy after we get married is our common property?” Renjun moves his plate out of the way and leans forward, face full of concern.

“It’s too late for a prenup now.”

When the idea of a prenup was offered, Renjun’s mother shut it down at lightning speed. It seems that she knows what kind of troubles Renjun could get into, and doesn’t want Jaehyun to leave him high and dry. And she seems to be very hopeful of this union being something more than convenience. He admits he barely thought it through when he agreed to it and hoped for the best. It’s a huge risk he’s taking. And he questioned his desperation from time to time. But meeting Renjun sealed the deal for him. There is no way this guy is ever smart enough to fuck him over in any way.

Renjun falls back onto his chair, and sighs. He finds it hard to understand Jaehyun. And it’s hard to talk to him. This is what he’s stuck with for the coming year.

“…aren’t you scared?”

“Why would I be scared? It’s only going to last a year or two, depending on your status.” Jaehyun says nonchalantly.

“…what if you find someone you actually like? Wouldn’t it be inconvenient?”

“Ah that’s why you’re asking.” He gives Renjun a discerning look, and it angers Renjun.

“I’m asking for us both!”

“Do you have someone you like?”

“No!”

“I don’t really care if you do. No one has to know about this.”

It’s hard to not overthink when one of the worst possible scenarios he can think of have already happened. So now anything is possible. But he can tell Jaehyun’s serious. He’s never not serious about this. It’s a reassuring attitude. But his permissive tone feels like mockery. Renjun feels caught.

Seeing that he is not going hear anything else from Renjun tonight, Jaehyun clears his throat, “we’re leaving at 10am tomorrow. Don’t be late.”

“Ok.”

He doesn’t sleep at all. Jeno hasn’t been texting him, as he’s ‘busy with training’, or so he says. He can tell Jeno is icing him out a bit. Their plan to never have sex was proven a bust, but it stopped when Jeno moved back to the dorms. That was also when Renjun discovered how great it was to have Jeno there to clear his rumbling mind. He kind of misses it, when Jeno would sneak into his room at night and slip out quietly in the morning. They parted on good terms, so he’s not sure why Jeno’s suddenly distant with him. Unless he found someone new. He does remember Jeno’s promiscuous reputation. It’s well earned. With fingers like his he can get anyone begging and sobbing within minutes. Lewd thoughts fills his head and he tries to shake them off. He has no recollection on when he became an insatiable incubus of a sort. But he knows who to blame. And the fucker isn’t replying, so it’s time to branch out to new horizons. Someone convenient. Preferably someone who lives close. Someone good looking for sure… Would Jaehyun…? He sits up abruptly at the intrusive thought, and slaps both his cheeks. No way. There is no fucking way.

“Congratulations!” The girl behind the desk hands them their certificate with all smiles. Renjun smiles back, but drops the act as soon as they get out the building. This morning has been a disaster. He slept in, and woke up to Jaehyun knocking on his door. They rushed to the local district office, but had to wait two hours before their turn, which was exactly what Jaehyun wanted to avoid. What’s worse is that Renjun’s lack of sleep worsened his travel sickness, and he had to lean on Jaehyun’s shoulder while he listened to Jaehyun’s lecture of the importance of being on time. Another defeat added to his book of grievances.

“Wait.” Jaehyun grabs his arm lightly to stop him from walking to the car, “let’s go eat something first.”

“I’m not hungry…”

“You’ll feel better with some food in your stomach, let’s go.” He doesn’t let Renjun protest, and pulls on his arm. Renjun stares at him for a second, then silently obliges.

They find a cafe, and Jaehyun orders him a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

“Should we call your mum?” He says as soon as the waiter leaves.

“Oh yeah, shit I forgot…” Renjun scrambles for his phone.

“Is it done?” is the first thing his mother says when she picks up.

“Yes we just got our certificate.”

“Oh thank god finally! I can stop worrying now! Put Jaehyun on the phone!”

Jaehyun takes the phone from him. He can’t hear what his mother was saying, Jaehyun is nodding and chuckling in response, then finally says, “don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him” before hanging up.

“What did she say?”

“She was just congratulating us.”

“She’s just happy she can call you her son now…”

“Yeah that too.”

Renjun rolls his eyes, and gulps down the water the waiter put in front of them.

“Do you get the house now?”

“I would say so.”

“Your grandad’s so weird.”

“That’s disrespectful.”

“I think making you get married so you can inherit a shabby house is disrespectful.”

Jaehyun laughs at this, and shakes his head, “yeah, yeah it is.”

Chapter Text

To anyone watching right now this is a scene straight out of a romcom. Two enamoured souls, basking in the post-wedding bliss, savouring their breakfast at the kitchen table after sharing a beautiful night. Yet, the fused brows and the sudden intrusion at the door hint at the reality—a brewing catastrophe rather than the tender moment some would prefer. Jaehyun sneezes loudly, startling Renjun who whips his attention back to him, or rather the omelette in front of him, “not on the food…”

“Relax I covered my face.” Jaehyun spits out nasally, and stabs at the omelette before taking a big bite.

Setting down the plate on the empty spot next to Renjun, Jeno remarks with a sneer, “I hope you didn’t bring back something contagious from the hospital.”

“It’s just a cold.” The exasperation in his voice indicates just how many times he had been teased being a doctor and all, or ‘doctor-in-training’, as Renjun would mock. He pays no mind to what Jeno’s brewing for a comeback, and took another bite of the omelette that his now husband prepared for them. It was definitely weird to smell something nice from his own kitchen, let alone seeing Renjun in an apron in there, but he swallowed the puzzlement and took the bite Renjun offered with zero hesitation. The omelette looked delicious. Too bad he couldn’t really taste and smell anything. Then he sneezed into the pan, resulting in the silent breakfast. Jaehyun wants to laugh all of a sudden, on how ridiculously toxic this could be if he doesn’t tread lightly. But then he’s thinking too much, nothing is toxic with no emotion involved. He shakes his head at the thought.

“What do you mean there’s no more?” Jeno’s exclamation pulls Jaehyun back to the table. He sees Jeno’s fork stagnant in the air, while Renjun cuts his omelette.

“I thought you went out.” Renjun replies.

“Still, your first time cooking here and I don’t even get a bite?” The comment prompts a nervous glance from Renjun. It isn’t what was said, but how Jeno said it. The lazy drawl and the casual intimacy jumped out for a second, and it sent Renjun’s anxiety through the roof. Jeno only raises his eyebrows and smirks, earning a kick from Renjun under the table. Their private show is taken in entirely by Jaehyun. He darts his eyes between the two, and before he could even form a thought in his head, he blurts out, “I thought you two hate each other?”

“We do!”

“He’s growing on me.”

They both spoke at the same time.

“Well, it’s usually a given that married couples will always hate each other’s family.” Jaehyun shrugs, but the room goes dead silent again.

“…omg, that was a joke…” Jeno gasps with his hand over his mouth. He ignores the warning glare coming from Jaehyun and taps Renjun on the shoulder rapidly, “he just made his first joke Renjun, I’m so proud!”

“Stop it!” Renjun tries to hide the laugh but fails, and breaks out into a laughing fit with Jeno as he tries to shake him off. The alleged rigid one pinches his eyebrows even more, “ok haha, we get it, get over it already.”

When they both calm down, Jeno reaches for Renjun’s plate, and takes a piece of the food, “what’s the occasion anyway? How come you decided to cook? I didn’t even know you knew how to cook to begin with.”

“…”

Renjun quickly takes a big bite, and chews slowly to try to avoid answering the question. He doesn’t want to admit it, but he is a man of formalities. A little celebration after a supposed wedding day seemed correct at the time he chopped up the little tomatoes, he doted on the high of that thought until he was sitting in front of a nonchalant Jaehyun and eager Jeno. One he didn’t expect to see at breakfast, another he expected to see for dinner. Hearing no response Jeno wants to probe again, but Jaehyun senses the hesitation, and tells Jeno to shut up and eat the food.

“Damn, so protective already.” The teasing goes unheard amongst the clinging of the forks on the plate, but Jeno doesn’t ignore Renjun’s ears heat up at his comment.

The registration day was also supposed to be the day Jeno came back for a week long holiday. When he saw Renjun’s text message he told the driver to turn around and headed for Jaemin’s house. He forgot to take account of Jaemin and his outdoorsy parents, and was immediately hoisted up to the mountains the minute he stepped through the door. The hike was tiring but felt good when he let the sunset wash over him like a cleansing ritual. The muddied feeling of pleasure dissipated momentarily. There wasn’t a space in the flat that didn’t bear witness to their rigorous christening process, except Jaehyun’s room of course. It took little convincing for Renjun to be onboard, he could never resist the dick sucking he received every time, so as his knees gave in so did his conscience. Yet, despite all the lovemaking he'd liked to reminisce on, it was memory of Renjun in his arms on the living room sofa that came flooding in.

It was meant to be a quiet morning, but Jeno was full of woe since Jaehyun decided to be a dick and woke everyone up when he ran out the house for work. That was six am. When the clock hit nine, Jeno stopped trying to fall back asleep, succumbing to the sunlight peeking in through the curtains. He was on his way to the kitchen for coffee when he noticed Renjun lounging on the sofa with a sketchbook. His legs were crossed and he held a pillow as he abused the poor little book with his pencil. Jeno changed his course and stood in front of Renjun, who took no notice of him.

“Why are you up so early?” Jeno slurred.

“Cause your cousin has no decorum.” Renjun snapped, tossing the sketchbook on the coffee table with a pout.

“Yeah.” He scratched his stomach and sat down next to Renjun, and his eyes sparkled when he saw a cup of coffee resting next to the sketchbook. Renjun began complaining as he reached for it, and downed the liquid in one go, uncaring that it was already cold. It was certainly refreshing, and smoothed Jeno’s dry throat. He turned to look at Renjun who was still going on about the quality of his sleep. It was too early for his brain to register anything Renjun was going on about, but he nodded and hummed in agreement, and laid his head back on the headrest.

Renjun stopped and said, “Sometimes I wonder if you’re even human.”

He grunted as a response, suddenly feeling sleepy.

“You came back from a full day of training and went out straight after,” Renjun patted down Jeno’s unhinged hair as he spoke, “if I did that I’d drop dead right this instance.” He pinched Jeno’s face, kneading and stroking the smooth skin like he couldn’t get enough.

“It’s just energy drinks and coffee.” Jeno said, already used to this.

“That would probably kill me by now.”

He chuckled, feeling Renjun climb onto his lap, “don’t be so dramatic.”

“Jaehyun took me to this coffee shop that apparently sold really good coffee, I had the one with the least caffeine and went into a panic attack almost immediately.” At the end of the sentence Renjun flopped onto the toned chest, his face in his neck.

Jeno wrapped his arms around automatically, “to be fair Jaehyun’s coffee choices are pretty advanced.”

“Still, I had to lock myself in the toilet to meditate cause I thought my heart was going to jump out of me.” Renjun grumbled.

“That’s kinda funny.” Jeno snorted but rubbed Renjun’s back, feeling the smaller one melt in his touch.

“It was, Jaehyun couldn’t stop laughing the whole way home, I almost backed out of this whole mess.”

He laughed, “so how are you feeling now?”

“Please, I’m an instant coffee expert. That cup wasn’t gonna do anything.”

Jeno had fallen asleep shortly after that conversation, and when he woke up Renjun was napping beside him, a blanket on top of both of them.

The view from the top of the hiking trail is breathtaking, but Jeno couldn’t enjoy any of it. This little scene rolled in his head since he saw the text. He kicked a rock down the hill, and followed Jaemin to find his parents when the sun disappeared into the horizon.

“What’s up with you?” Jaemin finally asked. The moping had to end.

“Nothing.”

“Fuck off, tell me!”

“…my cousin’s getting married today.”

“Shit that means Renjun is also married?”

“Yeah...”

“I mean, still, I’m happy for Renjun. Last time I saw him he was telling me how this whole visa thing was messing with his studies.”

“But did it have to be my cousin though?”

“Hey, the universe plays mean tricks sometimes.”

“To be honest it hasn’t really affected our thing much. Jaehyun’s practically oblivious to anything that’s not his job.”

“Then what’s with the brooding, my mum kept asking me if you needed a hug.”

“I’ll accept a hug from Mrs. Na anytime anywhere.”

“Don’t be disgusting, out with it!”

“I don’t know, I really don’t know,” Jeno stopped, and turned to Jaemin, “he has no boundaries!”

“What?”

“Renjun, he just, I don’t get him, one day he’s all ‘Jaehyun’s gonna find out’, and the next he’d be all over me!”

“But isn’t that what friends with benefits are, you two fuck whenever you want to.”

“No, no, the fucking’s fine, and I would hate if there’s anything that was blocking that from happening. But it’s the hugs, the kisses, like we do it during after care and what not, fine. But just any day? When Jaehyun’s not around? Why is he all over me? And not offering a blowjob while he’s at it?”

“So you’re mad he’s not fucking you...?”

“No! I’m annoyed because he—“ Jeno took a deep breath, “because he has no boundaries.”

“Tell him then, that you want to keep this strictly about sex.”

“…it’s kinda nice though.”

“…Lee Jeno.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The problem is! He’s marrying my cousin!”

Jaemin raised an eyebrow, “you know, you always hate sharing your food.”

“So?”

“So it’s the same with friends too, it seems.”

“Oh I am not jealous of my cousin.”

“Who said you were? I just said you don’t like sharing.”

Failing to come up with anything to retaliate, Jeno walked off, ignoring Jaemin’s snickering behind him.

“I’ll wash the dishes.” Jaehyun began stacking the empty plates, but Renjun stops him, “just go to bed, I’ll clean up with Jeno.”

They both clean up in excruciating silence. He can tell Renjun’s a little pissed about him leaving him read, so when Renjun hands him another plate to wipe, he works up the courage to say, “so, how do you feel now?”

“Relieved, I think. I don’t know. It’s weird.”

“So you’re officially part of our family.”

“Oh my god don’t say that out loud please.” Renjun shuts his eyes, mortified at the new incestuous vibe that will linger between them from now on.

“It’s like a porno.” He says with a goofy smile, and gets a slap on his arm as a warning.

“Keep this up and I’ll stop sleeping with you.”

“As if you can resist all this.”

“I can and—Lee Jeno!” Renjun hisses when he feels a squeeze on his ass.

“Shh, he might hear us.” Before Renjun knows it, Jeno has a hand down his trousers and his lip on his jaw. He bites his lips to cage the whimpers that are eager to escape. His sane and logical thinking is screaming for Renjun to do something to stop this madness, but his body and worst of all, his heart are pleading for something more. Damn his exhibition kink. Jeno has him between him and the counter, and his kisses are making Renjun itch for more. He fists Jeno’s shirt, wanting him closer, and humps into Jeno’s hand around his dick. Jeno suddenly stops, and takes out his hand, spits in it before touching Renjun again.

“…not…not here…” Renjun manages to have a little conscience, but Jeno’s hand speeds up.

“He’s not gonna hear us, he’s asleep.” Jeno says in between kisses.

“You don’t know that! He could—ah…fuck, that’s…Jeno…” The anger softens into little whimpers that Renjun has to cover his mouth to quiet down. He shoves his waist forward, meeting Jeno’s friction. The setting is driving him insane.

“How do you think he’s gonna react?” Jeno begins to say, “do you think he’d be turned on?”

“Shut up…” Renjun pants out, but his crotch tightens at the thought. He holds onto Jeno’s shoulders and stares into the white ceiling light while Jeno continues to pumps his dick. As much as Jeno likes to go off on a self-righteous speech of being shameless, they had never done it while Jaehyun’s in the house before. So amongst the ecstasy there’s a little confusion. But the image of Jaehyun jerking off while watching them sends Renjun through the roof, and he forgets everything else.

“Shit, that’s a lot.” Jeno says, wiping his hand with the kitchen towel, so nonchalant as if he’s not the culprit.

“I hate you…” Renjun drawls as he slowly comes back to himself, his face bright red. He pushes Jeno, wanting to runaway, but Jeno stops him.

“Come to my room, I missed your ass.” He lets Renjun go, and smirks when he see the direction he’s going to.

“What’s gotten into you?” Renjun says when Jeno throws him onto the bed as soon as he closes the bedroom door.

“Why do people keep asking me that?”

“Cause you’re weird.”

Chapter Text

Renjun loads the fruit basket and the boxes of souvenirs his mum sent him a week ago onto the back of Jaehyun’s car, thinking his mum could just wrap up the whole province and send it to him instead with all the things he had to package up the night before. Sighing, he places the Chinese liquor next to the basket, makes sure it’s secured then shuts the car door.

“Slam it harder, why don’t you,” Jaehyun says behind him, making him jump.

“Sorry, I’m just nervous…”

It’s time to meet the in-laws. His mum had been adamant about the formalities, and given that she was the one who set the whole thing up, Renjun couldn’t protest much, and proposed the idea to Jaehyun. Surprisingly, Jaehyun needed little convincing, and took it upon himself to plan the meeting, much to Renjun’s relief. But the moment of serene only lasted until Jaehyun decided to give Renjun a full introduction to his apparent love language which was apparently gift giving. They bounced from supermarket to supermarket, trying to find the perfect items even though Renjun promised mountains of gifts his mum would send. Plus, it was Renjun who was supposed to be showering his in-laws with all this generosity, but…

“You can say it was your idea.” Jaehyun put the wine Renjun put back on the shelf into the cart again.

“It’s not like I have to impress them!”

“Just go along with it will you?”

Renjun wanted to argue more. But the attitude he had brewed up since they stepped into the supermarket vanished at Jaehyun’s urgency. He questioned the little manic parade but swallowed his curiosity. The man gave him a roof over his head and a visa, let him do what he wants. He did ask Jeno about it later, but got nothing but a shrug and a spank for mentioning it just as Jeno was about to come in his hands.

“Come on, get in the car, we’re gonna be late.” Jaehyun shouts from the driver’s seat.

“We still have two hours, why are we leaving so early?”

“I don’t wanna get stuck in traffic.” Jaehyun starts the car as soon as Renjun gets in, but he waits for him to put on the seatbelt before he drives.

The drive takes twenty-three minutes to be exact. They pull into the underground parking lot, and Renjun prepares to get out of the car when the engine stops.

“Wait.” He says, stopping Renjun from pulling the door handle, “let’s sit here for a bit.”

“But we’re here alrea—...” He protests, but shuts his mouth when he sees how hard Jaehyun is gripping the wheel. There’s nothing more Jaehyun will say, he’s looking straight ahead. If he’s not breathing Renjun was going to think he got stupefied or something. But instead he runs his brain dry trying to find something to lighten the mood.

“I like your shirt, is it new?” Is all he manages.

Jaehyun turns sharply to face him, the dead stare finally resumes some sort of vitality. His voice softens when he replies, “yeah, yeah… I got it a few days ago.”

“It’s nice. Brown really suits you, you know.” Renjun runs his eyes over Jaehyun’s upper body, the shirt hugs his figure just right. Jaehyun lifts his hand up and scratches the back of his head, uneasy at the sudden compliment, the movement stretches the fabric on his chest and exposes the toned outline. Renjun’s eye linger for a bit too long before looking up only to meet Jaehyun’s probing stare. Both their faces heat up when they realise what had just happened.

“Um... what time should we…” Feeling embarrassed, Renjun takes out his phone and pretends to check the time.

“Now, we can go now.”

Renjun pretty much jumps out of the car before Jaehyun could even finish. They unload the boxes in silence.

Jaehyun’s parents live in a building not too different from theirs. A brightly lit hallway leads up to the black unit door at the far end, just opposite the lift. He follows Jaehyun, walking at his pace whilst trying to balance the boxes in his hands. They come to a stop, and Renjun pokes his head up from the fruit basket, and asks, “is this it?”

“Yeah.” Jaehyun says, and rings the doorbell. They hear footsteps approaching the door, then the door opens with a buzz.

“Hi mum.”

“You’re a bit early aren’t you?” Renjun hears her say. The coldness in her voice is puzzling. Jaehyun mutters something about traffic. Renjun puts down the boxes on the floor, and finally gets a good look at Mrs. Jeong. She’s a tall and slender woman, dressed to the T. Her perfect manicure and styled hair tells Renjun of just how much attention she pays to details. He suddenly feels a bit self-conscious, thinking he should’ve ironed his shirt at least twice this morning. He walks towards her, hands absently smoothing out the curled hems of the only proper shirt he could find in his closet.

“Hi Mrs. Jeong, nice to meet you!” He bows and shakes her hand, the formal greeting he learned to give on the first day he arrived in the country.

“Ah, Renjun. Nice to finally meet you.” Renjun only felt insincerity in her tone. But he shakes off the thought when she ushers them in, telling them to leave the boxes outside since she needs to clean them first.

Their flat is much bigger than theirs. And unlike the empty and spacious vibe Jaehyun went for their flat, his parents opted for a cosier eclectic style. One side of the wall is covered with a Persian rug, contrasting the brown art deco furniture. He’s loving the hard wood floor that resonated their footsteps beautifully as they make their way to the kitchen. It’s a drastic change of scene from Jaehyun’s minimalistic preferences, and Renjun is having the time of his life. His eyes traces the gallery wall in the hallway as they make their way to the dining room, portraits and landscape paintings and photographs criss-crossed on the dark green wall, the organised mess makes Renjun wonder what he can possibly do to be living in a flat like this. Realising he’s fallen behind when he finally peels his eyes off from the paintings, Renjun hurries down the hallway and finds Jaehyun taking a seat at the oval dining table. He goes and sits next to him. The kitchen is separated with an antiquated wooden room divider, the dining table sports a similar style. He strokes the surface, unable to hide his amazement at all the thought and care that went into decorating this place. His attention returns to the people when Jaehyun’s mum sets down a cup of tea in front of him.

“When is dad coming back?” Jaehyun asks when he gets his tea.

“He called earlier to say his meeting was over, so probably soon.”

“I told him last week that we’re coming, couldn’t he have just rescheduled it?”

“It’s not like he’s not coming, Jaehyun. And you are awfully early.” She says, still emotionless.

“This is really nice tea, Mrs. Jeong.” Renjun says, trying to ease the obvious tension.

“Thank you, it’s from your mum, she sent us some after you two…” she hesitates, before saying, “after you two got married.”

“Ah.” Renjun clocks the difficulty she had saying the word ‘married’, and finally realises how Jaehyun nor his mum never mentioned her to begin with. He purses his lips at the thought, but still adds with all smiles, “I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I am!”

“You know, darling, I was talking to Jungmin, remember, my lawyer friend?”

“Mum, not now.”

“She was telling me this thing called a ‘postnup’? It’s something you can sign after getting married. Since both you and Renjun are here now I—”

“Mum, please, we don’t need to sign one.”

“I just think it’s—”

“Enough, mum, can we just sit and drink tea?”

“You never listen, what happens if—” She hesitates, proving she still has some humility knowing Renjun’s still in the room with them. He wants to say something, tell her he’s not after the money. But he also knows it’s hard to change someone’s mind when they already have an idea of who you are. She’ll know in a year anyway.

“I’ll make sure your money is safe, ok? How long is dad going to take?” Jaehyun snaps again.

“That’s not—,” she’s tempted to continue, but gives up when she reads the annoyance on her son’s face, and stands up, “I’ll go give him a call.”

“I’m sorry.” Jaehyun turns to Renjun and says when Mrs. Jeong leaves the room.

“It’s fine, I get it, and for the record I wouldn’t have minded signing a prenup, so if you want me onboard with this postnup thing—“

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Still, if it’s gonna help your mum sleep better at night, I don’t see why not.”

“She’ll be fine.” He says, but Renjun can see how his eyes are fixed at the door, and how unsure he sounded with that answer. He wants to give Jaehyun a hug, anything to make him stop fidgeting and worrying. Instead he puts his hand on Jaehyun’s interlocked hands. The gesture takes Jaehyun’s eyes off the empty archway, and focuses on the warmth of Renjun’s palm.

“You know if you want to leave—“ Renjun begins to say, but stops when Mrs. Jeong comes back.

“Your father’s on his way up now.” She says, and disappears again behind the room divider. The announcement makes Jaehyun unclench his jaw, and he slumps a little in relief. Minutes later, both of them hear a commotion at the door, followed by a shout of “hello!”

Jaehyun stands up and goes over to the voice, Renjun scrambles to follow him.

“Ah you must be Renjun! Your mum showed me a picture of you but it was one from when you were still in middle school, you’re definitely much taller now!” Mr. Jeong pats Renjun on the shoulder and laughs. Renjun finally relaxes, feeling glad that he doesn’t have to deal with a whole family of rigid people.

“So how do you and my mum know each other? She’s rather vague about it I’m afraid.” Renjun starts the conversation with ease, already buddying up with Mr. Jeong, leaving Jaehyun behind them.

“Ah, she never told you? We were in uni together, she was studying abroad and then we got into the same company. We’ve known each other half our lives!”

“Well she’s always super vague about her life, I still don’t know what she does for her life exactly.”

”Why am I not surprised! I spent half my life telling her that she needs to open up more and went nowhere! Hahaha, come, let’s have some lunch I’m starving!”

When they get back to the kitchen the table is already filled with hot and cold dishes, Renjun’s mouth hang open at the extravagance, and is even more surprised when he sees grilled beef in the middle.

“Wow Minju, you really went all out!” Mr. Jeong says, taking a seat.

“Renjun, your mum tells me this was your favourite.”

Renjun stares at the plate of beef, glistening with the sauce and oil coating, his mouth watering. But he’s beyond confused. Did she like him or hate him? Is she just being polite? “Yes, my god, Mrs. Jeong, you really didn’t have to!” He quickly says, hoping he didn’t take too long to answer.

“We have to give you a proper welcome somehow!” Mr. Jeong pats Renjun’s back, and puts a piece of meat on his bowl of rice. Renjun thanks him quickly and takes a bite, the juice burst on his palate as he chews, and he hums in satisfaction. No matter how rude she seems, she does make a mean grilled beef.

“Go on, eat more, and remember to report back to Jia Jia how well we fed you! Ahahahaha...”

The conversation goes on with the sound of chopsticks clicking and spoons scraping. Renjun feels at ease, and it seems that Mrs. Jeong also lightened up. They’re nice enough to not mention the nature of this whole ordeal, which Renjun is super thankful for. Jaehyun doesn’t say much during, only chiming in here and there, and he makes sure to mention how much thought Renjun had put into getting them all the gifts, which earns Renjun another round of praise from Mr. Jeong, and even an approving nod from Mrs. Jeong. Overall, a very successful meeting.

“You know, you really scared me with the whole thing before.” Renjun says, still high on the praises.

“How so?”

“You were so nervous. I thought I was making a huge mistake!”

“…sorry.” Jaehyun says, and gets out the lift first. Renjun’s not used to the zero retaliation, so he runs up to him and slaps his back.

“Ow!”

“Why were you so nervous, your parents are lovely.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Oh come on, just tell me!”

“Shut up and get in the car!” There he is, the Jaehyun he knew all and well. He gets into the car, and fastens the seatbelt before pleading one more time, “come on, I won’t tell anyone I promise!”

“Huang Renjun if you don’t shut up now you can sleep outside today.”

“Wow, mean, emotional abuse already, what a husband.” He pouts, crossing his arms.

Jaehyun ignores him and starts the car. Even though it doesn’t seem like it, he truly is more than happy to see Renjun in high spirits. It sounded like a bad idea to him at first but this day was coming sooner or later. And he hadn’t seen his parents in a while either, so this was the perfect excuse. He takes a big sigh of relief, glad it was all over.

“…did you tell your parents I got all that stuff because you wanted your mum to like me?” Renjun asks out of the blue, inquisitive eyes fixed on Jaehyun’s profile. In his head it makes sense, with all that talk about prenups, he probably didn’t want Renjun to seem as bad as she thought him to be, but he wants a confirmation. Like usual. Renjun gets no answer, only a glance at his direction. “I can’t read minds, you know.” He murmurs his complaint, even though he knows that was the confirmation he wanted. Jaehyun’s lip stretches into a smile again, and he pats Renjun’s thigh when they reach a red light, “good job today.”

Chapter Text

It’s already four in the afternoon when Renjun finally drags his eyes open to face the sunlight peeking through the curtains. The only bone he has to pick with this room is the fact that it faces the west, meaning very very hot afternoons. But he has been too lazy to pick out a blackout curtain, let alone installing one, so really, he only has himself to blame. He pulls the curtain to cover the light streak hovering his face, and turns to his side to check his phone on the nightstand. Not many notifications as usual, he deletes them one by one until he sees a message from Jeno. A zoomed in selfie of sweat covering his jaw to his shoulder, with zero context. He taps back a thumbs down, hating the attention seeking behaviour Jeno had gotten possessed by lately.

Ever since that risky little scene in the kitchen a few weeks ago, Renjun put himself in abstinence jail to stop himself for being too much of a slut. Morals came first. Must be a side effect of this new married status. But it only meant more masturbation and imagining Jeno fingering his ass instead of himself every night. Too bad Jeno already sailed off to his dorms before Renjun’s little punishment had any real effect, getting an early start to train for his next tournament. Though he tried to get him to have phone sex the other day, Renjun shut that down quickly since Jaehyun was home, watching TV in the living room. Then he rejected his invitation to his dorm when he went to uni to print out some documents. And the rejections happened again, and again.

So here is the result of the cruel dissection: suggestive, unwanted, (sexy), selfies and candids. Renjun swore out loud the other night when he masturbated to one of them, damn those perfectly muscled arms. Just what is it with those arms! He wants to throw his phone away and cover his face to scream, but an email notification catches his eyes.

He almost falls out of bed. It can’t be. Almost a month now. It has to be! He holds his breath as he clicks on it, it read, ‘Congratulations! We are delighted to confirm your unconditional acceptance into the Fine Arts masters programme…’. He lets out a big sigh, and sinks into his bed. After months of back and forth, misprinted documents and deathly anticipation, he can finally breathe. He takes a screenshot and sends it to Haechan, and gets a call back immediately.

“See I told you! You were gonna be fine!”

“After all this shit I can’t believe they finally came through!”

“I honestly don’t know how the administration office is still standing, this took a whole month.”

“Right? God I don’t want to be too happy though, I still need to wait for my visa…”

“You’ll be fine! Come out tonight we have to celebrate!”

“Where are you thinking? I really don’t wanna go to Maze again, the bartender’s the worst…”

“Nah fuck Maze, let’s go to Camo, my friend just got a job there as a promoter.”

“Camo?”

“Yeah, you know the one near our uni? We can have a whole booth to ourselves!”

“Oh I know that one, the one opposite the convenience store right?”

“Yeah that’s the one.”

“Your friend won’t mind?”

“Of course she won’t. Wait, Mark—, I have to go, listen, I’m so so so happy for you, and please for the life of god wear something actually nice tonight!”

Haechan hangs up before Renjun can defend his fashion choices, but all is forgotten when his phone chimes with a text message from Mark, ‘just heard, congrats! :D’. He responds with a thank you sticker, and proceeds to tell everyone else the news. Some more phone calls and text messages later, he posts the screenshot onto his story with the caption ‘I win again’. He goes ahead and locks his phone after that, but hesitates, and decides to lock it after he replies to Jeno’s earlier message. ‘I got in!”

“She’s such a menace today.” Jaemin whispers as catches his breath. There’s no strength left in Jeno enough for another word, he just shakes his head, and jabs the punching pads on Jaemin’s hand. None of them really knows what ticked off the coach. Nothing Jeno did today was right for her, he wipes the sweat off his face with his forearm, and braces for another jab.

“Bend your knees!” Coach Song yells from behind. Jeno clenches his jaw, but decides against an emotional outburst, and bends his knees further.

After god knows how many reps, he’s finally off the hook. He hangs over the rope to catch his breath, and takes the bottle of water the coach hands him.

“Come to my office after you finish changing.” She says, and disappears into the hallway.

“What did I do now?” Jeno exchanges a confused look with Jaemin, who shrugs and gets off the ring first.
Jeno knocks on the office door weakly, his arm still sore from before. He enters after hearing the coach’s muffled shout, and flops down onto the chair facing her.

“You did well today.”

“Um… thanks?” Jeno adjusts his chair, feeling uneasy at the coach’s solemn face.
She leans forward and rests his crossed arms on the desk, “listen, there is no easy way to tell you this…”

“What?”

“There is only one person who can qualify for the championships.”

“I know that.”

“…yes...” Coach Song bites her inner cheeks, and sighs, “the school board wants me to nominate Hyunwoo to represent our school.” The sentence throws Jeno off. He came in ready to complain about the day. But everything he wanted to shout about all reduces to a calm rhetoric, “…excuse me what the fuck did you just say?”

“There’s no way he can win against you—”

“So you want me to lose against him at the qualifiers on purpose?”

“…look, it’s out of my hands, apparently his dad’s very adamant about it…”

Jeno huffs, “so much for a national champion.”

“I know you’re angry, Jeno, but there will be other opportunities. You still have another year.”

“I won’t do it. I’m better than him, and everyone knows it!”

“He will be nominated either way, Jeno.”

“Then just cancel the match!”

“…Jeno if you don’t comply then we will withdraw your name.”

Silence falls upon the room, and Jeno stares at the coach with disbelief.

“Go ahead. Get someone else to comply. See if I care!” He stands up, and slings his gym bag over his shoulder.

“Wait, Jeno, it doesn’t have to be like this!” The coach stands abruptly, pushing the chair so hard that it makes a screeching sound, and hurries out behind her desk. Jeno only glares at her, “I’ll do you one better, I quit.”

Jaemin runs after him after the vague two words, ‘I quit.’ But Jeno doesn’t want to speak to anyone. He keeps walking until Jaemin gives up, and heads for his dorm. His phone dings when he throws himself onto the bed, chest still heaving from the shock. It’s from Jaemin, and only contains an alcohol emoji and the word ‘Camo?” He leaves him on read, throwing the phone onto the night stand, and falls back onto his pillow in defeat.

Haechan may not always be right, but he is right about Renjun’s clothes. Dressing for comfort has been his MO ever since he became an adult. A plain grey oversized sweater paired with light blue baggy jeans, and his favourite AF1s that he washes every six months and he’s good to go. T-shirt in summer, puffer jacket in winter. That’s his whole closet. Ok maybe he’s being a little dramatic. But really, it’s a mystery how his hoarder instinct never reached the apparel side of his life.

But there’s no time to fret. He eyes the pieces of clothing, half unwashed, and half still hasn’t been folded since he last washed them, and somehow finds his go to jeans and t-shirt attire for the club isn’t appropriate for a monumental achievement like this. Yes. Monumental. He had to get married for this. It’s as monumental as it gets.

Renjun scratches his head, and decides to wash up first before deciding on what to do. Buying new clothes is an option, but Renjun’s hasn’t done any freelancing jobs lately, and he needs to stop spending his savings on useless shit. He lets out a frustrated groan, and heads to the bathroom. And when he leaves feeling refreshed with a hydrating face mask on, he sees Jeno’s bedroom door. He stops and thinks for a moment. Jeno loves clubbing. And he always dresses up very nicely for them.

Thinking that he’d already worn Jeno’s clothes before. Context isn’t important. But he did say he loves seeing Renjun in them. And technically, Renjun already paid his debts to Jeno with sex. So he patters to his room, and ravages his closet for the one blue ader error top he loves so much, and goes through his trousers to find one to match.

It’s already close to midnight when Jaehyun crawls back into his flat. Another twenty-four hour shift that ate up his energy and worse, dignity. He throws the keys in the bowl on top of the shoe stand, and begins to take off his shoes when Renjun comes out of Jeno’s room with a fresh fit. He eyes the startled boy, and asks, “is Jeno home?”

“Uh…no, no I just borrowed some of his clothes.” Renjun says, and adds, “he said it was ok!” A little white lie, but very much needed since Jaehyun’s looking at him like he’s an intruder. It makes him a little uncomfortable, and a little angry, frankly. But he was taking stuff without permission, so he allows the scrutiny, and silently begs for forgiveness.

“Ah, right. Where are you off to?” Jaehyun takes off his jacket, and walks over to the kitchen for a glass of water.

“I’m going out, to celebrate, I got into the arts programme today!” Renjun’s all smiles when he remembers the important purpose of trespassing Jeno’s room, and bounces over to the kitchen counter, looking at Jaehyun expectantly as if he’s wagging an invisible tail.

“Oh,” says Jaehyun, strangely afflicted by the fact that Renjun is also wearing Jeno’s cologne, “congratulations!” He takes another sip of the water to hide his weirdness, though he suspects Renjun never caught on.

“Thanks, I can finally relax now, thank god for…” Renjun points to himself and Jaehyun, “for whatever this is.”

Jaehyun nods, “glad it’s working out so far.” He takes the beer Renjun hands him, opens it and gulps down the liquid, soothing his chest with the cold stream.

“How’s it going with the house? Is it in the bag?”

“…not really. We need to be married for at least a year before the lawyers even choose to look my way.” Jaehyun leans back on his chair to stretch, and Renjun finally clocks the ill-fitted t-shirt he’s wearing. It’s a bit tight, and a little cropped at the waist, exposing Jaehyun’s toned belly. How did he even find time to work out? He thinks, and tries to avert his eyes at the same time. Mr. Muscle Skinny himself pretends to not notice, and reaches for his beer again, hoping Renjun will ignore his red ears. These stares he’s been getting since the visit to his parents’ has been… nice. Encouraging for sure. He does sometimes flex his muscles a little when he brushes past Renjun during the day, or stands a little close to reach for the cup he wants in the kitchen. Very cliche, but he wants to see how Renjun reacts. All for his own indulgence. Even a rock would sometimes give into a little attention.

“Will they not just take it back if they see us getting a divorce as soon as you get the house?”

“Nah, they thankfully aren’t the romantics my grandpa thought them to be. They only want me to fulfil it because it’s written in the legal documents. So as long as I follow it, they can move on and hand over the property.”

“That’s… good I guess? Less drama.” Renjun plays with the pull tab, picking it with his index finger. He eyes Jaehyun, who’s sipping his beer comfortably in his usual spot and matching his gaze. There’s a sudden allure in this serenity shared between them. The club is long forgotten, and all Renjun wants to do is sink into his chair, and dwell in this comfort with Jaehyun. No more words are spoken, no more is needed to be spoken. From months of avoidance to the eventual semi-friendship formed with him, Renjun wonders if his mother is right. The thought catches him off guard. Renjun sits up straight, and pushes the beer can aside. He searches for something to fill the silence, and decides to finally ask the question that’s been eating him up since they visited Jaehyun’s parents: “so… why are your parents so against you getting the house?”

“…they’re not against it.”

“They didn’t even want to talk about it, but somehow weirdly accepting of this whole situation!”

“They kind of… share the same sentiment with your mum, on that front.”

Renjun stares at Jaehyun for a while, eyes widened at the insinuation. He cups both his reddened cheeks with his cold hands, “oh no…”

“They’re a bunch of romantics. So they’re too scared that I’ll end up alone in that house forever and ever.”

“Wait, so you never thought about getting a partner at some point in your life?”

“I have, but it’s not really something I’m desperate for. And I wouldn’t mind even if I end up alone.”

“Hmm... wait, wait are you dodging the question?”

“What question?”

“Why are your parents weird about the house!”

It suddenly feels like Jaehyun is holding his breath, and Renjun grows weary. He quickly searches in his brain to find something else to say to stop this conversation once and for all, but Jaehyun cuts him off, “they want me to sell it.”

“It doesn’t really look like they need the money...”

“They don’t, they just, really don’t like the house.”

Renjun waits, his sudden candidness braves his curiosity, so he pushes, “care to expand?”

“Aren’t you late for your club?”

“Oh shit,” Renjun jumps out his chair, “I almost forgot! What’s the time?”

“Quarter to one.”

“Shit, shit, ok I gotta go now. I’ll see you later!” Like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, he takes out his phone and checks for time as he runs back to his room to grab his keys and runs back out. Jaehyun chuckles to himself at Renjun’s rushing silhouette that disappears into the door frame, and downs the rest of his beer.

Chapter Text

Renjun sits in the taxi and stares at his phone. The ballad playing from the radio battles with his routine adrenaline. He had forgotten his earbuds at home when he was rushing to get out. Or he could have dropped it outside when he ran to the taxi. But none of that really mattered. He clicks on Haechan’s new message of telling him where to meet, and clicks back onto the home page, then swipes back to the messages again. Jeno’s text box has been pushed down to the bottom by the flood of congratulatory messages from his peers. He scrolls down and opens the chat, and sees that his last message is still unread, which is very unusual, and frankly a little infuriating. They had known each other for more than half a year now, and has seen more of each other than anyone else. It’s not like their thing began and ended in the bedroom. They still send each other random memes and texts everyday, and Jeno had never gone this long without responding. So this is very unusual. Though he understands Jeno has other things occupying him, being the social butterfly he is, Renjun was looking forward to hear him say congratulations more than hearing anyone else’s. He goes back to the home page, and eventually locks the phone. Why it mattered in the first place he didn’t know. Maybe it’s the clothes.

“Is here ok?” The driver says.

“Ah yeah, right here is fine!”

He hurries out the taxi and slaps his hands together when he sees Haechan waiting at the front, “I am so sorry!”

“Don’t worry about it—” He stops mid sentence and tugs on Renjun’s shirt to get a clear look at the logo, “Where did you get all this from? You said you didn’t have money when I asked you to go shopping!”

“Relax I borrowed it!” Renjun bats his hand away and smoothes out the newly formed wrinkles, and hopefully reminds himself silently to not get vomit on Jeno’s stuff tonight.

“Damn can I borrow it?”

Haechan slings an arm around his shoulder, chit chatting as they walk through the lobby, ignoring the envious gaze coming from the queue, bowing sloppily and yelling ‘thank you’ at the bouncers who held the barrier open for them. The music gets louder with every step, and Renjun can feel his toes numbing from excitement. It has been a while since any of his achievements warranted any proper celebration.

“Renjun ah!” Mark jumps into his eyesight, scaring the poor kid deep in his thoughts. But he returns the excitement nonetheless, “don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry I got too carried away, do you know how worried Haechan was about you?”

“He was?” Renjun turns to look at Haechan with a smirk on his face, knowing he will rub this in his face this entire night.

“Mark what did I tell you about shutting the fuck up forever?”

His friends gathered in the booth, some engaged in heated discussion, some looking for the bottle opener one of them dropped on the floor, some just returning from the toilet, but all remembers to let Renjun know how happy they were for Renjun. He takes the glasses of shots passed to him one after another, singing and laughing with them all without a care in the world. His body sways to the side when he tries to grab the bottle to top up his glass, but instead of the ground he falls into someone’s arms, “easy.”

He looks up at the person, blinking to make out the face from the flashing lights, and murmurs, “Jeno?”

“No, it’s Jungwoo.” The stranger, Jungwoo, helps him stand up straight, and takes the bottle he wanted from the table, “I heard we’re celebrating you tonight.”

Jungwoo. He vaguely remembers Haechan saying his name for .01 seconds before shoving a bottle in his hand, Mark’s friend, was it?

“Yes, it’s uh, thanks by the way,” Renjun holds out his glasses as it gets topped up, “I’m going to start as a fine arts student next semester.”

“I heard, congrats, it’s not easy swapping programmes.” Jungwoo says, tapping Renjun’s glass with the rim of the bottle, and takes a sip himself.

“Right! Oh my god, did you know what I had to do to make it all happen?!”

“What?”

“Uh, like, waiting months and months for stupid admissions to reply to me…” Renjun goes sheepish, he can’t believe he was about to blurt out his little secret in front of everybody. Maybe he should slow down with the drinks…

“Must’ve been miserable.” Jungwoo doesn’t seem to catch Renjun’s deflation, and proceeds to ask, “so who’s Jeno?”

“…Jeno?”

“Yeah, you thought I was him? Was he supposed to be here?”

“Ah, no, um, he’s not coming…”

“You seemed really disappointed that I wasn’t him though, is he your boyfriend?”

Renjun scrunches up his face, unable to recall any disappointing feelings, “boyfriend? No, no way, he’s nobody!”

“Are you sure?” He asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Of course!”

“Good. Come dance.”

It feels like deja vu. How long ago was it when it was Jeno who was pulling him into the drunken crowd? He doesn’t remember, all he knows is how good Jeno’s lip felt on his. If only he was here. Jungwoo’s taller, and had a softer grip, and has curly ruffly hair as bounces to the music. It’s probably the hormones, coaxing in his ears to stand closer to Jungwoo. The sweet scent of Jungwoo’s perfume envelopes him, softening his guard, or was there even one to begin with? He no longer recognises the music in the background, nor does he mind the crowd pushing into him, as he finds himself in the taller one’s arms again. He looks up to meet the eyes that are also fixed on him, and closes their gap. Jungwoo’s lips are soft with a hint of cigarettes, and Renjun can’t get enough of it. His crotch tightens and his breath shortens, it’s been a week, and Jeno isn’t talking to him. So he lets Jungwoo’s hands run on his back as he lifts his arms to circle them around his neck—

“What—” Renjun yelps when he feels someone’s hand on his shoulder, and yanks him away from Jungwoo’s embrace. He turns around, and gets ready to curse the person out, but stops when he sees Jeno’s angry face. His eyes are still on Jungwoo, who’s visibly irritated at the interruption.

“Who the hell are you?” Jungwoo spat at Jeno angrily.

Jeno opens his mouth to yell back, but could only squeeze out, “…I’m his friend.”

Bewildered by the ridiculousness, Jungwoo turns to Renjun, who is dying to deny any relations to this dumbass at this very moment. But he takes a deep breath, and takes Jeno’s arm and says, “sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into him…”

Ah, so this is Jeno. Jungwoo thinks to himself. “A bit rude isn’t it? Are you ok?”

It’s not like Jeno to have outbursts like this. Jaemin managed to persuade him into coming out eventually, and called Eunji to save them a booth.

“What now?” Eunji cocked her head when she saw Jeno’s brooding face.

“Let’s have a drink first…” Jaemin popped open the bottle and poured everyone a shot.

Jeno was downing shot after shot, and began to feel dizzy in no time. He could hear himself pouring out his feelings to Eunji, cursing the school, the coach, the nepo babies. He could cry a little if he wanted to. Boxing wasn’t always a dream but he was good at it, and stuck with it, and fell in love with it. He dreamed to be standing on a podium as he received his gold medal after pouring his heart and soul into winning, but it all came crashing down before he even got the chance to start his journey. The unfairness of it all, and the powerlessness he felt filled him with despair.

“Come on, Jeno, you can still box, you don’t have to do it at school.” Eunji says, and rubs his arm encouragingly. She remembered when Jeno lost a match in first year, and how badly that affected him, so she could only imagine how hard of a blow this must’ve been. She took the glass in Jeno’s hand away, and told him to slow down. He sniffs, and got up instead.

“I’m gonna go to the toilet…” He said, ignoring Jaemin who got up with him.

“Jeno?”

He stopped and turned around, “Mark?”

“Why didn’t you say you were gonna be here! Come join us!”

“I didn’t know you guys were coming too!” Jaemin exclaims, and walked up to Mark.

“Yeah we’re here to celebrate, Renjun finally got into the fine arts programme!” He said cheerfully.

“He did…?” Jeno’s eyes grew round, and he took out his phone. There was no way Renjun could keep it all to himself. And there it was, a message from earlier this afternoon. “Where is he now?”

“Oh he went dancing with Jungwoo, I don’t know where they disappeared to though…” Mark couldn’t even finish his sentence before Jeno stormed off to the dance floor.

“Damn I didn’t know him and Renjun was that close!”

Jaemin sighed and patted Mark on his back, hoping he’d stay innocent for as long as he can, “tell me where your booth is, I’ll go get my drinks.”

They joked about this many times, and had created the scenarios in their beds many times. Jeno had zero doubt that Renjun could find somebody to replace him, and vice versa. But the convenience stopped them both from making any moves, so naturally the thought was discarded and rendered unserious as time went on. But currently Renjun was with a man, someone he didn’t know. Not Jaehyun from their sham marriage or the made up third party during sex, a real living man. He felt anger grow inside him like a wildfire, and couldn’t think straight. Otherwise he wouldn’t be trying to squeeze through the crowd stupidly to find his Renjun. Finally, after several people yelled at him for being pushy, he spotted the familiar silhouette, in someone else’s arms, wearing his clothes. There was no time to think, or the capacity for rationality as he bee-lined to the pair, and yanked Renjun off the guy. But it was only after he felt the questioning stares on him that he realised how weird that looked.

“I’m fine…” He hears Renjun say, “sorry Jungwoo, I—”

“It’s ok, Renjun, it’s not your fault.” Jungwoo smiles, “but I’ll leave you two to it.”

Renjun returns an apologetic smile, but the expression turns murderous when Jungwoo leaves. He takes Jeno’s hand and pulls him out the club, “come with me right now!”

“I uh, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to cockblock.” Jeno says uneasily when they get to the quieter part of the club.

“What the actual hell is wrong with you Jeno? That was really rude!” Renjun goes off expectedly.

“I—I don’t know,” Jeno feels a little flustered, “I’m sorry, won’t happen again.”

“If you want to talk to me you can just ask me.”

“I know.”

“Why are you here?”

Jeno doesn’t answer, and Renjun loses his patience, and sits down on the bench defeatedly, trying to cool off.

He sits down next to him, clasping his hands together. But soon loses composure, “…you’re wearing my clothes.”

“…and you’ve come to hunt me down for it?” Renjun glares at him.

“No,” Jeno lets out a sigh with frustration, “you’re wearing my clothes, and kissing someone else.”

The AC is blasting cool air directly above them, but Renjun feels his face growing hotter. He can feel Jeno’s eye on him, and it makes him feel a little tense. Some time passes, and he still cannot conjure up a response to it. But he has to do something. In the moment he quickly realised this isn’t the usual dominating bedroom Jeno, nor the playful jokester Jeno, this is someone new, a very hurt, wounded puppy Jeno. So instead of smart mouthing to ease the tension, Renjun chooses indulgence, and sits closer to Jeno, taking his arm and looking up to say, “I’m sorry,” then kisses him on the jaw.

It makes no sense to Jeno, but he feels himself thawing under the warmth of the kiss.

“I quit the boxing team.” He finally says.

“What?”

“Yeah, this afternoon.”

“What happened?”

Jeno begins to recall everything, and somehow it doesn’t hurt as much as earlier, and he felt calmer with Renjun’s concerned gaze on him. When he finishes, he leans back onto the wall behind him, and locks eyes with Renjun, noticing that he hasn’t let go of his arm.

“That’s so fucked, why is the system so broken…”

“You tell me.”

“We should go egg his house.”

Jeno bursts out laughing at Renjun’s determination, finding it adorable, “I’ll let you know if I ever find out where he lives.”