Work Text:
The first time Jisung and Chenle meet at SM Entertainment, a grainy studio and too much hope and dreams on their shoulders, Jisung doesn't really remember him. The memories of 12 year old Chenle in Beijing come back to him later.
But first, he hears Chenle sing. And he knows Chenle doesn't quite speak Korean yet, but he shuffles closer, nevertheless. Licks his chapped lips and nudged the other boy gently. He’s glad for the hair falling into his eyes when Chenle looks at him – curiosity piercing. Chenle's eyes look like a dare to criticise him, a challenge to be honest.
Perhaps from the very beginning, Chenle intimidates Jisung. He is so talented. Already so sharp, even with the muddled and rough edges of a barely teenager and puberty still frazzling his personality.
"You're a good singer.", is one of the first things Jisung tells Chenle. He pronounces his words slowly, enunciating as clearly as he can.
For a moment, Chenle just looks at him. Behind his dark eyes, gears turn. Jisung has been taking to reading about black holes whenever he can't sleep, feeling trapped and restless in a stuffed trainee dorm. Feeling haunted by the prospect of SM telling him he could be their next Taemin. Taemin-sunbaenim is still right here, what does that even mean? Looking into Chenle’s eyes now, feels to Jisung kind of like being sucked into a black hole.
A smile spreads on Chenle's face slowly, and then all at once. The glimmer of a star in the night sky. His hair is still dark and unruly, falling to the lobes of his ears that colour a gentle shade of pink as he registers Jisung's words. The earnest compliment.
"You are a good dancer." He replies in accented Korean. Not a compliment just for the sake of getting even, but a real one. Even now, Jisung can tell Chenle is honest. Now, his ears colour.
In his inners, something lights up. With the compliment, with the pride he takes in dancing. And, with Chenle's smile.
-
"You need to be more careful." Jisung tells Chenle. He knows he sounds chiding and nagging. He knows Chenle hates that. If he was in the mood to bicker he'd start a playful fight with Jisung right now.
But Chenle isn't in the mood.
The Glitch Mode comeback is mere days away and Chenle's ankle is now in a cast tripling the size of his entire foot.
The frown on Chenle's face intensifies at Jisung's words. All Jisung wants is to lean in and smooth it out. Press his finger to Chenle's forehead, feel the warmth of it. Of him.
Jisung has always had the urge to be more gentle with Chenle than he is with anyone else. Something in his inners softens like an automatism whenever he looks at the other boy. It gets caught on camera sometimes. Jisung can't stand to look at it. He wonders how anyone can, how anyone can bare to see the way love pours out of him. He wonders how SM hasn't added a clause forbidding him to look at Chenle in their contract yet. Maybe because the fans love it. They call it cute with the same passion Jaemin pouts his lips and squeezes Jisung's cheeks while cooing "Our Jisungie".
"Stop treating me like a porcelain doll.", Chenle replies. He doesn't sound nearly as harsh as he probably wants to.
He flicks away the hand Jisung hadn't realised was halfway to touching Chenle already.
Jisung pulls his hand back to himself. He watches Chenle place his foot on a pillow tower and lean back to close his eyes. Finally, the frown smoothes out a little.
"Maybe I won't treat you like a porcelain doll if you stop breaking like one."
Chenle's eyes open in an instant. He cages Jisung in with his gaze, watches the curl of Jisung's lips with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.
Jisung wants to tell Chenle that glimmer is one of his favourite things in the world. He doesn't. He keeps his mouth shut, heartbeat quickening in his chest. Chenle has his scheming face on. It doesn’t scare Jisung nearly as much as Donghyuck's does. Rather, it excites him. Like an invitation to an adventure. Jisung doesn't think he'd accept the invitation if it came from anyone but Chenle.
"I'll show you breaking. Get my controller for me and I'll break you down to pieces."
Bold of you to assume my heart isn't already in pieces for you, Jisung's head provides. He has been fascinated by exploding stars recently. What happens to them after they burst to pieces.
But all he does is chuckle and reach out to get the controllers from the living room table. Somewhere in the four walls of the dorm, Jaemin's laughter echoes breathlessly. It is followed by a call of "Jeno-yah that tickles" and Jeno's laughter of unbridled joy.
Briefly, Jisung wonders what it must feel like to love so freely. It seems like anyone can see from a ten mile radius what Jaemin and Jeno are. Inseparable. Indestructible. In love.
Jisung hands Chenle the controller. "It's on.", he tells him as their fingers brush. Chenle grins, delighted. Jisung tells his heart that delight is enough.
-
"What are you doing here?" Chenle asks Jisung when he opens the door. He is wearing boxershorts and a basketball jersey that falls to his thighs. Stephen Curry of course.
Jisung disguises the way his eyes trail the milky white of Chenle's thighs as a downwards gaze towards Daegal, who is licking his shoes in greeting.
"Mark and Haechan hyung are with 127 for a schedule as you know, and Renjun hyung is out perusing stores. He’s looking for a very specific scented candle he can't find online."
Jisung steps past Chenle's figure and toes off his shoes. Daegal is pawing at his sweatpants now and he bends down to pet her. The white of her fur is soft as silk between his fingers. Chenle must have used their day off to take her to the groomer today. And then meet his basketball trainer, if the sport shoes and gym bag discarded in the entry way are anything to go buy.
"You fled the dorm. Understandable." Chenle hums. Jaemin and Jeno alone at the dorms only ever means one thing. Apparently Jaemin doesn't even baby Jisung enough anymore to have any shame about having stood in his doorway half an hour prior, push his hair off his head and ask whether Jisung could leave for a couple of hours with a hickey disappearing into the collar of his shirt. At least Jeno had the decency to blush when Jisung rolled his eyes and complained. But of course he left. He loves them. He wants them to be happy. He is only mildly jealous they get to give each other hickeys and he's trying not to stare at Chenle's reclining figure like a pining teenager. The basketball jersey had ridden up in the back, caught in the hem of Chenle's boxershorts and giving Jisung a premium view of cotton fabric hugging Chenle's ass.
"You want a beer?", Chenle glances backwards. Jisung swallows, doesn't splutter or blush and only blinks like a deer caught in headlines thrice. Chenle smiles the smile of someone who knows everything: "I take that as a yes."
Jisung chuckles. A nervous sound. He picks up Daegal, lets her nuzzle into his chest and slips his feet into the slippers Chenle got for him ages ago. They have faded stars on them.
Sometimes Jisung dreams of how he wanted to kiss Chenle when the other boy first nonchalantly gave them to him. Only in the dream, he actually kisses Chenle. And Chenle kisses him back.
Jisung tends to get a little loose limbed when drunk, but he still doesn’t disagree with Chenle humming while getting them beers from his fridge. Some of his self-control slips. The members keep insisting he once kissed Jeno's feet. He didn't believe it until Donghyuck showed him proof in the form of a video. Jisung went beet red. Chenle cackled loudly enough for it to echo through the whole of the broadcast station building.
Settling down on the couch and letting Daegal down to scurry across the floor towards where Chenle is coming closer with two freshly cooked beer cans, Jisung stretches out his legs.
Chenle plops down next to him and presses the cold can to Jisung's neck like a menace. Even more menacing, Jisung can feel Chenle’s breath against his cheek for a moment. A hot contrast to the cold of the can.
"Don't kiss my feet. I'll take a photo and share it in the group chat." Chenle smirks. He opens his own can and drinks. Jisung watches his Adam’s apple bob.
When he looks away, Daegal is staring at him.
"I won't kiss your feet. They are disgusting.", Jisung rolls his eyes. Your owner is a menace, he tries telling Daegal with his eyes. She seems unfazed. Yeah, must be nice to have Chenle love you loudly and proudly.
"I'll let you know my feet are anything but that. Grade A manicure." Chenle wiggles his bare foot out of his slippers and towards Jisung. He pokes Jisung's ribs with his big toe and then parks his leg in Jisung's lap. "I could sell my feet pics for a fortune." "Pedicure.", Jisung mumbles. Chenle doesn't seem to hear, too busy getting horribly comfortable and sipping his beer without a care in the world.
Jisung finally opens and takes a sip of his, briefly closing his eyes as the cold liquor travels down his throat. The cooling effect feels good. Jisung always feels like he runs too hot when he's around Chenle. Which, given their jobs and friendship, is most of the time.
Chenle shuffles and Jisung's hand flies to hold onto his leg the same time he opens his eyes and meets Chenle's. "Stop moving.", he tells Chenle, curling his fingers around Chenle's shin. Chenle's eyes widen for 20 km/s. The time it takes a shooting star to flash across the sky.
Then Chenle scoffs, not quite able to hide his smile. "Cannot believe you're giving me orders in my own home.", he grumbles. But there's a glimmer in his eyes.
Jisung keeps his hand on Chenle's bare skin. He feels the softness of it beneath his palm. He wants to dig his fingers in. He wants to ask Chenle whether he took Renjun's recommendation of that Chinese brand's body oil serious for his skin to be so soft. So pliant.
In the end, Jisung doesn't say any of these things. Instead, he listens to Chenle tell him about his basketball practice and the new worker at Daegal's usual groomer. Apparently Chenle, in true Chenle fashion, had gotten to know the man's whole life story in the span it took to wash Daegal's fur, cut and condition it. Of course he did. Chenle makes people want to tell them everything. Sometimes Jisung wonders how he hasn't yet. Whether Chenle knows he's keeping a secret.
Sometimes, like when Chenle let's Jisung's fingers wander up and down his shin in circle motions as he talks, Jisung wonders whether Chenle is keeping a secret too. Perhaps even the same one he is keeping.
Maybe they tell each other everything, except for this.
-
"Sometimes I think about what would have happened if SM took you from us instead of Mark.”, Jisung tells Chenle.
They are backstage at a music show, Jisung is too tired to know which one without a reminder from the staff or a look at the colourful monitor in the corner. He's taking pain meds and massaging his knee, and he's a little down with the prospect of not being able to dance on stage.
Chenle’s eyes fly open and regard Jisung like he just brought him news of the world ending. Right now, with how this year has been going, it might as well. At least in Jisung's opinion.
"What?!", Chenle reacts. Uncontrollable volume and a glare from Donghyuck from where Renjun is napping on his shoulder. Those two probably miss Mark in between them the most.
"What are you talking about? Why would you think about that?" Chenle asks, more quiet now but not any less incredulous.
Because I don't know how to be without you. And I don't want to know either., Jisung thinks. He doesn't say though. He lets go of his knee and resists the urge to run a hand through his hair. It's styled already.
"Jisungie likes to give himself existential crises for fun.", Jeno mumbles a reply from where he is sprawled out on the couch on Chenle's other side. His brown hair is still unstyled, falling into the closed eyes he doesn't even have to open to be observant. Becoming a leader has not only put more weight on Jeno's shoulders, that only Jarmin seems to be able to lift from time to time, it has also made him be scarily attuned to them in the way that he can now sense their mood changes from even their micro expressions. Jisung thinks Jeno’s taking it too far sometimes. But then again, he's not the one who was told to replace Mark as a leader. He's the one with the self-imposed existential crises.
"Maybe that's it.", Jisung shrugs. Chenle still looks kind of flabbergasted. A what the fuck etched onto the frown on his face.
"Chenle-yah stop frowning, your beauty will fade." Jaemin calls from a makeup chair across the room. Of course Jaemin was listening. The man has his ears and eyes everywhere. He cares so much about all of them, he'll willingly sell his soul to become Big Brother and watch them at all times. To protect them. To look after them.
Jisung went down a Naver dark hole just because of that. He then stalked to Renjun's room and asked him what he thought about constant surveillance. Renjun, in the middle of a video call with both Donghyuck and Mark in the 127 dorm, looked at him as if he grew a third head. Half an hour later, he came to Jisung's room and patted his head as Jisung told him about all he had been reading online.
Chenle makes a grumbly noise, sticking his tongue out at Jaemin. Jaemin smiles like the sun at that. His blueish hair serves as the perfect backdrop of the sky. Then his eyes trail over the napping, or apparently only pretending to nap, Jeno with lovesick gentleness before returning to his phone.
Next to him, Jisung senses Chenle shuffling. And them, Chenle's hand lands on his thigh, palm upwards and fingers spread almost expectantly. Jisung slowly lowers his palm and let's his fingers intertwine with Chenle's. Chenle squeezes his hand.
When Jisung looks up at him, Chenle’s eyes tell him everything he needs to know. I'm right here. I would never leave you guys. I would never leave you, Jisung.
-
"Chenle, remember the lip balm.", Jisung says, throwing the small object towards Chenle, who catches it easily and looks down at it with glitter accentuated eyes like a confused cat. "Why?", he looks back up at Jisung, a playful cat now. "Am I kissing someone today?"
There's a challenge in Chenle's eyes. An almost flirtatious one. He has been getting brave lately.
Donghyuck passes behind Chenle with a laugh and a pat to Chenle's shoulder. "That's a good one!", he approves. Chenle's Cheshire grin widens.
Jisung feels dumbstruck. His heart is beating in his chest a million miles an hour.
"You want kisses? I can give you kisses." Jaemin saunters towards Chenle in all his glory – pink hair and white teeth smile turning into puckered lips.
Chenle's mischief is replaced by fond disgust. "Go kiss Jeno, ew." He pushes against Jaemin's chest. "I'll let you know my kisses are spectacular.", Jaemin pouts. "No one doubted you, Jaem.", Jeno presses his hand against the small of Jaemin's back and Jaemin's wide smile is back in an instant.
Chenle is watching the scene with both fondness and then more good natured disgust when Jaemin’s hands come up to grab the collar of Jeno's flimsy, sleeveless blouse to presumably pull him into an actual kiss.
"You were saying?" Chenle lets his eyebrows dance as he bypasses the growing entanglement of Jeno and Jaemin. Jisung, ever worried about his members dignities because they aren't, glances around for cameras. None are around. The backstage content will be short this time around. They're all too tired. Mark is sleeping in a weird position to not crinkle his outfit. Renjun looks almost grumpy in his makeup chair. One could say they are slightly overworked.
Even with Chenle looking at him like he's a toy he likes to play with, Jisung feels exhaustion pull at his bones. Even more so than excitement and embarrassment.
He looks at Chenle and blinks. Then ruffles his bangs and shrugs, feigns a facade of neutrality Chenle can clearly see through.
"The fans love it when our lips are glossy. Yours look chapped." Jisung makes the mistake of actually glancing down at Chenle's lips. The other boy promptly licks them. A shiver runs down Jisung's spine.
"Whatever you need to tell yourself.", Chenle laughs. Unabashed and proud, as Jisung blushes. He makes a show out of applying the lip balm. Jisung is watching akin to someone entranced.
By the end, Chenle pops his lips and has the audacity to wink. Dark eyes against purple strands of hair. A masterpiece in his own right.
Jisung wants to tell him that he's insufferable. That he's too much for his heart and yet just right. He wants to pull Chenle in and kiss him, like Jaemin did with Jeno.
Instead he tells him: "Shut up." and walks past him. Chenle cackles loud enough for Renjun to glare at him.
Jisung feels too light and too heavy at the same time.
-
Mark has been back for all of five seconds, and then tells everyone how he thinks Jisung and Chenle are soulmates during their comeback show. It causes Jisung to think about it. And think about it, until Renjun gently but sternly tells him "I can tell you're overthinking it. Get it out, or stop." over a four a.m. dinner of Ramyeon and the chicken breasts Jaemin pulled out of the fridge and deposited in front of all of them like an accusation before he went to chew salad leaves.
So Jisung gets it out. Best as he can at least.
Chenle is staying over during comeback time and currently lounging on the couch instead of washing up and getting bed ready, when Jisung comes out of his room in pyjamas and with a plan. Said plan falters only a little when Chenle pats the couch space next to him for Jisung you come lay down.
Jisung sits instead, close enough to have Chenle's breath fan across his lap of all places yet distanced enough to not spoon Chenle and pull him into his body like he really wants to. Balance. Renjun has been talking about that a lot since he had gotten meditation tips from Minghao.
"Do you believe in soulmates?" Jisung asks.
It's a testament to the full scheduled day they had and the current time, that Chenle doesn't question Jisung in curiosity but just softly traces Jisung’s expression with his eyes before replying.
"I don't know. Maybe." Chenle yawns unabashedly. Jisung stares down the slope of his open mouth like it’s an abyss he wants to disappear into. Maybe he does. It's a testament to just how much the soulmate thing has been keeping his brain occupied that he doesn't cling onto that thought and break it apart. He's had weirder thoughts about Chenle.
Chenle's honesty is almost vulnerable now. His voice lowers. "But if I did, I think it'd be you. My soulmate, I mean."
Chenle isn't looking at him, busying himself with studying his nails, but Jisung still feels the effect of his words all over. Most of all in his heart. And his brain, which short-circuits for a second there.
"I think you'd me mine too. My soulmate." Jisung clears his throat. His words feel inadequate and like not enough. He craves to tell Chenle more. Everything.
But he can't.
Al he can do us watch Chenle’s eyes turn into crescents with a tired smile. And then finally lay down. They're back to back, but Jisung fears Chenle can still feel the monstrosity of his heart beat through Jisung’s back against his.
From the kitchen, an equally as tired Jaemin looks up from glaring at his chicken breast and directs his eyes at Jisung.
You can be brace, you can tell him everything., his kind eyes say.
Jisung closes his stubbornly. Easy for Jaemin to say that, with Jeno asleep face down on the table next to him, body curling towards Jaemin like Jaemin is his centre of gravity.
Jisung has felt for too long now that Chenle is the sun and he a mere planet rotating around it, always chasing its light. Maybe he's even Pluto, stripped of a name.
How could he ever tell Chenle everything?
-
They are in China, Shanghai to be exact, when Jisung feels like he has reached his limit. It has been years. He feels like exploding.
Chenle has been glowing like he carries a whole galaxy with him. Jisung is one hundred percent sure that shouldn’t be humanly possible but well, he has met Zhong Chenle. Zhong Chenle and his damn insistence to make everyone fall in love with him. Jisung included.
There it is.
Jisung has always told Chenle everything. And nothing. Because Chenle is a really good listener if he shuts his mouth long enough to actually listen. Because Chenle never actually judges Jisung, but does tell him when he’s being an idiot and needs to get his shit together. Because Chenle is his best friend.
And Jisung is in love with his best friend. He has been for a long time. Too long to remember when exactly it began – when his heart latched onto Chenle and decided to never let go again.
All Jisung knows now, with the Shanghai skyline continuously making Chenle look like some sort of blessed being with his black hair and the endless smiles and fluent Mandarin rolling off his tongue like honey, is that he is at his breaking point.
Dream are walking down a hallway after their fan sign right now. They have roughly an hour before the video call fan sign starts. Chenle and Renjun have been debating fruit to snack on in rapid back and forth Chinese that makes Jisung feel both left out and want to hang on Chenle’s lips with the intonation of his voice. Jisung felt a flare of pride when he understood the words “fruit” and “snack” and then he called himself pathetic with a shake of his head.
Jaemin has his hands curled around Jeno’s biceps, the two of them walking close enough to almost kiss. Every time their heads turn to each other as they talk, the tips of their noses almost meet and Jaemin’s eyes glimmer with happiness. Jeno presses a quick kiss to his cheek, and Jisung’s hearts somersaults in his chest. He wants that.
There’s a beat of laughter in front of him, the sound of it so familiar to him that it aches, Chenle’s amusement audible as Renjun is pulled away from him by a grabby hands making Donghyuck. Mark watches on fondly, a smile curving his lips upwards as soon as Donghyuck has situated Renjun in between him and Mark. Out of protest, Renjun cuddles into Mark. But as soon as Donghyuck pouts prettily, Renjun laces his fingers through Donghyuck’s wordlessly.
“Unbelievable. We are surrounded by lovesick idiots.”, Chenle falls in step with Jisung, switching back to Korean easily. Jisung tries to remember a time when Chenle and him communicated more with wild gestures and teenage ambition than anything else. He can’t. His brain feels all fuzzy. Must be a side effect of how fuzzy his whole body feels. His inners feel like cotton candy, and he can even taste it on his tongue. Sweet. Too sweet. A well of love overflowing.
Jisung looks at Chenle, eyes tracing the sharp jaw and cheekbones of his side profile down to the softness of his smile. Chenle is still so sharp. Not the kind of sharp that cuts other people. But the kind of sharp of someone who knows who he is, who knows what he wants, who looks at you and won’t let himself be bullshitted. And in addition to that, Chenle is also so soft. Has such a big heart. He loves so wholly.
Briefly, Jisung wonders if Chenle would taste like cotton candy too. Too sweet as well. Or just the right amount of sweet. Like puzzle pieces slotting together. The thought sends something like lightning through the fuzziness in his inners.
What about you?, Jisung wants to ask. What about us? If everyone around us is a lovesick idiot, what are we?
Like he can read his thoughts, Chenle turns to catch Jisung looking at him. His smile turns into a smirk, and he winks. Jisung’s heart skips a beat in his chest.
No, Chenle couldn’t even be an idiot if he tried. Chenle has never been lovesick. He has only ever been a weight on Jisung’s heart, a constant occupant of his mind. He has only ever been the object of all of Jisung’s lovesick idiocy. Because Jisung certainly is a lovesick idiot when it comes to Chenle.
“How do you like my city this time around?”, Chenle asks. He looks forward again. Donghyuck is now whispering something in Renjun’s ear and making him giggle. Mark is watching both of them like they are his whole world.
“I’ve been here before.”, Jisung replies dryly. His voice doesn’t sound as steady as he wants it to sound. He can’t even blame himself. Not when Chenle stops in his tracks at the reply and turns his full attention to Jisung. The other’s keep walking. The longer Chenle just stands and looks at him, the more the rest of the world fades into the background for Jisung.
“Want me to make it more special for you this time around?”, Chenle is smirking. He has been getting astronomically brave lately. Like in the lines of all the important and inconsequential things Jisung has been telling him, he has found something that pushed him over the edge. The very edge Jisung feels himself standing on right now, as Chenle looks at him with a daring kind of flirtatious confidence in his eyes. His cheeks are hot, most likely the colour of tomatoes. Jisung wishes he had the guts to step forward and make Chenle’s lips just as red. With his teeth. Somewhere in his head a delighted Jaemin tells him that biting is a great love-and-lust-retaliation. Jisung bites his own lip.
When Chenle’s eyes flicker down to catch the movement, Jisung’s heart somersaults once again.
He closes his eyes. I’m exploding, he thinks. I want to tell him everything, he thinks. And then: Maybe he knows everything already. He looks at me like he does, doesn’t he?
It is the last thought, a realization perhaps, that really and truly causes something to explode in Jisung’s inners. From the debris, a phoenix rises.
When Jisung opens his eyes again and sees Chenle still looking, daring confidence having tempered down into an unspoken question of Was that too much?, Jisung steps forward. Finally.
He is in Chenle’s space sooner than he anticipated. He doesn’t let that frazzle him. Even when Chenle blinks up at him through his bangs and his black eyes pull Jisung in like a magnetic pole. If he wavers now, he might never do anything. He might never tell Jisung the one thing they never told each other. The one thing that desperately needs to be said. Because Jisung does feel desperate by now.
Jisung lifts his hand. Chenle’s eyes follow the movement. His lips part and a breath like a sigh of Finally comes out when Jisung’s touch ghosts over Chenle’s forearm, travels up to his shoulder and then finally settles as Jisung’s palm melts against the curve of Chenle’s jaw. A perfect fit. Chenle leans into the touch like a sunflower growing towards the sun.
"You're insufferable, you know.", Jisung tells him. Their hot breaths are mingling. Chenle smiles. It’s is brilliant and blinding, and Jisung leans in and in until their lips meet. Finally.
It is a kiss like a flower blooming. Soft and satisfied. A brand new day, a glorious beginning. And then, it is a kiss like a furnace. Chenle parts his lips. He is impatient and wanting, and he wedges the tip of his tongue through Jisung’s lips until their tongue’s meet like velvet warmth spreading everywhere and a lightning bolt shots through Jisung. In an instant, all the fuzziness is gone.
He takes a step back. Chenle’s eyes have darkened. His lips have too. Jisung's lips are still tingling from the kiss. He feels out of his body and complete rooted in it at the same time.
Chenle looks starstruck for a second. Then he smiles again. An insufferable, beautiful smile.
“Where are you going, hmm?”, he asks. A cat reaching for its favourite toy. Except Chenle doesn’t look at Jisung like he wants to play. He looks at Jisung like Jisung’s his favourite. Has always been.
“You-“, Jisung can’t find the words. He licks his lips. Chenle follows the movement hungrily. He stops smiling, takes a step forward and winds one arms around Jisung's waist to pull him closer. Against his body.
Jisung loses all his breath and train of thought. He is nothing but a rapidly beating heart. Nothing but a planet stoned by the full attention of the sun like Medusa stoned men who came too close. He is nothing but a boy who has always wanted to tell Chenle too much, turned into a young man who cannot tell with words but only with knee jerk reactions.
Like a kiss. He kissed Chenle. Chenle kissed him back.
But Jisung can't panic. Chenle is holding him, is holding him like he's precious cargo. Chenle is smiling at him, smiling at him like he of all people always saw the sun in Jisung.
And Jisung loves him.
"You love me though." Chenle says. Plugging the words right from the tip of Jisung’s tongue. Jisung breathes out and sags against Chenle. This is it, he thinks, this is the end of me.
"I might be insufferable, but you love me." Chenle chuckles, whispers against Jisung's hair and into the crook of his neck. Jisung, helpless and perhaps a lot lovesick, circles his arms around Chenle and hugs him close.
"And I love you.", Chenle tells him after a moment of them just breathing against each other. It is everything Jisung ever needed to hear.
Somewhere down the hall, someone calls their names. Neither of them care. They stay in their little bubble a moment longer.
Mark, ever the reliable leader, comes looking for them and finds them against the wall and practically melted into each other a few minutes later. Chenle is kissing love confessions off Jisung’s lips and Jisung thinks his hands have found a permanent home on Chenle’s waist.
I’m gonna love you in every way I know how to. Loudly this time., Jisung thinks, when Mark clears his throat and then averts his eyes as he tells them they have a fan sign to get to. Tells them to get themselves in order and them sends them a little, proud smile.
This time, Jisung tells Chenle what he is thinking. Chenle smiles, wide and happy. He leans in, pecks Jisung’s lips once more and then nods. “Me too.”