Work Text:
Jeongmin’s never really been a huge fan of Valentine’s day.
He likes the chocolates and the candies, but he was always a kid with braces growing up, anyways—not like he had the opportunity to actually eat a lot of those, either way. The colours are nice, sure. (Pink is pretty, red is cool, white is… white.)
He’s always been popular during Valentine’s day. Jeongmin knows he is pretty, has always known this for a fact. Many people (girls and guys included) have had crushes on him. Or at least their own perceived versions of a crush on him. His appearance is one that often draws people to him, more than anything else about him. While Jeongmin appreciates his looks, he does sometimes detest it. People will do anything to be on the good side of a pretty person, including lying.
A lot of people have come and gone from Jeongmin’s life. A lot of “friends” who really only wanted him for the popularity, who simply thought they could get away with using him and discarding him right after. Jeongmin has since learned how to weed out the people who are fake, and those who are not. It’s how he’s now landed himself a very nice group of friends, despite how much trauma is left in his wake of trying to achieve these friendships.
“Happy Valentine’s day, hyung!” Jihwan beams at him as he wraps Jeongmin up in a hug, grinning brightly.
Jeongmin smiles, squeezing the kid in his arms in a return hug as he lifts him from the ground a bit. “Hey, Jihwan-ah! Yeah, happy Valentine’s.”
Jihwan is still grinning when he’s set down, grabbing one of Jeongmin’s hands and dropping a piece of candy into it. It is a bright pink heart made of jelly. A pink jelly heart. It’s adorable. Jeongmin laughs softly as he takes it and opens it, squeezing the jelly into his mouth.
“Thanks, Jihwanie. Are you giving those out to everyone today?”
Jihwan shakes his head. “No, just my friends. But I have more if you want any!”
The jelly is sweet and soft. It kind of tastes like several fruits mixed together—strawberry and cherry and something else, perhaps. It tastes good, but it’s a little too sweet for him. He won’t say no to free candy, though. “Sure. Gimme some more.”
Jihwan dumps three more jelly hearts into Jeongmin’s hand, before he promptly walks off to go find one of their other friends—probably Kunho or Masami, since they’re part of the four who go to the same university as him. Jihwan is still in high school, in his last year, but they’ve known him since their third and second years of high school respectively.
“Say hi to Kunho-hyung or Sami for me! And Dogyunie when you go back to him, too!” Jeongmin calls out after him, grinning when he sees Jihwan’s ears flame red as he flips Jeongmin off without even looking back at him. Jeongmin laughs, tugging open his second jelly heart as he does, turning to go to his afternoon class.
He makes it to his class with minimal incidents. (Read: less than ten people stopped him to wish him a happy Valentine’s while giving him something—and some kind of random, sloppy confession or asking him out to grab a drink.) Jeongmin always feels bad rejecting people, but he’s got no choice. None of them are his type, and he already has his eyes set on someone else—
“Jeongmin-ah.” Youmin smiles at him, eyes crinkling as he does, and Jeongmin feels his heart nearly skip a beat. Stupid thing. “You were almost late.” He looks down towards Jeongmin’s hands, full of sweets and cards that people have gifted him, and doesn’t bat an eye. “It sucks that we don’t have cubbies to store stuff in anymore, huh?”
Jeongmin looks down at the things in his hands and tries to not grimace. He and Youmin have only known each other for a little under a year—ever since Jeongmin got to university, since Youmin is a year older than him. He doesn’t know about Jeongmin’s popularity and how it has plagued him since he was young, not like Kunho and Masami do. This is going to give Youmin the wrong impression of him. Jeongmin wants to throw everything in the trash. He doesn’t need any of it, anyways.
“Do you want anything, Youmin-hyung?” Jeongmin asks, slowly sitting down next to Youmin at the long desk.
Youmin eyes him for a moment, nose scrunching just slightly as he studies the candies. “You don’t want them? They were given to you, after all.”
“I’m fine,” Jeongmin mumbles, shrugging his shoulders. “I always get a lot. I can never eat it all myself, so… I usually give them away to my friends.”
Youmin lets out a thoughtful hum, drumming his fingers against the top of the desk. “Alright. If you’re sure, at least.” He reaches out and grabs one of the boxes of chocolates, pulling it over in front of himself as he opens it without a second thought. He grabs the first one in sight and pops it into his mouth, chewing instantly. “Mmm. Wow, this is the good kind of chocolate, too…”
Jeongmin tilts his head slightly, raising an eyebrow, amused. “Yeah? I never pay much attention to the brands or whatever. I don’t really eat a lot of sweets.” When Youmin gives him a questioning look, mouth full of chocolate again, Jeongmin gestures up to his mouth. “I have braces still. They won’t be in for too much longer, though, I think. I hope.”
Youmin leans forward, close into Jeongmin’s personal space—and right in his face. Jeongmin startles, mouth dropping open mostly in surprise, but also because he’s assuming that Youmin wants to see the braces in question. He tilts his head back some, making sure to hold his tongue down so that the lingual braces are visible to him. Youmin lets out another thoughtful hum, eyes studying the inside of Jeongmin’s mouth, before he leans himself back into his seat with a smile.
“Huh. I had no idea. You don’t really sound like you have braces.” Youmin sounds all too casual for just having had his face unnecessarily close to Jeongmin’s open mouth. While in their classroom. Where other people probably and definitely saw what they were doing.
Fuck.
Jeongmin wants to die.
His entire face feels like it’s on fire right now. Jeongmin wets his lips as he grabs one of the jelly hearts Jihwan gave him and struggles to open it with slightly shaking hands. The conversation dies off as their professor enters the room and begins their class for the next three hours. Jeongmin doesn’t retain a single thing, his brain much too occupied by rather inappropriate thoughts of the man sitting next to him eating Valentine’s day chocolates.
When their lecture is over, Youmin helps Jeongmin with all of the candy and cards, helping carry them back to Jeongmin’s shared dorm. Masami isn’t back yet, probably either still at class or out with Kunho or Minje, so it’s extremely awkward when Jeongmin and Youmin are the only two in the dorm room together. They had gotten stopped a few times back to the dorm building together—more people giving Jeongmin even more gifts—and Jeongmin thinks this day couldn’t possibly get any worse than it already has.
Jeongmin unceremoniously drops most of the candy onto the kitchenette counter with a frown. Youmin is much gentler with setting everything down, and even starts to organize it all with a small smile gracing his features. Jeongmin doesn’t understand why he’s smiling right now. He only frowns wider, trying to force away the annoyance broiling up inside of him. He’s not annoyed at Youmin at all, just with how the day has gone so far.
After all, Jeongmin’s been stuck with his crush for the past several hours and has gotten asked out multiple times in front of him. Jeongmin sort of wants to kill himself. He sighs heavily to himself as he licks across the back of his teeth, along his braces, reaching into his pocket to pull out the last jelly heart Jihwan gave him. He opens it and pops it into his mouth, chewing it a bit vigorously.
“You’ll hurt your teeth by doing that, Jeongmin-ah.” Youmin gives him a pointed look, immediately making him start chewing slower and less aggressively. Youmin smiles wider at him, reaching up and gently patting at the side of Jeongmin’s neck. “There we go.”
Youmin’s touch is warm and soft. His hands aren’t very calloused or rough, his skin moisturized and gentle feeling. Jeongmin blinks slowly, forgetting to swallow the jelly in his mouth for a moment. He swallows it all down after a few seconds, the inside of his mouth now feeling dry despite the action. His smile is crooked, his eyes disappearing into little moons. He’s so pretty. Jeongmin’s heart nearly does a somersault in his chest.
“Say, Jeongmin-ah.” Youmin’s fingers carefully spread out against the back of Jeongmin’s neck, simply holding it there.
Jeongmin swallows again, helpless where he stands. “Uh… yeah—yeah, what’s up, hyung?”
“You don’t have a Valentine’s, right?”
“Um.” Jeongmin furrows his eyebrows a bit, confused. “No. Not at all.”
Youmin smiles wider, his eyes opening now as his gaze locks with Jeongmin’s. There is a look in his eyes that Jeongmin doesn’t know how to decipher in the moment. “Then this shouldn’t be awkward.”
Jeongmin blinks. “Wha—”
Before another sound can leave Jeongmin’s lips, Youmin’s mouth is covering his own. Youmin is kissing him . It takes several seconds for Jeongmin’s brain to click and restart, registering the fact that—yes, Youmin is in fact kissing him at this very moment. Every particle in Jeongmin’s body is set to panic, imaginary alarm bells blaring and ringing in his ears. He can feel his entire face catch fire, his entire body going warm.
Jeongmin makes a somewhat strangled noise as Youmin presses further into the kiss, running his tongue along the seam of his lips, startling him even further. Youmin’s hand curls around the back of his neck, holding Jeongmin in place as he shifts closer, his other hand reaching out to gently grip at Jeongmin’s hip. Jeongmin squeezes his eyes shut as he slowly opens his mouth, pressing back into the kiss as best he can. When Youmin’s tongue pushes its way into his mouth, Jeongmin makes another noise, muffled by Youmin’s mouth over his own.
Youmin’s tongue traces along the back of his teeth, tracing along Jeongmin’s braces, and the action shakes an actual moan from the back of Jeongmin’s throat. Youmin does it again, tongue running along the back of his upper teeth and then his bottom teeth, before he’s pulling away with a puff of air, the two of them both breathing heavily.
Jeongmin feels his head spinning as he stares at Youmin, blinking slowly. Youmin grins at him, stroking along the skin under Jeongmin’s ear with a quiet laugh.
“Happy Valentine’s day, Jeongminnie. Do you want to go on a date with me tomorrow?”
Jeongmin sputters, axis turned completely over. All he can do is nod. “Um, uh. Yeah. Yeah, ‘course, hyung.”
Youmin smiles, bright and burning like the sun. He tugs Jeongmin into another kiss, and Jeongmin vaguely registers the fact that Youmin still tastes like the chocolates Jeongmin gifted him earlier.