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It starts one late night in between comebacks. Some of the members had been in the practice room, half working and half goofing around, and had just decided to call it quits for the night. Before going back home, Joshua decides he should probably check in on his boyfriend who’s most definitely still in his studio working away at songs for their next album.
Joshua gives a single knock before opening the door (Jihoon had told him before that he never needs permission to come into his studio, but Joshua always knocks for courtesy’s sake, even if he never waits for a response). Jihoon doesn’t even notice him, eyes glued to his computer monitor, headphones blocking out all outside sound. Joshua walks up behind his chair and drapes his arms around Jihoon’s chest, smushing his cheek against Jihoon’s hair. Jihoon barely gives a response, but a moment later he slips off his headphones.
“Sup.”
“Sup yourself,” Joshua responds with a light chuckle. He kisses the top of Jihoon’s head. “You know it’s late, right?”
Jihoon hums affirmatively but doesn't say anything else.
“So… are you gonna wrap up soon?”
“Yeah, yeah” Jihoon says distractedly.
“Okay, I’ll wait for you.” Joshua gives one last kiss to his head before peeling himself off. Jihoon finally looks up at that, turning to watch Joshua walk over to the couch.
“You don’t have to do that. You should go home.”
“No, this way I'll pressure you to want to wrap up soon. Plus, I like watching you work.”
Jihoon snorts. “Weirdo.” He turns back to his computer, putting his headphones back on. “I just wanna finish this bridge, it shouldn’t be too much longer,” he says in a softer voice. Joshua doesn’t know if he can believe that, but he knows that Jihoon will try.
Joshua gets himself comfortable on the couch and stares at Jihoon. He wasn’t lying when he said he likes watching him work; Jihoon's eyebrows are furrowed, his mouth forming a pout, occasionally muttering to himself or humming bits of the tune playing in his ears. It's cute. Still, it gets a little boring just sitting there, and the sounds of Jihoon clicking away at his computer aren’t helping him stay awake. Joshua doesn’t want to just fall asleep here, but then he remembers that he has some beading supplies in his bag, so he decides to pull them out and start working on a new bracelet.
He only has a few small containers with a limited variety of beads, but he isn’t planning on making a masterpiece of a bracelet right now; he just wants to do something to pass the time. He unwinds what he judges to be the correct length of wire from its spool and cuts it off, placing the spool on one end of the wire to weigh it down. Then he looks over his selection of beads to determine what the color scheme should be. He decides to go for a mix of blue, purple, and pink; sure, many fans will be able to see the bisexual colors for what they are, but it could still pass off as a coincidence, and he’s not even sure if he’ll wear this bracelet very often.
He’s a few minutes into his crafting when Jihoon glances over. Joshua automatically winks when they make eye contact. Jihoon doesn’t react, used to it at this point. “Are you making a bracelet?”
Joshua decides to be annoying because he can. “No, I’m just putting beads on this piece of wire for no reason.”
Jihoon clicks his tongue and mutters something that sounds like, “So annoying.” But when Joshua glances up he sees a small smile on his face.
Several minutes pass in the relative quiet, and Joshua finds that he really likes this, sitting in the same space as Jihoon while they each work on their own task. It’s peaceful, relaxing. Joshua glances up at his boyfriend every once in a while to admire him, which makes the bracelet-making process last a bit longer than usual. Still, it doesn’t take long for Joshua to deem his bracelet complete, tying the ends of the wire into a tight knot. He’s noticed Jihoon’s eyes becoming more droopy, his blinks becoming slower, so he also deems it a good time to force Jihoon to quit for the night.
He slips on his new bracelet as he gets up off the couch and approaches his boyfriend. Jihoon notices him this time, stretching his arms over his head with a soft noise. He really is like a cat sometimes.
“Ready to go?” Joshua asks.
Jihoon nods, making sure his programs are saved before hauling himself out of his chair. “Did you finish your bracelet?”
Joshua lifts his wrist to show it off. Jihoon grabs his hand to get a better look at the bracelet. He snorts. “You fucking bisexual.” Joshua intertwines their fingers, swinging their hands as they leave the studio together.
The Universe Factory holds a special place in Joshua's heart. It’s where the two first confessed their feelings for one another, shy words spoken softly between them, sharing feelings of hope and fear and the kindlings of love. It’s where they had their first kiss, and their second, and countless more.
Their relationship is still relatively new – or at least it feels that way since they haven’t had much time to properly develop it. Even though they see each other nearly every day for practice or other schedules, it’s been hard to find the time or energy to dedicate to their relationship, to private moments between the two of them. Additionally, Joshua knows that Jihoon is busier than the rest of them because he has the extra responsibility of writing and producing their songs, so he feels bad taking up his time in any way (even though they’re boyfriends which means that bothering Jihoon is basically Joshua’s job). But making the bracelet in the studio the other night seemed to fulfill Joshua’s need for quality time, despite the lack of any real interaction.
Which is why Joshua finds himself marching down to the Universe Factory when he has some free time, extra containers of beads packed in his bag. Once again, he knocks before letting himself in, but this time Jihoon looks up from his work, a confused but pleased look on his face. “What are you doing here?”
Joshua scoffs. “Can’t I want to spend time with my boyfriend?” Jihoon blushes, and Joshua finds it so cute that he has to lean down and plant a kiss on each of his perfect round cheeks, causing them to blush even more. Joshua laughs as Jihoon playfully pushes him away, moving to the couch to pull his beading supplies out.
“You gonna make another bracelet?”
“I’ll make one for you this time. Anything in particular you want?”
“Hmm, surprise me.”
So Joshua gets to work. This time he has a larger variety of beads, so he takes his time to assess his options, to come up with the perfect design for his perfect boyfriend.
Once again, the couple work in silence, the soft sounds of the shifting of beads and the clicking of Jihoon’s computer mouse filling the room. Jihoon’s quiet and sporadic hums grow louder and more frequent, and eventually he is singing bits of the song he’s working in his soft, sweet voice. Joshua looks up to watch him, a probably lovesick smile taking over his face. He just can’t help it when Jihoon sounds like that , his singing voice so lovely and soothing, especially without the buffer of instrumentals, the music only playing in Jihoon’s headphones. Joshua melts into the moment, reminded once again how nice it is to just exist in the same space as Jihoon, just the two of them.
Joshua slips the last bead onto the wire, getting up to make sure the bracelet is the right size. He gently lifts up Jihoon’s left hand from where it’s resting next to his keyboard, fingers tapping along to the beat of his song. Joshua wraps the bracelet around his wrist, tying a knot at the correct place, and Jihoon pulls his hand back to examine it.
“What do you think?” Joshua asks.
Jihoon pokes the bead with a smiley face on it. “It’s cute.”
Joshua can’t resist reaching out to squeeze Jihoon’s cheek. “Just like you.”
“Aish, stop it,” Jihoon grumbles, swatting Joshua’s hand away, but Joshua catches his hand and intertwines their fingers. He loves the way their hands fit together, the way they look next to each other, and now, each with their own bracelet of Joshua’s creation bumping against each other, he thinks they look even better.
It’s been a long day. It’s late when Joshua’s finally done traveling around for various schedules, and when he’s finally told he’s free to go home, the first thing on his mind is Jihoon. He’s probably been holed up in his studio all day; in fact, the last time Joshua saw him was a couple of days ago, when Jihoon mentioned something about really struggling with a couple of the songs for their album. He can’t help but worry for his boyfriend, hoping he at least went home at some point to sleep in his own bed. Joshua doesn’t even bother to check if Jihoon’s still at the studio, just tells the manager to take him to the company building when he gets in the car. He scrubs the makeup from the magazine shoot off his face before pulling out his phone to order from one of Jihoon’s favorite places. It’s a bit far from the company building, so the delivery takes extra long and is quite expensive, meaning that Jihoon, the practical man that he is, rarely orders from it. Joshua hopes it will lift his spirits and give him energy as he’s almost certain Jihoon hasn’t eaten anything of substance all day.
Before long Joshua is knocking and entering, finding his boyfriend once again working at his computer, but this time is different. Jihoon looks a lot worse for wear, his face paler, his eyebags darker, his usual concentrated expression looking more frustrated. Overall, he looks tired , and Joshua’s heart breaks a little. He doesn’t hesitate to walk up to him and wrap his arms around him, pressing a kiss to his head.
“Hi baby,” Joshua says after Jihoon moves his headphones off one of his ears so he can hear him. “How’s it going?”
Jihoon grunts. “It’s alright.”
Joshua can tell that it’s definitely worse than “alright”, but if things were truly terrible, Jihoon would probably say so. Joshua moves his arms up to place his hands on Jihoon’s shoulders, gently massaging them. He can feel Jihoon relaxing just a little, hears him let out a soft sigh. “I ordered some food for you,” he says softly in Jihoon’s ear.
Jihoon lets out a bigger sigh. “I love you.” Joshua chuckles, continuing to massage his boyfriend’s shoulders for a few minutes before giving them one last squeeze and leaning over to kiss Jihoon’s cheek. “Thank you,” Jihoon whispers. His eyes are closed, his face relaxed, missing all of the tension that was there when Joshua entered the room.
“Why don’t you take a break until the food gets here?” Joshua says, already pulling back the chair so Jihoon can get up.
Jihoon glances at his computer, looking like he wants to protest, but when he meets Joshua’s eyes, his shoulders droop in a sigh. “Okay, fine,” he relents.
Joshua grabs his hand to pull him up and walks him to the couch, where he pulls the younger into his lap. Jihoon’s eyes widen at first, but he softens when Joshua wraps his arms around him in a tight and comforting hug.
“You work so hard, baby,” Joshua murmurs, pressing gentle kisses along his jaw and neck, feeling him shiver slightly. “You know you need to take breaks every once in a while. You need to take care of yourself.”
Jihoon sighs. “I know.” Joshua finds his lips with his own, and they simply kiss for a while, Joshua running his fingers through Jihoon’s hair until he feels him fully melt into him.
They’re interrupted by Joshua’s phone going off, Jihoon whining quietly when Joshua pulls away to check it. “The food’s here,” Joshua says before giving him one last peck. “I’ll be right back.”
A few minutes later he returns with the food, setting it down on the table in front of the couch. Jihoon notices the label on the containers and sends Joshua the biggest smile he’s seen all night. Joshua thinks that he will do anything to continue being on the receiving end of that smile.
They dig into the food, a familiar, comfortable silence falling over them, broken only by Jihoon’s occasional moans over how good the food is. Joshua chuckles, glad that Jihoon is enjoying himself, internally cooing over the way his cheeks expand as he shoves heaps of rice into his mouth.
“Stop staring at me,” Jihoon barely manages to get out around the rice.
“I can’t help it, you’re too cute.” Joshua expects the glare that’s sent his way, laughing as he returns his focus to his own food.
They continue to eat in silence for a while until Jihoon unexpectedly breaks it to ask about Joshua’s day. Joshua recounts his various schedules, exaggerating stories and throwing in jokes just to see Jihoon smile, and by the time they’re done with their food Jihoon is full-out laughing, leaning back into the couch, eyes squeezed shut as he tries to catch his breath.
Happiness looks so good on Jihoon, Joshua thinks. He should always and only be happy.
But all too soon Jihoon stands up and begins to collect the trash, Joshua jumping in to help. When the table is all cleared up, Jihoon faces Joshua, a warm smile on his face. “Thank you for the food. And the company. Really, I appreciate it.”
“Of course,” Joshua responds sincerely, stepping forward to wrap his boyfriend in a hug. They stay like that for a long moment until Jihoon pulls back to give him a quick kiss, then pulls away fully to return to his computer.
Jihoon’s words made it seem like he thought Joshua might be leaving now, but Joshua has no intention of doing so. Instead, he sits back down on the couch, pulling out his beading supplies to start on his third Universe Factory bracelet.
Jihoon doesn’t seem very surprised that Joshua is still there, but he keeps sending him glances until he finally says, “You… you don’t have to stay here, you know.”
“I know. But I want to.”
Jihoon doesn’t seem satisfied with that answer, looking like he wants to say more but not sure what to say.
“Really, I like spending time here,” Joshua assures him. “I like making bracelets while you work on your music.”
Jihoon sighs. “I just… I feel bad that we don’t even do anything together. You take time out of your day to come here and keep me company and I don’t even talk to you.”
“Jihoon, it’s okay, really. I know that you’re really busy, but just spending time with you like this is enough for me. And honestly, as long as you like me being here, then I’m happy to be here too.”
Jihoon gives him a small smile and an “Okay.” Then he turns back to his computer, lifting his headphones onto his ears to continue working.
Joshua gets to work on his bracelet, and he starts to wonder if maybe he’s bothering Jihoon, inviting himself into Jihoon’s space when he’s just trying to work and concentrate in peace. But then Jihoon suddenly turns toward him, taking off his headphones. “Hey, um… do you wanna hear what I have so far?”
Joshua smiles. “Of course.”
So Jihoon plays the song for him, explaining the parts that he’s not sure about. Joshua thinks it sounds amazing so far, even though it’s still in the early stages, a piano line playing the melody instead of a voice singing lyrics. He mostly just has compliments to give, struggling to pick out anything to critique, but Jihoon seems grateful all the same. Joshua feels somewhat honored to have his opinion asked for, and he’s glad that his presence here is useful to Jihoon.
Joshua hasn’t forgotten how late it is though, and as soon as he’s done with his bracelet, he walks up to Jihoon, simply holding his hand out to show it’s time to go. Jihoon smiles, muttering a little “Okay, I know…” as he saves his files, then takes Joshua’s hand, letting him lead them home.
Joshua starts coming to Jihoon’s studio more often. He quickly gets bored of making bracelets, thinking of other hobbies he can do there. One day he brings a book that he’s been wanting to read, but he doesn’t get far in before he falls asleep, waking up to Jihoon laughing at him and saying he’s like Seungcheol. The next time he visits he brings some origami paper, needing to look up instructions for even the most basic designs, but he finds that he enjoys it.
He’s in the middle of his second attempt at a paper crane when Jihoon asks for feedback on a bit of a song. While Joshua had been enjoying their normal routine of working in silence, he likes when it’s interrupted by Jihoon requesting his advice, and apparently Jihoon does too. When Jihoon plays some of the song for him for the third time in five minutes, having to unconnect and then reconnect his headphones to the computer each time, Joshua finally says, “You can keep playing it through the speakers if you want.”
Jihoon hesitates. “I mean, it can get kinda annoying when I just play the same bit over and over for small adjustments.”
“If I get annoyed, I’ll let you know.”
It’s not annoying to Joshua. In fact, he likes hearing how Jihoon works, how he builds different layers of the instrumental, giving so much attention to each second of the song. And it’s easier for Joshua to jump in with feedback, which Jihoon doesn’t seem to mind. Joshua likes being included in this, feeling like he’s part of the composing process. He doesn’t necessarily think all his advice is that good, but Jihoon always takes it into consideration, seeming to regard his opinion highly (although that may just be Joshua’s boyfriend privilege).
A few days later, Joshua walks into the Universe Factory with a perfume making kit. Jihoon’s eyebrows raise when he sees the box, watching curiously as Joshua opens it. Joshua takes out the bottles of different scents and the little strips of paper for testing the scents, and once Jihoon seems to understand what’s going on, he turns back to his computer, grabbing his recording microphone.
Jihoon has started focusing more on lyrics, which Joshua is happy about since he’s more confident in his ability to write lyrics than any other part of the composing process, able to come up with ideas when Jihoon asks for help. Joshua listens to Jihoon record a line for the guide track while he himself starts labeling the tester strips. Then he squeezes droplets of the fragrances onto the strips, smelling them in different combinations. When he’s found a combination that he likes, he gets up to wave the tester strips in front of Jihoon.
“Mmm, that smells good.” He’s been glancing at the perfume kit a lot since Joshua came in.
“Do you want to try to make one?” Before Jihoon can respond, he adds, “I can keep working on the song.”
Jihoon laughs. “Let me get through this verse, then I’ll take a break.”
“No, I’m serious, let me do it. Here, give the lyrics you have so far, I’ll finish up the guide track.” Joshua was joking at first, but now he kind of wants to do this, to be more hands on with the creation of this song while Jihoon has fun with Joshua’s hobby. “You can always redo it if my version sucks.”
Jihoon laughs again. “No, I'm sure it won’t suck.” So they switch places, Jihoon sitting on the couch and tentatively picking up the fragrance bottles, Joshua sitting in Jihoon’s chair and tentatively looking over the music program open on the computer. He’s watched Jihoon do this enough times that he feels confident enough to do basic stuff like play and record. He listens back to the temporary melody line and looks down at the lyrics written on Jihoon’s phone, which are more like vague ideas, but Joshua has been sitting in this studio listening to this song long enough that he already has his own ideas swimming around in his head. It doesn’t take long for him to come up with something that he thinks is pretty good, matching it somewhat closely to Jihoon’s melody line and singing it into the microphone to record it. When he’s done with the verse, he turns to Jihoon, slightly nervous to hear his opinion.
“What did you think of that?”
Jihoon looks up from where he was smelling his wrist, having just spritzed a bit from the bottle meant for finished perfumes. “Oh…sorry, I wasn’t paying much attention.” He quickly gets up to head over to the computer.
Joshua laughs. “Too distracted by trying to make the perfect perfume?” he teases.
“Honestly I think the one I made is pretty good,” Jihoon mumbles as he takes back his seat. His concentrated, composing expression reappears as he plays back what Joshua had recorded. Joshua walks over to the couch, smelling the perfume that Jihoon made. It’s nice, very Jihoon, he thinks.
“I like it,” Jihoon says when the verse finishes playing. “It’s good.”
“So is this,” Joshua says, holding up the bottle.
Jihoon laughs. “Maybe you should be the producer and I’ll do your hobbies.”
“No, I can’t do any of the producing shit you do. I’m surprised I didn’t break anything, or at least record over anything.”
Jihoon smiles and walks up to him. “I trust you.” He reaches out for Joshua’s hands, intertwining their fingers and pulling him in for a kiss. He pulls away after a moment, whispering, “Let’s go home."
“…But I didn’t even get to make my own perfume!”
Jihoon lets out a surprised laugh. “You’re the one who volunteered to work on the song! Come on, you can make your perfume at home.” Jihoon starts tugging him towards the door.
Joshua whines playfully. “It’s not fun if I'm not doing it here.”
Jihoon raises an eyebrow at him. “I just willingly stopped working and want to go home. You really want to stay here?”
Joshua sighs, keeping up the act just a little longer. “Fiiiiine, I guess I can just do it next time I come here…” But he squeezes Jihoon’s hand, giving him a smile as he opens the door for them to leave.
“Okay, this is too much.”
Joshua looks up from the clay in his hands to see his boyfriend standing in the doorway of his studio. On the table in front of Joshua are scattered pottery supplies, including lumps of clay that Joshua had separated out and tools for shaping the clay. There’s also a box of paint supplies sitting to the side, but those won’t be used until after the clay is dry.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Joshua says innocently.
Jihoon rolls his eyes, walking over to ruffle Joshua’s hair before gently shoving his head, causing Joshua to laugh. “Just don’t make too much of a mess,” Jihoon chides.
“Don’t worry, I’ll clean up after myself,” Joshua says in a lilting tone.
The couple get to work on their own tasks, Jihoon playing the song he’s working on through the speakers, and as Joshua forms a little heart with the clay in his hands, he can’t help but think he wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.