Work Text:
♡
The sweet sound of a laugh as your lips touch mine.
A vacation after finishing a tournament isn’t exactly Hyunjin’s usual choice, especially when his team doesn’t stand on the podium. He’s the type to stay up all night rewatching the recordings of the matches, trying to understand the other player’s tactics and see what their own team can implement. He’s a perfectionist in his craft. Jisung calls him 'insane', kinda hypocritical of him.
He says that that’s exactly why he is dragging Hyunjin out of the train station, the wheels of their luggages rumbling as they walk towards the yellow lines for the taxis.
“I’m telling you, it’s going to be good for you,” he claims.
Instead of calling for a taxi though, Jisung whips out his phone. Hyunjin usually is strict in respecting other people’s privacy but his gaze falls on Jisung’s vibrating phone screen casually and there he sees it:
Incoming call
My acorn
He rolls his eyes as he groans. “Ji, tell me this wasn’t an excuse just to visit Minho hyung.”
Jisung smiles as he lifts his phone close to his ear, so shamelessly guilty that Hyunjin almost grabs the device out of his hand to decline the call. Instead he watches Jisung pressing his thumb on the green button.
“Where did you think we were going to stay? Oh— Hi love, yeah, the train was a bit late.”
Hyunjin has just been set up.
He bickers with Jisung all their way to the parking lot, insisting that if he hears him and Minho even kiss he will flee out of the apartment, hack his email and write to their coach that Jisung will drop out of his setter role.
Jisung is the brain of the team, he’s the one who values the new strategies and coordinates their extra practices. It’s a mixture of innate talent, good hard work and efforts in learning every player’s little detail to the bone. His intensive knowledge of Hyunjin both on the court and outside is probably what makes him not feel even a little bit threatened by him.
“Anyway,” he starts as they spot Minho’s car. “Minho hyung is taking us out for drinks tonight, all on him.”
That, is actually very nice.
Minho’s new apartment is spacious and a lot less expensive than his previous one in Seoul. Hyunjin settles in a spare room that's cat's fur free in hope to not sleep with a runny nose due to his allergies while Jisung jumps on Minho's bed like it's a bouncy house, his bags dropping on the floor.
Drinking is not really what an athlete should do, but getting drunk with his closest friends at least once after more than a year is fun. Minho gets giggly at the fifth beer and Jisung is already a goner after only one and a half, blabbering how much he misses Minho now that he has opened a restaurant far away from the capital. He hangs from his arm and yaps about practice and the tournament and about how he should become a trophy husband instead than collecting trophies and medals.
“You’re sputtering nonsense,” Minho laughs. “You literally broke up with me once because of volleyball.”
Jisung eyes grow like saucers as he lifts his finger ready to defend himself. “It was the Olympics!”
Minho pats his hand on Jisung's arm condescendingly. “Yeah, we all know. Let’s not repeat that in two years.”
Hyunjin is in that pleasurable limbo between being tipsy and drunk. He’s been twirling the straw in his third drink of the night for the past minute, enjoying the sound of the ice clinking against the glass and laughing at Minho and Jisung’s light bickering. His eyes skim through the crowd casually, no real interest in focusing on anyone until he spots bleached blonde hair and a smile that makes him stop in his motion.
Jisung catches him immediately.
“What are you looking at?” He asks, almost climbing over Hyunjin’s shoulder to try to direct his own gaze on the same trajectory.
Hyunjin doesn’t even bother to push Jisung away. He watches the blonde man by the bar as he giggles and lifts a clear bottle to pour alcohol directly into someone else’s open mouth. Hyunjin swallows his own saliva at the sight, Adam's apple bobbing in his throat.
“Ooooh I see.” Hyunjin can feel Jisung’s grin by the way his cheek curls up against his own.
"You two look ridiculous.”
Both of them whip their heads to look at Minho. Hyunjin feels himself getting warmer, a blush creeping up his cheeks both out of embarrassment and as a reaction to the most handsome man his eyes ever laid upon.
Minho extends his arm to grab Jisung’s wrist and pulls him closer, almost making him fall over and clash against his chest. He catches him swiftly by wrapping an arm around his middle. “Do I have to remind you that you’re a taken man?”
“I was just teasing Hyune, you know I have and will ever only love you,” Jisung pouts.
Hyunjin cringes at the saccharine words and fakes a gag and just like that Minho’s attention is back on him, looking at Hyunjin first, then at the man close to the bar and later back at Hyunjin.
“So you like them pretty and wild.”
His grin would put the Cheshire cat to shame.
Hyunjin doesn’t like anyone he was just… looking intently. He’s here to learn how to relax, not to have a summer fling. Yeah, that man might look cute with his dimples and dazzling smile and messy beach hair and… he’s derailing.
He bottoms up his drink and turns so he’s forced to look the opposite way. His friends laugh at him but it’s okay.
♡
By the fourth day Hyunjin starts to have a bit of a tan. He didn't have the privilege to rest in so long that he had forgotten what it was like to actually do it. He wakes up without an alarm and eats up whatever Minho cooks them for breakfast, then goes out for a run because it means breathing in the summer air and the sea breeze and, only when it’s a lot later, when the sunlight isn’t the strongest and it’s the afternoon, he takes a swim in the sea.
It’s relaxing. Laid back.
A nightmare for Hyunjin’s workaholic self to adapt to.
Over the phone Felix laughs at him and tells him that he should’ve gone to the retreat in the Japanese mountains with him. Hyunjin can hear on the other side of the line the sound of shoes screeching on the parquet of the volleyball court and the yelling of the other players. He feels a bit jealous. Maybe he is insane and addicted to the adrenaline of playing just as Jisung says.
“It’s your chance to see Minsung up close,” Felix jokes around. “Weird creatures.”
Hyunjin sighs as he kicks a small pebble on the road. He doesn’t know exactly where he is going, he’s just aimlessly walking around.
“Please stop using that couple name,” he chuckles as he speaks. “It just fuels their weird dynamic.”
Felix huffs on the other end of the line. “I should get a significant other too.”
Hyunjin is still following his pebble around as he gives it small kicks. The street he’s walking in is quiet, almost empty, he can see the beach from afar. “Feeling lonely?” He asks.
There’s two beats of silence before Felix speaks again.
“Sometimes,” he answers honestly. “Maybe I’ll get myself a hot volleyball player on this retreat, who knows.”
Hyunjin does understand the feeling. Being so busy all the time equals to not having much time to even know where to begin to look for a relationship. It’s hard to find a partner that understands your passion and also the hyperfocus that comes with it. And while Hyunjin is completely emotionally available, Felix has the issue of being in the totally opposite situation, his mind focused on only one person for the past years.
“Good luck, little libero.”
“I’m not little,” Felix objects immediately.
“Sure,” Hyunjin laughs. “There’s anyone worth mentioning so far?”
The yelling and laughing coming from the beach distract Hyunjin from his pebble that reaches the end of the street. He looks out at the stretch of sand in front of him where he sees a volleyball flying high and towards his direction. The ball falls on the curb and rolls until it hits the point of his shoes.
Hyunjin is still holding his phone to his ear but his hearing goes static as he watches the man from the bar running towards him, the sea breeze messing up his blonde hair as he raises a hand in apology and reaches Hyunjin. His shirt is slightly unbuttoned and his swimsuit reaches a bit above his knees on his thighs.
Hyunjin is used to seeing men’s thighs, damn he’s a volleyball player he sees even too many men’s legs on a daily basis. Yet he has never felt like this before.
“I’m sorry!”
The blonde does a double action, bowing and grabbing the ball at the same time. He bows again as a second apology and offers Hyunjin a smile. Cute, sunny, handsome. And then doesn’t give Hyunjin any time to process the whole thing as he hops away back towards the beach.
“Are you even listening?” Felix asks from the other side of the line. “Hyune?”
“Yeah,” he croaks out. “I think I’m about to get a boyfriend too.”
“You’re what???” Felix sounds rightfully dumbfounded, Hyunjin is too. He’s not crazy, he swears, it’s his destiny that follows him around.
How many were the chances that the blonde handsome guy from the bar enjoys volleyball too?
Destiny.
Maybe this trip was meant to be.
He takes a few steps ahead to get a good look at what is going on on the beach. There, a volleyball net is planted in the sand and an amatorial volley court is delineated on the ground by rolled up beach towels.
Hyunjin ponders if it would be normal to sit on the side of the curb to watch or not. He kinda wants to.
“There’s this guy here,” he starts on the phone with Felix, voice low in case anybody catches him talking about the blonde man that’s currently— oh, drinking has never looked this good. Hyunjin’s cooked.
Felix chuckles at the silence that follows. “Are you already far gone?” He asks. “I haven’t heard you so brain dead like this since the fiasco of the Nationals of 2022.”
His friends like to bring up often Hyunjin’s most mortifying match ever. He doesn’t usually get this interested in other people, but that year he got the chance to meet one of the best spikers of the whole country and he was so good looking that Hyunjin got embarrassingly distracted while playing. It was tragicomic considering he didn’t even make a singular move on the spiker after, wasting all the blocks that he had failed that day.
“He’s even prettier,” he answers as he gives in and sits down at the edge of the curb. He hopes they won’t stop playing now that he has found a spot to watch the amateur match.
“Really?”
“Who are you talking to?”
Hyunjin nearly jumps out of his bones as Minho sits down next to him. He gets cornered quickly, Jisung sitting on his other side and leaning closer to try to hear if he can catch something coming from Hyunjin’s phone.
“Bokkie, I’ll call you later.”
“Yongbokie?” Jisung almost grips Hyunjin’s phone but Hyunjin is quick in moving himself out of his reach. By doing so he ends up clashing against Minho who seems to find the whole thing rather funny, giggling as Hyunjin and Jisung start bickering over who’s going to hold the phone.
“Stop arguing,” Felix laughs on the other side of the line. “C’mon, I’ll talk to Ji.”
“Ji, Yongbokie,” Hyunjin repeats the nicknames. “Maybe he should be your best friend.”
Felix laughs a bit more as Jisung instead scoffs loudly. “I thought we were a trio!”
Hyunjin rolls his eyes dramatically but ends up laughing too. “Here.” He hands the phone to Jisung who grabs it excitedly and greets Felix with a big smile and a bit too loudly. On his other side, Minho snorts fondly at his boyfriend and goes back to look at the beach.
Minho and Jisung have been in love for ages but their lives have always come in between, hindering their chances of dating. They’re both too busy and have found themselves too often in locations that were opposite to each other on the map of the country if not of the world. And still, they always get back together after every bittersweet break in their relationship, tied with and destined to each other in an old romance novel kind of way. No matter the mishaps, the arguments or the miles and time zones that come between them, they always come back to one another. Hyunjin has never had the chance to experience a love like this.
“So, why are you two lovebirds here?”
Hyunjin clearly reminds them telling him that they had a date. It was one of the main reasons why Hyunjin found himself alone, wandering around in a street kicking a pebble trying to kill time after having lunch at a random gukbap place.
Minho nods towards the beach, or more specifically towards the four people that are playing rock paper scissors close to the beach volley net. Hyunjin has a tunnel vision on the pretty blonde, ball tucked under his arm as he talks with his friends.
“We stumbled into Kim Seungmin,” Minho answers. “Jisung talked about a big betrayal but then hugged him.”
For the first time since he has sat down, Hyunjin spares more than a glance also at the blonde’s friends. He hasn’t seen Seungmin in person in a while, also him notorious for having a very busy life.
Seungmin was in the same class as Hyunjin and Jisung in highschool. Top student of their whole school, student council’s president, dropped out of the volleyball club at the end of the second year to pursue baseball instead. Jisung refused to talk to him for a whole week before he got over it, forgiving Seungmin thanks to a very specific volleyball themed card with a terrible pun written inside and a slice of homemade cheesecake.
“Isn’t he why you’re also here?” Minho teases, bumping his shoulder on Hyunjin’s own, clearly not talking about Seungmin.
Hyunjin blushes a little at getting caught. “I’m obsessed with volleyball, you know it,” he lies. Surprisingly, Minho pretends to fall for it.
After another round of rock paper scissors, the group seems to have decided on the new teams and they get ready in position to play. Six years later Hyunjin gets the chance to see Seungmin serve again, even though it’s not on a proper volleyball court this time.
The ball goes over the net easily and aims at the blondie. Hyunjin is a bit thrilled to see him playing, his passion for volley and his new found crush building up the feeling in his chest.
And then he sees the most pathetic, worst performed, barely even classifiable as a receive, bump of his life.
The ball flies too high and on the side, forcing the other friend that’s playing with the blonde to run off the court to try to get it. He struggles to catch it and send it over the other side of the net and Hyunjin should find it devastating, his expectations crushed and plummeting to the ground, but instead he finds the whole thing cute.
The blonde laughs airily as his friend curses him, telling him that he almost pulled a muscle trying to follow his receive, and the sound is too sweet, his blush too pretty, the way he pushes his messy hair out of his forehead too attractive.
Hyunjin is a goner already. For a man that can’t even perform an easy bump.
The match is a disaster, the guy seems to have zero coordination as he misses the ball several times or barely manages to touch it, falling over on the sand, slipping, sighing and grunting and laughing awkwardly whenever he collides to the ground or sends the ball flying in the wrong direction.
Usually watching a volleyball match builds up adrenaline in Hyunjin’s body, but for the first time he’s having a different kind of sensation. It’s honestly endearing how hard the other man is trying, still having fun no matter how many times he fails.
Destiny sends Hyunjin another gift a couple of minutes later when the ball falls on the sand right in front of them.
“You go get it!” One of the players shouts with a laugh.
The blonde sighs and starts sprinting towards the curb again. Hyunjin takes the chance to pick the ball up and offers it to him.
“I’m sorry,” the other apologizes as he reaches for it, all of his attention on the ball.
Hyunjin offers him a smile. “It’s nothing.”
This time the blonde actually looks at Hyunjin for more than a fleeting second and birds chirp in Hyunjin’s chest when he notices the way instead of running back to his friends the man turns the item in his hands and gives all his attention to him.
“So, are you enjoying the game?” He asks with a chuckle.
He’s fully aware of being terrible at the sport. Adorable.
Hyunjin nods. “Yeah, it’s quite entertaining actually. Innovative technique.” He can feel both Minho and Jisung by his sides staring at him incredulously but Hyunjin doesn’t care, he only cares about the laugh that comes out of the man in front of him.
“I bet you’ve never seen someone sending the ball off the court so many times, right?” The blonde bites his bottom lip to hold another laugh but still ends up chuckling at himself again. His eyes dance all over Hyunjin, taking him in, making Hyunjin wishing that he put on something more appealing than a simple tank top and baggy shorts before leaving Minho’s apartment earlier.
“It's a good way to distract your opponents and break their flow,” Hyunjin answers, him too trying to hold back something. For him it’s a dumb smile though.
“Are you coming back or not?” A voice calls from afar.
The blonde turns to look at their friends and shoos them with a hand. “Yeah yeah, have some patience!” He then gives back his attention to Hyunjin again, holding the ball under his chest. “Root for me?”
“Give me at least a name to shout if you score a point.” Hyunjin doesn’t even know where he is mastering all this courage, it must be the rhythm of the song played by his heart that keeps him going.
“Jeongin-a! C’mon!” This time a different voice calls for him, Hyunjin recognizes immediately the playful tone belonging to Seungmin.
Jeongin laughs, the blush on his cheeks now traveling up the tip of his ears. Hyunjin wonders which temperature he must've reached - if he dared to graze him with a fingertip would he get burned?
“That would be me,” Jeongin indicates the court behind his back with a thumb, a silent way to tell Hyunjin that he has to go.
Hyunjin hurries him to leave with the gesture of a hand and the blonde nods before turning around.
Just as he’s halfway back to his friends, Jeongin sprints back to where Hyunjin is sitting. “Your name,” he says with his breath cut short, as if he has forgotten something vital. Honestly, Hyunjin was so focused on him that he forgot about himself.
“Hwang Hyunjin.”
Jeongin nods as he takes in the information. “Pretty,” he comments, a soft smile spreading across his lips. “It suits you.”
Hyunjin blinks in surprise as he watches Jeongin going back to the net. He throws the ball at one of his friends and tries to calm them down when they start complaining to him, shushing them when they raise their voice a bit too loudly and smacking them in the arms when they obviously and not so subtly try to glance at Hyunjin.
Hyunjin doesn’t flirt often, especially not so out in the open and not with an audience. He pats the back of a hand on his cheeks quickly to check if he has just felt warm because of the summer heat or because of the compliment. Jisung, still on the phone with Felix, laughs at him, and Hyunjin lowers his hand to push him to the side and out of his space.
The rest of the game is just as bad as the first half, Jeongin slips and falls and misses the ball so many times that Hyunjin stops counting.
There’s to say that Seungmin doesn’t go easy on him, serving exactly where Jeongin is just toy with him. It must’ve been years since Hyunjin has last seen him playing volley but Seungmin’s still the same, cornering players for fun.
And then, on the other hand, Jeongin’s other two friends are even too kind to him, clapping whenever he gets the ball and passing it to him in the most comfortable way for him to catch it, even if it means for them to almost lose their balance or try to go beyond their abilities.
Jeongin seems to not mind both cases. It doesn’t matter to him if Seungmin targets him or if his friends are literally putting the volleyball in his hands to make it easier for him, he’s having fun, smiling and giggling and enjoying the game no matter what. It’s refreshing to see someone being so carefree. Going pro, seeing people having genuine fun while playing becomes harder sometimes, some games are too nerve wracking and stressful and not in the thrilling way that keeps your adrenaline pumping, but rather in the most uncomfortable way ever.
“The blissfulness of playing just for fun,” Jisung sighs right next to him, as if he could read Hyunjin’s thoughts.
“We should—”
“You’re not going to play a single volley game on this vacation, even on sand,” Jisung interrupts him. “You’re here to de-obsess yourself.”
Hyunjin is pretty sure Jisung has failed at his aim, Hyunjin is developing a new obsession right at this moment as he sees Jeongin wiping the sweat off his forehead by using the bottom part of his shirt, tanned skin and the faint lines of his abs on display.
“That’s not even an actual verb,” he objects, looking away.
“How can you say that while sitting down watching a volleyball fly left and right?” Minho rebuts, addressing his boyfriend. He’s looking at his phone, still testing that cat watcher camera he got when he moved in two months ago. Hyunjin peeks at the video playing on screen, one of Minho’s cats filing their nails on a scratching post.
“I’m here for Seungminnie!” Jisung defends himself immediately, however his attention gets quickly stolen away from the argument by the voice on the other side of the phone. Hyunjin is sure his phone battery is almost dead, the call has been going for too long and the heat today is beyond bearable. “Oh, yeah, Seungminnie is here.”
The big baseball betrayal was far worse and more tragic for Felix, his long crush on Seungmin making him cry a whole afternoon at the news that the server was abandoning the volleyball club.
“Want to talk to him?”
Even away from the phone, Hyunjin can understand that Felix has just said no. He can picture him in his head panicking at the idea.
“Alright,” Jisung says. “Then I’ll close this call since he’s coming over here.”
Hyunjin regrets having missed the ending of the game, because when he looks back Jeongin is nowhere to be seen and Seungmin is just a couple of steps away. He is happy to finally meet Seungmin after such a long time of just texting and interrupted calls because of work obligations but… Hyunjin has this weird new need to feel butterflies storming in his chest after making Jeongin’s pretty lips curve upwards in a smile.
“Who are you looking for?” Seungmin asks, trying to enter Hyunjin’s field of vision again as he is busy trying to look for the blonde cute man behind him.
They might not see each other as often as before but they had trained together for almost all of their high school years and sat next to each other in class until their diploma, so it’s easy for Seungmin to understand his mannerism and that Hyunjin’s attention has been piqued by something else that’s not him.
“Innie and Channie hyung are getting food after losing.”
“You targeted him,” Hyunjin points out.
Seungmin shrugs. “He was having fun.”
He is not wrong. Jeongin’s smile was bright just as the sun that’s shining above them if not more.
Hyunjin wonders how Jeongin and Seungmin know each other and why Seungmin is also in this little town by the coast. He lives the same hectic life as him and Jisung, intense training, diets, matches preparations, local and global tournaments. Is his baseball team also on a short break?
Seungmin digs the heel of his shoe on the sand, stalling before asking the long awaited question he sometimes texts Hyunjin or Jisung to check up on his long lost friend.
“How’s Lix?”
“He’s fine,” Hyunjin answers, short and simple. Because 'He still pines for you whenever we turn on the tv and there’s a baseball game' is too personal.
Jisung shrugs, finally giving Hyunjin his phone back. It’s burning hot like a steak that has just been on a grill. “He’s near Mount Fuji surrounded by men.”
Seungmin’s expression changes into one of surprise.
“A volleyball retreat,” Hyunjin explains right after. It earns him an elbow on his side by Jisung.
Seungmin fixes his hair and then sighs, his confused expression relaxing. “As long as he’s okay.”
It's a limbo Hyunjin has never understood fully, but it’s not anyone’s place to meddle too much. Especially when Felix is so adamant on keeping Seungmin at arm’s length.
Various voices and laughs start rumbling from afar. Jeongin enters Hyunjin’s field of vision and suddenly Hyunjin feels the palms of his hands sweating. He’s anticipating the talk, the smiles, the slight flirty tone in Jeongin’s answers.
Hyunjin can feel himself blushing as he remembers Jeongin’s last comment on his name.
“I didn’t hear you shouting for me,” Jeongin complains as soon as he reaches the end of the beach where Hyunjin and his friends are sitting down on the curb. He pushes the bag with the food right on Seungmin’s chest, surprising his friend that lets out a scoff.
“I can’t remember you scoring any point though,” Hyunjin defends himself.
Jeongin pushes his blonde messy bangs off his forehead. His skin is glistening, both from the slight tan and the sweat on his body. “Volley is hard.”
Seungmin can’t help but snicker and Jeongin gives him a light punch on the arm. Hyunjin finds adorable the way he doesn’t put any strength into his hit. And to think Hyunjin thought of him as intimidating the other night.
Not that Jeongin doesn’t look… difficult to approach. His beauty is soft yet sharp, cute and ethereal, almost angelic. But when he smiles, blushing cheeks and dimples showing up, instead of intimidation Hyunjin feels the urge to eat him up. Nobody has ever evoked something like this in him, all of his crushes a bit sterile, more based on how certain players looked on the court while warming up or playing.
“Hyunjin is a professional player,” Seungmin provides before Hyunjin can.
Jeongin’s foxy eyes widen in stupor and then close as he groans. “How much have I embarrassed myself from one to ten?” He asks, whiny, pouty lips and all.
Hyunjin hides a chuckle with the palm of his hand. “Zero,” he answers honestly. “It was entertaining to see you having so much fun.”
His answer seems to please Jeongin, who shakes off his embarrassment with a huff. “Glad to have entertained.”
Light flirting is back on track and so Hyunjin tries to score another point subtly.
“We could play together sometimes.”
Jeongin’s cheeks blush a little. To Hyunjin it feels like a win.
“So you can teach me some pointers?”
“I was thinking more about crushing you but yeah,” Hyunjin jokes. “That can go too.”
Next to him Hyunjin can feel both Minho and Jisung standing up. Meanwhile, he also sees from his peripheral vision Seungmin stepping away from the conversation, checking awkwardly what’s inside the bag that Jeongin has given him.
Jeongin quickly glances at Seungmin feigning nonchalance and gets his phone from the only pocket in his swimming trunks. He barely looks at the lock screen and sighs before pronouncing the four saddest words Hyunjin has heard so far today.
“I have to go.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Hyunjin says, trying to hide his sadness.
Jeongin pinches the front of his shirt and fans himself a little, the afternoon air suffocating. “I have to shower before my shift,” he explains. “But we can— Wait.”
Hyunjin looks at Jeongin as he unlocks his phone and then offers it to him. Hyunjin accepts the device with both hands, on the screen the page to save a new contact open.
“To schedule that crushing match.”
Jeongin’s one is a kind of charm that works oddly perfectly on Hyunjin, the apples of his cheeks burning nicely as he starts typing his contact info. He saves his number as Hwang Hyunjin Volley and hands the phone back to Jeongin.
“I’ll wait for your call.”
Hyunjin’s eyes stay on Jeongin from the moment he smiles timidly as he bids him goodbye until he’s walking away with Seungmin and reaches their friends. It’s Jisung who wakes him up from his daze by crouching down and tugging at his shoulder.
“Earth to Hyunjin,” he calls, dramatic. “The least you can do after making me witness all that is buying me a slice of cake.”
Hyunjin pats his hands on his knees and gets up. He bumps the back of the soles of his shoes on the side of the curb to scroll off the sand and scoffs. “You wish.”
Minho lets out a giggle as he looks down at Jisung, still crouched down and now with a bewildered expression on his face.
“I haven’t kissed Minho in the apartment for days just for you!” Jisung accuses Hyunjin while he stands up, finger pointed straight at him.
Hyunjin pushes it away with a laugh. “I don't remember kissing anyone in front of you.”
“Uhuh,” Jisung waves his finger. “You’ve flirted in front of me, that's even worse.”
Minho stops him from gesticulating by catching his hand and intertwining their fingers, not really trying to calm down his boyfriend. Hyunjin knows he is enjoying this little banter.
“How’s that worse?” Hyunjin asks.
Somehow Jisung manages to gesticulate even with his fingers slotted in between Minho’s own. “You’ve used the holy sacred sport that you worship for it.” He raises his index finger and then with his other hand he also raises Minho’s finger right next to his own. “And I’ve never seen you like this, it was like you got swapped by an alien.”
He’s not wrong, Hyunjin doesn't often try to get other's attention, he usually lets people come to him, or takes his sweet time in approaching a person. Jeongin was a urgent matter though, someone Hyunjin couldn't dare to let slip through his fingers. But even though Jisung is right, Hyunjin dismisses his argumentations anyway.
“Sometimes I forget how much you yap when you want me to buy you food.”
“What?”
Minho shuts Jisung up with a peck on his cheek. “I’ll bake you a cheesecake later.”
♡
Hyunjin knows that he can’t expect a call already on the same day, but yet he can’t help but check his phone frequently throughout the whole evening.
Just as he’s laying on the sofa in Minho’s apartment, legs up and head upside down watching the way one of Minho’s cats’ tail is swaying left and right, orange and white fur hypnotizing, his phone pings with a notification.
Hyunjin changes his position quickly and sits up.
Jiji 🏐:
come have drinks with us!!!!
Outside the windows the sun is almost setting, the sky orange and reflecting on the sea that fades from shades of cerulean blue to red. Going out won’t be so bad, at least it will get Hyunjin out of this state of boredom.
Me:
Same place as last time?
Jiji 🏐:
yes!!
seungminnie’s here
and someone has requested your presence
Hyunjin looks confused at his phone’s screen but gets easily distracted by Dori jumping on the sofa right next to him. The cat snuggles on a pillow and Hyunjin wonders for a couple of seconds what a cat's life must be like and how inebriated with antihistamines he will be by the end of this vacation.
Me:
Reply to Jiji 🏐 “seungmin…”: Has he name dropped Lix yet?
Reply to Jiji 🏐 “and som…”: Someone??
Jiji 🏐:
come and see !!
also yes ㅠㅠ it’s a tragic love story
Staying at home and trying to coax any information out of Jisung through texts seems less efficient than getting ready and actually seeing who he is talking about, so Hyunjin showers quickly and puts on a simple outfit and gets out of the apartment, greeting Minho's cats on his way out.
The bar it’s an outdoor one on a raised wooden pier, strings of lights wrapped around the railings and music that can be heard from afar. It’s easy to spot while walking alongside the beach and Hyunjin finds it on his own without much efforts even though he has been there just once.
He waits in line outside for a couple of minutes and gets his ID checked by the bouncer so he can finally go up the stairs and go on his quest to find his friends. He walks through the crowd and, just as he’s getting a bit overwhelmed by the loud music and the chattering, he finally spots the table Jisung, Minho and Seungmin are sitting at.
Their greetings are quick and before Hyunjin can even ask who wanted him to come, Minho whines to go get them something to drink, sliding some bills in his hand and gently pushing Hyunjin off the stool he has just sat on.
The last time Hyunjin looked at the counter of this bar, he saw Jeongin for the first time.
And he also sees him now, just as he’s one step away to reach it. Only tonight Jeongin is behind the counter and dressed a bit less flashy in an oversized shirt and light make up. He’s busy mixing a drink with a bar spoon, a mundane thing for a bartender to do, but the sight of him behind the counter is enough to make Hyunjin almost forget what he was told by his friends to order.
Jeongin gives a glass full to the brim with a blue and white liquid to a girl and takes the money she gives him for it, dragging them over the counter. He’s distracted and yet he notices Hyunjin immediately when he slides a couple of bills on the wooden surface.
“Three draft beers and a nonalcoholic drink,” Hyunjin orders, trying his best to hold back his surprise at seeing him here. Faking to be cool.
The blonde ignores the money and instead props his forearms on the counter to lean closer. “So you’ve come,” he says. He seems genuinely content to see Hyunjin, his smile charming as usual. “I’ve seen your friends and Seungminnie hyung earlier and I was wondering where you were.”
Without the need for him to snoop around and shake Jisung until he would get an answer, Hyunjin’s mystery is solved. It was Jeongin asking for him. Cool. Absolutely not mind bugging, cheeks flushing, tummy churning news.
Jeongin prepares the beers and asks another one of the bartenders if he can get them to the table. Hyunjin recognizes the other bartender as the man that was teaming with Seungmin during the beach volley match. Jeongin calls him Binnie hyung affectionately only to get called a brat in return.
“You know I’ve already seen you here,” Hyunjin tells Jeongin. He follows with his eyes how Jeongin’s hands move behind the counter, grabbing the ingredients for Hyunjin’s virgin drink. The jigger risks slipping off his fingers and he laughs it off, chuckling at himself and moving to the next step.
“You have?” He asks, glancing at up. He grabs two slices of lime and puts them on the rim of the glass.
“You were pouring I think straight vodka into somebody else’s mouth,” Hyunjin recalls the memory from a couple of days before.
Jeongin’s actions come to a halt as he tries to remember himself doing something like that. “Oh, right,” he exhales. “We don’t offer that kind of service, I was… I was messing around with a friend,” he scratches his neck, blush creeping up the tip of his ears. “I wasn’t working, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Hyunjin repeats, intrigued by Jeongin’s life, so different from Hyunjin’s own.
Jeongin slides the drink on the counter and puts a straw in it. “I can’t pour this in your mouth,” he jokes, immediately recovering from feeling awkward. He’s like a breath of fresh air.
He keeps on talking with Hyunjin as he works, telling him how he’s interested in fashion - his little special interest, he calls it. Hyunjin tells him that he understands quite well what being so into something is like, his own library also full of books about his main interest and recordings of old volleyball matches.
They end up talking about Hyunjin’s local team coming fourth place at the last tournament. Hyunjin explains various volleyball terms to Jeongin as he goes on with a graphic and dynamic storytelling of the game and tells him also about their team’s lack of coordination because of stress and, surprisingly, unlike a lot of other people, Jeongin listens until the last word, no matter how many times he could get distracted by orders placed by customers.
“I’ll come back in a minute,” Jeongin announces as he suddenly removes his apron after a quick look at the time on his phone. Hyunjin misses a little the way the apron accentuated his waist, so holdable, criminally hidden by his oversized shirt.
Hyunjin tries to not eye him for too long as he waits for Jeongin to clock out of work and alternates with looking down at the ice slowly melting in his glass.
He picks with his straw at the leaves of mint at the bottom and then, when he remembers the existence of it, takes one of the lime slices and bites on it. His sight is still focused somewhere else, trying to hide the way he’s buzzing inside.
“Hey.”
“Mhm,” Hyunjin lets out a quiet surprised sound when Jeongin sits on the stool next to him at the counter. He pops the lime slice out of his mouth and discards it in the glass.
Jeongin focuses on the gesture and then looks up again at Hyunjin. “Isn’t it too sour?”
“Want a taste?”
Hyunjin takes in between his fingers the second slice of lime resting on the rim of the cup to offer it to Jeongin. Soft pink lips part just for him and Hyunjin feels it, the uttermost strongest wave of warmth that someone else has ever evoked in him.
Jeongin bites into the slice, juices wetting his lips and the tip of Hyunjin’s fingers.
“Too sour?” Hyunjin asks, a bit pathetically entranced by the view.
The negative hum coming from Jeongin reverberates on Hyunjin’s fingertips that are still holding the lime. He feels Jeongin sucking on it a little before he lets go, parting his lips again.
“It was good.”
Hyunjin pathetically misses the glass as he tries to put the piece of fruit away, his brain fogged by the image of the juices spilling on Jeongin's lips.
Jeongin seems to find it entertaining, wet lips tilting in an almost there smile. He reaches with his fingers for Hyunjin’s hand and helps him throw the lime away but doesn't let go after, he pulls Hyunjin off the stool and drags him closer to himself. It’s magnetic, almost, the way they slot together as Jeongin parts his legs and lets Hyunjin find a spot between them.
“How was your drink?” He asks, head tilted slightly up so they can look each other in the eye. “I’ve started learning only a couple of months ago.”
Hyunjin latches on the brink of rationality that’s still in him, the only portion of his brain that isn’t thinking about tasting the sourness of the lime a second time but from Jeongin’s lips.
“You learn quickly.”
“Maybe I’ll catch on volley just as quickly.”
He plays with Hyunjin’s fingers as he speaks and Hyunjin just lets him, enjoying the fluttering feeling that dances from the tip of his fingers up to his arm.
“Well, you don’t have a lot of time to learn before our match.”
Jeongin hums as he pretends to think. “Mhh, did we schedule it already? I can’t recall.”
Hyunjin chuckles softly, glancing down at their hands and then up again at Jeongin. The dimmed lights accentuate all his soft features more than the sharp ones and Hyunjin’s can’t help but diverting his eyes to the curve of his top lip.
“Should we save a date?”
The sentence comes out wrong, sounding like Hyunjin is talking about a marriage, but Jeongin seems to find the thing more funny than odd.
“Should I come to our game with a suit?”
“I think you would rip it.”
Hyunjin deserves the light slap that Jeongin gives to his shoulder in retaliation. “I’m not that clumsy,” the blonde says. Hyunjin would like to differ after what he has witnessed earlier in the afternoon. Jeongin is fascinating also for that side of him that stumbles and slips and can’t send a ball in the right trajectory to save his life.
They grow closer as talking over the music becomes more difficult, the genre switching to a louder and more chaotic one now that it’s past midnight. Jeongin is basically talking into Hyunjin’s ear, telling him all about how he started working at his friends Chan and Changbin’s bar out of necessity and has discovered to enjoy it. Hyunjin asks him about the fashion thing and Jeongin says that he can’t afford a private course of any kind just yet, but it would be his dream to learn more about it from teachers he can talk for hours with.
Hyunjin would’ve never guessed at the start of his vacation that he would’ve found himself in an open bar in between another man’s legs talking about how difficult it is to learn stitches and finding it hot, and yet here he is. A surprising turn of events.
But another turn awaits him when Jeongin tugs lightly at his hand.
“Want to take a walk?”
Obviously, Hyunjin nods. He doesn’t want to leave Jeongin’s side just yet.
The broad walk that cuts this section of the beach in two is more crowded than during the day, probably given by the difference in temperatures. Before sunset the air is almost suffocating, the sunlight too strong and hot, but at night it’s pleasurable to walk close to the beach, the air chillier and the moonlight reflecting prettily on the sea.
Jeongin and Hyunjin go off path, walking on the sand aimlessly back towards the pier. However they don’t go on the street, ending up right under the elevated pier and the bar.
The music is not as loud here, the sound covered by the waves hitting the shore.
“So the day after tomorrow it is,” Hyunjin says, leaning his back against one of the wooden beams of the pier. The sand feels damp under his shoes as they slightly sink into it.
Jeongin is resting his back on the beam parallel to Hyunjin, facing him. He looks at him differently than before, his dark eyes scanning him in search of something.
“Is it too forward if I ask you what are you doing tomorrow too?”
Hyunjin feels his heart fluttering at the question, realizing that Jeongin’s interest might be the same.
Hyunjin held back when he proposed to meet in two days, scared to look too eager. But Jeongin doesn’t seem to care about things like this, or at least he does - blush ever present on his cheeks - but he tries anyway, pushing little by little. Asking for his number, asking Hyunjin’s friends for where he was, subtly holding his hand, proposing a walk at night, wondering what Hyunjin is doing tomorrow, prying his back off the wooden beam to take one step closer to him. Two. Three. Four.
“I don’t know but I’m free,” Hyunjin answers.
Jeongin huffs a laugh. “Yeah?”
Hyunjin nods, swallowing down on almost nothing as Jeongin takes another step forward.
“And what about right now?”
Jeongin’s so close. This time is Hyunjin the one who tries to take the other’s hand, guiding Jeongin on his next steps by pulling him even closer.
“We can’t have our match here just the two of us, but I can teach you how to position your hands the right way when passing a ball,” Hyunjin proposes. He takes Jeongin’s other hand and clasps them together, moving his fingers too. “I’ll let you figure out the rest, like the stance.”
Jeongin looks down. His gaze moves up just as he also raises his arms and wraps them, hands still clasped together, around Hyunjin’s neck. “Oh, very helpful,” he comments sarcastically.
“I can’t teach you too much, I can't risk you beating me.”
Lips collide as Jeongin leans forward, cutting the conversation. Hyunjin can’t be bothered at all, their banter can wait another moment, maybe when he’s not finally putting his own hands on Jeongin’s waist and feeling the aftertaste of lime and mint on his lips.
Jeongin’s lips mold against Hyunjin’s so naturally, like they’ve done this already, like it was meant to be. He is all over him, claiming, kissing, breathing him in and Hyunjin thinks of destiny once again.
“A pro like you shouldn’t feel so threatened,” Jeongin teases as he runs his hands down Hyunjin’s chest.
Hyunjin catches one of them with one of his own hands to intertwine their fingers. “I fear your distraction tactics would work excellently on me.” His lips are constantly pathetically trying to hold a smile, warmth spreading to his chest and cheeks.
“Yeah?” Jeongin checks. He gives up momentarily on Hyunjin’s mouth to place little short kisses along his jawline.
Hyunjin hits his head on the wooden beam of the pier to expose more of his neck to Jeongin but he has no room to even feel embarrassed as all his focus is on the short wet touches that travel down. The sensation so nice that he struggles to answer.
“It’s better if… If we meet on closed doors, I– I could never fix my reputation if I lose.”
“Reputation,” Jeongin scoffs. He catches a tiny bit of flesh in between his teeth and bites, sensations he never thought he could feel rush through Hyunjin. At the whimper that comes out of him, Jeongin stops, the tip of his nose still gently pressed on the red bitten skin as his lips leave Hyunjin’s neck with a quiet smack of a last wet kiss. “When’s the next Olympics?”
God, Jeongin doesn’t even know when the Olympics are going to be, he probably even ignores where they’re going to take place. The more they don’t have in common the more Hyunjin wants to have him, it is so uncharacteristic of him he should check if the unbearable heat of the summer has altered his brain chemistry. There is a checkup for that too, right?
“In two years.”
Jeongin goes back to his previous task, soft lips tracing an invisible line down Hyunjin’s jaw and following the curve of his neck once more. “Two years are enough to rebuild your reputation if you ever lose against me, aren’t they?” He mouths the words hotly on his skin. Hyunjin feels every syllable on his own throat, losing any kind of common sense.
The night summer breeze is cool and it’s making Jeongin’s bleached hair curl at his nape. Hyunjin plays aimlessly with them as he tilts his head back again to accommodate Jeongin, letting himself be covered in kisses, letting Jeongin’s fingers hook on the holes of his mesh shirt and pull it down just so he can kiss even lower.
“I think I should team up with Seungminnie hyung, just to make it fair."
“Then I’ll get Jisung.”
“That’s like cheating. You should get someone who doesn’t know how to play,” Jeongin complains as he ponders where to place his lips next. He tugs the neck of Hyunjin’s shirt more, eyeing at the new discovered expanse of skin, and something sounds like ripping. “Shit-- I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Hyunjin exhales. “It doesn’t matter.” He is a bit dumb-kissed, overwhelmed with a kind of touch that no one has ever offered him before. Jeongin is so delicate in the way he leaves kisses on him and yet he also feels so desperate, he really wants Hyunjin. Enough to clumsily rip his shirt.
Jeongin lifts his head from the crook of Hyunjin’s neck and blinks his pretty, worried eyes at him. “I’ll fix it for you.”
“Do you walk around with a sewing kit?”
Jeongin fakes a scoff. “Who would ever do that?” Hyunjin tilts his head at him as he notices the way Jeongin’s lips twitch, waiting. “I actually have one in my locker upstairs.”
“You’re so adorable.”
A hand cups his cheek and drags Hyunjin in the cutest kiss of the night, Jeongin’s lips still partially tilted in a smile as he rests them against Hyunjin’s own. “Stop calling me that.”
“Stop being so sweet then,” he mutters as Jeongin keeps them pressed together, words coming out muffled.
Hyunjin sighs when Jeongin melts his body against him again, big, hot. He cards a hand through Jeongin’s bleached blonde hair and tugs a little. He has to keep him as close as possible. He can’t explain it. It’s like he has developed an addiction in the past ten minutes, his new obsession battling for its spot with his number one.
Jeongin searches for his tongue, a moan escaping him at the touch, cutting off every thinking ability out of Hyunjin. His fingers lift both his mesh shirt and tank top to feel up the muscles of Hyunjin’s back and little broken breaths clash against Hyunjin’s lips at every touch of their tongues, mixing with the one he’s exhaling too.
"You're sweet too, you know?"
"You say so?"
Out of nowhere, the music in the background stops and all kinds of illumination coming from the bar on the pier shut off, plummeting their corner of the beach into darkness. Various groans and surprised gasps echo around along with Jeongin’s disgruntled noise of complaint.
He sighs deeply as he rests his forehead on Hyunjin’s shoulder, his hands trailing down Hyunjin’s back in a sad defeated slow manner.
"The faulty generator again."
Mood ruined, Hyunjin lets go of his hold on Jeongin’s hips. He wishes he could take Jeongin away and run off with him, warm night sea breeze in their hair as he holds his hand and they go anywhere they can spend some time together. But it’s obvious that Jeongin feels some kind of sense of duty over the bar even though his shift has been over for more than twenty minutes.
“Let’s go,” Hyunjin whispers, patting the little curls at Jeongin’s nape.
Jeongin places a short kiss on Hyunjin’s clavicle. “Yeah,” he agrees. “I have to go and help.”
Smoothing down their clothes and hair is a bit embarrassing but they also laugh and giggle as they check each other’s appearances.
“Wait,” Jeongin stops Hyunjin from starting to walk back up to the bar, fingers wrapping around his wrist.
He places a final kiss on his lips, frenzy, open mouthed. And then he cleans with his index finger the corners of Hyunjin’s lips from his smeared tinted lip balm like it’s nothing.
“Now we can go.”
Hyunjin has never walked the walk of shame, he has only seen it on television or read it in books, but he feels like he’s going through it going back to the bar with the feeling of Jeongin’s lips all over him.
The pier is illuminated by the flashes of people’s phones and the tealights that the other bartenders are setting on the tables. Despite the scarce light, Hyunjin manages to find his friends and slumps on one of the empty stools.
“How convenient you arrive when the power went off,” Minho says, propping his elbow on the table and resting his chin on the palm of his hand, his tone accusatory. “Was it you?”
Hyunjin pretends to be shocked and gasps to entertain him. “You got me! What will I do now?”
Seungmin leans closer to him on his side, Hyunjin thinks he’s going to play along but instead he whispers something in his ear as he pulls at the collar of his shirt. “What kind of activity includes clothes ripping?"
Right now it’s a bit too late for Hyunjin to come up with a white lie so he just accepts his destiny. He’s still on cloud nine, holding back a smile whenever he thinks about having held Jeongin so close. He had forgotten what it was like to like someone so much, the fluttering feeling in his chest and in his guts. Actually, not even Jaehyun from the Nationals’ fiasco of 2022 has made him so jittery.
The power comes back eventually but Hyunjin’s night with Jeongin has sadly ended as Jeongin, even though it’s not his shift anymore, is behind the counter again.
♡
Hearing Jeongin giggling over the phone is just terrible. Awful. Devastating. Hyunjin will write about it in his journal for days, hearts instead of dots and stick figures holding hands at the corners of the pages.
They’re meant to decide when to meet and what to do today. So far they’ve only kept blatantly flirting over the phone, Hyunjin feels like he is going to explode soon.
Just like the other day, Jeongin is nonchalant in the way he talks back but the memories from last night are imprinted in Hyunjin’s brain and burned in his memory forever.
“Your favorite ice cream, go.”
“Demanding,” Jeongin comments.
Hyunjin is sitting on the floor of the guest room. There’s a fan placed on the coffee table in front of him and yet he feels like he’s scalding hot.
“C’mon,” he laments. “Mines are coconut and strawberry.”
There’s some rustling in the background, Hyunjin gives it no mind as he’s more focused on the way Jeongin hums as he takes in the information.
Is it odd that Hyunjin wants to know everything about him after the past day? He wants to open Jeongin like a manual and learn every detail about him.
So far he knows that he’s living and working with his friends, that he’s saving money for university, that he’s passionate about the sea and that he bleached his hair with the help of his friend Changbin. An action that brought them to panicking for a whole afternoon as they kept going toning down Jeongin’s virgin black hair, every time holding their breath as they checked for the results. Their other roommate Chan waited by the bathroom door laughing and telling them that they could’ve just gone to an hairdresser at every step filled with suspense.
Jeongin watches livestreams of runways on Youtube during fashion weeks and the color he likes the most at the moment is green, his lips are soft, his hold is firm, his sounds when kissed are slightly high pitched and Hyunjin should bonk his head on the fan to keep his thoughts a bit more straight. But how can he when Jeongin finally answers his last question.
“My favorite ice cream… probably lime.”
“Jeongin,” Hyunjin laments. He throws his head back to rest it on the bed.
“With a hint of mint,” Jeongin keeps going. “And soda.”
“I’ll buy a lime scented lip balm.” Hyunjin is officially out of his mind. He’s just spiked his brain over the other side of the net and off the court.
Jeongin laughs a little and drops something, the sound loud as it collides to the floor. He swears under his breath and Hyunjin’s curiosity is piqued.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m cleaning up,” Jeongin answers, his voice strained as he’s busy and struggling with something. “I’ve just dropped my toner. The container broke.”
Hyunjin smiles as he imagines him crouched down trying to fix his mess. “I meant like, even before. You sound busy.”
Jeongin hums. “I’m cleaning up,” he repeats. “Not just this, like… the whole apartment.”
“What a good roommate,” Hyunjin comments. He pushes the hair off his face and relaxes his back a bit more on the side of the mattress.
Jeongin snorts. “I kind of wanted to invite you over.” The tone of his voice is slightly unsure for the first time since they started talking more than an hour ago. “Since I am free. And you said you’re free.”
Hyunjin doesn’t kick his feet only because it’s impractical for the way he’s sitting. He bites his bottom lip as he holds a smile. Oh, finding someone interesting is going to ruin him if he’s going to feel like this constantly.
“I am free,” he confirms. “I’m on vacation.”
“I found this anime about volleyball, I thought we could watch it together.”
Hyunjin can hear Jeongin cringing slightly at his own words and it still doesn’t break the mood.
“Are you trying to romance me with Haikyuu?”
“Is it working?”
It works so well that in just an hour Hyunjin is showered, out of his pajamas and a couple of steps away from Jeongin’s apartment. He follows the indications given by the app, reaching easily Jeongin’s in real time location.
He buzzes the intercom, takes the elevator and knocks on his door. All to see Jeongin open the door with a smile and a faint blush on his cheeks, dimples decorating his smile just for him.
“You were fast.”
Embarrassing, maybe, but Hyunjin really wanted to see him again.
“I’m very serious about volleyball.”
Jeongin takes his hand to drag him inside and takes Hyunjin’s bag for him to hang it on the coat hanger by the door. “You’ve already watched it all, haven’t you?”
Hyunjin kicks off his shoes and steps out of the entrance. “I also went to the cinema to watch the movie.”
“So you’re serious about real and fake volleyball, okay, I’ll memorize that too—” Jeongin’s voice breaks into a soft and short chuckle when Hyunjin not so shamelessly enters in his space.
There’s an amused glint in Jeongin’s eyes as he squares Hyunjin up and down. He smooths down the fabric of his shirt, probably a gesture too feather light and short to catch the way Hyunjin’s heart is beating irregularly and his breath catches shorty in his chest.
“I’m waiting for you to serve first.”
This time it is Hyunjin to initiate their kiss. Since last night his mind has been stuck thinking only about Jeongin, he didn’t even check his teams’ group chats, leaving the messages unread.
“Please stop using volleyball puns,” he sighs as he parts only partially, his lips still brushing against Jeongin’s own.
Jeongin smiles and runs a hand through Hyunjin’s hair tracing his ponytail from start to end. He pulls a little, experimentally. “Why? I searched so many before you came here.”
Hyunjin shoves him away with a fake groan, making Jeongin stumble back as he also laughs and passes a hand over his blushing face.
“I have— The tv is over there,” he gestures towards the room at his back. “I’ve prepared everything.”
It’s sweet the way the pillows on the sofa are already set at the sides of it, freeing the space in the center for them to sit next to each other. On the coffee table there are snacks and drinks and the first episode is already loaded on the television screen. Hyunjin tries to not look too endeared by the whole setup.
Jeongin sits down next to him but still leaves a bit of space betweend them. It's kind of funny considering how they were all over each other just last night. Cute. Everything about him makes Hyunjin want to coo at him.
“So, before I press play, tell me who’s your favorite,” he says, leaning forward to get the remote from the coffee table.
“Oh no,” Hyunjin objects. “You’ll watch it, you’ll tell me your favorite character and then I’ll judge you for it.”
Jeongin snorts at him. “Alright,” he accepts, his thumb pressing play before he throws the remoter somewhere on the sofa. “At least the first couple of episodes in a day should be doable.”
After watching the first episode almost in silence, Hyunjin relaxes when Jeongin starts commenting things out loud and reacting to what's going on on screen. He poses Hyunjin questions over volleyball rules and the players’ roles that go even beyond whatever episode they’re watching, the remote far away, nobody stopping the autoplay.
“So, what do you do best?”
“Oh, I can’t tell you all my secrets,” Hyunjin jokes. Jeongin tries to push his shoulder away with a laugh but Hyunjin catches his hand. He intertwines their fingers and lets their hands rest on his thigh, heart rate speeding up a little. “Otherwise there’ll be no surprise tomorrow.”
Jeongin's eyes focus on their hands and on the way Hyunjin is playing with the bracelet on his wrist with his other one. The piece of jewelry simple and yet gorgeous, just like the owner.
“Just don’t spike on my nose,” Jeongin says with a chuckle.
“I could never do that to your pretty face.”
Hyunjin’s favorite sound used to be the echo of the chants coming from the tribunes before throwing the ball high in the air and serving, but it has found a good opponent since he has heard how giggly and airy Jeongin’s laugh is.
“I was thinking more about the humiliation of getting hit.”
Hyunjin, with a bit of confidence and ninety percent infatuation clouding his brain, leans in to peck his lips. “You humiliate yourself enough already,” he whispers as he parts from him.
Jeongin looks at him bewildered, a glint in his eyes and lips still parted after reciprocating the kiss. He pounces on Hyunjin, the back of Hyunjin’s head hitting the soft pillows of the sofa as one of Jeongin’s hands is stuck in between his shoulder blades and the cushion.
Hyunjin gasps in surprise but the sound dies down as Jeongin pushes a strand of dark brown hair off his face, tucking it behind his ear. Delicate fingers graze his skin lightly, like Hyunjin is made of porcelain and could break at any moment.
“Why do I like you so much after just a day?” Jeongin whispers, foxy eyes taking in the details on Hyunjin’s face.
Destiny.
But Hyunjin is not crazy enough to voice his thoughts out loud, his last functioning neurons activating in a moment of clarity. “I was wondering the same thing about myself.”
Jeongin leans down but misses Hyunjin’s lips, kissing the right corner of them. “Well, you’re definitely not doing your best,” he reasons sarcastically. “Calling me clumsy, making fun of me.”
Hyunjin’s lips curve up in an almost there smile. “Maybe you like a little humiliation.”
Jeongin tilts his head, teasing Hyunjin by leaning in but not enough to connect them in a kiss. The tips of his nose brushes against Hyunjin’s own as he speaks.
“Maybe. But it’s not that. It’s you, you’re…”
The typical tune of the code being inserted correctly in the door’s keypad echoes in the living room along with the lock clicking open.
Jeongin sits up just as fast as he pounced Hyunjin down the sofa earlier and looks for his hand to help him sit up too.
“Who do you think it is?” Hyunjin whispers while Jeongin is quickly cleaning up the faint smack of lip balm he has left on Hyunjin’s face, his thumb pressing less delicately against his skin.
“I don’t know, they were both busy,” Jeongin sighs. Hyunjin shouldn’t find so nice the way Jeongin undoes the knot in his hair and then redoes his little ponytail more neatly. “I’m sorry,” Jeongin adds as he hooks two fingers in Hyunjin’s hair and pulls out his side bangs as a final sweet gesture.
Hyunjin thinks of keeping him for more than just this vacation. He pictures Jeongin patting down his uniform outside the locker room, fixing whatever is slightly out of place, kissing him good luck before a match. Hyunjin would never fail on the court ever again.
Just as Hyunjin is stuck in his dangerous fantasy world, Jeongin’s roommate passes by the living room, his eyes glued on his phone as he walks past them. Then, he glances slightly to the side and stops, looking at them surprised like they’ve just materialized there. He must’ve been really engrossed in his text conversation considering the television is still turned on at a loud volume.
“Oh, hi,” he greets them both. He looks at Hyunjin just for two seconds and then avoids his gaze, giving all his attention to Jeongin. “It started raining so I came back.”
Hyunjin looks outside the window, only now noticing the water that’s pouring down, the previous sunny sky now gray and gloomy. It’s a full blown summer storm but he and Jeongin have been too focused on each other to even notice it.
Changbin puts his weight on his other leg, the situation a bit awkward.
“You can find me in my room.”
“Yeah,” Jeongin exhales. “Yeah, sure, hyung.”
They both wait in silence as Changbin heads to the corridor. Only when they can hear a door closing, they both take a breath.
“It’s okay,” Hyunjin says before Jeongin can apologize another time.
Jeongin looks down at the way Hyunjin slots their hands together again. “I’m sorry if this was a bit lame,” he says quietly. “I should’ve taken you on an actual date.”
Hyunjin indulges him when Jeongin starts playing gently with his fingers, flowers blooming in his chest at his last word. “It was cute how you looked up something that could’ve interested me,” he reassures him, honest.
“Should’ve we watched Attacker You?”
Jeongin is clearly playing around but Hyunjin can tell there’s still some hint of insecurity in his voice. “How much did you research exactly?” He asks, voicing his curiosity.
He can feel himself growing even more fond of him. Jeongin’s interest and trying to understand Hyunjin’s job and passion is better than any other impersonal fancy date Hyunjin has ever been to.
“Oh, I’ve found some movies too,” the blonde answers. He shifts a bit his seating on the sofa so he’s facing Hyunjin, his arm propped on the headrest. “There’s one with a dog playing.”
Hyunjin laughs at the way Jeongin seems both baffled and thrilled about it. “That’s either the cutest thing ever or the worst special effects and cgi on the planet.” He also fixes his seating position to give all his attention to Jeongin, the television and the plot on screen long forgotten.
“Are you a dog or a cat person?” Jeongin asks, as if it’s a serious matter.
“Dog. I’m a bit allergic but I’ve also started to appreciate the company of cats lately,” Hyunjin answers. He pats down on his jeans to remember in which pocket he has stored his phone. “I have a dog, wait–”
He ignores all the texts and notifications piling up in his lock screen and goes straight to his photo album. Jeongin scoots closer to look at the screen as Hyunjin flips through photos and videos of his dog Kkami.
The conversation derails easily from one topic to another and between another terrible volleyball pickup line and Hyunjin saying that now it’s Jeongin’s time to show him more in depth something that he likes - so Hyunjin can do his own little extra research later about that and find his own cheesy ways to wow Jeongin - they find themeselves in Jeongin’s room.
Hyunjin looks around at the pictures hanging on his wall above the desk as Jeongin is timidly looking for something in his library. It’s mostly pictures of the sea and occasionally some with his two friends and Seungmin or with what Hyunjin supposes is his family, the features on their faces too alike for them to not be relatives.
In the back Jeongin drops something and Hyunjin gives him a glance, smiling to himself as he catches the blonde quickly putting back a trinket on a shelf, a thick notebook tucked under his arm. He looks away before Jeongin can even notice that he was looking at him.
“It’s just notes,” Jeongin prefaces as he slides the notebook on the surface of the desk.
“Notes?” Hyunjin asks curiously.
“Mhmh.” Jeongin's fingers dance on the side of his notebook, feeling the pages. “It’s nothing special… small projects.”
He gestures at Hyunjin to flip through it and takes a small step back.
Hyunjin turns the pretty anonymous light blue cover open, pages and pages of handwritten illustrations and notes awaiting him inside.
Hyunjin doesn’t even know anything about fashion outside of the sponsorships his agents make him sign for, and yet it’s easy to detect Jeongin’s talent. The designs are interesting, some more colorful than others, some delicate and complicated at the same time and as Hyunjin traces the lines of one of Jeongin’s sketches, he decides to treasure this moment forever. A man that has known him for twenty four and a couple of more hours is showing him the hard work of years of ideas piling up one on top of the other.
“Did you also make them? Sew them?” He asks.
“Some,” Jeongin shrugs, a bit shy. “There’s a small studio behind the corner that makes felt bags, this kind old lady lets me stay there overnight on weekends.”
Hyunjin closes the notebook to give his full attention to Jeongin. “It would be nice to see them.”
A flush rushes up Jeongin’s cheeks as he seems to hesitate a little.
“Right now I can show you only this.”
He takes a couple of steps back and sits on the floor, Hyunjin eyes him curiously as he lifts his bed covers a bit to unveil the space between his bed frame and the floor. He crouches down at his level so he can see better the two items Jeongin drags out from under his bed.
Jeongin pushes to the side an old sewing machine and puts a box instead in the space between them.
“It’s a jacket, clearly off season I know, but…” He opens the lid as he speaks.
Hyunjin hesitates in what to do as he scans the intricate design that’s still unfinished on the back, a needle with a white thread stuck in the fabric.
“You can touch it,” Jeongin says, his fingers dancing on the embroidered flower to show Hyunjin that it is okay.
Hyunjin traces the white lines too, bumping against Jeongin’s hand by mistake as he does so. “It’s beautiful,” his thoughts slip through his lips easily.
What a good asset of pleasant sweet surprises has been Jeongin in just two days.
“It’s just–”
“It is,” Hyunjin insists.
Jeongin walks Hyunjin to the front door when the summer storm has calmed down, only a light drizzle falling from the gray clouds that cover the whole sky. He offers him an umbrella and a kiss that becomes two and then three, until Hyunjin has to pry himself away from him.
“I’ll see you on the court.”
Jeongin pushes the umbrella back in his hands while Hyunjin finally steps back and crosses the threshold. “I’ll watch volleyball tutorials all night.”
Hyunjin lets out a laugh as he does his best to focus on leaving and takes another step back. A part of his brain pondering on another brush of lips, of another caress on Jeongin’s neck, thumb feeling his pulse rising up as they kiss.
“Good luck with that.”
♡
“I thought you went there to fuck,” Jisung mumbles as he’s chewing on a spoonful of cereals.
Hyunjin chokes on his pills and coffee simultaneously. To add to the chaos, he also sneezes right in his cup, great.
Minho pats his back to help him. “You should watch Haikyuu too,” he says to Jisung. “I tell you all the time.”
“Right?!” Hyunjin talks through his coughing fit, his throat in pain as he can still feel the sensation of the pills struggling to go down. “As a volley fanatic it’s incredible you haven’t watched it yet.”
He looks down at his cup of coffee, thinking if he should drink it in one go and get over it but after a couple of seconds of pondering he puts it back on the counter.
Jisung is having a full bickering session with Minho over the anime, Minho wandering around the kitchen to cook a proper breakfast while Jisung keeps on talking between a spoonful of now soggy cereals and milk and another.
“Here,” Minho derails from his conversation for a second, sliding a new refilled cup of coffee on the counter to Hyunjin. “Anyway,” he quips, giving all his attention to his boyfriend again. “I can’t take the ‘I’m not so obsessed’ argument seriously from you after you made me wear your uniform to bed.”
This time it is Jisung the one to choke, ending up swallowing before chewing his food completely. He covers his mouth with his hand and he starts coughing. Minho offers a couple of pats on his back too.
Hyunjin hides his snicker with his new cup of coffee, taking a sip and witnessing the mess happening on the other side of the kitchen island through his lashes.
For a fleeting moment he wonders how one of his sets would look on Jeongin. The white one would really compliment his angelic features and– he shakes his head pushing the fantasy away. He can’t be on the same level of perversion as Jisung, having also that in common would be too much.
“Speaking of it,” he starts, catching both Minho and Jisung’s attention. They both look at him wide eyed. “Not sex, weirdos. Volley. I need you to play with me this afternoon.”
“Me?” Jisung asks, voice still strained from the past exertion.
“No, Minho hyung.”
As they say, bad things - or good - come in threes. And so Minho chokes too, neither on coffee nor cereal but on his own breath as he reacts to Hyunjin’s answer.
However he’s faster than them at recovering from his coughing fit, bursting into a laugh. “You want me?” He asks, incredulous.
Well, ‘want’ is a strong word. Hyunjin has to balance his two members team somehow so it’s almost equal to Jeongin’s own and he doesn’t know anybody else in this town. Minho is skilled in many things such as dancing, archery and cooking, but if there’s something that he can’t do, is play any kind of sport that involves balls. Perfect balance.
The afternoon comes slowly, probably because Hyunjin is anticipating it.
He ignores all of Jisung’s jabs at how they were not supposed to play volleyball and Hyunjin hasn’t lasted even a week. But this time Hyunjin’s obsession for volley has nothing to do with what he’s about to do, it’s for a good cause, that is seeing Jeongin fumbling and slipping and laughing for an hour or more.
The beach is not as packed as the other days, the sky still a bit cloudy from the day prior.
Hyunjin recognizes Jeongin’s friends and roommates immediately and walks towards their direction. They’re close to the same spot he sat two days ago to see them playing and as Hyunjin gets closer he starts to see a glimpse of Jeongin, covered by them.
Seungmin looks around, his eyes clocking Hyunjin immediately. “Oh, you’re here!”
And Hyunjin would like to answer, to raise his hand and wave, but his gaze falls on Jeongin and he even struggles to take another step forward.
Jeongin’s lips spread in an equally embarrassed and sweet smile when he notices Hyunjin. He pushes his messy bleached hair out of his face and waves, flush decorating his cheeks and eyes crinkling at the sides.
Minho leans into Hyunjin’s space, patting a hand on his shoulder and snickering a little. “And you didn’t even have to ask,” he teases before leaving him to his misery.
Hyunjin hates to admit it but in the end being so close to Jisung must’ve made their brains connect and influence each other subconsciously. He looks ahead where Jeongin waits by the net, black swim shorts, a vintage volley jersey with the number 22 in the front and knee pads, the vision is not exactly complete, it’s not Hyunjin’s perfectly tailored white uniform from the last tournament, but it sends a pleasant thrill down his chest that reaches his stomach and bounces up, warming up his face.
Just as he wakes up from his daze and starts walking again, Jeongin jogs on the sand to reach him halfway.
“My friends are so absurd,” he says before even greeting him. “Seungminnie hyung said he still had his old volleyball club shirt that he uses to sleep in and my roommate, Chan, he had these things he uses at the gym and I–” he uses his hand to indicate his whole self. “How is it?”
Forming words and putting them together has never been this hard.
Hyunjin chuckles genuinely at himself and lifts a hand to fix a strand of Jeongin’s messy bangs. Jeongin follows the movement with his eyes and looks back at Hyunjin, waiting.
“It’s cute. You look the part.”
A pretty, timid, sweet smile makes its way on Jeongin’s face. “Let’s go, then.”
Hyunjin has never played on sand and it’s used to be in a more numerous team, so he reassures Jeongin that he has at least a couple of disadvantages, just like playing with Minho who misses hitting the ball at his first serve.
When Jeongin serves next, trying to look serious but failing when his roommates chant his name, he’s not much different from Minho. He hits the ball just by pure luck, his fingertips making it fly at least high enough to hit the top of the net.
Hyunjin receives the ball with a bump, hoping that Minho will pass it to him like he promised he would - “How difficult can it be?” He scoffed earlier as they were reviewing what could and couldn’t be done while playing a volley game. “That’s literally my whole career,” Jisung commented under his breath.
Minho lets out a surprised and satisfied sound as he passes the ball successfully to Hyunjin who does his self promised first and only spike of the day. Seungmin doesn’t even bother to stop it while Jeongin reaches for the ball with his hand but ends up missing it, falling on his knees on the sand.
As the ball hits the ground, Minho turns around to point a finger at his boyfriend sitting on the side of the curb, delighted to have helped in scoring a point.
“Take this, Han Jisung!”
Even though Hyunjin loves to meddle in this kind of bickering, his attention is completely stolen by Jeongin, knees dug in the sand and head tilted up, looking at Hyunjin with his lips slightly parted. There’s a glint in his eyes, determination and something else that Hyunjin can't really tell but it makes him smirk.
He rests his hands on his hips and tilts his head to the side. “Are you getting up anytime sooner?”
Jeongin scoffs lightly as he rolls his eyes. He pats his dirty hands on his thighs and plants a foot on the sand to help himself standing up. “Of course,” he says as he scrolls the still humid sand off his body.
For the rest of the game Hyunjin stays true to his words, he doesn’t spike anymore nor he puts particular energy in his body whenever he touches the ball. He unplugs the part of his brain that is an organized and equally messy cluster of volleyball tactics and decides to have fun, because he needs it after months of training and a failed tournament and because, even though teasing each other is thrilling, he wants to laugh along with Jeongin as they play.
By the end of the game Hyunjin is sure he has sand even in his pockets. He can’t remember the last time he had run to catch a ball so many times off the court, Minho and Jeongin giving it their all to send the ball flying high and clearly where it was not supposed to go. It reminds Hyunjin of when he had just started and his receives were often unsuccessful just like his serves. And it’s so fun to run so carelessly with their laughter in the background, just as much as it is when a rally lasts long enough to make his head feel like it’s spinning.
“I give up,” Jeongin lays down like a starfish, legs and arms spread out as he rests his whole body on the sand. His chest heaves as he breathes in and out, eyes staring at the sky. Technically, if they were to actually count points, then the game should’ve ended at least half an hour ago.
Hyunjin is tired too, he stops to catch his breath as Seungmin is running towards the broadwalk to fetch the ball before it tumbles too far away. Minho takes the chance to rest too, a little smile on his lips as he wiggles his eyebrows at Jisung.
Hyunjin walks towards the net and bends to pass underneath it. He looks down at Jeongin for the second time of the day, his lips spreading in a smile as he takes in the delicate hues of red that tint Jeongin’s cheeks. Jeongin’s bleached blonde hair mix with the sand as he shakes his head a little to try to move his wavy bangs out of his eyes to look at Hyunjin better. Some strands stay still, stuck to the sweat on his forehead.
“Like what you see?”
Yes, he does, but Hyunjin prefers not to voice his current thoughts. Instead he crouches down silently to offer Jeongin a hand to help him sit up. Jeongin takes it and sighs heavily as he lets Hyunjin lift him up by pulling his arm.
“I think we can close this.”
Jeongin huffs, throwing his head back dramatically. “Just as I was about to win,” he complains. For a second Hyunjin even believes in his perfect act, too bad Jeongin and Seungmin are three sets and a half down.
“Please, spare me,” Hyunjin decides to play along as he stands up. He tugs Jeongin's arm again, Jeongin following his movements and standing straight too.
“Whew, I don’t know.”
“I’m begging you!”
Jeongin stops shaking the sand off his fake volleyball uniform and raises his hands at Hyunjin. He groans like he has just been asked something impossible and waves his right hand at him. “Okay, fine,” he says with a deep tired sigh. He wasn’t convincing during the game but he definitely is locked in character now, they should give him an Oscar for the part. “I’ll let you have this one.”
The left corner of his lips twitches a little as his eyes sparkle with mischief. Hyunjin has to hold every fiber of his being from kissing him down the sand.
“Thank you so much,” Hyunjin recites the last line of their little play, clasping his hands together and bowing. “I’ll remember your act of kindness for the rest of my life.”
From afar, a quiet snort from a voice Hyunjin is still not familiar with. “I can’t believe Innie’s found someone just like him.”
It shouldn’t make Hyunjin’s heart sing so loudly, make him scared that anyone can hear the way it skips a beat before skyrocketing in speed. He bites his lip as he avoids Jeongin’s eyes, looking instead at Seungmin who’s sprinting back with the ball in his hands.
“It’s over,” Jisung shouts at their old friend from his seat on the side of the curb. Minho is sitting at his side, fanning himself with his own hand.
“It is?” Seungmin asks for confirmation. He looks at Jeongin and Hyunjin who both nod at him and then starts joining the others by the curb. “Next time we’re playing baseball.”
“I’m bad at that too,” Jeongin whispers to Hyunjin his little secret.
Somehow, Hyunjin is not surprised at all.
He smiles as he pictures Jeongin with a bat in his hands trying to hit a ball. “Would you wear an improvised uniform too?” He asks to complete the image in his head.
Jeongin chuckles. “I’ll think about it.”
♡
Watching the forecast weather feels frustrating. Hyunjin changes his sitting position on the bed again as he checks the app once more, the situation remaining unchanged.
It has been raining for three days.
“I think it’s because me, you and Min are reunited once again under the same sky,” Jisung ponders out loud. He’s laying down on the bed with Hyunjin, arms stretched up as he’s playing with a random cat toy.
Hyunjin sniffles and rubs his eyes a little, the effect of his allergy spray wearing off.
“There’s only Lix missing.”
Their little personal legend started when they were still all in high school and spending most of their time together. Four boys born in the year of the dragon all hanging out together and glued to the hips, bringing rain and storms to every important event no matter the season.
When Seungmin dropped out of the club and it stopped raining at all of their matches, it was like witnessing a confirmation of their theory.
“Do you think there’s a way to make Lix and Seungminnie meet?” Hyunjin wonders. It’s been too long already, it’s one of those situations where time should’ve already fixed any kind of harsh feeling.
Jisung hums as he thinks, rolling on his stomach. He grabs one of Hyunjin’s pillows and tucks it under his chest. “Yes?” He cringes at his own improbable answer.
Hyunjin lets out a short laugh as he watches Jisung kicking and thrashing his feet in frustration. He stops him by bumping his hip with a socked foot.
“They've been in love with each other since they were eighteen, it’s absurd!”
“I can try and talk to Lix again.” Just as Hyunjin is picking up his phone again, it vibrates right in hands. He almost drops it at the sensation on his fingertips but at least it makes Jisung laugh a little and stop frowning.
He checks the new notifications on his lock screen, smiling as he reads the contact name.
Jeongin ^^:
you don’t have to hide your face from me after losing
you will get better with practice!!
volleyball is a sport where you’re always looking up
in the meantime i can cover for you in the national team dw!!!
Hyunjin can feel the butterflies storming in his belly.
Me:
You’ve kept on watching Haikyuu?
I fear I need a consolation prize to get out of hiding :(
Jeongin ^^:
of course i did
consolation prize………
eat dinner with me?
why does that sound like i’m rewarding myself? haha
Me:
Does it feel like a reward?
“Who the hell are you texting, cause that’s definitely not Lix.” Jisung laughs as he tries to climb up in Hyunjin’s space. Hyunjin places a hand on his head and forehead keeping him distant from peeking at his phone.
Jeongin ^^:
yeah
i want to see you
“Ah.”
Jisung slaps his hand away, almost dropping half of his body in Hyunjin’s lap to overpower him. However Hyunjin has already lost any willpower to fight, brain feeling like it’s made of jelly.
“Ah,” Jisung echoes, Hyunjin’s phone now successfully in his hands and wide eyes blinking at the screen.
They say that when you spend too much time with your partner you start to mirror each other, probably that’s why the smile that spreads across Jisung’s face is just as mischievous as the one that usually adorns Minho’s lips when he’s about to tease Hyunjin.
“He wants to see you.”
“Shut up,” Hyunjin laughs as he takes his phone back. He locks the screen as a precaution, afraid to send something by mistake, and goes back to wrestling Jisung off his body.
As Jisung tries to tickle him Hyunjin almost pushes him off the bed and that’s how Minho finds them, Hyunjin’s foot pressed against Jisung’s chest while Jisung is almost strangling his ankle with his hands.
“Should I ask what’s going on?” He laughs fondly at them and leans his shoulder on the door frame, one of his cats rubbing against his leg while purring.
Minho’s entrance is enough to distract Jisung and so Hyunjin finally is able to push him away. Jisung falls flat on his ass at the end of what has become Hyunjin’s bed during this vacation, a couple of centimeters away from slipping off the mattress.
“Hyunjin has a date.”
“Rat,” Hyunjin spats, kicking his shin lightly.
Minho laughs and then nods at Hyunjin. “Ya, don’t break him.”
It takes approximately five changes of outfits for Hyunjin to get Jisung and Minho off his back. They try to dress him for a big chunk of the evening, Jisung at a certain point says that it’s like playing ‘Dress To Impress’ and Hyunjin doesn’t even want to dig into whatever that is.
In between he manages to exchange some texts with Jeongin, scheduling a time and where to meet. Typing an “I want to see you too,” with a smile tugging at his lips.
They meet by the bar, Jeongin waits for him with his phone in one hand and the other hand in the pocket of his shorts. He’s scrolling down aimlessly, blue light reflecting on the most prominent features of his pretty face.
Hyunjin feels shaking inside with excitement and a crumb of anxiety as he walks up to him.
Jeongin looks up when Hyunjin’s close enough for him to hear his steps and smiles, pocketing his phone and immediately reaching out for his hand. He grazes Hyunjin’s fingers, a light touch that evokes a storm of butterflies in Hyunjin’s tummy.
“Do you like sushi?”
Hyunjin nods. “I do.”
“Perfect.”
Jeongin smiles, glancing down at the way Hyunjin intertwines their fingers and then up again. Hyunjin doesn’t miss the way he stops for a fraction of a second to look at his lips. They’ve already kissed plenty, but somehow they’re both holding back right now.
They walk alongside the beach, Jeongin guiding Hyunjin to a hole in the wall kind of restaurant. The entrance is an anonymous door with just a name written outside but the place inside is packed and the atmosphere is nice. The chattering and the music in the background don’t clash together at all and actually fill the space with a nice buzzing sound.
A waiter walks them to a table and Hyunjin can’t stop looking around at the art on the wall and at the cute decorated plates and cups.
“Just give me a minute,” Jeongin says as he takes out his phone again. He types something for a while and it’s only normal for Hyunjin to worry.
“Is everything okay? Is your shift soon?”
“Oh no, I took a night off,” Jeongin answers. He locks his phone screen and his cheeks are a bit flushed. “I didn’t know if you liked sushi so I made more than one reservation.”
Hyunjin stays silent as he takes in the information, fluttering light feeling in his chest, lips naturally spreading in a smile.
He props his arms on the table. “Where else?”
Jeongin runs a hand through his hair, only showing more the blush that has traveled up to the tips of his ears. “Pasta, a dumpling place close to here, a restaurant and—” He stops to chuckle awkwardly at himself.
“No, no, go on,” Hyunjin prompts him. He’s sure if he could see himself in a mirror right now, he would probably have stars in his eyes. Jeongin is too sweet, too attentive, it makes him feel like he’s about to burst like a supernova.
“Ah, no, no,” Jeongin shakes a hand as he refuses to keep on listing the other places. “Anyway, now I’m at least in eight different people’s black list for canceling last minute.”
They chat over dinner, their ankles linked under the table and growing closer even though the table between them. Jeongin talks to Hyunjin about his siblings, his childhood in Busan, the old lady of the studio that hides the keys for him in a fake rock in one of the flower pots outside.
Hyunjin instead tells Jeongin about his life in Seoul, the constant training since he was in high school, Jisung, Felix and Seungmin and the volley club, Minho’s cats and his allergy to their fur, how Dori sneaked in his room the first night and snuggled to his side and he woke up with his eyes all puffy.
“I’m curious to see you like that,” Jeongin says with a laugh.
Hyunjin laughs. “Maybe I’ll send you a selfie on the last day.”
Jeongin reaches for his cup on the table and drinks the last sip of his beer. “Something nice to remember you until I’ll see you again.”
The implication of whatever this is lasting more than Hyunjin’s short vacation wipes away that little hint of anxious feeling that was nestled deep in Hyunjin’s brain. A short simple confirmation that this might not end next week.
After dinner Jeongin takes him to the studio, he holds Hyunjin's hands while he guides him inside and takes him to the desk he works at. All lights are off, only the moonlight filtering through the sheer curtains at the windows. He shows Hyunjin the soft silk like white fabric that he used to make a blouse and makes him feel the smooth texture with his fingers.
Jeongin keeps all his projects in two big boxes under the desk, black, labeled with his full name and a ‘Please don't touch’ scribbled under it, and he claims to be too shy to show them all to Hyunjin.
“Only if you try it on,” he compromises when Hyunjin begs to see at least one.
He gets the white blouse out of the box and shoos Hyunjin away when he tries to peek inside, a laugh in his voice as he does so.
“It fits me, so it should fit you too.”
Hyunjin unbuttons the first couple of buttons of his loose shirt, fingers slow. It's nothing Jeongin hasn't already seen or touched, however there's a bit of shyness in him. He slips the piece of clothing off his shoulders and Jeongin exchanges it for the blouse, avoiding looking at Hyunjin's body while he puts it on.
“How do I–” Hyunjin finds himself a bit confused as to how to tie the strings at the collar.
Jeongin steps in to help him immediately. Hands gently remove Hyunjin's hands, inviting them to let go of the flimsy strings and start working on the various knots.
“I know it's a bit intricate.”
The fabric feels just as smooth and soft as before on Hyunjin's body, it's like being lulled into a pleasurable relaxed feeling, if only it wasn't for the fact that Jeongin is so close, his hands wrapping delicate white strings around the base of his neck and his lashes especially pretty as he's looking down.
“Hey.” Hyunjin uses two fingers to lift Jeongin’s chin up and rests his lips on his in a short kiss.
He would be a liar saying that he hasn't thought about the feeling of Jeongin’s lips on him since the last time they kissed. He was yearning for this moment and Jeongin seems to have waited for it too, he tugs at the strings of the blouse the moment Hyunjin parts, chasing his lips for another kiss.
The moan that escapes Jeongin’s lips is the same as the one that Hyunjin exhales. Short, breathy, keen. His hands let go of the piece of clothing to cup the sides of Hyunjin’s neck, keeping him there as he kisses him over and over.
Hyunjin holds him dearly too, his hands on Jeongin’s waist to draw him closer. No matter the summer heat and the lack of ventilation, he doesn’t mind the warmth radiating of Jeongin’s body.
The same body that takes a step back and another. Hyunjin follows him with his eyes closed, too focused on staying glued to Jeongin. When Jeongin’s back hits the desk, Hyunjin wonders if it was his plan all along and if so, if he intended to make every object on it rattle at the impact.
Probably not, because Jeongin huffs a chuckle against Hyunjin’s lips before locking their lips again, hand traveling up to run through his hair and then down to play with the strings at the collar of the blouse.
This time it’s Hyunjin’s turn to explore the expanse of his skin. He kisses Jeongin’s parted lips one last time before starting to mouth at his jawline.
“Which perfume do you use?” He asks, inhaling right below his lobe. There’s a faint scent of cosmetics or cotton, Hyunjin isn’t sure, but he has already noticed it before and it’s so gentle but persistent, it matches Jeongin perfectly.
Jeongin wraps one of the strings around four fingers as if Hyunjin could slip away from him.
“I think it’s my shampoo– Ah–” He sighs at the end of his answer when Hyunjin, impatient in the wait, places more kisses on the column of his throat, right on his Adam’s apple. “It’s– The brand is– I– Hyun–”
The way he can’t answer properly only makes Hyunjin want to keep on going. He laps and mouths at the skin and Jeongin’s body starts relaxing, slipping from his hold, quiet sweet sounds coming out from his kissed bruised lips.
“You can tell me later.”
Jeongin tugs in response to Hyunjin’s teasing and Hyunjin is forced to come face to face with Jeongin again, like a dog on a leash. “Like at my place?”
Hyunjin likes a lot the almost there smile on Jeongin’s lips. He pecks them innocently, forcing himself to not lean in again as he instead wants to.
“Right now?”
Jeongin takes the other strand and finally finishes tying the last thin bow at the side of the blouse’s collar. “Yes, but we can also take a walk or get an ice cream or something along those lines.”
It’s so hard but also necessary to not lean in again, otherwise their conversation will never reach an end. Hyunjin distracts himself with some strands of Jeongin’s hair, tucking them behind his ears.
“We still have a whole week left to do all that,” he says. “Right?”
“There’s a whole week also for… this,” Jeongin reasons, cutely dancing around the topic after explicitly inviting Hyunjin over a couple of seconds before, suddenly shyer.
Hyunjin shouldn’t tease him again but “A whole week of this?” He asks, pressing his body more intently against Jeongin. They’re already almost fused together, one of Hyunjin’s thighs in between Jeongin’s legs, their bodies glued from their hips down.
Jeongin wraps his arms around Hyunjin’s shoulders to draw him even impossibly closer. “You’re doing it again,” he whispers on Hyunjin’s lips.
“Mh, what?” Hyunjin is distracted by the feeling of Jeongin almost kissing him but not yet, shivers dancing on his skin when Jeongin’s bottom lip grazes his own.
“Teasing.”
“I’ll stop if you—” A kiss shuts Hyunjin up for a second, drawing a keen sound out of him when Jeongin pulls away. “—Don’t like it.”
“I think you were right the other day. I do like it a little.”
Hyunjin's head spins at Jeongin’s confession. He has to step away, for everyone’s good.
Jeongin lets him go easily but still searches for Hyunjin’s hand, their fingers tangling easily with each other. “Nothing too harsh though,” he adds.
Hyunjin’s eyes dance on the creases on Jeongin’s tank top, down down to where it meets the belt at his waist and he’s straining in his pants. “Playful?” He deduces. “Push and pull.”
Jeongin pulls, catching Hyunjin by wrapping an arm around his waist. “Like so.”
The walk to Jeongin’s apartment is not too long, just two turns and a couple of streets.
A short trip in the elevator and a quick punch in of a code on the door keypad after, Hyunjin has him once again pressed against his own body.
Jeongin’s back clashes on the furniture at the entrance as they hastily kick their shoes off. Something falls on the floor, it sounds like keys but Jeongin whispers to Hyunjin not to worry and instead starts guiding him to his room.
They almost trip and bump against several things, but Hyunjin wouldn’t have it any other way. Jeongin’s clumsiness only enhances his charm, hearing his laugh and feeling his lips stretch in a smile against his own just makes Hyunjin want to kiss him more. And so he does, he kisses every inch of skin he can, going down his jawline and neck, biting and sucking.
He stops only when they reach the bed and Jeongin giggles - giggles!! - because the back of his knees hit the mattress and they almost lose their balance.
“You have to be more careful,” Hyunjin tells him as they climb together in bed.
Jeongin flips them over easily, blonde hair a bit wild and a teasing glint in his eyes. “How can you say that when you almost knocked over my desk lamp.”
“I was—” Hyunjin has no time to talk back, Jeongin pressing his lips on Hyunjin’s as he hums condescendingly, mocking him.
Touché.
Soft muscular thighs straddle Hyunjin’s hips, they cage him in just like Jeongin’s hands that are placed on the bed sheets right by his head, and who’s Hyunjin if not a weak man, totally enraptured by Jeongin since he has first landed his eyes on him. He lets himself be caged down and takes the chance to run his hands on Jeongin’s sides and down to his thighs and legs, lifting up the jeans fabric of his shorts to touch his warm skin.
He gives up on that contact though to push his palms on the bed and help himself sitting up. Jeongin follows him in every move, lips still hanging from Hyunjin, the pace of their kissing changing but not getting interrupted.
Like this, Hyunjin can finally get as close as possible to Jeongin. He finds again his hips but this time wanders to his lower back and then asscheeks, pushing him against himself.
“Ah—”
Hyunjin swallows the sweet sound that comes from him and presses again. Jeongin helps him by moving his hips with more intent, his arms wrapped around Hyunjin’s shoulders and his fingers carding through the back of Hyunjin’s hair.
Push and pull. Hyunjin pushes and Jeongin draws back, pulling Hyunjin with him into the most heart fluttering and heated kisses Hyunjin has never had the pleasure to experience before. Lips part and bite and suck on his tongue and bottom lip, their whines and moans filling the empty light dimmed room.
“Hyunjin.”
“Mhhh,” Hyunjin hums at the sound of his name being pronounced desperately against his lips. He runs his hands under Jeongin’s button up and white tank top, feeling the muscles on his back. “Tell me.”
He starts lifting everything up and Jeongin moves without the need of Hyunjin asking, raising up his arms and letting himself be undressed. Honey skin and the cute little tan line left by a necklace worn too often under the sun welcome Hyunjin. Jeongin is far from athletic, his reflexes when playing sports are all over the place, but he has a sculpted chest and it is the first thing that Hyunjin’s hand aims at, palm flat and two fingers caging his nipple.
“Enjoying?” Jeongin asks, not with confidence but with amusement and a scoff. He looks down at Hyunjin and Hyunjin looks up at him through his lashes.
“What do you say?”
They fall back on the mattress as Jeongin catches Hyunjin’s lips in a kiss. Pants get hastily pushed down their hips and legs and it would be the perfect time and moment to get dragged away by passion if it weren’t for—
“Fuck me and this fucking bows,” Jeongin swears as his fingers struggle to untie the strings around Hyunjin’s neck.
Hyunjin can’t help but find it entertaining. It doesn’t matter that he has a painful hard-on that Jeongin is currently sitting on, asscheeks perfectly aligned with it and putting extra pressure on it as he moves to get closer and tilts his head.
Jeongin is fully hard in his underwear too, big enough for the stretchy black material of his boxers to barely contain his cock and he’s simultaneously the hottest and the sweetest thing Hyunjin has ever seen. Hyunjin runs his hand down his own body and reaches for Jeongin’s underwear, he traces the line of the elastic and then hooks two fingers underneath it to tug and let it snap against the skin on Jeongin’s hips.
“I’m working here,” Jeongin sighs dramatically. His eyes glance up at Hyunjin and he can pretend to be annoyed how much he likes but there’s hints of a held back smile all over his face. It’s in his eyes, his lips, his rosy blushing cheeks.
Hyunjin once again hooks two fingers under the waist of Jeongin’s underwear. “I know,” he answers simply. This time he doesn’t snap it on Jeongin’s skin but drags it down slowly and carefully to reveal the trimmed hair on his crotch. Jeongin’s whole body shivers at the feeling of the elastic being dragged down his skin.
“Do I stop?” Hyunjin checks.
Jeongin is still with his fingers tangled in the flimsy strings of the blouse but shakes his head. He tilts it to kiss Hyunjin’s jawline, close to his ear. “No. Prep me, please.”
Hyunjin doesn’t let him ask twice.
It takes another round of giggles and swearings for Jeongin to get the lube and condoms out of one of the drawers in his nightstand while simultaneously being headset on staying on Hyunjin’s lap. And then there’s the underwear stubbornly getting tangled at his ankle and the cap of the lube almost falling off the bed, the many struggles and Jeongin’s final successful attempt to get at least Hyunjin’s arms out of the blouse.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” Jeongin apologizes with his fingers still fighting against the strings. “I’m burning this down after tonight.”
Hyunjin would love to help but his own hands are busy, one pulling and spreading one of the cheeks of Jeongin’s ass and the other palming lube all over his hole. Jeongin lets out a shaky exhale at the feeling and Hyunjin smiles, satisfied.
“It’s a good foreplay.”
It’s not a lie. Hyunjin quickly finds it embarrassingly hot to be knuckles deep inside Jeongin as he moans and whines and his fingers frustratingly tug at the strings and simultaneously at Hyunjin’s neck. Jeongin is struggling more and more as the time passes but his frustration clearly mixes with pleasure as Hyunjin crooks his fingers inside of him.
“I can’t believe you can’t untie a simple knot,” Hyunjin teases. He massages a spot that makes Jeongin’s knees almost slip and let him fall over Hyunjin, the sound that comes out of him sending shivers right down Hyunjin’s belly.
“Yeah?” Jeongin moans. “I would— Ah, fuck, keep going, there there there. Fuck.”
Hyunjin drags his fingers outside and inside Jeongin again, hitting the exact same spot and pressing, Jeongin’s whole body jerking forward. “You would what?”
“I would—“ Jeongin tries again, his voice breaks, his hips lower to try to grind himself on Hyunjin’s belly, his wet tip brushing up the center of it. “I would like to see you try.”
He seems to give up on the knot but to Hyunjin’s surprise instead he sees Jeongin’s hands drawing away from his neck with the long white strings of the blouse’s collar tangled in his fingers. At the realization, Hyunjin stops thrusting his fingers inside of Jeongin.
“Is it off?”
“Lift your stupidly beautiful head right now,” Jeongin orders as he shakes the strings off his fingers to grab the fabric bunched up at Hyunjin’s shoulders. Hyunjin laughs but obliges and he gets rewarded with a searing kiss placed on his lips right as Jeongin throws the blouse away.
In between kisses they find themselves rolling in the bed, Hyunjin switching their positions so he can slide inside Jeongin and keep him pressed down and open for him with his hands holding him right where there’s a faint tan line on both of his thighs. Hyunjin takes a mental note that it’s a perfect spot to kiss and mark and goes back to give all his attention to the man under him.
Jeongin holds him by his biceps and it doesn’t matter if Hyunjin starting to thrust into him makes it almost impossible to kiss properly, he still tries in between a moan and another.
“I’m so fucking grateful I can’t play volley.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Hyunjin sighs with a laugh. Jeongin laughs along too and wraps his arm around Hyunjin’s shoulders to keep him closer, the sweet sound coming out of him getting interrupted by another one. He moans, loud, as Hyunjin thrusts deeper inside.
“No, really,” Jeongin breathes out. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have been— ah— here.”
Hyunjin kisses his parted lips, sighing at the way Jeongin’s tongue looks for him. As he draws back, Hyunjin brushes a thumb on Jeongin’s cheekbone, collecting a small bead of sweat.
“Then I’m thankful too.”
Jeongin is the type that smiles when he comes down from his high. Hyunjin registers the fact in his brain while he watches Jeongin’s chest heaving in his post orgasms afterglow and the satisfied smile that tugs at his lips.
His blonde hair is wild, light oxygenated halo on the pillow below him, and his lips puffier, flushed a deeper shade of red from their kisses. Beautiful. Hyunjin won’t be able to find ever again anyone so handsome and witty and clumsy and endearing as the man that he leans down to kiss before he comes.
“Stay with me tonight,” Jeongin whispers to him.
And Hyunjin nods, fingers pushing a strand of his damp bangs off Jeongin’s temple in this delicate moment.
“Of course.”
The days that follow are vivid and a blur at the same time. They have breakfast in local cafes and stroll in streets unknown to Hyunjin. They run early in the morning, the sun pocking by the horizon and Jeongin trying to jokingly surpass him, and then swim in the sea at sunset, the orange and red hues of the sky painting Jeongin’s skin of pretty colors as Hyunjin leans in to kiss his wet and salty lips, the sand still on his shoulders from when Hyunjin pressed him down against it earlier.
Hyunjin tries to learn how to use a sewing machine and fails, just like he half-asses a drink on a night behind the counter and Chan and Jeongin pretend that it is good when they taste it. He feels proud of himself until Jisung takes a sip too and his face scrunches like when you make a kid taste lemon for the first time ever.
Jeongin learns how to pass a ball but only if no one throws it at him first and watches the Haikyuu movie on some sketchy site that opens five different pop ups at the same time whenever he pauses. Hyunjin laughs when Jeongin tells him that he almost risked his laptop’s life for him and, technically, nobody asked him to do that, but he still ends up thanking Jeongin for it.
Jeongin also successfully manages to see Hyunjin with teary eyes and a runny nose and taking his allergy meds. He comes over on the last day of Hyunjin’s stay and pets each one of Minho’s cats and scratches behind their ears like some kind of cat whisperer. By the end of the night he has Minho lint rolling his t-shirt and asking for his number in case he ever needs a cat sitter and Jeongin some extra money.
“You know, I would do it for free,” Jeongin tells Hyunjin later as they’re walking by the shore.
Hyunjin chuckles, one hand busy holding Jeongin’s, the other his own shoes. “Of course.”
Warm waves tickle their ankles repeatedly as they walk in the sand together for the last time.
“You were cute today.”
“What?? I looked awful,” Hyunjin disagrees.
Jeongin tugs at his hand as if to reprimand him. “You didn’t. You never do.”
Hyunjin tugs at him too, just like Jeongin’s words do with his heart. “These two weeks don’t count, I've been trying my best to look cool in front of you,” he says before leaning to peck Jeongin’s cheek.
Jeongin laughs while he lightly pushes him away with their fingers still intertwined. “Yeah, you were very cool when you sewed your own sleeve to another shirt.”
A hot blush flushes all over Hyunjin as he remembers the other afternoon when Jeongin introduced him to the old lady at the studio and Hyunjin, not only an hour later, ended up with the sleeve of his jacket stuck in the sewing machine he was learning how to use.
“I hate you,” he huffs, leaving Jeongin’s hand and walking ahead.
He smiles as he hears Jeongin speeding up to walk by his side.
“What do you want to do tonight?” Jeongin grabs his hand again, casual and ignoring the little fun bickering from before. “There’s something you want to do before you leave?”
Hyunjin can’t think of anything. He’s enjoying this simple walk, the way their hair is tousled by the wind, the feeling of the water and the sand beneath their feet, Jeongin’s fingers sliding in between his like they’ve been doing this for years and not just for not even two weeks. It’s mundane, it makes Hyunjin forget that he’ll leave tomorrow morning and won’t see Jeongin for who knows how long.
“I like this.”
Jeongin looks down at where a wave is just retreating back into the ocean, a smile tugging at his lips and a dimple showing on his cheek.
“Okay.”
They walk until they reach the end of the shore and have to come back.
Hyunjin walks him back home and kisses Jeongin on the threshold of his apartment until one of his roommates comes out of a room and Jeongin jolts at the sound of a door opening.
“I should’ve walked you back,” he complains for the nth time, but Hyunjin shushes him with another kiss.
It’s better Jeongin didn’t walk him to Minho’s apartment, because Hyunjin would’ve dragged him inside and leaving in the morning would’ve been a lot worse than it’s going to be tomorrow.
He lets go of him and puts more distance between them.
“I’ll text you when I’ll arrive,” he tells him, stalling once again in saying goodbye. But eventually he has to and only fifteen minutes later he’s back in Minho’s apartment with the premise of a sneeze tickling his nose and an overflowing luggage to close.
♡
The cold wind of autumn blows away the brown leaves at the side of the curb. The city is more chaotic at this time of the day rather than in the morning, the rush of wanting to come back home after a long day stronger than the fear of being late to work or to school. Or, for people like Hyunin, to practice.
Today has been extremely tiring, more than usual. But Jisung and Hyunjin's team has a game next week and even though it’s just a friendly match between their and Felix’s local team, it is extremely important for both of their coaches. Also, Hyunjin’s team still has to recover from landing the fourth spot in the summer.
Hyunjin’s legs walk on their own and his brain shut off as he gets inside his apartment complex and goes up the stairs. His hair is still damp with sweat but he’s too tired to care and falls in the comfort of his sofa cushions as soon as he’s inside his small loft, sighing.
On his lock screen, covering the picture of the shore that he took months prior, there are many notifications, too many. He ignores them all and scrolls down to where he sees a missed video call.
He presses on it to call back and settles more comfortably on the pillow under his back. Jeongin answers on the fourth ring, catching Hyunjin checking himself on the phone screen.
“You’re always pretty,” Jeongin says. He’s laying on his stomach on his bed, big hoodie on, his hair also damp.
“You’re pretty too. Did you just get out of the shower?”
“Mhmh,” Jeongin hums, hugging a pillow to his chest. “And you just came back home?”
Hyunjin huffs a short embarrassed laugh as he runs a hand through the mess that is his hair currently. He permed them recently and by the end of practice they look a bit wild, somehow Jeongin loves that. He also loves Hyunjin wearing his uniform, the way it sits on his shoulders and chest, and Hyunjin realizes by the way Jeongin is studying every detail of his appearance right now that he might have been a bit mean to call him before showering.
“Yeah, I’m tired.”
“Are you going to take a bath?”
Hyunjin sighs, spent. “That would be nice.”
Jeongin rests his cheek on the pillow. “Go, then.” His voice is soft like a blanket Hyunjin would like to wrap himself with and inhale the scent of. That bath can wait.
He can see the window on the wall behind Jeongin, the sky covered by dark and gray clouds. It hasn’t rained much in Seoul lately, but Jeongin’s side of the coast has been less lucky. Jeongin stopped sending him photos of pretty sunsets and the clear calm sea already two weeks ago.
Spending summer together, even if just for a week and a half, was heart fluttering, magic, like they were stuck in time. Hyunjin would like to experience the leaves falling off the trees and the cold breeze of the new season with Jeongin.
“Wish you were here.”
Jeongin sighs as he sinks more in the pillow, his cheeks splotched red in just a couple of seconds. “Stop.”
“We could bathe together.”
Jeongin sits up so he can settle his back against his bed’s headboard. He groans and complains as if Hyunjin has said something disgusting, but still grabs the pillow he was cuddling against before and hugs it in his lap, eyes dancing all over what he can see of Hyunjin from the screen, tongue wetting his bottom lip in a quick motion.
“Would we both fit in your bathtub?”
“If you sit in my lap, maybe.”
What a terrible image to conjure, Hyunjin regrets pronouncing the words the moment he feels both a pang to his heart and a wave of heat rushing down his chest.
“Why would it be me sitting in your lap?” Jeongin asks.
Hyunjin scoffs lightly. “You know why.”
“I’m sure I’m broader than you,” Jeongin bites back immediately.
“I’m taller.”
This time it’s Jeongin who scoffs. “For like, five or six centimeters at best.”
“How would I open you up then?”
Silence.
And then a groan, not a displeased one, but closer to the sounds that Jeongin had whispered and let out while holding Hyunjin flushed against his own body, his hands leaving marks on Hyunjin’s skin and fingers digging in his flesh and muscles.
“How would you?”
The tone shifts from playful to something else, not exactly Hyunjin’s first aim but after being apart for so long it happens sometimes, from one little remark or joke to end up listening to each other’s breaths and moans through the line.
They’ve never done this on video before, Hyunjin has never seen Jeongin’s hand subtly sliding down to fix himself in his pants before this evening.
“With you in my lap it would be so easy,” Hyunjin says, imagining the feeling of Jeongin’s back against his chest, of the soft skin of his thighs under the water. “Spread your legs open with my hands, travel down slowly.”
Jeongin’s chest rises and falls as he takes a deep breath and exhales. “Hyun.”
Sweet sweet sound.
“Yeah?”
Hyunjin should take a breath too, maybe.
“Are we..?”
It’s all implicit, yet Hyunjin understands and hot, flushed and already bothered, answers. “If you want to.”
“Fuck, yes, I do, let me just—” Jeongin turns to grab one of the pillows behind his back, Hyunjin smiles fondly as he gets to face the darkness of Jeongin’s new bed comforter when he drops his phone on top of it.
Hyunjin finds a way to settle his phone somewhere too, sitting up on the sofa and resting the device against the vase on top of his coffee table. Jeongin got flowers delivered to him last weekend, a bouquet of pansies and forget-me-nots that made Hyunjin look up the meanings online and blush.
On the other side, the screen stops being black and Hyunjin gets rewarded by a vision that isn’t comparable even to the pretties of flowers. Jeongin rests with his back on the headboard, baggy hoodie still on and raised up to his waist and a pair of underwear hiding almost nothing as his legs are spread open.
“Wow,” Jeongin says, eyes trained to the screen. “I love volleyball.”
Hyunjin laughs and spreads his legs a little too, letting his back sink in the cushions behind him. “What’s the next tournament called?” He teases.
Jeongin throws his head back as he laments. “I swear I had the name memorized until a second ago. This sight is confusing me.”
“Sure,” Hyunjin chuckles. He lets his hand fall on his inner thigh, right where he would place it right now on Jeongin’s body if he were there.
Jeongin’s eyes follow the movement and watch him like a hawk. He mimics Hyunjin and brushes his hand down his hip to his inner thigh too. “I’ve been studying. I got the sports channel thing too,” he says as he sneaks his fingers under the hem of the leg hole of his underwear.
“You’ve subscribed to the…”
Hyunjin’s voice trails off pathetically when Jeongin moves more, half of his hand disappearing inside his tight underwear as the fabric stretches. He can see the outline of Jeongin’s fingers gently moving up and down his perineum, his stomach tensing and relaxing at the touch.
“So I can watch you playing next month,” Jeongin says, a slight tremble in his voice. Hyunjin doesn’t melt into nothingness only because it’s not humanly possible yet.
“You need lube,” he reminds him when he so clearly sees Jeongin prodding at his hole.
Jeongin stops in his motions and huffs a chuckle. He nods at Hyunjin on his phone screen, “Just say you want me to take my underwear off.”
They push and pull and play around but answering with another teasing remark would be easy, predictable. So Hyunjin shrugs and moves his hand to hold himself over his shorts.
“I want you to take it off.”
Maybe the adrenaline from the hours of practice is giving Hyunjin another type of confidence. It gets rewarded immediately as Jeongin blinks for a second in surprise and then hastily pulls down his underwear. The moment he falls down in bed again his phone falls to the mattress along with him, the screen showing the turned off ceiling fan.
“Ah fuck,” Jeongin swears, the video becoming blurry and confusing as he sits the phone again against the pillow settled in front of himself. “Sorry, I’ve never done this before.”
“No, it’s—” There’s too much skin on show for Hyunjin to focus, Jeongin’s legs are spread open and his hand is traveling down to the base of his hardening cock to hold it. “It’s okay, me neither.”
Jeongin smirks at Hyunjin’s reaction and stops, just two fingers wrapped around his shaft. “Your turn.”
Hyunjin slips his shorts and underwear down his thighs and lifts his shirt up his tummy. He barely looks at himself, focused on Jeongin getting the lube and spreading it all over his fingers.
“What kind of bathtub do you have?” The other sighs, big hand reaching down to wet himself.
Hyunjin inhales as he watches Jeongin push one digit inside his hole easily. "Have you already touched yourself?" He asks instead of answering.
Jeongin sighs as he pushes his finger all in, up to his knuckle. “Before in the shower, I—” He sighs. Hyunjin’s head spins at the newfound knowledge. “The bathtub, tell me, please.”
“A standard one?” Hyunjin struggles, tugging at his black arm sleeve, tight and uncomfortable to remove. He gives up, leaving it on along with the knee pads that are starting to dig into the skin of his thighs and calves. “It’s white, rectangular, against the wall. There's a window right there, you can see the city from above.”
Jeongin drags his finger out and inside of himself slowly and starts trying to sneak in the tip of another finger. He moans softly as he speaks, Hyunjin tries his best to fist himself at a slow pace.
“What else?”
“Usually I use salts or a bath bomb, and…” Hyunjin finds himself trailing off again at the sight of Jeongin’s body tensing when he finally inserts a second finger. “You could rest against me, in between my legs, your head on my shoulder.”
He can see it, the water reaching their chests, one of his hands resting on Jeongin’s tummy while the other fingers him just like Jeongin is doing with himself right in this moment.
“We’re kissing,” Jeongin exhales, like it’s a crucial detail to add to the fantasy.
Hyunjin flushes at the way a bead of precum trickles down his fingers at the idea. Jeongin would laugh cutely in between kisses and moans and one of his feet would probably slip inside the bathtub, the jerk of his knee pushing the water outside and on the floor. And he would find a way somehow to make a pun about volleyball in between, just because they make Hyunjin groan, only with the aim of shutting him up with another kiss.
“Of course we are.”
“Shit,” Jeongin cries, two fingers deep, head thrown back, the squelch of lube increasing with his speed. He slides a hand on his stomach but doesn’t touch himself, just dances on his skin with his fingers.
Hyunjin picks up the pace on himself, rolls his palm on his tip and moans. “Add another,” he says before realizing his demanding tone. “If you can.”
A broken laugh reaches him through the speakers, Jeongin’s body shakes along with it and Hyunjin hates not being there to experience it firsthand.
“You know I can.”
“You know what I meant,” Hyunjin laments, his voice coming out strained.
“I do, Hyun.” Jeongin presses another digit in slowly, adjusting to the intrusion. “What would you do? Would you go faster than this? Slower? Tell me.”
Hyunjin can barely think but he can still picture them dipped in the warm water with their bodies pressed against each other. He wishes they could be close in real life, that there weren’t kilometers and telephone screens between them.
“I would crook my fingers,” he voices out the picture in his head.
Jeongin follows his lead immediately, it’s noticeable in the way the muscles in his forearm flex and he parts his lips to moan and closes his eyes.
“Right there, good, like that” Hyunjin entices him. “I would do that until you come. Kiss your neck, hold your legs open because you’re always thrashing around.” He picks up his own pace, noticing the way Jeongin’s moans are turning into whines. He’s close too but he can’t let go and focus on himself just yet, not when he has Jeongin like this in front of him, a sight he hasn’t had the pleasure to witness for months.
Following along with Hyunjin's words, Jeongin uses his other hand to push against one of his inner thighs, the tips of his fingers digging in the flesh.
“Fuck— I’m—” Jeongin heaves, his body starting to move looking for more, riding his own fingers as he’s massaging inside himself. There’s a hint of frustration in the way he breathes out his moans.
“What is it? Can’t do it without me?”
Jeongin’s dick twitches on his stomach at Hyunjin’s teasing tone, slightly belittling but not too much.
“You can touch yourself if your fingers are that usele—”
“No, I can, I can— Ah,” Jeongin stops to let out a cry. “You wouldn’t do it.”
One of the things that fascinated Hyunjin in their few intimate moments, was how Jeongin could come without Hyunjin even trailing a finger down his cock, his body sensitive beyond saving. Jeongin’s right, Hyunjin would not wrap his hand around him in the bathtub, there wouldn’t be any need to, he would probably just thumb at his tip, dragging the finger on his slit to hear him cry against his lips.
“You’re so beautiful,” Hyunjin thinks out loud, his eyes following the soft rise and fall of Jeongin’s hips on his bed, his body slowly sliding down the pillows without him even realizing. “I’ve been missing you like crazy.”
Jeongin watches him through his lashes, cheeks flushed pink, lips reddened by the amount of times he has bitten them to hold back his loudest sounds. He rolls his eyes back and lets out a whine as he thrusts his fingers at a fast pace before stopping deep inside himself to torture a specific spot. “I miss you too,” he sighs. “I miss you so much. I want to kiss you again, Hyun, I— I miss you, I miss you, I miss—”
His voice breaks as he comes all over himself, riding his own knuckles desperately, chasing the pleasure until the very last moment. And maybe it’s a bit fool in love-like embarrassing, who knows, but Hyunjin comes right when Jeongin is done and lets out a soft, amazed giggle, the sight of Jeongin being fucked out in bed and being incredulous about it doing something to him.
They stay quiet for a couple of seconds, just breathing in fully after minutes of struggling taking complete breaths, interrupted constantly by their own ministrations.
“How will you reach your bathroom now?” Jeongin asks with a laugh.
Hyunjin lets out a short laugh of his own, his hand is still wrapped around his now softening cock, cum trickling down. “My legs feel like jelly, I’ll probably crawl on the floor or something.”
“You're so sexy.”
Jeongin’s lips stretch in a smirk as he settles more comfortably on the mattress. Hyunjin has a free front row in the show that is Jeongin slipping his fingers out of himself with a chocked moan and his hole fluttering at the sudden emptiness.
Jeongin doesn’t move from his comfortable spot and tries to stretch an arm to reach for the tissues on his nightstand. He almost pulls the whole box while he tries to get just a couple of them, it’s a cute sight that makes Hyunjin’s heart ache.
Both of them exist quietly in each other’s presence, cleaning themselves and putting their clothes back on.
“Innie,” Hyunjin calls, Jeongin lifting his gaze to look at him. “I really wish you were here to bathe together.”
“No funny business involved?” Jeongin teases.
Hyunjin shakes his head no, letting out his feelings. “I want to hug you again.”
♡
The room is spinning, the rally has been going on for so long that Hyunjin can’t even understand how he’s still able to run on the court to try to catch the ball.
He jumps high, his legs moving on his own, his arm raising now as a reflex, like his body has now its own free will, its only aim scoring the final point. He spikes, strong, hard, needles poking at every inch of his palm, and yet Felix runs on the other side of the court and receives the ball again.
It’s never ending and exhilarating. The kind of game that Hyunjin looks forward to when he hears the first whistle of the match.
“What the fuck!”
Hyunjin gets distracted. He recognizes the voice that is shouting from the bleachers and for a second it feels like an hallucination of his tired body and mind.
“Jeongin-a,” another familiar voice sighs loudly but the sentence that follows it’s overcomed by the rest of the audience gasping at the receive of Hyunjin’s team’s libero.
The ball flies high in the air and Hyunjin has no time to look for familiar faces in the sea of people that have come to watch the friendly but long awaited match between his and Jisung’s team and Felix’s one. The Nationals and Olympics golden trio playing against each other.
“Hwang Hyunjin!” Jisung calls him out on being distracted immediately, even as he’s busy running to chase the ball.
Hyunjin locks in the game again and waits for the ball to be passed to him, because he knows that even though Jisung might be slightly upset at him, he will still raise the ball for him to spike it over the net.
Finally, after many trials, Hyunjin eyes the perfect spot to hit and it’s done. Five sets, too many recovered match points and so much running around that the room seems to spin beyond control and close on him.
Hyunjin sits faintly on the parquet of the court, planting his palms on the floor and tilting his head up. He breathes in and out deeply and avoids looking directly at the bright neon lights on the ceiling. The sound of the cheers is deafening, it makes every fiber that still can feel anything in his body rumble.
Felix steps in his field of vision and looks down at him, his blonde hair falling like a curtain around his delicate face. “Tired you out too much?” He asks with a deep laugh.
“Maybe I should’ve come to the retreat in the mountains too,” Hyunjin says as he accepts the hand that has just been offered to him.
Felix pulls him up and raises his eyebrows at him. “And lose the chance to meet your personal cheerleader?”
Finally feeling a bit less sick, Hyunjin looks around the bleachers, searching for a blonde head. He smiles as he notices Jeongin bickering with Seungmin, he has a banner in his hand and one of those shirts with players names that they usually sell at merch stands during tournaments and big events, Hyunjin’s name and number on his back.
Seeing Jeongin in the flesh cures any kind of tiredness in Hyunjin, his legs don’t hurt, the skin of his hands is not pulsing anymore, his head is clear.
“And what about yours?” He asks, nodding in Seungmin’s direction.
Seungmin is not wearing merch nor are there any banners in sight, but the hat he’s wearing belongs to Felix’s team and Hyunjin knows that he wanted to come and keep it lowkey, watch the match and leave to not bother Felix too much.
“He’s not…” Felix looks away, the red tips of his ears a stark contrast with his blonde long hair. “I don’t even know why he’s here.”
Hyunjin rolls his eyes and pushes him lightly. “You know it well. It's been years, Bokkie.”
Felix stalls a little, looking back where Seungmin is and then at Hyunjin. “I’ll talk to him later.”
“You have to catch him before he leaves,” Hyunjin warns him.
Celebratory chatter and a round of hand shaking with the opponent team later, Hyunjin can finally run to the side of the court, right where most of the public is descending the bleachers’ stairs to leave except one.
Sparks pop under Hyunjin’s skin at every step he takes and explode like colorful fireworks when his arms wrap around Jeongin and hug him tightly, crackling in his ribcage.
“You should’ve told me you were coming,” he tells him, his face nestled in the crook of his neck, inhaling his scent.
Jeongin lets out a short chuckle, the sound so genuine and sweet, no laugh coming out of a speaker can compete with it.
“I wanted to surprise you.” He pulls back, trying to look at Hyunjin while still being enveloped in his arms. “Did it work?”
“Very much,” Hyunjin answers. He trails a hand up Jeongin’s shoulder to rest it against the side of his neck, just a few centimeters away from cupping his cheek. Cheeks that rise as Jeongin smiles back, happy, shining and satisfied.
“Good.”
“Are you staying tonight or are you taking the train back?”
Hyunjin takes a step back before his body starts acting before his mind, he can’t kiss someone in front of his coach. Still he looks for Jeongin’s hands to hold them.
“I’m staying at Seungminnie hyung’s place.”
“Stay at mine instead.”
Hyunjin isn’t even sure he has cleaned up properly before bolting out of his apartment this morning, running to the early practice prior to the match. This is more important though.
“I don’t know.”
When Jeongin pretends to find the request annoying and rolls his eyes, Hyunjin gives in and quickly pecks his lips, the taste of Jeongin’s cherry scented lip balm welcoming him after months. It reminds him of walks on the sand and dives in the sea.
Hyunjin will always be grateful to his vacation, to Jeongin’s total lack of coordination when it comes to volleyball, to the pebble that guided him down that street that afternoon. Otherwise he would’ve never found himself here today holding Jeongin’s in his arms, watching his cheeks turn a muted shade of scarlet after just being kissed.
Distance has been tough but they’ll find their way around it over and over again just like they’ve done so far, he’s sure of it.
“I’ll lend you everything you need.”
“If I really have to,” Jeongin keeps on going with the facade as his hands timidly trail to Hyunjin’s nape to feel the damp permed waves in his hair.
Hyunjin doesn’t pick him up into his arms and take him away only because there’s no strength left in his body anymore. The adrenaline rushing through his veins is slowly settling down, seeing Jeongin a small and temporary distraction to the fatigue that is starting to kick in. He can’t wait to lay down and feel Jeongin’s arm wrap around him and his soft humming lulling him to a nap, Jeongin’s lips will soon kiss his temple, his cheeks, whisper stories to him about his life on the other side of the country.
“Is your bed big enough?” Jeongin asks, as if he could see the picture Hyunjin was drawing in his mind.
“King size.”
“Nice.” Jeongin hums, interested. “I can’t wait.”
Hyunjin laughs softly and takes a step back. The place is almost empty and a lot more quiet than it used to be just a couple of minutes before. The cart full of balls is still by the corner of the room and the net is still up.
“Do you want to try to play on a professional volleyball court?” He asks, tugging at Jeongin’s hands.
Jeongin follows his steps and lets himself be dragged closer to the line that delimits the side of the court. “Can you teach me how to serve?”
“I can try.”
Hyunjin ignores the curious stares of the staff and the few people that are lingering around and reaches the cart to take a volleyball. He pushes it in between Jeongin’s hands, daring him to show him if he has learned anything in these past months.
Jeongin laughs at him but accepts. He bounces the ball against the floor a couple of times and then takes in a breath. Hyunjin’s eyes are trained to the ball as Jeongin tosses it high and raises his other hand.
The smack of the hit is loud just as much as the sound of the ball falling on the floor on the other side of the court. Hyunjin blinks at what he has just witnessed and Jeongin turns to look at him with a satisfied smile on his lips. He raises his eyebrows at Hyunjin and it’s the goofiest, most attractive thing he could’ve ever done.
Hyunjin is so in love that his heart feels like it could implode.
“And you asked me to teach you?” He scoffs, offended.
Jeongin shrugs as he walks closer to him, meeting Hyunjin halfway. “Next time we meet I want you to make a t-shirt that’s not lopsided,” he says as pushes two fingers on Hyunjin’s chest. “Or learn a couple of stitches at least.”
Hyunjin takes his fingers and raises Jeongin’s hand to make him rest his arm on his shoulder. “Teach me tonight?” He asks.
“I had to learn how to serve on my own,” Jeongin objects. “At best I’ll show you a good Youtube tutorial.”
“Okay okay,” Hyunjin gives in. “I’ll get a sewing machine tomorrow.”
“Please, don’t. I fear for your fingers. And clothes.”
Hyunjin laughs but someone in the gym clears their throat, interrupting him. He looks around, the place now empty except for two people still on the bleachers.
Seungmin has a blush on his cheeks, one that mirrors the one that colors Felix’s face. He leans his forearms on the railings and finally speaking to Felix must’ve gotten to his head because he has the smile of a fool in love, a hundred watts of energy radiating off him.
“You made everyone run away,” he points out.
Jeongin steps away from Hyunjin, his hand trailing on his shoulder before falling. “Was my serve too powerful?”
Seungmin barks a laugh. “Amateur at best!” Felix gives him a little pat on his hip to reprimand him. “Are you having dinner with us or not?”
Jeongin looks at Hyunjin to check. Hyunjin feels almost on the verge of falling asleep but he sees the way Felix is anxiously playing with his bracelet and Seungmin is waiting while biting the inside of his cheek. They need something to ease the awkward tension between them.
“Do you really want to miss this incredible reunion?”
Jeongin frowns. “Will you even survive dinner without passing out?” He asks.
And he’s not wrong, because during the wait for the dessert Hyunjin lays his head on Jeongin’s shoulder and feels his eyelids drop after just a couple of seconds. He’s still in his uniform under the jacket that Jeongin has offered to him before leaving the venue, intricate floral details sewn on the back with a white thread, and it feels like wearing Jeongin’s name on his back just like Jeongin is wearing Hyunjin's on his shirt.
“I feel like my brain is shutting down,” he murmurs.
Seungmin and Felix on the other side of the table are finally catching up for real after a while of timidly and uncomfortably conversing over the food. Hyunjin puts a reminder in the back of his brain to text Jisung when he regains a bit more energy.
Jeongin cards a hand through Hyunjin’s hair and then trails it down his back and to his waist to coax him closer. “I’ve told you so.”
“Yeah yeah, I know,” Hyunjin sighs. “I’ll just close my eyes for a second.”
Jeongin’s other hand reaches for the spot where the top hem of Hyunjin’s knee pad is slightly digging in the flesh of his thigh, his fingers tracing the line. “Okay, I’ll wake you up when the food is here.”
The rest of the dinner is nice. Hyunjin eats his small strawberry shortcake while humming sleepily, the sweet taste of it feeling like a little reward after his two minutes nap.
Jeongin asks for a bite and parts his lips for Hyunjin to spoon feed him but cringes at the excessive sweetness of the cream. The way he scrunches his nose at the taste reminds of Hyunjin of when he begged Jeongin to try tanghulu and he grimaced while biting it, both of them sitting by the sand, water still dripping from their hair.
It took just a few days for Hyunjin’s favorite season to change. But he has to admit the the chill cold of autumn is also not bad when he has Jeongin right beside him, when the temperature becomes a perfect excuse to walk back home with Jeongin’s arm around his waist under his jacket, or for them to sink in the warm water in Hyunjin’s bathtub once they’re finally back in his apartment.
Water is dripping from their hair again, their lips wet as they kiss and Hyunjin pictures many other seasons together. Jeongin jokes that by the time it will be summer again, he might get in the national team with him and Hyunjin pinches his side for ruining their little romantic moment. However, he wouldn’t have it any other way.