Tired Lines; Soonhoon

10

☽

10:34 pm.

Jihoon and Soonyoung had left Mingyu and Wonwoo a while ago, meandering around, caught between thin walls and sweaty bodies, but caught with each other - and that's fine. Jihoon's heart most certainly is not palpitating, not in the slightest.

"Why don't I ever see you at these parties?" Soonyoung asks.

"You say that like you come to these things pretty often."

He shrugs, lips tugging somewhere between a smile and grimace as he sips his beer, and he says, "I go when Wonwoo asks me to. It's not like I have anything better to do, anyway." Jihoon quirks one brow.

"Work?"

A breath, a laugh -

"I'm not always working, Jihoon. I have my days off. Funny, tonight you just happened to show up to the same party - which, you still haven't answered my question."

Jihoon watches the boy next to him, mirthful. They've backed themselves into a corner of the house, Soonyoung on his second drink, Jihoon still empty-handed. He's vaguely aware of the dull ache at the back of his skull, but he doesn't mind it. Not right now.

"I tend to avoid parties, they're too ... much. Too much for me. I only came tonight because Mingyu wanted me to meet Wonwoo."

Soonyoung's eyes widen, and Jihoon's tempted to reach out and catch his gaze in one hand, hold onto it, keep it close. "Was that you meeting him for the first time, earlier?" he asks. "I thought you two had been introduced at least once before - I mean, Mingyu and I have met more than a few times."

Jihoon chokes in the midst of swallowing. "W-What? You've met Mingyu before?"

"Well, sure. I was going to say something the other night when you both came in, but I figured I'd just leave you two ... to it. Didn't want to be a bother." Jihoon doesn't mention that he doesn't think Soonyoung could be a bother if he tried - he's too busy planning Mingyu's murder.

"Wonwoo talks about him all the time," Soonyoung says when Jihoon doesn't respond. "Literally, all the time. Don't tell Mingyu I told you this," he bends slightly, leaning closer to Jihoon's ear, as if there's really any chance that someone might overhear, "but he highkey has a massive crush on the kid."

Jihoon barks out a laugh, ignoring the way he shudders at Soonyoung's close proximity, ignoring the way he feels when the elder pulls away in surprise. "What's funny?" he asks.

"Them," Jihoon's shoulders shake with amusement. "Dumb, dumb boys. Mingyu's so gone for Wonwoo, it's crazy."

But instead of laughing, or even so much as cracking a smile, like Jihoon had expected, Soonyoung straightens and frowns. "I'm confused."

"What's confusing? They both like each other. Mingyu's been talking my ear off about his crush for the last seven months."

"But - But that doesn't bother you?"

"Why would it?"

"I don't know, Jihoon, I'd be pretty annoyed if my boyfriend openly had a thing for someone who wasn't me."

. . .

"Sorry?"

"I said - "

"Soonyoung, Mingyu and I aren't dating. We're friends, that's it." Soonyoung's expression morphs into one of understanding, a silent Oh gracing his face. Jihoon doubles over in laughter.

"Well, I mean - ! How was I supposed to know that?"

Between cackles, one hand clutching at his stomach and the other slapping Soonyoung's arm, Jihoon manages to gasp, "Why would you think we're - ?"

"When I saw you two together at the café, I just assumed - I mean, it looked like, like you were on a - "

"A date? You thought that was a date?" Jihoon's laughter fades out, but he continues to giggle; he's overcome with a surge of affection at the sight of Soonyoung's cheeks, growing rosier by the second.

"Those things he said, it sounded like ... I don't know."

"True, Mingyu loves me," Jihoon grins, straightening, "but he only said those things because he's weird and obnoxious, and he was trying to rile me up. It wasn't like that."

"I feel stupid, now."

"You are stupid," Jihoon bumps Soonyoung with his shoulder, still smiling. He's not sure where the sudden confidence came from, but he won't complain so long as Soonyoung doesn't.

10:58 pm.

"Can we step out?" The air had become stale in his lungs, nose burning from having spent too much time inhaling the scent of alcohol and sweat.

Outside, Jihoon can see Soonyoung a little better; without distractions, the pressure behind his eyes and heart, he can focus on Soonyoung a little better. His mind up to that point had been all over the place, but now it stills, and it's almost like they're back at the café - only at the café, it's quieter, and the people around them aren't emptying their stomachs, and Jihoon isn't so cold.

He rubs his bare arms (he thought he'd be fine with just a tee - he was wrong), and presses his lips together tight while he steals a glance at the boy beside him. It isn't fair that Jihoon, despite having not really done anything in the past three hours, probably looks like haphazard on feet, while Soonyoung, who's at least a little tipsy by now, stands gloriously under the sky's smile; metallic-flint hair stands up here and there messily, and his face is more than a little flushed, his eyes are more than a little bright - and Jihoon's not sure he's ever in his life met someone so invariably beautiful.

On the porch steps, sitting side by side, Soonyoung asks, "Are you cold?" The words aren't slurred, by any means - he didn't drink that much - but he speaks in a mumble, his shoulder pressed up against Jihoon's and face turned so that their noses almost touch. Jihoon finds it hard to breathe.

"Only a little."

Soonyoung's tone drops even lower to match that of Jihoon's when he says, "Why are you whispering?"

"I'm not sure."

They stare at each other a minute or two longer, until Soonyoung's moving suddenly, wriggling to get his hoodie off and over his head, tugging his arms out of the sleeves before pushing the article into Jihoon's chest, pressing it there by way of insistence.

"Take it," he says, "I was getting hot, anyway."

And Jihoon doesn't think about it too much, for once, he just slips it on. It's warm with the heat of Soonyoung's skin, and it smells like cotton; he lets it envelop him entirely, tightening the strings so that the fabric bunches a little around his face and breathing in the freshness. It's Soonyoung, but not. It's the next best thing. Jihoon's eyes flicker to the boy beside him.

"What?" he asks, feeling the heat on his neck.

"What, what?"

"Why are you looking at me?"

" ... You're nice to look at."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

11:11 pm.

Jihoon thinks he might like to kiss Soonyoung.

—

dgfhgj i keep rethinking my decision to place this in college lmao like. i could've made my life so much easier by setting this in high school ?? or during the summer??? but nOoO i love making things difficult for myself !

i could fix it tbh but i'm ,,, too lazy to revise the last 10 chapters sdfjhjjk

just know that if certain things don't add up or something looks a little out of place it's because i'm dumb & still in high school ://