New Rules ⇿ YEONBIN

⇿ 23 ⇿

idk how to thank y'all enough for 30k, like, wtf?? i love everyone who reads this, even if you're a ghost reader. tysm for over 1k comments also. ik i don't reply to every comment, but y'all r so funny n ur words warm my heart n bring sm good energy into my days. imma try n reply more often. again, i love y'all fr 💕💕

⇿ one month later ⇿

Soobin tightened his grip on the bracelet he had been gifted recently, something he did when he was stressed. He twisted it back and forth on his wrist, simply to ease the heaviness he felt in his heart.

"Binie, you okay?" Yeonjun stopped in his tracks, snapping Soobin out of his thoughts.

The black haired stopped walking also, stuffing his hands in his pocket with a sigh. On one hand, he didn't want to make the younger worry, but, on the other, he didn't know how much longer he could hold his emotions in.

"N-not really." Soobin decided on the latter, looking down since he didn't have the strength nor confidence to even look at Yeonjun.

"Why?" The brunette started to frown, and Soobin wanted to curl up into a ball and die. It was the couple's first date, and he still couldn't act right.

"I don't know. I guess I'm a little nervous, a-and stressed." Soobin fumbled, his fingers slowly going back to playing with his bracelet-

"Hey, look at me." Yeonjun grabbed the noir's hands, causing him to finally look up from the floor.

"You've been pulling all nighters for weeks now trying to find a place, I get it. M-maybe I shouldn't have asked to go out. I'm sure you need rest-"

"But I don't want to ruin this." Soobin almost whined, shaking the younger's hands to show emphasis.

"Don't be a baby." Yeonjun scoffed with a roll of his eyes, slowly beginning to drag Soobin back in the direction of their 'home'.

'Home', because Soobin didn't really see Ryujin's sister's apartment as a home. Yes, it felt like a home, but it could never fully be one simply due to the fact that he felt like a burden living there. The three bedroom apartment was so packed seeing as Yeonjun and Soobin were sharing one room, Ryujin and her sister were sharing a second and Ryujin's sister had a roommate, Yeji, who had the third. Though, recently Ryujin's been sneaking off to Yeji's bedroom during the night- but, Soobin promised not to talk about that.

"I'm not a baby." Soobin frowned, letting Yeonjun drag him 'home' nonetheless.

"Uh-huh, sure." Yeonjun teased much to the noir's avail, causing him to blush slightly because the former prince had been so forward lately and Soobin didn't know what to think.

"How far is the complex from here, anyway?" Yeonjun asked, his furrowed eyebrows causing him to pout cutely.

"Probably a minute or two, we didn't get too far." Soobin guessed, furrowing his eyebrows when Yeonjun let go of his hands with this weird glint in his eyes.

"Race me."

⇿

Soobin blinked away his tiredness as he continued scrolling through website after website. He knew he was meant to be resting and he knew his newfound headache would only get worse if he carries on looking at a screen, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help the urge to look for a house or apartment to be more independent, he couldn't help the urge to look for a job simply so he wasn't feeding off of Yeonjun's money anymore-

"Soobin."

The noir flicked his eyes up from the screen at the sound of an all too familiar voice, slight fear running through him because Yeonjun never really called him by his full name anymore. He could only guess that the younger was somewhat angry.

"I told you to rest." He practically scolded, pouting as he did so.

"I don't need rest." Soobin denied, his words coming out way more colder than he intended them to.

"Yes you do. This morning you were so out of it that we couldn't even go anywhere-"

"You said you weren't mad about that." Soobin frowned, mainly because he was taken aback by how angry Yeonjun sounded.

"I only said that so you wouldn't feel bad, of course I'm mad about it. It was meant to be our first date and everything." Yeonjun crossed his arms, his pout only deepening.

"I-I'm sorry-"

"You said that before, yet here you are. Still doing what I've been telling you to take a break from. Do you know how frustrating it is? Do you know how hard it is seeing you ignoring me?-"

"I haven't- I haven't been ignoring you." Soobin's mind suddenly started whirring, because, f*ck, this sounded like the start of an argument and the two had never argued like this before.

"Really? When was the last time you talked to me without me talking to you first?" Yeonjun asked, quirking an eyebrow as he did so.

Soobin wanted to speak, but his mind wouldn't let him. He didn't know how to explain himself without having to delve into his past. His past of isolation, his past of focusing so hard on studies that he didn't have time for any social interaction let alone friends. Sure, part of the reason why Soobin hadn't started a conversation with Yeonjun before was because of the house and job searching, but more of it was because he didn't know how to. Soobin didn't know how the hell to really talk to someone. All he's got for reference is the psychology textbooks he had to read when he was knight training, and if he used that to speak he'd sound so robotic and fake.

"It's- it's like you don't even want this." Yeonjun spoke into the silence that had formed, and that's when it happened. That's when Yeonjun being annoyed turned into Soobin being annoyed also. That's when it turned into an argument.The couple's first argument that wasn't induced by anyone else.

Just them.

"You think I don't want this? You're acting like I didn't sacrifice my life for you." Soobin's voice rose before he could stop it, but at that point in time he didn't care much.

"And you are too! You're drowning yourself in all this work. Think about it, when was the last time we actually just did something, anything? Just the two of us." Yeonjun sighed before continuing, "we've been here for a month, Soobin. You'd think we'd at least have gone out."

"I'm only focusing so hard on this for us. Don't you want us to have a place of our own?" Soobin furrowed his eyebrows, more irritation bubbling at the pit of his stomach. For some reason, whenever it came to Yeonjun, all of his years of psychology faded into nothingness. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't read the younger and that irritated him.

"Of course I do, but I-I also wanna spend time with you."

"We do spend time together, though. We live together for f*cks sake."

Yeonjun scoffed, seemingly upon Soobin's words, and the noir didn't understand why. In his mind, he was stating nothing but the truth. Then again, in Yeonjun's mind, the, now, grey haired probably thought he was stating nothing but the truth too.

"This is getting pointless. All I'm saying is that you- you need to come to your senses." Yeonjun turned to leave, however stopping in his tracks at the doorway simply to turn around again.

⇿ "You're starting to feel like wasted time, and I don't want that feeling to set in stone." ⇿

im so sry for the time skip. ik ppl don't like them, but i didn't kno how else to carry on the story 😭