Chapter Text
Soobin considers himself a pretty devoted boyfriend. Of course, it definitely helps that he loves his boyfriend very much.
In fact, he would do almost anything for Yeonjun, something Yeonjun is often keen to take advantage of in innocent ways despite his being older than Soobin.
Soobin likes to think he really would do anything for Yeonjun, sans “almost”, but when he wakes up one morning next to his boyfriend, basking in the way the morning sun beautifully hits Yeonjun’s face and Yeonjun greets him like this: “Good morning, baby. Can we break up for a week?”, Soobin supposes that that “almost” is entirely warranted.
So Soobin replies incredulously, “No?”, blinking himself awake, the warm, sleepy haze the sun laid over him quickly dulling. “Are you serious right now?”
The upset on his face must have been (unsurprisingly) evident, because Yeonjun quickly reaches a hand to stroke his cheek gently in order to quell the fast-growing pit of anxiety in Soobin’s gut.
“Not seriously - I mean, yes, seriously - but not for real,” Yeonjun attempts to explain, “I mean, can we like, fake break up for a week?”
“Fake break up?” Soobin repeats, not leaving out the disgruntled tone as he sits up. Yeonjun follows him up, taking Soobin’s big hands in his.
Yeonjun rubs Soobin’s hands soothingly, but Soobin feels anything but soothed. So he answers with a little indignant snort, “I’m not breaking up with you, whether you - apparently - want to or not!”
Yeonjun pouts, taking the time to kiss the back of Soobin’s hand a couple of times, “It’s not a real break up, Binnie. And just for a week.”
Soobin wriggles out of his hold and stands up to get ready for the day, shaking his head a little as he answers, “I don’t care if it’s real, I’m not breaking up with you. And you’re not breaking up with me, either.”
And with that, Soobin dips into the bathroom, letting the door swing closed behind him.
He takes his time, letting the morning’s conversation really soak into his brain as he washes his face.
Yeonjun isn’t the type to pull jokes like this, at least not with so much persistence. He’s dramatic for sure - the theater kid in him still lives on in his career as a rookie actor after all - but he refuses to make any kind of jokes at Soobin’s expense at any time.
Even when their friends have made light break-up jokes their way, Yeonjun is always the first to proclaim his deep love for Soobin in retaliation, refusing to let the teasing slide.
Soobin hears the door creak open quietly as he’s drying his face in a hand towel, but ignores the way Yeonjun slinks up his bare back, wrapping his arms around Soobin’s waist as Soobin takes his toothbrush from the cup on the sink’s counter.
He’s mid-brush when he sees Yeonjun pout again in the mirror, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck before grumbling, “You didn’t even ask me why I wanted to fake break up with you!”
Through toothpaste foam and around the toothbrush in his mouth, Soobin replies, “I don’t care, I don’t want to know.” He leans down to spit the foam into the sink and temporarily moves Yeonjun’s toothbrush out of the cup so he can fill it with water and swirl it around in his mouth.
Yeonjun kisses Soobin’s shoulder, running his hands over his chest, admiring the firm muscles. The physical contact of Yeonjun’s bare chest against his back makes Soobin twitch, but he decides that getting ready for work is more important.
“Hear me out, it’s a good reason, and you would - probably - want it too!” Yeonjun says, hands reaching for one of Soobin’s nipples - Soobin swats his hand away.
After gargling water and spitting it into the sink, Soobin wipes his mouth and ruffles his own hair, checking his appearance in the mirror. He had showered the previous night, so he hopes his hair doesn’t look so bad that he needs another one - Yeonjun would surely sneak in, and then he’d definitely be late to work.
“Whatever the reason, it’s probably silly,” Soobin scoffs, then whips around to face Yeonjun and press a kiss to his forehead, “And there’s nothing I want more than to just be your boyfriend.”
Yeonjun pauses at that, and Soobin smugly relishes in the light red flush that reaches his ears and the way his eyes soften.
For as long as they’ve been together, Soobin takes pride in the fact that he can still make his boyfriend flustered. The same goes Yeonjun’s way as well, but Soobin likes to think he’s gotten his own shyness under control by now.
“We’d still be boyfriends, babe,” Yeonjun whines, evidently offended that Soobin seems to be insinuating a real break up, god forbid, after the apparent topic of the day.
“And we still are boyfriends, babe,” Soobin slaps Yeonjun’s ass, giving a firm squeeze to his cheek through his pajama pants on his way out of the bathroom, earning him a slightly startled “ah” in return.
“You know I love you, baby,” Yeonjun says, leaning against the counter as he watches Soobin fry eggs on the stove in an apron and pajama pants.
Without looking up from his pan, Soobin answers him, “Of course, love.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Yeonjun hop up, planting himself on the counter adjacent to the stove.
“Are you mad at me?” Yeonjun asks in that whiny puppy voice that Soobin always melts at. Makes it hard to stay angry at him.
Soobin thinks it’s hard to stay angry at Yeonjun in general, even without the voice; Yeonjun is always persistently affectionate when he’s realized he’s offended Soobin to make up for whatever mistake he’s made, but the voice definitely adds to the effect.
But Soobin really isn’t upset at him. He’s just bewildered that something could make Yeonjun think some form of break was needed in their relationship. And maybe a small part of him worries about that as well, unwilling to listen to the reason for fear of speaking it into existence.
So, Soobin says as much, making sure to get his serious tone across, “I’m not mad at you, Yeonjun,” before adding, “I just don’t understand.”
“You know I wouldn’t ask for something like this unless I needed it,” Yeonjun says, reaching to touch Soobin’s neck, fluttering fingers trailing across his skin.
Soobin lets him as he watches the edges of their eggs turn golden, slightly shuddering at Yeonjun’s cold hands. He moves away to plate the eggs and Yeonjun trails around the kitchen with him like a lost puppy.
“Junebug, with all due respect, I don’t think you need to break up with me,” Soobin says mildly, passing off the plates to Yeonjun, sparing a glance at the clock to check his time.
Yeonjun sets the plates at the counter and glues himself to Soobin’s back as Soobin pulls glasses down from the kitchen cabinets and wanders to the fridge.
Without much obstacle, Soobin maneuvers around Yeonjun’s hands and fills the glasses; Yeonjun is a real snuggle menace, but Soobin’s gotten used to his permanent Yeonjun backpack by now.
Their kitchen isn’t spacious by any means, but Soobin supposes that it’s big for the apartment they live in. It’s certainly roomy enough for Yeonjun to cling to him and waddle around attached to his back without trouble.
Yeonjun only detaches when Soobin goes to sit at the counter to eat breakfast, sulking as he sits down and picks at his own egg and toast next to Soobin.
He still tells Soobin how delicious the food is, patting Soobin’s thigh as he happily (but with much pouting) eats the breakfast, staring at Soobin’s face the whole time.
In the past, Soobin may have shrunk back at Yeonjun’s lingering, wordless gaze, but as it turns out, Yeonjun just really enjoys watching Soobin in everyday life. Mundanity and domesticity does that to you, Soobin guesses, since he often finds himself doing the same in their downtime together.
Something about observing your loved one just… doing things in their own special little way, like how Yeonjun hums little unknown tunes to himself randomly, or how he zones out when eating really good food, or how he taps his fingers idly on the counter to an imaginary beat while he waits for Soobin to finish his food.
Soobin supposes they have it pretty bad for each other if they’re content to just stare at each other like this on normal days despite how long they’ve been together.
So Yeonjun sits on the bed and watches as Soobin changes into his work uniform, never missing an opportunity to eye his boyfriend’s body up - something else that Soobin’s accustomed to by now. Rather, what used to make him shy and embarrassed at the beginning of their relationship, makes him feel confident and smug and sexy.
Most similar small things like that have made Soobin feel more confident in his own skin over the years. He trusts Yeonjun entirely, and if Yeonjun says he’s sexy and has a “hot, juicy ass” (Yeonjun’s words, not his), who is he to argue?
As Soobin pulls on his white button-up, Yeonjun motions for him to come closer, reaching his hands out.
Soobin complies, and as he’s watching Yeonjun slip the bottom buttons into the slots of his shirt, Yeonjun tries again, “I bet you’d want it too, if you knew the reason.”
For a brief moment, Soobin forgets what he’s talking about, distracted by the fond sight of his boyfriend buttoning his shirt up for him with a tiny little pout. Yeonjun’s fingers work slowly, and Soobin knows that it’s because he’s trying to draw out as much time as possible before Soobin hits the “I’m going to be late for work so hurry the hell up” threshold.
But just as quickly, Soobin remembers the question of the day and suppresses a groan, letting Yeonjun straighten his collar as he replies, “I bet I wouldn’t. I literally have no reason to want to break up with you, ever. You’re overthinking, Junebug.”
Yeonjun hands him the bowtie that he’d neatly laid out on the bed, helping Soobin clip it around his neck, spending an extra moment to admire Soobin’s face.
“But it’s not real, honeybun,” Yeonjun pleads again with furrowed brows.
Soobin slips his red vest on, checking himself in the mirror and smoothing the fabric over his chest, letting Yeonjun get another good look at him.
“And it never will be real,” Soobin retorts, satisfied with Yeonjun’s silly little lovesick grin.
Yeonjun sees Soobin off to his movie theater job with much complaining and groaning - aside from returning the kisses - mostly for the fact that Soobin will be gone for most of the day.
Yeonjun begins filming for his next movie the following week, which means he’s off for a handful of days prior to the shooting for preparation. For Yeonjun however, he’s like a puppy waiting at the door for his owner to get home all day, unsure what to do with himself in the meantime.
So Soobin’s work days overlapping with Yeonjun’s days off usually just meant that Yeonjun is extra clingy in the hours that Soobin is home.
His own job isn’t a glamorous job by any means, and Soobin often finds himself a little ashamed of his low-wage floor-sweeping job compared to Yeonjun’s rising stardom, but their meeting was a serendipitous aligning of stars through one of Yeonjun’s first movies showing in the theater Soobin was assigned to that made it hard for Soobin to want to give up his lame occupation.
How many people could say they met the love of their life in an empty, messy theater after he spilled popcorn all over the floor and stayed behind after the screening to apologize? Soobin likes to think Yeonjun is the only one.
Besides, Yeonjun never lets Soobin feel bad for keeping his day job, happy to do most of the providing for the two of them. When they first started dating, Soobin had thought it was just blind love, a passing infatuation that Yeonjun would inevitably come down from. Because how could someone as wonderful and dazzling as Yeonjun be okay with someone as ordinary and unimpressive as Soobin? Let alone cleaning-popcorn-off-the-floors-of-a-movie-theater Soobin?
It was something out of a k-drama, some famous celebrity falling for a small town working-class girl. While Yeonjun wasn’t exactly “famous” levels of actor just yet, and Soobin wasn’t “small town” by the city they both now lived together in, it still seemed like such a dream that they met.
Soobin learned to trust Yeonjun when we told him he loved him, wanted to propose one day when the time was right, and Yeonjun became comfortable with Soobin’s likes-to-be-chased speed of affection, his natural likes-attention-but-won’t-ask-for-it attitude.
Six years helped Soobin stabilize his confidence a lot, which is why it was entirely asinine that Yeonjun would ask such a thing of him, fake or not.
Of course, there’s a small part of Soobin that wonders what could possibly be the reason Yeonjun would suddenly ask for a break up - real or not - and be so persistent for it, but a louder part of Soobin simply hears the word “break up” in relation to Yeonjun and fervently rejects it with every fiber of his being.
Even if Yeonjun had asked for a serious break up - he wouldn’t, Soobin’s positive that if a time, far, far, in the impossible, unrealistic future ever came where they felt like they needed to break things off, Soobin would be the one to ask first - Soobin wouldn’t let him just break up.
He figures he’d be an absolute idiot if he let someone like Yeonjun go.
Six years and Soobin still thinks his boyfriend is the most amazing person in the world.
Because how can someone be so thoughtful, loving, and supportive as him; someone who saw normal ass Soobin cleaning sticky soda off the musty floor of a movie theater and ask if he could get to know him?
Someone who was on the path to being a star, a recognized celebrity, giving some random movie theater worker the time of day, offering an apologetic dinner for doing what every single person who has ever stepped foot in a movie theater does?
If there’s one thing Soobin knows about Yeonjun, it’s that he’s the passionate romantic to Soobin’s hopeless romantic.
Soobin could ask for a rose and Yeonjun would bring him a garden, Soobin could ask for dinner and Yeonjun would take him to a five star Michelin restaurant, Soobin could ask for a movie night and Yeonjun would whisk him off to Hollywood itself.
Not that Soobin’s ever needed all that grandiose, but he appreciates the thought regardless. It makes him feel special, like the important person that Yeonjun always insists that he is.
Soobin spent much of the early months of their relationship with an inferiority complex, wondering why he of all people was the one Yeonjun fell in love with, too insecure in his normalcy to feel like he was worthy of Yeonjun and his time.
Ex-friends of Yeonjun’s made his insecurities come to light as such, blatantly pointing out Soobin’s flaws, making Soobin feel like some peasant riding off of Yeonjun’s pristine back.
And Yeonjun spent much of that time reassuring Soobin consistently, over and over, of how much he loves Soobin, how happy Soobin makes him, how he couldn’t imagine a life never having met Soobin. He was quick to cut off anyone who made Soobin feel like he was empty space next to a shining star.
And while there’s still a tiny, miniscule part of Soobin that still secretly hangs onto his imposter syndrome, he believes Yeonjun wholeheartedly when he declares how much he adores Soobin.
On his worst days, Soobin struggles to understand what Yeonjun sees in him, quietly fears the day Yeonjun wakes up and decides he doesn’t see anything in him, but the day never comes, and Soobin rarely has days where he feels like that. Yeonjun makes sure he never has days where he feels like that.
And Soobin supposes that if someone is that devoted to making him feel loved and important, he probably isn’t as out of place as he sometimes feels.
“You’re getting fake broken up with and I can’t even get fake dated?” Taehyun scoffs as he tosses an empty drink cup into the trash can that Hueningkai parks near the entrance to the empty theater.
Soobin straightens his back as he sweeps the floor, shooting Taehyun an offended look.
“I am not getting fake broken up with,” he corrects with a tilt of his eyebrows for emphasis.
Hueningkai picks up an empty box of candy as he reassures Taehyun, “I don’t think you’d want it to be fake anyway, Taehyunnie.”
“I’ll take anything at this point,” Taehyun half-jokes with a chuckle as he checks the seats for any forgotten belongings.
Soobin accidentally steps on a small round chocolate ball and it crushes under his foot, sticking to the bottom of his shoe as he curses under his breath, motioning for Taehyun to hand him a paper towel.
As he’s scraping the chocolate off his shoe, he sighs, “But I thought Beomgyu-”
“Hyung! Yeonjun hyung must have a reason for asking for this, right?” Hueningkai interrupts him, shooting a sharp glance his way.
His eyes signal to change the subject, so Soobin does, not willing to press into the several-month-long love story that Taehyun and Beomgyu have been tepidly dancing around yet.
After scraping off as much as he can, Soobin tosses the paper towel in the trash and continues his sweeping, ignoring the way Taehyun’s eyes shift between Soobin and Hueningkai.
“I don’t want to know the reason,” Soobin huffs as he spots liquid dripping off a chair in the corner of the theater and waving it down to the others. “I’m sure it’s something silly, he wouldn’t ask for something like that otherwise.”
“You’re not even a little curious?” Taehyun asks as he pulls a long strip of paper towels from the roll and begrudgingly heads towards the wet seat.
“Of course I’m curious!” Soobin complains, “But I refuse to believe there’s any reason that I would want that.”
Hueningkai kneels down at the seat next to Taehyun, helping him clean as he points out, “But don’t you think that means it’s something important, at least to him?”
Soobin’s considered this multiple times in the past few hours of the morning that the issue was brought to his attention.
A part of him still stands repulsed at the thought of breaking up with his boyfriend in any capacity, but a softer part of him sympathizes that it must be a big deal if Yeonjun is asking for it.
“Why not just do it, hyung? Some distance between you two lovebirds might do you some good. Tough love and all that,” Taehyun asks as he hands paper towels to Hueningkai, “Besides, it’s just a week, and it’s not real.”
Soobin groans, rolling his eyes, “You’re starting to sound like him.”
“Ew, don’t say that,” Taehyun scrunches his nose up in disgust. “I’d rather not be compared to someone as sappy and gross as he is.”
Soobin shoots back with targeted aim, seeing his opening, “But it’s different with Beomgyu?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Hueningkai running a hand through his hair. It was a valiant effort to try to keep the bickering at bay, Soobin thinks.
Soobin and Taehyun became quick friends when Soobin took this job however many years ago and in that time, they’ve bickered more times than Soobin could ever guess. He supposes it’s just how he and Taehyun get along, because he and Hueningkai rarely ever argue over anything.
Taehyun scoffs, holding a fist full of wet, sticky paper towels up as if he were going to throw them at Soobin. “Well, it wouldn’t be if the guy would make a move!”
Soobin ducks out of the way of Taehyun’s line of sight, just for good measure. Taehyun knows better than to throw things around during work for real, but Soobin likes to play along all the same.
“Why don’t you just make the move? You two are insufferable to be around,” Soobin chides despite Hueningkai’s defeated sighs.
Taehyun tosses the soda-soaked paper towels into a trash can after his faux threat, searching for the fabric cleaner that they’d left near the entrance of the theater as he replies, “You think I haven’t made a move?”
“I mean an actual move, not just cuddling and going on unofficial dates,” Soobin says as he hands the fabric cleaner off. “Yeonjun and I did that for like two weeks before we started dating, but you two have been doing it for like, months.”
Hueningkai holds the seat for Taehyun as he sprays the cleaner into the fabric seats.
“To be fair, hyung,” Hueningkai says with a sheepish but affectionate smile, “You and Yeonjun hyung were also kind of insufferable to be around.”
Soobin thinks he can admit that. Yeonjun has always been clingy and affectionate, and he had been waiting on Soobin to make things official, so his affections had reached an impatient fever pitch in the weeks before they started dating. Undoubtedly, their friends noticed the extra intense PDA.
They leave the conversation in that theater, moving onto the next one and instead talking about new restaurants that opened up, much to the relief of both Taehyun and Soobin. (And by extension, Hueningkai, in the wake of their bickering.)
Soobin trusts his boyfriend deeply, certain that he’s not asking for any nefarious or ulterior motive. But that’s also why he’s firm in the thought that whatever reason Yeonjun has in his head for wanting to fake break up, it’s not worth it.
Something that seems important to Yeonjun and maybe he believes it’s important to Soobin too, but Soobin can’t think of a single thing that would make him want to be away from his boyfriend.
They’ve had fights or arguments here and there, as most couples do, but Soobin’s never thought of something as drastic as a break up be the solution to any of those little altercations.
Besides, if it’s such concerning grounds to ask for a fake break up, Soobin’s a tad offended that Yeonjun didn’t talk to him about it beforehand.
Even for all their security in their relationship, that was the one thing they needed to work on more. Yeonjun is a professional problem-internalizer, and Soobin prefers when he’s straightforward with his issues and allows Soobin to help him.
It’s a work in progress - Yeonjun’s gotten much better at letting Soobin know about his internal struggles over the years, but if he thinks he can solve something on his own, he’s less inclined to let Soobin know about it, which ends up irritating Soobin more than Yeonjun intends to.
Logically thinking, Soobin imagines Yeonjun probably knows it sounds a little silly, and that’s why he’d rather just ask Soobin for it without explaining the reason.
Which brings Soobin back to his main point: if he knows it's silly and is unwilling to just tell Soobin the reason, then it isn’t a good reason for a fake break up.
Soobin supposes this is just another exercise in gently pushing Yeonjun to talk to him. Tough love, or whatever.
“We’d just be apart for a week,” Yeonjun says, breathless and beautiful against the sheets of their bed. “And then everything goes back to normal afterwards.”
“Huh?” Soobin half-heartedly responds, too hazy to register what Yeonjun is mumbling about under him.
“The fake break up,” Yeonjun answers, hanging on a whine, “I’d stay with Beomgyu in the meantime. Just temporarily.”
Soobin slows his hips and looks down at the gorgeous man between his legs with exasperation, ignoring the way Yeonjun whimpers at the loss of momentum.
“Why are you talking to me about breaking up with me while we’re having sex?!” Soobin chastises, considering just pulling out and letting Yeonjun beg. (Except Yeonjun would probably like that, so it would make for poor punishment.)
Yeonjun rolls his own hips, trying to gain friction again as he quickly corrects for what must be the fiftieth time today, “I’m not talking about a real break up, Binnie!”
Soobin rolls his eyes as Yeonjun’s hands find their way to his waist, pulling pathetically without much reward.
“Why are you talking to me about fake breaking up with me while we’re having sex?!” he adjusts his frustrated question with a raised octave and holds his ground, not willing to let Yeonjun get the leverage he wants.
“Because I couldn’t wait until you got home!” Yeonjun protests, “And we’ll go to sleep afterwards, so there isn’t a good time to bring it up! Just hear me out!”
Most of the time, Soobin’s a pretty well-mannered, polite guy. All of his co-workers could vouch for his masterful patience when dealing with rowdy movie-goers. But in the bedroom, Soobin likes to take the lead and be in charge, something Yeonjun is well aware of by now.
So when he snaps his hips and growls, “The only thing I want to hear out of your mouth right now is my name. Now drop it,” he doesn’t miss the way Yeonjun shudders, jaw quickly clamping shut.
It’s only a couple hours later, when they’re cleaned up and cuddling, that Yeonjun cutely voices his complaint at being interrupted, “Soobinnieeee.”
Met with Soobin’s pointed silence, Yeonjun runs his hands through Soobin’s short black hair, planting kisses in between each name, “Baby. Sweetie. Bunny. Honeybun. My love. Love of my life. Loveliest lovely baby bunny love.”
“You’re lucky I love you as much as I do,” Soobin responds dryly, dodging one of Yeonjun’s kisses to raise his head to meet Yeonjun’s eyes, deciding against his better judgment to humor his boyfriend. He’s weak to Yeonjun’s cute voice and puppy eyes anyway; he was always going to lose the cold shoulder game.
Yeonjun smiles gently, pressing a kiss to Soobin’s lips and humming, “Yes, I am. The luckiest.”
He rubs Soobin’s shoulders, peppering kisses around Soobin’s face as he murmurs his love to Soobin, ever the clingy one post-sex.
Something peculiar suddenly occurs to Soobin as he lays shirtless, warmly wrapped up in his loving boyfriend, showered with kisses between every whispered endearment.
It dawns on him that Yeonjun himself doesn’t even realize what he’s been asking Soobin all day to do, because everything that he’s asking of Soobin goes entirely against Yeonjun’s whole purpose in life.
Soobin isn’t typically one for provocation, or even competition really, but the thought hinges on his mind and he can’t stop himself from voicing it.
“Baby,” Soobin says as calmly as he can in hopes of not sparking the competitiveness in Yeonjun, “I don’t think you could even handle a fake break up, even if we did.”
Soobin watches as Yeonjun ponders the words, eyebrows furrowing before it clicks and he frowns with a pout.
Yeonjun sits up, pulling Soobin up with him as he objects, “What do you mean? Of course I could!”
Pacification failed. Soobin decides maybe he needs to be a little provocative in this case.
“Junie, you could barely wait til I got home to pounce on me. You’ve been clinging to me all day. You really think you can spend a week away from me?”
Yeonjun instinctively defends, “You love my attention though! You love it when I coddle you.”
As if to emphasize, he holds Soobin’s hands, wiggling them a bit with childish flair.
“Yes, I do,” Soobin admits with ease, squeezing Yeonjun’s hands back, “But if we fake break up, you can’t do that.”
Soobin watches as Yeonjun turns this abrupt information in his mind as if he’s just now realizing it, eyes shaking as his face scrunches up, clearly dissatisfied with a reality where he can’t be attached to Soobin every waking moment, but not quite willing to give up on his mission.
“It’s just for a week,” Yeonjun mumbles meekly, his confidence suddenly shaken. “And I’d just be at Beomgyu’s… we’d still be dating.”
Soobin’s tired from hours of work spent cleaning movie theater rooms and mopping spilled sodas off the floor. He’s tired from the (admittedly, wonderful) sex that was thrust upon him the second he stepped in the door of their apartment. And most of all, he’s tired of this entire fake break up conversation that’s dragged on far longer than he’d anticipated.
Tough love, Taehyun had offhandedly said.
Soobin loves his boyfriend, but he supposes some distance would be the most effective in getting what he wants: his boyfriend to stop asking to break up with him and just snuggle with him all day like usual.
He doesn’t want to do it, and he knows that Yeonjun knows that he doesn’t want to do it, but if there’s a second thing Soobin knows about Yeonjun, it’s that if it’s a game of abstinence, Yeonjun will always play a losing game.
So Soobin finally shrugs his shoulders, leaning in to kiss Yeonjun on the lips one last time.
“Okay,” he says lightly, catching Yeonjun’s attention with wide eyes, “If it’s that important to you, baby, we’ll do it. But if we’re doing this, then we’re doing it properly.”
Yeonjun’s face tells him everything he needs to know. So he doubles down, “You’re going to be at Beomgyu’s, and I’ll be here. So you know the rules, right?”
Soobin watches the Adam’s apple of the love of his life bob nervously as he swallows.
So Soobin offers the answer, “No sex, no kissing, no cuddling, no pet names. Nothing that non-dating friends wouldn’t do, yes?”
Yeonjun doesn’t answer, still soaking in the rules that Soobin’s laid down for him.
Soobin adds, for clarification: “And whatever Beomgyu and Taehyun have going on doesn’t count. We just go back to before we started dating, for a week. Right, hyung?”
Soobin almost cracks when he sees Yeonjun’s jaw drop after hearing the honorific, something they dropped years ago after they started dating.
A softer part of him wants to kiss his boyfriend, reassure him that he didn’t mean it, cuddle him and call him loving names until he smiles again.
But before he can give in, Yeonjun steels himself and nods.
“Of course. Easy. I’ll prove it to you.”
Soobin reminds himself that he isn’t one for competition. He hates raising his expectations in a heated rivalry only to lose (which he often does), but knowing he has the upper hand in this situation gives him a bit of an ego boost.
It’s not like he won’t be affected in the absence of his boyfriend, but he sees it as a game: what tricks can he pull to make Yeonjun take this whole stupid thing back?
So he steels himself as well. “Exactly. Easy. You’ll be heading over to Beomgyu’s then, hyung?”
Yeonjun closes his eyes and breathes in, before his facade slips and he looks at Soobin with puppy eyes.
“Let me stay for the night? Please, Binnie-baby?” he pleads, reaching for Soobin’s face.
Soobin can’t help the involuntary giggle as he meets Yeonjun halfway and puts his cheek into Yeonjun’s palm. He’s always weak for Soft Yeonjun, unfortunately.
“Come here then, you big clingy baby. Better soak it in because it’s all you’ll get for the next seven days.”
Yeonjun hums in satisfaction, pulling Soobin down into the pillows together, hands tracing along Soobin’s spine, planting kisses along Soobin’s neck, breathing in Soobin’s scent.
And Soobin quietly does the same, burying his face in Yeonjun’s hair, smoothing his hands over Yeonjun’s strong shoulders, even letting Yeonjun feel up his ass languidly. (He supposes Yeonjun’s earned a pass for that one, or maybe Soobin just kinda likes the feeling.)
The part of him that doesn’t want to do this is already agonizing over the thought of losing Yeonjun’s touch for a couple days, even though Yeonjun in reality hasn’t taken his hands off Soobin for even a second yet.
But another, maybe more secretive part of him, kind of looks forward to seeing how Yeonjun will fare without him.
Soobin’s confident enough that Yeonjun won’t be completely unaffected, and even if he acts like it, Soobin has ideas to quicken the process. He wonders if he should start bets with Hueningkai and Taehyun.
When Soobin awakes the next morning, the sun warms his body, but he already feels off without the extra warmth around his body, or the comforting gravelly morning-voice to greet him.
He tries not to feel too sad by it, fueled by his determination to bring his boyfriend back, but he still pulls the shirt that had been thrown to the floor the previous night into his arms and spends a couple minutes just breathing in the scent. (The shirt, no doubt purposefully left behind.)
It actually smells quite similar to him, what with Yeonjun always curling into Soobin’s arms every chance he gets, but Soobin can tell the difference. Yeonjun’s cologne still clings to the shirt, mixed in with familiar scents of their shared body wash and sweat from the active night.
He finds a small post-it note on the left nightstand in Yeonjun’s handwriting: Left for Beomgyu’s. Breakfast on counter.
Soobin scoffs, running his hands through his hair. What kind of boyfriend fake dumps him but still makes him breakfast? He wonders if that’s a gentlemanly thing to do, but he also supposes that the gentlemanly thing to do is to not fake break up with him in the first place.
He sighs, bracing himself for the coming days. He imagines that if he’s already missing Yeonjun this much, Yeonjun can’t be doing much better.
So he pulls his phone off the nightstand and snaps a sleepy selca in bed, making sure his bare collarbones show, the hickey that Yeonjun left him the night before peeking just below the screen.
He lets his tongue poke out from his lips and makes sure his hair is a little ruffled, angling the camera in the most appealing yet reasonably innocent way he can.
Soobin sends the picture with just two sentences.
Never said pictures were off the table. Have a good day, hyung.