Phone Call

Jaejoong glanced over at the clock over his shoulder, keeping his hands busy with the cooking in front of him. 

10:00pm

He still had sometime. Hopefully, the soup would be done by then, and he could enjoy his fried rice and jjigae together while waiting and watching some movie. Happy at the thought of that, Jaejoong’s lips quirked upwards and he hummed in agreement. The fried rice seemed well done so he picked up his spoon and scooped some up, raising it to his lips.

“Mmm~ Just the way I like it!” He laughed to himself at that exclamation. It was too spicy for any others, and that fact was quite easy to tell from the reddish appearance of the dish. He moved the rice to a plate he had set nearby a while ago and wiped his hands on his apron quickly. The soup should be done anytime now.

A sip of the liquid, trimmed eyebrows furrowed, “More salt!” 

Picking up the can of salt, Jaejoong sprinkled them generously into the pot, and then stirred it with his soup ladle. Impatient, the singer tried a spoon of the jjigae again, doe eyes unconsciously widening in hope.

“Yes, perfect!” His cheer resounded in the empty apartment, causing his two pets to grunt. Well, JiJi grunted, Hiro just curled further into himself. 

He settled his plate of fried rice, bowl of soup, and cup of juice atop his coffee table, in front of the couch. Normally, he would eat with a cup of water, or alcohol, but his lover’s juice bottle was close to expiry date, not that Jaejoong minded consuming the sweet strawberry substance. 

Half-skipping, he went to pick up his laptop from his work-room and laid it on the left of his food, so that he could still see the television once he sat down. A small beep was heard once he the wide-screen television, and with flowing finger movements, he clicked into his hard-drive of saved movies (legally, mind you!) that was attached to the device. 

Doe eyes peeked at the clock, 10:25pm.

Jaejoong finally obediently sat down and started eating. Undoubtedly slightly lonely, but at least he had his two pets, his favorite spicy food, his long-wanted-to-watch movie, and after so many days, his lover was finally able to make a video-call with him!

Whenever they are separated, Yunho and Jaejoong made it a rule between them to at least call each other once a day, no matter how busy, no matter how much time difference there were. Luckily, Yunho was only in Japan so there’s no miles and hours to worry about when they called each other. It was a nightmare when either one of them were half way across the globe, like how Yunho was in Los Angeles last month for SMTown. They had to schedule their calls precisely, and they often ended up in the middle of the day between schedules, or in the middle of the night between sleep time. 

For the previous week, they were only able to make phone calls because one of them either happened to be still working late at night, or in the room with someone else other than the other TVXQ/JYJ members. 

Jaejoong was getting chirpier the more the clock ticked forward and the sappy love movie progressed. A song started to sing from his laptop and the singer jumped in his seat slightly, losing grip of the chopsticks for a moment. He gasped and snapped his head to the clock.

10:50pm

Yunho wasn’t supposed to call for at least another half an hour! Jaejoong panicked, eyes darting to the laptop which his lover’s name flashed and familiar melody sang, to the food in front of him, to the clothes he was wearing, and then the movie playing on the television. The song entered the second half of the chorus and Jaejoong instinctively pressed to accept the call, never wanting his love to wait too long. He didn’t want to wait too long either.

However, he momentarily forgot all the factors that made him hesitate to pick up the call in the first place. 

“Hey Jaejoongie.” All worries were cleansed away at the sight of the love of his life’s smiling face. 

The singer instantly melted in his seat, “Yunho-yah…”

The leader c