Ch 31(ii) – Lingering Storms Clear Off

JUST BEFORE EX’ACT ERA

Thankfully, Jongin gets cleared by the doctor to resume dancing at full strength one week later. Excited to finally get back into it, he goes straight from the doctor’s office to the SM building to snag a dance practice room and work out alone. His body feels almost unrecognizable as he sweats through their old routines; he’s definitely out of practice, but it feels so good to feel the music flow through him once more. Following the doctor’s orders and Jaehyuk’s advice, he sticks to the less strenuous routines first. As he’s finishing up Don’t Go, he spies Kyungsoo slipping into the room with a grin on his face. The elder sings along to the final chorus while Jongin gives his all as his boyfriend’s voice fills the room:

“Take me yeah take me together with you to the place where you live
Oh, I’ll follow you even until the end of the world
Please don’t escape from my sight,
don’t disappear even when morning comes, oh
Your small hand movements
puts my heart in a whirl”

“Gorgeous,” they say in unison as the song ends, mutual admiration for each other’s talents evident in the soft look they share. Laughing, Jongin goes over to steal a quick kiss off the singer’s lips.

“So the doctor says you’re all healed?” Kyungsoo inquires.

“Yep. Back to full strength, just in time.”

“That’s great, baby. How long have you been practicing?”

Jongin checks the clock on the wall. “About 2 hours. Why?”

“Ready to take a break, or should I come back later?”

He ponders this. “Is it okay if I do one more? I wanted to at least try a run through of Call Me Baby before quitting.”

“Of course. I love watching you dance,” Kyungsoo says with an easy smile. “And it’ll be great to be able to openly stare at you now.” The elder pecks his cheek and gives him a playful pat on the as he heads over to the sound system to cue up the song for him.

Jongin laughs. God, it feels so good to just love and be loved by Kyungsoo. The singer is about to sit down in the back of the room, but Jongin decides he’s not having any of that. “Go sit up front and be my audience. Unless you wanted to stare specifically at my ,” he jokes. Kyungsoo chuckles and obediently moves to the front before leaning against the mirrored wall and sliding down to a sitting position. Jongin does his best while being mindful of his ankle, mastering his smirks and coy lip bites throughout the song. His boyfriend smiles up at him, bright eyes following his every movement.

When the song ends, Kyungsoo imitates an EXO-L fangirl and gives a high-pitched cheer of “Kai!! Saranghaeyo!” while waving his fists in the air. Rising to his feet, he praises him in his signature, rich voice. “You’re amazing as always. Can’t tell you’ve been sitting out rehearsals at all. And the eyeing, my gosh, I might need you to tone it down a little on stage or I’m gonna get jealous.”

“No need to be jealous. You know I’ll you – I mean, eye you anytime you want, hyung,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows at him. Twining their fingers together, Jongin pulls the other towards him for a sultry smooch. “Let’s go home,” he whispers against the elder’s thick lips.

They’re hyper vigilant to stay unseen these days, especially with all the press anxious to get an inside peek of his relationship with Krystal. Jongin wishes they could go out, but it’s for the best that no one spies him at all for the moment. He’s glad that both he and Kyungsoo stay off of SNS; he can only imagine what kind of baseless rumors are floating around right now about him and his ‘girlfriend.’ So as much as he wants to go to dinner together (they’ve yet to have that second date), they settle on driving back to the dorm instead. Since some fans already know about Jongin’s car, the singer recently opted to get an unassuming sedan with specially tinted windows to allow them to at least drive around undetected.

“I’ve got good news and bad news,” Kyungsoo says as he drives.

“You know me: good news first.”

Kyungsoo smiles at that, eyes darting over to him first before quickly returning to the road. “I got the role in With God, the movie I was auditioning for last week.”

“That’s great, hyung.” Jongin reaches over and squeezes his thigh. “Wow, that’s a big deal. It’s bound to be super popular given its webtoon following, right? Ah, my man’s going to be even more famous after this new, wider audience sees his amazing acting,” he coos, leaning across the center console and pecking him on the cheek.

Kyungsoo blushes and paws at the dancer’s chest, gently pushing him back into his seat. “Yah, I’m driving. Don’t distract me,” he mutters with pink-tinted ears as he returns both hands to the steering wheel.

“Then don’t be so kissable,” Jongin jokes back, but settles safely in his seat as instructed. It dawns on him that his boyfriend picked him up from the SM building without his request. “Wait, so did you come straight to the dance studio to tell me after you found out?”

“Maybe.”

He feels warmth spread through his chest. “I’ve missed that. I love being the first to know.” They’ve arrived in the underground parking lot of their dorm’s garage now, and Jongin gazes fondly at the older, his left cheek leaning against the head rest as he admires Kyungsoo’s serious face while he focuses on doing a good job parking.

Once he’s perfectly in the lines, the elder puts the gear in park and turns to him. “I’ve missed getting to tell you first, too.” Kyungsoo takes Jongin’s hand and plays lightly with his fingertips before pressing a kiss to the center of his palm.

In the quiet of the garage, the dancer lets out a soft sigh, enjoying the gentle affections from his boyfriend who is now tracing over the creases in his palm with the nail’s edge of his index finger. “You mentioned bad news, too. Go ahead, I can handle it.” Jongin mentally prepares for out of town shoots or a romantic kiss scene with an actress and pushes aside his immature inner voice.

But Kyungsoo just smirks. “Well, I’ll be playing a Private in the military. So I’m going to have to cut my hair and keep it short for quite some time.”

Jongin lets slip a blinding smile. That’s it? After his flash of joy, he quickly rearranges his face into a pout. “But you know how much I like to tug on it.” Proving his point, he reaches up to tangle his fingers in the long hair on the crown of the singer’s head. “Especially when we’re making out and I want more.” Jongin has discovered it’s the easiest way to make Kyungsoo switch from sweet to aggressive. So when the dancer’s too needy and lost in his desire to even separate himself from the singer’s mouth to verbalize it, a firm hair pull has become his silent signal to the other to stop playing nice. Their own little love language, if you will.

“Yes, I know,” Kyungsoo says with a glint in his eye. “That’s why I listed it as bad news.”

As much as Jongin wants to drag him into the back seat right now to have his way with him, he knows that wouldn’t be prudent since, well, cars rock pretty easily and they’re relatively exposed in the garage.  “Upstairs,” he demands in a low voice. “I want to pull on it while I still can.”

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When the vocal coach suggests that the main vocalists pair off with sub-vocalists to practice in preparation for their new album, Kyungsoo quickly announces he’ll help Jongin. Although Baekhyun snickers aloud, Jongdae smoothly volunteers to work with Minseok to distract the coach’s attention. While the other groups arrange to work in regular practice rooms, Kyungsoo somehow books time in one of the actual recording booths, arguing it’ll provide better feedback for faster learning.

And that’s how Jongin finds himself hastily throwing the lock on the booth door as he follows Kyungsoo into the special “by appointment only” recording space the next day.

“The sound studio is much better suited for ,” he remarks as he tears off the older’s jacket. Jongin forces him to drop their belongings carelessly on the sofa before tugging him anxiously by the collar of his black dress shirt into the recording room. “There’s a couch out there, there’s soundproofing in here…” he wiggles his eyebrows as he s Kyungsoo shamelessly and elicits a deep groan. “Your turf is so much better than mine. What were we thinking before, doing this in a dance practice room with that cold, hard floor?” The memories of previous intimacies, but especially that one fateful late night with an unlocked door, come flooding back to him, making him feel hot all over.

Kyungsoo looks affected in more ways than one, wrapping an arm around Jongin’s waist and pulling their bodies flush together. “You say that like there was planning involved that night. I just went looking for you and once I found you… well everything else just faded away. The only thing that mattered was being with you… loving you.” Kyungsoo swipes his thumb across the younger’s cheek as he murmurs these truths just centimeters from his lips, large chocolate eyes sweeping across his face and making Jongin feel so adored. Then the elder giggles, almost returning the atmosphere back to the playful one the dancer had initially set as they walked into the studio. “Besides, I don’t recall you complaining about the location at the time,” he says with a teasing smile.

But Jongin doesn’t want to lose that tender, truthful moment just yet. They’ve never actually talked about their first time before. Feeling the need to reassure him, he places his hands on both the singer’s shoulders and looks him deep in the eyes. “I wouldn’t change anything about that night. It was the most important night of my life up to that point,” he whispers with a gentle kiss to the other’s lips. “You-you tried to tell me then, didn’t you? That you loved me.”

Kyungsoo gives an almost imperceptible nod as he glides their lips against each other again, kissing him deeply.

Jongin feels his heart ache inside, regretful for ever pushing him away, for interrupting him and being so scared of words and their consequences back then. When they break the searing kiss to come up for air, he traces his fingers along Kyungsoo’s strong eyebrows and starts to speak, “I’m sor—“

“No more apologies,” the singer interrupts him. “Remember? No more saying we’re sorry for what happened in the past. We’re here now, and that’s all that matters. And we’ll never have to hold back from each other like that again.”

Jongin nods and twists his fingers into his boyfriend's black locks, tugging him back to seal the agreement with a sweet press of their closed mouths. Soon, the gentle drag of lips turns into wetter, more insistent kisses as the younger probes into Kyungsoo’s mouth with his tongue gliding along the seam. The dancer feels his back land against the plush soundproofing of the back wall and moans eagerly, undoing the buttons on Kyungsoo’s shirt and dragging his fingers down the man’s toned chest. (He’ll learn to live without the longer hair: this military acting role has Kyungsoo working out again and creating an even more amazing body than before.) Although he doesn’t resist, the elder isn’t helping with the task of removing garments either, so once he’s slid the button-down shirt off the singer’s muscular shoulders, Jongin rips his own shirt up and over his head, separating them for a moment to do so.

Kyungsoo releases a low groan of approval, drinking in his tan physique before mouthing up Jongin’s arm, tortuously slowly, from his fingertips all the way up to the junction of his neck and shoulder. “You know, I do actually have to give you singing lessons at s