“Hyung, ​please!"

Lee Jinki liked dogs, and he wasn’t afraid to admit that. He loved the way they nipped at his heels and bayed for his attention, remained loyal and consistent in their endeavours to please, however he did not like them enough to adopt one, and most certainly was too irresponsible to care for a pet. So, as he declined his boyfriend’s protestation for the twenty-sixth time (he'd been keeping count) that day, it was with the same remiss he watched his partner’s face droop.

 

"Jonghyun, no. I already told you, like, ninety times. If we move in together, we are n​ot getting a dog! That’s final.”

 

"But Jinki-“

 

"No.”

 

"Just think of its little face-“

 

"Nope.”

 

"And it would be so cute and we could walk it and-“

 

"No.”

 

"Please, hyung, please!”

 

Jinki rolled his eyes, pricking his finger with a tiny hiss just as he finished sewing the button back onto his favourite coat – a fashionable, black piece that gave him an air of ​sophistication, according to his hapless, hopeless boyfriend. Doing his best to avoid making contact with the two wet and widened eyes that regarded him sadly, Jinki shook his hand sporadically, before returning the needle and thread into the small pot for mending after deciding no blood had been drawn. Damned needle.

 

"Taemin would let me have a dog,” Jonghyun mumbled snarkily, sinking further into the chair opposite Jinki and folding his wiry arms across his chest. He hung his head low, lip jutting out, and the fray of his brunette hair was only reflective of an attitude even more ruffled.

 

"Taemin isn’t your boyfriend, and, besides, disregarding the cost and responsibility,” Jinki argued wisely, “we don’t even have the time to look after a dog! Not with our work. It’d be left alone, all day.”

 

"No, it wouldn't!” Jonghyun protested. “Kibum could, like, check in on it, or something.”

 

"Kibum has a life,” Jinki reminded, “and responsibilities of his own.”

 

"Kibum just pretends to have a life,” Jonghyun degraded, lips curved into a hesitant grimace as he carelessly insulted one of his best friends. Jinki rolled his eyes. Jonghyun could be so petulant – more akin to a child than an adult, really.

 

“Jjong’, it's just not practical,” Jinki re-emphasized, pushing back his chair and lifting the small black pot of sewing implements, to place back on the shelf by the kitchen cupboards – a shelf invaded by all sorts of paraphernalia (because ​no, Jinki, it's not junk). As he turned around, folding his arms and leaning the small of his back against the kitchen counter, he sighed wearily. Jonghyun was ​still giving him that terribly effective stare, and somewhere, somehow, it was almost working – until Jinki shook his head and reminded himself that he was a resolute grown man, with firm, irreversible beliefs.

 

“No!” he exclaimed, almost laughing out of exasperation. Jonghyun’s eyelids wavered, and for a split second he was as blue as the duck-egg walls surrounding him, until he stood and rolled his shoulders, instilling some authority in his approach. If Jinki was a resolute grown man, with firm, irreversible beliefs, then so was he. Flattening his salmon-pink sweater, Jonghyun cocked his head and began to wager.

 

“Hey, hyung,” he started, eyes glinting mischievously, “remember that time you borrowed that jacket from Minho?”

 

“Yeah?” Jinki rebuked, already confused by the tangent. “So?”

 

“And how when you gave it back there was this huge tear down the side, which I took the blame for because I was Minho’s best friend, and you barely knew him? Don’t you remember that?”

 

Jinki nodded. He remembered it clearly, his absolute embarrassment, his frightful worry, and how, ever-the-knight, Jonghyun had swooped in to rescue the day (and Jinki’s newly budding friendship) from complete wreck-and-ruin. It most certainly hadn’t been one of his finer moments, he figured, but then again, of fine moments, Jinki had few, and they were all distressingly fleeting.

 

“Well…” Jonghyun mused, taking a sauntered step closer, expression already cocky, confident, “I can still easily tell Minho the truth about that little incident, can't I?”

 

Jinki paused and stared at Jonghyun.

 

“Jjong’,” he spoke carefully, “are you-are you trying to blackmail me?”

 

Jonghyun stopped short in his step, pursing his lips and narrowing his brows. It didn’t sound quite so devious when put like that – rather it sounded malevolent, evil, satanically cunning, without the added angel of intelligence to back him. He squinted at Jinki, before answering with an unsure, “Maybe?”

 

Jinki rolled his eyes and pushed himself off of the counter, ruffling his tousled hair and sighing, exasperated.

 

“That’s not going to work,” he dismissed, “trust me. All that will get you is a night sleeping on the sofa, idiot.”

 

Stalking past Jonghyun, Jinki reached out for the stained mug that sat on the oak coffee table, busying himself with tidying, for he'd rather focus on that than Jonghyun’s incessant pleading – which was not too dissimilar from listening to a goat bleat for hours on end, the words fading into one endless, shrilly pitched note.

 

“If we lived together, you'd never be able to cope with me on the sofa,” Jonghyun retaliated, words beset in a jovial glee, “because the mere thought of me beneath the same roof would make your little heart beat ten times quicker.”

 

“Mm, of course,” Jinki murmured sarcastically, depositing the mug in the sink to wash later. When he glanced at Jonghyun again, the younger had his head tilted so as to expose that long neck of his, and the tanned flesh he flaunted, so invariably handsome. At times, Jinki hated how attractive his boyfriend was.

 

“It'd be all ​Oh, Jjongie', I'm so cold, hug me!" mocked the younger, and Jinki rolled his eyes. That had only happened once, but Jonghyun seemed unwilling to let it stay beneath the sheets.

 

“What has any of this got to do with not getting a dog?” Jinki retorted, eyebrows raised.

 

“I'm just saying,” Jonghyun tried, holding out a hand to reinforce his point, “that you totally couldn’t live without me, therefore you should respect my wishes, and my wish, currently, is for us to get a dog.”

 

“And my wish, currently, is for you to shut up,” Jinki replied dryly, slinking past his partner to recline on the turquoise sofa. He'd never liked the seat, personally, but Jonghyun was a man of muted tastes and colours, with a style so opposing to Jinki’s that he already knew it would be near impossible for them to furnish the apartment they'd rent together in a way that would suit them both. Jinki also knew that, if it came down to it, Jonghyun would inevitably get his way, and they'd probably end up living in some washed out house of pastels and sea-greens, as were the younger’s preferences. Jinki was a much bolder man, all about the primary colours, the statement designs.

 

“Don’t be mean!” Jonghyun scolded, slipping onto his knees beside Jinki as if he were about to beg the elder. “Come on, hyung! Think of all the fun it would be.”

 

“Yeah,” Jinki considered, lifting the nearest magazine from the coffee table (something of Jonghyun’s, about music and composing and being-a-better-writer) and flicking through it distractedly. “All the chewed shoes and the cost of keeping and the bloody barking – fun.”

 

“Yah!” Jonghyun jabbed, wrenching the magazine from Jinki’s hands violently and throwing it behind the sofa. Oh.

 

“If we trained it,” Jonghyun elaborated, “none of that stuff would happen! Well, I mean, except having to buy food and everything, but- Oh, Jinki, please!” Jonghyun leaned forward then, so incredibly close to Jinki that the elder could catch the scent of coconut shampoo that lingered in his boyfriend’s soft, hazel hair. He sighed, bitterness dispelled at the tide of affection sweeping over him, before reaching out and brushing a strand of that feathery hair from Jonghyun’s eyes.

 

“I'm sorry, Jonghyun,” he answered, the gentlest he'd been that day, as his boyfriend regarded him with eyes infested by a heart-wrenching caution. “You know I love you, but a dog just… It just isn’t ​us." Jinki sighed heavily, and planted a fleeting kiss on Jonghyun’s forehead. As emotionless as he seemed, as heartless as his verbose suggested, Jinki truly hated disappointing Jonghyun – hated it more than the younger’s penchant for hoarding pointless junk, if that was even possible. Jonghyun lowered his head then, and for a second, his cheeks flushed a vivid red.

 

“Jinki…” he murmured, voice all-of-a-sudden repressed, dejected, “I've… I've something I need to tell you.”

 

“Yeah?” Jinki asked, stiffening slightly as Jonghyun backed away. There was something withdrawn in the younger’s voice, in his ashen pallor, that would have unnerved Jinki were he not so fundamentally curious.

 

“The thing is…” Jonghyun began, unsure of how to put his words, unsure of where to place them. In the distance, Jinki heard an odd scratching – however, it was unbeknownst to him where it had emanated from, or even what its source was. He dismissed it as another quirk of Jonghyun’s falling-to-pieces flat.

 

“What?” Jinki asked, eyes flicking across Jonghyun as the younger bit his bottom lip, seemingly nervous.

 

“Don't get mad, hyung, but… See, what happened was- Taemin rang me a few nights ago, y’know? Like ​hey, Jonghyun, so, I was out driving and- Jinki, are you listening?”

 

Jinki shook his head, brought back into reality. He was listening, of course he was listening – but he'd also just heard that same, desperate scratching, and what had seemingly been a harrowing ​whine.

 

“Anyway,” Jonghyun nodded, noticing he'd retrieved Jinki’s attention, “it was- it was kind of stupid, really, but see, Taemin had found something on the roadside, and he thought we might like it, as a moving-in-together type thing, and I just thought…” Jonghyun rolled from the sofa, Jinki’s eyes following him, confusion ridging across his gut. His heart would have sped up had he not been in the company of the man he loved so dearly, and had he not been so wholly indebted into uncovering just what that odd, perpetual scratching noise was. A faulty appliance, maybe, or a rusted pipe. He crinkled his nose, contemplating.

 

“Just- don’t get mad, hyung,” Jonghyun tried, scampering to the door of his bedroom with a worried spur in his step. ​Don't get mad, hyung. What the hell was going on?

 

Jinki waited, patient, as Jonghyun shot him one final, nervous glance, hand hovering over the door handle. Squinting shut his eyes and obviously concluding that he could trust Jinki, Jonghyun pushed down the handle, and innocently muttered, “Meet Roo.”

 

For a moment, there was silence, as the door drifted open, but, all-of-a-sudden, a frenzied cluttering of tiny footsteps imbued the small room and a tiny ball of fluffy fur darted from the bedroom, freed from confinement, instantly dashing to-and-fro to sniff every little thing, tale wagging terrifically as it did so. Jinki blinked, lips rounded.

 

 

As Jonghyun wittered on about ​Taemin and ​strays and ​the moral depths of the human heart, Jinki watched the tiny creature in awe as it explored the living room, chasing every scant shadow with the enthusiasm of a new-born child. Jinki was no expert on dogs, no matter how much he claimed to like them, and so had little clue as to the actual breed of the excitable pup – however, he could tell by the smooth browns and blacks of its soft coat, and the energy that twinkled in its large, gaping eyes, that it was a young thing, barely older than a few months. Confidently, it lolloped towards Jinki’s socked foot, and began to inspect it, too, nuzzling its nose against the heavy wool of the clothing. Jinki didn’t even flinch.

 

“Jinki,” Jonghyun prompted, “please say something. If you really don’t want her, we can take her to a shelter, or something, but I-“

 

Jinki stared at the tiny dog, and, somehow, the tiny dog stopped and stared at him, too. Time seemed to fracture for a second as a culmination of thoughts built within Jinki, such as the fact that there was a ball of living fluff by his toes, and that he was, whether he liked it or not, a carer for the little enigma. Prodding his foot with a wet nose, the dog – or, ​Roo – shot him a wide-eyed gaze, and it reminded Jinki of somebody, of somebody very close to him. Looking at that somebody, Jinki noticed Jonghyun’s hesitance, his fear, that he'd managed to finally go too far – because a dog was, in all realities, pretty damn far.

 

“You… Already have a dog,” Jinki confirmed, blinking down at Roo as Roo blinked up at him.

 

“Well, yeah, I guess, but-“ Jonghyun fell into an awkward silence, and Jinki could tell that this wasn’t how the younger had wanted things to go. Carefully, Roo bounded up upon the sofa beside Jinki, so small she barely made any impact whatsoever. Jonghyun watched her with something akin to adoration, before reverting back to that same, concerned countenance and offering Jinki a wary shrug.

 

“Just… Just say the word, and we can take her to a rescue centre,” Jonghyun mumbled. “I mean, you are worth so much more to me anyway, Jinki. Whatever you want, it's-it's up to you. Your choice, and I won't-I won't interfere with that.”

 

Jonghyun rooted his gaze on the floor, and, stoic as he was, Jinki realised why: The younger was expecting an answer, and he was expecting that choice to come directly from Jinki’s parted lips. An apotheosis unfolded its limbs within Jinki at every little detail then; to keep Roo would be, for no need of a better expression, an absolute nightmare. She would tear apart their lives, quite literally, and create a stream of endless vicissitudes in their relationship. But, Jinki supposed, she couldn’t be ​all bad, and Jonghyun had clearly already fostered a connection, however small, with her. In some idealistic way, Jinki almost fancied the notion of keeping Roo, as having her to bind together their relationship and keep them from drifting apart. Knowingly, Roo tentatively nudged Jinki’s hand with her nose, so innocently trusting, so innocently curious. Jinki doubted she'd been a stray her whole life – he doubted it sincerely.

 

“It's a no, isn’t it?” Jonghyun grimaced, still motionless as he wavered by the open door to his bedroom. “That’s okay, Jinki, really, we can just- we can take her now, if you want, I’m sure it-“

 

“Let's keep her.”

 

Jonghyun froze, and all of a sudden, Jinki felt something surge in his gut, something happy, something warm, something alluding to contentment.

 

“W-What?” Jonghyun breathed, as Jinki twisted his neck and smiled up at the younger, so radiantly that Jonghyun was struggling to form coherent thoughts.

 

“Let's keep her,” Jinki reiterated, “I mean it, Jjong’. Forget what I said. Let's keep her.”

 

For a second, there was a silence, but then everything was happening in a hastened rush as Jonghyun (quite literally) lunged himself at Jinki, Roo throwing herself from the sofa to avoid being crushed in the moment. Messily, Jonghyun gripped the fabric of Jinki’s sweater and drew him in for an all-too-brief kiss, that tasted of love, of joy, before breaking their lock and gazing down at Roo with two eyes that shone so, so brilliantly.

 

God, Jinki was going to regret this.

 

“I can't believe you,” Jonghyun sighed, as Roo scratched at her own nose with a little paw, “worrying me so much! I thought you'd get mad, hyung.”

 

“Oh, trust me,” Jinki admitted, “I am,” but in his words were no traces of anger or remorse, as he fondly looked from Jonghyun to Roo, as if they were a family forever fated to become entwined.

 

“I love you,” Jonghyun grinned, flashing a crooked grin at Jinki, because he did love the elder, he really, really did. Jinki smiled back and nodded once, before lacing his fingers with Jonghyun’s.

 

“On one condition,” Jinki suddenly stated, as Jonghyun turned his head back, concern knitting his brows. “You're paying for the dog food.”

 

Rolling his eyes, Jonghyun swatted Jinki’s chest, before leaning down to greet Roo, speaking in an adorably high-pitched tone, and petting her ears gently. It took them mere seconds to form an unshakable bond, and Jinki smiled.

 

He supposed he liked dogs, but, more than that, more than anything, he really did love Jonghyun.