There were times where Jaejin wished he had never friended Key. Like that one time when the other guy convinced him that roller coaster was fun and Jaejin should really give it a try. And Jaejin had never felt so scared in his entire life before. Dongwoon ended up baby-sitting him for the rest of their theme park day while Key, Mir and Jinwoon roamed free in the big amusement park. There was also that one time when Jaejin was dating this Noona that was way older than him, he kind of wished Key didn't frankly tell her that she was being such a e. Jaejin knew that Key didn't mean any harm, he was only saying out what he had in mind. But the Noona ended up sulking and refused to talk to Jaejin for about a week or so. It wasn't even Jaejin’s fault. This time, Jaejin felt that whatever Key was currently doing was just unnecessary.

“I'm not gonna wear that skinny jeans. I'm good with the jeans that I'm wearing,” Jaejin threw a glare at Key that was currently holding a pair of black skinny jeans. They weren't his kind of thing, they were something that Key would wear instead. And Jaejin tended to disagree with what Key wore.

“Yes, Lee Jaejin. You are going to wear these,” Key insisted.

“Give them a try, Hyung,” Minhwan suggested.

“I wear skinny jeans sometimes. It's not that bad,” Seunghyun nodded, agreeing with the rest of them.

“Why are you two even here right now?! Who told you two about this date?!”

Seunghyun and Minhwan turned their heads to Key, their expression was telling Jaejin that it was kind of a very obvious answer and he didn't really have to ask to figure it out. “Why did you tell them?” Jaejin rolled his eyes at Key.

“Well, I thought you might need some moral support or something. Or you would rather have Mir here?” Key shrugged.

Of course Jaejin preferred the younger guys than Mir. If Mir knew anything about this, everyone would stare all homophobic at him by next high school reunion. Never ever trusted Mir with any secret. Anything could just come out wrongly from his mouth. It wasn’t that Mir was a bad person, but things tended to get more dramatic than they really were if they were said by Mir.

“She's gonna love it if they suit you,” Seunghyun said, causing the everyone that was in Jaejin’s room to raise their eyebrows. It bothered Jaejin a little how Seunghyun was saying it with such a straight face.

Jaejin quickly shot a disapproving stare at Key, wasn't expecting to think that he was going out with a girl.

“I swear to God that I told them that it's gonna be Jonghun,” Key batted his lashes to Jaejin.

Jaejin decided to let it go and took off his pants to just try the skinny jeans. He could see from the corner of his eyes that Minhwan was turning his head to Seunghyung, sighing while nudging the taller guy’s shoulder with his own.

“How many times have I told you that it’s Jonghun-hyung?” said Minhwan.

Seunghyun stared at Minhwan, then at the other two men in the room. “He’s gonna love it,” he corrected himself.

Jaejin wasn't sure why, but Seunghyun had been pretty weird since he got there. He assumed it might have something to do with the younger guy’s guitar homework. If he remembered it correctly, the one-week time he was given was almost over. He could clearly see the dark circles underneath Seunghyun’s eyes and he didn't fail to notice how Seunghyun was wearing a thin layer of foundation just to cover up his tired face. Poor boy never complained about anything at all in his life that sometimes Jaejin wished he could somehow help him. Maybe he should discuss about this to Jonghun.

When Jaejin finally got the pants on, he couldn't help but feel weird about it because of how tight the fabric was wrapping his legs. How could people move in this?! He walked over to the full-length mirror that he had next to his cupboard, observing his reflection on it. It looked... okay. It wasn't weird or anything but it just felt weird to be in it.

“Never knew you have great ,” Key commented, tapping the said bum playfully.

“I just found out about it as well,” Jaejin laughed.

“So...?” Key asked, clearly hoping that Jaejin would go with the jeans.

“Oh well. It doesn't look so bad. So why not,” Jaejin shrugged.

Key grinned, turning around to make his way to a bag that he had brought earlier that day. “Now let's decide on a t-shirt and casual vest to wear~.”

Jaejin felt that Key was more excited about the date than he was.

But yes, Jaejin was excited. Surprisingly.

---

Being early, Jonghun could only stand restlessly. He had been at the car park for over fifteen minutes now and he had been glancing over Jaejin’s apartment building entrance countless times. Deep down inside Jonghun still couldn’t believe that he was actually gonna have a date with Jaejin. What if this was only Kibum’s crazy prank? Even if it wasn’t a prank, there was no guarantee that Jaejin would go even when Kibum said he would.

Jonghun had tried to be mentally prepared in case Jaejin didn’t show up for the date. Hongki said he was being paranoid, but the way Hongki didn’t sound sure about Jaejin turning up wasn’t really comforting either for Jonghun. He just wanted a chance where he could tell Jaejin that he had this weird crush on him or whatnot, then if Jaejin said no, he’d back out. Jonghun might date a lot, but he didn’t force things out on people.

“Hey~!” Jaejin showed up at last, an awkward smile was plastered on Jaejin’s face and his steps were just as awkward. “I’m not late, am I?” he asked.

Shaking his head, Jonghun smiled to Jaejin. The other guy looked lovely. He dressed well and Jonghun couldn’t help but think that someone else might actually have dressed him up for this (and when he remembered Kibum’s style, things kind of made sense). “I was early. Don’t worry about it,” said Jonghun.

They got to Jonghun’s car quietly, the awkwardness was so thick in the air that he was so sure the moment Jaejin broke the silence, Jonghun’s heart might jump uncontrollably. There were a lot of possibly scenarios that Jonghun had pictured in his mind on how their date would end; starting from a nice, sweet good night kiss to a bullet in his brain because Jaejin didn’t want Jonghun’s tongue anywhere inside his mouth. He still couldn’t rule out the possibility of Jaejin feeling forced to go for this date.

“I hope you haven’t watched Man In Black 3,” Jonghun spoke up, deciding to break the silence first as he drove.

“I haven’t. I’ve seen the trailers though. It looks interesting,” Jaejin answered.

“Well, the first two movies didn’t fail me, so let’s hope for the best,” Jonghun stated.

Jaejin nodded, and the silence crept in again. This clearly wasn’t one of those comfortable silences that Jonghun liked from their relationship. Whatever this relationship was. Not that they actually had anything in particular other than just being friends. And somewhat neighbor.

“Kibum… is an interesting guy, isn’t he?” Jonghun commented.

“…interesting? Pffftttt!” Jaejin snorted. “That’d be an understatement.”

They both laughed, a big smile found its way to Jonghun’s face after their laughter died down. He had missed this. The small conversation they always had. Nothing too massively funny or nothing too boring that he’d fall asleep. He didn’t act this way when he was around Hongki. It would be about the stupidity and their random eyeing on girls that were passing by.

“What time is the movie? Should we eat first? I’m starving,” Jaejin suddenly said.

“We have an hour and a half. I’ve bought the tickets online, so we’re in no rush,” Jonghun answered.

“Great. It’s decided then. Let’s go eat.”

Jonghun turned his head to Jaejin, quietly thanking the traffic lights for turning red because it gave him a chance to take a look at his date for the night. It felt like a dejavu to him. The time when Jaejin just got to his car before he managed to actually ask the other guy if he wanted to join him for some groceries shopping. Jaejin… was surprisingly a ‘my-pace’ type of person. Or a little bit stubborn was more like it maybe.

It amused Jonghun though, the moment Jaejin literally went all “Hyung hyung hyung! Pizza, pizza, pizza!!” hitting Jonghun’s arm multiple times while pointing out to a pizza franchise on the other side of the road. It seemed to be very not like him to act like that, but Jonghun had learned that this wasn’t uncommon when he was around Seunghyun and Minhwan. This should be good, right? That Jaejin seemed to act the way he did when he was with his friends?

Pushing his conflicted mind, he turned to the said pizza franchise, resulting in a huge satisfied smirk on Jaejin’s face. Oh, it totally made Jonghun decide that the blonde hair didn’t suit Jaejin. The haziness in Jaejin’s eyes did not suit his smug expression. Jaejin’s face felt kind of like a… thick mask.

They went in, settling down to a table that the waiter had led them to; no where near the big window, not really in the middle but at the corner either. But Jonghun loved how it was just the right position to watch the giant flat screen TV. He watched from behind his bangs the way Jaejin looked through the menu, his shorter hair was styled up, revealing his forehead. It was so different than his usual country boy look that Jonghun believed Kibum was definitely working as a stylish or something – assuming it was Kibum behind all these gorgeous clothes and hairdo Jaejin was having that night.

“So… Hyung… I have something that is bothering me a little…” Jaejin spoke up once they ordered their dinner.

Jonghun gulped, believing that this would be where Jaejin would say it straight to his face that he wasn’t into guys. “What’s bothering you?” he cleared his throat, trying not to look disappointed.

“Hm…”

“Hm…?”

“Well…” Jaejin paused again.

“Well…?” Jonghun leaned forward slightly, piercing his eyes in anticipation.

“…why did you give Seunghyun that kind of homework? He accidentally left some of his music sheets in my room, so I kind of had a look at them. I didn't mean to in or anything, but I couldn’t help but wonder why he was practicing classical songs. He looked pretty messed up because of that. Not that he would admit he had a hard time with it,” Jaejin said.

Jonghun’s lips parted, his mouth opened up but no word came out. That was it?! That was the thing that was bothering Jaejin?! The freaking homework that Jonghun gave to Seunghyun?! Seunghyun?! And why on earth did Seunghyun accidentally leave his music sheets at Jaejin’s place? At Jaejin’s room?!

“No reason,” Jonghun answered at last, leaning back on his seat, sounding rather unhappy with the question.

“How can it be for no reason? Because he has potential? Or what? I mean, it’s not like you’re his teacher,” Jaejin frowned.

“I just felt like giving him some homework, and the music sheets were the only things I had with me,” Jonghun replied, taking a sip from his drink that just came.

When Jaejin sat back with eyes staring lazily at Jonghun, he knew that the younger guy noticed his little lie. What was wrong with this guy? How could he just know that Jonghun was making excuses?! Wasn’t Jonghun’s poker face enough?

“It’s nothing important, really. Why are we talking about him again?” Jonghun diverted his eyes to the TV.

“…because it’s something that bothers me?” Jaejin reminded him.

“It’s just Seunghyun. Oh, come on.”

“Because it’s Seunghyun,” Jaejin rolled his eyes.

“Aren’t you persistent?! What’s with you and Seunghyun?! Why did the music sheets I gave him end up in your room anyway?!” Jonghun snapped at the end.

His sudden outburst created a rather long awkward silence, with Jaejin blinking rapidly at Jonghun, seemingly not expecting the musician to end up getting worked up over his question.

“Well, he was just practicing in my room while Minhwan and I did our work in the dining room. Mostly because his neighbor was complaining about him practicing non-stop,” Jaejin answered, gaining his cool almost right away.

“…oh…” now Jonghun felt like an .

Then Jaejin laughed, his eyes forming two fine lines, hiding those haziness he had in them. Jonghun tilted his head as he could only sit there, staring at his date for the night. What had gone into him? Jonghun couldn’t help but wonder.

“Are you… by any chance…” Jaejin leaned forward. “…jealous?”

Jealous? Choi Jonghun? Got jealous?

Jonghun frowned at Jaejin. “No, I’m not.”

“Liar,” Jaejin laughed. “I got it, I got it. This whole it-is-a-pop-guitar-class-but-let’s-give-Seunghyun-classical-pieces thing makes sense now.”

“I said I’m not jealous,” Jonghun furrowed his eyebrows even closer.

Then Jaejin threw him a smirk, but this time there wasn’t any haziness in his eyes. It was a genuine smirk and Jonghun didn’t like how evil it looked like – almost like when Hongki had something up on his sleeves, which usually never ended pretty.

“I wouldn’t be here if there was something going on between me and him, would I?” Jaejin pointed out.

“Right…” Jonghun sighed. “But you guys seem so close. And you talk about him all the time, more than you talk about Minhwan. Heck, you never mentioned Kibum before.”

“I did mention him. I just didn’t say his name. Remember the one time when you just suddenly showed up on campus? The one when I wasn’t supposed to be free? He was the one that I was supposed to hang out with,” Jaejin explained. “Also… you are jealous,” Jaejin laughed again.

“Dude, I’m not,” Jonghun rolled his eyes.

As he let their eyes locked when Jaejin didn’t say anything more but throwing those smug smirks around, Jonghun gasped when he felt something touching one of his legs. At first he thought some stray cat managed its way in and was walking under their table, but then he realized that he was wrong because it didn’t take him that long to notice that it was actually Jaejin’s leg against his. Oh, it was a good sign. Getting comfortable, weren’t they?

“…okay, maybe a little…” Jonghun mumbled, somehow feeling obligated to admit that he was a little bit jealous because of the contact that their legs made.

“You like me that much, don’t you?”

“I guess,” Jonghun shrugged.

Their conversation got on a pause when their pizza came, Jaejin digging into his dinner almost right away. They started to talk about random stuff and Jonghun didn’t like it because he kind wanted to know how Jaejin felt about him too. Why did he end up showing up for their date? That meant that he at least was somewhat interested in Jonghun, right? Goodness gracious, Jonghun had never felt so insecure in his life before.

---

Jaejin was happy. He could feel his steps getting lighter and lighter when they were walking from the car park to the cinema. It wasn’t easy at first because everything felt so unreal. He even put on some happy kid act on earlier that evening, but he ended up being excited for real. How could he not? Jonghun actually liked him that much. If not he wouldn’t get all jealous over Seunghyun. Pffft, Seunghyun. Jaejin didn’t even see Seunghyun as a human being. He was another being from another planet.

They got themselves some popcorn and coke – Jaejin insisted paying for them because Jonghun had insisted on paying for dinner and had refused to accept Jaejin’s money for the ticket. Jonghun might be the one that initiating this whole date thing, but Jaejin was no chick, so he definitely would pay something in this date. But that aside, Jaejin was happy.

He noticed that Jonghun seemed to be a little bit off since they set off from their apartment buildings, but overall, the older guy seemed to be doing fine. Maybe Jonghun was nervous, Jaejin thought. Well, he did punch the other guy once and this whole date almost didn’t happen if Kibum didn’t decide that he just had to do something about it. So yeah, he didn’t really blame Jonghun if he looked like he was under a lot of pressure.

“Don’t be so tensed, Hyung. The movie is starting,” Jaejin nudged the side of the man that just sat down next to him.

“What? Don’t be silly. I’m not tensed. Why would I even?” Jonghun frowned.

Grinning, Jaejin sat back on his seat, shifting a couple of times before finding a comfortable position. Oh he was enjoying it, messing around with Jonghun like that. He had never done that before. Well, he did when he was with his friends, but never when he was with Jonghun. It felt kind of fun somehow.

For the rest of the night, Jaejin was enjoying himself. He loved the movie and he laughed a lot. Heck, he might be the one that laughed the loudest in that room. Jonghun was rather quiet at the beginning, but he eventually loosened up and laughed along.

And there was this sad scene that made Jaejin’s eyes all teared up, and he didn’t fail to notice how it made Jonghun experienced the same thing too. It was quite funny though, to see Jonghun’s nose turned red as he sniffled. Jaejin figured that people with natural fair complexion would experience this. Not that Jonghun was fair, he was pretty tanned, but Jaejin had seen the guy from his apartment’s window on every other season and he could testify how fair Jonghun could get during winter.

“It was good!” Jaejin commented, walking in light steps towards Jonghun’s car.

“Yeah. I haven’t laughed that hard since forever,” Jonghun agreed, a light chuckle escaping from his lips.

“I know, right?” Jaejin grinned, his hand reached the car’s door as he waited for Jonghun to unlocked the car. “And thank you.”

“For what?” the older guy tilted his head.

“For the great date,” Jaejin shrugged.

He didn’t dare to have a look at Jonghun’s facial expression after he answered the other guy. Jaejin quickly opened the door when it was unlocked and settled down to the now rather familiar front passenger seat. He wasn’t a really open person, meaning he couldn’t really express his feeling honestly. Not that he couldn’t, but it was just rather hard. But Key had mentioned to him countless times before he walked out of his apartment that he had to tell Jonghun if he liked the date, and he had to shut his mouth up if he hated it. It was funny how Key told Jaejin to believe him that guys could be way sensitive than girls when it came to rejection (he wondered how Key knew this though).

“You had fun?”

“I did,” Jaejin answered.

“So I guess… this is the answer to my question the other day?” Jonghun asked again. The older guy didn’t seem to be interested in getting his car engine on that Jaejin started to feel rather anxious.

“…which question?” Jaejin finally turned his head to Jonghun, realizing that the other guy seemed to be just as anxious as him but was just better at hiding it.

“If you date guys at all.”

“Oh.”

Jaejin didn’t. Never ever in his life he ever dated a guy. He never even thought of it before. Seunghyun might have kissed him, Key might have seen him countless times, he might be a little bit too close to his older sister; but it never occurred to him that he would date a guy. He did find some guys as attractive of course. Like this Seungho guy, Mir’s friend that he brought along to one of their karaoke sessions. Gorgeous man.

But he just never really put much thought on it. Never really thought that finding guys as attractive as anything that might be a sign of him adoring them the same way as he adored the girls. He could just say that he didn’t, but there he was, sitting in Jonghun’s car, getting ready to go back from their date.

“Well, there’s always a first time,” Jaejin said instead.

“Hahaha. That makes the two of us,” Jonghun chuckled. “Wicked, isn’t it?”

Surprised, Jaejin stared at Jonghun in disbelief. “Your first time as well? For real? I had always thought that you had been dating guys all this time.”

“What makes you think that way?” Jonghun threw Jaejin a small pout that Jaejin thought was kind of adorable.

“I don’t know. You know what they say about guys with great muscles. Some of them usually date guys. And have you seen yourself? You’re pretty timid. When you sit, crossing your legs and all, you look pretty girly,” Jaejin pointed out, half laughing.

“You cross your legs too when you sit sometimes!”

“And still looking manly~,” he grinned.

At that very moment, Jaejin wished he would be brave enough to open the door and the fall out of it because the next thing he knew was his grin fading away when Jonghun suddenly leaned over to where he was. Literally leaned over to where Jaejin was. One of Jonghun’s knees was on top of the car’s hand break, a hand was on the side of Jaejin’s seat while the other was on the dashboard in front of Jaejin; bottom line, Jonghun was just inches away from Jaejin. “Not looking all so manly anymore, are you?”

“I can punch you again, you know,” Jaejin cleared his throat, dragging his gaze to the car’s window.

“I’ll just take it like a man. Your punch isn’t all that hard anyway,” the corner of Jonghun’s lips curved upwards.

“Have anyone told you that you’re such a narcissist?” Jaejin frowned.

The older guy chuckled softly, in a timid manner that Jaejin had mentioned earlier on. “I get that all the time,” Jonghun answered.

Jaejin was frozen on his seat when Jonghun drew closer. The scent of Jonghun’s cologne invaded his sense almost right away – a mixture of fresh aquatic fragrance, tangerine and other citruses scents that Jaejin could think of. It was as real as it could be. Jaejin wondered if this was how a girl would feel when a guy leaned over to kiss her.

When their lips met, Jaejin took a deep breath and let Jonghun take the lead. He parted his lips, his heart beating so fast when he noticed that Jonghun wasn’t going to waste the invitation at all. He knew that his trolling mouth got him into trouble most of the times, but he liked how it had led his night to.

Before he knew it, his back wasn’t against his seat anymore. It was arching forward and his hands had left the hem of his t-shirt, wrapping themselves comfortably around Jonghun’s neck instead. Their position wasn’t exactly comfy but that would be the last thing he’d care about. Especially not when he was there, in a car park, kissing a guy.

The older guy was a good kisser, he noticed. Or maybe because Jaejin had never really given anyone a chance to take over the dominance that it kind of felt nice to experience it the first time. It didn’t exactly make butterflies explode in his stomach, but the tingling sensation that was crawling over his spine was rather ecstatic.

And Jonghun just had to lose his footing, knocking both of them against Jaejin’s seat while his hand accidentally pressed on the side handle of the seat, causing the entire seat to fall backwards, bringing them down with it.

“Oh, Choi Jonghun!” Jaejin complained. He clearly wasn’t happy about how the kiss was broken.

“I swear I’m not clumsy,” said Jonghun, getting up from where he was, half laughing.

“Sure you’re not.”

Jonghun shifted back to the driver seat, taking a moment to have a look at himself on the mirror, fixing his hair then staring at his swollen red lips. “We should head back. It’s late.”

“Oh crap! Yes, we should. Key is at my place and he’d kill me if I got back way too late,” Jaejin suddenly remembered.

“Key?”

“Kibum. We call him Key. Don’t ask me why. But he’s like so busy body when it comes to this kind of thing. Well, you should know about it by now,” Jaejin explained.

“… he sounds like a mum…” Jonghun commented as he started the car.

“He kind of does,” he chuckled.

“So… you can’t come over tonight?”

Ah~, Jaejin hadn’t thought of it. “I guess not…”

“Freaking Kim Kibum. He gave me this date but he took whatever that comes with it afterwards,” Jonghun mumbled.

Jaejin laughed.

It was a great night for him. It felt rather like when he was still in school when he had to rush back home before his mum killed him for staying out for too long. Started off with a rather awkward conversation but it gradually got better. But all in all, it was great. “I’ll come over tomorrow after he leaves,” he buckled himself up, sitting comfortable.

Nope, he didn’t feel like punching anyone that night. All good.

 

------

It took me waaaayyyyy longer than I expected. When I was done with it, I thought that I could add more, so I added more... and more... and more. It ended up being about 4000words long. I'm sorry for the super late update. Shall try to do it faster for next chapter ^^

Edit: I’ve fixed some mistakes that I spotted.