Awkward
The Days of Caffeine and Candy Kisses
It had been almost a week since he’d sheltered from the storm with Yoseob’s family, and Doojoon felt like he was going through withdrawal. Sure, he saw Yoseob during vocal and dance practice, and passed him in the hallway. But the hyper trainee was always with Kikwang. He also kept acting strangely around Doojoon…
Several times, Doojoon had tried to strike up a conversation with his vocal partner after their lesson. Each time Yoseob quickly made some excuse about seeing Kikwang and then ran off like a bat out of hell, leaving Doojoon standing alone. Once Doojoon had approached the two friends with the intention of talking to both of them, but the second Yoseob had seen him he’d started chattering like mad and steered them off in a different direction. He was starting to feel like a leper.
“Yah, Doojoon-ah…” Junhyung’s deep voice took a bit of a whine on as he frowned at his friend. When the far off look faded from Doojoon’s eyes and the other boy turned to look at him, he sighed. “You’ve been ignoring me for the last ten minutes. What’s wrong with you?”
Doojoon blinked. “Wrong?”
Junhyung nodded and leaned back against the mirror in the practice room. They’d been called in early for dance practice since there was no vocal lesson for the day. So far Kikwang and Yoseob had yet to make an appearance, and the dance instructor wasn’t due for another twenty minutes.
“You’ve been kind of weird this week. Did you and Yoseob have a fight?” Junhyung asked, arching a brow curiously.
The look on Doojoon’s face said it all and would have given him away even if he’d refused to answer. Instead, Junhyung had to watch as his friend turned a dejected look onto the floor and leaned back heavily against the mirror. “I kissed him.”
At first Junhyung was sure he’d heard wrong. He frowned and rubbed at his ears, looking at the younger boy doubtfully. “What’d you say?”
Doojoon sighed in exasperation. “I kissed Yoseob!”
“Oh,” Junhyung in a quick breath and just stared at him for a bit. So he had heard correctly after all. But.. When would he have had the time to kiss the adorable dancing machine? They were always at practice and in the last week Yoseob had practically dragged Kikwang away right after dance practice every day. It didn’t add up-… Oh. He looked meaningfully at his friend, both brows arched as the time frame sank in. Oh boy…
“Did.. Did he want you to kiss him?” He asked uncertainly, frowning. This was uncharted territory for Junhyung. Girls he could handle, interpret, even charm his way around. A relationship with a guy, on the other hand. He was so far out of his depth it was nowhere in the realm of funny.
Doojoon rubbed a hand absently over the top of his head, a frown of his own drawing his eyebrows close together. “He kissed me back… He did. Doesn’t that count as wanting it?”
Junhyung froze, his frown deepening. “How much dating have you done?”
“Huh?”
“You heard me. How much?” Junhyung asked suspiciously. “Have you ever kissed someone? Girl or boy? Ever?”
“Of course I have,” Doojoon answered almost irritably. He glowered briefly at Junhyung. “Not a boy though. Isn’t it basically the same?”
Junhyung threw one hand up, palm facing Doojoon. “Hey, don’t ask me that. I’ve never made out with a guy. You’re the one going around kissing psychotic sugar fiends, not me.”
“He’s not psychotic!” Doojoon snapped defensively, and color crept upward into his neck and cheeks. “He’s just… hyper.”
“Okay, okay,” Junhyung’s tone was placating as he looked his friend’s expression over, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. He’d been interested to see what would come of Doojoon’s curiosity after the first time he’d seen Yoseob, and there had been some definite hints with their behavior toward one another. A kiss this soon had been something he hadn’t thought of, though. Clearly it had thrown Yoseob for a loop.
Sighing, the older teen tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling. “Maybe it was his first kiss. Or maybe he feels nervous now.” Blowing his hair out of his eyes, Junhyung shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know.”
“Only girls get nervous and weird after the first kiss,” Doojoon complained.
“How do you know? This is the first guy you’ve kissed.”
“Well, you haven’t kissed any.”
Junhyung nodded and sighed. “Good point. You shouldn’t leave it too long, though.”
“Leave what too long?” Kikwang asked curiously as he sauntered in. When both boys jumped and turned to look at him, his eyebrows arched upward drastically. “Woah. Easily startled much?”
“Who’s easily startled, Kiki?” Pulling a cherry er out of his mouth as he came through the door, Yoseob stopped beside his friend.
Kikwang motioned toward a now very frozen Doojoon and ever stoic Junhyung, frowning. “They are.”
Blinking, Yoseob followed the gesture and took his first full notice of the two sitting against the mirrors. The er was quickly shoved back into his mouth as he looked away from Doojoon, heading for the opposite side of the practice room to set his bag down.
He’d been avoiding Doojoon ever since he’d walked him back home after the storm, too shy to approach him. It was one thing to make out with him during two days trapped together because of a storm. It was another thing entirely to expect Doojoon’s interest to extend beyond that time frame. After all, they were trainees, weren’t they? Surely they ought to have more important things on their minds than dating, especially dating each other. Doojoon had approached him numerous times since then, but it was probably just him trying to be nice.
Entirely absorbed in changing his shoes for practice and setting his phone on silent, Yoseob didn’t hear the teen in question approaching. By the time he realized Doojoon was there, the other boy was already seated beside him, holding one of his shoes with a strange look on his face. Yoseob stared at him and swallowed uncomfortably, debating on whether or not he should ask for his shoe and wondering if he would be able to get it without having this conversation.
“Why are you avoiding me?”
Nope. He couldn’t.
Doojoon fiddled with the laces on the shoe, loosening them but showing no signs of letting the owner of said shoe put it on. “I’d ask if the kissing was that bad, but considering the fact that you kissed back I don’t think it was.”
Yoseob swallowed again, a little more audibly this time with his nerves. “Can I have my shoe?”
The brunette shook his head. “I’m holding it hostage until you talk to me.”
“I am talking to you.”
“Properly, then.” Doojoon corrected, looking up at him steadily. If he was experiencing even half of the nervous turmoil that Yoseob was, it wasn’t obvious. He held up the shoe, tapping the heel lazily. “Will you answer the question?”
“Wait,” Kikwang approached the two, his curiosity getting the better of him. “Did I miss something?”
“Yoseob has been avoiding Doojoon because Doojoon kissed him.” Junhyung muttered boredly.
“Yah!”
“What?” Junhyung shrugged lazily as he stared down at Yoseob’s suddenly anxious face. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
Finding himself the object of intense scrutiny from three sides, Yoseob suddenly found his er extremely interesting. “I don’t think I like this one. I like the old ers you used to buy me, Kiki. That cherry flavor was better.”
As a frustrated Doojoon opened his mouth to complain, their instructor walked in and the boys were left with little choice but to get ready for practice. Yoseob’s shoe was handed over and Doojoon spent the majority of practice thoroughly ignoring him, trying his hardest to focus only on practice.
After practice, Junhyung pulled Kikwang off in the time it took Yoseob to change his shoes again. When he looked up from tying his shoelaces and saw Doojoon standing by the closed door, his heart pounded out an uneven rhythm for a few moments. It wasn’t being left alone with Doojoon that made him nervous. It was the casually intense demeanor surrounding the tall teen.
Leaning against the wall, he stared at Yoseob intently, eyes locked onto his vocal partner in a way that brought an involuntary shiver from deep in the smaller boy’s chest. His hands were tucked into his pockets, jacket ped and hanging open. The backpack usually attached to at least one shoulder now leaned in a heap by his crossed feet. Overall he looked frighteningly confident and very determined.
Suppressing the rush of nerves as Doojoon’s gaze collided with his, Yoseob swallowed convulsively and looked away, forcing his focus back onto getting ready to leave. There seemed to be no way of avoiding this conversation gain, but that didn’t mean he had to rush into it.
Doojoon straightened from his slouch as Yoseob shouldered his backpack and approached. For the first time in a week, it seemed as if he wasn’t going to run away, and instead stopped a foot or two away, just staring at Doojoon. Slowly, Doojoon leaned down to pick up his own backpack and hooked one strap over a shoulder. “Hey.”
Yoseob seemed to hesitate before he nodded and cleared his throat. “Hey.”
It seemed like each of them was going to say something, both teens opening their mouths to speak. Then they both stopped and averted their gazes, lapsing into an awkward silence.
Finally, Doojoon coughed and gestured toward the door. “Ice cream?”
Yoseob’s confusion clouded his eyes for a moment before he caught on and immediately jumped in to play along. He shook his head quickly, giving an uneasy laugh as he pushed the door open and stepped into the hall. “Too cold. Coffee!”
Doojoon groaned. “Oh great..”
As Yoseob finally recovered and dragged the taller boy through the company’s halls, Doojoon felt relief flood through him. He grumbled and complained now and then, just as he had before, but inside he was just glad to have Yoseob back. Hyper and annoying or not, it just didn’t feel right without him. They hadn’t had the conversation they needed, but he’d get it done eventually.
“Oh! And I need more ers! Kiki doesn’t get me the good ones like you do.”
Doojoon smiled at the back of the chattering boy’s head, following him outside. Yup, everything was fine.
Standing with a dark haired boy who’d just joined the company - under Yoseob’s insistent persuasion of course, Junhyung smirked when he looked over and saw the two heading out. “Oh good, they made up.”
Kikwang turned to look, pouting when he didn’t look in time to see them. He groaned. “No fair… You guys always leave me out of the good stuff!” He complained. He turned to the third boy and smiled a little. “I’m glad you took Seobie’s advice, Hyunseung-hyung.”
Caffeine & Candy Kisses is essentially the prequel to WIB, but about Dooseob instead of Junseung. I've gotten a lot of questions about that..
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