Of Songs, Fingernails, Tattoos, and Troubles
That's So Random!A/N: I know I should be writing an update for ABITO 2, believe me I really want to, but I'm indefinitely blocked on that one. I am terribly sorry. Please forgive me.
Jiyong knew it--enlistment--was gonna happen. He knew the day was coming. Even more so as the new year rolled in. There were times when the thoughts about it were tucked so far at the back of his mind that he forgot. But there were also times when the facts about it beamed at him like a creepy tireless smile of a clown at a run-down fair; so annoying.
Tonight was one of those times.
Sitting in a swivel chair at his desk, he tried to ignore it by immersing himself with random stuff on the Internet. He went on fashion websites as well as entertainment websites, and read articles about himself--snorted at some things written in there that sounded like nothing but pure flattery--and left comments anonymously just for fun. He watched videos on YouTube; a few movie trailers, several interviews, and a long playlist of cats and dogs. He heedlessly watched each video--one after another--until he came to a video that started with a bunch of cows head-banging to a ty EDM that morphed and shifted into the weirdest shapes that he paused the video and snapped out of the trance.
"Wow, how did I get here?" He whispered to himself through a sigh.
"Mm?" A voice hummed in question and Jiyong gently pushed himself away from the desk to turn to his right, toward his bed. Seunghyun, sprawled on it among fluffy pillows, in checkered pajamas with his phone in his hands, didn't even glance over at Jiyong when he reacted.
Jiyong leaned back in his chair and just stared at the man; taking in the view of Seunghyun's side profile, frowning at his phone, his thumb scrolled up and down the page on the screen. Jiyong didn't know why, but he felt kinda sulky. Was it Seunghyun's fault? No, not really, but he couldn't help the helpless frustration that he felt that made him slump his shoulders and fought a whine trying to escape his throat. But he bit the inside of his cheeks and pushed it away.
After a while of marveling at Seunghyun's face, Jiyong pulled up his legs and stretched them onto the edge of the bed; the points of his toes nudging at Seunghyun's side. Seunghyun huffed a smile when Jiyong slumped in his chair to prod teasingly at Seunghyun's side with his foot, wanting Seunghyun's attention. Jiyong paused when Seunghyun caught his foot and finally turned to look at him.
"Is everything all right?" The older asked; a soft smile curved along his thin lips.
Jiyong sighed, rolling his eyes, but remained in his seat. "No."
"Then shut that thing off and come here and cuddle with me." Seunghyun suggested, wiggling his eyebrows. He knew Jiyong loved it when he acted like an immature teenager. From past experiences, Jiyong wouldn't waste any second and would just drop whatever he was doing and snuggled under the blanket with him.
But Jiyong didn't react like that this time. Jiyong just stared at him instead, anxiously shaking his legs, gnawing at the nail of his left thumb. For a while, they just looked at each other; Seunghyun with a confused frown on his face, hand absent-mindedly massaging the sole of Jiyong's foot, and Jiyong pulled a solemn look with his lower lip behind his teeth.
"What? What's wrong?" Seunghyun asked through his amused laugh.
"You are not making this easier, hyung." Jiyong sulked.
"What? What did I do?" Seunghyun locked his phone and put it aside.
"You do realize we're gonna be apart for at least two years, don't you?" Jiyong asked, folding his arms.
Seunghyun let out a heavy sigh then. Realization finally set in. "Is this what's been bothering you?" Seunghyun smiled softly, trying to ease the tension hovering the air between them.
"What, is it not bothering you?"
Seunghyun pursed his lips, the dimpled smile all wiped off of his face. "Jiyong, of course it is. It bothers me a lot."
Jiyong felt a little relieved at that but held his gaze on Seunghyun's as he countered. "But you seem like you are not affected at all. You look like you are so ready to go in, like if they call you right now you would just leap off and go."
Seunghyun shifted and pushed himself to sit up and leaned against the headboard. He looked at Jiyong with soft eyes and he smiled.
"Don't smile! What are you smiling about?"
Seunghyun huffed an amused laugh alternatively. "Look, Jiyong. You're gonna be fine. We are gonna be fine. We just need to keep ourselves busy and before we know it we'll see each other again. Besides, this is not the first time we've been away from each other."
"Well not for years." Jiyong snapped. "When you were away for filming or I went touring, I knew we would see each other again after a few days, but this is not filming or touring. It's not like we could come back and-"
"Hey, hey, hey, shh, shh, shh.." Seunghyun had to cut Jiyong off when he saw the latter had began to panic. "Shh.."
Jiyong blinked and realized that his breathing had quickened.
"Calm down," Seunghyun soothed and waited until Jiyong was relaxed again before offering him a hand. "Come here. Lie down with me."
Jiyong took one deep breath before closing the lid of his laptop and took the hand and then carefully climbed onto his bed. Seunghyun instantly pulled him into a cuddle.
"Don't think about it, alright? We're still here." Seunghyun continued to comfort Jiyong, who was now warmly wrapped in his arm. "We'll be all right. Okay?"
Jiyong nodded, grazing his cheek against Seunghyun's shoulder.
"Maybe you should think of your plan and things to do while all five of us go through these few years of the 'enlistment episode'." Seunghyun spoke up after a while, voice soft and comforting, carding his fingers through Jiyong's hair.
Jiyong in a breath before replying, "Besides producing and attending schedules, I'm probably gonna spend a lot of time in Jeju now that I've got a cafe to worry about."
Seunghyun just hummed his agreement, mindlessly drawing patterns on the small of Jiyong's back.
"Do you have something that you want me to do?" Jiyong looked up as he asked. "Or not to do, for that matter."
"Oh, I've got a list for that." Seunghyun joked and was contented by the sound of Jiyong's laugh. "First," he held up an index finger to dramatically count the first one on the list but Jiyong caught that finger and shoved the hand away, still laughing against Seunghyun's chest.
"Write sappy, cheesy love songs about me." Seunghyun continued. "Like really, really, I mean really, sappy love songs. The kinds that would make me cry when I listen to them."
Jiyong laughed, and maybe snorted a little when he inhaled. "So you want me to write sad songs?"
"No, not sad songs. Who wants to listen to sad songs. No one. More like, hey, Universe, look at how great our love is, we are more and more in love with each other as the days go by even though we are apart from each other for hundreds of days and we can't wait for the day until we would finally be in each other's arms again."
All Seunghyun could hear as a reply was the tiny sounds Jiyong made when he laughed too hard; the laugh itself was inaudible, but there were small squeals, almost hiccups, that he emitted with each rock of his shoulders.
"Cheesy songs, you mean." Jiyong suggested in a slur as he wiped away the tear at the corner of his eye, breathing in a huge amount of air. Each word was still heavy with laughter.
Seunghyun huffed a lazy laugh. "Yeah, I did say sappy, cheesy, love songs."
"Fine. Challenge accepted." Jiyong said. The sound of his voice, however, was muffled by his hand as he was still nibbling on his fingernail, which didn't go unnoticed by the older.
"And stop biting your nails, Jiyong!" Seunghyun chided and caught the hand but Jiyong quickly pulled it away. "Look! Look!" Seunghyun tried to grab the hand again but Jiyong had hid it behind his back and under his side. "You are such a stubborn grown man."
Jiyong held out his left hand, stretching his arm as far as he could when Seunghyun grabbed his elbow and wrestled to pull the arm in.
"Look!" Seunghyun flicked one of the fingers and Jiyong flinched at the sharp pain.
"Ow!!" Jiyong cried out. "But they are not as bad as they used to be!" He grumbled, holding out his hand again to look at the bitten fingernails.
"You really need to stop." Seunghyun took the hand into his again. "Your fingernails are kinda cute when they are not bitten down like this, you know?"
"Pfft," Jiyong scoffed. "With you gone, I can tell you that they're only gonna get worse."
Seunghyun laced their fingers together. "Never mind. I shall think of something to make you stop."
"I admire your spirit." Jiyong mocked and Seunghyun brought their clasped hands to his mouth and bit teasingly at the side of Jiyong's hand, right under the knuckle of his thumb.
Jiyong shrieked again. "What is with you and hurting me today?!"
Seunghyun laughed and held Jiyong tighter as the latter tried to free himself. "You're just so adorable today. So let me." Seunghyun rubbed his thumb around the reddened skin and his eyes fell onto the smiley tattoo which reminded him of the next thing.
"Yeah, don't get any more tatt-"
"One. Just one." Jiyong cut in and looked up at Seunghyun but shied his gaze away when Seunghyun squinted down at him. "It's an important chapter in my life, okay? Of course I would ink something somewhere." Jiyong reasoned.
Seunghyun snorted. "An important chapter in your life, huh? I thought I'm the one reporting for duty?"
Jiyong's lips puckered into a pout. His fingers played with a button on Seunghyun's shirt, refusing to look up. He didn't like mentioning the elephant in the room.
Seunghyun clicked his tongue. "Okay, okay." He shifted, pulling Jiyong further into his neck. "What's it gonna be?" Seunghyun humored the subject and huffed a smile when he felt Jiyong relaxed.
"I don't know," Jiyong shrugged. "I haven't really thought about it yet. But maybe just a small, simple one."
"Uhuh? And where is this tattoo gonna be?"
"Umm.." For a moment, Jiyong was reminded of how much Seunghyun hated it when he got the twin tattoos on his thighs. Well, not that he hated those tattoos--he loved them, loved how they complemented Jiyong's pale thighs and that they turned him on more often than not--but he hated how intimate the artist was in between Jiyong's legs for several hours. Although Jiyong denied it every time, Seunghyun swore the artist flirted with Jiyong and purposely dragged the process for hours. Like, what was so complicated about the tattoos that the artist needed hours to get them done? They were just words in black. Well, that was a completely different story to tell.
Jiyong pulled away a little bit and Seunghyun followed the movement of Jiyong's hand as it lowered to the younger's waist. Jiyong pulled the waistband of his pants, revealing the jut of his hipbone. "Here?"
Seunghyun swallowed and cleared his throat. "There?"
Jiyong looked up then. He thought he heard restrain in Seunghyun's tone just now. Jiyong's lips pulled up into a smirk. He knew Seunghyun would love it. So he nuzzled at Seunghyun's ear and purred. "No?"
"Nonono, it's fine. It's fine. It's just too bad that I won't get to see it until I'm finally discharged."
"Oh, I'll show you when I come visit."
Seunghyun groaned, a hand on Jiyong's hip keeping him close. "Oh, please don't. You're gonna get me in trouble."
Jiyong laughed against Seunghyun's ear. "Or.." Jiyong carded his hand through Seunghyun's hair. "I could get it done before you leave," he pressed a kiss at the corner or Seunghyun's mouth, "and then we could get in trouble in your bed one last time, before you go."
Seunghyun hissed. "Yeah. I like the sound of that."
**********
PS: The YouTube bit actually happened to me and that was when I got the idea for this one shot. Here's the weird video and watch it. I can't be alone in this one. Watch it! >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FavUpD_IjVY
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