Imagine your OTP getting stuck in a tube slide at Chuck E. Cheese a playground.

          “I told you this wasn’t a good idea,” Lee Jihoon sniffs, back aching at the uncomfortable angle he was in. His knees were bunched together, shoulders squished against the plastic, and he was pretty sure his elbow wasn’t supposed to bend that way. Nonetheless, there was nothing he could do because of a certain large object, otherwise known as his best friend, blocking his way.

          “I wanted to see how you fit,” Choi Seungcheol replies, resting his head against arm. He was in a somewhat worse position than Jihoon, since he was forced to continuously support himself on his arms (unless he wanted to squish the shorter man beneath him) while Jihoon casually glared holes into his chest.

          “And I told you that I could fit because I’m not a giant, unlike a certain someone,” Jihoon replies dryly, trying to find a better position. Although he was lying down, his shoulders were pushed against the hard plastic and his feet were starting to cramp. Plus, he wasn’t sure what he should do with him arms. For now they were crossed against his chest but he was starting to get restless.

          “I’m not that tall, Mingyu’s bigger than I am!” Seungcheol retorts, cracking his back (to Jihoon’s disgust). He watches as Jihoon shifts his position and Seungcheol tries his best to accommodate him. He was starting to regretting trying to slip in beside Jihoon (after all, the age limit for the playground was 12) but Seungcheol was a proud man, he wasn’t going to admit that it was his fault, especially to the object of his affections.

          “Whatever,” Jihoon scoffs before laying one of his hands across the plastic and drumming a small beat. “Why did you come here anyways?”

          “Soonyoung said you seemed sad,” Seungcheol confesses, “he didn’t know where you went though.”

          “So how did you find me?” Jihoon raises an eyebrow, trying not to look Seungcheol in the eye. The older man was taller than him so it was uncomfortable to look up at him normally but now that Jihoon was practically squished underneath him, it made things even more awkward.

          “Because you always come here when you’re down,” Seungcheol replies matter-of-factly. “Like the time your song didn’t get picked for that competition, or when Hansol and Chan switched your blonde hair dye with a pink one, or when you felt bad for breaking Jisoo’s guitar, or-”

          “Okay, okay,” Jihoon says, waving his hand in an attempt to forget all of the embarrassing memories Seungcheol had just stated. He still had to get Hansol and Chan back for that hair dye thing. His friends had said pink hair looked good on him (after they laughed and for a good week and a half) but Jihoon already looked enough like a child. He didn’t need a pastel hair colour to lower his manliness even more.

          “And since it’s almost night time I assumed that you were hiding in the slide like you always do when you want to think, and here you are!” Seungcheol continues. “I always wondered why you liked laying in here so much so I decided to join you and now, now we’re stuck,” Seungcheol smiles sheepishly.

          “No ,” Jihoon rolls his eyes. “What’s different about today? Usually you just sit at the entrance and talk to me there.”

          “I dunno,” Seungcheol admits. He actually did know why he slipped in beside Jihoon today, but he didn’t think telling Jihoon that ‘his newly dyed pink hair made him look especially adorable so Seungcheol wanted to share his secret place with him’ was going to end well. To be honest it might end well, they’d be able to get out of the slide, but only because Seungcheol was going to be a limp corpse.

          “I cannot believe you,” Jihoon sighs, blowing a piece of hair out of his face. He had been meaning to go to the hairdressers to cut his hair for a while now but there was no way he was going to ask some stranger to cut his pink hair. “Ugh, I really need a haircut,” Jihoon mutters, for lack of anything better to say. The two friends had been trapped in the slide for around ten minutes now with no way out. Jihoon had considered telling Seungcheol to reach for his phone in his pocket but quickly dismissed the idea when he realized that one; their friends would probably take a million pictures and might not even help, and two, that would involve Seungcheol’s hand going into his pocket.

          “Just get Mingyu to cut it if you don’t want some stranger to laugh at you,” Seungcheol suggests. “Mingyu’s been complaining about not getting to practice and he’s already laughed his off about your hair before.”

          “Maybe,” Jihoon replies, taking Seungcheol’s suggestion into consideration. “But before I do, we have to get out of here.” Jihoon looks up at Seungcheol’s body, trying to figure out if he can squeeze out somehow while Seungcheol does the same. It was a little awkward to be honest, Jihoon could almost feel Seungcheol’s gaze on him yet he couldn’t really do anything because he was trapped. Not like Seungcheol didn’t feel awkward with Jihoon practically glaring at his body but he was in the more... dominant position so it was less so.

          In any case, Seungcheol needed to get out of the slide before he decided to take advantage of the situation. It had been on Seungcheol’s mind, ever since they realized that they were stuck, and it wasn’t really his fault. Jihoon was just lying there, cutely puffing his cheeks at the absurdness of the scenario, and it took all of Seungcheol’s self control to not lean down and kiss the younger boy’s soft lips right then and there. They had been stuck in the slide for 20 minutes now and Seungcheol was really considering just falling on Jihoon so they’d be able to slide out. Of course, no one could guarantee that Seungcheol would live afterwards but at least they’d be out (and Seungcheol wouldn’t have to avoid looking at Jihoon’s low cut shirt anymore).

          Just as Seungcheol was arriving at his final conclusion, Jihoon had begun to think about the exact same solution. He could handle Seungcheol laying on him for a while – it would really only take a couple seconds right? – and anything was better than having Seungcheol above him, staring into his soul with his warm brown eyes. Plus, seeing as Jihoon was not going to look the older man in the eyes, all he could do was focus his attention on something else, like Seungcheol’s collarbones, nicely sculpted arms, or... Shaking his head, Jihoon brought his gaze back up above the waist, and tried to think of a way out of the slide.

          “Should we call for help?” Seungcheol suggests, a couple minutes later.

          “I don’t think anyone would be willing to come close to a slide with two male voices screaming inside of it, especially since it’s almost night time,” Jihoon replies dryly.

          “Well then what do you suggest we do?” Seungcheol retorts, arms aching from the strain of having to support himself. He had gradually lowered himself lower and lower over and was practically on top of Jihoon at this point. Seungcheol was very close to giving up on all his work at the gym and just collapsing on the younger boy.

          “...” Jihoon sighs mentally, debating with himself whether he really wanted to go through with his plan or not, before deciding that yes, getting out of the slide was worth it. “Why don’t we, just, go down the slide together?”

          “Together?” Seungcheol asks stupidly, causing Jihoon to sigh audibly. “We won’t both fit unless we hug... Oh...”

          “Yeah,” Jihoon rolls his eyes. Seungcheol was a smart student, but sometimes Jihoon felt like he was dealing with an idiot. “So, unless you see a better option... Shall we?”

          “Okay, I guess,” Seungcheol inwardly cheers at the thought of hugging Jihoon (the shorter man detested non-consensual physical contact and the only people who ever really got to hug him on a daily basis were Minghao – because he was cute – and Jeonghan – because he was the mom). “How do you want me to get on you?”

          “W-what?” Jihoon flushes darkly at Seungcheol’s choice of words while Seungcheol mentally slaps himself. Way to choose a platonic phrase.

          “Uhm, never mind, I’m just, going to fall on you now,” Seungcheol says quickly before Jihoon can fully grasp the contexts of his previous sentence. He lets his hands give out (with a sigh of relief) and catches him again right before he could smother Jihoon. The shorter boy lets out a noise of surprise, his hands coming up to grasp the back of Seungcheol’s shirt, before the force of Seungcheol’s movement makes the duo slide down.

          “, you don’t think you could’ve warned me?” Jihoon grumbles, eyes scrunched shut as he feels the night air in his face. Taking a deep breath (the slide had been extremely stuffy), he opens his eyes and finds himself face to face with Seungcheol. They had escaped the slide but had ended up at the bottom of the slide in an even more intimate position than they were before. Jihoon could practically count the individual lashes on Seungcheol’s eyelashes and he was pretty sure that was Seungcheol’s knee in between his thighs. “Seungcheol?”

          Seungcheol knows he should probably move, get off of Jihoon and try to forget like the whole slide incident didn’t happen, but there was something different. He knew that the day was going to end differently ever since he made the decision to join Jihoon in the slide and Seungcheol felt like if he let this chance escape him, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.

          Jihoon’s eyes widen as he feels Seungcheol lower his head and kiss his lips softly. He closes his eyes on reflex, and subconsciously kisses back, moving his hands up from their place on Seungcheol’s back to the older man’s neck and bringing the other boy’s face closer to his. The kiss is chaste and short, almost celebratory, and Jihoon finds himself relaxed and pleased when Seungcheol released his face and they break for air. The shorter one of the two looks up at the happy sparkle in Seungcheol’s eyes and finds his face break out into a smile.

          “That was fun,” Seungcheol comments, sitting up so that they were no longer staring directly into each other’s eyes.

          “No it wasn’t, my shoulders hurt,” Jihoon grumbles, still smiling. The two of them get off of the slide and Seungcheol grabs their bags (which they had left at the trunk of a tree near the playground). “Give me my bag.”

          “No, your shoulders hurt,” Seungcheol responds cheekily, grinning when Jihoon can’t find a sassy remark to comeback with. Seungcheol hums softly as the two boys walk home, sides pressed together and hands intertwined, and silently congratulates himself. It was always better, in his opinion, to act and regret than to think, what if?

That last line is something I tell myself a lot. Whenever I feel indecisive I always try to remind myself that it’s better to do something and regret it later than to never do it and always think about what could happen.

Anyways, this is my second JiCheol fic, I found the prompt on Tumblr because I am still lacking ideas. *sighs* If any of you reading this have a good prompt that you’d like me to write please send them in, I really want to work on my writing style and improve.

Also, that was my second kiss scene but I still at writing them so I kept it short aha. I think I make my kiss scenes more focused on the feeling and meaning behind the kiss rather than the kiss itself. Which makes me look like a Disney writer or something but I’m working on it!

In any case, thanks for reading and I do not own anything in this story other than the idea and plot, any similarities to other works of fiction are purely coincidental or have been used as sources of inspiration. Please do not repost this anywhere without my permission; plagiarism isn’t nice!

Hope you’re smiling!

~ Alateni