As a 30 year old, single, Korean male, there are several problems in life that Jongin is facing. Like every other individuals in the workforce, Jongin is struggling with his career coming to a standstill after a few years. Unlike his friends working in MNCs, there are only three career levels available for Jongin - trainee dance instructor, dance instructor, and senior dance instructor. With a lot of talent and a random of luck, Jongin got promoted to dance instructor within 3 months of joining this studio. However, it had been 5 years and Baekhyun had managed to work his way up to become the vice-manager of Jaws while Jongin is still stuck at the same spot he was years ago. There are negligible differences in the classes he'll be able to teach, or the number of students he'll attract, but Jongin can definitely do with the extra 1 million won he'll get with that promotion.

The next problem, and the next next problem has something to do with his social life. Jongin in no way thinks that he's antisocial. He talks to his students every day, hangs out with his buddies every Saturday, and he eats lunch, and sometimes dinner with his colleagues. On Sundays, he walks his poodles - Janggu, Monggu, and Jangah - around the neighborhood, and talks to all the old ladies he meets along the way. In fact, Jongin thinks that he interacts with more people than Chanyeol does on a daily basis.

But, no.

Chanyeol is the one who talks of meeting new friends every weekend even though he is a writer who supposedly sees nothing other than the four walls of his house every day. Jongin doesn’t know how Chanyeol manages to make so many friends but Chanyeol does while Jongin’s social circle hasn’t expanded since the day he graduated from college. And this results in the second problem - not meeting any new friends around his age. Well, not meeting any friends close to his age is not a big problem for Jongin, but things are a tad different for his mum who worries about her son not dating for the past few years. Thus, Jongin’s tiny social circle led to his third problem - the need to go matchmaking.







“Mum,” Jongin raises his shoulder to secure his phone as he tightens the shoelaces of his sneakers, “I’m working on it already. Chanyeol promised to introduce me to his friends next week.”

His mum instantly launches into a rant about the girlfriend Chanyeol introduced to him a few years back, and how she is the most indecent girl she has ever seen. Jongin is pretty sure there’s nothing inappropriate about the things Soojung wears, and all the girls in their school dyed their hair in various shades of red that year, no thanks to a girl group named f(x). But somehow, his mum had issues with Soojung, starting with her piercings (for god’s sake, she only had three), to her attitude, and needless to say they didn’t manage to last long under all those negativity.

“No, mum,” Jongin hurries to cut his mum off before she can starts a tirade on how meeting the right person is important for marriage, “I’m pretty sure she’s someone nice. She’s working in SM as one of the managers.”

“What?!” His mum screams into the phone, threatening to burst his eardrums. Jongin hears a sigh and he envisions his mother working the floor thin with her relentless pacing, “Those managers are always too busy for their own good, and some of them even have violent tendencies. Didn’t you see the videos of them hitting fans online?”

“I heard from Chanyeol that she’s really nice and caring though,” Jongin tries, praying that his mother wouldn’t suggest another matchmaking session with her friend’s daughter. The previous one was nothing short of disastrous with the girl leaving halfway through lunch claiming that Jongin is not doing anything productive with his life and has no goals for the future.

His mother continues listing out her concerns as Jongin makes his way out of his apartment, the sound of his sneakers screeching against the marbled floor providing some comfort as his ears undergo a gruesome torture. Jongin is tempted to hang up the call, but the consequences are something he doesn’t want to face. He did that once in high school, and immediately his phone gets bombarded with KaTalk messages from his sisters and calls from his father berating him for being a bad son, and yes, he doesn’t need a repeat of that experience.

The suggestion of a blind date pops up soon enough, and his mum rattles off a list of names (his scary neighbor included). Before she can propose the idea of having a trial date, or pressurize Jongin into moving home so that they can evaluate the options together, Jongin quickly cuts in, “Mum, there is this application I had been using actually. They help you find your match based on your interest, and Junmyeon managed to date someone from there.”

“Hmm,” Mrs. Kim hums on the other side of the phone, and Jongin knows half of his battle is already won. Out of all his friends, Junmyeon is the only one that his parents trust (it’s not a surprise given Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s track record), and they seem to have this weird belief that whatever Junmyeon does is foolproof and should be emulated. “I expect you to really use it, Kim Jongin,” his mum finally relents, and Jongin couldn’t help sighing in relief, “Send me a screenshot as proof later or I’ll arrange a meeting with Jihye next week.”

A strangled groan escapes, and Jongin quickly muffles it under the pretense of a cough, “Okay mum. Class is starting soon, I gotta go.”







On any other Thursday night, Jongin would be ordering fried chicken while flipping between Cartoon Network and Animax, trying to decide which animation to watch for the night. But, due to his irrational fear of his mum and the promise he made earlier, Jongin is forced to comb through the web, looking for a non-sleazy reputable matchmaking website. His colleagues offered him a few suggestion after hearing about his predicament, but their recommendations led him to websites which are excessively pink with glitters exploding across the screen whenever he moves his cursor, and Jongin doesn’t want to entrust his fate into something that looks so unreliable.

After half an hour of navering and some very traumatizing experiences later, which may or may not include chancing upon photos of scantily clad human beings, Jongin gives up his search and signs himself up for the most reputable matchmaking company South Korea boasts of - 42, the company that set him back 150,000 KRW for the month. Maybe, Jongin laments as he devour his box of chicken, he should had continued his search, and spend that money on 7 boxes of Honey Combo instead.

The process of signing up is ridiculously complicated. Jongin receives a confirmation email from 42 shortly after his payment is approved by the bank and the link given in the email brings him to a website that is about 10 pages long. There are a lot of excessively personal questions that ranges from the number of relationships he had to how often he cleans the house on a weekly basis. At some point in time, Jongin considers closing the page and stopping the madness - there’s no way it can be safe for an unknown stranger at the other side of the web to know so much about his daily habits - but he had already paid, and if this website is as good as what everyone claims, it can be his easiest solution to get out of his mother’s incessant nagging. So Jongin dutifully puts up with all the intrusive questions, answering most of them as accurately as possible while making up model answers for those questions regarding his dietary preferences (he can pretend to love sushi if the situation calls for it).

It is close to 11 when Jongin is finally done with the questionnaire, and the floor is littered with a few hundred strands of hair that fell victim to his pulling as he cursed and swore at the website for the past two hours. He had pressed on the back button at least twice, and being a non-user friendly site, they don’t cache any of the information Jongin had filled in and he had to redo them from the start. There is no happiness erupting in his chests, or excitement over meeting a prospective partner when a long paragraph of text congratulating him for finishing the process pops up. Maybe, if Jongin digs deep enough, the annoyance that he had been holding onto for the past hour is still around. His keyboards are sticky with fried chicken crumbs lodging themselves at the most inconvenient places, but Jongin couldn’t bring himself to care, simply wiping his oily hands on his sweatpants before taking a screenshot of those words and sending it to his mum.







Jongin gets a call from the agency two weeks later when he is halfway through a class. He didn’t hear his phone vibrating over the loud music and by the time he checks his phone after class, there are 20 missed calls and a text message urging him to return the call at the earliest time possible. Despite having friends who successfully met their life partners through matchmaking agencies, Jongin draws a blank when it comes to his personal impression of these agencies, but today, he realizes that these agencies are probably the equivalent of a mum - overly helpful, highly efficient, and likes calling people till they get a reply.

“Good afternoon,” a cheerful voice greets Jongin when he finally decided to stop procrastinating and returns the call. Jongin isn’t scared, after all he had gone through worse situations where his student’s parents screamed at him over the phone, but he is a tad apprehensive since making the call will mean that he is really putting his future in the hands of some strangers he had never met before.

“Good afternoon, I’m Kim Jongin,” Jongin mumbles unconsciously, “I received several missed calls from you earlier.”

“Please give me a moment.” After several clicks of the mouse and the therapeutic sound of the operator typing away on the keyboard, “Congratulations Mr.Kim, we’ve managed to find a match for you. Will you be free next Wednesday evening for a meeting with your designated partner?”

“Next Wednesday?” Jongin repeats. He has classes till 3PM on Wednesdays and he definitely doesn’t have any plans after that, but it is already Friday and he isn’t sure if he will be mentally prepared by the time next week rolls by.

“Yes,” the staff repeats, “We’ve already ran it through with your partner and Wednesday is the best time slot we can come up with.”

“Oh, okay. I’m free on next Wednesday too.”

“Great,” the voice over the phone brightens significantly once Jongin affirms his availability. “To prevent any issues stemming from the inability to compromise on a location, we have chosen a restaurant in Apgujeong for the both of you. I’ll be sending the exact location to you after this call. The meeting will be at 6PM, so please don’t be late.

If there are no more questions, have a good day Mr.Kim and good luck for your date.”

“Wait,” Jongin quickly interrupts the other before she can hang up on him. “I haven’t gotten the name of the one I’m matchmaking with. How should I recognize her?”

“Don’t worry about that. There will be more follow-up instructions in the email, and you will have to send us information on what you’ll be wearing by Tuesday so that we can inform your partner.”

“Can I get her, “” Jongin adds for good measure, “or his number then?”

“I’m sorry, but it is our company’s policy to not give out number before first meetings. This is to protect our company’s rights and to ensure that both parties at least had a first meeting before any decisions are made. I can give you the name though, it’s Oh Sehun.” The staff doesn’t sound apologetic in the least. Instead, it feels like she’s gloating over the fact that she knows stuff that Jongin doesn’t know about even though those information are of high importance to Jongin. But Jongin has no time to be upset over that. Not when he has a name to work with.







Come Wednesday morning, Jongin makes sure to pack an extra set of clothes before leaving for the dance studio. He had spent the weekends Facebook stalking, attempting to find information about his potential match but all he got are profiles of guys when he searches for Oh Sehun. Naver isn’t of much help either, simply providing him with statistics of people who own this name; and honestly, the male to female doesn’t look hopeful. Even though Jongin chose the biual option when 42 asked for his ual preference, they wouldn’t had assigned him a male partner right? This is definitely not going to go well with his parents, Jongin thinks as he prays that this Oh Sehun will be a female.

However, like how Murphy’s Law always goes, 42 assigned Jongin to a male partner. Their meeting location is a quiet restaurant located in Garosu-gil, situated on the second-storey of a popular cafe. The bell tinkles brightly when Jongin pushes the door open, and Jongin winces at the loud noise. The restaurant is dimly lit, dark colored drapes covering every possible surface and Jongin can barely see the blue t-shirt and white ripped jeans he is supposed to look out for.

“Excuse me,” Jongin approaches the lady sitting near the door, “Are you Oh Sehun?” The lady shakes her head, and Jongin smiles apologetically in disappointment before moving away. The restaurant is relatively empty with only 3 tables filled, and the other table is occupied by a couple. That must mean that his partner is the guy sitting by the window.

Jongin takes a deep breath, scrunching his eyes shut to still his nervousness before making his way to the table. It wasn’t obvious from far, but now that Jongin is closer, he realizes that Sehun’s hair is a light shade of pink - it’s pretty but Jongin already doesn’t like this Sehun based on his hair color. It is too wild and excessive. Before Jongin can decide on his introduction, or the expression he should wear while greeting his date, Sehun turns around and gives him a smile.

“Hi,” Jongin greets awkwardly, wincing at the loud screech his chair made as he moves to sit down, “I’m Kim Jongin.”

In contrast to Jongin’s awkwardness, Sehun seems completely at ease with the situation, propping his head on his palm while smiling at Jongin amusedly. “I’m Oh Sehun.”

“Oh. How old are you?” Sehun looks like he can easily be over 25, but he can easily blend in with the rest of the college kids with a snapback and varsity jacket.

“I’m 23, a final year student at K-ARTS but I’m taking LOA right now, so technically I’m doing nothing.

What about you?” Sehun asks.

“I’m a dance instructor.” Jongin had known that there is a possibility for Sehun to be a student, but it still comes as a shock since 42 is known to put people of good matches together. He had half-expected to be matched with a fellow teacher, or an online shopping mall owner, but never did it cross his mind that his partner will be a student, especially when the other is so much younger.

“Ehhh, really?” Sehun grins with excitement, his eyes crinkling into half-moons, “I’m a dance major, teach me some moves next time.”

“I’m not that good at it to be honest,” Jongin scratches the back of his head embarrassedly, “and I mainly do Ballet.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re awesome,” Sehun praises without reserve.

Dinner went a lot better than Jongin had expected. Sehun’s enthusiasm makes up for Jongin’s lack of social skills, and they never ran out of topics to talk about, or rather Sehun kept the conversation running since the younger boy has such a wide variety of hobbies that ranges from online games to sports.

“So what do you do on weekends?” Sehun asks with his mouth half-full, and while that turns Jongin off normally, Sehun is fairly attractive (Jongin had learnt to appreciate his hair color in the past hour though he still doesn’t like it), and he reminds Jongin of Janggu who will hoard all the food in his mouth while pretending that he didn’t get any treats.

“I stay at home and sleep, meet my friends and walk my dogs.”

Sehun hums, nodding in reply and for a moment, no one says anything as they finish their dinner. “Can I come over this weekend?” Sehun asks when Jongin is sipping on his cup of soft drink,causing the other boy to choke on his drink. Thankfully, the restaurant is empty except for them and the waitress at the counter is too engrossed with her phone to pay them any attention.

“What?” Jongin asks incredulously, grabbing a napkin to clean up the mess he made. Why will Sehun suggest to meet at his place?!?! Are all youngsters this straightforward these days??

“Teach me how to dance, please.”

“Oh, okay, okay,” Jongin quickly pulls his mind which had been conjuring all sorts of situations back, “We can do that.”

Being the gentleman Jongin is, he offers to pick up the tab for dinner, and when he hands his credit card over, Jongin is glad that he didn't venture into the world of dating earlier.

“Where do you live?” Jongin asks when they step out into the chilly spring air.

“Near the Anguk station,” Sehun pulls his jacket tighter, drowning himself in the oversized clothing. “Let's grab a drink,” Sehun drags him into an alley before Jongin can suggest going home for the day. Sehun's definition of a drink turns out to be Gongcha, something Jongin hasn't had since college.

“You need to drink this,” Sehun insisted on ordering for the both of them since Jongin paid for dinner earlier on, “It's the best thing in the world.”

Jongin takes a tentative sip at the brown drink in front of him, grimacing when he tastes the excessively sweet drink.

“What's with your expression?” Sehun kicks him under the table in displeasure, a visible pout on his face. Sehun's pink lips glistens from the drink, and Jongin quickly looks away before he Sehun can catch him staring.

“It's too sweet,” Jongin shakes his head to clear any inappropriate thoughts before kicking Sehun back, earning an astonished look from the younger, “And that's revenge for being rude to your elders.”

“Woah,” Sehun exclaims exaggeratedly, “I didn’t know you’re capable of loosening up. You were so tense throughout dinner.”

“Was I?”

Sehun chooses to send him a judgmental look in reply, and Jongin reaches out to ruffle the other’s hair, not realizing it until he sees the stricken expression on Sehun’s face.

“Let’s go,” Jongin retracts his hand in embarrassment, jamming his hands into the tight jeans he is wearing to ensure that there’ll be no more incidents of wandering hands happening.



The sweet taste of bubble tea lingers in Jongin’s mouth hours later, even after he had brushed his teeth, twice. 42 had sent a text message earlier, enquiring about his dinner date and if they should find a new match for him. Jongin knows that the logical action will be to request for a change of partner, one that will fit into his mum’s expectations, but he has this inexplicable attraction for Sehun and his pink hair.







Sehun, as expected, is a phone addict. On a good day, it takes Jongin about 4 hours to reply to a text, but Sehun seems glued to his phone, replying to all of Jongin’s messages within 5 minutes and even sending Jongin random photos throughout the day.

“Don’t you have anything to do???” Jongin texts back when he receives 5 messages from Sehun within 3 minutes.

“No, I’m a jobless student.” Comes the reply a few seconds later.

Jongin doesn’t bother replying, choosing to be less of a social recluse and join in his friends’ conversation, but Sehun continues bombarding Jongin with messages causing his phone to vibrate every other second.

“For god’s sake,” Baekhyun complains 10 mins into the dinner, “Can you put your phone on silent mode or just reply the goddamn text so that we can have some peace.”

“No and no,” Jongin retorts back. “Even if I reply him, will we ever get any peace with you around?”

“You.” Baekhyun, as always, resorts to violence and tries to hit Jongin on the head. However, he falls a bit short and ends up hitting Jongin’s neck instead. “You need to learn to stop being so picky. It’s not every day that someone is interested in you. You’re turning into the second Junmyeon and before you know it, you’ll be a fossil.”

“Shut up,” Despite his response, Jongin takes out his phone and sends Sehun a quick reply. What Baekhyun said isn’t far from the truth. Jongin’s social circle is ridiculously small and the only people he meet outside of work are his middle school friends, namely Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Junmyeon. But at the very least, he goes out on weekends to walk his dogs unlike Junmyeon who locks himself in the office 24/7.

“You’ll thank me for this eventually,” Baekhyun says confidently and Jongin doesn’t doubt that.







Vacuum the floor. Check. Fold the laundry. Check. Wash the dishes. Check. Straighten the cushions on the couch. Check. Now all there's left to do is to pace around the living room and try not to wear a hole in the carpet while waiting for Sehun to arrive.

Jongin had cleaned the house at least twice this morning, but somehow, the air pollution is Seoul is too serious these days and he can still see specks of dust littering the window sill.

“Monggu, get off the couch,” He screams at his dog in frustration. Now, he will have to get rid of the dog fur again.

The doorbell rings before Jongin can do anymore cleaning, and the security screen shows a cheerful Sehun waving at the camera. Sehun is dressed extremely casually - white shirt with blue sweatpants - something suitable for dance practice, but he looks amazing in the simple getup and Jongin couldn’t help but worry about what he is wearing. However, he doesn’t get any opportunity to fret about it as Sehun enters the apartment.

“Hey,” Sehun waves brightly, holding up the bag he’s carrying, “I brought fried chicken.”

“What did you get?”

“Honey combo.” At that answer, Jongin feels his adoration for Sehun raising exponentially.
He mentioned loving fried chicken when they were chatting over the phone last night, but he didn’t expect Sehun to buy it over or to guess his favorite brand correctly.

“Wow.”

“Do you like me a little more now?” Sehun tries winking, but fails horribly and ends up with both of his eyes closed, and as embarrassing as it is, Jongin finds that incredibly endearing.

Jongin chooses to avoid the question, ushering Sehun into his living room instead. Sehun is cute, his random KaTalk messages and suggestions brightening Jongin’s mundane life, but Sehun is incredibly young and as much as Jongin is not interested in settling down, he’s not sure if he’s up to dating someone that young.

“Are you hungry? Or do you want to practice first?”

Sehun opts for practicing and Jongin leads him to the full-body mirror apprehensively. Ballet is not a common genre for guys and he went through a fair share of teasing when he was younger. Even though he hadn’t been judged for it for years and Sehun sounds incredibly interested in ballet over the phone, but he is still wary of the laughter that might erupt once he starts his moves.

“Let’s stretch first.”

The practice goes amazingly as Sehun listens to every instruction of Jongin’s and allows the older dance instructor to move his limbs to the correct position without any protests. His moves isn’t as precise as Jongin’s but nonetheless, it’s already incredible for someone with no background in ballet to do so well.

“You’re so flexible,” Jongin praises after an hour of practice. They are both sweating profusely and Jongin has to resist the temptation of taking off his shirt, “Maybe you should consider taking ballet classes too.”

“Do you want to try how much more flexible I can be?” Sehun wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and crawls closer to Jongin.

Jongin quickly gets up and scrambles to grab Janggu as a shield, “Let’s eat.”

“I was queuing for the food earlier on, and it took me an hour,” Sehun complains while chewing his food and Jongin really wants to fix that bad habit of talking while eating, “There was two staff and like, ten thousand people in front of me. Okay, not ten thousand, but 15 people in front of me.”

“You should had gotten something else then.”

“I had a strong feeling that you’ll like Kyochon though, so I had to follow my intuition.”

Jongin laughs loudly at Sehun’s ridiculousness, startling his puppies off his lap, “You’re obsessed with things like blood types, intuitions and all those right?”

“Yes! Don’t you think they are super accurate?”

“Not really, I don't pay attention to those actually.”

“Is it?” Sehun seems disappointed for a moment, but his mood switches faster than Jongin can catch up, “It's okay, I'll update you with all those from now on.By the way,” The younger boy changes the topic, “Do you have any video games?”

“I only have Harvest Moon,” Jongin mumbles, hoping that Sehun wouldn’t hear the answer.

“Harvest Moon? The farming game?”

“Yeah.” Sehun laughs hysterically, falling off the chair as he claps exaggeratedly.

Jongin frowns instinctively, not liking Sehun's reaction. Even though Harvest Moon isn't the most mainstream choice for video games, but it's still pretty awesome especially with the improved graphics. And he don’t really like people who judges other people’s choices in life.

“You should frown more,” Sehun comments breathlessly, finally quelling his laughter when he realized Jongin isn't particularly impressed by it, “You look pretty cute like that.”

“Right.” Jongin answers, busying himself with clearing the table.

“Hey,” Sehun moves the box of chicken out of his reach, “Don’t get upset. Though I’m serious about you looking cute.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry,” Sehun apologizes and pouts purposefully when Jongin doesn’t seem to want to forgive him. It is probably a bad idea that Jongin finds Sehun attractive because as much as Jongin wants to stay upset with Sehun, Jongin finds himself breaking out into a smile, “Stop it.”

“Show me how to play Harvest Moon,” Sehun takes the plates from Jongin’s hands and set them aside, “I want to try it too.”

Sehun seems genuinely interested in the game, asking Jongin all sorts of question and marveling at the most basic things (such as fishing) but Jongin doesn’t let Sehun play the game for too long, snatching his console back as discreetly as he can before Sehun can save his progress and mess up two game days for him.

Time seems to crawl by after Jongin keeps his game console, the two man sitting on the couch awkwardly as they watch Jongin’s dogs run around the living room. Jongin wanted to suggest watching the television but his tv had been spoilt for months and he never got around fixing it. And Sehun, despite the chatterbox he is seems to have ran out of topics and is tapping random rhythms onto Jongin’s couch instead. Thankfully, Sehun’s phone rings just then breaking the awkwardness that was threatening to choke Jongin.

“I have to go now,” Sehun says after he finishes the phone call, “My mum wants me home for dinner.”

“Okay, you should go then,” Jongin stands up and shuffles to the door immediately, thanking the phone call in his mind. Jongin contemplated asking Sehun to stay for dinner, but they had ran out of topics to talk about for the day, and there’s nothing else they can do at his place.

Jongin holds the door wide as he waits for his guest to wear his sneakers, “I’ll see you then,” Jongin smiles.

“Yeah, I’ll text you again.” Sehun waves and makes his way to the lift lobby.

The number above the lift changes slowly, inching its way to the tenth storey Jongin is living on. Before it reaches Jongin’s floor, Sehun turns back abruptly, startling Jongin who was watching the younger boy from his door. “Do you want to go for bubble tea with me tomorrow? I have nothing on tomorrow.”

“I have classes until 8 tomorrow though, and I need to go through some routines with my colleagues after that.” This isn’t exactly a lie; Jongin’s classes end at 8, but the routine discussion will take less than 15 minutes. It just feels a little unnerving to see Sehun every day when he hasn’t decided if he’s interested in continuing the relationship.

“What about Tuesday?”

“I already made plans.”

“Will Wednesday be good? Or any time when you’re free?” Sehun seems unfazed by Jongin’s reply, pressing on until he gets the answer he wants. Jongin would had found that annoying most of the time but with Sehun, it is somewhat adorable.

“Let’s meet on Thursday instead?” Jongin suggests.

“Okay!” Sehun agrees a little too quickly, “I’ll see you on Thursday.” The younger boy gives Jongin a little wave before running down the stairs, forgetting about the lift he had pressed for and Jongin couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on his face.







“What’s your favorite drink?” “Favorite movie?” “Beach or mountains?” It is becoming increasingly common for Jongin to receive messages asking about his preferences ever since he agreed to go out with Sehun again.

There are fleeting moments when Jongin feels guilty and feels tempted to ask Sehun about the things he likes too, but asking “Then what about you?” sounds insincere and Sehun is so open about sharing his likes and dislikes that Jongin gets notified of them without having to ask.

“Shall we watch a movie this Thursday?” Sehun asks.

“Okay. You can pick.”







“I got tickets to The Martian,” Sehun surprises Jongin outside his dance studio on Thursday. Admittedly, Jongin gave Sehun the name of his dance studio yesterday after the younger’s relentless begging, but they already made plans to meet at the theatre and he doesn’t recall telling Sehun what time he ends.

Jongin quickly pulls Sehun away from the studio, ducking his face as he walks so that there’s a lower probability of his colleagues noticing him before he manages to escape from the vicinity. His fellow dance instructors had been curious about his date, and seeing Sehun there will only fuel their curiosity, resulting in more questions for Jongin. “Aren’t we meeting at Yongsan?”

“I figured that you’ll be at the studio so I wanted to try waiting for you.”

“What if I wasn’t?”

“Then I’ll just head to Yongsan before the movie starts,” Sehun shrugs carelessly, “I’ve nothing better to do anyway.”

“Seriously,” Jongin pulls his hand away once he deems they’re far enough from his workplace, but before he can put some distance between them, Sehun slings an arm over his shoulder and it is casual enough that Jongin feels awkward to push it off, “What do you do in your free time?”

“Play LOL, go for a late night drive, and think about what I want to do in life.”

“So have you figured out what you want to do in life?” Jongin knows how difficult it can be to make such a major decision, especially after seeing his classmates’ frequent breakdown when they’re forced to make a decision back in high school.

“Not really, but there’s still time. I shall think about it next month”

Jongin frowns at that, disagreeing with Sehun’s statement. He had always believed in making use of every waking minute to work towards his dream and it leaves a bad taste in his mouth when people procrastinate about their future. “Everyone only gets a limited amount of time allocated to them in each lifetime. You may think that it’s okay wasting time on nothing right now, but in fact, you’re using up the time for your future.”

“You know what’s the best thing about youth?” Sehun asks. “Having lots of time, and thanks to that I can spend it on doing romantic stuff like waiting for you.

For privileged kids, youth is a very special thing. You can put a stop to it anytime you want. For example, I took a gap year this year and it acts like extra time for me. I can do whatever I want in this year and as long as it’s not too crazy, it won’t affect my future. It’s like time is frozen for me. All I have to do is go back to school next year and my life can continue from there and by the time I graduate, I’ll be thrown into society like the rest. Just like this, I don’t have to let go of youth so quickly.”

To say that Jongin is shocked will be an understatement. From their previous encounters, Sehun came off as a typical teenager - earnest, stubborn and a little reckless. But Sehun thinks way deeper than Jongin would had expected, even if he didn’t necessarily agree with what was said.

“I think that’s enough of serious conversations for the day,” Sehun announces, leading Jongin to a bench at the bus stop, “What flavor do you prefer for popcorns?”







“Even if I forget my way back to Earth, I’ll still remember the way to your house.”

Sehun had taken a liking to sending Jongin cheesy texts after their movie date and as a result, Jongin had successfully mastered the art of rolling his eyes.

Jongin is still not used to texting, constantly forgetting where he left his phone. And more often than not, he chooses to ignore the text messages Sehun sends him. But he still tries to make a conscious effort to reply to Sehun’s text(as long as it’s not too ridiculous) and answer the other boy’s goodnight call before they go to bed. It had only been a little more than a week, but Jongin finds himself looking forward to Sehun’s call, letting the younger boy’s voice lull him to sleep as Sehun recounts other interesting things he didn’t manage to tell Jongin over KaTalk messages.

“I went back to school today,” Sehun voice sounds even deeper over the phone, and Jongin finds himself succumbing to sleep slowly.

“Hmm? Why?”

“I went to see cherry blossoms.”

“Don’t lie.” Jongin fluffs his pillows, putting the phone on the speaker mode, “Spring has just started and it will take another two months before cherry blossoms starts blooming.”

“I’m not lying,” Sehun huffs indignantly and Jongin knows that there’ll be a pout on the other boy’s face, “Our department was painting one of the old walls with cherry blossoms, so technically, I did see it.”

“Oh, okay.” A silence follows Jongin’s reply, and this type of silence isn’t uncommon in their phone conversations. Jongin always runs out of things to say, letting his puppies distract him when he feels the conversation getting awkward while Sehun seems more subdued over the phone, and Jongin can almost hear the cogs turning in Sehun’s head as he thinks of what to say.

“When they bloom, do you want to go see them together?” Sehun asks after a long pause.

“Let’s see.” Jongin quickly changes the topic to prevent Sehun from bugging him about the previous question, “What are you doing tomorrow?” And thankfully, Sehun starts a full-on rant about how he has to help his dad tomorrow and how much he hates it.

Jongin knows that all the different occasions he hung out with Sehun are considered dates. However, it is easy to pretend that they’re simply two friends hanging out over movies and dinners, and Jongin wouldn’t feel so guilty if he decided to back out and break Sehun’s heart eventually. On the other hand, no suggestions of viewing cherry blossoms together are ever innocent - only couples or people who wants to get together will pop the question - and Jongin knows that Sehun isn’t simply looking for a friend to go together. Sehun wants to know if Jongin is interested in pursuing a relationship with him, and Jongin isn’t ready to answer the question, not till he’s sure that Sehun is the right one for him. Sehun is cute and attractive, and Jongin likes his company, but Jongin thinks he can never be sure.







Ever since Jongin gave Sehun his schedule (after lots of whining and bribery), Sehun will drop by occasionally, waiting by the door for Jongin to finish. His coworkers had cornered him, asking if he knows the hot, young kid waiting by the door but Jongin had always feigned ignorance, pretending to be clueless about Sehun’s existence.

“He’s always gone after you leave though. Are you sure you don’t know him?”

“Yeah,” Jongin digs through his bag, pretending to look for his phone. He doubts that he can continue lying if he looks into the eyes of his colleagues. Jongin knows that calling Sehun his friend is the right thing to do, but everyone knows that he doesn’t make friends easily and their makes it impossible for Jongin to lie about Sehun being an old friend. They’ll then catch on that Sehun is his date, and he doesn’t want to introduce Sehun to his colleagues, only to get endless teases about Sehun when Jongin is unsure of his feelings.

“Maybe we should call the police then and report him for loitering.”



“Can you wait elsewhere?” Jongin makes sure that they are at least two streets away from his workplace before slowing down and talking to Sehun.

“Why? I like that spot.” Sehun takes a huge sip of his bubble tea, stuffing his cheeks with tapioca pearls. Rather than a drink, bubble tea feels more like an extension of Sehun or maybe an accessory for his daily fashion, just like how celebrities always like to hold overpriced Starbucks in paparazzi photos. Out of all the times they met up, Jongin had only seen Sehun without bubble tea once and even that was at the insistence of Jongin.

“My fellow dance instructors think that you’re creepy,” Jongin answers, leaving out the part where he pretends not to know Sehun on purpose.

However, Sehun catches on faster than Jongin expected him to, “You didn’t tell them that you know me?” And when Jongin fails to reply, a scowl appears on the younger boy’s face immediately.

“I just didn’t know what to tell them,” Jongin admits sheepishly, watching a myriad of expression flits through Sehun’s face - starting with hurt to resignation and his eventual poker face.



Sehun stops waiting for Jongin outside the studio after that, choosing to drop Jongin a message about his location and waits for the dance instructor to look for him instead. There is a slight pang of disappointment on the first day Jongin looks out of the door and notices that Sehun isn’t there anymore. But this current arrangement works better and Jongin is thankful that Sehun didn’t get angry with him over this.



“Let’s go and get meat tonight,” Sehun suggests, “I know a really good place in Apgujeong.”

“Okay, my treat tonight,” Jongin agrees readily. After their first date, Jongin had expected himself to pay for the majority of their meals, but in actual fact, Sehun insists on splitting the bill or paying for the food before Jongin can.

“Nice. You might have to spend your entire month’s pay on that meal.”

“I earn more than you think,” Jongin knows that his pay is pathetic as compared to a lot of people, but he still earns more than a school teacher and the bonus which he received last week makes him feel exceptionally generous.



They end up devouring 6 portions of meat between two people and while Jongin can still eat more, he’s glad that Sehun stopped him from ordering before he can spend his entire week of food money on a meal.

“Do you want to grab some ddeokbokki? There’s one down the street. It’s nowhere as good as the one in Hongdae but -”

“Let’s go,” Jongin gets up to pay, and allows Sehun to spray an excessive amount of Febreeze onto their jackets. The restaurant has relatively good air ventilation, however, just like most barbecue restaurant, they still end up smelling like grilled meat.

The food truck by the road is already full of office workers - gathering together to complain about their difficult working life - by the time they arrive and they end up having to sit at the table closest to the exit without the warmth from the heater.

The charm of a food truck is that you will end up ordering more than what you’d planned for initially and Jongin is no exception to that. Their tiny table creaks under the combined weight of ddeokbokki, sundae, fried food and soju and Jongin thinks his stomach will sag if they end up consuming all of it.

“Don’t pour your own drink,” Sehun grabs his wrist when Jongin is pouring their drinks, spilling some of the soju onto the table in the process, “Or I’ll be single for 7 years.”

“And where did you hear this myth from?” Jongin heard of this too when he was in university, but it is too troublesome having to wait for other people to notice his empty cup or having to pay attention to people’s drinking cups all the time.

“Somewhere,” Sehun takes the bottle away from him and finishes filling the cup, “Just let me pour it for you from now on.”

“You believe in quite a lot of stuff eh, from horoscopes to these myths,” Jongin teases, remembering the text Sehun sent him on Monday, informing him of his fortune for the week.

“It’s better to believe in them,” Sehun downs the shot and nudges at Jongin to pour him another one, “You adults are just too cynical.”

“We’re being realistic.There’s no proof or research done to substantiate these weird myths.”

“Adults are no fun. God,” Sehun whispers to himself, holding his hand together beneath the plastic table to pray, “Please don’t let me be like that in the future.”



“Your hair is too attention seeking,” Jongin complains, the slight nervousness he always feels when meeting Sehun ebbing away after a few drinks. Sehun’s pink hair always attracts excessive attention from passersby when they go out and Jongin isn’t a big fan of all the looks that come their way.

“It’s a form of expression,” Sehun retorts, his lisp which was unnoticeable previously slipping in. “I dye my hair when I want to make a statement.”

“So why pink?”

“Because pink is the color of love,” The younger boy throws his arms open exaggeratedly and gives Jongin a drunken smile, “Isn’t it befitting?”

“But have you found your love?”

“Yes!” Sehun pulls his chair to sit next to Jongin and in his drunken stupor, he knocks over the bottles of soju on their table. The glass shatters against the pavement loudly and the ahjumma rushes over immediately, complaining about their carelessness at the top of her voice. Jongin apologizes for their mistake profusely, quickly taking out his wallet to pay for their food before the ahjumma can start lecturing them in public.

“You troublesome kid,” Jongin chides without any real heat, letting Sehun lean on his side. Despite Sehun looking very skinny, he has long limbs and it makes holding him a lot more difficult that Jongin imagined.

“I’m not a kid anymore.” Sehun slurs, the alcohol affecting him a lot more after they stood up. “I came of age 3 years ago,” Sehun holds up three fingers and shoves it in Jongin’s face to prove his point, “THREE.”

“I know,” Jongin coaxes, placing Sehun’s left arm back on his shoulder. Sehun might still be somewhat naive and thoughtless with some of his actions but he clearly knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to act on it. Age-wise, Sehun is still too young for him but somewhere along the line, the gap caused by their age doesn’t feel that huge anymore.

“Jonginnie, Jonginnie, Jonginnie,” Sehun chants his name repeatedly, putting his entire body weight on Jongin making it difficult for both of them to continue walking. At first, Jongin tries to quieten Sehun, feeling embarrassed by his antics. However, he gave up after realizing that nobody will give a about two drunkards at 2AM and pulls Sehun down to sit on the pavement.

Jongin puts Sehun’s head to rest on his shoulder and runs his hand through the damaged strands carefully, “You’re too noisy.” Sehun’s hair is coarse to touch and more than half of it has split-ends but it’s still so pretty to look at and so comforting to touch.

“‘m not. Jonginnie,” Sehun mumbles against his neck, his alcoholic breath making Jongin feel slightly intoxicated, “Do you want to dye your hair pink too? Then we can have couple hair.”

Jongin isn’t a big fan of dyeing his hair, choosing to go for the most basic dark brown when he gets sick of his black hair and the thought of having pink hair had definitely never crossed his mind, until now. “I’ll think about it.”

Sehun holds out his pinky, folding Jongin’s fingers forcefully with his other hand, “Promise. If not I’ll steal everything you love and run away.”

“Okay.” Maybe when the time comes for it, he will be more afraid of Sehun disappearing than losing his prized possessions.






The call from his mum doesn’t come as a surprise but for the first time, Jongin feels slightly reluctant to answer the call.

His mother doesn’t launch into her question immediately, using questions about his day and things that happened at the studio as a buffer and Jongin is immensely grateful for that. It had been weeks, but Jongin had yet to figure out how to explain Sehun to his family. They don’t know about his biuality and even if they knew, they’ll still think that Sehun is too young and immature for their baby boy.

“So how did the matchmaking session go?” The unwanted question comes eventually and in contrast to his mum’s excitement at the other side of the phone, the stress weighs Jongin down inducing a minor headache.

“It was pretty good,” Jongin answers truthfully, trying his best to reduce the amount of lies he’ll have to tell his parents. He can already imagine all the stories he’ll have to cook up when he dates Sehun.

“So when are you bringing her back? The whole family is excited about it.” He is pretty sure that his mum is the only one excited about it since his sisters have mentioned in the passing that being single isn’t a bad idea. However, his mum is the head of the family and of course whatever his mum decides on becomes a family decision in the end.

“Mum,” Jongin slumps against the sofa in weariness, rubbing circles on his temple in hopes of subsidising his headache. “I’m actually busy right now. We’re choreographing for an idol group these days. I’ll go home next month and we can talk about this again?”

His mum lets him off at that and Jongin wishes that he can disappear before he has to go home next month.







Sehun on his own, is a very interesting person but Jongin thinks that he enjoys going out with Sehun so much because of the effort the other boy puts into planning their dates. Till now, the only place they’ve visited more than once is the bubble tea parlor and even then, Sehun tries to bring him to different stores as much as possible.

Eleven o’clock on Monday night finds them sitting along Han River, their bikes parked behind them without a care. The park is empty except for another couple seated at least 400m away giving them sufficient privacy and the light breeze is comfortable enough to send Jongin to sleep.

“I think my favorite character is Nadi,” Sehun declares out of nowhere.

“Nadi?” This name sounds familiar, but Jongin is unable to put a face to it with his sleep-clouded mind.

“Yeah, he reminds me of you.” Sehun peers up at Jongin and smiles bashfully, something that has became an uncommon occurrence after they got close, “Both of you can be taciturn and aloof at times, but you two are a real softie deep inside. And you’re really warm and nice to people you like, just like him.”

“I’m not aloof,” Jongin denies vehemently. Some of his friends had complained about his lack of participation during their conversations, or how cold his reactions are, but Jongin cares, just that he doesn’t feel the need to express it outwardly.

“Wait, did you just say Nadi?” Jongin belatedly realizes who Sehun had just compared him with.

Sehun nods and pulls a black N3DS out of his bag, “I got the game some time ago, and I finally know why you like it so much.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jongin mumbles, pulling the gaming console out of Sehun’s hands. He quickly switches on the game, peeking at Sehun from the side of his eyes as he waits for the reply.

“I just wanted to know you better. Isn’t there this super cheesy line about doing all that your crush had done, going to all the places your crush had gone to just to know them better?” Sehun’s voice is calm and relaxed, but out of the corner of his eyes, Jongin sees Sehun tapping his fingers on his legs - a telltale sign of his nervousness.

“Sehun -” Jongin knows that Sehun likes him; it is difficult to turn a blind eye to the affections of the boy who will wait for him near his dance studio so that they can grab a quick coffee at night, who will always initiate conversations and send jokes over KaTalk to cheer Jongin up on his bad days. But they had never talked about this, always skirting around it and quickly changing to another topic before anyone can ask or say anything that wouldn’t be reversible.

“Do you believe in fate?” Sehun cuts Jongin off before the older boy can voice out his feelings, “Isn’t it interesting to see where fate will bring you to? Without this website, the people whom I’ll meet will be people within my social circle, but now, I met you instead, someone whose life is worlds apart from mine.”

“We’re not that different,” Jongin mumbles.

“We are. You already have a career when I haven’t graduate. I can’t live without the Internet but you can spend your days being completely at ease even if you don’t have your phone. I like outdoor activities, but you like staying at home more. We have nothing in common except for dance.”

Sehun is right. They are completely different but that doesn’t change the fact that Sehun makes him ridiculously happy.

When he was younger, Soojung downloaded the entire Slam Dunk series even though she isn’t interested in mangas just to have another common topic with him. Yixing, whom he dated in university spent all his free time reading Korean proses despite his abysmal Korean just so he can impress Jongin who loves reading. It had been a long time since anyone had done something like this for him in years, and it makes him more touched than any gifts he had received. So what is Sehun is too young? So what if he isn’t the type his mum expects Jongin to bring home?

“Sehun,” Jongin asks all of a sudden, “Do you want to go see cherry blossoms together this weekend?” Sehun had always been the one initiating activities, and the surprise is palpable on Sehun’s face when Jongin suggested doing something together.

“Why so sudden?”

“I just want to put in more effort into our relationship,” Jongin says, moving closer to close the gap between him and Sehun.

“Relationship?” Sehun echoes.

“Yeah, do you want to date me? Like officially?” Jongin blushes uncharacteristically, the pink blossoming on his tan skin attractively.

Sehun doesn’t reply and Jongin is about to wonder if that’s his karma for being unresponsive for so long when Sehun slips a hand into his, “You’re lucky that I like you so much.”

Jongin squeezes the hand in his hold - Sehun’s hand is clammy and just like the rest of his body, it is a bit too bony for Jongin’s liking but Jongin hadn’t felt this happy for way too long, “Show me your progress in the game. I shall be benevolent and share some of my tips with you.”







Life with Sehun feels like binge eating on chicken. Jongin knows that it can’t be healthy to spend all his free time with his new boyfriend, but Sehun manages to surprise him everytime they talk and Jongin finds himself incredibly drawn to the younger boy.

“Stop texting your boyfriend,” Baekhyun forcibly confiscate Jongin’s phone, putting it under his thigh for good measure. “If I knew that you two were going to be so disgusting, I would had never encouraged you to go for it.”

Jongin knows that Baekhyun doesn’t mean it. Other than Chanyeol who is always trying to set him up with different people, Baekhyun is the one with the most interest in his love life, always ready to give him a little push when Jongin is doubtful of entering a relationship. “You’re just bitter that you’re single while I’m happily attached,” Jongin retorts childishly, sticking his tongue out uncharacteristically.

“Why will I be?” Baekhyun scoffs, rolling his eye at his friend.



“Jongin,” Baekhyun asks when they’ve finished their meal and is waiting for the bill, “Are you happy though?”

“I am,” Jongin nods, “He makes me so happy.”

“Like you’re the only thing that matters in this world?”

An unconscious smile spreads on Jongin’s face as he remembers the weird antics that his boyfriend is up to on a daily basis. On days when Jongin has dance practice, Sehun will wait at the cafe opposite patiently regardless of the weather and give Jongin a wave the minute he steps out of the studio. There’s also the good morning texts accompanied by weird selcas Sehun uses to brighten his mornings. Weekends are the best as Sehun will buy brunch over and proceed to drag Jongin out of bed making sure the older man doesn’t miss his meals due to his love for sleeping. And Jongin thinks he can live with all of these forever.

“Kim Jongin, look at you getting all sappy,” Baekhyun teases, pinching Jongin’s cheeks turning his smile into a grimace, “I thought that I will only see you being this mushy around your dog.”

“Sehun looks pretty similar to my poodles. He can be their new sibling, Segu. Or does Hungu sounds cuter?”

“You’re hopeless.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes again, and Jongin is pretty sure that he’ll receive a call from the hospital one day informing him that his best friend eyes has popped out of their sockets. “So his age doesn’t matter anymore?”

“Nope,” Jongin pushes the restaurant’s door open, the jingling of the bell brightening his mood even further, “I realized that it isn’t a bad thing after all. I thought that there’ll be issues, but the only problem now is that I go out and spend my hard-earned money.”






Much to Jongin’s dismay, Janggu, Monggu and Jangah ends up liking Sehun more than Jongin, running to the door immediately when they hear the doorbell and refusing to leave Sehun’s side the entire time he is in the apartment. Jongin insists that this is due to Sehun feeding his babies treats all the time, making them gain weight and Jongin ends up having to be the one to deprive them of their food but Sehun is shameless enough to claim that he gets so much love because of his looks. And now, they are all running between Sehun legs, paying no attention to their owner, again.

“Monggu, I’m going to lock you out of the bedroom tonight if you don’t come over immediately,” Jongin threatens, subtly hiding the hand filled with dog snacks behind his back. As much as Jongin wants to believe that his dogs love him enough to come to him whenever he calls, the allure of snacks is always greater, and Jongin could definitely use some extra help to boost his likability right now.

Instead of Monggu, Jangah is the one who runs over instead, jumping for Jongin’s hand excitedly with her short legs.

“Good girl,” Jongin immediately picks her up and feeds her a small piece of beef jerky, “I’m only feeding you because you’re such a good kid. Not like the other two,” Jongin scowls unhappily at Monggu and Janggu who are still trying to paw their way up Sehun’s pants for god-know-what reasons.

“Don’t be jealous,” Sehun bends down to scoop Janggu into his arms, “Your dogs have good taste, like you.”

“Or rather, we all have bad taste seeing how we like you,” Jongin retorts back immediately. Dating Sehun made him a lot wittier with his replies; all he has to do is remember some of the stuff Sehun uses as an insult and soon enough, he can throw it back at Sehun.

“Don’t you love me?” Sehun pouts and rubs his head against Jongin’s shoulder, just like a giant puppy.

“What do you think?” Jongin had thought about the l word a couple of times in the last few weeks. If they had been together for a year, or just a few more months even, Jongin will readily accept his feelings for Sehun and label it as love. However, they had only known each other for less than half a year and it had only been a month since they got together. At this stage, it is too easy to mistake infatuation as love.

“I think,” Sehun whispers, his hot breath tickling Jongin’s ears, making the older boy shudder in response, “I love you?”

Despite Sehun ending it as a question, to Jongin, it is undeniably a confession and his heart races both in exhilaration and fear - exhilaration because the person he might love loves him back, fear because he has no reply for that confession.

Jongin purposely grimaces, pretending to find Sehun’s confession gross and hurries to his couch to put some distance between him and Sehun.

“What should you say when someone say something nice to you?” Sehun probes, comfortably settling himself on Jongin’s lap and laces his hands behind the elder’s shoulder.

The distance that Jongin yearns for is destroyed in a matter of seconds, and the dance instructor’s face flushes at their close proximity. He had other female dances hanging of him during performances, but none of it feels as intimate as his boyfriend sitting on his lap. “Thank you?” Jongin tries lamely.

“You’re supposed to say I love you in return. I. Love. You.”

“How are you so sure of it? It had only been a little more than two months -” Jongin catches himself before he can continue.

“I don’t think time is a good way to measure love,” Sehun looks right into his eyes, and Jongin forces himself not to look away, “For some people, they need time to cultivate feelings, to see if their personalities match before they can fall in love with someone, but for some others, it’s an instinct. And for me, it’s the latter when it comes to you.”

Jongin’s cheeks heat up immediately. “Where did you learn these cheesy sayings from?”

“I thought of it myself,” Sehun boasts proudly, putting Jongin’s arms around his waist, “Surprised, aren’t you?”

“Not really,” Jongin says. Sehun had managed to change Jongin’s perception of him in the past few months - Sehun still says and does what he wants at will, but then he’s more mature with his thoughts than people will give him credit for.

Sehun smiles in satisfaction, “But, I have even more surprises in store.”

Jongin tightens his hold on Sehun, pulling his boyfriend closer, “I’ll look forward to it then.”

The moment is quickly broken by Jongin’s dogs who starts whining in unhappiness when they realize that Sehun is not giving them attention.

“Go,” Jongin sighs audibly, “Go take care of those horrible kids.”

‘’Don’t worry,” Sehun gives his cheeks a quick peck, “I still love you best,” before running after the dogs, starting a mini game of chase in Jongin’s tiny living room.

This might be love, Jongin thinks as his eyes train after his four kids closely, ensuring that they don’t bump into anything. He will be incredibly lonely if Sehun isn’t here.







Jongin tugs at the ends of his hair tentatively, wincing in pain as a sharp sting spreads across his scalp immediately. A few strands of dirty pink hair gets stuck between his fingers and Jongin regrets his decision for the thousandth time. He visited the hair dresser on impulse yesterday, dyeing his originally brown hair to a shade of pink so that he’ll fulfill Sehun’s bratty request of having matching hair. But pink doesn’t suit him at all, and he feels like withering under the curious glances commuters sent his way on the subway earlier this morning.

“Your hair,” His boyfriend exclaims once he catches sight of Jongin, “When did you do it?”

“Yesterday,” Jongin mumbles, pulling his hood even lower so that people won’t catch sight of his hair. With Sehun standing beside him, and their bright pink hair, they’re attracting way more attention than he would had liked.

“Don’t hide it,” Sehun pulls Jongin’s hood off, running a hand through his hair, “You look really good like this.”

In the end, Sehun managed to persuade Jongin to walk around without his hood pulled up even though he couldn’t be as confident as Sehun is with all the people staring at him.

“Don’t worry about them,” Sehun whispers reassuringly when he catches Jongin frowning at the group of highschoolers looking in their direction.

The crowd at cherry blossom festivals are always insane, hundreds of people heading to the same place at the same time, and Jongin and Sehun blends right into the crowd quickly, their unconventional hair color forgotten in the mass of people.

Since the invention of selca sticks, they became a necessity whenever a group of friends get together and Jongin has to constantly dodge to prevent himself from being hit by the evil contraception.

“Stop scowling,” Sehun rubs his palms on Jongin’s cheeks and pushes the corners of his mouth up, “You act like a bitter old man.”

Jongin sighs and inches closer to Sehun, carefully dodging the people who are trying to squeeze past him, “I just don’t like crowds.” Till today, he still prefers spending his weekends at home, hiding in the comfort of his house without having to worry about the immense amount of people he’ll have to face when he goes out.

“It’ll get better at the next street.” True enough, the crowd thins the deeper they explore and soon enough, Jongin can walk carefreely without people pushing against him.

“You look like a fairy,” Sehun comments, picking out the fallen petals from Jongin’s hair, “A cherry blossom fairy.”

“No.”

“Cherry blossom fairy,” Sehun decides to disregard his boyfriend’s opinion, whipping out his phone in replacement for the camera none of them have, “Say kimchi.”

Jongin dislikes the nickname and refuses to smile for the photo, choosing to pout and do all sort of funny faces sending Sehun into loud peals of laughter.

Sehun’s face brightens and a blush works its way up his cheeks with the excessive laughing and his hair camouflages against the cherry blossom petals perfectly. With the sun rays reflecting off his hair, Sehun is the one who looks like a cherry blossom fairy instead. Jongin’s cherry blossom fairy.







It becomes a habit for Sehun to come over every weekend, spending his afternoons lazing on Jongin’s couch as he flips through the tv channels. Sehun is the one who sent the television for repair, claiming that he couldn’t survive in a house without modern day entertainment and despite Jongin rolling his eyes at his boyfriend’s exaggerated claims, he subtly agrees with it - he doesn’t mind getting to watch Pororo again.

Sehun is lying on the sofa comfortably, using Jongin’s lap as a pillow when the door beeps open and his parents appear at the hallway of his house. There’s less than 30 meters between the hallway and his sofa, and from his spot, Jongin can see the expression on his parents face changing, the initial smile replaced by angry frowns that line their faces. Sehun scrambles up instantly, nearly falling off the couch in the process and Jongin doesn’t think of helping his boyfriend up, paralyzed by the turn of events.

“Jongin,” His father sighs after a while and pinches the bridge of his nose, breaking the tense silence in the room, “We need to talk.

Will you mind giving us a moment?” He turns to address Sehun to which Sehun rapidly nods and proceeds to make himself scarce in Jongin’s room but not before giving his boyfriend a reassuring squeeze on his thighs.



Jongin leads his parents to the dining room, fingers trembling from nervousness as he prepares the tea. Hopefully, the tea will be able to calm his mother down.

“Who is he?” His mother asks without waiting for Jongin to set the cups down.

Jongin’s hands shake at that question, the hot tea scalding his hands as it spills out of the cup, “My boyfriend. I met him through the matchmaking site.”

Jongin’s mother blows up at that, her voice raising to a shout, “Why did they assign you a male partner? And why didn’t they rectify their mistake?”

“Mum,” Jongin takes a deep breath, tightening his grip on his mug. He worries about being disowned just like what happens in dramas, but he cannot be unfair to Sehun or himself, “It’s not a mistake. I put biual as my uality and that’s how I got assigned to a male partner.”

Jongin’s mother expression was always easy to read, but Jongin only had concern or smiles directed at him and seeing his mother so angry at him terrifies Jongin. “How long have you known?”

“Since university. I had a boyfriend then.” It is easier to lie and pretend that he only started liking guys recently, but Jongin’s instinct tell him that this will make things more difficult for him and Sehun.

“Kim Jongin -” His mother stands up in anger, but his father cuts in before she can say anything and Jongin is grateful for that. He is afraid of the words that will come out of his mother’s mouth.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” His father’s tone is kind but Jongin couldn’t bring himself to look at his parents’ eyes, afraid to see the disappointment in there.

“I’m just waiting for the right time,” Jongin mumbles.

“There’s never going to be a right time for this. You just have to tell us and we can work out a solution together.” His father explains patiently.

Jongin hangs his head in shame, tugging on his fingers nervously. He knows that his father is right. He had multiple opportunities to go home or he could had told his mum when she calls him, but he simply chose to pretend that this problem doesn’t exist.

“I’m sorry.”

“Jongin, we’re not angry about your choices. Yes, both your mother and I. We’re just disappointed that you didn’t tell us and choose to wait for us to find out about it. Can you imagine how that feels, not being trusted by your children?

We’ll support your decisions, just inform us about it earlier next time. Is that okay?”

From what Jongin can remember, his father has always been a patient and understanding man. He allowed Jongin to pursue dancing without asking any questions, he brought home two puppies when the three siblings requested for it and there are so much more and Jongin feels guilty for letting him down.

Jongin nods numbly. He wants a hug now, but he doesn’t think that he deserves it.



Sehun shuffles out of the room shortly after Jongin’s parents left, only daring to come out after the loud slam of the front door.

“Should I leave?” The younger boy looks at Jongin unsurely, holding his bag which is filled to the brim with the amount of stuff he had been leaving at Jongin’s place.

Jongin slumps against the sofa, hiding his face behind his hands. Too much has happened today and he doesn’t need to see Sehun leave in addition to all those, “Do you want to?”

Sehun mutters a quick “no”.

“Give me a hug.” Jongin spreads his arms open and gives Sehun a weary smile.

Without putting his bags down, Sehun jumps into Jongin’s lap, crushing the older boy under his weight.

“Stop eating so much,” Jongin nuzzles against Sehun’s shoulder, “Or my bones will break one day.”

Jongin is tired and overwhelmed but with Sehun by his side, it feels like everything will get better.







“What should we do about your mum?”

“Let’s elope,” Jongin suggests, eyes burning with something akin to madness, “If we leave tonight, no one can find us.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Sehun chides, hitting his boyfriend on the head, “What can we do there? And your mum will never forgive me after that.”

“I can teach kids how to dance and maybe, you can be a farmer.”

“I don’t want to be a farmer,” Sehun whines in protest, “I’ll offer dancing lessons instead and you can be the farmer.”

“Okay, I can farm instead. It was my dream job,” Jongin agrees readily, and pushes Pinku Pinku into Sehun’s arms, “Now let’s go pack before it’s too late.”

“Wait, Jongin,” Sehun pulls on the sleeve of his boyfriend, “Are you serious? Wouldn’t be talking to your mum a better idea?”

“Nope. We need to do what youngsters and kdramas do. It’s the only way I can feel young,” Jongin says, a telltale grin creeping onto his face.

“Kim. Jong. In.” Sehun explodes, hitting the older dancer repeatedly on his back, “You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”

Jongin shrugs, pulling Sehun down to sit on the sofa, “You had been worrying about this for the past few days. I just wanted to lighten the mood.” He shifts the two of them slightly so that Sehun is comfortably nestled in his embrace as he the younger’s thighs comfortingly. “Don’t worry about her, she’s just upset that I kept it from her for so long.”

“I hate you,” Sehun grumbles, but his arms come to circle around Jongin’s waist.

“I love you too,” Jongin mumbles indulgently, pressing a soft kiss on the crown of Sehun’s head. “By the way, mum invites you to come over for dinner next weekend.”







Epilogue

The bathroom sink is stained green when Jongin gets back from work and boxes of used hair dye are scattered on the floor acting as a walking hazard. Ever since Sehun officially moved in a few months ago, a messy and colorful bathroom had become a common occurrence.

“Sehun, what are you doing again?” Jongin asks exasperatedly, picking up the boxes from the floor before water can seep through them and create a gooey mess of pulp.

“Dyeing my hair,” Sehun’s voice is muffled over the sound of the shower running, and Jongin shakes his head in acceptance, retreating back to his room for the newest dye result.

Jongin thought that nothing could faze him anymore after the Chucky Red Sehun tried last month, but apparently, he is wrong as there are always wilder colors that Sehun can explore, and subsequently make a mess out of his hair.

“You look like a vegetable,” Jongin comments, looking up from his laptop when Sehun steps out of the bathroom, “A broccoli to be exact.”

“Right,” Sehun deadpans, “Am I the most good-looking broccoli you’ve ever seen?”

“Come here,” Jongin pats the spot beside him on the couch, and sets his laptop aside, “We have to do something about your addiction to dyeing your hair. Why don’t universities have restrictions when it comes to hair color?”

Sehun pouts, more of a habit rather than being upset and plants himself onto the sofa, dangling his legs over Jongin’s thigh, “It’s fun though and you won’t get to do it when you start work.”

“It’s not like you’re going to be working in a large corporate,” Jongin runs his hands through his boyfriend’s freshly dyed hair, massaging the scalp at random intervals hoping that it will alleviate the pain Sehun always feels after bleaching, “Let your hair rest for a bit if not you’ll be bald faster than you know it.”

“Will you still love me when I’m bald?” Sehun asks.

“Yeah. What about you?”

“I won’t. After all, I only like you for your looks.” Sehun jumps down the sofa immediately after replying, running for their bedroom before Jongin can react.

“Oh Sehun,” The older man gives chase once he realizes what his boyfriend said, “You heartless brat. Open the door this instant.”

Sehun’s self-satisfied laughter passes through the wooden door, and Jongin slumps against the bedroom door, waiting for his boyfriend to open the door so that he can execute his revenge by tickling Sehun to tears.

The house smells strongly of ammonia and Jongin probably has to throw a couple more towels that had been stained green away. But right now, with Sehun in the room next to him laughing his ridiculously weird laughter, there’s nowhere else Jongin wants to be at.