⇋

The dim light from the small lamp in the living room gives a glowy atmosphere around them as Sehun drinks quietly from his hot chocolate milk cup.

“Feeling better?” Jongin asks, sitting beside him on the couch.

Sehun nods.

The other man chuckles lightly. “I feel like I’ve asked that question a lot lately.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be,” Jongin reassures. “If anything, did my chocolate milk making skills get better as time goes?”

Sehun blinks at him before cracking a smile. “Not at all. This is too bitter.”

“Really?” Jongin instantly deflates. “Did I not put enough sugar? Sorry, I’ll―”

“I’m kidding,” Sehun tells him, closing his eyes in contentment as he takes another sip. “It’s the most delicious cup of chocolate milk I’ve ever drank, because you made it for me.”

He doesn’t hear a response, but he does feel Jongin’s shoulder bumping into his, a comfortable warmth.

“I’m sorry for making you come all this way at almost 4 in the morning just to make me chocolate milk…” Sehun mumbles, pressing back against the other.

“It’s fine. I told you I’ll always be there for you.” A pause. “What happened though?”

Sehun thinks back to practically crashing himself against Jongin’s chest as soon as he opened the door, thinks back to Jongin’s initial surprise before stabilizing both of them, embracing him securely.

He thinks to them now, to Jongin sitting beside him.

To Jongin being there for him.

“Kai and I made a promise once,” he begins, gaze at the now empty cup. “We promised we shall be each other’s one and only. That I would be his, and he would be… mine…”

Sehun sets the cup down onto the table. “But it didn’t come true. Kai got himself a new lover, Kyungsoo. I was the only one who had foolishly believed and kept our promise for five years…”

“Sehun…”

“I dreamt of the day we had promised that. I woke up, and took in reality. It hurt. I started to hyperventilate. I couldn’t breathe. It was so painful I thought I might die.”

Sehun takes a shaky breath, and Jongin looks like he’s about to reach out for him, when the younger interrupts.

“But did you know, in my darkest moments, when all hope was lost, you were the one I thought of.”

The younger turns to him, giving a soft smile at Jongin’s widening eyes.

“I thought of you. I thought of your words to me. You said I’ll be okay, because you’ll be there for me. And maybe I’m stupid for putting my trust in another person again, but it’s what I’m doing. And Jongin, I―”

Sehun is the one who reaches out, fists clenching onto Jongin’s shirt, head lowering slowly to rest his cheek against the older’s chest, feeling the rising heartbeats through the fabric.

“You give me a feeling of safety. Like everything will be alright. That I can depend on you.” Another shaky exhale. Breathe in, breathe out, Sehun. “I think I’ve become dependent on you, always seeking you out whenever something happened to me that I didn’t know what to do. I don’t know how it happened, I don’t know how it began. But tonight… I’ve realized… you’ve become my sole pillar of support, Jongin.”

“Sehun…” Jongin mutters, like he can’t quite believe what he's hearing. His hands rest on the younger’s back, holding him tight.

“I feel safe when I’m around you. Protected. At peace. And I haven’t felt this way in a very long time,” Sehun confesses, voice choked up with feelings. “So much has happened… A lot of hard things, a lot of things I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle… A lot of things I still can’t handle, alone… But when I think of you being there for me, with me, I realize it’s alright. That I’ll be alright. Because of you. You, Jongin.”

“Then I’m glad,” Jongin whispers. “Because that’s all I’ve wanted to be―someone who can protect you. Someone you can depend on. Someone that will give you the love and care that you deserve.”

Sehun sniffles, fingers sliding around the older’s back to hug him like a man lost at sea finally finding his one anchor. His chest feels full, warm. Happiness. And a tranquility washing over him like calm waves after a raging storm.

He had been so tired, so exhausted, trying to handle everything by himself for these five long years.

But now, he isn’t alone anymore.

And even if the person beside him isn’t whom he had expected, it’s okay.

Love comes in unexpected ways.

And Sehun… really can come to love Jongin, he’s sure of it.

Or maybe… he is already starting to, when he lifts his head up to brush their lips together, initiating a kiss between them for the first time.

And when Jongin holds him in his arms, a palm on his cheek as their mouths slide and meld together, Sehun doesn’t think he’s ever felt so at home, at peace, in a long time.

⇋

Sehun wakes up to the sun shining in his eyes through the curtains, birds chirping cheerfully outside.

And to Jongin’s peaceful sleeping face in front of him, his warm body next to him.

His lips automatically curl into a smile, simply gazing quietly at the other man.

Jongin is still in the collar shirt and dress pants he was in last night, and that makes Sehun wince, thinking of how uncomfortable it must be for him to have slept in such attire.

He slowly gets up from the bed, careful to not wake the other up. Tilting his head as he looks back, he decides to press a chaste kiss onto Jongin’s forehead before leaving the room.

It’s a new day, and Sehun hasn’t felt so refreshed, so excited, in awhile.

“Daddyyyy…” Sowon is mumbling sleepily, rubbing his eye just when S