part 1/5: the tryouts

“Hey, guess what day it is!”

“Today?”

“Yeah, today! Guess what day it is!”

“I give up.”

“You didn’t even guess! Come on, guess!”

“Uh. Your birthday?”

“That’s three months from now!”

“Alright, um. No, seriously. I don’t know. Tell me.”

Jongin collapses back in his seat and crosses his arms in frustration. He stares at Sehun (or rather, the newspaper he’s holding up in front of his face) with such intensity he’s almost certain he’ll burn holes in the headline he’s looking at. “At least look at me.”

Sehun slowly moves the newspaper so it’s no longer blocking his view of Jongin, folding it in half and neatly placing it on the table. “I’m looking,” he says before proceeding to take a sip of his coffee. He fights the urge to grimace when a bitter taste forces its way down his throat. This is the last time he’s letting Jongin make his morning coffee. “You were saying?”

“Guess what day it is today,” Jongin repeats and reaches over, grabbing his half-eaten piece of toast and stuffing it in his mouth. Sehun raises a neatly groomed brow, right hand reaching up to scratch at his head in an attempt to look deep in thought (while actually trying to smoothen out the curls sticking out on the back of his head). He ponders for a second, trying to come up with an answer before looking at Jongin with an apologetic smile, shaking his head and shrugging dramatically. “Seriously, I give up. Tell me.”

Jongin releases an expasterated sigh that’s way too loud for Sehun’s liking, throwing his hands in the air for dramatic effect. “Are you for real? Use your head!” 

Sehun blinks at the desperation in Jongin’s voice, shrugging again. “Just tell me!”

“Do you know what today’s date is?,” Jongin asks, looking Sehun square in the eye. The latter’s confusion doubles as his mind struggles to remember what day it is. “Uh, Monday?”

“The full date, lunkhead,” Jongin says in an annoyed tone. “Monday….?”

“October?,” Sehun says, although it comes out sounding more like a question than a statement. His confusion only triples when he sees Jongin’s expecting gaze. “The 31st?”

“Bingo! You got it!”

“Not so loud!”

Sehun stares at Jongin, and for a second he wonders if his boyfriend has gone mad when Jongin goes back to staring at him with that same expecting gaze. “Which means?,” Jongin pries on.

“Uh. I don’t know. Listen, have you had any coffee today?”

“You don’t know?,” Jongin continues, ignoring Sehun’s remark. He rolls his eyes when Sehun makes it clear he has no idea what Jongin is talking about. “Halloween!”

For a second Sehun wonders whether he heard Jongin correctly, blinking twice before shaking his head in confusion. “Sorry, what?”

“Halloween,” Jongin repeats, leaning back on his chair with a wide smile on his face.

“Hey, don’t do that!,” Sehun exclaims. “Don’t hit your head like you did last week. Seriously, I don’t want another dent in my floor.” It takes him a solid minute until he remembers Jongin’s words and his eyebrows furrow. “So what that it’s Halloween today?,” he says with a roll of his eyes. He’s about to reach for the paper when Jongin’s voice stops him.

“What are you gonna dress up as?”

Sehun blinks. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Jongin says. “What’re you gonna be? Ooh, you could dress up as that Kingsman dude from that weird- movie you like so much!”

“I think you’re forgetting something extremely important here,” Sehun says calmly, putting and crossing his hands together in his lap, eyeing Jongin sternly. “And it’s that we’re both 20 years old.”

Jongin blinks, seemingly unfazed. “So?”

“’So’?,” Sehun repeats, furrowing his eyebrows. “We’re both full grown men in our twenties, for God’s sake, not ten year old boys. What would the neighbors say if they saw two six foot, grown- men dressed in kid’s costumes walking down the street begging for candy? They’d call the police!”

“We can still do it,” Jongin says and pouts. “I’ve always celebrated Halloween, although it’s been a while since I did last. But who cares, I know you love Halloween and scary so why not? Come on, please!”

Sehun clenches his fists in his lap and bites his lip in both humiliation and defeat when he realizes Jongin is right. He does like Halloween and being creative with dress-ups as well as recieving candy from neighbors and scary movies. He lets out a sigh of defeat and puts his hands up. “Fine. But none of us have a costume or anything to wear,” he says as a matter-of-factly. He quickly looks up at Jongin with a stern look in his eyes. “And you can forget that I’m going with you to a toy store or anything like it,” he deadpans.

Jongin shrugs. “We have some stuff here, I think.”

Sehun blinks. “We do?”

“Yeah, I can go find them if you want me to,” Jongin says and Sehun nods when he realizes Jongin isn’t taking no for an answer. “Wait, so,” Jongin says, stopping when he’s halfway out of his seat. “Does that mean you’ll do it?”

“What?”

“Does that mean you’ll do it? Come on, for me? Just this one time? I swear you won’t have to do it next year or the year after that.”

“Sure, yeah, whatever,” Sehun says when Jongin’s features contort into a pout and he curses because damn it, he’s got to stop letting that damn pout get to him every time. Reaching for the paper again, Sehun lets out a noise of surprise when Jongin hurries over to his spot across the table and wraps his pyjama-clad arms around his neck. Sehun’s lips automatically curl upwards at the contact and he reaches up to rub Jongin’s right hand that’s covered in the blue fabric of his pyjama shirt. Damn it, those sweater paws. “Thanks, you’re the best,” Jongin says quickly before running off, presumably to the basement.

Sehun downs the remainder of his (now cold) coffee and tries not to cough as the bitterness slides down his throat. Standing up, he grabs the half-read newspaper and quickly chucks into in the magazine holder they keep next to the table. He stretches his long upper body before proceeding to wash the cup, the sound of running water putting him in a trance as his mind wanders a few years back to when he was ten years old. He remembers the Superman costume his mother had sewn for him on his ninth birthday that he had worn on Halloween the same year. He subconsciously lets out a small chuckle when he remembers how much candy he had collected that night and how he thought it was all because of his Superman costume. He isn’t sure if he chose to keep it or ended up throwing it out when he grew older and he inwardly sighs. Growing up really . He wishes he had an attitude like Jongin sometimes; his typical carefree who-cares-if-I’m-too-old-Imma-do-it-anyway type of attitude. Sehun knows he’ll never be anything like that but that’s what attracted him to Jongin when they first met - his bubbly, fearless nature. They’re polar opposites when it comes to this and Sehun is fine with it. He likes it a lot, actually.

He doesn’t get to think any further when a loud banging noise echoes through the apartment, ing him out of his trance as he jumps five feet in the air. His surprise skyrockets when he drops the cup in surprise, a high-pitched clinking noise ringing through his ears when it hits the bottom of the sink. He whips around with wide eyes that quickly soften in relief when he sees Jongin standing ten feet away with a gigantic box labeled ‘HALLOWEEN’ at his feet. “Jesus,” Sehun babbles, doubling over and grabbing onto the sink, trying to catch his breath with a hand on his chest. “A warning, please.”

“Sorry,” Jongin says but he doesn’t sound apologetic at all and Sehun fights the urge to walk over and mess up his bedhead. “Did I scare you?”

“Did you,” Sehun says with a dramatic roll of his eyes. “You scared me out of my damn wits. Seriously, at least let me know you’re creeping up behind me like that, you little . Also, ever heard of setting a box down on the floor carefully?”

“You must’ve been deep in thought,” Jongin says, cocking his head to the side.
 

“Yeah, whatever, let’s get to that,” Sehun says, gesturing towards the black box.

“What were you thinking of?,” Jongin asks. “Let me guess, you were thinking of me.”

“Can we get to the damn Halloween stu- hey, how’d you know?”

Jongin giggles. “You’re so oblivious it’s funny. You were smiling." 

Sehun grits his teeth. How long has he been standing here?

Sehun blinks, still trying to control his heart rate. "Correction; I was thinking of that Superman costume I had when I was like ten. Now could we please focus on th-”

“Hey, this one looks cool!,” Jongin exclaims, already having removed the lid from the box and in the midst of rooting through its contents. He holds up a cowboy hat, seemingly not caring about the fact that it’s matted and torn at the sides as a result of having been used a million times before as well as damaged after spending years in a box. The gold star attached to it is staring to fade in color, the words printed in the center of it barely readable but Jongin smiles anyway, proudly holding it up in front of Sehun who’s staring at it like it’s a grenade that’s about to go off. 

“Is that yours or mine?,” Sehun asks, walking over and gently touching it. “Ech, it’s filthy and damaged as hell. You can’t wear that.” He turns his attention to the box, bending over to pick something up. “Here, try th-”

“Doesn’t it look great?”

Sehun whips his head around to look at Jongin who’s grinning from ear to ear, the torn-up cowboy hat sitting on his head at an awkward angle. It’s, surprisingly, not too small like Sehun had expected and he briefly wonders at what age Jongin’s head stopped growing. “Isn’t it a little big?,” Sehun asks and fights the urge to reach out and remove a strand of brown hair from Jongin’s forehead when the latter adjusts the hat on his head.  "Nah,“ Jongin says cheerfully. "It’s fine!”

Sehun shakes his head and reaches out, swiftly taking the hat off Jongin’s head, the latter whining in disappointment, and putting it back in the box. His eyes scan the sea of costumes and accessories strewn about in the box beneath him, bending down and picking up a white shirt, unfolding it and holding up. “Is this also yours? Seriously, I don’t think any of this stuff is mine.”

Jongin eyes the print on the shirt for a solid minute before blushing and looking away, right hand reaching up to scratch at his neck. Sehun raises an eyebrow and turns the shirt around so the writing is facing him and - oh.

“Uh,” Sehun starts but is quickly cut off by Jongin.

“I’m sorry you saw that, Jesus, I swear I’m not a weirdo or anything like it, it was even my decision to buy it-”

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Sehun says although he’s fighting the urge to look away as well. “Lots of people have thoughts like this every once in a while. It’s normal. Hey, look at me, it’s fine.”

Jongin blinks, confused. “Sorry, sorry. I just really like that movie. And the comics, obviously.”

“You like Suicide Squad?,” Sehun asks with wide eyes and eyes the shirt again. “I had no idea. What, you got a bat in there somewhere as well?”

Jongin blinks. “I like it, yeah.”

“No need to be embarrassed,” Sehun says with a loud hearty chuckle. “I’m a fan as well. I just didn’t know she was your favorite character. And well, I couldn’t see a bat or pink and blue hair dye anywhere so I figured…nevermind.” His smile quickly turns smug, eyeing Jongin with a not-so-subtle expression. “Besides,” he says, “I think it’s fitting. For you, that is.”

“Shut up and put it back in the damn box,” Jongin says, covering his face in shame. “Jesus, I should’ve given it to Baek or something,” he mutters under his breath.

“I mean,” Sehun adds, ignoring Jongin’s remark. “You are, aren’t you? You are Daddy’s Lil Monster, aren’t you?”

Jongin snatches the shirt out of Sehun’s hand, quickly tossing it back in the box. He feels Sehun’s eyes burning holes in his back and he quickly bends down before proceeding to rummage through the box. “How about this one?,” he says, holding up a rather terrifying mask. “This one looks go- oh, wipe that -eating grin off your face!”

“Sorry,” Sehun says with a chuckle, eyes widening a little when he averts his gaze upwards and sees the mask. “Geez, that’s…gross,” he says and takes a small step back.

“Try it on, will you?,” Jongin says, holding it out, making Sehun take an even bigger step back. “Nah,” he says. “You do it. I’m good, really.”

“I already tried something on, remember?,” Jongin says, waving the mask in front of Sehun’s face to . It works; Sehun’s features instantly contort into an expression of pure disgust at the sight and he takes another step back, putting his hands out in front of him. “Seriously,” he says. “I’m good.”

“Please, Sehunnie,” Jongin whines, taking a step forward. When Sehun doesn’t budge he gets an idea, head whipping up to look at the latter. “If you try this on, I might wear the shirt sometime today.”

That catches Sehun’s attention, eyes flashing with something Jongin can’t identify and he seems to visibly relax. “Promise?,” he asks, reluctantly taking a step forward while eyeing the mask in Jongin’s hand with a grossed out expression. Jongin nods. “Sometime today, won’t tell you when, though,” he adds with a small grin. 

Sehun sighs in defeat before reaching out and taking the mask from Jongin’s hand, upper lip curling upwards in distaste when his fingers come in contact with the rough and bumpy material. He turns the mask around in his hands and lets out a small yelp when his index and middle finger get tangled in a mop of (what he hopes is) fake matted hair, ignoring Jongin’s less-than-attractive guffaws as he quickly slips the mask over his head, trying hard not to gag when he inhales the scent of old rubber mixed with latex. If someone asks him why he doesn’t like Halloween very much, this is the reason. 

“You look creepy,” he hears Jongin say although it sounds more like he’s talking in a can since the thick rubber blocks out about 60% of the surrounding noise. “Yeah,” Sehun grunts, trying not to inhale through his nose. He winces in disgust when his bottom lip touches the slippery insides of the mask and he makes a mental note not to smack them together. He figures the inside of an old rubber mask won’t taste very pleasing. He’s about to remove the mask, hands reaching up to grab at the edges when he hears Jongin’s voice.

“Hey, wait!,” Jongin says, running over and standing next to Sehun. The next thing Sehun feels is the weight of Jongin’s left arm draped over his broad shoulder closely followed by a camera shutter clicking shut. “Okay,” Jongin says, removing his arm from Sehun’s neck, “You can remove it now!”

Whoop dee doo, Sehun thinks before he proceeds to literally rip the mask off his head, letting out a dry cough when he breathes in the fresh air. He quickly tosses the mask back into the box before turning to face Jongin who’s wiping at his lips with a disgusted expression on his face. “That tasted goddamn awful,” he says, spitting. 

“Oh poor you,” Sehun says in false sympathy. “I was stuck in there for God knows how long and not only tasted it, but inhaled it, too.”

Jongin shrugs before something in the box catches his eye, quickly bending over to pick it up. “Look!,” he exclaims, bringing both hands to his open mouth. Sehun is about to ask him what he hell he’s doing when Jongin removes his hands from his mouth, a pair of long white fangs protruding from his lips. They’re way too big for his mouth and Sehun lets out a small chuckle before crossing his arms in admiration. “They’re nice,” he says. “But will they stay on for long?”

“They will,” Jongin says with a nod, although it comes out sounding more like ’Zeywel’, much to Sehun’s amusement. “You drool a little bit that’s fine, I think. Should I wear these?”

“Hm,” Sehun says after some time. “I see a way those might be a disadvantage. For the both of us.”

Jongin blinks in confusion and Sehun thinks he looks adorable. He barely has time to utter a (barely comprehensible) ‘Huh?’ when Sehun is in front of him and leaning in, swiftly pressing his lips on his own. It’s uncomfortable as hell and in a second Jongin rips the set of fangs out of his mouth, arms flailing in all directions as he squabbles a barely audible 'you could’ve just said so, moron!’, much to Sehun’s delight. “Told you so.”

With a sigh Jongin tosses the (now slobbery and sticky) fangs back into the box before his eyebrows furrow. “That’s about it,” he says. “I mean, that’s all we could really salvage. Everything else is broken or too old or useless.”

Sehun nods. “Yeah. And you don’t have anything else, right?”

Jongin shakes his head and Sehun feels a certain pang of hurt when he sees Jongin’s shoulder slump in disappointment. “Hey,” Sehun says weakly, trying to lighten the mood. “You could get yourself a hundred toilet paper rolls and dress up as a mummy." The feeling in the pit of his stomach only doubles when Jongin doesn’t even laugh, lips only curling upwards in a small smile at Sehun’s suggestion. In a sense Sehun is glad he won’t have to put up with wearing any more awful-smelling masks but he soon realizes he’d wear a hundred of them on top of each other just to see that excited smile on Jongin’s face again. He’s about to speak up when Jongin beats him to it.

"This was such a bad idea, sorry. I think you’re right, we’re both too old for any of this,” Jongin says, bending down and putting the lid back on the box. “I’ll carry it back down to the basement. But hey, at least you won’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself,” he says, looking up at Sehun with a sad smile. The crestfallen look on Jongin’s face sends a pang of guilt soaring through Sehun and he realizes he’d dress up as the most humiliating costume he can think of and walk down the street for an hour any day if it meant not disappointing Jongin when it comes to something he clearly shows so much excitement towards. Swallowing his pride, he quickly grabs hold of Jongin’s arm when the latter stands up with the box in his arms. 

“Hey,” Sehun says and clears his throat. “I know a costume store about half an hour from here, we could go there and look for something if you’d like.”

Jongin’s face immediately lightens up, much to Sehun’s relief. “Really?,” he asks with a hopeful glint in his eyes but it quickly fades. “But you said there was no way you’d-”

“Forget I said that,” Sehun says, preferring to leave out the part about not wanting to let Jongin down. “So, you wanna or no?”

“Yeah of course!,” Jongin exclaims, the light returning to his eyes as he grips the box tighter to avoid it slipping out of his grip. “Thanks, I love you, you’re the best,” he says with a quick kiss to Sehun’s cheek. 

“No need to be dramatic,” Sehun says with a chuckle but there’s no bite in his voice, reaching out and ruffling Jongin’s brown hair. “Need some help with that?”

Jongin shakes his head. “I’m good.”

Sehun nods. “Which end should I take?”

“That one, at the back,” Jongin says with a grin, watching as Sehun grabs hold of the handle at the back, hoisting the box up so it’s at waist level. They walk towards the basement, Jongin kicking the door open when they arrive and setting the box down on the floor so Sehun, with skillful and precise movements, can carefully maneuver it down the steep flight of stairs.

Fifteen minutes later Sehun returns, running up the stairs two steps at a time and quickly closing the door behind him. He locks it and turns to look at Jongin who’s staring at him like he’s the sun. “Don’t worry,” Sehun says sarcastically. “Nothing broke.”

“Wasn’t expecting that to happen anyway,” Jongin says. “You’re always so careful.”

“The shop opens in,” Sehun pulls out his phone and quickly types something into the search bar once he’s connected to the Internet. “Forty minutes. What time is it now?”

Jongin blinks. “It’s on your phone.”

“Oh, right,” Sehun says in both amusement and embarrassment. “It’s 9:30. We’ll make it to opening. We have plenty of time to get dressed and get there. We’ll take my car.”

“Awesome,” Jongin says, standing behind Sehun and wrapping both arms around his neck. He’s standing on his tip toes despite being only an inch shorter than Sehun, face buried in the crook of Sehun’s neck, inhaling the familiar scent. Sehun’s back is warm pressed against his torso and his pyjamas are comfortable against his skin and Jongin nearly dozes off, Sehun’s voice breaking the ice.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Sehun says, scrolling through his Instagram. “Don’t fall asleep on me, I don’t want your drool on my neck.”

Jongin blinks, unhooking his arms from Sehun’s shoulder. “I don’t dr-”

“Hey, you posted that?!”

“What?”

“Jesus, I look awful,” Sehun says in agony. He’s staring at the picture of him in the zombie mask with a sword through its head and Jongin who’s standing next to him with his arm around Sehun’s shoulder while planting a kiss on his cheek. Sehun wonders how something can look so romantic yet at the same time so repulsive. He feels his heart fill with a certain warmth at the sight of Jongin’s messy bedhead as well as his baby blue pyjamas, quickly exiting out of Jongin’s Instagram account before turning on his heel to face him, much to Jongin’s surprise.

“Hey,” Sehun says, leaning in close to Jongin and cupping his face in his hands, squeezing his cheeks together. Sehun fights the nagging urge to kiss him. “If you take too long I might change my mind.”

Jongin rolls his eyes and gently pulls away from Sehun’s grip, walking towards their shared bedroom. “Whatever, in that case I’ll take the bus without you and return home with the awesome-st costume you’ve ever seen in your life,” he sing-songs before entering the bedroom and closing the door behind him.

Sehun only mutters a ’right’, silently chuckling to himself before turning around and walking to the hallway to look for his car keys.