part 2/5: the costumes

Sehun easily fishes the car keys out of his jacket pocket, tucking them in the rear pocket of his jeans before looking at himself in the mirror. He runs a hand through his dyed blonde hair and sighs because wow, not only does he need a haircut but a new dye job as well. His black roots are starting to become visible and he quickly parts his hair to the right in an attempt to conceal them. It works. Somewhat.

He checks his watch and shakes his head because what’s taking Jongin so long??? After doing some quick math Sehun deduces that they have about twenty minutes before the shop opens and he’d much rather prefer getting there the minute they open. He’s been there once or twice before and the lines that form outside the shop twenty or so minutes after opening are not to mess with; he’s learned that from self experience. He taps his foot impatiently and is about to head into the bedroom to check on Jongin when the door flies open and the latter rushes out, stopping in the hallway when he’s a foot away from Sehun. “Done!”

“That took what, fifteen minutes?,” Sehun says in an (un)amused tone, reaching for his and Jongin’s shoes, handing the latter his pair before proceeding to put on his own. “Did you die and come back to life?”

“Almost,” Jongin says, tying his left shoe. “I was in the midst of deciding whether or not I should wear the blue checkered shirt or the stripey brown one when I saw a spider climbing up the wall next to me.” He reaches for his right shoe. “Then I bolted as fast as I could.”

Sehun tuts. “You’re such a kid. Scared of a spider? There’ll be a ton of them once we get to the store.”

Jongin rolls his eyes. “That’s different,” he says and winces when his thumb gets caught between his ankle and the pull tab of his shoe. “At least we know for a fact that those are fake! Hand me the shoe horn, will you?”

“I’m surprised you’re able to distinguish a real live spider from a plastic one,” Sehun mumbles under his breath and unhooks the red shoe horn hanging on the wall. “Seriously, I’d be impressed.”

“Shut up,” Jongin mutters before successfully inserting his entire foot in his shoe. He stands up and hands the shoe horn to Sehun who hangs it back on the wall without a word. “Got the car keys?”

“Well I had plenty of time to find them,” Sehun says, putting emphasis on the fourth word, much to Jongin’s dismay. “Plenty,” Sehun adds to and grabs Jongin’s hand in the nick of time when the latter makes a move to hit him on the arm. “Hey now, let’s not be feisty or I’ll definitely change my mind,” he whispers in Jongin’s ear before pulling him in and planting a kiss on his temple. “You’re gross,” Jongin mutters but cracks a smile anyway. “Can we leave now?”

“Sure.”

—

“If you enter their website I’m sure you can view their catalog,” Sehun says from his position behind the wheel. “It’ll save us both some time.”

“So you mean you’re dressing up as well?, "Jongin asks and bounces happily in the passenger seat. "Jesus, this must be my lucky day.”

“Watch your mouth, tough guy,” Sehun says without tearing his eyes off the road. “I told you back home that I was dressing up. God, you have the worst memory.”

“But you love me anyway,” Jongin says with a dramatic grin, pulling out his phone.

“Of course I d- hey, what are you- stop, I’ll swerve, hey!,” Sehun exclaims when Jongin literally flies from his seat and grabs onto his arm. Jesus, this kid.

“They have so many things,” Jongin says absentmindedly, not letting of Sehun’s arm, much to the latter’s annoyance since Jongin is positioned in a way that practically makes it impossible for him to access the gear shift. Sehun prays to God he won’t be needing it anytime soon, at least not until they arrive at their destination. “What should I get? This Dracula costume or this creepy- clown one? What do you think?,” Jongin asks a minute later. When Sehun doesn’t reply he waves the phone in front of his face, much to the latter’s annoyance who furrows his brows in irritation. 

“Dude,” Sehun says, trying to look around the phone that’s continuously being in his face and blocking 90% of his vision. “Move; hey, I’ll look at it when we stop at a red light, alright? Get it out of my face, I can’t see.”

“You’re so boring,” Jongin says and brings the phone to his own face, hastily scrolling through the website. “I can’t find anything cool,” he says after a minute’s worth of searching. “Damn it.” 

“Be patient, will you?,” Sehun says in a mildly irritated tone. “We’ll choose when we get there.” He suddenly gets an idea. “Hey, I have an idea as to what you should dress up as!”

Jongin, on the verge of falling asleep on Sehun’s arm, blinks and looks up at the latter with wide eyes. “What?”

“A cat,” Sehun says. “Or a bunny. Like one of those hot Playboy bunnies, you’d look great in bunny or cat ears. How about it?” 

There’s a sound that sounds almost like Jongin choking on his own spit and he pulls away from Sehun like he’s been burned. “Whatthedidyousay!”

“What?,” Sehun says innocently. “You’d look really good.”

“What'swrongwithyouyouweirdo,” Jongin babbles and proceeds to deliver a slap to Sehun’s shoulder. “You can’t just say things like that! What would the neighbors think if they saw me walking down the street wearing a skimpy- bunny costume? While asking for candy? And what would the frikkin’ cashier think if I purchased nothing but a rabbit’s tail and rabbit ears? In your dreams, sir.”

“Okay, okay, fair point,” Sehun says with a chuckle. “At least I think you’d look nice.”

Jongin blushes and turns his face away so he’s staring out the window. “Shut up.”

—

“Jongin, hey, wake up, we’re here.”

Jongin slowly opens his eyes, wiping away a trail of drool from his chin before looking out the window. He inwardly gasps when he sees the gigantic building covered in Halloween decorations about ten feet away, the words ‘COSTUMES’ blinking in flashing orange and black lights above the huge blue doors. He doesn’t see any mile-long lines and assumes Sehun drove extra fast so they’d make it to opening time. The thought fills him with a certain fuzziness and he instantly spins around only to be greeted with an empty driver’s seat, Sehun seemingly having disappeared into thin air. Jongin blinks and looks around for a minute, unbuckling his seatbelt to go out and look for him. 

He’s just about to reach for the door handle when a fuzzy yellow-ish figure suddenly pops up right outside his window, nearly scaring the daylights out of him. With a less than manly shriek Jongin instinctively retracts like he’s been electrocuted, body flying backwards and hitting the gear shift in the process. He lets out a sharp hiss when he feels a sharp pain spread across his back, mind clouded over with confusion and fear. His fear doesn’t last long though, eyes widening to an impossible degree when he recollects himself and sees Sehun outside, laughing his chin off at him; or at least Jongin assumes he’s laughing at him since he’s pointing in his direction. Jongin carefully sits up and throws the door open in anger and makes a move to get out when he trips over his own feet and spills out onto the pavement. Sehun’s laughter only increases in volume and Jongin quickly gets up, ignoring the blush that’s creeping up his neck. “You idiot,” he hisses while walking towards Sehun. “What the hell was that? You scared me half to death, you .”

Sehun’s doubled over in laughter, holding onto his right knee for support as he wipes at his eyes. “Sorry,” he says but Jongin doesn’t think he sounds apologetic in the slightest. “It’s just that you took so long to get out, I called your name for you to get out about fifty times but you wouldn’t listen. You were too mesmerized, you dork.”

Jongin blinks. “Ha ha, hilarious,” he deadpans before proceeding to bend down and wipe at his shirt that managed to get wrinkled in the fall. “If my back becomes paralyzed because of you, I’m suing.”

“Did you hurt yourself?,” Sehun asks while wiping at his eye. 

“Yeah, flew back and hit my goddamn back like hell,” Jongin says. “Still hurts.”

“Sorry babe,” Sehun says before walking over and lovingly rubbing at the injured spot, much to Jongin’s embarrassment. “Better?”

“Not really but thanks anyway,” Jongin says in a sarcastic tone. He straightens up when he sees the gigantic blue doors slowly sliding open, the pain in his lower back immediately forgotten as he runs over to Sehun. “Look! They’re opening!”

“We arrived just in time,” Sehun says, checking his watch. “You run on ahead, I just need to get out the parking disc and lock the car, I’ll be there in a second.” He looks up when Jongin doesn’t answer and shakes his head in both amusement and disbelief when he sees the latter excitedly running towards the entrance and through the wide open doors.

—

“That one makes your head look way too big.”

“How about this one?”

“Now it looks too tiny.”

“Jesus, Hun, how about this one then?”

“I can’t even see your face!”

Jongin sighs in frustration. This is what he assumes is the three hundreth hat he’s tried on thus far and he can tell Sehun’s starting to get annoyed as well. They’ve inspected every square inch of the store and looked at every single shelf. They actually did end up finding a (very) rabbit costume and Sehun actually asked Jongin to try it on which ended in Jongin running and hiding on the other side of the store and it took Sehun about ten minutes to convince Jongin he wasn’t going to ask him to put it on for him to come out. 

“Hey,” Sehun says after a while. “This could work.”

Jongin turns around and sees Sehun holding what he assumes is a black umbrella with a pair of thick black glasses perched on top of his nose. He blinks when he sees the gray suit and tie Sehun is wearing and is about to ask him what’s gotten into him when Sehun speaks up. “I took your advice,” he says. “I’m going as Colin Firth.” He chuckles when he sees Jongin’s blank expression. “You know, Galahad? Kingsman?”

“Ah!,” Jongin says, snapping his thumb and middle finger together. “Right! Looks great, by the way. Especially with your blond,” he stops and smirks. “And black hair.”

Sehun squawks. “I’m going to get it dyed again!”

Jongin puts his hands up in defense. “Just saying. No seriously, that look suits you,” he says before his face melts into a grin. “Get it?”

“Hilarious. Have you found anything yet?,” Sehun asks while checking himself out in a full-length mirror. “It’s starting to get crowded, if you couldn’t tell,” he adds when a customer accidentally bumps into his shoulder while trying to squeeze themselves between him and a mannequin. “So would you please hurry up?”

“I’m trying,” Jongin says and winces when he turns around and proceeds to walk right into a mannequin, nearly knocking it over. The candy in the orange bowl the mannequin is holding in its hand spills out all over the floor and Jongin apologizes profusely when a lady nearly trips on one and falls flat on her face. 

By now it’s so crowded in the store that you can barely move, something that’s proven correct when Sehun moves to pay for the umbrella and accidentally ends up poking (or, rather, stabbing) a young man in the eye and when Jongin gets his toes stepped on on multiple occasions (nearly bursting into tears when his right foot almost got completely crushed by a six inch heel), much to their dismay. At one point they actually lose each other in the crowd and it takes them nearly five whole minutes to find each other again. Things are disappearing from the shelves at a fast rate and Jongin bites his lip in contemplation as he stares at a red lightning bolt tattoo (the only one that’s left) and a bottle of liquid latex. He finally settles for the lightning bolt tattoo and grabs it before a teenager next to him gets the chance to. With an apologetic smile Jongin quickly makes his way over to the cashier (the only cashier) and pays the four dollars, doing his best to locate Sehun in the evergrowing crowd to no avail. He opts to pushing his way through the crowd instead, finally locating the familiar set of blue doors before literally throwing himself at them and opening them after a bit of struggle. A customer presses against him while he fumbles with the handle and nearly falls clean on his face once the lock gives in and the door opens. Once outside he takes a deep breath, needing a second to pull himself together before pulling out his phone and calling Sehun.

Sehun picks up after the ninth ring but his voice is so muddled with the background noise that Jongin can barely hear him. He’s only able to make out the out the words ’out’ and ’soon’ before hanging up and texting him instead.

To: my baby
come out soon, i’m out here waiting for you!! don’t die in the process pls :x <3

Jongin’s finger barely has a chance to brush over the 3 key on his keyboard when the door flies open and Sehun emerges, hair messy and holding a big black bag. Jongin stuffs his phone in his pocket and runs forward and envelopes Sehun in a bone-crushing hug before he’s gently pried off by the latter.

“Jesus,” Sehun says with a laugh. “It’s not like I’ve been away on a three-week business trip. Did you settle on anything?”

Jongin nods eagerly before pulling away, holding up his own black bag and pulling out the tattoo. Sehun only stares at it in wonder, not knowing what to say. “You…you like David Bowie?”

“No,” Jongin says. “Well, kinda. My sister used to play his music all the time before she moved to England. Since I had to walk past her room to get to mine I picked up a few melodies here and there since she usually played them on full blast and I’ll tell you, he’s pretty good!” He frowns when he sees Sehun’s expression. “What?”

“Nothing, I just…thought you’d get something different,” is all Sehun says before gesturing for Jongin to continue.

“Wait, you mean like a clown costume or something along those lines? Trust me, I tried but there were so many people and well…I’m not exactly rich. I figured a David Bowie tattoo would work.”

Sehun nods before reaching out and ruffling Jongin’s hair. “Can’t wait to see it on you.”

Jongin blushes and removes Sehun’s hand from his head and opts to holding it in his own. “So’d you get that weird king outfit thingy, or?”

“Don’t talk that way about Kingsman,” Sehun says with genuine hurt in his voice. “And yes, I did.”

They’re just about to turn around and leave when Jongin overhears a child asking his mother about a haunted house nearby. Jongin instantly lightens up at the thought and turns to Sehun who’s checking over his reciept. “Sehunnie,” Jongin says in a tone he knows Sehun can’t resist. “There’s this haunted mansion that just opened at the mall, could you drive us there? Please?”

Sehun blinks. “That’s probably for kids. As in, young children. Are you sure you want to go there? Wait a minute, who said anything about haunted houses anyway? I thought the plan was to buy our costumes and go straight home.”

“I don’t care if it’s for children,” Jongin says in a serious tone. “Come on, I haven’t stepped foot in a haunted house in years, please, can we go?”

Realizing Jongin isn’t taking no for an answer, Sehun reaches up and pinches the bridge of his nose before nodding. “Yeah, but don’t be disappointed when we arrive and it turns out to be for kids.”

“Sure, sure,” Jongin says before grabbing Sehun’s hand and pulling him towards the car.