Jihoon sighs for the umpteenth time as he stares at the numbers that are beginning to blur in front of him.

His phone buzzes in his pocket. He glances at it before answering it with another sigh. “I told you, I’m going to be late today,” he murmurs.

“And I said that’s fine,” the voice on the other end says simply, like negotiating with a child.

“So why are you calling me to nag me?” Jihoon sighs. The rest of his team is starting to look at him now.

“Who says I’m calling you to nag you?” the voice is teasing.

“Junhui,” Jihoon deadpans.

A soft laugh. “Just tell this lady that I’m your boyfriend and I’m allowed into the building, please?”

“What?” Jihoon says before a lady comes on the line and asks him to confirm his name and employee number and then hanging up.

“What in the world?” Jihoon murmurs, as he stares at his phone, now returned to the homescreen showing Junhui’s smirk besides Jihoon’s hesitant smile. Junhui had put an arm around his shoulder while they were waiting for a dentist appointment, or something else mundane, and snapped the photo a mere second after Jihoon realised what was happening.

Jihoon had appropriately shoved at his shoulder after the event, but Junhui had grinned, kissed his cheek and been cheery all day, so of course Jihoon did something sappy like make it his phone background after that.

(Junhui’s smile when he found out was something Jihoon wished he could take a photo of, but he would never admit that.)

Jihoon just slides his phone back into his pocket and settles back to scanning the documents, the rest of his team ducking their heads down back to work.

The answer comes not a minute later, when someone knocks on the glass door of the meeting room they’re residing in. Junhui’s cheeky grin is something Jihoon would recognise anywhere.

“What…? What are you doing here?” Jihoon splutters as he opens the door.

“Delivering chicken and cola to my hardworking boyfriend, and his team?” Junhui says, lifting the bag of delicious smelling food.

Jihoon’s team immediately drops their papers and one looks like they’re about to cry from happiness as Junhui moves away from Jihoon’s hands and gaping expression to hand them the chicken and soft drink.

“Y-You - ” Jihoon splutters when Junhui finally steps back to smile at his boyfriend.

Junhui just beams and leans over to kiss his cheek. “Eat first, babe, thank me later,” he grins and steps up to the table, where the chicken is all laid out.

Jihoon watches as he helps pour out cola into mismatched mugs from the kitchen, and remembers something all too familiar.

Two years ago

Jihoon watches forlornly as another person gets up from their seat, having finished for the evening and heading home. Jihoon wants to go home, or to Junhui’s apartment and whine about this stupid assignment to his boyfriend.

He mutters a swear under his breath and turns back to his books. He has to get this finished; it’s due tomorrow and he feels bad for bailing on Junhui the last two nights for this stupid assignment.

He runs a hand through his hair, ignoring the faint murmur of sound coming from the other study section.

As the sound comes nearer though, Jihoon chances a glance up to see what all the commotion is about. Instead, he finds Junhui, dressed in several layers of warm clothing, scanning the rows of study desks. Everyone is staring at him, Jihoon included. He spots Jihoon a moment later and breaks into a bright smile.

“Hey,” he whispers as he slides into the seat beside Jihoon.

“What are you doing here?” Jihoon hisses, and then he sees Junhui is carrying a plastic bag. “And what is that?!”

Junhui just grins and puts it on the table beside him. “Food, because I know you never eat properly when you get stressed,” he says, pulling the plastic bag away to reveal a covered bowl of jjajangmyun.

“Oh my god,” Jihoon breathes, his stomach rumbling as if it hadn’t been trying to tell him to eat all day. “Seriously? You came all the way over here just to bring me food?”

He sounds incredulous, but it’s the only way he can cover how his heart is swooping in his chest.

“You’re my boyfriend, of course I would,” Junhui says, smiling warmly.

“Hey! No food allowed in here!” a sharp voice barks and Junhui jumps, guilty.

“Oops, I’ll have to give it to you later, babe,” Junhui chuckles, kissing Jihoon’s forehead before bowing in apology to the grumpy librarian and shuffling out.

Jihoon watches him leave for a moment, stunned into stillness, before he hurriedly packs all his things and follows after them.

Just outside the library entrance, Junhui is getting lectured by the librarian about how no food is allowed, his head bowed in apology. With a huff, the librarian goes back inside and Jihoon steps out from behind the tree he was hiding.

“Hey,” he murmurs and Junhui jumps a little in surprise.

“Oh, hey,” he breaks into a warm smile. “I was going to text you to come over when you were done,” he’s juggling his own messenger bag which has fallen off his shoulder while trying to put the bowl of noodles back into the plastic bag properly.

Jihoon steps over to help him and Junhui smiles warmly. Jihoon just lets go of the noodles to grab the back of his neck and pull him down for a kiss.

Junhui hums when they pull apart. “Well that was nice, but you haven’t even tried the noodles yet, they could be crap,” he grins at Jihoon.

Jihoon snorts in response. “I’m so hungry, it could taste like cardboard and I’d still eat it,” he answers, “besides, you brought it for me,” he ducks his head a little, “I’d eat it, even if it was ,”

Junhui is grinning and Jihoon scowls instead of showing his pink cheeks, so he grabs Junhui’s hand and drags him to a nearby picnic table.

“C’mon let’s eat, I’m starving,”

“I figured you would be,” Junhui chuckles as he puts his bag down on the bench and starts taking the bowl out of the plastic, withdrawing the wooden chopsticks that came with it.

Jihoon is still standing beside him when Junhui turns to look at him. “Aren’t you going to sit and eat?” he asks.

Jihoon just pulls his face down to kiss him again. “Have to kiss you before I eat,” he says quickly before taking the bowl and sitting down at the picnic table.

Junhui grins widely and sits opposite him. “You can kiss me after you eat,” he says, happily watching Jihoon practically inhale the first giant mouthful of noodles.

Jihoon takes a long moment to bite off a mouthful and swallow. He points to his sauce covered mouth. “Really?” is all he says.

“Yeah, really,” Junhui smiles warmly. Jihoon stuffs his face with more noodles instead of looking at Junhui with pink cheeks and red ears.

Junhui knows anyway, and he just laughs softly, and tells Jihoon about an episode at the campus cafe he witnessed earlier that day as Jihoon eats and listens.

end flashback

Jihoon’s fingers curl into the material of Junhui’s jacket. It takes a moment for his boyfriend to turn away from pouring cola to look at Jihoon.

“How come you aren’t eating?” Junhui asks.

“Thank you,” is all Jihoon manages, voice a little choked up. The memory of that night during university is making him sentimental. They had only been going out a few months at that point, but Jihoon remembers it was that moment when he knew Junhui would be more than someone to be with during semester.

Junhui smiles, warm and sincere. “My pleasure, Jihoon,” he says. “Now come on, you have to eat if you want to get through all your data and prepare your report,”

Jihoon just nods and takes the piece of chicken and a mug of cola he’s given. Junhui is still hunched over the box, choosing a piece for himself, so it’s all too easy for Jihoon to lean over and kiss his cheek softly.

Junhui turns to look at him curiously, but Jihoon just bites his lip and takes his seat, pushing his data sheets away to bite into the piece of chicken hungrily. It tastes amazing.

He watches as Junhui easily engages his team in casual conversation, something to break the tense, stressed atmosphere of before. And Junhui is the perfect gentleman, taking all the mugs to the kitchen, washing them himself, and then packing everything so that only the lingering smell of fried chicken is any indication he was even there, leaving them to work in peace.

“Your boyfriend is amazing,” one of the girls on Jihoon’s team gushes after Jihoon has walked him to the lift and sent him home, sneaking a kiss when he thinks no one is looking (they’re all looking).

Jihoon just coughs awkwardly instead of answering. “Well now you’ve all been fed, let’s get this done quickly so we can all go home,” he says.

For the first time in a long while, Jihoon is home first. He’s halfway in attempting to cook dinner (and wondering if his food is burning) when Junhui walks through the door.

There’s a certain slump to his shoulders that has Jihoon abandoning the wok and taking his bag from him as Junhui takes off his shoes.

“Are you okay?” Jihoon asks, a little awkward and unsure how to approach Junhui about this.

Junhui is the one who’s good at comforting. Jihoon keeps awkwardly trying to navigate some more reassuring actions, but Junhui always insists he’s comforted simply being beside Jihoon. Jihoon tries to be more affectionate in those times, and Junhui is always appreciative.

Junhui just sighs and latches onto Jihoon, arms coming around him easily. “Yeah, just a long day at work,” he murmurs. He’s just nestled his face into the crook of Jihoon’s neck when he says, “Were you cooking something? ‘Cause I think it’s burning,”

Jihoon squeaks and drops Junhui’s bag and rushes back to the stove and turning off the flame, but it’s too late, most of the food is already turning bla