"And now pose!"

"...I said pose! Jongdae, come on!"

Jongdae sighed.

"Why can't I just take the photo?"

"No can do," Luhan chirped, and tugged him a little closer, refusing to let him escape the camera on his phone.

"What's one more photo?" Minseok asked from the left of the picture, and Jongdae sighed again, not because Minseok was inherently wrong, but because he wasn't inherently wrong. He didn't like being in these photos, but there were dozens already, so one more really made no difference. He offered a very neutral smile, and Luhan accepted that this was all they'd get and shot a photo (or two, or three).

While the two chose their favourite shot, Jongdae leaned back against the railing, watching Tokyo's nightlife play out around them. Everyone was bustling around; there were lots of noisy people and colorful signs around them. Jongdae wasn't usually one for big, busy places, but it had a dreamy quality, watching it as an outsider. Luhan and Minseok couldn't really be described as outsiders, but they were pretty toned down today, going by their standards, making it less obvious that they were part of this district.

"Okay, okay. I'll post it right away. What's today's motto?" Luhan asked, not looking up from where he used his phone's tools to enhance the picture a little ("no filter today, just adjusting the contrast"), and Minseok hummed. Luhan looked up at Jongdae.

"What do you say?"

They always asked him, and Jongdae never had an answer ready that would satisfy them, so he'd stopped trying a long time ago.

"Uh..."

He looked at Minseok's thin, white pullover and the bright green suspenders with the little yellow warning symbols on them, craned his neck to look further down to see the blue and red shoelaces he had used as a belt around his wide jeans, and finally down at the flame print on his shoes.

"Huh."

Then he looked over at Luhan, who wore the same, transparent pair of glasses as Minseok (both their eyesight was 20/20), the loose, wine-red turtleneck and the garishly patterned suit jacket that was all grey, orange and dark blue, and looked like an old sofa cover. Did it match with the vibrant, orange pair of pants and the chunky, white and silver sneakers? Jongdae would be the last to know. He'd also be the last to find a motto embracing both of them.

"People with no s to give?" he guessed, and Luhan tutted in disappointment.

"Nah, we're way too clean and put-together for that. I'm wearing a suit jacket, man."

"I thought there are no rules when it comes to Harajuku? Why can't this be your motto?" Jongdae asked - he had no idea why he even asked - but Luhan was already typing something up.

"It doesn't fit the overall picture," he muttered, and Jongdae gave up. Not that he'd ever been too invested in the first place.

Luhan published the photo and then looked up at them with a bright grin.

"Today's motto: Growing Up!" he announced cheerfully, and Minseok did that happy, wriggling motion that was his way of hyping things up. Jongdae caught a glimpse of the photo as Luhan was waving his phone around. Two colorful people and one painfully ordinary one - himself. 

"When will you grow up though?" Jongdae asked, entirely resigned, and Luhan had a pout ready for him, as always.

"When you climb the stairs of adultery with me," he suggested innocently, and Jongdae slapped him with the back of his hand.

"Gross."

"Love is a wonderful thing," Luhan protested airily, looking at Minseok, who nodded.

"It is," he said.

"I wanna go home," Jongdae said.

 

Of course they didn't go straight home, and Jongdae was left to wonder once more how he had ever gotten himself into this situation.

 

---

 

 

It wasn't even like Luhan was unattractive, or a bad person, or genuinely creepy (alright, he was a little creepy sometimes).

But Jongdae had firmly sworn to himself not to get involved with anyone at all during his overseas year. He'd go to university, enjoy the foreign culture, make friends and then board a plane to return home. Linguistics was hard enough already without emotional baggage weighing him down.

Yet somehow Luhan had snatched him away on his very first day. Just his luck. But Jongdae had been naive, a newbie and a little nervous, so the prospect of people wanting to befriend him (one of them even Korean!) was nice and comforting, even if their appearances were a little... wild.

Back then, he'd had no idea what he signed up for.

"Bumper cars!"

Jongdae cringed before he saw what had caught Luhan's excitement this time. They had been wandering around a fair, the three of them. As per usual, Jongdae blended into the background next to the two guys who were dressed in red plaid today.

Red plaid is just a pattern and not a piece of clothing, you say? Jongdae would have agreed a day earlier, but now that he was faced with whole pants and shirts and accessories all covered in plaid, he might change his mind.

Jongdae's idea of visiting a fair was pretty generic - look at all the attractions, maybe board one of the adult ones, but really just buy some nice hot snacks and then call it a day.

Luhan's idea of a fair apparently included bumper cars, the attraction Jongdae only associated with loud, inept macho guys. And Minseok, quiet, mature-looking Minseok... was always in on Luhan's shenanigans. For some reason. There was obviously a lot more to Minseok than his looks let on. Though to be fair, he put in as much effort as Luhan, and his outfits were usually even more experimental. However hard Jongdae would try to understand them though, he always came up blank and was tugged along for the ride before he knew it. Along for the literal ride, in this case.

"You can sit in the front," Luhan offered, and Jongdae shot him a look.

"So you can me under the guise of steering the wheel? No, thank you."

Too hurried to argue, Luhan just made a highly disappointed noise, purposefully loud enough for Jongdae to hear over the commotion.

"You're really no fun, you know that?"

I'm perfectly normal and you are too much fun, Jongdae would have liked to reply, but instead just silently climbed into the bumper car. Because that would be admitting he thought Luhan was fun.

Luhan once said he had a driver's license, but if that was the case, it should be revoked in Jongdae's opinion. There was more bumping than driving going on, and he was going to have bruises everywhere, he just knew it already.

"I'll sit with Minseok next time! Are you trying to kill us?!" Jongdae called out, clawing to the sides of the car and feeling very much like a cat desperately holding on for dear life.

Luhan replied with a distinct 'Wooo' hanging in the air, and then suddenly started slapping Jongdae's arm.

"You should film it, film it!"

"Are you nuts? I'll drop my phone-"

A phone was blindly shoved at him, and Jongdae almost dropped it before he really had it, when Luhan crashed into the brink.

"Then take mine!"

Jongdae really hated himself for being in this situation, and also for being overly careful with the phone as he tried to film... something. Everything flashed by in colorful blurs and catching Minseok (who Luhan was chasing) was impossible, so he ended up filming the back of Luhan's head for way too long. Luhan loved it.

And while the two hyperactive boys took a few more selfies (Jongdae cheated himself out of it by saying he felt nauseous from their previous rampage), he kind of already knew that no matter how ridiculous any of this was, he'd probably remember. For an unreasonably long time, he'd probably remember riding bumper cars in Tokyo with two crazy social media addicts dressed in all plaid. And he'd remember the way Luhan laughed all the while, this loud hyena laugh that didn't suit his face at all, but was just oddly pure.

Jongdae inhaled deeply. They were still idiots, and it was kind of embarrassing to be seen with them in public. But Jongdae had no time to reinforce all his walls of reason, because Luhan was already clinging to him, dragging him along to finally get some - possibly picture-worthy - food.

 

---

 

 

"Say ah...!"

"And then what, you'll stuff those 40cm down my throat?" Jongdae asked back, cringing at the reply he hadn't even heard yet.

"No need to be so suggestive about it," Luhan all but purred, and if it weren't for the tower of soft ice cream he was balancing, he might have been too close for comfort at this point. Today's motto was 'Soft Rebellion!!' (yes, the two exclamation marks were apparently mandatory), but Jongdae would rather dub it 'Delinquent teens'. Luhan looked like he fell straight out of a clichéd live-action adaption with his slicked back hair, plateau shoes, subtle chain accessory and the flowery, sleeveless dress shirt-like thing (yes, Jongdae was an absolute expert when it came to fashion).

Soft Rebellion member number one had thought it would be a great idea to check out this little food shop selling outrageously long food. Jongdae had seen so many absurdities in the past months that he wasn't even questioning the nature of this anymore; but that didn't mean he'd stop judging Luhan, who had picked ice cream of all the things, and was now mouthing at the tip of his 40cm tall ice cream tower.

"Now come on, stop daydreaming, I'll never finish this before it melts, help me!" Luhan ripped him out of his thoughts, and Jongdae crossed his arms.

"You bought it, you eat it."

"Oh, come ooon. Think of it as me treating you to ice cream!" Luhan tried, but no way.

"Ice cream you slobbered all over already?"

"You need to break the ice first?" Luhan asked, and Jongdae was too distracted by the bad pun to see it coming, but then he had puckered lips way too close to his. He reacted as quickly as someone suddenly having a wasp in his face.

"Off," he demanded, backing away himself. "Off."

Luhan smacked his lips in disappointment.

"You know, after a kiss or two, you wouldn't be concerned about such menial things anymore."

"Cause you slobber way more than you do on the ice cream? Awesome," Jongdae commented.

It was always like this between them, back and forth, push and pull. With push being Luhan pushing for more and Jongdae pulling away. The thing was, Jongdae was pretty certain Luhan would have let it go and backed off long ago... if only Jongdae sent clearer signals.

Deep down, Jongdae knew that it was his own fault.

"You do know I'm serious about you, right?" Luhan asked, just asked, just like that. Straight-forward, perfectly serious and calmer than he had ever seen him.

Jongdae stared at him, completely taken aback by the sudden shift of tone.

He just stared, but Luhan didn't back down, waited for a reply, and Jongdae parted his lips before he knew what to say.

"Guys, look at this!"

They both looked to the side, seeing nothing but rainbow fluff.

"It really is 60cm long! It's huge!"

Luhan countered with a loud 'Woah' of his own, hyping up Minseok, who was currently hidden behind a giant mass of cotton candy, and happier than ever. With his free hand, Luhan grasped Jongdae's, and they crossed the distance before Minseok could accidentally walk into a lamp post.

His fingers were sticky with ice cream, but Jongdae didn't complain.

 

---

 

 

"Hey Jongdae, we're going to the Robot café in Shinjuku today, wanna come?"

"Ah, I'm busy writing an essay, sorry," Jongdae began, but Luhan always got a rejection first, so he wasn't put out just yet.

"It'll be amazing! There's gonna be a 90 minute robot show fight, how awesome is that?!"

Jongdae sighed.

"Luhan, I can't. I have a ton of work."

"But-"

"I mean it," he said strictly.

It was silent on the other end, as Luhan waited for him to cave, like he usually did. He didn't.

"Alright then," Luhan finally hummed, the disappointment painfully obvious. "You're boring. But also, good luck on that essay."

"Thanks. Have fun you two," Jongdae said, before disconnecting the call. He flopped down on his bed, staring at the stack of paperwork that had just lent itself as an excuse to cancel on Luhan and Minseok. He really did have to write an essay though, so maybe now was the perfect time to start on that.

In reality, he had declined because it was the right thing to do. Going out to explore crazy stuff that was mostly fun in hindsight only was one thing, but leading on Luhan was another altogether.

You know that I'm serious about you, right?

With a groan, Jongdae flopped to his other side, now facing the wall.

He knew, he'd been aware all this time. But Jongdae wasn't the type for one night stands, holiday flings or any fling, really. Call him a prude, but if he loved, he preferred to do so in a deep and devoted way. And in a few months, he'd return to Korea, and after his fashion studies, Luhan would return to China, and all they'd have would be messenger apps and video calls - and hundreds of pictures on social media retelling Luhan's exciting life, without a drab guy standing next to him with an awkward grin. Jongdae wanted to save them both the trouble. It was way more reasonable to keep his hormones in check for a few months if it meant not dealing with heartache and sadness later.

It was probably unreasonable of Jongdae to check Luhan's online profile a while later, to find him and Minseok grinning excitedly into the camera, clad in a mess of colorful fabrics, the caption announcing 'Today's motto: Sailor Mecha!'. The picture had thousands of likes, and Jongdae added his own like. One irrelevant little like among thousands. Did he really want that?

 

---

 

 

At this point, Jongdae walked into the classrooms for fashion students like it was second nature. People had stopped giving his drab attire odd looks, and in turn, Jongdae had stopped being terrified of the people behind the concerning amount of spikey piercings, contact lenses and wild hairstyles. In a way, he really stuck out with his simple, olive-colored dress shirt he had neatly tucked into his black pair of pants, but he liked to think that he had become more conscious regarding his attire ever since he started hanging out with fashion students. He found Minseok and Luhan in the large room meant for practical work, as usual. What was entirely unusual though, was the way Luhan stared at his phone, not even looking up when Jongdae greeted him.

"Hi," he mumbled, mindlessly scrolling.

It definitely stung a little, being ignored like this, but who was Jongdae to complain? He deserved it.

Holding on to his lunch box, he shot Minseok a questioning glance (whose sweater was so colorful that Jongdae wished he was wearing sunglasses right now).

Minseok grimaced and made some hand gestures Jongdae couldn't interpret at all, but it didn't seem to be about him. Something about his phone. The internet. Something that wasn't Jongdae, at least. He fully trusted Minseok on this, who seemed to be communicating with Luhan in some telepathic way. They were very different, but also very similar. Hesitantly, Jongdae sat down.

"How are you guys doing?" he asked.

"Fine," Minseok said.

They might be similar, but Minseok was by far the quieter of the two, which made for an awkward atmosphere right now. Luhan just sighed, quiet and lacking all his usual drama. Seeing him like this was positively unbearable. Now, Jongdae was the type to give people space when they needed it, and Luhan looked like he did. Someone who is usually all bubbly and loud turning silent and serious all of a sudden... yes, that screamed 'please leave me alone'.

And yet...

Jongdae aimlessly picked at his food, and finally pulled out his own phone, too torn to decide on a definite way to act. He opened Luhan's feed, thinking of Minseok's earlier gestures. Nothing seemed to be off, judging by Luhan's posts. There was a picture of him and Minseok from yesterday's events - some really fancy art museum - and it had a ton of likes and comments, as usual. When Jongdae scrolled through (because he did that a lot and didn't really know what it said about him), he quickly realized that something was different. People were really upset? He kept scrolling, skimming a few comments. With that many comments, you always had a few hateful ones in there, but this post had a lot. And it was hard to tell what they were even upset about. They accused him of being disrespectful, of not being a part of the real Harajuku, of izing Japanese culture.

The more Jongdae read, the less he understood.

Luhan, who was always trying his hardest to adjust to Japanese customs, always bowing when appropriate and using a polite style of language? Who was loud, but never in places where everyone was quiet? Jongdae wasn't even sure these people had ever been to Harajuku. Probably not. Because nobody there seemed to have a problem with Luhan. To Jongdae's understanding, everyone with decent behaviour and a love for fashion was welcome. He just couldn't see how Luhan, who was just so excited to make new experiences and explore this country, had done anything wrong.

He wanted to put the phone down and say all that, grab Luhan's arm until he looked him in the eye, and then tell him that this was all nonsense. But for some reason, nothing came out. They were just sitting there, with Minseok fiddling with a garment a few steps away from them. Jongdae had never felt so awkward before. He had always been a people person, so why was approaching Luhan so hard all the time? Surely, that wasn't Luhan's fault.

Jongdae looked around the room, gaze wandering over bunched up fabrics, paper patterns rustling in a breeze so light Jongdae felt nothing of it. He saw the clothes rack, parted clearly for various people, and hurriedly smeared Katakana on a strip of paper told him that the old-fashioned patterns with all the strips and belts were Luhan's. They were certainly hard to identify, but Jongdae got an idea, looking at them. He stood up, careful not to make too much noise (his worries were in vain - Luhan didn't even glance up at him), and went over to the rack. He could see various pieces, but the most eye-catching one was a jacket.

He shot Minseok a look, who was watching him with his head tilted in question.

Jongdae pointed at the jacket and then hesitated, looking for something else.

Minseok, ever the telepath, seemed to understand and walked over to swiftly grab one of his own pieces of the rack, offering it to Jongdae. It was blindingly bright, a clash of green and blue and yellow, looking like someone had dumped sprinkles all over it. Only that the sprinkles were fabric. Ignoring the visual shock, Jongdae gingerly took it, silently thanking Minseok. He waved him off, but Jongdae insisted. This meant a lot to him.

With Minseok's hoodie in his left hand and Luhan's jacket in his right, he turned around, staring at Luhan's back for a long second. Then he inhaled deeply.

"Hey, Luhan."

Again, Luhan didn't even look up.

"Hmmm?"

Jongdae didn't pounce him. He just walked towards him from behind, reached around and swung the jacket right in Luhan's face, who reacted like a cat thrown in a bathtub, flinching away and almost falling over if it wasn't for Jongdae steadying the back of his chair with his lower body.

"Oh - damn-" he pressed out, accusation and shock and question all jumping out of the previously emotionless boy. Jongdae didn't give him a chance to recover and slung his arm around him into an awkward back hug - which was okay, because the jacket was so bulky that the hug couldn't not be awkward.

"I got today's motto!" Jongdae claimed, and he felt Luhan stiffen in his hold, then holding on to him, then trying to keep his jacket from wrinkling. He was all over the place from the sudden call to action. 

"Today's motto is 'Cheer up’," Jongdae said, announced, with confidence and clarity.

Luhan wrestled around in his grasp to look up at him. If he'd been annoyed before, Jongdae would never know because that very moment, there was just a question written in his eyes, so huge that it was almost comical. Then he saw the eye-catching hoodie still dangling from the hook Jongdae was carrying with his free (and slowly numbing) hand.

"Let's go somewhere after your last lecture," Jongdae suggested, the awkwardness quickly seeping back at Luhan's lack of a reaction.

He had worried for nothing, because Luhan had obviously just taken a while to understand the implication.

"You wanna wear that?" he asked, as if Jongdae had suggested going .

"Hey ," Minseok piped up, playfully agitated. "You got a problem with that hoodie?"

"No, but-" Luhan began, fervently shaking his head and then stumbling over another thought that left him stunned silent.

For a very short moment, Jongdae thought he'd laugh.

"But-"

Think that Jongdae was embarrassing.

"But it's not done yet!" Luhan claimed, jumped to his feet and almost caused Jongdae to lose balance. Before Jongdae knew it, Luhan had placed the hoodie back on the rack, patting it almost fondly.

"You wait here until you're graded," he hummed, before whipping around.

"And that one," he began strictly, pointing at his own jacket that Jongdae was cluelessly offering him, "hasn't been graded yet either. Rule number one - only wear your clothes after they have been graded."

He placed the jacket back as well and didn't give Jongdae time to feel bad or guilty. A hand grabbed his wrist, and he was pulled along, into a corner of the room where a packed bag was sitting. Luhan rummaged through it and pulled out a familiar-looking jacket that looked like it was covered in a shredded shirt. And-

"Is that a crop top?" Jongdae asked weakly, and Luhan pouted. Jongdae sighed.

"Okay, fine."

The fact that he actually agreed seemed to blow Luhan's mind, and not in an 'oh my god I can dress him however I want'-way, but more in an 'I can't believe you're doing this for me'-way.

"We'll find something you can wear below the crop top, but man, I'd love to see that crop top, or- or leather straps," Luhan began, and his excitement was almost scary. He rummaged through his own clothes, eventually called Minseok over, and they decided on an outfit for Jongdae, forcing him to try the pieces on right there.

The gloomy atmosphere was long forgotten, and Jongdae felt all around lost, but decided to let the other two lead him on and have their fun. He really wanted to tell them that this was a one-time thing, but he didn't. Never make promises you can't be sure to keep.

 

Jongdae used to think that while he could be noisy, he was ultimately pretty ordinary and laid back. He used to think his ideal type was mature, that his ideal relationship would include some romantic walks, maybe cooking together or watching a nice movie, cuddled up together on a Sunday evening after they both returned home from their stable jobs with a stable income. No prospect of going anywhere.

With Luhan, things were never like that.

With Luhan, there was never time to breathe, to let things sink in. No romantic hand holding while gazing at the sky. No, Luhan was excited to live, and excited to pull Jongdae along and share anything he found along the way.

And Jongdae? He should really know better. But he only had one life and maybe, just maybe, it was alright to let go for a bit. Maybe Luhan wasn't completely off about things.

And later that evening, when Luhan squeezed his hand and thanked him for cheering him up, when they were both decked in experimental clothing, and Luhan pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, all sticky from the teriyaki skewers they were eating...

...Jongdae surprised him a second time by placing a hand on his neck to kiss him square on the lips.

Because Jongdae was not only sort of hard-headed, he was also resolute. If he had his mind set on something, he'd pursue it. Stubbornly so.

 

---

 

To be honest, my prompt was nothing but "Jongdae is stubborn, Luhan is persistent"~

Most outfits I used were based off real harajuku looks - I'll leave them here, in case you're interested c:

Motto: Growing up!

Soft Rebellion

Motto: PLAIDS.

If you have questions or anything else to say and, for whatever reason, you're too nervous about doing so, you can anonymously ask me on curiouscat~ ♥

Love,
Sugar-and-Salt ♥