they were five when it started—the small touches, glancing at each other when entering the cramped kindergarten classroom as everything was crowded in the streets of manhattan, new york. sehun did not know why, but jongin was always there and always beside him. even when sehun’s neighbor’s dog was chasing him, jongin would be there, stick in hand, fending the creature off before cuddling sehun and whispering, ‘it’s okay, it’s okay.’

they were nine when the touches became more obvious to the both of them and sometimes they would hold hands to the mess hall or library where they would spend hours reading fairy tales to each other. ‘the prince held his princess’ hand as they rode into the village, the villagers cheering to their engagement. the dragon finally slain,’ sehun said to jongin as they both laid belly down on the library carpet. he continued, ‘i’ll be the prince!’ jongin laughed and shook his head slowly, ‘no way, i’m the prince, you’re my princess sehuna.’ sehun pouted at that, looking away in mild embarrassment but anything was fine with him as long as jongin was happy. jongin started where he had left off but sehun was only staring at the way jongin’s cherry lips looked as he read page after page, never stopping to look at the other and being entranced by the magical symbols on paper. ‘the prince and the princess kissed and they lived happily ever after, the end.’ this time, jongin turned his head so that his eyes would meet sehun’s and they leaned in. sehun wouldn’t recall it as his favorite kiss as of today but the moment was certainly magical to him, although their noses bumped quite a few times before both of them dropped back to the floor and laughed and laughed until one of the librarians shushed them.

they were fourteen when starting secondary school but the touches had not decreased. in school they sat next to each other and when ms. kim was not watching they would grasp hands under the table, smiling softly at their textbooks seemingly paying attention to their math lesson. they did, however, grow apart during this time yet they would walk home with each, often ignoring the few cat calls they would get from kris. sometimes sehun would sit at the lunch table with his new friend, lu han, but that would not stop him from glancing at jongin as the latter was chatting with yixing about a new dance they should be working on for the talent show later in the year. sehun was probably as excited as jongin was, what with all the privacy jongin has been keeping about his new dance routine. sehun was quite a good dancer and would often dance with jongin but this time jongin told him, ‘just watch me at the talent show, princess.’ snickering a little when sehun’s pale cheeks would bloom into a red tint that was just so sehun. the talent show, as it turns out, was the highlight of sehun’s year (except that time in the library when jongin chose to kiss him in front of kris because the chinese boy was just asking for it). jongin and yixing were the second to last act to perform and sehun could hardly keep himself in his seat as the two of them moved around on the stage. jongin with his sharp and articulate moves and yixing with his graceful yet forcibly permitted turns. after, jongin caught up to sehun near the exit and asked sehun what he thought of his dance. sehun promptly replied that he had fallen in love with jongin and possibly yixing. jongin shut him up with a kiss.

they were eighteen when the kisses and touches stopped. sehun had watched as jongin relentlessly came up with excuses as to miss their dates. at first, sehun was just mildly curious as to why jongin would respond to his texts hours after he had sent them. he wondered if jongin would even answer if he sent the other a suicide note. ‘listen, i don’t…i don’t think we should keep seeing each other…’, were the dreaded words sehun heard as he began weeping into his pillow while isaac began his break-up conversation with tracy. jongin was seated next to him, arm draped over sehun’s shoulders as the latter racked up with uncontrollable sobs, ‘jongin, why can’t they just be happy together?’ jongin smiled slightly, but sehun couldn’t see as it was dark and the popcorn bowl was in the way, ‘because baby, they’re not like us.’
(the following weekend, sehun had found out that jongin was working odd jobs and dancing at clubs to save up money to buy sehun a wedding band. sehun cried into jongin’s chest, pounding his fists at the other’s shoulders telling him that he was an idiot and that he should have told him earlier. jongin laughed nervously as he slipped the wedding band onto sehun’s left ring finger saying that this was a surprise and he wasn’t going to ruin it. jongin slept on the floor that day.)

they were twenty when they got (secretly) married, as it was illegal in their country, and possibly every other country but who were they to care about the world. they held their celebration in their spacy manhattan loft. kris, once again, made a fool out of himself and had to be dragged out by an unwilling yixing—yixing telling them a congratulations before slamming the door behind him. chanyeol and baekhyun, friends from junior college, were off in the corner telling minseok and jongdae about how jongin would finally get some after all those years in want. jongin beat chanyeol’s head with a pan as baekhyun slipped out from underneath—tao watching with slight amusement from the kitchen. the hectic night slipped away as sehun ushered the last remaining guests out of their house, climbing up the stairs to join jongin on the roof. he laid down next to his lover as they gazed at the stars and pointed at the constellations that looked like them.  jongin whispered sweet nothings to sehun that night.

by now, they’ve stopped counting the years they’ve been together but sometimes they would head over to the local pet store and jump in fright when a dog would bark or go to the library and read fairy tales to each other while giggling on the floor or even watch a rerun of ‘manhattan’ in the old movie theater near their home—sehun always tearing up as isaac broke up with tracy. they even climbed up to the roof top, jongin in difficulty as dancing took a toll on his now frail body, and compared the stars to each other’s faces, smiling and laughing and gripping their hands in a lock and whispering ‘i love you’ over and over again until they fell asleep under the stars. and sehun recalls that this was the most magical moment, not the look of confidence he saw on jongin’s face when the aforementioned saved him from a dog when they were five or the bumping of noses when they were nine or the precise movements of jongin’s dancing at age fourteen or even the faint tint of red he saw on jongin’s face when he proposed at eighteen. it was the pounding of his heart when jongin kissed him, the comfort he felt when jongin held him as he slept, the sound of squeaking sneakers as he stayed up late watching jongin dance in the studio, and most importantly, it was the realization that he would be together with jongin forever in their small city of manhattan.

a/n: oh my god what kind of monstrosity have i produced

‘listen, I don’t...I don’t think we should keep seeing each other...’
-woody allen ‘manhattan (1976)’