The Definition of Marriage
What Binds Us Together
This is an actual oneshot!
Finally. That's the one word I associate with posting this fic up, because this plot has been bugging me for weeks. I've never quite had a story that stuck in my head for so long before, insistently urging me to finish it. I never thought I would write another arranged marriage au fic again (side-eyes my krislay fic from the past). formatting is a bit squished looking for this, so if you prefer looking at livejournal, here. krisyeol marriage!au (also a travel-to-Japan!au).
Whoops. Hmm, it seemed as if he had stumbled onto a rather private moment. Chanyeol, instead of turning the other way, leaned in so that he could see better through the door cracks. Inside the room was a scene out of a classic romance movie, except with two male leads.
The taller of the two was tenderly brushing hair from the other’s forehead. “I really am sorry,” he said. His tone spoke of heartbreak and regret. Chanyeol inched closer; this seemed to be a sad parting scene. This was the part where he would be hunched over the TV, bawling about how the two would be separated from each other by the cruel twist of fate.
"I kind of hate you for doing this to us," the other said, even though his expression had anything but hate in it. The light struck the speaker’s profile, and wow, he was really pretty. Chanyeol held his breath, enraptured.
“I know, Luhan.” And now Chanyeol’s attention was taken back to the tall guy, who had turned so that his face was fully visible to him.
Chanyeol’s stomach dropped like he was on a terrifying rollercoaster ride. He knew this face. He had held this man’s photo in his hands, staring at it wonderingly at night before turning off the lamp.
The couple’s conversation carried on, oblivious to the intruder standing right outside the wooden door.
“Why do you have to do this anyway? Marry someone you don’t even know?” The one called Luhan had his hands clenched in his lover’s shirt, glaring at his chest. Chanyeol flinched a little at the last question.
“It can’t be helped. I have to follow family traditions.”
“It’s stupid.” Luhan twisted his shirt even more. “Stupid, typical filial son.”
“Luhan.”
“What?” He snapped, looking up.
The taller (Kris, Chanyeol’s mind whispered insistently) wrapped his hand around the back of Luhan’s neck. “Goodbye,” he said, and leaned in to kiss him. It was a desperate sort of kiss, arms holding each other tight like this would be the last time they touch. It probably was the last time they would ever kiss, judging by Kris’ words. When Luhan let out a tiny gasp, Chanyeol finally turned his head away. He had intruded enough.
His foot hit a laundry basket as he was trying to discreetly exit (why the hell was that basket even there?). It clattered loudly, and Chanyeol froze, wincing. Damnit.
The sliding door opened from the room he had been peeking into, and Chanyeol met Kris’ bewildered eyes. His hair was still mussed up from the make out session. Luhan emerged from behind him, face equally confused.
Chanyeol watched with apprehension as Kris' face turned into horrified recognition. "Wait," he said, "You're-"
"Sorry," Chanyeol said. "I didn't mean to interrupt." Then, system still on overdrive, he walked off as fast as he could. He cursed himself for being so needlessly nosy.
"I don't want this," was the first thing Chanyeol said when he saw his parents. Even without context, they both knew what he was referring to; it was all he talked about, after all. Seated at the dinner table, his mom offered him a disappointed face.
"What do you mean? You were the most excited out of all of us about this marriage. Now what happened?" She asked, hand delicately cupped under her chopsticks as she ate a piece of pickled cucumber.
Chanyeol couldn't exactly say I saw my fiancé face with another guy so he kept silent. His father gave him a highly raised eyebrow, which meant that he better talk or his mom will get upset. He sighed.
"I just don't want to marry him," he said, eyes downcast.
"And it was going so well, too," his mom muttered. "Both you and Kris had agreed to honor our families' history, and now you choose now of all times to be bratty."
Was she trying to guilt him in this? Because it was working. "Mommy," he whined. "Why can't we just call it off? Please?"
"What?" She gazed critically at him. "Did my son find someone else to fall in love with?"
"No," he said slowly, and then took a deep breath. "But Kris may have."
"What?" She set down her chopsticks, her gaze sharp. "How would you know that?"
Chanyeol winced. It seemed that he would have to tell everything to her after all.
After he had regaled her with the simplest version of the event he could muster, his mom calmly sipped from her tea cup and set it down. Even as an immigrant to Canada, she was rather particular about her old culture. "Well," she began, "unless Kris also has the same desire to call this whole thing off, I doubt your wish will be granted." His dad nodded along and poured more boiling water into her cup.
Chanyeol nodded and resisted the urge to smile widely. This will be easy.
Little did he know.
On their first official meeting together (in some coffee shop that served terrible coffee but great gelato), Kris held out his hand to shake. "I'm Kris," he said, as if they hadn't already accidentally met during Jongin's birthday party in his extravagant mansion, where Chanyeol had caught him and Luhan re-enacting that scene out of a cheesy romantic movie.
Chanyeol pursed his lips, eyeing the hand before finally shaking it. "Nice to meet you," he said, "Let's call the marriage off."
Kris stared at him with an amused tilt of his thick eyebrows. "Cutting it right to the chase, aren't we? Aren't we supposed to talk about ourselves first?"
"There's nothing you need to know about me since we aren't going to get married," Chanyeol growled.
"I have no intention of calling this off," Kris said, leaning back with his arms folded.
"What?" He squawked, and then lowered his volume when he noticed the other customers look toward them curiously. "Why the wouldn't you?"
"I respect my parents' wishes, unlike someone here."
Chanyeol almost flailed in his utter frustration. He hadn't expected Kris to be so... so infuriating!
"Why did you suddenly change your mind anyway? I heard that you had agreed to this engagement before." Kris inspected the coffee in front of him and took a sip. His face turned into a very interesting grimace and he set it down gingerly. Serves him right, Chanyeol thought vindictively.
"What, did you intentionally brainwash yourself of the memory where I caught you making out with that pretty guy called Luhan?" Chanyeol drawled.
"He's not pretty. He prefers to be called handsome."
"Whatever. The point is." Chanyeol paused. What was the point again? Kris was awfully distracting with his terribly big hands and expressive eyebrows. "The point is, I have no intention of being stuck in a loveless marriage. Especially with someone who obviously still loves someone else." He was stupid for waiting for some denial of the sort to the last statement, but Kris did no such thing.
"It can't be all that bad. I'm sure we could get along." Kris shrugged, mouth set in an obstinate line. "Heck, we could even learn to love each other. Although that seems to be a very distant goal right now, seeing how loud you naturally seem to be."
Chanyeol spluttered, speechless with indignation. What was wrong with his past self, thinking that Kris would be some sort of perfect gentleman?
He silently fumed in his room, flipping through his old comic books with no interest whatsoever. Who did Kris think he was? Chanyeol had kept pressing on his argument but the other did not budge one bit. He doubted they would be able to see each other much; how was he supposed to convince him to see his viewpoint?
“Yeollie?”
Chanyeol’s head snapped up. “Mom, I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t call me that anymore!”
His mom tilted her head, hand on the doorway. “But it’s cute. And you’re my cute son. How could I not?”
He pouted. “What did you come here for anyway?”
“You don’t have any plans this summer, right?”
Chanyeol racked his head. His schedule for the summer was depressingly empty. Having recently graduated from college, he was still looking for a stable job. For now, his part-time job as a teacher assistant left him free for the months of July and August. “Other than hanging out with my friends, I don’t think so.”
“Oh good.” She smiled, a wicked gleam in her eyes. Chanyeol knew immediately that he shouldn’t have answered like that.
“What are you planning now?” He asked warily.
“You’re going on an expense-paid trip to Japan!”
“Oh.” He scrunched his forehead, and then smiled widely. “Woah, that actually sounds awesome.”
He was just about to break out into a happy dance when his mom added cheerfully: “Wait, I’m not done yet, Yeollie!”
“There’s more?”
“You’re going with your fiancé. You’ll be spending a month together. Have fun!” With that, she closed the door, knowing about the incoming tantrum.
Chanyeol sat there, shell-shocked.
“Why does this have to happen to me?” He groaned and smothered his face against his pillow. “Jesus ing christ, why.”
Then he suddenly sat up. “Wait, this could actually be good for me.” He his invisible beard, and then realized that he probably looked crazy to anyone who cared to spy on him, and stopped.
If he went on this trip with Kris, he would have more time to pester Kris into ending this engagement. As a super extra bonus, he could also finally visit the country that was number one on his travel list. Chanyeol nodded decisively. It was decided then; he would bother Kris so much that he would rather kiss frogs than marry him.
Kiss frogs? Chanyeol must have been watching too many Disney movies again.
As unbelievable as this may sound, their families had an old belief passed down through generations. Apparently, their ancestors had been chummy friends, and went to see a fortune teller one day. That famous fortune teller had told them the exact year that their descendants have to marry each other, and they took it to heart.
Chanyeol laughed when he first heard the story.
He was not laughing about it now. His mom had been amused about this old belief, while his dad... Well, he was quite superstitious. How did two families that were connected by the past move to the same country and still managed to find each other?
It was a mystery. Some may call it fate. Chanyeol called it a very unfortunate coincidence.
“So. Which part of Japan are we going to exactly?” Chanyeol grunted as he pulled his heavy suitcase along.
“You seriously don’t know and you’re just going to hop on that plane?” Kris looked at him disbelievingly. He seemed to be prepared with everything one would need on an airplane. A neck pillow was already snugly around his neck.
“Nope,” Chanyeol said just to irritate Kris further. In truth, he had already researched every single aspect of Kyoto. He saw Kris’ irritated eye twitch and smugly smiled to himself. One step closer to victory. They stopped in front of Gate 34, and Chanyeol puffed one cheek out as he inspected his boarding pass.
“How terrible. I have to sit next to you? Oh, but I call window seat!”
Kris set his luggage down and sat down, his long legs claiming the space in front of him. “It’s an early flight, and I barely slept. Is it possible for you to talk less? Just, like, a little?”
Chanyeol blinked at him, then tapped his finger against his chin. “Let me think,” he said. “Hmm. Nope, sorry dear.” He sneered while pronouncing the last word before settling down on the chair across from Kris. The blonde didn’t respond; he rested his head back on the chair, closing his eyes. Seemed like he found out how to effectively deal with Chanyeol: ignore him. Chanyeol shrugged. He had more opportunities to annoy Kris in the future. He was tired himself anyway. Before he knew it, his eyes were drifting close as well.
“Last boarding call for the flight to Kyoto. Last boarding call.”
Chanyeol awoke with a yelp. “Kris! . Wake up!”
Kris blinked blearily at him. “What?”
“We are going to miss our flight!” A bunch of incomprehensible noises burst forth from his mouth and Kris put his hand over his mouth to stop the stream of gibberish. He wrinkled his nose when his hand met with a still-open mouth.
“Ugh.” Kris wiped his hand on Chanyeol’s shirt, while picking up his bag with his other hand. “This is not a good start for this trip.”
Chanyeol stared at him, mouth waiting to catch unsuspecting flies. “You...! You just wiped your dirty hand on my sweater. My favorite sweater!”
Kris actually had the audacity to snicker. “It’s your saliva.”
A sound akin to a cross between a whale noise and an offended cat screech came out of Chanyeol as he struggled to catch up with Kris. Apparently Kris also had the ability to irritate him back. They were one of the last to board, even though they were one of the first to arrive at the gate.
“This is really nice,” Chanyeol breathed out when they finally arrived at the rented house they were to live in. It was made out of entirely wood, with a delicate design that he knew was sturdy enough to stand frequent earthquakes.
For the first time, he saw Kris smile. “Yeah, it is.”
However, as soon as they had set their stuff down, they were already arguing over who would sleep in what room.
“I saw it first!” Chanyeol said, and to prove his point, he sat down and rolled around on the queen-sized bed.
“I already put my stuff in here, though.”
“I’ll help you move it out!” He got up, brushing past Kris. “Where’s the other bedroom?”
“On the other end of the hallway.” Kris followed him. “That room has a leaky pipe, I think. The floorboard is in pretty bad shape in the corner.”
He stuck his head into the room, smaller than the one before, to confirm what Kris was saying. “Oh well. You’re just going to have to deal with it.” Chanyeol smiled brightly, glad he wasn’t stuck with this room.
“Nuh-uh. Rock, paper and scissors for the first room.”
“No.” Chanyeol folded his arms. What if he lost? Kris raised challenging eyebrows at him, as if to ask if he was a coward.
Damnit. “Okay, fine.”
They both stared at the end result. “Aha!” Chanyeol crowed. “I won in the end after all. This is destiny. Fate. That room and I were meant to be together.”
Kris just rubbed his hand over his face. “Okay, okay. I admit defeat. You promised to help me move my bags.”
“Can we eat first? I’m hungry.”
“...Me, too. I saw a restaurant near here when we were walking over.”
They were outside of the tempura restaurant, looking at the pictures on the menu, when Chanyeol raised up a very good point. “Um. Do you know Japanese?”
“I took it for two years in high school.”
“Oh my god, we’re doomed.”
“What? Don’t tell me, you don’t know it at all.”
Chanyeol squirmed. “The little I do know is from watching anime and reading manga.”
Kris gaped at him. “We are doomed. I don’t even know if I can even remember what I learned. That was years ago! I thought, by the way you kept chattering about always wanting to go to Japan, that you’d make an effort to learn this language.”
Chanyeol sheepishly grinned. He dug into his carry-on bag. “I think I have a tourist guide for us with some useful Japanese phrases to point at.”
Kris took it from him and inspected it. “I don’t know. It looks pretty useless.”
“What? But it has, like, cool discounts for some tourist spots.” Chanyeol sidled up next to him and squinted at the handbook. “Like... Ueno Zoological Gardens. Yay, I love animals. Wait. This is a Tokyo Tourism Guide. Why did Mom hand this to me?”
“Aren’t we making a trip to Tokyo two weeks later to stay for three days?” Kris idly flipped through the little book.
“Oh, we are?”
Kris shook his head. “Clueless.”
Chanyeol tugged at the bottom of Kris’ shirt. “Why aren’t we going in yet? The food here looks so good, I might drool on you before we go in.”
“Let’s go,” Kris quickly said, obviously not liking the thought of Chanyeol’s drool on him. Chanyeol huffed a little in laughter behind his hand before following him.
They both stared in wide-eyed wonder when their food was set down in front of them. Each piece was arranged with such detail and artistic taste that it seemed like a shame to eat it.
Chanyeol couldn’t stand his growling stomach and took a bite. “Oh my god. Kris, you have to try this. This is like food heaven or something.”
He split the chopsticks and picked up the shrimp tempura and dipped it into the sauce. It was light and full of flavor at the same time. “Wow.”
“Told you so.” They didn’t talk for the rest of the meal, concentrating on wolfing down the food.
They went sightseeing, of course. It was actually really tiring, and they always arrived home sweaty, fighting over who got the shower first. They argued and bickered about the smallest things. At first, Chanyeol had started these arguments purposely for the sake of his goal, but then it became natural to start bantering about whether or not they should buy this expensive music box or which place to see next.
Sometimes they argued for each other’s well-being.
Five days of traipsing around Kyoto (to Rokuon-ji and tons of other temples), Chanyeol had to take a day of rest. He was hogging the toilet the moment they got home yesterday.
“Something in the food was bad. I don’t know what,” Chanyeol said after his fourth trip to the bathroom.
“Or maybe your stomach is just weak. I ate the same thing as you,” Kris said, but his face was lined with slight concern.
“This .”
Kris gave him a comforting pat on the back. “I’ll bring food back.”
“You better! Or I’m eating you.”
“What is this?” Chanyeol stared at the little bag on the table that Kris plopped down in front of him. “This doesn’t look like food. Where is the food you promised? Kris, you can’t let me die here from starvation.”
Kris breathed out through his nose. Chanyeol recognized it as one of his many symptoms of frustration. “Relax. The food’s right here.” He held up a white plastic bag in his hand.
“What’s this, then?” Chanyeol held the bag up and raised it as if he could see its inner contents through the lamplight.
“Open it.”
He raised his eyebrows at the little keychain he fished out. It was a stitched-up pink bunny hanging from the chain, with a tiny bell on its neck.
“I was just browsing through the shops and saw it. I thought you might like it.” Kris took out the bento boxes from the plastic bag.
“It’s ugly,” Chanyeol said flatly.
“Wow,” Kris snorted. “If you don’t like it, I’ll just give it to my mom.”
Chanyeol clutched the bunny tightly in his palms. “What? No! It’s mine.”
“If you so insist.”
“Really though, out of all the cute things in Japan, you choose this.” Tsking, Chanyeol shook his head. “You really have no taste.”
“Any more insults and I won’t feed you.”
“Heartless man!”
Chanyeol sat down on his bed, cradling the bunny keychain in his hand. It hung from his finger and fit perfectly in his palms.
“Hi, little bunny,” Chanyeol whispered. “Sorry if I insulted you before. I hope you don’t take it too seriously.”
He brushed his thumb over its stitched face. Kris gave this to him. He might have thought of him when he saw this bunny. Something impossibly warm filled Chanyeol’s chest, filling it to the brim. He held the little bunny close to him, a bittersweet smile spreading across his face.
See, Chanyeol had originally wanted this marriage. He wanted it so bad he could feel it aching in the pores of his bones. He had always been a er for happy endings, for fairytales where dreams came true.
He had a little picture of Kris that he would keep under his pillow (he was pathetic, he knew). Maybe, he thought, just maybe, Kris would be his prince charming. Maybe they could make each other happy.
He had to come back to reality. (His daydreams will never come true and he should accept it now before it hurt more later on).
After Chanyeol’s stomach had stopped rebelling against him, he made a phone call.
“It’s my old high school friend,” Chanyeol explained. “He has a job here and his Japanese is really good. We were exchanging emails and he told me that today was his day off. He’s going to be our personal tour guide. Isn’t that awesome?”
“You have friends?” Kris flashed his teeth to show that he was teasing before dumping all their clothes into the washing machine. In response, Chanyeol stuck out his tongue at him.
Somehow Kris’ mood seemed to be stormy this afternoon. When Chanyeol chided him for forgetting to turn the air conditioner off when they got home, he snapped back that Chanyeol should have remembered it himself. It made Chanyeol pause a few seconds because Kris had never been so quick to argue back before.
“But this is the second time you forgot to turn it off. I even reminded you when we left this morning,” Chanyeol said, closing all the windows. What a waste of electricity. He hoped the bill wouldn’t be that high.
Kris didn’t respond. His shoulders were taut as he opened up the refrigerator. He stuck his head out from the fridge. “No beer? Did you drink them all?”
Chanyeol propped his hands on his waist. “I’m not the one who drinks them. If anything, you’re the one who practically inhales a can in one go.”
Kris slammed the fridge door shut with an audible bang. “.”
“What’s got you all worked up today?” And Chanyeol had been in such a good mood before from finally seeing Kyungsoo after all these years, too. Now Kris’ moodiness was ruining everything.
“What do you think? Living with someone as annoying as you doesn’t exactly fill my heart with sunshine and rainbows.”
That hurt. It really did, but Chanyeol did his best not to let the stinging show.
“Oh?” He scowled. “Then why the hell are you so bent on enduring your whole life with me anyway?”
“I don’t know why, either.”
They were both standing, faces tense from all the sudden animosity in the atmosphere.
“Then call off the ing engagement already! We’ll all be happier that way.” Chanyeol had reflexively went back to his old line of argument.
“Fine.” Kris’ eyes flashed with steel. “Maybe I will, then.”
Chanyeol couldn’t help his recoil of shock. Kris had always stubbornly insisted on following his parent’s wishes. To defy that now... He must really despised him, didn’t he? He in a breath, trying to hide the fact that he was being ripped up into tiny pieces on the inside.
“Don’t go back on your word, then.” He clenched his fists, because his hands were starting to shake really badly.
“I won’t. The moment we go back home, I’ll call it off.” God, Kris’ eyes were so cold. He turned and walked into the hallway leading to his room, shutting off the kitchen’s light with a brush of his hand as he went.
Chanyeol was left to collapse bonelessly in the chair and to stare at the wall opposite to him blankly.
Kris let out a tiny frustrated growl as he the shower. His mind replayed Chanyeol’s question of why he had been pissed off this whole day. It was still sinking in that, in the midst of his childish rage, he had just ended their engagement that he had fought so hard to keep. Even though Chanyeol acted like a pesky half the time.
Damn it. He really thought they could have worked out together.
Kris closed his eyes, resting his forehead on the cool linoleum of the bathroom walls as hot water rushed down his back. The reason that Kris had finally given into Chanyeol’s demands wasn’t because he couldn’t stand living with him.
He let out another growl, resisting the urge to slam his fist against the wall like people did in dramas. He couldn’t help but to remember how Chanyeol warmly smiled at Kyungsoo, how they playfully touched each other. Their friendly flirting was what made the anger bubble up in his chest today. Chanyeol had never smiled at him like that.
If marrying him was such a detestable idea to Chanyeol, then why should he argue otherwise?
They were awkward the next few days after that. Not speaking during breakfast at first, they opted to go out separately for the first time. Being apart seemed to be the best option right now.
However, Chanyeol had almost gotten lost and he didn’t like the feeling of being in a country where he didn’t understand anything that anyone was saying. He stayed at home the next day, and the day after that, Kris headed out only to find that there was someone closely shadowing him.
“If you’re trying to stalk me,” Kris said slowly, “you should at least be more inconspicuous than that.”
Chanyeol squeaked from the tree he had been hiding behind. “How did you know I was here?”
“You don’t walk. You practically trample and stomp. How can I not hear you?”
“Well.” Chanyeol’s upset face was somehow really cute. “Pretend you didn’t see me, then.”
“What?” Kris’ mouth quirked up. He had almost missed the bantering and endlessly teasing Chanyeol. “Were you afraid you’d get lost, so you followed me?”
Kris was rewarded with a flush creeping up Chanyeol’s face and his ears. “N-no. Of course not.”
“You’re a really bad liar.”
Chanyeol disagreed with that statement. He was good at lying, but only about his feelings. He was especially gifted and talented at lying to himself about them.
“At least walk beside me so you don’t look like such a creeper.” Kris extended his large hand, beckoning him forward. Wordlessly, he followed and caught up to his steps.
Chanyeol had achieved his original goal. There was no point in purposefully annoying Kris now, even they still fell back into the easy pattern of bickering.
Before, he didn’t want to be stuck in a loveless marriage. Now? Now, he just wanted Kris to have his happy ending even if it meant that he wouldn’t get his.
The streets they were walking on that night suddenly looked unfamiliar, even though Chanyeol knew they were the same streets they usually traversed to get to the train station. He gazed around him in childlike wonder, taking in the colorful yukatas the women were dressed in and the open-air markets set up in the street. The lanterns added to the gorgeousness of the scene.
“It’s a street fair for the fireworks festival,” Kris said, pointing out the obvious. Chanyeol snorted, and then pulled at his arm.
“There’s a game to see who can catch the most goldfish. I wanna play.”
“Are you still a child or something?” Kris shook his head. He still let Chanyeol drag him, though.
“Kirei,” Chanyeol whispered, using the Japanese phrase for ‘pretty’, as he watched the red fish dart around in the water.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to raise them,” Kris said, looking at them dubiously.
“What’s so hard about raising fish?”
“You’re going to regret saying that sometime in the near future.” He checked his watch. “We can come back to the fish later. The fireworks are starting soon.”
“Okay.” Chanyeol moved to follow along, and then winced when he got jostled in the shoulder by a passerby. The stranger quickly apologized and Chanyeol bowed his head a little in response. Japanese people were so polite. It pressured him to be polite in return. He widened his eyes when a warm hand enveloped his.
“Wha-?” He looked up to see Kris tugging him through the crowd.
Kris raised his eyebrow at him. “There’s too many people here. I don’t want to lose you.”
Chanyeol felt a lump reside in his throat at his words. I don’t want to lose you. Taken out of context, he could pretend he meant something else entirely. He looked down at their hands clasped together, fingers rested next to each other like they belonged there. Like they could belong there in the years to come.
Chanyeol caught his reflection in the window of the store they passed by. He nearly stopped at the hint of heartbreak lingering on the corners of his mouth.
The fireworks were spectacular to watch, and each resounding boom as they sparkled in the sky left a ringing in his ears. They had found a pretty sweet spot to watch the fireworks, thanks to them arriving early to claim it.
“Why are you so quiet today?” Kris asked when the show was coming to an end. “You would be usually talking my ears off by now.”
Chanyeol blinked and turned to see Kris’ profile lit up by each flash of the fireworks. Why are you still holding my hand? He wanted to ask, but he swallowed the question. Kris rested their joined hands on their picnic blanket as if he had forgotten to let go. Occasionally, his thumb would brush over Chanyeol’s knuckles in an absent-minded way that made him shiver.
“It’s nothing,” he murmured, looking back at the dazzling night sky.
As the fireworks wound down, he stood up, dragging Kris up in the process.
“Let’s get something to eat. All the stands here smell so good,” Chanyeol said, brushing his off with his free hand even though he had been sitting on a perfectly clean blanket before.
“Sometimes I really think that your stomach is a bottomless black hole. All you think about is food.”
“Hey! It’s not my fault that all the food in Japan taste and look so good. Except for the raw eggs.” Chanyeol wrinkled his nose at the traumatizing memory of finding a raw egg on top of his caesar salad, eliciting laughter from Kris. Oh finally, he could talk normally again. Once he got used to this hand-holding business (Remember. This didn’t mean anything. To Kris, at least), it was fine.
He wondered if they looked like a couple to other people.
Kris ordered some yakitori (chicken and other stuff on a stick, basically), and thanked the man in the stand before taking them. Chanyeol took one from him, and was about to take a huge bite from it when he got stopped.
“Wait,” Kris said, and then proceeded to blow on it, like he genuinely cared if Chanyeol burned his tongue. Like they were on a freaking date. The hand-holding really wasn’t helping, either.
Chanyeol cautiously chewed on the meat, its tangy and sweet flavor sticking to the insides of his mouth.
There must have been something pained in his expression because Kris noticed it. “What? Does it not taste good or something? Undercooked meat?”
Chanyeol shook his head, taking another bite to prevent himself from talking. He looked down at Kris’ hand gently holding his own and then looked away.
It hurt, knowing that this wouldn’t last. That Kris probably would have preferred holding Luhan’s hand instead.
“I won.” The sunlight made his hair blaze brighter than his smile. “That means you have to do whatever I want.”
“Why did we make this the prize again? And all for betting whether or not the penguin in the aquarium would push the other off the ice or not.” Kris sighed heavily, taking the water bottle from Chanyeol and drank from it. “Penguins usually don’t just trip and headbutt the other into the water like that. It’s not normal. God, I was so sure I would win this.”
“You were the one who suggested this bet!” Chanyeol accepted the water bottle and thirstily drank from it as well.
“Just to laugh at you when you lose.”
“Hey!”
Kris grinned. He prodded the other to stand up. “Come on, we’ve got to catch that bus to go home.”
“But what do I make you do?” Chanyeol unconsciously started chewing his fingernail and Kris lightly slapped that hand. He sent Kris a huffy look before continuing. “Something potentially embarrassing. Utterly humiliating. Yes, yes. But what?”
“You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”
They both filed behind the line and got into the bus. The seats were all filled so they held onto the convenient handrails.
“Of course I’m not going to make this easy for you. This is the best opportunity of my lifetime. I just have to figure out what to do with it.” The way he was deliberating, it was like he was asking for Kris to come up with ideas for him. He was all too happy to provide suggestions.
“Are you going to make me run outside ? Or maybe I have to cook. Urgh, cooking.”
“What. No! I think you would get arrested for that.” Their bodies had a natural tendency to lean closer while they talked.
“For which one?”
“Both.”
“My cooking isn’t that bad. I think. Okay, nevermind then. I can perform girl group dances.”
Chanyeol almost fell over from that imagery, too horrified to laugh.
“Apparently not. I could pretend to be your boyfriend for a day.”
Chanyeol’s brain caught that suggestion and refused to let it go. “No, you wouldn’t be able to.” He sent him a disbelieving look.
“You dare to accuse me of the possibility of failing?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
“Psh. It’d be a piece of cake. A piece of soft cheesecake,” Kris added after a moment of deliberation.
“Are you trying to make me hungry?”
“Is it working?”
“Damn you, yes. As for the boyfriend thing, I dare you. I doubt you can do it. I’ll be watching carefully to see if you fail or not. Oh, but no kissing!” Chanyeol wasn’t really thinking when he said this, goaded by Kris’ challenging stare.
“I’ll be so good, you’ll be dazzled. Like that Edward guy from those vampire movies dazzled.”
Chanyeol shoved Kris’ shoulder. “Did you have to mention him? That was such a lame line.” But he involuntarily smiled anyway.
Chanyeol didn’t know what he was expecting, but this was surprisingly easy to get used to. He played along, cooing even more cringeworthy pet names if Kris ever dared to use any. It was thrilling and foreign to be treated like this, and yet at the same time, little seemed to change between the way they interacted. They had decided to go to the Kyoto Tower today, and then walk around the area in the late afternoon.
Chanyeol didn’t know that Kris really wanted this. To be able to hold Chanyeol’s hip at random intervals, to nuzzle his head affectionately whenever he wanted, to act possessive if other people came too close. Kris was discreet with his touches, because he usually wasn’t the kind to be obvious about his relationships anyway.
The sun had set, and they were wandering around the buildings surrounding Kyoto Station. Their pinkies were tangled together because their hands got too sweaty if they held hands for a long amount of time.
“Skyway,” Chanyeol read aloud from the sign, and peered into the tunnel that was suspended at least 100 feet above Kyoto Station. “Oh, so this is how you get to the bridge that we saw from before.”
“Mhm.” Kris smiled, tightening his pinky around Chanyeol’s. His eyes tended to crinkle a little whenever he smiled. Strange how Chanyeol noticed the littlest things at the randomest times.
They walked in, arms swaying between their bodies. The tunnel itself was mostly dark. The only lights came from outside. There was no need to rush with sucha beautiful scene before them. Kyoto Tower was alight in all her glory, looking over an ancient city surrounded on three sides by mountains.
As they strolled along, Chanyeol couldn’t help but to notice couples in the corners, sharing quiet intimate moments underneath the cover of the darkness. It was understandable. This place had a romantic overtone to it, especially with the way it felt like no one was watching if you decided to lean in and kiss your other half. They came to a stop along one of the Skyway’s wide windows, taking in the sights from above.
“If...” Chanyeol placed his hand on the window. “If we weren’t just pretending to be a couple and this was real, what would you do now?”
As soon as the question flew from his mouth, he regretted it. He didn’t want to know the answer, because knowing would make it hurt more, because this would never actually happen to him.
But Kris was already looking at Chanyeol’s face, his expression unreadable. “Do you really want to know?”
Before he could reply with a ‘no’, Kris had already trapped Chanyeol between his arms. His hands encircled around the railing, Kris leaned in until there was a mere inch between their lips. His eyes were incredibly dark. Chanyeol tensed, his back against the window. The railing hurt his .
Then, Kris turned his head and placed his mouth right next to Chanyeol’s ear.
“If you were mine,” Kris breathed, “I would hold you close like this.”
Chanyeol shut his eyes, his senses overwhelmed even though they weren’t touching at all. Their chests were just a few fingertips’ away from each other.
“Then I would kiss you,” Kris continued, his voice getting lower. “I would first do it slowly, so softly that you wouldn’t be able to feel it at first. And then,” he tilted his head so that they were even closer, “more intensely until you were flushed and panting before me. All mine for the taking.”
Chanyeol’s hands were clenched around the bars, his whole body trembling. He needed to take in desperate gulps of oxygen because his chest was throbbing painfully.
They stood there like that for who knew how long. Kris rested his head on Chanyeol’s collar bone, breaking the moment. Chanyeol’s hands slowly found purchase on his back, and he let out a sigh, his whole world enveloped with Kris’ scent.
He felt secure and special in those arms. His mind told him to let go but his traitorous body made his hands tighten a little more, wrinkling the back of Kris’ t-shirt.
Luhan was so lucky. Chanyeol’s mouth tightened, and he forced himself to loosen his hands.
“Let’s go,” he said quietly, his heart raw and terribly vulnerable. Just a little more prodding and it would probably crack and shatter into a billion pieces. There was no way he could prepare for it, either.
Who do you want to spend the rest of your life with?
Kris ended the Skype call, gripping the back of the chair as he got up. Chanyeol’s parents, after talking with their son, had insisted on talking to Kris as well.
“Chanyeol,” Kris said as the other walked from the end of the hallway.
“Hm? They didn’t bother you too much, did they? We only have a week before leaving. I don’t know why they were talking to you for so long.” He held his clean clothes in one hand and a towel in another, obviously heading for a shower.
“Chanyeol. You wanted to marry me in the beginning?” His face was blank with shock, coupled with the look of someone who just had the ground taken out from under his feet.
Chanyeol didn’t say anything. He didn’t say that he still did (even more desperately so), but he suddenly couldn’t hide his emoutions anymore. It was like those simple words ripped the carefully cultivated mask right off his face. His eyes were scared and just a little bit sad.
“Then why are you so against it now?” He walked forward, stopping until they were face to face. Chanyeol’s head was averted, trying to hide the obvious emotions swimming in his eyes.
“You have Luhan to go back to,” Chanyeol whispered, finally voicing out the thoughts that he was unable to before.
Kris exhaled. So that was why. He hadn’t expected that answer. Did that mean that Chanyeol would have been willing to be with him if not for that scene that he had witnessed? He took a chance, cupping Chanyeol’s face with his hand.
“But you misunderstood,” he said tenderly. “When I was saying goodbye to him, I meant it.”
“But...” Chanyeol’s lips were down turned as he unconsciously leaned into the touch. “You could still be with him.”
“Did you not process anything I just said?” He sighed exasperatedly, and then pulled Chanyeol in, slanting his head to touch their lips together. Chanyeol froze before hesitantly responding back. The little gasps that he let out seemed to urge Kris on. He blinked when they pulled apart.
“What just happened?” He asked dazedly.
Kris grinned. He brushed his nose against Chanyeol’s affectionately. “It means that I will be going back on my word after all. With a proper proposal in the future. Expect it.”
Chanyeol slowly flushed and hid it by putting his head against the other’s chest. He was still trying to process everything right now. The happiness will catch up later.
Why was it that all married couples called each other dumb at least once every two days? Chanyeol was pondering this as he washed the dishes.
“Are you done with eating the food yet?” He narrowed his eyes at his husband, who was going through his dinner so slowly a rhinoceros might have finished its meal by now. Not that Chanyeol knew how rhinoceroses ate.
“Almost done,” Kris’ voice came out muffled through his mouthful of rice. Chanyeol wrinkled his nose.
“Swallow, and then talk.”
“Yes, dear.” He sent him a wry look, before resuming to eat.
Chanyeol smiled with amusement before setting down the gloves and turning off the water. He settled down next to Kris (his lover, his best friend, and husband all wrapped up into one package) with a groan. “My back hurts.”
Kris massaged him with one hand as he still ate with his chopsticks in the other hand. “Your boss assigning you too much paperwork again?”
“Yes. Remind me, why did I get a real job again?”
“Money.”
“Oh, yeah. That thing.” Chanyeol sighed as Kris’ large hand did its magic. “That feels great.”
Technically, he still counted them as newlyweds. Although he probably shouldn’t because a year had already passed. Whatever. Chanyeol moved to got up when Kris finished eating, but he was pushed down.
“Rest. I’ll do the rest of the vacuuming and stuff today, even though it’s not my turn.”
Chanyeol gratefully smiled. “Thanks.”
“I expect a reward later.” Kris leered.
“Okay.” Chanyeol assumed a thinking position. “I’ll reward you... With a peck on the cheek later. Is that good?” He beamed up at Kris. He loved teasing him like this. He huffed with laughter when he got a glare in return. “Just kidding.”
He sighed and inclined his neck up, stretching his back muscles. As tired as he was, he was also stupidly content with the way his life was.
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