“Well, it wouldn’t cost too much because Minho would move in with us so the rent would be a three way split.” Taemin explained.

“No. No, I don’t care. I don’t want to. We can get a new place, but I don’t want to move in as the three of us.” Jongin yelled, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Not receiving the reaction he expected, the blonde pouted, shoving Jongin off of him. “Why not?”

“Because at home, you’re mine! Let’s face it, hyung; if the three of us move in together, you’ll never spend time with just me alone ever again!” He began, moving over, “You’ll just look at Minho and forget I’m there!”

“That’s not true at all! I always think about you! I wake up earlier than I ever used to to make you lunch and I always spend time with you at school and everything!” Taemin argued.

“Because the option of having Minho there isn’t available! If it were, you wouldn’t even look at me!”

“Jongin, please! This is something I really want and you know that I love you to death and wouldn’t leave you for the world! Otherwise I would have just said that I’m moving out. Instead, I’m here begging you to please, please, please consider it because it’s something I want but it’s also something I won’t do without you!”

Now feeling guilty, Jongin avoided Taemin’s stare, taking the boy’s hand. “You’re such a liar…”

“I’m not lying to you, you’re my best friend, I would never do that. I love you, Kai.”

Blushing, he hadn’t heard Taemin use his nickname in a while, causing his heartbeat to speed up.

“I love you too… I’m sorry; I guess I’m just overreacting because I’m jealous that Minho is so close to you.” He murmured, leaning in close enough for his lip to brush up against the tip of Taemin’s nose and maybe a bit below it as well.

“Please at least consider it.” Taemin whispered, the short distance between them making it all the more audible.

“What if I say yes and we grow distant? What if you stop spending time with me and we stop being best friends?”

“Jongin…” The elder said, his breath hitting Jongin’s while his hand landed on the boy’s muscly shoulder, “I’d never let that happen. You’re the best friend anyone could ever have and so important to me and… honestly speaking, I don’t know how happy I’d be without you.”

“Kiss me.” Jongin suddenly ordered, not giving Taemin a chance to respond before he grabbed a fistful of the boy’s blonde locks and pulled him in for a passionate kiss.

“Jongin- wait-” Was all the older boy could manage, being silenced, his palm smacking Jongin’s chest.

Seconds later, when he pulled away, he buried his face in Taemin’s neck, toppling over with the boy tightly in his arms. “I’m sorry, hyung, but I’m just an average guy and I have really strong urges, and lately, they’re getting harder and harder to subdue. I’m really worried that one day I’m going to do something really out of character and that I’ll be no better than Seunghyun. Would you really want to keep living with a guy like that?”

There was a moment of silence, and to his surprise, Taemin’s laughed. “I’ve been living with him for a while now. I know what he will and won’t do. Anyways, I already talked to Minho about it today and he said that if you say yes, then the idea is good to go.”

Leaving another kiss, on Taemin’s pale neck, Jongin nodded. “Then I guess that’s a yes from me too.”

Squealing, Taemin clapped his hands over and over again, squeezing the air out of the younger boy in a tight hug. “You’re the best!”

“Did you tell Minho that too?” Jongin asked, his mood being lifted.

“Well, yeah, but really, this means so much to me!”

Jongin simply laughed, pecking Taemin’s forehead several times before the blonde rushed off to change into his pajamas. He kept on repeating how they should go to sleep because tomorrow was another day and it would be useless to waste it away sleeping, but once they got underneath the sheets, the elder couldn’t stop poking Jongin’s ribs and listing all the things he’d like in their new home.

“Maybe a bathtub and a shower. We’d need more than one bathroom anyway, wouldn’t we? One could have the bathtub and the other could have the shower. It’s brilliant. And then we can put paintings up, or maybe we can customize it all together. Like, we could all make handprints with paint and it can be really colourful and we can hang it in the living room. I hope it has a nice view.”

“As long as I can wake up the same way I do now and see your smile every morning, or see your back while you’re cooking, I don’t care if the view is of an alley. You’re the only one I look at, Hyung.”

“But isn’t there anything you’re looking forward to? Like a bigger closet or maybe a bigger television, anything like that?”

“I’m looking forward to sharing a new bed with you. I think that’s something.”

“So you want a bigger bed?” Taemin suggested.

“I don’t want a bigger anything, hyung. I just want to sleep under a fan with you when it’s hot and cuddle with you through the winter months. I want you to be the first and last thing I see every day and I want the new place to give me another reason to fall in love with you all over again.”

“So-”

“So basically, I don’t care where I am or who I’m with, as long as you’re by my side. Now you need to be quiet for a bit so we can both fall asleep, okay?” Jongin hummed, interlacing all their limbs and spending the night as one general body.

Taemin did listen though, snuggling against Jongin’s torso and sooner than later, they both dozed off.

“Jongin, wake up…” The blonde whispered, nudging Jongin into consciousness.

“It’s too early…” Jongin responded with a groan. “You’re not even out of bed yet…”

Taemin chuckled, his hands taking the younger boy’s wrist. “I know. And I would be, but your arm is really far up my shirt and I can’t figure out how to get it out. Every time I try, you just keep rolling around and like a little kid and made it worse.”

Looking at his arm, it really was tied up in Taemin’s shirt. “What time is it?” He asked, getting six thirty as an answer. “Well then it’s too early for you to be getting up anyways.”

Doing the opposite of what Taemin asked, Jongin crawled underneath the boy loose t-shirt, his head and upper back hidden from sight along with his arms which held the blonde in place.

“Maybe for you, but I have stuff I need to do like laundry and you threw your uniform on the floor yesterday so I have to iron that too!”

Not getting anything back from the younger boy, Taemin hugged Jongin’s head through his shirt, legs wrapping around the boy’s waist. “I’m going to have so much to do because of you.” Taemin whined.

“I can help you then.” Jongin offered, smiling against the smaller boy’s soft skin.

“You haven’t done anything since you left your parent’s house. I like to spoil you and you let me.”

Coming out of his cotton shell, Jongin kissed the apple of Taemin’s cheek, sitting up on the mattress.

He held onto the lower half of the blonde’s legs and placed them on his shoulders, leaning back down and keeping Taemin in a position that he was far too familiar with, only that it usually consisted of Minho being on the other end.

“What are you doing?” Taemin asked.

“I’m trapping you so that you can’t leave without going through me first.” The younger boy smirked, leaving Taemin with a lot of struggling to do on top of his chores that morning.

School had finished and both boys sat across from each other at table in the nearby coffee shop.

Taemin had offered to pay, an offer which Jongin accepted, buying three coffees in total.

                The younger boy noticed that once they arrived, even though he started drinking his, the blonde held off.

                “Are you not thirsty?” He asked.

                “Huh? No, I am, but I’ll just wait until Minho gets here.”

                A few seconds later, the bell hanging off the door rang, signifying the entrance of a customer.

                “Speak of the devil.” Taemin mused, the tall, handsome man he loved now approaching.

                Minho slid in beside Taemin, pulling him in closely as he ruffled his blonde strands, putting them back into place soon after. “Hey, Minnie. Who’s the devil you’re speaking of?”

                “Hmm, I wonder.” He joked, locking his legs around one of Minho’s beneath the tabletop. “I got you your coffee so that you wouldn’t have to wait. It’s still hot.”

                Jongin noticed the boy’s eyes flicker down to Taemin’s lips after he thanked him, but they both just ended up smiling.

                “So, Jongin, I heard we’re going to be housemates.” He brought up, now meeting the tanned boy’s stare.

                “Apparently so. Taemin asked so nicely, I mean, who could turn him down.”

                Minho chuckled, his arm slipping around Taemin’s shoulders casually. “Oh geez, I’ve gone through that dilemma way too many times.”

                Taking a sip of his coffee, the blonde swallowed quickly, pouting. “That’s not true.”

                “Sure it is. I don’t mind though. So did you decide what kind of place you guys want?”

                “Taemin wouldn’t stop talking about it all night in bed yesterday. He has a lot of things he wants.” Jongin stated.

                “Well then maybe we can talk about that, huh?”

                Pulling out their notebooks, they began drawing all sorts of designs and developing endless mind maps. They all agreed on an apartment rather than a house, and they agreed on a general area. However when it came to the topic of bedrooms, there seemed to have a problem.

                “So for bedrooms… three?” Minho calculated, writing down the price ranges.

                “Just two. Me and Taemin will share a room like we do now.”

                The eldest stayed quiet for a little, looking confused. “Well if anything, I should be the one sharing a room with Taemin.”

                “Why’s that? We’ve been sharing a room for the good part of this year. You can have your own room.”

                Trying to prevent any arguments, Minho turned to Taemin. “Well? Who would you want to share your room with?”

                Feeling as if he was put on the spot, the blonde went for an alternate answer. “I was actually hoping to have my own room and that you two would share.”

                Getting his nose pinched, Taemin felt his eyes tear up, breath cut off by Minho’s fingers. “You want to be funny now?”

                “Well why do I have to pick? Why can’t we just all share one room?”

                “Because that’s inconvenient.” Minho stated.

                “Well if we’re talking about convenience, then I think you should get your own room, Hyung.” Taemin concluded, the look of shock and disappointment more than clear on Minho’s face just as the look of a winner was on Jongin’s.

                “But hear me out,” He continued, “Because you get the whole room to yourself, you’ll have more space. I’m thinking about it, and I think it would be really good for you if you could maybe get some of your photography equipment and stuff in there too. Like a studio. I can’t be specific because I have no idea what anything is called, but surely there’s some kind of lighting and stuff that you can put in there.”

                Taemin made a good point, if the room was big enough, it would save him the tedious walk to school on his days off when he had a particular vision in mind which he couldn’t achieve at home. However, he was still selfish and wanted his boyfriend in his bed at night.

                “Minnie…” He whimpered.

                “Well it’s true, isn’t it? It shouldn’t matter too much anyways because the only thing we’ll be doing in the bedroom is sleeping.” Getting an amused, hidden look from Minho, he rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”

                “I didn’t say anything.” The eldest mused.

                Jongin somewhat regretted catching on to all these alluding phrases now. It put images he didn’t want to see in his head.

                “Okay, so that seems like the plan.” Minho unwillingly agreed. “So then two bedrooms, I get one and you two share the other, and two bathrooms. Is that generally what we’re looking for?”

                The younger two agreed, watching as Minho pulled out a laptop and typed in a real estate website, dozens of available houses already popping up on the homepage.

                Going into specifications, several places caught their attention, the addresses being jotted down on a piece of paper.

                By the time night came upon them and the coffee shop closed, they had cut down the list to seven apartments, all within the same area. Packing up, Minho walked them home only to be invited inside.

                “Hyung, I’m really excited.” Taemin admitted, lounging in Minho’s lap while Jongin washed up in the bathroom. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live with you and now it’s coming true and just- ugh, I can’t wait.”

                “You know, it’s not that short of a process. It’ll take some time until we can fully move in there and unpack. Besides, we’ll probably need to buy new furniture too.”

                The blonde giggled, pulling the elder’s ear closer as he whispered, “Since you get more room, you should invest in a bigger, more comfortable bed.”

                Minho laughed, lightly tickling Taemin’s sides. “Why would I need that? I like small, hard beds. Besides, I’m alone in that bedroom thanks to you, so I’ll be the only one using it.”

                “Baby,” Taemin tried to say seductively, failing to with the elder’s torturing hands, “It’s not hard to sneak into your bed, and it’s even easier to get you to agree to do what I want. You said so yourself.”

                “Don’t ‘baby’ me, Kitten. You’re the one that can’t get enough.”

                “I’m just your kitten, right, your one and only Kitten?”

                “Yes. You belong to me and just me.”

                “Say that again.”

                “You’re mine.” 

                “One more time.”

                “You are my property, Lee Taemin.” He growled, both of them just teasing each other more and more.

                “Minho… When you talk like this, it makes me so .” The younger boy quietly moaned, catching Minho’s lip for only a split second before they heard the bathroom door click open, separating as quickly as they could.

                Red faced as if he was caught in the act, Taemin hugged his knees, letting his forehead lean against them.

                Minho was no better at concealing his fluttering heart, inhaling deeply and trying to flush out the excitement.

                “You should leave now,” The blonde declared, “You should really go. You’re too troublesome to stay here.”

                The eldest gasped, pulling his eyebrows together as he was dragged to his feet and led towards the door. “I’m the troublesome one? You’re the one who likes getting too close for his good.”

                “Well we can discuss that some other time, can’t we?” Taemin sassed, no longer the seductive kitten he was previously portraying. Minho did also appreciate this persona, though.

                Once he was shoved out the door, he cheekily asked, “What are you going to do when you find me too irresistible and can’t wait?”

                “What are you going on about?” Taemin asked, pausing his forceful movements.

                “What happens when you come home and you just really want me on you and you need me right now, but Jongin’s home and there’ll be nowhere for us to go because there’s no more ‘hyung’s house’ and we can’t exactly go and inconspicuously rent out a hotel room during the day without arousing any suspicions? What happens when you want me but can’t have me?”

                “Huh, well I guess in that case, I’ll just have to use the excuse that you need some reference photos for your artist’s portfolio.” He thought.

                “How’s that going to work?” Minho questioned.

                “Okay, so I’ll bring up that ‘hey, hyung, didn’t you say you needed some face shots for one of your new projects’ and you’ll say ‘oh yeah, you’re right. Please some upstairs to my studio à la bedroom so that I may take them’ and I’ll agree and you’ll lead me up there and we’ll take the photos except that it won’t just be my face, but my whole body, and I won’t be wearing any clothes, and you won’t be holding a camera, and really we’re not going to use the studio at all because we’re going to be in your bed fooling around to our hearts desire.” Taemin explained, satisfied with his clever thinking process.

                “And what excuse will we use for the smell of sweat, messy bed, and hormone filled room?”

                “That’s simple; we don’t leave any evidence to be found. We’re super sneaky like that, aren’t we?”

                They boy laughed at the wording, Minho smothering Taemin in kisses before he offered his final goodbye.

                “Hyung, when will we go look at the apartments? I really want to see all of them.”

                “Well, tomorrow’s not a good day for me and neither is the day after that. Really, I think the best time to go will be on the weekend when we have the whole day to ourselves and can patiently look at them all in detail.”

                Taemin shrugged, “I guess you’re right. Okay then, so I guess that makes Saturday and Sunday?”

                “I guess it does.” The older boy smiled, ruffling the blonde hair that neatly sat on Taemin’s head.

                “I’m really happy, Hyung.”

                “So you’ve been saying all day.”

                “But I really am.”

                “And I am too.”

                “Minho, I love you.”

                “I love you too, Kitten.”

                “Good night.”

                “Sweet dreams.”