Jongin was ready to quit. The job was just another experience, an unpleasant one but experience nonetheless. He didn’t expect (but he was secretly hoping for) another encounter but knew he was going to do the job maybe for a few more days when he appeared. Jongin saw himself manipulated, but was it manipulation still if he was aware? If he was willing? Invisible strings pulled and swayed at his limbs; they pierced through his flesh and bones, knots tied firmly against his organs. It elicited actions, not his own, not entirely out of his command either.

“Why do you always have to be ?” He told Jongin. Natural bulging eyes traced the curves, the outline of Jongin’s body like a map grasping with the need to be followed.

“Voyeuristic hobbit! greetings!” He leaped out of his chair. Jongin heard himself, a little too frisky to his liking. Control yourself bastard he muttered, needing a verbal hindrance to equate his actions.

“I was planning to thank you.”

“Giving blue balls accounts for gratitude these days? And I thought we were screwed enough.”

The other dismissed Jongin’s comments. “I knew it was you at the bus yesterday. I was going through a bad day and I wasn’t anymore. Are you always like that though? Spitting out words at strangers they find crying. Is it who you are?” Jongin saw it, the glint, the inner flirt underneath his innocent face.

“I’m a lot of things hobbit. Anyways stop creeping in here, I’m quitting so you might as well get your full. No half measures this time.”

“What did you think? I came here to take up your offer the last time?”

“Exactly that.”

They do it on the floor, the fibers of the carpet clung to Jongin’s skin as the other sunk down into his . It ended with prolonged kisses under the smell of and sweat, the state of high dragging down into satisfaction against the sound of hearts beating.

Jongin realized he left without a name to label the beautiful face.

The shoot was quick, he was dismissed earlier but the hobbit his hobbit was there waiting for him. The second time they learned each other’s names. He coaxed out the name Kyungsoo, as Kyungsoo begged him to go faster, his delectable legs locked around Jongin’s slim waist. He ed deep and slick, Kyungsoo was breathless. He moaned Jongin’s name, as Jongin rocked back giving no time for Kyungsoo to finish reciting “Jongin” before Jongin slammed back in, Jongin’s name floated, continuous, raspy and pleasure-tainted.

Jongin learned about Do Kyungsoo, a college student who didn’t know a thing or two about shutting up. At first he found it rather annoying but Kyungsoo knew how to tell stories like no other. They fall into a routine, they have first then Kyungsoo would talk about his ty day, his ty classmates, his ty professors. Jongin was a sponge to Kyungsoo’s whims.  He should banish Kyungsoo, the was great but hell the hobbit practically squeezed himself around Jongin’s life, around Jongin’s . The thought that Kyungsoo could squeeze himself to other things, (like his heart perhaps?) sent a blaring alarm to his cemented equilibrium.  The alarm rang to deaf ears.

Jongin lost track of the days, he had been coming for the job with extra spring in his steps, a smile so radiant that it put the sun to shame.

“I thought you were going to quit? Please tell me I’m holding you back.” Kyungsoo , he did that a lot lately.

Jongin was unprepared. It was true.

Silence meant yes. Didn’t it?

If Kyungsoo was dumb enough not to get it, it wasn’t his problem anymore.

A wide grin blossomed in Kyungsoo’s face.

 Kyungsoo was everything but dumb.

“When do I get to meet your dog? He is one of the reasons why you’re working right? To feed him.” Kyungsoo said.

Jongin did the math as he was giving a bath to Monggu. The money he received from his parents was enough to keep Jongin and Monggu alive. Sehun called him a freeloading bastard because of it, not having to work to survive. It wasn’t Jongin’s fault that he had parents who had overwhelming concern for him despite his unorthodox ways.  Damn Sehun and his whines, they were the same every day, in staunch repetition that it had lost its meaning.  Sehun whined but he didn’t change. He was just wasting his breath, perhaps with the hidden intent that he could influence others. Sehun had always been like that, layered.

“ me Jonginini.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve been calling your name out. What are you thinking? Society again?” Before he gave Jongin the chance to speak Kyungsoo continued. “And no round two.”

Jongin feigned disappointment. “We are the society.”

“That you hate for that matter.”

“It’s maddening to hate, to dislike something we are essentially a part of. Isn’t it synonymous to hating a piece of you?”

“Maybe we secretly hate ourselves.”

Maybe.

Kyungsoo was a clingy hobbit. He demanded to snuggle after ; he threw a fit when Jongin gave him little attention.  He left Jongin livid but not livid enough to push him away.  Kyungsoo was everything Jongin was not. They complemented each other, a fleeting thought that Jongin shut down quickly as it appeared. Jongin was a creature of his own shape and mold.  He didn’t need another human being, a puzzle piece or other lame to make him feel whole.  The only thing that was complementary about them was their bodies, their tongues, their lips, their insatiable need for warmth and intimacy without unnecessary strings that could trip them.

“A friend is throwing a small get together.” Kyungsoo looked at Jongin expectantly. “I need an accessory, a human accessory.”

“A friend?” Jongin needed a clarification. Kyungsoo had the tendency to exaggerate. Kyungsoo added little extras, vibrant hues tossed in favor of entertainment.  He skirted near the coals of becoming a full-blown liar, Jongin as much as possible opted out, to save himself before he get caught with the fire.

“Fine,” Kyungsoo said defeated. “It’s a cousin’s friend’s classmate, same banana. I want to see you with a shirt on.”

“Says the person who barges in only when I’m . I will come but no introductions to your friends.”

“What’s wrong with that? That is the entire purpose of a human accessory Jongin. I want to flaunt you. I want to flaunt my boyfriend.”

Boyfriend.

Words, labels made things real, gave things the capacity to be lost. Why was there a need to describe something intangible? Could it not just be left that way it was until it disappeared? What would disappear exactly?

“I know we haven’t agreed on it but I’m labeling us. You don’t tell me things about you aside from your dog and your grudge against the world. Sometimes I wonder if you’re a hallucination, my friends tell me that you are. See Jongin, my friends doubt that you exist because I have given them no physical evidence.”

“I don’t want to be your boyfriend Kyungsoo, hallucination or not.”

It shattered Jongin, the beautiful pained face.

He left.

Kyungsoo wasn’t supposed to be dumb.

Happy Newt Year! Let 2015 be a KaiSoo year!