(words: ~2k)

~⑨④~

“sehun, let’s go! we’re going to be late!” jongin calls out. sehun comes running down the stairs, jacket in hand. he makes a quick detour to the lounge room where his mother was having a quiet read and pecks her on the cheek before running out the door, where jongin is waiting for him.

it’s their friend’s birthday today and instead of throwing something big, it was decided to just have a small group gathering instead. another reason for jongin and sehun to be enthusiastic about today is because the person that’s turned a year older also happened to be the person who helped bring jongin and sehun together.

“i wonder if junmyeon will like our present” sehun wonders. jongin laughs.

“which one? the crappy card we made or the penguin plushie that we bought?” jongin takes a glance towards sehun’s direction to see his boyfriend puff up his cheeks, eyebrows slightly furrowed. unable to resist, once the traffic light turns red and he stops the car, jongin quickly leans over and pinches sehun’s cheek. sehun lets out an unattractive squeak but is quickly silenced when he feels jongin leave a kiss on the abused area.

“it’s ok. he’ll like the presents. the card more than the other, i’d say. we all know how he’s like – very cute and sentimental” jongin says as he begins to drive again. in the corner of his eye, he can see sehun nod slightly to himself.

sehun stares the stuffed toy in his lap and pats it on the head with both hands before pulling close to his body. for the rest of the trip, he hugs the toy close, occasionally squishing it’s body with his fingers, unbeknownst of jongin’s constant glances his way and smiles full of adoration hidden behind the palm of his hand.

the trip doesn’t take too long and about half an hour later they’ve arrived at kyungsoo’s apartment, another friend of theirs, as well as the partner of kim junmyeon for four years going onto five. junmyeon is two years older than kyungsoo, but they’ve known each other since they were kids and were really close despite their age difference. they’ve gone through difficult times, especially when junmyeon started attending university and they were rarely able to match their timetables together. regardless, they managed to work things out and now kyungsoo is also attending the same university as junmyeon so they’re able to meet each other whenever they’re both on campus.

as soon as kyungsoo opens the door, he ushers them inside. his eyes catch sight of the penguin in sehun’s arms but, much to their relief, decides not to make a comment on it. sehun and jongin share a grin before heading over to the kitchen as they’re told.

“junmyeon will be here in a moment so i need you two to–” kyungsoo suddenly stops. “…actually never mind. just seat yourselves on the couch and don’t touch anything”

“aw what? why, hyung? we want to help too!” sehun whines as he’s led away from the kitchen by jongin, who simply laughs. sehun stares at his boyfriend, eyes narrowing slightly.

“don’t mind it too much. we all know how much kyungsoo likes perfection and considering this is all for junmyeon, its probably heightened by about 10 folds” jongin whispers.

once they’ve settled down on the couch, jongin’s arm naturally slides around sehun’s waist and sehun rests his head in jongin’s shoulder.

“i still want to do something though…” sehun shoots up, an excited smile on his face. jongin raises an eyebrow at him before he can as what sehun’s thinking, the boy is already up and gone into the kitchen. from where he’s seated, jongin sees kyungsoo stare at sehun with his usual blank stare. It takes a while but then kyungsoo takes something out of his cupboard and passes it to sehun.

jongin lets out an intelligent “ah” as he stares at the packet of balloons in sehun’s hands when he returns.

“kyungsoo didn’t want us to help because we, and i quote, “both can’t cook for ”” sehun grumbles. jongin laughs.

“i can cook though!” sehun protests with a pointed look on his face.

“managing to not burn water while preparing to make ramen does not equal to having decent culinary skills, sehun” kyungsoo deadpans from the kitchen.

sehun huffs and rips open the pack of balloons and hands one to jongin.

“why do I have to blow it up? i didn’t offer to do anything. you’re the one that wants to blow up balloons!” jongin whines. sehun shrugs.

“because i’m awesome and almighty, you peasant” sehun retorts.

“doesn’t mean i have to blow”

“but you worship me, so you’ll blow”

“who’s blowing now?” both sehun and jongin stop and turn towards the direction of the voice. standing behind the couch with two glasses of juice, chanyeol stares at them with curious, wide eyes.

“wait that came out wrong! what i meant was – because – since balloons and–” chanyeol tries to correct himself.

“damage has already been done, hyung”

chanyeol sighs and hands the two each a glass of juice that he had poured out for them. before he walks away, he ruffles their hair and mutters “brats”.

the evening goes on without any troubles and the event is successful. sehun swears that he saw junmyeon’s eyes glistening with tears when he read their card but jongin just kisses him on the lips to silence him before kyungsoo decides to come over and whack the both of them for poking fun at his boyfriend on his birthday.

by the time they decide to leave, it’s late at night and they have to convince both kyungsoo and junmyeon that they’ll be fine on the way home. regardless, they were successful in their persuasion and were now in the car with jongin driving them home.

as they pull up at the red traffic light, jongin reaches a hand over to sehun and entwines their fingers together. they’re not too far from sehun’s house, so jongin continues to drive with one hand on the steering wheel and the other linked with sehun’s.

the drive is silent and too soon are they parked outside sehun’s house. most of the lights are off, indicating that his parents had already retired to bed.

jongin brings sehun’s hand up and presses it against his lips. sehun watches him in silence before tugging on jongin’s hand and doing the same.

“are you going to stay tonight?” sehun whispers. he turns his body towards jongin, the side of his head leaning against the head rest. jongin think he looks so adorable like that with his cheek squished against the head rest and can’t stop the small smile from appearing on his face.

“as tempting as it is, i don’t think i should” jongin replies, fingers brushing away the hair strands on sehun’s face. hearing his reply, sehun pouts and does his best to convince jongin to stay a little longer. it's no surprise to anyone when jongin caves in and unbuckles his seatbelt. grinning, sehun gets out of the car and bounces his way over to the front door to open it.

they head upstairs in silence, hands linked together. they prepare to go to bed and do their usual playful antics as they brush their teeth, with jongin moving behind sehun to wrap an arm around his waist and tickle him. sehun manages to grab jongin’s hand before he does anything and instead links their fingers together and lets jongin’s arm remain around his hips.

when they’re jongin makes a turn to enter sehun’s room only to be tugged back when sehun shuffles over to jongin’s room instead. with a knowing look on his face, jongin follows his boyfriend.

they’re both lying in bed with sehun comfortably in jongin’s arms and his head tucked into the curve of jongin’s neck. they’re both watching any random recommended videos on the net when sehun feels jongin’s arms tighten around him. not long after, jongin presses a kiss on the crown of sehun’s head.

“i’m only going to be gone for about a week, sehun. it’s not that long” he murmurs, lips now pressed against sehun’s temple.

“but a week is so long… and that’s pretty much most of our holiday time gone” sehun pouts. he knows he’s being selfish feeling this way. jongin’s going on a family vacation for crying out loud so of course he’s going to have to go. it doesn’t settle the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach knowing jongin will be too far from his grasp though.

jongin leans away and props himself up onto his elbow to get a clear look of sehun’s face, causing sehun’s head to fall onto the pillows in the process with an “umph”.

“come on, we managed to not see each other for a month. a week will be nothing, we’ll be able to stay in touch too”

“but it’s because of that one month that one week will feel forever” sehun whines. gosh, he feels the need to slap himself for being so annoying but he’s so tired from forcing himself to stay awake a little while longer to stay awake with jongin all the little bit more. “i didn’t get to see you for an entire month so now I need some healing time, you know?”

jongin laughs and drops down onto the bed again and sehun automatically wraps his arms around his boyfriend. unable to contain his feelings any longer, jongin swings his arms around sehun and pulls him into a tight embrace.

“you’re too attached to me” he jokes.

“is that a bad thing?” sehun grumbles. jongin smiles widely and shakes his head. “as much as I’d like to say it is, I’m too happy to care” he replies. when sehun huffs, jongin swings a leg over sehun’s body, effectively trapping him underneath him.

“why are you so cute? what am I going to do with you” jongin groans. he pulls away and makes sure sehun is comfortable before he begins to play with sehun’s hair in a way he knows sehun likes. “sleep. I know you’re tired” jongin says. he feels sehun shake his head.

“i don’t want to. you won’t be here when I wake up” sehun replies in a small voice as his noses into jongin’s chest, eyes clearly drowsy with sleep. with a low chuckle, jongin presses another kiss on the top of sehun’s head.

“i’ll make sure to wake you up before I leave then, how about that?” jongin negotiates. he dotes on sehun too much, he knows that but he really does not give a since ounce of care in the world.

“you promise?” sehun barely manages to mumble in reply. jongin hums in reply. sehun lifts his head a little and presses a kiss on jongin’s cheek before dropping his head back down on jongin’s chest and falling asleep in a matter of seconds.

pressing his head further into the pillows, jongin follows not too long after.

“sehun-ah," jongin whispers "baby, i need to get out of bed now” . he feels bad about waking sehun up at o clock aka 4:30am but he made a promise and he also really needs to go home to get his things before he has to head to the airport. however, he can’t even get out of the bed with sehun’s arms wrapped around him with an iron grip.

laughing to himself, leans down and presses his lips with sehun’s. he continues to work them open until sehun’s fully responding back. when he reluctantly pulls away, sehun groans and brings his arms up to reach out to jongin.

“i can’t stay any longer i really need to go. i’m sorry” jongin whispers as he walks around the room to grab any last minute items that he needs. when he walks over to the bed again, he finds that sehun’s already fallen back asleep, hugging tightly on jongin's pillow.

whipping out his phone, jongin takes a couple of pictures of his sleep boyfriend before he puts it away and leans down to brush the hair away from sehun’s face.

jongin rearranges the blankets again and tucks it over sehun’s shoulders and right under his chin how he likes it. with a final kiss on sehun’s temple, jongin turns and leaves, closing the door quietly behind him.

~⑨④~

a/n: hey guys! this is a pretty late update i know ;n; i've been pretty busy lately and it's only going to get a lot busier with exams coming up so i just wanted to pst something up anyway for you guys. hope you enjoyed it! :)