(words: ~2k )

a/n: i kind of want to share the song(s) that i listen to whilst writing these chapters to you guys. idk whether they influence what i write in these chapters but… :) [if you have any songs you’d recommend to listen, please do! that would be great :D]

(song(s): disclosure – latch ft. sam smith)

~⑨④~

sehun glances at the time and is shocked when he realises what time it was. he rushes to his room, taking the stairs two at a time, and boosts up his laptop. once he’s signed into his messenger account, he goes to wash up and prepare for bed. just as he’s done washing his face, he hears his laptop ringing, indicating a call. without wasting any time he grabs a towel and goes to answer the call.

the video is a little blurry and he hears things being shuffled around on the other end of the call. it takes a while but sehun patiently waits as he pats his face dry with the towel, throwing it behind him on the bed once he’s done. moments later he sees the face that he always looks forward to seeing the most.

“sehun-ah! can you see me?”

“all nice and handsome, even in 360p” sehun replies, laughing a little at his own comment. he hears jongin’s soft chuckle through the call and watches him ruffle his fringe before combing it away with his fingers.

they’ve video called each other at night a couple of times before bed since their time zones are only an hour apart. the conversation lasts about an hour at his desk before sehun picks up his laptop and climbs into bed, discreetly kicking his towel to the foot of his bed before climbing underneath the covers.

the connection isn’t too good and it freezes pretty often, considering that jongin’s using the hotel’s wifi, but they bear with it without complaints.

“I’ve got a couple of readings I need to complete by the end–” sehun lets out a yawn, “the end of the week”

jongin grins at his boyfriend, noting how often this scenario tends to happen. sehun has the tendency to resist his sleepiness for as long as possible until he can no longer form coherent sentences whenever they’re together. it usually ends with jongin telling him to go sleep and sehun continuing to be stubborn.

“i’ve got to cut it short today, sehun-ah. we’ve got to wake up early tomorrow” jongin says, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. sehun resists pouting and silently nods. they bid their goodnights and they both set their laptops on the bedside tables next to them with the screens still up.

“do you think this is a little weird? how we leave the video call on like this when we sleep?” sehun murmurs, cheek now pressed against his pillow, blanket pulled up to his chin. he watches as jongin pulls his blanket over his body till it covers his torso.

“i don’t know” jongin answers, “but quite frankly I don’t really care. we both know you can’t resist me and you sleep a lot better when I’m with you. if that makes you happy, then it makes me happy and if we’re both happy, then there doesn’t need to be anything to worry about”

sehun laughs at his reply, making a quick comment on his cheesy jongin can be. “only for you” is all jongin replies before sinking lower into the bed. with one last “goodnight”, both ends of the call go quiet excluding the occasional rustling of jongin’s blankets and the flipping of the pages from sehun’s book as he does his nightly reading (a habit he's beginning to pick up from jongin).

when sehun’s done reading for the night, he carefully places the book on the other bedside table and shuffles under his covers. with one last glance at the laptop screen, he sees jongin now fast asleep and he smiles at how cute his boyfriend is, his arm having gathered the end of his blanket to tuck under his face so his cheek was now squished against it.

with one final yawn, sehun closes his eyes and drifts to sleep.

or at least he tries to. after trying for another half hour he gives up and turns to glare at the ceiling, annoyed that he didn’t go to sleep when he was sleepy. now the opportunity is gone and he’s no longer tired. with a glance towards his laptop to see jongin sleeping peacefully, he feels the corners of his mouth tug upwards. it's rare for him to get the opportunity to ever see jongin sleep first since he was always the one to fall asleep first and wake up later.

leaning closer towards his laptop, sehun screenshots the video and saves the image of jongin’s cheek pressed against his arm causing his lips to pout. he sends it to his phone and then to jongin so that it would be the first thing he sees when he wakes up.

eventually, sehun comes to the conclusion that it’s unlikely that he’ll fall asleep anytime soon so he ends the video call and shuts down his laptop to make his way across the hall. without any hesitation he enters the room and crawls under the blankets.

whipping out his phone, he takes a few pictures of himself snuggled up in the blankets and sends them to jongin as well. he'll probably be teased by jongin again about not being able to resist him but sehun doesn’t care. and it’s not like it’s completely true. the bed in the guest room just so happens to be very comfortable. and the blankets are different too. much nicer. yes, that’s why. and  also maybe because the room smells faintly of jongin and it helps calm him down. but he’ll never mention that aloud to jongin. he’ll never hear the end of it.

glancing towards the side table he notices the book that jongin’s been reading lately. it's common for sehun to find random books lying around that belong to jongin, with the corner of a page folded from where he left off.

out of curiosity sehun grabs the book and stares blankly at the front cover. he's seen jongin carry it around multiple times already because it’s his favourite. and judging from creases on the pages, jongin’s probably gone through it multiple times.

“nice cover. what a way to attract a person’s attention” sehun murmurs to himself as he stares at the plain navy coloured hardcover of the book. he flips through the pages of the book and finds multiple pages bent at the corners. ‘probably forgot to unfold them’ sehun thinks, but he leaves them there just for his own safety in case he’s wrong. he learnt the hard way of the sins of causing a person to lose their reading spot.

as he continues to flip through the pages, he notices multiple pencil markings on certain paragraphs, some underlined, some marked with asterisk and some phrases wrapped with brackets. sehun points at random to one of the markings on the page and decides to read it aloud.

“my affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever…” sehun chokes on his own spit.

“is this– ” sehun flips to the first page of the book and – yep, just as he’d predicted. The words ‘PRIDE & PREJUDICE’ are centred on the page in capitals. with a soft “hm” sehun flips another twenty pages until he finally reaches where the story finally begins.

he vaguely remembers jongin telling him to read it a while ago, but sehun was never one to allow himself to be completely immersed in reading such complicated books. “too lazy” was his answer and jongin had punched his arm for that followed with a roll of his eyes. now he finds himself drawn into the book and a little glimmer of pride grows in him, knowing that he’s become a little more familiar with jongin’s preferences.

the next time that he sets his eyes off the book is half past three in the morning when he suddenly draws away from the book and yawns. not wanting to defer his attention away from the novel, he tucks himself further into the blankets and continues to read despite eyes attempting to close multiple times. it's not long until he loses the battle, eyes closing with the novel still in his hands.

~⑨④~

sehun wakes up the consistent sound of his phone going off. rubbing out the sleep from his eyes, he grabs his phone off the side table, eyes instantly closing again from the glare of the screen. it is then with years of practice, that he’s able to skilfully unlock his phone and turn down the brightness to the lowest possible with his eyes closed.

it is only when he’s fully able to be rid of the sleepiness from his eyes that he sees the number of messages jongin sent him, causing him to grin.

jongin [12:32pm]: ????

jongin [12:32pm]: I don’t remember giving permission???

jongin [12:33pm]: For you to take pictures??? Of my godly appearance???

jongin [12:33pm]: Ya, Oh Sehun!! Who allowed you??

jongin [12:33pm]: I mean, it’s completely understandable considering how

jongin [12:33pm]: We both know how delectable I am, in a state of consciousness or not

jongin [12:33pm]: But all you have to do is ask ;---)

jongin [12:34pm]: Boyfriend privileges, you know. Just saying. In case you didn't know.

jongin [12:34pm]: But I guess shouldn’t be one to talk

jongin [12:34pm]: Since I have pictures of you too :---)

jongin [12:34pm]: So we’ll call it even

sehun’s in the middle of brushing his teeth when stops to stare blankly at the messages as he reads over it again.

sehun [12:47pm]: …

sehun [12:47pm]: what do u mean

sehun [12:47pm]: u have pictures of me

sehun [12:47pm]: ‘pictures’???? more than oNE??

sehun [12:48pm]: =__=?

jongin [12:53pm]: Heh of course. What do you expect?

jongin [12:53pm]: You look so cute when you sleep. I can’t help myself

sehun [12:55pm]: I feel so violated

sehun [12:55pm]: u have tainted me

sehun [12:55pm]: I am no longer pure

jongin [1:07pm]: Just to let you know, I just snorted so hard my nose aches now

sehun [1:08pm]: good to know

jongin [1:08pm]: So cruel ㅠㅠ

jongin [1:09pm]: But I’m not lying when I say I can’t help myself. Look!

jongin [1:09pm]: sent a photo

jongin [1:09pm]: sent a photo

jongin [1:10pm]: sent a photo

jongin [1:10pm]: sent a photo

jongin [1:10pm]: sent a photo

sehun chokes on air as he makes his way downstairs to prepare his lunch. “how many did he take??” sehun grumbles as he flicks through all the ones jongin sent him.

sehun [1:20pm]: i feel so…  

sehun [1:20pm]: …..

jongin [1:24pm]: Loved? :D

sehun [1:25pm]: violated

jongin [1:25pm]: :(

jongin [1:25pm]: It’s ok. It’s only natural you’d be flustered because of me

sehun [1:27pm]: …  

jongin [1:30pm]: ( ˘ ³˘)♥

sehun [1:32pm]: ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(;￣Д￣)┘

jongin [1:35pm]: ┏( ゜)ਊ゜)┛

sehun [1:38pm]: ε=ε=ε=(۶•̀Д•́)۶  

jongin [1:40pm]: (ღ ･ิ◡･ิ)ε ･ิ ღ)  <- This could be us but you hatin'

jongin [1:40pm]: Honestly though, if you don’t like it then I’ll stop

sehun [1:44pm]: no

sehun [1:44pm]: well

sehun [1:45pm]: i mean, I guess it’s not doing any harm… so…

jongin [1:47pm]: Great! So I can set it as my wallpaper??

sehun [1:48pm]: No.

jongin [1:48pm]: :(

jongin [1:50pm]: Are you sure?

sehun [1:53pm]: Yep.

jongin [1:57pm]: Alright then, if you’re that unhappy about it then I won’t. Even if I really want to :(

reading his message a second time, sehun remembers the line last night and can’t help but smile. jongin is so precious, sehun doesn’t know what to do with him.

jongin [1:58pm]: I need to go now. I’ll talk to you later

sehun [2:00pm]: See you later. I’ll go back to Mr Darcy

jongin [2:00pm]: …Darcy?

sehun [2:01pm]: I started reading that book of yours. quite interesting.

sehun [2:01pm]: I’m spend my days with Mr Darcy from now on

jongin [2:01pm]: No D: only me!!!! I’ll be your one and only Mr Darcy!!!

sehun smiles into the palm of his hand and types his reply, before leaving to get some work done for whatever’s left of the day.

sehun [2:02pm]: I know :)

~⑨④~

a/n: so I wasn’t expecting to update, since I’m still right in the middle of exams (four more to go… yay…). but one does one do instead of studying – procrastinate. where is the surprise.

Initially I wasn’t going to have a lot of jongin in this chapter but who am I kidding. he’s irresistible so I couldn’t help it and viola!

Hope you enjoyed this! Comment and something… something if you enjoyed it~ thank you for reading.