(words: ~1.6k)

(song: taeyeon – gemini)

~⑨④~

“where are you going?”

sehun freezes in his spot and turns around to face jongin who is struggling to keep his eyes open after just waking up. they were at jongin’s place for most of the day and were having a movie marathon. jongin had fallen asleep halfway through, only to wake up to the sound of rustle and bustle.

“you fell asleep” sehun states. jongin raises a brow at him. he’d fallen asleep countless times during their movie marathons but sehun had never left him alone. jongin feels something pressing against his chest at the thought.

recently, sehun’s been a lot busier, and not because of his workload either. jongin's certain because they’re currently on break. jongin gets up from the couch and walks over to the front door and in front of sehun. he waits.

realising that there was no way out of this, he sighs and pulls jongin over to the couch again. sehun gently pushes jongin down to take a seat on the couch again and stands in front of him.

“do you trust me?” sehun asks. jongin blinks, a bit thrown off by the sudden question.

“what?”

sehun repeats his question, his voice now in a softer tone, almost unsure. jongin nods slowly. he doesn’t understand why sehun is asking him such a question when the answer should be obvious. of course he does, even with sehun’s behaviour recently.

“then just wait till friday, alright? i’ll give you an explanation then” sehun tells him. jongin nods slowly again. sehun sighs again and bends down till his face is right in front of jongin’s. he takes in his boyfriend’s visuals before leaning in to press a kiss on jongin’s forehead. then, he’s out the door and jongin’s left alone with the ending credits of the movie playing in the background.

~⑨④~

jongin’s fiddling with the cup in his hands, constantly causing it to tap against the table. across from him, kyungsoo and junmyeon stare at the boy in front of him, waiting for when he’d be ready to speak. he had called earlier on and asked if he could stop by their apartment after dinner, which they allowed. however, annoyed by the constant tapping of the table, kyungsoo leans forward and grabs the cup in jongin’s hand, steadying it.

“just spill it out, jongin” kyungsoo tells him as he lets go of the boy’s hands. jongin watches as junmyeon instinctively puts an arm around kyungsoo’s shoulders and how kyungsoo comfortably leans against junmyeon’s touch. despite seeing their subtle interactions for a while, jongin never fails to be amazed by the little changes that happen in his two hyungs when they’re together.

jongin remembers the constant pinches he would receive, along with sehun when they would annoy kyungsoo by so much as poking him every now and then. once they saw kyungsoo make no reaction to junmyeon’s touches, they whined about how kyungsoo didn’t care about them.

junmyeon was another story, he was the embodiment of affection and would constantly dote on those around him. though he likes to dote, jongin knows that junmyeon is also in need of affection himself, which was why he thought his two hyungs would be an unlikely pairing. clearly he was wrong. despite junmyeon’s overly affectionate personality and kyungsoo’s seemingly lack thereof, they worked perfectly together. and that is why jongin wanted to talk to them today.

“hyung…” jongin fiddles with the cup again but stops when he sees kyungsoo raise an eyebrow. sighing, jongin tells them about what’s been happening recently with sehun’s constant disappearances and how jongin’s been feeling, well, insecure.

junmyeon and kyungsoo remain silent as jongin explains, listening intently to him. once he’s done, junmyeon detaches himself from kyungsoo’s side and rests his forearms on the table.

“do you trust him?” kyungsoo asks. jongin looks over to him in confusion. he looks over to junmyeon who gives him a reassuring smile.

“of course I do” jongin answers with a frown.

“then don’t worry. trust him” junmyeon tells him. jongin stares at his hyungs for a moment, taking in their expressions before heaving a sigh, and nods. there’s not much that he can do until friday anyway. jongin glances at the clock and decides it’s time for him to leave. bidding the two of them goodnight, jongin leaves to go home.

driving home, jongin decides to stop by the convenience store to buy some things to stock up his fridge. with a quick check of his wallet and confirming he has enough money on him, he locks him car and enters the store and quickly piles up his basket with items to buy.

with one last look in his basket to check if he’s forgotten anything, jongin's about to make his way towards the cashier when he spots a familiar person walk into the store with someone he doesn’t know. jongin stops in his tracks and finds himself turning around to the back of the store again out of reflex.

“come on, sehun. we need to hurry so that we can get back” jongin hears the voice he’s heard once before.

“yeah, yeah. hold up. let me go grab a couple of ramen packets from the back” he hears sehun reply. jongin wills himself to calm down and walks out from behind his hiding place behind the row of ramen packets and into the aisle. he sees sehun stop in his tracks once he’s spotted.

“jongin… late night shopping?” sehun asks, eyes glancing down at jongin’s basket. jongin nods and opens his mouth to say something when a person comes up from behind sehun.

following jongin’s line of sight, sehun sees who jongin is looking at and quickly jumps to introductions. “Uh, jongin this is zhang yixing, and yixing this is kim jongin” sehun looks at jongin right in the eye and adds, “my boyfriend”

jongin barely manages to catch the grin that appears on yixing’s face because of the pounding of his heart against his ribcage from sehun’s words.

“the kim jongin, huh? nice to meet you” yixing greets, hand extended in front of him. jongin shakes his hand and nods.

“you know what? give me what you want, kid. it’s on me tonight” yixing tells sehun as he quickly grabs his own preferred packet of ramen and then the one sehun passes to him before turning away to give them some time alone.

once yixing is gone, sehun turns back to jongin, who begins to speak. “late night?” he asks. sehun nods.

“what are you doing tonight?” sehun asks. jongin shrugs. usually whenever he’s bored he would go to the dance studio but since his injury, he hasn’t been able to dance and thus left with little to do other than binge watch tv shows.

there’s a certain tension in the air between the two of them. something a bit different to the tension they were used to, such as the tension often felt a few days before any big events or anniversaries when they would still be running about trying to find the perfect gift for their partner.

“well… I guess I’ll see you later then” jongin says as he begins to walk past sehun. only, he finds himself stopping in his tracks when sehun grabs his arm and moves to stand in front of him.

“you’re free this friday, right?” sehun asks him. jongin stares at the way sehun’s eyebrows furrow, showing how anxious he is. jongin nods and sehun smiles slightly. “alright. good" he mutters to himself.

jongin remains quiet, not knowing what to do. he waits until sehun finally realises that he’s still holding onto jongin’s arm and slowly lets go.

“go home and rest, alright? don’t want your injury to act up again” sehun murmurs, his hand caressing jongin’s hip. “I’ve got to go, yixing’s waiting for me. I’ll see you soon” he says. jongin nods and for a moment he sees a flash of hesitance in sehun’s eyes before he leans forward and presses a kiss on jongin’s forehead before leaving.

dazed, jongin stays rooted in his spot and watches until sehun’s disappeared before he moves to the counter to pay for his items. walking out with his items in his bag, jongin takes a deep breath of the cold night air. feeling a little better, jongin quickly gets moving to make his way home. it doesn’t take too long since the convenience store he went to was just two blocks away from his home.

once he’s home, he enters the kitchen and places everything on the counter and prepares to make his late night snack consisting of ramen and kimbap. once he’s poured boiling water into the ramen cup, jongin makes his way up to his room to change out of his clothes. stripping down till he’s only in his boxers and an old shirt, he’s about to leave the room when his eye catches sight of the calendar on his study table. his eyes focus on a certain date circled by a red marker, causing his to chuckle to himself.

“friday, huh…” he mutters to himself as he exits the room to prepare the things he needs to binge watch all the episodes of his favourite TV shows.

the day circled on his calendar is nothing special, but rather the date. there's no other marking other than a simple red circle however the importance of the date is something jongin doubts that he’ll ever forget.

because, how can you ever forget the anniversary you share with someone you’ve loved for so many years?

~⑨④~

a/n: IT'S BEEN A WHILE, I KNOW. HELLO I'M BAAAACK. Sort of. Idk if you guys read these author notes but anyway, i'm sorry it's taken so long to update (3 months, yes i am aware). I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)

Much love,

aekcso