“You’re kidding me.” Junhong's mouth twitches into a pout as he stare helplessly at his - no, Jongup’s - reflection.

“No,” comes his roommate’s thick reply. “No, not really.” He’s also staring at himself - Junhong - with horrified wide eyes. Jongup swallows and brings up a hand - his hand - and reaches for his jaw.

This isn't right, Jongup thinks as he turns to the side, still examining his new face through a dampened fringe of blond hair. He feels...tall. Like, uncharacteristically tall. This really isn't right.

"How did this even - " Junhong begins but stops at the sight before him. He's got...abs. Real abs. Junhong's always wondered what it felt like to have such a beautifully sculpted midsection like Jongup. The older boy spends hours upon hours at the dance studio, absentmindedly working on his body with all his routines. Junhong has always been a little jealous because, well, he's a lanky thing. Our builds are different, Jongup tells him every time he complains about his meager little two-pack. (Jongup has six distinctive lumps of muscle on his torso, okay - it's not fair.)

"I dunno," Jongup replies absently as Junhong pats himself down, experimenting with a new scenery. "Do you think Himchan slipped something into my drink last night?"

"Wha - no?!" The younger makes a face, his expression a mixture between surprise and disgust. Himchan would never do something like that, especially not to his sweet little "Guppie."

Junhong's lip twitches as the nickname rolls around in his mind. Contempt begins to rise. How original, he thinks. Himchan, damn him, stole that nickname from Junhong, stole it right from his lips. Junhong gave Jongup that name as a young child; it held sentimental value, and the he didn't appreciate it being stolen. He also didn't appreciate getting the evil eye whenever he tried to use it to get his roommate's attention. It was his creation, after all.

The younger roommate sighs and lifts his arms, exposing a thick tuft of dark hair in the crevice. Jongup was in desperate need of a shave, now that he thought about it.

The older watches as he brings his nose closer and sniffs -

"Dear God!" Junhng exclaims, ripping his head away from the armpit. In a failed attempt to rid of the smell, he clasps two fingers over his nose and groans, "When's the last time you took a shower, man?"

The sound of Jongup's hearty laughter reverberates against white tile. His shoulders bounce as he looks down at the younger. In truth, it's only been about a day since his last shower. He'd woken up this morning thinking he would hobble to their shared bathroom, hop in the shower, and rid of the dirt and grime from the previous night. But, as life would have it, he woke up in Junhong's body instead.

So, for the sake of providing comic relief under such odd circumstances, he lies - "like, three days ago?"

Junhong seems to fall for it, scrunching his nose like like he's just seen an insect. A moment later, he sticks out his tongue. Another moment later, he shudders in disgust. "That's gross," he whines.

"Not really. Daehyun once went three whole days without one."

"Yeah, but Daehyun doesn't dance for six hours straight in a seventy-five-degree building - in the middle of July." He takes note of the pride flashing onto Jongup's face for a split second before adding, "Nor is his body odor as pungent as yours."

Jongup shrugs in defeat. "Point acknowledged," he says simply, and then silence takes over.

For quite some time (read: two minutes) they stand there and scan over their bodies. It's a little weird when Junhong thinks about it, because he's in Jongup's skin and Jongup's in his. But they don't know why it's happened or who is responsible, so they have to take it how it is.

.

It's a bit of an inconvenience, switching bodies.

Feats like reaching for things on high shelves and cabinets become tasks. Junhong dislikes it when Jongup tosses him those smug smirks and grabs what he needs at any given point of the day. He hates it when Jongup uses Junhomg's own height against him and crowds him into the counter, smirking. He despises when Jongup waits. It only means one thing. ("Do you want me to beg?")

Jongup's devilish smile only grows wider as the words slip past his roommate's mouth. But he only complies, using Junhong's long arms to pull whatever he needs down from some point beyond his own reach. ("Begging would be nice, yes.")

On top of the aforementioned, Jongup now has the ability to actually look down at Junhong. It’s something he’s never been able to do with any of his friends, especially his roommate, what with the younger being almost a head taller than him.

Sadly it’s also something Junhong has to go through. He hasn’t experienced the feeling of looking up at anyone in years, but now that it's back - now that Junhong is forced to be short again - he's reminded of the horrors of his pre-pubescent life when he was still while everyone else in his class was dealing with expected growth spurts. He hated when kids laughed at him for growing slow. Junhong realizes he still hates being looked down upon more so now, with Jongup, than he did as a child.

But Jongup quite enjoys it. He loves to do Junhong those favors and grab stuff from high places, loves to make him beg every once in a while because honestly hyung grab me that box of cereal is the cutest thing to hear, even at four in the morning when his roommate wants a snack.

Also the jokes. He would never admit it but he really likes the jokes Junhong pulls, especially when he's in a sour mood.

("Hey, we need to take the trash out. Last one there has to do laundry for a week?"

"No thanks. Just take one step and you're already there.")

But even with the small list of pros, Jongup isn't excused from having his own problems either. He never took seriously all of the stories Junhong told him. He thought life as a six-foot-something would be easy, seeing at they were more cut out for the world than short people.

Of course Jongup’s wrong. It's just as much a process for taller people to do certain things as shorter people (like himself in his normal body), simply because of the height. While Junhong can finally breath easy as he enters and exits rooms, Jongup has to dip his head the tiniest bit so the doorways don't scrape at his scalp.

He can't stand comfortably under the showerhead because he actually meets its height, and the water sprays his chest rather than his hair. He also finds it really difficult to fall asleep in the right position, courtesy of these ridiculously long limbs. The second night of what they decided to call "the bodyswap," Jongup spent hours trying to find the perfect sleeping arrangement. He tried curling on both sides like a fetus, but his back wasn't having it. Spreading flat out into deadman's pose was just as fruitless an endeavor as the first; his feet had no space on the mattress, no matter how close to the headboard he scooted. Even sitting up against the headboard to fall asleep didn't work. All of his efforts had proven futile, and he was stuck awake.

Finally after two hours of fumbling around in the sheets, Jongup managed to slip into the unconscious. In the end he'd given up and stretched back into child's pose, with his bottom in the air and his head buried in the abundance of pillows.

.

Actually, it's a huge inconvenience, switching bodies.

They haven’t stepped out of the house since God knows when, and Jongup really wants to go to the gym. Junhong needs to run errands, go buy groceries - important stuff that’ll help them survive the next few days. They have to continue their lives, but the circumstances prevent them.

Thankfully, despite staying in, the pair manage to make the best of it. In fact, Junhong and Jongup have this silent, ongoing competition of who's got it worse to make things less uncomfortable.

So far neither man is winning, but - "that's kinda the point," Junhong says while they're in the kitchen making bowls of cereal.

It's one of those i need a snack even though it’s some ungodly hour moments when Junhong’s body wakes Jongup to eat something and Jongup’s body wakes Junhong up for a trip to the bathroom. Sometimes Jongup - the real one - will wander into the kitchen and join him. Sometimes he’ll stumble back into bed and resume snoring until noon.

"I still feel like one of us should be winning, though," Jongup sighs as he retrieves milk from the refrigerator. Almost two days have passed since he's woken up in Junhong's body, but he's already gotten used to living in a new skin. It’s like wearing someone else’s clothes almost - after a while the foreign feeling goes away and it almost gets comfortable.

Junhong takes the carton of milk from its place on the counter and fills his bowl as well. Jongup watches boredly as he dips his spoon into his bowl and brings soggy cereal back to his mouth. He hums in approval because cereal at two a.m. really does taste a lot better than cereal first thing in the morning.

The blond across from him returns the milk to its rightful place before also stuffing his face with the breakfast meal.

“Hey,” he says in between bites. “Do you think we’re stuck like this?” (Forever?)

Yes would be the obvious answer because hello, they’ve been stuck like this for two days. But Jongup doesn’t want to think that they could actually be trapped in each other’s bodies forever. He’s okay being the way they are for now, but he doesn’t think he could stay Junhong the rest of his life. “Hopefully we aren’t,” he replies after giving his response some thought.

Junhong nods. “Yeah,” another bite. “No offense but I actually miss breathing my own air - y’know, above everyone else.” The light jab at his height has Jongup grinning.

“Yeah, I miss sleep.” A knowing grin appears on the younger's face for a split second before disappearing. "Your legs are too long, how the hell do they not hang off the bed?”

“Oh, they do. But I don’t like sleeping sprawled across my bed. I’d rather curl up or something.” The blond reaches the middle of the cereal bowl before Jongup even scratches the surface of his own.

“See now - “ he swallows “ - I did that, but it still took me hours to go to bed.”

The younger shrugs innocently. “You know me,” he says, “I’m stubborn - sometimes.”

“Yeah. As a bull,” Jongup nudges him. "But, no, seriously - " he teeters " - I guess we'll just have to make this work for now, at least."

"Yeah," Junhong nods slowly, like he's still processing Jongup's words, before locking eyes with him. "We'll make this work."

a/n. quick beta was quick but here it is lmao. more for this coming soon i think? hope you enjoyed, i kinda liked writing this one.

edit: i will not be adding anything onto this fic specifically

but if you have any ideas, hmu on my writing tumblr and send me some prompts or whatever! :)