[exo] Sucker for You (2/2)
Sucker for You
SeKai. PG-13. 8,700w.
Sehun has a sweet tooth for more than just candy.
Thinking back on it, Sehun knows that Jongin had kept his promise, for the most part. He had come back the day after their first real day as friends, and the next, and the next, and the next, and for many more days past of that. The pattern continued for what felt like ages for Sehun, each day ending with the duo eating a lollipop together as it wound down. Back then, neither of them really had any sense of time; some days Jongin would arrive too early or leave too late, on others, Sehun would think he had more time to sleep than he actually did and end up being late to meet his friend outside the shop. At the time, Sehun’s mother had also been extremely happy that her son was finally able to make a friend, despite the rather odd circumstances in which the two spent time together. If Sehun was happy, so was she and she wasn’t about to ruin that for him because of a few lollipops he had given away to show his affection.
But one day, Jongin stops coming. His daily visits stop almost as suddenly as the way Jongin had fallen into Sehun’s life. At first, Sehun had seen no reason to be alarmed; maybe Jongin was sick, maybe he had a cold, maybe he had finally started school (Sehun never did bother to find out what month the school term for the children his age started). However, he started wondering as the days went on without so much as a phone call. Hell, Sehun wouldn’t even have minded if Jongin stopped by for a minute to tell him that he couldn’t stay that day, as long as he stopped feeling an overwhelming sense of being abandoned.
In the end, his efforts were wasted, because no matter how many days he waited at their spot on the curb, no matter how many pomegranate lollipops in clear cellophane he left on the side for Jongin to collect when he finally came around, Sehun knew deep down that he wasn’t coming back. It was a huge blow for Sehun to finally accept; he wondered if the pain and disappointment was a feeling anywhere near the same as the one he’d have if an elephant had decided to sit on his chest. At some point, Sehun had stopped talking about Jongin altogether, pushing the existence of his only friend/ex-friend to the back of his mind, left to be dredged up if Sehun should find himself laid out on a plush leather day bed in some psychiatrist’s office somewhere in the distant future.
But that was then, and Sehun’s here and now consists of swarms of children slathered in costume makeup and mismatched articles of costume clothing, with the bell that still hangs above the door chiming frequently enough to be background music to the entrance of every trick-or-treater.
Keeping in the spirit of the holidays, Sehun dresses up in costume too, putting his pale complexion and convenient set of false canines to use, fashioning a cape out of two of his mother’s old black and red nylon skirts to complete his ghoulish vampire look. His mother did not hesitate to shoot him down the previous day, when he had asked her if he could wear the getup for his entire shift (“The other customers will feel uncomfortable!” she had said), so he’s forced to rush to the back between the end of the busy lunch hour and the start of children beginning to be dismissed from school.
By that point, Sehun gets so busy with the influx of trick-or-treaters, the only thing that brings him to a screeching halt from automated response of dropping a small pre-made candy bag with an Oh! Sweets business card tucked safely inside, is an older, much deeper voice calling out the familiar Halloween greeting:
“Trick or Treat.”
Sehun rises slowly, trying to get a good look at the feet on the opposite side of the register before he’s standing up to his full height. His instinct tells him to be wary in case this weirdo was trying to rob him, (of candy, money, who knows). But a couple of weeks ago, Sehun’s instinct had also told him to drink the milk in his refrigerator at home to see if it was still good instead of simply looking for the expiration date on the carton. Needless to say, that had been a horribly bad decision, and Sehun is a little more willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt when he spots another pair of legs in white stockings and pink ballet slippers laced up to the knee hovering behind his.
Looking up, he’s face to face with an extremely gorgeous man and a little girl clinging tightly to his back. The man doesn’t quite look old enough to be her father, considering she’s looks to be about only 9 or 10 years old herself, but if he’s escorting her in her Halloween festivities, they’re obviously pretty close.
“For my sister,” he says, gesturing to the timid little girl behind him as if he could read Sehun’s mind. “She’s a little shy.”
Sehun nods at him, probably taking a bit longer than he should to admire his bone structure; a sharp jawline with a modest chin and cheekbones that girls probably hate him for, not complete without his pale lips that seem to pout on their own, regardless of expression. And his hair, coiffed just enough to keep small flyaway strands from hanging down in his face. And his complexion, colored with a touch of honey brown as if he arrived at the shop straight off a plane from the beaches of Bermuda. And all of his face, simply as a whole…there’s something familiar about his face but Sehun doesn’t quite have the leisure to continue looking to ease the nervousness coiling in his stomach, breaking his staring before it gets weird to lean over the counter towards his younger sister.
“You’re the prettiest fairy I’ve seen all day,” Sehun compliments, taking in the glitter over her clothes and pink chiffon wings attached snugly to her back by a cleverly concealed wire frame underneath. The compliment is quiet enough for only her to hear, but it does the trick. She beams, holding out the candy bag she had been hiding behind her back for Sehun to add to the already growing stash.
Her older brother looks between the two of them, eyes widened in what is unmistakably shock. He looks at Sehun with a sly grin, gently patting the top of his sister’s head with a flat palm. “How did you do that? She hasn’t gotten her own candy all day.”
“Mind control,” Sehun explains simply. “Haven’t you watched a vampire movie before? They’re pretty accurate.”
The other laughs and Sehun is glad that he said what he did, feeling rewarded by his amusement.
“So, what’s your costume?” Sehun asks, insistent on getting in as much conversation as possible before they leave. Something about the man strikes him as too familiar to just let their interaction slide before Sehun can figure it out. In his head, he urges himself not to sound too eager; with the fangs, the faster he spoke, the more of a lisp he would have.
Again, Sehun is met by a look of surprise once more. “What makes you think I’m dressed up?” he challenges, raising a questioning eyebrow at him. “But if you really need to know, I’m dressed up as a responsible teenager.”
When Sehun doesn’t have a comeback, (that leaves out the phrase “your mom” of course), taking a long pause, the man flushes pinker than his sisters costume, waving a hand.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, rocking on his heels embarrassedly. “That was rude.”
Sehun pays no mind, leaning back over to grab another candy bag from the box sitting behind the counter, holding it gently between two fingers by its twist tie. Really, as long as he got to talk to this handsome stranger for as long as possible, he could care less about the growing line of impatient children behind the siblings at the counter. “Want one?”
He shakes his head, putting up a hand to stop Sehun politely. “I’m not a huge fan of chocolate, honestly. It’s bad for my skin.”
“Then how about one of these instead,” Sehun offers, holding up a handful of lollipops he had stashed behind the register in the off chance a child with a chocolate allergy wanted to take part in the holiday festivities.
The girl’s brother eyes them for a moment, looking at them with a glint in his eyes that Sehun can’t quite place before reaching his hand out to take the only blood red one in the bunch. Pomegranate. He tips it towards Sehun in thanks, taking a moment to unwrap it before starting to enjoy it, fitting it into his mouth in the space between his teeth and the inside of his cheek.
“By the way,” he says, momentarily removing the lollipop out of his mouth to spin it between his fingers, leaning slightly closer than Sehun thinks is necessary for casual conversation. “Those fangs you’ve got there? They fit you, yanno, they bring out your lisp.”
Sehun isn’t really sure that the comment about his fangs (or his lisp for that matter) is a compliment, but the burning in his cheeks as the other turns to leave, an arm circled protectively around his sister’s shoulders, tell him otherwise.
Once the day is over, and the trick-or-treaters have stopped arriving in drones, as is per the norm, Sehun is left to clean up shop. Luckily, there isn’t much for him to do, considering that everyone had come in only for the free candy; Sehun thinks that only fools buy candy on Halloween if they aren’t giving it out to kids. He picks up the broom balanced against a shelf towards the register and begins to sweep, collecting the bits and dust and debris from the outside in a neat little pile to be disposed of
This time of day is always the loneliest for Sehun. It’s definitely different from the days that he could hear his mother typing away at her calculator from the back room, now that he’s old enough to be there on his own. He can almost hear the clacking of his mother’s shoes against the hardwood floor as if she was going to come to the front to get him so that they could walk home together. But, he also knows that it’s all in his head, the memories of spending quality time with his family at the shop exchanged without his permission for a bigger business and more money. And Sehun is alone.
“Um, hello?”
Or so he thinks.
“Glad I caught you before you closed up,” says a familiar voice, letting the door close behind him. Really, Sehun can’t help but be slightly ashamed that he’s able to recognize the voice from earlier that day. Turning around, he sees that he’s right, and it is indeed the older brother of the girl dressed as a fairy that he had complimented during the rush of trick-or-treaters, standing in the doorway. He shakes head quickly, maybe to avoid looking Sehun directly in the eye after catching him off guard, but more likely because of the white flakes sticking in his now mussed hair and around his eyelashes.
“Snow,” he explains, noticing Sehun’s blatant attention to his hair and gestures towards it. “I think there’s a storm or something…but it’s the strangest thing. I’ve never seen snow so early in the season before.”
Sehun nods quietly, not trusting himself to do much else, but after a minute, he finds his voice. “What can I help you with?” He leans the broom back against the shelves, giving his “customer” his full attention.
“I don’t think you remember me from earlier,” the other starts. “But I came in before with a little girl-”
“Dressed as a pink fairy, right?” Sehun finishes all too quickly. He can feel his palms getting sweaty, suddenly remembering that he still had his vampire cape tied around his neck in his nervousness, before pulling it off, hoping the other hadn’t noticed yet.
“Yeah, that’s my sister.” He pauses for a moment, trying to remember what he wants to say next. “I came back to ask if you had any more of those lollipops you gave me earlier. If you don’t mind, I’d like to buy you out of them.”
Sehun stops gaping long enough, not only out of shock that the handsome stranger is back, but out of the fact that he wants to buy all the lollipops that usually everyone but Sehun refuses to touch. “Organic” products weren’t always appealing to the average person. However, he does as he’s asked, going to the back and returning with the only sealed, giant 20 pound bag of organic lollipops, placing it on the counter to be rung up.
“You must’ve really liked it then,” Sehun comments, taking the other’s credit card as its offered to him, swiping it through the appropriate machine.
He nods slightly in reply, poking a hold into the plastic of the bag while Sehun finishes ringing up the transaction. “I did. You actually gave me my favorite flavor…”
Sehun returns the credit card, receipt pressed over it as he passes it back to the other, who pockets it promptly. “I had no idea.”
“Lucky guess then?” A smile spreads across the stranger’s face, even though Sehun is fairly certain it was meant as a question. Damn those social cues again.
“I guess it was,” Sehun replies.
With a curt nod, not for a moment losing his smile, the stranger picks up the bag, heaving it over his shoulder with the side pierced with the hole facing upward. He stops midway to the exit, turning back around to face Sehun.
“I think I owe you these.”
For once in his life, Sehun is grateful for his fast reflexes. He catches the two objects that come at him, spinning through the air before they can hit something that has the potential to break. Upon inspection, he sees that the objects are two lollipops; one lemon and one pomegranate.
It hits Sehun after he realizes that the stranger is long gone and he rushes to see the name on the copy of the receipt, unsurprised when the cardholder’s name reads: Jongin Kim.
After a long night of arguing, reprimanding , and beating himself up, all Sehun wants to do is spend his day in his room, because after everything, he still does not think he’s cut out for mornings. It sure as hell seems like he can barely function in the dead of night, even if he did beat his own zombie kill streak on one of the many dubious Xbox games he owns around 3am. He tries to play it sick, going the whole nine yards to try and convince his mother that he’s just not up to going in, but as expected, he doesn’t think things all the way thorough. (“Your skin is always that pale, those red eyes are from being up too late without enough sleep, and if you really had a fever of 109°F, you’d be in a coma.”)
She tells him to stop sulking, man up, and face whatever it is he’s trying to hide from.
But as Sehun closes his eyes and slams his head repeatedly against the granite counter that the register sits on, he knows that he’s not the one who’s hiding. Its Jongin that won’t face him, apparently, unless he knows that Sehun will have no way of tracking him down once he does. Although, Sehun does play around with the idea that he could use his credit card information from the transaction to get to Jongin. Eventually, he quietly pushes it aside because not only will he seem like a stalker, but he’s pretty sure that its more than just a toe over the line of what’s legal and what’s not.
Sehun is just glad that it’s a slow day because that way he can wallow in self-pity without anyone bothering him to buy something or-
“You’re slacking,” a deep voice whispers somewhere close to where Sehun thinks his ear should be. (Maybe he banged his head one too many times…)
“Jongin,” he murmurs quietly, looking up from the counter, his face mere inches away from Jongin’s.
“Took you long enough,” he says with a quiet chuckle, eyes on Sehun’s lips, and Sehun may be a little stupid, but he knows what Jongin wants.
And that something is a something that Sehun hadn’t known he wanted back when they were kids, sharing lollipops and stories and running around tidying up candy jars or sitting and waiting for their hot chocolate to be cool enough to drink without scalding their tongues. He didn’t know he wanted it yesterday when Jongin had showed up at the store with his sister and teased him about his lisp or when he had come back later to make a huge purchase of candy that, (now that Sehun thought about it), there was no way he could finish on his own. Sehun could only laugh at himself because he and Jongin had grown up to realize they’ve always been in love, just like those best friends in the dramas.
Jongin leans in, but before he can meet Sehun’s lips, he comes in contact with his balled fist, stumbling back slightly. Now, Sehun is the one to bite his lip, looking at Jongin, mildly conflicted.
“Where did you disappear to?” he hears himself ask.
“When I was around here so often, it’s because my parents, my sister and I were living with my grandmother. All circumstances aside, by time we had our place back, my mom kept me too wrapped up in schoolwork to do anything but eat, study, and sleep.”
There’s a pause when Sehun finds he has no good reason to be upset at Jongin anymore.
“You’re weird. I like you.”
And this time, Sehun lets Jongin kiss him.
a/n: this was originally for natsudive posted here for the sncj secret santa exchange. we won't talk about how many nights i went sleepless in the process of writing it.
SeKai. PG-13. 8,700w.
Sehun has a sweet tooth for more than just candy.
Thinking back on it, Sehun knows that Jongin had kept his promise, for the most part. He had come back the day after their first real day as friends, and the next, and the next, and the next, and for many more days past of that. The pattern continued for what felt like ages for Sehun, each day ending with the duo eating a lollipop together as it wound down. Back then, neither of them really had any sense of time; some days Jongin would arrive too early or leave too late, on others, Sehun would think he had more time to sleep than he actually did and end up being late to meet his friend outside the shop. At the time, Sehun’s mother had also been extremely happy that her son was finally able to make a friend, despite the rather odd circumstances in which the two spent time together. If Sehun was happy, so was she and she wasn’t about to ruin that for him because of a few lollipops he had given away to show his affection.
But one day, Jongin stops coming. His daily visits stop almost as suddenly as the way Jongin had fallen into Sehun’s life. At first, Sehun had seen no reason to be alarmed; maybe Jongin was sick, maybe he had a cold, maybe he had finally started school (Sehun never did bother to find out what month the school term for the children his age started). However, he started wondering as the days went on without so much as a phone call. Hell, Sehun wouldn’t even have minded if Jongin stopped by for a minute to tell him that he couldn’t stay that day, as long as he stopped feeling an overwhelming sense of being abandoned.
In the end, his efforts were wasted, because no matter how many days he waited at their spot on the curb, no matter how many pomegranate lollipops in clear cellophane he left on the side for Jongin to collect when he finally came around, Sehun knew deep down that he wasn’t coming back. It was a huge blow for Sehun to finally accept; he wondered if the pain and disappointment was a feeling anywhere near the same as the one he’d have if an elephant had decided to sit on his chest. At some point, Sehun had stopped talking about Jongin altogether, pushing the existence of his only friend/ex-friend to the back of his mind, left to be dredged up if Sehun should find himself laid out on a plush leather day bed in some psychiatrist’s office somewhere in the distant future.
But that was then, and Sehun’s here and now consists of swarms of children slathered in costume makeup and mismatched articles of costume clothing, with the bell that still hangs above the door chiming frequently enough to be background music to the entrance of every trick-or-treater.
Keeping in the spirit of the holidays, Sehun dresses up in costume too, putting his pale complexion and convenient set of false canines to use, fashioning a cape out of two of his mother’s old black and red nylon skirts to complete his ghoulish vampire look. His mother did not hesitate to shoot him down the previous day, when he had asked her if he could wear the getup for his entire shift (“The other customers will feel uncomfortable!” she had said), so he’s forced to rush to the back between the end of the busy lunch hour and the start of children beginning to be dismissed from school.
By that point, Sehun gets so busy with the influx of trick-or-treaters, the only thing that brings him to a screeching halt from automated response of dropping a small pre-made candy bag with an Oh! Sweets business card tucked safely inside, is an older, much deeper voice calling out the familiar Halloween greeting:
“Trick or Treat.”
Sehun rises slowly, trying to get a good look at the feet on the opposite side of the register before he’s standing up to his full height. His instinct tells him to be wary in case this weirdo was trying to rob him, (of candy, money, who knows). But a couple of weeks ago, Sehun’s instinct had also told him to drink the milk in his refrigerator at home to see if it was still good instead of simply looking for the expiration date on the carton. Needless to say, that had been a horribly bad decision, and Sehun is a little more willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt when he spots another pair of legs in white stockings and pink ballet slippers laced up to the knee hovering behind his.
Looking up, he’s face to face with an extremely gorgeous man and a little girl clinging tightly to his back. The man doesn’t quite look old enough to be her father, considering she’s looks to be about only 9 or 10 years old herself, but if he’s escorting her in her Halloween festivities, they’re obviously pretty close.
“For my sister,” he says, gesturing to the timid little girl behind him as if he could read Sehun’s mind. “She’s a little shy.”
Sehun nods at him, probably taking a bit longer than he should to admire his bone structure; a sharp jawline with a modest chin and cheekbones that girls probably hate him for, not complete without his pale lips that seem to pout on their own, regardless of expression. And his hair, coiffed just enough to keep small flyaway strands from hanging down in his face. And his complexion, colored with a touch of honey brown as if he arrived at the shop straight off a plane from the beaches of Bermuda. And all of his face, simply as a whole…there’s something familiar about his face but Sehun doesn’t quite have the leisure to continue looking to ease the nervousness coiling in his stomach, breaking his staring before it gets weird to lean over the counter towards his younger sister.
“You’re the prettiest fairy I’ve seen all day,” Sehun compliments, taking in the glitter over her clothes and pink chiffon wings attached snugly to her back by a cleverly concealed wire frame underneath. The compliment is quiet enough for only her to hear, but it does the trick. She beams, holding out the candy bag she had been hiding behind her back for Sehun to add to the already growing stash.
Her older brother looks between the two of them, eyes widened in what is unmistakably shock. He looks at Sehun with a sly grin, gently patting the top of his sister’s head with a flat palm. “How did you do that? She hasn’t gotten her own candy all day.”
“Mind control,” Sehun explains simply. “Haven’t you watched a vampire movie before? They’re pretty accurate.”
The other laughs and Sehun is glad that he said what he did, feeling rewarded by his amusement.
“So, what’s your costume?” Sehun asks, insistent on getting in as much conversation as possible before they leave. Something about the man strikes him as too familiar to just let their interaction slide before Sehun can figure it out. In his head, he urges himself not to sound too eager; with the fangs, the faster he spoke, the more of a lisp he would have.
Again, Sehun is met by a look of surprise once more. “What makes you think I’m dressed up?” he challenges, raising a questioning eyebrow at him. “But if you really need to know, I’m dressed up as a responsible teenager.”
When Sehun doesn’t have a comeback, (that leaves out the phrase “your mom” of course), taking a long pause, the man flushes pinker than his sisters costume, waving a hand.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, rocking on his heels embarrassedly. “That was rude.”
Sehun pays no mind, leaning back over to grab another candy bag from the box sitting behind the counter, holding it gently between two fingers by its twist tie. Really, as long as he got to talk to this handsome stranger for as long as possible, he could care less about the growing line of impatient children behind the siblings at the counter. “Want one?”
He shakes his head, putting up a hand to stop Sehun politely. “I’m not a huge fan of chocolate, honestly. It’s bad for my skin.”
“Then how about one of these instead,” Sehun offers, holding up a handful of lollipops he had stashed behind the register in the off chance a child with a chocolate allergy wanted to take part in the holiday festivities.
The girl’s brother eyes them for a moment, looking at them with a glint in his eyes that Sehun can’t quite place before reaching his hand out to take the only blood red one in the bunch. Pomegranate. He tips it towards Sehun in thanks, taking a moment to unwrap it before starting to enjoy it, fitting it into his mouth in the space between his teeth and the inside of his cheek.
“By the way,” he says, momentarily removing the lollipop out of his mouth to spin it between his fingers, leaning slightly closer than Sehun thinks is necessary for casual conversation. “Those fangs you’ve got there? They fit you, yanno, they bring out your lisp.”
Sehun isn’t really sure that the comment about his fangs (or his lisp for that matter) is a compliment, but the burning in his cheeks as the other turns to leave, an arm circled protectively around his sister’s shoulders, tell him otherwise.
Once the day is over, and the trick-or-treaters have stopped arriving in drones, as is per the norm, Sehun is left to clean up shop. Luckily, there isn’t much for him to do, considering that everyone had come in only for the free candy; Sehun thinks that only fools buy candy on Halloween if they aren’t giving it out to kids. He picks up the broom balanced against a shelf towards the register and begins to sweep, collecting the bits and dust and debris from the outside in a neat little pile to be disposed of
This time of day is always the loneliest for Sehun. It’s definitely different from the days that he could hear his mother typing away at her calculator from the back room, now that he’s old enough to be there on his own. He can almost hear the clacking of his mother’s shoes against the hardwood floor as if she was going to come to the front to get him so that they could walk home together. But, he also knows that it’s all in his head, the memories of spending quality time with his family at the shop exchanged without his permission for a bigger business and more money. And Sehun is alone.
“Um, hello?”
Or so he thinks.
“Glad I caught you before you closed up,” says a familiar voice, letting the door close behind him. Really, Sehun can’t help but be slightly ashamed that he’s able to recognize the voice from earlier that day. Turning around, he sees that he’s right, and it is indeed the older brother of the girl dressed as a fairy that he had complimented during the rush of trick-or-treaters, standing in the doorway. He shakes head quickly, maybe to avoid looking Sehun directly in the eye after catching him off guard, but more likely because of the white flakes sticking in his now mussed hair and around his eyelashes.
“Snow,” he explains, noticing Sehun’s blatant attention to his hair and gestures towards it. “I think there’s a storm or something…but it’s the strangest thing. I’ve never seen snow so early in the season before.”
Sehun nods quietly, not trusting himself to do much else, but after a minute, he finds his voice. “What can I help you with?” He leans the broom back against the shelves, giving his “customer” his full attention.
“I don’t think you remember me from earlier,” the other starts. “But I came in before with a little girl-”
“Dressed as a pink fairy, right?” Sehun finishes all too quickly. He can feel his palms getting sweaty, suddenly remembering that he still had his vampire cape tied around his neck in his nervousness, before pulling it off, hoping the other hadn’t noticed yet.
“Yeah, that’s my sister.” He pauses for a moment, trying to remember what he wants to say next. “I came back to ask if you had any more of those lollipops you gave me earlier. If you don’t mind, I’d like to buy you out of them.”
Sehun stops gaping long enough, not only out of shock that the handsome stranger is back, but out of the fact that he wants to buy all the lollipops that usually everyone but Sehun refuses to touch. “Organic” products weren’t always appealing to the average person. However, he does as he’s asked, going to the back and returning with the only sealed, giant 20 pound bag of organic lollipops, placing it on the counter to be rung up.
“You must’ve really liked it then,” Sehun comments, taking the other’s credit card as its offered to him, swiping it through the appropriate machine.
He nods slightly in reply, poking a hold into the plastic of the bag while Sehun finishes ringing up the transaction. “I did. You actually gave me my favorite flavor…”
Sehun returns the credit card, receipt pressed over it as he passes it back to the other, who pockets it promptly. “I had no idea.”
“Lucky guess then?” A smile spreads across the stranger’s face, even though Sehun is fairly certain it was meant as a question. Damn those social cues again.
“I guess it was,” Sehun replies.
With a curt nod, not for a moment losing his smile, the stranger picks up the bag, heaving it over his shoulder with the side pierced with the hole facing upward. He stops midway to the exit, turning back around to face Sehun.
“I think I owe you these.”
For once in his life, Sehun is grateful for his fast reflexes. He catches the two objects that come at him, spinning through the air before they can hit something that has the potential to break. Upon inspection, he sees that the objects are two lollipops; one lemon and one pomegranate.
It hits Sehun after he realizes that the stranger is long gone and he rushes to see the name on the copy of the receipt, unsurprised when the cardholder’s name reads: Jongin Kim.
After a long night of arguing, reprimanding , and beating himself up, all Sehun wants to do is spend his day in his room, because after everything, he still does not think he’s cut out for mornings. It sure as hell seems like he can barely function in the dead of night, even if he did beat his own zombie kill streak on one of the many dubious Xbox games he owns around 3am. He tries to play it sick, going the whole nine yards to try and convince his mother that he’s just not up to going in, but as expected, he doesn’t think things all the way thorough. (“Your skin is always that pale, those red eyes are from being up too late without enough sleep, and if you really had a fever of 109°F, you’d be in a coma.”)
She tells him to stop sulking, man up, and face whatever it is he’s trying to hide from.
But as Sehun closes his eyes and slams his head repeatedly against the granite counter that the register sits on, he knows that he’s not the one who’s hiding. Its Jongin that won’t face him, apparently, unless he knows that Sehun will have no way of tracking him down once he does. Although, Sehun does play around with the idea that he could use his credit card information from the transaction to get to Jongin. Eventually, he quietly pushes it aside because not only will he seem like a stalker, but he’s pretty sure that its more than just a toe over the line of what’s legal and what’s not.
Sehun is just glad that it’s a slow day because that way he can wallow in self-pity without anyone bothering him to buy something or-
“You’re slacking,” a deep voice whispers somewhere close to where Sehun thinks his ear should be. (Maybe he banged his head one too many times…)
“Jongin,” he murmurs quietly, looking up from the counter, his face mere inches away from Jongin’s.
“Took you long enough,” he says with a quiet chuckle, eyes on Sehun’s lips, and Sehun may be a little stupid, but he knows what Jongin wants.
And that something is a something that Sehun hadn’t known he wanted back when they were kids, sharing lollipops and stories and running around tidying up candy jars or sitting and waiting for their hot chocolate to be cool enough to drink without scalding their tongues. He didn’t know he wanted it yesterday when Jongin had showed up at the store with his sister and teased him about his lisp or when he had come back later to make a huge purchase of candy that, (now that Sehun thought about it), there was no way he could finish on his own. Sehun could only laugh at himself because he and Jongin had grown up to realize they’ve always been in love, just like those best friends in the dramas.
Jongin leans in, but before he can meet Sehun’s lips, he comes in contact with his balled fist, stumbling back slightly. Now, Sehun is the one to bite his lip, looking at Jongin, mildly conflicted.
“Where did you disappear to?” he hears himself ask.
“When I was around here so often, it’s because my parents, my sister and I were living with my grandmother. All circumstances aside, by time we had our place back, my mom kept me too wrapped up in schoolwork to do anything but eat, study, and sleep.”
There’s a pause when Sehun finds he has no good reason to be upset at Jongin anymore.
“You’re weird. I like you.”
And this time, Sehun lets Jongin kiss him.
a/n: this was originally for natsudive posted here for the sncj secret santa exchange. we won't talk about how many nights i went sleepless in the process of writing it.