Of Suits, Spotlights, and First Times [1b/4]
Title: Of Suits, Spotlights, and First Times (Written for Prompt 024: Spotlight)
Pairing(s): Kyuhyun/Sungmin, Hankyung/Heechul, Eunhyuk/Donghae, various Super Junior/girls pairings
Genre: High School!AU, fluff, romance, minor angst
Rating: PG-13
chapters: 1a. 1b.
ch.1b ;; 2957w
Of Suits, Spotlights, and First Times
Although Ryeowook had been his best friend before Sungmin even came into the picture, the diminutive boy always proves teasingly cruel to Kyuhyun whenever he initially approaches him asking and borderline pleading for advice. He supposes he deserves it, because, since childhood, his life's work has always been to troll Ryeowook to the best of his ability.
Hence the reason Ryeowook and Sungmin get along swimmingly and he is always speedy to help him, while with Kyuhyun, the younger needs to make a bit of a fool of himself before Ryeowook gives in and relays to him advice that could either be worthy of his obligatory shaming, or complete and utter bull shit that makes him want to feed Ryeowook to hungry lions.
He's hoping against hope that Ryeowook is in an acquiescing mood when he finds him, sleeves rolled to the elbows and his hands covered with flour, in the school's student kitchen molding a shapeless blob of dough into a masterpiece that Kyuhyun is already looking forward to possibly devouring. To Kyuhyun's disappointment, however, there's another boy sharing the same space as Ryeowook, watching on with a pensive look on his puffy-cheeked face.
“Wookie-ah!” he announces himself, false airiness permeating his tone. “Who's the kid?” The boy looks dismayed at being addressed (or referenced) as such, lip curling but voice remaining silenced.
Ryeowook glares weakly. “Henli's not a kid! He's only a year younger than you!” He pounds at the dough with a fist. “He's a foreign exchange student so he doesn't speak Korean too well, so really he doesn't speak much at all.”
“Hey!” Henry protests, but is stopped by the presumed realization that he can't string an insult together. “I'm not that... bad,” he says sheepishly.
“How do you understand your lessons?” Kyuhyun asks, an eyebrow raised in question.
Henry shrugs. “Better at listening, I guess,” he answers slowly, eyes slitting with a large smile when he gets the sentence right.
Ryeowook giggles and musses the boy's head with a flour-coated hand, laughing harder when Henry yelps and attempts to dodge it (but not without a chunk of hair being covered with white powder). “I'm taking him under my wing,” he attests as seriously as he can through his cheek-splitting grin and rampant laughter. “I even got him a date to prom.”
Kyuhyun is rendered shocked - no, fucking flabbergasted. “Wookie, he's like ten. What noona likes guys younger than her by that much?”
Henry makes some garbled statement that is probably supposed to be an indignant I'm not ten that sounds like it's about fire and meerkats and jellyfish, while Ryeowook rolls his eyes and sighs.
“He's not ten, Kyuhyun-ah. And she's also a transfer, and a first year, but I pulled some strings and got them into prom,” he admits, smiling wryly.
Kyuhyun laughs dryly. “And by some strings, you mean you persuaded Sungmin to let them in, you sneaky little asswipe.”
“As much as I don't appreciate being called an asswipe, yes. Sungmin is those strings. Speaking of that much more amazing best friend,” he looks at Kyuhyun pointedly, “where is he?”
“Student council meeting,” he answers on reflex, blushing when Ryeowook smirks.
“Keeping tabs on your boyfriend?” he asks with a snort.
Kyuhyun nearly has a conniption when Henry squawks and reddens before smiling sheepishly. “Sorry,” Henry mutters, but is drowned out by Kyuhyun's impending hiss of fury.
“You can't just drop that in front of people we barely know! People I don't know at all!” he says, infuriated even further when Ryeowook rolls his eyes again and continues kneading the pie dough he has been working into shape.
“Henli,” he finally says, ignoring Kyuhyun's angered expression inches away from his own face. “You're okay with gay dudes, right?”
Henry's face burns with color again, but he nods. “Yeah it's cool with me. I thought all Korean guys were gay before anyway, since, you know, you grabbed my butt pretty, uh, firmly when we first met and then Siwon hyung kissed me on the cheek...” he trails off into red-faced silence, most likely deciding that Kyuhyun doesn't care about the hard time Henry had sorting out the sexualities of every man around him.
He doesn't.
Kyuhyun isn't any less angry, and makes to snatch his bag from the floor and leave so he can sulk over Ryeowook's stupidity a little and maybe get up the nerve to ask Siwon or Donghae for advice (even if it means confessing), but then Ryeowook stops him with a small cough. “You wanted something before. What was it?”
Kyuhyun grunts. “Don't feel like telling you anymore, since you can't be trusted, obviously.”
Ryeowook sniffs, and crinkles his eyes a bit, and then, he goes in for the kill.
He pouts.
Somehow, Ryeowook's pouts are ten times more lethal and beguiling than Sungmin's, even if Kyuhyun has had years and years of practice and time to build up an immunity, so it's with a heavy heart and a defeated sigh that Kyuhyun blurts out, “I want to take Sungmin to prom.”
Ryeowook freezes in his pie crafting motions to gaze up at Kyuhyun, almost as entranced as Other Girl was by Jessica, his mouth a perfect circle and eyes wide.
“You want to come out? Of the closet? Like be open with your gayness?”
Henry's hand fails in covering his mouth as he giggle-snorts; Kyuhyun shrugs, trying to appear more relaxed than he could ever truly be in this type of situation. “I suppose.”
“Wow, Kyuhyun-ah,” whistles Ryeowook, removing his hands from the dough and wiping them on his dirtied apron. “That's big. Have you thought about it enough?”
Kyuhyun takes a seat on the stool across from Ryeowook. Takes a deep breath. Lets it out. Sends Ryeowook such a nakedly panicked look that the other hastens to Kyuhyun's side of the table and is hugging him within seconds.
“Calm down, I know that look,” Ryeowook soothes, patting Kyuhyun's back in an allaying way. It helps a bit. “Just think it through calmly. Answer my questions. Do you love Sungmin hyung?”
Kyuhyun's heartbeat speeds up and his vision swims a little. “Of course. But we haven't...”
A nod. “I know, Sungmin would have told me so,” Ryeowook says softly, and Kyuhyun isn't even nettled at how much Sungmin must relate about him and their relationship to Ryeowook. “Do you want to risk belittlement and possible bullying for what you two have? All for the sake of being open?”
Kyuhyun thinks it over, a tad bit calmer but still coaxing his frayed nerves back to life. The desired image of him and Sungmin strolling hand-in-hand down the corridor, without the need to carefully hide how much he loves him from eyes that speak of suspicion of their skinship - skinship that often surpasses normal bounds - springs up behind tightly shut lids. He wants that image to be reality, and it frightens him. But the thought of not having it be real, tangible, frightens him even more.
“I... want to, Wookie,” he confesses, letting out a sharp breath, blinking. “For Sungmin... for me and him.”
“Kyuhyun and Sungmin,” Ryeowook says, and Kyuhyun feels him smile against his hair. “I know we will all support you. And that's what matters,” he murmurs, squeezing Kyuhyun before relinquishing his hold. He sends Kyuhyun a soft, loving smile. “Go. Hyung should be getting out of his student council thingy now. I'll save you a slice of pie. Apple,” he says, grinning now.
Kyuhyun shakily grins back and nods, feet hitting the floor as he jumps down from the stool. “Thanks, Wookie,” he says, returning the soft look as best as he can when he feels so misplaced and nervous. Ryeowook lightly shakes his head and waves him away, sparing him a twinkling eye before shifting a thumb-twiddling Henry back into the picture to teach him how to fold a crust properly, all to pass culinary. Kyuhyun bids Henry farewell before hitching his bag higher on his shoulder and leaving the room, frightened to see Sungmin, frightened to ask him to prom, frightened at how intensely a certain emotion is playing with his heart and head and body.
**
"So Ryeowook is nurturing some poor first year and you're indulging in him?" Kyuhyun asks, only faintly holding back a derisive laugh. They're walking to Sungmin's house, half a mile away from their high school, pinkies intertwined and swinging between them. Kyuhyun feels more at ease than he has felt all day, and he marvels how even just a tug on his smallest finger from Sungmin makes him feel effusive with warmth.
Sungmin snorts. "It's my last month of vice presidency. Might as well bend the rules a bit; live on the edge," he grins (cutely, in Kyuhyun's humble opinion), teeth glinting. "Plus, his date is Amber Liu. It's not like they're going to start getting buck wild in the middle of the dance floor and commence a grind train."
Kyuhyun does burst into laughter this time. "We should start a grind train, it being our last year and all. Go out with a bang," he jokes, bumping their shoulders lightly.
The older's grin dwindles down into a gentle smile. "Yeah. A bang."
Sensing a shift in Sungmin's mood, Kyuhyun tightens their pinkies and, despite a relatively close proximity to the school, lets his lips drift down to ghost a kiss across Sungmin's fringe-covered forehead.
Sungmin gasps. "Kyuhyun! We're still -"
He's quieted with a shush from his boyfriend. "Skinship," Kyuhyun says simply.
Sungmin blushes, eyes trained pointedly to the ground, his feet crossing over each other as he walked to avoid cracks in the sidewalk. Kyuhyun recognizes the pensive crease of Sungmin's brow, so he waits patiently, prolonging the silence with a steady, affectionate stare at Sungmin's face.
He's finally rewarded with a breathy sigh from the shorter boy and an unhooking of their pinkies in favor of an interlacing of their fingers, loosely gripped until Kyuhyun squeezes his hand.
"Skinship," Sungmin mutters.
Kyuhyun grins.
**
Kyuhyun drops his schoolbag the second they step foot in Sungmin's room, the warm hue of the light green walls and the familiar full size bed and pink quilts only strengthening his sense of tranquility. Following suit, Sungmin sighs happily at being home after a long day, thankfully one with no martial arts and only too much prom planning, and pads over to the bed in his socked feet glory.
Hesitantly, as he always does, he sits on the edge of the bed, eyes meeting Kyuhyun's with just the smallest dregs of invitation drifting to the glowing irises. Kyuhyun smiles. Walks over to the bed with a quickly racing heart. Hooks his fingers in the belt loops of Sungmin's slacks and smiles some more. Gently prying his hands away from his hips, Sungmin shimmies up the bed until his back is pressed against the numerous fluffy pillows propped up against the headboard, eyes telling Kyuhyun to follow; he does.
This is routine; Kyuhyun comes over after school; they toe off their shoes by the front door and silently walk up to Sungmin's bedroom; they innocently tease each other, all of their actions intimating that something sexual is about to commence, but then Kyuhyun crawls alongside where the smaller boy is sprawled out and gathers him in his arms, cuddling the stresses of the day away.
It's quiet, as it normally is as well. Bony arms cradle Sungmin to Kyuhyun's chest, Sungmin's soft hair tickling his nose as the younger circles soothing presses to his hips and stomach, Sungmin's unique scent - fruity, sweet shampoo mixed with a fresh and natural smell - wafting up to his nose. It is the embodiment of safety for both of them; the other has always been a personification of comfort, something that only strengthened with the addition of romance to their relationship in the beginning of the school year.
"You know," Sungmin starts, peering up at Kyuhyun, trying to see through his bangs, "I never would have thought we'd end up like this."
Kyuhyun hooks his leg over Sungmin's thigh, snuggling down further into the warm sheets. Only the heat of the intimacy is a notch higher on the thermometer, his skin prickling with it. Sungmin shivers when Kyuhyun drags his lips along the side of his face, mouthing lightly on his jaw, his eyes fluttering shut. "Me either," Kyuhyun murmurs, continuing his mouth's journey across the sloping line of Sungmin's neck, peppering kisses and licks in a variation that has Sungmin biting back a moan.
"Kyuhyun." Sungmin tries to push him away, but with little actual force behind the action. "I want to talk, not fool aro-" he yelps mid-word when Kyuhyun's teeth nip at his lobe before the younger withdraws with a pout.
"Minniee," he whines in what he hopes is an irresistibly endearing way, "But I want to kiss you right now, not talk," he continues, smiling sweetly while simultaneously toying with the topmost button of Sungmin's collared shirt.
"You're not cute. I don't want you to kiss me, so quit it," he mumbles, averting his flushed face.
"You're a liar," Kyuhyun counters, but nonetheless pillows his head against Sungmin's shoulder and settles for pulling Sungmin closer to him by the hips.
"Well, maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Sungmin replies quietly, his tone piquing Kyuhyun's concern. When he adjusts his neck so that he can look down at Sungmin, the older is gazing up at him with parted lips and heavy-lashed eyes, impenetrably dark and questioning. If it was possible, Kyuhyun would have happily and willingly drowned in those onyx-colored orbs. But the thought is stupid and unrealistic, so he bites his tongue and doesn't say anything lest he sound as in love as he feels.
He's startled when Sungmin suddenly shifts in his hold, propping himself up on his elbow, same inquisitive set to his expression. "I want to talk... can we?"
Wariness rises within him, but Kyuhyun combats the incoming tide. "Is it about... earlier?" he asks cautiously, pursing his lips.
Sungmin nods. "Kyuhyun -" he sits up just as suddenly as he had switched to his elevated position, scrabbling for Kyuhyun's hands, holding them tightly in his own and training his stare at them. "You know that if I wanted a date to prom, it would be you... right?"
The lack of eye contact is somehow unsettling to Kyuhyun, so it's with two light fingers that he tips Sungmin's chin up. "You know that I'd go with you even though I hate prom and dressing up and," he sneers to himself, "dancing."
Sungmin beams and chuckles. "You love dancing with me," he says with such self-assurance that Kyuhyun doesn't even have the heart to shoot him down.
"Fine, I do," he acquiesces, smiling at Sungmin's expression of pleasant surprise.
They stare at each other as the atmosphere returns to unsure silence, hands still clasped but the uneasiness of before returning.
"I... want to go to prom with you. Badly," Sungmin confesses, licking his lips briefly before glancing up into Kyuhyun's eyes. "But... I'm scared that my popularity," he scoffs bitterly, shaking his head remorsefully, "won't be enough to protect you, and you'll be bullied for being gay. I won't have to deal with it because I'll be gone but, you know... you would have to. And I don't want to put you through that. At all."
Kyuhyun feels touched beyond belief, eyes smoldering as they lock with Sungmin's sad ones and his own hand reaches up to cup Sungmin's warm cheek. "You don't have to worry about me," he says quietly but completely decisive in his words. "You only have one prom, and if you want us to go together -"
"Kyu, no, it's fine," Sungmin insists, sighing, "I don't want to make you the school's only gay kid come next year, and just the thought of you getting physically bullied... it scares me, okay? Kids can be cruel and thoughtless. Plus, your parents don't know. What if the school calls them if we were to break the mold and say a big 'fuck you' to society's expectations? We have to think these things through, Kyu-ah."
Kyuhyun exhales in frustration, but collapses against the pillows in defeat. Sungmin is right, he knows. Maybe he's just putting too much faith in their social positions in the caste system of high school and in the kindness of their peers. He scolds himself for his immature, childish hopes.
He feels most of his inner strife melt away when Sungmin molds his arms to Kyuhyun's waist and his chest to his curved side, head nestling on the junction between Kyuhyun's neck and shoulder. Sungmin dozes off after only a few silent minutes of resting against Kyuhyun; he's been working absurdly hard, Kyuhyun knows, to make prom as perfect and flawless as humanly possible. That's Sungmin; a perfectionist almost to a fault, but always selfless and considerate.
Kyuhyun tenderly scrutinizes Sungmin as he slumbers, taking in his soft features and plump lips and thickly lashed eyes, all perfectly stationary in repose. Blows a rogue strand of hair away from Sungmin's forehead. He'd suffer through anything just to outwardly be with this perfect human being.
"We're going to prom together whether you like it or not, Min-ah," he whispers, smiling to himself, cheek falling tiredly and resting atop Sungmin's dark-haired head before he falls asleep, resolve to come out as Sungmin's boyfriend following him into his dreams.
Pairing(s): Kyuhyun/Sungmin, Hankyung/Heechul, Eunhyuk/Donghae, various Super Junior/girls pairings
Genre: High School!AU, fluff, romance, minor angst
Rating: PG-13
chapters: 1a. 1b.
ch.1b ;; 2957w
Of Suits, Spotlights, and First Times
Although Ryeowook had been his best friend before Sungmin even came into the picture, the diminutive boy always proves teasingly cruel to Kyuhyun whenever he initially approaches him asking and borderline pleading for advice. He supposes he deserves it, because, since childhood, his life's work has always been to troll Ryeowook to the best of his ability.
Hence the reason Ryeowook and Sungmin get along swimmingly and he is always speedy to help him, while with Kyuhyun, the younger needs to make a bit of a fool of himself before Ryeowook gives in and relays to him advice that could either be worthy of his obligatory shaming, or complete and utter bull shit that makes him want to feed Ryeowook to hungry lions.
He's hoping against hope that Ryeowook is in an acquiescing mood when he finds him, sleeves rolled to the elbows and his hands covered with flour, in the school's student kitchen molding a shapeless blob of dough into a masterpiece that Kyuhyun is already looking forward to possibly devouring. To Kyuhyun's disappointment, however, there's another boy sharing the same space as Ryeowook, watching on with a pensive look on his puffy-cheeked face.
“Wookie-ah!” he announces himself, false airiness permeating his tone. “Who's the kid?” The boy looks dismayed at being addressed (or referenced) as such, lip curling but voice remaining silenced.
Ryeowook glares weakly. “Henli's not a kid! He's only a year younger than you!” He pounds at the dough with a fist. “He's a foreign exchange student so he doesn't speak Korean too well, so really he doesn't speak much at all.”
“Hey!” Henry protests, but is stopped by the presumed realization that he can't string an insult together. “I'm not that... bad,” he says sheepishly.
“How do you understand your lessons?” Kyuhyun asks, an eyebrow raised in question.
Henry shrugs. “Better at listening, I guess,” he answers slowly, eyes slitting with a large smile when he gets the sentence right.
Ryeowook giggles and musses the boy's head with a flour-coated hand, laughing harder when Henry yelps and attempts to dodge it (but not without a chunk of hair being covered with white powder). “I'm taking him under my wing,” he attests as seriously as he can through his cheek-splitting grin and rampant laughter. “I even got him a date to prom.”
Kyuhyun is rendered shocked - no, fucking flabbergasted. “Wookie, he's like ten. What noona likes guys younger than her by that much?”
Henry makes some garbled statement that is probably supposed to be an indignant I'm not ten that sounds like it's about fire and meerkats and jellyfish, while Ryeowook rolls his eyes and sighs.
“He's not ten, Kyuhyun-ah. And she's also a transfer, and a first year, but I pulled some strings and got them into prom,” he admits, smiling wryly.
Kyuhyun laughs dryly. “And by some strings, you mean you persuaded Sungmin to let them in, you sneaky little asswipe.”
“As much as I don't appreciate being called an asswipe, yes. Sungmin is those strings. Speaking of that much more amazing best friend,” he looks at Kyuhyun pointedly, “where is he?”
“Student council meeting,” he answers on reflex, blushing when Ryeowook smirks.
“Keeping tabs on your boyfriend?” he asks with a snort.
Kyuhyun nearly has a conniption when Henry squawks and reddens before smiling sheepishly. “Sorry,” Henry mutters, but is drowned out by Kyuhyun's impending hiss of fury.
“You can't just drop that in front of people we barely know! People I don't know at all!” he says, infuriated even further when Ryeowook rolls his eyes again and continues kneading the pie dough he has been working into shape.
“Henli,” he finally says, ignoring Kyuhyun's angered expression inches away from his own face. “You're okay with gay dudes, right?”
Henry's face burns with color again, but he nods. “Yeah it's cool with me. I thought all Korean guys were gay before anyway, since, you know, you grabbed my butt pretty, uh, firmly when we first met and then Siwon hyung kissed me on the cheek...” he trails off into red-faced silence, most likely deciding that Kyuhyun doesn't care about the hard time Henry had sorting out the sexualities of every man around him.
He doesn't.
Kyuhyun isn't any less angry, and makes to snatch his bag from the floor and leave so he can sulk over Ryeowook's stupidity a little and maybe get up the nerve to ask Siwon or Donghae for advice (even if it means confessing), but then Ryeowook stops him with a small cough. “You wanted something before. What was it?”
Kyuhyun grunts. “Don't feel like telling you anymore, since you can't be trusted, obviously.”
Ryeowook sniffs, and crinkles his eyes a bit, and then, he goes in for the kill.
He pouts.
Somehow, Ryeowook's pouts are ten times more lethal and beguiling than Sungmin's, even if Kyuhyun has had years and years of practice and time to build up an immunity, so it's with a heavy heart and a defeated sigh that Kyuhyun blurts out, “I want to take Sungmin to prom.”
Ryeowook freezes in his pie crafting motions to gaze up at Kyuhyun, almost as entranced as Other Girl was by Jessica, his mouth a perfect circle and eyes wide.
“You want to come out? Of the closet? Like be open with your gayness?”
Henry's hand fails in covering his mouth as he giggle-snorts; Kyuhyun shrugs, trying to appear more relaxed than he could ever truly be in this type of situation. “I suppose.”
“Wow, Kyuhyun-ah,” whistles Ryeowook, removing his hands from the dough and wiping them on his dirtied apron. “That's big. Have you thought about it enough?”
Kyuhyun takes a seat on the stool across from Ryeowook. Takes a deep breath. Lets it out. Sends Ryeowook such a nakedly panicked look that the other hastens to Kyuhyun's side of the table and is hugging him within seconds.
“Calm down, I know that look,” Ryeowook soothes, patting Kyuhyun's back in an allaying way. It helps a bit. “Just think it through calmly. Answer my questions. Do you love Sungmin hyung?”
Kyuhyun's heartbeat speeds up and his vision swims a little. “Of course. But we haven't...”
A nod. “I know, Sungmin would have told me so,” Ryeowook says softly, and Kyuhyun isn't even nettled at how much Sungmin must relate about him and their relationship to Ryeowook. “Do you want to risk belittlement and possible bullying for what you two have? All for the sake of being open?”
Kyuhyun thinks it over, a tad bit calmer but still coaxing his frayed nerves back to life. The desired image of him and Sungmin strolling hand-in-hand down the corridor, without the need to carefully hide how much he loves him from eyes that speak of suspicion of their skinship - skinship that often surpasses normal bounds - springs up behind tightly shut lids. He wants that image to be reality, and it frightens him. But the thought of not having it be real, tangible, frightens him even more.
“I... want to, Wookie,” he confesses, letting out a sharp breath, blinking. “For Sungmin... for me and him.”
“Kyuhyun and Sungmin,” Ryeowook says, and Kyuhyun feels him smile against his hair. “I know we will all support you. And that's what matters,” he murmurs, squeezing Kyuhyun before relinquishing his hold. He sends Kyuhyun a soft, loving smile. “Go. Hyung should be getting out of his student council thingy now. I'll save you a slice of pie. Apple,” he says, grinning now.
Kyuhyun shakily grins back and nods, feet hitting the floor as he jumps down from the stool. “Thanks, Wookie,” he says, returning the soft look as best as he can when he feels so misplaced and nervous. Ryeowook lightly shakes his head and waves him away, sparing him a twinkling eye before shifting a thumb-twiddling Henry back into the picture to teach him how to fold a crust properly, all to pass culinary. Kyuhyun bids Henry farewell before hitching his bag higher on his shoulder and leaving the room, frightened to see Sungmin, frightened to ask him to prom, frightened at how intensely a certain emotion is playing with his heart and head and body.
**
"So Ryeowook is nurturing some poor first year and you're indulging in him?" Kyuhyun asks, only faintly holding back a derisive laugh. They're walking to Sungmin's house, half a mile away from their high school, pinkies intertwined and swinging between them. Kyuhyun feels more at ease than he has felt all day, and he marvels how even just a tug on his smallest finger from Sungmin makes him feel effusive with warmth.
Sungmin snorts. "It's my last month of vice presidency. Might as well bend the rules a bit; live on the edge," he grins (cutely, in Kyuhyun's humble opinion), teeth glinting. "Plus, his date is Amber Liu. It's not like they're going to start getting buck wild in the middle of the dance floor and commence a grind train."
Kyuhyun does burst into laughter this time. "We should start a grind train, it being our last year and all. Go out with a bang," he jokes, bumping their shoulders lightly.
The older's grin dwindles down into a gentle smile. "Yeah. A bang."
Sensing a shift in Sungmin's mood, Kyuhyun tightens their pinkies and, despite a relatively close proximity to the school, lets his lips drift down to ghost a kiss across Sungmin's fringe-covered forehead.
Sungmin gasps. "Kyuhyun! We're still -"
He's quieted with a shush from his boyfriend. "Skinship," Kyuhyun says simply.
Sungmin blushes, eyes trained pointedly to the ground, his feet crossing over each other as he walked to avoid cracks in the sidewalk. Kyuhyun recognizes the pensive crease of Sungmin's brow, so he waits patiently, prolonging the silence with a steady, affectionate stare at Sungmin's face.
He's finally rewarded with a breathy sigh from the shorter boy and an unhooking of their pinkies in favor of an interlacing of their fingers, loosely gripped until Kyuhyun squeezes his hand.
"Skinship," Sungmin mutters.
Kyuhyun grins.
**
Kyuhyun drops his schoolbag the second they step foot in Sungmin's room, the warm hue of the light green walls and the familiar full size bed and pink quilts only strengthening his sense of tranquility. Following suit, Sungmin sighs happily at being home after a long day, thankfully one with no martial arts and only too much prom planning, and pads over to the bed in his socked feet glory.
Hesitantly, as he always does, he sits on the edge of the bed, eyes meeting Kyuhyun's with just the smallest dregs of invitation drifting to the glowing irises. Kyuhyun smiles. Walks over to the bed with a quickly racing heart. Hooks his fingers in the belt loops of Sungmin's slacks and smiles some more. Gently prying his hands away from his hips, Sungmin shimmies up the bed until his back is pressed against the numerous fluffy pillows propped up against the headboard, eyes telling Kyuhyun to follow; he does.
This is routine; Kyuhyun comes over after school; they toe off their shoes by the front door and silently walk up to Sungmin's bedroom; they innocently tease each other, all of their actions intimating that something sexual is about to commence, but then Kyuhyun crawls alongside where the smaller boy is sprawled out and gathers him in his arms, cuddling the stresses of the day away.
It's quiet, as it normally is as well. Bony arms cradle Sungmin to Kyuhyun's chest, Sungmin's soft hair tickling his nose as the younger circles soothing presses to his hips and stomach, Sungmin's unique scent - fruity, sweet shampoo mixed with a fresh and natural smell - wafting up to his nose. It is the embodiment of safety for both of them; the other has always been a personification of comfort, something that only strengthened with the addition of romance to their relationship in the beginning of the school year.
"You know," Sungmin starts, peering up at Kyuhyun, trying to see through his bangs, "I never would have thought we'd end up like this."
Kyuhyun hooks his leg over Sungmin's thigh, snuggling down further into the warm sheets. Only the heat of the intimacy is a notch higher on the thermometer, his skin prickling with it. Sungmin shivers when Kyuhyun drags his lips along the side of his face, mouthing lightly on his jaw, his eyes fluttering shut. "Me either," Kyuhyun murmurs, continuing his mouth's journey across the sloping line of Sungmin's neck, peppering kisses and licks in a variation that has Sungmin biting back a moan.
"Kyuhyun." Sungmin tries to push him away, but with little actual force behind the action. "I want to talk, not fool aro-" he yelps mid-word when Kyuhyun's teeth nip at his lobe before the younger withdraws with a pout.
"Minniee," he whines in what he hopes is an irresistibly endearing way, "But I want to kiss you right now, not talk," he continues, smiling sweetly while simultaneously toying with the topmost button of Sungmin's collared shirt.
"You're not cute. I don't want you to kiss me, so quit it," he mumbles, averting his flushed face.
"You're a liar," Kyuhyun counters, but nonetheless pillows his head against Sungmin's shoulder and settles for pulling Sungmin closer to him by the hips.
"Well, maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Sungmin replies quietly, his tone piquing Kyuhyun's concern. When he adjusts his neck so that he can look down at Sungmin, the older is gazing up at him with parted lips and heavy-lashed eyes, impenetrably dark and questioning. If it was possible, Kyuhyun would have happily and willingly drowned in those onyx-colored orbs. But the thought is stupid and unrealistic, so he bites his tongue and doesn't say anything lest he sound as in love as he feels.
He's startled when Sungmin suddenly shifts in his hold, propping himself up on his elbow, same inquisitive set to his expression. "I want to talk... can we?"
Wariness rises within him, but Kyuhyun combats the incoming tide. "Is it about... earlier?" he asks cautiously, pursing his lips.
Sungmin nods. "Kyuhyun -" he sits up just as suddenly as he had switched to his elevated position, scrabbling for Kyuhyun's hands, holding them tightly in his own and training his stare at them. "You know that if I wanted a date to prom, it would be you... right?"
The lack of eye contact is somehow unsettling to Kyuhyun, so it's with two light fingers that he tips Sungmin's chin up. "You know that I'd go with you even though I hate prom and dressing up and," he sneers to himself, "dancing."
Sungmin beams and chuckles. "You love dancing with me," he says with such self-assurance that Kyuhyun doesn't even have the heart to shoot him down.
"Fine, I do," he acquiesces, smiling at Sungmin's expression of pleasant surprise.
They stare at each other as the atmosphere returns to unsure silence, hands still clasped but the uneasiness of before returning.
"I... want to go to prom with you. Badly," Sungmin confesses, licking his lips briefly before glancing up into Kyuhyun's eyes. "But... I'm scared that my popularity," he scoffs bitterly, shaking his head remorsefully, "won't be enough to protect you, and you'll be bullied for being gay. I won't have to deal with it because I'll be gone but, you know... you would have to. And I don't want to put you through that. At all."
Kyuhyun feels touched beyond belief, eyes smoldering as they lock with Sungmin's sad ones and his own hand reaches up to cup Sungmin's warm cheek. "You don't have to worry about me," he says quietly but completely decisive in his words. "You only have one prom, and if you want us to go together -"
"Kyu, no, it's fine," Sungmin insists, sighing, "I don't want to make you the school's only gay kid come next year, and just the thought of you getting physically bullied... it scares me, okay? Kids can be cruel and thoughtless. Plus, your parents don't know. What if the school calls them if we were to break the mold and say a big 'fuck you' to society's expectations? We have to think these things through, Kyu-ah."
Kyuhyun exhales in frustration, but collapses against the pillows in defeat. Sungmin is right, he knows. Maybe he's just putting too much faith in their social positions in the caste system of high school and in the kindness of their peers. He scolds himself for his immature, childish hopes.
He feels most of his inner strife melt away when Sungmin molds his arms to Kyuhyun's waist and his chest to his curved side, head nestling on the junction between Kyuhyun's neck and shoulder. Sungmin dozes off after only a few silent minutes of resting against Kyuhyun; he's been working absurdly hard, Kyuhyun knows, to make prom as perfect and flawless as humanly possible. That's Sungmin; a perfectionist almost to a fault, but always selfless and considerate.
Kyuhyun tenderly scrutinizes Sungmin as he slumbers, taking in his soft features and plump lips and thickly lashed eyes, all perfectly stationary in repose. Blows a rogue strand of hair away from Sungmin's forehead. He'd suffer through anything just to outwardly be with this perfect human being.
"We're going to prom together whether you like it or not, Min-ah," he whispers, smiling to himself, cheek falling tiredly and resting atop Sungmin's dark-haired head before he falls asleep, resolve to come out as Sungmin's boyfriend following him into his dreams.