[ikon: jinhwan/junhwe] soft taste of soft serve
title: soft taste of soft serve
fandom: ikon
pairing: jinhwan/junhwe
word count: 5,567
a/n: so i only finished kalopsia has been bothering me to finish a junhwan fic for months. this was originally a headcanon discussed with concordances and was hers originally as well, back in january, when ikon was actually alive and active. here i am, finally owing up to junhwan.
soft taste of soft serve
when donghyuk and yunhyeong first break the news to him, junhwe stands in the middle of the doorway, mouth agape and completely shell-shocked. somewhere in his mind he registers that the groceries are no longer in his hand.
“my soda,” donghyuk moans as he watches the liquid spill on the kitchen floor, mouth in a hard-pressed line that could rival his mother’s.
it takes junhwe a few minutes of opening and closing his mouth until he can finally form words. “what?”
“we set up an online dating profile for you,” donghyuk says a bit too calmly.
“technically it was just donghyuk,” yunhyeong adds from the other room. “i didn’t set it up.”
“you guys did what?” junhwe doesn’t screech, and now he’s back to opening and closing his mouth again. and to think that his day had been going so very well until this point.
“oh please,” donghyuk scoffs, “you were the one who photoshopped his school picture so it actually looked decent.”
“come again?”
“since you’ve been moping around more than usual lately, we decided to take the liberty of making an online dating profile for you.” donghyuk sips his orange juice and junhwe wonders why he ever became friends with him.
then, he remembers that he didn’t actually become friends with donghyuk, but donghyuk forced his friendship on him during their first group project in the beginning of high school.
“i don’t believe you,” junhwe glares at donghyuk and marches over to the couch where yunhyeong is lying with his computer and snatches it up.
“hey!” yunhyeong frowns at him as he follows junhwe to the kitchen table. junhwe raises an eyebrow at the video he has playing and yunhyeong flushes red in response. “there’s nothing wrong with watching an anime about volleyball, it’s not as though you can play that well either.”
“i can so play well,” he miffs and turns the computer towards donghyuk. donghyuk pulls up the website and junhwe snatches the computer from him.
“careful, that’s expensive,” yunhyeong warns.
“you guys did not,” junhwe puts down the computer and slumps down onto the nearest chair, which unfortunately happens to be next to donghyuk. he stares at the webpage in horror, with the terrible advertisements flashing on the side.
“the description was yunhyeong’s work too,” donghyuk nods at his profile, radiating content. junhwe is completely and utterly disgusted.
“please tell me this isn’t real.” he pinches his arm and glares at it when he’s only left with a bruising red mark. “i’m going to wake up from a dream and i’ll be right where i’ve fallen asleep in class.”
donghyuk pats his back comfortingly. “it’s real.”
“why are you guys in my house?” junhwe asks, narrowing his eyes as the realization dawns that he never let them into his house.
“you ask this now?” donghyuk raises an eyebrow at him, continuing to sip his orange juice. (technically, a voice that sounds too much like yunhyeong’s pops up, it’s his orange juice.) “you’re mom let us in,” he tells him and junhwe fixes him with a stare, “okay, we actually know where your spare key is?”
junhwe hates his friends, if they can even be called that. “i hate you,” he tells him.
“love you too,” donghyuk pats his arm as junhwe sends him the dirtiest, most scathing look possible.
“also,” and junhwe snaps up from where he had been lying on the kitchen table, contemplating his bad life decisions and even worse friends, to look at yunhyeong. “you may or may not have a date tomorrow as well?”
“oh my god,” junhwe says in horror and he decides to ignore the amused look on donghyuk’s face for once. he reaches over to snatch the computer again but donghyuk stops him by snapping the cover shut.
“you can’t see who it is until you go on the date with them.” donghyuk sniffs into the air as he observes his nail.
“what donghyuk means is that we don’t actually know who you’re going out with.” at least yunhyeong has some loyalty to him, albeit very little.
“i thought you guys were supposed to be more responsible than i am, isn’t that the whole point of why we’re friends.” junhwe faceplants into the table, nose becoming squished in the process. what had he ever done to deserve this? (okay, there might have been a few things such as the time in chemistry, but that wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for donghyuk).
“you see, you thought,” donghyuk begins, but cuts himself off when junhwe turns to give him an extremely unimpressed and displeased look. “four o’clock, the bakery that we always pass by on the way back from school. don’t be late.”
junhwe groans into the table.
“make sure to bring flowers,” yunhyeong adds.
“i need new friends,” junhwe moans. he hates his life.
he’s sitting down in the back corner of the bakery, ice cream parlor, whatever it is. fidgeting nervously, tugging at his sleeve (donghyuk had forced him to wear it, clicking his tongue distastefully as he went through his wardrobe the previous afternoon) and pulling out his phone for the forty-seventh time. it’s three forty-five and junhwe wonders if he’s arrived too early.
behind his back are the flowers and junhwe gingerly lays them on the obnoxiously yellow and blue tiled floor in hopes of not crushing them. he frowns, carefully nudging the flowers closer to the wall with his foot.
yunhyeong (3:46): are you there yet?
junhwe (3:47): i got here 15 minutes ago
junhwe (3:48): do you think i came too early????
yunhyeong (3:49): do you have the flowers
junhwe (3:49): YES DO I LEAVE THEM ON THE GROUND??
yunhyeong (3:50): why would you leave them on the ground.
yunhyeong (3:50): put them somewhere else NOT on the ground
junhwe (3:51): WHERE’S THAT?
junhwe (3:51): there’s no where else i can keep them?
junhwe (3:52): not where they wouldn’t see at least
yunhyeong (3:53): fine…keep them on the floor then
yunhyeong (3:55): make sure you give it to them though
yunhyeong (3:56): don’t forget to pull out the chair for them when they sit down
yunhyeong (3:56): also don’t forget to hold open the door as well
yunhyeong (3:57): and no matter what they say you’re paying
junhwe (3:58): why do i have to pay??
yunhyeong (3:58): because i said so
yunhyeong (3:59): MAKE SURE YOU GIVE THEM THE FLOWERS AND HOLD OPEN THE DOOR
yunhyeong (3:59): take their coat for them as well!!!!!!!!!
yunhyeong (4:00): and the most important part! to have fun :)
junhwe (4:00): its 4 and they aRENT HERE YET??
junhwe (4:00): OH GOD WHAT IF THEY NEVER COME
junhwe (4:00): what do i do
junhwe (4:00): why aren’t they here yet
junhwe (4:01): AM I JUST SUPPOSED TO SIT HERE??
junhwe (4:01): i hate you for making me do this
junhwe (4:02): what
junhwe (4:02): am
junhwe (4:02): i
junhwe (4:02): supposed
junhwe (4:03): to
junhwe (4:03): THEYRE HERE WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO
fumbling with his phone, junhwe hurriedly stuffs it into his jeans as a small figure makes their way up to the table. “sorry i’m late,” a soft voice says and junhwe can feel his throat drying up. “i had to make sure my dogs were being looked after properly.”
“that’s alright,” he doesn’t very nearly squeak out. he puts his hands up awkwardly, only to put them back down and wipe his palms against his thighs. hadn’t yunhyeong said something about taking his date’s jacket?
“my name is jinhwan, “ and there’s a soft smile directed at him and its then that junhwe knows he’s completely and utterly fucked.
the date starts off without a hitch. well, sort of, considering junhwe very nearly did trip over his untied shoelace while scrambling to pull the chair out from the table. jinhwan had just stood by the side, biting his lower lip and eyes scrunched up into crescents, which had only made junhwe more flustered.
“so uh,” junhwe scratches at his neck awkwardly and jinhwan looks up at him and he ends up opening his mouth then shutting it, flushing a slight red. he wipes his palms on his jeans and looks up at the light bulb, wondering why exactly this is his life. “my friends kind of made a dating profile for me and set up a date for me and forced me to come here,” he blurts out.
“same here,” jinhwan nods as he wrinkles his nose distastefully as he brings a small scoop of ice cream to his mouth.
“not that you aren’t a nice person or anything,” he quickly adds. “i’m not implying that you’re mean or anything. i think you’re nice. at least from the fifteen minutes we’ve been together so far.”
jinhwan has that amused look on his face again, like he’s trying to hold back a small laugh and junhwe wants to faint right then and there. “i pretty much figured it out when i saw the photoshopped profile picture.” junhwe slowly begins to sink down in his chair. “and ‘likes small, cute people.’” he slinks down even further.
“that was yunhyeong.” oh god he is going to kill them when he gets back home.
“also the fact that you actually requested to go on a date with someone who’s ideal type was ‘someone sexy who looks good in jeans’ but what else could i have expected from bobby.” junhwe’s changed his mind, now he wants nothing more than to disappear into a small puddle into the ground.
when they finish their ice cream, junhwe gets out of his chair a bit too quickly, metal scraping against the linoleum floor with a loud screech. he turns around, petrified, but jinhwan isn’t paying attention and is zipping up his jacket. he bounds to the door and leans against it.
“thanks,” jinhwan smiles at him as he walks out of the store and junhwe hadn’t realized how small the other boy isuntil now. well, fuck.
“yeah,” he mumbles, except it comes out more of a curt grumble.
they walk together side by side, and junhwe is trying not to notice how close their hands are. he eyes jinhwan’s hand out of the corner of his eye. yunhyeong didn’t tell him anything about holding hands, so he decides to stuff one hand in his pocket while letting the other one swing.
just before junhwe decides he’s had enough and is about to stuff his other hand in his pocket, there’s a light touch and he looks down to find jinhwan’s hand in his. (he tries not to notice how absolutely tiny it looks compared to his because that wouldn’t be good for his heart rate).
“it’s a date, so we should be holding hands,” jinhwan tells him and junhwe can feel his legs turning into mush.
“a date,” he says meekly. his face feels like it's on fire. “oh,” and this time he stops mid step, frowning. it’s a date, don’t forget to give them flowers, yunhyeong had said. “i forgot the flowers back at the store.”
he lets go of jinhwan’s hand and begins sprinting back to the ice cream store, ignoring the looks he gets as he weaves between the other pedestrians. junhwe almost knocks over some kid’s lemonade stand on the side. really who even does that anymore?
by the time he arrives at the shop he’s out of breath. he shoves open the door, ignoring the disapproving glare he gets from the person behind the counter, and makes his way over to the table. the flowers are still on the floor and junhwe does a small cheer inside his head,
“sorry,” he pants as he stands awkwardly in front of jinhwan, who relocated to a nearby bench. he has two hotdogs in his hand and offers one to junhwe. “um, these are for you,” he brings out the flowers from behind his back, most of the petals gone. “they weren’t as damaged as when i bought them.”
“i think they’re nice,” jinhwan’s voice comes out slightly muffled.
“how was your date?” donghyuk’s face pops up as soon as junhwe opens the door. “you’re smiling. yunhyeong, he’s smiling. you never smile, not at us,” he accuses.
“i am not smiling,” junhwe grumbles as he’s dragged by donghyuk to the living room.
donghyuk plops down on the couch next to yunhyeong, forcing junhwe to sit down in front of them. “spill. i want to know everything.”
“it went okay, i think.” he looks down and crosses his legs.
“did you hold open the door? did you pull out the chair?” yunhyeong asks. “i bet you forgot the flowers, didn’t you,” he accuses.
junhwe makes a noise in the back of his throat, “i remembered them. eventually.”
“what were they like?” donghyuk asks. “goo junhwe you have to tell me everything you just can’t say it was ‘okay’ and not tell me what happened.” he leans forward and punctuates each word with a jab to junhwe’s chest.
“his name was jinhwan,” he mumbles. junhwe has never been the extremely shy type but now looks awkwardly to the side instead of at his friends.
“see,” donghyuk nudges yunhyeong, “i told you it was going to be a success.”
and this is how junhwe ends up being cajoled into a second date with jinhwan, then a third, and then another time for a fourth.
“this is getting a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?” jinhwan remarks casually on their fourth date, this time at the dog park.
“it would be nice if donghyuk would stop pestering me,” he scrunches his face as he slides into the seat across from jinhwan.
“bobby keeps trying to meddle, it’s all hanbin can do to stop him from spying on our dates,” jinhwan huffs, exasperated.
“i wish there was a way to get back at them,” junhwe looks down and kicks at the woodchips beneath his feet. “or at least to get them off our backs for once.”
jinhwan’s eyebrows are furrowed and he looks thoughtful. turning around he says,. “we could date.”
“isn’t that what we’re right now? we are on a date right?”
“no. i mean yes we are on a date. what i meant was that we could pretend to date seriously.”
his foot falters for a moment. “so you mean we’re going to pretend to be in a relationship to get back at our mutually annoying meddlesome friends?”
jinhwan beams at him and because junhwe is weak, his heart soars (if only the tiniest bit). “yeah, exactly.”
“i didn’t know you had it in you,” he ignores the small twist of pain inside of his chest. “anything to get donghyuk and yunhyeong off my back.”
he’s pulled up from the bench by jinhwan who has his hand firmly clasped. junhwe can feel the slow flush creeping up the back of his neck. “if we’re going to pretend to be in a relationship, we first have to be comfortable holding each other’s hands,” jinhwan points out.
“oh,” he says, “right.” there’s something odd about the way the word pretend sits in his stomach but like most of his emotions, he ignores it.
“and it also means we have to be comfortable doing this,” jinhwan goes up on his tip toes to press a kiss to corner of junhwe’s lips. it’s quick and jinhwan’s lips are soft and junhwe turns around to start a small coughing fit. “it’s okay, we can work on that too,” jinhwan laughs.
junhwe’s entire body flushes red and he doesn’t stop coughing for a good ten minutes.
back in his first year of high school, when junhwe was on the basketball team, there was an extremely overbearing junior who he couldn’t stand. he still has horrific memories of the time they were accidentally left together in the locker room for five minutes.
he just didn’t expect that same overbearing junior to be one of jinhwan’s best friends.
when junhwe gets his informal introduction to bobby and hanbin, he’s irritated, to say the least. so maybe he should have realized that the bobby of the basketball team and the bobby that was jinhwan’s best friend were the same person. there aren’t exactly too many people named bobby, and junhwe wonders what kind of terrible luck he has.
he finds himself jittery with his left eye twitching throughout the entire movie, to the point where jinhwan notices inside the dark theater.
“how long is he going to do that?” junhwe hisses to jinhwan halfway through the movie.
“do what?” jinhwan asks, eyes glued to the screen.
“that,” he gestures to bobby, seated a few rows behind them with an impassive stare that’s been boring its way through junhwe’s head. he’s not sure if this is better or not than last time, when he came home to find donghyuk crouching in the bushes whispering to yunhyeong.
as soon as they come out of the movie, bobby beelines for junhwe. he walks over in an annoying sort of manner, hands stuffed in his pockets. he slings an arm over his shoulder and junhwe tries to inch slowly away.
“um,” he says and looks desperately at jinhwan, who is unfortunately preoccupied.
bobby gives him a once over, then thankfully releases his shoulder. there’s a long period of silence and junhwe tries not to squirm. “i can’t believe jinhwan is dating you.”
i can’t believe jinhwan is best friends with you, junhwe doesn’t say. he furrows his eyebrows and scowls.
“leave the poor high schooler alone,” hanbin rolls his eyes as he walks over with jinhwan. junhwe moves next to jinhwan immediately. now he remembers why he never stayed in the same vicinity alone with bobby, despite being on the high school basketball team together for two years.
“sorry about that,” jinhwan apologizes once hanbin and bobby have left. “i would have given you a warning about bobby if i had known he and hanbin were going to secretly tag along.”
“they bought it though, right?” he asks, jinhwan untangling his hand from his.
“hanbin did,” jinhwan tells him as they walk down the street together. “so that means bobby will.”
their hands brush against one another and on impulse, junhwe reaches for jinhwan’s hand.
jinhwan’s step face falters a split second, but he regains his composure so quickly junhwe dismisses it as his imagination. “you don’t have to hold my hand now if you don’t want to anymore, not when there isn’t anyone here.”
“it’s for practice,” junhwe lies. to himself or to jinhwan, he’s not too sure.
the realization doesn’t come until their seventh date. or meeting. or some combination of the two, junhwe isn’t too sure. jinhwan is in the middle of talking, he has a smile on his face that makes junhwe’s stomach queasy and it doesn’t help that his eyes are practically sparkling as well.
“are you okay?” jinhwan’s voice ropes him back from his sudden epiphany. “you look distracted.”
junhwe shakes his head up and down vehemently. “i’m just fine,” he scrambles for the water and only ends up knocking it over the table instead, looking on in horror as the drink spills across the table. “sorry,” he doesn’t squeak.
“it’s fine,” jinhwan looks like he’s holding back another laugh, and junhwe rapidly dabs at the spill with his napkin. “i was full anyway.”
he ends up paying and jinhwan ends up walking him back home, their hands swinging back and forth, intertwined. (at least he can now proudly say that holding jinhwan’s hand doesn’t make him flustered anymore, only sweaty).
they stop right in front of junhwe’s house. from across the street, a curtain is pulled back slightly. a light flickers on and if he squints he can make out donghyuk’s silhouette. he’s begins to step inside, but jinhwan pulls on the side of his shirt.
“remember?” he asks and tilts his head up, gesturing to the sliver of light coming from donghyuk’s room.
“oh, right.” there’s an unsettling feeling in his stomach and he shifts his weight back and forth between his feet.
jinhwan’s lips are on his, one hand gently tugging his shirt so he’ll lean down while the other rests on his shoulder. he awkwardly places his hands on jinhwan’s arms and tries not to think too much about the soft feelings of his lips. when jinhwan pulls back, junhwe lets go of his arm only somewhat reluctantly.
“goodnight,” jinhwan tells him and junhwe is left a little bit breathless.
their relationship may be fake, but his feelings for jinhwan aren’t.
“i can’t believe you,” two large textbooks are dropped in front of him and he looks up to see donghyuk standing with his arms crossed, sour expression on his face.. “i can’t believe that you get a boyfriend and you don’t tell me, your best friend.”
“best friend?” he raises an eyebrow. the word boyfriend shouldn’t bring a warm feeling to junhwe’s chest, yet it does, and he has to remind himself that he and jinhwan aren’t actually in a relationship, only pretending to be in one.
“you have two friends,” donghyuk rolls his eyes, “me and yunhyeong. and apparently now a boyfriend. so yes, best friend.”
it’s a few minutes before something clicks in junhwe’s brain. “wait, if i didn’t tell you or yunhyeong then how’d you find out.”
“yunhyeong is friends with hanbin,” donghyuk says in his ‘where have you been all this time, everyone knows this’ voice. “and hanbin is friends with jinhwan, and jinhwan actually told his friend.”
“and your point of all this is?” junhwe raises an eyebrows as donghyuk huffs angrily.
throwing out his arms, donghyuk exclaims, “i’ve only been trying to help your pitiful love life since the beginning of high school. so yes, it’s very important to me that you suddenly have a boyfriend and you neglected to tell me.”
because junhwe is an incredible friend he grudgingly sighs, “what is it you really want, donghyuk?”
maybe he should be more scared of the grin donghyuk has on his face.
“why are you here?” junhwe snaps, opening the door to find bobby and hanbin on his front step.
“donghyuk invited me,” bobby offers with an easy grin, pushing his way past junhwe. he walks over to clasp a hand on donghyuk’s back and junhwe scowls.
junhwe can feel his head throbbing. he rubs at his temples and lets out a long exhale as he reminds himself that this is all for the greater good. he’s not sure how donghyuk convinced him into inviting jinhwan over. (actually he’s not too sure how donghyuk convinced him to go on the date in the first place). he had said something about “bonding” time and junhwe isn’t too sure how that escalated into inviting bobby and hanbin overas well.
donghyuk, much to junhwe’s extreme displeasure, instantly hits it off with bobby. there’s a sort of sparkle in his eyes whenever he looks at him, and bobby, of course, eats it all up.
“i can’t believe your friends are stealing my friends,” he whispers grouchily to into jinhwan’s neck as he plops down onto the couch beside him, circling his arms around jinhwan’s smaller frame. he tells himself that the only reason he does so if because jinhwan needs someone to pretend to be his boyfriend, and not because he likes him.
jinhwan shakes his head with a small smile on his face, patting his thigh comfortingly, turning back to face the television screen.
“oh my god,” donghyuk whispers conspiratorially to yunhyeong. “they’re cuddling, yunhyeong, cuddling.”
junhwe flushes, burying his head further into jinhwan’s neck to hide his blush. “when will this be over,” he moans as he attempts to tune out donghyuk’s increasingly loud undignified squawks.
“yeah, that’s what couples do, donghyuk,” he hears yunhyeong say. “they cuddle.” he can hear someone snickering and the snap of a camera, junhwe is absolutely mortified.
jinhwan turns around to press a small kiss to junhwe’s cheek and this time his entire face is in flames.
“he kissed him yunhyeong, kissed him.”
after two weeks of what donghyuk deems the ‘cuddlefest’, junhwe’s friends slowly begin to stop meddling. donghyuk no longer drills him for details every date, and yunhyeong no longer texts him relationship advice at odd times ofthe day. part of junhwe feels bad for duping his friends, but the other part remembers that they still haven’t deleted his dating profile.
he fidgets nervously at the thought of this, and jinhwan peers up at him. “we should break up,” jinhwan says, shifting so his back is straighter.
“what?” junhwe asks, unsure if he heard correctly.
“we should break up,” jinhwan repeats, face impassive as he looks him in the eye.
“why?” junhwe’s voice cracks slightly at the end.
“there isn’t really any reason for us to pretend to be together,” jinhwan tells him quietly as he stares down into his drink. “neither of us are being bothered by our friends anymore, so there’s no point in meeting anymore, either.”
“oh.” there’s a sinking feeling inside of junhwe’s chest and he clenches his fists, thankful that jinhwan can’t see them under the table. they’re shaking and his knuckles are white. “okay then.”
“junhwe,” there’s an edge of desperation to jinhwan’s voice and he sounds like he’s berating him. it makes him feel small and insignificant, and if there’s anything goo junhwe loathes it’s feeling small and insignificant.
“no, i get it,” he grits his teeth. “we don’t need to pretend to be in a relationship anymore because it’s served its purpose.”
“that’s not what i meant,” jinhwan’s voice is faint and quiet and the hammering of junhwe’s heart against his ribcage nearly drowns it out.
“i’m sorry,” junhwe says with only a small hint of bitterness, “what you meant is that we’ve -- i’ve -- served my purpose, so there isn’t any point. it’s not like we were friends in the first place.” he stands up at that moment, knees shaky as he walks away, leaving jinhwan alone at the table.
he ends up curled on his couch, television remote in one hand and penguin plush toy under the other (it was from his date with jinhwan at the amusement park, but he tries not to think about that). frowning, junhwe flips through the channels as he clutches the plush toy even harder.
“is it true?” donghyuk’s voice comes from beside him and junhwe doesn’t bother asking how he even got in at this point. “that you broke up with jinhwan.”
“he broke up with me,” junhwe mutters darkly as he keeps his eyes glued to the television screen.
“but why?” donghyuk is insistent, snatching the television remote from his hand and shutting off the television, some random variety show playing.
he brings the push toy even closer and buries his face into it. “go away donghyuk,” his voice comes out muffled. there must be something about the tone of his voice because donghyuk doesn’t press the issue, only gently removing the penguin from his hand.
“you alright?” this time it’s yunhyeong who asks the question and junhwe can’t be bothered to care about how his house became his friends’.
junhwe lays his head on the side of the couch, lets out a smothered noise.
“i brought ice cream?” donghyuk offers, nudging him with a small plastic package.
sitting up, junhwe opens the package with a frown. he stares at the ice cream cone in his hand, sighing as he takes a few bites. “what’s the point?” he mumbles. jinhwan doesn’t like him, never liked him in the first place. “i’m not hungry,” he ignores the pointed look of concern shared between his two friends.
for some completely unknown reason, both donghyuk and yunhyeong make it their mission to cheer junhwe up. it only makes him feel guilty on top of the despairing feeling that jinhwan never really liked him. he should have seen it coming. the rejection hurts all the same.
what’s even worse are the pitiful looks they exchange when they think he isn’t looking. there’s nothing junhwe hates more than being pitied, besides being rejected. donghyuk no longer attempts to wheedle information about the breakup from him, instead coming to his house each afternoon, bringing ice cream and sitting down with junhwe in front of the television.
“okay, this is getting out of hand,” yunhyeong tells him one day after school.
“i don’t know what you mean,” junhwe says glumly as he looks at his phone. the background is the photo of him and jinhwan cuddling on the couch that one night. somehow he still hasn’t found the heart to change it yet.
“this.” yunhyeong doesn’t get frustrated easily, but right now he almost sounds annoyed. “jinhwan wouldn’t have just broken up with you if he liked you.”
“yeah, well,” he rolls onto his side, tucking his chin over the penguin, “he didn’t and he broke up with me, so there.”
“and what would make you think that,” yunhyeong has his arms crossed as he looks down at junhwe with an unimpressed stare. “anyone from a mile could see that you obviously liked him and he obviously liked you back.”
“maybe they saw wrong then, hyung,” junhwe answers with a frown as he pokes at his plate of unfinished cake with his foot.
somehow junhwe ends up dragged to the grocery store two weeks after the breakup. he’s not sure how donghyuk manages to convince him to go (he doesn’t, he drags him all five blocks). donghyuk ditches him after the first five minutes, claiming to have seen a classmate that junhwe knows doesn’t exist.
he’s left standing alone in the middle of the ice cream aisle. someone bumps into him as he stands there, contemplating which flavor of ice cream to get, along with his entire life up to this point.
“sorry,” and junhwe freezes. he turns around slowly to see jinhwan standing in front of him. his legs feel extremely weak, strength completely drained. it’s comical really, to see jinhwan’s eyes widen in disbelief at the sight of him
“hanbin,” jinhwan mutters to himself.
feet no longer glued to the floor, junhwe reaches into the freezer to grab a random carton of ice cream and turns to leave. his heart is hammering in his chest and donghyuk and yunhyeong are both going to have a lot to explain when he gets back home.
“wait, junhwe,” jinhwan says and he turns around to see him biting his lip uncertainly. “i’m sorry.”
walking closer, he can see jinhwan’s small frame hunched over. “yeah, okay. were you ever going to apologize if our friends didn’t meddle again?”
“i thought it would be easier,” jinhwan tells him. it’s weak and he knows it. there are dark circles underneath his eyes and he looks more fragile than junhwe remembers.
“easier for you or for me?” he asks dryly, all the pain and hurt flaring up inside of him again. “you could have at least called or texted me,” he adds quietly.
“i’m sorry, junhwe,” exhaustion seeps through his voice and junhwe is momentarily taken aback by how physically tired he looks. “i just thought it would be best if we broke up because it was unfair.”
“unfair? you mean because i obviously liked you and you didn’t like me back?”
“what?” jinhwan asks him, confused. he wrinkles his brow, “no, i broke up with you because i thought it was unfair to keep on pretending to date you when you didn’t like me back.”
“wait, you thought i didn’t like you back?” jinhwan nods in confirmation. “i thought you didn’t like me back.”
“why would you think that?” jinhwan frowns at him.
“you kind of implied that when you told me that ‘there was no point’ anymore,” he quotes. “wait,” he says slowly, “did you just imply that you do like me back.”
jinhwan nods his head, no longer looking as tired as before.
“oh,” junhwe says. “oh,” he repeats.
there’s the faintest trace of a smile on jinhwan’s lips and junhwe’s chest no longer feels as hollow and heavy as it did before.
“does this imply that we’re going to get back together? for real this time?”
“i’m sorry, i shouldn’t have just assumed.” jinhwan walks over and junhwe finds himself encircled in a hug. “but yes, for real this time,” he agrees.
this time, junhwe is dragged to another outing by donghyuk. even though most of it wasn’t out of his own free will, he finds he doesn’t mind. (okay, so maybe he minds just a little that bobby comes along as well, but he supposes he can tolerate him. for a bit).
his hands are still sweaty as he walks back home from the restaurant, next to jinhwan. donghyuk is chattering animatedly with bobby behind them, voice oozing adoration. junhwe’s hand brushes jinhwan’s and jinhwan looks at him, soft smile on his face.
they haven’t done this, not since the breakup.
on a whim, junhwe reaches for jinhwan’s hand. he realizes a moment afterwards that maybe he should have wiped his hand before he reached for jinhwan’s hand because now their hands and fingers are completely interlocked in his sweat. jinhwan, however, seems perfectly content with this.
somewhere behind them there’s a snap of a phone camera, a small snicker, and donghyuk hissing, “they’re holding hands, yunhyeong. holding hands.”
“yes donghyuk, that’s what couples do. hold hands.”
thanks to asma who helped look over this
and here is my five star dedication to reet and rei who caught my millions of mistakes which i probably would have never noticed and rei who helped when i was stuck and came up with the "what if junhwan were set up by their friends on a blind date and bobby and hanbin made jinhwan's ideal type 'someone who looks sexy in jeans'"
fandom: ikon
pairing: jinhwan/junhwe
word count: 5,567
a/n: so i only finished kalopsia has been bothering me to finish a junhwan fic for months. this was originally a headcanon discussed with concordances and was hers originally as well, back in january, when ikon was actually alive and active. here i am, finally owing up to junhwan.
soft taste of soft serve
when donghyuk and yunhyeong first break the news to him, junhwe stands in the middle of the doorway, mouth agape and completely shell-shocked. somewhere in his mind he registers that the groceries are no longer in his hand.
“my soda,” donghyuk moans as he watches the liquid spill on the kitchen floor, mouth in a hard-pressed line that could rival his mother’s.
it takes junhwe a few minutes of opening and closing his mouth until he can finally form words. “what?”
“we set up an online dating profile for you,” donghyuk says a bit too calmly.
“technically it was just donghyuk,” yunhyeong adds from the other room. “i didn’t set it up.”
“you guys did what?” junhwe doesn’t screech, and now he’s back to opening and closing his mouth again. and to think that his day had been going so very well until this point.
“oh please,” donghyuk scoffs, “you were the one who photoshopped his school picture so it actually looked decent.”
“come again?”
“since you’ve been moping around more than usual lately, we decided to take the liberty of making an online dating profile for you.” donghyuk sips his orange juice and junhwe wonders why he ever became friends with him.
then, he remembers that he didn’t actually become friends with donghyuk, but donghyuk forced his friendship on him during their first group project in the beginning of high school.
“i don’t believe you,” junhwe glares at donghyuk and marches over to the couch where yunhyeong is lying with his computer and snatches it up.
“hey!” yunhyeong frowns at him as he follows junhwe to the kitchen table. junhwe raises an eyebrow at the video he has playing and yunhyeong flushes red in response. “there’s nothing wrong with watching an anime about volleyball, it’s not as though you can play that well either.”
“i can so play well,” he miffs and turns the computer towards donghyuk. donghyuk pulls up the website and junhwe snatches the computer from him.
“careful, that’s expensive,” yunhyeong warns.
“you guys did not,” junhwe puts down the computer and slumps down onto the nearest chair, which unfortunately happens to be next to donghyuk. he stares at the webpage in horror, with the terrible advertisements flashing on the side.
“the description was yunhyeong’s work too,” donghyuk nods at his profile, radiating content. junhwe is completely and utterly disgusted.
“please tell me this isn’t real.” he pinches his arm and glares at it when he’s only left with a bruising red mark. “i’m going to wake up from a dream and i’ll be right where i’ve fallen asleep in class.”
donghyuk pats his back comfortingly. “it’s real.”
“why are you guys in my house?” junhwe asks, narrowing his eyes as the realization dawns that he never let them into his house.
“you ask this now?” donghyuk raises an eyebrow at him, continuing to sip his orange juice. (technically, a voice that sounds too much like yunhyeong’s pops up, it’s his orange juice.) “you’re mom let us in,” he tells him and junhwe fixes him with a stare, “okay, we actually know where your spare key is?”
junhwe hates his friends, if they can even be called that. “i hate you,” he tells him.
“love you too,” donghyuk pats his arm as junhwe sends him the dirtiest, most scathing look possible.
“also,” and junhwe snaps up from where he had been lying on the kitchen table, contemplating his bad life decisions and even worse friends, to look at yunhyeong. “you may or may not have a date tomorrow as well?”
“oh my god,” junhwe says in horror and he decides to ignore the amused look on donghyuk’s face for once. he reaches over to snatch the computer again but donghyuk stops him by snapping the cover shut.
“you can’t see who it is until you go on the date with them.” donghyuk sniffs into the air as he observes his nail.
“what donghyuk means is that we don’t actually know who you’re going out with.” at least yunhyeong has some loyalty to him, albeit very little.
“i thought you guys were supposed to be more responsible than i am, isn’t that the whole point of why we’re friends.” junhwe faceplants into the table, nose becoming squished in the process. what had he ever done to deserve this? (okay, there might have been a few things such as the time in chemistry, but that wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for donghyuk).
“you see, you thought,” donghyuk begins, but cuts himself off when junhwe turns to give him an extremely unimpressed and displeased look. “four o’clock, the bakery that we always pass by on the way back from school. don’t be late.”
junhwe groans into the table.
“make sure to bring flowers,” yunhyeong adds.
“i need new friends,” junhwe moans. he hates his life.
he’s sitting down in the back corner of the bakery, ice cream parlor, whatever it is. fidgeting nervously, tugging at his sleeve (donghyuk had forced him to wear it, clicking his tongue distastefully as he went through his wardrobe the previous afternoon) and pulling out his phone for the forty-seventh time. it’s three forty-five and junhwe wonders if he’s arrived too early.
behind his back are the flowers and junhwe gingerly lays them on the obnoxiously yellow and blue tiled floor in hopes of not crushing them. he frowns, carefully nudging the flowers closer to the wall with his foot.
yunhyeong (3:46): are you there yet?
junhwe (3:47): i got here 15 minutes ago
junhwe (3:48): do you think i came too early????
yunhyeong (3:49): do you have the flowers
junhwe (3:49): YES DO I LEAVE THEM ON THE GROUND??
yunhyeong (3:50): why would you leave them on the ground.
yunhyeong (3:50): put them somewhere else NOT on the ground
junhwe (3:51): WHERE’S THAT?
junhwe (3:51): there’s no where else i can keep them?
junhwe (3:52): not where they wouldn’t see at least
yunhyeong (3:53): fine…keep them on the floor then
yunhyeong (3:55): make sure you give it to them though
yunhyeong (3:56): don’t forget to pull out the chair for them when they sit down
yunhyeong (3:56): also don’t forget to hold open the door as well
yunhyeong (3:57): and no matter what they say you’re paying
junhwe (3:58): why do i have to pay??
yunhyeong (3:58): because i said so
yunhyeong (3:59): MAKE SURE YOU GIVE THEM THE FLOWERS AND HOLD OPEN THE DOOR
yunhyeong (3:59): take their coat for them as well!!!!!!!!!
yunhyeong (4:00): and the most important part! to have fun :)
junhwe (4:00): its 4 and they aRENT HERE YET??
junhwe (4:00): OH GOD WHAT IF THEY NEVER COME
junhwe (4:00): what do i do
junhwe (4:00): why aren’t they here yet
junhwe (4:01): AM I JUST SUPPOSED TO SIT HERE??
junhwe (4:01): i hate you for making me do this
junhwe (4:02): what
junhwe (4:02): am
junhwe (4:02): i
junhwe (4:02): supposed
junhwe (4:03): to
junhwe (4:03): THEYRE HERE WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO
fumbling with his phone, junhwe hurriedly stuffs it into his jeans as a small figure makes their way up to the table. “sorry i’m late,” a soft voice says and junhwe can feel his throat drying up. “i had to make sure my dogs were being looked after properly.”
“that’s alright,” he doesn’t very nearly squeak out. he puts his hands up awkwardly, only to put them back down and wipe his palms against his thighs. hadn’t yunhyeong said something about taking his date’s jacket?
“my name is jinhwan, “ and there’s a soft smile directed at him and its then that junhwe knows he’s completely and utterly fucked.
the date starts off without a hitch. well, sort of, considering junhwe very nearly did trip over his untied shoelace while scrambling to pull the chair out from the table. jinhwan had just stood by the side, biting his lower lip and eyes scrunched up into crescents, which had only made junhwe more flustered.
“so uh,” junhwe scratches at his neck awkwardly and jinhwan looks up at him and he ends up opening his mouth then shutting it, flushing a slight red. he wipes his palms on his jeans and looks up at the light bulb, wondering why exactly this is his life. “my friends kind of made a dating profile for me and set up a date for me and forced me to come here,” he blurts out.
“same here,” jinhwan nods as he wrinkles his nose distastefully as he brings a small scoop of ice cream to his mouth.
“not that you aren’t a nice person or anything,” he quickly adds. “i’m not implying that you’re mean or anything. i think you’re nice. at least from the fifteen minutes we’ve been together so far.”
jinhwan has that amused look on his face again, like he’s trying to hold back a small laugh and junhwe wants to faint right then and there. “i pretty much figured it out when i saw the photoshopped profile picture.” junhwe slowly begins to sink down in his chair. “and ‘likes small, cute people.’” he slinks down even further.
“that was yunhyeong.” oh god he is going to kill them when he gets back home.
“also the fact that you actually requested to go on a date with someone who’s ideal type was ‘someone sexy who looks good in jeans’ but what else could i have expected from bobby.” junhwe’s changed his mind, now he wants nothing more than to disappear into a small puddle into the ground.
when they finish their ice cream, junhwe gets out of his chair a bit too quickly, metal scraping against the linoleum floor with a loud screech. he turns around, petrified, but jinhwan isn’t paying attention and is zipping up his jacket. he bounds to the door and leans against it.
“thanks,” jinhwan smiles at him as he walks out of the store and junhwe hadn’t realized how small the other boy isuntil now. well, fuck.
“yeah,” he mumbles, except it comes out more of a curt grumble.
they walk together side by side, and junhwe is trying not to notice how close their hands are. he eyes jinhwan’s hand out of the corner of his eye. yunhyeong didn’t tell him anything about holding hands, so he decides to stuff one hand in his pocket while letting the other one swing.
just before junhwe decides he’s had enough and is about to stuff his other hand in his pocket, there’s a light touch and he looks down to find jinhwan’s hand in his. (he tries not to notice how absolutely tiny it looks compared to his because that wouldn’t be good for his heart rate).
“it’s a date, so we should be holding hands,” jinhwan tells him and junhwe can feel his legs turning into mush.
“a date,” he says meekly. his face feels like it's on fire. “oh,” and this time he stops mid step, frowning. it’s a date, don’t forget to give them flowers, yunhyeong had said. “i forgot the flowers back at the store.”
he lets go of jinhwan’s hand and begins sprinting back to the ice cream store, ignoring the looks he gets as he weaves between the other pedestrians. junhwe almost knocks over some kid’s lemonade stand on the side. really who even does that anymore?
by the time he arrives at the shop he’s out of breath. he shoves open the door, ignoring the disapproving glare he gets from the person behind the counter, and makes his way over to the table. the flowers are still on the floor and junhwe does a small cheer inside his head,
“sorry,” he pants as he stands awkwardly in front of jinhwan, who relocated to a nearby bench. he has two hotdogs in his hand and offers one to junhwe. “um, these are for you,” he brings out the flowers from behind his back, most of the petals gone. “they weren’t as damaged as when i bought them.”
“i think they’re nice,” jinhwan’s voice comes out slightly muffled.
“how was your date?” donghyuk’s face pops up as soon as junhwe opens the door. “you’re smiling. yunhyeong, he’s smiling. you never smile, not at us,” he accuses.
“i am not smiling,” junhwe grumbles as he’s dragged by donghyuk to the living room.
donghyuk plops down on the couch next to yunhyeong, forcing junhwe to sit down in front of them. “spill. i want to know everything.”
“it went okay, i think.” he looks down and crosses his legs.
“did you hold open the door? did you pull out the chair?” yunhyeong asks. “i bet you forgot the flowers, didn’t you,” he accuses.
junhwe makes a noise in the back of his throat, “i remembered them. eventually.”
“what were they like?” donghyuk asks. “goo junhwe you have to tell me everything you just can’t say it was ‘okay’ and not tell me what happened.” he leans forward and punctuates each word with a jab to junhwe’s chest.
“his name was jinhwan,” he mumbles. junhwe has never been the extremely shy type but now looks awkwardly to the side instead of at his friends.
“see,” donghyuk nudges yunhyeong, “i told you it was going to be a success.”
and this is how junhwe ends up being cajoled into a second date with jinhwan, then a third, and then another time for a fourth.
“this is getting a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?” jinhwan remarks casually on their fourth date, this time at the dog park.
“it would be nice if donghyuk would stop pestering me,” he scrunches his face as he slides into the seat across from jinhwan.
“bobby keeps trying to meddle, it’s all hanbin can do to stop him from spying on our dates,” jinhwan huffs, exasperated.
“i wish there was a way to get back at them,” junhwe looks down and kicks at the woodchips beneath his feet. “or at least to get them off our backs for once.”
jinhwan’s eyebrows are furrowed and he looks thoughtful. turning around he says,. “we could date.”
“isn’t that what we’re right now? we are on a date right?”
“no. i mean yes we are on a date. what i meant was that we could pretend to date seriously.”
his foot falters for a moment. “so you mean we’re going to pretend to be in a relationship to get back at our mutually annoying meddlesome friends?”
jinhwan beams at him and because junhwe is weak, his heart soars (if only the tiniest bit). “yeah, exactly.”
“i didn’t know you had it in you,” he ignores the small twist of pain inside of his chest. “anything to get donghyuk and yunhyeong off my back.”
he’s pulled up from the bench by jinhwan who has his hand firmly clasped. junhwe can feel the slow flush creeping up the back of his neck. “if we’re going to pretend to be in a relationship, we first have to be comfortable holding each other’s hands,” jinhwan points out.
“oh,” he says, “right.” there’s something odd about the way the word pretend sits in his stomach but like most of his emotions, he ignores it.
“and it also means we have to be comfortable doing this,” jinhwan goes up on his tip toes to press a kiss to corner of junhwe’s lips. it’s quick and jinhwan’s lips are soft and junhwe turns around to start a small coughing fit. “it’s okay, we can work on that too,” jinhwan laughs.
junhwe’s entire body flushes red and he doesn’t stop coughing for a good ten minutes.
back in his first year of high school, when junhwe was on the basketball team, there was an extremely overbearing junior who he couldn’t stand. he still has horrific memories of the time they were accidentally left together in the locker room for five minutes.
he just didn’t expect that same overbearing junior to be one of jinhwan’s best friends.
when junhwe gets his informal introduction to bobby and hanbin, he’s irritated, to say the least. so maybe he should have realized that the bobby of the basketball team and the bobby that was jinhwan’s best friend were the same person. there aren’t exactly too many people named bobby, and junhwe wonders what kind of terrible luck he has.
he finds himself jittery with his left eye twitching throughout the entire movie, to the point where jinhwan notices inside the dark theater.
“how long is he going to do that?” junhwe hisses to jinhwan halfway through the movie.
“do what?” jinhwan asks, eyes glued to the screen.
“that,” he gestures to bobby, seated a few rows behind them with an impassive stare that’s been boring its way through junhwe’s head. he’s not sure if this is better or not than last time, when he came home to find donghyuk crouching in the bushes whispering to yunhyeong.
as soon as they come out of the movie, bobby beelines for junhwe. he walks over in an annoying sort of manner, hands stuffed in his pockets. he slings an arm over his shoulder and junhwe tries to inch slowly away.
“um,” he says and looks desperately at jinhwan, who is unfortunately preoccupied.
bobby gives him a once over, then thankfully releases his shoulder. there’s a long period of silence and junhwe tries not to squirm. “i can’t believe jinhwan is dating you.”
i can’t believe jinhwan is best friends with you, junhwe doesn’t say. he furrows his eyebrows and scowls.
“leave the poor high schooler alone,” hanbin rolls his eyes as he walks over with jinhwan. junhwe moves next to jinhwan immediately. now he remembers why he never stayed in the same vicinity alone with bobby, despite being on the high school basketball team together for two years.
“sorry about that,” jinhwan apologizes once hanbin and bobby have left. “i would have given you a warning about bobby if i had known he and hanbin were going to secretly tag along.”
“they bought it though, right?” he asks, jinhwan untangling his hand from his.
“hanbin did,” jinhwan tells him as they walk down the street together. “so that means bobby will.”
their hands brush against one another and on impulse, junhwe reaches for jinhwan’s hand.
jinhwan’s step face falters a split second, but he regains his composure so quickly junhwe dismisses it as his imagination. “you don’t have to hold my hand now if you don’t want to anymore, not when there isn’t anyone here.”
“it’s for practice,” junhwe lies. to himself or to jinhwan, he’s not too sure.
the realization doesn’t come until their seventh date. or meeting. or some combination of the two, junhwe isn’t too sure. jinhwan is in the middle of talking, he has a smile on his face that makes junhwe’s stomach queasy and it doesn’t help that his eyes are practically sparkling as well.
“are you okay?” jinhwan’s voice ropes him back from his sudden epiphany. “you look distracted.”
junhwe shakes his head up and down vehemently. “i’m just fine,” he scrambles for the water and only ends up knocking it over the table instead, looking on in horror as the drink spills across the table. “sorry,” he doesn’t squeak.
“it’s fine,” jinhwan looks like he’s holding back another laugh, and junhwe rapidly dabs at the spill with his napkin. “i was full anyway.”
he ends up paying and jinhwan ends up walking him back home, their hands swinging back and forth, intertwined. (at least he can now proudly say that holding jinhwan’s hand doesn’t make him flustered anymore, only sweaty).
they stop right in front of junhwe’s house. from across the street, a curtain is pulled back slightly. a light flickers on and if he squints he can make out donghyuk’s silhouette. he’s begins to step inside, but jinhwan pulls on the side of his shirt.
“remember?” he asks and tilts his head up, gesturing to the sliver of light coming from donghyuk’s room.
“oh, right.” there’s an unsettling feeling in his stomach and he shifts his weight back and forth between his feet.
jinhwan’s lips are on his, one hand gently tugging his shirt so he’ll lean down while the other rests on his shoulder. he awkwardly places his hands on jinhwan’s arms and tries not to think too much about the soft feelings of his lips. when jinhwan pulls back, junhwe lets go of his arm only somewhat reluctantly.
“goodnight,” jinhwan tells him and junhwe is left a little bit breathless.
their relationship may be fake, but his feelings for jinhwan aren’t.
“i can’t believe you,” two large textbooks are dropped in front of him and he looks up to see donghyuk standing with his arms crossed, sour expression on his face.. “i can’t believe that you get a boyfriend and you don’t tell me, your best friend.”
“best friend?” he raises an eyebrow. the word boyfriend shouldn’t bring a warm feeling to junhwe’s chest, yet it does, and he has to remind himself that he and jinhwan aren’t actually in a relationship, only pretending to be in one.
“you have two friends,” donghyuk rolls his eyes, “me and yunhyeong. and apparently now a boyfriend. so yes, best friend.”
it’s a few minutes before something clicks in junhwe’s brain. “wait, if i didn’t tell you or yunhyeong then how’d you find out.”
“yunhyeong is friends with hanbin,” donghyuk says in his ‘where have you been all this time, everyone knows this’ voice. “and hanbin is friends with jinhwan, and jinhwan actually told his friend.”
“and your point of all this is?” junhwe raises an eyebrows as donghyuk huffs angrily.
throwing out his arms, donghyuk exclaims, “i’ve only been trying to help your pitiful love life since the beginning of high school. so yes, it’s very important to me that you suddenly have a boyfriend and you neglected to tell me.”
because junhwe is an incredible friend he grudgingly sighs, “what is it you really want, donghyuk?”
maybe he should be more scared of the grin donghyuk has on his face.
“why are you here?” junhwe snaps, opening the door to find bobby and hanbin on his front step.
“donghyuk invited me,” bobby offers with an easy grin, pushing his way past junhwe. he walks over to clasp a hand on donghyuk’s back and junhwe scowls.
junhwe can feel his head throbbing. he rubs at his temples and lets out a long exhale as he reminds himself that this is all for the greater good. he’s not sure how donghyuk convinced him into inviting jinhwan over. (actually he’s not too sure how donghyuk convinced him to go on the date in the first place). he had said something about “bonding” time and junhwe isn’t too sure how that escalated into inviting bobby and hanbin overas well.
donghyuk, much to junhwe’s extreme displeasure, instantly hits it off with bobby. there’s a sort of sparkle in his eyes whenever he looks at him, and bobby, of course, eats it all up.
“i can’t believe your friends are stealing my friends,” he whispers grouchily to into jinhwan’s neck as he plops down onto the couch beside him, circling his arms around jinhwan’s smaller frame. he tells himself that the only reason he does so if because jinhwan needs someone to pretend to be his boyfriend, and not because he likes him.
jinhwan shakes his head with a small smile on his face, patting his thigh comfortingly, turning back to face the television screen.
“oh my god,” donghyuk whispers conspiratorially to yunhyeong. “they’re cuddling, yunhyeong, cuddling.”
junhwe flushes, burying his head further into jinhwan’s neck to hide his blush. “when will this be over,” he moans as he attempts to tune out donghyuk’s increasingly loud undignified squawks.
“yeah, that’s what couples do, donghyuk,” he hears yunhyeong say. “they cuddle.” he can hear someone snickering and the snap of a camera, junhwe is absolutely mortified.
jinhwan turns around to press a small kiss to junhwe’s cheek and this time his entire face is in flames.
“he kissed him yunhyeong, kissed him.”
after two weeks of what donghyuk deems the ‘cuddlefest’, junhwe’s friends slowly begin to stop meddling. donghyuk no longer drills him for details every date, and yunhyeong no longer texts him relationship advice at odd times ofthe day. part of junhwe feels bad for duping his friends, but the other part remembers that they still haven’t deleted his dating profile.
he fidgets nervously at the thought of this, and jinhwan peers up at him. “we should break up,” jinhwan says, shifting so his back is straighter.
“what?” junhwe asks, unsure if he heard correctly.
“we should break up,” jinhwan repeats, face impassive as he looks him in the eye.
“why?” junhwe’s voice cracks slightly at the end.
“there isn’t really any reason for us to pretend to be together,” jinhwan tells him quietly as he stares down into his drink. “neither of us are being bothered by our friends anymore, so there’s no point in meeting anymore, either.”
“oh.” there’s a sinking feeling inside of junhwe’s chest and he clenches his fists, thankful that jinhwan can’t see them under the table. they’re shaking and his knuckles are white. “okay then.”
“junhwe,” there’s an edge of desperation to jinhwan’s voice and he sounds like he’s berating him. it makes him feel small and insignificant, and if there’s anything goo junhwe loathes it’s feeling small and insignificant.
“no, i get it,” he grits his teeth. “we don’t need to pretend to be in a relationship anymore because it’s served its purpose.”
“that’s not what i meant,” jinhwan’s voice is faint and quiet and the hammering of junhwe’s heart against his ribcage nearly drowns it out.
“i’m sorry,” junhwe says with only a small hint of bitterness, “what you meant is that we’ve -- i’ve -- served my purpose, so there isn’t any point. it’s not like we were friends in the first place.” he stands up at that moment, knees shaky as he walks away, leaving jinhwan alone at the table.
he ends up curled on his couch, television remote in one hand and penguin plush toy under the other (it was from his date with jinhwan at the amusement park, but he tries not to think about that). frowning, junhwe flips through the channels as he clutches the plush toy even harder.
“is it true?” donghyuk’s voice comes from beside him and junhwe doesn’t bother asking how he even got in at this point. “that you broke up with jinhwan.”
“he broke up with me,” junhwe mutters darkly as he keeps his eyes glued to the television screen.
“but why?” donghyuk is insistent, snatching the television remote from his hand and shutting off the television, some random variety show playing.
he brings the push toy even closer and buries his face into it. “go away donghyuk,” his voice comes out muffled. there must be something about the tone of his voice because donghyuk doesn’t press the issue, only gently removing the penguin from his hand.
“you alright?” this time it’s yunhyeong who asks the question and junhwe can’t be bothered to care about how his house became his friends’.
junhwe lays his head on the side of the couch, lets out a smothered noise.
“i brought ice cream?” donghyuk offers, nudging him with a small plastic package.
sitting up, junhwe opens the package with a frown. he stares at the ice cream cone in his hand, sighing as he takes a few bites. “what’s the point?” he mumbles. jinhwan doesn’t like him, never liked him in the first place. “i’m not hungry,” he ignores the pointed look of concern shared between his two friends.
for some completely unknown reason, both donghyuk and yunhyeong make it their mission to cheer junhwe up. it only makes him feel guilty on top of the despairing feeling that jinhwan never really liked him. he should have seen it coming. the rejection hurts all the same.
what’s even worse are the pitiful looks they exchange when they think he isn’t looking. there’s nothing junhwe hates more than being pitied, besides being rejected. donghyuk no longer attempts to wheedle information about the breakup from him, instead coming to his house each afternoon, bringing ice cream and sitting down with junhwe in front of the television.
“okay, this is getting out of hand,” yunhyeong tells him one day after school.
“i don’t know what you mean,” junhwe says glumly as he looks at his phone. the background is the photo of him and jinhwan cuddling on the couch that one night. somehow he still hasn’t found the heart to change it yet.
“this.” yunhyeong doesn’t get frustrated easily, but right now he almost sounds annoyed. “jinhwan wouldn’t have just broken up with you if he liked you.”
“yeah, well,” he rolls onto his side, tucking his chin over the penguin, “he didn’t and he broke up with me, so there.”
“and what would make you think that,” yunhyeong has his arms crossed as he looks down at junhwe with an unimpressed stare. “anyone from a mile could see that you obviously liked him and he obviously liked you back.”
“maybe they saw wrong then, hyung,” junhwe answers with a frown as he pokes at his plate of unfinished cake with his foot.
somehow junhwe ends up dragged to the grocery store two weeks after the breakup. he’s not sure how donghyuk manages to convince him to go (he doesn’t, he drags him all five blocks). donghyuk ditches him after the first five minutes, claiming to have seen a classmate that junhwe knows doesn’t exist.
he’s left standing alone in the middle of the ice cream aisle. someone bumps into him as he stands there, contemplating which flavor of ice cream to get, along with his entire life up to this point.
“sorry,” and junhwe freezes. he turns around slowly to see jinhwan standing in front of him. his legs feel extremely weak, strength completely drained. it’s comical really, to see jinhwan’s eyes widen in disbelief at the sight of him
“hanbin,” jinhwan mutters to himself.
feet no longer glued to the floor, junhwe reaches into the freezer to grab a random carton of ice cream and turns to leave. his heart is hammering in his chest and donghyuk and yunhyeong are both going to have a lot to explain when he gets back home.
“wait, junhwe,” jinhwan says and he turns around to see him biting his lip uncertainly. “i’m sorry.”
walking closer, he can see jinhwan’s small frame hunched over. “yeah, okay. were you ever going to apologize if our friends didn’t meddle again?”
“i thought it would be easier,” jinhwan tells him. it’s weak and he knows it. there are dark circles underneath his eyes and he looks more fragile than junhwe remembers.
“easier for you or for me?” he asks dryly, all the pain and hurt flaring up inside of him again. “you could have at least called or texted me,” he adds quietly.
“i’m sorry, junhwe,” exhaustion seeps through his voice and junhwe is momentarily taken aback by how physically tired he looks. “i just thought it would be best if we broke up because it was unfair.”
“unfair? you mean because i obviously liked you and you didn’t like me back?”
“what?” jinhwan asks him, confused. he wrinkles his brow, “no, i broke up with you because i thought it was unfair to keep on pretending to date you when you didn’t like me back.”
“wait, you thought i didn’t like you back?” jinhwan nods in confirmation. “i thought you didn’t like me back.”
“why would you think that?” jinhwan frowns at him.
“you kind of implied that when you told me that ‘there was no point’ anymore,” he quotes. “wait,” he says slowly, “did you just imply that you do like me back.”
jinhwan nods his head, no longer looking as tired as before.
“oh,” junhwe says. “oh,” he repeats.
there’s the faintest trace of a smile on jinhwan’s lips and junhwe’s chest no longer feels as hollow and heavy as it did before.
“does this imply that we’re going to get back together? for real this time?”
“i’m sorry, i shouldn’t have just assumed.” jinhwan walks over and junhwe finds himself encircled in a hug. “but yes, for real this time,” he agrees.
this time, junhwe is dragged to another outing by donghyuk. even though most of it wasn’t out of his own free will, he finds he doesn’t mind. (okay, so maybe he minds just a little that bobby comes along as well, but he supposes he can tolerate him. for a bit).
his hands are still sweaty as he walks back home from the restaurant, next to jinhwan. donghyuk is chattering animatedly with bobby behind them, voice oozing adoration. junhwe’s hand brushes jinhwan’s and jinhwan looks at him, soft smile on his face.
they haven’t done this, not since the breakup.
on a whim, junhwe reaches for jinhwan’s hand. he realizes a moment afterwards that maybe he should have wiped his hand before he reached for jinhwan’s hand because now their hands and fingers are completely interlocked in his sweat. jinhwan, however, seems perfectly content with this.
somewhere behind them there’s a snap of a phone camera, a small snicker, and donghyuk hissing, “they’re holding hands, yunhyeong. holding hands.”
“yes donghyuk, that’s what couples do. hold hands.”
thanks to asma who helped look over this
and here is my five star dedication to reet and rei who caught my millions of mistakes which i probably would have never noticed and rei who helped when i was stuck and came up with the "what if junhwan were set up by their friends on a blind date and bobby and hanbin made jinhwan's ideal type 'someone who looks sexy in jeans'"