rainbows after rain
rating: pg
pairing: yunho/jaejoong
length: ~1100 wc
It was a cold, rainy night. There was thunder too, but it was far off and muted in the background. Jaejoong listened to the soothing pitter-patter of raindrops on his windows as he made himself a cup of tea. He added a teaspoon of honey, and fondly remembered the times he’d drink something like this to warm up his voice before a stage performance.
Jiji scampers past him and darts her tongue into her water bowl. It’s going to be a quiet night in with just the two of them. “Come on, Jiji, let’s watch a movie,” Jaejoong calls, carrying his mug to the living room and settling into the couch under a fuzzy blanket.
There’s nothing good on T.V. and Jaejoong is really comfortable, so he doesn’t feel like getting up to put something in the DVD player. From somewhere in between the couch cushions, Jaejoong’s phone buzzes. He fishes it out and answers without checking the calling number.
“Hello?”
“Hello, leukemia is one of the leading causes of death in children. We at the Foundation for-” Jaejoong hangs up the phone, muttering fucking telemarketers under his breath. He’s about to chuck the phone at the wall when he catches sight of his phone wallpaper. In it, five young men stand together, arms slung around each other’s shoulders with smiles as bright as the sun shining above them.
He dials a number.
A tired voice picks up on the other end. “Hello?”
“Yunho, do you remember our first kiss?”
“…Jaejoong, if you’re not going to talk about something relevant I’m going to hang up and go to bed. I’m very exhausted.”
Jaejoong laughs into the phone. “No, no you’re right. It’s not relevant. But I remember it. I remember it like it was yesterday.”
“I do too.”
Jaejoong smiles softly. “You do?”
“Sure,” Yunho chuckles, “you were on crutches. You were pretty sick, too, so your lips were always tinged red with that nasty cough syrup you had to take every few hours.”
“Yeah?”
“I would always let you lean on me so much. I was always looking at your face so slowly, looking for discomfort.”
“You were so sweet, then. Not like now,” Jaejoong teases. “And please, you let me lean on you? Yunho-yah, must I remind you that you hardly let anyone else touch me? I grew rather sick of you hovering around me like a mother hen.”
“I’m not sweet anymore?” Yunho asks. Jaejoong can almost hear that childish pout in his voice. It makes him laugh. Jaejoong doesn’t respond, though. Instead, he changes the subject.
“It’s been raining all evening. It sounds really soothing. Jiji is being civil for once and agreeing to watch a movie with me, but I don’t know what to watch.”
Yunho makes some terrible film suggestion, and the conversation wanders off into meaningless small talk. They squabble about what makes a good film, about whether it’s Jiji who refuses to be a civil pet or Jaejoong who is a terrible pet owner, and about how Yunho seems to have been born in the wrong generation seeing as how he still doesn’t have an Instagram account.
“I better go soon, I’m really tired,” Yunho says. He sounds disappointed.
“Okay.” Jaejoong doesn’t want to hang up. He hasn’t had the chance to say it to Yunho in years, but Jaejoong loves him. Always has, always will.
“Do you think it’s weird that we talk about our past relationship so casually sometimes?” Yunho asks.
“No,” Jaejoong says. He’s long past having to control a trembling in his voice now. He’s learned to lock down his emotions. “I don’t think it’s weird.” He does, in fact, know that it’s completely out of the ordinary for exes to even be friends, let alone talk about their first kiss. He lies about that, though, because talking about it is the closest he can get to the real thing.
“Huh, yeah, maybe you’re right. Well, good night Jaejoong.”
“Good night, Yunho.”
Yunho hangs up first and Jaejoong stares at the screen for a few more seconds before it goes black. He throws it on to the other couch and puts on whatever channel has old drama reruns.
“Jiji, I’m sad.”
Jiji doesn’t look up from grooming herself.
“At least I have you.”
Jiji leaves the room.
Jaejoong gets up, figuring he should just go to bed then. His phone buzzes again and Jaejoong picks it up, annoyed to no end.
“There are things I want to say to you, Jaejoong,” Yunho’s voice comes, strong and steady, “but I’m afraid they’d be pointless. I’m afraid they’d drive me and you in circles. Pointless and annoying and painful with no outcome. So I hold back.”
Say them! Jaejoong wants to scream. I’d go in vicious circles with you to the end of time. As long as we endured that torture together, I could handle it, he yells inside his head. He stays silent.
“Say something.” Yunho pleads.
“If you told me whatever it is you want to tell me, I’d listen. You don’t have to tell me anything, though.”
Yunho takes a breath. “I lay awake at night thinking of you. I admit, there are nights I share my bed with others, but I do not love them. Of course I remember our first kiss. I remember the taste of the cough syrup on your tongue. I remember your frail hips under my palms and I remember your fingers in my hair and grasping at the back of my shirt. I don’t remember it like it was yesterday, Jaejoong, I remember it like it was this morning and I’m wandering in lost time searching for that moment again, never meeting the nighttime with sleep because if I sleep it will no longer be the same day when we first kissed.”
“I can’t stop loving you.” Jaejoong replies. He doesn’t cry. He’s cried enough over the shambles of their relationship. It does nothing. Talking might do something.
“You…I still don’t think you know how much I loved you.”
“Loved?”
“Yes, loved. What I feel for you now is something else. I don’t know what to call it. Reverence? Worship?”
“Come see me soon, Yunho. I miss you.”
Outside, the rain falls harder and thunder echoes. Lightning lights up a distant portion of the sky.
“When the rain stops…when the rain stops I’ll come see you.”
“Then I’ll meet you under the next rainbow.”
Jaejoong falls asleep to the sound of falling rain, and dreams of dull rainbows formed in full circles that begin to straighten themselves out and brighten simultaneously until they become vivid, straight lines. At the end of the rainbow stands a pot of gold, six feet tall and with the words “my other half” inscribed on its rim.
a/n: :PPP just trying to write again. missing the boys always. thinking of them.
be my friend! twitter | k-pop tumblr | ask.fm
leave me a prompt!
pairing: yunho/jaejoong
length: ~1100 wc
It was a cold, rainy night. There was thunder too, but it was far off and muted in the background. Jaejoong listened to the soothing pitter-patter of raindrops on his windows as he made himself a cup of tea. He added a teaspoon of honey, and fondly remembered the times he’d drink something like this to warm up his voice before a stage performance.
Jiji scampers past him and darts her tongue into her water bowl. It’s going to be a quiet night in with just the two of them. “Come on, Jiji, let’s watch a movie,” Jaejoong calls, carrying his mug to the living room and settling into the couch under a fuzzy blanket.
There’s nothing good on T.V. and Jaejoong is really comfortable, so he doesn’t feel like getting up to put something in the DVD player. From somewhere in between the couch cushions, Jaejoong’s phone buzzes. He fishes it out and answers without checking the calling number.
“Hello?”
“Hello, leukemia is one of the leading causes of death in children. We at the Foundation for-” Jaejoong hangs up the phone, muttering fucking telemarketers under his breath. He’s about to chuck the phone at the wall when he catches sight of his phone wallpaper. In it, five young men stand together, arms slung around each other’s shoulders with smiles as bright as the sun shining above them.
He dials a number.
A tired voice picks up on the other end. “Hello?”
“Yunho, do you remember our first kiss?”
“…Jaejoong, if you’re not going to talk about something relevant I’m going to hang up and go to bed. I’m very exhausted.”
Jaejoong laughs into the phone. “No, no you’re right. It’s not relevant. But I remember it. I remember it like it was yesterday.”
“I do too.”
Jaejoong smiles softly. “You do?”
“Sure,” Yunho chuckles, “you were on crutches. You were pretty sick, too, so your lips were always tinged red with that nasty cough syrup you had to take every few hours.”
“Yeah?”
“I would always let you lean on me so much. I was always looking at your face so slowly, looking for discomfort.”
“You were so sweet, then. Not like now,” Jaejoong teases. “And please, you let me lean on you? Yunho-yah, must I remind you that you hardly let anyone else touch me? I grew rather sick of you hovering around me like a mother hen.”
“I’m not sweet anymore?” Yunho asks. Jaejoong can almost hear that childish pout in his voice. It makes him laugh. Jaejoong doesn’t respond, though. Instead, he changes the subject.
“It’s been raining all evening. It sounds really soothing. Jiji is being civil for once and agreeing to watch a movie with me, but I don’t know what to watch.”
Yunho makes some terrible film suggestion, and the conversation wanders off into meaningless small talk. They squabble about what makes a good film, about whether it’s Jiji who refuses to be a civil pet or Jaejoong who is a terrible pet owner, and about how Yunho seems to have been born in the wrong generation seeing as how he still doesn’t have an Instagram account.
“I better go soon, I’m really tired,” Yunho says. He sounds disappointed.
“Okay.” Jaejoong doesn’t want to hang up. He hasn’t had the chance to say it to Yunho in years, but Jaejoong loves him. Always has, always will.
“Do you think it’s weird that we talk about our past relationship so casually sometimes?” Yunho asks.
“No,” Jaejoong says. He’s long past having to control a trembling in his voice now. He’s learned to lock down his emotions. “I don’t think it’s weird.” He does, in fact, know that it’s completely out of the ordinary for exes to even be friends, let alone talk about their first kiss. He lies about that, though, because talking about it is the closest he can get to the real thing.
“Huh, yeah, maybe you’re right. Well, good night Jaejoong.”
“Good night, Yunho.”
Yunho hangs up first and Jaejoong stares at the screen for a few more seconds before it goes black. He throws it on to the other couch and puts on whatever channel has old drama reruns.
“Jiji, I’m sad.”
Jiji doesn’t look up from grooming herself.
“At least I have you.”
Jiji leaves the room.
Jaejoong gets up, figuring he should just go to bed then. His phone buzzes again and Jaejoong picks it up, annoyed to no end.
“There are things I want to say to you, Jaejoong,” Yunho’s voice comes, strong and steady, “but I’m afraid they’d be pointless. I’m afraid they’d drive me and you in circles. Pointless and annoying and painful with no outcome. So I hold back.”
Say them! Jaejoong wants to scream. I’d go in vicious circles with you to the end of time. As long as we endured that torture together, I could handle it, he yells inside his head. He stays silent.
“Say something.” Yunho pleads.
“If you told me whatever it is you want to tell me, I’d listen. You don’t have to tell me anything, though.”
Yunho takes a breath. “I lay awake at night thinking of you. I admit, there are nights I share my bed with others, but I do not love them. Of course I remember our first kiss. I remember the taste of the cough syrup on your tongue. I remember your frail hips under my palms and I remember your fingers in my hair and grasping at the back of my shirt. I don’t remember it like it was yesterday, Jaejoong, I remember it like it was this morning and I’m wandering in lost time searching for that moment again, never meeting the nighttime with sleep because if I sleep it will no longer be the same day when we first kissed.”
“I can’t stop loving you.” Jaejoong replies. He doesn’t cry. He’s cried enough over the shambles of their relationship. It does nothing. Talking might do something.
“You…I still don’t think you know how much I loved you.”
“Loved?”
“Yes, loved. What I feel for you now is something else. I don’t know what to call it. Reverence? Worship?”
“Come see me soon, Yunho. I miss you.”
Outside, the rain falls harder and thunder echoes. Lightning lights up a distant portion of the sky.
“When the rain stops…when the rain stops I’ll come see you.”
“Then I’ll meet you under the next rainbow.”
Jaejoong falls asleep to the sound of falling rain, and dreams of dull rainbows formed in full circles that begin to straighten themselves out and brighten simultaneously until they become vivid, straight lines. At the end of the rainbow stands a pot of gold, six feet tall and with the words “my other half” inscribed on its rim.
a/n: :PPP just trying to write again. missing the boys always. thinking of them.
be my friend! twitter | k-pop tumblr | ask.fm
leave me a prompt!