Orange Juice
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the sunrays filter through the blinds but sehun doesn’t flinch even when one gets into his eyes. he’s far too preoccupied with jongin’s words circulating in his head. he didn’t sleep at all.
he turns his head to the side and sees joonmyun snoring into his pillow, mouth open unattractively and an arm dangling off the side of his bed. sehun sighs and kicks off his covers, sitting up and resting his head on his palm.
why does jongin’s words affect him so much? it’s not like it’s directed towards him. jongin didn’t even say if the person he loves is a guy. he’s just bothered by jongin saying that he hates luhan. yeah, that’s it. that’s all there is to it.
sehun groans and heavily flops back down on his pillow. it’s no use lying to himself. jongin meant him and sehun can’t believe he’s been oblivious to jongin’s feelings all this time. sehun growls and covers his face with his pillow. but it’s not as if jongin was obvious and showed his feelings. why is he only blaming sehun for not noticing?
the door creaks open and sehun turns his head to see kyungsoo. the latter’s eyes grow very wide. “you’re awake?” sehun nods and kyungsoo purses his lips momentarily. “anyway, breakfast’s ready,” he jabs a thumb behind him and enters the room fully. “go eat while i wake up our leader.”
sehun nods once again and slides off his bed, going out and noticing that kyungsoo only set the table for five. he stares at the empty space in front of jongin’s chair and looks up when baekhyun shuffles into the living room, yawning widely and rubbing his eyes. “’morning, maknae.”
“why isn’t there a plate for kai?” sehun asks, gesturing vaguely towards the area.
baekhyun lowers his hand in surprise. “he … didn’t tell you?”
“tell me what?” sehun feels dread creeping up on him. he doesn’t want to know.
“that … that …” baekhyun clears his throat and shifts his weight from one foot to another, clearly uncomfortable with the fact that he’s the one who has to tell sehun what jongin told them. “well, he told us in the van that he’s going to be sleeping over in m’s dorm.”
“what?!” sehun yelps. sleeping over in m’s dorm and not telling sehun? and what about luhan being his orange juice? “why would he - why didn’t he tell m- where was i?!”
“you … you were listening to your ipod …” baekhyun mumbles, playing with his fingers.
“and not one of you even thought to tell me while i was right fucking there in the fucking van next to you?!” sehun screams.
“language, sehun,” chanyeol growls as he, too, appears from his room. “you may be angry, but that doesn’t give you the right to curse and shout at baekhyun. keep in mind who your elders are!”
“fuck you guys being my elders!” sehun knows there’ll be hell to pay should joonmyun and, god forbid, yifan find out about his being disrespectful, but he doesn’t care. not right now, at least. “you’re my friends! why didn’t you tell me?! when did he leave? why? what about luhan hyung?!” he practically screams the last part and collapses to his knees, tears making their way down his face.
chanyeol and baekhyun, not expecting sehun to suddenly cry, flail around wildly. it’s joonmyun who jumps into action, going towards the crying boy and scooping him into his arms. “it’s fine, sehun,” he says quietly, patting sehun’s back. “just let it out.”
“i miss him so much, hyung,” sehun sobs, clutching joonmyun’s shirt. “i’m sorry for cursing and screaming at baekhyun hyung, i promise to be a good maknae, so please return kai to me.”
kyungsoo watches the whole thing from the doorway of joonmyun’s and sehun’s shared room. he sighs and goes to his own room, dialing jongin’s number. jongin picks up after the first ring.
“wherever you are, talk to sehun. you’ve got a lot of explaining to do. you’ve tortured him enough.”
he hangs up almost instantly.
*
three knocks on the door causes minseok to lightly kick zitao’s back. “yah, you. get the door.”
“why me?” zitao pouts, but years of training alongside the guy has made minseok impervious to zitao’s cuteness. okay, maybe not completely. unlike some leader he knows.
“because i’m the eldest and i said so.” his foot continues to poke zitao’s back. “come on. come on. come on. come on. come on. come o-”
“all right, all right!” zitao sighs and throws his hands in the air in frustration. “sometimes i can’t even understand why you’re the eldest.”
“just answer the door, taozi,” luhan smiles amusedly.
zitao stands obediently and smiles at luhan, the latter beckoning zitao closer so he can stroke his face appreciatively. “you’re like a cat, always begging for attention.”
“i’m gege’s favorite cat, though, right?” zitao asks excitedly, obviously wanting to brag to the other feline-looking person in their group that luhan likes him more.
luhan rolls his eyes. “yes, you’re my favorite cat.”
zitao grins. “take that, chen hyung!”
“wait, why do you listen to him and not to me?” minseok whines.
“because he’s injured and i love him more,” zitao sticks his tongue out at minseok.
“is it because he’s chinese?” minseok pouts.
“psst, that’s racism!” luhan mock whispers.
“no,” zitao furrows his brows in slight annoyance. how dare minseok think that. “it’s because i love him more.”
“ingrates,” minseok huffs, reaching out and softly touching the cut on luhan’s upper lip. “see if i clean up after you.”
three more knocks sound, though this set sounds a bit more urgent compared to the other set. “oh right. i’m coming!” zitao rushes to the door and opens it. “who is i-” he blinks, eyes growing wide with surprise. “sehun! what are you doing here?”
luhan freezes at the mention of his name. “did he just say sehun?” he whispers to minseok, who nods frantically, eyes as wide as luhan’s. “shit!” luhan curses. minseok wraps an arm around him and helps luhan limp to his bedroom, locking the door behind them.
“i’m here to see kai,” the look on sehun’s face is absolute. he pushes past zitao and enters the living room. “where is he?”
“he’s … not here,” zitao bites his lower lip and closes the door behind him.
sehun whirls around so terrifyingly fast that his shoes squeak loudly against their floor. zitao prays to all the gods he knows and heard of that manager won’t kill them for the burn mark left behind. “what? then where is he?”
“he … left,” zitao looks away, “earlier this morning. i don’t even know what time he left. when i woke up, he was already leaving.”
“why didn’t you stop him?!” sehun shrieks for the third time that morning. he stalks forward and grabs zitao’s forearms, squeezing hard. pain flits across zitao’s face but sehun’s too angry at him to care. “why would you let him go just like that?!”
“i … i didn’t know that i was supposed to stop him,” zitao whines out, the beginnings of tears forming on his eyes. “i’m sorry, sehun, i -”
“oh my god!” sehun shakes zitao once. “you’re my friend! didn’t he tell you why he was here in the first place? and even if he didn’t, didn’t you ask him?”
“sehun,” yifan’s voice booms from the kitchen. sehun finds this awfully familiar. “you have no right to take out your anger on others. let go of zitao this instant.”
sehun looks at yifan with the iciest glare he can muster and tightens his grip on zitao’s shoulders, zitao gasping when nails come in contact with his skin. “no.”
yifan growls and takes threatening steps towards sehun. “sehun, you -”
“stop!” yixing slides in between them and pushes yifan away. “stop, ge, you know this won’t work.” yifan eyes sehun angrily but stays where he is. yixing rounds to sehun, eyes pleading. “sehun, please let go of tao. he didn’t do anything to you.”
sehun’s eyes narrow. zitao’s eyes dart fearfully between the two boys.
“i’ll tell you what happened,” yixing says, offering a hand for sehun to take.
sehun instantly lets go of zitao’s arms. nail marks are visible on his skin and the blood flow rushes back to his arms so fast that zitao nearly faints from lightheadedness. yifan is quick to catch him and sehun can taste guilt in the back of his throat. he catches yifan’s eye and he opens his mouth to apologize when yixing takes his hand and tugs sehun to his room.
“as you may know, kai was here today,” yixing says as he closes the door.
“why?” sehun can only ask.
“he said something about not wanting to see you for a while,” jongdae says as he, too, enters the room.
“out,” yixing points at the door.
“hey, don’t mind me,” jongdae shrugs. “i was bored so i came to watch you guys. besides, you might have problems explaining some parts so i’m here to help.”
“with caramelized popcorn?” yixing gestures to the bowl in jongdae’s hands.
“hey, boredom calls for hunger,” jongdae defends. “anyway, continue.”
“he … he doesn’t want to see me?” sehun repeats in a hollow voice.
yixing nods. “i’m sorry, sehun. that’s what he said.”
“a bit too literally,” jongdae mutters with popcorn in his mouth, trying to see if he can separate the sweetness from the popcorn by sucking hard enough.
yixing flashes him a glare before turning back to sehun. “he said he gained approval from suho hyung to come here, so he did while you were in the showers. luhan ge opened the door and … well … let’s just say that things turned sour after that.”
sehun sits a bit straighter at this, hands gripping his pants tightly. “what do you mean?”
“he sucker punched luhan hyung,” jongdae says bitterly, holding a popcorn in between his index finger and thumb and bringing it to eye level. “began to kick the hell out of him and screamed about stealing you.”
sehun’s eyes are wide and his face grows paler. “… what?”
“kris hyung and tao managed to pull jongin away from luhan hyung, but it was too late. luhan hyung was badly injured and he can’t be seen in public for a while.”
“he …” sehun swallows, mortified with the thought that jongin would actually injure a friend to that extent. “he did that?”
“luhan hyung can’t even walk,” jongdae continues, squeezing the popcorn until it became crushed. “i hope you’re happy.”
sehun stares at jongdae. “what?”
yixing sighs and sends jongdae a warning look. “tao dragged kai to his room, and after a couple of hours in there, while xiumin ge was treating luhan ge, kai began to apologize like crazy. he bowed nonstop and said that he had difficulty facing you and this problem between you both is getting to his head.”
jongdae suddenly stands up. he leaves the bowl on the bedside table and stalks towards sehun. he curls a fist in sehun’s shirt and brings him up, eyes screaming murder. sehun had never thought jongdae to be intimidating in the least, but now he’s shivering under the older boy’s gaze. “fix. this. whatever the fuck you and jongin did or had or whatever, fucking fix. it.”
“kim jongdae!” yixing gasps at jongdae, who releases sehun and leave the room with a slam. yixing sighs and his shoulders slump. “i’m sorry. it’s just that chen loves luhan ge. he loves all of us equally, so he doesn’t want any of us hurt.” he pats sehun’s shoulder. “you understand, right?”
sehun’s still shocked. “… yeah,” he murmurs.
he’s lying. he thinks he loves jongin a lot more than he cares to admit.
*
after apologizing to zitao (and forcing open luhan’s bedroom door, bursting into tears, hugging him and apologizing too), sehun leaves the dorm. he needs to find jongin and talk this out. the only problem is, he doesn’t know where jongin is at this time. he decides taking a walk will help clear his mind.
as much as walking by a river is cliché, sehun finds it relaxing. he just hopes that no one would recognize him, so he pulls his beanie lower but he realize that that doesn’t really help. he used to be an ulzzang, famous for his looks, so people are going to stop and stare at him because of his appearance anyway.
he blinks and halts when he notices a figure sitting near the edge of the river and just staring at the water. kai? he thinks, heart beating faster as he continues walking and increases his speed. i recognize that tanned skin anywhere. “kai!” he calls out.
the figure jumps and looks around for the source of noise. when he notices sehun half-running towards him, he scrambles to his feet but gets knocked back down to the ground when sehun pounces on him. “kai! where were you?”
jongin’s struggling underneath him. “get off me.”
sehun narrows his eyes “no. we need to talk.”
“no. now get off me.”
sehun reels back a fist and punches jongin, the sound loud enough for people to get startled. jongin’s laying still, head snapped to the side and eyes wide. “we. need to talk,” sehun repeats, voice softer.
*
“i miss you.”
“you missed me to the point that you had to punch me?” jongin glares, wiping the blood away, but more keep coming.
after several minutes of sehun trying to convince jongin that they should talk, the latter agreed with a reluctant sigh and sehun was more than happy to drag him to the nearest least secluded area.
“i had no choice,” sehun sighs. “you were struggling.”
“how can i not?” jongin continues to wipe away the blood.
“… why did you beat up luhan hyung?”
jongin freezes then looks at sehun with wide eyes. “you - you know -”
“of course i know,” sehun snaps. “after realizing you weren’t at home, i went to m’s dorm. there, i proceeded to make kris hyung plan my future death by hurting tao hyung and learned that from lay hyung and chen hyung that you nearly beat luhan hyung to death.”
“oh my god, i’m so sorry,” jongin sighs, hanging his head and covering his eyes with his hand. “i didn’t know what came over me. i -”
“you thought that luhan hyung was stealing me?” sehun says quietly. “from you?”
jongin goes a bit red at that. “… y-yeah …” he mumbles.
sehun’s heart drops at the miserable tone and scoots forward. jongin looks up when he feels sehun’s shirt against his arm. sehun gives him a tiny smile and leans forward, brushing his lips against jongin’s cheek.
jongin freezes and pushes sehun away. “wait, what are you doing?”
“i’ve been so selfish for so long,” sehun whispers, tears in his eyes, “that i didn’t notice my best friend all this time.” he tentatively touches jongin’s bruised cheek, but when jongin doesn’t do anything to stop him, sehun strokes his cheek. “who was the one who stayed by my side when i first entered this company? who was the one who continued to push me on even when i felt my absolute worst? who was the one who saw all my worse sides and deserve to see my best?”
“sehun -”
“i pushed you away the moment luhan hyung stepped into the company,” sehun’s tears are making their way down his cheeks. he feels like a fucking sissy but he needs to do this. he needs to apologize to jongin and let him know. “i don’t know why i did that, but maybe it’s because i felt as if he can relate to me the most.”
jongin’s eyes soften at his words, his hand lightly grasping sehun’s that’s on his cheek.
“is it too late to say that i realize my feelings and that i love you more than a best friend should?” sehun sniffs.
“yes. it’s far too late for that,” jongin smiles. “but better late than never, they always say.” he cups sehun’s face in his hands and brings him close. their lips brush and jongin opens his eyes a fraction, to see if this is real, and all that greets him is sehun’s closed eyes, lips trembling with anticipation. jongin closes his eyes again and kisses sehun.
sehun then realizes why jongin had asked if he hated orange juice in general all those weeks ago.
jongin tastes exactly like orange juice.
he still hates orange juice.
he deepens the kiss anyway.
*
“i’m sorry.”
jongin chuckles, slinging an arm over sehun’s shoulders. “for what?” they’ve spent over two hours by the river, clearing any and every misunderstandings, jongin confessing to sehun the ‘proper’ way (he didn’t like the way how sehun found out) and them catching up in each other’s lives.
sehun smiles. “i’m sorry for making you misunderstand.”
jongin glances around and, after making sure that no one’s around, presses a kiss to sehun’s temple. “it’s fine.”
“no, wait,” sehun stops walking and jongin blinks in confusion. “kiss me.”
jongin lets out a short laugh. “what?”
“kiss me.”
“and that’s what i thought you said.”
sehun glares. “just kiss me.”
jongin furrows his eyebrows. “i already did.”
sehun resists the urge to roll his eyes. “on the lips, stupid.”
jongin rolls his eyes but grins immediately after. “say my name.”
“kiss me, kai.”
the light in jongin’s eyes dim slightly and the corners of his grin look crooked now. oh, sehun thinks. he takes jongin’s hands in his. “kiss me, jongin.”
the smile jongin gives him makes sehun think it’s worth breaking that ‘call everyone by their stage name’ rule he had given himself, the older of the two wrapping his arms around sehun’s waist and bringing him close for another kiss.
they break apart and jongin rests his chin on sehun’s shoulder, the latter resting his hands on jongin’s back. “i love you, sehun,” jongin whispers, “and i regret not telling you before. thank you so much.”
yep, sehun thinks, satisfied. definitely worth it.
*
“change my drink.”
kyungsoo eyes sehun confusedly but pushes the glass away anyway. baekhyun looks up from his cereal and blinks at sehun. “why? i thought you like orange juice now.”
sehun shakes his head. “only when it’s on jongin’s lips.”
baekhyun rolls his eyes. “ew. and what happened to ‘calling everyone by their stage name’?”
sehun shrugs and smiles. “i made an exception for jongin.”
before anyone can roll their eyes, jongin’s head pops into the kitchen. “did i hear someone call my name? as in, my real name? and by my wonderful boyfriend?”
“said wonderful boyfriend who caused you to beat luhan hyung to shit,” chanyeol mutters around his spoon, eyes closed and resting his head on his hand.
“i will hurt you,” jongin says, walking over to sehun and sitting next to him.
“i still feel awful for him, though,” sehun sighs. “i mean, he didn’t even know.”
“about what?” joonmyun asks, stepping into the kitchen and toweling his hair dry. “that kai had a crush on you or that he was going to get beat up because of it? because he knew both.”
that sentence has chanyeol whistling, his eyes still closed. “damn. hyung is smart.”
“i would say that he can go screw himself, but i think i’ve been way more bite than bark,” jongin says with an apologetic wince on his face.
“hey, at least minseok hyung’s taking care of luhan hyung in the meantime,” baekhyun says.
“and we all know how awfully close those two are now that jongin’s sticking with sehun,” chanyeol plays along, all signs of sleepiness gone now that there’s mischief in the air.
jongin scowls and sehun laughs. “you two can go fuck yourselves.”
“language, second youngest,” joonmyun tuts, wagging his finger at jongin. “just because you and sehun are growing, that doesn’t mean that you can curse whenever and to whomever you want.”
joonmyun waving his finger gives sehun an idea. he reaches over to the other side of the table and pulls back the glass of orange juice, everyone watching him with both interest and curiosity. sehun dips a finger into the glass and kyungsoo shrieks about sanitary.
sehun ignores him and wipes his finger all over jongin’s lips, the latter smiling as another idea pops into his head. when sehun pulls his finger away, jongin grabs his wrist and sucks his finger, baekhyun leaping from his chair and squirming in disgust. chanyeol grabs a handful of bread and begins to tear them into tiny pieces. jongin pulls a chuckling sehun closer and kisses him, everyone groaning around them.
“i love you,” jongin says as they pull apart.
“i love you too,” sehun says shyly, a bit embarrassed about his actions.
“i hate you guys,” kyungsoo scrunches his nose as he eyes the orange juice. what a waste.
“you’re both disgusting,” baekhyun has an unamused frown on his face.
“i’m sending you both to ‘how to be a good maknae’ camp,” joonmyun rolls his eyes.
“you may now kiss the bride,” chanyeol throws the bread crumbs into the air, kyungsoo squawking at his actions. hey, there’s no fun if people do things and not get caught without his contribution. “feliz navidad, happy hanukkah, god bless the queen, and all that jazz.”
kyungsoo looks about three seconds from murdering chanyeol. “i am giving you a three-second headstart.”
chanyeol raises a hand in appreciation. “much obliged.” he bolts from his chair and kyungsoo runs after him, screaming bloody murder.
“why am i made leader of this group,” joonmyun shakes his head.
baekhyun inches away from the table, the happy couple now taking advantage of the fact that no one’s attention is on them anymore and making out like their lives depend on it.
“orange juice is now forbidden from this household!” kyungsoo screams.
*
- hey look it’s me trying to fit in with default lj layout and shit ;;
- hey look i can write fluff.
- hey look bratty sehun.
- idk how orange juice became this.
- for light_on_oceans who wanted me to write more sekai (even though this is my first sekai ever).
- this wasn’t supposed to go over ten pages.
- also happy (early) birthday to me. exo-k is here in my country right now but i can’t go because 1) expensive and 2) there’s no tao fucking finals /crying because i don’t get to see chanyeol.
- ^this is the saddest i’ve ever been in my entire life.