melt your headaches, call it home; hoya/sungjong; pg-13; 1.8k words
they’re young and maybe just a bit reckless and definitely in love when they decide to move in together.
sungjong decides to move into howon’s apartment (after they both reach an agreement on their second year anniversary date involving takeout and a movie at sungjong's house and howon had been a blubbering mess and sungjong had found it completely unnecessary and rolled his eyes and said yes anyway because it was the effort that counted and he was cute). it takes hours to bring sungjong’s things over and to have him settle and howon says he’s tired and acts as if he resents exerting energy when in reality, even sungjong knows that he’s just as excited as he is (giving himself away when he had left for a second to go to the bathroom and he came back to see howon smiling to himself at the sight of all sungjong’s books and pillows and blankets and stacks of clothes that have yet to be hung in his-- their-- room).
sungjong endures the worrying his mother expresses about how they’re moving too fast (they’ve been best friends since middle school) or how howon’s going to take advantage of him (they’ve been sexual even before they started dating, but she didn’t have to know that) or how they’re not going to be able to take care of the bills (they both have part time jobs and dongwoo is howon’s roommate and is already putting in his share and howon had been secretly saving up for forever, that loser) or how she really doesn’t want her baby to grow up (he’s in his second year of college).
howon endures the teasing jabs from woohyun and sunggyu and how they’re going to literally go crazy being together all the time (they don’t listen and just hook ankles under the table) or how they hope their neighbors don’t mind the noise (and howon would instantly try to change the subject and laugh nervously) or asking when the wedding was (and howon would be a mess by now while sungjong explains that marriage doesn’t matter as long as they’re together).
both of them even endure dongwoo and his jokes about how he will eventually have to walk in on them in some sort of compromising position.
howon and sungjong don’t really deny it.
when sungjong wakes up the next day (his muscles in his arms and legs and back sore), he nearly has a heart attack at the unfamiliar surroundings and this isn’t his mattress and the sun isn’t coming through the window across his room and he doesn’t hear his alarm blaring for the third time that morning, but then he hears the familiar slow breathing next to him and he relaxes.
and he’s sitting up now, because the window is right above the bed and the sun is pouring through because howon gave his only curtains to dongwoo and it’s getting into sungjong’s eyes and into howon’s messy bed hair (that sungjong has twined his fingers through a thousand times) and howon’s long eyelashes (that sungjong catches himself trying not to count a thousand times) and howon’s little baby acne (that sungjong insists how adorable it is a thousand times) and howon’s sharp jawline (that sungjong has licked a thousand times) and howon’s pretty pretty lips (that sungjong has made swollen and red a thousand times) and howon’s arms (that sungjong has grabbed onto a thousand times) and howon’s bare back (that sungjong has scratched red lines down a thousand times) and howon’s tiny tiny waist (that sungjong has wrapped his legs around a thousand times) and
stop staring, howon mumbles sleepily, arm covering his eyes and turning over and snuggling closer to sungjong, wrapping his arms around the boy’s waist and burying his nose against his hip (and sungjong’s heart soars for more than the thousandth time).
sungyeol notices that sungjong and howon have become even more lovey dovey than before, if that was even possible, when they’re having a group study in the library and howon is staring at sungjong more often than usual and he’s leaning into his personal space more often than usual to explain something and sungjong is smiling widely enough where myungsoo can sense it, finally making him look up from his calculus book where he’s been hunched over for hours, and sungyeol can just sense that sungjong is swinging his feet back and forth under the table and it is so disgustingly cute that it makes him want to puke.
howon loves going grocery shopping with sungjong.
he loves walking there the most (the rare times when they’re both not busy and actually have time to go together)-- when sungjong would be in a better mood than before, a good enough mood where he would hold hands with howon on the street, swinging them back and forth like a little kid and practically skipping the few blocks there, not able to stop talking about his day or how great the weather was or how much work one of his professors have been giving him or how the new barista got his order wrong and that he had asked for extra caramel and not cinnamon.
and then they walk in and, on rare rare days, sungjong would rush to an available shopping cart and, keeping one foot on the thin rail at the bottom, he tries to catch speed, riding his way past the confused employees and customers and howon would probably be embarrassed except, well, he’s used to it.
he loves watching the concentrated look sungjong would always get when he would try to decide which apple was riper-- eyebrows furrowed and a little pout on his lips and sometimes he would stick out his tongue out the corner of his mouth and he would just look so focused that howon can’t really help but watch with a little smile and not stop him.
sungjong would always make howon push the cart (it’s because you’re whipped, hyung) and howon doesn’t really mind a bit because he honestly has no idea how to cook but mostly because he’s following the boy whom he has known for forever around who likes to rush him to hurry up or get excited about something insignificant like spaghetti sauce or when he politely asks howon what they should have for dinner that night (even though he’s pretty sure sungjong probably had the whole week planned out and would sneak in a day where they have one of howon’s favorites and sungjong thinks howon doesn’t notice but he does) or when he’s just leisurely walking down the aisle and craning his neck to look at the items on the top shelf with his hands behind his back just because he can and
howon just finds it completely endearing.
(and he usually has a great view of sungjong’s butt)
it’s saturday and they both have the day off and they had finished all their schoolwork and dongwoo was out somewhere and howon was really planning on just staying in with sungjong and spending time together and everything had been going perfectly fine, with some movie they’ve seen a million times playing and howon splayed out on the couch and sungjong lying on the floor right in front of the tv screen, stomach down and feet up and kicking in the air
but then sungjong groaned, loudly, and rolled over, skinny limbs thrown everywhere and howon’s old shirt from high school riding up and revealing his entire stomach-- pale and smooth and maybe just a hint of a fading bruise under the hem of his sweatpants.
and howon’s throat is suddenly dry as he watches the boy stretch and let out little mewls and satisfied groans and
i’m gonna get a drink, sungjong says and pushes himself off the ground, the shirt falling back down.
and howon lets out a noise that says he heard, except it comes out more like an unintelligible garble as he watches sungjong retreat back (with that stupid strut he permanently has) behind the couch and out of view.
and the movie is still playing, probably close to the end by now with what howon could tell was a slow piano song, but he still couldn’t get the wide expanse of pale skin (that he’s seen and touched and licked and kissed more than he can could count) out of his head.
he drags himself up and follows the boy to the attached space they use for their dining room, with a few mismatching chairs and a wooden table that dongwoo had found cheap and a tiny little water machine in the corner, where sungjong was at, putting his usual little baby blue cup back on top.
and there’s a little niggling at the back of his head saying but you wanted to spend the day without eventually ending up in the bedroom with your clothes off except howon doesn’t really pay attention when he has sungjong spun around and pressed against the table.
and sungjong has the most adorable dazed look on his face, blinking rapidly, his hands instinctively on howon’s hips that were pressed against his own.
and they’re kissing, somehow, whoever had surged first didn’t matter, when howon is already smiling against his lips because he will never get tired of the feeling of his lips against sungjong’s lips and the feeling of his body against sungjong’s body and the feeling of his chest against sungjong’s chest and hearing what he could swear was each other’s (racing) heartbeat and without fail, every time, it reminds howon of their very first kiss (a cliche out of the blue confession on a rainy spring day when they were in highschool and they were both waiting at the bus stop and sungjong had said you’re kind of an idiot, you know that? and kissed him right then and there without waiting for a response).
howon grabs the boy’s sides as he leaps onto the table-- howon’s hips in between his dangling legs and wandering hands already coming underneath the baggy shirt to finally touch that soft soft skin.
and when howon is already starting to deepen the kiss and already nipping at sungjong’s bottom lips, the younger boy laughs, bringing his hands up to rest on the other’s shoulders, running his hands through his short hair.
sungjong had been planning this all day.
they’re (post-coital cuddling) in howon’s (their) bedroom (finally, because, honestly, howon had been extremely needy), when dongwoo comes home to an upside down popcorn bowl on the couch, the movie credits playing, the tablecloth crumpled up and on the floor, the leftovers from last night that had been on the table now on the carpet and completely ruined, and the smell of sweat and sex in the air.
they hear dongwoo laugh nervously to himself outside and retreat quietly to his own room.
howon says that they should probably clean that up, mentioning how they probably will never be able to use that tablecloth ever again, and sungjong shuts him up with a kiss.