Simple
Title: Simple
Pairing: Chen/Lay
Word Count: 839
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance
Summary: Yixing has always thought himself as a simple person. And then there was Kim Jongdae.
Note: Prompt was here, and it took me so long to write because I just got the sudden inspiration to finally finish what I started writing. The following fic has been written as individual scenes lifted over a section of timelines because I don't trust self to write more and descend to angst or something. Warning of numerous word repetition?
chen: "it'd be enough to hear that she loves me."
lay: "i will make you the happiest girl in the world. trust me."
-Ceci, May 2013
Yixing has always thought himself as a simple person. He lived simply and fruitfully, and he only did things that brought him joy and contentment. Single, one minded things like dancing, playing his music instruments, composing or joining SM to achieve his dreams. Yixing's life is simple in his mind, and even with the addition of becoming a full time boy band member has not diminish that faith that he can still live the way he wanted to. Learn Korean hard, practice even harder, and let the fruits of his labor display on stage. Nothing can be simpler than that.
Which is why Kim Jongdae confuses him and gives him a headache all over. Kim Jongdae is not simple. He keeps everything zipped behind that perpetual smile, his words light and his laughs even lighter, and it should all be very simple. Except it doesn't.
Yixing knows the long nights Jongdae spends in the practicing room, perfecting his already perfect voice and smoothing out the creases in his octaves. Yixing sees Jongdae filled in sweat the same way he does after he finishes his late night dance practices. Sometimes they finish the same time, and then they go home together. Those nights were when Yixing finds he understands Jongdae. Jongdae's smiles were genuine with a twinkle in his eyes, and his laugh pleasant, slipping into that rhythmic camaraderie only they both have beyond words. Every time this happens Yixing feels his head light and his heart beating, like he had been made the owner of a beautiful yet simple secret, as he smiles back just as genuinely.
--
It was during the CECI Interview that Yixing realizes that things are not going to be any more simple. He had given his standard scripted answer, of course, having been trained and taught to continue to give fangirls around the world meager hopes that yes, their oppas would want to date them one day if they fit the ideal. His answer was just, "I will make you the happiest girl in the world. Trust me.", and that was somewhat true to his belief, because Yixing had dated girls before and he would like to believe that he had been wholehearted enough to make them the happiest girl in the world.
But trust Jongdae to wreck that, because Yixing sworn that Jongdae's standard answer was not meant to be that when he had peeked into the prepared answer sheet beforehand. Instead of some deep sentences that Yixing can barely understand in Korean, Jongdae has simply answered, "It'd be enough to hear that she loves me," and his axis was tilted. Jongdae's voice was soft and honest, and as the interviewer wrote down the answer away, Yixing felt his gaze returned, that same secretive smile dancing at Jongdae's lips. Yixing turned away, heat upon his cheeks.
--
"Hyung." It was a simple mention of honorific, and Yixing stopped midair in his dancing. He turned to the door to the smiling face of Kim Jongdae and weakly smiled back, the uninvited thrum in his heart making its way through his veins.
Jongdae didn't speak more, crossing past the dance room floor and turning off the cd player Yixing had been practicing. Yixing notes how Jongdae is always quieter when it is the two of them. But they need not words, for he could understand quiet Jongdae better than talkative Jongdae. Simpler.
He sat down on the dance floor and Jongdae crosses his legs across him. The younger offers him a water bottle. Yixing takes it and gingerly swallows.
The other man kept his stare at him until he finishes the bottle, and he furtively blinks back.
"Yixing-hyung." Jongdae began again, when he was sure Yixing's attention is trained back to him. Yixing swallowed a little, he is pretty sure Jongdae knows. Between them it has always been simple.
Not that it makes things easier. Simpler yes, but not easier.
Yixing fails to recognize the smile on Jongdae's face when their manager suddenly walked in on them and urged them home.
--
Yixing prefers to live a simple life. Practicing, training, meeting the fans, attending schedules. Wash, rinse, repeat. He prefers to do fruitful things, and be joyful. Live things as clear from chaos as possible, and let life run smooth as he work towards his dreams. Nothing can be simpler than that.
But Kim Jongdae is about to ruin all that. Because for Yixing, nothing can be more content than Jongdae, even if Jongdae is the most complicated of all the simple things in Yixing's life.
"Jongdae." Yixing whispers as he creeps into the younger's bed late at night, not caring that Junmyeon and Jongin are a minute's breadth away. Jongdae's eyes snapped open, a bleary daze, and he spares some space so that Yixing has room. Yixing bites his lip when the other's sleep was shaken away, and he knows Jongdae understands the "I love you" beneath his whisper.
Jongdae grunts a bit as he pulls Yixing closer under the blanket and closes his eyes again, though now the smile Yixing loves to see the most graced his features. Yixing smiled back, just as genuine, and crouched deeper into Jongdae's enveloping arms. Everything is still very simple, and Yixing is content.