Chapter Text
Youngjae checks his phone for the seventh time during his bus ride to Bambam’s house. There’s still no response to the last message he’s sent. He doesn’t really want to be seen by anyone else at the party, so once he’s there, he silently enters his house. Gingerly peeping into the first bedroom he sees, he switches the light on and takes a look around. It barely has any furnishings, which makes sense since he had only moved in a week ago. He leaves his bag of stuff on the dresser in the room, texts Bambam to let him know and proceeds to leave.
“You know,” a deep, throaty voice sends literal shivers down Youngjae’s spine.
He freezes, before reluctantly turning around. Yep, he was in trouble.
“I could recognise that glorious ass of yours from miles away.”
“Jaebeom,” Youngjae greets him dryly.
Jaebeom smirks as he leans himself against the dresser, essentially trapping Youngjae. Well, not really. Youngjae can shamefully admit to himself that he’s quite happy where he is at the moment.
“Long time no see, Jae.”
“First of all, don’t call me that. Second… of all, we use the metric system. I bet you have no clue how long a mile is.”
“Alright, nerd. Why are you in such a rush to leave?”
“I’m just here to drop off some textbooks I sold to Bambam’s sister.”
“Stay for a bit, let’s do some catching up,” Jaebeom says, equipped with a shit-eating grin.
“Nooope. I know what you’re playing at. Not gonna happen this time.”
A shriek interrupts them and Youngjae is thrown into a choke-hold by a pair of skinny, yet muscular arms.
“Youngjae! Sorry man, my phone was charging when you sent like, 50 billion messages,” Bambam says. He cocks an eyebrow at Jaebeom, having seen their positions before he barged his way into the room.
Jaebeom leans in to whisper in Bambam’s ear, eyes never leaving Youngjae. He’s not a fan of how the corner of Bambam’s mouth lifts into a grin as Jaebeom eventually pulls away. Bambam nods before thanking Youngjae on behalf of his sister and slinking off, taking the textbooks from the dresser. He’s left alone in the room with Jaebeom once again. He’s also being led to the bed in the corner of the room, again. Fifty instances of déjà vu hit him at once before he snaps out of it.
“Whatever we’re, wait no- All that stuff we did back then… a one-off thing. Not happening again.”
“Funny,” Jaebeom starts.
Youngjae groans, knowing what’s about to follow.
“Because the last time I checked… one-off things only occurred once,” he smirks as he’s saying this.
“Don’t,” Youngjae whines, cupping his cheeks in his hands and dragging his skin downwards.
“Remember that time at Jinyoung’s when we-”
“Stop. Stop it, shut up. God, Jaebeom.”
“Fifth time’s the charm.”
“That’s not-” Youngjae doesn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before Jaebeom holds him by the waist and plants wet kisses onto his neck. “God, you’re so stupid,” he groans.
“Keep insulting me. It kinda turns me on,” Jaebeom half-jokingly whispers, lips only just grazing against his earlobe.
“Oh my god-” he gasps as Jaebeom pushes him to lie down and continues his assault down his neck, unbuttoning his shirt and moving to his collarbones.
“Why do you keep trying to chase me away?” he murmurs onto Youngjae’s skin.
“Why do you keep chasing after me?” Youngjae retorts, breathless and heart beating out of his chest.
“How can I not? You’re a total catch, Youngjae. Inside and out, especially out. You work hard at everything you do. You’re kind and honest to others. You have a weird obsession with bottle caps.”
Youngjae laughs so hard he wheezes.
“Seriously, though. I saw you in the cafeteria literally stopping someone from throwing a bottle out just to take it from her. It’s so weird. I don’t get why, but I dig it.”
“My workplace is collecting them on the side to be recycled into prosthetic limbs, for little kids,” he manages to squeeze out, still barely holding onto his breath. “We have a donation box for them on the counter.”
“Oh. Well that makes a lot more sense.” Jaebeom pauses for a bit, thinking carefully about what to say before he continues.
“I’m not a bad person, you know? At least give me a chance,” he says the last bit softly.
It’s true, Youngjae thinks. The two met a semester ago, in a physics class he decided to take as an elective. By some means of fate, he happened to be paired up with the hottest guy in his lab… who was also a repeating student. He remembers having to argue with Jaebeom during their first class, explaining why they simply could not just copy the results from his previous semester into their workbooks and call it a day. His data didn’t even make sense, for one.
He remembers the first time they had sex. In Youngjae’s dorm room, where they were supposed to have been studying for their final exam. Everything was going smoothly until Jaebeom dropped a pen in between Youngjae’s crossed legs, reaching to pick it up and 'accidentally' brushing the back of his hand on the younger’s crotch, eliciting a choked moan he couldn’t hold back in time. Their mutually acknowledged sexual tension took over, and they both let it happen. Youngjae eventually had to fork out a month’s worth of wages to replace his couch because he couldn’t bear to have visitors anywhere near the old one.
At the end of that semester, Youngjae passed the class with flying colours. Jaebeom, well… he finally passed.
He remembers all the other times they’ve had sex. Having chosen completely different majors, Youngjae was always too busy with his new classes and his part-time job to properly respond to Jaebeom’s messages. He didn’t really bother to find the time to catch up with his former lab partner either. They only really saw each other by chance at parties or events organised by some friends. And boy, did Jaebeom make the most of their limited time together. He had a way of getting him rock-hard just from being across the room, with minimal effort tossed into the mix. Youngjae doesn’t understand how and why his resolve weakens so easily whenever he’s around him. He also refused to think of his relationship with Jaebeom as one of friends with benefits. Jaebeom was just a dude he kept having sex with for reasons unbeknownst to him. It’s not like they planned ahead for it to happen? Youngjae also ignores the fact that he knows he’s completely in denial about any hints of romantic feelings towards the other.
The idea of being with Jaebeom terrifies him, to say the least. He’s everything Youngjae isn’t; brash, unruly and wild. Jaebeom as a whole entity is very much out of his comfort zone.
But aside from the fact that he’s probably the laziest person on earth when it comes to his studies, makes dumb jokes and prefers cats over dogs, Jaebeom isn’t a bad person at all.
He’s actually quite sweet. Except for when he’s being stupid, like he is right now.
“Earth to,” Jaebeom flicks Youngjae’s forehead and brings him out of his bubble, “Youngjae! When was the last time you got laid, bro?”
“Don’t call me ‘bro’ while we’re in bed, dumbass. That HURT!”
Jaebeom laughs into the crook of Youngjae’s neck, before leaning up to plant a loud smooch onto his forehead, he does it over and over again until he gets shoved away.
“Just wanted to show you how versatile my fingers are,” he says, wiggling them about.
“What is that supposed to even mean? God, shut up please.”
“I don’t know why you bother telling me to shut up, you know it only eggs me on further.”
Youngjae exaggerates a groan and it has Jaebeom laughing again.
For once, they don’t go at it and have sex on an impulse. Instead, they opt to get up to kick off their shoes and lie down again on the queen-sized bed, talking about everything under the sun for what feels like hours. It feels really nice for a change. Youngjae starts to feel a little too comfortable as he finds himself wrapping his arms around Jaebeom’s biceps. Jaebeom can’t stop himself from carding his fingers through Youngjae’s hair and pulling gently at some strands, making his scalp feel all warm and tingly. That feeling alone has Youngjae thinking about remaining on brand and initiating more than just a cuddle session. Tonight, his self-control surprisingly keeps itself in check for once.
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“I mean it. I really think you should go out with me, Jae.”
“On what grounds?”
“Think about it, we’d be the sexiest couple on campus. Going on cute dates and shit. I can nap next to you while you’re studying your adorable ass off in the library. We can collect bottle caps for your workplace together. Make an army of bottle cap kids. Bang in the privacy of my apartment instead of random bedrooms and corrido-”
Youngjae cringes as more repressed memories come flooding back, smushing his finger against his lips to prevent him from finishing his sentence. He makes a silent hum as he mulls over Jaebeom’s proposal. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted to finally give in.
Jaebeom licks at his finger and the younger yelps in shock, pulling away. Quickly grabbing his wrist back, Jaebeom gently kisses his knuckles.
“I’d spoil you rotten, Youngjae. We’re perfect for eachother. Let me prove it to you.”
Youngjae pretends to think about it more.
“I can’t right now, I'm sorry,” he says.
“Why not?”
“You said fifth time's the charm. But we haven't had our fifth time yet,” Youngjae teases.
Jaebeom slowly but surely picks up on the message. A rush of adrenaline gets him sitting upright and undoing more of Youngjae’s buttons, copping a feel of his bare chest. Youngjae giggles and stops him from taking his shirt off entirely.
“Wait. I've changed my mind, I’d like to take up your offer on banging... in private.”
“Done. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”