Chapter Text
“This is bullshit!” Seungcheol hisses, slamming his palm onto the surface. “There’s no other flight that goes to Seoul tonight?”
The poor lady flushes. “I’m afraid not sir. That was the last flight of the day. Would you like to take the next available flight?”
“Please.” His hands curl into fists.
The woman frantically types on her laptop and Seungcheol watches her, furious with himself.
Then something knocks into him.
Seungcheol was this close to shoving whatever the fuck had shoved him against the desk until he looks down and sees an equally enraged individual.
“Is there another flight to Seoul tonight?” He demands, completely ignoring Seungcheol. He doesn’t even apologise.
The staff looks torn and conflicted. “I’m sorry sir, but the last flight for today has left.”
“Shit.” The man growls. “Is there nothing you can do?”
Seungcheol clears his throat. “Ahem.” He says rather loudly.
“Is there nothing you can do?” The man presses. Seungcheol thinks he sees his eye twitch.
“I’m afraid not sir. I’m very sorry.” She tells him. “There is a flight at 10AM tomorrow. It’s the earliest flight to Seoul.”
“I’ll book it.” Seungcheol immediately says, causing the stranger beside him to scowl. “Please.” He adds rather meekly.
“As will I.” The strange nods.
“I’ve collected Mr. Choi’s details but I’ll need to see your details before I can book your ticket.”
Seungcheol felt smug about that.
The man takes his passport out of his pocket and hands it over to the lady. “Mr. Lee Jihoon?” She asks.
“Yes.” Lee Jihoon replies.
She taps on the keyboard as Seungcheol and Lee Jihoon stand in an awkward silence. Seungcheol straightens his tie to gather himself.
“I have booked both your seats for the flight. I think you both might even be sitting together!” She smiles in a passive aggressive kind of way that Seungcheol can’t call her out for. She must’ve done this on purpose. That Lee Jihoon was really rude and Seungcheol couldn’t find it in himself to blame her. He had to admit that he was acting like a dick as well. But much less of a dick than Lee Jihoon… even though his dick is waay bigger than Lee Jihoon’s.
“Thank you.” He reaches for his passport and notices how Lee Jihoon’s passport was in a Wakanda passport case and he shuts down a chuckle when he passes his passport over to him.
“What about tonight?” Lee Jihoon doesn’t so much as to glance at Seungcheol’s act of kindness. “Where will I stay?”
“We stay.” Seungcheol corrects but he earns himself a hard stare from Lee Jihoon. He looks back at him neutrally, challenging him.
Lee Jihoon huffs, rolls his eyes and turns back to the lady. “There must be some kind of discount.”
The lady hums and concentrates on her computer before turning back to them. “Unfortunately, the airport’s hotel rooms are almost fully booked. There is only one room available- I’m not sure if both of you would be interested in sharing? Other than that, there is only so much we can do to ensure your comfort while waiting for your flight.”
Seungcheol frowns. He doesn’t exactly want to stick around Lee Jihoon for any longer if possible. He keeps in mind how they’ll have to sit together on their long flight home. “There isn’t another room?” He asks, almost pleading.
“I’m afraid not. This month has been very busy.”
Lee Jihoon sighs. “I’ll take it.” He tells her.
“What?” Seungcheol instinctively says. “I’ll also take it.”
“We can’t both take it.” Lee Jihoon snaps and glares up at Seungcheol.
“The room is big enough to fit two guests.” The lady tells them politely. “It just depends if you are willing to share.”
Seungcheol stares down at Lee Jihoon. “I need to sleep.” He tells him.
“I do too.” Lee Jihoon doesn’t back down and Seungcheol finds it appealing how someone so small could hold such bitterness.
“Well then we share.” Seungcheol says easily.
Lee Jihoon recoils. “No!” He says.
Seungcheol clenches his jaw. “Then I’ll see you on the plane in the next 24 hours after I’ve had a good night’s rest.” He says simply.
The lady in between them looks at them both and clicks her pen as if counting down the seconds until…
“Fine.” Lee Jihoon gives in. “I will share the room with him .”
“Choi Seungcheol.” Seungcheol tells Lee Jihoon. “And I agree to share the room with Lee Jihoon.”
“It’s Mr. Lee to you.” Mr. Lee spits.
Seungcheol isn’t looking forward to this.
They roll their suitcases to the hotel in silence. It’s a silence they both agree to and Seungcheol would rather keep it that way. It was much more pleasant than hearing Jihoon whine.
(Of course he’d want to make him whine in a variety of other different more mutually stimulating ways for the both of them but that was another fantasy altogether.)
“Fuck.” Seungcheol enters the room first and when his eyes land on the bed he can’t help but swear.
“What is it?” Jihoon grumbles, shoving past Seungcheol rudely. “Oh.” He utters once he realises the problem in the room.
“Yeah.” Seungcheol agrees. “ Oh .”
Jihoon gnaws on his lip before turning to Seungcheol. “I’m not sleeping in a bed with a stranger.”
“Neither am I.” Seungcheol snarked back. “I’ll call the reception.”
He leaves Jihoon to check out the rest of the hotel room while he settles on one side of the bed and dials the number.
It beeps and someone picks up.
“Yeah hi.” Seungcheol skips past all the pleasantries. “I’ve got a problem with the room.”
“I’m sorry.” The voice on the other end of the line says. “What’s the problem?”
“The bed.” He tells them. “There’s only one.”
Jihoon shoots him a look and rolls his eyes before climbing onto the bed as well.
“I’m sorry?” The receptionist muses. “I don’t quite understand the problem.”
“The problem is, is that there is only one bed and there’s two of us.”
Jihoon sighs next to him and it only makes Seungcheol even more annoyed.
There’s a short silence at the end of the line before they answer. “This was unfortunately our last available room.”
“Surely not.” Seungcheol presses and Jihoon snuggles up into bed without a care for the world and being completely ignorant of all the trouble Seungcheol is going through. “How can there only be one bed?”
“I’m… not sure what you mean sir. We really are fully booked and if you would like to relocate into one of our bigger rooms, the earliest we can move you would be tomorrow noon.”
“That won’t work out.” Seungcheol rubs his forehead and squeezes the bridge of his nose. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll sort something out.”
“Sorry for the inconvenience caused. Please let us know if you encounter any other problems.” The receptionist cheerfully says and it grates Seungcheol’s nerves. “Good night!”
“Yeah, bye.” Seungcheol hangs up and he’s about to open his mouth to turn to Jihoon but the man is fast asleep and he kind of just stares for a while.
Well what now?
Seungcheol decides to take a shower. He feels grimy and sticky from being in the airport for so long. He’s had to do a layover and he was so looking forward to his own rain shower but this would have to do for now.
Groaning, he lets the hot spray of water wash him down and he allows himself to rest, closing his eyes and enjoying the peacefulness.
He forgets that he’s missed his flight home and he forgets that he’s forced to share the room with a complete stranger and as fun sized as he is, he is definitely not fun at all. The towels the hotel supplies are somewhat decent and he wraps it around his waist and once he walks out he sees that Mr Lee has taken off his suit jacket and tie. His shirt is unbuttoned enough for Seungcheol to peek at the smooth expanse of his collarbone and the duvet is pooled around his waist.
What the fuck?
Where did Mr Lee go?
“I turned the TV on.” Jihoon tells Seungcheol.
Seungcheol snaps out of it and makes his way to his suitcase to retrieve his toothbrush. “I can see.” He drawls and pretends he doesn’t see how Jihoon takes a double take at the lack of clothing Seungcheol wears. “I took a shower while you were taking your nap.”
“Hm.” Jihoon hums and Seungcheol hides his smirk because he can see Jihoon’s face in the reflection of the television and how his eyes rake down his arms and back and ass.
Seungcheol takes his toothbrush and makes sure his arms clench to show off his well-earned muscles and allows his hips to sway a bit more than they usually do, just because he can.
Jihoon is in the same position Seungcheol had left him in. “You’re not going to shower?” Seungcheol asks.
“I shower in the mornings.” Jihoon says and Seungcheol wrinkles his nose.
“Don’t you feel all… bleh?”
“No.” Jihoon tells him. “I’ve only had a short flight before- well, before I missed my flight.” He looks embarrassed.
“Yeah, I missed my flight too but I had a twelve hour layover in between.”
“Hm.” Jihoon hums again and turns back to the television.
Seungcheol finds it hard to admit to himself that he yearns after Jihoon’s attention, despite only having met him and that he’s not supposed to even like him this much. “Are you at least going to brush your teeth?”
“In a minute.”
“Can I turn the television off?”
“After they tell me who the winner is.”
“Can I-” Seungcheol stops talking when Jihoon shoots him a glare that burns lazers. “Nevermind.” He mutters.
It’s stupid.
Seungcheol sits in his towel, staring like a complete pervert at this man who’s watching TV and it’s because of that damned shoulder and he wonders whether or not Lee Jihoon knows how many buttons are socially appropriate when you’re sharing a hotel room with a complete stranger you’ve missed your flight with.
The answer isn’t five. Five is the precise amount of buttons unbuttoned on Jihoon’s shirt. Seungcheol knows. He’s counted.
The show announces who’s won the competition. All Seungcheol knows is that it’s about cats and kittens but he’s only half paying attention because he’s too busy watching how Jihoon leans forward with his eyes wide with excitement as the show boils down to two competitors.
The announcers voice becomes a steady drone in Seungcheol’s ear as he watches how Jihoon’s toes twitch and curl and he lets out an awh because it’s so fucking cute and enjoys the way Jihoon claps when the winner is announced.
“That to fucking cute.” Seungcheol mutters and Jihoon must’ve heard it because he swivels his head to face Seungcheol and Seungcheol thinks he’s screwed and Jihoon is going to call the cops on him oh my god-
“Right?” Jihoon beams. “My favourite was the white one. I was so glad she got to the finals.”
Jihoon was in a deceptively better mood than the one he was in when Seungcheol had met him and he had to admit that he preferred this Lee Jihoon to the other Lee Jihoon.
“Are you going to brush your teeth now?” Seungcheol asks.
Jihoon hums. Seungcheol is obsessed. He can see Jihoon’s little dimples and his lips goes to form a cute straight smile and he looks like a kitten or a very adorable stingray.
Once the bathroom door shuts, Seungcheol changes. He puts on his purple striped pajama bottoms and- yeah no shirt. It’s too hot anyway and, well, Mr Lee had enjoyed his chest so much he might as well show it off a little longer.
He splays himself out on the bed and scrolls through his inbox for any urgent emails while he waits for Jihoon to finish brushing his teeth.
There’s a clatter and Seungcheol jerks up from his position only to see Jihoon with tinted red ears picking up his toothbrush box.
“Oh hey.” Seungcheol calmly says. “I’m taking the bed.”
Jihoon glances up from the floor only to look back down again. “I see.” He mumbles and gingerly gets back on his feet placing his toothbrush back into his suitcase.
With this view, Seungcheol gazes at how Jihoon’s shorts cut off mid thigh and how there’s a stray piece of thread hanging down and how fucking smooth his legs are and Seungcheol has never been so interested in thighs or legs or any specific body part in general but Jihoon seems to make this possible for him.
“Are you not going to put on a shirt?” Jihoon suddenly blurts out, looking very intently at Seungcheol’s face like if he didn’t concentrate enough, his eyes would wander around other areas of Seungcheol.
Seungcheol shrugs. “Do you want me to?” He asks boldly.
Actually, this could turn out very badly.
But it doesn’t.
Jihoon’s mouth moves wordlessly and he looks like he needs to reboot because a couple long seconds later he’s shaking his head and Seungcheol beams with pride.
“You’re going to take the whole bed?” Jihoon then says.
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“If you’re willing to share it with me.”
Seungcheol can hear the clock ticking in the background and the pair stare at each other and there’s a tense string waiting to snap, to be plucked and teased and Seungcheol licks his lips and Jihoon’s stare drags down and his fingers twitch by his sides.
“Okay.” Jihoon says breathlessly.