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hongjoong grabs his cup of tea from the counter, turns off the lights in the kitchen and goes in the living room, on the couch. he covers himself with a blanket and turns on the tv. saturday nights are his favorite nights; he can relax from all the stress that the previous week caused and can rest for the next one. and it’s even better when his roommate is out for the night. after he got comfortable and found a relaxing movie, he hears his phone ringing. he groans and looks for his phone, but he can’t see it near him. he remembers the last time when he used it he was in the kitchen, checking some emails while he was waiting for the water to boil. he sighs and gets up from the couch, mentally cursing the way he keeps forgetting everything that he does.
‘are you awake?’ hongjoong reads the notification and instantly smiles when he sees who sent it, seonghwa.
‘unfortunately. i just started a movie. why?’ he answers; he starts to think about all the reasons why seonghwa would send him a message so late at night, especially since the older usually spends his saturdays night out. hongjoong keeps thinking that maybe something bad just happened and starts to get worried until he will receive a message back.
‘no reasons :)’ hongjoong reads the message as he sits back on the couch. he thinks nothing more about it and covers himself back with the covers, not answering back since his social battery is very low and doesn't feel like talking with anyone.
while watching the movie, hongjoong feels his eyes closing, but he feels too lazy to get up from the couch and go to the bed; so he just turns his back to the tv and hops for the best. suddenly, he hears someone knocking on the door, which he ignores initially. as the knocking continues, he sits up for a few seconds contemplating what he should do. he wraps the blanket around him and slowly goes to the door.
“you’re awake!” seonghwa exclaims as soon as the door is open.
“actually, i was about to fall asleep.” hongjoong cries as he takes a step back for seonghwa to come inside.
“i’m not coming in.” seonghwa amused says. ”actually, you’re coming out!”
“but i’m in my pajamas.” hongjoong looks weirdly at seonghwa. “i have this blanket as well.” he continues to add stupid reasons just so he doesn’t have to leave the house.
seonghwa just raises an eyebrow. “you can change your clothes.” he looks at hongjoong in awe. “but you can also leave your current ones. they are cute.”
“i’ll go quickly and change then.” hongjoong turns around to go to his room, but he can’t even take a step, because seonghwa grabs him by the blanket.
“you don’t have to. we will stay in the car anyway.” seonghwa adds, trying to make the youngest leave the house.
hongjoong looks at seonghwa skeptical, but doesn’t add anything. he just sighs and takes the older’s hand off of his blanket. he would rather stay inside and watch a movie or sleep, but who is he to refuse seonghwa?
he folds the blanket, leaves it on the couch and then goes to put his shoes on. he looks for the apartment’s key and starts to slowly panic when he can’t see them.
seonghwa looks at him amused. he finds it quite funny seeing hongjoong so panicked, mostly because hongjoong tries not to show when he is panicked.
hongjoong stops searching in the living room for the keys. he even looks at the door, maybe he left them there after he opened the door for his friend; he is ready to give up the idea of locking the door and just hopes that his roommate will come soon home. he sees seonghwa trying not to laugh, so he goes in front of him, stopping a few centimeters in front of seonghwa and he just stares at him.
they both stare at each other, no one saying a word. hongjoong is staring into the other’s eyes, not thinking about anything else. since they went as a joke to a fortune teller and found out that this is seonghwa first life, hongjoong started to look at seonghwa differently, especially in his eyes. they shine so brightly and it feels like he holds the whole universe in his eyes. seonghwa keeps looking at hongjoong as well, moving his eyes from hongjoong’s eyes to his lips.
they stay like that for a while, until seonghwa realizes what’s happening; he just clears his throat and raises his hand, showing the keys.
“i took them from the door when you put the blanket on the couch. i just wanted to see how long it will take you until you figure it out.” seonghwa confesses, scratching the back of his head.
“you-“ hongjoong starts to say, but seonghwa just smiles and softly grabs his hand. hongjoong instantly, like a reflex, withdraws his hand; seonghwa thinks nothing about it and stretches his hand out for him to hold, still smiling. the youngest closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and grabs seonghwa’s hand.
they held hands numerous times. they made it their way of telling each other “i’m right here, everything will be okay” since hongjoong tends to overthink a lot. seonghwa finds himself holding the younger’s hand a lot, especially in the crowded areas, knowing that hongjoong doesn’t like being there. the older finds that it’s his job as a friend to keep hongjoong safe and he discovered by accident that holding hongjoong’s hand helps him to relax a bit.
so why now it feels different, hongjoong can’t find a good reason. he feels goosebumps when he grabs seonghwa’s hand and doesn’t know what to do next. should he pull his hand back again and pretend that nothing happened? should he just pretend that everything is okay and maybe it’s just his imagination? he is so lost in his thoughts that he doesn’t realize that seonghwa is looking at him with the softest smile, looking at him like he’s the purest soul he has ever seen.
it is too late when hongjoong decides that he should pull his hand back, because seonghwa is holding his hand tighter, opens the door and drags him out of the apartment.
“sorry, i’m getting hungry.” seonghwa apologies, locking the door. “i found a nice drive-thru, not so far from here.”
after checking if the door is locked, seonghwa gives the keys back to hongjoong, whose eyes are only on the floor, from when they left the apartment until they reach the elevator. he keeps looking at the smaller, trying to figure out what’s happening. he starts to think that maybe he acted wrong in the apartment, maybe he shouldn’t just grab his hand like that and drag him out of the apartment.
once they get into the elevator, seonghwa pushes the button for the ground floor and thinks of subjects that he could talk about with hongjoong. this never happened before; both of them staying so long in silence is something unusual, they always talk about something even if it’s just small talk.
“hongjoong, i’m sorry-“ seonghwa starts to apologize, trying to free their hands at the same time, but he stops when he feels hongjoong intertwining their fingers.
“so, what restaurant did you mean earlier? does it have good food?” hongjoong asks, looking at seonghwa for the first time since they left the apartment. “is it far from here?”
seonghwa is confused and doesn’t understand what’s happening. all the confidence that he has, went away once he felt hongjoong intertwining their fingers. he would never expect the other to do something like that and doesn’t know how to interpret the action.
“it’s not that far from here. maybe ten minutes driving? i have to look up on the phone to be sure.” seonghwa softly answers, letting hongjoong’s hand and opening the car door.
once hongjoong is in the car, he feels so lost and doesn’t know what to do. he fastens the seatbelt and starts to look out of the window. he doesn’t like what’s happening and the atmosphere, so he’s thinking about things that he could talk about with seonghwa.
“how was your day? did something interesting happen?” hongjoong asks while seonghwa is looking on his phone, searching for the address.
it takes seonghwa a few seconds to process the question. “nothing interesting happened. i just went with wooyoung to that coffee place near my apartment.” seonghwa puts the address in the car’s gps. “we should go there together one day. they have some delicious cakes; i think you’ll like them.” he gives hongjoong the biggest smile and starts the car.
“by the way, i'll pay.” seonghwa announces after he tells to the waiter their order at the window’s restaurant.
“but you did that last time!” hongjoong protests, searching for his wallet in the pants pockets.
“i’m closer to the window.” seonghwa giggles. “plus, you don’t have your wallet, you forgot it on the table in the living room.” seonghwa softly pats hongjoong’s head, in a ‘you know i always got you’ way.
“shut up, i feel like i owe you so much. you always pay for my stuff.” hongjoong just pouts.
seonghwa just winks, he gives the money to the waiter and takes the two bags with food. he gives them to hongjoong and starts to drive.
“where are we going?” the younger asks, taking some fries out of one of the bags. “you didn’t tell me.”
seonghwa looks shortly at the younger and then back on the road. he stretches out his hand, reaching the bag and taking some fries for himself.
“you’re not supposed to eat until we arrive there.” hongjoong fake cries and pouts.
seonghwa just raises one eyebrow and then takes another few fries from the bag.
“but you just did eat. i was thinking maybe we could go to the beach and have there a little picnic-“ seonghwa air quotes the word ‘picnic’ “or we could go up on the hills outside the town like we did last time.”
“you said that we’ll stay in the car.” hongjoong looks suspicious at the older. “going to the beach or on the hill means that we have to leave the car.” he pouts.
seonghwa just laughs. he laughs at how pure and innocent hongjoong is. he shakes his head.
“who do you think it will be at the beach or on the hill at this hour?” seonghwa keeps looking between the road and hongjoong, to see his reactions.
“we could go on the hills and eat in the car, if you’re more comfortable that way.” seonghwa continues, after seeing that hongjoong doesn’t say anything. “and we can go another day to the beach.” he pats hongjoong’s head.
hongjoong looks fondly at his friend. he feels really lucky to have seonghwa; the older always understands him and tries to do things so he would be comfortable with them.
deep down, hongjoong knows that. he knows seonghwa would go to the end of the world and back just for him; that he would move mountains just to know that hongjoong is happy.
“actually-“ hongjoong takes a deep breath “-let’s go to the beach.”
seonghwa looks quickly at hongjoong and raises a brow. “let’s go to the hill this time and we’ll go to the beach another day.” seonghwa repeats.
“joongie-“ seonghwa says, slightly shaking the other one, who fell asleep at some point. “-we arrived.”
hongjoong wakes up, confused; he stretches his arms and looks around. “how long did i sleep?”
“maybe 10 minutes. you fell asleep while i was telling you about the plans that i did with wooyoung for the next weekend.”
“in my defense, i was getting ready to watch a movie and maybe fall asleep while doing that. so it’s your fault.” hongjoong giggles. “but seriously, i’m really sorry.”
seonghwa just pats his head.
“i have an idea.” hongjoong joyful says. “do you still have the blanket in your car?”
seonghwa just nods, having an idea about what this might be, but choosing to not say anything.
“let’s sit on the hood of the car and eat there!”
“oh, you dummy! we can’t do that, but we can sit on the ground.”
seonghwa takes the blanket from the backseat. he opens the door, puts the blanket down and then he lays on it, patting the spot next to him for hongjoong to hurry.
hongjoong takes the bags and exists the car. he sits down next to seonghwa, giving him the bag with the more fries and keeping for himself the bag from where they ate in the car. “i really like how you can see the whole town from here.”
the older hums, taking the fries out of his bag. “we really should come here with the kids as well. they would like it.”
“i don’t know.” hongjoong protests. “i feel like this is a special place for us to be shared with the others.”
“oh, maybe you’re right.” seonghwa looks at his friend. “we can find other places to share with them and leave this one just for us.”
neither of them says anything else, so they both sit in silence, enjoying the view and eating.
“joongie, can i say something?” seonghwa asks out of nowhere.
hongjoong nods his head, turning his body to seonghwa to give him his full attention.
“about earlier, at your apartment-” seonghwa starts, but making a pause to collect his thoughts. “i’m really sorry for making you uncomfortable.”
“but you didn’t-” hongjoong tries to.
“please don’t hide things from me.” seonghwa interrupts. “i know i did; i saw the way you were fidgeting with your fingers in the car.”
“you really didn’t, okay.” hongjoong takes seonghwa’s hand in his hands. “and even if hypothetical you did it, i forgot about that already. so please don’t worry and don’t think about it anymore.”
seonghwa just nods and sighs, not knowing what to say next. hongjoong turns his body so he can see the town again, not letting seonghwa’s hand and he put his head on the other's shoulder.
the older tenses a bit, now knowing what to do. should he lean his head on hongjoong as well? should he just stay like that? he decides to not move, in case hongjoong would get the wrong idea and would move as well. so he stays like that, with his friend’s head on his shoulder.
“you didn’t tell me about the plans that you and wooyoung talked about.” hongjoong interrupts seonghwa’s trains of thoughts.
“we talked about what should we do next week.” seonghwa relaxes as he speaks. “wooyoung’s parents told him that we can go to their cabin next weekend if we want.”
“that would be really nice. i like that.” hongjoong happily exclaims. “let’s do it! let’s go!” he intertwines their fingers and seonghwa feels his cheeks turning red.
they will be okay.