it's a simple enough text, but it's what brings chris over to your home this late as he snuggles into your side, grinning at the youtube video you've got pulled up on your TV. sure, the ads suck compare to watching on your laptop, but you don't mind it as much when chris is around. both of you have been a little too busy to see each other lately, the only semblance of his presence being in the fleeting texts that you send off to each other: good morning and here's what i'm having for lunch, i hope you're well and can we call? and i missed hearing your voice. sweet dreams. i love you. but the days feel like they're just getting longer and longer whenever you don't see him.
truly, you didn't mean to bring him. but that itch of feeling alone had crawled underneath your skin, and so you texted, and so he came running. his lips graze the underside of your jaw for a moment, just a chaste kiss before his head settles back on your shoulder.
"hey." his arm curls around your bicep, and then slowly slides down until his hand is in yours. "i missed you, y'know."
you told him once you'd been a lonely kid, a lonely teenager, and now a lonely adult who has friends but adulthood keeps you all busy in different ways. chris always promised that if you needed him, he would come running to keep you company before those dark thoughts can seep back in.
and he has. and one day, he won't have to run anymore. his lease will be up in a few months, and then he'll be moving in with you, and all you'll have to do is turn over if you want to see his sleeping face.
for now, you'll settle for stealing a kiss before falling asleep on the couch together... and then cursing the choice to do so when your back hurts a little too much the following morning.
soonyoung's cheek presses against your shoulder as the two of you laze around in your hotel room. you have plans to go back out tonight, to have a nice dinner together to celebrate your birthday... but it's still hot out, and your morning had been filled with sightseeing and finding souvenirs to take home to your loved ones. there's a movie playing on the TV that neither of you are paying too much attention to. soonyoung's on his phone, responding to a text from his mom, while you're thanking various people for birthday messages.
he stretches, like a cat, and then settles, one of the legs entangling with your own. he lets out this blissful sigh, and then he looks up to study your face for a moment. "are you happy?"
"hm?" you turn after sending off the last text, clicking your phone off. "what do you mean?"
"are you happy here?" he gestures vaguely to the room around you. it's your first vacation in a while, and one he'd gently pushed you to go for (whether you came here alone or with him). "it's was busier this morning than i thought it'd be. i know you like your space."
you do, but soonyoung's the kind of person who it doesn't feel like a drain on your social battery to engage with. at least most of the time--the exception is when he's with some of his more social friends, since that's when you're just along for the ride and watching him thrive, all while knowing he'll knock out the second the two of you get back to your bed at the end of the day. "i'm okay." you turn over, pressing a kiss against his temple. "were you worried?"
"it's your birthday," he says, arms coming to wrap around you. "i don't want you to be unhappy today."
he's so sweet, and it makes you smile hard enough that your nose wrinkles a little. "cute," you hum. "i'm happy. you make me happy."
his nose scrunches, too, when he smiles. "yeah?" he steals a kiss. "then happy birthday. you're my favorite person to be lazy with."
you just burst into giggles, and find refuge in his presence. the two of you will go back out in a bit to face the world again, to be social in that touristy way of talking about home and why you're traveling and where all you've been if someone prods for that information... but for now, soonyoung's arms are a place of peace.
(and cat videos, once you turn back around so that he can hold up his phone for the two of you to watch something silly while your social battery recharges.)
"why don't we ever go on a real date?" you ask it so casually that minho thinks he's dreaming for a moment.
he's made you breakfast and lunch today, doting on you a little more than he usually does. you fell asleep next to him last night, and woke up feeling better (you always do, apparently, since you always tell him that he's like your own dose of headache medicine). but minho's still caring for you, because he knows how bad your migraines can get. he knows how you tend to feel useless when you're left laying in the dark, hoping that medicine will work or sleep will wash it away once it finally claims you again.
"that implies we've gone on dates."
"haven't we?" again, so casual... it's frustrating in an endearing way. "we take advantage of couple's discounts."
right, but both of you would do that with anyone. "where do you want to go?" he decides to play along. if this is a game, the two of you will laugh. but maybe chris is right.
fuck, chris is right. chris wouldn't lie to him about this. not when he knows how deep this goes.
you just let out this long hum as you think, and he almost thinks you're messing with him. "first dates are so hard," you mumble to yourself, and minho doesn't think he's meant to catch it.
"so it doesn't have to be." he dries his hands on a dish towel, and then takes a long sip of his tea as he watches you. "didn't you say we've been on dates before?"
you just nod, and don't answer him, still caught up in your thoughts.
"how long?"
that gets your attention. you look at him, "hm?"
"how long have you known?"
you open your mouth, then close it, averting your gaze. "after jisung asked why you don't date anymore a few days ago. you looked over at me for a second, and then made an excuse, and..." you let out this long sigh. "i realized things weren't so one-sided for me."
one-sided...? "how long, then?"
"years. i don't know. i think i've spent my entire life loving you." you rest your cheek against your palm. "and somewhere along the way, it turned into something romantic. i don't know when. i've never thought about it."
he laughs a little. of course your story is parallel to his own. he doesn't know when he went from loving you like a friend to loving you like your souls are more than intertwined, from loving you to being in love with you.
after a moment of studying him, you pose the question back to him.
"always, i think." he can't imagine a time in his life where he hasn't loved you now, though. in some way, you were always love to him. "is that cheesy?"
it's your turn to laugh at him, warm and loving as always. "a little. but i don't mind. we can be cheesy for a while." you just grin at him. "maybe dinner."
dinner is good. simple. and he nods. "wherever you want to go." he'll follow you anywhere at this point.
the answer is you. minho hears the way his door creaks open, and he raises up enough to watch as you make your way into his room. its the darker of the two bedrooms in this apartment, and he’s offered to switch rooms with you only to be denied. too much of a hassle, you’d always say. but you wander in on nights where your head hurts too much and you need the darkness, and he—who has known you since the two of you were old enough to toddle after the other and get into trouble—doesn’t mind sharing a bed with you.
“is it bad?” he asks as you crawl into his bed.
whatever you mumble as you gracefully flop down, he can’t make it out. ah. that bad, hm? he just nudges you closer so that you can hide your face in his shoulder.
he’s in love with you. he always has been.
but in the midst of what might be a rising migraine, he’ll just hold that fact to his chest for now. maybe tomorrow he’ll tell you. maybe next week. or maybe never: maybe his friends are wrong and you don’t feel the same way.
no matter what, there will always be the part of him that loves you in some way. so he’ll just cradle the back of your head for a moment and ask if you’ve eaten recently, just to know how he should dote on you now.
seungcheol's hand curls around your own as he tugs it over to him with no resistance, leaving you to try and type one-handed at your laptop for the moment. you don't ask questions (seungcheol has always been the kind to surprise you with little things like this), but you do look over to see that he's sporting his own matching ring to the one he's sliding onto one of your fingers. he looks up at you, hair hanging in his eyes, and grins before pressing his lips against the ring.
"it reminded me of you, so i got it." he lets go of your hand, and you hold it up to survey the ring. the pattern does seem like something you'd like, and this is far from the first pair of rings the two of you have bought for one another, so it's a perfect fit. "do you like it?"
"it's pretty," you hum, and your hand cups his jaw. "not as pretty as you, but pretty."
he just scrunches his nose in response, smiling as best as he can when you squish his face a little bit more. seungcheol frees himself easily enough, leaning over just to press a lingering kiss against the side of your face before he gets back up to go put away the rest of his little shopping haul. he'll tell you about the time he spent with friends once you're done with your work.
but you wait until he gets a few steps away to call out, "you don't love me enough to kiss me right?"
all it takes is the sound of his thundering steps for you to know you've got him, hook, line, and sinker. he leans over your chair to kiss you properly, and you feel the way he smiles against your lips before pulling away again with that damn twinkle in his eyes. "hi," he says softly. "i love you."
he's too easy sometimes to tease. you just smile, blowing him a kiss as he walks away. "love you, too, silly."
also if i seem even spottier than usual this is why haha (<- writer who deals with guilt when not working on her first draft bc 'i should be working on something that i love and enjoy and also can also hopefully make me money instead of just the things that do the former two')
jisung sits cross-legged in front of the couch, eyes never leaving his laptop screen as he continues to work in peace. he feels at the way you mess with his hair, your knee bumping into his shoulder when you move to get another hair tie from the little bag he keeps for whenever he grows his hair out more and needs to pull it from his eyes (like you're a a sprout, you had told him once, a really cute carrot or something). he's not sure how many little pigtails you've made, some of them far looser than others.
"i think you've missed your calling," he muses aloud as you give him the tiniest little braid before tying it off. "you could have been some sort of stylist if you wanted. i think someone's fans would go crazy for this look."
you just let out this hum, toying with his hair as you pull out one of looser little pigtails before redoing it. "you want me to put my hands on another man? even to do his hair?"
ah. you're evil today.
he cracks a smile though, and he leans back to look up at you, the top of his head bumping against your stomach. the gears are turning in his head for some kind of silly retort (you'd notice other men? doesn't feel like a good enough fit, but he'll keep it in his back pocket for another day). but all of it falls apart when you move so that you can dip down to kiss him twice: first on the tip of the nose, and the second on the lips.
"you're cute." you start to slowly remove the ties, fingers getting lost in his hair again, the way they always do when you're wordlessly stressing about something and just need to touch him in some way (to cling to his arm, to hug him tight, to squeeze his hand) to ground yourself again. he knows you well enough, though: if you need to talk about it, you will... once you've calmed down enough to think straight.
so jisung makes one move to stop you partially in your little calming ritual, taking one of your hands so that he can press a kiss against the side of it before letting go again. "i know." he teases you softly, but looks at your face one last time. "we match like that."
and if that's enough to make you crack a smile in return, then he's happy to let you toy with his hair and tease him all you want. he'll just be there to give your calf a reassuring squeeze before he works a little longer before he's entirely all yours for the evening.
Needed to google what capstone meant😅 but congratulations on finishing it!!💖
ty darling <3 meant to answer this yesterday but alas it slipped my mind
and sorry for not explaining!! i had to explain it to another friend yesterday haha (basically for anyone who needs the explanation: my capstone course was the final course for my degree and the project is meant to encapsulate everything i learned, so i'm finally done w this degree lol!!! yippee!!! freedom!!! im gaming now)
heads up: pregnant!reader who is referred to as wanting to be a good mom. reader is not from sk. vent fic for writer as she thinks abt potential future stuff.
chris knows that sometimes your hormones can get the best of you right now. but when you end up breaking down after a phone call to your parents... he knows that it's not just you being a little sensitive. he gives you five, maybe ten minutes to cry in peace before he comes to check on you. that's the way the two of you work right now: you've learned that, in your current state, you need a little time to cry and get it out before you can talk. it gives him time to make you something warm to drink (hot chocolate today, complete with mini marshmallows and a pinch of cinnamon) anyway. he lets himself into the bedroom where you're wiping at your face, having calmed down from your crying session. he just moves the tissue box into the space between you and him on the bed.
"you think i can be a good mom, right?" you looks up from where you're curled up, hugging the teddy bear he'd bought you years ago after your first date. "this isn't just... a big fucking mistake, right?"
chris's gaze softens, and he reaches forward to cup your cheek after setting your mug of cocoa aside. "baby..." he moves, shifting down so he's laying on his side. "i think you'll be great. what'd they say?"
you hiccup at the thought alone, face scrunching up for a moment. "just... they're still pissed at me for moving out of the country, because then i can't take care of them and the rest of our family. but i thought maybe if i told them, it'd change things. and instead, my parents want to raise the baby themselves."
anger bubbles up. not at you: never at you. chris knows that this was meant to be an olive branch, an attempt to say 'if you act right, maybe you can be in our lives.' he already knows they don't fully approve of him, but made peace with it because you were happy. "baby--"
"i'm done, chris." you wipe at your eyes, slowly sitting up as your hand comes to rest on your bump. "i told them not to fucking call me again and that that had been the last straw. this," you vaguely gesture to yourself, "has been hard enough as it is. i don't need them stressing me out more."
"so... this is it?" chris sits up, too. "no more grandparents on their end?"
something about the way he says it, almost tinged with hope (you can't even blame him: this truly had been a last ditch effort), that makes you want to laugh a little. "tell your parents they can pick whatever they want to be called," you lean forward, lips pressing against his for a moment. "no competition for names. the last thing i fucking want is for my parents to screw up another kid's life." you let out this long, tired sigh. "i just... they got in my head. how come they want me to drop everything to take care of them, and then turn around and act like i'm not capable of caring for my own kid?"
because they suck is what chris wants to say. he's heard enough stories about you growing up to know that he's never liked your parents. but he also knows that it's hard to let go sometimes. he just pulls you closer, pressing a long, lingering kiss against your forehead before shutting his eyes. "you are." he says, hand coming to rest on your shoulder. "capable, i mean. i really think you're gonna be a good mom. i just hope i'm gonna be a good dad."
"you're gonna be a good dad," you say without hesitating. "i just..." you take a deep breath, fingers pressing into your hairline in frustrating. "what if i fuck this up?"
he doesn't know what to say. he knows what he wants to say, but is reinforcing that he fully believes you'll be a good mom what you want to hear?
he doesn't get the chance to answer. "i think i need to go back to therapy again," is what you break the silence with. "and... i'd like it if you'd come with me for an appointment. not because i think you need it or anything," your hand curls around his. "but... i think i need you there to support me."
"okay." he squeezes your hand. "we're gonna do this, yeah? and we might fuck up sometimes, but... i think we're gonna be just fine." he kisses your forehead again.
and maybe soon you'll fully be able to believe that again. but for now, you'll just settle for hot chocolate and chris's arms around you as you come down from that emotional high safely.
seungcheol hears the clatter of your phone hitting the floor, immediately whipping around to check on you. is this bad news? he's already ready to walk with you through the next steps you had laid out (disputing, and if that did nothing, then retaking the course). but you stand up, already heading to him.
"i passed." you sound like you can barely believe it yourself. he can't blame you, to be fair: he's... a little too aware of the drama concerning your grades in this class and how your professor's been handling them.
but he just reaches out, hands resting on your biceps. "you passed?"
"with a B!" you're beaming, glowing, with pure joy. the relief is all too apparent, and he's not sure whether it's because you're done in general or because this assignment has been hanging over you for weeks, both before and after you submitted it.
and, frankly, he doesn't care which in the moment. he's already sweeping you into his arms and giving you the tightest squeeze, enough to lift you off the ground for just a few seconds before setting you down. he takes your face into his hands, already pressing kisses against your skin. "you did it!" he giggles. "i knew you could! should we celebrate?" he looks to the lunch he was making, and there's this warm feeling in his chest: it isn't enough after how hard you've worked, the tears he's seen you cry during your studies.
you already know what he's thinking. you just squeeze his bicep. "later," you promise. "i'll pick a place for dinner and we'll go."
it's a deal. seungcheol just leans forward, kissing your forehead, and he says something you think you really needed to hear: "i'm proud of you."