2.34 am
Jonghyun is stimming with the teeth of his shark stuffie, Dex, while trying to decide whether or not she’s going to completely trash the audio file he’s been working on all night when his phone screen lights up, softly blipping as the screen reads: nini ♡
She smiles, picking up, tugging at her bangs. “Hey babe, thought you were asleep?”
Jongin is sleepy smiling-chuckling and Jonghyun thinks, not for the first time, about how massively gay he is, feeling warmer and safer and happier in the presence of his partner’s voice. “Dude, I was just talking to Taemin, and he’s out on the beach somewhere? He caught a fucking squirtle? And a horsea? And cut his thumb?”
Jonghyun rolls her eyes, and Jongin can feel the brain pap. “Pokego is literally going to be the death of him, bless his little emo heart.”
It’s not that Jonghyun doesn’t care about what Taemin’s up to, he does, a lot, and he’s worried about him getting hurt and getting in trouble and losing his phone and falling asleep in public (he has a track record with all of these things) but she can’t do anything about it; Taemin is hopelessly stubborn and Jonghyun admits that he’s a hardy little sucker. Taemin makes his messes, lives for them, and keeps on going. It’s something he’s always admired, how fiery Taemin is, and how he literally gives no fucks. Sometimes she wishes she were that way too.
Jongin is giggling on the line, mumbling ‘emo’ to himself in his soft sleepy voice, and Jonghyun squishes Dex’s snout. He really fucking loves his qp. “You’re horsea, I’m squirtle.”
Jongin makes some kind of whiny noise of protest, and Jonghyun bites down at her smile. “What? Why do you get to be squirtle?”
Jonghyun makes a noncommital humming noise, shrugging. “Dex said so. And you know he’s right, in your heart.”
He can hear Jongin shifting around on the other side, scrunching up his face. “Dude, what are you doing?”
Jongin sniffs. “I stuck my head in my shirt, to reexamine my heart.”
Jonghyun wants to kiss him, and whines because he can’t. “Why are you far away, come over if you’re going to be a cute, soft, weirdie. It’s not Fair.”
“I’m always a cute, soft, weirdie.”
Jonghyun huffs, threatening, “I’m gonna hang up.”
She hears shuffling on the other side, and-”Babe, just hold on, I’m coming, I’m just putting on pants.”
Jonghyun smiles. Sometimes she thinks that Jongin is so indulgent because she’s selfish and needy, but Jongin just makes it really easy to be.
She looks over at the time, and realizes it’s a lot closer to 2 am than he remembered it being, flopping back on his bed. He can’t remember a time when Jongin ever gave him a hard time for wanting anything, he and Taemin are always picking on each other and teasing one another, but Jongin’s always been so soft on her.
She’s always been a little fighty and headstrong when it comes to gaming, and is honestly one of the worst losers she knows, but Jongin never really fought him on anything, always good-naturedly conceding. He knows Jongin has let him win far too many times, and even though Taemin isn’t always the best at gauging people, it’s something that frustrates him to no end. She’s giggling a little, thinking about Taemin getting impatient with Jongin, and Jongin finally speaks up.
“What are you thinking about?” A lot of their phone calls are pretty silent, Jongin is pretty nonverbal, and mostly it is Jonghyun monologuing at his datefriend or the two of them laying around or doing their own thing, happy that the other is present in some shape or form.
“Am thinking about you, about how smelly-sticky you are, how gentle you always are with me.”
Jongin exhales kind of loudly, and for a moment, Jonghyun is afraid. “What?” He doesn’t hide the insecurity in her voice, fingers nervously curling up to stim with Dex’s gills.
“The night air is nice, and talking to you is nice, and I’m coming to see you. Am happy.” Jonghyun toes at his comforter, feeling a little guilty. It’s hard for her to reconcile her self-hatey feelings, but Jongin’s honest way of responding, and the childish, determined, insistent way he expresses himself makes Jonghyun trust him. Jongin is so patient, and so good at making people he loves feel important and listened to, and Jonghyun feels so lucky for knowing him.
He gets up, wrapping himself in his pink comforter, rearranging the blanket around Dex so they can see, tapping through snap stories that he’s already seen but snapchat has for some reason decided to reload. “Babe, we should go to that bingsoo place Minjung is always at.”
She hears a tap at his window, shuffling over to let Jongin and his crinkly happy smiley eyes in. Jonghyun responds, the phone pressed to her ear. “Hi.”
“Hi, I like bingsoo. Agree.” Jonghyun smiles to herself, ending the call and tossing her phone back onto the bed before shuffling, comforter and all, into Jongin’s space, nuzzling into his chest when he wraps his arms around him.
Jongin smells like warm and laundry and happy and Jongin and Jonghyun bites at his thermal, feeling floaty with affection. Jongin laughs quietly, laying his cheek on top of Jonghyun’s messy pink hair.
“That was my boob.”
Jonghyun giggles, pressing his face into his qp’s pectorals, hard from dancing, soft from everything else. “You have nice boobs.”
They are swaying a little from side to side, and Jonghyun feels like he’s being eaten by fuzz. Jongin noses softly at the top of Jonghyun’s head, pressing a smile there. “Guess who picked up a geodude on the way over here.”
Jonghyun raises a brow, breaking their embrace to squint up at her partner skeptically. “Serious?”
Jongin nods with all honor of a true boyscout. “Swear. Triple Swear.”
He presses a kiss to his collar, murmuring, “Proud of you,” before suddenly snorting, remembering, “Still doesn’t compare to Taem today. I can’t believe he got a squirtle out there.”
Jongin bodily crushes Jonghyun back to him, and Jonghyun smiles at the nonverbal ‘More Hug’. “Me neither. I wonder what he ended up catching over where he’s at now. Do you think we should bug him?”
Jonghyun shrugs a shoulder, the one not holding onto Dex because he doesn’t want to jostle him. “Honestly, he might be in a sticky situation and I don’t want to risk making his phone go off or distracting him if he’s like. Scaling the boardwalk or someone’s fence? We should wait.”
At that, Jonghyun’s phone starts quietly blipping on her bed, phone lighting up with an unknown number. The pair of them waddle together towards the bed, landing on their sides, Jongin whining a little when his datefriend’s forehead knocks into his jaw. Jonghyun picks up the phone, reaching up to lay apology kisses on Jongin’s chin.
“Taem?”
“How’d you know it’s me?” Jonghyun sighs.
“Babe, it’s always you. Who else would be calling me from a number I don’t have at 2:34 in the fucking am?”
“That’s fair.”
“Where are you, do you need to be picked up?” Jonghyun thinks about teasing Taemin about how her number is the only one he can remember when his phone isn’t operational because Jongin sang it in the powerpuff girls theme once, but doesn’t have the heart to.
Taemin is making a thinky sound, and Jonghyun waits. She knows that processies can take time, sometimes. “I’m okay. I made a friend, and they’re taking me home. We’re heading to In N’ Out? Did you want?”
Jonghyun looks up expectantly at Jongin, who nods. “Yeah, can you get two double doubles?” Jongin whines, pawing at Jonghyun’s stomach.
“Oh and Jongin wants animal fries and cherry coke.”
“You’re with him?”
“Yeah, he came over, caught a geodude.”
“Nice!” Jonghyun squints, tucking his phone between her ear and shoulder, picking Jongin’s hand up where it lays by her tummy, inspecting his chipped yellow polish. Fucking Team Instinct.
“Are you going to tell me why you are calling Not from your phone, or are you going to just have me guess.”
“Oh!” Taemin forgets a lot when it comes to filling people in, and that’s okay, just sometimes Jonghyun likes to know. “Um! I fell into the ocean when Kibum came out? Onto the pier? I couldn’t really help it, it just happened, freak thing.”
“Did you get caught? Kibum’s that kid you dogsat for right, that time you snapped from that hella beach house? Is that where you’re at? Taem!” Taemin is giggling, and Jonghyun can make out someone else’s laughter as well. He’s going to have to ask about Taemin’s friend later.
“Um!!! I didn’t get caught, and I was at that beach house. What was the other thing?”
“Kibum.”
“Oh, oh, yeah, Kibum is the dog dude.” Jonghyun whines softly, he misses Roo. She’s staying with her sister right now, while Jonghyun is house sitting. “He’s an art kid? And he’s from church.” Jonghyun wrinkles his nose a little, but he’s nodding, even if Taemin can’t see, lifting Jongin’s hand to her mouth to chew on his knuckles.
“I have so much to tell you?” Taemin continues, and Jonghyun can feel him fidgeting. Taemin doesn’t always need to say things, but when he does, he gets wiggly with wanting to get the words to all come out. “Jinki caught a fucking lapras?”
Jongin’s hand drops from out of her mouth. “Jinki, huh?” There’s a little smile in Jonghyun’s voice and she knows it. Jongin quirks an eyebrow beside him, and she rubs thoughtfully at his bottom lip, mischief twinkling in the upturned corners of her mouth.
“Yeah, the person I met tonight, you wouldn’t believe it. I found them hanging by a support beam underneath the pier? I’m in love, Jjong.”
Jonghyun hears the other person--Jinki-- laugh again. “Dude, are you for real? I believe Jinki but like are you real for real about the lapras, because like. That’s like, fucking unheard of.”
Taemin speaks in the most serious voice he’s managed to muster in his twenty some years of existing. “Jinki is magic.”
“I’m excited to meet them, then.”
“Dude.”
“Yeah?”
“Ugh fuck, we’re going through the drive through, I’ll see you in a bit okay?”
“Okay my dude. See you.” Jongin whines at him.
“Oh, and don’t forget the ketchup.”