I'll Take What I Can Get ; Choi Yeonjun - MASTERLIST
OVERVIEW
Choi Yeonjun and Lalima Menon have been friends for far too long for Yeonjun to still have this pathetic, all-consuming crush on her.
And when Lalima asks Yeonjun to be her first kiss, of course he jumps at the chance. He doesn't care that she is going to see other people afterwards; because Yeonjun, besotted as he is, will take what he can get. All he has to do is pretend he doesn't jerk off to photos of her every night, that he isn't hopelessly enamoured with her and everything else will be fine. Right?
That's what he thinks.
Neither of them realise it's the beginning of… something… that could change their lives forever. For the better or worse, his life is inextricably entwined with Lalima, and reason knows how long he can hold on before the sight of her breaks him.
current word count : 30k
a slowburn friends to lovers with smut - MDNI
CHAPTERS
1 - I'm On Your Side - 2.4k
2 - Take Your Time With Me - 4.3k
3 - Don't Take My Breath Away - 3.2k
4 - Every Tiny Move You Make - 4.9k
5 - Saying That We Just Friends - 6.3k
6 - We Might Fall Apart - SMUT - 9.4k
7 - I’m Doing Fine (coming soon)
8 - When I See You I Panic (coming soon)
9 - Sometimes I Wish You Knew (coming soon)
10 - Jealous Of The Moon That Can See You All Night (coming soon)
Choi Yeonjun and Lalima Menon have been friends for far too long for Yeonjun to still have this pathetic, all-consuming crush on her.
And when Lalima asks Yeonjun to be her first kiss, of course he jumps at the chance. All he has to do is pretend he doesn't jerk off to photos of her every night, that he isn't hopelessly enamoured with her and everything will be fine. Right?
Neither of them realise it's the beginning of… something… that could change their lives forever. For the better or worse, his life is inextricably entwined with Lalima, and reason knows how long he can hold on before the sight of her breaks him.
— a slow burn friends to lovers with smut
masterlist . next >
you drive me crazy
i thought
i could spark my love
on fire for you
☆ FREEZING POINT - RAVI, feet. Xydo
Yeonjun feels his phone buzz in his pocket and smiles. It was about time for his friend to send him drunk messages.
His grin is awash in the light from his phone as he presses on the notification that he got - a video from Lalima sent to his number. He walks to a quieter corner of the bar, holding the screen closer to his face so he can hear her words clearer, see her better.
In the video, Lalima takes a long puff of that guava vape that she loves. It reminds her of the fruit back home, of India — and reminds Yeonjun of her promises to take him there one day. She blows the smoke at the camera and lifts her lips into a sweet smile, eyes crinkling as she tilts her head onto her shoulder.
"Juni! Welcome to Drunk Adventures with Lima, episode..."
Twenty-four, Yeonjun whispers at the screen, even thought she can't hear him.
"Well anywayyyyy. I'm at the kebab joint, but you already know that because, duh, I told you before I left. Got us both chicken but I'll eat mine with you so you don't have to suffer soggy kebab by yourself. Uhmm…" Lalima squints as if trying to remember what she was saying. "Yuri was teasing Ember for watching Criminal Heads instead of sitting with all of us when we pulled all those tables together into a dining table, do you remember that?"
Lima stares earnestly into the camera, before remembering that she is in fact taking a video, not talking to Yeonjun in real life.
"Well anyway— wait, what was I talking about?"
Yuri's head pops into the screen and she rolls her eyes. "Sweetie, you were telling Yeonjun about me being mean to Ember?"
Lima gasps dramatically and Yeonjun chuckles at the sight of her wide eyes. "You were being mean to Ember? No, you were just teasing Ember for not sitting at our dining table. Juni, then I started crying because, do you know, Ember the best friend ever, she's so kind and sarcastic and I love her, even more than I love you, I'm sorry to say Juni. Anyway, I started crying and—"
That was the end of the message, but Yeonjun only has to wait a few seconds before he recieves another video from her. In this one her cheek is smeared with what looks like tomato sauce, and Yeonjun snorts at the sight of Lalima noticing it through her camera and using a hot chip to take it off her face.
"Juni I'm so sorry I just fell asleep and bumped my head on the table, I nearly smoosheled my chips." She holds up her not-smoosheled bag of hot chips and beams at the camera.
Yeonjun pauses the video there - someone calls out his name from behind him. "Soobin? What's up."
Soobin hands him a beer and gestures to the bar behind him. A rowdy group of their friends had come out to celebrate Soobin's birthday, and it was late enough into the night for them all to have split into smaller groups for adventures, one being Lalima and whoever wanted to make the drunk trek with her. "Nothing, just checking in on you. You good? Party getting too much, or...?"
He shake his head and points to his phone. "Just watching Drunk Adventures with Lalima episode twenty-four."
At this, Soobin chuckles. "Ooh, your favourite show." Being Lalima's friends, they've both gotten her drunk messages multiples times, and even though sometimes it's an excessive number of videos of her rambling nonsense, it is entertaining to watch her antics. "I'll let you have fun with that then."
Soobin leaves with a wave, and Yeonjun turns his attention back to his phone. Except the bar feels too loud now, and he steps out into outside area that was lined with tables and seats, all empty due to the chill in the air. He buttons up his jacket and hits play on the video.
Lalima pops a hot chip into her mouth and nods sagely, waving another chip at the camera with a wink of her round, brown eyes.
"These are actually good chips. Or I'm just drunk and you shouldn't let my unreliable tongue pretend to be a food critic today. Ah, you should however let me take your jacket!"
Yeonjun smiles at his screen again. When he walked into the bar wearing his new denim jacket, Lima had immediately laid claim to it and started heaping compliments on him. Sure, she does that for everyone, but it was always genuine.
He couldn't help revelling in her praises. She does that to people - whether you're a stranger or her ultimate best friend, Lalima always has a kind word to offer.
"Juni and also, I wanted to also tell you, that on the way to the kebab spot, everyone needed to pee so we went to the public bathroom, but on the way! We saw Dreue! Do you remember Dreue? The absolute hunk of meat I wanna chew on from when I did volleyball?"
He remembers; Dreue is one among the many people that Lima regularly thirsts over. As she's always ready to say, not only does he have a 'sexy hot-bod' because of boxing, swimming and volleyball, but Dreue and Lalima went to the same primary school when they were younger. Yeonjun also knows that Lalima only thinks he's good look and doesn't actually have a crush on him, but that doesn't stop the angry pout from crumpling his mouth.
"Anyway, yummy Dreue was at this other bar, so I went in there to get a shot and then he came to me and started chatting me up! He gave me a hug and he smells sooo good, oh my god, like leather and whisky, and he said he liked my hair! And he touched it like his!"
Lalima demonstrates, curling her fingers through the locks of her that fall against her neck. She had chopped it all off last night, then immediately cried about how much she hated the new look. It had taken Ember an hour - and a video call from Yeonjun - to convince her that she looked fine, that she just needed to sleep on it to feel better about it,but now she was positively vibrating with confidence. Yeonjun wanted to be annoyed that Dreue had her giddy and giggling like this, but her excitement was contagious.
"And! Juni! He complimented my nose studs and said he was thinking of getting a nose ring too and oh my god! Can you imagine Dreue with a nose ring!"
His eyes soften at her animated expressions, the soft lisp on her words that she has when she's drunk and the way her nose crinkles when she grins. Someone in the background of her video teases her as she blows another puff of vape smoke into the camera. Yeonjun pulls out his own vape, a gift from Lima in the same guava flavour, and takes a deep inhale, pretending she was next to him.
"Oh Juni! This is Drunk Adventures with Lalima episode... something, and our kebabs are ready so I will see you soon!"
Yeonjun sets his phone down with a sigh. It had barely been forty minutes since he last saw her and yet here he was, lamenting the streets that separated them. Maybe I should go meet her in the middle to walk her back? Gah she's literally on her way, why can't I be normal? At this point I should have just gone with her. That's it, from now on I will join all her adventures and be super chill and normal about it and not at all clingy.
He drops his head into his hands, bemoaning his predicament. Yeonjun met Lalima five years ago, when they were both nineteen, at a Halloween party hosted by a mutual friend. He dressed up as Cat Noir from the show Miraculous as a gag, but found himself face-to-face with someone costumed as Ladybug.
They didn't even catch each other's names at the time, but ended up doing an impromptu photo shoot together at the behest of Lalima's best friend Ember. Yeonjun had wanted to talk to her, to see what face was under that red half-mask, but she would be whisked away by another person that knew her any time he thought he could introduce himself.
Five months passed before he saw her again, at the house warming for the place he, Soobin and Huening Kai were able to start renting together. He learned then that it was his friend Taehyun's girlfriend, Yuri, that invited Lalima and blessed him with her presence.
Talking to her didn't go as smooth as he had planned though. Yeonjun had thought his usual pickup lines would do the trick, but instead Lalima had laughed in his face when he asked her if she hurt herself when she fell from heaven, told him that 'no, but my hands do hurt after crawling up from hell'. Every time he tried to flirt with her from then on, it either whooshed over her head or she misunderstood and used it as an opportunity to ramble about some book she had read.
It seemed that she was simply not interested, so he accepted that loss and focussed on nurturing a frindship with her, working his way from only seeing her at big parties every few months to monthly hangouts at his or her house with Taehyun, Yuri and others - and finally to hanging out by themselves.
He learned about her many fictional love interests (blorbos, as she liked to call them), that she does a little dance in her seat when the food in front of her is just so delicious, that she would drop anything at a moment's notice to help a friend out.
Yeonjun memorised all of her different laughs and all the ways to bring them out - his most coveted was the raucous sort that was yanked out of her when something was so ridiculous that she would grab onto and shake the person next to her with sheer glee.
Unfortunately for him, he also learned that she had sworn off love because of a loser she knew around the time Yeonjun first met her. No matter how he tried to convince her that love isn't so scary that you need to hide from it forever, she never really listened to him. She was content behind the wall she had built to protect her against romance.
It was three years ago, after a fight with his mother and him arriving at her doorstep spilling tears, that he realised there was only one person who he wanted to see first after every good and bad moment in his life. It was not a realisation he welcomed. In fact, he was perturbed that his little crush on Lalima might become too obvious and drive her away, but he did his best to making sure she wouldn't suspect a thing, talking about made-up crushes and his sexual adventures in an effort to at least entertain her.
She didn't know however, that he had stopped seeing people casually a year ago, when he called out Lalima's name while buried in another woman. Suffice to say he was kicked out immediately - as deserved - and only then admitted to himself how far he had fallen for Lalima.
Maybe he was a masochist, for staying and further entwining his life with her's more and more every day. For staying when he knew that if he got too greedy he could lose her, for being unable to see her any less when his heart was so warm and relaxed around her.
She was so lovely, her hands soft when they squished his cheeks, her eyes positively sparkling when she shared her knowledge about books and publishing agencies, and about the world she was building in the series she's working on right now, that quizzical expression when a particularly hard-to-write section came up… Even on the days they are together, her fingers fly across her computer keyboard for so long that Yeonjun has to pull her away to massage her hands before they sprain
Lalima's love of writing, her active pursual of her passion, is what spurred Yeonjun to follow his dancer dreams too, despite his mother's insistence on him becoming a data analyst. Perhaps he felt that he owed her the rest of his life - she *did *inspire him to save himself from the drudgery of living a life that was never going to make him happy.
And that brought Yeonjun to this day, craning his head for a peek of the woman who preoccupied most of his waking moments. He jumps to his feet when he hears her drunken giggle float down the street.
He steps out to the footpath and finally, there she is, stumbling along the path and twirling around behind the group before hooking her elbow through Ember's arm. Behind Yeonjun, Taehyun comes out of the bar and joins him, pulling his beanie down to cover his ears and then catching Yuri in a sweet hug and a deep kiss.
Lalima's face lights up when she see Yeonjun. He lets out the breath he didn't know he was holding, hands in his pockets and chest pumping blood to his befuddled brain. Lalima giggles when he closes his eyes against the smoke she gently blows in his face, and when he opens them again, she's right there, in front of him, pressing a kebab into his hand and waggling her eyebrows at him in anticipation of their food.
"Let's go somewhere else to eat, those two are so cute it makes me wanna throw up." He follows her glance to Taehyun, who was whispering something scandalous, as apparent by the blush that spreads across Yuri's face. "Damn couples. Blehck." Lalima kicks the air in their direction jokingly, cutely sticking her tongue out at the lovesick pair.
"Gross, right?" Yeonjun copies her air-kick and she giggles. "Let's sit in that corner, there's a honeysuckle bush there that we can pick through for a sweet treat."
"Ahh you know me so well Juni!"
"Of course, We're a team, remember? I'm on your side."
She smiles that sunshine-smile of hers, the one that eases every ache in those lucky enough to see it even when she's drunk, squeezing his elbow for just a moment. "I know. I'm on your side, too."
masterlist . next >
lmk if u wanna be on the taglist ^^
chapter dividers by @uzmacchiato <3 pls give them some loving
so originally i started this fic back in late 2021 !! and finally now, five years later i am getting on top of it again haha :3
it's genuinely been so long since iv written and posted so i hope you love it ! keep ur eyes peeled for the next chapter too :))
Choi Yeonjun and Lalima Menon have been friends for far too long for Yeonjun to still have this pathetic, all-consuming crush on her.
And when Lalima asks Yeonjun to be her first kiss, of course he jumps at the chance. All he has to do is pretend he doesn't jerk off to photos of her every night, that he isn't hopelessly enamoured with her and everything will be fine. Right?
Neither of them realise it's the beginning of... something... that could change their lives forever. For the better or worse, his life is inextricably entwined with Lalima, and reason knows how long he can hold on before the sight of her breaks him.
— a slow burn friends to lovers with smut
< previous . masterlist . next >
lovers in the night
we could be strangers in the light
if it's going too fast for you
we don't need to put a label on it do we now?
☆ Lovers In The Night - Seori
"So you went through with it?"
Ember stares at Lalima in slight disbelief, pushing her glasses up her nose with the tip of her index finger and mussing her blonde bob. She had come home exhausted from work to find Lalima in the throes of her chores and making dinner. Now, they are seated in front of the TV with a plate of gochujang rose pasta as an intense fight scene in their current anime plays in the background.
"Yeah, it was really nice. Yeonjun was so chill about it."
"Mmmm I'm sure he was." Ember narrows her eyes at her, biting on her fork thoughtfully. "You really think this won't change you two?"
Lalima shakes her head decisively and leans back into the couch. "No way, nothing's gonna change. I know him, he's my Yeonjun – safe, reliable and a total nutcase, and he doesn't over complicate things. It couldn't have been anyone else."
"Well how was it then?"
"It was so good, genuinely a perfect first kiss. I thought it was just gonna be a peck yano, but it was a proper snog where he took the lead and I could just enjoy it. And we had a picnic! I'm had so much fruit, I'm pretty sure I ants will come to eat me tonight." Her grin is creased tight, like she didn't want to be seen as giddy as she feels.
Ember sets her plate aside and tucks her feet under her, a knowing expression flitting across her face. "So… Choi Yeonjun takes Lalima Menon out for a picnic that was definitely not a date and passionately gives her her first kiss, and I'm meant to believe that this absolutely will not reawaken a 5 year old crush on Yeonjun?"
"Yep. Queen, I love when you believe me without a hint of doubt."
"Queen, of course, I definitely don't think you're delulu at all."
Lalima smiles brightly and they turn back to the show. She goes through the motions of finishing dinner, washing the dishes, showering and brushing her teeth and slipping into bed - but even sandwiched between her toasty blankets and plushies, she couldn't keep her mind on track to fall asleep.
Ember's words had undone the tight lid she had held down on her confusing thoughts since Yeonjun dropped her home. She tosses and turns for an hour, maybe longer, unable to pinpoint what had her so restless, what made the very air feel so thick it was like breathing honey.
There isn't a sensible explanation for why she didn't tell Ember that she and Yeonjun fell asleep in each other's arms, or that she knows what his breath on the back of her neck feels like, what his fingers pulling her head back tingles like. She couldn't tell her about how Yeonjun pulled her into his lap, the way his voice whined when he sighed her name, that at one point their chests were crushed together, that she had to hide the trembling of her hands when Yeonjun finally let her go and spent a nerve-wracking stretch of time drinking in every part of her face. She definitely can't say that he calls her sweetheart sometimes.
Well, she could have said all this, but she didn't, and she won't. She can imagine the choice words Ember would have for her and the teasing that would ensue. Anyway, saying it out loud would make it bigger than it was.
With a huff, she rolls over again. She squeezes her eyes shut, but instead of darkness, it's Yeonjun's face that she see. It's her view from this morning; when she woke up and looked down to find his head on her shoulder and his arm slung across her chest. Of his stunned demeanor when they play-wrestled, when she pinned him down and his gaze dragged low along her body. And more and more, her brain running her through the billions of times she had ever seen him, ever seen him seeing her.
Lalima snaps up in bed, sheets rumpled at her waist and hand patting over her chest in an attempt to soothe her heart rate down again.
It's because it was my first kiss, not because it was Yeonjun. This is exactly why it doing it with him was a good idea, in a day or two I will calm down and everything will be back to normal again. Just imagine if this was Dreue, or some random date! I'd go crazy thinking it's because of a crush, instead of a very natural reaction to my first kiss. That's it. I just need to get through tonight and when I see Yeonjun next I'll remember how I'm supposed to feel about him.
Ignoring the part of her that knew she is lying, she tucks herself back under the blankets to descend into restless slumber.
A few days later, Lalima digs around in her jar of sunflower seeds, picking a few to crack open with her teeth and discarding the shell.
She is in Yeonjun's dance studio, curled up into the fire engine red couch that, along with the table her laptop sat on, were shoved into an alcove at the far end from the entrance - a makeshift office for Yeonjun and his team. He and two other dancers split the studio among themselves, teaching two days a week each and hosting dance circles fortnightly.
Quiet often, she finds herself holed up in this corner with her earbuds in, clacking away on her laptop to make progress on her manuscript. Yeonjun always takes the opportunity to glance at her through the studio mirrors while he teaches his students, and in between classes he either collapses next to her or peels her off the couch to make her stretch her legs.
He is nearly done for the day, the choreography for his intermediate classes are sorted and he just needs to run through it a few more times to make it stick in their heads. It's his dream come true to support himself through dance and he makes the most of it; spare days are spent creating choreographies and picking up gigs as a backup dancer for other performers.
"Ready Lima? God I'm exhausted, I'mma shower and we can go."
"Sure, you did great Sweaty." Lalima grins cheekily at him. Yeonjun pulls a devious face, cocking his eyebrows ridiculously high and tilting his head downward to look up at her with a shit-eating smirk. Then he looms over her, threatening to capture her with his sweat-slick body even as she giggles and bats him away. "No, bad Sweaty! No hugs until after soap you freak!"
"Wow, just say you hate me, it'll hurt less."
Lalima just sticks her tongue out at him, and she starts packing as he slips into the bathroom that offshoots from the office-alcove. She zips up her laptop case and then - halfway to stuffing said case into her bag - she pauses when Yeonjun turns the water on.
In the shower.
Where he was naked, and just a few meters away from her.
And?! Who cares? She hastily puts her bag down and steps away from the bathroom, turning her back to it. The floor is incredibly fascinating to her right now and she studies it instead of acknowledging the heat rising in her cheeks. Okay, I am going to bury Ember alive. Clearly, her insinuating I could have a crush on Yeonjun has confused my poor lizard brain. I need to chill the fuck out.
Her heart-rate just falls under her control again when Yeonjun's voice floats through the door.
"Lima! I forgot my towel in my bag, can you get it for me?"
Oh good lord, I'm gonna bury this freak right next to Ember… She takes a shaky breath and reaches for his dance-bag on the couch, digging in it to pull out the traitorous towel. The bathroom door seems a lot more ominous than a moment ago, but she steels herself and cracks the door open enough to stick her arm in. "Here, Jun."
"Thanks Limabean." Yeonjun's fingers graze her hand and the weight of his towel leaves with his touch. She snatches herself back, clicking the door shut and trying very hard to not think about what is behind the one-and-a-half-inches of wood that she rests her forehead on for a moment. The red couch receives her as she flops over it ungracefully, face buried in her hands.
Yeonjun comes out of the bathroom a few minutes later, the ends of his dark brown locks curling against his neck and dripping water on his fresh, white tank. She sits up and and gives him a once over, deciding then that he is being difficult by walking around all… alluring like that. Baggy jeans hanging low enough on his hips for the top of his underwear band to peek above, that cursed tank that shows off his dancer build, and a black cap that he pops on backwards after carding his hair back - Yeonjun is basically a walking billboard saying Take A Bite Outta Me!
At least, that's what Lalima thinks. She is very pointedly keeping her mind away from the fact that Yeonjun is simply existing, and she is the one who is entertaining all of these improper thoughts about him, she is the one who is checking him out like a degenerate.
"Why are you staring at me?" Yeonjun bends at the waist to meet her at eye-level and flicks her forehead. A drop of water lands cold on her arm and he wipes it away mindlessly, hand dawdling for no other reason than him wanting it to.
Disgruntled, she rubs her forehead and jumps out of the couch. "You wish I was. Take your hat off, you'll get a cold with that wet hair. I'm gonna put you in a jar and shake you."
"Bruh, what the hell, do I look like protein powder?" He does as she says though, purposefully flicking water at her as he removes his cap.
Her reply is nothing but a poking out of her tongue, leaving Yeonjun to trail after her. He locks up the studio then hurries to match her footsteps, throwing his arm around her shoulder. This close, the coconut scent of her shampoo floats between them and Yeonjun brings his head to her as subtly as he can to breathe her in. He is pathetic as ever, catching a groan in his throat so she doesn't hear it - he is already excited to cuddle her.
"Can we go to your's tonight?"
"Yup," she answers, popping her 'p'.
"And you need to write tomorrow, too, right?" She 'yup's again. "Come write at the studio like today, you can leave your car here and I'll take us home and back tomorrow. Mmm, and you can get me banh mi for lunch too." It's the way Yeonjun says take us home that makes her heart grow a little fonder - home, where they both belong and that belongs to both, his room and her room are one and the same.
"Oohh you want me around so bad, huh? I suppose I can make some time, since you're practically begging me. I'm so generous like that."
She waggles her eyebrows at him, ever the jokester, and Yeonjun throws his head back to force out a Ha! Ha! Ha! that makes Lalima snort in jest. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Lima, this is definitely because I want you around and not because I kissed you for banh mi."
Lalima scowls at this, eyes snapping up to his in an abrupt glower. "Fine then, I'mma just get you food and leave." She sheds his arm off with the intention of speeding to his car, but he catches her before she can take two steps and spins her around.
"No no no, I'm sorry Lima, I woulda kissed you even without banh mi up for grabs."
Yeonjun realises his blunder just a second too late. He said it too lightly - a slip of the tongue that reveals his true mind - but plays it off by cracking a mischievous grin, pretending it isn't a deeply held fact, pretending he meant the words only as simply as he said it.
At least the grin works, and her scowl mellows into a half-hearted pout. Sweetly, he smooths down the furrow between her eyebrows with his thumb. That finally coaxes a smile from her, and he opens his car door for her to slip in.
They drive straight home, Lalima heading upstairs to shower while Yeonjun digs around in the pantry to cook dinner for them.
He's in the middle of chopping onions for chicken golden curry, tears welling up from the fumes, when the front door opens and Ember blows into the house. Visibly exhausted, she shucks off her jacket and they greet each other, chattering for a bit before Ember heads up to her room and leaves him to finish cooking.
Lalima floats down the stairs as the curry simmers away on the stove, cute and comfy in an oversize tee and teeny-tiny shorts that Yeonjun definitely doesn't care about at all.
"Yummyyy, I love when you cook for me. Did Em say she was gonna join us?"
Yeonjun shakes his head, stirring the pot. "Nah, she's knackered from work and wants to decompress, I told her I'd knock on her door when the food is finished though so she can grab a plate when she's ready."
"Ohh poor Em! She's taking so many shifts lately, I told you she's saving to move to Italy right?"
And the next hour dissolves in their conversation. Yeonjun chases Lalima away when it's time to do the dishes, wanting her only to keep him company while he stores the food in the fridge and cleans up the kitchen to an even better state than when he stepped in. They eat salted caramel ice cream out of the tub while tucked into each other in the living room, and then finally head to Lalima's room to unwind.
Soon enough, they are hung over the foot of her bed with their shared game of Pikmin 3 beaming from her projector and controllers in their hands. Her room is plastered in her favorite hot pink - the exact shade of her hair - in the form of art prints from artists she loves, photos of her and her friends, and random posters looted from thrift stores. The main attraction of her room is a desk with a big PC monitor set up that she spends days at a time curled up in front of, writing up her fantasy manuscript.
Having finished another day in their game, Lalima and Yeonjun set their controllers down on her bedside table and shuffle back to lean against her headboard. They scroll on their phones in silence for a while but eventually she tosses her phone to side, slinking down to lay on her back over the covers.
As expected, Yeonjun watches her peripherally.
She is deliberating something, that much is obvious by the way her gaze dances around her room without really seeing anything, by her fingers fiddling with the hem of her tee, by that lush bottom lip that is caught between her teeth.
He imagines fitting himself into her side and tangling their legs together. Concocts a daydream where her head is settled into the crook of his neck so he can listen to her talk and talk and talk about anything and everything while inhaling her coconut shampoo, where he can freely trail his hand down her arms and across her waist, then up, up, to tease at the the underside of–
Speaking of which…
Resilient Yeonjun is trying very, very hard not to even peep at her ample chest. As usual, she isn't wearing a bra, and gravity has pulled the mounds of her boobs to level against each arm. He could only imagine (and imagine he has) the way they would spill out of his hands because of their size, the softness of them against his chest if he was pressed against her, how they would bounce if he was blessed enough to be thrusting into her.
In my next life, he deduces, I am going to suffer like hell for fantasizing about my best friend while being too much of a coward to confess to her.
The vision of her right now - thick, brown legs, leading up to the scrap of cloth they call mini shorts, the fan of her pink hair around her head, that contemplative air about her - is devastating sight for the man who cannot breathe without it being for her.
As a result of her ruminative fiddling, her shirt rides up just enough that the bittsiest sliver of her belly graces his sight and snaps him out of his daze. He takes up her hands immediately and starts massaging them, pressing deep pressure into them.
"I can hear your gears turning from over here, sweetheart. What are you thinking of?"
She's quiet for a moment, happily enjoying his pampering of her strained, typist hands. "I'm pondering the mechanics of a make out sesh."
His breath hitches, mouth suddenly dry. "Ha okay, that doesn't sound clinical at all. I love how when I ask what you're thinking, you always do have some random thought to tell me, instead of saying 'nothing'."
"What can I say Juni, my brain is juicy-sexy and always turning. I think, therefore I am, or whatever that French guy said."
"More proof that you know everything! I thought it was a Greek guy. Tell me then, what's your conclusion on the mechanics of a make out sesh, hmm?" He kneads the fleshy section of her palm at the base of her thumb and she lets out a contented sigh that makes his heart purr.
"It's overly complicated. There's a lot of moving parts. I didn't tell you this before, but part of the reason I wanted to get whoring is so I can write intimate scenes. There's this first kiss between two of my side characters and make outs later, but it's hard to write that stuff when I don't have enough experience yet. Do you know how much time I have to spend moving my characters around in a room? Then I have to do that while their sucking 'n' fucking."
"Woah, true, I never thought of that. The side characters, is it Ilya and Priya who are gonna get together?"
"You remembered! Yeah, it's them, I'm still a bit away from them confessing their love but I wanna be prepared before I need to write it. I was wondering actually… Ugh—" She slaps her palms over her face, and says something that comes out as an incoherent muffle.
"Bro all I heard was 'abwabbwabbwa'. You wanna try that again?"
Lalima drags her hands down her face with a huff and kicks her feet. "Teach me how to kiss. Like, in uncomfortable detail."
That gives Yeonjun pause. He faces her slowly, his sweet, brown eyes glittering with curiosity and apprehension as his brain turns over her words. "Wha… What do you mean, exactly?"
At that instant, she realises it sounds like she is propositioning him for another kiss. She sits up urgently, shaking her head. "Not like that, I just wanna pick your brain. I have like fifty thousand questions, and the internet has been helpful but it's more general advice than super detailed. I'mma use your absolute wealth of playboy knowledge to go whore out, then use my experience to write chemistry so… so chemical that my future readers are giggling and kicking their feet, and cumming in their pants or whatever."
"Oooh, 'chemistry so chemical', is it?" He chuckles, endeared. She has an expansive vocbulary, but she can't reach into it when not writing. "Okay, what do you want to know?"
"Like. What am I supposed to do with my hands? How do I know if I'm being too slobbery? What the fuck is my tongue supposed to do, what if I think I'm being hot and sexy but I'm actually shoving it down someone's throat? Umm, what's the right amount of pressure to use with my lips, and how are they supposed to move when I'm mackin' someone? How does it work if you're kissing someone with a height difference, does it hurt your neck? If you hug someone with big tits can you actually feel that they are boobs, or is it knowing boobs are pressed against you that makes it feel nice? How do you know when to just kiss lips and when to make out make out?"
For anyone else, a barrage of questions like this might be bamboozling, but Yeonjun takes it in stride. She watches him expectantly, burning with keenness and leaning towards him now that she had gotten past her initial embarrassment.
"So some of it, I can't answer. Everyone has a different preference for lip pressure, the movements and mouth… wetness? Saliva levels? Whatever. Sorry to say this, diva, but the best way to find out is by having a proper snog yourself.
Lalima smashes a pillow over her face and groans into it."Ugh, so annoyinggg, why isn't there an official make out manual that everyone uses?"
"Ayyy where's the fun in that? The best part is figuring out what each other likes, and you do that by asking. Which, to be honest, is scary at first, but it's better than tryna read their mind."
She nods in acceptance, fluffing up the pillow again and propping it under her head. "Okay, but surely you have some pointers for where I put my hands?"
Yeonjun's face buckles into the expression he makes when he's thinking - eyes drifting high to the left and mouth squished into a pout as his fingers drum on his knee. Finally, he shifts, moving off the bed to stand across from her and nodding his head to indicate that she should join him. Then he holds out his hands.
"Come, practice on me." When she hesitates to lay her palms in his, he softens his face with a smile. "Think of it like hands-on research, literally. I'll lead you, don’t worry."
And at that, her palms fit against his, meeting his gaze resolutely. "Hands-on research, is it? Very logical of you, Juni. What do I do?"
Yeonjun pulls her to him. “You can start here.” He leads her hands to cup his face, relaxing his neck so she could feel the weight of his head, as his own hands curl around her wrists. She mushes his cheeks with her thumbs and he matches her smile, wide and easy. "I'm gonna close my eyes now, I know it'll be easier for you if I'm not looking, but I'll lead you, okay?"
"Okay."
Yeonjun is undone by the slight nervous tremor in her voice. He savors her face for a moment longer and then his eyes drift shut. The darkness invites his other senses to heighten - hints of her guava vape twisting around her powdery, coconut scent, his pulse racing at his jaw under her right pinky, the brush of her breath on his face.
And then, he moves with her.
Guided by Yeonjun, her hands trace symmetrical paths over him, sliding down to his neck, over the sweet slope of his strong, dancer shoulders, and across his collarbones. Her fingers drag over his chest and his mouth immediately parts, a thrill of pleasure shooting down his spine and causing his grip on her wrists to tighten.
Lalima watches in utter fascination as his tongue darts out to wet his lips, following the bob of his Adam's apple when he swallows. His voice is misleadingly stable when he says "See, not that hard once you're doing it, right?"
"That, or I could just have a good teacher."
"Well that’s true too." He drops his hands to his sides. "Now you choose, my arms or my back?"
Emboldened by his direction, Lalima makes a split second decision and slides her hands back up to his shoulders to start her path down his arms. She's enthralled by the glide of him at her palms - the wiry muscle of his biceps give way to the satiny skin of his inner elbows, to the hair on his forearms, to the bumps of his wrist bones, to the veins on the back of his hands.
Then she settles them on his hips, running a finger along the hem of his tank top almost on instinct before she takes a step closer to him. He feels the space between them narrow, her knee bumping into his, but he is not prepared when her hands fan over his back and forge their way up. She ghosts over the dip of his spine and drags her fingers into the muscle on either side, smoothing over his shoulder blades.
And then.
Lalima's fingers hook over his shoulders and she closes the little space left in between them. Her chin sits in the crook of his neck and her eyes flutter shut. Yeonjun sighs, bliss and contentment mixing at this skin-contact high, and then his arms take their natural place around her waist.
Yeonjun is not quite sure why he is like this, why he is in such a tizzy despite it not being the first time he could hold her this way.
He takes one deep, slow inhale to mask the shuddering in his chest. The bravado he gathers immediately crumbles when the first word out of his mouth - "Now—" - is an embarrassing voice crack. Her chuckles cuts through the burning tension surrounding them and he smiles into her hair, relaxing muscles he didn't realise he was clenching. "Now you know what to do with your hands. Oh, and I can say you definitely feel when someone has big boobs by hugging."
Lalima pulls back from him a little, and it makes him open his eyes but he doesn't loosen his hold on her. "So every time you've hugged you could feel them?"
"I mean, yeah, they're kinda hard to miss. But they're just part of your body, it's just like how I can feel your arms when we hug too."
"Hmmm good to know. Is it different like this?"
She slips her arms forward, looping them around his neck this time. It is different - her arms being higher means her pelvis and belly are tamped deliciously closer against his. Yeonjun's eyes snap down for a split second and he is equally grateful and regretful that she is wearing a tee instead of her usual low neck tank top - the latter would have given him a view of her entire cleavage. "Yeah it is. Like, softer? It's a different kind of plush, I guess."
"Well, now I know." Sweet respite comes in the form of Lalima taking a step away from him, both their hands dropping. Yeonjun's chest is warm where she was pressed against him, but he ignores it, keeping his attention on her level gaze. "Now tell me about height differences. I mean we don't have a huge gap obviously, but what's it like when you're taller than the other person?"
Yeonjun plops backwards on her bed, and a moment later she follows. "Horizontally, it's not a bother. Vertically, it is a little hard if they're less than a head shorter than me, but it just means we wouldn't do a long make out with both people standing."
"That would make sense. Juni, is it annoying that I'm asking common sense questions like this?"
He shrugs. "Nope. Usually people find this stuff out through trial and error, but some people like to do some research to avoid error before it happens, no biggie."
Lalima nods, chewing the inside of her cheek. While she thinks, Yeonjun watches her profile. His mind becomes a broken record, replaying the highlights of her hands on him, sure that the ghost of her touch would be forever imprinted into his skin.
He has lived the past five years with the mindset of ‘I’ll take what I can get’. This means he can hope and dream and pray for a life with Lalima in his arms all he wants - but never, under any circumstance, is he to make it her problem. Any bit of attention or casual touch from her, he would accept gratefully, dutifully, like a dog receiving scraps from the dinner table, but…
Yeonjun couldn't allow himself to ask for any more.
He couldn’t bear the thought of Lalima ever feeling like he’s only stayed by her side with ulterior intentions, so he has his emotions on strict lock down. It’s not like he will ever fall in love with someone else in this lifetime.
But then there is tonight.
The last few days.
Knowing what her lips feel like, how soft that little patch of pelvic skin was through the heart shaped cutout of her jeans, how curious she is about all this and that he is the only one she wanted to talk to about it… It sends a gentle heat pulsing through his body, imagining, envisioning, fantasizing about—.
His train of though is derailed when she speaks. "So… I guess there’s nothing else you can teach me now, right? I gotta figure the rest out myself.”
The words are out of his mouth before he can stop himself; “There is one more thing. Can I touch you?”
Oh. Fuck. Why did I say that?
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heyyy again imma have to wait til im home to use the computer so i can format this to match the other chapters ,,, thanks for reading !
Choi Yeonjun and Lalima Menon have been friends for far too long for Yeonjun to still have this pathetic, all-consuming crush on her.
And when Lalima asks Yeonjun to be her first kiss, of course he jumps at the chance. All he has to do is pretend he doesn't jerk off to photos of her every night, that he isn't hopelessly enamoured with her and everything will be fine. Right?
Neither of them realise it's the beginning of… something… that could change their lives forever. For the better or worse, his life is inextricably entwined with Lalima, and reason knows how long he can hold on before the sight of her breaks him.
— a slow burn friends to lovers with smut
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whatever, i don't know, i wanna hug you
i'm gonna bit your lips, will you keep playing with me?
it tickles, how far will you go?
i wanna stay like this til morning
☆ KISS ME - DPR LIVE
Lalima wakes up to Yeonjun snoring in her ear.
Sometime through the night, he had pulled off his cardigan and she had ended up with her limbs splayed over the bed, and still Yeonjun clung to her. His head sat heavy on her shoulder, her arm numb under him and his face squished into the soft, brown skin between her armpit and collarbone. Hooked into the belt loop of her jorts is his thumb, the rest of his hand spread possessively over the heart cutout at her right pelvic bone.
"Limabean?" Yeonjun's eyes are puffy with sleep, a cute pout puckering his lips that had drool dried on a corner. He doesn't seem as nonplussed as she feels. He starts unravelling himself from her side then decides against it immediately, flopping his head back onto her shoulder. "Limaaa let's not get up yet, so cozy here."
"Okay Juni, but you know I'm a rotisserie chicken. My arm is dead and I wanna turn around."
Not bothering with a reply, he moves her so her back is flush with him. Lalima gasps softly at the sudden contact, skin sizzling when his hand falls to rest at her belly. Her head is supported by his arm and she is very much cognizant of the bare skin meeting above both of their tank tops.
She thinks she should protest the position they were in but can't find the words, or the reason, to do so. It's not like they were strangers to physical contact, this is just a new form of it for them. Yeah, that's it. Yeonjun and I just unlocked a new, totally normal, super best friend cuddle. He's warm and comfy so what's the harm?
They lay there for a while, Yeonjun's snores tickling the hair at Lalima's ear, and her dozing in and out of consciousness. She was in that lovely dream space where she was kind of awake and kind of asleep. Peculiar half-dreams about arms twining and hips meeting twist through her mind, until finally she's jostled awake by Yeonjun's movements.
"You up sweetheart? I'm gonna shower, you take your time getting up and I'll have your stuff ready for you. That pack of undies I got you is in the bottom drawer, and take anything else you need too."
"Ohh so thoughtful Juni! Careful, people might see through your playboy persona and realise you're a softie after all."
"Noooo, whatever will I do without the approval of strangers!" Yeonjun shakes his fist to the sky in mock-outrage, eliciting a chuckle from her.
He leaves to shower then, making sure to stay turned away so she doesn't notice the raging boner tenting his jeans. There's a reason he's always up first in the morning when they share the bed. Yeonjun is incapable of letting go of the divine experience that is bedding with Lalima, but last night tested him at a totally new level. If the curse of having the woman of his dreams wrapped in his arms is this embarrassing boner, then so be it; as long as she doesn't have to witness the results of his pitiful infatuation.
They get ready slowly. Lalima uses the purple eyeliner she had stashed in his bathroom forever ago to draw wings on her eyes and then makes Yeonjun sit down and gives him eyeliner too. There were so many things in Yeonjun's room that were for her, little spaces everywhere where she could store her things and take from his. He had even bought a few tank tops specifically for her in the cut and length she likes, and it was one of those that she pulled on after her shower.
And then they were off, chatting idly as Yeonjun drives, then perusing the market's fresh produce for their favourite fruits and crackers, and finally arriving at a lovely park. Yeonjun sets out the picnic rug by the pond and under a tree, in a cozy section where there isn't much foot traffic.
"Picnic was such a good idea Juni." Lalima nods appreciatively at the spread before them. There were strawberries to dip in caramel sauce, crispy red grapes, cherries sitting by pineapple pieces and oranges that Yeonjun is in the middle of slicing. "Fuck, whoever invented fruit deserves the sloppiest toppy."
"Haha, you're gonna suck god's dick? Or the universe's?"
"Yup, I am fully committed and you will not catch me lacking on the Suction Three Thousand TM when it comes to the fruit inventor."
"Oh yeah, says the virgin," he exclaims with an incredulous grin. "You're ridiculous, it's like you have to say a minimum of seven outta pocket shit daily or you'll explode."
"Mmm you love it. I won't explode though, just turn to dust and be swept away by the wind."
Yeonjun raises his eyebrows at her antics and she just pokes out her tongue in response. She grabs a slice of orange and shoves it in her gob, moaning with delight at the flavour and he zeroes in on the sound. There's juice dripping down her fingers that she laps up with kitten licks and for the second time today, Yeonjun finds himself counting his blessings.
Ridiculous! How does she make a fucking orange look so good? I must be a pervert the way I wish I was fruit right now.
He feasts with her, popping cherries into his mouth and munching on pineapple; but all the while he's tuned in on her mouth. The tinted colour she usually wears is replaced by the staining of fruit, and he's utterly enchanted by the way her lips wrap around a strawberry, teeth crushing into it then nibbling around the stem.
Oranges are his favourite thing to watch her eat though. Yeonjun had cut them into sixths, the way she likes, so she can fit an entire slice into her mouth and rip off the flesh with a slurping sound that might make someone else clutch their pearls, but just makes him drool imagining it was his shoulder she was taking a bite out of, or his heart.
He accepted a long time ago that he has… issues… when it comes to Lalima's mouth.
Issues, as in his specific fascination with watching her eat. It's not a purely sexual preoccupation, but something more spiritual, if the dreams he has are anything to go by. Sometimes those dreams are of Lalima crunching into a tiny Yeonjun as if he's a honey-macadamia nut, other times it's her ripping his leg off and tearing into it like a crazed beast – other times again, it's of her curled up in his embrace and gnawing on his biceps.
Spiritual fascination as it is, his favourite dreams are when Lalima is sitting in his lap, chest-to-chest, drooling onto his neck and leaving bruises shaped like teeth marks at his pulse points as he rocks into her pussy softly.
Yeah, maybe 'issues' doesn't cut it, but at this point he doesn't care. Lalima doesn't need to know what kind of freak I am.
"Something on my face?"
"Nah, just glad you're enjoying our hunter-gatherer breakfast." Yeonjun pats the space beside him, and Lalima shuffles on her butt to sit next to him.
"Bro what are you on about, as if we had to scavenge the woods for this shit."
"Welllll, you hunted down the best fruit and I gathered the best crackers. I'm pretty sure it counts, unless you're a hater and wanna put me in a box for not huntering-gathering-ing the way you want me to." He clutches his hands to his heart, pretending to be outraged and fanning his face dramatically. "Huh? Is that it, you just hate me and think I'm a loser?"
She laughs, eyes scrunching up humorous disbelief. "Juni my love, no matter how hard you deny it, you are in fact ridiculous and a loser. We really are two peas in a pod, huh? All this talk about me and my outta pocket lines, as if you're any better."
With a darling grin sent his way, she slides herself down the picnic rug to lay on her back. Yeonjun clears their feast away into containers he had brought from home, then sidles down to join her. His arm is pressed against her again, the back of her hand just grazing his and sending little tremors of electricity racing up his skin.
Lalima notes it too.
Since leaving his bed this morning, she had been thinking about how his arms were so warm and strong around her, how he and his sheets smelled like the spicy, oud perfume she got him for Christmas - and right now like the powdery sandalwood scent she gifted him on his birthday - the way she had woken up to his hand at the skin of her pelvis.
It certainly was a new venture in their friendship. Not an unwelcome one, and neither was it uncomfortable - just unfamiliar.
They see each other at least once a week, either at Yeonjun's dance studio as he tightens up a choreography and Lalima writes her fantasy novel, or at one of their houses to play games and watch a movie, or on long road-trips to exciting new places. All that time together and there were lines they hadn't crossed because it wasn't conducive to their friendship. Or simply because it never came up; there just wasn't ever a reason for them to cuddle when they both have big beds so why would they?
Last night felt right, though, like a natural progression in their dynamic. No need for big hurrah about something that just makes sense.
"Dude. We should cuddle more. Only if you're okay with it, of course. Dunno about you, but I had a great time, I wanna cuddle all my friends. I wish I could cuddle Ember but she's not big on physical touch. Do you think cuddling releases sleep hormones or something? I slept so good."
"Yeah happy hormones, I think oxytocin? Or serotonin or dopamine or something, one of those I'm pretty sure. I feel like I remember reading an article about how cuddling helps de-stress and increase happiness, but don't quote me on that. And yes, I'm very much comfy with it. What are friends for if we can't help each other de-stress?" He turns his head to her, reassuring her by giving her hand a squeeze. "Matter of fact, come here, let's watch the clouds for a bit."
And just like that, Lalima finds herself pressed into Yeonjun's side as they sit up against the tree that dapples them in sunlight. His arm is around her shoulders, fingers clasped on her forearm. The rustling grass and ducks splashing in the pond paint a lovely picture for them as they laugh and disagree on what outlandish shapes the clouds are making.
Yeonjun feels so at peace, reminded by the universe that this is what life truly is about. What is the point of it all, if you can't just sit in the sun with a dear friend, belly full of fruit and a lovely breeze stirring your hair.
Ah. This is it. The perfect moment. Okay, Yeonjun, you got this.
Yeonjun looks to her, smiling softly when she meets his gaze. It feels strange to be able to look right at her face for so long and he eats up the sight of her. Piercings glinting on her nose and lips, the pretty little mole on her cheekbone, eyes gleaming with the light of a thousand stars. The brown of her skin glows a little golden as the sun shines on it, and Yeonjun feels as though he must have done something incredible in his past life to be able to see this ravishing sight.
She is equally awestruck. Yeonjun's eyes pierce into her soul, drinking her in like she does him.
Tenderly, he lifts his hand to cup her face. His voice is a touch ragged when he says; "Lima. I'm gonna kiss you now. Is that okay with you?"
Lalima shivers softly when Yeonjun circles his thumb on her cheek. Instead of answering, she tilts her head and meets his lips with the sweet press of her own, eyes fluttering shut and a soft sigh leaving her.
Yeonjun tastes like the fruit salad they just had, sweet from the cherries and a touch tangy from the pineapple. His hand is fiery on her skin, gently swiping his thumb over her cheekbone.
So this is what kissing Yeonjun feels like.
Lalima's melting with warmth, a silken hum drawn out her when Yeonjun slides his hand from her cheek to the back of her neck. She pulls away just a fraction, unsure what to do other than just touch their lips together, but Yeonjun is determined to make the most of his blue moon's chance.
He chases after her mouth with another soft peck - a lewd, wet sound floating in the air between them when he releases the kiss. Nudging his nose with her's in an bunny kiss, and that's where he *meant *to end it. But then he gets greedy… hopelessly greedy.
Gently, he curls his finger into the hair at the nape of her neck and then tightens his grip - firm enough for her to feel it, but not so much that it could hurt. He pulls her head back languidly, with just enough pressure for her lips to part in a tiny 'o' that is going to haunt his wet dreams for the rest of his life.
Reason save me… Yeonjun just can't help it.
He surges into her — a hushed whimper escaping his throat in tandem with Lalima's breathy hum that borders on being a moan, killing any thought of self-restraint. Nipping at her lower lip with his teeth, he trembles at her hand flying to his chest and bunching up his shirt, and drags her closer, closer, closer still, to him.
Lalima's brain has completely emptied. She can't think of anything else other than Yeonjun's fingers in her hair, sending a delectable tingle all over her scalp and down her spine; the wet heat of his mouth, demanding and adoring at the same time; of his tongue tracing against her lips, teasing her own tongue just by the tip but never overwhelming her.
She pants hopelessly when he takes just a moment to pull her onto his lap - propriety be damned - and gasps when he plants a covetous hand at her hip. His thumb finds that blessed heart cutout in the denim and presses into her skin with the same fervour he applies to his kiss.
This woman is going to be the fucking end of me. I will never, ever recover from today.
It was just too much.
A wretched sob shakes his shoulder, muffling in her mouth, when he feels her plush ass shift on top of his thighs. His jeans grow tighter at the the zip, and he knows if he doesn't stop now, he'll have awkward questions to answer.
Just as the thought passes his mind, Lalima throws her arms around him. Palms sliding flat over his back and soaking in the warmth exuding off him, fingers digging into the muscle of his shoulders when he squeezes her close. The magnificent curves of her breasts are crushed against his chest and he's this close to crying from the ecstasy of it all.
Never in his life would he have thought his wildest dream could become reality like this, that it would even more enchanting than he imagined.
"Lima…" Before he could swallow it, her name floats out of him as a needy sigh. Fuck me dead, how am I supposed to be normal after this? Her ass is so fucking thick on his thighs, set so close to his humiliating boner already at half-mast, and he fights the urge to grab her, to learn for himself how little of her ass he can fit into his hands.
As much as he wishes otherwise, he can't stay like this forever. She can't find out how desperately he needs her.
He flits his mouth away from her lips, grazing his nose against her cheek and planting a peck there. Yeonjun presses his forehead against her's, throat stinging with longing as they pant to get their breath back, and Lalima's face is hot with the blush staining her face. Her hands stay clasped around his neck.
Slowly, he untangles his fingers from her hair. He circles his other thumb just once at the skin right before her hip meets her thigh, and lays that hand on her knee instead.
His gaze is reverent when he meets her's, bordering on pious as it drops to the precious little mole on the tip of her nose, to her defined cupid's bow… he's already dreading pretending he thinks of her as only a friend.
Yeonjun can't tell her that though, so her cracks a smirk for her - ever the charmer. "How's that for our first kiss?"
Lalima drops her hands away from Yeonjun's neck. "That was… Well not that I have anything to compare it too, but that was incredible. I'm… To be honest I had imagined just a kiss, I didn't expect all this. But it was really nice. Genuinely though, how do people get any work done when they could be doing this instead?"
"Well… not to brag, but most people don't kiss like I do. No, I'm definitely bragging. People don't have to worry about getting distracted from work because it's not me waiting for them at the end of the day."
"Oh, is that so?" Her tone is dry and sarcastic, face purposefully neutral to bug him. "Thank goodness for your generosity, if it wasn't for you keeping your precious lips under strict lock and key, the economy would have crashed already."
He bobbles his head in a prudent nod. "It's a hard life for those blessed like I am with perfect snogging skills. With great power comes great responsibility and all that."
"Haha shut up Jun, you're so annoying. Here I was telling myself you're the perfect first kiss candidate 'cuz you wouldn't be weird about it. My fault for not foreseeing that you'd be a cocky bastard instead."
"Well that you know I can't help. Um… was I the right candidate?" He's nervous all of a sudden, worrying that she would finally pick up on his affection for her, or that he tried too hard and overwhelmed her.
Lalima, not inundated with overthinking like he is in that moment, realises she is still sitting on his lap and slips off, leaving her legs thrown over his and leaning against the tree once more.
"Of course you were, Jun, who else could it have been?"
A thrill of satisfaction lights Yeonjun's muscles up at her words. He doesn't mean to puff up with pride but… Who else could it have been…
"If you're happy then I'm happy. I'm gonna hold you to you banh mi offer though."
She gives him a mock-salute, mouth twisting up into a grin. "Yessir! Extra pate and carrot too baby, I gotchu. But hey… sorry to kiss and dash Jun but can you take me home in halfa? I have hella chores to do."
"Half an hour right? Then cuddle me. I'm tryna get that oxytocin before you go." And once again she slips in his arms, breathing in his sandalwood perfume.
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divider by @uzmacchiato <3 check them out !
let me know if u wld like me to add u to a taglist mayhaps ??
Choi Yeonjun and Lalima Menon have been friends for far too long for Yeonjun to still have this pathetic, all-consuming crush on her.
And when Lalima asks Yeonjun to be her first kiss, of course he jumps at the chance. All he has to do is pretend he doesn't jerk off to photos of her every night, that he isn't hopelessly enamoured with her and everything will be fine. Right?
Neither of them realise it's the beginning of… something… that could change their lives forever. For the better or worse, his life is inextricably entwined with Lalima, and reason knows how long he can hold on before the sight of her breaks him.
— a slow burn friends to lovers with smut
! MINORS DO NOT INTERACT ! SMUT AHEAD !
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all i got in my mind right now
trying to make you feel like yourself
open up to yourself
to be honest, we might fall apart
but until then i'll be trying to make your days better
☆ maybe we need a break - slchld
"Sweetheart?! You call Lalima sweetheart?!"
Lalima springs away from Yeonjun as if he were an open fire, and his face falls into startlement in the same millisecond that he whirls around.
Yeonjun clears his throat but his voice still cracks when he speaks. "Soobin. Em, you're here too! Well. The beach huh? What a day."
"Bro. That was the most pathetic attempt at changing the topic that I have ever heard." Soobin is incredulous now and Ember nods in agreement, the shock she had dissolving into an amused smirk. Then Lalima shrieks a little from the back of her throat, the sound muffled by her closed mouth, and it gets their attention.
"It's a joke! It's an inside joke! He calls me that to annoy me and I just gave up yelling at him. Don't be weird about it, Soob. Yes Juni, you can borrow my toothpaste, leave it in the bathroom because I'm about to shower." She hastily rummages in her bag as Ember steps into the room and flops on bed, then hands Yeonjun the tube. "Now both of you go away, I don't want your gross boy cooties."
Yeonjun drags Soobin away with a grateful nod to Lalima, even as Soobin laments that "cooties aren't real, you're too old to believe in that!" and the door shuts behind them. She turns and leans back against the door with a weary sigh, before remembering–
"Soooo, tell me again that your crush on Yeonjun hasn't reawakened." Ember, laying on her side with her head propped up by her elbow, a shit-eating grin plastered wide across her face. She chuckles when Lalima groans into her hands, grabbing her phone to snap a picture of her embarrassment.
Lalima drags her palms down her face. "How about we pretend this never happened and talk about it never again? Why would we talk about a man, let's have a conversation that passes the Bechdel test instead, how about that."
"Queen," Emile cocks her head with a knowing glint in her eye, "fuck the Bechdel test. I mean not actually, we love the Bechdel test in this household, but you can't use it to try and get outta this."
In response, Lalima barks out a short laugh. "Oh, but I can get out like this."
She gathers her things for the shower that she had piled on her bed and promptly leaves the room, ignoring Ember's taunt that she'll be waiting. The hallway is thankfully empty, but the bathroom has none other than Yeonjun brushing his teeth under the too-bright light.
"Oh sorry, I'll be quick."
"No it's okay, take your time. I need to do my teeth anyway so I'll just… do it with you."
She grabs her toothpaste back when he hands it to her and they fall into silence. There's an unexpected hominess in brushing their teeth together, in spitting in the sink in tandem and sneaking glances at each other through the mirror.
Before he leaves, Yeonjun pauses at the doorway and looks back at her. "I'm sorry about Soobin, you know how he jumps to conclusions. Do you… Should I stop calling you that? Sweetheart?"
Spinning around to face him, toothbrush bobbing as she shakes her head adamantly. "No, I like it. We… What we call each is between us, so the others can mind their business. When did you start calling me that, anyway?"
"It was at our house party ages ago, the day you asked me to be your… you know."
"My first kiss." She speaks around her toothbrush, white foam at the corner of her mouth and a soft blush heating her face. "Uhh, anyway, you gonna be okay on the couch?"
"I'll be fine, I got a blanket and it's only one night anyway." One night, before I'm with you. It didn't need to be said out loud for them both to think it.
They wish each other sweet dreams, then Yeonjun heads to the living room couch. He puts his phone on charge and fluffs his pillow, but just as he's about to curl up under the blankets, Taehyun appears out of nowhere and drags him to Soobin and Kai's room. Clearly, they had schemed to descend on Yeonjun, crowding him on a bed while Kai shuts the door.
Yeonjun glares them down half-heartedly. "Guys. What the hell is this."
"A fucking intervention, that's the hell what." Soobin narrows his eyes as if trying to figure out a complicated puzzle. "Why are you so desperate to share a bed with her?"
Taehyun, sensing that Soobin is being a little too direct, jumps in. "This is not an intervention–"
"It's more like an interrogation." Kai smiles widely after his interjection and Yeonjun rolls his eyes. "Since when have you liked Lima? And what is going on between you two?"
"Okay," Yeonjun interrupts with a huff, "I don't remember consenting to this intervention-slash-interrogation so I'm not answering anything. Also, guys, I'm not an idiot, what ever I say will be shared to Yuri via Taehyun, then it will get to Ember, then Lima, and I'm not having anyone get in the middle of this."
"Aha! So there is something to get in the middle of!" Kai looks about ready to burst with giddiness, and he punches his fist into the air - more excitement than the situation demands, if you ask Yeonjun.
"And I wouldn't tell Yuri. You want it kept secret, I'mma keep it secret."
Yeonjun groans, cursing the universe for putting him in this situation, and points at them. "Back. Off. I'll tell you if and when I want to, but until then just let it go. Let. It. Go." He turns around and storms out of the room before they can stop him, racing to tuck himself under the couch blanket and hide in case they come again.
Lalima faces a similar dilemma after her shower. She enters her room while towelling her hair to see that Yuri has crashed the space. Yuri's chocolate brown hair is splayed around her as she and Ember play on their phones, but they look up when Lalima walks in.
Swallowing harshly, Lalima observes their determined expression and sighs. "Alright. Go ahead, crucify me."
"Girl." The tone in Ember's voice and the pointed look she sent Lalima said enough, but still she says it out loud. "What the absolute flying fuck is going on between you and Yeonjun."
Yuri's words tumble out of her like she had been ruminating all day. "It's been a while since the whole group has been able to hang out together so I thought I was going crazy but… Remember when Meena and Hongjoong started acting weird around each other last year and then we found out they were sneaky linking? That's the tension you two have right now, he follows you around everywhere. Are you two fucking?"
"What- no! We are absolutely not." Lalima flops on the bed with them and they face each other. She purses her lips and fiddles with the bed sheets, twisting the satiny fabric into wrinkled peaks. "Nothing is going on, I just… You'd have to be blind to think Yeonjun isn't hot."
Ember nods sagely. "He is objectively a good looking man, but that doesn't explain your weird vibe with him. If it was just hotness, I too would say out loud in front of all my friends that 'yeah, I'll share a bed with him' despite there being other options. That, by the way, was crazy this morning." Yuri shrugs in agreement and Lalima cringes as the memory replays in her mind.
"Okay, fine. Yeonjun is hot and I have the hots for him. We kissed once and I can't get it out of my head, and even though I'm having fun being a city girl, I can't help but wish I could be his city girl. And I get a raging fucking clit boner whenever he looks at me, is that what you wanna hear?"
Yuri bursts into a laugh, while Ember snorts in amazement then speaks. "Clit boner is crazy, woman, your mind amazes me. See, doesn't it feel better to finally say that out loud? What are you gonna do next?"
"Do next? Girl I'm doing nothing, I am not ruining our friendship just because I'm a horny freak right now. I doubt he feels the same way, and even if he thinks I'm sexy or whatever, I can't have a one night stand with him. It would genuinely be easier if I had the hots for Kai, but this is Yeonjun. He's my… my…you know."
Ember exchanges a sly look with Yuri that Lalima misses. Her attention is on the night sky through the balcony doors, on the moon that never had questions she didn't know how to answer, questions like the next one that Ember directs her way. "Oh yeah, we know. Have you ever considered he would want more than a one night stand?"
"What! Of course he doesn't, don't even put that thought in my head. I'm perfectly content where I am now, hanging out all the time, getting to see his pretty face, an intact friendship, and cuddling him. Wait–"
She realises her folly too late, the women are already squawking in disbelief. Yuri grabs her by the shoulder, a crazed grin splitting her face. "What do you mean cuddling? How long have you been cuddling with fucking Choi Yeonjun, you sneaky little horndog."
"Okayyy. I'm sensing I've dug myself further into a hole here. This is for real the last question I'm gonna answer and then we're done, okay?" They nod eagerly and Lalima sighs in defeat. "We've been cuddling since the last house party the boys had. It's nice, friendly cuddles, and he smells good, and he's never had a dick boner from me which means he doesn't think of me like that at all, so. There you go."
"Girl, I'm pretty sure Yeonjun's entire body was a boner for you today. You must be daft if you think that he would do all that with you if he wasn't feeling something. Four months of cuddling and him not pulling a move just means he's a gentleman."
Lalima is shaking her head even before Ember finishes speaking. "No, no, he is doing all that because I'm the freaking instigator. Calling me sweetheart, the cuddling, the kiss, the fucking caress practice - ugh, do not ask me what that is - it's been me starting shit every time. Poor, helpless Juni just plays along because he's nice."
Yuri cocks her head and raises an eyebrow. "Lima, there is nothing poor and helpless about him, that man is exactly where he wants to be. Also, you know we're gonna ask you what the fuck caress practice is."
"Well, I'm not answering. Tomorrow we will only have conversations that pass the Bechdel test, alright? Goodbye, and goodnight pookies."
And then she promptly slips under the covers. She makes a performance of poking her fingers into her ears and squeezing her eyes shut until Yuri takes the hint, leaving with a pat of Lalima's shoulder. Ember turns off the light and joins her in bed, and finally she relaxes.
Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.
Morning arrives with the call of seagulls. Lalima is the first person up in the house and, like a sailor to a siren, she pads over to the couch where Yeonjun lays to wake him with a soft shake. His sleepy pout melts away when he realises it's her, and when she tugs at a corner of his blanket he simply obliges by holding his arm wide for her to join him. It's the perfect start to their day, their feet in a tangle and his arms around her waist to keep her close.
They only lay there for a few minutes - partly because they don't know how long they have until the others rouse, and partly because they need to get started on breakfast for everybody. Still, those minutes with her face in his chest and his nose in her coconut shampoo are his first undoing.
His second undoing comes in the form of her mouth, even though this particular interest of his is a daily struggle. Yeonjun watches in perverted fascination as she glugs down iced water and pineapple-rum cocktails, as she yells in delight when they splash water at each other, and - his perpetual favourite - as she shoves wedges of oranges in her mouth and rips off the flesh during fruit feasts in between games of beach volleyball. Thank you, universe, for giving me the foresight to add oranges to the grocery list.
The bright colour of the fruit is the exact shade of orange of her bikini set today - his third and final undoing. It's made of straps that tie into bows at her hips and back, and scrappy triangles that are as small as they could be without her chest spilling out. She said something about wanting her tan to reach as much of her as possible, but whatever her reason, Yeonjun's resolve crumbles the second he lays his eyes on her.
It is torture to stick by her side, to see the lavish swaths of her brown skin adorned with bright orange, the slices of the fruit held bitten in her mouth like a smile - when all he can do is swallow back his drool and be grateful the ocean hides the tenting in his swim shorts.
The water traces down the curves of her body, and Yeonjun is jealous of the sea.
They have burgers for lunch, and he is jealous of the grease that glosses her lips.
She lazes in the sun reading a book, and he is jealous of the pages turned by her wet finger.
It is sick, and twisted, that this desperate thirst for her fractures every cell of his being at an intensity he has never allowed before. Yeonjun is practiced at keeping his feelings shoved down so far that it could never bubble up, hidden away so she won't have even an inkling that thoughts of her reign supreme in his mind.
But today, Yeonjun-undone does not have the same grip on his discipline that he usually does.
He moves his bags to her room as Ember prepares to leave, and the joy on his face is palpable.
When Lalima goes for an evening swim, he is the only one to trail after her, like a stray cat that found its human.
When a random man wanders to their corner of the bay and starts to make his way to her, Yeonjun sticks all the closer to the love of his life and glares until the stranger turns right around.
He holds her hand to steady her as they pick their way through rock pools, and by the time they head back to the house, his swim short pockets hold the handful of shells she likes most.
They prepare dinner together, chicken pesto pasta with an eggplant and arugula salad, and he thinks his heart might dissolve from the contentment of acting so domestic with her. The six gather to eat, then play card games, and Yuri keeps flashing knowing glances at Lalima any time Yeonjun sacrifices himself to help her win.
She doesn't need Yuri's glances thought, just as she didn't need Ember's suggestive eyebrow raise when Yeonjun gleefully moved his things to their room. Lalima felt it, how Yeonjun has been acting differently today. How she would turn to tell him something and find him already watching her, how he would never be too far. How he would stand closer and closer to her, but any accidental brush against each other would make him subtly pull back as if zapped with electricity. How he chased a man off with a wicked lour that knitted his brows.
That man is exactly where he wants to be, Yuri had said, and Lalima's brain repeated those words like a broken record at every interaction with him.
If she is honest to herself, she would admit it's exhilarating to imagine that Yeonjun wants her like she wants him.
If that was true, she could imagine that his lip-bite is in response to seeing her in his light-blue tee after showering, and not because he was focused on something on his phone. That his reflection on the balcony glass doors is watching the curve of her ass peeking under her shorts, and it's not just him zoning out.
"Go shower Juni, bring some wine when you come back." Yeonjun mumbles a 'yeah' and shakes himself out of his trance, gathering his toiletries and leaving Lalima to ponder, to deal with cooling down the heat in her veins alone.
The balcony is by far Lalima's favourite place to be in the house. It's wide, with a cushioned wooden bench and a little table, both made of hardwood to withstand being outdoors. The lack of light pollution means the sky is littered with stars, a perfect match for the sound of waves washing ashore and the brininess in the air. Every so often, the faint bark of a dog carries through the night from town.
She is curled up on the bench, leaning back against it as she takes deep breaths to savour the peace, when the door finally click open again. Yeonjun enters their room with two glasses of red wine, hair already tousled mostly dry by the towel hanging on his arm. He sets the glasses down just to flick the light off and put his phone on charge before joining her outside.
"I'm gonna leave this door open," he says, jerking his head to the balcony doors. She nods - the bedroom is better off not getting stuffy - and accepts a glass from him, shuffling over to make him room beside her.
Night is a little warmer tonight than last night, a balmy breeze keeping sweat at bay. Lalima looks up at the stars strewn across the expanse of inky blue above her. Some nights the moon looks like a sticker on the dome of the sky, but other times, when you stare at it for long enough, the volume of it suddenly clicks into place and it looks like the thing it is: a ball of rock, hundreds of thousands of kilometres around, suspended in the vacuum of space.
Tonight is one of those nights. She stares at the moon until it looks like the cratered ball it is, until her sight goes blurry and she needs to blinks her vision clear.
A few minutes pass in silence until she takes a puff of her vape and grimaces, decisively throwing the vape back through the open doors and onto the bed. "I'm so fucking sick of vaping. Why the fuck am I chuffing poison-cancer air until it goes from guava to burnt battery flavour." A sip of wine follows her words, the dry taste of it doing little to cover the nasty scorch of the dying vape.
"Well, that's probably the addiction."
She rolls her eyes and lets out a chuckle even as frustration furrows her brows. With a weary huff, she moves to stand by the balcony guardrail and leans against it by her elbows. Yeonjun parks himself to her right a second later, giving her a gentle nudge by his shoulder.
"Hey, it's okay sweetheart, nicotine's got me in a chokehold too. Let's quit together. We're the only two vapers in the group so if we both quit, it'll be easier."
Her head drops sideways rest on Yeonjun's shoulder, a fluttering building in her heart at his offer. "Quitting is so hard though. Every time I tried, I thought I would rip my head off from the cravings."
"I know. I've only gotten four days clear max before I relapsed. But I would do it, for you."
She turns her head up to look at Yeonjun, watches the bob of his throat up close as he swallows wine and dips her gaze to the line of his collarbones that disappear past his tee's collar. Then back up, tracing the curve of his cheek and the profile of his nose. He is beautiful, not just his looks, but him, the colour of his soul, the warmth of it that shows in his kindness and character; But I would do it, for you.
What he offered isn't as simple as no longer vaping - addiction isn't so easy that you can wish it away. Yeonjun was saying in other words that I'll gladly take up this suffering, if it means I can ease your hardship.
Another sip of wine, and she runs her finger around the rim of her glass, unsure how to respond without it coming off too…heavy. There's a vague silhouette of a person walking a dog towards the beach, and she follows two blobs until they disappear past her line of sight. Then, Yeonjun's voice cuts through the silence.
"I didn't get to see the pics we took, can you show me them?”
She nods and pulls her phone out, scrolling slowly through her photo library. They had a photo session while on the beach to make the best of the setting and sun light, taking their time directing each other’s poses. She points to a particular string of photos taken by him, the sun hitting her skin exquisitely as she lounges on the sand and reaches a hand up to the camera with a playfully cheeky grin.
“I love this one. See, everybody comes to me to take their pics, but I'll only ever trust you for mine. Oooh, and this one popped the fuck off, you made me look so hot.”
“I didn’t make you look hot, you just look like that.” An instinctual response from Yeonjun that slips out before he can filter it. He goes tense, hoping that maybe she won't pick up on the way he meant it, that maybe–
"You… think I'm hot?"
The air whooshes out of his lungs. Yeonjun breathes in harshly, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights. He tries to school his expression, to make his mouth move and say something that can explain away his blunder, and it just ends up coming out as a sputter. "No I- I didn't mean- I just- the camera can't work magic and you're… You know. Objectively speaking."
Confusion makes her tilt her head, nose crinkling faintly when she narrows her eyes. She props her wineglass up by leaning her elbow on the railing. "Objectively speaking, I'm what?"
He can't even look at her, rattled that his usual carefulness failed him, and he tucks his chin into his chest. "You're good looking. You're… you're hot, you know that."
A swift smirk twists up her mouth on one side, even as her heartbeat speeds up at his admission. "Oh yeah, I know I'm hot, but I didn't know you think I'm hot, Yeonjun."
"Don't call me that." In a blink, he's moved nearer to her, making her stumble back a step. The corner of the balcony railing presses into her waist as Yeonjun crowds the space in front of her earnestly, his eyes brows furrowed with sincere upset. Her wineglass is squashed between her boobs, and Yeonjun has clearly forgotten that he is holding one too, the stem of it loose in his hand over the railing.
"You don't want me to call you Yeon-"
A humph leaves his mouth and interrupts her, the type of sound you would hear in a cartoon when a character is sulking. He looks so serious, but the pout in his mouth is so endearing that she can't help but coo internally. "You never call me that so don't start now. I'm your- I'm Juni to you."
"But you call me Lalima."
"Yeah, but you like when I call you that, it grounds you. When you call me Yeonjun I feel like you're telling me off."
This is news to her - but she thinks back to the times he's called her full first name and realises he's right. He's only only ever used it to pull her out of her overthinking, or to calm her in serious situations.
And… she does like when he uses her full name. Lalima sounds a lot more beautiful when it comes out of Yeonjun's mouth than anyone else's. Though, she isn't quiet sure what to do with the knowledge that he knew that about her before she did.
"Okay okay, I'm sorry, I won't call you that again."
He relaxes a little and steps back, the sudden lack of his body warmth sending goosebumps racing over her arms. "Sorry I didn't mean to… get weird." With a defeated sigh, he scratches the back of his neck. His actions today were becoming increasingly uncontrolled and he doesn't know how to get a handle on himself.
"No, you weren't weird. I guess it's the first time I've called you that in years, I didn't know it meant that much to you." She squeezes his elbow reassuringly before a thought strikes her. "Wait, but then why do you let Soob and Kai call you Yeonjun?"
"I don't care what anyone else calls me. They're not you."
Lalima chokes. She actually chokes on her wine, mid-sip, and the bravado she felt at knowing he finds her hot suddenly drains away. Yeonjun quickly takes the wine from her and sets both glasses down, roughly smacking her back until she catches her breath again. Then she addresses him, red in the face and incredulous. "The fu- what're you- what is going on with you, Jun?"
When he doesn't answer with anything other than a sheepish look, she forces him back to get some space around her again. She cards a hand through her hair and waits, mind racing, but still his lips stay sealed and she tsks in frustration. It's a total brain-fuck, the sudden quiet when he's never gone without answering her questions before, when the Yeonjun of right-this-second is at complete odds with how he's been all day.
"Juni, what's up with you? You… you think I'm hot, you don't care what anyone else calls you because they're not me, and you've been watching me, all day - don't think I didn't notice. What am I supposed to think of all that?" Lalima's arms cross over her body, shoulders tight, and her mouth twists in confusion when he just hangs his head.
He simply blinks away the prickling behind his eyes, gaze boring into the floor as if he could drill through the balcony and escape to the ground.
For the first time in five years, Yeonjun slipped up, big time, and he doesn't know how to fix it. Five years where he's been banking on the fact that his ability to hide his crush on her overruled his desperate love for her, and suddenly, over the span of a single day, this house of cards is tumbling down and she is far too close to the truth.
What is it about today that ruined him? Yeonjun can't accept that he would be so weak-willed as to collapse at their cuddle, or at her eating oranges in her bikini. It frankly couldn't be so simple a thing, especially not when he's had to survive these before.
Maybe it's because the guys picked up on it, he wonders alone, or because I thought Lima would never notice? God, it doesn't matter, it's over. She's going to find out and hate me forever and I fucking blew it.
In the mean time, Lalima is beginning to get worry and get frustrated in equal measure. Yeonjun is holding himself up by the railing and his shoulders are slumped. The sudden blankness in his expression makes her hesitate for only a moment before she surges forward, cornering him against the cool metal.
Lalima tilts her head up, intending to give him a piece of her mind, a determined glint in her eyes that immediately softens when she realises– his expression isn't blank, it's grave. His mouth is parted and breath shallow, a vacant grimace that won't settle and fingers trembling at his sides.
Without a second thought, she cups his face with both hands and forces him to look her in the eyes.
"Juni, love, I can hear your gears turning from over here. Whatever your brain is telling you right now, let it go. You're safe, and I'm here. We're okay." Yeonjun's eyes finally focus, zeroing in on her as a relieved sigh escapes him. "There you are. I thought I lost you for a second."
"You could never lose me." His voice is feather soft and still it cuts right through her.
Yeonjun - drunk not on alcohol, but on the essence of her - splays his hands on her lower back and tamps her firmly against him, jolting her hands to drop and loop around his neck. The gasp that leaves her mouth shoots right through his heart, making him bite his bottom lip so hard that capillaries burst and a red tint blooms. With only two layers of tee-shirt between them, her ample bosom crushes deliciously against his toned chest, and a blush works its way over her cheeks.
Her eyes are searching his, trying to find a nugget of context that could explain his strangeness right now, but Yeonjun is not doing a good job of holding eye contact. His gaze stays honed in on her lips, reverent, watching the tensing and relaxing of the hundreds of muscles in her face that move together for her to call his name again. "Juni? What's going on?"
The tantalising position they are in makes her knees turn to jelly, but Yeonjun simply tightens his hold to stabilise her. Now his thighs are firm against her own, and his knee rooted between her's is so enticing that it makes her struggle to hold onto any strength she has left.
"Lalima." The huskiness in his voice is in contrast to the smoothness of his skin when he brings a hand up to cup the back of her neck. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not making any sense. Please just let me hold you for a bit. Please."
A swift nods from her is permission enough to drop his head into the the crook of her shoulder. This isn't like the times they have cuddled, where he would hold her close but politely, an appropriate distance between his mouth and her skin. This is Yeonjun grasping onto her as if she is his lifebuoy in the middle of the sea.
You're the one on my mind, as you always have been, as you always will be.
Yeonjun starts quivering against her, and it takes a moment for her to realise that he is snuffing at her neck like she is his only source of oxygen. She opens her mouth without even knowing what to say, but freezes when he takes a particularly deep whiff and groans in her neck. It is a wicked sound that make her clench her thighs around his, and she's grateful that he is holding her up.
His fingers drag up to card the hair at the back of her head, and Lalima's head tips back on reflex. Her eyes flutter shut at the firm press of Yeonjun's nose at the column of her throat, and she twists his shirt in her hands when the ghost of his lips graze her. His arm is hot around her, and the curl of his fingers pressing into her lower back is what emboldens her to speak.
"Juni… if you're going to do all this then you might as well kiss me."
Her words reach through the fog in his brain and yank him to reality. He pulls back enough to look her in the eye, shock twisting his features. "Huh. Did you say what I think you said? Say that again."
But she doesn't. Instead, Lalima tilts her head up to meet his lips with the soft press of her own, just once, before pulling away the few inches she can to gauge his reaction.
Yeonjun sighs at the contact, then the loss of it. The beating of his heart is suddenly so thunderous he thinks it might thump right out of him. He takes her in with a low-lidded gaze, the light gloss on her lips that he knows she left on him too, and he aches, he aches, at the thought that at any moment he might open his eyes and find this was all a dream.
For a second, he's reminded of their first kiss, when he first got a tease of the sounds he could pull from her, the breathy sighs that haunted him for months afterwards whenever he looked at her.
An ocean of want had been churning in his chest all day, every day, for five years; but now, here, when it's just the two of them under the shimmering Milky Way, there is nothing to temper the roiling desire that finally rears its head:
Choi Yeonjun is a man undone.
He melts against her mouth, softly at first, giving her the chance to change her mind. When instead she liquifies into him, he caves completely - cupping her face tenderly and tilting his head to deepen the kiss.
Their desperation washes over everything between them. Lalima's hands smooth over his back, trailing light scratches down his spine that make him shiver in pleasure. Yeonjun curls his fingers in her hair again, and this time when her head drops back, her mouth parts for him too, warm and inviting, all for him. His body tingles like pop rocks crackling in his veins and it's pathetic how quickly his cock hardens at the feel of her in his arms.
Yeonjun isn't sure if the rushing sound he hears is from the waves on the beach or from the blood pumping in his head, but he supposes it doesn't matter since the only sounds he does care about are the ones she makes. A breathy whimper that turns into a hum when her tongue meets his, the wet chuik of their mouths moving in tandem, a sublime moan when his hands trail down, down, down and rest on the lowest part of her back. So close, and yet so far, from where a zealous yen has been steadily pooling between her legs.
Then it's him that lets out a groan, a reflexive sound in response to Lalima shifting his hands further to lay fully on her ass. Even closed, his eyes roll to the back of his head as he kneads her, as he marvels at the size of her, at the way she doesn't fit in his hands despite his fingers being spread all the way. The balcony railing digs into his back, but still he tamps her closer by her ass, wanting to be completely wedged into the corner by her.
Lalima is almost feverish. The only sensations relevant anymore are Yeonjun's hands on her, his undulating mouth and tongue, his thigh so solid between her's. She wants so badly to let her knees collapse, to close the distance between her core and his thigh, to rut against his leg if that's the only way she can find relief. Yeonjun's hands squeeze her ass hard and in a split-second her brain makes up her mind for her, parting her legs just a little so that his thigh can slot in perfectly with–
She jerks back as if shocked, so quickly that the rush of air on his wet mouth is startling. They pant to catch their breath and it takes a moment for the dazed fog in Yeonjun's brain to clear enough to understand why she is so flustered:
Straining against his shorts and pressed against her pelvis is his fucking boner. Shit.
"Fuck, Lima I'm so sor-"
"Don't apologise. I… Is it for- because of me?"
"Ah, god. Of course it is. No one else could turn me into putty like this."
A pause, a choked inhale from her as his words find their mark - and suddenly, fervently, she herds him back inside the room and shoves him on the bed so that he's sitting on the edge of one side. He doesn't even have time to wonder what she's doing, as Lalima plops herself on his lap a second later, knees on either side of his hips.
Yeonjun whimpers, squeezing his eyes shut to steel himself, then opening them again to catch her gaze. Her silhouette is backlit by the moonlight, the night lamp he had left on casting a warm glow over her face. He leans back on his hands and gives her a lovesick, lop-sided grin.
"Fuck my life, you are so beautiful. Do you know that? Do you even know, Lima? 'Hot' doesn't even begin to cover it. You are so fucking gorgeous, so blindingly dazzling that sometimes I feel like I should cover my eyes so my retinas don't burn." He cups her face with one hand while the other stays rooted to hold him up. One kiss, then one more, and he nudges her cheek with his nose, voice becoming thick with emotion. "Tell me this isn't a dream."
Fisting the neck of his tee, she pulls him to her and searches him for any hint of hesitation. All she finds, however, is breathless Yeonjun smiling weakly while brushing her cheek with his thumb. "This isn't a dream. Tell me you won't regret any of this tomorrow."
"Lalima…" The reverence in his voice nearly undoes her. "I will never regret this, and I told you you'd never lose me."
"Then show me."
And he does.
His lips find her neck to lave kisses and light bites, taking pride at the sounds he is able to pull from her. The hand on her cheek trails down to play with the hem of her shirt, and only when she moans a "Juni, please" does he help her slip her tee-shirt off.
For a while, he just stares, a stupid grin on his face as he finally sees her tits. They're round and heavy, dark brown areolas crowned with the lovely buds of her nipples that were basically begging to be taken up in his mouth. Lines of fire ignite on her body where she can sense Yeonjun's gaze gliding over her, and the coiling in her core winds tighter when his palm flattens over the bare skin of her back, then her belly.
Lalima watches in lewd fascination as Yeonjun skims up her arm, across her shoulder and then her collarbone. Painfully slowly, the pads of his fingers trace over the curve of her breast, before finally, finally, flicking her nipple. Part of her wants to squirm away, suddenly shy that her best friend of five years is seeing her so bare, but instead she watches him. She sees the thirst in his low-lidded gaze, his tongue flicking out to wet his lips, the tremble in hands and she knows she's safe, that no one has ever looked at her like she was spun from gold.
"Lima, fuck, my beautiful woman, I've wanted to touch you for so long. I'm gonna make you feel so good."
A sigh leaves her as Yeonjun takes up a nipple in his mouth, while the other he rolls between his fingers. Her tits are everything he imagined and more - fat and heavy with their sheer size, overflowing between his fingers as he squeezes, dense and incredibly soft. He switches to the other side, sucking gentle marks over her chest that make her muscles lock up, ecstasy wiping her mind. His cock throbs as she squashes his face into her boob in an attempt to have him closer - Yeonjun has cum far too many times while imagining suffocating against her tit, but having it actually happen is even more heavenly than he'd imagined it.
Lalima decides then that it's not fair if only one of them is shirtless and points at his top. "This, take it off."
She pushes him away to make enough distance to pull his top off. All day, his chest had been taunting her, sparkling with sea water, glinting in the sun and lightly freckling as he tanned, but that didn't do justice to having it pressed against her. Before she settles in his lap again, they both kick off their shorts, leaving them in just their underwear.
"Juni- shit. I wanna bite you so bad, please tell me you're into that."
Yeonjun shudders, a carnal frenzy igniting in his chest. "Yes, I'm into it. Please bite me, I'm yours, I don't care how hard. Tear a piece of me off, if you want." A lamb offering itself up to the wolf; Yeonjun bares his neck for her.
So her teeth alight on him, at the same spot he had been huffing her smell not twenty minutes earlier, and she bites. The effect is immediate, him turning catatonic at the pure euphoria of her teeth finding their home on his body, of her drooling into his neck. In sync, they go rigid with pleasure, and his low moan peters out when she smooths over the pain with her tongue.
Then Lalima sidles forward in his lap, pressing her clothed cunt so firmly against his covered cock that he groans - a wretched sound that deepens when she bites him again, on the other side of his neck. This is the most at-home Lalima has ever felt with Yeonjun. The hard length of him is tucked perfectly in the space where her legs meet, separated only by their underwear, slick with arousal, and the column of his neck was made to have her teeth in it.
Yeonjun chokes back a sob when she rocks her hip just a fraction. His fingers tighten on her waist and he meets her eagerly, jutting his pelvis up slightly and holding her at that pressure. Emboldened, she spreads her legs even wider, grinding down while sighing into his kiss. They rut into each other, gently at first and then harder, more urgently, losing track of where one ends and the other begins - the lost art of dry humping revived in the guest room of a beach house moonlit by an open balcony.
"Juni, you feel so good, fucking magical. You're not even inside me and I'm falling apart. How am I supposed to survive you?"
When she bites him again, her name slips from his lips as if it was more than mere sounds and letters strung together, as if it was the opening chant for a hymn of her worship. He needs a second to recover before he can respond.
"You're falling apart? I feel like I could- fuck- cum just like this. You're perfect, sweetheart, so unbelievably perfect. I always knew I'd never survive you. Please kiss me, I need you."
She obliges without hesitation, fingers tangling in his hair as his tongue dances with her, their open-mouth kisses making sounds so vulgar that the devil would blush.
The skin of her back is smooth but hot with their fervour, and on her shoulder blade he traces a heart; I love you.
And another; I love you.
And again and again, littering her skin with the runes of his adoration as she uses his bulge as her own grinding toy.
Yeonjun releases her mouth to capture a nipple, swirling around the nub before he leans back on his palms to watch her. The change in angle makes the head of his cock nudge right into her clit at each rock of their hips rather than over it, and her spine seizes at the added sensation. Her whimpers lengthen into moans as the coil in her belly winds tighter, tighter, his heady sandalwood perfume the only thing reminding her that Yeonjun isn't the only sensation left in the world.
Her hands drag down his toned, dancer body, but when she grazes the waistband of his shorts, he grips her wrist and holds her around the waist to stop her from moving. "Please- Lima, you can't."
"Shit, did I hurt you? Do you… want to stop?" For a split second she fills with shame, panicked thoughts berating her for not checking in with him before trying to undress him further. "I should have asked, I'm sorry, I'll-" She starts to move off him, but Yeonjun clasps her forearms and drops his head into her chest.
"Fuck, stop moving, sweetheart. I want this, I want you, but please stay still for a minute or I swear to god I'll cum in my undies. You think I was joking before?"
His admission sends a wave of heat through her arteries. It makes her pussy clench around nothing and he feels it, the slightest movement on the other side of fabric that he only picks up on because of how goddamn sensitive every single nerve ending on his body is. "Far out, you have no clue how hot that is. You gonna cum from just a bit of dry humping, Juni? I wanna see."
"Lalima…" Yeonjun's voice is ragged, his face crumpled up in desperation and eyes glazed with lust. "You drive me insane, you know that? Say the word and I'll cum in my pants any other day, but right now, cumming before you is not on my radar. Sit on the edge, will you? I have to taste you right now or I'll spontaneously combust."
The lilt of her amused giggle follows his earnest words, but she nods and scoots to the side of the bed. "So dramatic, I'm not sure if it's that serious, Juni."
"Oh, it's that serious. I'm starved, sweetheart, and you are my entire buffet."
Yeonjun kneels in front of his goddess, taking both of her feet in his hands and rubbing warmth back into them as he gazes up adoringly. His kisses his way up her legs, starting at the tops of her feet, then her calves, her knees, nibbling at her thighs and then shuffling up to meet her lips again. Yeonjun presses a kiss onto the pretty mole at the crease of her inner elbow. He feels like he's melting at her feet, an incoherent babble of praises sitting on his tongue that laps at her skin.
One word from you and I'll pull down the stars in the sky for her to walk on, he thinks as his lips find her belly, her waist, blooming hickeys at her hips as he slides her underwear off her legs.
Lalima's hands scrunch up in his hair as he pries her knees apart and kisses her inner thighs. Even as she arches her back and begs for him to "please- fuck please" not tease her right now, he doesn't quicken his pace or get any closer to where she wants him.
Yeonjun takes his time because he wants her to feel good, but also because he doesn't know if he'll ever get another chance like this. Lalima, Lalima, writhing naked under him and begging for his touch, hand over her mouth in an attempt to muffle the hedonistic requiem of her moans.
Spreading her legs wider, he takes a moment to admire the beautiful mess he made without even touching her. The black down of her hair is trimmed but grown out, and her clit, shiny with slick and swollen with arousal, waits for him like a pearl at the centre of her yoni.
"Fuuuck, sweetheart, you're so wet, you're completely soaked for me, aren't you?"
He hooks one of her legs over his shoulders, one hand holding the other leg open while his free hand squeezes the meat of her thigh by his ear. Then, with an I love you chanted like a prayer under his breath, he flattens the pad of his tongue against her in one long swipe. She keens at his touch, sighing with sweet relief as her fingers find his hair again. Her hips buck up as Yeonjun licks and sucks, swirling around her bud and massaging the thigh he's holding open.
"Ohhh my fuck Jun, you're killing me. Ah- Your mouth is perfect- so fuckin' perfect."
Unwilling to part from her core, he responds only with a hum, and the vibration of it sends a trill through her limbs that makes her push his head even closer. Yeonjun doesn't mind though, nose deep in her mons as he suckles her clit and groans indulgently, breathing in her savoury, milky musk, the pure essence of her smell so potent that it feels like a drug to him.
When her breathing becomes more ragged and he can feel her edging closer to her peak, he cruelly diverts his attention back to her thighs and hips to bring her down. She whines, frustrated, but trusts in Yeonjun enough to not complain just yet.
Instead she scoots back to make space for Yeonjun on the bed. He wipes the slick off his chin and meets her lips, letting her taste herself on his tongue and groaning when she kisses him all the harder. His hands traverse her form, memorising the shape of her so she can haunt his dreams all the more accurately, until one hand finally finds its way to her pelvis. It's the same spot he had caressed her during their first kiss, where her denim jorts have a heart-shaped cut out.
His fingers move across, over the brush of her mons pubis, teasing her with soft scratches on her inner thigh before finally reaching her core. Stroking even pressure over her clit, his fingers make light work of her sensibilities and turn her into a blubbering mess again, biting his lip in fondness as he watches her face contort with pleasure.
Head in a daze, she grabs his wrist and grinds against his knuckles, desirous, until he gets the hint and slips two fingers inside her. He pumps slowly, slowly, relishing in how tightly her core sucks down on his fingers and changing his angle until he finds that spongy spot he was looking. A satisfied smirk splits his face when he presses into it and she lets out a surprised keen.
"Fuuck, right here Juni, keep hitting right there. Do you feel that? How wet I am for you? Eat me out while you finger me, I wanna cum so hard I forget my name."
Obediently he shuffles down to latch his mouth over her clit. A dulcet moan slips from her mouth as he ravishes her with his tongue, rocking his fingers into her g-spot at a steady pace. The dual sensation winds her taut, unable to think of anything but the white-hot bliss melting her mind, unable to hold back the tremors in her body. Yeonjun pins her bucking hips in place as he adds a third finger and draws cry after cry from her, her hands roaming over her body, pinching and rolling her nipples, cupping and squeezing her boobs while he fragments her ability to think.
Rutting up into his mouth and fingers, Lalima's back arches as her pants grow more desperate, tears prickling her eyes at how close she is, when Yeonjun changes tactics. The fingers inside her are no longer thrusting in and out - instead, he keeps them deep in her and pumps shallowly, an assault on her g-spot that makes her eyes roll back in her head.
The coiling in her core braces for impact; then snaps, blasting a rush of dopamine through her. Lalima cums with a cry, her climax cascading over all of her synapses as she shakes under him. Her pussy clenches down on his fingers, again and again and again, and - in a spectacular split-second where he imagines it was his dick she was cumming around - Yeonjun's vision goes white and he cums in his underwear with a drawn-out moan, tongue still around her clit.
As she dissolves into a string of incoherent sounds, Yeonjun forces himself back to lucidity to work her through every second of her orgasm, and drawing it out for as long as he can. When she finally stills to a gentle tremble, she pushes weakly at his head at the overstimulation. Only then does he pull his lips away to revel in her blissed out face, softly panting and a glowy flush across her cheeks, and his heart swells. Lalima watches as he takes his fingers out of her and lewdly brings them to his mouth, licking them one by one to savour her taste one last time.
"You're unbelievably handsome, but especially right now. You eat out so well that it makes me mad, but… thank you, Juni, that was-"
He tuts, shuffling up and brushing a pink lock of hair off her face. "Don't thank me, it's actually your god-given right to cum on my face. In fact, I should be thanking you for letting me eat you out."
"Ha! Is that so? Waow, you are… not what I expected."
"Yeah? What did you expect?"
Lalima bites her lip, accepting a forehead kiss and fitting herself into his side. "I don't know, I wasn't really expecting anything since we're… friends. This is uncharted territory."
A pause falls between them, Yeonjun's heartbeat picking up under her cheek, and she reaches around to twine their fingers together. He opens his mouth to speak, but is interrupted by his phone's ringtone, Ring Ding Dong by Shinee playing tinnily as if he had chosen a low quality audio. He reaches over her and silences the call without looking at the screen, tossing it aside.
"Uncharted is right, but we'll make it work. You do want to do this again, right?"
"Fuck yeah." The baby hairs around her face are stuck to her skin with sweat, but the rest of her tresses bounce as she nods enthusiastically.
"Good. Did you wanna cuddle for a bit or am I right to grab us water and a towel first?"
"Get it later, I still gotta take care of you."
He lets out an abrupt laugh before tilting her head up by the chin to kiss her sweetly. "I don't know how to tell you this without looking like a one-pump wonder, but I… kinda already came."
"What?" She sits up abruptly and looks down at his crotch where, indeed, a dark patch had bloomed on the front of his underwear, much bigger than whatever wetness she would have left on him while they dry humped. Her lips drops open in giddy surprise, salivating at the thought that Yeonjun came with his mouth on her cunt, but he bashfully covers the spot with his hand.
"Nooo, stop staring, I look like I've pissed myself."
"Shut up Jun, you don't. You came from eating me? You're a certified munch, what the hell. Do you… Like, does that happen every time you eat someone out?"
"Definitely not, this is the first time. It's been a while since I last slept with someone, and anyway, it's you."
There it is again, an accidental confession that hints at something more without being so obvious as to dispel all her doubts. He feels something, that much is clear, but she can't figure out if he just thinks she fit and finally available for a root, or if a serious shift in their dynamic could be in the picture for them, a shift towards romance.
"It's me. That's what we were talking about before, wasn't it? You have the hots for me, is that it?"
Yeonjun's eyebrows furrow, an objection already forming to say that NO! I swear I'm not just a horndog and this wasn't because I wanted a lay - but his attention is taken by his phone interrupting again. Lalima nudges him, a signal to just take the call for now, and the words quickly die in his throat, coming out as a defeated sigh.
She passes the phone to him, reading the contact name from beside him when he looks at the screen. But Yeonjun doesn't take the call. He stares at the name, dread settling in his limbs, letting the line ring and ring and Ring Ding Dong away before it finally cuts, and she looks up at him curiously.
"Didn't you need to take that? Who's Beomgyu?"
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MWAHWAHWHAHAWA how was that :3 i hope u loved it soooo much ... also please know i likely won't be writing a chapter this long for this fic again , but hey you never know what'll happen !
lmk if u have any thoughts abt the chapter , or oooooh any theories on who beomgyu will be :O also lol had to stop writing thrice to jork it, idk abt you but EYEEEEE think this smut is fit as fuck
im also MOVING over the next few weeks so my schedule is gonna be a lil wack , but things are srsly looking up for me, imma hopefully get some more routine in my life and that will help !!!!!!!!!!!!! ohkaiiii love ya , byeeee, imma go eat
dividers by @uzmacchiato
lmk if u wanna join the taglist ! luv u <3
@rrraiinn @fairfootedflekk @sugadaddymyg
Choi Yeonjun and Lalima Menon have been friends for far too long for Yeonjun to still have this pathetic, all-consuming crush on her.
And when Lalima asks Yeonjun to be her first kiss, of course he jumps at the chance. All he has to do is pretend he doesn't jerk off to photos of her every night, that he isn't hopelessly enamoured with her and everything will be fine. Right?
Neither of them realise it's the beginning of… something… that could change their lives forever. For the better or worse, his life is inextricably entwined with Lalima, and reason knows how long he can hold on before the sight of her breaks him.
— a slow burn friends to lovers with smut
< previous . masterlist . next >
baby girl is saying that we just friendsthat we just friendsif we fuckin', are we just friends?are we just friends?
☆ just friends - keshi
"Can I touch you?"
Lalima freezes. Her head snaps to the side, mouth parted in thrilled surprise. "Huh? Wait, touch what?"
Yeonjun swallows. There is nothing he can say that wouldn't further incriminate him, so he twists, trying to cover up his stupid, stupid impulsive words. "Do you trust me?"
"Yes." Her answer is immediate.
"Then sit up and close your eyes."
And she does.
Yeonjun breathes out shakily. They are still laying down, having flopped back on the bed after Lalima's hands roamed him. He shifts to kneel beside her and sits back on his calves while she sidles upright and crosses her legs, leaning against the headboard.
Yeonjun's pupils are blown wide as he takes in her expressions flitting between a shy smile and nervous lip bite, bringing up his hands to hold her head. He leaves one palm there, cupping her face with his thumb falling just short of brushing her bottom lip, while his left hand slides down to her neck, to squeeze her shoulder, to trail so lightly down her arm that she thinks she's dreaming it.
Twining his fingers with hers, Yeonjun leans forward as if in a daze. Lalima quivers when his breath fans across her forehead, when his thumb brushes across her bottom lip just once. That powdery sandalwood perfume she gifted him curls around her and her shoulders soften. Yeonjun aches to card through the hair at the back of her head and pull like he did that day at park, to press his mouth against her and pour his entire soul into her - but he can't.
So instead he slides both hands to her hips, spreading his fingers in an attempt to hold as much of her as possible, squeezing the meat of it, grazing the bare skin above the waistband of her mini shorts. Over her crossed legs his fingers dance, then pausing to flatten a palm over her belly, watching her chest rise and fall with her breath that is a little too fast. Finally, his hands smooth up her back, her tee ruffling between them, before wrapping his arms around her.
He is half a head taller than she is, so he tilts his face down, nosing at the crown of her head to soak in her coconut shampoo. Lalima hugs him back, uncrossing her legs and leaning into him, looping her arms around him at bicep-level. She squishes her face down into his shoulder. It is a tender moment, butterflies swelling and bursting between them even if they don't acknowledge the truth of it.
"Limabean?" She responds with a muffled hum. He hesitates for only a moment before bringing his hand up to her head, brushing a tendril of hair from her cheek. "You're gonna be fine, you know that, right? You can think about all this now, the logistics of make outs, what to do with your hands and your mouth, but when you're actually doing the do, just chill out, yeah? What's the point when instead of having fun, you're just thinking of yourself as a bunch of separate body parts to manually move."
"I knowww… I'm just nervous that I'll make a fool of myself, or clank my teeth with them or something." She turns her face further into Yeonjun's shoulder and he if he wasn't already sitting, he would have fallen down from his knees liquefying at her cuteness.
"So. You know that saying that's like, 'if I can't do something perfectly the first time, I just won't do it at all'? Tha's you right now. Chill out girl, everyone has to go through a phase where they are bad at kissing, but it's not forever."
At this she pulls back, looking up at him with mischief in her eyes."Wait wait, you mean to tell me that the Choi Yeonjun once sucked at making out?"
Yeonjun snorts. "Yeah, Lima, I too had my origins as a mouth virgin."
"Juni. Ew. Never say mouth virgin again."
"Well considering you aren't a mouth virgin anymore, I won't have to. Now come, let's sleep. We gotta leave a lil earlier tomorrow if we want the first banh mi."
Banh mi is the last thing on Yeonjun's mind when they get to their favourite food joint the next morning.
He is instead occupied by the thought of Dreue, the volleyballer-slash-boxer that Lalima swooned over in Lalima's Drunk Adventures, episode twenty-four - the very man that they had bumped into as they got out of Yeonjun's car.
Yeonjun had excused himself, saying he would go ahead and order for them while they waited by the door and chatted, but the truth is that he thought his heart would wring itself dry of any feeling if he had to hear them talk to each other. He hates to admit they look good together. Like, really good, what with Dreue's dimples, his unnecessarily defined muscles and tall figure cutting a sweet juxtaposition to Lalima's curvy softness and hot pink hair.
Dreue flashes an easy grin that dimples on one side and she giggles, nodding her head.
Yeonjun wants to smack him into another dimension.
His gaze darts between watching the banh mis get made - extra chilli and coriander for Lalima, extra patè and carrot for Yeonjun - and keeping track of their interaction. Dreue says something that must be sooo hilarious, since Lalima giggles and sets her hand on his forearm for a moment.
Fuuuuuck my stupid chungus life.
Now, Yeonjun is a confident man.
He knows he is good looking, that he dresses incredibly well, that he is charming and funny and whatever else. But that doesn't mean he is immune to insecurity, especially when it comes to Lalima. Yeonjun is confident, but he also knows that Lalima finds Dreue extremely hot; "so delicious, I could just gnaw on him like corn-on-the-cob", in her words.
He can't help the nugget of queasiness that worms in his gut, watching her teehee and gush over a man who he looks nothing like. Where Yeonjun is lithe and wiry, Dreue is bulkier, his boxer build stretching out his compression shirt and making his torso look like an upside down triangle. Stupid Dreue. His stupid elbows probably can't even touch each other, fucking boulder of a man.
Lalima and Dreue went to primary school together, but it was last year that they met again as adults, sharing a short conversation at the bar where they found each other before going their separate ways. Then next time was a few weeks ago, when she went to get kebabs during Soobin's birthday party. And now, in front of the banh mi shop that Yeonjun watches them from inside.
In all the time that Yeonjun has known Lalima, she hasn't had a crush before, only what she calls a lush - thinking someone is hot, imagining a life with them for a grand total of seven seconds before forgetting about them. Dreue was a lush the two times Lalima saw him before, but watching her twirl her hair and hand him her phone…
Yeonjun has a sneaking suspicion that Dreue was about to become a bit more than a lush.
He steels his heart, rubbing at his chest. He knows his place. Lalima's best friend - her first kiss and cuddle partner too, sure, but first and foremost, her best friend. When they met five years ago, he was a total fuck boy, a whore if you will, and he knows that she wants to explore herself, to fuck around and find out (literally) – and god damn him if he ever does anything except be a wingman for the love of his life.
Sighing forlornly, he grabs the banh mis and pays with the card Lalima passed him. She's alone when he exits the store, a dreamy expression softening her face, but Yeonjun catches the tail end of Dreue heading into the dumpling joint just next door.
Yeonjun flicks her her forehead but she barely notices. "Earth to Lima, you good to go?"
"Mhmmm. I'm gonna jump him."
"Like. His bones, or you gonna kill him?"
At this, Lalima finally turns, peering at him while a chuckle threatens to spill from her mouth. "I'm gonna jump his bones so hard he straight up dies, how about that?"
"Lima… you frighten me." He grins when she hits his shoulder lightly, then presses her card back into her hand.
"You love me too much to be scared, Juni. Now get driving, we gotta work."
Yeonjun's car pulls into the gas station, parking in front of the store and shooting a message to Lalima.
Four months had passed since Lalima's first kiss, since they touched each other in her room while Yeonjun's soul soared and soared.
Four months of Lalima enjoying one night stands, a few dates with Dreue, and short-lived fuck buddy, of her riveting tales of bedroom conquests that petered out when she realised she's seemingly already fucked the only two men who half knew what they were doing.
Four months of Yeonjun jerking himself off to pictures of Lalima, of clothes she leaves behind pressed into his nose, of innocent cuddles, of clutching his chest and pretending he is unaffected whenever she is in front of him, of being her best friend and even better wingman at parties.
He thought he would be more jealous.
He was, at first. Lalima had squealed into a cushion as she told him and Ember about her first time, and he felt a canyon crack across his hardened heart. It yawned wide and threatened to vomit his seething jealousy out all over the floor at her feet.
It was with stupid Dreue, and she had described the date and lead-up in excruciating detail, but the churning that Yeonjun felt was immediately erased when he found himself doubled over and laughing with Ember at the way Lalima spun her story.
Dreue's housemate had nearly walked in on them on the couch, and when they finally got to his room, his dick was covered in fuzz from pulling up his sweatpants without his underwear. Then Lalima had queefed and laughed at the sound, but Dreue had been confused and she had to explain what it was so he didn't think she farted on him. It's not even that it was his first time hearing a queef, he genuinely thought other girls had farted on him because they were embarrassed after.
There were many men after Dreue, names and faces that meant nothing to Yeonjun because, as he found out, they meant nothing to Lalima. From what he's gathered, to her it really was just fun, experimentation, a story-time if the night was peculiar enough, and research for her book.
And most of all, it was none of his business.
Lord knows what kind of slut he was back in the day, and this is her making up for lost time. Plus, why would he be jealous when in the end, it's his bed that Lalima slips into, it's his arms that she falls asleep in time and time again.
Yeonjun jumps when Lalima shrieks and pops up from below his window. She points and laughs at him as he scowls at her, satisfied by her successful scare, but he immediately melts it into a grin when she slides into her seat.
"Got you good, Juni, I wish I recorded that." She pulls something out of her bag and hands it to him - a single red rose. "Here, I saved the last one for you, as a thanks for driving me around this past week. My car will be ready tomorrow so I'm finally getting my baby girl back."
He smiles sweetly at her, brown eyes twinkling as he tucks the stem of the rose down his tank top. She had just spent the day handing out roses, the hobby she only indulges in three or four times a year, and he is in charge of taking her home. Yeonjun dips his head to his chest to take a big whiff of the rose, nose buried in the soft, bright red petals, and humming hedonistically.
Lalima doesn't know why the sight of his nose in the rose makes her tizzy, but she swallows the gasp that is suddenly sitting in her throat.
"Thank you sweetheart, but of course I drove you around. I wasn't gonna leave you trapped in your house. This is your favourite flower, right?"
She shakes her head, her pink waves bouncing. "Almost, I love dark red roses, not bright red like this. The dark ones smell so velvety and regal. Oh, can we go to your's tonight? If Soobin and Kai are home then let's play Smash Bros together."
Yeonjun nods in answer and starts his car again. He reverses out with his hand on the back of her headrest and Lalima pretends his side profile doesn't make her stomach flip.
Since her cherry popped, she has been absolutely insatiable. She had slept with so many men in four months that it would be kind of concerning if it wasn't for the fact that she thought of it as gathering data to make it more and more fun the next time.
Yeonjun was right, the best way to figure out what she liked had been to try again and again. It is fun to figure out how differently people make out - or fuck, or plan a date - but when she realised that more often than not she had to guide a useless man, step by step, to get her halfway to orgasm, who would ask no questions or just simply not care about anything other than getting their own dick wet - then it became not so fun. She has only had two men do a decent job: Dreue and Vernon, a man who Yeonjun had introduced to her and who was her first fuck buddy until he moved for work.
And then there was him.
Sweet, innocent Yeonjun; who would catch her gaze through the mirrors at his studio then pull of some complicated dance move, or wingman her at parties, or call her sweetheart, or pick her up for a week straight while her car gets repaired, or hold her in his sleep, or attractively reverse drive like he is now, sun glinting off of his silver chain…
Then all of a sudden her panties are wet and she needs to get in bed - either alone or with a man - to close her eyes and fantasise that every pleasurable moment happens because it's Yeonjun's hands on her, his hips against her's, him holding a dildo deep in her, him laving wet kisses up her throat.
Here he is, being a loving friend, and here she is, perverting their friendship by wanting to crack him like a glow stick. She wants to bite into his leg and shake him like a dog with a bone.
Lalima knows well enough that Yeonjun has no interest in her. It's very apparent in the way he basically serves her up in a bow to whichever hot man is in the vicinity, or cackled along with Ember when she recounted her first time.
She's annoyed at herself for having asked Yeonjun to be her first kiss, that she really believed things could be normal afterwards, and that now she's the one being a pathetic freak. She wants to kiss him stupid and hold hands in front of their friends, to fuck him in his car, to land a jumping roundhouse kick on anyone who tried to flirt with him, a billion other things that you don't do if you're just friends, you can't do.
It is a terrible, no good, horrible, awful state of mind to be in, but she has accepted her fate.
With a huff, she buries herself in her phone, watching random reels and vaping out of the window, ignoring his hands when they shift his gear stick. And then she comes across a video that has her gasp sharply.
"Juni," she says when he stops at a red light, a delighted tremor in the pitch of her voice, "how do you feel about dying your hair?"
"Uhh, I've thought about it, why?"
She replays the video for him, positively beaming when he looks up at her again. "Please say you'll let me do your hair like this. You know I've been bleaching my hair, right? I've got it it down pat now and I know it'll look awesome."
I'm pretty sure I'd let you run me over with my car if you asked. "Sure, next week then, I'll come over on Wednesday."
And that's how he found himself in her bathroom, perched on a wooden stool with Lalima standing over him.
The smell of bleach burns Lalima's nose as she brushes it into Yeonjun's hair. She is used to the burn by now since she started bleaching her hair at home, but it still has a kick to it. Humming along to the song Yeonjun plays on his speaker, she double checks his hairline and nods, satisfied.
"Junebug, you are all set. I'm gonna cling wrap your head and put a timer on."
"I'm gonna look stupid, aren't I?"
"Dude, you already look stupid." She disappears for a minute to grab cling wrap from the kitchen and pulls a sheet of it to wrap his head. The timer is set and she is admiring her work when they both get a notification on their phones.
Yuri has added them to a group chat with Soobin, Kai, Taehyun and Ember. Lalima gets increasingly excited as she reads her message, shaking Yeonjun by the shoulder as his face splits in a gleeful grin to match her own.
heyyyy bitches!!11!3!1 i humbly invite you to my grandparent's beachhouse for 5 nights so we can get fucked up on the beach :P it's in two weeks so get work off rn, i'll send the deets in a sec
"Ohhhh fuck yeah! Jun, give your studio notice right now because we have to go."
"Duh, already on it. This is the beach house you and your friends had that girl's weekend at ages ago, yeah?"
"That's the one, it's so fucking lovely there. I don't know what kind of money her grandparents made back in the day but that house is fucking beach side and two-story, plus I haven't been to the ocean since then so I'm keen."
Yeonjun remembers that weekend. It was during a month that they hadn't been able to see each other, Lalima writing for the short story competition that got her the grant for her work right now, and Yeonjun preparing a commission choreography. He had video called her and she accepted while on the beach, lazing in the sun wearing a bikini that had him seeing stars for the next weeks.
The next few hours pass with them gaming until the bleach timer goes off, Lalima telling Yeonjun how to thoroughly wash his hair out, and a round of purple shampoo toner while she mixes up the perfect royal blue to colour his hair. They take selfies while his hair is covered in the dye, pulling silly faces and recording the moment that Ember walks in and cackles at the sight of them.
Then finally, Yeonjun walks into her room with a towel over his head, fresh out of the shower. Lalima throws her phone to side and strides to him, pulling him to stand in front of her mirror where he whips the towel off with a flourish and she lets out a jubilant yell.
"Bro. Fuck, Juni, I knew you would look good in this colour! On god, you should be on a fucking magazine, or a music video, you look hot as fuck. AHH! Wait I have the perfect thing to finish the look, oh my fuck."
Yeonjun covers his mouth to hide the flustered glow that he knows is all over his face, but still she sees his smile-scrunched eyes and the red creeping up his neck and ears. She's complimented him many times before, but not like this, not by calling him hot or with this much enthusiastic swearing.
He waits on the edge of her bed as she digs in her drawers then leaves the room for a moment. When she comes back and sits next to him, she has two spray bottles and something in her hand.
"I know you're attached to your studs, but my goodness Jun, if you don't put these on then I'm pretty sure an angel will lose their wings."
She shows him a bunch of earrings, two larger ones and three smaller, all thick hoops in dark silver. They were perfectly his style and matched the silver chain already around his neck. "Woah, where did you get these?"
"This miiight have been the thing I was buying two weeks ago when my car broke down. I saw it and thought of you, and I was gonna hold on to it 'til your birthday but that's months away."
"Wait, you got it for me? It's not just your own spare earrings? Lima–"
"Nope, I don't wanna hear it, whatever you were gonna say. Just accept my love and these sick ass earrings , okay?" She pokes his cheek, beaming so brightly that he can't help but grin back.
Yeonjun nods, he knows there's no arguing with her when she makes up her mind like this. "Lalima, thank you, they're perfect. They're exactly my type."
"I know, Junebug, now sit still while I put them on you." And he does, watching through the mirror as she takes of his earrings and sprays them with alcohol.
He can change his earrings himself, but that's a lot less enjoyable than having Lalima pressed into his side, her mouth pouted in concentration as she wipes his ears with piercing spray. Yeonjun crushes a hand full of her bedsheets when she leans closer to him, her coconut shampoo doing its usual damage and making him heady. It's extra potent whenever he is in her room, mixing with lingering traces of her perfume and coloured by the accumulation of her life in this house.
He turns his head away from her so she can reach his ear easier, and her fingers are gentle when sliding the new piercings into place. When she starts on the other ear, her pinky brushes the patch of skin between the back of his ear and his hairline, and Yeonjun swallows visibly.
Lalima feels something tighten in her chest then, at the sight of his neck exposed to her like this, at the goosebumps that raise on his skin when she brushes that same spot again, on purpose this time. She clicks the last earring in place and stills, unwilling to move away just yet. It's so quiet in the room that, a moment later, she can hear the sound of Yeonjun's lips parting to speak.
"You got it?" His voice is so soft, like he doesn't dare believe she is under the same spell that holds him captive.
She nods and steps back, releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding. Yeonjun's gaze is honeyed when he looks up at her, voice still feather-soft when he speaks again even as they pretend whatever that was didn't happen.
"Limabean, I can hear your gears turning from here. What's on your mind?"
But if you really love me say it now
Why is it so hard to figure out?
I need you every day, believe me when I say it
Lalima's queue of songs comes to a perfect end just as Ember parks her car beside Taehyun's, the noon sun shining down on them in tandem with a gentle breeze.
The friend group had decided to travel in groups according to the houses they lived in; Yuri and Taehyun in one car that arrived earlier to set up the rooms, Lalima in Ember's car, and Soobin and Kai in Yeonjun's car. Ember was only able to get two days off since she is still saving for her move to Italy, so Lalima would be joining the boys for the drive home.
Speaking of, Yeonjun's car rolls up a minute later as she and Ember are grabbing their bags, Soobin sing-yelling along to a KARA song out the window with the most hideous pineapple sunglasses perched on his nose and Kai passed out in the backseat. The boys had been in charge of grabbing food for the stay, and those groceries were piled in the back of the car, their bags stacked around Kai and one serving as his pillow.
Kai blinks the sleep out of his eyes when Lalima opens the door closest to his head. "Hiiii Kai, you have drool all across your mouth you sleepy freak."
"Maybe it's a fashion statement, Lima, did you ever think about that?" His voice is raspy from his rocky nap, and he yawns as he sits up and scratches his belly.
Soobin's song finally finishes and he whips off the pineapple glasses with a flourish. "Considering his current sense of style, I think drool is an improvement."
At that, Ember's head swivels to Soobin, who immediately clasps his hands together as if begging her for mercy. Ember just cackles at him. "Soobin, my guy, I don't think you of all people should be trying to judge someone else on their fashion."
Kai walks around the car and rips Soobin's door open, only for them all to see that both the boys were wearing almost the exact same outfit - a hoodie and sweatpants in all black, the only difference being that Kai's had embroidery and little white triangles sewn along the top of the hood to make it look like a monster. Ember tsks at Soobin, and he hangs his head in shame as Kai snickers at him.
"They're ridiculous." Lalima turns to find Yeonjun beside her all of a sudden; she hadn't even notice him get out of the car. He's wearing a loose tee and navy shorts today, the hoops she gifted him swaying at his ear when he nudges her elbow. "How was the drive?"
"Mm, it was lovely, the ocean was gorgeous. I can't wait to go swimming."
He nods in agreement and grabs her duffel bag from her, hiking his own bag higher on his shoulder. The five of them make their way up the steps to the house, groceries and bags swinging as they take in the sights.
The house was a beautiful cream all over, pops of gold, emerald and turquoise splashed across the walls and decorations, gauzy cream curtains flurrying in the wind and framing windows that spanned entire walls. The most beautiful, emerald tiles paved the first floor, glossy along the well-walked sections. Yuri squeals at the sight of them, running to embrace her friends as Taehyun yells in greeting from the kitchen.
Past the living area and through the kitchen, a casual wooden dining table awaited the group with cuts of watermelon and sparkling glasses of lemonade. They drop their bags by the couch and stream in to gather around the table, exclaiming at freshness of the spread.
Yeonjun hands Lalima a glass of lemonade before getting his own, but even as she swigs it, her eyes narrow at Taehyun and Yuri. The two were acting whispering something to each other, glancing around the room suspiciously.
Lalima decides to break the ice for them. "Alright guys, you think I don't notice you muttering to each other? Spill the beans."
Yuri looks like a deer caught in headlights and she immediately nudges Taehyun, who squeezes her hand reassuringly. "It's not a big deal, don't worry. Just… There's one less bed that we first thought, that's all. We'll be in the main bedroom of course, there's one with two single beds for Em and Lima, and the other one was supposed to have a double and single bed, but we just found out the single bed in there was given to Yuri's cousin who just started uni last week."
"Oh, that's not too bad, we can figure it out, I'm only here for one night anyway." Ember waves her hand indifferently, a signal to assure Yuri that it wasn't a problem.
Yeonjun nods, thoughtful, then glances at Lalima. "How about Soob and Kai take the two single beds and Em and Lima take the double bed? I'll sleep on the couch tonight and take Em's spot tomorrow."
Soobin cocks his head to the side, peering at Yeonjun with an undecipherable twist in his mouth. "Or Kai and I can take the double bed if that's more comfy."
"No it's fine!" Lalima's voice comes out louder than intended, and her face burns when all of their eyes fall on her. "Uh, the double bed is the room with the balcony right, I was in there when I came last time. I plan on being on that balcony as much as I can, and I know for a fact that Kai brought a switch that you guys will be up all night playing with."
She can't even look at Yeonjun - afraid that somebody will pick up on her true reasoning for wanting that room - so she doesn't notice his gaze zeroed in on her, watching the nervous way she fiddles with the rim of her glass.
Of the other five, Soobin seems to be the only one oblivious to the obvious tension between Yeonjun and Lalima, but Kai sees keenly how Yeonjun's body is angled towards her. He doesn't know if this is a new development or if he only noticed it now, but there is clearly something going on with them. He notices Soobin getting ready to say something and swoops in immediately.
"All the better for me, I don't wanna share a bed with Soobin. This freak keeps saying I have bad fashion. Also, he's mega stinky."
"Am not!"
The strange vibe is immediately cut through as the two start bickering, Taehyun cackling at them as Kai is chased out of the room with Soobin hot on his heels. Yuri and Ember pretend not to notice Yeonjun prodding Lalima's elbow to take another sip, but they are practically gosipping via eye contact about what the hell just happened.
Once they feel refreshed, they put their things away in their respective rooms. A change of clothes and layers of sunscreen later, they are streaming out of the back door, beach bags and an esky of cold drinks in tow as they head down to the water. The beach is basically right behind the house, a sweet little bay that takes three minutes to walk to and ten minutes to walk from one side to the other. The main sections of shore stretch out on either side of the bay, and though the occasional straggler swims or wanders past, the group of friends are mostly left to themselves while setting up.
Taehyun spikes down the ridiculously massive umbrella he had carried with the help of Kai, and they set up camp. Blankets are laid, and their things set around the edges to weigh the sheets down.
"Last one in is rotten egg!" Soobin's giddy voice prompts them all to action, stripping off their cover-ups to race each other across the sand.
Kai is in the water first, screaming when Lalima and Soobin follow immediately after and grab him by the arms to dunk him in. Yeonjun joins them with a cackle and changes their target to Soobin, splashing water at his face as a distraction while Kai gets behind him. Taehyun dives into the water at first, but he swims back to take Yuri's hand and lead her further in slowly. He suddenly sweeps her off her feet to carry her bridal style, nosing her cheek sweetly even as she blurts out expletives at how cold the water is. Ember accepts her new life as a rotten egg, choosing instead to crack open a beer as her first course of action.
They spend hours on the shoreline, some rotating between laying in the sun to warm up and back in the water to cool down, others paddling in the water until their skin is well past pruney. Every inch of the bay is explored - seashells are found and thrown back into the ocean, rockpools are revealed for exploration as the tide eddies, and a lovely conversation is had when a couple and their child splash over into their section of the bay. All the while, the fresh, briny wind blows just enough to temper the sun's heat.
A round of beers is shared to celebrate the start of their little holiday, and again as they watch the sun set in the horizon. The sky blooms in pinks and golds that ripple off the sea, but while the others are remarking on the view, Yeonjun only has one thing in mind. One person.
The palette of colours that billow above them are made all the more beautiful to him only by the fact it looks like her. The fuchsias and corals, the darkening glimpses of that brilliant sky blue, the gold glittering off the broken surface of the ocean… To Yeonjun, this is nature trying to paint a picture of Lalima's soul.
Like she can feel him thinking about her, she scoots backwards to sit in line with him. She is relaxed, legs like jelly from treading water for so long, her arm warm against Yeonjun. The sun has tanned her darker into a syrupy hickory that glows. It makes him want to twine their fingers together, to brush the sand off her skin, to hold her in his lap and kiss her until the moon rises.
She is equally bewitched. Lalima had taken one glance at him when they first dove in, watched the water trace rivulets down his chest, and had to immediately dunk herself in the sea. She swam and swam away to the other side of the bay, floated on her back until her heart rate calmed down, and righted herself only to find him next to her again. He had grinned sweetly at her, earrings glinting, and it was game over for her.
Lalima had spent most of her time trying to get away from Yeonjun. She didn't want to explain why she was getting increasingly flustered at the sight of him, but Yeonjun had just followed her everywhere like a lost puppy. He thought she was just feeling particularly adventurous today.
She aches to drop her head against his shoulder and lean into him, but she had already gotten looks when they had to decide on rooms. Instead, she takes what she can get, relishing in the press of their arms, in knowing she could share a bed with him after one more night.
When she looks up to make a comment about the horizon, she finds him already observing her. Yeonjun schools his face, hoping he smoothed away his lovesick expression quickly enough, but she's mortified enough from meeting his gaze that she doesn't notice.
"What are you looking at, punk?"
"Just trying decide what wet rodent you look like." Yeonjun grins cheekily when she glares at him.
"Think very carefully Juni, I will beat you up."
"Hmm, I've decided you're like a very beautiful bunny that went for a swim."
"That's what I thought. You look like a hamster that barely survived a getting blasted by a powerwasher."
"Waowww, thanks Lima."
Then Taehyun calls out that he will start on dinner, snatching Yeonjun away to help with carrying the umbrella and starting the barbeque. The rest of the group slowly pack up and gather their bags, chattering quietly until they pour into the back verandah.
Dinner is their main priority, and so burger patties and sausages are slapped between bread and slathered with tomato sauce, chased down with beers and pineapple Bruisers. The feast is enjoyed so thoroughly it might as well be a five-star restaurant meal - something about the energy used for swimming will always make one famished. Once the mosquitoes start attacking, they scram back inside the house, and finally, exhausted and happy with full bellies, they start their wind down for bed.
Ember is in the shower while Lalima finally checks out her beloved balcony. Night has brought the spill of the Milky Way, stars shining brighter above this quiet town than back at home. The draft rustling the curtains is nippy now but it's a welcome reprieve. Just as she's about to settle into one of the chairs, there's a knock on the bedroom door.
It's Yeonjun, towel slung around his neck and fresh out of the shower. Without thinking, he reaches forward and swipes his thumb over her cheek. "Dried salt," he says by way of explanation.
She nods, fiddling with the white mesh dress that had served as a coverup despite not really… covering up a whole lot. The spaces between the loose mesh showed barbie pink bikini that Yeonjun had tried his very best to not oggle at too much. Seeing her in it now, though, when he assumed she would be out of her beach fit, short-circuited his brain and drew his eyes like magnets down the curvy line of her body.
Lalima clasps her hand in front of her, twisting her fingers. The movement makes him snap his gaze up, dismayed by his lapse in self-control and an apology welling on his tongue - but she speaks before he can.
"Are you looking for something?" Her voice is breathy, but she can't quiet meet his eyes, instead flitting her gaze over the rest of his face.
"Oh. Hahh, sorry, yeah. Can I borrow your toothpaste, sweetheart?"
The next moment happens in slow motion for Lalima. She notices a flash of blonde behind Yeonjun and tilts her head to see Ember, a dumbstruck expression aimed at the back of his head. A thousand explanations crowd Lalima's brain, a thousand justifications for the pet name, but then she realises there is a second person looming behind Yeonjun.
It's Soobin, mouth dropped open in utter shock and eagle eyes darting between them as the cogs turn in his brain.
"Sweetheart?! You call Lalima sweetheart?!"
< previous . masterlist . next >
so heyyyy hope u enjoyed this :3 you were supposed to find out about beomgyu this chapter but this chapter just kept getting longer lol :0 you just read 6k+ words
Choi Yeonjun and Lalima Menon have been friends for far too long for Yeonjun to still have this pathetic, all-consuming crush on her.
And when Lalima asks Yeonjun to be her first kiss, of course he jumps at the chance. All he has to do is pretend he doesn't jerk off to photos of her every night, that he isn't hopelessly enamoured with her and everything will be fine. Right?
Neither of them realise it's the beginning of… something… that could change their lives forever. For the better or worse, his life is inextricably entwined with Lalima, and reason knows how long he can hold on before the sight of her breaks him.
— a slow burn friends to lovers with smut
< previous . masterlist . next >
let's take your time
be mine
anywhere i go
anything i do
if you want me
if you gonna stay with me again
☆ Heaven - oceanfromtheblue
Lalima has four roses left in her bag - the others are already safe in the hands of strangers. She holds out another one, this time to a little girl with her hair in pigtails who gives her a shy smile before taking it from Lalima's gloved hand. The girl's pigtails bounce as she skips back to her parent, who waves at Lalima gratefully.
This has become one of Lalima's favourite activities, ever since she watched a social experiment video three years ago, where a person handed out roses to strangers. She bought forty roses out of impulse that day, walking around the city and giving them to whoever she felt like. After that, she had made a point of doing it every few months, just because she can.
The last few roses disappear into other people's hands, and she checks her watch. She spends the rest of the day in a hair salon, eyes blurring from staring at her phone as the dresser snips and styles. When she reaches her home, the flat is quiet, and she admires her new look in the full-length mirror in her room before getting ready to party.
Two hours later, she's knocking on the door to the flat that houses Yeonjun, Soobin, and Huening Kai. Soobin opens it and she giggles at his bewilderment, booping his nose as she slips past him. Music from Yeonjun's party playlist plays from the speakers - a low, sultry voice twining around a booming bassline. A cloying mix of vapes and weed settles into her lungs, overpowering the vodka shot Lalima finds pushed into hand.
She is a woman on a mission, but she isn't nearly drunk enough to do it now. Lalima decides that the only way to fix that problem is by chugging a guava Bruiser. Death-inducingly sweet alcohol in soda form - what more could she want in life?
Well... there is one thing.
Her eyes flit across the room until until she lands on Yeonjun, leaning against a wall in all of his effortless glory.
His hair is ruffled as per usual - the result of him endlessly carding his fingers through it - wearing a zebra-print cardigan slipped on over a deep-necked white t-shirt, and dark-wash blue jeans leading to a pair of white boots.
Sickening! I can't compliment his outfit now or he'll go and get a big head about it. Why does he have to look so good when I'm about to ask him to kiss me?
Lalima does not have a crush on Choi Yeonjun.
Well, she did years ago, when they were first getting to know each other, but times have changed. They met at in an era when he was having a lot of casual fun, when she was still insecure about her complete lack of experience in the physical contact department. She wasn't interested in just being another name on his list, partly because she was afraid of humiliating herself in front of a pro, and mostly because it was actually, surprisingly, fun to talk to him.
He was a goober from the start - dropping silly dad jokes that made people roll their eyes, making up ridiculous dance moves as a response to losing friendly debates, pretending to flirt smarmy-style with his best friends to gross them out a bit. Yeonjun is charismatic, a social butterfly who puts everyone at ease - and when you get to know him like Lalima does, he's sentimental and genuine at heart.
Why would Lalima entertain a silly crush when instead she could nurture their solid, budding friendship? It was an easy choice for her, one that she did not take lightly.
So why does she want to kiss him then?
I just gotta go up to him and ask super casually. She had considered asking some of her other guy friends, but none of them were good options. Yeonjun is the one who knows her the best, like the back of his hand, he knows all the ins and outs of her life like she does his.
Asking someone else would be far too awkward because she wouldn't be able to predict what their reaction might. They might get uncomfortable, or just be weird about it from then onwards. On the other hand, she could reliably guess that whether or not Yeonjun agrees to help her, it wouldn't be awkward afterwards.
If he says yes, all is well and done. If he says no, he'll understand why I asked and leave it at that. It's Yeonjun, he's not gonna act like I've permanently changed the friendship.
As if he can hear her thinking about him, Yeonjun passes his gaze around the room. Then he sees it, a flash of pink at the corner of his eye that distracts him from the conversation he's having. He pricks up and looks around until his eyes settle on her and for a split second he's breathless, the shocked sort of can't-breathe that comes from seeing a friend look like a whole new person.
And that's exactly what she has turned into.
Lalima's black hair had only newly been cut to her neck, and yet there she is with it freshly dyed hot pink. It changes her whole face, her whole demeanour and better suits her push-and-pull energy. She's wearing the very oversized denim jacket she vowed to snatch from Yeonjun weeks ago, a glossy, gold tank top showing off a soft strip of her brown belly, a matching pair of denim jorts slung low on her hips, with a burgundy handbag and boots acting as the cherries on top.
Yeonjun swallows harshly, wondering how even after all this time she manages to make him want to melt at her feet.
He knocks back a shot of vodka and threads his way through the other people in the room, waving distractedly to those who greet him but eyes set on her. She sees him coming, the party-going crowd splitting around him in his beeline route, and hurriedly copies his action, downing the rest of her drink.
When Yeonjun reaches her, he takes a moment to rake his low-lidded gaze over her, hands running through his hair. "Lima, you look... Did you get this done today? It's awesome!" You look hot as fuck, that's what he wanted to say. You look stunning, you look heavenly, you look like you should be in my arms.
"Haha, I know right! I feel like god." She holds up her phone to look at her reflection on the black screen and smirks at it. "And you, Yeonjun Choi, are looking a little scandalous."
Lalima lightly taps his bared chest, right at the deep V of his top. Yeonjun had matched her smirk at the compliment, but it turns into an obvious gulp at her touch and she watches the movement curiously. Her hand drops again, suddenly nervous at the thought of what she wants to ask him.
Resting her hand at the crook of his elbow, she leads Yeonjun to his bathroom and closes the door, wringing her hands together. There isn't much space in there, and he can feel the air shift just a little at each of her movements - or maybe he was just so hyper-aware of her that every move felt monumental to him. He leans against the sink, kicking his legs up onto the tiny bathtub across from it as Lalima posts herself beside him.
"Jun. I have something to ask you." Lalima stands the way she does when she's nervous to speak, fists in front of her chest like she's ready to fight. Inhaling deeply, she shakes out the tension from her hands and squares her shoulders.
"Do you now? I thought you had dragged me here for a bathroom quickie." He laughs when she sputters, snorting as she smacks his arm. "I'm just kidding! What did you wanna say?"
Lalima hesitates. She had kind of hoped that he would say something like 'I am very busy hosting this party so please come back tomorrow', or 'no you loser, you aren't allowed to ask me anything'. Instead, he looks at her expectantly, patiently waiting for her to gather her thoughts.
Stupid, considerate Yeonjun.
She opens her mouth to ask the question, but what comes tumbling out instead is "Actually, you know what, never mind, it isn't that important and maybe I should just—" she reaches for the door handle. Yeonjun grabs her wrist and pulls her to him, trapping her between his legs so she doesn't leave. He stares at her suspiciously, cocking up an eyebrow.
"Oi. Talk to me, Limabean. Just tell me what you need." Yeonjun either doesn't notice or ignores the way she goes red at the sincerity in his statement. And, of course, her hands being in his, and preemptive embarrassment of the words sitting on her tongue.
"Um. So. I want... Can you- Can I kiss you? No wait that-" Yeonjun's eyes bulge out in shock and Lalima scrunches her mouth, looking away from him and fervently regretting ever coming here. She had practised what she would ask but Jesus took the wheel when Yeonjun pulled her between his legs.
"Can you what?!"
And this is why I should never speak, ever. Dumbass. Then she starts swearing at Yeonjun mentally, because of course I'm going to blurt out something stupid if he holds me in a provocative position!
She doesn't say any of that out loud though, just awkwardly looks around the bathroom. "That didn't come out right. Obviously. Ugh. Lemme start from the start 'cuz-"
"Because saying things out loud helps you process it better, I know." He crosses his arms together and lets Lalima settle herself on the edge of the bathtub - still between his legs, but with his hands no longer holding her's. He felt like his skin might combust if he was looking at her sweet, flustered face and touching her bare skin. "Go on then."
"I've just... never had my first kiss, as you know. That's all. I know I joke about being a closeted whore, but I kinda want to be an actual whore and I want to fuck around, and make out with strangers and experiment and like? I can't do all of that if I haven't kissed anyone?"
Yeonjun tilts his head when she pauses, at a loss for words. He just lets her organise her thoughts while he tries to tame his own. He's doing a incredible job of pretending he was only listening to her when in fact, his head is currently full of Lalima, of kissing her, wondering what kind of sounds she would make, whether she would hold his face or grip his shirt, of her wanting to kiss me!
"I know it's just one, stupid kiss, but I don't want my first kiss to be with a stranger, you know? But I also don't want it to be with a date 'cuz that's also a stranger, and if it doesn't work out with them, then they'll eternally be branded in my head as my first kiss? Ugh. This is dumb. Maybe I should just..."
She tries to slip past him again, but Yeonjun once again pulls her to him, settling his hands on her waist this time. "Hey, stay here. It's not dumb, and I get what you're saying, but... Why are you asking me this? Why not Huening, or Soobin?"
"Because! I love those guys but I'm not tight with them like we are yano? I know you're not gonna be weird about the fact I asked no matter what your answer is, it can only be you. And there aren't any romantic feelings between us, right? We're such good friends that even if we share one silly peck, it won't be a big deal, right? I get to have my first kiss with someone I trust with my soul, and you get... I don't know, I'll buy you banh mi. Or cheesecake!"
Yeonjun cocks his head to the side, pretending to mull it over so he doesn't look too eager when accepting. It won't be a big deal? If only you knew, Lima. He smiles at her reassuringly, ignoring the tightness in his chest and pressing his fingers into his knees in an attempt to ground himself. "I'm okay with that. Can't believe I'm about to help my friend start her whoredom."
"You're a real one, whore, thanks!" Lalima shoots him with a finger gun and a wink. This time, she's out the door before he can say anything more.
Yeonjun stares at the space she leaves behind with soft eyes, then hangs his head with a sigh and cards his fingers through his hair. She has no clue what shes doing to me. One measly kiss that might just unravel me, that might make me finally calm down or make me more insane. One kiss. I'll take what I can get.
"I'll take whatever that is." Lalima points at the destroyed and messily-iced cupcake in Kai's hand - or at least, she tries to. Instead, she manages to shove her finger up his nose, causing him to rear back in surprise.
"Ah fuck! Lima if you don't sit down right now I will not give you the cupcake!" Kai scolds her with a protective hand over his nose and she follows his words immediately.
When she's finally still, Kai hands her the squished cupcake and she happily snacks on it, smearing some of the icing above her lips. Kai sighs tiredly - drunk Lalima always made him feel like a sleep-deprived dad - and wipes it away sweetly, only for her to latch onto him in a tight koala-hug.
"Kai!" She draws out his name, but it's muffled by his chest. "If things don't work out with... Cameron? That's their name, right? If things don't work out with Cameron can you please marry me?"
Kai sighs again, dramatically this time, even as a smile tugs his mouth up. "No way Lima, you're like a child to me. Which doesn't make sense because you're older. You big baby."
"No fair!" Lalima pulls her face off Kai's chest and pouts. "I've been child-zoned! Just you wait, I'll marry Yeonjun and then I'll be your step-mum."
"That's... not how it works? Yeonjun isn't my dad you goose." Kai looks around the empty kitchen helplessly as she buries her face into his chest again, then catches sight of the man in question past the doorway. "Jun! Get over here will you?"
Yeonjun - who was on his way to the kitchen anyway to open another bottle of vodka - does a double take at Kai's voice and is confused to see Lalima squeezing the life out him in her death grip of a hug. He pauses at the doorway and blinks at sight of them.
"Jeez, how much did she drink?" Yeonjun untangles Lalima from around Kai, then lets her lean her head against him. Her hands fist up in his shirt and Yeonjun's chest tightens at the feel of her against him. It's not like they are strangers to physical contact, but it's her. He could live in between her ribs and still feel enraptured by her touch. Knowing he was going to be blessed enough to kiss her soon enough just made him all the more hot and bothered.
Kai just shrugs. Lalima is notorious for being able to handle heavy drinking without so much as a headache, but the flirt-with-everyone stage she is currently in is only a drink or two away from her fall-asleep-everywhere stage.
He simply signals for Yeonjun to help half-drag, half-carry Lalima to Yeonjun's room. Kai leaves while Yeonjun settles her on the edge his bed, then comes back a few minutes later with a glass and jug of water.
When Kai leaves again, Yeonjun looks at Lalima, who gives him a tipsy wink. He kneels in front of her and unlaces her boots, pulling them off along with her socks and setting them down neatly then helping her out of her (his) jacket. She grins stupidly at him, mumbling a 'thanks', her gaze unfocused, and he doesn't try holding back the beam on his face that matches her's.
"You good Lima?"
"Yeth." Yeonjun narrows his eyes suspiciously at that - Lalima has a strange habit of adding a lisp to one word answers when she's well-drunk.
"D'you have a good night Limabean? You got a lotta compliments on your pretty hair?" He chuckles when she nods excitedly, then pours her a glass of water. "How are you feeling?"
She chugs the glass, then takes a deep breath and really thinks about it, eyebrows furrowing. "I'm feeling... Loosey goosey. I want to eat an orange over the sink like a feral vampire biting into a human. Or maybe I just want a vampire to bite into me like I'm an orange over the sink."
"Oooh, so sexy. If I ever come across a vampire I'll make sure to let them know about a willing, walking blood bank with pink hair. I'll make sure all your fantasies come true, sweetheart." Yeonjun wiggles his eyebrows at the innuendo, a glow spreading through his soul when she chuckles.
"Sweetheart! I love being called that. Can we watch YouTube? Put on a play through of Slime Rancher, all this talk of juicy fruit and blood banks makes me wanna eat one of those cute little slimes."
Yeonjun smiles, imagining her trying to bite into a jiggly slime creature, how her cheeks would puff up and her mouth be covered in … ohh what the fuck is wrong with you? Now you're getting horny imagining her eating fictional bouncing slime?! He clears his throat, disguising the blush creeping up his neck by setting up his laptop and slinking into his bed next to her. They have shared beds before, sleepovers after game and parties, but there was always a respectable distance - a pillow or plushie marking the boundary Yeonjun wished never existed.
Tonight, however, Lalima sidles up close to him, arm-to-arm and a foot thrown over his leg. His breath catches when she takes hold of the edge of his cardigan sleeve, playing with a loose thread.
They fall into a comfortable silence as the video plays. Yeonjun barely registers the game walk through though, too focussed on her finger drawing flowers on his arm over the sleeve. Even while she laughs at the dumb jokes the gamer makes, all he's aware of is the warmth of her against him, the way she plays with his feet with her own.
Partway through the video, Lalima looks up at Yeonjun, only to find him already gazing at her. For a delirious, dizzy moment, she wonders what his lips would taste like. Like vodka, or strawberry gum? Weed if he smoked, or maybe his lip balm.
She shoves that thought away, physically shaking her head to get rid of it. That doesn't work though, especially not when she realises that Yeonjun still has his eyes on her. "What are you looking at punk?"
Yeonjun screeches as she tickles him, then reciprocates with his own attack at her waist. The two cackle as they try to get the upper-hand on the other, Yeonjun's blankets tangling around them and his laptop laying forgotten at the foot of the bed. He grabs onto her wrists to stop her from tickling his armpits, then pins both of them under one hand above her hair so he can grab her waist. The sound of Lalima's screeches and breathless laugh are so delightful to him that he almost doesn't notice the way she writhes at his actions.
Almost.
But all of a sudden he's very tuned in to the fact that he's hovering over her, fingers ghosting at her bare waist and a knee pressed between her's. Not for the first time, he files away the sight of her to add to his filthy, mental spank bank. He should be put in jail for the number of times he's cum on his hands thinking of Lalima, staring at a photo of her or chanting her name like a prayer.
She realises he's stopped tickling her and catches her breath, chest heaving.
Yeonjun's gaze is oh so soft as he memorises this moment. His makes note of how her short, pink locks fan around her head, the way her lips are still curved into a tiny smile as she drags air in, the sweet spot where the brown skin of her neck and shoulder meet. Lalima stills as his attention rakes over her slowly, a fluster building when his eyes skip over her gold necklace, past the dip of her tank top's neckline, down, down—
"You really thought you could beat me, Juni?"
And in a flash, Lalima swings one leg over his ass and somehow flips them both, catching his hands that had loosened with startlement and trapping both wrists under her knees. She looks down at him triumphantly, but doesn't expect him to inhale sharply.
There's a shift in the air. A re-balancing of tension as an expression that Lalima can't name falls onto Yeonjun face. He takes in a haggard breath and steals a very noticeable peak at the swell of her chest, eyes snaring on the pertness of her nipples through her tank top. His cheeks reddening in embarrassment at how obvious he is being. God save me.
She's sitting right above the zip of his jeans. If she moves, it's over for me. Oh god, I don't think she even needs to move. Only now does he notices that where pockets should be on her jorts, there are instead heart cutouts offering a glimpse of pelvic bone. He bites back a groan.
"Truce!" Yeonjun calls out, and only then does Lalima notice the scandalous position they are in. She jumps off him like he's a hot stove, flopping on the bed beside him. "You're right, Limabean, I was too cocky, thinking I would win. I may have stronger arms but everyone knows your legs are the strongest." And by everyone, I mean specifically me since I spend a sinful amount of time dreaming about those legs.
"What can I say, I'm a fucking beast of the legular variety."
"Oh really? Glad to know I can hold my own against a master." Easy-going banter, as if he hadn't been one motion away from dry-humping her. As if Yeonjun didn't have to press half-moons into his palm with his nails to stop his dick from growing.
Lalima's mouth is parched. She's sobered up so quickly that the party seemed hours ago, even though it's been maybe an hour since Yeonjun and Huening Kai carried her to this room.
What was that? Why did Yeonjun look at me like that? Never has the space between the two of them been this charged, and Lalima wonders if she made a mistake asking Yeonjun to be her first kiss. What if I was wrong to think things wouldn't change between us? What if I made it weird? Am I a disgusting pervert?
"Lalima." Yeonjun's voice is firm, bordering on stern. She turns her head to see he's laid on his side, his cheek squishing against his palm, propped up on his elbow. "I know when you're overthinking dude."
"You know me too well then." She shifts to lay on her belly, arms curled to cradle her head and facing Yeonjun. "I'm kinda embarrassed that I asked to kiss you. I don't want you to think I'm a pathetic loser for being weird about my first kiss, you know? I don't actually care that I haven't done it yet even though I'm twenty-four, it's just that the longer I go without breaking the seal, the more I feel like I want it to be with someone who actually matters to me. I've been asked on dates by people and I keep refusing because I can't let loose until the first one is done well. Just the first one, everything after will be fine. Is it silly? Like is it not that deep and I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill?"
Lalima's eyes flit around the room nervously as she speaks, but they lock on Yeonjun when he takes her fingers into his hand.
"Well first, I'm never gonna think you're pathetic. A weird loser? Sure, but so am I. And I'm not sure if you will believe how completely mean this, but I understand you. Like every action or decision you make, everything you do, I understand your thought process behind it. I'm okay with being your first kiss, and I know that if I had said no then you wouldn't feel rejected. I don't think you're being too deep about about this, you feel like this for a reason. Who am I to tell you what you feel is wrong? Who is anyone?"
"Ahh Juni, you always know what to say. Thank you." Lalima sighs in relief and Yeonjun squeezes her fingers reassuringly.
"Let's do it tomorrow. I want us both to be sober, for one, and we'll get some fruits and make it a picnic. I'm gonna make this the best first kiss you could ever have, sound good?"
Her nose scrunches with a grateful smile and nod. Then, swept up by the demands of his heart, Yeonjun pulls her to him in a hug, pressing his cheek into the soft curls at the top of her head and taking in the smell of her coconut shampoo. "Come, let's finish this video." He keeps her held close to him while adjusting the blankets around them, bringing his laptop back and rewinding to pick up where they left off.
Thank heaven I'm alive at this time, in this place, to witness the most beautiful woman on the planet.
They fall asleep curled into each other, Lalima's cheek nestled on his arm.
23 : they/them : mallu indian in australia
writing for txt , reading txt and svt
MDNI - mature content
@sendingsecretsignals for txt collabs
→ masterlist under cut
NOW UPLOADING
⫸ I'll Take What I Can Get - cyj
COMING SOON
⫸ Offer You Eternity - kth
⫸ Our Place Of Promise - kth + cbg
⫸ Lady Why You Look So Mad - cbg
MASTERLIST
꩜ ongoing ꕥ finished ✮ upcoming
❀ smut 𖤓 multi parts ✧ oneshot
CHOI SOOBIN
⫸ You Can Be My Ghost Girl . ✮
prospect : secret ;)
CHOI YEONJUN
⫸ I'll Take What I Can Get . ꩜ 𖤓 ❀
status : ongoing - 5 / 10 parts
word count : 30k / 50k??
overview : slowburn friends to lovers
Choi Yeonjun and Lalima Menon have been friends for far too long for Yeonjun to still have this pathetic, all-consuming crush on her.
CHOI BEOMGYU
⫸ Our Place Of Promise . ✮
prospect : fantasy polyamory in slice of life chapters
vampire taehyun x human oc x elf beomgyu
⫸ Lady Why You Look So Mad . ✮
prospect : demon beomgyu x human oc
KANG TAEHYUN
⫸ Offer You Eternity . ✮
prospect : arranged marriage
sweet service top taehyun x bossy commanding oc
⫸ Our Place Of Promise . ✮
prospect : fantasy polyamory in slice of life chapters
vampire taehyun x human oc x elf beomgyu
⫸ Golden Hour . ✮
prospect : fated soulmates meet again in their second life