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
< 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?!"
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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
