title: entanglement of fate pairing: choi soobin x choi yeonjun x fem!reader genre: enemies to lovers, slow burn, angst, hurt/comfort, smut (mdni!) word count: 38.5k masterlist
summary: you and soobin have been dating for nearly 5 years when you decide to move across the country to his hometown. unfortunately—his childhood best friend yeonjun can't stand you.
author's note: hi everyone!! long-time fanfic writer, but first time kpop/reader fic writer here. had to get this out of my brain. didn't mean for it to be so long, but here she is!! hope u enjoy!!
tags/warnings: light infidelity, no protection, threesome (f/m/m), drinking, eiffel tower, fingering, blow jobs, oral
link & teaser below <3
It's difficult to settle your stomach. Trees blur by the windows for hours on end. The back of your tiny silver sedan is packed to the brim with all your belongings, and the love of your life sits next to you in the driver's seat. One hand grips the wheel, and the other rests atop your thigh. He smiles at you whenever your eyes find their way over.
It's difficult, now, even all these years later, not to grab him by the face and kiss him every time he looks at you.
But there's something else, too, that's been bothering you. Something that has made your typical road trip anxiety turn into near panic. You drum your fingers on the top of your thigh. You grip Soobin's hand. You sing along to the radio. None of it is enough to distract from that anxiety—especially as you near closer to your boyfriend's hometown.
You make one last stop, about two hours out from your destination. A small rest stop off the highway. You get out to stretch your legs, trying not to think about the inevitable reunion that will occur moments after you arrive at the new apartment you and Soobin secured. You should be excited. You are excited.
It's been six years since you met Soobin, and nearly five since the start of your relationship. This huge step isn't daunting. It isn't. Moving in together across the country has always been something the two of you have wanted, and moving back to Soobin's hometown just made sense. Unfortunately, it's not the Soobin of it all that's driving you insane.
Soobin has always made you feel comfortable and confident, happy and loved. There's no insecurity there, and you pray there never will be.
One source of tension, however, has always existed like a ghost just outside the relationship—haunting you.
"It's going to be fine," Soobin says, catching the look on your face, the haze that's hovered over you like a rain cloud for the past several days of driving. He lets the gas pump by itself and moves toward where you're leaning against the car, placing one hand on the top frame of the vehicle while his other hand comes up to touch your chin. He smiles, and it's almost impossible not to smile back. "I promise," he says, and you trust him.
Your smile isn't forced, but he still catches the wariness in it, the uncertainty. The way your eyes don't fully lock onto his. Even though you trust him, and he knows you trust him, he can tell the difference between you feeling better and you pretending to feel better. If anyone else knew you this well, it would be annoying. But so many things aren't annoying when it comes to him.
"He doesn't like me," you say, even though you've said it so many times before. Even though you both know it to be the truth. It feels good to say it anyway, to declare it—so when things inevitably go wrong later, you'll be able to say, See, I told you he doesn't like me.
Soobin sighs. This must be a great source of contention for him, too. Is he just as stressed, just as anxious, as you are—only better at hiding it? Maybe you should put on a braver face, be more positive, for him.
It's difficult, though, when it's his best friend who hates your guts. It's not like you're blameless, really. Although it did feel like that at first. Now, however, it's boiled into something between the two of you, a bitter rivalry, constant bickering, and anger that feels more like hatred from his side. And the way he looks at you sometimes—it's like he really hates you. And what are you supposed to do with that, when he's your boyfriend's best friend, when you're moving in next door, when you're going to be spending so much more time together than just vacations and quick trips home?
"He likes you," Soobin emphasizes, even though he must know it isn't true. If anyone knows what's going on inside Yeonjun's head, it's him. Sometimes it feels like they have an entire secret language you can't decipher. They can exchange full conversations with just a glance.
"You're not a very good liar," you say, with a small smile, attempting to feel lighter about the whole thing. If you can joke about it, it can't be that serious, right? "Besides," you say, reaching out to grab him, hands holding onto each side of his open hoodie so you can pull him down closer to you. "He likes you. I'm just there."
The gas pump clicks off to the right, but neither of you move.
He just smiles again, slipping his hand into your hair. He looks around, pretending to care if anyone can see the two of you, before he lowers his lips to yours.
It is a good distraction. You have to give him that. But it only works as long as his lips are on yours, and soon enough, you're back in the car, and the anxiety starts anew.
THREE YEARS AGO
The first time you met Yeonjun, he came to visit over Christmas break. It was your first Christmas with Soobin, the first Christmas where you stayed in town, neither choosing to go back home to visit your families. And it was Yeonjun's first time, too. His first time visiting Soobin at school. His first time meeting you.
Your college apartment was a mess. A small one-bedroom stuffed with books and cluttered with trinkets.
You remember being excited. This was Soobin's best friend, after all, and you'd heard so much about him—all good things.
It hadn't even been much of a conversation, deciding the plans for the holiday. Soobin brought it up, and you were delighted at the idea of his friend coming to visit. Nothing in your mind signaled a red flag. This was someone Soobin cared about, and if he cared about Yeonjun, that meant you would, too. And besides, you wanted—more than anything—for Soobin to have everything he ever wanted.
It was unfortunate that thing ended up being Yeonjun.
You flitted about the small apartment, rearranging decorations, putting last-minute touches on the Christmas Eve dinner you'd spent hours preparing—cooking is not your strong suit, but you tried. It was important to you, really fucking important, to make a good first impression. The place looked nice. A few of your college friends sat on the couch, sharing a bottle of wine and picking at the appetizers you'd left out.
But you couldn't sit still.
Soobin had left over two hours ago to pick him up from the airport, and your stomach had been an absolute mess the moment he stepped out the door. You wanted so badly to make a good first impression. That's what you remember so clearly about that night. Just how badly you wanted him to like you.
And he did, at first.
They appeared at your door sometime later, covered in a light dusting of snow. Soobin had a bundle of gifts in his arms, and you smiled at the sight of him. You leaned over to press a kiss to his cheek, just as Yeonjun appeared behind him.
"Hey," you said, offering a warm smile, trying to be inviting. You introduced yourself and stepped aside to let them both in.
Soobin gave your hand a tight squeeze before disappearing to place the gifts beneath the small tree you'd crammed into the corner of the apartment, leaving you and Yeonjun alone in the entryway, looking at one another.
He seemed to be studying you. Now, you look back and wonder if he was looking for flaws, cracks that he could exploit later. Things that were wrong with you that he could point out to Soobin.
But then, he looked harmless.
"Hey," Yeonjun said. "Nice to finally meet you."
It seemed genuine at the time. But it was another one of those things that you would question for years to come.
"Yeah, you too," you said. "I've heard so much about you."
"All bad, I'm assuming."
"Oh, of course," you teased.
He smiled. It caught you off guard, how handsome he was. You never got used to Soobin's attractiveness, either. Every time you saw him, even two years into your relationship, it caught you off guard. Yeonjun was the same. With dark hair and pouty lips, he looked at you—for a moment—in that same completely captivating way that Soobin did. Like you were the only person in the world.
Something shifted in the middle of the evening. Yeonjun sat at the bar counter, looking into the kitchen with a glass of wine in his hand, watching as you and Soobin finished dinner. He engaged in offhand conversation, quipping back and forth with both of you. His eyes followed both of you around the room in a way you didn't find strange at the time.
"Open," you said, holding a mini-marshmallow poised to throw into Soobin's mouth.
He followed your order, and you tossed the marshmallow perfectly into his mouth. He high-fived you, and you both laughed.
"Cute," Yeonjun said, with a laugh of his own.
Soobin grabbed a marshmallow. "Your turn," he said, aiming at Yeonjun's face. Yeonjun didn't budge.
The smile on your face faltered when you looked at Yeonjun. He wasn't looking at Soobin, wasn't preparing himself to engage in the game you were all playing. Instead, he was looking at you again.
Soobin threw the marshmallow anyway, and it bounced off Yeonjun's cheek. You snickered, and Yeonjun pressed his lips into a tight line.
"Tough crowd," you said, and Soobin smiled.
Yeonjun didn't look away from you. His gaze was so serious, so trained on you. Your lips parted because you wanted to say something. But the way he looked at you had you locked completely in place, unable to form words. Because why did he look so upset, so angry, all of a sudden?
Soobin noticed after you did and laughed to brush off the awkwardness that had developed seemingly out of nowhere.
Yeonjun raised his empty glass of wine and got up from the stool. "Need more wine," he said, and disappeared across the room, letting himself get swallowed whole by the rest of their friends and their inquisitive attitudes. Soobin turned to you, and you looked at him with wide, confused eyes.
"What was that about?" you asked.
Soobin wrapped an arm low around your waist and pulled you closer to him. "I don't know," he said, peppering kisses on your nose, cheeks, and jaw. "I'm sure it's fine."
It wasn't fine. Just as they were about to sit down for dinner, Yeonjun pulled Soobin aside. He held up a hand, thumb pointed toward the door. Yeonjun's eyes crossed the room, finding yours. You couldn't hold his gaze and looked away before he could. A deep furrow developed in Soobin's brow, but they spoke too low for you to hear over the sound of your other friends.
But then the front door was opening, and Yeonjun was walking out of it.
For a long time, Soobin stood with his arms hanging at his sides, staring at the door, like he wanted to follow Yeonjun out.
Eventually, he took a seat next to you at the table, clearly uncomfortable. The dinner went on without Yeonjun, and everyone enjoyed the meal you and Soobin cooked together, but every time your eyes drifted to Soobin, it was dreadfully obvious how upset he was.
After the rest of your friends left, you found Soobin in the kitchen and tugged him away from the dishes to settle in with you on the couch.
You didn't say anything, just rubbed your thumb on the back of his hand while he rested his head on your shoulder.
"Did something happen?" you asked, after some time had passed. The silence, backfilled with faint Christmas music, was getting to you—as was the lack of answers and the confusion surrounding the weird encounter with a friend you'd been looking forward to meeting. "It didn't seem like he liked me very much."
That made Soobin perk up. "No, that's not it—" he started, meeting your eyes. That softness about him that had enchanted you years prior had never left. He still looked at you like you were everything in the entire universe, like you could never hurt him. Like he would never hurt you.
It was nice to be naive.
"It's just…" Soobin started again, trying to figure out how to get his words across. "Yeonjun is never anywhere he doesn't want to be. I just don't know why he didn't want to be here."
The hurt in his voice cowed you, made you hate Yeonjun, a little bit, for hurting Soobin. And maybe, it made you hate yourself, too, for not being good enough. For not charming Yeonjun, for not making the grand first impression you'd hoped. For not getting him to stay.
"Maybe we should go talk to him," you said. "He must be back at your place, right?"
Soobin sighed. "Probably, yeah."
You were determined to make that good first impression, determined to figure out what had gone wrong and fix it. You just wanted to fix it.
You tugged on his hand one more time, pulling him upright. "Come on then," you said. "Let's go."
"I don't know if this is a good idea," Soobin said.
"What?" you asked, a wide smile on your lips, empowered by the idea of putting all the pieces back together. "You don't think I'm charming enough?"
"You are very charming," Soobin said, smiling enough that his dimples appeared on his cheeks, which only made you smile more. A vicious circle of smiling at one another, an overt happiness—a couple who did not know what was to come. But wasn't that always the way? The happiness before the downfall, that feeling of nothing could ever feel like this, just before it never does again.
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