Chapter Text
Five days after the theme park excursion found Yoo Joonghyuk digging through his wardrobe – a full half of which had been overtaken by Kim Dokja’s clothes. Which wasn’t an issue normally, but these days if it wasn’t his normal wear, he had no idea where anything was.
“What are you looking for?” Kim Dokja asked, leaning against his bedroom door. He squinted at him. “Are you wearing your dress clothes?”
“Awards ceremony tonight,” Yoo Joonghyuk explained.
“Ah. I remember. So you have a hot date for it then or-”
Yoo Joonghyuk paused long enough to give him a withering glance. “You didn’t want to come along.”
“I don’t even want to go Minosoft’s awards ceremonies, why would I go to someone else’s glorified work party?”
Yoo Joonghyuk shrugged it off. Kim Dokja was an idiot, he already knew that. “I’m looking for a tie.”
“You mean the tie. You only have one.” Kim Dokja reached past him, to the shelf above his head, and dropped the green silk tie into his hands. “And only one pair of slacks, and only one dress shirt, and only one jacket, which isn’t even formal but because you’ve got the shoulders of a gymnast you can turn business casual into all-occasions wear. I know you’re a gamer but-”
“Thanks,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, and pressed his lips fleetingly against his cheek as he took the tie and strode past to the bathroom. He pretended not to see Kim Dokja freeze, raising a furtive hand to his face, and focused instead on combing his hair.
He swept back into the living room, slipping his cards and phone into the inner pocket of his jacket, stuck his head into Yoo Mia’s room to let her know he was leaving, then fetched his leather dress shoes from the shoe cupboard. Kim Dokja trailed after him, steps hesitant. There was the faintest dusting of pink still blooming in his cheeks, and his eyes didn’t quite want to settle, darting to Yoo Joonghyuk before dancing away again. Still, he managed to ask, “Are you going to be warm enough in just the jacket?
Yoo Joonghyuk paused, hand on the door, for a beat too long. “I’ll only be outside for a few moments,” he eventually answered. It was only a couple of days until Spring, after all – the days weren’t quite as cold as they had been. “Thanks for keeping Mia company.”
“I’m certain she’ll hate it and spend the whole time in her room,” Kim Dokja reassured him, words more confident as they settled back on more familiar ground. “But I’ll make sure she eats something other than snacks for dinner, at least.”
Yoo Joonghyuk nodded. “It’ll probably run late. Don’t wait up.”
Spring heralded change. Yoo Joonghyuk knew that instinctively – had been pushing the matter, perhaps, with the spectre of winter’s end threatening to upset the extremely comfortable status quo they had found themselves in. In the end, though, it was his little sister’s blunt words that finally upended their routine.
One week into spring, when the snow had started to melt but the nights were still cold, they had spicy beef noodle soup for dinner. The appetising scent lingered in the kitchen even after they’d finished eating. Kim Dokja cleaned the empty dishes from the table, while Yoo Joonghyuk had started making pudding for tomorrow’s dessert.
Yoo Mia flounced back into the kitchen, waving a form in her hands. “Oppa, you have to sign this.”
“In a minute,” Yoo Joonghyuk promised, in the middle of mixing.
She rocked back on her heels, waiting and watching impatiently. Her gaze caught on Kim Dokja wiping down the kitchen table. “Oppa, since you’re dating, can this ugly ahjussi sign my form?”
Yoo Joonghyuk added a little more butter to the mix, then a dash of vanilla. “Not legally.”
Kim Dokja sputtered. “Wait, what?”
“Hnnnn.” Yoo Mia shoved her form more insistently at her brother. “You sign it then.”
Yoo Joonghyuk quickly washed his hands, and beckoned for the pen. He glanced over the form and scribbled out his signature in a careless sweep of someone far too used to giving autographs.
“Thanks oppa!” She skipped back to her room.
“But we’re not…” Kim Dokja started to say, visibly confused.
Yoo Joonghyuk poured the mixture into several prepared cups, covered them, and slipped them into the refrigerator. “We’re not what?”
“Dating?”
Yoo Joonghyuk raised an eyebrow, and folded his arms. “Then what do you call it, fool?”
“But I- I’m not-” He looked lost. “Dating is… romantic dinners, right? And… night-time walks?”
“And theme park trips?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked flatly. “You didn’t want to come to the awards dinner. That’s not my fault. Eating here is better anyway.”
“But that’s – that was for Mia-”
“Anybody I choose to date has to deal with that fact that my kid sister comes first. You’ve been good about it.”
“It’s not – how can we be dating? I just… sleep here. And eat here. And…” Kim Dokja paused, standing in the kitchen, cleaning cloth still hanging limply from his hands. “I… haven’t been in my apartment for… days?”
Yoo Joonghyuk shifted, subtly, to block the doorway.
“Am I living here?” Kim Dokja stared at him, the stirrings of panic in his eyes. “Why haven’t you-” He whirled, looking around as though seeing everything for the first time. “I… have my own slippers. My own mug. My own chopsticks and plate and towel…” He pointed an accusing finger at Yoo Joonghyuk. “It isn’t even that cold at night anymore, why am I still sleeping in your bed?”
Yoo Joonghyuk raised an eyebrow, to say ‘why do you think?’
Kim Dokja started to pace in the narrow confines of the kitchen, trapped between the counter and the kitchen table, looking remarkably like a caged animal. “But we never – you never said anything!”
Yoo Joonghyuk scoffed. “What’s the point of talking about it? Half of everything you say is a lie.”
“I thought – I thought I was the weird one. But you! You stealth moved me into your apartment! Then acted like it was all normal! And there was all those times – I thought you were just joking! Or- I was right, wasn’t I? It was weird!”
Yoo Joonghyuk shrugged, and looked away.
He wasn’t unaware of what he was doing. He’d taken Kim Dokja’s contrary nature into account, and acted accordingly. That was to say, stealth moving his neighbour into his apartment hadn’t exactly been planned, explicitly. It had mostly been Yoo Joonghyuk following a natural series of impulses to protect his idiot crush from himself. The rationalising came after.
Still. “It’s not weird if we’re dating, fool.”
Kim Dokja stopped his pacing, gesturing wildly. “How was I supposed to know that was dating? I didn’t even know you liked men? Much less-” He cut himself off.
“Much less what?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked.
Kim Dokja voice this time was small. “Much less me.”
This was annoying. “Kim Dokja, let me make it clear to you.” Yoo Joonghyuk stepped forward, curled a hand behind Kim Dokja’s neck, and closed the distance between them.
Their lips met – Kim Dokja let out a faint gasp, and Yoo Joonghyuk pushed forward, until they were backed against the kitchen counter and Kim Dokja threw out a wild hand to brace himself.
Yoo Joonghyuk kissed him, deeply, pressing closer until their bodies were flush, and only once he felt Kim Dokja finally respond did he pull back – though kept his hand steady on his neck, thumb brushing his pulse point. Kim Dokja’s cheeks were flushed, and his lips shiny with spit, and his eyes glistening with unshed tears.
Shit. Had he pushed it too far? Had he read his neighbour wrong? “Kim Dokja, what’s the matter?”
“It- can’t be real,” he stuttered. “It never works out for me, something like this. Someone like me could never possibly even dream-”
Yoo Joonghyuk interrupted the words with another kiss. This time he didn’t withdraw until Kim Dokja was left gasping for breath, both hands desperately gripping at his shirt, and unable to utter such stupid statements anymore.
He thought he could guess, anyway. “I know,” he said. “About your past.” At Kim Dokja’s shocked inhale, he huffed. “What, isn’t it normal to look up your neighbour on the internet? You’re the one who told me that.”
He hadn’t looked until after the trip to the theme park, truthfully, when he’d felt that time was running short and Kim Dokja’s bizarre lack of normal socialisation had become too strong to ignore. It hadn’t been at all what he expected – it was much more melodramatic and upsetting - but it had explained enough. The insistence on living alone even when he clearly couldn’t afford it. The lack of friends and family. His fear of falling. And his completely misplaced belief that he would never be allowed anything good.
“Then-” Kim Dokja started to say.
“I don’t care about any of it. It’s not important. Anyone who does care is a stupid fool.” He cradled his face, holding him close, so that he couldn’t look away, and said seriously, “Kim Dokja. You can stay. Even when you’re being annoying, even when you’re being an idiot. I want you to stay.”
“You… sunfish bastard… didn’t even ask me if I wanted to…” Kim Dokja mumbled, face bright red and eyes watering.
Yoo Joonghyuk pushed a strand of loose hair back behind the shell of his ear. “You don’t?”
“God, all this time… I thought I was such garbage. For even daring to think about it.” He laughed, then, though it was strangled. “Turns out I was just wasting time?”
Then he slid a hand into Yoo Joonghyuk’s hair, and tugged him forward again, mashing their mouths together hungrily.
They might have kept going, if Yoo Mia didn’t choose that moment to open her door. They broke apart, right as she padded back into the kitchen.
“Ugh, were you kissing?” Yoo Mia asked. “Gross. Oppa, I want juice.”
Kim Dokja made a strangled sound, and escaped to the living room. Yoo Joonghyuk let him go, since he could keep an eye on him there, and it was the opposite direction to the front door.
“It’s too late for juice. You can either have milk or tea,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, opening the cupboards to fetch her favourite mug.
His little sister scrunched up her nose, and decided, “Milk.”
Yoo Joonghyuk nodded, and flicked on the stove, ready to warm it up. Yoo Mia rocked back on her heels, waiting, and glanced over at Kim Dokja. “Why’s the ugly ahjussi dying on the couch?”
“He figured out we were dating.”
Yoo Mia looked unimpressed. “I never realised you were stupid as well as ugly, ahjussi.”
Kim Dokja made a sound like a dying cat. Yoo Mia wasn’t swayed, peering at her brother judgmentally. “I still don’t get what you see in him, but since he makes you happy, it’s okay.” She paused, and added, rather magnanimously, “And he folds my clothes nice.”
“Then you don’t mind if he moves in permanently?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked, setting the milk to warm.
“I thought he already had anyway.”
“Don’t I have a say in this?” Kim Dokja’s voice, muffled by cushions, floated to them.
“No,” the two siblings said in unison.
Two days later, the corner of Yoo Joonghyuk’s bedroom contained a small bookshelf stuffed full of odd-shaped books and magazines, and his closet hid a worn backpack in the corner. The linen cupboard had likewise gained a new rolled up bed mat and plain blanket.
Finishing moving Kim Dokja in had taken about eight minutes.
“Of course it did,” Yoo Joonghyuk said. “You had all of ten things in your apartment to begin with.” And his entire wardrobe had already migrated into Yoo Joonghyuk’s over the past three months. Along with his phone charger. And his toiletries.
Kim Dokja blushed furiously, though it might have been less the remark and more Yoo Joonghyuk’s hand resting low on his hip. Still, instead of freezing, now he stepped into the loose embrace, even if it was to argue his point. “I couldn’t afford movers! When I first moved here I had to bring it all on the subway.”
“Hm. Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore.” Yoo Joonghyuk ducked his head, pressing his lips briefly against Kim Dokja’s neck.
“That’s right. Though I still can’t believe I actually get to shack up with my hot and famous neighbour,” Kim Dokja said, though the words were accompanied by a pleased smirk as he tilted his head, inviting Yoo Joonghyuk with better access. Kim Dokja was rapidly progressing from astronomically embarrassed to extremely self-satisfied by the whole affair, in fact, stopping just shy of pretending it was his idea in the first place.
“Not your neighbour anymore,” Yoo Joonghyuk corrected, and took the invitation by kicking the bedroom door shut behind them.