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When Kim Dokja thought of Yoo Joonghyuk before the scenarios started, he’d always assumed that the man would be quite apathetic towards him.
Of course, he’d always hoped that there would be some sort of affection, some recognition from the man he loved so dearly. Who wouldn’t want the protagonist to like them? Especially Kim Dokja, who craved all the scraps of acknowledgment thrown his way by all the acquaintances and strangers he’d ever come across. He was touch starved and craved attention, and he could admit it.
But even then, as much as he wanted, he also had to admit the truth that Yoo Joonghyuk from Ways of Survival would never look twice at him. That Yoo Joonghyuk was someone practical. Kim Dokja didn't have very many redeeming qualities or skills that could be of use to the protagonist during his travels. Yoo Joonghyuk would only ever see him as a burden if he was real, just like every other person in Kim Dokja’s life.
A large, heavy pile of heat collapses right onto Kim Dokja’s poor, weak body with a small oof from the now squashed man. The brick wall, who goes by the name Yoo Joonghyuk when he shifts into his human body, has temporarily regressed into his true form: a grumpy, cuddly bear whose favourite victim is his innocent companion.
Kim Dokja bears the weight for a second, before he decides that, as warm as Yoo Joonghyuk is, he is also built like a boulder and therefore very much heavy, crushing his poor body with his muscles.
“Off,” Kim Dokja demands, patting Yoo Joonghyuk’s back rapidly. “I’m dying. Get up. ”
The slumbering boulder of a man just grunts, winding his arms tighter around Kim Dokja's resisting body. In response, Kim Dokja writhes and starts whining as he loses oxygen, “Joonghyuk, please, you’re too heavy. Up. Off. Go.”
“...shut up,” Yoo Joonghyuk finally grumbles.
But he listens, and he rolls off. He takes Kim Dokja with him, keeps him secure in his arms and holds him to his chest, burying his nose in his shoulder and crossing his legs over his. Like this, Kim Dokja finds his face smushed right into Yoo Joonghyuk’s pecs. He’s warm, and cozy, and has Yoo Joonghyuk wrapped all around him like he could never let go, a face full of his hard muscles.
In other words, it’s heaven.
“What’s gotten into you?” Kim Dokja asks. He sighs, but it’s fond. Not annoyed. Not with Yoo Joonghyuk, it never will be. “Aren’t you too cuddly today?”
“Is that a problem?” Yoo Joonghyuk doesn’t sound terribly concerned, but when Kim Dokja looks up he sees him frown, face angled upwards at the ceiling.
“No. But I’m curious. Is this really the same man that threw me off a bridge?”
Yoo Joonghyuk looks down at him. He is not impressed, and there’s a wicked type of glint in his sharp eyes.
Kim Dokja sees it immediately, and his face drops from its teasing grin.
“Don’t you dare,” he warns, already tense. “Don’t you even think—"
The protagonist then proceeds to roll over once more, making Kim Dokja the victim of gravity and a muscle bound terror once more.
He chokes out a startled yelp, and then starts yelling at Yoo Joonghyuk to shove off again. He’s laughing as he does, and Yoo Joonghyuk looks completely content as Kim Dokja starts raining down a flurry of slaps and punches on his back, cursing his name and praying aloud for his future of premature balding and aching joints.
“I hate you! Do you even know how much you weigh?! Joonghyuk-ah! Get off!”
“No.”
“What do you want from me, you thug? Money? Food? Sex? Was last night not enough for you? I don’t think I can handle your brutality so soon again.”
Yoo Joonghyuk tightens his hold on Kim Dokja and squeezes the jokes right out of him, annoyed.
“Shut up,” he says, very articulately. Kim Dokja scoffs, and digs his fingers into the part of Yoo Joonghyuk’s shoulders that he knows is especially tender. It gets him some compliance, and Yoo Joonghyuk gives in to his demands and once again turns them over.
Kim Dokja is satisfied with this weird octopus strangulation kink that Yoo Joonghyuk has developed. He’s especially happy with it when it spontaneously throws Yoo Joonghyuk into a sudden fit of affection, wherein he crushes Kim Dokja to his chest like a reflexive movement and starts smashing his face all over his body, pressing harsh kisses into his face, neck, hair, and shoulders with the sort of violence that would be expected on the battlefield with an opponent, not whilst cuddling with a companion in their bed.
“You bastard,” he laughs freely, chest filled with warmth as Yoo Joonghyuk smooches his neck for a long minute. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I don’t know,” Yoo Joonghyuk’s words rumble in the body pressed right against his own. “I just have… very violent feelings right now. For you.”
Kim Dokja tugs his hair hard. “So you’re trying to kill me?”
“In a nice way,” Yoo Joonghyuk defends. He looks miffed that Kim Dokja is questioning the fact that his homicidal tendencies have erupted in the form of a need to assassinate, via intense affection.
Kim Dokja smiles, and says, “Yeah. In a very nice way. Though I didn’t expect to die like this. My tombstone will make Han Sooyoung laugh: died because his companion took the phrase killing with kindness too literally. RIP, we will always love you, you were the best person ever—"
“Isn’t that too long for a tombstone?” Yoo Joonghyuk mutters, seemingly to himself. “Keep stroking your own ego.”
Kim Dokja is delighted by him playing along. He snickers, “You’d go to jail for murdering me with love. How do you feel, huh? You killed me because you’re soft?”
Yoo Joonghyuk stays silent. For a moment, Kim Dokja starts to wonder if his joke stretched on and now Yoo Joonghyuk is annoyed, but then the other suddenly pipes up with a, “I won’t go to jail. I’ve done too much for humanity.”
He looks at Kim Dokja hesitantly after, and then quickly looks away when he sees the gleeful expression. He looks quite embarrassed.
“Hey, look at you,” says Kim Dokja quietly, wearing a smile as Yoo Joonghyuk looks back at him. He’s too weak hearted for the sight of him so willingly close, he thinks, and he knows that he is content with this. “You're joking around with me like this. Don’t you think you’ve changed, huh?”
“Is it a bad thing?” Yoo Joonghyuk asks, just as quiet. Right then Kim Dokja decides to start massaging the tender spot on his shoulder instead of digging into it, and Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes shut briefly into it.
He sits up, then, and Kim Dokja sits up with him, and then on him to try and keep kneading the old aches out of his tense shoulders.
“No,” says Kim Dokja, allowing his companion to resume his affection by taking his hands from their diligent work to kiss them. “I think it’s good. You’re a lot different than before, but in a good way. You’re… softer, now.”
“You’ve said.”
Because Kim Dokja will always remain an irritant at heart, he adds, “It’s because you’re getting old.”
Yoo Joonghyuk takes a vicious bite at his wrist for it. Kim Dokja smacks him across the face, and then spends half his life trying to escape the cuddling prison he finds himself trapped in.
Later, the sun will start to set and Yoo Joonghyuk will finally release him to go cook dinner. Kim Dokja will go with him, but he will not be of any help since he’s not trusted with meals anymore.
The others will start coming back from work and extra studying, and then Kim Dokja will be tasked with setting the table and welcoming them all home as they arrive. He will go back into the kitchen, and he will bump into Yoo Joonghyuk on purpose just to annoy him. Yoo Joonghyuk will get him back for it by smacking him on the ass with a blank face, and Jung Heewon will see and start snickering at Kim Dokja’s red face.
Han Sooyoung will come and start complaining, slouching on the counters with Kim Dokja as she starts to drone about her new chapters coming out wrong. Kim Dokja will offer to help, and she’ll say that she would have made him do it anyway.
The kids will chime in and one of them will start bickering with the others until Yoo Joonghyuk breaks his temporary vow of silence and banishes them all onto the large dining table that lets them spectate the cooking but not intervene, excluding Kim Dokja who he will then make his little servant to boss around.
It’s a predictable routine, and it is a simple routine. Therefore, it is one that fills him with contentment.
Kim Dokja is very happy that his life did not turn out how he thought it would.
“Knife,” Yoo Joonghyuk demands.
Kim Dokja picks it up, but doesn’t hand it to Yoo Joonghyuk in the waiting hand-- until he turns to look at him.
“Knife,” he repeats, but slower, like he thinks Kim Dokja’s stupid.
“Kiss me first,” he says cheekily.
So Yoo Joonghyuk does. For one second, and then two, and then three seconds until he pulls away and steals the knife from Kim Dokja’s now slackened grip.
“Stop fooling around in front of the food!” Lee Jihye crows.
“Yeah, we can see you!”
“We’re still kids!”
Kim Dokja grins at the now teenagers and then at Yoo Joonghyuk, who has once again divorced from his half diced carrots at the booing. He looks at Kim Dokja, and instantly reads his plan from his face. Eyebrows raise, but ultimately Yoo Joonghyuk just shakes his head as permission for Kim Dokja to torment their companions.
“I don’t know,” Kim Dokja starts, sliding right back in front of Yoo Joonghyuk with a devilish wink. “I think I’m still a little bit riled up, aren’t you Hyukie?”
“Mm.” Yoo Joonghyuk’s hands pull him closer by the hips. “Yeah.”
Yoo Mia’s face is one of betrayal as her older brother suddenly leans down, and she screams in outrage. Lee Gilyoung looks disgusted.
“Stop smooching! Ew!”
“Sangah-noona, they’re doing it again!”
“Master, please! Stop making out in front of all our food!”
“Is Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi planning on eating the dinner he’s made, or is he content on swallowing Kim Dokja-ssi’s face whole?”
“I’m telling Sookyoung-ahjumma, you’re kissing that guy again.”
“Wait, no, don’t!”
“He really broke away from Joonghyuk because of his mother's threat…”
“...doesn’t Master look like a lost puppy now that ahjussi’s chasing Sooyoung-noona around?”
“Eurgh, I just want to eat. Hyung, should we just get pizza?”
“You’re not eating that fast food garbage in this house.”
“Why not?! You’re taking forever!”
“No, he’s not, the food just takes that long normally.”
And Kim Dokja is also glad that the real Yoo Joonghyuk has a special place in his heart, just for him.