prince of the sea

by nexd00r (su0myn0na)

Summary:

Recently graduated, unemployed, and stagnating, Dongmin goes with his family on a week-long summer vacation to Busan. There, he meets Donghyun, whose quiet mischievousness and easy warmth somehow give Dongmin exactly what he needs to start feeling excited for the future again.

Notes:

quite frankly i think this is one of the best fics i've ever written hehe, i hope you love her as much as i do!!

The annual Han family summer vacation is not necessarily annual, so much as it is any year all five members of Dongmin’s family manage to secure a simultaneous week of time off. Growing up, they had happened every year, and Dongmin has many fond memories of hiking and camping and even surfing with his parents and siblings. But they started to become inconsistent once he reached high school. Now, Dongmin is free from university—forever—and the Hans are going on their first family trip in three years. 

The four hours in the car from Seoul to Busan pass in a blur. He spends some of it reading, some of it listening to his parents talk about all the things they want to eat when they arrive, and then falls asleep during the last hour because they’ve been on the road since 5 AM. 

When Dongmin wakes from his impromptu nap, they’ve reached Busan. They must be near the outskirts, though; out the window, the neighborhood they’re in is quite suburb-y, with narrow roads and even a few hanok scattered here and there. It’s much more peaceful than what he remembers of the main city the last time they were here. It’s nice, practically picturesque under the mid-morning sun. 

Their car comes to a stop in a small lot beside one of the larger hanok. “This is where we’re staying,” Dongmin’s father says, glancing back to where Dongmin is shaking his brother awake. “The family that owns it converted it into an inn. Pretty cool, right?”

“Pretty cool,” Dongmin echoes, mostly so that his dad won’t be disappointed. It does actually seem cool, though; certainly the most intriguing place they’ve stayed during any of these trips. 

“We’re barely two kilometers from the beach,” Dongmin’s mother adds as they’re unloading their belongings from the trunk. He grabs his sister’s bag as well as his own. She must be tired still, because she only protests once before letting him carry it. “Maybe you boys can go fishing,” his mother continues, but Dongmin hardly hears her. 

When they round the corner of the wall surrounding the hanok, there’s an old white pickup truck parked outside. By the back of the truck is a middle-aged man, maybe a little older than Dongmin’s dad, unloading several hefty cardboard boxes. And beside him, there’s a boy. 

He looks about Dongmin’s age, with fluffy dark brown hair, wearing denim shorts and a pastel pink hoodie. The outfit is striking enough, but what gets Dongmin to nearly drop the bags he’s carrying is the boy’s face. He looks like some kind of fairy, or maybe a prince. Or maybe a fairy prince, like in those storybooks he used to read to his sister when she was little. His forehead is a bit damp with sweat, but it only makes him look like he’s glowing when the sunlight hits him. God really does have favorites. 

The older man pauses when he sees them, straightening up with a warm smile. “You must be the Han family,” he greets in a heavy Busan accent, bowing politely. “I’m the owner, Kim Youngchul. This is Donghyun, my son.”

The boy, Donghyun, looks over when his name is mentioned, quickly bowing as well. It’s paired with a tiny smile, and Dongmin can see the family resemblance now. He can also see the way Donghyun’s eyes seem to focus specifically on him. They stare at each other for a few seconds while Dongmin’s parents are introducing themselves. Then Donghyun looks away, peeling off his hoodie—under which he’s wearing a tank top that exposes surprisingly toned arms—before unloading the last of the boxes.

Dongmin swallows the saliva that’s pooled in his mouth and tunes back into the conversation as Kim Youngchul says, “You’re just in time for breakfast. Come inside; we’ll get you all settled.”

Donghyun and his father pick up the boxes and lead them all inside. Before them is a big, open area with dark wood floors, several low tables arranged neatly throughout. Donghyun takes the boxes and disappears through a doorway on the left. Dongmin glances in after him as Donghyun’s father leads them further into the building. It’s a kitchen, though it’s clearly been modernized since this place was built—for starters, there’s a refrigerator and a gas stove. There are two women in there, chatting as they cook, and that’s the last he sees before he follows his family away. 

The room they’re led to is large and open too, with a stack of folded bedding in one corner. It’s more than enough room to fit the five of them comfortably. There are doors at the back that slide open as well, leading out into a little courtyard area with a tree and a few flowering plants, and Dongmin is just considering sneaking out there when breakfast is mentioned again. 

“Is there anything we can help with?” his mother asks. 

Their host’s answer is immediate and unsurprising. “Absolutely not. You’re our guests. Take your time here; the food should be ready by the time you come out.”

Dongmin sets down his bag and his sister’s as his father is insisting the Kims eat with them. The dads argue about it lightheartedly, but Dongmin isn’t paying enough attention to hear the conclusion before Kim Youngchul leaves. 

He finds out who won quickly enough, though—a few minutes later, they’re sitting on the floor around one of the low tables in that main room, with Donghyun and his father directly across from them. Donghyun doesn’t really say much, but his and Dongmin’s incredibly extroverted dads do more than enough talking for everyone. They’ve become fast friends, it seems, already calling each other Youngchul-hyung and Junho-yah and laughing around mouthfuls of rice. Dongmin wonders absently if this is how his parents feel when he has Jaehyun over for dinner. 

Eventually, they’re joined by the two women Dongmin saw earlier. They’re Donghyun’s mother and older sister, it turns out. The latter, Jieun, is older than him by eight years, and is also five months pregnant. 

“Our Donghyunnie used to follow her around like a little duckling,” Mrs. Kim says to Dongmin’s mom. Her smile is warm and fond. “But he’ll be 23 this October, and by then, Jieun will be a mother. I feel like I blinked and now they’re both all grown up.”

“Oh! Dongmin is 23 in August,” his mother exclaims. “Dongmin-ah, you and Donghyun are the same age.”

He doesn’t know what compels him to say it, but Dongmin lets his eyes rove over Donghyun’s face, settling on his mouth as he delicately sips soup from his spoon. Dongmin says lightly, “Technically, I’m your hyung.”

Their mothers laugh. Donghyun doesn’t, but when he lifts his spoon to his lips again, his mouth is curved into a little smile. 

Jieun nudges her brother with an elbow a few seconds later. “You’re never shy. What’s with you?” she asks, speaking in a low tone like she means for only Donghyun to hear. He murmurs something in response that Dongmin doesn’t manage to catch, and Jieun seems to drop it, leaning over to chat with Dongmin’s siblings instead. 

Dongmin thinks nothing of it, at least not until he glances over at Donghyun again and finds him already looking—with a gaze so intense and so heated that Dongmin can almost feel the burn. The fuck is he doing? Trying to assert his dominance at the breakfast table? (… Is this about the hyung comment?) Dongmin tamps down his fight or flight instinct and stares back, until Donghyun offers a smile that looks amused this time and returns to his food. 

The rest of breakfast passes without incident, as does the rest of the afternoon. The memory of Donghyun’s intense stare has seared itself into his brain, but it’s at least easy enough to ignore when Dongmin ends up napping for a good few hours. Besides, he reasons when he wakes up again, at most he’ll probably just see Donghyun at breakfast a few times; Dongmin will be with his own family for the majority of this trip. If Donghyun wants to kill and eat him, the opportunities will be few and far between. 

Or so he thinks. 

The Hans return in the early evening after having dinner at a local dwaeji gukbap place recommended by Mrs. Kim. (The food was incredible, but that’s irrelevant.) They get a gentle knock on their door not long after, and Dongmin’s dad calls, “Come in!” and it slides open to reveal none other than Donghyun himself. 

“Hello,” he greets, sweet and polite. “I was just wondering if Dongmin could come down to the beach with me.”

Dongmin startles at the mention of his name, then startles again when he processes the invitation. He opens his mouth to ask why, but apparently his mother is still thrilled by the coincidence of him and Donghyun being the same age. “Of course he can,” she agrees on his behalf. “We don’t have any more plans for tonight, so he’s all yours.”

Maybe Dongmin is just overly paranoid, but Donghyun’s smile seems to edge toward a smirk at the wording. It all makes him want to protest—he’s indignant about the choice being made for him, not to mention that Donghyun almost feels dangerous. It’ll be too bad if Donghyun does turn out to be a murderer or something… He really is handsome. 

But regardless, it’s not worth the earful he’ll get for being rude if he refuses, so Dongmin reluctantly sets aside his book and pushes himself to his feet. In the meantime, Donghyun is wishing the rest of Dongmin’s family a good night, in a tone that’s perfectly angelic and totally incongruous with that look he gave Dongmin at breakfast. 

“Do you know how to bike?” Donghyun asks as they’re heading back out of the building. 

“Yeah,” Dongmin confirms. “I haven’t in a while, but I still remember how.” Inwardly, he makes himself relax. It seems like maybe Donghyun really is just looking to casually hang out. His sister said he’s not the shy type; it’s probably in his nature to do stuff like this with near strangers. And maybe whatever was going on with him this morning was actually nothing. Dongmin resolves to put in the effort to be nice. 

If he had to guess, the bike Dongmin ends up using is actually Donghyun’s. Pink hoodie aside, the sparkly purple bicycle Donghyun is riding doesn’t really seem his style, not to mention it’s a little small for him, too. It’s probably Jieun’s from when they were younger. 

They’re both quiet during the few minutes it takes to reach the beach, but it’s actually incredibly pleasant. Donghyun’s presence beside and a little ahead of him is unobtrusive, and although the sun is still up, it’s close enough to the horizon now that the heat and humidity are much more bearable. Plus, as they get closer to the water, the cool sea breeze reaches them, ruffling their hair and balancing out the exertion from pedaling. By the time they reach the beach, Dongmin is thoroughly glad he came. 

As they step onto the sand, Dongmin closes his eyes and breathes deep, taking in the steady crashing of the waves, the scent of salt, the breeze against his skin. It’s his first summer in the real world. Or, his first summer out of school, anyway. It still hasn’t fully settled in. 

When he opens his eyes again, Donghyun is sitting a little ways away. He pats the ground beside him when he notices Dongmin looking. Dongmin is in a good mood—funny what a few minutes in nature can do—so he obeys the silent request, lowering himself ungracefully to the sand on Donghyun’s right. 

They just watch the waves together for a few minutes, until Donghyun breaks the silence. “Have you come to Busan before?”

Dongmin is the least inclined to make small talk out of all the members of his family. But again, he’s in a good enough mood to oblige. “Twice. Once in elementary and once in middle school. We weren’t in the city much; mostly we were hiking and swimming and stuff. My parents are really into nature, so.”

“But you’re not?” Donghyun prompts. He’s being lighthearted, teasing, like they’ve known each other for years rather than hours. Dongmin likes it more than he expected to—he finds himself smiling, and also feeling sort of guilty for suspecting Donghyun had ill intentions towards him. 

“I am, I am,” Dongmin laughs off the comment. He scoops up a handful of sand, letting it sift through his fingers. “Actually, on my birthday last year, I dragged all my friends out to hike at Bukhansan with me.”

“No way,” Donghyun gasps. “In August? That’s cruel.”

Dongmin almost freaks out over how Donghyun even knows his birthday is in August, until he remembers his mom mentioned it at breakfast. He’s surprised Donghyun remembered. “I’m not evil,” he argues instead of mentioning it, “we started before the sun was up so it wasn’t even hot.”

“That’s more evil,” Donghyun says solemnly. He maintains his serene expression for a few seconds, but it cracks into a smile when Dongmin huffs out a chuckle.

And it’s a lovely smile, warm and radiant and showing off dimples that probably make all the girls swoon. Dongmin might even be developing a crush. A tiny, miniscule one, just because Donghyun is shockingly easy to talk to and quite possibly the most gorgeous person Dongmin has met in all his (almost) 23 years. Not that he’s going to do anything about it. Except maybe look. 

His mouth doesn’t quite get the memo, though. “Why’d you invite me out here?” he asks. It at least comes out nonchalantly. 

Donghyun answers just as casually. “I thought you’d enjoy the sunset.” Despite his tone, the actual words themselves don’t feel very casual. Isn’t watching the sunset alone with another person typically a romantic activity? 

Dongmin looks out over the ocean where the sun has just kissed the horizon, scattering its light across the waves. Then he looks back at Donghyun. The red-orange glow washes over him, and Dongmin has to fight down awe over how unearthly he looks. From this angle, he can see the light reflecting in Donghyun’s eyes, turning them to twin motes of flame. Dongmin unwittingly recalls his burning stare from this morning. 

“So,” Dongmin hears himself say before he can stop the words spilling out, “this has nothing to do with the way you were looking at me at breakfast?”

Donghyun wasn’t even really moving, but Dongmin still sees him go still. “I was looking at you in a way?” He says it quite innocently, but it feels like a dare. 

Challenge accepted. “Yeah,” Dongmin confirms, still focused on Donghyun’s side profile. “Like you wanted to eat me.”

For a minute, the only sound between them is the rushing of the waves. Then Donghyun’s eyes slide toward him in a sidelong glance. His lips barely move when he says, “I was hungry.”

Dongmin just barely suppresses a full-body shiver. “Hungry for what?” he asks, wary but anticipating. 

That’s what gets Donghyun to turn to him, his movements slow and precise as he crawls closer over the already negligible distance. He only stops when Dongmin is forced to hurriedly lean back on his elbows so they don’t collide, almost laying on the sand, Donghyun remaining hovering above him on his hands and knees. 

Then, Donghyun lifts one hand, laying it loosely on Dongmin’s thigh right at the hem of his shorts. “Hyung,” he murmurs, barely above a whisper. 

Dongmin was right about him. He’s dangerous. 

“Fuck,” Dongmin breathes. Just from that one word, his mind has short-circuited. How did he get here? Why is he turned on? Why is Donghyun coming onto him out here on the beach where anyone could walk by and see them?

That drifting thought is enough to snap him out of his lust-induced stupor. “Fuck,” he repeats, grabbing for Donghyun’s wrist. “Dude. We’re literally outside.”

It takes Dongmin physically peeling Donghyun’s hand off his thigh for Donghyun to apparently remember himself, and he sits back on the sand with a heavy sigh—though not before gazing longingly at Dongmin’s crotch. 

(Curse his rational mind and societally-conditioned sense of shame in public spaces. Dongmin hasn’t gotten laid in ages.)

“Maybe some other time, then,” Donghyun says, and Dongmin isn’t about to protest. 

They lapse into silence for a while, watching the sunset again like they were supposed to. Once Dongmin shifts back into a normal sitting position as well, it’s practically like nothing ever happened. And as the last sliver of sun is being swallowed up by the waves, Donghyun continues their conversation completely nonchalantly. 

“Are you still in school?” he asks, somehow at the perfect volume alongside the sound of the ocean. 

Dongmin shakes his head. (This, at least, is easy to respond to.) “Not anymore. I graduated earlier this year.”

“Oh, nice. What were you studying?”

“Audio production, which means I’ve been in unemployment hell for months now,” Dongmin admits dryly. It has the intended effect of getting a laugh out of Donghyun. 

“But did you enjoy it?” Donghyun prompts. Dongmin wonders briefly if Donghyun actually cares about his responses, but his expression is too sincere for him to be faking interest. It’s sort of touching. 

So it’s only right for Dongmin to answer sincerely too. “Yeah, I loved it. I was always busy and I pulled a couple all-nighters for some of my projects, but I think it was worth it. I learned a lot.”

“It’s good to have something you’re really passionate about,” Donghyun says. It sort of sounds like he’s quoting somebody, and when Dongmin looks away from the fading pinks and oranges on the horizon and back at him, Donghyun has this soft smile on his face. 

Dongmin feels inexplicably comforted by the whole thing. “Yeah,” he agrees simply, and Donghyun’s smile only gets brighter. 

They chat for a little longer, mostly about Busan, but also a little about music. (Donghyun likes soft pop and jazz and R&B. Dongmin has aspirations of making him a Beatles fan, too, before the week is over.) By the time they agree to bike back to the inn, it’s fully dark, and Dongmin is pretty sure he’s made a new friend. 

“You were gone a while,” Dongmin’s dad comments neutrally when he returns to their room. 

He clearly doesn’t mean anything by it, but Dongmin almost chokes on nothing, embarrassment and awkwardness crawling under his skin as the memory of that moment floods back in. He and Donghyun didn’t even do anything—but they could have if Dongmin hadn’t stopped it. 

A part of him wishes he hadn’t. Maybe it’s morbid curiosity, but he wants to know how far it would have gone. He wants Donghyun’s hands on him again… He wants to stop thinking about it so he can be normal in front of his family.

Dongmin clears his throat unnecessarily. “We got caught up talking,” he says, which is true. “Donghyun is really nice,” he adds, which is also true. Maybe too true. 

But his parents don’t question it, and his siblings aren’t even paying attention, so all Dongmin receives in response are vaguely pleased comments and urges to wash up and get to bed. He does so, but he lays awake well into the night, replaying that moment from the beach over and over again. Dongmin will probably be able to act casual around Donghyun for the rest of the week, but there’s simply no way he’s going to forget that touch. 

 

*

 

The next morning, the Kims don’t join them for breakfast, but Dongmin does catch a glimpse of Donghyun in the kitchen, washing dishes and chatting with his sister. He smiles warmly when he turns and notices Dongmin looking. But they don’t see each other for the rest of the day; Dongmin and his family leave right after the meal and spend the whole day hiking—which is a lot of fun, but exhausting enough that Dongmin falls asleep almost as soon as they return. 

The day after that, he doesn’t see Donghyun during breakfast at all. And they’re out the whole day again, the morning spent fishing, and the afternoon spent perusing the local markets. They’re so busy that Dongmin barely has time to give Donghyun a second thought. 

At least, not until they come back to the inn that evening and find Donghyun himself in front of the house next door. He has a bag slung over one shoulder and his hand on the keypad like he’s about to go inside, but he pauses when he sees them. 

“Hello!” he calls brightly, coming back down the steps to meet them. “Are you enjoying your vacation?”

“We sure are,” Dongmin’s dad agrees in a way that makes him sound like a children’s TV show host. Dongmin cringes a little, but Donghyun just keeps smiling. “Actually, it’s lucky we ran into you. We’re just coming back from shopping; we got some bungeoppang for your family to share.”

Donghyun tries to politely brush off Dongmin’s parents’ attempts to press the paper bag into his hands. “You didn’t have to,” he declines, then gestures over his shoulder to the house, “but you’re welcome to come inside for a while. I’ll make tea.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t want to intrude,” Dongmin’s mom chimes in, and then nudges Dongmin forward without warning. “Dongmin would be happy to join you, though.”

He stumbles at the unexpected push, then whips his head back to give his mother a baffled look. So they can impose Dongmin on Donghyun, but they can’t come inside themselves? His mom doesn’t offer any explanation outside of subtly handing him the bag of bungeoppang and shooing him away. 

In the meantime, Donghyun is nodding in enthusiastic agreement. “Sure,” he says, then bows to the rest of Dongmin’s family. “It was nice to see you again. Have a good night! I promise I won’t keep Dongmin too late.”

That last statement makes Dongmin do a double take. It almost sounds like Donghyun is implying they’re going to do something dirty—or maybe that’s just Dongmin’s wishful thinking. Donghyun’s expression is still fixed in that polite smile as he waves at the rest of the Hans. Dongmin follows suit, waving briefly to his parents and siblings, then follows again when Donghyun turns back to the house. 

As they’re stepping over the threshold, Dongmin belatedly wonders if Donghyun’s family is in, or if they’re going to be here alone. He gets his answer quickly enough (and in the privacy of his own mind, he’s just a little bit disappointed). Donghyun is just handing him a pair of slippers when Dongmin hears Jieun’s voice calling from deeper in the house. 

“Donghyun-ah! Is that you?”

“Hi, noona!” he yells back. It startles Dongmin a little. Donghyun’s normal speaking voice is pretty soft; it didn’t really occur to Dongmin that it could get that loud. “Dongmin is here too!”

After a second, a door opens and closes, and Jieun descends the stairs. “Hey, Dongmin-ah,” she greets. She doesn’t seem all that surprised by his presence. 

“Hi, noonim,” Dongmin says, then remembers the paper bag in his hand. “My family bought bungeoppang. There should be enough for all of you.”

“You shouldn’t have,” Jieun says warmly. “That’s really thoughtful; thank you.”

At the same time, Donghyun mutters, “Shit, I didn’t even notice you bring it in.”

Jieun’s expression does a complete 180. “Yah, when did your mouth get so foul?” she scolds, lifting a hand like she’s going to smack him, though Dongmin realizes she’s just messing around when Donghyun’s immediate response is to stick out his tongue. Dongmin is more entertained than surprised—he has similar interactions with his own siblings on a daily basis. 

“I’m gonna make tea,” Donghyun tells her as if that exchange hadn’t happened at all. “Do you want?”

“Yes, please,” Jieun says. Donghyun nods and makes his way to the kitchen, Dongmin hurrying to follow. 

From what he can see of the house, it’s obviously much more modern than the hanok next door. It’s on the smaller side and a bit messy, but rather than feeling cramped, it feels more cozy than anything. There’s a dog bed and some chew toys scattered across the living room, someone’s sun protection jacket draped over the back of the couch, a whole host of mismatched dishes drying above the sink. And it all somehow perfectly matches everything he’s seen of the Kim family. 

Donghyun fills an electric kettle with water and tugs Dongmin down to sit at the kitchen table with him while they wait. 

“Is hyungnim home yet?” Donghyun asks when Jieun trails after them into the kitchen, already eating one of the bungeoppang. Dongmin just listens idly to their conversation. He gets the feeling that this is infinitely more peaceful than whatever is going on in their room at the inn right now, and the thought makes him silently grateful for his mom forcing him to go. 

In response, Jieun is shaking her head. “Not yet, but his bus should be getting here soon.” She glances at Dongmin and adds, clearly for his benefit, “My husband works in the city.”

“What does he do?” Dongmin asks, out of both politeness and genuine curiosity. The water in the kettle starts to boil and Donghyun stands back up. 

Jieun beams proudly. (She and Donghyun have the same smile.) “He’s a data scientist. He’s really smart; back when we were just dating, he always used to come over and help Donghyun with his homework.”

“Tea,” Donghyun announces. He sets three mugs on the table and settles back in his chair beside Dongmin. 

They both offer their thanks, and Jieun asks, “How was class?”

“Class?” Dongmin echoes, looking to Donghyun for clarification. 

“Mhmm. I’ve been taking classes for marine biology. I wanna work in conservation when I’m done.”

It’s sort of surprising—most of Dongmin’s friends are deep in the arts. Music, film, pottery. This is his first time meeting someone with an aspiration as scientific as conservation, but it’s certainly admirable and interesting. And he supposes it makes sense for someone who grew up so close to the sea. 

“So you like fish?” Dongmin says. It’s a lighthearted comment, so Donghyun is free to either laugh it off or talk more about his studies. 

Donghyun clearly chooses the latter. He all but lights up at the question, and nearly knocks over his cup when he leans closer to Dongmin. “I really do,” he enthuses. “They’re so beautiful, and so pure…”

Jieun glances between them, her expression both amused and fond. “Why don’t you bring Dongmin upstairs and show him your tank?”

Somehow Donghyun manages to glow even brighter. “Do you want to see my fish, Dongmin-ah?” This sudden eagerness is a long way off from the mellow, laid-back attitude he’s had during most of their interactions. But then Dongmin remembers his words from the beach: “It’s good to have something you’re really passionate about.” This must be what he was talking about. 

And Dongmin couldn’t possibly bring himself to crush this joy, especially not after Donghyun listened so attentively to him rambling about music a few days ago. “Sure,” he agrees easily. Donghyun’s eyes shine with delight and Dongmin gets the looming sense that he’ll never be able to deny this boy anything ever again. 

He follows Donghyun upstairs to his bedroom, their tea forgotten on the kitchen table. When the door clicks shut behind them, Dongmin has a few fleeting dirty thoughts—they’re alone together in Donghyun’s bedroom; what is he supposed to think? But he’s distracted quickly enough by the room itself. 

Much like the rest of the house, Donghyun’s bedroom just makes sense. The walls are light blue, and the rumpled sheets are a few shades darker. There’s a desk pushed into one corner and a small bookshelf with magazines and what look like encyclopedias or textbooks. Tacked to the walls are a few pictures and posters, including some scientific-looking illustrations of fish, and what Dongmin realizes after a second is an artistic rendition of a gyarados. 

But the centerpiece of the room is clearly the fish tank directly across from Donghyun’s bed. It’s not very big, but even from his position by the door, Dongmin can see several colorful little fish darting around. Donghyun has perched himself at the foot of the bed, his gaze fixed entirely on the tank, like his whole world has been narrowed down to just this. The rippling of the water reflects faintly in his eyes in a way that makes him look inhuman. To Dongmin, that’s more mesmerizing than the fish, but he forces himself to look away anyway, coming to sit beside Donghyun so he can watch the tank as well. 

“They’re my babies,” Donghyun tells him once he’s seated, speaking quietly like he’s sharing a secret. “Aren’t they cute?”

Cute isn’t exactly the word that comes to mind when Dongmin thinks of fish, but he supposes he can see the appeal. “I like the red and blue ones.”

“Those are cardinal tetras,” Donghyun supplies. “There’s a rummy-nose tetra in there too, and some shrimp.”

Dongmin squints at the tank until the tiny, almost translucent shrimp scuttling across the bottom come into focus, then spots a weirder-looking fish. “What about the guy with the long nose?”

The descriptor gets a laugh out of Donghyun, and Dongmin feels inexplicably pleased. “That’s actually its jaw. It’s a halfbeak. It’s new; I saw it the last time I went to pick up fish food, and I fell in love on the spot. I was so excited when I found out it was compatible with the rest of my babies.”

Dongmin just nods in response, and Donghyun goes quiet again, staring at the tank. Dongmin steals a few glances at him, still kind of fascinated by the way the reflection of the water tints his brown eyes with blue. 

It startles him a little when Donghyun breaks the silence. “You’re not bored, are you?” he murmurs, tentative. 

Dongmin doesn’t even let him finish the whole question before he cuts in, “I’m not.”

Donghyun casts him a sidelong glance. It’s not mischievous like the one from the beach; it’s soft and quietly grateful. “You mean it?”

“I’m not bored,” Dongmin repeats with a little more force. 

The look on Donghyun’s face turns into a proper smile. “You know, when I was a kid, nobody wanted to be friends with me because all I’d ever talk about was fish. It got better once I got older and learned how to talk to people about other things, but most of the time I still just want to talk about fish.” His little story is ended with an equally little laugh—and Dongmin is all too familiar with what it feels like to joke about something that used to hurt. He had a whole childhood of being called too quiet, too gloomy, which apparently put off anyone from trying to befriend him. He learned his way out of those things, and he doesn’t regret it—though he knows his parents probably wish he stayed meek and behaved. But… well, maybe there’s no moral here, except that he has more in common with Donghyun than he thought. 

“It’s good to have something you’re really passionate about,” Dongmin echoes. It just seems like the right thing to say. 

It is. Donghyun laughs again, warmer and brighter this time, and leans over to bump his shoulder against Dongmin’s—and stays there. “Who told you that?” he asks. They weren’t even sitting that far apart to begin with, but now from this close, it almost feels like Donghyun is speaking right into his ear. 

Dongmin brushes off the sudden strange, flustered feeling. “Just heard it around somewhere,” he says offhandedly. Donghyun scrunches up his nose, apparently pouting a little, but his lips still can’t quite hide the traces of his smile. 

They lapse back into silence for a while, watching the fish dart around the plants and rocks. Donghyun’s shoulder stays pressed against his own. By the time Donghyun pulls away to stand, Dongmin still hasn’t figured out if the gesture was meant to be casual or intimate. 

“I promised I wouldn’t keep you long; I’ll walk you back to the inn,” Donghyun says, offering his hand to help Dongmin up. 

Dongmin takes it and half expects Donghyun not to let go even after he’s back on his feet. He does though, and Dongmin feels a twinge of something that’s suspiciously like disappointment. The notion annoys him a little. “You don’t have to,” he says, mostly to spite himself. “It’s literally right next door.”

Donghyun’s only response is a shrug, and Dongmin has no choice but to follow him back downstairs. 

“Bye, noonim. Thanks for having me,” Dongmin calls to Jieun as they pass the kitchen, bowing shallowly. 

“Oh, already? Bye, see you tomorrow!” She waves, and Dongmin waves back, then trails after Donghyun again to the door. 

It takes less than a minute to go from the Kims’ house to the door of the hanok, but they linger outside for a few seconds. 

“Well. See you—” Dongmin begins, but the words die off when Donghyun throws his arms around him in a brief, tight hug. 

Donghyun smiles in the face of Dongmin’s blank, stunned expression. “Thanks, Dongmin-ah. Goodnight.”

“Night,” Dongmin echoes. He knows what Donghyun is thanking him for, and it makes warmth bloom in his chest. 

Donghyun saunters back to his house after that, and Dongmin mechanically heads back into the inn. 

It’s strange: while he undoubtedly lost sleep over Donghyun feeling him up at the beach, somehow their interaction tonight keeps him up even longer. His bright, sincere smiles when he talked about his ‘babies’ and that little moment of vulnerability when he admitted to being friendless as a child. And the hug he gave him just before they parted ways, like they’re so much closer than they actually are. There are still days left of Dongmin’s time in Busan, but the thought of leaving before he’s really gotten to know Donghyun… It doesn’t hurt, necessarily. But he can’t help but worry that he’s missing out. 

 

*

 

Eventually, Dongmin falls asleep, but he tosses and turns until he wakes up just as the sun is rising, and he can’t seem to close his eyes again. When he gives up on sleep, he folds up his futon and quietly gets dressed, then steps out of the inn to wander. 

There aren’t many places open at this hour. There are a few he makes note of to come back to if he has time, like a record store and a handful of vintage shops, but he ducks inside a café when he starts to notice the heat beginning to settle in. The only customers here are the handful of office workers grabbing their americanos while they wait for the bus. Dongmin orders a misugaru latte and wonders idly if one of these salarymen happens to be Donghyun’s brother-in-law. 

He doesn’t find out by the time his drink is ready, though, and he supposes it doesn’t really matter anyway. He takes his latte and resumes his leisurely walk. 

Ultimately, he finds himself back at the beach. It took much longer on foot than it did when they biked here, but the sand is still nice and cool from the night when he takes off his shoes. There still aren’t many people out and about, so Dongmin just finds an empty stretch of sand to sit and watch the sea while he enjoys his latte. 

Not long after he sits down, he notices movement on the waves—surfers, he realizes, four of them on colorful boards. It incites a bit of envy in Dongmin. He hasn’t surfed in years, and they look like they’re having a lot of fun. 

He watches them idly until the waves they’re riding bring them closer, and Dongmin realizes he recognizes one of them: Donghyun. Somehow it’s easy to pick him out even at this distance. Maybe it’s his hair, or the slope of his shoulders, or the distinct curve of his smile. Regardless of the reason, Dongmin is positive that’s him. And he’s really good, too. He seems confident, his posture the perfect combination of poised and relaxed, like this is second-nature to him. It’s kind of sexy. 

The second Dongmin has that thought, Donghyun wipes out and disappears into the water with a splash. Dongmin straightens up, suddenly gripped with worry, eyes scanning the place he fell for any trace of him as his board bobs up and down with the waves. There’s no need to be concerned, he knows: Dongmin has fallen off of surfboards enough times to know it’s not that big a deal. And it takes a second, but sure enough, Donghyun bursts back out of the water unscathed. He can’t hear it from here, but Donghyun is laughing as he clambers back onto his board. Only then does Dongmin relax again. 

Donghyun’s friends come to check on him, and after a minute, the four of them start to paddle back to shore. It’s only when they’re a dozen or so meters out that Dongmin realizes they’re going to see him—that is, if they haven’t already. Hopefully Donghyun won’t think he’s a stalker. He forces himself to stay put, sipping at the dregs of his latte, if only because he’ll actually look like a stalker if he runs away now. 

Donghyun only seems to recognize him as he’s wading back out of the surf, but when he does, he lights up, jogging over to stand before Dongmin. 

“Hey,” he greets, breathless from exertion. When Dongmin looks up at him, the sun is right behind his head, gracing him with an angelic halo of light. He’s drenched and dripping, but the saltwater makes his hair curl in a way that’s terribly charming, and there’s a healthy flush to his cheeks. 

Dongmin wants to climb him like a tree. Or eat him up, or something else equally deranged. Who can blame him? Donghyun looks fucking delectable like this. 

The sudden intensity of his own thoughts startles him. Maybe it’s the beach subconsciously reminding him that Donghyun wants him, or maybe it’s just how good Donghyun looks reminding Dongmin that he wants him right back. Whatever the reason, Dongmin is so focused on admiring him that it takes him a second to realize Donghyun is asking him a question. 

“Sorry, what did you say?” he asks. Donghyun smirks and Dongmin feels his ears burn. 

“I asked if you had breakfast yet,” Donghyun repeats. 

“Oh. No, not yet.”

Donghyun nods, glancing back to where his friends have wandered off. “Give me like, two minutes to change and you can ride back to the inn with us.” The way he says it doesn’t leave much room for argument, but it’s honestly sort of a relief—Dongmin wasn’t relishing the idea of walking back now that the sun is fully up. 

“Sure,” he agrees easily, and Donghyun smiles, then walks off with his board. 

As promised, it only takes Donghyun a few minutes to change. Dongmin loses his mind again as soon as he comes back: he’s wearing shorts, which is more or less fine, but he’s paired them with this white tank that puts his collarbones on full display. Dongmin thinks briefly about getting his mouth on them before he shoves the thought down and stands up to meet him. 

By the time Dongmin reaches him, Donghyun and his friends are loading their boards into the back of a dark red pickup truck. “If there’s not enough room for all of us, I don’t mind walking,” he offers, just to be polite. 

“It’s cool,” says the boy opening the driver’s side door. His dark hair is tied back messily, and he looks a bit older than the rest of them, though not by much. “It technically does seat five. You’ll just kinda have to cram yourselves in back there.”

That’s exactly what they do. The one girl in their group gets the privilege of the passenger seat, while Dongmin, Donghyun, and the other boy squeeze into the back. Donghyun ends up in the middle, so Dongmin has the door digging into his arm on one side, and Donghyun pressed against him from shoulder to ankle on the other. It’s kind of maddening. Dongmin can smell the salt and sweat on his skin, which shouldn’t be attractive, but it is, not to mention how warm he is where their bare skin is touching. It’s nearly impossible to concentrate on anything else, but he has to try, because unfortunately Donghyun’s friends are nice enough to want to get to know him. 

“What kind of music do you like?” the driver—Jooyeon, Dongmin has learned—asks pleasantly. 

“Mostly Britpop, like Blur and Pulp and stuff. But I’m into rock and emo, too.” His last few words are only barely stuttered out, because Donghyun chooses that moment to lay a hand on Dongmin’s leg. The gesture is outwardly casual, but after a few seconds his fingers brush against the sensitive skin of Dongmin’s inner thigh, and it takes everything in him to suppress a full-body shiver. It’s like that first night on the beach all over again, only instead of being out on the sand, they’re in a car full of Donghyun’s friends. (Is this guy an exhibitionist or what?)

“Hyung,” Donghyun says, and Dongmin actually flinches—and then immediately feels his face go red when he realizes Donghyun wasn’t talking to him despite the hand still stroking his thigh. He’s leaning forward between the front seats to address Jooyeon. “You should tell Dongmin about your band.”

Dongmin is fucking mortified by his reaction, but nobody seems to have noticed, so he does his best to ignore Donghyun’s touch and pay attention to the older man’s response. He’s talking about a rock band he started with some other friends back in high school, and it actually is quite impressive that they’re still together after this long. Dongmin manages to make the right amount of polite, acknowledging noises even with Donghyun borderline feeling him up—which, admittedly, Dongmin could put a stop to at any time. He’s just choosing not to because he likes it. 

Donghyun only takes his hand back when the truck comes to a stop outside the hanok, and Dongmin feels the tension drain from his body. Miraculously, he has not popped a boner. 

“Hyung, you don’t mind hanging onto my board again, right?” Donghyun asks as Dongmin is pushing open the car door. 

“Yeah, no problem,” Jooyeon agrees. “See you guys!”

“Thanks for the ride,” Dongmin calls, to which Jooyeon offers a little salute. Once Donghyun slips out and shuts the door, the rest of them drive off. 

They linger outside the wall of the hanok for a minute, watching the truck trundle away down the road. Donghyun breaks the silence first. “The rest of my family are probably working on breakfast right now.”

“Shouldn’t we go too, then?” Dongmin says, already stepping towards the inn. 

But Donghyun stops him with a hand on his wrist. When Dongmin turns to look back at him, he simpers, all sweet innocence that Dongmin sees straight through when he says, “Don’t you think we should shower first?”

Dongmin knows exactly what he’s implying, and a refusal isn’t in the cards. “Yeah,” he agrees helplessly. He sounds embarrassingly breathless. “I guess we should.”

That’s all it takes for Donghyun to thread his fingers between Dongmin’s, towing him to the house next door instead of the inn. Unsurprisingly, it’s dead silent inside. (Though this time, there’s a tiny white dog curled up on the bed in the living room. Cute.) 

When Dongmin was here last night, everything felt more or less casual, friendly, but what fizzes in the air between them now is the furthest thing from platonic. He lets himself be led upstairs, this time into the bathroom instead of Donghyun’s bedroom. The sound of the door shutting and locking behind them feels definitive in this tiny, intimate space. 

Outside, it was easy to act on his impulses, but now that he’s actually here, uncertainty begins to creep in. “Donghyun-ah,” he says tentatively. 

Donghyun glances over from where he’s retrieving a spare towel from the closet. When he catches Dongmin’s gaze, though, he sets it down and steps closer. “You okay?” he asks. 

The sincerity in the question makes Dongmin relax a little, but he voices his concerns nonetheless. “Should we really be doing this?”

Surprisingly, Donghyun smiles. “Do you want to?”

He says it like that’s the only thing that matters here, and Dongmin is inclined to believe him. It takes a moment, but eventually he pulls together his resolve. “Yeah,” he admits. What does he have to lose?

And Donghyun’s smile turns into a smirk. He leans in just close enough to be a tease and says, “Then take your clothes off, hyung.”

The next thing Dongmin knows, they’re making out in the shower. The water is lukewarm, but he hardly even notices when Donghyun is burning hot against him, his hands bruising their prints into Dongmin’s hips. His lips are soft, his tongue warm and slick against Dongmin’s own. He’s good at this—it sort of makes Dongmin wonder if Donghyun makes a habit out of hooking up with guests. The thought incites a stab of possessive jealousy, and he gives into his earlier fantasies. He breaks the kiss, mouthing along the damp skin of Donghyun’s neck until he reaches his collarbones. 

Donghyun doesn’t stop him from leaving a mark. He hums, pleased, combing a hand through Dongmin’s hair as he murmurs into his ear, “You looked like such a dream on the beach.” The words end up half sighed out when Dongmin grazes him with his teeth. “I wanted to suck you off right there in front of everyone.”

Fuck, so he’s definitely an exhibitionist. Dongmin isn’t one—or, he doesn’t think so, anyway—but the words are still unbelievably hot, and he’s sure Donghyun can feel his cock taking interest against his thigh. Sure enough, Donghyun’s other hand strays from his hip, coming to a stop teasingly low on his abdomen. 

“Can I?” His tone carries a saccharine pout. When Dongmin meets his gaze, Donghyun’s eyes are half-lidded but knowing, like he’s already certain Dongmin will give him the answer he wants. “Please, can I, hyung?”

That’s all it takes for Dongmin to cave. God, the effect that word has on him needs to be studied. “Yeah,” he agrees, helpless. “Yeah, yes, you can.”

Donghyun steals a messy kiss that Dongmin barely has time to reciprocate before Donghyun falls to his knees at his feet. 

It’s hard to reconcile the boy that invited him inside for tea last night with the same boy who’s licking his lips as he wraps a hand around Dongmin’s cock. But they’re just different sides of Donghyun, he supposes, and this side in particular is one he’d like to see more of. 

“You’re pretty like this,” Dongmin confesses. It feels kind of tacky to say, but it’s true, and Donghyun preens. 

“So are you,” he shoots back with a grin. “This is a good angle for you. Very handsome.”

Dongmin just scoffs, but he can feel color blooming in his cheeks. It’s embarrassing how easily Donghyun’s words affect him even when he’s just teasing. It’s not fair—Dongmin has no idea what makes Donghyun tick, while Donghyun seems to have him all figured out. 

Indignation is what gets him to thread his fingers through Donghyun’s hair, tugging lightly. “Get on with it,” he mutters.

“So mean,” Donghyun says, but he sounds pleased, and he finally leans in to take the head of Dongmin’s cock into his mouth. Dongmin sighs at the sensation. He has to consciously loosen his grip on Donghyun’s hair when he takes his length in deeper—but even without Dongmin being rough with him, it’s only a few seconds before he chokes. 

Dongmin watches, shamefully turned on, as Donghyun pulls back to cough, eyes watering, then determinedly swallows him back down. The slow drag of his tongue is unbelievable, and every time he swallows around him, it sends jolts of pleasure through Dongmin’s whole body. But it seems like he’s having a hard time. Through the haze of arousal, Dongmin notices Donghyun fighting for every centimeter that slips past his lips, gagging each time he takes him in deeper. Maybe Donghyun isn’t actually as experienced as he thought. 

The notion is sort of gratifying to that strange possessive part of him that’s reared its head today, but he still feels a twinge of guilt seeing Donghyun struggle. Dongmin tugs lightly at his hair again to get his attention—a mistake, because Donghyun doesn’t stop, just flicks his gaze up, and the sight of his big, glassy eyes peering up at him kind of makes Dongmin want to fuck his throat. 

He does not. “Take it easy,” he coaxes instead. The words come out embarrassingly shaky. “I mean—don’t hurt yourself. It’s—it’s fine if you can’t.”

Donghyun hums around him and Dongmin just barely stops his hips from jerking. Donghyun pulls off smiling, his hand steadily working the shaft in place of his mouth. “Are you worried about me?” he asks. There’s a faint rasp to his voice now, but Dongmin still hears the teasing note behind it. 

“A-A little,” Dongmin confesses, gasping it out when Donghyun drags his thumb over the slit. 

“You don’t have to be,” he says, and Dongmin moans, because the words are murmured against the head of his cock. “I like this.”

Dongmin doesn’t have the willpower to protest any more than that, especially not after Donghyun swallows him back down with renewed vigor. His eagerness makes him choke again, but he doesn’t back down this time, taking as much as he can while his thumb rubs coaxingly against the base. Dongmin is only distantly aware of his own whimpering. 

He doesn’t last long after that. Technically speaking, this might not be the best blowjob Dongmin has ever received, but the heat pooling low in his stomach tells him otherwise. It definitely has something to do with how good Donghyun looks with his plush mouth around his dick, and his pretty, watery eyes, and the sound he makes whenever Dongmin’s hands tighten in his hair. 

“I’m close,” Dongmin warns shakily. It’s the considerate thing to do, but Donghyun doesn’t seem to care either way. He swallows Dongmin down as deep as he can, and Dongmin groans, the sound echoing off the tile as he comes in Donghyun’s mouth. 

Donghyun abruptly pulls off, coughing again. He spits on the floor of the shower, a thick glob of saliva and cum that’s promptly washed away down the drain. It’s a little gross, and yet also somehow hotter than if he’d swallowed. Dongmin’s spent cock twitches with interest. 

Instead of acknowledging it, Dongmin reaches down to help Donghyun back to his feet. They’re both shaky, but they manage not to topple over, Dongmin leaning back against the cold, tiled wall with Donghyun radiating heat against his front. From this close, he can see that Donghyun’s lips are red and a little swollen, and he has this hazy, fucked-out look to him that makes Dongmin’s imagination run wild before he reels it back in. He kisses Donghyun again so he won’t be able to look at him. 

Donghyun seems happy to indulge him, his tongue finding its way back into Dongmin’s mouth to offer him a taste of himself. It’s Dongmin that pulls back first, if only because he feels a little inconsiderate—his body feels pleasantly tingly and sated from his orgasm, but Donghyun’s hard-on is pressing unsubtly against Dongmin’s thigh. 

“Hey,” he says, interrupting Donghyun’s mission to give him a matching mark along his collarbone. “Let me get you off. What do you want?”

“Just your hands is fine.” Donghyun sighs in contentment when Dongmin reaches down to obey, imitating the way Donghyun stroked him earlier. Donghyun nuzzles further into his neck and matches the rhythm with his hips. “You know, I’ve jerked off thinking about you so many times.”

The moaned confession catches Dongmin off guard. It startles a huff of laughter from him. “How many?” he prompts, half joking. “I’ve barely been here four days.”

Donghyun tips his head to the side just enough for Dongmin to catch a glimpse of his face. His eyes glint with hunger and mischief, just like that first night on the beach. “More than four,” is his only answer, but that’s more than enough to send Dongmin’s thoughts right back into overdrive. He wants to ask what Donghyun has fantasized about—but if he does, they’ll be in here another hour, and they’re wasting enough water as it is. 

Luckily, the blowjob apparently worked Donghyun up, too. It only takes a few more rough pumps of Dongmin’s hand and a few more kisses before Donghyun moans into his mouth, “Make me come, hyung.”

Dongmin responds to the words immediately, redoubling his efforts to work Donghyun over the edge. “Come on, then,” he murmurs, letting his lips drag against Donghyun’s on every word. “Give it to me, Donghyun-ah.”

When Donghyun finishes, he’s even louder than Dongmin was. His moan is whiny, and his eyes roll back just before he slumps against Dongmin’s chest, panting into his neck. 

“Fuck,” Donghyun sighs when he catches his breath. “That was really good.”

Dongmin is inclined to agree. “Let’s do this again sometime.” He means for it to sound playful, flippant, but it comes out just a bit too sincere. 

Thankfully, Donghyun doesn’t seem to mind. He beams at Dongmin radiantly, cheeks still flushed from his own orgasm. “Sure,” he says, and Dongmin gets that strange flustered feeling again. His dumb little crush might not be so little after all. 

He forces the thought down, though, in favor of actually showering. They’re both efficient about it—the uncomfortably cold water is pretty good incentive to get out quickly—and soon enough they’re both dry and dressed again. 

“Think anyone will be suspicious?” Dongmin asks as they make the short trek from the Kim house to the hanok. 

“Mm, probably not?” Donghyun muses. He glances at his phone for the time. “We didn’t actually take that long. And your shirt hides the mark.”

Dongmin is wearing the same clothes he left in—it would be suspicious if he turned up wearing something of Donghyun’s. He’s right, though; the hickey is conveniently placed so Dongmin’s t-shirt covers it. Donghyun is in the same lucky situation. 

Breakfast is already laid out by the time they make it inside, Dongmin’s family gathered around one of the low tables. His father spots them first. 

“Dongmin-ah,” he calls, waving him over. He doesn’t look upset, so Dongmin isn’t particularly careful about his approach. Donghyun starts to break off toward the kitchen, before Dongmin’s dad adds brightly, “Donghyun-ah, why don’t you join us?”

Donghyun complies with the appropriate amount of hesitance and gratitude, eventually kneeling down at the table beside Dongmin. He beams when Dongmin’s mother hands him a bowl of rice. 

“So, where did you boys run off to this morning?” she asks. It’s only curiosity; Dongmin supposes he’s old enough now for his parents to trust him to keep himself out of too much mischief. 

“I couldn’t sleep, so I took a walk to the beach,” he says. There’s no reason not to be honest about at least that much. “I ran into Donghyun while he was surfing and we hung out for a bit.”

It’s still a gross oversimplification, but Donghyun makes no move to correct him—though under the table, he does nudge Dongmin lightly with his knee. Dongmin has to fight not to react. 

In the meantime, Dongmin’s sister pipes up. “I bet he was really jealous watching you surf, Donghyun-oppa,” she says conspiratorially. “You should kidnap him again the next time you go. He’s like a fish; our dad had to drag him out of the water the last time we came to the beach.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to cut into your vacation time, though,” Donghyun protests, ever the polite host. “I feel like I’ve been intruding a lot as it is.”

The next minute is filled with vehement protests from Dongmin’s parents that he’s not intruding at all, that he’s such a lovely young man; of course they don’t mind him spending time with their Dongmin. “You could be a good influence on him. He can be a troublemaker,” his mother stage-whispers. 

“Dongmin, a troublemaker? No,” Donghyun says with feigned disbelief. Dongmin rolls his eyes and catches Donghyun biting back a smile—between them, they both know Donghyun is the bad influence here. 

“Anyway,” Dongmin cuts in before any of his traitorous family members can launch into embarrassing stories from his childhood, “we’re going to Haedong Yonggungsa today, but we’ll probably be back by the time you’re done with class. We can hang out again then, if you want.”

Donghyun glances briefly at Dongmin’s parents as if seeking their permission, then nods. “Sure,” he says brightly. “For now, I should probably go help my family,” he adds, getting to his feet and bowing shallowly. “Thanks for letting me sit with you. Enjoy the temple! See you later, Dongmin-ah.”

“See you,” Dongmin echoes, and Donghyun waves before retreating to the kitchen. 

Dongmin’s parents continue to murmur about how well the Kims raised their children—a topic that stretches itself throughout the entire day. A part of Dongmin wants to contribute to their extensive praise. After all, there’s no shortage of nice things to say about both Donghyun and Jieun even after just a few days of knowing them. But he ends up staying quiet. A larger part of him wants to keep what little he has of Donghyun to himself. 

God, this crush is going to fuck him up when he leaves. 

Dongmin takes his second shower of the day when they return from the temple and spends a bit too long fussing with his hair in the mirror. He finishes getting ready just as Donghyun knocks on their door. 

“Have fun with your boyfriend,” Dongmin’s brother says dryly. 

Dongmin has no idea if his brother actually knows he likes Donghyun, or even that he’s into guys at all, but he instinctively snipes back, “I will,” without missing a beat. 

Donghyun is smiling as sweetly as ever when Dongmin slides the door open. He offers his polite greetings to the rest of the Han family, asks about their temple visit, then lets Dongmin tow him away by the wrist. Once they’re out of earshot, though, Donghyun leans in close enough that his breath ghosts against Dongmin’s ear. “So I’m your boyfriend, am I?”

Dongmin flinches away, both from the odd sensation and the words themselves. “He was just being dumb,” he protests, defensive. “Don’t—don’t read into it.” It feels like he’s shown too much of his hand—much of his day was spent wondering if the fact that they fooled around in the shower means this is a date. 

“Relax,” Donghyun laughs. He bumps his shoulder against Dongmin’s, playful but unintentionally hard enough to make them both stumble a little. “It’s not a big deal. Wanna get ice cream or something? You were walking around all day; it’ll be nice.”

“Yeah, sure,” Dongmin’s mouth says, but on the inside he can’t help but overthink Donghyun’s words. Why isn’t it a big deal? Because Donghyun wants to be his boyfriend? Or because he doesn’t?

Thankfully, he doesn’t have space in his brain to catastrophize. Donghyun brings out the bicycles again and Dongmin has to focus on not falling or getting lost as Donghyun leads him down narrow, winding streets to an older-looking part of town. 

He’d expected them to just go to some convenience store, but instead they end up at a tiny shop whose signage boasts its existence since the 1980s. The kind-faced ahjussi behind the counter greets Donghyun by name. The red bean ice cream might be the most heavenly thing Dongmin has ever tasted. 

“I’ve been coming here since I was a kid,” Donghyun tells him once they’re settled on the old wooden bench outside. The sun has just about set. The day’s heat is still in the air, but it’s more pleasantly warm than oppressive now. “I was still in elementary school when noona and my brother-in-law started dating. Sometimes they’d come pick me up and I’d always beg them to bring me here, even when it was freezing cold out.” He holds out a small spoonful of his melon ice cream. Dongmin unthinkingly lets himself be fed, then tries to ward off the flustered feeling by offering Donghyun a scoop of his own. (It doesn’t work—Donghyun’s lips close around his plastic spoon and Dongmin is suddenly plagued by the memory of Donghyun’s tongue in his mouth.)

“I bet you were a cute kid,” Dongmin comments, forcibly redirecting his thoughts to wholesome things. It’s easy to imagine from the tidbits of information he’s heard—always trailing after Jieun, always talking about fish, happily eating ice cream on this very same bench. 

Donghyun lightly bumps their ankles together. “So you’re saying I’m not cute now?”

When Dongmin looks back up from his ice cream, Donghyun is fluttering his eyelashes exaggeratedly. “No way,” he scoffs. It’s a blatant lie. 

Donghyun’s only response is to pout, but he seems to get over it quickly. After a minute, he asks, “What about you? What were you like as a kid?”

It’s not something he ever really talks about, but Dongmin finds himself confessing to how quiet and standoffish he’d been when he was young—and how that later wore off into him becoming the bane of his parents’ and teachers’ existence. “Sometimes I still feel like a disappointment,” Dongmin blurts out, then startles internally when he realizes he’s baring his soul to Donghyun over one silly question. But when he glances over, Donghyun is looking back at him with this soft, encouraging expression, and Dongmin just keeps on spilling his guts. 

“I mean—it’s not actually that they’re disappointed in me. They were proud of me for going to university and graduating and everything, and they probably wouldn’t care if I lived with them until I died. But I’m disappointed. I just… thought I’d have a job by now, and I feel kind of useless. I feel guilty about having fun.”

What’s left of his ice cream has mostly melted by the time he’s finished his little rant, and he pokes absently at the bits of red bean floating in the soupy remains. From the corner of his eye, he can see that Donghyun isn’t looking at him anymore. “Well,” Donghyun says quietly, “it’s just a moment in time, if you think about it. There’s no way you’re going to be unemployed forever, so you just have to keep doing your best and moving forward, right? And you might as well enjoy yourself in the meantime.”

Dongmin lets the advice sink in, though it’s not particularly difficult to listen when ‘enjoying himself in the meantime’ means spending more time by Donghyun’s side. “You’re right,” he agrees. “If everything is temporary, we should make the most of it.”

He jumps a little when Donghyun stands abruptly. Dongmin watches curiously as he walks with purpose to where their bicycles are propped against the wall of the shop, reaching for the sparkly purple one he’s been using. Then he swings a leg over the frame, settles on the seat, and begins to pedal away. 

Only then does Dongmin realize Donghyun fully intends to leave without him, and he scrambles to his feet to follow. By the time he’s back on his borrowed bike, Donghyun is already a few dozen meters down the road. He has to pedal hard to catch up. 

“Donghyun-ah!” he calls once he’s within earshot. “Where are you going? Slow down!”

Donghyun doesn’t respond, nor does he heed the request, so Dongmin just tails him as best he can. They’re halfway back to the inn before he realizes what Donghyun’s problem is—he’d seemed perfectly fine until Dongmin made his last comment. Everything is temporary. It only occurs to him now that it must have sounded like he was calling them temporary, too. He doesn’t have a name for this thing happening between them, but even saying that about their budding friendship is beyond hurtful. Fuck. 

Determinedly, he speeds up until he’s riding alongside the other boy. “Donghyun-ah,” Dongmin repeats, breathless now. “I didn’t—”

Donghyun doesn’t wait to hear him out, just stands and pedals and leaves Dongmin in his dust. 

He’s waiting outside the wall of the hanok when Dongmin eventually makes it back, sweating from the exertion. He holds out his hand, and Dongmin obediently dismounts the bicycle and returns it to him. “Donghyun-ah,” he tries one more time. “I really didn’t mean—”

“Goodnight, Dongmin,” Donghyun cuts in firmly, with an air of finality that Dongmin doubts he can win against. His eyes are rimmed with red. 

Normally Dongmin would have more pride than this, but knowing he’s in the wrong, he feels himself wilt under Donghyun’s cold attitude. “Goodnight,” he echoes reluctantly. He lingers outside until Donghyun goes back into his house. Only then does he return to the inn, ignoring his family’s inquiries about their outing in favor of going straight to bed. 

Dongmin might not be a disappointment, but he is a massive fucking idiot. 

 

*

 

The Hans spend the next day sightseeing again, but Dongmin is too distracted to really appreciate any of it. He hadn’t seen Donghyun at all at breakfast. It seems fair to assume that he’s still upset. And maybe he just needs some more time to cool off, but it’s just as likely that Donghyun might stay upset and that they won’t make up before Dongmin has to leave. The thought makes him feel a little ill. 

When they return to the inn after an early dinner, Dongmin heads straight to the shower. Finally alone with his thoughts, he’s able to thoroughly beat himself up for his foolishness. What a careless, inconsiderate thing to say to the same boy he kissed, and touched, and talked about his feelings with. Calling them temporary. Maybe it’s true; maybe after Dongmin leaves Busan, he’ll never see Donghyun again. (Not that he wants that. He really, really doesn’t want that.) But it was still mean. 

He resolves to go and talk to Donghyun. He’ll regret it for the rest of his life if he doesn’t at least try to apologize again. Except no sooner than when he returns to his family’s room is there a knock on the door. It’s much quieter this time, almost shy, and when the door slides open, an equally meek Donghyun is lingering in the hall. 

“Hi,” he says. “Welcome back. Um. If you’re not busy, could I—could I borrow Dongmin…?” Here, he meets Dongmin’s eyes, tentative and nervous, but hopeful, too. 

Dongmin is already on his feet before anyone can answer for him. “Yeah, let’s go,” he agrees, slipping out the door without a second look. 

Donghyun’s expression is an interesting mixture of relief and that lingering nervousness, but he says nothing until they’re standing in the street. “I’m sorry about yesterday,” he murmurs, scuffing his shoe against the ground. “I was upset, but I still shouldn’t have left you behind like that. Let me make it up to you?”

Dongmin feels himself buffering for a second when Donghyun gives his apology. “You—It’s really okay. I’m sorry; I should be the one making it up to you. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know,” Donghyun tells him gently. There’s a faint smile on his lips, and it settles something in Dongmin. “Let’s go, okay?”

“Where are we going?” he asks, though he still allows himself to be led down the street. His heart stutters in his chest when Donghyun takes his hand. 

Donghyun’s smile only widens. “You’ll like it,” he says cryptically. “Promise.”

Usually, Dongmin might have kept pressing for more information, but he still feels guilty about what he said. Submitting himself to Donghyun’s whims is a small price to pay for things between them to go back to normal. Except, to his delight, a few minutes later Dongmin finds himself standing outside that record stop he spotted on his walk yesterday morning. 

“How did you know I wanted to come here?” Dongmin asks as Donghyun is pulling open the door for him. 

Donghyun shrugs, but there’s a bashfulness to it that cancels out the casualness of his tone. “Music was one of the first things we talked about. It wasn’t hard to guess.” He gives Dongmin’s hand a gentle tug, and Dongmin takes the cue to step inside. 

The shop isn’t very big, and everything smells faintly of dust, but it’s completely packed with shelves and boxes of CDs and records. Dongmin feels right at home, especially when he recognizes Here Comes The Sun playing over the speakers. 

They peruse the narrow aisles for a while, their fingers still twined together, pointing with their free hands every now and then at artists and albums they recognize. They only separate when Donghyun lets go in favor of squatting down to sort through a crate of empty vinyl jackets. He’s nodding along to the music even as he examines the cover art on each sleeve, and the realization that Donghyun is enjoying the album playing gives Dongmin an idea. 

He walks off while Donghyun is distracted, now with a mission. Thankfully, most of the shelves are more or less organized, and there’s a pretty sizeable selection of Beatles CDs when Dongmin finds them. He examines a few of the copies of Abbey Road and brings one up to the counter before Donghyun can notice he’s missing. 

The man at the register looks to be somewhere in his thirties, and he seems both pleased and amused by Dongmin’s purchase. “Good choice,” he says, pointing up at the speaker mounted on the wall, from which the tail end of the album is playing. “I take it you’re a fan?”

“Yeah,” Dongmin admits, rifling through his wallet for a 5000 won note. “I actually have Abbey Road on vinyl already; this is for my… friend. I made sure it was the 2009 remaster,” he adds just for the sake of conversation.

Dongmin fully expects him to nod and send him on his way, but instead the man perks up. “It’s so much better than the 2019 mix, right?”

And Dongmin realizes they’re going to be here a while. He makes a mental note to apologize to Donghyun, though he can still hear him wandering about the shop. “Right,” he agrees enthusiastically in the meantime. “My dad swears there’s no difference, but it’s like night and day to me. Guess my degree isn’t completely pointless.”

“Degree, huh? What did you study; sound engineering?”

“Audio production, technically. I don’t suppose you know of anywhere that needs a radio intern, do you?” Dongmin says, simultaneously self-deprecating and lighthearted. 

But the man doesn’t laugh. He blinks, wide eyed and surprised, then grabs for a pen. “Actually, I do,” he says as he scribbles something down on a loose scrap of paper. He slides it across the counter along with Abbey Road. “My brother, Jiho. He works in radio in the city. Here’s his number; you should give him a call. What’s your name, kid? I’ll let him know to expect you.”

Dongmin just stands there for a second, stunned. No way he walked into this secondhand record store less than fifteen minutes ago and now he has a shot at his dream job. No fucking way. “Han Dongmin,” he manages to stammer out when he processes the question. “Thanks—thank you, seriously.”

“It’s nothing,” the man says. Dongmin begs to differ—this opportunity is not nothing, not to him. But he’s still too dumbstruck to do anything but smile like a fool. 

Donghyun conveniently seems to materialize in his space as soon as the exchange is over. He loops his arm neatly through Dongmin’s, and Dongmin lets himself be led back out into the summer evening. It isn’t until the door shuts behind them that Dongmin emerges from his stupor. 

“Oh, right,” he says, offering the CD to Donghyun. “I bought this for you. It’s what was playing inside; I think you’ll like most of the songs on it.”

Donghyun takes it, a look of quiet delight coming over his features as he flips the case to glance over the track list. “Thank you, Dongmin-ah. How much was it? I’ll pay you back.”

“It’s a gift, stupid,” Dongmin huffs, though the words are softened quite a bit by the fondness that creeps into his tone. 

“You can’t give me a present and call me stupid at the same time,” Donghyun pouts. Dongmin would worry that he’s actually upset again, if not for the way his eyes seem to sparkle when he looks back down at the CD in his hands. 

Dongmin shoves his own hands into his pockets so he doesn’t think about how empty they are now. “Sorry I talked to that guy for so long, by the way. I hope you weren’t too bored waiting for me.”

Donghyun shakes his head hurriedly. “I didn’t mind,” he assures Dongmin. “It sounded like it was going well; I’m happy for you. Besides,” he adds, and here he lowers his gaze to the ground, his cheeks taking on a rosy hue, “if you get a job in Busan, you’ll probably move here. And maybe—maybe you’ll come see me again.”

His voice has dwindled to a whisper by the time he finishes talking, but it conveys his feelings to Dongmin as clearly as if he had shouted: Donghyun wants to keep seeing him. It was already becoming clear that Donghyun has feelings for him, but this washes away any doubt left in Dongmin’s mind. 

Admittedly, in the moment, he hadn’t actually processed that this Jiho hiring him would mean uprooting his life in Seoul and moving hours away from his family and friends. But it doesn’t take much thought to determine that he’s willing to do it—if all this works out, he’ll have a job in his dream industry, a nice little apartment to himself where he can make music, and the self-sufficiency he’s always craved. It could be everything he envisioned for himself back when he was a bright-eyed first year. 

And Donghyun weaves himself perfectly into Dongmin’s visions of the future. They could spend time together in the evenings, at the beach or in the city, they could go surfing on the weekends, Donghyun could sleep over at his place… Dongmin doesn’t realize how badly he wants it until he feels the physical ache of longing and anticipation in his chest. He’s positive Donghyun wants it, too. 

When Dongmin looks over at him, Donghyun has lifted his gaze back up, and now Dongmin can clearly see the quiet hope in his eyes. It makes Dongmin feel like he’s holding something precious in his hands, something that he absolutely cannot break.

“That’s why you were so upset yesterday,” he ventures. “You thought I was just going to leave you without a second thought.”

Donghyun chews his lip and nods. 

Before Dongmin even realizes he’s going to do it, he’s already taking out his phone and pressing it into Donghyun’s hand. 

“Give me your number, or your KakaoTalk ID, so we can keep in touch. So I can update you on how it’s going.”

“How what’s going?” Donghyun asks even as he tucks the CD under his arm to free up both hands to type. 

Dongmin bites his lip. “Moving to Busan. If—if I get the job, I mean.”

When Donghyun looks back up at him to hand over his phone, his eyes are wide, shining with what might be tears. The twinge of worry it sets off in Dongmin is quickly counteracted by the smile that spreads over the other boy’s lips. 

“When you get the job,” Donghyun corrects. 

Dongmin can’t help but smile back. “When I get the job,” he amends. 

Donghyun doesn’t even let him finish the sentence before he flings his arms around Dongmin, practically squeezing the air out of his lungs with how tight he hugs him. “So when you move here, you really will visit me?” Donghyun asks, murmured hopefully into Dongmin’s ear. 

“Course I will,” Dongmin says in return. He slips his arms around Donghyun once his grip loosens up a little. “Or you could visit me.”

Donghyun nods to himself seriously, like he’s already planning it out in his head. “Good point. But we should at least alternate; my parents will want to feed you.”

They loiter outside the record store for a little while longer, still holding each other loosely and idly discussing the neighborhoods in Busan with decent rent prices. But eventually they head back to the inn, hand in hand once again. Before Dongmin can go back inside, Donghyun leans up to kiss him on the cheek, and Dongmin feels warmth spread throughout his whole body from that one point. 

“Goodnight, Dongmin-ah,” Donghyun whispers. Dongmin manages to echo the sentiment before Donghyun steps away, waving brightly and then turning to walk back to his house. Dongmin only steps inside when Donghyun disappears from view. 

“How was your date?” Dongmin’s brother asks the second he returns to the room. Dongmin still hasn’t figured out if he knows anything. 

“It was good,” Dongmin answers, because any awkwardness will arouse suspicion. He looks to his parents then. “We went to this record store, and the owner’s brother works in radio here in Busan. Apparently he’s looking for an intern, so…”

“Oh, really?” his mother says, clearly paying more attention than his father, who looks to be half asleep already. “Well, that’s exciting, Dongmin-ah, but are you sure you want to work in Busan?”

Dongmin sits down on his futon, fiddling absently with a corner of the blanket. “Why not?” he asks, though he’s not particularly surprised by the pushback. His parents are generally supportive, but they’re also realistic. 

“It’s just so far. And you’d be living all on your own…”

“I lived alone for most of university,” Dongmin reminds her. 

She sighs, but it’s more fond than anything. “Still, thirty minutes away is very different from four hours away. We wouldn’t be able to come help you if you needed anything, or god forbid if you got hurt. We’re just worried about you struggling alone.” Here, she nudges Dongmin’s father and says pointedly, “Right, yeobo?”

He startles a little and still doesn’t fully wake up, but he does tiredly say, “Youngchul-hyung is here,” after a beat of expectant silence. 

Dongmin’s mom seems to get it at the same time Dongmin does. She laughs lightly. “Alright, I guess you wouldn’t be alone. You and Donghyun are practically attached at the hip already.” Thankfully, the room is dim enough that Dongmin’s blush isn’t easily visible. “Let’s talk about this more when we get back to Seoul, okay?” she adds patiently. “If you’re really serious about it, we’ll help you figure everything out.”

She said the same thing back when he told his parents he wanted to study music, so he knows she means it. “Okay,” he agrees. “Thanks, eomma.”

Instead of answering right away, she crosses the room to press a kiss to the crown of his head like he’s still a kid. “Goodnight, Dongmin-ah,” she says, then does the same for his brother, then his sister, who has been asleep this whole time. 

Dongmin lays down, but sleep doesn’t come to him for a while. He can’t stop thinking about the future, and specifically how Donghyun fits into it. They haven’t talked about it beyond wanting to spend more time together, and it’s still far too early to tell if they’ll work out in the long run as something more than friends. But nothing about the happiness and comfort when he’s with Donghyun feels temporary. And now maybe they’ll have the chance to figure things out without the pressure of a time limit. 

 

*

 

Morning brings with it the Han family’s final full day in Busan. Dongmin is… sad. And he’s trying not to be—there’s plenty to be excited about when he goes home, like seeing his friends again and finally (hopefully) getting a job—but it feels like this last day has snuck up on him. He’s just not ready to leave yet. 

Donghyun gives him something to look forward to before then. He approaches their table at breakfast under the guise of bringing over another side dish, but as he leans past Dongmin to set it on the table, Donghyun murmurs into his ear, “Meet me outside at midnight.” Dongmin nods as subtly as he can, and Donghyun just pats his shoulder before wandering off to tend to some other guests. 

The exchange fills Dongmin with several questions—what is Donghyun planning? And why does it have to be at midnight? He’s still going to go, of course, but it would be nice to have a little more to go off of. He doesn’t have the chance to ask, though. As soon as breakfast is over, Dongmin and his family return to the city for a day filled almost entirely with souvenir shopping. 

“We should get something for the Kims,” Dongmin suggests at one point, absentminded, his mind still completely occupied by thoughts of Donghyun and their clandestine meeting later.

“Oppa, I don’t think they’ll want Busan memorabilia,” his sister pipes up from where she’s assessing a few keychains for her school friends. 

Thankfully, his dad comes to his rescue while Dongmin is busy fighting back a blush. “Well, it would still be nice to get them a thank-you gift,” he agrees. “They’ve been such good hosts, after all.”

They collectively decide on a nice fruit basket for the Kim family, which of course Dongmin is tasked with delivering upon their return to the inn. He finds Donghyun alone in the kitchen, apparently taking stock of ingredients, and corners him. 

“This is for you and your family,” Dongmin says, holding out the basket.

Naturally, Donghyun doesn’t just take it. “I can’t accept that,” he protests, setting his notepad and pen on the counter so he can gently push the basket back into Dongmin’s arms. “Seriously, why are you guys so nice? Take it back.”

“I can’t,” Dongmin protests in turn, somewhat amused that they’re just repeating the same words back to each other. “My parents won’t let me back into the room if I still have this thing.” His dad did actually make that exact threat before sending him to find one of the Kims to give the basket to, probably anticipating this kind of refusal. 

Donghyun doesn’t laugh like he hoped he would, though. Instead, the look in his eyes seems to shift, his gaze turning heavy and heated in the span of seconds. Against his will, Dongmin’s mind brings up the images of Donghyun on his knees for him two days ago. That makes it all the more difficult to be reasonable when Donghyun says, “You could always stay with me…”

Dongmin nearly caves—he doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to resisting Donghyun’s temptations. But the one thing that stops him is the fact that they’re meant to meet up at midnight anyway, and Dongmin wants to freshen up and change before then. All his clothes are still in the room. 

So Dongmin resorts to a bit of trickery. He casts a cursory glance around just to make absolutely certain they’re alone, then leans in to kiss Donghyun like he’s agreeing to his suggestion. Donghyun kisses back eagerly, letting out a pleased hum against Dongmin’s lips. Dongmin indulges him of course, and chases every time Donghyun starts to pull away, until he’s sure the other boy won’t suspect a thing. Then he presses the basket into Donghyun’s hands. 

Donghyun is so absorbed in slipping his tongue past Dongmin’s lips that he seems to accept it without thinking. Dongmin kisses him for a few more seconds—partialy to sell the ruse, but mostly just because he’s enjoying himself. Then he pulls back, grinning. Donghyun sways forward slightly, fluttering his eyes open when he doesn’t find Dongmin’s lips again. 

“Take the fucking fruits,” Dongmin says, triumphant. 

Donghyun stares at him for a long few seconds, his kiss-red lips parted as he catches his breath in short little pants. “I really… I really can’t—” he starts to protest again, but Dongmin interrupts with his last resort. 

“Take it or I won’t meet up with you later.”

There are another few empty seconds of Donghyun just staring, clearly trying to figure out if Dongmin is being genuine. He’s not—there is quite literally nothing that could stop him from seeing Donghyun tonight. But Donghyun seems to buy it, or at least err on the side of caution. Slowly, he draws the basket almost protectively to his chest. 

“Don’t be late,” Donghyun tells him seriously. Then he turns, inventory forgotten, and makes for the door of the hanok. 

Dongmin watches him go with a look he can feel is embarrassingly sappy. There’s the slightest bit of guilt in him for that empty threat, but the majority of his thoughts are occupied by a probably unreasonable amount of fondness and affection for Donghyun. 

He realizes too late as he’s walking back to the room that he was too busy basking in Donghyun’s presence to remember to ask about his plans. But really, as long as they’re together, Dongmin knows he’ll be content. 

 

*

 

With some hours left before midnight, Dongmin goes through the routine of showering and getting ready for bed just so his family won’t suspect anything. He reads for a bit, participates in his family’s discussion of their favorite parts of the trip, then lays down when the rest of them decide to go to sleep. 

Dongmin lays awake for a while. He’d been somewhat fearful of falling asleep and missing his meeting with Donghyun, but anticipation keeps him fully alert. Still, laying there in the dark just waiting for midnight is mind-numbingly boring. He wants to see Donghyun already. 

Every few minutes, he chances a glance at his phone under the covers to check the time. A part of him is tempted to go early, but he forces himself to stay put—if only because he knows it takes both his mom and brother a while to fall asleep, and Dongmin absolutely cannot risk any setbacks. 

Midnight can’t arrive fast enough. When it’s finally just a few minutes before twelve and he’s certain everyone is out cold, Dongmin slowly slips out of bed, grabs a hoodie, and creeps out of the inn as silently as he possibly can. He makes it outside without incident and breathes a sigh of relief once the cool night air hits his skin. He pulls the hoodie on over his head and slips on his shoes, then makes his way down the small stone path leading to the street. 

When he reaches the low wall surrounding the property, the Kims’ old pickup truck is parked outside. Donghyun is leaned against the passenger door, scrolling absently on his phone, but he looks up at the same time Dongmin sees him. Immediately, he beams and shoves his phone into his pocket. 

Donghyun is wearing a hoodie, too; pastel blue with the Sea Life Busan logo in one corner. Paired with his denim shorts again, he’s terribly cute, but Dongmin doesn’t have much time to admire him before Donghyun pushes off the truck and throws his arms around Dongmin in a tight hug. 

“You’re right on time,” he praises, and Dongmin can’t help but feel a twinge of satisfaction. 

“So, where are we going?” Dongmin asks instead of dwelling on that, obediently hoisting himself up into the passenger seat when Donghyun opens the door for him. 

Donghyun doesn’t reply until he’s walked around to get into the driver’s seat. “I wanted to bring you down to the beach one more time.”

“Romantic,” Dongmin says before he can think better of it. 

Luckily, it doesn’t make things awkward. Donghyun casts him a sidelong glance, a warm smile gracing his pretty lips, and simply agrees, “Yeah.”

It makes Dongmin’s heart flutter a bit in his chest, then even more so when Donghyun starts up the truck, and Come Together starts to play softly from the speakers. “This is the CD I gave you,” Dongmin realizes. 

Donghyun’s only response is a soft hum in acknowledgement, but the way he drums his fingertips against the steering wheel in time with the beat is enough to make Dongmin fall that much harder. 

The drive to the beach isn’t long; the next song has barely started before Donghyun parks and Dongmin becomes aware of the crashing of the waves beneath the music. Donghyun turns down the volume a bit so they can hear better, then turns to smile at Dongmin again. 

“There’s still a lot of light pollution out here, but I bet you can see more stars than you can back in Seoul.”

Dongmin leans closer to the windshield, peering out and up at the inky sky. The moon is a thin crescent, and alongside its dim light shine a loose smattering of stars. There aren’t many, and they’re small and faint, but they’re there nonetheless. “Pretty,” he murmurs, then reaches for the door handle—maybe they’ll be able to see better from closer to the water. 

Donghyun follows him out without question, trailing after him towards the ocean. When they reach the edge of the water, Donghyun pulls off his shoes, tossing them back where the sand is dry before stepping ankle-deep into the surf. Dongmin just watches him, the stars above momentarily forgotten in favor of Donghyun’s contented smile. 

There are a number of impulses Dongmin is tempted to act upon—holding Donghyun’s hand, kissing him, hugging him close until the sun comes up. But the one he gives into is this: kicking off his own shoes, creeping up behind Donghyun, and shoving him. 

Donghyun yelps, flailing comically as he stumbles a few steps further into the water. He doesn’t fall, but he whips around once he regains his footing, indignant. “What was that for?” he demands in a whine. He stomps right back up to Dongmin, who is unsuccessfully muffling his giggles behind one hand. “Seriously!” Donghyun continues petulantly, but Dongmin can see now that he’s trying hard to hold back his own laughter. “I brought you out here to—to woo you and you’re trying to drown me!”

Dongmin is fully doubled over now, clutching his stomach as he gasps for air. “To woo me?” he repeats, breathless and yet still teasing. He’s sure if it was just a little brighter out here, he’d see Donghyun’s cheeks turning red.  

“Fuck off,” Donghyun huffs, halfway between a whine and a laugh this time, retaliating by shoving hard at Dongmin’s chest. Dongmin suddenly recalls that Donghyun is much stronger than he looks—just in time to trip backwards and fall on his ass. 

Donghyun looks all too triumphant when Dongmin straightens back up. Naturally, Dongmin has to take him down a few notches. In the back of his mind, Dongmin is vaguely conscious of the fact that he barely roughhouses like this even with his closest friends, but that still doesn’t stop him from tackling Donghyun to the ground with a splash. 

He realizes his mistake as soon as he feels wet sand squishing underneath his knee. Wet sand that Donghyun’s whole upper torso is planted in. “Fuck, shit, sorry,” he gasps, hastily sitting back on his heels and pulling Donghyun up to sit as well. “Are you okay?”

Thankfully, Donghyun is smiling good-naturedly when Dongmin goes to cradle his cheeks, brushing away the saltwater that’s splattered on his face. “I really don’t know what you were expecting to happen when you pushed me into the ocean,” he teases, gently batting away Dongmin’s hands so he can strip off his drenched hoodie. 

Except he’s not wearing a shirt under it, and sure, Dongmin has seen him naked, but that doesn’t make his smooth, bare skin any less mesmerizing under the moonlight. 

He’s only jolted out of his staring by Donghyun tugging at his sleeve. “Hurry up and lend me yours,” he coaxes, and Dongmin still feels guilty enough about knocking him over to obey. 

Donghyun sighs in contentment once he’s nestled in Dongmin’s hoodie, arms wrapped around himself like he’s basking in Dongmin’s lingering body heat. They’re sitting side by side on the sand now, far enough from the water that the waves don’t quite reach their outstretched legs. 

Now that they’re actually looking at the stars, Dongmin can tell with relative certainty that the light pollution here is about the same as it is back in Seoul. He chooses to say nothing of it. Whether there are six stars up there or six thousand, the fact that Donghyun wanted him to spend his last night in Busan like this isn’t lost on him. Dongmin gives into one of those softer impulses this time, reaching for Donghyun’s hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. Donghyun squeezes back, then leans over until his head comes to rest on Dongmin’s shoulder. Dongmin commits the moment to memory. 

They remain like that for some time, just staring at the sky and listening to the repetitive rushing of the waves, until a particularly strong gust of ocean breeze makes Dongmin shiver. Donghyun picks up on it immediately, lifting his head to look at him. “Let’s go back to the truck,” he murmurs, and Dongmin nods his agreement. 

Somehow, the cabin of the truck feels smaller after the open air out on the beach. The space feels more intimate. It’s nice being this close to Donghyun though; at the beginning of this week, it might have been nerve-wracking, but being alone with him feels natural now. He wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

Dongmin reaches for the volume on the radio, intending to turn it up a bit if only because he thinks Donghyun will like Oh! Darling, but Donghyun stops him with a hand on his thigh. When Dongmin lifts his gaze to look at him, Donghyun is leaning over the console, eyes wide and warm and clearly trained on Dongmin’s mouth. And Dongmin doesn’t need any more prompting than that to lean in until their lips meet in a gentle kiss. 

This really is pure romance. Between the music, the beach, the stars, and now this, Dongmin just might be in danger of falling in love. Donghyun only makes it worse. The hand on his thigh comes up to cup Dongmin’s cheek instead, thumb stroking gently against the skin. Donghyun deepens the kiss and Dongmin responds in kind, sliding his tongue against Donghyun’s, nipping lightly at his lips to get him to sigh. 

They make out lazy and relaxed, like they’ve done this a thousand times instead of just once before. Dongmin is so engrossed in the intimacy that he barely notices the pop of the glove compartment opening. It’s Donghyun that pulls away first, giggling lightly to himself when Dongmin leans in after him. Only then does Dongmin open his eyes. He finds Donghyun’s hands full: a small bottle of lube in one hand and a box of condoms in the other. 

Dongmin blinks, his kiss-drunk mind only just putting the pieces together. “We… We came here to fuck?”

“If you want,” Donghyun says, though it sounds like he already knows Dongmin wants. 

Still, Dongmin takes a moment to consider it. Contemplates the items in Donghyun’s hands, the backseat of the truck, the empty beach out the windshield. They have enough room, probably, and the likelihood of anyone catching them is extremely low. And with the looming thought that tomorrow will be the last time he sees Donghyun, at least for a while, Dongmin wouldn’t mind spending tonight as close to him as physically possible. 

He gives his response by leaning back in to kiss Donghyun again. Donghyun smiles against his lips, humming in contentment, arms winding around Dongmin’s neck to keep him close. In turn, Dongmin slips his hands under Donghyun’s hoodie—Dongmin’s hoodie; god, Donghyun is still wearing his clothes—steadying him with a gentle grip on his waist. 

“So this is what you really meant when you said you were wooing me,” Dongmin teases, the words spoken into the millimeters between their lips when they pull back to breathe. 

Donghyun doesn’t deny it. In fact, his murmured reply is practically a confession of guilt. “I prepped before I left, you know…”

The words send heat rushing to Dongmin’s face and down between his legs. The image of Donghyun fingering himself open in the hope of having Dongmin inside him is utterly maddening. Dongmin needs him immediately. 

“We shouldn’t waste your effort,” he manages to say through the sudden surge of lust. He was going for suave, but lands firmly in desperate. 

Luckily, Donghyun doesn’t judge. He beams into the next kiss he steals, which is dirty and firm and also somehow smug. “Hyung is so considerate,” he croons, giggling again when the words procure a full-body shiver from Dongmin. 

Not three seconds later, they’re clambering into the backseat. It takes a bit of maneuvering—they’re both tall and this truck wasn’t built with these kinds of activities in mind. But with some difficulty and much help from each other’s wandering hands, they end up with Donghyun bare from the waist down, Dongmin kneeling between his legs with his shorts pooled around his knees. 

“Don’t be nervous,” Donghyun soothes, which is sort of funny when he’s rolling a condom onto Dongmin’s cock for him, slicking him up with a generous helping of lube. 

Dongmin isn’t nervous, or at least he thought he wasn’t, but as soon as Donghyun says that, the gravity of what they’re doing sinks in. He’s about to have sex with Donghyun—a boy he met this week whom he also might be a little in love with—in the back of a truck at the beach the night before Dongmin has to go back home to Seoul. How the fuck did he end up here?

“Dongmin-ah,” Donghyun says, fond this time. His clean hand brushes against Dongmin’s cheek, drawing him out of his thoughts. “I said don’t be nervous. You’ve done this before, right?”

“Yeah,” Dongmin confirms, slightly defensive, but somehow his handful of past experiences with exes and hookups pale in comparison to this. And he hasn’t even stuck it in yet. 

Luckily, Donghyun pumping his cock a few more times means Dongmin loses the mental capacity to think about the depth of his feelings for him. Those more complex thoughts are pushed aside to make room for how good Donghyun looks below him, how good it’s going to feel to be inside him. 

He lines himself up with more care than is strictly necessary, relishing Donghyun’s little sigh when the head of Dongmin’s cock meets his entrance. “Okay?” Dongmin prompts, surprised by the breathlessness of his own voice. 

Donghyun nods, though he curls both arms around Dongmin’s neck to bring their bodies closer. “Go ahead.”

Dongmin lowers himself to his elbows, ghosts a kiss against Donghyun’s cheek, and slowly begins to push in. “God,” he gasps immediately, his head dropping to Donghyun’s shoulder. It’s barely anything, and yet it’s so much. “God, fuck.”

He can hear Donghyun’s breaths going ragged with every centimeter that breaches him, but he still manages to soothingly pet Dongmin’s hair. “Just like that,” he murmurs, soft and encouraging. “That’s good, you’re doing good.”

Dongmin only barely manages to stop his hips jolting forward when the praise sends a rush of heat through him. “You’re so fucking tight; I thought you said you prepped.” He wants to scoff at himself—he sounds distraught. How embarrassing. 

But Donghyun huffs out a laugh, and the sound is sweet and warm. “I might have rushed a little,” he confesses. Dongmin’s only response is a sound somewhere between a groan and a whine. 

They both groan when he bottoms out, panting softly over the sound of guitar and drums and lyrics Dongmin might remember if Donghyun wasn’t clenching down on him so hard. He stays still to let Donghyun adjust to the stretch, though the effort of not moving makes his legs tremble and his breathing unsteady. It’s like his whole body is screaming at him to thrust into Donghyun’s maddening warmth. (But Donghyun is so tense, Dongmin probably couldn’t do it even if he tried.)

It takes a minute that feels like nothing short of an eternity before Donghyun starts to relax around him. As if the words were torn out of him, Dongmin immediately, pathetically pleads, “Can I move?”

It takes another few seconds for Donghyun to answer, during which Dongmin quietly loses his mind. “Mm… Mhmm,” Donghyun eventually replies, and Dongmin could almost cry with relief. 

He takes one more steadying breath and slowly pulls out, savoring the friction against his cock. Then he thrusts back in with a snap of his hips that has Donghyun jolting beneath him, arching up with a cry of, “Ah, hyung!” that goes straight to Dongmin’s head. 

That’s all it takes for Dongmin to start up a pace that’s definitely a little inconsiderate. Donghyun doesn’t seem to have any qualms—he’s loud, his moans and whines echoing around the cabin on every thrust. In the small part of Dongmin’s mind not completely consumed by arousal, he’s grateful for the late hour. If there were anyone out on the beach right now, they’d know exactly what’s going on in the backseat of this truck. 

Not the least because Donghyun is still perfectly capable of forming words. “Hyung, Dongmin-hyung,” he moans right into Dongmin’s ear, hooking one leg around his hip as if to draw him in even deeper. “So—so big, you feel so good…” He carries on like that, his praise and pleasure made clearly known, but it doesn’t seem like he’s babbling. Even with the words broken up by gasps and groans, it’s clear that he’s choosing to speak, that he wants Dongmin to hear how good he’s making him feel. 

And for Dongmin, between the praise and the tight heat of Donghyun around him (and Donghyun calling him hyung, god—), it’s only so long before he has to slow his pace to a steady grind, overwhelmed but determined not to finish too soon. Even that’s almost too much, though, and he mouths at Donghyun’s neck in an attempt to ground himself, forcing himself to focus on the softness of his skin, the taste of his sweat. 

Donghyun’s praise seems to slow down with the pace, but he still spares a hand to pet Dongmin’s hair, soothing. His breath comes in soft pants, hitching occasionally when the slow roll of Dongmin’s hips comes at the perfect angle. After a few seconds, he huffs out a laugh that sounds slightly watery and tilts his head to smear a kiss against Dongmin’s temple. “You okay, Dongminnie?” he murmurs. 

Dongmin finds himself letting out a little laugh of his own. He nuzzles into Donghyun’s neck a little too fondly before he replies, “Yeah, it’s just—a lot.” When Donghyun gives a soft hum in reply, Dongmin lifts his head off his shoulder to see his face, and his breath catches at the absolute vision below him. 

Donghyun’s eyes are glassy with unshed tears, his full lips bitten red. A few wayward strands of hair cling to his forehead, damp with sweat, and even in the darkness Dongmin can tell he’s flushed all the way down to his neck. He’s always been handsome, beautiful even, but Dongmin still counts himself lucky to see him like this. Donghyun seems content enough to let him admire for a while, still grinding back on every minute movement of Dongmin’s hips. 

They lean back in at the exact same time though, meeting in a kiss that starts soft and chaste, but quickly grows messy. Spit smears between their lips, and then one of them brings out their teeth, and then they’re moaning into each other’s mouths as Dongmin begins to thrust in earnest again, slower than before but just as deep. Donghyun’s hand stays tangled in his hair, pulling in much the same way that his legs tighten around Dongmin’s waist—like he can’t help it, like he wants to pull Dongmin in so close that they become one. 

“Hyung,” Donghyun gasps against his lips at one particularly well-angled thrust, and Dongmin suddenly becomes starkly aware of the heat coiling in his gut. 

“Fuck, I’m—I’m close,” he confesses, only barely managing to get the words out because Donghyun chooses that moment to tighten around him so hard he struggles to pull back for his next thrust. 

He almost thinks Donghyun doesn’t hear him when he doesn’t reply for a long few seconds, instead reclaiming Dongmin’s lips for another dirty kiss. But when he pulls away, Dongmin can hear the smugness in Donghyun’s voice even though he stutters when he says, “Come inside me, hyung.”

And Dongmin does so embarrassingly quickly. It only takes a few more thrusts, each rougher and more uncoordinated than the last, before he spills his load, moaning mortifyingly loud and high into Donghyun’s jaw. Even with the condom separating them, the knowledge that he did, in fact, come inside Donghyun is almost enough to get him going all over again. 

He rides out his orgasm with a few more shallow thrusts, then carefully pulls out. Donghyun whines at the loss. Dongmin feels a little guilty for it, but he ignores Donghyun for a few seconds just to catch his breath. 

His body is still thrumming by the time he’s capable of coherent thought again, but that doesn’t stop him from shifting downward to take care of Donghyun. His cock is hard and leaking against his stomach, and he shivers and groans softly when Dongmin curls a hand around it. The groan turns into a proper moan when Dongmin strokes him—then it turns into a whimper when, on a whim, Dongmin takes him into his mouth. 

It’s been ages since Dongmin last did this for anyone and he gags when he overestimates himself and takes Donghyun too deep too quickly. Donghyun doesn’t seem to notice. He just tangles his fingers into Dongmin’s hair, squirming until his legs are thrown over his shoulders, his thighs practically clamped around Dongmin’s head. It makes it difficult to properly suck him off, so instead Dongmin indulges another whim. He strokes his hands along Donghyun’s thighs, palms the soft flesh of his ass, then slips two fingers inside of him. 

They go in easily, with no resistance at all, but Donghyun reacts—his back arches off the seat again with another of his loud, echoing moans, and his thighs squeeze even tighter around him. Dongmin thinks deliriously that he’d happily die like this: Donghyun’s cock down his throat, being smothered between his legs. 

Given their position, Dongmin still doesn’t have much room to move. But he makes do, laving his tongue against Donghyun’s shaft and curling his fingers inside him. Donghyun squirms between the two sensations, still tugging at his hair, moaning, “Fuck, your… your mouth, hyung, your… Good, it feels good, perfect, hyung, hyung, hyung—” Compared to before, he is just babbling now. Pride swells in Dongmin’s chest knowing that he’s the one who reduced Donghyun to this state. It’s an odd mixture with the shameful arousal that burns through his veins from the praise and that stupid little honorific, and Dongmin half wishes he would suffocate right here between Donghyun’s thighs. 

But that’s not his fate, at least not tonight. Tonight, Dongmin slips a third finger into Donghyun and unintentionally crooks them just right, and his whole body jerks like he’s been electrocuted. “Dongmin-ah,” he moans, yanking sharply at his hair just as he comes hard into Dongmin’s mouth. 

Dongmin chokes a little at first, eyes watering, but he swallows determinedly—then again, and a third time. He keeps thrusting his fingers inside him too, working him through the aftershocks with steady strokes. He doesn’t stop until Donghyun, twitching with oversensitivity, lets his legs slip off Dongmin’s shoulders and weakly shoves his head away. 

He lets Donghyun’s cock slip from his mouth and withdraws his fingers, then lays his head on Donghyun’s stomach while they both catch their breath this time. 

After a minute, he hears Donghyun laugh. The sound is breathless and delighted—and contagious. Dongmin finds himself helplessly laughing too, soft and a little raspy, but undeniably happy. When their shared laughter dies down, Dongmin shifts back up to hover above Donghyun and finds him smiling warmly. He cups Dongmin’s cheek with one hand, and Dongmin lets himself be drawn into a long, lazy, indulgent kiss. Donghyun is still smiling when they break apart again. 

“I’m gonna miss you, Dongmin-ah,” Donghyun murmurs, soft and intimate, like he’s telling a secret. “Don’t forget about me, okay?”

The blunt admission makes Dongmin feel suddenly shy. “I’m coming back,” he protests weakly. With any luck, it’ll be a few short months, maybe even weeks and then they’ll see each other again. 

But Donghyun cups his cheeks with both hands this time, his lips forming a perfect pout. “You have to promise,” he insists. 

It’s not just indulgence when Dongmin gives in. He means it when he says, “I promise I won’t forget about you, Donghyun-ah.” He knows he never could, not even if he tried. 

The smile Donghyun gives him then is radiant. “Good,” he says, guiding Dongmin back down for a kiss that’s quick and chaste this time. 

Afterwards, he wraps his arms around Dongmin, and Dongmin lets himself be coaxed into laying there with him in the backseat, their limbs tangled up because it’s the only way they’ll both fit. The cuddling lasts until they both can’t bear the post-sex stickiness—luckily, Donghyun remembered to account for cleanup, too.

They cuddle up again in the back when they’re done, until the CD loops back around to the beginning and they realize how late it’s gotten. Then Donghyun drives them back to the inn at a whopping thirty kilometers an hour, clearly trying to prolong their time together as much as he can. 

But it’s Dongmin that leans over the console first when they arrive, pulling Donghyun into a tight hug. Donghyun fumbles around for his seatbelt and then hugs back with twice the strength.  

“Thank you,” Donghyun murmurs into his neck. Dongmin knows what he means—it’s not so much for the sex, but for coming with him tonight, for showing him that whatever this is that they’re doing, they’re on the same page. “Goodnight, Dongmin-ah.”

Dongmin lets himself nuzzle into Donghyun’s hair, memorizing the scent of sea salt and shampoo. “Goodnight, Donghyun-ah,” he replies, albeit reluctantly. Donghyun squeezes him that much tighter, then releases him, and it’s just as reluctantly that Dongmin slips out of the truck to return to the inn. 

It’s only once he’s laying on his futon again that he remembers Donghyun still has his hoodie. He decides right then and there that he’s not going to ask for it back. 

 

*

 

Dongmin is half asleep at breakfast, but he keeps himself awake—if only to make the most of his last hour to drink in as much of Donghyun as he can. 

He’s tending to the other guests for the most part, drifting from table to table with plates of side dishes, or helping his parents in the kitchen. But he steals glances over at Dongmin every now and then (which Dongmin sees because he hasn’t looked away from Donghyun, not once). Every time they lock eyes, Donghyun offers him a bright smile. Dongmin keeps thinking about how he seemed to glow under the moonlight last night. 

“Dongmin-ah,” his mother says, then repeats it when he doesn’t acknowledge her right away. “Eat. We have a long drive home.” When Dongmin mechanically sips at his soup, she continues, “Did you exchange contacts with Donghyun?”

He reaches for more kimchi, only now realizing that he is quite hungry. “Yeah, a few days ago.”

She nods in approval. “Good. You should keep in touch with him, especially if you’re going to be coming back here.” Dongmin can almost sense that she’s about to start singing Donghyun’s praises, and she does: “He’s such a nice boy, Dongmin-ah. It’s good for you to be around someone like that. Make sure you stay friends with him, okay?” 

Normally he’d feel patronized, and irritated that his mom is still trying to vet his friendships even though he’s an adult. But in this case, he just nods a bit and sips his soup so he won’t have to reply. He agrees with her, after all. Even if he wasn’t falling helplessly for Donghyun, he’d still want to stay his friend. 

After breakfast, they return to the room to pack up their things. Dongmin goes through the motions until reality sets in as he’s in the middle of winding up his phone charger. 

They’re leaving. 

It startles him when he feels tears pricking at his eyes. He blinks them back forcibly. It’s so unlike him to get emotional over a goodbye, especially one that’s only going to be temporary. “Fuck,” he mutters under his breath, and stuffs the charger into his bag. 

Still, even though he’s determined not to get tearful, that doesn’t mean he’s not going to say goodbye. (Besides, Donghyun would kill him if he left without a word; he’s sure of it.) He’s just helping his parents load their bags into the car when he hears footsteps coming from the inn. 

Donghyun himself is standing there by the wall, a plastic grocery bag clutched in both hands. He looks a bit lost at first, like a deer in headlights, until he meets Dongmin’s eyes and seems to remember himself. 

He smiles and steps closer. “My parents and Jieun-noona are busy with the other guests, but we wanted to thank you for being so kind to us. We’re really glad to have met you all.” He bows low, his fluffy curls falling into his face. When he straightens back up, his smile has taken on a playful edge. “And thank you for letting me steal Dongmin away so much. We had a lot of fun together.”

It’s then that Dongmin notices that the collar of Donghyun’s shirt has slipped to the side, just barely exposing the hickey Dongmin left last night. Dongmin feels his cheeks go warm. 

“I hope you’ll come and visit again. Have a safe trip home,” Donghyun finishes. He bows again, shallower this time, and holds out the bag he’s carrying. 

“Thank you, Donghyun-ah; you’re a good kid,” Dongmin’s dad says, echoing his mom’s sentiment from breakfast. “You take care, okay?”

“And tell your family thank you as well,” Dongmin’s mom chimes in, “and stay healthy. Especially Jieun; don’t let her work too hard.”

Donghyun nods obediently. “I’ll tell them you said so,” he promises, and smiles so brightly then that Dongmin feels his heart skip a beat. 

Fuck it, he thinks. He didn’t want to do this in front of his family; his brother especially will probably tease him to no end. But he doesn’t care anymore. He strides forward and envelops Donghyun in the tightest hug he can manage. 

Donghyun doesn’t hesitate for even a second before he reciprocates, throwing his arms around Dongmin’s middle and squeezing back so hard that, if their heights were reversed, he might have lifted Dongmin off his feet. Instead, Donghyun just buries his face in Dongmin’s shoulder. If Dongmin isn’t mistaken, he feels Donghyun press a kiss there, his lips warm even through the fabric of his t-shirt. 

It’s a long minute before they let each other go. When they do, Donghyun presses the plastic bag he’s been carrying into Dongmin’s hand. His smile is smaller now, but still very much intact. “Goodbye, Dongmin-ah,” he whispers. 

Dongmin puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes, as if he can press all the feelings he wants to convey straight into Donghyun’s skin. “See you soon,” is all he can manage aloud. 

Donghyun doesn’t stop him when he steps back to rejoin his family by the car. He stands there as they get in, and waves brightly as they start to pull out of the lot. They all wave back. But Dongmin keeps watching him as they drive away, and as they turn the corner, he thinks he sees Donghyun wiping away tears. 

The whole drive home, Dongmin swears he can still feel the weight of Donghyun in his arms. 

 

*

 

Inside the bag, there are a few tupperwares of food and side dishes, along with a short handwritten note in blue pen:

You promised not to forget me, and I’m going to hold you to that! Hurry and get that job so you can see me again (*´▽`*)

Dongmin-ah fighting~~~!

Along the bottom are doodles of fish and music notes and a poorly-drawn surfer. It isn’t signed, but there’s only one person who could have written it. Dongmin tucks it into his wallet for safekeeping. 

 

*

 

It’s still there when, four months later, Dongmin is on the train to Busan to finally move into his new apartment. 

Finding a half decent place to live was somehow infinitely more of a struggle than convincing the record shop owner’s brother, Jiho, to hire him. Luckily, his soon-to-be boss has been patient with him. Apparently he’s even had a few plants delivered to the apartment today as a housewarming gift for when Dongmin arrives. 

Even apart from the new job and the apartment hunting escapades, it’s been an eventful few months. Jaehyun went through every stage of grief in the span of an hour when Dongmin told him about his plans to move, then forced him to sleep over at his place for a week straight to ‘maximize the time they have left together.’ Jaehyun’s words, not Dongmin’s. 

Not long after that, Dongmin took up a job at a convenience store to save up for the move, as well as for the multiple trips back to Busan to look at a frankly ridiculous number of leaking and dubiously haunted studio apartments. All of those trips were somehow timed so inconveniently that he and Donghyun couldn’t even meet up on any of them. 

Dongmin misses him. It’s not like they don’t talk—Dongmin has kept his promise; Donghyun has heard all his complaints throughout the apartment hunting process. They talk about other things, too, of course. Everything, in fact. And somehow, every new thing Dongmin learns about him makes him like Donghyun even more. It’s mortifyingly cheesy, but Donghyun seems to feel the same way about him, so he can’t be too ashamed. 

(Funnily enough, their dads apparently exchanged numbers as well. They talk almost as much as Dongmin and Donghyun do, always on the phone laughing about one thing or another and making far-fetched plans about fishing together in Bali.)

Still, it’s just not the same as seeing him in person. Half of Dongmin’s dreams lately have consisted of the memory of Donghyun’s arms around him and the unshakeable feeling of longing. 

His consolation now is that he’ll see Donghyun in a few short hours—they’re meeting up for dinner once Dongmin has gotten a head start on unpacking—and then, theoretically, they can see each other again whenever they want. Dongmin’s apartment is closer to the city proper, which means it’s further from the inn than he would have liked, but twenty minutes on a bus is nothing after the hundreds of kilometers that have separated them since June. 

He checks his phone for the time, then habitually opens it to his texts with Donghyun. His last message is from a few hours ago; a selfie with his two-week-old niece, captioned, ‘seoyoonnie says have a safe trip~~!’ Dongmin’s seen it already, but he still feels a smile come to his lips. 

‘almost to busan,’ he texts back. Knowing Donghyun, he probably won’t even see the message until Dongmin is already an hour into unpacking, but Dongmin doesn’t particularly mind. There’s just something inexplicably domestic about updating Donghyun on where he is, and it pleases the secret romantic in him. 

After the train comes a bus, which is a pain when he has two heavy suitcases to lug around. It’s practically a relief when he gets off at his stop to walk the rest of the way to the apartment. 

The autumn air is a relief, too. It makes him almost grateful that finding a place took so long—if he’d moved any earlier, he would have had to make this trek in pouring rain or oppressive humidity. As it is, there’s only a gentle breeze that keeps him nice and cool as he drags his suitcases down the sidewalk. 

He’s thinking vaguely about ordering takeout to motivate himself when he reaches the door to his building. Then he’s not thinking about anything at all, because standing there is none other than Donghyun. 

He’s leaning casually against the wall, phone in one hand and a plastic grocery bag in the other, just like the last time Dongmin saw him in person. He glances up when Dongmin’s footsteps come closer, then does a double-take and shoves his phone into the pocket of his hoodie. 

“What are you doing here?” Dongmin hears himself gasp, stunned even though he already told Donghyun his new address. He wasn’t expecting to see him so soon—and wearing his clothes, no less. The hoodie he’s wearing is the one he borrowed from Dongmin all those months ago. 

Donghyun looks at once flustered and pleased. “I thought—I thought you’d be hungry,” he says, indicating the bag he’s carrying. 

Dongmin laughs. It sounds slightly hysterical to his own ears, but Donghyun’s smile widens, so Dongmin leaves his suitcases in the middle of the sidewalk, walks right up to Donghyun, and kisses him. 

It’s just as electric as he remembers, better than any of his dreams and fantasies during their time apart. Donghyun kisses back with delighted eagerness. His free hand comes up to cradle Dongmin’s cheek, and Dongmin wraps both arms around him, holding him tight. He only pulls away when he remembers they’re out in public where literally anyone can see them. Still, Donghyun doesn’t let him go far, setting the plastic bag on the ground so he can pull Dongmin back into a proper hug. 

“I missed you,” Donghyun murmurs, nuzzling affectionately into the side of Dongmin’s neck. 

Dongmin gives into the instinct to pet his hair. “I can tell,” he says. He gives into the instinct to tease, too. “You’re wearing my hoodie.”

Donghyun kisses his pulse point, then draws his arms back. “It doesn’t smell like you anymore,” he pouts. Then he picks the bag back up and moves past Dongmin so he can bring over one of his suitcases. 

The words fluster Dongmin for some reason, as does the simple act of Donghyun carrying his luggage for him. He grabs the other suitcase himself, then lets them both into the building. 

“There’s jokbal, and doenjang jjigae, and I think soondubu jjigae? My dad makes it pretty mild,” Donghyun is saying. They’re in the elevator, and he’s listing off the excessive amount of food his parents sent him over with. “Oh, and there’s japchae. And cucumber salad. And our homemade kimchi—”

“They know I live alone, right?” Dongmin interrupts. Not that he isn’t grateful. At least now he won’t have to go grocery shopping until he’s fully settled in. 

Donghyun laughs brightly. God, Dongmin didn’t realize how much he missed his laugh. It just isn’t the same over the phone. “Well, they missed you,” he reasons. “We all did.” He casts Dongmin a meaningful look, and Dongmin can tell what he wants him to say. 

He’s tempted to tease again, but the joy of being in Donghyun’s radiant presence again wins out. He leans in as if pulled by a magnet, and presses his lips to Donghyun’s temple. “I missed you, too.” The embarrassing flustered feeling crawling over his skin is a small price to pay for Donghyun beaming up at him. 

It’s only once they’re out of the elevator that Dongmin realizes with a groan, “Fuck, I still have to build my table. I don’t even think my bed is here yet.”

Donghyun leans into him as they walk, and when Dongmin looks over, Donghyun’s expression has gone sultry and smug. “Have we ever needed one?” he croons. 

The words send an involuntary rush of heat through him, but Dongmin is just so delighted that he has to laugh. “No, I guess not.”

Donghyun joins him in giggling then, his smirk returning to a proper smile. They’re standing out in the hallway in front of Dongmin’s door now, but Dongmin just lets himself look. He lets his gaze trace over Donghyun’s face, relearning the curve of his lips and the sweep of his lashes, the way his eyes sparkle even under the shitty overhead LEDs. 

It settles in then that he’ll be seeing a lot more of this smile. Not just for a fleeting week, but for the rest of his life, if he so chooses. 

Donghyun darts up to steal a quick kiss, apparently tiring of Dongmin’s staring. “I’ll help you build your table,” he says, mischievous, “and then we can fuck in the shower.”

Dongmin laughs again, helpless and yet exactly where he wants to be. “Sure,” he agrees. 

Who is he kidding? He’s already made his choice.

 

Notes:

not to be sappy on my kpop rpf but i started writing this when i was in the midst of my own post-grad unemployment hell (tbh i’m still kind of in it) and this fic has become incredibly dear to me <3 to anyone who needs to hear it, everything will be okay!! i truly truly hope you enjoyed, and as always i'd be delighted to hear your thoughts ^^

come yell about bonedo with me on twt or revospring !