Chapter Text
Taehyun
Taehyun was a sports guy.
Or, well, it was actually more suitable to say that Taehyun was an everything guy. Sure, he liked sports. He loved football. But he also loved racing, and dancing, and singing, and boxing, and magic, and cooking, and science.
In all of Taehyun’s 23, frankly bizarre years of living, he couldn’t recall a single point in time where the world hadn’t been his calling, pearl-filled oyster.
So it was safe to say that perhaps basketball might’ve fallen into that category.
It wasn’t like he was particularly good, nor had he ever tried to be. But there was one rule about Taehyun and his physical capabilities that he had, over the last 7-some years, deemed as solid as gold.
If he thought he was bad, there were four ditzy young men he could name that would somehow be undoubtedly worse.
Which is why it doesn’t at all surprise him when one of these men–who he can name, and is named Choi Soobin–is in front of him now, saying a silly thing like “Taehyun-ah, you need to teach me how to get good at basketball”.
He nudges his left headphone fully off, having barely heard Soobin the first time. He pauses the hi-hat sample he’d been relentlessly testing, staring up at his hyung. “Hm?”
“I said, I mean, can you teach me how to get good at basketball?”
“Why do you need to be good at basketball?” He feels like they should establish that first.
Soobin, apparently, takes that as his cue to fully enter Taehyun’s space, plopping his big self down on the small couch to the side of the mixing desk, fingers tangled between his jittery legs. “Wooyoung-hyung, Yeosang-hyung, Beomgyu and I are going to have a basketball match.”
Taehyun properly sets his headphones onto the desk, waiting for Soobin to elaborate, which he only does after staring at Taehyun with round, dog-like eyes. “Remember that LOL match we did a few months ago? The one where we absolutely crushed them in a 3 for 0?”
Does Taehyun remember?
He remembers a few things.
He remembers their screams and howls for hours, loud enough to pierce the walls and give the other three a live commentary on the whole match.
He remembers their eventual cheers of victory, then them knocking at their peaceful door, rich with cans of beer in a mandatory celebration after he, Yeonjun and Kai had collectively ignored the group chat.
Of course, he remembers letting them in because no way in hell would Taehyun ever turn down an excuse to drink beer, League or not.
He remembers drinking a…decent amount that night. But only because at some point, all the others had bailed out of sleepiness or boredom, and Soobin had latched onto him to stay and listen as he rambled at ungodly speeds.
In his excitement, Soobin had held so tight to Taehyun’s hands he was half worried he’d lose circulation. Between the two of them, Soobin was rarely the conversation keeper, so hearing his voice so much at once was a little new, but it was about his game, so, it made sense.
Taehyun remembers making a joke–it was some sort of genuine question about Wooyoung’s main, and it had Soobin falling into his lap in one of his stupidly affectionate cackles before he had just decided to stay there, grinning up at Taehyun from below as he chattered away.
When Taehyun had reached to poke Soobin’s dimple, Soobin latched on and held their hands to his clavicle, smiling with droopy eyelids before laying a kiss on his joints. Taehyun thinks he remembers Soobin biting his this knuckles, but he’s not so sure on that one.
He had then begun to run his hands up and down Taehyun’s arms, dipping his fingertips into the bends of his biceps, which wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for maybe Yeonjun or Beomgyu, but a little for the leader.
When Soobin had finished feeling up his arms, he had started a low, “Taehyun-ah…do you think…do you think I can…” But he had trailed off and shook his head, and Taehyun had been too drunk to chase after the train of thought.
In the end, Soobin had mumbled some noncommittal end to his story, something like “So yeah, Wooyoung-hyung’s totally not speaking to me for a while…” Huffing, then going, “Anyway, how was your day?”
At 3AM.
But point aside–“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, we were calling and I was teasing him again–”
“He said he could beat you in, like, anything else, you objected, and now you agreed to play…basketball?”
Taehyun prides himself in being a good listener, but he also prides himself in efficiency of conversation. (AKA not wasting his time.)
Soobin nods with a lofty smile, leaning back with his hands on his nape. He’s manspreading in a way that would probably drive his other hyungs and MOA insane for entirely different reasons.
“But if you both know there’s no universe where you’d win, why are you even doing it?”
“Yah, why do you think I’m here? I know, but I feel like it could happen if you teach me.” He’s kind of whining now. “I figured, you’re always helping me work out even though I have the will of a caterpillar, and that got me pretty far, so.”
“Caterpillars have surprisingly strong wills. It’s rude to caterpillars to compare them to you.” Taehyun leans back in his own chair, the hard plastic groaning under the weight. He shrugs. “I guess I can help, but I’ve watched a lot more basketball than I’ve played. Why don’t you ask Kai? Didn’t he play for like four years?”
The two of them stare at each other blankly before simultaneously doubling over in laughter at the mere thought. Somewhere in his bed at the dorms, tapping away at TFT, Kai feels an unwelcome shiver down his spine. Taehyun continues, “So when is the match?”
“...The week after the week after…like, middle of next month? The 14th? Sunday? It’s the next time we all have a free evening.”
“Ah.”
They, eventually, work out times to meet, which mostly end up encroaching their regular workout schedules. Taehyun wonders when it started that he had to make plans to hang out with his own members.
“Anyway, what were you working on? I’d thought you already went home but Yeonjun-hyung caught me at the door.” Soobin stands up to hover near his chair, leaning forward against the back with his hands draped on Taehyun’s shoulders.
“I’ve been trying to compose a melody for an instrumental Beomgyu-hyung sent me, but I got distracted with the new drum catalogues they added.”
“I didn’t know that type of producing stuff interested you.”
Taehyun shrugs, again. “Beomgyu-hyung and Kai like it, so I thought it was something worth learning more about.”
“Aw, is that so?” And great, he’s activated Soobin’s baby voice. “Is that so?”
“It is so,” Taehyun huffs, and Soobin suddenly sandwiches his face between his two ginormous palms.
He kneads his cheeks pretty aggressively, saying, “Taehyunie loves his members so much, doesn’t he?” And Taehyun just goes with it. As much as he and Beomgyu have been insufferable about it, he finds it a lot more endearing than they’ll ever find out.
“I just like learning new things and it’s easier when people around you are already familiar with it.”
“Yeah, yeah, way to ruin the moment.”
“You weren’t even in the moment,” Taehyun scoffs with a disbelieving smile, staring at Soobin’s concentrated face while he continues to rub his hands on Taehyun’s cheeks, eventually taking to just squeezing and stretching the skin.
“Cu-ute,” Soobin singsongs, mimicking the way Kai always says it.
“I’m gonna have to do my skincare routine twice now.”
“Aww, you poor baby.”
It’s not uncommon for Soobin to have unprovoked cuteness aggression to…anything and everything, but it’s still a little funny when he does it to Taehyun. Sometimes, he really wonders what he looks like through Soobin’s eyes.
He feels like a maknae in their trainee days all over again.
Then he vaguely sees Soobin’s upside down face scrunch in upside down concern. His vision is consumed in darkness. “Geez, Taehyun-ah, sometimes I seriously worry your eyes are going to dry out if you keep them open too long.”
He rubs his fingers on Taehyun’s closed eyelids, like the weirdo he is.
“I can blink, Hyung.”
“Do they ever close all the way, though?”
Taehyun can’t even think of a witty reply to that. He just waits for Soobin to let go before reopening them the widest they can possibly go.
“Yah! That’s creepy!” Soobin says immediately, covering them back up as breathy laughs float out from Taehyun’s chest. “Seriously…” He angles Taehyun’s head back down, ruffles his hair and reaches across Taehyun’s shoulders to place the headphones back on his head.
“Anyway, sorry I took up so much of your time. Go home soon, okay? Yeonjun-hyung ordered some malatang and I’m gonna eat it if you don’t by midnight.”
He glances down at the computer time. 23:01. “I thought you guys were trying to cut down on late night eating.”
“...Bye,” Soobin says with fake gruffness, and Taehyun laughs as he follows Soobin’s figure retreat out the studio door. He rubs the remnants of touch away from his cheeks, then clears his throat before sliding to the keyboard.
✩✩
Soobin is cute right now, Taehyun admits. After being held up by an extra recording, Soobin had greeted him from the company sports gym bleachers wearing his “workout clothes”--AKA, his black Otaku shirt, a white headband, and shorts Taehyun always thought were just a little too short for Soobin’s legs, riding up the upper half of his thighs.
He can’t blame him much for that, though. Korea’s casual clothing industry hardly supports men built like Soobin, in height and in….
He looks excited to see him. Kind of determined. There’s literally no reason he should be taking this basketball thing this seriously, but he does. It’s cute. Taehyun has eyes.
“Okay, well let’s just do some basic dribbling. Try to just…keep the ball in the same spot. Like, don’t let it lead you anywhere.”
“Eyy, I can do that at least.” His leader takes the ball from his underarm and begins dribbling. With incredibly reserved expectations, the ball does continue hitting the same spot on the floor for a few bounces. Then, it hits Soobin’s toe, and shoots itself somewhere far, far away.
Taehyun watches as Soobin runs off to retrieve it. When he bends down, the point of his shoe kicks the ball even further, and the chase continues until eventually Soobin’s jogging back.
“Amazing. You’re worse than I remember. Aren’t you ashamed that Tomorrow by Together has our reputation of being bad at ball games because of you?”
Soobin scrunches his face with a resound look that says, ‘I know I’m to blame and you have a point but I still have something mean that I’m saying only in my mind.’
Instead all he hears is a “Hueka is at least of equal blame.”
“Gumz stick together, they say.”
As they keep practicing, Taehyun gathers a few things about his hyung.
One, that he’s actually just okay at basketball. Like, he’s so okay that it’s even salvageable. He can actually shoot pretty well, if anything.
Two, that he should stay far, far away from the floor. He can’t dribble. He can’t run. When he found out that he actually needed to run and dribble at the same time, he looked at Taehyun like he’d told him to perform No Rules five times in a row.
“You don’t have to extend your whole arm out when you hit the ball. It’s in the wrist, the wrist, Hyung. Not your elbow.” It’s like Soobin doesn’t know his own strength. Or size. It’s a little fascinating.
Taehyun can imagine that Beomgyu would actually be a pretty decent point guard, annoying and slippery as he is, so they probably wouldn’t have to worry about it.
Three, Soobin is tall. Soobin is tall, and the sky is blue, and grass is green, apples grow on trees, Taehyun is handsome, yadda yadda yadda.
Taehyun’s been reminded that Soobin is tall possibly every waking moment since their debut, but seeing it in action is always a little…mezmerizing.
“Since we know you can shoot, try doing some layups. If you have a clear path, just approach the hoop, take two steps, use the momentum, and,” Taehyun jumps and lets the ball glide easily through the net.
Once he catches it, he runs his fingers through his bangs and shakes his hair out. “Since I’m left-handed I’m not really the ideal but just mirror it like when you learn a choreo.”
Soobin nods, quietly pumping himself up. Then, he copy and pastes Taehyun’s example’s almost exactly. Except when he jumps, his body and arms stretch to the rim, and the ball barely has to travel before it’s landing clean through.
“Woah, that was good!” He claps, and Soobin beams back at him with a Really?, offering both his palms for Taehyun to high-five.
Then, he lifts the hem of his shirt up to wipe some sweat from his forehead, and Taehyun doesn’t have enough time to pay attention to anything else but Soobin’s delicate abs and obscene waist.
They make eye contact, and a shit-eating grin dances its way onto Soobin’s face.
“Oh? Oh? What’re you looking at?” And then he suddenly does a bad rendition of Taemin’s “Guilty” choreo, and Taehyun shoves him.
Taehyun feels a little…warm.
It’s weird.
They spend the rest of the hour largely playing shooting games between the two of them.
Honestly, at this rate, Taehyun doesn’t see a big reason to continue teaching Soobin. It’s not like the match is that serious (probably?), and he really isn’t the right guy for this job, when he actually thinks about it.
But why doesn’t he want to tell him that?
They leave when a small group of Hybe staff they don’t recognize enter to play some tennis. After refreshing in the locker room in the corner of the gym, Soobin perks up as he ruffles his hair with a towel.
“Taehyun-ah, wanna get some ice cream?”
His eyes are sparking half moons. Soobin will find any excuse to eat ice cream. That’s cute, too. “Sure.”
The next thing he knows, he’s at a convenience store, face tucked into his mask and arms crossed as he watches Soobin dither over the ice cream freezer. Eventually, as he always does and will probably forever do, he settles on a Chaloksusu sweet corn bar.
Soobin’s hums a Day 6 song contentedly as he sorts which wrapper he thinks contains the best ice cream, even though Taehyun’s sure they’re all identical.
“Here, Taehyun-ah,” he says, passing Taehyun a Samanco. “These are your favorite, right?”
Taehyun takes the bungeo-ppang ice cream from his hand. It’s strawberry flavored. “Thanks, Hyung.”
“Mm, I’m the best, I know, I know.”
Taehyun wants to argue, but he’s actually pretty touched.
“Let’s sit here.” Soobin pulls out some metal chairs outside the store, already settling down and ripping his ice cream open.
“Why?”
“It’s still early. I want to hang out before we have to call the driver.”
“Oh.” Taehyun tears his own wrapper open and takes his first bite. It’s cold and soft and tangy from the strawberry syrup.
He tries to remember the last time he and Soobin had spent time like this together. Now that they lived in separate dorms, they’d fallen out of any accidental living room hangouts, and their hobbies didn’t tend to overlap either.
He’s missed it.
He feels Soobin’s legs underneath the thin metal table, where they eventually wrap around and rest on Taehyun’s own. Mouth still stuffed with ice cream, Soobin asks, “Do you think we have a chance of beating them?”
Taehyun snorts. “Honestly, not really, but I don’t believe anything’s impossible if you work hard enough for it. You’re already doing better than I thought.”
Soobin hums. “Kind of like the dance break from the other day.”
“Yeonjun really chewed you out for that. Not with his words, but you could see it in his eyes.”
“Seriously, I feel like I haven’t struggled so much since, like, Blue Orangeade.”
Taehyun laughs. “It turned out great, though. They're gonna lose it when the comeback happens.”
“I still don’t know if anything could top Love Language though.”
Taehyun ‘mmm’s in agreement, Soobin’s latest ab shot from the performance in Japan flashing in his mind. He was basically grinding against the camera. Guess he had to make up for Yeonjun’s absence somehow.
He shakes his head at the memory, like that would help ever.
He takes another bite of his ice cream, and it’s frigid against his teeth.
“Let’s talk about something other than work,” he says. He’s surprised he says it himself, because he usually loves talking about the team.
Soobin sniffles as he swallows down another huge bite. “I’d love to. But it feels like since we got back from break, it’s been nothing but work.”
Taehyun shrugs. “Isn’t that just Tubatu’s life story?”
“Haaah. You don’t say.”
Soobin pauses mid-chew, eyes squinted away as he thinks. He says suddenly, “You know, I was actually really surprised when you kept in touch so much with us during break.”
Taehyun’s heard this before. “Was it really that shocking?”
“Well, you were going to so many places and doing fun things we never get to do. I’m projecting, but I thought contacting us would remind you of work, or something. But you kept chatting like we were just normal friends.” Soobin nudges his ankle. “It was cute.”
Taehyun shrugs. “I think you all really underestimate how much I like you guys.”
Soobin giggles, then suddenly stretches across the table to squeeze his hand tight. He tries not to notice how Soobin’s fingers swallow his whole. “We’re all just dumb F’s, you know that. And Hueningie…is just…dumb in general.” They both snort. “But we know, probably. We’ve all talked about it with each other before.”
“Hah. Are you having secret meetings about me?”
“No, seriously, like, you’re always helping us. Like, I knew I could ask you for help with basketball. And you don’t even play it.”
Soobin’s looking at him with his leader eyes–serious, soft, caring. A weird mix of emotions rolls through Taehyun at the recognition. He doesn’t know if he wants leader Soobin right now. Maybe he just wants Soobin.
…What?
“Well, you didn’t have many other options.” He puts some cynicism back into his tone, retreating his hand from Soobin’s grip. “Actually, I’ve been thinking that I’ve been more of an F lately.”
Soobin’s eyebrows jump. “Oh? How so?”
“Kai showed me this video the other day…I think it was some sort of mako shark? That washed up on the shore. Mako sharks are an endangered species, you know? They’re really smart, and fast, so they beach themselves kinda often. And it was found by this group of teenagers that didn’t know what they were doing, but they all worked together to move it back in the water.”
Soobin’s smiling now, lips pursed waiting for Taehyun to continue.
“I don’t know, I thought that was really touching,” Taehyun finishes.
Soobin bursts into a laugh, forehead to the table, ice cream still in hand. He grins back up at him. “Did the video say it was a…a mako shark?”
Taehyun shakes his head. “It was obviously one, ‘cus of its teeth.”
“Right.” Soobin giggles. “No but, that’s such a T way of looking at it, too.”
“Deadass?”
Soobin snorts. “A normal person probably wouldn’t have noticed its species, but that made it even better for you. I’m starting to understand you more, I think.” Soobin jumbles and rocks their legs together under the table, a stupidly fond expression on his face. “I like understanding you, Taehyun-ah.”
A shiver courses through him, raising hairs along his body. This ice cream was…really cold. He takes another bite.
“Why?”
Soobin's legs are squeezing Taehyun's harder now, pulling them both closer into the table. “I don't know. Sometimes it feels like you’re all mysterious because you’re waiting for someone to come solve you.”
…This guy definitely watches too much anime. “I’m not a puzzle, Hyung.”
“You’re not, but you’d think after a decade together, I wouldn’t be learning new things about you.”
“I’ve learned a new thing or two about you myself, tonight.”
“Only good things, right~?” He reaches his hand out again to chase after Taehyun’s, tangling them again, and this time, he circles his thumb along Taehyun’s skin like they’re spouses on a dinner date.
Is…Is Soobin good? Did he take some of Beomgyu’s gummies again?
“...It’s not like I put on an act or anything. There’s really nothing else to me.”
As if he possibly couldn’t intrude Taehyun’s personal space any more, Soobin leans his chest on the table until he’s all up in Taehyun’s face. “Are you sure?” He sing-songs.
Taehyun makes the mistake of glancing at Soobin’s lips. There’s just a little bit of white residue from the ice cream. Before he knows what to do with himself, Soobin’s tongue flicks out to swipe it away.
Taehyun swallows. Again. “Who do you think I am? Batman?”
“Hah.” Soobin leans back, his chair clattering behind him. “Maybe we’re just shit at reading you after all. I wish they just gave me a Taehyun manual when they made me leader.”
“...How do you want me to answer that? And for the record, I’m probably the least confusing out of all your friends.”
“Ohh. I mean, if that’s what you think, sure, sure,” Soobin says annoyingly, now just holding onto Taehyun’s ring finger and rubbing his fingers along the knuckle before letting go.
“Well, we should call the driver now. It’s getting kind of late.”
“Mm.”
Despite what they said, they end up talking about useless things for another half hour or so.
Taehyun often forgets that all of his members are intelligent, educated people that he can have interesting conversations with. Most of their non-work conversations usually last around 30 seconds, and consist 90% of words that can be found on the print of takeout menus.
When they eventually make it back to their dorm hall, Soobin hesitates with his keys in front of his door. “Help me with arm day, tomorrow?”
“Sure, Hyung.”
“Okay. Goodnight, Taehyun.”
“Mhmm.”
His hand is on the doorknob when he hears an awkward, “Taehyun-ah?”
Soobin looks stiff.
“Hm?”
And then Soobin’s arms are around him in a hug, sudden and overwhelming. He pulls away just as quickly, with fingers hovering on Taehyun’s sides. “Sorry. Thanks. For agreeing to help me. With basketball.”
“Of course, Hyung. It’s just basketball.” A pause. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” He peels his hands off Taehyun’s waist, and you’d think he was staring at a stranger. Soobin’s hugs are never stiff.
“...Okay…?”
“Okay. Goodnight, Taehyun-ah.” He throws a thin-lipped smile his way, and then Taehyun’s alone in the hall.
✩✩
Taehyun can’t focus.
He can’t focus when they run through their schedules, through fittings, shoots, practice. A week passes. He helps Soobin with his arm day, helps the other members like he always does.
It’s uneventful, it really is. Since Taehyun is a completely agreeable guy, his interactions with others are rarely bothersome or complicated. That’s why he has no idea why he’s been so…affected by Soobin lately.
As in, conscious of where Soobin is in relation to his own body at all times, kind of affected. As in, whenever he looks at his own hands he pictures Soobin’s next to them, kind of affected.
Soobin had gone back to normal after that random hug that night, but he’s been…clingy. Like, clingier than usual.
Not to mention that he’s been tagging along with him everywhere. The worst part is that Taehyun’s convinced he actually thinks he’s being subtle about it.
He follows Taehyun to vending machines, to workouts, into his dorm (half to hang out with Kai), into cars–he even mindlessly shadowed him to bathroom breaks twice before he pointed out that Soobin could piss at quite literally any other time.
He just keeps…talking to him. Like he was dead serious on learning to “read” him better (except if that were really the case, maybe he’d do a little less ranting, not that Taehyun’s going to complain).
And there have just been…moments, between the two of them lately.
Like when they were at a fitting and they’d put Taehyun in a sweater with a triangle slit from the collarbone to half down his pec. Soobin had spent the better part of his conversations with him shamelessly staring at the patch of skin, eventually just skimming his fingers through it and hooking the fabric’s corner so it rode up his waist.
“Yah, Taehyun. You’re insane,” he’d breathed out.
Taehyun felt the same way.
Or when Taehyun had drawn a pretty bad cut down his palm cooking and frustratingly realized no one had restocked the dorm’s first aid kit. He’d run it through some water and wrapped a hand towel around it temporarily.
Their manager had put on his coat to accompany him to the convenience store, when Soobin had opened his door and insisted that he come instead.
Under the dank lighting of the convenience store bathroom, Taehyun on the lowered toilet seat with Soobin pressed against the sink, Soobin had unwrapped the towel, stared at the open wound, and, like the asshole he was, exhaled a hot breath of air onto it.
A bright sensation of discomfort had cut Taehyun’s body, and Soobin had laughed at his yelp before bandaging it properly, staring at the palm, and planting a long, chaste kiss against it.
His lips against the bandaged cut, raw and sensitive, had felt uncomfortably intimate.
Or,
when Taehyun had left work past midnight, half an hour after Soobin had been let off, and found Soobin passed out on a couch in the lobby, mouth hanging open and everything.
When he’d prodded Soobin (he kicked his ankle) and his leader jumped awake, he simply said, “Oh, Taehyun-ah, you’re done? Let’s go.” And clung to him on the way to the car, then snuggled into his shoulder the whole ride home. Taehyun’s neck had been moist and bothered from the heat of Soobin’s breath that night.
Or,
Like right now, while Taehyun was on his phone, tapping away during their self-allotted break at their third basketball session. He was replying to a MOA on Weverse, and, of all the places in this big ass gym to sit, Soobin had chosen right snug next to him. He was breathing down his neck as Taehyun typed.
“Wow, I really don’t get how you can talk so much in the group chat and still have this legendary typing speed.”
“It’s the only thing I’m not good at,” Taehyun admits.
Soobin chuckles. “That might be true. God had to nerf you somehow.” Whatever that means.
They go quiet as Taehyun continues scrolling. He’s trying to reply, a simple sentence like ‘It’s getting colder out’, but is clearly moving at a speed not palpable for Soobin’s tastes. When he makes a typo and has to backspace, Soobin sighs with a disapproving, “Wow.”
“Why are you here again? Didn’t you say you wanted to get a drink?”
“Yeah, but, I just wanted to see who you were texting.”
“Y’know, Weverse actually gives you a notification for that.”
Soobin smiles his ‘giving in’ smiles. “True. I’m just being annoying.”
“Mm.” Kudos for his honesty. He replies to one more post before turning his phone off, then flicking it briefly back on to check the time.
“Yah, open your phone again.” He does, and Soobin swipes through his various lockscreens. Some food, his favorite football players, scenery, Beomgyu and Kai. “Is that Beomgyu and Kai?”
“Your eyes have gotten better, Dad.”
“When was this?”
It’s a picture of the two members on the couch of their dorm, blue casting light with Beomgyu asleep against Kai’s arm while the maknae signs a blurry peace at the camera. “Maybe like…December? It was one of our movie nights during your hiatus. I haven’t changed it in a while.”
Soobin’s lower lip juts out. “Didn’t it used to be me and Kai?”
Taehyun squints before laughing. “Yeah, like, several years ago? I’ve probably changed my phone three times since then.”
“You didn’t put me in there when I went on break because you missed me so much that you couldn’t handle even looking at photos of me, huh?” Soobin says it so fast he barely hears him properly.
“What am I, Beomgyu-hyung?”
Soobin throws his head back in laughter. Beomgyu would probably hate him for that. “Hey, he’s my puppy, but you’re my cat!”
Taehyun stares at him. “Hyung…”
“Hm?”
“Don’t say that in front of others.”
“Why?” Soobin quirks his eyebrows, then he’s clicking his tongue. “Eyy, Taehyun-ah, do y-Wait, is that Yeonjun?” They both look down at his phone, which has once again flickered to a new screensaver. Yeonjun, in all his Ggum red glory, stares back.
“Oh. Whoops.” He really did just put whatever into his lock screens, huh.
“Wow. Wahh.” His bunny eyes and mouth are wide like he’s genuinely offended. “So you really hate me.”
“Oh my God, Hyung. I’ll take him out. I probably put him in there during his promotions.”
Soobin scoffs with a big smile. “Don’t take him out, put me in!”
“Okay, okay.” They’re both laughing now. Taehyun leans away from Soobin, considering they’re getting awfully closer than necessary on this floor.
He hops onto Google and types the words ‘Choi Soobin TXT’, scrolling through recent articles, when Soobin shoves him and grabs for his phone.
“Yah. Yah!”
Taehyun’s fully laughing now, scrolling through some photos and pretending to be interested in a particular one of Soobin at Inkigayo. He’s lifting his plain white tee up so high you can see the edge of his right nipple.
“Isn’t this one too explicit for Korean TV?” He says, shaking his head.
Soobin looks at it, half embarrassed and half proud. “Don’t you have any photos of me on your phone that you took?”
Oh, he did. But 90% of them were him napping in public places, and the other 10% weren’t even suitable for a personal wallpaper. “And didn’t you tell me the other day that your fansite photos have been great?”
Soobin’s lips pout as he looks up in thought. “...That’s true.”
“You’re amazing, Hyung,” Taehyun breathes out in disbelief.
“Okay, just stop.” Soobin gives up, crossing his arms while his leg jitters. “How about I take a photo just for you?”
“I was Beomgyu-hyung, and now I’m MOA.”
“Oh, Taehyunie will be so touched when he gets a special selfie from his one and only bestest leader Soobinie-hyung, isn’t that right? Right?” There goes his baby voice.
“Yeah, I will. Thank you, thank you,” he says. He’s learnt the easiest way for all of his members to stop talking is just to give in.
…Is Taehyun a doormat?
Soobin takes his phone out, his eyebrows fretting at the lighting as he fluffs his hair, legitimately like he’s about to send a selfie on DMs. “Wait, I’ll do it when I’m not all sweaty.”
“Right,” Taehyun says. Whatever makes him happy. “Wanna get back to it? I think you should try stealing this time.”
“Sure. Let me get a drink first though.”
Taehyun, kindly, holds back so many unkind words. “Okay.”
One Milkis can later, they’re back on the court. “I’m gonna try running from here to here, so just try to stop me and take the ball. Preferably after that you shoot and make a basket.”
Soobin looks even more distracted than he was before their break. “Mm.”
Teahyun quirks a brow. “I’m not gonna hold back.”
“Mm.”
So they go to their starting places, Taehyun with the ball, staring at Soobin before he starts without warning. He dribbles the ball past him, doing a few behind-the-backs when necessary (and also cus he thinks it’s cool).
Since he can dribble with both hands and Soobin only tries to steal with his right, it’s pretty easy. He breaks free from the center court and has the hoop within a clear shot’s distance, booking it, when he’s suddenly yanked backwards.
He feels a huge arm around his side and hand against his stomach before his feet get caught against Soobin’s.
“Hyu-” and suddenly, they’re both eating shit on the shining gym floor with matching yelps.
He can’t tell if Soobin’s arm twisting them to their sides helped, or if Soobin’s weight doubling against his makes it way, way worse.
Blurrily, he sees the ball rolling carelessly away from them.
“Ow, ow, Taehyun-ah, are you okay?” Soobin’s voice is higher and soft.
“Why would you do that?” He groans, coughing, half onto Soobin.
Soobin’s hand is still hooked around his waist, palm against his abdomen. “Sorry, you told me to stop you!” He sits both of them half up, and now his other hand’s hovering in the air, as he stares down at Taehyun.
Taehyun follows his gaze to where his shirt is lifted up to just above his belly button. “I-” He doesn’t know whether to be more baffled at Soobin’s ‘stopping’ technique, or his now shameless staring. They quite literally see each other naked, all of the time. “Do you even think, sometimes?”
He can see Soobin swallow. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
Okay, no, Taehyun hasn’t been crazy. Soobin has not been okay lately. Taehyun hasn’t been able to focus because Soobin sure as hell hasn’t been focusing, and it’s starting to cause genuine problems.
He’s about to move to get off this fucking gym floor, when Soobins left hand presses against his chest, keeping them both sprawled down like mermaids on a beach.
“Taehyun-ah, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Soobin says, awkwardly. The vibe is weirdly serious now. “Can I kiss your body?”
A pause.
“...What?” He can’t even try to hold back the way he knows his eyes are blown ridiculously wide. “What?” What?
“Wait, wait-”
“Pardon?” He asks again.
“I just-” Soobin clears his throat. “Anywhere. Like your abs, or your chest. Just this once.” His voice is scratchy, as if he'd just woken up.
“Like, right now?” Why did he ask that question? There are so many other questions to ask.
“I-yes?”
Dead silence.
…This is what’s been on Soobin’s mind? The entire time? Since…what is happening right now? What has been happening?
“Why?” He has to ask. No, please understand, he has to.
Soobin sucks in his lips, like he didn't actually think that far. “You're hot?”
“That doesn't explain shit.”
“I…It doesn't?” Silence. “You just look really good.” Another throat clearing. “I want to…kiss…it.”
“What the fuck,” he whispers, but the longer he stares at Soobin, the more he's realizing that he's not gonna take his words back. Were they not just playing basketball? Like, 40 seconds ago? What happened to that? What happened to basketball?
The more he thinks about it, Soobin waiting like he’s expecting a genuine answer instead of wincing at immediate rejection, he’s…not as against it as he wants to be.
…Taehyun is a doormat.
He swallows. “Okay.”
“Actually?” Taehyun sucks in a breath to say something, but Soobin’s hand is already stopping his mouth. “Okay. Um, okay. Yeah. Thanks.”
Taehyun can literally see him gulp. Is Soobin a fucking vampire?
Taehyun nods.
And suddenly, as he props himself up with his palms on the floor behind him, Soobin leaning down. Both of his leader’s hands holding his waist tight, he’s realizing that he has no idea what he’s even agreed to. What did “kissing it” even entail?
He vaguely remembers that they’d just been moving, and although the break had cooled them down, dried sweat was palpable against his skin.
Before he can say or think anything else, Soobin’s lips trace the slip of skin visible from his waistband up, and Taehyun feels a cold, fluttering sensation. He flinches.
Soobin plants one solid, lingering, chaste kiss just above his waist.
Then, he goes in again, slightly right, then slightly left, the press soft and sweet, before his fingers are sliding Taehyun’s tank up higher.
He can’t help but suppress violent shivers that sing through his pelvic area, like little neon strings that Soobin pulls with each kiss. His nose grazes Taehyun’s midriff before his lips make their way onto this abs–he goes left, right, up, left, lips spelling out an ‘S’ pattern against the mounds of each ab.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” Soobin says against his skin, and Taehyun’s about to ask what he means before he’s hushed by the returning sensation.
Soobin’s kisses multiply–they become sloppier, open-mouthed, anywhere and everywhere that he can move to, and there’s a voiceless sound every time he separates as he trails through Taehyun’s abdomen. In the silence, Taehyun is almost…relaxed.
Taehyun’s arms feel weak behind him as he just watches. Watches Soobin splayed between his legs on this stupid fucking court floor, his eyelashes fluttering as he works up Taehyun’s body.
His hands grip Taehyun’s sides so firmly Taehyun doesn’t know if he could peel them off if he tried–but they move too, exploring the planes of his body, sides, lower back, ever carefully climbing Taehyun’s top up higher, until he reaches underneath his pecs.
He feels it over and over again, like Soobin’s finding all of the sensitive points of his middle he didn’t even know he had–his lips planting, almost sucking as they move against his skin.
It’s kind of a trance. He watches Soobin hesitate before his thumb shifts the fabric beneath his pec up, one nipple unveiled. Really, nothing Soobin hadn’t seen countless times before.
To the side of his pec, where the shadow of the curve begins, Soobin kisses–and Taehyun’s own hand moves from its place to hover over Soobin’s head, his hand finding its way into his dark hair. Even the touch of the strands between his knuckles, soft with a remnant of sweat, feels raw.
It’s getting kind of hard to breathe–isn’t it?
Taehyun opens his mouth–again, to say what, he doesn’t know, when he feels an unmistakable, wet sensation. Soobin’s tongue presses flat against the side of his pec, dragging the distance to his nipple, and Taehyun doesn’t, can’t, control the high pitched squeak that he breathes out. His fingers dig deeper into Soobin’s hair out of surprise.
He feels Soobin’s lip curve in a smile against his skin, then feels hot breath as Soobin’s mouth opens around his nipple, and,
The doors slam open.
Taehyun, both arms already leveraged in the right spots, practically throws Soobin off of him. The voices of staff echo through the other side of the gym. From the sound of it, it’s the same people that always play tennis around this time.
The courts are separated by nets and plastic dividers, so they’re a fair distance away, but there’s no way in hell they’re about to be caught doing…
“What the fuck,” he whispers again, but he’s actually finding the situation bleakly funny. Soobin and Taehyun look at each other, like deers in headlights, Taehyun’s tank is still ridden far up enough that most of his abs are showing. Soobin looks at him, then down him, and stares.
This guy is unbelievable.
Then, with a smile, Soobin’s picking himself up and quickly collecting their things from the bench, sliding them into his pockets. He offers a hand to hoist Taehyun up, and doesn’t let go as he drags them both to the locker room, basketball be damned, he guesses.
They don’t say anything to each other when Soobin immediately hits the showers, Taehyun opting to do the same. The water runs down the imprints of everywhere Soobin had…done…everything.
He can’t focus. This time, he doesn’t blame himself.
When he’s out, Soobin’s already left the locker room. He finds him on a bench outside the sports gym building, probably waiting for the car, wind running through his wet hair. He squints as he looks up at Taehyun, and pats the spot next to him.
Soobin’s the first to speak. “Thanks.”
Taehyun scoffs, but his mouth is open in a baffled smile, if anything out of necessity for his sanity. He stares at the street.
“Whatever.”
That night, Taehyun’s brushing his teeth with vigor when his phone pings.
Captain: Sent an image.
He opens it up and accidentally swallows toothpaste. It’s a selfie.
Soobin’s in bed, one eye closed in a lazy wink. His lips are jutted out, a half-pout, half-kiss. They’re glazed with something that makes them glisten, probably just vaseline. His blankets fluff around bare shoulders.
He knows those eyes–they’re the exact eyes he uses on stage, half-lidded, eyelashes drooping across pitch black pupils. At the same time, it’s just another half-joking sexy face Soobin throws on when he thinks he’s being funny.
Captain: for ur wallpaper hahaha
Taehyun exhales sharply through his nose, putting the phone down to gargle his mouth out first. His fingers hover over the keys before he types and sends.
Taehyunie: thanks
Three dots, then nothing. Three dots, then nothing.
Captain: anytime~~