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it was far too late for this. everyone else in the hotel was probably asleep, and they had a concert tomorrow they needed to recharge for. but who was woongki to follow silly rules like bedtime?
he was sprawled out on shuaibo's bed, covering his face with his hands as he spoke. "you saw the way he looked at me, right? it was different!"
"you say that every time," shuaibo said, "how do you know?"
"i'm telling you!" woongki insisted. he sat up in attempts to demonstrate. "i told him, jeongwoo hyung, i can't find my charger," woongki spoke with his hands, and dramatically deepened his voice as he continued, "and he was like, you can borrow mine if you want."
shuaibo gave an exaggerated gasp. "how romantic." he didn't sound amused. woongki had always thought it was the language barrier that made shuaibo sound so blunt, but he realized over time that's just how he is. and right now, it was very not appreciated.
woongki gave him a harmless smack on the leg before urging, "listen! then when he was giving me it, he looked at me with that smile– like, the real one, you know the one?
shuaibo did a poor jeongwoo impression and asked, "this one?"
"close enough, yeah, that one," woongki laughed, "and i swear, he was lingering around me the rest of the day. might've just been 'cause he wanted his charger back, but still."
"happy for you," shuaibo said, but woongki noticed the roll of his eyes.
"you're just jealous of my wonderful love life," woongki lamented, lying back down and propping himself up on his elbows. "anything with steven? living off crumbs still?"
"not so loud," shuaibo complained in a whisper, "he's in the next room over."
woongki waved him off. "he probably already knows anyway. now, spill."
shuaibo stared at the ceiling for a while. "well, he talked to me when we ate lunch."
"i'd sure hope he talks to you," woongki looked at him pointedly, "you're in a group together."
"wait, let me finish," shuaibo insisted. "when i said i was nervous for tomorrow, he held my hand."
woongki squealed in delight at this development. shuaibo squealed as well. they both proceeded to squeal, despite the fact it was 2 in the morning.
after a bit of squealing, woongki spoke. "i'm sick of waiting. i've given so many signs, is he just dumb?"
"maybe he thinks you're joking."
woongki sighed at that comment. "so i hint too much, and you don't hint enough. that's what i'm getting from this."
"well, what do we do?"
"we either have to tell them for real," woongki said, "which is dangerous and bad and awful. or… i guess we could wait for one of our bets to work, and go from there."
shuaibo laughed, "what, that you'll give him a kiss if he gets a strike or whatever?"
"yep." woongki sighed longingly. "that'll never work. he suddenly sucks ass at bowling whenever i say that."
"or he does that on purpose." woongki threatens violence. shuaibo surrenders.
"like, i want it to happen, but i'd die if things got all awkward afterwards," woongki said. shuaibo nodded in agreement. "that's why you haven't bet anything on steven hyung, huh?"
shuaibo hummed, "pretty much. i wish i could."
woongki thought for just a moment. "let's play make believe, then," he chimed, "you be jeongwoo, i'm steven. no consequences that way!"
"and kiss?" shuaibo smiled at him weird. "sure."
he was under the impression shuaibo was simply taking part in silly banter with him. but then shuaibo was moving to sit closer to him, and woongki wasn't doing anything to stop it. (besides, they've joked about this many times before; if anything, this was normal behavior for them.)
they were sitting far too close for comfort that woongki had to stop himself from laughing. "do something," he complained, "you're creeping me out."
"you do it. don't make it weird," shuaibo said.
"i'm not!" woongki wasn't truly scared; to put it simply, he trusted shuaibo with his life. he was one of the only few who knew he liked jeongwoo (aside from jl, who waterboarded the information out of him, and daisuke, who'd overheard and received bribery money as a very panicked last resort to keep him quiet).
so, judging by that, shuaibo was trustworthy enough to do dumb shit like this with on a whim. sure!
"just do it," shuaibo insisted, and it somehow sounded a little more serious than before. "on the count of three."
"why are we making it into a game?"
"it kind of is one, is it not?"
"this is for science," woongki said. "high stakes, confidential research project. got it?"
"hmm," shuaibo looked at the ceiling for a moment, "okay, but it's late, so 3, 2–"
"shut up, i'm doing it." woongki hesitated for only a second. he was curious what it'd be like. and for the record, he'd kissed many boys before, so it's not like he was scared. this wouldn't be any different. that's what he told himself, at least, before leaning in.
it ended up being very underwhelming. their lips brushed together for a second before they were practically leaping backwards. woongki brought a hand to his mouth, already laughing.
"that was it?" shuaibo joked.
"you're the one who stopped!"
"i thought you'd try to keep it going."
woongki shook his head, taking a moment to calm himself from his giggling fit. shuaibo shifted forward again, this time placing a hand on woongki's arm.
"what are you doing?" woongki asked, an incredulous smile on his lips.
"i'm jeongwoo. think jeongwoo."
right. jeongwoo.
their lips met again. with his eyes closed, woongki realized it was easy to pretend. huh. why hadn't they thought of this sooner?
except then he started laughing again when shuaibo's hand awkwardly trailed up his arm, effectively breaking the spell.
"you're bad at this," shuaibo groaned, "steven wouldn't be laughing so much."
"this is joyful steven," woongki clarified, "he's so happy for zhang shuaibo to be kissing him. isn't that sweet?"
shuaibo didn't argue back. he just started to kiss him again – quite abruptly, mind you, and it took woongki a moment to adjust. okay, jeongwoo. seo jeongwoo. imagine it's jeongwoo.
it felt more real this time.
jeongwoo kissed him gently, carefully, like he was fragile. jeongwoo put a hand to woongki's neck, and it made him shiver. woongki slipped a hand around jeongwoo's waist, and he didn't protest. jeongwoo seemed very into this.
jeongwoo pulled away, and woongki opened his eyes. blinked. right. shuaibo. bare faced shuaibo, with his soft hair framing his face and his lips now glistening.
woongki re-framed this thought before it felt weird. steven would sure love to see this, if he weren't so dense.
neither of them spoke for a couple seconds. this time, they didn't have any teasing remarks to make; they were like-minded enough to come to the wordless agreement to continue.
he pressed kisses to shuaibo's lips faster than he could reciprocate, and shuaibo grabbed onto his sleeve as if to settle him down. the faint taste of cherry lip gloss took woongki out of the fantasy even further. shuaibo let out a soft, barely audible sound, and woongki he would make a comment on how jeongwoo wouldn't whimper (well, he doesn't know that. proof where?), but he didn't care anymore. this was still fun, and it felt good. plush lips on plush lips, the feather-light touch of shuaibo's hands, the strange, rousing tension that had been building up.
woongki couldn't tell if they were pretending anymore. was it bad that he didn't mind?
this didn't feel very experiment-y anymore. neither of them were laughing or making comments, not even when the kissing grew overly open mouthed and desperate. (woongki hadn't wanted to use that word – it's too cliche. he did not feel desperation for this kiss, he just couldn't think of another word to encapsulate the vibes. okay?)
woongki's lower lip slotted between shuaibo's lips, and they stayed like that for a while, kisses slow, lingering.
shuaibo pulled back slightly and let out a breathy moan. "woongki…"
and that's right about when woongki decided they'd gone too deep.
they broke apart after a moment – not too abruptly. woongki doesn't know if what shuaibo said was accidental, or something, but his cheeks visibly tinged red, eyes open a little wider. woongki smiled sheepishly as they sat there, a little too close, looking at each other just a little too long. "so…"
how does one complete this sentence? so, that was hot, let's try it again sometime. so, rate my performance on a scale from 1 to 10, and don't forget to leave a tip! so, you likey? likey likey likey? dugeun dugeun dugeun?
clearly none of the above. so woongki left it at that, but that made the conversation even more ambiguous and awkward. it's okay though, because shuaibo laughed. okay. we're still good.
"did the experiment help?" shuaibo asked out of the blue.
did it? well, there was no true logic put into this plan, so it was hard to tell. what was the criteria? it was nice to pretend for a couple minutes. but now, to be honest, woongki was just dazed and confused. not particularly in a bad way, but… the whole thing didn't leave him feeling any closer to jeongwoo, that's for sure.
whatever. it was fun.
"yeah," woongki answered simply. he gave a smile and a casual glance to the clock, only to see that it read 2:42. when did that happen? they have to be up and ready for concert preparations at 6. according to his calculations, going to bed called for a future of sleep deprivation and too much caffeine. great. maybe woongki should invest in a bedtime.
shuaibo seemed to have followed his gaze, because it was only a few seconds before he was up gathering his things and getting into bed.
he got up again a moment later to turn out the lights. then he got right back into bed, and it was funny, so they shared a quick laugh. they didn't say another word that night, which really didn't help with how disoriented woongki had magically become.
after a few minutes, he could tell shuaibo was still awake. he was pretty sure shuaibo knew he was, too. but they didn't say anything, and they stayed lying in bed, (deliberately) facing away from each other. it was all done and over with, so why was that weird tension still there?
woongki thought up scenarios of jeongwoo being his boyfriend to fall asleep – as he usually did – but they didn't come to him as easily tonight. in place of his typical late night thoughts, woongki's mind still lingered on the tingle left on his lips, and the soft sound of shuaibo… moaning his name… fuck. calm down.
well, anyone would feel this way after kissing zhang shuaibo, regardless of the circumstances, right? he was pretty, and he was good at it.
right guys? wouldn't they?