wednesday's child.

JUST LIKE PEARLS

(Wen Junhui x FemReader)

*Comfort, Fluff, Emotional Angst, Healing, Romance Slice of Life Angst Drama Comfort Fiction Slow Burn Emotional Healing Mental Health Awareness Character-Driven*

Before diving into this story, I want to make something really important clear.

This is a story about feeling insecure, something all of us experience in different ways. But I’ve chosen not to name any specific feature or body type as the source of the reader’s insecurity and that’s on purpose. Why? Because insecurities are deeply personal and vary from person to person. For one person, it might be their weight. For another, their height. For someone else, their skin, their hair texture, their features, their voice, or something entirely different.

If I were to say the reader is insecure about being chubby, someone who’s struggling with being too thin might not feel seen. If I say the reader is insecure about having curly hair, someone who wishes theirs wasn’t straight might feel left out. And that’s not the goal here.

This story is for everybody. No matter what you look like, where you're from, or what you're going through, you are valid. You are worthy of love, care, and stories that reflect your emotions and growth. I want my page to be a safe space for anyone who’s ever felt “not enough,” because you are. You really are.

So as you read this, fill in the blanks with your own experiences. Let this be your mirror. Let the words be meant for you, exactly as you are.

Now, let’s begin.

Junhui was always easy to talk to.

It was one of the things you loved most about him the way his voice curled around words like warmth, how he listened without interrupting, how he never made your silences feel awkward. He talked about everything: the way the sunlight hit the buildings during his morning walk, the way his bubble tea was always too sweet but he drank it anyway, the dreams he had about flying, and the random facts he read online about how penguins fall in love.

You talked too, of course. You told him about your day, your thoughts, your childhood stories, and your favorite songs. You laughed together until your ribs ached, argued about which movies deserved Oscars, and shared playlists like secrets.

But you never talked about that.

You were good at hiding it. Hiding yourself. The parts of you you didn’t want him or anyone to see.

When he came over, you always wore oversized sweaters, long sleeves, pants even in summer. You angled your face just right when the camera was on. You laughed off compliments like they were jokes. You always offered to take the photo instead of being in it. You changed behind locked doors. You sat with your arms crossed or your legs pulled in tight.

And he never said anything. Not because he didn’t care but because he didn’t know.

Until, slowly, the little things started to add up.

One evening, the two of you were lying on your bed, talking about everything and nothing. He was stretched out like a cat, flipping through a manga, while you sat with your back to the wall, your hoodie pulled low over your hands, your body carefully folded into itself.

“Do you ever get tired of talking to me?” you asked, the question coming out lighter than it felt.

Junhui looked up immediately. “What? No, never. Why?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know. I just… feel like I say the same stuff all the time. Like I’m boring.”

He frowned, setting the book aside. “You’re never boring. Not to me.”

You smiled, but it didn’t reach your eyes.

A few nights later, it was movie night. Junhui had brought snacks, a blanket, and the same cozy energy he always did. You were curled beside him, knees tucked under you, arms folded tight again. At some point, he leaned his head on your shoulder, and you tensed—just for a second but he noticed.

“You okay?” he asked gently.

“Yeah,” you answered quickly. “Just cold.”

You weren’t. But he didn’t push.

Then came the night everything cracked open.

You were getting ready for bed, brushing your teeth while Junhui sat on the edge of the bed in your room, scrolling through his phone. You changed in the bathroom, as always, emerging with layers of fabric even though the summer heat clung to the walls. You avoided the mirror, your reflection, his eyes.

And Junhui, quiet but thoughtful, finally said something.

“Why don’t you ever let me see you?”

You paused. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t mean like... in a weird way. I just mean… you. The way you hide. From me. From yourself. From the camera. The mirror. The compliments. I’ve been noticing it more lately.”

Your throat tightened. You opened your mouth to speak, but no sound came out.

Junhui stood, slowly, like approaching a frightened bird. “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too much. I just… I don’t want you to think you have to hide with me. Or from me.”

Your arms wrapped around yourself instinctively, eyes fixed on the ground.

“I don’t want you to see me,” you whispered.

Junhui’s heart broke a little at that.

“But I want to,” he said softly. “Not because I need to check anything. Not because I’m trying to fix you. Just… I want to know the parts of you that you’ve been taught to hide. The ones that hurt. The ones you’re scared of. I want to love you, not just the version you think I’ll accept.”

You looked up at him, lip trembling. “What if you see and you don’t like what you find?”

He stepped closer. “Then I’ll look again. Until you start to see what I see.”

Your eyes filled with tears.

“I’m so tired, Jun,” you admitted. “Of pretending I’m okay. Of always adjusting my sleeves, my angles, my clothes. Of avoiding reflections and dodging compliments and smiling like it doesn’t hurt.”

Junhui gently wrapped his arms around you, resting his forehead against yours.

“Then stop pretending,” he said. “With me, you don’t have to.”

And in that embrace, the walls you built so carefully began to fall quietly, piece by piece.

You didn’t feel fixed. But you felt seen. And maybe for now, that was enough.

Maybe healing didn’t start with perfection. Maybe it started with being held when you couldn’t hold yourself.

"No matter what you’re hiding, or how long you’ve carried it you deserve to be loved without conditions. You are not a burden. You are not too much. You don’t have to shrink yourself to be accepted." he kisssed your forehead

That night, you didn’t say much more. You just stood in his arms, letting yourself be held like it was the first time you were allowed to take up space.

Junhui didn’t ask you to explain anything else. He didn’t ask for a list of the things you didn’t like about yourself. He didn’t tell you to stop feeling the way you did, or to be grateful, or to “just get over it.”

He just stayed.

He stayed until your breathing steadied. Until the trembling in your hands slowed. Until the silence between you was soft, not suffocating.

“Do you want to lie down?” he asked gently.

You nodded, and for the first time in a long time, you didn’t crawl under the blanket to hide. You sat beside him in the dim light of your room, his fingers loosely entwined with yours.

He looked at you like you were the moon something distant, yet beautiful, no matter how many shadows crossed your surface.

“You don’t have to believe me yet,” Junhui said after a while, his voice barely above a whisper. “But I’m gonna keep telling you anyway. You’re beautiful.”

You flinched.

“Not because of your skin or your shape or your features. But because you’re you. The way you laugh. The way you care. The way you show up even when you feel small.”

Tears welled in your eyes again, this time not from pain—but from the feeling of being gently known.

You leaned into him slowly, resting your head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

“You make it sound easy,” you whispered.

“It’s not,” he said honestly. “It’s not easy. And it’s not instant. But I’ll remind you, as many times as you need, until one day you say it out loud to yourself.”

You didn’t respond. You didn’t know how.

But the next morning, for the first time, you didn’t rush to cover your arms.

You caught Junhui watching you but not in the way that made you want to curl into yourself. He was smiling. Not because you looked different but because you looked free.

And that was the start.

Not a miracle. Not a dramatic transformation. But a beginning.

Over the next few weeks, things shifted just a little. You still had days when you felt like hiding. When the mirror was your enemy. When your reflection felt like a stranger. But Junhui never made you feel guilty for those days.

He just stayed near. Reminded you to eat. Held your hand when the voices in your head were loud. And on the days you let him in truly let him in he would sit with you on the floor and say,

“Let’s talk about anything and everything. And I’ll wait until you’re ready to talk about what hurts.”

Sometimes, you did.

Sometimes, you didn’t.

But the hiding got a little easier to resist.

One evening, after dinner and a bad rom-com, you looked at Junhui as he laughed at something stupid in the credits, and for once, you didn’t wonder if he was pretending. You didn’t wonder if you were too much. You didn’t feel like an object needing to be corrected.

You felt safe.

“baobei?” you said quietly.

He turned to you, eyes bright.

“hum?”

“Thank you.”

He tilted his head. “For what?”

“For seeing me. And staying. Even when I couldn’t.”

He reached out, brushing a thumb across your knuckles.

“There’s no version of you that could make me leave,” he said. “Not now. Not ever.”

And for the first time in a long time, you believed it. Not all the way. But enough.

Enough to finally start seeing yourself through the eyes of someone who loved you completely, unconditionally, quietly.

It had been a month since that quiet night.

And though things didn’t magically change overnight, Junhui had been patient. Gentle. Never pushing. He didn’t treat you like a project. He treated you like a person. And maybe that was the most healing thing of all.

You still hid some days. You still tugged at your sleeves. You still turned away from mirrors without realizing it.

But Junhui noticed everything even the parts you didn’t say out loud.

So one afternoon, he texted you.

[Huihui 🐱💬]: “Can I borrow you this Saturday? No excuses. Casual clothes. Just... bring yourself.”

You stared at the message, heart thudding. You weren’t sure what he had planned, but something in you trusted him.

When Saturday came, he showed up with a smile and a hoodie two sizes too big.

“For you,” he said, handing it over. “It’s mine. But I figured you’d feel safest in something familiar.”

You softened. You always felt safest when wrapped in something that smelled like him like green tea and home.

He didn’t say where you were going. Just drove. Windows down. Music low.

Eventually, you pulled into an empty art studio sunlight pouring through tall windows, dust catching in the light like floating stars.

Junhui walked ahead of you, then turned with a sheepish grin.

“I rented it for the day,” he said. “Well, it’s my friend’s, so technically it was free. But I brought snacks.”

You blinked. “Why?”

“I wanted to show you something.”

He guided you to the back, where a canvas sat on an easel. Blank. Waiting.

Next to it were dozens of photos. Some candid. Some out of focus. Some of your hands mid-gesture. Some of your laughter when you didn’t know he was watching.

And then... a mirror. Small. Old. Framed in gold. Covered by a black cloth.

You froze.

Junhui reached for your hand. “Can I show you?”

You hesitated. But then... you nodded.

He lifted the cloth.

But instead of your reflection staring back, you saw words dozens of them, written in his handwriting across the glass:

"Brave." "Soft-hearted." "Clever." "Resilient." "Magnetic." "More than your reflection." "Deserving of rest. Deserving of love. Deserving of yourself."

You reached out, fingertips grazing the glass.

“It’s not to make you like what you see,” he said softly. “It’s to remind you that you’re more than what you think you need to change.”

You swallowed hard. “You did all this... for me?”

“Because you deserve to see yourself the way I do,” he said. “And maybe, just maybe, painting together talking, laughing, getting a little messy can help you rewrite the story.”

The two of you spent hours there.

Painting nonsense. Painting chaos. Painting parts of your soul you didn’t know were aching to be seen.

He never once commented on your body. Or your posture. Or the way you wore his hoodie like armor.

He just made space.

He was quiet when you needed quiet. Loud when you needed to laugh. And solid when you needed someone to lean on.

By sunset, you had painted over the blank canvas.

And by accident or maybe not you had added a version of yourself.

Not realistic. Not perfect. But bold. With wild brushstrokes. Bright colors.

Unapologetically human.

“Do you see her?” Junhui asked, standing behind you. “The version of you that you’ve been hiding?”

You nodded slowly. “Yeah. I think I do.”

He smiled. “She’s always been there.”

Later that night, when you got home, you took a deep breath and stood in front of your bedroom mirror.

And for the first time in a long time… You didn’t look away.

We shouldn’t have to beg for the bare minimum to Pledis, their artists should not have to live under constant invasion and fear because of their inability to act. This situation should have been contained from the beginning, but their silence and inaction have allowed it to spiral further, which is now dangerous because Jun's family is also involved and they're all victims of disgusting rumors and invasion of privacy.

your boyfriend only has one condition for you when he leaves the country to be a big movie star — that is to take care of his baby while he's gone. he comes back to find said baby on the verge of shrivelling into a hungry leaf and blowing away in the wind instead.

✦ wen junhui x reader. domestic fluff. comfort. ✦ established relationship. canon universe. mentions of food, lots of it, that's the fic. reader is implied to neglect meals/forget about them. but junni is here for the rescue. pg for the majority but there's one blatantly suggestive comment towards the very end of the fic. ✦ word count: 2.5k

✦ esa's note: emerging from the depths of hell looking like i did not disappear for god knows how many months. hey!..hey...how yall doing...? no really, i disappeared from existence for like...a while. but i'm back!! (i think?) i'm back with a new jun fic because hell yeah. i've been noticing a huge huge huge lack of junhui fics on tumblr from a few months back so i'm here to do my service, be useful and provide my huihui community. i had the idea for this fic since nana bnb because my boy jun was cooking up a feast every single episode like it was his mission to serve an entire village. so i hope you guys enjoy it, it might be a little bit rusty because i whipped this up in one day and i haven't properly written anything in months so please forgive me. still very much thirsting over jun (more so these days because THE SHADOW'S EDGE RAHHHH I LOVE MY MAN) and i'm also re-watching exclusive fairytale because i miss my child ling chao. expect another couple fics in the next few weeks cause i fear now that i've started again, i won't be able to stop anytime soon. please tell me how you guys have been doing! come to my asks let's chattt <3

You're only three bites into your dinner when the shrill sound of the doorbell rings through your apartment. It makes you jump out of your skin, the tall chair you're sitting on dangerously tilting to the side as you're startled into your next life.

You've been trying to change the doorbell ever since you first moved here, which was almost three years ago. But to no luck, because the doormat of a man you call the building owner claims the ear-shattering sound is what makes people get up from their beds and answer the door. You consider it a curse, actually. But unfortunately for you, your boyfriend considers it to be a great source of amusement. Your boyfriend, who knows the passcode to your door by heart. Your boyfriend, who doesn't even need to ring the doorbell every single time he comes over. Your boyfriend, who has the humor of a thirteen-year-old boy and loves to use it to fucking terrorize you into hell when you're least expecting it.

Bonus points if he shows up without telling you beforehand, no text, no heads up, just a gag dragged straight from the pits of hell.

Like today, it's half past eleven at night, and you weren't even considering the possibilities of him coming over. He has been knee deep in meetings and rehearsals the moment he returned from China. Schedules upon schedules, which made it impossible for the two of you to meet during the day at a normal time. And anyway, you were busy trying your best to make sure he got enough rest recently, directing him to his own apartment at the end of a workday.

It hadn't crossed your mind that he was the most stubborn man you've ever met in your life, and that he totally would decide to show up at your place in the middle of the night despite being dead tired and having to walk.

Junhui is just stepping inside when you make it to the front door. You can see the bashful smile painted on his face as he stumbles in, toeing off the shoes he hasn't even bothered to put on properly. The backs of the shoes are flat, ruined from where he's been wearing them halfway.

He's wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt, white and thin, and his favourite one with the neck stretched out from the laundry. A couple of plastic bags are tucked in his elbow, and you recognise the red and yellow logo of the supermarket down the road.

"Hi" Junhui smiles, all teeth and stretching against his face sweetly.

"You're way too underdressed," You mutter. "It's cold outside, I told you to wear a proper jacket"

Junhui's face immediately falls into a pout.

"It's not that cold" He tries to reason with you, but to no avail. You roll your eyes at the look on his face, pout melting into excitement when you reach for his hand. But as soon as your skin touches his, you pull back with a hiss, and his face falls dramatically again.

"Jun, you're freezing"

He simply shrugs at you, trying to look away and pretending like his lips aren't twitching from the corners.

"God, you never listen to me" The tone of your voice, nagging and grumping - like a mother duck fretting over her duckling, is so familiar to him. So is the way you easily pull him close by the arms, bringing his hands to warm up between yours, blowing into them without him even asking you to. It makes his lips pull into a fond smile as he looks at you.

"I'm okay, I promise," He mumbles, waiting for you to be done with playing personal heater.

Once you look like you're satisfied with how his palms warm up, you go to step back to lead him inside. "I didn't think you'd come today. I thought you had practices the whole day"

"Yeah, well," Junhui shrugs behind you. "I thought I'd come by. I feel like I haven't been here that much recently. I almost forgot the password too"

"Oh, so that's why you decided to ring that godawful bell?"

"Nope," Junhui pips as he puts the bags on your kitchen counter. "I just know it makes you mad"

Of course, what else did you expect? You say so as you drop into one of the kitchen chairs, where you've been having dinner before he showed up unannounced.

The plate is still sitting on the table, barely touched at all. You reach for the food and immediately cringe as your fingers are met with cold; there goes dinner.

Junhui's eyes catch on the plate as you move it away from you.

"Oh," He mutters to himself. Then, a bit loudly, "Midnight snack?"

"Huh?" You hum, still distracted by pushing the plate away with your middle finger. "Nah, dinner"

From the corner of your eyes, you see Junhui momentarily stop in his tracks.

You turn with a questioning sound. "What?"

He looks deeply confused as he gestures to the food with a tip of his head. "Dinner?" You follow his line of sight and very, very dumbly open your mouth to go, "Yeah, I was having dinner before you came barging in. "

You have a front row ticket to watch the confusion in his face morph into concern and then pure disbelief.

"Yn," He starts, slow and tentative like he's approaching a feral animal in the wild. "Please tell me you're not having this for like, dinner dinner"

"What?" You mumble, confused at his wide eyes. "Yeah, I am. This is dinner dinner. Although it's sort of cold now. Too-"

"Yn," Junhui interrupts. When you snap your eyes to him, he looks like he's questioning his entire life right this second. The look in his eye is unreadable as he makes his way to stand in front of you. It's almost comical because he looks so worried. When you tilt your head to look up at him, he brings a hand to the back of your neck.

"Yn, baby, my baby, love of my life," Junhui mutters as he drags his hand until it's resting over the side of your jaw. He leans down a little bit, peering into your eyes. "You're going to hate me, but I am not going to let you have crackers for dinner"

"Wh- wha?" You blink at him dumbly, leaning back and eyes snapping back to your said crackers. You don't see any problem, though; you really can't tell why Junhui looks as concerned as he does right now. It almost makes you squint at him with suspicion. "What's wrong? With cheese, too. I have cheese"

Junhui's lips pull into a tight line. He does not look impressed with your attempt to defend the sad excuse of a plate. "You can't have crackers for dinner, I'm not letting you."

You lean back again, your face squinting into a grimace at his display of concern.

Junhui stares back, eyes still as wide as if he's waiting for you to fight him.

There's a moment of stillness as you both search each other's faces. He seems to understand the question running through your mouth through the silence, why?

"It's not a proper meal"

"Oh my god," You throw your head back and groan, pushing him away with your feet. "What do you mean? It's enough for me, so fuck off. You sound like my dad. Stop being weird.

"I'm not being weird", Junhui huffs from where he's on the floor, moving to push himself up with his palms to stand again. "Can't I care about my girl without being called weird, please and thank you?"

"You can't" You roll your eyes at him, leaning back in your chair. "I didn't have anything to cook, okay? And I was too tired to get groceries or takeout. So it was either crackers or cereal tonight"

You watch your boyfriend walk up to your fridge. He opens the door and peers inside, even crouching down to check the lower shelves, before he turns to look at you with an incredulous look on his face.

"How long have you been living like this?"

You make a show of screaming into your hands. "Leave me alone, get out"

"Baby, there's literally nothing in here, like-" He peers into the fridge again, almost shoving himself in to grab something. When he turns back around, he's holding a single mandarin that looks like it's been through the pits of hell. It's wrinkled and shrivelled up, and Junhui throws it at you, completely missing. He disappears to the fridge again, this time coming up with a carton of milk that has you screaming before he opens the lid and brings it up to his nose.

"No, Don't!" He startles. "Don't even try with that, that expired like, last month"

Junhui stares at you with his mouth slack, disbelief painted in every corner of his face. He shakes his head as he closes the door and stands up. "You should just get rid of your fridge since it's so useless. No use in spending on the bill if you only have concepts of food inside"

You take off your house slipper before throwing it in his direction, unlike the mandarin, it hits him square in his chest.

"Well," He breathes in, hands coming up to his hips as he raises a sassy eyebrow at you. "Thank god your hunk of a boyfriend showed up with groceries, am I right? Otherwise, nobody will have known until you shrivel up into a hungry leaf and get blown away in the wind"

Rolling your eyes for what feels like the hundredth time tonight, you throw yourself to keep your chin on the table. "Oh, what would I have done had my hunk of a boyfriend not shown up?"

Junhui nods, seemingly proud of himself as he walks over to the counter, finally unloading the bags he brought with him. It's silent except for the crinkling of the plastic bags as he carefully takes out the groceries. You watch him from your place — He puts away an array of veggies in the film, a bunch of noodles in your designated noodles cabinet, some fruits in the basket you keep at the corner of your counter and finally pulls out what looks like two whole bags of his favorite brand of chips, turning to you with a grin too big for his face before he stuffs them into your snack drawer.

When he's done, there's only a handful of stuff left on the fridge. Stuff that seems enough for him to cook up a quick meal.

"Fried rice okay?" He asks, distracted as he tries to pull out one of your nonstick pans. "I'll make some shrimp balls to go with"

You sigh, finally picking yourself up from the table to walk up to him. He makes way to let you take out the nonstick pan for him.

"Jun," You softly call him instead, curling a hand around his wrist. "You don't have to cook for me, it's okay"

Junhui stills, watching you with wide eyes and a question mark written all over his face.

"You've had a long day, I don't want you to stand in front of the stove and tire yourself out" You tug him a little closer. "Let's just hang out, okay? Come on, let's go sit in the living room"

Junhui stays rooted to his spot as you try to pull on his hand and tug him away. "We can hang out while I cook"

You sigh. "Jun, no, that means you're going to do all the work and I'm going to sit by myself and feel useless"

"But," He tries to reason, holding both of your hands. "You can just talk to me, tell me about your day, well, month? I'm back after so long, right?"

"Exactly! You're back after so long, and you're playing housewife for me. I don't want you to"

"Hey, no" Junhui's face is back to that incredulous look. He pulls his hands free from yours before bringing them up to your face. He takes your face in his hands, cold fingers resting against the warmth of your face as he looks into your eyes. "This is not a chore for me, okay? I want to cook for you, I want to feed you something proper because I can see that you haven't been properly taking care of yourself while I was away"

You merely blink up at him as he speaks to you. You nearly forgot how soft this man can be with his words. You can blame it on him for being an evil rascal who only knows how to curse you out when he's with you.

"How dare you, by the way?" He keeps talking, squishing your face between his hands. "How dare you not take care of my baby while I'm gone? You didn't even feed her properly! Who knows what else you did to her" Junhui cries dramatically, shaking you by your face. "I put all of my trust in you, and you tear it to shreds. How could you, yn? How could you?"

"Okay, okay" You huff as he shakes you back and forth, trying to get out of his grip, but to no avail, he keeps wailing. "My god, I can see why all the directors in China want to snatch you up. Such drama"

"Why, I love you too," He finally settles down, patting your cheeks with a light giggle. "Fried rice and shrimp balls, then?"

You sigh, pressing your face into his shoulder. "Fine, fried rice and shrimp balls"

"Hell yeah," Junhui presses his lips to the top of your head before pulling away. "We're gonna eat balls"

You nearly smack him with the nonstick pan in your hand.

Later that night, or rather, early morning, you and Junhui slump down on your couch with a plate of egg fried rice. Junhui swears he whipped it up with half the ingredients, and it's probably the worst fried rice he's ever made, but it smells heavenly.

It gets right into your stomach, and you're almost drooling into your shirt by the time you've settled on the sofa, pressed to Junhui's side. It's been so so long since you've had a proper, homemade meal, and Junhui must see it in your face because he's quick to shovel some rice into the spoon and feed you a bite.

"Oh my god," You outright moan shamelessly, throwing your head back. "Jun, this is so good, I'm gonna cry"

Junhui snickers, picking up a freshly fried shrimp ball from the bowl in your lap and feeding you with his hand. You sob again, shaking your head as you chew. "Actually, I'm going to come, this is too good"

"Okay!" Junhui almost shrieks, voice pitched incredibly high. He shoves another mouthful into your mouth, probably to shut you up before you wake up the entire apartment complex.

He mutters something under his breath that sounds close to something like "When will you stop giving me migraines, I hate you" but when you look at his face, his lips are stretched into a smile across his face as he holds out another bite.

You roll your eyes as you shift closer, letting yourself be fed until you're so full of love.

and shrimp balls!

your boyfriend only has one condition for you when he leaves the country to be a big movie star — that is to take care of his baby while he's gone. he comes back to find said baby on the verge of shrivelling into a hungry leaf and blowing away in the wind instead.

✦ wen junhui x reader. domestic fluff. comfort. ✦ established relationship. canon universe. mentions of food, lots of it, that's the fic. reader is implied to neglect meals/forget about them. but junni is here for the rescue. pg for the majority but there's one blatantly suggestive comment towards the very end of the fic. ✦ word count: 2.5k

✦ esa's note: emerging from the depths of hell looking like i did not disappear for god knows how many months. hey!..hey...how yall doing...? no really, i disappeared from existence for like...a while. but i'm back!! (i think?) i'm back with a new jun fic because hell yeah. i've been noticing a huge huge huge lack of junhui fics on tumblr from a few months back so i'm here to do my service, be useful and provide my huihui community. i had the idea for this fic since nana bnb because my boy jun was cooking up a feast every single episode like it was his mission to serve an entire village. so i hope you guys enjoy it, it might be a little bit rusty because i whipped this up in one day and i haven't properly written anything in months so please forgive me. still very much thirsting over jun (more so these days because THE SHADOW'S EDGE RAHHHH I LOVE MY MAN) and i'm also re-watching exclusive fairytale because i miss my child ling chao. expect another couple fics in the next few weeks cause i fear now that i've started again, i won't be able to stop anytime soon. please tell me how you guys have been doing! come to my asks let's chattt <3

You're only three bites into your dinner when the shrill sound of the doorbell rings through your apartment. It makes you jump out of your skin, the tall chair you're sitting on dangerously tilting to the side as you're startled into your next life.

You've been trying to change the doorbell ever since you first moved here, which was almost three years ago. But to no luck, because the doormat of a man you call the building owner claims the ear-shattering sound is what makes people get up from their beds and answer the door. You consider it a curse, actually. But unfortunately for you, your boyfriend considers it to be a great source of amusement. Your boyfriend, who knows the passcode to your door by heart. Your boyfriend, who doesn't even need to ring the doorbell every single time he comes over. Your boyfriend, who has the humor of a thirteen-year-old boy and loves to use it to fucking terrorize you into hell when you're least expecting it.

Bonus points if he shows up without telling you beforehand, no text, no heads up, just a gag dragged straight from the pits of hell.

Like today, it's half past eleven at night, and you weren't even considering the possibilities of him coming over. He has been knee deep in meetings and rehearsals the moment he returned from China. Schedules upon schedules, which made it impossible for the two of you to meet during the day at a normal time. And anyway, you were busy trying your best to make sure he got enough rest recently, directing him to his own apartment at the end of a workday.

It hadn't crossed your mind that he was the most stubborn man you've ever met in your life, and that he totally would decide to show up at your place in the middle of the night despite being dead tired and having to walk.

Junhui is just stepping inside when you make it to the front door. You can see the bashful smile painted on his face as he stumbles in, toeing off the shoes he hasn't even bothered to put on properly. The backs of the shoes are flat, ruined from where he's been wearing them halfway.

He's wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt, white and thin, and his favourite one with the neck stretched out from the laundry. A couple of plastic bags are tucked in his elbow, and you recognise the red and yellow logo of the supermarket down the road.

"Hi" Junhui smiles, all teeth and stretching against his face sweetly.

"You're way too underdressed," You mutter. "It's cold outside, I told you to wear a proper jacket"

Junhui's face immediately falls into a pout.

"It's not that cold" He tries to reason with you, but to no avail. You roll your eyes at the look on his face, pout melting into excitement when you reach for his hand. But as soon as your skin touches his, you pull back with a hiss, and his face falls dramatically again.

"Jun, you're freezing"

He simply shrugs at you, trying to look away and pretending like his lips aren't twitching from the corners.

"God, you never listen to me" The tone of your voice, nagging and grumping - like a mother duck fretting over her duckling, is so familiar to him. So is the way you easily pull him close by the arms, bringing his hands to warm up between yours, blowing into them without him even asking you to. It makes his lips pull into a fond smile as he looks at you.

"I'm okay, I promise," He mumbles, waiting for you to be done with playing personal heater.

Once you look like you're satisfied with how his palms warm up, you go to step back to lead him inside. "I didn't think you'd come today. I thought you had practices the whole day"

"Yeah, well," Junhui shrugs behind you. "I thought I'd come by. I feel like I haven't been here that much recently. I almost forgot the password too"

"Oh, so that's why you decided to ring that godawful bell?"

"Nope," Junhui pips as he puts the bags on your kitchen counter. "I just know it makes you mad"

Of course, what else did you expect? You say so as you drop into one of the kitchen chairs, where you've been having dinner before he showed up unannounced.

The plate is still sitting on the table, barely touched at all. You reach for the food and immediately cringe as your fingers are met with cold; there goes dinner.

Junhui's eyes catch on the plate as you move it away from you.

"Oh," He mutters to himself. Then, a bit loudly, "Midnight snack?"

"Huh?" You hum, still distracted by pushing the plate away with your middle finger. "Nah, dinner"

From the corner of your eyes, you see Junhui momentarily stop in his tracks.

You turn with a questioning sound. "What?"

He looks deeply confused as he gestures to the food with a tip of his head. "Dinner?" You follow his line of sight and very, very dumbly open your mouth to go, "Yeah, I was having dinner before you came barging in. "

You have a front row ticket to watch the confusion in his face morph into concern and then pure disbelief.

"Yn," He starts, slow and tentative like he's approaching a feral animal in the wild. "Please tell me you're not having this for like, dinner dinner"

"What?" You mumble, confused at his wide eyes. "Yeah, I am. This is dinner dinner. Although it's sort of cold now. Too-"

"Yn," Junhui interrupts. When you snap your eyes to him, he looks like he's questioning his entire life right this second. The look in his eye is unreadable as he makes his way to stand in front of you. It's almost comical because he looks so worried. When you tilt your head to look up at him, he brings a hand to the back of your neck.

"Yn, baby, my baby, love of my life," Junhui mutters as he drags his hand until it's resting over the side of your jaw. He leans down a little bit, peering into your eyes. "You're going to hate me, but I am not going to let you have crackers for dinner"

"Wh- wha?" You blink at him dumbly, leaning back and eyes snapping back to your said crackers. You don't see any problem, though; you really can't tell why Junhui looks as concerned as he does right now. It almost makes you squint at him with suspicion. "What's wrong? With cheese, too. I have cheese"

Junhui's lips pull into a tight line. He does not look impressed with your attempt to defend the sad excuse of a plate. "You can't have crackers for dinner, I'm not letting you."

You lean back again, your face squinting into a grimace at his display of concern.

Junhui stares back, eyes still as wide as if he's waiting for you to fight him.

There's a moment of stillness as you both search each other's faces. He seems to understand the question running through your mouth through the silence, why?

"It's not a proper meal"

"Oh my god," You throw your head back and groan, pushing him away with your feet. "What do you mean? It's enough for me, so fuck off. You sound like my dad. Stop being weird.

"I'm not being weird", Junhui huffs from where he's on the floor, moving to push himself up with his palms to stand again. "Can't I care about my girl without being called weird, please and thank you?"

"You can't" You roll your eyes at him, leaning back in your chair. "I didn't have anything to cook, okay? And I was too tired to get groceries or takeout. So it was either crackers or cereal tonight"

You watch your boyfriend walk up to your fridge. He opens the door and peers inside, even crouching down to check the lower shelves, before he turns to look at you with an incredulous look on his face.

"How long have you been living like this?"

You make a show of screaming into your hands. "Leave me alone, get out"

"Baby, there's literally nothing in here, like-" He peers into the fridge again, almost shoving himself in to grab something. When he turns back around, he's holding a single mandarin that looks like it's been through the pits of hell. It's wrinkled and shrivelled up, and Junhui throws it at you, completely missing. He disappears to the fridge again, this time coming up with a carton of milk that has you screaming before he opens the lid and brings it up to his nose.

"No, Don't!" He startles. "Don't even try with that, that expired like, last month"

Junhui stares at you with his mouth slack, disbelief painted in every corner of his face. He shakes his head as he closes the door and stands up. "You should just get rid of your fridge since it's so useless. No use in spending on the bill if you only have concepts of food inside"

You take off your house slipper before throwing it in his direction, unlike the mandarin, it hits him square in his chest.

"Well," He breathes in, hands coming up to his hips as he raises a sassy eyebrow at you. "Thank god your hunk of a boyfriend showed up with groceries, am I right? Otherwise, nobody will have known until you shrivel up into a hungry leaf and get blown away in the wind"

Rolling your eyes for what feels like the hundredth time tonight, you throw yourself to keep your chin on the table. "Oh, what would I have done had my hunk of a boyfriend not shown up?"

Junhui nods, seemingly proud of himself as he walks over to the counter, finally unloading the bags he brought with him. It's silent except for the crinkling of the plastic bags as he carefully takes out the groceries. You watch him from your place — He puts away an array of veggies in the film, a bunch of noodles in your designated noodles cabinet, some fruits in the basket you keep at the corner of your counter and finally pulls out what looks like two whole bags of his favorite brand of chips, turning to you with a grin too big for his face before he stuffs them into your snack drawer.

When he's done, there's only a handful of stuff left on the fridge. Stuff that seems enough for him to cook up a quick meal.

"Fried rice okay?" He asks, distracted as he tries to pull out one of your nonstick pans. "I'll make some shrimp balls to go with"

You sigh, finally picking yourself up from the table to walk up to him. He makes way to let you take out the nonstick pan for him.

"Jun," You softly call him instead, curling a hand around his wrist. "You don't have to cook for me, it's okay"

Junhui stills, watching you with wide eyes and a question mark written all over his face.

"You've had a long day, I don't want you to stand in front of the stove and tire yourself out" You tug him a little closer. "Let's just hang out, okay? Come on, let's go sit in the living room"

Junhui stays rooted to his spot as you try to pull on his hand and tug him away. "We can hang out while I cook"

You sigh. "Jun, no, that means you're going to do all the work and I'm going to sit by myself and feel useless"

"But," He tries to reason, holding both of your hands. "You can just talk to me, tell me about your day, well, month? I'm back after so long, right?"

"Exactly! You're back after so long, and you're playing housewife for me. I don't want you to"

"Hey, no" Junhui's face is back to that incredulous look. He pulls his hands free from yours before bringing them up to your face. He takes your face in his hands, cold fingers resting against the warmth of your face as he looks into your eyes. "This is not a chore for me, okay? I want to cook for you, I want to feed you something proper because I can see that you haven't been properly taking care of yourself while I was away"

You merely blink up at him as he speaks to you. You nearly forgot how soft this man can be with his words. You can blame it on him for being an evil rascal who only knows how to curse you out when he's with you.

"How dare you, by the way?" He keeps talking, squishing your face between his hands. "How dare you not take care of my baby while I'm gone? You didn't even feed her properly! Who knows what else you did to her" Junhui cries dramatically, shaking you by your face. "I put all of my trust in you, and you tear it to shreds. How could you, yn? How could you?"

"Okay, okay" You huff as he shakes you back and forth, trying to get out of his grip, but to no avail, he keeps wailing. "My god, I can see why all the directors in China want to snatch you up. Such drama"

"Why, I love you too," He finally settles down, patting your cheeks with a light giggle. "Fried rice and shrimp balls, then?"

You sigh, pressing your face into his shoulder. "Fine, fried rice and shrimp balls"

"Hell yeah," Junhui presses his lips to the top of your head before pulling away. "We're gonna eat balls"

You nearly smack him with the nonstick pan in your hand.

Later that night, or rather, early morning, you and Junhui slump down on your couch with a plate of egg fried rice. Junhui swears he whipped it up with half the ingredients, and it's probably the worst fried rice he's ever made, but it smells heavenly.

It gets right into your stomach, and you're almost drooling into your shirt by the time you've settled on the sofa, pressed to Junhui's side. It's been so so long since you've had a proper, homemade meal, and Junhui must see it in your face because he's quick to shovel some rice into the spoon and feed you a bite.

"Oh my god," You outright moan shamelessly, throwing your head back. "Jun, this is so good, I'm gonna cry"

Junhui snickers, picking up a freshly fried shrimp ball from the bowl in your lap and feeding you with his hand. You sob again, shaking your head as you chew. "Actually, I'm going to come, this is too good"

"Okay!" Junhui almost shrieks, voice pitched incredibly high. He shoves another mouthful into your mouth, probably to shut you up before you wake up the entire apartment complex.

He mutters something under his breath that sounds close to something like "When will you stop giving me migraines, I hate you" but when you look at his face, his lips are stretched into a smile across his face as he holds out another bite.

You roll your eyes as you shift closer, letting yourself be fed until you're so full of love.

and shrimp balls!

.ᐟ pure domestic fluff. comfort.

Being actor Junhui’s partner is finding bruises on his skin after he comes home from a tiring day on the set.

It's welcoming home with a warm smile, running your fingers through his hair as you press a kiss to his cheek while the fingertips of your other hand stumble across a graze he didn’t even know was there. It’s him gasping out of the sudden sting, pulling back to look at his hand, and there it is — blood already dried on the skin of his hand from where he’s bruised it doing god knows what.

Being actor Junhui’s partner is quietly scolding him as you pull him towards the bathroom, worry clouding your mind and evident in the words falling out of your lips. It’s pushing him to sit on the counter while you pull out the first aid kit. It’s him watching with tired but fond eyes as you fret over his hand, washing it under the tap, carefully drying it and applying an ointment with shaky hands that are scared of hurting him any more. It’s you shushing him when he gasps out at the sudden sting, pressing an apology to his fingertips. It’s you carefully wrapping a clean bandage with your touch as light as a feather, still afraid of hurting him even further.

It's you scanning Junhui's entire body, checking for any other bruises that might have gone unnoticed by you. It's Junhui whining as you skim over every patch of skin on his body, trying to pretend like his heart isn't doing laps of somersaults at the thought of you so worried about him. It's you finally releasing him from the full body check up to go freshen up with a slight frown, still unsettled by the sheer amount of injuries you've found on his body throughout the entire shooting period.

Being actor Junhui's partner is waiting with open arms when he returns each night with a new story about his costars and a new scrape on his skin — a symbol of his hard work, Jun likes to say. 'You need to be more careful', you'll probably reply with.

Being actor Junhui's partner is diligently listening as he talks about how cool his senior costars are, how awesome he feels to work with them, all while delicately wrapping him up with the care of someone close to his heart.

Being actor Junhui's partner is silently scolding him as you get ready for bed, making him pinky promise that he'll look after himself throughout shooting.

Being actor Junhui's partner is pulling him close to your chest at the end of the night as the pride in your chest swells and swells until there's nothing but love for your boy left inside.