#elli writes

It started like any other day, which was a real cliché to put it. You walk into the station with your usual heavy eyelids and even heavier shoulders. Sleep was something you’d given up when you first started working as a detective, but the word was definitely out of your dictionary when you picked up the case. Most of your colleagues wouldn’t pick up the case. Mainly because they knew you’d be the first one to take it. However, after ten months you still haven’t found any new leads. Six months of chasing after ghosts and you always returned emptyhanded.

This morning, you had something into your hands. Flung into them, rather. A coffee and a file, courtesy of Jongin. Normally there’d be a smile gracing his face and a joke soon to follow to lighten up your mood. Instead there was a frown as he motioned down at the file in your hands.

“That’s number 21.”

You’re grim and you know it’s very apparent. How could you not be with the numbers stacked this high? You mumble a thanks and allow Jongin to linger a bit. He wants to say something, and you know it, but you also know he’s conflicted about whether or not he should continue bothering you.

“Jongin, I’m not dropping the case.”

He purses his lips and takes a tactical sip of his own coffee. After a moment to find the right words he sighs. “I know. I wouldn’t dream of trying to rip you away from that.”

A dry chuckle leaves you and you shake your head almost dotingly at your junior. “Of course.” You point a pen towards the office everyone knew too well after getting chewed out at least thrice. “But that doesn’t mean she won’t. She’s been on my ass for a while.” You’ve joked with your peers about the Boa Constrictor keeping you in her hold until you concede, but you’d never been on the receiving end of it until now. Except you definitely weren’t about to let go of this case.

There’s a moment of silence while he tries to come up with something else to say and you busy yourself with the new file. You curse when you look at the girl’s photo and information. “She’s only 15.” Jongin hums and scans over the information with you. He takes her photo out from beneath the paperclip and holds it up to the board where there were faces of 20 other girls on them.

“She doesn’t look like any of the others.”

“Not at all. She’s got some similar features to some, but… there isn’t a type.”

“If they even are getting kidnapped.” You scoff at that before taking the photo and thumbtacking it to the board. “Not that I’m saying you’re on a wild goose chase or anything, but…” He takes another sip of his coffee. You know the mug is empty. “21 girls who don’t have any connection to each other besides living in the same city… It’s really difficult to determine if they’re all being kidnapped or just-”

“Runaways, I know.”

“Look, they’re all around the ages too. Teen angst, wanting to start fresh in another city, eloping with a secret lover.” He sighs wistfully and moves to take another sip until he remembers his empty cup. “21 girls. No relation. Some of them did sports, but it’s a range. Some of them are in the same school district, but they have different schedules. Two of them lived in the same neighborhood, but that’s in a whole block of apartments.”

Your eyes linger at the girl’s face a couple seconds longer. You’ve heard it too many times by all the others to know that Jongin is implying they could be all coincidences. People runaway all the time, it’s true. You’ve definitely closed those sorts of cases and convinced a couple of them to work it out and return home. You just wish you had some concrete proof that this was different.

Jongin turns away, about to leave and continue his own work after getting more coffee. “I’ll get out of your hair now, but I’m just worried about you. You’re losing a lot of sleep for someone who looks like they’re chasing their own tail. Take care of yourself.” He’s off before you can bark a word at him, and you roll your eyes to yourself.

You take a sip of the coffee he’d given to you moments prior, but it had gotten cold since then. It was still a bit of a kickstart to your day anyhow. You had the cases of 21 missing girls all over the city resting on your shoulders. It was a miracle you got any sleep at all. You tried your hand at anything. Possible gang relations or involvements or some group or organization, and yet you found no link. Like you said earlier, there didn’t seem to be a type that was targeted as the girls were mainly different appearance wise. You’d even thought to consider some underground sex ring, but the information you’ve collected about some of them didn’t fit the bill.

There were a couple girls who were taken in their own homes. They had been the ones living alone, except one who was taken while her three roommates were all home. They had chalked it up to her not feeling well and when they decided to check up on her, she was gone. It just didn’t sit right with you that they had done everything according to their routine and yet they supposedly just ran away. Most didn’t seem to have any motive at all to do so according to their friends and family. Even though you knew everybody’s got secrets and skeletons to hide you knew that was the truth. It was a gut feeling, but it wasn’t enough.

A buzzing noise came from your pocket and you whip your phone out to see what notification it was this time. A random message from one of your friends on social media popped up. You wanted to swipe it away, but you decided against it and opened it up. It was a friend from college who had found some old photo of the two of you at some party, dressed up with a lot of skin showing but even more teeth on display. Back then the lack of sleep you had was because of the constant studying and partying, or rather taking some free booze and dipping when you got bored. It was still fun to socialize and watch everyone stumble dumbly, though. You responded back quickly by telling her to forward it to you. Before you pocketed your phone, you retyped your passcode to unlock the phone again and went into your contacts. Thinking about college reminded you of somebody.

The moment you stepped out you heard a familiar “Hello?”

“Hi, Mrs. Kim. Just checking in like I always do.” You could almost hear the smile in the woman’s face. Tension immediately left your shoulders the moment you heard her coo your name softly. It was like it was never there at all.

“I haven’t heard from you in a while. I was just beginning to think you’d never call.” She laughs easily at her tease. She knew you would call. You always did. “I was just thinking about you actually. I heard there was another one…”

A sigh leaves your lips and you pinch the bridge of your nose before you answer. “Yeah, it’s been a rough couple of months hasn’t it?” She hums in response and you can hear her shuffling papers around, most likely sorting through the mail you know she never opens and gets to once a month at least. She pauses and you can hear her set the large pile down.

“Of course. Five months without my baby? She’s supposed to be starting school in a couple months. She was so excited when she got accepted. They have the best music program in the state, you know.” You knew all too well that her daughter was to be going to school at the best music school in the state. You listened to some of her recordings before after her mother had shown you. You like to think that it was just because of a mother’s pride, but you think it was to hear her daughter’s voice again as she talks through the piece and giggles at a small slip up in one of them.

It almost pained you that you couldn’t find her with what you had now. You were still as clueless as you were when she had gone missing five months ago.

“I’ll find her soon. I know I will. The next time you won’t get to see her is when you have to move her into the dorms. I promise you.” It was an unsure promise, to convince the both of you that you’d get it done. And soon. The shift from a lighthearted conversation had gotten grim fast. Those conversations had typically over the lunches you had with Mrs. Kim. She was the first case of this bunch and also the most optimistic of the friends and family. You felt that you had to keep her updated and in turn she continued to put her trust in you.

“I know. She’s counting on you; I just know it. She knows you’ll get it done somehow.” The words strike you in your core. That’s right, there’s a lot of people counting on you right now. One more family just got added to the list this morning. You try not to think about the handful of others that decided to have you stop looking after they’ve given up that their daughters would come back. It pained you to have them retract their hope enough to have you close their cases, but you wouldn’t stop even if they asked you. You didn’t want to have to leave them in the dark while their daughters were missing. Lord knows you were considering a murderer, but no bodies had turned up to your relief. You just hoped you didn’t have to continue praying for it not to happen.

The call ended quickly, and you spent the next couple of hours going over your information and collecting information from the family of the newest missing girl. She was hanging out with friends when she was all of a sudden separated from the group at the mall. It was a busy place, but camera footage and eyewitnesses last saw her roaming in a store before her trail goes cold. This was frustrating. Rumors had spread about the girl going missing already, but since she was a teen most people assumed that she just ran away. She was pretty social according to her friends, and they just chalked it up to her personality and hanging with the wrong crowd. You decided to ponder over it on your lunch break, calling up your regular lunch partner to meet you at some café a couple blocks away.

Sehun doesn’t have to wave you over for you to sit down at the table you know he’s already at. It’s almost a ritual, to eat at this café every other week and sitting at the same table, nonetheless. He smiles warmly at you and pushes a plate towards you. “I already ordered for you. And don’t worry, I paid for it as a thank you for last time.” You mumble your thanks with a mouthful of food, briefly remembering the time you covered for his ride home after one drink too many.

“You’re godsent, you know that?” His smile turns into a smirk at that and you roll your eyes when you see you’ve stoked his ego. “Before you say ‘I know’, take out that notepad.” His smirk drops and a look of concentration comes onto his face.

“You know, sometimes I like to think you keep eating lunch with me because you like me or that we’re friends or something. But I also tend to think you only keep me around for my work.” He’s teasing you again and you tap the top of his notepad.

“You’re very much aware how much I like having you around. And I’m very much aware about how much you love to collect the information. Sometimes I think you only come back to hang out with me is because I’m not as tightlipped as some of my peers and give you things you can actually report on.” Sehun chuckles at that and the crinkle around his eye is back with that childlike glimmer in the eyes. He looks a lot more at ease than his funky smirk and that impish gleam instead.

He uncaps his pen with his mouth, his other hand busy flipping to a brand-new page and holding a worn notepad with too many torn papers taken from it. He keeps the cap in his mouth and hums for you to signal he’s ready.

“She’s 15.” His eyebrows furrow and a lisped curse slips out of him as he jots it down. He shakes his head sadly at that. “Last seen at the mall with her friends. Eyewitnesses say that she was roaming one of the stores alone before she disappeared. Camera footage doesn’t pick her up leaving the mall, but it’s been picked clean.”

“Has her friends or family said anything about behavior? Being more secretive or distant lately?” Sehun’s habit of keeping the pen cap in his mouth makes his words very mumbled and hard to understand. However, being around him and working with him so often has gotten you used to his silly sounded sentences. You still reach over to pluck it from his lips and snicker that his playfully annoyed glare.

“You don’t think I’ve asked? No, parents and friends claim that nothing was up. They let me in her room and let me search to find any hidden notes. Even let me look through her diary and it was just about some kid drama at school. Seemed ordinary to me, nothing that made me have to investigate this drama. She’s not a part of it anyways, just commenting about how it’s the talk of the halls and dumb.”

Sehun taps the pen against his cheek while your fingers are fiddling with the cap. He’s obviously not to report your words verbatim as it’s not really relevant, but he does appreciate how you share your findings with him. He appreciates your trust in him that he doesn’t skew the details or add too much personal information about these people. He appreciates how you let your thoughts wander with him. You tend to loosely think around him, bouncing ideas off of him every so often or word vomiting to better understand things as you try to explain.

You’d finished with your food while Sehun continues writing and jotting down notes, most likely questions or other tidbits not too concerning for you. Whenever he asks a question he needs for the article you respond and then nudge his plate so that he eats. It goes on like this a couple moments longer until he’s out of food and questions. He finishes jotting down whatever else he wants to and sticks the tip of his pen out to you. You, used to this procedure, cap his pen and look back up into his satisfied eyes. You scoff at his smug look and avoid his gaze as he rests his chin in his hand. He continues to stare at you while you pick at any crumbs you find interesting.

“Got everything you need?”

“How about we get some dessert?” You almost object and tell him you should be back by now until he starts collecting his things and getting out of his seat. “And don’t worry. I’ll pay. You just have to pay me back next time.” You sink lower into your seat in defeat and groan, rubbing your hands over your face. He laughs a little and stands behind your seat, grabbing your shoulders and shaking you lightly. “Come on, Sugar. You’re gonna need some sugar to keep functioning the rest of the day.”

“You and your dumb nicknames are going to kill me before the stress from this case will.” He stops shaking you and gives you a fond squeeze of your shoulders.

“Let’s go before you die on me then.” You turn in your seat to watch him head towards the door before deciding to follow suit and grunting when you do get up. There’s a mini pep in his step and you’re guessing that’s because Sehun has another excuse to visit that favorite bakery of his that a friend of his works at. You couldn’t blame him. There were some doughnuts and cupcakes that were to die for.

As you passed by, you saw some missing persons posters hung up in some alley walls or taped to some lampposts. You’re guessing that’s how Mrs. Kim got news of the missing girl before you caught up with her. Sehun notices your gaze following the long trail of posters, most likely hung up by the gang of girls that were last with their friend. “Is that her?” The both of you come to a stop in front of a small cluster of the posters. He takes on down and holds it out in front of the both of you. You nod and Sehun folds the paper into fours and pockets it for later. “That saves me having to dig around to put that in the paper.”

He tries to keep the mood up as he hums a tune, swinging his arms around and looking around at the people walking the streets. It does little to help, but you do appreciate the thought as he glances at you every now and then to check in. He’s switched songs so many times since he opts for a different, better tune to keep him occupied. You’re trying to decipher his fifth song switch when you finally make it to the bakery.

“Kyungsoo!” Sehun sings into the shop as the door chimes noisily. Luckily, Kyungsoo isn’t tending to any customers at the moment. He pops his head out from behind the counter with a blank face and his lips drawn into a straight line. However he may look, there’s a happy sparkle in his eye at the sight of you two.

“What do you want now?” He asks sarcastically but readies himself anyways.

“I want something with chocolate.” Sehun says as he scans the overhead menu even though he knows exactly what he wants. “Please.” He doesn’t forget to add with a warm smile, which Kyungsoo returns in kind. They both turn to you expectantly and you sputter, not having anything in mind just yet.

“O-Oh! I’ll, uh… I’ll have…” You pause and bite your lips. Suddenly, you’re overwhelmed by all the choices even though you’ve been here before.

“How about some donut holes? And if you don’t like it, you can always have some of mine,” Sehun offers as he turns that warm smile to you.

“What, trying to stick with that cops eat donuts type of thing?” You joke but are grateful at the distraction from you bumbling about. Kyungsoo lets out an amused huff and prepares something for you both of you, making sure to toss in a couple extra pieces in the bag for you. You give him a silent thanks as you nod and take the bag from him as Sehun whips out his wallet in a practiced manner.

The first bite of the donut hole is full of cinnamon and a little honey. Kyungsoo’s been experimenting and you hum at the taste as you squeeze the half-bitten donut hole. As Sehun’s card is ringing up he turns to you with an eyebrow as he wordlessly asks how it tastes. Instead, you offer him the rest of your bite while you chew, and he instantly opens up his mouth to eat the rest. It’s almost like you’ve done this a million times in your life and a million more in your past lives together; you’ve known each other for that long, you think. The motion is easy and simple as he hums and turns back to collect his card and compliments Kyungsoo’s creation with his mouth full.

“It’s good. I like the new flavors, it’s better than just the boring sugar on it.” The words are muffled and both you and Kyungsoo give him a judgmental look as he wipes some of the cinnamon off the corner of his lips.

“… Thank you. I’ve been slowly trying to add more to the menu where I can,” Kyungsoo notes, and you look up again at the menu to see he’s added another couple options beside his regular few in his neat handwriting. He smiles at you again when you look back down. “Keep up the good work. Don’t push yourself, okay?”

You promise him and Sehun gently nudges you to turn and leave so he has a better exit path. It’s not like he couldn’t have gone around you, but it seems he opted to just turn and go. And with his broad shoulders, it seemed you were in his path. You nudge him back as you exit the bakery with your treats in hand.

“What are you doing tonight?” Sehun asks with his mouth full again, this time from a bite of his chocolatey pastry. Crumbs fly in the air and the snort as they do so, but your friend knows no shame and continues to look at you expectantly.

You roll your eyes with a smile. “Probably looking over the case again… and waaay more paperwork than I’m happy with.”

He hums at that as he continues to walk you back to the station. You feel like he’s about to ask you something else, but you’re cut off by your phone ringing and his own buzzing with a couple messages.

“Breaks over.” He comments with a sigh as he scrolls through the messages and tries to type back with the same hand that grips his phone.

“It is.”

The both of you look at each other and trade another bite of each other’s treats. You took a bite of his mainly since you wanted something sweet, and he had his own bite since you felt like you had to repay him for it. He gives you a wave as he, thankfully, doesn’t shout with his mouth full of donut as he heads off to his office building. While you head back, you manage to catch the phone call on its last couple of rings before it could go to voicemail.

“Hello?”

“It’s Boa. You have a couple more files on your desk regarding the girls,” she says with a tired sigh. You know the chief thinks this is wasting time and resources, but you also know she wants to give these girls justice. “Some more schedules of their routines, some stuff they had upcoming, and some chat histories. There’s also someone waiting at the station to talk to you, a friend of the most recent one.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Good,” she states and hangs up the call. You huff and make your way back to the station with a quickened pace. You wonder what this friend has to say since you’ve interviewed the family and teachers recently. Your mind is still reeling with possibilities when you make it back and find a familiar face at your desk.

“Yena, what can I do for you?” You ask kindly as you take a seat by the high school girl. She has a puffiness around her eyes that indicate she hasn’t been able to get a lot of sleep and has probably been crying a lot. You offer her some of your donut holes and she politely declines by holding a hand up before thinking of the right words to say.

Yena was the same age as her missing friend, 15 with a short bob and still wearing her school uniform. You’re wondering if she skipped school to come here, and she confirms your suspicions as she wrings her hands. “I just give you these. I found these in Chae’s locker, it’s some of her notebooks and some flyers. These events are all in the past, but one of them is her dream journal. We both keep one to achieve our dreams, except she doesn’t share hers because she thinks that the dream won’t come true then.”

You take the stack of papers and notebooks from her, eyeing the one she was referring to. It can’t be mistaken with the doodling, stickers, glitter, and large words that say ‘DREAM JOURNAL!’ right on the front.

“Thank you, Yena.” You say kindly, knowing that you’ll have even more to sort through and probably come out empty handed with, but every little bit helps. If you could be armed with even that much of a toothpick, you’d count it as a win.

“I just want my best friend to come back. That’s all I’ve been writing about in mine! I want her to come home.” Her eyes water and you push a box of tissues to her. She takes a shaky breath and dabs at her eyes gently and you realize that her eyes are redder than you thought. She dabs to prevent further irritating her eyes that have been covered in makeup to hide just how bad she’s been taking it.

“I promise, you won’t need a journal to make that come true, okay?” You say gently and comfort the poor girl. It’s another 15 minutes before she gets up and leaves, going back to school she promises.

You sigh as you look at the stack of notebooks she gave you. It was all her school notebooks besides her dream journal, which you knew wouldn’t be much of a look through unless you wanted to relieve your high school days and quiz yourself on whatever the kids were learning these days.

“You know, you shouldn’t be promising things like that.”

“Jongin, that girl was crying.”

“And you don’t think she won’t be if you can’t deliver that promise?”

You clench your hands into fists, narrowing your eyes on the word that seems to be mocking you right now. Because it might be true, you can only ‘DREAM!’ that this will all come to a happy end. Jongin sighs and pats your back.

“I’ll help you get through like 3 of those. Make sure it’s all just random notes so you know if they have anything that’s not about some ancient literature piece, okay?” He asks gently and you take a deep breath.

“Okay,” you say quietly and start sorting through the flyers first.

A lot of them are of school events, cram school, auditions for some of the modeling or singing agencies, and one was even a poster of an actor you recognized from a popular drama currently. You chuckled as you saw the sticky note still attached to it that indicated Chae’s wishes to marry a guy like him. A couple more hours pass in between you checking the notebooks, painstakingly flipping through and reading every page just to make sure, and having to deal with other logistical tasks around the office.

Like promised, Jongin eventually makes it through the notebooks and puts them all on your desk with a sad shake of his head. “Math, English, and Composition. All notes, most of it is textbook and following what they did in class. Anything else was practice problems or doodles. These are no good.”

You groan and hang your head. “I’ve just barely gotten through her other two notebooks. A music one from a piano unit and one she kept solely for cram school. The flyers are all past events or just random ones that I think were trash and she never got to throw away.” You look pointedly at the crumpled up flyer that was from her school’s ‘Fish Club’… whatever that’s about. “Had to get through all the other files from the girls too… nothing new. I saved that dream journal for last.”

“Why, so you can honor making sure her dreams come true?” Jongin asks with a smile, lifting your spirits some.

“Yeah…” You trail off absently. You aren’t sure if maybe you were truly keeping up Yena and Chae’s superstition about their dream journals or if you were hoping that the last thing you got to would prove you some substantial evidence. Maybe you should’ve gotten to that first if so. But then you would’ve needed to spend extra time on it. Ugh! Another sigh makes it way out of you and Jongin frowns now.

“Save that for tomorrow. How about you come out with some of us for some drinks tonight? Get that tension off you.” Jongin gives you an expectant look as he sits on your desk. You rub your face and look up at him through your fingers as you slouch in your chair. “And don’t even think about getting to that journal tonight. Your brain is fried, you need a break, you’re burning yourself out.”

You purse your lips at him and groan again, this time throwing your head back over the top of your desk chair and spinning in it a little.

“Fine. But only for a little bit.”

Famous last words. It was not just a little bit. Jongin kept you entertained and kept handing you drinks as you listened to your peers share drunken stories. Even Jongdae came in for a little bit to say hi to everyone and cry a little about his wife and kid, showing everyone pictures. You were sure that he was sober and just living the high of life.

A twinge of jealousy shot through you at him being able to enjoy his life so much right now. You downed your drink and stared at the empty cup grumpily. You felt just like the cup. Maybe you are a cup. Did your legs always feel like that?

“Woah, you doing okay?” Jongin asks as he gets into your space to take a look at you. He was pretty tipsy, but doing way better than you right now. Both in spirits and sobriety.

“Jongiiiiin, I’m like this cup.” He has to jump back a little as you shove your cup in his face. “You see how it’s wet on the outside?”

“From the ice?” He asks with a raised brow.

“I’m all sweaty!” You shout at him, suddenly feeling like the room is a lot hotter.

“No, you’re not.”

“Look! Feel!” You try to grab his hand to bring it up to your forehead and he grimaces. He shakes his head and you try a couple more times before he pins your hand to the table and reaches for his phone. “What are you doing?”

“Getting you home,” he says as he scrolls in his contacts. You try to look at the screen to see who he’s calling, but he brings the phone straight to his ear and turns a skeptical eye on you to make sure you don’t keep trying to bring his hand to probably stick you in the eyes.

You’re too distracted by pouting to care who he’s talking to. And your head hurts. The alcohol is hitting you fast. How much did you have again? Or was it because you drank the rest of your three-fourths of a cup in less than a minute? When was the last time you even drank like this? Since before you took on the first case ten months ago?

“He’s coming in 15,” Jongin says in your ear. You pop your head up from the table. You didn’t even know you had it down on the table in the first place.

“Who?” You ask sluggishly as you try to keep your eyes open. You don’t bother hearing a reply as you quickly make your way to the bathroom. It’s quieter in there, and colder too. You feel better already by giving yourself some space and time to think for yourself. Not really feeling like you need to get everything out just yet, you lean against the wall and take some deep breaths.

Eventually, there’s a knock on the door and a call for your name. It takes a couple more tries before you push yourself off the wall and wash your face.

“Oh, good. I thought I was going to have to pull your head out of a toilet bowl.”

You yell out in shock, water flinging everywhere when you look up to see Sehun in the mirror.

“What are you doing here?” Water drips off your chin and you remember that you were washing your face. You sigh and see if any got on your shirt – a lot did – and look for the paper towels to wipe.

“At the bar or in the bathroom?” He asks. You grunt in response, eyes blocked by the soggy paper you’re using to scrub the water from your eyes. “Jongin told me you had too much and needed to be brought home. And again, I was making sure you didn’t decide to punish yourself and give yourself a swirlie.”

“Why would I do that?” You grumble at him. Your head was a lot clearer thanks to the rest, you probably spent all of Jongin’s promised 15 minutes against that wall. Plus, the water cooling you off made you feel like you could at least walk to a car before passing out.

“He said you looked sad.”

“I’m not sad.”

He gives you a once over. Hair a mess, probably from the wall. Face still red, from scrubbing with that scratchy paper towel, embarrassment, or the alcohol, probably from all three. Clothes wet from you spilling two handfuls of water all over yourself. And the heavy burden of the finding of 21 girls coming crashing back down onto your shoulders.

“Yeah… you look pretty sad to me.”

“Thanks,” you bite a little harsher than you intend to. But, thanks to the one who made you build a tougher skin with a level of sass on his own, Sehun takes it all in stride and smiles. He merely grabs you by the shoulders and leads you out of the bar. Jongin nods and waves you off, keeping your coworkers distracted by the state you’re in so you don’t get teased when you come back the next morning.

Between the time Sehun came and got you and when he arrived, he had already transferred your stuff from your coworker’s car to his. You saw this when he helped you climb in and your bags of notebooks were sitting in the back seat. Sehun buckled you in and shut the door for you. The state of mind you were in currently clearly showed you could do at least that, but Sehun chose not to care and did it for you anyways while you watched him walk around the car to the driver’s seat.

“If you fall asleep, just know that I’m not carrying you inside.”

“So my knight in shining armor does have a flaw for tonight’s rescue.” You sarcastically bat your eyes at him and he chuckles, shaking his head and he starts towards your apartment.

“I meant to add that I’d probably be dragging you up those three flights of stairs. By your feet. Head hitting each step.” Before you can ask why in offense, he grins with a shrug. “You went through all that training, not me. All my muscles go to my ears for listening to you go on and on about cases.”

“I’m the reason why you have a job,” You grumble as you stare at the passing buildings. Sehun keeps that stupid smile on his face and laughs.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The ride to yours is a lot quicker than usual since at this hour it’s already late hardly any traffic. Again, Sehun is humming some songs and tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. At least this time there’s less of him switching it up since he’s forced to sing along for the whole 3 minutes. He’s still humming as he grabs all your stuff from the back seat and follows you up the stairs to your apartment. You silently curse the fact that the elevator is down for maintenance since you wish you didn’t have to climb that much while drunk. You feel even worse when you realize that Sehun took all of your bags and all of those notebooks, binders, and files are no joke. It’s a wonder that kids can carry all that on their backs plus whatever else you put into the bags.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Sehun asks as you pause on the steps, a little behind you and huffing a little.

“For someone who claimed he doesn’t have the strength training to carry me up the stairs, you sure are doing real fine while walking up two and a half flights of stairs and carrying all those books.” Sehun lets out another huff, shorter than usual that let you know he was working up quite a sweat.

“I work out.” He says plainly and grins at you again, which makes you roll your eyes at the statement and continue forth. He’s been over before, plenty of times. He’s come over to bring food on your sleepless nights when you just can’t sleep or spend so long trying to work on another case.

You finally make it to your apartment and eventually into your room. Sehun had set the bags down by your couch where you already had a bunch of files spread out on the coffee table. He tuts and grabs one of the papers and gives it a quick skim.

While you change into comfortable, cleaner clothes he hums and calls out from your small space. “You really need to learn about work-life balance.” He sets the paper back down and goes about preparing you some essentials for when you wake up in the morning definitely hungover.

“You know why I can’t,” you call back as you collapse onto the bed with a groan. Your body all of a sudden feels so heavy and it’s hard to keep your eyes open. You huff into your pillow as you try to block out the haunting words of all the names of the 21 girls that prevent you from sleeping at night. That prevent you from functioning unless you can figure out a way to bring them all home.

all of this is mostly true

you had no idea why you used to wake up with bruises on your knees and shins and feeling scratchy on your hands

heck you were sure the bruises had bruises and the callouses had callouses

but you honestly felt as if you got an injury you’d worry your soulmate more than they worried you

because to see that they had never received an injury that they didn’t know if it’s origin for the first time would probably make them settle into a panic

you know this because once you gave yourself a bruise by bonking into the corner of the table and jisung nearly screeched and hollered to his friends about how you were going to have to go to the hospital

“jisung chill it’s just a bruise”

“jUSt a- pfff jUsT a BruISE mY BUtT lOOk”

“............. it’s literally the size of a dime, it’s not even that bad”

“noT EvEn That BAD whAT lET ME tEll You-”

he’s just a worrywart but not so much for himself lmao

but he’s so used to this sort of stuff

he dances and trips because there’s not enough grip for his shoes or feet, he’ll slide across the floor and accidentally skin his knees, or too much action on the ground to catch himself leaves marks on his hands

at this point you’re just used to having to hold things a certain way so that it doesn’t hurt to hold pencils or cups and stuff

some people pointed out that the way you hold utensils and writing objects reminds them of a elementary scholar and you just blankly look at them and are like yeah i sort of feel like one with all the scrapes and bruises on me all the time

like seriously you have skinned knees all the time and still healing scrapes on your elbows and fading bruises on your legs

there was an instance where there were no bruises or scratches or scrapes for a week or two and the only thing you could feel was a strange soreness

and you concluded that your soulmate was sick due to the heavy feeling in your chest like you were being sat on as well as the throat pains

that time was like a breeze because you could finally wear that one t-shirt you’d been wanting to wear out but you had so many marks that you’d get weird looks

so you went out with a friend to stores and shops and just hanging out in general

and by the time it came to sun down you were heading back and decided to walk into a market by home for a quick snack

you ended up standing in one of the aisles longer than you expected because you couldn’t decide between two of your faves almfalkdngnsflkn

when you finally decided and got into checkout you were right behind this guy who was sniffling and coughing into his hand with cough drops in the other

you were inching away as much as you could without losing your spot in line because him coughing into his hands was gross and germy and just hearing it made your throat kind of itchy as well

he kept shuffling around and it kept causing you to shuffle as well because you just wanted snack, not germ attack

and plus you didn’t want your soulmate getting any injuries or problems during this one peaceful time where they weren’t giving both of you any of them

but it was kind of hard to do that with this guy’s constant shuffling around it was like he was trying to jam out there but couldn’t confine himself to a small area without getting in someone’s way

and suddenly he’s like moonwalking backwards and you’re scrambling to get out of the way and when you do that you hit the shelf next to you and wind up hitting your head pretty hard

he stops when he hears the sound, but because you’re not fully out of the way and he’s turning so fast...

he ends up tripping over you and knocking himself over on the ground

“are you okay?” you squeak out, but there’s a throbbing in the back of your head where you hit the metal shelf

the guy just groans and rubs the back of his head and then slowly gets up

which was.............. unusual....... because????

he fell right on his butt

and you were coherent enough to see that he didn’t hit his head at all...... to confirm your questions and rapidly fired suspicions there soon came a throbbing in your rear

suddenly the aching in your chest wasn’t just from the heavy feeling from your soulmate’s sickness in front of you.....

“i’m sorry, are you okay?” the guy asked and wow he’s tall?

he was wearing a face mask, presumably to keep from spreading his cold, but his eyes..... they were so expressive and so................ pretty

“yeah, i think you’re my-”

“oh my gosh! i have a cut on your arm!”

and sure enough you look down and there’s a small cut from one of the plastic cases that you grazed

it’s slightly bleeding, but it’s not so concerning

the guy is freaking out too much to let you get a word in and he’s about to go rushing off to find some bandages in another aisle until you grab him by the arm

he lets out a yelp because it stings and it’s not because of your tight grip

he still doesn’t understand when you try to tug his sleeve up until he finds a light cut on his arm....... right where your’s is

“where did i get this? i didn’t-”

“you’re my soulmate”

and at this........ he finally understands

he was so confused that it hurt but at the same time it was.... pretty cute hehe

he’s trying to wrap his mind around his soulmate being right in front of him and looking at your identical cuts and seeing you gingerly rub the back of your head

and then he moves one step further to see if you’re not messing with him somehow

“does your butt hurt?”

“i- well, you’re not feeling it to find out”

at this he goes really red and in the end confirms to himself that you are his soulmate

and he pays for your snacks as an apology, but he feels like he would’ve done it any other way regardless

especially when he thought you were so cute *u*

when the two of you leave the store, you find out that the cutie’s name is jisung and he tests your name on his lips and you have to look away when he nods approvingly like that was the perfect sound for him to ever make

he also starts telling you about how he dances and likes to try neat tricks with moves and different styles

to which you point out that you get a lot of bruises and scratches and marks from that and he starts rapidly apologizing

but you tell him to make it up to you by showing you (and/or teaching you ;)) dancing sometime

jisung is also very adamant about holding your hand right at that moment because he is very worried that you will fall and he must save you so you don’t get any more hurt than you were

and if he falls you can save him instead!

more like he was already falling for you

but later on did he realize that you did end up catching his sickness because he kept coughing in his hands

Over 7 years together gave the boys plenty of time to explore each other. Explore each other’s bodies, explore each other’s kinks. They had done sexual activities with each other so much that it came so naturally to them.

When they had sex, almost everything was body language. They understood each other so well and knew what to do to get the other aroused and drive them wild. They were so in tune with each other that they could understand what the other wanted during their most passionate moments.

Right now was no exception. The two boys had just gotten home from their last instalment of their tour and the tension had been insane. Of course, they were older, and they were quite good at containing themselves in public even though the only thought on their mind could be just ravishing the other. It even made the experience so much better when they just took their time and waited until the could be reunited later on.

The tour definitely took a toll on their need to be intimate with each other. Both men were very loving and very expressive in body language when it came to showing feeling for their lover.

But now, they were finally alone. They could finally do what they’ve been itching to do for such a long time and they could be as intimate and as close as they wanted.

Though they did act quite flirtatious sometimes in public and often seemed quite close, they still didn’t want to out themselves completely. They simply just weren’t ready to share this indescribable intimacy with the world. They would continue to wait until they were ready. For now, their relationship would be kept private and they cherished every moment of it, especially their erotic moments.

Dan and Phil had gone to Phil’s (their) room to unpack their bags. They knew that before the process of unpacking happened, a specific act of passion would most likely happen first.

Both Dan and Phil set their bags on the floor at the edge of their bed. “Fuck, it’s nice to be home,” Dan said, flopping onto Phil’s bed and burying his face into the duvet.

“Yeah,” Phil said back longingly and sat down on the bed beside him, rubbing his back comfortingly. Dan moved up into the touch, sighing in content.

“Keep doing that,” Dan groaned, Phil beginning to give the younger boy a massage. Phil shifted so that he was sitting on Dan’s thighs. Sleeping on that tour bus had given Dan some back pains that clearly needed some attention from Phil’s gentle hands.

“Fuck, that feels good.” Phil giggled as Dan groaned and moaned through his massage.

Phil’s hands crept lower on Dan’s back. He only stopped when both of his hands rested on Dan’s clothed ass cheeks. Dan’s moans of pleasure went from being because of the massage to the being because of the touch of Phil’s big hands on his ass.

“Does that feel good too, bear?” Phil remarked suggestively, Dan nodding and grinding his ass up into Phil’s hands which were now massaging his cheeks through his tight jeans.

Phil decided that Dan’s jeans were getting in the way of what he wanted to see. He pulled down his jeans and briefs so his round ass was exposed. Dan shivered at the cool air hitting his ass so suddenly.

Phil leant down to kiss his left cheek, his hand groping the right. “Such gorgeous ass,” Phil whispered into his skin, Dan sighing happily at the praise.

As Phil nipped at the flesh of Dan’s ass cheek, Dan began to writhe and get squirmy above him. Phil knew that had meant he was ready to proceed. He reached down to the bags on the floor and brought out the lube they had packed for their tour. Unfortunately, the bottle didn’t get much use as they were so busy all the time. They’d be sure to get their use of it eventually.

“Wanna go sit by the headboard, baby?” Dan nodded and got up from his stomach, taking his shirt off and sitting up against the headboard completely naked. “Can you spread your legs for me?” Phil asked, taking off his pants and boxers, moving up the bed to sit next to Dan. Dan complied and spread his legs wide, leaning back for Phil to get a good view of his pretty hole under his hard, heavy cock.

Phil opened the bottle of lube, getting his fingers all slick to prepare Dan. He closed the bottle and tossed it aside, moving his hand so he could tease Dan’s rim. He looked up at Dan for any visual signs of discomfort. He knew Dan enough that he would tell him to stop if he wanted to stop, and Phil was honoured to have his trust.

Phil took the opportunity to kiss Dan’s slightly open mouth, remembering that he hasn’t even given him a proper kiss since they had gotten home. Dan kissed back, adding some tongue into the mix. “I love you,” Dan whispered gently.

“I love you,” Phil replied.

Phil continued to kiss Dan, moving down to his neck to suck beautiful marks of his love into his skin.

“Hey, Phil.” Dan tapped his shoulder, trying to get his attention. Phil retreated from his neck immediately and look at Dan with slight concern.

“Yeah?” He asked him.

“Can you maybe go slower? Because it’s been a while and I wanted it to be special since this is our first time after our tour.” Phil almost awed out loud. He remembered a similar situation when they were first about to have sex and Dan had asked him to go slow. It was his first time and he wanted it to be special.

“Of course,” Phil replied, kissing his forehead and Dan smiled.

Phil went back to his task on Dan’s neck and teased Dan’s rim again with his lubed fingers. He pushed one in through the tight ring of muscles, Dan gasping at the sensation.

Phil lazily thrust the finger in and out, searching around for his prostate. “More, please!” Phil obliged and added a second finger, looking at Dan’s blissed out face. His eyebrows were scrunched up and his mouth agape.

Phil continued to slowly finger fuck Dan, moving his hair out of his face and behind his ear. “You’re so gorgeous.”

Dan opened his eyes, looking at Phil and smiling. “You’re one to talk,” he let out breathily.

Phil smiled back and kissed him again, making out with him while he added a third finger, Dan moaning into Phil’s mouth.

“You ready?” Phil asked him, breaking the kiss. Dan vigorously nodded. Phil removed his fingers from Dan, grabbing the lube from earlier and touching his own cock for the first time, sighing in content. He opened the bottle, covering his cock with the substance.

“Can you lay down on your back, bear?” Dan nodded again and got up from his spot on the headboard and laid comfortably on his back, his head resting on a pillow. Phil got in position over him, looking down at the younger for a moment to admire his body.

Dan’s pale skin contrasted beautifully against Phil’s colourful sheets. His curves were something Phil always admired. His entire body was so indescribable to Phil. Phil knew that the younger boy was very self-conscious about his body, having a little more tubbiness than usual, but Phil thought it was perfect.

As he got older, Dan got more confident in his body with Phil’s constant praise. It was the fact that Dan’s body was enough to make Phil hard with want to get his hands on him.

Phil kissed his chest before he took his legs and put them over his shoulders so he could get better access to his already stretched hole.

“You ready?” Phil asked, Dan looking up at him with lust filled eyes. He nodded, shifting a bit to get a little more comfortable

Phil guided his cock to Dan’s hole, slowly inching it in his hole. He could feel Dan clench up around him and stopped to look up and see if he was okay.

Dan’s eyes were squeezed shut and he looked like he was beginning to relax as Phil assumed he was going a little too fast. “You okay?” Phil asked for assurance.

“I-I’m fine. You can keep going. Jus’ been a while.” He waited until Dan looked completely relaxed again to push in much slower. Soon, soft groans were falling from Dan’s pretty pink lips.

Once Phil knew his whole cock was inside of Dan, he pulled out a little bit and pushed it back in again, trying to figure out a good pace.

Once he found a good pace, he stuck to it and lazily thrust in and out of Dan. He took in the appearance of the boy underneath him. His body was flushed and his hands were grabbing at the sheets. His eyes were shut again and he looked as if he was concentrating on the pleasure.

“Have I ever told you how gorgeous you are?” Phil asked him. Dan opened his eyes and hips mouth turned up in a smile. He looked up at the man above him.

“All the ti- ah!” Phil just giggled and moved his hand down to Dan’s needy cock. He must’ve been desperate for that touch as he hadn’t given any attention at all to his flushed, rock hard cock.

Phil made a fist around his cock and moved up and down at a pace slightly faster than his thrusts. Every once in a while, he’d run his thumb over his sensitive tip and slit. He knew that was his most sensitive spot on his cock so tried to give it a bit of attention.

“Please kiss me,” Dan let out through breathy moans and gasps. Phil complied and met his lips in a passionate kiss.

All of this was enough to make Dan come unexpectedly. Phil’s cock inside of him, his fist around his cock, and the loving yet rough kiss made his orgasm rock through him hard.

Phil kissed him through his orgasm, feeling like he was swallowing his moans in their opened mouth kiss.

Phil pulled out of Dan so he wouldn’t make him too oversensitive. He moved his own hand around his cock, reaching his orgasm quickly and coming all over Dan’s lower tummy and pelvis.

“Thanks,” Dan said sarcastically, looking down at the mess all over him.

“Sorry,” Phil replied guiltily.

“It’s fine, you spoon.” Dan leant up to kiss his cheek again.

“As much as I love you and would love to cuddle, I need to wash this off.” Phil let Dan’s legs down and sat on the edge of the bed.

“How about I make us a nice, warm bath with a colourful bath bomb?” Phil asked.