#ydw

taemin 2:30 a.m. hey u up

jonghyun 2:34 a.m.  mayhaps ;)

taemin 2:35 a.m. oh

taemin 2:35 a.m. w8 hold on lemme try again

taemin 2:35 a.m. hey u up (not horny)

jonghyun 2:37 a.m. lmfao

jonghyun 2:37 a.m. ye :) 

taemin 2:40 a.m. come over?? also not horny

taemin 2:42 a.m. maybe horny later. who knows what the adrenaline rush of [perfectly legal and law abiding citizen behavior] will do to me

jonghyun 2:50 a.m. intriguing

jonghyun 2:50 a.m. on my way!!

taemin 2:50 a.m. bring ur skateboard 

the wheels of jonghyun’s skateboard clack over the cracks in the sidewalk, deceptively loud in the silence of the night. he rolls under cold fluorescent circles of streetlamp light, the wind blowing through his hair and rustling his unzipped jacket. as he takes a turn towards the train tracks, the streetlamps turn into old soft bulbs and the trees grow taller, less ordered, blocking some of the wind. finally he comes up on taemin’s street, his apartment complex, his door.

taemin is sitting on the curb waiting to greet him. his skateboard is in his lap, a grocery bag next to him, and his nose is buried in his phone, but as jonghyun approaches and grinds to a halt in front of him he looks up. his smile is wide and lazy in the orange glow of the porch light and his hand is warm when jonghyun takes it to hold for a second. "hey,” he says.

“sup,” jonghyun grins. he holds his skateboard under his arm and grabs taemin’s own skateboard so he can stand up unencumbered. “what super legal citizen behaviors are we engaging in?” he asks. 

“uuuhhhh.” taemin hums as he stands and stretches. his box blonde hair looks almost golden in the porch light before he tugs his hood up to cover it. he taps around his phone for a moment, then holds it out to jonghyun. “check this out," he says.

jonghyun takes it; it's opened to a screenshot of a tweet. it's @-ing the local police department with an unblurred picture of a homeless person looking through a garbage can on the curb. they're asking how to get the person arrested for stealing. “jesus fucking christ," jonghyun mutters under his breath. he's already mad.

“right?” taemin says. “like. care about something that matters. but, look." he leans into jonghyun so he can zoom in on the picture. he points at a wavy tree next to an agave cactus, then to a blue and orange mailbox. “i know this house. it's literally two blocks away. so, i figured." he bends down and picks up the grocery bag, showing jonghyun the two cartons of eggs inside of it. “direct action," he grins.

jonghyun snorts. "definitely not what direct action means," he says, "but i’m down." it won't change anything but it'll make him feel better.

"sick," taemin says. "come on." he heads down the sidewalk, skateboard under his arm, so jonghyun follows the same way. they walk side-by-side, shoulders bumping, jonghyun bumping against taemin on purpose, taemin letting him. they walk from streetlamp to streetlamp, ducking in and out of light and shadow. taemin’s hoodie strings are uneven; jonghyun fixes them for him. 

“mask?” taemin offers, reaching into the grocery bag and pulling two out. 

“oh, sure.” jonghyun accepts it gratefully. always important to wear a mask during legal citizen behaviors. he puts it on with one hand, adjusting the black cloth comfortably over his nose and under his chin. 

“gloves,” taemin offers next, holding out a pair that matches jonghyun‘s leather jacket.

jonghyun takes those as well, but he's confused about it. “for why?” he asks, shifting his skateboard to press it between his arm and his side so he can wiggle them onto his hands.

“what if they find, like, our fingerprints on the eggshells?” taemin asks. jonghyun stops everything he's doing to just look at him for a moment, eyebrows raised; taemin shoves his shoulder, waving his hand in front of his own face. “look, i'm just, anxious, all right?” he laughs. “it's my first cri--completely legal activity.”

“okay,” jonghyun concedes innocently. the important thing, he guesses, is that taemin isn't too anxious to engage in these perfectly legal citizen behaviors in the first place. and it's good that he's being careful for his first time. jonghyun could take a leaf from his book, actually. maybe he should start wearing gloves too when he does his own very legal activities. “are you not anxious that they'll wake up and see us, though?” he asks. that's what he's usually anxious about.

“they're on vacation,” taemin shrugs. “all week. they just left today.”

oka, well, sick. that takes care of that. “kind of devious and hot of you to want to do this on the first day,” jonghyun says. “you know the eggs are going to be nasty by the time they get back.”

“yeah,” taemin says. jonghyun can see his grin crinkling his eyes over the mask. definitely hot and devious of him. “how was work?” taemin asks suddenly.

“oh, uh.” jonghyun scratches the side of his head, thrown off guard by the sudden question. how was work? “worky,” he says blandly. not really much to say. “didn’t get yelled at by any shithead customers today,” he adds. it’s not as much of a joke as he would like it to be.

“yo, nice,” taemin says. “best you could ask for.” he nudges jonghyun with his elbow, eyebrows raised earnestly. jonghyun breathes out hard through his nose and shakes his head. sometimes taemin’s optimism is baffling. appreciated, but baffling. “it's that one,” taemin says then, pointing. 

jonghyun follows his finger. in the darkness he can recognize the wonky tree in front of the offending house. he can even see the garbage cans put away in the side garden. he's annoyed just looking at it. “egg time,” he whispers.

“egg time,” taemin repeats. they chant it together, egg time egg time egg time, until they're in front of the house, giggling and shushing each other. it looks like taemin was right-- all of the lights are off and there's no car in the driveway. gone on vacation. jonghyun waves and makes a heart with his hands at the front door just in case they have a camera. 

next to him, taemin struggles to get into the plastic bag with one hand. “here,” jonghyun says, holding it open for him. with a sheepish “thanks,” taemin reaches in with both hands. he pulls out not a carton of eggs, but two stapled together packets of paper. he heads to the mailbox with them; jonghyun plucks them from his hands before he puts them in, curious. 

they’re informational pamphlets: one about how to help people experiencing homelessness and the second about basic internet safety. jonghyun snorts into the back of his hand. how thoughtful. he slots them neatly into the mailbox and then takes the carton of eggs taemin hands him. he pulls out one egg, tosses it up, catches it, and says, “you count it down.”

and taemin, cheeks round over his mask, counts it down: “egg… egg… egg!”

and they egg.

maybe it’s because jonghyun has never actually egged a house before, but it goes fast. one second he’s lobbing the first egg and relishing the satisfying crack; not even a full minute later he and taemin are out of eggs and sprinting down the sidewalk, picking up speed before the road slopes downward to follow a hill and they jump on their skateboards. the boards slam down on the concrete, rattling and clattering loud enough to wake up the entire neighborhood, but they’re going too fast to care.

they hurtle down the block, clacking over each square of sidewalk, until they reach the road. taemin keeps going onto the asphalt without even looking, his hair whipping behind him. all jonghyun can do his follow , his heart stuttering in his chest for two wildly different reasons as they cross the street. he can only assume it's the grace of the moon watching over them that neither of them get exploded into blood mist by a 3:00 a.m. car driving by at exactly the wrong moment. the relief when jonghyun hops his board back onto the sidewalk on the other side after taemin is enough to make him dizzy. 

across the street from the neighborhood is a small playground and then a field of grass and weeds. jonghyun barely gets off his board and hits the ground running before they reach the grass. taemin doesn't quite make it and his first few steps are stumbling, awkward, bent way forward to keep balance until jonghyun grabs him and helps him straighten out. and then they're running together, stumbling together, awkwardly bumping and scraping each other with their skateboards, laughing together, the echoes of their joy traveling through the night air.

it's not even anything; that was nothing. egging a house is small time. petty teenage bullshit. more of a nuisance then anything else. jonghyun has done much bigger, much more impactful, much more dangerous shit before. but here, in the moment, with the cold air in his lungs and the wet grass soaking through his shoes and taemin’s smile glinting in the moonlight, huge and wild with the excitement of baby's first legal citizen behavior, jonghyun has never felt more alive. 

be gay do crime has never felt better.

taemin loses steam about two thirds of the way through the field. he stops suddenly without letting go of jonghyun so jonghyun jerks to a stop two steps after him, turning from the force of it, stumbling into his arms. taemin catches him, holds him, laughs and pants and breathes in his face. jonghyun can feel his pulse in his fingertips. he pulls taemin closer so their chests press together, so he can feel taemin’s pulse too. their hearts beat a staccato rhythm under the starlit sky.

taemin beams at him, taemin looks down at his mouth, taemin licks his lips, taemin looks into his eyes, taemin grabs his shirt collar, taemin kisses him.

predictable. jonghyun kisses him back without hesitation. he loves what rule-breaking does to taemin. 

their mouths move together sloppy and wet, their noses brushing, their teeth clacking. they break apart to giggle, to readjust, before coming back together again. taemin’s hands crawl around the back of jonghyun’s neck, up into his hair, down to cup his jaw. jonghyun curls his fingers into the back of taemin’s shirt, keeping him close, keeping them in contact. he wants to feel every breath of taemin’s pushing against him and feel his own pushing back. he wants to breathe in every breath that taemin breathes out. he wants to be the air that fills taemin’s lungs in return. 

he wants taemin’s hand to keep sliding down. he's started a path down jonghyun’s neck, his chest, his stomach, lower. his adrenaline shaky fingers drag against his jacket, push it out of the way to drag against his shirt, to hook into the hem of his jeans. jonghyun can feel taemin hard against him, grinding forward, desperate, reckless, impulsive. he feeds off of taemin’s wild energy like he always does. he absorbs it like electricity in his veins. he lets it make him just as wild, lets it drive him to push his hands up taemin’s shirt, run them all over his back. his skin is hot, tacky with sweat, buzzing underneath jonghyun’s fingertips. it manifests a buzz in jonghyun’s brain, makes him tingle and tremble all over. he loves what taemin does to him.

taemin hisses, curses into his mouth. “jonghyun,” he breathes, “jonghyun.” and just that, just hearing his name in taemin’s raw, deep, breathless voice is enough to have jonghyun hooking his foot around taemin’s ankle and taking him to the ground. he trips taemin, twists him, dips him, holds him, makes his impact light as a feather, then comes down hard on top of him, sitting on his lap, grinding against him, kissing him into the cold wet grass. taemin doesn't miss a beat, just curses more and grinds up against him, matching his rhythm like it's natural, like they were meant to fucking be together. 

his hands are everywhere--jonghyun’s hair, his shoulders, his sides, his ass, his thighs, his wrists--and then, suddenly, they're nowhere. 

“wait, wait.” suddenly taemin is gasping, breathing hard, wrenching his mouth away from jonghyun. jonghyun waits, panting, taemin’s heart pounding underneath his hand. taemin presses both hands into the grass for just a second before he's pressing them against jonghyun instead, pushing up his chest. “there's fucking bugs in here,” he says. 

and he sounds normal, regular. still a little breathless, but his tone is lighter, his voice steadier. he's not even hard anymore. his calm brings jonghyun down too. enough to blink and shake his head and get off of him, enough to laugh. of course. of course there's fucking bugs in there. of course that's an immediate bonerkiller. jonghyun stands up, brushes grass off of his knees, and holds out a hand to help taemin up. 

taemin takes it and once he's on his feet again, lets the momentum propel him forward until he's in jonghyun’s arms again too. he gives all of his weight to jonghyun and jonghyun can do nothing but take it, stagger a few steps back, support him like he always does. like he always wants to. like he was born to do. jonghyun holds him even tighter than before. 

taemin kisses jonghyun once more, softly, and noses against his cheek. “besides,” he murmurs. his smile curves up against jonghyun’s skin. “you're looking at me like you're in love with me feral style.” 

“am i?” jonghyun steps back, baffled. is he really? that can't be right. he's been so on top of it lately; on top of his emotions. he's been so good at regulating himself and taking the time to think through his thoughts and not let them carry him away. he does that now, thinking back along the past five minutes to see what happened.

he supports taemin like he was born to do it, their bodies fit against each other like they were meant to fucking be together, taemin is electricity in his veins, he wants to be the air in taemin’s lungs, taemin’s smile is so gorgeous and wild under the moonlight…. “oh shit,” jonghyun says. he shakes his head, clearing it, then nods, shrugging, chuckling, resigned, when taemin raises his eyebrows. “yeah, i am,” he says. then, “i was.” he definitely was in love with taemin feral style for a moment there. he didn't even notice. 

but now that he has noticed, it becomes more and more obvious every second he spends thinking about it. he laughs, burying it in taemin’s shoulder. holy shit. it's been a while since he got so lost in the sauce. 

taemin curls his little hands around his waist, snickering next to his ear. it was him, jonghyun thinks, it was taemin and his contagious joy, his infectious energy that got jonghyun all wound up and sprung off to the moon. jonghyun has gotten so good at keeping himself in line but he's been putting off working on the way other people's emotions still affect him more than they should. it just hasn't seemed relevant. until now. until taemin got under his skin at three in the morning and took his heart soaring through the galaxy.

but that's not taemin’s fault, not his responsibility. it’s jonghyun’s problem. jonghyun’s lack of vigilance. what taemin is responsible for is bringing jonghyun back down to earth this time. grounding him. stopping him, gently, and reminding him that there's a reason he's been working so hard at this whole regulation thing. 

jonghyun knows full well by now that the higher he flies, the harder he crashes. and he's so glad that taemin was here to keep him tethered. his heartbeat pulses through him, slow now, calm, cozy and comfortable instead of scorching fire through his veins. he looks at taemin, sweaty and ethereal in the moonlight, and smiles with all the warmth of the sun in his heart. “thanks,” he says. 

taemin smiles back with all the depth of the ocean in his eyes. “anytime.”

and, of course, jonghyun gets lost in it. lost in his eyes, lost in his smile. his heart feels warm, fuzzy, at home with taemin looking at him like that. "but, i mean,” he says, scuffing the grass a little with his foot. he looks down and back up shyly, through his lashes. “you know i am in love with you regular style anyway.” 

taemin looks down, too, and rubs the bridge of his nose with the back of his hand. then he reaches over and ruffles jonghyun’s hair. “yeah, i know,” he says. jonghyun leans into his hand, pleased pink. “come on,” taemin says. “let's go get ice cream.” 

he turns and walks off without waiting for an answer, continuing across the field towards the corner store at the other end of the block. jonghyun hangs back for just a moment to grab their skateboards, then jogs to catch up with him and walks beside him, smiling to himself. he's so cute when he's shy. he can handle jonghyun’s ravenous, impulsive, uncontrolled love no problem--but the second jonghyun hits him with a real affection, a thought out affection, an affection that he knows jonghyun means now and will mean tomorrow and will still mean a year from now, he gets all flustered.

taemin glances at him, sees him looking, looks away, laughs. he holds out a hand; wordlessly, jonghyun gives him his board. he catches taemin’s eye again and this time he winks, just to make taemin laugh harder. taemin hikes his board up under his arm, shakes his head, breathes out a big whoosh of air, and says, “you’re in love with everyone regular style.”

jonghyun shrugs. “i sure am,” he agrees. he sure is. he has a lot of room in his heart. people try to tell him he can't be in love with everyone, that everyone loves their friends and cares about them but that's different from being in love with them. jonghyun hasn't listened for years. he knows himself and he knows his heart and he knows that there is no difference he can pinpoint between platonic and romantic, no line that he can place in the middle of a gradient that doesn't even exist for him in the first place. if it were up to him, he'd be dating all of his friends. for all he's concerned, he is dating some of them.

not taemin, though. not right now. taemin doesn't want to get all wound up in anything or anyone while he's still in college. jonghyun will ask eventually, when taemin is ready, but for now, he just likes to remind him sometimes. for fun. because it's cute to make him blush. because he knows taemin doesn't mind. because taemin likes to hear it, even if he doesn't have time to act on it. 

so for now, jonghyun is being so brave and considerate and normal about him.

except for the rare occasions where it's a full moon and its three in the morning and they've done a perfectly legal citizen behavior and taemin is so pretty and jonghyun forgets for a minute.

but apart from that, he's being so regular. he should get an award for how regular he's being. 

the field ends and they get back on their boards, clacking over the sidewalk towards the end of the block. jonghyun lets the wind rush through his hair. it cools him down, dries the sweat at his roots, refreshes his lungs. taemin’s hair flutters behind him, catching gold and shadow under the streetlamps; jonghyun sucks in a deep, slow breath and looks away. it's not fair how beautiful taemin is. 

taemin raises his voice to be audible over their skateboards. “i saw that,” he says. it's smug, mischievous, and his grin pushes his cheeks up high. jonghyun rolls his eyes and declines to answer. taemin doesn't just like to know that jonghyun loves him; he loves to fucking know it. 

he further proves this by nudging jonghyun’s side when they walk into the corner store and murmuring, “kinda hot when you're obsessed with me.” 

he speaks low and a little husky, leans close to hover the words over his ear. it sends a shiver through jonghyun’s whole body as they walk to the freezers in the back. it's rare for taemin to get cocky like this and it riles jonghyun up every time. but jonghyun shakes it off, gets a stranglehold around his still sensitive emotions, and replies, “if you want to seduce me now, you have to buy my ice cream for me.” he doesn't mind taemin playing with his heart a little bit if it means he can get free ice cream out of it. 

taemin just smiles, a little lopsided, a lot warm. they reach the freezers and he opens one up, flourishing his hand dramatically to present all the flavors inside for jonghyun’s choosing. chuckling, jonghyun gets a tub of coffee gelato for himself and a banana popsicle for taemin. 

taemin’s eyebrows rise into his bangs with genuine surprise when jonghyun hands it over. “man, you really are obsessed with me, knowing my favorite flavor,” he says as he takes it. then he uses it to block the light shove jonghyun aims at his shoulder.

“okay,” jonghyun snorts, rolling his eyes. this is hardly evidence of anything. “it's literally the only flavor you ever get.” 

“whatever, parasocial,” taemin mutters. he doesn't block jonghyun’s second shove, grinning as he steadies himself on a shelf on the way to the register. jonghyun smiles back--until taemin reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, opening up to a money app.

“brother,” jonghyun says, bewildered. he stops them with a hand on taemin’s arm, staring at his phone with wide eyes. all of his other emotions flood out of him to make way for absolute disbelief. “you brought your phone with you?” he demands, looking up. “to a legal citizen behavior?” 

taemin blinks at him a mile a minute, mouth hanging open, clutching his phone protectively to his chest. “uh,” he says, “is that bad?” 

jonghyun just stares back at him, at a loss for words. then he sighs, closing his eyes, rubbing his hands over his face. taemin is so cute and so hot and baby's first crime was so fun, but, “you have a lot to learn,” he says. he turns and continues up to the register, shaking his head.

taemin catches up to him and bumps their hips together. “good thing i have you as a teacher, then,” he says.

jonghyun has to pee so bad it's unreal. he squirms in his chair, hand clenched so tight on his mouse that the plastic is creaking, and begs whoever the imposter is in this game of among us to find him and chop him in half. or to find someone else. or for a good guy to find them and murder them. anything to end this game and let him take a pee break. he cannot believe this is one of the only times he ever gets to the final couple of people left in a game and it's the one time he's about to explode with piss. he doesn't know why he's held it in for so long. he's not even streaming. he's just playing for fun.

and then, finally, relief: somewhere else on the map a murder happens and his screen fades to black and then fades back in on the defeat screen. he doesn't even care as everyone's voices flood back into his earbuds at once to talk about the round. he rockets out of his chair, scuttling to the door of his office and--

and crashing right into taemin holding a bowl of chips and a water bottle. "i brought you--wuh,” he says, stumbling backwards, eyes going wide. jonghyun barely stops to help steady him, holding on to his arms as he shimmies past him into the hallway.

“thank you i love you,” he says. he starts undoing his pants as he practically sprints to the bathroom. "i'll be right back i love you." halfway down the hallway he calls over his shoulder, “play the next round for me!"

“wuh--amogus? you know i don't know how all of the mods and shit work.” 

"you'll figure it out with your sexy gamer brain," jonghyun says, and slams the bathroom door behind him. 

a minute later, he's experienced the bliss of piss and is happily washing his hands. he feels better than he has all week. sometimes it's the little things. he takes his time now that the crisis is over, smiling at himself in the mirror. he fixes his hair, checks his skin, pouts at the acne that's been lingering on his jawline for the past week, winks at himself a few times, and finally heads back to the office.

as he approaches, he hears taemin talking inside: "no, i told you. i'm jonghyun. this is how i've always sounded. it's like you don't even know me."

gosh. jonghyun shakes his head, chuckling to himself. he said play the next round for me, not gaslight my friends. though, he guesses, with among us those two are kind of interchangeable. he walks into the room to find taemin in a meeting with the rest of the lobby minus two murdered beans. the special role next to his name on the screen says jester and jonghyun can barely contain a snort. how apt. if he gets voted out he wins.

"i'm not taemin," taemin insists. he glances at jonghyun, then adds with a smirk, "but if you want to talk about him then i'm down. i think he's soooooo handsome and charming and sexy and pretty and funny and cool. i'm obsessed with him." 

rolling his eyes, jonghyun plucks one earbud from taemin and wiggles it into his own ear in time to hear all of his friends grumbling and minho snorting, "maybe he actually is jonghyun.”

"see, i told you," taemin grins. quickly he takes a hand off of the keyboard to put it over jonghyun's mouth before jonghyun can scoff, indignant.

"whatever," kibum snaps, "we’re wasting time. why were you just standing on those bodies?"

“oh, i don't know," taemin says. "i walked over to comms to fix them and one was already there and then when i finished fixing comms there was another one."

"how come you didn't report it? comms have been fixed for a while," jinki asks.

"too busy teabagging," taemin says. 

“why the fuck were you--? god, there's 10 seconds left. vote, everybody vote--”

“for who?” taemin asks, raising his voice to interrupt anyone else trying to announce who they're going to vote for. the next 10 seconds are a panicked explosion of confused, unsure voices, and the results wind up with seven skips, two votes on taemin, and three more people that just didn't vote.

no one was ejected, the game tells them, and taemin smothers his laughter into his hand as everyone else complains or laughs about that mess of a meeting. jonghyun does the same, smooching his taemin's cute little head. he stands behind the chair and wraps his arms around taemin's shoulders. he'll let taemin finish this game. the next round starts and taemin runs his little pink bean down into the little library corner with the vent in admin room. a green bean, kibum, follows him, grumbling, "taem, hold on.”

 "i told you, i'm jonghyun," taemin says.

“fuck you,” kibum snaps, and then asks, "you deadass didn't see who killed either of them?"

“and why were you fucking teabagging them?” minho joins them, his little maroon bean standing a safe distance away. 

“thought it would be funny," taemin shrugs.

“ooh, we having book club down here?"  jinki emerges from decontamination and rounds the corner to find them all huddled together. his peach colored bean passes minho and comes to stand with kibum and taemin. "what did we think about this week's book? i loved the part when they were on the ocean.”

“it was okay," taemin says, jumping onto jinki's joke instantly. "not enough--” for just a split second, he gasps, and then continues with what he was saying. "not enough, um, horror for me. like.” he turns to jonghyun and as he continues his fake book review, he gives him a pointed look and wiggles his mouse cursor very aggressively on the vent button in the corner of the screen.

grinning, nodding, jonghyun leans down to murmur into his ear where the microphone won't pick it up. "you can jump in and out of any vent but you can't teleport around the map,” he says. "it's so you can look suspicious." taemin gasps again, quiet, his eyes lighting up with excitement. 

"i liked how the worldbuilding was constant but not in a distracting way--”

“hey, check this out." taemin interrupts whatever kibum was saying. he takes two steps towards the vent. 

then kibum dies. his little bean breaks in half, falling to the floor at jinki and taemin's feet. 

the three remaining players stand there in stunned silence, staring at the dead body. "holy shit," taemin says.

minho reports it. 

“taemin literally just murdered him in front of us!"

“who the hell is taemin?”

“taemin is my boyfriend.”

“shut up, do not let him distract us with that again. he literally said, ‘hey check this out,’ and then killed kibum. get his ass out of here.”

“i did not! you're just making shit up.”

"no, that is pretty much what happened.”

half a minute of arguing later, taemin gets thrown into the lava. the screen fades to black and then fades back into a screen announcing jester wins. the calm, comfortable chatter of the lobby explodes into furious groaning. taemin doesn't even say anything; he radiates silent smugness as he turns to jonghyun and gives him a v-sign for victory. 

jonghyun smooches his weird little fingers and then his soft mouth, proud as can be. his first ever game of modded among us and he won spectacularly. he accepts the other earbud and the booty touch taemin gives him as he gets out of the chair. sitting down, waving goodbye to his favorite, he pops a chip into his mouth and readjusts the microphone so he can talk into it. "i told you it wasn't me."

“fuck off," minho grumbles. according to the end screen, he was actually an imposter along with jinki, so now he's extra grumpy that their brilliant plan to frame taemin backfired. "where did you even go?" he asks.

The sun is shining, the sky is clear, the seagulls are shrieking, the waves are rolling, the beach bustles with life, and Minho is practically bursting with contentment. He walks side by side with his babes, Jonghyun next to him in the middle and Taemin on the other side of him, his arm crossed over Taemin’s so they can both claim one of Jonghyun's butt pockets, and the three of them joke and grin at each other as they window shop down the shore. 

"Is that a wedding?” Minho stops when Jonghyun stops when Taemin stops, grinding the three of them to a halt on the sandy boardwalk and pointing with his popsicle to the shoreline. Jonghyun leans forward around Taemin to look so Minho leans backward around both of them to do the same. He has to squint a little bit against the glimmers of the waves on this bright sunny day, but he spots the group of people lounging out in the sand around three people standing up straight. Two of them are wearing suits and holding hands, huge smiles visible even at a distance.

“Oh, that's so romantic," Jonghyun sighs. "Why haven't you two married me on the shoreline?" he pouts.

"Illegal," Taemin says. 

"If we tried you would not stop complaining about the sun," Minho adds. He hasn't stopped complaining about the sun already today. Minho isn't going to deal with that on their wedding day.

Jonghyun sighs long and loud through his nose, then changes track and says, "let's go crash it." 

"I don't think–"

"Hell yeah dude!"

The two of them take off, jogging towards the nearest staircase into the sand and dragging Minho behind them. Minho rolls his eyes as he gets his footing. They enable each other too much. But this is at least better than the time they broke into an abandoned building to “explore cool ghost shit" and got attacked by a family of raccoons, so. He guesses he can't complain too much.

Touching down onto the beach proper, they walk casually along the shoreline until they're behind the wedding. Then, just as casually, they sit down in the back and make themselves comfortable. None of the guests seem to object to their presence; actually, a couple of the people at the back with them look like they had the same idea. The closer they get to the front of the audience the more people are dressed in pastel oranges and foresty greens. 

Up at the very front the two grooms are radiant in their similarly colored suits. One is in a peachy pinkish orange suit with shoulder length light brown hair, smile lines and crow's feet prominent as he listens to his soon to be husband recite his vows. The one speaking is in a light leaf green suit. His short black hair is coiffed up, his dimples are adorable, his pretty lips form his words carefully, and his prominent eyebrow scar is accentuated with make– 

"Holy shit," Minho says. Realization hits him abruptly and he sits up straight, scattering sand all over Taemin’s shoes. “We can't crash this wedding." They can fucking not. He knows that eyebrow scar. He knows those dimples. He is very intimately acquainted with those pretty lips. 

“Wah wah wah, goody two shoes," Taemin mumbles dismissively. “We're already here."

“No, I mean – "

"Lighten up, lawful good," Jonghyun teases. He latches onto Minho’s arm and leans against him. "It's fine. We're not even the only people that have crashed it already."

"Listen you fucking gremlins," Minho hisses. He cannot deal with their bullshit right now. He looks around frantically, trying to find an easy way out, and when he finds none, he tries to hide instead. He shields his face with his hands and glares at his babefriends. "We can't be here because I literally fucked that guy in the green a week ago," he whispers. He knows that's him. He’s certain. That's the guy that he hooked up with last weekend, that guy that fucked him within an inch of his life and left him in the club bathroom with a smirk and a wave.

Taemin bursts into hiccups of laughter that he badly muffles into his hands; Jonghyun’s eyes go wide and he sits up straight, studying the grooms with renewed interest and singing, "ooh, drama" under his breath. Minho groans and lies down in the sand. He should've lied. He should've made something up, invented an excuse to get them far, far away from here. Now they're definitely not leaving.

~

As soon as the ceremony is over and everyone is invited to watch the first dance, Taemin makes a beeline for the bar. It's a nice little setup tucked at the very end of the food tables. One guy in a peach and green aloha shirt and sunglasses is manning it and a sign next to it declares it to be open and free to all beachgoers. Taemin double and triple checks the sign to make sure, then smiles his most charming and adorable smile at the bartender. At his new best friend until Jonghyun and Minho drag him away.

He gets a dainty champagne flute in celebration of the newlyweds; then he asks the bartender to make him something neon blue with a little umbrella in it.

~

So. Bad news. Jonghyun has been wandering the beach, mingling with guests, asking about the newlyweds, and he's learned that Jinki and Kibum are completely open in their sexual relationship so no one was cheating and therefore there's no drama for him to slurp up.

But good news: apparently the two of them are a pair of real sluts to the point that Jonghyun has a surprisingly large chance of getting into at least one of their pants this very day. Ever since he picked up those two pieces of information nothing has been hotter to him than the idea of fucking someone on their wedding day. And Jinki is very handsome in his peachy orange suit and long brown hair. 

Jonghyun has, of course, already told him this. Even before he went snooping around for information, he went to congratulate them and flirt a little bit with both just to test their reactions. Kibum took it in warm, confident stride, not rejecting him but not encouraging him either. Jinki, on the other hand, took a little too long to let go of Jonghyun’s hand and his smile was hooked up a little too much to the side. Jonghyun doesn't like to assume, or brag, but he knows when someone is interested in him.

Jinki is interested in him. Jonghyun saw it an hour ago in the way he looked at him and he hears it now in the way Jinki speaks to him.

“You're quite touchy, aren't you?” he's asking, and his voice is so smooth, a smile playing around his lips, crinkling the corners of his eyes. The tiniest tint of accusation in his tone contrasts with the way he leans into Jonghyun’s touch. He lets Jonghyun fix his bowtie up straight and then smooth his hands down the lapels of his jacket. 

“You don't seem to mind,” Jonghyun smiles. 

Is he laying it on too thick with the cheating-not-cheating thing? He's not sure. It's not his usual mode of flirting and he's kind of just winging this. Maybe he should tone it down a little bit. Throw in something like it's fine if--

“I don't mind a lot of things.” Jinki replies with just the same comfortable, suave, caramel smooth voice as before. Paired with his raised eyebrows it almost makes Jonghyun melt. He has to take a second to catch his breath. How the fuck did Jinki do that? What did he even say? He doesn't mind? Where was Jonghyun going with this again?

Focus. He needs to focus. He has a mission to complete. “That's an admirable quality,” he says, playing with the collar of his shirt. He pulls it down enough to give Jinki the tiniest peek of his chest mole. Guys love the chest mole. He glances down, kicking at the sand a little bit, and then looks up through his eyelashes. Guys love when he looks at them through his eyelashes. “I like a chill relaxed guy,” he says.

“So does my husband,” Jinki says. It's a statement, simple and blunt, but it's also more than that. It's not a rejection, but it is, maybe, a warning? But more than that, Jonghyun thinks it might be a dare. A dare to acknowledge and then keep pushing anyway, see what it gets him. A dare that Jonghyun is definitely going to take.

But not right now. Right now, he fakes getting a text on his phone. “He's lucky to have you then,” he says, opening up a text conversation at random and pretending to read it. Smiling, he adds, “my cousin wants me. I'll come talk to you again later?”

And that's his own dare to Jinki, a choice to either deny or invite him to come back. 

Jinki smiles back all crow’s feet and sunshine. “I’ll look forward to it.” 

~

“Hey, so, I just want to let you know,” Taemin says, leaning on the corner of the bar, “before I start to get tipsy so you know I'm for real. I think you're really handsome.” He smiles at the bartender, holding his sparkly fruity drink in one hand and swirling his fingers playfully on the counter with his other. He's definitely already tipsy from the champagne and half a drink but the bartender doesn't need to know that. Taemin has been making perfectly pleasant and believably sober conversation with him this whole time. 

He's also been flirting with him this whole time. Even before he came out with that bold forward line he'd been having the bartender blushing like soft pink powder, biting down smiles, and coming back to him between serving everyone else on the beach. His name is Kai and he’s lifted his sunglasses up to rest on his hair; Taemin is certain that it was to see him better. His brother used to make fun of him for practicing how to flirt but look at him now. He takes a sip of his drink and watches Kai watch his adam's apple bob up and down. 

He's so in. 

~

Good day. Great day. Wonderful day. Incredible day. Blessed day. Perfect day. Ever since he and Jinki kissed to seal the deal, Kibum has been on cloud nine. His stomach has been full of butterflies and his fingertips have been tingling and his face hurts from how hard he's smiling and he doesn't even care. He hasn't wanted to leave JinkI's side for more than a minute.

He has left, though, to keep up appearances. Sure, he loves Jinki with his whole entire heart and he just dedicated the entire rest of his life to him, but he doesn't want people to think he's desperate. So he's been cruising through the shore, hugging friends and family, stopping to chat, munching snacks and sipping drinks, drifting back to Jinki every now and again to touch his arm, hold his hand, smile against his cheek, and remind himself that today is real. 

Taking time away from him does have its perks--he can spy on Jinki from afar, admire his pretty hair, his handsome profile, his snazzy suit. And whenever Jinki catches him coming back, his smile lights up the world. JinkI's smile still, after all this time, takes Kibum’s breath away. It sets off fireworks in his heart. It resets his brain. It stops him in his tracks.

Which is probably why someone just bumped into him, tried to swerve and duck around him way too late, bumped into a bouquet stand, and sent their painstakingly colorpicked peachy orange gladioluses tumbling into the sand. 

“Oh, jeez. Oh, fuck. Oh, no. Sorry. Here.” The guy that bumped into him is already on his knees, gathering up the flowers with big hands. His long black hair bobs in a ponytail and little wisps frame his face when he looks up. “You oka--fuck.” 

His already big eyes turn huge, his mouth pops open, and his cheeks turn a vibrant red. He's pretty cute, actually. And he's swearing up a storm. 

“Fuck, uh, fuck. I mean, fuck. I mean, uh, I mean, shit. Fuck.” The more he scrambles to fix the flowers the more he drops them all over the sand. Poor lamb. Kibum gets it, though. He would be embarrassed too if he ruined a wedding decoration in front of the groom.

“It’s fine,” he says, and he means it. It's not like he was going to keep this one specific bouquet forever. “Here.” He bends over to help him clean up. The longer he looks this poor blushing man over, the more he's sure that he wasn't invited. Kibum doesn't recognize him at all, for one, and he's pretty sure he would at least know all of Jinki's guests by face. He doesn't match the dress code, either, and for another, all of his blushing and stammering carries an unmistakable aura of guilt. 

But, actually, the longer Kibum looks him over, the more he thinks he does actually recognize him. He just can't figure out from where. It's something about the cheeks, flushed a very attractive crimson, something about the bangs falling messily into his eyes, something about the eyes themselves. Big, round, brown, gorgeous. Blinking up at him from such a steep angle, the poor babe on his knees now, just like--

Just like he was at the fucking club. Kibum understands. He's not blushing because Kibum is the groom. He's blushing because Kibum fucked his throat and pumped his ass full of cum a week ago. 

Small world. “Hey,” he says, pointing. “Aren't you--”

“No!” The babe from the club interrupts loudly. He stumbles to his feet, slapping sand off of his knees, red from his forehead all the way down into the collar of his shirt. “I mean,” he says. “I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, I've never seen you before. I mean, I'm not crashing your wedding. I mean!” Every time he says I mean he gets louder, faster, sweatier. “I mean, goodbye.” and he just turns around and speedwalks away, wobbling in the sand and dodging around guests that were actually invited. “Congratulations!” he calls over his shoulder.

Rolling his eyes, shaking his head, Kibum smiles to himself as he continues his search for his husband. 

~

Taemin pulls his thumb from the bottom of his chin up to the corner of his lips. He sucks the cum off of his skin, swallowing it down with the rest, savoring the slide of it down his throat. It tastes like the same sweet, smug victory he feels looking into the depths of KaI's dark, glazed eyes. Zipping Kai back into his pants, he takes a quick glance around the bar. He doesn't think his new buddy has enough of his brain back yet to be a good lookout.

The coast looks clear enough, everyone else mingling and dancing closer to the stage, so Taemin stands up. He smoothly slides his way up Kai's body until they’re face to face. Kai's harsh breaths puff against him and Taemin can hear him swallow hard. Taemin cups his jaw and kisses him nice and slow so he can taste himself. 

“Gonna need something strong to wash that down with,” he hums against Kai's mouth. 

Still dazed, barely looking, Kai feels around his bar and passes Taemin a full bottle of tequila.

Jackpot. 

~

Jinki is three fingers deep into the slut that's been flirting with him all day when his phone jingles in his pocket. “Ope,” he says. That's his special ringtone. His beloved ringtone. His Kibum ringtone. He unwinds his arm from around the babe’s neck and leans back, giving them some room and some air. They probably need it after being squished against the back wall of the stage this whole time. 

“bro whered u go,” is what his husband has texted him. The babe sucks in deep breaths, wiggling their booty back against his hand. Grinning, pumping his fingers not nearly fast enough, Jinki taps the speech to text button and holds his phone up to his mouth. 

“Sorry honey I'm busy fucking some slut backstage,” he says, and hits the send button.

“That's me!” 

“That's you.” Jinki confirms their cheerful exclamation with a smile against the back of their ear. “You're the needy little slut desperate to get used by someone else's husband.”

“Gosh, yeah,” they whisper, they swallow hard, they whimper a little bit when Jinki twists his hand around to rub on their prostate. “Why’s your voice so hot?” 

“Theatre school,” Jinki replies, watching the little typing bubble on his phone.

“oh okay lmao not that i like you or anything but i didnt see you for 10 minutes and i got nervous,” Kibum texts. Jinki bites his lip, butterflies in his stomach. His husband cares about him. “the hot one with the pink hair thats been all over you all day?” Kibum texts next.

“Yeah the hot one with the pink hair that crashed during our vows,” Jinki confirms. Said hot one with the pink hair makes a little oop noise, clenching around his fingers not out of pleasure but out of surprise at getting caught. Jinki pushes them hard back up against the wall, just to punish them, just a little bit. People never expect it out of him but he's always watching. He always knows what's going on. He knew from the start that this pink slut wasn't one of Kibum’s cousin’s plus ones. It's not like he minds, but it's not like he's going to miss the opportunity to rough them up a little bit, either, not when they shudder underneath his chest.

“Tell him,” they whisper. They swallow again, clear their throat, and say louder, “tell him I say congratulations.” They look at Jinki over their shoulder, brown eyes dark and glassy, smile shaky, all genuine and earnest. Jinki smiles back. How kind. 

“They say congratulations,” he sends to Kibum, and then, “just hang on like 5 minutes I'll make them nut all over themself and then I'll be back out smiley face blue heart emoji,” he says into his phone. Speech to text doesn't register and insert the emoticon or the emoji; it just types the words out and Jinki sighs shortly. Whatever. Kibum will get it. 

“How are you going to make me nut on myself when my ween is pointing at the ground.” zit's a pout of a sentence, but a smiling pout, a mischievous one, a dare of a sentence. Jinki knows exactly what this babe wants him to do and exactly how smug they're going to be if Jinki acquiesces. 

Brats have always been his biggest weakness.

He remains silent for as long as it takes Kibum to text him back, “take your time i miss you a normal amount.” Then, smiling, shaking his head, he pulls the babe away from the wall. “I guess you have a point,” he says, and then expertly manhandles them onto their back in the sand in 5 seconds flat. He pushes their legs up so they're almost bent in half, their cock pointing right at their own face, using their pants still halfway on to hold them there. “How's this?” he asks.

They blink up at him with wide eyes and an open mouth, to stunned to react. Just like Jinki likes his sluts to be. 

He makes them nut, cleans them up, and gets back to his husband even faster than he promised.

~

Swimmy in his brain. Grumbly in his tummy. Giggly in his throat. Floaty in his body. But also bumpy in his body. Probably because his body is slung over Jonghyun’s shoulders as they walk back home.

“Fighting evil by moonlight… winning love by daylight… never running from a real fight…! She is the one named Sailor Boob.” Taemin cracks himself up, snorting into laughter, grinning into Jonghyun’s elbow. Sailor Boob. Jonghyun is laughing too, his quiet chuckles warm in Taemin’s ears.

“How did you even get this drunk?” A strong hand, Minho’s hand, cups his jaw and wipes away a line of drool that Taemin didn't know was there. He tries to follow and slobber all over Minho but all he gets for his efforts is a pinch on his cheek. Acceptable. “All they had was champagne and watered down little cocktails. You're not that much of a lightweight.”

His giggles ramp up into full laughter, snorting and hiccuping, before he composes himself into his regular poise and dignity. Jonghyun hikes him up into a better position on his back. “I blowjobbed the bartender’s dick and he gave me big boy juice,” he announces proudly. 

“Fuck yeah dude,” Jonghyun announces into the night sky. “That's my little gremlin.”

That's Taemin. He's the little gremlin. He's the little gremlin and Jonghyun is proud of him.

“Taem, you shouldn't have sex with people just to get things from them,” Minho scolds. “You're such a menace.”

That's also Taemin. Taemin is also a menace and Minho is disappointed in him. Warm in his heart. He couldn't be happier.

~

$75 donation to the newlyweds from: Choi Minho

Hello. Congratulations on your marriage. I saw at your wedding the sign stating that all wedding crashers owed you $25. Attached is the donation covering me and my two boyfriends that came with me. I wish for happiness in your future.

ps I'm at that club every other friday 

$50 donation to the newlyweds from: Jonghyun (the babe you fingered behind the stage) uwu

hiiiiii congratulations again :) your wedding was so pretty and i could feel the radiance of your love from up on the boardwalk!! i hope you feel the same warmth you felt looking at each other today for as long as is comfortable for you both!! may your friendship always remain strong!! also here's my number in case you ever want a slut to play with ;) 525-0408

$420.69 donation to the newlyweds from: fucklordsupreme imdrinkhehehe

Jonghyun hasn't been on as many dates as he likes to brag about having been on, but he has been on enough to know that falling asleep during them is generally frowned upon. Which is why when he wakes up, groggy and disoriented, on Taemin's bed, he has a fast moment of panic. 

He lurches upright, sending pillows flying everywhere, and curses real loud until he realizes Taemin is right next to him, laughing, grabbing at his wrists. "Hey, hey, chill, careful with your hands," Taemin is saying. "It's fine. I fell asleep too." He darts in and pecks Jonghyun's cheek, a simple action that has Jonghyun shivering and warming up all over in an instant. He rubs his palms into his eyes, then flops back down onto his back. 

"What the fuck," he grumbles, blinking up at his babe. His wavy black hair is brushed, his eyes are bright, his smile is pleasant. He doesn't look like he fell asleep. "Weren't we playing viddy game?” He asks. How did they both fall asleep.

"Boring game, I guess," Taemin shrugs. Jonghyun snorts. Must have been. He closes his eyes again, trying to relax. Trying to ease himself awake instead of taking that absolute gunshot as final. Taemin, sitting cross-legged next to him, is still holding on to his wrists, and Jonghyun feels him lowering both of his hands gently palms down on his chest.

"What's wrong with my hands?" he asks. What is Taemin doing with them. "Why do I have to be careful?"

"Painting your nails," Taemin replies, and. Oh. Sure. Jonghyun can smell the polish, actually, now that he's aware of it. "I woke up before you and I didn't want to mess up your nap, so." Jonghyun hears him shrug, feels him gently pick up his ring finger, just barely perceives the pressure of the brush on his nail.

"I hope it's a manly color," he jokes flatly.

"Oh, the manliest," Taemin deadpans back. Chuckling, Jonghyun blinks open his eyes and lifts his head to see. They both know that the only color of nail polish Taemin has is bla–"real men wear pink," Taemin singsongs cutely, carefully trying to follow the curve of Jonghyun's nail bed but getting neon magenta all over his skin anyway. "Fuck," he mumbles. 

A quick glance at the rest of his fingers and Jonghyun is pretty sure that Taemin must have been cursing quite a lot while he was sleeping. But instead of commenting on that, he says, "I didn't know you had pink."

"I got a lot of colors," Taemin says. He reaches into his headboard and pulls out a box, handing it to Jonghyun. Looking in, Jonghyun's eyebrows raise up into his bangs. It's practically an entire rainbow in here, all bold neons. Taemin clumsily rubs some of the excess polish off of the side of his finger before he moves on to add another coat to his middle nail. "I used to do, like, four fingers black and then my pointer finger a color," he says as he works. "But then I started doing the glittery top coat and you can't really see it on the lighter colors, so. Now I just do black and the glitter."

“Mmhmm," Jonghyun hums absently. He knows about the glittery top coat. It's his favorite part about Taemin doing his nails. It makes him think about stars in the night sky. He sits up carefully so he doesn't mess up his nails, then holds the box in his lap. He rifles through it, sorting the polishes by color instead of letting them stay a disorganized mess and reading all of the names as he does it. A lot of them are in the tacky skull containers that you can only get at Hot Topic, and the rest are all different brands and styles, like Taemin would see a color he liked someplace and just grab it without caring about anything else. There's also bottles of nail polish remover, q-tips, nail files, and a fancy little bottle of lotion.

Bored of that as soon as he's done, Jonghyun instead turns his attention to Taemin. He's focused on his work, biting his lip as he hunches over Jonghyun's hand. Jonghyun smiles. He likes this little gremlin. He wants to smooch him. 

So he does, gently tilting Taemin's face up with a finger under his chin and even gentler pushing their mouths together. "Hey," he says when their lips part. "I like you." 

"Gay people real?" Taemin says, eyebrows arched way up. Then, while Jonghyun is chuckling, Taemin kisses him softly back. "I like you too," he says, shy, so quiet Jonghyun almost doesn't hear it. At regular volume, he adds, "let me finish this and then we’ll go outside so we don't pass out again from nail polish remover fumes when I clean up my fucking." He gestures vaguely at everywhere on Jonghyuns fingertips except his nails that are covered in bright magenta. "Mess," he finishes.