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“Eat with me..?”

He carefully slides one of the fruit tarts towards Kihyun, glancing around the table for the extra forks the waitress had left behind (because who would ever be eating ten cakes on their own?) and places it delicately on the plate for him.

for the love of it all, kihyun cannot find enough logic to fathom (he thinks it’s reasonable that he can’t either) why it’s a broken plate out of everything that leaves uui vulnerable and bare to the cold world, on the brink of tears. but he finds himself nodding in sympathy anyways, head tilted the side with as much of a kind look as he can muster whilst he chews on his bottom lip. 

“forget about it. listen, i’ll get you a new plate, okay?” he doubts he can replace whatever memories were possibly tied to the old one, but he can try and replace the aesthetic of it all. “like. a really, pretty one. so you can’t be sad about it anymore.”

it’s good that the artist has stopped crying by now ㅡ purely because kihyun thinks he probably would have started later on ㅡ but also because embarrassment is cute on the other in that pink cheeks, wide eyed way. he laughs, mouth hidden by the palm of his hand as his eyes flicker over to him in amusement. “uui.” he repeats, corners of his mouth twitching up just because they have that power to. “thank. i don’t think i’ve ever had someone say they think my name belongs in their mouth.”

he hums. “guess it’s okay though, because your name is as pretty as you.”

kihyun blinks in surprise, yet he’s never been the type of person to turn down sweet things, especially ones that are free so he grins, murmuring a mild “i’d love to” before he takes the fork off the plate. 

Only February and the theme of this year seemed to be ‘unexpected events,’ good (being enlisted to a widely regarded art gallery in Insadong) and bad (the tragic injury of his plate, obviously) and this. A side of Yoo Kihyun he had never seen or suspected ever, in all the times they’d brushed by each other, exchanged polite greetings, shared taxi cabs to get their other very drunk friends home, and Uui really couldn’t tell if this was just a game.

2012, Uui was still just a bud waiting to bloom and his infinite curiosity nudges him to bite.

“Here..” He sits up, tucking his legs under himself, and leans over the table to gather all the small plates of cake so he can nudge them all towards Kihyun, looks shy when he glances up to look at him. “You can have them all.”

[ … ]

“I’m..” Uui pauses, too shy to continue so he just pulls Kihyun towards him again, shifting until they’re lying side by side and face to face, continuing quietly. “I love this song.” The coffee table had been pushed to the side to make space on his living room floor, blankets layered over the plush rug, and all the pillows in his apartment gathered at the center. He finds Kihyun’s hand easily, threading their fingers slowly together and giving it a soft squeeze.  “You’re staying tonight?”

xo 

maybe with some other person he’d find it odd, unnerving that their eyes are always on his face like they’re trying to figure out every arch and curve that makes up yoo kihyun. but it’s uui, who‘s soft in all the right ways and nervous about the smallest things and thus he can’t help but find it more endearing than anything else. he’d be quick to pick up on it and tease the artist for doing so and refrains himself since he thinks that nights like these are to be cherished.

kihyun tilts his head, stares right back at him in that confident gaze because he can and because he knows that uui’s going to that thing again where he’s all shy and his blush is audible from a mile away.

his mouth is curved up into a smirk, fingers intertwined together with uui’s and he thinks he’s never been able to get so comfortable on the floor. “i know you do.” he answers, voice quiet as not to disturb the serenity that they’ve managed to form between them like ships passing in the night. “you always get excited when the next song plays, it’s like you’re in love with them.” a pause and his voice ducks into teasing. “should i get jealous?”

it’s odd. their relationship is as perfect as it is imperfect and yet he thinks he prefers it like this over anything else, when their nights are filled with calm music and their days with coffee and morning air. kihyun doesn’t know why he finds it so difficult sometimes to stay over, to accept uui’s shy and outstretched offer.

“And yes, I’m very in love.” His gaze flickers down to stare at the mole at the corner of Kihyun’s mouth, reaching up with his other hand to press on it softly with his forefinger and chooses his words carefully.  “You can stay as long as you want.” And he really means, you can stay forever - if Kihyun would like to.

“Hey, babe, listen.” Uui nudges the other onto his back, shifting himself on top and resting his chin against the middle of Kihyun’s chest. “This is like you and me that time you stayed over on the weekend and we made pancakes Sunday morning. Remember how you dropped all the strawberries on the floor and tried to pretend like you didn’t? And then you wouldn’t let me put anything on a plate so we ended up eating everything out of a big bowl.” He laughs softly and runs his fingers through Kihyun’s hair, dark and soft, looking up at the other with warm fondness shining in his eyes.

[ … ]

Everything he’s saying out loud probably sounds dumb, especially with the way he’s talking - a little childlike, a lot huffy.

really, kihyun thinks that there’s a thin list of things that go under the category of genuinely, positively silly but he’s willing to put that aside and listen to the evidently distressed artist anyways. his cheek is pressed against the palm of his hand, elbow resting on the table. his gaze flickers over to him and he can’t help but laugh. he waves a hand and sips his coffee a little too early, burning the tip of his tongue. “i’’m listening, alright? don’t worry.”

he hums in reply, not sure that it would be the right time to tell him that kihyun’s probably been through the exact same thing he was talking about. it’s odd though, the way that uui speaks so freelyㅡ and he notices how he’s never actually heard uui speaking for more than ten seconds at a time. and he notices how he’s never actually heard uui expressing what he feels.

odd, he thinks, really odd.

“it’s fine, uui,” he offers the words as the most amount of reassurance and genuine side of him that he can muster up for a morning such as this. (read: it requires far too much effort.) “things.. like these happen all the time. bad days, i mean, everyone has them.”

it’s at this point his eyes flutter over to the aforementioned cursed hands, all delicate looking, fragile to the bone and he finds himself wondering fleetingly what it’d be like to hold them. kihyun thinks he does an excellent job of pretending he doesn’t know why and drags his gaze bafck up to the other’s face.

“hey,” kihyun says, head tilted to the side slightly and eyebrows drawn in together for a small crease. “don’t worry about it. your plate, i’m sure it can get fixed. and your hands are probably just frozen from the cold.”

But Kihyun’s words are strangely reassuring despite being a pretty generic response, there’s something else too - something that might be what’s really counting.

“Hey.” He’s tearless now, left only with shiny amber eyes and a red nose. “That’s the first time you’ve said my name.” It sounds good, he wants to say, sounds like it belongs in your mouth - he doesn’t realize he’s speaking his thoughts out loud until they’re already lingering in the air, full of feeling (his brain does a little shrug because why bother hiding what’s shown so clearly on his face, heart heating his cheeks a bright shade of pure shyness - Uui measures it at 17-1664, Poppy Red).

And another.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you in the daytime.”

From experience, he knows everything looks different in the daytime and Kihyun is no exception, but he is something very very exceptional.

“Eat with me..?”

but his attention is focused on what (who) he thinks is more of a masterpiece.

something soft plays in the background, nostalgic and akin to gold in somebody’s ears. it leaves him feeling light, mind incomprehensible and blurry with possibilities that he doesn’t know why choose to make an appearance now. somewhere, between the music, between the words and the beats, kihyun finds himself pliant and willing for uui.

he’s seated on the artist’s lap, arms curled and looped around his neck, kihyun‘s mouth is on uui’s neck and he smiles into the skin, for the two of them are slotted perfectly like missing puzzle pieces. he sits back, cheeks dotted a flushed pink from the heat and he finally lets himself laugh a little. 

“hey,” he says, “you’re kind of beautiful.”

It’s so warm, Kihyun is so warm, pressed so close against his body, smelling a little sweet and a little spicy, has Uui sweeping his face from the curve of a shoulder all the way to the back of his ear, breathing in deep like he’s trying to drown himself in Kihyun’s presence.

The bass of the next song starts up slowly as Kihyun speaks, sappy, cheesy words that sound so cliche, but still have his ears burning red. He stares at the way Kihyun laughs, his eyes tracing the rise of his cheekbones and the little dips at the corners of his mouth, and he’s 110% sure he can draw it all from memory by now (he’s been sure since the first time he’d seen that laugh, if he’s honest).

“I’m..” Uui pauses, too shy to continue so he just pulls Kihyun towards him again, shifting until they’re lying side by side and face to face, continuing quietly. “I love this song.” The coffee table had been pushed to the side to make space on his living room floor, blankets layered over the plush rug, and all the pillows in his apartment gathered at the center. He finds Kihyun’s hand easily, threading their fingers slowly together and giving it a soft squeeze.  “You’re staying tonight?”

[ … ]

“It’s fine, I’m fine.” He continues with a soft sigh because Kihyun has a look on his face and the tone of his voice makes Uui want to provide something substantially reassuring as he rubs self-consciously over the red lines marring his fingers.. “Just a bad day… it’s silly.” 

he doesn’t lie when he thinks uui looks endearing – and it probably isn’t the smartest thing to point out at the moment, because the other looks like they’re about to start crying any second or so now – but he holds himself back from saying so. instead he throws the other a grin, too soft and too kind looking to be fully yoo kihyun and accepts the fork with an unnatural amount of enthusiasm. probably since he’s just too tired and hungry. “thanks.”

he nibbles idly at the cake, eyes flickering towards the artist before he sets his fork back on the plate. there’s something funny in his chest, like he’s trying to grasp onto something he can’t quite just yet and the source of it seems to be sitting right in front of him. “uh huh.” his tone is unconvinced, edging on concern. “you’re clearly not fine and i don’t know why you think so but it’s not silly if it upset you, uui.”

“It’s actually, genuinely, very, very silly. I promise you.”

But Kihyun looks interested and his tone had been so firm and Uui was just raw, vulnerable, feeling like he’d been caught in a right time, right place, right mood moment.

This is rare for him, Uui talks but he doesn’t talk. He’s private about his personal life, not that he has anything to hide, but he doesn’t speak so freely about how he’s personally feeling - at least not when it’s drifting towards a more negative mood and he never cries in public, not if he can help it.

But he’s been caught anyway, so what was the point of hiding it now?

“Do you ever have those days when anything that could go wrong, does go wrong? And it’s usually set off by one singular thing.”

His hands are gesturing the way they do when he starts talking with feeling.

“This morning, after eating breakfast, I dropped one of my favorite plates and it just.. broke so badly. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to fix it, but it just happened with no warning and I just dropped it.” His brows furrow like he’s reliving the memory in his head, trying to figure out exactly why and how that had happened, coming up with no answers still and looking truly perplexed about it.

“And then I just kept dropping things. It wouldn’t stop.” The corners of his mouth tilt, lips pursing into a small pout, and his voice lilting into a soft whine.

“My hands aren’t normally like this. I have pretty good luck, I have good fortune, I know how to hold things well.”

The real reason why such a mundane event has him so anxious is that, for Uui, his hands hold such a steady level of certainty - clear reflection of his character so sure and decisive about the choices he makes or what direction he wants to step - and that’s really why it means so much to him. because why was he suddenly dropping things like he didn’t know what he was doing?