Summer Crushes | Jeongchan

nine

For lunch, Chan brings them to a presentable Japanese restaurant that isn't over the top but also isn't one that they'd go to on a normal day. They talk and giggle over sushi and the older pretends not to notice when Jeongin snaps a few pictures of him whilst they're flipping through the dessert menu.

After lunch, they head to the arcade, where Chan and Jeongin spend the rest of the afternoon trying to cheat the rigged games. At one point, they go against each other in a round of basketball in exchange for who pays for their refreshments (Chan loses and even if Jeongin argues that Chan lost on purpose, the older truly wasn't the best at basketball).

Before they leave, they take photos in the photo booth. They take two sets: one single wallet-sized picture for Chan to put in his wallet (it's a simple photo of Chan's head on Jeongin's shoulder and the younger beaming at the camera whilst the older stares lovingly at him); and a 4-strip photo of a sequence of Chan ruffling Jeongin's hair and the younger trying to push him away, both of them laughing uncontrollably. Jeongin is quick to place that on the back of his phone case.

For dinner, per Jeongin's request, they eat at the nearest fast food restaurant they find because the younger had been craving something greasy. Jeongin raves about how he and his middle school friends snuck out of school to have lunch at the nearest fast food restaurants and Chan suggests doing that soon, just the two of them. Jeongin, with a small blush on the tips of his ears, nods in agreement.

When they reach the bus stop, it dawns on Jeongin that their date is almost coming to an end. It's not hard to admit that he doesn't want to say goodbye yet but the day has come to an end and they have to go home soon before it's too late outside.

"Ready?" Jeongin asks as he puts his fist up between the two of them, level with their upper stomaches. He looks at Chan expectantly, only to be met with the older's charming smile. For a fraction of a second, Jeongin is once again captivated by the way Chan is looking at him with so much fondness and adoration that it's a little perplexing how Chan always has the energy to put Jeongin in the centre.

Jeongin has never considered himself as conceited but he can admit that it's a huge ego-boost to know that someone as thoughtful, caring, responsible, and attractive as Bang Chan isㅡ in Hyunjin's wordsㅡ smitten with him, of all people.

"What?" Jeongin asks when it looks like Chan has no intention of playing rock-paper-scissors with him. The bus is going to be here any minute now and Jeongin isn't sure there's time for Chan to start whining for him to take Jeongin directly to his porch. It's not like he can argue much with Chan but he doesn't want to always make the older go out of his way.

Chan chuckles, low and deep and more for him than for Jeongin, and then when he lifts his hand, it's not to play rock-paper-scissors, but instead his hand clasps arounds Jeongin's fists and he holds it in his.

Jeongin looks down at their hands, Chan's around his fist, and he marvels at how the older's hand encloses his completely. He's still growing, barely out of puberty yet, but a part of him wishes that he'd stay smaller than Chan so that he can always have this physical representation of how Chan envelopes him with warmth and security.

Or maybe he wants to be taller than Chan and be bigger than him so that at least, when he latches on to the older, he can reciprocate the comfort that the older provides him. And he thinks that it'll be cute if we were to grow taller than Chan and have something to tease him with.

He's pulled out of his thoughts when Chan carefully pries his fist open so that he can slip his fingers between Jeongin's. He smiles softly at the younger and brings their clasps hands to his lips to press a long kiss on the back of Jeongin's hand.

"Let's not play today." he declares after he's done and Jeongin is still too caught up with the butterflies rampaging in his stomach to properly decline the older. Chan won't let him anyway. "I picked you up, so it's only right that I take you home, okay, baby?"