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"Renjunnie~" deep vocals hummed amidst the light stages of the Chinese male's sleep. He stirred slightly, brow twitching when he knew damn well it was too early to be waking up on a Saturday.
"I swear to God..." he sighed and rolled over indignantly.
"Renjun, please," he continued. "I didn't sleep a wink last night, because I think I might be ready! Let's try the real world."
That's when the older realised it was Jisung, and his lip caught between his teeth before he twisted to find the tall boy sitting idly on his mattress near him. That glorious brown hair was shining gold under the sunlight, and his squishy cheeks were even more pinch-able with his dimpled smile. "Ji?"
"Mhm! Let's go, let's go, let's go~" He grabbed at the smaller's exposed arm and pulled at it excitedly. "I'm bored of the mundane things we've been doing. Let's try it."
Renjun elicited a short sigh before sitting up and smacking his cheeks to bring some life back. It felt early, but it looked like the sun was well and truly up. Perhaps he'd been tired the previous night. "What was the plan?"
"Well...maybe a shop? I don't know, maybe we could try somewhere public to practice."
This sounded like either a brilliant plan, or a disaster in disguise. But the improvement in the older's neighbour was obvious, and if the brunette thought he was capable of surviving public places, then perhaps it was time to face the music. He wanted Jisung to be okay, and to love himself more and enjoy shopping with his lovers like he wanted to. Chenle always dragged him to clothes stores, but what about scent shops? And jewellery shops? What about when Christmas came and the sparkles were placed everywhere? Renjun wanted him to be happy.
"Okay," the shorter chuckled faintly and pulled the duvet off, much to the younger's excitement. "I'll be down in ten minutes. Eat some breakfast and mentally hype yourself. Let's go."
"Ah, I love you," he squealed and dashed out of the apartment as happy as ever.
"You're going out?" Donghyuck frowned as the two shoved toast down and guzzled tea like there was no tomorrow. "Is it...Is it a date?"
"Not really," Renjun mumbled between mouthfuls and fixed his hair with his fingers while finishing off the light snack. "We're still practicing, you see."
Hyuck nodded absentmindedly, but still felt this was heading towards something romantic. His fingers clasped over his lap, and his lips we're smiling cutely while his eyes remained indifferent. "Have fun..."
"Of course. Don't get up to mischief," the older ruffled the male's hair before following Jisung out. They made their way into town quickly, passing the rush of cars during the weekend and smelling warm foods now that autumn was about. The pair were dressed classily, and their shoulders brushed everytime they tilted their heads to say something to each other or point out an interesting occurrence along the street.
"I know this sounds like a massive leap," Renjun hummed with an ecstatic beam plastered to his face, "But I want to try the jewellery shop. I need to pick something up for my mother, so..."
"I—" Jisung swallowed thickly and glanced at his feet as he walked with him. "I don't know if I'm up for that yet."
"It's an experiment. Don't worry, if you try to steal something, I'll be there to stop you. We're in this together, remember? Think of succeeding and how amazing it'll feel."
The taller still seemed wildly unconvinced. After all, he was still taking multiple attempts to ignore the stuff at home, so they hadn't really stomped the underlying problem out yet. His eyes faltered over the various high rise buildings lining the streets and the weekend shoppers looked energetic whilst hopping from store to store.
Eventually they stopped outside a jewellers, which even smelt of money. Initially the two merely looked at the windows to summarise what type of thing they'd be facing within...and Jisung was sweating profusely. His irises flicked from one sparkly item to another, and his fingers twitched by his sides anxiously. "I shouldn't go in," he stated confidently. "These aren't cheap either."
"It'll be fine. It's practice."
"No, when I dragged you out of bed this morning, I meant 'let's go and see a supermarket' or something. This is a small, local jewellers, Renjun. I don't want to make a bad name for myself."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
The older sighed exasperatedly, yet nodded in understanding and tapped his shoulder with a small smile. "Then I'll go in on my own. I'll be ten minutes."
"Okay."
Renjun wandered on past the entrance and remained in sight as Jisung watched him from just outside the door. He tried to focus on staying still and getting a task as simple as 'not moving' right...but it was hard. People were passing by and pointing to the windows holding an abundance of gold, silver and gemstones as well as subtly pointing out the beauty standing near them. The youngest of the residents was so used to standing in his outgoing boyfriends' shadows that he'd forgotten he'd been popular and good looking before it all. Now he felt normal and failed to notice the praise.
He scanned the items his neighbour was looking at from afar, wondering what it was he was planning to get. He had never even met the boy's mother, but she sounded suffocating based on what Chenle had whispered about her from his chat with Renjun. He doesn't need her opinion to choose who to love, was all he could've argued, but he doubted the blonde-ravenette wanted that battle. He'd been conditioned to avoid it.
Suddenly, amidst his daydream, he caught the older turning to look at him from inside. The Chinese male's eyes were reflecting the shining metals around him behind glass cases, and he wore such a pretty smile in that moment. Jisung just...wanted to kiss it.
"You sure?" Renjun chuckled faintly, and as he started to edge backwards down the aisle while facing the teen, the shop around him started to blur. The brunette's eyes lazily began to haze over, and he lost most of the motivation he'd accumulated to say 'no'. Before he knew it, his feet led him towards the man he was so desperately falling for, and he too started to smile back.
"Renjun?" He tilted his head, still walking towards him in that daze. He just wanted to cuddle him. To kiss him. To run his hands through his hair. While advancing, the rest of the world dropped off into a background painting. A pretty image of a space that didn't exist.
And Renjun opened his arms again for a hug.
The younger grinned happily at this and sped up to pull him in for a squishy embrace. The small male was so irresistibly squeezable and as well returned the gesture. Suddenly the sound around them returned to full volume, and movement was restored around the shop.
"You came in, huh?" The shorter whispered, pulling away slightly and chuckling with a wink. "I knew you would. And you were so close, too."
Jisung frowned and had to take a moment to comprehend what he meant. The other gave him little time for it though, as he took his wrist and held it up with a chain bracelet in it. "Did I—?"
"Don't be mad at yourself. I'm just proud that you pushed your limits and came in anyway. What changed your mind?"
"Y-You..." he mumbled with a small blush, looking at the expensive object and blinking irritatedly at it. "I don't know what happened. I just needed to be beside you."
Renjun wasn't entirely sure what that meant, or if he was just mindlessly flirting again. It had gotten to a point with the six of them that he wasn't able to distinguish truth and games anymore...for they lit up his world like a carnival everyday. "I think this is lovely," he whispered, taking the plain, golden chain and delicately turning it around on his palm. "Maybe it was fate, hm? Your gut feeling."
"It was sparkly and easy to obtain, I'd say."
"Don't be so unromantic!" He smacked the other's shoulder, but he continued to chuckle even then. "Come on, I'll get this and we can head out again. To a supermarket of your choice."
"Really?"
"Really really. Give me a minute though, can you hang around in here?"
Jisung pursed his lips with a knowing brow raised, snickering quietly. "Maybe if you hold my hand. Y'know, to stop me from wandering."
"You're unbelievable."
"In the best way."
Renjun shot his eyes to the heavens and tugged the boy's wrist along to the kiosk where a very sweet looking old man resided. A gust of wind brushed past them from the outdoors, but it was pleasant...possibly cooling their warm cheeks down.
YangYang yawned tiredly as he trudged down the street with his hands buried in his pockets and earphones in. The sky looked pretty cloudy but with ethereal beams of light gracing the pavement; promising there'd be no rain. His sneakers scuffed over the grey cement and his hazel eyes blinked lengthily before settling on a familiar figure emerging from a small, golden shop. No way, the young adult grinned, taking out his headphones and positioning himself to walk over to Renjun...
But stopping short.
His chest tightened when the boy of his dreams pulled on someone else's hand, yanking him out of the said store with melodic giggles and that angelic smile only he could produce. They looked happy, and YangYang's immediate thought was 'how can anyone get him to smile that way?'. He found it nearly impossible to draw that expression from his friend and get it to stay longer than two seconds. His chest tightened like someone wrapped it in their fist and started to squeeze.
The longer he looked at the brunette stranger admiring a bracelet they'd supposedly bought together, the more the face clicked with a memory. He had to have been one of the neighbours he'd met a long while back. That awkward day when they all looked about ready to mince him. Are they just shopping together?
He damn well hoped so. Their light laughter and teasing could've just meant they were close friends now — unlike the beginning when Renjun hadn't a kind word to spare for any of them. The tall Chinese student sighed airily and put his earphones back in, tilting his head and wondering if it'd have been too dramatic to play a sad song to match his sombre mood.
He wasn't out of luck though, and the race wasn't finished. Until Renjun flat out rejected him or came to him first explaining that he already had a new boyfriend, then YangYang believed fate would help him. His fists balled by his sides and his eyes narrowed at the guy who's name escaped him.
There was no way he was losing.
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