Flip Side | Sookai ✔

track 11 - confused

Through much scrubbing, two broken backs, and at least one more flour fight, they manage to get the kitchen (relatively) clean and a giant stack of (extremely burnt) pancakes on the table by the time Hueningkai's mother wakes up.

She walks into the kitchen with a warm smile, and although Hueningkai's the spitting image of his father, Soobin can see where he got his beaming grin. "Hello, Soobin," she greets, one eyebrow raising at the sight of the floury batter coating the two boys from head to toe. "When did you get here?"

(She asks the same question every time, although she doesn't really need to. After all, the first time she'd met Soobin was when he'd had one leg out of Hueningkai's window at three in the morning. She'd automatically assumed him to be her son's secret boyfriend, and at that time, Soobin had been shocked to find himself wishing it were true. He supposes that should have been the first sign that he'd fallen in love.)

"Earlier, Aunty," Soobin replies.

"Well, it's good to see you here. Hueningkai's so much happier around his friends, you know? I'm glad he can spend his birthday with you." Her eyes light up at the sight of the pancakes, and she instantly heads for the fork at the side of the plate. "And you boys made breakfast, too? How sweet!"

When she turns the first pancake over, Soobin realises---a little too late---that apparently, pancakes can be burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. He turns just in time to see Hueningkai wince.

To her credit, Hueningkai's mother must deal with a lot of wannabe chefs, because she doesn't even flinch. "Why don't you two get cleaned up, and I'll lay everything out on the table?"

Soobin barely has time to stammer out an Okay before Hueningkai's grabbing his wrist and dragging him upstairs. "Mom'll probably make new ones and pretend that our pancakes magically became amazing overnight. Meanwhile, the actual pancakes we made are going to end up chilling in a garbage dump in Ohio or something, because this woman can hide things like no other," Hueningkai explains as he tiptoes over the steps, doing his best to not get flour on the carpet.

Soobin laughs. "She's a gem."

"She really is. Alright, we're about to pass Bahi's room now. Ssh. I don't want to wake her."

They manage to get to Hueningkai's bathroom without spilling anything on the classy tan carpet. Soobin considers it a miraculous, death-defying feat. Hueningkai's immortal because it's his house and his birthday and Bahiyyih tends to take the blame for any messes made on his birthday.

There's a small fight over who should get to shower first---Hueningkai insists that the guest should go first, and Soobin insists that the birthday boy takes priority over any guest. The problem's solved by Lea poking her head into Hueningkai's room and sighing, "Hueningkai, you can use my bathroom. Then you guys can clean up at the same time. Seriously, you two are so loud, you sound like you're fucking or something---"

"Lea!" Hueningkai howls in mortification, snatching a pair of shorts off his messy bed and dashing after his older sister as Soobin steps into Hueningkai's shower in a desperate attempt to cool the blush rapidly spreading across his cheeks. The water is ice-cold. The heat splashed over his face remains.

He's barely changed into a set of Hueningkai's clothes---because they're almost the same size, their wardrobes have gradually melded together, and Soobin always takes full advantage of that whenever he comes over, if only to feel Hueningkai's scent on his skin---when Hueningkai waltzes back into his room, fresh-faced, squeaky clean...and completely naked from the waist up.

Soobin's not sure whether his stomach or his jaw hits the ground first.

He's run his fingers over Hueningkai's body countless times, felt the way his muscles ripple like a river under Soobin's touch---but nothing prepares him for the sight spread before him. Gold-tinted skin covers the hollows of his bones, splays itself across the dips of his joints. His back arches in a defined V, a thin scattering of marked lines already visible across his stomach in place of the baby fat that had once pooled there. Broad shoulders taper down into lean sides and a small waist, as if he's Michelangelo's stone David, sculpted out of rosewater granite fit for the gods. Hueningkai's chest is a little lighter than his neck, milk dripped over honey. Soobin finds himself wanting, no, craving, to bring his lips to those pale spots and kiss them goodnight.