love you later | yeonbin ✓

049

Time flies. Yeonjun stays for a couple more days. He's there when Soobin wakes up in the morning.

He holds Soobin's clammy hand on the opening night of the exhibition, squeezing it to reassure him. He's practically vibrating out of his skin, pulls Soobin back towards their own photos to gauge people's reactions. When they overhear people talk about how tangible the emotions are, how real everything feels, pride is so evident on Yeonjun's face that it almost makes Soobin want to cry.

He's never had this before, not like this. Some of his previous partners had taken an interest in his work but it never went past anything superficial, often losing interest when Soobin wouldn't take photos that served them. In retrospect, that should probably have been a red flag. Either way, it makes the moment he sees Yeonjun talk to a stranger who's admiring Soobin's work all the more special.

"He's brilliant, isn't he?"

Soobin stands on the sidelines this time, having left Yeonjun to roam around the hall by himself as he talked to Taehyun, but he's not surprised to find Yeonjun in the spot that always seems to draw him back in. Almost like a part of their string is entangled right there, leading Yeonjun back to it. In reality, it's just his love and pride, but maybe those things are not that different after all.

In any case, the tenderness in Yeonjun's voice stays. It's still there when they go to bed that night, or when they get up the next morning. It's there when Soobin takes Yeonjun on a tour of all his favorite places in Seoul like the botanical garden or the restaurant down the street he tends to visit whenever he needs a pick-me-up. It doesn't fade around other people either.

They spend a lot of time alone, but after their first meeting, Yeonjun is a lot less shy around Taehyun and Beomgyu. Soobin has never felt like an outcast with his friends. They've always made sure to include him, to make him feel comfortable and not like a third wheel. And yet, he's always wanted this someone to sit next to him on dinner nights, someone who'd slip their hand into his as they all go on a walk. Yeonjun fits into that role perfectly, and now it makes so much sense why nobody else had been able to fill that space before.

It was always meant for Yeonjun.

At some point, Yeonjun calls his own friends - they all live in and around Seoul, and despite a brief moment of surprise, they come over for dinner a couple of days later. Taehyun and Beomgyu are there too, and it's all too easy to merge their two groups. Yeonjun had been stressing all day, but he needn't have. Because when San bursts through the door and the first thing he yells is, "I told you, Yeonjun, you should have listened to me!" everyone just bursts out into laughter.

Still, Yeonjun can't stay forever. He left his cottage in a bit of a hurry, didn't do more than put up a notice on his front door for potential clients. And so after two weeks of bliss, he's standing at Soobin's apartment door, backpack leaning against the wall and a pout on his lips. It's not forever, but the looming separation stings anyway. Soobin doesn't let go of his hand as he takes him to the station, kisses him so long that Yeonjun barely makes it onto the train before the doors close.

They make it work. Yeonjun comes up to Seoul whenever he has a spare weekend, and they talk on the phone every day. It's not ideal and the emptiness in Soobin's heart never really goes away until Yeonjun is back by his side, but hearing his laughter through the static hum of the telephone line is enough to get him through the day.

And then suddenly, it's December. They had plans to spend the holidays together, Soobin's birthday wedged right before, and it's a welcome surprise when Yeonjun shows up a couple of days earlier than he said he would. It gives them time to walk around the city and enjoy the atmosphere, to snuggle up at home with a cup of hot chocolate, and when Soobin uses every chance he gets to kiss Yeonjun's pink nose, he doesn't hear any complaints.