At twenty-four years old, Yeonjun celebrates his second wedding anniversary. Three days later, he meets Soobin.
Original source- published by overflow on ao3
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Soobin's still asleep on the couch when Yeonjun collects the empty bottles. He sleeps while Yeonjun scrapes yesterday's food off the dishes, and he sleeps as Yeonjun prepares Juwon's coffee and lunch. He snores a little when Yeonjun kisses Juwon goodbye.
Yeonjun completes these tasks through a thick fog. Somewhere inside him, there's panic, but when he reaches out to touch it, it dances away from him. He can't imagine how he's done what he's done. He can only remember it, with the same clarity and distance that he might remember interesting information from a class he studied hard for years ago.
Soobin is soft and still. Yeonjun imagines crawling under the blanket with him, nosing against his neck, waking him with kisses. He allows himself to imagine that. With a bottle of tylonel and a glass of water, Yeonjun settles down by Soobin's feet. He beckons Narae over, but she only blinks at him from the curve of Soobin's waist. Yeonjun waits, alone.
After an hour or so, Soobin wakes with a groan. He smiles at Yeonjun for a moment, angelic as the morning sun hits his face, until his eyes widen.
"Yeah," Yeonjun says. "I know."
Soobin springs up, pallid, bedraggled. Before he can speak, Yeonjun tells him, "Drink some water."
Soobin coughs on the water, then takes another sip. The water wobbles in his glass as his hand shakes. "Hyung," he says, eyes cowering behind his hair.. "Last night..."
"We can't tell anyone. Not even Beomgyu, okay?" Yeonjun hadn't thought about what he was going to say to Soobin — whenever he tried to think of a plan that morning, his mind sputtered and stalled. But now, it's speeding ahead of him, and Soobin must know about this rule, if nothing else.
"Okay. I won't tell. Are you... Are you going to tell Juwon?"
"I didn't even think of that. I can't. I don't have to, right? It was just a kiss."
Soobin stares at his water. "Right. Just a kiss."
In the moment, it felt enormous. Wonderful, life-ruining. Like crawling out of himself and disappearing into who he might have been. It felt like everything. Now, in the light of day, it was nothing more than a kiss.
Yeonjun's first time doing something wrong, and it was only this.
"I guess we should stop seeing each other," Soobin says. "There's something between us, and you're married, so..."
Yeonjun's body fills with ice. "What? No. I don't want that."
"But we need to."
"No, we don't." Yeonjun says, grasping at the blanket between them. "We're okay. We're fine."
"Hyung, we did something bad. You're married. I met your husband. This is wrong."
"But it's—" Yeonjun shakes his head. Of course, it's wrong, but is it really wrong enough for them to stop? "Soobin, please."
