twelve hours » jaeseong

[ten hours]

Jaeyoon lost, but that was okay because the next thing he knew, they were all dashing for the arcade that he hadn't even noticed.

"Can we play Laser Tag?" Youngbin begged. Inseong crossed his arms and sighed through his nose. Jaeyoon found it cute.

"Fine," he said.

"What's Laser Tag?" Jaeyoon asked. They both turned to look at him, disbelief pouring out of their open mouths and escaping from beneath their raised eyebrows.

Human emotions were so dazzling.

"Now we have to play," Inseong said, all annoyance (fake or not - Jaeyoon couldn't tell; Inseong was really good at deadpanning) from a few seconds ago gone.

"Uh, okay."

A few minutes later, they had paid for a game and been outfitted with vests and guns and were shoved inside a pitch black room.

Well, okay, the room had a few glowing lights here and there to illuminate the panels haphazardly sticking up from the floor.

"Try not to get shot!" Youngbin yelled, and then they scattered, their laughs giving away their positions.

Jaeyoon clutched his gun and tried to ignore how the vest was heavy and made him feel claustrophobic even though his wings were glamoured into his back. He just focused on running around and trying to find Youngbin or Inseong. He was looking over his shoulder because he thought he heard someone behind him when he ran into something and went flying.

"Shit! Sorry!" Inseong's voice said and Jaeyoon couldn't stop the snorts from bubbling out because it seemed like every time they saw each other, Inseong was swearing and apologizing. Jaeyoon crawled over to Inseong, wheezing, and hung on his shoulder as he gasped for breath between the laughter. The targets on their vests were forgotten, their guns lying a few feet away from their collision.

"I'm - I'm okay," he giggled. Inseong looked breathtaking in the faint glow. Why hadn't Jaeyoon properly noticed how sparkly his eyes were?

"Where are you guys?" Youngbin yelled, sounding like he was in a different world. They looked at each other and grinned.

"Alliance?" Inseong asked.

"Alliance."

Inseong helped him up and they picked up their guns, staring at each other for a second.

"I'll go this way and you -"

"Your eyes are really pretty," Jaeyoon said.

"Aw -"

Jaeyoon lifted his gun and shot Inseong square in the chest and then ran off. He grinned as Inseong spluttered curses from behind him.

Jaeyoon won Laser Tag.

~~~

"I'm hungry," Youngbin said as they got into the car.

"You're driving," Jaeyoon said.

"So why don't you drive us to the store?" Inseong questioned, almost like he was finishing Jaeyoon's sentence. They stared at each other, wide-eyed and about two seconds away from losing it. Again.

But Inseong's eyes were really pretty.

Jaeyoon looked out the window.

His mission. He had to remember his mission. But he couldn't remember how long Youngbin had been in love with Inseong. He couldn't remember that he wasn't mortal, he wasn't their friend.

He was spinning out of control; drunk on this feeling that he had never understood before - acceptance, real happiness. Friendliness. So he rolled down his window and stuck his hand out, imagining that he didn't have to hide his wings, that they were free.

He didn't stop to think that it felt like they were, even though they were still hidden. Inseong crawled over and kneeled behind him on the seat, leaning on him to stick his hand out the window too.

"If I get pulled over because of you idiots I'm never speaking to you again," Youngbin said in the front. And Inseong laughed in Jaeyoon's ear and he shivered, their hands knocking together as they explored the breeze.

Then Inseong grabbed his hand like he'd been thinking about doing it for awhile, and their fingers laced together like they weren't thinking at all.

Jaeyoon felt like he was drinking liquid sunlight.

"Is that a cop car? Inseong, get buckled!" Youngbin yelled.

They scrambled into motion, falling over each other and smacking their heads together. Of course, when Inseong got buckled again and all their extremities were inside the car, they were both giggling.

"False alarm!" Youngbin said, sounding like wrinkles had appeared on his face. Then they were laughing in earnest, Inseong slapping Jaeyoon's shoulder, and his heart didn't seem to be working properly.

Could you die on overdose of happiness? But Jaeyoon couldn't die. Maybe he could still experience a heart attack, though. He looked over at Inseong, whose eyes were so so bright. He could definitely experience a heart attack.

Because he kept forgetting his mission. That was why. It had nothing to do with Inseong's voice or the way they kept looking at each other, because Youngbin was in the front seat.

Youngbin.

Hell.

He spent the rest of the car ride reminding himself of his mission and Youngbin and the golden streaks that were turning the air into a yellow haze, like an overabundance of sunlight in the car. It baffled him how mortals were immune to it.

How could you not see something like that?

"We're here, fuck nuggets," Youngbin said as they pulled into a supermarket parking lot.

"You're still salty because of the not-actually-a-cop thing?" Inseong asked as they got out of the car. Jaeyoon's legs felt a bit unsteady and he puzzled over the strange words.

"We could've gone to jail! And then my mom would've killed me before the other jail people could!"

Inseong punched him in the arm.

"You would've had us, though," he said, gesturing to himself and Jaeyoon, knowing full well that if they were to end up in prison, they'd all theoretically die. But Jaeyoon's breath got caught on the us.

"Mission, mission, mission," he muttered under his breath.

"What?" Youngbin asked.

"Nothing, nothing. Let's get some food!" Jaeyoon said hurriedly. They all nodded their agreement.

Youngbin acted like their argument over the cart was perfectly natural. Inseong wanted to ride in it, but Youngbin refused to push the cart if he was in it. Jaeyoon just watched in amusement, trying to ignore how this meant that they must've done so many things together, and he never would.

"Let me be free!" Inseong said dramatically. Youngbin rolled his eyes, but Inseong was already clambering into the cart. Youngbin and Jaeyoon both grabbed it to prevent it from crashing to the ground.

"Here, I'll push the cart," Jaeyoon said, smirking at Youngbin with the air of a sneaky kid.

"You're both hopeless," Youngbin said. But he still walked next to them, and threw snacks at Inseong, who lined them up in the front of the cart.

Jaeyoon wished Inseong wasn't facing him. It made it really hard not to admire the strangely amorini-like features Inseong possessed. The sculpted face, the hint of a glow underneath the skin. The dizzying smile, the way the air seemed to caress him like a lover's hand instead of just lay against him.

They bought ingredients for sandwiches and a bunch of junk food and managed to check out, only after getting yelled at by an employee for the whole guy-in-the-cart thing that left them breathless and in tears from laughter.

It scared Jaeyoon how badly he wished this would never end.

a/n: cue the slight angst