It starts with little things, like being too close and not being far enough. Shownu gets it, Kihyun has no sense of personal space. But this is taking it too far.
The first time Shownu notices something not being totally right was when Kihyun decided to lace their hands together while waiting for their turn in make-up. It was kinda exciting, if he wants to be honest with himself, but totally and irrefutably weird. The fangirls already think that they're screwing each others' brains out on daily basis. If this comes out to the public, hell will definitely ensue.
Shownu wants no 'hell', he wants to be left in peace and quiet dammit.
"Ki, what are you doing?" he asks, because a couple of minutes of footsie is okay. Still tangling their feet together an hour later, on the other hand, is kinda weird. And if Shownu wants to be honest, kinda exciting.
"Whut?" Kihyun replies, both inner cheeks filled with food. The man loves his food, Shownu has observed.
"What's with the foot thing?" Kihyun seriously looks confused. Shownu's not sure if the dude really doesn't know of this weirdness or is simply fucking with his head.
"What foot?" Kihyun asks, food still only halfway-chewed and everything. It is sorta disgusting, but Shownu swallows his repulsion down in favour of clarifying their current situation.
"I mean this." he nudges his foot against Kihyun's who, by the way, still hasn't got the memo. The wandering foot is still creeping up his leg. His head thinks of the possibility of the darned foot slithering up his inner thigh. No, bad Shownu. Bad.
"What's wrong with it?" Kihyun asks, still pulling that innocent face off. Now Shownu really doesn't know if Kihyun's being serious or not.
"It's tickling me." It's not a certifiably strong argument, but whatever.
"I'm cold."
"Oh, okay."
Shownu is an awesome friend. He doesn't want Kihyun dying of hypothermia or something like that.
***
The second time it happens, Shownu's in his bed. He's enjoying his Haagen-Dazs, the best thing ever invented in his opinion, when Kihyun decides to jump into his bed. He has his jammies on, and his pillow clasped in one hand.
"What are you doing?" he asks, because courtesy demands that he does. He knows he should chide Kihyun for not knocking first, but he guesses he can let this one time go.
"Our room is boring." Kihyun declares, making himself comfortable beside Shownu. He takes Shownu's ice-cream from his hand, and continues to shove some healthy servings into his mouth. Some trickles down the corner of his mouth, Shownu has to shake off the thought of licking them away.
"You have your laptop, Wii, Internet, and your huge-ass TV in your room. Define boring." he argues, admittedly only halfheartedly.
"Eh, the others went out, have no one to play it with." Kihyun answers, fixing his eyes on the TV screen.
Shownu has no argument to that, so he just snuggles back into his mattress and ignores the warm heat of Kihyun's body beside his.
***
The December chill creeps up his ass and bites it. It's cold, so cold that even his mother's knitted mittens are not doing the chilly weather any justice.
"Where's your boyfriend?" Minhyuk asks beside him, not doing any better with the weather. His nose is red, and a pair of healthy flushes adorns his cheeks. He looks innocent, ironically. Shownu expects the man to create a monumental contrast with the pure, white surrounding -- not complement it. He is the antithesis of anything "pure" after all.
"He's not my boyfriend." he automatically replies. Seriously, what is up with people and asking about his and Kihyun's Facebook status? Sure, he's agreed to declare them both to be "in a relationship", but that's merely a joke.
People have no sense of humour these days, really. He rather thinks it's funny.
"You mean you broke up?" Minhyuk looks shocked, surprisingly. As though he has any stake in his and Kihyun's relationship status.
"You can't break up with someone if you don't have any relationship with that person in the first place." he explains.
"Huh?" Shownu sighs. It's the December chill, he supposes. It's making everyone slow, stupid and intolerable -- and weird in Kihyun's case.
"I can't break up with Kihyun if I'm not dating him in the first place." he restates, hoping Minhyuk would get it. It's not exactly rocket science or something.
Just then he feels two arms enveloping him from behind, warm and tight around his waist.
"Yo, wassup?" Kihyun perches a chin on his shoulder, his warm breath against Shownu's frozen skin.
"Nothing." he replies.
He turns to look at Minhyuk, sort of surprised to see the man perusing them intently. His brows are furrowed, and Shownu cocks an eyebrow as if to say "What?"
"Huh, weird." Minhyuk comments, and as per usual, he has nothing to say to that. He doesn't see the need to anyway, because Kihyun is warm and good behind and around him. He's too comfortable to talk.
He just burrows himself deeper in Kihyun's heat. It's cold and Kihyun's warm. It makes the perfect sense.
*
They continue to receive weird looks from the others since then. Furrowing of eyebrows, poorly disguised smirks and confused frowns greet them whenever they're within the vicinity. Kihyun still goes about as though there's nothing new, as though they're not being given weird looks.
Maybe they're not. Maybe it's just a figment of his imagination. Maybe the too little sleep and the too much caffeine are finally taking its toll.
Shownu and Kihyun are on their way to the food cart, their hands intertwined. Shownu doesn't blame Kihyun. Shownu tends to lose any sense of direction and coherency when he hasn't had his healthy daily dose of caffeine. He sees Minhyuk poking at Hyungwon's rib, sees their matching smug grins.
He mentally shakes those thoughts away, thinking that he seriously needs his coffee pronto.
Kihyun nudges a cup of coffee to his hands, black -- Kihyun would know what he likes. An opposite to Kihyun who prefers his sweet and milky.
He shoots a grateful smile in Kihyun's direction, ignoring the comfortable weight of Kihyun's small hand in his back.
***
"I think we should date." Kihyun murmurs against his nape. Kihyun's voice is so soft and eargasmic. Shownu shivers.
"Why?" he asks, truthfully curious. The milk and cookies are getting to him, slurring his speech and making his eyes all droopy. He maneuvers himself to face Kihyun, his stomach curling into knots when he sees the warm smile.
"Cos I'm bored and the fans think that we should seriously fuck," Kihyun deadpans, laying a hand to rest on his waist. "They call us ShowKi, hyung. It's seriously funny."
Shownu ponders about this, biting his lips and narrowing his eyes at nothing in particular. He and Kihyun are practically dating anyway, so there's not much arguments he can present to his court of senses. Furthermore, he doesn't think the notion's all that bad anyway. To be honest, it's kinda exciting.
"Yea, sure. Why not?" he says, giving Kihyun a smile of his own.
They move nearer, breathes each others' air in, before meeting for a kiss. It feels nice. He can easily endure 'hell' if he can have this.
"ShowKi" he thinks. He needs to Google that tomorrow.
