GLOW-UP

44 | dance with me tonight

"i can't believe he said yes."

it was the night of the annual college winter ball, and in taeil's apartment everyone was getting ready. yuta and sicheng were peering around sicheng's bedroom door to take a peek at taeil who was trying his best to fasten his bowtie in the mirror in the hallway.

"hey," sicheng objected, looking slightly threatening with his curling iron still to hand, "why wouldn't he say yes? it's so obvious how much he's into johnny-hyung."

yuta leant against the doorframe whilst sicheng went back to his desk to put the finishing touches to his curly hair. "yeah, but with that proposal?" he scoffed.

"it was cute!"

"it was awful," yuta disagreed, though he was partially distracted from the conversation at this point by how good sicheng looked with curly hair. the blonde curls, with darker roots starting to grow through, made his hair bounce with every step he took and yuta thought it was adorable.

but since everything about dong sicheng was adorable, it wasn't too much of a surprise.

"you're just mad you didn't think of it first," sicheng told him, giving yuta a sly glance in the mirror.

"no way would i ask you like that!" yuta protested. though he'd played hockey with johnny for a few years now, they weren't close enough for yuta to have adapted to how weird the american could be sometimes. and how unpredictable.

"if i remember right, you didn't ask me at all, baby."

yuta's mouth fell open at that, both that the fact that he actually hadn't asked sicheng to the dance but had assumed they were going together, and also because sicheng calling him baby all of a sudden had thrown him off guard.

"okay," he said, crossing the room to perch on the edge of sicheng's desk, "do you wanna go to the dance with me, baby?"

sicheng looked up at him from the chair in front of the mirror and rolled his eyes. "you're as bad as johnny-hyung," he decided, "no, actually, you're worse. ask me again with a big bouquet of flowers and a holiday to japan booked."

"i knew it," yuta sighed dramatically, "you only want me for my money. i guess you're going to the dance alone then, sweetheart."

sicheng looked back to the mirror and pretended to ignore him, a smile playing on his lips. "fine."

yuta smirked and leaned closer as sicheng switched the curling iron off and put it down. "seriously, though, when do you wanna go to japan? i'll take you," he promised.

sicheng's eyes lit up, as much as he tried to hide it. "christmas?"

"baby, that's literally in a few weeks," yuta chuckled, but the cogs in his brain were already turning as he imagined how the trip would go, "though, we could fly over and stay with my parents for a bit... and i could take you to the tokyo christmas market, and we could go to disneyland..."

"let's go," sicheng begged, something within him longing for the sponteneity of it all, "please? over winter break. can we?"

"what about taeil?" yuta pointed out, but with sicheng having grabbed hold of his tie to pull him closer, any worries about leaving taeil alone in the apartment were quickly forgotten.

"what about taeil?" came the scoff as taeil entered the room, "don't start worrying about leaving me out now. i can't believe johnny, and the whole ice hockey team, and everyone at that damn hockey game knew you were dating before i did. it's disgusting."

"we were going to tell you," yuta quickly jumped to his boyfriend's defence, a hand on sicheng's shoulder, "when sicheng was ready. it was going to be at christmas, actually."