Title: On the beach
Fandom: The Time of Fever/Unintentional Love Story
Rating: G-rated
Length: 1020 words
Notes: Post-Canon, Low-key get-together, Minimal angst :) NB: I didn't check if you can drink outside in public in Gangneung; just roll with it.
Summary: “When did you change?”
“Me? What are you talking about?”




Donghee crumpled his empty beer can, tucked it into the plastic shopping bag next to him on the sand, and reached for a fresh one. Not long ago he’d have avoided drinking alone with Go Hotae. What if he accidentally revealed his feelings or encouraged him? But things were changing between them. Hotae hugged him sometimes, now, and Donghee had stopped fighting it. One day—one day, their closeness was inevitably going to tip over into romance.

Donghee was starting to look forward to that day, starting to be believe it would be all right. But it wouldn’t be this evening. They were in public. People were walking past in couples or groups, maybe on their way to the restaurant where Hotae had first asked him out. So when Yoon Taejoon and Wonyoung had left together saying they needed to get up early tomorrow, Donghee had stayed and so had Hotae.

“Kim Donghee.”

Donghee could feel Hotae’s eyes on him. For a moment, he watched the waves and let himself enjoy their gentle whush and Hotae’s attention. Then he turned his head and glared. “Don’t even dream of trying anything, brat!”

Hotae grinned. “What do you think I’m going to do—molest you on the beach?”

Donghee cocked a threatening fist. “Don’t even joke about it!”

But his heart beat faster at the suggestion. He could almost feel the cool sand under his back, and Hotae’s hot body pressing down on him. He took a hasty mouthful of beer.

“Kim Donghee, can I ask you a question?” Hotae sounded curious. It didn’t seem like he was going to ask Donghee out again—he never asked permission for that.

“What?”

For a moment, there was no answer. When Donghee stole a glance, Hotae was staring out to sea. Then, “When did you change?”

“Me? What are you talking about?”

“When did you stop being—In high school you were kind and quiet and dreamy, and you studied hard all the time. You never wanted to cause any trouble.”

“You think I want to cause trouble now?” Donghee felt a weird drop in his stomach. He’d thought they were getting closer to something special. Did Hotae not understand him after all?

“It’s not that.” Hotae looked at him, frowning as if searching for the right words. “I mean, you’ve always been beautiful and bright, but now you’re fierce, too. You threaten and swear. You never used to do that. You never used to hit me or get in people’s faces.”

“Oh.” The years seemed to roll back. He wondered if he could talk about it. Maybe Hotae deserved to know. “When I first got to Seoul—I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t talk to anyone. For ages, I didn’t do anything but go to class and sit in my dorm room. I was trying really hard not to—” He broke off.

Hotae didn’t pester him to finish, but after a moment, he made an enquiring noise.

“Not to call or come see you.” Donghee cleared his throat and made himself kept going, stronger now, more matter-of-fact. “Then I met another gay guy in one of my classes, and he made me go to my first nightclub. We weren’t—we were just friends. And I met his friends, and then I had a group. If I’d stayed my old quiet self, I would have been invisible, so I just—over time, I learned to be more expressive.”

“Ah, so that’s how it was.” Hotae studied him.

Donghee’s heart ached a little. “Honestly—this is a secret, okay?”

Hotae nodded.

“I decided not to be me anymore.” His old, soft, bruised and yearning self had belonged to Go Hotae. Donghee hadn’t wanted to share it with anyone else, or expose it to the loud, careless situations he’d found himself in. He’d decided to grow a shiny protective shell—and now that shell was a permanent part of him, for better or worse. “Besides, isn’t it better to be dramatic and interesting?”

He made it a real question and then half-regretted it, as he waited for Hotae’s answer.

“Kim Donghee, whatever you do, I always think you’re interesting. You don’t have to do anything special or be any particular way to earn it.” Hotae sounded earnest. His eyes shone in the fading light.

Something hard and tight inside Donghee, like a muscle that had been cramping, eased. He took one breath and then another, deeper one. “Thanks.”

“I kind of like it,” said Hotae, confidingly. He leaned back, bracing himself on his hands and stretching his legs out in front of him. “I mean, I like who you are now, too. But I’m glad that the old Kim Donghee—the one I knew back then—that I’m not sharing him with anyone else. Not with Yoon Taejoon or anyone you met in Seoul. He’s mine.”

Donghee shook his head a little. It was strange to hear his own thoughts from Hotae’s lips—and comforting to be perfectly understood after all. Comforting and exhilarating.

Not letting himself stop to think, Donghee reached to cover one of Hotae’s hands with his own.

Hotae froze for a second, then moved in a rustle of tracksuit and soft sand, shifting his weight so he could turn his hand over and bring them palm to palm. He entwined their fingers and squeezed. “Mine,” he repeated.

Donghee felt like he’d unthinkingly stepped off a cliff and was still figuring out if he could fly. But he couldn’t argue with that. “Yours,” he confirmed.

“Ah, this isn’t fair.” The tremor in Hotae’s voice might have been a laugh, or it might have been something else. “I already promised not to molest you on the beach.”

“Ya!” Donghee rounded on him, half serious, half teasing. “Are you crazy? Be quiet and drink your beer!”

He raised his own can to his mouth and took another swallow, and then threw his head back and laughed. The waves lapped at the shore, and Hotae’s hand was in his, a promise of things to come. It had happened tonight, here on this beach, after all.



END