#also taem texts him later like hey i know this is gonna make u grumpy again but uh just letting u kno i also have been nb this whole time

[katrinawritesthings]

Onjongtae; grumpy; PG

jong being grumpy and pouty is Important

To: Taem 4:46pm Hey do you know why JJs being all grumpy on me rn

From: Taem 4:48pm lmao yeah

ao3

Jinki’s mouth is dry, his gums and his cheeks and his lips. He breathes slowly, eyes closed, thoughts hazy, slipping in and out of focus. Snippets of conversation from his own memory mix with the low murmur of the tv in front of him and the sounds of cars rolling by outside. He was just watching one of his shows when he remembered when he was trying to convince his boss to allow beanbag chairs in the office. He had facts and statistics and data for it and… he can’t seem to remember any of it at all. His hearing fuzzes out and then becomes sharper before dulling again and he sighs in the middle of struggling to pull back that moment in time.

It never happened; it was a dream, a weird hazy mess of a dream from a weird hazy mess of an accidental nap. He smacks his lips and licks up the inside of his mouth, turning his face more into the pillow he has in his arms. He’s kind of disappointed; he’s still sleepy, but the more he tries to fall back away the more his consciousness returns to him and the more the dream slips from his fingers until he can’t remember any of it. Something about work, maybe.

What wakes him up fully is the sound of footsteps up the front porch. Jonghyun’s home.

He’s probably what woke Jinki up in the first place; the sound of his car rolling up and him getting out are both closer and more distinct than the distant buzz that lulled him to sleep. He cracks his eyes open sleepily, turning to lie on his back and stretching his legs out over the couch. Jonghyun jiggles his key in the lock and Jinki rubs his eyes as he lets himself in. Everything is still so fuzzy and hazy, but he still reaches a lazy hand out for Jonghyun and gives him his best little smile.

“Welcome home, my birl,” he hums. Jonghyun pauses with the door half closed behind him and a confused look; it turns into a soft laugh as he looks Jinki up and down.

“What the fuck is a birl?” he asks. He closes the door behind him and shrugs his bag off of his shoulder, setting it down on the bench by the wall. Jinki shrugs.

“Like,” he says. “Boy. Girl. Boygirl. Birl.” His grin widens as Jonghyun’s confused face returns with more judgement this time. Jonghyun slides up to him on the couch and Jinki lets himself be gently pushed and pulled into a position Jonghyun can lean against. “I just woke up,” he adds in defense of his weak wordplay. It was good, but it could have been better, and he’ll admit that. Jonghyun exhales softly in amusement and settles himself between Jinki’s legs, leaning up on his shoulder. Jinki suddenly finds himself above a head of soft brown hair and he doesn’t really mind in the slightest.

“Yeah, well,” Jonghyun mumbles. “You can go back to sleep,” he says. “I’m just gonna be grumpy for a little bit.” His voice goes pouty in the middle of that and he curls up small, nuzzling his face into Jinki’s shirt and stealing his pillow to hold close. Jinki raises his brows, slinging one arm around Jonghyun’s waist and patting his grumpy head.

“Why?” he asks blandly.

“Hmph,” is all Jonghyun says. His voice is even smaller and if Jinki leans just right, he can see furrowed brows and the tiniest little frown. Adorable. He kisses the top of Jonghyun’s head gently, then rests his chin on it. Hmm. What could Jonghyun possibly be grumpy about. Traffic, maybe. Or work. But probably not work, because between work and coming home he went to snuggle with Taemin for a little bit, and he would have complained to him about work there. They’ve been going out for a few months now; Jonghyun is totally comfortable enough with him to whine about things.

Maybe he’s grumpy about Taemin. Jinki pets his arm gently, shrugging in his head so he doesn’t disturb Jonghyun’s comfort. He guesses it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“Can I snoop and ask Taemin about it?” he asks.

“Hmph,” Jonghyun hisses, a heavy huff of breath, and Jinki chuckles softly. It was Taemin himself. Alright then. The two of them decided a while ago that with things like this, where Jonghyun’s pride and grumpiness won’t let him say yes to anything, that it’s okay to snoop if there wasn’t a hard “no,” so Jinki pulls out his phone to snoop.

To: Taem 4:46pm Hey do you know why JJs being all grumpy on me rn

He stares at his phone lazily, noting that Taemin saw the message almost immediately and then closed the conversation soon after. It was totally him. He wonders if he’s avoiding answering or just trying to think of how to say it. He doesn’t know Taemin enough to know which it was.

A soft vibration on his knee makes him look down; Jonghyun sticks his hand in his hoodie pocket and Jinki feels it on his knee instead until Jonghyun pulls out his phone. He watches Jonghyun check whatever it was, then huff even louder for a third time. Jinki rubs his nose to hide his soft little breath of amusement as Jonghyun replies to what was undoubtedly a message from Taemin and then stuffs his phone back into his pocket. He grips his pillow even closer with an audible little grumble, and then Jinki’s own phone lights up with a new notification.

From: Taem 4:48pm lmao yeah

Jinki snorts softly, leaning his head back against the corner of the couch. As Jonghyun wiggles closer to tuck himself under his neck again, Jinki pulls a pillow behind his head and watches Taemin’s little typing bubble. This should be interesting. He pets Jonghyun’s side slowly until Taemin finally sends the messages all at once.

From: Taem 4:57pm okay so like we’re hanging out right. and snuggling and being really cute and shit. and he turns to me, like, “you’re pan, right?” and i’m like “yeah” and so he’s like, “like, gender and sex wise?? like u like all genders?? every single one of them??” and i’m like “yeah that’s what pan means”

From: Taem 4:55pm and so he’s like “what about the genders like that people make up or with weird pronouns or when people say they’re two genders at the same time or more or that their gender changes based on arbitrary things” and just listing all of these exceptions or whatever and i’m here like “uh I mean we’ve talked about all of this before remember nb people are rad and cute and we have to support them and not be cis garbage”

From: Taem 4:55pm so he’s like “yeah but like. you know how when we talk about these things and it’s like we’re two average regular normal cis allies just kind of saying the same generic things that we’ve heard from nb people and not speaking from experience or anything”

From: Taem 4:55pm and i’m like uh

From: Taem 4:55pm and he’s like “because i really like you and i know you’re not a piece of shit about this but i’m still really anxious about it because this is always fucking terrifying but we’ve been going out for a while now and i feel like i can really trust you now and um”

From: Taem 4:55pm he’s like obviously really panicky and messed up about it so obviously i’m worried and so i try to comfort him and i’m like “bruh are you okay?? are you trying to come out to me or something?? because you know that if you are nb then i still love you and care about you and everything like that wouldn’t change”

From: Taem 4:55pm so now he’s all grumpy at me because i ruined his whole coming out thing because apparently he had a whole speech planned and i figured out what he meant halfway through

From: Taem 4:55pm and yeah

Jinki laughs. He didn’t mean to, but it comes out of him anyway, a breathy chuckle as he reads the last few texts over again. Holy shit. That was interesting. He turns to giggle into his pillow, phone dropping somewhere between his thigh and the couch cushion. Jonghyun makes a little noise and looks up so that Jinki can feel his nose brushing against his neck.

“What?” he asks, voice small. Jinki giggles a little harder at that but shakes his head and squeezes Jonghyun close.

“Nothing,” he grins. “I love you.” He drops a kiss on Jonghyun’s temple just to make him squeak and blush, hiding his face in his hands and curling back up tiny and small in Jinki’s arms. As insignificant as that whole thing was, Jinki can’t even fault him for it. He would be grumpy about it too.