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Doyoung wasn't used to change. But he had to. After what had happened, the thing he wanted most was to leave the country. He packed all his stuff up, texted his brother he would be “exploring a new chapter in his life”, and left straight to California.
Has he ever been there? Nope. Has he planned anything out at all? Nope. He would figure it out when he arrived, he said.
At the airport, Doyoung looked around. There were so many people at LAX, so many people with their own different lives. What was Doyoung doing with his life? He wandered around for a minute, exploring the souvenir shops. The little Hollywood keychain was so cute, but he had to save his money. He had enough for a ride and to just barely get by until he found a job.
He reread the message from his roommate again.
Hello Doyoung! I'm your roommate, Mark ^_^ I'll be waiting for you in the apartment, I can’t wait to meet you! ♡
Doyoung sighed loudly, picking up his walking pace.
“Ah- fuck!” He hadn't noticed the man he bumped into at all. He had short spiky hair, and dark brown eyes. He was really handsome. If only Doyoung could get the balls to get his number.
“I- I'm sorry. Here, let me- let me help.” Doyoung was a hot mess, helping the man pick up all of his belongings from the floor.
“No worries, it's fine,” The man replied, warmly smiling at him. Doyoung had to hold himself back right then and there. “Where you from?”
Doyoung knew just enough English to laugh awkwardly and attempt to formulate responses back. Was this guy flirting with him? “Korea. I lived there for all my life until now.”
The guy only grinned at Doyoung, and he worried he was doing something wrong. “Hey, don't stress yourself out too much, alright? If you need help, there are plenty of people here who'll be there for you.”
Doyoung and the man said their goodbyes, and Doyoung quite literally rushed to his Uber. He was too awkward to talk to an attractive man like him. He should've gotten his number, or at least a name.
Doyoung shook his head. He couldn't be liking a guy, he shouldn't be thinking those thoughts at all. Bad Doyoung, he internally scolded himself as the car ride continued on.
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“Are you Doyoung?”
He's welcomed by a couple of balloons and a sign that says “WELCOME NEW ROOMMATE”
The blonde-hair boy, who he was guessing was Mark, took his suitcase and moved it away, instead bringing Doyoung straight into a tight squeeze. “I'm so happy I'm finally meeting you Doyoung! You're going to love it here in California, I'll show you all the stuff you can do tomorrow, it'll be fun, promise!” Mark began rambling about everything, from his own personal life to everything about California.
Doyoung was about to zone out, but the last thing Mark said really caught his attention. “Hey, one of my friends’ birthdays is soon, and he's having a party in a couple of days, wanna go with me? They're gonna have a DJ, and free food, and everything!”
Doyoung thought about it. He had just stepped foot in a completely different country to escape, he had an entire list of what he'd do after he landed.
Doyoung's Plans For California
Live w roommate for a bit
Find job
Move out
Work on a singing career? (unlikely.)
“Sure, I'll go.” He accepted, and Mark cheered. He was going to make some new friends, hopefully.
Mark guided Doyoung to his room, blissfully minimalist with only a bed, desk, and a blue carpet. “This room used to be one of my other friend's, but he moved out. He's living with his boyfriend now, so I'm kinda lonely here.”
Doyoung frowned at Mark's saddened expression, patting his new roommate's shoulder. “Yeah, I get that. The feeling of being replaced, right? That's kind of why I moved here.”
Mark didn't want to push it. Doyoung had just met him, he wasn't going to ask what had made him move yet. “You're kinda right. Doyoung, I like you. Hopefully we'll be good roommates, right?”
Doyoung smiled, a genuine authentic smile. “I'm sure we will, Mark. Tell me more about– what was his name– Chenle?”
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When the night of the party arrived, Doyoung was sat on Mark's bed, watching as he rustled through his closet to find something to wear.
Doyoung had gone with a simple fit, with a light blue sweater and jeans. “You've known Chenle for ages now, why are you so stressed about what you're going to wear?”
“It's, uh, embarrassing.” Mark's ears flushed red. “Chenle has a friend who he said he'd set me up with, so I don't want to disappoint him with my first impression.”
So Mark had a crush. Doyoung noted that for future reference and got up, pulling clothes from the closet he thought would fit Mark the best. “Try these.”
Mark put on the outfit Doyoung recommended and did a little 360°. “Damnnn, you have an eye for fashion, Doyoung! Are you ready to leave?”
Doyoung nodded, following Mark as he grabbed the car keys and exited.
Doyoung had expected a lot of people at the party, but he hadn't expected something this big. “Mark?” Mark didn't hear him the first time. “MARK?”
Mark turned his head around, shaken by the sudden call of his name. “Yeah??”
“Where's Chenle?”
“What?”
“WHERE'S CHENLE?” Doyoung was going to destroy his vocal cords by the end of this party.
“DUDE, I DON'T KNOW! WANNA GO LOOK?” Already too fed up with yelling past the loud bass, Doyoung just gave him a thumbs up.
Weaving past the loud crowds, the first place the two decided to look was near the concessions stand. “Chenle's always the first one drunk, even if he doesn't want to admit it,” Mark joked as he scanned the area.
When Chenle was nowhere to be found, the next area they searched were the bathrooms, and then the DJ stand.
“Do you guys need anything?” The DJ stand was so dark Doyoung didn't even recognize who the person he was talking to at first.
“Hey, I remember you.” Doyoung finally blurted.
“Didn't you just come here last week?” Mark asked, confused on how his roommate recognized a random DJ.
“You're the guy I bumped into at the airport, of course I remember you.” Doyoung felt relieved that he actually remembered who he was. “I don't think I ever formally introduced myself. My name's Johnny.” Johnny held out his arm for the black-haired man to shake.
He would be lying if he said his hands weren't trembling as he shook Johnny's muscular arm. “I'm Doyoung. Kim Doyoung. It's nice to see you again, Johnny.”
“Dude, I feel kinda left out now, you guys already know each other? I'm Mark, by the way,” Mark was next to shake Johnny's hand.
Johnny laughed, a deep sound that made Doyoung feel warm in his chest.
“I found Chenle, you can have fun with Johnny.” Mark nudged Doyoung before running over to his friend, who was there with who he guessed was the friend Chenle was trying to set him up with.
“How are you liking California so far?” Johnny moved some dials and knobs on the equipment that Doyoung didn't understand. He wondered what it was like to be a DJ, just standing there, looking hot, and playing music.
The younger leaned in closer, hoping the music wasn't too loud. “It's really nice, surprisingly. I like the environment and food!”
Johnny pulled Doyoung in closer by his waist, “It's really loud here, isn't it? D'you wanna get away, just you and me?”
Doyoung blinked for a second. This wasn't real, was it? “Me?” He pointed to himself. “Who's going to run the booth? Where do we go?”
“Of course you, silly. Who else would I be talking to?” Johnny whispered in Doyoung's ear, “We'll go to the bathroom, figure out what we're gonna do then.”
The bathroom of the place Chenle rented out was dingy, and had slight shitty undertones that made Doyoung scrunch his nose up in disgust.
Johnny leaned on one of the bathroom sinks, taking a hit of his vape. Doyoung's eyes darted from Johnny, to the vape, then back to Johnny.
Johnny held his vape out, “Want a hit? It's cherry flavored.”
Doyoung pushed the vape away, “Sorry, but I don't vape.” He felt like those middle school goody two-shoes everyone hated. “It's, uh, not for me.”
“Wanna try something else then?” Johnny was plotting something, and it was clear to the both of them. With a silent affirmation, Johnny took another hit of his vape, but not exhaling, instead grabbing Doyoung's cheeks and kissing them, forcing him to taste the cherry flavored air.
“Johnny…”
“Did it taste good?”
Doyoung didn't know which one was worse: the fact that Johnny forced him to try a vape, or the fact that Johnny had kissed him. He coughed a little, overwhelmed by the artificial flavoring and the heat in his chest.
Before Doyoung could get a coherent response out, the sound of giggling from a group of people was audible. “Yo, Doyoung?”
“Hi, Mark..!” His roommate had entered the bathroom, along with the birthday boy and the guy Mark had been worried about impressing.
“Mark was wondering where you were! I'm Chenle, by the way. This is Haechan. Hey, you're the DJ I hired!” Chenle was piecing the puzzle together in a way Doyoung did not want him to.
“I- Chenle- It’s not what you think.” Doyoung was cornered against one of the bathroom sinks, hand around Johnny's wrist with the vape.
“Ooh, Johnny and Doyoung are hooking up in the bathroom!” Haechan giggled, and even Mark stifled a laugh.
“No! I'm not-” Doyoung stopped himself. Johnny was looking right at him, “I'm… um.”
Johnny moved his hand back and put the vape back in his pocket. “It's fine, I gotta get back anyways. Nice talkin’ to you, bro.”
“Ooh, fumbled your shot.” Haechan commented, watching the DJ leave the bathroom. “Mark was going to take me back to your guys' place later, you fine with that?”
Doyoung exhaled deeply. “Okay. I don't mind!” He ended up sneaking glimpses at Johnny the entire time, who noticed Doyoung's eyes, but didn't do anything more.
Nearing the end of the party, Chenle came up to him with a slip of paper. “Hot DJ told me to give this to you by the way. Maybe your shot isn't up after all, loverboy.”
“Huh..?” He unfolds the bright yellow sticky note to reveal a number.
XXX-XXX-XXXX
Text me later, pretty boy
“Doyoung! Get over here, we're leaving!” Mark called out. Doyoung clenched the paper in his hand, sort of crumpling it.
“Be there in a second,” The black-haired man made his way to Mark and Haechan, who were happily chatting away.
The beauty of young love. Oh, how Doyoung hated love.
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“You have got to stop checking your phone so much, Doie.” Mark finally said after Doyoung checked his phone for the 127th time.
Doyoung immediately placed his phone back on the table in embarrassment. He had sent Johnny a text not too long ago, just a simple: “Hi, this is Doyoung from the airport and Chenle's party! How are you?” He told himself Johnny was just busy, but no response in four hours stressed him.
“Awww, you'll get your response soon.” Mark patted his back, “Look, I saw your phone buzz.”
“It did??” Doyoung checks his phone, and sure enough, there's a response.
hey doyoung srry 4 responding late.
glad you fr texted me, we should get coffee sometime ;)
Doyoung paused on typing his reply, not yet. He wasn't sure of his feelings at all. “He wants to get coffee with me, Mark, what do I do?”
Mark snickers, but doesn't add anything until Doyoung slaps his arm. “Ow! Dude, literally say you want to go with him! You like him, right?”
Doyoung almost agreed. He did like Johnny, but he couldn't have a repeat of what happened back in Korea. “I… I don’t know, Mark.”
“Tell him you'll go with him and figure out your feelings then.” Mark took his roommates phone away from him to type the answer Doyoung was too scared to give.
ofccc!! im free whenever you're free!! <3
“Mark!” Johnny had already read the text and was typing. “What's he saying? Let me see, give me my phone back!”
Mark pushed him away. “I got this, I don't trust you with your own responses.” A few more minutes of Doyoung peering over Mark's shoulder, and Mark at last gave him his phone back. “You guys are going out together on Friday, good luck.”
“What the fuck, I'm not ready?” Doyoung read the messages that “he” sent to Johnny. To his surprise, Mark was pretty good at pretending to be him.
“Do you want me to be honest, Doie?” Without waiting for Doyoung to even open his mouth, Mark let his words escape anyways. “You seem like a nice dude, but you're hiding a lot. You should open up a little. Maybe not to me if you're not comfortable with it, but to someone else who you'd feel more comfortable with. You seem super tense, and I think it's with what happened before you moved. Why did you come to California?”
“I came here to start over.” Doyoung felt his airway closing up. He didn't want to go back to Korea. He couldn't face them again.
“I know that's not the real reason. There's more to it. I can tell.”
Doyoung sprinted out of the living room, out of the house, running until he couldn't anymore. The streets of LA were overpopulated, vivid street lights lighting up wherever he ran.
He was tired, thirsty, and maybe sort of hungry. But most of all, he was done. He couldn't let Mark know his secret, he couldn't let anyone know. Defeated, Doyoung slumped down on one of the benches, not caring if he looked like a homeless person.
“What a pleasure seeing you here,” Doyoung looked up and saw Johnny. The same Johnny from the airport, the same Johnny from the party, the same Johnny that kissed him, “We keep bumping into each other, must be fate.”
“Go away.”
“I know you don't mean that. Come with me back to my place?”
“Umm.” Doyoung fidgeted with his hands. He had to confront Johnny at this point, there was no avoiding it. “Sure.”
The two walked in silence, only the background chatter of strangers and the passing of cars, along with the two men's footsteps, being heard.
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“Spill,” Johnny said once the two arrived to his apartment. It was modest, to say the least, with random clothes and other paraphernalia lying on the floor, “I want to know what happened.”
“Mark and I argued.” A lie. It wasn't an argument, it was his own cowardice.
“Why?”
“It’s stupid.”
Johnny took his hands in his. The first thing Doyoung noticed was that his hands were cold. “I don't care how stupid it is. I just want to help you.”
He knew he promised himself he wouldn't tell anyone. But there was something about Johnny that made him want to open up. “Mark, uh, tried asking me why I moved from Korea.”
“Well? Why did you move?” Doyoung felt the same feeling in his chest from earlier.
“I had a boyfriend.” Doyoung starts. He squeezed Johnny's hands harder, to distract him from how terrible the memory might be. “We were doing good too, I guess. Until my parents found out. They got mad at me. We had a whole argument, and they offered me a choice to– I don't know– turn straight? Or get kicked out of the house. So that's why I'm here.”
“Well…” Johnny moved his hands to hug Doyoung. He didn't know how to comfort the other man on his bed, who was now holding back tears. “You can cry if you want. If your parents kick you out because you like boys, then that makes them shitty parents. You shouldn't be hated for loving someone.”
Doyoung pulled away from the hug, looking into Johnny's deep brown eyes. “Can I kiss you? For real this time, not with that vape.”
“Should've told me you hated the flavor,” He laughed, kissing Doyoung. He could still taste the cherry on his lips, but it was better than what he tasted that night at the party.
“More?” Was this too fast paced? Was he going to scare Johnny away?
He remembered his ex's face when he told him he had to break up with him. “You're really choosing your parents over me? I thought you loved me?” His angry expression was something he couldn't forget, no matter how hard he tried.
“How much more do you want?” Johnny trailed his fingers down to the hem of Doyoung's shirt.
“All the way.” This wasn't Doyoung's first time at all, but he still felt his heart thumping out of his chest.
Johnny continued, lifting Doyoung's shirt above his head. He traced from his ribs all the way to his chest. “You're so pretty.” His fingers ran over his nipples, gently pinching them. “Tell me if you want me to stop.”
“I don't want you to stop,” Doyoung gripped Johnny's arms tight, “I trust you.”
“You seem so sure about this.” Johnny pulls Doyoung's pants down, revealing his navy boxers semi-soaked with precum. “I can sure tell you are.”
Doyoung squirms under Johnny. He felt so vulnerable, in almost a good way. “You too. I don't wanna be naked by myself.”
Johnny smirked, removing his shirt to remove his chiseled body. Doyoung was in awe at the sight of his shirtless body. If this was the same guy he tried pushing away, he certainly regretted it.
“Could you fuck me already?” Doyoung pushed his ass up, waiting for Johnny to do something, anything.
Johnny took his own pants and underwear off, waiting for the man beneath him to give him the satisfaction he's been aching for.
He took the lube from one of his nightstand drawers, pouring a copious amount of lube on his fingers.
“Gotta prepare you first,” Johnny put two fingers inside of Doyoung. He moved them around, trying to find the perfect angle, “You're pretty tight.”
“Shut up..!” Doyoung whined, pushing his ass back against Johnny's big fingers. He hadn't felt this way in months, not since his breakup.
Johnny moved a third finger in, continuing his steady pace. “I have you completely ruined just with my fingers. Are you sure you can take my cock?”
“Yes Johnny, so sure!” Doyoung felt tears beginning to burn his eyes again, “I need this, need you.”
“So good for me,” Johnny pet Doyoung's jet black hair, praising him as he lined himself up with Doyoung's entrance. He began pushing in, much to Doyoung's excitement, who let out a loud moan. He wasn't used to the stretch at first, but Johnny waited for him to completely adjust before going any further.
“Keep going-” Doyoung shut his eyes, letting himself focus on the heat he was feeling on his abdomen. Johnny moved both his feet up over his shoulders, allowing for himself to hit a new angle that had Doyoung seeing stars.
“Yeah? You like it when I fuck you this way?” Johnny picked up his pace, fucking Doyoung at a faster speed. Doyoung's hand grabbed at Johnny's cheek, pulling him in for a wet kiss.
“Johnny, ‘m so close!” The coil in Doyoung's stomach tightened and tightened, and before he could warn Johnny, he was shooting hot ropes of cum on his stomach.
Johnny had a few more hip movements before his climax followed, releasing his load completely inside Doyoung.
Panting as he pulled out, Johnny laid down next to Doyoung. “Need me to get you anything? Food, water?”
Doyoung weakly shook his head. “Only you. You won't leave me, right?”
Johnny softly kissed his temple, “Of course not. I'll stay with you as long as you need”
Doyoung hummed in response, a warm feeling in his chest. It wasn't the same as when Johnny was rearranging his guts though. It was affection.
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A week. Seven days. 168 hours. 10,080 minutes. That's how long since Doyoung hadn't talked to Johnny. He opened up to him, both emotionally and physically, but he didn't want to face him.
“What happened that night?” Mark finally asked. He was nervous to the brink of going insane.
“Nothing.” Doyoung mumbled, head buried in his pillow. “It was stupid and a mistake, and I'm never doing that shit again.”
“It can't be nothing and also a stupid mistake, Doie. You gotta tell me! We're best friends!” Mark's hands flew to Doyoung's shoulders, slightly shaking him.
“Yikes, Mark! Fine!” Doyoung sighed, forcing himself out of Mark's grasp. “So, I kind of… slept. With Johnny.”
Mark almost spit out the coffee he's drinking. “You WHAT?” He hits his chest a little once he actually begins slightly choking. “Sorry, but dude? I should've expected that, but at the same time, woah!”
“Mark. Shut. Up.” Doyoung hid his red face with the grey hoodie he had on, “We fucked once and I got scared and I think he hates me now.”
“Why would he hate you?”
Doyoung shrugged. “I don't think I'm good enough for him. It's stupid. I left Korea because my parents were homophobic and everything and when I finally get myself going again, it all turns to shit.”
“Doie,” Mark began, the look in his eyes sympathetic, “Who cares if you're not good enough for him? You're the one who ran out on him, I bet he's blaming himself, if anything. The world doesn't revolve around you and your mommy- daddy- I don't know. Family issues.”
That last sentence was a blow that directly attacked Doyoung. “Well. You're not wrong. But.” Trying to remember how to formulate a complete sentence was something too hard for Doyoung, but he didn't have to worry when there was a knock on the door. He looked at Mark, who gestured at the door.
“Hello… Johnny?” The tall man stood at the doorway, arms crossed. “How did you find me?”
“I asked Chenle, who asked Mark,” Johnny answered, face slightly flushed, “Why did you leave?”
“It was selfish, I know. I didn't want to confront you again. I was scared you'd hate me or something. You don't hate me, right?”
“I don't, stupid” Johnny pulled Doyoung in for a tight hug. “Be my boyfriend?”
“Of course I will!” Doyoung kissed Johnny, so happy he could almost cry. Maybe, just maybe, he would enjoy living in California after all.