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hueningkai loves music. he has loved music ever since he was a kid, he doesn’t know why he is so connected to it, but he knows that if he went one day without listening to music, he would evaporate until music molded him back into his physical self.
he remembers being three years old and his dad bringing him his first guitar – and consequently his first love – learning all the chords with his dad and then expanding on his knowledge himself. later on he was introduced to the piano. when he sat and played he felt like all his bones clicked into place. he was hooked from the first time he played a melody. then he went on to drums, the beats raging inside of him and he wondered if there would ever be anything – anyone – who would make him feel the way music did.
so one day, beomgyu and taehyun came over to his apartment, and they were sharing music, as they always did. beomgyu loved music as much as hueningkai did, he was self-taught and he swore that the sting from holding down the strings was minuscule compared to the feeling he got when music flowed. taehyun was a bit of a late bloomer, but he fell in love with singing, and once he figured out how to sing, he never stopped.
the three of them were best friends and their biggest love connected them, made them inseparable, and they would always have music nights no matter what. everyone sharing the new artists they had found the week prior and just listening, adding songs to their shared playlist.
today beomgyu showed up very happy, telling hueningkai he’s sure he’s going to love the artist he’s going to show him.
he connects to hueningkai’s bluetooth speaker and plays a soft song hueningkai recognizes as a cover of light & salt's fairy of shampoo. he thinks he’s never heard a cover sounding better than the original song. the guy singing has a beautiful voice, soft and powerful at the same time, and hueningkai feels like his ribs open up by the time the song ends.
“who’s it by,” hueningkai asks, careful not to be too loud after the moment’s broken.
“some guy called soobin, he was in my recommended on spotify a few days ago. he’s amazing, right,” beomgyu asks with a smile.
“yeah, i don’t think anyone ever did fairy of shampoo justice and this guy just killed it.”
the conversation settles into comfortable silence after that. taehyun still hasn’t arrived so they spend their time waiting making ramen together, laughing, and talking about university. all three of them are in the music program, beomgyu waited one year so they could all go to university together. however they only have two classes together, music theory and composition.
the doorbell rings and hueningkai wipes his hands on his sweatpants and heads to the front door, expecting to see taehyun.
he starts mumbling how taehyun is always late but he swings the door open and sees a tall, purple-haired guy standing in front of the door of his apartment. he has a small smile on his face and his dimples look like you could take a dive in them and never swim back up. not that you would want to.
hueningkai thinks if he wasn’t sure he was gay before, he was definitely sure now.
“um, hi?” he starts, unsure of what to say, “do you need anything?”
“yeah, actually, i’m out of sugar and i’m making something right now, could you, maybe, borrow me some? i’ll buy you a new bag tomorrow,” the guy asks, smile never leaving his face.
hueningkai is caught up in staring at him, when he remembers he should probably answer.
“yeah, sure, um,” hueningkai looks lost, patting his pockets and then thinking what the fuck, hueningkai, the sugar is definitely not in your pockets, “wait here for a minute.”
hueningkai goes to the kitchen, avoiding beomgyu’s confused gaze because he’s pretty sure he’s blushing really hard right now. he gets the sugar and heads back to the front door, checking himself out in the mirror he passes in the hallway.
“here’s the, um, the sugar,” hueningkai offers with a smile.
“thank you,” the guy answers, “i’m soobin by the way. i live next door,” he offers a hand.
hueningkai takes it, “i’m kai, nice to meet you soobin. i’ll be expecting that sugar tomorrow,” he smiles.
hueningkai thinks about how he just listened to another guy named soobin cover fairy of shampoo and for a split second, he thinks that it must be fate. he smiles at the floor. idiot.
“i’ll see you around, yeah?” soobin asks.
“you’ll definitely see me tomorrow, sugar,” hueningkai’s eyes widen, “i mean, for the sugar,” he explains looking at the ground, embarrassment spreading through him in waves. his neck must be red.
soobin laughs, and he thinks an angel must’ve been born right that second.
“okay,” soobin starts going backwards, “goodnight,” he smiles and winks. hueningkai is sure he’s not making it through the night. he couldn’t muster up a sentence even if he wanted to right now, so he offers the guy, soobin, a smile and a wave and closes the door.
he starts sliding down the door dramatically, covering his face, and beomgyu pops his head out of the kitchen and laughs at him.
“don’t laugh, i think i just met a real life angel. and i called him sugar. it was an accident but holy shit beomgyu. and then he winked at me,” hueningkai adds.
beomgyu laughs again and hueningkai picks a shoe from the rack and throws it at him.
taehyun arrives some time later and they fall into their routine as they do every time they’re together, sharing songs. they played fairy of shampoo for taehyun too and he loves it.
“i think that guy goes to our uni? he’s a senior,” taehyun says.
“dude, there’s no way he’s in uni,” hueningkai says, in disbelief.
“it’s just the rumour going around, but, maybe it’s possible? you never know.”
_____________________________
after the boys left, hueningkai was left to clean up by himself, something about we have to hurry home now after they saw what a mess they made.
so, hueningkai cleans up, showers and lies in bed, turning on searching for soobin’s discography and listening to it from beginning to end.
he didn’t notice he was dozing off and he wakes up to his doorbell ringing and his phone dead next to him.
hueningkai slowly stands up and puts on a shirt because he doesn’t know who’s at the door and he doesn’t want to be embarrassed.
he pads out of his room and yells coming when the doorbell rings again.
he swings the door open, and there’s soobin, standing in a pastel purple sweater and round glasses. it’s taking everything in hueningkai not to tell him he’s the prettiest thing he’s ever seen in his life.
“hey neighbour,” he says and his voice cracks. he feels like disappearing into a black hole.
“hey,” soobin starts, “i brought you the sugar i promised.”
“oh,” hueningkai says eloquently, “um, thank you,” he takes the flour, and feels a spur of confidence, “do you want to come in for coffee? i’ve lived here a long time but i’ve never seen you. we have to get to know each other in case one of us needs sugar again,” he has a shit eating grin on his face.
“yeah, i’d like that,” soobin offers him a brilliant smile, and hueningkai returns it.
then soobin points at the door and hueningkai remembers he should probably move out of the way for soobin to come in. he’s really not functioning properly.
soobin takes off his shoes at the doorway and follows hueningkai to the kitchen.
“you have a nice place,” soobin says.
“thank you, if it wasn’t for my parents i would’ve been living in an apartment with roaches or something.”
this earns hueningkai a giggle from soobin and he thinks he’d listen to him laugh for his entire life. it’s like music to his ears.
“how do you take your coffee,” hueningkai asks.
“one teaspoon of coffee, one of sugar, preferably made by a cute guy next door,” soobin says, smirking. hueningkai chokes on his own spit.
he smiles at soobin and mutters what the fuck under his breath.
so they sit in hueningkai’s kitchen and talk.
“wait so what’s your major,” soobin asks.
“composition. fell in love with piano when i was a kid and it just never ended. my longest lasting love,” hueningkai chuckles, “what about yours?”
“vocal performance. found out i could sing when i was a kid and also never fell out of love with it,” soobin answers.
they settle after a few awkward questions and the conversation starts flowing and flowing, until soobin has to go home and hueningkai has to get ready for classes.
they exchange numbers, not without hueningkai furiously blushing when he sees soobin save his contact as cutie next door. he saves soobin’s contact as soobin, but his lovely neighbour doesn’t have to know he changes it to bunny when he’s out of his apartment.
hueningkai charges his phone and listens to soobin on spotify, again. he’s obsessed with his voice and how airy it is, how he hits falsettos which leave hueningkai holding his breath.
_____________________________
after a few months, hueningkai and soobin have become close friends. it was so easy for hueningkai to open up to the boy. they match really well, both of their love languages is physical touch and damn it if hueningkai’s ever going to deny himself a cuddle.
they’ve been hanging out a lot, whether it was at either of their apartments or at the park, at a café or in a library. hueningkai is not fond of reading but he pushed it aside for soobin.
(hueningkai is pretty sure soobin’s been taking him on dates all this time but he won’t bring it up. no way.)
they’re at soobin’s place right now, cooking together and blasting music from hueningkai’s playlist (they have a rule: if they’re at huening’s they play soobin’s playlist, and if they’re at soobin’s- well, you get the gist.)
fairy of shampoo starts playing and hueningkai groans.
“oh, i love this one,” he throws his head back as he stirs the stew.
“yeah, it was so fun covering that song,” soobin says.
hueningkai’s head shoots back into place.
“you made a cover too? let me hear it,” hueningkai says, smiling.
soobin raises an eyebrow, “this is the cover.”
hueningkai feels like his jaw drops, hits the floor and his eyes bulge out of his head.
“what?”
“this is the cover,” soobin says raising his shoulders. he’s laughing at hueningkai.
“so you’re. you’re soobin? like the soobin?”
“yes,” soobin says, posing it as a question, “is that a problem?”
“no but,” hueningkai covers his face with his hands, “oh my god, you probably think i’m so lame. you’ve heard me listening to your songs all this time and you didn’t think to tell me?”
“in my defence, i thought you knew,” soobin says, but his smile says otherwise.
“no, you just wanted to see me suffer,” he groans, prays to god soobin doesn’t remember all the times he talked about spotify soobin and how he wishes someone wrote songs like that about him.
as it turns out, hueningkai is not a very lucky person. of course soobin remembers. and he teases the hell out of hueningkai for the rest of their day.
hueningkai wonders if yeonjun, soobin’s friend is really just his friend. he saw yeonjun enter soobin’s apartment a couple of times and what he saw of them together, they always seemed close.
so hueningkai, being the brave guy™ that he is decides to ask soobin about that.
“hey, i haven’t seen your boyfriend in a while,” he tries.
soobin freezes, “my what?”
“your boyfriend? yeonjun,” hueningkai says, all serious.
soobin starts laughing, actually doubling over and clutching his stomach on the floor.
“what’s so funny,” hueningkai asks, crossing his arms over his chest. now he feels like he’s being mocked.
soobin stands up, wiping his tears, “oh my god,” he coughs, “um, yeonjun is definitely not my boyfriend, i’m not into him that way. we’ve known each other for a long time, it feels like he’s my brother. plus, he’s in a relationship. but not that it would matter if he wasn’t because i don’t like him that way.”
“oh, okay. cool,” hueningkai says, mentally kicking himself because why would you ask that?
soobin raises his eyebrow and smirks, “it’s cool? why is it cool hueningkai?” soobin says, inching closer to him.
hueningkai gulps, “uh, no reason,” he nervously chuckles, “we just never talked about that stuff you know.”
“okay,” soobin says suspiciously.
they finish their food, eat and laugh as they usually do, until hueningkai has to go do some assignments.
“wait, i’ll follow you,” soobin says.
when hueningkai puts his shoes on he puts his hand on the handle and opens the door but soobin stops him from leaving.
“wait um,” soobin starts, fidgeting his fingers, “i like someone right now, and i really need to know if he feels the same about me.”
hueningkai’s heart drops to his feet. of course he likes someone, idiot. like you ever stood a chance.
soobin gets closer to hueningkai, and grabs his face with both hands. hueningkai is confused, but he’s not going to be confused in a second.
“is this okay,” soobin asks.
hueningkai nods and soobin closes the little distance that was left between them. and oh, it’s like nothing hueningkai’s felt before. it’s like spilling all the positive feelings into someone and them giving you the same back.
soobin pulls away but hueningkai chases him right back, closes the door behind him.
he thinks that if the sky opened right now and swallowed the entire world he would’ve been content. he’s kissing soobin back into his apartment and it feels new, exciting. it feels calming and hueningkai would be down to chase this feeling for the rest of his life.
once their lips ache they pull away from each other and smile. soobin’s lips are kissed red. hueningkai just thinks i did that.
“so how long,” hueningkai asks.
“when it started? i think i saw you entering the laundry room downstairs and i thought holy fuck angels actually exist and walk on earth. when i started getting actual mushy feelings for you was after a few nights of hanging out. you were talking about music and i just thought how i wanted to kiss you so bad,” soobin says, blushing a little, “what about you’”
“you came to my door and asked for sugar and i thought i was hallucinating you. when i started getting all mushy about you,” hueningkai starts, feels his hands getting clammy, “like two weeks in, i thought maybe if i were to kiss you for the rest of my life it wouldn’t be so bad. hopefully now i get to do just that?”
soobin smiles, “yeah, you do.”
so they kiss, more teeth than lips but they’re both too happy to think about that.
hueningkai rethinks his statement about nothing making him feel the way music does, because he’s pretty sure soobin’s mouth is creating a symphony with his every time their lips connect. it feels like they’re making music.
hueningkai thanks god for stores that close too soon and neighbours who need sugar.