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Doyoung and Jaehyun are professionals. They were trained how to properly act in all types of situations: how to fake laugh at unfunny jokes, how to look interested in the most uninteresting interviews and how to behave around your famous boyfriend in public.
For the most part, they did a pretty good job at that last one. With a career like theirs, subtlety was key and the lingering glances and secretive smiles they shared were prime examples of it.
However, although Doyoung and Jaehyun are professionals, they are humans too and humans have habits.
Doyoung thinks that the habit isn’t bad per se—he personally likes it very, very much—but from the way their manager warily eyes the two of them from behind the cameras, he knows that he should at least be cautious.
“Hello my babies,” Johnny cheerfully repeats Han Heayoun’s signature greeting. “I’m baby Johnny.”
Johnny, Doyoung and Jaehyun were all invited to guest on the Youtube channel Schususu TV to talk about their personal fashion choices and the concepts of their latest song, Punch. So far, Doyoung has been enjoying it. Heayoun was kind, creating a lighthearted atmosphere during the interview and making the trio, especially Johnny, laugh from the start.
Once Jaehyun’s boyfriend segment ends with a shy attempt at being sexy, Heayoun turns to her next target. “So Doyoung looks like he has never been asked out,” she begins, eliciting a loud reaction from the members.
Johnny almost throws himself off the couch from how hard he’s laughing while Doyoung lets out a noise of disbelief, his eyes discretely meeting Jaehyun who giggles back at him.
“There are people who may feel too intimidated to ask you out,” Heayoun rushes to explain, not knowing that Doyoung is sitting next to his boyfriend who shyly but confidently asked him out all those years ago.
From there the interview continues smoothly, the three of them nodding along until it happens.
There was a reason why Doyoung and Jaehyun were almost always put on opposite ends of the room. Even when they were rookies and only friends, the pair were always the type to affectionately touch each other. When they finally got together after months of pining, the touching naturally increased and along the way, Jaehyun developed a habit. A hand-holding habit.
It happened slowly at first. During the first few weeks of dating, whenever Doyoung passed by Jaehyun, the younger would grab his hand for a second then quickly let go with pink ears. Surprisingly, as touchy as they were when they were friends, hand-holding wasn’t something that they did that often and Jaehyun was bashful to initiate it now that they were boyfriends. Over time though, Jaehyun grew more confident and started holding his hand longer and it somehow became an instinct for him to grab the older’s hand whenever he could.
Doyoung would be doing the most mundane things and Jaehyun’s hand would always find his. He would be in the kitchen cooking lunch and Jaehyun would walk in, squeezing Doyoung’s hand on his way to get a glass of water. Or they would be packing their luggage together and as Jaehyun passed Doyoung’s shirt that was mistakenly put in his bag, Jaehyun would subconsciously clutch the other’s hand in the process. Even when Doyoung’s palms were sweaty and gross from dance practice, Jaehyun’s hand would seek his.
When the couple finally had some alone time to themselves, the first thing Jaehyun would do is hold the older’s hand, sweetly thumbing over the knuckles as their lips get reacquainted and when Doyoung woke up the next morning, blinking blearily at the sunlight shining through the curtains, the first thing he'd feel was a hand in his and a soft kiss bestowed on it.
It was like Doyoung’s hand had a large sign that said, “Please hold me,” and Jaehyun took it very seriously, enough for it to become a habit. Not that Doyoung minds.
Most of the time, Jaehyun is able to control his hand-holding habit in public, thanks to the distance put between them. His professionalism helps to maintain the front of being nothing more than friends but sometimes even he can’t control his reflexes, especially when he is just inches away from his boyfriend.
Doyoung had just finished cringing at himself telling a hypothetical Czennie to go study, the other three laughing at him when Jaehyun turns to him and playfully adds on, “There are some members who call him mom.”
And Doyoung doesn’t know what’s worse, Jaehyun’s hand awkwardly hovering over the older’s lap, grasping at nothing or Doyoung forcing himself not to give in and place his hand where it rightfully belongs.
“Because he nags a lot,” Jaehyun continues.
It is because of their professionalism that Jaehyun returns his hand to his own lap and looks back at the host like nothing happened, Doyoung following his lead. He fumbles with his bag to give his hands something else to do and tries to push back the small mishap in the back of his mind by laughing and smiling at all the right times.
They keep up the act until they are given a small break for Heayoun to change into a Johnny inspired look. Once the cameras turns off, Jaehyun’s leg immediately starts bouncing and he sinks his teeth onto his bottom lip.
Doyoung can feel the manager's eyes burning holes through them, never missing a thing, but he ignores it and knocks his leg against Jaehyun’s, getting his attention. The younger turns to him and he wishes that he could talk to him about it, but a stylist is fixing Johnny’s makeup next to them so he settles on sending a comforting smile instead.
Before Jaehyun can even react, Heayoun quickly comes back, twirling around in her new outfit. A whirlwind of people move around and the next thing Doyoung knows, the cameraman announces that they are resuming filming and the couple gets caught up with finishing the rest of the video.
Less than an hour later, Doyoung finds himself back in the van waiting to go home. He plays around with his phone and clicks it off when the door slides open revealing Jaehyun.
“Where’s Johnny?”
“He’s in the bathroom,” Jaehyun says, climbing in and joining Doyoung in the backseat. “Where’s Manager Kim?”
“Talking on the phone outside the studio.”
Jaehyun exhales and leans his head on Doyoung’s shoulder, playing with the older’s nimble fingers. “Good. I don’t want to get scolded right now.”
“I’m way more touchy on camera than you, I should be the one who gets scolded,” Doyoung points out and thinks of all the times his hands make their way onto Jaehyun’s thighs.
“But it didn’t look like that. It was so awkward and obvious,” Jaehyun groans, hiding his face in Doyoung’s neck.
Doyoung hums. “That’s true. It’ll probably be clipped onto Twitter, slowed down and everything.”
“Hyung!” Jaehyun whines. “That doesn’t make me feel better.”
He laughs. “The managers are always paranoid but friends hold hands all the time so I’m sure they’ll go easy on you. As long as we don’t kiss or something like that, we’ll be fine.”
“I guess you’re right,” Jaehyun says after a moment. He raises his head to fully look at Doyoung with innocent eyes. “And speaking of kissing...” Doyoung fondly rolls his eyes with a chuckle and happily complies, trailing soft kisses down Jaehyun’s neck and finally back up to his waiting lips.
He feels Jaehyun intertwine their fingers and Doyoung smiles into their kiss; it is a perfect fit.