fic: untitled drabble #14 (jukev, high school reunion au) [#tigerinside2022]

[moriendum]

fandom: tbz
pairing: juyeon/kevin
rating: G
wordcount: 900 words
tags: second chances, meeting old crushes again
a/n: crossposted from twitter in 2023.

Kevin was expecting a lot of things out of this reunion, but seeing Lee Juyeon walking towards him was definitely not one of them.

He has been standing to the side with a small group of people, nursing his drink and sort of following conversation. It’s a lot to catch up on; everyone wants to talk career, grad school, marriage plans. To the untrained ear, the class of 2015 sounds wildly successful, but Kevin knows it’s in part thanks to some embellishing. And that’s ok, really—who doesn’t want to sound like they got their shit together after high school?

But seeing Juyeon, in all his open blazer, white shirt glory, makes Kevin wonder if maybe some of them really are just luckier than others.

“Kevin,” Juyeon greets as soon as he’s there, still just a few inches taller than him, smile prettier than ever. “Hi.”

“Juyeon, oh my god, I haven’t seen you since—”

“Graduation,” Juyeon supplies. “Five years ago.”

He sounds a little embarrassed after that, as if he didn’t mean to interrupt Kevin. It’s sweet but also slightly disconcerting, because while Juyeon has always been a handsome guy, these past five years gave him all the confidence and well-fitting clothes that a shy 17 year-old Juyeon lacked, as cute as that version of him was.

“That’s right,” Kevin says, a little awed. He takes a few steps away from the other group so they can talk. “Gosh, how has it been five years already? I feel like it was just yesterday that we were desperately sharing notes the night before our tests.”

Juyeon chuckles, his whole face lighting up with the memory. “Your notes saved me, seriously.”

“And yours saved me! I still don’t know how I made it through physics.”

“Because you worked harder than anyone else. You always did,” Juyeon says in his ever candid way of saying things.

But there’s an edge to it too, words lying just behind the ones he’s choosing to voice, which makes Kevin curious. He wants to ask what this is all about; it’s clear this isn’t a coincidence. Juyeon didn’t just stumble upon him and decide to strike conversation to drop a few random compliments—this is planned. Juyeon sought him out. He’s licking his lips, swallowing dry—

“Five years ago,” Juyeon starts. This is it. Kevin knew there was something coming. “I meant to ask you something. At graduation.”

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t have a chance to. We missed each other at the party—”

“I left early,” Kevin recalls immediately. “I had my foot in a brace and was just dying to get home and into my pajamas.”

Juyeon nods. “Yeah, you twisted your ankle right before the party. I remember. When you were helping set everything up.”

“Not my best moment,” Kevin admits.

“Maybe there is something such as working too hard,” Juyeon teases. He chuckles again when Kevin narrows his eyes. “But missing you at the party means I never had the chance to ask you my question.”

“Which was?”

Kevin has many questions himself, but as soon as Juyeon holds out his hand, he’s speechless. Juyeon looks adorably nervous as he asks, “Will you dance with me, Kevin?”

Still shocked speechless, Kevin goes with his gut. He sets his drink down at the nearest table and takes Juyeon’s hand, answering the beautiful smile he gets for it with a smile of his own.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been waiting five years for this,” Kevin remarks as Juyeon leads them to the dance floor.

It’s a slow song, Kevin realizes now; he wonders, a little mystified, if Juyeon had been waiting for the right song to approach him, too. 

“Four years and ten months,” Juyeon says with a smile, turning to him again when they reach the middle of the dance floor. “But who’s counting?”

You, clearly, Kevin means to say, but it’s hard to translate jokes into words when he’s staring into Juyeon’s eyes like this, trying to accept that he’s not, as a matter of fact, dreaming this all up.

Juyeon holds his hands up. “Do you wanna lead?”

“No, please, do the honors,” Kevin says. He takes one of Juyeon’s hands and places his other hand on Juyeon’s shoulder. “You’re the professional dancer here.”

The way Juyeon looks pleased, it’s clear he’s happy to hear Kevin knows that. He puts one hand on Kevin’s waist and brings them a little closer for the slow dance. Not too close to be uncomfortable, but close enough that Kevin feels like he’s seventeen again, suddenly and strongly reminded of how big his crush on Juyeon was.

Maybe too big, if Kevin still feels hot all over just from standing this close to him. Dancing with him, the way he used to dream he would, one day, if only things were easier...

“You went back to Canada,” Juyeon explains. “Right after graduation. I wanted to reach out, to ask if I could go see you, but—”

“Why didn’t you?” Kevin searches Juyeon’s eyes. He’s not misreading this, is he? This is happening, right?

“I don’t know.” Juyeon shakes his head. “I should have, but I didn’t. I think I thought I could forget you.”

It’s so earnest and so sweet. Such a Juyeon thing to say, even after all these years. Kevin wishes, just for a moment, that they weren’t surrounded by all of their old classmates. It would make it easier to just lean in and kiss Juyeon, because he knows, is absolutely certain, that Juyeon is thinking the same thing.

Five years. Maybe they’ve waited long enough.

Kevin stops dancing, but he doesn’t let go of Juyeon’s hand.

“Do you want to get out of here?”