84 Chapter 81: Strawberries and Pink (Part 2)
Jin placed his fingers on the warm bottle's cap on its head after his fingers had warmed themselves from numbness, "Will you tell me what you are talking about?" He says gently to the man, though a bit preoccupied.
And as he busies himself with the dilemma he's shortly struggling with, Hiro's hand and fingers saunter over the edge of his hospital gown under the coat he's wearing. His long and sneaky fingers played with the thin material and occasionally tried lifting it a few times to tease him.
Jin's brows crumpled. He squeezed his knees together, closing his thighs for any opening and his cheeks puffed as his lips thinned.
"Hiro."
He quietly scolds the mischievous cougar beside him while trying to minimize his voice as much as doable in fear of catching the driver's attention in front of them.
Hiro obediently stops as he's told, moves his head away, and then audaciously stares at the bottle in the young fellow's hand when he feels that he wasn't getting enough attention from him.
"Shall I help you with that?"
The man points at the bottle. Yet he couldn't even hide the way his strident brows awfully crease and the glacial look in his eyes that's showing his discernible irritancy to the harmless object between the young fellow's hands.
Jin just nods his head, in need of his help while he internally shakes his head in disbelief, "Yes, please." But he's still glad he offered help. There was no knowing whether he can open the bottle before the sun rises.
Hiro twists and finally open the bottle to end his predicament and gives it back to him without the cap on.
Pulling the too-long sleeves down, Jin carefully accepts the opened bottle with his now visible hands and sips a bit on the top to avoid spilling its contents.
He grins. It's warm.
Just as he likes.
He turns his head to the gloomy man beside him and kisses him on the tip of his chin, conveying his sincere thanks. He wanted to take revenge for the kiss he did before he left him here a while ago, but the reality hurts him more than he imagined. Hiro was towering over him, he was too tall for his lips to barely reach.
When he saw how Hiro froze for a few seconds before his rare shy and boyish smile beautifully paints his lips, he couldn't help but be in trance and in awe of him.
Hiro bends down to him, controlling his urge to listen to the loud desires plunging into his mind in cue for his little sprout to continue what he did.
But Jin couldn't grasp the sight of his doing and focused on the bottle in his hand instead, leading the man to receive an unconscious rejection from him, accidentally ignoring him.
Hiro groans.
"Please resume what you were concerned to say a while ago," Jin says, tempted and already at his limits. He starts to slowly drink the water bottle in his hands as he was parched. Too parched.
And he has to admit this has to be the smoothest car ride his life has ever lived through.
Without feeling the faint ringing and buzzing sound of engines beneath them, it would confuse anyone if the car is running on the road at all.
It's impressive and it makes it easier for him to drink his water without worrying to choke himself to death the next second.
Hiro patiently and wordlessly waits for his little sprout to finish his drink. "I was talking about the car's interior."
He sits back and drinks in the young fellow's beauty of simply seating there and drinking, though a bit bothered by the bottle's mouth pressing in contact with his little sprouts lips.
A huge drive runs him to snatch the bottle and ship it thousands of meters away from them.
But . . . He can't.
He mustn't do that to upset Jin. His jaw clenches and the tip of his fingertips start to pulse and twitch in frustration.
When Jin finishes, the bottle was barely drunk in half. He decided to leave Hiro a bit of his share as he assumed his sour mood was because he was thirsty.
Crossing from his expectation, Hiro took the bottle, closed the cap on its mouth, and tosses it to the other end of the car as if he has gathered an ample amount of grudge against someone and blamed it over the harmless object.
The bottle precisely went through the small garbage can he barely noticed was there because its color camouflages from the pinkness of the chamber car.
Jin bats his lashes in surprise at Hiro's calmness despite his upset eyes streaking and being more apparent than ever. He clears his throat. He's not surprised anymore how grumpy this man could get.
What's gotten into him this time?
"About the car's interior. Are you asking my opinion about it?"
He pressed both of his hands that were now hiding back under the sleeves of Hiro's coat together and rubbed them. With the warmness of the bottle no longer giving him the warmth he needed, he can now vividly discern how cold the morning was in Cheon.
If this continues, he's not sure whether he's bound to become a morning person at this rate.
"Yes. I need to hear your thoughts about it."
Seeing his pale complexion, Hiro swiftly seizes his hands and shelters them between his big and warm ones, and Jin's eyes and head dart down to study the way his large fingers rub and squeeze over his tensed muscles and numb skin over the thick clothing.
Without him noticing, something warm delicately presses against his forehead.
When he lifted his head to look at the city's top culprit for stealing kisses without warning, Hiro bent his head down and brought his captured hands up to his lips next, his softened and ever so loving eyes now met his.
"What do you think?" Hiro murmurs against him and even with the sleeves covering him he can feel his warm breath penetrating the cloth and his breath made him feel ticklish, its vibrant sensation vibrating all over his body.
Jin gasps for air and breathes heavily, his heart fluttering and weakening from what he's doing to him.
"I think it's splendid," Jin whispers back. The corners of his lips lift into a smile full of warmth and joy, and he just wished moments like this could never end, that the entire world and universe could understand them even if this is all wrong.
"It's perfect, just like its owner." He adds, teasing Hiro between laughs.
He doesn't ever want the world to hurt this sweet man before him.
"It does?"
Hiro's gaze looks so buttered and sweetened, and he could melt being under his gaze yet still wanted to be nowhere else but be near his sight.
He genuinely nods his head at his confirming question. And besides, it's pink of course he likes it.
Hiro drapes an arm around his waist and lifts him up to make him sit on his lap, "You really think so?" He says, desperate and reeling with excitement from his compliment, the unforeseen tip of his ears was now smudged in shade red.
Jin rests the side of his head against his shoulders and looks up at him with nothing but admiration.
"Yes, I meant what I said, Hiro."
He says his name like nothing in the world could ever replace or be him. How he wishes this man could know how unparalleled and outstanding he is.
Hiro leans in and presses his nose to his hair, hiding his already widened smile, "Even in my sinful black hair and plain black eyes?"
The man whispers to him, and the insecurity Jin hears in his voice was palpable.
He looks up at him, his brows frowning for his disdain.
When he saw the visible sadness circling in Hiro's antsy eyes, he can't believe he was actually seeing and hearing that from him.
Didn't everyone around him already told him enough flattering words than he did?
He sits up and faces the man, his thighs strangling and locking him from both sides. Jin stared at him with determination and admiration blazing inside his eyes, "Yes, even in your soft black hair," not sinful, "And beautiful mystifying dark eyes." Never be plain nor boring to ogle at.
He adores every bit of him.
How could he speak of himself like that?
It turns out he not only has dreadful thoughts about death but also has an unbelievably low self-esteem for a person like him who grew up in a different class.
"And your shy, mischievous, and teasing smiles. Your unpredictable mood swings. Your weird fetish over my behind. Your stubbornness and you being more mysterious and deeper to understand than the seven seas combined."
Jin cups the man's face above the flushed and stunned expression on his face. But no . . . he's not stopping there yet.
He has to help this vulnerable child.
His heart was thumping loudly inside him and he can hear it calling Hiro's name alone.
"I like them all." He lifts his hand and softly touches Hiro's still visible dark bags, but this time they were more noticeable than the last he's seen him and he wonders if Hiro also has tendencies of having nightmares.
For the first time, he had not wished this sincerely until now that this entire car ride would end.
His eyes lift to meet the quiet man's gleaming umbra eyes. If Hiro says his rare deep black eyes were immoral, then that makes him under his mercy, enslaved and perfectly confined.
If only he could freeze time and always get to hold and see him this close.
"I see you everywhere." Even in my dreams.
Because specifically, he couldn't stop looking for him ever since these eyes captured him at the elevator, in the university's front gates, in his raven Fortuner car, in their apartment, in the hospital, and even now.
From this moment on,
He knew he was entirely and solely captivated.
By him . . . and his loving warmth alone.
