Requested by the amazing LaviethLS !! 🥰

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Pairing: Sungjin x Junhyeok
Concept: fluffy — bffs mistaken as a couple
Ending: Fluffy, happy!! <3

🥰"What are you doing now"
Cover by Day6😭

***

Steaming exhales. The seemingly unreachable peak of the mountain, just out of viewing range. A string of shudders overtaking shoulders sloped against the wind and legs losing speed in fatigue.

Then, an icy press of fingers to his coat, a whispered, "I lost my glove, Sungjinnie—"

Sungjin turned to his best friend since childhood, scoped him out from head to toe — obviously freezing, obviously tired — as they trudged up the mountain along with the rest of their class. The younger boy's hand was visibly beginning to turn purple from the exposure to the inhuman cold and the cloth covering half of his face was moving with how hard his teeth were clattering. Sungjin's chest was suddenly overtaken by a fire of urgency to keep his Junhyeok safe.

"Here, take mine," he insisted. He carefully slid his left glove off and handed it to Junhyeok. Junhyeok went to protest, but Sungjin insistently told him, "I'll manage. Now put it on."

Junhyeok's gaze grew tender. He nodded, and soon both his hands were clothed in gloves once more. He looked over at Sungjin, who was trudging along with his head slightly lowered to block his eyes from the full force of the harsh wind and cursed himself for convincing the boy to join the hiking trip with him. "This won't do," he muttered beneath his breath, then stepped around Sungjin so he was standing on his left side instead of his right. His gloved right hand drew out to catch Sungjin's unclothed fingers and he stuffed both their hands in the pocket of his coat.

Sungjin made no moves to protest. He simply sidled closer so that their shoulders were pressed together and matched his pace to Junhyeok's as they trekked the mountain trail together. Sungjin's eyes caught their classmates' joking eyes and his ears were met with snide comments about how "they're closer than Jaehyung-hyung and Brian-hyung, and those two are actually together," and how "they should get together already, they've practically been going out since we were all kids!"

"Hey!! Shut up, Pirrie-Mirrie, you pabo!!" Junhyeok retorted, but Sungjin could clearly hear the lack of bite behind his words.

Sungjin chuckled into his scarf and pressed even closer into Junhyeok's side as the peak of the mountain, as well as the cabin they would all be staying at for a week, became visible over the rays of the lowering sun. "Hey," he softly spoke when the whistling of the wind died down a bit. "We're almost there."

Junhyeok's hum of acknowledgement was just loud enough for Sungjin to hear, and they both smiled up at the cabin as their steps became faster with a new level of motivation.

*

Both of them got sick. "You can't go out for activities today, sorry," the nurse from their school who had accompanied them on the trip told them when they were ushered in for a check-up by their teacher, who had noticed that their cheeks hadn't gotten less red over the night and morning they'd spent in the warm environment of the cabin after the evening they arrived there.

A small trickle of snot made its way out of Junhyeok's nose and Sungjin wiped it away for him with his sleeve. "But we'll only be here for a week!"

"That is not my concern," the nurse let them know with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "If you go out into such weather in this condition, you will run the risk of doing your health even more damage. And that, my dear boys, is my concern."

Junhyeok groaned and went to put in his own few words of disapproval when Sungjin shushed him with a hand tracing his back. Junhyeok exhaled in frustration but sighed out, "Fine."

"What a fine pair you are," tutted the nurse, packing up her materials. "When'd you start going out?"

"We're just friends," the two boys simultaneously countered, the response having already been molded into their heads since long ago.

"Hmm, tell me about it," their nurse sarcastically breathed out as the stethoscope was packed up and the kit was closed. "Kids going around lying these days — just look at those entwined hands, knowing glances — I see right through you two..."

"Sorry, what?"

"No, no, Lim Junhyeok, keep it up. You too, Park Sungjin. Do what's comfortable for you."

Sungjin looked over at Junhyeok in confusion and was met with a gaze similarly devoid of any idea about what was going on.

"I'd better go — the kids might get hurt in the snow, I have to help Jung-sansaengnim take care of them."

"Ahn-nurse, hwaiting," Junhyeok told her, and she turned to him with a wink.

"Thanks, kid. You brats always make it hard for my Wheein to live." The nurse picked up her kit and stood up from her seat at the table. "Call me Hwasa, would you? Always wanted to live that stage-name life, ya know what I'm sayin?"

"You mean like Kangbra? Young K?"

"Sure, you could say that." Hwasa blew the two a dramatic kiss and, with a giggle: "Let me know when you two start dating, okay, boys?" And then she was out the door.

Junhyeok's face slowly swiveled towards Sungjin's with a dumbstruck look on it. "You understand anything that just happened??"

"Not'a clue," Sungjin murmured out in response. His head pounded slightly and he shook it to try to get rid of the feeling.

"You okay?" Junhyeok worriedly asked him, his hands reaching up to grasp Sungjin's cheeks and tilt the boy's face from side to side to examine it.

Sungjin's cheeks stained red and he let out a muted, "Yeah," before his own hands rose to trace over Junhyeok's. His eyes closed when another wave of pain passed through his skull. "Just—" he winced. "Just a headache, is all..."

A heavy door slammed in the distance, indicating that Hwasa had left the cabin in search of teacher Wheein and her students. Junhyeok sighed out. "Let me get you some painkillers, then. And I'll put on some tea with honey."

"S'fine," Sungjin argued, refusing to allow Junhyeok to budge. "Yer sick, too!"

"But you kept me warm, yesterday..." Junhyeok looked down, nipping at his lip. "Now you're sick because of me."

"Bullshit." Sungjin moved his palms over to cup Junhyeok's cheeks and tilt his face up to him. Now they were both holding one another's faces and looking each other in the eyes. "I didn't wear fleece socks like my mom told me to, that's why I got sick!"

A droplet of sweat rolled down Sungjin's temple, and Junhyeok lovingly wiped it away with his thumb. "Well... you should've listened to your mom, then..." He tilted Sungjin's face down slightly and gently pressed his lips to the older boy's forehead. Slowly pulling away, he whispered out, "She told me to take care of you, ya know?"

Sungjin purred and traced Junhyeok's burning cheeks with his fingertips. "Oh... Did she?"  His eyes fluttered closed, then opened once more, and he murmured, "But I only want to take care of you..."

Junhyeok softly chuckled, latching his thumb onto the crease carved in Sungjin's cheek by the boy's smiling lips. "Does that mean the rumors are true, then?"

"What rumors?" Sungjin playfully rolled off his tongue, leaning forward to drag the tip of his nose against Junhyeok's. "I haven't heard any rumors about us..."

"Stop it, my nose is leaking," Junhyeok laughed out, but Sungjin's hands kept him from escaping. He laughed even more when Sungjin gave him an Eskimo kiss.

"I'd do it even if your nose was bleeding," Sungjin joked, a grin spread on his thin lips.

"What, you wouldn't even wipe the blood for me?" Junhyeok followed along, eyes creased in a smile of their own.

"Nope!" Sungjin looked at him deeply, and Junhyeok hummed to signal him to speak. "Now... What rumors?" Sungjin repeated.

"You know..." Junhyeok allowed his gaze to swivel to the side, then brought it back to Sungjin's expectant eyes. "The ones about us... Not just being close friends..."

"Go on..."

"The ones that say... We're actually something more..."

"And... do ya wann'em ta be true?"

Sungjin's eyelids were lowered, and Junhyeok could feel his hot breath on his chapped lips. "Yes," he finally spoke out, a lengthy plea of a whisper escaping his mouth. "Yes, yes, yes~"

"Then... I'm yours?"

"And I'm yours," Junhyeok confirmed, and both their pairs of hands pushed one another's faces slightly forwards, their lips connecting into a satisfied smooch illuminated by the warm glow of the fireplace crackling behind them.