Sugar Craving (Jin)

[River Tseung]

This was a catastrophe! River's sweet tooth was going wild, unable to be ignored, but as much as the boy rustled through his usually full stash, he was coming to the terrible conclusion that it was completely empty. He tossed aside empty candy wrappers on his floor, his lips set into a pout as he realized he hadn't actually bought anything for a while, between buying presents for other people and working.

What was he going to dooo~?

He finally stumbled across a nearly-empty box of Pop-tarts, which he figured would do for now. Now being enough for a few minutes until the craving came back and he'd have to find something else.

River could go into town, he supposed. He didn't have any other reason to go, though, and he would have to take off his fuzzy pajamas out into the cold...

Then his eyes lit up as he remembered. Jin-hwan!

Pop-tart box in hand, he darted out of his room and to the door numbered 201, knocking quickly and hoping his new friend would answer. While he waited, he munched on his tiny stash.

[Jin-hwan "Jen" Park]

Saturdays were work days. In truth, every day was a work day for Jin-hwan, but Saturdays in particular – thus the distinction. His roommates were almost always out on Saturdays, which proved to be the perfect opportunity to clean everything in the common area; if anyone noticed, they had never said anything, which was just as well.

It wasn’t like he cleaned for the praise, or anything stupid like that.

At present, he was circling the room with a large, fluffy purple duster, paying special attention to the corners of the doorframes and the tops of the tallest appliances. There was a disarmingly cheerful Korean song emanating from his iPhone speakers; he had placed it on the sparkling counter and started the Jin-hwan Fighting! playlist about half an hour ago.

He had been standing on tiptoe in an attempt to reach a particularly tricky spot above the door to his room when there was a knock on the door behind him. He sighed and flattened his feet on the hardwood; seriously, he really needed to clean right now. Why did everyone have such a hard time understanding that?

He padded over to the door and opened it quickly, still wielding his duster.

It was River. He was eating.

“Don’t you dare…” he said darkly, nudging the other boy gently back into the hallway with the end of the duster. “…get Poptart sprinkles on my floor. I just swept.”

A particularly unruly strand of his bangs had fallen out of his ponytail, and he tucked it behind his ear. Damn – he knew he should have put in a hair clippy.

[River Tseung]

River nibbled curiously on his snack, head tilting as he caught the sound of music - foreign music, by the sound of it - coming from behind the door. As an avid music fan, he had listened to his fair share of K-pop, and smiled to himself at the familiarity. He assumed it was Jin's, unless he happened to have another Korean roommate - or just someone else that happened to like the genre.

Completely ignorant of the boy's irritation, he beamed brightly as the door opened, prepared to greet him until a big fluffy something was prodded against his chest and nudged him back, nearly making him sputter out a spray of crumbs onto Jin himself.

He blinked, then brightened again, far too glad to see Jin to be too bothered by the less than welcome greeting.

"Hey Jin!" he chirped. "Doing some autumn cleaning?" He made a point to keep several feet back from the doorway, still munching and talking between bites. "I should do that too," he admitted, thinking of all the wrappers he had left on his floor.

He fell silent in thought for a moment before shaking his head and smiling at the boy once again. His eyes followed the soft movement of his hair behind his ear, his chewing slowing for a brief second as his mind went a little fuzzy until he snapped out of it. Weird... Oh well! "I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out or something," he said, not yet telling his real reason for coming over. "Maybe, um, show me those comics you were talking about?"

He tried to keep his eyes from falling to Jin's hands, which, he told himself, probably weren't even sugary right now anyway.

[Jin-hwan "Jen" Park]

After Jin was sure that River was completely in the hallway and the danger of crumbs landing on his freshly-swept floor had passed, he lowered the duster.

“Yeah,” he replied finally, not bothering to mention that he did cleaning every Saturday of every season, ever. He was much more distracted by the half-chewed Poptart that was visible in the other boy’s mouth as he continued to talk.

Charming.

He waited patiently for his cheerful companion to get to the heart of the matter, because he seriously doubted that the other boy was going to be satisfied with standing in the doorway and watching him clean to T-ARA. It took a few moments – River was very involved with his eating, apparently – but his intent finally became clear.

Jin paused, allowing himself a deep inhale that he held captive for a second too long and finally released in a quick, quiet sigh.

That face. It would be like kicking a puppy. Jin did a thorough, honest search of his soul. Was he a puppy kicker?

“Okay,” he said tiredly. “Wait here.” He shut the door, leaving River to his munching. He quickly hooked the end of the duster on one of several white plastic hangers on the shared kitchen wall. Then, he rushed to his room with panic mounting in his chest.

Hair clippies hair clippies hair clippies…

He rattled around in the small glass bowl on his dresser that contained all of his hair ornaments, in desperate pursuit of a barrette. Hair tie… no… scrunchie… no… hair chalk… why did he even have that? No… no… sigh….

He finally found, at the very bottom of the bowl, a hot-pink-painted metal barrette. He wrinkled his nose. Normally he wouldn’t, but under the circumstances…

He pulled back the offending strand of his bangs and pushed the clip against the side of his head with a snap.

There.

He almost ran out of the door again, but paused just under the doorframe, spinning on his heel and bending down to squint at his bookshelf. He quickly surveyed his manhwa collection, which was perfectly ordered and color-coded.

If I was a cheerful, bubbly Disney princess who sang to animals and ate Poptarts, what kind of manhwa would I like?

He pulled out a pink-spined volume and tucked it under his arm, then half-slid, half-ran back to the common room door. He opened it with a little more force than he’d intended; all that running about had made him a little harassed.

“Alright,” he said, with forced nonchalance. “Let’s go. You’re not eating in here.”

[River Tseung]

Honestly at this point, River would have been happy to watch his friend clean and listen to the cheery music if he could get a candy or two. Well, really, if he wasn't craving sugar so much, he'd probably be happy just to watch anyway - he was easily entertained, and honestly, Jin was pretty enough that River could watch him do anything and he'd probably be content.

Wait, what?

Anyway...

He waited patiently with smile in place and the last bite of Pop-tart disappearing in his mouth as Jin seemed to consider his offer. Maybe he really wanted to finish his cleaning?

Whatever the case, River practically jumped as Jin accepted, wiping his hands on his pajama bottoms and swallowing the remaining sweetness at the thought of more sugar along with companionship. "Okay!" he replied, staying where he was as Jin shut the door to go do... Whatever he was doing, leaving River to mull over his strange thoughts that kept popping up.

Jin was a boy. A pretty boy, but a boy. River had never, in his experience, held any sort of attraction to men before; he thought he was straight, though he'd never outwardly confirmed it to anyone. Maybe he was just overreacting to all this.

Yeah.

Anyway, he was humming out loud, starting to sing the words along with them, when Jin reappeared at the doorway, hair clipped back and comic in hand. "Oh, alright," he agreed easily, cheeks dimpling at the cute pink hair clip. "I hope you don't mind hamsters."

He led the way back to his room, humming still until they reached the door and River pulled it open to let Jin inside. The common room was quiet - his roommates were apparently out doing other things. "This way," he chirped, showing Jin to his room which he forgot he had left in a rather messy state until he opened it to reveal the wrappers strewn on the floor.

"Oh... Sorry," he quickly gasped, going over to start picking up the numerous pieces of trash. "I don't normally have garbage all over my floor, I promise! I was just trying to find something to eat," he admitted. "Um, make yourself at home!"

[Jin-hwan "Jen" Park]

On his way out, Jin grabbed his phone from the counter and shut off the music. A small black cat charm dangled from a cord that was apparently plugged into the headphone jack. He slipped the device into the pocket of his warm black sweatpants.

He looked at River, then at River’s dimples, then at River’s crumb-covered mouth, then at River’s pajama bottoms.

He might have prayed to Jesus for strength, except he was a Buddhist. What was he even doing here? Since when did he skive off Saturday cleaning to read manhwa to suspiciously nice people who ate Poptarts for lunch?

He clutched the first volume of 100% Perfect Girl closer to his side and followed the other boy down the hall.

“I like hamsters,” he said distractedly. He was on good terms with most things that were small and fuzzy, excluding things that carried the plague, like giant rats and raccoons. “My sister used to have one.”

There he went again. Talking about himself. His mouth snapped shut, then, and remained that way until the moment that River pushed open the door to his room to reveal enough candy wrappers to make an ugly rug, if one possessed the skill and the patience to sew them together.

“You weren’t kidding,” he said dryly, stepping over the threshold gingerly. Despite his best efforts, a wrapper crinkled under his sock. “Did you skip the spring and summer cleaning as well as the autumn?”

He stepped further into the room with tentative but determined care; once he was in the middle, he bent at the waist and began snatching up wrappers with his free hand.

Well… he’d said Jin-hwan could make himself at home, hadn’t he? And if this had been Jin-hwan’s home, he’d definitely be cleaning it.

After about a minute, he straightened his back again and brandished the handful of trash.

“Where’s your trash can?” he asked.

[River Tseung]

A topic of interest popped into River's head suddenly. "You listen to K-pop?" he asked, though it was rather rhetorical. "I've, um, listened to a bit. SHINee and Girls Generation and Super Junior," he offered. He wished he could offer more names than that, but he couldn't remember all the names of the bands he listened to. So many of them looked and sounded the same, he got them mixed up...

"Oh, they're really sweet," he beamed. "Basil and Oreo. I'd have a half-dozen more if I could take care of them all." They were extremely entertaining little balls of fuzz. Fun to sing to, too - they had an interesting wiggly spinny way of dancing.

The silence was mutual except for the humming until they both found the mess that awaited them, whereupon River gave his friend another apologetic glance. "I cleaned this summer," he offered meekly. "I was going to clean this up but got distracted..." Thinking about Jin and his ability and his syrupy fingers...

"Um, anyway." River cleared his throat, watching as Jin began to help him clean up. "Oh, you don't have to-" he began, but fell silent seeing the look on his face, and continued picking up wrappers in silence until they were all taken care of.

He motioned beside his dresser. "Right there," he offered, dumping his own handfuls in the bin. He rubbed the back of his head. "I... Have a really bad sweet tooth," he admitted, as though it wasn't obvious. "Anyway..." His smile returned and he motioned to the bed. "Want to sit here?" Before Jin could reply, he flopped stomach-down on his bed, facing the end and wiggling over to give his friend some room.

[Jin-hwan "Jen" Park]

Jin-hwan offered a small smile.

“It’s just pop when you’re Korean,” he joked. River proceeded to name what were probably the three most popular K-pop groups in existence, and he nodded his acknowledgement. “I’ve got a few Super Junior albums you can borrow,” he said, after a moment.

Wait, what? Had that just come out of his mouth?

He squinted at River’s face again – it was the damn dimples making him soft. He’d always liked dimples, ever since…

No. Nevermind.

He brushed the small mountain of candy wrappers off of his palm and into the trash can that River had pointed out to him. After his compulsion for neatness had been satisfied, he bent down to look at the tiny fuzzy hamsters.

He smiled despite himself.

“Hm?” he looked up as River addressed him again. He snorted at River’s admission; judging by the amount of wrappers they’d just cleaned up, Jin would wager that he had an entire mouth full of ‘sweet teeth.’

“Well, great. We can be friends with benefits,” he said dryly, although not unkindly. He scooted toward the bed and plopped down as softly as he could. He folded his legs under him and opened the manhwa.

“Are you paying attention?” he asked over his shoulder, looking down at the sprawling boy. “I’m not going to translate if you aren’t going to look.”

[River Tseung]

River blinked, then flinched meekly. "I'm sorry, you're right," he chuckled with embarrassment. "Are you... From Korea?" His name obviously sounded it, but River wasn't certain. His English sounded perfect, at least. At the offer, his eyes sparkled, and he nodded eagerly. "I'd like that!" he replied. "To be honest, I tried learning one of their dances once," he admitted. "It's a lot harder than it looks."

He wasn't always the most graceful of people. He'd ended up tripping over his feet and nearly crashing into the hamsters' terrarium. Not the most attractive of moments.

After a moment of silence, he offered another trademark grin, albeit a slightly crooked, awkward one.

"The darker one is Oreo, the lighter one is Basil," River told Jin, peeking down at the hamsters himself. He hummed a few notes, and the two rodents scurried over to wiggle their noses up at him as if on command.

River giggled, reaching down to scritch each of them on the head, before turning his attention back to his friend.

Friends with benefits. The words flew right over innocent little River's head, and he just beamed and bobbed his head up and down. "Actually, I was hoping..." he started, rubbing his hand against his arm. "Since I'm out, could I maybe try one of your candies?"

He gave his best puppy eyes, which seemed to work well on most everyone.

"Oh!" River wriggled over to face the comic, still on his stomach as he gazed at the pages. "Paying attention, promise," he grinned, shoulder brushing against Jin's arm. "What's it about?" His gaze slid over to one of the boy's hands, which still were sadly syrup-free.

[Jin-hwan "Jen" Park]

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Jin said matter-of-factly. It had been a bad joke, anyway. “I was born in Los Angeles, but the rest of my family was born in Daegu. I’ve only been to Korea a few times.”

Part of him had always felt the distinction useless – at the end of the day, he was just an American, albeit an American of Asian descent. But there was also something comfortably familiar about the conversation. It was a reminder that they had at least something in common.

He smirked at the thought of River attempting a Super Junior dance. It didn’t even matter which one; all of the ones that came to mind were equally hilarious. His sisters had roped him into learning girl group choreography in their pink-themed playroom in California, and the mere thought almost made him shudder.

He was good at a lot of things (and modest, too!), but dancing had never been one of them.

“They’re cute,” he said, lifting his head above the hamster terrarium again. River’s enthusiastic nodding at the mention of friends with benefits was both amusing and slightly alarming before realization dawned.

He doesn’t know what it means. And it was almost 2014!

Jin-hwan laughed a little.

“You were hoping?” he asked dryly. That was a first. Not many people were eager to take an oddly-shaped lump of sugar that had just magically materialized between his fingertips. “And what flavor were you hoping for, exactly?”

He raised his eyebrow further and turned his head back to the open manhwa. Every movement of his head made his ponytail bounce amusingly.

“It’s about love at first sight,” he said cryptically, positioning his fingers at the very edges of the pages so that River could see all of the panels.

[River Tseung]

"I see," River replied, nodding politely. It didn't surprise him. "I'm Canadian," he offered a moment later with a dimpled grin. "Actually not too far north from here." He had no idea if Jin really cared or not, but the boy had been polite enough to offer some information, so River thought he should give some in return.

His somewhat unique name was also a subject that often popped up in conversations, which he would eagerly reply to by telling the questioner that he and his sister Rain were named after their parents' abilities: hydrokinesis and weather manipulation. It was a family tradition - many of his cousins were also named that way.

"We can get them out later if you'd like," he told Jin, nodding at the pets. "I have a couple exercise balls for them that they like to run around in." Of course, it was fun just to pet and hold them too; whatever Jin preferred.

Poor River. He really needed a little educating when it came to anything involving... Romantic relations. He had gone to The Talk, he knew about it, it just hadn't been something he really thought about a lot, which he was told by some less-than-kind people was strange.

He'd find someone he liked that way eventually, he'd told himself. Someone who he wouldn't be content just being friends with....

"Yeah!" he nodded again, unwavering despite Jin's tone. "I still think it's an awesome ability." At the question, River tapped a finger against his chin. "I'm not sure. I'm not too picky. Maybe something citrus-y?" Could Jin choose the flavors like that? Even cooler!

His gaze locked back onto the comic, trying to keep from wavering back to those tempting fingers. "Sounds sweet," he breathed, trying to make sense of the images and Hangul. River's head leaned a bit to try to get the best view possible, and ended up half-resting his head against Jin's forearm. "I'm ready."

[Jin-hwan "Jen" Park]

Canadian. Of course he was Canadian. Somehow Jin-hwan felt that he should have suspected that. No self-respecting American-born boy bought boba for people they accidentally bumped into on the street.

Of course, he hadn’t asked after River’s backstory on purpose – he felt that talking about your family in the infant stages of a friendship was kind of like having a picnic in a minefield – but he found that he didn’t mind the information.

Jin didn’t speak, although he nodded pensively to show that he’d heard.

“I don’t mind, as long as they don’t pee on me,” he said bluntly. His sister’s hamster had peed on people frequently, which had traumatized Jin irreparably. Sure, they were cute… fur and whiskers and twitchy noses… but you just couldn’t trust them.

He sighed, then, and stared at his hand.

“’Citrus-y’ it is,” he said flatly. “But don’t talk while I’m doing it. I won’t be able to concentrate.”

He closed his eyes, because he also couldn’t concentrate with River’s stupidly distracting dimples in his field of vision.

Lemon flavor was easy – it was mostly acid, and it didn’t even take a lot of thought. He could feel, but not see, a droplet of candy syrup appear between his closed fingertips. The more he concentrated, the larger it became; once he thought he’d produced at least half an inch worth, he opened his eyes. The sugar hardened immediately, and Jin held the clear, oddly-shaped candy toward River with his fingertip.

“Just one,” he warned pre-emptively. “I haven’t had lunch yet, and I don’t want a headache.”

Satisfied, he turned back to the first page of the manhwa.

“Korean isn’t like Chinese or Japanese,” he explained. “Manga and manhua are read from right to left. Korean manhwa is always read left to right, like English.”

He tapped the first panel with his finger.

“’One beautiful morning in April, I walked past the 100% perfect girl,’” he read. He paused, so that River could see the picture. Then, he flipped the page.

“’To tell you the truth, she’s not that good-looking. She doesn’t stand out in any way, but still, from fifty yards away, I know that she’s the perfect girl for me.’”

He paused again, somewhat awkwardly.

“’The moment I see her, there’s a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert’ – you are listening, aren’t you?” he interjected across the translation. “Don’t make me read it all if you aren’t listening.”

[River Tseung]

"Oh no, they're well-behaved," River assured Jin, giggling at the fuzzy animals. "And I think they like you, so they wouldn't do it on purpose." There really was no way to tell if they actually did like a person, but River liked to think there was.

He positively beamed as Jin agreed, nearly wiggling with excitement and anticipation. "Okay," he nodded, making a motion of closing a zipper over his lips. No talking, he could do that.

River watched with fascination as the candy was created, his lips parted in awe as it slowly became bigger. After a few moments, it was done, and the boy squeaked in delight as Jin handed it over. He took it eagerly, immediately popping it into his mouth and sucking with energy. The sweet, lemony flavor burst over his tongue and he closed his eyes happily.

"'S really good!" he mumbled around the candy. His brow furrowed in worry, though, at Jin's warning. "Oh, no, one is plenty," he assured him. "Thank you." Had he been a girl, River would have kissed him on the cheek without thought.

But....

...

Anyway.

He nodded in understanding and settled down again, quietly sucking on the sweet delicacy as he listened to the beginning. His eyes were wide and child-like as he followed the images, the awkwardness not quite reaching him until Jin paused and asked if he was listening.

"I'm listening!" he assured his friend, left cheek puffed out from holding he candy. "I promise. Please keep going. I like it already." His chin landed back on Jin's arm as he waited for him to continue.

[Jin-hwan "Jen" Park]

Jin took one final, critical look at the hamsters, but said nothing. He’d take River’s word for it, he supposed; it wasn’t like he was the Disney princess in this scenario.

He observed the other boy’s face closely as he popped the candy into his mouth, determined to pick up any hint of displeasure.

There was none.

“Yeah?” Jin murmured, trying not to sound too flattered by the praise. He shifted slightly; the mattress squeaked under him. “You’re welcome.”

He was trying to ignore the weight of River’s chin on his arm, but it was difficult. It made turning pages difficult, too, and Jin might have shaken the other boy away if he wasn’t afraid that the sudden motion would make him chip his tooth on the candy he was eating.

That was all – it wasn’t like he was tolerating him on purpose, or anything.

He looked down at the innocent expression on River’s face – seriously, what a dummy – and felt heat rise in his cheeks immediately. He hadn’t really been paying attention to what he’d been reading, but now that he’d had time to think about it…

Damn.

“If you fall asleep, I’ll hit you,” he said finally. He turned back to the open comic and turned the page with some difficulty. Then, he cleared his throat.


“’I wish I could talk to her. Half an hour would be plenty. Just ask her about herself, tell her about myself, and…’”

[River Tseung]

Suck suck suck. River wasn't too quiet about his enjoyment of the candy, his lips pursed out as he smiled dorkily at Jin. If a headache wasn't a problem, he'd definitely ask for more - maybe it was just the fact that Jin had made it for him, but the candy tasted extra extra nice, in his opinion.

"We can get lunch later if you'd like," he offered around the sweet. "Definitely don't want you to get a headache!"

Jin was doing all this for him, after all. It only made sense to repay him.

And, being River, he was oblivious to any discomfort or embarrassment coming from his friend. He just laid there, sucking quietly, waiting for the story to continue.

"I won't, promise," he replied, looking up through his lashes with a very genuine gaze. He was far too hyper to fall asleep anyway, now that his sweet tooth was satisfied.

And so he fell into listening to the comic. He wasn't sure how long he laid there, listening to the soft sound of Jin's voice translating the Hangul as he followed the images, but somewhere along the line the candy finally dissolved in his mouth. Something also began to stir in River, a soft, warm feeling that started in his chest and slowly spread through his body, leaving him content and happy in a way he couldn't quite explain.

Maybe it was the comic itself, or the moment, or some mix of the two, but as the reading finally came to an end River's gaze traveled up Jin's arm to look up at his face, suddenly very aware how close and alone they were.

He's a boy, River told himself. You're imagining things.

"Thank you," he said quietly. "I really enjoyed it." His voice had lost his hyper, silly tone, to be replaced with something softer, more affectionate. River cleared his throat and looked away. "I can see why you like them."