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[OM NYOM NYOM NYOM] MONSTA X SHOWNU & KIHYUN's street food MUKBANG!

Summary:

Kihyun gets mentioned in Shownu's Om Nom Nom Nom, yet we didn't get a guest appearance from Kihyun.

Here's a fic to mostly quench my showki thirst.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Kihyun is jealous. There, he said it.

He’s jealous of Hyunwoo and Hoseok, giggling their way through the whole episode of the mukbang. A single word from Hyunwoo and the fair man on his right laughs automatically, it’s adorable, he can admit. Even the live comments would point it out. When Hoseok laughs, he gives it his all, his mouth would open up wide and his nose would scrunch up as a bunny would.

When Kihyun laughs, it’s annoying. It pierces the ears of people, it’s short and high-pitched. Far from his attractive hyung.

When Hoseok is with Hyunwoo, they just simply match. They freely fool around each other as what close friends would do, they tease and they compete. And they fit. Kihyun knows he doesn’t have that kind of relationship with Hyunwoo, he knows Hyunwoo sees him as someone who nags, someone who kills the vibe because of the seriousness that he brings.

“Loosen up, Kihyun-ah. You’re like a mother who turns everything into a lesson.”

Hyunwoo, from the corner, once said quietly. The members laughed at that and Kihyun did, too. But he did hurt, also. He tried to not talk, tried to stop himself from talking over his members who were having their own fun.

Maybe that’s why Hyunwoo prefers the person he is with now instead of Kihyun who is on their manager’s car, on his way to a solo schedule. They work well together, being in the same age and all. They lean on each other often, they are the strong pillars that hold Monsta X together, both figuratively and literally.

Kihyun sees that, but he still can’t help but feel the tugging jealousy in his chest.

“Hyunwoo-hyung is doing well, isn’t he?” Kihyun casually asks the manager on the driver’s seat, the live premiere of the mukbang still playing on his phone.

The manager hums, "he’s going to film another mukbang with Hoseok in the company actually.”

“Oh, another one?”

“Seems like the fans and producers liked Hoseok and Hyunwoo together.”

The world is falling for their charms. Kihyun’s glad. Kihyun needs to be glad for his members. He nods in response to the manager, his lips tightening up.

“Actually, the producer wanted to bring another guest for the mukbang, they were thinking a girl group member. They’re aiming to have enough chemistry to make the people talking and produce articles.”

“Like with Lipstick Prince,” Kihyun remembers. The members wouldn't stop teasing Hyunwoo back then, Jooheon and Changkyun would recite the script at random times to rile up their leader, who would raise his voice in a joking manner but would let them continue after.

“We’re lucky if we get some CF’s, too, for this, but we’ll see and push for it.”

Kihyun hums and a ball encloses his heart and threatens to squeeze.

“What-” he starts but stops himself, thinking of how ridiculous of an idea this is, and how selfish. But the manager is already listening, might as well get the idea rejected. “What if another member goes, instead?”

“Another member?”

“Yeah, another member. Monbebes would love it and show the dynamics of the other members with Shownu to the producers,” Kihyun doesn’t know that; he doesn’t know if this is a much better idea than a potential CF from a company.

From the lack of response from the manager and not straight up saying a no, he’s entertaining the idea. Or it’s just utterly ridiculous that it stunned him.

“Plus, girl groups are very strict with their diet, no company would allow them to participate in a mukbang,” he hurriedly says when the thought came to mind, that was it. He thinks that that logic is pretty good, and he sees the manager’s eyes on him through the rearview mirror.

“Why do I have a feeling you’re that member that wants to guest,” he laughs and Kihyun protests. “Alright, alright, I have to think about it,” the manager continues to drive in silence while the phone screen in Kihyun's hands shows Hyunwoo trying to blow out the egg from its shell but splitting the egg in half with his fingers instead.

His lips are pulling up to expose his teeth but he only allows himself a slight smile, the one that makes his chin wrinkle. Kihyun settles back down on his seat and continues to watch Hyunwoo on a tiring day.

 

 

The following week Kihyun’s seated in front of blaring hot lights shooting an eating show with Hyunwoo, or NuNu as what he calls himself during his hour of work. And Hyunwoo gave the petite one a nickname of KiKi. (Petite compared to the man that is Shownu, no one dares to speak of it when he’s in the room, though.)

“Om Nom Nom Nom viewers, we are back for another week and we have another special friend to join us,” he starts, now with confidence compared to the first time he did this.

“Yes, hello, I’m NuNu’s friend, KiKi. It’s nice to meet you!” he immediately greets the cameras with the smile big enough for his silver tooth to catch the light and it made Hyunwoo look at him with a soft tug on his lips.

“What?” he whispers a question.

A beat passes. “Everyone, he’s really excited so let’s forgive him,” and it earned him a light punch from Kihyun. “I heard he’s been asking for a guest appearance from the manager for a while.”

“No, no, I just said it one time,” Hyunwoo just nods and fakes an understanding look. “And to be fair you mentioned me first and never invited me over so I took matters in my own hands.”

When the first episode aired, Kihyun was ecstatic. He always monitored their works even outside the group activities, Shownu’s in particular. Their leader never fails to mention his members, and that may be all but hearing his name be uttered with amusement by the very person he has been taking special attention on, to say the least.

It’s debatable that he blushed when he was mentioned once again on the next episode.

It’s no denying his heart skipped a beat when Hyunwoo called him a cute on another one.

“Ah,” he barks a laugh. “That’s right,” he laughs while looking up to the ceiling and rubbing a hand on the back of his neck.  “KiKi really keeps a close eye on me.”

And it’s a fact that he has a damn crush for the person who is training his eyes on the platter of street foods.

The feeling of admitting his feelings in his thoughts made his inside tickle and heat up, no matter how long it has been since the first.

 

Smearing some Nutella to the kwabaeggi was Kihyun’s idea and it made Hyunwoo dip the whole donut into the jar.

“Hyung, that’s too much!”

“Delicious,” he said with a mouth full of chocolate and pastry. Some are still left on the corners of his mouth but without saying anything, Hyunwoo’s tongue beat him to it.

“It’s a plain sugared bread that will go with anything, I would recommend choco,” and Hyunwoo could only nod while chewing, already reaching for the next dish to try out.

 

 

Hyunwoo grabs sikhye after a tteokboki blocked his windpipe and takes large sips that make his cheeks cave in.

“Seriously, take your time,” Kihyun’s voice lacing with concern and amusement while patting Hyunwoo’s back to help the food go down.

Hyunwoo sighs loudly when he’s breathing freely again.

“Is it refreshing?” Kihyun asks.

“Yes,” Hyunwoo chuckles. “Just in time for the hot weather. Why don’t you try it?” Hyunwoo offers him a drink from the plastic cup.

“It’s been a while,” he takes the cup from Hyunwoo's hand and sips. Kihyun can’t help but exhale after. “Wow, it really takes back memories.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Hyunwoo looks at him. “Why don’t we go down there when we’re free?”

“Oh,” he stops.

Hyunwoo can’t be asking him on a date, he knows the older man does not intend for it to mean like that, no, but it’s Kihyun’s mouth that decided to just stop working, his brain to short circuit and put him on a panic. It’s a casual conversation between friends and his delusions are taking over his logic.

“Jooheon would love it,” he spits out.

“Yes,” Hyunwoo looks away and at the camera. “Jooheon-- uh, Honey, will like it.”

Kihyun’s heart doesn’t stop punching out of his ribcage even if the topic dropped immediately as soon as it barely even started.

A production staff opens a door and the two’s eyes immediately train the plate that is coming towards their table. Hyunwoo’s eyes immediately recognized it from the episode script that was given to him the day before, but Kihyun’s are still questioning.

Hyunwoo saw the chocolate-haired man look at the dish presented to them with unfamiliarity.

“Ah, this is a new one, KiKi. I think this went viral last year. What is this called again, Old... Man Beard?” he stumbles and asks the staff. “A-ah Dragon’s Beard,” he tests it in his tongue a few times and Kihyun laughs quietly, the one that forms dips in his chin.

“Old Man Beard, yes,” he teases and he might have missed it but Hyunwoo might have been red in the ears.

“It’s pulled candy,” he continues.

“Pulled candy?” his voice going up to the question.

“Right, that was my reaction, too,” Hyunwoo laughs.

Kihyun touches the white cocoon-looking candy, the strands are smooth and as thin as hair. Hyunwoo takes one and tries to separate a strand to show the close up to the camera on his right, the one focused on Kihyun’s face, and the curious host goes closer to the finger.

“Woah.”

Hyunwoo, so suddenly, can’t move. His bones and muscles seized like his body got shut down. Kihyun’s face is breathtakingly close to his and the other is nowhere near to being aware of his position, too occupied to his amazement on the candy.

Hyunwoo always notices. He noticed then when the touches went too often, to rare and almost being avoided. He noticed every time Kihyun would look at him, its different from Hoseok, from Minhyuk or from Jooheon. His physical appearance may not say a lot about his perception of the other people around him, but he would know a look that could bore into him has got to have meaning into it. 

At first, he thought he hated him. Every time his name was uttered, it was tight and forced. There are times when his eyes would catch his looking, it would immediately be snatched away. During practice, when Hyunwoo would notice Kihyun struggling, he would offer a suggestion and he'd be waved away. But he'd see the way he would act when Hyunwoo would laugh with others, the way he'd snap if someone talked to him and blush after. He'd always look Hyunwoo for a second after as if every look would never be enough.

Or maybe he's just projecting his own feelings on Kihyun. 

“It’s peanut flavor,” the staff says from behind the camera.

Kihyun backs away and sits back down, Hyunwoo adjusts in his seat.

“I should have told someone this," the set quiets, "but I’m allergic to nuts,” a beat passes and the staff laughs in disbelief.

“What?” Hyunwoo looks at him and the staff.

Kihyun repeats himself and he rubs his hand together in apology.

Hyunwoo shakes his head and his eyes automatically form crescent moons matching Kihyun’s.

Kihyun could only look at the candy that is being consumed by the man beside him, he seems to never be full. Kihyun thinks that this is the reason why he’s the perfect host for the show, he is always trying new things, too, without any complaint. Kihyun can’t imagine himself being Hyunwoo, calmly taking on new things and challenges.

Kihyun snaps out of his thoughts when he sees an unraveled strings of candy in front of him. The nuts that were inside are now strewn on the plate and he’s being fed by Hyunwoo.

He’s fast to try new things but never forgets the people he’s with and helps them up to his own pace, as big and as small as teaching the choreography no matter how many tries it takes him (Kihyun is notorious for missing points of the dance) and guests in variety shows as a solo act but never failing to praise his team.

He opens up his mouth for Hyunwoo’s waiting chopsticks wrapped in candy strands and masking the redness of his face by nodding his head, pretending that the flavor’s the one that elicited the praising movements. And Hyunwoo pretends that he isn’t feeling the same.

“Do you want anything?” their manager stops the car across the street from Starbucks.

Both of them say an Americano and when the door of the car shuts closed, the two are met by silence. Kihyun opens his phone almost immediately when he sees his hyung look outside his side of the window, for some reason he finds the white wall more interesting than the person he is left with. Kihyun slowly exhales, keeping his breathing calm when all he feels is the presence of the person he has taken special attention to.

Kihyun just opened the fan cafe, about to read recent letters monbebes left for him when he hears a clearing of the throat.

“Kihyun-ah,” he breaks the silence in the confines of the car.

“Hyung,” he answers.

“Kihyun-ah,” Hyunwoo looks down on his hand, playing with the tips of his fingers in between his legs.

Kihyun blinks at the sight.

“I see things going on around a lot,” Kihyun still doesn’t respond, doesn’t know where the nervous man is going with the sentence he is starting with.

“And I… notice you.”

He involuntarily sucks in a breath. “O-of course, you’re a great leader like that,” he downplays it, tries his best to be casual but his voice could only manage a whisper.

Hyunwoo shakes his head and clears his throat once more. “No, Kihyun-ah. I notice you,” as he says it, he breaks his stare at his hands and moves it to Kihyun.

“What do you mean?” he can’t breathe. Kihyun can’t breathe and neither does Hyunwoo. Their hearts up in their throats. Hyunwoo feels like if he would say anything more he would throw up all the food that he just ate, but his mouth also didn’t want him to stop. 

“I may have read you wrong and made everything up in my head, but Kihyun… am I right to assume that you like me?”

A voice came from Kihyun’s throat, caught off guard with what Hyunwoo just said. Kihyun attempts to smile, to laugh, to punch his arm, play it off as a joke, something, but he’s met with humorless eyes expecting an answer from the other man left inside the vehicle.

“Why would--”

“Because I do, I do like you.”

Their eyes bore into each other, nobody had the power to break the eye contact because for the first time their leader wore his heart on his sleeves for a single person, but even then it’s not solely for a selfish reason. He did it for Kihyun as much as for himself.

Kihyun has an answer but he has nothing that he can verbally say. So he reaches forward and does what he always wanted to do.

He kisses him.

His lips touched Hyunwoo’s and it’s forceful, not in its way but its feeling. Years of repressing the touches in fear of creating a rift that he can no longer bring back. He sacrificed the physical closeness for the long-run. No matter how hard it was, it definitely weighed light compared to what will happen if he gets too attached and asked for more.

All of those doubts didn’t just vanish, no. It was painful. His chest was quiet for a peaceful moment, his heart taken aback, didn’t see what he had done coming. Then when it realized that the millions of nerve endings in his lips are making contact with another million, it rumbled from afar until came the nuclear explosion. His whole body shakes from being overwhelmed that he has to pull away.

Hyunwoo feels the hand on the back of his neck still keeping him warm when cold AC air blows in his face again instead of the warmth that Kihyun’s close proximity provided when he kissed him. They kissed.

They kissed and Hyunwoo can still feel the lips that were on him a second ago.

He sees the person that initiated the kiss look lost and in disbelief. The hand that is still on him is squeezing the back of his neck. Grounding Hyunwoo at this moment.

He holds Kihyun’s wrist and softly draws circles on the back of his hand. This is real, he tries to convey and it looks like Kihyun got the message when his eyes start to shut. Hyunwoo takes this as permission to close their distance once more by enveloping his other arm on the smaller man’s back.

If it’s even possible, the second time has been intensified. Both their affections have been established by the kisses that both of them have now had the chance to start. Hyunwoo moves deeper and Kihyun pushes back, it’s deep but careful and clumsy.

Their mouths are profound with every meaning that they are trying to say to each other. The unspoken truth waiting to be let out for every look, laugh, smile, and touch. Kihyun can’t help but smile in between the kiss and that only deepens the make out.

Nothing else matters, not that they’re in a cramped space, not that they’re in their manager’s car, or that they can be found out being in a vulnerable situation. They taste the sweetness of their dessert and the hot breath that only enraged the fire in Hyunwoo’s stomach.

But he pulled away and is met with hooded eyes drunk with their recent actions. He rests their foreheads together, breathing into each other.

“So… I’m guessing the feeling is mutual?”

Kihyun laughs while still catching his breath. He opens his mouth at the same time the car door did.

Their manager slumping down the driver’s seat that rocked the car and the two men who just had an intimate relationship blossom between them had to separate and act like they had not tasted the other’s mouth. Just the thought heats up Kihyun’s ears.

Both with glistening and bitten red lips had to take the coffee that they asked the manager to buy for them, ignoring the weird look that they are being given by the older man. Maybe they’re being too obvious by acting as nothing happened.

His lips are still tingling by the contact that Kihyun’s grateful for the coffee cup hiding his budding smile. He feels a touch on his pinky finger and when he looks down, he found his leader’s pinky encircling his own. He looks up and Hyunwoo is doing the same thing with his coffee cup, smiling with his thick lips and sneaking knowing glances to Kihyun.

The hot liquid biting in his lips made him swipe a tongue out to cool it off but it continues on. It’s tingling and getting sore by the second and itchy by the next. He removes the hand between them to touch his lips and he feels it pulsating.

“What’s happening?” he sees Hyunwoo’s concerned face matching with his voice that made their manager look at the rearview mirror.

“I don’t know,” he answers while still touching his warm lips.

“Wait,” their manager starts. “My sister gets these really bad allergic reactions. I think you’re having one,” he immediately enters an address of any near pharmacy from their location in his phone.

“You’re not allergic to coffee,” Hyunwoo says matter-of-factly. He’s right, they’ve had multiple coffees before and not a single one, may it be an instant coffee from the dorm or a fancy one from a foreign country, nothing elicited this kind of response from his body.

“I’m not. I’m allergic to nuts.”

 

MONSTAX_KH [ 190531 ]

This is my first time to have swollen lips like this...

 

Notes:

Inspired by the time when Changkyun called Shownu and Kihyun answered, shortly after that he posted on fan cafe that his lips were swollen.
Credits to NASI for the wonderful showki mukbang "thumbnail"!!!

(This is a result of Nasi and I's delusional imaginations)

twitter @wonhosbottoms