Chapter Text
Against his better judgment—and excessive amounts of wheedling from Caro—Sung-bin and Hyun-seung continue their friendship beyond the bounds of Physical: 100.
Caro, self-assigned the role of mediator and middleman due to his martial status of “occupado,” invites the Olympian and the dancer to early-morning gym workouts at a gym that’s in a location central to all three of them. Sung-bin accepts his invite with no small amount of nerves—ever since his freak out over Hyun-seung’s little “dancey-dance” (he’s trying to avoid the severity of the situation, he really is), every time he sees the dancer’s name, little sparks of heat kindle in his chest.
“Have you ever…felt things other than indifference for someone else?” he asks Genie one night after their third (or was it their fourth, or sixth? —Sung-bin doesn’t think that’s all that relevant, actually) joint workout.
Genie sticks her tongue out to pant.
“Yeah, I know I’m being an idiot,” Sung-bin sulks, the feeling of the phrase “in love” awkward and heavy in his mouth. He avoids saying it, choosing instead to unhappily rummage through his fridge for some yogurt.
Buried beneath a pile of rainbow carrots, Sung-bin finally finds his yogurt.
With a heavy sigh, he realizes it’s Hyun-seung’s favorite flavor.
Strawberry banana. God, the flavor is so fucking basic, but Sung-bin finds himself peeling back the aluminum foil on top of the cup anyway.
Genie nips at the loose thread on his sock.
“Shut up,” Sung-bin says, looking away from her all-knowing gaze.
It’s absurd. The things Sung-bin does for lo—nope. He won’t even think it.
The increased exposure to the skeleton racer doesn’t do much to appease the “Yun Sung-bin” hamster wheel that Hyun-seung is sprinting circles around in his brain. In fact, the gym sessions and lunches and dinners and breakfasts and hangouts only seem to make it worse.
It gets to the point where Hyun-seung spends a little too much time texting with Sung-bin during dance practice instead of listening to Sunmi’s comfortable babbling. She must have noticed that he really wasn’t paying attention to her during her rant about the itchy gloves she had to wear for her latest photoshoot so Sunmi eventually stops talking and Hyun-seung can feel the weight of her gaze as she begins shooting curious glances at him.
Hyun-seung, feeling a bit guilty about ignoring her, tries to set his phone down and talk to her during breaks. However, the singer waves him off with the excuse that they spend enough time together, “please have a life outside of me and my amazingness”. Hyun-seung knows that the way she keeps on looking at him critically, she’ll definitely bug him about his “texting addiction” very soon. He is, at the very least, relieved that the woman doesn’t bring it up until the end of practice.
“So, what’s this all about?” Sunmi asks after the dance practice, skipping over to him standing in the corner of the room. Completely ignoring his personal space and reading his texts over his shoulder, Hyun-seung watches Sunmi out of the corner of his eye and sees her eyes grow to the size of dinner plates. The urge to shut his phone off and chuck it across the room is strong, but Hyun-seung refrains from doing so because he knows that’d make the woman even more nosy.
“‘ Sung-bin’ ?” she practically screeches into his ear after reading the name of the chat open on Hyun-seung’s screen. “As in Yun Sung-bin ? The Olympic skeleton racer? That buff guy from Physical: 100 ?”
Upon seeing Hyun-seung’s confirming nod, her gasp is loud enough to bounce off of the walls of the studio.
“He’s so cool! You should introduce him to me sometime!” Sunmi exclaims, excitedly hitting his arm and bouncing up and down.
“I didn’t know Yun Sung-bin was your type,” Hyun-seung replies teasingly, patting her on the head in an effort to calm her down, lest she draw even more attention to them.
Sunmi tips her head back in laughter and punches Hyun-seung on the arm. “He’s not. I just want to meet the guy who’s caught my little Hyun-seung’s attention!”
Hyun-seung immediately feels his face grow hot. “What—? No!” he sputters, wanting the earth to open up and swallow him whole when Sumni rolls her eyes at him like he’s the biggest idiot to ever live. He takes a quick look around the studio to make sure the staff aren’t eavesdropping on their conversation. “Sunmi, You can’t just say stuff like that! Imagine the scandal—”
Sunmi makes a shushing motion by tapping her pointer finger against her lips and she leans in to whisper, “— Relax , bro. I’m not the one who’s obsessed with him.”
“That would be a funny rumor, though,” she adds thoughtfully, completely ignoring Hyun-seung’s face-palm. “I don’t think any of my staff would leak that, unfortunately. They’re much too loyal.”
“I’m happy for you?”
“You should be. But I’m more happy for you, son.”
“I’m literally older than you, Sunmi. And there really isn’t anything to be too happy over.”
“And yet still less mature,” she retorts. “I see you’re still in the ‘denial’ stage.”
“I’m not in the ‘ denial ’ stage,” Hyun-seung denies. “I’m perfectly aware of my feelings.”
“Oh, really?” She smiles. “What are you going to do about it then?”
“Nothing, really,” Hyun-seung admits. “We’re just friends, that’s it. There’s nothing more to want from that.”
He must not sound all that convincing, because Sunmi yanks his phone out of his hands and scrolls through their chat.
“ Hey! ” Hyun-seung feels extremely violated when she begins reading out some of the messages.
“‘ Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?’ —to which you replied, ‘ Nothing planned, why?’ —to which he responded with an address and ‘ bring your own foam roller ’,” she narrates. “What’d you guys do?”
“Oh, that?” Hyun-seung laughs nervously. “He just needed some help rolling out after a leg day.”
She scrolls further. “ Woah . What’s with all of the ‘ good night ’ and ‘ good morning ’ texts?”
“Isn’t that something friends do?”
She hmphs . “Alright. What’s with all of the muscle pictures? These look… incriminating.” She smirks at him. Hyun-seung knows these will be hard to defend.
“Caro sent those.”
“Who’s that?”
“The other guy we hang out with. You haven’t seen him on my account?”
Sunmi sighs. “To be honest, kiddo, I don’t stalk your Instagram page.” Then, she instructs him to “give her a second” as she grabs her own phone and finds Caro’s Instagram. “So he’s married?”
“Yeah, he’s disgustingly in love with his wife.” Hyun-seung can practically hear the older man gushing about his wonderfully happy and fulfilling home life.
“Cute,” Sunmi says. “I wonder how he feels about third-wheeling.”
“He’s not a third-wheel, Sunmi, because there’s nothing going on between Sung-bin and me.”
She sees right through his lie because not even Hyun-seung believes himself. He’d like to believe that all of the times he’s caught Sung-bin staring at him aren’t just him imagining things. And Sung-bin does text him a lot.
“Okay, lame.”
“That’s harsh.”
“But true.”
This whole conversation is starting to hurt Hyun-seung’s head and he tells Sunmi. “Not that I’m ungrateful for your time, of course, but I don’t really want to talk about my feelings anymore.” Lord knows that he thinks about the athlete so much that talking about him makes Hyun-seung seem a little obsessive.
“Fine,” Sunmi huffs, begrudgingly agreeing to drop it. “But I still want to meet him. He seems like a cool guy.”
Hyun-seung sighs, already typing out a text to Sung-bin because what Sunmi wants, Sunmi gets. “How does lunch sound?”
“Perfect. Ask him if Thursday works.”
“You got it.”
She must sense Hyun-seung’s inner turmoil because she gives him a tight hug.
“You’re the best,” she says, and then, in a softer and more serious voice, “Look, I’m glad that you have someone who makes you happy, whether it be platonically or romantically.”
“Humans aren’t meant to be solitary creatures, you know,” Sunmi adds. “Surround yourself with whoever you want to, as long as they make you happy.”
Despite all of her teasing, Sunmi knows exactly what to tell him. Hyun-seung knows he really doesn’t deserve someone as understanding as she is.
(Thursday comes and goes. Hyun-seung tries not to feel too disappointed when Sunmi tells him she has a last-minute meeting with her company and can’t make it to lunch.
He still enjoys the meal with Sung-bin, though. He still enjoys the meal, despite chickening out and parting ways with the athlete after paying the bill.)
“I get drunk fast when I drink with someone I like,” Hyun-seung mentions one night, drunkenly waving his beer bottle in the cool night air at nothing in particular. He toasts to the moon that’s easily visible from their spot on Caro’s balcony.
He and Sung-bin are crashing at Caro’s place for the night, invited to sleep over after completing a particularly grueling joint workout that’s been recorded and edited to be posted on their respective YouTube channels the following morning.
“ Awe , my little Hyun-seungie is so sweet!” Caro whines, wiping a fake tear from the corner of his eye. Caro’s bottle wobbles in his grasp, dangerously close to spilling its contents all over Hyun-seung’s bare chest. They’ve all gone and removed their shirts a while ago, all three of them sweating like hogs after their workout.
Sung-bin pulls the beer bottle out of Caro’s hand and sets it on the ground several feet away from where Caro is perched on his chair. The balcony shakes when Hyun-seung vigorously shakes his head and rolls his eyes.
“Not you ,” Hyun-seung says. “ Ew .”
“Rude,” Caro scoffs. “I’m very much worth getting drunk for.”
Caro pouts and gives Hyun-seung an aggressive side-eye.
“Sung-bin!” Hyun-seung declares as if facing a major epiphany. He swivels to face Sung-bin, nearly falling off Caro’s third-floor balcony in the process.
“ Jesus –” Sung-bin throws his arms out and grabs onto Hyun-seung’s wrist before he topples over the edge. He yanks the dancer away from the edge and takes the beer bottle out of his hand.
“How many of these have you had?” he asks–well, it’s more of a demand–Hyun-seung.
It becomes increasingly obvious that Hyun-seung is a touchy drunk. The man giggles and pokes Sung-bin’s chest with a finger. “ Hah . Iron -bin,” he giggles with a smile.
Sung-bin, frozen in shock, watches as Hyun-seung runs his hands along his arms and over his shoulders. Hyun-seung squeezes his shoulders a couple of times as if he’s trying to get his mind around how round Sung-bin’s muscles are before he sighs and slumps over Sung-bin, arms hanging around Sung-bin’s body. It feels like the world’s lowest effort and yet most comforting hug.
“You’re really solid,” Hyun-seung mumbles, his face buried into Sung-bin’s shoulder.
“You too,” Sung-bin grumbles from under the dead weight of the man. He attempts to walk them over to the unoccupied chair on Caro’s balcony. Caro, the useless meathead he is, does absolutely nothing to help Sung-bin, instead closing his eyes to take a nap.
“I’m drunk,” Hyun-seung unhelpfully says when Sung-bin collapses onto the lounge chair. Their position is a little awkward as Hyun-seung’s knee digs into Sung-bin’s thigh, but the warm weight of the dancer’s body feels more like a comfy blanket than a grown man.
“Clearly.”
Hyun-seung sniffs.
“I’m tired.” He yawns and scrunches his eyes shut.
“Then sleep,” the athlete tells him.
Sung-bin feels his own eyes drooping shut as Hyun-seung’s breathing slows into a steady rhythm. It should be more uncomfortable than it is, but Sung-bin doesn’t really care. His eyes trace the looping design of Hyun-seung’s tattoo before his eyes are slowly tugged shut and he falls asleep.
Through his drunken stupor, Hyun-seung feels the subtle rising and falling of Sung-bin’s chest against his cheek as the shorter man falls asleep. It reminds him of a warm and sunny afternoon out on the water, gentle waves lapping the sides of a boat that’s rising and falling with the ebb and flow of the ocean.
“ I like you ,” Hyun-seung whispers, the words messily slipping out of his mouth. He opens his eyes and gazes at the sleeping man beneath him, admiring the way the soft moonlight illuminates the curve of Sung-bin’s lips. Sung-bin, dead to the world, snores in response.
A particularly loud yawn from Caro disrupts the calm night and Hyun-seung shuts his eyes again, a faint headache already working its way into his skull.
Sung-bin glares at the email sitting innocently in his mailbox.
“PHYSICAL: 100 REUNION DINNER!” it cheerfully screams in 14-point Arial.
“I don’t want to go,” he later bemoans to the wrecked state of his closet. He pulls out a plain black shirt and struggles to pull it over his head. Curse his wardrobe filled to the brim with compression and dry-fit shirts.
“If the shirt is that difficult to put on, you probably shouldn’t wear it to dinner,” Hyun-seung chastizes from the speaker on Sung-bin’s phone. “C’mon, Bin, just throw on a nice button-up or something.”
Sung-bin pouts.
“And don’t pout,” Hyun-seung scolds. “They all want to see you, dude! Stop stalling!”
“All of them?”
He can practically hear Hyun-seung’s vigorous head shake through the phone.
“Especially Jung-myung! I think he got a new tattoo he wants to show you.”
“Does his double not give him enough attention already? Can’t he just send me a picture of it?”
Hyun-seung sighs.
“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”
“Say what?” Sung-bin almost rips his shift in his haste to take it off. The room suddenly feels too hot.
“I want you there. I think it’d be good to meet with all of our work friends!”
It’s sad how well that works. Sung-bin (quietly) spurs into action, more of a subconscious reaction to Hyun-seung’s words than a logical one. He yanks a simple white collared shirt off of a hanger and shrugs it around his shoulders.
“Okay. I’m dressed. What now?”
“Do you have pants on?”
Sung-bin looks down at his boxers.
He quickly shoves on a pair of baggy jeans.
“Yes.”
On the other end of the line, Hyun-seung laughs. Sung-bin holds his phone close to his ear, ignoring Genie’s judgemental stare directed straight at him.
“Great. I’ll pick you up in ten.”
Much to Sung-bin’s surprise, the dinner is delightful; full of delicious food and cheery company.
He’ll never admit to Hyun-seung that he was right, though. Call him prideful.
Sung-bin idly stares at the beads of condensation rolling off of his water glass at a leisurely pace. He wonders how much longer Hyun-seung will spend talking to Eu-ddeum.
“Stop brooding,” Sik tells him a couple of minutes later. “Your emo-ness is making my hair follicles shrivel up and die.”
Sung-bin blows at his bangs, his new haircut foreign and unfamiliar in the way that there are always strands of hair falling in his eyes.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” he asks his coach, stealing a glance at the dancer.
“I’m not sober enough for this,” Sik announces before waving at Jin-hyeong.
Jin-hyeong makes a confused face, gesturing to Sung-bin and then to Hyun-seung. Sik shrugs and throws his hands up in the air as if saying “what can you do?”
“You’re hopeless,” Sik kindly tells Sung-bin. “They’re hopeless,” he mouths to Jin-hyeong, who nods in agreement and raises his beer bottle in salute.
Sung-bin sighs wearily. “Yes, Coach.”
“Oh, look who’s coming on over,” Sik discreetly (it’s not that discreet at all) points at Hyun-seung, who gives Sung-bin a little wave as he weaves through the crowd to join them.
“Evening, gentlemen,” he greets. “What’re we having tonight?”
Hyun-seung pokes at Sung-bin’s water. “Other than this boring stuff, I guess.”
Sung-bin flicks the condensation gathered on the glass at Hyun-seung’s face. The dancer’s tongue darts out to lick at the droplets that land near his mouth.
Sik coughs. “I’m drinking some of this whiskey,” he says, but Sung-bin gets the notion that he’s talking to himself more than to them. Hyun-seung slips an ice cube down the back of Sung-bin’s shirt. Sung-bin shrieks (in a very manly manner, of course) and wiggles like a worm until the ice cube plops onto the floor.
With a heavy exhale, Sik pushes himself off the bar and grabs his half-full glass, downing it in one smooth motion.
“I’m going to get something to eat,” he announces, placing his whiskey glass back onto the bar. “Have some fun, okay?”
Sung-bin can tell that that was directed right at him. Hyun-seung gives Sik a toothy grin.
When Sik is out of earshot, Hyun-seung sets his own glass onto the bartop. He looks back at Sung-bin, who’s trying very hard to not look at Hyun-seung’s collarbone tattoo, exposed by the low-cut neckline of his shirt.
“Did you want to do something ‘fun?’” Sung-bin asks after an awkward couple of seconds. “Because I’ll be honest, my social battery is running pretty low—”
“—Actually, I was hoping to speak with you,” Hyun-seung interrupts, wringing his hands and shuffling from one foot to the other.
“Okay?” Sung-bin grows confused when Hyun-seung shakes his head.
“No, like, someplace else,” his eyes dart around the crowded room, “Someplace less…loud. And more private.”
Oh. “Sure,” Sung-bin agrees, suddenly a bit nervous.
“Oh!” Hyun-seung seems surprised that Sung-bin agreed to such a thing as simple as a conversation. “Oh. Okay, um. Cool.”
Why is he so nervous? And why am I so nervous?
The temperature of the room seems to rise a couple hundred degrees. He itches to take his shirt off but follows Hyun-seung outside of the restaurant instead.
They sit on the curb by the road that’s about fifty meters away from the restaurant’s entrance. The silence that stretches between them permeates the dark, starry night.
Even though he’d been the one who wanted to talk, Hyun-seung stays silent. Sung-bin watches the way he pinches and twists the skin on his hands, the way he looks anywhere but Sung-bin.
Something feels off. Sung-bin wants—no, he needs to change it. He needs wants Hyun-seung’s attention. Call it neediness, or maybe a comforting byproduct of always feeling the weight of the dancer’s gaze when Sung-bin enters a room.
“Why’d you want to be on my team?” he finds himself asking. “For the second quest.”
“Oh,” breathes Hyun-seung. “That’s…a good question.”
He’s hesitant—Sung-bin can tell by the way the furrow between his brows becomes more pronounced.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I know it’s a little out of the blue.”
“No, it’s okay,” Hyun-seung rubs his forehead, and with a deep exhale, lets his hand drop down onto his thigh. “I don’t mind.”
“Okay.” Sung-bin doesn’t want to push, doesn’t want to make him even more uncomfortable than he appears. Carefully, as if Hyun-seung’s about to fly away like a spooked bird, the athlete repeats, “So, why’d you join Team Sung-bin?”
(It’s so weird to talk about himself in the third person.)
The dancer crosses and uncrosses his legs, ultimately settling upon setting both of his hands in his lap. Sung-bin sees his resolve harden in the way he finally looks back at the Olympian, a fierce glint in his eyes.
“I really wanted to win,” Hyun-seung says matter-of-factly with a shrug.
“And I guess I thought that if I’d won, I’d also catch the eye of the infamous Yun Sung-bin,” he adds after a beat.
“Why?”
“Simple.” Hyun-seung levels him with his all-too-familiar gaze, eyes piercing into Sung-bin’s soul. “You’re iconic.”
Well, if we’re being honest … “Everybody says that.”
Hyun-seung laughs. “It’s more than that, ‘Bin. I know that you’re not just some idol to put up on a pedestal.”
“I think,” he says, tone completely honest and open, “what I meant to say is that I wanted you to see me because you’re so you .”
“I’m so lost right now, ‘Seung.”
“You know, you’re just–” Hyun-sueng’s composure falters as he wildly waves his hand at Sung-bin’s body. “You!”
“I mean, you’re not wrong?”
Hyun-seung rolls his eyes. “People at the gym look at you and see some random guy who’s got biceps larger than their thighs. Other professional athletes paint a giant red target on your back. Coaches, parents, anyone really–they just see you as an awe-inspiring Olympic gold medalist who’s got the physique of a Greek god. Little kids write their “famous people” biographies about you, parents tell their kids that they can do anything if they really want to, reporters write your name in with the stars and all of the greats of our generation, and your average Netflix-enjoyer sees you as some hunk of meat.”
The thing is, Sung-bin knows he’s right, has seen and read the comments on Reddit and Twitter and Instagram, has had men and women come up to him on the streets to ask him if he’s the Yun Sung-bin, the one from Physical: 100 , the one that chose the son of Netflix as his first teammate, the one that led his team from one victory to the next. His past flings have sent him messages from new numbers, asking how he’s doing, if he’d like to meet up again, trying to get one more piece of the already-cracking-with-hairline-fractures person of Sung-bin, who wants nothing more than something to keep him afloat and alive in the hurricane of life. Sik had been one of his support systems back when he was skeleton racing, but that’s far gone, now. Sung-bin has never had the strongest mental state, chalked up to childhood success in which if he didn’t meet expectations, he’d be left behind—which is far more than he’s willing to admit. He’s never been much of a swimmer, and in a life where if you don’t swim, you’ll drown, he’s ultimately the one who needs a lifeguard.
(And maybe that "something" is not something but rather someone , who might have self-designed tattoos curling on his left shoulder and a lopsided smile that turns Sung-bin’s insides into mush.)
“To me,” Hyun-seung says, eyes softening, “you’re an absolutely goofy guy who eats too much chicken breast. And it’s not even seasoned chicken. It’s just dry chunks of bland meat with an unhealthy amount of sweet potato on the side. It’s a serious issue, ‘Bin.”
“You’re the one with an addiction to watersports,” Sung-bin points out. “If we’re talking about serious issues.”
“Says the one who posted a swimming video on his YouTube.”
Sung-bin huffs, a small smile tugging at his face. “Touché.”
To his surprise, Hyun-seung reaches out and pokes at his cheek. “Huh?”
Hyun-seung doesn’t withdraw his hand and settles it on Sung-bin’s shoulder.
Sung-bin hopes Hyun-seung can’t feel his heart hammering in his chest.
“You know, I like your smile,” says Hyun-seung.
A beat and a half passes before Sung-bin is thrown back to a summer night a couple of months before.
“My ideal type?” Cha Hyun-seung asks the interviewers.
“Sure,” he says after receiving confirmation from one of the staff members.
“Someone who has a pretty smile,” Hyun-seung shares with a thoughtful look in his eyes. “A smile completely separate from their facial features. You know, there are people who can make you happy just by looking at their smile.”
“Oh.” Something clicks in the back of Sung-bin’s mind. The fog that’s gathered in the forefront of his brain burns off and everything seems clearer, the colors of the night bolder and the light from the moon brighter.
“Really?” His throat throbs as the traitorous organ in his chest tries to beat its way out of his body.
“ Really ,” Hyun-seung assures him. “But you’re too cool, sometimes. I wish the world could know how much of a softie you are.”
“I’m not a softie .”
“Sure you’re not,” Hyun-seung agrees sarcastically. “Just like how I’m not the handsomest man in the world.”
Sung-bin doesn’t want to deny it, because while the dancer probably isn’t the most handsome man in the world, he is undeniably good-looking–all the way from his gentle face to the harshly defined muscles of his abs and surrounding muscles.
Noticing his silence, Hyun-seung’s eyes light up and a brilliant smile spreads across his face.
“So you do think I’m handsome!” he exclaims victoriously. “ I knew it! ”
“Oh my god, shut up,” Sung-bin groans, calm facade shattered as he looks away from Hyun-seung’s eyes. “Don’t tease me, having feelings is humiliating enough.”
group chat: hyun-seung & caro
caro; (21:30)
hey guys
I don’t mean to break ur ❤️s like this
but
I’m not going to be able to make our gym sesh tomorrow
😭😢
me; (21:35)
loser
oh well
i guess me and hyun-seung are just built diff
caro; (21:36)
meanie
rude
muscles for brains
me; (21:36)
jkjk
😢
hope all is okay
caro; (21:37)
oh yeah I’m fine
my wife just wanted to hang out with her parents so we’re driving down for the day
hyun-seung; (21:37)
have fun lol
😏
caro; (21:37)
you too
I know you and binnie will have fun without me
🥲
me; (21:38)
💀
caro rlly said chicks before 🍆
chat: hyun-seung
(21:38)
you still down for tomorrow?
idk if caro’s presence was a deciding factor for you to go or not
(21:39)
why wouldn’t i go????
(21:39)
oh ok good
i promise to not be too annoying or anything
(21:39)
i promise you that you don’t have to worry about that
if anything, caro is the annoying one lol
don’t tell him i said that he’ll post an ugly picture of me on his instagram
(21:40)
LOL
i promise
(21:41)
does 5:00 sound good?
(21:41)
I really hope you mean 5:00 in the afternoon
but yes
(21:41)
omg yeah
Lol
(21:43)
it’s a date then
😉
Sung-bin almost drops his phone. He spends an embarrassing amount of minutes trying to come up with a response that doesn’t convey the internal keyboard smash inside of his brain.
(21:46)
damn, take me out to dinner first
The three little dots from Hyun-seung’s end of the line pop up and then disappear a couple of seconds later. The cycle repeats for the next couple of minutes, doing nothing to ease Sung-bin’s thoughts.
Should I have said that? Is it too forward?
He debates calling Kim Sik.
(21:47)
well
since you asked…
i went to the grocery store yesterday…
stocked up on sweet potato and chicken breast
👀
if you’d want to come over for dinner afterward
Sung-bin can barely believe his eyes, thumbs frozen over his keyboard. There is something between him and Hyun-seung—that much is true, at least that’s what Sik has said, what Caro has said, what Eun-sil had DM’ed him after Sung-bin had posted a picture of him and Hyun-seung at the gym the other day.
“Fuck it.”
Hyun-seung sends a couple of texts in rapid succession.
(21:50)
wait don’t feel pressured to do anything
i’m just being stupid
i mean, i do have potatoes and chicken and i know you like them
(21:51)
sung?
you know what forget i even said anything
(21:51)
did you mean it?
(21:51)
mean what?
(21:51)
🙄
the whole date thing
or am i just reading too much into this
(21:52)
into what?
(21:52)
gddmit you know what i’m talking about
Hyun-seung’s phone almost slips from his grasp as his palms grow sweaty. Sung-bin must be talking about their dynamic, the flirtatious tension that only grows as they spend more and more time together, the chemistry they undeniably share with every charged look and awkward moment in the gym locker room, the way Hyun-seung is never more than six feet away from Sung-bin when the cameras are rolling, the way Hyun-seung can’t seem to force his eyes off of the skeleton racer when the cameras are off.
His mouth dries as he types out his response.
(21:52)
oh
yeah i do
(21:52)
you’re causing me a great deal of anxiety over this, hyun-seung
i mean, you have been
for a while now
Thank goodness Sung-bin has always been the bolder one of them. At least, when sober. Hyun-seung’s gaze falls upon a yellow sticky note hanging on his refrigerator a few feet away. It reads ‘ get better soon ’ with a horribly drawn stick figure below it, unproportionate muscles added onto the figure’s frame and a swirling tattoo curled on the figure’s left arm. Below the drawing, the note is signed with a little dash followed by a small Iron Man helmet that’s smiling. It’s dated back from last year, from when Hyun-seung’s ribs had still been on the mend.
Something tugs at Hyun-seung from inside his chest.
(21:53)
listen
my offer is very much real
(21:53)
…
good
Hyun-seung barely registers the wide grin spreading across his face.
(21:53)
good
so just to confirm
we’re on for tomorrow afternoon at 5
gym and dinner date
(21:54)
wear your fanciest workout clothes
Hyun-seung sends a picture of the pile of clothes hanging on a chair nearby; he thinks he’d worn them to a photoshoot earlier in the week.
(21:55)
will these work?
(21:55)
🤢
i literally hate your shirts so much
for a model you have really bad fashion sense
like who tf wears paisley-patterned shirts
(21:55)
i thought you liked them????
i literally wear them to the gym all the time???
Sung-bin snorts in laughter, refusing to dignify Hyun-seung’s awful wardrobe with real laughter.
(21:55)
hell no
i want to rip them to shreds whenever i see you wearing them
(21:56)
then maybe i should wear this one tomorrow…
kind of aggressive for our first date, though, no?
😉
(21:56)
don’t be gross
but if you insist…
i’ll definitely stand you up
(21:56)
OMG😭
(21:57)
💀
(21:57)
i’ll behave, i promise
😇
i mean if i didn’t, i’m pretty sure your coach would beat my ass
(21:58)
he’d probably get Jin-hyeong in on it too
maybe the rest of the winter olympians too
(21:58)
that lowkey actually scares me
i call eun-sil for my team
and sung-hoon
maybe ki-kwan and caro if they can be bought off
oh wait
i want kang-nim
he could crush heads with those thighs
Sung-bin chuckles at the thought of the body-builder with his impressively large legs.
(21:59)
hey sung
(21:59)
yeah
(21:59)
in all seriousness
i like you
(21:59)
similarly
in all seriousness
i hope you’re better at cooking than you are at building bridges
(22:00)
smart ass
see i thought i’d have to convince you to go out with me but it sounds like you already know all of my best and most charming attributes
(22:00)
lol like what
really convince me
(22:01)
my face, for starters
my abs
my sexy tats
my thoughtfulness and poetic tendencies
(22:01)
ok who are you, oh jin-taek?
(22:01)
let’s not bring up Single’s Inferno
it’s a testament my amazing and magnetic personality
really, there’s too many great things about me
too many to list
(22:02)
hmm
i see
(22:02)
that convincing enough?
or should i go on?
Sung-bin barks out a laugh at his blatant cheekiness.
(22:03)
shut up
you had me at sweet potatoes and chicken breast