Chapter Text
When you meet a guy who seems like he could pass for Aphrodite’s son, running away isn’t the best thing you could do. Zhang Hao is well aware of that. But the situation was just so embarrassing (he really doesn’t know where he got all that confidence from) and finding out he was late was the perfect excuse(if you completely ignore how he fears for his life after he sees Kuan Jui’s twenty-one text messages, that is).
Instead of overthinking that though, he just opts to think of a better name for this personified weekend sunset. (He realizes he can multitask and overthinks while doing it anyway.) He stares at the notification in his and this guy he’s sure is his other half’s chat that he received earlier, thoughtfully contemplating with his entire brain.
unknown number (+82xx xxx xxxx)
unknown set your contact name to ‘가을🍂’
‘Gaeul is a cute name,’ Hao thinks, then groans. Mr. Unknown Number is such a genius, and Hao is just…not? He can’t live up to that.
His fingers hover over the keyboard, clicking random keys in hopes of a random poetic name coming to him, until a sudden light bulb moment comes to him out of the blue. He audibly gasps, maybe too dramatically, but he couldn’t really care less right now.
Hao smiles proudly at the name he keys in as he clicks save. Maybe he is a genius after all.
봄🏵️
unknown set your contact name to ‘가을🍂’
you set unknown’s contact name to ‘봄🏵️’
Sometimes, being a genius means parasitizing other geniuses. Woah, now there’s Hao’s new catchphrase.
He’s basking in his achievement, smiling proudly at himself like an idiot and all, until he almost goes into cardiac arrest from Jui towering over him.
“Fuck–” His first instinct is to hide his phone, so he slams it onto the mirror he’s leaning on, bumping his head in the process.
“Who are you talking to?” Jui asks, eyeing Hao suspiciously. Hao looks back up at him in pure disbelief. What the hell, how does he know?
“No one,” Hao denies, exasperated, rolling his eyes and sliding his phone down onto the floor.
“Hao, love of my life, your ears are red. So red I’m actually scared that they’ll pop off,” Jui answers, unimpressed. “You cannot lie to save your life.”
Hao flushes, hands flying to cover his ears. He scowls at Jui. “Yes, I can!” He shoots back. “Not that I’d need to anyway, because I’m not lying. I’m not talking to anyone.”
Jui looks like he’s either about to laugh in Hao’s face or write a fifteen-page essay about how those three sentences were pure bullshit. Hao scoffs.
“Aren’t you supposed to be stretching?” He kicks Jui’s calf, the other agilely dodging it.
“For your information, I already did. You were just too caught up with…whatever you were doing to make you gasp like that,” Jui slides down into a split and Hao scoffs again. ‘He’s showing off, look at this guy.’ “To notice,” Jui finishes.
“Yeah, whatever. Let’s just get to it,” Hao stands up to get his violin out of its case, Jui following close behind, laughing.
“Why the hurry? Weren’t you only, I don’t know, negative seventy-seven minutes early?” He peers at Hao’s face from behind him, sarcasm evident in his tone. Hao physically pauses from tuning his violin, turning around to face Jui.
“What in the world, why did you count?” Jui just shrugs and Hao almost hits him.
“Just go,” He kicks Jui – this time, not missing – as he holds the violin close to him, listening for the proper notes as he turns the knobs.
Jui sticks his tongue out at Hao. “I hope you drop it.”
Hao flips him off.
—
After Hao butchers the same note he’s been working on, Jui’s movements halt. He notices the older’s disappointed expression.
“Hey, it’s alright. I haven’t choreographed that part either,” Jui smiles. Hao looks back at him with glassy eyes, sighing shakily. He can tell that he’s lying – lying to make him feel better. It sucks.
Frustration and embarrassment build up inside him as he clutches his violin’s neck. He hears Jui sigh.
“Let’s call it a day. We’ve been at this for at least five hours,” Jui says, rolling his shoulders to flick his flannel off. “I’m tired. Same time tomorrow?”
Hao is disappointed, but he understands. He’ll definitely be up until four practicing though. Time to file a notice to the dorm.
“Yeah, sure,” He simply replies, staring down at his violin.
Out of nowhere, the chime of a message notification echoes in the room, causing both boys to stop. They exchange glances, silently asking each other whose phone that was, until Jui pulls his out of his pocket and shakes his head.
Hao walks over to the mirror and bends down to turn on his phone. He peers at the small phone screen and the notification content almost makes Hao jump.
봄🏵️ sent you a message!
Tap to view.
Of course, Hao ‘taps to view’, or whatever, which proves to be a thoughtless decision because he wasn’t able to emotionally prepare himself to talk to Aphrodite’s child. (That should’ve been his contact name, Hao thinks.)
What does he even say? Does he just act like himself? Or be first-impression friendly? Is the way he naturally acts not first-impression friendly? Should he be overthinking this? Probably not but–
Is he seriously overthinking overthinking right now?
That’s not important, because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hao is an opportunist, this is his thing.(At least, he likes to think so.)
봄🏵️
|봄🏵️
hi, gaeul-ssi !!
sorry for messaging unannounced ㅠㅠ
OKAY, what does he say to that? His mind blanks and Hao panics so hard that he almost turns around to ask Jui.
“Say it’s no trouble.” Why, thank you, voice in the practice room–
Wait.
“Jui, what the hell?!” Hao tilts his phone away from Jui’s gaze. The other just raises an eyebrow, as if he didn’t just witness Hao’s entire dignity disintegrate.
“What? I was helping you,” Jui points out, shrugging.
“But– that–” Hao splutters until he just accepts defeat. He needs a good impression on Bom. Whatever it takes. Even his dignity and reputation. “Whatever.”
봄🏵️
|봄🏵️
hi, gaeul-ssi !!
sorry for messaging unannounced ㅠㅠ
it’s no trouble, bom.
did you need anything?
|봄🏵️
bom is a pretty cute name by the way !(*^▽^*)
but anyway
i was just wondering if
you were free
sometime this month ?
“OH MY GOD, HAO, YOU SLY LITTLE–” Jui starts shaking Hao’s shoulders, the latter death-gripping the phone to make sure it doesn’t fly out the skylight. ‘Why is he more excited than I am?’
“Where did ‘Gaeul’ come from?” Hao was expecting him to ask, but still prayed that the question would never come. Obviously, God has more pressing matters than Hao’s dignity.
“It’s a nickname,” Hao mutters and Jui loses it.
“YOU GUYS HAVE MATCHING NICKNAMES ALREADY?!–” Hao might die from suffocation right now.
When he finally frees himself from Jui’s captivity, Hao panickedly opens his Calendar app, scrolling through dates of performances, deadlines, and practices. He has to have a free date here somewhere. A law student is making time for him, that’s practically doing the impossible. Hao should be able to do the same.
(How does he know Bom’s a law student? Well, the stack of books and material should be enough evidence, but maybe the book being titled ‘The Criminal Act’ helped a bit.)
Is he taking too much time? He’s totally taking too much time.
봄🏵️
|봄🏵️
i was just wondering if
you were free
sometime this month ?
|봄🏵️
it’s alright if you aren’t
i understand ^^
Oh, he did take too much time. Fuck, quick, salvage it.
봄🏵️
|봄🏵️
it’s alright if you aren’t
i understand ^^
no, it’s okay
i’m free on the 19th!
anything for you, after all.
Fucking nailed it.
If you hear screaming from Practice Room 4, it was Kuan Jui.
Okay, fine, it was mostly Kuan Jui.
—
Oh, you thought Hao was joking about practicing at four in the goddamn morning? Well, guess what?
He thought so too.
But apparently not, because right now, it’s 4:17 in the morning and Hao is still on the same combination he kept messing up while practicing with Jui.
He almost bursts out swearing at the top of his lungs that could probably break a decibel meter, but he doesn’t when he remembers his good friends, Ricky, Seungeon, Taerae, and Jay, who are rooming in the rooms to his left and right, are being painfully considerate of the loud, repetitive violin music at the crack of dawn.
He exhales, placing his violin down gently , despite how much he wants to smash it on the floor, because he did not (make Ricky) pay 10,000 USD for nothing.
This sucks! Who even made him go to music school or whatever this hellhole is?!
Oh. Wait. That was him.
Groaning, he flopped on his bed, his phone in hand, staring at his and Bom’s earlier conversation.
Was it weird that he was still giddy about that? It totally isn’t, right?
Speaking of Bom, he could totally go for a snack at that convenience store right now. Maybe like, ramen?
Impulsively, Hao gets up, putting his coat on, before sitting back down to contemplate. An angel and a devil appear on each of his shoulders.
‘Should you really be going out at 4 am? To eat ramen of all things ? That’s so unhealthy,’ he hears the angel’s voice - which is really just a nicer, more fake-sounding version of his own.
Hao nods. He does have a point…
He hears the devil laugh. ‘Ooh, maybe Bom’s gonna be there.’
Hao is up and out in no less than five seconds. When did he ever listen to logic anyway?
—
Okay, to be fair, he was sorta kidding about that whole “I’m here to see Bom” thing because that’d be immensely creepy but…
He’s actually here. Bom is here. Right now. In front of his eyes.
Well, not in front since he’s hiding behind an aisle shelf but still!
Hao’s been seeing this guy who looks like he’d be part of Boys Over Flowers: Modern Remake every single time he goes to this convenience store. Is the universe joking around with him or something?!
‘What if you sat beside him?’ The devil’s back.
‘Are you crazy?!’ Yeah, Hao’s with the angel this time.
‘Then your date would come early! Plus, you’ll earn cookie points for being cool and confident!’
‘You’ll look like a stalker!’
Hao thinks he’s going crazy. Is this what it feels like to go insane? The voices in his head acting as supernatural beings on his shoulders to help his love life should warrant a psychiatrist.
But it doesn’t. So, against Hao’s better judgment, he unleashes the accidental stalker and prays that Bom has some weird form of Stockholm Syndrome.
Or that Bom doesn’t think he’s a stalker. Yeah, maybe he should’ve led with that.
Like an absolute idiot, Hao picks out the bottled milk tea he recalls Bom drinking during their first meeting - bless and curse his amazing yet selective memory.
In true idiot fashion, he checks out that bottle with trembling hands, along with some cup ramen noodles. He heats the ramen up and sits next to Bom, which he immediately regrets five seconds later.
Why?! Why is his shame always belated?!
“Hi.” Hao tries to keep his voice from shaking as Bom looks at him with wide surprised eyes. “Um. Fancy seeing you here.”
“Yeah! Uh–” Bom tilts his head to the side, his fringe bouncing. Don’t look there, Hao, you’ll look like an idiot. “What are you doing here at–” A glance at his watch. “Four in the morning?”
“Midnight snack run.” Hao shrugs, biting the inside of his cheek. It's not even midnight. Why did he think he could handle this?
Smiling awkwardly, he shows Bom the bottled milk tea. “I, uh… I thought I’d try it. You seemed to like it lots last time.”
Bom’s cheeks turn pink as his eyes widen again – he’s so animated. And…cute.
Goddamnit, Hao.
“Yeah! It’s really good. I really like the brand.” Bom points out, smiling so wide that whisker-like dents appear on his cheeks. Hao swears his soul saw God for a good minute.
“Oh yeah? I can’t wait to try it.” Hao shoots a smile back, twisting the cap.
And it doesn’t open.
Hao can hear the universe laughing at him in the distance.