Chapter Text
- i. AUGUST (1/4)
Scorching rays of sunlight poured through Hakyeon's dorm window, his room practically boiling because the air conditioning had decided to stop working just the night before. He made sure to make a mental note to talk to the dean of his residence hall the next time he saw him. August heat in Los Angeles was unbearable and to blame for Hakyeon's new tan lines.
He sat up from the comfortable position that he was in and strided over to his closet, sliding the glass doors to reveal a clothes galore. This made it the third time today that Hakyeon had to change, pulling a black round neck t-shirt off its hanger as he strips himself of his dirty article of clothing and throwing it in the hamper, slipping the clean shirt on.
There would be a lot of laundry to wash in the coming weeks if his air conditioning wasn't fixed within a desirable time, or at least before the new semester started. He gave a final glance at the pile that was slowly but surely building, nodding his head in disapproval knowing that he wasn’t going to want to wash when the time came. Hakyeon shrugged it off and slipped back in bed making himself comfortable.
There wasn’t much to do on days like this especially as a university senior, and school wouldn’t resume till the following month, so there wasn’t a handful of things that he could do. Most of his colleagues would tell him to go outside and soak up the sun, but the only thing Hakyeon really wanted to soak up was the softness and comfort of his blankets – besides the last thing he needed was sunlight, his skin was all the proof he needed. Not that he disliked his golden complexion, but he knew both Jaehwan and Hyuk weren’t going to let him live this down till winter, and December just seemed so far away – he’d have to just put up with it.
For the time being Hakyeon just lazed off in bed refreshing his Instagram feed every five seconds or so hoping something interesting would catch his attention after spending the last thirty minutes scrolling and liking every post that appeared on his feed. Boredom gets the best of him. Most of the posts that he had come across were from students he had friended during his time here at UCLA.
They were all either across the world vacationing, attending concerts, watching the latest movies of the season, hanging out with their significant other, and just being productive. Everyone making “good” use of their summer break.
Hakyeon for one, didn’t necessarily have the money to attend outings with the small group of friends he had, and second, he’d rather spend money on food for himself before he’d have to return to the awful cup noodles and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches diet. Just the thought of it sent shivers throughout his body, and truth be told, Hakyeon didn’t need any of those things to enjoy his time off – or at least that’s what he’s convinced himself to think.
The unfavorable conditions of California’s weather also played a significant role in Hakyeon’s planning of activities for the day. Oh, how he longed for functioning air conditioning. He let out a little whine, tossing and kicking around in his sheets which did nothing but create more stifling air. This was awful. “I’m practically baking in this room,” he shared, not directing it at anybody as he drooped his body over the edge of his bed, his attention locked on the white painted ceiling, “so bland.”
Hakyeon spent several minutes in that position not thinking much about anything. He began to feel the blood rush to his head and the minor aches of what seemed to be a headache – he needed out of this room, now. He reached for his phone that was left scattered among the blankets, unlocking it and dialing a familiar number.
The phone rang for a couple seconds and then Hakyeon’s ears were greeted by a friendly cute tone.
“Hakyeonnie! To what do I owe this call?” Jaehwan chirped with excitement in his voice, “I’m coming over.”
That was all he needed to announce not even letting the other respond before he cut the call and sat up to adjust his shirt and fluffy black hair. He waited a moment to let the blood flow resume as it should, getting up on both feet and walking over to his desk where he had thrown his wallet and keys shoving them in his shorts along with his phone. Hakyeon stumbled out the door finally free from the hell he called his room.
The air that filled the hallways was much more breathable than the muggy air that he had been stuck breathing, and he was grateful. He dragged his body through the corridors till he arrived at the elevators. Hakyeon managed to score an empty ride down to the first floor, saving him from all the small chit chat that most students liked to engage in while riding the elevator. He stood there fixed on the luminated numbers that slowly went from eight to one. The ping of the elevators door opening captured his attention. He walked out taking the only route he knew to get to Jaehwan’s residence hall.
Just as he was about to leave his own building he caught sight of his dean “Hey!” he exclaimed trying to catch up to the older male. The man stops in his tracks and slowly turns around greeted by a familiar face. “Hey Hakyeon! It feels like I haven’t seen you leave your dorm room since break started,” letting out a chuckle “what’s up?”
‘Haha very funny’ Hakyeon retorted clearing his throat “Uh … not much I just wanted to let you know that my air conditioning stopped working” he paused, holding out his palm and mentally counting down on his fingers, “about nine or eight hours ago so I was wondering if you could just get someone to check it out and fix it for me please?”
“Of course. I’ll try and get someone to work on it. Are you leaving?” Hakyeon nodded. “Perfect, I’ll get have someone go up right now, should be running and working by the time you get back.” He gave the man a thumbs up and a small ‘thank you’ as he resumed his journey to Jaehwan’s room.
Hakyeon hissed as he took one of his very first steps outside for the first time in a while, the sun beaming down on him, as if it were burning into his skin. He took long steps hoping he’d arrive at the others residency hall sooner than later, occasionally taking cover under the trees spread among the campus to shield himself.
Currently, Hakyeon dormed in Sproul Hall, whereas Jaehwan resided in Hedrick Hall, which was about a five-minute walk. He just couldn’t bare to be outside and that was the problem, but he sucked it up and arrived in due time. Thankfully Jaehwan was only on the second floor meaning that only a small flight of stairs stood between Hakyeon and air conditioning.
He gave the door two knocks, patiently waiting for the door to open as the sound of footsteps grew louder. Jaehwan greeted his friend with a wide smile granting him entry.
“It feels so nice in here” Hakyeon let out slipping right past Jaehwan who wiggled his body in excitement like a puppy when he arrived. His eyes soon caught attention of the other familiar individual in the room.
“Hyukkie are you here to steal his air conditioning too, or are there other reasons for your being here?”
He grinned, making the sophomore squirm in the chair he was seated in. “Yah!” Jaehwan closed the door and returned to join the other two playfully smacking Hakyeon’s back, “what are your intentions, hm?”
“Me? I’m just here to crash and steal your AC while they fix mine, it’s like a literal hell in there” he explains to both Jaehwan and Hyuk. “So, if you don’t mind,” slowly making his way to Jaehwan’s nicely folded bed “house your hyung for a while.”
“It’s not like I can say no.”
“Touché. Learn from him Hyukkie.” Hakyeon says as he makes himself comfortable.
“Oh please, this hyung acts like a child what is there to learn” Hyuk retorts. Jaehwan gasps, the most shocked look plastered on his face, both aware that it was all just an act. He succeeds in earning giggles from the two men that had now settled in his room.
Jaehwan joins Hyuk on the floor who seated himself at the side of the bed. Hakyeon repositions himself so that he can look down at the both of them, his feet against the wall.
“So, what have you guys been doing?” Poking his head between Jaehwan’s and Hyuk’s.
“Well, nosy, if you must know” Hyuk announces “I’ve been trying to help grandpa Jaehwannie here make a dating profile.” Hakyeon tries his hardest to hold back the laughter that nearly escaped, giving Jaehwan a little pat on the shoulder as he coos, “Is our little grandpa getting lonely? I was positive Hyuk here was giving you more than the necessary attention you needed” he says teasingly. Jaehwan swats his hand away, “I’m just giving it a shot. You’re one to talk, maybe you should make one!”
And maybe Hakyeon took that quite too literally.
“Okay, whats the app called?” Pulling out his phone from his pocket and launching open the application store, fingers at the ready. Jaehwan and Hyuk shoot each other a glance rather questioningly, not exactly sure what had just happened. Hyuk is the first one to speak up, “Grindr … do you think you’ll need help?”
“I wasn’t born yesterday Hyukkie. I think I know how to apply for a dating app.” Hakyeon replies rather confidently.
“Okay, okay I was just offering.”
Hakyeon returns to the task at hand, possibly more engrossed in it than he should be, but it’s too late. His phone has already authorized his finger print and the little circle is slowly filling up – open. He’s taken directly to the apps greenish-blue sign up screen where it asks to him to first create a username and password.
He follows up by inputting his phone number as advised by the app – it’ll be much easier to receive messages this way – though Hakyeon doesn’t really expect to receive any. The next step is to set a profile picture, “This is going to be hard.”
Hyuk pauses and turns to look at Hakyeon, “Finally run into trouble hyung?” He nods
“Hm yeah, I can’t decide which picture of myself I like the most, because I look good in all of these. Here you look at them and tell me which one you think looks the best.”
“Oh yeah I can help with that.” He takes the phone with a smile feeling a bit happy that he’s been entrusted with what Hyuk believed was the make-it or break-it point of a dating profile – the picture or bait.
He goes ahead and taps on choose a picture and quickly his smile fades. Hakyeon’s selfies all looked the same, and there were thousands of them. Each that looked completely identical as the last. He could scroll up once and still be on the “same” picture.
“Hyung … these all look the same. Why don’t you just keep one and delete the rest.”
Hakyeon pouts and looms over his shoulder to look at his camera roll. He points to one picture among the thousand he had and compares it the one right next to it.
“They’re not all the same. See, look here!” Pointing to the picture on the right. “Here my lips aren’t parted, whereas in the next picture they are.”
“So, they’re not the same, thank you very much.”
Jaehwan looks up from his phone dumbfoundedly not even aware of what was happening.
“Okay sorry, I’ll keep looking.” It was pointless, they all looked the same. Hyuk wasn’t unable to distinguish them. The only thing that he noted that had changed throughout these pictures was Hakyeon’s outfit. The expression he wore, the pose, and the way his teeth shined; it was the same.
He couldn’t do it. These pictures went on and on as if they were no end to them. So Hyuk just closed his eyes and randomly picked one hoping his hyung would be content. “I think you look really good in this one” lying straight through his teeth as he hands back the phone.
“Right! I thought so too, thanks Hyukkie.”
He wore a green loosely fitted long sleeve, his bangs covering his forehead as they always have, and a Starbucks cup held closely to his face with pouty lips.
He nods approvingly, selecting the photo and setting it as his profile picture. Done. Next step was to create a bio. He needed to keep it short and discrete, something that would catch someone’s attention which would then prompt them to message Hakyeon. Yes, that was his plan.
Call me N. I’m 21 and like to dance. I really like food, please feed me.
Perfect.
The couple steps required Hakyeon to fill out things like his date of birth and location (which wouldn’t be shared with other users unless given to by the individual) as well as what kind of hobbies he had which consisted of: anime, reading, dancing, and taking pictures of himself.
“I finished the sign-up process! I think I did a decent job at putting myself out there.” He said proudly.
“Good job,” Jaehwan and Hyuk say in unison along with a thumbs up.
Hakyeon taps the blue complete button and he’s then taken to the search category that’s filled to the abundance with other men’s profiles – handsome men. He scrolls as far down as he can for the next five minutes just ogling and picking out the eye candies that he would may or maybe not consider messaging.
Jaehwan and Hyuk appeared to be in the same trance, both their eyes glued on Jaehwan’s phone.
This was like some sort of voodoo. Hakyeon wasn’t sure what the outcome of having downloaded this app would be, but he sure was curious. Would he find a summer romance? A sugar daddy that wouldn’t mind paying off his student loan?
“Now that I wouldn’t mind.” He says out loud.
“What wouldn’t you mind?” Jaehwan asks, speaking for the first time in nearly thirty minutes. “Nothing.”
It’s almost as if Hakyeon couldn’t look away from his screen. He chuckles and lets out a small ‘no way’ when he comes across the profiles of UCLA students, some of which he recognized because he’d seen them on a day to day basis due to his schedule.
He thought for a moment. Dating a fellow student wouldn’t be so bad, surely there would be lots of perks. Helping each other out with homework, being conveniently close, same age range, etc.
After another ten minutes or so one profile in particular caught his attention, or the picture of the man to which this profile belonged to rather. He wore a yellow mustard colored turtleneck, a silver necklace, and a single earring – Hakyeon mentally complimented his choice in clothing. The man looked good, very good. His milky colored skin complimented the chestnut colored strands of hair that fell on his face. His features suited him, both his small eyes and pink lips.
He looked like he could be a student at this campus, maybe he was, and maybe they’ve encountered each other somewhere before. That would be even better – what a catch.
In the mans profile it read that he could be addressed as Leo, and he was only a year younger than Hakyeon. He liked to cook apparently. Hakyeon cocked his head, yeah, he could see it.
A knot began to form in his stomach, he was nervous. He didn’t want to send a message to someone he viewed as a potential interest to only not get a reply back. What would he say? Should he change his profile picture. No.
“Just message him a simple ‘Hello’ c’mon Hakyeon” he whispered encouragingly to himself.
“Found someone already I see. I don’t blame you hyung they’re all pretty good looking on here. It’s like hotties.com don’t you think?”
Hakyeon hummed in response not necessarily having paid attention to the younger.
Under Leo’s profile was the message button, and with a small tap Hakyeon’s screen transitioned to a blank messaging screen. He gave another tap to the empty box at the bottom and began typing out his message.
N: Damn, you’re hot.
“Okay, too straightforward. Let’s delete that and come up with something else.”
SEND
Hm? A little chat bubble now sat at the top of the screen that read, Damn you’re ho – NO! Hakyeon shrieked. He locked his phone and chucked it across Jaehwan’s room hoping (and praying) that he could undo the mistake he had just made.
“I FUCKED UP.”
He curled up on the bed, half sobbing and half laughing. Was now really the time to be laughing? Hakyeon ran his hand through his hair and began tugging at it. Mumbling “I fucked up” over and over again.
Jaehwan and Hyuk didn’t need to share the look and concern in their eyes because they both had a good idea of what had just happened. Jaehwan was nice enough to get up and retrieve Hakyeon’s phone from where it had landed.
“Oh, wow no scratches, you’re lucky.” He patted the other man lovingly placing his phone back into the palm of his hand. “It’s okay. I’m sure you’ll get some sort of reply, if not then that’s how you know he wasn’t the one” Jaehwan said comfortingly.
Hakyeon releases the tight grip he had on his hair, a few strands falling out here and there. “Hyung if it makes you feel better, grandpa over here has messaged seven people and not one reply has come through.” He snorts and sits up taking a deep breath. “Thanks.” Hakyeon couldn’t deny that, that made him feel a bit better.
“What time is it?”
“Just a little past 6 pm. Planning on heading back now Yeonnie?”
“It’s that late?” Hakyeon doesn’t find it too hard to believe that he’s spent nearly two or, so hours cooped up and on his phone. “I think I will. I’m sure they’ve fixed my air conditioning by now, and I’ve gotten kind of hungry, so I might just stop by the dining hall and take it back to my room.”
He gives his limbs a good stretch before getting up and saying his goodbyes. The voices of the two men drowning out as he closes the door behind him. He takes the stairs down again and exits the residence hall. The sky was colored red with blueish-purple undertones, nearly transparent clouds floating around aimlessly.
The breeze was still a bit warm, but it was tolerable.
His journey to the dining hall was a rather short one, and there were very little students holed up inside considering the sun had now disappeared into the next day. Hakyeon walked around eyeing his options.
Hamburger and french fries sounds great.
Luckily there was no line, so he was able to put in his order and pay. He takes a seat at a nearby table glancing around at the students that were inside, many of them on their phones or caught up in conversation. Hakyeon shivers thinking of what occurred not too long ago. His mind starts to drift, worst case scenario would be that his message is never opened. Like that’s not going to happen, he scoffs.
“Order number forty-five!” Calls out a young lady from behind the counter her high-pitched voice catching Hakyeon’s attention. He gets up from the table and retrieves his food, mouthing a small ‘thank you’ and making his way back.
The elevator ride could’ve been better. He was unfortunate to run into some classmates that bombarded Hakyeon about how he’s been spending his summer break. Most of them responded with an ‘Aw that’s it?’ or ‘Boring’ but Hakyeon couldn’t care less. He played dummy for the duration of his ride up. Letting out a heavy sigh once he reached his floor.
Hakyeon managed to open the door without dropping his food – that was a miracle. He was meet with cold fresh air that grazed his skin. “So good.”
The air felt so good, he was glad to be back in the comfort of his own room. The plastic bag containing the food was set on his small kitchen counter. He pulls out the white styrofoam box; his nose is greeted by a wonderful smell and his stomach calls out to him.
The hamburger was nicely wrapped and his french fries were cooked to crispy perfection. “Mmm,” was Hakyeon’s only response. If anything could make him feel better it was food, that was the number one cure for all his problems. And for a moment he did forget.
Once he finished he put his trash inside the plastic bag. He got himself a glass of water to help digest, setting it on his desk a safe distance away from his laptop.
I wonder if I got a reply yet. Curiosity getting the best of him.
UNREAD
Hm I’m not too surprised.
He sighs and crawls in bed feeling a bit sleepy now that he had some food in his system. He’s decided that he won’t let himself get bummed out about not receiving a reply, because who knows maybe Leo doesn’t have his phone on him or he may be busy. It made him less anxious if he thought that way plus it was bad to sleep with a heavy heart. And that’s what Hakyeon’s decided to do for now.
***
Hakyeon wakes up to the sound of phone going off, and although he’s still a bit groggy from his nap he’s able to make out that it’s a phone call from his mother. He groans and waits for it to go voicemail. He rubs the sleep from his eyes and pats around his body to try and find his phone. “Ah there you are. You can’t hide from me.” Hakyeon’s screen lit up as he raised to look at it; the time was 10:54 pm.
Oh? What’s this?
Not only did he nap for a lot longer than he expected but there was a notification from the Grindr application.
He was now slowly becoming more and more awake. His swipes the notification to the right and unlocks his phone with his finger. Hakyeon is automatically directed to the messages section of the app. A little red circular icon with a one inside is sitting at the top of his screen alongside his chat with Leo. He hesitates for a moment. Tap.
L: Hello.
He got a message.