Work Text:
Yixing whines a little, cursing under his breath as Yifan tosses nearly all his clothes on the bed, chanting, ‘nope, nope, nope’ with each cloth. It’s a blind date.
Yixing doesn’t understand why first impression would matter, he really isn’t the person to judge by first impressions, the other person is, then it’s their loss. Luhan has good tastes in dates, Yifan is a live example, but God, who has the energy to put such effort for someone who, probably, will not look at him?
He doesn’t like people because of that, they don’t like being judged, but, they’re the first ones to judge. Art doesn’t do that. Art doesn’t care about which person is making it, what that person is wearing, what that person’s sexuality is, what that person looks like. It’s all about just letting that person create.
“Don’t wanna look too eager,” Yifan comments, and finally gives Yixing a t-shirt to wear. “Wear your black ripped jeans with this. Take your sketchbook with you, you have earrings?”
Yixing nods at the drawer near Yifan. “They’re scattered, though.”
Yifan doesn’t reply, just nods, and starts searching for an earring. Yixing sighs, so much for a stupid date. He washes his face, tosses the t-shirt over his head, walks around nearly-naked, searching for the jeans Yifan mentioned. It’s definitely somewhere in the clothes pile Yifan’s made. After a minute of digging, he finds it.
“Finally!” Yifan rushes to him, holding an old, silver, dangling earring. “This will look good.”
“I don’t know why I’m wearing these, that person better like this,” Yixing sighs. He slides his boxers down, sitting on the bed. “Is it necessary to, like, impress them?”
“It is!” Comes Luhan’s voice. He enters the room, holding a bowl of chaowmein, he slurps some and grins. “You’ll love him, I promise! He’s worth it!”
Yixing slides his pants on, scoffing at his best friend. “Wow, finally I know it’s a male.”
He looks at the ceiling when Luhan and Yifan kiss, mostly because the ceiling is much more interesting than their kiss, and because it’s disgusting – he’s seen Luhan jiggle his goddamn butt, lap dance, as it’s called in front of random dudes. He keeps thinking about that disgusting face Luhan had made, and even though he’s really happy for his best friend, those images keep flashing and it’s much more better to look at the ceiling. It’s got stars painted on it.
“You can look now,” Yifan teases. “Why do you always do that?”
“He’s seen the worst of me, please don’t ask about it.”
Yixing giggles at that. They start making his room look back to normal again, and once it’s done, Luhan texts him the cafe’s address, the man’s name – it’s a foreign name, and the table number they’ll be sitting at. Yixing takes his motorbike (very hipster of him, but he loves bike rides), and goes there, wearing his leather jacket, gloves and the helmet.
Taking off his helmet, he asks the waitress about the table number, and when he’s directed there – there’s a man. Short, painted nails, black jeans, sunflower-yellow t-shirt which says ‘WHY ALWAYS ME?’ and he’s wearing pink shades. Inside the cafe. He’s holding a book, there’s a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of him.
Yixing stands in front of him, when the man notices him, he stands up, keeping the book upside down, he smiles, gestures him to sit. “Junmyeon.”
“Yixing,” He says, smiling. “I hope I didn’t make you wait too long.”
Junmyeon checks his nails, and grins, boyish. “They haven’t dried yet, so you didn’t.”
“Glad to know.”
The waitress comes and asks for Yixing’s order, he orders a normal coffee, and Junmyeon chuckles. “Thank you, I would’ve judged you plenty hard if you ordered something fancy.”
“Well, people here will judge me nonetheless, and you would’ve been one of them,” He doesn’t mean to sound so defensive, but he is. He is sort of being a douche, saying that. “I would’ve ignored you just as I am ignoring them.”
Junmyeon looks around, and Yixing stares at him – trying to make him feel bad about it, he supposes, but it doesn’t work. Junmyeon smiles, almost apologetic, and sips his coffee. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s fine.” Yixing mutters. “Sorry I got so... defensive and mean.”
Junmyeon chuckles, and for that split second, he’s the most handsome man Yixing’s ever seen. “I’m working on my social skills, I suck at small talk and it’s hard to, well, think of a topic to small talk on. In a different language.”
“Luhan said you like art.”
“I’m assuming that’s your friend. I sure am passionate about it, yes,” Junmyeon waits till the waitress keeps Yixing’s coffee on the table, asks if he wants any sugar with it, and leaves. “I’m a writer, sometimes a poet.”
“Let’s talk about it, then,” Yixing takes a sip of his coffee. It’s bitter, milk’s texture is thick, and feels lovely. And boy, did they talk. The topic starts from Junmyeon’s favourite books, then goes to poetry, to writing styles, to dancing (Yixing embarrasses himself in front of Junmyeon by jumping in his seat, excited to talk about it. Junmyeon says it’s adorable, though), to singing, to paintings, and finally, to how some of the modern paintings don’t make sense.
It makes Junmyeon giggle when Yixing says it annoys him a little. “Right? My friends never agree on that.”
Yixing is about to say something but he notices the small mole above Junmyeon’s lips. Beauty mark, he thinks, then notices the pink hue of Junmyeon’s lips. He has a small pout, even while talking, Yixing notices, and suddenly, every small thing Junmyeon does has become adorable. His giggle, his mole, the way his eyes nearly close, the way his painted nails drum when he’s thinking, the gestures he makes while trying to explain something in Chinese, the way Korean syllable roll on his tongue.
“You’re staring,” Junmyeon laughs. “Something’s on my face?”
“Uh, I’m sorry, um, yeah,” Yixing rubs his nape, embarrassed. “I was... thinking.”
“I was expecting you to say handsomeness is on my face, but that works too.”
Yixing is staring again, purposefully, with the best did you just say that? face which doesn’t longer than three seconds. Junmyeon bursts into a fit of laughter, and Yixing follows him. It’s almost-drama like feeling, and once their laughter dies, Junmyeon leans very forward on the table, face squished a little in his palms. He looks so cute, what the hell.
“I love such jokes.”
“You’re a disgrace to this society,” Yixing jokes. “But it’s a good one, I agree.”
“Now, who’s the disgrace? But, in all seriousness, I would’ve taken you seriously if you hadn’t said society. Really? You care about what those heteronormative, narrow-minded, titling everything with gender roles, labelling people?”
Yixing is amused by the number of adjectives Junmyeon has used. He shakes his head, takes the last bite of his shortcake, and says, “No, it’s just something I heard in a movie. I liked it, so I use it sometimes.”
“Cool, I would’ve dropped the thought of dating you if you did so.”
“You thought that?”
It’s Junmyeon who is embarrassed now. His embarrassed smile is cuter, he asks the waitress for their bill, and exhales. “You’re handsome, cute, are passionate about art, not any of the adjectives I used for the society, and very loveable. I figured why not?”
“I’m flattered, Junmyeon.” Yixing says, grinning. “Here’s a proposal: Another date, somewhere more private, and we can do something together – like I’ll sketch while you write or something similar?”
“Lovely,” Junmyeon takes out his phone, and passes it to Yixing. “Give me your number, I’ll text you my address and the timings.”
Yixing smirks. “Smooth as butter,”
He punches his number, saves it as Zhang Yixing with a heart next to it. He likes having a heart next to his name. Giving Junmyeon his phone back, Yixing takes the bill the moment it’s kept on the table, saying. “I’m paying.”
“We split the bill,” Junmyeon announces. “Pass it here, I’ll calculate it.”
Junmyeon takes out a pencil and starts calculating, it takes only a few minutes before he announces the amount each have to pay, and they keep the cash there. Yixing checks his phone as they’re heading out of the cafe, they’ve been there for nearly two hours.
“It was nice having you as a blind date,” Yixing says, stepping forward for a hug. “I look forward to the text.”
“You too.”
When they hug, Yixing realizes that Junmyeon fits perfectly, and Junmyeon’s forehead is right in front of his lips, so he takes a risk and presses a kiss on Junmyeon’s forehead, blushing a little. “See you soon, Junmyeon.”
Yixing notices the blush even though Junmyeon is looking down. “See you soon, too, Yixing.”
It’s only I like you so much which Yixing didn’t say. He watches Junmyeon walk away from him, Yixing can feel the stupid smile on his face.