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Maybe if he just ignores it, it’ll go away.
The annoying doorbell continues to buzz. He probably should get a less irritating one. With no apparent motivation to get up out of bed and check the door, Johnny continues to shift around on the mattress. When covering his ears with the pillow does little to muffle the sound of the bell, he groggily gets up, ready to punch the daylights out of the person who dared to disturb him at such an ungodly hour.
He scrambles along to the living room and forcefully unlocks the door. The door gives way to the smiling faces of Jaehyun and Taeyong? What are they doing here? Their smiles look way too plastered on to be real. This is a setup. Yes, this definitely is a setup.
“So are you gonna let us in or shall we have this conversation right here?” Taeyong asks with mischief in his voice.
He moves aside to make way for them. Taeyong strides into the living room as if he owns the place and Jaehyun immediately scurries into the kitchen, presumably to raid the fridge.
Taeyong makes himself comfortable on the small couch and from the way his eyes are sparkling, Johnny predicts that whatever he’s here for, it's not going to be something that he would necessarily agree with.
Jaehyun returns with a bag of chips and scoots Taeyong over to settle in. A very domestic scene really but Johnny’s eyes were about to shut close any second and he still didn’t believe that his friends were over to simply hang out.
“What is it?”He groans, already anticipating to regret letting them in.
Taeyong nudges Jaehyun with his shoulder, signaling him to start speaking but Jaehyun’s focus is on getting the damned packet to open. Taeyong snatches it out of his hands, rips it open and hands it back to him, all the while nodding his head in Johnny’s general direction. Jaehyun finally gets the cue and starts off.
“It’s been so long! How are you?”
Based on the glare Taeyong’s currently directing at Jaehyun, that probably wasn’t what he was supposed to ask.
“I’m pretty sure you didn’t drag your asses here at this unacceptably early hour, just to ask whether I’m doing alright or not. So, spill the beans.”
Taeyong clears his throat. “First of all, its 11 am and that’s not early. Secondly, you haven’t been going out nowadays. We-”
“I’ve been going to work! That counts.”
To his surprise, it’s Jaehyun that speaks up this time. “No. That’s not what we mean and you know that. You’ve been holing yourself up here for months now Johnny. You need to step out sometimes. What happened to the guy that always arranged get-togethers and hated staying indoors?”
“That guy got a Netflix subscription and he is perfectly content staying at home.”
That was probably the wrong thing to say, judging from the piercing stare Taeyong was directing towards him. To be quite honest, he did miss going out but it just depressed him nowadays. All his friends were dating and he was tired of third wheeling every time he stepped out. Maybe he was a little jealous. And he wasn’t going to stoop down low enough to go on tinder again. He’s had plenty of nightmares from using it just once.
“Don’t lie to yourself, Johnny. Come with us for lunch, just this once. Perhaps you might even meet someone or at the very least you’ll get free food. It’s on me.” Taeyong tries to convince.
Okay, the free food part is a little tempting. And no matter how much he hated third wheeling, he did miss his friends. It wouldn’t hurt going with them.
“You know what? Sure.”
“Thank god,” Jaehyun says, getting up. “Taeyong’s already made reservations for 12:30 p.m.”
“Wait so you assumed that I would agree? Am I really getting that predictable?”
Taeyong grins up at him. “Do you really think you had a choice?”
“Touche.”
“Now that’s all settled.” Jaehyun begins, “Can you please shower and not dress like an emo high school dropout?”
_____________________
After letting Jaehyun dress him up, Johnny felt and looked like a nervous college kid going to his first job interview. The shirt and trousers were okay. It’s the dress shoes that threw him off guard. But looking at the restaurant Taeyong had picked out, he probably would fit right in.
It was a high-end Italian restaurant located smack dab in the heart of the city. The place screamed expensive from the dim lights to the marble tables and cutlery. Johnny had never been gladder that Taeyong was the one paying.
They were seated at the back, facing the breathtaking view of the Han river, outside the floor to ceiling glass windows. ‘Not bad, is it?” Taeyong raises a brow up at him.
“It’ll do.”
He turns back to look out the window and the waiter walks up to them and introduces himself as Ten. Johnny only looks up at him when the menu is placed before him. The view outside the window was breathtaking but it was nothing compared to the sight before him. The Thai man sure was a ten out of ten and was the most beautiful specimen Johnny had ever seen and before he knew it, the man was walking away from the table. With the quite obvious way Johnny was staring at him, Taeyong quickly picked up on it. “Why do you look like you’re going to devour our waiter?”
Jaehyun whipped around towards him in the blink of an eye. “Wait. It’s been two seconds since you stepped out and you’re already crushing on someone? They grow up so fast,” Jaehyun says, wiping an imaginary tear away.
“Well, he’s cute and I’d like to give it a shot. My skills have been getting rusty.”
“First of all, you actually need to have skills for them to get rusty but I’m not going to rain on your parade. Give it your best shot Romeo.” Taeyong challenges and Johnny wouldn’t be Johnny if he didn’t rise up to the test.
He calls over the waiter, signaling that he was ready to order. He walks over with a notepad and starts taking down Taeyong and Jaehyun’s orders.
“And what would you like, sir?” He says in his melodious voice and Johnny knows he can’t back away now.
“I can’t really decide. What’s today’s special on the menu? Me-n-u?”
He hears a choking ostrich sound from Jaehyun and looks up to see Taeyong stuffing a fist in his mouth to stop himself from laughing. The cute waiter snorts. “I haven’t heard that one yet. I have to give you credit for that but since I have a job I’d like to keep, I have to take down your actual order, sir.”
He wasn’t as flustered as Johnny would have wanted him to be and that makes him even more determined to get Ten to crack. He flips through the menu quickly and randomly points at the first item his finger falls on and asks, “Does this dish have cheese in it?”
“Why yes. Cheese is a vital part of mac and cheese.”
“This might be cheesy but I think you’re grate.”
Ten starts chuckling, “I’m honored you think that way, sir but I really have to take your order now.”
Johnny swiftly recites his order and Ten jots it down just as quick. Before the beautiful man walks away, Johnny opens his mouth once again despite Taeyong’s many distress signals to stop. “If you were a fruit, you’d be a fine-apple.”
Ten gives him a death stare. “I don’t like fruits and I don’t want to be compared to something as disgusting as them.” He struts away, leaving a cackling Jaehyun and a confused Johnny behind.
He turns back to see Taeyong muffling his laughter and Jaehyun laughing out loud without a single care in the world.
“You guys are supposed to be supporting me through this tough time. Not laughing at my misery.”
“We aren’t the ones making dumb puns to get the waiter’s attention. We do get to laugh at you.” Jaehyun states, in between his fits of laughter.
Taeyong, on the other hand, looks like he wants to die. “Why couldn’t you control yourself for once? You’ve stepped out of the house for like five minutes and you’re already making me regret my decision to bring you here.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s been a long time since Johnny’s set his eyes on someone. Let him live.” Jaehyun says, rubbing Taeyong’s back.
“So, got any plans to undo the tiny mishap you’ve just had?” Jaehyun questions with some hope in his face.
“Why of course! I’m going to tell him better puns.”
Taeyong facepalms quite audibly. “What did I do to deserve to see this? You’re going to make a bigger fool of yourself but I am going to support you through this.”
“That’s why you guys are my best friends.”
“Cause we put up with your bullshit? Jaehyun inquires.
“Precisely.” He sees Ten walking towards them with their dishes in hand and he mentally prepares himself.
Ten places their dishes very carefully in front of them and Johnny takes his chance.
“If you were a vegetable, you’d be a cute-cumber.”
Ten looks up at him, clearly amused. “You aren’t going to give up, are you?”
“Nope. I think that we’d make a cute pear.”
Ten laughs, throwing his head back and Johnny gets the motivation to continue despite Jaehyun kicking him under the table.
“Are you a donut? Cause I find you a-dough-rable.”
“That’s a pretty big compliment coming from someone as cute as you.” Ten says and Johnny feels on top of the world. Maybe the heavens love him. Maybe he saved a continent in his previous life. Maybe he’s smooth. Wait. No. Scratch that. Maybe he’s goddamn lucky. Yeah, that seems to be it.
He can’t stop after that. What kind of human being would he be if he did? So he does what’s necessary- He orders a glass of wine to be brought after their food just so that he gets to talk to him again. The struggles of modern flirting.
When Ten finally leaves their table. Taeyong remarks, “I really didn’t think he’d fall for that.”
“I was quite persuasive if I do say so myself.”
“Literally no one agrees.” Jaehyun says and Johnny feels betrayed.
“At least he appreciates my charm.”
“Well, I have to give him props for that. He sees the nonexistent and imaginary.” Taeyong quips and now Johnny’s sure that he needs new friends.
They eat while catching up on what happened in their lives and before Johnny knows it, they’ve completed eating and Ten’s bringing over the wine.
“You make my heart skip a beet.” He blurts that out as soon as he reaches the table and Ten almost drops the bottle onto the floor.
“You’ve really been working yourself up over these.” He says while pouring wine into their glasses.
“It isn’t my fault that I want to see you s’more and I do what I have to do.”
“Keep going and it just might work.”
“That’ a relief cause you’ve stolen a pizza my heart.”
Ten gives him the most dazzling smile he’s ever seen and Johnny’s sure that he’s never seen anything more beautiful. Ten walks off and he turns back to his friends in a daze.
“You’ve got mad luck, Pizza boy.” Taeyong states, looking impressed.
“It isn’t luck. I have amazing friends who take me to the nicest places and introduce me to the most amazing people.” Johnny says with a far-off look in his eyes.
“Okay. Who are you and what have you done with our friend?” Jaehyun interrogates and Johnny pretends not to see the incredulous look Taeyong and Jaehyun give each other.
They finish off their drinks and Taeyong asks for the bill. When Ten bring over the receipt, Johnny knows it’s now or never. Ten takes him by surprise by asking him first. “So are you going to forget me now?”
“Never! I cannoli have eyes for you!”
That seems to have been the right thing to say as Ten positively lights up. “What makes you say that?”
“Well. I think you’re barbe-cute.”
“Is that the only reason why?”
“I just think we’re mint to be,” Johnny says and judging from the way Ten’s smiling at him, he thinks so too.
“Do you have raisins?” Ten starts and Johnny isn’t sure where this is going. “How about a date?”
Did he hear that right or are his ears playing tricks on him? When he hears Jaehyun hollering and Taeyong muttering a ‘finally’ under his breath, it registers in his mind.
“YES!” He almost screams out enthusiastically,
Ten grins at him. “My shift ends in another thirty minutes. If you’d wait till then, I’d like to take you out.”
Seeing Johnny nodding eagerly like an excited, overgrown puppy, he walks off with the bill.
“I can’t believe your dumb food puns worked,” Jaehyun exclaims.
“Neither can I,” Johnny admits.
“You better not make an even bigger fool of yourself,” Taeyong instructs.
“No promises there.”
“You’ve got this. Go make me proud,” Taeyong says while getting up and pulling Jaehyun up with him. They leave after wishing him ‘good luck’ a couple more times.
And before he knows it, Ten’s before his eyes, dressed in a red, silk button down and black slacks and he’s never seen a more gorgeous view.
“You ready?” Ten asks and Johnny’s sure he’s never felt more ready in his life.