Work Text:
Lee Haechan was currently sitting at his desk in the backroom, flickering through the security cameras of the big convenience store. His workday had been going insanely slow for a Friday night, and he had had absolutely nothing to do the entire day.
A loud and dramatic sigh found it's way out of his mouth, followed by a just as loud and dramatic yawn. He put his elbow on the desk and leaned his head in his hand. With his other hand, he clicked the data mouse and switched to the camera by the self-checkout. Usually, the weirdest and most interesting people used the self-checkout, Haechan didn't know why. Maybe it was something about socially awkward people that was funny.
Now though, the only person he could see on the surveillance monitor was a normal-looking boy. Haechan couldn't see his face, but he though the boy looked pretty young, and if Haechan had to guess he would say the guy was around his age. The boy wasn't doing anything weird, just scanning his product like a normal person did.
How boring.
Another sigh escaped his mouth, and he was about to change to another camera again when he suddenly saw the boy doing something really unexpected.
Haechan's eyes widened and he sat up straight in his chair, he suddenly wasn't tired anymore.
"Did he just? No... wait?" Haechan asked himself, talking out loud. He was wondering if he really had seen that right, had that boy just-
Once he had blinked several times, and once he was positive that what he had seen was the reality, he shouted to his co-worker.
"Mark! Come over here!" he shouted louder than necessary. Mark only grumbled in response, and stayed at his desk on the other side of the room, Haechan rolled his eyes. "A customer scanned himself!!" He shouted again, hoping Mark would come over to him now.
"Shut up, Hyuck, I'm trying to work."
Over the past years they had been working together, Haechan had noticed that Mark was always very snappy and annoyed when he worked night shifts. The younger didn't know why. He hadn't bothered to ask him. Whatever the reason for his irritation may be, it really didn't matter anyway. Haechan wouldn't stop annoying the elder boy even if Mark had held a knife to his throat. Mark was like his personal little punching bag, and Haechan was his. The friendship they had was weird, but it was nice too.
"No, no!" He shouted again. He wasn't going to leave the boy alone, he needed to see this. "I'm really not joking this time! The customer really did scan himself! Just come over here!"
Once he saw that Mark wasn't making any signs to move from his swivel chair Haechan changed his technique. "Fine then," he started, crossing his arms over his chest. "You don't have to believe me." He spoke again, "you never do anyway!" He knew that that had worked once Mark spoke up.
"Goddammit."
Mark shook his head, almost theatrically, and sighed a loud and exaggerated sigh, but stood up nonetheless. He dragged his feet along the carpet, purposely making every action overly dramatic. Haechan hid his amused smile and stifled a laugh, knowing Mark would go right back to his desk if he were to laugh or make fun of him.
Mark placed his palms on the younger boy's desk, leaning over his shoulder. "Now I'm here," he announced. Haechan resisted the urge to say obviously, knowing it would just make Mark irritated. "Show me then," he said harshly, trying to sound more annoyed than he actually was. Haechan saw through his little act and shook his head in amusement, he knew Mark was secretly really curious about what Haechan had seen.
Haechan clicked on the rewind button on the screen, and let Mark watch the clip in silence.
What they were seeing on the surveillance video in front of them was the same normal-looking boy Haechan had called boring earlier. The customer, if you could even call him that, had a six-pack of something that looked like juice boxes under his arm.
Haechan was low-key judging the unknown boy for buying juice boxes. Like, what was he? A five-year-old?
That was not the reason he had called Mark over, though. The picture on the monitor was very pixelated and bad quality, but you could clearly see what the stranger was doing. He lifted up the sleeve of his hoodie and scanned his wrist using the handheld barcode scanner.
"Is- Is he buying himself?" Mark asked the younger, stuttering over his words.
"Be quiet, dumbass, and watch," was all Haechan said in response to the other.
The strange boy then proceeded to pull his sleeve back down to cover his arm, and then he simply walked away and out of the store.
"Is he like a robot or alien or something?" Mark spoke again. His annoyed demeanour was completely gone now, and Mark was back to how he usually acted during his day shifts. "Is that even considered stealing?"
"Is that considered stealing?" Said Haechan again, mocking Mark. "Of course it's stealing!" He said again, turning around to hit Mark on the head.
"Ouch! What was that for?!" Mark questioned, rubbing his head at the place Haechan had hit. He was overplaying it, Haechan hadn't even hit him hard, just lightly, to get across the point that Mark was a complete idiot.
Haechan shrugged in response to his question, not bothering to use his words to explain. Mark should know by now, after the years he and Haechan had worked together, that he thought he was a total dumbass.
"What do we do about it?" Mark asked the other. He stood up and stretched his arms out over his head, while a yawn escaped through Mark's mouth. "Like, do we tell anyone?" He continued speaking again, scratching the back of his head.
"Of course we need to tell someone!" Haechan exclaimed, looking at Mark like he was the dumbest person in existence, which he was, in Haechan's opinion at least. "That person scanned his arm! Don't you think our boss would like to know what just happened?!" Mark put his hands up in a defensive state as Haechan yelled at him. He found this situation pretty humorous, and was trying hard not to crack a smile.
Mark opened his mouth and was about to respond, but he was cut off by the sound of his phone alarm blaring loudly. "Oh thank you, God!" Mark exclaimed as he did a little happy dance when walking over to the other side of the room to his desk. He turned off his phone alarm and quickly stuffed all of his things into a black backpack hanging on his office chair. "Well, whatever you decide to do about this weird-ass situation," Mark started, "I wish you luck, Donghyuck!" Mark put on his jacket before slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
"Mark-" Haechan started, not sure how to continue. "You can't just leave!" He stood up abruptly from his chair. He wanted to scream at Mark, but he had done that several times before and it never helped the situation, so he decided against it.
"Uhm," Mark shrugged. "Yeah i can! Our shift is finally over!" He told the younger, putting emphasis on 'finally' "You can stay here and work overtime, but i'm gonna go home and sleep," Mark finished before he ran out of the backroom, not giving Haechan any time to respond- or say anything to him.
Haechan plopped down into his swivel chair and let out a soft sigh, now with Mark gone there was no need to be overly dramatic and loud.
He stayed in the chair for about an hour, replaying and studying the security footage of the strange boy. The picture was pixelated so it wasn't easy to see any distinguishing features, and the fact that the boy had an oversized hoodie with the hood up didn't help Haechan at all.
When Haechan finally got home to his tiny apartment, after a long and boring night at work, he was still thinking of the weird customer. He didn't know what or why, but something about him was extremely intriguing. Haechan just felt like he needed to know exactly what really had happened, and what the security camera had captured wasn't very insightful.
———
The next day Haechan found himself sitting on a tower of boxes at the exit of the store. He didn't know exactly what was in them, but he guessed the boxes were filled with various new supplies for the convenience store.
Haechan didn't have work today. In fact, he was supposed to be at a lecture at the academy he was studying at, but he hadn't been able to stop thinking about what could have happened with the self-scanning boy the entire night.
He needed to know.
So here he was, dead tired, sitting on some brown boxes. He was hoping that the boy would come back to the store today, and that he would be able to recognise him if he did.
Haechan was still in the store 9 hours later, when the clock turned 4pm. The only difference was that he had moved around. Now he was walking around the candy isle, dragging his fingers gently over the different sweets as he did. He hummed along to the song that was played over the loudspeakers in the store. Haechan walked around the corner, away from the candy isle and to the cookie isle. All the candy was just making him hungry.
When he rounded the corner his eyes landed on a boy- or at least it looked like a boy from the side, but it's 2018 so you really can't know these days.
Something about the person seemed familiar, but it took some time before Haechan remembered where he had seen the hoodie-wearing figure before, but once he realised it was the guy on the security camera, he cornered the isle again. What was he going to do now? He had been hoping to see him the entire day and he'd been planning what to do once he saw him pretty much the entire night before, but now that the boy was on the other side of the candy isle he had no idea what to do. It seemed so easy to just walk up to him in theory, but Haechan couldn't bring himself to do it in reality.
Haechan took a deep breath, trying to be as quiet as he could, and walked back around the corner. The person was gone. Haechan hit his head with the palm of his hand and let out a series of creative curse words, inside his mind of course, he didn't curse out loud.
He collected his thoughts before he quickly walked to the self checkout machines, assuming the mysterious person would be there.
He was right.
Haechan stood still and watched as the guy scanned a pack of double stuffed Oreos. He looked exactly like on the tapes from the day before, just way less pixelated and blurry. The bright yellow hoodie was soft and fluffy-looking. It was big on the boy, and since he had the hood up it looked like he was a little kid getting swallowed by it or something. Haechan had to admit that the person's sweater-paws were adorable, although, it made him struggle a bit with trying to scan the product. It all added to the overall cuteness.
"Need some help," Haechan said, deciding he needed to act quickly. His hands were clasped behind his back and he moved the weight of his body from one foot to the other.
"Huh? Oh uhh." Haechan could hear the surprise and slight panic in the other's muffled voice. Now that he was turned to him, and they were looking at each other, it was clear to see the customer was a boy- a very pretty boy at that. He had an Oreo in his mouth, one that he was quick to take a bite out of before he took the rest out of his mouth. The hood of the hoodie was on his head, but it was tucked behind his ears, making him look a little like an elf. And the boy's dyed blonde hair was a bit long, long enough to fall into, and cover his eyes at least. He could still see the look of panic in his widened eyes, though. It was a bit hard not to.
Haechan still thought he looked like a little kid.
"I said, do you need any help?" Haechan repeated himself, even though he knew he had heard him the first time.
The stranger thought for a moment, or Haechan assumed he was thinking. "I-" the person paused. "I don't know korean," he spoke in a very bad and overly exaggerated chinese-english accent.
Haechan felt himself panic on the inside and he rubbed the back of his head, what was he supposed to do now. He didn't know enough english to communicate properly with the customer. He let out an annoyed huff before he opened his mouth to speak. He didn't get the time to say a word though, because he got cut off by another male running towards them.
"Renjun! Renren! Junie! Renjunie!," the boy repeatedly shouted as he ran towards the boy, Haechan guessed was called Renjun, and tackled him in a tight hug. He had faded pink hair and he had a bright smile. So bright that it was blinding Haechan. It was a bit annoying, he though. Like, what was he so happy for? The male was tall, taller than both himself and Renjun at least. Another thing that annoyed him.
Haechan had no idea what was happening, and he definitely didn't know how to react to it all, so he just stood there awkwardly.
"How've you been, i haven't seen you in like- forever!" Normally, this conversation wouldn't interest Haechan at all. But it did, because the pink haired boy was speaking Korean. A sly smile found it's way onto Haechan's face, replacing the annoyed and confused look he previously had. Renjun hit the the person clinging to him, makings his let go. He looked a little hurt, but mostly confused as to why he had done that. Renjun chose to ignore it.
"Jaemin, now is maybe not the best time for a chat," he spoke softly, in Korean, motioning with his head to Haechan. "But i'll talk to you later." He tried to communicate with Jaemin using his eyes, but it didn't seem like Jaemin understood what was going on. He couldn't really blame him either, because he didn't even understand the situation himself.
Jaemin looked from Renjun to Haechan, and then to Renjun again. First his eyebrows were furrowed and his features were laced with confusion, but then his features softened and he gave Renjun a knowing look. "Okay, I see how it is... have fun~"
Renjun shook his head. His friend had completely misread the situation, as he usually did. That dumbass. When it came to matchmaking, and shipping for that matter, Jaemin had a way of making everything about a thousand times more suggestive than it needed to be.
"He's really cute," whisper-mouthed Jaemin, before he left Haechan and Renjun. And oh how Renjun wished murder was legal right at that moment.
"Say hello to Jeno from me, Na Jaemin," Renjun shouted behind him. Making fun of the boy for having an obvious crush on Jeno.
"I hate you, Huang Renjun," Jaemin was kind enough to shout back, before he disappeared out of the store and out of his sight.
Haechan cleared his throat, way louder than necessary, and grinned widely at the shorter male in front of him. He had control of the situation now, so he didn't feel as awkward and confused as he previously had been. He took a step closer to Renjun, standing right in front of him. "So, you don't know Korean, do you?" He formulated it as a question, but he meant it as an accusation. He clicked his tongue, and popped a bubble with the bubblegum in his mouth, as nonchalantly as possible.
Renjun wasn't quite quick enough to control all the different feelings he felt flashing across his soft features. It took a little moment, but he finally settled on irritation and annoyance.
That was safe.
And it was also very in character for Renjun.
Although he wanted to, Renjun doesn't take a step back, instead he rolls his eyes as dramatically as he could. "Ugh," he started. "So what if i may have lied?" He continued, crossing his arms over his chest.
Haechan takes a moment to think, before he decides not to say anything yet. What was he even going to say?
Renjun rolls his eyes again, not being too dramatic about it this time, hoping the faint redness of his cheeks weren't noticeable. "And I don't have to talk to a stranger i've never met before." He added, and finally Haechan reacted to him.
"You know," he began. Haechan didn't know how to formulate what he wanted to say correctly, but he was willing to try. "You hear about about people selling themselves, but never in my life did i think i would see someone buying themselves."
Renjun tried not to lose his indifferent but irritated phase. He failed, probably, but Haechan didn't seem to notice. Or, if he did, he did not show Renjun any signs of knowing.
"I have to admit," He spoke again. "When i first got to work last night I thought I was going to go mad because of boredom," he said, hiding his amusement. He started to walk in circles around Renjun, slowly, but not too slow.
Renjun stood still, and kind of let him circle around him.
"But then," Haechan continued on speaking in the same matter-of-fact voice as before. "Then I saw you, Huang Renjun, on the surveillance screen in front of me."
Renjun let out a soft sigh, followed by a huff of annoyance. "How are you so sure it was me on those tapes? I wasn't even here yesterday." He tries to defend himself. To object, but he knows his protests are weak. "And it's not fair that you know my name and I don't know yours."
"Oh, i'm positive it was you," Haechan insisted. He had studied the tape for hours, and he had lost his precious night sleep over them, he wasn't wrong. He definitely wasn't wrong. "And my name is Lee Donghyuck, or just Haechan," he told him. "Whatever you wanna call me," he shrugged. "You are wearing the exact same hoodie as you were last night. So, don't lie."
He stopped his circling, and took a tiny step forward. A tiny step closer to Renjun. They were now standing so close that Renjun could smell the faint sweet smell of caramel. Haechan's cologne. It was exhilarating and intoxicating, but in a good way. In that good, but complex and confusing, way that drew you in. The way that drew you in so much that you would never ever even think about leaving.
Renjun tunes back in to Haechan's monologue, hoping to catch up without much problem. Luckily for him, he hadn't gotten that much farther in the subject. Renjun decides to put him out of his misery and just confess. There was no point in trying to argue with the other, he had the surveillance tapes to prove his case.
"I was going to tell my boss- But then what would I have said to him? That a customer scanned himself?" Haechan rambled on, not noticing- or caring that Renjun wasn't listening to him.
"If you just stop talking for one second i'll show you how i did it, after all that's what you're trying to ask me right?" Renjun takes a small step backwards before he pulls up the sleeve of his soft yellow hoodie. There, on his right wrist, was a tattoo. A tattoo of a barcode.
"Oh. That’s... underwhelming."
Haechan finally falters a little. He paused, his cheeks flushing softly and briefly as if he had expended all his bravado. But before Renjun could say or do anything, he was back to how he was previously. He composed himself again, continuing on smoothly as if he wasn't completely shocked and surprised just now. Nothing ever happened.
Renjun enjoyed his time with the other, as weird as the situation they were in may have been.
Renjun liked how Haechan could not only exude confidence and swagger most of the time, but also let him see through that for a moment, even if it wasn't completely intentional. It was cute.
"It's of a coupon," Renjun speaks up again. "You know one of those 'get one free product' coupons that stores sends you when you haven't been there in a while?"
Haechan blinked.
"It's pretty useful when you're a student," Renjun shrugs. He could tell the other wasn't prepared to hear his explanation, so he simplified it a lot.
It would have made Renjun feel a little victorious, how he suddenly had control of the situation. It would have, if he didn't also feel like he was going to throw up. Honestly, Renjun was way more nervous than he would admit to himself. If Haechan decided to tell his boss, then the boss would most likely call the police and he would get in a huge amount of trouble. It wasn't exactly legal, and no matter how many times Renjun tried to convince himself that what he did wasn't that bad, it made him feel guilty. It made him feel like a criminal.
God, now he really feel like he needed to puke.
He didn't, though. Thankfully, he didn't throw up. Instead, he pushed the sleeves of his hoodie back down, letting them cover his hands completely.
"Well, no matter how useful it might be, it's still wrong," Haechan speaks up after a short moment of complete silence. "It's still stealing... technically."
Renjun got a little offended at this. He didn't understand why, though, because he had told himself the exact same thing. Maybe it was because hearing someone else say it out loud made it more real, more frightening. He wasn't a thief.. He didn't want to be a thief.
"Well, I have a coupon... technically," Renjun mimicked the boy's way of speaking. "But call it stealing if that makes you feel any better." He shrugged, trying to be as normal and nonchalant as he could. But in reality, he was screaming loudly on the inside.
Haechan let out a sigh. What was he supposed to do? He had never had to deal with a situation like this ever before in his life.
"It is stealing!" Haechan exclaimed. He wanted to argue with the other, to physically fight him. Renjun's indifferent and annoying know-it-all attitude was beyond infuriating. He was just so extremely punchable. But of course Haechan didn't actually hit him, he wouldn't hurt him, or anyone really, ever. That's what he had Mark for. But something about Renjun was also so intriguing and fascinating that Haechan didn't ever want to stop talking to him. Also, he was extremely cute so that may have had something to do with it as well.
"Look," Renjun sighed softly, his arms falling defeatedly to his sides. "Can you just drop it?" He asked the other, dropping his act more and more as he spoke. "Please, Donghyuck..." He looked down at his feet, to embarrassed of himself to even look at Haechan.
The sudden change in the other's act and attitude startled Haechan. He blinked and took a moment to compose himself before he spoke. "Fine." He took a small step back and gave Renjun some space again. "If you pay for that pack of Oreos," he spoke softly, and just loud enough for Renjun to hear. "I'll drop it all and just forget it, but only if you pay for it now."
Renjun looked up at Haechan again, meeting his eyes. "Uhm," he started, not knowing how to say without disappointing him. "I don't have any money with me," he said, deciding it was better to say it straight out. Renjun pushes the hood of his yellow hoodie off his head and ran his hand through his hair.
"Ugh" Haechan closed the space between them again and grabbed the pack of Oreos Renjun was holding. "I'll pay for it then," he said, trying to sound irritated, as he scanned the product. He payed for the pack of cookies as handed it back to the shorter boy. "You owe me."
Renjun didn't know what to say, he stood there in shock as Haechan bought the pack of Oreos. He definitely had not expected that. "Oh." He took the pack that was handed to him. "Thanks.." he trailed off.
"No problem," Haechan said. "Now, I hope to never see you steal anything again." He turned to leave, not having anything else to say to Renjun, however it seemed like Renjun had more to say to him. "Alright," Renjun took a deep breath as he spoke. He impulsively decided to ask out the other. He didn't want the other to leave him. He was too kind and cute to let go.
"Do you want to go get coffee or something?" he asked, trying to be casual about it. He took Haechan's hand and pulled the taller closer to him.
"What?"
"You said I owe you something," Renjun started. "Well, I can buy you a cup of coffee," He smiled brightly, trying to still be casual. "Or tea, or cocoa or whatever else you like," he added. He really hoped Haechan would say yes, because even though they only met today, Renjun felt like he needed to know more about the boy.
Was this some kind of joke? Had Haechan heard him right? Had Renjun just asked him out? Did he mean it like a date? All these questions and several more swirled around Haechan's mind. "Uhh- I" He started, stuttering like crazy. He cleared his throat before he spoke again. "I like coffee," was all he said. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh, mentally facepalming himself for being such an idiot.
"Coffee it is then," Renjun said happily, stifling a little giggle at the other's awkward answer. He started dragging Haechan away from the self checkout machines and to the exit of the store.
"Wait," Haechan suddenly remembered something. He stopped in his tracks, letting go of Renjun's warm and comforting hand. "Didn't you say you didn't have any money?" He questioned Renjun, tilting his head slightly. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave him an accusing look.
"Okay.." Renjun started. "So I may have lied to you again," he said honestly. He took a step closer to Haechan again, he wasn't going to let the boy go away now. "But just forget that now," He took his arms and uncrossed them, a bit surprised when Haechan just let him. "We're going on a date, remember?"
As soon as the word 'date' left Renjun's mouth Haechan turned into a tomato. His cheeks flushed a deep shade of pink and he felt himself getting warm all over.
So, it was a date.
He took a moment to just look and admire Renjun's features. Renjun was just adorable, that was all he got out of staring at him. Everything about him was just so adorable and cute Haechan just wanted to squeeze him. He could see the other was slightly panicked behind his calm and indifferent act. Seeing that made Haechan feel more comfortable, and he made up his mind.
"Ugh," Haechan rolled his eyes, faking being angry and annoyed. "You are too cute.” Haechan let go of Renjun’s hands and instead wrapped his arm around his small and thin frame. It was now Renjun’s turn to a tomato. He held his hands over his face to hide his reddened cheeks. Haechan smiled brightly, he had gotten the exact reaction he had wished for.
“C’mon let’s go on that date.” Haechan said softly, walking with Renjun out of the store.