Work Text:
It’s that time of the month, where allowances run low and everyone lives off on the vending machine snacks from the ground floor of the senior dorms.
Tonight was like many others, and honestly Kyungsoo was getting sick of eating granola bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner—but it wasn’t like he could afford anything else, so he ate his food and swallowed his complaints down with it.
“Granola bars again? Soo, I’m sick of this shit.”
Apparently his roommate was too, whining from somewhere behind him on his side of the room. He chanced a glance at the other and saw him pouting at him, puppy eyes and all. Rooming with Jongin for two consecutive years made him immune to this however, so he did nothing even as his eyes pleaded for him to.
He sighs, unwrapping the bar reluctantly. “I don’t have the money to buy us anything more decent than this, Jongin.”
It was his turn to pay for dinner this week, and it was just their luck that none of the ATMs in their university could spit out cash. The bank isn’t sending people over until Monday, so they’re just going to have to survive Friday night all through the weekend. Kyungsoo was running low on cash because he had to print out hard copies of the lecture notes his Sociology professor sent at the start of the week. He forgot to check how many pages he was in for though, and almost had a heart attack when the university library charged him as much as the price of a whole damn book. So now they’re living off on granola bars. Kyungsoo eyes the copies on his study table in disdain. Stupid eight hundred page notes.
Some rustling and his roommate sits up, scratching the back of his head irritably. His eyes flick over to the calendar they had hung on the back of their front door, and Kyungsoo watches on curiously as he takes his first bite into his dinner granola bar.
Jongin stares at it for a while, and just as Kyungsoo loses interest in watching him, he perks up.
“Soo, today’s Friday!”
Kyungsoo eyes him warily, an eyebrow tilting upward in confusion. “Yes, I know.”
“And it's already evening, which means dinner!”
Kyungsoo looks at him like he lost his mind. Maybe he has. Was it the granola bars? He turns the bar over in his hand and squints at the fine print for ingredients, looking for anything suspicious.
Jongin whines, already on his feet and pulling over his coat he hung carelessly on the edge of his bed. Kyungsoo looks up as the edge of his coat enters his line of vision. His roommate had stopped at his side of the bed, looking down on him with a shit eating grin. He’s immediately wary, slowly placing his granola bar down on his lap.
“What.”
His roommate is undeterred. “It’s Friday night; do you know what happens on Friday night over at Pedro’s Cusina?”
Pedro’s Cusina was the only Mexican style restaurant in their campus, a brisk ten minute walk from their dorm. Kyungsoo’s brows furrow, trying to think of what Jongin was hinting at. His brain supplies him with a memory of him and a couple of their friends eating at Pedro’s, tacos in one hand and beers in the other. They had alcohol with them on campus, which meant someone turned of age. Was it Sehun? No, he turned twenty one just weeks ago. He wracked his mind for any other detail in his memory, and gasped when he realized it wasn’t a birthday but a celebratory dinner. They had all passed their exams, and someone paid for a round of drinks. Only that it wasn’t paid for; it was free.
It was Freebie Friday.
“Jongin!” Kyungsoo gasped, getting onto his feet with his eyes wide. The granola bar topples over to the floor, and neither of them cared enough to pick it up. They were too hungry to register anything else other than free food. Food that wasn’t granola bars. Of course they were rightfully distracted.
Kyungsoo hurriedly puts on a coat of his own, and together, he and Jongin leave their dorm room.
It’s cold out, but apparently not cold enough for the students making out by the darkened staircase in just their t-shirts’ and jerseys. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes at them, accustomed to scenarios like this by now. Being a senior hardened him in ways he never knew was possible.
They pass the couple wordlessly, who didn’t even bother to separate at the sound of footsteps. The front desk is empty by the time they get there, which meant they could leave as they pleased. The dry, slightly chilly May evening air slaps him on the cheeks mercilessly, so he hunches lower into his coat to shield himself. He glances at Jongin walking right next to him, who isn’t faring any better. His cheeks are red and so are the tips of his ears.
“Jongin, do you really think we can eat for free over at Pedro’s?”
His roommate makes a sound of affirmation, glancing over at him with a shrug. “Yeah, I mean we did that one time everyone went out to eat. I don’t remember paying at all.”
Kyungsoo nods. He doesn’t remember paying either. “Okay, we can always turn back in case it doesn’t work out.”
“I hope it does. I’m not eating anymore granola bars.”
Kyungsoo huffs, reaching over to playfully push Jongin forward so he trips over his own feet. He splutters, throwing a dirty look at Kyungsoo over his shoulder. “That week you made us eat nothing but Mac and Cheese, did you hear me complaining?”
“Yes, actually. Lots of times. Every day.”
“Oh.”
Jongin elbows him and Kyungsoo brushes him off, chuckling softly. They reach Pedro’s like this, bickering along the way.
His eyes slide over to the signage in front, his hand shooting out in surprise to stop Jongin from going in any further.
“What—?”
Kyungsoo wordlessly gestures to the signage that says Freebie Friday: Couples Night. Jongin looks back at him in horror, eyes comically wide.
This smelled like a bad idea from the very start, yet Kyungsoo let his hunger cloud his judgment and now here they are, paying the price.
Kyungsoo visibly deflated into his coat, appearing smaller than he actually was. Couples night on Freebie Friday meant only couples got to eat for free, and seeing that he and Jongin are in no way a couple—this whole trip was a complete waste of time.
Jongin pouts, scratching at his elbow as they shuffled awkwardly by the entrance. His eyes are trained longingly on the glass walls, wishing for nothing but a decent Pedro’s meal for the night. “Do you have a girlfriend, Soo? Maybe they’ll take pity on third wheelers too…”
He trails off, somehow managing to pout harder than he has all night. Kyungsoo’s resistance wavers.
He bites his lip, eyebrows scrunched as he thought of what to do. He and Jongin could walk back to the dorms, suck it up and enjoy their Granola bars. Or…
Throwing all caution to the wind and letting the gnawing in his stomach win over, Kyungsoo gets on one knee.
Jongin isn’t even paying attention at first, but Kyungsoo pointedly clears his throat. Then his eyes get really wide, and he takes an unsteady step back.
Kyungsoo’s heart is beating right into his ears and nothing makes sense at all, but Jongin is looking at him expectantly and he all but blurts the next words out.
“Kim Jongin, will you do me the greatest favor of being my boyfriend?”
There are gasps behind them that are definitely not theirs, and Kyungsoo whirls around in a panic. There are people gathered outside, college students like themselves based on the haggard look under their eyes, and they were all clapping. A small crowd of ten or so people gathered behind them and maybe, just maybe getting on one knee in front of a restaurant on a weekend night was a stupid idea.
Before Jongin could even give him a proper response, the manager himself comes out and ushers them in.
“Ah! Young love. Come in, come in. It’s more comfortable inside. Pedro’s is honored to have you two love birds dining in.”
Kyungsoo can only smile bashfully as he and Jongin are quite literally guided in. This was, technically the plan, but he forgot he didn’t even warn Jongin. He pleads at him with his eyes, hoping he conveyed ‘please play the fuck along, i’m so sorry’ pretty clearly. Jongin just looks lost, classic deer caught in the headlights.
They’re screwed.
The manager ushers them to a table for two by the corner and thankfully, leaves them alone as he go grabs them their menus.
“What the fuck, Soo?” Jongin whispers urgently, reaching for his hand on the table just to swat it away. Kyungsoo winces, wetting his lip nervously. His eyes flick over to the staff waiting tables nearby, choosing to hunch over so he didn’t have to raise his voice so Jongin could hear him.
“I’m… getting us dinner?”
Jongin throws his head back as he stared at him incredulously. “You’re what?”
“I’m trying to get us fed,” Kyungsoo hisses, cheeks burning. “And I need you to play along because we’re both broke and hungry!”
“Ah, can’t take your hands off each other it seems,” the manager observes, and both he and Jongin spring away from each other as if burned.
Kyungsoo’s smile is strained as he accepts the menu given to him by the manager.
“So boys, what’ll it be? It’s customary for couples to order for each other, so for you, I’ll be asking this handsome young man to order your meal and vice versa. Everything is on the house, of course. It’s not every day a couple gets engaged outside of your restaurant, right?”
The manager’s laugh is throaty as Jongin chokes on nothing behind him. Kyungsoo’s eyes bulge as he looks at him. Engaged? He should have never kneeled. In fact, he is never kneeling again. Ever.
Jongin shrugs at him helplessly, before turning to the manager and reciting his order. He plays along too, and orders Jongin’s favorite taco for him. They’ve been roommates long enough to know what food the other likes and dislikes, so at least for the food part they aren’t screwed.
What they aren’t prepared for are the questions the staff are required to ask them every time they bring them a portion of their free meal.
So of course they’re surprised when the waiters start to pry. They shrug, saying its protocol.
“Where did you two meet?” is the first question, as the waiter sets Jongin’s taco in front of him.
“We’re roommates.”
“We started off as roommates.”
They answer in chorus; so far, so good. Kyungsoo mentally cheers. The staff looks satisfied and walks away, letting Jongin enjoy his meal.
Kyungsoo smiles at him helplessly, while Jongin shrugs. That part was true, at least.
“Hyung,” Jongin suddenly calls for him, and Kyungsoo looks up from the spot on the table he had spaced out on. The apples of his roommate’s cheeks are pink, his probably turning the exact same shade when he sees a piece of taco being offered out to him. When he doesn’t immediately react Jongin wiggles the piece closer, pouting again, and Kyungsoo relents with an amused laugh. He isn’t careful when he swallows though, lips barely brushing over Jongin’s fingers. They both jerk back, and suddenly it was unbearably hot in a fully air-conditioned restaurant. Kyungsoo shrugs off his coat and looks anywhere but at Jongin.
Their drinks come next, and Kyungsoo eyes the avocado shake in the tray with too much gusto. The staff smiles at them, pearly whites glinting under the tacky fluorescents above their heads.
“When did you start dating?”
Crap.
He and Jongin glance at each other in alarm. They were too embarrassed earlier to come up with a plan. Kyungsoo hopes his theater electives weren’t for naught tonight.
“I…asked him out after the school dance. We’ve been dating ever since.” Kyungsoo hurriedly answers, hoping the waiter lets them off the hook easy.
“Really… why the school dance?” The waiter looked at Jongin specifically, and he could feel the sweat build at the base of his nape.
Jongin splutters under the attention, cheeks coloring. “He uh, knows I love dancing and thought it would be romantic to ask me out there.”
Kyungsoo visibly exhaled. Nice save, Jongin!
He inconspicuously sent him a thumbs up from behind the waiter and Jongin flashes him a proud smile.
The waiter probably takes this as a cute couple thing because he leaves them alone with their drinks. Jongin sips his chocolate ice cream shake happily while Kyungsoo downs his avocado shake almost immediately.
“God, that was close.”
Jongin hums, rearranging his legs under the table and accidentally brushing against Kyungsoo. He flinches a little, but catches himself in time. His eyes flick over to the counter again, the staff still throwing casual glances in their table. Kyungsoo bites his lip as he lets another stupid plan manifest without thorough thinking, sliding his legs closer and playing footsie with Jongin under the table.
Jongin all but coughs the shake he was drinking, trying to draw his legs back. Kyungsoo’s thighs cage him under the table, and he widens his eyes at him reprovingly.
“We need to act like a couple, stop flinching!”
Jongin pouts, going back to sip at his shake and letting Kyungsoo do what he wants. “Footsie in public?”
Kyungsoo laughs at this, voice low as he lets the tip of his sneaker rub against Jongin’s shin. “Do you prefer doing this in the privacy of our room?” He waggled his eyebrows at him for emphasis, to which Jongin guffaws at, absolutely losing it.
People look over at the noise they were both making, but seeing as couples mostly comprised Pedro’s around this time, they weren’t too curious.
Kyungsoo snickers behind his hand as he took another bite from Jongin’s taco, actually thankful for the first time that night that they weren’t eating granola bars.
At the counter, the cashier asks them one last thing that gets the tips of their ears coloring a vibrant shade of red.
“Before you go…” She leans in close, bright round eyes sparkling in mirth. “Who tops?”
Jongin chokes and Kyungsoo coughs, looking at anywhere but at each other. The cashier is waiting for their answer though, so they can’t exactly make a pass.
Since this was his idea, Kyungsoo reaches between them and squeezes Jongin’s hand, as if to appease him. He would answer this for the two of them, reputation be damned. But it seems like Jongin interpreted this as something else, because they both ended up answering at the exact same time.
“Soo tops!”
“I top him.”
They both turn to each other in shock. If they were embarrassed awhile ago, they were mortified now. The girl however, satisfied with their answer, lets them go with a cheery farewell.
Before the staff at Pedro’s asked them anymore weird questions, they both hurried out with their tails tucked between their legs.
Amidst it all, they leave Pedro’s that night with their bellies full, relatively unscathed.
The trek back to their dorms was akin to winning a war, the blaring of victory horns accompanying their every step.
“We didn’t even pay a single cent!” Jongin exclaims in glee, eyes scrunching adorably as he threw himself across his bed.
Kyungsoo’s reaction is a little more subdued, a lopsided smile on his face as he closed the door behind himself. He walked towards his study chair and sat down, emptying the pockets of his coat onto his desk. He carefully sets the granola bars aside, shoving them into his drawer, never to be seen again until the next financial crisis.
“I can’t help but feel a little bad, though. We basically conned Pedro’s.” Kyungsoo bit his lip, brows meeting in the middle.
Jongin shrugged, flipping himself atop his bed. “It was your idea.”
Kyungsoo’s nose scrunched, reaching a hand up to massage his temple. “Don’t remind me. At least we got to eat. You wouldn’t stop whining if I didn’t do anything about it.”
“I am sick of granola bars, Soo. I’d rather not eat.”
Kyungsoo snorts, unconsciously tapping his fingers on his table. “I’m surprised we didn’t get in trouble. Who knew they’d ask couple questions?”
Jongin sat up, staring at Kyungsoo from across the room in mild amusement. “They had to verify how real we are as a couple, right?”
Kyungsoo thought this over, staying silent for a while. The silence stretches on until Jongin gets bored and pulls his phone out, scrolling through his social media.
They spend the rest of the night in companionable silence, and Kyungsoo thanks whoever’s out there for their free meal before falling asleep.
Kyungsoo should have seen this coming. Really, he should have. Karma always found its way back to those he deserved it.
He had that on his mind on repeat as he stared at the pictures of him and Jongin acting all coupley on the student bulletin board. Who would have known Pedro’s had a special section in their bulletin board?
Kyungsoo’s fingers twitch with the need to cover their pictures up. Sure, the two of them look good together–passable as a couple, even– but that’s the problem. They aren’t. And if any one of their friends found out, they had a whole lot of explaining to do.
He’s experiencing his first mental breakdown of the day in the middle of the Student Affairs building when Jongin appears out of nowhere, bounding over to him innocently. In slowmo, horror movie fashion, Kyungsoo points at the bulletin board with shaky hands.
Jongin hums, blissfully unaware. As soon as his eyes skim over the contents of the board and stop on their picture, he drops his taco. It makes an unflattering splat on the floor right next to their shoes. Kyungsoo can’t even find it in himself to be disgusted.
“W-what. Who else saw this?” Jongin turns to him, eyes wide.
Kyungsoo shrugs, stepping away from the mess on the floor. “I don’t know. I was on my way to the library when I thought of reading over the upcoming school holidays. I was just as shocked as you were when I saw, to be honest.”
Jongin glanced behind them in a panic. “Can’t we take this off?”
Kyungsoo flicked his gaze towards the two security cameras around them, shaking his head vehemently after. “Not if we want to further be questioned, no.”
“Oh fuck. Oh fuck, Soo. What are we gonna do?”
Kyungsoo stared blankly at him. For the first time since he had them act like a couple, he drew a blank. He didn’t know what to do. They had three options, none of which are desirable. One, they could come clean and tell the truth. Two, they could act like a couple and just fucking keep it up until they graduated or something. Three, the lamest and most unlikely to occur, they pretend the photos don’t exist and hope for the best.
He explains this out loud to Jongin, who looks more and more bewildered with every option.
“That’s so lame, god. Is there no other way?”
Kyungsoo shook his head, crossing his arms across his chest. “No. These are all we’ve got. I’ve made up my mind, what about you?”
Jongin paused, searched his face for answers. “Let me guess, 3?”
Kyungsoo cracked a smile at him. “No.”
Jongin’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “Wow. So, what is it then?”
Kyungsoo grinned, took his hand into his. It was warm if not a little clammy, but he doesn’t mind. He’s always wondered what it felt to hold Jongin’s hand like this anyway. “Take a wild guess.”
Jongin rolled his eyes, squeezing Kyungsoo’s hand in his, though there was a faint pink dusting his cheeks. “Guess I really have to date you now, huh.”
Kyungsoo pulled him away from the bulletin board, walking hand in hand with him until they stepped out of the building. “Guess so.”
On their way back to their dorms, hands still linked, they pass by Pedro’s. The doors are tinted in daylight so they can’t really see anything, but the sign that says Freebie Friday: Couples Night is still posted outside. Jongin laughs at that, rubbing the tip of his nose with his finger.
“Should we go back?”
Kyungsoo stares at him, squints actually, under the harsh rays of the sun. Jongin is still as familiar to him, still as adorable as the first day they met. He pauses, eyes scanning the other signages littered outside of the restaurant. His eyes land on a particularly scandalous signage, pointing to it with their adjoined hands.
Jongin squints, leaning closer. “Freebie Friday: 7 Minutes in Heaven. Wow, Pedro’s are a bunch of perverts.”
Kyungsoo laughs, dragging him away with a gentle tug on his hand in his. “Right? Anyone can do that without eating at their restaurant.”
Jongin nudges him with a low chuckle. “Oh yeah? You sure about that?”
Kyungsoo all but smirks; rubbing his thumb behind Jongin’s palm in small, infuriating circles. Jongin squirms, looking like he regrets teasing him at all.
“As soon as we get home, I’ll show you my kind of 7 minutes in heaven.”
Jongin visibly shudders, especially when Kyungsoo’s voice drops an octave and he whispers it low enough for only him to hear.
“I– I don’t doubt it.”
Kyungsoo lifts his hand up and kisses the back of it.
“Good.”