Chapter Text
“Kai come here quick!” Taehyun yells at his friend who’s currently sprawled out on the couch in their shared apartment. Being childhood best friends, they’re thankful to have made their dream of living in an apartment together a reality. The apartment fortunately was not that expensive and Taehyun’s job as an assistant to a professional entertainer and Kai as a music school teacher thankfully pay their dues. It was sheer luck that it was located deep in the city, close to their jobs.
He readjusts his phone in his hand and calls out Kai for the second time who gives him nothing but silence. Taehyun sighs and stands up to go to his sleeping friend instead. He enters the living room to see two feet poking out of the edge of the sofa so he decides to mess with him and pulls his feet down hard, effectively waking up the tall figure.
Kai adjusts his curls in front of his eyes and opens them slowly, glaring at his grinning friend at the edge of the couch. “What the hell, Hyunnie?” Kai slowly sits properly on the couch and readjusts his hoodie. Taehyun plops down next to him and shoves his phone in Kai’s face.
“Shut up and take a look at this.” A mixture of pink, red and white colors clouds his vision for a second before his eyes focuses on the bold text written in all caps.
“‘HEART ATTACK’ A QUICK FUN WAY TO FIND LOVE THIS VALENTINES DAY”
Kai rolls his eyes at Taehyun. “A ‘singles’ event? Really, Hyunnie?” He sighs and faces his friend, “You’re planning on joining this event? This sounds so cheesy and dumb, dude. And most importantly, so so desperate.” He snickers giving Taehyun his phone back.
Taehyun smiles and shakes his head. “No no no, my stupid friend, I am signing YOU up for this.”
Kai started laughing harder, still not believing his friend as he moved to the other side of the couch. “Oh… right because you already have your ‘cute’ and ‘sexy’ boss at your job.” Taehyun hit his feet with a pillow.
“Shut up, I don’t like him okay it’s just a tiny crush. He’s mean and annoying anyways.” Taehyun lets out a smirk, “Besides, I’ve already done the courtesy of signing you up for the event.”
“TAEHYUN!” Kai screeches as Taehyun quickly jumps up and gets chased around their apartment. Kai’s eyes are flaring with anger as he manages to catch up to Taehyun and give him a small beating.
Once they finally return to the couch with Kai leaving small bruises on Taehyun’s arm, he looks at his still grinning friend “Okay, first of all, fuck you. Second of all, as if I’m going to this event. Going to these kinds of ‘singles’ only events is like the saddest shit ever. It basically means you’ve given up on truly finding the one and instead you’re just looking for an easy fling.”
Taehyun sighs and faces his friend. “Kai, I’m doing this for you, you know? I’m sick and tired of your annoying ass moping around in our apartment because you have no one to love for…” Taehyun giggles and points to himself. “…well, except for me but I don’t count.”
Kai groans and lets his head fall back into the arm rest. “You know I’m not good at relationships, right? I literally have never been in one before and now you’re making me do this—weird speed dating or whatever event.”
Kai thinks about the time when he confessed to his crushes, only to be met with humiliation when the whole school knew he got rejected. Being a shy teen, it took guts for him to confess and when the whole school made fun of him when got rejected, it completely changed his outlook on relationships. They had called him pathetic, a loser and that’s how he started seeing himself in a different way.
He was young and easily impressionable so he kept seeing himself as unlikable, someone who can’t be loved. Now, he’s 24 years old and hasn’t tried loving again since, and instead busies himself with his work or music and avoids any sort of romantic involvement with anyone.
“Hey.” Taehyun scoots closer and brings Kai to the same level as him again.
“I want you to be happy. What happened in the past shouldn’t hinder you from being happy in the present.” He continues as Kai looks up at him, “I know you can do this Kai, it’s gonna be very difficult at first I’m not gonna lie but this is the perfect time to open up your heart again.” Taehyun smiled at him hopefully.
There’s silence between them as Kai thinks it over before he rolls his eyes at Taehyun, “Okay okay just stop talking. Jeez, since when were you this emotional and cheezy—” His rant was cut off short when Taehyun shoved a pillow in his face.
“Shut up dickhead, just be thankful I’m your friend. Now go out and buy us some bandaids. My arm hurts like hell. Oh, and some more milk because we’re all out.”
Kai smiles sheepishly, “Sorry again for hitting you. By the way, what are your plans for Valentines day anyways?” Kai asks as he saw the faint blush on Taehyun’s cheeks.
“I—I um, my boss asked me to come help him build this set for one of his performances next week.” Taehyun looks down, hiding his reddening face from Kai.
Kai whistles at him, “He asked you out? Finally, my hyunnie will have a boyfriend. You know I’m sick of hearing his name while you sleep right?”
Taehyun’s eyes go wide as he splutters out a response, “W—What? I don’t do that, shut up!” But Kai was already one step ahead of him and pulls out his phone to show Taehyun a video from a couple of days ago of him sleep talking.
Taehyun feels his cheeks on fire seeing himself on screen mumbling his boss’s name.
“Yeonjun hyung..please stop that…it tickles…hyung please..” His voice comes out of the phone speaker as Kai stifles his laughter with his hand. “Aaaaa stop it! This is so humiliating.” Taehyun cries out as his friend laughs heartily beside him.
Kai was a bit nervous but excited. This was it. He was finally going to try again. 'Let's just hope my heart doesn't get smashed this time.'
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“One more please!” Soobin calls out as he sets down his sixth bottle of beer on the table. Yeonjun shakes his head but smiles at his drunken friend as he sips from his own bottle.
It was Friday and they’re out in the bar. Yeonjun had just joined his friends recently after being away for a week. He was quite surprised to see his friend in such a state but after hearing about what happened to him, he was quite sympathetic.
“Dude you already had way too much!” Beomgyu shudders beside him, already stopping at two bottles as they had exams coming up and he didn’t want anything to distract him. He takes a long look at his grieving friend.
They had met a while ago when they both started medical school and for the longest time, he had a crush on him. He met Soobin when they were interviewed and there was just this bond between them that he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t long until they exchanged numbers, shared life stories and went to classes together. Beomgyu was thankful for him for being his rock through all the hardships they faced and are currently facing in medical school right now.
Unfortunately, Soobin had a girlfriend and he couldn’t make a move. But now, after being together for 4 years, they broke up all of a sudden, leaving Soobin in a state of wanting to drink his pain away which is why Beomgyu wanted to be there for his friend. Be his rock for a change.
“I don’t careee just shush and be a good frieenndddd…” Soobin slurs.
Yeonjun finally takes charge and caps him off for the night. “Alright buddy I think we have enough for tonight, no more drinking alright?” He grabs the half-empty bottle from Soobin’s hands and moves it away.
Soobin pouts and makes grabby hands at him, “Hyung! How dareee youuu…do you not want—” he hiccups, “me to forget about the her?” Soobin says bitterly.
Yeonjun sighs at him, “This won’t make you forget about the break up dummy, this will only give you a hangover tomorrow. Plus, this is the fifth time we’ve been in this bar for the past week. Surely you’ve already drunk all the alcohol you need to forget about her.”
Beomgyu puts his head in his hands, this really was the fifth time here and Soobin still hasn’t been better. Beomgyu initially thought that this was the time to make a move but then once he saw what state Soobin was in, his instincts came in to put his friend’s safety first before his intentions. Hearing a sniffle beside him, Beomgyu raised his head and saw Soobin start to cry.
“I—I just miss her so much…” He wipes his eyes with his sweater, “She didn’t even give me a warning. I was just dropped all of a sudden. 4 fucking years, just went down the drain. Like who the fuck does that?” He spat out angrily.
Yeonjun rubs Soobin’s back as he cried more. “That bitch didn’t deserve you. You hear me? She let go one of the most amazing, kind, caring and loving people. It’s her loss not yours, okay?” Beomgyu was glad Yeonjun was there with them.
Yeonjun and Soobin had been childhood best friends, and while Soobin went to medical school Yeonjun was spotted by someone and became a professional entertainer, performing in shows all around their city. He had been lucky enough to join his friends after being busy with the shows for a while.
Soobin nods and blows his nose into a tissue. “Thanks, hyung, I just—I need to do something else to help me get over this break up.”
Yeonjun raises his eyebrows, “How ‘bout a rebound?” Beomgyu’s ears peaked in interest. He had thought about it but he didn’t want to be a rebound to Soobin. He wanted them to be together for a long time, not just temporarily. He suddenly remembered this advert he came across a while ago.
“Hey, I found this event that you can join.” Beomgyu says as he pulls out his phone.
Soobin looks at him curiously, “What is it about?”
“You basically do this speed date thing and helps you find someone to spend your Valentine’s with. Which means you’d have a chance on meeting someone nice there, for you to rebound to.” Beomgyu grins at him. “And no, I am not joining this event, I have other things planned for Valentine’s day which includes a huge stack of books for next week’s exam.” Beomgyu added as Soobin groaned in response. ‘Shit I have exams coming up.’
“Oh, I’ve heard of that event from my assistant too! He said he was planning on signing his friend up on that.” Yeonjun smiles.
Beomgyu picks up on this and teases him, “Oh hyung, is this the one you’ve been calling cute then?” He snickers at Yeonjun’s slowly reddening face. “Fuck off, I don’t like him. I just like him teasing him. He just… gets so mad easily, it’s funny. Also, he stares at me sometimes, I don’t know why.”
Soobin cracks a smile at his oblivious friend, “I think he likes you hyung. Did you give him the day off on Valentine’s day?”
Yeonjun scoffs, “What? Of course not. We have to build this set for my performance next week. It’s probably just gonna be me and him back at the building.”
Soobin and Beomgyu share a look, “Hyung…make sure you use protection okay and be gentle with him.” Beomgyu jokes, laughing at Yeonjun’s shocked face. Soobin finally laughs for the first time that night so Yeonjun isn't too mad.
“Gyu! You little shit.” He gives him a little slap on the arm, “It’s not a date! It’s work. Nothing is going to happen probably. I don’t even like him, especially his stupid cute eyes and perfect nose.” Yeonjun mumbles, burying his mouth in his bottle.
Beomgyu shrugs and smiles at him knowingly, “Mhm sure hyung. Keep telling yourself that.”
Yeonjun sticks out his tongue at his friend as he passes the phone to Soobin. “Okay, so back to the speed event thing.”
Soobin’s eyes scan the screen. “‘HEART ATTACK’ A QUICK FUN WAY TO FIND LOVE THIS VALENTINES DAY”
Soobin groans and crumpled his nose, “Really, Gyu? Why do I have to go to all this trouble if I’m just gonna need a rebound?”
Beomgyu rolled his eyes, “You and I both know that you aren’t that good with people you don’t have a connection to. It’s literally harmless. It won’t hurt to try it yknow?” Yeonjun nodded and agreed with Beomgyu, “Yeah Binnie, you might find your soulmate there yknow.”
Beomgyu’s eye twitched. ‘I’m hoping this won’t bite me in the ass later.’ He thought. Once Soobin got over his break up and the rebound, he might be able to make a move on him and they’ll finally be together.
Soobin snorted, “As if. For now, I am done with relationships. I’ll be a player, a bad boy. You’ll be seeing me with someone new each week—” He continues as he ignores his friends making fake-puking noises at him, “—starting with this Valentine’s day event.”
Yeonjun shushed him down, “Okay okay Romeo, now can we go back to your apartment? You promised we’d play video games. It’s been a while yknow.”
Soobin smiled at his friends and pulled out his wallet to pay the bills. “Fine! But hyung, you have to treat us tomorrow if you lose, right Gyu?” he smiles wide at Beomgyu.
Beomgyu smiles back, his heart beating faster, “Of course we’ll beat his ass. The two of us makes the best team!”
The three of them laughs at each other before standing up and leaving the bar as they make way to Soobin’s apartment he shares with Yeonjun. Soobin was excited. This could be the start of something new. A fresh new start. 'I'm gonna get over her. I WILL be happy again.'