Work Text:
Hangyul is the first to admit that if you're basing everything off of physical appearance, he doesn't look like someone who should be working at Build a Bear. However, he loves his coworkers and his job as a whole. The kids are normally sweet and well behaved, and he's had the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people in the year he's worked at the store. He gets to spend his days surrounded by stuffed animals and brightly colored little clothing items so he really can't complain.
Though, just as with any job, there's downsides and things that Hangyul has to do that he'd rather not. These things included having to hand sew the animals if the strings come out or they have holes, having to unstuff display animals to go back in the bins, and most of all, having to be a party leader.
It seems that every Saturday, he arrives at the store at 9:45 for his 10 AM shift and on the front counter is a paper with the party information and his name written on it. The most frustrating part of doing the parties is that he isn't the only one who's party trained--Yena's better at them than he is, but she never works Saturdays--his manager just claims that he's good at them. (Hangyul thinks Seungwoo just has it out for him, don't tell anyone.) Their store is one of the busier locations, so it went without fail that there'd be a party booked on a Saturday.
This meant that every Saturday, Hangyul had to deal with an hour to two hours of dealing with one group of people, often all children. Almost always, parents have dropped them off at the store for the party and left to go shop around in the mall for an hour or go to lunch. This left Hangyul having to be the one to tell the kids that, "Oh, we're just going to do bears and shirts today!" instead of having a parent do it. (There's nothing worse than a snot-nosed entitled kid who can't understand that someone else is buying them a bear on someone else's birthday and that they can't always get what they want.)
He feels like he should be paid more than he is if they're going to have him be party leader so often, but alas, he can't complain that much. (Parties always make the store feel so much busier, and it's much more stressful working during a party than actually being the party leader.)
When Hangyul is scheduled later in the afternoon one Saturday, he's sure that that means no one booked a party for the day, and he's off free for once.
All morning, Hangyul was more upbeat than normal. "Who are you and what did you do with Hangyul?" Seungyoun asks sleepily when he walks into their shared kitchen and sees Hangyul humming as he makes breakfast.
"Morning!" Hangyul says brightly, pouring milk into his cereal, "It's a great day today!"
Seungyoun stares at him incredulously. "Are you feeling okay?" He asks finally.
"I'm feeling great," Hangyul grossly replies around a mouthful of cereal.
Seungyoun flops into the kitchen chair across from him, taking the empty bowl and spoon that Hangyul had set on the table and making himself some cereal too. "Why are you so happy?"
"I'm working later than normal which means that, for the first time in months, I don't have a party to do today," Hangyul explains. "I've never felt happier in my life."
Seungyoun shakes his head, amused. He had heard more than he had ever cared to hear about Hangyul's job at Build a Bear, specifically the parties that he's had to lead. (He's heard horror stories of screaming kids and slobber on things that he doesn't want to step foot into a Build a Bear in his life.) "Good, I won't have to listen to you complain then tonight."
Hangyul rolls his eyes, "You like my work stories!"
"I like some of them." Seungyoun points out, "Not your party ones, I hear those every fucking Saturday."
"Imagine how tired I am," Hangyul whines, "I don't want to do another one in my life."
"Just tell Seungwoo that you want to not to parties as much, I'm sure he'll let you take a break."
Hangyul rolls his eyes, "You only believe that because Seungwoo's nice to you."
"He's nice to you, too!" Seungyoun exclaims, "You wouldn't work there for so long if he wasn't."
"Okay, he's pretty nice to everyone, but he's nicer to you because he likes you." Hangyul points his spoon at him threateningly.
Seungyoun tries not to choke on his cereal, "Don't you have to go?"
Hangyul grins, "I don't work until noon."
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When Hangyul walks into the store, which is a little emptier on a Saturday at noon than usual, he's feeling great. However, that feeling quickly dissipates when he clocks on, turns around, and sees a paper on the counter with his name on it. "Oh," Seungwoo points at it, "I forgot to tell you yesterday. There was no party booked for this morning, so I scheduled you a bit later than normal. We have a weekend daycare coming in at 1:00 though, on a field trip and they booked a party to get the better deal on the animals."
Hangyul tries not to show how devastated he is that he has to do a party when he had convinced himself he wouldn't. "Oh, okay." He says after a second, putting on his best Build A Bear face, "How many kids?"
"Only a handful," Seungwoo says, and Hangyul breathes a sigh of relief, "They booked for 9, but left a note that said it could be as little as 5."
Hangyul leans against the counter and tries to mentally prepare himself for what is sure to come. He's just glad it's a daycare and not a birthday party because at least with a daycare the workers will be there to help keep it going the way he wants it to. He gives himself another moment to wallow in self pity before he shakes it off and starts getting things ready.
Thankfully they were only doing the smallest package so he only had to worry about the kids having a handful of bear choices and then getting a t-shirt for it. He wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of little kids trying to choose shoes, sounds, or backpacks.
Eunbi walks up to the counter after she finishes stuffing a bear for someone, and grins at him, "You thought you didn't have to do a party today, huh?"
He glares at her, "Ha, ha, thanks for rubbing it in." He grumbles.
She laughs, "They're not that bad!"
He sighs as he pops another one of the box houses together, "They're not, but I do them every week, and they get tiring. Besides, you're here! Why couldn't you do it?"
Eunbi shrugs, and grabs a birth certificate that had just printed off of the printer, and sets it on the counter for the family walking up to check out. "I don't know, but I'm not going to question it. Seungwoo will start giving me parties all the time if I do." She winks at him when he gives her an offended noise.
"Seungwoo will start giving me parties all the time if I do," He mocks her in a high pitched squeaky voice when he's far enough away to know that she heard, but the family she was ringing up hadn't.
The next thirty minutes pass quickly. He gets everything set up, gets nametag stickers ready for everyone, and grabs the four bears that the kids could choose from and sets the on the front counter.
When the clock hits 12:45, Hangyul can hear the voices of little kids coming down the mall hallway. Here it comes, he thinks to himself and takes a deep breath. While he may be upset that he's doing the party, he wasn't about to show it in front of all the kids.
When they come in, Hangyul is hit by a wave of emotions. All the kids are wearing matching bright pink t-shirts and are adorable. There's five of them, toddling along in a line holding each other's hands. They can't be older than 7 or 8, and Hangyul is pretty sure he's going to die.
And then he glances at one of the workers, also wearing a bright pink t-shirt and knows for sure he's going to die. He was tall, black hair messy in a way that looked intentional, and had the prettiest face Hangyul had seen in his life. He was wearing a nametag with the daycare's logo on it and his name scribbled in black sharpie. Yohan. Hangyul was ruined.
There was another boy with the daycare, too. He was much shorter than Yohan, but also pretty. His nametag read Wooseok, and Hangyul was confused as to whether this was a daycare or a modeling business.
"Hi!" He says as they walk in, and Wooseok smiles at him.
"Hi, we're here for the party?" He asks.
Hangyul nods, "Alright!" He says brightly, facing the kids, and trying to ignore the fact that he was going to have to spend the next hour or so pretending that the boy standing in front of him wasn't the love of his life.
"I'm Hangyul, and I'm going to be guiding you through the party today! First, we need to get every one nametags." He grabs the stickers and a sharpie from his apron.
He goes through the group, writing their names on the tags and trying to ask them questions to get them to be a little less shy with him.
The kids' names were Dongpyo, Minhee, Hyeongjun, Eunsang, Junho, and Dohyon. Hangyul was enamored by them. Dongpyo told him proudly that he was six and that his name was spelled D-O-N-G-P-Y-O. Minhee told him he was six, too, and asked if Hangyul could draw a sun by his name. (What was Hangyul supposed to do? Say no?) Hyeongjun wanted a car by his name, and Hangyul tried his best to scribble a little Volkswagon Bug looking car next to his name, and Hyeongjun seemed pleased enough. Eunsang and Junho both wanted smiley faces, and Hangyul isn't sure when he became an artist, but here he was.
Dohyon seemed to be the youngest and shiest of the bunch, and it took a bit of pushing for him to whisper his name to Hangyul. Hangyul feels a little bad, and asks him if he wants a drawing, to which Dohyon responds with "chicken leg", and Hangyul has to choke back a laugh. However, the daycare workers don't share the same sentiment and start laughing loudly, and Dohyon grins.
Hangyul tries to draw a chicken leg quickly but is focused on the fact that Yohan's laugh sounds like tinkling wind chimes. He's already feeling like this and he hasn't even said a word to the other, what's wrong with him?
After all the kids have nametags and are less scared of him, he stands up. He goes through his little shpeal about staying in the store, making sure they can always see him, Wooseok, or Yohan, and "most of all, have fun!".
While the kids are choosing which bear they want to make, Hangyul turns to the two daycare workers. "They're so cute." He tells them.
Yohan grins, and Hangyul's heart does not skip a beat. "They are, aren't they?" He asks fondly, "They're so sweet, too."
"How do you not give them everything they want?" He asks, "If one of them asked me for something, I don't know how I'd say no."
Yohan laughs, "They're pretty smart kids, so they know when they have someone wrapped around their finger. They definitely use it to their advantage, especially Dohyon. Don't be fooled by him, he's got it all figured it out."
Hangyul laughs too and turns to the kids who have finally decided on which ones they want to do. He goes through the process of writing their names on the bear's tags and asking them what they want to name their bears and writing it on the tag too. (The kids come up with the usual names of Brownie and Snowball, but Eunsang says he wants to name his bear "Gertrude" and Hangyul can't hold back his laughter this time.)
He has the kids play a scavenger hunt while he stuffs the animals. They go and find different items through the store, and whoever finds it first got to step on the pedal and fill their bear up next. After all of the animals were filled up, they play another few rounds as they all seemed to be having the time of their lives. Hangyul watches fondly as Yohan leans down to help Hyeongjun find a flower headband before the others can find it. "Stop being so obvious," Eunbi hisses from the other side of the stuffer.
He whips his head to her, "What?" He hisses back, and she shakes her head.
"You're staring at that daycare guy like he just put the stars in the sky, it's weird."
He wishes he could flip her off, but settles for sticking his tongue out at her childishly. "Stop bothering me, I'm busy." He says, turning back to Hyeongjun who's holding out a flower headband to him proudly.
She laughs a little too loud, and Hangyul wants to scream. "Alright!" He says when all the kids are back around the stuffer.
"We have one more thing to do before we can sew all of our friends up and go and give them their air baths." He directs them to pick out a fabric heart from the heart bin.
He turns to Yohan and Wooseok, "Do you guys want to grab hearts too? Normally the kids are better at following along if someone they trust does it too." He doesn't normally do this, but he may selfishly want to see Yohan do the heart ceremony.
They oblige easily, and Hangyul grins. He turns back to the group of kids who are now holding little fabric hearts expectantly. "Okay, first we have to warm up the hearts so they're warm with love." The kids follow along in rubbing their hearts between their hands, "Now... tap them to get their heartbeats started!"
He glances over at Wooseok and Yohan who are following along just like the kids were and smiles to himself. "Good job! Now, take your hearts and rub them on your hearts so they have lots of love! How about on your cheeks so that they always smile with you?" He looks at Yohan again, and he can tell Yohan's trying not to show how awkward he feels doing it.
"Alriiight," Hangyul says dramatically, "Now, we have to jump up and down so that your friends have a ton of energy!"
Bright giggles fill the room, and Hangyul grins when he realizes that some of the giggles are coming from Yohan, too. He's bouncing next to Dongpyo, who's looking like this is the best thing that's ever happened in his little six-year-old life. Hangyul will deny it vehemently, but he feels himself fall a little more at the lanky boy jumping up and down in the middle of build a bear. "Now, spin a circle so they're super silly! And rub your hearts on your knees so your friend will run and play with you. Hmmm..." He pauses dramatically, "Let's rub them on our foreheads so our friends get super-smart like you guys! And on your noses for good luck! Now, this is the most important part, okay?" He leans forward, and the kids all stare at him with the utmost of attention.
"Take your heart, squeeze it suuuuper tight, and make a super big wish!" Hangyul waits a few moments for them to look at him expectantly again. He looks at Yohan, who, instead of making a wish, is staring right back at him.
He quickly averts his attention, trying to force a blush down because he is not going to blush doing the heart ceremony with a bunch of six-year-olds. "Okay, finally, take your hearts and give them a kiss so your wish comes true!"
Obnoxious kissing noises fill the room, and Hangyul can't help but grin. The kids all looked like they were having the time of their life, and this was what Hangyul loved about his job. Giving kids this type of experience was priceless.
He has them put their hearts inside the bears and goes about taking the pre-laced strings and pulling them through so that the seam closes. He ties knots with the string and cuts it off so only a tiny bit of the string is showing, and hands the bears to the kids.
The rest of the party goes more than smoothly. The kids give their bears air baths, choose out t-shirts fairly quickly and easily, and they're able to put them in the bear's houses with their birth certificates without any problems.
They do the bear promise and Hangyul lets all of the kids ring the bell on the wall, which is usually reserved for birthdays. While Wooseok pays with the money the parents had chipped in to use for the party, Hangyul takes a moment to talk to the kids who had gotten more and more comfortable with him throughout the party.
"I'm gonna go home, and--and--and tell my mom we have to come back!" Junho tells him, bouncing on his feet.
Hangyul nods, "Your bear is going to need new clothes when winter comes, huh?"
All of the kids agree and start telling him about all of the clothes that their bear was going to need when it got cold outside. He glances up and almost falls over with how intensely fond Yohan is staring at him. He doesn't have a chance to dwell on it as Wooseok finishes paying and gathers the kids together. "Tell Hangyul thank you!"
Hangyul waves at them as they leave the store, but turns around and misses the way that Yohan glances back to look at him. He spends the rest of his shift not pouting at the fact that he didn't get much chance to talk to him or get his number.
Ah, well, he thinks to himself, what's new?
That night, he was laying on his back on his bed, Seungyoun sitting next to him, listening as he retells the story of how he met his soulmate.
"You... you fell in love with a boy who works at a daycare that came in for a party, and didn't get his phone number?" Seungyoun asks, clearly not amused, "Or any information about him to find him?"
Hangyul grabs a pillow and screams melodramatically into it, "Why'd you have to repeat it?"
Seungyoun laughs loudly, "You're so dumb, Hangyul! This is so sad,"
Hangyul reaches out in the general area he thinks Seungyoun is at on his bed and tries to slap him. He hits part of Seungyoun's knee, and Seungyoun squawks, "Hey! Don't hit me!" He catches his breath, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but this is such a Hangyul thing to do."
Hangyul rolls over so he's on his side facing him, pouting. "Don't make fun of me, I'm dealing with heartbreak."
Seungyoun rolls his eyes, "Poor Hangyul," He says, patting his head, "Whatever will you do?"
"Die alone I guess," Hangyul offers, shrugging.
Seungyoun laughs even louder at that, and Hangyul tries to forget Yohan and his dumb smile and laugh.
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A few days later, Hangyul is at the front counter at work looking through the new floor plan set and writing a list of which animals he needed to stuff for new displays. The store had been dead all morning (it was nearing 2 PM and they had hardly broken $100 in sales.), so Hangyul was hyper-focused on what he was doing. He didn't realize someone had walked up to him until they had cleared their throat.
He jumps, as he looks up, and then is left speechless. Standing in front of him was no other than Yohan. Yohan smiles sheepishly at him, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!"
Hangyul composes himself as quickly as he can, "Oh, no, it's okay! I didn't see you come in! Is there anything I can help you with today?"
Yohan rubs the back of his neck, not making eye contact. He laughs a little breathlessly, and Hangyul tilts his head as the silence stretches a little too long to not feel awkward. "Sorry, I'm just--" Yohan cuts himself off and takes a deep breath, "I just... I think you--I--"
Hangyul grins at him, "Are you okay?" He asks and Yohan blushes.
"I'm fine!" He says quickly, shifting his weight on his feet, "I just. I think you're really--" He cuts himself off again.
Hangyul decides to take a chance here (if he was wrong, he could just quit his job and move to Alaska.), "Yohan." He says, and Yohan stops, and looks up, "I think you're really cute, can I have your number?"
Yohan blushes a brighter pink but grins. "I--yeah. That's what I was going to ask."
Hangyul scribbles his number down on the back of some receipt paper as he wasn't supposed to have his phone on him when he was on the floor. Yohan does the same, and he pockets it, smiling at him. "Finally!" Someone calls from the back of the store, and Hangyul jumps, looking over.
Seungwoo's standing in the doorway with it propped open, Yohan blushes again. "That was painful to watch, oh my God." He shakes his head, laughing.
Hangyul glares at him, "You're one to talk!" He calls back, "You've been crushing on Seungyoun since the first day I brought him in!"
Yohan is confused but doesn't say anything as Seungwoo yells at him to go back to work and goes into the back room again. "Don't mind him," Hangyul says, "I'm off in thirty minutes, if you want to stick around we can go get coffee when I'm off?"
Yohan puts his hands in the pocket of his jacket, rocking back and forth on his feet, and smiles, "I'd like that."
"It's a date," Hangyul responds and winks at him.