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Returning home to a pitch black apartment never really gets easier with time. It isn’t like Chan is expecting anything to be different when he gets home a little before two in the morning after a particularly long session at the studio for the fourth time this week, but it would still be nice not coming back to darkness every night.
With a sigh, Chan kicks his shoes off and shuffles to his bedroom. Normally, he would at least attempt to get a snack before collapsing face first into bed, but Felix had stopped by earlier and all but forced him, Jisung, and Changbin to eat something. And even though that was more than four hours ago - which feels like a lifetime ago for Chan and his stomach - Chan really can’t be bothered to eat right now when his brain is screaming at him to get some rest. And that’s saying something considering his friends never stop teasing him about how much he eats on a daily basis when he actually allows himself a break. But Chan swears that his eye bags have bags and he can practically feel the way his legs are about to give out from under him, so he heads to his bedroom without letting his thoughts linger on food.
Placing his bag on the floor, Chan tugs his shirt off and flops onto his bed, sighing at the comforting feeling of the blanket his mom bought him for Christmas last year under his skin. There’s nothing that Chan loves more than making music, but there’s no doubt that what Chan loves just as much is sleeping. Snuggling further into his blanket, Chan empties his mind and tries to sleep.
And tries.
And tries.
And tries.
Chan is, unfortunately, a little too familiar with this same old song and dance, a sigh falling from his lips when he squints towards his nightstand and sees 3:47 glaring back at him in red. With another sigh, Chan pushes the blankets he pulled over himself sometime over the last two hours off, knowing that it’s useless trying to sleep at this point. It’s unfortunate, really, that his body likes to betray him like this almost every night. He’s good to his body – he eats relatively healthy meals when he can and he works out every day, yet his body has the audacity to return the favor by keeping him wide awake at night without mercy.
Having resigned himself to the fact that it’s going to be another sleepless night, Chan reaches for his phone and opens up the internet app to find something to entertain himself with. When he opens his browser, though, he’s met with an unfamiliar web page. Insomnia Cafe it reads in soft blue font against a grey background. Squinting at his phone, Chan tries to wrack his brain for any recollection of why he would have looked something like this up in the first place. There’s mostly just white noise in his head right now, but throughout the fog of sleep deprivation, Chan vaguely remembers Changbin telling him about a new cafe that just opened up down the street from his apartment where people with insomnia could hang around for a few hours and hopefully get some sleep. Changbin can be a little shit sometimes, but there’s no doubt he’s always looking out for his friends in some way.
Looking up the directions tells Chan that the cafe is literally down the street, so with nothing else to do, he shrugs on a new shirt and a black sweater, grabs his bag, and heads out.
The cold is as unforgiving as it always is at four in the morning, but Chan is used to it by now. Unsurprisingly, nothing is open at this time, but that just makes it all the easier to find the cafe, a small smile finding its way to Chan’s face when he walks up to the cafe. Right in the middle of the wooden door is a picture of a cartoon golden retriever puppy curled up with a blanket, a little snore bubble near its nose as it sleeps away under the moon and stars. It’s cute, far too cute for Chan’s heart to handle this early in the morning.
Chan doesn’t really know what he’s expecting when he opens the door – his quick two-minute peruse around the website wasn’t the most helpful – but if he were to imagine what a cafe for insomniacs would be like, this would be pretty close. With a large open floor plan, the interior is warm, from the soft colors that are on the walls and the furniture, to the warmth of the room itself, Chan sighing happily when he starts to gain feeling in his fingers again. There’s a section to the left with various chairs and tables, board games and books neatly arranged in the bookshelves adorning the walls. Straight ahead, Chan can see a hallway that splits into two sections, and to the right there’s a long counter with a cashier area and a display case, a second counter behind the first with various machines and coffee makers lined up.
Chan probably shouldn’t be surprised to find that there are a few people scattered around reading books, but even after fighting with insomnia for years, it’s still somewhat odd to know that there are other people out there that struggle with it, too. But then again, there’s a reason someone made this cafe, and it’s clearly popular enough for Changbin to know about it in some way or another (because Chan is a workaholic, but he at least finds some time to keep up with the trends. Changbin couldn’t be bothered to check social media for his life).
Movement out of the corner of Chan’s eye catches his attention, gaze drawn to a boy who has just stepped out from one of the doors behind the cashier area. Chan can’t see much of his face from this far away, but what Chan does notice is the cute light blue beret he has on, a tuft of chestnut brown hair peeking out from below the fabric.
Chan doesn’t know if it’s the sleep deprivation talking or if he’s just weak for cute boys, but even from this distance, Chan just knows that this boy is going to be devastatingly good-looking. And while Chan has admittedly never been the most smooth person in front of cute boys, he’s already here and willing to give the cafe a try, so he’s praying that he doesn’t embarrass himself too much.
The closer Chan gets to the counter, the more he realizes just how right he had been – this guy is attractive, with a button nose and cute cheeks that make the sharp curve of his eyes soften out into something more gentle, Chan feels like his breath has been stolen. He’s humming softly under his breath as he cleans the back counter, and to Chan’s trained ear, he can tell right away that this boy is an excellent singer. And when he turns around and towards Chan, he just knows that the sudden warmth he feels is his face and ears heating up. Chan has always found Jisung’s eyes really pretty and expressive, something he always likes to tell Jisung despite the fact that his ego doesn’t need more stroking, but Chan feels like he’s caught adrift in the ocean of this boy’s gaze. Chan knows nothing about this boy – he doesn’t even know his name at this point – but he would be willing to bet more than half of his royalty payments that he’s never going to be able to find a boy prettier than the one in front of him right now. All he feels is comfort, from the warmth in the boy’s gaze, to the way he full-out beams once he notices Chan awkwardly hovering a few feet away.
“Hello,” the boy says and woah Chan has never heard a voice quite like that before. There’s a slight nasal quality hidden under his otherwise soft tone and all of a sudden, Chan wants to get this boy in a recording studio right away. Shivers run down Chan’s spine at just the thought of what a voice like his could add to some of his tracks.
“H-hi,” Chan stutters out, cursing under his breath at his inability to function. But really, it isn’t his fault that he’s a hot mess, anyone with a working pair of eyes would be a hot mess in front of a guy like this.
“Welcome to Insomnia Cafe, please take a second to read our rules before ordering.” The boy smiles again and points down towards the counter where there’s a neatly written list of rules adorned with the same cartoon puppy that’s on the door. Chan has to avert his eyes not only to read the rules, but also in fear that he might go blind from the beauty of this boy’s smile. Maybe he can write a song about soft smiles and warm atmospheres, but that song would never see the light of day. Changbin and Jisung would never let him hear the end of it if it did.
The rules are pretty simple, with the main point being that customers can choose to order a drink or a pastry if they want, but regardless if they do or don’t, there are hourly increments for payment. Chan doesn’t really think he’s going to be here for more than an hour, because while he’s willing to try the cafe out, he’s not banking on the fact that he’s going to actually be able to sleep. If anything, he’ll tell Changbin that he tried it and the most he got out of it was meeting a cute boy.
Most of the other rules are to be as quiet as possible to avoid waking up those who have managed to fall asleep, to clean up if you spill something, and other simple rules that Chan doesn’t think he’ll have a problem following.
Chan looks up and smiles. “It sounds good to me.”
At that, the boy’s smile widens, the happiness in his eyes increasing tenfold. “Great, then is there anything that I can get you?”
Honestly, Chan really can’t piece a coherent thought together in the face of a smile like this. It’s not fair, that this guy can be so handsome, yet so cute when he smiles, like his smile alone powers all of the lights in the room.
It’s only then that Chan realizes he has been asked a question, mentally scrambling to think of a drink that they might serve here. Fuck, he should’ve paid more attention to the menu or the display case, but sue him for being pre-occupied.
“Um, a white hot chocolate?”
It’s only after he blurts it out that Chan realizes most places he has been to either don’t serve white hot chocolate or do serve it, but it tastes like cardboard. Before he has time to take it back and ask for just a regular hot chocolate, the guy simply nods and punches the order into the tablet in front of him. Something shiny catches the light as he moves, Chan’s eyes drawn to the nametag neatly sitting on the boy’s shirt. Seungmin it reads, with a small puppy emoji at the end that Chan absolutely melts at. Chan has always had an affinity for stuffed animals, with puppies and dogs being two of his favorites, so it’s almost like destiny that this place would be decorated with a puppy theme.
It’s embarrassing how Chan almost giggles when their hands brush as he hands over the cash to pay for the drink and the hour, but luckily he manages to keep it in. Chan is sure Seungmin already thinks that he’s a mess from how often he must have spaced out thinking about his smile (not that Seungmin is ever going to know that piece of information), he really doesn’t need to make it worse by giggling at pretty much nothing.
“Um,” Chan stutters out right as Seungmin starts to turn to make his drink. Seungmin pauses, tilting his head to the side in such a way that causes his hair to fall into his eyes. Seungmin brushes his bangs out of his eyes with a small huff and a little pout that Chan finds incredibly adorable. God, he’s so doomed.
“My name is Chan,” he blurts out, ears heating up from the hot flush of embarrassment that runs through him. Stupid, he thinks. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Except Seungmin only laughs softly. “Nice to meet you, Chan.” Chan absolutely does not sigh happily hearing his name coming out of Seungmin’s mouth, absolutely not. “My name is Seungmin.”
“Nice to meet you Seungmin, I’m Chan.”
It only takes a few seconds for Chan to realize that he just introduced himself twice in the span of a minute, slapping a hand over his face as his ears heat up even more. The only thing that gets him to peek out from behind his fingers is the sound of Seungmin’s laughter, probably far too loud for the space they’re in, but Chan decides that he cares far more about hearing Seungmin’s boisterous laughter than anything else in this moment. There’s a twinkle to Seungmin’s eyes as he laughs, and while Chan sometimes feels like people are laughing at him and not with him, he’s absolutely sure that Seungmin doesn’t have malicious intent with his laughter. Chan doesn’t know how or why he’s sure about it considering they just met literally less than ten minutes ago, but Chan likes to think that he’s pretty good at reading people. Seungmin seems like the kind of guy who would give someone the sweater off of his own back if he saw that they were cold, another thing that Chan is absolutely sure about because he’s the same kind of person and he knows himself better than he knows anyone.
When Seungmin smiles this time, Chan catches a glimpse of his front teeth and how they’re a tad bit bigger than the rest of his teeth and stick out slightly, but it only adds to his charm. He itches to tell Seungmin just how cute his teeth are, but they’ve just met and while Jisung and Changbin are used to the way he will randomly shower them in compliments, Chan knows it would be a little weird to say that to Seungmin now.
“Nice to meet you,” Seungmin says, and Chan feels his heart melt. It’s definitely too early in the morning to be meeting a real-life angel, but there’s nothing Chan can do about it now. And if Chan lives by anything, it’s that things always work out the way they do for a reason. So if the universe has decided to put the prettiest boy Chan has ever seen into his life, who is he to argue?
Chan finally lets Seungmin do his actual job after that, humming to himself as he wanders off towards the couch and pulls his cell phone out, the low buzz from the coffee machines lulling him into a sense of security.
He blames his sleep deprivation entirely for the text message he sends to his group chat with Changbin and Jisung, but with the way that Seungmin smiles at him as he sets down his white hot chocolate, Chan can’t find it in himself to be too concerned about anything other than this moment right here and now.
I think I’ve just met an angel.