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Seungkwan was having perhaps the best day of his life, at the very least the best day in recent memory. Upon waking, he'd done his morning workout, then meditated at the top of Mount Everest - using his VR headset, of course. After meditating, he'd noticed the Google Earth color tour and turned it on for the first time. He'd been stunned at the beauty of several of the sights, but he'd actually cried at the end of the three minute virtual video, when it closed with a view of the sun setting behind the earth, as seen from space. He'd literally teared up at the sheer beauty of the view, at the amazement that he was able to witness the glory of such an exquisite moment in time.
From there, as impossible as it seemed, his day only got better. His best friend, Seokmin, on Spring Break from school where he's training to be an esthetician, called him up and asked if he'd let him test his new silicone massage cups and hot stones.
"Hell yeah!" had been his answer, both internal and aloud.
Lying on Seokmin's massage table, he'd drifted into unconsciousness at least four separate times from utter and complete relaxation. He would have been hard pressed to choose if he'd been asked which of his hyung's new facial toys were his favorite. The heat and weight of the stones sliding across his face in a smooth massage was absolute bliss, but the slight pull of suction from the silicone cups gliding across areas that always felt puffy, somehow seeming to alleviate that puffiness felt almost as relaxing and simultaneously more rewarding.
He'd felt like he was walking on clouds as he left Seokmin's house. He'd stared into the void of space, crested the world's highest mountain, released every bit of stress from his body, and had gorgeous glowing skin. And it wasn't even noon. He had the rest of the day to look forward to.
He walked with an unintentional skip in his step, a huge smile on his face, wondering what else was going to make today wonderful. Because he was absolutely certain that the stars were in alignment to provide the world's most perfect day, and he was fully prepared to help it along by seeking out experiences to make it happen. The universe didn't have to do all of the work. He was a firm believer in seizing the day, in making the mood you want to have, and in going after what you want.
And today, all he wanted was to continue to have new experiences that kept him in this pocket of happiness.
Up ahead, he saw a fellow cross the street at something between a run and a brisk walk, dodging between moving cars in his rush. As he leapt up onto the curb in his stride, the bump of his hoodie against his thighs dislodged his wallet, and it tumbled to a stop just a few steps in front of Seungkwan.
"Hey! Mister!" Seungkwan tried to get his attention, but the guy was rushing too fast to notice. "Ahhh, gajima!" Seungkwan could feel the pout forming on his face as he stomped one foot on the sidewalk in a miniature fit over the realization that his stress-free perfect day was over. Because there was no other choice for him but to scoop up the guy's wallet and follow after him.
He chased him for several blocks, barely keeping him in his sight. Even though the guy wasn't full-on running, he'd had quite a lead before Seungkwan had started to follow, so Seungkwan had been running. Eventually, he started to catch up, but didn't have the breath to try calling out again. Finally, thankfully, the guy stopped at the door to an apartment, and fumbled with getting his keys into the lock just long enough for Seungkwan to catch up to him.
He pulled to a stop next to the guy, then bent over with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath from the test of his endurance. Obviously his morning workout wasn't sufficiently preparing him for prolonged cardio. He made a mental note to step it up a notch before finally pulling himself up to talk to the guy who'd interrupted his blissful day with his carelessness.
Seungkwan could feel that his pout was now in full force as he began to berate the guy in front of him. "How could someone be so careless! You made me chase you through the whole city, ruined my facial, brought back all of the stress that I'd so carefully banished… and for what? What was so important that you had to be in such a hurry and bring an abrupt end to my perfect day?" He accentuated his points by pointing his index finger into the guy's chest when he suddenly realized what a well-built chest it was, and that the face it was attached to was even better. Though, he also noticed that the guy wasn't even Korean, and as he saw the look of utter confusion on the other's face, it occurred to him that he might not even understand a word Seungkwan had said to him.
Which, in hindsight, might have been for the best. Who does this? Runs after a complete stranger and then yells at him? Apparently Seungkwan does, that's who.
But the guy interrupted his internal chastising by finally speaking. "I'm…sorry?"
He said it in Korean, so at least he spoke some of the language, but the uncertainty with which he said it gave Seungkwan even more reason to wonder how well he understood the verbal lashing he'd just received.
"Umm, no, I'm sorry. So very sorry to have bothered you." Seungkwan bowed to the guy several times, to reinforce his apology, while backing away, ready to bolt in embarrassment.
"Wait." He held up a hand, as if to catch Seungkwan by the wrist to keep him from leaving, but didn't actually touch. "How did I ruin your day? I've never even seen you before. Did I bump into you when I was running just now? I'm sorry...for whatever I did."
And now, it was Seungkwan's turn to be confused, for several reasons. First, because this guy spoke perfect Korean, without even the slightest accent. Second, because although he looked like someone who was much too cool to be kind and earnest, he actually seemed… kind and earnest. And third, because it was pretty obvious how he'd ruined Seungkwan's day, making him chase after him to return his...oh…right. He smacked his hand on his forehead lightly, "I almost forgot. The whole reason I chased after you in the first place. Here." He held out the wallet that had been tightly clutched in his fist. "You dropped it several blocks back. When you crossed the street."
"Oh my God! Thank you so much!"
If Seungkwan had thought he was earnest before, his reaction to taking the wallet was twenty times more so. The smile that split his face was somehow too big, too wide for his face, showing too much teeth and gums, and, looking only at the smile, Seungkwan expected it to reduce his handsomeness. However once again, he managed to dash Seungkwan's expectations. That high wattage smile just thrust him over the top into a category that until that moment had only been populated by the idols whose posters adorned the walls of his bedroom: Jeon Jungkook, Ren Minki, and Hwang Hyunjin to name the most prominent.
"You have to let me thank you! Oh my God!!" The guy rifled through his wallet, apparently checking to see if anything was missing, and Seungkwan couldn't help noticing that it was absolutely packed with bills. "I would have been completely doomed if I'd lost this! Let me take you out to lunch to thank you! Not everyone would have been so honest, or so kind as to follow me home to give my wallet back."
"Yeah, ok." Seungkwan found himself accepting the offer before really thinking it through, then he backpedaled slightly. "Wait. I...umm...I don't even know your name. And weren't you just in some huge hurry?"
The guy held out a hand, in introduction, "Chwe Hansol, but my friends call me Vernon."
Seungkwan took his hand, trying not to notice the nervous excitement bubbling in his stomach and hoping that the recent exercise hadn't done too much damage to his hair, clothes, or skin. "Boo Seungkwan."
"Boo. I like that." He turned the doorknob and then gestured for Seungkwan to go inside. "I actually do have something that I was hurrying home for. Do you want to wait inside? It'll only take a few minutes."
Seungkwan hesitated. It would be the epitome of stupid to just walk into a stranger's house, wouldn't it? But, he reminded himself, today was the day that the stars aligned to be his perfect day. And he'd promised himself that he wouldn't make the universe do all of the work. So he came up with a compromise. "I'll be in in a sec." He pulled out his phone and held it up slightly in explanation.
Still smiling, though at a slightly lower wattage now, Hansol nodded and walked inside, leaving the door slightly ajar for Seungkwan to come inside when he was finished.
He texted Seokmin a quick message. Just chased down a stranger who'd dropped his wallet, only to discover that he's absolutely gorgeous. He invited me to lunch, but first we're going into his apartment for him to take care of something. I'll drop a pin for his address.
His hyung's reply was almost instantaneous. Send a photo of the guy, you doofus. And his name. Actually, ask for his ID and send a pic of that.
Oh my God, I'm not doing that! You're so cringy! But his suggestion had made Seungkwan laugh, which was likely his goal, knowing Seokmin, so after dropping a pin for the address, Seungkwan replied with a cringy text of his own. If you don't hear from me in thirty minutes, I'm either in Heaven or I'm dead.
Silently chuckling, he pocketed his phone, ignored the vibration of another reply, and pushed the door open to step inside. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about Hansol's apartment, but for some reason, Seungkwan couldn't make himself shut the door behind him or go further inside than the entry. He could hear Hansol talking from another room, but couldn't understand more than a few English words here and there.
He felt awkward and considered leaving, but reminded himself, more than once, that he was seizing the day. Hansol was friendly - and gorgeous - and if he wanted to take Seungkwan out for lunch - even if only platonically - it would absolutely continue the high trend of his day.
So after a quick pep talk, he pushed the door shut, slipped his shoes off into a pile at the door, and wandered further into the room to see what he could learn about Hansol. Almost immediately, Hansol's high end virtual reality rig caught his eye. Seungkwan was excited to discover that they had something in common, a topic that he could bring up at lunch to keep the conversation interesting. And, if he was being honest, he was kind of drooling over the idea of playing on that rig. He had a fairly inexpensive VR setup, whereas Hansol's was top of the line, and connected to a gaming computer that looked equally expensive. The picture would be phenomenal on it.
The other must have heard the click of the door, because he paced to the edge of the living room and held up his finger, signaling that he'd be done in just a minute. He held Seungkwan's gaze, while the person on the other end of the phone presumably kept the conversation rolling, and that, plus the return of his thousand-watt smile, did more to convince Seungkwan to stay than all of the pep talks in the world. Hansol finally broke their eye contact when he started talking again, still in English, and turned to pace back out of the room.
Seungkwan found himself fussing with his hair, trying to ensure that his cranberry-colored locks were falling neatly across his forehead after his run, and forced himself to stop fidgeting by pulling out his phone again.
Seokmin's reply made him laugh, as usual. Boo Seungkwan! You'd better not be either of those! No matter how good looking this guy is! You're not that kind of boy!
That was followed by another three missed messages, in quick succession.
Photo?
Name?
Text back! You're starting to worry me!
Seungkwan figured he'd better follow up before Seokmin called the police. He snapped a quick photo of a framed print of Hansol with a blue-haired boy, arms draped loosely over each other's shoulders, looking at each other and laughing rather than at the camera. A friendly comfort was palpable between the two.
His name is Chwe Hansol. He's the one on the left.
Yeah, he's pretty cute. Is that his boyfriend?
Seungkwan wanted to deny it. They'd just had a moment, hadn't they? All of that eye contact meant something, didn't it? But another glance at the photo made him uncertain. While he hesitated, he heard Hansol's side of the phone call, one of the few English phrases that he knew without any uncertainty.
"I love you."
With the word boyfriend still pinging around in his head, there wasn't a chance that Seungkwan would have misunderstood that phrase, even with his limited knowledge of English. He pocketed his phone, turning back toward the door to leave. There was no way that he was going to have lunch, platonically or not, with someone else's boyfriend. Someone whose boyfriend said he loved him, but then took other boys out to lunch.
He felt his lips turning down into a pout and wished, not for the first time, that he was better at hiding his emotions. He had just started slipping his feet back into his shoes when Hansol returned. Seungkwan couldn't help turning his frown on his companion. It wasn't right to toy with other people's emotions like that, and he was tempted to give Hansol a stern talking to.
"Everything alright? You're not leaving, are you? What about lunch?"
Luckily, Seungkwan managed to rein in his temptation to lash out. Barely. Because, he reminded himself, the offer of lunch had only been to thank him. He was the one who had mentally turned it into something more. Even so, he knew that he couldn't just have a platonic lunch without crushing even harder on Hansol. "I'm not really hungry anymore. Thanks anyway." With one last forlorn look at the VR headset that he'd never get to play and then another long look at the handsome man in front of him, he turned to leave.
Hansol's gaze followed his, and apparently read it correctly. "Don't go, Seungkwan. If you aren't hungry right now, maybe I could show you my VR headset. Do you like music?" Seungkwan ignored the way his pulse quickened at the sound of Hansol saying his name for the first time and merely nodded in response. "I could teach you to play Beat Saber, if you'd like. And then, if we're hungry later, we could get delivery."
"Yeah. Ok." This felt less like a date, so he was hopeful that he wouldn't end up regretting it. And he didn't bother to correct Hansol's assumption that he needed to be taught how to play Beat Saber.
After Hansol turned on his system, he assisted Seungkwan with putting on the visor and hand controls. Once again, Seungkwan failed to mention that he was a pro at these things, guiltily enjoying the accidental touches that wouldn't have happened if Hansol knew Seungkwan used VR every day.
As he navigated to the game selection and then waited for it to load, he didn't second guess his sudden idea to challenge Hansol to a Beat Saber duel. "My hyung Jeonghan likes to turn everything into a competition. Maybe we should set a prize for whoever gets the best score?"
Hansol hesitated, then said, "That doesn't seem very fair, since you're new to the game. But I guess if the prize is something small it wouldn't hurt. We'd each have to play the same level to compare the scores."
"How about answers? Whoever wins each song gets to ask a question and the other has to answer it, so we can get to know each other." Seungkwan knew this was a bad idea, because just from the little he had seen of Hansol's personality so far, he was pretty sure every additional fact would just further cement his fate. But, he couldn't help wanting to know more anyway.
"Sounds fair." Seungkwan could hear the question in Hansol's voice, but also the shrug of conceding to his challenge. He smiled under the visor and clicked "Solo" then started to browse the selection of custom songs on Hansol's PC, pleased to see that he had a lot to choose from. Feeling magnanimous, and wanting to give the other a fighting chance at competing against him, he scrolled to Hansol's "Favorites" playlist, figuring he should start with something they both knew. He was thrilled to find Nu'EST's Face, a map that had recently come out that he adored. He wondered what might be going through Hansol's mind when he chose Expert Plus - he probably assumed Seungkwan made a mistake and would fail immediately.
As the song began, Seungkwan spread his feet to hip width, bounced a couple of times on the balls of his feet, and adjusted his grip on the controllers. Then, in time with the song's beginning, he exploded into motion, dancing to the beat with the sabers and slicing blocks all over the screen. As the song continued, he forgot about the boy he was trying to impress and fell into the habit of singing Baekho's parts at the top of his lungs. He wasn't concerned so much with hitting every block as just having fun with one of his favorite songs. When the song ended, he jolted back to reality and felt his cheeks heating with embarrassment, though he knew he had done a fabulous job of both the singing and the game.
Before he even pulled the visor off, Hansol's amused chuckle reached his ears. "I'm gunna go out on a limb here and guess that this wasn't your first time playing Beat Saber. Or…you're the fastest learner ever."
Seungkwan expected to feel like he'd impressed Hansol, but instead he sort of felt like he'd been misleading him, so his reply came out a bit more petulant and defensive than he'd intended, "Well, you never asked." As he flopped onto the couch next to Hansol, he managed to pull back on the snark for the rest of his sentence, so it instead sounded more sassy. "I just didn't correct your assumption."
"Fair point."
After a moment's pause, with more of that intense eye contact that felt very meaningful to Seungkwan, he said, "Hey, we don't have to compete. I didn't intend to…"
Hansol cut him off mid sentence. "Naw, it's cool. I'm just pretty sure I can't possibly beat that score on Face, but I'm always into a challenge. Whaddya say if I can match your letter score, then we both get to ask a question?"
Seungkwan gnawed on the corner of his lip as he considered. When he noticed that the other's gaze was riveted to his mouth, following the motion, he gulped down his interest and turned his attention back to the TV. Without really giving it any more thought, he found himself agreeing to the modified challenge.
And with that, Hansol stood, took the visor and controllers, and started his turn.
He didn't sing along. He didn't dance. He got seriously intense, and tried his best to match Seungkwan's score. He actually came really close. When he finished the song, he pulled the visor up to rest on top of his head, and simultaneously shed his intensity in favor of what seemed to be his usual carefree attitude.
"You win the first round. You get to ask a question." He perched on the arm of the couch, facing Seungkwan, awaiting his question casually.
Seungkwan was impressed by the other's easy acceptance of his loss. He hated losing, and usually found it difficult to admit defeat without attempting to make an excuse. He really wanted to ask about the phone call, or Hansol's relationship status, but that felt much too invasive and forward for a first question. Especially since he'd kind of tricked Hansol into this. He came up with a compromise that might even get those answers without him having to be so obvious. "What were you rushing home for earlier?"
He wouldn't have thought it possible, but Hansol's smile actually got even bigger in response to his question. "Ahhh, I had amazing news that I wanted to share: I just sold my first song."
Seungkwan's instinctive reaction would typically be to throw his arms around any friend announcing such news in a congratulatory hug, but he held himself back. Hansol wasn't actually a friend yet, even though it already felt like he was because they were so comfortable with one another. He kept his hands in his lap through sheer willpower and instead gave a heartfelt, "That's wonderful! Congratulations Hansol! What type of song? Who did you sell it to?" He found himself more interested in Hansol's news than in their game, and realized that he'd just checked off several significant boxes on the nonexistent list of attributes that his dream boyfriend would have: musically inclined, creative, successful.
But Hansol wagged his finger at him, replying, "Nope. Only one question per song, and now it's my turn to choose." He stood up, pulling the visor back into place and selected Ugh! by BTS. Seungkwan liked the song, but it wasn't one that he had played before because he always tended towards songs that he could belt out the lyrics. Ninety percent of the reason he played this game was that it gave him an outlet for his incessant desire to sing.
Hansol, on the other hand, was clearly in his element now. On Expert+, the song was extremely difficult, but in contrast to his wooden intensity on the previous song, Hansol was now loose and natural. He rapped every word perfectly along with the famous group, his inflection and enunciation precise, even while he sliced blocks with the sabers at a frantic pace and bobbed to the beat like a professional rapper. Seungkwan was entranced. The VR visor ensured that he wouldn't be caught staring, so he didn't bother to fight the trance, instead just feasting his eyes on the view. When he finished with a flourish, Seungkwan found himself clapping for the performance, certain that he couldn't beat it but not caring one bit.
"Your turn for a question."
Hansol raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. "You aren't even going to try?"
"There's no point. I can't beat that score."
Hansol set the VR gear on the couch between them, shrugging. "Yeah, ok, it's your game. If you don't want to play by the rules, whatever."
"Pffft! Fine! You just want to watch me fail!" He knew his signature pout was starting to return, so he stood to take his turn, starting with Ugh!
Hansol propped his feet on the vacated spot on the couch, leaning back to get comfortable and replied with a pointed look, "Nothing to do with whether you fail." And Seungkwan got the distinct impression that Hansol was implying that he just wanted to watch him.
With that thought in his head, plus the fact that this wasn't a song he typically played, he was flustered, worrying as much about how he looked as about hitting the blocks. He ended up failing about three fourths of the way through. Lifting the visor, he met Hansol's gaze, waiting impatiently for his question.
"How… why are you so good at Beat Saber?"
"I just failed, if you didn't notice." His response was heavy on the sass.
Hansol just smiled that Cheshire smile of his and waited for his answer.
"I play every morning for exercise…and...I guess… full disclosure...I'm a mapper and a Beat Saber Youtuber."
"Oh cool! What's your alias?"
Seungkwan just winked at him and lowered the visor. His forte was really girl group songs, but he didn't feel like that was the persona he wanted to present right now. Plus, Hansol didn't have many girl group songs anyway. He scrolled through the custom song list and settled on God's Menu by Stray Kids on Expert+, one that he'd practiced and recorded for his latest upload.
When he aced the song, only missing a single hit, he reclaimed his spot on the couch and asked if Hansol was ready to accept his modified rules.
"Getting a bit cocky, there, aren't ya Boo? Don't write me off so quickly."
Seungkwan didn't mind if he tried, because that just meant that he got to enjoy another private performance by a guy who was quickly becoming his new favorite musician. And although he didn't think Hansol could possibly beat him on God's Menu, he did manage to score an A.
"Hah!" His excited shout as he finished the song told Seungkwan that even if Hansol accepted defeat more easily than he did, he was still competitive enough to be exhilarated by a win, or in this case, a tie. "What's your beat mapper name, Seungkwan?"
But then again, the fact that he was ready with that question on the tip of his tongue made Seungkwan wonder if maybe it wasn't so much the competition that had the other exhilarated, but the prospect of getting to know each other better. And wouldn't that be nice if it were true?
"Kwanna. Tell me more about your song."
"That's not a question." He looked at Seungkwan thoughtfully. "Kwanna… that sounds familiar."
Seungkwan pondered for a moment. He didn't want to have to keep asking question after question about the song, but he really wanted to know more about it. After a moment, he smiled mischievously and asked, "What are the words and the melody of your new song, Hansol?"
But Hansol was staring at him as if he'd just discovered buried treasure. "Kwanna..." He pulled the headset back over his eyes and began scrolling through his favorites.
"Hey, you cheater! You didn't answer my question." Seungkwan reached out with his foot and kicked Hansol's ass, gently enough to not make him lose his balance, but still just hard enough to show that he meant it.
"Just a sec. I'm about to answer it, and maybe you'll find that you've even heard it before. Aha!" Hansol clicked on a song, titled Rocket, but didn't start the song right away. Instead, he pulled the visor back up and looked at Seungkwan expectantly.
Seungkwan wasn't sure what Hansol expected of him, but the tiny preview of the song that played before going back to the background game noise did sound familiar. After several awkward moments - the first awkwardness that he'd felt since Hansol convinced him to stay, if he was being honest - his eyes flitted back to the screen, where he noticed his own tag in the filename under the title.
His eyes bulged. "Oh! You're that Vernon! Oh wow!" He was totally fan-boying now! Vernon had recently gotten really popular online. "You're my friend Mingyu's favorite underground rapper!! He begged me to make that map of Rocket." Hansol's smile, which had been turned up to one thousand percent when Seungkwan admitted to knowing him, dimmed a bit when he said Mingyu had to beg him to make the map. Seungkwan tried to backpedal, "Not that he actually needed to beg me. It's an awesome song."
"Yeah, I'll believe you - and forgive you for the unintentional slight - if you can beat me on it."
Ten minutes later, when both of them had made full combo and sung every line of the song, they were flopped on the couch grinning at each other. "Ok, last question, and then I'm going to make you keep that promise to feed me." Seungkwan had one knee pulled up onto the couch so that he was facing Hansol, and flicked that foot into the other's leg to emphasize his point.
Hansol scrunched up his nose as he thought, and Seungkwan decided it might have been the cutest thing he'd ever seen in his life. Cuter than kittens or puppies or little babies singing before they can even talk. And he knew right then that it would be so easy for him to fall head over heels for the guy in front of him. And he had to know, immediately, whether he had any chance. He was just going to do it, ask point blank if the other had a boyfriend...or girlfriend…already.
But before he could ask, Hansol came up with his question. "I've been wondering since the moment you approached me…" And Seungkwan held his breath, because maybe he wouldn't even have to be the one to ask. "... How in the world did you get that perfectly circular hickey in the middle of your forehead?"
Seungkwan leapt up and ran to Hansol's bathroom to look in the mirror, and sure enough, there was a round red mark on his forehead, right where Seokmin had left the massage cup while he ran to grab some moisturizer. "Oh my God! I'm going to kill Seokmin!" He covered his forehead with one hand as he panicked about how ridiculous he looked. "No wonder he insisted on putting a bit of foundation on me before I left. I must have sweated it off when I chased after you. Don't look at me, Hansol! I have to leave now!"
He was being dramatic, he knew, but that was just how he was. And when something like this happened on the day that was supposed to be perfect, on the day that he met the most handsome (and talented and kind and wonderful and…well… possibly perfect) man he'd ever known, well, he was just going to be dramatic. There was no stopping it.
He felt hot tears filling his eyes, threatening to spill down his face any second, and tried to push past his host, hoping to get his shoes on and run away before he could embarrass himself further. But Hansol stopped him, grabbing his wrist gently and adding equally gentle words, "Wait, Seungkwan, please."
When Seungkwan stopped, body still pointed toward the door, face still averted, Hansol put his other hand on Seungkwan's shoulder and turned him so that they were eye to eye. "I'm really glad that your friend - Seokmin? - did that today."
Seungkwan scoffed and was mortified to find that the tears had finally spilled. His disgrace was now complete. The lump filling his throat wouldn't even allow him to ask why Hansol would be glad that Seungkwan looked like a clown.
But the other continued anyway. "When I first saw you, I knew you were so far out of my league that I'd never have a chance with you. You're gorgeous, kind, confident. You're in touch with your emotions. You ran several blocks just to give a stranger his lost wallet without even looking inside or expecting a reward. I asked you to lunch before I gave it much thought, but then immediately started freaking out that I'd make a fool of myself somehow. When you tried to leave, I almost let you, but every time I second guessed myself, I'd look at that circle on your forehead, that one imperfection, and think, 'No, he might be perfect for you, but he isn't exactly perfect.' And I'd keep hoping."
Amazingly, Seungkwan found that his tears had dried up, and his emotional outburst was over. He almost never managed to turn a bad mood around so quickly, and he knew he owed it all to Hansol. Even his best friends, who had known him since they were kids, didn't know how to calm him so easily. He could tell there was still a pout on his face, but it was paired with a hint of a smile now too.
"Come on, let's sit back down. You still haven't asked your last question." In tandem with his words, Hansol pulled him back to the couch. "Plus, I can't break my promise to feed you or you might kick my ass again."
And as he felt a laugh bubble out of him, Seungkwan's most burning question escaped his lips along with it. "Do you have a boyfriend? Or…girlfriend?"
"Boyfriend." Hansol answered immediately, and Seungkwan didn't know why he felt so betrayed. He'd already known. He'd heard them talking on the phone earlier and seen their cute couple photo, after all. Hansol interrupted his spiral into depression and self recrimination by continuing his answer. "I mean, I...would want...a boyfriend. Not a…you know...a girlfriend. But I'm not...I don't currently have one." His stuttering answer was accompanied by a flush of embarrassment on his cheeks that made Seungkwan want to press his lips there to see if he could feel the added warmth. He looked up through his beautiful eyelashes at Seungkwan and added, "Although, I met a guy today who I'm hoping will change that." Hansol seemed to have as many smiles as Seungkwan had pouts, and his words were accompanied by a new one that was definitely flirtatious.
Seungkwan felt like he was on a roller coaster as his mood soared up to new heights, but he did his best to keep his cool. "Ya know, you're pretty cute, but I bet your chances would be even better if you bought him dinner."
"Hmmm, sounds like a good idea. Do you have any ideas of where I could take him for our first date?"
The idea that they would actually be going on a date hit Seungkwan with a wave of emotion, simultaneously filling him with relief and joy and longing and so much more that he couldn't even name, and it was so strong that he had no idea what to do with it. So he punched Hansol on the arm and then covered his face with his hands and curled into a fetal position on his side of the couch.
"Hey! We're not even dating yet, and you're already an abusive boyfriend!"
He replied without even uncovering his face. "Well, if I am, it's your fault! You made me think you had a boyfriend all this time!"
"Pffft. I what? A boyfriend? No way! I made it very clear from the start that I was interested."
Seungkwan sat up, because although the emotions coursing through him a moment ago were unfamiliar, righteous indignation was one that he knew how to handle. "Well then why were you saying 'I love you' to someone on the phone earlier?"
"Because I do love my mom. Is that what this is about?"
Oh. That was Hansol's mom on the phone. His indignation was feeling slightly less righteous. "Um, not only that. Seokmin thought the guy in that photo with you might be your boyfriend." Seungkwan pointed at the framed photo in question.
"Seokmin thought it?" Hansol didn't even bother to look at the photo, keeping his eyes glued firmly on Seungkwan as he replied. "That's my roommate, Soonyoung. How did Seokmin even have an opinion?"
"I might have texted him a photo in case you murdered me."
"Murdered you?" Hansol's eyebrows, which Seungkwan had already noticed were very expressive, climbed up high on his forehead. His eyes were bulging slightly and his mouth was hanging open in a round 'o', painting the definition of astonishment across his face. But there was a hint of amusement that was growing stronger by the moment.
It was the amusement that Seungkwan responded to, "Hajima!" And if his voice sounded petulant, and if he slapped half-heartedly at Hansol's arm, well, he didn't like being made fun of, especially for being responsible. "I was about to walk into your apartment, knowing nothing about you. It was the sensible thing to do!"
Hansol's amusement had just grown with every word Seungkwan said, but there was a softness to it, making it much less offensive, and perhaps more… fond? "And do you know enough about me now?"
"I guess...I know more about you. But…" Seungkwan thinks of all of the questions he still wants to ask. Who was singing with him in his song? Where did he sell it? Is he about to become famous? How long has he been living with Soonyoung? Where is he from? Why does he talk to his mom in English? And he realizes that none of those questions are urgent. He knows enough about Hansol, just from this one afternoon with him, to know that he's going to enjoy learning all of those facts as they get to know one another over time. And he finds himself looking into Hansol's eyes, meeting his giant smile with one of his own, and replying, "... but yeah, I do know enough about you now."
Hansol suggests they walk to his favorite restaurant, and holds his hand on the walk, and tells him all about Jihoon, the producer who bought his song, who started a company called Seventeen, and is looking for new musicians. "You should come with me tomorrow and sing for him. Your voice is amazing."
And as he agrees to go meet Jihoon, Seungkwan sends a little prayer of thanks out to the universe for gifting him with what has definitely absolutely been the most perfect day of his life - so far.