Work Text:
“Hi, how are you?”
Even a simple greeting was enough to make Beomgyu’s heart beat erratically. This was the first time his crush would see him after all, and first impressions were important.
He fidgeted with the edge of his counterfeit apron, hanging limply off his neck because he hadn’t had time to tie it after stealing it, oh, maybe thirty seconds ago. And Beomgyu really would have been more concerned about the repercussions of that if he didn’t currently feel like his heart was about to explode.
The blond on the other side of the counter — oblivious to the havoc he was wrecking on Beomgyu — gave him a mild smile, a warm “good” before ordering in one long breath, fluid and well-worn: “Large iced caramel macchiato, please, no whipped cream.”
Was this normal? Was it healthy to feel on the verge of a heart attack just from someone’s smile?
Beomgyu ducked his head to hide his blush; But also because as a barista-imposter this was probably when he was supposed to do the tappy-tap thing on the machine to actually get the love of his life his coffee. Except he had no idea how to work this tablet.
Beomgyu stared down at the register screen blankly, having been so enamored with the blond’s smile that he temporarily lost his ability to read.
Hesitantly, he made a selection: A macchiato was a kind of espresso … right?
Beomgyu quickly glanced up again with a bright smile, willing away his nerves. This was a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity he was getting to talk to his crush — albeit one he very hastily and impulsively orchestrated — he wasn’t going to pass it up. “Our machine is running slow today, sorry. No whipped cream?”
“Yeah.” The blond gave him another small smile and Beomgyu could feel his traitorous cheeks heating up again. He could not be this easy.
“I would assume you’re not a sweets guy but you got a caramel macchiato …” Beomgyu trailed off, eyebrows quirking, hoping that would suffice as a replacement for actually finishing his sentence.
The blond had a strange look on his face, a mix of amusement and wariness, but the smile that threatened to fry Beomgyu’s brain circuits remained. “It just sits at the top and kind of goes to waste.”
Beomgyu’s eyes lit up. “Just ask for it at the bottom. It’s so good.”
“You guys do that?”
“Yeah—we do, like, whatever. Off menu stuff, too,” He rambled quickly.
“That’s never made sense to me. How do we get off menu drinks if we don’t even know what it is?”
Beomgyu wasn’t sure if he was teasing him or not, but the playful glint in the blond’s eyes was not helping with his heart palpitations. He smiled back, eager, excited, “Just ask for increasingly crazy orders until they ban you.”
“You’re setting me up, aren’t you?”
“No way!” Beomgyu placed his hand on his chest. “You can trust me; I gave you that good tip about the whipped cream.”
He received only a slight hum and another sweet smile in return. Beomgyu wanted to melt. “So, do you want to add it?”
Another sparkly-eyed look, a flash of pointy teeth: “No.”
Beomgyu laughed at the abruptness of the blond’s reply, his eyes crinkling with mirth at their shared sense of humor, though he quickly tried to school his features into a pout (“Okay, fine!”) — if the other’s widening smile was any indication, he hadn’t succeeded.
He returned his gaze back to the tablet: Macchiatos were apparently a type of espresso. Tapping on the option for size — thank god the machine was relatively straightforward after the first selection — Beomgyu glanced up again, eyelashes fluttering. “Can I get a name for your order?”
“Taehyun.”
Beomgyu had to hold his breath to stifle the excited thrill that ran through him. His crazy plan was actually working. “Okay, you can put your card in.” Beomgyu huffed out a discreet breath of relief that Taehyun wasn’t a psycho who paid with cash, because he had no idea how to open the register.
“Receipt?” Beomgyu asked, already feeling immensely proud of himself for completing this flirt-slash-sale transaction flawlessly.
“No, thanks.”
“Okay, have a good day!” If his smile was a little brighter and his voice slightly more animated than an average overworked barista’s at 7:30 a.m. on a Monday morning should be, he hoped Taehyun wouldn’t be able to figure out it was because he was madly in love with him.
“You too … ” Taehyun’s eyes flitted down briefly and for a moment Beomgyu thought he was checking him out until Taehyun seemed to find what he was looking for pinned to Beomgyu’s embezzled apron front: “Hueningkai.”
“Yeah, no problem. See you around, Taehyun!” Beomgyu internally grimaced, briefly reminded that his life span was about to drastically shorten as soon as Yeonjun finished whatever he was doing on the other side of the station and spotted him. Though even the impending threat of an early grave didn’t do much to dispel Beomgyu’s delight at finally talking to his crush.
“Kai, he’s here again,” Beomgyu whisper-screeched (a feat only he seemed capable of perfecting), smacking his hands on the faux marble countertop, leaning forward with bright eyes.
“Morning, crazy,” Hueningkai mumbled, not bothering to pause his scribbling on a plastic cup for Beomgyu’s dramatics. “Don’t talk so loudly if you don’t want everyone to know you’re absolutely insane.”
Beomgyu, as usual, ignored him. “Did you hear me? He’s here!”
“Yes, I know, I was the one who texted you!” Hueningkai exclaimed, finally glancing up. He must have spoken too loudly for Beomgyu’s taste, because the elder immediately shushed him.
Hueningkai briefly glanced at the morning crowd until his gaze landed on the boy Beomgyu had been talking about non-stop since last week; despite the long line, the blond had been easily recognizable for how many times Beomgyu compared his hair to sunlight, soft heather and, once, buttery popcorn during their weekly movie marathon.
(“I can’t believe Beomgyu ruined popcorn for me; this is the worst night of my life,” Soobin grumbled, hand digging in the trail mix as the last chords of “When Will My Life Begin” played in the background.)
“Okay, so give me your apron; time for you to take a break!”
Now, that seemed to catch Hueningkai’s attention. “No way! I’m not going to be complicit in your death.”
Beomgyu rolled his eyes. Now, who was being dramatic? “Talking to my crush is not going to kill me, Kai.”
“That’s not who I’m talking about.”
As if on cue, both of their gazes slid over to Yeonjun who was on the other side of the station, filling up an order. Yeonjun’s bullshit detector must have been set on high that day, because almost immediately he glanced over at the two, shooting them a glare. “What?”
“Nothing,” Hueningkai shrugged, far too casually to actually be believable. He shot Beomgyu a cease-and-desist look before moving behind the register again to take the next order.
Ever since the girl who used to work here quit about a month ago, Yeonjun and Hueningkai had been left on their own to fend the crowd of grumbling students every Monday morning, which made Yeonjun grumpier than normal.
Knowing when to not push his luck, and because he still felt the ghost grip on his arm from where Yeonjun had forcibly dragged him out from behind the counter last week, Beomgyu found a stool by the window to park himself at to wait for his and Hueningkai’s class.
While scrolling through his phone, Beomgyu idly wondered if he should try approaching Taehyun anyway, but decided that would be too weird. It’s not like they were friends. What if Taehyun didn’t even remember the cute, dark-haired (fake) barista from last week? Tragic, really.
As if his thoughts had summoned the blond himself, Beomgyu registered someone hovering by his left elbow. He looked up from his phone, only to immediately enter a fight or flight situation — or at least his body thought so for the amount of adrenaline it suddenly started pouring into his system.
“Hi.” The same warm smile that nearly made Beomgyu’s heart stop last week was once more threatening his life; this time the danger was far more imminent due to the morning sun illuminating Taehyun in a warm, hazy glow. “You’re not working today?”
“Uh, no, I am. I’m on a break.” Why did he say that?!
“Oh, I won’t keep you then. But I saw you here and—” Taehyun held up his drink, a large iced caramel macchiato — whipped cream on the bottom.
Beomgyu felt a wide grin split his face, “Oh my god, you got it!”
“Yeah, it’s really good.”
“You are so very welcome, Taehyun,” Beomgyu answered, widening his eyes and tilting his head, clearly wanting to pull words of praise out of the other.
Taehyun’s lips switched, smothering a grin. “Yes, thank you, Hueningkai.”
What Beomgyu would do to see Taehyun say that again with his sparkling eyes and cherry lips, but using his real name. He would even, maybe, tell the truth.
“Uh, actually, you left before I could tell you last time, but my name’s not Hueningkai.” Even before the words were fully out of his mouth, Beomgyu knew he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t. Confessing was already nerve-wracking and embarrassing enough, how was he going to live through also admitting to fake-working at a coffee shop just to talk to him? Hueningkai was right: he was going to die if someone made him reveal all that.
“Oh?”
“Uh yeah, I lost my name tag, so I borrowed my friend’s,” Beomgyu lied a bit too easily. Maybe sneaking out of church to go play DDR with Yeonjun every weekend had taught him a thing or two.
“So are you going to tell me the truth?”
Beomgyu froze, momentarily thinking the gig was up — he knows! — before realizing what Taehyun actually meant. He let out a strained chuckle. “Yeah, sorry, I’m Beomgyu, nice to meet you.” Beomgyu stuck out his hand, watching with wide eyes as Taehyun reached out to shake it, once, twice.
“Nice to meet you, Beomgyu.” This time, Taehyun smiled in full. And maybe he was just imagining it, but this one was brighter than the last.
“Your whole relationship is built on lies.”
“I wish I was in a relationship with him,” Beomgyu sighed.
“You’ve really achieved a level of desperation I didn’t think was possible,” Hueningkai joked as he caused an unnecessary commotion in the sink rinsing off a coffee pot. Beomgyu was leaning over the side of the counter, elbows up, chin in his hands as they talked.
“Does that count the time Yeonjun tried to use interpretive dance to ask Soobin out or no?”
An inhumane screech echoed from behind door that led to the kitchen, followed by the worrying sound of clanging ceramic before an annoyed Yeonjun marched out in all his pink-haired, flushed-cheeked glory, “Get the fuck out right now.”
“You can’t kick me out!” Beomgyu argued — except as the manager on duty Yeonjun probably could. “I’m here to order; you can’t be mean to a paying customer.”
“I will spit in your coffee,” Yeonjun grumbled, hands grappling in mid-air, no doubt pretending to choke the life out of Beomgyu from five feet away.
Beomgyu watched in real-time as Yeonjun’s scrunched up face instantly smoothed out into a sweet smile, and he knew that could only mean one thing: “Soobinnie!”
“Hi, guys,” Beomgyu heard the deep, mellow greeting from behind him.
He turned around, giving Yeonjun’s boyfriend a sparkling smile. “Hey, Soobinie!” Beomgyu could feel the force of Yeonjun’s glare burning through the side of his head.
“Are you getting something?”
“I was, but your boyfriend threatened to poison my drink along with bodily harm, so no thanks,” Beomgyu stuck his tongue out at the pink-haired boy before shuffling to the side.
By 9 p.m. on Friday, most of the students who had begun the week with good intentions of dutiful studying and late-night cramming had abandoned it for frat parties or one of the cheap bars that littered the outskirts of campus, meaning the coffee shop was mostly empty. There were only a few stragglers sitting at solo tables around the shop, procrastinators desperately trying to finish an assignment before it was due in three hours — like Beomgyu.
“You can’t sit in here if you don’t buy a drink. This isn’t the library,” Hueningkai pointed out, smirking as he wiped down the pot.
“Consider it payment for my free labor.”
“Taking one order and spending ten minutes flirting with a customer does not count as labor. You didn’t even make the drink!” Hueningkai turned to Yeonjun, who was busy making Soobin’s regular. “Hyung, back me up here.”
Soobin giggled from next to Beomgyu. “Why don’t you just ask him out or give him your number or something?”
“Please!” Yeonjun begged above the whir of the foam machine. They were now three weeks past when Beomgyu first masqueraded as a barista who was very bad at his job, and after he finally convinced (read: bribed and mildly threatened) Yeonjun to let him do it again this week, the elder had not stopped complaining since.
“I don’t even bother you! I just stand here for 15 minutes and then leave.”
“Having you in my safe space is very bothersome.”
“Since when is your workplace a safe space?”
“Since it was the only place I thought you couldn’t intrude on! Soobin’s right: why can’t you just talk to your crush like a normal person?”
They were absolutely insane. Beomgyu felt his stomach twist at the thought of speaking to Taehyun without the security of a counter and a whole fake persona between them.
“Because then he’d have to admit their whole relationship is based on a lie, which it is!” Hueningkai cut in, placing the clean pot on the counter with the air of a judge banging the final gavel.
“No! I’m in too deep; I can’t tell him before we start dating or he’s going to think I’m a weirdo,” Beomgyu complained.
“How can you be so in love with him if you don’t even know anything about him?” Yeonjun retorted, passing Soobin his drink with a wink, causing the younger’s cheeks to glow pink with a light blush.
“Because,” Beomgyu stressed. “He’s cute and has beautiful eyes and his teeth are kinda sharp and jagged-y so when he smiles he looks like a shark.”
If it were not for this being his place of employment Beomgyu knew he would have been subjected to the full force of Yeonjun’s howling laughter.
“Shut up!” Beomgyu exclaimed into the deafening silence, burying his face in his palms even as the tips of his ears glowed red.
Hueningkai glanced at Beomgyu, warring between delight at his obvious embarrassment and frustration at his stupidity. “This would be kind of funny if not for how sad it is.”
At that, Beomgyu raised his head indignantly. “It’s not pathetic to pretend to work at a coffee shop just to talk to my crush.”
“I cannot deal with this.” Yeonjun said, heading back towards the kitchen, but not without a parting warning glare at Beomgyu. “Don’t let him stay here without buying something, Hueningie.”
Beomgyu stuck his tongue out again at Yeonjun’s retreating back, earning him another giggle from Soobin. “I’ve got to get to my study group, too. See you guys.”
Beomgyu huffed, waving the taller off before collapsing dramatically onto the counter Hueningkai had just finished wiping.
“Kai-ah,” Beomgyu whined. “How do I get him to like me?”
“I literally watched him flirt back; he already does.”
“But that’s not enough!” Beomgyu protested. “How do I get him to fall so in love with me that he’ll make the first move?”
“Maybe he’s shy.”
“That’s so cute!” Beomgyu clutched his heart. “But so unhelpful.”
Hueningkai rolled his eyes, gently pushing the older off the counter so he could wipe it down once more. “It’s not like you’re shy. Like Soobin said, just give him your number.”
“How was your weekend?” Beomgyu, asked almost shyly, as Taehyun stepped up to the register.
Taehyun smiled as he pulled out his wallet, never failing to knock Beomgyu off his feet no matter how many times they did this. “Good.”
“Caramel macchiato?” Taehyun nodded.
“Whipped cream?” A small shake of his head.
Beomgyu pouted, and Taehyun laughed at his disgruntled expression, and Beomgyu’s mood immediately lightened. Compared to when they first met, Taehyun’s smile was far easier to draw out — Beomgyu hoped it was because of him.
“I’m trying to cut down on sugar,” Taehyun explained, sliding his card out easily.
Beomgyu gasped. “Why would you do that to yourself?”
“I have a swim meet this weekend.” Taehyun didn’t elaborate further.
But even that little bit of information was enough for Beomgyu to do the dry equivalent of a spit-take, which consisted of a faint choking sound and a quiet cough before he pulled himself back together. “Oh, you swim?”
“Hmmm, yeah,” Taehyun hummed, busy sliding his card into the reader. Transaction completed, he glanced up with another quick smile, “Thanks, Beomgyu.”
“Yeah … bye,” Beomgyu strained out, his brain the equivalent of the rainbow spinning ball of doom on a Mac: frozen and caught in limbo between replaying the flash of Taehyun’s pointed teeth and just completely shutting down altogether.
Taehyun being a swimmer should not be this big of a deal. It should not be this big of a deal. But it was and Beomgyu was having an out-of-body experience behind the cash register of the campus coffee shop — which, all things considered, was not the most ideal place to be having a breakdown for a variety of reasons.
Reason number one: “Hello? I’m ready to order?”
Beomgyu’s eyes refocused at hyperspeed, making him a little light headed — it was not because he was still stuck on Taehyun is a swimmer. He stared at the girl across from him in a stupor for about three seconds before remembering where he was. Oh, fuck.
A quick look around gave him all the information he needed. Hueningkai: Missing. Yeonjun: Busy making drinks in the back.
Yeah, sure, leave the fake barista out here to man the store all on his own, that makes a whole lot of sense, Beomgyu grumbled silently.
“Uh …” Beomgyu stalled, eyes swinging back to the girl staring at him expectantly, acutely aware of Taehyun standing at the pick-up end of the counter waiting for a drink that, oh, no one was currently making because Beomgyu had been abandoned. “Yeah, what can I get you?”
“Vanilla latte with sweet cream foam and two extra shots of espresso, large.”
If there was anything good to be said about Beomgyu, it was that he handled pressure immensely well. Or as Soobin put it, he was very good at bullshitting his way through things that would leave normal people in a crippling life crisis.
This wasn’t nearly that dire, but maybe anyone other than Beomgyu wouldn’t have proceeded to tap random shit on the tablet, take four more orders, and then excuse himself grandly to the horde of five now standing by Taehyun at the pick-up counter.
As soon as the door to the kitchen closed behind him, Beomgyu opened his mouth — probably to yell “help!” or a variation thus of — but Yeonjun cut him off, “You’re not allowed back here.”
“Okay! Forget that!” Beomgyu proceeded to expel the remaining breath in his lungs as he scurried towards Yeonjun. “There’s a shit ton of people out there waiting for drinks!”
“What?” Yeonjun snapped his head up. “You actually sold people drinks?”
“Yeah, I have no idea where Hueningkai is!”
“What did they get?”
“God if I know!”
“No one is out there?”
“No!” Beomgyu wailed.
Yeonjun looked about five seconds away from having a nervous breakdown or murdering Beomgyu, those two expressions looked inexplicably similar. “You—” Yeonjun scrunched up his nose, and Beomgyu was suddenly highly aware of the many dangerous kitchen objects around them. “You stay here. Don’t touch anything.”
And then Yeonjun was gone, through the door back to the main room to clean up Beomgyu’s mess.
Beomgyu loitered in the kitchen for maybe three minutes, glancing at the pastries laid out on the rack, very tempted to eat one now that he was here, but knowing Yeonjun would most definitely end his life — or at least make him pay for it.
Boredom reaching an unbearable point, Beomgyu risked leaving the kitchen, despite what Yeonjun had said.
For someone who was expecting no less than utter and absolute chaos when he re-entered the counter area, Beomgyu was disappointed to see much of the ho-hum regular rhythm of a coffee shop on a Monday morning.
If it weren’t for Yeonjun speeding past and slamming a drink on the counter, yelling “Haejung!” and then moving back to the blenders, Beomgyu could almost believe nothing had happened. At least until he heard someone calling out for him.
“Hey! Excuse me!”
Beomgyu glanced over startled, pointing at himself absent-mindedly, before making his way over — a full-watt capitalist smile on his face. “Yes?”
“This isn’t the drink I ordered.” A frothy, milk-white concoction was thrust in front of his nose before he could react.
“Um …” Beomgyu reached out to take it. “What did you get?”
“That’s a frappe; I wanted a latte.”
Who had time to learn all the different breeds of coffee? “Oh, uh, we’ll remake it for you, sorry.” And by ‘we’ Beomgyu definitely meant Yeonjun. Holding up a finger in a ‘one moment’ gesture at a put-out looking Haejung, Beomgyu shimmied back over to Yeonjun, whispering furiously, “She wants a latte.”
If looks could kill Beomgyu would have been six-feet under last week. Yeonjun snatched the drink from his hands, squinting at the printed label. “Well, she paid for a frappe.”
“What’s the difference?”
Maybe that was not the best thing to ask a Yeonjun who looked three seconds away from dumping Haejung’s unwanted drink on him. “Go get Hueningkai. Right now.”
Knowing now was not the time to give a smart retort, Beomgyu nodded furiously before slipping out from behind the counter, shooting a now angry-looking Haejung a sheepish, “Sorry, it’s my break” and booking it to the break room.
“Hueningkai!” He yelled as soon as he was through. “Code Black!”
Hueningkai who’d had his headphones on, obviously playing a game on his phone, immediately flinched. “What? Huh? What’s a code black?”
“Yeonjun is about to murder me; you have to get back out there.”
As if suddenly made aware that he was still on the clock, Hueningkai looked at the time, brows furrowing. “What have you been doing for twenty-five minutes?”
“Not flirting, that’s for sure! Now go!” Beomgyu ripped off Hueningkai’s apron and dumped it back in the younger’s lap. Pulling him up and shoving him out the door.
Maybe now he could actually talk to Taehyun.
Completely disregarding the destruction he’d left in his wake, Beomgyu waltzed out of the break room only to hear Yeonjun screech “Taehyun!” So much for talking to him.
The blond was approaching from the left and Beomgyu knew he’d only get a good five seconds to say something, anything. Hoping he looked completely nonchalant, he gave Taehyun a small wave.
“What was that back there?” Taehyun asked, quirking an eyebrow, hand loosely holding his — hopefully correct — drink.
“Um, I’m really bad at making drinks, that’s why I’m always cashiering.”
Taehyun nodded like that made any sense at all.
“So,” Beomgyu hurriedly continued, before Taehyun could move away. “Since you’re on the team, you’re a good swimmer, right? Think you could teach me sometime?”
Though he looked caught off guard, Taehyun was too nice (or maybe they just weren’t familiar enough with each other yet) to refuse him outright. “Yeah, I guess. You don’t know how to swim?”
“I mean, I do.” Beomgyu could feel his heart threatening to leap out of his throat, but he did his best to maintain a relative poker face as he winked at the blond. “But I still always end up drowning in your eyes.”
There was a beat of silence. A moment when Beomgyu thought he really, royally fucked up — even more than the whole latte fiasco before — but then Taehyun threw his head back in a loud laugh, eyes sparkling, his pointed teeth — Beomgyu’s favorite feature, although there were many he was fond of — on full display.
“I think I could help with that,” Taehyun finally responded with a quick smirk.
Beomgyu could almost feel his heart kick into high gear.
He’d told himself he would play it cool, that he wouldn’t seem too eager, too “puppy-like,” as Soobin liked to describe him as, but as Taehyun headed for the exit, Beomgyu couldn’t help calling out, eyes radiant. “Good luck at your meet!”
There was a clear divide across the table: The right side was completely overtaken by scattered papers, flashcards strewn haphazardly like someone had thrown them down in frustration and a deconstructed pen Beomgyu had idly taken apart when listening to Soobin explain the science behind memorization; the left side contained a singular laptop and a signature coffee to-go cup.
Yeonjun was very particular about not letting Beomgyu’s mess get on his side of the table. He made no exceptions for his boyfriend either, who was sitting across from Beomgyu in an environment that was nearly as unruly. (“It makes for a comfy study atmosphere,” Soobin had rebuffed.)
“Why did I let Soobin talk me into taking psych?” Beomgyu complained loudly, poking at his discarded flashcards like they’d come to life and start teaching him themselves. For all the effort he’d taken to make them, he didn’t think that was asking for too much.
“Psych is more than just memorizing. Once you understand it, a lot of the terms will come to you naturally,” Soobin explained with infinite patience, though his eyes never gravitated away from the paper he was typing.
Petulant, Beomgyu leaned his chin on his arm and reached out to flick Soobin’s coffee cup. Thwack. “Help me. It’s your fault this class is so hard.”
“Stop that.”
“Take psych; it’s an easy A, even for someone like you,” Beomgyu mocked in Soobin’s slightly higher pitch, though objectively speaking they both had low voices. Thwack, thwack.
On a Sunday evening, the coffee shop was quiet enough for the noise to make it to Hueningkai, who was surreptitiously playing games behind the register. The youngest had complained endlessly about working a closing and then an opening the following morning, so the three of them had decided to study here for the night. For moral support. “Beomgyu is just stupid. Psych is easy.”
“Yeonjun, write him up for using his phone at work.” Thwack.
“I am not moving an inch if I’m not getting paid,” Yeonjun said, not sparing any of them a glance. He’d apparently forgotten about an exam tomorrow.
Thwack. Beomgyu’s next flick, made with gusto, seemed to be the final straw for the hollow cup as it toppled over and rolled around Soobin’s mess — thankfully empty.
Finally looking up from his laptop Soobin shooed Beomgyu away, quickly picking up the cup and shoving it in his hands. “Go make yourself useful and throw it away.”
“Do it yourself!”
“I’m actually studying,” Soobin looked away again, hands resuming their position over his keyboard.
With a huff, Beomgyu stood up to toss his fleeting toy away, when a soft jingle followed by murmured conversation announced new customers. He briefly registered one of them shouting “hey!” but ignored them, too busy working the tab off of the top of the plastic lid — just because.
“Beomgyu!”
That caught his attention. Abandoning the cup into the black hole that was the trash can, Beomgyu looked up to see a familiar face waving to him by the counter. “Hey!” He greeted, drawing closer.
Hajoon was one of those acquaintances born out of convenience and the strange college phenomenon of seeing the same person at every party despite having no mutual friends.
“Did you go out last night?”
Beomgyu shook his head. “I have a psych exam next week. Did you?”
“Yeah, I had a swim meet, so the team went out after to celebrate.”
Oh? Oh. Beomgyu was sure it had to have come up sometime between shots and beer pong and 3 a.m. runs to the convenience store, but he’d forgotten that Hajoon was on the swim team. Too. Swim team, too.
Beomgyu didn’t need much prompting for his mind to return to the focus of most of his thoughts these past few weeks. According to Soobin’s explanation, he’d probably built all sorts of super-speed synapses that led back to the Taehyun-centered part of his brain. That was how it worked, right? “Did you guys win?”
Hajoon snorted. “That’s not really how it works, but yeah, sure, we did.”
“Nice!” Beomgyu crowed, raising his hand for a high-five that Hajoon reciprocated with a chuckle.
Suddenly, a hand landed on Hajoon’s shoulder and a pair of wide doe-eyes appeared to Beomgyu’s left, making him nearly squeak in surprise.
There Taehyun was in all his dashing, light-haired glory: The object of Beomgyu’s very thoughts come to life.
“I was the one who actually won my race, so don’t I deserve a high-five, too?”
Beomgyu had to try very, very hard not to blush and even then he couldn’t be sure that his ears didn’t glow. Before he could move though, Hajoon grabbed Taehyun’s wrist, smacking the other’s hand with his own palm. “There you go!”
Taehyun scowled at Hajoon, before smoothing out his features and turning back to Beomgyu. “What are you doing tonight?”
Still slightly stunned from the missed opportunity to high-five the boy of his dreams, Beomgyu gestured mindlessly toward Soobin and Yeonjun. “Oh, I’m studying. I have an exam next week.”
“Ah, okay.” It could just be Beomgyu’s imagination, but did Taehyun look slightly disappointed? “Maybe next time.”
And that was when Beomgyu roundly wanted to punch himself and maybe knock himself out so he could wake up and pretend the past exchange had been a dream. Had Taehyun been about to invite him out? With them? He wanted to die.
Before he could backpedal, Taehyun was turning away to order and Hajoon was saying something else. “Are you going to the Phi Delta formal next week?”
Beomgyu had nearly forgotten that was where they’d officially met: When Yeonjun had dragged Beomgyu to his frat formal — before he’d even met Soobin — and roundly ditched him within the first twenty minutes. Hajoon had been in the same situation, thus their five-minute, microwavable instant friendship was produced. “Nah, my friend has a boyfriend now, so they’ll probably go together. Thank god, no offense.”
Hajoon snorted, “Don’t worry; I have to go again and I’m not looking forward to it.”
“Good luck,” Beomgyu snickered.
“Thanks,” Hajoon sighed, looking over at Taehyun who had reappeared after giving Hueningkai his order. “At least Taehyunnie is coming with.”
Beomgyu’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. “You’re going?”
“Going to what?”
“Phi Delta,” Hajoon helpfully provided.
“Oh, yeah — that’s next week, right?”
“Yeah, we have to go rent tuxes soon.”
“Who are you going with?” Beomgyu asked, hoping he didn’t actually sound as panicked as he did to his own ears. What if Taehyun had a boyfriend? What if Taehyun had a girlfriend? What if Taehyun was very, completely taken and he’d been making a fool of himself this whole time?
“One of my friends,” Taehyun replied, to Beomgyu’s great relief. He was so busy trying to calm the blood rushing through his ears that he missed what Taehyun said next. “She rushed late, so she doesn’t really know anyone yet. Otherwise, I would have said no after what Joon told me.”
Another one of their friends tapped Hajoon on the shoulder — he was the last to order. As he turned away, Beomgyu was left alone with Taehyun, or as alone as next to a group of his friends could be.
“Good job on your meet,” Beomgyu grinned, eyes twinkling as he raised his hand, feeling giddy when Taehyun reached up to high-five it — though it was more of a soft press.
“I’m ready to give you lessons anytime,” Taehyun teased, and Beomgyu nearly groaned in embarrassment. It was an understatement to say he’d griped and bemoaned and regretted his impulse pick-up line to Hueningkai at least a dozen times this week.
“Thanks,” Beomgyu giggled. “But maybe we can just, you know, go out.”
Beomgyu’s eyes widened, the implication of what he just said slowly dawning on him, spreading both realization and mortification through his now-wide gaze.
He’d been so caught up with missing the chance to ‘go out’ with Taehyun and Hajoon and the rest of their friends tonight that he’d really only meant it in that sort of context, but with the way Taehyun’s eyes grew, too, it seemed he thought Beomgyu meant the other kind. Namely, the date kind.
Beomgyu opened his mouth to actually backtrack this time. But then Taehyun’s large eyes warmed. And he heard Taehyun say “I’d like that,” so sweetly, almost gently. And his heart was in his throat and he felt like he was going to burst open. “Oh— wow, yeah—”
Hajoon’s reappearance next to them cut him off abruptly, and both Beomgyu and Taehyun broke eye contact, a bit shy, a bit embarrassed. Hajoon seemed to understand that he had interrupted something — but their rosy-hazed bubble had already been burst.
As Taehyun’s friends moved over to pick up the drinks that were now ready, he gave Beomgyu one last, secret smile, “See you tomorrow?”
Mind still stuck on I’d like that, I’d like that, I’d like that, Beomgyu didn’t understand what Taehyun was talking about. Was their date going to be tomorrow?! But then he remembered: Today was Sunday. So tomorrow was Monday. Duh. He grinned, “Yeah, see you … Taehyunnie.”
As Beomgyu made his way back to Soobin and Yeonjun, an uncontrollable smile stretched across his face, he was secretly pleased that he wasn’t the only one to be caught blushing tonight.
Going into his fifth round (god had this been going on for five weeks already?) of pretend barista-ing, Beomgyu had one goal in mind: Taehyun’s KakaoTalk.
Sure, he could have messaged Hajoon and asked for it, but that felt too much like cheating, and besides, he was not interested in the teasing that would result from such a request, especially after his friend had already witnessed the awkward aftermath of him accidentally asking Taehyun out.
Why was he doomed to always act a fool in front of his crush? Hueningkai had been unhelpful last night when Beomgyu had asked the same thing out loud in their dorm room, chirping in with a “Maybe if you didn’t pretend to have a whole fake job—” Beomgyu had very quickly thrown the largest plushie within reach at his face.
“Good morning,” greeted Taehyun, brilliant smile and shining eyes, as always.
“Morning.” Beomgyu replied, suddenly feeling shy — though it really was way too late for that.
“Is it too presumptuous of me to ask for the usual?”
He snorted. If only Taehyun knew that his order was the only one Beomgyu actually knew how to fill. “Whipped cream?”
“Yes, please.”
Beomgyu made quick work of ringing Taehyun up, having asked Hueningkai to teach him what he wanted to do earlier this morning. (Not before bribing him with gummies and promising to buy him ice cream next time they went to the convenience store.)
“So when—”
“About last ni—”
The moment fizzled out into an lingering silence as the two glanced at each other, waiting for the other to continue. Taking a deep breath, deciding there was no better way to do what he wanted than to just go for it, Beomgyu handed Taehyun his receipt, “Text me.” He’d really meant for it to come out as a question, but his sudden bravado didn’t allow even the slightest waver in his voice.
Taehyun gazed down slightly perplexed: He’d never asked for a receipt before. But he was quick on the uptake, eyes scanning until he found a string of numbers under “Special Orders” that explained Beomgyu’s offer.
Beomgyu watched, heart in his throat, as Taehyun glanced back up, giving him a sweet smile. “Of course.”
As soon as Taehyun left, Beomgyu ran into the break room jumping and hollering. “I did it!”
Hueningkai, who had been leaning on the rear two chair legs, paused his game, giving Beomgyu two thumbs up, “Nice!”
Beomgyu giggled — he actually, honest-to-god giggled — but he was so euphoric he didn’t care that Hueningkai had to witness his crush in full force.
Apparently the younger did. Hueningkai fake gagged as he tucked his phone into his pocket and stood up from the chair, holding out his hand for his apron. “Gross. If this is what you’re like before you even go on one date I don’t want to see the aftermath.”
“I don’t even care what you have to say right now, because I am so happy, Kai-ah!” Beomgyu trilled, adding a flourish as he dropped the apron ceremoniously into Hueningkai’s waiting hands.
“So when is it?”
“Huh?” Beomgyu briefly came down from cloud nine where he’d already imagined having two dogs, one cat and a room with a view with Taehyun.
“When are you going out? So I know for how much longer you’re going to be unbearable.”
“Now, that’s just not true,” Beomgyu said, waggling his finger. “I will still be unbearable after, if not more so.”
Hueningkai opened his mouth to protest, but Beomgyu soldiered on: “Also, I don’t know yet.”
“You didn’t ask him out?”
“I gave him my number.”
There was a lengthy pause before Hueningkai’s distinct laugh filled the room.
Beomgyu could feel his lips pulling into their signature pout, “He’s going to text me! And then we’re going to go out!”
“I’d ask ‘are you sure?’ to tease you, but it’s kind of obvious he’s in love with you, too,” Hueningkai said, wiping a stray fake tear from the corner of his eye.
“Really?” Beomgyu squeaked, far too pleased than he’d like to admit.
“Yeah it was really hard multitasking trying not to throw up and taking orders last night,” Hueningkai said, rolling his eyes.
“Shut up!” Beomgyu blurted, embarrassed at the realization that if Hueningkai had heard them then all of Taehyun’s friends probably could, too.
Hueningkai seemed satisfied with leaving a slightly pink-cheeked and flustered Beomgyu to his own devices, taking advantage of his frazzled state to duck out of the break room.
And Hueningkai was right: Taehyun had texted. But he’d waited long enough — more than 24 hours to be precise — that the lingering ache of anxiety gnawing at Beomgyu’s heart immediately post phone-number-giving had grown into a roiling mess of worry and second-guessing.
He’d been spending the evening mourning the tragic loss of his love life and overanalyzing everything that he could have done to make Taehyun hate him (“Am I ugly? Tell it to me straight right now, am I ugly?!”) to Yeonjun up until 20 minutes ago when the elder had gone into the kitchen on the pretense of having to close down for the evening though Beomgyu suspects it was really to get away from his lamenting. Maybe it was divine intervention, but that’s when his phone pinged, making Beomgyu let out a loud squeal of excitement.
##-###-####
hi this is taehyun :)
this is beomgyu right? if it’s the wrong number that would be really embarrassing
beomgyu
HI
YES
hi taehyun
Beomgyu felt as if his heart was going to burst and he had to contain the urge to send 15 heart emojis along with his last message. Instead he saved them for Taehyun’s contact name.
Impatient, Beomgyu immediately sent another message.
beomgyu
why didn’t u text me yesterday? 🥺
He chewed on his lip — a bad habit he’d picked up from Yeonjun — and wondered if that was too forward, too annoying. The two minutes of waiting felt like eternity as he tapped the table and shook his leg and was basically a fidgeting mess until, finally, a ping came, and he had never tapped a notification so fast in his life.
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
honestly i was really nervous so i kept putting it off yesterday but this morning i was worried i might have taken too long so i got more nervous and just decided to do it before it was too late
Taehyun was obviously a long texter. He was also, maybe, an anxious rambler, which Beomgyu had not taken him for. It was unexpectedly endearing.
beomgyu
omg it’s ok!!
it’s not too late i’m glad u did
i was nervous too
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
lmao if you were nervous then i wasn’t being obvious enough
Beomgyu’s stomach was filled to the brim with butterflies and Taehyun wasn’t even here in person. Unable to contain his elation, he rapidly hit the table with his hand — his excess excitement had to be expelled somewhere before he actually started screaming in public.
beomgyu
you?? obvious???
excuse me i have done all the work in this relationship
we wouldn’t even be texting if i hadn’t given u my number!!!!
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
relationship?
beomgyu
don’t question me
give me some credit!!!
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
fine you’ve done everything else i will admit that
beomgyu
everything else ??
Beomgyu was in the middle of typing ‘i guess u did text first but i didn’t really have a choice’ when a new message popped up and along with it, a pure rush of giddiness that brought warmth to his cheeks and nearly had him bouncing out of his chair.
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
so do you want to go on a date?
beomgyu
oh
hehe
WOW
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
see you’re not doing all the work anymore
beomgyu
my face just went from 🥺 to 😠
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
can you please answer the question
beomgyu
YES OF COURSE
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
okay good, are you free on sunday? there’s somewhere i want to go
beomgyu
i am free on sunday
lucky for you hehe
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
i suddenly don’t want to go anymore
beomgyu
NO
STOP
IM SORRY
WHAT TIME SUNDAY
TAEHYUN COME BACK
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
you’re so cute lmao the event is at night so 8?
beomgyu
omg what’s the event???
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
surprise ;)
beomgyu
OKAY IM EXCITED
where is it?
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
we have to drive there do you have a car?
beomgyu
yes
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
okay do you want to meet there or we can drive together?
beomgyu
let’s drive together!!!!
i want to drive!!
wait will that give away the surprise?
i want to be surprised
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
lmao no it won’t i’ll just direct you
beomgyu
okay i’ll see you sunday taehyunnie!!!
Beomgyu’s fingers drummed the back of his phone as he internally debated, before finally switching over to the emoticons keyboard. He tapped what he wanted and quickly sent it, leaving no room for hesitation. Immediately, he locked his phone, pulse thrumming in his ears.
Before Beomgyu could get caught up in waiting for Taehyun’s reply, a distraction dropped into the chair opposite him. “I am dead tired,” Yeonjun groaned, now out of his apron and in a brilliant red, furry coat.
Beomgyu frowned, slightly concerned for his friend, but only willing to admit it over his dead body. Instead, he suggested, “Maybe you should quit. At least you still have your gym job.”
“Yeah, right,” Yeonjun snorted. “Besides, if I quit, you’re never going to get to talk to your crush again.”
“Actually,” Beomgyu wiggled in his chair, an instant smile forming on his face. “We’re going out!”
“Really?” This, at least, made Yeonjun perk up from his previously half-dead state.
“Yeah, this Sunday!”
Yeonjun blew out a breath “I cannot believe you’re stupid, crazy plan actually worked. I’m really happy for you.” An incredulous smile started forming on his face: “Though really, I’m happier for myself, because this means you’re going to stop coming on Mondays.”
“Uh,” Beomgyu paused, reality hitting him with the full force of a brick truck.
“You cannot go out with this boy and not tell him the truth.”
“I know that! I’m going to tell him … after our date.”
“Do you really want to get dumped after one date?”
“He’s not—” Beomgyu spluttered. “He won’t break up with me!”
Yeonjun let his deadpan look answer for him.
“What if I just never tell him? You can pretend to fire me, and then he’ll never know.”
“In what world do you think I would actually make life easier for you, Choi Beomgyu?”
“I hate you,” Beomgyu said, though it lacked any kind of vitriol.
“I’m sure he’ll find it funny,” Yeonjun scrunched up his nose. “Probably.”
“Probably,” Beomgyu wailed, putting his head in his hands.
“Chances are higher if you tell him before the date.”
“Okay, okay fine. It’s not like admitting I’ve been pretending to work here for over a month is humiliating or anything. I’ll just tell him.”
Yeonjun chose to ignore the heavy sarcasm in Beomgyu’s voice. “Bingo!”
Beomgyu groaned, face contorting in pain at the thought of having to say any of these words out loud to Taehyun.
It wasn’t like Taehyun was Beomgyu’s first crush — far from it. But Beomgyu loved in a way that only someone experiencing it for the first time could: with a foolhardy abandon and eager recklessness, so keen for affection and not yet familiar with the hurt that would teach him to be wary.
But while Beomgyu was the first to admit that everything his friends said about him was true — sentimental, romantic, maudlin Choi Beomgyu — he was no fool. The problem with big dreams was that more often than not reality never lived up to them. And Beomgyu was the sort who stumbled out of love just as quickly as he fell into it.
Soobin had so kindly tried to psychoanalyze him once, asking, “What if you just like the thought of love but not actually being in a relationship?” which had sent Beomgyu into a rather drastic period of despondency. Ultimately, they’d figured out it wasn’t a commitment issue, more of a boredom one. (Entirely anticlimactic for all the brain work Beomgyu had put into it.)
So it was unexpected, yet entirely welcome, when Beomgyu caught himself muffling his giggles into his pillow at three a.m. so as not to disturb Hueningkai when he and Taehyun stayed up far too late messaging; or checking his phone as soon as he woke up to see if he’d received a text (the answer was always yes) because he’d learned Taehyun was the most awful sort: an early riser; or constantly thinking about him, wanting to see him, wanting to be with him, wanting to love him.
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
hey are you busy right now?
Beomgyu had just gotten out of his first class when his phone vibrated in his pocket. They’d gone the whole day without texting apart from their good morning ones, but considering Beomgyu had woken up six minutes before his class, that wasn’t surprising. He would have rather been sleep-ruffled and dream-dazed in his bed, lazy smile stretched wide as he read Taehyun’s text.
beomgyu
no i just got out of class!!
i’m probably going back to my room to sleep lmao
why??
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
can i meet you at the shop real quick?
Though they’d texted frequently (constantly, with a jubilant sort of hunger and an ever present fervor) since setting up their date, Taehyun had never suggested they meet. Beomgyu had wanted to — when he was tucked in the corner of the library too busy messaging Taehyun to get any studying done or passing by the phys ed school even though it was out of the way, hoping to catch a glimpse of the blond coming out of a class — no such luck.
But Beomgyu had never asked, content enough for now to be patient. ‘Isn’t it because you’re scared?’ a voice in his head that sounded like Soobin helpfully provided. And okay, maybe he was a little scared; afraid that this magical feeling of being with Taehyun would fade like all his crushes had before.
beomgyu
you couldn’t wait until sunday right?
hehe that’s cute yes we can meet!!!
cutest boy love of my life💗❤️💘💖💕💗❤️💘💕
there’s actually something i want to ask you about
Beomgyu’s eyebrows furrowed. Taehyun hadn’t teased back for once, calling him too arrogant or even pretending he just wanted to swipe a free coffee off of him.
He didn’t have to wait long in the coffee shop, before he spotted Taehyun coming in. Beomgyu waved from the side of the shop, hoping his smile didn’t give away his anxiety.
“Hi,” he said shyly. Seeing Taehyun in person after hours upon hours of messaging was a bit surreal.
And then there was the knot that had tightened ever so slightly in his chest when Taehyun walked in, a strange flight or fight response, considering he didn’t even know what Taehyun wanted to talk about. All Beomgyu knew was that he felt slightly disappointed, having envisioned a warm hug and eager smiles upon meeting again.
“Hi,” Taehyun replied, seemingly also shy, but there was also a wariness that Beomgyu hadn’t felt from him since back when he still thought Beomgyu’s name was Hueningkai.
“Do you want to order?”
Taehyun shook his head. “I actually have another class in, like, ten minutes, but I wanted to— something came up and I wanted to ask you about it.”
“Oh, okay. What did you want to talk about?”
Taehyun took a deep breath and Beomgyu braced himself: “Do you know Lee Dongmin?”
He scrunched his nose in bewilderment. “Who? No, I don’t know him, why?”
And then Taehyun’s face crumpled, pulling instant panic and utter confusion out of Beomgyu.
Beomgyu reached forward, yearning to soothe Taehyun despite his own alarm. “Who is he? Why are you upset?”
“You don’t work here, do you?”
“I— how—”
“Beomgyu, please tell me the truth.” Taehyun seemed to gain back his composure, and though he didn’t look heartbroken anymore, Beomgyu almost would have preferred that to the cool facade he was now met with.
“I will—” Beomgyu felt his fear bubble over, manifesting in an uncomfortable laugh.
Taehyun’s frown deepened — one slight crack to his exterior. “This is funny? This was all some joke?”
“No!” This wasn’t how Beomgyu envisioned coming clean. Ever since his talk with Yeonjun, he’d imagined a dozen situations where he would casually bring it up and Taehyun would laugh about it and maybe tease him for being such an idiot in love: that was the best-case scenario. This, well, this right now was the worst.
“It’s not a joke,” Beomgyu implored, eyes wide and begging. “I really like you, Taehyun. None of it was a joke or a prank or anything like that.”
“Then why did you pretend to work here? For weeks?”
“I know it looks bad; I’m so sorry. My friend, Hueningkai, the one I stole my nametag from— he works here. And my other friend, Yeonjun, they let me pretend to work here every Monday so I could talk to you.” It really did sound kind of pathetic now that he said it out loud. But Beomgyu would far rather be pathetic than without Taehyun.
“Why?”
“Because I like you! Because I had the biggest crush on you ever since I saw you outside the campus diner months ago, and I never thought I’d see you again let alone get to talk to you, so when I saw you in—”
Beomgyu broke off abruptly when, in a blur, he felt solid arms wrap around shoulders and then suddenly, his slightly pink nose was pressed against Taehyun’s fuzzy blue jacket and all Beomgyu felt was warm, warm, warm — though he did still kind of want to cry.
“You really are such a dumbass, Choi Beomgyu.” Beomgyu felt more than heard Taehyun say, breath against the crown of his head, gently tickling the curve of his ear, rumbling through his cheek.
“I’m really sorry for lying to you,” Beomgyu mumbled, quickly returning Taehyun’s hug and giving a squeeze around his waist for good measure. “But I haven’t about anything else! I promise!”
The embrace broke too quickly, but now that Beomgyu knew he wasn’t in jeopardy of losing Taehyun, he was a bit more willing to let go.
Taehyun blew out a breath, a slight blush high on his cheekbones as if he was self-conscious about the hug. “I kind of wish you were lying about not liking seafood,” He smirked. “I can’t believe you pulled such an idiot move, but then again we are talking about you.”
“I have never been happier to be an unquestionable idiot,” Beomgyu beamed in return.
And then Taehyun was laughing, pulling him into a hug once more despite the pink-tinge still on his cheeks, and Beomgyu thought it was the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard.
“So who is Lee Dongmin?”
Taehyun’s laughter was bright in the small, cold tin that was Beomgyu’s car. “A guy in my anatomy class. I don’t really know him well, but we sit by each other and sometimes exchange notes when we skip class. He actually works at the coffee shop.”
“I can’t believe someone I don’t even know ratted me out!” Beomgyu scoffed, hand slapping the steering wheel in mock outrage. Under his breath he muttered, “I really would have bet on it being Yeonjun.”
The wind blowing past the lowered windows was too loud for Taehyun to catch his mumbled dig. The mid-October air was just chilly enough that they didn’t need to turn on the AC in the car — though already knowing Beomgyu’s weakness to the cold, Taehyun had texted him last minute this morning to wear something warm.
Seeming to have heeded his own advice, Taehyun had shown up this evening with the same fuzzy blue jacket he had on Friday, one that made the pale undertones of his dyed hair more striking but simultaneously drowned him in the soft material adorably. Beomgyu had not: He was dressed in a sky blue cardigan with two stitched bears on the front. It was his first date with the boy he’d been crushing on for months; he would gladly freeze to death if that meant one compliment about how cute he looked.
(“Are those bears on your pockets?”
“Yes! Cute, right?”
“Aren’t you going to be cold? I told you to wear something warm.”
“But then my very cute cardigan would be covered up,” Beomgyu pouted.
He’d been very quickly mollified with a peck on the cheek and a “yeah, yeah, it’s cute. I guess you’ll just have to stay close to me tonight” before Taehyun had slipped into the passenger seat of the car, leaving Beomgyu a blushing mess.)
They’d been driving for about 40 minutes, which was longer than Beomgyu had expected. The streetlights along the road had just faded out, and they’d long ago left the city behind.
“I know I said I wanted this to be a surprise, but I’m getting kind of worried,” Beomgyu joked.
Taehyun turned his head towards Beomgyu, leaning over the console to drop his voice into a whisper. “I could tell you where we’re going, but then I’d have to kill you.”
“And when I drive us off the road …” Beomgyu teased, though his hands did tighten around the steering wheel. He’d never driven on a dark road like this before.
“We’re almost there,” Taehyun placated, checking his phone again. He seemed to notice Beomgyu’s lingering hesitance because he giggled and reached over to pat him on the shoulder. “Relax, I’m not nearly smart enough to be a serial killer.”
“I think you should have a few more reasons to not be a murderer than your low IQ,” Beomgyu retorted, really looking at their surroundings for the first time for any sign of what ‘there’ could be.
Even with the hood of the car obstructing most of his view, the deep blue, nearly black, sky was expansive above them. Beomgyu could see a smattering of stars on the horizon straight ahead. “Whoa,” he breathed out. “The sky is so clear.”
“Yeah, we got really lucky tonight,” Taehyun murmured. “Okay, our destination should be on the left soon; you’ll see a sign.”
… which Beomgyu nearly blew past. If it weren’t for Taehyun yelling, “Here! Here!” and Beomgyu making a very sharp near U-turn, they would have.
“When you said you were going to drive us off the road, I thought you were joking,” Taehyun exclaimed as Beomgyu jerked them into a parking spot. To his surprise there were a decent amount of cars already parked around them.
“Maybe give me a little warning next time; you’re the one with the GPS!” Beomgyu retorted as he exited the car.
Out here, Beomgyu could see the sky much more clearly and what he’d thought were just a few clusters of stars earlier turned out to be a whole array of them generously spread across the view overhead. Glittering and radiant above them were a myriad of tiny dots, splashed across the sky like speckled gold.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many stars before,” Beomgyu whispered, stumbling slightly, dizzy after tilting his head all the way back.
He heard Taehyun’s light chuckle before a warm palm slipped against his own. “Wait until we sit down and then you can look all you want.”
There was a wide field behind the parking lot and Beomgyu could see groups of people scattered around. Taehyun didn’t let go of his hand as he quietly led them out onto the grass, walking for a bit before finally deciding — rather arbitrarily — on a good spot. “What about here?”
As Taehyun set down his backpack and pulled out a blanket for them to sit on, Beomgyu belatedly realized: “Wait, we’re stargazing?”
Taehyun looked up with an amused quirk of lips as he straightened a corner of the blanket. “What? You don’t want to look at stars with me?”
“No, of course I do!” Beomgyu happily hopped on the blanket as soon as it was spread, eagerly patting the spot next to him. “I just never would have guessed this was what we were doing. I really thought we would just go to a bar or something.”
“I love a good party, but not for a first date.”
Beomgyu couldn’t help his wide grin, taking his eyes away from the stars for a moment to beam at Taehyun. “Who knew you were so romantic?”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Taehyun smirked — and it was quickly becoming Beomgyu’s second favorite thing about him, after his teeth, of course. Taehyun reached for his backpack again, pulling out what looked like a briefcase. Snapping it open, Taehyun proudly presented its contents: “Ta-da! A backpack refractor telescope!
“Tonight is the Orionids meteor shower,” Taehyun continued, as if he was worried about Beomgyu’s reaction. (Beomgyu had been right: Taehyun was a nervous rambler.) “It’s supposed to be visible to the naked eye, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have some help.”
Taehyun patted the cylinder that was the main body of the telescope, before pulling it out. “I ordered this on Monday, after you’d agreed to come.”
“You bought me a telescope?” Beomgyu breathed, slightly awestruck and very nearly completely in love. And there his heart went, having its classic Taehyun meltdown: Beating a mile a minute and working very hard to send him to the hospital.
“Well I had to do something after you claimed to be picking up all of the weight in this relationship.”
“Relationship?” Beomgyu hummed, parroting Taehyun’s question back at him.
“I guess it depends on how this date goes,” Taehyun conceded.
“I’ll be sure to leave my Yelp review later,” Beomgyu teased, eyes crinkling at the corners, fondly resting his chin on his open palms (an attempt to hide his giddy blush because wow, Taehyun had bought him a telescope) as he admired Taehyun huffing about trying to screw it to the stand.
“Ha!” It seemed like he was done. “Do you want to try it out?”
“Later,” Beomgyu said, reaching out to tug on Taehyun’s hand, fingers tangling clumsily.
Understanding him instantly, Taehyun shifted so he was lying down on the blanket next to Beomgyu. “Are you cold?”
“Not really.”
“Liar, your fingers are freezing.”
“It’s okay; at least the stars have a good view, too.”
Taehyun’s laugh is the only sound between the two until Beomgyu scrunched up his nose to ask, “Aren’t you supposed to offer me your jacket or something now?”
A scoff. “It’s your own fault that you didn’t bring something warmer; I warned you it was going to be cold.”
“I take back everything I said about you being romantic,” Beomgyu grumbles as he sits up.
“Where are you go—”
“If you won’t … ” Beomgyu flopped down unceremoniously onto Taehyun’s side, shamelessly snuggling close and burrowing his cold hands into the front of his jacket so they would be warm, “ ... give me your jacket, we’ll just have to share.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to this.” Taehyun’s mouth twitched.
“I will give you a bad review if you let me freeze.”
“Oh no,” Taehyun complained, voice rising dramatically. “I’m going to be totally undateable if you do that.”
“Well, either way you’re going to be undateable because I will be dating you.”
“Lucky for you,” Taehyun had apparently taken a leaf out of Beomgyu’s book, parroting the older this time.
He really was perfect, Beomgyu thought fondly. He leaned over to press a kiss, a barely-there, feather-light brush, to the hollow of Taehyun’s throat. Controlling his impulses was — clearly, if the reason this date was evening happening was an indication — not Beomgyu’s strong suit; if Taehyun reacted badly, maybe he could get away with blaming it on his hair. But Taehyun didn’t say anything, just lightly squeezing Beomgyu’s hand, slowly filling him up with warmth.
Comfortable silence cocooned them; at least Taehyun had the decency to wait until Beomgyu’s hands had thawed before whispering, “Was that all you got?”
Beomgyu was in such a relaxed and blissful state, he barely registered Taehyun’s smug and teasing tone before the blond shifted underneath him in one quick motion. The back of Beomgyu’s head softly hit the blanket, and then before he could think, Beomgyu was suddenly warm for a very different reason.
The press of Taehyun’s lips against his own set off a cascade of butterflies in Beomgyu’s stomach, even as it heated his cheeks a rosy-pink. They were oh so warm and soft and Beomgyu could faintly taste the strawberry lip balm that Taehyun favored. Filled with surprise and giddiness, Beomgyu broke off abruptly, giggling; Taehyun pulled back slightly, but Beomgyu quickly gripped onto the other’s jacket, fingers digging into the soft material to bring him back.
With the moonlight shining down and honeyed tenderness between them, they kissed.
Beomgyu was no longer cold when they broke apart in a whirlwind of inhales and exhales and fond smiles and another one of Beomgyu’s giggles and Taehyun’s sharp grin.
After lying back down, they talked idly, of childhood memories and tastes in foods and whether Crocs were appropriate semi-formal wear, of where they wanted to travel and secret dreams they’d given up on but still longed for, of Taehyun's swimming and Beomgyu’s art. And never once did Beomgyu grow bored.
(“Have you ever had a dream where you could, like, control what you dreamt about?”
Beomgyu gasped, “Yes! It was so cool; I used to do that when I was young.”
“All the time?”
“Hmm, not that often I think, but sometimes. It definitely happened more than a few times. If I got a dream I didn’t like, I’d make myself wake up and try again.”
Taehyun giggled. “That’s cute.”
“I was a very cute child; everyone loved me.”
“What happened?”
“Shut up!”)
Laying on his back (partially on Taehyun), there was nothing obstructing Beomgyu’s view of the sky: Wide and brilliant and infinite. Lying here like this, unmoving, he could almost believe that they were suspended among the stars — how exquisite. He wanted to stay like this, hands-intertwined, bathed in stardust forever.
Yet even with the dazzling view above him, Beomgyu could feel Taehyun’s pull far stronger than the moon’s, his eyes drifting to the blond’s sharp profile, and glistening eyes, and tender smile as they talked, and Beomgyu’s lashes fluttered, uttering a silent apology up to the stars: You’re beautiful, but I’m sorry, you can’t compare to him.