Chapter Text
with a full of joy face
you're looking at me
I walk towards you
and say this lovely word again
to you
Sungjin couldn’t help but sigh after reading the message Jaehyung, his best friend and roommate, has just sent him. ‘Bro, the bus might not come any sooner. There was an accident at the crossing in the main street. Letting you know, in case you’re already at the stop.’ He types in a short ‘That sucks. Thanks.’ and decided to take a seat at the empty bus stop.
He was done for the day after finishing the rest of his preliminary exams. He was planning to actually, finally catch some sleep after depriving himself for a whole week. However, he guesses, that can’t happen yet.
As he pulls out his earphones from his backpack now perched on his lap, another person comes into the bus stop. Sungjin pays that person no attention, instead busies himself with playing some songs on his phone. At the corner of his eye, though, Sungjin could see how the other person seems to be on the edge, fidgeting a lot.
“Excuse me, did the bus came earlier than usual today?” Sungjin hears faintly from his side. Carefully, he takes one of the earphones off from his ears and turns to the person standing beside him.
From the ground upwards, he sees a guy wearing plaid pants, a white shirt over some floral button up shirt, red hair, and a soft, soft smile. He tries to place his face in his mind, but Sungjin’s certain, he has never seen this guy before. But it’s not like Sungjin knows a lot of people, not that he’s shy he just prefers to keep his circle small.
The guy who is now standing in front of him blinks at him and that made Sungjin’s breath hitch. The moment their eyes met; he felt his heart skip a beat which was very unlikely to happen. That, whatever that is, doesn’t happen to Sungjin, it just doesn’t.
So, with a rather low voice, a little thrill, and excitement, Sungjin says “Hi.. Hello...” carefully and with hesitation. For what reason? Sungjin doesn’t know yet. “Uhm, yeah, I mean no. A friend told me there was an accident at the main street so probably the vehicle can’t pass through yet.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I should have said hi! That was rude of me. So, hi!” The guy replies with a bigger and brighter smile. “I thought I missed the bus. But I really have to go now though.” He trails the last part to himself. “Anyway, thank you so much!”
Sungjin replies with a polite smile, the one he gives to acquaintances, watching the guy now take steps away from him.
‘what was that?’ he asks himself as he tries to put his earphone back to his ear, but didn’t get to do so when he sees a familiar pair of shoes back in front of him.
“Hello! Again? I guess. I’m Younghyun, Kang Younghyun.” The guy, Younghyun, says as soon as their eyes meet. Sungjin stares and stares until the smile on the guy’s face start to fade away. “I was just thinking, maybe we could be friends. I’m a transferee to this school, I don't know a lot of people yet.” He continues now fidgeting again.
Sungjin finally stands to his feet, his attempt to give himself some more time to construct his words. “Yes, sure.” He starts. “I’m Park Sungjin. Nice to meet you, Younghyun-sshi.” Sungjin tries his best to smile as polite and as kind as he can as he has been told that he had a pretty forced smile even when he's sincere.
The guy didn’t say anything about his smile, though, instead, he answers him with another smile. ‘Even his eyes are smiling.’ Sungjin thinks to himself.
“Nice to meet you, too, Sungjin-sshi! I really have to go now, though.” Younghyun says, his cheeks turning pinkish. “I’ll see you around?” He continues as he bites his lower lip lightly.
“Yeah, I’ll see you around.” With that, Younghyun bows to him and leaves him with a last glance before running off to the taxi he had hailed earlier.
“Kang Younghyun.” Sungjin repeats softly to himself and finds himself smiling.
Younghyun arrives fifteen minutes late in the coffee shop where he works part-time, his cheeks still flushing. Jinyoung, his friend, is at the counter, he nods to him before taking the customer’s order and proceeding to the kitchen.
“Sorry! I’m late!” Younghyun whispers to Jinyoung who smiles at him, “it’s fine, there weren’t many customers yet and I heard there was an accident earlier.” Jinyoung replies as he makes the drink.
Younghyun usually takes the counter and Jinyoung makes the orders. It has been a year since he started his part-time in this coffee shop and even though it’s far from his new university, he still decided to continue working there. The owner's pretty nice and Jinyoung's here too.
“But why?” Jinyoung asks a little later when the customer finally took the order and headed towards an empty seat.
“What do you mean why?” Younghyun looks at his friend, eyes widening from a sudden question.
“Why are your cheeks so pink?-"
“What!?”
“You didn’t know? Look at yourself.” Jinyoung then hands him his phone after clicking on the camera app. “Are you sick? Feverish?” He continues as Younghyun checks himself on the screen, he does have pink cheeks right now. “Or are you, lovesick? Again?”
“What? No!” Younghyun dismisses but this only made Jinyoung smile wider, a cue to tease him more.
“So you are. Who is it?”
“No one!”
“Who is it? Let me do a background check.” To this Younghyun sadly turns to his friend. He doesn’t have the best track in his love life, hence the tone of Jinyoung’s voice.
“I just met him earlier and it’s nothing, really. He’s cute? But it’s really nothing.” Younghyun replies but clearly Jinyoung isn’t buying it. This isn’t the first time Younghyun told him ‘it’s nothing, really’ and all those times, he ended up weeping.
“But you got his name?”
“Yeah, but it’s not what you think, Jinyoungie. I just saw him at the bus stop earlier and asked him if the bus already left. He wasn’t like trying to you know...” He tries to explain. Jinyoung nods, listening intently but somehow still unconvinced, “trying to into your pants.” muttering to himself. “So, what’s his name?”
Younghyun grimaces at that but did not comment on it. “Park Sungjin. Park. Sungjin.” He says, his cheeks tinting deeper pink.
“Park Sungjin?” Jinyoung replies and he really wants to hit Younghyun.‘Not again’ he says to himself. “Park Sungjin” He says again, trying to piece a face to the name.
Younghyun’s looking at him, waiting for some information since Jinyoung, albeit quiet and seemingly has very few friends, actually knows a lot of people. But before Younghyun could ask, a bunch of high schoolers came into the coffee shop. Their conversation would have to stop for a while and Younghyun hopes he wouldn’t forget to ask Jinyoung about it later.
“You okay, bro? What’s up?” Jaehyung greets him from their couch, phone in his one hand and almost empty bowl of ramyun in the other. Sungjin finally gets home after two hours of waiting, drunk with the thought of that newly found 'friend'.
“Wha- yeah- nothing?” Sungjin replies while toeing his shoes off. He couldn’t stop replaying it in his mind. At one point he started to doubt if it actually happened or it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Like some coffee and energy drink induced imagination after a four hour long exam. He scratched his head, his palm rubbing against his short hair. He had a buzzcut a few days back, after Jaehyung’s ‘other best friend’, Wonpil came over and suddenly whips out his new online purchase.
Sungjin didn’t know why he agreed to do that, but here he is with a bald head.
“You, sure?” Jaehyung follows up, now moving towards the counter in their kitchen. “You don’t look fine to me, you look like you’re in a daze? Did you even sleep last night?” Sungjin turns to him, blinking slowly. Sleep is finally biting his ass. Jaehyung wasn't home last night, he was over at Wonpil's to 'study.'
“You know what, just go to bed.” Sungjin nods, walking to his room with Jaehyung looking at him with a mixture of worry and confusion on his face.
“Kang Younghyun.” Sungjin repeats the name to himself quietly. “Well, if you’re real I’ll probably see you around at the university soon.”
oh please
why is my body
not listening to me all of a sudden?
oh please
without even knowing
why is my heart pounding?
“Sungjin-sshi?”
It was Jaebum’s idea to meet at this coffee shop, Sungjin just heeded his high school friend’s request. It was fine with him even though it was a little far from his university. What he wasn’t expecting, though, was to see Younghyun in a cream and brown apron behind the counter with the same beautiful smile on his face.
“Hi, Younghyun-sshi.”
“You guys know each other?” Jaebum asks his friend as he looks back and forth to the two.
“Uhh, kind of? We met at the bus stop at school a few days ago.” Younghyun replies, offering a small smile to Jaebum. Then, from the storage room, comes Jinyoung who immediately latched himself to Jaebum.
“Nice.” Jaebum says and both Younghyun and Sungjin couldn’t tell what he meant by that. “By the way, Sungjin hyung, this is Jinyoung, my boyfriend.” Jaebum pulls Jinyoung closer to him as the latter offers his hand for a shake. “Jinyoungie, this is Sungjin hyung. He’s my high school buddy.”
“Nice to finally meet you, Sungjin-sshi.” Sungjin briefly shakes the hand since he wasn’t really a fan of physical contact, but Jinyoung didn’t say anything about it. “It’s nice to finally put a face on the name.”
“So, you are the one that Jaebum has been pining for. It’s nice to meet you, too, Jinyoung. ” Sungjin teases, expecting a soft punch from his friend. Instead, he sees him leaning in and kissing the top of Jinyoung’s nose.
Sungjin didn’t know if he should be happy or disgusted. One of the main reasons why they became friends was how alike they were. They were both pretty aloof with physical contact, but here he sees his friend initiating acts he used to despise so much.
Jaebum and Jinyoung started officially dating only a few months ago, after ‘exclusively playing around’ for years. They didn’t really bother introducing each other to their friends since it was all an unsure relationship. Except for Younghyun, since he had witnessed Jaebum picking Jinyoung up from the coffee shop at least a thousand times already.
Jaebum then pulls Jinyoung towards an empty couch, leaving Sungjin and Younghyun on their own.
“Sungjin-shhi! Can I take your order?” Younghyun finally asks, smiling shyly to Sungjin whose attention is suddenly back to him.
“Café americano, grande.” Sungjin’s eyes flickering from the menu above the counter and Younghyun so he wouldn’t appear like he was openly staring at him. 'Younghyun looks great even when he’s wearing a coffee shop uniform.' “A slice of blueberry cheesecake.”
“One café americano, grande and one slice of blueberry cheesecake. Anything else?” Sungjin noticed that even the way Younghyun speaks sounds like a song in his ears.
Sungjin shakes his head, finally meeting Younghyun’s eyes. Then the latter takes him by surprise when he leans towards him, whispering, “It’s on the house.” Smiling and giggling after making a ‘sshh’ sign. Sungjin could only nod.
Up close, Sungjin sees that Younghyun’s long eyelashes are cast downwards so it kisses the top of cheeks when he blinks. ‘Cute.’ Younghyun looked even better closer. ‘What are you even thinking?’ He says to himself, blinking fast and slowly taking a step back to give some distance between them. Not only did Younghyun so effortlessly evaded his personal space, but he also made his heart skip a beat, again.
“This is my way of thanking you for helping me out the other day. I was on my way here from school. We were dismissed a little late so I was worried I’d be late on my shift and I was! Thankfully there weren’t many people here yet- sorry, am I blabbering too much?” Younghyun cuts himself and offers a shy smile to Sungjin.
Sungjin wanted to say ‘it’s okay. Keep going, I wouldn’t mind listening to your blabbering all day long.’ But only managed to say, “It’s okay.” And a smile he’s certain probably looks forced and weird.
Younghyun stares at him, snickering a little, holding back a grin. “I should make your order now.” With another sweet smile, Younghyun leaves him on the counter to prepare his order. That’s when he realized he has been holding his breath.
Sungjin steals a glance at his friend and sighed in delight when he saw him occupied with whatever his boyfriend is telling him. He’s thankful that Jaebum wasn’t paying attention to them because he knows he’d tease him about being all tongue-tied in front of Younghyun.
Sungjin is a man of words, many, many words. His younger brother, Dowoon, even teases him for being a nagger, but here, with Younghyun smiling so brightly at him, he suddenly can’t even hold a proper conversation.
“Here's your order” Younghyun comes back with the cafe americano and blueberry cheesecake on a beige tray and another smile adorning his pleasant face.
“Thank you, Younghyun-sshi.” He manages to reply as he takes the tray, suddenly too scared to meet Younghyun’s eyes again. He swears he could swim in them and thank the gods if he drowns in them.
“You’re welcome, Sungjin-sshi.” Younghyun says reaching to pat Sungjin’s shoulder, but out of reflex, Sungjin avoids the contact. Realizing what it could mean to Younghyun, he looks to his face and he sees him a taken aback. He wanted to say sorry, that it was just a reflex, but the other already mumbled a quick sorry, retreating farther away from him.
“I think I’ll be having my usual, café latte, grande.” Jaebum suddenly says, startling both Sungjin and Younghyun.
“Do you want to take a break, Younghyun? You can sit with Sungjin hyung over there. I can take Jaebum hyung’s order.” Jinyoung announces as he makes his way beside Younghyun to take the order, but Younghyun is unmoving.
“It’s fine, Jinyoungie.” Younghyun says with a firm smile on his face, all the while avoiding eye contact with Sungjin.
“You okay there, Younghyunnie?” Of course, it wouldn’t escape Jinyoung's eyes. The two already went out a while ago since they still have to meet their friends from high school. Younghyun tries his best not to look too affected by it and bid Sungjin a goodbye.
“Hello? Are you there?” Jinyoung waves a hand in front of his face after not receiving any reactions from the other.
“Yeah, I was just. I’m such a fool.”
“I thought we’ve already established that a long time ago?” Younghyun shoots him a look but later on breaks into a laugh.
“What happened? Spill.”
“I was gonna reach to pat him on the shoulder a while ago, but he dodged it, he avoided my hand! I shouldn’t have done that. We weren’t friends after all. Now he probably thinks I’m a perv or something.” He drops his head on his hand, hitting his head a few times then Jinyoung gave him the rolling pin.
“This would hit you better.” He says sarcastically which earned a laugh from Younghyun. “Well, I didn’t see what happened earlier, but from what I heard from Jaebum hyung, Sungjin hyung has a guarded personal bubble. He doesn’t really like being touched.” To this Younghyun sighed deeper.
Sungjin really should have listened to Dowoon when he told him to bring his umbrella. He went back home to Busan for the weekend and went back to Seoul just this morning. It was pretty sunny the whole day so he didn’t really think it would rain. So now, here he is, sheltering himself inside the bus stop, his coat soaked from the rainwater.
He checks the time and sees in his wet watch and it’s past four in the afternoon already. He sighs and scratched his head, the bus already left. He has to wait for thirty minutes before the next one comes. His mind then drifts back to a certain boy.
Younghyun bid him goodbye that day at the café when they left, but Sungjin could tell that the other feels awkward now. He sighs, he didn’t even get to explain and apologize. He wanted to drop by but he’s too shy and he doesn’t even know his schedule.
He sighs again, completely oblivious that he’s now sharing the shelter with someone else.
“Sungjin-sshi?”
Sungjin turns and sees the very person that has been occupying his head. He, too, is drenched in the rain like him, but unlike him, he has no coat to shield himself. He’s soaked down to his skin.
“Hi, Younghyun-sshi.” He replies and Younghyun immediately breaks into a smile. His hair is plastered on his forehead, his clothes sticking to his skin, but he still looks good.
“Are you on your way home?” Younghyun asks as he settles to sit beside him, but before he could do so, he sits a little farther away from him. Sungjin felt a pang in his heart. He really didn’t mean to make Younghyun feel that way towards him.
“Yes.” Sungjin wanted to say more, he wanted to apologize, but nothing is coming out. Younghyun stares back at him, his bright smile now turning to a sad one as he casts his eyes downwards.
Sungjin opens his mouth again, he needs to say something to Younghyun.‘Oh please, why is my body not listening to me all of a sudden?’ He says to himself, as he starts breathing raggedly. ‘Oh please. Why is my heart pounding?’ he placed his fist on his chest, slightly banging it.
“Sungjin-sshi, are you okay?” Suddenly Younghyun’s closer to him, but still far enough. “What’s happening? Is your chest painful?” From the knot on his forehead and the look on his eyes, Sungjin could tell how Younghyun was worried for him.
“I’m fine.” He manages to whisper, Younghyun moves even closer, his own hands fisting his lap, obviously wanting to reach to him, but too afraid that Sungjin would just dodge him again. 'Why am I like this? I feel like a fool. Why can’t I say anything when I’m in front of you?’ Sungjin tries to calm his breathing.
Younghyun still looks so worried and Sungjin wants to wipe that away, he doesn’t want to see him sad like this. That’s when it dawned on him.
‘When people talked about love at first sight, I never really believed it.’ Carefully, he reaches for Younghyun’s hand which made the younger’s eyes widen. Sungjin isn’t a fan of physical contact, but his words are failing him right now and this is all he could do.
“I’m fine, Younghyun-sshi.” He finally says and finally, gradually the worry on Younghyun’s face went away was replaced by a gentle smile. “Younghyun-sshi, I’m sorry about the last time.” Younghyun’s smile falters a little, but he breaks into a bigger smile. “It was just a reflex, but it didn’t mean anything bad. I’m sorry if it made you feel like I was avoiding your hand or something.”
Younghyun’s hand wasn’t moving but he gave Sungjin a nod, “It’s okay, Sungjin-sshi, I should be the apologizing. I was being too forward, too friendly towards you.”
“You should not apologize about it, though.” Even though surprised with what he heard, Younghyun’s hand finally relaxes under Sungjin’s. “I was just not a fan of physical contacts.”
To this, Younghyun looks at their hands then back to Sungjin’s face.
“It’s okay, Younghyun-sshi.”
'I'm falling for you.'