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Lee Soo Hyuk’s world comes crashing down thanks to Choi Jung Soo’s words.
“Soo Hyuk-hyung, let’s buy some white day chocolates!” is the cute, innocent sentence his dongsaeng bestowed upon him right after classes. Dragging him out of campus by looping their arms together, Lee Soo Hyuk is amused enough to be willing to follow Choi Jung Soo as he leads them to the nearest convenience store.
Choi Jung Soo, his junior by a few years, is someone Lee Soo Hyuk has known since high school. Since they’re studying in the same university, it’s pretty much a normal occurrence for him to get invited to study groups or dragged to eat together by the other man.
Choi Jung Soo is also a fairly popular man, if his pile of chocolates, whether obligation or not, during Valentine’s Day is of any indication.
It’s a surprise that he’ll return the sentiment, however.
“Obligation chocolates?” Lee Soo Hyuk asks, his tone amused. Beside him, Choi Jung Soo is nodding his head.
“Obligation chocolates! And one special as an answer~”
“Ho,” an awed gasp leaves his mouth, the older man not having expected such a response from his hoobae. “Didn’t take you for a romantic, Jung Soo. Who is the lucky person?”
Cheerfully, Choi Jung Soo blurts out: “Kim Rok Soo, of course!”
Crash.
Having been holding a bag of chips a moment ago, the poor bag falls to the floor along with his heart and sanity. Lee Soo Hyuk, in a rare moment of unadulterated shock, does not even glance at the fallen bag of chips as he stares at Choi Jung Soo. His arm swings as he takes a step back, and another crash follows as he accidentally knocks over some snacks on display.
Crash.
Yes, that’s the best word to explain his mental gymnastics right now. Everything is crashing, his brain is blue screening and his vision tunnels to no one else but Choi Jung Soo, his beloved hoobae who is starting to look nervous, as he should.
With a terrifying smile on his face, Lee Soo Hyuk queries.
“Who?”
“Uh, ah, Rok Soo?” Choi Jung Soo laughs nervously, taking a few steps back from the menacing vision that is Lee Soo Hyuk. “I mean, isn’t it a given? Since Rok Soo gave the both of us chocolates…”
Lee Soo Hyuk’s brain screeches to yet another halt.
“What?”
“What?”
“Rok Soo gave me chocolates?” Lee Soo Hyuk stares, his expression blank even as his mind starts to run a mile a minute. Chocolate? When? It has to be on Valentine’s Day, since Choi Jung Soo talks about repaying the chocolate given to him, or, the both of them, as Choi Jung Soo said it. But no matter how long he tries to think, he can’t manage to find any instance or hints from the abundance of chocolates he received during Valentine’s Day as something from Kim Rok Soo.
Even the thought of Kim Rok Soo giving them both chocolates is pretty surprising in itself. It doesn’t sound like something he’ll ever do, but it’s also so like him and his stupidly endearing nature that it can be believable as well.
In front of him, Choi Jung Soo looks puzzled. “Hyung-nim, do you not know?”
“No, I do not know,” he answers truthfully, touching his chin thoughtfully. “I don’t remember getting any that showed that it’s from Rok Soo, and there are lots of unnamed chocolate gifts left on my table during the break, as well.”
“Eh, but he gives handmade chocolate though.” Yet another surprising revelation. He stares at the hoobae who has nonchalantly destroyed his mind repeatedly in the span of under 10 minutes. Said hoobae is smiling awkwardly, pointing towards himself as he speaks, “Rok Soo has been into baking lately, so he made chocolates for himself and gave a package for each of us.”
Yes, he remembers the first part quite well. Ever since he started working in that cafe almost a year ago, Kim Rok Soo has picked up a hobby of cooking, baking, and even making fancy drinks. He also remembers Kim Rok Soo bringing a huge package filled with handmade chocolate made by himself and for himself during Valentine’s Day. That punk is a firm believer of treating himself during this kind of “special day” even though Valentine’s Day is supposed to be the day girls give chocolates to the people they like.
Lee Soo Hyuk isn’t one to judge; the activity is clearly something that makes his favorite dongsaeng feel at peace as much as reading does. If he gets some free food out of it after some haggling then it’s a benefit that he will keep close as well.
He does not remember the last part however. Scratch that. He doesn’t even know.
“How did he give it to you?”
“Hm? He threw it to my head in the morning! Hahaha!” Choi Jung Soo laughs heartily, starting a story of how in the morning of Valentine’s Day, when they were about to walk to campus together as always, Kim Rok Soo had thrown a box of handmade chocolates to Choi Jung Soo’s head and walked away “like his ass was on fire”, ignoring Choi Jung Soo’s startled squawk.
That is so on brand, Lee Soo Hyuk can’t stop his lips from twitching upwards at the thought of it.
Still, it doesn’t erase the fact that his current concern is…
“I don’t think I got any from Kim Rok Soo. All handmade chocolates I got had a name labeled on it,” he says, an odd feeling building up in his chest. The girls who confessed to him through handmade chocolate are all eager to let them know of their chocolate-making prowess, enough that all of them are labelled with their names and respective majors.
None of them are Kim Rok Soo’s.
Choi Jung Soo stares at him for a long while.
Then, with perhaps the most awkward smile possible, he inches away from him. Lee Soo Hyuk doesn’t call him out on it. His brain is too busy thinking, his thoughts running fast and blank at the same time. The man isn’t all that responsive even as he follows an awkward Choi Jung Soo around the store, or when he picks up a chocolate brand he knows Kim Rok Soo likes, or when he walks back to his apartment.
His sane clarity seeps back inside of him when he receives a message later during the night, courtesy of a concerned Choi Jung Soo.
Sunshine puppy: Hyung-nim
Sunshine puppy: sorry for this but
Sunshine puppy: i asked rok soo about the chocolates and
Sunshine puppy: he said he gave you one
Sunshine puppy: and i kno hes not lying bc i had to bribe him to confess by buying that expensive ramen and steak for him and hes not the type of guy to lie abt smth like this anyway so
Sunshine puppy: are you sure you never got the chocolates, hyung-nim?
Lee Soo Hyuk: What.
.
.
.
.
The next day, he arrives earlier than he usually would. His afternoon class is a few hours away, which tells him he doesn’t have anything to do on campus. Not technically. But Kim Rok Soo and Choi Jung Soo share a class this morning, and they’re supposed to be out of the 303 classroom in a few minutes time. He knows this, because they’ve exchanged schedules at the beginning of every semester (more like it’s him and Choi Jung Soo, but the other man is Kim Rok Soo’s best and childhood friend for a reason, and he knows the schedules shared in the group chat the three of them shared is given with Kim Rok Soo’s permission).
True to expectation, the class is over in a few minutes (is it civics? This university sure likes to give useless mandatory classes sometimes) and the two young men walk out, Kim Rok Soo with his usual stoic expression while Choi Jung Soo is incessantly chattering about his latest fantasy novel obsession beside him.
“Rok Soo-ya,” he calls out, paying no mind on how Choi Jung Soo jolts, his gaze nervous as he stares at the way Lee Soo Hyuk walks closer to them, his smile wide and sharp.
The people around them pay them no mind, the crowd of students from the class dispersing as they go on with their own lives and respective schedules. Kim Rok Soo should be free for a few hours before his next scheduled class, so he shouldn’t be in that much of a hurry.
The punk in question simply stares at him steadily, a guileless blink of his eyes as he asks, “Sunbae-nim, is there anything you need?”
“Call me hyung,” the response is near immediate, now a habit from how often this kind of exchange has been happening since high school days. Kim Rok Soo doesn’t bat an eyelash as he smoothly ignores the knee jerk response.
“What is it, sunbae-nim?”
Smile twitching upwards, Lee Soo Hyuk tilts his head, his gaze inquisitive. “This is long overdue, but you gave me valentine chocolate?”
There are a few things Lee Soo Hyuk expects. There are also a few possible scenarios that he can conjure in his mind from this conversation alone. Multiple possibilities on how this dongsaeng of his will answer his question, as well as multiple possibilities on how the punk won’t answer his question.
But of course Kim Rok Soo is Kim Rok Soo, because the young man simply blinks once, a small “ah” leaving his lips before he extends his hand forward, palm up like a man asking for money.
“Right. It’s time to pay me back for the chocolate, sunbae-nim.”
Beside him, Choi Jung Soo covers his mouth as he starts to wheeze, a choking noise leaving his lips. He tries to pat Kim Rok Soo’s shoulder a few times, perhaps to discreetly signal the other man on how Lee Soo Hyuk failed to realize or recognize Kim Rok Soo’s valentine chocolate left on his desk that fateful day--but Kim Rok Soo only furrows his eyebrows, frowning at his best friend and shrugging off the offending hand from his shoulder.
Then, with enlarged pupils like a wicked puppy begging for treats with full knowledge that his owner will comply, Kim Rok Soo says, “chocolates, please.”
...Lee Soo Hyuk has to hold back the fond chuckle leaving his lips. This brat sure has learned a lot. Look at him, he’s scheming in front of him.
“Hey, you punk,” Lee Soo Hyuk says, his lips twitching upwards. “I didn’t even know you gave me chocolates.”
Kim Rok Soo starts to frown. “I did give you one.”
“I only knew you gave Choi Jung Soo some.”
“I guess he got some too.”
“You guess?!” Choi Jung Soo squawks, offended. “You threw a whole box of handmade chocolate to my face!”
The answer for that is a few intelligible mutters, though he doesn’t fight back much when Choi Jung Soo slings an arm around his shoulder and drags him closer, Kim Rok Soo effectively pressed close to Choi Jung Soo’s firm chest muscles and biceps.
“I don’t think I got any handmade chocolate from you Rok Soo-ya,” Lee Soo Hyuk says a bit sullenly, “maybe it got displaced somewhere? This hyung of yours is very sad.”
Kim Rok Soo blinks from where his cheek is pressed to Choi Jung Soo’s pecs.
“But I didn’t give you a handmade one?”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“What?”
Kim Rok Soo frowns. “I didn’t give you handmade chocolate.”
Lee Soo Hyuk blinks. “Why not?”
“Ha?” Kim Rok Soo looks at him as if he’s stupid. “You already have a brand of chocolate you like so much, and there was a 70% discount for valentine’s day.”
Silence.
Shifting his eyes awkwardly, he avoids Choi Jung Soo’s and Lee Soo Hyuk’s gazes. “What?” He says, a bit stubbornly. “You don’t like it? Then I won’t buy it for you ever again.”
“Is buying a chocolate at 30% price still considered buying a valentine’s gift?” Lee Soo Hyuk has to ask, though his lips have begun to twitch again.
“I still spent my money,” Kim Rok Soo grouches, “my money. Pay back. Chocolate, please.”
Lee Soo Hyuk chuckles. He remembers now. Among that pile of chocolates, there was a brand of chocolate that he liked the most. It was a fairly big package size, and he remembered eating it last in a way to savor the best at the very end.
It’s also the brand of chocolate he gave Kim Rok Soo in their first meeting, when he met a little boy beaten up by bullies and the only thing he could offer to the kid was a bar of chocolate.
“Punk,” Lee Soo Hyuk chuckles, reaching forward to ruffle Kim Rok Soo’s hair. His indignant squawk is pleasing to his ears, and the fact that Choi Jung Soo keeps him in place with his arms is even more pleasing. “You didn’t even tell me, how could I know it was from you?”
Kim Rok Soo doesn’t deign him with an answer, the young man looking away with his cheeks slightly red.
“Well, this Jung Soo must’ve paid you back already,” he points at Choi Jung Soo, lips quirking up at the way the other man replies his affirmative cheerfully. “So let me pay you back. What do you think about ice chocolate with avocados? My treat.”
Kim Rok Soo’s eyes start to glimmer.
“In that dessert stall down the street?”
“Uh-huh.”
“The one with the huge bowl?”
“Exactly.”
“Lead the way, hyung-nim.”
“You, punk,” he sighs, if fonder than it should’ve. “You only call me hyung when you want something from me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”