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“Who’s that?”
Jungwoo looked up with a baffled expression.
“That guy on your phone.”, specified Sungchan as he pointed at the open phone screen. God, he sounded like someone who caught onto glimpses of his partner’s unfaithfulness.
He didn’t mean to look at the wallpaper of his friend, but if the phone lights up in the corner of his eyes, he couldn’t help but to look at the source of light. He remembered how Chenle, his friend from high school who majored in biology at the moment, explained that it was some kind of reflex of the human eye. As an engineering student, Sungchan didn’t find much interest in the topic compared to Jisung who had asked Chenle that question in the first place.
Sungchan usually didn’t care about his friends' wallpapers. He never ever cared about wallpapers. His own wallpaper was the generic pre-installed ones from his phone. From the time of purchase up until now, he had never changed his wallpapers once.
So what had caused him to ask Jungwoo, his best friend, who just swiped a notification to the left. He switched to an empty screen with no apps and turned the phone for Sungchan to have a better look at the picture.
It was a selca of Jungwoo who had an arm spun around the shoulders of a guy Sungchan didn’t recognize. He had brown, shining hair whose bangs covered right eye. It only left him with his left eye smiling at the camera. Sungchan’s first impression was that he looked cute.
“That’s Shotaro.”, said Jungwoo. “Yuta introduced me to him a few weeks ago but we just got closer now. I think he is a year older than you”
In their 5 years of friendship, Sungchan had never been on any picture that deserved Jungwoo’s phone background. When he met him the first time, Jungwoo had a picture of him and his sister as wallpaper. Sometime later, it was him and his boyfriend, well, ex-boyfriend now. The last time, he remembered a selca with Yuta and one canadian friend of Jungwoo. Now, it was another new guy.
Sungchan hummed half heartedly and returned the phone.
“What? Are you jealous?”, smirked Jungwoo after he turned down his phone and placed it to the side.
“I’m not jealous of your boyfriend if you are asking that.”, said Sungchan with an eye roll. “If anything, I’m jealous of the dozens of people who had the honor to be on your wallpaper.”
“Now, now Sungchan. Jealousy is a disease and doesn’t suit you”, teased Jungwoo. “Besides, you know that I’m currently not looking for a relationship.”
“So you two don’t date?”
Sungchan’s question came faster than intended in a slightly higher pitched voice.
“Nope. All platonic.”, assured Jungwoo and took a sip from his drink. When he placed the cup down, he looked at his friend with an innocent smile. Sungchan, being Jungwoo’s self proclaimed best friend, knew that teasing was about to arrive.
“But you sounded hopeful! Say, are you interested in Shotaro?”
Sungchan braced himself for anything. Nonetheless, he choked on his sip and coughed painfully to a point where the other guests of the cafe looked over. Jungwoo didn’t care about the attention and chuckled at his friend. Once he recovered -with the feeling of a broken rib- he looked at Jungwoo with a shocked expression.
“No!”
At this point, he dug his own grave. Even Sungchan could tell that his voice exposed him. High pitched and way too fast out of panic. His face felt hot and knowing his fair skin, his friend could easily see the redness coming.
He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t interested in Shotaro. Perhaps it was curiosity since Shotaro didn’t sound like a Korean name. Or perhaps he wanted to know what made Shotaro so special to be the current wallpaper of his best friend.
“But you’re blushing. C’mon, I know that cute boys are your weaknesses”, sang Jungwoo in a teasing manner. (Damn it, he knew Jungwoo would catch on.) Sungchan looked away to avoid the seemingly innocent smile. “What do you say? I’ll tell him good stuff about you and arrange a meeting?”
“Hyung!”
“Okay, okay, I’ll be quiet now.”, laughed his friend. Sungchan let out a sigh.
He is kinda cute…
Unaware that he thought out loud just a moment ago. A gasp came from Jungwoo. Sungchan looked up as embarrassment filled his eyes. The heat, which was gone seconds ago, returned to his face in the blink of an eye.
“So you agree that he is cute!”
Kim Jungwoo will be the death of him.
——————
“Jungwoo-hyung?”
Said male turned around by the call of his name. Shotaro stood awkwardly there. His bag was slung over one shoulder and his phone was in his hands. Due to the long sleeves it looked like the phone was magically stuck to the sleeve.
“Can I borrow your phone to call Yuta-hyung? Mine just died down and it started to rain outside. I wanted to ask him if he could pick me up”, explained Shotaro with easy short sentences that just sounded adorable. Jungwoo gave him his phone before he got back to pack the rest of his belongings.
“The code?”, asked Shotaro again.
“0913”, answered Jungwoo without looking back. It took a moment before he could hear the familiar taping sounds of his phone.
Jungwoo overheard Shotaro’s call but quickly gave up since it was in Japanese. Didn’t Sungchan want to learn Japanese? He finished packing his belongings and waited for Shotaro to finish the call.
“He said he will be here in a few minutes”, informed Shotaro when he returned the phone. “He said he could also take you with us so you don’t need to take the train.”
“Nice.”, said Jungwoo and exited the app, only to come face to face with his wallpaper of him and Shotaro. He remembered the day he spent with Sungchan and smiled a little at the thought of it.
“Hyung, I wanted to ask you something.”, started Shotaro suddenly after he joined Jungwoo on the black couch. “Who was that guy on your lockscreen?”
Jungwoo lit up his phone and came face to face with a picture of him and Sungchan. It was after one of his soccer matches where Jungwoo even wore a matching soccer shirt to support his friend in the game.
“This is Sungchan. He is a close friend of mine.”, he answered.
“A friend?”, repeated Shotaro in confusion. “I thought he was your boyfriend.”
Well, Jungwoo couldn’t judge him for thinking that. In the picture, he had his arms around Sungchan to hold the soccer ball in front of his chest. His friend even held onto his arm for crying out loud. Adding that Shotaro was still rather new to the Korean culture, he was sure not used to seeing people so close with each other, even if they weren’t dating.
“I mean…I get your point. His birthday is even my passcode”, muttered after long thinking. But he could never imagine him dating Sungchan. Just thinking about it makes him cringe on the inside.
“Really? That would mean that I have to congratulate him on his birthday then, now that I know it.”, joked Shotaro. “But it would be weird to explain to him that I know about his birthday like…that. Like the code of the phone of your best friend.”
Jungwoo laughed alongside him until he remembered the conversation he had with Sungchan that one time in the café. A teasing smile found its way to his lips.
“So, you are interested in meeting him?”
Shotaro’s laugh died down instantly. Instead, it was replaced with a panicked expression and a huge blush across his cheeks.
“N-no! He probably already has a partner and I don’t want to…“
Jungwoo cut him off before he could finish the sentence. Well, he could tell that Shotaro couldn’t find the right words anyway.
“So you just assume that he has a partner because he is handsome right? Lucky for you, he is very much single.”
Shotaro turned away from Jungwoo to hide his face in his hands. A frustrating “no” escaped his lips which made the older laugh.
“I’m going to tell you a secret”, started Jungwoo. “Sungchan actually saw your picture on my phone and he thinks that you look really cute.”
He wasn’t sure if Shotaro had heard him. Because at this point, he faced away from the older, curled up in a ball out of embarrassment.
Jungwoo wanted to add fuel to the fire. Perhaps he could send Sungchan Shotaro’s TikTok page. The page, which was filled with many dance covers, a few of them even include some of Sungchan’s personal favorite songs.
However, the notification of Yuta’s arrival stopped him.
“Shotaro, Yuta is here-”
At the mention of an escape, Shotaro immediately recovered and faced Jungwoo again. His hair looked even more disheveled and the redness on his face either came from the embarrassment or the lack of oxygen under his hands. Despite his teasing, Shotaro still shot him a sweet smile.
“We should go then! Yuta shouldn’t wait for us for too long!”
——————
Sungchan opened the door to the chicken restaurant. It was a newly opened place, Jungwoo wanted to check out and invited Sungchan to join his adventure.
He spotted his friend in one of the booths, who also waved him over. Sungchan moved his long legs and approached the booth. Not aware that a surprise sat opposite of Jungwoo. He only saw it once he was close enough to a point where he could not simply back out again.
Opposite of Jungwoo sat another boy. A cute boy to be exact. What makes matters worse is that Sungchan recognized the boy as the boy on Jungwoo’s selca wallpaper. Even if he didn’t remember his name, he remembered the sparkling eyes which just sparkled more since it wasn’t just a picture anymore. Also, his hair was neatly styled, meaning that both of his eyes peeked out from under the hair.
They looked big, full of surprise at the sight of Sungchan. He was probably surprised by his height. Everyone looked at him weirdly because of it. Towering in the crowd like a giraffe.
“Sungchan! I was worried that you would forget about this. Go on, take a seat. We haven’t ordered yet.”, smiled Jungwoo. Again with that innocent smile that hid the evilness perfectly.
However, Jungwoo didn’t move from his seat to make space. He couldn’t even since most space on the bench was occupied by bags and jackets. It left him no choice but to make eye contact with the boy opposite of him.
“Do you mind if I just…”, he didn’t need to finish the sentence since the boy had already moved closer to the wall for Sungchan to have space on the bench. He sat down and placed his beg on the ground.
Did he plan all of this, he thought. This time, he made sure that his mouth stayed shut to not spill anything.
He looked over to the boy. The boy didn’t face Sungchan, he didn’t even face Jungwoo. He looked down on the table, as if he was actively trying to turn invisible. His ears caught a red color as well. Or Sungchan was seeing red due to the blood that rushed up to his face.
When he turned to look over Jungwoo. He just sent him raised his eyebrows and directed them to the boy. Saying that he should introduce himself to him like any normal polite person would do. He would have a long conversation with Jungwoo in the evening. Nonetheless, he complied.
Sungchan moved his body to look at the boy. He might have felt the eyes next to him since he slowly looked up to lock eyes with Sungchan.
“Hey, my name is Jung Sungchan. A friend of Jungwoo.”, he introduced himself with a kind smile. The boy returned that gesture with a cute smile as well. With the present blush on his cheeks, he looked lovely.
“I’m Osaki Shotaro. It’s nice to meet you.”
-a few months later-
“Happy birthday Channie!”, congratulated Jungwoo when he arrived at the restaurant. He was closely followed by Shotaro. Sungchan stood up from his seat to give him a hug. In return, he received a peck on his lips from his boyfriend.
It made Jungwoo happy to see his two friends find love in each other. What made him happier was the fact that his matchmaking actually worked well with both of his friends in a healthy relationship. They sat down and ordered their food. Sushi since it was the couple's favorite dishes.
They talked with each other and showed each other stuff on their phones. They caught glimpses of each other's wallpapers. It was no surprise that Sungchan and Shotaro had a picture of each other now. Jungwoo on the other hand finally changed his wallpaper to his current dog and changed his code to his pet’s birthday.
“This reminds me!”, Shotaro spoke up after Sungchanshowed them some kind of picknick dish. “Our Jungwoo-hyung got a visit from a boy today! He brought over some fresh clothes for him and even gave him snacks.”
This announcement froze Jungwoo’s blood. How could Shotaro know? He was sure that he wasn’t seen by anyone when he arrived.
“Jungwoo-hyung!”, said Sungchan scandalously at the news. “We promised each other to keep us updated on life! I deserve to know if people take interest in you.”
“Wait, I can explain! He is just a roommate!”, tried Jungwoo to clear up the confusion. Sungchan sat down on his chair, not fully convinced by that story. That was until Shotaro took a glance at the sudden notification on Jungwoo’s phone.
“Hyung, you got a message from cute roommate red heart.”