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Yangyang thinks that he is a great guy to be around. He might not be a traditional mood maker, but people are not disappointed to see him. However, this knowledge does not stop his nervousness about texting Haechan and seeing if he wants to hang. He knows for sure they have the same day off, thanks to Renjun’s reconnaissance. Which really was him finally giving in to Yangyang’s relentless pestering about his fellow Dream member.
Still, he’s nervous. Did he mention he’s nervous? Honestly, the butterflies in Yangyang’s stomach haven’t been this big since he was sixteen and on an airplane to Taiwan because of a literal fever dream.
“Bro, do you need to like, take a couple deep breaths or something? Your face is like super red and I’m starting to worry.” Ten’s voice is gravelly from all the recording he’s been doing.
Yangyang does take one of those deep breaths.
“Can you repeat what Johnny-hyung said? Are you sure it’s correct?”
Ten sighs, then hands Yangyang his cellphone.
“Read it for yourself, but don’t scroll to the bottom.”
“Oh my god ew what are you guys talking about.”
Ten gestures to his tablet screen, which has concept art pulled up and a billion tabs running.
“Upcoming projects which I would like to spoil myself at the correct times and locations.”
Yangyang rolls his eyes, then refocuses his attention onto the text conversation between Ten and Johnny.
hey what does haechan think of yangyang
because yangyang will not shut up about how cool he is
i can guarantee you i hear more about yangyang then you do about haechan
omg idiots >.<
try having one for a roommate haha
“Do you really think he likes me back?”
“I mean, I want to say obviously but the only way you’ll know for sure is if you ask him yourself. And please do it face to face, I know all about you iPad kids.”
~~~
Yangyang leaves Ten’s room so his bro can realign with the universe or whatever it is he does to get the creative juices flowing. Opening the door to his room, he pauses and hesitantly takes a sniff. He doesn’t think it smells like fish, which is either a good thing or a really, really bad thing. Old Spice and fishiness is not the best combination of cologne to attract guys with.
After face planting onto his bed and rolling over, Yangyang begins the arduous task of crafting the “wanna-hang” message. Winnie-the-Pooh is tucked under his arm, and the rest of his stuffies are surrounding his pillow. He sends a simple hey. Crap, now he has to quickly come up with an actual message or he’s gonna look stupid if Haechan reads his text and he doesn’t respond right away.
hey
are you free tommoro
are you free tomorow because i am so
ru busy tommorrow lets do smthn
the checkmark next to hey changes, indicating its been read.
wanna hang??
send.
Two question marks? Who uses two question marks? Oh my god Yangyang pull yourself together man.
sure.
you mean, like tomorrow?
yeah yeah
okay great thats my one day off this week
where do you wanna hang?
the ph of my fish tanks is a bit wonky rn, so yours?
sounds good, see you tomorrow
if you come over before noon and wake me up, i will make you regret it
Yangyang just told his crush his room smells like fish. This is going great.
~~~
guess what
no
youre so lame
anyways, yangyang is heading over to your place tomorrow
oh i know, haechan sexiled me
excuse you my baby doesnt put out until at least the third date
but since it is your place…
would you be willing to keep an eye on them
i was already going to spy on them lol but ill report back
and yangyang def didnt learn that from you
SHUT UP
~~~
Yangyang and Haechan make it twenty minutes gaming in Haechan’s room, all of them nerve wracking and sweat-inducing. There’s no cause-and-effect relationship between those two. It is just incredibly humid. There’s sweat dripping down Yangyang’s temples, his palms are unusually sweaty, and thank God he brought a flannel, because he would rather suffer through the heat than reveal his pit stains. The air conditioning has chosen the first truly sweltering days of summer to break down, and hand fans can only do so much.
“Have you ever been on the roof in this building?” Haechan asks him as the play of the game pops up on their computer screens. Yangyang swallows the lump in his throat and shakes his head. That was a bad idea, as little droplets of sweat fly off the strands of his hair.
“Would you like to go up there? It’s not like anything special but I think anything beats sitting around in an enclosed space right now.” Haechan sounds hesitant, like he thinks Yangyang will think his idea is dumb.
“Yeah totally, man. Maybe there will be a breeze up there or something!” Yangyang responds.
The next round of their game is abandoned and they hurry to locate their shoes and masks. It is when Yangyang pops a squat to lace up his sneakers in order to not crease them that he spots Johnny. The poor man is hunched over, nearly sitting on the ground in the kitchen, attempting to hide behind the counter. His eyes go wide when he realizes Yangyang is staring at him, and frantically gestures for him to remain quiet. Unfortunately for him, Haechan comes right up behind Yangyang, almost tripping over him.
“Johnny-hyung, I’m so glad we ran into you! We need you to carry our snacks for us.”
~~~
Upon seeing the ladder to the roof, Yangyang understands why a Johnny is helpful in situations like these. Its metal frame is straight up, and it would be difficult to not use both hands to climb up. Haechan makes Yangyang go first (“just turn the latch to the right at the top and push up, easy peasy!”) The rods of the ladder are slippery, which is made even worse by his sweaty hands. The latch is not “easy peasy”, but eventually both Yangyang and Haechan are sitting on the roof peering down at Johnny. He’s cradling a watermelon in his left arm, and holding a plastic bag with the other.
“You sure you don’t want to save the watermelon for Mark, Haechan? I know he’s gonna be bummed if someone else eats it.”
“Last time I checked, Mark does not have dibs on every watermelon in the world. Now gimme the goodies, hyung.”
There’s a couple of those collapsible lawn chairs tucked under a tarp, and Haechan drags them out and sets them up. Once again, his nervousness peaks through his cool exterior. First, he faces them towards each other, then shakes his head and moves them to sit adjacently but angled towards each other. He’d handed both the watermelon and bag to Yangyang, so all he can do is watch as Haechan rearranges the chairs to his liking.
It’s now that Yangyang realizes they’ve made a terrible mistake. He’s got a whole watermelon sitting in his lap and no way to open it. He leans over and rustles through the plastic bag with the rest of the snacks, hoping to find something he can attempt to use, but it's to no avail. He’s starting to freak out. Haechan hasn’t realized their predicament, and Yangyang doesn’t want to embarrass himself in front of him. It technically wasn’t his responsibility to bring up a knife but Haechan did hand him the watermelon. He’s probably expecting Yangyang to prepare it for the two of them. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Yangyang dumps out the plastic bag and places the watermelon gingerly on top of it. He moves to kneel on the ground next to it.
“Uh Yangyang, what’re you doing?” Haechan questions, concern rising in his voice. Yangyang can’t read what emotion he’s expressing, but his mouth is slightly open and his eyes are wider than usual.
“Do we have like a knife or something?” Yangyang makes a chopping motion with his hand.
“Crap, I forgot to grab one, I guess we’ll have to skip the watermelon.”
Yangyang punches the watermelon, right down the center of it. Unfortunately, the fruit is not on board with Yangyang’s plan of “try not to embarrass myself”. It’s kinda squashed now, with a bit of red peeking through a slit on the side. He’d really been hoping to cleanly cleave it in two, but this’ll have to do.
“I mean, I guess that works too.”
He’s a gentleman, so Yangyang passes the most normal-looking piece to Haechan before grabbing his own. Yangyang scarfs down his chunk, seeds and all. He hears Haechan gasp. He looks up, eyes wide and juice dripping down his chin.
“Did you just eat the seeds?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“You’re not supposed to do that!”
“Bro, I’m not like five years old, I know a watermelon isn’t going to grow inside me.”
“They still sprout though,” as Yangyang stares at him incredulously, Haechan adds, “It’s true, Johnny hyung told me.”
“Sure, sure, I believe you,” Yangyang responds as he pointedly bites off a piece containing black seeds.
“Okay yeah, whatever. But do you seriously eat the seeds? I’ve never met someone who actually eats them.”
Yangyang smiles wide with a ridiculous amount of teeth.
“Protein.”
“You’re so dumb, oh my god.”
“And you like me, so who’s the dumb one here?”
Shit. Shit. Yangyang had come up with that comeback in his head, but it is so cliche and stupid. Most importantly, he didn’t mean to say it out loud!
“Well, you’re not wrong.”
Yangyang chokes on air. He can’t believe it, Ten was right?! He’d spent all his time worrying that Haechan didn’t like him, that he has no clue what to do now that he does like him. When he looks at Haechan, he can see the same nervousness that he feels in the pit of his stomach. He should probably say something back, right?
“Wow, um, you like me. That’s fine, actually that’s great because I like you too-”
Haechan’s lips are pressed up against his, perhaps a bit too forceful but it doesn’t matter. The kiss tastes sweet from the watermelon with a hint of saltiness from sweat. A hand is holding the nape of his neck, and Yangyang feels like he is melting into his flimsy lawn chair.
When they shyly pull away, Yangyang lets out a breath of sticky air.
“Nice.”
Haechan groans.
“Why do I always fall for the dumb ones?”
“Hey! I bet I’m the least dumb guy you’ve kissed. I opened the watermelon, didn't I!”