Work Text:
“How do I look?”
Jacob squints through the screen. “You could do without the jacket. I know you want to.”
Kevin scoffs. “I do not!” It’s a sheer top and they’re not going to a club. They’re going to a speakeasy. A world of difference.
He doesn’t want to come off as depraved, although truth be told when he’d seen Jaehyun’s profile on Tinder he swiped right so fast he hurt his thumb, and almost dropped the phone altogether when he saw that It’s a match!
But Jaehyun doesn’t need to know that. Kevin only wants Jaehyun to know that he cleans up well and he’s funny and he can give him a good time. Whatever that might mean. So yes, the jacket is necessary.
He’s nervous. It’s just Jaehyun from Sales. Jaehyun whose nose is to die for and who sings in the corridors and who is just so damn tall that it’s unfair. They talk informally and they exchange emails on a biweekly basis, but that’s mostly it. Kevin might be a little in love with him. Or maybe he just thinks he’s really, really hot.
“What’s he like?”
“You know what he’s like.”
“I mean, on dates. How do you know if he’s having a good time? Does he smile a lot? Oh God, is he flirtier than I am?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“No gossip in your department? Really?”
Jacob doesn’t even dignify that with a response. Kevin knows full well that there’s no gossip in Jacob’s department, given that it’s literally just Jacob. How he hasn’t resigned yet is a wonder.
They both didn’t even know Jaehyun was in town. Ever since they started working from home Kevin just assumed he was back in his hometown like everyone else was. He himself only stayed in the city because, well, his hometown is a little farther than normal.
“Okay,” he says, scrutinizing his reflection for the nth time tonight. “I think I’m ready.”
“You said that an hour ago.”
“I hadn’t found my good shirt an hour ago.”
“You mean the slutty shirt–”
“I prefer dressy.”
He feels like a fucking teenager all because of Jaehyun from Sales. Jaehyun, who he’s admittedly been harboring a crush on for the past two years, starting right before the pandemic happened, which was just his luck. It was the least of his problems, but being isolated from the rest of the world due to lockdown made him realize he took a lot of things for granted, including the privilege of seeing his crush every day and getting his fill of that face carved by the gods.
And then, in a truly unexpected turn of events, Jaehyun swiped right on him. And even more shockingly, he had messaged him first. His text read, fancy seeing you here, kevin from design, and Kevin had called Jacob immediately to shriek in his ear.
They exchanged small talk, all while Kevin was still trying to process that he’s literally texting his office crush on Tinder, because they had matched. He’s still wondering if Jaehyun swipes right on everyone he knows, or if he swiped right on Kevin just for laughs. His messages have been safe up until he asked if Kevin was free for drinks this weekend.
And by God, Kevin was free for drinks this weekend.
Some part of him is afraid that Jaehyun only meant to invite him and that he’d get there only to see that it’s a group thing, and decidedly not anything remotely like a date. But Jacob had reasoned that he didn’t mention any other people, which was the polite thing to do, and it would be kind of awkward to have a group drinking session in a speakeasy.
Kevin listened to Jacob, because he usually trusts his judgment. (Though, his fashion advice could use a little work.)
“Is it too much? I could change into the normal shirt–”
“Oh my God, just get on with it.”
They agreed to meet at eight o’clock, and Kevin had plenty of time to get there. It was within walking distance.
He’ll walk slowly, then. He bids goodbye to Jacob — “Finally! Go get your man!” — and he takes the elevator down to the lobby. When he emerges, he sees a familiar figure on one of the couches, and he almost jumps.
“Jaehyun?”
He turns and sees Kevin, and his eyes indicate he’s smiling beneath his mask as he walks over to him.
“What are you doing here? I thought we were supposed to meet there.”
“Wanted to surprise you. You mentioned you lived in this building, and it was nearby anyway.”
“Gosh, you didn’t have to.” Kevin is really going to start sweating now. Jaehyun only does that eye-smile again and lightly places his hand at the small of Kevin’s back as he lets him go out the revolving doors first, and scratch that, Kevin is going to die.
The speakeasy is sparse when they arrive, and Jaehyun leads them to a corner table that’s just a little hidden from view. He’s so relieved; Jacob was right in thinking that it’d really just be them.
A waitress hands them menus, and Kevin orders what he got the first time he went to this place — a coconut cocktail that Jacob had said was too sweet, but was just perfect for Kevin’s taste. Jaehyun orders a vodka sprite.
The waitress walks away and Jaehyun takes off his mask. God, he’s as handsome as Kevin remembered, if not more so. His hair is longer, and Kevin doesn’t know if it’s the dim lighting or even just the fact that he’s staring too hard, but Jaehyun’s lips look so glossy. The possibility of him applying lip gloss for this date (can he call it a date?) is almost too much for Kevin to bear.
“You look really good,” Jaehyun says, and Kevin would’ve choked on his drink if he had one.
“Thanks,” he says, and he’s blushing from the surprise of Jaehyun’s compliment, even though the whole point of this get-up was to look good for him. Some part of Kevin didn’t think it would actually work. “You look—” Handsome. Fuckable. Devastatingly attractive. “—nice.”
Nice doesn’t even begin to cover how Jaehyun looks like in his sleeveless black shirt and single dangly earring, but Kevin knows the value of subtlety. (Has learned it the hard way.) Fortunately Jaehyun only chuckles, saying thanks as well.
This is the part where, if he can’t come up with another topic in three seconds, the silence will stretch on for a little too long and things will get a little bit awkward and Kevin will start overthinking every decision he’s ever made. He blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind.
“So how are sales?”
Stupid, stupid sad excuse for a brain. They were out for drinks, for the first time since the pandemic started, for the first time ever, and Kevin was asking about the company’s goddamn sales — which he doesn’t even give enough of a fuck about on a normal day, much less on a supposed date.
Jaehyun is a saint for entertaining him. “Sales are good.” Kevin thinks he’s just killed his chances before they even led to anything promising, but then Jaehyun’s eyes brighten as he says, “Just between us, we might have enough to give everyone a bonus by the end of the year.”
He just saved the whole thing. “Oh, thank God.”
It’s genuine, too. Kevin’s been saving up for a smartwatch upgrade since he’s been getting more serious about working out lately, and now maybe he’ll finally be able to purchase a better one.
Their drinks arrive, and he wastes no time in lifting his drink to knock it against Jaehyun’s.
They both take a sip of their drinks and then Jaehyun asks, “Should we play a game?”
Kevin can’t help but smile in relief. “What kind of game?”
“Mhm, 20 questions? Truth or drink?”
“Both, then. Truth or drink for 20 questions.”
“Deal. Who’s your office crush?” Jaehyun asks, and Kevin does not choke on air. He’s clutching his glass a little harder, sure, but that’s only because he’s going to lift it up to take a sip from it. Very reasonable.
Jaehyun chuckles and Kevin cannot believe he did that, started off with a question so direct and left him with no way out. Two can play at that game — or at least when Kevin comes up with something better.
So. “Who’s your office crush?”
“Easy. Choi Minho.”
“That’s not fair! Everyone has a crush on him.” Kevin scoffs, because it’s such a cowardly answer. Everyone has a crush on Choi Minho from Legal. It’s a running (non-)joke that even Minho is aware of and actively indulges.
“Still answers the question. My turn!” Jaehyun looks so pleased with himself, and Kevin should stop being so attracted to him. “If you could recruit someone from the company to join Design, who would it be?”
He’s twiddling his thumbs on the glass, looking expectant, and Kevin doesn’t know whether to hide his head in his hands, to scream, or to run out the door. Maybe all three in quick succession. Instead, he ponders the question, which is valid in its own right without the facade of blatant flirtation.
Jacob is his best friend, but Kevin thinks he might not be a good fit for Design. He’d learn well and do a good job at it, but he wouldn’t be passionate about it, not more than he is at his current department.
There’s Eric, who keeps his cubicle squeaky clean but for some reason does not take well to art that’s not abstract at best and just an absolute mess at worst.
Changmin might do well with mixed materials; Juyeon would be too clumsy for the art style that they do.
Chanhee… would be great at it, actually. If only there wasn’t so much history there.
It’s better than giving Jaehyun the answer he so clearly wants. “Chanhee.”
Jaehyun actually pouts, then narrows his eyes. “But aren’t you guys–”
“That’s another question.”
Jaehyun tsks, but doesn’t push it. “Your turn then.”
“What department would you be in, if not Sales?”
Jaehyun doesn’t even miss a beat. “Design.”
Kevin rolls his eyes. “What makes you so sure–”
“My turn now! Is it true that you and Chanhee dated or was that just an unfounded office rumor?”
Kevin is contemplating his three earlier options again, plus a fourth: to just down his drink in one go and not have to answer. But he’d already taken a shot so early on, and he’d hate to seem like such a coward, even when Jaehyun did make him feel like one.
He’ll never admit to that, though. And he figures there’s no harm in confirming it, if people are already talking about it anyway. And he certainly didn’t tell anyone apart from Jacob, who he trusts with his life, so this one’s on Chanhee.
“It’s true.” In his haste to prevent Jaehyun from asking a follow-up, Kevin asks the first question that comes to him. “Fuck, marry, kill: the Design team.”
Oh, he’s done it now. It’s such a standard question at their drinking sessions with other departments that Kevin has forgotten it would be weird in the context of a date, especially a first date, especially one with a member of the department in question. He is truly the dumbest person alive.
In his defense, the Design team is the only department in their company with exactly three members. Kevin is the one with the most seniority, then Hyunjin who came in two years ago, then Renjun, the newest addition to their team. Kevin loves them both, even if they occasionally make hag jokes like he isn’t literally just one or two years older than them respectively.
He’d understand if Jaehyun would want to marry either of them. Hyunjin’s beauty is unparalleled and he has the personality to boot. Renjun has the voice of an angel and is smart as a whip. But he’d hate to hear Jaehyun say he’d kill either of them. Worse, he’d hate to hear Jaehyun say he’d fuck either of them.
So really, Kevin set himself up for this one. And that’s not even accounting for what Jaehyun would assign to him.
He brought this upon himself, so he forces himself to look at Jaehyun, who seems to have been caught off-guard by the question, if the way his eyes have shed just a bit of the mischief that was just there moments ago is any indication.
Kevin waits. He thinks he’s ready for the answer— if Jaehyun would rather kill him it might hurt, but maybe then he’d know better than to expect this will actually go somewhere. If Jaehyun answers that he’d either fuck him or marry him, Kevin thinks he shouldn’t read into it too much. For one, that means Jaehyun would fuck or marry one of his other coworkers too, which he would honestly be unable to shake off easily. For another, he doesn’t even want to think about the implications of Jaehyun saying out loud that he’d fuck him. Let alone marry him. But dear God, what if Jaehyun wanted to fuck him? What then?
“Could I give a partial answer and take a half-shot?”
“That literally defeats the purpose of truth or drink.”
Jaehyun stares hard at him, and he wills himself to hold his gaze, even if the weight of the still unanswered question is threatening to crush him. He has to know in three seconds or he’ll actually set himself on fire.
But then— Jaehyun lifts his glass and drinks.
Kevin’s jaw drops. Whether it’s in shock, in disapproval, or just plain disappointment is beyond him at the moment. “Now that’s just cruel,” he says, hoping it sounds light instead of desperate.
Jaehyun only chuckles, not even addressing his complete shutdown of Kevin’s (perfectly fun!) question. “My turn. Who broke up with whom?”
Of course he’s still on that. Sure, he and Chanhee aren’t on good terms, but Kevin still respects him enough not to spill that easily. Even if it’s for Jaehyun from Sales. (Especially since it’s for Jaehyun from Sales.)
“Angelina divorced Brad.” Jaehyun starts to open his mouth, presumably to groan and argue, so he has about two seconds to think of his next question. “What did you really think of that campaign we did for that politician a couple of months ago?”
Sue Kevin for making it about work, he has to know where Jaehyun stands on these things. It had caused quite a stir when management forced the campaign down their throats, with little to no say from the creative departments. Eventually they complied, when the threat of losing their jobs in the middle of a pandemic suddenly became too real.
“That was utter bullshit. I can’t believe management made you guys do that,” Jaehyun says, and Kevin nearly exhales in an alarming volume. He is so, so relieved. He thinks he’s possibly even more attracted to him now, which is a frightening prospect. He needs to keep things somewhat realistic.
He asks about Jaehyun’s favorite campaigns, which align with Kevin’s favorite ones too. Jaehyun asks about being in Design, but also about his art outside of work; he asks about his music. He apparently remembered that Kevin played piano for one of the company’s Christmas parties years ago.
Kevin should really be more careful — he knows how he gets when he has a crush and he pursues him. He wants and he does it blindly. He starts making excuses for them.
But Jaehyun… really doesn’t seem to have any red flags. (Apart from his apparent ability to do a keg stand, but Kevin supposes it’s negligible in the grand scheme of things. As long as he doesn’t have to witness it with his own two eyes.)
While Kevin is answering Jaehyun’s question on how he would redesign their (dreadful, outdated) company logo, the server informs them they’ll be closing in ten minutes for disinfection, handing them their bill. Jaehyun seems as surprised as he is. He forgot that shops are mostly operating on shorter hours now, when before they’d stay open long enough to see daylight break.
They pay the bill and Jaehyun doesn’t even give Kevin time to get sad about the night ending so early, asking if he’d like to walk with him for a bit before they go back to Kevin’s building. He agrees, and they put their masks back on as they go outside.
It’s not even 11:00pm yet, but the streets are almost deserted. Kevin wonders if this place will ever look the same as it did before, full of strangers he’d commiserate with, friends he’s yet to make. When they could all collectively occupy themselves with getting from point A to point B, even when those destinations had all been different.
But then came the stunning isolation. Immobility. Sometimes Kevin fears all the people in his vicinity just wouldn’t know how to be around each other anymore.
All told, he doesn’t even know if he’s doing well tonight, and it’s just with one person (albeit one who he’s mortifyingly attracted to). He hopes to God that Jaehyun is having a good time. He seems to be, with all the laughs he’s earned this evening, with every answer Kevin gives that lets him see more expressions from Jaehyun than he’s ever witnessed.
He’s down to his last question. He still doesn’t know what their endgame is, here. And Kevin would be fine with that if this was just any date, any first meetup with some dude he met on a dating app. But this is Jaehyun from Sales. He’s going to hate himself forever if he doesn’t at least try. For anything; if Jaehyun asked him to come over, he would willingly oblige.
A second date wouldn’t hurt, either.
“My turn,” Kevin says, sucking in the cold night air in a last-ditch attempt for courage. He has to speak louder so that the sound carries better through this mask, and he hopes he doesn’t butcher it. They don’t even have drinks anymore so the shot is no longer an option, but Jaehyun thankfully doesn’t call him out on it.
“Hit me.”
Here goes nothing, Kevin thinks. “Why’d you swipe right on me?”
He forces himself to look up from the pavement and see how Jaehyun reacts to his question, and he does it in time to see his eyes widen before they crinkle. Kevin wishes he could see that smile.
It feels like ages until Jaehyun responds, but then he stops his already slow stroll, coming to a halt near an abandoned bus stop. He seems to have come to a decision, and Kevin waits beside him.
“I saw the chance and I took it.”
Kevin freezes. His tone is a far cry from the brazen teasing and flirting he had been doing to Kevin just a while ago. “What do you mean?”
Jaehyun dips his head, his eyes still crinkled, ears turning red. “I’m trying to say I like you, Kevin.”
Kevin’s jaw drops. He could barely process that along with the sudden rush of blood in his ears, but Jaehyun keeps going. “I’ve had a crush on you for a while, but there are only so many chances to talk to you in the office, you know? Much less to make a move. And then came–”
He stuffs his hands deep in his pockets and his shoulders sag more than usual, and Kevin wonders if he’s trying to make his tall frame look smaller, and why he would feel the need to do so. It makes his heart lurch. “When I saw your profile, well. It was as good of an opening as I could have hoped for,” Jaehyun finishes.
God, he wishes he could touch Jaehyun, wishes he could take him into his arms and kiss him silly, right here in public, as people were wont to do back when ‘times’ weren’t always preceded by the word ‘trying.’
As trite as it may seem, Kevin thinks he can put his own spin on it.
“Could I ask another question?” he says, stepping closer to Jaehyun, a concession in the absence of physical touch.
Jaehyun looks at him with tentative eyes and nods, and Kevin would love to learn how to read all the things his eyes are trying to say. Then maybe someday — maybe soon — he’ll learn about Jaehyun’s hands. Jaehyun’s mouth. All that they could do to convey what’s in his mind, what’s in his heart. Maybe they’ll learn how to be with each other.
“Would you go out with me again?”
He watches as Jaehyun’s eyes form the loveliest curves, and when he says yes and reaches out to hold Kevin’s hand, he thinks it’s more than just a good opening. He thinks it could stay good for a while yet.