Work Text:
‘j.wooyoung just posted a story’
The notification from Instagram caught Yeosang’s attention. He was mindlessly scrolling through Shopee to buy something that he didn’t know he needed. He stretched out his forefinger to tap the notification and the screen changed from being filled with shades of orange to white, showing the Instagram logo in the middle. The homepage showed a picture of a cat looking out at the window posted by ‘k.hongjoong’. Yeosang could feel the love that Hongjoong had for his cat radiating out just from the post alone. What was the name of the cat again…? Yeosang could only remember that it was something-Hwa. He made a mental note at the back of his mind to ask Hongjoong the next time he sees him. The top of the screen showed circles with purple-reddish frames arranged horizontally, tempting him to press onto them to view their content. However, the only circle that caught his eyes was the one with a picture of a boy holding up a peace sign behind a shopping cart.
Yeosang did not hesitate before tapping on the circle. The screen played the zooming in effect and Yeosang was greeted with a video of a cat meowing that seemed really familiar. It was the same cat that he saw on his home page, something-Hwa. Something-Hwa was looking up from where he was standing and meowed continuously at the camera while the owner of the account cooed at him. Even though Yeosang wasn’t a cat person, something bloomed in his heart as he saw how something-Hwa’s eyes sparkled as they reflected the lights from the ceiling.
So that's where his roommate/ friends for eight years went. Yeosang thought to himself as he stood up from the couch and went to the cupboard to get a lint roller out. He placed it near the shoe rack close to the door. His roommate would return with his clothes full of fur and he would get it everywhere in the apartment. To make sure that his roommate noticed the lint roller, Yeosang walked back to his room to fetch a bright neon yellow post-it with the words “USE THIS!!” written on it and placed it on the shoe rack. Satisfied with the preparation, he resumed back to the same spot on the couch.
‘j.wooyoung posted a story’
His phone that laid face down on the couch made a ding sound. Yeosang brought the said phone up and saw the notification. He pressed on it and the same animation as before played out. This time it was a picture that shook Yeosang’s heart stronger than before. His phone screen showed a selfie of his roommate with something-Hwa squished against his cheeks. From the looks of it, something-Hwa wasn’t enjoying the proximity between him and his roommate. He was one paw away from scratching the hell out of his roommate. Yeosang tap his fingers against the screen to stop the timer and at the same time make the username disappear before screenshotting. A story this cute shouldn’t only exist for merely 24 hours, it should exist for a lifetime. After moving the screenshot into his ‘🦊’ album, he decided that it was time for him to sleep. If his roommate was at Hongjoong’s house, there would be no point waiting as his roommate would spend a long time there. He probably would try to convince Hongjoong to give something-Hwa to him. Yeosang chuckled to himself as he could imagine his roommate trying to lure something-Hwa into his backpack with cat food.
Yeosang slipped into bed and tapped on the gallery icon. He went through the ‘🦊’ album and smiled at the screenshots that he took of his roommate. The album consisted of pictures of his roommate, Wooyoung, both taken and screenshotted by him. It could serve as somewhat an archive of their friendship. Yeosang and Wooyoung had been friends for almost half of his life. Whatever that he went through in life, he would have Wooyoung right by his side. Wooyoung was also many of his firsts: the first overseas trip, the first roommate, the first person he ever cooked for, the first person who ever bought him flowers, and of course, his one and only first love that he just couldn’t get over. Living together with Wooyoung made it even harder to get over his childish feelings that stayed from the age of 14. Yeosang tried to get over him countless times. It was an easy feat when they were still in highschool as he would only see Wooyoung during school hours and occasionally after school hours. But now that they’re in university as roommates, they were together most of the time. This meant that there was less time for Yeosang to force his unfaithful heart to rid of Wooyoung’s existence. He tried. He really did. In the end, Yeosang just gave in. He didn’t see the point of having to force himself to do something against his heart and will. University was already dramatic enough and he didn’t need any other drama in his life apart from that.
The continuous dings from his phone shook Yeosang out from his slumber. He dozed off without realising and his hand was still gripping onto his phone. He groaned as the bright light from his phone pierced his eyes unmercifully. Yeosang blindly reached out for the switch of his bedside lamp and turned it on. He rubbed his hands against his eyes and slowly opened them, giving them time to adjust to the new brightness. Turning back to his phone that was now less glaring than before, he saw several notifications under the time that showed 03:38am.
‘j.wooyoung posted a story’
‘j.wooyoung posted a story’
‘j.wooyoung posted a story’
What? At this time? Really? Yeosang grumbled. Well, he couldn’t really blame his roommate for posting whatever he wanted during the wee hours. The only one he could blame was himself for turning on notification for a certain Instagram account.
Yeosang got up from his sleeping position and hoisted his pillow against the headboard for him to lean on. He pressed the notification right from his lockscreen and immediately he was brought into Instagram. The picture that was shown on his homepage was, again, of something-Hwa doing something like a thumbs up with his front paw and the caption was ‘Good Luck’. Yeosang looked up at the line of circles near the top of his phone to find the same profile picture of a boy holding a peace sign right beside his own profile picture. He tapped on the circle and the top showed that the grey line was broken into five parts, indicating that there were two stories prior to the flush of stories that woke him up.
His phone screen showed a picture of the lint roller that he placed hours before on the shoe rack with a caption ‘lmao thanks @k.yeosang’. The next story was a video of his roommate rolling the lint roller furiously against his shirt and before it ended he heard his roommate say ‘Yeo, you happy now?’. Hearing the sound of his nickname rolled out from the lips of his roommate made his face heat up. Stupid Wooyoung. Stupid Wooyoung and his stupid voice and his stupid self that can’t help but melt at merely the sound of his roommate. Yeosang tapped his phone to the left so the screen will show the picture of the lint roller again before tapping it to the right so that the video can be replayed. ‘Yeo, you happy now?’. YES! Yeosang felt like wanting to scream at the top of his lungs but decided against it. He didn’t want his neighbours knocking his door tomorrow or leaving notes in front of his door.
Yeosang almost dropped his phone when the next story showed his roommate’s face staring directly at the screen. The caption that came along with the picture was, ‘Gotcha’. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes from the cheekiness of his roommate. When the next story appeared, it was a video of his roommate’s face.
“Hi.” His roommate started. ”I know it’s getting late and I don’t think you will see it.”
Yeosang was confused, why wouldn’t his followers see his story if it was posted. Regardless of time, it would be available for his followers to look at for 24 hours. Then, he noticed the green box with a white star at the top right of the screen. What? So this story was for his close friends?
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while…” His roommate continued hesitantly as he bit his lips. All Yeosang wanted to do was to gently unfold his roommate’s lips with his fingers, not wanting those pretty lips to be marked by his teeth.
His roommate was quietly staring at the video and the next story started playing.
“I think- no, I am sure that I like you. I like you a lot… so much that I don’t know how to explain it, let alone say it in front of you. Call me a coward if you want. So here I am, at 3am on Christmas morning.”
Something in Yeosang’s heart sank. He felt he was invading his roommate’s privacy. His roommate was planning to confess to whoever that lucky person was and he happened to forget to remove Yeosang out from his close friends list. This should be the special moment between his roommate and his special someone and somehow Yeosang got wound up in this touching confession. He couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of jealousy for that special someone.
“Willyougoonachristmasdatewithme?” His roommate said the last part in one short breathe and the story ended. The screen went back to the picture of something-Hwa with his front paws up. The heavy feeling settled in his heart. He knew that this day would eventually come but he didn’t know that it would be this soon. He really had to start working on getting over his roommate…properly this time. He wouldn’t want his roommate’s special person to be uncomfortable around him. But first, he needed to tell his roommate about the close friend list.
Yeosang swiped to the left to enter the direct message and clicked on the first chat, ‘j.wooyoung’.
k.yeosang: hello woo
k.yeosang: merry christmas btw
j.wooyoung: merry mas mas yeo
j.wooyoung: but wow yeo didn’t know youre awake lol
k.yeosang: yea i decided to stay up to countdown to christmas
k.yeosang: yk u and ur dumbass forgot to remove me from the close friend list
k.yeosang: dude pls remove me i don’t need to witness this sappy moment
j.wooyoung: omg my bad
j.wooyoung: but i didn’t forget tho
Yeosang raised his eyebrows. What did his roommate mean? He decided to stay put as he saw the three dots moving up and down from his roommate's side of the chat.
A few minutes passed and he still didn’t receive any reply from his roommate.
k.yeosang: woo?
j.wooyoung: sry took some time idk how to explain this to you here look at it urself
A screenshot of his roommate’s profile picture and a gray box at the bottom.
‘j.wooyoung 1.3k followers 1 close friend’
Yeosang didn’t understand why his roommate would screenshot his profile for him to see. Was it to show his popularity? but for what?
k.yeosang: … and? yea dude u have a lot of followers good for u
j.wooyoung: OH MY GOD. I CANT BELIEVE U R SO DAMN DENSE!
k.yeosang: stop screaming at me
k.yeosang: i just dgi
j.wooyoung: do i have to lay everything out for u?
j.wooyoung: i can get shy too yk
j.wooyoung: ugh fine for the sake of my christmas date
Another picture was sent into the chat. The top of the picture showed ‘Close friends’ and the only user that was listed under it was ‘k.yeosang’.
k.yeosang: yea? im your only close friend what about it?
j.wooyoung: r u for real?
j.wooyoung: do i really have to spell it out for u?
Yeosang was so lost. What does him being the only close friend listed in his roommate’s close friend list, have to do with…
…
…
Oh.
OHHHHHH WHAT THE ACTUAL F—- Yeosang quickly censored himself as he didn’t want to curse on Jesus’ birthday.
His heart was beating against his chest so hard that if he were to look down he would probably see his chest moving along with the beat of his heart. He could also feel his fingers getting clammy from the heat that suddenly crept up from nowhere. So.. his roomma- no his crush is.. confessing to him? That Jung Wooyoung, his friend and crush for eight years, is confessing to him, Kang Yeosang?
j.wooyoung: yeo?
k.yeosang: what
j.wooyoung: so what’s ur answer?
Yeosang could feel his face burning from what was slowly unfolding in front of him. What was he supposed to answer? After the realisation, his brain was working at its max capacity to process the new information that he just received. Now, he didn’t know how to respond to his crush, so he just went with…
k.yeosang: answer to what?
j.wooyoung: OMGGGGGGGGGGG
j.wooyoung: THAT’S IT
j,wooyoung: IM COMING OVER
He was today years old when he discovered one new thing about himself: his hidden ability to move from his bed to the door within a flash. He was also today years old when he discovered that his crush is a step faster than him. When Yeosang was about to lock the door, the door knob twisted and his crush was standing right in front of him.
“Hi.” was what he said the moment their eyes met.
“Hello.” His crush was grinning widely when he replied. All of a sudden, his arms were feeling extremely extra. He didn’t know where to put them and his hands were also getting even more clammy. Yeosang suddenly found the corner of his room more interesting than his crush who was standing in front of him. He could no longer hold eye contact with his crush.
“So…did you see my IG story?” A warm hand reached out to take one of his clammy ones.
“Yea.”
“What do you think?”
What did he think? Yeosang wasn’t sure how he could respond in such a way that he could condense all the feelings that he had for the boy in front of him for eight years. To him, a mere, ‘Yes, let’s go out.’ wouldn’t do his feelings justice.
Yeosang didn’t realise that he was facing down, inspecting his toes until his face was gently guided upward until his eyes were back locking with the deep brown eyes. The mole beside his crush’s left eye, now that Yeosang closely inspected it, managed to complement his crush’s face. He used all his strength to stop himself from leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on the said mole. Well, he could save it for another time.
“I don’t want to be talking to the crown of your head.”
“Yea, I wouldn’t want to be confessing to the floor either.” Yeosang couldn’t help but joke. He hoped that his joke would lessen the tension that he was feeling in the air. Which worked as his crush started laughing.
“So you want to confess something to me?” After managing to calm himself down from Yeosang’s retort, his crush decided to subtly pressure him for an answer.
“Yea. I have been secretly throwing your leftovers that you left in the fridge.”
“Me too. Wait.. WHAT? So you didn’t eat them but you threw them away?” Yeosang bit his lips to stop himself from laughing. To him, it was funny how the warmth in Wooyoung’s eyes hardened from Yeosang’s confession. Wooyoung must have thought that Yeosang was going to say something along the line of ‘Yea. I have been secretly crushing on you for the past eight years.’. That’s why his initial response was ‘Me too’.
“Yeap. I threw them away. If you didn’t know, you have this habit of stacking leftovers up in the fridge and never going back to them. I had to throw them away to save our poor fridge from overflowing.”
“But they’re still edible. You’re wasting food, Yeo.” Wooyoung’s eyebrows knitted closer together and he was frowning.
“That’s why, Woo, from tomorrow onwards, after we go out for our Christmas date, let’s try to have meals together as much as we can? So that there will be little leftover.” Yeo gave Wooyoung’s hand a gentle squeeze and smiled at him.
“Yes. That would work. WAIT WHAT? A CHRISTMAS DAT--”
“Shhhh, Woo. You’re too loud. You probably gave poor old Santa a heart attack while he was climbing down our chimney.”
“You! You’re so tricky. You had this planned out in your head didn’t you.”
Without answering, Yeosang stepped closer to Wooyoung while leaning towards him. He reached out to the thing that caught his eyes that was hanging at the back of his door. When he managed to retrieve it, he was faced with Wooyoung who was closing his eyes in anticipation.
“Why are you closing your eyes?”
“I-I thought that y-you were going to…”
“Yes. I was going to but we were missing a prop.” Yeosang interrupted the stumbling Wooyoung and lifted the thing that he was holding.
“Oh my god, really? A mistletoe? My boyfriend is so sappy.” Wooyoung rolled his eyes.
“What? We need to stick to the theme since it's Christmas. And as if you were not sappy at all. Confessing to me through IG story? Wow.” Yeosang countered nonchalantly as he lifted the mistletoe above their heads.
“It was Hongjoong’s idea, okay. Now that we’re under the mistletoe, can I get my ki-” Yeosang leaned in and placed a quick peck on Wooyoung’s lips.
“Hey. Not fair. I was supposed to be the one who get to kiss you first.” Wooyoung’s eyes widened from Yeosang’s suddenly attack and he pouted from losing the one and only opportunity of getting to kiss first in the relationship.
“Uhhh, it takes two mouths to kiss? So there’s no first or secon-” Yeosang’s words were cut as, it was interrupted by Wooyoung’s lips on his. As their lips brushed against one another gently, Yeosang could feel the butterflies in his stomach fluttering their wings rapidly in response to the quick beats of his heart. Yeosang lowered the hand that he was holding the mistletoe and gently placed it at the back of Wooyoung’s neck. He could feel an arm wrapping around his own waist pulling him closer to its owner.
They broke free for a moment and whispered against each other’s lips.
“Merry Christmas, Woo.”
“Merry mas mas, Yeo.”