Work Text:
“Virtual classes suck.”
The first thing that leaves Kai’s lips the moment he plops down on his sofa makes his roommate raise his eyebrow.
“Coming from you?” Soobin snickers like he doesn’t believe Kai’s complaining about taking virtual classes. Kai should really take offense, but life really do be like that sometimes, and so he simply shrugs.
In all honesty, Soobin’s not wrong. Both of them were homebodies, which was why they melded so well together. Well enough to be roommates. Apart from that, they were worlds apart. Complete opposites.
Owing to his modeling side-career, Soobin was a fashionista and Kai, not so much. Kai doesn’t really care about fashion. As embarrassing as it is, throwing on a shirt that didn’t have one too many holes was the maximum amount of effort he spared on a regular day.
Which meant virtual classes were welcome. Waking up five minutes just before his class and throwing on a random shirt that looked semi-decent was a good plan.
But his scorn for hybrid classes made its appearance during his first virtual lecture for his Southeast Asian art history class.
You see, Kai is a typical college student. Which means he’s incredibly nosy. And so as with every virtual class, the first thing he did on the first lecture was click lazily into the gallery view just to get a quick scan of his classmates.
What? Everyone looks for some sort of class eye candy. It's part of the College Experience and Kai fully partakes in it even virtually.
And that's when Kai saw him. Saw the guy of his dreams in that tiny rectangle slapped among a sea of other tiny people. Fluffy blonde hair falling over his eyes, he was tough to miss. But it was that pretty, coy smile that graced his features as the professor inserted a terribly cringey 2009 9GAG level meme in his slides, that really left Kai in awe.
Tiny, handsome guy trapped in the little rectangle leaned backwards, granting the other peasants a full view of his sleek, form fitting black shirt. It was great. Really. Except Kai suddenly grew extra conscious of the square of dried toothpaste that'd stained his crumpled shirt earlier as he rushed for class.
He sank a little lower in his chair. In a sea of over fifty small people, he doubted anyone would actually take notice of him anyway.
Shamelessly, and also because no one was around to judge him anyway, Kai went on to pin that dude's little video just so he'd always have someone to look at when class got dry. Not weird at all. Kai rationalized it to be the equivalent of sending discreet glances at someone good looking in a physical class. It wasn't like he was doing anything illegal anyway.
And then his gaze lingered at the tiny text which allowed him to put a name to that dashing face.
Choi Yeonjun.
Nice.
But that was also the start of his bemoaning of virtual classes because was this the universe's way of standing in between the two of them? What happened to college cliches where he'd see Yeonjun smiling on campus, walking in slow motion as he laughed and chatted with one of his friends, flower petals falling everywhere?
Kai never managed to see Yeonjun whenever he had to go to campus which was simply illegal. He just knew Yeonjun would look a million times more handsome than he already was without being stuffed into a tiny rectangle and having pixels follow his movement like a 144p video.
Yeonjun felt unreal. Not just his attractiveness, but also because Kai couldn't see him and touch him and get to know him.
Or maybe he could. And he just didn't have the balls to.
-
Kai might not have the balls to send his virtual class crush a private message to get to know him.
But what he does have the balls to do, is quietly and respectfully peruse Yeonjun’s social media feed. With his burner account of course. No one would ever know who @soobsflatass is even if he makes the stupid mistake of accidentally liking some of Yeonjun’s posts. So maybe he isn't all that ballsy even in that aspect.
That aside, what he finds is that Yeonjun is extremely on it with fashion trends. With an impeccably curated feed filled with shots of him flaunting his sleek wardrobe. Upside down angle and all that fancy shit. Almost on Soobin’s level.
And then something occurs to Kai. Maybe he doesn’t have the balls to drop Yeonjun a DM. But with a human wardrobe living with him, he does have the ability to dress up. Not exactly. But he has a wholeass Choi Soobin living with him.
Surely that would help.
-
It does help.
But after crazy rounds of endless teasing from Choi Soobin of all people. Choi Soobin who’d never even been in a relationship with anyone either.
What a joke.
Regardless, he emerges victorious to a certain extent because Soobin lets him take anything he wants from his closet.
There’s just a little problem though. A little problem in the form of his lack of fashion sense. So maybe he isn’t too put together and planning outfits for a Zoom class may be out of his job description as a fulltime homebody.
But he figures Soobin’s branded shit can’t go wrong. From what he gathered from his rigorous research, Yeonjun was often decked out in designer brands.
Recalling a few brand names, he makes an effort to try and match Yeonjun’s fits against his more recent posts. If he can’t find the exact piece in Soobin’s wardrobe – not surprising because Soobin always fails him even when he isn’t physically around, he settles for the same brand. Maybe he accidentally likes them too.
But with Yeonjun’s following spanning a little over 5,000, he doubts that one like from user soobsflatass on a few photos would even be noticeable.
Gritting his teeth, Kai rotates through a cycle of Givenchy’s puke green floral print silk dress – which he is nearly a hundred percent sure only looked good on Yeonjun, not even Soobin too bad –, some ugly Moschino shirt which looked like Gordon Ramsey tried their hand at collage art, and most recently some Gucci shirt with a V-neck that dipped a little too low to be appropriate.
It takes the professor flashing an artwork of a fruit basket on the day he's wearing a terribly gaudy Dior shirt with fruits plastered all over it for him to realize he should start using his brain before ripping anything off the closet.
Growing self-conscious with each second that stupid fruit basket stares back at him on the screen, Kai starts slowly sliding further and further down his seat as inconspicuously as possible till his shirt was mostly out of the frame. As if in blatant mockery, Yeonjun chooses the day to be awfully cheerful, a bright grin slapped across his handsome features.
Illegal.
-
Soobin takes the most surprise on finding out Kai's still on his impress-my-zoomclass-crush mission even after a little over a month.
Borderline insulting because Kai is nothing but committed.
On this fine day, he simply can’t keep his eyes off that tiny rectangle which Choi Yeonjun exists in – that tiny rectangle where his coursemate looks so stunningly pretty, gorgeous, as he listens to the professor intently, an occasional smirk gracing his lips.
Stupid webcam classes just had this stupid ability of making Kai feel like Yeonjun’s eyes were on him even though he knows they really aren't.
He sighs dreamily, propping his head up with one arm while ignoring the way the stiff fabric of Soobin's Hermes jacket strains against his bent arm. Branded goods really did a great job of being terribly uncomfortable clothes. He wonders how Soobin even moved in these.
Speak of the bloody devil. A yell of his name across the dorm rips him out of his lovely ogling session and his jaw tightens naturally. Fucking Choi Soobin.
“Kamal Kai! Did you take my Hermes jacket? I swear to god–” Soobin stomps through the dorm and Kai practices his deep breathing intensely, double checking that he’s muted.
And then the stomping stops, but Kai’s relief is short-lived because Soobin pokes his head into his room, staring right at him. Even from the tiny rectangle reflecting his own camera, Kai can literally see the cogs spinning in his roommate’s head.
“Get out of my shot!” he yells, one hand covering his mouth so he doesn’t look distracted. Wouldn’t want to get called out in front of fifty tiny humans living in his Macbook.
“This isn’t a photoshoot! There’s no shot!”
Despite the instant bite back, an amused shit-eating grin is slapped across Soobin’s face and Kai contemplates the possibility of just turning off his camera and turning round to kick his roommate out.
“Are you wearing my Hermes jacket to a fucking Zoom class?” Soobin sounds like he’s on the verge of bursting out into laughter. “Ever heard of being overdressed?”
“Get. Out of my shot Soobin. Everyone can fucking see your stupid ass,” he grits out, but Soobin only steps right into his room and gosh he’s literally tall enough to be cut from the camera angle. Fucking beanstalk.
One second is all Kai has to make sure he’s inconspicuous and muted, before he shuts off his camera and swerves Soobin’s attack.
“I appreciate the effort in trying to impress your virtual crush but I. Need. The. Jacket. I’m going on a date!”
Kai screams loudly as he fails to avoid Soobin’s attack, getting tackled to the ground ungracefully and having the jacket ripped right off him.
“Fuck your date! What about my happiness?!”
“I’m saving you from being judged! That’s real happiness, you should thank me!” Soobin screeches, emerging victorious from the scuffle and wielding the stupid jacket like a trophy.
Kai grumbles, climbing back up his chair in shame. “Okay get the fuck out, I hope your date stands you up and if they don’t, I hope they say your jacket looks bad on you.”
With that, he has no choice but to quickly flick his head around to salvage his messed up hair before rushing to turn his cam on before his disappearance grew noticeable. The heat rises to his cheeks on realizing he’s back to attending class with a shitty plain tee. How embarrassing.
Soobin pokes his head back in, winking at him and Kai has to resist the urge to retch, flipping his roommate off behind his back, though his cheeks still burn red hot from the embarrassment and Soobin’s judgment.
With the ruckus finally passing, Kai’s eyes travel instinctively to Yeonjun’s little rectangle – muscle memory indeed – only to find his eyebrows furrowed into a frown.
Huh. Well, Southeast Asian art history isn’t the easiest, he guesses. Honestly, Southeast Asian art history really isn’t the easiest and Kai forces himself to stay focused, actually listening to the lecture for the sake of his education and to make the best out of the shocking tuition fee he has to pay for freaking Zoom university.
-
Silver linings exist and Kai thanks every god in existence for helping make his dreams a reality.
Because his lecturer calls for an in-person lecture at one of the college museums.
Kai begs Soobin to help him pick out an outfit that wouldn’t have him get made fun of. His menace of a roommate enlists his squad of (two) model friends to come and make fun of him instead.
To their credit and none to Soobin, Beomgyu and Taehyun actually seriously help him put together a decent outfit.
Alas, the duo stay for drinks and Kai succumbs to peer pressure. Which means he ends up rushing to the museum in a hurry the next morning, looking all banged up and not really thirst trap-worthy at all.
Beomgyu, in his hungover state passes him a pair of his own Bvlgari sunglasses – the one with the pretty gold logo – smacking a wet kiss on Kai’s cheek and going on about modern day dating happening on fucking Zoom before he passes out on Soobin’s stomach.
So Kai barely pulls on some black silk shirt Taehyun had picked out the day before, while saying Saint Laurent could never go wrong with some jeans. Beomgyu said those jeans made his ass look good but in reality, as he runs into the museum barely making it for the roll call, he thinks his blood circulation is being cut off. He also probably looks like a rich middle aged mother with the sunglasses and all that get-up but he’d sooner pass away than sport these ugly eyebags in front of Yeonjun.
Yeonjun who he doesn’t even manage to find in the sea of over fifty people, some trickling in slowly after him. In fact, with the sunglasses dimming his vision and the effects of running after a hangover hitting him slowly like cloying cotton candy, all Kai can focus on is the dying need to stop himself from throwing up in the middle of class.
The professor’s words which never seem to cease give him a pounding headache and he barely follows the pack as they flit from artwork to artwork. It truly sucked. Because it might not seem so, but Kai truly loves art history and Southeast Asian art history had a lot more to dive into apart from his sexy classmate on Zoom. And here he was holding in his puke.
He barely notices that the professor has left them to explore the museum on their own, standing rooted to the ground and finding himself staring dumbly at the exact fruit bowl painting from his embarrassing outfit clash episode.
“You have an affinity for fruits huh.”
Kai turns sharply to find Choi Yeonjun in the flesh. The following sequence of events can only be described as a disaster. Because he nearly throws up from the surprise, letting go of his notebook, the resonating thud drawing eyes from the near vicinity.
Dropping to his knees quickly to pick it up and avoid eye contact from everyone proves too much for his hungover self and his world spins, bile surging dangerously to his throat.
He stands up and stumbles. Fuck.
Yeonjun reaches out to steady him, only for Kai to thrust his notebook and pen into his hands, unable to even utter a word lest he throws up. With that, he bursts into the direction of the toilet, hand clutching his chest while he prays no one notices the catastrophe.
Violent retches and an ice cold face wash later, he emerges from the toilet half dead but less dead than earlier. And the amused grin Yeonjun greets him with brings the heat right to his cheeks.
He coughs, adjusting the sunglasses sitting on his nose.
“I’m terribly sorry,” he mumbles, retrieving his notebook and pen awkwardly with a mock salute. He has no idea what he’s doing.
“It’s okay. Rough night?”
“You tell me.”
Yeah he has no idea what the fuck he’s doing.
Yeonjun laughs anyway and they meander back to the museum. Kai has no idea what to say, stewing in his embarrassment. Why the fuck is Yeonjun following him? Does he even know him?! Why has God decided to do this to him today?
“I’m Yeonjun by the way.”
“Yup.”
And then he smacks himself on the forehead mentally.
“I mean yeah. I totally didn’t know that. I’m Kai by the way.”
Yeonjun smiles a little smugly.
“Cool. Are you feeling better though?” The other man looks a tad concerned and he feels bad. Tipping his sunglasses down to reveal his eyebags and bloodshot eyes in comically mournful fashion, he pouts.
“Awful.”
Yeonjun only laughs and Kai thinks liquid courage really has lingering effects even after a whole night.
“What’s your major, by the way?”
“Second year art history major, welcome to my humble abode,” he pauses, “oh unless.”
He gets a smile in return. “You’re right though. Fourth year design major. Your abode has been pretty interesting.”
For some godforsaken reason, they end up in front of the horrifying fruit piece again and Kai feels himself having some sort of beef with the piece on display.
“Ah Georgette, my friend, you have it out for me,” he mutters quietly under his breath lest Yeonjun thinks he’s even weirder than he already is.
The other man giggles beside him and it’s both a pretty sight and also a humiliating response now that he’s been caught. Though Yeonjun’s comment earlier before he went to throw up suddenly rings in his ears.
“You should’ve matched with this work again today.”
Kai blanches before realization sets in.
What the heck?!
-
Yeonjun always manages to catch him doing the most embarrassing things.
After that fateful encounter in museum, he’d gone home in a daze to find Beomgyu and Soobin cuddled on the couch and Taehyun nowhere to be seen – gross because what did Beomgyu see in that gremlin – and then proceeded to scream incoherently, scaring the absolute shit out of the pair.
Soobin threatened murder, thinking Yeonjun had been mean to Kai, only for it to escalate into guffaws the moment he recounted everything. Beomgyu calling Zoom modern day Grindr didn’t help either.
So Kai has now been living for a grand total of three days with the awareness that Yeonjun had definitely noticed him. Well it was embarrassing but at least he was noticed wasn’t he? Maybe that meant mutual… Interest?
He hopes.
But Yeonjun really always manages to catch him at his lowest. Because this time, he’s begrudgingly getting groceries for his useless bum of a roommate after losing some stupid rock paper scissors game he’s sure was rigged. He doesn’t know how anyone can rig rock paper scissors but he has that little faith in Soobin.
It’s not the grocery store setting that embarrasses him.
It’s the fact that Yeonjun materializes in the aisle in front of him with a look of surprise at the exact moment he’s shoveling packs of Pororo animal biscuits into his cart, grumbling about the price.
If you pretend you do not see, they do not exist.
Why did Yeonjun have to catch him at his absolute worst? At his absolute worst with his uncombed hair, day old sweatpants with old food stains somewhere, and most of all. Fucking crocs. He throws in more packs of Pororo biscuits into his trolley. The horrifying penguin charm on his crocs grins back mockingly at him.
He’d love to have a meet-cute scenario with Yeonjun on literally any other day.
“Kai?”
Good fucking luck to his sanity.
He turns to Yeonjun slowly, eerily, a grim smile plastered on his face.
“Yeonjun.”
“Fancy seeing you here,” Yeonjun beams and Kai thinks there’s nothing fancy about meeting a horrifyingly dressed down Kai in a grocery store.
He settles for a stiff nod.
“Yep. Fancy.”
“You’re here alone?” Yeonjun comments, doing a poor job of hiding how he is actively surveying the contents in Kai’s basket.
“Yup? Who else would I be with?” Kai jokes in response but he simply wants the ground to swallow him up. Imagine the love of your life watching you pile packs of Pororo biscuits and the cheapest ramen available into your cart. He dies inside when he does a quick scan of the vegetables and fresh fruit in the other man's basket.
Yeonjun looks at him awkwardly, befuddling him.
"Your… Boyfriend?”
Kai tilts his head.
"My what?"
“I thought… I thought the model guy was your… Boyfriend?”
“Huh? You know Soobin?”
Hesitantly, Yeonjun nods. “I’ve seen him at some events. I style models occasionally.”
Kai stares back blankly. He’d literally seen his Instagram feed, yet didn’t manage to put two and two. And then it sinks in.
“What the fuc– Hell no!” Kai bends forward, mimicking exaggerated retching noises, startling the other man.
Kai makes it a point to gag one last time and put on the most disgusted expression he can muster.
“Hell. No,” – another gag – “Soobin's my roommate. Like an annoying brother. Period.”
Yeonjun stares back for a moment before scratching his neck, an embarrassed smile playing on his lips.
“Sorry, I misunderstood when I saw him enter your room one time during class.”
Kai gets instant war flashbacks of being brutally tackled to the ground and he shudders before processing how things would’ve looked like to any outsider. Suddenly shut off cam… Returning with his jacket gone and hair in a mess… Maybe the reddened cheeks from being utterly embarrassed…
Gross oh god.
“Yeah. No. He was just. Uhm. Snatching his jacket back from me because he wanted to wear it on a date. It was violent. And not in a sexy way.” He scrunches his face and Yeonjun lets out a loud exhale.
“Nice.”
“Right.”
He feels his ears burn up when he realizes Yeonjun just implied that he had noticed him. Oh god.
He coughs abruptly. “Right, aite. I’m gonna just head to check out.”
Nodding with a little smile, Yeonjun trails beside him, a tiny step behind.
And awkward minutes pass before he reaches his limit. By then, they’re out of the store and Kai chews on his lip before dramatically spinning to his side and clutching Yeonjun by his shoulders.
“Please. Never. Think. I am in any way involved with that flat ass Soobin. I would rather eat thumbtacks,” – he pauses for a moment – “that was a little morbid. I mean. Just no. Not that stupid flat ass. Thank you.”
He heaves a sigh of relief, letting go of Yeonjun before realizing how weird that sounded. The other man merely stares back wide-eyed for long drawn out seconds, blinking and Kai nearly apologizes before Yeonjun breaks into an amused grin, laughing lightly.
And he’s so beautiful, Kai feels the heat creeping to his cheeks just from being allowed to look at someone that gorgeous. Can he really look at Yeonjun laugh so enchantingly all for free?
“Is there something on my face?”
Damn.
Kai coughs awkwardly to save his own ass. “Nope, nope, not at all.”
And then he regrets that because he should totally have said yes there is, like your face is dripping with handsomeness, sexy. But that would be way off the vibe he wants to exude and he doesn't want to be branded a lecherous lothario by his crush. Especially after he’s already been caught doing an alarming plethora of embarrassing things.
So maybe it’s not regret that settles in the little crannies of his heart as silence falls over them as they continue walking quietly. It’s probably yearning. A bit like a high schooler having a little crush, and hoping the object of their affections will turn their way.
Yeonjun makes Kai feel like a bumbling high schooler.
“I’m headed to the carpark,” Yeonjun says softly, though he lingers. And Kai feels the urge to ask him out on a date there and then. Except, one look down at his inexcusably deplorable Crocs and the three-day-old pizza sauce stain on his sweatpants has him shoving the thought aside.
“I’m uhm– Walking back to the apartments behind,” he bumbles while standing there awkwardly.
Eventually, Yeonjun inhales deeply and steps forward. Excuse Kai for short circuiting because he is only one whipped man.
"Kai." There's a long pause and Kai waits with bated breath.
"Would you like to go on a date with me now? Uhm. Get a coffee? Go on a walk? I don't know," Yeonjun rasps out and Kai's heart nearly stops.
A surprised smile blooms across his own features without warning. Now he really wasn't reading those homoerotic nervous signs wrong! Suck that Soobin!
But there's a bigger problem and his cheeks burn crimson.
"I'm uh… I'm not exactly dressed appropriately for any sort of date, and well." He lifts up his bag of ramen.
Yeonjun shrugs. "I have a car."
"And no one said you have to dress up for a date. You look cute like this." Kai's heart literally stutters and he thinks he should see a doctor soon.
Adjusting his glasses, Yeonjun grins amusedly and leans forward.
"Besides, you've been trying your best to dazzle me with your fashion for the past few months, soobsflatass."
With a mischievous wink from Yeonjun, Kai nearly falls to the ground in humiliation, sputtering.
The other man only laughs, though it isn't unkind.
"I think it's obvious but I do think you're really cute too. I mean you can say no, of course, but if you're willing, I'd love to take you on a date now. Otherwise, another day would work for me too." Yeonjun's hand finds his, slotting their fingers together gently, his full lips pulled into a pretty smile.
Heart pounding, Kai looks down at his feet. The cute limited-edition penguin charm sitting innocuously on his Crocs smiles back at him. Suddenly, everything's much more simple and he finds himself tangling his fingers with Yeonjun’s warm ones.
Lifting his head back up to take in Yeonjun’s hopeful smile, Kai beams back just as warmly.
"Well, surprise me."