Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The second Beomgyu wakes he knows his day isn’t about to start easy. The bed next to him is empty, albeit the warmth of a person who was sleeping there still clinging to the fabric of his sheets. His scent is surrounding Beomgyu as he slowly takes his surroundings in. Soobin forgot to open the windows again.

It’s fine, it isn’t the end of the world but Beomgyu has asked him at least a hundred times to open it if he wakes up earlier than Beomgyu but the older has continuously forgot to do so even though he always holds Beomgyu’s hands the night before and with a playful smile he promises again and again. It’s fine. This is fine.

Beomgyu stretches in his bed, at least he doesn’t have to be considerate of another body while doing so, and gets up from under the covers. His vision is blurry without his contacts at first, but he routinely picks up his pair of glasses and soon everything comes into focus. And oh, how Beomgyu wishes it didn’t.

Dirty laundry piles around their room and pieces of clothing are thrown haphazardly onto the humper waiting for their turn to be washed. Washed by Soobin that is. Because it is his turn. Has been for the past week, evident of the sheer volume of their unwashed clothes. Beomgyu groans and decides to just ignore it once again and decides to just wash his face, maybe that will raise his spirit a little. 

He slowly makes his way to their shared bathroom and flicks the lightswitch on only to be met with nothing. Darkness. Soobin did not change the lightbulb. Who would have thought his ever loving boyfriend would ever forget such a thing. 

“Soobin!” Beomgyu hollers this time. “You forgot to change the lightbulb in the bathroom!”

“I’m sorry babe, I’ll do it after breakfast!” comes Soobin’s voice and Beomgyu can’t help but roll his eyes. He heard that exact sentence yesterday too. 

Soobin is forgetful. Very much so. But his heart is just so big, promises keep pouring out of him, and he means them. He means them every single time, Beomgyu knows him enough to not have a single sliver of doubt about it. But he can’t help but be annoyed today, because today, he just happened to forget everything.

He manages to splash some water on his face anyway and opts to not go through his skincare now, knowing damn well that the toothpaste and his sunscreen have a very similar shape in the dark, and so fearing the worst he just joins Soobin in the kitchen.

“Hey Gyu,” Soobin greets him as he’s shoveling food into his mouth. There’s only one plate in front of him. Beomgyu just stares at him.

“Did you seriously forget to make me breakfast?” he deadpans. Soobin just looks at him with a shocked expression and it would be adorable if it weren’t for the fact that *he did*.

“No,” Soobin lies, and quickly pushes his plate of half eaten scrambled eggs to Beomgyu’s side. Beomgyu just laughs at this point and decides to fuck it and sits down to dig in.

“I’ll rate you a two out of ten maximum,” Beomgyu says around a bite of eggs. Soobin snorts.

“Thanks babe, I love you too.”

Beomgyu smiles. Soobin is annoying and forgetful and he gets under Beomgyu’s skin every so often. But he’s also so full of love, would never hurt a single soul intentionally. And Beomgyu loves all of this about him. “I love you more,” he replies and Soobin just smiles at him before standing up to make another portion of scrambled eggs.

Chapter Text

Beomgyu closes the door behind himself as he walks into the little café. The establishment invites him in like an old friend, furniture always in its usual place, familiar faces amongst the customers sipping away on their coffees. Beomgyu knows some of their names too, and even a little of their lives. 

Like the pair that always sits by the window in front of one another typing away on their computers. They have been married for the better half of a decade now and are both working on a new book respectively. Beomgyu also recognizes a teenage girl with an unfamiliar boy and Beomgyu has an inkling that it might be Taekhyeon whom he’s heard of on many occasions. The young girl has a lovely blush on her cheekbones and is fidgeting in her seat but she seems so content that Beomgyu can’t help but smile.

Then there’s Mr. Park at his usual table, the kind single-mother of two at another and many more. There’s also someone special behind the counters.

“Hey! What can I get you today?” the cheerful boy asks Beomgyu once he walks up to the cash register. Beomgyu thinks to change up his order like he always does, but eventually decides to just get a cappuccino - like he always does. 

“Is it for here or to take away?” the other asks. Beomgyu orders it for here like always as his eyes lazily gaze over the barista's nametag reading Kai all in big capital letters.

“Awesome.” the employee muses. “Can I get a name?” And this part always hurts just like it did the last time, just like it does every single day he visits the cafe. 

“Beomin,” He settles for. He always starts out with Beom, his first name easily falling from his lips. His second name though, it lodges itself deepninto his throat making it impossible for him to continue. It is only two syllables: * Beom-Gyu * and Beom goes easy but to say Gyu would be going against his curse.

The curse of always being forgotten once he leaves a building. He knows the boy behind the counter, he knows the patrons of the little shop, hell, he knows every secret of the city even, but no one knows him. And absolutely no one will know him. Ever. Maybe for an hour or two of their lives Beomgyu will be a side character but the memory of him never lingers and just like that, he’s a stranger again. Stranger to all the people he has ever known. 

“I’ll start making it right away,” Kai tells him with a small smile. The smile might mean nothing, however Beomgyu knows the barista finds him cute, has told Beomgyu on numerous occasions when Beomgyu stayed until closing and started up easy conversation with the barista.

("Do you not have anything better to do at 8PM on a Friday?" Kai asked him one of the first times they talked. Beomgyu jumped as he was shaken out of his thoughts looking at Kai as he cleaned the table next to Beomgyu.

"Not really, should I leave?" Beomgyu asked nervously looking around himself, seeing one more patron tiredly typing away on his laptop.

"Oh my God, no! That's not what I meant," Kai apologized quickly which made Beomgyu laugh. "I totally meant that to come off as smooth and possibly flirty not at all demanding, we're not closing for another hour anyway," Kai admitted sheepishly.

"Oh," Beomgyu said, dazed. "Well do you?"

"Do I what?" Kai asked, his doe-eyes looking at Beomgyu wide. He stopped mid-motion as he was spraying down the table he was currently cleaning.

"Do you have anything better to do at 8PM on a friday?"

"Oh," Kai laughed awkwardly. "I usually just go home after my shift, order food and then fall asleep to some shitty movie," he shrugged. "Very cool and sexy of me I know." Beomgyu smiled.

"It does sound pretty cool and sexy of you," Beomgyu replied which earned him a nervous chuckle.

"Oh God," Kai muttered, straightening up from the table. "Uh, I honestly never really do this but," he scratched his head nervously. "But you're really cute and would you like to maybe go out after my shift? Drink something, eat something? Whatever you prefer honestly!"

Beomgyu thought to himself whether another heartbreak would be worth it.

"Sure," He smiled. What's another heartbreak after three hundred years of it.)

Chapter Text

soobin wasn't sure how much he believed his heart could survive another heartbreak like that. call him dramatic, it was in fact what he did best, but he also thought he was in the right on this one. it was honestly a little scary to see himself fall apart so badly just because of a break up. to his credit though, soobin really did love him. loved him with his whole heart and soobin loved that feeling. it made him feel so full, so content.

so the second he saw his now-ex kiss that girl, he knew he would never allow it to happen ever again.

he cried a little, but mostly he just felt so numb. it felt like as if he lost his path, he had no purpose, no nothing. he felt as hopeless as one gets. his friends told him he’d get over him but soobin could only smile and pat his bleeding heart on the head, a gesture of “it’s okay, you don’t have to get over it, i feel the hurt right here with you.”

soobin was in fact a very dramatic person, but no one could deny that that break up left him a lot more broken than it should have. 

so a promise was made, between him and his heart. never again. never fall in love again, never get too close. never. it felt as comforting as a warm blanket, that reassurance that he’d never have to go through this ever again. it felt so good.

but looking back now, soobin feels a little silly. maybe a little over-dramatic too. it has always been his strength anyway, so there’s nothing new there. 

it took him five years but now he can see it being silly.

soobin smiles as beomgyu walks towards him where he’s standing by the altar and all he can think is how silly he was.

he pats his once broken heart again, and tells it “he’s the only exception. i promise.”

Chapter Text

Their school’s team was losing by one point which got Soobin sitting on the edge of his seat, eyes glued to the field ahead of them.

“Scoot a bit forward Hyung, maybe then he’ll notice you,” Beomgyu snorted, leaning against the back of the chair. Soobin had to beg his best friend to accompany him for the game so really, Beomgyu making fun of him was the least he was allowed to do.

“I don’t want him to notice me,” Soobin muttered, not taking his eyes off the game. Truth be told Soobin did not care for football, nor any other sport really but he was willing to watch one or two (or many) matches a year for Yeonjun.

Beomgyu only sighed, going back on his phone, determined to use every cell of his body to display how much he didn’t want to be there. Soobin couldn't blame him.

“God, they only have four minutes left,” Soobin commented nervously.

“Oh no, four minutes and they’ll lose by one point? Tragic if you ask me,” Beomgyu retorted. Soobin did turn around then just to make a face at Beomgyu but turned right back to not miss a second.

They did end up losing by one point and it left an uncomfortable pit in Soobin’s stomach. Their team worked so hard for this match and it really wasn’t their fault that the other school wasn’t above playing dirty tricks, so if anything, they won in Soobin’s eyes.

“Are you coming home Hyung?” Beomgyu asked once they walked down from bleachers Soobin didn't reply immediately, instead looked around himself, which made Beomgyu laugh. “God, Hyung, your crush is so obvious I can’t even begin to fathom how the whole school does not know about it yet.” That made Soobin blush and he helplessly slapped Beomgyu’s arm.

“I’ll stay for a few minutes. I want to congratulate the team,” Soobin muttered.

Beomgyu rolled his eyes. “Yeonjun you mean,” Beomgyu corrected him but eventually let Soobin stay while he went to his car to go home alone.

It was time. Soobin made his way towards the changing rooms where he saw some of the players emerge from, already dressed back to their everyday outfit.

“Good job guys!” Soobin cheered for them as they passed each other and the players shouted back to him, cutting in each other words to say thank you and how the other school cheated. Soobin only laughed. He stopped before the changing room door, listening in to see if there were any more players lingering about but once he heard no conversation just the gentle humming of a voice he knew oh so well he entered the room.

“Hi,” Soobin said in a quiet voice which got Yeonjun’s attention. Yeonjun looked perfect, he always did, but match nights always gave him a special kind of glow, one not even losing could wipe off him for days. Soobin loved it.

“Soobinie!” Yeonjun exclaimed, standing up quickly to rush to Soobin. “You had time to come?” he asked gently as he placed a kiss on Soobin’s lips.

“Managed to convince Beomgyu,” Soobin replied, pulling away from his sweaty boyfriend.

Boyfriend. They haven’t officially said it yet, nor could they openly share it with anyone but they’ve been doing their best to manage.

“You can also always just come alone, you know,” Yeonjun laughed, going back to the bench to take his shirt off.

“That would definitely not raise any eyebrows,” Soobin snorted. Yeonjun shrugged.

“They wouldn’t kill me if they knew I was dating a boy,” he said easily. And yes, this was Yeonjun’s argument, Soobin however thought differently.

You see it was, in fact, the roaring twenties, a time where more and more people started accepting different identities and in result of that more and more people felt safe enough to share their true selves with the world. Soobin was aware of that. However with the acceptance came even stronger hate towards their community, which Soobin was also Very aware of. Yeonjun too knew that realistically not everyone will accept him for such simple things like love, but he liked acting as if it could never happen to him and if Soobin had any say in it, Yeonjun would really never have to experience it. So secret dating it is.