Work Text:
“What’s your plans this weekend?” Seungcheol asks as he unwraps his chopsticks.
“I’m free,” Wonwoo responds. “Game night?”
“Sounds good,” Hansol adds, as he spoons in a mouthful of rice. “Wait, shit, Saturday is my mom's birthday!”
“You forgot your own mother’s birthday?” Seungcheol seems shocked. “What a terrible son!”
“I didn’t forget!” Hansol attempts to defend himself. He hadn’t totally forgotten, it had just … slipped his mind temporarily.
“So you’ve got her a gift, then?”
“Well…”
“Oh, you really are an awful son!”
“It’s so difficult to buy gifts for people!” Hansol complains. “I don’t know what my mother wants!”
“Just get her some of that scented stuff, you know the type of stuff women like.”
“Cheol, I’m gay, I literally do not in any way know the type of stuff women like.”
“How about candles? And the like, scented bath stuff?” Wonwoo suggests.
“Yeah, exactly!” Seungcheol speaks with his mouth full of food, earning a tut from Wonwoo
“Sure, and where can I get that?” Hansol asks.
“You heard of the store Lush?” Wonwoo suggests. “full of bath bombs and stuff like that.”
Hansol nods.
“Well go and buy it before lunch break is over, you can eat later.”
“Shit, you’re right. Thanks guys!” Hansol grabs his bag and walks out of the office.
Luckily his workplace is in the city centre, and just five minutes away from the cosmetics store. Well five minutes of his speed walking anyway.
Hansol is greeted by an overwhelming amount of scents as he steps inside the store, even with his face mask on. He can’t pinpoint one individual smell, everything seeming to blend together, but it’s definitely somewhat floral. Or just generally soapy? Hansol doesn’t know how to describe scents.
The amount of products on the shelves are overwhelming too. He walks over to look at a line of black pots, but apparently someone could sense his apprehension, as he’s approached by a worker.
“Hi, can I help you?” A small man with bleached blonde hair smiles. Well, he is also wearing a black face mask, but Hansol can tell by his eyes that he’s smiling under it. Hansol peers at the name tag attached to his black store apron. Seungkwan.
“Yes, I’m, uh, looking for a gift.” Hansol replies, although it comes out more like a question.
“What sort of gift?” Seungkwan continues, looking at him expectantly.
“I’m not sure?” Hansol replies quietly, worried he looks like an absolute fool in front of this very nice man. “I don’t, uh, I don’t really know about any of this stuff.”
Seungkwan chuckles softly. “That’s ok, we get a lot of confused boyfriends this time of year.”
“Huh?”
“Christmas time, lots of lost boyfriends buying gifts for their girlfriends.”
“Oh, no, I’m ga- I-I don’t have a girlfriend.” Hansol quickly corrects himself before he accidentally outs himself mid sentence. Although a guy with bleached hair who works in a cosmetics store would definitely be setting off the gaydar.
Seungkwan chuckles once again. Why does Hansol find it so cute. He reaches his hand out to pat Hansol’s shoulder. “Me too.” He reassures. “I also don’t have a girlfriend.” He winks.
Hansol lets out a sigh of relief. Well at least he is now interacting with a fellow queer. And a rather cute one at that. Yes, half of his face is covered, but Hansol still thinks he is rather cute. And he’s always had a weakness for blondes.
“It’s a gift for my mom, it’s her birthday this weekend.” He clarifies after a moment. “It’s a little bit last minute, I know, but I really don’t know what to get her.”
Seungkwan nods, his eyes concentrating. “What sort of things does she like?”
Hansol pauses for a moment to try and think. Is he really that awful of a son that he doesn’t even know what his own mother likes.
After no response, Seungkwan realises just how clueless the man in front of him is, so takes the lead. “You seem to be about the same age as me, so our mothers are probably about the same age.”
Hansol nods, the store assistant does appear to be about the same age as him, his logic is sound.
“And I know that my mom loves our classic soothing lavender and oat collection, so I would recommend that?” Seungkwan raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Hansol agrees, mainly just glad that someone has done all the work for him in choosing a gift. He might not know much about skincare, but he knows that lavender is a popular scent and is meant to be relaxing, so it sounds good enough to him.
“Here we have the hand cream, it’s one of our best sellers,” Seungkwan picks up a black pot. “We actually have a tester! Here, let me-“ Seungkwan reaches out to grab Hansol’s hand without warning.
Hansol silently gasps, not expecting a cute stranger to initiate hand contact. But he doesn’t find himself complaining as smooth fingertips brush a layer of white lotion onto the back of his hand.
“Your hands are quite soft actually,” Seungkwan comments absentmindedly as he rubs in the product. “Oh wait, your fingertips are kinda rough.”
“Oh, I play guitar.” Hansol is glad he has on a face mask, as he’s sure his cheeks are bright red at this point. He’s wishing he had chosen to wear a hat too, as he fears the tips of his ears might be blushing a similar colour. Maybe he can just blame it on the cold December weather.
“Oh wow,” Seungkwan’s eyes go wide, one may even describe them as dreamy, but Hansol is trying to avoid eye contact at this moment. “You should play something for me sometime.”
Hansol may not have had the most luck in the romantic aspect of his life, but he’s pretty sure he’s being flirted with right now. Or maybe they’re just nice to everyone to try and upsell products? If so, it’s definitely working.
“Uh, yeah, for sure.”
“So just the hand cream?” Seungkwan masterfully brings the conversation back to the sale. “Or would you like the full set? I can even gift wrap it for you.”
“Yes, please,” Hansol replies eagerly. Present sorted and wrapped for him, could this get any better?
“Of course,” Seungkwan smiles as he walks towards the checkout, Hansol following quickly behind.
Hansol is almost mesmerised as Seungkwan masterfully wraps the products in brown paper, and neatly ties a bow on top.
“Thank you so much, you’ve like actually saved my life,” Hansol praises the shop worker as he pays for the items.
“I’m more than happy to,” Seungkwan replies. “But you can repay me by coming back again.”
“I will,” Hansol smiles to himself as he leaves the store.
“Got it!” Hansol gleefully holds up the brown paper shopping bag to his friends as he returns just three minutes before their lunch break ends.
“Congrats,” Wonwoo replies.
“You seem in an awfully good mood considering you didn’t get to eat anything and you just had to rush around town?” Seungcheol raises an eyebrow.
“Well,” Hansol replies, debating whether or not to tell them about his newly acquired lush crush. “The worker was so cute.”
Wonwoo sighs and shakes his head.
“And he totally flirted with me!”
“Oh sweetie,” Seungcheol pats Hansol’s shoulder. “You know he’s just being nice to you so they can sell more products.”
“Don’t be a downer!” Another coworker, Soonyoung, appears out of nowhere, immediately inserting himself into the conversation. “It could be true love! It’s a total meet cute!”
“Just because your life is a romcom and you met your boyfriend in a coffee shop, doesn’t mean it’s true of everyone else,” Wonwoo adds.
“Hey, if it happened to me, it could also happen to our Hansollie!” Soonyoung turns back to the man in question. “So, you have to go back and see him again!”
Hansol feels uncomfortable with all these eyes on him, and he doesn’t want to necessarily agree or disagree with anyone. “I’ll think about it.”
~
And think about it Hansol did. He spent the entire weekend with thoughts of the sweet blonde boy who he spent less than ten minutes talking to.
At his mother’s birthday dinner, when she opens up the gift and praises her son for getting her something so lovely, Hansol has to bite his tongue and not talk about the cute store assistant who picked it for him. He just bluffs something about how he had read online that it’s very popular.
At work on monday morning, he’s still in his head debating whether or not to go back to the store again. Maybe he could play it off as he just wanted to thank Seungkwan for helping him pick the perfect gift, and that his mother loved it. If Seungkwan even remembers him.
“Hansol!” Soonyoung snaps his fingers in front of the younger’s face to get his attention.
“Huh.”
“You totally zoned out there, you ok?” Soonyoung asks, tilting his head.
“Yeah, fine, sorry, what did you need?”
“Was just asking if you have finished the report yet, and if you could email it to me too?” Soonyoung continues.
“Uh, yeah, it’s almost done,” Hansol reaches back to his keyboard, trying to make himself look as if he is actually working.
“Ah, are you still thinking about your little crush?”
Hansol sighs, he should have known that Soonyoung only came over to gossip.
“Maybe.”
“Don’t listen to Seungcheol, he’s old and jaded, just go to him.” Soonyoung smiles and walks away backwards, waving his fingers, as if he’s pretending that he will magically disappear into thin air. He instead bumps into a photocopier.
Hansol decides he will take the advice of his weird coworker. He looks at the clock at the bottom of his monitor, impatiently waiting for it to strike 12:30.
One hour and 14 minutes later (not that he was counting or anything), it does just that. Hansol has perhaps never been quicker to log off and exit the office, walking at a fast pace to the Lush store. His steps in time with the Charli XCX song blasting through his headphones.
Again, his senses are overcome with so many different scents. He does wonder how someone can work here all day. Well, at least they’ll always smell good.
He tries to look causal, just walking around the shop, trying not to seem too obvious that he’s looking for someone.
He’s starting to think that Seungkwan may just not be working today, until a blonde head pops up from behind a display of bath bombs. The two boy’s eyes meet across the store, and after a moment of staring at each other, Seungkwan offers a tiny wave.
Hansol awkwardly shuffles over to the other man. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Seungkwan replies.
“I, uh, I just wanted to come back and thank you,” Hansol stutters over his words. “You helped me pick a gift for my mom, and she loved it. So thank you.”
“Of course,” Seungkwan replies, brushing his hair back into place with his hand.
Hansol now realises he should have prepared more, as he is now standing awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. “And uh, I wanted to buy some of the hand cream for myself.” He says. “Since you know, you applied some on me, and it was really nice, so um, yeah.”
“Of course,” Seungkwan replies again. “Hand cream is over here,” he leads the other toward a shelf of more little black tubs. “We have many scents, what would you like?”
Hansol scans across the labels, some have names that give away no idea as to what they could possibly smell of. “What’s your favourite?”
Seungkwan seems almost taken aback by the question, as if he wasn’t expecting it. “Well, uh, I like the tangerine one? Or the peppermint.” He taps a couple of pots as he talks.
“Here- smell this one,” Seungkwan opens up a tester pot and holds it in front of Hansol’s face.
“It’s okay, you can pull your mask down,” Seungkwan says after sensing Hansol’s hesitancy. He pulls his own mask below his chin to smile at Hansol reassuringly.
Hansol is only now just realising the fact that this is the first time he has fully seen Seungkwan’s face. He has a crush on a man he has never seen the mouth and nose of. But he’s realising that Seungkwan is even prettier than the mental image he had pictured. His lips are so soft and pink, and as he smiles his round cheeks scrunch up so cutely.
He tucks his mask under his own chin in return. Feeling very self conscious. Not just because of the acne he knows he has on his chin (although that definitely plays a part), but also as this is also the first time his crush is seeing his full face. Hansol thought that Seungkwan was flirting with him? but what if now he sees his full face and changes his mind. Maybe the whole reason Seungkwan offered to let him smell a hand cream was his genius plan to see his whole face.
Hansol gently bows his head down to sniff the tub. It’s a strong peppermint smell, which he isn’t totally opposed to, but he thinks he might prefer something else.
“If you want something sweeter, this one is vanilla and almond, it’s also very moisturising.”
Once again, Hansol smells the tub in front of him. It is sweet, but not too strong. “I like this one,” he smiles at Seungkwan.
“Good choice,” Seungkwan smiles back. He pulls his mask into place again, and Hansol does the same. Seungkwan puts back the tester and takes a new product for him.
“Is that all you wanted to buy today? We do also have some new bath bombs in store, as you saw I was just setting up the display.”
Hansol looks over to centre table with differently coloured and shaped bath bombs stacked on top of each other. “Looks great, you did a good job!”
“Thank you.” Seungkwan bows at the compliment. “These were particularly difficult to balance,” he points to some flower shaped products.
“You’re clearly very talented at your job,” Hansol smiles. “But I need to get back to work, so I think I’ll just buy the cream today.”
“Of course,” Seungkwan replies, hopping behind the till. Now Hansol is overthinking whether he might have offended the other by refusing to buy one of his bath bombs. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, it’s the fact that he lives in a tiny apartment with a barely one metre squared shower cubicle. But if anyone could sell a bath bomb to a man without a bath, it would be Seungkwan.
Hansol pays for the product, and as Seungkwan hands him the paper bag, their hands brush against each other. Hansol likes to think that it was deliberate on Seungkwan’s part, but maybe he’s being too hopeful.
As soon as he returns to his desk, Hansol takes out his newly purchased product. He gently dips two fingers in the pot and rubs it on the back of his other hand, the same way Seungkwan did the previous week.
He rubs his hands together to fully work in the cream, then brings a hand in front of his face. Without the thousands of other scented products surrounding him, he can smell it better. The sweetness of the vanilla and brown sugar, and the more earthy tones of the almond fill his senses.
“So you went!?” An excited voice appears over Hansol’s shoulder.
Hansol almost jumps out of his skin at Soonyoung appearing behind him. Luckily he had affixed the lid back onto the hand cream as he drops it in the surprise.
“You’re sitting here smiling to yourself and sniffing cream, you went back to the store to see him didn’t you!” Soonyoung has a wicked grin on his face as he points to his evidence.
“Well done Sherlock,” Hansol deadpans.
Soonyoung is either oblivious to the sarcasm, or ignores it, instead continuing on. “So, how did it go? Did he still flirt with you?”
“Yes,” Hansol smiles. At least he thinks it went well. He thinks that the cute store assistant was still flirting with him.
“I’m so rooting for you both!” Soonyoung smiles genuinely.
“Thank you,” Hansol blushes. It feels weird to be telling his friendly coworker about his dating life, but it’s also good to be telling someone, to have someone who is rooting for him.
~
It’s another four days before Hansol returns to the store, but this time he has an actual legit reason.
During his morning shower, he finished his bottle of shower gel, so he needs to buy more. Yes he normally just buys the cheap stuff from the drugstore, but any reason to see his crush is a worthy cause.
When he enters the store, Seungkwan is serving another customer at the checkout, but he notices Hansol come in and waves at him.
Hansol looks at some products as he waits for Seungkwan to finish and come and help him.
He knows very little about skincare, but pretends to act like he belongs, picking up a jar and reading the labels.
“Hey, you,” Seungkwan says fondly as he approaches Hansol.
“Hey yourself,” Hansol replies, a blush already threatening to appear on his face.
“What can I help you with today?”
“Well, uh, you sell shower gel right? I finished mine this morning.” Hansol explains slightly awkwardly.
“Of course.” Seungkwan replies. “It’s over here, I’ll show you.”
Hansol is too stunned to speak when Seungkwan grabs his hand to lead him across the store. His feet seem to move on their own accord, following the angel who is guiding him with his very soft hand.
“We have many different types, as you can see,” Seungkwan gestures to the bottles lining the shelves. “What do you like?”
“Uhhh…” Hansol struggles to focus on the products in front of him. He already knows so little about skincare and perfumes and all that stuff, and is now even more flustered just by the shorter man holding his hand for a few seconds.
Seungkwan can clearly pick up on the other’s confusion, and he finds it endearing.
“I think this scent is really attractive.”
Hansol takes the bottle that he’s handed. Cedarwood and jasmine. Hansol isn’t even entirely sure what a cedarwood is. Is that a tree? Do they make perfumes from trees? Does he want to smell like a tree? Well, if Seungkwan thinks it’s attractive then he definitely does.
Seungkwan opens the cap and gestures for Hansol to smell it. He does so obediently, closing his eyes and trying to focus on the scent.
“It’s nice,” he states. “Uh, not too strong, it’s, woody?”
“You’re exactly right!” Seungkwan seems enthusiastic about Hansol’s attempt at identifying aromas.
“I like it, I mean it’s been recommended to me by the best, how could I not.”
Seungkwan tries to hide his face, he has always been a confident flirt, but when someone he actually really likes seems to be flirting back, he’s suddenly nervous.
“Well, I do try my best.” He replies earnestly, but quickly tries to change the conversation. “Is there anything else you need today?”
“No, I was just looking for the shower gel, thank you,” Hansol gives the bottle over to Seungkwan and they go to the checkout.
“Don’t tell my boss,” Seungkwan leans closer to Hansol, and whispers. “I’m giving you a free gift.”
“Oh, it’s okay, you don’t have to do that!” I don’t want you to get in trouble!”
“I won’t,” Seungkwan assured him. “But either way, you’re worth it.” He drops something into the bag as Hansol swipes his card to pay.
“Come back soon,” Seungkwan says as he hands the bag to Hansol. He’s not sure if that’s a line they say to all the customers, but for Hansol it’s a promise he’s going to keep.
Hansol has been called an impatient person before, so it’s a surprise he manages to wait until he’s seated back at his desk to open the bag and discover his gift.
Next to the shower gel is a small tube, a lip balm.
“For the perfect kissable lips” is written on it. Hansol really hopes that’s a suggestion.
He opens the cap and applies some to his lips. It has a soft smell he can’t quite place a finger on, but it’s sweet, maybe vanilla. He finds himself wondering if Seungkwan also uses this lip balm, what his lips would smell like, or even better, what would they taste like. He can picture the perfectly plump pink lips in his mind. He bets they would be sweet. He hopes he can get to find out.
~
A week has passed since Hansol last visited the Lush store. He’s been desperate to see Seungkwan again, but he doesn’t want to seem desperate in front of his crush. He’s trying to play it cool.
If playing it cool means having an almost pavlovian response to think of Seungkwan every time he gets even the faintest smell of his own cedarwood body wash.
He also feels he doesn’t have a good enough reason to visit the store. Of course, his reason is always that he wants to see Seungkwan, but he tells himself that he needs some sort of logical reason for actually being in the store. Like how he just ran out of shower gel.
Although maybe now he can just say that he wants to buy some skincare products for himself. Ask for more recommendations. An even better excuse to talk to Seungkwan more, as he needs to hear the in depth product details.
He thanks his brain for this genius idea as he finishes up his work for the day and leaves to walk to the store.
He even feels slightly more confident this time as he opens the door and steps inside, his senses once again overwhelmed with way too many different smells. He’s not sure he’ll quite get used to that.
Seungkwan sees him come in and walks over. “How can I help you today?”
“Well,” Hansol starts to speak, suddenly losing all confidence when he’s met with the actual gorgeous man standing in front of him. “I really liked the body wash you chose for me, I wondered if uh, you had, like, any other things like that?”
Seungkwan nods. “Of course.” He is ready to fall head over heels for this man who clearly knows nothing about skincare, but wants to pretend he does so that he can visit the store and talk to him.
“Our body scrubs are really popular.” Seungkwan goes into salesman mode. “You scrub it on your body in the shower and it helps to keep your skin softer.”
Hansol nods. He’s never used more than soap on his body in the shower before, but having softer skin sounds like something he should want.
“We have it in the cedarwood and jasmine scent too.” Seungkwan continues, picking up the product. “There’s a body lotion in the same scent too. It’s ideal to use right after you step out of the shower.”
“Yeah, I’ll take that too.” Hansol makes a mental note of these products and how and when to use them.
“Wait, do I use the scrub before or after the shower gel?”
“It doesn’t make a huge difference, but I use the scrub first.” Seungkwan replies, appreciating that Hansol is paying attention, and asking questions, and wanting to learn.
“Right, got it, thank you.”
“So you scrub off all the dirt and dead skin cells with the scrub, then you wash your body with the shower gel to make sure you're all nice and clean. Then after showering apply the lotion so your skin is all moisturised and soft.” Seungkwan explains in slightly more detail, thinking Hansol might need it.
Hansol nods, trying to memorise this for his shower tonight. Seungkwan thinks his concentrated face is extremely cute.
Hansol used to think of showering as a chore, an annoying part of the daily routine that just has to be done. But now he finds himself excited to be able to step into his bathroom and try out all these new products.
~
“How is your skincare boo?” Soonyoung once again seems to appear out of nowhere to question Hansol. One hand on his hip and the other holding a fresh iced coffee.
“Huh?”
“Blonde boy at the lush store you’re desperately crushing on?”
“Well, uh…”
“You haven't asked him out yet?” Soonyoung places his drink down on Hansol’s desk. It appears he may be staying longer than the other had anticipated.
“No, I mean, isn't it weird for me to ask him out? Like cause I’m a customer, aren’t I putting him in a weird spot? What if he doesn’t actually like me and is just being nice to sell me products” Hansol rambles about consumer etiquette.
“And here I thought you were a top,” Soonyoung mutters under his breath. “Look, I’m sure he likes you back, all the signs are there, right? Just ask him!”
Hansol groans. He knows his coworker is likely correct. But it also doesn’t feel right to ask him. What if he really is just a friendly worker who is nice to everyone who comes into the store?
“Look, I don’t know if it’s my place to ask him out at his workplace. Maybe I’ll just wait and see if he gives me any more solid signals.”
Soonyoung shakes his head. “If you're not going to ask him out yet, at least still go see him on your way home from work tonight. I’m rooting for you!”
Hansol hums an affirmative, and turns back to his computer, hoping Soonyoung will finally leave him be. Although inside he is glad that he has someone being supportive. He looks at the time on the bottom right corner of the screen. Only two and a half hours left, maybe he will stop in past the lush store at the end of the day.
~
“Hi!” Seungkwan greets Hansol as he enters the store.
“Hi,” Hansol replies, surprised that Seungkwan was already standing there, almost as if he was waiting for him.
“How can I help you today?”
Hansol looks around the store. He’s really not sure what he’s looking for. He ends up saying the first thing his eyes catch. “Face mask.”
“Of course,” Seungkwan smiles and turns to the shelf next to them with the rows of different face products.
“This one is super popular, it’s great for targeting any blemishes- I mean, not that you have any! - Your face is perfect!” The flustered boy stumbles out.
Hansol blushes and shakes his head. “That’s not true.”
“Yes it is. You’re gorgeous.” Seungkwan replies, his tone annoyed, as if he can’t believe Hansol would possibly deny how handsome he is.
“No, you’re the gorgeous one.” Hansol replies. “Have you seen yourself!?”
“Hush, you’re just saying that,” Seungkwan turns his head, too shy to look at him.
“No, I mean it.” Hansol places his hand on top of Seungkwan’s, to try and reassure him. “You’re the prettiest guy I know.”
“Thank you,” Seungkwan replies quietly. “But that compliment could fall flat depending on how many men you know.” He attempts at a light hearted joke to ease some of the tension.
Hansol laughs. “Okay, I don’t know that many people, but it doesn’t change how cute you are.”
“Well actually, you’re the cute one,” Seungkwan points at him accusingly.
“Then what face mask do you recommend for a cute guy?” Hansol looks back to the shelf.
“Coffee,” Seungkwan picks up a tub. “I mean what’s better than the smell of coffee, and it’s great for your skin!”
“Great, I’ll take it!” Hansol beams.
“Just one question. How do you use a face mask?”
Seungkwan tries to hide his laughter. “Actually, let me write down some instructions for you.”
The two walk to the checkout, where Seungkwan rings up the product and writes on a piece of note paper while Hansol swipes his card.
“Good luck with the face mask, make sure you follow the instructions exactly.” Seungkwan says as he hands over the paper bag.
“Of course, I’ll do whatever you say!” Hansol salutes with a smile.
Once he’s home and settled, Hansol takes out the face mask, and the note paper. First thing he notices is that Seungkwan has gorgeous handwriting. Pretty script to match a pretty face, of course, it makes perfect sense.
step one: apply to face
step two: get out your phone and call xxx xxx xxxx to arrange a date
step three: after ten minutes wash off
~
Hansol soon finds out that when Seungkwan isn’t surrounded by the overwhelming amounts of other scents in a cosmetics store, he smells like tangerine. The orange fruit perfectly suits his personality. And his lips, they taste citrusy too, but even sweeter.
Hansol also learns that cedarwood and orange pair well together. And so do the two people who smell of them.