Chapter Text
Hyunjin takes a deep breath, checks his hair in his handheld mirror one last time and reapplies his lip balm before pointing to Seungmin and directing his friends, Jisung and Felix, with a snap of his fingers.
“Okay. Walk.”
When they reach the table where Kim Seungmin and his best friend are eating lunch, Hyunjin feels his hands start to get clammy. It’s cool outside, but suddenly he feels like he’s sweating through his clothes.
Seungmin looks up at him, eyebrows raising a bit in surprise.
“Hi Hyunjin,” he says, pairs it with a small wave.
“Hi,” Hyunjin replies, dreamily. He feels a bit lightheaded at the rapt attention from his crush, he almost forgets what he came here to ask.
“Breathe,” Felix whispers in his ear.
He swallows the lump in his throat and forces the words out before he can chicken out.
“I just wanted to come over here and invite you to my pre-birthday celebration next weekend. I’m having another party for my actual birthday too, but that’s later. You’re invited to that too! Anyway, we’re gonna take my parents’ yacht out to Han river and there’s gonna be an open bar and live music and catering from the new Japanese restaurant in Gangnam. We even got this Kpop group called ‘Stray Kids’ to come perform too. They’re like super popular- but my dad has all these connections so he was able to book them. You should come. I can even have a car sent to pick you up! So you wouldn’t have to worry about getting there, and-”
“Wow, Hyunjin,” Seungmin says, interrupting his increasingly jumbled ranting, which he’s almost thankful for. He’s not sure he would have stopped otherwise. “That’s very nice of you.” His polite smile falls slowly. Hyunjin can feel a ‘but’ coming. “But I have plans that weekend already.”
“You…You dont wanna go?” He asks, tries and fails to hold back his pout. Felix runs a hand up and down his arm in comfort.
His eyes widen slightly. “I do want to go! But… I can’t. I’m sorry,” he says.
“Oh,” he says, disappointment lining his voice despite his best efforts to sound cheerful. “Well, it’s okay. Next time I’ll try and coordinate it better, or pick a time when I know people are less busy, so that way you can make it!”
Seungmin looks sad for a second, but then he just nods. “Okay, sure,” he mutters.
There’s an awkward silence for a few seconds as Seungmin just stares at Hyunjin with a sorrowful expression on his face, his own friend’s standing beside him in uncomfortable silence.
But then Hyunjin gets an idea. “Actually…I could reschedule it. I mean, maybe the music group wouldn’t be able to make it anymore, but we could rearrange everything else so that it still works out. And then you could come-”
“What? No,” Seungmin waves his hand vehemently. “No, Hyunjin, you don’t have to do all of that just for me. Really, it’s okay.”
“It wouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure everyone else would still be able to make it-”
He hears a scoff by his side. Seungmin’s friend speaks up from where he had been meticulously picking the chili flakes out of his kimchi fried rice using his chopsticks. Hyunjin can’t remember his name. Minjoon, or Minhyun. Min- something . He almost forgot he was even there.
“He said no, princess . Are you hard of hearing?” He says.
Hyunjin seethes at the way he says the nickname, as if he’s mocking him. Even though, admittedly, he should be addressing him as if he were royalty. He is kind of like royalty at this school.
Seungmin nudges him. “Minho, shut up ,” he whispers, but they all hear.
“Look, Hyunjin,” Seungmin says, voice soft and the exact sound that dreams are made of. “It’s okay. Don’t reschedule it for me, I’m busy all the time, so... I’m sure it’ll be super fun though. Happy early birthday, by the way.” He smiles his smile that makes his eyes scrunch up and leaves Hyunjin’s legs feeling weak.
So Hyunjin does his best to muster up a smile in return, as he squeaks out a small, “Thanks.”
That's all he says before Seungmin gathers his stuff and walks away with his friend.
Hyunjin’s smile fades as he watches them go, grits his teeth at the way Seungmin’s friend made him seem like some kind of desperate, entitled brat . He is anything but those things! Maybe he’s the one that convinced Seungmin not to hang out with him.
Minho , he thinks in aggravation. That’s his name.
-
Hyunjin has liked Seungmin for a long time. A long time. Meaning he’s had a crush on him for months.
Okay, maybe that isn’t that long. But it is for Hyunjin- most of his crushes only last a few weeks, or a few days.
But Seungmin’s different. He’s perfect. He’s the man of his dreams. He’s smart, funny, cute, popular. Hyunjin thinks they’d look so good together. Nevermind the fact that he doesn't actually know anything about Seungmin.
“We could be the campus power couple. How can he not see that?” He whines to his friends later, when they’re all downtown browsing through the new Louis Vuitton spring collection so Hyunjin can find a good outfit for his pre-birthday celebration. For his actual birthday celebration, he already has his outfit planned. He had it designed just for the occasion. And, yes, he has two parties almost every year. In his opinion, one isn’t enough to celebrate a day dedicated only to him.
“He obviously likes you,” Felix says, not taking his eyes off of the leather bag sitting on the display in front of him. “He’s probably just nervous. Maybe that’s why he’s not going.”
Hyunjin doesn’t really believe that. Although Seungmin does seem like he’s walking on eggshells when it comes to him, he doesn’t seem like the type to not go to his party out of anxiety. Maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe he really has something important that he can’t miss happening next weekend. Even though Hyunjin’s not really sure what could be more important than his party.
“I have an idea,” Jisung speaks up, holding a surplus of clothes over his arm as he swipes through the rack. His diamond earrings glint under the fluorescent lighting. “Why don't you fake date his friend? To make him jealous. Some people just want what they don't have.”
Hyunjin thinks about it as he runs his hand along a cream colored satin top that catches his eye. Fake dating his friend? The only friend he ever sees him with is Minho. But he can’t imagine pretending to date him. And he can’t imagine him agreeing . But it would be a way to get closer to Seungmin. And maybe Jisung’s right. Maybe he’ll see him with Minho and finally decide to make a move out of jealousy. At the very least, he’ll be able to figure out if Seungmin likes him back.
“That’s actually not a bad idea.”
“Minho seems chill enough,” Jisung says. “Just tell him you have a crush on him or something. He’ll believe you.”
“Yeah,” Felix says, finally picking up the bag and adding it to the pile of stuff he’s already going to buy. He pulls out his parents’ black credit card. “Plus, who would say no to going out with you?”
Hyunjin scoffs. “Nobody.”
Except maybe Seungmin , his mind adds.
“Exactly.”
Hyunjin thinks about it some more as he’s paying, the cashier reading off a total that’s somewhere in the thousands. He doesn’t pay it any mind as he hands over his card, thinks if there’s any way to finally get closer to Seungmin after all this time, his friend’s suggestion is probably the best way to do it.
So the very next day, he marches right up to Lee Minho in the university courtyard and makes his proposition.
“Hi, uh.. you’re Seungmin’s friend, right?” Hyunjin says, placing a hand over his forehead and squinting down at Minho who’s sitting at the table on his phone, the setting sun glaring from right behind him.
When Minho looks up, he just blinks at him for a while, then looks around like he’s trying to figure out if Hyunjin is really speaking to him.
He points to himself in confusion. “Me?” He asks.
Hyunjin nods with enthusiasm, tries to keep a bright, friendly smile on his face. He thinks he and Minho look like opposites, as he’s wearing a cropped designer top and jeans that have white hearts all over them, paired with with a million different shiny accessories and his large Chanel bag, while Minho is just in a plain, oversized t-shirt and joggers. He’s not sure how he’s going to convince anybody that they’re together if he agrees.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, your highness,” he drawls, looking back down at his phone.
Hyunjin takes a deep breath and tells himself to keep his calm, or else blow his chance at convincing him, and consequently blowing any chance he has at going out with his actual crush.
I’ve actually liked you for a while now.
I have feelings for you.
I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me.
He practices all the sentences in his head. But he can’t imagine any of them coming out in a way that wouldn’t sound awkward or completely fake. Minho seems like the type to see through all of the bullshit anyway.
He figures it’s better to just be completely honest.
“I need you to fake date me,” he blurts out. Then he adds, “I’ll pay you.”
Minho does the blinking thing again. Which kind of unnerves him. He has pretty eyes. Very pretty, big eyes. (Although Hyunjin would never say that out loud.) He almost wonders how he never noticed them before. When he looks at him it kind of feels like he’s peering down into the depths of his soul . He feels a chill wrack down his spine.
“No,” is all he says before looking back down at his phone and ignoring Hyunjin’s presence.
Hyunjin’s mouth drops open.
“But- but you didn’t even think about it,” he stutters. “I didn’t even tell you how much I was gonna pay you. I’m not cheap, you do know my parents are rich, right? And do you know how many people on campus would be begging on their knees to have a chance to go out with me-”
“I said no,” he interrupts, an irked expression on his face, like Hyunjin is a pesky fly that he can’t get rid of. He’s never been spoken to like this before, looked at like that before. He’s used to people practically falling to their feet to worship him. “I wouldn’t pretend to go out with you even if I was starving and someone offered me the last meal on Earth to do it. Now get lost.”
Hyunjin rears back like he’s been burned. How dare he! A million insults come to his mind and he’s about to start spewing them all out at the other boy. But he snaps his mouth shut before any of the words can come out. He has to play nice. This is his only chance. If he fails to convince Minho, he can say goodbye to any chance at dating Seungmin.
So he simply forces a smile back onto his face and resorts to Plan B .
“I’ll convince Felix to go out with you,” he says.
Minho whips his head up, and Hyunjin watches the way his face starts to turn a bright red.
“Excuse me?”
“I see the way you look at him,” he says, quietly.
He may not have paid Minho that much attention before, he may not have even known his name until recently, but he never missed the way he stared at his friend with stars in his eyes. Unfortunately, Felix always misses it.
Hyunjin sees him actually considering agreeing to it, and he lets himself get his hopes up. Until Minho frowns and says, “I can arrange a date with Felix myself, thank you very much.”
Hyunjin can sense him closing off again as he grabs his phone, so he rushes to say, “Yeah, but he’s my best friend. I know everything about him, all the things he likes..”
For a split second he tries to picture Seungmin in this situation, asking someone else how he could sweep Hyunjin off of his feet. But he can’t really imagine Seungmin doing that. It makes him feel a little sad. He kind of wishes he were Felix in that moment. Just to know what it’s like for someone to like him like that. For someone to look at him the way he looks at Seungmin.
But he’s brought out of that thought process when Minho surprises him by saying, “Fine.”
Hyunjin’s sure his eyes widen to a comical degree. He must have underestimated how much Minho likes his friend.
“Only for a few weeks,” he adds, with a grumble. “And then we do a quick fake break up and go back to never speaking to each other.”
Hyunjin rolls his eyes.
“Sure, whatever,” he says. “But it has to be convincing. When are you free to plan how it’s gonna go?”
Minho scoffs. “What is this, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before ? We don’t need a plan or a fucking contract or something. We can just play it by ear. Haven’t you ever taken an improv class?”
When he says the annoying words, Hyunjin realizes he probably doesn’t want to be around the other boy for more than he has to anyway. So he agrees reluctantly, stomping away in irritation when Minho simply goes back to looking at his phone without so much as a ‘see you later.’
It’s just fake dating, he thinks. How hard can it be?