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It's a few minutes past closing and all the other staff have already left for the night. Jihyun just needs to finish sweeping and mopping the floors before he can lock up the restaurant.
It was slower than usual tonight, as the majority of students are currently in the throes of final exams, projects, and presentations. The last customers, a loud gaggle of graduating seniors celebrating their last undergraduate class ever, just exited, gleefully inebriated.
Jihyun moves deftly between the bar stools and under the tables and into the corner by the kitchen. He could clean a lot more efficiently if it weren't for the slightly tipsy man holding him from behind. Jaewon is wrapped snugly around his backside, arms circling the breadth of his waist, chin perched on his shoulder, matching each of Jihyun's steps in the restaurant. The boss had gifted him with two bottles of soju earlier for successfully defending his senior thesis project, so he's pleasantly buzzed.
"I'm almost done, hyung. Can you maybe wait outside for me?"
Jaewon burrows into his cheek, tightening his grip. "But it's so cold outside and you're so warm, Jihyun-ah."
Jihyun is endeared by how cute he's acting, but it's 2AM and he's ready to head out.
"Hyung, you're distracting me."
He can feel a long exhale escape from Jaewon, hears him drop his voice into a low, sensual timbre. "Oh, I can show you just how distracting I can be."
He presses a kiss to the juncture where Jihyun's jaw and neck meet, below his right ear. Presses another kiss lower, giving it a tentative lick before he begins sucking in earnest. It's always been a sensitive spot, and Jihyun shivers despite himself.
Jihyun frees himself from Jaewon's embrace. "Hyung, out."
He lands a quick peck on Jaewon's pouting lips before shooing him out the door.
+++
It's late, but the neighborhood is still buzzing with students making their way home from the bars and cafes that line the street. Jihyun will need another fifteen minutes, so Jaewon opts for a quick smoke to pass the time. He immediately notices a young man seated on the ground, leaning against the claw machine. He seems to be drunk or sleeping, or both. Either way, it's December and very chilly, especially at night, so Jaewon does the man a favor and shakes him awake.
"Are you okay? You might get sick if you sleep outside on a night like this."
The man blinks once, twice, as he takes in his surroundings. Jaewon recognizes him as one of the rowdy customers from earlier, the one who kept calling on Jihyun.
"Thank you for waking me up." He says politely to Jaewon, rubbing at his temples as he rises. "Can't believe my asshole friends just left me here."
Jaewon shrugs it off—he's been there before—and, because he feels a little sorry for the guy, offers him a cigarette, which he graciously accepts.
"Are you a student here too?" The man asks, gesturing to the main buildings down the block.
"Yeah, though I'm graduating this semester." He decided to move forward with his Business degree since he was so close to the finish line, but instead of taking a position in his father's corporation, he'll be joining a small-scale photography and graphic design company to help them grow their business model. His father has not forgiven him and he is perfectly fine with that. Jihyun inspired a bravery in him that he had never dreamed possible. He is, however, a bit bummed about not being in school with Jihyun anymore.
"Same here. I can't believe I'm finally done with university! I'm excited, but I feel like I'm going to have some regrets about college life too."
They fall into a comfortable silence, smoking and watching people pass by as several shopowners pull down their front metal gates.
"The truth is," the man starts, "I was supposed to confess to my crush tonight since I'll be graduating soon."
Jaewon's honestly not in the mood to talk, but the man seems like he wants to tell his story, and Jihyun isn't done yet anyway.
"I guess you didn't confess?"
The man, swaying slightly, shakes his head sadly. "I didn't…because it's a guy."
"Oh, that's okay." Jaewon responds hurriedly, not letting a moment pass. "I'm not prejudiced about that." Not in the least.
Almost everyone in the business and art schools at their university know that he and Jihyun are a couple. They are, unfortunately, a common topic of gossip among the student discussion pages, but they try to drown out the judgment with the far greater amount of support they've received.
The man flashes him a grateful smile. "Thanks, I appreciate you saying that."
"Yeah, well I'm dating a guy too."
He falters slightly at that, and then chuckles to himself as he takes another drag of his cigarette.
"Wow, okay. I guess there are more of us around here than I thought. Well, there's this guy, I'm sure he's younger than me, but he's the cutest guy I've ever seen. Has these puppy eyes and plush lips. I could lose myself in them forever."
Jaewon can relate.
"And he's really tall, but seems a bit fragile in a way that makes me want to hold him close." He says dreamily, hands pressed against his heart.
Jaewon can relate to that too, oddly enough. The ghost of Jihyun's waist lingering on his fingertips.
"And I've seen him sketch a bit before, but just on a post-it note for work. He's so talented!"
Something feels familiar about that, but while Jaewon isn't drunk, he also isn't fully sober enough to ascertain why.
"Is he a hoobae of yours?"
"Oh no, we honestly barely know each other. But it was love at first sight. Sometimes you just know, you know?"
As silly as it sounds to some, Jaewon does know. He remembers the very moment Jihyun, still just a restaurant employee to him at the time, stepped in between to break up the fight with Taehyung. Arms still entangled with one another, he had taken one long look at Jihyun's cherub features and worried expression and knew he was a goner.
"What's your boyfriend like?"
That, Jaewon is always eager to answer, even to a drunk stranger on the street.
"He's really cute and cheeky." Jaewon says, wistful over his relationship with Jihyun. "He's from the countryside, so even though he taught himself how to speak with a Seoul accent, he slips into his dialect when he's drunk every time. Every time. And he denies it the next day every time."
The man agrees that that is quite cute and cheeky.
"But he's also very mature and straightforward. He's younger than me, but he's much more honest and reliable than I could ever be. When he wants something," he slices the air with his hand, "he just goes for it."
With each word, a wave of love swells and surges through him.
"He's my home. He makes me believe in myself."
The man is staring point-blank at him, a peculiar mix of tenderness and envy writ plain on his face. "Damn, you really do love him. Good for you, man. I wish I could say the same. Or at least ask him for his number or something."
If there is anything the last year has taught Jaewon, it is that life is too fleeting, that some risks are worth the potential fall.
"You know what? You should confess." Jaewon urges, convictions rising with the power of love and alcohol. "You said you're graduating too, right? Won't this be your last chance?"
The man, emboldened, straightens up in agreement. "You're right! This way I won't have any regrets. I think he likes me too, anyway."
Jaewon gives him a firm pat on the shoulder. The man rounds the corner of the claw machine towards the pork restaurant, and that's when Jaewon realizes something.
"You're going into that restaurant?"
"Yeah?"
"The one that serves pork belly?"
"Well yes, he works there. I'm pretty sure he's closing up right now."
Jaewon knows for a fact that Jihyun is the only staff member left in the restaurant.
"You were talking about the server? The young-looking one?" Jaewon asks.
"Yeah, I was."
They both peer through the windows on the slider doors and see Jihyun carrying the mop into the kitchen area.
"The guy right there?" Jaewon can't help but point at Jihyun.
The stranger is clearly agitated by all the questioning. "Yeah, that's the guy! Is there a problem? I happen to find him fucking adorable, okay?"
In the span of three seconds, the cosmic understanding of who this stranger has been talking about the entire time unfolds before him. Jaewon internally curses himself for (inadvertently) encouraging another man to go after his man. He'd listened to him wax poetic about Jihyun for fifteen goddamn minutes!
"Uh, that's my boyfriend." Jaewon responds flatly, finger still pointed towards Jihyun.
At that moment, Jihyun steps out to lock the front door, and notices the two of them standing awkwardly with each other. Jaewon is staring dully at the stranger while the stranger stares woefully at him. Jihyun decides to address the stranger first.
"Can I help you, sir?"
That seems to bring him back to his senses, and the stranger waves him off, mumbling something about fate being cruel and giving up on love. Jaewon shrugs and offers an arm to his fucking adorable boyfriend, who promptly takes it. They walk off like that toward Jihyun's dorm and the long night of lovemaking that awaits them.
Right before they leave, Jaewon turns around and tells the stranger, "Congratulations on graduating, by the way!"
Jihyun eyes him questioningly, but Jaewon just kisses him instead.
The stranger manages one last look at them before taking a long, much needed drag.
"Well, shit."