Chapter Text
The first time…
--
Jisung hops nervously on his feet outside the apartment complex and draws his leather jacket closer over his thin mesh shirt. His dark eyes dart back and forth, peering through the glass door to the lobby and darting nervously from the empty room to the messages open on his phone. He breathes a sigh of relief when he sees a new one from Felix:
lix
almost there sungie! sorry changbin-hyung and his friends kept grabbing me for photos
jisung
thanks lix <3 pls hurry tho I feel so sus just standing outside the door here haha..
lix
hehe I see youuuuuu
Felix waves from an opening elevator door at the end of the lobby. A cheeky grin sticks to his face as jogs down the hallway with quick steps and reaches the lobby doors.
“Hello,” he says with a lopsided smile and a swing on the door frame. His blonde hair frames a lightly flushed face, likely from the light jog and perhaps also the soju he had told Jisung he was bringing tonight.
“Hey,” Jisung says with a smile, drawing out the word as he steps inside and pulls Felix into a quick embrace. “Thank you for coming to get me, I’m hyped to finally be at one of changbinnie-hyungs’ parti –“Felix cuts him off with a hand over his mouth and an exaggerated- “Shhhhhh!, “ the blonde drops his hand and looks conspiratorially around the silent foyer. “It’s a secret, he’s not technically allowed to have a party here. The apartment complex doesn’t allow them, he’s just rented the place for the night so they could kick us out. And of course, binnie booked a huge expensive room too.”
Jisung laughs and pulls Felix’s hand off his mouth, replacing it with a finger of his own held up to lips. “Sorry! His precious secret is safe with me don’t worry.”
“I knew we could trust you,” Felix nods and takes his hand, leading him toward the elevator, “Now, lets go before I forget which floor the par- I mean which floor his room is on.”
The elevator doors close and Jisung gets a better look at Felix under the bright lights inside. The black cargo pants, cropped tank top and denim jacket slung over his slender shoulders. It’s simple but he’s clearly put in effort. Felix notices his gaze and laughs, striking a few poses that Jisung strikes back. “Like what you see sungie?” He teases, before leaning back onto the railing, stumbling slightly and giggling. Soft dings sound as they ascend. Felix continues, pushing his hair back from his forehead “I’m hoping someone else does tonight to be honest. Not that I don’t like your opinion too.” Jisung laughs and reassures him that he knows he does. “As much as I like Hyunjin’s ideas of fate and soulmates and whatever, I think I’ve stopped believing that the universe is just going to plop someone into my lap and we’ll live happily ever after or whatever.”
Jisung rolls his eyes as he recalls Hyunjin’s romantic diatribes, his long talks of signs and fate and whatever. “He just says all that shit because he got lucky and met Seungmin in highschool and then they started going out and now they’re and madly in love. He’s so biased!”
“Exactly!” Felix replies, “Besides, even if it is all fated and unstoppablethere’s no harm in looking hot and being prepared. You never know when you’re going to meet your soulmate.” Jisung finds himself agreeing wholeheartedly.
--
The party is loud. If it was supposed to be a secret, it is definitely an open one by now.
One of Changbin’s friends had apparently bought him a new pair of bougie speakers for his birthday. He had been setting up on the rug in the middle of the lounge room when Jisung had walked through the spacious apartment and found him sitting on the floor, surrounded by friends and empty beer cans. The birthday boy whooped in excitement and called out to him,
“Jisung-ah! Get your butt over here. And bring your degree!”
Jisung had groaned and proceeded to complain that a sound engineering degree did not, in fact, equip him with the knowledge to assemble any and all speakers. But he still helped Changbin set them up, no opportunity to use his degree would go to waste in this economy.
Now, he sits in the same spot on the rug, speakers booming and empty beer bottle in hand. Felix had brought it to him before leaving him to socialise on the balcony. Now Jisung is sitting, awkwardly trying to contribute to the conversation Changbin is having with one of his gym friends who joined them on the floor. Jisung doesn’t consider himself completely out of his depth talking about working out (he used to go to the gym fairly often before he started a 9-5) but he thinks that they crossed the depth of his knowledge about five minutes ago and sailed into unknown waters talking about the power of creatine. It’s definitely not just the alcohol stopping him from understanding the words coming out of their mouths, in fact he’s only had one drink so far. So Jisung decides to go and dump his empty bottle for a new one and return the favour to Felix.
He jumps up and wanders over to the kitchen, a little further from the centre of the party activity. He walks through the mostly empty dining room and heads to the fridge where the beer was supposedly being stored. Jisung smells food and sees what he thinks is a man opening the fridge door. However, the strangers foot is stuck out on the other side of the door, and as he hurriedly peeks his head inside the fridge, the door rebounds off his foot and smacks him on the side of the head. The man yelps out in pain at the same time as Jisung sputters out a laugh, covering his mouth with his hand in an attempt to stop it escaping. He is unsuccessful and the main turns around and steps back from the fridge door, left hand on his head where the door had whacked him. He quickly recovers and brings his hand from his head to his side, looking embarrassed. Jisung sheepishly tries to smother his grin.
The man clears his throat, “You saw nothing.” His eyes narrow slightly and he places his hand on his hip, casually leaning against the open fridge door. The man is wearing an apron stained with chocolate the same colour as the brown locks that peek out from around his nape. His playful intimidation reminds Jisung of a cat, ready to strike out and bite your ankle in a second.
Jisung coughs and stands up straight, nodding profusely holding back further giggles as he attempts to put on a serious tone, “Ahh yes! you’re very right I saw absolutely nothing… I was too busy getting beer out of the fridge to notice anything else.” His eyes fall on the fridge, which has started to beep loudly in protest of being left open too long.
The fridge attack victim, who seems entirely unaffected by the loud noise, considers him in his catlike way, nods and grabs a can from the fridge door turning back to see Jisung approach and handing it out to him. “Sorry… can you just grab one more too, I’m getting it for a friend,” he lets out an awkward laugh, “they’re not both for me.”
The man cocks an eyebrow but grabs another drink from the door and a bowl of what Jisung presumes is icing before finally closing the damn thing. Jisung thanks him and mimes zipping his lips shut with a laugh before heading out to find Felix and enjoy the rest of his night.
--
Jisung does end up drinking the second beer himself, as Felix is drunk enough already, sprawled in the lap of another partygoer that Jisung doesn’t know. Cat Man’s cake tastes great too, he thinks it’s worth the light pink mark on his forehead that he wears for the rest of the night. Jisung doesn’t catch his name, and he honestly doesn’t expect to see him again.
Until…