Work Text:
Ricky loves his peace and quiet. He’s made it clear over the past five or so months of working in Jebiwon Co. His colleagues knew of this as well, making sure to not bother the boy when he’s working. Only the occasional queries when needed. It wasn’t like he hated talking and being around people, Ricky just prefers to be on his own without any distractions. Being able to fully concentrate and to be focused on what he’s tasked to complete.
This was until Gyuvin came into the picture two months ago. He can remember that day all too well.
“I heard we have a few new people joining us today.” Zhanghao whispers, just loud enough for Hanbin and Ricky to hear. Every lunch break with them consisted of gossiping about anything and everything that goes on in their workplace. “Do you think any of them are good looking?”
“You literally have a boyfriend.” Ricky reminds him, not even glancing over. He still had quite the stack of papers left to finish so he took his break as an opportunity to catch up on some of the work he has yet to complete.
“I never said I’d date any of them!” Zhanghao retorts. Hanbin giggles at the two Chinese boys exchange. Patting Zhanghao’s back when he realised the boy had unsurprisingly lost. “Besides, Hanbin is more than enough for me.”
“Gross.”
“One day you’ll understand.” Zhanghao leans against Hanbin’s chest, sticking his tongue out at Ricky who was still not looking at him.
📄
One thing that Ricky had forgot to mention was besides loving his peace and quiet, he had a tendency to overwork himself. A lot. This isn’t just because their boss, who is a bitch by the way, loves to give him mountains on mountains of paperwork to complete within completely unreasonable deadlines. It’s just a trait that Ricky grew accustomed to.
He’s had a tendency to exert himself to the point of fainting. There were days when he was still in college where he’d study nonstop and passed out due exhaustion from working his body to the max. Zhanghao, his close family friend now turned coworker, had always nagged Ricky’s ears off for not taking care of himself. Ricky never listened albeit he’s learned to take it down a notch.
📄
Ricky was sat at his office booth when he heard a loud commotion coming from the entrance of their office level. Ricky could almost ignore it if it wasn’t for all the Oooh’s and Aaah’s that the crowd was making. This may have disrupted his work but it had also piqued his curiosity. He gets up and makes a beeline towards Zhanghao and Hanbin, who were standing near the back of the crowd.
“What’s all this about?” Ricky asks. Pointing towards the crowd of people in front of them, looking way too engrossed in whatever is in front of them to care about Ricky’s presence.
“It’s the newcomers.” Hanbin replies instantly.
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean that’s it? Aren’t you curious of how they look like?” Zhanghao questioned, raising an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t be standing here next to me if you weren’t as curious as we—“
Zhanghao was interrupted by the crowd screaming like a group of fans that had just met their celebrity crush. “Gosh, all this commotion over a few newcomers? I’m going back to work.” Ricky makes turns to make a move back towards his booth but was interrupted by Zhanghao pulling his dress shirt sleeve and when he turns around, he’s faced with the newcomers. Ricky’s face-to-face with one particular male. He was exceptionally tall and had a boyish grin that was annoyingly charming. This tall male was standing in the middle of two other boys who he later learned the names of. Gunwook and Taerae huh…
“Hi.” The annoyingly charming man in front of him starts. His smile was almost too perfect, it made Ricky feel something warm in the pit of his stomach. He decided that’s a problem for his future self.
“Hi …?” Ricky replies awkwardly.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Kim Gyuvin. I hope we get along well.” The man, who he now knows as Gyuvin, extends his hand for a handshake. Ricky has manners so he goes in to shake his hand back. Though he could imagine just turning around and leaving Gyuvin’s hand mid air hanging would’ve been pretty funny.
Ricky gives Gyuvin a tight lipped smile, taking Gyuvin's hand in his. “Shim Ricky."
📄
Ricky recalls that day vividly. Regretting his decision approaching the large crowd of people and meeting Gyuvin so early on. He blames Zhanghao for pulling on his sleeve which caused him to come face-to-face with the boy. Zhanghao just tells him, “that’s not my problem” and shrugs. Hanbin smiles at Ricky as an apology for Zhanghao’s behaviour, and he can’t help but pity Hanbin for having to deal with the boys sassy attitude
Gunwook and Taerae were fine. They’ve been nothing but kind towards him and know their boundaries. Gyuvin on the other hand? He’s practically obsessed with Ricky at this point. The bane of Ricky's existence. And no, Ricky’s swears he’s not self absorbed and imagining things. He knows Gyuvin has an obvious liking towards annoying the fuck out of Ricky. Not only does he kind of have a thing for disturbing Ricky, he also has no idea how to talk below the decibel of eighty.
Worst part about this whole ordeal? Gyuvin’s booth was directly opposite of him, allowing the boy easy access to annoy Ricky whenever and however he liked. Ricky fights so hard to not sign the resignation papers every day that passes by. Zhanghao would so tattle tale on him to his parents if he ever quit so that was not even an option anyways. But at this point, he’d rather be jobless than have to deal another day alongside Kim Gyuvin.
Ricky finds Hanbin during his lunch break and instead of spending it going through his stack of papers, he spends it complaining to the boy infront of him. “I swear he’s talking this loud on purpose! I can’t get any work done and it’s killing me.”
“Maybe you could move your now booth to the one on the other side of the office?” Hanbin tries to help but Ricky’s too busy wallowing in misery.
“That would mean shifting everything that I’ve put on my table to the other one. Do you know how long I took to make everything look good and put together. God knows how long it’ll take to move everything to the other side of the office.”
Hanbin says nothing after that, just patting Ricky’s back in emotional support.
📄
Which brings him back to present day. He was standing at the photo copier machine when he hears the glass door swing open. “Kim Rickyyy,” were the first words out of Gyuvin’s mouth when he entered the office. Looks can be real deceiving. Ricky thought Gyuvin was a charming boy when he first saw him, but as a month went by and then two, and as Gyuvin started opening his mouth more, Ricky has come to realise very early on that Gyuvin was annoying. Really annoying.
“What.” Ricky replies bluntly, trying not to engage in Gyuvin’s antics. This doesn’t work as Gyuvin walks up to where he was and slaps his ass. “What the fuck Gyuvin!”
Gyuvin just strikes his charming annoying smile and walks to his office booth. Ricky grits his teeth and takes a deep breath. He never liked making enemies, but Gyuvin was the exception.
Ricky walks back over to his booth where he drops the thick stack of papers on top of an already thick pile and sighs. It’s not the first time his boss gives him a crazy amount of paperwork to finish within the span of three days. God forbid his boss ever giving him a break. Ricky sits down and gets started on the mountain of papers that he needs to get through when he gets rudely interrupted by the chatter of boy in front of him.
Gyuvin got along with everyone in the office. Everyone but Ricky. Jiwoong, his fellow coworker, tries to offer some advice to Ricky. But as soon as Jiwoong said that Ricky’s dislike for the boy was most definitely one sided, he immediately shut the conversation down. Why else would Gyuvin do everything in his power to annoy Ricky if he doesn’t hate him? Ricky shakes his head at the idea of Gyuvin wanting to be friends with him. No way.
“Could you stop talking so loud.” Ricky snapped at Gyuvin who was talking to Gunwook in a voice level that was inappropriate during work hours. Gyuvin didn’t take his words seriously, only proceeding to talk louder. Fuck this. Ricky slams the table in frustration and walks over to their snack bar. He could feel his colleagues gazes on him when he was walking but he couldn’t care less at the moment.
Ricky grabs a carton of strawberry milk to calm himself down when his eyes meet with a certain brunette boy that caused him this frustration. Feeling annoyance building up inside of him, Ricky didn’t notice the guilt in Gyuvin’s face when he beelined to the coffee machine to grab a cup of coffee. Ricky takes this opportunity to return to his desk and start on some of his work.
Gyuvin didn’t talk for the rest of the day.
“Get home safe.” Ricky bids Zhanghao and Hanbin goodbye as they leave the office. After the couple were out of eye shot he sighs and puts his head on the table, getting in at most a minute of rest before he readies himself for another day of working overtime. This was routine work. Every other day or so Ricky will stay behind to finish up some of his his workload before returning back to his apartment.
Taking the bus at two in the morning could be a bitch sometimes. The bus driver just driving past the offices bus stop, not noticing a blonde boy sitting at the seats. Days like that would end with Ricky hailing a taxi and paying a ridiculous amount just to go home. Whatever, small matter.
This time around, Ricky wasn’t alone in the office. Gyuvin sat across from his office booth, engrossed in his mountain of papers that their boss had decided to assign to the two of them. This was the first time Gyuvin decided to work overtime since he had started working here two months ago. Unlike his usual loud presence, he was focused and if Ricky hadn’t of known him beforehand, he’d understand the hype of Gyuvin amongst his female colleagues. What is he even saying. Ricky shakes that thought out of his head. It’s probably the lethargy getting to him.
“Time to get this started with.” Ricky murmurs under his breath before cracking his knuckles and getting started on his stack.
📄
“And … finished!” Ricky celebrates to himself as he finished the pile of papers that he needed to finish for the night, or well the morning. The office was dark, only the light above Gyuvin and his office booth supplying the two of them light for their work. Ricky wastes no time to quickly packs his things up and go home. Though as he trudged towards to the glass door, he felt a tug on his dress sleeve. Ricky turns around and in all it’s glory, was Kim Gyuvin standing right in front of him, looking awfully nervous.
“What?” Ricky folds his arms and looks straight at Gyuvin. Albeit exhausted, Ricky still felt the need to put up a front when he’s around Gyuvin.
“I noticed it was really late out and I wanted to ask you if you’d like for me to drive you home?” Gyuvin asks sheepishly. Ricky must’ve looked like Gyuvin grew a second head as the brunette immediately back tracks on his words, “you don’t have to! I was just offering in case you were too tired to get home especially this late in ni—“
“—No thanks. I can get home by myself just fine.” Ricky turns to the entrance
“Wait!” Gyuvin calls out again but it was too late as Ricky hastily enters the lift and slams on the elevator button to shut the door quickly.
“That was weird.” Ricky thought to himself on the way to the bus stop.
And when the bus drives right past Ricky which causes him to hail a taxi home and he wished he agreed to Gyuvin’s offer home. Nobody needs to know that except Ricky himself.
📄
“He offered you a drive home? And you said no?!” Zhanghao exclaimed.
“Lower your volume please there are people around you.” Ricky winces at Zhanghao’s tone. He had expected this reaction from the boy and he realises that he should’ve just kept this story to himself. “Yes I said no. I didn’t want to get into his car? What if I get kidnapped or worse he murders me?”
“Okay at this point you’re just being dramatic. Gyuvin’s been nothing but nice to everyone here, maybe it’s just a you problem.” Zhanghao reasons. Ricky punches him in the shoulder, eliciting a whine from Zhanghao. “I’m just saying! Everyone in the office loves Gyuvin, it’s only you.”
“Well, no one else in the office sits across of him when they’re working.” Ricky pouts, trying to earn sympathy points from Zhanghao who see’s right through him and rolls his eyes. Ricky continues eating his lunch and thinking back on what happened between the two of them last night.
📄
It’s a few days later which means another night of Ricky working overtime and Gyuvin so happens to be in the same position as him. Boss gave the two of them a stack of papers to hand in the next day. Isn’t that a little insane?
“Rest well later Ricky.” Hanbin and Zhanghao bids Ricky goodbye, the latter mouthing the words “accept his car favour” to which Ricky points his middle finger to show his disinterest in whatever nonsense Zhanghao wants him to be involved in.
“What a coincidence that we’re both always the last man standing.” Gyuvin jokes when he walks past Ricky with his large stack of papers, which could rival Ricky’s stack. “Don’t tire yourself out too much babe.” Gyuvin winks at Ricky from across the booth, which has Ricky rolling his eyes at the pet name.
It was 4am, and Ricky decided he’s done enough for the day. He looks up and sees Gyuvin was thinking the exact same thing as him, packing up and getting ready to leave. Ricky rubs the tears in his eyes, yawning so much that it was genuinely concerning. He rubs his eyes sleepily as he walks over to the exit when he feels someone grab his wrist, pulling Ricky to face him.
“You’re exhausted today, let me take you home please?” Gyuvin insists. Ricky is impressed with his consistency but he can’t give in to his arch enemy.
“No it’s fine. I can get myself home just fine.”
“Zhanghao told me the other day you missed your bus and had to pay for a taxi back home. Just let me take you home tonight.” Gyuvin reasons with him. Fuck, he can’t escape from this anymore.
“When I get my hands my hands on that boy it’s over for him.” Ricky mutters under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing… you can take me home on the one condition. You don’t say a single word during the drive to my place.”
“Whatever you say.” Gyuvin grins his stupid charming smile and they both walk to the car park. He leads Ricky to his car and they both sit in it in silence for a moment before Gyuvin hands Ricky his phone and asks him to type his address into the GPS. The silence after continued all the way back to Ricky’s apartment.
📄
It was the next day, Ricky stares at the taunting stack of papers that sit on his table. He decides he’s determined to get this stack of papers over and done with today. Getting started on it as soon as he could.
One thing about Ricky is that once he starts he can’t stop. Zhanghao walks past his desk back and forth multiple times before Ricky thinks it’s been one too many times to be normal and looks up to see what Zhanghao was doing. Zhanghao stops dead in his tracks, looking suspiciously concerned. “Yes? Do you want something?”
“Nope! Just checking on my favourite coworker.” Zhanghao smiles before leaving him for real. Ricky scratches his head in confusion before returning back to his stack of papers.
“Please take care of yourself Ricky.” Zhanghao shouts when he walks past Ricky’s desk, who just nods in acknowledgment, not even sparing the boy a glance. Zhanghao huffs a sigh, worried for the boy’s health.
“Don’t worry Hao, I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Hanbin reassures Zhanghao as they leave the office.
Ricky was almost done with his papers. “I c… an push through. Just… a few… m—“
“Ricky? Ricky can you hear me! Ricky! Ricky!” Gyuvin’s panicking as he shakes Ricky’s shoulders. He heard a loud thud and saw Ricky’s head on the table. Gyuvin had just assumed the boy fell asleep as he knows he’s been working nonstop since they’ve entered the office and gave him an hour to nap. He could tell the boy was over worked and needed the rest. But when he tried to wake the blonde boy up, there was no response from him.
He places his hand on Ricky’s chest to check for a pulse and heaves a sigh of relief when he feels Ricky’s heart beating a steady beat. “He must’ve fainted from exhaustion.” Gyuvin thought to himself. He kneels down and takes a good look at Ricky up close. Gyuvin thinks Ricky looks beautiful like this. Ricky’s eyes were shut, his lashes were so long girls would be jealous, his moles strategically placed to compliment his face so well, and his lips. Ricky’s pretty pink lips that looked so kis— what is Gyuvin even thinking now.
Gyuvin picks Ricky up and places him on his back after packing up the things on his and the latters table. “Ah Ricky really. You need to stop overworking yourself. It’s not good for you.” Gyuvin tells him off who probably can’t even hear him while he walks over to the car park. “Who knows what would happened if i wasn’t here.”
He delicately places Ricky in the passengers seat while Gyuvin sits in the drivers seat. He takes one last look at Ricky before driving off to his own place.
📄
Ricky wakes up with the worst headache. It felt as if he spent the whole night drinking and woke up hungover. Wait, what even happened last night? “Where … am I?” Ricky looks around and realised he has no idea who’s bedroom he was in. He decidedly stands up slowly before he walks around to take a look of his surroundings.
He stops at a picture that was framed on the wall of the bedroom. The image captures Gyuvin with a little girl and a little boy, which he can only assume is his younger siblings, all looking so happy and smiling at the camera. This makes Ricky smile. He looks at the other framed picture and it looked like a little kids card.
Ricky’s eyes soften at the thought of Gyuvin loving his siblings so much that he framed up a card that one of them made for him. Ricky wonders that maybe Gyuvin isn’t as bad as he thought he was.
He doesn’t know why but suddenly that’s when it clicked in Ricky’s head. He’s in Gyuvin’s room. Kim. Fucking. Gyuvin. What the fuck was he doing waking up in Gyuvin’s bedroom?
There’s only one way out. Ricky tip toed towards the door, turning the door knob open and opening the door as softly as possible. He has no idea who else lives here so the least he can do is be considerate. But the sight he was met with was something he never expected. It was Gyuvin, sleeping on the couch in what looks like was an uncomfortable position. Ricky looks at the peaceful boy. He looked gorgeous like this. The strip of sunlight illuminating a golden glow through a crack in the blind, perfectly landing on Gyuvin’s jaw and neck.
Ricky has never thought of Gyuvin as more than a colleague that made a lot of commotion where ever he goes. But as of right now, he decides his view of Gyuvin being just aloof and loud is slowly changing for the better.
“Hey Gyuvin. Wake up.” Ricky whispers just loud enough for Gyuvin to start stirring in his sleep. Slowly getting up from the couch and stretching from sleeping in such a small space for such a long period of time. What time even was it?
“Hm. Ricky? Is that you?” Gyuvin croaks. His morning voice was deeper than anything Ricky could even imagine. He can think about that another day, what he needs right now are answers on why he’s even here right now.
“Gyuvin? Sorry for waking you up but why am I at your house?” Ricky asks.
“Mmm. ‘Cause you fainted at the office last night and I didn’t have your keys. Also didn’t want to go into your house without your permission. So I brought you back to mine. Sorry.” Gyuvin replies drowsily. Sleep still evident in his voice.
“Fuck Zhanghao’s gonna kill me.” Ricky says to himself, but Gyuvin happens to hear him.
“Don’t worry about Zhanghao. I told him I brought you back to my place and you’re getting lots of rest now.” Gyuvin gets up and starts walking towards what Ricky assumes was the bathroom. “But you should probably check your phone though. I already told our boss that we both are taking today off I hope you don’t mind.”
“No worries. Thanks for bringing me back to your place for the night. I must’ve been heavy for you.” Ricky talks loudly while he walks back to Gyuvin’s(?) bedroom to look for his phone.
“Not at all actually. You’re lighter than I thought.”
“I hope I didn’t trouble you too much. I’m really sorry about that, you really didn’t need to bring me back home.” Ricky tells Gyuvin to which he laughs. His eyes were concentrated on cooking the seaweed soup for both Ricky and him.
“Did you really think I was going to leave you in the office? No matter how much you dislike me I would never leave you behind especially after you’ve fainted.”
Ricky blushes at the mention of his old feelings about the former. “Actually, now that I’ve talked to you more, you’re not all that bad.” At that Gyuvin looks at him with a puppy like gaze. He looks just like a golden retriever. Ricky swears if a tail it would be wagging with how his eyes lit up.
“Really?!”
“Yea really. No random colleague would take someone that dislikes them back to their home and make them seaweed soup.” Ricky giggles, he admits he rushed to assume Gyuvin’s personality. “I know we got off on the wrong foot so let’s start right again. Hi, I’m Shim Ricky.” Ricky extends his arm for a handshake, Gyuvin smiles his (no longer annoying) charming smile and shakes his hand happily.
“I’m Kim Gyuvin, nice to meet you.”
📄
It’s been around a week since the incident took place. Everyone in the office could notice a shift in their dynamic. Ricky and Gyuvin were practically stuck by the hip. Even on days that Ricky wasn’t working overtime, Gyuvin would still fetch him back. Some nights Ricky even fell asleep in the boys car. (On days like this Gyuvin would circle the neighbourhood to allow Ricky to sleep more. But no one besides him needs to know.)
To say Zhanghao nagged his ear off about fainting again was an understatement. Hanbin and Jiwoong physically held him back from tackling Ricky. They settled it in less than 10 minutes but just the thought of Zhanghao jumping him makes Ricky shiver. Never again.
You could say Gyuvin was growing on Ricky.
His antics that he would complain to Zhanghao before about how annoying it was isn’t making him annoyed anymore. His previously loud chatter was now just regular decibel in Ricky’s head. Gyuvin’s loud presence has slowly turned into something Ricky doesn’t mind being around. Pet names have also become a more regular thing.
It was almost as if Gyuvin was growing on Ricky. Gyuvin? Growing on Ricky? If you told Ricky a month ago that Gyuvin and him were talking more than one sentence to each other, he’d laugh in your face.
Gyuvin and Ricky growing close also meant teasing from Zhanghao. He teases him whenever he could about Ricky and Gyuvin’s potential blossoming of something more than friends but Ricky just ignores him.
“You guys act like an old married couple.”
“I don’t even like him like that!” Ricky rebuttals.
“Denial is a river in Egypt.”
“Yea whatever and your husband is gay.”
📄
“Kim Ricky!” Gyuvin calls out to Ricky and grabs his waist. He’s smiling so bright Ricky genuinely felt like the earth lost its sun because it was right in front of him right now.
“Yes?” Ricky replies, playfully rolling his eyes and detaching from Gyuvin’s arms that were around his waist.
“Are working overtime again today too?” Gyuvin frowns.
“Yup.” Ricky sighs, taking a sip of his strawberry milk.
“I was wondering… do you want to grab dinner together?” Gyuvin’s voice was smaller than usual. Ricky could tell he was nervous. Cute.
“Hmm. Your treat?” Ricky jokes but Gyuvin takes it seriously and nods unnecessarily.
“Sure! But you have to eat where ever I pick. Promise you won’t back out?” Gyuvin sticks his pinky finger out and presents it in front of Ricky.
Ricky rolls his eyes but smiles while connecting their pinky fingers in a promise, “promise.”
📄
Five months have gone by since Ricky and Gyuvin became colleagues. Three months since Ricky realised Gyuvin wasn’t as annoying as he pictured him to be. Two months since Ricky realised his feelings for Gyuvin are growing into something less platonic, more romantic. And one month since Ricky realised he wants to kiss Gyuvin square on the lips.
This realisation dawned on him one faithful night when they were sitting at the beach, the picnic mat lays flat on the sand. Gyuvin returned from the convenience store to Ricky holding a plastic bag filled to the brim with snacks. He pulls out all kinds of snacks, mostly Ricky’s favourites. Ricky smiles at the thought of Gyuvin remembering his favourite snacks off the top of his head. Probably mentioned in a conversation that had in Gyuvin’s car on the way home.
“You remembered?” Ricky looks at at Gyuvin. Staring at him with his big, cat-like eyes. Gyuvin smiles and nods.
“Of course I do.” Gyuvin proceeds to sit on the picnic mat, letting out a soft oof and finds a comfortable position before he starts to open up a cup of fresh mangos to munch on.
“Wow. You must really like me huh.” Ricky pretends to act flattered.
Gyuvin doesn’t even blink an eye, smiling at Ricky’s silly antics.
As they sit there for hours and hours, Ricky didn’t even notice that the sky turned from a pretty orange hue to a stark dark blue black. Ricky barely even notices the blanket of stars which filled the sky above them until Gyuvin mentions it. “Look up.” And Ricky does.
His mouth gapes. Ricky thinks he’s never seen anything more beautiful than this. Ricky looks at Gyuvin who was too distracted by the stars to even realise the boy next to him wasn’t looking up anymore. “Ricky look! That one right there is the Milky Way, that ones the Big Dipper, and that ones the Little Dipper. They’re so pretty.” Gyuvin smiles and points at the different things in the sky.
Ricky doesn’t bother looking up, because he realises right there and then that the prettiest star that shined the brightest was there sitting right next to him. “You really are.” RIcky mutters to himself.
“What was that?” Gyuvin looks over at Ricky. “Did you say something.”
“Nope. Point out the other stars for me.”
“Okay! Wait so if you look right there to your right….”
📄
“I told you there was something between the two of you.” Zhanghao proudly stated as if he built the earth with his own two hands.
“Okay fine! Whatever. But just because I like him doesn’t mean he likes me.” Ricky reminds. He sighs at the thought of Gyuvin and him coming full circle. Ricky thought he hated Gyuvin, but he ended up falling for him.
“Ricky. You’re fucking with me, right? You don’t think Gyuvin likes you?!” Zhanghao gapes.
“Why would I be? There’s no way a guy like him would like me let’s be serious. I literally treated him like shit when i first met him for no reason!”
“Well yea! But he never hated you for that did he? He still took care of you even after you were low key at his throat all day.” Ricky knows Zhanghao’s right, but still. Gyuvin could never like a guy like him. Ricky finds himself lacking.
Gyuvin is caring, loving, sweet, hardworking and all around someone fun to be around. Ricky finds it hard that a guy like that could want a guy like him as romantic partner.
“Well just think about it, alright? I won’t force you to confess or anything, but just don’t get yourself hurt.” Zhanghao pats Ricky’s shoulder. No matter how much Zhanghao teases him, he knows he will be right by his side no matter what and he’s forever grateful for that.
📄
Ricky was in bed at 10pm. His boss had decided to give the whole office three days off of work. So here he is, sitting in his bed, all cozy, on his phone scrolling on Twitter. Go figure.
Could he have gone out to the companies work break party alongside Gyuvin? Yes. Did he choose to skip out on it because he hates drinking? Also yes.
Could you blame him? He finally has a day off of work, why would he waste spending it drinking all night. Besides, he finds his bed a better place to rewind compared to a loud and likely crowded event place full of colleagues he has no intention on having small talk with.
So you can imagine it comes as a surprise to Ricky when Gyuvin’s calling his phone at 1am in the morning. “Rickyyyyyyyyy, I … eally mis— hicyouuuuuu.” Gyuvin hiccups, sounding really drunk that Ricky immediately gets out of bed to get dressed.
“Gyuvin. How much have you drunk?”
“O— are you … asking me?” Gyuvin giggles being continuing, “I don’t remember… one mom— nt we’re talking and the next moment they k— hickept asking me to take shots.”
“Ugh, you should really take care of yourself more Gyu. Who knows what could happen to you out there this late at night. You’re still at 0_1 Bar right?” Ricky doesn’t bother to put his shoe’s on properly before rushing to take the elevator down to the ground floor.
“Hehe hic yes I am! Are yo— hic going to save me?” Gyuvin asks so softly it makes Ricky.
“Yes I am. Hang in there Gyu.”
📄
Ricky finally reaches the bar that the party is being held at after what he feels like has been hours, realistically it’s probably only been fifteen max. He runs in and navigates his way to anywhere with familiar faces. He recognises Gunwook in the corner,
standing with Taerae and both looking worried. Ricky finally pushes past the last few people and spots Gyuvin looking like he’s going in and out of in and out of consciousness sitting on a bar stool, back against the wall to keep him up right.
“Gyu! How are you feeling?” Ricky realised it was no use as Gyuvin could barely even talk anymore. So he turns around to face Gunwook and Taerae, giving them a pointed look and obviously asking for answers.
“We tried to stop the superiors from pouring more drinks into Gyuvin’s glass but he insisted. He didn’t want to appear rude for rejecting their offers. Thus, he’s ended up in this state.” Gunwook explains, looking sorry for something that wasn’t in his control.
“We apologise on the superiors behalf, i hope it’s not too much for us to ask you to bring him home? He doesn’t live anywhere near us and I know you’re more familiar with his apartment than we are.” Taerae and Gunwook exchange glances with each other and then Ricky.
Ricky sympathises with the two boys, knowing it’s out of their control. Plus Gyuvin has done so much for him in the short amount of time they’ve known each other. The least he could do was bring the poor boy home.
“Leave it to me. You two enjoy yourselves, I’ll bring this human sized puppy home.” Ricky tries to joke to relief the tension in the air and it seems to work as all of them laugh a little.
Ricky puts Gyuvin’s arm across his shoulder, trying his best to support the 186cm boy. “Gyu, we’re almost at the taxi stand. Just hang in there for me.”
“An— hic ything for you Ricky.” Gyuvin hiccups.
They finally reach the taxi stand, Ricky hails the first taxi that comes by and they get in together, Gyuvin stumbling in before him. Ricky tells the driver Gyuvin’s address before focusing on the drunk boy beside him. “Where are we going?”
“Back to your place to get you rested. I can’t believe you allowed your superiors to get you drunk till this state.” Ricky looks at the boy next to him. Even when he was drunk, he looked so endearing. The pink flush on his cheeks from drinking, his eyes were glassy from being awake for so long. Gyuvin looked so vulnerable in this state but Ricky can’t help but admire him.
“You and your boyfriend are really cute together.” The driver commented which caught Ricky in surprise. “I remember when I was young and in love. Cherish every moment you can with him, yea?”
Ricky didn’t have the heart to tell the driver that they were in fact not together, and Gyuvin doesn’t even like him. “I will.” Was all Ricky said before looking back to Gyuvin who was smiling all giddily at Ricky. He definitely will cherish every moment with this boy.
“You look so pretty.” Gyuvin says, eyes big and staring at Ricky.
Ricky flushes, he can’t just say nonsense like this when he probably doesn’t mean it. I mean, he’s drunk. Whatever he’s saying is nonsense… right?
Good thing for Ricky is that Gyuvin’s door uses a number code to unlock instead of a traditional key. Ricky quickly types the code in by heart and pushes in to the apartment. Ricky pulls Gyuvin in while the boy trudges along. “Oookay. You stay right here, I’ll get you a glass of water.”
“Alright.”
Ricky hands Gyuvin the glass of water, he drinks it all at one go. From the time they left the party to when they arrived at Gyuvin’s house, Gyuvin sobered up quite a bit. Gyuvin places the glass on his coffee table and sits back on his couch. He looked deep in thought, which piqued Ricky’s curiosity.
“What are you thinking about?”
“You.” Gyuvin replies straightforwardly.
“Y— you can’t say stuff that you don’t mean!” Ricky retorts, the tips of his ears turn a dark shade of red.
“But I do mean it.” Gyuvin looks over to lock eyes with Ricky. The intensity of his gaze makes Ricky almost feel small. There was something in Gyuvin’s eyes that Ricky couldn’t for the life of him read.
“Ricky. I really like you. I want you. I want to be more than just friends. I want to be able to kiss you. Hold you in a way that people know that you’re mine.” Gyuvin confesses in a low voice. This startles Ricky. Gyuvin was still drunk… right? There’s no way any of what he was saying was true.
“No Gyu, you’re just drunk. Don’t say things you’ll regret tomorro—“
“I’m not drunk anymore. I started sobering up the moment I saw you. Ricky you’re like a drug, I need you.” Gyuvin places a hand on Ricky’s pulling him closer. “Ever since I landed my eyes on you, I knew I wanted you by my side no matter what it took. I want us to be something more. I can’t take being just friends with you.”
Ricky’s rooted in place. He feels as if he’s lost control of all his senses. He just stares at the brunette sitting in front of him, unable to look away. Gyuvin’s eyes flicker down to Ricky’s lips. He subconsciously licks them. Unsure what to even do in this situation.
“We can talk about this tomorrow morning. Sleep well baby.” Gyuvin got up from the couch and walked towards his bedroom. Ricky was still stuck in place even after he heard Gyuvin’s door click shut.
“What. Just happened?”
📄
“Baby. Wake up, it’s almost 11am.” Ricky hears someone talking to him. It sounds just like Gyuvin’s voice. Did he just wake up from some insane dream? Wait, did Gyuvin just call him baby? Is he still stuck in the dream. “Baby, get up. I cooked breakfast for us.”
Ricky’s eyes slowly open. Blinking to adjust to the sunlight shining through the window. “Gyu? Is that you?” Gyuvin’s smiles at this and puts a hand on Ricky’s cheek, running a thumb along it. “Am I dreaming or is this real?”
“Aigoo, you’re so cute Ricky. It’s real, now get up and freshen yourself up. I want t eat breakfast with you.” Gyuvin pouts. What on earth is going on. And is this all his imagination?
Ricky gets off the couch and stretches like a cat. He then gets up and goes to the bathroom. He brushes his teeth with his toothbrush (Yes. His toothbrush. Gyuvin insisted on Ricky keeping a toothbrush at his place for their sleepovers or instances like this.) He washes his face with Gyuvin’s toner and face wash and once he’s finished, beelines to the kitchen to see Gyuvin sitting at the other side of the kitchen counter. He had a bright smile on his face as if he wasn’t drunk out of his mind last night.
Ricky sees his plate that Gyuvin had gotten out of bed to cook for them. Eggs on toast. He doesn’t even get the opportunity to take a bite before Gyuvin asks innocently, “Did you rest your pretty little head well last night?” This causes Ricky’s cheeks to turn a red hue.
“Yea I did. How about you? How are you feeling after last night?” Ricky asks worriedly. Gyuvin just smiles at him, brushing it off.
“I slept well. Was thinking of you.”
“Oh.” If Ricky stood next to a tomato you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. They continued to sit in silence, Ricky stares at the plate in front of him, before curiosity got the better of him. “So… do you remember what you said to me last night?” Ricky asked nervously.
“Oh, of course.” Gyuvin’s expression didn’t fall one bit. That’s a good sign. Ricky thought to himself.
“Did you really mean it. Like, all of it?” Ricky must look nervous for Gyuvin’s response back as he didn’t answer his question at all. Gyuvin got out of his seat and walked around the counter to where Ricky was.
“Stand up.” Was all Gyuvin said. Ricky followed along, confused at where this was going before Gyuvin pins him to the kitchen cabinets behind him. Gyuvin’s face was mere centimetres away from Ricky’s that his eyes were going crossed.
“I meant every word I said last night Ricky. I’ve wanted this so badly, you don’t even know.” Gyuvin’s eyes were staring right at his lips. Making Ricky feel self conscious of them, licking his lips to make sure they weren’t dry.
“I won’t do anything if you don’t want me to. We can just go back to eating breakfa—“
Gyuvin doesn’t finish his sentence before Ricky is pulling him in by the collar to close the gap between the two of them. Little did Gyuvin know, Ricky has also been wanting to kiss Gyuvin, badly.
Ricky kisses his rough, trying to assert his dominance. But Gyuvin was more experienced and fights back harder. He moved his hands to hold Ricky’s waist and nape to deepen the kiss. Gyuvin bites Ricky’s bottom lip, parting his lips, eliciting a soft moan from the Chinese boy. Gyuvin took this opportunity to explore Ricky’s mouth, he tasted like mint from brushing his teeth right before. Gyuvin doesn’t miss a spot, making sure he’s explored every part of Ricky’s mouth.
Ricky doesn’t try to fight back. Allowing Gyuvin to do whatever he wants with him. Gyuvin and Ricky part to take deep breaths before Gyuvin lifts Ricky up and places his on the kitchen counter. Gyuvin wastes no time before connecting his lips to Ricky’s jaw, leaving soft kisses from his jawline to his earlobe. When Gyuvin reaches his earlobe, he starts nipping on it lightly, testing the waters. This action evokes something in Ricky.
“A— ah Gyuvin.” Ricky moans. Gyuvin feels his stomach stir at the boys soft moans in his ear.
“Baby. You don’t know how much I wanted to do this.” Gyuvin whispered into Ricky’s ear. Smirking when he felt the boy shiver from his words. He peppered kisses down Ricky’s Role model tattoo. And when he reached the end of it he went retracted to take a look at the boy he had in his arms. Pecking his lips once more before rubbing Ricky’s waist and asking, “my eggs and toast are probably cold, shall we go out for lunch?”
Ricky honest to god whines at the loss of warmth. Gyuvin felt himself almost give in but he had better plans for that later.
📃
“You finally got laid? Thank the lords!” Zhanghao says as if he was a virgin. Ricky and Gyuvin walked into the office hand in hand, and seeing the reactions from their colleagues was probably the funniest thing ever.
“It was all me by the way.” Gyuvin tells Zhanghao, who doesn’t look shocked at all.
“Could tell. Ricky would probably end up never confessing so I’m glad you got there first.”
“Fuck you!”
“He’s right though, baby.” Gyuvin pecks Ricky on the cheek. Ricky turns away, cheeks a bright pink.
“Okay. Keep the pet names and pda in the bedroom please. Spare me.” Zhanghao covers his eyes as if he was a teenager trying to protect himself from a sex scene on the television.
📃
Gyuvin and Ricky sit on the roof top listening to music from Gyuvin’s wired earpiece. The we’re watching the sunset when Ricky heard the song coming from the earpiece. Older by 5 seconds of summer.
Lost in the day to day
You kiss away my pain
Oh, every time you twist my lip
my dear devoted delicate
“You know,” Ricky starts, “this song reminds me of you.” Gyuvin turns his head to look at Ricky. “When I’m feeling down or lost. I search for you. When I’m happy. I search for you. No matter how I feel, I know at the end of the day it’s you who melts the pain away. It’s you who celebrates my successes and reassures me during with failures.”
Gyuvin smiles at that, he looks towards the sky and says in a voice level that made it feel like it was just for the two of them. “You were the best thing to ever happen to me, Shim Ricky.”
One thing about Ricky is that he loves his personal space. Gyuvin also loves Ricky’s personal space. And Ricky finds that he doesn't mind it all that much at all as long as it was Gyuvin.
