Chapter Text
Taesan doesn’t like animals.
More specifically, he doesn’t like pets. He doesn’t like having to care for something so small and vulnerable because caring for himself is already too hard to do every day.
This is why he’d landed in the middle of some sketchy pet shop on some random avenue where his (overly) excited friend was searching for a hamster to replace his old one. His old one died from rolling down the stairs at record speed. Taesan would bet a few hundred dollars that Woonhak had actually stepped on it instead.
“Hyung, you’d look so cool with like, a big ass snake or something around your neck.” Woonhak pointed toward one of the many tanks in which different snake species were encaged. Taesan would have agreed with him if he were listening to what he was saying.
“What?” he chose to vocalize his absence in the new conversation. He honestly did not want to be there, especially since he had no interest in buying a pet, but Woonhak needs parental supervision. In a way, Woonhak is Taesan’s pet–but he’s a human and doesn’t listen when you tell him to do anything.
“I said you’d look good with a snake around your neck. Like a villain, some mischievous shit like that.” Woonhak smirked at the thought, probably envisioning Taesan as the lead antagonist of a film that ran in his head and his head only. “You’re not getting tired of being here, are you?” Woonhak’s demeanor changed suddenly, something that always happened no matter who Taesan was hanging out with.
That was just the way he was. Showing little to no emotion especially when there was no reason to insert any. He was okay now, at least he’d hoped so.
Still, the worry remained.
“I’m fine,” Taesan replied, almost too harshly. “I haven’t… It hasn’t happened for a year. It won’t happen again.” Finding the uncomfortable shift in their conversation to be his queue, Taesan moved away from Woonhak. Off to look at the snakes, or whatever animal Woonhak had mentioned in their stead.
As he was traveling through the odd store, he felt a sense of comfort. Something about the fact that all these animals were just… in one room made him think hey, even though they’re probably wanting to die after being taken away from their families, at least they’re not suffering alone..?
Shaking his head at the horrible analysis, Taesan moved away from the snakes. That was for a day when he felt like he could relish in the presence of a reptile as cool as a king cobra.
He found himself in the fish section. Relatively calmer and less crowded than any other section of the store–the perfect place for Taesan to get lost in his thoughts again .
He came across a certain tank holding a few fish that looked similar to each other. Must be the same species, or breed, or whatever.
He read the label on the tank, stumbling a bit as the name was quite long and hard to pronounce. Once he finally got it off the tip of his tongue, he knew that the fishies he was looking at were Corydoras.
“You’re probably the only person this year to have stared at the fish for longer than 3 seconds.” A low voice coming from behind Taesan almost scared him to the point of blacking out again. A warning would’ve been nice. What happened to “hi” or “hello”?
Taesan turned around, albeit reluctantly, and was faced with a—as much as he didn’t want to admit it—beautiful man. He had long hair, at least in Taesan’s eyes and had warm eyes. Seeing as Taesan wasn’t stupid, he figured that the guy was the owner of the store. Leehan.
“Sorry for scaring you,” he apologized quickly, just as Taesan thought he would. The Leehan man then reached over to the bottom of one of the shelves, taking out a half-filled bag of what Taesan assumed was fish food. That relieved him to some degree. Of course, he wasn’t stalking you .
“It’s okay,” Taesan whispered, unsure of how to progress with the interaction. He chose to stay silent, watching as Leehan tipped just the right amount of fish food into each container with tremendous care.
He was sure that it was just because he was watching a majestic man do it, but feeding a fish food every day didn’t seem so bad. Suddenly, a pet sounded like something Taesan aspired to have.
Before he could conclude that for sure in his head, Leehan was putting the now quarter-filled bag back under the shelf and making his way out of the aisle. Before he could do so, Taesan opened his mouth and spoke in probably the loudest volume he could emit.
“W-wait!” he called, hand dangerously close to grabbing onto Leehan man’s wrist. “I have a… a question about…” Taesan turned back to the shelf, squinting his eyes to try and pronounce the name before Leehan man left.
“About Corydoras?” Leehan’s already grinning face advanced to a full beam, all of his attention on Taesan as though he were the only person in the world who mattered. “Ask away! I have some of my own.” hearing that relieved Taesan because he didn’t want to ask someone who knew nothing.
“Are they… uhm, easy to take care of? I don’t… I don’t particularly enjoy having to have my eye on a pet all day, every day. The.. co… ry… doras… are cute, I think.” Taesan spoke slowly, not wanting to fumble up somehow and embarrass himself in front of the Corydoras Expert.
Leehan let out a hearty chuckle at Taesan’s pathetic attempt to say the name of the fish. Still, he walked over to the tank that Taesan had been eyeing and dragged the latter along with him.
“Corydoras are relatively easy to care for. Fish in general are pretty easy to maintain. Some are more high maintenance than others, but I can help you find some that aren’t much of a hassle to take in.” Leehan’s explanation was going in through one ear and out the other without processing in Taesan’s mind.
“I—“ Taesan fumbled, suddenly losing his ability to articulate any words when Leehan’s gaze flickered onto him. “…Can I… have one…?” Taesan wasn’t too good with the pet-buyer lingo. He sure hoped that’s what you were supposed to say.
“Of course! We have everything from tanks, food, supplies, decoration, and, of course, the fish here!” Leehan grinned, gesturing to different areas of the store. Taesan assumed that was some marketing scheme, but he wasn’t going to deny that he’d be buying everything from Leehan’s Pet Shop and Leehan’s Pet Shop only.
“I…” Taesan began, immediately regretting even opening his mouth when he’d forgotten everything he wanted to say. It came back to him in bits, but speaking was relatively hard for him. “I’m… I don’t have much, uhm, money, so…” he whispered, almost too embarrassed to say it out loud. Though, “out loud” wouldn’t be much louder than a whisper either.
“It’s okay! I try not to feed on people’s wallets, and I certainly don’t want to feed on yours.” Leehan shook his head, making an x shape with his hands. “How ‘bout a discount?” he proposed, gaining the attention of Taesan who’d never expected such treatment from a stranger.
“Really..?” he murmured, stars in his eyes. “Is that— are you allowed to do that?” Taesan’s eyes flickered beyond Leehan’s frame, catching Woonhak staring.
Woonhak gave him a thumbs up, probably because he’d managed to talk to someone other than him without needing his help, and scurried away. Sometimes, Taesan was glad that Woonhak was perpetually aware of his surroundings because he, for one, was not .
“I’m my own boss, darling.” Leehan winked charismatically. That small action—along with the unexpected pet name—did something to Taesan’s heart.
Usually, that would be a bad thing, but maybe he was getting better.
—
“What’s your name?” Leehan asked Taesan as he was ringing him up, keeping a keen eye on the price so he could give him the best discount possible.
“Han Dongmin,” Taesan responded lowly, quite uncomfortable with the thought of Leehan using his real name. Leehan must’ve noticed that something was up though, because he brought up his own tale about names soon after.
“Y’know, my name isn’t even Leehan. It’s a family nickname. My other employees don’t go by their real names either,” Leehan pointed behind Taesan, urging him to turn around. He was met with a pink-haired male stocking the shelves with various brands of dog food.
“That’s Sanghyeok, but his nametag says Riwoo.” Explained Leehan. “This could’ve been Riwoo & Leehan’s Pet Shop if the fucker weren’t so humble.” he snickered, unapologetic as he assumed this Riwoo character wouldn’t hear him.
Taesan’s eyes lingered for a while, some foreign feeling in him. At first, he’d thought that Leehan had brought up the store on a whim. A pet store wasn’t common in their small town, so Taesan assumed the guy wanted to spark some change.
Turns out he and Riwoo had been planning it since they were in their high school days. Taesan didn’t know Leehan like that. Hell, he didn’t even know his real name yet!
Still, he wanted to know him like that. And it annoyed him that he was feeling possessive over something that was never and will never be his.
“There’s also a girl who works here. Her name is Aeri, and she’s actually half-Japanese and half-Korean. We all call her Giselle since she adopted that name from her life in the States.” Leehan looked at Taesan as he informed him of Giselle. Taesan thought it was safe to presume that Giselle wasn’t working her shift at that time.
“And Giselle’s girlfriend, Winter, started working here recently too. Her name’s Minjeong, but Giselle started calling her Winter since she’s,” Leehan cleared his throat to imitate Giselle’s words, “Quote-unquote, ‘As beautiful as winter.’” he let out a chuckle, drawing a belated one from Taesan’s lips too.
That made Taesan feel better inside, though. He wasn’t even sure why he’d assumed that Leehan was gay at all. Riwoo was no competition yet. Giselle could have been competition if she and her, as Leehan had suggested, beautiful girlfriend weren’t already kicking it.
“And me. My name is Donghyun.” Leehan finally revealed his own name amid a list of many. It refreshed Taesan to know that there were people like him, people who used a name other than their birth-assigned names for reasons other than what most people presume.
Everyone assumed that he was a girl at some point, or that he was trying to become one. As much as he liked to admire things about girls—like their pretty hair, the nail ideas they come up with, or the clothes they wear—he was comfortable in his own skin on that account.
The name Dongmin just didn’t ring right in his ears. It reminded him of things that he’d rather forget, and, frankly, the name Taesan came up on a whim. Woonhak was spewing some nonsense, tripped up on a word, and there it was—the birth of Taesan.
“So,” Leehan—no, Donghyun broke Taesan out of his head. “Do you also have a family nickname? Or just a nickname?” he asked. He’d already bagged up all of Taesan’s items at that point. They were just standing at the register for the sake of speaking. Thank God nobody was behind them.
“My friend calls me Taesan. I like it.” Taesan responded with brevity, his lips forming a thin line as he relished in the awkwardness of being unable to say anything more.
“Okay,” Leehan nodded firmly, eyes flickering to the screen in front of him for barely a second before he pushed the bagged items in front of Taesan. “Your total is ₩75,000, Taesan.”