Chapter Text
Seok Matthew has never had this many attractive men in his home.
He takes in the scene in front of him. A man with brooding eyes and constantly wind-swept hair was sat leisurely in the middle of his living room, scrolling on his phone. A man with dimples, deep enough to be burrowed in, was scrutinizing his abysmal excuse of a fridge. The last man, eyes wide with wonder and curiosity, were now crinkling as he giggled to himself after shamelessly opening Matthew’s childhood album without permission.
On a regular day, maybe having three handsome men in this close proximity would be welcomed, fantasized about, even. Unfortunately for the Canadian, the circumstances that brought upon this phenomenon left much to be desired.
How did he get here?
“And why couldn’t you have picked up this game yourself?” laments the taller boy through the phone.
“Because I’m busy with writing a paper and you’re busy trying to woo the exchange student in your Economics class.” Matthew grumbles. His phone was teetering dangerously to the edge of his desk, as the remainder of his table was flooded with stacks of messily written notes. Eyes weary and mind agitated to finish his damn paper, he’s reminded of the promise he made to himself to play the newly released, Fallen GUIs, after his final assignment was completed. He took a glance at the time on his phone; 8:03pm. Three more hours until he got his hands on the indie-sci-fi-western-robot game that his friends didn’t understand the appeal of.
“You don’t get it! I know he wants me too! Why else would he ask me, out of 30 other people, for a spare pen.” Gyuvin pauses for a bit before continuing, “Don’t even know why he needed a pen honestly, I swear he only takes notes on his iPad.” He lets out a loud groan that Matthew doubts is appropriate for the general public, then proceeds with his spiel. Matthew wants to die. “He looks so cute when he’s focused in class. Did you know he has this habit of nibbling his stylus when he’s thinking? God, I wish he was nibbling on my-”.
“Are you at the store yet.”
“Yes, hyung,” The honorific was emphasized, because he knows it annoys the latter even more. Gyuvin drags his hand along the game cartridges aimlessly, stopping at a title that catches his eye. Strawberry Cat Adventures? He would love this. He smiles to himself. “I’m walking through the aisles and looking for your weird indie game that I forgot the name of.” His fingers extend to grab the cover, only to be met with a dainty hand that was littered in rings.
“I’ve mentioned it to you over 10 times!” Matthew whines. Count on his best friend to listen to something that goes into one ear and out of the other. “It’s Fallen GUIs. Cover has cowboy robots on it and shit.” He twirls the pen in his hand, waiting for a response. The silence drags on and he looks at his phone to see that the call got disconnected. What the hell. “Kim Gyuvin you motherf-”
“Gyuvin?” The voice is soft. Familiar. He looks up, and is graced to see the man he’s been mentally married to for 4 months and counting. Hot Econs Guy, also known as Shen Ricky, has dyed his hair jet black, Gyuvin mourns the previous red, but quickly recovers as he takes in how larger his eyes appear with the new color. Without realizing, he drops the arm that was holding his phone, leaving it to dangle at his side helplessly. Ricky’s always had this effect of reducing Gyuvin to an almost dopey Caveman state.
Both of their hands retract from the aforementioned Strawberry Cat Adventures game. Gyuvin internally yearns for the contact like he was a maiden starved.
“Oh, Ricky!” he grins, “I didn’t expect to see you in a place like this. Don’t you have like, model runways to walk on?” Gyuvin’s heart grows as he’s rewarded with a short huff and a slightly upturned mouth. That would be the 47th smile he’s gotten out of Ricky so far, not like he’s keeping track or anything.
“Very funny, Kim Gyuvin.” Ricky runs a hand through his hair as his eyes wander back to the pink cartridge, missing the way Gyuvin’s left hand twitched at the unconscious action. “I was looking for something for my… little sister.” He adds quietly at the end.
“Let me guess.. Strawberry Cat Adventures?” He plucks out the game from the shelf and inspects the cover, a cartoon cat with yellow fur that was holding a whisk and a bowl of what he assumes to be strawberry cake batter. How literal. “Kinda looks like someone I know..” Gyuvin chances a glance to the other, who seems to be having a hard time to remain composed, if the blush on his neck wasn’t already a telling sign.
“Reviews have detailed it to be an introspective story about a cat who travelled across the world in order to continue her family’s legacy of bakers, consequently giving up on her own personal dreams. More to it than what meets the eye.” Ricky snatches the game out of Gyuvin’s hand while the brunette laughs at his reaction.
“I didn’t say anything!” He lifts both of his arms in defense, “I’m actually here to find a game for someone too.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, my friend Matthew. He’s a huge nerd. Right now he’s obsessing over this new game called um.. F…Fall- or was it Full?” He brings a hand to his chin, pondering. He recalls the way Matthew was excitedly talking about this newly released indie game, equipped with his animated hand gestures. However, somewhere along the unconventional game lingo, he tuned out to let Matthew talk his ear off.
“Would you..” Gyuvin watches as his beloved, unbeknownst to the man in question, avoids his gaze and shoves his hand into the pocket of his blazer, “like me to help you? I already found the game I- my sister, wanted.” He waves the cartridge in the air pointedly. Ricky was so cute when he gets shy like this. Gyuvin wasn’t that close to the man as he wished to be, so it was more than a pleasant surprise to him when the latter showed an interest in extending their time together. Though, he tried not to make it obvious to Ricky himself.
“Ricky, would I like dogs to take over the world? What kind of question is that, of course I do!”
The black haired man raised an eyebrow at the eagerness, it was almost as if the man in front of him grew a tail that was waving back and forth.
“Well, let’s find it then.”
-
“Are you sure this is the game he wanted..?”
“Yeah! It started with a F.. and had a G in the title too..”
“But the cover is so-”
“Hey! Are you judging my friend’s tastes?”
“Yes. I am. Who on earth would play this?”
“Are you guys going to buy it or not?” The young cashier behind the counter asked uninterestedly. He seriously had better places to be than standing for hours at a game shop, namely Roblox Restaurant Tycoon. Speaking of restaurants, he started to wonder about what to have for dinner. Maybe samgyeopsal..
“Listen, mister,” Gyuvin glances down at the employee’s nametag and looks back up at him, “Han Yujin. We have a debate to settle. Do you think this game is worth buying?” He points to the cartridge on top of the counter. Yujin stares blankly at the cover. He has never seen that game in his life.
“Yeah. Cool, I guess.”
“We’ll take it!”
Ricky groans.
The mouse hovers over the submit button.
Another quick glance at the clock, 11:58pm.
Was it the best written paper of Matthew’s life? Definitely not. Was he going to ask for an extension just to perfect the paper? He wants to, but his brain is also begging him to take a break from staring lasers into his screen.
Fuck it. He hits submit. The paper was sent and all Matthew had to do now was silently cheer, the walls in his room were thin enough to collapse, and wait for Gyuvin to deliver the game that took months to be released. However, he hasn’t heard back from his friend ever since he was, quite rudely, hung up on.
“Seok Matthew!”
Think of the devil and he shall appear. While holding mango ice cream apparently.
Gyuvin settles into Matthew’s bedroom with a cone in one hand and swinging a plastic bag in the other. He plops onto the bed without grace, and Matthew eyes warily at how the ice cream was slowly trickling down it’s cone, seconds away from dropping onto the bed. He just washed the sheets yesterday, damn it. Gyuvin takes notice of this and laps up the ice cream like a dog. Matthew fails to hide his grimace.
“You won’t believe who I met at GameStop!” His eyes twinkled in the way it gets when one certain Chinese man was on his mind.
“Hm..” Matthew looks up while swirling in his desk chair, feigning obliviousness, “Was it Ricky from Economics?” He enjoys the way Gyuvin’s mouth hangs in shock, staring at Matthew as if he told him the secrets of the future. “Hyung, how did you know?”
“Lucky guess. Anyways, where’s my game?”
“Wow, not even a Thank you, Gyuvinnie or a You’re the best, Gyuvinnie! Or a I’m paying you the 20,000 won it took to buy this game, Gyuvinnie.”
Matthew sighs and rummages through his desk. He set aside the money earlier, knowing Gyuvin would whine about it as soon as he arrived. Underneath his pencil case, he spots the green bills and pulls it out. Gyuvin reaches for it immediately before Matthew could react, leaving the man frozen. “Thanks hyung!” he nuzzles his chin onto the top of the older’s head, pleased at the way Matthew’s shoulders relax.
He swats the other away without any real aggression, eyes zoning in on the plastic bag Gyuvin carried earlier. With trembling fingers, he takes out the box slowly. For months, he’s been living off of slivers and crumbs that the game developers would share about the game, adamant about not giving away any potential spoilers. This is what university life meant for Matthew. Suffering for insurmountable stretches of time, which is then followed by a short moment of peace. Which is then prolonged with more suffering, but who gives a damn when he was holding his most anticipated game, the one, the only;
“What the fuck is Full Of Guys?”
Matthew’s grip on the cursed box tightens. His eyes are about to pop out of his sockets at what he was currently looking at. Because instead of his expected cowboy robots on the cover, he was looking at three poorly drawn men in various provocative poses. Sakura flowers and red hearts were occupying the background. The title of the game was obnoxiously large and typed in bubbled letters. One of the guys was doing a finger heart while wearing tie dye on tie dye, for fuck’s sake.
Gyuvin’s done with his ice cream now, sucking on his thumb absentmindedly as he tilts his head in confusion. “Isn’t that what you asked for? Full Of Guys? Thought the title was kind of weird, but who am I to judge what you’re into.”
“Gyuvin,” he inhales, “I am going to beat your ass.”
“You can’t! My prized potatoes!” His hands fly down to his own backside instinctively.
“I asked for Fallen GUIs and you give me a 12 year old tween’s fantasy dating game.”
“Ah, so that’s what the name was.”
“Give me back my money. I’m returning this.. thing.”
“The shop’s already closed, hyung! And the little guy told me about their no refund policy. A bit of a scam now that I think about it, but little Han Yujin looked like he would murder me if I asked any more questions.”
“Yeah, well, we’re sharing the same sentiment right now.”
“Come on, the game isn’t that bad. Try checking the summary, the characters are pretty interesting!”
Matthew flips the box around unwillingly. In this story, he would be the main protagonist, a 19 year old high school girl. Great start already. Skimming through the surprising and mildly horrifying backstory, he found out he was subjected to three “bedazzling” love interests;
- Kim Jiwoong
- Cold and sexy, mysterious Jiwoong with endless charm! Older, wiser, and knows the way to win your heart! But would you be able to win his..?
- Kim Taerae
- Beautiful smile Taerae, voice of honey and cute dimples! Your neighbor that never fails to make you laugh. Could you become.. more than neighbors?
- Park Gunwook
- Tough and lovely Gunwook! Younger guy who grew up from the snotty kid you met, into a handsome and sporty adult! Noona.. can you see me as a man now?
“I am not playing this Gyuvin.”
Gyuvin lets out a pout at the rejection. He slightly feels bad, knowing how long his hyung has been wanting to de-stress after finals week. “Well I would play it..”
“You can have it then.” He tosses the game to Gyuvin, who clumsily catches it.
“No! I don’t own a Nintendo Switch.” He tosses the game back onto the bed. Matthew squints at it and lets out a heavy sigh. “Looks like I’ll have to visit GameStop tomorrow.”
“And spend more money? Hyung, the only things I see in your fridge are Monster Energy and Buldak Ramen.”
“Please stop reminding me of how I am the broke university student archetype.” Matthew collapses onto the bed, too tired to argue further.
“Fine, but hey, at least you’ll be resting more. I was worried when you told me about your plan to stay up all night in order to immerse yourself into Fallen GUIs.”
“Oh so now you remember the title.”
“Ah, hyung! It was an accident! I got distracted when you called me..”
“Damn you Shen Ricky.”
“Hey, leave my man alone!”
Matthew lifts his head up to stare at his pathetic beanstalk of a friend. Lucky for Gyuvin, Matthew has a soft spot for his favorite dongsaeng. Of course, he wouldn’t tell Gyuvin that. Unless he was 5 shots in.
“It’s late, Gyuvin-ah. You should head back to your room.”
“Aw, is our Matthew hyung worried for me? Not mad anymore?” Gyuvin bats his eyelashes rapidly and squeezes his hands together.
“Only because this would be great blackmail material in the future.” He snorts. Rolling off the bed, he starts to push Gyuvin towards the door. “Just go! I want to sleep and you’re disrupting my peace.”
“Fine, fine! No need to push, I’m a grown man now.” As if to prove a point, he flexes his bicep proudly. Matthew can barely see a change through the oversized hoodie Gyuvin is wearing, but he nods anyway. “Yeah, a grown man who uses the calculator app for elementary mental math.”
“So mean hyungie,” he frowns, “maybe that dating simulator would reduce your grouchiness.”
“Don’t even. Good night, Gyuvin-ah.”
“Bye hyung!” Gyuvin waves and Matthew closes the door. What a day.
Now alone, and without the glaringly loud presence of his friend, he realizes how quiet the room is. He finds it terribly ironic that Gyuvin gave him a dating sim out of all games, considering how he’s never dated in his life. It wasn’t like he was unattractive, but he always found himself prioritizing other means instead of romantically pursuing a person. A partner wouldn’t be enough to cover his tuition and rent. In usual cases, at least.
He makes his way to the bed with a yawn, ready to sleep until next Tuesday since he no longer had motivation to stay up. But amongst the covers, Full Of Guys was displayed in the center, almost mockingly at him. What kind of name was Full Of Guys anyways? Is creativity in a decline these days? He picks up the game and inspects it in his hand. Doesn’t look like it would give me a virus, I think. He snaps out of it in an instant. What was he doing? Genuinely giving this game a chance? His lack of sleep was surely getting to his sanity.
Throwing the box onto his nightstand without a second thought, Matthew then turns off the lights and climbs into bed. He squeezes the Charmander plushie next to him, while tiredness begins to weigh his eyes shut. He was determined to have the longest sleep of his life without any interruptions.
Things hardly go his way.
He hears voices. And no, not the voices in his head that tells him to stop by the cake shop every time he finishes a workout. These voices were hushed, as if there were two other men in his room. Judging by the way they were speaking rapidly without pause, Matthew assumed they were panicking. One had a lilt to his voice, while the other sounded stern, but gentle at the same time. Am I going senile? Are they thieves? Clearly they aren’t doing a very great job if they’re targeting me of all people. He opens a singular eye slowly, careful not to alert the strangers of his presence. The voices seemed to be coming from his nightstand, dangerously close.
Shifting his head to the left, his eye fully opens to see.. well, he wasn’t quite sure if what he was seeing was real or a consequence of mixing his energy drinks with additional caffeine shots. For there, floating above Full Of Guys, were two men who couldn’t be taller than the length of his palm. By now, both of Matthew’s eyes fly open in shock as he barely manages to bite back a gasp. His muffled sound doesn’t go unnoticed by one of the men, who whips his head around to face Matthew.
The little man nudges his partner to stop talking. They both then face him fully. Somehow, the other little man appears to be in a greater shock than Matthew himself.
“I told you it was too soon, Hao!”
“You can’t blame me when he looked close to throwing us into the trash.”
“Is this sleep paralysis?” Matthew wonders out loud.
The tiny figures start making their way closer to him, eyeing him carefully. He sits up and shuffles backwards with swiftness, until his back meets the wall adjacent to his bed. The grip that never left his plushie was tight enough to burst it’s seams.
“Who.. who are you people?” When Matthew recounts this story to a disbelieving Gyuvin, he leaves out the part where his voice trembles in front of two miniature men wearing matching purple suits.
“Ah, he found out about us.” The one with the lilt in his voice says, his gaze sharpening to stare directly into Matthew’s eyes. “That leaves me no choice.”
He can feel sweat trickling down the sides of his head, his breath was quickening and his eyes were definitely not starting to water at the situation. He can’t believe that this would be the way he’s going to die. Orange dragon in hand, dubious game in his room, and two murderers who he doubts has their identity registered in the system. He was so going to be talked about in a true crime podcast.
“Any last words, Seok Ma-”
“Hao, please! You’re scaring him!” The other man bats a hand to the one named as Hao. Hao juts out his lower lip in response, a complete 180 from how he was about to tear Matthew into shreds earlier. “But he looks so fun to tease, Bin-ah.” The one named Bin softens his facial expression from worried into.. is that fond? Matthew’s instincts are screaming at him to leave his room immediately and never come back.
“Can someone please tell me what’s going on.” He lets out weakly.
“Sorry that we have to do this so late, but someone,” Bin narrows his eyes at Hao knowingly, the latter snorts and flicks through his well-trimmed nails, “was feeling impatient.”
“I’m Hao, the impatient one.” The smile on his face looks incredibly smug, as he waves his fingers lightly. “We’re not trying to kill you, by the way. Quite the opposite.” The hammering of his pulse only gets faster.
“And I’m Hanbin! Or Bin, for short. Nice to meet you!” The man beams and zooms closer to Matthew’s face out of excitement. Up this close, Matthew can see the whisker dimples near his eyes that don’t seem to stop shining. Hao flies right next to Bin, resting his chin on his shoulder. The pretty pair in front of him make his eyes go cross eyed.
“I’m Matthew..”
“We know!” They chimed in chorus.
“W.. What are you? Are you real? Am I dreaming?”
“Oh baby, it’s better than a dream.” Hao wiggles his eyebrows in a manner that makes shivers run down Matthew’s spine.
“It’ll take a while to explain,” Hanbin’s face has that worried look from earlier, eyebrows furrowed and lips downturned. “Would you like the short version or the long version?”
“The long version, I guess..?”
Hanbin nods once and pulls out something black from his pocket. He brings it up to his face, and that’s when Matthew realizes the item was thickly rimmed glasses.
“Hao, if you’d do the honors.”
“God,” he groans, “we’d save so much time if we just told him directly!”
“But he should know the context and history behind this!”
“I am not taking out the whiteboard and markers, Bin.” He crosses his arms.
“Please..” Hanbin lays a hand on Hao’s arm and looks at him through his eyelashes, “Hao-ge.”
Matthew really, really wishes he missed the way that Hao’s gaze shifts into something that he doesn’t want to know the implications of.
With a snap of Hao’s fingers, a white board that was large enough to read off of appears at the foot of his bed. Even the whiteboard was floating, but Matthew guesses that should be the least of his concerns right now.
“Now, let’s start!” Hanbin claps earnestly while Hao sighs and moves to sit on top of the whiteboard, legs crossed and all.
The whiteboard starts to write by itself, using the markers that also appeared out of thin air. Hanbin is fluently describing the very early and albeit, too detailed, history of his being, all in one breath. Matthew takes a quick look at the clock and it’s 12:26am. He starts thinking about how long it would take for him to wake up from this disturbingly realistic lucid dream.
Hao holds a hand up, and the markers pause mid-air as well. He shakes his head and tuts, “You still don’t believe this is real, huh?”
“I mean, no?”
The bespectacled man starts shaking his head anxiously at the way Hao was gliding towards Matthew’s face again. This time, he pulls out a toy hammer and thwacks it across poor Matthew’s nose.
“Ow, what the hell!” He rubs his nose that was gradually turning pink.
“You bought our cursed dating game prison, effectively binding us to you. You refuse to play it but it’s no use anyways, because they will come to you eventually. Honestly, you should thank us for saving your dire love life. You have until,” Hao looks down at his wristwatch, “Christmas, wow! Lucky you, it’s only July.”
“Hao..”
“You can continue the rest, babe!”
There’s a dejected look on Hanbin’s face as he mumbles before pushing the glasses up to his head. He lets out a deep breath and fixes Matthew with a firm look.
“Seok Matthew, we will do our best to guide you on your love journey.” He places a hand above his heart, “With us by your side, we can guarantee that you will find love, and happiness.”
“Wait, am I the main protagonist of that fucking.. Full Of Guys?”
“Oh, thinking of fucking already?” Hao nods at him in approval with a thumbs up.
“No, oh my God!”
“Yes, Matthew. You are.”
“But I’m not a 19 year old girl?”
“Eh, semantics.”
Comfort plushie long abandoned, Matthew leaves his bed to pace across his room. He tries to make the most sense out of his situation. He bought, or Gyuvin bought, a crappy video game. Two purple men start acting like his godparents. He has to fall in love or else..
“What would happen if I don’t end up with any of them? What if I just want to be comfortably single and preferably far away from you people?”
“You die.”
Matthew’s eyes widen to the size of saucers. Hao snickers.
“No, I- We’re going to take away your Nintendo Switch for the time being. And your Buldak Ramen. And your Pokecard collection.”
He immediately runs to shield the drawer under his desk, arms splaying across it.
“You monsters. I’ve been collecting them since I was 12!”
Hao shrugs like he wasn’t partially responsible for taking away everything Matthew loved.
“Why me? Why not Gyuvin? He’s the one who bought the stupid thing!”
“Because, Matthew,” Hanbin attempts to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but since he’s the size of a highlighter, Matthew barely feels a thing. “you’ve never fallen in love.”
“I’m only 22.”
“Even worse!” Hao gasps in a scandalized tone and covers his mouth, “not even a high school crush? Or a Hinge match?”
“Please stop talking.”
“Matthew, we really need you to trust us on this. It’s not just your livelihood at stake, but ours too. As your love guides, it’s our responsibility to help you.” The absolute certainty carried in Hanbin’s voice almost makes Matthew lower his guard down. Almost. “Be grateful that we’re setting you up with hotties!” Hao huffs. Yep, the guard is back up again.
“Really?” He eyes warily at the cursed cartridge. Nothing has changed on the cover since he first saw it. Three men with unintelligible faces contrast their loud articles of clothing.
“I didn’t expect HQ to pick my design, really.” Despite being miniscule, Matthew could still see how the entirety of Hanbin’s face was painted a bright tomato red. He looks away and clears his throat, “You’ll have to see for yourself in person.”
“Yes, yes, tomorrow will be a new day to finally commence Single Seok Matthew’s Romance Shebang!” Hao makes a whooping sound and sprinkles confetti out of his palms. “Can’t wait to see the look on your face when you see ‘em. You’ll be wishing you thanked me earlier.”
It’s already 1:00am. His schedule is clear for the next two months due to his semester break. If he stocks up on enough food, it’s totally feasible for him to stay inside and not interact with any odd men outside of his home. Considering how computer games can be downloaded online too, his plan is foolproof.
“Oh Matthew, please don’t make this harder for us. I can see the gears turning in your head.”
“He’s done this to himself.” Hao rolls his eyes and directs his pointer finger and thumb to Matthew’s laptop. With a “Pew!”, the screen of the laptop he saved up 500,000 won for, cracks as if it was smashed by a crowbar.
“You- I- What the fu-” He stammers and falls down onto both knees. “My baby. My everything.”
“We’ll cover the costs, I promise!” Hanbin waves his hands around frantically, “But that does look like it needs a repair..”
“You evil fairies might be the death of me.”
“Aw, he gave us petnames already.”
He lunges for the tiny moled man but fails miserably, Hao easily flying out of his clutches. He tries again, and it soon turns into him chasing the man around the room until he’s out of breath. All Hanbin can do is sigh and close his eyes.
“Alright, I think it’s time for everyone to settle down.” With a clap, Matthew finds himself tucked into bed, right next to a bewildered Hao. This appears to satisfy Hanbin enough, and he slides in between him and the fairy he’s holding the largest grudge against.
“Goodnight everyone!”
Unwillingly, as most of the events that has befallen to Matthew, his vision fades to black.
-
His eyes are bleary with sleep as he wakes up with a pounding headache. Memories of last night start to flow into his mind, causing him to jolt up in a rush. It worsens the headache more, so he raises his fingers to massage his temples.
“Finally awake?” God damn it.
Holding a tiny mug in his tiny bathrobe, Hao sits on his pillow wearing a smile that meant anything but good.
“We’re going out.” He grins with his eyes closed.
“Can I at least shower?”
“You humans really need to do that everyday? Sounds exhausting.”
“Hao, what did I say about respecting other’s culture?” Hanbin appears out of a puff of air. He’s wearing a chef hat with a plate of scrambled eggs in one hand, the other hand resting on his hip.
“Whatever. Seok-mae, hurry up and get ready.”
It was not going to be an easy day.
He trudges his way to the nearest repair store, having both of his love guides (Hanbin insisted with puppy eyes.) resting on his respective shoulders. They briefed him earlier on how he’s the only one who can see and talk to them. Typical of a dating sim main character. Contrary to their belief, Matthew was determined to not fall for any schemes that the game? system? God? was concocting.
The bells on the door chime, indicating his entrance to the store. He beelines to the counter and places his baby on the wood carefully.
“How much would it cost to fix this?”
“Damn, looks fucked.”
Matthew gapes in shock at the worker’s casual profanity. His eyes pan down to read the nametag of the employee, ready to give him a scolding because he looks way too young to be acting so rud- wait, Han Yujin. Where has he heard this name before?
Oh. Kim Gyuvin. He feels like exploding.
“By any chance, did you work at GameStop?”
Han Yujin’s eyes grow impossibly large and Matthew would’ve found it endearing if it wasn’t for the words that were coming out of his mouth.
“Shit, are you stalking me? My mom warned me about people like you, holy shit. Step back, I have a red button under this counter!”
“No, listen,” He puts a hand in front of Yujin to stop his rambling, “my friend bought a game from you. Tall, annoying, was probably thirsting for the guy he was next to.”
“Oh,” Yujin’s brows draw in and he smacks a fist to his open palm, “that guy! Yeah, I remember him. Sadly.”
Matthew looks around before leaning in closer to the employee.
“Yeah, right, so do you also remember the game he bought? It was called,” he lowers his voice, “Full Of Guys.”
“Nah.”
“Doesn’t ring any bell at all? Any?” He’s getting desperate now, clawing at the counter. Hao’s offending snort goes right through his ear.
“Nope.”
“You’re joking.”
“I am not. Still need that fixed by the way?” He points down to the shattered laptop, “I just started, so I don’t know what the fuck you want me to do with that.”
“Man. Yeah, I do. Please give it to someone who knows what they’re doing.” He receives a silent thumbs up from the employee. He walks away with the laptop in his hands and comes back with a paper and pen.
“Just like, fill in your details. Someone will call you, probably.”
“So this is how people are treated in this planet. Fascinating.” Hanbin says in awe.
“I would fit in so well with their customs. Don’t you agree, Bin-ah?”
Matthew ignores the both of them and writes down the details required, praying that he’s not signing his soul away on accident. Given the current circumstances, he doesn’t count it as an impossibility.
Once he was done, he bids both Yujin and his precious laptop a goodbye. Turning around with a heavy heart, he wonders if the repair would take a while to be fixed. A month? Two months? His head is lowered the more he thinks about his upcoming laptop-less days. Just for this incident, he thinks he deserves a-
“Oh, shit!” Matthew’s forehead is smack dab against a hard wall. Except, it wasn’t a hard wall, but a firm chest instead. The impact blows his head away and he feels himself falling backwards.
All of it happens in slow motion. The falling. The toned arm that reaches out to grab his waist. Another palm that holds his elbow to steady him. He can’t believe this was happening.
In front of him, was a man dressed in a fitted white button up, a few top buttons opened to expose defined collarbones. His shirt was tucked into flattering slacks that displayed the stranger’s long legs. Matthew’s eyes steadily trails his gaze upwards to the man’s face.
Oh.
Oh shit.