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All things considered, Intak actually has a pretty easygoing younger brother. Shota is cute, doesn't throw tantrums, and has huge eyes that are dark enough to hold the universe's secrets, and yet bright enough to reflect his admiration and love for his older brother. He's a bit obsessed with UFOs and aliens, but aren't all seven-year-olds obsessed with either Ancient Egypt or crop circles at that age? Most importantly, he adores Intak and looks at him like he put the stars in the sky, and that's really all that matters.
…Or it would be, if he didn't have that weird habit of bringing small, injured animals home.
Sometimes Intak swears Shota is, like, some modern-day reincarnation of Snow White. Nevermind the fact that birds like to follow him wherever he goes, and that Intak has seen squirrels eating out of his hand more than once — it's that Shota has a heart the size of a small supernova, and that love always finds its way to the tiny wounded animals quivering in his arms every month or so.
"It's shaking so badly," Shota would say, looking up at Intak with watery eyes not unlike those of the puppy, or kitten, or bird, or at one point, a raccoon. He'd hug the small animal close to his chest and his lip would quiver as he stared at Intak, not entirely un-expectantly.
Intak may have been many things, but 'unfazed' was rarely one of them, and 'infinitely immune to all forms of cute pouts and sparkly eyes' was definitely not. Cue the clearing of their dining table, rummaging through their first-aid kit, and opening Google to find out if what they used for human injuries could be used on animals, or if they would have to hold a funeral in their backyard again, like how they did when Shota's first goldfish (his name was Plastic Bag) died.
Most of the time, the animals were decently help-able. A number of them simply sported a graze, or perhaps a cut, and once, an eye infection, which Intak had to run down to the pet store to get eye drops for. The small kitten, which had already been blind in one eye, had hung out in their backyard until he was all better, after which he simply refused to leave. Shota had taken him in and thoughtfully named him Pirate.
"Because he can only see out of one eye," he'd supplied helpfully when Intak looked mildly perturbed by the morbidness of his naming system.
This time, though, it was kind of way out of Intak's league. Shota had been a mess, too, when he barged into the living room wherein Intak was mid-dozing off while trying to get some assignments done. He was carrying a small, shaking puppy with floppy ears and of indiscernible breed in a torn cardboard box haphazardly laid with the jacket Shota had been wearing, and the white T-shirt he was wearing underneath was stained with tears, dirt and blood. The latter made Intak fly into panic mode for a good five seconds before he noticed that the blood had been from the puppy, not Shota.
Once Intak's calm enough to inspect the state of the puppy, he feels his heart sink past his ribcage. The quivering figure inside the box has matted fur and is panting, probably from the pain coming from his right hind leg, which is bent at an unnerving angle. Intak figures the blood is coming from there, but there's so much dirt and fur caked all over that he can barely tell.
"Oh, buddy," Intak murmurs, pulling Shota close to him by the shoulder as he softly caresses one of the puppy's ears, which perks up momentarily as if by instinct. It sends an ache into Intak's chest — despite everything, the puppy is still receptive to affection, so willing to trust and love.
"I don't know if we can help this one, Shota," he says, letting Shota sob into his shoulder. The puppy's eyes are almost closing, and Intak feels a bitter tang rising up behind his brow.
Shota sniffles and looks at Intak with eyes spilling over with tears and love. "I-I wanna take him to the vet. Can we? Please? I don't want him to d-d-"
He can't get the word out without choking on more sobs, but Intak understands anyway.
"Sure we can, buddy," he says, patting Shota on the head and drying his tears with his long sleeves. "Let's get this little guy in the car and go to the vet."
That's how he finds himself at a vet's office on a Thursday evening. Shota is sitting next to him with the cardboard box on his lap as he gently touches the puppy's ears. There's not a lot of people — in fact, the room is empty except for Intak and Shota, but he suspects there's only one vet in the whole clinic based on its small, compact layout, unless they've managed to harness some Narnia-esque technology and fit more offices behind one door with peeling paint.
"You guys can come in now," someone calls out from behind the door. Shota shoots up and walks as quickly as his seven-year-old legs will allow him to without jostling the puppy too much, and Intak follows closely behind.
Shota's already reaching up to place the box on the table when Intak turns to close the door behind them, and as he does, he hears a voice decidedly younger than he'd expected saying lightly, "Who do we have here, lil' guy?"
"I found him on the side of the road," Shota explains seriously. Intak turns around and immediately freezes as he's met with the most attractive man he's ever seen in his life.
"Did you?" Mr. Broad Shoulders-and-Glasses says as he gently reaches into the box and lifts up the puppy, careful not to touch its injured leg. The puppy lets out a whine of pain, which wakes Intak from his hot-guy-induced stupor.
There's something decidedly inappropriate about openly gawking at the vet who is nursing your seven-year-old brother's rescue pup back to health in a small, local animal clinic, so Intak forces himself to tear his eyes away from the sharp, charcoal-drawn lines of the vet's side profile and back at the puppy lying on the operating table.
"Let's get a look here," the vet says quietly as he pulls the light over the table and turns it on. He lets out a clipped sigh as he observes the matted fur and the broken leg. "Oh, dear."
"Is it really bad?" Shota asks. "I-is he going to-"
Tears start running down his face again at the mere prospect of the D-word, so Intak hurriedly swoops in and scoops him into his arms.
"He's pretty worried," Intak says to the vet, who is looking at Intak curiously with flint-sharp eyes and a stare like flickering embers. Intak swallows and reminds himself, Crying brother. Injured dog. Animal clinic.
He manages to power on. "I tried to take a look at home, but it looks like a job for the experts this time, so…" he trails off as he waves a hand at the puppy weakly.
Surprisingly, a bright little trill of laughter escapes from the man in front of him at that.
"Sounds like you're pretty used to this. Happen often?"
Intak hikes Shota a little higher on his arm as he laughs a little helplessly. "Let's just say that it's a good thing my little brother doesn't ask to keep every hurt animal he comes across."
The vet hums in response, beginning to pull on his gloves. "I was like that as a kid. You may have a future vet on your hands."
A few minutes of him poking and prodding gently at the puppy go past in silence until he finally straightens up and says, "This might take a while. An injury this bad was probably from a car accident. His leg is pretty busted up, but his vitals look good and it doesn't seem like he's suffered too much blood loss.
"Luckily you found him when you did, huh?" he says as he takes his glove off to ruffle Shota's hair with a bright smile. Intak dumbly realizes how the curve of his lips pulled against bright, straight teeth almost seems to form the shape of a heart and feels his own stop for a moment.
Shota wipes his tears. "Will he be okay?"
"Right as rain in a few weeks," the vet promises. There's a firmness behind his words that's warm and comforting, and Intak feels Shota ease up with trust for his newest hero.
"You guys can wait outside while I work on this little guy. He'll be clean and feeling much better in no time," the vet says reassuringly as he walks Intak and Shota to the door. Shota sniffs and nods.
"Thank you," he says meekly, and the vet's eyes soften like a river trickling into a stream. He reaches out and ruffles Shota's hair again before turning to look at Intak.
"Thanks for bringing him here. Too many people leave animals by the side of the road to— well, you know how it is," the vet says with a mirthless chuckle. Still, his eyes brighten momentarily as he smiles again. "Good call, Mr…?"
"Intak," Intak blurts out. He shakes his head as if physically trying to wake himself out of his stupor. "I mean, no 'Mr.'. Just Intak is fine."
"Okay, No Mr. Just Intak," the vet says with a hint of a chuckle threatening to burst from his even tone. "You can call me Jiung."
Jiung, Jiung, Jiung. The name floats around like an old DVD logo in the television of Intak's brain, and similarly, he's rewarded with one (1) coherent thought whenever it hits one of the corners. Shota is a welcome grounding presence - he's not doing much besides curiously observing the office and scurrying off to observe the fish in the tank in the corner of the room opposite the empty reception counter, but it's harder for Intak to fawn over the most attractive man he's ever seen when his younger brother is running around in the same room.
Some time passes, and Shota's clearly getting restless based on how he's started to climb all over Intak. Luckily, that's when Jiung chooses to come out of his office looking a little bit worse for wear — away from the harsh LEDs in the office, Intak can now see that the shadows under Jiung's eyes weren't necessarily caused by the lighting. However, his face lights up all the same once he spots Shota and Intak.
"He's doing really well," Jiung says, inviting Intak and Shota into his office to take a look at the puppy, which is now all clean and bandaged up. There's a little splint wrapped against his injured hind leg, and a patch or two of fur has been shaved down to get to some wounds in his skin that Intak hadn't been able to notice before, but the sparkle in his eyes is back, and it matches the hopeful gleam in Shota's dark irises perfectly.
"I'll need to keep him here so I can keep an eye on him for a few days, but after that, he's all yours to take care of," Jiung says to Shota seriously, and Shota nods back equally as seriously, looking like the weight of the world has been placed on his seven-year-old shoulders. Intak's overcome with a sudden wave of endearment at how delicately Jiung's balancing on the line between treating Shota like a kid and treating him like a grown-up with his grounded tone but optimistic message.
"Thanks for everything," Intak blurts out. Jiung looks at him with a gaze like flickering candlelight and smiles.
"Just doing my job," he says.
He walks Intak and Shota out, and before Intak can turn back and ask if it would be too much to visit the puppy every now and then, Jiung says, "Also, feel free to drop by whenever you're free to visit your little friend, okay?"
Granted, he says it to Shota, but Intak drinks up the fact that Jiung essentially read his mind anyway.
Shota's eyes light up. "Really? Is that okay?"
"It's more than okay, buddy," Jiung says, patting Shota on the head. "See you guys soon."
When he closes the door behind him, he meets Intak's gaze and smiles gently before disappearing inside the clinic.
If that small smile stays with Intak for the rest of the day and into the night, where he holds onto that image of the corner of Jiung's lips curved up like a secret, no one else has to know.
-
The next day, Intak feels like he may just be coming off a little bit too eager when he picks Shota up from school and drives straight to the vet.
"Do you think he's going to be much better, or only a little bit better?" Shota asks, kicking his legs from where he's perched in the passenger's seat.
"I don't know, little man. He's definitely at least a little better, don't you think?"
"I think he'll be 50 person better." Shota recently learned the word "percent" and still adorably pronounces it wrongly. Intak's constantly torn between correcting him and also just letting him pronounce it wrongly before he grows up and is no longer Intak's adorable younger brother who says things like "50 person" instead of "50 percent" and "You're the best brother ever.".
"I think he'll be 50 percent better too," Intak replies, turning into the road leading up to the vet clinic. Shota hums happily, looking out the window at the approaching building.
When they enter the clinic, there's considerably more people there than yesterday, despite it still being a weekday afternoon. They walk up to the counter, where a blond man who looks eerily like the cat perched on his lap is flipping through a few papers on a clipboard.
"Name and purpose?" he asks in a drawl. Intak notices a tattoo of a key hiding behind his T-shirt sleeve.
"Um, Hwang Intak? We came by yesterday to drop off a puppy with a broken leg. Jiung said we could come by and visit whenever?" Intak says, realizing how unsure he sounds halfway through and ending the sentence on a valley girl-esque crescendo. He doesn't even know Jiung's official doctor name, or whatever you call it, but Dr. Jiung also sounds silly, a bit too formal.
The receptionist looks up at him with curious, lidded eyes. "First-name basis already? Looks like Jiung has favourites," he says, and the lazy lilt in his tone means Intak can't tell whether he's serious or not.
"Well, it's really my younger brother who he said that to," Intak said, moving aside awkwardly to show Shota next to him, looking up at the receptionist with bright, inquisitive eyes.
The receptionist immediately coos, as if presented with a nest full of chirping baby chicks. "Hello there," he says in a decidedly softer tone than he was using to talk to Intak. Intak can't really blame him, though. Shota does tend to have that effect on people.
"I'm Shota," Shota says. "Your hair is pretty."
Intak can hear the receptionist practically melting. “Hello, Shota. I'm Taeyang. You have pretty hair, too."
"Thank you!" Shota replies brightly. "Can we see the puppy now?"
Taeyang looks over his shoulder at the closed office door, then at the other person sitting in the waiting room. He turns back to Shota and says, "Sorry, buddy, you might have to wait for a while. Do you want me to tell you the names of those fishes over there while you wait?"
"Okay!"
Taeyang sets the cat on his lap down, and it promptly walks behind a corner and out of sight. Shota immediately leaps up and follows the receptionist to the corner of the waiting room, where there's a tank filled with small, colorful fish darting around. Intak eyes the empty reception counter a tad warily as if it might jump up and bite him.
Taeyang's in the midst of introducing the third fish to Shota when Intak hears a door opening and footsteps walking up to him. Before he can call Taeyang back over to the counter, he hears a voice behind him.
"Hey, Taeyang, did you have Snoopy down for 3PM or am I hallucinating? I swear I could have remembered—" Intak turns around and is met with a mildly frazzled looking Jiung, whose glasses are pushed on top of his head like a headband as he stares at a clipboard intently.
Intak doesn't have time to come up with a proper response that also doesn't sound like he's tattling on Taeyang before Jiung looks up and sees Intak in front of him. His eyebrows shoot up into his hairline, and he awkwardly puts a hand over his ear as he schools his face into a smile and says, "Hey, Just Intak. Here to see that puppy?"
"Hey," Intak says, totally not feeling self-conscious over how his T-shirt fit just a little bit too snugly around the shoulders. "Yeah. I picked Shota up from school and that was all he could talk about."
"Well, the good news is that he's doing fantastic after a night of good rest. The bad news is that you're going to have to wait a little bit, because I have a bunny who's been eating stuff it shouldn't that's waiting for me in my office."
Intak raises an eyebrow. "Isn't that most bunnies?"
That earns a laugh from Jiung, a surprised and bright sound that punches out of him as if he hadn't expected to laugh at that joke. Intak feels his chest warm up with pride that Jiung, at the very least, thinks he's funny.
"Good one. Yeah. Yeah, it is, but this one's a little unrestrained," Jiung says. He spots Taeyang in the corner and looks back at the office, seeming mildly distraught.
"Um, I need to get back to that bunny, so can you help me ask Taeyang over there if there's anything on the books for 3PM? I owe you one," Jiung says hurriedly before walking back into his office. Intak turns to look at the now-closed office door, turns to look at Taeyang, turns back to the office door and then back at Taeyang.
He wonders if he's on a prank show, and if someone's going to leap out at him from behind the counter while yelling, "Surprise!".
It wouldn't have been the weirdest thing to ever happen to him, but it would be kind of unsettling.
He walks over to Taeyang, who's still in the midst of answering Shota's questions about the fish.
"This one here is called Sleepy because it sometimes bumps into the glass, and this one is Happy because it's always zooming around. Look, it's doing that right now."
"Did you name these fishes after the dwarves in Snow White?" Intak asks incredulously, accidentally overhearing their conversation from behind.
"Yeah. Jiung named them all himself." Taeyang lowers his voice and whispers only to Intak, "He's also the only one who can tell them apart. I've been guessing this whole time."
Shota doesn't seem to know that, based on how seriously he's staring at each fish. Intak can already tell that he's committing their names to memory.
"I hope you guessed right, because he's going to be really confused if he comes in next week and Sleepy is suddenly Dopey," Intak whispers back. "Also, Jiung asked me to ask you if there's anything on the books for 3PM."
Taeyang eyes him a bit dubiously. "Passing messages along now, are we?" He walks back to the counter and clicks through some pages before saying, "Nothing after this appointment. I'll go tell him. Go quiz your brother on those fishes."
He then walks off.
A strange guy, but not unpleasant at all, although his dry tone and sense of humour leads Intak to wonder how he got the job as a receptionist.
Jiung emerges from the office about half an hour later, during which Shota dragged Intak over to the tank and very seriously pointed each individual fish out to him, and also during which Intak tries his best not to think about how he could be completely wrong, and neither of them would be the wiser.
The bell hung above the door trills lightly as the bunny and its owner leave. Jiung walks up to Intak and Shota with a bright smile.
"Shall we?"
As they walk into his office, Intak does his very best not to notice how Jiung's smile does, in fact, form the shape of a heart.
-
Somehow, Intak walks away from that with Jiung's number.
"It's just to make things easier," Jiung had said with a small smile, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Sometimes I won't be in the office at certain times— house calls. I'd hate for you and Shota to come all the way here and not get to visit."
"They could always call ahead. We have an official phone number for official work purposes," Taeyang had called out from his perch at the reception counter. Jiung shot him a look that made Taeyang shrug and look away with a smirk.
Intak had given Jiung what he hoped was a winning smile, but probably looked like he'd been trapped by a pushy salesman. "Thanks. I'll keep this in mind," he'd replied before saying goodbye and walking out with Shota.
It's not until he's at home after having put Shota to bed and sitting at the dining table with his laptop open in an attempt to rush assignments that he realizes he has no idea what to save Jiung's number as.
'Vet'? Way too general. 'Jiung (Vet)' didn't sound right, and 'Mr. Choi' made Intak shudder. (Jiung never told Intak his surname, but Intak was nothing if not internet-savvy.)
Fuck it. He decides to go all out and names him 'jiung (animal saving heartthrob)' for maximum humorous effect. If he's going to have a crush on their neighborhood's local vet, he might as well lean into it, right?
He does his best to focus on his research paper about gender disparities in sports injury rates, but less than fifteen minutes later sees him on his phone again, wondering whether he should text Jiung as a heads-up: "Hey, it's me, the guy who keeps showing up with my younger brother at your vet clinic who's kind of awkward and can't really hold a full conversation."
Well. Obviously not exactly like that.
Intak decides there's no time like the present and shoots Jiung a text anyway.
hey!
it's intak btw
thought i'd let you know so you could save my number aha
Intak wants to slap himself. Was there any other way he could have sounded like more of a desperate flirt? He's pretty damn sure Jiung knows how phones work, and the last sentence was so presumptuous, Intak might as well have pulled out a bouquet of flowers and proposed on the spot that afternoon.
Before Intak can delete it, the tiny text below the message goes from 'Sent' to 'Read', and a typing bubble appears on Jiung's end almost immediately.
Intak instantly turns his phone off and tosses it onto the sofa like it's a grenade that's about to explode. He starts clicking through tabs on his laptop as if that would magically erase Jiung's memory of having read the text and therefore stopping him from realizing Intak's true intentions and blocking him once and for all.
He's not usually a man of particularly strong will, though, so after allowing pages upon pages of text about injury rates across various sports and players of different genders to blur together in one big wall of Times New Roman, he meekly shuffles over to the sofa and picks his phone up again, reading Jiung's reply from his notifications.
Text from: jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
Hello! :)
Man, proper capitalization and an emoticon? Intak feels something fluttering below his bottom left rib — maybe indigestion, probably not.
sorry for texting you after work hours, btw
have a good evening!!
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
No worries. It's not like I stop caring about those animals after I clock out. Haha.
You too. :)
Intak feels slightly faint, whether due to Jiung's witty, slightly sarcastic texting tone that's a little different from his friendly but professional tone in real life or the possibly expired Chinese takeout he'd decided to finish off for dinner that day.
His conversation with Jiung (if it could really be called a conversation) somehow spurs him to actually finish up at least a page of his research paper. Full of renewed vigor and fully expecting to be up until at least 3AM, Intak sits back down in front of his laptop, and with a last glance at his phone, he gets to writing.
-
He's woken up the next day by a horrible stomach ache and a wave of nausea that threatens to sweep him off his feet.
"What the fuck," he croaks as he clutches his stomach and tries not to throw up all over his bedsheets as he reaches for his phone. The sudden brightness of his screen sends a fist of pain through his skull, and he screws his eyes tightly shut as the ache slowly ebbs to a more acceptable level.
He's not sure why exactly he feels ten times worse than he did during his worst hangover, or why his stomach won't stop cramping up in pain, but he's 99.9% sure it's because of that godforsaken Chinese takeout. It had gone bad after all, and that 'tangy kick' hadn't been because of a vinegar-happy chef.
Once his AMOLED-induced headache subsides to a dull pounding, he turns on his phone again.
sos
need u to help me take shota to school
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
ru hungover zzz
i wish
this is sm worse
keeho (neighhhhbor)
oh shit
ok ill be there in 10
Keeho shows up in his room 12 minutes later, being unnecessarily louder than anyone should be in what's starting to feel like the final resting place of a spoiled-takeout afflicted man. He opens his curtains but closes them again when Intak makes a miserable noise of protest, goes downstairs and comes back up with a huge bottle of water in one hand and Shota in the other.
"Are you okay?" Shota asks, waddling up to Intak and swinging his hand in concern. The leaden motion of his arm swinging back and forth like a doomed pendulum makes Intak want to throw up in his mouth a little bit, but he holds it down with the willpower of a hundred men and manages to crack a smile. "Sure am, Shota. Just ate something bad."
"You ate something bad?" Shota asks. "Is it beating you up inside your tummy?"
"You bet it is," Intak replies weakly. Seven-year-olds are nothing if not straight to the point.
"Food poisoning? How bad is it on a scale of 1 to 10?" Keeho asks, busying himself as he combs Shota's hair and makes sure his socks are matching.
"10. 20. I am definitely throwing up sooner or later," Intak says as a particularly bad wave of nausea hits him again, making the bile in his stomach churn and go sour.
Keeho grimaces. "Yikes. Update me. I'll take Shota to school before work and pick him up after. Let me know if you need anything."
"Thanks," Intak manages through a half-retch, half groan. Keeho leads Shota out and Intak hears the front door click and lock shut before the tsunami in his stomach finally crests and he rushes off to embrace the cold but welcoming porcelain fixtures in his bathroom.
He's pretty much stuck in there all morning and well through the afternoon. The sun is low enough to paint washed-out streaks on his floorboards through gaps in the curtains that Keeho hadn't fully closed before he left, and every time Intak thinks the worst of it is over, he's caught up in the throes of another attack that wreaks havoc through his insides. It's what he assumes to be around 2 or 3 in the afternoon when he finally feels like he can stand up without wanting to keel over.
The first thing he does is violently rinse out his mouth. He brushes his teeth twice and practically drinks mouthwash (no, he doesn't - he's way too cautious about anything going down his esophagus at this point to do something like that) before heading back to his bed and gingerly drinks a few sips of water before he lies back down and promptly knocks out, worn out by his own immune system's extreme ways.
He wakes up another hour later to the sound of the door closing and Shota's little feet running up the steps.
"We brought you Gatorade!" Shota announces as he sets down two bottles of lemon-lime Gatorade on Intak's bedside table. Keeho enters with a bowl of soup, which makes Intak's stomach start to make embarrassing noises that are further magnified by the empty chamber which is his gut.
"I hope you're feeling better. Shota's teacher kept asking about you when I went to pick him up. I think she thinks we're a couple."
"Gross," Intak manages as he straightens up and takes a sip of Gatorade.
Keeho looks affronted. "More for me than you," he says as he passes Intak a spoon and the bowl of soup. "Sorry we're back a little later than usual. I wasn't sure if I should call you or not, but Shota kept talking about wanting to see this puppy at the vet."
Intak turns around at a speed that's probably way too bold of him to attempt considering his previous weakness to any form of velocity and also his proximity to hot - well, warm liquid. "You guys went to the vet?"
"Yeah. Not for long, though."
"Keeho kept talking to the Rapunzel receptionist," Shota says as he clambers onto the foot of Intak's bed.
"Did not," Keeho fires back almost immediately.
"Did too," Shota says matter-of-factly. From this angle, in this lighting, Intak can see a faint flush beginning to creep up Keeho's cheeks.
"Anyway, speaking of, that vet seemed pretty worried about you." Keeho raises an eyebrow conspiratorially. "I didn't know your standards got a software update."
"That was one time, " Intak groans, knowing Keeho's referring to his last crush, who was all in all kind of disappointing and also a bit weird. Like, only wore Oxfords and only smoked obscure French cigarettes-weird.
"He kept asking about you. Seemed pretty concerned when I told him you were sick."
"This is for you," Shota said, pulling something out from his pocket. Intak reaches out for it and sees a tiny paper crane nestled in Shota's hand. "Mr. Jiung said it brings good luck."
Keeho whistles. "Well, he's definitely an upgrade. I have to run. Text me if you need anything," he says before he ducks out of Intak's room.
Intak studies the small paper crane in his hand, feeling like a tiny sun has sprouted in his chest.
"Mr. Jiung said that he hopes you get well soon," Shota says after a beat.
Intak hums and reaches out to ruffle Shota's hair. "I'll thank him for that."
hi!
[image attached]
thank you for this lil guy
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
Hello.
No need to thank me. I keep those on hand for pet parents who need a little pick-me-up. I figured it would be a nice gesture.
Are you feeling better?
much better
if i had known eating that chinese takeout would send me to hell n back
id have skipped dinner altogether
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
You should eat proper meals at mealtime. Skipping meals would make you feel bad in the long run.
Do you cook at home?
i cook anywhere and everywhere B)
jk. i can, but sometimes i get lazy
it's just so much work :/
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
You cook anywhere? Do you have a food truck?
Cooking is a lot of work, but I find it enjoyable.
Intak slaps a hand to his forehead. Not only does Jiung text with perfect grammar, he's chronically offline. He's harboring a crush on a grandpa trapped in a (hot, attractive, broad-shouldered with a heart-shaped smile) 20-something's body.
the cooking is a meme reference
you know, like
he cooked
like he ate?
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
I guess recent meme developers are getting hungry. What does 'ate' mean in this context?
I hope you've eaten something today.
Despite the biological warfare between you and that Chinese takeout.
biological warfare HELP
ate means someone did well
and yes, i (literally) ate
i had soup! my friend keeho brought me soup
you guys probably met just now
good-looking, brown hair, a lot of teeth
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
Oh, him. The one who was flirting with my receptionist.
Soup is good. I'll leave you to your dinner, then.
Have a good day :)
Intak could squeal into his pillow, or he could parade around his room and pat himself on the back for holding a decent conversation with someone he finds incredibly attractive, or he could do a little tap dance of joy and revel in his newfound success.
However, instead of all of those things, he chooses to screenshot Jiung's text about flirting with his receptionist and sends it to Keeho with a winky face before brushing up and getting ready for bed.
-
good morning!
is it okay if shota and i come around 3pm today?
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
Good morning.
Sure. I think he's all good to bring back home by now, unless you guys would rather he stay here for further observation. We do have a spot open.
Lil' guy's shaping up pretty well, though. He'd do better around Shota's company.
i don't doubt it.
my baby brother gives snow white a run for her tralalalala money
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
Haha! That's a good one.
See you at 3. :)
If Intak kicks his feet and squeals into his pillow for a good three seconds like a fifth-grader getting a smile from his crush in the hallway, no one has to find out.
3PM rolls around soon enough, and Intak can barely hide his smile as he picks Shota up from school. Shota, of course, clocks it immediately.
"Are you excited to see Mr. Jiung?"
Intak blanches, clearly not expecting Shota to tune in that quickly, despite how ill-hidden his crush seems to be coming across.
"I'm excited to see the puppy, Shota," Intak says, trying to deflect the situation despite feeling Shota's huge shiny eyes burning holes through his cheek. He turns to him and smiles. "You should come up with a name for it so we don't have to keep calling it 'the puppy'."
"Okay!" That seems to successfully deter Shota's attention onto a different matter, and Intak lets out a quiet sigh of relief as he manages to avoid yet another person honing in on his most recent crush developments. If anything, Keeho's knowing smirks were going to be bad enough, and he felt like even Taeyang, the receptionist, was starting to tune in.
They park next to the roadside and head inside. Taeyang's sitting with his feet on the chair and a magazine balanced on his knees that he's idly flipping through with one hand while the other lazily scratches a grey cat lying on the countertop behind its ears.
"Welcome back," Taeyang says the moment he spots Shota. His gaze travels onto Intak's face, as if searching for a hint of food poisoning left over from yesterday's atrocities. When he doesn't seem to spot anything, he nods in his direction instead.
"Hey. Is Jiung in? I let him know we would be dropping by at this time," Intak says, looking around and noticing the empty waiting room.
"He's in his office. Let me check if he's done with his last patient," Taeyang says before walking towards the office and opening the door.
Intak catches the last dregs of Jiung's laughter before he sees him, almost like feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin before its rays catch your eyes. Jiung's standing next to the operating table in his office with his back facing Intak, and on the other side of the table is a woman in a blue blouse with her hair piled up in a bun behind her neck and a Pomeranian in her arms.
"-so I said to her, you can't throw a punch if you can't catch one," the woman says with a little chuckle. Intak can't see Jiung's face from here, but he can almost catch the lift of his cheeks, and that heart-shaped grin floats around in his mind's eye as if teasing him.
"Jiung, your next appointment is here," Taeyang says, his voice taking on a slightly more professional tone in the face of another customer. Jiung turns around, his lips still curved up in the remnants of a smile.
"Intak! Are you feeling better?" Jiung asks, sending warm butterflies spiraling within Intak's stomach.
"Yeah. Much, much better," Intak says, aware that he's unable to hold back a grin.
"That's great to hear. Listen, give me five minutes to send her out and I'll be right with you guys," Jiung says before gesturing towards the door and following the woman with the Pomeranian out of his office.
Intak tries to focus on looking around the inside of Jiung's office - the record player nestled in the corner, the painting propped up against the far wall, the papers strewn on the dust-free desk; the faintest hint of disarray amongst a sterile environment - but all he can hear is the woman's twinkling laughter and the upturned corners of Jiung's mouth as he says, "She should be all good to go, but call me if you need anything else, okay?"
He's silly for reading so much into it. If anything, Intak had known all along that Jiung was pretty much just being nice and was really, really good at doing his job.
It's just that when your system's been emptied of all sustenance and your hold on consciousness is barely as strong as your clutch on your toilet bowl, and someone with a heart-shaped smile and sparkly eyes gives you a little paper crane in hopes you'll get better, it kind of gets to your head.
Still, the butterflies of unease and despair headbutting Intak in his sternum does absolutely nothing to make him stop thinking about it.
He's so caught up between feeling uneasy and feeling stupid for feeling uneasy that he's still zoned out staring at the painting on the wall by the time Jiung walks back in.
“Sorry about that. Her Pomeranian ate one of the shoes off her daughter's Barbie doll and we had to get it out the other end," Jiung says cheerily, breaking Intak out of his stupor.
"Yikes," is all Intak can muster as he uses the bright lights in the office to ground himself again. Jiung, thankfully, doesn't seem to notice.
He brings the puppy out from what seems like a small holding room at the back of his office. The puppy seems much better — all shiny eyes and excited tail-wagging. Shota looks at it with similarly excited eyes.
"Is the puppy all better?"
"Not quite, but he's already doing very well," Jiung says. "He's eating well and sleeping well, too. I think all that's left is for his leg to heal naturally."
He walks to his desk and begins to write something down on a piece of paper. "You guys are actually free to bring him back home. He just has to come in every two weeks for a check-up on his healing process. If things go well, he can get his cast off in six weeks."
"Yay!" Shota says. Intak can quite literally hear the sheer joy in his voice and wonders if Shota would ever stop saying 'Yay!' like that. Shota reaches up to the table to pat the puppy, fails, looks up at Intak, and promptly gets picked up so he's within patting range of the puppy, who licks Shota's hand with newfound vigor.
"Have you come up with a name for it yet, buddy?" Intak asks Shota. Shota nods seriously.
"I wanna name it Jitak!"
Cue Intak completely freezing to the spot. If he had been drinking anything beforehand, he would have spat it out. No way his younger brother knew he had a crush on the neighborhood vet and decided to name his newest puppy after their ship name. It just simply wasn't possible, unless Keeho had somehow evilly fed the idea into poor Shota's innocent mind.
"Because you both saved it, so he gets to be named after both of you," Shota says with a satisfied nod. "Mr. Jiung plus Intak. Jitak!"
"That's a great name, lil' guy," Jiung says before Intak can sputter out a weak alternative. "I'm sure he's going to love his new name."
Jiung writes a bit more down on the piece of paper before looking up at them and smiling. "Shota, how about you pass this to Taeyang for me? Intak, I have some stuff to tell you about the puppy and what he needs to recover. Mind staying back for a minute?"
"Sure," Intak manages while Jiung opens the door and Shota scurries out with the paper in hand. Before the door closes fully, he can hear Taeyang cackling like a witch on Halloween and presumes Shota had just told him the puppy's new name.
Jiung goes through a quick list of advice on how to watch over the puppy (Intak refuses to say his name, even if it's just in his internal monologue) and Intak kind of hears it, kind of doesn't. He grasps that there's an ointment they'll need to use for the puppy's surface injuries, and to keep an eye on his activities to make sure his healing process goes smoothly, but the nitty gritty kind of floats over Intak's head.
"- about it. Also, I was wondering if you'd be free this weekend."
"What?" Intak's head snaps up a little bit too fast to play off casually, so he slaps on a smile and hopes it somehow distracts Jiung from his knee-jerk reaction.
It kind of works. Jiung smiles back, albeit looking a bit startled at Intak's enthusiasm.
"Well, if you and Shota are free this weekend, my brother's school is hosting a petting zoo as part of their annual fundraiser." He looks up at Intak through dark lashes and his smile becomes slightly hesitant. "Since Shota likes animals so much, I thought it'd be a great experience. It's a bit much to ask-"
"No, no, not at all," Intak replies hurriedly. "We'll be there for sure. He's going to love it."
"Great!" Jiung says like a sigh of relief. "It starts at 10 in the morning until around 4 in the evening. I could text you the details."
Intak might be hallucinating — perhaps an aftermath of the horrendous turmoil his immune system put him through just a day before — but he could swear that Jiung's ears are just a bit redder than they were a moment before.
His smile widens into a grin. "Sure."
-
This is silly, he thinks.
It's just a kid's petting zoo, he reminds himself.
Okay, a different voice answers. So cardigan or button up?
"AUGH," he laments out loud. " Why."
His phone dings as if reminding him of the source of his despair. Intak picks it up a little too quickly.
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
It's outdoors, by the way.
I realized I never mentioned that. No dress code, obviously, but I don't want you passing out from heatstroke.
thanks for the heads up!
guess my northface winter jacket and fleece lined corduroys are out of the picture
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
How unfortunate. That would have made a great picture.
Intak believes he's kind of got things in the bag. Not because he's sure Jiung has any feelings for him whatsoever— he's decided to stop thinking about that, mainly because it would definitely give him a couple of grey hairs, but because he can text Jiung without giggling and kicking his feet. Also, he's beginning to get the hang of matching Jiung's mildly sarcastic tone when they're texting, which makes him feel like he's getting somewhere.
He settles on a light blue button up that's just oversized enough to make it look casual, not dressy, and a pair of his favourite jeans. It's nothing he wouldn't be seen wearing on a usual day out, but it's also a tad more put together in an effort to seem like he's actually put together on the inside.
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
I'm already here with my little brother. Let me know when you and Shota are here.
Taeyang's on his way. Maybe you guys can meet at the parking lot and walk in together.
taeyangs coming too, you say?
Intak grins.
[sent a location]
be here in 30. dress nice but not too nice.
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
if this is ur way of kidnapping me
im not falling for it
trust me
you'll wish you were here
;)
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
color me mildly disgusted
…but intrigued.
how nice is too nice?
nothing you would mind getting fur on
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
if i were a cat id be dead by now
Intak pulls up to the function equipped with his baby brother on his left hand and a fresh cup of fruit tea in the other. He'd pondered over what to get Jiung for a full ten minutes, wondering if iced chocolate was too juvenile, but what if Jiung didn't drink coffee, and not everyone enjoyed matcha, so what would be the best choice? In the end, he'd gritted his teeth and settled for iced sweet tea.
Now, as they step out of the car and into the parking lot, where the 11AM sun starts to feel like they should have chosen an indoor activity, Intak's starting to pat himself on the back for choosing a nice, cold, refreshing sweet tea.
"There's so many people!" Shota says in wonder. They occasionally drive past this high school on the way to the supermarket, but it's rarely this full of people when they do. It's not a full crowd, but it's enough that Intak has to maneuver his and Shota's way through duos and trios of people standing around and talking, or walking around looking at all the different stalls.
"Yeah, there are. You gotta hold on tight, okay, lil' man?" Intak says. Shota nods and squeezes Intak's hand tightly, which of course makes his heart squeeze too. Curse seven-year-olds and their innate cuteness.
Thanks to the sign, they find the petting zoo relatively easily. It's being held on the football field, which was through the parking lot, through the gym, and out one of the side doors. Once they're out there, it's pretty easy to find the large pens holding all sorts of different animals.
"That's a pony!" Shota says, frantically shaking Intak's hand as he points wildly. "Can we go see? Please? Pretty please?"
"Right, sure, of course. We just have to find Mr. Jiung and let him know we're here."
Almost as if summoned, Intak catches sight of Jiung's familiar figure almost immediately when he turns to look around.
Oh dear fucking lord, Intak thinks. He's cute.
They've only ever seen Jiung dressed in button-ups (yes) or his vet scrubs (uh huh), so the oversized blue T-shirt with long sleeves that falls past his wrists paired with a pair of loose dark jeans are a very new look. To make matters worse, he also has his glasses on, and his hair is unstyled, meaning it's soft and falls past his eyebrows in the worst way possible for Intak's heart health.
Still, he manages to wave and smile as if he's not rethinking all the life decisions he's ever made that has rewarded him with the chance to see Jiung waving back at him with sweater paws.
Intak feels faint, then reminds himself he has a vet to impress.
"Hey," he says, finally reaching Jiung after worming his way through a few groups of people.
"Hey," Jiung answers with a smile. Before Intak says something stupid, like, "Will you marry me?", he plunges the cold plastic cup of sweet tea into Jiung's hand.
"Here. I thought I'd pick this up for you since it's a bit hot out today, but I wasn't sure if you liked coffee or not."
Jiung's smile widens, causing his eyes to crease up into crescents. "I don't drink coffee, so thank you. This is a lovely gift."
Intak scratches his head awkwardly then waves a hand in the air. "It's nothing. Barely a favor."
"Hi, Mr. Jiung!" Shota trills. Jiung looks at him and smiles.
"Hey, Shota. Ready to meet the animals?"
"Yeah!" Shota breathes, his eyes shining.
"That's great! Before you meet them, though, there's someone else I'd like to introduce you to."
He tugs on the hand of someone small that Intak hadn't even noticed was hiding behind Jiung. A young boy appears, looking a bit shy but curious as Shota waves at him.
"Intak, Shota, this is my little brother, Jongseob. Jongseob, say hi to Intak and Shota."
"Hi, Intak and Shota," Jongseob echoes.
"Hi, Jongseob," Intak says. What's with seven-year-olds and being painfully adorable? Jongseob has cheeks he could squish for days, and he has a little hair clip nestled in his fringe that's shaped like a tiger.
"Hi, Jongseob?" Shota says loudly, reaching out to grab his hand and shake it. "Wanna be friends?"
Jongseob's face lights up with a toothy grin and he nods. "Wanna go see bunnies?"
Shota looks at Intak as if asking for permission, and Intak doesn't know if anyone could resist two adorable seven-year-olds looking at them with shiny eyes and hopeful grins, but he's not one of them.
"Of course. Let's all go see the bunnies."
"Yay!" Shota skips off and follows Jongseob towards the bunny pen. Jiung and Intak fall into an easy step side-by-side as they follow closely behind, and Intak tries not to be too hyper-aware of how close Jiung's fingers are to his own.
"Thank you for coming," Jiung says softly. It's a little bit hard to catch over the sounds of everyone else chatting and laughing, but the quiet gratitude knocks Intak off his feet anyway.
"I wouldn't have missed this, and neither would Shota," Intak says. "Look at them. They're gonna be best friends."
"That's amazing," Jiung says with a laugh. "Jongseob could do with more friends at that age. I wouldn't want him to turn out like me."
"What's wrong with how you turned out?" Intak asks, almost tripping over his words in his rush to say them. Jiung chuckles and shakes his head.
"Nothing, it's just…" Jiung looks at Jongseob crouching down to gently pat the bunny in Shota's arms. "Kids need friends at that age, you know. I was a bit too vocal about how much I liked snakes and spiders and the like. Even had a pet scorpion of my own," Jiung says.
With a shrug, he continues, "Not many people liked that, but it's okay. I get to do what I love for a living now."
Something tender in Intak's heart is gently plucked like the string of a cello. Waves of sympathy radiate out from the single note like a pebble being skipped across a lake, and as he turns to look at Jiung, who's gently outlined by the noon sun behind him, he feels something clicking into place.
Instead of saying something profound or flirty or suave or even remotely wise, though, Intak says, "I'm your friend."
Jiung throws his head back and laughs, loud and unabashed. "You are! Man, you and Shota low-key brought light into my work week."
"We could do that on the weekends, too," Intak points out. "Shota could use a playdate like Jongseob."
And I'd get to hang out with you, he says internally.
Jiung looks at Intak. His eyes reflect the sun like twin mugs of cooled espresso, and the corners of his lips slowly tilt up, as warm and new as a sunrise.
"That would be great."
Score , Intak thinks.
Who cares if he'd been the least smooth person on the face of the earth for the past few days? He officially managed to ask Jiung out.
-
The day passes without much incident, apart from Keeho walking up to them with a smug looking Taeyang behind him ten minutes after Intak managed to ask Jiung out on a date. ( Play date, for their little brothers, but still. Intak would make it work.)
"Did anyone lose their receptionist? This one keeps clinging onto me," Keeho had said, jabbing a thumb behind him in the direction of Taeyang, who had a languid smile on his face.
"Says the one who couldn't find his way out of the car park."
"It was a big car park."
"There were signs everywhere."
"Maybe I just needed some guidance from the guy who wouldn't stop running his mouth when I was trying to find the entrance."
"Sounds an awful lot like flirting if you ask me."
"Please. You're so far away from my type."
"Likewise."
Jiung had exchanged glances with Intak, who had mouthed, Totally his type. Jiung had cracked a grin and mouthed back, Likewise.
They parted ways when Jiung checked his watch and said, "Jongseob and I have to leave now. We have an appointment at 4." Intak, thinking on his toes, had quickly said, "Hey, so do Shota and I. We can walk to our cars together."
Keeho had stood up as if to follow them, but Taeyang had tugged at the elbow of his shirt and said, "We forgot to pick up that sno-cone."
Keeho had blinked at him like a confused owl. "What sno-cone?"
"The one we're getting right now. Come on." Taeyang had then promptly dragged Keeho away into the crowd, and Intak caught a glimpse of him smacking Keeho's arm lightly when he thought they were out of sight.
Great. So the receptionist knows about his humongoid crush on Jiung.
Now, back home, Intak can't stop replaying the smile Jiung had given him before walking to their separate cars. It was as warm and ambiguous and hard to catch as the moon reflecting on the waves, but it stuck with Intak all the same.
"See you soon," Jiung had said with that moonlit smile.
See you soon. Was that an invitation, a wish, perhaps a promise? Maybe all three, or maybe nothing at all. Maybe Jiung was simply being nice — Intak's thoughts drift back to the woman with the Pomeranian, how Jiung had said to call him if she needed anything.
Perhaps he was being presumptuous. Perhaps it was best to just take a step back and not get his hopes up over Jiung, lest he was simply being friendly or professional. Perhaps—
A notification from Jiung pops up on his phone, and everything else is tossed out of the window.
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
Thank you for coming today.
It means a lot to me and Jongseob. He can't stop talking about Shota. :)
looks like we'll have to organize that playdate asap, huh?
we had tons of fun today, too
thank you :)
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
No, thank you.
no, u
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
No, you.
:)
Intak has to take a deep breath.
hey, about that playdate
there's a kid-and-adult pottery painting workshop this saturday at the art class shota goes to
what do you think?
Jiung doesn't reply for a moment or two. Intak tries not to care, even going as far as going downstairs to wash up the dirty dishes in the sink in an attempt to distract himself from the very likely possibility of Jiung saying no. He does a load of laundry and almost switches the order of detergent and softener, and zones out while staring at the wall for ten minutes while the washing machine rumbles on next to him. Finally, when it starts to feel like he accidentally tossed his heart into the washing machine along with the hamper of dirty laundry, he feels a buzz in his pocket.
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
See you on Saturday, then.
Good night.
Okay, maybe Intak does kick his feet, squeal, and reread that text a couple dozen more times. He was nothing if not a hopeless romantic.
-
Saturday rolls around.
The day starts like this: First, Intak manages to lose Shota's only water bottle, which is, like, fine. He turns the entire house upside down while trying to look for it and eventually finds it nestled bottoms-up in a bush in front of their door, which is also perfectly fine. He then notices it's getting closer to the time they agreed to meet Jiung and Jongseob, so he runs up to his room after picking out Shota's clothes for the day and picks out his own clothes for the day, only to find that he has somehow lost the one shirt he deemed fit to wear for the occasion. Devastated, he calls Keeho, who answers groggily.
"What?"
"Do you still have that shirt that looks like mine but like, slightly different?“
”You mean my shirt that yours looks like? Yeah."
"I need to borrow it."
"Uh huh. Sure. You know how to get in. Just don't, like, make a mess."
"I owe you one."
So Intak enters Keeho's house legally, borrows his shirt legally, and tiptoes back out without making a mess. He tries on the shirt and finds out that the slacks he meant to wear with it are in the laundry.
"Fuck," he says out loud.
"Fuck," Shota echoes, having suddenly appeared behind him. Intak spins around and shakes his head.
"My bad. Don't say that word."
Shota looks at him silently with large dark eyes that hold no sign of a promise.
They manage to make it out of the door only ten minutes later than planned, which is about the only genuinely fine thing to happen all morning.
By the time they reach the craft center, Intak feels like he just ran a marathon with no shoes on.
Shota tugs on his hand. "I see Jongseob and Mr. Jiung over there."
Sure enough, Jiung and Jongseob are standing in front of the pottery studio. Jiung's dressed in a cardigan and jeans, and when he smiles and waves at Intak and Shota, Intak feels like the world is tilted at the right angle again.
The class starts without a hitch, or so Intak thinks until the teacher pairs them up - adult with adult, child with child. The kids are brought into a separate section of the room with larger pottery pieces that are easier to paint, and Intak and Jiung find a seat near the back of the class, looking at each other in slight confusion.
"Now, each pair will be making something for each other. This is a great way to exercise creativity through association. What reminds you of your partner?" the teacher at the front of the class says. "Put each other's initials on the bottom of the pottery piece you choose to paint so that it's easier for each couple to find your finished products after they've been fired in the kiln."
Couple?
"Did we sign up for a couples' pottery class?" Intak wonders. Too late, he realizes he's spoken out loud. Every other couple in the room turns to look at them, and the teacher at the front of the class glances at him not unkindly, but with the same expression she probably uses when answering a six-year-old.
"That's right, dear. This is our monthly parent-child workshop. You did sign up for the pottery painting class, yes?"
"Uh-huh," Intak replies lamely, wanting to dive head-first into the nearest kiln. The teacher smiles.
"Then you're in the right place." She looks at him over the top of her glasses. "It's nice to see a young couple like you two showing up for an event like this. Now, back to my introduction—"
Whatever she says next fades into a loud buzzing in Intak's ears, both of which he's pretty sure are scarlet at this point. Before he can dig a hole and disappear into the earth's mantle, he hears Jiung chuckling quietly next to him.
"Sorry," Intak says, whispering this time to avoid the entire room turning to stare him into oblivion again. "I guess I didn't read the flyer correctly."
"It's okay," Jiung whispers back. His lips are quirked up in a small, playful smile. "This is nice."
Nice. What does nice mean? Unless Jiung's incorrectly referring to and mispronouncing the town of Nice, France, Intak could do a belly flop onto a dictionary and still not come close to what 'nice' means. 'Nice' could be anything.
Nice , Intak thinks miserably while slapping paint onto his chosen mug. Nothing's nice about nice. Most ambiguous word ever.
Perhaps he's a little bit too frivolous with his idle brushing, however, because Jiung nudges him with his elbow halfway through what Intak supposes could be a flower.
"Hey. You okay?"
"Not really," Intak says truthfully. "I thought it'd be fun to mess around and paint stuff with Shota and Jongseob, too. I didn't know it would end up embarrassing both of us."
"Embarrassing?" Jiung asks. A small crease forms between his brows — an unfamiliar expression that sends seven tons of rocks plunging into Intak's stomach. "You think this is embarrassing?"
"Not embarrassing," Intak says hurriedly. Fuck. He's never seen Jiung's mouth held in such a tight line before. "I mean, we're not a couple. Isn't it a bit weird to be in a couple's class? Okay, not weird , but —"
"I don't think it's any of those," Jiung says, his tone a little clipped. "I actually thought it was a good thing."
With that, he turns back to his plate, painting in small, careful strokes.
Intak curses inwardly.
Throughout the session, Jiung seems entirely closed off, almost like he's built an invisible wall between him and Intak. Miserable is the only way to describe how Intak feels as he practically stabs the mug with his paintbrush.
"Wow, abstract. What are you going for?" the teacher's voice pipes up out of nowhere. She's standing right next to him, which makes Intak jump a little bit and almost swear out loud.
"Uh, yeah, abstract. I'm just going with the flow," he lies outright. He doesn't even know what he'd been trying to paint, but so far, it looks like a bird took a shit on a blind man's painting of lightning. Not very flattering. He winces.
"I see. What about over here?" The teacher walks over to Jiung's side, where he seems to be finishing up. Intak cranes his neck in an attempt to steal a glance, but the way Jiung's hunched over the table stops him from seeing even a corner of the plate he's been painting.
"Great line work. May I know what the meaning of that is?" the teacher asks.
"It's meant for someone who I care about," Jiung says. "It just reminds me of better days to come."
"I hope whoever receives this can bring you those better days, then," the teacher says before waltzing back to the front of the classroom.
"Now, once everyone's done with their piece, go ahead and leave it at the back of the room on that table over there. There's a tray for each couple. After that, they'll be ready to collect in a week. Wish your piece good luck for the firing process!"
Intak hears Jiung murmur 'Good luck' to his finished plate before crossing the room and placing it down on a tray.
"Good luck," Intak whispers to the mug in his hand. If anything, he needs it way more than some crappily painted mug.
-
A day goes by, then two days, then five. Jiung doesn't text, and Intak doesn't have the guts to text after the horrifying ordeal that happened during the pottery class. He's pretty sure he completely blew his chances at ever dating Jiung — who would ever want to hear someone else saying it's embarrassing to be in a couple's class with them?
Things had been going so well, too, Intak laments as he stares at his ceiling. If I hadn't put my foot in my mouth, we could be texting right now.
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
wow.
u said that?
ugghhhh i did
i might b the most
least
smooth person out there
put my whole foot in my mouth
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
foot?
you stuck your entire leg in there
it's so far down you could play football while doing squats
gross.
but true
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
are you going to see him again?
yeah
we have to pick up that pottery project thing
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
yeesh. good luck
you know, atp you could just be honest
what if that bites me in the ass?
keeho (neighhhhhbor)
you mean
more than you've alrd done to urself?
Intak groans. He hates when Keeho is right.
Text from: jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
Hello. What time are you collecting the pottery pieces tomorrow?
Intak bolts up and rereads the notification in disbelief. Did manifestation actually work? Was he going insane?
He closes his eyes, counts to three and opens them again. The notification is still very real and very there.
hi!
maybe around 2pm, after i drop shota off at his dance class
jiung (animal saving heartthrob)
Alright. Thank you.
Intak splutters in real life. 'Thank you'? As in, thank you for helping me pick it up, or thank you for letting me know so I can avoid you since you think being seen with me is embarrassing? Thank you for replying, since it's supposedly weird to be in correspondence? Thank you for not saying something that's equal parts embarrassing and hurtful this time?
Intak sits with his thoughts for a while. He knows he said the wrong thing. Whether there was a chance of Jiung reciprocating his feelings or not, Intak had said something he didn't mean at all, and in turn had obviously caused a rift between him and Jiung.
An apology was clearly in order, but where should he even start?
He remembers Keeho's text.
Just be honest.
He lets out a sigh and turns his screen back on.
also. ive been meaning to apologize for what i said the other day.
i didn't mean it was embarrassing or weird to be seen with you.
in fact, i think it's entirely the opposite.
I know what i said hurt you. im sorry.
obviously this isn't the whole apology, but i felt like id put it off for long enough
:(
Intak puts his phone aside and counts to ten.
One. He might not accept the apology.
Two. It might be way too late.
Three. He might never want to speak to me again.
Four. Incoming call from jiung (animal saving heartthrob).
"What the fuck?" Intak says out loud.
There it is, on his screen, are the words flashing repeatedly, as clear as day.
His fingertips feel a little bit cold when he presses the answer button.
"Hello?"
"Hey," Intak croaks out.
A beat of silence, then, "I saw your messages."
Intak takes a deep breath.
"I'm sorry," he says plainly. "I can't elaborate on how much I wish I could take that back. I didn't mean it at all. If anything, I was more panicking over the fact that you'd be associated with me. I mean, I didn't want to make you uncomfortable."
"So saying it was embarrassing to be seen with me at a couples' class was the way to go?" Jiung replies drily, but Intak can hear the slight upward curve of his mouth.
"Did not mean that at all. If anything, I was kind of over the moon about that, but I also didn't want to freak you out. Absolutely put my foot in my mouth. I apologize for that."
Jiung hums. "Carry on."
"Okay, uh, well. I also actually should have apologized the moment I said it, but I felt like I'd already dug my grave so deep that the only viable next step would be to lay in it. I was a coward for not apologizing when I should have. I apologize for that too."
Jiung's quiet for a moment. The moment is so careful, almost gauze-like in its tenderness, that Intak is afraid to break it with his next sentence, but he does it anyway, because honesty was only a crutch to those who limped.
"Can you forgive me?"
When Jiung replies with a gentle chuckle, Intak finally feels all the tension he'd been holding in his shoulders the past few days untangle itself.
"Okay."
"Okay," Intak breathes. "Good. That's great. Thank you."
"See you tomorrow," Jiung says lightly.
"See you," Intak says, and he swears he can hear Jiung let out a sigh of relief before he hangs up.
When tomorrow arrives, it's with cold hands that Intak steps into the craft center. It's decidedly less crowded than it had been last week- most parents seemed to have already picked up their finished products, and as Intak waits outside the classroom pretending not to anxiously tap his shoe against the tiled ground, he can vaguely spot his and Jiung's pieces on the table at the back of the classroom.
When Jiung appears, it's not earth-shattering or heart-stopping. If anything, Intak feels like he's a deep breath - a welcome reprieve from the world around them.
He walks up to Intak, and the small smile playing on his lips plants a reassuring seed in a hollow Intak didn't know existed in his chest.
"Hi."
"Hi," Intak echoes. "I-" he pauses before remembering Keeho's advice. Just be honest.
"I missed you."
Jiung's eyebrows shoot up, but if anything, he looks pleasantly surprised; betrayed by his smile threatening to widen into a grin.
"I missed you, too."
They walk into the classroom together, and the teacher at the front of the class smiles at them a little bit too knowingly for Intak's taste. Does she have the mirror, mirror on the wall as her glasses or something? Either way, the way her gaze follows the two of them as they walk towards the table at the back of the room sends slight goosebumps down Intak's arm.
Jiung picks up his plate off the tray. Intak whistles lowly. "Looks good."
The plate was painted all over with a pale blue, and in the very center of it was a paper crane, painted in a dusky shade of sunset orange. The line work was smooth and steady despite slight breaks where Jiung had to re-dip his paintbrush, and the colors harmonized perfectly.
"It's pretty." Intak says.
"It's yours," Jiung replies.
Intak blanches. "Wait, are we actually exchanging these pieces? Fuck, my mug is not fit for a gift at all. You can keep the plate. I mean, it's a couple's class and all, but we're not a couple. Yet. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Not that that's something I don't want-"
"Intak," Jiung says, so strongly yet softly that Intak's forced to look at him. Jiung's gaze is softened through his lashes; obsidian behind gauze.
"That's me," Intak says weakly. If he ever finds out he has heart issues at the tender age of 23, he's sending Jiung the medical bill.
"I want to join a couples' class with you again."
Intak stares at Jiung, dazed.
"As a proper couple this time."
"Huh?"
Jiung sighs before reaching out and grabbing Intak's hand.
"Intak, for fuck's sake. I'm asking you out."
The cognitive dissonance that slams into Intak's head like a bulldozer causes his ears to ring at the sound of Jiung saying fuck. He realizes belatedly that he's never heard Jiung swear, and feels a faint glow of pride that this is the reason he's hearing it for the first time.
"I don't think I'm legally allowed to say no," Intak says, instead of replying like a normal person.
"Yeah?" Jiung says, his smile widening into a grin, heart-shaped and glorious and god, Intak wants to kiss him.
"Yeah," Intak replies, smiling.
Before Intak can say anything else, he feels Jiung holding onto his arms and then the soft plush of lips against his.
Jesus Christ, Intak thinks. Holy fucking shit.
His eyes slip closed for just a split second before Jiung pulls away, his ears bright red and his smile wide and unrestrained.
"Still embarrassing?" Jiung asks. Intak shakes his head, still in a complete daze.
Then, because he has no control over his mouth:
"I don't know. Do it again?"
(If Intak catches sight of the teacher giving a subtle thumbs up as they leave the classroom, hand-in-hand, he doesn't pretend not to notice. In fact, he gives her a big ol' grin, and holds onto Jiung's hand just a little bit tighter.)