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Kim Dokja could not be blamed for hating Yoo Joonghyuk.
In his defense, he had to deal with his face everywhere. The model was praised for his beauty everywhere, and was rewarded with ads of his face on every surface in Seoul.
Which meant that when Kim Dokja had to go to his night job at the local corner store, he had to deal with seeing the bastards face for 6 to 8 hours every night. Ads, posters, ramen, soft drinks, he was on the back of the register, for fuck’s sake.
All in all, you can’t blame him for hating the guy.
It wasn’t that he was ugly. It was just that he had seen so much of him, it was getting tiring. Surely there was someone better to highlight. Literally anyone would do.
Anyone but Yoo Joonghyuk.
It’s maybe 23:30 when the door rings, and Kim Dokja is looking at his phone, hidden behind the register, mutters a brief ‘Welcome in’, knowing that he’s the only part-timer willing to work this many hours and they can’t fire him anyway.
There’s no reply, but there rarely ever is, and Kim Dokja doesn’t think much of it. Most people are in and out in a few minutes, with nothing to spare. The person is slow and keeps looking around, Kim Dokja can see from the corner of his eye, so he tears his mind away from the webnovel he was reading to look at them.
They have a black jacket on, with a cap and sunglasses, accompanied by a mask.
Kim Dokja is almost 100% certain this person is going to rob the store. He doesn’t get paid enough to deal with this.
The policy against robberies is to let them take whatever they want and get yourself out of harms way, easy to replace the cash than it is to pay the life insurance of a dead worker. Kim Dokja will only be adhering to this policy because he’s really, really just not paid enough to care.
There’s about 3 things in this world that Kim Dokja cares about, and how much money this guy takes isn’t one of them.
He stalks around the store with practiced ease, like he’s done this before, and Kim Dokja doesn’t watch the news often enough, or ever, to know if there’s been a robber going around town. He doesn’t think there had, but Kim Dokja was often wrong about a lot of current world events.
Heavy bootsteps come up to the counter, a pack of onigiri and 2 bottles of Ramune, which was an odd combination, but he said nothing.
He looked at the food, back up at the covered face and sighed, before pushing no sale and pulling the register out of the drawer and placing it down in front of him.
The man just stared at it, like he was confused. Kim Dokja stared at him.
A tanned and slender finger came up to pull the mask slightly down so that he could speak.
“What is this.” He asked, like a statement rather than a question, and Kim Dokja narrowed his eyes at him.
“The money? Aren’t you robbing this place?” He clarified, though he felt like he really shouldn’t be telling a robber how to steal.
A long and direct pause.
“Why would I rob this place. Put it back.” He said, which just pissed Kim Dokja off. Did he think he was too good to do this?
“Why, do you think you’re too good to do it?” He said, but put the drawer back anway, muttering under his breath. “Coming in here looking like that, mad I’d assume you want to rob us.”
Even with a mask and glasses on, Kim Dokja could see the man scowling, like it was his premature nature.
“Do you not know who I am?” He asked, having apparantly heard Kim Dokja’s mutterings. Kim Dokja gave him the look, which he often gave to his younger neighbors when they misbehaved since he knew their parents wouldn’t scold them.
“Some creep dressed in all black apparantly not robbing us.” Was Kim Dokja’s snarky response.
It was clear the man didn’t seem to like this, as Kim Dokja rang up the items, he pulled off the hat and glasses, still looking around like he was sure he was going to be jumped. He was probably some C-Tier celebrity with a big head-
It was Yoo Joonghyuk.
Kim Dokja looked back up and saw the face he despised so much in person.
He did look exponentially hotter in real life, it was like that he wasn’t being done justice with all the ads and images, which was unfair. Kim Dokja was the most unphotogenic person ever, every image of him taken making his face look blurry.
His gut reaction was to frown, and choke back a scoff. He didn’t do either of those things, just shaking his head and raising an eyebrow, moving back to scan the products.
“Do you know who I am now?” He asked, quietly, and maybe the fact he might be jumped wasn’t a complete understatement.
Except, Kim Dokja couldn’t give less of a fuck.
He gave him another look. The bastard himself had come in here, interrupting Kim Dokja’s reading time to brag about how famous he was.
Yoo Joonghyuk gave a harumph at this, which was a spectacular thing considering Kim Dokja had never actually heard another person harumph before, at least with accuracy, and put his items back on.
“10,000 won.” Kim Dokja tells him, holding a hand out. He isn’t nice with customers normally, but he’s not not nice. He’s just extra sleep deprived and done today.
There are better things to do, like catching up on what Yoo Joonghyun had completed this week when the series had updated, instead of talking to this fool.
Yoo Joonghyuk, once again, just stared at him in confusion.
He fumbled his wallet out of his pocket, somehow making his almost dropping it look graceful, which only pissed Kim Dokja off more. He handed the money over, and Kim Dokja put it in the register without a second thought, sliding the food over.
The man only looked at him for a few seconds longer with the bright piercing gray eyes he had, and then turned and left, that being the end of it.
The moment the door swung shut and the bell made it’s sound, Kim Dokja let out a sigh of relief. Han Sooyoung was never going to hear the end of this, or let him hear the end of it.
Thank god he wouldn’t have to deal with him again.
~~~
Kim Dokja hated himself. He hadn’t worked the previous night, a single night off from the buzz of neon lights and flickering, a small mercy, but the moment he stepped in for his shift, Gong Pildu, who was the manager and probably liked Kim Dokja more than he would admit, started talking.
Something that rarely ever happened. Gong Pildu communicated in grunts and muffled noises alone.
“Hey, kid.” He says first, which already raises Kim Dokja’s alarm system. “Who the hell was the guy in here asking about you last night? Scared the hell out of my new part timer. Your boyfriend?”
Kim Dokja had no fucking idea who Gong Pildu was talking about, only having to hope that it wasn’t a loan shark, or someone shady that wanted him dead. It hadn’t happened before, but there was a first time for everything.
“I don’t know.”
Gong Pildu glared at him, and Kim Dokja shrugged.
“Sure you don’t. But if we lose customers over him, your fired.”
Kim Dokja shrugged again. He knew Gong Pildu wouldn’t fire him, and so he saluted him as the man left out the back door, entrusting the place to Kim Dokja.
The guy he had spoken of wouldn’t be back, probably. A bad stroke of luck in the end.
Famous last words from Kim Dokja. Maybe they should be engraved on his tombstone.
About an hour into his shift, with only one other customer, a man walked in. Kim Dokja recognized the figure immeadiately.
He had to be joking.
Yoo Joonghyuk had come back.
The fucking bastard had the audacity. He looked around the store for a few minutes, searching, until he spotted Kim Dokja, who was doing his best to look at him completely complacently, not an ounce of emotion on his face.
It was like he perked up like a dog, upon seeing Kim Dokja, peeling back his mask and pushing his sunglasses up onto his hair.
He bought the same thing, taking forever, looking at Kim Dokja every few seconds, who gave up about 3 minutes in, going back to his novel, because it was infinitely more interesting than whatever this mock of a celebrity was doing.
Ironically, it was so entertaining that he didn’t even notice when Yoo Joonghyuk came over to peer over his shoulder and look at it.
“What is that.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, not phrasing it like a question this time either, making Kim Dokja jump and almost drop his already shattered phone.
He didn’t curse, but started breathing heavy, and the model almost looked apologetic.
Yoo Joonghyuk dropped the same things he had bought the night before onto the counter, placing a 10000 banknote in front of Kim Dokja, before looking at him oddly.
He then pulled out a 50,000 banknote, and put it in the front pocket of Kim Dokja’s apron, who then scowled.
The man’s pale and calloused fingers grabbed it out, and put it back on the counter.
“Your change.”
Yoo Joonghyuk taken aback, and Kim Dokja couldn’t tell if it was because he had rejected the money, or the plain look of disdain on his face.
But he took it back anyway, which was good enough for Kim Dokja, who wasn’t a charity case, and left before mumbling a quiet;
“Thanks.” That was barely still heard.
Kim Dokja had never met someone more weird than him.
~~~
He came back the next night.
The same items. He tried to slip the money more discreetly this time, but Kim Dokja shoved it back in his face.
It was getting harder to hate him, if he kept trying to be like this. It wasn’t kindness, that was clear, but it wasn’t him being mean either, and Kim Dokja didn’t know how to interpret that.
~~~
He came back the night after that.
He didn’t try to give Kim Dokja money this time, but still buying the same things, trying to take a peek at Kim Dokja’s novel.
Kim Dokja had left it open on the counter this time, not really caring.
It was Heaven’s Official Blessing that night, his other series not having been updated yet.
“It’s TGCF.” He said, explaining with no shame. If Yoo Joonghyuk had a problem with Kim Dokja reading a Boy’s Love Manhua, Yoo Joonghyuk could shove it up his ass.
“Ok.” Yoo Joonghyuk nodded, taking his items and leaving.
~~~
By the Fourth Time he came back to see Kim Dokja, he had the items out on the counter, ready for him.
Yoo Joonghyuk saw him before he saw them, taking a look at them and slinking over to the counter, removing his disguise as he did every night.
He had the 10,000 won ready, and another item with it.
He slid the book across the counter, the note across the top of it.
Kim Dokja blinked at it once, twice.
Why had Yoo Joonghyuk bought a copy of Heaven’s Official Blessing? Why was he sliding it over to him.
The corners were slightly creased, but only slightly, like whoever had used it had taken great care to try not to crease it, and they stopped halfway through.
“It was good.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, cheeks slightly pink, turning away and covering his mouth with his fist.
Oh gods. Had Yoo Joonghyuk read it just because Kim Dokja had?
“Did.. Did you read this?” Kim Dokja asked, trying to stop the excitement from leaking into his voice.
Yoo Joonghyuk gave a slow and jerky nod.
“It’s for you. If you. Don’t already have it.” He spoke, frowning halfway through his sentence, like he hadn’t considered Kim Dokja already owning it.
“I don’t.” Kim Dokja said, eyes shining at the copy. It was hardback, one of the expensive ones. Yoo Joonghyuk had just given him eternal life, practically. “Thank you.” He thanked him. Kim Dokja might not accept money, but he would accept yaoi.
Yoo Joonghyuk stared at him for a few seconds, before nodding jerkily again, grabbing his items and leaning.
Maybe the bastard wasn’t as horrible as Kim Dokja had originally thought.
~~~
Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t come back the night after that. Or the one after that.
Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t come back for a whole week.
Kim Dokja finished the hardback. He still didn’t return.
Kim Dokja changed his mind. He really was a bastard.
~~~
The next time Yoo Joonghyuk came back, Kim Dokja ignored him.
He could feel his presence, his eyes on him the moment he stepped in, and he still ignored him.
No items were set out this time.
Yoo Joonghyuk came to the counter with the same items, saying nothing, Kim Dokja had them pulled up anyway, before he noted the single red rose on the counter.
13000 won sat there, as Kim Dokja moved to take the money, the food already gone, the rose left. Kim Dokja frowned.
This fucking bastard. He was beyond pissed.
He slammed the register shut, running outside, rose in hand.
Yoo Joonghyuk was barely halfway down the street, when Kim Dokja started yelling.
He threw the rose as hard as he could, hitting Yoo Joonghyuk in the back of the neck.
Yoo Joonghyuk jumped, surprised, and turned to see a seething Kim Dokja, breathing heavy.
“If you want to ask me out, you bastard, do it properly!” He screamed, and noted how Yoo Joonghyuk hadn’t put his mask or glasses back on, and took in the sight of Kim Dokja.
So for the first time in the few weeks Kim Dokja had known him, Yoo Joonghyuk smiled.
It wasn’t one of those stupid smiles that Kim Dokja saw every night, on every item in the store and on every billboard, but genuine.
Kim Dokja was still mad, of course.
And he still hated him.
But maybe a bit less now.
A lot less.