Chapter Text
It’s a gloomy Monday afternoon after classes and 19-year-old literature major Jeon Wonwoo is stuck behind the counter of his campus Starbucks, lazily making orders for half-asleep students and waiting for the new trainee – who was supposed to start his shift at least ten minutes ago – to show up. It’s barely a trickle of customers through the door; the odd couple coming in for a date, or a tired student with too many assignments looking for a caffeine boost. Ultimately, it’s not that big of a deal that the new guy hasn’t shown up yet, but Wonwoo is probably one of the most impatient people ever, and he’s completely on edge about it until Boo Seungkwan - ‘employee of the year’ and their store manager’s favourite worker for unknown reasons - pulls him aside and hands him a flat white.
“So,” Seungkwan whispers, taking a small sip of his own caramel latte, and Wonwoo wonders how the boy can drink something so sickeningly sweet without feeling sick, “it’s nearly that time.” Wonwoo winces a little when he takes a sip of his hot coffee and lets his eyes wander to the door. That time. As in her time.That goddamn regular who strangely, tried to ask Wonwoo out on a date the day before. Wonwoo had honestly never turned down a girl before, and she had been ungracefully shot down because Wonwoo was in fact, very very gay. Of course, he didn’t actually tell her that.
“Do you think she’d even come back today?” Wonwoo asks, blowing on his coffee so he doesn’t burn himself next time he tries to drink it. Seungkwan just shrugs and downs the rest of his latte in one go. Wonwoo wants to gag.
“You just told her you were in a committed relationship,” Seungkwan tells him, throwing the cup out into the trash, “she doesn’t really seem like the type to give up just because of that either.”
Wonwoo groans. “I don’t really wanna see her again after that,” he sighs and puts his cup down on the counter before leaning against it and looking out over the store. “She said she’d come back every day and ask again and maybe then I’d fall for her or something.” Seungkwan laughs and hits him on the back before disappearing into the back for a moment and coming back out with a large, fresh tea-towel. There are only about seven people left in the store by the time Wonwoo's done blowing on his coffee; four of which are part of a couple. He checks the time on the cashier and he figures he has about ten minutes until that girl comes back and ruins his day even more.
“Grow up, Wonwoo,” Seungkwan gripes and punches him in the arm playfully, “she probably comes here for the amazingly great coffee, not you.”
“Yeah, sure. And that's why she asked the coffee on a date and why I'm not completely embarrassed by the whole thing,” Wonwoo mutters under his breath and reaches down to pick up his coffee and take another sip. He’s thankful when he doesn’t burn himself but it’s way too quiet in the shop for a split second where everything dies down. He leans against the front counter on his elbows, staring out over the shop, and it’s so eerie. The fridge goes silent, the customers stop talking, the machines stop humming, and Wonwoo can feel something is going to go wrong, but just doesn’t know what.
There’s a loud ringing from the bell attached to the door and suddenly, there’s a tall, rather attractive, and very flustered boy barrelling through into the shop, completely dishevelled and utterly panicked. Wonwoo doesn’t really know what the hell just happened, so he brings his coffee to his lips and takes a very, very long sip. He kind of looks familiar, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. The boy looks over at him, then at Seungkwan right behind him, and then back at Wonwoo. He stills for a moment before striding over to the counter, throwing his backpack onto the surface right next to Wonwoo’s head and giving possibly the deepest bow he has ever seen in his entire life.
“I’m so extremely sorry that I’m late please don’t fire me yet!” The guy almost fucking yells right there in the shop – and Wonwoo has to stand up and take a step back so his ears don’t give out on him and give him hearing problems. He can imagine Seungkwan cringing behind him, and Seungcheol the dishwasher guy poking his head out of his little washer room. The customers are all staring in their direction and Wonwoo feels like he wants to cry. He looks at the boy - gives him a good once over - but he’s not exactly sure what to make of him. So this was the new guy? Great. Late as hell on his first day and unnecessarily loud.
“Why're you late?” Seungkwan pipes up, walking up to the counter next to Wonwoo, and the kid finally stands back up straight and my god is he tall. At least we’ll have someone who can reach the top shelves now, Wonwoo thinks. Jihoon can barely reach the middle shelves.
“I got held back for a while in class and I couldn’t get out of it, I’m so sorry,” the kid spits out, giving another quick bow and his voice is so much quieter now so Wonwoo lets out a sigh of relief. It sounds nice, he guesses, when the new guy isn’t alerting half the campus of his tardiness. He’s also kind of cute, and Wonwoo isn’t too sure what to do with that information.
“That’s alright,” Seungkwan tells him with a smile, “the store manager is out right now. It’s not a busy time anyway and it’s a little boring.” The new guy nods slowly and Wonwoo can see a smile spreading across his face. His teeth are kind of… adorable? Weird. Wonwoo's never found teeth cute before. Who was this kid and where the hell did he come from?
The whole shop enters into that quiet moment again as a couple slips out of the shop, a small tinkling coming from the door as it shuts behind them. There are only about five people left and he can tell the people by themselves are starting to get ready to leave. Wonwoo fidgets uncomfortably when the silence drags on a little longer, and he decides to at least take some initiative into making the situation a little less awkward.
“I’m Jeon Wonwoo,” Wonwoo introduces hesitantly, “I was assigned to uh, show you around. Y'know, help you out here a little as you settle in?”
“Oh hey,” the guy replies, grinning a little wider and Wonwoo squints at his face because he’s so familiar. Seungkwan taps his shoulder and tells him that he’s going to go clear the tables and then it dawns on him.
“You’re in my music theory class.” Wonwoo tells him, and he thinks that maybe it came out a little indifferent, but the kid smiles even wider - if at all possible - and points at him like he’d just said something real smart.
“Yeah, that’s right!” He exclaims, a little too excited for Wonwoo’s liking, but he goes along with it. “I’m Kim Mingyu, you sit like, across the room from me.”
Ah. Kim Mingyu. The name doesn’t ring a bell, but alright. Good to have a name for the face, he figures. Wonwoo smiles back at Mingyu, he guesses, and is about to usher him around to the back to get him all decked out in his brand new uniform and everything but then he sees her.
“Oh no.” Wonwoo whispers, panicked. Mingyu gives him an odd look, quirking a brow and turning to look in the direction of wherever Wonwoo was looking. “Pretend you’re my boyfriend or something,” Wonwoo hisses at Mingyu, “it’s an emergency.”
“Excuse me?” Mingyu asks, and he sounds totally spooked and put off as he turns back to Wonwoo with an incredulous look on his face. Wonwoo guesses it’s only fair because he had only just really met the guy but Wonwoo is starting to panic and doesn't really know what to do and my god, he really does not want that girl to flirt with him again it would be so awkward and he wants to be left alone.
“There’s no time, just-” Wonwoo gives a last effort to explain but the girl is walking through the door and oh my god. He gives a last annoyed grunt before he reaches up over the counter to grab the back of Kim Mingyu’s head and pull him in for a kiss, eyes fluttering closed instinctively and Wonwoo kind of regrets it immensely as soon as it happens.
Their lips crash together uncomfortably hard and Wonwoo’s leaning in a little too much so his back hurts, he can hear Mingyu’s hands hit the table to steady himself, the tinkling of the bell on the door, and the soft “oh” that leaves the girl’s lips as she looks at the sight in front of her. Wonwoo feels a little bad, but Mingyu’s pushing his tongue against Wonwoo’s lips for some reason and Wonwoo’s brain short circuits and before he realises it, Kim Mingyu’s tongue is in his mouth and his head is spinning, heart fluttering and what is going on. He hears the doorbell ringing softly again and he takes the opportunity to push Kim Mingyu off of him with wide eyes and panicked breaths.
“I’m sorry?” Wonwoo squeaks, a little breathless, and completely and utterly overwhelmed. He can see Seungkwan gaping at him from across the room and the customers are giving the two boys at the front uncomfortable glances. Mingyu looks completely indifferent though, and that’s the scariest of all. Wonwoo feels his face heat up and he buries his head in his hands. “I’m so sorry,” he rambles, “so so sorry.”
“You know,” Mingyu starts, and his voice is so low and god what has Wonwoo done? “That,” he continues, “was my first kiss.”
“With that much tongue?” Wonwoo squawks accusingly, voice a little louder than expected and he’s so much more than embarrassed he can’t even explain it. “Nobody shoves their tongue in someone else’s mouth with their first kiss. Ever.”
“First kisses are supposed to be special, so I thought,” Mingyu picks up his bag from the counter and starts heading into the back room, “why not make it special even though it was with some strange guy on my first day at work?”
Wonwoo wants to die in that moment as Mingyu disappears into the back. He just can’t figure the guy out. One moment the boy is running in late completely panicked and the next he’s sticking his tongue down Wonwoo’s throat and shrugging his first kiss off like nothing happened. What the hell. Seungkwan weaves his way through the tables and chairs back behind the counter with Wonwoo and places a hand on his shoulder, lips pursed and curved up slightly into what Wonwoo thinks is some form of a smile. Wonwoo really wants to die.
“That, my friend,” Seungkwan says solemnly, “is how not to show the new employee around.”
Wonwoo groans and leans back against the counter with an exasperated whine. “I know,” Wonwoo sighs, “but I blanked and then-”
“You made out with him?”
“He made out with me!” Wonwoo defends, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
Seungkwan gives him an apologetic look and pats him on the back. “At least he’s cute.”
“I took his first kiss,” Wonwoo groans, burying his face into his hands. "I can't fucking believe this."
Seungkwan lets out a not so encouraging snort of laughter and makes a show of wiping a tear from his eye that makes Wonwoo want to smack him. “Good luck with that,” Seungkwan grouses, and as Mingyu walks back out from the back room, all dressed up in uniform, Wonwoo wants to melt into the floor and never come back because he’s so embarrassed all over again.
“By the way Wonwoo,” Mingyu says as he adjusts his sleeves and reaches for a jug, “that girl you were trying to avoid?”
“What about her…” Wonwoo prompts cautiously. He’s not sure if he wants to know what the hell Kim Mingyu is getting at.
“She’s my project partner for our architecture assignment,” Mingyu tells him with a laugh, grabbing the milk and pouring it into the jug, “so I’ll have some explaining to do tomorrow. Any ideas?”
Wonwoo isn’t sure if anything is registering anymore. There’s Kim Mingyu standing at the milk steamer, steaming milk like he’s grown up steaming milk. He’s so dazed. There’s steam everywhere and he’s so overwhelmed with so many things and he thinks he might just faint right there on the floor in front of goddamn Boo Seungkwan and Kim Mingyu, the new guy he just made out with in front of said guy’s project partner. He has a great idea, for sure.
“Kill me.”