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The constant smell of popcorn always becomes nauseating by the end of the day, and even worse, the place was so empty lately that it's all that Intak could focus on. There are small things he’s picked up on on days like this, where he idly stands behind the overpriced snack counter. The main offender was the smell of popcorn, but other than that, it was the sound of the kernels popping and the every so often seeping noises coming from movies he would much rather be watching than simply hearing from a distance.
It would be nice to be on projector duty every so often, but Jongseob and Soul have pretty much found a way to hijack that task ever since they started. Intak wouldn’t tell, but he wonders if the boss knew those two were dating that he might be able to have projector duty every once in a while. Soul was hired first, maybe a month or so before Jongseob, which, in retrospect, was a carefully thought-out plan, Intak’s come to realize.
He had Jiung to keep him company, but he could get really quiet sometimes, which Intak didn’t want to disturb. “No one sees movies anymore, huh?” Intak says, staring ahead at the vast emptiness of the theater.
“There’s not a lot out right now either,” Jiung replies. Intak hears footsteps and instinctively turns, only to see Jongseob, who should definitely be in the projection room. Instead, he’s holding two cups at the soda machine. “Hey, what are you doing?” Jiung starts, a bit agitated.
Jongseob raises a brow, “What? Soul is still in the projection room, calm down.”
Jiung scoffs, “Let me ask you something, would you rather stand here? You seriously get the easiest task, and you’re always doing something else.” Jongseob just shrugs, and Intak watches Jiung’s body tense up. Intak places a hand on Jiung’s shoulder and shakes his head. Jiung sighs. Jongseob takes his two cups and wanders back off. Intak retracts his hand quietly.
It’s quiet for a while, then, and Intak doesn’t know how long he stares at the unmoving front doors. Intak rests his elbows on the counter lazily. From afar, he can hear Keeho’s voice, which was unsurprising. Keeho, Jiung’s boyfriend, made sure to take advantage of Jiung’s employee benefits. What was unusual was that this time he had another person with him. Typically, Keeho was the type to go by himself. Intak was surprised. Keeho and his unknown friend approach the counter, and the closer they get, Intak can’t help but be a bit entranced by the stranger. Actually, he was downright glamorous. Bewitching even. Intak shook his head to himself and took his elbows off the counter.
“Jiung!” Keeho waves excitedly, Jiung gently smiles and waves back. “Hey Intak, when is the next screening?”
Intak tilts his head, “You don’t care about the movie?” Keeho shakes his head. Intak looks through the ticketing machine for the next available time slot before replying, “Well, I mean, there’s the one that just started, so it’s probably still rolling through the trailers.”
“Sure,” Keeho answers. Intak’s eyes fall on the stranger, who was already staring at him, which catches Intak so off guard that he immediately diverts his gaze. Intak prints out two tickets and extends his arm stiffly. Keeho’s eyes travel between his friend and Intak before he eventually grabs the tickets from Intak’s hand. He hands one to the man next to him, “This is my friend Theo, by the way. I know I usually come alone, but I actually do have friends.”
Intak nods awkwardly with a smile. “Enjoy the movie, Theo and Keeho.” Even Jiung is looking slightly suspiciously at Intak’s face when he says that.
Jiung grabs popcorn and a few other snacks and hands them to Keeho, who eagerly accepts. “Thanks, babe,” Keeho snickers, and Jiung presses his mouth into a small, shy line as he shakes his head.
“Thanks, Intak,” Theo says before walking off with Keeho.
Intak waits, perhaps a bit longer than he needs to just to be safe, to say, “How did he know my name?”
Jiung laughs at that, “Keeho said it, and even if he didn’t…” Jiung pressed Intak’s name tag on his shirt to illustrate his point.
Intak looks down at his chest, “Oh. Yeah.”
“You think Theo is hot, right?” Jiung asks directly. “Can I be honest? Go for it. Because I know him, and you’re definitely his type.”
Intak’s eyes widen, “Whoa, what the hell? You can’t just assume that.”
Jiung shrugs, “I’m not going to push it, but… Keeho noticed, and he will definitely push you.”
Like clockwork, Keeho comes back to the front counter, this time alone. “Told Theo I was going to the bathroom,” he explains, as if anyone had asked. “Intak,” Keeho states. Intak can hear Jiung giggling under his breath. “What was that? You and Theo had this weird vibe.”
Intak looks at Jiung, then back at Keeho, “Well…” Intak’s throat feels dry all of a sudden.
Keeho raises a hand with an open palm, and Intak’s mouth closes. “Don’t worry, I got you, man. You never snitch when Jiung gives me way too much stuff for free. Trust me,” Keeho nods enthusiastically and then walks off again.
“I don’t like how he said that and then left,” Intak says nervously.
“Whatever plan he came up with, it’s gonna happen,” Jiung states.
“Aw, fuck,” Intak sighs.
The anticipation kills him from the inside. But nothing happens. Intak watches Theo and Keeho leave. Everything seems to be in order except for the smile on Keeho’s face as he exits the building. It comes down to almost closing time, before anything seems to be off again. Theo returns to the theater, this time alone, and Intak forcefully blinks to make sure what he’s seeing is correct. He then comes up to the counter, and Intak subconsciously fixes his posture.
“I think I left my phone here. I know it’s almost closing time, so I don’t want to be annoying, but…” Theo cringes.
“No phones have been turned in,” Intak scratches his head.
“Really? Damn,” Theo sighs and places a hand on his hip.
“What theater were you in, do you remember?” Intak questions.
“Uh, the one down the hall on the right,” Theo answers.
Intak glances at Jiung, who nods before he can ask anything in the first place. Intak leaves from behind the counter and approaches Theo directly, “Come on, let's go look for it,” he smiles bashfully. “Hopefully it’s still in here, I don’t think any other movies have played in this room since,” Intak assures.
Theo nods, “Thanks. And I’m sorry for taking your time.”
“No, no,” Intak gestures with his hands, “No worries.” They reach the room, and Intak makes sure to open the door for Theo. Thankfully, Intak was right; there was no movie playing, but it was dark in there. Intak grabbed his phone out of his pocket and used the flashlight to begin searching around. Theo trailed close behind, double-checking every vacant seat Intak did. They go through every row carefully, but it's so dark that Theo ends up slipping, his hands landing on Intak’s back. Intak’s body tenses in place, and Theo draws his hands back quickly.
“Sorry,” Theo mutters.
“It’s ok, it’s dark in here,” Intak replies, then continues to search. After investigating the whole place from top to bottom, Intak still hasn’t lost hope. “There has to be somewhere we missed,” he says.
Theo, on the other hand, wasn’t as hopeful. “It’s ok, Intak. We’ve already been here for like thirty minutes, and I don’t wanna waste anymore of your time.”
“What do you mean?” Intak tilts his head, “Yeah. We have been here for thirty minutes, but that’s why we can’t give up. It’s not a waste of time, we are going to find it.”
Theo smiles, just a bit. “Where else is there to even look?”
Intak scans the theater for a moment. Theo was right, they had truly searched the whole place. Intak ponders for a moment. “If you give me your number, I can call it. If it’s not here, we’ll know for sure then,” he proposes. Theo seems a tad taken aback at that. Intak adds, “Ah, you probably had do not disturb mode on for the movie, huh?”
“It should still ring if you call twice,” Theo says.
“Ah, ok, that’s a relief.” Intak brings up the dial-up screen and hands his phone to Theo, who then enters the number in, and calls it once, then twice. For a moment, Intak’s hope is gone; it’s quiet. Then, he hears an ever so light ringing, but it sounds like it might be in another room entirely. “Hear it?” Intak asks. Theo nods, and they start to walk around in attempts to get closer to the noise. It’s then that the lights in the room suddenly turn on. Both of their attention is redirected at Soul and Jongseob who are descending from the projection room. Intak meets the two of them halfway up the staircase. Soul hands a surely ringing phone to Intak, a poorly suppressed grin on his face.
“Were you two in there the whole time watching us search around?” Soul snickers. Intak takes the phone from his hand.
“That’s kind of your fault, no? Why wouldn’t you have asked us if we had the phone in the first place?” Jongseob says.
“How was I supposed to know you’d still be in the projection room after the movie ended?” Intak argues back. “Whatever,” he turns back around to locate Theo, who was standing closeby. He hands the phone to the rightful owner.
“That was a lot of effort just to find my phone,” Theo groans. They begin to walk outside the theater room.
“I’m just glad it was still in there,” Intak says as he opens the door once again for Theo. Theo smiles, this time not dejected, a real smile. Intak can’t help but smile too. Theo leans forward and pecks Intak’s cheek so quickly he doesn’t have time to react properly. Intak reaches up to his cheek and grabs onto it for a moment, then lets his hand drop back down.
“Thanks,” Theo says with a nod. “You already have my number, you can keep it,” he states, then walks away with a simple wave goodbye.
Intak slowly makes his way back behind the snack counter with Jiung, still in slight disbelief. “Find the phone?” Jiung asks, giggling.
“Uh? Oh, yeah, we found it. Jongseob and Soul had it anyway; they had us searching around for a while, though,” Intak rolls his eyes.
“Jongseob and Soul were still in there?” Jiung raises a brow, “That’s weird. The movie ended a while ago.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s what I was thinking too.”
Jiung pauses for a moment, “Keeho probably gave them his phone.”
“You think he would do that?” Intak asks. Jiung nods without hesitation. “Damn, he’s crazy.”
“Yeah,” Jiung agrees.