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He’s wearing that ugly hat again—the offensive lime green beanie he had gotten from a street vendor when they were leaving the movie theater one afternoon. Mingyu had told Vernon to buy it as a joke, but he should’ve know that Vernon would do it, the boy buying it and pulling it over his head the minute he handed the vendor his money. The hat was flashy and it clashed with everything Vernon had on but before he could say anything, Vernon had turned to him with a wide toothy grin and Mingyu froze, unable to get any words out.
That was two weeks ago. Today, they were having a casual meet up: a late breakfast together in their university’s on-campus cafe before they had to leave for their separate 10am classes. Mingyu was still half asleep and he had almost refused to go out so early but Vernon had insisted and Mingyu could never say no to him . He had thrown on a pair of light-washed jeans along with a striped t-shirt tucked in in the front definitely not because Vernon once said he looked cute in stripes . His hair was messed with until he deemed it fine and left his dorm for the cafe.
It was weird that he was there before Vernon, the boy always arrived first no matter what they were doing, but Mingyu just brushed it off, taking a seat and ordering both of their food which of course he knew Vernon’s order by heart . Five minutes passed of him staring at his phone before the bell over the door rang, signaling someone had entered. It was Vernon, strolling in and glowing as if it wasn’t 8:30 in the morning. With a plain white t-shirt, skinny black jeans, and white shoes, Vernon was dressed simply but someone looked like he had walked straight out of a magazine. Well, except for the green monstrosity sitting on his head. With so little colour on his body, the hat stood out even more, Mingyu’s eyes drawn to it as Vernon sat down across from him. A tap to his shoulder broke him out of his green-tinted trance.
“Huh?” he said dumbly, eyes wide at getting caught blatantly staring. Vernon only laughed, his head tipping back. Mingyu swallowed dryly at the the expanse of Vernon’s neck, the pale skin completely exposed. Mingyu wanted to kiss...he cleared his throat to keep from thinking such things.
“I said,” Vernon started, dragging the words out, “you look really nice today.” Vernon gave him a once over before smiling and nodding to himself. Mingyu’s face turned red as he sputtered out a response. “You look good too but…” he trailed off, his eyes moving back up to lock on Vernon’s beanie. The younger let out an offended sound, his hands moving up to lay on the hat, pressing it closer to his head like Mingyu’s words would blow it right off.
“Hey, this hat is cute okay!?” Vernon huffed, puffing up his cheeks in mock anger. Mingyu had to admit that somehow...somehow Vernon was able to make the hat look good, the hat accentuating the colour of his hair and eyes and the colour stood out almost like it was a physical representation of the boy’s colourful personality. Vernon was looking at Mingyu with puppy dog eyes, waiting for the older to agree, and Mingyu could feel himself melting. A smile broke out on Vernon’s face as he realized he had won. “You think it’s cuuute,” the smaller teased, laughing to himself. Mingyu swallowed.
“I think you’re cute,” he said, his voice low and his face red. Vernon’s laugh turned into a sputter at the admission and Mingyu’s throat dried. He wanted to hit himself for just throwing that out there. Vernon took a breath, held it for a moment, then let it out.
“You should ask me out then,” he said in a quiet voice, now looking shy. Vernon’s face pinked under Mingyu’s gaze and he bit his lip softly, turning slightly to break eye contact with the older. Mingyu let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he had been holding, smiling now that he knew that Vernon was down with it—that he hadn’t just made a fool out of himself and ruined his chance with the other.
“Vernon, let’s go on a date together, okay? How about tonight?” More confident now, Mingyu reached over to rest his hand on top of Vernon’s, making the boy blush as he nodded. Vernon turned his hand over to grip onto Mingyu’s, squeezing the boy’s hand gently before pulling his hand away.
“Yeah, I’d like that,” he responded with a soft smile that was returned by Mingyu, “pick me up at 7?” Mingyu nodded at the question and he opened his mouth to say something but the waitress interrupted, the woman setting their food down on the table. Now, surrounded by a comfortable silence, Mingyu looked at Vernon over his plate. The younger was stuffing a pancake into his mouth with one hand and brushing his fringe out of his face with the other. The green beanie sat firmly on his head.
Mingyu had to agree—it was pretty cute.