Chapter Text
Yushi opens his eyes to blinding lights glaring at him, immediately setting off a dull ache in his head. He tries to sit up only for the pain to intensify and the world around him tilt and spin.
“Hey, hey, easy.”
Yushi takes a quick glance at the person looming over him and a thought crosses his mind: Maybe I’ve died and gone to heaven somehow. A very crowded heaven that looks more like a wedding venue than a paradise made of transparent gold. He blinks the blur from his eyes until the room comes into focus, then remembers that he is at a wedding.
He remembers walking to the bathroom during the bouquet throwing session and someone body slamming him to the ground before everything turns black. Just his luck.
Now he’s lying on the dirty venue floor with a possible concussion and everyone staring at him. Is this what animals in the zoo feel like? Yushi doesn’t like it at all.
“Are you okay?”
“Ougghhh.”
“Okay,” the handsome person chuckles, helping him sit up. “Everyone please give him space to breathe. Also, can we get a cup of water? That would be great, thank you so much.”
He’ll later blame it on his possible concussion, but for a second, Yushi feels an absurd urge to get up and fetch the drink himself with how charming the guy is. Even in his dazed state, Yushi can tell he has the same effect on everyone else as the crowd disperses and a cup of water is thrust into his hand in record speed.
“Thank you,” Yushi croaks. “You’re a doctor?”
The perfect stranger laughs at that. “No, but you took a rather nasty fall, and I was the closest to you.”
“Thank you for the help,” Yushi grumbles. “I’m fine now.”
“You sure?”
Yushi nods and regrets it immediately when the headache comes back in waves. With a little help, he manages to get to his feet, only to sway after a single step. As if Yushi isn’t embarrassed enough, the perfectly handsome stranger ends up having to help him for the rest of their way outside.
At least the cool night air feels nice against his skin, cooling him down from thoughts of wanting the earth to open up and swallow him whole. The guy makes sure Yushi’s able to stand without falling on his face before he lets go.
“Can I call you a cab?”
“Oh no, my house is a ten minute walk from here.”
“You’re walking home?” The guy sounds baffled. “You couldn’t even walk without stumbling just a minute ago.”
“I’m not going to spend money for a taxi to a place I can go to by foot.” Yushi scowls, his pain momentarily forgotten and replaced by annoyance.
“And risk passing out on the street?” The annoying but still handsome guy scoffs. Yushi wonders if God gave him that face to balance out his consumerist personality.
“Why do you care?”
“Look, just let me get you a cab, man,” the guy sighs. “I’ll pay for it.”
“No,” Yushi shuts him down quickly. If he isn’t in pain, he’ll probably slap himself for sounding so petulant.
“Okay, at least let me walk you home?”
Yushi wants to argue and say no again, but he’s too tired for that. He supposes there is no harm in that offer, unless this stranger is actually a creep psycho killer who’s planning on killing Yushi in a dark alley. He shudders and shakes the thought away from his head.
They can just walk in silence while Yushi prays he doesn’t pass out and owe this annoying handsome guy another one for saving his life. Again.
“Fine.” Yushi turns and starts walking, ignoring the sound of the guy scrambling to catch up.
Except Yushi only gets three seconds of silence before the guy asks, “So, were you friends with the bride and groom?”
Yushi sighs. There goes his wish of them walking in silence. Still, Yushi’s raised to be polite, even to annoying strangers.
“The bride and I went to college together. You?”
“Friend of the groom,” the guy says dismissively as if he isn’t the one initiating the conversation. Yushi’s starting to think this guy is kind of weird.
“So what do you–”
“We didn’t get–”
“Sorry,” the guy laughs as Yushi tries not to bash his head against the nearest walls from how awkward he feels. “You go first.”
“So what do you think about the wedding?” Yushi tries for a more general question since the guy seems to dodge the personal one.
“Well, let’s see… Great food, great band—although the singer was a bit pitchy in certain songs—oh, and great drinks!”
“No, silly,” Yushi scoffs. “I mean the wedding itself. You know, the couple’s vows and things like that.”
“Oh, um. It’s great?”
Yushi snorts. “You’re asking me?”
“No, no. It’s great, yeah. Real moving.”
Yushi halts his steps. “Are you mocking me?”
“What? What, no. It’s–” the guy sighs. “It’s moving, yes, but nothing special. I’ve been to hundreds of weddings and they’re all like that. Moving vows from the bride and groom, moving moments between the couple and their parents, the MC throws in a joke or two, slideshows and montages of their relationships…” he shrugs. “Like I said, nothing special.”
“You must be fun at parties,” Yushi murmurs to himself, resuming his steps.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.” Yushi clears his throat. “But every couple has their own story. No two are ever the exact same.”
“Okay then, what’s so different about your friend’s story?”
“Well, if you had paid attention to the slideshows and montages of their relationship,” Yushi mimics his voice mockingly. “They were neighbors up until they were seven, before she had to move across the country. Fast forward years later, their paths crossed again in the same steps they used to walk through every day for school on one completely random night. Then they hit it up again and the rest is history.”
“Second chance romance.” The guy nods. “Cute, but I can easily name ten couples with that exact story.”
“My point is,” Yushi says pointedly, “There are a million ways their stories could’ve gone. They could’ve burned the bridge between them and never met again, or maybe they did, seventy years later, when they’re walking with their own grandkids and thinking: It could’ve been us walking with our grandkids.”
“Wow, you’re really passionate about this.”
Yushi hugs himself, unsure if it’s from the wind or self-consciousness. He realizes a bit too late that he probably looks crazy, the way Chanyoung says he does whenever he gushes about his favorite Commitments section.
Who would’ve thought that in his 20s, Yushi’s best monthly expense goes to a newsletter subscription dedicated to weddings even if he only reads one section of it? Yushi can’t help it that The Ocean Journalist just knows how to write about weddings and love in the most beautiful ways.
Yushi also can’t help that he’s a hopeless romantic, not when he grew up consuming media that convinced him that love is the most beautiful thing in the world. He’s watched it in his favorite movies, read it in his favorite books, and seen it in the smallest ways his parents care for each other even years into their marriage.
But Yushi doesn’t expect the stranger to understand that. Not that Yushi cares if he doesn’t.
“What did you want to ask me?” Yushi changes the subject instead, desperate to get the attention away from him.
“Oh, yeah.” The guy shifts on his feet. “We didn’t really get to introduce ourselves earlier. You know, with you fainting and all.”
Yushi laughs despite himself, amused from the absurdity of the moment and the guy’s knack for returning to personal questions despite his attempts to avoid them.
“I’m Yushi.”
“Hi, Ushi.” The guy extends a hand. “I’m Sion.”
This guy (Sion, he reminds himself) might be the first person ever to mispronounce his name with such confidence. Yushi doesn’t know if he should correct him or not, so he gingerly takes his hand instead, not forgetting to wipe his palm dry beforehand.
“I sweat a lot, sorry.” Sion just smiles back and tightens his grip, as if to say, It’s fine.
“That’s not a name I hear often.”
“Probably because I’m Japanese.” Yushi shrugs.
Sion’s smile somehow gets ever bigger at that, for what reason Yushi has no idea. He’s not curious to find out either. There’s an intensity in his gaze that unnerves Yushi and he fights off the urge to squirm from his attention. It’s only when they let go of each other’s hand that Yushi notices they have reached his apartment.
“This is mine.” Yushi lamely points at the building. “Thank you for helping me and for walking me home.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Is it far? Your house, I mean.”
“About twenty minutes from here. Maybe I’ll call a cab.” Sion shrugs, followed by an annoying smirk on his stupidly handsome face. “Or is that still too short of a distance for one?”
This guy is an asshole, is all Yushi thinks of, but bites his tongue before he loses control and says it out loud.
“You can do whatever you want. Good night, Sion.”
“Im just teasing you.” The handsome asshole has the audacity to laugh. “Good night, Ushi.”
“It’s Yu-shi.” Yushi rolls his eyes, his annoyance winning over his want to be polite.
Yushi turns and throws a dismissive, Get home safe. He doesn’t turn back to see if Sion’s already left, only hearing a faint reply that he can’t quite decipher before the door closes behind him.