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“here’s some more!” screamed their chef, rolling in another container of dishes.
jeongguk grunted, and he could hear taehyung practically yelling it out from the other side of the kitchen.
“yes, chef!” they replied in choir, bowing their chef goodbye and waiting for him to leave.
after he left, jeongguk turned to taehyung. “we’re gonna die if he keeps bringing in more and more dishes.”
taehyung nodded and sighed deeply. “why did i ever agree on taking this job. poor minimum wage, nasty plates… bossy and ignorant chef… the list goes on you know?”
jeongguk hummed. he walked over to the container and pushed it into the kitchen, next to the other (still full) containers.
one of the other dishwashing boys, yugyeom, came to stand next to him. he stared at the container. “when will this end.”
“when you get a better job,” taehyung commented loudly, making jeongguk laugh.
“he’s right,” yugyeom said with a sigh. “oh well, i need to make money somehow, and this was the only option. singing wouldn’t have made the cut anyways, unlike youngjae hyung.”
jeongguk had to hold himself still not to laugh. “you’ll get there one day, yugyeom.” he patted said boy on the shoulders and walked away, back to his own sink.
he still could see yugyeom nod, and, while taking with him to his sink one full container, he gave everything he got and started blasting out some notes of some famous drama he recently got to like.
minutes passed and hours flew by. yugyeom left, his shift was over. the other boys left, their shift was over as well.
“only you and me, kook,” taehyung commented as the last boy left. jeongguk only nodded and kept on washing and turning the machines on and off.
but taehyung was getting bored, and jeongguk could hear it. feel it.
beside the “jeongguuuuuuk... jeoooonn jeongguuuukkkkk…”’s, taehyung started to throw piles of soap at jeongguk’s head.
small piles of soap.
medium piles of soap.
big piles of soap.
“tae—!” bam. jeongguk fell on the ground.
“oh my god! i’m so sorry!!” taehyung rushed over to jeongguk as fast as he could. “i didn’t mean to throw the hand soap with it!”
“but you still did.”
“yeah… but i—”
jeongguk threw his hands in the air. “it’s okay. don’t worry too much about it.”
taehyung got up and helped jeongguk get up as well. “i’m still sorry.”
“it’s okay, honestly!” jeongguk mentioned again. “let’s get back to work so we, too, can get home quicker.” taehyung agreed and skipped over to his sink.
so they got back to work.
for maybe ten minutes.
before jeongguk got another pile of soap thrown at his head.
and another one.
and another one.
and— “tae!” he turned around and it was right in his face.
with one hand he swiped it off and threw in on the ground in one movement, and with the other hand he put his hand in his own soap and made sure enough of it was on his hand, and threw it at taehyung.
who dodged it, of course. “miss!”
“are you serious?!” jeongguk yelled. “stop it!”
he got hit with another pile of soap. “nope!” taehyung stuck out his tongue.
“kim taehyung!” jeongguk yelled, getting another hand full of soap and throwing it back at taehyung.
going back and forth, they threw soap at each other like it was a snowball fight.
soon enough the whole kitchen was slippery with soap and there was barely a spot left where you couldn’t find a soap-less spot.
“jeon jeongguk you’re going down!” taehyung yelled while he threw the soap.
“not before you—!”
their chef busted through the door. “what’s with all this commotion?!” his eyes fell on the two boys. and his kitchen. and his eyes became big. “what the fuck happened to my kitchen?!”
jeongguk and taehyung fell silent and dropped their hands full of soap.
“we— i— yes.”
“i can’t buy nothing with a ‘yes’!” their chef got as red as an apple – he was fuming. “this isn’t funny, i want to have this kitchen cleaned by midnight. and if not: you won’t get paid at all for today, whether you like it or not.” for one more time he looked around his kitchen, looked like he wanted to say something more, but didn’t, and left, closing the door with a loud bang.
“this didn’t really go according to plan,” taehyung hissed, mostly mad at himself.
“no really?” jeongguk replied, all kinds of sarcasm making way in his voice.
“actually, no.” jeongguk looked at him with a few question marks. “i was hoping this would end really cute, but not too cheesy, you know? like something that can happen in a movie, and then i'd ask you out on a date for later this week. but yeah, like i said, it didn’t really go according to plan.”
jeongguk got silent and didn’t know what to say at first. when a blush flushed onto his face and he stuttered, “y- you… what?”
“oh my god i knew this would be super cringe-worthy. never mind me. never mind this all. forget i ever asked this. let’s clean up and get home asap.” taehyung turned around and walked away as quickly as he could. “this is too much,” he whispered to himself.
“why would you want to go out on a date with me?” jeongguk asked him.
taehyung stopped in his tracks. “ahhh, don’t make this any worse than it already is, please.” but when he looked at jeongguk, his breathing stopped. “because you’re very cute, you’re attractive, you’re good a sports and did i mention attractive?” he sighed. “and i knew you were gay, so i thought, hey! maybe he’d like to go on a one-time date with me some time. but never mind, i fucked up so i blew my chance.” he continued walking back to his sink and jeongguk didn’t reply to his mini-confession.
he blew it. definitely blew it.
but it took jeongguk a few minutes (maybe only seconds) to register taehyung’s words.
“sure,” he finally said. “tae, i'll go out with you.”
taehyung dropped his dish brush on the ground. “excuse me?”
“i said sure. what day and time will you pick me up later this week?”
taehyung didn’t know what to say and how to reply. he was blabbering some baby words and registering jeongguk’s words. “uh… wow! yeah! thursday at six! make sure you didn’t eat yet!”
jeongguk laughed. “it’s a date!”
“yeah,” taehyung whispered, “it’s a date.”