Chapter Text
Kim Dokja often finds himself at his favorite convenience store, usually browsing through the CLEARANCE and ON-SALE section in search for food that won’t make his wallet want to cry in pain. It’s kind of sad the way that he recognizes each of the workers from how much he visits this place.
And currently Kim Dokja is in a dilemma of picking out which chips he wants to eat more. He has two types of chip bags in his hands.
It’s either between the really greasy and oily fried shrimp chips or the savory and sweet honey butter chips. Kim Dokja does prefer the taste of the honey butter chips better, but in the end it all depends on price.
He looks down at the price tag for the chips. 2,000 won. Then he looks at the price for the shrimp chips.1,200 won. It’s only a 800 won difference, but a deal's a deal. He’s going to go with the shrimp chips. He can afford the slightly unsettling taste of pure oil going down his throat every time he eats a shrimp chip. It’s a small price to pay. He’ll be fine.
Kim Dokja puts away the honey butter chips back on the shelf and drops the shrimp chips into the shopping basket that is hanging on his elbow.
“But Oppa!” He hears a young girl’s voice complain, “everyone is eating these, we have to get them!”
“No,” a deep voice says. “It’s unhealthy for you. Get something else at least.”
“But I want these ones!”
“If you really want them, I can make them at home.”
Who does this pretentious asshole think he is? Okay mister I’m-above-everyone-else-I-don’t-eat-gas-gutter-convenience-store-oily-chips-I-can-make-them-at-home-myself. No one fucking asked. The guy probably can’t cook or do any better anyways.
Kim Dokja looks to the side and sees the two arguing. The little girl has curly long hair tied into two high ponytails. And the guy with the deep voice—Kim Dokja looks up—is extremely attractive. Okay, he didn’t mean to say that. His thick eyebrows are slightly furrowed and his mouth is downturned into an ugly scowl. He’s the enemy, don’t get distracted.
The girl groans and walks away, leaving him alone with the bastard.
From the sounds of it, the only redeeming qualities of this guy is unfortunately good looks. Wasted potential, really. Because who is he to dictate someone’s eating habits? Sometimes someone just needs some really oily and greasy chips.
The man sees Kim Dokja and glares at him.
Did he mutter that out loud on accident? Oops. Well who the fuck cares, Kim Dokja scrunches his face and decides to send the guy some middle fingers in his head. He hopes that guy is capable of reading minds just so that he can see them.
Then, Kim Dokja stares right at the unfortunately attractive guy and grabs another bag of oily and greasy shrimp chips from the shelves and drops it into his basket, making sure to keep direct eye contact the whole time. He gives the guy a smirk after.
The bastard then proceeds to glare harder at Kim Dokja. He must be seething.
Victory really is sweet.
With a small laugh that doesn’t sound like a cackle (unlike a certain Han Sooyoung), he leaves the guy behind and walks to the check out with his chips and a day-old on-sale kimbap roll.
--
As Kim Dokja leaves the convenience store with his items inside a plastic bag, he spots an extremely nice looking car parked outside. It’s sleek and black and expensive looking; and did he mention that the car looked really nice, because if he didn’t, he just wants to say that it looks really nice.
And really, if Kim Dokja had that kind of car, he wouldn’t have to be taking the train to work and home everyday. He’d roll down the windows, press on the gas, and let the wind mess up his hair. If he had this kind of car, he’d want to show it off anywhere. If he had this kind of car he wouldn’t be at a convenience store buying two bags of oily chips and on-sale kimbap.
Before he knows it, Kim Dokja finds himself walking towards it. He’s just going to admire it, he’s not even going to touch it like he wants to, because the car is so clean, there’s not even a single speck of dust on the car. If he touches it, would his finger print even show?
Thankfully, there is no one in the car as he goes to admire its beauty, which allows him to look into the car and notice the plush leather seats inside. The leather has the same black color that the rest of the car inhabits. It looks expensive and extremely comfortable. Oh to be rich. He’s jealous.
He gets a bit closer to the car, trying to see through the windows and into the back seats of the car. As expected, they’re of the same leather material of the seats in the front, but they’re a bit different because they–
Before he can finish his train of thought Kim Dokja is suddenly turned around and being choked against the nice car. He lets out a yelp at the action that he is too embarrassed to admit came out of his mouth.
Fingers grip around Kim Dokja’s neck and he wheezes, because what the fuck is happening right now.
“What are you doing?” A deep voice that sounds familiar growls at him. And Kim Dokja opens his eyes from where he hadn’t realized he had closed and looks up at the man choking him. Of course it’s the same bastard that was inside the convenience store, just his luck. “Are you trying to rob me?”
What did he expect, of course someone as attractive as him had to have a car as nice as this; of course the guy was rich.
Kim Dokja tries to check the technique of mind reading by saying ‘I can’t breath’ and ‘let go’ in his head, but it seems the guy doesn’t get the message (which is kind of shame that he can’t mind read because it means he didn’t get his mental middle fingers either).
So instead, he makes vague motions with his hands that he intends to mean the same things he tried to mentally transfer to him earlier.
This apparently works as the man in front of him slightly releases his fingers wrapped around his neck, enough so that he can actually talk.
“I’m not–” he coughs, “I’m not robbing you,” he manages to wheeze out.
Not believing him, the man just glares at him and raises one thick eyebrow.
“I was just looking,” he says, because it’s the truth. He really was just looking, albeit it being looking at the car with jealousy. The guy still does not budge.
“Shit, what else do you want me to say? ‘Yes I was totally legitimately actually genuinely seriously honestly planning to rob you’?”
It’s that that manages to get the man to let go of his grip around his neck.
Kim Dokja carefully massages his neck with gentle presses and rubs with his fingers and hands. He then looks up at the man and sees him still glaring at him, so Kim Dokja glares back.
The bastard didn’t even apologize.
“I’m not apologizing for assuming that you were robbing my car.” The guy says, and now he can read his mind apparently, “you should be the one apologizing.”
It’s fair actually, because now that Kim Dokja thinks about it, it was rather creepy of him to peer into someone else's car like that. And now he genuinely feels bad because he didn’t mean to do that.
“Sorry.” Kim Dokja mutters out.
And because he has nothing else to offer, he grabs one of the extra bags of oily shrimp chips from where the plastic grocery bag hangs from one on his elbows and presents it to the man in front of him. A peace offering, if you will.
“Do you… want my chips?” he asks nervously.
“I don’t want your chips. Now go away.”
So, Kim Dokja hastily scrambles his way to a nearby bench instead. He rubs a bit more at his neck as he processes what just happened.
He sees the little girl from earlier emerge from the convenience store with a plastic bag in hand as she skips her way to the guy with the nice car.
“Oppa!” she says with a smile on her face. Kim Dokja sees the guy’s lips lift just a bit.
Now it makes more sense why that reaction from the guy was so harsh, he was just probably protecting his sister from some creepy guy trying to rob their car.
He’s an idiot.
He hopes he never meets the guy again out of sheer embarrassment.
But of course, Kim Dokja doesn’t have the best luck.
—
“Hyung, Hyung! Look at this,” Lee Gilyoung exclaims excitedly with one hand cupping something as he goes towards Kim Dokja sitting on the park bench.
When the kid gets close enough, Kim Dokja can see the thing in his hand: it was a huge grasshopper that took up the size of the kid’s hand. Kim Dokja hasn’t seen anything like it, it’s kind of scary actually, but he doesn’t say that to Lee Gilyoung. Instead he just says, “wow that’s impressive Gilyoung,” before he ruffles the kid’s hair. “Good job on catching it.”
“I know right! Do you think I can sell this one?”
‘I don’t think anyone is going to want that thing,’ Kim Dokja thinks to himself as he mentally cringes.
“Sure, there’s a market for everything. But don’t you want to keep it to uh, y’know,” he waves his arm in the air a bit, trying to find the right words. “To uh, expand your collection?”
Lee Gilyoung thinks to himself for a bit, eyes in deep contemplation as he stares at the grasshopper. “Maybe you’re right, Hyung. I’ll name this one, Titano!”
Kim Dokja claps his hands in support, because he doesn’t know what to say to that. Then, Lee Gilyoung runs off in the other direction to the side of the park with more grass.
Usually, Lee Gilyoung’s friend—who just so happened to be Kim Dokja’s neighbor—isn’t hanging out with him today. They both tend to go this park straight after they are done with school, waiting for their parents to pick them up, but lately they’ve just been hanging around Kim Dokja.
Because for some reason, they find him interesting and like bothering him. Kim Dokja doesn’t really mind though, it’s nice to have company once in a while that isn’t Han Sooyoung screaming in his ear about this girl that she finds really attractive, or about how her novels are the ‘greatest pieces of fiction in the modern era’.
He first met Lee Gilyoung while Kim Dokja was walking to his apartment right after taking the subway after work. It was a day like any other where he was mindlessly thinking to himself about whatever current webnovel he was reading at the time and thinking about different hypothetical situations and theories that the protagonist might face in the next chapter.
He was suddenly stopped by this kid crouched on the middle of the sidewalk holding a stick in his hand, prodding at something in the ground. It was strange, but Kim Dokja just let the kid do… whatever the hell he was doing, and moved on with his day.
The next day he saw that same kid at the same spot, but instead of being in the middle of the sidewalk, he crouched near the bushes so that he didn’t block the road. Kim Dokja accidentally made eye contact with the kid as he walked past. The kid just made wide bug eyes at Kim Dokja without removing eye contact. It was weird, but still, kids are kids.
The day after that he saw the kid again, but this time he was stuck inside the bush with his head and hands sticking inside it. Being the nice upstanding citizen he was, Kim Dokja gently pulled the kid out by grabbing his shoulder.
There was dirt and small scratches on the kids face. “Oh it’s the weird Ahjussi,” he had said and Kim Dokja had grimaced. The kid then promptly shoved a small container filled with dirt and ants in his face and said, “do you want one? I’m selling them for 7000 won.”
“No thanks, I have no money on me.” Which wasn’t exactly a lie, he was broke. But to be honest, he wouldn’t have bought the container of dirt
“Okay, how about…” the boy thought for a while, “3000 won?”
“Sorry, no.” The kid looked a little disappointed and Kim Dokja did feel a little bad at that, but then the kid dug around in his pockets for a bit and handed him a small piece of rumpled paper.
“If you ever change your mind, this is my business card.” The paper had a messy scrawl of words, ones that said BUGS4LIFE BUSINESS in big font, and then a smaller Lee Gilyoung underneath with a picture of crawling ants at the edges of the ‘card’.
Kim Dokja thought nothing of it as he folded the paper and put it in his pocket as the kid took off.
After that, he just kept on meeting the strange kid. Eventually, Lee Gilyoung took him to the park nearby the kid’s school, saying that he found a bunch of ladybugs to sell. Kim Dokja just followed him because he had nothing else to do anyways.
“I thought you only sold ants?” Kim Dokja had asked on their way there.
The kid scoffed, crossing his arms. “Ants are too tiny and unrecognizable, nobody wants them. Plus, they can’t fly and don’t have a cool pattern like ladybugs do.”
“There’s a market for everyone, Gilyoung.”
Lee Gilyoung looked up at him, eyes hopeful, “do you want some of them, then? I can give them to you when we get there.”
Kim Dokja cringed a bit, he didn’t really want them, but he did feel bad for rejecting him last time. “Here, you can have this,” he handed him a 5000 won bill, “but you can keep your bugs.”
“Wow, really Ahjussi!?” Lee Gilyoung grabbed the bill out of his hand and put it close to his face to examine it, smiling all the while. Then suddenly, his walks slow to a stop and he lowers the hands holding the bill to look up at Kim Dokja. He grabbed one of Kim Dokja’s hands, opened it up and put the bill in his hand.
“No, it’s okay, Ahjussi. You can just keep it, I understand that you’re broke.” What.
“What?” Kim Dokja said, shocked at what he just heard come from the boy’s mouth. “I’m not broke,” he lies.
“You don’t have to lie to me, I saw the light in your eyes dim after you handed that over.” Lee Gilyoung said.
Am I really that obvious, he thought to himself.
“Wait, no– You can really have it,” he gives it back to Lee Gilyoung.
“Are you sure?” the kid smiled again as he took it back in his hands hesitantly.
“Yeah, in exchange, just stop calling me Ahjussi, I’m not even that old.”
“Okay, Ahjus– I mean, uh, Hyung!”
Eventually, Lee Gilyoung had given up on his young entrepreneurship. He was sitting at the park bench with his knees up, the sleeves of the boy’s arms wiping his face as small sniffles escaped him.
Kim Dokja didn't know how to comfort him, didn’t know how to comfort anyone, really. But still he crouched a bit to where Lee Gilyoung was crying, or trying to hide the fact that he was crying. Kim Dokja gently touched the kid’s shoulder and in a quiet, hushed voice, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
The kid looked up from where he was hiding his face. His cheeks were stained with tears. “I sold my bugs,” he said, voice wobbly.
Kim Dokja smiled at him, “that’s great, isn’t it.” It was a good thing, hadn’t Gilyoung been wanting to sell his bugs for a while?
Lee Gilyoung shook his head before wiping his eyes once more. “No, I– I– I miss them,” he sniffles. “I won’t ever see them again… Hyung, I don’t want to sell them anymore.”
His voice was sad, and Kim Dokja didn’t know what to say or do to make him feel better.
“You still like bugs, right? Why not just collect them instead?”
“But–but…” Lee Gilyoung starts before trailing off.
Kim Dokja puts a hand on the kid’s knee. “I like to think that some hobbies are special because they don’t involve money.” He gives the kid a slight smirk, “don’t listen to capital greed, Gilyoung, you’re still young.”
Gilyoung looks up at him and sniffles.
“Now, tell me, what have you been catching lately?” Kim Dokja moves to sit on the bench, beside Lee Gilyoung. “Still ladybugs?”
“No, I don’t like ladybugs anymore, I like beetles now.”
Kim Dokja had known Lee Gilyoung for a while, had been through his different bug phases of ants, ladybugs, beetles, butterflies, centipedes, cicadas, and his newest obsession, grasshoppers. Honestly, Kim Dokja hopes it stays as grasshoppers for a long time, because he doesn’t think he could handle seeing another centipede.
Now though, he hears a familiar voice call for him.
“Ahjussi! I made a new friend!” He sees his neighbor, Shin Yoosoung, drag a girl with black hair and two high ponytails, hand wrapped around her wrist.
The girl with black hair looks up at him with hesitation, a little shy as she fiddles a bit with her bangs.
“Mia, this is Dokja-Ahjussi, Ahjussi, this is Yoo Mia,” Shin Yoosoung introduces them with a smile.
Kim Dokja waves his hand at the girl in a small wave. “Nice to meet you, Mia.”
She looks a bit familiar, but he can’t really place what exactly looks familiar to him. He just has a feeling that he’s seen her before.
Yoo Mia whispers something in Shin Yoosoung’s ear and Shin Yoosoung nudges her a bit closer to him.
“Don’t worry, Ahjussi is really nice. One time he gave me and Gilyoung some money to go buy some ice cream even though he is really broke.” She tries to whisper to Mia, but Kim Dokja can hear her anyway.
Yoo Mia kind of makes a face at that and Kim Dokja doesn’t know what that means. Was that a look of relief or disgust? He can’t tell.
“So, how’d the two of you guys meet?” Kim Dokja asks the two for lack of a better conversation starter.
“We met in one of our classes, Mia introduced me to her favorite game and we ate chips on the grass together!” Shin Yoosoung says excitedly, looking at her new friend.
It’s only then that Kim Dokja suddenly remembers why the girl had looked so familiar to him. He remembers seeing that very exact girl just a week ago. He can’t be sure it’s the same girl though, so he asks, “did it happen to be shrimp chips?”
“How’d you know, Ahjussi? Do you like them too?” Shin Yoosoung asks curiously.
“I– uh, let’s just say that I eat them from time to time.” He says, ignoring the fact that he had already finished the two bags already.
“Hey, Dokja Ahjussi, they’re really good right?” Yoo Mia speaks up and he turns to look at her. “My brother won’t let me buy them because he says they are bad for me! Could we go and get some before he comes to pick me up?” She looks up at him with pleading eyes.
Kim Dokja remembers the scowling look of her older brother from a week ago and remembers his harsh grip as he was choked against his car. He really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his wrath.
“Hey, maybe it’s best to listen to your brother,” he says anxiously
She clicks her tongue and crosses her arms, “Ugh, all adults are the same,”
Kim Dokja just shrugs, only a little slightly offended that she’s comparing him to her bastard of a brother. “Besides, I don’t have any money.”
Shin Yoosoung looks between Yoo Mia and Kim Dokja. “Don’t worry Mia, I’ll share some of mine with you, that way Joonghyuk-oppa won’t know.”
Hey, wait a second. “Why is he ‘Oppa’ and I’m ‘Ahjussi?’“ he says in disbelief, pointing one finger at himself. “Haven’t you known me for longer?”
“Ah, sorry, Ahjussi, Joonghyuk-Oppa just gives off ‘Oppa’ vibes, and you just give off… ‘Ahjussi’ vibes.” She says.
“You have ugly Ahjussi aura, while my older brother has a cool aura.”
Shin Yoosoung nods a bit before she hastily shakes her head. “No, no, you’re not ugly, Ahjussi!”
What is happening right now. He doesn’t think he’s that ugly, he would say that he’s average actually. Well… looking back to Yoo Mia’s older brother, he is unfortunately extremely good looking, so everyone must pale in comparison to her. But surely he isn’t that cool as she describes him to be. If anything, the only good asset about that man might just be his good looks and his sleek car.
“It’s fine, really.” He says, and really he is, maybe just a little slightly hurt. He pats her shoulder.
“No! Titano!” Kim Dokja hears Lee Gilyoung shout as he sees him try to chase the gigantic grasshopper, jumping a bit in the air as it flies away.
Kim Dokja grimaces at that, “You guys should go help him.” The poor kid could definitely use some help.
The two girls just look to the side where they see Lee Gilyoung fumbling.
“Uh, what is he doing?” Yoo Mia asks with a scrunched up face.
“I don’t know, but c’mon I still have to introduce you too,” Shin Yoosoung says before she drags Yoo Mia into his direction.
“I don’t know if I want to meet him,” Kim Dokja hears her say as it fades the farther they get away from him.
With that, Kim Dokja lets the kids be and turns on his phone to catch up with the latest chapter of whatever new webnovel he’s just started last weekend.
So far, he finds the protagonist extremely annoying, a little oblivious to the affections of the main lead. C’mon it’s obvious, you’ve literally been on countless dates and he’s tried to hold your hand on multiple occasions. Kim Dokja rolls his eyes. If he ever gets to this level of stupidity, someone please slap him.
He keeps on scrolling on his phone, only looking up to where the kids are when he feels an ominous chill run down his back. It’s then where he hears the the words of:
“When do you think your brother is going to pick you up?”
“Uh, I don’t know, but it should be very soon, he usually is here around this time.”
And because he has this ominous feeling he decides to run away, just for a bit. Yoo Mia’s brother will most likely remember his face, and he doesn’t want to relive those memories of being choked against his sleek black car. He won’t go for too long, just long enough for Yoo Mia’s brother to come and pick her up and leave.
He gets up from the park bench and speed walks to a more secluded area of the park to hopefully hide, carefully looking around for any signs of a tall buff man.
He lets out a relieved sigh before he suddenly feels someone grab him and flip him over. It’s all too familiar as he feels those same fingers wrap itself around his throat with a squeeze. Not again.
“You,” comes the voice that is undoubtedly Yoo Mia’s older brother and the same man he encountered just last week. “Delete those photos.”
Kim Dokja thinks he’s going crazy. “What photos?!” he manages to choke out.
“Don’t lie to me.” The guy squeezes his throat a little tighter.
Suddenly he hears three voices,
“Ahjussi!”
“Hyung!”
and,
“Oppa what are you doing!?”
They all run over to him and the fucking bastard choking him against a tree. Thankfully this causes her older brother to slightly release the hold he has on him, allowing him to breathe a little better.
“He was taking photos,” the guy explains with a low voice.
“Photos of what? I don’t have any photos!” Kim Dokja scrambles, bringing both of his hands to try and pry away the hand choking him. That causes Yoo Joonghyuk to glare at him.
“Don’t hurt Hyung, you bastard!” Lee Gilyoung goes up to the guy.
“Don’t worry, Oppa, he’s harmless! Yoosoung told me that he sometimes looks after her and Gilyoung when their parents aren’t home.”
Still slightly doubtful but more appeased with Yoo Mia’s words, Yoo Joonghyuk eventually lets go of the grip he has around Kim Dokja.
“Do you always choke everyone when you meet them, or am I special?” Kim Dokja tries to joke as he pathetically massages his neck with his hand. Damn, it hurts.
It’s then that the guy’s eyes widen slightly with familiarity. ‘That fucking shrimp-chip-loving car robber’ he’s probably thinking about right now.
It’s silent for a bit before Yoo Joonghyuk asks, “Then what were you doing on your phone.” It’s only then does Kim Dokja realize what kind of image is pictured inside his head. Yoo Joonghyuk probably saw him as some sort of creep creeping on his younger sister that was taking pictures of her when he was actually just scrolling through his webnovel.
It’s kind of unbelievable. “No– I really don’t have any kinds of photos,” Kim Dokja goes to his camera roll and shows his phone to Yoo Joonghyuk. “I was just reading webnovels.”
“Webnovels?” the guy raises his eyebrow.
“Yes, it’s just a misunderstanding.”
Yoo Joonghyuk thinks about this for a bit before muttering a small deadpan “sorry,” that Kim Dokja thinks doesn’t sound sorry at all.
Then he turns to Yoo Mia and says, “come, we’re leaving now.”
As they leave, he sees Yoo Mia waving bye to them and Yoo Joonghyuk giving him one last glare before they enter their car.
“Fucking bastard…” Kim Dokja mutters under his breath as he rubs at his neck.
“Are you okay, Ahjussi?” Shin Yoosoung asks with a worried expression.
“No, I’m fine, that guy’s just got really strong fingers,” he tries to placate her, even if he’s lying a bit, because it really did kind of hurt, more than last time at least.
Lee Gilyoung crosses his arms and scoffs bitterly, “I can’t believe that stupid bastard would do something like that.”
“Hey, no swearing.” Kim Dokja says.
Shin Yoosoung looks at Lee Gilyoung. “I actually think it was kind of sweet. He was just protecting his sister from a creep– uh, not that you are a creep, Ahjussi.”
Well, that’s one way to take it.
—
Han Sooyoung laughs at him.
“There’s no fucking way–” She wheezes a breath in while one hand clutches her stomach and the other slams his table repeatedly, thud thud thud. “I– I can’t even–I can’t even breathe–” and her voice starts to wheeze as her laugh turns silent and Han Sooyoung looks like she has a stroke.
“It’s not even that funny.” Kim Dokja says, because it really isn’t. He almost died twice and Han Sooyoung is laughing. Han Sooyoung is laughing at him.
She laughs her silent laughs some more, slamming at the table three more times before she looks up at him and wipes away the tears at the edges of her eyes with her fingers. “No, it really is that funny.”
Kim Dokja frowns trying to fight off a smile of his own.
Taking the water bottle on the table, Han Sooyoung chugs it and Kim Dokja hopes she chokes and dies. “Why would you think to observe someone’s car up close like that, and why would you think running away would make you less suspicious?”
He bristles, “Okay well, first of all, it’s not my fault that that stupid bastard has a ridiculously expensive car. You don’t see cars like that on a normal basis, I had to go look at it, obviously,” Han Sooyoung looks at him like she can’t believe him. “And second of all, how was I supposed to know that he would be watching me, I was running away so that he wouldn’t see me.”
“Okay, fair enough, I guess. Man, I wish I was there to see that though, I would’ve filmed all of that and replay it again and again just to torment you.” She snickers, but Kim Dokja actually thinks that it sounds more like cackling because Han Sooyoung was probably secretly a witch in disguise.
“I never want to see that guy again,” he groans into his hands. “If I do, he’s probably just going to choke me and I’m going to die for real.”
“A blessing for the rest of us.”
Kim Dokja gives her a deadpan stare.
—
It’s the weekend, which means Kim Dokja is found on his broken-down and too-squeaky couch scrolling through Han Sooyoung’s latest chapter update for one of her webnovels, trying to find any typos or trying to make any suggestions. The writing sounds a bit choppy and the pacing is a little bit too fast for this section.
Five knocks that go off in a distinct pattern of knock knock, pause, knock knock knock, are heard from behind the door. The knocks signal that Shin Yoosoung is here. The girl had insisted that they needed a secret code, and Kim Dokja agreed.
Kim Dokja groans as he stretches and gets off the couch that lets out a squeak as he does so and goes to open the door. It’s not weird for Shin Yoosoung to be visiting; she often comes when she wants to or if her mom needs someone to look after her.
But this time, when he goes to open the door, it isn’t just Shin Yoosoung he sees, he also sees Yoo Mia. And that is honestly a surprise to him, considering that he wouldn’t think her brother would want his sister to ever be in Kim Dokja’s vicinity; if he were in Yoo Joonghyuk’s position, he knew that would be the case, for him at least.
“Hi, Ahjussi!” Shin Yoosoung greets him happily. Yoo Mia behind her gives him a small wave too.
He raises his eyebrow at her, “your older brother allowed you to come here?”
“Well uh– he didn’t say that I wasn’t,” she says, rocking on the heels of her feet. “Plus, I’m technically visiting Yoosoung so that we can finish a school project together.”
It sounded reasonable enough, so he shrugs and lets them in. As long as Yoo Joonghyuk doesn’t come in here and terrorize him thinking that he kidnapped Yoo Mia, it should be fine.
The kids make their way to what he likes to call his dining table, all while Yoo Mia looks around the room and soaks in the new atmosphere that is apparently his home. He watches as Shin Yoosoung sets her bag on the table and pulls out pieces of paper, glue, brushes, and scissors.
He cringes a bit when he notices that the type of project they were doing was some time of arts and crafts related project; which would be hazardous for his table, but he quickly realizes that he actually doesn’t really have any personal attachments to his table. Let them wreak havoc.
Kim Dokja lets himself lean on his kitchen counter and crosses his arms. And just to make conversation, he asks, “so… any reason why you guys are doing the project here and not your house, Yoosoung?”
Handing over some of the supplies to Yoo Mia, Shin Yoosoung looks up at Kim Dokja. “Well, because I enjoy your company, Ahjussi!” Then she tilts her head and taps her finger to her chin, thinking, “and I guess it’s because the table at my apartment is too crowded. Plus, I think my dog would want to eat the paper. Oh, and we couldn’t do Mia’s either because Joonghyuk-Oppa wouldn’t want us to dirty his table.”
He sees Yoo Mia nod her head in agreement. Given that that guy had an expensive car, it only made sense that the guy would have an expensive table too. Kim Dokja was glad his table could make such a noble sacrifice to whatever they were doing.
“What even is the project you two are doing?” He asks, genuinely curious. He doesn’t remember having to do any sort of art-like project when he was eleven. Not that he really remembers much from his childhood anyways.
Yoo Mia sprays a bit of paper with water from a spray bottle that she apparently brought over with her before she says, “we have to use hanji paper to make an abstract piece of art that represents what we find important in our lives.”
They’re both focused as they both start to wet their papers and twist it into certain positions on their bigger sheets of paper, creating a 3D effect.
Still focused, Shin Yoosoung adds a few touches before leaning her piece of paper over to him to let him see her process. She points at a bunch of black and white folded pieces of paper and says proudly, “this one is you, because you’re important to me!”
Kim Dokja smiles at that, heart squeezing in his chest as he tries not to get emotional. “Ah, thank you, Yoosoung. I’m glad you find me important enough to include me.”
Shin Yoosoung beams at him before she gets back to work.
If he was in their position, he isn’t sure what exactly he would’ve done. Maybe he would’ve put his favorite book at the time, but what after? He hadn’t had very many things that he would consider to have been important to him. Once upon a time, Kim Dokja probably would’ve added his mom to be a part of the piece. A frown finds its way on his face as he finds his shoulders start to tense and his hands start to clench and unclench.
--
After a bit of time of letting them work on their project and allowing Kim Dokja to go back to chilling on the couch as he writes his wondrous chapter review to Han Sooyoung, the peaceful silence breaks.
“Ahjussi, do we have anything to eat here?” Yoo Mia asks while swinging her legs under the table.
Oh she’s going to be in for a treat today. “You’re lucky you guys barged in today, I just restocked.”
The couch creaks as he gets up and makes his way towards the cupboards where he stores his food.
His cupboards open up with a creak and he finds three cups of instant ramen in the dusty empty space. He plops them onto the tables the kids are sitting on and dusts his hands against each other. “Ta-da! Instant ramen, you’re welcome.”
Yoo Mia doesn’t look pleased.
Then Kim Dokja smirks, he hasn’t told them about the best part yet, something that is sure to win them over. He then goes over to his fridge and pulls out a carton of eggs. “I even have eggs,” he says matter of factly.
Yoo Mia just stares at him. “Next time I come here, I’m going to give you some groceries, Ahjussi.”
Is this going to be a regular thing? It probably isn’t the best idea since there’s nothing to even do at his place anyways. How are they not bored?
“Do you want some or not?” He says instead.
Yoo Mia scrunches up her face, “no thanks.”
“I’ll have some, Ahjussi.” Shin Yoosoung pipes up. At least someone was thankful. He pats her head, then goes to get started with boiling the water.
As he prepares for their meal by putting water in the kettle, he hears the two girls talk amongst themselves.
“Wow Mia, this looks so great! Is this your Nintendo Switch? Oh, and this must be Joonghyuk-Oppa. And this…” Kim Dokja hears Shin Yoosoung excitedly compliments her friend. At the mention of Yoo Mia’s older brother, he decides to look too as he lets the water boil.
Peering over, Kim Dokja smiles to himself as he spots what he assumes to be Yoo Mia’s older brother. The pieces of paper are folded pieces of black paper that are sharp and defined; it seems that she did a good job at capturing his angry expressions. Very accurate.
“You did a great job, Yoo Mia,” he says as he points at Yoo Joonghyuk. “It captures his energy very well.” His very angry, threatening energy.
Yoo Mia’s ears turn pink at the tips, embarrassed at all of the attention and compliments she’s getting. She’s clearly proud though, it’s evident in her eyes and can be seen in the way that she sits up, just a bit straighter.
“Do you guys really think so?”
“Yeah, you should show it to him one day, I think he’ll appreciate it.”
The kettle goes off and Kim Dokja moves to pour the water inside the instant ramen cups.
—
Because Han Sooyoung is Han Sooyoung, Kim Dokja one day finds out at the last minute that he is invited to a lunch-dinner outing with their group of friends. There was no greeting, no ‘hi hello how are you,’ or ‘do you want to go for lunch?’, it was simply just a link to a restaurant location with a time and date.
He responded with ‘????’, to which she replied back with ‘I’M NOT TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER.’ So now he finds himself inside of a barbeque restaurant sat in front of Jung Heewon and sitting beside Han Sooyoung, talking aimlessly with Yoo Sangah and Han Sooyoung. Or more like Han Sooyoung is talking about herself to Yoo Sangah while the other woman giggles politely behind her hand and sometimes Kim Dokja interjects her when she is blatantly wrong or exaggerating too much about whatever nonsense she spiels.
Besides those two, there are also their other two friends, Jung Heewon and Lee Hyungsung who are making conversation with each other. Curiously though, there is one more empty seat right in front of Lee Hyungsung and right next to Kim Dokja. He doesn’t know who it could be given the fact that this is basically their whole group.
It’s not empty for long though, because while he’s distracted with his conversation with Han Sooyoung and Yoo Sangah, he feels a chill run down his spine as he feels a hot stare being branded upon his back. He looks and sees a large shadow being cast on the chair.
And of course, just his luck. Because he sees the man that haunts his nightmares and blesses his dreams right in front of him. It’s Yoo Joong–fucking–hyuk, in the flesh.
“Are you a stalker now too?” Yoo Joonghyuk has the audacity to ask as he takes the seat next to him.
The fuck, “I was literally here first?” First he was a robber, then he was a creep, and now he’s a stalker. Wow Kim Dokja truly is a one man band.
“That doesn’t matter.” Yoo Joonghyuk says like the fucker he is. Kim Dokja can feel his eye twitch slightly.
And because Kim Dokja would rather suck it up and play peacemaker, he says, “I think we started off on the wrong foot, how about we start again.” He offers his hand as a truce. “Hi, hello, I’m Kim Dokja. So very nice to meet you.”
Yoo Joonghyuk grunts. Does he think he’s so cool when he does that or something? “...I’m Yoo Joonghyuk.” he says, but he leaves Kim Dokja’s hand hanging there. A shame, really, he wanted to feel those hands wrap around something that wasn’t his neck for once.
Han Sooyoung leans in and whispers in his ear, “You know Yoo Joonghyuk? Is he bothering you, because I can kick him in the shins if you want.” After a moment of no response, “please let me kick him.”
“I don’t think you’re even tall enough to reach his legs actually.” Kim Dokja mutters under his breath as he gives her a deadpan look.
“Hey! What the hell, I’m not even that short!”
“Hm? What’s that? Do you hear something, Sangah-ssi? It sounds like a mosquito got in the restaurant somehow.” He says, avoiding Han Sooyoung to speak to Yoo Sangah.
Yoo Sangah puts a finger to her chin in faux thought, “I do hear some loud buzzing, Dokja-ssi, maybe it’s a fly instead.”
“Not you too, Sangah!”
Both Kim Dokja and Yoo Sangah laugh at Han Sooyoung’s expense before the victim of their joke asks, “no, but seriously, how do you know that guy?”
Kim Dokja swirls the water in his cup with his straw and listens to the ice clang against one another. He doesn’t say anything, because he knows what Han Sooyoung is going to say if she knew that Yoo Joonghyuk was that same guy he told her about before.
Han Sooyoung squints her eyes at him, and unfortunately for him, she is perceptive and realizes what’s going on. “Oh,” she says as it clicks inside her head. “Oh,” she laughs, cackling and all. “That guy huh. No way.”
She wasn’t supposed to figure it out that quickly, Kim Dokja mentally groans in his head before he gives her a stare that hopefully communicates ‘don’t say a word’.
“Small world we live in, I didn’t know that you knew Yoo Joonghyuk too, Dokja-ssi?” Lee Hyungsung pipes in.
Sweat rolls down behind his neck. “Haha, no– yes– kind of? Right, Yoo Joonghyuk?” he nudges the body next to him with his elbow. “Right?”
“No.” Yoo Joonghyuk simply just says.
C’mon don’t be like that. Kim Dokja nervously laughs and pats his shoulder which is surprisingly extremely well built. “We’re the best of friends.”
“He tried to kidnap my sister.”
He’s trying to throw me under the bus. What a guy Yoo Joonghyuk is, truly. “I did not do that, that was a misunderstanding.”
“Wait for real?” Han Sooyoung snorts.
Kim Dokja has nothing else to do but explain the whole story on how he and Yoo Joonghyuk met.
--
Things end up easing a while after that. Kim Dokja explains his point of view and Yoo Joonghyuk explains his own side. From listening to do this, Kim Dokja understands just what type of relationship the guy has with his sister. He’s actually very caring and considerate, it seems. Too bad he’s too much of an asshole.
Meat starts cooking on their collective grill. The lovely sizzling noise paired with the delicious smell of the meat makes Kim Dokja’s mouth water but also makes his wallet cry at the hefty price he’s probably going to have to pay after this.
Kim Dokja grabs a pair of tongs at the side to grab a piece of cooked pork from the grill before a hand stops him by wrapping itself around his wrist.
“What are you doing?” A deep voice that comes from none other than Yoo Joonghyuk asks him.
“Grabbing food?” He stares up at him questioningly, hand trying to move to grab the meat on the grill. The fingers wrapped around him don’t budge.
“That’s the wrong set of tongs.” He simply says, as if it was obvious.
“‘Wrong set of tongs’,” Kim Dokja scoffs back but lowers his hand anyways, “What do you mean wrong set of tongs.”
“Those ones are for raw meat.” Yoo Joonghyuk says plainly. “Don’t use those. Use these ones.” He points to the other set of tongs sitting on the table. It looks exactly the same.
“It’s all going to end up in the same place anyways, I don’t see why there needs to be separate ones.” Kim Dokja says, but he listens to him anyway and grabs the right pair of tongs to grab the meat cooking on the grill.
--
Kim Dokja observes how Yoo Joonghyuk grills his meat. It always ends up looking perfectly cooked and evenly charred when it ends up on his plate. The ones on Kim Dokja’s plate are slightly rubbery, and a bit too burnt on the edges. There really shouldn’t be some sort of secret technique to this, so why does Yoo Joonghyuk’s food look exceptionally good? Fuck Yoo Joonghyuk and his stupid pieces of perfectly cooked meat. And he always looks ridiculously proud too whenever the charr is just right. Bastard.
Just as Yoo Joonghyuk is about to grab another piece of meat off of the grill, Kim Dokja pipes up, “Hey, let me try some, Joonghyuk-ah.”
“Don’t call me that.” He says but puts the slice of meat onto Kim Dokja’s plate anyways. Kim Dokja rolls his eyes at his comment but is secretly thanking Yoo Joonghyuk in his head because he didn’t think that would actually work. “Try.”
With faux annoyance, Kim Dokja mutters, “I bet your meat isn’t even that good.” Which, thinking about it now, he probably shouldn’t have said that out loud. It sounds a little weird out of context, Kim Dokja winces.
Yoo Joonghyuk just raises an eyebrow at him and doesn’t say anything.
He grabs the meat with his chopsticks and raises it up to his mouth to try. And, it’s good. It’s very good in a way that it shouldn’t be. Are you sure they are all sharing the same type of meat, because this tastes very different from the ones Kim Dokja has been cooking.
There really shouldn’t be any secret technique to cooking Korean barbeque meat that tastes this good.
“Ehh, it could be better,” he lies to Yoo Joonghyuk anyway because he wouldn’t admit his failures. He then places his own slice of meat on the grill and waits for it to cook.
“It’s done.” Yoo Joonghyuk points out to him.
“No, no, it’s not done yet.” Kim Dokja says.
“It’s overcooked now.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Kim Dokja tells him seriously. “I’m just making it more crispy, y’know, letting it caramelize, or whatever.”
By the time he thinks that it’s done, he takes it off the grill with the ‘cooked meat’ tongs. It’s rubbery and burnt at the edges, but Kim Dokja ignores that and places it on Yoo Joonghyuk’s plate proudly. “Eat, Joonghyuk-ah.”
Yoo Joonghyuk stares at the piece of meat like it personally offended him and killed off all of his friends and family and made him regress over a thousand lives in suffering. He then grabs the offending meat with his chopsticks and brings it up to his eyes like some sort of food critic.
“Really crispy alright.” Yoo Joonghyuk says as he squints at it. His mouth coils up in what might be disgust. Rude.
“Just how I like it,” Kim Dokja smirks because he can’t help it, “now eat.”
“I am not eating that.” Yoo Joonghyuk places the meat back down on his plate. The only way Kim Dokja could describe how he looks right now is mildly constipated, which makes sense given that he always seems to have a stick shoved up his ass; maybe it’s his own shit that’s stuck up there.
Kim Dokja feigns heartbreak by putting his hand to his chest in mock pain. “Wow, I went through all that hard work just to make this specially for you and you are not eating it, that hurts.” He can be an actor with that level of performance.
And then Kim Dokja picks up the slice of meat with his own chopsticks and tries to shove it into Yoo Joonghyuk’s mouth. Of course, it fails and Yoo Joonghyuk dodges his attack and grabs Kim Dokja’s arm with no real pressure.
Fortunately though, a bit of the oil on the meat does end up grazing his face and stains his cheek a little. Ha, I’m not going to tell that guy about that stain, let him live with embarrassment. Kim Dokja smiles at the thought.
“No.” Yoo Joonghyuk says.
“Say ‘ahh’ Yoo Joonghyuk,” Kim Dokja tries to resist the hand that has a hold on his arm, and damn, Yoo Joonghyuk is really strong. The hot air from the grill starts to suddenly warm his cheeks.
After a bit of one-sided struggle, mostly from Kim Dokja’s side, the meat eventually gets flung from his chopsticks and lands on the floor. He starts laughing a bit, trying to suppress his laughter, but he can’t quite keep his smile down. He’s trying to look serious, extremely serious, because it’s a serious matter that must be taken seriously.
“Wow Yoo Joonghyuk, you just wasted perfectly good meat.”
Yoo Joonghyuk huffs a laugh too and then goes to (unfortunately) wipe off the stain of char on his face. Kim Dokja feels too giddy, so he stops trying to suppress his smile and starts laughing freely.
--
After they’re done with the meal, he watches as all of his friends leave and bid their farewells.
Kim Dokja had a good time, his wallet though? Not so much. He can still hear the way it cried when he took out his card to pay for his portion of the meal.
He sulks a bit as he walks away from the restaurant. It’s currently raining right now, but he can’t choose to care about that right now because he has to catch the train. He curses himself for forgetting to bring an umbrella before he starts to speedwalk his way towards the nearest station.
“Kim Dokja,” he hears his name being called amidst the relentless pitter patter of falling rain. Kim Dokja turns his head around and sees Yoo Joonghyuk walking up to him.
“Oh,” he says dumbly. “You’re still here, Yoo Joonghyuk?”
Once Yoo Joonghyuk is close enough, he makes a pensive sort of look and asks something that Kim Dokja doesn’t expect, “do you need a ride.” He grits his teeth as he asks this, so instead of a question, it’s said more like a statement.
Because it’s only polite to do so, Kim Dokja declines the offer, “ah, don’t worry.”
Yoo Joonghyuk just blinks at him as he furrows his thick eyebrows together. “It’s raining.”
Kim Dokja laughs slightly at that, “It’s okay, I’m already drenched anyways.” He picks at the bottom of his shirt a little before it sticks back to his skin.
“You don’t have an umbrella. Let me drive you.”
He doesn’t get why Yoo Joonghyuk is so insistent about this.
“No, really, it’s okay.” He shouldn’t intrude, he’s already accidentally done so twice.
Yoo Joonghyuk looks frustrated. Or is it irritated? Kim Dokja can’t quite tell.
“The seats in my car have butt warmers.”
Kim Dokja perks up at that, entirely convinced now. “Okay.”
They make their way to Yoo Joonghyuk’s sleek back car and Kim Dokja takes the passenger seat. He feels a little bad for ruining the leather of his seats by getting water all over it, but Yoo Joonghyuk was the one who insisted, so he doesn’t feel too bad about it.
Yoo Joonghyuk starts up his car and Kim Dokja starts to feel the warmth of the butt warmers start to kick it. It is very nice, actually he thinks to himself as the warmth causes his slight tingly feeling of shivers to dissipate. Damn, Yoo Joonghyuk is a lucky guy to have a luxurious car like this.
“Seatbelt.” Yoo Joonghyuk says, prioritizing safety first.
Once he hears the click of the seatbelt, Yoo Joonghyuk puts his incredibly toned, muscular arm around the back of Kim Dokja’s seat and twists his body around to check the back of the car for any incoming cars or pedestrians.
It causes Kim Dokja to feel a little bit hot, but he’s convinced that it’s just coming from the heat of the butt warmer. Kim Dokja tries to look away and not just blatantly gawk at Yoo Joonghyuk’s arm that he knows is ridiculously strong.
Screw however nice this car may be, he shouldn’t have gotten in it at all.