Jongin was never one to pull unnecessary attention to himself, nor was he the type to do things that brought on gossip from his peers. He neither blended into the background nor stood in the spotlight. He always found himself somewhere right in the middle. And that’s where he liked it. In a place where he can be labeled as neither popular nor as the weird loner.

Jongin had a handful of friends whom he would spend time with when he wasn’t immersed in his own world (which happened fairly often despite his tireless efforts to not space out). He would say that him and his friends were close, yes. They’re the people he’d call in a heartbeat if he had a problem, or wanted to hang out to have fun, but he was still convinced that they weren't close enough to know of his current biggest secret and guilty pleasure.

He was a Pokémon GO nerd.

This secret wasn’t all that bad. In fact, many people on his campus played the game; however, his friends did not. He liked being around his friends, and he was aware that they wouldn’t shun him if they found out about his interest in the game, but still some part of him felt that he shouldn’t go around revealing just how involved he actually was.

Jongin was not only a player, but an owner of around 6 (undefeated, might he add) Valor gyms in the area. He was undeniably one of the best players in the area, and has gone uncontested for weeks now. In fear of being picked on or teased for his interest in the game, Jongin kept this to himself. He only plays when he's off campus, on weekends when he isn’t with friends, or when he is in the safety of his own neighborhood.

He was sure they wouldn’t give him too much grief for playing the game, but he didn’t want to risk it. He didn’t want them to know how good he was, and he didn’t want to be found out by others in the school who would want to battle him and learn his secrets and tricks.

It was selfish, but he’d rather avoid the unnecessary interactions if he could help it.

And in all honesty, he enjoyed the rush that he got from keeping his hobby a secret from everyone. No one knew of his interest in the game, and he wanted to keep it that way. It was his way of disconnecting from the world and pretending to be a child once again.

He’d always wanted to be a Pokémon trainer, and thanks to this one little app he was able to relive a childhood dream…almost two decades later.

**

His final lecture of the week ends and Jongin is out of his seat and leaving the building faster than he can say Charizard. Since yesterday he’d been plagued with the thought of searching a nearby park for a water source so that he could catch a Gyrados. He’d found plenty of Magikarps but didn’t have nearly enough of the candies needed to evolve any single one of them. At this point he’s going to have to either catch one in the wild, or hope one of his unhatched 10km eggs is hiding one.

“Jongin!” At the sound of his name he stops his speed walking to turn around. It’s Taemin and Moonkyu.

“Hey guys.” He says with a smile as they approach him.

“We’re going to the PC room after we stop by Ravi's apartment. You busy?” Moonkyu asks with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

Although it hurts to turn down his friends, he has got to catch a Gyrados today or he might go insane. “Sorry. I have a lot of studying to catch up on today. Maybe next time.” He lies easily. Moonkyu pouts and Taemin nods with a saddened smile.

“It’s fine. We understand. Don’t study too much okay?” Taemin pulls Jongin in for a quick hug and then moves back so that Moonkyu can do the same.

“Yeah, you have to use some of your time for yourself too, you know?” Moonkyu tells him.

If only they knew how much time I do spend on myself. I should actually study for once, honestly.

“Don’t worry. I will. I’ll text you guys later. Have fun at the PC room.” He says with a wave. The three separate to go on their two separate paths. After checking over his shoulder a few times, Jonign pulls out his phone and opens up his Pokémon GO app and lowers the volume and brightness.

Pretending to be texting, he searches for Pokémon while on his walk to the park. Move his finger as if he’s texting. Look up from his phone. Stop walking. Pretend to scroll through his phone as he throws a Poké Ball to catch a Pokémon. Start walking again.

Repeat.

By the time he reaches the fountain in the center of the park, he has already caught 3 Spearows, 2 Pidgeys, 2 Weedles, 1 Caterpie, and like 12 Ratattas. He locks his phone in order to survey his surroundings, and when he sees the large group of guys surrounding the fountain that he knows is a PokéStop, a small smile finds its way to his face.

Someone must have a lure module on.

He’s tempted to grab his own phone and walk over to reap the benefits of the module, but he refrains from doing so. If he goes over there and tries to nonchalantly sit they’ll know that he’s playing the game too as soon as he takes his phone out.

After a moment of thinking, he spots a tree not far from the fountain and decides to go and sit there so that he’s still close enough to be able to be affected by the module, but far enough that he won’t pull any of their attention.

He walks to the tree and rests his back against its trunk. He takes in a deep breath and lets it out. The air is clear and it’s basically the perfect weather to walk around and catch Pokémon. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and plugs in his headphones so that no one can hear the app’s background music.

As he suspected, the PokéStop has pink petals surrounding it meaning that a lure is in use. He takes one headphone out while swiping at the icon to get free Poké Balls and an egg. He waits in silence for the Pokémon to show up.

“Why do you have so many Pidgetos?”

“Because when I first got the game I got my handed to me by a Pidgeto in a Valor gym.”

“So you’re forming an army of Pidgetos?”

“You don’t get it. It’s about the principle.”

A Nidoking pops up in the blue circle of the PokéStop on Jongin’s phone. “Oh ! It’s a Nidoking!” one of the boys shouts excitedly. Jongin is quickly able to catch it with a megaball and listens amused by the boys at the fountain.

“, what’s the combat power on this thing? I’ve wasted like 12 Poké Balls.”

“I got it! Hah, maybe it just doesn’t like you Baekhyun.”

“Maybe I just don’t like you.”

“Baekhyun don’t be mean to Tao.”

“That wasn’t even mean. It could have been worse.”

“He’s right Suho. That was tame of him.”

He sits and catches a few more random Pokémon thanks to the help of the boys’ lure, and then he finally gets up to find the Gyrados that he came here for. He looks around to make sure that no one who knows him well is around. It’s obvious that others in the area are also playing the game. Their posture and focus give it away as they walk.

He clicks on the icon to see what Pokémon are nearby, and a shadow that he is unfamiliar with shows on his screen. 3 footprints, and it’s not showing up in color like the others.

He doesn’t have this one yet.

It has to be a rare one.

He follows to where his phone tells him the rare Pokémon is with no regard to who may be watching or see him nearly jogging while frantically looking at his phone. No, he doesn’t care because he has got to catch this one. It looks like a Ditto, and they’re basically a ing myth. If he can catch this one…he could delete the app and die happy (but he won’t do that because how can you be the very best without all of the Pokémon in world, really?).

The 3 footprints drop to 2 and he is already thinking of what to nickname it. It’s a purple blob so maybe “Play-doh”. Or perhaps “Silly Putty”…then again he’s always been a fan of the name “Bob”.

“Oomph!”

“!”

His body stumbles backwards after having collided into another human being. He looks up from his phone to see a male that he surprisingly knows fairly well. He’s in like 2 of his major’s classes, and is loud as hell. His name is Park Chanyeol and he’s a good amount taller than Jongin with a voice as deep as the Mariana Trench. He looks just as surprised to have collided into him as Jongin is him, and when they each look down they simultaneously realize why the accident happened.

They were both staring at their phones looking for the Ditto and not looking in front of them like they should have been. Jongin frowns when he sees the shadowed blob on his screen. Jongin points to to the taller's phone and narrows his eyes. “Don’t you dare. This is mine. Go find something else.” He knows that he doesn’t know him well enough to talk to him in such a way, but Jongin will fight the guy for the Pokémon if he has to.

Height be damned.

Chanyeol takes a moment to gather his thoughts after having bumped into the boy he knows all too well as Kim Jongin.

The Kim Jongin that he has been admiring from afar since like last year. And not only is he here in front of him actually talking to him, but he’s playing Pokémon. If he only liked him a little bit before, he likes him like over 9000 times more after finding out that he plays the game that he and his friends play.

Chanyeol had only superficially liked Jongin before really. He was cute, and when he laughed he laughed loud and with his entire soul, and that sound would always make his heart pound excitedly in his chest. Chanyeol didn’t know much about him besides the fact that he hung out with the same three guys, and that he was fairly well liked by those who knew of him.

But did he mention that he was really cute?

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he points at his own phone before quickly saying, “No way. This one is fair game.”

As much as he wants to protest, Jongin knows that he's right. He can’t claim it, so that just means he has to find it before him. “Fine.” He mutters. “You’re right, but I will not hesitate to fight you once we find it.”

He is slightly shocked at the fact that Jongin is letting him track the rare Pokémon with him, but Chanyeol keeps the surprise to himself. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s not every day that you get to go Pokémon hunting with your crush after all.

Jongin focuses back on his phone, trying to get closer to what he assumes is a Ditto (all of those years of ‘Who’s that Pokémon?’ finally counted for something) while Chanyeol half looks at his phone and half watches the boy next to him.

“I know you,” he says. Jongin frowns at the statement and says nothing. He doesn’t know where he’s going with this. He is neither shocked that Chanyeol knows him nor would he be appalled if he didn’t. “You’re in some of my classes.” Chanyeol continues.

Halfheartedly he mutters, “Am I?”

Chanyeol nods, knowing fully well that Jongin is too focused on walking to see him. “I didn’t know you played Pokémon though.”

“Not many people do.” Jongin doesn’t miss the fact that Chanyeol wasn’t specifically talking about GO. Jongin wants to protest, but what could he say? He could have denied the fact that he was an avid but closeted Pokémon fan, or he could have just told him that he was just playing the game on his phone for fun. And yet, Jongin does neither and lets the boy assume whatever he wants (even though he was clearly the former).

Jongin stops in his tracks as the footprints for the Ditto vanishes, and with it it’s shadow. It should be right here. He spins in a circle hoping that the connection is just slow. When his phone freezes and the familiar screen showing the servers have crashed appears, he lets out a pathetic whine.

“Bob no!”

“Bob?” Chanyeol asks with a hint of a smile at the name.

“Ugh, I really wanted that one.” Ignoring his questioning tone, Jongin doesn’t even attempt to rid himself of the pout while muttering curses under his breath. This was a major loss. His shoulders sag and he closes and reopens the app knowing that the precious Ditto will be nowhere to be found.

Chanyeol watches on in amusement at the genuine despair showing on his face, and he can’t help but think how cute and nerdy it is that Jongin is pouting like a child over a lost Pokémon.

As expected, the Pokémon is gone when he reopens his app. Jongin sighs in defeat and turns to face the guy he had almost forgotten was with him, despite his overwhelming height. “Um…I’m gonna…I’m gonna go. I have to-” he shakes his phone next to his face. “You know. So um, bye.” Awkwardly he turns around and mentally smacks himself. That was the most uncool thing that he’s ever done in his life.

How can he do such a thing around such a cute guy?

This is exactly why he doesn’t date. You need social skills to actually be able to click with people, especially with boys who are probably straight. Unfortunately, he finds that his social skills particularly like to fail him in the presence of handsome men.

“Wait! Can I come with you?!” Stopping in his tracks, Jongin turns to face the source of the voice with raised eyebrows.

Chanyeol flushes after having accidently blurted out the question. He didn’t mean for it to come out as creepy as he felt it did. “I mean to catch Pokémon. I haven’t been playing very long and I still don’t know how it works.” He was assuming that Jongin has been playing for longer, but from the amount of focus on his face from earlier Chanyeol was fairly confident in his assumption.

“Yeah…sure.” Jongin wasn’t sure why he agreed. He was supposed to be keeping this a secret right? But Chanyeol definitely already knows that he plays now, so is there any harm in letting this one guy know? He can’t help but feel that there’s something thrilling about the thought of playing with someone else even though he was keeping it a secret. Jongin had met him through this, so perhaps it was okay to let the secret slip with just him. “We can go to a PokéStop if you want and I can help you,” it’s a question posed as a statement, but Chanyeol smiles and nods before jogging back to his side.

“I’m Chanyeol,” he says.

“I know,” he answers. Jongin mentally smacks himself again. Way to sound creepy.

Chanyeol smiles despite himself. Jongin actually knows who he is. He thanks whatever Gods there are out there to have decided he was worthy of this experience. What country did he save in his past life?

“I’m Jongin," he offers.

“I know," Chanyeol says with a grin. Assuming that his choice in response was meant to , Jongin flushes.

The two make their way to a statue and sit on the ground in front of it. They could have gone to the fountain, but Jongin was almost certain that those boys were still there, and if his memory served him correctly then he knew that they knew Chanyeol. Also, he was sure that the particularly loud friends of the boy beside him would go off and accidently reveal his poorly hidden secret.

If he could even call it that anymore with the fact this guy he barely knows, knows. At the base of the statue Jongin faces him. “You can’t tell anyone about this.” Chanyeol waits for him to explain, because he isn’t sure what Jongin is trying to hide. That fact that they’re together maybe? Does he have a girlfriend? A boyfriend? Is he embarrassed to be seen with him? He doesn’t consider himself a bad guy necessarily. Like everyone, he has his moments. “No one knows that I play, and I want to keep it that way.”

“You play Pokémon GO in secret?”

Jongin nods. “I just…I don’t want people to know okay.”

Chanyeol pretends to zip his lips. “My mouth is closed.”

Jongin lets out a relieved breath, “Good.”

Jongin and Chanyeol hold their phones out so that the other can see. Jongin clicks on his character’s face and shows Chanyeol the screen that pops up. He does the same and he can see that he’s just reached level 7 while Jongin is on 24.

“Wah, you must be really good at this.”

“Um…yeah I guess. I don’t play all that often though.” A lie, and Chanyeol knows it. The game hasn’t been out that long and there’s no way Jongin can be that good without playing often. Trying to pull the attention off of him, Jongin points to Chanyeol's screen. “You’re team Mystic?” he asks with a smirk.

“Go blue or go home,” he says with a proud smile. Jongin laughs.

“That’s probably why you . It’s all about Valor dude.”

“I don’t !”

“You were going the wrong way when you were looking for that Ditto earlier.”

“How do you know that? Maybe you were.”

“No, I was right. You bumped into me, so you were going the wrong way.” He replies confidently. “You have to look at the box to see if it starts blinking green, and I can guarantee that yours wasn’t blinking”

Chanyeol looks down at his own screen in confusion.

“Here.” Jongin clicks on the Zubat that is supposedly nearby. “Now, turn slowly until you see the box blink green.” Chanyeol follows his instruction and turns his upper body like a satellite. The box blinks ever so slightly and Chanyeol lets out a shocked gasp.

“Has it always done this?” Jongin nods. Chanyeol looks at him in awe. “Teach me your ways.” He holds his hands together pleadingly. Jongin finds himself giggling at the gesture.

His smile fades away ever so slightly as he clicks through his list and shows off his collection. He's beginning to have an internal battle with himself. This is supposed to be his secret thing. His get away. A thing he could enjoy alone. But with the smiley guy beside him he can’t help but think that maybe it would be just a bit more fun being able to play with someone else. To share stories. Experiences. To brag.

Because as much as he wants to deny it, Jongin was dying to brag about his feats to someone.

Perhaps taking on a certain deep voiced disciple wouldn’t kill him.

Jongin sets his lips into a line as he clicks through his Pokémon and scans all the lame nicknames he’s given them. “Alright,” he says with finality in his voice before turning to look at the hopeful boy next to him. “I’ll take you under my wing. But as soon as someone else find out, the deal is off.” He points an accusatory finger at the taller.

Chanyeol holds his hands up defensively. “I swear on my life not to tell anyone.” He makes an X over his heart. “I promise.”

Jongin grins brightly. “Awesome, now…let’s try to figure out how to level up your weak Mystic Pokémon.” Chanyeol makes a sound that clearly shows his offense, but Jongin laughs despite it. This is the first time he’s felt so relaxed while playing, it was quite a breath of fresh air.

**

A few weeks pass after their initial meeting, and the two begin to get closer than they originally expected thanks to the game.

Various “Poké Dates” paired with gentle teasing and laughing filled their time together, and more often than not people mistook them as a couple. Their friends had even resorted to teasing them about the increased amount of time that they spend with one another rather than with their respective groups, and since Chanyeol was sworn to secrecy and Jongin was still hell bent on not letting his friends find out, they would lie and say that they we’re tutoring one another in their classes.

The teasing only intensified when their faces would burn red at the mention of actually dating the other.

But they kept on. Texting and meeting up at different locations at random times to hang out and play on their phones like children. After a while Chanyeol has become quite the opponent, and the two took to battling over a gym for hours on end while throwing out insults and trying to distract the other. Jongin blames it on the fact that Chanyeol found an egg with a ing Gyrados in it with a combat power of 2398!

Maybe it was for the best that people though they were a couple. They would get weirder looks if those passing by knew why they were giggling and hunched over their phones so close to one another like prepubescent teens.

Jongin was no idiot to his own feelings, and he was well aware that he was beginning to like Chanyeol. He was beginning to like him a lot. So much that he actually wanted to just…hang out with him without actually -he can’t believe he's even thinking this- playing Pokémon with him. His hand itches to send Chanyeol a message, but he hasn’t said anything to him that doesn’t pertain to the game. Is it appropriate to text about something other than crucial Pokémon concerns? Does he even have anything to say to him?

He picks his phone up. Pushing his textbooks and papers to the side of his bed, Jongin stares at the black screen and wills Chanyeol to send him a message first. Maybe if Chanyeol starts it, he could take it in the direction that he wants.

When Jongin feels his phone vibrate in his hand he quickly swipes it open and frowns upon realizing that it was just a notification from Tumblr saying that someone reblogged one of his text posts.

Murmuring a quick, “ it.” He clicks on Chanyeol’s contact and starts to write out a text. He quickly deletes it and starts over. Huffing, he repeats the process until he is satisfied with the message.

To: Chanyeollie

Hey:) [10:46pm]

 

Chanyeol's phone buzzes on his desk in the middle of him attempting, and failing, to finish writing the introduction to his Macroeconomics essay, and he picks the device up, happy to have a distraction from the soul assignment. Who gives a about the theory of supply and demand anyway?

When he sees who his mental savior is, his heart starts to thud in his chest. He doesn’t know why his reaction is more or less the same as the first time he received a text from him, but he had hoped that by now it would have at least been less noticeable. He was obviously disappointed in his body’s reaction to him.

The message is simple, and even so, he begins to wrack his mind for ways to respond. Should he say hi back? Should he dive right into conversation? Should he call Baekhyun from next door for backup, because this is the first time Jongin has just said ‘hi’ and he doesn’t know how to even think of making a move. He sighs and squeezes it in his hand before going with his gut response.

To: Jonginini

Hey, what’s up? [10:47pm]

 

Jongin sighs nervously and quickly types up a response to trying to delve into familiar territory before he backs out altogether.

To: Chanyeollie

Nothing, I just evolved another Eevee into a Vaporeon thats stronger than ur whole team ^^ [10:47pm]

 

To: Jonginini

did u rly just txt me to brag about your dumb eevee??? [10:48pm]

 

To: Chanyeollie

Yes. [10:48pm]

Just a daily reminder that your team . [10:49pm]

<3 <3 [10:49pm]

 

He rolls his eyes at the response, fingers flying across the screen already having something to say.

To: Jonginini

We’ll see if ur so confident when I take your gym out from under you [10:49pm]

VIVA LA MYSTIC [10:49pm]

 

To: Chanyeollie

TEAM MYSTIC [10:51pm]

 

To: Jonginini

SAY THAT TO MY FACE YOU VALOR SCUM [10:51pm]

 

To: Chanyeollie

COME AND FIGHT IRL U NERD [10:52pm]

I fear NO man who reps articuno!!!!! [10:52pm]

But rly, tomorrow can we hang out? I’m drowning in homework and I want food that isnt ramen noodles and poptarts for a change. [10:54pm]

 

To: Jonginini

Wanna go to the sandwich place near the PokeStop downtown? [10:58pm]

 

This is the moment. This the perfect opportunity for Jongin to ask him out, he basically just did…but is Chanyeol even okay with the idea of going out and just hanging out, and would he be able to deal with Chanyeol rejecting him? Like what if he doesn’t even like him like that? He's already learned that Chanyeol is also biual, so that is not the problem. Then what though? Not only would Jongin lose a friend, but his Poké--buddy. He must have been deep in thought for a while because he's sent another text.

To: Jonginini

Hello? [11:05pm]

Is everything ok? We can go to a different place if u don’t want to go there?? [11:07pm]

 

With a deep breath and every ounce of his bravery he types out his response in quick texts.

 

To: Chanyeollie

Srry, got distracted. We can go there [11:08pm]

I would rather go to that pasta place next to it tho [11:08pm]

If that’s fine w/ you [11:08pm]

 

To: Jonginini

Is that a pokestop? [11:11pm]

 

To: Chanyeollie

Um no [11:14pm]

Actually I thought we could just hang out [11:15pm]

Without the game [11:15pm]

Or whatever… [11:15pm]

 

Chanyeol physically jumps out of his seat when the string of messages reaches his phone. What is he asking? He doesn’t want to jump to conclusions, but it sounds like Jongin is asking him out on a…date. He gets ready to respond and then stops.

What if this isn’t a date and Jongin is just taking a break from the game?

He doesn’t want to seem too excited over this just in case it isn’t, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to pretend that it is.

To: Jonginini

Um, yeah. I’m free when u are. [11:18pm]

 

To: Chanyeollie

Awesome. I’ll txt you tomorrow [11:19pm]

 

Jongin hesitates before sending his next message.

 

To: Chanyeollie

I’ll see you tomorrow chanyeollie. Goodnight + get some rest. [11:19pm]

 

Without checking for his response, Jongin locks his phone and tosses it away. His heart is beating quickly against his ribcage, and he’s beginning to freak out more and more at the realization that he just asked Chanyeol out. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s happy. He’s nervous. He kind of wants to throw himself out of his bedroom window. So, doing the only logical thing he can think of, he calls the one person he knows he can count on right now.

He calls Moonkyu.

Meanwhile, Chanyeol is having his own freak out in his bedroom. He can’t believe what just happened and he swears to never delete these messages ever in his life because he called him chanyeollie and asked him out in the same night and wow this is probably the best night of his life. He could have sworn that he got friend zoned at the start of their Pokémon adventure together (and he should probably knock on wood now before he actually does get friend zoned), and at this tiny chance that maybe Jongin does like him as much as Chanyeol likes him, he’s feeling higher than a kite.

Moonkyu doesn’t offer much help, since he doesn’t have nearly enough details to give Jongin legitimate advice. All Moonkyu said was something about ‘obviously liking him’ and ‘about time, someone needed to initiate it’ and blah blah blah. After the phone call Jongin feels about 10 times worse than before. He’s jittery and nervous, and he has something like a date tomorrow???? He doesn’t even know what people do on dates.

Perhaps they eat?

He thinks they talk?

Sometimes they kiss.

His ear and cheeks warm up at the thought, and he tosses his body to the side in embarrassment and frustration.

“It’s just Chanyeol. You’ve hung out plenty of times before, this is no different. Now…you just talk about normal people things and not Pokémon for once. You can do that. He’s your,” what is he to him? A Poképal? A classmate? A friend? He’d like to think of Chanyeol as a little more than a friend…he shakes his head and lets out a frustrated yell.

He swipes open his phone and unlocks the screen to pull open the app that brought the two of them together. He clicks on his Wartortle and sighs heavily at his current favorite Pokémon. He’s not the best in his collection, but he feels like he has the most personality and he just really values the Wartortle that he raised from a Squirtle.

His Wartortle named Chanyeol.

“,” he mutters.

**

Seeing as Chanyeol's apartment is closer to the restaurant than his own, they plan to meet at Chanyeol's place, and then walk together to the Italian place. The walk will be about 15 minutes long, and that’s not too bad right?

Unfortunately, what should have been an easy and comfortable walk stretches out in heavy and awkward silence as neither knows how to start the conversation. Jongin doesn’t know whether or not to just break the promise he made to himself to not talk about Pokémon, in order to break the silence, just so that they can have something to talk about. He’s tempted to just do it and have this turn into another Pokédate, but he kind of wants this to be a real date…but does he even really exist outside of Pokémon????

Chanyeol is the one to finally break the silence, “So…how’s your Choral club going?”

At the mention of that damned club he groans exasperatedly. “Terribly,” he turns to look at him while they walk, with upset eyes. “I was supposed to memorize this one song that’s in ing Latin last weekend before meeting this week, but I didn’t and I was screwed the entire week because I was too tired to do it. And the president of the club, this , he kept calling me out about it all week.” He blows out a raspberry and looks at the road ahead of them. “I’d drop it if it wasn’t the one extracurricular I need to keep my scholarship.”

Chanyeol smiles softly at the miniature rant and resists the urge to pull Jongin in for a hug or something to comfort him because dammit he is so cute and he just wants to hold him and he can’t believe how much he just likes listening to the sound of Jongin's voice and watching him talk as he does in this moment.

Maybe it’s because Jongin’s looking at him and not the game…

“Why didn’t you learn it?”

“I was so tired…I was out until like 4am trying to catch a Gengar.” Jongin mentally smacks himself. You aren’t supposed to talk about Pokémon Jongin, god dammit you had one job.

Chanyeol looks at him with widened eyes, “Seriously? I’m falling behind in class because of this ing game.”

“Are you kidding me? You can’t let it take over school work!”

“Yah! Well you let it take over your social life!”

Jongin laughs full-heartedly at that. “You're right,” he says through his smile. The pair fall back into silence, much lighter and comfortable than before as they reach the cute pasta place.

“Wah…this place looks amazing. How’d you find this?”

“I came with my friend a while ago. It’s really good. Come on.” Jongin leads the way inside and straight to a table near a slightly raised stage. Grabbing the menu off the table he covers his face and leans in to whisper to the taller. “They have a secret discount competition thing. We should try it.”

Chanyeol covers the side of his face with his menu and leans in as well, “What kind of competition is it?”

“Taemin did it last time but,” he looks around briefly before squinting at Chanyeol across from him, “you have to dance for 5 minutes.”

He snorts and leans away. “That’s not that big of a deal.”

Jongin places his menu down and rests chin atop his hands. “Okay Mr. Dancing-Is-Easy, but can you dance for 5 minutes well to multiple different kinds of genres?”

Chanyeol pouts minutely and crosses his arms. “Probably.”

“Well since you seem so confident, let’s do it. We’ll see who can last the longest then.”

He holds out his hand, “Winner gets to dare the loser to do one thing.”

Jongin wraps his pinky around his. “Deal.”

A waiter finally comes to their table to take their orders, and at hearing their interest in the promotional dance competition, he smiles and lets them know that they’ll begin shortly.

Not long after, the soft music in the restaurant gets louder and a woman stands in the middle of the room with a microphone in hand. “Hello everyone! As many of you know, we offer a promotional dance competition in which dinner is served free to the table who completes the challenge. We have 5 people who have expressed interest tonight, and we’ll have them meet up on the stage and dance for 5 minutes to whatever song we play. The songs will change abruptly, and each contestant is only given 2 seconds of pause before they must change their dance style to fit the new song.” The guests in the restaurant all clap excitedly. “Now, if our daring guests would please make their way to the stage, we’ll get started!”

“I’m beginning to feel like this is a bad idea.” Jongin mutters from his chair. Chanyeol stands up and pulls him up from his seat.

“No time to chicken out now. Let’s go.” Keeping his hand in his, they make their way up to the stage and smile at the others who are looking just as regretful as Jongin. He tries to pull away from Chanyeol’s hand so that he can run back to his seat and forget he even offered to do this, but the comforting squeeze of his hand is enough to make Jongin hesitate. Chanyeol, sensing his rising discomfort, turns to face him fully. “Don’t worry. Just follow my lead and it’ll be fine.”

“Alright, cue music!”

It starts off with a popular song that always plays on the radio and yet no one knows the title of. Knowing exactly what to do, Chanyeol brightens and lets go of Jongin's hand. He starts to do some dance moves that he’s seen Americans doing on the internet, and Jongin (feeling consumed by embarrassment) halfheartedly follows. The music changes to a song that sounds a bit like salsa, and Chanyeol quickly grabs Jongin's hands in his to pull him closer and move both of them like poorly trained salsa dancers.

Knowing how competitive Chanyeol gets, Jongin lets out a loud laugh at his determined, messy, and quick steps. The song changes again to a song that the both of them know the point dance to. Jongin pulls away with a smile and freestyles his own dance until the chorus of the song plays and the two of them imitate it to the best of their abilities.

By the end of the 5 minutes it’s down to the two of them, and one other girl (who can actually dance really well); they’re out of breath from laughing so hard at how stupid one another looks while trying to create dances on the spot, and both of them are at their competitive high listening closely for the next song.

A slower song begins to play, and immediately they attach themselves to one another in an embrace. Hands on shoulders and hips they rock side to side with goofy smiles spreading across both of their cheeks.

“Looks like we have a winner! Congratulations on completing the challenge, and managing to do so, so entertainingly.” The woman walks up to them and a flash goes off as their picture is taken. Jongin blinks dumbly at the woman, at the camera, and then to his arms wrapped around Chanyeol’s neck.

He jumps slightly and pulls away before smiling back at the woman and then giving Chanyeol a pointed look towards the table. With hearts thudding, they both settle back in their seats to wait for the food they had ordered.

**

Dinner passes with lively conversation. They talk about everything, and they talk about nothing. Classes, clubs, friends, and dumb stuff that has the both of them laughing so hard that Chanyeol almost falls out of his seat. They don’t even mention Pokémon once for the first time.

Chanyeol offers to walk Jongin home seeing as they were in the restaurant longer than intended, and the sun is beginning to go down. There's no real reason to do so other than to keep the night going for a little longer.

“Okay, but really if Aquaman were to get in a fight with anyone there is no way that he would win.”

“You really underestimate the power that he has. He can control aquatic animals!”

“He can talk to fish. Nothing about that seems intimidating.”

“I don’t see you being able to talk to fish.”

“This isn’t about me though. There is literally no way you can convince me that he’s cool in any kind of way Chanyeol.”

“Okay well then how about Superman versus Batman.”

“Superman of course.”

“I thought you hated Superman?”

“I do…but Batman is a human. Superman is a ing alien with powers.”

“But look…if Batman were to have even like a piece of kryptonite then bam Superman is basically useless.”

“Okay, but Superman is still an alien and just cause he can’t handle being around a ing rock doesn’t mean that he still can’t beat Mr. I’ve-Got-Gadgets-Cause-I’m-Rich.”

“You really are a piece of work.”

“Thanks. I find that my difficulty is my best trait.” Jongin gives him a smirk and a wink before stuffing his hands into his sweatshirt pockets. It’s gotten colder since they first left their houses, and now he’s regretting not having brought a coat.

“I heard that the Superman vs. Batman movie is supposed to be pretty good.”

“Yeah I know, I heard. I’ve been meaning to go and see it.”

Chanyeol pauses before responding, “We should go see it…together.” Jongin stops in his tracks to stare at the boy beside him. Chanyeol really, really wants to cover his ears because he’s sure they’re as red as Rudolph’s ing nose, but then Jongin would definitely know how embarrassed he is. He isn’t even sure why he blurted that out. They had a good time, yeah. But there’s still a huge part of him that is sure that Jongin doesn’t like him that way and what if he stops talking to him altogether now because of it, and he doesn’t think he can just stop talking to him like that because he’s almost sure that he’s in lov-

“Yeah.” Chanyeol blinks and turns in Jongin's direction. Jongin smiles and his eyes shrink into crescents. “I’d like that.”

Chanyeol attempts to repress his smile as they walk on in silence.

He wants to hold Jongin's hand…like really bad, but he isn’t entirely sure if he should just go for it or not. He glances down to see his hand dangling at his side, and decides to just go for it. It won’t kill him.

“What are you doing?”

Chanyeol's mind blanks. “Uh,” why’d he have to say something about it? “I just didn’t want your hand to get cold.”

Jongin hums teasingly, and then laughs at the brisk ‘shut up’ Chanyeol gives afterwards.

He’d been thinking through this for a few minutes now, and as they reach his door he knows that it’s now or never.

“I’ll text you tomorrow.” Chanyeol says with that smile that is so full of confidence that Jongin kind of wants to smack it off his face. No smile should hold that much power, and do such terrible things to his insides.

“Alright.” He takes in a deep breath once Chanyeol lets go of his hand. “Chanyeol.” Chanyeol looks at him curiously. Jongin never said his name so softly before.

Now or never, he reminds himself. In three motions too quick for Chanyeol to comprehend, he tilts his head up, braces himself against Chanyeol's shoulders and places a kiss against his cheek. He spins on his heel and hurriedly reaches in his pocket, unlocks his door, and slams it closed.

He slides down against the door and covers his burning face in his hands. He can’t believe that he actually just did that.

Chanyeol stands in shock at his doorstep with his mouth agape. Heat begins to spread through his face, and his mouth contorts into a beaming smile. He can’t believe he actually just did that.

**

Days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into months. Months turn into years. Somehow, through time and trial the pair manage to not only stay together, but grow closer than before. What once started out as Pokémon meetups, turned into dates. Those dates transformed into entire days in one another presence and then after a while, Jongin and Chanyeol decided to move in together. The relationship came as no surprise to any of their friends, and when they finally told them all of how they met, the entire group was stunned.

Not only had they been actually playing a video game for the first few months of hanging out, but they had also kept it a secret for whatever reason. Hearing them say that made Jongin realize how silly it might have been to have been hiding it, but then again he wouldn’t have met Chanyeol if he hadn’t.

Almost 4 years since the day they bumped into one another at the park their junior year of college, Chanyeol comes home from work to their shared apartment only to find his longtime boyfriend fast asleep on the couch.

The TV is on and some show that he had been saying he wanted to watch for a while now is playing in the background, but it’s almost entirely drowned out by the sound of music blasting from his phone. The music sounds familiar to his ears, but he hasn’t heard it in years.

He crosses the foyer towards the living room, and crouches down next to the couch. He smiles faintly and brushes the hair falling across his forehead to the side before putting his attention back on Jongin's cellphone and the loud music.

His phone is being held limply, and Chanyeol slides it out of his grasp easily. Once he gets a look at the screen he realizes why it sounded so familiar.

He redownloaded Pokémon GO after all these years.

Chanyeol looks at his sleeping form and then back to the screen before seeing a Pokémon pop up beside his avatar. A Ditto. Chanyeol figures he can go ahead and catch it for him since he seems so exhausted.

It takes him a good 3 greatballs, but he manages to capture the Ditto. He doesn’t know what to name it, so he takes the liberty of going through the names of all the ones Jongin already has for ideas. A Blastoise with a star beside it catches his attention, and he fights back a laugh.

Chanyeol.

He bites his lip before glancing at the sleeping Jongin once more and deciding to name the Ditto for him. He’d been dropping hints for months now, but Jongin was almost as oblivious as they come. Fingers typing up a name for the Ditto, and then placing the phone back in Jongin's hand unlocked, Chanyeol leaves the living room to take a shower.

He can’t wait to see his reaction when Jongin finds his new Ditto and when he finds the question Chanyeol had been trying to ask for months as its name:

Marry me?

---

This was literally a stupid idea that I had because I was playing Pokemon and I'm a nerd. I wrote this orginially as a m/f story but i wanted to change it to m/m so this isn't TOTALLY lik jongin but hes still a shy nerd so it kind of works lmaooo

Xx