The automated door slides open and Donghae walks into the small and warm café just a few steps away from his office building at Yeouido district. Rubbing his hands with each other in an attempt to produce warmth in the chilly winter air of Seoul, he smiles as he notices the familiar man behind the counter.

“Hey, Siwon.”

The man bearing that name looks up from the little notebook he has in his hand and returns the smile, the dimples on both his cheeks becoming more prominent.

“Hey, Donghae. I’m starting to worry that you got into an accident, or something seeing as it’s past 1 PM and you’re still not here.”

Donghae chuckles lightly at Siwon’s remarks. He has been probably the most loyal customer this café has, always visiting during lunch time every day for the past year since he starts working in that area. So it’s no surprise that everyone from the barista to the owner of the café, which is Siwon, is already on a first-name basis with Donghae.

“My boss is being PMS-y today, so I got caught up with him for a little while.”

Siwon lets out an understanding ‘oh’ at what Donghae says before taking the pencil that he slips behind his ear and takes the order form from underneath the cash register.

“Fettucine Napolitaine and strawberry smoothies as usual, then?”

Donghae grins as Siwon recites his usual order. Yes, one year of working in Yeouido district and Donghae still hasn’t found another café that matches this one when it comes to his favorite pasta dish, which is one of the reasons why he always visits.

“Smooth as always, Mr. Choi.”

With yet another grin directed at Siwon, Donghae walks away towards a particular spot in the café that he always occupies whenever he visits. Just a small coffee table and a single sofa beside the big glass window overlooking Yeouido park, it’s Donghae’s little sliver of oasis amidst the hustle and bustle of Seoul’s business district.

He takes off his coat and carefully places it on the handrest of the sofa before taking a seat. It has been a particularly tough day and he’s just glad that he can escape just for one precious hour before going back and facing all the horror again.

Soon enough, something catches Donghae’s attention. He can’t quite place what it is that draws him to fix his gaze on the man sitting almost right across him on the other side of the café, head bowed low as he’s engrossed in the book he’s reading. Maybe it’s that man’s deep red hair, maybe it’s his full pink lips, maybe it’s the way he’s silently mouthing the words from the book in his hand, maybe it’s his single-lidded eyes.

Either way, Donghae can’t help but find himself staring. It’s cliché at its best when he literally feels like time stops as that man looks up from the book he’s reading, immediately finds Donghae’s eyes, and starts staring right back. Even from that distance, Donghae can tell that man has probably the most stunning brown eyes he has ever seen in his entire life. And before he had the chance to explore those amazing orbs even further, the man looked down at his book again.

The eye-contact lasted no more than two seconds, Donghae was sure of that. So he really should just get along and wait for his food and forget that almost non-existent contact, right? Well, try telling that to his erratically beating heart or to his sudden interest at his fingernails. Donghae couldn’t quite figure out why that simple interaction between him and the stranger could provoke him to the point of not being able stop his heart from jumping around like it’s on a sugar high.

 It’s like the perfectly comfortable plush chair Donghae is sitting on suddenly turns into nothing but a wooden log and all he wants is just to get up off of it but he can’t because… then it means he won’t be able to look at that man again. Donghae lets out a sigh as he massages the bridge of his nose, trying to figure his way out of this mess. Yes, it’s a mess; or rather he’s the mess. And he still can’t believe that it’s only because of a simple eye-contact.

“Hae, are you okay?”

Donghae’s head shoots up so fast that he’s surprised he doesn’t strain his neck from that move when he realizes that Siwon is already standing beside him with a tray laden with his favorite food. What’s strange about that day is that the food suddenly isn’t so appealing anymore. Donghae thinks to himself, great, first he flat out loses control of himself and now he loses his appetite too? This has been a very strange day for Donghae.

“Uh… yeah, Siwon, I’m okay.”

Siwon sees Donghae’s out-of-focus eyes and for a second there he’s about to press further as to why Donghae suddenly acts really strange when he’s fine just moments before. Siwon and Donghae’s relationship is no longer that of a café owner and a customer, a friendship has been formed there. But this time Siwon decides to just let it rest, so he just places Donghae’s orders on the table and walks away, saying nothing more.

Donghae is thankful that he finally gets a distraction and focuses, a bit too intently perhaps, at finishing the dish in front of him. He fails to notice that the man whose eyes he’s drawn into just moments before numerously steals glances at him.

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It has been 2 weeks, as in two Mondays, two Tuesdays, and two Wednesdays, and so on that Donghae finds that man again, occupying the same spot, and reading the same book, at the same time that he’s there. And just like the first time he’s seen that man, Donghae is reduced to a puddle of fidgeting mess every time he sees him there. Donghae has asked Siwon with hopes of finding out at least a little bit of who that man is but Siwon can’t really help him, saying that the man isn’t that much of a talker.

It bothers Donghae how much effect that man has on him, considering that one, he has no idea who the heck he is, and two, that eye contact two weeks ago was about the only time that that man has acknowledged Donghae’s presence. Donghae begins to wonder whether he has unknowingly stepped into a time machine in between the span of that two weeks because he really feels like he is back into being thirteen years old again, suddenly forgetting how to act like his own usual self around his crush.

Crush, huh? Donghae doesn’t know, or in this case not entirely sure, whether or not that beautiful man can be classified as a crush. Sure, he likes stealing glances every few seconds whenever that man and him occupies their usual spots and that he comes to Siwon’s spot near the cash register a little too often cause he will pass by that man when he does but is it really a crush? It can’t be, that man is practically a stranger to him!

But the excitement Donghae feels prickling on the surface of his skin everytime he sees that man has betrayed him over and over again.

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Donghae closes the book he has finished reading and takes a deep breath, before letting it out quickly. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, the man Donghae now deems as his favorite author. And that is saying something since usually Donghae hates reading. His job as a statistical data analyst has forced him to look at numbers all day long and to him, reading is pretty much the same thing, only instead of numbers there are letters that he needs to decipher to find out the true meaning of it.

But as Donghae walks by a book store and sees that book displayed behind the glass wall, he finds himself subconsciously walking into the store, picks up a copy, walks to the cash register, and 10 hours later he’s finished reading it. The story line is perfect, the plot is perfect, how can Donghae guess that the narrator and Tyler Durden is the same person? Talk about mind, right there.

What’s with Donghae’s sudden interest in that book, you ask?

That man at the café was reading the very same one.

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The smile on Donghae’s face is bright enough to light up the whole world that time as he’s walking towards Siwon’s café. He’s been away for a week on a field work in Incheon and Lord knows how much Donghae is craving for the café’s fettucine napolitaine. Well, it’s that and… he misses seeing the man with the red hair.

Donghae thinks it’s crazy that he can miss someone he doesn’t even know, someone who’s a complete stranger to him, but he’s not gonna be stupid enough and ignore his obvious attraction towards that man. So that afternoon, on the way to his first visit to Siwon’s café, Donghae has decided that he’ll just walk up straight to that man, ask what’s his name, and start a conversation based on the fact that he has finished reading Fight Club, a book that the man surely likes. He won’t be reading the same book for two weeks straight if he doesn’t really like it, right?

 Yes, those are the things Donghae should have done AGES ago. He can’t believe that he’s spent two weeks being in the presence of that man and not doing anything about it. But then again, Donghae will blame that solely on the fact that that man just has this aura around him that overwhelms Donghae, making it feel like he will surely break down into a stuttering pathetic excuse of a man if he so much as tries to talk to him.

But Donghae has put that past him, today’s the day everything’s gonna change. It’s strange that all this courage can come from something as simple as finishing book but in Donghae’s mindset, the book represents something more for that man so that’s what Donghae is aiming at.

Donghae grins and bites his bottom lip, something that he’s so used to do whenever he gets excited about something. The grin quickly fades away, though, when Donghae walks into the café and finds a group of girls occupying the spot that man is usually in, he’s nowhere to be seen.

Insert ‘everything-else-other-than-Donghae-on-pause-like-those-scenes-in-a-movie’ moment right there, because that’s how Donghae feels at the moment.

Has he missed his chance?

If he has, Donghae is sure that this is one of those days where he will tirelessly blame himself and his lack of spontaneity. Donghae, much like his job, is filled with calculation. The plain black suit, white shirt, red checkered tie and black coat Donghae’s wearing seem like the get-up anyone can casually throws on but no, that’s not how it works for Donghae. The outfit he has on is the result of a 15-minute browse through his closet the night before.

“Looking for a certain red-haired man?”

Upon hearing Siwon’s voice, Donghae quickly turns his head to the source of said voice, throwing a questioning look that clearly reads ‘how do you know that?’. Siwon lets out a scoff he walks out from behind the café’s counter towards Donghae, holding something in his hand.

“Don’t give me that look, Hae, I’ve figured everything out like a billion years ago.”

Siwon extends his hand at Donghae, and he finally sees what Siwon’s holding in it. It’s the copy of the book Fight Club.

“He stops coming once you’re not showing up here, and he left this. Maybe he just forgot but I think… he wants ‘someone’ to find it.”

Donghae furrows his eyebrows at Siwon’s exaggeration at the word ‘someone’ and how it’s accompanied with a knowing look painted all over Siwon’s face. Donghae finally understands what it means when he opens the cover of the book and finds one of those ‘if you find it please return it to the address below’ stickers stuck to the back of the cover. He smiles as he realizes that there’s also a name and a phone number there.

Lee Hyukjae.

Donghae’s smile grows wider, he can finally put a name on that beautiful face.

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(3 Years Later)

“Hyukkie, I really don’t think that all of this will fit in here, we might have to throw away some stuffs.”

Donghae exclaims as he carefully put the cardboard box containing his boyfriend’s stuffs on his apartment’s living room floor, wiping the film of sweat that forms on his forehead with the back of his hand afterwards. Moving in day has been tiring and he hasn’t been prepared for it. Especially since he has no idea that Hyukjae can own so many stuffs. The two-bedroom apartment Hyukjae used to live in really doesn’t look like it’s capable to hold this many stuffs, 23 boxes of them to be exact. Moving in together proves to be quite tricky for Donghae.

“Are you seriously saying you’re gonna be throwing away some of my stuffs?”

Hyukjae shows up from Donghae’s bedroom, well it’s theirs now, and plants both his hands on his waist with a really disapproving look at Donghae. Hyukjae’s throwing one of those diva-like tantrums at the moment. They’re not really tantrums of course, Hyukjae just loves to dramatize things. Donghae finds that really funny and extremely adorable at the same time. He grins and walks over to his boyfriend of nearly 3 years, stood in front of him and circled both his arms around his thin waist.

“If you can fit everything here without making any of us feel like we’re living under a mattress then I’d be happy not to throw away anything.”

Donghae chuckles a little when Hyukjae rolls his eyes at what he just said.

“Of course I can, Fishy. I’m not an interior designer for nothing, I know how to arrange things and make them look presentable. Unlike you, of course.”

“Are we really gonna go through that conversation again?”

“Donghae, you wanted to put a statue of Medusa in our living room!”

“I still stand by what I said, our living room would look really bad- with her around.”

“I don’t even know what I should do with you!”

“A kiss would be nice.”

They grin at each other before Hyukjae finally complying with Donghae’s request, giving a chaste kiss on his lips.

“Hyukkie, that’s not even a real kiss.”

It’s Hyukjae’s turn to laugh as Donghae pulls out his secret weapon, the almighty pout.

“Well, you can get that and more later tonight but for now let me turn this testosterone-ridden room into something a little homier for us, okay?”

Hyukjae pulls himself away from Donghae’s arms and proceeds to take down Park Ji Sung’s signed Manchester United jersey that Donghae had put on the wall a few years ago. Hyukjae means business when it comes to redesigning their room. Donghae is about to turn away and leave the room when he notices something on the nighstand. It’s obviously not there before. He walks towards the nightstand and sees that it’s that old copy of Fight Club, the one that starts everything between him and Hyukjae.

Donghae smiles and picks up the book, remembering how he texted Hyukjae right after receiving the book from Siwon, how they met and were finally properly introduced to each other, how they got together just a few weeks after that. And now here they are, almost three years later and still together, taking another big step in their relationship by moving in together. That book has done a lot for them without really doing anything.

“Getting a little bit nostalgic, are we?”

Hyukjae says with the gummy smile that Donghae adores so much.

“You know, since our first date, we never really talked about this book. How awesome is it that the narrator and Tyler Durden is the same person, huh?”

To Donghae’s surprise, Hyukjae’s eyes immediately go wide at what he says. It’s almost like he completely has no idea what Donghae’s talking about.

“Hyukkie, don’t tell me you don’t know, you must’ve finished this book a couple times, right? This was the only book you read when you were there at Siwon’s café.”

“I… never finished that book. I only got to chapter 2.”

“But… you were at the café every day reading this book.”

Hyukjae drops what he’s doing and walks over to where Donghae’s standing, grinning from ear to ear.

“Wanna hear a little story, Fishy? I never told you this before but… I came to that café that day cause I was bored with my work, bored with my friends, bored with my surroundings and just… pretty much bored with everything. So I walked around aimlessly and found that café and it just seemed like the perfect getaway. It was just me and my favorite author’s book, it was my own world. I was reading up to chapter 2 and… that’s when I realized you were staring at me. And then I stared back at you and… lost any kind of interest I initially had with that book. I couldn’t concentrate back on the book and it went on for the next two weeks.”

“So… when you were there you’re… not actually reading? For two weeks straight you’re just sitting there not doing anything?”

“Pretty much. Well, I did a couple things, though, I was working up the courage to walk up to you and say hi and also waiting to see if you were the one who’d do it. That’s why I kept coming back there.”

Donghae can’t find anything else to say to Hyukjae’s little confession. Probably because it’s already so profound that Donghae feels he doesn’t need to taint the pureness of that story with his two cents. It is what it is and he’s just thankful that everything works out for him and Hyukjae in the end despite many elements having to contribute to that.

Siwon’s café, Chuck Palahniuk, and Siwon himself. And Donghae is just thankful for all of them, because they lead him to Hyukjae. Donghae pulls Hyukjae into his embrace again and showering Hyukjae’s plump lips with kisses. Those kisses become more intense, more desperate as the two men slowly make their way towards the unmade bed.

Looks like the redecorating has to be put on hold.

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A/N : Come to think of it, I'm not really sure if this is fluff. Meh, it doesn't include me torturing my precious EunHae so yeah, I guess it's fluff. Hope you enjoy this one. :)