The nametag says ‘Insoo’.

“But my name is Seunghyun.”
          “Not according to your nametag, it’s not.” His new manager says simply. “Plastic nametags don’t come cheap. I’ll order yours when we get a few new employees and I can buy in bulk.”

          He walks away, and Seunghyun gives a little sigh of relief. His first interaction with the manager as a new employee, and it didn’t go that badly. His name had just changed, that’s all.

          Seunghyun had gotten previous training in making cappuccinos and mochas and lattes, so he’d been hired almost instantly. The manager had made it clear that he was more than happy to save time in training a new recruit. It’s Seunghyun’s first morning, and he tries to make it clear that he doesn’t want to have to work at the register if he can avoid it.

The girl he’ll be working his shift with is sweet, and they fall into a good rhythm with her working the register and doing the actual talking while he assembles the complicated drink orders. At first he’s a bit awkward, getting used to the feel of the ingredients behind the counter and trying to make himself as scarce as possible. But as the day goes on, he gets more comfortable. This girl is much easier to work with than the loud one that had shared his shift at the University café, and she doesn’t force him to talk to her during their break.

This coffeeshop is quiet – not a chain, a little bit off of the main drag. Most of the people who buy a drink or a scone wind up staying and sitting in one of the white chairs, drinking in the atmosphere of the place.

          Seunghyun decides this is his perfect job, so long as he doesn’t have to talk very much.

~

Almost to the end of his first week working the full-time shift, Seunghyun starts recognizing the regulars.

There’s a cute elderly couple that comes in at about eight o’clock every other morning, each getting a strong tea. They sit on the couch across from the fire, not saying very many words, but holding hands.

Twice the same woman has come in from a jog, tying up her fluffy Pomeranian outside before she orders an iced coffee. She stares at the muffins longingly.

A student has come in for his third day in a row, getting a straight shot of espresso before unpacking all of his books in a corner table and studying diligently.

Only one really catches Seunghyun’s eye.

The blond who doesn’t look much older than twenty.

He’s come in every day, at least since Seunghyun has started working here, and he’s only just noticed that he’s worn blue each time he comes in. Different shades and hues perhaps, and with different accessories, but always blue. It complements the platinum blond – almost white – color of his hair.

Noticing this color scheme piques Seunghyun’s interest, and he winds up observing him even more closely.

By Friday, he knows Blue’s order by heart. He starts making it before the computer has even processed it onto his screen. It’s simple - only an iced coffee, espresso double shot – but Seunghyun takes extra care not to mess it up.

          When the stream of people stops and he’s able to walk around and offer people free refills on brewed drinks, Seunghyun watches the blond. Notices his blue notebook.

          Blue has had a laptop and this blue notebook with him every day. He types fiercely at the laptop for a few minutes and then leans back into his chair, sipping his coffee from over the rim of his cup, scrutinizing the screen. Every once and awhile he gets agitated and flips through his notebook noisily and writes something down or copies it into the computer.

          He has a lip ring.

          The man comes in relatively early, maybe ten o’clock, and stays until well after lunch. He never seems hungry, as he doesn’t seem to even consider buying a bagel or pumpkin bread. Blue sticks to his order of coffee and that’s it.

          Blue is interesting.

          By the time Blue comes in on Saturday, Seunghyun has been wondering endlessly of what he could have been writing in his laptop. He seems to stay really focused. Seunghyun never catches him laughing at something on the internet – he’s always deep in thought about whatever notes he takes in the notebook, or clucking at his keyboard.

          By late Saturday afternoon, the curiosity gets the best of him.

          Seunghyun has a short break before lunchtime, and instead of taking the time to stand alone outside for a few minutes, he sits behind the strange blue man instead. A Word document is open on his screen, and Seunghyun observes casually over his shoulder as words appear and disappear, marking times when Blue’s mind continuously changes.

          Eventually Seunghyun realizes he’s not being as subtle as he thinks he is.

          “I’m not looking at , if that’s what you think.” The man says, and his voice is airier, cheerier, than Seunghyun had thought. He’d only heard him order, after all.

          “Oh –“

          Blue turns around and smirks cheekily behind the large glasses he’s decided to wear today. “Don’t worry about it.” He returns to his work just as relaxed as before, although Seunghyun’s eyes still watch the quick movements of his fingers. A few moments later and the man tilts his head back around. “Aren’t you going to ask what I am working on?”

          Seunghyun’s voice catches in his throat but he gets past it to answer. “Er – What are you working on?”

          “What, this old thing?” Blue turns so he’s sitting sideways on his chair and he gestures wildly to the laptop. He considers it for a moment, scratching his chin. “I’m working on a horror mystery novel.” He bites at his lip ring slowly, it into his mouth. As he takes a sip of his coffee, Seunghyun hears a distinct clunk as the metal hits the side of the plastic cup. Blue looks sideways at Seunghyun, studying him.

          “That’s really interesting.” Seunghyun says, standing up. He’s realized that it’s a few minutes past the end of his break, so he whips a rag out of the pocket of his apron and begins wiping the table he’d been sitting at. “I hope I get to read it someday. “

Blue watches his every move closely, and Seunghyun feels really awkward under his gaze. There’s a tangible gap in their conversation as Blue takes some notes in his notebook. “Do you work here every day?” He finally asks.

“Every day.”

“Good. I don’t know, I like routines.” He inhales deeply and stretches, crossing his arms and looking around the shop. “I’m really glad I found this place, too. It’s a good place for a routine. My apartment is so loud in the morning.”

“Roommate?”

Blue considers it for a moment. “Mostly the neighbors. The walls are thin and they’re always moving around really early. Fighting. I like the aura of this place.”

Aura? What’s an aura? Seunghyun thinks, but he’s completely entranced by this man and his manner of speaking and the type of energy he just exudes, too enraptured to think of what an ‘aura’ was. “Me too, it’s way calmer than anywhere else I’ve worked.” He manages.

Blue cranes his neck to read Seunghyun’s nametag. “Insoo, right?”

“No, actually, um – I’m new; they haven’t gotten me a real nametag yet.” He looks at his shoes and chuckles. “I’m Seunghyun.”

“Nice to actually meet you, Seunghyun. I’m Jiyong. Thanks for making my coffee for me.”

“No problem.”

~

          Sunday, the coffeeshop is closed and Seunghyun doesn’t have to work.

          Monday morning, his shift partner is sick, and he’s forced to work at the register. It’s a position he’s always hated. He doesn’t like ordering things himself, interacting with people is a no-go. At school he never made a spectacle of himself, staying quiet and subdued. The coffeeshop had been a perfect place for him, until today, when he has to talk to the same people he’s been observing for a week.

          As ten o’clock approaches, Seunghyun’s stomach begins churning slightly, knowing Jiyong is about to come in. He doesn’t want to talk to him like this – He wants another real conversation with him. He has this strange feeling where he wants to know everything about him, as if he’s a character from a book. What his ambition in life is, where he’s been, what his family is like, if he’s ever broken a bone, who he’s kissed, what his favorite food is, what people he hangs out with… Because Seunghyun just can’t put a label on him.
          This feeling is weird. But Seunghyun just can’t get past it.

          Jiyong is interesting.

          Because he’s so focused on the fact that it’s nearing ten fifteen and Jiyong hasn’t showed up, Seunghyun doesn’t notice that the girl who’s ordering stumbles over her words a few times before getting what she wants to say right. The empty space that Seunghyun is staring blankly at is, inconveniently, directly into her eyes.

          It’s really no wonder she got tongue-tied.
          Seunghyun is handsome, and he has a mysterious quality that comes from being a tall, attractive man working in a quiet coffee shop. If he wasn’t so transfixed on Jiyong, he would notice how almost every woman who enters the shop is mesmerized by him.

          Another woman winds up sounding like she has a speech impediment before ten thirty, and Jiyong still hasn’t come in.

          There’s a gap in people taking orders, and Seunghyun takes advantage of this time to wipe up a spill near one of the brewers. He almost doesn’t notice when Jiyong finally makes his entrance, clad in a completely pink ensemble. Seunghyun rushes to the register and almost begins punching in the iced coffee combination, but Jiyong hands him his money, ordering something else.

          “A caramel macchiato, please.”

          “What?” Seunghyun pauses, holding his money unsurely, trying not to stare at his different colored clothes.

          Jiyong’s eyebrows rise slightly as a warning for Seunghyun not to question him as he repeats himself. “Caramel macchiato?”

          “Three fifty.”

          The money is exchanged and Jiyong looks intently at the amount of change he gets back, as if it bothers him that the amount has altered with his more expensive order. He eventually gets over it, giving Seunghyun a small smirk as he sits back in his normal spot, removing his laptop from his pink carrier bag and ripping the barcode sticker off of his new pink notebook.

Seunghyun waits until the second day of this color change to get close to Jiyong again and ask about it. “I like the new color scheme,” he says casually over his decaf. It was going to go cold anyway, so he’d been allowed to take it free of charge.

“Thanks. Pink’s my new favorite.”

“Wouldn’t have guessed.”

Jiyong turns back around, but a snort is audible and his shoulders hunch a bit. “Anyway, what’s up with you, Insoo?”

“Seunghyun.” It feels weird for Seunghyun that he has to correct him – he has to remember that he’s been the one watching, not Jiyong. After observing the other man for what seems like months and months, he hasn’t really thought about the fact that they don’t really know each other.

“Oh, right. Sorry. I guess I really got it into my head that you were Insoo before. Seunghyun. Got it.” He pulls his chair back at an angle and leans forward on his knees, smirking up at him. Seunghyun notices his lip ring has changed to a small diamond stud.

It takes a moment for Seunghyun to realize what Jiyong is waiting for. “Oh. Um, not much, really. I’ve just working here almost all day to pay off some student loans, that’s all.”

“Where do you go?”

“SKKU.”
“Junior?”

“Senior next year.”

“What are you studying?”

“Psychology.”

“That’d explain why I’ve never seen you. I go there too, but I’m a lit major.”

“Oh.”

“Do you like working here?”

Seunghyun becomes very aware of how much Jiyong is talking, and in turn, how much he’s talking. He’s not sure whether he likes it. “Yeah, except for not having my own name,” he smirks, setting Jiyong off into a small fit of giggles. His entire body moves as he laughs, and Seunghyun’s stomach flips. He feels pretty great about his joke-making abilities since Jiyong’s grin takes up the majority of his face.

“Still working on that um… Mystery… Horror story?” Seunghyun asks, making it sound like he isn’t sure, when in reality he’s remembered their last conversation almost word for word. He’s been wondering ever since they’d last talked how the novel was going.

“Oh, I’m not working on that anymore.” Jiyong waves a hand at him.

“What?”

“I scrapped it. It wasn’t good enough. I got block on it and had to stop.”

Seunghyun thinks that writer’s block would have had to last a few weeks before a writer would give up, but then reasons that obviously he isn’t a writer so he doesn’t know anything. But he can tell that Jiyong is an impulsive person. It interests him. He wishes he could have read the beginning of that story before he’d thrown it out. Seunghyun squints at the laptop, which definitely has a Word document up and running. “Then what are you working on now?”
          “A romantic screenplay. The protagonist is a time-traveler.” Jiyong says wistfully.

“Awesome. Maybe I’ll see this one finished?”

“Don’t jinx it, but I really think so.”

~

          Monday morning Seunghyun is the first to open up the shop, leaving the keys in their box behind the counter before starting some of the morning blends. He smiles at people when they come to pick up their drink off of the counter, shooting glances at his watch every few minutes until it’s ten o’clock.

          At ten thirty, a teenage couple comes in and takes Jiyong’s seat. Jiyong’s seat.

          They stay for an hour or two, and Jiyong never comes to reclaim it.

          Seunghyun locks up at seven, not thinking about finally getting home and resting, but of Jiyong and why he didn’t show up.

          Tuesday is another slow day, and all Seunghyun can keep his mind set on is Jiyong and where he can possibly be. Time drags. Somehow Seunghyun finds himself worrying profusely about the strange man and where he could possibly be. Sick? Hurt? On vacation?

          It takes forever for his watch to get to ten o’clock, but from then until noon the time rushes by, and there’s no sign of Jiyong, in blue or pink.

          Seunghyun locks up at seven again, still hoping that Jiyong will show up, somehow.

          But he doesn’t, and Seunghyun goes home with him at an unmovable place on the front of his mind.

          Jiyong is interesting. And he’s been gone for two days.

Then finally it’s ten o’clock on Wednesday and Seunghyun has finally given up hoping for Jiyong, but another minute and he’s there. Seunghyun’s heart picks up and he double-checks to make sure no one is occupying his seat, not totally sure what he would have done if someone was actually sitting there, but he checks nonetheless.

          Jiyong’s flamboyant pink clothes are gone and replaced by all black.

          He may not have re-bleached his hair, but the way it contrasts with what he’s wearing makes it look an absolute white. He looks a bit disheveled, clinging to the small black rucksack that no doubt carries his laptop, notebook, and money for a drink.

          Seunghyun overhears Jiyong ordering a plain black coffee and he fights the impulse to mix a little bit of sugar into the order as he’s making it. Jiyong looks down in the dumps, and Seunghyun has learned from experience that black coffee doesn’t help raise anybody’s mood.

          The plain coffee is cheap, so Jiyong carefully measures out the tip in order to get the total to come to the same amount of change he would have had with the caramel macchiato he’d had all last week. Or at least that’s what he seems to be doing, as he takes an abnormal time picking at the coins in his hand.

Seunghyun serves him his mug personally, not able to wait for him to come to the counter to pick it up himself. He hovers over him, pretending to wipe off one of the white chairs next to Jiyong’s table. “We missed you,” he says casually, unwilling to admit to anyone the way he’d really missed him. “Did you go somewhere?”

“No.” Jiyong says softly, a voice that contrasts his normal tone.
“Did you get sick?”

“Kind of.”

“You just got sick of seeing me, that’s all,” Seunghyun grins, but Jiyong looks taken aback. He has tears forming in his eyes in seconds.

“NO! I would never get sick of seeing you!” His voice cracks and he gets a few looks from people around the room. The elderly couple looks over their shoulders discreetly.

Seunghyun looks around frantically in hopes that his manager won’t notice that he’s just made a customer cry. “No, no, hey.” Seunghyun awkwardly puts a hand on his shoulder, to which Jiyong responds to immediately - in only more stifled sobs.

“I’m sorry, it’s not you, I just – My writing’s been terrible, and I can’t keep an idea going, and my girlfriend apparently decided that that wasn’t enough to make me hate myself, and she cheated on me.”

Seunghyun understands the black clothing. A wave of sympathy surges from him, and it’s met by a wave of confusion at the way his stomach reacts to the word girlfriend. “Hey, I’m really sorry…”

“It’s not your fault...” Jiyong starts to recompose himself, wiping his eyes and forcing a smile.

“I know, but – okay. I can’t really talk now – “ Seunghyun scans the room, noticing his manager standing at the door of the private employees-only room, just now noticing Seunghyun’s dallying. He thinks really quickly on the spot, and words come out of his mouth before he’s nervous enough to stop them. “But you should come back when my shift is over, at seven. We could go to dinner or something.”

“You want to have dinner with me?” Jiyong says incredulously, wiping his eyes.

Seunghyun tries to act casual, shrugging. “Sure. I mean, if you’re free today.”

“No, I mean -” He shakes his head. “– Yeah, I’m not doing anything tonight. Seven?”

“Seven.”

Jiyong sniffs and runs his hands over his face and through his hair so his bangs get pushed back. He sighs a shallow kind of sigh. “That sounds awesome.”

Seunghyun grins and stuffs his rag back in his pocket. “We just haven’t gotten to really talk yet.” He can’t stop smiling. “I like you, Jiyong. I’m sorry your ex is a .”

“Ex?”

Seunghyun is caught off guard. “Yeah, I – What, you didn’t break up with her?”

“No, Seunghyun… I mean… I love her. It , but… I’m a mess. I need her.”

Part of Seunghyun’s stomach sinks, and he’s taken aback with how much this simple fact bothers him.

***

Dinner is awkward at first.
          Neither man knows exactly what to talk about, though Seunghyun has to give Jiyong points for trying.

The blond seems to have an extreme distaste for silence. Every time a pause in talking lasts for more than a few seconds, he fills it up. The conversation usually comes to a halt when it’s Seunghyun’s turn to talk, and he isn’t even bothered when Jiyong grows impatient with him not responding and changes the subject.

Jiyong doesn’t even stop talking when the food comes – he speaks through mouthfuls.

Once or twice, Seunghyun points to a corner of Jiyong’s mouth where sauce has gotten stuck, and he has to direct Jiyong to different points around his face until he finds it and wipes himself off.

After they both finish eating, they decide to stop at the restaurant’s bar.

Jiyong loosens up more as he’s drinking and he starts talking more about himself and asks fewer questions about Seunghyun; which is good, because Seunghyun has run out of things to say about himself.

What Seunghyun learns is that Jiyong’s girlfriend’s name is Minhae, and they’ve been going out for a couple of years. Jiyong complains about her, saying she’s possessive and too controlling – but he evens out every complaint with a compliment, still aware of his dedication to her despite the way the alcohol was starting to work at his body.

Seunghyun gets sick of hearing about this woman and her supposed beauty and kindness, the ‘charming’ way she laughs and all of her ‘endearing’ mannerisms. He’s just absolutely set on hating her, and he doesn’t know why.

But eventually Seunghyun cares less about what Jiyong’s saying and rather focuses on the way he’s saying it; how his lips move and the way his eyes jump around the room. Usually he’d be more careful with watching him, but he just stares at the other man without even trying to hide it.

They each finish their drinks and wind up standing outside the restaurant for a few minutes, neither wanting to say goodbye and end the night. Jiyong is surprisingly giggly given his demeanor this morning, and he wraps his arm around Seunghyun for support as he suggests that they walk down the street to a club.

Seunghyun has no reason to decline.

More drinks are available at the nightclub and Seunghyun starts becoming less embarrassed of Jiyong and the way he’s dancing – starts loosening up and moves around more than just a small step-clap-step-clap to the beat.

Some girls might have thought they were dancing with them at some point, when in reality they were just dancing near them. The pair is too enraptured with themselves to notice their surroundings.

By the last hour of the night they’re both dancing around like fools. Anyone watching them would have thought they had been best friends for a long time, and from that point forward if they’d pretended otherwise they’d be lying.

Finally Jiyong starts complaining loudly about his feet hurting, and he drags a partying Seunghyun out of the crowd and into the cold night air. He mutters something nearly incoherent about how his apartment is just a few blocks away, and Seunghyun walks him there, both taking turns in supporting each other down the sidewalk.

Jiyong has a key to his apartment that he’s finally able to extract from one of his pockets, but it takes him a few tries to get it into the lock. He swings the door open in success and sticks his foot in it to stop it from closing.

He beckons Seunghyun closer, and as soon as he’s in reach he pulls him in for a clumsy hug against the door. Both of them are just scarcely aware of how sloppy the hug is and how drunk they really must look.

          Then Jiyong’s safely shut up in his building and Seunghyun’s walking back in the opposite direction to find his own way home, full of triumph for befriending the man with a lip ring and an odd taste for monochromatic outfits.

***

          It’s a shame Minhae is intolerant of Jiyong’s hangover the next morning. She declares Seunghyun a bad influence despite Jiyong’s protestations. Jiyong comes into the coffeeshop apologizing profusely, convinced by Minhae that he had acted the fool. Seunghyun apologizes too, but he’s more sorry that that kept him from seeing straight.

          He’s relieved when Jiyong tells him that he may not be able to hang out with him for a while, but that he’ll never stop coming to the shop.
          “If I want to see you, I am going to see you. It’s her problem if she doesn’t like it.”

~

Seunghyun marks the end of Jiyong’s black mourning period by his next color of choice; yellow.

Usually he’d change his color palate in a week, but Jiyong said he’d gotten sick of black after only two more days. “I hate black coffee,” he’d declared, his lip curling.

 Now Seunghyun is making him his strawberry-banana smoothie, cringing at the amount of noise the blender makes in the quiet shop.

He brings him the drink personally once again, opening the little gate to get out from behind the counter and going up to his table. Jiyong has his black notebook out and he’s ripping out some of the pages, shoving them into the folder pocket of his presumably new yellow spiral.

“Have some stuff to save this time?” Seunghyun asks, hardly even pretending to straighten out the tables around Jiyong.

“Yeah, I guess I don’t that much at poetry.” Jiyong smiles smugly, taking the smoothie with a thank you and carefully sticking the straw in his mouth in a way that avoids his new lip ring. After a sip he starts picking at the scraps of paper that had been left over in the spiral of the black notebook when he ripped out the perforated part, making a small pile of it on the table. “Most of it is terrible, but there are a few lines I had that I am definitely reusing.”

Seunghyun nods absently, too busy wondering about the type of poetry that Jiyong might have been writing in the days past to register when he’d stopped talking. “What’s your new project?” He finally asks, noticing that Jiyong definitely wasn’t writing poetry on the laptop.

“A children’s book.”

“What?”

“A kid’s story. I needed something fun to try,” Jiyong shrugs.

“What’s it about?” Seunghyun smirks. He learns something new about Jiyong every day. And he knows he’ll never get sick of it.

Jiyong is interesting.

“I’m not totally sure. A prince with perseverance or something like that.” He holds his fist up and beams at Seunghyun, tilting his head from where he’s sitting because Seunghyun is so tall.

“Well, it sounds good.”

Jiyong’s smile fades and he starts picking a the hem of his shirt. “You’re too nice to me, Seunghyun.” He mutters, chuckling once to maybe pass it off as just being humble. But there’s something in his voice that sends off a red flag to Seunghyun.

“What do you mean? I mean, I’ve never actually read your writing, but you’re really dedicated -” He starts.

“ - Minhae hated the idea of a kid’s story.” Jiyong interrupts. “She told me to ‘grow up.’” He mimics her, crossing his arms and putting on a sour face.

Seunghyun pauses for a moment. “Sorry Jiyong, but I do not like your girlfriend.” He says bluntly.

Jiyong laughs bitterly and shakes his head at the table. “I love her, I really do. We’ve been having trouble lately, but it’ll all even out.”

~

Next week, Jiyong’s wearing almost all white.

His new order of choice is a green tea, and he’s not carrying anything but a notebook with a sheer cover on Monday.

He picks the drink up from the counter and lingers when opening a straw to talk to Seunghyun. “You want to see a movie later?” He says nonchalantly as he stabs the plastic into the countertop to rip the paper off.

Seunghyun’s heart skips. “A movie?” He clears his throat, aware of how eager he’d sounded. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, something funny. Or really sad. Do you know what’s out?”

“I haven’t heard of what’s good. We could find a funny one, though.” A comedy was best. He didn’t want to see Jiyong cry again. “Minhae wouldn’t be mad at you for going out with me again?”

“Oh, we are done.” Jiyong says lightly, and Seunghyun almost doesn’t register it because he says it so carelessly.

“You broke up?”

“Oh yeah. She’s a lying, cheating, unsupportive , and I deserve better.” Jiyong says, sighing deeply. “You were right.” He sips his tea and smacks his lips, taking a breath before speaking again. “I guess I should feel bad about it, I mean, we were together for a long time, but I’m not sad at all.” He raises his eyebrows and examines Seunghyun’s face. “Now… I get even more time with you.” He sticks his lips out as he annunciates the word, holding his expression in a sickeningly cute kissy-face for a small, small moment before breaking out in a grin.

He smiles in a way that’s more genuine than any way that Seunghyun’s ever seen him smile, and his heart just melts.

***

They go to see a comedy.

Jiyong winds up being a really bad movie theater patron, which afterwards, Seunghyun realizes he should have guessed.

He talks about nothing through the whole first half, though still watching the movie enough to laugh obnoxiously at every single joke that’s told. Seunghyun’s voice is deep, so it’s quiet enough to not disturb others when he responds, but he has trouble subduing Jiyong and he feels really guilty for the noise that he’s causing.

But he just can’t get enough of him.

Every time Jiyong laughs Seunghyun smiles involuntarily, and he’s only vaguely paying attention to the movie as he’s too busy watching Jiyong from his peripherals. Jiyong’s entire body reacts to his laughing, his eyes practically disappear when the corners of his mouth go up, and he literally slaps his knee a few times. At one point he’s wiping a tear out of his eye and he grabs Seunghyun’s arm.

“Thank you so much for coming with me.”

“What was I going to do? I told you, I like you, Jiyong.”

Looking really pleased with himself, Jiyong settles into his red velvet seat and is a bit quieter for the rest of the movie.

***

The next day in the café, Jiyong stands at the counter as he drinks his tea, eventually complaining about his feet hurting. Seunghyun doesn’t want him to leave, so he suggests that he pulls up a stool from the bar seats across the room to sit.

Seunghyun has to continue working, but in breaks between customers he’s able to pause and chat. He’s had to work at the register one more time since their club outing, and he finds it much easier to interact with the regulars since Jiyong has forced him to talk more and more often.

One day Jiyong points out the old couple. “I think they’re really sweet.”

“They come in almost as often as you.” Seunghyun smiles, wiping up a mess he’d made.

“I can’t wait for that kind of life. I need someone to grow old with.” He leans his elbow on the counter and swirls his no-longer-piping-hot cup of tea with a finger, which he sticks into his mouth and pulls out with a pop. His notebook is sitting next to him, as there was no room on the counter for his laptop, and he scribbles a few unintelligible notes. “You know, I like you, Seunghyun.” He says with his head down.

Seunghyun pauses in pumping caramel syrup for a moment to smirk at the top of his head. “I like you, too.” He turns his back to grab a different ingredient.

“I mean, you’re quiet. You actually let me finish my sentences. I like that.”

Seunghyun raises his eyebrows inquisitively, pouring a mug of decaf.

“I swear, Minhae never shut up. All about herself, too. It didn’t work very well for me. I like to talk a lot, too.”

“I’ve noticed.”

Jiyong chuckles and picks up his spoon, swirling it around in the lukewarm green water. “Now I get to come here all I want without her nagging at me.”

The conversation comes to a pause.

“What’s the new project?” Seunghyun asks, gesturing to the spiral-bound notebook with a clear cover.

“How do you know I’m not still working on the persevering prince story?” Jiyong crosses his arms.

“You had a different notebook. I just guessed.”

“Oh.” Jiyong flips his notebook closed and stares at it blankly for a second before flipping it back open and making another note. “Um, I’ve been trying to write song lyrics.” He scratches his head. “I think it’s kind of a stupid idea, but it’s just one step away from poetry and I was almost good at that. So.”

          “I really hope I can actually read some of your writing one day,” Seunghyun mentions offhandedly, handing the coffee to the man in business attire who looks like he’s in a rush.

          “If you’re lucky,” Jiyong says evasively, returning to his work and grinning foolishly at the pages.

***

The week goes on with Jiyong sitting right next to Seunghyun, and Seunghyun’s manager doesn’t even care because Seunghyun is working with extra efficiency with this new arrangement; and naturally Jiyong has charmed the manager instantly as well.

They run out of trivial things to talk about and soon Seunghyun’s asking all the questions he’d wanted to – he’s forced to exchange his own answers in order for it to be a functioning conversation, but the little Jiyong fangirl inside of him doesn’t care.

Jiyong is interesting.

Jiyong wants to become known for his writing – or as of late, his composing.

He’s been to Japan once, and his family is pretty well off, so he’s also visited Europe. He spends almost a full day talking about his trip, and when he tries to apologize for it, Seunghyun makes sure to shut him up.

Jiyong’s family is quiet. He discusses his mom’s fondness for knitting and his father’s love of American baseball. His sister is really into some girl group, and he complains about having to listen to them all the time when he visited home.
          He broke his wrist once because he jumped off of a swing too high on a dare. “I couldn’t back down from it!” He defended himself when Seunghyun laughed. He pouted at the way Seunghyun looked at him. “I was in kindergarten, okay? What about you? What’d you do during recess, if you’re such a goody-two-shoes?”

“I read in the library instead of going outside.” Seunghyun said after thinking about it for a moment.

Jiyong laughed. “You were even quiet back then! So you didn’t break any bones?”

“No, but I got a lot of paper cuts.”

Seunghyun didn’t know why Jiyong laughed at that. Even he knew that joke wasn’t funny. But he chuckled at him giggling, wiping a coffee mug.

Jiyong had had his first kiss as a freshman, and he’d met Minhae in his first year at SKKU. He doesn’t want to dwell on the subject of which girls he’s been with, and Seunghyun is thankful.

Fried rice.

“I don’t know… I’m kind of here all day now.” Jiyong says in response to Seunghyun asking what type of people his friends were. “I mean, at school I had a sort of group… “ He scratches his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t like any of them all that much. I like you a lot more. And I’ve only known you for a few weeks.” He fiddles with his pen, unscrewing the cap and taking the whole thing apart.

~

By the time Jiyong starts wearing red at the beginning of the next week, Seunghyun is ninety-nine percent sure that he’s actually known Jiyong forever.

It just seems like it; the way they interact.

No silence is awkward – whatever silence there is, anyway. Seunghyun hardly catches Jiyong not smiling, and by the time Jiyong has to leave, his own cheek muscles ache.

Because the earlier parts of the day are better, it’s easier for Seunghyun to get through the rest of the day, and the only thing he can think about is when he’ll see Jiyong next. He tries to fall asleep quickly so it feels like there’s less time in between their next and last conversations.

Wednesday night, Jiyong surprises him by being outside when he’s locking up.

Seunghyun can’t help himself from smiling at the surprise and he peeks at Jiyong over his shoulder while locking the door. “What’s up?”

The night is getting cold and Jiyong left his heavier jacket at home since he’d acted on impulse. He’s borderline shivering, but he’s putting on a strong face so he doesn’t look it. “I didn’t want to have to wait until tomorrow to see you.” He says simply.

“That’s good. Me either.” Seunghyun tucks his hands into his jacket pockets and looks around. “What do you want to do?”

“You should come over.” He responds quickly, another impulse. “I have some ramen, we could watch a movie. It’s too cold to walk anywhere else.”

Seunghyun chuckles and walks over to him. Their shoulders brush. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

Seunghyun doesn’t remember anyone he’d taken such a great walk with. Usually he would stay relatively silent while his companion was talking, but Jiyong makes sure that he keeps contributing regularly. But keeping up with this conversation isn’t nearly as hard as conversation usually was.

Soon enough they’re at the apartment building, and Jiyong opens the door with a flourish, holding it open for Seunghyun.

Jiyong talks to an ahjumma in the elevator, and Seunghyun grins when she brings up his red clothes. When they stop at his floor, Jiyong gives the woman a wave and practically skips out of the doors, straight across the hallway to his apartment door. He fishes out another key, pushes the door open, and shoos Seunghyun in front of him inside.

Their first stop is the kitchen, where Jiyong insists on making Seunghyun tea.

          “Sorry about the mess,” he apologizes, gesturing to a few boxes on the counter. “Minhae has come over randomly to pick up more of her stuff and to dump off some of mine. And the rest…” He scans the living room from the little window over the stove, where there’s a load of laundry strewn across an armchair in and abandoned session of folding, some half-eaten boxes of takeout, and all of his old notebooks in a pile in the corner. “Yeah, that stuff… That’s just me.”

          “Do you never clean?” Seunghyun chuckles, and Jiyong reaches across the stove where he’s boiling water to punch him.

          “I do… I just don’t like to… Often.” He pulls a face and steps carefully over some books and papers on the floor by the kitchen table, getting to the couch in order to take the pile of blankets that had called it home off of it and into an even messier-looking lump by the wall.

          The water pot screeches that the water is boiling, and Jiyong rushes back over to pour it into a teapot and to add two tea bags. He sets to work on filling a small pot with water to put on the stove next, and as it’s filling, he opens almost all of the cabinets in the kitchen before finding a packet of ramen.

          Seunghyun sits in the stool in front of the window above the stove to drink his tea, where there’s a little ledge that has remainders of what seems to be Jiyong’s breakfast. His head keeps swiveling around the apartment, making all sorts of observations and mental notes about Jiyong.

          Jiyong is interesting.

          Seunghyun should have known that his apartment wouldn’t be spotless; that wasn’t Jiyong at all. He has a few modern-art paintings on the walls, ones that are paint splatter and ones that look like rain – his different array of pencils and pens are in coffee mugs stashed on almost every single ledge there is – and the mess.

          Seunghyun has to keep himself from looking too intently at Jiyong’s laundry – where obviously there are chunks of the same colors, but he doesn’t want to know what color Jiyong’s planning – or not planning – to wear next. He doesn’t want a spoiler.

          A few minutes later, Jiyong dumps the ramen into the boiling water, not very carefully, but he’s super jumpy and he’s quick to get out of the way when it splashes.

          “How long have you lived here?” Seunghyun asks, knowing that Jiyong is a year younger than him.

          “Since the end of the last semester. I lived on campus before, but I won’t have a roommate going into next year.” He answers happily.

          The ramen bubbles noisily in the background, and soon Jiyong is dumping it into a strainer and adding flavoring and before Seunghyun really knows it they’re sitting on the couch with their own mismatched set of bowls and silverware and Jiyong sets his food down to bring Seunghyun a few movie selections.

          “This one’s scary,” he kneels on the ground and puts the first DVD case on the table, starting a line. He scrutinizes the back of another before laying it down in the row. “That’s a romantic comedy…” He reaches back to the shelf under his TV and digs around a bit before drawing out one more, holding it up for Seunghyun to see. “Aaand I think someone dies in this one.” He tosses it back. “Yeah, let’s not watch that one. What do you think?” He rests back on his heels and slaps his palms into his lap, waiting for Seunghyun’s choice.

          “I don’t really like scary movies…” He says, pushing the romantic comedy forward with his index finger.

          Jiyong nods and springs up, snatching the case off the table and snapping it open to stick the disk into the DVD player. “We’ll have to watch the scary one another time then. It’s really good.”

          Another time. Seunghyun is already dreading leaving the apartment, and he’s soothed to be reassured that he can come back. And soon.

          As soon as Jiyong has the remote in his hand and is sure that the DVD is working, he curls himself up on the corner of the couch, leaning on the arm. He presses play and trades the remote in his hand for his bowl of food on the table.

          Though much more relaxed than he was at the movie theater, Seunghyun is acutely aware of the proximity of Jiyong’s feet to his leg, the way he puts his face close to the bowl to slurp his noodles before they can slip out of his grasp.

          It’s only a short way into the movie when both men finish their meal, and Jiyong puts both of their bowls onto the side table so he can prop his feet up in front of him. He scootches over a bit closer to Seunghyun, who is suddenly aware of how large his arms are and how much space they take up and where they’re positioned and how he can’t just rest his left hand on the cushion next to him anymore because Jiyong is there.

          Eventually he gets sick of sitting upright and he tilts himself onto the arm of the couch on his side, scootching a bit away from Jiyong to do so.

Jiyong watches him.

In the next second Seunghyun’s arm is lifted and Jiyong nestles himself under it, and Seunghyun has no idea what he’s doing but he pulls him in closer to a more comfortable position for the both of them.

Now they’re cuddling, and there’s no possible way Seunghyun can focus on the movie because he has so many contact points with this man that he’s still so curious about, this man that he hopes will never leave his life because there’s so much more he wants to know.

Jiyong is interesting.

          And apparently he’s actually watching the movie, as he starts laughing at some point, and his back is vibrating against Seunghyun’s chest and he doesn’t know what to think of it so he laughs along as well. Jiyong tilts his head up suddenly and scans Seunghyun’s face, observing him in the way he observed him on that first day they’d actually met. But his eyes are softer and he doesn’t look like he needs to rush to his notebook to write about him, and Seunghyun looks back and he couldn’t have been the first to look away even if he’d wanted to.

And before Jiyong can have the impulse himself, Seunghyun leans in and kisses him.

          Jiyong’s response is immediate, the corners of his mouth turning up into the kiss, reaching a hand upward to press against Seunghyun’s chest, making the moment a sweet embrace and nothing else.

          Seunghyun can hardly think about the sense of confidence he’d never had before ballooning inside of him, all he can focus on is the lips that were so animated when Jiyong spoke and now they’re so soft and warm and he’s hyper-aware of the lip-ring and he can’t keep thinking in even nearly full sentences or anything that’s coherent in any way so he just stops thinking at all.

          Seunghyun’s heart thuds with his triumph, and when they finally break apart they just beam at each other, part of Seunghyun wanting to cry because the way Jiyong looks back at him is so perfect. He wraps his arms around the smaller man’s waist, tugging him to be even closer than before.

          “I like you, Jiyong,” he says into his blond hair, inhaling his scent freely.

          “I like you too, Seunghyun,” Jiyong replies, holding his own arms over the pair of strong ones holding him and squeezing.

          The movie finishes and Seunghyun doesn’t know who wound up with whom, but he knows the exact rhythm of Jiyong’s breathing and the shape of his hands as he’s holding them.

          Jiyong has to make an effort to reach forward to grab the remote to flip the TV off, Seunghyun will hardly let go of him for ten seconds. When the screen flicks off the room is dark, and Jiyong snuggles back up to Seunghyun with no intention of letting him go home.

          Seunghyun’s disoriented when he wakes up the next morning in a room that’s not his own, and yet he’s hardly surprised to see the blond on top of him, snoring lightly into his chest.

~

          Even when Seunghyun stops working full-time at his coffee shop, Jiyong visits him when it is his shift and they go on dates to other places that don’t involve hot beverages.

          And even though Jiyong’s weekly color keeps changing, he stays especially fond of red.

          Seunghyun never once tells him to change or wear something else, because he’s so enraptured with this man that he learns something new about every day, because he adores the blatant way he’s unique, because he’s too in love with him to care.

          Because Jiyong is interesting.

A/N: What are oneshots and why can't I condense writing ever HAAAH.
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you  really liked it! ^-^
(I also have a chaptered fic if you're up for that~)