“Junho”

Chansung blinked a few times but couldn’t make out what the man said because of the scarf covering half his face. “I’m sorry, what?”

If it was possible, he managed to hide his face even further with his giant scarf. He leaned closer until Chansung was face to face with the deepest pair of mocha eyes he’s ever seen.

“Junho. My name is Junho”

Chansung was still a blinking mess as he did hear him this time but didn’t know what to say. What do you say to a man that’s been stalking you for almost a week? ‘They probably only make Hallmark cards for stalkers of 3 weeks and up anyway’. Chansung was lost in thought for a moment and didn’t realise he was zoning out until Junho sneezed and brought him back to reality. He realised that although he left his house early, he was now late for work and had to leave Junho.

“Um, sorry but I have to go to work now,” awkwardly scratching the back of his head, he then extended his arm to shake hands with Junho. “It was nice meeting you Junho,” the boy just looked down at his arm then looked back up at the giant man in front of him. Now he was really late so he had to swallow his pride and retract his rejected hand and peddle away to the office.

He made it just in time and was finally able to catch his breath when he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the 10^th floor. He was only able to breathe for a minute before the elevator stopped at the 3^rd floor only for its doors to open for the devil himself.

“Good morning Mr Ok,” he politely bowed and tried to calm his laboured breathing.

“Morning Chansung-ah, I see you made it just in time. I hope it was the report that’s kept you up the past couple of days because you look a little worse for wear,” he commented at the sight of the poor dishevelled man in front of him.

Chansung knew that was a trick question because the last time he answered yes he got a lecture on maintaining proper sleep habits and eating healthy and other health talks shoved down his throat. But at the same time, he didn’t want to say it’s because of a cat and have his boss recommend him a psychiatrist either. “It’s someone actually.” Wrong answer again.

His boss did a double-take before a sly, greasy grin painted its way across his face. “A girl huh? Well it explains the flustered look then.”

He didn’t realise the connotations of his answer until he made that lewd comment and he wanted to dig a hole and die in it from embarrassment.  The tension finally dispatched when they reached the 10^th floor and Chansung made a bee line to his cubicle to put as much distance between him and his y boss as possible.

“Oh I didn’t know you had a thing with the giant cat,” Jo Kwon walked passed Chansung to sit at the desk to his left.

“Excuse me?”

“The panting, the flustered face, Mr Ok’s sly grin? I’d say you two were just--”

“Please if you don’t say what I think you were going to say I will buy your morning Frappuccino for a week.” He even pulled out the puppy eyes for extra measure but he knew he won Jo Kwon over at the promise of free beverages. He just couldn’t deal with any extra teasing that morning since he had other things on his mind.

He finishes work around the same time Minjun closes up and sometimes he pops by to grab an extra shot of caffeine if he has to work late into the night or to just see him off but this time he had questions for the older man. As he rounded the corner and braked in front of the café, he noticed that Junho wasn’t at the telephone pole like he thought he’d be. ‘Of course he’s not there, he’s not a dog waiting for his owner’. Minjun was wiping the tables and stacking the chairs on top of them when Chansung made himself known with the soft tingle of the bell attached to the door.

“Chansung-ah! Going to work late into the night?” he threw his towel on his shoulder and wiped his hands on his apron while standing in front of the giant man. Chansung looked around the shop to make sure no one was around to overhear them.

“Hyung. I need to ask you something. I know you can’t say much because of client-worker confidentiality…” Minjun’s chuckles interrupted him.

“Chansung I own a coffee shop not a doctor’s clinic. What do you need to know?”

“Well do you know a guy called Junho?” Minjun closed his eyes in concentration until he remembered the name.

“Oh yes! I know Junho. Not really a regular but pops by once in a blue moon. What about him?” Chansung wasn’t sure how to tell him that he’s been following him for a week. He didn’t even know if Junho was actually following him since he doesn’t have anything on the guy.

He scratched his head and gave a sheepish smile, “Well, what do you know about him?”

Minjun pulled out chair and motioned for Chansung to take a seat too. “Not much to be honest. He moved to this town a year ago and always orders a Vanilla Frappe. He doesn’t say much and when he does talk, he always looks like he is preoccupied with something else on his mind. A very strange kid and I actually thought he was a girl when I first saw him. It’s because he’s always covering his face up with his jacket or a scarf so I couldn’t make out his features except for those cute eyes of his,” he laughed.  Chansung wasn’t sure whether that new information helped or just confused him even more but he figured he should head home since Minjun doesn’t know much about him either. He ordered a long black and secured his tumbler in his messenger bag before hopping onto his bike and peddled home.

Chansung fell into a routine that consisted of him waking up early, checking to see if the Emperor has returned, getting coffee, work, getting coffee, going home and working on the the giant task Mr Ok has given him. He doesn’t mind the distraction because it kept his mind busy and before he knew it, one week flew by. Other than a strange blank email he received on Thursday from a ‘no-reply’ sender, he didn’t even think of Junho or Emperor that whole week. He handed his report on the Friday and got a commendation from his boss for picking up his pace and for staying focused (“I’m glad you’re able to set time for work and also time for play but I’m really happy with the work you’ve done. Take Monday off for your hard work and have an extra day of play,” Taecyeon winked at him and left before Chansung could fix the situation he’s got himself into).

It wasn’t as cold today but still a little nippy, so Chansung decided to go bother Wooyoung after a week of not seeing his best friend. As he was slipping on his shoes on his front porch, he saw Jinyoung walk out of his house with his snow-white Pomeranian on a leash.  He politely waved and went on his way. He wanted to surprise Wooyoung by buying him a vanilla ice-cream cake so he called Minjun a day before to place the order. He was in no hurry but almost crashed his bike into a garbage can when he saw Junho outside Minjun’s café. He was so caught up in work the whole week that he totally forgot about the strange man. Unlike their last encounter, Junho saw him approaching him and made to walk away but Chansung called out to him.

“Junho! Wait!”

He picked up his pace and almost started running away. Chansung dumped his bike near the entrance of the café and jogged to catch up with him. Once he caught up, he grabbed his arm lightly to make the man turn and face him. Chansung now faced a pair of frightened eyes staring straight up at him. He didn’t mean to scare him but at the same time he wasn’t sure why he approached him either. Because now that he actually caught the attention of the smaller man, he didn’t know what to say.

“Do you like cats?”

He couldn’t help but cringe as soon as the question left his mouth. ‘Smooth Hwang, smooth’. However the reaction it got from Junho told him it wasn’t such a terrible question after all. The crinkles on his forehead smoothed out and his chocolate eyes lit up. Junho reached up to remove the scarf covering his mouth to reveal full lips that stretched into a wide smile. His eyes glinted before they disappeared into little slits.

“Yes I do.”

Chansung lost himself for a moment; just basking in what he would call the most radiant and honest smile he’s ever seen. He continued to just stare and didn’t realise that he had been doing so for a couple of minutes until the smile slipped off Junho’s face followed by a worried look. Chansung wanted to reach out and smooth the crinkle lines on his forehead but stopped himself when he was just inches away from his face. ‘Wait, what am I doing?’

As if doused with cold water, he backed away from Junho and had to control himself from running away like a little girl. “I-I I’m sorry for the abruptness of it all. I just figured that since you keep on looking at the flyer that you… well anyway I have to go now but it was nice meeting you Junho.” He extended his hand only to realise that he was just setting himself up for a rejected handshake once again but was caught off guard when a hand slipped into his. His hand was much smaller than his and skin much smoother. His fingers were very long and slender and his fingertips weren’t calloused like his from hours of typing every day. He could’ve stood there forever just analysing and memorising his hands but he had to remind himself that he was outside. In public. In the middle of a pathway. Caressing a stranger’s hand. He didn’t mean to jerk his hand away so harshly but he really thought he was going to lose it if he didn’t leave now. He turned around and power-walked back to Minjun’s shop where he was glad that a random worker was the one to greet him and give him his order because he didn’t want to stay around for too long. As he got on his bike, he made sure to take the longer way to Wooyoung’s house so as to avoid the dejected man he so abruptly left in the middle of the pathway.

They fell into an unofficial, official routine. Chansung isn’t sure know how it got to this but every weekend he would meet Junho outside the café where they would exchange pleasantries then enter the café for a small coffee. They wouldn’t say a thing to each other but for some reason the silence wasn’t unbearable. Albeit awkward at times but not suffocating. They would drink their beverages while occasionally looking at the other, only for Chansung to realise he’s been starting for too long and he would look away flustered. Junho would only tilt his head when Chansung looks the other way, but never took his eyes off him which made the flush on Chansung’s cheeks spread to his neck and ears.

This went on for a couple of weekends until one fateful Saturday Chansung skipped out on breakfast so he wasn’t too keen on drinking coffee on an empty stomach. He felt a little sick and wasn’t sure if it was because of the skipped meal or because of the butterflies he got as he got himself ready to ask Junho something. As usual, Junho would be outside the café, shuffling his feet on the pavement and looking around while he waited for Chansung. He spotted him and although his face was covered, Chansung could tell he broke out into a smile because of the crescent moon eyes looking back at him.

“Hi”

“Hello”

“I was wondering…” he trailed off and couldn’t bring himself to ask Junho. He felt stupid for feeling so nervous and looked away from the man in front of him. Whenever he thought he could go through with it, he would look at Junho and his shiny orbs and lose his composure all over again. ‘Pull yourself together, you’re not asking him to marry you. Oh my God Chansung’. He shook his head to rid himself of all thoughts and asked.

“Do you want to have lunch with me?”

He blinked in response but eventually let out a small chuckle and enthusiastically nodded his head. He didn’t know why he was so worked up over this. He’s just a new friend that he wants to get to know better so having lunch between two bros should be nothing.

With the occasional side glance at the other, Chansung and Junho walked to Changmin’s pizzeria in near comfortable silence. They made it into the shop and managed to find an empty booth near the kitchen doors in the almost packed shop. They were given two menus and were left to make their order.

“So what are you getting?” asked Chansung, peeking at Junho above his menu.

His face was scrunched up in concentration as he looked at the pizza menu as well as the pasta one on the other side. “I don’t know this is my first time here. What do you recommend?”

Chansung was caught off-guard since he hasn’t really bought food for anyone in a while and didn’t know what to recommend. “Well…I really like the seafood pizza”

Junho’s sudden change in expression actually made Chansung laugh out loud. He had a sour look on his face as if he just tasted something off. “Seafood. I hate seafood. Especially tuna. That stuff is very weird.”

“How can you hate tuna? It’s like the vanilla ice-cream of fish. You have to like tuna!” This only confused Junho as he did what he did best when he got confused: tilt his head and look up at Chansung with his questioning eyes.  He only shook his head in response and dismissed his weird comment as the waiter came to take their orders.

Eating at the pizza place was spent in silence like how they would at the café but occasionally one would ask the other about what food they liked to eat and when they liked to eat that food. Halfway through their pasta, Chansung looked up to see a drop of pizza sauce smeared across Junho’s face. Junho continued to eat his meal, totally oblivious to the smudge on his face which slightly irritated Chansung. ‘What is he a girl? This isn’t Coffee Prince so I’m not wiping anything for him’. He tried to ignore it but like ignoring an itch in the hopes that it would go away, the irritation only gets worse.

“Hey Junho you have something on you,” the boy looked up and tried to point at the spot on his face. “No it’s a little lower,” he poked out his tongue and tried to it off but didn’t manage to get the spot. Now coupled with Junho’s darting tongue, Chansung was close to really losing it. He was about to get up and walk over to him when he accidently elbowed a waiter he didn’t see that was holding two bowls of spaghetti bolognaise. As if in slow motion, the dishes soared through the air, one shattering on the floor and the other made a perfect bullseye on Chansung’s head.

The whole shop went dead silent and all eyes were on the waiter who looked like was going to burst into tears and Chansung who had an unreadable expression.

“Chansung-ah, you have some sauce on your face,” Chansung didn’t say anything at Junho’s comment but when a smile started creeping its way onto the smaller man’s face, he couldn’t help but laugh. At first they were small chuckles but soon turned into full blown, hearty laughs because of the ridiculousness of the situation. It was only when everyone went back to their own business and the waiter apologised and promised to compensate him did he finally stop laughing and wipe off the sauce of his face. Junho didn’t laugh during the whole ordeal but had a massive smile on his face which made Chansung feel less embarrassed about what happened.

They got up and paid for everything and left just as the sun was starting to set. Chansung didn’t know where Junho lived but he said he lived in the same direction as him so they walked to Chansung’s house in calm silence. They reached his residence when the sky turned a vibrant purple-orange and the birds were chirping to signal the coming of the night. He face Junho to bid him goodbye but wasn’t sure how. The man didn’t know what a handshake was so a hug would probably traumatise him. So he opted to waving at him and saying goodnight. He walked up to his front door and slipped his shoes off before opening it and walking it. Just as he was about to close it, he saw Junho just watching him from afar, still waving back with a sweet yet sad look on his face. 

I I know TT_________TT but at this point in time it looks like I'll be updating once a week (at least until I have my month long holiday in July).

Sorry if there are any grammar mistakes (and I say grammar because I have the distinct feeling that I screwed up the past and present tense somewhere in this chapter D:)

I hope you guys enjoy this and it doesn't disappoint! :D <3