Online Dating #1 - Yoongi
Group: BTS
Pairing: YoonSeok
Chapter Rating: Ages 13+
Word Count: 3,334
Warnings: Minor ual content, but nothing explicit. Language. Alcohol consumption.

It’s been a while since Yoongi’s been in the dating game. Since the end of his last relationship which happened because of basic trust issues and lies being told—secrets being kept. Yoongi won’t recall any of the specific details as they are much too painful for him to even want to remember, but he’s finally ready to take his chances with this again. Get himself out there. Make new friends. And, if he’s lucky, find someone worth his time and love.

Yoongi’s only problem is, he has no idea where to even begin looking for any potential dating partners. He’s not really interested in meeting any friends of his friends, and he doesn’t want to pick someone up from one of the local gay bars in town. Who knows what kind of diseases they’ll be carrying?

“Since you’re not exactly the social type to begin with,” Jimin says around a mouth full of food as the two sit together in the break room of the publishing company they are both stuck working for. His hair is a mess as he seems to have a habit of running his fingers through it while working on illustrations. “Why don’t you try online dating? It’ll be a perfect way for you to find all kinds of available singles in the area.”

Yoongi sets his chopsticks down, looking at the illustrator across the table. “Do you know how many creeps are on the internet?” Yoongi questions, not liking the sound of that idea at all. He can’t think of a way it’d possibly go right. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Jimin looks around the break room at other employees also enjoying their free time, and he raises his eyebrows as he looks back at Yoongi. “Sorry, but I don’t see anyone jumping at the chance to take you,” Jimin points out, and Yoongi frowns. “I’m just saying, Hyung, it might not be a bad idea.”

And that’s how Yoongi ended up creating a profile on some online dating site that looked trustworthy enough. Jimin helps him snap a few photo shots of himself so that he can upload a few profile pictures, and he even helps Yoongi select some photos from the one week vacation the two had taken together—with Seokjin, Jimin’s boyfriend, last month. Jimin coaches Yoongi in setting up an eye-catching profile that is sure to capture the attention of many willing men. Jimin advises Yoongi to give enough information to capture people’s attention, but little enough to keep them interested—wanting to know more.

“See? Look,” Jimin says, and Yoongi winces as the younger slaps him harshly on the arm in his excitement. Yoongi rolls over in his desk chair, checking the monitor from over Jimin’s shoulder. “You already have a message from one goodwithwords.” He reads the username off as if it’s supposed to impress Yoongi. “Should I open it?”

Yoongi looks at Jimin trying to give the younger a look that says he doesn’t give a damn what he does, but he’s actually curious to know what goodwithwords has to say. “Look at his profile first,” Yoongi says as he pinches Jimin in the side. The younger jerks away, scooting his chair far enough so that Yoongi can sit in front of the computer with him. Yoongi suddenly feels the excitement coming on, and he imagines where this online dating thing might take him.

“Good idea,” Jimin says as he clicks on the username to take them to his homepage. “If he’s creepy, we can back out right away.”

Yoongi is instantly attracted to the person just based on the photo he has as his profile pic. He’s ing gorgeous. Muscular, but not too muscular. Manly, but still with a little bit of charm. He has sharp eyes that could draw anyone to stare into them for hours. Jimin begins to read the profile out lout, and Yoongi listens. He put his real name, Bokyung, in his profile and introduced himself as a dentist—professional and impressive. Yoongi could live without some things like the fact that he’s christian and goes to church every Sunday—Yoongi hadn’t been to church except maybe twice in his life, but he decides to try talking to this guy. They can at least become friends if nothing else. “Hey, just stopped by your profile, and you seemed interesting. Would you like to chat?” Jimin reads the message from goodwithwords out loud, and he turns his computer chair. He places an elbow on the desk, rests his chin in the palm of his hand, and he looks directly at Yoongi. “What would you like to respond, Hyung?”

Yoongi feels a fluttering in his stomach as he thinks about having an online conversation with a complete stranger would might be a little interested in him. “Just ask him what was so interesting about my profile.” Yoongi says, tapping Jimin’s shoulder.

Jimin smirks and turns back to the keyboard. “Being astute, huh? I like it.” He says as he punches in Yoongi’s response and hits the send button.

The conversation carries on from there, and Yoongi takes over even after he returns to his own house. This Bokyung guy seems friendly enough, and Jimin encourages Yoongi to agree when goodwithwords invites him to meet somewhere in person for the first time. Naturally, Yoongi wouldn’t be so trusting to meet someone in person without a whole slew of backup, but they’re meeting in a fairly public restaurant. Since all of these things were taken into consideration for the meeting, Yoongi feels safe and comfortable with agreeing. Besides, Jimin’s assuring him that he can easily leave in a setting like that, assuming he starts to feel uncomfortable. If Bokyung tries to do anything, it’d make too much of a scene.

When Friday rolls around, Yoongi makes it to the specified meeting place on time. He talks to the waitress there, wondering if his date had arrived. “Ah, you must be here for Bokyung-ssi,” She says, knowing because Bokyung had called the restaurant ahead of time as he said he would. “We received a call from him just a little while ago saying that he’d be late. Your table is ready if you’d like to sit and wait.”

Yoongi agrees to taking the table and waiting on his date. After sitting alone for a few moments, he starts to feel as if the customers around him have their eyes on him. Feeling awkward, Yoongi pulls out his phone and pretends to check it, trying to distract himself from the glances he’s been getting, or feeling. After waiting for nearly another ten whole minutes, Yoongi really decides to text Jimin to let him know that his date still hadn’t arrived. Instantly, Jimin begins calling. “I didn’t say I wanted you to call me,” Yoongi demands, speaking in a whisper.

“Did he say that he’d be late?” Jimin questions, completely ignoring Yoongi’s complaint.

Yoongi fiddles with the free bread rolls on the table, nibbling his lower lip. Each minute that goes by without Bokyung showing up, Yoongi feels himself getting a little more nervous, but also disappointed. “I mean, he called the restaurant and said he’d be running a little late,” Yoongi explains.

“Then you have nothing to worry about!” Jimin chimes into the phone, and Yoongi rolls his eyes. He didn’t text Jimin because he was worried. He just texted him because he didn’t want to feel so awkward sitting here by himself. “Seokjin hyung and I are watching a movie, though,” Jimin giggles into the phone. “I’ll talk to you after your date!”

Before Yoongi even gets the chance to say another word, Jimin’s already hung up the phone.

Another few minutes pass of Yoongi just sitting there, all alone, until a handsome man comes up to his table. He recognizes him from the pictures on his online profile, but he looks so much better in person. “Yoongi, right?” Bokyung asks and waits for Yoongi to nod before pulling out the chair and joining him. “I’m really sorry about being late. I had a call in at least minute.”

“It’s fine,” Yoongi says, waving it off. “I don’t mind sitting awkwardly alone in a nice restaurant for nearly an hour.”

He wishes he could take those words back as soon as he says them: They sounded better in his head. Luckily, Bokyung likes Yoongi’s sense of humor and laughs at the words rather than getting upset about them.

The two order their food, and they have small conversations throughout the entire date. Bokyung talks about some of the strange experiences he’s had as a dentist—he avoids telling Yoongi any of the disgusting details. He says that it wouldn’t make a very good impression on a first date if he made Yoongi want to vomit over his own meal. Yoongi talks about his ever so boring job of being an editor and how he’d like to do something else with his life, but he’s not really sure what at this point.

The dinner date went so well, that Yoongi doesn’t refuse when Bokyung offers to show him some of his favorite places around town. Yoongi feel slightly uncomfortable when the other takes his hand, but he doesn’t pull away. He just allows Bokyung to hold his hand—it’s only his hand after all.

“Thank you for tonight,” Yoongi says when Bokyung walks him up to his apartment building. Bokyung ended up paying for dinner, and they even stopped and got galettes along the way. “I had a great time.”

“Me too,” Bokyung says, leaning forward. Yoongi finally panics and quickly backs away before he can do anything.

“I-I’m sorry. I can’t.” Yoongi says, but Bokyung is grabbing onto his arm harshly and pulling him closer again. He presses a forcefully kiss to Yoongi’s lips, pressing Yoongi firmly against the wall so that he doesn’t have any room to escape. He shoves his tongue into Yoongi’s mouth without even asking for an entrance first, and Yoongi wonders what happened to the sweet guy that was standing before him just minutes before. Was he kind to Yoongi in hopes of getting into his pants tonight?

Yoongi gathers enough strength to shove Bokyung off of him. “I said I don’t ing want it.” Yoongi demands, a fire blazing in the pit of his stomach.

“Then how about a second date?” Bokyung suggests.

“ off,” Yoongi demands, quickly punching in the code to his apartment building and slipping in before Bokyung could try anything else. He hurries his apartment and unlocks the door.

Once inside, he leans back against the door and slides to the ground, breathing heavily and tears in his eyes. “I’m assuming the date didn’t go well?” Taehyung, Yoongi’s roommate, presumes as he pauses the video game he’s currently playing to come squat in front of Yoongi on the floor.

Yoongi allows himself to calm down first before saying anything. He doesn’t want to break down crying in front of his roommate. Taehyung is used to these kinds of things. Making out with perfect strangers and people wanting him just for pleasure, but Yoongi’s not exactly that type of person. He likes to know that there’s something more there before stepping into any kind of relationship. “No, it was perfect, and he was super sweet the entire time.” Yoongi tells the younger. “But it was all just an act to try getting into my pants tonight.”

Taehyung sighs before standing up to tower over Yoongi. He offers Yoongi a hand to help him up from the ground, and Yoongi only realizes then that they have company—someone Yoongi’s never met before. It’s not surprising that he doesn’t know all the people Taehyung hangs out with, but he still wishes his roommate would inform him before inviting guests into the apartment. “Yeah, that’s going to happen,” Taehyung says. “You just have to be careful.” He moves over to the couch, sitting next to the boy he has over. “You want to play some Mario Kart with us? Forget about everything that happened tonight?”

Two weeks more have Yoongi meeting his next date at another restaurant. This time he’s meeting with a Byungjoon who is not quite as attractive as the last date that Yoongi had, but he still finds his looks fairly appealing. On his page, he said that his job is the manager of a photo printing shop, and his hobby is going to baseball games rather than watching them on TV—which sounds pretty ideal to Yoongi. His date, this time, is there before he is.

The date starts off well, Byungjoon complimenting Yoongi and saying that he looks better in person than he did in the photos. It quickly goes into a downward spiral from there with Byungjoon talking about his own low self-esteem and asking Yoongi if he thinks he’s ugly. Yoongi is instantly turned off by that and texts Jimin under the table to call him. Yoongi answers as if there’s an emergency and makes a quick break from the restaurant.

It’s just a couple of days before Yoongi’s next date, which is planned to be in a park. Yoongi is thankful for that because it’ll be a much more relaxed environment than going to a restaurant and having to make a good impression over a meal. This time the date goes exceedingly well. Myunghwa is a really nice and polite person. He doesn’t share too much information with Yoongi, but they cover all the basics including jobs and professions. The date goes so well that Yoongi doesn’t decline the offer when Myunghwa decides to go for drinks so that they can open up a little more.

Even that date goes over well until Myunghwa starts to get a little drunk. He doesn’t get mean, exactly, just really intimate and starts talking about his and Yoongi’s future together. Yoongi has to excuse himself from the date and leaves without another word.

One more weeks passes before Yoongi takes another personal meeting opportunity, and this time it’s with a really cute guy who works as a stylist, but he claims to be working on a book. His name is Youngsook, and he is really friendly. It’s another dinner date, and Yoongi is a bit nervous about going through this again. He’s the first one to show up, but Youngsook follows soon after.

Yoongi is relieved that his date, this time, seems to be in the right place. He is so charming, pulling the chair out for Yoongi and giving him his full attention without being too creepy. “Sorry,” Youngsook says. “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, but it’s only right if I take care of my date.”

“No no, it’s fine,” Yoongi says with a smile. “I like it.”

“So tell me, Yoongi-ssi,” Youngsook says when their date gets going. “What are you looking for in a relationship?”

“I don’t really know yet,” Yoongi tells him after a moments deliberation. “I don’t think I’m really ready for a relationship right now. I’m just kind of testing the waters first. I really want to take things slow, you know?”

Youngsook nods, agreeing that Yoongi has the right idea. The conversation moves at a smooth flow from there, and Yoongi thinks that they may really be clicking. When the conversation dies down a little and there’s not really much to talk about, Yoongi dismisses himself to go to the bathroom. He’s practically been holding it in ever since the date began, and he’s beginning to feel a little uncomfortable. If he doesn’t want to sit there awkwardly and uncomfortably, now is a great time to take a break.

After washing his hands, Yoongi pulls out his phone to check his messages before returning to his date. He has a few messages from Jimin asking him how the date is going. Yoongi responds, telling him that it’s going great. He’s certain that a second date may be coming. He sends that message to Jimin and leaves from the bathroom.

When Yoongi returns to the table, Youngsook is nowhere to be seen, and Yoongi feels his heart dropping down into his gut and tears form in his eyes. The waiter soon returns to the table. “Excuse me,” Yoongi says. “Do you know where my date went?”

“He left saying that it’s not really what he was looking for. I’m sorry,” The waiter responds, and Yoongi feels angry and upset and a bunch of other emotions all at once. “He did pay for the meal in full, so you’re free to go when you want.”

Yoongi doesn’t touch the dating app or even sign into the website after that. He’s done with this. If he had one bad date out of three, he could handle it. No. He’d been on four bad dates all together, and nothing good had happened. He can’t do this anymore, so he just gives up. He’ll eventually find the right person by meeting him in person and not through some dumb dating app.

“How has your dating been going?” Jimin asks Yoongi as he takes a seat next to the elder in the break room.

Yoongi turns to the younger as he pulls out his tub of kimchi and rice from his lunch bag. “I quit,” Yoongi tells him. “Online dating is the worst idea you’ve ever come up with.” He places his tubs on the table as he wonders why Jimin doesn’t just introduce him to one of the random people he knows. “You’re a social butterfly and have all sorts of friends,” Yoongi points out. “Why don’t you just introduce me to one of them?”

“I know a bunch of straight and taken people,” Jimin says, and Yoongi sighs. All of the good men are straight or taken. “Why don’t you try getting on a paid dating site? People on there are generally more, you know, serious about finding a good relationship.”

Yoongi is really tired of being alone. Especially when he has a roommate who’s getting laid every night and his best friend at work is in a beautiful relationship right now. It only reminds him of how lonely he is. He wonders if he’s so desperate, though, that he’s willing to pay for the services. He could just be throwing his money. It’s not guaranteed that he’ll get a relationship just because he decides to pay for the services. “I’ll think about it.” Yoongi says.

He does. He thinks about it over their lunch break, throughout his day, and until he makes it back to his apartment. Sitting in front of his computer, he considers going to some paid dating site and signing up. After considering it for a while, weighing the pros and the cons, Yoongi decides to finally do it. He just begins to go through the sign-up process and is just about type in his debit card information before his phone flashes with a new messages from the free dating app. It’s from a user Yoongi doesn’t recognize, so someone he hasn’t talked to yet. The username is happyvirusgamer. It’s not really an ideal username, but Yoongi’s isn’t all that great either, so he can’t complain.

Yoongi opens up the app and views the user’s profile. He’s definitely not as attractive as the last people Yoongi’s gone on dates with, but Yoongi won’t let that be his deciding factor. He’s put up with enough s and weirdos to let looks go for now. He read what’s written in this user’s profile and learns that he really likes video games, baseball, and dancing. He doesn’t give away a lot in his profile, but he does say that he’s new to town. Yoongi almost doesn’t even want to bother, but this message stopped him from paying for some service that wouldn’t guarantee him anything. He decides to read the message and give the guy a chance. He’s sure he can’t have any worse dates than he already has.