Unlike the long and torturous experience of waiting for Jisoo’s first text, Jisoo’s reply to Jeonghan only took 10 minutes.

well i can never say no to chocolate XD

Jeonghan’s excitement can’t be hidden as he totally does not let out a little squeak. This is surely a date right? Or maybe Jisoo really can’t say no to chocolate no matter who asks?

“Ooh, smooth,” Seungkwan says when Jeonghan shows him the message, “who knew he’d be better at this than you?”

Jeonghan just pouts at his best friend’s comment.

“Don’t worry, he ruined it with the emoji though.”

“But do you think this is a date?” Jeonghan asks carefully, not wanting to hear the wrong answer.

Seungkwan just smiles at him, his smile not one of reassurance but one of crafty scheming.

“Hey, guys!” Seungkwan calls and starts to run into the kitchen, his voice echoing across the café.

Jeonghan looks around at the customers and quite a few of them were looking around in confusion. Jeonghan can’t believe that 10:04 doesn’t receive more complaints, but he supposes that a large amount of them are regulars and already know of the staff’s usual antics.

“Jeonghan has a date!” Jeonghan can hear from the kitchen, followed by cheering.

Jeonghan trails after his best friend, knowing what he was going to have to deal with once he reached the kitchen.

He didn’t even make it all the way through the door before he was attacked. Soonyoung and Seokmin had wrapped him in a bear hug that was meant to be loving but was really squeezing all the air out of his chest.

“Guys,” Jeonghan wheezes, pleading for the couple to let go of him.

They let go with a rushed “Sorry! Sorry!”

“But we’re just so excited!” Seokmin beams.

“You know what this means right?” Soonyoung asks. “We can go on double dates!”

“It was never referred to as a date. It could just be a friend thing,” Jeonghan protests.

“And Seungkwan, I can’t believe they kept a secret from you for a month and you still go running to them with my secrets!”

“Ahh true. Well I was lying to get back at you guys,” Seungkwan says as he crosses his arms with a determined nod in the direction of Seokmin and Soonyoung.   

Jeonghan rolls his eyes as Soonyoung and Seokmin laugh.

“It’s a bit late for that,” Jeonghan says patting his friend on the back as he walks back out the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Soonyoung asks but Jeonghan doesn’t turn back, knowing that he would be roped into discussing his date (his “date”?) for the next hour.

Minghao and Junhui come into 10:04 briefly and of course they’ve already heard the news.

“Congratulations,” Junhui says with a smirk.

Minghao just nods, clapping his hands together in a quiet applause.

“Who?” Jeonghan asks defeated.

“Seungkwan sent out a mass text,” Junhui shrugs.

Jeonghan lets out an exasperated sigh, “oh my god, I don’t know why I put up with him.”

At that moment Seungkwan walks past carrying an order and directs a quick “you know you love me,” in Jeonghan's direction.

Jeonghan then busies himself for the remainder of the day as he anxiously watches the clock tick down to 5pm.

At a quarter to five, the 10:04 door opened and in walked Jisoo. Jeonghan watched the boy scan the room and Jeonghan’s heart fluttered when Jisoo broke into a massive smile when they finally locked eyes. 

Jisoo immediately went to go find an empty booth and Jeonghan’s mind was racing a mile a minute.

It was easy enough coming up with something to say over text when you can spend 15 minutes brainstorming the perfect reply; but you can’t pause real life and this time Jeonghan wants to keep his awkward comments to himself.

Somehow Jeonghan manages to avoid the other staff apart from a quick, “I see your lover boy is here,” from Seungkwan and so he is free from the inevitable teasing, at least for now.

He clocks off and quickly ducks into the rest room to change. While he doesn’t want to make this feel more like a date (as Jisoo probably did turn up simply for the milkshake) he also doesn’t want to sit across from a cute boy while smelling like a slightly off breakfast buffet.

When Jeonghan walks out the restroom in casual clothes, that actually took an hour to pick out, he sees that Jisoo is no longer alone…

“Oh god no,” Jeonghan mutters to himself as he sees Soonyoung and Seokmin sitting across from Jisoo, who looked very uncomfortable in his current situation, no matter how much he looked like he was trying to smile.

“Um, hey guys…” Jeonghan says warily as he slides into the booth next to Jisoo, “what are you doing?”

Jeonghan looks from the couple’s suspicious smiles then down to the table where there is a milkshake glass, that was definitely not chocolate. On the table in front of Jisoo was Soonyoung and Seokmin’s infamous Maple Bacon milkshake.

If there was any way to scare away a cute boy (or anyone really) it would be to tell them that blending up bacon in maple syrup is a good idea, even if it does actually taste kind of nice.

“We were just delivering his special order,” Seokmin grins.

Jeonghan shakes his head at the pair, turning to Jisoo to say, “You don’t need to drink that.”

Soonyoung raises his hand to his chest in shock, “How could you say that? This is a ritual to being a customer at 10:04!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. It was actually quite nice to be honest,” Jisoo says waving away Jeonghan’s worry.

“It’s still no chocolate though,” he says, turning to Seokmin and Soonyoung apologetically.

“Also can I just say that we are both very upset that you haven’t mentioned us to him before,” Soonyoung pouts as Seokmin nods along.

“That’s because you do things like this,” Jeonghan answers bluntly, motioning to the milkshake.

“We’ve only been getting to know each other,” Seokmin’s smile is wide, but Jeonghan doesn’t believe that “getting to know each other” doesn’t equal “interrogation” or “spilling all of Jeonghan’s secrets.”

“Don’t you have work to do?” Jeonghan asks the couple.

“Maybe we’re finished…and we can hang out with you guys! I mean, we did plan for that double date,” Soonyoung says with a sly smile.

“Oh my god, please leave,” Jeonghan pleads, not believing that they mentioned the “d” word. He told them that he hadn’t mentioned that word to Jisoo and this was strictly a friend thing (but hopefully just for the moment.)

Jeonghan jumps out of his seat and attempts to force the couple from the booth.

“Fine, fine, we’ll go,” Seokmin finally gives in, “but we’re only trying to help.”

“Not helping,” Jeonghan whispers out of clenched teeth.

Once they had gone, Jeonghan slid into the now vacant side of the booth and slowly looked back up at Jisoo, who he hadn’t looked at since the “d” word was uttered.

When Jeonghan meets Jisoo’s eyes again, he looks for any hints as to what he’s thinking, but there was nothing but his normal friendly smile.

“So what else do I need to try from this place?” he asks and Jeonghan let out a small sigh of relief as maybe Jisoo hadn’t heard the comment at all.

“Anything chocolate right?” Jeonghan says with a smile.

“Well, I’m willing to trust you if you think there’s something else I must try…”

Jeonghan can tell that he’s only saying this to be polite.

“I’ll order you the same but with the waffles this time; the waffles are really good. So waffles with chocolate ice cream and extra chocolate sauce? And a chocolate milkshake?”

Jisoo nods his head enthusiastically, “What are you going to get?”

“The same but strawberry,” Jeonghan shrugs.

“How boring,” Jisoo teases.

Just as Jeonghan is about to stand up to go tell Soonyoung and Seokmin his order, a shadow falls across their table.

“Hi, I will be taking your order today.”

Jeonghan looks up to meet eyes with a very smug looking Mingyu. He internally curses Seungkwan, who was no doubt on the phone to Mingyu as soon as Jisoo walked through 10:04’s door. But he can’t believe that it’s Mingyu and Wonwoo’s anniversary and Mingyu is here and not with his boyfriend.

“You weren’t meant to be working today,” Jeonghan says in forced friendliness.

 “I got called in,” he chuckles, “I was told it was very important.” He ends his sentence with a wink and Jeonghan actually wants to die of embarrassment.

Jeonghan sighs and guesses that he should introduce Jisoo who was most likely feeling very confused.

“Jisoo, this is Mingyu. He also lives in our building but on another floor,” he says pointing between the boys.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Jisoo says with his trademark gentlemen smile.

“You actually met my boyfriend, Wonwoo; he helped you first move in. We should all catch up sometime,” Mingyu says with a smile, Jisoo nodding in agreement not realising that Mingyu is no doubt hinting at a double date. What is with his friends’ and their love of double dating?

Jeonghan relays his order to Mingyu and the boy walks away turning back once to point between the two boys and make a heart shape. Jeonghan’s not really sure how Mingyu ever made it past elementary school but he’s relieved that Jisoo didn’t happen to be looking in the boy’s direction.

“This seems like a great place to work. Do you like it?” Jisoo asks curiously.

“Yeah, I do. Even if I am the only sane staff member,” Jeonghan laughs.

“You can hardly be sane with your attitude towards chocolate,” Jisoo says in mock seriousness (or maybe real seriousness as you never know with Jisoo and chocolate.)

Jeonghan just shrugs and smiles deciding that another argument about chocolate should be saved for another day.

“So do you have a job?” Jeonghan asks.

Jisoo laughs, “Jeonghan, remember that I only moved here a week and a bit ago? I’ve hardly had the time to get one, but I do need to start applying.”

Jeonghan realises that this is the first time Jisoo has said his name, and even in just normal conversation it makes Jeonghan’s stomach start an acrobatics routine and Jeonghan didn’t realise that his name could ever sound quite so nice.  

“I can help you start trying to find places? I know where you definitely want to avoid,” Jeonghan replies, still thinking of his name on Jisoo’s tongue.

“You can always apply here?” Seungkwan says, coming out of no where to stand at their table.

Jeonghan doesn’t know whether to be embarrassed or angry at the fact that clearly his best friend was sitting somewhere listening to their conversation, despite the fact that he was meant to be working.

Jeonghan watches Jisoo contemplate the idea, before Jisoo turns to him with a questioning gaze.

Does Jeonghan want Jisoo to work with him? He knows that it would be an excuse to see the boy more, but it also means that Jisoo would constantly be around the other staff, who can’t keep to themselves or refrain from embarrassing him. But Jeonghan decides that saying no will only make Jisoo think he didn’t like him, which he knew was anything but the truth.

“I don’t see why you would want to work with these guys…but if you can handle them, it’ll be great,” Jeonghan finally replies.

Jisoo perks up at Jeonghan’s answer, “but they don’t seem that bad?”

“Oh, but they are, especially this one,” Jeonghan says pointing towards Seungkwan who pouts and teasingly hits him.

“Well, let me just go talk to Seungcheol. You probably won’t even need an interview,” Seungkwan leaves and Jeonghan can’t believe that somehow his attempt at instigating a date has ended in a possible job offer. He wasn’t joking when he told Seungcheol that people don’t want to go on dates where they work.

Soon enough Seungkwan is back with Seungcheol is tow and their date is now officially a job interview.

While Jisoo and Seungcheol were talking, Seungkwan motions for Jeonghan to move away and follow him to a couple of tables away.

Jeonghan follows, wanting to get away from Seungcheol talking about how he makes sure that he manages 10:04 with love, but feeling bad for leaving Jisoo who was roped into the conversation.

“What?” Jeonghan asks his best friend.

“I’ve got him hired! You owe me for this, you need to ask him out on a proper date right now!” Seungkwan looks like he’s about to burst.

Jeonghan looks back at Jisoo and Seungcheol deep in conversation, “I can hardly ask now…”

Jeonghan’s comment receives a sharp look from Seungkwan and a stern, “you know what I mean.”

Jeonghan sighs, defeated.

“I’m going to okay. It’s just…look I was going to try tonight, but I didn’t want to tell you in case it didn’t turn out.”

Seungkwan grabs Jeonghan arm and squeals. Jeonghan stares back at Jisoo, hoping that he didn’t notice his best friend’s freak out.

“I gotta tell-” Seungkwan starts excitably.

“This is why I didn’t tell you,” Jeonghan cuts him off. Jeonghan knows his friend too well and especially with Mingyu turning up here tonight, he knows that Seungkwan can’t keep anything to himself.

Just at that moment Seungcheol walks over to them with a smile.

“Your boyfriend seems like a good kid, he’s hired.” Jeonghan doesn’t bother pointing out to Seungcheol that the ‘kid’ is basically the same age as him and that he’s not Jeonghan’s boyfriend.

Jeonghan is still conflicted over Jisoo being hired. There is no way Jisoo would be able to get through even one shift without being interrogated and embarrassed by the 10:04 staff, and he knows that their favourite topic of conversation would be Jeonghan.

“Are you going to go ask him now?” Seungkwan asks hopefully once Seungcheol is out of earshot.

“No…I was going to do it on the walk home.”

“You better. Stop putting it off,” Seungkwan shoots him one last forceful glance before he leaves Jeonghan to go back to Jisoo.

“Did you hear the good news?” Jisoo asks as his eyes light up.

“Yeah, when do you start?”

“Tomorrow.”

Jeonghan’s eyes widen as he realises that he has less time than he thought to prepare for the inevitable; he really has got to say something to Jeonghan tonight before Seungkwan says it for him.

Their food was then delivered by a still very smug Mingyu who congratulated Jisoo on being hired and once again brought up how they would all have to hang out; the look that Mingyu gave Jeonghan hinting that Seungkwan had not in fact been able to keep his mouth shut.

The rest of their ‘date’ went smoothly, with the 10:04 staff staying out of their way; however, no matter how much Jeonghan tried to simply enjoy Jisoo’s company alone, his brain would not relent and he couldn’t help but be distracted.

At the front of his mind was the constant nagging of when he would ask Jisoo out on an actual date? And how would he do it? And what would Jisoo say?

By the time they had finished their food, Jeonghan’s brain had played through every possible outcome, with more than he would have liked ending badly. 

All he knew is that it would happen on the short walk between 10:04 and Pledis.

“Hey, do you want to start heading off?” he asked the boy. 

This is quite a long chapter (okay so a very long chapter compared to my others). I originally had it split into two but I thought that would be too mean to do to you guys. I hope you don't mind the length, especially as it's a date chapter. 
Once again thanks for reading, commenting and subscribing !!