“How do you think she got this texture?” Baekhyun asks as he and Kyungsoo stand before a large abstract painting hung in the modern art museum’s latest exhibition. Kyungsoo isn’t as big of a fan of the abstract as Baekhyun, but he can’t deny that this particular artist’s technique intrigues him.

“Palette knife and sand maybe?” he replies, leaning as close to the painting as is acceptable to get a better look. “I don’t think it’s simulated; I think it’s actually gritty.”

“The plaque just says ‘mixed media,’” Baekhyun complains with a roll of his eyes. “That could mean anything.”

“I think it’s sand,” Kyungsoo repeats. Baekhyun wanders a few feet further into the gallery in order to pout at a different painting, and Kyungsoo follows him. 

“I wish I could paint,” the elder laments, gazing up at the artwork with wonder in his eyes. “Nobody’s impressed with drawings anymore, you know?”

“Your drawings are spectacular; don’t be ridiculous.” Kyungsoo takes his phone out of his pocket and turns on the front camera, using the makeshift mirror to adjust his fringe and double check his foundation.

“Excuse me,” a voice floats from nearby. Kyungsoo looks up from his phone and his breath immediately catches in this throat. The iest museum employee he thinks he’s ever seen is smirking back at him, looking uncharacteristically sinful in his black slacks and navy blue polo shirt emblazoned with the museum’s logo. Intricate black tattoos cover the visible portions of the man’s tan arms, and it takes Kyungsoo more than one try to swallow hard.

“Y-yeah?”

“Please don’t take pictures of the masterpieces, sir, it’s against this exhibition’s rules.”

“Sorry,” Kyungsoo manages to stammer, lowering his phone and hating the way he can feel his cheeks heating up. “I wasn’t, it was just a selfie.”

“I know,” the employee grins, giving Kyungsoo an obvious once-over before brushing past him, crossing the room to where another guard waits looking amused. Kyungsoo is rooted to the spot, cheeks flaming as he tightly grips his phone and attempts to process the man’s words. Baekhyun makes no effort to hold back the screech that escapes his mouth as the employee walks away. 

“Holy he’s hot! Kyungsoo, he’s ing y as-”

Kyungsoo grabs his best friend in a chokehold and covers his mouth, but it’s too late. The tattooed employee glances back at them with a grin that makes Kyungsoo forget to breathe, and the other guard breaks into obnoxious laughter.

Kyungsoo wants to die.

-

He and Baekhyun return to the museum the following week, and this time, Jongdae comes with them. Jongdae wants to visit a different exhibit to gather inspiration for his ceramics class, but Kyungsoo finds himself thinking of ways to sneak away in order to catch a glimpse of his favorite guard stationed downstairs.

Thanks to Baekhyun, he doesn’t have to.

“Ah, we have to drop Kyungsoo off in the basement to see his boyfriend!” he teases, earning himself a punch in the arm from the younger.

“Wait, the god you were talking about works at this museum?” Jongdae replies just as loudly, and Kyungsoo wonders what he did to deserve a pair of such noisy friends.

Despite his protests, he finds himself back in the basement’s guest exhibit, wandering the whitewashed galleries with Baekhyun and Jongdae not-so-secretly trailing about fifteen feet behind him. He eventually forgets his nerves as he loses himself in the artwork, once again drawn in by the way in which the artist constructs her paintings.

He doesn’t notice the employee approaching him, but he does hear Baekhyun excitedly smacking Jongdae’s chest to get his attention. He glances back at his friends, and sees Jongdae with a hand covering his shocked grin.

“You must really be a fan of hers, huh?” the guard asks, standing beside Kyungsoo and shoving his hands in his pockets. Kyungsoo jumps a foot in the air, and the crooked smile that makes the art student so weak in the knees reappears on the man’s face. He’s taller than Kyungsoo remembers, and he can see now that he’s eye-level with the employee’s name tag that his name is Kim Jongin.

“S-sorry?”

“People don’t usually come to the same exhibit twice unless they really liked what they saw the first time,” Jongin explains, inclining his head to view the painting in front of them, and his jawline is so sharp that Kyungsoo thinks he might be sweating a little. “Did you?”

“Yeah… I-I’m an art student so my friends and I come here a lot,” Kyungsoo tells him shyly. Jongin smiles down at him, and Kyungsoo can feel his cheeks betraying him once again.

“I’m a dance student myself, but you meet all sorts of interesting people working in art museums.” Jongin glances around, seeing Baekhyun and Jongdae trying to hide, and pretends not to see them. “Are your friends with you this time?”

“Yeah they’re somewhere around here,” Kyungsoo laughs nervously, feeling like his head is spinning from the intoxicating scent of Jongin’s cologne. He takes a step backwards and trips on his own shoelace, falling for a terrifying second before there are strong arms catching him. Jongin’s amused face is inches from his own. Kyungsoo can hear Baekhyun and Jongdae holding back screams from ten feet away.

“Whoa, are you okay?” Jongin asks as he rights him and oh god, his breath smells like peppermint. His arms remain around him for a few seconds longer than necessary, and Kyungsoo officially thinks he might melt from blushing so hard. 

“Sorry… yeah, I’m fine…”

Jongin stares at him. Kyungsoo wants to die.

“You’re really cute.”

Wait, what?

“M-me…?” Kyungsoo dares to look up, and Jongin is smiling back at him. 

“I think you’re really cute. Kyungsoo, right?”

His name sounds so good when Jongin says it that it makes him want to cry.

“Yeah, Kyungsoo. And you’re Jongin?”

Jongin grins and nods, giving Kyungsoo another once-over before pulling a sharpie out of his pocket. “That’s me,” he confirms, taking Kyungsoo’s hand and scrawling a phone number on the back of it. “Text me if you wanna meet for lunch sometime, okay?”

Kyungsoo’s mouth feels too dry to respond, so he simply nods, reveling in the way his skin seems to tingle where the museum guard touched it. Jongin smiles and shyly scratches the back of his neck. Kyungsoo’s eyes follow the way the black ink on his arms ripples with the movement.

“You think I’m hot, right?”

The question is unexpected and catches Kyungsoo completely off guard, but he’s already in too much shock from actually managing to get this god’s phone number, so he nods his affirmation once again. Jongin’s eyes light up a little, and Kyungsoo feels himself smiling in return.

“Then can I do something to freak out your friends who are watching us?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes flick over to where Baekhyun and Jongdae are hiding behind a potted plant with hands over each other’s mouths for a fraction of a second.

“Please do. They haven’t left me alone about talking to you all week.”

Jongin grins and steps closer, sliding a hand into Kyungsoo’s back pocket before slowly leaning down. Kyungsoo hears the distinct sound of the plant toppling over, followed by Jongdae cursing and Baekhyun frantically shushing him. For a moment Kyungsoo thinks Jongin’s really going to kiss him, but he leans down to whisper in his ear instead, tracing his lips with the pad of his thumb.

“I can’t wait to get to know you, Kyungsoo. Don’t wait to call, okay?”

He can feel Jongin’s smile against his skin, and can’t help but curl his lips into one of his own at the way Baekhyun is now screeching into Jongdae’s hand at the apparently intimate scene. He already likes Jongin’s sense of humor a lot.

“I won’t.” In a moment of uncharacteristic boldness, he presses a chaste kiss to Jongin’s cheek, and lights up inside at the way Jongin’s face immediately flushes pink. Jongdae is sprawled dramatically on the floor as Kyungsoo pulls away, and another museum employee is walking over to him looking weary.

“I should get them out of here before we all get banned,” Kyungsoo jokes, smiling up at Jongin’s still flustered face. “I’ll see you around, Jongin.”

“See you,” the taller man echoes, watching as Kyungsoo quickly pulls his friends out of the gallery by their hair.

Kyungsoo might not have loved abstract art before, but it’s definitely starting to grow on him now.

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Kat C