“Whew, sorry, I ran from the stage.”  Hongbin took a few deep breaths, his bangs falling into his eyes.  Taekwoon’s grip on Wonshik sleeve tightened.  “Okay, sorry, I’m Hongbin.  Hello nice to meet you.”  Hongbin held his hand out to Taekwoon.  Taekwoon blinked at the pale hand. 

                “Sorry, forgive him; he has trouble being human sometimes.  His wires must be crossed.”  Wonshik smiled as he slapped his hand on Taekwoon’s back.  “I’m Wonshik, I work with him.”

                “Yes, hello!  I’m sorry.  Hongbin.”  Taekwoon watched as they shook hands, blinking in confusion.  “I really wanted to apologize and introduce myself better to Mr. Jung.  I was really a mess earlier when I met him.”

                “Ah, well then.  You do know he doesn’t talk right?”  Taekwoon rolled his eyes.

                “Yes, but I also work with Apes, I’m sure I can manage.”  Taekwoon raised his eyebrow at Hongbin who flushed.  “Not that he’s an ape.  I mean,” he turned so he was looking at Taekwoon.  “Not that you’re an ape.  What I meant was that I teach Apes, and I have a good understanding of sign language.”

                Wonshik was snickering.  “Well then, I will leave him in your capable hands.  Taekwoon you know where we will be.”  He yanked his arm away from Taekwoon, ignoring Taekwoon’s glare and smiling at Hongbin.  “It was a pleasure to meet you Hongbin.”

                “You as well.”

                Betrayal.  Absolute betrayal, Taekwoon thought as he watched Wonshik walk further and further away.  This was worse than being left in the field to die.  This was worse than being shot by friendly fire.  Wonshik didn’t even glance at him as he skipped down the road.  Taekwoon glared after him for a bit longer, contemplating all the ways to get back at his teammate for this when Hongbin cleared his throat next to him.

                “Sorry, Mr. Jung.  I’m sure you wanted to spend time with your friends, but I really wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier.”  Taekwoon stared at the man in front of him.  The zookeeper was playing with his fingers as he spoke, not bothering to look up at Taekwoon.  ‘Cute.’  Taekwoon thought, then pursed his lips, it had been a long time since he thought that way about anyone.  Taekwoon took another look at the man in front of him.  Tall, boyish, handsome, dimples.  Yeah if he had ever had a type that summed up all the things in appearance that he found interesting.

                “Anyway, I’m sure you didn’t need to hear about any of that.  But I really wanted to say I’m sorry, though I’m sure I’ve said that a bunch now.”  Hongbin rubbed at the back of his neck nervously.  “Um, and I wanted to, um.”  Those wide brown eyes finally looked up at him; the hand dropped from the back of his neck as Hongbin took a deep breath and then whispered something.

                Taekwoon leaned forward, not sure if Hongbin had said anything or if he was still doing breathing exercises.  He lifted his hands and pointed to his ear, hopefully displaying enough confusion that he hadn’t heard.

                Hongbin stared at him for a moment before a blush rose on his cheeks.  “I wanted to know if you would like to have dinner with me.” 

~V~

                Hongbin was dazed.  That had to be the correct word.  He felt like a zombie, probably looked like one too.  He didn’t make any effort to close his mouth or try to bend his knee more, leaving him in a dragging state as he made his way back to the pens where he had run from.

                “So what happened?”  Gongchan asked, holding a still playful wolf cub in his arms.

                “I think I made a mistake.”

                “In what?  Apologizing?”

                “In life.”  Gongchan huffed at his cryptic answer, pulling his finger away from the teething cub.

                “What?  Did he not accept it?  I mean you did call him a weirdo after all.”

                “It doesn’t help that as I was apologizing I might have called him an ape.”  Gongchan snorted before he broke out into full laughter, the pup in his arms barking as he was jostled.

                “Please tell me you didn’t.”

                “I didn’t mean to; I was trying to explain why I know sign language.”

                “And you called him an ape?”  Hongbin groaned, moving over to Jun’s pen.

                “I mentioned that I taught apes and that I could manage.”

                “Oh my god, please tell me you didn’t.”  Gongchan started in another fit of giggles.

                “I did,” Hongbin gathered the fox into his arms, cuddling him close.  “That’s not even the worst of it Gongchan.”

                “Why, did you throw poop at him or something?”

                “No!  Why would I do that?”

                “To appeal to his ape like behavior.”

                “Please stop.”

                “Sorry, I promise no more.”  Gongchan grinned at him.

                “I asked him out to dinner.”  Hongbin groaned.

                “What?” 

                “He was just standing there, and I couldn’t help but remember the smile he had when he saw Kodi on stage, or how handsome he was standing in the hallway holding Jun.”  Hongbin sighed.  “Before I thought he was shutting us down, I thought he was the knight in shining armor that I always wanted.”

                Gongchan scoffed.  “Please.”

                “Honestly, he’s so handsome, stoic face and all.”  Hongbin smiled as he remembered Taekwoon’s smile.

                “So what did he say?”  Gongchan asked.  Hongbin blinked and looked over at Gongchan.

                “Um, he can’t talk Gongchan.”                                                                  

                “No, I meant about the question ya dolt.” 

                “Oh!”  Jun barked at him for being loud.  “He agreed.  I’m gonna text him later to see when he’s free.”  Hongbin smiled.

                “Look at you insulting people and getting dates out of it.  Beautiful people like you make me sick.”

                “Shut up Gongchan, if I remember you punched Ken in the face when you first met because you thought he was peeping through your window.  And he still asked you out.”

                “That’s neither here nor there.”  Gongchan said airily as he walked away with the wolf cub.

                “Hey!”  Hongbin yelled, getting another bark from Jun.  “Sorry Junnie, did you see him sneak out of our conversation?”  Hongbin pouted receiving a paw to his cheek as Jun stared at him.  “Okay.  Let me get everyone else back to their pens and we will go home.”  Hongbin smiled.  “I bet you’re hungry.”  The happy bark he received made him grin.

~V~

                “So you going to tell me what he said?”  Wonshik nudged him with an elbow.  “Oh come on!  It couldn’t have been that bad.”  Taekwoon pointedly ignored the elbow, staring out into the paddock where the young giraffes were running back and forth, playing around one of the older ones.

                “Look, we can feed them!”  Haekyeon hopped excitedly over to them grabbing Wonshik before hopping away.

                “We aren’t done Taekwoon!”  Wonshik grumbled as he allowed Haekyeon to pull him away.  Hyuk slid up next to him with a small smile.

                “So I take it that it was a good conversation since you didn’t just head straight home.”  Taekwoon gave his partner a side glance, his mind flashing to red cheeks and dimples for a brief moment before he nodded.  “Nice.”

                Nice indeed.  Taekwoon continued to watch the young giraffes as he thought back to his chat with Hongbin earlier.

                “It’s not a date or anything, so it’s really no big deal.  We could just get coffee too.  That would be ok.  Look, I really just want to apologize.”  Hongbin hadn’t looked up; he just stared at his shoes, rubbing the back of his neck.  It was cute, Taekwoon thought.  There was even a blush rising on Hongbin’s cheeks as he rambled.

                ‘I wonder if he will notice that I’ve been nodding since he asked me.’  Taekwoon stifled a smile as he heard the word coffee again.  ‘Really hard to tell him yes if he doesn’t look up.’  Taekwoon put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels, waiting for Hongbin to look up.  ‘I wonder if Haekyeon will let me leave after the zoo, hopefully he doesn’t have some sort of plan for dinner.’  Taekwoon frowned.  ‘I don’t understand what he’s so worried about anyway.  It’s not like I’m always at home, I’m in the office a lot.’ 

                “And I’m sorry, I must be rambling.”  Hongbin looked up at him.  “But really, I would like to pay for a meal of some sort as an apology for being an .”  Hongbin gave him a small grimace as he looked at him.  “I can understand if you don’t want to.”

                Taekwoon nodded at Hongbin.

                “Right, of course you wouldn’t want to.  Look I’m sorry to have…”  Taekwoon grabbed Hongbin’s arm as he had started backing away from him.

                ‘I meant yes I would go with you.’  Taekwoon signed to him.

                “Oh.”  Hongbin blinked at him before pulling a full smile, “great, okay.  Um, can I have your number then?”  Hongbin bit his lip, holding out his phone to Taekwoon to grab.