BIBUCHA90: shd we meet for real? irl?

The sound of typing halts abruptly. He changes to another chat and once again, the click-clack of the keyboard begins.

yoloislyf: BIN he’s asking to meet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kongvenient: So what did you reply?

yoloislyf: i havent replied anything. im freaking out atm

Kongvenient: If you don’t reply fast he’s going to think you’re not interested and change his mind.

yoloislyf: this is really really bad

Kongvenient: Stop being an idiot please and just answer him. Type 3 letters – y e s. Four if you want to appear more cool than you actually are – y e a h.

He takes a deep breath and changes chat windows once again. Another deep breath.

yoloislyf: yeah, sure. when?

*

He’s a wreck.

- bin i cant do this. im pretty sure at least 75% of why he thinks im cool is cos im friends with you the hanzo master just like everyone else i meet online. i can’t do this im gonna make some excuse and run away

- Well the reason he thinks you’re cool has nothing to do with your actual playing skills, that’s for sure. Even I’m questioning why I’m friends with you rn. DON’T RUN AWAY IDIOT. After you introduced him to me he could have stopped being friends with you if he was just looking to get to know me. So for better or worse he actually does like the loser that you are. Amazing.

He fidgets with his phone and puts it away in his pocket, and then takes it out again. He’s going to finally meet Hakyeon. He hasn’t slept a wink. He’s going to make a gigantic fool out of himself.

It’s not like they know nothing about each other – they’ve known each other for roughly four years now (four years three months and almost three weeks to be exact, if you’re Wonsik and you’re harbouring a gigantic crush and counting each precious day) and they follow each other on Instagram and Twitter and Tumblr and god knows what else so it’s not like Wonsik doesn’t know what Hakyeon looks like. He knows Hakyeon’s dress sense, he knows where Hakyeon likes to eat, he knows what Hakyeon works as, he knows the names of his entire family – Wonsik bites his lip. That makes him sound like a stalker.

We talk every day, Wonsik reminds himself. It’s been too long for him to be only doing that to be polite.

- Are you still breathing? Are you still there? If you run away you’re going to die a , you know that, right?

Wonsik curses Hongbin under his breath, long and satisfying, and ignores the message.

When Hakyeon opens the doors to the café his coat billows out behind him like it’s a scene from a movie – gracefully flowing back around his body as he stamps his feet on the welcome mat to shake the snow from his boots – and Wonsik dies and goes straight to heaven. Hakyeon looks like he’s stepped right out from a magazine and Wonsik is a primeval gargoyle in comparison, unworthy to gaze upon such perfection –

“Hey,” Hakyeon smiles at him, suddenly standing in front of his table – when did this happen? When did he get here so fast? Wonsik blinks, grinning stupidly, unable to form words.

“Finally, huh?” Hakyeon is still smiling, and Wonsik couldn’t look away even if someone paid him. “It seems silly that we’ve known each other for so long, both living in Seoul, and we’ve never met till now.”

Hakyeon puts his bag down, shrugging off his coat, and then – Wonsik’s heart lodges in his throat – Hakyeon moves around to his chair, bends down and hugs him.

“Oh-!” Wonsik splutters, belatedly putting his arms around Hakyeon as well. Hakyeon’s body is warm though his cheek against Wonsik’s neck is cold from outside, and he smells like everything good and wonderful in the world – like tiny puppies and stars and chocolate and a really, really good song you can get lost in; no, how can he smell like a song, that doesn’t make sense – Wonsik tries to breathe to clear the clamouring thoughts in his head.

 Hakyeon lets him go and settles back into his own chair opposite from Wonsik, then twists around to study the menu over the bar counter. “What do you want?”

YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU Wonsik’s brain immediately yells.

“You want one of those sweet Christmas drinks with a lot of whipped cream and other kinds of madness, right?” Hakyeon turns around and smiles at him once again, and Wonsik just gives up on trying to form coherent thoughts.

“Wonsik? Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Wonsik swallows. “Just – I’m sorry, I’m just really nervous.”

Hakyeon smiles again – Wonsik really wishes he’d stop – and takes out his phone, beginning to type. Wonsik frowns slightly bemusedly, until his phone suddenly vibrates with an incoming message and Hakyeon looks up at him, smiling. Again.

“Go on.”

Wonsik slowly picks up his phone and opens the message from Hakyeon.

- is this better? less pressure? i was really nervous about meeting you too but here we are, huh? i’m happy we’ve met finally. it’s so much better seeing you in real life.

Wonsik takes a deep breath, glancing back up at Hakyeon watching him expectantly.

- yeah. im sorry im in such a state, im just worried ill do something stupid and embarrass myself in front of you

- like you always do online, you mean? lmao

- when do i!!!!

- like when you make a mistake when playing and start rambling to yourself and start praying for someone to come help you lol like i can’t hear you. or when we’re talking about whatever and you say something you think isn’t very cool and then you just lose the plot a little for a while. you’re so cute.

- you think im cute?

- i tell you all the time!

Wonsik sneaks a look up at Hakyeon, who’s focused on his phone while gently tapping Wonsik’s foot with his own underneath the table. The slight contact, no matter how casual – maybe he thinks my foot is the table leg, Wonsik thinks, all in an uproar – is making Wonsik’s blood pressure spike.

- did you think i was lying? when i said you were cute?

- i just thought you were teasing me, actually

- well, that too lol. you’re a lot of fun to tease.

Wonsik forgets for a tiny second that he’s not actually at home, texting Hakyeon while lying in bed, and squees a little, smiling to himself – but only a tiny second; the next moment he’s blushing furiously, realising that Hakyeon can see him. He looks up reluctantly to see Hakyeon grinning at him, gaze taking in his flushed face with delight.

- see what i mean?

- omg stop ittttttt

- if i’d known this was the reaction you were giving all this while whenever i teased you i’d have asked to meet up sooner

- ok enough enough please lets go order something

- what do you want? my treat. i’m the one who asked you out, anyway

Wonsik hesitates a brief moment.

- asked me out?

- yeah. this is a date, isn’t it?

Wonsik freezes, his heart going into overdrive immediately. A date, holy , a DATE – too many thoughts and feelings assail him at once, the thundering of his heart serious enough that he’s sure Hakyeon can hear it. Reacting like a teenager when he’s a grown man in his twenties – though he had honestly thought it was just a friendly first in-real-life meeting, not that it was a date at all. He never let himself think for a second that Hakyeon may possibly feel the same.

“Wonsik? Oh god, I didn’t misread the situation, did I? I’m so sorry, I thought-”

“No,” Wonsik swallows and looks up, knowing he’s doing a real good imitation of a ripe tomato. “No, you didn’t misread it.”

The concern slides off Hakyeon’s face instantly to be replaced by the warmest smile Wonsik has ever seen. It makes him glow, and if Wonsik wasn’t such a smitten useless wombat the obvious thing to do would be to lean across the table and take Hakyeon’s hand or smile back, or put down the phone and just try to relax but a smitten useless wombat he is, so he sits there staring at Hakyeon with his phone held almost defensively in front of him, scary rictus of a smile firmly in place on his face.

It’s a date. Hakyeon – the romance thing. It’s happening. How? I don’t know. But it’s happening.

“Wow,” Wonsik finally says, and Hakyeon can’t help but burst into laughter. His laughter is warm golden marshmallow molasses that Wonsik wants to swim in.

“Well, that’s a relief, isn’t it?” Hakyeon says softly, looking at him fondly. “All this time I thought maybe you just liked being my friend because I play well.”

 “I thought you liked me because of Hongbin,” Wonsik mutters, willing the blush in his cheeks to recede.

“Hongbin?” Hakyeon begins in confusion, and then throws back his head and begins laughing once more. He is the sun, Wonsik thinks fervently. A beautiful sun. “What on earth does Hongbin have to do with it!”

Wonsik doesn’t even bother answering, drinking in the sight of Hakyeon trying really hard to stop laughing because people are starting to look at them. Hakyeon buries his face in his scarf and Wonsik thinks no one has ever been this in love with anybody before in the whole history of the universe. Probably.

“Let’s forget the drinks and go for a walk, hyung,” Wonsik works up the courage to say once Hakyeon has found his composure once more, and when they make it out the front door the cold hits them both like a truck.

Wonsik hesitates, on the brink of dying from excitement because he’s a gigantic nerd and he’s seen this on all the dramas, but – he quickly takes Hakyeon’s hand and holding it, puts it together with his into his coat pocket that’s got a heatpack waiting inside.

“What about my other hand?” Hakyeon asks, looking up at him and grinning – and, lord have mercy, Wonsik never realised he was taller than Hakyeon. They have the perfect height difference and if only Wonsik was to lean down slightly and – Hakyeon’s lips and cheeks are already rosy from the cold, and Wonsik can’t see anything else.

“Huh?”

Hakyeon laughs and shakes his head, nudging Wonsik to start walking down the street. They press close together, fingers entwined in Wonsik’s pocket.

“This is kind of a perfect Christmas present,” Hakyeon murmurs. They’re walking aimlessly down a crowded street packed with people doing last-minute shopping and it’s freezing, to be honest, but Wonsik’s got the sun walking with him. “You want to come over to my place and play something?”

“Yeah,” Wonsik beams. “That would really be perfect.”