Jaehwan is quite glad the night is coming to a close, the clock striking midnight as he wipes the dirt off the counter just in front of the cash registers.

There were way too many guests at the restaurant tonight considering how it was only a regular Wednesday with no particular events held in town, but, maybe it’s just because next week brings the start of the new semester and college students wanted to spend the last week of their summer holiday as deliriously as possible. That also meant there were a lot of drunk students loitering around the restaurant all night, asking for crazy burger creations that the place wasn’t even supposed to make for them. Secret menu items—they asked for those as if a secret menu existed at any of the restaurants in the entire fast food chain.

Jaehwan sighs deeply and it gets cut off by the sound of the automatic door sliding apart, the whoosh of it followed by a cool breeze.

“Sorry, we’re closing,” Jaehwan says in a hoarse, tired voice, not even looking up from the task at hand, cursing himself for forgetting to lock the door.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” the newcomer says.

The tone makes something click inside Jaehwan’s brain, the familiarity making him frown as he looks up. In front of him, Sanghyuk is grinning widely, elbowing on the counter with one of his earbuds in his right ear, hair tucked under a white baseball cap.

“Sanghyuk,” Jaehwan breathes, and promptly blushes.

He and Sanghyuk have been texting each other the past two weeks, since they met at the club, but Jaehwan has never once mentioned where he works… mostly because he was ashamed to admit all he was good at was making hamburgers.

“What are you doing here?” Jaehwan mumbles, resuming cleaning the counter.

“Well, Wonshik told me where you work at,” Sanghyuk says and he looks sheepish, as if he possessed information he wasn’t supposed to. “And, I’m pretty thirsty, too.”

“I can get you some cola if you want,” Jaehwan says and presents a paper cup. “But we really are closing, so…”

“I know,” Sanghyuk replies. “That’s why I chose to come at this time. I wouldn’t say no to the cola though.”

Jaehwan raises his eyebrows as he steps to the tap to get Sanghyuk some of the beverage, placing a plastic cap on the cup and stabbing a straw through it before he hands it over to the boy. Sanghyuk fishes some bank notes out of his back pocket, but Jaehwan shakes his head.

“I’ve already closed the cash register,” he replies. “But, seriously, why are you here?”

“I hoped we could talk some,” Sanghyuk says, sipping his cola. “You said you were too busy all the time, so I thought, if only after work we could talk a little, that would be great. I hope you don’t think this is… you know, too much.”

“Ah,” Jaehwan says, and he’s half flattered, half embarrassed, but mostly feels uncomfortable. “I still have a lot to do and then I need to catch my bus.”

“I can give you a lift,” Sanghyuk answers. “And I can wait until you finish. Promise I won’t try to hinder you.”

He looks truly hopeful and the smile on his kitten lips is a bit pleading and Jaehwan— he’s still too soft for cute things.

“Okay,” he nods. “You can wait for me there if you’d like, but it’s going to take at least half an hour more.”

“Great,” Sanghyuk grins and takes his cup to the table Jaehwan pointed at just now.

Sanghyuk asks him about traffic today and Jaehwan finds himself complaining a tad too easily—he isn’t used to doing that, because no one really cares about his complaints, about the things that bother him. Only Hakyeon ever listens, but even Hakyeon gets bored of it too quickly, talking about his own problems as soon as Jaehwan takes a breath to continue. But Sanghyuk is sitting by the table, sipping his cola and not saying more than a few words of agreement and making indignant noises at the most outrageous parts (like when a guy asked Jaehwan to give him an empty bun in lunch deal at 6 o'clock). Jaehwan blinks up at him every now and then to see if Sanghyuk is really paying attention and finds the boy following him with his gaze, curiosity showing on his face. Jaehwan dearly hopes it’s not fake.

When Jaehwan thuds down opposite Sanghyuk with his stomach rumbling loudly and a cold cheeseburger meant to have been thrown away already because it’s been on the rack for over an hour in his hands, the only lamps are the ones leading the way towards the private exit.

“Mind if I eat this real quick?” he asks tiredly.

“'Course not,” Sanghyuk shakes his head and that’s all Jaehwan needs to unwrap the burger and bite off half of it in one go.

Sanghyuk must see him struggling with the dry bun in his mouth, because he pushes the paper cup closer to Jaehwan on the table and when Jaehwan glances up at him questioningly, he smiles encouragingly. After Jaehwan drinks from the cola, he puts it down on the table and forgets his hand on it, Sanghyuk’s hand covering his as he tries to take it back, both of them yanking their hands back as if they touched hot metal.

“Sorry,” Sanghyuk mutters and Jaehwan only blinks down at his cheeseburger, biting into it and trying not to suffocate from it as he feels his fingers tingling.

“What are you listening to?” Jaehwan asks instead as soon as he can speak between two bites.

“Oh, this?” Sanghyuk points at his earphone and takes the other half of it from his lap, reaching over the table to put it into Jaehwan’s left ear.

Jaehwan’s eyes go wide immediately, the song flowing through his nerves like the best surprise he’s ever received.

“This— this is—”

“You said it was your favourite,” Sanghyuk laughs. “It’s honestly so good I can’t stop listening to it, I have it on loop!”

“You remembered?” Jaehwan asks, feeling the tips of his ears heating up and most probably going crimson.

“Why else would I have asked if not so that I could listen to it?” Sanghyuk asks, holding up his palms.

Jaehwan quickly gathers his jaw from the floor and stuffs the last morsels of his burger into his mouth in order to hide his wonderment.

No one before Sanghyuk had asked him about his favourite song so they could listen to it on loop.

Sanghyuk takes him home in his old, rusty Suzuki, the radio crackling in the background as they listen to a show called 'Greatest Hits of the 1980’s’. They don’t talk much, but Sanghyuk still thanks Jaehwan for the cola when he pulls up to Jaehwan’s apartment building, tells him he was glad they could meet if only for such a short time.

“Sorry for asking Wonshik about where you worked,” he says shyly. “I didn’t really mean to; I was just wondering where you worked at and he told me. And he also told me that you were working in the night shift tonight. I didn’t mean to come off as a stalker.”

“No, I'm—” Jaehwan smiles, and it’s weak, he can feel it, “well, thank you for taking me home.”

Sanghyuk nods. “I hope we can meet again soon.”

“Yeah, let’s keep in touch,” Jaehwan replies and opens the door, scrambles to get out of the small space.

“Good night, Jaehwan,” Sanghyuk says, his eyes shining brightly in the light of the dashboard.

“Good night, Sanghyuk.”

Jaehwan closes the car door, and walks to the building, typing in his code and walking up the steps. His heart never usually beats this fast after climbing up those three flights of stairs to his front door.