Seungcheol grunted as he sat the boxes of decorations down outside of the florist shop he worked at. He righted his position and placed his hands on the small of his back and stretched backwards. Seungcheol sighed and bent down once more, getting ready to set up the front of the store for the day. It was tiring work, with the sun beating down on him and the air humid as it could be—he has never missed the rain that had been falling for a few days prior more; it was the only thing that kept him inside and cool . He doesn’t understand how it could be so early, yet feel like he was working mid-afternoon already.

Setting up the exterior of the shop was a process, mainly because the owner was a particular old thing; she liked the decorations in the exact same place, and could somehow tell if Seungcheol was half-assing it and guesstimating where they went. He’s been here a few weeks now, and he probably should’ve learned this by now, but Seungcheol is a college-aged man who is still in the reasonable age range of dedicating his life to rejecting authority.

“Excuse me?” Seungcheol jumped, fumbling to protect one of the ceramic roses from slipping through his fingers and most likely smashing on the ground. He managed to evade Hell (read: Mrs. Ahn), somehow, and he exhaled deeply while swiping at his brow. Seungcheol turned around to seek out who the rather pleasant voice came from. “Is the shop open yet?”

Seungcheol’s mouth hung open in the most unflattering way. “Uhhh…” He drug out, not being able to take his eyes off of soft brown locks that framed a delicately chiseled face—if Seungcheol had any of the art knowledge his friend Mingyu and his boyfriend explained t him, he would say that this stranger’s face could have very well been mistaken for marble—and the most alluring brown eyes.

The stranger lifted his brows and dipped his head a bit to catch Seungcheol’s attention (as if he ever lost it). “...Well?”

“It’s not...open...yet,” Seungcheol stumbled across his words and he just knew that his ears were flaming red right about now. The stranger straightened his posture and chuckled.

“Well, is it fine if I wait here then? I suppose it’ll be opening soon?”

“Not for another half hour, I’m afraid…” Seungcheol trailed off.

“Oh…” The stranger pouted, and it seemed too natural to be real. Seungcheol doesn’t think he’s ever gotten to lost in someone’s lips—not even when they were pressed to his, and most of the time, desperately.

“You can come with me inside!” Seungcheol pursed his lips, cleared his throat, and tried again. “I mean, if you want to, when I’m done with this bull,” He glowered at the large amounts of decorations he still needed to set up (probably incorrectly, yet he still doesn’t care).

“Looks like a lot of bull,” The stranger whistled, but it didn’t hide his smirk. Seungcheol couldn’t even blame him, he’d pity himself too if he were lucky enough to be on the outside looking in.

“Yep, old lady’s insane about her decorations, and I never do it right, apparently . One of these days, I swear she’s going to fire me.” Seungcheol chuckled and rubbed at the back of his head, then he bent down to start decorating the front of the store again, making sure to not face away from the stranger entirely.

“Maybe—and this is just a suggestion, from a stranger no less—but maybe, one of these days, you could learn to just do it right ?” The man bent down next to Seungcheol and began to organize the decorations into their correct positions (at least, that’s what Seungcheol assumed) with little hesitation. Seungcheol’s brows gradually knitted together and he turned to look at the man incredulously.

“H-how did you—?” Seungcheol squinted, looking back and forth between the decorations and the man.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Yoon Jeonghan, and this is my maternal grandmother’s shop,” Jeonghan held out his hand for Seungcheol to take, and Seungcheol did take it after grovelling in his own embarrassment.

“I’m—”

“An idiot? Yeah, grandma mentions it from time to time.” Jeonghan’s entire demeanor changed; he certainly had the looks of an angel, Seungcheol wouldn’t argue, but there was mischief underneath his thick surface. If he were being honest, Seungcheol had only a little taste of what Yoon Jeonghan had to offer, but he was already addicted to it. “That’s why I’m here, actually,”

“For little ole’ me?” Seungcheol grinned to mask his surprise.

“What can I say,” Jeonghan shrugged, adjusting some of the decorations that Seungcheol set up earlier. “I was curious about the—and I quote—‘thick everywhere, especially in the head, good-for-nothing college part-timer’ Choi Seungcheol.” Jeonghan counted every trait of what Seungcheol assumed his grandmother bestowed upon him on his fingers as he said them. Seungcheol could tell that Jeonghan pretended to mess up the order of the words just so he could repeat them.

Maybe Jeonghan had more than just a “little mischief” in him after all.

“Seems like your grandmother absolutely adores me,” Seungcheol rose, stretching in the same manner as he did before when he brought the boxes of decorations outside.

“Maybe not my grandma, but someone else…?” Jeonghan rose from his squatting position as well, letting out strained sounds and wincing as his bones popped far too loudly for his age.

Seungcheol raised a brow, leaving it up to interpretation of what it was for. “Someone else?” He questioned with a huff.

“I don’t get up at o’clock in the morning for nothing, you know,” Jeonghan ran a hand through his hair after stretching and yawning.

“I don’t think seven o’clock is that early?” Seungcheol picked up the empty boxes and began to head back inside, Jeonghan trailing beside him.

“It is when your days start at two in the afternoon,” Jeonghan retorted and Seungcheol finally had to sigh. He wasn’t the biggest go-getter out there, but Jeonghan was next level lazy, it seemed.

“I’m starting to have a feeling that that is why you’re here, and not because of me,” Jeonghan smiled and tucked his chin into his chest. Ah, Seungcheol was correct.

“You already know me so well, this is going to go great, Cheol-ah,” Jeonghan leaned into Seungcheol casually, and continued to do so even when Seungcheol began to put everything in its place. And if Jeonghan wasn’t pressed up against Seungcheol’s side, he was manning the cash register; watching Jeonghan man the register was like watching a drama. His sweet, angelic smile and voice returned, he fixed his hair so that it looked like the picture-perfect image of “fresh” and “boyish”. Jeonghan really had a way with dealing with customers, and by the time they were leaving, Seungcheol could hear each and every one of them counting down to any and every holiday so that they could find time to stop by again.

As expected when your main customers include aunties and mothers, word spread about the “dazzling” new employee quickly, and the store didn’t see it’s usual lull until much later when it was closer to dinner time.

“You’re amazing,” Both of them said at the same time after the store had closed for the day, and Seungcheol insisted that Jeonghan went first because he couldn’t quite figure out why exactly the other would be praising him for doing nothing.

“I mean, don’t you deal with that every day?” Jeonghan gesticulated wildly around the store.

Seungcheol gave the other a look of horror. “ God no, that was all your fault! Hardly anyone would come in here before you came.” Seungcheol huffed out a laugh and rested across the counter right in front of Jeonghan. “Which is the reason you’re so amazing. You clean up well; it’s like working in this shop was made for you,”

“I would rather die, actually,” Jeonghan slumped down next to Seungcheol on the counter, facing him. He stared at Seungcheol for an uncomfortable amount of time before smiling. “but it’s not so bad, as long as you’re here.” And the smile was back—the one that made Jeonghan look a bit like a goofy little kid that did something that was considered bad, but honestly, really wasn’t in the grand scheme of things. Seungcheol wanted to roll his eyes, to sigh, to get up and walk away—to do anything to express faux annoyance—but he stayed right where he was.

He looked back at Jeonghan for a, supposedly, uncomfortable amount of time before breaking out into his own goofy smile.

“Weirdly enough, I have to agree.” Seungcheol replied, and the stare that they’ve been willfully holding onto this entire moment was becoming less uncomfortable by the second. Instead, it had became strangely comfortable to the point where Seungcheol felt like he could lean forward and do something that might be a bit odd to do for people that just met, but Seungcheol was always more than ready to challenge authority (even if said authority was more of a social construct than anything else).

Luckily enough, Seungcheol noticed that Jeonghan felt the same way, if him leaning in as well was anything to go by.