There are three things you should probably know about Yoo Youngjae:

1. He is prone to forgetting his keys inside his apartment, often choosing to stay at his (unbelievably stupid) best friends’, Moon Jongup, until the locksmith arrives to help

. 
2. He hates messes. 

3. He often considers people who create messes as trouble, and he prefers to stay away from trouble, thank you very much. 

There are three things you should probably know about Jung Daehyun:

1. He’s not lazy, he’s just really slow.

2. He really doesn’t know why he’s friends with his current best friend, Kim Himchan, but he assumes it’s because of Himchan’s awesome cupcakes.

 
3. He hates it when people try to teach him new things, which is exactly why he’s currently on the verge of failing biology.

 
Two people, six facts, one story. Let’s dive in, shall we?

———

 
“I have no idea how you do it,” Jongup deadpans as he lets Youngjae in, closing the door to his apartment right after him. “That’s the third time this week! You know, I think you’ve broken some sort of record.” 

Youngjae grumbles and drops his bag on the floor, plopping on Jongup’s old green couch unceremoniously. He was used to the younger’s lectures by now, and honestly, he really didn’t mind that he forgets his keys about once a week as long as Jongup’s home, so. “You can shove it,” he mumbles as he turns on the TV, clicking through the different channels at the speed of light. Jongup groans and sits down next to him. 

“There’s Spongebob on,” he says hopefully as Youngjae lands on Nick for a second before moving on. Youngjae doesn’t even blink. “I’m not watching that.”

 
Jongup mopes for a second before perking up and clapping his hands together. Youngjae looks at him with a raised eyebrow; he knows his best friend isn’t really on the smart side, but this is really too much. 

“Hyung, I got a date!” The younger announces excitedly, smiling so hard his face almost splits in half. “His name’s Junhong and he’s a little younger than me, but he’s so tall! And he’s a dance major, like me!”

 
A bitter feeling settles in the depth of Youngjae’s heart; it’s almost December and the weather is already nasty cold. Finding a boyfriend (or anyone, really) to snuggle with when christmas rolls around was a top priority for him lately, but up until now he didn’t get to meet someone good enough. Admittedly, his standards were a little high- tall, handsome, intelligent, preferably not a snorer- but hey, he just wanted the best for himself. 

Yes, sue him, he IS a tiny bit jealous of Jongup for finding a date, but he can’t just sit there and sulk while Jongup’s in such a good mood, so he puts on his best I’m-really-happy-for-you smile and pats his best friend on the back. “He sounds cute,” he says a little hollowly, and Jongup ruffles his hair.

 
“Don’t worry, hyung,” he says as Youngjae attempts to fix his now ruined hairstyle. “You’ll find someone. Don’t give up just yet!” 

“Easy for you to say, you happy go lucky ,” the older mumbles back, neglecting his hair in favor of punching Jongup in the arm. “Did you call the locksmith?” 

Jongup nods. “He’s on his way.” 

Youngjae nods and looks outside the window- it’s raining and the gloomy black clouds that gather above Seoul make the fluorescent lights inside the apartment glow in a brighter hue. Youngjae likes that about winter; being cooped up inside when a storm is raging outside makes him feel warm within, despite the cold weather. Of course, it’d be better if he had someone to snuggle with, but oh well.

 
An arm wraps around his shoulders and he looks to his right to see Jongup smiling at him fondly, his hand squeezing Youngjae’s left shoulder. “You’ll find someone,” the younger mumbles, leaning his head on Youngjae’s shoulder. The older smiles- his best friend may be an idiot, but at least he’s a cute idiot. He leans his head on Jongup’s, sighing tiredly and looking out the window again.

 
“Thanks, Uppie.”

———

The bell rings and Youngjae sighs in relief, packing his things and hoisting his bag over his shoulder on his way outside the classroom. He hates English with all his might, and yet he’s still pretty good at it. He blames his mother- being a son of an English teacher had its perks, so Youngjae always aced his English tests. Plus, his English teachers were always really fond of him for some reason. 

Someone runs into his back with the force of a hurricane and he plummets forward with a squawk, hitting the floor with a thud. He’s just about to get up and yell at his offender to watch where they’re going when he hears Jongup’s obnoxious laughter echoing through the halls, and his anger soothes down. Jongup never did anything bad on purpose- he just doesn’t think things through, and (in most cases) ends up embarrassing himself and his surroundings. Youngjae picks himself up with an expression of dignity-at-all-times smeared all over his face, hoping that it’ll make the small crowd that gathered around him get the hint and continue with their lives. 

Jongup links their arms together and drags Youngjae away cheerfully, sunshine and flowers radiating from his face. “I got you a date,” he sing-songs happily, elbowing Youngjae’s side while wiggling his eyebrows. Youngjae stops dead in his track. 

“You what,” he demands, slightly horrified. “With who?!” 

“This guy,” Jongup says excitedly, and Youngjae decides that today may in fact be the day that Jongup dies. He grips the younger’s collar with force, yanking him closer until their faces are only inches apart.

 
“What guy?” He grits out as calmly as possible, trying to control his voice and calm the down. Jongup knows that he doesn’t do blind dates- the last time was an unspeakable disaster- and why, just why?! 

“Calm down, oh my god,” Jongup says as he wrenches himself free from the older’s hold, smoothing down his T-shirt and taking a step back for safety. “He works in the same café as Junhong. His name is Daehyun and he really hates biology, so that’s something you have in common,” he finishes hopefully

. Youngjae nods his head; at least he knows something about this Daehyun guy, so it’s not that bad. “Okay,” he says carefully. Jongup smiles in relief. 
“Look, let’s go down to the café and you can check him out. I’ve been wanting to check on Junhong anyway,” the younger says as he starts walking again, Youngjae following close on his tail. “If you don’t like him, you can go.” 

“What, right now? But—” Youngjae splutters, trying to wrap his mind around this new idea. Jongup signals that he should calm down, so he does. His therapist did tell him that he should try to be more open-minded. “Fine,” he breathes calmly. “Let’s go.”

 
Jongup nods and does a mental fist pump; he’ll get to live another day.

———

Okay, the place does look cute, Youngjae thinks bitterly as he follows Jongup into the warm café, looking around curiously. Instead of chairs there are cute little couches and armchairs scattered around little round tables, and soft music plays in the background. It’s all very cozy, he’ll give them that. A tall boy notices them and pretty much throws himself onto Jongup, and they both hit the floor with a crash. Youngjae rolls his eyes and heads towards the counter, looking at the menu hung above. He’s just trying to decide about whether he should order hot cocoa or not, when a warm voice interrupts him.

 
“You should take the latte,” the voice says lightly. “It’s pretty good.”

 
Youngjae jolts and turns to his right; there, behind the counter, stands a very, very handsome man with a polite smile and an apron wrapped around his waist. Youngjae reads his name tag and nearly chokes on thin air- the name tag says “DAEHYUN”.

“O-Oh,” he manages to say after quite a struggle, feeling his head heat up to the point where he thinks it’ll fall off, “I’m not really a coffee person, but thanks.”

The handsome boy (that he’s supposed to go on a date with, oh dear lord) raises an amused eyebrow and his head to the side, studying Youngjae from head to toe. “Well, that’s odd,” he remarks curiously, furrowing his eyebrows together. “You’re the first person I’ve ever met who’s not a coffee person.”

Youngjae’s saved from the need to answer when Jongup materializes as if out of no where with the tall boy by his side, panting slightly. “Hyung, this is Junhong,” he says, pointing towards the tall boy, who smiles and bows. 
“Nice to meet you,” he says politely, flashing him a bright smile. “I see you’ve already met Daehyun hyung.” 

Youngjae nods awkwardly, and then there’s a short moment of silence before Jongup’s eyes go wide and he lets out an awfully long “Ohhhhh”. Youngjae feels like melting into the floor and disappearing for all eternity. And maybe drag Jongup with him.

 
Half an hour and a lot of awkwardness later Youngjae finds himself seated in one of the coziest couches in the café, with Daehyun sitting in front of him. They’ve been sitting quietly for the past five minutes and it’s really starting to drive Youngjae insane, so he clears his throat and smiles nervously. Daehyun looks at him curiously. 

“Jongup tells me you hate biology,” he says quietly, mentally face palming into oblivion. Luckily, Daehyun doesn’t seem to notice the amount of stupidness that this sentence contains, so that’s a relief. 

“Yeah, I mean,” the other boy starts excitedly, his hands flopping everywhere, “if I wanted to learn about teeny tiny creatures that live in our eyelashes, I would’ve voluntarily signed up for biology, but I didn’t, so,” and he finishes with a particularly big hand gesture, “what the crap.”

 
Youngjae agrees with him wholeheartedly, nodding to show his agreement. “What major are you?”

 
“Art, but my stupid friend made me take biology with him.” Daehyun rolls his eyes. “What about you?”

 
Youngjae’s eyes flash down. “Singing,” he says shyly, wringing his hands in his lap. Daehyun lets out a sound of appreciation, leaning a bit over the table separating them and resting his chin in his hand. “Will you let me hear you sing?” He asks excitedly, his dark brown eyes twinkling brightly. Youngjae gulps.

 
“Maybe,” he laughs breathily. “Maybe.”

 
The rest of the conversation flows on a lot smoother than the first few minutes of their impromptu date and Youngjae realizes that he’s actually enjoying himself- that is, until he notices the time. 

“Oh ,” he squeaks out, scattering to his feet as quickly as possible while Daehyun watches him, bemused. “I have a late lecture, I’m so sorry,” Youngjae explains. “But this was really fun, we should do it again sometime.” 
He’s just turning to leave when Daehyun stands up with his arms folded over his chest. “I know what that means,” he says in a judging tone. “That’s dating language for “You’re nice and all, but no thanks”.” 

“It is?” Youngjae wonders stupidly before shaking his head and pulling out his phone, unlocking it swiftly. “Here, let me save your number,” he suggests, handing the gadget to the other boy with a friendly smile. Daehyun takes it and punches his number in, giving it back to Youngjae. 

“Now call me so I can save yours,” he says, whipping out his own phone. Youngjae nods and presses the newly saved number- he nearly snorts when he sees that Daehyun saved himself as “Jung Daehot”- and holds the phone to his ear to hear the ringing sound. A loud guitar sound pierces the otherwise quiet café and Daehyun smiles and answers it, holding his phone to his ear as well. 

“Hey,” he says, and this time Youngjae does snort.

 
“Hey,” he says anyway, rolling his eyes at the silliness of it all. Daehyun lets out a small laugh, and Youngjae hears it twice, on the phone and in real life. It’s nice. 

“I’m gonna hang up now,” he says after a few seconds in which they both just stare at each other, holding their phones to their ears. Daehyun nods. “This was nice,” he says quietly, and Youngjae smiles a little. 

“Okay… bye.” And then he hangs up and runs to the door because now he’s really late and his heart was doing strange things for the past few minutes, and that scares him a little.

 
In the café, Daehyun stares after him with his phone still held up to his ear and a soft smile hanging on his lips. “Bye,” he whispers to himself, suddenly feeling very lonely. “See you.”

 
He hangs up. 

———

“So, how’d it go?” 

Youngjae sighs and sets his cup of hot cocoa on the wooden table, already regretting answering Jongup’s call. The younger’s voice is obnoxiously happy, like he just won the lottery or some . He strongly feels like reaching through the phone’s screen and hitting Jongup on the head, but instead he just grits his teeth and forces through it like a man. “It went fine,” he gripes. “Do you have any other questions or should I just hang up now?”

 
“Of course I do, don’t be so silly,” the younger chirps and Youngjae grips his hand around his cup so hard it almost breaks. “Did you get his phone number?” 

Youngjae brightens up a bit at that. “I did, actually,” he says, taking a sip of his cocoa. “But it’s only been a day, so I don’t think I should do anything.”

 
“You’re right,” Jongup muses and actually manages to say something smart for once. “You should wait until he calls you.”

 
Youngjae nods and opens his mouth to say something when his phone buzzes in his hand and he almost drops it in surprise, yelping and jumping about three feet in the air. He looks at the screen and splutters- he just got a text from Jung Daehot. 

“Umm,” he says smartly as he holds his phone back to his ear, “that was him, I’ll call you back.” 

“You better,” Jongup warns before hanging up and Youngjae takes a second to wonder when he became such a teenage girl before sighing and opening the text message.

 
From: Jung Daehot
if you’re not a coffee person then what do you even drink in the morning. how do you live without coffee

And that’s it. Youngjae stares at the screen incredulously. A small “Eh” sound escapes his lips. 

To: Jung Daehot
i drink tea or cocoa. why?

 
He sends the message and changes Daehyun’s name to Jung Daehyun before he forgets- he asks himself if going on a date with a guy that calls himself “Daehot” is in any way a good idea- and waits for the reply, sipping on his cocoa while trying to convince himself that he is very, very calm. 

From: Jung Daehyun
ugh, tea. it’s just warm leaf water, what’s so good about it?

 
To: Jung Daehyun
well coffee is just hot bean water, so.

 
It takes a few minutes for Daehyun to reply, but when he does Youngjae snorts so hard he almost injures himself. 

From: Jung Daehyun
…touché.

———

 
Their second date is at the movies; “Catching Fire” just came out two days ago, and Youngjae shyly suggests by text that maybe they should go watch it. They share a bucket of popcorn and Youngjae has to explain Daehyun everything, since he didn’t read the books. Daehyun likes the idea and promises that he’ll read the entire series before the third movie comes out; Youngjae laughs because that gives him a whole year. Daehyun walks him home from the bus station and they part with a hug that leaves Youngjae feeling all tingly and warm on the inside. This is exactly the kind of closeness he was looking for.

 
Their third date is, once again, at the café. They sit together and Daehyun steals small pieces of Youngjae’s cake when he thinks he’s not watching, but of course that Youngjae notices that half of his cake is gone before even taking a single bite, so he forces Daehyun to buy him another one. “In the name of justice,” he says seriously, and Daehyun caves in with a warm laugh. Youngjae likes that laugh; it reminds him of warm Sunday mornings under the covers, or staying in when it’s snowing outside. He blushes and stays quiet as Daehyun devours the second piece of cake as well; his stomach is too full of butterflies to eat anything. 

The fourth date is all about getting to know each other; they stay inside Daehyun’s apartment and watch each other’s favorite movies, laughing and wolfing down popcorn like there’s no tomorrow. At some point Youngjae finds himself cuddled up against Daehyun’s side with his head on the older’s shoulder and Daehyun’s arm wrapped around his side, but Daehyun’s warmth is seeping through his clothes and he doesn’t want to move. They stay like that until the end of the movie and then a little more, talking about their lives. Youngjae learns that Daehyun has two older sisters that live in Busan, and Youngjae tells Daehyun that he’s an only child. They talk and talk until Daehyun notices that it’s already 1AM and Youngjae nearly dies; he forgot his keys in his apartment again and Jongup’s probably already sound asleep, so he has nowhere to stay. Daehyun points out that they are in his apartment after all, and then there’s an entire breakdown from Youngjae’s side about sleeping in Daehyun’s bed with Daehyun. In the end the older boy sleeps on the couch and Youngjae guiltily takes the bed, falling asleep while inhaling Daehyun’s smell. 

It’s already well into December by their fifth date and there are only five days left until Christmas, so they go gift hunting together. Youngjae picks up a new video game for Jongup and Daehyun buys his mother a block of drawing paper, saying that she always told him how much she misses drawing. They walk home hand in hand as little snowflakes fall from the sky and the Christmas lights hung in the streets illuminating their path. 

“I’ll see you Christmas eve?” Daehyun says when they reach Youngjae’s building, and the younger raises his eyebrows. 

“Don’t you have a family to be with?” He asks in confusion; his parents went on a vacation to Italy for the holidays, but he worries about Daehyun. The older shakes his head. “Nah, they’re all back in Busan and it’s a really long trip. Besides,” he adds, hesitating a bit before continuing, “I’d rather be with you.” 

The snowflakes fall silently and Youngjae’s eyes widen as the meaning of what Daehyun just said sinks in, making his heart stop for a moment before beating so hard Youngjae thinks it’ll jump out of his chest. Daehyun looks at him confidently, his teeth digging into his bottom lip harder and harder as the seconds pass. Their breath comes out as small puffs of smoke that fades in the wind, and Youngjae’s in love.

 
“Oh,” he breathes as he takes a small step forward, looking up into Daehyun’s eyes. The older laughs and laces his warm fingers with Youngjae’s frozen ones, their foreheads touching.

 
“Yeah,” he agrees, a little breathlessly. He leans in and there’s a fraction of a second in which Youngjae’s so filled with hope and anxiety it hurts; and then their lips meet and Daehyun’s arms are around him and he goes on his tiptoes to kiss the older that much harder, his hands sinking in Daehyun’s hair. The snow falls a little harder now, but Youngjae doesn’t- wouldn't- let go of Daehyun, parting his lips to let out a small sigh. 

Honestly, he doesn’t know how long they stay like that; it could be seconds, days, months, years, but when they do part there’s this wonderful feeling of bliss in the air, and now they’re both laughing. “Yeah,” Youngjae pants.

 
Yeah.

———

There are three things you should probably know about Yoo Youngjae: 

1. He is prone to forgetting his keys inside his apartment, but that’s alright, because Daehyun hides a spare key under the vase near the door.

 
2. He hates messes. 

3. But he doesn’t really care if it’s Daehyun that creates the mess, because he already knows that Daehyun isn’t trouble.

 
There are three things you should probably know about Jung Daehyun:

1. He’s not lazy, he’s just really slow. 

2. His best friend (and boyfriend) is now Yoo Youngjae, and his cupcakes are much better than Himchan’s.

 
3. He’s not failing biology anymore- Youngjae helps him study now.

 
Two people, six facts, one story. Merry Christmas from DaeJae and me!