Sungmin puffed his cheeks and tossed yet again a shirt to the bed. He hated getting ready for dates. He could never decide what to wear.

 

There’s a ring of a bell and for a moment Sungmin wondered who it could be until he heard Hyukjae and Heechul behind the door as he neared it. He should have guessed as he pulled the door open. Hyukjae grinned at him, looking at him from head to toes.

“Yes, let me help you!”

And with that the man walked inside his apartment and straight to the bedroom. Heechul laughed and gave his jacket to Sungmin.

“I would like to have a glass of wine, please. This is going to be entertaining.”

“Help yourself,” Sungmin murmured, closing the door and putting Heechul’s jacket away. The older laughed and skipped to the living room and most likely to his wine cabinet. Sungmin rubbed his temples and went to the bedroom where Hyukja had already pulled two sets of clothes to the bed and was examination them with a fedora in one hand.

“I think we’re going to go with something simple”, he stated and almost dived to Sungmin’s closet. “You have too much… flashy clothing, you’re going to scare the poor boy.”

“I don’t even think it’s flashy, it’s just bad clothes, dear,” Heechul stated behind Sungmin, a glass of red wine in his hand. Sungmin rolled his eyes.

“My fashion sense isn’t that bad.”

“Let me remind you, we don’t talk about that combination you had on Kangin and Jungsoo’s engagement party. Or that hideous thing you had on when my brother graduated!” Heechul sneered, sipping his drink and Hyukjae nodded, playing with the shirt in his hands, like he was considering something.

“You have some nice shirts but… you don’t know how to mix it with good jeans or pants. And you have too much hideous jumpers.”

Sugmin threw his hands up and Heechul laughed.

“We’re going to pick something nice for you, don’t worry.”

“Oh I do worry”, Sungmin murmured as Hyukjae tossed the shirt away and pulled another pair of pants out of his closet. He loved his friends but his clothes were his and his fashion sense had always been a bit of a joke among them. He wasn’t really worried because of Heechul and Hyukjae wouldn’t dress him up ugly but maybe because they would dress him up not as him. But then again, the clothes were his and luckily the duo didn’t have time to drag him to buy new stuff.

 

Soon he had three options and Heechul made him wear all of them and swirl around in front of him and Hyukjae while the duo judged his appearance.

 

“That would be nice but I think it is too much blue”, Hyukjae stated of the first set of clothes and the second set got ditched because it was too dark and they settled for the third, thou Hyukjae still wanted to fix it so Sungmin stood middle of his living room, Heechul drinking his fourth glass and Hyukjae running in and out between living room and bedroom.

 

“No, if you put that cardigan, you can’t have that shirt… or if we don’t use the cardigan… but now it’s plain boring. God, you could have dyed your hair, that black is stupid”, Hyukjae murmured, pulling the dark cardigan off of Sungmin’s shoulders. Heechul stood.

“How about we use that white jacket he has?”

“White? But then he needs to change his shirt.”

“And if I put on a dress shirt, that looks too formal and old.” Sungmin interrupted and Hyukjae nodded.

“But we could work with white.. I remember you have this nice…” and here he went again, running to the bedroom, Sungmin following behind, leaving Heechul to get drunker and drunker.

 

In the end, he wore all white and glasses. Hyukjae thought it was fresh and nice, he didn’t look that old but old enough and glasses were a nice detail. Hyukjae insisted to do his hair and Sungmin couldn’t really say no. Hyukjae was like his personal stylist for the date and even thou Sungmin didn’t say it aloud as he finally had to kick those two out, he was very thankful.

 

“Remember, he is young, no third base.”

“Heechul, please”, Hyukjae grunted and Sungmin snorted and kicked Hyukjae out of the apartment. Heechul ruffled his hair before leaving and Hyukjae yelled something about him messing the masterpiece. Heechul laughed and leaned closer, only to Sungmin to hear.

 

“Don’t give the youngster too much hope.”

 

***

 

 

Sungmin sighed and tried to act nonchalantly as he made his way towards Ryeowook, who by now, had noticed him. The younger male smiled and waited for Sungmin to reach to him before giving him a quick hug. Ryeowook looked nice, he had a dress shirt with small dots on it and a white bowtie and a fedora. He looked cute and Sungmin just wanted to squeeze his cheeks. Instead he complimented Ryeowook’s choice of clothes, making the shorter male to blush.

“A-ah, thank you. You don’t look bad yourself either.”

Sungmin hummed and they stood there, awkwardly, not really knowing what to do or say next. Sungmin his lips.

“Do you have any plans?”

“Oh, I can recommend some restaurants if we want to eat at some point but I’m mostly open for options!” Ryeowook said, smiling widely and Sungmin nodded.

“Okay because I have couple of ideas what we could do…”

 

Sungmin wasn’t that novice at dating but mostly his dates had consisted of movies and food and but now he wanted to take another road. He wanted to get to know Ryeowook first before even thinking about making out with him on a dark alleyway. So he had planned couple of places to visit and Ryeowook was excited about it.

 

Sungmin himself was a sport kind of guy but Ryeowook wasn’t that keen of physical activities so their little stop to rollerblades ring was a little useless since Ryeowook couldn’t skate. Sungmin had fun thou, even if he didn’t get to skate properly at all. He got to hold Ryeowook’s hands when he helped him to stay on his feet and the younger would cling to him when they tried to make their way around the ring. And even thou Ryeowook kept whining how tired he was and how his legs hurt, it still seemed like the shorter male had fun, considering the wide smile on his face.

 

The animal café on the other hand was a total hit. He learned that Ryeowook used to have a small stray dog but it had died soon after he had been adopted by him. Sungmin told him that he used to have cats and a dog. But since he was too busy with café, they were living with his parents. They pet the animals for hours until Sungmin asked if they still wanted to do something adventurous before eating. Ryeowook was fine by the idea, only if it didn’t include running.

 

It only included a bungee jumping.  

 

“You’re going to be the death of me”, Ryeowook whined when they finally reached to the restaurant. Sungmin laughed and opened the door for him. “You jumped anyway, I was proud of you.” Ryeowook smiled as he passed him and Sungmin followed the younger one inside. It seemed like the waiter who was waiting for them by the check in desk, knew Ryeowook and they chit chatted the whole way to their table near the kitchen door. They ordered and when the waiter was gone Ryeowook slumped against the table.

“Kyuhyun used to drag me on the roller coasters when we were younger. It’s not like I hate them but my heart can’t deal with it.” He lifted his head a little to look at Sungmin who sipped his water.

“You seem to like adrenaline rushes thou.”

“Well, in my past I have done all sorts of sports. Dancing and martial arts are the only ones I’m still doing thou.”

“Oh, you dance?”

Sungmin nodded. “Me and Hyukjae used to participate in street dancing competitions when we’re younger with another friend of us but nowadays it’s just past time.”

“I would love to see you two dance sometime.”

“That can be arranged”, Sungmin mused as their food arrived. The food was excellent and it was no wonder why Ryeowook had wanted to come to that restaurant.

“This is my favorite, right after this one noodle place down town. Oh, we can sometime try this bubble tea place!” Ryeowook giggled when they left the restaurant. Sungmin smiled, nodding in agreement. It was getting darker already and Sungmin hadn’t really paid attention to the time. But it seemed like it was the time of the grand finale of their first date.

 

“It’s not that late yet. Fancy a little snack by our place?”

Ryeowook blinked at him and Sungmin corrected fast. “I mean at the café. I’m so used to call it our place with Hyukjae so I do it all the time.”

“That would be nice!” Ryeowook smiled and they started to make their way towards the café. Sungmin had planned this move too, that’s why he had refused to order any dessert. He had a plate of muffins ready and maybe it could be something romantic and--

“Sungmin.”

Sungmin felt Ryeowook’s hand to touch his arm gently.

“Why there is light in the café?”

Ryeowook was right. They could see the illuminating light coming underneath the curtains that were pulled down halfway. Sungmin walked closer and tried to door handle. It was clocked as it was supposed to.

“Maybe Hyukjae forgot them on…” he murmured as he fished out the keys to open the door. The café was as it should be at that time of day: empty and clean, ready for the next day. The light they were seeing was coming from the open kitchen door. But on the other hand the café wasn’t empty and they could hear someone talking, even laughing in the kitchen. And Sungmin knew that laugh.

He huffed and walked briskly towards the open door, Ryeowook following close by. What they saw wasn’t what at least Sungmin was expecting.

 

Hyukjae and Kyuhyun – from all of people - were both sitting on the opposite sides of the counter, mugs and empty plates in front of them and Hyukjae was telling something when Kyuhyun caught the sigh of Sungmin and soon after his face fell when he saw Ryeowook right behind of Sungmin. Hyukjae took the notice of the change of Kyuhyun’s face and turned to look at the door and grinned sheepishly when his eyes landed on them.

“Oh, fancy seeing you here.”

Sungmin rolled his eyes. “What are doing here?”

“I could ask the same from you.”

“Stop avoiding.”

Hyukjae laughed, glancing at Kyuhyun.

“I—“

“I was going home just when he was closing the café and wanted to offer me coffee!” Kyuhyun interrupted Hyukjae who blinked at the younger man.

“I did?”

Kyuhyun snorted. “Well yes you idiot. You forgot already?”

Sungmin reminded himself to ask about the real reason later from Hyukjae but now he went with the obvious lie.

“And you have been here since then?”

“Hmm. He actually pretty fun to hang around”, Kyuhyun agreed and Sungmin heard Ryeowook to snort behind him. Kyuhyun sneered at his friend. Hyukjae was amused and leaned on his hand, watching Kyuhyun closely.

“And you? Little midnight rendezvous?”

“It’s not even near midnight and maybe yes, I kind of wanted to have a drink with him and give him some muffins I prepared for him.”

“So yes then. And what muffins you’re talking about? Not those on the second self at the back?”

Sungmin stared at Hyukjae, who was pointing towards the food room.

“Yeah, why?”

“We ate them”, Kyuhyun stated and Hyukjae groaned, hiding his eyes with his hand.

“You what?”

“Ate them. They were pretty awesome I must say.”

“…What?”

“I thought you had left them by accident! You never leave food behind!” Hyukjae complained throwing his hands up under Sungmin’s criticizing eyes. “We’re sorry!” Kyuhyun snorted. “Well you are, I’m not.”

“It’s totally okay!” Ryeowook laughed, interrupting them before Sungmin could bark anything nasty at his friend. He took a hold of Sungmin’s arm. “We can have our midnight rendezvous some other time, right?”

“Well, yeah, okay”, Sungmin gave in and Kyuhyun stood up, stretching.

“I think it’s time to head home. You coming, Wookie?”

Ryeowook nodded but lingered behind as Kyuhyun made his way out of the kitchen. Hyukjae caught the hint and almost run after Kyuhyun and prevented him to come back to look for Ryeowook. Sungmin snorted.

“He has done this before. Nonetheless, I had fun!” Ryeowook piped and smiled at him, blushing a little. Sungmin nodded. “I had fun too. Next time you can decide what we do since I tend to bias physical activities.”

The blush on Ryeowook’s cheeks deepened.

“A-ah, sure. But I mean, there’s nothing wrong with physical activities. We could like bike around or… yeah, I will come up with something. You come up with the restaurant then.”

Sungmin nodded, and as Kyuhyun’s voice on the other side of the door got louder, he reached to lead Ryeowook out of the kitchen. His hand was resting on the small of Ryeowook’s back and just before he pushed Ryeowook out, the younger one turned in his arms and at that moment it looked like Ryeowook was going to say something but didn’t and instead Sungmin leaned in and brushed their lips together.

 

It was nothing more than lips against lips but it still left Sungmin’s lips tingle and Ryeowook blinked. Sungmin smiled, gently pushing Ryeowook out of the kitchen straight to the arms of whining Kyuhyun who dragged his dazed friend out the café.

 

Sungmin sighed when the door closed behind them and Hyukjae grinned stupidly at him.

“So how was the date?”

“Nice.”

“Just nice?”

Sungmin rolled his eyes, reaching to switch the lights off.

“Just nice because you ruined the ending.”

Hyukjae gasped.

“I did not!”

“Yes you did. Now, tell me why you’re here with Kyuhyun from all of people.”

Hyukjae snorted, walking towards the door.

“Nope, since I ruined your happily ever after ending.”

Sungmin rolled his eyes but followed his friend out of the café. If Hyukjae wasn’t going to tell, he wasn’t really going to push the subject. And seemed like it hadn’t been that surprise to Ryeowook to find Kyuhyun so maybe he could ask about it later from Ryeowook.

 

Later.

 

Sungmin smiled stupidly.

 

There’s going to be another date. And more dates.

More kisses.

 

“Eww, you smile like a creep.”

 

Sungmin was tempted to state “like a creep in love” but hold his tongue. It was just the warm feeling, not love. Not yet.

 

___________________

 

This is the start of the second part of this story. I'm planning having three parts so at least six-seven chapters to come~