Date no. 1

The restaurant was bathed in soft, twinkling lights from the overhanging chandeliers, and around them the other patrons were speaking in hushed tones as if they were scared to break the relaxed atmosphere of the place. Waiters dressed in black trousers and white shirts were swiftly moving from table to table, taking orders and placing out food. It was all very nice and he would have appreciated the place a lot more if not for his company. Donghae nibbled nervously on his lower lip, his date for the evening to engrossed in his drink menu to pay him notice for the time being. Forty minutes earlier Donghae had been excited about the coming evening. Right now, he was cursing the day he typed his name into the dating site.

It had all been Sungmin’s idea. Donghae may or may not have suffered a dry spell which they all agreed had lasted long enough when he was streaming the 6^th and final season of and the city on Netflix. He needed to get back in the game. Of course he was sceptical about the idea of online dating. Internet was just full of weirdoes and erts, he should know since he was probably one of them. But it couldn’t hurt to try….right?

’We found each other online you know’ Kyuhyun had told him while leaning his head on Sungmin’s shoulder.

Donghae snorted at that. ‘You found each other through an online game, and the only reason Sungmin was playing it was because he knew you were and he asked Heechul to give him your character name because that was the only way he could talk to your nerdy .’

‘Well it worked didn’t it!’ Sungmin pouted at him before throwing a decorative pillow from the couch in Donghae’s face.

And Donghae had to admit that it was true. Amongst the month that Sungmin lost sleep, weight and grades to level his WoW character in hopes of pursuing the younger guy who had been in one of his university classes, they had managed to find love. Albeit a sometimes violent sort, it still made his heart soften when he looked at them. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try.

The rest of the evening had been spent setting up Donghae’s online profile. After his first failed attempts at writing a presentation, Sungmin had simply pushed him away and taken over. Now Donghae might like to be romantic from time to time. This did not, as Sungmin wrote, mean he wanted to “Make you scrambled eggs and serve you breakfast in bed, while we do crossword puzzles and our two dogs snooze at our feet.”

‘Oh come on, everyone lies online.’ Sungmin told him.

This made Kyuhyun jerk up from where he was on the couch browsing Donghae’s facebook for a suitable profile picture.

‘Did you lie when we talked?’ he asked his boyfriend.

The look Sungmin gave him was nothing short of comical.

‘No Kyhyun …. I love WoW.’ The sarcasm dripping of his voice.

Kyuhyun looked at him affronted while his boyfriend sighed deeply. 

‘Honestly Kyuhyun you must have already known this? Do you see me playing it anymore?’

‘No…’ Kyuhyun said after a while, tilting his head contemplatively. ‘But I thought it was just because you realized how much you at it and you didn’t want to burden my character with having to help you level all the time.’

Donghae swore the cough coming out of Sungmin sounded like “ing gamers” before he turned back to the profile on the computer screen.

So here he was. Date number one. The man had seemed like a good catch during their almost month long communication via email, and eventually texts. He was funny, quirky, good looking, tall (which wasn’t difficult to be standing next to Donghae) and best of all, he was a cop. But five minutes into meeting him in person, Donghae was realizing problem number one with online dating.

What had come across as a humorous persona in text quickly turned into bad puns in real life. He had started the night off by flashing his badge and telling a group of teenagers hanging outside a store they passed, that he was keeping them under close observation for loitering, and that Donghae, whom he forcefully patted on the back causing the smaller man to stumble, was his trusty sidekick and would turn into a ravage beast at the sign of trouble.

He had gone on to ask the coat check girl at the restaurant if she ever tried on peoples coats while they were eating and if the road to Narnia was behind the big fur hanging in one corner. He was half on his way to crawl over the counter to check when Donghae desperately clung to his arm and pointed out that they had made reservations, and Narnia was too far away to go before dinner. 

The worst part of it all was the volume in which he was joking around and it made a lot of people turn to stare. When they finally arrived at their table Donghae wanted nothing more than to sink through the ground in embarrassment. If he could just make it through dinner, he could go home and try to forget that this night ever happened.

“Hi, I’m Hyukjae. I’ll be your waiter for tonight. Can I get you started with something to drink?”

Donghae was startled from his thoughts as he looked up at the slim male that had made his way to their table. The waiters white shirt was impeccable and his black trousers were pressed to perfection. He was holding a small notepad and pen in his hands and even though he was smiling politely at the two, Donghae could tell from the way he was fiddling with the pen that he was stressed. The restaurant was crowded as it should be during dinner time. This Donghae was also painfully aware of.

They ordered their drinks and Donghae was happy to notice his date settled for a coke rather than something alcoholic. Donghae wasn’t sure he could deal with him affected by alcohol.

“Do you already know what you want to eat or do you need some more time to think about it?” The waiter asked.

Close to ripping open his menu, Donghae ordered the first edible thing he saw, not taking the time to look through anything else on the list. The quicker they ate the quicker they could be out of the restaurant and Donghae could go back home and eat a bucket of icecream while ing to Sungmin and Kyuhyun about his failed date. Thankfully the man managed to order his food without making any jokes and Donghae felt a spark of hope that maybe he would get out of this alive after all.

***

Hyukjae had a genuine smile on his lips, looking down at the couple seated by one of his tables. They seemed to be on a date, and if the shorter man’s blushing cheeks was anything to go by, it was their first one. The man seemed really nervous and Hyukjae felt sort of bad for the guy. He kept fidgeting and running his hand through his soft looking brown hair. Hyukjae knew full and well how horrible that first date feeling could be. This might be one of the reasons he himself hadn’t been on one in forever. Thanking his lucky stars that it wasn’t him sitting in the chair, although the brown haired man looked like the ordeal might just be worth it, he instead focused on writing down their orders.

‘Ok.’ He said while picking up their menus. ‘I will be right back with your drinks.’

‘I’m sorry sir, I have never heard of that before.’

Donghae was mortified, he wished he could sink through the floor and quit his life right then and there. Dinner had gone fine, better than he expected after the beginning of the evening. His date had calmed down considerably while they were eating and they had managed a pleasant conversation about a bit of everything right up until the waiter returned with their tab. However when his date turned to the confused man and flashed him his badge he knew that the night was far from over.

‘I get it whenever I eat here.’ The man said with a smile before leaning forward and whispering to Donghae in a conspiracy voice. ‘It is the main reason I chose to be a cop, the perks.’

He turned to face the waiter again.

‘So about the discount. You had it last time I was here. Police discount they call it.’ He held Hyukjae’s steady gaze seemingly willing the waiter to look away first. Instead Hyukjae cleared his throat, wondering if maybe Yoona had been on to something or if this was just the mans idea of a joke. Maybe he was just nervous about the date he was on.

‘Sir, I have worked here for 4 years. We do not have a “police discount”’. Hyukjae once again told him while his eyes darted to the shorter male whose previous pink cheeks had now turned a flaming red. Yep, Hyukjae was never dating again.  

After a few seconds of silence the dark haired man in front of him started laughing a loud rowdy laugh.

‘I was just kidding with you. You almost fell for it didn’t you.’ He slapped his own knees and doubled over.

It wasn’t as much of a question as a statement as Hyukjae felt sure that the man was convinced he had him going. For all of their sakes, the brown haired mans in particular, Hyukjae simply chose to ignore it.

‘Will there be anything else for tonight?’ He asked once again while placing the tab on the table. He had to strain his ears to hear the “no thank you” coming from the furiously blushing man on his side. Hyukjae swiftly walked away followed by the sound of the dark haired man telling his date that their waiter has no sense of humour. Five minutes later as the two men had paid, separately which had surprised him but the shorter male seemed adamant not to let his date pay for him, he watched the two men walk outside. One of them looking lost and annoyed and the other laughing loudly to god knows what. He felt sorry for the guy, clearly as far as good dates go, that one seemed to be on the very bottom of the scale. Shaking his head before picking up his notepad he greeted a new couple at his table.

Well hello there. This will be a short fic which also means the chapters will be short. I'm gonna try my best to update at least once a week. We'll see how it goes. ^^