hello joonmyun

joonmyun

kim. joon. myun.

that's a nice name you have there

I like it

I'm on my lunch break rn

but you're probably at work aren't you?

some important meeting or sth

mr. businessman ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

oops

maybe I should stop texting you

sorry

pls call me l8r

this is yixing btw

zhang yixing

Joonmyun stares at the large amount of new messages amassed on his phone. They're all from the same number and they're all received while he was in a meeting with a group of investors. With careful fingers he copies said number into a new contact and types a meticulous 'Zhang Yixing'. After staring at it for a couple of moments he backspaces. Instead he writes 'Dimples'. He saves it all before he can regret his life choices, shoves his phone so far down his pocket it'll probably take him some work to get it out and proceeds to repeatedly slam his forehead against the desk.

There's a knock and Joonmyun looks up to see Jongdae watching him from the door. Crap. He forgot that he left it open. Jongdae's lips are twitching with poorly veiled amusement. “You okay there, hyung?” he asks.

“Yes.” Joonmyun clears his throat, straightens up and busies his hands with organizing the already organized papers in front of him. “Yes, I'm fine, just fine. Uhm, did you want something?”

“Oh, I just wanted to ask if you want to come grab something to eat with me.” Joonmyun stills his frantic movements. He hadn't expected Jongdae to want a repeat of their last lunch together. Personally Joonmyun considered it somewhat of a failure considering what happened towards the end of it. But Jongdae continues to smile at him. “It's okay, you can say no if you–”

“No!” Joonmyun quickly cuts him off. “Yes!” Jongdae seems like it's hard for him to keep from laughing. He presses his lips into a thin line and arches a brow in question. Joonmyun clears his throat again, face flushing. “What I mean is, yes, I would like to have lunch with you. Please.” Most of the time Joonmyun handles social situations well. Or so he thought, because apparently that doesn't apply to situations involving anything other than generic smalltalk.

Jongdae smiles. “Awesome. I was thinking we could go to the same place as yesterday. The food was nice there, don't you think?” Joonmyun can tell from the mischievous glint in Jongdae's eyes that he's probably not thinking about just the food.

Nonetheless, Joonmyun finds himself agreeing. “Sure,” he says and for some reason it kind of feels like he's working to prove a point. He sincerely hopes that his self-embarrassment quota has been reached for the day, though. He's not sure if his pride can afford to take any more blows.

They go to the cafe by foot. It's not very far and the weather is mild despite the season so it's easy. They walk next to each other on the sidewalk. Joonmyun walks with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders pulled up to his ears and he remains mostly quiet, scared of making a fool out of himself again. That doesn't seem to be much of a problem for Jongdae, though. He does enough talking for the both of them all on his own.

“You know,” he says at one point. “When I first joined the company I thought that you were really stuck up. I know this is probably rude for me to say since I'm still pretty new and all, but the others told me about you, how you've worked there for years but never really tried to befriend anyone. That you never joined them for activities outside of work or anything.” Joonmyun furrows his brow. He wasn't aware that other people talk about him behind his back. Either Jongdae doesn't notice Joonmyun's frown or he doesn't care about it because his tone remains unchanged. “Kind of made me wonder. Did you think that you were better than anyone else?”

“I don't,” Joonmyun assures him. “I'm... I just...” Actually, he's not sure why he never accepted any of their offers. His co-workers would invite him to lunch, dinner, parties, and every time he would decline, claiming he was busy with work or that he had other plans when most of the time neither of those things were true. In the end they stopped asking him altogether. They gave up.

“Can I tell you what I think?” Jongdae asks after a while of silence and when Joonmyun nods, he goes on: “I think you're really insecure. You hide it well, but you're insecure. You're so eager to impress everyone all the time so you're afraid to open up much because then they're going to see the real you and maybe not like what they're seeing. Am I right?”

“I... I think so.” Joonmyun has never looked at it that way. It's frightening how accurate that sounds and possibly even more frightening that Jongdae can read him so easily.

“Guess those psych classes weren't a wasted effort after all, huh?” Jongdae says with a slight chuckle. They reach their destination and come to a halt. Jongdae turns to Joonmyun before they enter. “I think people would be a lot more impressed if you did open up to them, hyung. I've gotten to see glimpses of the real you these past few days and I like it better than the Kim Joonmyun I'm used to knowing. Much better.” He smiles. “You don't have to force yourself or anything just... keep it in mind, okay?”

Joonmyun swallows something. “I will,” he says. “Thanks.” Jongdae pats his shoulder.

Today they're seated in a different section of the restaurant than they were the day before. Joonmyun casts a surreptitious glance around the place, trying his best to make it unnoticeable. Judging by the smug look on Jongdae's face he does notice. Thankfully, however, he opts for silence. Joonmyun's eyes make a full round and when he doesn't see the person he was searching for he can't help but unconsciously deflate a little. Maybe it's better this way, though. It probably is. He doesn't need to be anymore scarred than he already has been today.

“What can I get you, gentlemen?” Joonmyun jolts at the sound of that voice suddenly speaking from somewhere close by. He turns his head sharply to the right then looks upwards and he sees Yixing's smiling face peering down at him. Yixing is wearing his waiter uniform, a white dress shirt with a black vest and black slacks, and he's holding a small notepad in one hand, a pen in the other. The one that's holding the pen has a smudge of dark text scribbled across the back.

Joonmyun's face feels warm. “Uhm...” he says intelligently and the rest of the words evade him. So much for not embarrassing himself further. He just wasn't prepared to order. He was even less prepared for Yixing actually being their waiter.

Joonmyun looks at Jongdae for help. Jongdae sighs and rolls his eyes good-naturedly. Yixing, however, receives a smile from him. “What do you recommend?”

“That depends on what you're in the mood for, I suppose.” Yixing scratches his head with the end of the pen and chews his bottom lip as he thinks. “How do you feel about spicy food?”

“I can't eat that very well,” Joonmyun says, grimacing at the thought.

Yixing regards him for a moment with a slow-spreading smile. “That's good to know.” Joonmyun isn't quite sure what that implies. He knows that Yixing's gaze makes him feel hot, though. “Our jjigae is pretty good,” Yixing continues, unaffected. “The special today is doenjang.” He goes on to talk about other items on their menu, but Joonmyun, shamefully, zones out, too focused on the way Yixing's lips shape syllables and words and the way his eyes turn bright and attentive every time he answers the questions Jongdae asks.

“I think I'll have the doenjang jjigae, then,” Jongdae says eventually and Yixing writes it down on his little notepad before looking expectantly at Joonmyun. It takes an embarrassing amount of time, but Joonmyun manages to stutter out a request for bibimbap. Yixing writes that down as well.

“Great, I'll be back with your food before long. Let me know if you need anything else.” Yixing collects their menus and stuffs them both under one arm and he motions to walk off, but then he pauses as if he suddenly thinks of something. “Oh yeah, by the way.” He turns to look at Joonmyun and he looks completely serious. “Are you stalking me, Kim Joonmyun?”

Joonmyun nearly chokes on the sip of water he just took in an attempt to soothe his unnaturally dry throat. “What?” he coughs. “N-no! We're... the food, we're here for-for the food. That's all, I swear!” He looks at Jongdae in a plea for help or support or something. Jongdae just seems amused, staring right back at him with a smile. Traitor.

“I see.” Yixing nods with a thoughtful expression that soon twists into a grimace. “Do you really like it that much here, though? I know I'm probably not supposed to say this, but between you and me...” He leans closer as if to speak in confidence. This time Joonmyun makes a conscious effort not to lean back, but his heart rate does pick up as Yixing moves into his personal space. “There are actually other places that have much better food than this one.” Yixing straightens up again (a thought of how he'd kind of like it if Yixing stayed in his personal space flashes through Joonmyun's mind too quickly for him to pick up on it) and he smiles. “I can show you, if you'd like?”

Yixing is looking at Joonmyun. He's looking at Joonmyun. He's not looking at Jongdae, only at Joonmyun, directly at Joonmyun. He wants to go out to eat with Joonmyun. Not with Jongdae. Only Joonmyun. Just the two of them. Alone. And Joonmyun has no idea what to say and he doesn't know if it would be a good idea for him to accept the offer even though he kind of really, really wants to say yes and–

“He'd love to,” Jongdae responds before Joonmyun can make up his mind. Joonmyun doesn't know if he should punch him for making decisions for him or hug him for the same thing.

Yixing's bright smile definitely makes Joonmyun lean more towards the latter. “Great,” Yixing says. “Text me later and we'll figure something out?” All Joonmyun can do is nod. He doesn't like how inarticulate Yixing tends to make him feel. He's still silent as he watches Yixing rush off to the kitchen to place their orders with the chef.

“Did I just get asked out to dinner?” Joonmyun questions without as much as glancing at Jongdae. Instead he's looking at Yixing, who just bumped into one of the busboys and is now apologizing profusely.

“Hmm, I think so, yeah,” Jongdae replies calmly. As if it's not a big deal. Which, frankly, it kind of is. At least it is to Joonmyun. He looks at Jongdae with a helpless expression, but just like before Jongdae only grins. “I guess this means you're going on a date, huh?”

Joonmyun laughs awkwardly. “It's probably not a date.” His face is hot, so hot.

“Mhm,” Jongdae says, sounding nowhere near convinced. “Sure, you just keep telling yourself that.” Miraculously, Joonmyun manages to resist the urge to slam his own face against the table repeatedly. He has to admit that the idea is very, very tempting, though.

~*~

A/N: former psych student kim jongdae in action! yixing being yixing!! date!!!!! that is all.

thank you for reading and commenting~ ♥ you is kind, you is smart, you is important.