Hongbin surprised himself by enjoying dinner more than he thought he would. It had been a long time since he had been out with any friends or really gone out at all. Sometimes he would wander through the city taking photos and then taking them back to his computer to edit, but between that and work he didn’t really leave his apartment. So being around such a lively group was definitely different from his norm. The others were loud, and there was a lot of laughter that Hongbin felt was contagious, and couldn’t help but join in sometimes. Hakyeon would tell stories about Taekwoon who refuted all of them, and Sanghyuk told stories about Hakyeon, meriting himself many complaints from the elf. Jaehwan and Wonshik argued throughout the entire meal, with Jaehwan pulling out ridiculous arguments and explanations, and obviously frustrating Wonshik.

            Occasionally someone would direct a question at Hongbin, often asking him to agree or disagree with a comment someone made about someone else, sparking more arguing. Sometimes one of them would ask him a genuine question, which he gave simple answers to.

            “And when he saw the mouse, I swear it was like his eyes lit up! I guess the cat instincts stay with you, eh, Taekwoonie? It was so cute, he looked like he wanted to go chase it.”

            “I didn’t want to go chase any mice, I don’t do that.”

            “There was that time you-“ Hakyeon began.

            “I bet there wasn’t.” Taekwoon shot back at him.

            “You still do the thing where if you are sitting in the sun you follow it across the room and-“

            “That’s because the sun is warm, Hakyeon and I enjoy-“

            “Yeah but you do it as a cat too! And you like when I scratch your head.”

            “Why are you bringing that up? It feels nice. A lot of people like that.” Taekwoon responded. Hakyeon pointed his fork at Hongbin.

            “What about you, Hongbin? Do you enjoy when someone scratches your head, hmm?”

            “I wouldn’t really know, there aren’t very many people who just go around scratching heads.”

            “Okay here, come over here I’ll show you, then you can decide-“

            “Hakyeon, don’t, he’s just a guest. You’ll scare him away.” Taekwoon flicked him in the head.

            Sanghyuk laughed at them.

            “You’re such a weirdo sometimes, Hakyeon. How do you even make friends? I’m only here for the food and because I have nowhere else to waste my time.”

            “Sanghyuk you have absolutely no manners, finish chewing before you start talking. It’s gross, and close your mouth when you chew. And you know you love me.” Hakyeon directed his attention at the vampire.

            From the other side of the table, Jaehwan was going on about how some flowers were just inherently better than others, and Wonshik was disagreeing with him on every one.

            “Dandelions are nice, but I wouldn’t say they are nice to do anything with! I can’t believe they’re your favorite flower, they even only make mediocre tea.” Jaehwan argued.

            “Okay, but they’re delicious and easily accessible. And I never said they were my favorites, stop putting words in my mouth!”

            “So what is your favorite then? Do you only like them for the taste? You are missing out on so much aesthetic potential, your house must be so disorganized.”

            “What the hell does my flower choice have to do with the state of my house?” Wonshik groaned.

            “Your choice in flower has everything to do with everything! If you can’t even pick a nice flower than how else are you supposed to do anything nicely?” Jaehwan threw his hands up.

            “I swear, all of you fairies drive me crazy, why am I even friends with you, you all are so impractical-“

            Jaehwan raised his voice.

            “I’m not impractical I just-“

            “You fall out of windows! You don’t even use the stairs! How much more impractical are you going to get?” Wonshik pointed at him.

            Hongbin laughed, and Jaehwan looked over at him,

            “Hongbin! What kind of flowers are best? Then I can know what kind to get you to replace the ones I destroyed earlier.”

            “Umm, I guess I like amaryllis flowers?” He phrased it as more of a question than a solid answer.

            “Good choice! See, Wonshik, Hongbin knows what he’s talking about.”

            The rest of the meal proceeded along the same lines, with all the chatter. After the food was all gone, Taekwoon went back to the kitchen to make everyone tea, pointedly making dandelion tea for Jaehwan, who glared at him over the rim of his mug.

            The conversation slowly got quieter, and Wonshik looked like he was about to fall asleep, so Hakyeon stood and clapped his hands together, declaring that it was time for everyone to go home, at this point he wouldn’t get enough beauty sleep. Wonshik was the first to leave, telling Hongbin that he’d see him again sometime, followed by Jaehwan who promised visits to his work, which he didn’t respond to. Sanghyuk trudged off to his room, with Hakyeon yelling after him that he had better not go out and kill anyone tonight, he was tired enough of dealing with him, to which Sanghyuk just waved his hand. When Hongbin wasn’t paying attention, apparently Taekwoon had changed back into a cat and left. Hongbin finished his tea and stood to leave.

            “I should probably be going too, I have work tomorrow.”

            “Do you want me to walk you home? At this time of day some of the elves get a little rowdy and it can be dangerous to walk through these parts as a human.” Hakyeon asked. Hongbin debated his answer. He didn’t particularly want to get lost in this section of the city, especially if there were creatures acting up, so he shrugged.

            “Sure.”

            Hakyeon grinned.

            “Let’s go, then!”

            Hongbin wasn’t prepared at all for what was outside the door. The street had transformed, lights everywhere, elves dancing through the streets, some singing, some playing instruments. Hongbin felt like he was seeing some strange phenomena, with all the colors and noise. It was very distracting, and at first he didn’t notice Hakyeon tugging on his sleeve, smiling at him.

            “Nighttime is kind of a big thing for us, something about the cycles of the stars and a whole bunch of other natural nonsense I won’t go into.” He explained.

            Hongbin nodded and went back to observing. Some of the elves that danced by them smiled at him and shouted invitations for him to come and stay.

            “We also don’t see outsiders, much less humans, very often, so it’s kind of a big deal.” Hakyeon laughed, and smiled at some of the elves dancing around him.

            “Have you ever gone out and done all of this? Like dancing, and everything?” Hongbin asked, turning to face him.

            “Oh yeah, I love dancing! I used to take part in some of the competitions that were held, and if I do say so myself I was pretty good at it too.”

            Hongbin didn’t know why it was so easy to picture, but he could see the elf dancing and moving in fluid shapes that he would never recognize, twisting around like the elves around them.

            As they got further out of the neighborhood, it became much quieter, with some older elves sitting in chairs on the outskirts, who would still smile over at Hakyeon and Hongbin as they walked by. They continued, until Hongbin could recognize where he was. There were a couple people wandering around on the street, some of them who would look over at Hongbin with bright eyes, who would shiver. This time of night was when the vampires came out, and while they usually never caused big scenes, it was still pretty dangerous to be about. Hongbin remembered Hakyeon saying something about elves and vampires not getting along, because when they would notice Hakyeon walking next to Hongbin, they would turn away.

            When they reached his home neighborhood, which was populated mostly by humans, it got safer. Hongbin started directing them to his building, which wasn’t far. He stopped outside, and turned to Hakyeon.

            “Well, thanks, I guess, for tonight? It was fun.”

            Hakyeon grinned, and Hongbin could’ve sworn some sort of inner light emanated from him that wasn’t the streetlights.

            “No problem! You should come back again sometime, I’d always be glad to let you come over!”

            Hongbin nodded.

            “Am I going to see you tomorrow at closing again?”

            “Of course!”

            Hongbin dramatically sighed.

            “I guess I’ll see you then.”
 

look at hongbinnie making friends aww

moreeeee dialog sorry

this chapter is just kind of filler i guess? not really very much story involved lmao

there'll just be details that probably come back at a later point

look at me getting two chapters out this fast

i'm getting sick and when i'm sick i do nothing but lay in my bed on my computer so i'll probably be writing more as i continue to figure it out

i still dunno if i'm gonna give it like

a big plot

or just have it be a little romance fic or w/e

we will see how hongbin (and i) are feeling about it

also i hit 10k words wow this is more than i thought i was going to do with i thought about the au and decided to write it

thanks for reading and subscribing!

~Win