“Hey, no, yeah, six is alright. Yeah yeah, I’ll meet you there. Bye.” Seunghyun ended the call and heaved an annoyed sigh.

He didn’t want to get his lazy couch potato up, for some stupid movie his friends wanted to see, but as always, they managed to talk him into it. Oh dear.

He slumped back into the couch and wallowed in self-pity for a few more minutes, before actually getting up and deciding he should probably shower and make himself presentable nonetheless. He was lazy as frick but he was not a slug.

He shambled his way into the shower, using the minimum of energy it took for him to get, at least anywhere near, presentable. This had to do he thought as he pulled his favourite, worn out hoodie over his head, struggling to even do that.

He gave himself a once over in the mirror, deciding that this was, indeed, enough.

Grabbing his keys, he rushed out of the house, hurrying up to get there on time.

Seunghyun arrived 10 minutes late, earning himself a pissed off Youngbae and an annoyed Chaerin, who was not only openly glaring him down, but also clicking her tongue in impatience. That was never a good sign and something you should take serious, if you wanted to live a long, fulfilling, healthy life, that is.

Seunghyun considered messing with Youngbae some more, but seeing the seething Chaerin gave him the chills and he decided that the risk was not worth taking.

Seeing the disgruntled look, at being forced out of his cave for once, softened her a bit, tho and she threw him a reassuring smile.

“Come on. It’ll be fun, once we are in. You’ll see.”

He kept his grumpy stance, mumbling some curse words under his breath about how he should search for some new friends and stuff, earning himself a petty eye roll from Youngbae, who was by now, most certainly, sick of Seunghyuns omnipresent mode.

They got themselves the tickets and ordered some Popcorn and softdrinks.

The Cinema was cramped, however the trio was getting lucky a few moments later, seeing that an elderly couple got up and left 4 seats, for them to take, unoccupied.

The movie started and Seunghyun was happy to see that it was not some sappy romantic comedy, but an action movie, indeed.

Seunghyun was happily munching away at his popcorn, totally immersed into the plot, when his bladder decided to make itself known. He hesitated a moment, before getting up and asking his way through the crowd, leaving a trail of “Im sorry” and “excuse me” behind.

He sighed in relief when reaching the bathroom, hastily pulling his zipper down, as soon as he got there. This was it. He thought. There can’t be a feeling more blissful, than the feeling you get when you free your bladder from all the build up pressure.

He sighed in content. Hastily washing his hands and making his way upstairs.

He was halfway up the stairs, when his movements came to an uprubt halt, almost sending him down the stairs.

He saw a boy, roughly around his age, standing behind the counter downstairs, busily preparing plates for some customers.

That, alone, was ordinary and not at all what made him stop.

What made him halt in his movements, however, was not the things the boy was doing, but rather his unique looks.

He had bubblegum pink hair and a wide gummy smile, which caused his eyes to cutely crinkle around the corners.

He was beautiful.

Seunghyun stood there, not knowing what to do, rooted to the spot, not moving an tiny, little inch, holding his breath, as he anticipated what the boy would do next.

It was simple, but it took the staring boy by surprise nonetheless, making his heart jump up in his chest and halt for a moment.

The unknown boy laughed at something his colleague said to him.

And boy did he do it. Seunghyun did not think that it was humanly possible to produce such a sound and it, certainly, was the most beautiful sound he had ever had the pleasure to listen to.

The boy smiled one more time, than disappearing into a backroom, snapping Seunghyun out of his trance in the process.

He knew it was stupid but it felt like he was hit by ton of bricks. Feeling like that for a person he didn’t even knew was not a good sign. Oh no. He was in deep .

And he knew it.

He shook his head, as if to shake off the aftermath the impact had on him and kept climbing the stairs, making his way back towards the row his friends and he were seated in.

“Hyung. Where the hell have you been for so long” Youngbae waved his hands, trying to get, the still dazed, males attention.´, with no success showing at all. He sighed and punched the olders biceps.

“Auuuw” Seunghyun rubbed his upper arm. “What the hell was that for?!”

“You are behaving even more weird than usual. What’s happened?”

“Why should something have happened? Everything is good.”

Chaerin leaned over Youngbae, trying to get a better look at her friends face.

“I don’t know, Younbae seems right, I smell something fishy. Spill it.”

Grumbling to himself, Seunghyun sank further into the seat, the cushions swallowing him whole.

He crossed his arms and threw Chaerin a challenging look.

“I said everything is good, leave me alone.”

Seunghyun turned his face away, trying to ignore his friends hushed whispers.

Youngbae looked pointedly at him before turning to face his girlfriend and gesturing towards her, that he had not any idea about what was going on, either.

“His face has the same shade of red as my lipstick does, tho.” That was her final statement, as she decided she had probed enough for now and shifted her attention towards the movie again.

They exited the movie, happily laughing and talking amongst themselves, 30 minutes later, reenacting the funniest scenes and imitating random snippets of the plot.

Seunghyun and Youngbae where in the middle of dorking around, earning disapproving stares from the older folks, when it happened.

He came to an abrupt halt, Youngbae still secured safely under his armpits.

There he was again.

That beautiful boy. Apparently he was not a figment of Seunghyuns vivid imagination. He was there, stood behind a counter, serving some of the customers. The couple, stood before the counter, seemed to be nagging and the waiter still had a perfectly polite smile showing on his trained face.

After not getting a response from their friend for like 2 minutes, Chaerin decided to follow his line of sight and see for herself what seemed to be so fascinating to her friend, that he didn’t even get angry at her, for making jokes about his many pet peeves.

She let her eyes travel along the rows of people for a while, before coming to a halt, sure that she had spotted the right person.

She smirked.

Youngbae looked at her in question, Chaerin only grinning back at him and making vague gestures to get her boyfriend to see for himself.

He searched the crowd for a few seconds, before his mouth formed the perfect O shape.

They both decided to let Seunghyun have his moment a few seconds longer, than deciding to finally pull him out of the cinema, into the open, one friend gripping his arms tightly, on either side.

“H- Hey.. what the-?” Seunghyun, angrily, pulled his arms away, swatting at his friends hands, after he managed to free himself.

“What was that for?!” Seunghyun shouted, frantically looking through the doors of the cinema, trying to spot the boy again.

Chaerin however, knew no mercy, pulling him along the sidewalk she just stated that they needed to talk

They made their way home in silence, Seunghyun retreating to his grumpy self again. They were in need of teamwork and that’s one thing the power couple knew how to do, Chaerin opening the doors and her boyfriend pulling his best friend along, pushing him down on to the sofa as soon as they made their way into the living room.

Seunghyun sunk into the cushions, pouting, his two bestfriends staring down at him, like a couple scolding their five year old for spilling some soda.

Chaerin crossed her arms over her chest. “When were you gonna tell us.”

Youngbae looked at her, following her close, crossing his arms, just like her and nodding eagerly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Seunghyun avoided her burning gaze.

“Seunghyun. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You can’t even meet my eyes.” She huffed in annoyance. “Why are you so stubborn, you are such a child!”

“Come on Hyung. We are your friends, not some strangers. You should know that you can talk to us. We care about you, don’t push us away.” Youngbae’s gaze softened, he sat down next to him, looking at him expectantly.

Seunghyun uncrossed his arms, chest deflating.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath and searching for the right words to say.

“I like someone. I mean… I don’t even know him. But I want to get to know him… I want to get to know him so bad…” Seunghyun sighed, closing his eyes again.

Chaerin sat down on his other side, pushing his head down into her chest and cradling it affectionately.

“What is so bad about it?” She his hair, trying to soothe her upset friend a bit.

He whimpered softly, silently crying into her embrace.

Youngbae joined the embrace, the three friends sitting in silence for a few moments.

Youngbae thought about what to say next, not wanting to upset the boy any more.

“I think you should ask him out. He was cute.” He whispered.

Seunghyun tensed up for a second, before relaxing again.

He was surprised to hear that the strict religious boy was okay with him being gay.

He felt relieved.

However there was still the problem with his crush.

He frowned when remembering the original question.

“I can’t.” He said, a depressed sigh leaving his lips

“And why is that?” Chaerin asked.

“He’s way out of my league… I stand no chance…” His voice broke.

“Yes you can. And you will. And you have to.” Youngbae said, determined to cheer his bestfriend up.

“Why do you think so?” The heartbroken boy asked, voice hoarse.

“Because 1. I can’t stand grumpy Seunghyun. And 2. So that everyone will stop thinking that you are Chaerin’s boyfriend.” He stuck his tongue out at his friend, in hopes of getting a laugh out of the boy, and succeeded.

Seunghyun cheered considerably up after that, getting lots of help and support by the two single most important people in his life. He was happy.

Chaerin helped him deciding on decent clothing, stating that the boy looked like a true fashionista and Youngbae went over some flirt basics with him, a little hesitant to guide Seunghyun with that, unsure if flirting was the same when it came to same couples.

Three days of hard training passed and Seunghyun was deemed ready, his two best friends giving him a grim nod to get by with, reassuring him that he couldn’t mess up now.

They were so sure about themselves that they didn’t expect their Bestfriend to be empty handed, when he came back. But he did, just giving them a sad shaking of his head and trudging upstairs, without uttering a single world.

The message was clear, no words needed either way.

Chaerin sat down, rubbing her temples, shoulders slumped down in defeat she turned to her boyfriend, helplessly.

“What are we gonna do now..? Ohh dear lord… “

Youngbae rubbed her back in understanding.

“He will get that boy, don’t worry. He just needs to try again, you know? A lil bit persistence and patience..”

Chaerin looked at him, concern showing on her pretty face.

“You know how Seunghyun is.. We BOTH do… He’ll be so depressed about it that he’ll not try another time. Me and you, We both know that!”

“We don’t even know what happened... Who says that pinky pie turned him down? Maybe it was just that he wasn’t there?”

“I hope that you are right…” She looked at him, doubt evident in every fiber of her being.

It was one day later when Seunghyun told them what happened.

It seemed to appear that the boy got so nervous, whenever he saw his crush, that he couldn’t even muster up the strength to walk up to him, let alone speak to him.

“I just… I don’t know, ok? My mind just blanked and I can't even remember anything, I mean, he was there and he looked even better than the first time and it just blew my mind, because, never in my life have I seen someone as perfect and absolutely flawless, as him.” He blushed

“I mean you can tell me that I am good enough all the time Chae, but we both know that this is not the truth.” Seeing that his friend wanted to interrupt, he continued talking, giving her no room to argue.

“He's probably got like dozens of guys and girls fawning over him, I don’t know, how am I even supposed to compete with that? I cant freaking possibly compete with that!”

“Seunghyun, calm down. Just try again and he will probably give you a chance… what does it hurt to try? He can't do anything more than saying no. Just keep trying.”

She looked at him one more time, before getting up and taking her boyfriend with her.

Seunghyun heard Youngbae shouting a “THINK ABOUT IT!” before the sound of the closing frontdoor echoed through the apartment.

3 days later, a Saturday, and Seunghyun found himself sitting in the cinemas lounge area, yet again. He had asked a staff member on the second floor if she knew where the pink haired boy was, seeing as he didn’t see him mopping the floors, nor toilets, as he had the last time, Seungyhun visited. She smiled, a polite smile, telling him to look downstairs, behind the counter. Seunghyun turned around to leave, hearing the girl muttering something like “Traitor” and “Counter Thief” under her breath.

Yeah. He had found him now. That didn’t mean he had talked to him tho. Nope. There he was, observing the boy like he was some stalker, while sipping from his coke. It felt odd. He really did feel like a criminal. Ugh.

He sighed, finishing his popcorn and crumpled the empty bag, with his shaking hands.

He looked up.

Seeing that the boy was alone at the front now, without any customers, nor colleagues in sight, he quickly made up his mind.

You can do it, just ask already Seunghyun got up, stalling for quite a bit, before pulling himself together and walking towards the bars.

The boy bend down, just as Seunghyun reached the counter.

He tried to get his attention, calling out to him.

The boy shrieked in surprise, leaping upwards and hitting his head in the process.

The boy seemed to be confused for a few moments, before gesturing Seunghyun to wait for him and going to the cooler, returning with a cooling pack, a few seconds later.

Holding it to his head he looked around some more, only returning to the taller when something seemed to dawn on him.

Seunghyun found it utterly cute.

“You are not supposed to be here, there isn’t another movie playing for 40 minutes and Serena locked the doors some time ago, wait so how did you even get in here.” The boy piped up.

Okay. His scolding face was something Seunghyun could do without.

His voice however was as heavenly as the rest of him. He was in awe for a few seconds, not knowing what to do next.

Clutching the crumpled paperbag in his hands tighter, he thought about what to say.

“I already went to see one.” Well, . Smooth, Seunghyun, real smooth.

He clutched the bag even tighter, panicking inside.

“I repeat. What are you doing here? Do you want some more Popcorn?”

He tried to draw in some deep breaths. Remember what Youngbae told you. Act confident. Act confident.

“Nope. I just wanted to chat you up and get your number.” Seunghyun almost clasped his hands over his mouth, as these words left his lips, facepalming inwardly. Why the hell did I do that?!

The boy stared blankly at him, before smiling politely.

“Can I soothe you with some freshly made Popcorn instead?”

Don’t say anything stupid, don’t say anything stupid, don’t say-

“Only if there are 11 digits on the paper bag.”

-anything stupid, don’t say-

Please stop, just shut up, don’t move

He froze in shock for a moment, before smiling coyly

Well…

…

Again.

The boy turned around, filling a bag with popcorn. Seunghyun squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, not wanting to face the fiasco he had brought on himself.

The boy returned, pushing the popcorn over the counter, for Seunghyun to grab.

He almost wanted to sigh in relief, when his lose mouth butted in, yet again.

“I don’t see any numbers on there.”

DO I HAVE NO FILTER, LIKE, AT ALL?!?!?

THIS CANT BE TRUE I FEEL LIKE CRYING

The waiter in charge snatched the bag away, hurriedly scribbling something on the outside.

“There you go.”

Seunghyun looked at the digits in shock.

The depressing realization hit soon after though.

“Err.. This is.. This is the Theatres number.” He pressed out, dumbly.

“Good Guess, Sherlock. And now, please excuse me, I have other things to tend to.”

The boy turned around and continued working as if nothing happened.

After staring at the beauties back for a few more moments, he decided to retreat to the lounge again. Humiliated he took his seat, keeping it down a notch and munching on his popcorn, not knowing how to proceed farther.

 He sat in the lounge for almost two hours, before admitting defeat and leaving the cinema altogether.

He was halfway down the road, when he decided to turn around again.

Yes. He was turned down.

Yes. He was a .

Yes. He was awkward as .

But he was not cocky.

He was not arrogant.

He was not full of himself.

Yes. He probably would end up being turned down, either way.

But If he got turned down, than at least as himself and himself only.

Not as someone who wasn’t even him.

He made his way back to the cinema, waiting for it to close, in order to catch the boy on his way home and apologize.

It didn’t took long for the door to open, a flustered boy being shoved through them by a tall, messy haired girl.

The girl disappeared behind closed doors as soon as she came, leaving the two flustered boys alone.

Seunghyun didn’t know how to begin and the cute boy looking up to him from under long eyelashes, certainly af didn’t help either.

He smiled down at the shorter boy, an honest smile this time.

“Hey. I was waiting for you to finish up. I thought, you know... I just thought you’d give me another chance... maybe??” He tried the puppy eyes on him, hoping to atleast get a chance to apologize for his horrendous way of flirting.

The boy blinked in surprise, causing Seunghyun to panic, not knowing if he had done something wrong.

Again.

 “I am really, really sorry for the way I acted before. I’m usually not like that but I just got so nervous and I didn-“

“You got nervous because of me?”

“Y-Yeah.” Seunghyun stuttered. Wasn’t that obvious?

“Please give me a chance to take you out. Even if it’s just for coffee. Take it as an apology.” He smiled bashfully.

The boy cleared his throat.

 “Okay. Apology accepted. My name is Jiyong by the way.” He shuffled awkwardly with his feet.

Jiyong. Seunghyun mused. A name just as beautiful as him.

“Mine is Seunghyun.” He couldn’t help a relieved sigh leaving his lips.

“Are you free to go now?” He added after a short moment of uncomfortable silence, hopeful orbs eyeing the pretty face in front of him.

“YES! HE IS FREE TO GO!” came a high pitched voice from the cinemas entrance.

The messy haired staff girl had eavesdropped and was now, furiously, signaling for Jiyong to grab his things and leave.

Seunghyun stood outside, not believing his luck.

The boy’s name was Jiyong.

And he was going on a date with him.

With him.

He got dizzy just thinking about it. Wow.

His thoughts were shortlived tho, it didn’t took Jiyong long, being shoved out into the night by yet another colleague.

Seunghyun grabbed his right hand in a rush of adrenaline, pulling the surprised boy, down the sidewalk and leading the way.

He dropped his hands a few steps later, realizing what he just had done.

The silence wore on, too heavy for Seunghyun to take anymore, as he felt the need to explain himself.

 “You know... it was my friend who suggested I’d try to get you to give me a number or a date or anything for that matter, he told me to act confident for once, but I don’t know, you looked at me and I kinda lost it and I must’ve come off as so rude, I wasn’t confident, I was an and now I can’t even get the words out properly and ohh god this is so embarrassing, I am just awkward as I am so terribly sorry.” Seunghyun hid his face in shame.

 “Actually… I like the real you 20 times better than your overly confident act from before.” The boy, cutely, scrunched his nose up, not knowing what else to say, he added “You are cute, I like it.”

Seunghyun’s head shot up, staring at Jiyong and searching for any sign that his statement was ment as a joke.

Only, he found none.

The pink haired beauty stuffed his hands into his pockets and began chewing on his lips, both of them stealing glances of one another, from time to time.

Seunghyun stopped at their destination, a cutely designed little café, which he decided to be fitting for the adorable boy to his left.

He held the door open for Jiyong, satisfied, when seeing that the action made the smaller boy blush furiously.

They sat down in a hidden corner of the shop and waited for the waitress to come to them, both ordering a Mocha and some cake, Jiyong a Strawberry Cheescake and Seunghyun a Blueburry Cream Cake.

The awkwardness was gone pretty soon after that, as the both of them found out how much they had in common, even having some of the same friends.

Seunghyun was enjoying himself so much, that he had completely forgotten about his embarrassing flirting attempts.

Something that never happened before, was happening.

He was at ease.

He was completely at ease, with the other boy by his side.

All of it. Shared laughter, shy glances, teasing words. It send him into an blissful state of mind, letting him catch a glimpse of what heaven must look like. All of it. It was perfect. All of it.

Seunghyun was happy.

Utterly and entirely happy.

Something which didn’t happen in months.

They were in the middle of talking when Jiyong looked up at the cute little tea cup clock hanging on the wall.

“Oh ! It’s that late already? I have classes tomorrow!” He flew up and grabbed his things, apologetically looking at Seunghyun and thanking him for the Mocha.

“It’s okay…” Seunghyun answered. He wanted to ask for his number, or for another date, but decided against it, fiddling with his restless fingers instead.

He knew that Youngbae and Chaerin would probably yell at him in frustration right now, but he was not one to force himself on others and if Jiyong wanted to see him again, he’d certainly said so, by now. Seunghyun looked down, not really disappointed, but miserable nonetheless.

He knew that this was gonna happen, all along.

He knew that the other boy must’ve had higher standards and that he just got lucky and was surprised to even get this one date.

Just as Seunghyun was about to explore the road of self-destruction some further, he was interrupted by long, graceful fingers pressing under his chin, moving it upwards to meet his soft, plush lips.

It took a moment for a Seunghyun to respond but when he did, he was smiling into the gentle touch of lips.

The couple lost themselves into eachothers eyes for a short moment, before Jiyong pressed in one last time, leaving Seunghyun dazed and breathless.

Seunghyun was sure now.

Jiyong was otherworldy.

To hell with popcorn.

The young waiter smiled apologetic, once more and waved at Seunghyun, than halting in his steps, seemingly remembering something and reaching into his bag, placing a popcorn bag in front of him.

Seunghyun wanted to ask him what this was about but was rudely interrupted as Jiyong bend down, to lean in for a kiss, once more and left the café short after, leaving the speechless boy behind.

He screamed in frustration, which caused the dozing waitress to topple of the bench she was sleeping on.

Was that it? Was that Jiyong’s way of saying goodbye and thank you? Did he misread the signs? The boy didn’t want to see him again afterall, did he?

Omg. This really was it.

It was a goodbye kiss.

Nothing more.

He already felt the tears burning in his eyes when he caught sight of the cursive, black writing on the bag.

Delicate ink gracing the ugly paper bag, stating:

“Good things come to those who wait (:” and a phonenumber underneath.

He gave me his phonenumber.

His real phonenumber.

11 digits.

He performed a short victory dance, pumping his fists in the air, earning him weird looks from the disgruntled waitress.

Seunghyun packed his stuff together, making sure that he took the popcorn bag with him and paid for their orders.

He walked down the street, skipping some steps in happiness, a dreamy smile on his face.

He hurried to get home, eager to call Chaerin and Youngbae over, wanting to tell them how it went. How amazingly well it went.

Giggling to himself he looked down at the popcorn bag again, checking up on it, to see if the numbers were still there.

 He grinned, dimpled cheeks forming the most beautiful smile ever.

Okay.

He took that back.

 Not to hell with Popcorn.

He whistled an upbeat tune, swinging the bag, back and forth.

...

Mind you…

Popcorn tasted like HEAVEN