If there had been a list marked "Things Jang WooYoung will never do," it would read;

1.Go on blind dates

2. Trust Kim MinJun

Clearly there was no list, because he was currently sitting at an empty table rolling the base of an empty water glass around while he waited for his date. His date who also happened to be a complete stranger. He blew out a long sigh, flicked his dark brown bangs out of his face and started back at his staring contest with the watch on his wrist. Nerves bubbled under his skin as he tracked the second hand with his eyes. It was already twenty minutes past the agreed upon meeting time that Jun.K and Junho had set up. WooYoung figured he could sneak out in ten minutes and call it a bust. 

Just ten more minutes of pity looks from the waitress, who kept pouring him drinks he didn't want. "You sure you don't want anything else hun?" the bright blonde asked for the twentieth time (he had counted). 

"Jang WooYoung?" a gaspy, slightly breathless voice asked behind him. WooYoung has never known whether it was shock or curiosity that compelled him to stand so abruptly. The brunette side stepped out of his booth and spun on his heels only to be faced by the one thing that he had not expected; a very tall, very handsome, broad shouldered, raven-haired masterpiece of a man had called his name. “I’m so sorry,” he said, “I missed my stop on the train and had to turn around to come back.” Had he run here from the station? “I’m Ok TaecYeon,” he continued, pointing to himself with one hand and reaching out with the other. “Nice to meet you.”

Words had suddenly escaped him. In fact, he was pretty sure that his whole vocabulary had grown legs and walk right out of his mouth because everything he thought he could say collided ungracefully behind his teeth. No discernable words came out when he opened his mouth. Just an embarrassing garble of smashed noises squeaked out in a whisper as he offered this stranger his hand to shake.

TaecYeon had callused hands and a firm, gentle grip. He was warm, maybe from running, but also maybe just because he was. Everything in Wooyoung’s slender, dancers body wanted to keep holding that hand but for the sake of not looking more awkward he dropped it politely.

The waitress nudged WooYoung gently in the ribs with her ever-present coffee pot. “I’m Suzy,” she offered, “I’ll be your waitress for the evening.”

“Hi Suzy,” the taller man smiled. He smiled so brightly they could have turned the power off and the room would still be lit. WooYoung felt so far out of his league that he wanted to run.

Suzy nudged him again, “You look like an idiot,” she hissed with her sickeningly sweet voice.

“Pft,” TaecYeon snorted, “are you kidding me? Everyone feels stupid on a blind date. I kind of cheated,” he reached up and swept some inky strands away from his eyes, “Junho showed me some pictures of you before he could convince me to do this.”

“Hi?” Was all WooYoung could think to offer.

“Hi,” Taecyeon said again with another killer smile.

“Would you like to sit down?” Suzy asked. She whispered something along the lines of “Could you be any more obvious,” when she nudged the brunette again with her incessant coffee pot for the third time.

“Do you two know each other?” Taecyeon asked.

Somehow WooYoung managed to re-acquire some of his wit “We had plenty of time to get to know one another while I was waiting on you.”

They sat down, and Suzy filled a mug with hot black coffee for TaecYeon with a, “Sure you don’t want some?” for WooYoung.

TaecYeon must have picked up on the uncomfortable way WooYoung was shifting in his seat, “Hey, no worries,” he said, “Chansung is always telling me to get a date…well, he tells me to get laid but either way.”

“You know Chansung too?”

“Yeah, he and Nichkhun live down the hall from me. I’m honestly surprised we’ve never met before. We seem to run in the same circles.”

“So,” he transitioned awkwardly out of shear curiosity, “which pictures did Junho make you look at?”

His black haired companion twitched out another beautiful smile, “The ones from the vacation you took with him and Minjun last year.”

“Ah,” WooYoung grimaced, “Did he complain about how he shouldn’t have to vacation with his boyfriends single room mate the whole time.”

“Pretty much.”

Of course Junho would embarrass him in front of a potential date. Junho always embarrassed him when he wasn’t around to defend himself. “How do you know Junho anyway?”

His companion let out a sort of giggle as he picked up the greasy menu that had been set off to the side by the dear waitress. “We met downtown at YG.” A prominent gay bar, how unlike Junho, “He thought I was cute so he gave me his number.” That was much more like Junho, “Our date, if you can even call it that, was a disaster.” The thought occurred to him quite suddenly and then the words passed through his handsome date’s lips, “Thankfully I had MinJun to set him up with.”

Wooyoung spared a glance in the direction of his own greasy list of food items. His nerves made it impossible for him to think about the possibility of eating, but he was vaguely aware of the fact that underneath all of those nerves he was quite hungry.

In that moment TaecYeon leaned over just enough to whisper, “This might be really weird but do you mind if I try ordering for you?”

And that was when he melted. It was also the moment in which he decided he would make sure he never had to go on another blind date ever again because Ok TaecYeon was a god among men.

The night ended on WooYoung’s front stoop, even though TaecYeon lived nearly an hour away, deep in the city and far from the suburbs. The sticky night air was clinging to everything and made the world seem a little smaller somehow.

To be fair, WooYoung had offered to go inside, had even offered his new friend the couch but as it turned out the matchmaker was also an old fashioned gentleman so they sprawled themselves out on the concrete steps watching the stars after all of the streetlights had gone out. “I’m free all week this week.” WooYoung offered in his most suggestive tone.

“Mm,” TaecYeon chuckled, “I think my schedule just cleared for you.”

“I should go in,” WooYoung insisted.

“Are you actually going to this time, or are we going to sit on the porch talking for three more hours.”

“It’s a stoop not a porch,” he groaned, “For the tenth time.”

“Are you actually going to get up this time, or are we going to sit out here for another three hours talking?” Taec asked again, “Because I don’t have work tomorrow, so I’m cool with either.”

“This is always option three, I’ll go inside and we can text until we both fall asleep after the sun rises?”

“I’m going to call a cab this time, for real,” the taller man threatened. “It’s one in the morning.”

“Didn’t you call Chansung when we left the diner.”

“Yeah,” the smiling dork said, “He’s been hiding around the corner for about three minutes. Told me to take my time in that gross suggestive eyebrow wiggle voice.”

The brunette suppressed the urge to say ‘ew’ because he knew that voice and that voice was the creepiest. “I really am getting up.” He determined, shifting along the rough edges of the steps. There were definitely lines in his back where he had been laying down.

So they both stood and shared the awkward end to a strange first date with shuffling feet and unasked questions about boundaries. Wooyoung in a deep drag of soggy night air and a warm finger curled under his chin, tipping his head back just slightly. Gentle lips pressed against his so barely he chased them for a moment when they withdrew. Strong arms slid under his, and his small hands curled on the terrifyingly solid chest of the man that he was somehow falling for after one blind date. That man embraced him in a way that he had never been embraced. For all the stickiness in the air, and the heat of the evening suddenly a fire burned through him and dried him of passion. Like words had left him, so did the world, there was nothing but the pulsing of his blood in his veins and the way Ok TaecYeon’s hand were locked around the small of his back.  He fell into that feeling, and gave himself over to the pounding of his heart in his chest as his companions head nestled into his brown hair. There were no qualifying, exact, or measurable amounts for his desire to get lost in that hug and never find his way out.

“I’ll see you tomorrow okay Woo?” TaecYeon asked tenderly, leaving a wet kiss in that mess of brown hair. “I’ll text you. Bye”

When the warmth was gone he missed it, even though it threatened to overheat him. Jang WooYoung had never wanted so badly to curl up and stay somewhere. Something inside him had the terrifying urge to say ‘I love you’ as his first date ended and his new not-quite-boyfriend-yet walked down the sidewalk and around the corner with a seemingly uncharacteristic bounce in his step.

“Bye, See you tomorrow Taec.” He called after and just as he walked through the door his phone buzzed in the back pocket of his jeans.

The message proclaimed “Hi! I missed you already.”

That was the first time they said good-bye to one another, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last.