Chapter Text
Hongjoong’s body wakes him up naturally at seven-fourteen. He lies very still for a moment, allowing the warmth of his bed to cradle him a few seconds longer before he eventually has to start his day. His schedule is always tight, and though he makes it that way, he still enjoys having a little time in the morning to relax.
He blinks the sleep out of his bleary eyes and reaches for his phone with a stretch.
Seonghwa’s contact is sitting right there at the top of his messages. The barista had texted him a smiley face to put his number in Hongjoong’s phone, and Hongjoong immediately attached a name to the contact. Just Seonghwa, no last name, which oddly feels more personal.
He opens the message up, sitting up in his bed and rolling his lip between his teeth as he thinks of what to write.
Hi, it’s Hongjoong. From the cafe.
Seonghwa knows who he is. He gave Seonghwa his number in person, twelve hours ago, while standing directly in front of him. He does not need to specify that he is Hongjoong from the cafe.
Hey. When are you free to meet about the project?
He reads it back. It sounds like a calendar invite. He deletes it.
Hi, it’s Hongjoong. Wanted to follow up about—
Follow up? He is following up on a fake relationship proposal he made to a barista at eleven o’clock at night? No good.
He grunts and swings his legs over the side of the bed, putting his feet on the floor. It’s cold so he quickly maneuvers again to hug his knees to his chest. Then, he picks his phone back up and finally settles on a message.
Hongjoong: Hi, it’s Hongjoong. When are you free this week? We should figure out the project together.
He sends it before he can read it back a third time and then goes to make coffee. His phone buzzes while the kettle is boiling.
Seonghwa: good morning! i get out of classes on thursday around 2? we could meet at the library on campus if that works for you
Seonghwa: i just have work at 6
Seonghwa: also i should probably send you the assignment brief so you know what we’re dealing with 😭
Hongjoong reads this twice. He doesn’t believe himself to be a particularly observant person, but he does notice that the way Seonghwa texts is similar to the way he exists at the cafe, or at least how Hongjoong perceives him. He’s always warm and unhurried, yet expressive when he needs to be.
He types back.
Hongjoong: Thursday at 2 works. Library is fine
Hongjoong: Send the brief whenever. I’ll look it over before we meet
He sends it and pours his coffee, setting his mug on the counter to allow it to cool. He decides, after a moment, that it sounds like he is scheduling some kind of appointment. Even though they technically agreed to fake dating, he doesn’t want to sound like an asshole. He picks the phone back up.
Hongjoong: The project won’t be as bad as you think btw
He sets the phone down again. That’s marginally better, and what washes over him is a weird feeling of relief. His phone buzzes soon after he sends it.
Seonghwa: you haven’t seen the brief yet 🙂
Hongjoong looks at this for a second. Then, without fully meaning to, he huffs out something that is almost a laugh.
He takes his coffee to his desk. He has three hours before his first class and a problem he was supposed to solve yesterday, but when his phone lights up again from Seonghwa sending over a PDF attachment, he figures he should look at that first.
He downloads it and sends it to himself over email, pulling it up on his laptop.
Objectively, it is not a bad assignment. It’s asking for a simple interactive learning tool, something a five year old could click through. Hongjoong has an idea of it in his head: multiple choice questions, a bit of basic animation, but nothing that would take him more than an afternoon to build from scratch. He can already see the architecture of it laid out plainly in his head, but he figures Seonghwa—who is definitely better with kids than he is—might have some better ideas about what would be best for the assignment.
He can also see, with equal clarity, why it would look like an unsolvable problem to someone who has never written a single line of code in their life.
He picks up his phone.
Hongjoong: Okay, I’ve read it
Hongjoong: It’s manageable. I think if I walk you through it you won’t be as stuck as you think you are
The reply comes faster than he’d expected.
Seonghwa: hongjoong i genuinely stared at that document for an hour and understood maybe four words of it
Seonghwa: the four words being build a learning tool
Hongjoong cracks a smile as he reads this, but also feels an underlying kind of pride. He’s happy that Seonghwa’s problem is one he can solve, similar to the satisfaction of seeing something broken and already knowing how to fix it.
Hongjoong: I’ll explain it to you on Thursday.
Hongjoong: If you look at it again before Thursday you’ll just stress yourself out.
Seonghwa: ugh too late
Seonghwa: jk
Seonghwa: but okay. thursday. i trust you
Hongjoong sets his phone down and picks his coffee up.
He is going to be productive. He is going to solve the problem he was supposed to solve yesterday and get through his three classes. After all, if he’s going to be taking on someone else’s project he should probably get his own assignments out of the way first.
He gets about twenty minutes of solid work done before his phone buzzes again.
Seonghwa: also should we maybe sort out the other thing at some point
Seonghwa: like the details of it. so we’re on the same page
The other thing. Right. He had, in the comfortable distraction of the assignment brief, almost managed to forget that there is an other thing.
Hongjoong: We can go over everything Thursday. Before or after the project stuff, whichever you prefer.
Seonghwa: anything is fine 🙂
Seonghwa: see you then, hongjoong
Hongjoong closes the conversation. He’s known Seonghwa in passing long enough to know he’s kind, yet he sort of always assumed that the smile came with the apron. Texting him makes it harder to believe that, now. Seonghwa seems really genuine; someone he can actually see himself being friends with.
He looks back at his laptop screen and gets back to work. Thursday is in two days, and he needs to have his own shit done by then. He silences his phone for good measure.
❈
On Thursday, Seonghwa calls Soyeon at around eight in the morning, which is something he has never done before in the entire time they have worked together. Soyeon closes four nights a week and values her sleep with a ferocity that Seonghwa has always respected deeply… until right now.
She picks up on the second ring.
“It’s today, isn’t it?” she mumbles instead of saying ‘hello.’ Her voice is raspy, tinged with sleep.
Seonghwa cringes. It sounds like he just woke her up, and he genuinely feels kind of bad. “It’s today.” Seonghwa confirms. He is sitting on the edge of his bed in his pajamas, foot tapping rapidly against the ground. “I meet him at two.”
“Okay.” He can hear her shifting, sitting up. “How are we feeling?”
“I don’t know why I said yes,” he whines. "I don’t know what I was thinking. He was standing there asking me to do something for him so of course—” He pauses, dragging his freehand over his skin and pushing the heel of his palm against his eye until he sees little sparks. “I said yes before he even finished talking.”
“I know,” she laughs a little bitterly. “I was there.”
“He was nervous,” Seonghwa continues. “And I didn't want to make it worse for him. I didn't want him to feel embarrassed. So I said yes! To fake dating him and—”
“Wait, wait, Seonghwa.” Soyeon cuts him off on the other end of the line.
“What?”
Her voice clears up, fully awake now. “You said yes because you didn’t want him to feel bad?”
“I mean yeah?” Seonghwa’s voice is tiny through the phone speakers.
“Not because of the project?” She confirms deliberately.
Seonghwa mumbles, “I mean I also get help with the project…”
“Sure,” Soyeon’s tone makes Seonghwa feel like she is not moving on but is willing to table the topic for a future conversation. Preferably after she’s had her coffee. “Walk me through what's actually scaring you, then.”
Seonghwa stands up to pace around his room, tugging on his already stretched-out sleeve.
“Well, a lot of things, but to start I have to sit across from him outside of the cafe. I’ll actually have to make conversation and I want to seem interesting to him, I guess?”
Seonghwa keeps rambling, he’s back on his bed, sprawled out with the phone on speaker phone now. “And that part I think I can manage, that part is almost normal. I can treat it like a tutoring session and be fine.” He pauses. “But then after that we have to talk about the arrangement. What we’re supposed to do, how we’re supposed to act around his friends, how long it goes on for. And the whole time I’m going to be sitting there knowing that I actually like him, that I have liked him for months, and that none of what we’re agreeing to is real.”
“Right.” Soyeon agrees, quietly.
“And the worst part…” Seonghwa is fully aware he is venting now, but getting his thoughts out to someone is helping with his anxiety about the grave he dug for himself. “...is that he went on a date. The night he came in dressed like that he was definitely on a date, Soyeon. Which means he was at least open to the idea of it, but it didn’t work out.” He stares at the ceiling. “Which also means if he’s fake dating me to get people to stop setting him up on blind dates he’s obviously not interested in me at all, because if he was he could solve this problem by actually asking me out. And he didn’t!”
Seonghwa lets out a long huff, and Soyeon is quiet for a bit, making sure Seonghwa is done with his rant.
“That is a lot to walk into, babe,” she sighs, finally.
Seonghwa makes a small whimpering sound, face buried into the pillow.
“I’m not saying you were wrong to agree to it, but you need to be careful. With yourself, I mean. Go into this with your eyes open.”
Seonghwa closes his eyes. He knew she was going to say something like that, which is probably why he called her. “He texted me Tuesday morning,” he mumbles, after a moment. “About the project brief. He’d already read the whole thing. He told me not to look at it again before today because I'd just stress myself out. He seems sweet, but what if he thinks I’m stupid?”
Soyeon intentionally brushes past the last part. “Had you looked at it again?”
“Four more times.” He groans.
“Obviously.” She drawls.
“I know,” Seonghwa agrees, miserably.
“Seonghwa.” Her voice shifts, almost like a stern mom giving a pep talk. “Listen to me. You go, you get through the project stuff, you talk about the details, and then you come home and you call me and tell me everything. It’s just one afternoon. It’s not like you’re bound by contract.”
“It’s one afternoon with him,” Seonghwa worries his lip between his teeth. “And there’s no counter between us.”
“So now there’s a library table instead. Same thing.”
“It is not remotely the same thing and you know that.” His eyes suddenly widen in sharp realization. “He’s going to see me without my apron. What the hell am I going to wear? I can’t go—”
“Seonghwa.” Once again, gentle but firm. “You already said yes. It’s already happening. The only thing left to do now is go. You always dress cute, anyway.”
He exhales slowly. She’s right. Annoyingly, unhelpfully, completely right. He knew she would be before he even dialed, which is probably why he called her before anyone else.
“On the bright side at least we know he’s gay now if you’re the person he chose to fake date.” She jokes, mostly.
Seonghwa huffs out a laugh, sitting back up in his bed. “We knew that already.”
She laughs on the other end of the line. “You have class soon. Call me back after today, okay?”
He sits up, checking the time. “Shit, yeah. Okay. Thank you, I love you, I owe you.”
She sings-songs into the phone. “Love you too. Never call me again this early.”
They say quick goodbyes before Seonghwa ends the call and starts rushing around his room for something to wear. He settles on a pair of flattering jeans and a soft, white sweater.
He has two classes between now and two o’clock, four hours of buffer in which he is supposed to take notes and pay attention. Like hell is he going to be able to do any of that.
❈
Hongjoong’s last class on Thursday gives him exactly twenty minutes to get across campus to the library when it ends.
He arrives at one fifty-nine. Punctual, and he knows this because he checks his phone as he’s pushing through the library doors, and then has to stop short. Seonghwa is already there, or rather, arriving at the same time, coming up the steps just behind him. He’s slightly out of breath like he’d been walking fast, but when he sees Hongjoong he offers a familiar smile.
They look at each other for a second.
“Hi.” Seonghwa pushes his hair out of his face once he makes it up the steps. Hongjoong is really only now noticing how long it is. It frames his face nicely.
Hongjoong offers a small smile back. “Hi.”
It’s a normal exchange, so Hongjoong isn’t really sure why it takes him a second to recover from it. He attributes this to the fact that Seonghwa looks different outside of the cafe. Not dramatically, of course, but he’s outside of his work clothes and wearing a soft white sweater. It suits him.
Hongjoong files this away and holds the door open. “You found it okay?”
“I go to school here,” Seonghwa reminds, stepping through, mild amusement in his voice making Hongjoong feel a little silly.
“Right,” he shuffles his feet. “Obviously.”
They find a table near the back, quiet and out of the way, which Hongjoong gravitates toward automatically. He prefers to position himself somewhere with a wall behind him for some odd reason, maybe because he doesn’t like to feel exposed while he works. He sets his bag down and pulls out his laptop and the notes he’d made after reading the brief, organized by what they need to cover first.
Hongjoong has tutored before when he needed some extra money, so he’s confident about helping Seonghwa with his project, who’s sitting across from him with his hands folded on the table. His eyes find the notes with an expression that is trying very hard to be neutral.
“Oh, you printed things,” he comments.
“I made notes.” Hongjoong corrects.
“Two pages of them?” Seonghwa isn’t upset of course, more so overwhelmed. Hongjoong can tell by the way he shifts a little in his seat, smile seeming forced more than genuine.
“It’s not as much as you’d think. Coding just makes it seem that way.” He reassures, waving him off as he scoots his chair close enough to Seonghwa to be able to point things out while remaining a respectful distance.
Seonghwa glances at him with something inscrutable clouding his eyes. “Where do we start?”
Hongjoong turns the notes around so they’re facing the other and leans forward, elbows on the table. Socializing is not his strong suit, but this part he knows how to do. It’s a problem with a solution, and problems with solutions are the thing he is most comfortable with in the world.
“So basically the brief wants you to build an interactive learning tool… as you know. Something a young child could use and understand. The good news I have for you is that you don’t really need to know much about code to build something like that. The better news is that I can do this really easily for you if you don’t even want to do the code at all, but I might need some ideas from you because the whole… kids part… is where I’m lacking.”
Seonghwa is watching him carefully, nodding. “How long do you think it will actually take?”
“A few sessions, maybe? I’ll do most of the building, I just want to make sure you understand enough to explain the choices you made if your professor asks.”
“I’d feel bad if you just did it for me…” Seonghwa pouts a little, an expression new to Hongjoong. He thinks of it fondly.
“I’ll be teaching you how to do it as we go, don’t worry. I really don’t mind.” Hongjoong feels a sudden urge to reach over and pat Seonghwa’s shoulder assuringly. He’s usually not much for physical contact.
Seonghwa’s gaze flits down to Hongjoong’s hand, his shoulder tensing a little. Hongjoong quickly pulls his hand off, and Seonghwa upon noticing this, quickly tries to put a balm over the awkwardness. “Okay. Teach me something then.”
Hongjoong turns his laptop partly in Seonghwa’s direction. “Do you know what HTML is?”
“Somewhat.”
“Good enough.” He pulls up a blank document. “We’re starting from the beginning.”
What follows is forty minutes of Hongjoong explaining things in the simplest terms he knows how to, which he is aware is still not always simple enough, so he watches Seonghwa’s face while he talks and adjusts when he needs to—slowing down when Seonghwa’s brow furrows, backtracking when a nod comes a beat too late to be genuine. He doesn’t want to come across as condescending, but Seonghwa seems to have relaxed, which additionally offers Hongjoong his own relief.
Seonghwa is a patient learner. He asks questions at the right moments and doesn’t apologize for not knowing things (a pet peeve of Hongjoong’s). Some people make not knowing something into a whole performance; the self deprecating laugh, the excessive sorry, the ‘I’m so bad at this’ while expecting Hongjoong to do their work for them.
But Seonghwa just absorbs what he’s given and asks for more when he needs it, and it’s very easy to tutor him. Hongjoong even finds it enjoyable.
“Wait,” Seonghwa stops him, at some point, leaning forward to look at the screen more closely. “So this part, the ‘div’ thing, that’s just like a container? It’s just holding the other stuff?”
“Exactly,” Hongjoong nods.
“Okay.” Seonghwa sits back. “That actually makes sense. I don’t understand why this isn’t in the brief.”
“Because briefs are written by professors,” Hongjoong leans back in his chair, “and professors like to assume you know things you don’t know yet.”
Seonghwa laughs at this, more like a giggle, but Hongjoong likes knowing that his presence is enjoyable for him, too. After all, he’s the one that bombarded Seonghwa with this agreement.
About an hour into the session they’ve covered enough ground that Seonghwa has a basic framework to look at and a list of things to review before their next session. He finally sits back and exhales. “That was, yeah that was actually okay. That was okay.”
Hongjoong is packing up his things and cracks a slight grin. “I told you it wasn’t as bad as you thought.”
“You did.” Seonghwa tilts his head, something soft in the look he gives him. “Thank you. Really. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through this assignment otherwise.”
“You’re smart, Seonghwa. I’m sure you would’ve been able to figure it out, but I’m happy to help.” There is a brief, specific silence that falls between them then—the kind that means the first part of the afternoon is over and the second part is about to begin, both of them knowing it.
“So,” Seonghwa prolongs, quietly. “The other thing.”
“The other thing,” Hongjoong confirms, finishing up packing his bag.
Seonghwa folds his hands on the table again, patient and unhurried, and waits. Hongjoong realizes, not for the first time, that Seonghwa is very good at letting things come to him rather than reaching for them. It is a quality Hongjoong does not share and finds quietly enviable.
He pulls out his phone. “I made some notes on that too,” he forces a laugh this time, it’s tight and awkward, but Seonghwa is amused by his organization with everything.
He lets out a breath that is almost a laugh. “Of course you did.”
Hongjoong unlocks his phone and pulls up his notes app, turning it to face Seonghwa across the table. He watches Seonghwa’s eyes scan it and waits.
“Mm. Bullet points.” Seonghwa observes, comfortable enough now to be making consistent jokes with Hongjoong.
“It’s organized,” Hongjoong defends.
“And sub-bullets!”
“Some of the points needed clarification.” He reaches over and scrolls past the part with the sub-bullets before Seonghwa can read them too closely. “The main things are how we act around my friends, what our story is, what we’re both comfortable with. And obviously an end date.”
Seonghwa’s face changes at this, head tilting slightly. “An end date.”
“For the arrangement,” Hongjoong clarifies. “We said when your project is done, but I thought it made sense to have something more specific. A date we can both plan around.”
Seonghwa nods, not unkindly, but he’s stopped making jokes.
Hongjoong clears his throat, feeling a weird tension he doesn’t know what to do with. He figured this part of their session would be awkward, so he doesn’t blame him. “So for the story, I think we should agree on how we met, how long we’ve been seeing each other, that sort of thing. My friends are going to ask.”
“How much are they going to want to know?” Seonghwa ventures carefully.
Hongjoong winces. “My friends are pretty bad. I love them, don’t get me wrong, but Wooyoung is most likely going to ask a lot of questions, some may be personal or uncomfortable, so I just wanted to warn you.”
“Okay,” Seonghwa breathes, absorbing this. “So what’s our story?”
“I thought it was easiest to go around the truth, mostly. You work at the cafe I study at, I started tutoring you on a project you needed help on, we got to know each other, so on so on.”
“Smart,” Seonghwa hums in agreement, looking back to Hongjoong’s phone. “What about the,” he gestures vaguely, “the acting part. Around your friends. How convincing do we need to be? Like will we need to uhm…”
Hongjoong’s eyes widen and he quickly shakes his head. He’d admittedly thought about this part more than he’d expected when he was making the notes at midnight, thought about what it might be like to cuddle with Seonghwa, hug him, kiss him, and his face had gotten so red he scrapped all of it from the notes. His friends know he isn’t partial to physical affection, anyways.
“No, no, no! Nothing like that,” Hongjoong hurries to explain, “Maybe sitting close to each other on the couch? I’ll wrap my arm around you sometimes?” Hongjoong looks flustered even now.
“I think it’s honestly more believable if we don’t overdo it,” he reasons. “They know I’m not,” he chooses his words carefully, “I’m pretty shy and not very expressive, so if I showed up acting like a completely different person they’d know something was off. So mostly I think you just need to be there, and act like we’re comfortable with each other.”
“Are we?” Seonghwa wonders, looking up at him, his own ears are a little pink, but his hair shields his better than Hongjoong’s does.
Hongjoong holds his gaze for a second. It’s a more direct question than he was expecting and it takes him a beat to process it. “I think so,” he answers, honestly. “I mean, I know you. Kind of. Better now after today, but maybe we should hang out some more so we can get to know each other better. It’ll be more believable too if we’re seen hanging out alone, too.”
He stops to look at Seonghwa’s face. He looks mortified, and Hongjoong immediately backtracks. “O-Only if you want to! I would never want you to be in a position that makes you uncomfortable.”
He looks down to his phone to scroll to the bottom, quickly. “I even made a secret code to signal to each other if we’re uncomfortable.” He shows the phone to Seonghwa, who’s nodding along a bit bewildered. He’s stayed silent for the most part, but Hongjoong can tell he’s being attentive.
“Here. If we say ‘I need to use the restroom,’ that means in the literal sense we are just going to use the restroom. But if we say ‘I’m going to the bathroom,’ that’ll mean we are not comfortable with something, and it’ll also give us a reason to escape that current situation and we can just text each other from there about what made us—”
“Hongjoong?” Seonghwa interrupts softly. “That’s great, but I don’t mind hanging out more with you. Alone, I mean. It wouldn’t make me uncomfortable.”
Hongjoong sags a little in his seat, relieved. He’s happy to see that Seonghwa doesn’t look completely repulsed by the deal they’ve made. “Right. You can always use the code if you need to.”
“Okay,” he concedes softly. “This is all a good place to start. We should make today the day that we first started ‘dating,’ that way when someone asks how long we’ve been together we’ll have a starting point to go off of.”
Hongjoong nods in agreement. “Also, there’s one more thing.” He waits for Seonghwa’s attention again before he speaks again. “I’m probably going to tell my friends I met someone soon… before they organize another setup. And when I do they’re going to want to meet you because they’ll probably think I’m lying. I’m pretty antisocial.”
Seonghwa nods like he already knew this, then cuts in. “How soon?”
“Knowing my friends?” Hongjoong exhales. “Within the week, probably?”
For a moment Seonghwa just looks at him, expression unreadable, and Hongjoong braces slightly for pushback, for the first sign that this is too much, that the thing Seonghwa agreed to at the cafe and the thing sitting in front of him now are not quite the same size. But then he straightens in his chair and nods decisively.
“Then we should probably practice.” He resolves.
Hongjoong blinks. “Practice?”
“Yeah, like you said. Being comfortable with each other,” Seonghwa elaborates, with a patient lilt. “Outside of the cafe. This week.”
Hongjoong suggested it but he hadn’t actually thought of what they’d be doing outside of their studying sessions. Once again, he’s not the most social person.
“Yeah that’s a good point,” he concedes, slightly grudgingly.
“I have Sundays off,” Seonghwa offers, smiling hopefully.
“I know, when I come to the cafe on Sunday’s you’re never there.” Hongjoong returns.
At Seonghwa’s silence he quickly changes the subject, not thinking much of what he’d just said. “So Sundays work. What do you want to do?”
There is a small beat of silence. They’ve covered everything else, so this is really the last thing left to talk about. He figures the rest of the details will fill themselves in gradually as they go.
Seonghwa finally looks at him with that quiet, unreadable expression of his. Then the corner of his mouth lifts. “Well, let’s start small.” He sounds almost hesitant at the suggestion, taking a look at the library around them. “We could go to the bookstore downtown?”
Hongjoong, too, is fighting against the nerves in his stomach. He’s getting away from the blind dates, but somehow has thrown himself into even more dates. However, for some reason since it’s Seonghwa, he doesn’t seem to mind.
The corners of his mouth pull up into a smile. “Deal.”