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their first meeting was— seongwu deemed it was straight out of a romcom— comical, jonghyun always retorts back. and if jonghyun’s given the chance to turn back time he’d chose that moment where his first encountered seongwu. the other would laugh saying that it wasn’t that bad and his immediate response is to roll his eyes and scoff.
“it wasn’t bad on your side, seongwu-ssi” he starts “i tripped and fell on my face, not to mention i’d also ruined minhyun’s Gucci shoes”
jonghyun inwardly recoils at the memory. let just say, minhyun was nice enough to let him off the hook. repetitively saying it’s fine, it’s just shoes and jonghyun also repetitively saying he’s sorry for his two left feet and bad coordination. this may seem like how he and minhyun first met, oh, you seem wrong. because seongwu was there and during the whole shenanigan seongwu was laughing his ass off.
well, the reason for the incident to happen because of a certain greek god— faces as such seongwu and minhyun weren’t what people can see occasionally— suddenly appearing on the lowly 24/7 mart which makes jonghyun lost all senses except for his sight, so that he can appreciate the view at best. considering it’s 3.a.m. jonghyun was out of his mind long before that and the sudden interaction with said greek god was a major failure which led to him tripping over a bucket filled with dirty water, spilling it all over minhyun’s shoes and the rest of it was history.
after that embarrassing incident— mostly on jonghyun’s part, seongwu still finds its a fond memory— mr. greek god came by pretty frequently, alone and at 3.a.m. only at 3 a.m. jonhyun only learns his name by the third visit— ong seongwu. ‘ong-ssi is a unique surname isn’t it?’ jonghyun commented when he heard of seongwu’s name. ‘the one and only’ seongwu had replied with that charming grin of his.
and so, the third becomes fourth, fifth and mr greek—seongwu keeps on coming. jonghyun does enjoys his company and he really could use a friend at that lonely ghost hours. he had to admit seongwu was the best—only— option he could ask for and it wasn’t like every time he clocked in his shift he kept on looking at the clock for every five minutes, thinking that why was the night was so long and to reach 3 a.m felt like eternity. pftt, yeah and jonghyun would say, seongwu’s laughs always felt like a musical shows with harps playing and birds chirping on the background and that he would gladly pay to hear them. pftt.. no…. because he wasn’t any of that and if jonghyun does, his mind would remind him again that he couldn’t afford that kind of luxury.
being a job seeker especially in this economy is tough. the only thing he can do to survive living in the big city is by having three part time jobs, and if he include the weekend job at the bar— he got it with help from his best friend, minki. which by the way had helped him only because needy minki needs his regular meet up, that, and also minki’s a vip there— he’d four jobs. and most decently paid one was the bar and this stupid ghost hours shifts.
two reasons why jonghyun isn’t keen on relationship 1) it requires money and jonghyun is barely surviving on the bare minimum and 2) jonghyun is bad at them. no, bad was an understatement, he’s terrible. minki always says that beyond anything 2-D he’s incapable of engaging a decent relationships. but that doesn’t mean he’s oblivious to seongwu very obvious intention. he knows for a fact, no one in the right mind would go out in the middle of the night in September just because he’d ran out of milk. it became even more obvious and straight out flirting when seongwu had asked for his number.
“so, jonghyun it’s been a week now and… i… tomorrow, i might had trouble coming here, no, in fact i can’t come until the end of the month” seongwu had said on the, not a week, but his eight visits— yes, jonghyun had counted because he’s an unemployed loser— “oh, that’s unfortunate” he’d replied in a rather calm and understanding tone, he’d hoped.
seongwu let out a sigh before looking straight at him in the eyes, and if jonghyun isn’t mistaken seongwu’s eyes is mirroring the exact dissapointment that he’d felt. jonghyun swallows hard at the possibities, and he swallows even harder when seongwu slips his phone at him, asking for his number saying that he wants to keep in touch. you see, by this time his mind is sending signals, a loud sound screaming in his head saying that this is leading to something and something is never good in his dictionary. but even before he can respond to any of those signs, he’d already typed in his contact numbers, and seongwu had hold his left cheek and gave him a small peck on the right. whispering a soft i’ll miss you and leaving him beet red blinking stupidly. slowly registering that seongwu’s soft lips was on his cheeks and the area is now hot and tingly. that, also he realized he’s now fucked up.
—————
seongwu’s forever glad he’d man up that night— minhyun and daniel had been pestering him about him having no balls and meeting someone uninvited at 3.a.m. is considered stalking. which he argues back by saying it’s not because the feeling is mutual (it’s not— yet) and it’s the only free time he can manage to see jonghyun— and had asked for jonghyun’s number. in the series of his consecutives bad decisions he’s fucking relieved that he’d made one Very good one on jonghyun.
seongwu swore the first night he visited the store was out of pure intention. that night, daniel had returned to their shared dorm after a long and tiring schedule, with an empty stomach. so instead of ordering takeouts he was craving for some cereals and also by chance the milk in their fridge had ran out. so daniel, big samoyed daniel, started throwing his stupid daniel’s tantrum and nothing stopping him until he gets his milk.
if someone (read: sungwoon) didn’t snitch him out for being the last one to finish the milk, jisung wouldn’t push him out the door, shoving money in his face and had to drag his body to the 24/7 mart two blocks away. just so that daniel could eat his freakin cereals and everybody else could go back to sleep. thankfully, his sweetest, bestest, same aged, friend minhyun was there to accompany his lonely walk to the store— which later he’d deeply regretted as his kind gesture was repaid with a pair of ruined shoes and dirty wet sock.
for once that night, seongwu didn’t mind receiving the end of minhyun’s wrath with an extra service of his sharp elbows digging in his ribs, he also didn’t mind going out on the next day, fighting the cold breeze and continuing it again for an entire week— wait, it’s 8 days straight (jonghyun corrected him)— to buy the same milk just to see the cute cashier with his computer-like smiles and machine-like greeting every time he entered the 24/7 premise. which without saying he loved every seconds of it.
it’s funny thinking on how long jonghyun actually takes to recognize him, and his reaction after realizing seongwu’s profession was even funnier. he didn’t mean to hide it or anything, he simply just thought jonghyun somehow knew and chose to initially ignores it to avoid any awkward situation. well, that’s what he’d thought during the third night seongwu had disclose his name to jonghyun.
they were already on a more than just friend basis by that time, where in between breaks or the journey in between schedule, his hand is practically glued to his phone. smiling and giggling to his phone screen. jisung had called him love-sick, jaehwan and daniel literally gags at his face and minhyun just silently and secretly judging his life choices. he noted that he needs better and nicer friends. at least the little ones had called jonghyun a cute person— jonghyun Is Indeed The Cutest Person n seongwu is proud of that— when he shows them a selfie of him, which seongwu had desperately asked for after going on a week without meeting.
also during that gap of a week, jonghyun had sent him an image. ‘hey seongwu, i don't know if my eyes are playing me, but by chance is this you dancing in my sister’s tv or that, you have a secret twins in secret, somewhere somehow. and… pls…. tell me its your twins’
sent image was of him and his wannaone members dancing to energetic on an award show held months ago, jonghyun’s probably watching a rerun.
‘the one and only :)’ he replied. he didn’t have to look to know what’d jonghyun sends him, most likely, a series of curses and exclamations, which he finds equally amusing and funny.
seongwu takes a few days to convince jonghyun that he’ll be fine, they’ll be fine and in one of their very few, very rare phone calls, seongwu had started with ‘no jonghyun my fans aren’t gonna send anonymous death threats to your house’ seongwu laughs at his restlessness and jonghyun accepted his thorny fate with a frustrated groans.
seongwu takes a few weeks longer to convince jonghyun to go out on a date with him, outdoor, under the sun. seongwu had whined endlessly, claiming that 3.a.m behind counter isn’t what people consider as normal date. again, despite the solid resistance and solid reasoning jonghyun gave, he eventually caved in. it’s not that hard training jonghyun all you need is a pretty face, some sweet and alluring words added with a long, deep and chaste kiss that’ll turned his legs into jelly. it’s not seongwu’s fault he had all of the above lists checked and can easily makes him comply.
even if he’s the one who one-sidedly initiates their first real date, judging by jonghyun’s satisfied expression and his unending giggles that day, seongwu can say jonghyun enjoys it as much as he did. and also judging by the way jonghyun beams so brightly at him after he’d kissed him longer, deeper and chastier, he’s convinced that it’s pretty much a win-win situation to the both of them.