Work Text:
Xu Minghao heaved a sigh of relief. After a frustrating half hour of being stuck in traffic, he'd finally made it to Incheon international airport, and finished all the check-in and security procedures in good time. He checked his watch; he had two hours to spare. He had never been happier about his lounge privileges than at that moment.
Minghao got himself a cold sandwich and some soda, and sank back in one of those fluffy, reclining seats. He dumped his backpack on the seat next to him, and pulled out his trusty noise-cancelling headphones. As SHINee blared in his ears, Minghao closed his eyes.
He wasn't particularly looking forward to this trip. Under usual circumstances, he'd have given anything for a week off work to go home. Moving to Seoul at the age of 15, and living there for his job as a graphic designer at Pledis Studios was a decision he could not bring himself to regret, and he considered himself really lucky, but god, Minghao missed home.
He missed spending time with his childhood friends, sitting at the pier and staring out at the sea, and the taste of lemon ice candy on his tongue. He missed everyone around him speaking the language of his heart, the solace of his bedroom and most of all, he missed his parents.
He'd been ecstatic to receive news of his cousin's impending wedding, and managed to get a week off work, after only a little grovelling. But this particular trip had different connotations, as Minghao realised in the cab ride to the airport.
He didn't want to think about it. He put his head back and began to doze off.
Minghao awoke with a jolt. He didn't know how long he'd been asleep. In a panic, he checked the time with bleary eyes. To his relief, it'd only been 17 minutes.
He registered the presence of another person, two seats away from him. He hadn't heard them sit down. His father would be really annoyed to hear about him wearing headphones at the airport and missing potentially important announcements. He took them off.
His phone vibrated. Minghao looked at it for a good 10 seconds, debating whether or not he should answer it. After another heavy sigh, he resigned himself and picked it up.
His mother's soft voice greeted him. It would take exactly one minute, he was sure. Minghao reassured her about his well-being and gave her his flight details. She launched into telling him about the wedding preparations, and he listened, amused.
3, 2 and 1.
"Minghao, dear, I presume you've got yourself a date for the wedding?"
There it was.
The question he'd been dreading for ages. It may not seem like a big deal, but Minghao was fed up of the way every single conversation he had with his parents, seemed to wind down that direction. He had insisted, multiple times, that he was perfectly happy being by himself, and work was keeping him pleasantly occupied. They'd always pestered him about it, but the worst of it began about a year ago, when he hit 26. He'd always deviated the conversation every time the topic of his love-life (or lack thereof) came up, but add the context of a wedding and subtract the distance of a phone call, and Minghao saw a pretty trying week ahead of him.
"Mama, I fail to understand why you waste your breath asking me about this every time we talk. I'm more than happy having my flat all to myself, and work's keeping me busy enough. As for the wedding, I'll get a friend to be my date for the day, it'll be fine ."
Apparently, it wasn't fine, at least, not according to his mother. "Minghao, I only want what's best for you. You've been alone for so long, and I thought this wedding would be the perfect occasion for you to finally find someone. Most of your friends are either married or in relationships, and you're perpetually holed up in your room. All that work can't be good for you."
A few more minutes of back and forth along this vein, and Minghao was exhausted. Any excitement he'd felt for the wedding and the visit back home was drained out of him; there was just no winning with his mother.
Finally, Minghao'd had enough of the flagellating. He felt a rush of energy, as he said, "Fine! I didn't want to tell you about this, because I knew you'd react dramatically, but I do have a boyfriend."
There was a long pause on the other end. That's when Minghao registered what he'd actually said.
Shit.
"What? That is certainly interesting." His mother sounded quite hurt.
Minghao couldn't possibly back out of it now. I might as well go with it, he thought, as he made up a cock-and-bull story about how they'd met at work, and how he was the kindest person he'd ever met. He soon realised his mistake, when, after listening excitedly to him, his mother asked, "Well, what's his name? And is he accompanying you to the wedding?"
Minghao was royally screwed. There was no way out of this. He should probably cancel his flight and go back to work the next day.
While he was stuttering into the phone, thinking of a reply to give his mother, he heard someone clear his throat next to him.
"I couldn't help but overhear you. I think I can help."
Minghao looked up, and saw a man around his age. He glared and waved his hands at him, as if to say, this is not the time for this.
The man moved closer to him and said, "Seriously. Just give me the phone!" His voice was muffled; he was speaking through a black face mask.
Minghao was desperate. That was the only rationale behind why he handed his phone over to a complete stranger, when his mother was on the line.
"Good evening, aunty! This is Wen Junhui, your son's boyfriend. I kept telling him to tell you about us, but you know how he gets. He wanted to surprise you all at the wedding."
Minghao stared at the man in utter disbelief. What is going on right now?
To his further surprise, the man started chuckling at something his mother must've said. The two seemed to be getting along like a house on fire. In spite of himself, Minghao registered that the man had quite a lovely laugh, and stored this information away in the far recesses of his brain.
The man, Junhui, continued talking to his mother, nodding and interjecting at appropriate intervals. He'd pulled down his mask somewhere along the line, and Minghao resolutely ignored the fact that, even in a rumpled shirt, grey sweatpants and bags under his eyes, he looked absolutely stunning.
"Yes, of course, I have no problem coming along for Li Jing's wedding. I'm so excited to finally meet all of you!" Junhui genuinely seemed happy to chat with Minghao's mother, bless his heart.
A few more minutes later, he hung up with another charming laugh, and handed Minghao's phone back to him. Minghao was honestly a little affronted. "She didn't even say goodbye to me?" he huffed.
"That's a nice way to thank someone who just covered for you." Junhui didn't sound upset at all. Instead, he had an extremely amused smirk on his face.
A little chastised, Minghao opened his mouth to thank Junhui for his effort to pull Minghao out of his situation, but remind him that he was still in trouble, because there's no way Junhui would actually come with him to the wedding, so really, his life was just an all round shitshow, and -
"So, when's the wedding?" said Junhui, rocking back and forth in excitement, in a voice that Minghao thought was too chirpy for the occasion.
"You can't be serious." Minghao wasn't in the mood for jokes, so he may have sounded harsher than he'd intended.
Junhui's face fell, and he looked away awkwardly.
"Wait, you are serious. Are you saying you're actually willing to not only pretend to be my boyfriend, but also put up with my family at my cousin's wedding?" said Minghao, in a more gentle voice.
Junhui looked back at him, and nodded once.
"You really don't have to do that, though. I got myself into this mess, I'll figure it out." Minghao still couldn't wrap his head around this perfect angel of a stranger, who'd swooped in and saved the day.
The aforementioned angel just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I mean, I don't particularly have anything else to do. I hate my job here, it suffocates me and I just wanted to get away. The only place I consider home is always empty. My brother's all grown up now, and my parents are almost always overseas on business. At this point, the only reason I'm flying out is so that I can have authentic Chinese food."
He ended with a little laugh, but it was a very sad one. He looked away from Minghao again.
Minghao set his jaw. "We'll have plenty of good food at the wedding. It's a few days away, but I could do with someone to protect me from my family's incessant questioning. As a reward, I could show you around my hometown and we could - "
His voice trailed off at the end. He wasn't sure how his offer would be received by Junhui, since, they were, after all, complete strangers.
As it turns out, Minghao needn't have worried at all, because Junhui got this twinkle in his eyes, and the brightest smile on his face, as he began to nod eagerly.
Junhui reached over and hugged Minghao. The latter wasn't used to physical displays of affection, but after a few moments of shocked stiffness, Minghao relaxed into the warmth of the other's arms.
Junhui whispered a "thank you" into Minghao's ear as he pulled away, and the two spent an inordinate amount of time smiling at each other like idiots.
"Good evening, passengers. Boarding for flight D342 to Beijing will now begin. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Thank you."
The mechanical announcement broke the moment, and Minghao jumped into action. He packed away his things and stood up, turning around to look at Junhui.
"We have to leave."
Junhui nodded amiably. He got up too, putting his mask back on. "Before that, though, I need to do something."
He plucked Minghao's phone out of his hand, and tapped on it for a few seconds, before giving it back to the other man, whose jaw was agape.
Now a little nervous, Junhui rubbed at the back of his neck and said, "I figured that if I were to be your boyfriend, there had to be a way for us to contact each other."
"Right. Good plan." Minghao found himself a little tongue-tied, much to his dismay.
Another announcement broke through the light chatter in the airport lounge, and everyone began queuing up for boarding, including Minghao and his new "boyfriend".
Minghao was only a little bit peeved when he found out that Junhui's seat on the flight was very far from his own. He pulled his headphones out and settled back again, finally feeling excited and genuinely happy to go back home.
And if Minghao spent a major part of the two-hour flight thinking about Wen Junhui's shining eyes, pretty lips and lovely laugh, he wouldn't tell anyone about it.