Chapter Text
Today was an important day.
It wasn’t necessarily important for Till, but rather for Mizi, a long-time friend of his. After years of culinary school and enduring a job at a chain bakery, today she could finally carve her own path in life - as of today, she had a bakery of her own!
Showing up to the grand opening of Ppang Ppang! was the least he could do for her; she had stuck by his side ever since they met in elementary school, even though their friendship came alongside a plethora of mixed emotions. When he finally built up the courage to confess to her in high school and she, in turn, came out as a lesbian, she never once treated him any differently. When, after years of repressing his feelings, he came out as bi, she was the most supportive friend he could have imagined. Even when Till expressed that he felt that Mizi’s girlfriend, Sua, secretly hated him or something, she didn’t become defensive - rather, she did her best to bring Sua into their friendship to show Till he had nothing to fear.
In short, Till wanted to be able to support her during this huge milestone, just as she had supported him for all these years.
And what a milestone it was; when he showed up, the line was already out the door! Till was, honestly, shocked; not to say that he didn’t believe in her dream, but Mizi herself had confided that she was unsure if all her social media advertising would even pay off. He smiled to himself, glad to see that everything was going well so far.
Even though he was stuck all the way in the back of the line without access to a menu, Till knew what he wanted: a black iced americano, the same thing he got everywhere he went. No matter how much his bandmates pestered him to try whatever sweet shit was trending when they went out together, he couldn’t stray from the classics.
As the line filtered out and Till finally got inside the store, he did notice that there was, however, something else he wanted this time… the guy behind the counter, to be exact.
Till didn’t know how Mizi managed to find someone like this (and how she forgot to mention him in the first place…). It was rare that someone exuded beauty, charm, and mystery all at the same time, and yet Till could tell just by one look that this guy must get fawned over wherever he goes. Tall, dark eyes, sleek hair, chubby frame, broad shoulders, long fingers perfect for playing the piano… or for doing other things, too. Get your head out of the gutter… you’re here for Mizi.
Till was never great at flirting; while he never failed to woo friends as a joke, when it came time to put those skills into practice, suddenly things like basic grammar went out the window. So, when he was next in line, he designed his ingenious plan: don’t flirt at all.
Which, unfortunately, went out the window the second the man spoke up.
“Hello,” he drawled out, a catlike grin peeking at the corners of his mouth. “What can I get started for you?”
Till could feel a fiery red blush creeping up on his face as he managed to stammer out, “Americano. Iced. Black.” The worker pursed his lips together, evidently trying not to laugh. It’s so over it’s so over it’s so over.
“Okay. Can I get a name for the order?”
“T-Till,” he replied, just a tad too quick. The barista’s eyes widened a little as he wrote his name down on the cup, muttering it under his breath. God I wish I could hear him say my name again.
His wish was granted. “Would you also like to order a bunny jelly, Till?”
How this man found out Till’s greatest weakness, rabbits, was a complete mystery. But when Till glanced over the glass case to his left and saw the little bunnies on such tiny plates, he felt every fiber of his being call out for one. He nodded his head, unable to say just how bad he wanted it out loud.
“Got it. That brings the total to $10.50.” Just as Till was shakily reaching into his wallet to grab his credit card (and a generous cash tip), Mizi popped out from the back room, noticing Till immediately.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you almost let Till pay, Ivan!” So that’s his name. Ivan.
“I didn’t know you two knew each other,” Ivan stated as Mizi hit a seemingly random order of buttons until the total read $0.
Mizi giggled. “Guess I forgot to mention he was coming today! But yeah, we’ve been friends since grade school.” The receipt for Till’s order printed out. Mizi gasped out, “I knew you’d get the bunny jelly!”
Till groaned, turning his head to the side. “I swear to god, you put that on the menu just to fuck with me, didn’t you?”
“Nuh uh! Now shoo, shoo, go sit down before the customers think you’re throwing a fit!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Till sighed before finding a seat with a convenient behind-the-bar view. Mizi and Ivan were having a passionate conversation about something, talking excitedly while they worked on the line of drinks in queue. Not wanting to spend his whole time here ogling the pair, Till turned his attention to his laptop, opening up FL Studio. As he was taking out a bulky pair of headphones, he heard the sound of ceramic touching down on his table.
Till looked up, and Ivan was smiling down at him.
“Hey, Ivan!” Mizi shouted from across the store. His attention was drawn away from Till. “You should take your break now!” Ivan threw a thumbs-up to her, turning back to him.
“Would it be okay if I spent my break with you?” he asked.
This can’t be real there’s no way I’m living in a dream yup yeah might as well make the most of it if I’m gonna wake up soon anyways haha
Till nodded, to which Ivan flashed a toothy grin. Wow, even his teeth are cute…
“Cool,” Ivan remarked in an even tone of voice. “I’ll be right back; I’m just going to set down my apron and grab my phone real quick.”
Till watched him leave for a bit before looking over at Mizi in shock. She had the most stupid smile on her face he’s ever seen, holding up a heart sign with her fingers once Ivan is tucked away in the back room. I guess it’s obvious enough that I’m into him… Till hung his head inches away from his laptop’s keyboard, trying to will himself to act normal for one damn moment of his life.
Ivan sauntered out from the back room, eyes locked on Till. He pulled out the chair opposite Till’s, propping up his elbow on the table and resting his chin on his palm.
Not wasting a moment, he asked, “You play in Anakt, don’t you? Lead guitar and vocals, right?”
All of the air is sucked out of Till’s lungs. “Uh, yeah. That’s right.”
Ivan chuckled. “You looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it until you said your name.” He gestured across his face. “Hard to see the resemblance without all the makeup.”
Till puts two and two together. “Wait- you’re into rock!?” It was a little hard to believe - this guy, working in a cutesy bakery, wearing a blush pink sweatshirt, phone case littered with stickers of constellations and animals, was a fan of rock.
Ivan tapped his fingers against his cheek. “I’m not picky. I like anything, really, as long as it’s good.”
“So you think we’re-”
“Yeah.” Ivan tilted his head towards the drink and jelly with a childish pout. “You haven’t touched anything yet.”
Till looked down, taking a sip of the americano. “Tastes like an americano to me. Anyways, you didn’t let me finish my question,” he barks out.
Ivan hummed. “And you haven't eaten your bunny jelly yet.”
Till sighed in response, unwrapping his spoon from its napkin confines. Unfortunately, the burden to cut into the jelly was far too heavy for him to bear. Ivan was staring now, watching his ordeal with a blank face. Till closed his eyes and drove his spoon into the jelly, pretending like the poor bunny wasn’t decapitated in the process.
“So it’s true… you really are a big fan of rabbits,” Ivan stated in awe as he watched Till’s face light up at the sweet strawberry taste of the jelly.
Till didn't bother to finish chewing before he responded, “Did Mizi tell you?”
Ivan shook his head no. “Just my own observation. Oh, I forgot to mention this actually,” he added, pointing at Till. “I follow you on Instagram.” Till made a slow nod of understanding, but was inwardly holding back his excitement. Dude, I have maybe 50 followers and at least half of those are people I already know. He’s totally a fan! “So, like, your profile picture. I assumed you were a rabbit aficionado,” he teased.
With a straight face, Till played into it. “You assumed right. I actually have a pet rabbit,” he added with a cheeky grin.
“Can I see?” The hints of a catlike grin snuck back up on Ivan’s soft cheeks.
Till held up his lockscreen, excited to show off his pride and joy. “Her name’s Mimi.”
Ivan leaned in, criss-crossing his legs to sit like a cat. “Wait,” he took out his phone, typing something into Safari. “Her black and white coloring reminds me of a sea bunny! It’s a type of sea slug,” he singsonged, flipping his phone around. Oh my fucking god that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Till could feel his jaw drop, but didn’t even bother to pick it back up. Ivan’s grin developed into a full-blown smile, dimples and all.
He set his phone back down, silently watching as Till played with his bunny jelly with a stupid smile on his face, tapping it with his spoon to make it jiggle. The sound of bells jingling as a large party entered the bakery caught his eyes, Ivan pursing his lips together.
“Maybe I should get-”
Out of nowhere, a guitar riff started blasting from Ivan’s phone. He flinched from the noise, accidentally knocking his phone to the ground as he tried to pick it up. I’m pretty sure I’ve covered this song before, actually… Till thought to himself. Then, Till’s own recorded voice rang out through the phone speakers, only lasting a mere second before Ivan silenced it.
Till stared in shock as the cool, collected Ivan turned bright red, drawing in his arms in hopes of making himself smaller.
“I- my, um, my break is over, so…” Ivan gave a quick wave and speed-walked to the back.
What the hell just happened?
Till watched as Ivan stumbled out of the break room, his apron slightly crooked and behavior clearly showing just how frazzled he was. Till took a deep breath, shifting his attention to his DAW. He tried to think of what might be missing from this song; vocals, guitars, bass, drums… everyone’s covered. Past that, though, he was really struggling to focus. It felt like his mind was completely empty, leading him to just stare at the screen in silence for god knows how long.
Someone poked Till’s shoulder. Exactly where I hate being poked, too… He looked up to, no surprise, Mizi looming over him with her telltale smile. Taking off his headphones and resting them around his neck, she spoke up.
“I didn’t wanna interrupt you, but we have to talk,” she explained. “So like, did you fuck things up with Ivan?” she whispered. Mizi cursing is still something to get used to… It was a rather recent development, spurned by a newfound friendship with another local artist, the elusive (and foul-mouthed, apparently) Hyuna. He’d tried to talk to her a couple times, but she had a habit of slipping away when you’d least expect it.
Till hung his head, taking a deep breath. “Dunno, honestly. Did he say anything to you?”
“Not really, but he was kinda a mess getting back on the floor. Like- spilled espresso everywhere, even though he’s normally pretty clean with drinks, and dropping a whole loaf of bread on the ground. He seemed pretty anxious,” she empathized.
Till motioned her to lean in so he could whisper “His phone alarm sound was a clip of one of my performances” into her ear. Mizi dramatically gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth.
“Awww, he was just embarrassed, then! You’ve totally gotta invite him to your next show!!” she whisper-screamed.
Till shrugged his shoulders. He mouthed “I don’t know if he still wants to talk to me.”
“That’s bullshit!” Mizi exclaimed a little too loud, sheepishly covering her mouth in embarrassment. “That’s bullshit,” she repeated as a whisper, “because he was so eager to talk to you earlier.”
Till could feel his cheeks warming up a little, and glanced behind Mizi to see Ivan working on a hot latte. Turning back to Mizi, her eyes were practically sparkling.
She glanced at her phone. “Aww, my break’s almost over… Sua’s gonna be pissed if I don’t send her any updates on our grand opening, so… I’ll talk to you later, ‘kay?” The two waved goodbye to each other, Mizi turning to walk away. However, halfway to the back room, she turned around, mouthing an exaggerated “ Go for it!” before disappearing behind a set of fluffy curtains.
Till looked back to Ivan, who was handing off a drink to a customer, a fake smile plastered all over his face. His customer service smile is completely different from his real one… must still be reeling from embarrassment. Ivan’s eyes flickered towards Till for a moment, soon focusing back on the customer.
Sighing, Till turned back to his laptop screen, slipping his headphones back on. He tried to work on his latest composition, but any additions he made felt uninspired. Too hard to focus right now… Picking up his phone, Till turned to Instagram, remembering the comment Ivan made about following him. Doesn’t hurt to do some snooping, I guess.
Scrolling through his followers list, Till began the grueling mission of clicking on any unfamiliar accounts to determine which one was Ivan’s. Which, realistically, wasn’t actually hard to do - he only had 48 followers to go through and finding which one was Ivan’s ended up being laughably easy: 0_ivan_0.
Even though his username had his name in it, the rest of his account was completely devoid of any form of personal information. In fact, it was so empty, Till almost chalked it up to being a burner account. No profile picture, no posts, no bio… does he even check his Instagram at all? Hints of a devious plan began forming in the back of his mind, but Till kept on going back and forth on what he should do.
I could totally DM him and see if he gets flustered and all by the notification… but maybe that’s coming off too strong. He did say that he follows me on here, but I still had to actively comb through my followers just to find him… The image of Mizi mouthing “Go for it!” popped up in his mind.
Fuck it, might as well.
till.the.end: hey
Till took a sip of his americano, watching Ivan out of the corner of his eye. With no customers around, he was free to check his phone, and… Yes! His head shot up, staring right at Till with a blank face. Ivan looked back down at his phone, did a double take to Till again, and then Till swore he took a screenshot.
0_ivan_0: How did you find my account?
till.the.end: you said you followed me, soo
till.the.end: wasn’t too hard to figure it out lol
0_ivan_0: You looked for my account?
Till could feel warmth rushing into his cheeks.
till.the.end: is that such a weird thing to do?
0_ivan_0: A little?
0_ivan_0: But I don’t mind.
till.the.end: dude, you type like my grandma lol
Till looked up from his screen to see Ivan glaring daggers across from the room. He held back his laughter.
till.the.end: can’t be mad if it’s true!
0_ivan_0: Whatever.
0_ivan_0: I have to clean the counters.
Till smirked as Ivan shoved his phone back in his apron pocket, grabbing a rag and wiping the counters and display case.
Checking the time in the top left corner of his phone screen, Till realized he had been sitting here for almost an hour and a half now with absolutely no improvements made to his song. Even though he wanted to hang out here a little longer, he had procrastinated far too long already. Everyone’s gonna be pissed if I get this song back to them the night before our show… Till shuddered, thinking of the last time he waited until the night before a show to send out a song… he could’ve sworn the drinking games at the post-show party were rigged to get him as embarrassingly wasted as possible.
Till put away his laptop and got up to leave. Double-checking that Mizi was still in the back, Till started walking over to the counter, scrounging around the bottom of his tote bag until he found a whopping $15 hidden there. Ivan was standing back at the register, seemingly shocked that Till came up to talk to him again.
“I gotta go,” Till started, placing the cash in Ivan’s hands. He held a finger up to lips in a shushing motion. “Don’t tell Mizi I tipped you guys, okay? She’ll just give it back to me the next time I see her.
Ivan nodded, replying, “Your secret is safe with me.” His serious tone got a chuckle out of Till.
“I’ll see you around?” He didn’t want to push Ivan too hard when he was still recovering from the ending of their last conversation. Ivan softly smiled with a nod, waving goodbye. Till waved back, walking to the exit and turning back. “Could you tell Mizi I said bye?” Ivan put two thumbs-up, and Till waved goodbye one more time before leaving.
Unfortunately, Till’s plan to finish up his composition at home wasn’t going very well. His mind was quick to wander, overanalyzing his interactions with Ivan to determine if he really had a shot or if he was just being delusional.
Pacing back and forth after his late-night shower, Till thought back to his conversation with Mizi. Should I really invite him to my show? I mean… he’s probably gonna show up anyways since he’s a fan, but inviting him shows I’m interested, right? And it should be pretty safe, too… nothing harmed if he says no, but him saying yes doesn’t automatically mean it’s a date… Funnily enough, Mizi mouthing “Go for it!” came back up in his mind, encouraging him to, in fact, go for it.
Till opened Instagram up, hovering his finger over the direct messages tab. He closed his eyes, simultaneously hitting the button and jumping into bed, the old springs squeaking underneath him. Curling into a ball, he clicked on Ivan’s account.
After typing out his message, he spent at least 15 minutes debating on whether to hit send before he rolled over and accidentally dropped his phone on his face. Wincing from the stinging pain in his nose, he lifted up his phone and- oh my god I accidentally hit send with my nose.
till.the.end: hey again! it was nice meeting you :) sorry if i made things awkward at all haha,,, sooo anakt is actually having a show this saturday at 8pm, and i was wondering if you’re free then? no pressure if you’re not, but if you are, do you wanna come with me? we normally have a kickass afterparty too ;)
Till immediately felt a pit opening up at the bottom of his stomach; I phrased that so awkwardly!! Oh lord, I wanna bang my head against the wall!!!!
He felt like he was about to internally combust, and knew exactly who could comfort him from the embarrassment. He backed out of Ivan’s DMs and hit Mizi’s account.
Mizi had sent him a picture of a baby tapir an hour ago, captioned:
miziizi: isn’t he so silly? :3
Till liked the picture, not really in the mood to respond at the moment.
till.the.end: i asked ivan out
till.the.end: kinda on accident but also kinda on purpose
till.the.end: actually shaking so bad rn
miziizi: OH MY GOD
miziizi: YAYYY
miziizi: has he responded yet?????
till.the.end: not yet
till.the.end: i messaged him like a minute ago lol
miziizi: i’m sure he’ll say yes !!
miziizi: be sure to let me know all the details when he replies back ;))
miziizi: wait, how do you accidentally ask someone out?? that’s a pretty intentional choice XD
Till was thinking about how to explain himself when a notification popped up at the top of his screen.
0_ivan_0: Sure. Sounds fun.