Chapter Text
In the one day Beomgyu has had Taehyun’s phone number, he learns a few things. One, Taehyun is just as cute over text as he is in person. Two, he’s still in town because he’s taking summer classes to get ahead with his GEs. Two-and-a-half, Taehyun is kind of a nerd, but Beomgyu finds himself smiling at the spam of texts he receives anyway. Third, Beomgyu had been avoiding him for no reason because apparently, Beomgyu had unliked his Instagram post quickly enough that he didn’t even get a notification. Taehyun sends lots of ㅋㅋㅋ s after Beomgyu tells him the whole story, and they officially start following each other, so it all works out.
They’d planned to grab lunch the next day, but Taehyun had rain-checked because his group-project teammates had called an emergency meeting for their presentation, or something. He’d been extremely apologetic, so Beomgyu tries not to be disappointed.
The next day Taehyun says he has back-to-back classes and work later that night, so he isn’t free then, either. They text throughout the day, though, which makes Beomgyu feel a little less lonely.
Yeonjun, of course, sees him sulking around the apartment and laughs at him, because that’s what he’s good for.
“Cheer up, Gyu,” he says insincerely. Miraculously, his sickness has lessened up enough to allow him back to his regularly scheduled clown-on-Beomgyu time. Maybe the Hot Cheetos actually did help. “He gave you his number for a reason.” It’s true, Beomgyu knows, but he can’t help being sad that even though he finally got Taehyun’s number, it feels like he hasn’t made any progress.
He’s moping about it late that night, actually, after hitting a big enough loss streak in League of Legends to make a grown man cry. (He doesn’t, of course, but he wants to; he blames Soobin for throwing his games, as always. Now he’s deranked to Diamond and Beomgyu is beginning to think it was Soobin’s master plan to outrank him all along.) Regardless, he’s rage quit for the night and is doomscrolling Twitter when he gets the notification.
taehyun [01:08]
hey are you awake!
beomgyu [01:08]
yeah
what’s up
taehyun [01:09]
My groupmates for this stupid project are so annoying
They haven't done ANYTHING and we have to present in class tomorrow so i’m literally doing all the work rn
beomgyu [01:09]
tell me about it haha
He means it as a simple gesture of empathy. He doesn’t expect the next notification he gets after sending it, phone lighting up with an incoming call from none other than Taehyun himself. He’s a little surprised, but he picks up anyway.
“Hi, ” Taehyun says, voice tinny through the phone’s speaker.
“Hi,” he repeats. It’s awkward for about two seconds before Taehyun launches into a full-blown explanation of his project and a list of grievances for everything his groupmates are doing wrong.
“It’s so annoying,” Taehyun finishes, a little out of breath from rambling. Beomgyu’s smile has been slowly spreading the whole time and he allows it, knowing that Taehyun can’t see him.
“Sounds annoying,” he says lightly.
“Sorry, I know I just talked a lot and we don’t even really know each other but I figured you would be awake, considering the amount of times you’ve come in to buy snacks this late at night,” Taehyun says, effectively calling out Beomgyu’s terrible sleep schedule.
“It’s okay,” he says. “I like hearing you talk.”
Taehyun laughs, a little awkwardly but still cute. “Um, I’ve been working on this slideshow for a few hours and it’s actually starting to hurt my brain, so thanks for picking up. I needed a break.”
“Anytime,” Beomgyu says. It’s quiet for a moment before he decides to be brave: “If you need something to take your mind off of school, we could go grab something to eat?”
Taehyun pauses for a moment. “It’s one in the morning,” he opts reluctantly.
“Is that a no?”
“Where would we go?” He’s dodging the question, but it’s kind of cute. Everything he does is cute.
“I know a place that’s open twenty-four hours.” Beomgyu wiggles his eyebrows even though he knows Taehyun can’t see.
“If you’re talking about the store that I work at, please no. I don’t even get an employee discount, and I really don’t want Kai to be there for our first date,” Taehyun says.
Beomgyu grins. Date , he had said.
“That wasn’t where I was talking about,” Beomgyu lies to his face. “There’s a diner down the street from my apartment, if you want to go there. They have really good milkshakes.”
“Sounds perfect,” Taehyun says. “Meet you in half an hour? I just need to finish up my part of the project first.”
“I’ll see you there,” Beomgyu says, and hangs up the call with a massive grin. Thirty minutes is nowhere near enough time to mentally prepare himself, but it will have to do. Thankfully Yeonjun is already asleep, or at least has retired to his room for the night, so Beomgyu won’t have to deal with any more of his obnoxious comments.
He fixes up his hair and changes out of his lounge sweatpants into something a little more presentable, texts Soobin a frantic update, and before he knows it he’s standing outside the diner after a short walk, fiddling with his phone unconsciously as he waits for Taehyun to show up.
“Hi,” comes a voice from behind him, and Beomgyu jumps. He spins around to see Taehyun there already, holding open the front door to the restaurant as he peeks from inside.
“I already got us a table,” he says sheepishly.
“Oh, sorry I’m late,” Beomgyu says, following him inside. The diner is deserted except for a few high school kids being loud in a corner table and the singular worker sweeping the floor.
“You’re not late, I’m just early,” Taehyun says as he slides into the booth. Beomgyu takes the seat across from him and sips on the water that Taehyun must already have asked for. He smiles.
“I thought you were busy working up until the last second?” He asks.
Taehyun shrugs. “I emailed my professor with a list of everything that I did for the presentation and then told her about everything my group members didn’t do, even though we agreed in our meeting. I have a voice memo of the whole thing, too, if she asks for proof.”
Beomgyu lets out a startled laugh. “I didn’t know you could be so vengeful, Taehyunie.”
Taehyun ducks his head to cover his blush, but Beomgyu sees it anyway. “Hey, I’m not trying to stay up all night for no reason.”
“You’re staying up with me instead though?” Beomgyu says. He leans forward to rest his head in his hands, elbows on the table. Taehyun laughs quietly.
“This is different,” he says and looks up to meet Beomgyu’s eyes. All of a sudden Beomgyu is reminded why he’d dragged himself through this whole adventure to begin with, remembers the first time they’d made eye contact and he’d basically fallen over his own feet trying to flirt.
“Why’s it different?” He pushes his luck, he always does, but just like always Taehyun seems to bounce right back.
“Well, I’m with you,” Taehyun smiles. It’s the answer Beomgyu was fishing for, but it still manages to knock the breath right out of his lungs.
Given that it’s almost two in the morning by this point, the waitress appears to take their order and brings out the milkshakes in quick succession. Beomgyu laughs at Taehyun’s wide eyes when he takes a sip and declares it the best chocolate shake he’s ever had, just like Beomgyu had promised. They decide to share some french fries, too. Brain food , Beomgyu calls it, even though Taehyun has already finished his work.
They chat until their food is long gone, about everything from classes to roommates to summer plans. It’s all casual, easy – maybe it’s a reward for all the chasing Beomgyu has done already. When he talks, Taehyun watches him with his big eyes like he’s trying to memorize Beomgyu’s face. It should be intimidating, but he has his chin propped up in his hands and he keeps nodding enthusiastically, so Beomgyu can only find it in himself to be a little bit shy.
Taehyun is easy to talk to. He’s attentive and laughs at all of Beomgyu’s bad jokes, and he has a way of making Beomgyu feel like the only person in the room. Which is technically true, given the now-deserted state of the diner, but still – being with Taehyun narrows the universe down to just the two of them.
By the time they head outside, it’s been over an hour, and Taehyun reluctantly concedes that maybe he should get some sleep before his big presentation tomorrow, if it’s even going to happen at all.
“We should do this again, sometime,” he adds though with a shy smile. “Maybe when it isn’t detrimental to both of our sleep schedules.”
Beomgyu laughs. “Well, my bad sleep schedule is the reason I met you, so it's okay.”
Taehyun turns a little pink in the dim light of the city street. “Yeah” is all he says, and Beomgyu almost kisses him on the spot before he takes a step backwards and gestures towards the parking lot.
“I can give you a ride, if you need it?” Taehyun offers. Beomgyu accepts, if only to spend a few more minutes with him. As they drive back towards campus in Taehyun’s beat-up sedan from twenty years ago, it’s quiet. Not awkwardly, just a soft, satisfied silence between them and the late-night oldies playing on the radio.
They pull up to the driveway of his apartment complex. Beomgyu is reluctant to open the door. Instead, he just peeks over at Taehyun in the driver’s seat, who’s watching him, too.
“Good luck with your project,” Beomgyu says quietly, for lack of anything better. Taehyun smiles.
“Good luck explaining this to your roommate,” he responds. His eyes are shiny even in the darkness of the car. Beomgyu laughs, and it brings him a little too close to Taehyun’s face, meeting his eyes and tilting his head expectantly – this time, Beomgyu really does kiss him, slightly leaning over the center console to brush their lips together before he pulls back.
“I’ll see you around?” Beomgyu breathes, and is rewarded with a pink-faced Taehyun giving him that shark-toothed smile.
“Yeah,” he says again. Taehyun holds eye contact as Beomgyu exits the car and returns the little wave that Beomgyu gives him as he walks towards his apartment. He waits in his car until Beomgyu reaches his door and then backs out of the driveway, heading home.
He toes off his shoes as quietly as possible, but his plans are thwarted immediately when the light turns on in the kitchen to reveal Yeonjun standing not unlike Beomgyu’s own father, arms crossed and eyebrows raised in expectation.
“Well?” He says, and Beomgyu laughs in his face.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he says slyly, getting a kick out of being the closed book for once. Yeonjun’s stony facade drops instantly and he follows Beomgyu down the hallway, grabbing his arm and whining.
“Seriously, tell hyung what happened! It’s 4 a.m, we should go to sleep,” Yeonjun complains. Beomgyu laughs.
“Then sleep, hyung.”
“Not until you spill!”
Beomgyu lets his cheerful smile slip into something softer. “I really like him. I think he likes me, too,’ he says.
Yeonjun smiles back, then pats him on the head a few times with an affectionate aigoo . He lets Beomgyu shake him off and retreats to his own room after a successful round of teasing. Without further fanfare, Beomgyu changes into pajamas and climbs into bed, even though the sky will lighten with the sun in just a few more hours.
I like him. He likes me, too. Maybe it can be as simple as that.