Chapter Text
Thank god that was all a dream, right?
Yeonjun is lying in bed, nuzzling his face deeper into his pillow, wrapping his soft blanket tighter around himself.
He can see remnants of his dream floating in his head- stumbling up to Taehyun (and wow his mind is scarily realistic, his arms look great) and asking the younger man out. Dream Yeonjun has some guts, he applauds.
The sun shifts where he can feel it shining directly on his face. He stretches his arms wide, rubbing a fist at his eyes and blearily blinking them open, and a sharp pain shoots through his head as he looks right at the sun through his window. He averts his eyes, squeezing his eyes to clear his vision. His gaze lands on a green lump in the corner of his room.
What is that?
He squints. He can make out some claws, sharp teeth…
No.
It’s his Halloween costume.
And if his Halloween costume is crumpled up in the corner of his room, that means he wore it last night. Which means…
…it wasn’t a dream.
“BEOMGYU I’m going to KILL YOU!”
Yeonjun bangs on his roommate’s door. He buries his face in his hands, fingers pressing his throbbing temples as he hears Beomgyu shuffling around. He cannot believe he was convinced to actually confess to Taehyun wearing a stupid inflatable crocodile costume. Yeonjun decides he’s really destined to be Beomgyu’s friend forever- they’re both dumb as hell.
Beomgyu peeks his head out of his room, remnants of red and black makeup still smudged on his face.
“What do you want?” he whines, clearly unhappy at being woken up. Yeonjun doesn’t care. He grabs Beomgyu’s wrist and drags him to the couch.
“You got me into this, so you’re going to help me fix it,” Yeonjun pouts, arms crossed, and reminds Beomgyu of the events of last night.
“Wow, I’m the best wingman,” Beomgyu is cackling by the end of the story. Yeonjun scowls and swats him on the knee. Beomgyu yelps. “What, he said you should ask him again! That means he’s at least slightly interested. You wouldn’t even be this far if it wasn’t for me.”
Yeonjun rolls his eyes. “Fine, whatever. But what do I do now?”
Beomgyu taps his chin. “You’ve already humiliated yourself, so literally anything else you do will leave a better impression.” He hides behind a cushion as Yeonjun glowers at him. “Okay, okay. Let me think.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket, tapping away for a few seconds, before placing it down on the coffee table in front of Yeonjun. It’s Taehyun’s Instagram profile, specifically a post of him with a steaming cup in his hand.
“Look, he’s a coffee fiend,” Beomgyu points out, scrolling to the top comment. It reads remember when you didn’t like coffee? and now you’re an addict, and it’s liked by Taehyun. “Just DM him apologizing, and offer to take him out for coffee. He seems like the kind of person to like mature things like that.”
Yeonjun takes the phone from him, looking through some of the other picture’s Taehyun has posted. He’s looked through his account before, especially all the pictures from professional photographers of him running a track or crossing the finish line. That was a few weeks ago, so he hasn’t seen any of the latest updates- one of which is the post Beomgyu just showed him.
The prospect of messaging Taehyun is scary, especially since he still feels so embarrassed that his first actual interaction with him was through an inflatable costume. But, as much as he hates to admit it, Beomgyu can be a bit wise sometimes. And truly, nothing he can do will be worse than what’s already happened.
He sighs and leans back into the backrest, bringing his knees up. He opens Taehyun’s account on his own phone, trying not to think too much about pressing the “Follow” button and opening his DMs.
Hi taehyun, offer still stands
I’d like to take you out for coffee, and I promise I won’t wear the suit this time :)
Beomgyu reads through, gives his approval, and Yeonjun clicks “Send” before he can start to overthink the message.
They’ve just started to debrief about last night when his phone buzzes after just a few seconds, and then again. It’s a follow back and a response from Taehyun.
Yeonjun looks at Beomgyu, eyes wide.
“Well, open it!” Beomgyu urges. The two of them lean forward, peering at the screen as the app loads open.
Hi Yeonjun, let’s do tomorrow at 9am- at the Espresso and Go on campus?
Yeonjun stands up, walks to his room, and screams into his pillow.
Beomgyu deems this a fashion emergency, so they’re at the mall closest to campus. He’s digging through the racks in the clearance section at Macy’s periodically pulling a hanger out to hold it up to Yeonjun.
“I have enough clothes,” Yeonjun complains as Beomgyu shoves another long sleeved button up into his arms.
Beomgyu shakes his head. “You dress in hoodies and jeans everyday, Yeonjun. You need to up your game if you want to impress him. Or he’s going to think you only have two styles: furry and broke college student.” He ushers Yeonjun towards the dressing room.
Yeonjun rolls his eyes, but steps up to counter, informing the lady at the table he has four articles of clothing he needs to try on. He hangs the number placard she gives him on the door of his dressing room, and sifts through the shirts Beomgyu found for him until he sees the one he liked the most. It’s a simple black long sleeve button-up, with subtle vertical off-black stripes. He has some black jeans in his closet it would pair well with. Not too fancy for a coffee date, but dressed up just enough.
He buttons it on, appreciating how it looks on himself in the mirror. He’s in the process of seeing how it looks tucked into his jeans, when he notices something reflected in the bottom corner of the mirror. He turns around, crouching to reach beneath the seat in the dressing room. It’s a pair of pink fairy wings- someone must have tried them on in the room and discarded them here. Yeonjun grins as he slips the straps on, putting it on like a backpack. Beomgyu might be annoyed he took so long for this, but he’ll surely still find it funny.
“Beomgyu, look, the universe is telling me I’m a fairy,” he calls out, twirling out of the dressing room…
…to stop face to face in front of Taehyun.
Beomgyu is standing next to him, cringing.
“Uh. Hi, Taehyun.” Yeonjun chokes out. The younger man has a small Macy’s bag in his hand. It looks like he just finished his own shopping trip here. Yeonjun peels his eyes away from Taehyun’s perfect lips, which are pursed as if they’re holding back a laugh, and turns to Beomgyu. “What the fuck?”
“I texted you,” Beomgyu groans. Sure enough, there’s a CODE RED TAEHYUN IS HERE!!!! text from him. Beomgyu rests his head in his palm. “Taehyun, I’m so sorry Yeonjun is so dumb.”
Yeonjun turns “Do Not Disturb” off on his phone, and is yet again hyper aware of what he’s wearing as Taehyun stares at him. He slips the fairy wings off, placing them in the clothing discard pile.
“You’re very versatile,” Taehyun comments. “Crocodile one day, fairy the next.” He’s full on grinning now, and of course he has straight, white teeth. Yeonjun notices how his canines make him look like he has little fangs. He’s so down bad that he finds Taehyun’s teeth adorable.
“I promise it’s not a habit,” Yeonjun grimaces, looking away before he does something else stupid like poking Taehyun’s teeth. Keep the intrusive thoughts internal, and all.
Taehyun cocks his head. “It’s charming.” He blinks, his wide eyes staring up at Yeonjun.
Yeonjun’s brain short circuits. “Um.” Taehyun thinks he’s charming? After he’s made a fool of himself twice (more than twice, he thinks, if you count all the stupid emcee jokes he’s had to make).
“Are you free right now? Let me buy you lunch,” Yeonjun blurts out, heart pounding. Real smooth. But Taehyun is nodding, so something must be working.
Yeonjun turns to Beomgyu, ready to apologize for hijacking their time together, but his roommate is smiling widely. “I’ll take the bus home,” he assures. “And stay safe!” He calls out as he backs away out of the store, whipping out his phone. Surely to update the group chat he has with just Soobin and Kai that the three of them pretend doesn’t exist.
“Beomgyu’s the reason I make all my bad decisions,” Yeonjun explains, and Taehyun smiles. “Um. Do you want to go to the California Pizza Kitchen here?” He asks, as they too walk towards the main mall floor.
Taehyun nods again. “Very classy. I was expecting you to just take me to the food court.”
Yeonjun can feel his nerves going away with each step. “Well, Taehyun, let this be your lesson that you will never know what to expect around me.”
He halts all of a sudden, remembering something. “Fuck. This isn’t my shirt, wait here.”
He doesn’t miss how Taehyun’s gaze drags over what he’s wearing. Looks like he’s buying this shirt. He retrieves the top he was originally wearing from the dressing room and quickly pays for the new one at the cashier stand, before joining Taehyun back at the store entrance.
“You sing?”
They’re seated across from each other. The two of them just ordered, and Yeonjun realizes he’s been humming the whole time as the waiter walks away.
“A little bit,” he admits. “Not professionally. But I am the designated lullaby singer to my nieces and nephews.”
Taehyun bites his lip and trains his eyes down on the table. He looks… concerned? Sad? It’s a mixture of emotions Yeonjun can’t quite identify.
“I love singing,” he admits in a whisper.
Yeonjun didn’t think he’d ever see the strong, confident, always winning Taehyun feel shy about something. But it’s obviously already hard for Taehyun to say it, so Yeonjun keeps his gut reaction at bay. Now’s his time to be quiet and just listen.
He looks at Taehyun, indicating for him to go on.
“Everyone thinks I’m a dumb athlete who only got into university because I can run,” he continues. “And don’t get me wrong- I love running. But I love math, and singing, and cooking, and so much more. I have so many interests, just like anyone else. But everyone has these preconceived expectations of me just because I’m a D1 runner.”
Yeonjun’s heart aches. He leans forward. “You’re such a hard worker, Taehyun.” he says softly. “And life is too short to let people box you in. You’re allowed to do what you want to for yourself.”
Taehyun gives him a wry smile. “Thank you, I needed to hear that. I’ve just been feeling weird lately. And it means a lot coming from you, someone who isn’t afraid to be himself.”
Yeonjun feels a sudden surge of protectiveness towards Taehyun. Thus far, he has only seen Taehyun in the superficial way he presents himself. Confident, a little cocky, but someone who’s sure of who he is. But in this moment, Yeonjun is seeing the real, vulnerable Taehyun. And he would do anything to keep a smile on his face.
“You should guest feature on one of my lullabies sometime,” Yeonjun jokes lightly, but looks sincerely into Taehyun’s eyes. I’m on your side, he tries to convey. Let me support you.
Taehyun smiles, a genuine smile this time, and Yeonjun knows he’s way too far in the deep end.
“Deal. But only if you get me my own inflatable crocodile costume.”
And Yeonjun feels a little breathless as he shakes Taehyun’s hand. It’s a promise for the future- for the start of something real.
And he’d wear that stupid inflatable crocodile costume a thousand times over if it meant Taehyun was happy, living his truest life, and especially thanks to him. How’s that for school spirit?