Work Text:
Seungcheol has the same boring routine.
Wake up, go to work, go home, eat, feed the dogs, shower, and sleep, rinse and repeat.
And he's been longing for some kind of change. But work's been busy, and the nightlife has been lacking, and Seungcheol feels like he has been lacking. Despite that, he still diligently follows his routine.
He sighs, walking on the subway and looking around to find an empty seat amidst the crowd. He finds an empty seat beside a young man. He approaches the young man and sees a work bag on the empty seat.
"Hey," Seungcheol says, and the young man looks up at him.
Seungcheol is starstruck. This young man might be the prettiest man Seungcheol has ever seen. The way he sits, with a book in his hand and his legs crossed, to his black pants and white collar shirt with the sleeves rolled up, to his red lips, clear skin, and his black hair barely touching his shoulders. The pretty man raised his brow.
"May I help you?"
Even the pretty man's voice sounded angelic. But Seungcheol breaks out of his daze and awkwardly chuckles. "Ah do you mind if I sit next to you?"
The man shrugs and grabs his bag, placing it on his lap as Seungcheol sits down next to him. He goes on his phone, though he sneaks a glance or two at the man sitting beside him.
Stunning, effortless, pretty. Not an imperfection that Seungcheol can see.
"You have a terrible staring problem," Seungcheol hears and immediately looks at the pretty man. He's expressionless, and that scares Seungcheol.
He chuckles. "Was I staring? I'm sorry."
"Don't be, you aren't even the first one today."
Seungcheol hums. "Well… I'm Choi Seungcheol."
The man looks at Seungcheol's held out hand and shakes it. "Yoon Jeonghan."
This man is too perfect, even his name is perfect. Seungcheol lets go. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Jeonghan-ssi. Do you take this train often? I have never seen you before."
"I moved to this place three weeks ago, but my car broke down on me so now I'm here." Jeonghan chuckles. "But don't get used to seeing me here, it is only temporary."
Seungcheol nods. What if it wasn't? Seungcheol wanted to ask, but wouldn't someone find that off putting? Even he wouldn't want someone to tell him that off the bat. So he ignores that thought.
"Where are you from?"
"Seoul, but for work, I moved to Daegu, which is a bit different than the bustling Seoul." Jeonghan sighs. "I miss Seoul, but the good thing is that in a couple of months, I'll move back."
"I hope you enjoy Daegu, it's a nice place here."
Jeonghan hums when he hears his stop over the intercom. "That's my stop, but it was nice meeting you."
Jeonghan grabs his things as the train stops. He gets up and leave the subway, as other people rush in. Eventually, a woman sits next to him, but Seungcheol has no interest and goes on his phone. He waits until his stop was announced, got up, and walked a few blocks.
Feeling the cold air hitting his face, it takes him a couple of minutes before he arrived to his home. Putting in his passcode, he walks in, flicking a light switch on before taking off his shoes. He hears tiny footsteps, and looks up with a smile.
"Kkuma, Kkunbam!"
He ruffles the dogs hair and chuckles, the dogs jumping him. "Yes, yes, I'll get your food ready."
Switching to his worn-out black slides, he walks to the kitchen with his dogs following behind him. He grabs a scoop from the dog bag, and dumps half to the two bowls. He smiles, petting them as they run to their food.
Seungcheol gets up and washes his hands when he thinks about Jeonghan.
Life might be boring, but it isn't bad. But how long would it take for him to continue being content with himself and his two dogs? And that chance encounter with Jeonghan— what if Jeonghan is the spark that has been lacking in Seungcheol's life?
He lightly slaps himself with his wet hand and sighs. As the water from the faucet continues running, what is it even about Jeonghan that got his attention? He has seen many pretty people before, with pretty names too. So why is a man named Yoon Jeonghan from Seoul infiltrating his mind? He barely knows anything about him!
He shakes his head, and walks to the fridge. He sees leftover rice and a box of dozen eggs. He grabs an egg and the rice, heating up in the microwave as he cooks himself some fried eggs on high heat.
He cracks the eggs in the pan, immediately backing up as the oil splatters. He lets the eggs sit for a moment as he hears the microwave beep. He grabs the hot bowl of rice out, placing it near to the stove as he waits another minute before turning off the heat, grabbing a spatula to place the egg on top of the rice.
He walks over to the sink to grab a dry fork before heading to the dining table. He eats in silence, when he thinks about Jeonghan's eyes, and the book that he was reading that got him entranced. Jeonghan told him to not look forward to seeing him, but Seungcheol knew that he was screwed.
Because if he thinks about a person like this after a first meeting, he'll start being selfish and wanting more.
Maybe Seungcheol is delusional, because the next two weeks went by with nothing happening.
Just sitting next to Jeonghan, breathing in his lemon and mandarin scent first thing in the morning then smelling his vanilla sandalwood at the end of the day isn't enough. But he accepts it, that's the only thing he can do.
He walks in the office, greeting everybody with a smile, fist bumping coworkers before arriving at his desk. He places his work bag on the desk, and immediately sits down. He stretches and turns to see Jihoon arriving.
"Good morning Jihoon."
Jihoon looks up from his phone. "Good morning Seungcheol."
Jihoon walks towards Seungcheol, fist bumping as he stands beside Seungcheol. "How are you?"
"Good," Seungcheol hums, taking a second to think before continuing, "There's this guy at the subway, and I think he's beautiful but nothing happened."
"Happened? Or that you're too much of a coward to initiate?"
Seungcheol rolled his eyes. "Happen, Jihoon. He's too pretty that if I initiate, it might turn into a humiliation ritual."
"You are a humiliation ritual, remember when you tried to talk to Yun-Ha two years ago?"
"Don't even bring her up, that was the worst thing I could've done."
"And I was an unfortunate witness to… whatever the hell that was." Jihoon chuckles. "Like no wonder she blocked you on Instagram."
"Oh shut up, as if you have a thriving love life in the first place." Seungcheol chuckles when Jihoon rolls his eyes and flips him off.
"This is about you, Seungcheol, not me!"
"Yeah, now you don't like them apples." Seungcheol chuckles as Jihoon walks away, his attention now on his computer as he logs in to check the emails that accumulated overnight. He sighs, it's only 9am and now he has to deal with meetings and annoying deadlines.
—🚇—
Seungcheol says his goodbyes to his coworkers, jogging to the train station with excitement.
He doesn't know what has came over him, it's like he was back in high school, having a pathetic crush on an unattainable person. The excitement, the delusion to thinking that he would even have a chance.
He walks in the train, finding the usual seat next to Jeonghan is empty. He sits and glances at him. Jeonghan is beautiful as usual with his alluring vanilla sandalwood scent, but he can tell that he's tired with dark eye circles.
It's stupid, but he feels defeated. Spending all day to see that the person he has been looking forward to talking to is sleepy, but he doesn't budge. Seungcheol puts on his earbuds and goes through his phone, scrolling through Instagram when he feels something. He turns and sees Jeonghan, his eyes closed and lightly breathing, leaning on his shoulders. Seungcheol lightly moves himself to make Jeonghan more comfortable.
His eyes dart back to his phone screen, but hearing his light breaths near his neck, Seungcheol feels his heart rapidly beating. If he could, he would stop time to keep being in this moment. Continuing to listen to his music, it wasn't long when he hears Jeonghan's stop is next over the intercom.
He gently shakes Jeonghan, who eyes flutter until he realized he was sleeping and immeditaely got up, turning to Seungcheol with an embarrassed smile.
"Ah, I'm sorry about that."
"Sorry for what? For being tired?"
"For sleeping on your shoulders, it must've made you uncomfortable," Jeonghan sighs.
"Uncomfortable?" Seungcheol repeats. "You were tired, and who am I to keep you awake if you can't?"
"Still, it's embarrassing," Jeonghan whines.
Seungcheol chuckles. "It's not a big deal Jeonghan-ssi. I promise. Besides, you looked like you needed it."
"I did, I had to stay up for longer than needed."
"Doing what exactly?"
"Grading homework."
"Oh, you're a teacher? For what grade level?"
"Elementary school, grade five. I moved to Daegu because I got hired here, but it's temporary so I might have to go job searching in Seoul later."
"I hope you get to stay here."
Jeonghan nods, hearing the stop being called. "Alright, that's my cue to go, but thank you for letting me rest, see you soon?"
"See you soon." Seungcheol smiles, waving Jeonghan goodbye as he leaves the train.
The next evening, Seungcheol looks at the time, it's reads 5:57 PM.
He sighs as he turns his computer off and gets up to start packing. He turns and sees Jihoon walking up to him.
"Do you have any plans?"
Seungcheol nods no. "No, why?"
"Then have dinner with me."
"And why?"
"My date just cancelled on me, and I will not be going to this restaurant without somebody else present." Jihoon hmphs. "Besides, it's on me. So are you down?"
Seungcheol nods. "I'm down."
Jihoon's eyes widened. "You finally let go of that lame excuse of having to feed your dogs?"
"Not an excuse when it's true. Besides, I finally bought an automatic dog feeder, so I don't have to get home so early."
Jihoon chuckles. "Okay then, let's go."
Seungcheol grabs his work bag, walking out of the office and walking down five flights of stairs with Jihoon. Leaving the building, Seungcheol feels the cold air hitting him.
"I swear, they need to fix that elevator, my legs are tired from walking." Jihoon complains.
"At least we're walking down, Jihoon. I would die if I have to walk up those five flights of stairs again."
Jihoon chuckles. "Remember when you tripped twice when you were rushing and still came in late one morning?"
Seungcheol rolled his eyes. "Let's not mention that, you and Soonyoung kept making fun of me for that. And it was only for a minute, and only you and Soonyoung noticed."
"Still funny, you complained about the brusies that entire day. Which, do you still have the brusies to prove that?"
"It's been three weeks, so no. Thankfully it healed in no time." Seungcheol boosted, laughing with Jihoon as it took a couple of minutes for them to arrive at the subway. Waiting and conversing by the subway platform, they walk in the subway and find two empty seats. They sit down as Jihoon sighs.
"So, you think work is going to pick up soon?"
"Oh don't even get me started on that, whenever it slows down, it barely last more than two weeks before it picks up again quickly." Seungcheol says with a sigh. "It's almost tax season, and I'm not ready."
"Who ever is? And then we have to deal with annoying clients and make sure our job isn't committing fraud." Jihoon sighs. "But we get paid generously so I can't complain too much."
"You say that, then you immediately complain on not being able to see the sun, or feel the grass, or that you're on your fifth coke zero and it's only nine in the morning."
"Look at that, you do know my habits."
"Unfortunately."
They chuckled before Seungcheol hears his phone buzzing. He looks at the message. "I got another marketing message from the coffee shop I frequent."
"The Daisy Cafe?"
Seungcheol nods. "Yeah, they're doing some kind of promotion on their coffees, we should get some during our lunch break."
"As long as you're paying."
Seungcheol hums, "Of course I would."
He goes through his phone, scrolling on Instagram for a bit before hearing his name being called out.
"Seungcheol, our stop is here." Jihoon said, the subway halting. Seungcheol grabs his bag and walks out the subway, walking in silence for a couple of minutes before seeing Jihoon stop.
"That's the place."
Seungcheol looks at the restaurant. It's the sort of place that's easy to miss, even with maps, he would walk by several times before finding it. He walks in with Jihoon, seeing the restaurant is nicely lit with several tables occupied. They wait around the empty host area.
"Did you feel like you're being stared at?" Jihoon suddenly asked.
"No?" Seungcheol answers, confused. "I was on my phone for most of the ride."
"Okay because there was this guy across from us staring. I felt it, and looked up to see this pretty guy with long black hair, wearing a white long seelve with a brown vest and black pants. His stare didn't falter until I inched closer to you, and looking at him. Then he found his sense of shame and looked away."
"Ah, that must be Jeonghan." Seungcheol chuckles as he immediately knew when Jihoon referred him as the pretty guy. "But staring? Sounds unlike him, he's usually reading a book or has his phone out."
"He did have a book out, but his eyes, they were on you. I swear. It felt like you were his… and I was some kind of competition."
"Huh." Seungcheol said, before seeing a young woman approaching them.
"Good evening, just a table for two?"
Seungcheol nods, and the hostess leads them to an empty table, handing them menus. And despite Seungcheol hanging out with Jihoon, his mind was fixated on the fact that Jeonghan was staring at him. Yet he was the one who had an awful staring problem.
"But anyways, you should ask him out."
"And why would I?"
"To continue humilating yourself and end up as a single father to two cute dogs," Jihoon teased. "Obviously because he defiently has interest in you."
"No way, I rather never ask."
"Oh come on, Cheol." Jihoon said, when his eyes widened. "How about this. If I confess to Soonyoung, no matter the results, you should ask Jeonghan out."
"Again, why would I do that?"
"If we both get rejected, then we drink. If one of us doesn't, we still drink. And if we both get dates, then we drink!"
"You sound like an alocholic, Jihoonie."
"Disregard that, the point is that you should ask him out." Jihoon said. "Like if he says no, so?"
"You have a point, he's not staying in Daegu for long."
"See? Only here for a few months, and unless we have a meeting in Seoul, the chances of meeting him is low."
"You ask him out, then I'll do it."
"Okay, but you better not back out Cheol," Jihoon says. Seungcheol nods, not thinking much of this idea.
Seungcheol finds himself back to the new addition in his routine.
Sitting next to Jeonghan and smelling his citrusy cologne. Seungcheol glances at Jeonghan and asks, "So how come you can stare at me but it's odd when I do?"
Jeonghan looks at Seungcheol with a confused look. "What are you talking about?"
"Yesterday evening. I was on the train with a coworker and I felt someone was staring."
Maybe it was in Seungcheol's imagination, but he saw Jeonghan's cheeks turning rosy red. "Ah that. I sometimes do that."
"Stare at people? You don't, you always read a book or on your phone." Seungcheol says. "And I know this because I have been sitting next to you for like the last month or so."
Jeonghan chuckles. "Okay fine, yes I was maybe glancing at you. But does that mean much in a grand scheme of things?"
"You got a point, but you could've just came up to me to say hello. I wouldn't mind it." Seungcheol shrugs.
Jeonghan hums, sitting in silence for a moment. "So, how was your evening with your coworker?"
"It was good, he invited me out because his date cancelled on him."
"Yikes, never a good feeling. So where did you go?"
"It was some hole in the wall restaurant. I have never heard of it, but turns out Jihoon knew the owners. The food was so good, and I went home full and tired."
Jeonghan hums, and Seungcheol sees that he wanted to say something. He wanted to pry and ask him what he was thinking but he heard his stop being announced.
"I got to go, but let's talk later okay?"
Jeonghan nods and Seungcheol leaves, giving him a fist bump as he dreadfully leaves the train to his boring job.
He walks in and sees Jihoon waiting near his desk. He approaches Jihoon.
"Hey Jihoon," Jihoon turns to Seungcheol as he places his bag down on his desk.
"Cheol!" Jihoon says. "You look happier."
"Happier?"
"You have a glow, is it skincare or Jeonghan?"
"It's definitely skincare, but I did talk to Jeonghan." Seungcheol chuckles, sitting down as he looks up to Jihoon. "But what has made you wait for me?"
"I asked out Soonyoung, and he agreed!"
"No way," Seungcheol said, holding out his fist as Jihoon fist bump him.
"Yes way, now it's your turn."
"My turn? Absolutely not."
"But you promised you would if I did." Jihoon said. "Besides, if you genuinely think that the pretty boy Jeonghan isn't into you, or at least interested, you must be the dumbest person on earth."
"Dumb?!"
"Yes dumb," Jihoon sighs. "Think about it, what's there to lose? He's planning to move after a few months, and there's plenty of pretty people here that you can pin over and be a complete loser over with."
Why did I have to agree.
"Just do it Seungcheol, and you better tell me afterwards. You're too old to act like a teenager, and besides, you never know. Maybe in two or three years from now, you would be married to him. And I would like for you to stop second guessing. Because what's the worst thing to happen? A rejection? You're too handsome and smart to be playing this game."
Seungcheol chuckles. "A compliment in a rant? Sounds so unlike you Jihoonie."
"It's for you to realize that if you don't do it, you will regret it and I do not want to hear you regretting anything. I dealt enough."
"Fine, I'll do it. But you will hear to no end if it ends bad."
"I would hear it to no end even if it ends well, I'll be okay."
—🚇—
After the work day, he goes back to the train station, Jihoon's words ringing in his head. The worst thing is that Jihoon isn't wrong. He is almost thirty, and he would regret not asking Jeonghan out if he doesn't even try. Even if the worst thing is rejection, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
Maybe for a few days, maybe a few weeks, but he'll be fine at the end.
He takes a breath in and exhales as he sits next to Jeonghan, who's focused on his book. He waits til he hears Jeonghan's stop being announced and looks at him leaving. After a couple of seconds, he gets up. His eyes are stuck on Jeonghan, making sure he doesn't lose him in the crowd.
He barely manages to leave the station when he sees Jeonghan turn to him.
"Seungcheol?"
"Jeonghan," Seungcheol says, walking closer to Jeonghan.
"Did I leave something behind?" Seungcheol nods no. "Then what's up?"
It's now or never, Choi Seungcheol.
"Ah," Seungcheol says, feeling his cheeks burn up the longer he looks at Jeonghan. "I was wondering if you would like to go out with me."
"Go out?" Jeonghan asked, his brow raised.
Seungcheol nods. "I know you don't have much time in Daegu, but I want to go out, eat somewhere nice, and enjoy your presence. Because, from the moment I knew your name, I always wanted to get close to you. I thought that small conversations and being around your presence would be enough, but I got greedy. I want more, Yoon Jeonghan." Seungcheol sighs. "I want to be the reason you stay in Daegu."
Seungcheol quiets down and looks at Jeonghan. With his pretty poker face as a front, it's hard for Seungcheol to read Jeonghan. But seeing his cheeks turning to that rosy red color, he starts to hope.
"You know, I didn't think you would remember that I wasn't going to be here for long." Jeonghan chuckles. "But I would like… no. I would love to go out with you."
Jeonghan pulls out his phone, and hands it to Seungcheol. "Let's exchange numbers, after all, you're the reason why I'm still taking the train in the first place."
"Still?"
Jeonghan hums, as he gets his phone. "Seems like you forgot, but I only took the subway because my car broke down. It's been ready for weeks now, but I have gotten used to seeing you that I didn't mind taking the subway."
"Oh."
"But I'm glad you asked me out, I was way too nervous."
"Oh you have no idea how hard it was to even try, I was thinking you would reject me."
"Then you must be stupid." They chuckled as Seungcheol feels his phone buzzing.
"That's my number, save it and contact me about the date details. I'm available in the following weekend, so take that information and use it as you like." Seungcheol nods. "Then I look forward to it, get home safe."
Jeonghan walks away, and Seungcheol looks down at the notification of an unsaved number calling him. He smiles as he saves Jeonghan's number, and walks back to the train station as he texts Jihoon on how it went, looking forward to Jeonghan being the reason why his dull routine will change.