— cheap thrills;
baby.
frozen on the spot, eyes widened, jaehyun could do nothing but feel the drum of his heart against his ribcage and the heat that consumed his cheeks – if from embarassment at his confusion or from the man’s smooth, implicit compliment, he couldn’t tell. too many different thoughts flooded his mind, colliding, hardly discernible noises. fuck. so it really was sunan. how?
not only his youthful appearance threw jaehyun off, so unexpected for someone who seemed to have already built his own empire, carrying two degrees to his name. the thing was, sunan was handsome. the kind of handsome that should have no problem finding a hookup; and as if his good looks weren’t enough, his brains, his playful yet sophisticated manners that made themselves felt even through text, should award him a number of wannabe suitors. in short, sunan was the kind of man who stayed single by choice. it didn’t make sense: why would someone like that, who could have anyone he wanted for free, choose to spend so much money on an arrangement such as a sugar companionship?
none of those waves of realization helped jaehyun feel like his wage was secured. if his sugar daddy was at least boarding his fifties, he could believe himself to be a fair, sufficient pairing. however, sunan couldn’t be further from that type – in fact, if they’d met in any other context, jaehyun would probably be himself crawling after him, dreaming with at least one taste while painfully aware sunan would hardly notice him amidst his sea of options. his already thriving self-consciousness became painfully acute. he wasn’t the hottest guy, what with his lanky limbs that at times seemed to become entangled in one another, his pale tummy that outlined bones instead of abs – too much of a twink, as his ex had put it – and his lack of a substantial intellectual backbone. why would sunan want to follow through with him?
fighting the urge to run away like a scared teenager in front of their crush, jaehyun cleaned his throat as he forced his eyes to remain locked with sunan’s. “i’m sorry, i just… didn’t know what to expect,” his lips outlined a thin smile before he properly greeted the man, now with a proper curtsey. “i hope i didn’t leave you waiting for too long. hm, may i…?” a vague gesture to the chair behind him.
sunan drummed his fingers on the table, giving jaehyun the necessary window of time to process the information he’d just been given. an unwanted wave of unease ran through his body, making him straighten his back unconsciously ⸻ what if jaehyun was expecting something else? was it his age? sunan didn’t think concealing his image could eventually become an issue, but jaehyun was wide-eyed and red-cheeked and, as endearing as it was, it made him unsure. he uncrossed his ankles under the tablecloth, moving a few centimeters back in his chair so as to provide the younger with some semblance of physical space as well.
“that is... mostly my fault. i didn’t give you much to work with, did i?” sunan reasoned, allowing a chuckle to make its way out of his lips as he eyed the boy with something that was half bashfulness half stubborn confidence. “i’m sorry if this is unsettling. in my defense, i did say you’d be surprised, didn’t i?” jaehyun’s body language was currently giving him a hint of what what going on in his mind, so he made sure the smile on his face was kind. he didn’t want their whole night to be something jaehyun felt he had to go through. they were both there to get to know each other in a comfortable atmosphere; the sooner they got through those first few awkward minutes, that handful of standard words humans tended to toss back and forth in situations like these, the sooner they’d be able to actually talk.
“i haven’t been here long, don’t worry,” the edges of sunan’s smile took on a gentler shape then, as he watched jaehyun hesitate before sitting down. it was all somehow very characteristic of the person he’d partially come to know through their messages up to that moment. despite being ninety-nine percent sure he shouldn’t be this aware of those small details already, he stubbornly kept his gaze on him. “go ahead. i’d pull out your chair and all but i think that’s sort of heteronormative.” wetting his lips, sunan considered if maybe he should refrain from saying the words on his tongue, but ultimately cleared his throat, deciding they could be helpful. “i know this feels very standard and formal, but i’m the guy you roasted because of shrek and you’re the guy who sends people he barely knows memes of himself,” his eyes glinted with mirth as he rested his chin on his palm. “although we do have some important things to discuss tonight, we’re still just us. with some fancy wine and ridiculous amounts of really nice food to stuff ourselves with.”
