Description: Seungwoo isn’t perfect. He likes spicy food way too much and turns the AC on too high at night. He also works as a dance teacher, which doesn’t pay that well and happens to scream too loud whenever he gets excited. He works out too early in the morning and likes to video call Y/N right after - waking her up earlier than she would like. But the thing is… She loves him. She loves his sleepy voice in the morning, even though it’s early. She loves his weird fashion sense and sometimes even his bucket hats and the hair that falls on his eyes. She loves his voice and it doesn’t really matter how loud it gets. She loves every single thing about him.
Bella’s boyfriend is perfect. And Y/N hates him for it.
Sejun has a very stable job - that pays really really well -, he doesn’t steal Bella from her best friend on the weekends and he dresses pretty much like a celebrity. He also doesn’t look that bad. He drives them both to cities nearby whenever they want to and he gives Bella pretty expensive wine - which she always shares with Y/N. He also introduced Bella to what became Y/N’s favorite restaurant.
There’s not a single thing wrong with the man. He has money, good taste and makes her friend happy.
And maybe that’s the reason Y/N has been hiding her own boyfriend from Bella for months.
The girls met when they were teenagers and have been friends ever since. Now older than their early twenties, with their own places to live and jobs to work at, they are best friends. Bella has always been the one that would date - she has had more girlfriends and boyfriends that one can count in a hand and she’s not ashamed of it - so it wasn’t a surprise when Bella introduced Sejun to Y/N - did the older one think this relationship wouldn’t last and Bella would be tired of him in three months? Maybe. Sejun is a Taurus, stubborn, aesthetic pleasing and has a great taste for food. He likes to sleep and cuddle a lot more than he lets out and is great at everything he sets his mind on. Maybe it was their stubbornness that kept them together, but when Y/N realized they had been together for two years.
And that’s when she met Seungwoo.
Seungwoo isn’t perfect. He likes spicy food way too much and turns the AC on too high at night. He also works as a dance teacher, which doesn’t pay that well and happens to scream too loud whenever he gets excited. He works out too early in the morning and likes to video call Y/N right after - waking her up earlier than she would like. But the thing is… She loves him. She loves his sleepy voice in the morning, even though it’s early. She loves his weird fashion sense and sometimes even his bucket hats and the hair that falls on his eyes. She loves his voice and it doesn’t really matter how loud it gets. She loves every single thing about him.
But he isn’t perfect. And she has known Sejun for years now.
It’s hard not to compare them.
So in a desperate need to overthink every single one of her decisions, she asked Seungwoo to keep them a secret from now. She has told Bella she’s taking culinary classes on Fridays and that’s the reason they can’t meet anymore… Her friend bought the excuse right away. At first, it was supposed to be a month only thing and then she would tell her. But then Sejun got promoted. And then Sejun bought her a bottle of Moët. And then Sejun took her to Paris… It was impossible to compete. And a month turned into five.
It was getting harder and harder to hide her boyfriend from her best friend.
Bella would invite her to her place on the weekend and Y/N would have to come up with crazy excuses because Seungwoo was supposed to spend the weekend over at her place. Or Bella would invite her for dinner and she would have to come up with a last-minute excuse to work late.
It was even harder because Bella and Seungwoo lived in the same neighborhood. Two streets away from each other. She would always pray Bella wouldn’t see her on the street, walking to Seungwoo’s place and not hers on a Saturday afternoon.
But one day what Y/N feared the most happened.
“You won’t believe what I heard at the supermarket today!” Bella said the moment she walked into Y/N’s apartment.
It had been a while since the last time they spent time together, so Bella had brought a whole arsenal of wine bottles and chicken nuggets to Y/N’s place that night in hopes they would manage to stay awake and catch up.
“Mn? What was it?” Y/N said, mindlessly helping her friend with the shopping bags. She was putting the sparkling wine into the fridge and almost dropped a bottle when she heard Bella telling the story.
“So, I was at the checkout line okay… Holding all this wine and whatever. Then a tall guy stops behind me.. That’s fine, you know. He looked a little tired, hair on his face, a bit wet and everything. And then I noticed he was talking on the phone, so I took a step further in order to give him a little privacy but then! Listen, I’m not even joking, he started giggling so hard I had to pay attention to what he was saying,” whenever Bella started talking she just would never stop so it did take her a while to tell Y/N the whole story indeed. “And he was calling a girl a jealous baby all lovey-dovey, all giggles and stuff. It was so funny. And then he said my jealous baby and I wanted to laugh so fucking bad, you have no idea,” Y/N was starting to recognize those words and was starting to panic a little, already looking for a bottle of wine to uncork and maybe drink half of it. “He kept going for a while with the whole my jealous baby thing and then told the girl we should make this mine and yours thing official, don’t you think? and I swear… I wanted to turn around and tell him to just I don’t know. I don’t even know.”
Bella was laughing as they clinked their glasses and then drank from them. She sipped but Y/N finished half of it.
Why? Well. Because that was the exact conversation she had had with Seungwoo on the phone earlier that day. He had just left his last class and had gone to the supermarket to get some bread and a few beers, had teased her about calling a few of his girl friends over since Bella was going over to her place and she had insisted it was different. She had pouted and he said he could hear it through the phone… And called her a jealous baby. And the rest… well, Bella had heard the rest and even made fun of it.
She had no idea how she would tell her about Seungwoo now. It’s hard for Bella to forget a face and Y/N knows. And she would never let Seungwoo go if she recognizes him. Also, she would never let Y/N hear the end of it… She has been telling Bella for years now that she doesn’t need to date, that she hates romance and cheesy things and that she’s fine alone. The fact that she has a clingy boyfriend that likes to be stupid over the phone? Bella would have a field day.
After finishing her glass in two goes and answering Bella’s “Is everything okay?” with a very quick and nervous “I’m fine!” Y/N excused herself to the bathroom and took her phone with her. She texted Seungwoo and asked him if maybe… Just maybe… He noticed a curly-haired girl at the checkout line… If maybe, just maybe, her hair happened to be pink and she was maybe, just maybe, wearing black pants and a striped orange and white shirt.
The reply came right away.
Uh, yes. Why? Is everything okay? -SH
Oh… That’s Bella. She might have heard us on the phone. -Y/N
Oh, shit. -SH
Oh shit, indeed, Y/N wanted to say.
Good thing he hadn’t called her name and Bella hadn’t paid attention to more of that conversation because they had been talking about maybe… letting people know they were together.
Y/N got out of the bathroom a good five minutes later and Bella had already made herself comfortable in the kitchen - getting the nuggets ready in the oven.
The one hiding the boyfriend felt nervous like never before. It was impossible for Bella to know, right? She hadn’t heard much and she has never seen Seungwoo before. She doesn’t even know Y/N has met him, she never even mentioned him before. There was a weekend months ago that Sejun had taken Bella to a nearby city to celebrate an anniversary of sorts - the first kiss, he likes to celebrate that one for some reason - and Y/N decided to try something new and go to a dance recital. A colleague of hers would dance so, why not? That’s where she met Seungwoo. A said colleague introduced them and maybe... Just maybe… They have been inseparable ever since.
All the wine was helping ease Y/N’s mind so when they sat down on her couch and started to browse Netflix for something to watch, she had almost forgotten about the incident already. Bella hadn’t mentioned it again and Y/N couldn’t thank her friend enough for never shutting up because now she was complaining about a new coworker who was making her life difficult and it had nothing to do with the guy at the checkout line.
A movie was chosen, another bottle of wine was opened and the nuggets were done. And Bella was now talking about Sejun.
Dangerous territory again. Y/N downed another glass of wine.
Bella came back with the nuggets, placing the bowl on the couch and settling down again, waiting for Y/N to press play.
Only then she shut up.
For ten minutes maybe.
Maybe Y/N shouldn’t have let her choose a romcom movie. Whose idea was it to watch Set It Up anyway? Two people who try to set their bosses up so they can have free time from work? Is this even a nice movie?
It is. It’s a great movie. Especially because Y/N is a fan of sports and so is Seungwoo. And she wants to talk about him and boasts about him and tell her best friend that her boyfriend bought them tickets to the Lakers game next week, but she can’t… Because Bella doesn’t even know he exists. And because Sejun might have taken Bella to the Superbowl a month ago.
So she holds it in and watched the movie quietly. Bella has a comment here and there, sips from her wine, eats her nuggets, all while Y/N downs glass after glass of wine.
Until she’s a little too drunk to hold it in.
To be quite honest, Y/N is a little tired of hiding it. If Bella is really her best friend, why would she have to? Maybe Sejun has a better job and sounds way more cool than her silly man, but she has seen the way he drools over her best friend. And she has seen him in the morning and Sejun’s sleepy face looks grumpy and confused while Seungwoo’s looks soft and well-rested. Her boyfriend has his own perfectness too.
So while the characters are finding out that maybe they have been set up together and Bella is ranting about how they should just ignore it and have fun because they enjoyed each other’s companies… Y/N decides to cut her off with a simple and direct “I have a boyfriend.”
There’s a long pause. Silence from Bella. She downs her wine, pauses the TV and looks at her best friend.
“You have a what now?”
“A boyfriend.”
“Are you… sure? Y/N, you’re drunk.”
“Drunk and taken.”
“Is it that Hwa guy again? I told you he’s not a very ni-”
“No! No Hwa guy.”
Bella eyed the bottle and noticed it was empty. Y/N, on the other hand, had shoved a nugget on her mouth to maybe shut her own thoughts too. With a sigh, Bella nodded and clapped her hand - getting into work mode maybe.
“What’s his name?” she asked and Y/N pointed at her mouth, showing her best friend that she was taking her time chewing that nugget. “You don’t get to tell me you’re dating and then not tell me about the guy!”
Y/N rolled her eyes and kept chewing. Maybe Bella could forget about the boyfriend thing? She wasn’t proud of all the decisions she took while drunk.
“Wait…” Bella said when she was almost done. “Wait!” she sounded more excited now, which was a bit dangerous. “So Sejun wasn’t mistaken!” Y/N had a confused face on as Bella continued. “A few weeks ago he told me he saw you kiss a guy at the park near my place. He was 100% super it was you, but you had told me you were going to that culinary course of yours or whatever. Tall guy, he said, a bit strong and whatever. I didn’t believe him but oh my god! You’ve been hiding this from me for how long now???”
Y/N wanted to stuff one of those nuggets into Bella’s mouth.
So it turns out perfect Sejun was a snitch. And Bella trusted her above else.
Good to know.
After opening another bottle of wine and downing another glass, Y/N told her everything. How she met Seungwoo, how they started dating, how he proposed, where he lived, who is he and what does he do. Bella asked what his favorite food is because that’s the kind of person that she is and was very pleased to know it’s not some weird vegan recipe. She asked for photos and for stories, not mentioning Sejun once. She fired question after question about Seungwoo. What is he like in the morning? Does he dress well? Does he drive? Can he ride a bike? What’s his favorite color? Is he a Leo? What’s his Instagram name?
The movie was obviously forgotten and another bottle of wine was over.
When Y/N mentioned that the reason she hasn’t told her yet was because of Sejun, Bella might have given her a face and rolled her eyes. And then shit talked Sejun for another half an hour. Because he eats avocado with sugar and always steals the blanket. And he annoys her whenever he drinks too much coffee and likes to send a lot of emojis to tell her he loves her.
Mr. Perfect wasn’t as perfect as Y/N thought.
And maybe telling her best friend about her boyfriend wasn’t as bad as expected.
They did arrange for the boyfriend to meet the next weekend. Bella did recognize him as the guy from the supermarket and they had a nice laugh about the jealous baby thing. Sejun and Seungwoo got along. Bella and Y/N would stare at them with hearts on their eyes.
Now they could plan double dates. Travel to Paris in couples. And even share dinners at their favorite restaurants together. All of them happy, laughing and definitely not single.
“Y/N had joked about inviting Seungwoo, but at the same time, she hoped her friend would bite the bait. She knows Esmée doesn’t ignore a dare and it would be really nice to be able to dance with Seungwoo at a night club, a little bit too drunk to care. Y/N might even forget how horrible finals week really is if she gets to see that stupid smile by the end of it.”
Description: “Y/N had joked about inviting Seungwoo, but at the same time, she hoped her friend would bite the bait. She knows Esmée doesn’t ignore a dare and it would be really nice to be able to dance with Seungwoo at a night club, a little bit too drunk to care. Y/N might even forget how horrible finals week really is if she gets to see that stupid smile by the end of it.”
“How does one spell together? Is it H after G or H after the second T?” Y/N heard the voice of her best friend coming from the living room while she cooked them both dinner. Esmée had gone to catch her phone to send a text and now was pretty much yelling so that her entire building could hear that she didn’t know how to spell together.
“Are you sure you are a professor? That teaches, you know, Linguistics at NYU?” Y/N just raised her eyebrow while mixing the ingredients inside the pan.
“I’m certain. There are a few diplomas at my place to prove it. I’m a Ph.D. or whatever. How do I spell it?”
“H after the last T, genius.”
“Thanks!” Esmée pressed send and walked all the way to the kitchen. She wasn’t really allowed to touch, but the woman was certainly great at talking and doing a lot of watching and asking questions. “Seungyoun wants to do a research together,” she said the moment she stepped back into the kitchen.
“The other language nerd Seungyoun?” Y/N didn’t even bat an eye. Both women didn’t live together, but they do live five floors from each other and have been friends for a few years now. Y/N knows everything about Esmée, Esmée knows everything about Y/N.
“There are several language nerds at NYU, you know? But sure. The other language nerd,” Esmée was leaning against the counter, champagne glass in hand again.
“You two are always together. Might as well get some work done,” Y/N said, grabbing a clean spoon to taste the sauce. “What does he want to research?”
“The impact music trends have on people’s interest in learning a different language,” Esmée shrugged, checking her phone again. “And if it makes it easier or harder for people to lean said languages.”
“See? Language nerds.”
“I don’t call you a cuisine nerd just because you know thirty types of olive oil,” Esmée pointed out, sipping from her glass again.
Y/N shrugged, drank some from her own glass and look up from the pan. “I’m Italian. It has nothing to do with what I teach.”
“You wrote a book about the origin of gnocchi.”
“Very Italian of me, if I may point out.”
“Whatever,” Esmée finished her glass and set it on the counter. She had set the table earlier, mixed the salad and also made them some strawberry juice. That’s how far Y/N would allow her to go in her kitchen, so now the linguistics professor was a bit bored as she waited for the food. “How’s your research going?”
“Which one?”
“The one with Seungwoo. Weren’t you guys looking for all the similarities within Italian and Korean cuisine?”
“Oh, that one. I shouldn’t have said yes. I should have known I would have to try the food at some point. And Korean food is really spicy? And I’m a little allergic to all things spicy? I set myself up in this one.”
Esmée had started laughing midway, filling her glass with a bit more champagne and shaking her head at her friend. “This is why you shouldn’t accept working with someone just because you have a crush on them.”
“I do not have a crush on Seungwoo,” Y/N rolled her eyes, reaching for the plates to plate their dinners. Pear and brie risotto, mixed greens and steak. Esmée just nodded and moved to fill Y/N’s glass before taking it to the dinner table.
They sat facing each other, changing the subject as they started eating. Their students would always give them good stories to tell and besides that, they both worked at crazy departments. Y/N at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and Esmée at the Department of Anthropology and Linguistics. The men they mentioned are also professors at NYU - Seungyoun share the same departments as Esmée and Seungwoo works at the Department of East Asian Studies.
Esmée and Seungyoun met the day she joined NYU as a professor. Being the language nerd that Seungyoun is, he filled her with questions on her first day the moment he saw her to check if they shared interests. Esmée responded to those questions with more questions of her own and they haven’t stopped since. The other professors in the Department of Linguistics think it’s impossible for someone to speak that much, but they manage.
As Esmée and Y/N do pretty much everything together, when Parasite - the movie - came out, the younger dragged the older one to see it. They ended up meeting Seungyoun there by chance and he had also brought a friend, Seungwoo. The four professors went out for drinks after the movie to discuss it - Esmée and Seungyoun wouldn’t shut up about it, Y/N and Seungwoo got closer as they complained about the lack of options of what to order for dinner.
They found out then that both studied the cuisine and food origins of their respective countries - Y/N being Italian and Seungwoo being Korean - and got even closer after that. Esmée swears to everything holy that Y/N has a crush on Seungwoo. Y/N more often than not plans to murder her best friend.
As soon as dinner was done, they did the dishes and grabbed another bottle of champagne, taking it to the living room with them. Y/N put a movie on, a Christmas story, and that’s how their night ended. With lots of champagne, a sweet movie and lots of gossip in their pajamas. Esmée went up to her apartment on the fifteenth floor and Y/N went into her bedroom to sleep.
Sunday was done.
Finals were about to start at NYU.
x
Some people know how hard students have during finals. All that studying, stressing, the fear of failing an entire course just because you got a few answers wrong. But not as many people know how hard professors have during finals. Sure, most have assistants and most don’t do much work by themselves, but there’s always some correction, evaluation and preparation to be done. By the second day, Y/N was a stress mess.
She was running up and down the building looking for her assistant and then for the copies her assistant was supposed to deliver, but lost. Gabriel was lucky she had the swearing gene Italians usually have locked behind doors inside of her, otherwise, he would have known a very different side of her.
After sending her assistant home, Y/N walked all the way to her next class ready to fail the first student that dared raise their hand during the final.
“Yes, it’s me today…” she said the moment she walked in, watching the reaction of her students. With a thud, she dropped everything by her desk and then circled it, leaning back against it, arms crossed. “We’re starting the final in ten. No, you’re not allowed to use your notes. Please, pay attention and mark the correct answer. If I catch any of you cheating, you’re done,” she reached behind herself and grabbed the pile of tests.
Handing it to the first student in front of her, she asked them to pass it around and leave the rest at the desk by the door. After a bit more explaining, the test started and she remained leaning against her desk, watching them.
Fifteen minutes in, she heard a soft knock by the door and there stood Seungwoo. He walked in quietly, a soft smile on his lips and two cups of coffee on his hands. As soon as he got close enough, he handed one to Y/N and a loud collective relieved sigh could be heard in the room. She frowned at her students, about to tell them off, but was cut off by Seungwoo.
“Caramel Macchiato with extra cinnamon,” he pretty much whispered as he nudged her to take the coffee. “I saw Gabriel almost falling while running up the stairs earlier. Thought he had screwed up again,” he added with a smile.
Y/N just took the coffee and shook her head a little, moving her attention back to her students. Seungwoo followed, leaning against the desk too and shoving his free hand on the pocket of his very fancy pair of pants, Y/N had noticed as he walked in.
He checked his watch one and then again a few minutes later, squeezing her wrist to get her attention and waving goodbye - he had his own class to teach now. Y/N just waved and thanked him again for the coffee, now an empty cup left on top of her desk. As soon as he was gone, she circled the desk again and finally sat down on her chair to wait for her students to finish their finals.
She would never say it out loud, but her favorite moments at work were whenever Seungwoo would show up with some random coffee order he thought were her favorite for the week. Esmée would never let her hear the end of it if she ever says it out loud.
A student was already done with his test, making Y/N frown and break her chain of thoughts. He handed the test and quickly got out, leaving the professor with the half-empty test in hands. She rolled her eyes, another student that would have to take her class again next semester.
x
“Esmée!” she heard from a distance, which made her look around and stop in the middle of the way of some students who were going up and down campus. “Es!” she heard again, louder this time. Then she decided to turn around and there he was. Seungyoun. Running towards her.
Esmée waved with one hand, a matcha latte on the other. “Did your students finish their finals for the day?” she asked as soon as he was close enough.
“Oh, I didn’t schedule any for today. Most of them told me they had yours today, so I scheduled mine for Thursday,” he said, shrugging and with a smile on his lips.
“That’s why they like you more than they like me,” Esmée pouted, taking the cup of matcha to her lips then.
“That’s a huge lie. They love your class and you know it,” Seungyoun said and Esmée instantly made a face at him, showing him her tongue. “But, uh… Did you think about that research? What do you say?”
“Hmmmm, sure. Let’s do it,” she gave him a smile, nodding at him. “But I just wanna let it known that I’m extremely organized when it comes to research,” Esmée eyed him, Seungyoun being known in the department for sometimes losing student’s tests or grades.
The other professor just laughed it off, giving her a face. “Let’s talk about it once finals are over then,” he smiled, making Esmée smile too. “I gotta go, some students are waiting for me,” he added as he pointed towards the building and started walking back.
Esmée and Seungyoun waved their goodbyes and went their separate ways. She made a mental note to invite him to her favorite café after this week was over so they could discuss the preparations for the research and everything they would need to go after to be able to publish it.
The woman kept making her way out of the campus towards her car, but before she could reach it she was stopped by several different students, two other professors, and even her own assistant. Finals were definitely hard for professors too.
“We should go out for a drink once this week is over,” Esmée said the moment she saw Y/N. Her best friend was carrying a pile of tests out of her center building and she reached to help, taking half from Y/N’s arms.
“We might as well go for a drink now,” Y/N just kept walking, hoping Esmée was following. “Otherwise I might just kill my assistant before the week is over.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but I have the morning class tomorrow and I don’t think I can pay attention to all of those presentations if I’m hangover,” Esmée pouted as she followed Y/N, noticing her friend was making a beeline towards Esmée’s car. Apparently she was taking her home today. “We can go to that bar… What’s its name? Moment or whatever on Friday.”
Y/N just slowed down a little, but kept walking. “I’m listening,” she added.
Esmée laughed, shaking her head and speeding up a little to catch up. “I know they’re having a pop night or whatever. It’s perfect music to get drunk to and forget we have to deal with young adults for a living, even though we’re not that old,” she shrugged. “We can even call Seungwoo,” Esmée winked and stepped aside, afraid she might get hit.
“Fine,” Y/N shrugged, making Esmée look at her wide-eyed. “You can invite him. I’m sure he won’t go to a bar on Friday night. Or a night club even. Good luck,” she added with a laugh.
Esmée rolled her eyes and unlocked her car, letting Y/N put all the papers on her backseat first and them pilling up the rest on top. They both got into the car and the younger professor drove them both back home, to their apartments.
Y/N had joked about inviting Seungwoo, but at the same time, she hoped her friend would bite the bait. She knows Esmée doesn’t ignore a dare and it would be really nice to be able to dance with Seungwoo at a night club, a little bit too drunk to care. Y/N might even forget how horrible finals week really is if she gets to see that stupid smile by the end of it.
x
“We’re going out on Friday. And you can’t say no,” was the first thing Esmée said the moment she saw Seungyoun the next day. They were in the middle of the hallway and some students even frowned at them - Esmée even noticed one of them quickly typing to let their friends know about the newly found gossip.
It isn’t news that Seungyoun and Esmée do everything together for the staff, but for some students it might be.
“Okay… I’m listening?” the man simply adjusted his round glasses, crossing his arms and stopping everything to pay attention to the woman.
“There’s this club Y/N and I usually go to… I mean, not usually since we rarely go to clubs but you get the idea. They’re having a pop night or whatever on Friday. The best type of music ever to completely forget about finals,” she stopped, biting on her lower lip for a second.
“But…?” Seungyoun continued for her, making her shrug and laugh a little.
“We have to convince Seungwoo to go.”
“Seungwoo? My Seungwoo? Korean cuisine studies Seungwoo?” If by the number of question Seungyoun didn’t seem confused enough, he made sure to show a very confused face as he stared at Esmée. “I’m 90% certain he never leaves the house.”
“Oh, but he does! He goes to all of those work-dates with Y/N!” Esmée said, sounding a bit hopeful.
Seungyoun gave it some thought, convincing his best friend to go to a nightclub would not be an easy feat, but they could try. He finally shrugged, giving Esmée a smile. “Can I tell him Y/N is also going?”
With a smile, and a shared knowing look, Esmée nodded. “You’re both going to love the place! I mean it. They make a very good, uh… beer?”
“Very convincing,” Seungyoun laughed, shaking his head a little. He placed his hand on her arm, giving it a little squeeze. “You better talk to him too if you see him. Guilt trip him into going.”
“Oh, I’m great at that,” she added, a smile on her lip.
Seungyoun wanted to agree, but he just laughed it off. They waved their goodbyes and followed with their day. Esmée would have lunch and then move to one of her afternoon classes and Seungyoun had some researches to read and review. It was Wednesday, which meant they still had two days to convince Seungwoo to go out with them.
x
Later that afternoon, Seungyoun was walking out of the campus’ coffee shop when he spotted Y/N sitting at one of their tables. She was obviously busy, laptop opened in front of her while she typed something furiously. He noticed a half-empty cup of whatever latte they were serving that day and decided that joining her wouldn’t be a bad idea.
“Hey!” Seungyoun didn’t even wait for Y/N to invite him to sit, he just did. Placing his books on the table and his cup of iced Americano in front of him. “Finals are a pain, aren’t they?”
“They definitely are,” Y/N said, only giving him a look before going back to her laptop. Even though Esmée and Seungyoun could talk nonstop for hours, it didn’t work the same for Seungyoun and Y/N. He knows they are friends because Y/N has said so several times… But he might be just a little afraid of her. “But they aren’t kicking my ass this year. Your best friend is.”
“My best friend? Esmée?” Seungyoun frowned in confusion as he looked at her.
“No, idiot. That’s my best friend. Think again,” she rolled her eyes, still typing. She only stopped when Seungyoun finally guessed the correct name - Seungwoo - and asked her what he had done wrong now. Y/N siped from her latte. “This stupid research we’re doing together. I’m allergic to pepper, you know? Do you know how spicy Korean food is?” He raised an eyebrow, pointed to himself and Y/N just nodded. “Of course you do, you’re also Korean.”
“Why did you agree to all the taste testing thing then? I’m sure Seungwoo wouldn’t force feed you spicy topokki.”
“Because I’m an idiot, that’s why,” she rolled her eyes, finally put the cup down and went back to working on her paper. “And because your best friend has very long legs, very long arms, very long fingers, and a very nice looking stupid face.”
Seungyoun made a face, raising his cup and finally fishing his phone from his pocket. When he was about to type something, Y/N was staring at him again.
“If you ever tell Esmée I said any of this, I’m going to murder you.”
He just kept looking at her, cell phone in one hand, his drink on the other. His thumb moved slightly to the corner of the screen, probably to press send on something. Seungyoun shrugged and shoved his phone in his pocket, quickly picking up his books to leave. “I don’t know any Esmées,” he said as he tried his best to wave while holding books and a cup of coffee.
Y/N just groaned, rubbing her hands over her own face. The moment Seungyoun went through the doors and left the coffee shop, she heard the ding from her phone. And it went on for at least ten more texts. She was about to murder two language nerds.
x
Esmée was 95% sure that Seungyoun was dead by now after sending her that text, letting her know that Y/N was talking about Seungwoo with heart eyes and talking about his stupid good looking face and etc. She should congratulate him on his courage later that day.
Right now she had a phone call to make.
She had gotten Seungwoo’s number ages ago, the day they met, to keep in touch in case they ever wanted to go to the movies together again. Now, going through the isles of food at the supermarket, she decided it was the best time to call and let him know there would be a party happening. Esmée and Seungyoun had come up with a plan and they were both sure it was going to work.
He picked up after the fourth ring.
“Hey, Es!” he said, soft voice and all. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh, everything is awesome. Just a bit tired,” her smile obvious on her voice. “Finals are so exhausting.”
“Tell me about it… I just went through so many horrible presentations,” he laughed. Everything was so soft about Seungwoo that sometimes Esmée couldn’t tell how Y/N felt for him - sometimes opposites do attract.
“Wanna forget all about them on Friday?” Esmée saw the opportunity and took it. And then instantly regretted it when she noticed it sounded like she was inviting him out on a date. “I mean…” she quickly added. “Seungyoun, Y/N and I are going to this party at Moment. It’s a very nice club.”
“A party? I’m not really that type of person…” he started and Esmée could see the confused face right in front of her. She rolled her eyes, this is what she gets for trying to get Y/N a man.
“It’s going to be awesome! And Y/N is going to be there…” she paused for effect, throwing a bag of chocolate-covered cookies into her shopping card. “Seungyoun and I will also be there, of course. They have some mean… Tequila Sunrises,” she frowned at her choice of words.
“I’ll give it some thought,” he laughed a bit nervously from his end of the phone call.
“Great! Some thought is great,” she said, now looking at frozen food options. “Talk to you tomorrow then, bye Seungwoo!” Esmée quickly hung up, shoving her phone into her back pocket and picking up three different types of frozen pizza.
Only then she remembered to text Seungyoun.
Horrible idea. We’re never doing phone call plans again. -EM
Did he say no? -CSY
Not really. He said he will give it some thought or whatever. It’s on you now. -EM
And you owe me. Two drinks. -EM
Wait… Weren’t you the one who asked me for this favor? -CSY
Well, you came up with the plan. -EM
Not sure how fair this sounds… but sure. -CSY
Finally shoving her phone back into her back pocket, Esmée moved on with her shopping. She would get Seungwoo on that club on Friday. Even if she had to make three more phone calls until then - or maybe two… yeah, two only. Two is a good number.
x
And then Thursday came, and another lunch that Seungwoo and Y/N would share together also came. Esmée calls them work-dates, Seungyoun calls them lunch-dates, Y/N and Seungwoo call them research. But on the inside, both might wish that they were something more - one more deep down than the other.
It was an Italian restaurant today - for Y/N’s sake - and they’d be having cappelletti soup. The recipe happened to be the closest she could find to a mandu in Italian cuisine, which was the chapter they were on now. They had already covered spaghetti, risottos and some meat cuts. The sauces was the hardest for Y/N and she was already dreading the side dishes because kimchi was on its way.
Esmée had brought a container home once that Seungyoun’s mom had sent her. According to her friend it was delicious, she finished it in a week, but Y/N tried a bit and had to chug an entire glass of milk. She wasn’t a very reliable source to ask how spicy something is anyway.
They had already had their salads and were drinking a glass of wine each. Seungwoo had gotten there first and got them a table at the corner of this very tiny and homey Italian place. He had his legs crossed, his shirt had an extra button opened and Y/N was sure her cheeks were blushing because of the wine. She had been so stressed the past week with finals, her assistant being as incompetent as possible and her students asking stupid questions that finally being able to relax definitely came in handy. Relax staring at Seungwoo’s extra opened button was just a bonus she was willing to live with.
“You know,” he started, making Y/N look from her glass up to him. The hair falling on his face, as usual, the point beautiful nose and the ridiculous smile. Maybe she should also stop drinking. “Esmée and Seungyoun keep insisting I go to this party with you guys tomorrow…”
And there it was. Her best friend and her stupid nerd friend to ruin the moment.
“Oh, do they? We’re going to Moment tomorrow. It’s a club Es and I usually go to when we want to relax. The music is good, we rarely meet students and the drinks are pretty good since she doesn’t really drink beer,” she started rambling, leaning back and bringing her glass in her hand. “Finals have been so hard on us she thought it would be a good idea to have a little fun.”
“It sounds like a nice place,” he smiled, drinking some water and giving the waiter a smile as he placed both their plates down and thanking him for it. “Seungyoun texted me all night about it,” he stopped for a moment to blow on his soup a little so it wasn’t so hot and Y/N remembered what she had told Seungyoun the day before. She blushed even deeper, finishing her glass of wine in one sip before Seungwoo could continue. “I think he doesn’t want to look stupid in front of Esmée.”
And then Y/N almost spit everything. The woman swallowed thickly, eyes wide as she looked at Seungwoo. “He always does, tho?” She straightened her posture, starting to pay attention to her soup now - the same as Seungwoo. “I mean… I do call them language nerds for a reason.”
“I know… I mean, it came off as really weird when he told me he needed me there because of her,” he shrugged and then Y/N finally got it. So Esmée had recruited Seungyoun to help her convince Seungwoo to go to the party on Friday… And Seungyoun being the idiot he is for her best friend definitely said yes.
She nodded, taking a bite from her food. “Mhm, it definitely sounds a bit weird, but isn’t he your best friend? You should help him with girl problems,” she moved to drink some water, eyes still on Seungwoo.
The man had his eyes on the soup, gave it some thought and looked up with a smile. “He doesn’t really help me with mine though,” he scrunched his nose and let himself laugh. “He actually makes it more difficult,” Seungwoo added and sipped from his wine.
Y/N let herself laugh, but couldn’t help but think what Seungwoo meant with those words. They talked a lot more about the food then as they compared it with the mandu they had had a few days ago - Y/N took out her iPad with her notes, Seungwoo his little notebook. After lunch was over and they had made new notes on what to add to their research, they walked back to campus together - Seungwoo had some orientation to give, Y/N had her last final of the week to deal with.
They were on the hallway parting way when Seungwoo turned around and waved at her. “See you tomorrow night!” he said, a huge smile on his lips.
Y/N smiled back, waving quickly. “See you!” she wanted to add something more. Maybe I can’t wait! or I’m super excited, are you? or You’re going to love the club! but all she did was turn around, bite on her lower lip and quickly move to her next class. She would have to make Seungyoun talk about this girl problem that he isn’t really helping Seungwoo with.
And the best way to get him talking lives a few floors above her.
x
At night, Y/N made her way up to the fifteenth floor. Her plan was to bother Esmée so much she would facetime Seungyoun to get the answer she need. Who was Seungwoo in love with? Why does he need help with girl problems? Who’s this girl, anyway? Her head was flooding with questions as she waited for the elevator to reach the correct floor. She had her hair tied up and wasn’t even wearing shoes - just socks and slippers.
She heard a weird noise when she knocked, as if Esmée was shushing someone but didn’t think much of it. “Oh, it’s you,” she said, stepping out and closing the door behind her. “Shoot.”
Y/N frowned, looking at the closed door behind her best friend. Maybe she had someone over - which didn’t make sense because Esmée made sure to always share every tiny detail of her life with Y/N. The Italian cuisine professor even knows about Esmée’s brother first trip to a motel, why wouldn’t she know about someone coming over on a Thursday night? She shrugged it off and got her business face on. “I need you to call Seungyoun. I need some answers to some stuff.”
“Now?” Esmée looked both confused and surprised. “What sort of answers?”
“Seungwoo related answered. The type of answer only Seungyoun can give me,” she started talking with the help of her hands. “We went out for lunch today and he told me he has been having girl problems that Seungyoun isn’t helping him with. Which makes him a crappy best friend, but okay.”
As if on cue, the professor yelled from inside of Esmée’s apartment. “He doesn’t have any girl problems I know of!”
“Didn’t I tell you to be quiet?” Esmée finally pushed the door open, giving him a face before turning back to Y/N with a smile. “Well, you can ask him… I guess. Wine?” she said as she walked in, ignoring Y/N’s look and knowing smile, as she pushed her best friend in by the arm.
Seungyoun had his glasses on, his longish hair a mess and a laptop on his lap. The scene wasn’t really what Y/N expected - or maybe it was what she hoped for? - there were zero linguistics books on the coffee table, only two glasses of wine and their phones. They had paused whatever was on the TV so Esmée could get the door and German subtitles were on. She couldn’t really see what was there on Seungyoun’s laptop screen because he closed it when she got closer.
“He told me he has girl problems you’re not helping him with though…” Y/N added, sitting right next to him on the couch. Esmée almost groaned from the kitchen, she loves her best friend but today was so not the day. She came back with a clean glass and filled it up with wine for Y/N.
Seungyoun gave Y/N a look and then Esmée, who had sat down on an armchair and signaled for him to answer. “As far as I know, he’s in love with his research. He likes going to this little lunch-dates with you and is always talking about the similarities you two are finding together. I even know you guys had lunch together today,” he adjusted his glasses, pointing at Y/N. “You’re literally the only woman he talks about. And as far as I can tell, there aren’t any girl problems going on or whatever.”
Esmée was just quietly drinking her wine, watching them talk. Seungyoun had come over after Seungwoo had told him he was going to the club with them. He apparently owed the girl two drinks and that’s why he showed up with two bottles of wine and pizza. Half-cheese, half-pepperoni. Extra cheese on everything. It took them a while to choose what to watch, but settled for The Witcher - the German subtitles were only there because it was the language Esmée was trying to learn now. Seungyoun had just managed the courage to wrap his arm around her shoulders when Y/N knocked on the door.
The woman was watching her best friend and her crush talk, but her eyes were mostly on Seungyoun as she drank her wine.
“Did he say yes to going to the club anyway?” Y/N said, finally looking at Esmée - who almost jumped out of her seat.
“Mhm, he texted Seungyoun earlier about it. He’s going to meet him earlier and we’re going to meet them there. Wear something cute,” she winked at her best friend and Y/N almost threw her wine at Esmée.
Finishing another glass in stress that day, Y/N stood up and moved to the door. “I’m gonna let you two go back to… whatever you two were doing with your clothes still on,” she said, which made Seungyoun’s cheeks go bright red and Esmée roll her eyes. “See you tomorrow!” Y/N added as Esmée pushed her past the door. “Behave!” The last word came as a yell from outside of the apartment as Esmée closed the door on her face.
Y/N went back to her own apartment a bit more confused than she had been before talking to Seungyoun. So Seungwoo didn’t really have girl problems? Why did he mention it, then? Why does he tell Seungyoun everything about their lunches together?
When she was finally inside her place, she texted Esmée.
You’re so dead for not telling me Seungyoun would be coming over. -Y/N
The reply came pretty fast.
He showed up. I didn’t actually invite him. -EM
So maybe they weren’t really doing what Y/N thought they were. Maybe the two idiots are really just two idiots.
Putting a frozen pizza on the oven, she moved to her room to figure out what to wear at Moment the next day. Seungwoo was going to be there and she hoped for all things holy that he would be alone for most of it - or alone with her.
x
Friday flew by.
She had driven with Esmée to the campus that morning and was a bit surprised that Seungyoun hadn’t spent the night over. Y/N didn’t ask since her friend apparently wasn’t willing to talk much about it. Maybe she was still figuring out her obvious feelings for him.
Thinking about it, Y/N couldn’t help but think of both of them as two idiots in love. Esmée and her friendship turned into something else and Y/N with that research as an excuse to go on date after date with Seungwoo.
They had stopped for coffee on their way into the campus and that was the last time she saw Esmée that day. The younger professor ordered a matcha latte and vanished into her department, while Y/N had to walk a few extra buildings holding her salt caramel machiatto to get into hers.
She didn’t hear much from Seungyoun or Seungwoo too. She saw the Korean cuisine professor quick in the hallway and then never again and she was sure she had seen Seungyoun at a bistro during lunch, but she waved and he didn’t really wave back.
With the night getting closer and closer, Y/N started to feel both excited and anxious. This had been a horrible idea. Why did she dare Esmée to do anything? Or course her best friend would find a way to get Seungwoo to go to the damn party. Why did she even agree to go to this stupid club? They’re all way too old for this. It would have been better to stay home and drink a few bottles of wine.
Those were her thoughts inside the Uber on her way home. She was going to text Esmée and let her know that she wouldn’t be able to go. Would the sick excuse fool her friend? Probably not, but Y/N would have to try.
If you bail, I’m going to hate you forever. -EM
Was the text Esmée sent her the moment Y/N stepped foot at home.
How did you know? - Y/N
You didn’t say anything about going to the party for the entire afternoon. I just assumed. Now I know. -EM
Damn. -Y/N
She left her phone and bag on the couch, moving to take a shower. After washing her hair and drying it, Y/N went back to texting Esmée. She let her friend know she would be going to the party anyway, she just needed to relax a little. The whole Seungwoo has girl problems thing was maybe getting to her a bit harder than she had expected.
Esmée made sure to reassure her friend, reminding her that Seungyoun had mentioned that Y/N is the only one Seungwoo talks about. Maybe he was just teasing her during lunch, playing a little. Who knows? She would have to go to find out, according to Esmée. Seungyoun had made sure that Seungwoo would be there.
After a heated up risotto for Y/N and a plate of nuggets for Esmée, the girls met at the hall of their building a little bit after ten.
Y/N was wearing boots, shorts and a sleeveless shirt. She had a heavy black coat on top of everything. Her colorful hair wasn’t styled, she had decided to just let it be and she had some light makeup on. Definitely different than the Y/N the department at NYU is used to, but not Esmée. She has seen her friend out several times and that’s her usual club attire. Esmée also had boots on, but had opted for a midi-skirt and a cropped top. A brown coat covered her clothes and her hair was styled with a few pins. She also had light makeup around her eyes, but was wearing red lipstick.
“Looking good,” Esmée said, pointing at Y/N.
“Don’t I always?” Y/N said, making Esmée roll her eyes a little. The one in the brown coat already had her phone in hand to get them a car to go to the club. She was also checking in with Seungyoun, trying to figure out where the two men were.
“The car will be here in five,” she said, giving Y/N a smile. “Ready?”
“Not really. I had two glasses of wine before coming down,” she gave Esmée a guilty smile, which only made her friend laugh.
“You’re impossible.”
The drive from their building to the club was quiet. Esmée was texting Seungyoun and Y/N kept checking her phone for anything, anything really, that would take her mind out of Seungwoo actually being there that night. Getting out of the car, Esmée informed her that the men were waiting for them inside and simply grabbed Y/N by the hand to guide her to the door.
They left their coats at the entrance and Esmée had her hand around Y/N’s wrist again, dragging her friend to the spot Seungyoun had mentioned they were. Close to the bar, but not really. Closer to the dancefloor than expected. Gangsta by Kehlani was playing and Y/N couldn’t believe her eyes when she finally saw the two men.
Seungyoun was in ripped black jeans, a flowery shirt and messy hair. He had different glasses on and that shirt was doing his shoulder justice. Esmée finally let go of her and rushed to her language nerd, wrapping her arms around him and quickly stealing his drink - just to give back the next second, making a face, complaining about the strong taste.
Seungwoo was in leather pants. Leather pants. Y/N wanted to die. Whose idea was that, she wanted to ask. It was probably Seungyoun’s, right? She was going to kill him. As if the pants weren’t enough, he also was wearing a sleeveless shirt and boots. His hair was up and she could see his eyes and forehead. A shot on the face would have hurt less.
“Hey!” he waved, giving her a smile. And then Y/N remembered to breathe.
“Hi!” she got closer so they could talk. The song was loud and Y/N’s mind was obviously going some very dark places whenever she heard I need a gangsta echoing in the club.
“I guess I can’t get you a coffee here,” he added, making a face. Which just made Y/N’s heart sink a bit more. “But I can offer you a drink.”
She laughed, biting on the corner of her lower lip. “I’d love a Cosmopolitan,” she shrugged, looking down at his hand to check out his drink. She was a bit clever than her best friend, always asking before drinking. “What are you drinking?”
“Oh, Gin,” he shrugged. “Seungyoun ordered for the both of us. I usually drink Margaritas.”
Y/N leaned her head to the side in confusion for a moment, letting herself laugh and smile at him. “Margaritas? I really didn’t see that coming.”
“There’s more of what that came from,” he winked, taking her hand. “Come on, let’s get your drink,” he added, pulling her towards the bar. Y/N let herself follow, eyes a bit wide in surprise still. Maybe someone had kidnapped Seungwoo and replaced him with this almost exact copy.
This couldn’t be the professor that would come to her room with coffee every other day, that went out to lunch dates with her, that smiled shyly and rarely looked her in the eyes. But then again… She wasn’t wearing what she usually wears to work either. And she definitely doesn’t behave the same at a club.
She could just hope the Cosmopolitan would make everything make sense.
When they went back to the spot they had met, Esmée and Seungyoun were nowhere to be seen but Y/N had her Cosmopolitan, Seungwoo had another Gin and Tonic and they both were determinate to make this night worth something. A song both didn’t know was playing, but Y/N pointed towards the dance floor anyway and Seungwoo just followed.
In which part of the year pop music had become so… groovy, they couldn’t really tell. But it just made it horrible to bear when Y/N noticed that Seungwoo knows damn well what to do with his body on the dance floor. The man was moving his hips to the song, having his little moment right in front of her, a smile on his lips as he pushed his hair back and nodded for her to dance too.
With two glasses of wine and half a Cosmopolitan on her mind, all Y/N could do is move closer and dance with Seungwoo.
A song went by and then maybe another and a few more… And now there were no space between their bodies. Y/N had finished her drink and now Seungwoo’s neck seemed very inviting, maybe a little too much. And she was so close… One of his hands on her lower back, the other holding his drink, his body pressing against hers…
But then she heard a familiar voice.
Karma is a bitch.
“Not this kind of person, uh?” Esmée could be heard over the song that was playing. Y/N reluctantly leaned back, giving her friend the look.
Esmée was holding what looked like a tequila sunrise - or maybe a sex on the beach? Y/N couldn’t really tell - and her lipstick was gone. Gone to Seungyoun’s neck, collar and cheek to be more exact. At least her friend had the decency of taking it off somewhere else before smudging it all over his mouth probably.
Seungwoo just gave them a smile, noticing Seungyoun’s hand on Esmée’s. “I’m not… I mean, at least not on Wednesdays?” he tried, making Esmée laugh. The professor just nodded, winking at him and then leaning closer to Y/N.
“Seungyoun told me you’re the girl problem,” she tried to whisper, but with Esmée a whisper is never a whisper. Then she leaned back, winked again and they both vanished again.
When Y/N turned around again, she was sure Seungwoo had heard her best friend.
“So what are you going to do about that?” he made a face, taking his drink to his lips as he watched her, hand still placed on her lower back.
“It depends. Is it a good girl problem or am I too much to handle?” she raised an eyebrow, free hand moving from his chest to his shoulder as she looked up at him.
“Both?” he let himself laugh. “You’re too much to handle. But at the same time… You went to all of those Korean restaurants when you can’t even eat pepper…” he pressed his lips together, hiding a knowing smile.
Y/N was confused, then surprised, maybe a little horrified and then had murder on her eyes. Seungyoun and Esmée were dead. “A student told me,” Seungwoo added. So maybe her best friend could live.
“Ugh… I feel like an idiot now…” she tried to take a step back, but Seungwoo held her in place. He wanted to tell her that she wasn’t an idiot, that the only reason he proposed the research was to spend time with her and because he, the real idiot here, couldn’t find a way to properly ask her out.
“All the dates were great though,” he added. A smile on his lips. A bit more drunk than he expected, but who wouldn’t be after four drinks.
“So we’re finally calling them dates now?” she laughed, also a little drunker than expected. Maybe mixing wine and cosmopolitans wasn’t a good idea.
A look from him, a smile from her, a pout from him and a laugh from her was all it took. Soon Y/N was tiptoeing a little, Seungwoo leaning down a little and they were met halfway for a kiss.
If only they weren’t holding those stupid drinks was on Y/N’s mind. If only they weren’t in this stupid club was on Seungwoo’s mind. But the kiss was passionate, a bit drunk and definitely an experience for both. Y/N had her free hand on his hair, he might have lowered his a bit more. Both would remember this the next day and regret it a little.
A kiss turned into two, into three and into something else. When they both leaned back, there was an obvious blissful smile on both their faces. Seungwoo took their empty glasses to the nearest surface available and got them two more, going back to Y/N on the dance floor as fast as possible.
He was met with the woman he had just kissed, Esmée and Seungyoun again. His best friend had gotten rid of some of the lipstick stains on his neck, but one was still there. He just shrugged when Seungwoo pointed it out, shaking his head at Seungyoun.
They enjoyed the party until it ended. A few kisses here and there, sometimes a couple would vanish, but they would always find each other again. On the dance floor. Drunkenly dancing to whatever pop song was playing.
x
The next morning Y/N woke up with a pounding headache, the light coming in from the window and a very tall sleeping body right next to her. She sat up and looked around, pulling the blanket up to cover her own body. She was in her room, that’s for sure, and Seungwoo was sleeping silently right next to her. Their clothes were all over the room - she could see her bra hanging on her bedside lamp - and maybe, just maybe, she felt like she wanted to die. Of embarrassment.
She sneaked out of her own room, making sure to take the first shirt and shorts she saw with her… Which ended up being her shorts and Seungwoo’s shirt, and then moved to her living room. Y/N had no idea where she had left her phone or even her purse… And she couldn’t just run away from her apartment. How could two professors make a scene like that? Grinding on the dance floor, kissing like two stupid teenagers, going home together, flirting and teasing… She should’ve just asked him out a few months ago when this all started.
Y/N didn’t really regret kissing Seungwoo or taking him home. She just felt embarrassed for being an idiot this entire time. And he knew she was allergic to pepper! Of all things. With a groan, she left a note on the bedside table, it read: “I went to Es’s to grab us breakfast. She lives on the 15th. Be right back.” It was obviously an excuse, but it had to be made.
When she reached the fifteenth floor she knocked and knocked and knocked and no one answered. She then rang the bell and still nothing, nada. Maybe she should have checked if Esmée had slept home before going all the way up and leaving a note. Dreading having to face Seungwoo without breakfast in hands, Y/N made a quick run to the bakery right in front of their building and bought them two muffins and some coffee. That’s her pocket money could buy anyway.
Walking in, she heard the shower running and thank all gods for that. It gave her time to get rid of the bakery bag and plate the muffins and the coffee. She then went on a mission to find her phone - which she did, right when the shower stopped, under her bed. She texted Esmée and quickly went back to the living room, tying her hair up.
“Hey, have you seen my… Well, there it is,” Seungwoo was looking for his t-shirt, now dressed in nothing but the pants he had been wearing the night before, his hair all wet and covering his eyes as usual. She chuckled at her as Y/N blushed.
“I went on a breakfast run,” she said, quickly moving to her bedroom. “I just took the first one I found and…”
Seungwoo cut her off by holding her wrist. “It’s fine. Let’s eat first… If it’s okay with you? I have this major headache.”
Y/N groaned and quickly moved back to the kitchen, pulling Seungwoo with her. “Me too. I have this one rule that says I should never mix types of drinks but I always break it and always regret it the next day,” she rolled her eyes at herself, sitting on the stool and pointing at the one next one for Seungwoo to sit. She passed him the muffing and the coffee. “I finally got to buy you coffee,” she said, making a face.
Seungwoo let himself laugh, shaking his head and drinking from his mocha. “I’m sorry if I said anything stupid last night… I promise I’m intelligent when I’m sober,” he added, slicing his muffing in pieces so he could eat it.
Y/N laughed, shaking his head a little. “Oh, trust me. I’ve said my fair share of stupid too. All will be forgiven if you ask me out on a proper date though. No research involved,” she said, pressing her lips together before moving to face her own coffee and muffin.
The man next to her gave it some thought, probably trying to figure out where to take her, or maybe trying to think between the headache and the embarrassment from the night before. That’s when Y/N’s phone made a ding, letting her know there was a text. It was a photo from Esmée of a very very sleepy Seungyoun, messy long hair all over the place, and the caption said ‘obviously not home, obviously sleeping’ to answer Y/N’s where are you???? from earlier.
“We can go to an Arabian restaurant,” he said while she was checking her phone. “I know a very nice place that sells great food. I promise it’s not spicy,” he added, making her blush and roll her eyes.
“I didn’t plan on trying every single Korean dish you offered me, okay? Just so you know. It was your stupid smile’s fault,” she shoved a piece of muffin in her mouth to keep it shut.
“Good to know,” he laughed, sipping from his coffee. “So, it’s a date then? Tonight?”
Y/N gave it some thought and checked her phone again, drank from her coffee and looked up at him. “It’s a date. A real one.”
“Which one are we going to count as our first date though? This one or the one at Cho Dang Gol?” he raised an eyebrow, a bit confused.
A little discussion erupted. Y/N wanted to count the one at the Korean restaurant as their first date, Seungwoo thought about counting this one at this other restaurant - an Italian one now - as their first because that’s when he realized he was in love. Then both thought maybe the Arabian place would be better. In the end, they settled for the campus cafeteria because that’s where they first sat down to discuss their research.
“Are we four months in then?” Y/N said, eyes wide in surprise.
“Wow. I so have to tell my dad about this,” Seungwoo joked, getting slapped by Y/N as she rolled her eyes.
He pulled her stool closer and gave her a forehead kiss, to which she smiled and even blushed a little. Maybe letting Seungwoo know about her feelings wasn’t so bad, she would have to think about it again when she has forgotten about everything they did while drunk the night before.
But one thing she knew for sure: that had been the most stressful, yet best finals week of her career.
“Just friends don’t look at each other like they finally found the love they thought they had lost when they meet ten years later at a street in Seoul,” Hazel pointed out, a single eyebrow raised.
Description: “Just friends don’t look at each other like they finally found the love they thought they had lost when they meet ten years later at a street in Seoul,” Hazel pointed out, a single eyebrow raised.
“What I’m saying is, you know, living in Korea since I’m five doesn’t really make me Korean. It just makes me an American that has lived in Korea for too long,” Y/N was trying to explain to a coworker why she didn’t really feel anything like them. Or why she still tells people she’s American - she doesn’t really look the part, being adopted by her parents at the age of three, and going back and forth between America and Korea all the time, she didn’t really feel like she belonged anywhere.
She has decided to live her life in Korea - mostly because her parents finally stopped moving and settled in their home country - and has been doing so ever since she finished college in America. She’s their pride and joy, graduated a pediatrician and getting a job in Seoul as soon as she moved back. Her parents are restaurant owners, at first they would only work with deliveries since they moved a lot, but once they settled they decided to open a restaurant with the promise to serve their public the best homemade Korean food.
Y/N still has her doubts about that. Her dad isn’t really a great cook. But the restaurant is always full and they had to move to a bigger location recently. The restaurant is how she met her best friend - Hazel. The other girl used to own the Italian restaurant right next to her parents' place. They were always friendly with each other - Hazel would always borrow some flour, Y/N’s parents would always ask her for some onions. When they moved, they were all sad to say goodbye - but the friendship between them continued.
Now Y/N was killing some time, all her appointments for the day were over and she was just chatting with her coworkers. The nurses from her floor. Hazel and Y/N were supposed to have lunch that day, they were going to celebrate the Michelin star that Hazel’s restaurant was rewarded that year so sushi and drinks were in order. The girls rarely get to hang out nowadays because of their busy schedules, but when they manage they make the best of it.
As usual, both arrived late.
Y/N arrived first and ordered them a bottle of wine, already asking for her own glass and texting her friend. Hazel arrived ten minutes after that, all smiles and rushing over to her seat, pouring herself a glass too.
“Cheers to being a famous chef!” Y/N said, raising her glass and making her friend laugh.
“Cheers to the anxiety of being a famous chef!” Hazel said, laughing. They both drank and Hazel started talking again the moment she put her glass down. “Honestly though, I was picking out tomatoes. That’s why I’m late. Yesterday my assistant insisted he could do it and then this morning texted me to ask how does he do it.”
Y/N laughed, shaking her head and sipping from her glass. Life wasn’t really easy on both of them - Hazel moved from Italy to Korean before college, wanting to start over in a different place. She studied business management and ended up opening her own restaurant. Working day and night, she managed to make it famous and known not only for the great environment but also for its delicious food. No wonder people made reservations three months ahead, to be sure they would have a spot when a family member visits for example.
Lunch went by pretty fast - they had sushi, wine, and dessert. Y/N complained about the nurses and doctors at the hospital, Hazel complained about her waiters, assistants, and manager. They even got a free bottle of wine from the owner who happened to be a friend of Hazel and wanted to congratulate her on the award.
As they still had some time to kill before both needed to go back to their responsibilities, they decided to walk down the street. It was quite busy - lots of restaurants and stores. Tourists would always crowd the street because of how beautiful and busy it was.
Both put their sunglasses on, grabbed some boba from a place right next to the sushi restaurant and started their way down the street. They were checking the stores, sipping from their tea and trying to make plans to go to Japan next January - trying because they were both sure they would be busy.
That’s when they saw a small crowd gathered around someone. Or some people. They couldn’t be sure of where they were, but music was coming from the middle of the crowd. Hazel pointed towards it and Y/N just shrugged, following her friend towards the crowd.
The crowd consisted mostly of younger girls, some even had large cameras on them, and they seemed pretty excited to be listening to the songs coming from the musicians. Y/N was about to say it was probably another idol group busking in downtown Seoul and would complain how unhealthy it is for younger people to be working this hard for a chance to succeed when she almost dropped her boba.
She knew that voice. She was sure the last time they had seen each other was during high school, right before she moved back to America for college, but she knew that voice. Before Hazel, that voice would be the one giving her advice and complaining back whenever she complained about something.
She had to be sure if that voice belongs to him.
Y/N rushed towards the crowd, leaving a confused Hazel behind. The chef took some time to follow, calling Y/N out. “Hey! What’s going on?” she asked as she saw her friend tip-toeing behind all the other girls, obviously trying to see who was playing the song.
“Remember that guy I told you about? The guy from my high school?” Y/N said, still trying to check who the voice belonged to. “This is his voice!”
“Are you sure? How long has it been? Like… Ten years, right?” Hazel finished her drink, looking around for a trashcan. She wanted to ask how could she still remember a voice, but she knew who Y/N was talking about. He wasn’t just a friend, he used to be her best friend. When people asked Y/N who her best friend is, she would still say his name from time to time even though they haven’t spoken in years.
“Mhm, around that. We sorta lost touch when I moved back to the US for college,” she said, biting on her lower lip. “He wanted to be a lawyer. At least he told me he was studying to be one… We would exchange emails every day until we… stopped. He got busy, I got busier… I don’t really know what happened. When I came back, he had a different phone number and no sns. And he had moved…” Y/N always tried to blame life on their separation when she knew what really had gone down - they had been drunk one night for her and day for him and might have said some I love yous on the phone, after that no one called or emailed again.
“Just wait until the song is over…” Hazel said, shrugging. The people will go away and you’ll be able to see better. You can even talk to him,” she added and watched as Y/N sighed and nodded.
The band - Hazel noticed there was a guitar player, a bass player, a drummer and the vocalist - played a few more songs. They invited people to follow them on all of their accounts and also talked about their schedule, they would play their official concert in a couple days - the entire band seemed really proud in Hazel’s eyes, Y/N could only pay attention to the man standing next to the guitar player who was giving their fans all the information.
She was about to start biting her nails because of the wait when the fans started to walk away - apparently, their little show was over. Y/N started moving then, squeezing herself between the other girls, making her way through the crowd as Hazel followed. Both boba cups long gone, the two watched the band put their stuff away as they moved towards them. Y/N was making a beeline towards the vocalist and Hazel was afraid the girl might just walk into him if she didn’t stop.
A larger, taller guy noticed the two girls approaching and started making his way towards them to stop them - he was probably a security guard or a manager, Hazel couldn’t tell. But that’s when Y/N suddenly stopped on her tracks, able to finally see the face who belong to the owner of the voice she missed so much. He didn’t notice her at first, focused on putting the instruments away and help his bandmates, but he did when she called his name.
“Lim Soojung?” she bit on her lower lip as he looked up at her. He looked like he wasn’t used to being called by that name anymore since he had a very confused expression on his face. The security guard stopped and the other members looked up, also staring at the girls. Hazel noticed that the guitar player wasn’t really looking at Y/N, but at her… But decided to focus on her friend for now.
It took them a moment of awkward silence for things to move. Lim Soojung, now known as Jihoo from IZ, opened up a smile and walked towards Y/N. “Y/N! What are you doing here?” he said, his cheeks slightly pink and his hands shoved into his pockets. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I should be the one asking that question!” the girl pointed out. “I just had lunch, I.. uh…” she pointed back at the restaurant, not really knowing what else to say. “It’s been so long!” she added, biting on her lower lip. “Longer than it should. I didn’t know you were in a band!”
“Yeah, uh… College didn’t work out as planned,” he made a face, making the girl laugh. “We’ve been playing together for a while now. I dropped out of college, served the army and then suddenly I was in a band,” he shrugged.
“That easy, uh?” the guy holding the guitar said, making both Y/N and Hazel laugh. Jihoo showed him his tongue. “I’m Hyunjun. Do you know Jihoo?” he asked Y/N.
“Do I?” she made a face at her childhood best friend, who just shrugged and made another face. Hazel rolled her eyes, calling them idiots inside his mind. “We used to study together.”
“That’s not even half of it,” Jihoo said, rolling his eyes. “I bet that’s how you talked about me to your American friends. We used to terrorize the school together. Her parents’ house was behind my parents’ house so we would go to school together everyday since elementary school. She used to spend months, even years, in the US but would always come back. We manage to study high school together - she was the class president and I was the vice president,” he added, not really looking at Hyunjun but at Y/N. He turned to the guitar player then and gave both him and Hazel a smile. “We didn’t just study together. Best friend I’ve ever had right here,” he pointed at Y/N who just shrugged.
“Friendship is overrated,” she said, scrunching her nose.
“I hate you,” he said, giving her a pointed look.
“I know,” she shrugged, smiling at him.
Hazel and Hyunjun just looked at each other, frowned and let themselves laugh. Best friends. Sure. Of course. There was nothing else there. Just used to study together. Nothing else to see.
A man came to rush Hyunjun and Jihoo somewhere and both said they would be right there.
“Gimme your phone,” Jihoo asked Y/N who promptly handed him the device. “I just gave you the number of a very famous singer. Don’t go telling people you have it,” he gave her the phone back while she laughed but only after calling his own phone so he would have her number. “I’m gonna text you the information about our concert. Come see us, okay?”
The girl nodded, taking her phone and waving as both men walked away.
As soon as they both walked into a black car, Hazel slapped Y/N on the shoulder. “You never told me you and your childhood best friend were in fucking love. That’s who your horoscope kept talking about!”
Y/N frowned. First at the slap and then at the things Hazel was saying. “What? Wait… No! What are you talking about? It’s not what you’re thinking, we used to be just friends.”
“Just friends don’t look at each other like they finally found the love they thought they had lost when they meet ten years later at a street in Seoul,” Hazel pointed out, a single eyebrow raised.
Y/N rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up,” she said.
Neither Y/N nor Jihoo would ever admit to it, but Hazel was right. Maybe never was a strong word, but for now, they definitely would not. They made out several times during high school, went to the movies together all the time and even had picnics on Sundays near the river. Everyone at the school knew they were together, but they never admitted it. Giving something like that a name sounded scary - especially when Jihoo knew Y/N might move back to America sooner or later.
And as soon as high school was over, she did. At first, they exchanged emails, texts, phone calls, and letters. All the time. They would always find some time to talk about their days - midnight for Y/N, midday for Jihoo - but it all stopped one night.
It was the weekend and Y/N had been out drinking with her friends. It was her first year of med school in New York and she planned to enjoy it while she still had the time to do so. Jihoo was still drunk from the night before, he had been out with some of his friends to celebrate his friend’s engagement. She called, he didn’t pick up. He called back, she didn’t pick up. She tried again and he finally answered.
“What were you doing?” she had asked on the phone the minuted he picked up.
“Thinking about you,” he joked, making her laugh. “I was making breakfast.”
“What are you making?” she asked, taking her shoes off and finally walking into her apartment. She dropped the shoes somewhere but never letting the phone leave its place.
“Your favorite,” he said and she could hear the smile on his face.
“Pancakes,” she guessed, shaking her head on her end of the call.
“Yep, pancakes,” he laughed.
She wanted to call him an idiot and whine about making her want to crave pancakes this late at night. She wanted to protest and tell him to book a flight right this moment and come and made her some goddamn pancakes. And maybe kiss her. And maybe go on a picnic with her. And maybe let her introduce him to all this new people she had met.
“Ugh, I love you, you idiot,” she said. She didn’t really expect to say it out loud.
“I love you too, you idiot,” he said it right back to her. He didn’t really expect to reply as fast as he had.
Both quickly found a reason to hang up. “I’m too tired, sorry, gonna take a shower and head to bed,” Y/N had said. “Yeah, I need to get going with things here, the pancakes are burning,” Jihoo had said.
And then they never called each other again.
Now, years later, Y/N couldn’t stop wondering why they didn’t call when they should. Or texted. Or emailed. Or anything really. It didn’t make sense to her now.
With that in mind, Y/N and Hazel said they goodbyes. Hazel had to go back to her restaurant while Y/N had the rest of the day off - she had just came out of a long shift that morning before lunch. She was going to ignore her feelings, take a shower and take a nap. Maybe that wasn’t really Jihoo, maybe she was just drunk from the wine they had during lunch.
She got the first text late that night.
[23:33] So. Our concert. This Saturday. It’s not going to be huge or anything but I’d love for you to be there. -Jihoo
[23:34] So. Your concert. I don’t even know the type of music you guys play. -Y/N
[23:34] Easy. Emo. -Jihoo
[23:35] It’s 2019. -Y/N
[23:35] And? -Jihoo
[23:36] You’re killing me here. What time is the concert? Saturdays are busy at the hospital. -Y/N
[23:37] So you really became a doctor? At nine. But you can arrive a bit earlier if you want. I’m gonna save you a ticket. Just give the security your name at the door. -Jihoo
[23:39] Pediatrician. I’ll let you know if I’ll be able to make it. -Y/N
[23:39] I’m free for coffee tomorrow tho. -Y/N
And then she got no reply. Y/N couldn’t help but think that she had gone too far. Maybe he just wanted her to go to the concert. As friends would. Maybe she had given Hazel’s words too much thought and had decided to invite him out on a whim. Maybe she should have kept to herself… Like she should have, years ago.
But then her phone rang.
“Soojung?” she picked up as she moved from her couch to her kitchen, looking for something to drink.
“Hey! Sorry… It took longer than I thought to be able to step out to our balcony,” he laughed, making Y/N smile to the phone. “Where do you wanna go? I’m free tomorrow afternoon.”
For a second Y/N didn’t really know what to say. She wasn’t expecting him to call just like they used to. She wasn’t even sure if he was real a couple hours ago.
“There’s this café… They also serve a very mean hot chocolate and some boba if you’re feeling like it…” She bit on her lower lip for a moment and then told him the address. “What time is okay for you?”
“Around three? I have rehearsal but then I’m free,” he said and she could hear the smile on his voice. It has been forever since the last time they had seen each other - or even talked - but Y/N could still guess what he was going to say or act next.
“Okay. Don’t be late! I have an appointment at six,” she said, pouring herself a glass of wine. It was always wine o’clock in her apartment.
“You’re the one who’s always late,” Jihoo laughed, shaking his head on his side of the phone call, biting on his own lips. He sighed and she could tell from her side that he wanted to say something more.
They stayed just like that. In silence. Y/N sipped from her wine, Jihoo beathed calmly. After a few minutes, she broke the quiet.
“Tomorrow then, right? I’ll text you when I’m on my way.”
“Don’t be late!” he joked, making her laugh. “See you tomorrow Y/N!”
And then she hung up before she could say anything stupid with a simple “See you, bye!”.
[14:23] You’re going on a date!!!!!!!!!! - Hazel
[14:23] Can you shut up? It’s not a date. We’re having coffee before the concert. -Y/N
[14:23] You’re going on a date with your childhood crush. A childhood crush that loves you back, by the way. -Hazel
[14:24] Are you guys going to talk at least? You know… About what happened? - Hazel
[14:24] Nothing happened. We just had other things to do. I told you. -Y/N
[14:24] You’re horrible at lying. Have I ever told you that? -Hazel
[14:24] Have a great date!!!! He’s cute, okay? If you happen to ask about his band, can you give me the name of the guitar player? - Hazel
[14:25] Hyunjun. - Y/N
[14:25] ????? - Hazel
[14:25] Googled it. -Y/N
And then Y/N shoved her phone back into her pocket and promised herself to never ever tell Hazel that she was going to have some coffee with some guy. Even though she knew Jihoo wasn’t just some guy. He was the guy for a very long time and who knows, maybe he still is.
She looked around her office and checked the time. She had just finished her appointments for the afternoon and would have to come back at six only, the great thing about working at the hospital was that she could make her own schedules. Emergencies don’t wait to happen, but sometimes they don’t happen at all.
She shoved her phone into her purse, her wallet and car keys. Reapplied her lipstick and checked on her eyeliner - she would rarely wear makeup to work, but she ended up putting in the effort today of all days. On her way out, Y/N ended up letting some nurses know she was leaving and would be back later - telling them to text her if anything happened. Even though she had brought her car keys with her, she decided on calling an Uber, it would take her forever to park at the café and it isn’t that far from the hospital anyway.
When she got into the car, she checked the time. She wouldn’t be late this time. In fact, she would get there some good twenty minutes early… Just to prove Jihoo wrong, she wasn’t anxious to see him at all. She’s got better things to do.
But to her surprise, he was already there when she arrived.
At a table on the corner by the window, reading a book about some fantasy world and tapping his fingers on the table, following the song that was playing. Maybe Y/N stood there until the song was over, just watching her childhood best friend enjoying himself, maybe she didn’t notice how long until she moved to his table.
"What am I supposed to call you now? Soojung or Jihoo?” she said, getting his attention as she got closer and took the seat right in front of his.
He laughed, shaking his head and putting his book down. “It’s great to see you too,” he joked, shrugging. “Soojung is fine. It’s weird to hear you calling me Jihoo,” he added.
“Because I don’t know that version of you?”
“Because you know the better version.”
“Ew. Greasy,” she scrunched her nose and made a face, showing him the tongue.
“You asked for it,” he shrugged and she rolled her eyes.
Whoever looked from the outside would think they have been together for a very long time or at least have known each other since forever. No one could tell they spent years without seeing each other or even hearing from one another.
“Did you order already?” she asked, looking for a menu.
“Not really. I had some tea while waiting for you, but that’s it.”
They didn’t take long to order. Some waffles with banana and honey, a piece of strawberry pie and some matcha cookies. Jihoo ordered some tea and Y/N a hot chocolate.
He finally put the book away - into his bag - when they sat down again. Y/N was trying to keep her eyes on him and Jihoo was pretty interested in the window right next to them. She was about to sigh when he started talking.
“So, how was America?”
She knew what he was asking. He wanted to know how was America without him. Without her family and the surroundings she was used to. He knew how her trips to America would be like and he knew where she lived and how. There was no information that he didn’t have… Expect how he managed to cope without calling him every night.
“Weird,” she decided to say. “I mean… I was in college. Everything is weird during college. As soon as my specialization was over, I came back. I realized how much I missed living here,” she shrugged. “And my parents had come back too so I decided to follow them… What about you? How was Korea?”
He laughed and she wished she could record the sound to listen to it again and again. “I tried law school but it wasn’t for me… My mom wasn’t very proud at the time,” he made a face and she widened her eyes in worry. “She’s proud now so we’re good!” he hurried with the explanation so her worried look would go away. “I served the army and then when I came back I sorta started a band with some of the guys who served with me. Hyunjun, Woosu and I served together even though we’re not the same age. Junyoung joined us a little later… He’s a friend of Woosu. It took us a while to find a company that would sign us because we’re a bit older than they want you to be, but we finally found one last year.”
“That’s great! And you’re still singing… That’s amazing,” she smiled at him and he wanted to take a picture so he would never forget her smile. “What about the other guys?”
“Woosu plays the drums, Junyoung the bass and Hyunjun the guitar. I play the keyboard sometimes… Or the piano. Or guitar. You know, whatever is needed,” he shrugged and she rolled her eyes. Again. It was something they would do all the time.
“Did you know how to play all of those during high school?” she asked then, leaning back so the waiter could place their order on the table. She clapped in happiness and smile at the waiter, thanking him for their order. Jihoo just shook his head, laughing softly.
"Not really…” he replied when the man had left, reaching for his cup of hot tea. “I knew how to play the piano only… And maybe a little bit of guitar, but that was it.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” she smiled, reaching for a fork so she could steal a bite from the strawberry pie. “I only knew you could sing. I remember you used to sing some covers. Mostly Maroon 5, but okay.”
“Shut up. You used to love it,” he laughed, grabbing a cookie from the table. “You pretty much begged me to cover Never Gonna Leave This Bed.”
“It’s a great song!” she protested.
They kept discussing music for a while. The tea and the hot chocolate got cold after a couple minutes, but they kept talking. They talked about music, college, and their parents. Y/N told Jihoo about Hazel and her new friends from the hospital, Jihoo told Y/N all about his band members and the people from their company. Soon the cookies were over and so was the pie, the waffles being the only thing remaining.
“Will I see you at the concert?” Jihoo asked when Y/N checked the time and noticed she had to go, otherwise, she wouldn’t make it in time for her appointment.
“Of course! I wouldn’t miss it,” she said with a smile, drinking the remaining hot chocolate. “I guess you guys are the only emo band still going strong,” she teased, making Jihoo blush a little and just roll his eyes at her.
“You’re officially uninvited,” he said and she immediately pouted.
“Fine… Guess I’ll just go see that other band that I know then.”
“You don’t know other bands.”
“Don’t I? I don’t know. I might. Hazel might,” she shrugged, grabbing her purse to leave.
“Would you miss the chance to hear me singing?” it was his turn to pout now, making Y/N roll her eyes. She wanted to punch his face.
“That’s not fair,” she pointed at his face, standing up. “I’ll see you on Saturday. You better have some amazing songs,” she added.
Y/N was going to just stand up and leave, but Jihoo moved along with her and walked around the table to offer her a hug. She didn’t wait for a second to just walk into his arms and let him hug her, hugging him back. The hug lasted a bit more than it should because neither wanted to let go and when they did, no one really wanted to step back.
Jihoo made a face and then laughed, scrunching his nose and moving to sit down again to finish their waffles. “Go take care of the kids Mrs. Pediatrician,” he said, smiling at her but biting on the corner of his lips at the same time.
“Yeah…. Right… The kids,” Y/N said, pressing her lips together and smiling to herself. “See you, Soojung,” she waved, finally walking away and out of the café.
“What’s his name again?” Hazel asked for the tenth time that night. Y/N was finishing her makeup and her friend had already arrived at her house. They had opened a bottle of wine while Y/N was getting dressed for the concert.
“Hyunjun,” she said as she moved her hair around, trying to make it perfect. “He plays the guitar, likes to wear some weird vampire makeup apparently and according to Soojung he’s a bit… weird.”
“I can do weird if vampire makeup is involved,” Hazel shrugged, drinking from her wine glass.
“Will you ever forget your own emo days?”
“Never,” she said from the couch as Y/N moved around the room looking for shoes.
The chef was wearing black ripped jeans, a black coat, and a black shirt. Hazel would always wear black everything so Y/N wasn’t surprised when she showed up in all black at her place. The pediatrician was wearing something a bit more colorful, but still fitting for the concert - black pants, white t-shirt, and a red jacket. Brown eyeliner and red lipstick for Y/N, black eyeliner and purple lipstick for Hazel. Both had black combat boots on.
Concert clothes will forever be concert clothes. It doesn’t matter how old they get.
“Will you ever tell me what happened between you two?” Hazel asked when Y/N downed an entire glass of wine before applying her own lipstick. She was about ready to go, the lipstick was the only thing left.
“We might have said some I love yous when we shouldn’t have…” she shrugged from the bathroom while she checked her lipstick.
“You said what now? Wait… You guys know how the other feels about you?” Hazel stood up, leaving her empty glass by the sink and making her way to Y/N. “Why are you idiots still single?”
“Well… Because we said things at the wrong time and place. I was in the US and he was here. Then he went to the army to serve and I was in college. We never talked again… I thought he might have forgotten, I don’t know.”
“He obviously didn’t.”
Y/N rolled her eyes and finished her makeup. She grabbed her purse and then made a beeline to the door. Not adding anything to the story of how she never talked to Jihoo ever again, she started putting her shoes on. “We obviously have a concert to go to. Come on,” she called Hazel and all her friend did was roll her eyes.
The concert venue wasn’t far from Y/N’s apartment, but they took a taxi anyway. Hazel could tell Y/N was nervous - the same nervous she was when she noticed the voice on the street that day. She would never comment on it, but she could also tell that the reason she was nervous was because of the feelings she knew they both had.
They didn’t arrive early or late but just in time to see them perform. Y/N gave their names to the security guard who let them in and guided them to the second floor - where they would be able to see the concert better. A few more people were there, some looked like parents and some looked rich. Jihoo had put them on the VIP area and Y/N would kick him later.
The concert started before they had to interact with anyone else who was sharing the second-floor lounge with them, Y/N and Hazel quickly moved to the balcony to be able to see it all.
The room was full. Mostly girls - just like the ones they had seen on the street that day - and some boys too. They were all cheering and obviously excited to see the band play. The crowd was screaming and manage to do it even louder when the band walked into the stage - Y/N had to fight the urge to wave, feeling like an idiot.
As the band played, the girls moved to the music and paid attention to the lyrics. They cheered along with the crowd, letting themselves have fun. Y/N loved Eden and Angel, but her favorite was Crush on You. Hazel couldn’t decide between Ole Ole and Tears. But both agreed on one thing: Hello was the most beautiful song they had ever heard.
Y/N had her eyes closed as she listened to it. Jihoo’s voice filling her ears in a room crowded with people. The memories followed: when they first met, the first time they skipped class, picnics they had together, all the times they would go over to each other’s houses just to listen to music or watch TV. How sad she would feel whenever her parents told her they would need to move back to the US for a bit - she would never understand why she had to go. And how happy she would feel whenever they told her they would go back to their house in Korean. She would always run to Jihoo’s house first thing with a backpack full of souvenirs she had bought for him.
It was ridiculous how they didn’t notice sooner how much they loved each other. How much they wanted to stay together and be together. They say that first love never really lasts, but Jihoo and Y/N were fighting to prove everyone wrong.
The concert was over right after Granulate and Hazel and Y/N were finally able to sit down a little. They greeted the other people in the room, saying their hellos and introducing themselves. “Oh, so you are the best friend!” Y/N heard from the band’s manager. “Jihoo speaks a lot about you. He would always tell us stories and everything,” he added.
Y/N nodded and smiled, trying to just maybe hide inside the wall that was behind her. She was going to kick Jihoo for sure.
They waited until the venue was empty to call on the VIPs waiting, letting them know the band was ready to see them. Y/N and Hazel let everyone go first, following them lazily to the backstage. When they arrived there, they were greeted by a party.
The parents in the VIP lounge belonged to Woosu and they were hugging and exchanging supportive words in a corner. Junyoung was talking to the manager and this other guy that might be his friend, the girls couldn’t tell. Hyunjun and Jihoo had a beer each and were sitting on the couch - Hyunjun had his legs other Jihoo’s, but the older man simply pushed his legs away when he saw Y/N.
“Hey! Did you like the concert?” Jihoo asked, standing up and moving to get to Y/N.
“Yeah, it was awesome! You guys are great!” she said, looking at Hyunjun behind Jihoo and giving him a thumbs up. “I brought Hazel with me just in case I needed to lie about the quality of the music, but you guys are amazing so…” she shrugged, winking at Hyunjun and then moving back to look at Jihoo. “Your voice is still pretty good.”
"I took some classes,” he said, adjusting his posture and making her laugh.
“I’m sure you did,” she said, biting on her lower lip. “Do you guys write your own songs too?”
“Some of them,” he frowned and then drank from his beer. “Which one are you interested in?”
“Hmmmm, Eden. And Crush on you,” she said, watching as his eyes shone a bit brighter. She smiled at him. “And Hello.”
Hazel and Hyunjun were having their own little conversation on the side. The guitar player was wearing black pants and a white t-shirt. His hair was both wet and a mess, the makeup still strong. They introduced themselves, talked about the concert, exchanged numbers, talked about music and invited each other out.
The other people in the room were starting to leave. The band had the day off the next day, some of them weren’t even expected to be in the dorm. Junyoung, the manager and his friend had already left the room. Woosu and his parents were packing his things. Y/N and Jihoo were still talking about the songs they played and Hazel and Hyunjun were having a passionate talk about food.
Soon Woosu and his parents left, saying their goodbyes and wishing everyone a great Sunday. Y/N and Jihoo just waved, but Hazel and Hyunjun notice that maybe it was their time to leave. Hyunjun packed his stuff and then they just left - Hazel did text Y/N that she was leaving, but her friend didn’t even pick up her phone from her pocket.
Jihoo and Y/N were left alone in the room.
And it took them forever to notice.
“Okay, but who wrote Hello then? And don’t avoid the question this time. I already asked like… five hundred times,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because it was my favorite!” she added them, crossing her arms.
Jihoo rolled his eyes and put his beer aside so he could reach out for both of her hands. He took them and looked her in the eyes. “You know how impossible you are sometimes?” he made a face and she just shrugged. “It’s my song. I wrote a long time ago. Right after a friend of mine called me in the middle of the day… or night… to say some, uh… unexpected stuff.”
“Oh…” she nodded. She was that friend. The I Love You were the unexpected stuff. Night for her, day for him. The lyrics made sense… They said so many hellos in their lives and that night over the phone they had said the last one. Until now. “I’m sure she meant it.”
“I know. That’s why I said it back,” he shrugged.
They just stood there, holding hands. Looking into each other’s eyes. The feeling was still there, all the love they have kept inside for all this time, all the passion and all the friendship they held dear. And it was probably never going away. They have been through so much - together and far from each other - and now they would be able to do it all over again.
Jihoo pulled her closer by the hands and she stood up on her tiptoes. It wouldn’t be their first kiss - they’ve had several of those before - but it was about to be the first one in a very long time. Y/N let go of his hands to rest hers on his shoulders and his hands quickly found their way - one to behind her neck and the other on her lower back.
They kept kissing until both needed to stop for air, laughing softly as they leaned back just a little. Jihoo wrapped his arms around her in a hug, bringing her closer to his chest. She wrapped her arms around him too, getting comfortable in his arms.
“Hey…” he called and she just groaned from her place in his chest, moving his head to look up at him. “Will you run away again if I say I love you?”
She shook her head. “Will you stop calling if I say I love you back?” she asked, raising one eyebrow at him and he shook his head. “Maybe we should give it a try?”
He nodded and decided he should be the one to start. “I love you, Y/N,” he said, a bit smile on his face, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“I love you, Soojung,” she said, laughing softly and standing on her tiptoes again to press a kiss to his cheek.
They let themselves laugh, shaking their heads and letting go of the hug. “C’mon, grab your stuff. We have to celebrate your first concert!” she said when they let go. “Let’s go eat some barbecue,” she added.
He widened his eyes and quickly moved to grab his things, reaching for her hand on his way to the door. She laughed as she followed, holding his hand. They passed by Junyoung, the manager and Hyunjun and Jésica and didn’t even notice the other at the door.
First loves aren’t really meant to last, but Y/N and Jihoo were about to prove everyone wrong.
“But the thing is… He likes Game of Thrones and then he doesn’t. He’s a dancer and then a photographer. It makes absolutely no sense. I get that Y/N does a lot and goes around a lot, but it makes no sense. Her boyfriend is too weird,” Aika was complaining for a couple minutes now.
Description: “But the thing is… He likes Game of Thrones and then he doesn’t. He’s a dancer and then a photographer. It makes absolutely no sense. I get that Y/N does a lot and goes around a lot, but it makes no sense. Her boyfriend is too weird,” Aika was complaining for a couple minutes now.
“But the thing is… He likes Game of Thrones and then he doesn’t. He’s a dancer and then a photographer. It makes absolutely no sense. I get that Y/N does a lot and goes around a lot, but it makes no sense. Her boyfriend is too weird,” Aika was complaining for a couple minutes now.
Y/N and Aika met in college.
Not really in a classroom or anything.
If you go to UCLA, you know a bar or two, but everyone goes to the parties at Andy’s. Cheap alcohol, good music, and awesome people. That’s where they met - Aika’s boyfriend and paired up with Y/N’s boyfriend for beer-pong and the girls paired up to cheer against them. They got tired when their boyfriends kept on winning and decided to walk around, grab more drinks and ended up starting a friendship right there.
Y/N goes to Med school and Aika studies IT. They would never have met on campus, but thanks to the parties they managed to become friends. But there’s one thing bothering Aika about Y/N’s boyfriend: he seems too weird. It always seems like he’s a different person when they meet. Aika has asked Y/N countless times how long they’ve been together and her answer is always “around three years”.
“Maybe he does all that?” Yuta, her boyfriend, replied. They were watching TV in Yuta’s apartment. “I mean… Some people like to do all sorts of things. Who knows?”
“Did he seem like the type of person when you met him? He’s always tired when I see him. He rarely stays up when I’m there. Well, sometimes he cooks but sometimes he just vanishes into the next room,” Aika sighed.
There had been numerous times that she went over to Y/N’s place just to chat, drink some wine and complain about college. Y/N’s boyfriend would get home, say hi, kiss Y/N and then vanish into their apartment. Y/N explained once that they do have their own bedrooms, they don’t share one because they need to study and it can get too crowded sometimes. Aika took that as the smartest decision that it sounded like and let it go, but sometimes it comes to mind. Maybe her boyfriend has different personalities? Maybe Y/N should break up with him? He doesn’t sound as loving as the girl makes him sound like? Aika worries too much about her friend sometimes.
Yuta won her over with a bottle of wine and a movie, making her forget about her friend’s weird boyfriend for the night.
-x-x-
Y/N lives with her boyfriend at Santa Monica Boulevard. Their apartment costs more money than some people make in five years working 9-5 and having to deal with horrible bosses. Rumour has it that her family has money and so does him, but Aika never really asked about it. But Y/N does go to Med school and doesn’t work part-time and apparently, her boyfriend goes to Art school and they don’t seem like they are struggling… So yeah, family money.
Not that Aika isn’t familiar with it. Yuta’s parents own a huge tech company in Japan and her own parents are huge in the pharmaceuticals industry, but she has no idea where Y/N’s and her boyfriend’s money come from.
And maybe she shouldn’t be asking herself that when she’s on a Uber to her friend’s house in the middle of the night - not the middle, it’s just eight but still. Maybe she should be thinking about how their money certainly comes from drug money or something even shadier than that. She’s known Y/N and her boyfriend for a year now, she should know better than that.
Aika got out of the car and Y/N was waiting for her in front of the building. She was in slippers, a hoodie and sweatpants. Her pink hair tied up, adjusting her glasses while she waved.
“I could have rung the bell?” Aika frowned, walking towards her.
“My boyfriend just left,” Y/N said, shrugging. “He has a dance recital tonight, I walked him out and gave him a good luck kiss.”
“Ew. Gross,” Aika said, making her laugh. “Why didn’t you go with him?”
“I wasn’t feeling it. It’s a very fancy one. Heels required and everything… Besides, he knows he has the support from the people that love him,” she shrugged. Sometimes Y/N would make Aika really confused when she talks about her boyfriend, but before Aika could ask her what she means, she pulled her towards the building. “Let’s go! Tacos are waiting for us! I remembered to not let pepper get anywhere close to them tonight.”
Soon the girls were inside Y/N’s apartments, their shoes by the door, wine glasses in hand, sitting by each side of the kitchen isle. Y/N had a bite of taco in her mouth when Aika decided to ask about her boyfriend. She was determinate to get the information she needed to either tell her friend to run or to run away from him herself. That’s when she noticed she doesn’t really know his name… And it was too late to ask.
“Hey, does your boyfriend go to UCLA too? I’ve never seen him there,” Aika took a bite of her own taco then.
“Hmmmm, yes and no,” Y/N said, laughing when Aika frowned. “Taeyong used to, he graduated last year,” she added, making Aika nod. She assumed Taeyong was his name since that’s what Y/N called him. Aika wasn’t against technology or anything - she was dating Yuta! - but Y/N and her boyfriend were pretty much allergic to it. Aika tried to stalk them once to get to know him better, but she only found pictures of hands, cats and plants on Y/N’s account. The account she had tagged on the hands' photo didn’t really have any pictures posted to it, the account tagged to the plants was a photographer’s account which had no information on who was posting those. Apparently making people’s lives difficult was Y/N and her boyfriend’s hobby.
“And how did you two meet? I think you’ve never told me that,” she sipped from her wine. Was she sounding too nosy? Not really, right? She was just trying her best to take care of her friend.
“There was a fundraising event at UCLA and our parents introduced us,” Y/N smiled and then bit down on her lower lip. “He performed that night… I mean, you should see him dancing one day. He’s incredible. We went out for dinner a few nights after that and, well, the rest is history,” she shrugged, sipping from her wine.
“Wait… Fundraising?” Aika sounded confused for a while and Y/N just nodded.
“My parents are hospital owners and his parents have companies that make all of those machines you see inside a hospital. They go way back but they had never really introduced us… He’s always making fun of me, saying that I’m the perfect daughter and he’s the rebel son or whatever,” she rolled her eyes.
Aika was happy that she got one question out of the way. Her boyfriend wasn’t a well-known drug dealer or his parents weren’t part of the mafia - or at least the bad mafia, her parents work with pharmaceuticals so she knows what the health business is like. Now all she needed to know was why the hell he’s so weird, but those questions would have to come up later. She didn’t want her friend to feel like she’s being questioned.
--x--x--
They had been watching TV for a while when they heard the door and in walks Taeyong. Sweaty, a bag hanging from his shoulder, his hair a complete mess and some bright makeup still on. There was some powder on his hair to make it look whiter and Aika couldn’t figure out for the life of her if he looked insane or like a dancer.
“Hey babe!” Y/N said from the couch, looking back towards the door to wave at him. He rushed towards them, giving Y/N a kiss and waving at Aika.
“Hey, what are you guys watching? Hey Aika!” Aika waved back at him, sipping from her wine. She watched as Taeyong stole a sip from Y/N’s glass as Y/N answered his question, telling him about the episodes from Lucifer that he was missing because he kept arriving home too late. He just showed her the tongue and then gave back the glass, stealing another kiss. “I’m gonna go take a shower. Did you eat already?”
“I made tacos. You can steal some later,” she winked, pushing him away so he would shower. Taeyong laughed, making his way to the last room and then into the bathroom to shower.
Aika had to admit. He didn’t seem crazy. Or insane. Or dangerous. He seemed like a really nice boyfriend that cared about her and Y/N seemed really in love. Maybe she was seeing things.
He came back later, stole a plate of tacos and left. There was nothing wrong about him.
And then they were three bottles in. Completely drunk.
And in walks this other Taeyong. He looks more serious for some reason, completely exhausted, dragging his feet towards the kitchen and barely noticing his girlfriend calling him “babe”. Aika felt like punching him.
“Is everything okay?” Y/N asked from the couch.
“Yeah… Just a bunch of things to read, that’s all…” he said and his voice seemed different. Aika was too drunk to think straight so her mind wanted her to tell Y/N to break up with that man that sometimes sounds like he loves her and sometimes sounds like he doesn’t even wanna be there. “A kiss for good luck?” he asked and Y/N ran towards him to press a kiss to his lips, making him smile.
Okay. Maybe he was just tired. Dancing can be tiring and reading a bunch of stuff after dancing should be even more tiring, Aika would give him this one.
Y/N follows him into the hallway, her hands massaging his shoulders but soon she comes back, takes her glass from the coffee table, sits down and sighs. She asks Aika about how is it like to not live with her boyfriend and then they never talk about Y/N’s boyfriends again that night.
--x--x--
It’s not common for Aika to sleep over.
She only does when Yuta tells her he has to get up early or when she’s too drunk to go back.
Today is a number two type of day.
Y/N had told her to take her room and that she would sleep with Taeyong, so Aika woke up to pink sheets and photos everywhere. She couldn’t find her glasses anywhere in that damn room, but she recognized Y/N in some of them.
She heard noise coming from the kitchen, so she decided on using the bathroom, brushing her teeth and moving to see what was going on.
When she got there, there were two men making breakfast. Maybe she hadn’t been as loud as she had thought, because they didn’t seem to notice her. She could see only their backs, moving in sync as they made avocado toasts and tea.
She was about to move to make herself noticed when they kissed. And then she got even more confused because the guy with the blue on his hair definitely looked like the Taeyong that got home all sweaty from the dance recital. He definitely looked like Y/N’s boyfriend, but he most definitely wasn’t kissing Y/N.
Aika walked in after that, pressing her lips together and sitting right across from them on the counter.
“Hey, you’re awake!” said the other guy. The tired Taeyong that had been reading too much. “Here… We found this on the coffee table earlier,” he handed her her glasses. They looked like two different people up close when she put them on.
And she was sure Y/N had kissed them both the night before.
“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “Is Y/N awake?” was all she had the guts to ask. Maybe she would have to drink another glass of wine to be brave to make questions again. Does Y/N’s boyfriend have a boyfriend? Does she have two? How didn’t she notice that there were two different people walking around the apartment? They would rarely interact and maybe last night had been the first time she had paid attention, but still.
“Mhm, she’s taking a shower,” Taeyong - the dancer - answered. Aika just nodded and accepted the cup of tea she was handed. She listened to them listing things to buy at the grocery store later for a few minutes before Y/N walked in.
Her friend stole a toast, smiled at both of them and then sat down right next to Aika. “Good morning!” she said, taking a bite from her toast and accepting a cup of tea from Taeyong. “Are you going to the library today again?” she asked the other Taeyong and he made a face.
“Yeah… I have a test coming up next week. The detailed laws are killing me,” he said, pouting a little.
“Wait… I thought you finished college last year?” Aika interrupted, making the man frown.
“I finished college last year,” Taeyong, the dancer, raised his hand. “He’s going to finish it next year,” he pointed at Taeyong, the tired.
“Okay… So… You’re the dancer and you are?” she pointed at the man that had been talking about tests, frowning and sounding really confused. Y/N just watched with a both amused and confused smile on her face.
“The lawyer,” he answered. “Or soon to be. I’m also a photographer from time to time,” he shrugged.
Y/N decided to put Aika out of her misery and help her a little. “This is Taeyong. He’s a dancer, we met at the fundraiser for UCLA med school. And this is Doyoung. He’s a law student, we met when we were kids. Our parents might have arranged for us to get married,” both men smiled at Aika.
“And which one is your boyfriend?” she said, rubbing her face with her hands almost in despair.
“Uh… Both?”
“Did you just say both?”
“Yeah, both. We’ve been dating for three years,” Y/N said, a smile on her face, shrugging then. “Doyoung and I have known each other for years. We also have liked each other for years - our parents were pretty happy about that. But then we met Taeyong at the fundraiser and, uh... well. He’s a really good dancer. We talked, had dinner, went on dates and then suddenly we were all dating. It took some convincing on our parents part, but they’re fine with it now.”
Y/N just bit a piece of her toast then, both Taeyong and Doyoung were sipping from their tea and all while Aika tried to process all the information they had just given her. So they were all dating. It explains the weird boyfriends coming in and out every week. And the reason he likes Game of Thrones one week and couldn't even bother to comment on Arya’s moves the next.
So he wasn’t a drug dealer.
Or insane.
There were two of them and now everything made sense.
Aika looked from Y/N to the men, shaking her head and letting herself laugh. “And here I thought you,” she pointed at Taeyong, “had multiple personalities and that Y/N should definitely break up with you. Next time, you know, if there’s any… A heads up would be nice?”
Y/N just shrugged and shoved the last piece of toast into her mouth.
Taeyong ended up asking Aika about the last episode of Lucifer they had watched the night before and Doyoung continued making breakfast for all of them. Y/N joined on the Lucifer talk while she worked on cutting the avocados for the food. The three worked well together, too used to each other to go anywhere else.
One day Aika would ask how it all really started, but for now, she’s glad her friend isn’t stuck with a crazy boyfriend.
Privé is a very exclusive, VIP only, extremely expensive and classy strip club in New York. The owner, Byun Baekhyun, happens to be one of the millionaires living in the city that never sleeps.
Description: “Privé is a very exclusive, VIP only, extremely expensive and classy strip club in New York. The owner, Byun Baekhyun, happens to be one of the millionaires living in the city that never sleeps. “
Thinking back this wasn’t the greatest way to use her degree in Advertising and Marketing. This wasn’t a way to use her degree at all, to be honest. During her first year of college, Y/N started working for Privé and hasn’t left since. She started as an assistant to the previous barman and now takes care of all things bar related. She orders the liquor, takes care of the menu and makes sure everyone’s drinks are always well done and perfect before going to the members - or clients - tables.
Privé is a very exclusive, VIP only, extremely expensive and classy strip club in New York. The owner, Byun Baekhyun, happens to be one of the millionaires living in the city that never sleeps. He owns several businesses, but his favorite and first will forever be the strip club.
The club opens at ten but Y/N has to be there at six to check if everything is in order. They have a company coming today and they called in advance for a few bottles of Whiskey and Champagne. Apparently, someone had been promoted. It happens often, presidents, CEOs, and directors often take their newly promoted friends to the club for some drinks and some fun and tonight couldn’t be any different. But of course, she was a bottle of Whiskey short. And late.
Her pink hair was tied up in a messy bun while she ran down the streets of New York to the place they usually order their liquor from. She was happy she had decided on wearing boots that has almost no heels that day, her clothes all black except her brown coat that happened to be pretty much flying behind her. Coming back from the supplier was even worse since she had to run and be careful not to drop the two bottles of U$3,000 Whiskey that she was holding.
Lay was at the door when she arrived, opening it for her without a work, giving the girl a smile. “You’re an angel,” she said as she was getting in, taking a step back then. “Is he here already?” she bit down on her lower lip, assuming the security guard knew who she was talking about.
“Mr. Byun?” the man asked and the woman nodded, messing her hair even more. “He’s in his office I believe. He arrived a few minutes ago,” that made her nod and thank him before getting in just as fast as she had arrived.
Great. Now she would have to explain why she took the company’s card, ran eight blocks and spent six thousand dollars on Whiskey. Even though it’s something that happens often since they get some reservations a bit out of the blue, she should have been prepared for tonight. Arriving at the bar, Y/N decided that the explanation would have to wait. Everything was a mess. The woman left the two bottles on the counter, left her coat in the room the waiters had to keep their things and change and pulled her sleeves up, getting behind the counter then.
She started giving orders. Helena was in charge of organizing the tables, Greg in charge of organizing the sink, Luna was supposed to get the bottle’s right - always facing forward, how many times would she have to say that? Y/N them placed a red tray on top of the counter, filled up a glass with ice and them poured some strawberry water in it, garnishing it with some other red fruits. A bottle of regular water was also placed on the tray. “Frank! Take this to the owner’s office, will you?” she said, pointing at the tray and then moving to get other things done when she noticed that Frank had understood the order.
Soon everything was falling into place and the day just seemed like a regular Friday again. The bar was clean and organized, the stages too, the girls and guys were getting ready backstage and the bar was stocked up. Y/N checked the reservations they had for that day - a promotion celebration, a few more CEOs and some regulars. Everything should go as planned.
Byun Baekhyun. The youngest of his family. And also the richest. Managed to become a millionaire at a young age because of his fancy club and other restaurants he had around the city - all expensive and exclusive. It’s impressive how much more people pay when they hear the letters VIP. He benefits from that, being the owner of all the places the rich go to have fun.
He spends most of his time at the strip club, his first business and also favorite. The club will be turning ten years old soon and Baekhyun just can’t wait to throw the best party ever when the date comes.
Today he got to the club a bit earlier than expected. His friends had let him know they would be coming over during the night and he decided to get there a bit earlier to get things done before they arrive - what he didn’t expect was to catch his bar manager running down the street on his way to the club. He was glad she didn’t see him otherwise he would have to explain why he stared at her for at least a minute.
Baekhyun welcomed the water when it came, smiling at the decorations on his glass and dismissing the waiter. Even though he was early, Y/N had sent his drink up as usual and he couldn’t help but feel like an idiot for being happy at that. She was just doing her job and he should stop looking for heart-shaped strawberries.
Sehun would be over tonight, as usual. They’ve been friends since they were little, Baek’s club is the only one Sehun ever goes to. They usually spend the night paying little to no attention to the dancers and just drinking and talking - sometimes complaining about life as if they have any right to. Kyungsoo would also be coming tonight, they met during college and quickly developed a strong friendship. He’s the president of a huge company now and just appointed a new director - Emma, Baek had been told. He had also been told Kyungsoo knows her from college too even though Baek was sure they didn’t know anyone with that name. They would all be going to Privé to celebrate.
On top of that, it was his birthday today and Baek couldn’t be happier to celebrate it with his friends.
He spent most of the afternoon checking the orders the bar and the restaurant had made the day before and also who were the dancers scheduled for that night. Baek also had some papers to sign and some numbers to go over before opening time, so he focused on that.
At ten someone knocked on his door. It was Frank again bringing him his daily Mojito. And just like that, a sip from his drink, a smile at the thought of his bar manager and his friends coming over, Baek was ready to start the night.
The club started filling up around eleven - Privé wasn’t famous for being a place you can go during your company’s happy hour. It’s a club that you go and are expected to spend the night, drink and have fun. Some people go to a dance club and get shitfaced drunk, some people go to Privé.
The bar was getting their usual orders, so Y/N continued her job calling out drinks and getting the more important done herself. It’s not that she doesn’t trust the people working for her, but when a CEO complains that their drink had more vodka than it should she’s the one who listens so some clients she likes to take care of by herself.
“Have you seen Sehun yet?” a familiar voice asked from a stool right in front of her, making her look up while she finished cutting some ginger. It was the owner of the club, Baekhyun. Y/N smiled at him, shaking her head.
“Not really… We also haven’t sent any bottle of wine to any of the rooms yet, so I assume he isn’t here…” she said, looking back and quickly counting the bottles of wine just to be sure.
“Ah…” Baekhyun said, turning to take a look at the lounge behind him. People would usually spend the night in one of the rooms with dancers and all, but some would just drink their feelings away at the lounge, afraid they might fall for the dancers’ beauty. He looked back at Y/N and noticed she was cutting something else now. “What are you making?”
“Strawberry, ginger, lemon juice, and vodka. It’s called Oasis on the menu,” she said while shoving the strawberries and the ginger into a cocktail shaker to mix it with the vodka and the juice, closing the lid and starting to shake it, pouring in a glass that had been filled with ice when she was done. “Wanna try one?”
He made a face and shook his head. “Maybe next time,” he said, taking the last sip from his mojito and leaning forward to leave the glass by the sink, over the counter. “Can I have some water though? The same from earlier,” he added and Y/N just chuckled lightly.
She called Helena over to deliver the drink from before and moved to pour the owner some strawberry water on a glass filled with ice. He raised the glass before taking a sip, Y/N just gave him a thumbs up and moved to get other things ready, undoing her messy bun just to tie it up again.
He was about to go back to the office when he heard a familiar voice. Not as loud as all the other familiar voices at his club, but someone he’s used to having around by now. Kyungsoo was looking great, wearing all black and carrying a very expensive bag. Baekhyun couldn’t help but stare and then move quickly to wrap his arms around his friend when he called his name. “Ksoo!” he said, giving him a hug and then a kiss on the cheek. “I’m so glad you came! We have the perfect room for you, as always,” his big smile showing again.
Right behind him stood four more people. Two were women, but one of them he was familiar with. Irene, Ksoo’s secretary and always ready to kill a man. The other also looked like she could kill, but her stare was directed at him - she must be the new director, Emma. The other two were men, Suho and Jongdae, shareholders from Ksoo’s company. Baek said his hellos politely, taking them to the room they had reserved for his friends that night.
Baek walked had one of his arms around Kyungsoo’s shoulders, talking and drinking from his water from time to time, catching up. He asked about every single thing and Ksoo answered, a bit more quiet and reserved, but looking up and matching Baekhyun’s smile.
The room was spacious and comfortable, a few couches were spread around and had their backs against the wall while a stage covered half of the room - the middle more specifically. Some sexy pop music was playing, but the stage was still empty and so were its poles. Baek urged everyone to sit and make themselves comfortable. “I’m going to let Y/N know she can send in your drinks,” he said, giving them a smile. “But I’ll be back for you,” he winked and pointed at Ksoo, making the other blush as Baek giggled and left.
“How fast can you put seven of that strawberry Oasis whatever together?” Y/N heard while she was mixing a pinã colada, making her look up and frown for a second. There stood Byun Baekhyun again, looking stupidly beautiful and getting on her nerves. The club was full and the bar was running to get all the drinks ready and her boss wanted her to just stop everything and get seven drinks ready. Seven drinks that required time and preparation.
“Not as fast as I can get a bottle of something ready. Who’s it for?” she asked, pouring the drink she was making into its rightful glass and setting it on a tray for someone to take it.
“My friends,” he pouted, making her roll her eyes. “You know…” he started, getting her attention. “Sometimes I think you hate working for me. You’re always rolling your eyes.”
Y/N chuckled, shaking her head and moving to get the fruits, ginger, and alcohol she would need. “You know…” she started, giving him a smile. “Sometimes I do,” she shrugged, the smile still on her lips. “I’ll send your drinks soon. Room 7?”
Baekhyun was too busy pouting to answer her question, finishing his water and looking around. The lounge was full and the bar was really busy. Maybe he should have waited… But then again, he’s the owner of a very expensive club. He can order a drink or two or… seven without people getting angry at him.
“Baekhyun…” Y/N called while she chopped the strawberries. “Which room?” she repeated her question when she had his attention again.
“Oh, uh… Room 7,” he smiled, grabbing his glass of water again. “Send some of that water to Anna, she’ll be dancing for them soon. Gabe too,” he added before leaving his seat. Y/N made a mental note to send the water with the drinks and started working on them.
As he walked away, Baekhyun bumped into someone. It’s not really considered bumping when someone just hugs you out of nowhere so let’s call it what it is. Baekhyun was hugged by someone as he walked away. That someone being Sehun, his best friend, regular at the club and always fashionably late.
“Ugh, stop pretending you like me,” Baekhyun said as he tried to squeeze himself out of the hug, making Sehun laugh and take a step back, shoving his hands into his pockets and shrugging.
“I spend a lot of my money here… I don’t really think I’m pretending,” Sehun gave Baekhyun a smile, making the owner of the club laugh.
“Liar. You spend a lot of my money here,” Baekhyun shook his head, linking his arm with Sehun’s. “Come on, lemme take you to Kyungsoo’s party.”
“Your college friend is here?” Sehun raised his eyebrows in surprise, taking a look back at the bar. He should have ordered something before letting Baekhyun drag him around. Before they got too far he managed to lock eyes with the bar manager, Y/N waved at him and gave him a thumbs up. She would definitely be sending some wine soon.
“... And then he asked me where he should take her, you know. Emma. This girl he just promoted to director at his company. I just told him to bring her here and I would take care of everything,” Sehun didn’t pay attention to much of it, being too focused on getting himself a drink, but apparently, Baekhyun had been talking about Kyungsoo. The guy who obviously has a crush on him and his childhood friend still hasn’t noticed.
“Wait… Do you plan on crashing your friend’s party?” Sehun stopped, making Baekhyun stop since they still had their arms linked.
“It’s my birthday. I can do whatever I want. Besides… It’s my club. I can go wherever I want,” he gave Sehun a look, making the taller man smile and then laugh.
“Fine, fine… You do you I guess,” he shrugged, letting Baekhyun take him to Room 7.
Emma wasn’t nervous. She had stopped getting nervous about being around investors and people from her company years ago, but at the same time, it was a bit too exciting to be in a strip club. She had never been to Privé before - not a bit fan of spending thousands and thousands of dollars a night even though she’s got plenty - but people are constantly talking about it. The juniors from her office want to be taken to parties by the president all the time, the investors are always commenting on the drinks and some talk about the dancers when they think no one else is paying attention.
She thinks it’s funny that everyone knows Privé is a strip club but at the same time everyone pretends it’s just a club.
Kyungsoo had promised her it’s a very nice club and he wasn’t wrong at all. She felt comfortable on the couch she had settled - Emma was wearing a black dress and heels, Ksoo had joked she would finally get herself a boyfriend looking like that… He got slapped. On the shoulder. The room was nice, big and the music wasn’t too loud. While there were no performances happening, they could have conversations without having to shout.
Thinking about the performances made her look for her purse, finding it near her on the couch. Another thing Ksoo had told her: to bring a hundred dollar bills. It’s frowned upon to tip the dancers less than a hundred dollars at Privé. Some people try to tip them only fifties, but the looks they get from the dancers are no joke - and the performances are cut short. Baekhyun wants his employees to be well-paid and happy, which is the truth. The rumor is that if you don’t tip more than three hundred the dancers will sell photos of you to the nearest paparazzi they can find.
Emma caught herself in a conversation about the music industry when Baekhyun came back. Not that she knows him. He just used to be Kyungsoo’s other friend during college, also known as his crush. She has had to deal with Kyungsoo talking about him nonstop for ages now, never making a move, always too in love to notice that Baek is just being friendly. Being a businesswoman, Emma came to this strip club with three goals: 1) getting drunk with the company’s money, 2) getting Kyungsoo a man and 3) telling Baekhyun to stop being so fucking stupid.
And just as if she had called his name three times aloud in front of a mirror, Baekhyun opened the door to the room and walked in. “The drinks are on their way! I ordered you guys something incredible Y/N was making earlier…” he said with a smile, bringing Sehun in with him. “This is Sehun,” he let go of his arm and moved closer to all of them. Kyungsoo just waved at him - they have met before since they’re both Baekhyun’s friends, but only at Privé.
Emma studied Sehun with her head leaned to the side for a moment and then waved. Maybe goal number two would definitely be reached today. Suho and Jongdae seemed familiar enough with Baek to not be bothered by the owner coming in and out of the room and so did Irene - they have been on a different couch from Ksoo and Emma since they had gotten here, waiting anxiously for the performances. The president and the director were more interested in alcohol.
They had just sat down when a waiter and Y/N got in. “Hello and welcome to Privé,” the bar manager said with a smile. She had let down her hair to greet the clients- it was part of her job to greet every room before they started drinking. “I see you have Mr. Byun with you here tonight, but if there’s anything you need you can press the button on one of the tables and a waiter will come to you,” she showed them the drink icon on top of the table.
“We’ll start you off with a drink from our special menu. We hope you enjoy it. I’ll leave the presentations to the owner,” she winked at Baekhyun and chuckled. Emma started paying attention when she started talking alcohol and followed the girl’s wink to find Baekhyun pretty much dying trying to remember what was in the drink. “We hope you enjoy your night,” she smiled and then walked closer to Sehun. “Should I send your wine here, Mr. Oh?”
Sehun had a smile on his lips, turning on his sit to whisper to Y/N. “Do you want to kill Baek? How many times has he told you to call us by our names?” he said and Y/N tried to hold her laugh him.
“That’s what he gets for ordering seven drinks and flavored water out of nowhere,” she whispered back, leaning back and giving everyone a smile. The waiter had already handed everyone their drinks - Baekhyun included. “I’ll send your wine soon,” she said then and moved out of the room with the waiter right behind her.
Sipping from her drink, Emma could see Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Sehun very well from her side of the couch. They were almost in front of her and sitting in that exact order. Baekhyun was pretending to drink and Emma only noticed because he kept on sipping and the glass was still full, Kyungsoo was almost done with his and Sehun had barely touched his. He only did when they toasted and that was it, never again.
He would often land his hand on Kyungsoo’s thigh when they talked, which was sending signals that goal number two was almost a go. Now she needed to take care of goal number one, taking a sip from her drink. Immediately she could tell that there was something wrong with it, something that shouldn’t be there.
“Uh… What is this made of again?” she asked, raising her drink and looking at the three man in front of her.
“Strawberry, lemon juice, vodka and ginger,” Baekhyun said, counting the ingredients with his fingers, trying to repeat what Y/N had told him earlier. “Is there a problem with it? I can get Y…/N. I can get Y/N,” he said, biting on his lower lip. He would often call his bar manager by the nickname, but they had both agreed on never giving the clients that freedom.
“Oh, no, no… It’s fine,” she gave him a smile, taking another sip and trying not to make a face. The three went back to their conversation, which gave Emma the opportunity to just put her drink down and never drink from it again. Why would someone add ginger to a perfectly done drink? She would have to have a very serious talk with the bar manager once she’s drunk enough to do so.
When Sehun’s bottle of wine came, she quietly called the waiter and asked him for a bottle of champagne and soon she had something she could drink without hating on people, the world and everything.
The performances were mouth dropping, Emma would have to give them that. The dancers had their makeup, clothes - or lack of - and moves on point. The song choices were also incredible and she just couldn’t take her eyes off the stage. Both Gabe and Anna, Baekhyun’s best performers, had been chosen to dance for them that evening and they both held themselves with such grace that was close to impossible to not tip them four hundreds dollars each. At least.
She had become so interested and distracted by the performances that she didn’t notice that she had already finished a bottle of champagne. When her glass was empty, she leaned in to pour more and noticed the empty bottle. Sehun, from the other side of the table, waved at her and pressed the button on the table, pointing towards the bottle to let her know he would be getting her another one. With a smile, Emma only raised her glass and then thanked him, going back to the performance.
But something else caught her attention - the fact that Sehun wasn’t even looking at the stage. Both Sehun and Baekhyun were now talking, the tallest male had moved from Ksoo’s side to sit on Baekhyun’s other side, and they were both not interested at all in what was happening at the stage. Kyungsoo was drinking from a bottle of whiskey and had already lost his tie somewhere, Emma figured it was the one laying on Baekhyun’s lap.
The director waited for her second bottle while paying attention to the owner, his friend and the president. How Sehun and Baekhyun just discussed whether or not they should buy a private jet while both Anna and Gabe were dancing to a song that had obviously been written and composed for this moment. Maybe goal number two would fail, but she had to be sure.
She was about to stand up and pop the question, already drunk enough to do so, when a few waiters walked in with food on their hands. The performance was almost over too and she watched as Sehun stood up and placed a bunch of hundred dollar bills rolled together in front of each dancer - she could tell there was more than a thousand dollar in each roll. So maybe he had been paying attention…
Emma put her empty glass down, watching as the waiters put some plates of food down on their table. Baekhyun announced something that she didn’t really pay attention to, something related to himself and his own birthday. She couldn’t really care less, all she did was wait until everyone was eating to grab a tiny bun to herself and just shove it into her mouth while she watched Baekhyun feed Ksoo one too.
She would murder them both.
Or maybe she wouldn’t live to tell the story because her mouth was burning.
“What’s this made of again?” she asked, frowning as she looked for something to drink, trying not to look so desperate but at the same time taking some deep breaths to calm down the fire inside her mouth.
“It’s a Chinese bun… We fill it with pork ribs and some Chinese spices,” Baekhyun said, taking another one from the plate to eat it himself.
Emma tried to be chill about it, but it did sound like he was doing it on purpose. First, the ginger, now Chinese spices which everyone knows translates to pepper, pepper e more pepper. If Baekhyun wanted her out all he had to do was ask, not throw this much pepper at her.
She stood up with the excuse that she needed to go to the bathroom and pretty much ran all the way to the bar as soon as she closed the door of room 7 behind her.
Y/N was busy making yet another sex on the beach when a woman sat right in front of her by the bar. The bar manager recognized her from earlier, the one who had been promoted and Baekhyun had just decided he would crash the party because Kyungsoo was there. She was sure they were supposed to be celebrating something but the woman didn’t look very happy.
“Can I help you?” she said as she put the drink down on another tray for Hunter to take it somewhere else.
“You could help me by telling your boss that if he hates me all he has to do is tell me!” the woman said and even groaned a little, making Y/N laugh right in front of her. The face the client made wasn’t very friendly, which lead Y/N to shrug and give her a smile.
“Don’t mind him, I’m sure he didn’t mean it…” she started, the smile still on her lips. “He doesn’t know he’s an ass to people sometimes. I’d say it’s all the flavoured water he drinks but I make those myself so I’m sure it’s something else.”
The woman finally gave her a smile, shaking her head a little. “I swear…” she took a deep breath. “I’m Emma, by the way. Can I have a glass of anything that has milk in it? My mouth is burning from the ginger and all the pepper,” she said and Y/N nodded, moving to get something ready.
Soon the bar manager was back with something she called Eve. Vanilla ice cream, pineapple, pineapple juice, coconut rum, condensed milk, cream and coconut milk. “It’s the most milk I can get you,” she laughed softly, handing Emma the drink. “I’m Y/N,” she introduced herself finally watching as the director drank half of the drink in one. “And I wouldn’t have sent you drinks with ginger if I had known you had a low tolerance to spicy, I’m sorry about that.”
Emma only waved her hand, shaking her head and taking another sip of her drink. “It’s not your fault, really. It’s Baekhyun’s. He’s just jealous that I am Ksoo’s best friend now and that he has been lowered to a friend only,” Y/N could tell that Emma was drunk but she couldn’t stop listening to her complaining about Baekhyun. “I mean… First of all, he should be clever about this. Your boss, I mean. Kyungsoo is a fine rich man. Have you seen him? Of course, you have, you work here. Anyway. He has this crush on your boss since they were in college together and Baekhyun has never realized it,” she kept on saying, taking sips from her drink every now and then. Emma told Y/N everything about Kyungsoo’s crush and how Baekhyun never even gave him the chance.
“But now there’s this really hot guy in there,” Emma kept on saying. “Se… something?”
“Sehun? Oh Sehun?” Y/N asked, grabbing herself a glass of water. “Tall, large shoulders, brown hair?”
“That’s it! Sehun!” Emma continued. “He would be the perfect match for Ksoo. He’s both hot and rich. Do you think it would work out?”
“I don’t know Kyungsoo that well…” Y/N started, looking around the bar to check if she was needed or not and thankfully her people seemed to be taking care of everything just fine. “But as far as I know, Sehun is gay. At least that’s what all the performers and waiters tell me,” she shrugged.
“Yes! That’s exactly what I needed to hear!” Emma clapped, finished her drink and stood up. “This was awesome by the way,” she pointed at the empty glass. “Thanks!”
“Make sure to tip well,” Y/N winked at Emma as she left, laughing to herself. The tips she usually get from Oh Sehun himself pay her very expensive rent and sometimes there’s even money left for groceries, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask for some more for the awesome job she has done in both providing information to the new director and saving her from a mouthful of pepper.
Emma had the information she needed and now it was time to act. When she got into the room again, her bottle of champagne was already waiting for her so she thanked Sehun and poured herself a glass.
“Don’t you think we need to have a little more fun?” she said the moment she sat down, not in front of Ksoo but right next to him.
“What do you mean?” the president said, frowning and looking up at her.
“I mean… Baekhyun is an idiot,” she said and checked if the owner was close enough to listen. He wasn’t, a bit busy talking to Jongdae and Suho. “And this Oh Sehun Whatever is sitting right here next to you…”
“And?”
“And?! Ksoo, come on, keep up,” Emma took a sip from her glass. “Honestly, do I really have to explain everything to you?” She took a deep breath and continued. “Maybe you should invest some of your time, intelligence and handsomeness on spending a night with this guy right here instead of the moron down there.”
“Wait… You want me to hook up with Sehun?”
“That’s exactly what I just said,” she took another sip from her drink. “I have very reliable sources saying that he might be gay.”
“That didn’t sound very convincing…” it was his turn to drink from his glass of whiskey. “Besides… I have very reliable sources saying he’s straight,” he raised an eyebrow at his friend, waiting for her to say something.
“Not possible… Mine is more reliable,” Emma shrugged, biting on her lower lip. “Just try, okay? It won’t hurt to forget about your stupid friend for a night and hook up with someone nice,” she gave him a smile and messed his hair a little, regretting it and quickly styling it back again making Ksoo laugh.
Kyungsoo’s loud and enjoyable laugh was enough to get Baekhyun’s and Sehun’s attention, making both of them move towards the other two. They sat in front of them - Baekhyun in front of Ksoo and Sehun in front of Emma - and Ksoo could feel his friend poking his thigh as discreetly as possible.
“How did you like the performances?” Emma asked, sipping from her drink as she looked at Sehun, completely ignoring Baekhyun.
“Oh, Anna and Gabe are always incredible. It’s always amazing to watch them dance, Kasper did an incredible job in teaching them,” he gave her a smirk before sipping from his drink. “Besides… I never congratulated you on your promotion,” he chuckled, raising his glass a little. “I crashed your party and didn’t even get you anything…” he almost pouted and Emma wanted to just shove Kyungsoo there or at least drag him into the conversation.
“This Kasper, whoever he is, definitely deserves some praise. Gabe was looking wonderful, don’t you think Ksoo?” she said, turning to look at her friend making him blush. Baekhyun laughed quietly to himself, shaking his head as he watched.
“Yeah?” Kyungsoo said before taking a sip from his whiskey. “I mean, he always looks great. I prefer when Caleb performs though,” he shrugged, biting on his lower lip. “His shoulders are definitely something.”
“Caleb is also a great performer…” Sehun replied with a smile and soon Kyungsoo and him were too busy talking performers, drinks and the club to notice that Emma was trying to kill Baekhyun with her look every time he said something or even looked at Kyungsoo. Their places at the table weren’t helping much either, she couldn’t really kick Baekhyun without hitting the others so she would have to wait.
The conversation was really going somewhere, Emma could tell. Of course, she had to include herself to shut Baekhyun down a couple times, but Sehun and Kyungsoo apparently had a lot of things in common. Jongdae, Suho and Irene stopped to say their goodbyes, saying the night had been great so far but they had to go home. Emma took that as her chance to leave goal number two alone with each other, all she had to do was find the right reason to make Baekhyun leave.
And then she remembered the bar manager and how flustered he looked when she was around.
So she stood up, telling the investors that she would accompany them the door and told the table she would be back. The conversation started as soon as she left, but she ended up running back in, telling Baekhyun a waiter had ran into her and asked her to tell Baekhyun that Y/N needed him. He stood up and left faster than imagined, leaving Sehun and Kyungsoo alone.
Emma closed the door behind her with a smile on her face.
Little did she know the conversation inside the room would take a very weird turn.
“So, is your friend single?” Sehun asked as soon as Emma was out of the room, pouring himself some wine. Kyungsoo started to laugh right away, making Sehun extremely confused. “What’s so funny about it? Her boyfriend isn’t here, is he?”
“No, that’s not it…” he sighed, finishing his drink. “She’s single. I don’t think I’ve ever heard about any boyfriends,” Kyungsoo shrugged, pouring himself some more whiskey. “She just has her mind set on something else tonight.”
Sehun leaned his head to the side a little, still looking a bit confused. “What do you mean?”
“She wants to set us up,” he raised an eyebrow, pointing from himself to Sehun. “Said she heard from a very reliable source that you’re gay and we would be great together.”
“Oh…” giving up on the confused look, Sehun looked surprised now. Letting himself shake his head and laugh. “I’m sorry to disappoint but I’m straight.”
“It’s fine,” Kyungsoo sighed one more time, drinking from his glass again.
“But hey… I feel like I should make it up to you,” Sehun bit down on his lower lip. “I mean, you’re very handsome and very smart. I have a friend that would love to meet you if you don’t mind,” he offered, eyebrow raised as he looked at Kyungsoo. “He’s supposed to be here with some of his friends. His father is a senator, but I promise he doesn’t look like the son of a politician. Have you heard of Jongin before?”
Kyungsoo shook his head and Sehun started telling him about the guy that lived in the same neighbourhood as him as a child. Jongin is a professional dancer now, owner of his own studio - which happens to be where Baekhyun gets his choreographers from. They go way back. The son of the politician is always at Privé since some of the performers are his students and he comes to appreciate and celebrate their work.
He also happens to be tall, hot, has large shoulders, a great body and a lot of money in the bank. And the best part, according to Sehun right now, gay and single.
Y/N feels pride in knowing all of the important clients by name - especially the ones Baekhyun is close to. It just makes it easier for her to keep them happy and ordering more and more drinks from her bar, increasing everyone’s tips and making not only the clients drunker but the waiters more satisfied.
“Emma said you needed me,” she heard while she was washing some Whiskey glasses, looking up to find Baekhyun sitting on one of her stools once again. “... And didn’t I tell you to leave the washing for someone else? You cut yourself really bad last time.”
“I dropped a glass and needed some stitches. My hand healed fine,” she shrugged and then frowned. “Emma said what now? I never told her I needed you. Last time I checked she was here complaining about your existence…”
“Maybe she just wanted to get rid of me then,” Baekhyun shrugged and looked around. Y/N followed his gaze, trying to check if he was looking for someone or not. “She went out to send some people off. Jongdae, Irene and Suho.”
“You can stay here for a while and pretend she didn’t make a fool of you, I’ll even give you some piece of information so you can pretend you had something to do here,” Y/N smiled, watching as Baekhyun laughed at her, shaking his head. “Jongin is here, at his usual booth,” she started again. “It would be polite to go and say hi.”
“Hmmm, I’m gonna pretend we have some very important business to take care of here for now and then I’ll go there say hi,” Baekhyun made a face, resting his elbows on the counter and then his chin on his hands, looking at Y/N. The bar manager started moving, getting some more drinks ready. She even made sure to put a glass of mango and passion fruit juice in front of her boss, giving him something other than flavoured water to drink that night.
After a while, Y/N noticed Baekhyun had drank half of the glass and wasn’t looking anywhere other than her which made the woman walk closer to him again. “You still haven’t told me what you want for your birthday.”
“And you still haven’t told me what you want for yours,” he said, knowing that her birthday is only three days apart from his. Y/N just rolled her eyes, crossing her arms in from of him.
“You own several clubs and you don’t know what to buy your bar manager for her birthday? Don’t you have people that do that for you?” Y/N teased, giving him a smirk and moving to start another drink.
“I’m not gonna let somebody else choose your gift,” Baekhyun said, drinking from his juice and looking around. “Would you like to get a car for your birthday?”
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Y/N just shook her head, letting herself laugh and watch as Baekhyun finished his drink. “Go say hi to Jongin and then go back to your party… You and your crazy ideas.”
Baekhyun gave her a smile and did exactly what Y/N had said, standing up and moving to go say hi to one of his friends. Jongin was supposed to be at his usual booth, at the bar room and near the door to room 4 - the son of the politician has said multiple times that he loved the lighting there and it’s great for photos.
As Baekhyun was getting closer, he saw that the table had more people than he had expected. Jongin would usually be here with his friends - Kasper and Taemin - but there were five people at the table today. When he was close enough to see, Baekhyun noticed that Kyungsoo and Sehun were there too - the last one standing up to leave.
The owner of the club tried to walk faster so he could make his way there and ask then how do they know each other, but Sehun was clever enough to catch him on his way, turning him around and pushing him towards room 7. “Don’t you dare,” Sehun said, making Baekhyun frown.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m about to set Jongin and Kyungsoo up and I’m going to murder you if you mess this up,” Baekhyun looked back and watched as Ksoo smiled towards Jongin, making him smile too.
“Whose idea was it? You’ve known both for a while…”
“Emma,” Sehun said, making Baekhyun looked back again with a frown now, his face already asking Sehun what the hell did he mean by that. “Long story… The important thing is that I know she’s single and that she likes wine and champagne.”
“Should I call for some of it?”
“Better…” Sehun stopped when they were about to enter the room. He had seen Emma walk in when he had just dragged Kyungsoo to Jongin’s table and hoped she was there by herself. “You can wait outside. Ask Y/N to send a bottle of each.”
“She’s not your maid,” Baekhyun said, making Sehun frown for a second and then laugh. He squeezed Baekhyun’s shoulder and pushed him back a little.
“Remember you love me and that I’m your best friend,” he said, giving Baekhyun a smile. Maybe a half drunk smile. “Your feelings are showing a little bit, have a shot of whatever Y/N thinks is best, it’ll do you some good.”
Baekhyun rolled his eyes and then just pointed towards the door. “You two look good together,” he said and took a step back. “I’m gonna find someone else to bother,” he let himself laughed softly and left Sehun, walking away and waving.
Sehun couldn’t thank the gods enough for Baekhyun’s understanding. Now, he hoped his romantic skills would be enough to convince Emma that he’s 1) not gay, 2) into her and 3) totally fine with leaving Privé and going somewhere else.
Emma found it incredible that both Sehun and Kyungsoo had left the room together. Maybe her plan had worked out and her boss had finally found himself a man, at least that’s what she was hoping for as she waited around finishing half a bottle of champagne by herself. Sometimes she’s proud of her high tolerance for alcohol, sometimes it just takes more money to get drunk.
She knew the performances were over for the night, Kyungsoo had brought them to Privé mostly because Jongdae, Suho and Irene were fans of the dancers. And he wanted to see Baekhyun’s on his birthday, Emma knew her promotion was basically an excuse but now that she was sitting on her own, relaxing in a private room she couldn’t be happier about it.
But then in walks, Oh Sehun, tall, large shoulders, brown hair, gorgeous face and he walked in alone. Emma ends up raising a glass of champagne, drinking from it and pouring him some in another glass as he walks closer. “Before you ask…” he started, giving her a smile. “I didn’t kill Do Kyungsoo,” he picks up the glass and sits right in front of her, taking a sip from it. “But I did give him to someone who might. Of fun. Kill him of fun,” he laughed.
Emma frowned, looking a bit confused as she heard Sehun speaking. Last time she checked, she had left them both another to hook up… Why is Sehun telling her that Kyungsoo is somewhere else? “What do you mean?”
“Well… First of all, I’m not gay,” he said and Emma almost choked on her drink. She was going to murder Y/N. And Baekhyun. Maybe she shouldn’t have trusted the bar manager from Baekhyun’s club but she had hoped the girl would at least have some consideration left for her clients. Sehun, on the other hand, was laughing. “Don’t worry… It’s not the first time people have assumed I am,” he shrugged. “I did find Ksoo someone nice though. I would have done it ages ago if I had known he was looking for someone… He’s a friend of mine, Jongin. A dancer, Ksoo is going to love him.”
Emma was trying to recover from almost choking, almost standing up and running away, almost calling the police on Baekhyun for trying to ruin her life, but she did manage to take another sip of champagne and look up at him. “Well, I’m glad. Ksoo needed to find someone new. He’s been stuck on this same old crush for too long now,” she shrugged, biting on her lower lip.
“I’m sure he’s going to have lots of fun,” he smirked, taking a look around and reaching to pour more alcohol into his glass. “And, well… Second of all, since your goal has finally been met… Would you like to help me with one of my own?”
“Well, it depends. I’ve already managed to meet two of my goals for the night. I think the last one might be on its way too…” she was expecting Baekhyun to walk into the room any minute now and she would tell him to fuck off.
Sehun just shook his head, he had never met someone this oblivious before. Maybe Y/N and Baekhyun who have been flirting back and forth for years now, but this has never happened to him. “You look great in that dress,” he said, one eyebrow raised, finishing his glass and leaning back, crossing his legs. “And I told Baekhyun to stay as far from here as possible. Kyungsoo is with Jongin…”
Emma wasn’t exactly following, she looked down and checked her dress, crossing her own legs then. She also frowned when Baekhyun was mentioned, finishing her glass herself. Why would Sehun ask Baekhyun to stay away? She was about to go over his words again when he single leaned forward, pouring both of them another glass of champagne. “What I’m trying to say here… And believe me, I’ve tried to be subtle, is that it would be great to kiss you, take you home and take that dress off tonight.”
She wanted to facepalm herself. Emma could feel her innerself, always smarter, punching her in the face several times. Sehun had ordered her another bottle of her drink earlier, he had paid attention to her talking about Caleb, had even found Ksoo someone else so they’d be able to be alone. It’s extremely annoying to be this blunt sometimes. Fuck it, she thought. Sehun is not only hot, gorgeous and has an incredible body, he’s also clever and just her type. Emma, on an act of bravery, downed her entire glass of champagne and moved to stand right in front of him. “Well?” she shrugged, moving one of her hands to cup one of his cheeks, her head leaning to the side. “What are you waiting for?”
Sehun pulled her close by the waist, making Emma straddle his lap. Their lips found each other instantly, both too drunk to care about making it look a certain way. The kiss was curious at first, checking what the other liked more, but it progressed to passionate when they finally found their rhythm. Her hands had moved from his face to his shoulders, squeezing them when Sehun decided to check if neck kisses would do something - she ended up squeezing a bit too hard and Sehun was glad he had decided on wearing a jacket, otherwise, he would have nail marks on his shoulder the next day.
His hands didn’t just stay still, they moved lower when his lips moved back to hers. She would have to murder the bar manager for even daring to tell her this man right here whose kiss was about to make her go freaking insane was gay.
Emma had started to unbutton Sehun’s shirt when he leaned back and stopped her, the woman frowning and leaning back a little. She leaned her head to the side in confusion again.
Sehun brought her hands close to his lips, pressing a kiss on each. “Baekhyun has cameras in all of his rooms,” he laughed. “We better find ourselves somewhere more… Private,” he bit on his lower lip.
“Oh, the irony. Isn’t this club named Privé?” she joked, leaning back to get up and grab her bag. “My place or yours?”
“I believe mine is closer. I’m in no shape to drive,” he shrugged, grabbing the half finished Champagne bottle and moving closer to her, pressing their lips together. “We can get a cab, if you don’t mind.”
Emma just shook her head, grabbing his hand to pull him closer and give him a proper kiss. It took them a while to break from it this time, getting out of the room together, Sehun’s hand behind Emma’s back. They couldn’t find Baekhyun or Kyungsoo anywhere, so they just headed outside and called a cab. Emma opened her phone to text Ksoo just to find out she had a text from him saying he was going back to his place with this guy, Sehun texted Y/N instead of his friend, letting her know he was going home with a woman and telling her to stop telling beautiful woman that he’s gay.
It was hard for both of them to keep their hands to each other during the seven blocks ride to Sehun’s apartment, but they managed to do so. The same can’t be said about the elevator, Sehun’s kitchen, his living room and his bedroom.
The bar was about to close, the waiters already letting the clients know it was almost time and they should order now if they wanted something else to drink. The kitchen had closed ages ago. It was around five in the morning now, only a few clients were left. Y/N had seen Sehun leaving with that woman Emma earlier, laughing at the text she had gotten. She had also seen Kyungsoo making out with Jongin and then they left together. A few other clients had also said their goodbyes and only the drunk remained.
She had organized most of the bar already, sending some of the waiters home and letting them know she would close today. She hadn’t seen Baekhyun go home and she had to give him his birthday present still - she had actually bought something, teasing him earlier about not really knowing what to buy - so she was hoping to meet him.
Y/N was losing hope since she had sent the last waiter home because the last couple had left and Baekhyun hadn’t shown up yet. She finished organizing the bar and watched as the cleaning crew got the room ready for the next day. Around six she was moving to get her coat, but she stopped when she saw Baekhyun getting into the room. “Thought you had already left,” she said, coming back with a smile on her face.
“I was going over a few files… What happened to everyone?”
“You mean after you abandoned them?” Y/N showing him the tongue and Baekhyun sat right in front of her. “I saw Sehun and Emma going somewhere together, same with Kyungsoo and Jongin. I think your friends bailed you on your birthday,” she joked, making a face.
“This is when normal people decide to get super drunk, right?” Baekhyun said, surprising Y/N who just shrugged and then nodded. “What can you get me?”
“Do you want me to get you super drunk with one shot only?” Y/N was about to take the challenge, moving to grab the strongest stuff she had.
“... Okay, maybe not super drunk. Just something. I think the night deserves a celebration somehow,” Baekhyun said, making Y/N laugh.
The woman moved, humming around as Baekhyun watched her. The club was empty and the only person left was Lay, Baekhyun’s head of security, but he knew enough to leave them alone. Even though Y/N wanted to get Baekhyun drunk with a shot only she decided on making him a nice drink - she didn’t want her boss throwing up on her bar at six in the morning. She put together a very pretty Blueberry Gin Tonic that she hoped would help him overcome being left behind and then she put another one on the counter.
“Am I supposed to drink both?” he said, his eyes widening.
“I’m drinking the second one. I’m not even supposed to be here this late, I’m gonna drink something myself,” she joked, moving to get on the other side of the counter. Y/N made sure to stop by her bag, taking Baekhyun’s gift with her. “Here, before you drink…” she handed him the small box, standing right in front of him. “Happy birthday, Baekhyun,” she smiled and then sat down once he had taken the box from her.
When Baekhyun opened it, he found a golden necklace inside. The pendent was a golden martini glass. He smiled when he saw it, already taking it out of the box and asking Y/N to put it on for him. She let herself laugh at his enthusiasm but helped him anyway. “So you won’t forget about this great bar manager you have,” she winked, grabbing her glass and sitting down.
“Thought you didn’t know what to give me,” he made a face at her, grabbing his drink and drinking from it. “I think it’s really pretty… Thank you,” he smiled at her. “Now I really have to get you a car…” he teased, making her laugh and shake her head.
“Shut up. If you get me a car I’ll only end up selling it. You know I don’t drive here in New York, there’s no reason for me to do so,” she mixed her drink a bit more with the straw, taking another sip from it.
They talked and talked and Baekhyun’s cheeks got redder and redder. That’s one of the reasons he wouldn’t drink, the first one was that he would always get drunk way sooner than other people. Today he felt fine, maybe a little braver than expected.
“Should we go get some breakfast? It’s almost seven,” he invited Y/N as she finished cleaning their glasses, letting her hair down and messing the curls up a bit.
“Hmmm, sure. There’s a café near here that they open around seven. They have this amazing frappuccino,” she smiled and moved to get her stuff, putting on her coat and grabbing her bag.
Baekhyun also left to get his own coat and handbag, telling Lay he would be fine going with Y/N, that he wouldn’t need security to go have breakfast. They could meet up later again. When he walked up to the entrance, Y/N was already waiting for him there. And she looked stunning in the morning light. Her messy curly hair, long coat, heels and her smile made Baekhyun rush over to her. “Hey,” he said, feeling the alcohol numb him a bit still.
“Hey,” she said, giving him a sweet smile. It would be ridiculous for her to say this is the Baekhyun she likes the most, the one she gets to see early in the morning, but it is.
Baekhyun bit down on his lower lip and reached out for her hand. Y/N frowned for a second, but then moved to take his. It didn’t take him much to pull her closer by the hand, his lips almost touching hers. He had his eyes closed when he asked if he could kiss her and she had hers open when he leaned closer to kill the space between them.
They kissed right there, right in front of Privé, the morning light hitting both of them, people walking by going to work, people going home, some even complained that people were kissing in front of a club this early in the morning. They held hands during the entire kiss, leaning back with a soft giggle.
Staring at each other for a while, Baekhyun decided it was time for a second kiss and leaned into it again as Y/N couldn’t help but smile and even laugh a little. They kissed twice, three times, four and five and only then decided it was enough. For now.
“I should get you birthday presents more often,” she said as she leaned back from the last kiss, making him laugh.
“I think I just gave you yours,” he joked and ended up getting a slap on his arm as a response.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” she said right after the slap, taking his hand then and lacing their fingers together. “Breakfast? I’m dying for that frappuccino and some cupcakes,” she said, sounding really excited about it.
“Breakfast! I could use some coffee,” he said, letting Y/N lead them to the café near his club. He couldn’t stop smiling, couldn’t stop looking at her, couldn’t stop looking like the fool in love that he is but will never admit to it.
They stayed out until around nine, taking their time to drink their coffees, eat their food and just talk about their day - or night. And once they were both done, they decided to go back to Y/N’s apartment - not that it was closer, but she just wasn’t ready to meet his place. And he would love to meet hers.
As soon as they got in, Baekhyun got a text from Sehun telling him that he would probably not go to Privé that night because Emma had invited him out on a proper date before leaving his house early that morning.
Y/N dropped her coat on the couch when they reached the living room of her two bedroom apartment in Midtown Manhattan. Baekhyun followed, having left his shoes my the door and then his coat on the couch too.
They started kissing again, a bit more soft this time, slowly moving towards the bedroom and Y/N’s huge bed. Baekhyun laid down first and Y/N moved to his side, leaning close enough to press some feather kisses to his jawline… But soon the blankets were too inviting, the pillows too soft and both of them fell asleep with yesterday’s clothes still on.
Byun Baekhyun is the owner of several night clubs in New York, being the one responsible to entertain the rich and powerful in the city, but ended up finding content and happiness inside an overpriced apartment in Midtown Manhattan.
“There were so many other things he would rather be doing now: 1. rehearsing his band’s new songs, 2. learning how to speak Japanese, 3. writing new songs and so on but here he was, at a Halloween party just because Jaehyeong asked him to cancel rehearsal and come.”
Description: “There were so many other things he would rather be doing now: 1. rehearsing his band’s new songs, 2. learning how to speak Japanese, 3. writing new songs and so on but here he was, at a Halloween party just because Jaehyeong asked him to cancel rehearsal and come.”
Sammy wasn’t happy. Of course, he was happy about the drinks and the music and the food - even though everything was themed and tasted like food coloring or pumpkin - but he definitely wasn’t happy to be here. There were so many other things he would rather be doing now: 1. rehearsing his band’s new songs, 2. learning how to speak Japanese, 3. writing new songs and so on but here he was, at a Halloween party just because Jaehyeong asked him to cancel rehearsal and come.
“There’s this girl I really like and she’s going to be there,” the bass player had mentioned earlier while they were driving to get something to eat, Sammy wasn’t paying much attention to the entire conversation and ended up agreeing to all this. Like it usually happens between Sammy and Jaehyeong. Jae is always convincing Sam to do things for him or with him. “I have this class on sound effects and she sits on the back, has short black hair… I know she doesn’t study music because this is the only class we have together, maybe she’s with the cinema people. Anyway… I heard she said she would be at this party… So maybe we could go? I really wanna talk to her.”
And then in two hours, Sammy saw himself going through his closet, looking for anything that could resemble a costume. He found a beret that he was sure his mother had brought from France and he had never worn and a striped t-shirt, some suspenders and a pair of black pants. A mime would do. He didn’t have time for makeup, so Sammy just put on some eyeliner and rushed to the door of his shared apartment. Luckily Jaehyeong lived somewhere else, Sammy was now living with their drummer - Hanjoo - while Jaehyeong was sharing an apartment with Dojoon.
Properly dressed, his phone fully charged and his wallet on his back pocket, Sammy got a taxi to the house the party would be happening at. He had no idea who was the owner, all he knew was that he had been invited by Jaehyeong and his friend was already there. They had been texting since Sammy had gotten into the cab and he was regretting his decision so bad.
Now, standing by himself at the kitchen, while Jaehyeong walked around looking for his sound effects girl, he couldn’t be more bored. Or annoyed. He had a beer on one hand and his phone on the other, checking twitter and trying not to look so dead inside as he was sure he was letting out. It’s not that Sammy doesn’t like Halloween, he just doesn’t see the point.
Walks in a girl, turquoise hair, a golden crown with a stone on it, a skirt, white gloves that go up to her elbows, a bow the same color as her hair on her chest and a white bathing suit… sorta? and Sam is sure he had seen this character somewhere before, he just can’t remember where. She reaches the kitchen counter and looks for something to drink, still looking pretty sober. She doesn’t really notice Sammy - or pretends she can’t see him at all - and keeps on the look for something to drink until she finds the vodka and the strawberry juice. She fills a cup with ice cubes, pours both in equal parts and takes something out of her back pocket to mix it. Something that resembles a mirror.
In walks another girl just when the first one is about to sip from her drink, obviously drunker than the first one. Sammy recognizes her costume, The Hobbit. Tauriel. She looks great as an elf also looks like she could kill him if he said anything wrong. The second girl walks over to the first one and gives her a hug from behind, resting her chin on her shoulder. “Who’s my favorite Sailor Neptune?” she says and Sammy facepalms himself. Of course, the first girl had to be Michiru. The headband/crown should have given it away.
“That’s obviously me,” the first girl said, turning around and pushing the other back a little, handing her the cup of alcohol and juice. “Did you ask for the song you wanted?”
“They’re not playing King for a Day,” the elf pouted, making the other one laugh. She took the drink back and took the elf’s hand, pulling her back to where they had come from. Sammy didn’t hear well, but he thinks the first one said ‘they will play if I ask’.
He had almost forgotten about his beer, downing half of it a second before a rushed Peter Pan walked in. Jaehyeong ran to his side, beer in hand too and he looked like he had just run a marathon. Twice.
"Did you talk to her? The Tauriel? She’s the girl from my class!” he said in a rush, pretty much invading Sammy’s space while trying to whisper way too loud.
“Uh… I have bad news, buddy… I think she might be, you know…” he started, sipping from his beer and pointing at the girls that weren’t there anymore. “She was with this other girl that’s dressed as Michiru and we all know Michiru is a certified lesbian… And they were hugging… I don’t think she would be interested in what you… have to offer?”
“What? No… No way…” Jaehyeong frowned, taking a step back and leaning against the counter. “I mean… We have exchanged looks and she has smiled at me… I’m sure of it.”
“I’m just telling you what I saw, Jeff.” The shorter one took another sip of his beer, discarding the can and grabbing another one from the fridge. When he was back to say something else, his friend was gone. Vanished. Maybe he just wanted to prove him wrong or maybe he found someone else.
Sammy just sighed, taking his beer outside. It was a cool fall night, a perfect night for a Halloween party. Everyone outside was wearing a jacket and he was glad his clothes were warm enough, all the pumpkins and their lanterns were looking both spooky and friendly somehow. Sam would blame the lights later. There weren’t many people outside, only a few drunk people and the Sailor Neptune sitting on one of the porch’s steps in a leather jacket.
“I don’t remember that being part of the costume,” Sammy said, sitting right next to her. The girl looked up from her phone, frowning a little when she saw him. She tried to check his costume but came out with zero characters, maybe he was really just a mime.
“Well, I’m not the protector of good weather, you know? Even I am allowed to feel cold from time to time,” she said, raising one eyebrow and grabbing her drink to sip from it. It was the same as before, Sammy noticed, but now there was fairly less liquid in it.
“... That makes sense,” he said, chuckling a bit. “I’m Sammy, by the way.”
“Hi Sammy, I’m Y/N,” she waved at him, giving him a smile. Sipping from her drink, the girl kept looking at the pool, not really interested in the boy next to her. He was okay looking and he sounded like he could sing her to sleep, but at the same time, he had just judged her costume. “Do you often judge people’s costumes dressed as a mime or that’s just a today thing?”
He looked down to his own clothes and then back at her, frowning a little and then letting himself laugh. “I’m sorry, you’re totally allowed to feel cold. I’d offer a jacket if I had one,” he added then.
“Nah, I’m cool. I brought this one with me because I knew I would need it. Amy is definitely drinking way too much and I have to drive us home after so I can’t really drink that much,” she shrugged, sipping from her drink and then putting it aside.
“I saw you inside earlier with a girl dressed as Tauriel… Is that Amy?” he asked, frowning a little. Sammy wanted to ask if that was her girlfriend because they definitely looked like a couple. At least on his eyes. And he didn’t want his friend to have his heart broken tonight.
“Yep, that’s her. She’s probably inside dancing… I think. She got a beer from the fridge earlier,” Y/N added, wondering why Sammy was asking about Amy.
“Oh. So is she your girlfriend?”
And then Y/N understood. And started laughing. Really loudly, shaking her head and pressing her hands against her stomach since it was already starting to hurt because of how hard she was laughing at him. “Oh God, no,” and she kept on laughing and laughing, getting the attention of some people near them. “She’s definitely not my girlfriend. We’ve known each other for ages,” she shook her head, picked up her drink again to take a sip from it. “We would never and will never date,” and just like that, she couldn’t stop laughing, shaking her head and laughing, even more, every time she looked at Sammy.
The boy didn’t really know where else to look or what else to do but to blush and to finish his entire beer while the girl laughed.
Inside, Amy and Jaehyeong had found each other. They had also found the nearest wall and a few things they had in common: a love for Lord of The Rings, a love for Halloween and a crush on each other.
They had met inside while Y/N and Sammy were discussing if her costume matches her jacket or not. Jaehyeong had poked the girl’s shoulder, asking if she remembered him from their sound effects class. He didn’t even have to try and explain who he was since she already called him by his name. It didn’t take long for their drunk selves to be kissing each other, his back pressed against the wall while she had her hands on his neck, his hands on her waist.
It was definitely a bit weird to see Peter Pan kissing Tauriel while holding a can of beer, but that’s what Halloween is for. That’s pretty much the only reason college students throw Halloween parties - to see what sort of couples they’ll be able to put together this year.
They kissed for a very long time. And then kissed again and again. Maybe it would have been a better idea for both to come clean on their crushes a bit earlier than Halloween - since it has been going on from the beginning of the semester until now - but then again, Halloween is the perfect season for everything.
Peter Pan and Tauriel managed to find their way outside - both with a bottle of beer each and holding hands - after a couple of minutes. It’s not that Amy was worried about her almost sober friend sitting outside in the cold or that Jaehyeong was worried that Sammy might have left because he was too bored. They had been kicked out of the dance floor for being too handsy. Apparently, the owner of the house still had some morals on him.
They found Sammy and Y/N still on the porch, sitting on the first step. They were talking some anime, something the other two nerds had no idea about. The fun thing is though, Sammy seemed more interested in the girl’s lips than on what he was actually saying - it was about Tokyo Ghoul. Maybe that’s the reason they only noticed Amy and Jaehyeong when they stood right in front of them.
“Hey! I know you!” Jaehyeong said, pointing at Y/N. She frowned for a second, squinting her eyes a bit trying to check the guy in front of her. Well, it would be easy to say she knows Peter Pan, but she couldn’t really figure out who that guy was. “Cafeteria? First day? We both got angry because they only had coffee,” he added to help her remember.
“The Hot Chocolate guy!” Y/N pretty much yelled, pointing at him with a smile on her face. “Of course. It’s been years, oh my God. And they still only have coffee available, I swear. Not even tea.”
“You guys know each other?” Amy asked, frowning a bit and looking at Y/N a bit confused. Maybe she was feeling a bit betrayed that her friend knew her crush all along. Sammy was looking from Jaehyeong to the girl, maybe feeling a bit betrayed that his friend didn’t really introduce him to this cool girl. At all. Never in his life ever.
“I don’t think know is the correct word…” Y/N started, sipping from her drink. And continued when she noticed the guy was letting her continue the story. “I don’t remember his name and I don’t think we’ve ever introduced ourselves… But on our first day here we threw a fit at the cafeteria because they only serve coffee. There’s not even an opinion for people who don’t like it or can’t drink it. I mean… Black tea and hot chocolate exist for a reason, right?”
“That’s so you…” Both Sammy and Amy said at the same time while looking at their own best friends.
“How do you two know each other?” Y/N teased, smiling at her friend who almost threw her bottle of beer at her. “Alright, I’m joking,” she added before she ended up being murdered. “Sammy and I were just talking that maybe we should go grab some pizza. The food at this party is so lame,” she scrunched a bit, finishing her drink while Sammy nodded right next to her.
“Yeah, I know a place near here. You guys are gonna love it, Jae and I go there all the time,” Sammy said as he invited Amy. He had spent the last ten minutes before the Tokyo Ghoul talk trying to convince Y/N to go somewhere without loud people and loud music, but she kept saying she couldn’t go unless Amy was with them. Friends before guys you just met even though they always look super cute. That’s their code.
Amy had already kissed the boy she wanted to kiss, had taken his number, was holding hands with him now and she was pretty sure she would end up inviting him over after the night was done. Besides, it’s pretty rare for Y/N to just… talk about grabbing pizza with guys she just met. Her drunk brain kept trying and trying to figure out what message her friend was trying to pass when she felt someone tugging on her sleeve. It was Jaehyeong.
“Come on, it’s going to be nice,” he smiled. Jae also wasn’t sure when was the last time Sammy actually invited someone to go somewhere other than their garage to practice some songs. Maybe the universe put both Jae and Amy together so they could help the two idiots that are their friends to get together too.
“Sure, I guess. I mean, Y/N is driving so I go where she goes,” Amy shrugged and took another sip from her beer.
“Great! Then it’s pizza time!” Y/N said, getting up with a smile and grabbing her car keys from her pocket. “Come on, you can’t just promise me pizza and sit there all night,” she said as she pointed at Sammy, taking a few steps away from them to walk around the house and go look for her car. “Come on!” she ended up saying it louder since the rest of the people weren’t following her. They laughed, starting to move.
The ride to the pizza place wasn’t awkward. It actually felt more casual than it should. Amy and Jaehyeong pretty much launched themselves onto the backseat, all sticky and lovey-dovey holding hands and being glued to each other, leaving the passenger’s seat for Sam. And as a passenger, the radio was his responsibility. Both Amy and Y/N let him know beforehand that it was also a test and depending on it he might be locked outside while the cool kids have a nice delicious slice of pizza.
He started with Coldplay and then some Beatles, The Script and Britney Spears. All of them couldn’t really stop laughing when Toxic started playing.
Y/N parked and they were still laughing at the song choice, Amy kept saying Sammy passed the test and Y/N kept telling her to shut the fuck up. The one dressed as Sailor Neptune promised herself to never be the designated driver ever again. Next time, they would be riding an Uber. It’s horrible to just deal with drunk everyone and not to be to be one of them.
They ordered their slices. Cheese for everyone but Sammy who just had to go with the pepperoni option. Amy gave him the look, Jaehyeong gave him the look and Y/N just mentioned that pepperoni pizza isn’t good when you’re drunk. They started an argument - Sammy and Y/N - on pizza and which flavors are good or not when you’ve had alcohol. Both Amy and Jaehyeong wanted to slap their friends.
Once the pizzas were all done, they grabbed their order and went outside. It wasn’t cold yet, but it also wasn’t warm. Halloween definitely is the best season of the year. It definitely was the best pizza the girls have ever had, Amy even made sure to turn around and take a picture of the place so they could order in sometime next week which made Y/N laugh. Jaehyeong was scared Sammy would pull a horrible move by saying something stupid like ‘so pretty’ while he stared at Y/N laughing, so he just pretended like he was thirsty and pretty much dragged Amy inside to buy some soda.
They were leaning against Y/N’s car - both Y/N and Sammy - staring into the store and chewing on their pizzas. “You know… I wish I had a jacket now. I finally see why you brought one,” Sammy said, making the girl laugh.
“I’m so not giving you my jacket Sam,” she laughed one more time but ended up taking a step closer to him, letting their sides touch. “Buuut I can stand here and you can pretend we know the law of physics and that this will help,” she added and then took another bite of her pizza.
Sam was about to motherfucking explode. Did she just joke about the law of physics? He would murder Jaehyeong for taking so long to go out with Amy.
“Maybe if I’m closer… Like this?” he said while wrapping his arms around her, over her shoulders as she looked up. It made her chuckle, shaking her head as she smiled at him.
“Well, now you’re just being cheesy,” she shrugged and only then she noticed the pun, making her laugh one more time, looking up at the tall, obviously an idiot and handsome looking mime hugging her and standing right in front of her.
It didn’t take long for them to kiss after that. And it tasted like pepperoni pizza - which would make them laugh sometime in the future. The kiss didn’t last long but it did last enough for both Amy and Jaehyeong get out of the store whistling and clapping.
“Don’t you love when idiots get together?!” Amy pretty much yelled, making Sammy and Y/N not take a step back, but lean back just enough to lean against the car and keep eating their pizzas as before - only now their sides were touching and maybe they were holding hands behind Sam’s back.
“You mean the two of you? Tauriel and Peter Pan?” Y/N showed her friend the tongue, making the boys laugh. The teasing kept going for minutes and minutes until they were all done with their pizzas and decided to leave.
They didn’t really go to each other’s homes that night. Y/N dropped everyone off home safely, complaining about the price of gas and how far Sammy lived from her place. Everyone said their goodbyes with kisses - Sammy and Y/N, Amy and Jaehyeong - promising to not forget about that Halloween night. They got each other’s number, followed each other on Instagram, promises of meeting up sober came up during the last minute of all of them inside the car.
Costumes, crazy drunk people, parties, getting to dress up, being able to be whoever you want for a night, cute sound effects class crushes, kisses that taste like pizza - or candy even. Halloween is definitely the best night of the year.
“It’s going to be fun! Come on, you can’t spend your entire life going to all your gay clubs only!” Lola said, dragging Y/N by the hand. She wanted to say that yes, she could. Or yes, she would. Where else would she be able to dress however she wants, kiss whoever she wants and also not be grabbed by straight dudes who think women belong to them? But Lola has asked her nicely - she threatened her - and she said yes - had no other choice.
Description: “It’s going to be fun! Come on, you can’t spend your entire life going to all your gay clubs only!” Lola said, dragging Y/N by the hand. She wanted to say that yes, she could. Or yes, she would. Where else would she be able to dress however she wants, kiss whoever she wants and also not be grabbed by straight dudes who think women belong to them? But Lola has asked her nicely - she threatened her - and she said yes - had no other choice.
“Honestly… I have no idea why I let you drag me all the way here tonight,” Y/N said the moment they arrived at the club. It was packed and the line was almost too long for her to handle, but her friend - Lola - told her they were on the list. Lola apparently knows the owner of the club, they apparently lived in the same neighborhood as a kid and Y/N wants to yell that when you were born in North Dakota everyone pretty much assumes you lived in the same neighborhood, it doesn’t matter how big the state is. But they are in New York now and she doesn’t wanna sound like someone who lived her entire life in Detroit.
“It’s going to be fun! Come on, you can’t spend your entire life going to all your gay clubs only!” Lola said, dragging Y/N by the hand. She wanted to say that yes, she could. Or yes, she would. Where else would she be able to dress however she wants, kiss whoever she wants and also not be grabbed by straight dudes who think women belong to them? But Lola has asked her nicely - she threatened her - and she said yes - had no other choice.
Maybe the Department of Neurosurgery wasn’t the best place to make friends, Y/N thought, because the only friend she had was dragging her to the straight club two weeks before finals. She was supposed to be spending all of her free time at the labs, the library or bothering her professors with e-mails at 4am. But Lola knows how much of a procrastinator Y/N is and she also knows her friend likes to solve everything with a great shot of tequila.
Y/N had tried several different outfits for the night but ended up wearing black pants, a black and oversized cropped top and a leather jacket just in case. She had shoved her wallet and phone in her pockets and was wearing a pair of boots - unfortunately, Lola had taken her to one of those clubs where you can’t get in if you’re not wearing heels, so her boots had some. Y/N took a deep breath, reminded herself that it would be Lola’s birthday in a week and tried to put on a smile.
They did get in super fast, their names were on the list. Lola knew more people than Y/N expected, which made her wonder how many hours of sleep her friend has a night. It’s true that Neurosurgeons rarely sleep, but it’s also true that they don’t have a lot of friends… like Lola apparently has. They got in, greeted a lot of people, and managed to order themselves drinks.
The night started with a shot of tequila for Y/N, a shot of vodka with energy drink for Lola.
“Let’s try again… Why am I here?” Sam complained for the hundredth time. They had been standing in line for a long while now, his other four friends looking super excited to be there while he just wanted to go home. Or cross the city and go to his usual cub. His usual gay club.
“Because you love us?” Devon said, making Sam roll his eyes. Maybe the Department of Music and Performing Arts wasn’t the best place to make friends, he thought. Even though it seemed like it in the first place.
“And everyone is here today, c’mon,” Fred said, pointing at two girls who walked by. One of them was obviously being dragged by the other and Sam instantly could relate. “I think they go to NYU too. I might have seen them around.”
“Just because you’ve seen a few girls around, doesn’t mean you know them. Do you know how many people study at NYU? A lot. A whole fucking lot,” Sam said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms one more time.
“You’re moody, we get it. I’ll buy you a shot of something expensive so you can feel better,” Devon squeezed Sam’s shoulder, giving him a smile. Sam pressed his lips together, obviously annoyed, and looked away. It was almost their turn to get in any way and she was already here, in his black pants, black boots, black shirt, and a grey coat. He might look like he belongs, but his subtle eyeliner was telling a different story.
Sam took a deep breath and gave Devon a smile back, even if he was sure he still looked a bit annoyed. Devon’s birthday was the week before and there’s nothing Sam can do now but to celebrate it with his best friend.
They managed to get in early - Devon, Fred, and Gabriel knew everyone there apparently, making Sam surprised as they walked in and they greeted everyone. They walked straight - ha - to the bar, Devon buying Sam the expensive drink he had promised.
The night started with a mix of sparkling wine and red berries for Sam and beer for the rest of his friends.
The drinks that wouldn’t stop coming were actually turning this into a very fun night, Y/N would say. Unfortunately, she could still hear the horrible music that kept on playing, the loud sound of electro beats over electro beats that had no lyrics or make no sense. Each drop made her want to stab her years with the straw of the piña colada she had in hands.
“How can people even dance to this?” she asked Lola when she saw her friend was back with her drink.
“They don’t,” she said, pointing at the people downstairs. Lola had gotten them access to a VIP room. Apparently, people from North Dakota have strong bounds - Y/N would find out later that year that the owner of the club is Lola’s cousin. “That’s all they do… I don’t think people come to these clubs to dance.”
“Then what’s the point?!” Y/N settled her drink on a table just so she could raise her arms in disappointment. “Honestly, I don’t see why get dressed and go out if you can’t dance to the songs that are playing.”
“Y/N… Babe… My sweetest friend… The cleverest girl from the Department of Neurosurgery… So smart, so bright…”
“They come here to hook up, I get it,” Y/N cut Lola off, grabbing her drink and sipping from it again. She rolled her eyes and looked down, trying to move her hips to the song but obviously failing, feeling frustrated.
Sam had his back against a wall. The first wall he could find that let him watch the dance floor just in case and drink his drink in peace. His friends were nowhere to be seen, but one would stop by and talk to him every once in a while. Devon was already calling him Sammy so he was obviously drunk.
He knew that as a student of music he shouldn’t be judging the songs playing or anything, but for him, it was always impossible to have fun if he can’t sing along to the song. And all these electro beats and remixes make it impossible for him to actually sing to anything that is playing.
The next thing he could do - besides getting shit faced drunk - is to flirt, but the crowd here makes it impossible for him to do it comfortably. Yeah, he could flirt with the girls only and hope he doesn’t end up with someone that is 1) homophobic and 2) expects him to be straight but he’s not sure how he can do that without having a one hour chat about life before hooking up here.
Not being straight enough - or at all even - for this place, he decided to just stick to his fancy drinks and his wall.
It was around 2am and Y/N was drunk. The girl is already loud but she’s even louder when she’s drunk. She had had a shot of tequila, two pinã coladas, and then another shot and she wanted to dance. The beats weren’t cutting it anymore and Lola was nowhere to be seen to stop here so she grabbed another drink - another piña colada - and went down the stairs, determined to grab the DJ by the sleeve and have an hour talk about the perks of playing some pop music.
On her way downstairs, she passed a few couples that were enjoying themselves against the walls. She did look for Lola but didn’t find her at all. Her friend had mentioned something about the dance floor and some guy, but she didn’t pay much attention. While she made her way through the crowd, Y/N thought about the songs she could ask the DJ for. Mi Gente, maybe? Too much. Lady Gaga’s You and I? Too gay. Ariana Grande’s Side to Side? Too old. Camila Cabello’s Havana would have to do.
She was in the middle of the dance floor when she spotted Lola dancing with a guy, she waved for a moment and Lola waved back, telling her to come over. Y/N wanted to say she was going to the DJ, but her friend didn’t understand her. When she got close enough, Lola introduced her to the guy.
“Y/N! This is Devon! He also studies at NYU!” Lola had a smile on her face Y/N hadn’t seen in ages. In Med School they would say people smile that much when they find a good surgeon to marry - maybe not in Med School, maybe just her crazy neurosurgeon classmates.
“Really? What practice?” Y/N asked, assuming he was also going to Med School. She was sure all her friends also studied some type of Medicine Practice at NYU. Her Facebook feed would always flood with Medicine news and jokes and memes and everything, really. But apparently, the boy had no idea what she was talking about since his face was super confused.
“He doesn’t go to Med School!” Lola interrupted when she noticed the silence, smiling at Y/N who just nodded. “Music, right?” she said, looking at Devon. It was Y/N’s turn to make a very confused face. What the hell was a music major doing at a straight club listening to electro music? Well. It wasn’t her place to judge… but… well.
“Yeah. Music Education actually,” he said, sipping his beer. Y/N nodded, sipping from her drink.
“Well, I’m gonna let you guys do whatever you wanna do… I’m gonna go to the DJ and beg him to play Havana,” she finished her sentence the moment a guy squeezed Devon’s shoulder. He was about to say something, but apparently, he heard what Y/N had said and frowned.
“Hey! Do you mean Camila’s Havana?” he said, a bit louder so the girl who was now walking away could hear. Y/N turned around, also frowning. She looked at the guy - blondish hair, black everything, fancy drink in hand.
She couldn’t help the smile that formed on her face, making her bite the corner of her lips. “Yeah. Who else's? I need a pop song before the night is over otherwise I’ll die,” she said, shrugging.
“Shit, holy fuck, yes,” he said, making both Devon and Lola laugh.
“This is Sammy, my best friend…” he introduced him to both Lola and Y/N. “Sammy, these are Lola and Y/N. They also go to NYU,” Y/N waved, Lola, smiled.
“Awesome! Which Art do you girls study?” Y/N laughed at the mistake she had made earlier, shaking her head. Maybe her blue hair didn’t help him, or Lola’s piercings, or their tattoos, but it was still funny.
“Med School,” Devon said, making Sam shrug and laugh.
“I was on my way to free us from these beats and beg the DJ for a pop song. Wanna join?” Y/N said, raising her drink to take another sip. Sam thought about it for a moment, he had walked over to Devon to let him know he was about to leave but now things had gotten a tiny bit more fun.
“Sure! I can’t wait to sing along and destroy my voice tonight,” he said, laughing and giving her a smile.
Y/N laughed back, shook her head and took his hand, placing it on her shoulder so he wouldn’t lose her in the crowd. “That’s the spirit!”
It didn’t work as well as they had planned.
It actually didn’t work at all.
They couldn’t find a way to the DJ booth, they couldn’t yell loud enough, they couldn’t even show the DJ the song they wanted. They tried talking to the security to let them go up, but it didn’t work. They tried making a scene so the DJ noticed them, but it didn’t work.
When they were about to give up, a spark of hope, Sam had the idea to write what they wanted on his phone and show it to the DJ. Y/N did the honors since this was a straight club, but the DJ pouted, looked down at them and said “I’m sorry, it’s an electro night. I can play the remix though.” Y/N made a face, Sam pouted and they both left defeated towards the bar.
He leaned his back against the bar while she ordered a bottle of water. “I can’t believe we’re going through this. I think my head is about to explode,” giving the barman a smile the moment she got her water. She opened the bottle, took a sip and offered it to Sam without thinking twice. “Honestly…” she continued. “They were having a 00’s night at this club I usually go to. But I let Lola drag me here because it’s her birthday next week… I could be yelling and dancing to Toxic right now, but no.”
Sam was drinking the water while he heard the girl complaining. He knew the club she was talking about. Bittersweet. Right across town. As LGBT friendly as it can be. A lot of theme nights and tonight the theme was MTV 00’s. His childhood friend - Jeff - was going to be there, he had invited Sam but he had already promised Devon he would come.
“Bittersweet, right?” he said, just to confirm if she was talking about the same club he had been thinking about. The surprised look on her face confirmed it.
“Yes!” she pretty much yelled.
“The best place in New York!” they said at the same time, laughing.
Y/N wasn’t expecting Sam to understand. She thought he wanted a pop song because he was a Music student and apparently there are some that like good music, no offense to people who enjoy electro sounds or whatever… But offense. But Bittersweet is an underground club in New York that people from the LGBT community go to have fun.
Rumour has it the club is owned by a couple of two bisexuals, that’s where the name comes from. Y/N has identified with the club since the first time she stepped there and has never once wanted to go somewhere else - she has spent countless drunk nights there with Lola and some of her Med friends.
“We should go,” Sam said, giving Y/N a smile. She noticed the eyeliner now that they were close and he noticed the glitter on her cheeks too. How the hell did they imagine they were talking about different singers or clubs before is beyond them. Y/N laughed, nodded and gave him a smile back.
“Yeah, we should. I think they’re having a tequila night next week, right?” she bit on the corner of her lower lip. She would drag Lola down to Bittersweet on tequila night as revenge.
“Oh… I mean right now,” Sam said, making Y/N frown for a moment. She was about to say Lola would be mad when Sam opened his mouth to continue. “I know, our friends are here. But I promise Devon is a good guy and you can leave Lola with him,” Y/N made a face at that. She couldn’t just leave Lola behind. But at the same time Panic! At the Disco was waiting for her on the other side of town.
“I’m gonna talk to Lola…” She said, biting on her lower lip. “But you pay for the cab!” she yelled as she walked towards the dance floor.
“I’m a music student! We’re going by train!” Sam yelled back, making Y/N laugh.
The moment Y/N got closer to Lola, she was still dancing with Devon. She squeezed her friend’s shoulder and got closer so she could talk to her. “Sam and I-” she started, but was cut off by her friend.
“Yeah, just go!” she said, sounding super excited.
“What?”
“Is he taking you home? You guys look great together!” she said, making Y/N more confused than before. She looked at Devon then, still dancing, giving them space to talk. Maybe he wasn’t that bad.
“Yeah, sorta. He wants to go somewhere else,” Y/N said, biting on her lower lip.
“Just go! I’m gonna be fine. I’m friends with the owner,” Lola winked, making Y/N frown and laugh. That sentence would make sense three days from now.
“Okay, call me if you need anything! My phone is with me always!” Y/N said and Lola was already turning her around and pushing her away.
“Go have fun!” she yelled, making Y/N roll her eyes and laugh, walking back towards Sam.
They did go by train.
It took them around forty minutes.
It was pretty awkward at first, two strangers sitting side by side in a train in New York. Y/N wanted to point out that his eyeliner was great and Sam wanted to point out that her jacket was awesome, but both kept quiet. Until Sam decided to break the quiet.
“I hope they play Paramore tonight… Or haven’t played it yet,” he said, making Y/N smile.
“Oh, don’t worry. They’ll play it again if I ask,” she winked at him, leaving a question mark on stamped on his forehead. She laughed, shaking her head a bit. “I’m friends with the DJ. I mean, one of them. She usually plays around three so if we hurry we can get there in time to ask for whatever song we want,” she smiled and then added. “You might as well know her. Violet, short hair. Used to be long and green purple blue, you choose.”
“She dates a guy named Jeff?” Sam leaned his head to the side a little, while Y/N nodded, confirming it. “She’s my best friend’s girlfriend. I mean, my childhood friend. I have a lot of friends,” Sam said, making Y/N laugh one more time. “I know Jeff. He’s the reason I know they’re throwing this party tonight, he asked me to go but I told him I had promised Devon.”
“Well, good thing you didn’t promise Devon you would stay till the end, right?” Y/N added, making Sam laugh softly now. “What else should we ask for, you know, just to be sure. Panic! At the Disco?”
“For sure. I Write Sins?”
“Always. Haven’t you people ever heard of closing the goddamn doors?”
The walk to the club wasn’t long - it was pretty close to the station - and by now both Y/N and Sam couldn’t shut up. Two drunk young people roaming the streets of New York looking for a better time than an annoying club that only played electro music.
They talked about college, friendships and moving to New York. Sam’s family is from LA, Y/N’s family is from Detroit. Most of their friends aren’t from the Big Apple either. Both would always think it’s funny how none of them are from the big city, but they still refer to it as their home.
Voices could be heard when they turned left on the street of Bittersweet, making both of them smile. They hadn’t talked sexuality yet, but both would be surprised to find out that they are both bi. And moving to New York, being on their own for, making new friends and being part of a community helped them a lot more than they thought. Both are out and open about it, but it’s obviously not something you start a conversation towards a club with.
The security guard - Elias - greeted them with a smile, giving a squeeze on the shoulder. “I didn’t know you guys knew each other!” he said, laughing softly. “I always see you two here on different weekends,” the guy made them laugh for a moment.
“We actually just met. At Fantasy,” Y/N said, making a face. Elias frowned for a second, a few people around them also did.
“What the hell were you two doing there?” he laughed, shaking his head as he let them in.
“Long story, Eli! We’ll see you later!” Sam said, giving him another smile.
Y/N rushed in as fast as possible, going down the stairs that led to the club. She stopped for a moment to look back, just to see that Sam was right behind her, giving her another one of his big smiles. She was slowly starting to enjoy having those to herself.
King for a Day by Pierce The Veil was playing and both were sure Violet was still on the DJ booth. Everyone was screaming the song as it played and both Y/N and Sam followed, rushing into the dance floor. They got exactly what they wanted, beats to move their hips to, lyrics to scream and a lot of people that could understand the feeling of good music. Or at least their definition of good music.
As soon as the song was over, Y/N squeezed her way to the DJ booth, giving Violet a huge smile.
“Hey!” she waved, catching her friend’s attention, who waved right back at her.
“What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were out with Lola today,” she said, making a very confused face.
“Long story!” Y/N waved it off and as soon as she was done speaking, Sam showed up, giving Violet a smile. “Here’s the long story!” Y/N added. At first, Violet didn’t get it, frowned a little. She had never seen Y/N and Sam together, but she knows both of them. And then it finally made sense.
“Did you play Panic already? Or Paramore?” Sam asked, making Violet laugh and nod. He then pouted for a moment until the DJ was smiling. “What about I Write Sins and Misery Business?” he asked, making Y/N push him away a little.
“It’s Violet we’re talking to, lemme do it,” she said, shushing him them. “But It’s Better If You Do and crushcrushcrush?”
“Deal,” the DJ said, making both clap. “I’ve got around five songs left. I’m gonna make the two the end of the set, alright?”
Y/N gave her two thumbs up and Sam cheered.
And then the playlist followed: Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, and Panic! At the Disco.
Both Y/N and Sam had more fun in those few minutes than they had had during the three hours they had spent at the other club. Screaming the lyrics to all of the songs, moving their bodies to the beat and laughing at each other.
Only then, right after Violet’s set was over, they decided to order a drink.
“Hi, Aiden!” Y/N said, greeting the guy behind the bar counter. She waved at him who gave her a smile and a wave.
“Hey! Took you a while! I thought you weren’t coming tonight,” he said, moving to lean over the counter and press a kiss to her cheek. Aiden and Y/N have history, but history both of them would like to never talk about. It’s almost as if you dated your brother and then found out he’s your brother, but in this case, they’re not siblings, only very good friends.
“I wasn’t… But you know me, I can never miss this party,” she said, pulling Sam closer. “Also, he dragged me here. All the way from fantasy. By train,” she added while Sam waved, making Aiden laugh.
“You’re Jeff’s friend, right?” Sam nodded, introducing himself right after that. “I’ve seen you here before,” Aiden gave him a smile. “What can I get you? The usual, Y/N?”
“Yes!” Y/N’s usual consisted of pineapple juice, pomegranate syrup, vodka, and ice. It was cheap, didn’t taste cheap, would get you super drunk and you wouldn’t even notice.
Aiden looked at Sam then, waiting for him to order. “Oh, Sex On The Beach,” he said, giving Aiden a wide smile.
“Aw, how cute. Your drinks match,” Aiden added, making both of them laugh. He left to get the drinks ready, leaving them alone to talk again. Lady Gaga started playing and Y/N almost rushed Aiden to get their drinks ready faster because she couldn’t just miss Donatella, but she ended up just dancing the song right there, in front of the bar, Sam enjoying it more than he probably should.
When their drinks were ready, they left to look for Violet and Jeff.
Both the DJ and her boyfriend were dancing near the wall, close to the AC, drinks in hand, singing to Lady Gaga louder than they should. Jaehyeong - or Jeff - studies Foreign Language Education and will probably focus on teacher little kids when he’s done with college and Violet - besides being a great DJ by night - studies Sports Business by day, someone has to make the Patriots team great again and if no one is going to do it, she’s gonna do it herself.
Violet had mentioned to Jaehyeong - who she refused to call Jeff, who the hell immigrates from Korean and decides to call himself Jeff? She was not having it. She called him Je - Jae - for short that was it. Anyway, Violet had mentioned to Jae that she had seen Y/N and Sammy together and how weird it was to see them there at all. They had never thought about introducing their two loudest, most annoying, most energetic, unstoppable, always seem to know what they are doing but have no clue, friends. Yet life has made that decision for them.
The couple was discussion the odds - because they knew Lola and Devon had dragged them to a straight club of some sort that night for birthday celebrations - and got to the conclusion that maybe the loud souls were destined to meet. And yell all their way from the bar towards them - both Y/N and Sam are the types of people that you can hear them before you see them.
Even though the music was loud, Violet could steal hear Y/N describing her drink to Sam while he held her hand, guiding her through the crowd.
They let go when they reached their friends, Y/N moving to give Violet a hug and Sam to hug Jaehyeong.
“Okay, what’s the long story that got both of you here?” Violet said, making both Y/N and Sam laugh. Shakira was playing, letting everyone know that her hips don’t lie, while Sam introduced Y/N do Jaehyeong.
“Well, here’s the thing,” the girl started when the introductions were over. “Lola took me to Fantasy, I got drunk, she vanished. I was like super determined to change the song because who can stand electro for more than an hour, right? Anyway. I was going to the DJ both to ask for Havana and then I bumped into Lola and this guy, Devon,” when Y/N said the name, both Violet and Jae said a loud ah as if that also made a lot of sense and they have never thought about it. “She introduced us, I assumed he was a med student too, he wasn’t and I decided to leave because I wanted Havana to play… Then he showed up,” she said, pointing towards Sam.
“And we’ve been inseparable ever since,” he said, making Y/N both frown and laugh. “We did try to ask the DJ for Havana, but he said it would be impossible so we just moved to the bar and Y/N commented about Bittersweet. Turns out we both would rather be here than there so… Here we are,” he added then, smiling.
“Idiots,” Violet said, rolling her eyes. “But okay, I think now that everyone is here we should lose the little voice we have left, what do you think?”
“Speak for yourself, I totally lost mine during your set. As your boyfriend, it was my job to scream the loudest,” Jaehyeong said, making Violet roll her eyes at him and laugh, leaning in to give him a soft kiss.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” she said right before grabbing his wrist and pulling him to the dance floor. Sam and Y/N followed, both of them laughing their lungs out.
The thing with 00’s nights at Bittersweet is that people rarely have time to rest or talk or stop. It’s a great song after another after another. It’s someone’s favorite song right before someone else’s favorite song. The only bad thing about it is that it ends at 4am and people have to go home still drunk or already hangover
They danced to Ke$ha, Shakira, Lady Gaga, Britney and Beyoncé, sang from 30 Seconds to Mars to The Script and Coldplay. Both Y/N and Sam cried during Yellow, spilling their drinks everyone but on each other or themselves. Violet sang to Breakeven with so emotion that people could imagine she had been through a break up recently - which was most definitely not the case. They all raised their middle fingers during P!nk’s So What. By 4am everyone was too drunk, too tired and their voices were all gone.
The group only left the club because the people that work there started to walk around, telling everyone they had to close. All four of them said their goodbyes to everyone they know - Elias and Aiden included - and headed to the metro station. There was one train they could get together and then it was Sam, Y/N and Violet to one side and Jaehyeong to the other.
With one look, Violet decided to sleep over at Jaehyeong’s that night.
They all sat down, too tired to speak even, all of them dying for a slice of cold pizza. Y/N hoped her roommate, Leo, hadn’t finished theirs. And Sam hoped his roommate, Dylan, had bought them one.
It wasn’t until Violet and Jeff had to leave that the talk died down, leaving Y/N and Sam side by side on the train again. They kept talking about the night, about the songs, about their lives until Y/N rested her head on Sam’s shoulder. The girl closed her eyes, still talking and answering his questions.
And she kept talking when he started to run his fingers through her hair, not as much to not mess it too much, but enough to let the girl know he was doing it. There was a quiet “mhm” coming from her who just kept answering, making more questions, telling drunk jokes even.
Sam moved them a little when they were close to her station, letting her know they would be there soon. She pouted but sat up straight - ha - again.
“Give me your phone, I want to give you my number,” she said, rubbing her eyelids with the palms of her hands. They exchanged numbers while both yawned because of how late it was, because of how tired it was, because of how drunk they were.
“Send me a text when you get home,” Y/N said with a soft smile. “And it better be a picture of your kitchen, so I know it’s you and that you’re home, not kidnapped by the mafia,” she said, eyebrow raised and all.
Sammy smiled, shaking his head a bit, laughing. “Will do, don’t worry.”
Then they heard it, the warning that they would reach her stop soon. Y/N pouted, Sam pouted. She smiled, he smiled. She leaned closer, he leaned closer. They kissed. And it was both soft and drunk, messy and fun, confused and lovely, fast and needed. Y/N almost missed her stop, Sam almost wanted her to
“Don’t forget my picture!” she said as she rushed outside, waving goodbye.
Maybe going to Fantasy hadn’t been the worst night ever.
When Y/N got home she had a text from Sam.
“Hey, text me when you get home too. S”
She smiled at it, leaving her boot by the door. Leo insisted they didn’t wear their shoes inside since his family had done it their entire life and Y/N didn’t even like to wear shoes at home anyway, so she just agreed to it. The girl headed straight - ha - to the kitchen, fingers crossed she would still have some pizza.
And they did. Cheese pizza. With extra cheese.
She took a selfie biting the slice and sent it to Sam.
“I’m home! And I have pizza! Y/N”
Sam was still on his way home when he felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He decided to wait until he was inside his apartment to check who had sent him a text just in case. Leaving his shoes by the door and his coat on the hanger, Sam took his phone out of the pocket and laughed at the picture. Was it too early to make it his home screen image?
He moved to his kitchen then, found the pizza box and grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza. Sam copied her pose, sending her a picture.
“WE HAVE THE BEST ROOMMATE! S”
“Fuck yeah, we do. Score. Y/N”
The reply came immediately after he had sent the picture.
They exchanged a few more texts until both were fed, showered and on their beds about to fall asleep. They had both agreed that going to that straight club wasn’t the worst idea they have ever had, but then made each other promise that they would never go back there ever in their lives.
It didn’t take long for both of them to be asleep - Y/N did leave Sam’s last text on read. But the next morning they would keep on talking and on the next weekend, they would go out together again and maybe in the next month, they would be dating. There was only one thing they knew for sure: Bittersweet was the only club they would go from now on.
She managed to save the books with a yelp, but the stranger quickly woke up because of it. And also because of the hot coffee that now stained his t-shirt. The guy sat back, pulling the chair back and looking up with such a confused look, rubbing his eyes and looking down towards this t-shirt.
Description: She managed to save the books with a yelp, but the stranger quickly woke up because of it. And also because of the hot coffee that now stained his t-shirt. The guy sat back, pulling the chair back and looking up with such a confused look, rubbing his eyes and looking down towards this t-shirt.
Being stressed wasn’t news to Y/N. Running around the library carrying books definitely wasn’t either. Which was reason number one she would think about quitting college at least once every single day - or at least changing her degree, who the hell decides to be an architect anyway? She should have changed her mind years ago, before moving to Italy and deciding that studying at Sapienza in Rome would be a good idea.
But at least the coffee is good and the lady working the front desk knows her for long enough to just let her fill up her mug in the staff room whenever she feels like it. She has found the perfect spot near the history and architecture books she always comes here for - also the ones that happen to be in English, not in Italian. She happens to know where all the dictionaries are too. Her table is always under a lot of books, pencils, post-it notes, notebooks, her laptop, her headphones and some crazy drawings that she argues are actual buildings in the making.
Today wouldn’t be different. She had just left her Art class and was making her way to the perfect spot, carrying her mug of coffee when she noticed someone resting? napping? who knows? on her table. She took a deep breath and got ready to simply shoo whoever it was that decided it would be smart to use her table to drool during the entire afternoon. There was an important test coming up and hell if Y/N would allow a guy to just ruin her perfect grade.
Getting closer, she noticed the glasses on the table, the arms folded under the forehead, the quiet snoring and ended up groaning. One thing is to wake someone up, one thing is to wake up someone who looks so soft. Y/N adjusted her own glasses, took off her scarf and jacket - placing when on the back of the chair she would sit - put her books down on the table and then finally sat, right in front of the stranger. She thought about poking him or calling him out on sleeping, but as life has its way of screwing things up for the stressed ones, her mug tipped.
The moment she sat the mug down on the table it tipped. She managed to save the books with a yelp, but the stranger quickly woke up because of it. And also because of the hot coffee that now stained his t-shirt. The guy sat back, pulling the chair back and looking up with such a confused look, rubbing his eyes then and looking down, groaning.
“Ugh, what is this?” the guy reached over for his glasses, rubbing his eyes one more time before putting them on and looking down again, checking his stained t-shirt and then looking up at the girl, squinting his eyes to look at her because of the light. “Did you just pour coffee on me or something?”
Y/N, who was more afraid of losing her study notes or having to pay for new books, was too busy trying to find a new place to put her things down to listen to whatever it was that the guy was saying. Once she had put everything down again, she finally looked at him. And she wished so hard she hadn’t. A very pretty man was looking like a lost puppy who had just showered in coffee for no absolute reason. The fact that he looked like a very big and broad lost puppy wasn’t helping either. The first thing she noticed were the shoulders, then the glasses, the eyes, the hair and only then the huge coffee stain on his t-shirt.
“I’m so sorry…” she started, pointing at it. “I, uh… I use this table to study quite often… I thought I would just sit down and start, but I guess your sleeping noises kinda distracted me and…” she shrugged, pointing at the shirt again.
“Are you saying this is my fault?” he frowned, making another confused face, sighing.
“Not really. It’s my table, so it’s your fault for sleeping on it. But it’s my fault for spilling the coffee. So… I blame us both,” there was another shrug and then Y/N just left to grab a cloth so she could just clean the table and go back to her studying session.
When she came back, the guy was still sitting there, looking down at his t-shirt and looking like he had lost the answer to all of the questions of the universe by a second. Or maybe a step. After the table was cleaned, Y/N finally sat down. “Listen… I’m really sorry,” she started again. “Uh… I’m Y/N,” she tried. maybe befriending him would be better than just sending him away. “I suggest a beer.”
“I’m Sehun…” he said his name followed by a chuckle and a confused look. “Did you just invite me to get a beer? Because I’m not very into this t-shirt anyway, but I’m not sad enough to just go and drink all my feelings for it away.”
Blushing doesn’t even begin to cover it. Burning doesn’t even begin to describe how hot Y/N’s cheeks felt at that moment. “I suggest a beer to clean the stain…” she started, adjusting her glasses and trying to look away from his shoulders and up towards his face. Which one was the hardest not to stare at, she would never know.
“Oh. Well,” Sehun laughed softly, leaning back and then finally - finally!!!! - standing up to leave. “Thanks for the tip, Y/N,” he added before waving and walking away.
Y/N didn’t stare. She definitely didn’t stare down at those jeans while Sehun walked away. And she definitely didn’t text one of her friends about it before putting her phone on silent to drown in some books and buildings.
[04:03 PM] Why do I have to meet the hottest guy right after I leave my Arts class? And then just spill coffee all over his t-shirt? Why do bad things happen to me only???? - Y/N
[04:16 PM] I demand visual proof that he’s hotter than I am. -BB
[04:16 PM] And of course you spilled coffee on him. I told you to get better glasses. -BB
[04:16 PM] Did you at least get his number? - BB
[05:25 PM] Do you really think I had the time? He was just standing there looking so. hot. it was hard to say anything else. I got his name though. Sehun. Do you know any? - Y/N
[05:30 PM] Not really. I can ask around though. I’m sure Chanyeol knows everybody that goes to Sapienza. -BB
[05:33 PM] He better. -JP
When Y/N typed her last text of the hour to Baekhyun, she was just putting away the last book from her study session. She still had to get home, shower and go over some projects before having dinner and meeting her friend for some beers. Some real beers, not the one you use to clean coffee stains.
The two friends had met on her first year at college. Baekhyun is studying A.I. and Robotics and the two got into a shot competition at a party on their first week. He definitely doesn’t look the part though - not so tall, loud, round glasses and walking around with his soft blond hair. Most people mistake him for someone who should be in the fashion department whenever he goes to the administration building to petition for some parts for his robotics classes and projects.
The day they met, Baekhyun thought it would be smart to get into a shot competition. He managed three and Y/N drank seven easily. She took care of his drunk ass for the rest of the night until he could manage to blur out his address. They found out when the Uber driver dropped Baekhyun that Y/N actually lives one block away from him. Teaching the boy the wonders of drinking became Y/N’s main job during her first year in Rome - which also happened to be his first too - and they became really close friends.
An hour after Y/N had had dinner the doorbell rang and she knew it was Baekhyun right away when the ring was followed by a loud knock on the door. And then another. And then another. And she was sure he was about to knock again when she opened the door and he had his fist raised. “Hello!” he said, all smile and brightness as usual. He was in a soft white sweater that would definitely keep the cold winter away, black pants and combat books.
“Are those your try on getting taller?” Y/N teased, pointing at the shoes and grabbing her coat by the door before stepping out and locking the door, shoving her keys onto her coat’s pocket along with her wallet and phone.
“Very funny,” he showed her the tongue, shrugging and walking down the hall towards the stairs. “I texted Chanyeol. He said he doesn’t know anyone named Sehun so we’re left with two options: new staff or new transfer,” he said, biting on the corner of this lips as he walked. “But I don’t think he could be new staff, hot and unknown…” he stopped, as if waiting for Y/N to ask why.
She just bit the bait because she was curious about Baekhyun theories, not because she was interested in knowing Sehun’s relationship status. “Why? Is there someone who checks on all the hot new staff?”
“Of course not,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “But Chanyeol would have heard about him. Especially if it’s a him,” the blond pointed it out, shrugging again and starting to go down the stairs. They would be at the bar in a couple minutes, Chanyeol - who happens to be Baekhyun’s best friend since they were around six - would be playing tonight and invited his first to show up. Which usually meant that the entire campus was invited and Y/N and Baekhyun would only be able to find a table because Chanyeol usually saved them one.
And indeed the bar was crowded. And indeed Chanyeol had saved them the best table. There was someone sitting already though and when they got closer, Baekhyun lit up even brighter than before. He usually would around his girlfriend. The couple has been together for two years now and they only met because the two happen to be very huge nerds according to Y/N herself. She studies Aerospace Engineering, has pink curly hair, wears rosé glasses and has a very big wardrobe of black clothes at home. She makes Baekhyun smile brighter than he usually does, he makes her softer. According to Y/N, they’re a very nice pair.
Both Baekhyun and Y/N get to the table at the same time and are greeted by a huge smile. The girls became good friends after they met - a girl who could hold down her liquor and party like nobody's watching was always someone they could be friends with and luckily both fit that description.
Baekhyun and Annie exchanged a soft kiss and then they all sat down, the couple pulled their chairs a little closer together and Baekhyun and Y/N spotted the stage. After they had ordered their drinks - and Annie ordered her second - they started talking about their week. When they got to the Sehun topic, Annie laughed and shook her head.
“I know him,” she said, laughing even more, making Y/N look both confused and surprised. “Sehun just transferred from London. He studies Economics if I’m not mistaken. Suho spent the last week looking for a new roommate and this guy just moved into his apartment.”
“Who the hell is Suho? You people realize I don’t live inside the Engineering building, right? I study Architecture. I study in the Arts building guys,” Y/N waved her hands to get Annie and Baekhyun’s attention as both had fallen into a conversation about this Suho guy. Sometimes she hated the fact that she had befriended all these engineers. It shouldn’t be healthy for someone to only walk around with people that loved numbers and robots that much.
“Suho is that annoying guy from my Calculous class?” Annie tried, giving Y/N an apologetic smile. “I used to complain about him all the time last year but he turned out to be a cool guy. I think Chanyeol invited him, but he was too busy working on a project for his aerodynamics class or something.”
“You guys use such complicated words… I swear,” Y/N rolled her eyes. “But I know him. It’s the guy with horrible engineering jokes,” she added and shrugged, sighing. “So Sehun moved in with him and is a transfer from London,” she thought out loud, making Annie and Baekhyun laugh. They were about to add something about the heart eyes Y/N was making towards the memory of the guy she had pretty much poured coffee all over, but Chanyeol walked on stage and was about to start playing one of his songs so all they did was scream his name and clap.
Maybe Y/N spent some time thinking about his shoulders. Or his eyes. Or his back. Or maybe she was just too drunk after three margaritas and it was Chanyeol’s fault for being too tall, making her think about the guy from earlier today.
The following day was a Sunday and the usual hangover hit hard. Maybe margaritas and beer weren’t supposed to mix, but Y/N mixed them anyway. She got home around six - Chanyeol’s gig was over around one, but they stayed in the bar until four and only after that they decided to walk home. Rome is a very beautiful city to get lost at when you’re drunk and that’s pretty much what they did, walking around and walking and walking until someone decided to point out how lost they were and call a taxi home.
Y/N was sure Baekhyun and Annie were the ones to drop her at her place because she could remember Baekhyun wishing her happy dreams ‘with that Sehun guy’ while Annie was saying sorry towards the driver. And then all she can remember is falling asleep on her bed, wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing the night before.
Orange juice and a hamburger would usually do the trick, but today she had to settle for coffee because groceries were way due in her apartment and she was not going to go out in the rain to grab a BigMac.
[06:18 PM] I just woke up and holy shit. What did you guys make me drink last night? -JP
[06:20 PM] I think you had all the Margaritas the bar had to offer? And then you finished Baek’s beer? -AN
[06:21 PM] Why did you let me be me? :( -JP
[06:22 PM] Haha, I’m sorry. -AN
[06:22 PM] Baek is still sleeping if that makes you feel less horrible. -AN
[06:22 PM] Oh. And you made me promise I would tell Suho all the nicest things about you and architecture. I don’t believe you want me to come through with that promise? -AN
[06:28 PM] Who the hell is Suho? -JP
[06:28 PM] Wait! That’s the roommate??? Oh God. No. No! Do not let him know I exist! -JP
[06:33 PM] It’s okay, haha. I figured. -AN
A loud groan was heard in the apartment and Y/N just left her phone on the counter before she would just throw it against the wall or something worse. Drunk Y/N is fun, outgoing but a very horrible friend to sober Y/N, that’s for sure.
When Monday came, she obviously woke up late. Not that she had a class or anything, but she followed a strict schedule when it came down to going to the library, stealing her table and jumping into her books. Especially when those books were in Italian. Baekhyun, Annie and Chanyeol would help her translate them from time to time as they were all Italian, but sometimes they had classes and couldn’t reply with a translation as fast as she needed them to. Y/N is from Ireland, having moved to Rome to study. And possibly work and live once college is done but one thing she knew for sure already: Italian was such an annoying language to learn.
As usual, when she walked into the library, she stopped by to grab her coffee and them walked to the table by the books she always needed. Today she had brought her headphones and The Maine was blasting through them, making her hum as she walked around grabbing the books. Once she was done, she sat down and started reading. The table was empty this morning, no pretty boy for her to spill her coffee all over today. She was glad because that made it possible for her to pay attention to all of those complicated words, but at the same time she could have spent then entire morning staring at his pretty face.
Two hours passed and she was ready to change playlists, replace some books with the ones on the shelves and get herself a new cup of coffee when she noticed someone sitting right in front of her. When she looked up, she recognized his eyes right away. Then the shoulders and the rest of his face. Was he stalking her? Or was he honestly trying to steal her table? Y/N has priorities and that table obviously comes first.
“I did try being subtle the last time…” Y/N started, making Sehun laugh.
“Subtle about what? You spilled coffee on me,” he said as he took out a notebook and a book, an Economics book. Damn Annie for studying Aerospace Engineering, damn Suho for doing so too, damn Suho for needing a roommate, damn England for existing.
“Subtle about the fact that this table has an owner. You can get yourself another one,” she added, shrugging and making him laugh again.
“And you’re not even going to give me a chance? I mean, I get it. I fell asleep on it the first time,” he said with a soft smirk, that damn accent was already driving her crazy. “But I promise I’ll take better care of it while you’re not around,” he joked, making her roll her eyes.
“As long as you don’t ruin my grades with all your talking, I guess…” Y/N gave in, standing up to grab the next cup of coffee of the morning. When she came back, Sehun was already busy with his notes, calculous and sheets. He also had headphones on and she couldn’t miss the opportunity to text Baekhyun that the hot coffee guy was there again.
Which was a mistake. Because it was Baekhyun. She should have known her friend better.
Y/N was trying to study, she really was, but the broad shoulders were definitely distracting her. Or the hums he was making whenever the song he was listening was too good or when he understood and made sense out of one of those crazy things he was reading. She really thought about how being friends with people who like math too much was ruining her life.
Almost half an hour after she had texted Baek, she heard a very familiar voice saying his hellos to the front desk lady, asking for a book on Robotics. When she looked around, she saw Baekhyun. Her eyes widened and she tried not to groan too loud. This was going to be a disaster. She knew he was free this morning, all her friends were free Monday morning - Baekhyun would always wake up late, Annie was always too busy watching or reading until late at night to be up on Monday and Chanyeol had become unreachable on Mondays for the previous month - but she had never thought he would make all the way from his apartment to the library just to see Sehun with his own eyes. Dammit, Baekhyun.
He was making his way to the shelves when he spotted his friend, smiling at her and walking all the way there. Waving even, pretty much forgetting that he was inside a library and that people couldn’t really deal with that much brightness in a person during the morning.
“Hello!” he said loud enough it got Sehun’s attention, waving from Y/N to him. The guy just smiled, chuckling a little and frowning for a moment.
“You’re Baekhyun, aren’t you?” he said, still frowning, making Y/N roll her eyes and groan. All these engineering people, studying inside the same building. This definitely isn’t healthy. It isn’t healthy at all. After Baekhyun’s nod, Sehun continued. “I’m rooming with Suho now. He talks about you a lot… I mean, not a lot. He just has some photos of the three of you in his apartment. Annie, Suho and you,” he added with a soft smile.
“Wait. Have you guys been going out without me?” Y/N asked, looking pretty offended and about to rip the answer from Baek with her own nails before she remembered that Sehun was there too and it wouldn’t be nice to show that side to him just yet.
“On Saturday you asked who the hell is Suho and now you wanna go out with all of us?” Baekhyun raised an eyebrow, chuckling a little. “I mean… We can all go out if you want. You too…” he said, pointing at Sehun. “You’re rooming with Suho now so you’re always invited. His last roommate gave up college to sing. You probably don’t remember Chen, right?” Baek looked at Y/N who just shrugged, making a face and mouthing an apology towards him. “Well. Chen was cool. Suho has had only nice roommates so far. And your face is cool.”
Y/N almost choked on her coffee, swallowing it thickly and rolling her eyes when Baek spoke. “You have a girlfriend Baekhyun.”
“I also have eyes. Dating Annie doesn’t make me blind. I don’t choke on my coffee when she tells me other girls are pretty,” he added, winking at Sehun and making the other laugh. “So, yeah. It’s a date then. We’re going out on Wednesday. It’s Chanyeol’s birthday party. I’ll text you the address of the bar…” Baekhyun added, stealing a post it from Y/N to hand it to Sehun. “Your number, please?”
With a shrug, Sehun just wrote down his cellphone number, making Bakehyun smile and chuckle softly once he had it. He waved goodbye at both and then walked towards the robotics shelf because apparently he also had a book he needed to read.
“Your friend is really nice…” Y/N heard Sehun saying while she was still staring at Baekhyun’s back and cursing his entire life. “I didn’t know you knew Suho. I would have asked him his opinion on you,” he added, chuckling a little.
“Well, I think it’s better for you to have your own opinion. I’m sitting right here, ask away,” she added then, shrugging one more time and dropping her pencil, closing her notebook as a dare for Sehun to keep their conversation going because studying definitely wasn’t working.
They covered the basics: favorite color, favorite singer, favorite TV series, what did you want to be when you were a kid, where are you from, what do you study, what do you wanna do with your life and relationship status. None noticed, but both were really happy when the answer was single.
“I gotta go. I promised Suho I would make lunch today,” Sehun said, pretty much pouting as he closed his books and packed them in his bag. “But I’ll see you at Chanyeol’s party?”
“Are you giving up on the library already?” Y/N tried, biting on her lower lip as she looked up at him. Those damn shoulders were way too difficult to deal with.
“I can’t promise anything, but here…” he said, stealing a post it note and giving it back with a few numbers written on it. “Text me when you feel like studying,” he smiled and left. And once again Y/N was left with the sight of tight jeans and a very nice back. This time though, she had a phone number.
Wednesday arrived faster than expected.
Y/N didn’t see Sehun again because their schedules didn’t match at all and she also didn’t text him because having to meet him on the party was stressful already. She managed to call both Baek and Annie during the day to coordinate outfits for the night - even though she knew Baek would wear black pants and a sweater and Annie would probably show up with ripped pants and a t-shirt. Chanyeol would probably be wearing a parka, but she didn’t call him because he had become unreachable that week too. Damn Chanyeol.
Around 7 PM there was a knock on her door meaning that Baekhyun was there to pick her up. He lived the furthest from the bar and then there was Y/N on the way. Annie lived on the opposite side so there was no reason for Baek to ever pick her up. Just as she had predicted, he was wearing black pants, boots and a pink sweater. Annoyingly cute as usual. They got a taxi and Y/N talked about everything except Sehun. She even asked Baek about the robots he had been working on lately, not understanding a word he used to describe his new creation.
Annie was already waiting for them outside and this time she was in a dress. “Chanyeol told me to dress up because he’s turning twenty seven,” she shrugged when they saw her, chuckling a little and locking hands with Baek to go inside the bar. Their table was obviously waiting for them but this time there was already people around it. Suho was there, Chanyeol was there and Sehun was also there. And there was someone else. A guy who had brown soft hair, very nice lips, just as tall as Chanyeol and he seemed very uncomfortable with the talk that was going on. Y/N spotted that look right away. The look of someone who studies the Arts and who can’t understand shit about engineering.
When they got closer she finally recognized the guy. “Kai!” She pretty much shouted, rushing to wrap her arms around him in a tight hug. Every single person looked confused and Chanyeol had pretty much frozen on his chair. “It’s been so long. I didn’t know you knew any of these crazy robot people,” she laughed, biting on her lower lip. When she finally looked around, she waved at both Suho and Sehun. The roomates.
“Channie invited me so… I guess I couldn’t miss it,” he said with a bright smile. She didn’t pick up on the nickname, but both Annie and Baekhyun did. Kai happens to be a dancer and to be studying Arts in college. Y/N and Kai would see each other all the time inside the Arts department and it definitely felt nice to have someone around that didn’t deal with robots and numbers only during the entire day.
“Guys,” Y/N started, looking around. “He is a dancer. A dancer. Do you know what they don’t have? Weird names for shit I don’t understand,” she said, laughing and making everyone at the table laugh. “You are going to be the people who don’t understand shit this time. I’m so glad,” and by the time she was done, Annie and Baek had found a seat - leaving the only seat next to Sehun available for Y/N to sit. Did she try to murder them with a look only? She obviously did.
“So, Channie,” Annie started, a wicked grin on her lips, but before she could continue, Chanyeol was standing up and cleaning his throat. He felt weird, too formal and everyone around the table noticed and frowned. Even Kai was frowning and he looked like all the flowers from the prettiest forest had decided to get together and make a person.
“Guys. I got you all together today for two reasons. One, it’s my birthday and hell. I’m gonna celebrate it,” he started, laughing and looking around. “Number two is that, uh… I wanna say I’m sorry for being M.I.A. for a little while. I guess I was freaking out about this thing I’m trying to do, uh…” he tried, sucking on his lower lip. While Chanyeol was talking, Sehun had gotten a bit closer to Y/N and was trying to maybe win her over with a smile, his hand way too close to hers on top of the table. “Kai and I are dating. Have been dating for a month now.”
And then hell broke loose. Literally.
People who think Y/N and Baek are controlled people have never seem them when they think a friend has hurt them somehow. Or hurt their friendship somehow. Or hurt themselves somehow. They were both standing up yelling at Chanyeol. It was possible to hear several ‘why didn’t you tell me?’ or ‘the reason you were freaking out was just so fixable and stupid!’ and ‘is it because he studies with me?’. Annie was just staring at Chanyeol, which also had him scared and Suho and Sehun were just laughing. Kai was trying to calm Y/N down, taking some of the blame for what had happened.
They only managed to calm both Baek and Y/N down some good twenty minutes later. That’s when Baek started interrogating Kai. And Sehun started flirting with Y/N.
“So you’re happy someone that studies Art is finally hanging out with you guys?” Sehun started, getting Y/N’s attention. All her friends were too busy to notice the guy pulling his chair towards her a little bit more.
“Well, yes. Obviously yes. You have no idea how hard it is to hang around you people all day,” she said, sipping from her drink. Chanyeol had ordered everyone a Sex On The Beach because he’s Chanyeol and they wouldn’t expect otherwise on his birthday. Even Suho, who would only drink beers, was sipping from the drink happily. “Baek and Annie always end up talking about the universe. I know that shit is big, but I never knew it was that big that they could always talk about them when they are out. Chanyeol isn’t much different. He might be all cute and play music all the time, but his robotic brain goes crazy. I can’t talk about Suho, his first name is ‘who the hell is’ for me so,” she shrugged, taking another sip from her drink. Maybe she was rambling, maybe she did that a lot when she was nervous. Or maybe it was the fact that Sehun was staring.
“You know… Economics is not that bad. We do work with numbers, but we work with people too. I’m actually sad you shoved me in the same basket as all of the engineers at this table,” he pouted a little and she wanted to kick herself for imagining a lost puppy again.
“Baek is not an engineer either. He’s worse. Robotics and all. And you guys… You make us think you work with people, but all those worksheets don’t fool me. You’re just as complicated as the others.”
“What about you architects? That’s what you study, right? I kinda did my research with Suho. As I recall, his opinion on you was ‘the girl with green hair that goes out with Annie from time to time? She studies architecture. Always complain about engineers,” he shrugged, chuckling a little and sipping from his own drink.
Well. So Suho and Y/N thought the same thing about one another. Not bad. She just rolled her eyes at Sehun, laughing softly then and shrugging.
“We study Art. Every building tells a story. Of a time, of the owner, of a city. It’s stupid to think they are just buildings. Did you know that if we all died this moment, nature would take over the planet in ten to fifteen years? The buildings only survive because they matter, alright?” she said, almost pointing a finger at him.
Sehun laughed softly, taking her hand in his and making her eyes go wide in surprise. “You’re making it hard for me to flirt with you. I can’t think of a pick up line related to buildings, Y/N.”
Oh. Oh!! So the flirting was real? The flirting was real. He was holding her hand and the flirting was real. Y/N bit down on her lower lip and shrugged. She couldn’t think of anything else to say, all she could do was stare at his eyes - she noticed he wasn’t wearing his glasses today. Damn Italy for introducing her to college. To her friends. To good party and to Sehun.
“Well…” she started, looking down for a second and then let herself stare at his shoulders, his lips, his eyes and his face. “I guess I could use a new drink? This one has gotten too sweet?” she shrugged, looking around and noticing that Baek was now paying attention to his girlfriend and to them. She thought he was going to wave, but he actually moved his hand shooing them away.
Sehun was bad at flirting but he wasn’t horrible at getting it. He stood up and pulled Y/N with him towards the bar and away from the table. If her friends were anything like the friends he had in London, it would be impossible for them to kiss without her friends stopping them for an interrogation. And he was 95% sure they were.
They didn’t really stop at the bar, he just kept going until they found a nice wall to lean against. Y/N thought it was a shame that his back was against the wall and the bar couldn’t appreciate how beautiful it is. The thought went away when he pulled her closer by the waist, his hands pressing hard enough for her attention to be moved there for a moment. With another squeeze, Sehun caught her attention again and the look on his face was asking her if she was okay with it. Okay with his hands touching her, okay with the fact that he wanted to kiss her, okay with their bodies pressed closer.
Instead of nodding, Y/N moved closer and pressed her lips against his for a brief moment. She didn’t continue the kiss. Sehun did. And he did it perfectly, thank you very much. When Baek asked her to describe it later, she would say it felt like kissing the sun because it burned. She was aware of his lips against hers, his hands pressing against her back, his leg finding its way between hers, her entire torso pressed against his broad one.
Damn Italy. Fucking Italy.
They say you know the night was crazy when you wake up on your bed with a stranger, but they never write about waking up on a stranger’s bed with a cat sitting on top of your stomach. Y/N groaned a little, looking at the black cat with a frown and then to the side where she could see broad shoulders. Sehun’s broad shoulders. Maybe she was repeating herself way too much, but those shoulders were made in heaven and deserved love.
After they had started kissing the night before they didn’t really stop. Chanyeol and Kai found them kissing half an hour after they had vanished from the table - and they only found them because they were too looking for a spot to kiss senseless. And then they danced together, they drank, they celebrated Chanyeol and his birthday and they only went home around five. Annie and Baek had vanished from the bar around three and Suho went home around four.
Wait.
Sehun is Suho’s roommate. Does that mean Y/N just woke up inside Who The Hell Is Suho’s apartment? And was this his cat? It definitely does match his Aerospace Engineer soul to have a black cat. As if on cue, Sehun started moving on the bed. He yawned, groaning a little and turned around to look at her with a huge sleepy smile on his lips.
“His name is Paws. He is Suho’s. I think he’s four years old? He used to be Chen’s,” he said as if the information matter or as if Y/N knew who Chen is. “He likes you. It took me a week to get him to like me.”
“I’m just that nice. Cats all around the world like me. It’s a thing,” she said, her voice still a big sleepy. She only noticed the lack of clothes under the blankets when she moved to lay on her side. So sleeping with Sehun wasn’t part of the dream. Good. Because it had been one hell of a good dream.
Sehun laughed softly, leaning closer to press a kiss to her lips. “Good morning,” he hummed. They both heard Paws meowing and jumping out of the bed, allowing Y/N to move closer to Sehun.
That morning when they started kissing again, they weren’t drunk or dreaming. They were both fully aware of each other’s bodies and not minding the fact they would be late for their morning classes that Thursday.
Getting out of the bathroom after a shower wearing the pants she had been wearing the night before and a t-shirt that belong to Sehun was great. Finding Suho making them breakfast while talking to his cat was a tad weird. Sehun was already eating, drinking his coffee and laughing at whatever it was that Suho was telling the cat. Those people from the Engineering building. She was glad she wasn’t one of them.
“How do you like your coffee?” Suho asked, moving to grab a mug. And before she could say anything, Sehun smirked and replied for her.
“Spilled over sleeping strangers probably,” the tall boy teased, making Y/N roll her eyes and move closer, wrapping her arms around his waist, pressing another kiss to one of his shoulders.
“Yes. Especially if it’s just as hot as said stranger,” she dared him to continue with a raise of her eyebrow. Suho just laughed in defeat, making his way to finish her coffee and place the mug in front of her on the counter.
Y/N sat down letting Suho make them breakfast, laughing at their jokes. It definitely made her happy to be there laughing. Maybe the thoughts of quitting college every single day would go away, maybe she could start thanking Sapienza every now and then.
Thank you Italy. Thank you college. Thank you Baek. Thank you Annie. Thank you Suho. Thank you Chen. Thank you engineering building. And thank you horrible parties.
