bet on you
pairing: the boyz haknyeon x (f/long haired) reader
genre: slight thriller, fluff, friends to lovers
warnings: gun mentions, 1 very short mention of death, store robbery, very rushed im sry
word count: 3.2k
prompt: leave it to haknyeon to make everything about this horrible day to make you feel better
a/n: someone stop me from writing such dark stories. also my first friends to lovers how exciting. we all need a hak in our life, have you seen that boy’s smile like :((( give me one
It’s hard to prepare yourself for a long day at work, dreading customers, the labor and just the emotional fatigue that would come with faking a smile for strangers all day. But you did it? Every single day for the last 2 years. And you’d think that this day would go as uneventful as any other day has been.
When you’d come into work today, you’d been busy behind the register, watching the sun shy away from a sunset. Every now and then, the customers would walk in, purchase something and then leave just like they always did. Like you expected, a normal day.
However when it was time to grab merchandise towards the end of the work day, you’d gone to the back of the store where storage was. All alone, you pray that you don’t fall off the ladder you’ve just opened to grab a box from the top shelf just when you hear the back door bang open.
You jump at the loud noise, stopping your search to stare at the direction it came from for a few seconds. It’s probably just Mia or Aisha taking the trash out, maybe the door wasn’t fully closed and it’s just Haknyeon fixing it. So you think nothing of it, letting your pounding heart settle down enough to stabilize yourself in such a high position. Carefully, you reach the ground floor again, the box heavy in your hands.
From just the other side of the wall, you can hear chattering from the rest of the employees on the sales floor. They laugh, joke around and you get excited to go back out, getting closer to closing time and eventually, going home.
As you turn the corner, headed to the door that separates you from them, you hear heavy steps, rushing at you. You have no time to turn around and find out who it is before they grab you, an arm around your neck pushing your back against their chest. And then, the very cold feeling of something metal on your temple.
The grip on the box tightens so much that you almost lose grip on it and it slips a little. Your quick movement to grab it before slamming down onto your toes must have shocked the man because he yells at you to stop moving. Him being so close to your ears makes it that much louder than he probably sounded. You want to shield your face, cover yourself and feel safe but you can’t with his hold on you. The gun presses harder against your temple and you’re sure it’s going to leave some kind of imprint on you, but you’re even more sure a shot fired this close to you would surely kill you. You worry more about the imprint to distract yourself from the second thought.
“You’re going to take me to the registers and you’re going to open them for me, alright? Then I’ll let you go and you can forget this ever happened. Sound good?”
You nod, holding the box tighter than ever against your chest. The merchandise rattles as you take the extra steps to the door, he reaches an arm out, the weapon in his hands and he uses his extra fingers to swing the door open.
From out of nowhere, another pair of footsteps rushes in from behind you both. The man with the gun to your head doesn’t move and let’s the second man go around him, also waving a gun around, dressed in black and a mask over his face. You assume this man must be dressed the same when you look down at his arm and see it covered with a black long sleeve. They were smart to avoid skin showing, possibly expose any marks that could be a dead giveaway to recognizing them.
But knowing this only scares you more. They’re smart, they’ll get away with this and probably even get away with killing you.
Your heart rattles against your chest, pounding for help. And with the door open, everyone from the sales floor is now getting yelled at to stay on the ground, only one person catches your gaze, the very same eyes you’d been searching for.
Haknyeon has his head tilted towards you, big brown eyes widened once he’d realize where you’d been this whole time. You look around to see the rest of the employees face down, and the few customers left curled into themselves. Haknyeon looks straight at you.
“Alright, it’s your time to shine.” The man shoves you behind the counter where all 4 registers sit. Lena, who had just been behind the counter gets pulled out, and thrown to the floor with the rest of them. You log into the first computer before your fingers freeze, completely having forgot that you don’t have access to the register. Out of fright, you’d completely agreed to let this man have the money without even thinking about it.
You lips tremble as you make an attempt to explain yourself but this only annoys the man who’s already frustrated that you’d stopped typing. “Hurry up, what’s the problem?”
“I-I don’t- I can’t unlock the register. Only managers can do that.”
The man huffs and releases his hold around you, the gun easing off your temple. “Who’s the manager here?” He yells, aiming his gun at the crowd on the floor. Everyone helps in surprise, shielding their face from the weapon.
“Me, I’ll do it.” Kevin raises his hand and from your spot you can tell just how scared he was. His entire body was shaking, telling you that he also had never prepared for a day like this. His keys jungle as he makes his way over to you, frozen in place. His eyes soften at the sight of you, and you give him a curt nod as if to say you’re okay. As scared as you were, You couldn’t make him even more scared right now.
The keyboard clacks under his fingers, pressing hard before one register flies open.
The second man hurries over, grabbing the bills from their slots and slams the drawer closed again, waiting for the next. “That’s it?” The guy mumbles, not knowing that Kevin was opening the register they prioritized for card transactions only. The second register he gets open, is the extra cash drawer, almost emptied from the rush of today. The man huffs again, scooping what little he’s offered.
Just as Kevin moves to the next drawer, the one Lena had just been on, he hesitates. “What? What’s wrong?”
Kevin looks up from behind his eyelashes, flashing a look at you, at the rest of his employees lying face down on the ground and then finally over them outside the window. It’s dark out and nearly no one is walking around anymore. Kevin shakes his head to respond to the man, continuing to type his pin and password into the two registers before they open with a slam.
The second guy, the one not holding you by your arm, pushes you out of the way and rushes towards the money, grabbing handfuls of whats in there. It’s not a lot, but you suppose it’s enough when you’re as desperate as they must be.
Kevin backs away to let them pick up all the money and just as he does so, the back door slams open. You look at him with wide eyes, scared out of your mind that they’ve called for backup and this is probably going to be the last time you see him, see anyone in this room. Immediately, your eyes search for Haknyeon’s again and it only takes a second for him to feel your eyes on him. He watches your eyes as they lower, down to the corner where a box cutter lies. He must know exactly what you’re thinking because then he shakes his head, small so he doesn’t get noticed but with enough consternation to tell you not even to think about it.
But you can’t. You have to save yourself, save him, save all these other people right now before you all get killed.
However, as soon as you decide now is the time to make a move, the masked men exchange looks. Your body twitches at their sudden yelling, asking each other what was going on or whether they closed the back door or not. The second guy hesitates to move but follows instructions, giving away that he was just an extra and not the leader, though they both seem to be bad at this.
Before the guy can fully enter the backroom, the door slams open again, and the guy reappears with a gun aimed straight at him. The gun appears slowly, inch by inch until the person holding it shows up from the doorway.
A few people yelp at the sight, not entirely sure what was happening but at the sight of the bulletproof vest and the badge. “Everyone, on the ground, hands out so we can see them!”
A few more police come up from behind him, prepared to help. One comes near you, gun aimed at the man holding you back from going on the ground or putting your hands up. And the gun he has is right on your temple again.
The only thing you can do is close your eyes, you can’t even think. You’re frozen, fully aware of what was going on but not being able to do much with the metal pressing into your. The grip on your arm tightens for a quick second before it loosens and slips off.
A moment later, you come back to earth, hearing the heavy shuffling of feet exit the room. A warm hand lands on your shoulder and the question, “Are you okay?”
Kevin’s voice is soft in your ear, waiting for you to nod, to say yes, anything to tell him you’re okay. And so you do, eyes still semi closed and only opening them fully when you see the two masked men out of the room. A policeman walks in and out of the store, asking Kevin to come with him for questions.
Kevin leaves you after giving your back a soft pat to move up and go with everyone else.
Lena can be see hugging another coworker of yours, crying into her shoulder as they hold each other. Everyone else is clearly shaken up, already on the phone with loved ones to update them about what just happened and telling them the good news. Others are in shock, waiting silently until they can get their brain and body working again so they can go home.
And then there’s Haknyeon, standing right in front of you, eyes locked on you.
You don’t even feel your body move towards his but before you know it, you’re enveloped in his arms. You can’t even cry when you put your forehead down onto his shoulder but his hold on you tightens, wrapping you up in his warmth, his will to be comforting and safe. “I’m so sorry” he whispers into the crown of your head, voice cracking towards the end.
His hands are shaking, as are yours but it doesn’t stop him from making you feel safe. His arms move up to keep your head close to him, letting your entire body tremble against his. And as soon as you’re ready to back away, he doesn’t let go of your waist.
He sticks right by you as the police ask their routine questions, wanting to know what you saw when the robbers had first come in. Haknyeon finally removes his arm only to take your hand into his and continuously rub his thumb along your knuckles. You look down at it, thinking about how earlier he tried running away from you for using glittered lotion and threatened to rub some onto his face. But now, it seems he either forgot or really doesn’t care. Still, it’s clear his priority is you right now and the idea of that runs through your head, down to your heart and settling in your stomach.
“I’m gonna take you home” he says once the police drive away, giving you the clear to go home. Kevin came up to you, talked to you and gave you the option to stay home for the rest of the week if you needed to. But you notice the small smile on his face when he looks down at your hand, fingers intertwined with Haknyeon’s.
“Make sure she gets home safe.” He aims at Haknyeon, pulling back the knowing smile he’d been fighting.
Haknyeon takes a deep breath once outside, standing at the door of his car. He still hasn’t let you go when he turns to face you.
“Are you okay? Really okay?” His free hand takes a strand of hair from your face and carefully tucks it behind your ear, flatting it the rest of the way down. You nod.
“This could be really traumatizing for you and I just want you to know if you ever need to talk to someone, I’m here. Everyone here is, okay? We all love you, so much and we never want you to go through anything alone.”
Your heart warms, your stomach does flips, and your breath hitches. “I know.”
“But most importantly, I will be here for you. I won’t let anything happen to you again. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
The corners of your lips rise slowly, pushing your heated cheeks up. You’re lucky your in a parking lot and not inside where the lights would blast you like a spotlight.
“I hope you know I’ll hold you to that” a chuckle falls past your lips and he follows with a short laugh. Silence takes over shortly after, deep breaths breathing out clouds of white. Amused eyes lock gaze with yours, though you can’t entirely see the way his pupils dilate once you look back at him. His hand comes back up to view, taking another fallen strand of your hair but instead of tucking this one back, he plays with it for a bit, lying it back down your front. His hand trembles, possibly from the cold but also most likely from the adrenaline of what happened, but as soon as he tucks his fingers under your chin, he stabilizes.
A shaky breath leave his lips, which also tremble as he breathes out. He parts his lips, prepared to say something but just when he’s ready, the sound of another voice stops him.
“Just kiss already so I can win the bet!”
Both you and Haknyeon flick your heads to the front door where Lena and a few others have gathered. They’d all been watching you this whole time apparently, waiting for him to make a move.
To be honest, you had heard a word or two about Haknyeon’s liking for you but you’d always passed it off as him being friendly and loving towards everyone he met. Strangers liked him, his friends and family loved him and you were just someone among those people. But what you hadn’t told them was you were among those people and something more.
Finding out he would be working the same days as you made your heart race, seeing him smile only made your terrible days turn into ones full of sunshine, hearing his laugh made you laugh with him, sharing food and conversations was something you looked forward to every single day. They had no idea that every time they’d mention Haknyeon and his possible crush on you, your stomach was a professional Cirque du Soleil performer, flipping and turning for hours.
They had no idea you’d go home to your roommates and go on and on and on about Haknyeon and the little, trivial thing he’d done for you. How you’d gush about him until they got tired of it, until the next day you’d work with him.
Haknyeon removes a hand from your face to flip them and turns your body to lean against his car, his back to the peeping crowd.
“Your friends are such nosy people,” he rolls his eyes, giving you that antsy feeling you’d always get when he teased you like this. His hand comes back up to hold your cheek, stroking your warm skin with his thumb. You look over your shoulder to see Lena accepting money from others, confident that she was going to win this bet. And a part of you hopes she’s right.
You look back up at him. “Y/n, I like you.”
You want to make a joke, agree with him and use his words from earlier to confirm you knew that. But you’re at a loss for words. You feel like a teenager again, heart thumping so loud you swore if there wasn’t cars driving around, that he’d be able to hear it. Still self-conscious, you look down.
“I’ve liked you for a while now.” He begins to panic, his eyes searching back and forth between yours for an answer. You think he’s going to keep going but he doesn’t, too freaked out that he’d just confessed to you after so long. But the longer you stay quiet, the more he’s going to think you don’t feel the same so to answer him while also satisfying yourself, you lean in.
His lips are cold from having stood outside for so long. And yours are dry from the lack of water today but neither of you seem to mind. The soft kiss leads into a more passionate one, squishing your faces together as close as you could while also giving enough space to breath and not suffocate yourselves. You can feel yourself levitate, your feet going up on it’s toes when he takes your lips between his own.
From behind him, you can hear the cheers and whoops, a round of claps erupting and a very enthusiastic Lena.
“I’m kinda offended some of them bet against us ending up with each other, I thought I was making it super obvious.” He mumbles against your lips. You giggle, shrugging as if to pretend you had no idea either.
When you finally part, he takes your hand into his again and turns to face the others, lifting your arms above your heads as a symbol of triumph. You can’t help but laugh again, waving goodbye before you get into the car.
He takes one look at you, in his passenger seat where you’d sat plenty of times before, just now, it’s different. “Sorry, I just- this is like- I’ve been waiting for this to happen.”
He shakes his head like it’s unbelievable, meanwhile your heart and brain are doing the same thing only you are going to wait until you’re home to jump up and down, possibly celebrate with your friends over text. You truly couldn’t wait to tell them.
“If it helps in any way, my roommates are a big fan of you.” You let him know of the conversations you’d had of him to them, omitting the way you’d bring him up in almost every single conversation or how you’d never stop complimenting him. He smiles the whole way to your home, clearly enjoying this too much. Though you know his ego can use a little boost right now.
And once you’re outside, his car rumbling low, you look at him, preparing yourself to say goodbye and leave the warmth and comfort of him. One look at your apartment building remind you of the cold brick walls and how you’d have to stack up an extra blanket tonight, unless-
“Can you stay with me?”
Haknyeon is already smiling wide at you, like he’d expected this but you say nothing about it.
“Of course I can.”
