I (heart) You
Title: I (heart) YOU
Pairing: JongKey
Genre: fluff, humor, romance
Summary: Snarky, sharp tongued Kim Jonghyun finds a job. Curious Kim Jonghyun sees a sleepy boy on the booth bench at the juice bar. Sweet, naïve, innocent Kim Jonghyun uses Post-its to communicate with the strangers. Love comes in all kinds of ways.
A/N: A remake of a YoonYul oneshot I read. If you want to see the original click here. (I think you have to be a member of soshified to see it though)
Kim Jonghyun is a victim of the poor economy. He loves his friends, his big sister, and his puppy Roo. But what he hates is his minimum-wage paying job as the busboy for the booming Jingle Jang Juice Bar (try saying that ten times fast). The place screams “Kill me now!” while the customers look like they should be at a senior’s marathon for Susan G. Komen’s breast cancer thing.
When he thought of applying he wondered whether he had a chance to get into Sandara Park’s pants. Her father owned the place, actually, the whole block. But because of her stinky little pest of a brother he had no luck. He probably looked like a hobo out on the street anyways. Who said he needed Dara? He could have anyone he wanted. He was Kim Jonghyun, hot muscle man in progress, after all.
He reaches blindly, under the counter for another bucket to collect the empty glasses. His face is anything but bright in this dim lit room they called the juice lab. He places the gray container on top of the cart and makes his way out of the double doors. His thigh gets caught between the doors, as always, and he kicks it off angrily. Is he really angry, though? No. He’s just terribly bored of the same exact routine, every stinking day.
Except today, when he gets into the actual juice bar, a peculiar sight catches his eyes. Very peculiar indeed.
He rolls the cart closer and closer to the red booth. A leg is sprawled out on the side nearest to him, the boy’s head is dangling uncomfortably on the windowsill (barely), and the snow-white arms are resting lifelessly on the checkered table.
‘Could you overdose on a Mango Manga smoothie?’ Jonghyun asks himself.
Whether or not he was dead, drunk, or drugged, he had a beautiful body. And from his position, it looked like he would get a crick in his neck. Jonghyun acted quickly. He took out a clean cloth from the bottom row of the plastic cart. He pushed the boy’s white MacBook to the side after turning it off, stacked his Biochemistry textbooks along the side, and closed his turquoise blue notebook with the carrot pen marking its place.
He looked at the boy’s figure again. He lifted his foot up, nudging the kid in the thigh.
“Yah…” he says softly, some part of him doesn’t want him to wake up.
He’s a quitter, what can he say? He stops at one nudge and reaches over to bring his head up. He makes sure the rag makes a pillow shape before collapsing the head on top. He gets small tingles starting at his feet when he feels the boy’s soft breath on his wrist as he sets him down.
‘I guess I should know his name.’ he thinks as he opens the cover to the book. He smiles when he sees they share the same last name.
“Kim Kibum, well isn’t that cute.” Jonghyun purrs.
He backs up, pulling the pen and sticky note pad out from his cloth apron pocket. He scribbles messily, concentrating on how his penmanship might look to the boy. Presentation is everything. He rips the paper off the pad and sticks it to the boy’s forehead, maybe pushing it in a little rough.
He rolls away after throwing the three empty Mango Manga smoothies in the container. He whips by to the next booth, chuckling happily through the whole room until he disappears into the kitchen. These are the times when he wishes he was a waiter.
*
Kibum hears someone next to him snort and he immediately claps his hands over his nose and mouth. He can’t get sick this week, not with finals and all. He squints, finally noticing the small, seed-like indents that covered his left cheek. As he expected, a (maybe 100 thread count) hand towel… or rag. He picks it up with the tips of his fingers and throws it to the side.
His eyebrows furrow as he yawns. Then he feels it, the not very sticky post-it stuck to his forehead. The outline of it is covering part of his sight as he looks forward. He grumpily stretches his jaw out, as there is a new cramp in it. He lazily picks the piece of paper off.
‘Is this some weird poor man’s check?’
To Kim Kibum
Please sleep in a bed and
Not the juice bar. We don’t
Clean up people, only cups.
Kibum takes a while for his eyes to clear up. He smiles lightly, surprisingly he finds it funny that someone would actually put a towel as a pillow. It’s obviously time to leave.
But when he feels for his books (he’s still very sleepy at this point) he wakes up a little more. Everything is stacked up, closed, and turned off. Has someone looked at his the French catalouge he downloaded? Whatever, soft porn wasn’t really his thing. It was for his French class… honest!
*
Jonghyun is back to his old routine of cleaning, clearing, and watching the old reruns of The Simpsons from the 12 inch by 12 inch TV in the back room. He hasn’t gone to the front today yet, though. His boss told him to stay in the warm room until he absolutely had to go clean up. It was eleven in the morning so there weren’t many customers to clean up after.
But when he is called, he runs (practically) to the front desk and fishes the container out to maybe see a tip or two. He rolls past table eight, no tip. He comes across table five, three dollars, he stuffs it in his pocket. He almost walks past table one and into the next room when he sees the same figure, in the same, crampy postion.
He stops, noticing a piece of notebook paper. He peered over the few cups and onto the neat writing. He grins at the way it’s tacked to the table.
‘I’m not buying a new table…’
Dear Mr. Creep,
I think I can do what I
Want. I don’t think I ever
Asked for a busboy to
Clean me up *wink*
Jonghyun choked back a gasp. Was this… fourteen year old… flirting with him? Impossible. Was he getting turned on? No! But he did get excited, he sure hoped it didn’t stop. He liked penpals. He was always getting in trouble for passing notes in class to Sekyung anyways.
How do you know I’m a mister
And not a miss? Why in the
World would you think I was
Single anyways? What if I was
A pedophile, hm?
He hoped to God the kid wouldn’t think that he was a pedophile. But it would be nice to know how clever the high school boy was.
*
It seemed like the whole world consisted of sticky notes and notepad paper. Jonghyun found it all intriguing, to say the least.
Well, you seem weird.
Plus, you made a remark
About cleaning. You are
Writing back, and you
Didn’t ask: A/S/L yet.
Touche, darling. But just for
The sake of fun… Age?
P.S. You look cute when you
Sleep.
Age: 17 (Happy now
Aren’t you?)
P.S. I like guys (Yum)
Seventeen, huh? I think that
Makes us illegal. Plus your
A little too flirty with a stranger
Don’t you think? What makes
You think I’d like guys?
Awww *pout* screw
The law, let’s get to
Know each other! But
The way you write
Screams want. :p
I’m scared for you kid. What
If someone sweeps your tiny
Body when I’m not looking? Pssh
I’m not gay, FYI, and I follow the
Law.
… the only person that
Would touch me is you!
As Jonghyun leaned closer to the the tiny handwriting he jumped back. Kibum grinned, his grip on Jonghyun’s hand never released as he rubbed his eyes.
“Imagine how I felt being touched.” Kibum murmured.
Jonghyun was still shaking like a baby chihuahua when Kibum patted the seat next to him. Jonghyun settled for the opposite bench.
Kibum frowned a bit. “You’re a little passive.”
“Ye-yeah… but, you know… I didn’t expect you to attack me.”
“I didn’t attack you! I held your hand. It was pretty soft actually, I liked it.”
Jonghyun nodded nervously, his palms were wet with sweat and he was wiping them furiously on his pants if Kibum were to do a surprise attack on them again.
Kibum leaned forward. “You like me, don’t you?”
“No… I’m straight.”
“Sure you are,” Kibum pokes his finger in Jonghyun’s chest two times matching the rhythm in his voice,” Mis-ter!”
“Really, I am!”
“Just as I thought.” Kibum sat back down in his chair, swirling the straw around the thick smoothie.
“Thought what?”
“You’re fun to tease.”
And like that, Kibum slaps a five dollar bill on the table and exits. The bell chimes as the door is opened again for a new customer.
Jonghyun slouches in the comfy booth for a few minutes. He lets out three yoga fire breaths. He will not go to jail for raping that Kim Kibum kid. He will not.
*
But the week goes by slowly. There isn’t any note passing. Kibum barely comes by anymore and Jonghyun is losing hope if he ever gets to see the perky boy with the chocolate brown hair. But he finally gets a package when he hears the familiar chime at the door. He jumps up from the beach chair and runs to the ordering window.
There he is, in the same table, same side of the booth. His hair is the same, his pouty pink lips are the same, he is the same. He waves over a waiter and gives them his regular. The waiter enters the kitchen, her eyes wandering over Jonghyun.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Jonghyun looks at her for a seconds before returning his hungry eyes on the seventeen year old. “Mind if I stick something on his order?”
“Aw, you’re gay now? That’s sweet. But sure, you can.” She pauses and hands him a pen. “You might need this.”
Jonghyun shakes his head, reaching into his own apron to take out his pen. No avail. He stares at her hand in confusion, it’s his pen.
“H-how..?”
“Magic! Now hurry up and write that post-it.”
Jonghyun quickly writes a sentence and sticks it on the cup that has less condensation. He waves her off and watches from his rightful spot. He sees his grin as he catches the yellow sticky note. He smiles himself when the waiter joins him behind the security of the wall.
They both watch and the noona s assigned the job of a messenger.
So you came back I see.
Miss me much?
I had finals last week.
Catch any girls yet?
How do you think you did
On your tests? I don’t
Remember them being so long.
Don’t change the
Subject Mr. Straight.
Just say yes.
I wasn’t trying to change
The subject…
You never asked me anything
To say yes to.
As Jonghyun tried to attached the sticky note to the sweating cup a hand snatched it away. He stood up straighter, his mouth agape.
Kibum chuckled as he read it aloud,” ‘I wasn’t trying to change the subject’ yeah right, ah hem ‘You never asked me anything to say yes to’ well isn’t that perky.”
“What?”
“A date. Go on a date with me.” Kibum paid full attention to the twitch in Jonghyun’s eyes and the squeal in the backround.
“What?”
“You like repeating yourself a lot don’t you?”
“No, but, what? Like a date, date? I told you I’m straight.”
Kibum shrugged. “And I told you I liked guys. Does it really matter? I asked you for a date, and you’re turning me down?”
“I’m not turning you down… but…”
“My age? Because I’m seventeen?”
And it was true, Kibum’s minor age was worrying him. He was a total teacher’s pet when it came to the law. He just turned nineteen in April. It was August now.
“Yes, your age.” He said it clearly, because, well he was sick of stuttering.
“Fine.”
Jonghyun watched the boy turn with the squeak of his sneakers, pack up his books, and slam the door on his way out. He stood there emotionless. This boy put a phase on him, some magic spell. Yuri made her way next to him. She had her arms crossed and her lip in a tight line.
“So I guess me burning twenty calories doesn’t move you?”
*
Jonghyun crossed off one more day on the business calendar. It was the 23rd of August and no sign of the fair skinned boy anywhere. Had he really gotten mad enough to quit coming to the juice bar? Was it Jonghyun’s fault that their loyal customer left and wasn’t coming back?
It was closing time, unfortunately. It was Yuri’s job to close the bar and lock up. He had already bid her goodbye and left after splitting the tips. The walk home was lonely. The autumn breeze wisped past his face and into his hair, tangling it.
He opened the gate to his apartment complex and closed it. he trudged up the steps, opened the door, checked his mailbox, and galloped up the stairs to the third floor. His apartment was small, but cozy, and close to his college.
And, in utter amazement, he saw the same notepad paper, same red tack, poked in the indent of his peer hole. He looked around suspiciously, holding onto the railing quite tightly if anyone were to come by and push him down when he put his guard down.
He tippy-toed next to his door and pushed his key in quickly. He ripped the piece of paper off and slid into his home. He shrugged his coat, scarf, and earmuffs off onto the couch as he took the note into the kitchen.
It was a long one.
Okay. So I dunno how you work with your
Crazy love life, straight, gay or bi, BUT I
Turned eighteen today and… well, yeah I wanted
To tell you. I guess you’re living your life fine
Without me coming to the juice bar everyday
Now, right? Well I’m not… I want to see you
Some time. So this is me asking you out for a
Friendly friend dinner, hoping you’ll say yes.
Mind you, I don’t ask anyone out, NEVER.
So whaddya say? Truce, dinner, and a
Eighteen year old??
- KIBUM!
This kid will never rest. He crumpled the paper in his hands and made a basketball shot into the trash can. How did he know the kid wasn’t just faking it to get into his wallet? You know, kids these days were all about taking money from the cougar people and all.
Even if they did go out and stuff it would never be good. He was gay, yes, straight… ehm not really. But in past relationships it wasn’t too good, the end result, that is. He always ended up with a dirty body and loose dollar bills in his pant pocket, swollen eyes and broken plates, or the classic, angst with a gallon of Phish Food by Ben and Jerry’s.
He was weird, sensitive, and obviously old. He scared people away as much as he lured them in, and shooed them away as much as he loved them. That’s how it worked in his house. But being honest, he wanted a real love life, one with an everlasting boyfriend. He had given some thought to Kibum, but come on; he was still in high school.
Innocent high school kids never played out well. Not unless you wanted to pop a cherry and relive or reenact some awkward virgin porn you picked up from the ADULTS ONLY room in Blockbuster.
Ding Dong!
Jonghyun whipped his head forward, looking at the door as if it were speaking gibberish (or talking at all). He makes a dodge for his bedroom where the intercom is. He takes a few deep yoga fire breaths and presses the TALK button.
“Hello?”
“It’s a simple yes or no.”
“Well what if I don’t want to? That would be a no in my book.” He’s being cocky and it gives him some upper strength. But the butterflies in his stomach are going crazy and he has no idea why he’s hiding being this piece of technology.
“Well,” he starts,” I’ll have to wait here at your door forever until you say yes.”
This catches Jonghyun off guard, way off guard. It’s Monday tomorrow, which means school. If he were to skip school just to go on a date with him didn’t that mean he was… dedicated?
“I find it highly unlikely that you would skip school, you know.”
And at that Jonghyun could hear a suspicious coughing scoff fit, to be honest, he worries a bit.
“You don’t believe I can? I’m a badass senior.”
“Have fun setting up camp then, kid.” And he releases the TALK button relentlessly.
*
The night is quiet all the way until nine o’clock. Jonghyun has already forgotten about Kibum but soon realizes that he’s still there when his doorbell bleeps and a completely full notepad is stuck under his door.
And the notes start once again.
Will you always reject me?
Pretty much. Why don’t you just save some time and
Go back home? I bet you’re starving.
Nah, I don’t eat much at home anyways.
Well aren’t you bored?
I brought my MacBook with me. I’m kay right here…
Why don’t you have anything to do except stay outside
My apartment? You have a life don’t you?
That hurts. Yes, Mr.Stranger, I have a life. But
It consists of hanging around a guy’s door until
He lets me in.
You don’t know me.
But I want to. We should play a game.
Jonghyun is perched against his wall, next to the triple locked door. He waits for the notebook to go under the door for thirty minutes. He finds out that Kibum likes to eat everything, he likes going shopping, and he has an obsession for boba tea.
Kibum finds out that jonghyun is a college student, worked at seven jobs, and goes to the library to read his favorite parts of Romeo and Juliet. Three pages are filled and Kibum thinks it’s time to finally dig.
Have you had any relationship
In the past three months?
Yeah. With a girl.
Sure… a girl. Will you PLEASE
Go out with me?
Good night Mr.Kim.
Can you do one thing for me?
What is it?
Stay at the door with me.
Okay.
Even though Jonghyun was going to stay there anyways it was nice to be wanted. It was nice, really nice, to hear someone’s sleepy puffs of breath.
*
Jonghyun automatically feels the crick in his neck when he wakes up the next morning. He sees the mess of sticky notes (Kibum’s yellow ones he bought to match Jonghyun’s) and crumpled up pieces of notepad paper all over the hardwood floor. He hears the light snoring of Kibum on the other side of the wall.
‘Maybe… just once, he can come in.’ he thinks as he unlocks the door.
He crouches down, watching the boy curl and uncurl his fingers, pout and unpout his lips, and just become the sight of his dreams. He lets his fingers rub the ends of the boy’s chocolate brown hair first, before they go in, full-on through the scalp. He wipes the small beads of sweat off his forehead.
He makes sure his arm is supporting his neck and his other arm holding up his legs. He brings him in, settling him on his twin bed. He stays at the doorway for a little bit. It’s been so long since someone has been in his house, minus Yuri.
Wait, house, yuri, Kibum coming to his house… YURI.
He almost stomps to his cellphone that is hanging by the charger and snaps it open. He dials angrily. The vibrating beeps to his ear is really annoying now.
“Hello Jonghyun… it’s like, nine in the morning.” Yuri’s voice weasels out.
“Oh well I’m soooo sorry to bother you, BUT, I need to ask you something.”
“Shoot.”
“How did the kid at the juice bar know where I live?”
Silence, then Yuri sighs,” Come on, dude, he freaking loves your guts. You haven’t had sex, touching, kissing or ANYTHING in months! Where did your game go, huh? Didn’t your noona tell you some pointers when a hot, sexy, porn-star-looking kid walks into your love range? I mean like… HELLO STUPID CUPID GET A GRIP!”
Jonghyun almost considers it as he is pacing back and forth in his room. He shakes it out when he walks out of the boy’s hearing range.
“God Yuri! Shut up. I hate you. Bye.”
He slams the phone down onto the coffee table and kicks his feet up. He’ll give this kid a chance just to prove that Yuri is wrong. Yuri has no right to tell teenagers where his loft is, no right in hell.
*
Kibum wakes up, comfortably. He sniffs the blanket once, and he immediately wakes up. The place is weird. The room is dwarf-ish, the bed is a twin, and the whole place smells like apple and cinnamon.
‘This couldn’t be… holy shit!’
He peers out the doorway and sees him. He giggles, noticing that Jonghyun is sleeping. He quietly crawls over to the couch. He is ready to spring up. The heat is absorbing his body and he is sure he is a deep crimson. He jumps up, landing square on Jonghyun’s lap. His arms are connected at his neck and he is looking quite appealing at the moment. He scoots closer and he feels Jonghyun’s morning wood under the thin cloth of his sweats.
“Why hello there, honey.” Jonghyun whispers as he opens one eye and discovers their position.
“Hi!”
“Have a nice sleep?”
“Yup.”
“Good…”
“Mmmmmhm!”
“Can you get off me now?”
It isn’t really a question because Jonghyun automatically lifts him up and puts him on a separate cushion. He hears a small noise of dissaproval coming from the boy and he amusingly wipes his eyes. He turns back to Kibum. He has his legs in criss-cross-apple-sauce and his hands clasps together in a prayer.
“You’re cute,” Jonghyun laughs,” But tell me one thing.”
“Yeah?”
“Why would you go out with stranger when you don’t even know their name?”
“Oh… well, because I know I’ll get it sooner or later.”
Jonghyun nods in agreement. “Alright, one date it is.”
“REEEEALLY?!”
“Sure, why not.”
*
“I hope you like walking.”
“Love it.”
*
They jog all the way to the juice bar and have the couples special. This makes Kibum’s heart go thump.
*
“So will you tell me your name?”
Jonghyun shakes his head. “Nope.”
“How about another date?”
“Meet me at the Han River?”
“You got it sergeant!” And Kibum saluts him goodbye.
*
They ride bikes all day until Jonghyun buys icecream. The noise of the bubbling brook makes Kibum feel confident. He licks his chocolate swirl around the edges and bites off a piece of his cone.
“Do I have the pleasure of knowing your name yet?” Kibum tries.
“I don’t think so, not yet, at least.”
Kibum gets up, throwing the piece of paper that came with his icecream away in the trash can.
“Then I think I’ll have to have another date tomorrow.”
“What.. why?” But Jonghyun knows he wants another date, badly.
*
So after their sixth date Kibum still calls Jonghyun Mr.Stranger and Jonghyun is still calling Kibum kid. They are at the juice bar this time, not a date, just busboy and customer. Jonghyun rounds the counter and walks past seven tables until he reaches table one.
He stops, sits next to the boy, and takes his hand. Kibum looks confused at first but soon tries to keep his concentration on high when Jonghyun places a straw in his hand. Once the straw hits the table it spells out letters.
Kibum hums,” J, O, N, G, H, HEY how long is your name?!”
Jonghyun just laughs and continues the spelling. “Y, U, N. And what’s your last name, kid?”
“Kim.”
“Kim Jonghyun is my name.”
“Wow,” Kibum gasps,” It took me like… a thousand notes to figure out your name. How many will it take for you to go out with me for real?”
Jonghyun just chuckles as he pulls Kibum forward. “I think a thousand will suffice.”
Kibum leans forward slowly, switching roles by taking Jonghyun’s hand in his. He starts to spell and Jonghyun says it aloud.
“I.. Heart.. Y..” he smiles at the boy but then frowns. “I can’t believe you missed school for me that day.”
“We had a late summer break for finals.”
Jonghyun squeezes his hand,” Ah, okay then.”