Super Junior {Siwon/Sungmin ; In the Family Business (2/10)}
Title: In the Family Business (2/10)
Fandom: Super Junior (AU, !mafia)
Pairing: Siwon/Sungmin, later Hankyung/Heechul
Word count: 3,514
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Note to self, Siwon thinks weakly. Do a background check on the random guys you ask out next time.
A/N: lol 5 months later ~_____________~ I had a busy semester and I haven't been writing much but writing is pretty much all I can do at work so I finished this today :3 for the amount of time I've been writing it in, it should really be longer but what can you do. I am excited by cinemas.
In the Family Business (2/10)
Siwon forced himself to wait until after midday the following day, not wanting to seem scarily eager. After making sure that his office door was closed, he dialled Sungmin's number, playing with the coils of wire and jiggling his leg in impatience. It didn't take long for Sungmin to answer; his voice was bright but layered over a background noise of heavy traffic. "Hey," Siwon said, "sorry, is this a bad time?"
"No, it's fine," Sungmin said. There was a voice, and then Sungmin hissing something, hand clearly covering the receiver. "I'm just in a taxi," he said after a moment.
"I was just calling to say that I really enjoyed last night," Siwon said, trying to stop his leg from moving. "I was hoping we could do it again at some point."
There was a pause before Sungmin said, "That sounds great." It was probably just the phone line but Siwon thought he sounded almost touched. "I'd love to."
"I was thinking tomorrow night?"
"Oh, sorry." Siwon could hear shouting in the background of Sungmin's phone call, which he had to put down to road rage on the behalf of his taxi driver. "That's not really good for me, I've got some family thing that I need to take care of tomorrow night. Could we -- actually, I've got an idea. I was given two tickets for a play but I couldn't find anyone willing to come with me. It's supposed to be brilliant. Would you like to come with me?"
Siwon, who couldn't remember the last time he was at the theatre said, "Sure, that sounds perfect. What time and where?"
"I..." The shouting was getting louder, and Sungmin seemed distracted. "Can I text you the details? I've just arrived at where I need to be and something isn't right, so I'll let you know after I sort this out, okay?"
"Okay," said Siwon. After Sungmin hung up a second later, something heavy settled at the pit of his stomach before he roused himself with thoughts that Sungmin had said actually said yes to the date and had even suggested what they did; just because he was too busy to speak on the phone didn't mean anything.
He distracted himself with work for the rest of the day but part of his mind was always on his phone, both silent and still on his desk. He packed up at 6pm, walked down to his car and then drove back to his apartment and still no text message came through. He put his phone down on his coffee table and forced himself to leave it there while he made dinner, stirring the pasta every few seconds to give his hands something to do.
By the time he'd eaten, washed his dishes and walked back through to his living room, his phone was lighting up, a clear sign that a message had come through. Luckily he had spent so long distracting himself that he was able to casually check the message and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was from Sungmin.
hey! some work stuff came up so I couldn't text back earlier. meet me the day after tomorrow at the theatre in Seoul Arts Center?
Siwon texted back a confirmation and a time request; Sungmin replied almost immediately with 6pm, and asking how Siwon's day had been. It was strangely nice to have someone interested in Siwon's life; even nicer to have someone as attractive as Sungmin interested in his life. Siwon's life wasn't exciting, it wasn't eventful, he was probably as normal and boring as it could get, but Sungmin seemed honestly happy to listen to him -- or, read about it, since they interacted in text messages over the next couple of days until they met outside the theatre at 6PM.
Sungmin, just like last time, was bang on time, walking into the front doors of the theatre seemingly just as the clock struck six. There was a pause, a sort of awkward recognition that they had already texted about their day and therefore had probably exhausted one of the few topics that could break the ice, before Sungmin said, "You know, I've only just realised, this is probably a pretty pretentious date."
Siwon laughed. "Don't worry about it! I really like the theatre but I never usually get the chance to go."
"I'm always getting free tickets because of my dad's business," Sungmin said, leading Siwon up a flight of stairs which Siwon was aware led to the private boxes -- surely Sungmin didn't have tickets to one of those. "I usually just offload them onto our employees, but I figured that since I had someone to take, I should take advantage."
He gave Siwon a slightly coquettish smile over his shoulder, which Siwon couldn't help smiling back at. Apparently they were heading towards one of the private boxes, which put Siwon in mind of his own family a little; whenever they went to the theatre, his father refused to sit in the stalls with the rest of the population. It was all part of a show of wealth, and it was obvious from the way Sungmin sat down that he wasn't unused to this sort of luxury.
Siwon's childhood training kicked in. It wasn't that he felt uncomfortable here -- in fact, he was probably more comfortable here than trying to fold his legs into the smaller seats -- but anything that brought up association with his father just left a bad taste in his mouth. He leaned over the barrier and looked at the stage, still shrouded in darkness, and then at the rows of seating.
Sungmin followed his movements, pressing their shoulders together. He didn't seem to notice that he'd done so, and Siwon didn't move away. Sungmin cast his eyes over the sea of people (Siwon had moved to just looking at Sungmin's profile) and then sighed. "I've always wanted to sit down there," he said. "People always give me seats for their private boxes, and I want to know what it's like to sit with normal people."
"Cramped, I expect," Siwon said.
"It's like the cinema," Sungmin said after he had flashed Siwon a smile. "I've always wondered what it would be like to see a movie there instead of at home."
"You've never been to the cinema?" Sungmin gave a wistful shake of the head as the lights went down, signalling the start of the play. Siwon was definitely getting the impression that Sungmin was a rich boy, which, while not a bad thing, could be something of a complication. Not that Siwon could really judge, since he was something of a rich boy as well, but there was a difference between being the third son in a family and being, as Sungmin clearly was, the eldest, if not the only. There was a very strong chance of this relationship not working out, if that was the case.
Trying to rid himself of thoughts as negative as that, Siwon said, leaning over to murmur into Sungmin's ear, "Then next time, we'll go to the cinema."
He could feel Sungmin dying to say something throughout the entire play, and as the curtain dropped to signal the interval, Sungmin grabbed his wrist and said excitedly, "Can we really go to the cinema?"
Siwon laughed, trying to uncurl Sungmin's fingers from around his wrist. "Of course we can, it's only the cinema."
"But I've never been!" At some point Sungmin had slipped his shoes off and he pulled his feet up onto his chair. "I want to get popcorn and a super large drink and watch on the proper screen."
"I can't believe you've never been to the cinema," Siwon said, instead of what he really wanted to say which was, "I can't believe you're this cute."
"There was never much point," said Sungmin. "We have a, um, home cinema system."
He suddenly got sort of shifty, as if he said something he wasn't supposed to say; Siwon had already worked out that he was rich and so that hadn't shocked him particularly. Before he could say anything, Sungmin was slipping his feet into his shoes and getting to his feet. "I'm going to get some ice cream," he said. "Would you like anything?"
"A tub of vanilla, please," Siwon said, surprised at how quickly Sungmin's excitement had seemed to pass. Sungmin nodded, smiled, and then left the box. Siwon stared at the closed door, somewhat confused, and then shrugged it off.
The play was good. Siwon wasn't particularly literary; he judged plays on whether he enjoyed them or not, not on whatever subtext was going on. No doubt there was something in there to be analysed within an inch of its life, but Siwon wasn't going to be the one to do it; he had avoided any and all literature classes in university. He was enjoying it, and that was the main thing. Hopefully, it was the main thing to Sungmin as well, because if Sungmin expected to have a deep conversation about it, then Siwon was going to look pretty pathetic.
He leaned forward, resting his arms on the balcony. Down in the stalls, people were beginning to file back in, taking their seats ready for the second part. His gaze wasn't focused on anything until a face turned up and stared straight at him. Unnerved, he drew back, although logic told him that the guy wasn't really watching him. After a couple of moments, the man turned away to talk to his friend, a large man with a bleached -- hold on, Siwon thought, and leaned forward again. He knew both those men. He had seen them somewhere before.
"Hey," said Sungmin from behind him. "What's so interesting?"
"There are two people down there," Siwon said, trying to point them out as surreptiously as possible. "I know them from somewhere."
"Which ones?" Sungmin asked. He sat down, the ice creams on his knee.
"Those two, one has long hair and the other--" He sucked in a deep breath, realising suddenly. "They were at the restaurant last time! Do you remember, the one with the long hair talked to you about something, asked where the toilets were."
"Oh," said Sungmin. He too leaned forward, looked at the men, then back at Siwon. "That's weird. Here, could you hold these? I just need to send a quick text." He handed the ice cream to Siwon and pulled his phone out, quickly firing off a text message, a shadow of a frown playing on his face. As he pocketed it again, he gave Siwon a smile. "Ready for the second act?" he asked.
"Absolutely," Siwon said, smiling back. He glanced back at the stalls, an anxious feeling his stomach, but he couldn't locate the two men before the lights fell.
The only time Sungmin had been able to arrange another date in order to go to the cinema was late on a Friday night. It was both a blessing and a curse. It was busy, which would give Sungmin the full experience of having to queue for refreshments and banging elbows with the person next to you, but the problem was that most of the people there were other couples on dates of their own. It was making both Siwon and Sungmin uncomfortable, for one very good reason: after three dates, they had yet to even kiss.
Sungmin stood at the side, watching people walk past, with his arms around the giant tub of popcorn that Siwon had bought for them. It was the first time that Siwon had seen him in casual clothes, dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt. Siwon, in jeans and a green polo shirt, felt somewhat more at home in this kind of environment. His only task was to make sure that Sungmin was okay, not to act as though he was okay himself.
"I just need to go to the bathroom," he said, stuffing the tickets to the action-thriller into his back pocket. "You'll be alright by yourself for a few minutes, won't you?"
"Yeah," Sungmin said, giving him a smile before his attention focused on something on the other side of the room. Siwon didn't bother looking over; the concession stand was over there, and Sungmin had been delighted by the idea of hot dogs.
When he got back, Sungmin had his phone cushioned between his ear and shoulder and looked annoyed by something. "Just get out," he was saying as Siwon neared. "I don't care, hyung, I know what he told you but this is just ridiculous. I'm a grown man and I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself."
He hung up, expertly slipping his phone into his pocket with hand. "Is everything okay?" Siwon asked.
"Fine, just some family stuff." Sungmin's gaze flickered to the concession stand again, but when Siwon looked over, he couldn't see anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. "It's sorted now."
Siwon nodded, unsure, but said, "We should head in, it'll be starting soon." Sungmin gave an excited bounce on the balls of his feet. Siwon ushered Sungmin into the theatre and found their seats. Sungmin was still clutching the popcorn.
"The screen isn't going to eat you," Siwon said, pulling it from his grasp and placing it on his own lap.
"It's not that," Sungmin said, gazing around the theatre. "It's just a lot bigger than I thought it would be."
"You are way too excited about the cinema," Siwon said, amused.
"Be quiet," Sungmin said, giving him a mock-angry look. "Don't be mean."
"I'm not being mean. It's cute."
Sungmin blushed hotly, which was even cuter and just wasn't helping. He found himself transfixed by the way the dim lights of the movie theatre had no effect whatsoever on Sungmin's eyes. Before he knew it, he had leaned in just a little, and Sungmin was staring at him. His eyes moved to Siwon's mouth and then back up. "Are you going to kiss me now?" he asked.
"Yes," Siwon said, though before that moment he hadn't known it.
"Okay," Sungmin said, before he closed his eyes and leaned in as well. Siwon titled his chin with his fingers and kissed him, softly at first but then, as Sungmin instictively titled his head, Siwon cupped his cheek and pulled him into a proper kiss. As the lights dimmed further to signal the start of the trailers, Siwon pulled away, opening his eyes to find Sungmin blinking like a deer caught in headlights.
"What's wrong?" Siwon asked, suddenly terrified that he had been bad.
"Why did you stop?" Sungmin asked, pouting.
Siwon started laughing. "Because the movie is starting, and you're the one who wanted to see it."
"These are just trailers," Sungmin murmured, pulling on his collar. "We have plenty of time."
Two weeks and a further five dates later, Siwon was feeling pretty cheerful about life. It was hard to be unhappy knowing that Sungmin was just a text away; even harder to be miserable at work if he knew that one phone call could arrange a date for that night. A conversation over dinner had opened up a whole world of things that Sungmin had never had a chance to do, with the result that he'd found himself planning months into the future, for when the weather turned nicer and they could go to the local zoo, or to an amusement park. He'd tried to stop himself thinking like that, knowing that it would probably only scare Sungmin away, but the planning brought him an odd sort of happiness.
He'd taken a risk with Sungmin. Siwon wasn't the type of person to jump headfirst into something, not without thinking seriously abou the consequences, but he'd jumped into this and pretty much flipped off the consequences. For the sake of his family reputation, he'd always stopped himself from doing what he wanted to do, mainly because he was performing this act of wanting to take over for his father. Even if he didn't want to, he had to at least act like he wanted to, and that meant doing the university degree his father had wanted, taking the job that his father had arranged for him, even dating the girls that his father had approved of.
Siwon seriously doubted that his father would approve of Sungmin.
"What are you thinking so hard about?" Sungmin asked, playing with his napkin as their meal came to an end. It had been Siwon's turn to choose the place again, and he was going to have to start asking around, because he couldn't just keep going to places that he'd come with his family, it felt slightly creepy.
"My dad," Siwon said honestly. "I haven't told him about you yet."
"Well, it's only been two weeks," Sungmin said logically, though Siwon could see faint surprise on his face.
"That's not it," Siwon protested. "I want to, I just don't know how. He's very...straight laced. I don't know what he's going to say."
Sungmin twisted his napkin round and round his finger. "What if he tells you to break up with me?"
Siwon laughed and took Sungmin's hand, pulling the napkin out of his grasp. "I'm not that much under his thumb," he said. "I do have my own free will. The worst he can do is cut me off, but I'm the third son so I'm not getting much anyway."
Sungmin looked reassured, but also somewhat shifty, playing with Siwon's fingers. "What is it?" Siwon asked. "What are you thinking so hard about?"
"I didn't want to bring it up so early on but," Sungmin pulled away, fixed Siwon with a rather serious look, "my father has asked to see you."
Someone poured ice water over Siwon's insides. "Oh," he said.
"I mean, I was going to leave it for another couple of weeks before I talked to you about it, but I just figured that since we were talking about it and all, I should mention it."
"Does he know about me? I mean, that I'm a guy."
"Yeah."
"And he doesn't mind?"
Sungmin considered the question. "My dad and I have an understanding. He's happy so long as I'm happy. He doesn't care what I do so long as it doesn't affect the business."
Siwon felt a little blown away by that; his father would have considered something like this to absolutely affect the family business. "And he wants to meet me?"
"Oh, I don't think urgently, just thought I'd bring it up."
"No, I'd quite like to, if you're happy." He realised Sungmin still had hold of his fingers, so he threaded them together and squeezed lightly. "I really like you, Sungmin. I want to meet your dad."
Sungmin looked taken back but pleased nonetheless. "Oh, okay." He pulled his hands away. "Then you could come for dinner, I guess. It's short notice but tomorrow would be best, my dad is going to China on business for a week the day after."
"He wouldn't mind it being so short notice?"
"No. In our line of business, you learn to cope with sudden changes to your schedule."
The next day, Siwon, dressed in his best suit, drove to the address that Sungmin had given him. He hadn't recognised it at all, not knowing the area that it was situated, and after pulling into the area, found himself completely lost without hope of being able to work it out; by the time he found where he was, it was likely that he was going to be late, which wouldn't give the good first impression he was going for. In a fit of desperation, he rang Sungmin.
"I'm lost," he said pathetically.
Sungmin started laughing but he sounded strained. He was probably just as nervous as Siwon felt. "Tell me what you see," he said.
Siwon rattled off the names of the stores he could see, and under Sungmin's guiding care, managed to find the street that he was supposed to be on. He was getting more and more confused, however; he was used to living on a street of houses similar to his own, large, comfortable houses. Here, the houses were simply normal, interspaced with shops and restaurants. It all looked completely normal. Sungmin had money, there was no denying that, but living here was a complete break from that mental image.
"You turn left at the end of the road," Sungmin said, his voice very strained now.
"Are you okay?" Siwon asked, concerned, as he did turn left. "You sound like you're..."
He trailed off when confronted with what faced him as he turned left. The house was huge, there was no denying that, but it was also cut off from the road by a huge wall, a tall gate restricting entrance inside. As Siwon neared, he could see a family crest painted on the gate. Underneath was written Lee family. There was no denying what this was.
"Siwon," Sungmin said, voice quiet and fuzzy through the signal. "There's something you should know. My family isn't really in politics. We're the mafia."
Fandom: Super Junior (AU, !mafia)
Pairing: Siwon/Sungmin, later Hankyung/Heechul
Word count: 3,514
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Note to self, Siwon thinks weakly. Do a background check on the random guys you ask out next time.
A/N: lol 5 months later ~_____________~ I had a busy semester and I haven't been writing much but writing is pretty much all I can do at work so I finished this today :3 for the amount of time I've been writing it in, it should really be longer but what can you do. I am excited by cinemas.
In the Family Business (2/10)
Siwon forced himself to wait until after midday the following day, not wanting to seem scarily eager. After making sure that his office door was closed, he dialled Sungmin's number, playing with the coils of wire and jiggling his leg in impatience. It didn't take long for Sungmin to answer; his voice was bright but layered over a background noise of heavy traffic. "Hey," Siwon said, "sorry, is this a bad time?"
"No, it's fine," Sungmin said. There was a voice, and then Sungmin hissing something, hand clearly covering the receiver. "I'm just in a taxi," he said after a moment.
"I was just calling to say that I really enjoyed last night," Siwon said, trying to stop his leg from moving. "I was hoping we could do it again at some point."
There was a pause before Sungmin said, "That sounds great." It was probably just the phone line but Siwon thought he sounded almost touched. "I'd love to."
"I was thinking tomorrow night?"
"Oh, sorry." Siwon could hear shouting in the background of Sungmin's phone call, which he had to put down to road rage on the behalf of his taxi driver. "That's not really good for me, I've got some family thing that I need to take care of tomorrow night. Could we -- actually, I've got an idea. I was given two tickets for a play but I couldn't find anyone willing to come with me. It's supposed to be brilliant. Would you like to come with me?"
Siwon, who couldn't remember the last time he was at the theatre said, "Sure, that sounds perfect. What time and where?"
"I..." The shouting was getting louder, and Sungmin seemed distracted. "Can I text you the details? I've just arrived at where I need to be and something isn't right, so I'll let you know after I sort this out, okay?"
"Okay," said Siwon. After Sungmin hung up a second later, something heavy settled at the pit of his stomach before he roused himself with thoughts that Sungmin had said actually said yes to the date and had even suggested what they did; just because he was too busy to speak on the phone didn't mean anything.
He distracted himself with work for the rest of the day but part of his mind was always on his phone, both silent and still on his desk. He packed up at 6pm, walked down to his car and then drove back to his apartment and still no text message came through. He put his phone down on his coffee table and forced himself to leave it there while he made dinner, stirring the pasta every few seconds to give his hands something to do.
By the time he'd eaten, washed his dishes and walked back through to his living room, his phone was lighting up, a clear sign that a message had come through. Luckily he had spent so long distracting himself that he was able to casually check the message and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was from Sungmin.
hey! some work stuff came up so I couldn't text back earlier. meet me the day after tomorrow at the theatre in Seoul Arts Center?
Siwon texted back a confirmation and a time request; Sungmin replied almost immediately with 6pm, and asking how Siwon's day had been. It was strangely nice to have someone interested in Siwon's life; even nicer to have someone as attractive as Sungmin interested in his life. Siwon's life wasn't exciting, it wasn't eventful, he was probably as normal and boring as it could get, but Sungmin seemed honestly happy to listen to him -- or, read about it, since they interacted in text messages over the next couple of days until they met outside the theatre at 6PM.
Sungmin, just like last time, was bang on time, walking into the front doors of the theatre seemingly just as the clock struck six. There was a pause, a sort of awkward recognition that they had already texted about their day and therefore had probably exhausted one of the few topics that could break the ice, before Sungmin said, "You know, I've only just realised, this is probably a pretty pretentious date."
Siwon laughed. "Don't worry about it! I really like the theatre but I never usually get the chance to go."
"I'm always getting free tickets because of my dad's business," Sungmin said, leading Siwon up a flight of stairs which Siwon was aware led to the private boxes -- surely Sungmin didn't have tickets to one of those. "I usually just offload them onto our employees, but I figured that since I had someone to take, I should take advantage."
He gave Siwon a slightly coquettish smile over his shoulder, which Siwon couldn't help smiling back at. Apparently they were heading towards one of the private boxes, which put Siwon in mind of his own family a little; whenever they went to the theatre, his father refused to sit in the stalls with the rest of the population. It was all part of a show of wealth, and it was obvious from the way Sungmin sat down that he wasn't unused to this sort of luxury.
Siwon's childhood training kicked in. It wasn't that he felt uncomfortable here -- in fact, he was probably more comfortable here than trying to fold his legs into the smaller seats -- but anything that brought up association with his father just left a bad taste in his mouth. He leaned over the barrier and looked at the stage, still shrouded in darkness, and then at the rows of seating.
Sungmin followed his movements, pressing their shoulders together. He didn't seem to notice that he'd done so, and Siwon didn't move away. Sungmin cast his eyes over the sea of people (Siwon had moved to just looking at Sungmin's profile) and then sighed. "I've always wanted to sit down there," he said. "People always give me seats for their private boxes, and I want to know what it's like to sit with normal people."
"Cramped, I expect," Siwon said.
"It's like the cinema," Sungmin said after he had flashed Siwon a smile. "I've always wondered what it would be like to see a movie there instead of at home."
"You've never been to the cinema?" Sungmin gave a wistful shake of the head as the lights went down, signalling the start of the play. Siwon was definitely getting the impression that Sungmin was a rich boy, which, while not a bad thing, could be something of a complication. Not that Siwon could really judge, since he was something of a rich boy as well, but there was a difference between being the third son in a family and being, as Sungmin clearly was, the eldest, if not the only. There was a very strong chance of this relationship not working out, if that was the case.
Trying to rid himself of thoughts as negative as that, Siwon said, leaning over to murmur into Sungmin's ear, "Then next time, we'll go to the cinema."
He could feel Sungmin dying to say something throughout the entire play, and as the curtain dropped to signal the interval, Sungmin grabbed his wrist and said excitedly, "Can we really go to the cinema?"
Siwon laughed, trying to uncurl Sungmin's fingers from around his wrist. "Of course we can, it's only the cinema."
"But I've never been!" At some point Sungmin had slipped his shoes off and he pulled his feet up onto his chair. "I want to get popcorn and a super large drink and watch on the proper screen."
"I can't believe you've never been to the cinema," Siwon said, instead of what he really wanted to say which was, "I can't believe you're this cute."
"There was never much point," said Sungmin. "We have a, um, home cinema system."
He suddenly got sort of shifty, as if he said something he wasn't supposed to say; Siwon had already worked out that he was rich and so that hadn't shocked him particularly. Before he could say anything, Sungmin was slipping his feet into his shoes and getting to his feet. "I'm going to get some ice cream," he said. "Would you like anything?"
"A tub of vanilla, please," Siwon said, surprised at how quickly Sungmin's excitement had seemed to pass. Sungmin nodded, smiled, and then left the box. Siwon stared at the closed door, somewhat confused, and then shrugged it off.
The play was good. Siwon wasn't particularly literary; he judged plays on whether he enjoyed them or not, not on whatever subtext was going on. No doubt there was something in there to be analysed within an inch of its life, but Siwon wasn't going to be the one to do it; he had avoided any and all literature classes in university. He was enjoying it, and that was the main thing. Hopefully, it was the main thing to Sungmin as well, because if Sungmin expected to have a deep conversation about it, then Siwon was going to look pretty pathetic.
He leaned forward, resting his arms on the balcony. Down in the stalls, people were beginning to file back in, taking their seats ready for the second part. His gaze wasn't focused on anything until a face turned up and stared straight at him. Unnerved, he drew back, although logic told him that the guy wasn't really watching him. After a couple of moments, the man turned away to talk to his friend, a large man with a bleached -- hold on, Siwon thought, and leaned forward again. He knew both those men. He had seen them somewhere before.
"Hey," said Sungmin from behind him. "What's so interesting?"
"There are two people down there," Siwon said, trying to point them out as surreptiously as possible. "I know them from somewhere."
"Which ones?" Sungmin asked. He sat down, the ice creams on his knee.
"Those two, one has long hair and the other--" He sucked in a deep breath, realising suddenly. "They were at the restaurant last time! Do you remember, the one with the long hair talked to you about something, asked where the toilets were."
"Oh," said Sungmin. He too leaned forward, looked at the men, then back at Siwon. "That's weird. Here, could you hold these? I just need to send a quick text." He handed the ice cream to Siwon and pulled his phone out, quickly firing off a text message, a shadow of a frown playing on his face. As he pocketed it again, he gave Siwon a smile. "Ready for the second act?" he asked.
"Absolutely," Siwon said, smiling back. He glanced back at the stalls, an anxious feeling his stomach, but he couldn't locate the two men before the lights fell.
The only time Sungmin had been able to arrange another date in order to go to the cinema was late on a Friday night. It was both a blessing and a curse. It was busy, which would give Sungmin the full experience of having to queue for refreshments and banging elbows with the person next to you, but the problem was that most of the people there were other couples on dates of their own. It was making both Siwon and Sungmin uncomfortable, for one very good reason: after three dates, they had yet to even kiss.
Sungmin stood at the side, watching people walk past, with his arms around the giant tub of popcorn that Siwon had bought for them. It was the first time that Siwon had seen him in casual clothes, dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt. Siwon, in jeans and a green polo shirt, felt somewhat more at home in this kind of environment. His only task was to make sure that Sungmin was okay, not to act as though he was okay himself.
"I just need to go to the bathroom," he said, stuffing the tickets to the action-thriller into his back pocket. "You'll be alright by yourself for a few minutes, won't you?"
"Yeah," Sungmin said, giving him a smile before his attention focused on something on the other side of the room. Siwon didn't bother looking over; the concession stand was over there, and Sungmin had been delighted by the idea of hot dogs.
When he got back, Sungmin had his phone cushioned between his ear and shoulder and looked annoyed by something. "Just get out," he was saying as Siwon neared. "I don't care, hyung, I know what he told you but this is just ridiculous. I'm a grown man and I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself."
He hung up, expertly slipping his phone into his pocket with hand. "Is everything okay?" Siwon asked.
"Fine, just some family stuff." Sungmin's gaze flickered to the concession stand again, but when Siwon looked over, he couldn't see anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. "It's sorted now."
Siwon nodded, unsure, but said, "We should head in, it'll be starting soon." Sungmin gave an excited bounce on the balls of his feet. Siwon ushered Sungmin into the theatre and found their seats. Sungmin was still clutching the popcorn.
"The screen isn't going to eat you," Siwon said, pulling it from his grasp and placing it on his own lap.
"It's not that," Sungmin said, gazing around the theatre. "It's just a lot bigger than I thought it would be."
"You are way too excited about the cinema," Siwon said, amused.
"Be quiet," Sungmin said, giving him a mock-angry look. "Don't be mean."
"I'm not being mean. It's cute."
Sungmin blushed hotly, which was even cuter and just wasn't helping. He found himself transfixed by the way the dim lights of the movie theatre had no effect whatsoever on Sungmin's eyes. Before he knew it, he had leaned in just a little, and Sungmin was staring at him. His eyes moved to Siwon's mouth and then back up. "Are you going to kiss me now?" he asked.
"Yes," Siwon said, though before that moment he hadn't known it.
"Okay," Sungmin said, before he closed his eyes and leaned in as well. Siwon titled his chin with his fingers and kissed him, softly at first but then, as Sungmin instictively titled his head, Siwon cupped his cheek and pulled him into a proper kiss. As the lights dimmed further to signal the start of the trailers, Siwon pulled away, opening his eyes to find Sungmin blinking like a deer caught in headlights.
"What's wrong?" Siwon asked, suddenly terrified that he had been bad.
"Why did you stop?" Sungmin asked, pouting.
Siwon started laughing. "Because the movie is starting, and you're the one who wanted to see it."
"These are just trailers," Sungmin murmured, pulling on his collar. "We have plenty of time."
Two weeks and a further five dates later, Siwon was feeling pretty cheerful about life. It was hard to be unhappy knowing that Sungmin was just a text away; even harder to be miserable at work if he knew that one phone call could arrange a date for that night. A conversation over dinner had opened up a whole world of things that Sungmin had never had a chance to do, with the result that he'd found himself planning months into the future, for when the weather turned nicer and they could go to the local zoo, or to an amusement park. He'd tried to stop himself thinking like that, knowing that it would probably only scare Sungmin away, but the planning brought him an odd sort of happiness.
He'd taken a risk with Sungmin. Siwon wasn't the type of person to jump headfirst into something, not without thinking seriously abou the consequences, but he'd jumped into this and pretty much flipped off the consequences. For the sake of his family reputation, he'd always stopped himself from doing what he wanted to do, mainly because he was performing this act of wanting to take over for his father. Even if he didn't want to, he had to at least act like he wanted to, and that meant doing the university degree his father had wanted, taking the job that his father had arranged for him, even dating the girls that his father had approved of.
Siwon seriously doubted that his father would approve of Sungmin.
"What are you thinking so hard about?" Sungmin asked, playing with his napkin as their meal came to an end. It had been Siwon's turn to choose the place again, and he was going to have to start asking around, because he couldn't just keep going to places that he'd come with his family, it felt slightly creepy.
"My dad," Siwon said honestly. "I haven't told him about you yet."
"Well, it's only been two weeks," Sungmin said logically, though Siwon could see faint surprise on his face.
"That's not it," Siwon protested. "I want to, I just don't know how. He's very...straight laced. I don't know what he's going to say."
Sungmin twisted his napkin round and round his finger. "What if he tells you to break up with me?"
Siwon laughed and took Sungmin's hand, pulling the napkin out of his grasp. "I'm not that much under his thumb," he said. "I do have my own free will. The worst he can do is cut me off, but I'm the third son so I'm not getting much anyway."
Sungmin looked reassured, but also somewhat shifty, playing with Siwon's fingers. "What is it?" Siwon asked. "What are you thinking so hard about?"
"I didn't want to bring it up so early on but," Sungmin pulled away, fixed Siwon with a rather serious look, "my father has asked to see you."
Someone poured ice water over Siwon's insides. "Oh," he said.
"I mean, I was going to leave it for another couple of weeks before I talked to you about it, but I just figured that since we were talking about it and all, I should mention it."
"Does he know about me? I mean, that I'm a guy."
"Yeah."
"And he doesn't mind?"
Sungmin considered the question. "My dad and I have an understanding. He's happy so long as I'm happy. He doesn't care what I do so long as it doesn't affect the business."
Siwon felt a little blown away by that; his father would have considered something like this to absolutely affect the family business. "And he wants to meet me?"
"Oh, I don't think urgently, just thought I'd bring it up."
"No, I'd quite like to, if you're happy." He realised Sungmin still had hold of his fingers, so he threaded them together and squeezed lightly. "I really like you, Sungmin. I want to meet your dad."
Sungmin looked taken back but pleased nonetheless. "Oh, okay." He pulled his hands away. "Then you could come for dinner, I guess. It's short notice but tomorrow would be best, my dad is going to China on business for a week the day after."
"He wouldn't mind it being so short notice?"
"No. In our line of business, you learn to cope with sudden changes to your schedule."
The next day, Siwon, dressed in his best suit, drove to the address that Sungmin had given him. He hadn't recognised it at all, not knowing the area that it was situated, and after pulling into the area, found himself completely lost without hope of being able to work it out; by the time he found where he was, it was likely that he was going to be late, which wouldn't give the good first impression he was going for. In a fit of desperation, he rang Sungmin.
"I'm lost," he said pathetically.
Sungmin started laughing but he sounded strained. He was probably just as nervous as Siwon felt. "Tell me what you see," he said.
Siwon rattled off the names of the stores he could see, and under Sungmin's guiding care, managed to find the street that he was supposed to be on. He was getting more and more confused, however; he was used to living on a street of houses similar to his own, large, comfortable houses. Here, the houses were simply normal, interspaced with shops and restaurants. It all looked completely normal. Sungmin had money, there was no denying that, but living here was a complete break from that mental image.
"You turn left at the end of the road," Sungmin said, his voice very strained now.
"Are you okay?" Siwon asked, concerned, as he did turn left. "You sound like you're..."
He trailed off when confronted with what faced him as he turned left. The house was huge, there was no denying that, but it was also cut off from the road by a huge wall, a tall gate restricting entrance inside. As Siwon neared, he could see a family crest painted on the gate. Underneath was written Lee family. There was no denying what this was.
"Siwon," Sungmin said, voice quiet and fuzzy through the signal. "There's something you should know. My family isn't really in politics. We're the mafia."