blind dates for dummies ( infinite, yadong, hoyafinite, pg )
Title: Blind Dates for Dummies
Pairing: Hoya/Infinite, Hoya/Dongwoo
Rating: PG-13
WC: 2692
When Hoya's friend Heechul promised him that his days of loneliness had come to an end, he had plenty of doubts in his mind. It wasn't that he didn't trust his friend's taste or intentions, it was just that it had been so long since Hoya had been able to meet anyone he really liked that he was starting to wonder if there was anyone out there meant for him.
"Don't worry, these guys are all top class," Heechul said, flipping through his address book.
"I don't know," Hoya rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, blind dating? Do I really have to?"
"Well, unless you really want to spend the rest of your life alone and miserable and die surrounded by nothing but five million cats," Heechul snapped, shooting a look at him.
"I only have one cat," he argued. "And I've only been single for like two years, I think I have plenty of time."
"Two years is way too long, Hoya. You need to get laid. You need to have fun with someone again," Heechul said, flipping to another page. He added under his breath, "And you need to get over that slut."
"I heard that," Hoya grumbled. "Jaehyo wasn't a slut, he just..."
"Slept with your best friend behind your back?"
"Had...issues. With uh. Sex. And other people."
Heechul raised an eyebrow and Hoya frowned and rested his chin on his hand.
"Okay, okay, I'll go on your stupid dates."
"You don't really have a choice," Heechul smirked. "Friday night, eight o' clock. Be ready to fall in love again."
Hoya sighed and grabbed his coat in resignation, hoping against hope this wasn't going to be as huge a disaster as he was thinking.
Fiddling with his napkin uncertainly, Hoya glanced around the restaurant, wondering vaguely whether he was being stood up. Just when he was starting to consider giving up and ordering for himself, a man hurried across the restaurant and stopped in front of him, looking frazzled.
"Excuse me, are you Hoya?" the man asked, eyebrows slanted in concern.
"Uh, yes?" he responded. "Sunggyu?"
"Yup, I'm so sorry about being late," Sunggyu said, pulling his chair out to sit. "I think I got the wrong restaurant at first."
"Oh, don't worry about it, I wasn't waiting that long," Hoya lied smoothly, smiling at the other man.
He didn't look bad at all, he thought. The man looked older than him, dressed in what Hoya guessed he'd worn to work that day, tie slightly rumpled but still looking overall pristine and business-like. Hoya guessed he had a steady nine to five job in a cubicle somewhere and relaxed, glad his date was at least employed.
The date went smoothly enough, conversation coming easily. Hoya found himself relating to a lot of what Sunggyu was saying, feeling charmed by the sweet eyesmiles the other man was giving him as he talked about his family. He noticed the semi-frequent glances Sunggyu was giving his watch but he didn't say anything, figuring it was just a habit.
Just as they were getting to the end of their meal, chopsticks scraping the bottoms of their bowls, Sunggyu suddenly looked at his watch and then stood up quickly, eyes wide.
"Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was already so late. I...I have to go back to work. There's a lot I still haven't done for tomorrow."
Hoya gaped at him as he fumbled with his wallet and tossed some money onto the table to cover his meal. He bowed slightly in apology, grabbing his jacket hurriedly and pulling it on as he slipped away. Hoya didn't even get a chance to say goodbye, finding himself sitting alone in the restaurant yet again.
He figured he'd have the rotten luck to find the one decent, likable guy who also happened to be a complete workaholic. Hoya picked at his noodles sadly, sighing to himself as he wondered whether the next guy on Heechul's list might be a better date.
The next Friday night, Hoya was sitting in the same restaurant, sipping at his water as he waited for his date. The man who moved his way to his table not even five minutes later was almost the opposite of what Hoya had been expecting, almost alarmingly good-looking, a charming smile fixed permanently on his perfect face. After they ordered their food and got into conversation, Hoya felt he was being drawn into Woohyun's charms, grinning every time Woohyun reached across the table to touch his hand or lifted his chopsticks to his mouth with a smooth, irresistible smile.
Just as he felt the date was going surprisingly well, hope bubbling up in the pit of his stomach, Woohyun received a phone call. He glanced at the screen and rolled his eyes, holding a finger up.
"Hold on, I have to take this. It'll be quick."
Hoya nodded and smiled, taking the opportunity to dig into his delicious meal. He watched as Woohyun answered the phone with his usual grin.
"Hey there," he said, pressing the phone to his ear. "Yeah, yeah, I'm working late again."
Hoya paused as Woohyun glanced at him and grinned wider.
"I'll be home later. Don't wait up."
Woohyun listened for a second and then nodded, smirking. "I know, I'm sorry. I miss you, too, baby."
Hoya's eyebrows shot up as Woohyun said goodbye and hung up, laughing. He looked at Hoya and winked.
"Sometimes you gotta keep them in the dark, you know?" he said, shoving some noodles into his mouth and slurping.
Hoya set his chopsticks down, sighing to himself. There goes another one, he thought miserably, subtly glancing around for their waiter so he could get the check.
"Shit, what are you doing?" Hoya hissed, reaching out as his new date flung a dinner roll back over his shoulder.
"No good," Sungyeol responded, taking a bite out of another one. He made a face and tossed it. Hoya watched in horror as it landed in his bowl, splashing juice out onto the table and Hoya's pants.
"Mmm, this is the good one," Sungyeol continued, munching happily on the last dinner roll and ignoring how Hoya was frantically trying to scrub at his nice pants.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"It's like finding the golden ticket," Sungyeol said. "The golden roll. ...The golden roll~"
Hoya gawked at him as Sungyeol started singing that phrase over and over in different intonations, loud enough for the people sitting around them to turn and fix them with dirty looks. Sungyeol had started doing his best impression of what Hoya guessed was dolphin noises, happily ignoring all of the stares.
"Did you forget to take your medication or something?" Hoya demanded miserably, covering his face with his hands as his cheeks burned with embarrassment.
He was going to murder Heechul.
Hoya stared across the table blankly at his date, who was staring back with a similar expression. He watched as the man reached slowly for his drink, bringing it to his lips without even breaking his gaze.
"So," Hoya started awkwardly, fidgeting, "what do you do?"
The man across from him shrugged silently.
Hoya tried not to reach across the table and throttle him, incredibly frustrated with his seeming inability to converse with others like a normal human being would. He'd tried starting up a conversation several times throughout the course of the meal, only getting one-word responses, grunts or complete silence for his trouble.
"Are you a fucking robot or something?" Hoya asked in exasperation, completely forgoing any and all dating etiquette his horrible blind dating experiences hadn't squashed out of him.
The man who had introduced himself as simply "L" shrugged again.
"I don't talk much when I'm not really interested," he explained, eyes drifting to watch people eating their dinner at other tables.
"So I'm not interesting," Hoya deadpanned, eyebrows raised so high they were about to shoot off of his face.
"You're kind of boring," L leveled with him, drinking his wine.
"I'm boring? I'm boring?"
L rolled his eyes and turned his head toward the waiter walking by, signalling him over.
"Check," he said simply, ignoring Hoya.
Hoya barely kept himself from dumping his wine all over L's expensive-looking sweater.
Despite all expectations to the contrary, Hoya actually discovered himself having a lot of fun on his fifth blind date. Sungjong was cute, funny, interesting and completely interested in him, as far as he could tell. The younger man kept pulling his phone out and scooting his chair over to take selcas with Hoya, smiling brilliantly as he posed with his head tilted to press lightly against Hoya's.
"This one can be my wallpaper," he said, grinning and laughing as Hoya struggled to take his phone away, complaining that he'd come out weird.
Hoya pouted and snatched a piece of shrimp off of Sungjong's plate in retaliation, mouth breaking into a smile as Sungjong laughed again, resting his chin on his hand and watching him eat.
"I'm having a lot of fun," Hoya admitted.
Sungjong nodded. "Me too."
Hoya grinned widely as he laid a hand down on the table, palm facing upwards, and Sungjong immediately laid his hand over it and clasped their fingers together. Sungjong's hands were small, much like the rest of him, boyish features standing out in stark contrast to the rest of his dates. Hoya found his smile faltering just a bit as he realized this, rubbing his thumb against Sungjong's hand.
"Hey, listen, I've been wondering something about you," he began. Sungjong straightened up in interest, leaning forward and nodding to encourage him to go on. "Well, it's just...you look so young. I'm sure it's just how you look, but I guess I'm just curious now. How old are you?"
Sungjong's face fell, losing his smile for the first time since Hoya had met him earlier.
"I mean, I don't care if you're younger than me," Hoya clarified quickly. "I've dated people who are younger. It's not a big deal."
Sungjong sighed and smiled again. "I'm glad you think that."
Hoya nodded. "A couple years really doesn't make a difference to me."
Sungjong had frowned again, something that alarmed Hoya just a bit. He wasn't...he couldn't be that young, could he? Hoya started to worry as Sungjong slid his hand out of his grasp and started fiddling with his straw.
"Uh...I'm eighteen," Sungjong said quietly.
Hoya's eyes widened. He'd been expecting twenty-one, maybe even twenty at the youngest, as he was pushing twenty-five himself. Taking a deep breath, he tried to rationalize, figuring eighteen was perfectly legal, especially if the younger man was close to another birthday.
"Or at least I will be," Sungjong continued even more quietly. "Like, in a year."
Hoya almost fell out of his chair in shock.
He leaned over the table and gripped the sides, hissing, "You're seventeen?!"
"Uh...sorry?" Sungjong tried, smiling coyly.
Hoya looked around quickly, wondering if anyone was listening in. He felt like a criminal all of a sudden, nerves jacked up. Turning his head, he watched as Sungjong lifted his glass of wine to his lips and practically slapped it out of his hands, ignoring his indignant squawk.
"You can't have that!" Hoya hissed again, trying to keep his voice down. "Fuck, Sungjong!"
"I'm so sorry," Sungjong whispered back, resting a hand over his forehead. "I thought you knew."
"No, I didn't know! I didn't-" His friend's face flashed into his mind and Hoya stood up, fumbling for his phone in his pockets. "HEECHUL!"
Hoya paced back and forth in Heechul's living room an hour later, Heechul watching him from his position on the couch, sipping idly at his beer.
"Seriously, he told me eighteen," Heechul said again, running a hand through his hair as Hoya shot him a look. "I mean, I think he did. We were both pretty drunk-"
"I don't even want to know," Hoya cut in.
He flopped onto a chair tiredly, sighing into his hands. Shaking his head, he looked up.
"None of these dates has been anything but fucking terrible. Maybe I just...shouldn't bother. Maybe there really just isn't anyone out there for me."
"Aw, don't say that, Hoya," Heechul frowned. He scooted closer on the couch. "I'm sure if you just keep looking you'll find him."
Hoya shook his head, leaning back on the chair. "I'm about ready to give up."
"Just one more," Heechul pleaded. "I know the perfect guy. I just met him recently and I totally thought of you. Come on, just one last chance."
"I don't know," Hoya said uncertainly, frowning at him.
"Please?" Heechul asked. "If he's not the one, I'll stop. I won't suggest anyone else to you."
Hoya sighed again, rubbing at his temples. He shrugged heavily.
"Fine, whatever. Just one, though. After this, I'm done."
Almost as soon as his date sat down, Hoya began grilling him, arms crossed defensively.
"Job?" he asked first.
His date paused in pulling his chair out, sitting down slowly. "Music store."
Hoya nodded his approval. "Are you single?"
The other man laughed. "I sure am."
"Age?"
"Just turned twenty-six."
"Thank god," Hoya mumbled, finally getting comfortable.
"Are we playing a game or something?" the man asked, smiling and looking highly entertained.
"No, I've just had a few too many bad dates," Hoya mumbled. "Sorry about that. I'm Hoya."
"Dongwoo," the other replied, "and yeah, I hear that. My last date started throwing his food at people."
Hoya raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like Sungyeol."
Dongwoo snapped his fingers. "That was him. You know that guy?"
"Unfortunately, yeah," Hoya said, grinning and letting the smallest bit of hope for this date flare up deep inside.
"Well, I'm not like that," Dongwoo assured him. "I mean, I can get pretty crazy but I know when to quit."
As the date went on, Hoya kept waiting for the inevitable deal-breaker to pop up, but Dongwoo surprised him but only becoming even more interesting and attractive to him. They discovered that they both loved dancing, preferred rap parts to singing parts in songs, had played their fair share of sports in high school and had hated all of the same school subjects. Dongwoo turned out to be incredibly receptive to Hoya's brand of humor, laughing at all of his jokes like he'd never heard anything so hilarious in his life. Dongwoo was rather funny himself, keeping the date interesting by providing commentary on the meals of the tables around them, telling Hoya about how the old man sitting alone in the corner had been coming to the restaurant every day to sit in the same place, always looking like he was waiting for someone to join him though the opposite chair remained empty every time. He told Hoya about how the family to their far left was tense at their meal because the father had just revealed to them how he was planning on joining the circus and the wife hadn't really cared because she was planning on leaving him for another woman soon anyway.
"You tell great stories," Hoya said, smiling as he swirled his straw through his drink.
Dongwoo beamed back at him. "Thanks! I write stuff sometimes when I'm bored at work, on the back of receipt paper or just on paper bags. Stories or lyrics or whatever comes to mind."
"I'd love to read it sometime."
The red-haired man grinned and reached into his pockets. He pulled out a business card and slid it across the table.
"Come visit me at the store. We've got tons of great vintage records and rooms for you to sample albums in. We can sit in one and I'll read my stuff to you while we listen to the classics."
"That would be awesome," Hoya admitted, taking the card and reading the brightly-colored letters with a soft smile. "I think I'll take you up on that."
They stuck around the restaurant long after the food was gone and by the time Hoya glanced at the clock on his phone and frowned when he saw how late it was, sensing the end of the date coming soon, he felt like he hadn't had nearly enough time with the other man. They parted ways outside the restaurant, Hoya pocketing Dongwoo's business card and Dongwoo pocketing Hoya's cell phone number, winking at him and waving as he loped down the street to his car.
Hoya called Heechul as soon as he walked through the door of his home, a huge grin plastered across his face.
"You're off the hook," he said simply.
"I knew it! See, you've got to trust me."
"I still don't, really," Hoya smirked, laughing at Heechul's indignant noise.
"Maybe after date two," he continued, the happy, blissful smile staying on his face long after he'd hung up.
Pairing: Hoya/Infinite, Hoya/Dongwoo
Rating: PG-13
WC: 2692
When Hoya's friend Heechul promised him that his days of loneliness had come to an end, he had plenty of doubts in his mind. It wasn't that he didn't trust his friend's taste or intentions, it was just that it had been so long since Hoya had been able to meet anyone he really liked that he was starting to wonder if there was anyone out there meant for him.
"Don't worry, these guys are all top class," Heechul said, flipping through his address book.
"I don't know," Hoya rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, blind dating? Do I really have to?"
"Well, unless you really want to spend the rest of your life alone and miserable and die surrounded by nothing but five million cats," Heechul snapped, shooting a look at him.
"I only have one cat," he argued. "And I've only been single for like two years, I think I have plenty of time."
"Two years is way too long, Hoya. You need to get laid. You need to have fun with someone again," Heechul said, flipping to another page. He added under his breath, "And you need to get over that slut."
"I heard that," Hoya grumbled. "Jaehyo wasn't a slut, he just..."
"Slept with your best friend behind your back?"
"Had...issues. With uh. Sex. And other people."
Heechul raised an eyebrow and Hoya frowned and rested his chin on his hand.
"Okay, okay, I'll go on your stupid dates."
"You don't really have a choice," Heechul smirked. "Friday night, eight o' clock. Be ready to fall in love again."
Hoya sighed and grabbed his coat in resignation, hoping against hope this wasn't going to be as huge a disaster as he was thinking.
Fiddling with his napkin uncertainly, Hoya glanced around the restaurant, wondering vaguely whether he was being stood up. Just when he was starting to consider giving up and ordering for himself, a man hurried across the restaurant and stopped in front of him, looking frazzled.
"Excuse me, are you Hoya?" the man asked, eyebrows slanted in concern.
"Uh, yes?" he responded. "Sunggyu?"
"Yup, I'm so sorry about being late," Sunggyu said, pulling his chair out to sit. "I think I got the wrong restaurant at first."
"Oh, don't worry about it, I wasn't waiting that long," Hoya lied smoothly, smiling at the other man.
He didn't look bad at all, he thought. The man looked older than him, dressed in what Hoya guessed he'd worn to work that day, tie slightly rumpled but still looking overall pristine and business-like. Hoya guessed he had a steady nine to five job in a cubicle somewhere and relaxed, glad his date was at least employed.
The date went smoothly enough, conversation coming easily. Hoya found himself relating to a lot of what Sunggyu was saying, feeling charmed by the sweet eyesmiles the other man was giving him as he talked about his family. He noticed the semi-frequent glances Sunggyu was giving his watch but he didn't say anything, figuring it was just a habit.
Just as they were getting to the end of their meal, chopsticks scraping the bottoms of their bowls, Sunggyu suddenly looked at his watch and then stood up quickly, eyes wide.
"Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was already so late. I...I have to go back to work. There's a lot I still haven't done for tomorrow."
Hoya gaped at him as he fumbled with his wallet and tossed some money onto the table to cover his meal. He bowed slightly in apology, grabbing his jacket hurriedly and pulling it on as he slipped away. Hoya didn't even get a chance to say goodbye, finding himself sitting alone in the restaurant yet again.
He figured he'd have the rotten luck to find the one decent, likable guy who also happened to be a complete workaholic. Hoya picked at his noodles sadly, sighing to himself as he wondered whether the next guy on Heechul's list might be a better date.
The next Friday night, Hoya was sitting in the same restaurant, sipping at his water as he waited for his date. The man who moved his way to his table not even five minutes later was almost the opposite of what Hoya had been expecting, almost alarmingly good-looking, a charming smile fixed permanently on his perfect face. After they ordered their food and got into conversation, Hoya felt he was being drawn into Woohyun's charms, grinning every time Woohyun reached across the table to touch his hand or lifted his chopsticks to his mouth with a smooth, irresistible smile.
Just as he felt the date was going surprisingly well, hope bubbling up in the pit of his stomach, Woohyun received a phone call. He glanced at the screen and rolled his eyes, holding a finger up.
"Hold on, I have to take this. It'll be quick."
Hoya nodded and smiled, taking the opportunity to dig into his delicious meal. He watched as Woohyun answered the phone with his usual grin.
"Hey there," he said, pressing the phone to his ear. "Yeah, yeah, I'm working late again."
Hoya paused as Woohyun glanced at him and grinned wider.
"I'll be home later. Don't wait up."
Woohyun listened for a second and then nodded, smirking. "I know, I'm sorry. I miss you, too, baby."
Hoya's eyebrows shot up as Woohyun said goodbye and hung up, laughing. He looked at Hoya and winked.
"Sometimes you gotta keep them in the dark, you know?" he said, shoving some noodles into his mouth and slurping.
Hoya set his chopsticks down, sighing to himself. There goes another one, he thought miserably, subtly glancing around for their waiter so he could get the check.
"Shit, what are you doing?" Hoya hissed, reaching out as his new date flung a dinner roll back over his shoulder.
"No good," Sungyeol responded, taking a bite out of another one. He made a face and tossed it. Hoya watched in horror as it landed in his bowl, splashing juice out onto the table and Hoya's pants.
"Mmm, this is the good one," Sungyeol continued, munching happily on the last dinner roll and ignoring how Hoya was frantically trying to scrub at his nice pants.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"It's like finding the golden ticket," Sungyeol said. "The golden roll. ...The golden roll~"
Hoya gawked at him as Sungyeol started singing that phrase over and over in different intonations, loud enough for the people sitting around them to turn and fix them with dirty looks. Sungyeol had started doing his best impression of what Hoya guessed was dolphin noises, happily ignoring all of the stares.
"Did you forget to take your medication or something?" Hoya demanded miserably, covering his face with his hands as his cheeks burned with embarrassment.
He was going to murder Heechul.
Hoya stared across the table blankly at his date, who was staring back with a similar expression. He watched as the man reached slowly for his drink, bringing it to his lips without even breaking his gaze.
"So," Hoya started awkwardly, fidgeting, "what do you do?"
The man across from him shrugged silently.
Hoya tried not to reach across the table and throttle him, incredibly frustrated with his seeming inability to converse with others like a normal human being would. He'd tried starting up a conversation several times throughout the course of the meal, only getting one-word responses, grunts or complete silence for his trouble.
"Are you a fucking robot or something?" Hoya asked in exasperation, completely forgoing any and all dating etiquette his horrible blind dating experiences hadn't squashed out of him.
The man who had introduced himself as simply "L" shrugged again.
"I don't talk much when I'm not really interested," he explained, eyes drifting to watch people eating their dinner at other tables.
"So I'm not interesting," Hoya deadpanned, eyebrows raised so high they were about to shoot off of his face.
"You're kind of boring," L leveled with him, drinking his wine.
"I'm boring? I'm boring?"
L rolled his eyes and turned his head toward the waiter walking by, signalling him over.
"Check," he said simply, ignoring Hoya.
Hoya barely kept himself from dumping his wine all over L's expensive-looking sweater.
Despite all expectations to the contrary, Hoya actually discovered himself having a lot of fun on his fifth blind date. Sungjong was cute, funny, interesting and completely interested in him, as far as he could tell. The younger man kept pulling his phone out and scooting his chair over to take selcas with Hoya, smiling brilliantly as he posed with his head tilted to press lightly against Hoya's.
"This one can be my wallpaper," he said, grinning and laughing as Hoya struggled to take his phone away, complaining that he'd come out weird.
Hoya pouted and snatched a piece of shrimp off of Sungjong's plate in retaliation, mouth breaking into a smile as Sungjong laughed again, resting his chin on his hand and watching him eat.
"I'm having a lot of fun," Hoya admitted.
Sungjong nodded. "Me too."
Hoya grinned widely as he laid a hand down on the table, palm facing upwards, and Sungjong immediately laid his hand over it and clasped their fingers together. Sungjong's hands were small, much like the rest of him, boyish features standing out in stark contrast to the rest of his dates. Hoya found his smile faltering just a bit as he realized this, rubbing his thumb against Sungjong's hand.
"Hey, listen, I've been wondering something about you," he began. Sungjong straightened up in interest, leaning forward and nodding to encourage him to go on. "Well, it's just...you look so young. I'm sure it's just how you look, but I guess I'm just curious now. How old are you?"
Sungjong's face fell, losing his smile for the first time since Hoya had met him earlier.
"I mean, I don't care if you're younger than me," Hoya clarified quickly. "I've dated people who are younger. It's not a big deal."
Sungjong sighed and smiled again. "I'm glad you think that."
Hoya nodded. "A couple years really doesn't make a difference to me."
Sungjong had frowned again, something that alarmed Hoya just a bit. He wasn't...he couldn't be that young, could he? Hoya started to worry as Sungjong slid his hand out of his grasp and started fiddling with his straw.
"Uh...I'm eighteen," Sungjong said quietly.
Hoya's eyes widened. He'd been expecting twenty-one, maybe even twenty at the youngest, as he was pushing twenty-five himself. Taking a deep breath, he tried to rationalize, figuring eighteen was perfectly legal, especially if the younger man was close to another birthday.
"Or at least I will be," Sungjong continued even more quietly. "Like, in a year."
Hoya almost fell out of his chair in shock.
He leaned over the table and gripped the sides, hissing, "You're seventeen?!"
"Uh...sorry?" Sungjong tried, smiling coyly.
Hoya looked around quickly, wondering if anyone was listening in. He felt like a criminal all of a sudden, nerves jacked up. Turning his head, he watched as Sungjong lifted his glass of wine to his lips and practically slapped it out of his hands, ignoring his indignant squawk.
"You can't have that!" Hoya hissed again, trying to keep his voice down. "Fuck, Sungjong!"
"I'm so sorry," Sungjong whispered back, resting a hand over his forehead. "I thought you knew."
"No, I didn't know! I didn't-" His friend's face flashed into his mind and Hoya stood up, fumbling for his phone in his pockets. "HEECHUL!"
Hoya paced back and forth in Heechul's living room an hour later, Heechul watching him from his position on the couch, sipping idly at his beer.
"Seriously, he told me eighteen," Heechul said again, running a hand through his hair as Hoya shot him a look. "I mean, I think he did. We were both pretty drunk-"
"I don't even want to know," Hoya cut in.
He flopped onto a chair tiredly, sighing into his hands. Shaking his head, he looked up.
"None of these dates has been anything but fucking terrible. Maybe I just...shouldn't bother. Maybe there really just isn't anyone out there for me."
"Aw, don't say that, Hoya," Heechul frowned. He scooted closer on the couch. "I'm sure if you just keep looking you'll find him."
Hoya shook his head, leaning back on the chair. "I'm about ready to give up."
"Just one more," Heechul pleaded. "I know the perfect guy. I just met him recently and I totally thought of you. Come on, just one last chance."
"I don't know," Hoya said uncertainly, frowning at him.
"Please?" Heechul asked. "If he's not the one, I'll stop. I won't suggest anyone else to you."
Hoya sighed again, rubbing at his temples. He shrugged heavily.
"Fine, whatever. Just one, though. After this, I'm done."
Almost as soon as his date sat down, Hoya began grilling him, arms crossed defensively.
"Job?" he asked first.
His date paused in pulling his chair out, sitting down slowly. "Music store."
Hoya nodded his approval. "Are you single?"
The other man laughed. "I sure am."
"Age?"
"Just turned twenty-six."
"Thank god," Hoya mumbled, finally getting comfortable.
"Are we playing a game or something?" the man asked, smiling and looking highly entertained.
"No, I've just had a few too many bad dates," Hoya mumbled. "Sorry about that. I'm Hoya."
"Dongwoo," the other replied, "and yeah, I hear that. My last date started throwing his food at people."
Hoya raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like Sungyeol."
Dongwoo snapped his fingers. "That was him. You know that guy?"
"Unfortunately, yeah," Hoya said, grinning and letting the smallest bit of hope for this date flare up deep inside.
"Well, I'm not like that," Dongwoo assured him. "I mean, I can get pretty crazy but I know when to quit."
As the date went on, Hoya kept waiting for the inevitable deal-breaker to pop up, but Dongwoo surprised him but only becoming even more interesting and attractive to him. They discovered that they both loved dancing, preferred rap parts to singing parts in songs, had played their fair share of sports in high school and had hated all of the same school subjects. Dongwoo turned out to be incredibly receptive to Hoya's brand of humor, laughing at all of his jokes like he'd never heard anything so hilarious in his life. Dongwoo was rather funny himself, keeping the date interesting by providing commentary on the meals of the tables around them, telling Hoya about how the old man sitting alone in the corner had been coming to the restaurant every day to sit in the same place, always looking like he was waiting for someone to join him though the opposite chair remained empty every time. He told Hoya about how the family to their far left was tense at their meal because the father had just revealed to them how he was planning on joining the circus and the wife hadn't really cared because she was planning on leaving him for another woman soon anyway.
"You tell great stories," Hoya said, smiling as he swirled his straw through his drink.
Dongwoo beamed back at him. "Thanks! I write stuff sometimes when I'm bored at work, on the back of receipt paper or just on paper bags. Stories or lyrics or whatever comes to mind."
"I'd love to read it sometime."
The red-haired man grinned and reached into his pockets. He pulled out a business card and slid it across the table.
"Come visit me at the store. We've got tons of great vintage records and rooms for you to sample albums in. We can sit in one and I'll read my stuff to you while we listen to the classics."
"That would be awesome," Hoya admitted, taking the card and reading the brightly-colored letters with a soft smile. "I think I'll take you up on that."
They stuck around the restaurant long after the food was gone and by the time Hoya glanced at the clock on his phone and frowned when he saw how late it was, sensing the end of the date coming soon, he felt like he hadn't had nearly enough time with the other man. They parted ways outside the restaurant, Hoya pocketing Dongwoo's business card and Dongwoo pocketing Hoya's cell phone number, winking at him and waving as he loped down the street to his car.
Hoya called Heechul as soon as he walked through the door of his home, a huge grin plastered across his face.
"You're off the hook," he said simply.
"I knew it! See, you've got to trust me."
"I still don't, really," Hoya smirked, laughing at Heechul's indignant noise.
"Maybe after date two," he continued, the happy, blissful smile staying on his face long after he'd hung up.