and it was all yellow
pairing: changsub/sungjae
rating: g
wc: 2,069
notes: au verse
sungjae liked anime a little too much.
when he first started working at the convenience store his boss told him he couldn't wear the lanyard he had spent years decorating with buttons and stickers and keychains of different anime characters he liked to watch and dress up as sometimes (but not in public, he wanted his first ever public cosplay to be honey from ouran high school host club - people told him he would do better as mori or kyoya but sungjae thought his personality matched honey's perfectly).
he figured out other ways to showcase his interests: every shirt he wore to work had a design of some anime he watched or was watching or would watch; he pinned buttons on the chest of his work vest and he even dyed his hair a bright bleach blonde. the hair was mostly for the honey costume, but he liked it enough to wear it around daily.
the customers seemed to accept his buttons and shirts easier after he dyed his hair blonde. it was like they expected it.
sungjae liked his job a little too much.
he was a third year in high school when he got the position for the convenience store; when it was practical, when he was about to become an "adult" and needed to buy stuff without his parents knowing.
he was turning 21 this year and still had no plans of ever leaving the store. his parents, his older sister, even his manager asked him why he was still working there instead of going to college or getting a better job and always, his answer remained the same: "i like it here."
and he did, he liked having food all around him, he liked having wifi so easily for his breaks and when the store was empty, so he could whip out his phone and squeeze in as many episodes as he could until he was needed again. he liked that his boss let him eat one meal a day from the store because it meant he didn't need to spend money on anything but his cosplay materials and the occassional grocery item his mom would ask him for.
it worked, and there was no reason why sungjae would give up something that worked.
sungjae liked changsub a little too much.
changsub always had a messy head of hair that looked like he just woke up and a sleepy look in his eyes that wouldn't go away no matter how much he slept. he wore the same black tattered jacket that was a too big with a new shirt every day, which was really just an alternation between 5 different shirts throughout the week. his shoes were worn in and starting to have holes ripped through the material, but sometimes he only wore sock with sandals meant for wearing only inside of the house just to give the sneakers a break.
changsub frequented at the convenience store almost daily and sungjae waited for him every night. sungjae wanted to say that changsub comes in at two in the morning every time because it would sound more romantic and more like an anime plot that he'd love to take a part in. unfortunately (for sungjae), it wasn't true; changsub would come in at 6pm some nights and 11pm other nights or 3am or 5am or not at all, sometimes sungjae wouldn't be working or he'd be doing inventory or restocking and would miss him, but the first night that sungjae saw him it was at 2am so it was then that he started expecting changsub to arrive.
-
the first time they spoke it was at 2:07am when changsub put a bottle of iced coffee and a bag of cheese flavoured chips on the counter and waited for sungjae to ring them up. sungjae stumbled over his words and all changsub did was grunt before taking his food and leaving. sungjae didn't stop thinking about him until he showed up the next day.
the first time they looked at each other was when sungjae forced himself not to look down at the counter the entire time changsub was buying something, and instead stared at him. but he was staring a little too hard and a little too long and changsub only looked back at him for a second before leaving with his stuff. his eyes were brown and beautiful and sungjae started falling in love with the anime characters that had brown eyes instead of blue ones.
the fifth time they spoke changsub introduced himself to sungjae and sungjae choked on air instead of speaking because he was so surprised. he never asked for his name but changsub wanted him to know anyway, and he was elated. when sungjae finally introduced himself back, changsub said he knew his name already, he was wearing a nametag.
the first time they ate together changsub came into the store at 3am and bought two bowls of ramen and two bottles of coke and asked sungjae to eat with him.
at the time sungjae was flustered, his cheeks burning scarlets and he stumbled over his words when all he wanted to say was "i can't. i have to watch the till." and even when he did say that, changsub insisted reasoning that it was three in the morning and no one would be coming anyway.
truthfully sungjae wasn't very hard to convince because a) changsub was right, barely anyone came into the store and if anyone were to come, then he could go back inside just as quickly, and b) changsub was asking him out on a date! a date. maybe a really cheap and really poor-looking date, but a date nonetheless, what kind of rewards and gratifications would sungjae deprive himself of by rejecting changsub continuously? he didn't even want to think about it.
and even more truthfully so, sungjae only denied the first time because he a) needed to tell himself (but more importantly, his boss) that he didn't willingly leave the till so easily; no, he put up a "fight" and b) needed to see if changsub wanted to eat with him enough to ask a second time - and was happily pleased by the results.
the dinner was great and everything; changsub laughed a couple times when he was in the middle of talking about an anime plot, but it wasn't malicious, he laughed when he was supposed to and it made sungjae feel warm inside.
while changsub was talking about how he drew comics for newspapers sometimes, sungjae drifted off imagining him and changsub cuddled up together watching ouran high school host club and changsub saying "that honey character is a lot like you, you know." because he knew that changsub would say something like that without knowing it's what he wanted to hear.
he felt so connected with changsub during their dinner and that made him even more upset that someone tried to rob the store on that night. that specific night, out of all of them! okay, maybe it was this night because they saw there was no one tending the cash register, but still.
it didn't end badly. everything was resolved within half an hour and sungjae was left sitting alone behind the plastic table on a plastic chair, finishing his half-empty cup of ramen alone. the robber turned out to be someone that changsub went to high school with and once they started talking, sungjae walked outside because he (naively) trusted changsub not to steal anything and he felt like he would be intruding if he stayed within listening range.
when changsub tapped sungjae on the shoulder to tell him he was taking his friend home, sungjae tried not to make his change in expression too obvious. but the effort proved to be done in vain when changsub apologized, his guilt more noticeable than before. "we can eat again another time." was all he got before changsub walked his friend down the sidewalk, to - well sungjae didn't care where to, he cared that his date was cut short because someone decided to rob the store he worked at instead of the one down the block.
-
the next morning sungjae had to call in sick because he'd vomited three times since he woke up and couldn't deviate an inch from his comforting fetal position without a fourth time threatening it's appearance. he hated that the first thing he worried about was whether changsub was food poisoned too, but even then didn't force himself to think of anything else.
unluckily enough, sungjae didn't have changsub's number or any means of contact other than the facebook profile he had found after throwing his self-values out the window and searching for him anywhere he could. changsub hadn't updated since 2012 and sungjae couldn't blame him, and was happy enough with the 4-year old photos that changsub had made public.
so sungjae spent his entire day on his bed, cheek pushed into his face as he watched through his animes, catching up with the ones he fell behind due to picking up extra shifts at the store.
it was only when the mention of a recall was on the news did he look away from his computer screen to the television he had left on for background noise, pausing the show so he could get the full story. it turns out that it was the ramen he ate last night that gave him the stomach bug, it being some new version from the company that, evidently, didn't turn out so well. he just wished that this recall had come to the news before he'd eaten 3 packets of it last night. the taste of the ramen floated back to consciousness and suddenly his fourth time vomiting was no longer just a threat anymore.
it ended up being two and a half weeks before sungjae had been well enough to go back to work, which meant two and a half weeks worth of time that changsub had to forget about him.
that proved to not be the case when almost magically, at 2am (okay 2:17am but it was close enough), changsub walked in and lit up at the sight of sungjae behind the counter. he headed towards the cashier rather than going towards his usual first stop at the coffee aisle.
"so that first date ended up being pretty terrible, huh? have you been sick too?" he asked, his voice and actions, even the way that he smiled so deliberate and slow that it mellowed out sungjae's already fast-beating heart.
"yeah, i just got better. what about you?" sungjae asked, his voice small as if it were a child's, hinting at the distance of his thoughts because all he could think about was how changsub had considered it a date, too.
changsub shrugged, running his fingers through his long hair only to have them fall back in place again. "i got better a few days ago, but at least the ramen didn't kill either of us." he said with a brief laugh, as if he didn't expect sungjae to laugh with him, but found a joy in his own joke regardless.
sungjae couldn't help but to smile as he watched changsub, as he noticed small mannerisms like the way his tongue got in the way between his teeth when he talked sometimes, or how his eyes curved before his mouth even did. he opened his mouth only to have nothing come out a few times before, finally, he got the question out.
"we can go on a second date soon, then?"
-
on their seventh date, which was only a couple months after their first one, changsub and sungjae were sitting in the backroom, watching ouran high school host club on sungjae's phone.
"which one should i cosplay as, sub?" he asked, almost being able to hear the 'honey' that he knew was coming.
changsub took a second, staring at everyone on the screen as if trying to remember their names before pointing to mori. "that guy." he answered, not even looking away from the screen to see sungjae's disappointment in the answer.
sungjae let out an audible sigh and took one of changsub's hands in his free ones. changsub, almost immediately, laced their fingers together and squeezed his hand with more affection than his response had held.
one day, sungjae thought, one day he'll get it right.
rating: g
wc: 2,069
notes: au verse
sungjae liked anime a little too much.
when he first started working at the convenience store his boss told him he couldn't wear the lanyard he had spent years decorating with buttons and stickers and keychains of different anime characters he liked to watch and dress up as sometimes (but not in public, he wanted his first ever public cosplay to be honey from ouran high school host club - people told him he would do better as mori or kyoya but sungjae thought his personality matched honey's perfectly).
he figured out other ways to showcase his interests: every shirt he wore to work had a design of some anime he watched or was watching or would watch; he pinned buttons on the chest of his work vest and he even dyed his hair a bright bleach blonde. the hair was mostly for the honey costume, but he liked it enough to wear it around daily.
the customers seemed to accept his buttons and shirts easier after he dyed his hair blonde. it was like they expected it.
sungjae liked his job a little too much.
he was a third year in high school when he got the position for the convenience store; when it was practical, when he was about to become an "adult" and needed to buy stuff without his parents knowing.
he was turning 21 this year and still had no plans of ever leaving the store. his parents, his older sister, even his manager asked him why he was still working there instead of going to college or getting a better job and always, his answer remained the same: "i like it here."
and he did, he liked having food all around him, he liked having wifi so easily for his breaks and when the store was empty, so he could whip out his phone and squeeze in as many episodes as he could until he was needed again. he liked that his boss let him eat one meal a day from the store because it meant he didn't need to spend money on anything but his cosplay materials and the occassional grocery item his mom would ask him for.
it worked, and there was no reason why sungjae would give up something that worked.
sungjae liked changsub a little too much.
changsub always had a messy head of hair that looked like he just woke up and a sleepy look in his eyes that wouldn't go away no matter how much he slept. he wore the same black tattered jacket that was a too big with a new shirt every day, which was really just an alternation between 5 different shirts throughout the week. his shoes were worn in and starting to have holes ripped through the material, but sometimes he only wore sock with sandals meant for wearing only inside of the house just to give the sneakers a break.
changsub frequented at the convenience store almost daily and sungjae waited for him every night. sungjae wanted to say that changsub comes in at two in the morning every time because it would sound more romantic and more like an anime plot that he'd love to take a part in. unfortunately (for sungjae), it wasn't true; changsub would come in at 6pm some nights and 11pm other nights or 3am or 5am or not at all, sometimes sungjae wouldn't be working or he'd be doing inventory or restocking and would miss him, but the first night that sungjae saw him it was at 2am so it was then that he started expecting changsub to arrive.
-
the first time they spoke it was at 2:07am when changsub put a bottle of iced coffee and a bag of cheese flavoured chips on the counter and waited for sungjae to ring them up. sungjae stumbled over his words and all changsub did was grunt before taking his food and leaving. sungjae didn't stop thinking about him until he showed up the next day.
the first time they looked at each other was when sungjae forced himself not to look down at the counter the entire time changsub was buying something, and instead stared at him. but he was staring a little too hard and a little too long and changsub only looked back at him for a second before leaving with his stuff. his eyes were brown and beautiful and sungjae started falling in love with the anime characters that had brown eyes instead of blue ones.
the fifth time they spoke changsub introduced himself to sungjae and sungjae choked on air instead of speaking because he was so surprised. he never asked for his name but changsub wanted him to know anyway, and he was elated. when sungjae finally introduced himself back, changsub said he knew his name already, he was wearing a nametag.
the first time they ate together changsub came into the store at 3am and bought two bowls of ramen and two bottles of coke and asked sungjae to eat with him.
at the time sungjae was flustered, his cheeks burning scarlets and he stumbled over his words when all he wanted to say was "i can't. i have to watch the till." and even when he did say that, changsub insisted reasoning that it was three in the morning and no one would be coming anyway.
truthfully sungjae wasn't very hard to convince because a) changsub was right, barely anyone came into the store and if anyone were to come, then he could go back inside just as quickly, and b) changsub was asking him out on a date! a date. maybe a really cheap and really poor-looking date, but a date nonetheless, what kind of rewards and gratifications would sungjae deprive himself of by rejecting changsub continuously? he didn't even want to think about it.
and even more truthfully so, sungjae only denied the first time because he a) needed to tell himself (but more importantly, his boss) that he didn't willingly leave the till so easily; no, he put up a "fight" and b) needed to see if changsub wanted to eat with him enough to ask a second time - and was happily pleased by the results.
the dinner was great and everything; changsub laughed a couple times when he was in the middle of talking about an anime plot, but it wasn't malicious, he laughed when he was supposed to and it made sungjae feel warm inside.
while changsub was talking about how he drew comics for newspapers sometimes, sungjae drifted off imagining him and changsub cuddled up together watching ouran high school host club and changsub saying "that honey character is a lot like you, you know." because he knew that changsub would say something like that without knowing it's what he wanted to hear.
he felt so connected with changsub during their dinner and that made him even more upset that someone tried to rob the store on that night. that specific night, out of all of them! okay, maybe it was this night because they saw there was no one tending the cash register, but still.
it didn't end badly. everything was resolved within half an hour and sungjae was left sitting alone behind the plastic table on a plastic chair, finishing his half-empty cup of ramen alone. the robber turned out to be someone that changsub went to high school with and once they started talking, sungjae walked outside because he (naively) trusted changsub not to steal anything and he felt like he would be intruding if he stayed within listening range.
when changsub tapped sungjae on the shoulder to tell him he was taking his friend home, sungjae tried not to make his change in expression too obvious. but the effort proved to be done in vain when changsub apologized, his guilt more noticeable than before. "we can eat again another time." was all he got before changsub walked his friend down the sidewalk, to - well sungjae didn't care where to, he cared that his date was cut short because someone decided to rob the store he worked at instead of the one down the block.
-
the next morning sungjae had to call in sick because he'd vomited three times since he woke up and couldn't deviate an inch from his comforting fetal position without a fourth time threatening it's appearance. he hated that the first thing he worried about was whether changsub was food poisoned too, but even then didn't force himself to think of anything else.
unluckily enough, sungjae didn't have changsub's number or any means of contact other than the facebook profile he had found after throwing his self-values out the window and searching for him anywhere he could. changsub hadn't updated since 2012 and sungjae couldn't blame him, and was happy enough with the 4-year old photos that changsub had made public.
so sungjae spent his entire day on his bed, cheek pushed into his face as he watched through his animes, catching up with the ones he fell behind due to picking up extra shifts at the store.
it was only when the mention of a recall was on the news did he look away from his computer screen to the television he had left on for background noise, pausing the show so he could get the full story. it turns out that it was the ramen he ate last night that gave him the stomach bug, it being some new version from the company that, evidently, didn't turn out so well. he just wished that this recall had come to the news before he'd eaten 3 packets of it last night. the taste of the ramen floated back to consciousness and suddenly his fourth time vomiting was no longer just a threat anymore.
it ended up being two and a half weeks before sungjae had been well enough to go back to work, which meant two and a half weeks worth of time that changsub had to forget about him.
that proved to not be the case when almost magically, at 2am (okay 2:17am but it was close enough), changsub walked in and lit up at the sight of sungjae behind the counter. he headed towards the cashier rather than going towards his usual first stop at the coffee aisle.
"so that first date ended up being pretty terrible, huh? have you been sick too?" he asked, his voice and actions, even the way that he smiled so deliberate and slow that it mellowed out sungjae's already fast-beating heart.
"yeah, i just got better. what about you?" sungjae asked, his voice small as if it were a child's, hinting at the distance of his thoughts because all he could think about was how changsub had considered it a date, too.
changsub shrugged, running his fingers through his long hair only to have them fall back in place again. "i got better a few days ago, but at least the ramen didn't kill either of us." he said with a brief laugh, as if he didn't expect sungjae to laugh with him, but found a joy in his own joke regardless.
sungjae couldn't help but to smile as he watched changsub, as he noticed small mannerisms like the way his tongue got in the way between his teeth when he talked sometimes, or how his eyes curved before his mouth even did. he opened his mouth only to have nothing come out a few times before, finally, he got the question out.
"we can go on a second date soon, then?"
-
on their seventh date, which was only a couple months after their first one, changsub and sungjae were sitting in the backroom, watching ouran high school host club on sungjae's phone.
"which one should i cosplay as, sub?" he asked, almost being able to hear the 'honey' that he knew was coming.
changsub took a second, staring at everyone on the screen as if trying to remember their names before pointing to mori. "that guy." he answered, not even looking away from the screen to see sungjae's disappointment in the answer.
sungjae let out an audible sigh and took one of changsub's hands in his free ones. changsub, almost immediately, laced their fingers together and squeezed his hand with more affection than his response had held.
one day, sungjae thought, one day he'll get it right.