#11 brown chicken, brown cow {2/2}
“you have reached the voicemail of-” jongin frowns and ends the phone call without leaving a message. his fingers dance across the screen, pulling up the messages to send a text.
“who’re you texting?” minseok asks, startling him.
jongin looks up, locking his phone and pocketing it before responding, “no one.” he tries to act nonchalant but the quiver in his voice gives him away. he tries to slip past the other waiter but minseok grabs a hold of his wrist.
“if it’s a ‘no one’, why are you grinning like an idiot then? you look like you slept with a coat hanger in your mouth, isn’t your jaw aching?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.
damn, that dude has killer eyebrow game, jongin observes. he clears his voice before responding, “he’s just someone i know.”
minseok ushers jongin to a spare booth, pushing him into it before taking a seat beside him. “so this ‘no one’ is a ‘someone’ now?” he grills jongin further.
“a friend.”
“ooooh, a ‘friend’.” minseok wriggles his eyebrows suggestively.
“not that kind of friend!” jongin quickly adds.
“sure, sure. i bet you wish it was that kind of friend though.”
jongin averts his gaze, a warm flush spreading across his face.
“i knew it!” minseok’s face lights up, fully aware he’s hit the jackpot. “so, tell me all about him.”
“there’s nothing to tell,” jongin replies, swatting a very handsy minseok away. “stop trying to touch my junk!”
“i’m not! i was trying to steal your phone!” minseok exclaims, his hands recoiling from the accusation.
a passing junmyeon tuts at minseok disapprovingly. “let’s keep this a sexual harassment free environment, minseok. i expected more from you.”
minseok quickly slides out of the booth and gives chase to junmyeon, protecting his honour. “i swear i wasn’t trying anything!”
taking solace in his solitude, jongin retrieves his phone from his pocket. he spends ten minutes composing the text, deleting and redrafting countless times before he’s satisfied with his message. he hits send and resumes cleaning and setting up the tables.
he hums to himself as he glides around the restaurant with a subtle spring in his step, and chooses to ignore the hushed voices behind his back.
---
“wait, so the dude's name isn't zelda? his name is link? then why is the game called zelda?”
“that's the name of the princess, princess zelda,” sehun explains to chanyeol. part of him feels overjoyed that one of his friends is finally showing interest in the franchise and the other part of him feels somewhat apprehensive. this is park chanyeol, after all. the guy who actually listed his candy crush achievements on his resume.
“and this link dude rescues the princess? like mario?” chanyeol asks, cracking his knuckles before picking up the control pad. “is he a plumber, too?”
sehun shoots him a look as if he's just insulted his entire family dating back a hundred generations. “you did not just-” he sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose. he regrets it already.
“you should be careful with your words when talking about zelda,” jongdae advises from behind them. he and baekhyun had migrated to the couch after claiming that they were still too drunk and hungover to partake in the zelda marathon or join kyungsoo in the kitchen (much to the host’s relief). “sehun has a massive hard on for link, he will hurt you if you insult his precious baby.”
“do you remember when i had that nasty cut on my eyebrow junior year of high school?” baekhyun joins in the conversation. “it’s because i compared him to frodo.” he shakes his head in contempt.
“because they look nothing alike!”
“well, you didn’t have to throw the control pad at me!”
“there will be no throwing of anything,” kyungsoo warns from the kitchen. “if you guys don’t behave, you won’t get fed. am i understood?”
“yes, sir!” the men chorus.
sehun’s stomach growls, but he knows better than to rush kyungsoo. baekhyun may be the eldest of the group, but kyungsoo wields the most power. his authority mainly stems from the fact that he’s the only one who knows his way around the kitchen and he’s not afraid to exploit his culinary skills to exert control.
he ignores the hunger pangs and resumes discussing the gameplay with chanyeol. “wait, i should email you some walkthroughs that you might find helpful,” sehun informs the other, withholding the fact that he’s actually the author of the aforementioned guides. he also chooses not to reveal that he has been writing fanfiction under the pseudonym ‘linktrash69’. he scans the room for his phone, he recalls placing it on the table before -oh, shoot …
“kim jongdae! oh sehun! why is there a phone in my rice cooker?” kyungsoo storms back into the front room and lobs the phone in sehun’s direction.
he catches the phone and frowns when he takes a look it. “it’s covered in rice! jongdae hyung, did you not look to see if there was still rice in cooker before you tossed it in there?!” sehun grabs the hem of chanyeol’s shirt and uses it to wipe down his phone.
“oops, my bad? sorry,” jongdae apologises halfheartedly.
“just to let you know, you guys will still be eating the rice, i’m not wasting food. by the way, i think you got a text, sehun” kyungsoo says as he trudges back to the kitchen. “from the waiter, kim jongin,” he adds.
sehun blinks at the phone as if it was a foreign device he had never seen before. kim jongin had text him? he’d forgotten about it when chanyeol had distracted him with questions about zelda. why was the majestic kim jongin texting and calling him?
“i completely forgot about that phone ringing business. man, i was still so bombed,” baekhyun slurs from the couch, not bothering to open his mouth to talk.
“you’re still drunk, byunbaek,” jongdae points out.
“sssssh.” baekhyun puts a slender finger to his lips. “i was about to say something. what was it again?” he closes his eyes, his finger still held against his mouth. “oh yeah, sehun-ah. why did you freak out when ‘jongin’ called earlier?” he makes an air quote gesture when saying the waiter’s name.
“i don’t know? i panicked? i wasn’t thinking straight-”
“more like, you weren’t thinking at all,” baekhyun interjects. “you do realise that the person calling probably isn’t jongin, right? i mean, he probably gave you a random number.”
well. why didn’t this dawn on him earlier? sehun had even told the waiter to give him a fake number so why did he almost have a panic attack at the mere thought of having to converse with him?
baekhyun clambers over jongdae and slides off the settee, still too lazy to make proper use of his muscles and limbs. he crawls slowly toward sehun, beckoning him to hand over his phone. “gimme.”
sehun reluctantly complies and hands over the phone. “why is this person even calling and texting me in the first place? it’s not like i contacted him or…” he trails off. “did i? did we?” his eyes widen as he tries to piece back together the hazy memories of the night before.
“did we?” baekhyun looks at jongdae who shrugs his shoulders. “chanyeol? do you remember anything?”
“what? i’m slashing grass right now. i almost have a hundred rupees,” the gamer replies, distracted by the hack and slash video game.
“well, we can always just check the call log and messages.”
“wait,” sehun snatches the phone back from baekhyun’s hand. “let me check first.” he unlocks his phone and sighs with relief when he discovers that he did not drunk dial the fake number. he opens the messages and closes his eyes. this can’t be happening. “nononononononono,” he mutters to himself as he tightens his grip on the phone, his knuckles turning white.
“sehun, what’s wrong?” baekhyun asks with concern. he pries the phone from the youngest’s clutches and reads the text message on the screen out loud, “hey sehun. it’s jongin from exology. you sent quite a few drunken text messages last night so i just wanted to check in i guess. i tried to call, but you must be still sleeping it off or something. anyway, hit me back when you get this. huh, would you take a look at that? it really was jongin.”
“shit, he gave his number for real?!” jongdae exclaims incredulously. “pass it here.” baekhyun hands the phone over and jongdae wastes no time in scrolling through the messages that were sent last night. “oh my god!” he bursts into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. “stop playing the game and check this out, chanyeol-ah! kyungsoo-ah, you too! you need to hear this.”
jongdae clears his throat and waits for everyone’s undivided attention. sehun’s face pales as his friend proceeds to read out some of the messages aloud.
“have you ever came so hard, you peed?”
“i accidentally farted in the lift one time and blamed the other person even though it was just the two of us.”
“i wrote a poem. you have nice eyes and thighs. i want to spread you like an apple pie. make you cry, that’s not a lie. oh my god, this is too embarrassing.” jongdae sets the phone down. “though to be fair, i’m pretty sure you didn’t send half of these texts. they’ve got byunbaek written all over them.”
“me?” baekhyun gasps in surprise. “you can’t prove-”
“the overuse of emojis, or what i hope are emojis tell me that it was you!” jongdae accuses. “and i doubt that sehun would refer to himself in the third person and then correct himself.”
“this is a dream. this is a dream. this is just a dream,” sehun repeats to himself, rocking back and forth.
“ssssh, sehun-ah. you’ll be okay,” kyungsoo comforts his young friend, stroking his broad back. “it’s not that bad?” kyungsoo picks up the mobile and scrolls through the messages. “a lot of these aren’t even coherent, just random keyboard smashes and emojis.” kyungsoo shoots a look at baekhyun who chuckles nervously.
“yeah, as jongdae said. i think a lot of these are obviously not from you,” kyungsoo continues. “one time, there was no toilet paper so sehun had to use his friend’s towel and to this day, the poor guy doesn’t even know sehun wiped his arsecrack with his towel. wait, whose towel? what friend? oh sehun!”
“if you’re going to kill me, just make it quick. i’m too embarrassed to face him ever again.” sehun curls up in a ball and clenches his eyes shut, praying that he’s going to wake up from this nightmare.
“so was it my towel? which one was it? please don’t tell me it was my pororo one!” kyungsoo wails as he shakes sehun’s like a rag doll. eventually tiring himself out, he excuses himself to dispose of all his towels.
“look on the bright side, jongin gave you his real number,” chanyeol points out. “i’m surprised you haven’t jizzed your pants yet.”
“wait a minute. you’re right, yeols. he gave sehunnie his real number and sehun has yet to reply. jongdae, chanyeol, quick! hold him back while i text jongin back,” baekhyun instructs as he grabs the phone and begins to type away at the speed of light.
“what are doing?! get off me!” sehun exclaims, struggling to move as he’s restrained by his traitorous friends. “hyung, what are you texting?!”
“trust me, sehun-ah. nothing bad. ‘what you up to, hot stuff?’ and send.” baekhyun smirks devilishly as he slips the phone into sehun’s pocket. “you can thank me later.”
“hyuuuuuuuuung!” sehun whines. “how could you do this to-” his phone buzzes from his pocket before he has a chance to finish his sentence.
baekhyun pounces on him, retrieving the phone from his pocket and broadcasts the latest message. “it’s from him. just working. you should swing by later on. holy crap, did he just ask sehun to meet up with him? after all those texts?”
chanyeol and jongdae stare at sehun, their mouths hanging open in disbelief. baekhyun is mumbling something under his breath, covering his face with his palm as he shakes his head.
“what did i say?” sehun says as he puffs out his chest with pride, his attitude doing a complete one-eighty. “sex god.”
---
jongin gapes in disbelief at his inbox. thirty seven text messages. thirty seven. granted, he’s not checked his phone during the entirety of his shift, but thirty seven messages?! he’s pretty sure that at least thirty six of them are from the same person. his hands slightly shaking in anticipation, he swipes a finger across the screen to unlock it. yup, they’re all from sehun. jongin tries to suppress the smile that’s taking over his face as he carefully reads each and every word, making sure not to miss a single letter.
“look, he’s doing that thing again.” minseok nudges junmyeon with an elbow.
junmyeon glances at the man in question.
“he’s biting on his lip, you know what that means. it must be a guy,” minseok continues.
noticing his colleagues staring at him and whispering to each other, jongin quickly pockets the phone. he grins from ear to ear and tries to calm the butterflies fluttering in his stomach.
“wow, look at that smile,” junmyeon comments. “must be nice, to be on the receiving end of that smile.”
“wait, wait, wait. hold up, hold up, hold up. do you like jongin?” minseok asks, placing a hand on the other’s arm.
junmyeon whips his head to face the elder. “w-what? n-no!” he stumbles over his words.
“oh my god! you so like jongin!” minseok makes kissy faces at junmyeon until he realises that it’s an unreciprocated love story and perhaps he should approach the topic with more tact. he clears his throat. “i mean, dude. that must suck. sorry, bruh.”
“i don’t like jongin!” junmyeon asserts, a little louder than he had intended.
“why? what’s wrong with jongin?” yixing asks, popping out of nowhere and jumping into the conversation.
“nothing’s wrong with jongin. i just don’t like jongin,” junmyeon explains. his eyes are suddenly drawn to the phone in yixing’s hand.
“i don’t see why not. i like jongin,” yixing says, completely casual about his sudden confession.
“you do?” minseok would’ve never guessed it. he looks over to a quiet junmyeon, his eyes glued to mobile in yixing’s hand. “did you know about this, junmyeon?”
junmyeon remains captivated by the utterly mundane electronic device, his eyes refusing to budge from its fixed position. yixing waves a hand, an attempt to capture the man’s attention but to no avail.
“earth to junmyeon? earth to junmyeon?” yixing repeats softly.
snapping out of his daze, junmyeon forces a smile. “yixing, have you been texting jongin?”
“i text him from time to time.”
“i see.” i’ll just, you know… those tables won’t wipe themselves,” junmyeon replies, completely disheartened by the revelation. he paces off in a blink of an eye, leaving a very confused chef and waiter in his wake.
“what was the all about?” yixing asks, pocketing the phone in his hand.
befuddled by the man’s actions, minseok tries to fit the pieces together. he recalls junmyeon staring at yixing’s hand before he fluttered off. “ahhhh, i think i get it now.”
“get what?”
“he thinks you like jongin, as in, you like his penis,” minseok explains, slightly too proud that he’s managed to figure it all out.
yixing nods, slowly comprehending the situation. “oh. does junmyeon like jongin? is that why he’s so sad?”
“it would appear so. what, do you like jongin?”
yixing hesitates for a brief moment before he glances toward the kitchen. “oh shoot, the fries are burning.” he rushes off, evading the question.
minseok ponders for a moment, processing all the information he’s gather thus far. does yixing really harbour romantic feelings toward jongin? if so, does jongin reciprocate the feeling? did he detect a look of guilt wash across the other’s face when he found out that junmyeon likes jongin, too? what does this mean for junmyeon? will he be left jilted, nursing a broken heart?
minseok did find it strange when both yixing and junmyeon refused to partake in the snooping of jongin’s phone when they were investigating the identity of the mystery texter. yixing, not wishing to reveal himself, and junmyeon wanting to continue with his head buried in the sand. not to mention the fact that he’d also been uncharacteristically harsh when he’d lectured minseok on the rules of sexual misconduct in the workplace after witnessing minseok reaching for jongin’s phone which just happened to also be next to his precious parts.
what a complicated love triangle, he thinks. he hopes it doesn’t all blow up, the resulting tension in the atmosphere will be insufferable. it’s most definitely not a good idea to start an office restaurant romance. ‘don’t crap where you eat’ is the rule he abides by, which is why he declines all come ons and requests for his number. even when it’s from the hot and pretty chinese dude with the adorable accent who frequents the joint. minseok sighs dreamily.
“ah well. guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens between the three of them. poor junmyeon though,” minseok whispers quietly to himself as he observes the two waiters.
oblivious to the incorrect assumptions occurring in his colleague’s mind, jongin continues to grin at the last text sehun had sent to him, the words visualised in his mind.
i’m excited for tomorrow! you weren’t joking about the free food, right? ??????? see you soon, jongin!! ??????????????
---
sehun is counting the number of granules in the salt dispenser. he’s lost count more times than the highest number he’s managed to get up to, but it doesn’t deter him from starting all over again.
twenty-one. twenty-two. twenty-three. sehun hears a cough, momentarily distracting him, triggering another failed attempt. he glances at the male sitting opposite him. he opens his mouth to say something but his voice fails him. he goes back to counting.
this is not the way sehun had envisioned his first date (question mark?) with kim jongin would go down. half an hour has passed since they arrived at exology, seated in the most secluded area of the restaurant. thirty minutes of shy looks, forced smiles and a deafening silence.
it’s not like they haven’t had conversations before, there’s been endless text exchanges and frequent late night phone calls. there was always a constant flow of conversation, effortless and engaging.
sehun steals a glance at jongin and quickly looks away when their eyes meet. a question suddenly dawns on him; is this even a date? the label wasn’t explicitly stated when they had arranged to meet up but sehun was under the impression that it was. on the other hand, what if jongin considered it as two friends hanging out, just bros?
why are things so complicated? the ambiguity of this meeting has left sehun unsure as to how he should conduct himself. he doesn’t want to accidentally friendzone jongin but he doesn’t want to make a fool out of himself either by throwing himself at him. all this thinking and analysing is beginning to give sehun a headache.
“it’d be easier if you poured it onto the table.”
“huh?” sehun asks, whilst repeating fifty two over and over in his head.
“the salt.” jongin points at the shaker.
“huh?”
the male stifles a smile but his eyes betray him. “i think i should be offended that you’re so unriveted by my company that you felt the need to entertain yourself by counting how many salt granules are in the shaker. an ambitious goal but an impossible feat nonetheless.”
“how did you know that i was--”
“-counting the salt?” jongin finishes, cracking a smile.
the ethereal beauty that is kim jongin astounds sehun, leaving him breathless and unable to formulate any words. he manages a nod.
“you weren’t exactly being as discreet as you thought you were. plus, i could read your lips.” jongin chuckles, his expression soft.
sehun blushes in embarrassment. “oh, right.”
the silence returns and sehun shuffles in his seat, silently praying for the food to be served. he hopes that the introduction of an activity-eating-will relieve the excruciating awkward atmosphere.
a vibrating buzz captures jongin’s attention. his hands fly to the table and seizes his phone and answers the call immediately. “what’s up, yixing?” he greets the caller in a hushed voice. “wait, hang on. i’ll be right there.”
jongin ends the call and shoots an apologetic look to sehun. “that was a friend of mine, yixing. he’s actually a chef here, he needs a little help back in the kitchen, so i’m just going to head back there.”
sehun tries to veil his disappointment with a smile. despite the lack of conversation, there was something comforting about spending time with jongin, face to face.
“it won’t be for too long. if that’s alright with you, of course?” he adds when he observes the pensive expression cast on sehun’s face.
sehun nods slowly. “sure.” he detects the deflated tone in his own voice and hopes the other doesn’t pick up on it.
jongin reaches over and grabs the salt dispenser and deposits a small mound onto the tabletop. “if you finish counting before i return, i’ll do anything you want to make it up to you,” jongin whispers into sehun’s ear causing the latter to shudder slightly. he squeezes sehun’s hand quickly before waltzing heading to the kitchen.
sehun caresses his hand, the warmth of jongin’s touch still lingers on his skin. inspecting the salt pile, he sticks a finger and wriggles it around, scattering the miniscule granules across the table. he plans on informing jongin of the total count, despite not actually bothering to tally it up. he’s just going to pick a random number instead, it’s not like jongin would seriously challenge him and verify it. what number would be plausible? five hundred and something, or is that too high?
immersed in selecting a suitable number, sehun fails to notice the new face standing across from him.
“are you going to clean that up, or am i going to have to do that when you leave?”
sehun almosts falls off his chair, finally acknowledging the other. “you scared the crap outta me!” he exclaims whilst clutching his chest.
“i know, it was awesome.” the man grins, clearly showing a complete lack of remorse for startling the other. he plonks his butt down in jongin’s seat. “but seriously though, i would really appreciate it if you didn’t spill salt everywhere. hey, wait a second, i recognise you. you’re part of the rowdy bunch. that’s what we call you, you know.”
it’s one of jongin’s colleagues, the waiter who looks like he still requires adult supervision. sehun reads his nametag, minseok. ah yes, that’s his name. sehun scans the restaurant to locate jongin, he’s nowhere in sight and most likely still occupied in the kitchen. “erm, hey?”
minseok leans closer, resting his elbows on the table. “how come you’re all on your lonesome? where’s the rest of the rowdy bunch?” he asks.
“i don’t know, i’m not their keeper.” sehun doesn’t mean to sound so snappy, he’s just feeling slightly anxious. what’s keeping jongin so long?
“meow!” minseok imitates a clawing motion with his hand. “i think i might like you. you and that small guy don’t seem so bad. it’s the others that cause all the trouble.”
sehun doesn’t say anything, which only spurs the other to carry on the one-sided conversation.
“you know, i saw two of you guys yesterday. i think it was a date, that went quite well actually. and if you’re wondering how i know, minseok always knows. also, they were sucking face at the end of the night.”
two of his friends were on a date? for some reason, this doesn’t really come as to much of a surprise to sehun. he’d always had an inkling that baekhyun and jongdae’s relationship ran deeper than what they let on.
“though i was kinda shocked at first,” minseok continues, “because i thought the short scary guy was your boyfriend. though, i did suspect that giant of a klutz had feelings for the small guy. i noticed the way he looked at him, so good on him i say. unless you liked him, too. that would be awkwaaaard. and did i just put my foot in it?”
“wait, what did you say? kyungsoo and chanyeol?!” sehun almost chokes on his saliva. it wasn’t baekhyun and jongdae that minseok was talking about? it was kyungsoo and chanyeol?!
“ahhh, so you didn’t know about it. crap.” minseok buries his face into his hands. “sorry, dude. i didn’t mean to open my big mouth.”
“it’s okay,” sehun offers reassurance. “i was just surprised, i thought you were talking about the other two guys, baekhyun and jongdae. but you don’t have to worry about me and kyungsoo. we’re just friends, best friends, in fact. that’s all we’ve ever been. but i’m glad you told me, honest.” he has brand new ammunition to blackmail kyungsoo with, an evil laugh resounds in his mind.
“so i didn’t ruin any friendships?” minseok asks, an earnest expression on his face.
“you didn’t.”
minseok wipes his forehead with a napkin. “phew, thought i royally screwed things up there.”
sehun smiles at minseok, his eyes wandering in the direction of the kitchen.
“there must be some kind of love bug going around.”
“hmm?” sehun asks, still distracted by keeping an eye out for jongin.
“first, your two friends. and then with the guys i work with. at least you’re not involved in a messy love triangle,” minseok elaborates.
“love triangle? with you?”
minseok shakes his head. “two of the waiters and our sous chef. i don’t know if you know them but i think one of the waiters, jongin, and yixing are involved in a thing. and then there’s junmyeon, the other waiter, who likes jongin. and he’s only just found out yesterday about jongin and yixing so it’s kinda awkward. but i’m not getting involved in any of it, i swear. i do not need that drama in my life.”
“yixing?” why does the name sound so familiar? sehun’s sure he’s heard it somewhere.
“the sous chef. i actually saw jongin head in there even though the waiters aren’t technically allowed in the kitchen. but i guess that’s what romance does to ya, breaking all the rules.”
jongin and yixing, the sous chef. the chef who works in the kitchen where jongin currently is and has been for the past ten minutes. jongin and yixing, together. sehun feels a tightness in his chest and a shortness of breath. the room starts to spin and he grips onto the table to steady himself.
“hey, are you okay?” minseok sounds panicked and sehun starts to wheeze.
this isn’t a date, of course it’s not a date. jongin already has a boyfriend. so why did jongin give him his number and speak to him all night on the phone. isn’t he aware of the connotations that come with late night phone calls? you don’t do those kinds of things when you already have a significant other.
sehun feels humiliated, sending all those texts, what was he thinking? and to actually believe that jongin was interested in him and invited him on a date. sehun starts to cackle uncontrollably, causing more alarm to the waiter.
jongin was just being nice, that’s all. there’s no romantic interest because he already has a boyfriend. a boyfriend. yixing. jongin and yixing. sehun continues to roar with laughter, attracting the attention of the other diners.
“is everything okay?” junmyeon joins the two and places a hand on sehun’s shoulder.
“i’m fine, i’m fine,” sehun replies, standing up from his chair. “i just need to go now.”
“but your food hasn’t even arrived yet,” minseok points out.
with one arm in his jacket, sehun ignores the two men and flees the scene. he needs to get out of there, and pronto. he’s not sure what would happen if he saw jongin and yixing flaunting their love with gross displays of public affection.
he’s not even sure why he’s so deeply affected by the news, it’s not like he and jongin were exclusive. they haven’t even disclosed mutual feelings of attraction. jongin doesn’t owe him anything. so why is he having difficulty breathing? he stumbles to the entrance of the restaurant and doesn’t take a look back.
abort mission activated.
---
jongin frowns at his phone. “why hasn't he called back?” he asks himself. he checks his phone for the umpteenth time. no new messages, no missed calls. he doesn't want to ring again, he doesn't want to appear too eager or desperate, but he feels slightly concerned as to the other’s well being. what if he’s gotten into an accident and unable to return jongin’s phone calls and messages? though, it doesn’t explain why he’d rushed out without an explanation. or maybe it involved a friend or family member?
jongin tosses the phone onto his bed and he growls in exasperation. he rolls over and stares at the device. “come on, call me back,” he implores. “okay, now i'm just being silly. just leave it, kim jongin. if he wants to get in touch, he will. and if he doesn't...” jongin groans into his palms.
he takes a deep breath. he can almost feel his phone looking at him, taunting at him. he pushes his bangs away from his forehead and exhales loudly. his hand reaches for the phone tentatively, his fingers lingering inches away. he strengthens his resolve and grabs the phone, and unlocks his phone. his finger flutters across the screen, once he presses the call button, he holds the phone gently to his ear.
“hey jongin, what's up? are you calling in sick today or something?”
jongin hangs up without bothering to respond. “so it does work!” he drops his phone and kicks his feet in the air to vent out his frustration.
he yelps when his phone starts to vibrate. he immediately picks up the call without bothering to check out the caller id. “s-sehun?” he stammers. he slaps his forehead with an open palm and clears his throat. “i mean, hey.” his voice a couple octaves deeper than usual.
“yah! did you just hang up on me?” junmyeon screeches on the other end.
jongin winces, pulling the phone away from his ringing ear. junmyeon continues to babbling away about his bowel movement or something; jongin doesn’t have time for this. “sorry, hyung! i'm waiting for an important phone call, i have to go!” jongin cuts in before ending the call with no remorse.
he rolls over and buries his face in the pillow. he feels his phone vibrate in his hand, someone’s just sent him a text. although it’s more than likely that it’s a message from junmyeon, berating him for the repeated hang ups, jongin can still feel the butterflies fluttering in his stomach. there’s still a possibility it could be sehun, no matter how improbable.
he counts to three before sitting up. he reads the message on the screen.
gramps
well, that was rude.
“not as rude as this next message!” he mutters under his breath as he angrily types a response. he lays back down, flat on his back and stares idly at the ceiling.
he’s not been able to get in touch with sehun since the event that occurred two weeks prior. he’s not sure what exactly happened. after returning from the kitchen to help out yixing, he had returned to an empty table with sehun nowhere in sight. he had checked the restrooms, his disappearance remained a complete mystery. he’d even waited over an hour for his return, but ultimately ended up leaving the restaurant with a heavy heart, feeling both disappointed and confused.
countless phone calls and text messages went unanswered. had sehun been so put off by the awkward silences that he ducked out the second the coast was clear? sure, it had been mildly uncomfortable, but jongin didn’t think it warranted complete radio silence. he’d even done that thing with the salt which he thought was charming and cute. unless he had somehow offended the other without being aware of it. jongin reruns the evening over in his head, trying to pinpoint any words or actions that may have been misconstrued.
unable to determine a possible reason, he punches his mattress in exasperation and screams “whyyyyy?” at his phone. his fingers find themselves being drawn to the device and he succumbs to the magnetism. one more text wouldn’t hurt, would it?
---
“where we going?” sehun asks the group, apprehensive as to why they’ve been avoiding eye contact. the wide smiles and battering eyelashes don’t help quell the doubt.
“just follow us and keep your mouth quiet if you still want us to treat you to a free dinner,” jongdae replies, grabbing hold of his left arm.
“but that makes even more suspiciou-”
“hush now, child.” baekhyun presses a finger to sehun’s lips. “you’ll see when we get there.” he withdraws his finger and latches onto sehun’s other arm.
“i’m walking ahead,” kyungsoo announces, charging ahead with lightning speed.
“wait, soo hyung! please save me!” sehun implores, trying to escape the clutches of the two barnacles attached to his arms.
“he’s resisting! chanyeol, quick! deploy the sensory deprivator 5000!” baekhyun barks, his grip tightening tenfold.
“what? i’m not-” everything turns black, sending sehun into a panicked frenzy. trying to rid his restraints, his arms thrash violently. “what the hell is going on?!”
“ssssh, resistance is futile,” sehun hears a muffled jongdae say.
what the hell are his friends up to? sehun still can’t believe he was tricked into this outing, lured by kyungsoo’s innocent face. he’d only open the front door for his hyung because he’d been deceived by those big doe eyes of his (and also because he wanted to grill his friend about his date with chanyeol). sehun vowed to never be fooled by kyungsoo’s innocent face again, which is all well and dandy for future sehun but how to alleviate the pain and suffering of present sehun?
still unable to see beyond an abyss of black, sehun has no choice but to let thing one and thing two guide his path. sehun ceases his resistance and instead channels his energy into scheming his sweet revenge, he’ll get them back; he’ll get them back good.
“watch your step,” baekhyun warns, both he and jongdae loosening their vice grips. sehun feels a slight tingling sensation as the blood begins to recirculate to his limbs.
and you might want to watch out for your lube when i’m done, sehun thinks, amused by his ingenious idea to replace half the contents with superglue. have fun trying to explain why your hand is stuck to your penis when you’re in a&e.
with his newfound freedom, sehun reaches to remove the material covering his face when it’s yanked away. “hey!” he protests.
“not yet. sit.” it’s kyungsoo who instructs sehun this time. he feels a hand on his shoulder, pushing him down into a seat.
“okay, i is sit. is anyone going to take off the sack or whatever it is you’ve got suffocating me?” sehun huffs in indignation.
“only if you promise not to leg it once we do.” the voice is low, unmistakably belonging to chanyeol.
“you guys are aware that you’ve just committed a felony, right? kidnapping is a crime.”
someone slaps him on the back of his head. “stop being a wisearse and just agree to the terms.”
“how can an arse be wise, exactly?” another whack, sehun yelps in pain. “fine, whatever. just get this thing off me!” the rough material is starting to scratch his face raw, sehun crinkles his nose to relieve the annoying itch.
a wave of relief washes over his body when his face is rid of its “sensory deprivator”. he shoots daggers at each one of his friends, when he recognises his surroundings. he’s sitting at their usual table at exology. shit.
“w-why are we here?” he asks, scanning the restaurant for the waiter whom shall not be named.
“because,” kyungsoo curtly states with an expression void of emotion. for some reason, sehun muses on whether or not kyungsoo holds the same expression during coitus. if that is the case, he should send a card to chanyeol, the poor sod. although, there was that one time when sehun found a sex blowup doll tucked away in chanyeol’s wardrobe so chances are, he’s probably already used to it.
“let’s face it, you’ve been a miserable arse for the past few weeks and it’s no secret as to why that is,” baekhyun says, taking hold of one of sehun’s hand. the sincerity in the older male’s voice is unsettling. “okay, so we don’t exactly know what happened, but we know it has something to do with a certain waiter in this fine establishment. so we’ve brought you here to sort it all out.”
“that and we also need to celebrate kyungsoo and chanyeol finally doing it!” jongdae cackles in glee. sehun welcomes the shift in subject matter with utmost gratitude.
“actually, speaking of. jongdae and i have some news to share with you guys, too,” baekhyun says, still holding onto sehun’s hand.
jongdae slips his fingers into baekhyun’s other hand. “since chanyeol and kyungsoo decided to go public with their relationship-”
“-we didn’t!” kyungsoo interjects, slamming an open palm onto the table. “you walked in on us and then told everyone about it, including our parents, you little fuc-“
chanyeol covers kyungsoo’s mouth before the profanity flows like an open faucet. “yeah, that wasn’t cool, bruh.”
“chanyeol, i can see you winking,” kyungsoo says flatly.
“sorry, babe. i just want everyone to know about our precious love.”
“don’t call me ‘babe’.”
“sorry, doll.”
“that’s even worse!”
“you guys are too cute!”
“shut it, byun baek.”
“hey!”
chanyeol gushes at his boyfriend who looks likes he wants the ground to open up and swallow him whole. and despite the horrified expression plastered on his face, kyungsoo makes no real efforts to silence chanyeol. it’s an unusual relationship dynamic but they somehow manage to complement each other perfectly. “what were we even talking about? or shall we discuss how insanely handsome my bab- kyungsoo hyung is?”
intending to make an exit while his friends are distracted, sehun’s plans are put on hold by the disturbing bomb that chanyeol’s just dropped on them. “did you just call kyungsoo, ’hyung’?!”
“ooh, kinky!”
“oh. my. god. which one of you has the hyung kink? chanyeol or kyungsoo? come on, spill.” baekhyun begins to interrogate the blushing pair.
“i thought you two were about to make an announcement!” kyungsoo deflects the topic, his face already beet red.
snapping back to his senses, sehun deems it time for his escape; it’s now or never. he activates stealth ninja mode as he tries to slip his hand out of baekhyun’s hold.
“ah, ah. don’t even think about it.” baekhyun tugs sehun back toward him.
sehun curses himself for squandering the perfect opportunity to make his getaway and he’s pretty sure there will be no more openings for escape. his eyes do another quick sweep of the restaurant. fortunately, the waiter who must not be named doesn’t appear to be working today. armed with that knowledge, sehun allows himself to relax and be at ease.
“we’re waiting with great anticipation, what’s this news you’ve got to tell us,?” kyungsoo asks, his tone conveying the exact opposite of enthusiasm and interest.
baekhyun shoots a knowing look at jongdae, who in turns smiles a cavity inducing grin back at him. “we thought it’s about time to let you know that jongdae and i have actually been dating.”
“oh. is that it?” kyungsoo asks, his voice remaining monotone.
“what do you mean ‘is that it’?!” jongdae splutters, bewildered by his friends’ reactions, or lack thereof rather.
“i hate to break it to you guys, but we already knew,” chanyeol informs the bemused couple. he directs his attention back to kyungsoo, his gaze filled with affection and love.
“but did you know we’ve been dating since we were-”
“--fifteen. yup.” kyungsoo finishes baekhyun’s sentence. still looking at his boyfriend, chanyeol nods his head, expressing it’s no news to him either.
baekhyun squeezes sehun’s hand. “how about you? did you know?” he enquires.
“i thought you knew that we knew.” sehun seizes the opportunity to withdraw his hand when his response causes baekhyun’s grip to lax.
“well, thanks guys, baekkie’s been super excited about telling you guys and y’all just gone and pissed on his parade. anyways, back to sehun,” jongdae says, pulling a pouting baekhyun into his arms. “seeing as we’re all coupled off now; baekhyun and i, chanyeol and kyungsoo. don’t you think it’s about time you settle down as well? you don’t want to play fifth wheel to us now, do you?”
the blunt question stuns sehun. fifth wheel. it suddenly dawns on him that he’s surrounded by a couple of couples. if this had been asked a couple of months ago, it wouldn’t have been much of an issue with sehun. he’s been single for as long as he can remember, and that’s never really bothered him. he’s not the kind of of guy whose happiness is contingent on his love life. however, things are different now considering his unrequited feelings for jongin; he doesn’t need the constant reminder. he looks at baekhyun and jongdae embracing one another and then over at chanyeol and kyungsoo who are clearly holding hands under the table. he sighs softly, his friends’ relationship statuses amplify the sad reality that he’s alone.
he’s not quite sure when the mere attraction turned into actual feelings, but when minseok had revealed that jongin had been involved with a co-worker, the pain he felt had been visceral. he knows it’s foolish to have fallen so hard for someone he’s barely spent any real face to face time with, but it doesn’t detract from the connection he feels with the other.
“you should speak to him.” kyungsoo places a hand on sehun’s clenched fist, snapping the latter out of his train of thoughts. “you’ve not been yourself, and as much as we loathe to say this… we want the ‘sex god’ back.”
“you’ve lost that sparkle in your eyes,” chanyeol adds, placing his much larger hand on top of kyungsoo’s.
“lame,” sehun scoffs, rolling his eyes.
“sehun-ah.”
the looks of pity begin to overwhelm sehun, he clenches his eyes shut. he doesn’t need this, he doesn’t need any of this. who do they think they are? just because they’re getting laid on the regular, it doesn’t make them better than he is. he doesn’t need his friends making him feel inferior just because he has no one to cuddle with and wake up to.
“fifth wheel?” sehun seethes, the rage quickly manifesting. he takes a deep breath to compose himself. “i don’t think so. maybe i’ll just find new friends.”
“sehun?” he hears a voice that doesn’t belong to any of his friends and he immediately opens his eyes.
he blinks furiously at the man standing in front of him, not quite believing his eyes. “j-jongin,” he manages to whisper.
“sehun,” jongin repeats his name. he’s biting his lower lip, sehun detects a look of apprehension in his eyes.
why is jongin here? he asks himself over and over again. did his friends plan this? is everyone plotting against him? he notices that jongin’s not wearing his uniform, which could only mean that he isn’t due to be working a shift today. so why exactly is he here? in front of sehun. right now. standing before him. this very second.
“sehun.” jongin speaks his name for the third time.
sehun feels flustered, he doesn’t know what to say to jongin. he’s angry, he’s embarrassed, he’s confused, he’s all of the above. “why did you give me your actual number when you already had a boyfriend?” the question threatens to spill from his lips.
jongin places a hand on sehun’s shoulder and the latter flinches, as if he’s just been burned. “seh-”
“don’t,” sehun spits, interrupting the other. “just don’t.” he stands up, the chair dragging against the floor as he rises. startled, jongin takes a couple of steps backwards.
“sehunnie,” baekhyun addresses the male with a sweet child tone and toothy smile. his face immediately falls, the grin completely vanished when sehun practically hisses at him.
sehun is one hundred percent done. his friends are dicks. jongin is a dick. well, he’s more of a cocktease, waving it around to string stupid fools like sehun along for a reason unbeknownst to him. maybe he just likes the attention and ego boost. whatever the reason, the game ends now.
he catches jongin about to say something and his body reacts, flight or fight responses kicking in, he’s halfway out the restaurant before jongin can utter a single syllable. everything’s going to be a-okay, sehun reassures himself. there are plenty of other restaurants he can dine at, other people he can befriend and hang out with, other guys he can-
“sehun, wait! sehun, please!”
he ignores jongin calls and pleas to stop. he about to quicken his pace when he feels a firm grip take hold of his wrist, holding him back.
“sehun! would you just-”
“no! let go of me!” sehun screams at jongin, pulling his hand away. what is it with today with people manhandling him like a doll? he rubs at his wrist, refusing to meet eyes with jongin.
“why are you running away?!” jongin’s voice is just as frantic as his.
sehun sneaks a glance at jongin, his eyes widening when he observes how upset the other looks. “i don’t understand, jongin,” he finally says, so quiet he’s not sure if the other heard him.
“what don’t you understand?” jongin asks, closing the distance between the two. his face is so close to sehun’s, he can feel jongin’s warm breath on his skin.
sehun looks deep into jongin’s eyes and asks the question he’s been driving himself crazy with over the past month, “why?”
a look of confusion floods jongin’s face. “why, what?”
sehun looks away and jongin reaches out his hand. a cold palm rests against sehun’s cheek, softly turning it to face him. “why did you give me your real number?”
jongin laughs and sehun’s heart skips a beat. why does he have to be so captivating?
“i think it’s pretty obvious as to why,” jongin breathes, his voice low and sensual.
don’t fall for this, sehun, don’t do it. just back away and leave. he ignores the internal voice screaming at him and continues, “but you have a boyfriend.”
jongin’s eyebrows furrow, the cheery expression replaced with a puzzled look. “i don’t have a boyfriend?”
“don’t lie to me, i know you’re dating yixing. or maybe he’s not your boyfriend or you have some kind of open relationship and can see other people. but i don’t--”
jongin starts to laugh, cutting sehun off mid sentence. the male’s reaction angers sehun; is he actually serious right now, he’s laughing? quickly noticing sehun’s glare, jongin takes a hold of sehun’s hands. “i don’t know why you think that, but yixing and i are most definitely not dating.”
“i don’t believe you,” sehun huffs, trying his best to ignore the fact that jongin’s holding his hands.
“i have it on good authority that yixing likes junmyeon,” jongin tells him, squeezing sehun’s hands tighter. “i don’t know where you’re getting your information from but you’re mistaken.”
“...minseok told me,” sehun reveals, his heart racing.
jongin lets out another hearty chuckle, his eyes forming half moon crescents. “minseok is not a reliable source. he even told me that junmyeon likes me, for god’s sake!”
“but doesn’t he?” sehun asks, still perplexed by the situation. has this all just been one big misunderstanding?
jongin stops laughing and shakes his head vigorously before flicking sehun on the forehead. “junmyeon likes yixing, silly!”
sehun winces in pain and rubs his forehead, his lips forming a pout. “hey! that hurt!”
“well, serves you right.” jongin smiles warmly, causing sehun’s breath to hitch. he leans in closer and whispers into sehun’s ear “i actually like someone else.” he pulls back, a slight crimson hue creeps over his face.
jongin doesn’t like yixing, he likes someone else. who could that someone else be? the cog wheels are turning in sehun’s brain, as he processes the information. with a pensive look on his face, he asks tentatively, “so who do you like then?”
“you really have no idea?” jongin asks in return with a cheeky smirk.
sehun shakes his head no. “i mean, i’ve been wrong before so i don’t want to jump to any more conclusions just in case i’m-“
before sehun has a chance to finish speaking, jongin interrupts him. “who did i just chase after?” he asks, leaning in again, his lips brushing against sehun’s.
“me?”
jongin nods his head, his lips grazing gently against sehun’s upper and lower lips. sehun can feel jongin’s smile. “ and well, if you still don’t believe me, why don’t i show you?”
sehun closes his eyes, anticipating jongin’s lips pressing onto his. however, he feels the warmth of jongin’s lips retreating and he opens his eyes in confusion. he glances at jongin who’s no longer facing him, but to the window. sehun follows jongin’s gaze and turns his face. if he were an anime character, he would’ve collapsed to the ground, a black aura emanating from his body.
there’s no denying it; his friends are absolute dicks. baekhyun is making smoochy faces at them whilst his other half is humping the air, thrusting his hips with what sehun can only assume are “ungf” sound effects if his face is anything to go by. chanyeol’s no better, he’s standing with a foot on the chair, smacking air booty as he body rolls, his movements as stiff as an ironing board. sehun groans in embarrassment, something he’s pretty sure kyungsoo is also doing behind the menu he’s got his face buried in.
“looks like we’ve got an audience,” jongin comments with an arched eyebrow. “i think it’s time we move to a more private location?”
sehun feels jongin slipping his fingers in between in his own, leading him back to the restaurant. with his other hand, sehun grabs the hem of jongin’s shirt, and gives it a sharp yank. “i think we’ve waited long enough.”
sehun leans in and crashes their lips together, slipping in his tongue when jongin opens his mouth slightly. he choose to ignore the whooping and cheering from his friends, who are all clearly enjoying the show. he feels jongin’s hands cradling the back of his head, sighing contently as the kiss deepens. in turn, sehun’s hands run his hands down jongin’s broad back, slowly roaming lower… south.
“yeah, sehunnie! take his clothes off!” they hear baekhyun scream from the restaurant, rattling the window with his knuckles.
“those are quite some friends you’ve got there,” jongin comments with a wide smile, breaking the kiss and rests his forehead against sehun’s.
sehun flips the bird at his friends and then gestures for them to stop gawking at them. he looks into jongin’s eyes, mesmerised by their beauty. “maybe we should go somewhere more private, away from those idiots?” he proposes, wanting to escape the audience they’ve attracted.
“i’d like that,” jongin whispers into sehun’s ear. he laces his fingers in sehun’s hand and leads him away from the restaurant.
sehun’s not exactly sure where the other is taking him but he doesn’t really care, so long as they’re together. it still might be too early to call this love but whatever it is, he’s excited for what the future holds for the two of them.
---
“wait, what am i looking at?” sehun asks as he inspects the two slabs of meat on his plate. he pokes one of the questionable chunks with his fork.
jongin scrunches up his face. “you don’t get it?” he’s pouting now and sehun’s thinks he’s too adorable for his own good.
sehun leans in and places a chaste kiss on his plush lips, causing the other to blush. “i think it’s supposed to be some kind of meat?”
jongin’s face lights up with glee and he nods his head vigorously. “yes! it’s beef and chicken.”
sehun does a double take, examining the contents of his plate further. “this brown thing is supposed to be chicken?” he pierces it with his fork and cuts into it, the white meat finally revealing himself. he emits a quiet “ahhhh” before asking, “but why is it so brown?”
jongin smiles affectionately at sehun’s actions. “it’s glazed with barbeque sauce.”
sehun cuts a piece and pops it into his mouth, chewing carefully as he savours the taste. he swallows before taking a sip of water. “i like it,” he beams at his boyfriend.
“i’m glad,” jongin says with a sigh of relief. “it’s actually a special order.”
“oh?” sehun says with a full mouth. he covers his mouth with a hand. manners, sehun, he reminds himself.
“you don’t get it?”
sehun looks at his plate, a pensive look on his face. “beef and chicken. beef and chicken. beef and chicken,” he repeats like a mantra when it finally clicks, the lightbulb above his head lighting up. “oh my god, brown chicken, brown cow!”
jongin has a look of satisfaction on his face. sehun cuts a piece and feeds it to jongin, it pleases him to act like a cheesy couple in love. jongin gobbles the offering with delight, and returns the favour, sehun all too willing to oblige.
“you know, this is what i had prepared for our first date. of course, you would’ve know that had you’d stuck around.”
sehun cringes, concealing the embarrassment behind his hands. jongin laughs and pulls sehun’s hands away. “it’s okay though,” he continues. “better late than never.”
“i still can’t believe i managed to woo you with this though.” sehun shakes his head, still reeling from the shameful memory.
“what can i say? you’re a certified sex god,” jongin quips. “just don’t be seducing anyone else with your sex god charms, alright?”
in response, sehun picks up the beef steak with his fingers and shoves it into jongin’s mouth. he cackles with glee, slapping his knee with his clean hand.
“hey! what was that for?” jongin exclaims, letting the meat fall onto his plate. he grabs a napkin and wipes the stains from his face.
“a preview; you’d better get used to meat in your mouth. i can’t wait to experience your brown chicken, brown cow,” sehun says suggestively, sliding his finger into his mouth. he licks off the sauce in the most provocative way possible.
jongin stares at sehun’s mouth, his own agape at the sight before him, and shifts uncomfortably in his chair. sehun releases a soft moan as he sucks on another finger, causing jongin to splutter. his arm shoots in the air and snaps his fingers. “junmyeon? minseok? can we get the cheque please?”
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