fluid: haobin

13

"thanks for doing this," hao climbs into the car and puts his backpack on his lap.

"no worries, it's no trouble," hanbin answers while watching the older put his seat belt on. however, he couldn't help but notice how beautiful he looked. the white sweater was a big difference from the usual blouses and business-casual attire throughout the week, and his hair was styled more carefully instead of being fluffed up.

"do you have the location on the gps or should i put it in?" the manager asks.

"could you put in the address?" the younger hands the phone to him, unlocked. "i tried putting it into my car's system but it gave me a long route. also, matthew and jiwoong will be there later so we are going to get the table first then wait."

"alright," the other finds the address in his text messages with matthew. "it says there's traffic but we'll still be there by 5:55."

"perfect, we need to claim the reservation by 6," hanbin starts the car up again and drives out the parking lot. "also, if you want some music, you can connect your phone to my aux."

he takes a cord from the cup holder and hands it over to the passenger seat. hao gladly takes it as he opens his phone.

"any suggestions from the driver?"

"anything to keep me pumped up. i'm just interested to hear what your music taste is."

"don't expect anything unique," hao scrolls through his spotify until finding his liked songs playlist. "it's literally all generic kpop."

he turns play and nct comes on: more specifically, kick it.

"are you an nctzen too?" hanbin asks excitedly as he hears the familiar introduction.

"yes!"

"oh my god, finally! everyone i've worked with always kept saying nct had songs that were too much."

"i know, same! ricky is the only other nctzen i know but he only listens to wayv. the only other nct unit song he's listened to is this one!"

they reach a red light, giving hanbin space to take his hands of the wheel and sing and dance along with hao to the chorus.

"new thangs, new thangs, new thangs!" they both do the famous choreography while hao also keeps an eye on the traffic light.

"got that drip..." hanbin starts to rap and the other laughs at how much fun the korean seemed to be having but is caught off guard when the younger points at him, signaling to continue the lyrics.

"enter the dragon..." he starts but eventually falls into a stumble of words as he couldn't remember all the korean lyrics. it didn't matter though, and it didn't stop the fun they were having.

.

.

.

"hyung? hyung?"

hanbin looks over to the passenger's seat and smiles to himself when seeing hao sleeping, his head tilted towards the window and using his arm as a pillow. deciding to not wake him up (he knows the older must be exhausted after everything that had happened that day), he takes his own phone to have a closer look on where to go.

taking a left and going straight for a bit, the sign of the restaurant comes into view along with the parking lot. he enters and after going through a couple of rows, eventually finds an empty spot. turning off the engine, hanbin checks his watch to see it's 5:55 on the dot.