Junhui was going on as usual with his life, spending most of his time in his tiny apartment drinking coffee and thinking about his next move. The rude-but also quite charming-'The8' still hadn't gotten to him about the problem. His head was full of questions, did this guy even catch his name? Was he just a big fat asshole who wasn't going to contact him on purpose? Was he some dumb hermit who didn't have access to the internet? Or was he just nervous to message Jun? Junhui didn't care what it was, and he vowed not to feel sorry for him, even if he hadn't responded because his cat got seriously injured in an accident. Did he even have a cat?
Jun slammed his face down onto his laptop keyboard with a loud groan, causing the google search bar to fill up with a selection of random letters. They consisted of letters on the left side of the keyboard, like 'A' and all the other ones over there. It resembled 'ADEXQQQQQQQQQ' and so on and so forth. He didn't know anything about this stranger except he had no sense of privacy, he was very bitter, he liked photography, and he looked quite handsome in a turtleneck. What was he supposed to do with that information? Write an angry tweet?
He just wanted to get this over with, he wanted the boy to explain and then he wanted to drop him completely. (On his stupid head preferably.) He decided it would be better if he stopped staring at the screen for the third day in a row and actually do something productive, so he decided to do just that. He stood up from his desk chair and picked up the sweatpants he had earlier discarded into the floor, putting them on lazily, glad that he hadn't put them on backwards. Jun didn't care if he looked nice, if his brain was a mess then so was he.
After putting on some kind of hoodie-Also found in his floor-he exited his small apartment and made his way down the stairs and out into the cool spring air. It was decent afternoon weather, and the attire he had chosen was perfect for the soft wind he felt brush his face as he walked. Junhui was thankful that it wasn't as cool as it had been three nights ago on the doorstep of the photographers apartment. There he went again, thinking of the strange 'The8'. Why did he keep doing that? Thinking of him. Was he blowing this out of proportion?
No.
No he wasn't, this was a totally normal reaction to an invasion of privacy and he was acting as every normal and sane person was. This was a normal way to react! Junhui was so busy getting lost inside his own head that he didn't realize he was already at his destination until the little bell on the door made him snap back into the real world. He was at his favorite Café in the whole world, the Shining Diamond. It was only a block away from his small apartment complex so he visited every day he could, and almost everyone who worked at the front counter knew him by name. The service was wonderful and the coffee itself was even better.
He approached the counter with a sweet smile and the tall barista with the honey smile called his usual order to the back, it was a special edition drink they had a few months ago, but they always kept the supplies around to make them for Jun. "Hi there Junhui, I haven't seen you in a few hours. What'd I miss?" The barista asked, leaning against the counter, propping his face up on his hands.
Jun rolled his eyes, "I've had no luck, Gyu. What if he never messages me? Should I hunt him down and punch him really hard?"
The bartender made a face, "I don't suggest you go punching strangers, Jun. Especially not strangers who haven't really done anything."
"Haven't really done anything?!" Jun looked like he had just been punched (Really hard, might I add.) "He took a photo of me off guard without my permission and then..! He used my face to make money! If I can't make money with my face then why should that idiot be able to?"
Mingyu rolled his eyes, "Geez, Jun. Its not the end of the-"
"Not the end of the world?" He interrupted loudly, "How would you feel if YOU were photographed against your will and- Never mind. Don't answer that you narcissistic bitch."
"Language." Mingyu huffed, handing Jun the coffee that was put on the order pickup shelf by a phantom hand of a stranger who was working in the back. "Here you go. I'll pay for it, just please go away."
Jun thought about responding to Mingyu with something rude and bitchy, but he just took the warm coffee and exited the shop, the little shop bell dinging behind him. He was gone so quickly that he didn't see Mingyu lean through the order window of the shop and talk with the worker in the back. Jun would have overanalyzed it and thought they were talking about him, and on a rare occasion, he would be correct.
It didn't take Jun long to get home, in fact he managed to stay focused on the real world the whole way there. He entered his building and climbed up the steps to his floor, unlocking his door just to step inside and lock it back. He tugged his sweatpants off again and discarded them onto the floor in the same spot as usual, plopping down into his chair. He sipped at his coffee and swiped his finger across the touchpad of his laptop to make his screensaver go away.
It took him a moment to see the little red circle in the bottom corner, with a little white number one printed inside. He had a message. Jun slammed his coffee down and immediately clicked on the notification. A new window opened up on the screen, and his eyes widened. The icon was a nice photo of the photography stranger, and the message was the best thing Junhui had ever read.
Xu Minghao:
Yo.
