hallo!! :)
this is a short fic for jungwoo! for her birthday!
this is pretty rushed so you don't need to really read it but enjoy anyways!! stay safe and wash your hands :)
;
Jaehyun is pretty conserved.
The party was boring enough, what with Johnny leaving him to go and flirt with Ten, and him being a total loner standing idly near the punch table. Swirling his glass of water painstakingly sluggishly to rid his boredom and make him look occupied, he gasped at the time. Geez, 2 am already? He had been on his feet, contemplating, drinking, mumbling and darting his eyes to glimpse a tuff of parted, caramel brown hair identical to Johnny's for four hours? Wow, Jaehyun thought to himself. He never knew he had the patience and the energy to stay up that late, deduced from the time Johnny tried to dress him up as a e-boy and the day ended in shredded stripy tops and cracked chains, and a sleepover at Jaemin's.
Suddenly, a pang pierces his lower abdomen in sharp lances. He rubbed at it joltily, his jumbled water being placed on the empty table adjacent to him, thinking it's simply because he's tired — don't judge Jaehyun's logic — and lethargic. However, when the lancing pain never dwindles to a stop nearly half an hour later, he concluded he was hungry — no , starving. He had to leave, or his stomach would start releasing embarrassing, obnoxious sounds and he was not up for that.
And now he's here. Outside a 24 hour store, deciding on Skittles or a Mars bar, and his indecisive self is still dwelling on it as he enters. Sauntering inside, he dashes an awkward, tight-lipped smile to the person at the register, who's practically asleep by the way his platinum blonde hair is swept up from its laying position, his droopy eyes are fluttering close, and by the way Jaehyun's smile earns no response. He brushes it off and wanders to the candy section, his stomach groaning in hunger and delight.
Once he reaches the aisle, his monolids shoot open in surprise and his stomach moans again, so loudly and tremendous but he doesn't even try to cover it up: he's too shocked. The amount of candy in this single aisle was enough to last a lifetime, if you eat one packet every single day for the next 90 years of your life. Surely, your won't do the math and neither does he, but it's definitely enough to get it through to you, there was a lot of candy.
He's still shooting his confused, wide eyes at the flavours and varieties when a concerned voice startled him. "Are you okay?"
Jaehyun, still wincing, whips his head around to sigh in relief as the cashier's puzzled face meets his own. He nods his head.
"Oh, good," the cashier begins in relief, "because you've been standing here for, like, seven minutes.
And it's just then does Jaehyun realise his jaw has dropped down, and he closes it reluctantly. Whether it was because of the amount of chocolate laying in front of him, the time he had spent gaping at chocolate, or the man that stood in front of him.
Damn, they don't make men like this guy anymore. His blonde hair had been slicked back, and his face held a dominant, serious aura to it. His deep set eyes held shades richer than coffee, and brighter and shinier than gold. His face was perfect, clean, neat, somber yet elegant and mysterious. Jaehyun blinks a few times: in shock, in realisation and to take everything in.
Jaehyun doesn't want to bring his hopes up, but by the way the man's eyes are gazing at him and leaving a piercing feeling, he likes to think the man is checking him out too.
He looks at him name tag. Taeyong.
"Sorry, uhm, Taeyong-sshi, I just don't know what I should get, there's so many options."
Jaehyun sees the man's eyes waver and his pupils dilate, while his head flinches. "Ah, o-okay. I would recommended the new M&M's they have in stock, just a personal preference," he offers, and Jaehyun's eyes shine brightly and expand rapidly. Taeyong melts a little, then fixes his face back to a thin smile and leads him to the golden packaged M&M's.
Jaehyun, hesistantly, picks one up. "Oh, PEANUT BUTTER M&M'S. Cool!" He flips it around, not having an exact aim but wanting to seem interested and actually like a shopper who checks the ingredients instead of dumping whatever they find remotely interesting into their trolley, which Jaehyun usually does. It's most definitely a habit he'd like to get rid of.
He gazes back at Taeyong and beams, to which Taeyong's eyes crinkle and his upper lip lifts up and his mouth spreads further out sweetly and— oh my god he's smiling.
Jaehyun can't help but uwu at this.
Taeyong flicks the little door for the register open, and Jaehyun gently plops the packet into Taeyong's hand. They share a jolt of skinship and it feels like pure honey and marshmallow fluff and dandelions and everything sweet and warm. Jaehyun feels comfort, comfort he's been searching for the whole night that he couldn't find, not in the party but in this handsome stranger/cashier who's poking his tongue out as an error comes on the register screen. Jaehyun thinks he's busted more uwus in ten minutes now than he ever has before, summing his whole lifetime.
Taeyong hands him the package and a receipt after he tosses him a couple coins, and Jaehyun sums up the courage to ask:
"So do you like thighs?"
;
Taeyong almost busts a lung inside trying to hold his laughter in. This cutie has just asked him what favour candy he should get shyly, and now he's bold enough to ask if Taeyong prefers thighs or not?
Jaehyun mentally pokes his eyes. He was meant to utter 'guys' but thanks to his amazing vocal cords and his beautiful nervous–stutter, he managed to somehow blurt out, thighs? Taeyong did not need to know or think Jaehyun likes chicken thighs so much he goes around asking people if they like them and gets jealous when they do.
"I meant, like, because chicken thighs are good, ya know?" Jaehyun awkwardly tries to brush it off, like they do in the movies, but just like they do in the movies, the other main wiggles their eyebrows and questions, "Really now?"
And Jaehyun doesn't know how to reply to him, so he just scratches his neck and attempts to leave. But Taeyong taps his hand on Jaehyun's arm that was resting on the counter, preventing him from going any further.
"Kidding," he chuckles. "What's the name?"
"Jaehyun," Jaehyun mumbles, and turns to leave. Now that he thinks about it, he's kinda glad he didn't ask if he liked guys. That would be even more embarrassing and for sure his cheeks would flush an abnormal hue of red if Taeyong shook his head.
"Come back here soon, why don't you?" Taeyong begs, because it's not everyday he gets to see and fluster a cute guy who most definitely likes him too.
Jaehyun feels submissive, so he nods his head. He wants to come back anyway, maybe next time to taste Taeyong's cherry lips. Or is that too far?
In his haste, he hears:
"Hey, you forgot your PEANUT BUTTER M&M'S!"
