Awake | Jinkook ✓

5.0

"Let me take you out sometime."

"What do you think you're doing right now?" They were currently sitting at some incredibly fancy restaurant drinking wine that cost far too much per bottle.

"I mean when one of us hasn't been stood up."

"And here I thought you were just trying to prepare me to be your future mistress."

"Someone once told me to follow my dreams. It's not my fault they're leading straight to you."

"Who taught you how to be like this?"

"Can you smell something burning?"

"Please stop."

"It's my heart burning for you."

"Why are you being like this." It was difficult to tell, because the other was apparently incredibly good at hiding just how embarrassed and flustered he truly was. But there was no hiding just how absolutely deep, pulsating red his ears were currently turning.

"My older brother taught me."

"And he just lets you run free out in the world? You can't look like that and say that shit. It hits different."

"Is there something wrong with the way I look?"

"You're a solid eight. You'd be a nine if your hair didn't remind me of a coconut."

"Critical hit." Grasping his chest, he clutched at his heart as he pretended to be in pain, like the words had been a bullet and actually wounded him. "Man down. Probably not gonna make it. Tell my family... actually just tell Hoseok and Jimin I love them."

"Such an over dramatic alpha." But he was laughing, this crazy, high pitched sound that reminded him of when the window washers came every Tuesday. A back and forth rhythm that seemed like it should not be coming out of that absolutely perfect face.

"Accept my affections then." He went back to normal for all of five seconds, but remained slightly haunched over, fully prepared to go right back to making a scene.

"Okay, but I refuse to accept that someone didn't just put a bowl on your head and call it a day."

"How can you be so cruel to someone who's buying you dinner?"

"So you're implying that if I was buying I could be as cruel as I wanted?"

"That came out wrong."

"It's good to know what you're into, but save the kinkiness for our fifth date."

"What makes you think we're gonna get that far?"

"Just a feeling I have."

...

There they were again, with nothing surrounding them but the cool night air and no one to catch sight of them but the moon over head. A sort of dread had settled deep within his bones as the night began to draw to it's inevitable close, knowing that tomorrow he would have to return to pretending like he'd have an amazing time with someone he had never actually met. The lie was right at the fore front of his mind, all he could do was tell it and hope he didn't get asked too many questions.

"You still didn't tell me your last name."

"If I tell you can I get that third date?"

"Oh, I was gonna give you that anyway."

"Such a cocky alpha. Assuming I was going to want one."

"And you just proved me right."

"So I did." But there was no denying that there was a definite chemistry between them, something that couldn't be replicated or forced. No amount of someone's family being able to benefit from a certain relationship was ever going to make two people right for each other.

Those lips upturned into a soft smile, before he pressed himself in close, letting them brush across the warmth of the alpha's cheek. Shifting, they traced along the line of his jaw, before hot breath ghosted over the shell of his ear and a single word was whispered into it.

"Seok."

...

"So you, Jungkook, want me, Baekhyun, to run a background check on someone named Seok Jin. Were you dropped on your head as a child? Is that it?"

"I'm really not getting what's so difficult about this concept."

"Jungkook, say those two names together."

"Why?"

"Just do it. Please. For me. For all of my future years of loyal service and suffering."

"Seok Jin."

"And what is the name of the person you were supposed to meet?"

"Seokjin.... oooohhhhhh." It hit him like a ton of bricks. He had been so incredibly high on whatever euphoria the other induced within his brain that it hadn't actually clicked until that very moment.

"I have to admit that is pretty clever. Going by Seok Jin instead of using Kim."

"But why go through all of this?"

"My guess is he wanted to meet you without the influence of his families last name. If you just met him as a some random guy at a bar, then you'd be more yourself. Which he apparently likes for some reason."

"What should I do?"

"Take him on that third date."

"Okay, but am I supposed to let him know I figured it out?"

"Sure. But do it subtly - actually, scratch that, you're about as subtle as a bull in a china shop."

"It's good to know you have so much confidence in me."

"Oh, I have plenty of confidence in you. Just not when it comes to this. Listen... wait and see if he sets up a third date. If the same thing happens then find out what his game is."

"I really need to give you a raise."

"Yes you do. And a week's vacation. I'm going to need it by the time all of this is over."

...

It took far longer than it had before, for reasons he didn't know and likely would never actually understand. Maybe Seokjin's mother had gotten tired of entertaining their family when clearly they were so very far below them. Or perhaps Seokjin hadn't liked him as much as he said. Or maybe they had been caught in the lie when their stories hadn't exactly matched up. What had the other actually been saying anyway? Certainly not the truth, considering his mother kept playing along.

When it finally came, he wasn't even the one who fielded the call. No, instead there was a simple sticky note placed upon his desk when he returned from a meeting, with the name of yet another five star restaurant and the time written in Baekhyun's neat script.

He wondered how long he should wait this time.

...

Half an hour.

That was the amount of time he had decided upon in his mind. He would wait for half an hour before texting Jin and seeing if he actually responded the same way he had before. But half an hour turned into an hour, and before he knew it he was two bottles of wine down and he really didn't think he should be texting anyone, let alone the person who was intended to be his future husband.

It could probably be considered messy, but he liked to see it as a life skill.