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“It just feels unfair,” Hyesung grumbles as his grandmother pushes him into the chair in the center of the photo to balance it (since he’s the only one without a pair, since he’s the only loser in his family without a partner, because he hasn’t had a boyfriend in years and they’ve given up hope). “It’s like you’re singling me out.” A pause. “I’m literally being singled out.”
His cousins roll their eyes (at their partners; one of those fun things you can do when you’re dating someone — have those silent conversations where they know exactly what you’re thinking because they know you so well) and tell him to sit, sit. They’ve been taking pictures in various permutations all afternoon and everyone is tired. Hyesung is holding them up by being a little baby about being alone, again.
The doorbell rings.
“Pizza!” His aunt shouts as she stands up from behind the crowd of photoshoot directors. She’s got a toddler on her hip (he’ll probably get a boyfriend before Hyesung does) and grabs the cash on the counter to pay for the almost dozen pizzas his stupid giant family has purchased.
“If the delivery guy is hot, ask him to join the picture as my boyfriend,” Hyesung shouts, because at least it’ll get a laugh.
He lets his grandmother fuss over him (“You’re too skinny,” she says, pinching his cheeks. “Where’s my cutie little Hyesungie?” “I’m twenty-eight! I’m not supposed to be cute!”) and she leans over him to pull couples into order. She has a vision and she is not gonna let Jake ruin it (despite her increasingly obvious attempts in the last few years, it doesn’t look like he’s leaving Hyerin any time soon so she seems resigned to his presence, but he will stand without slouching). She pushes off of Hyesung’s shoulders and reveals the smiling figure of his aunt, who’s holding an arm wearing a red windbreaker. The arm belongs to someone Hyesung hasn’t met, someone with bright eyes and a pretty, pretty mouth and a hat with the logo of —
“Oh my god, no!” Hyesung covers his face with his hands. “I was joking!”
“Hi,” the guy says, voice so low it reverberates Hyesung’s spine. Maybe that’s the shame. “Where should I sit?”
Hyesung’s grandmother pushes Jaemin and his girlfriend to the right, shoves Hyesung onto the left half of his chair. She points. “Sit.”
“Hyesung, this is Sungkook,” his aunt says with a shit-eating grin. “He agreed to be in the picture.”
“Why is this happening?” Hyesung says. No one else is reacting like this is weird, though he hears a few gentle titters behind him. Hands squeeze his shoulder and pat his head (Jake’s a nice guy).
“Let’s just get it over with,” Jake says. “I’m really fucking hungry.”
Hyesung sighs, then feels a thigh pressed alongside his, pushing him further off his chair. He tilts, grabs onto the windbreaker arm next to him in panic, lets go of the windbreaker arm in panic because that arm belongs to the stranger whose ass is pushing him off his own god damned chair, then feels a hand grab him around the waist. Delivery guy.
“Sorry,” he says. His low voice, much closer to Hyesung’s ear this time (or, again, the shame) makes Hyesung shiver. “Your aunt offered me a really big tip and I’m super broke.”
“It’s fine,” Hyesung sighs. “At least someone’s getting something out of this.”
“Well,” Sungkook says as Hyesung’s grandmother scurries behind the camera. “Your, uh,” he looks at the little old lady behind the camera, “grandmother?” Hyesung nods, “Will have a lovely memory of the day you guys ordered a shit-ton of Domino’s.”
Hyesung looks at Sungkook, whose expressionless face can’t hide the lightness in his eyes. He’s still wearing his hat and windbreaker and Hyesung presses his lips closed to stop the laughter bubbling in his chest. He lifts a hand to the rim of the cap and lifts it off, then pauses with his other hand over Sungkook’s hair, because oh my god what is he doing. But Sungkook looks up at his hand and tilts his head into it.
“Fix my hair?” He says, face much closer to Hyesung than he was expecting.
Hyesung ruffles the bangs back to a semblance of life and nods when he’s satisfied with his work. He goes to hand the hat to Sungkook, but one of Sungkook’s hands is still around Hyesung’s waist, keeping them both on the chair, so he holds it in his lap.
“On three!” Hyesung’s grandmother yells. “Everyone look pretty!”
She counts down with her fingers:
One
Hyesung darts a glance to the side, incapable of resisting the urge for another peek at Sungkook, whose cheeks are a little rosy — cold from the wind outside, still?.
Two
Sungkook is looking at him, too, and his eyes go wide and his arm tightens around Hyesung’s waist, which knocks Hyesung a little bit off balance and makes him a little bit insane.
Three
He grabs onto Sungkook’s thigh — holy shit his thigh is so big and the muscle is so tense from staying balanced on this stupidly small chair and he’s probably really fucking strong and maybe he could lift Hyesung up to f—
“Look at the camera Hyesung!” His aunt shouts, a laugh in her voice, as everyone around them says kimchi.
Hyesung finds the camera as his grandmother takes several shots and he’s sure that he’s bright red in all of them. He removes his hand from Sungkook’s leg as casually as he can, feels Sungkook let out a quiet breath.
“Sorry,” Hyesung says, once the photos are taken and everyone is dispersing. He hands the cap back to Sungkook, who holds it in his hands for a second before pushing his hair back and depositing it on his head. Damn, he’s handsome.
“No worries,” he shrugs. “It was kinda fun.”
His aunt comes by, toddler in tow, and hands a handful of cash to Sungkook. “You were great, honey. Thank you for helping our dear Hyesungie.”
Sungkook takes the cash and hesitates. He lifts an eyebrow. “I feel like I should share this with you,” he says. He pulls out a couple of 10s and half-hands them to Hyesung.
“Oh my god no, this has already been humiliating enough,” Hyesung says.
Sungkook pouts (cute) but pockets the cash. He salutes, awkwardly, then cringes (cute!). “Well. This was fun.”
“Okay,” Hyesung says. “Yes,” he lies. “Bye.”
“See you around.”
Hyesung doesn’t squeak. He doesn’t.
His family’s laughter is warm, even if it’s mostly at his expense (“Your face, bud, oh my god!” — Jake is crying tears of laughter), but he can admit that this is maybe the best family photo they’ve taken in ages. Everyone’s smiles are genuine, because everyone’s mid-actual-laughter and Hyesung’s red face comes across as a cute blush in the dim lighting. Maybe no one else will spot the death grip he’s got on Sungkook’s leg. He can still feel the pressure from Sungkook’s fingers just under his ribs.
“Was it him?” Wonseo says, taking an obnoxious swig of his beer. He’s said this every single time he’s seen a cute guy since Sungkook told him the story two days ago.
“No,” Sungkook says, automatically. He’s stopped checking. It’s not like they’ll meet again — they’d never met before the lady offered him basically two day’s wages to sit in a picture with her nephew, so it’s really unlikely they’ll meet again.
“Sweet,” he says, which makes Sungkook look up. “Dibs!” He stands up, shoots Sungkook a peace sign, and ambles over to a table where there’s a guy who’s smiling widely at what’s probably his boyfriend, if Sungkook is reading the hand on the small of his back correctly. Not that that will stop Wonseo, who’s somehow got them both laughing by the time he gets to their table. Neither of them look anything like the cute guy whose family photo he crashed last week. Which sucks, but is also good, because Wonseo is already leaning over the table to take a sip from one of their cocktails.
Sungkook checks his phone, because he might as well call it. Wonseo’s obviously gone for the night and he’s not really in the mood to kiss anyone who didn’t run their fingers through his hair five days ago. He barely got a glimpse of him, didn’t get his name. Technically has the address of someone in his family, but it’s probably (definitely) a fireable offence to use that information for personal gain. Especially when that personal gain is kind of creepy. He texts Wonseo to let him know not to look for him (Wonseo will give the text a thumbs up tomorrow morning) and heads out to catch a bus.
“Oh my god.”
A voice cuts through the music in his headphones, so Sungkook pushes them off his ears and looks up at —
“Oh my god,” he says in reply. “Photo guy.”
“Photo guy?” Photo guy’s voice raises. His cheeks puff out in an adorable pout. On anyone else it would seem insincere, exaggerated, but it feels like this is just what his face does. “I’ve been calling you hot pizza man all week and all I am is photo guy?”
“You think I’m hot?”
“At least upgrade me to hot photo guy,” Cute photo guy says. He flops down on the bench next to Sungkook and crosses his arms. “Or sexy photo guy.”
“Okay,” Sungkook says, because his brain stopped working.
“It’s Sungkook, though, right?” Cute photo guy says, turning to Sungkook with a be-mittened hand out for shaking. Sungkook shakes it.
“Yeah.”
“Hyesung.” Cute Hyesung says, “I’m still sorry about my aunt. She’s kind of insane.”
“No worries,” Sungkook says. “I paid off some credit card debt with the tip, so I’m honestly fine. I’m sorry they made you take a picture with a stranger, though.”
Hyesung removes his hand from Sungkook’s. Oh. Woops. Sungkook looks away.
“Eh,” Hyesung shrugs. “It’s fine. They tease with love.”
“Still,” Sungkook says.
“No, really,” Hyesung says. He shuffles around, digging through his pocket for his phone. He bites a mitt off and taps at the screen. His eyebrows crease in concentration and Sungkook fights the urge to press the wrinkle with his finger.
Hyesung turns the phone to show Sungkook the family photo he crashed. “Thee?” Hyesung takes the mitt out of his mouth. “See? It’s maybe my favourite photo we’ve ever taken. It’s hilarious.”
Sungkook is in the middle of a good dozen strangers, Hyesung’s face is bright red and everyone but the two of them is holding back (or failing to hold back) laughter. Sungkook can see that he’s basically holding Hyesung up, having pushed him almost entirely off the chair. He can see why someone might find the photo funny.
“I’m barely even sitting on the chair,” Hyesung says, giggling. “I made this picture my lockscreen,” he turns the screen off, then on again. “See?” He puts the phone down, so now Sungkook is leaning in to look at his face instead of his phone.
“Well,” Sungkook clears his throat. He leans back. “I’m glad you like it.”
“I could send it to you?” Hyesung says, tilting his head.
“Oh,” Sungkook says. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Oh,” Hyesung sounds disappointed instead of relieved. He sighs. He puts his mitten back on. Sungkook wants to hold the mittened hand. It’s so cute. Woolen, with little ears and an embroidered nose to make the hand look like a hamster.
“I’ve been calling you cute photo guy,” Sungkook says.
“Cute?” Hyesung pouts. “I guess that’ll have to do.”
“I call it like I see it,” Sungkook says.
He can see the bus a block away, and it makes his heart race.
“Oh my god you were asking for my phone number,” he says, the moment the realization hits him.
Hyesung laughs. It’s exactly as soothing as Sungkook thought it would be.
“Yes,” Hyesung says through giggles. “I was.”
“Can I still give it to you, even though I totally fumbled it?”
Hyesung grins, then bites his mitten off his hand a second time. Sungkook pulls it from his teeth and cradles it in his bare hands, stealing some of Hyesung’s warmth as he pulls up his contact app. Sungkook types in his information just as the bus slips to a stop on the snowy road.
Sungkook (hot pizza guy): your mittens are cute btw
hyesung: you’re sitting next to me
hyesung: you could say that out loud
Sungkook (hot pizza guy): I really couldn’t
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