Ship/Member: seungkwan/vernon Tags: modern au, exes to ??, miscommunication, semi-open ending Permission to remix: Please ask
first time writing verkwan and first time writing seungkwan pov! hope it doesn't suck. sorry if this doesn't give you quite the closure you were looking for but i was trying to get this out kinda quick haha
will comment w/an ao3 link if i xpost!
***
despite what his friends might have you think, seungkwan prefers to keep his life as drama-free as possible.
(that doesn't mean that drama doesn't follow him, mind you. it means that he simply tries his best to not invite drama into his life.)
one of the ways he does this is by keeping his love life as clean as possible. no messing around with friends, coworkers, or other people he had pre-existing relationships with, no relationships without defined labels, and no getting back together with exes.
(he'd made one exception ages ago for a roommate he'd met straight out of college--they were both new to the district and he'd been the most beautiful boy seungkwan had ever laid his eyes on. it was great until it wasn't. turns out seungkwan thought that hanging out nearly 24/7 for nearly two years, fucking exclusively, and meeting each other's families meant that they were serious. hansol, on the other hand, apparently never got the memo, and just said i'll miss you when seungkwan mentioned that he was considering accepting a promotion that would relocate him to another city.)
it begins like any other day, except not. seungkwan's usual favorite cafe is apparently closed for remodeling for at least the next two months, according to the piece of paper taped to the inside of the window. ordinarily, seungkwan would give up for the morning and resign himself to the swill the top brass have decided to consider coffee until he can research an appropriate substitute, but he's got two looming deadlines coming up and he doesn't think he can face it on stale, watery grounds.
so after a quick naver search for cafes in his immediate vicinity, he takes a left and follows the directions until he comes to a stop in front of beans n' more, which is one of the weirder names seungkwan's ever heard for a coffee shop, but still not the weirdest, so whatever.
he queues up, not bothering to look at the menu because he only ever gets the same thing. the line moves quickly, and seungkwan's about to rattle off his order at the register when he realizes he's face-to-face with a beanie pulled down low, just over a pair of eyes that seungkwan wishes he could forget.
of course he'd fucking run into his ex(?) behind the counter in the coffee shop he'd chosen on a whim. of fucking course. whoever's pulling the strings behind seungkwan's life must really have it out for him. he bets it's his coworker-turned-grudging-friend jeonghan, because if jeonghan hasn't had his monthly chaos fix he'll do something to cause it.
"oh, hey seungkwan," hansol greets, unflappable as ever. as if it had only been three days since they'd last seen each other instead of three years. "large iced americano, right?"
seungkwan nods mutely, handing over his credit card, then nods again when hansol chuckles and says "no worries, dude. on the house." he's fully aware that he's being rude by not even saying <i>thank you,</i> but he has a suspicion that if he opens his mouth he's going to scream.
"your order will be out shortly," hansol says. "thanks for stopping by."
hansol smiles at him, too-wide for the occasion. his lips are in dire need of chapstick, as they always are.
but seungkwan can't tell him off, because now they're strangers and that would be weird and the customer behind him is already giving him a side eye because he's about two seconds away from holding up the line. so seungkwan heads over to the drink pickup area and pretends he's not sneaking glances at hansol while he stares at his twitter feed.
"large iced americano for seungkwan!" someone who isn't hansol yells.
his drink has been topped with a vacuum-sealed lid and placed in a bag. immediately, seungkwan knows who's behind it and he hates that he's been seen through so acutely.
he doesn't end up being able to drink his coffee until well past nine, much to his despair, since his boss decided to demand his attention immediately after seungkwan set down his work bag. when he is finally able to catch a break, he cuts open the knot at the top of the bag and pulls out the cup, half-expecting to find a watery, separated mess but is instead surprised to see that the color of his drink looks about right.
he stabs through the top of the cup and takes a long sip, closing his eyes to savor it.
the coffee is perfect--not too strong but not too watery, smooth with just a faint hint of fruity acidity at the end. he's been loyal to my day's coffee for two years, but he might just have to break up with it. kim mingyu clearly can't pull shots like whoever's working the espresso machine at beans n' more.
(seungkwan doesn't want to think about who it might be. he's really not thinking about it at all.)
he's drunk through half the cup before he realizes that there's something written on the cup--the black marker had been obscured by the dark beverage.
im on break at 2, says the sharpie scrawled on the clear plastic. ig u kno where to find me
seungkwan is half-tempted to dump the rest of it down the sink out of spite alone, but continues sucking down his caffeinated bean water as he types away furiously for a corporation that frankly doesn't deserve his dedication, but will get it because he needs money to survive in this economy.
seungkwan has half a mind to not show up at the cafe, but in the end his desire to not be seen as rude wins out.
it's not because he wants to seen hansol again. it really isn't.
beans n' more is relatively empty at two in the afternoon; there are a couple of people with laptops out and headphones on, but it's nothing like the morning rush.
a familiar beanie-clad figure is leaning against the counter, poking away on his phone. his head perks up when the front door bell chimes as seungkwan steps through the threshold.
"hey seungkwan," hansol says. he's still wearing his apron. there's a little dancing coffee bean on the front that seungkwan didn't notice earlier. "long time no see. i mean, if you don't count this morning."
"yeah," seungkwan replies. "thanks for the coffee. sorry i didn't say it earlier."
hansol shrugs. "i kinda figured there was something else on your mind."
"is that why you told me when your break was?" seungkwan asks. now that he's face to face with hansol like this, having some semblance of a real conversation, he's finding it real difficult to keep things light.
there's a wry little quirk to the corner of hansol's mouth. "yeah. only, i wasn't really sure what we should talk about if you came back. i kept thinking about it during the rest of my morning shift. i'm lucky i didn't screw up anyone's order too badly."
"your lips are chapped," seungkwan blurts out. "please. did you throw out all the lip balm i left behind?" like you all but threw me out, too?
"god, i missed you," hansol sighs. there's something like a precursor to a laugh on his lips. "i really did."
i missed you, too, seungkwan doesn't say. "good," he huffs, and hansol does actually chuckle at that.
"look, we should talk about this more sometime. for real," hansol says. "we... we didn't leave things on a good note, and i regret it a lot. i feel like us crossing paths again is a sign, you feel?"
damn hansol for playing right into seungkwan's romantic sensibilities, with his stupid sincere pretty eyes.
there's a part of seungkwan, the stubborn part, that's telling him no. he broke your heart once, who's to say he'll never do it again?
but there's another part that seungkwan can't quite identify that's saying "fine. i'm free on friday evening."
"cool. how 'bout you stop by on friday morning, and i'll tell you where to meet me?"
"bold of you to assume i'd want to come back here," seungkwan sniffs. "how do you know i even like your coffee?"
"because i made it." hansol grins, and seungkwan's heart does an awful little flippy thing, and as much as seungkwan would like to think that he's above such nonsense, the fact of the matter is that hansol is, as he often is, infuriatingly right.
he's already broken his rules for hansol once. what's one more time?
Re: [FILL] oh my god they were roommates
Tags: modern au, exes to ??, miscommunication, semi-open ending
Permission to remix: Please ask
first time writing verkwan and first time writing seungkwan pov! hope it doesn't suck. sorry if this doesn't give you quite the closure you were looking for but i was trying to get this out kinda quick haha
will comment w/an ao3 link if i xpost!
***
despite what his friends might have you think, seungkwan prefers to keep his life as drama-free as possible.
(that doesn't mean that drama doesn't follow him, mind you. it means that he simply tries his best to not invite drama into his life.)
one of the ways he does this is by keeping his love life as clean as possible. no messing around with friends, coworkers, or other people he had pre-existing relationships with, no relationships without defined labels, and no getting back together with exes.
(he'd made one exception ages ago for a roommate he'd met straight out of college--they were both new to the district and he'd been the most beautiful boy seungkwan had ever laid his eyes on. it was great until it wasn't. turns out seungkwan thought that hanging out nearly 24/7 for nearly two years, fucking exclusively, and meeting each other's families meant that they were serious. hansol, on the other hand, apparently never got the memo, and just said i'll miss you when seungkwan mentioned that he was considering accepting a promotion that would relocate him to another city.)
it begins like any other day, except not. seungkwan's usual favorite cafe is apparently closed for remodeling for at least the next two months, according to the piece of paper taped to the inside of the window. ordinarily, seungkwan would give up for the morning and resign himself to the swill the top brass have decided to consider coffee until he can research an appropriate substitute, but he's got two looming deadlines coming up and he doesn't think he can face it on stale, watery grounds.
so after a quick naver search for cafes in his immediate vicinity, he takes a left and follows the directions until he comes to a stop in front of beans n' more, which is one of the weirder names seungkwan's ever heard for a coffee shop, but still not the weirdest, so whatever.
he queues up, not bothering to look at the menu because he only ever gets the same thing. the line moves quickly, and seungkwan's about to rattle off his order at the register when he realizes he's face-to-face with a beanie pulled down low, just over a pair of eyes that seungkwan wishes he could forget.
of course he'd fucking run into his ex(?) behind the counter in the coffee shop he'd chosen on a whim. of fucking course. whoever's pulling the strings behind seungkwan's life must really have it out for him. he bets it's his coworker-turned-grudging-friend jeonghan, because if jeonghan hasn't had his monthly chaos fix he'll do something to cause it.
"oh, hey seungkwan," hansol greets, unflappable as ever. as if it had only been three days since they'd last seen each other instead of three years. "large iced americano, right?"
seungkwan nods mutely, handing over his credit card, then nods again when hansol chuckles and says "no worries, dude. on the house." he's fully aware that he's being rude by not even saying <i>thank you,</i> but he has a suspicion that if he opens his mouth he's going to scream.
"your order will be out shortly," hansol says. "thanks for stopping by."
hansol smiles at him, too-wide for the occasion. his lips are in dire need of chapstick, as they always are.
but seungkwan can't tell him off, because now they're strangers and that would be weird and the customer behind him is already giving him a side eye because he's about two seconds away from holding up the line. so seungkwan heads over to the drink pickup area and pretends he's not sneaking glances at hansol while he stares at his twitter feed.
"large iced americano for seungkwan!" someone who isn't hansol yells.
his drink has been topped with a vacuum-sealed lid and placed in a bag. immediately, seungkwan knows who's behind it and he hates that he's been seen through so acutely.
he doesn't end up being able to drink his coffee until well past nine, much to his despair, since his boss decided to demand his attention immediately after seungkwan set down his work bag. when he is finally able to catch a break, he cuts open the knot at the top of the bag and pulls out the cup, half-expecting to find a watery, separated mess but is instead surprised to see that the color of his drink looks about right.
he stabs through the top of the cup and takes a long sip, closing his eyes to savor it.
the coffee is perfect--not too strong but not too watery, smooth with just a faint hint of fruity acidity at the end. he's been loyal to my day's coffee for two years, but he might just have to break up with it. kim mingyu clearly can't pull shots like whoever's working the espresso machine at beans n' more.
(seungkwan doesn't want to think about who it might be. he's really not thinking about it at all.)
he's drunk through half the cup before he realizes that there's something written on the cup--the black marker had been obscured by the dark beverage.
im on break at 2, says the sharpie scrawled on the clear plastic. ig u kno where to find me
seungkwan is half-tempted to dump the rest of it down the sink out of spite alone, but continues sucking down his caffeinated bean water as he types away furiously for a corporation that frankly doesn't deserve his dedication, but will get it because he needs money to survive in this economy.
seungkwan has half a mind to not show up at the cafe, but in the end his desire to not be seen as rude wins out.
it's not because he wants to seen hansol again. it really isn't.
beans n' more is relatively empty at two in the afternoon; there are a couple of people with laptops out and headphones on, but it's nothing like the morning rush.
a familiar beanie-clad figure is leaning against the counter, poking away on his phone. his head perks up when the front door bell chimes as seungkwan steps through the threshold.
"hey seungkwan," hansol says. he's still wearing his apron. there's a little dancing coffee bean on the front that seungkwan didn't notice earlier. "long time no see. i mean, if you don't count this morning."
"yeah," seungkwan replies. "thanks for the coffee. sorry i didn't say it earlier."
hansol shrugs. "i kinda figured there was something else on your mind."
"is that why you told me when your break was?" seungkwan asks. now that he's face to face with hansol like this, having some semblance of a real conversation, he's finding it real difficult to keep things light.
there's a wry little quirk to the corner of hansol's mouth. "yeah. only, i wasn't really sure what we should talk about if you came back. i kept thinking about it during the rest of my morning shift. i'm lucky i didn't screw up anyone's order too badly."
"your lips are chapped," seungkwan blurts out. "please. did you throw out all the lip balm i left behind?" like you all but threw me out, too?
"god, i missed you," hansol sighs. there's something like a precursor to a laugh on his lips. "i really did."
i missed you, too, seungkwan doesn't say. "good," he huffs, and hansol does actually chuckle at that.
"look, we should talk about this more sometime. for real," hansol says. "we... we didn't leave things on a good note, and i regret it a lot. i feel like us crossing paths again is a sign, you feel?"
damn hansol for playing right into seungkwan's romantic sensibilities, with his stupid sincere pretty eyes.
there's a part of seungkwan, the stubborn part, that's telling him no. he broke your heart once, who's to say he'll never do it again?
but there's another part that seungkwan can't quite identify that's saying "fine. i'm free on friday evening."
"cool. how 'bout you stop by on friday morning, and i'll tell you where to meet me?"
"bold of you to assume i'd want to come back here," seungkwan sniffs. "how do you know i even like your coffee?"
"because i made it." hansol grins, and seungkwan's heart does an awful little flippy thing, and as much as seungkwan would like to think that he's above such nonsense, the fact of the matter is that hansol is, as he often is, infuriatingly right.
he's already broken his rules for hansol once. what's one more time?