Things to note before reading: Word count - 3,296. John’s words are in bold and blue text. Actions are in bold and black text. JunSeok’s words are in bold and red text. All thoughts are in bold and italics. Words from other characters are in bold and orange text. We hope you enjoy this work of fiction. Happy reading!
John’s POV
Ring Ring Ring Ring The alarm blasts off like this was its moment to shine! Its piercing tone fiercely erupted my sweet dreams and jolted my eyes open! Curse whoever made this horrid device but also bless you because, without it, I might sleep the whole day. Grumpingly picks up the phone 6:30 am “Argh! I need to get ready” My eyes are still heavy as I have not slept for more than 3 hours a day this past week. We have been working on opening our restaurant and bar for the last couple of months and with an opening day set and invitations sent, we had a deadline to meet and we were not about to recall any invitations. These past 4 days have probably been the longest in my life. Between late deliveries, faulty wiring, impromptu inspections, and a plumber that almost made me forget my home training, this week was simply a test and having settled everything just in time, I feel like I passed. Last night was probably the first time I slept for more than 5 hours, and clearly, my body needs more rest cause I can feel my eyes shutting down despite the piercing screams of the alarm. I suspected this would happen so I can’t blame the device too much. Walking on pure excitement with a hint of nerves, I get up from my bed and head to the shower. I need to take proper care of myself today. A night of good sleep is the first part of the skincare routine but today, this MMUK Man foundation would do. Wearing my favorite velvet blue blazer over a white fitted tee-shirt, I look in the mirror and as I put on my glasses, the thought that crossed my mind was “You look expensive!” Chuckles 8:00 Am “Wow, it’s been 2 hours already?” I say as I hurriedly find my keys, and tuck my laptop in my tote bag. Doing a bit of the shuffle dance to catch the drops of the cologne in the air, I feel so excited. The thought of the day almost makes me feel like I am about to embark on a new chapter of my life. It’s been a rough journey, so many trials and few victories, maybe that is why I tend to appreciate every single win, big or small. Anyways, I digress, today is a happy day and we are not going to dwell on the negatives. The weather in Seoul is quite okay today. Not too hot or too cold, and there is no fine dust in the air. It is perfect. Perhaps my stars are aligned today. Getting to my new restaurant, the final touches are underway and pulling up almost at the same time as I was my partner. “John! Come help me with these boxes please!” WooYoung calls WooYoung has been a close friend for the past 7 years now. We didn’t always have the best of friendships and frankly, I cannot count the number of times we have fought and made up but beyond the bickering, if there is anyone who has my back it has to be WooYoung. He is smart, confident, charismatic, and a people person. Qualities that I certainly do not possess. Well, maybe smart. At least I have a business degree, so that counts for something. Basically, he is the Yin to my Yang. “Hi, did you sleep at all last night?” I ask as I join him in lifting the heavy boxes of tableware from his boot. “Yeah, I did but not so much. I stopped by Starbucks on my way here, that is where this little energy is coming from.” I smile warmly at him as we both move into the building. “Wow! Everything seems to be coming together nicely”. I say looking around the space. WooYoung smiles warmly at me and says “All the hard work has paid off, yes?!” I simply nod in acknowledgment. The rest of the morning went by faster than a speed train. Bustling about, moving tables, arranging glasses and plates, cleaning up, and making sure all my T’s were crossed, I feel a bit nervous as the clock strikes 5:Pm. It is time to open up and have people come into the new space. I haven’t been outside the building yet so I don’t know if the noise I hear is of people waiting to enter the building or just passing by. It is a super busy street after all. My nerves kick in and I begin to feel a bit anxious. “Will people even come?” “This is Seoul! There are literally new restaurants opening every other day, so what would make this one special enough?” “The ads of social media gained positive response so maybe people might show up.” “I HOPE SO!” My thoughts continue to race. He might have noticed how worried I am because soon enough I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, turning around, I see WooYoung smiling, he cups my face in his big hands and says “Gosh! You’re such a baby! Everything will be okay! You’ve done a great job and the turnout is amazing!” I breathe a sigh of relief and hope for the best. Soon enough, his words were proven true as soon as the doors opened, a flock of people entered the restaurant, flooding the waiting area. Too many to count, my worry shifted from “if there would be anybody coming” to “how do we accommodate all these people.” Busy! Busy!! Busy!!! From taking orders to serving, ensuring that everything was okay, I kept prancing all over the place. As it got to 11 pm, the restaurant was still packed full, but the crowds coming in were not as much anymore. I breathed a sigh of relief. I know I am the owner but as I said, I am not the best people person and I prefer to work behind the scenes. But since it is an opening weekend, like WooYoung says I have to be at the forefront and interact with customers. “John! Come here, there are people you have to meet.” WooYoung excitedly calls me. “Who?” I mouth as I walk in his direction. He grabs my hands and guides me up the stairs to the VIP section. Opening the door, seated on the sofa, and happily chatting away was a group of young men. “Hello again everyone, allow me to introduce you to my partner, John.” WooYoung gleefully says “Hello, my name is John, thank you for being here today”. I slightly bow. Still confused as to what was so special about these people that I just had to come and greet them, I begin to scan the faces of the men, and then our eyes met. My heart literally stopped beating as it felt like my whole world came to a standstill.
JunSeok’s POV
Swallows a huge gulp of water “I need to get this dance right, I can’t be the one holding the team back. Tonight is the last performance for this comeback and my mistake from last week still haunts me. Thankfully no one really took notice but that should not give me relief, it has to be perfect. I have to be perfect.” I think to myself as beads of sweat dripped all over my body. This comeback has been a success for us. Our song has topped the charts and we have had wins in 2 music shows. We haven’t had this kind of success in a while, and while I am trying not to let it get into my head, I cannot help but admit, that it feels so good. This is why, when I made that misstep last week, it felt like I was about to bring another wave of bad luck to the team. My other members do not deserve this and fans who cheer us on, deserve the best. “I have to work harder.” I say to myself. I practice the song a couple of more times, and often I get the move right but there are still times when I make errors. “Is this a blockage? Why am I not getting this completely?” I ask myself in frustration. As I walk towards my backpack to have another gulp of water, I hear the door swing open. In walks the other members of the group. Shawn, Chris, Chan, Hwi, Kang, and HyunJae, these guys have been my rock, to say the least. They make me understand that together, just enjoying the music and the love from our fans, is just enough. “As long as we work hard together, we can do anything” HyunJae always says every time I am in one of our moods. And I have been in “one of my moods” a lot lately. As much as we tend not to tag it as such but sometimes, the industry feels like a competition. From trying to sell more, win more shows, gain more followers, gain more streams and views, and appear on more TV shows, it sometimes feels like a lot is happening, and frankly, it felt like we have been losing a lot this past couple of years. It’s our third year in and it feels like we are finally getting traction. Our debut was amazing no doubt and we had tons of attention but soon enough, it all spiraled down. We haven’t been able to gain many positive results with our comebacks after then. Our label started to struggle financially and if we didn’t have success with this comeback, we might be disbanded. “Which is why you have to work harder!” A loud voice pierces through my thought. Sighs deeply “JunSeok Hyung!” HyunJae calls out. The happy cheery feel of his voice is one that always makes me smile. He literally is the mood maker of my life and I don’t know where I’d be without him. “How are you?!” “Gosh you’re sweating so hard” “Have you been practicing all day?!” “Have you eaten?” He might be the maknae but he truly is the mom of the group. Whether we are together or not, he keeps doting on every member and ensuring they are okay. At the mention of the word “eaten”, my stomach took that as a cue as it grumbled so hard it echoed all around the room. Laughter erupts from all of us as we are taken aback by the sound. I haven’t eaten since morning. Just working on coffee and water. It is almost time for the pre-taping and the live show of our final performance for this comeback, so I will wait till after and eat big! “Let’s get a big meal after the show”, I say to HyunJae and the rest. We begin to practice once more and this time, I nail the stubborn move at every try without fail. Excited, I couldn’t wait to go on stage and give it my all again. 1:30 mins later “HYUNG!!! THAT WAS SO COOL” HyunJae calls out happily as we walk back to our dressing room. He looks even more excited than I am. I nailed the performance, our fans cheered on amazingly and we took home yet another win. A very good day that calls for celebration. “Should we order takeout to celebrate?” Kang asks as he brings out his phone to start searching. “We should go to a proper restaurant and have a good time!” Hwi chimes in gleefully. “Oh there is a new one that is opening today, from the banner, it looks like it will be good too”. He continues. “Okay, let’s try that” Kang responds. 30 minutes later. My stomach hurts, and I am feeling hungry. Coffee on an empty stomach is not the best! I feel a bit queasy but I am trying to be cheerful as this is a happy day. The snacks have been handy and are very delicious too. I have cleared the bowls, I need more. Our door opens and in walk two men. One practically pulling the other in. They don’t have any food in hand, I look away. One looks familiar as he was the one who introduced himself as the owner before and brought snacks with him. This time, he didn’t bring any with him. And I was sad about it. “Hello again everyone, allow me to introduce you to my partner, John.” He says. I look up to see his partner and I was spellbound. At that moment, my disappointment about the lack of snacks disappeared because he brought in a whole entrée. “God he is handsome.” I think to myself. I simply couldn’t take my eyes off him. “Hello, my name is John, thank you for being here today”. The handsome man introduces himself. “Wow! His voice is so soft too!” “Oh damn! He is looking at me too!”
John’s POV
Our eyes locked and it felt no one else was in the room. As soon as I saw him, I recognized that the men were an idol group who have been popular lately. I haven’t paid much attention to them but their songs have been exciting. “Wow, he is so handsome” I mutter to myself. WooYoung must have heard me because he laughed and basically pushed me forward to have a seat. “Do you mind if we join you for a bit? This is a happy day for us.” WooYoung says with a cheerful voice. Gosh, he really is a people person. “Us too!” One of the idols who I immediately recognized as HyunJae responded loudly. I find a space close to the edge of the sofa and I seat there. As it happens, we sat directly across each other, and in between sips of beers, I could see him staring longingly at me. “Is it into me?” I thought to myself. A couple of mins later, the crowd on the sofa began to reduce as the members got in front to dance. As I was staring at them amazed by their dancing moves, I suddenly felt a pressure on the space near me. Turning to look at the cause of the weight shift, I am face to face with him. Our noses literally touching, and I felt heat wave across my body as I stared deep into his eyes. “Sorry” I said He smiles “No worries” he responded. “Congratulations on your opening, this looks amazing” he continued. “Thank you” I responded quickly, trying to hide my nerves. “Oh right! The opening! I might be needed downstairs” as I am about to ask to be excused, my phone chimes, and I see a message from WooYoung, “Take your time, I will handle the rest. Have fun! Winky face emoji”. “Is everything okay?” He asks “Oh yes, yes, just a message from my partner” I respond. Pause “When you say “partner” do you mean….?” He asks. “Oh! He is just my business partner”. I responded rather too quickly. We often get this a lot as in the last 3 years of planning to open the restaurant, WooYoung has been calling me “His Partner”. People tend to misinterpret this. I have never minded and he finds it funny but today, I felt a strong urge to clarify the statement. “I think using the word “Business Partner” might sound too formal for us as he is my best friend so he just introduces me as “His Partner” and I am okay with it.” I continue. “Oh, that is good then. Glad to hear that.” He says with a hint of relief. A short pause “Congratulations to you too on your win today. I heard it from your friends earlier” “Oh thank you” he responds. Another pause God this is so awkward. My hands start sweating as I take another sip of my bear. I could feel his stares. If he had lasers in his eyes, I’d probably have a hole in my neck by now. “I am sorry, I don’t usually do this, so I am at a loss of what to say right now. I am not usually one to talk to strangers.” I say trying to break the tension. “But you own a bar!” He responds with laughter in his tone. “The irony, right?!” I respond with a smile. “You’re so adorable” he mutters, perhaps to himself. “Sorry” I responded hoping he’d repeat it loudly. “I said you’re so adorable” he responds with a cute smile. I am out of words and I smile while I take another sip of my never-ending cup of beer. “He is confident. I like that.” “So what do you like doing? Since this is not your cup of tea.” He asks. “I am a homebody so the best day for me would be in bed, cuddling my pillow and watching new episodes of cartoons. I have been really into “Spy x Family” lately”. “That sounds like the best time” he responds with a sigh. I notice the gauntness on his face. He probably hasn’t really had time to do this kind of thing. From practices to one schedule or another, I assume he has been super busy. “We should try that sometime though.” I couldn’t stop the words from coming out of my mouth. He looks at me surprised. I wasn’t surprised by his shocking expression because I couldn’t even believe I had just said that. After what felt like an eternity he responds with a shy smile “I would like that.” “But perhaps, we could do away with the pillow.” He adds with a smirk. Choking on my drink, I couldn’t help but visualize the statement and in my head, it looked like the best time.
The next day
5 PM It is Saturday, and our opening weekend continues. This time I feel confident enough to go out and see the line, and much to my surprise, there was a large crowd waiting to be let in. Chatting with the staff after everyone had left last night, I got lots of positive reviews from them, as the customers were greatly pleased by the food, music, drinks, and all-around ambiance of the space. “You’ve done well.” I say to myself “John!” “JOHN!!” WooYoung basically screams my name. I turn around with an anxious look thinking there is something wrong. “He is here again!” He points up the stairs. “Who?” Looking in the direction of his hands, I see this tall man, dressed in a casual fitted tee-shirt and jeans, with a face cap on. I immediately recognize who he is as he nods with a warm smile. “God he is so handsome.” I say out loud. “And he likes you too” WooYoung responds, giving me a playful bump on the shoulder. “Before he left last night, he was apparently looking for you and when he couldn’t find you, he asked me for your number. I didn’t want to give it to him, But I told him to come around today to collect it from you in person. I am super surprised he came. He really likes you!” His words felt like music to my ears. I was shocked but happy at those words. Looking back up to the stairs, our eyes meet once again and I felt a sudden rush of excitement all over my body as my cheeks turned pink blush. “Is this love?” I think to myself.
