Chapter Text
Haruki would like to think that he's smart. Sure, he's a bit of an airhead sometimes but he's pretty intelligent for the rest of the time that he's not being clumsy or stupid. Haruki would also like to think that he's smart enough to not fall in love with a host from a host club — it would take some real stupidity to believe the sweet, honeyed words from someone who makes money from saying things like that to probably multiple people a day.
So why exactly was his heart fluttering this much right now?
Jil poured them two glasses of wine, something that Haruki hoped wouldn't jack up the price of his booking tonight — though he had to admit the taste of it was pretty nice, but it wasn't like he was some wine connoisseur anyways. Liquor was definitely a big help in getting Haruki to ease up, calming his frazzled nerves and smoothening them out. He has a couple more sips before glancing at Jil out of the corner of his eye, noticing that the white-haired man’s glass was at the same level as it was since he'd poured it, and he's looking right at Haruki.
This is so embarrassing.
“If you don't mind me asking, Haruki-san..” Jil starts politely, swirling the wine around in his own glass as if deep in thought. “Why'd you come over tonight?” Shit. Of course it had to be the one question that Haruki was hoping he wouldn't ask. He does have an answer, but even thinking about saying it sounds shitty.
The reality was that he was simply dared by some friends to book a session at a guys’ host club — and Haruki, being the ever prideful guy he was, couldn't possibly turn that dare down.
It's definitely going to make him sound like some super trashy guy with an ego too big to swallow, won't it? He's stuck in his thoughts, racking his brains for another reason as to why he's here tonight and all Jil does is stare at him all the while.
“Well.. actually, I was just curious. You know?” Haruki sputtered out, and thankfully enough Jil seemed interested. The host leaned in towards him, and Haruki felt the need to keep talking. “My friend, yeah, he's been here before. Talked to me about his experience and it sounded.. fun?” He's unsure of his own words, because all of it was completely untrue. None of his friends had ever had a session at a guys' host club, and none of them recommended this place to him.
“Hmm~ I see.”
Yet, Jil bought his excuse.
“Well, you must've had high expectations, didn't you?” A gentle laughter poured out of Jil’s lips as he teased him, and Haruki had to tug the edges of his lips up forcefully as he desperately fought back embarrassment. Seriously, why was he even this much of a mess? “Mm, not really. Well, maybe… but, I really did look forward to it!” Again, another lie. He was probably a second off from running back out the front door if Neiro hadn't caught him.
“Did your friend have me the other night too?” Haruki finally watches as Jil takes a sip of his wine, and he feels the need to do the same. “N-No. He um, he—” Haruki paused mid-way, “He had Hachimitsu, yeah.” The name that he'd blurted out was just another one of the hosts that he'd remembered from seeing the menu earlier and Jil seems to be a little surprised at that. Fuck, did he just blow his lie out of the water?
“I'm pretty sure Hachimitsu is in today, you didn't go for him instead?” Jil's expression twisted. He seemed so calm and collected during the whole session, yet what Haruki was reading on his face right now seemed like… concern? Confusion? Whatever it was, Haruki thinks it's working at charming him even more.
Wait, what? No. No, it's not working.
“No, you caught my eye more.” The admission comes out much faster before Haruki could rethink it, probably thanks to the liquor. “When Neiro flipped through the menu earlier, I don't know.. It just-” All of a sudden, words die in his throat. Haruki couldn't find anything else to say, and was left gaping stupidly like a fish. Jil laughs again though, and Haruki thinks maybe fucking things up wasn't so bad as long as he gets to see that handsome face while he's smiling like that.
“Is your heart already painting portraits of me?”
Huh? What does that mean?
Jil laughs, gaze flickering away from Haruki to his wine glass instead. “Whatever you want it to mean, Haruki-san.”
Oh great. He said that out loud too. Because of course he would.
Haruki groans, setting down his own wine glass to drop his head into his hands, which only seemed to provide Jil with more entertainment. It was probably pretty obvious that he’s a first timer, huh? A warm hand rests on his back, the feeling of it has Haruki’s head lifting up from his palms at light speed to look at the host sitting calmly next to him. Seriously, the fact that Jil’s so good at keeping his composure’s starting to piss him off a little. “Don’t worry now, you’re doing just fine.” It’s like Jil read his mind — or maybe Haruki wasn’t really being discreet with his current troubles anyway.
After clearing his mind with another sip of wine, Haruki decides that it’s finally time he gets it together and acts like himself in front of Jil. Though for some reason Haruki doesn’t quite remember what he’s usually like right now.
“So.. ah. Can you tell me your favourite kind of customer?”
Haruki spots the way Jil’s eyebrow raises at the question, then makes that face which makes him look like he’s deep in thought again. Which he probably is. Haruki doubts that many of Jil’s usual customers ask these kinds of things.
“My favourite kind of customer—” Jil starts, his gaze lingers on Haruki’s face — doing some insane host thing that Haruki probably would need at least 3 more sessions to comprehend without his cheeks suddenly feeling like they’re burning up. “—are the ones that I can spoil and pamper~” His tone has something sickly sweet to it, clinging on to his words thickly like dripping honey. Haruki’s definitely being enticed right now.
As the night passed, Haruki began to warm up to Jil a lot more. The host was unsurprisingly easy to get along with, and they just happened to share a few hobbies as well — namely singing. If this was a dream, Haruki would hope to god that this man was at least real in the waking world so he could find him there too.
Why exactly was he even hesitant to come here again?
However, Haruki makes the mistake of glancing at the clock in the room: five minutes left until his booking was over. For a man who was about to walk out of the doors before he was even offered a host, Haruki sure was hesitant to leave right now.
The ravenette's eyes were downcast as he murmured: “My time’s almost up.” The tinge of disappointment in his voice tugs at Jil’s heart easily, and the host’s eyes widen a little. Was this guy really a first timer? Looking at the sad slump of Haruki’s shoulders, Jil’s gaze softened impossibly more. He shifted closer, closing the small gap between them on the loveseat, and reached out to press his palm on top of Haruki's hand. Jil's own hand is warm, compared to Haruki’s colder one.
"Don't look like that," Jil said gently, offering that same warm smile that he’s been giving Haruki since he walked in. "I had a wonderful time tonight. Honestly, I had a lot of fun, I hope you did too, Haruki-san.” Haruki blinked comically, his purple eyes brightening just a fraction at the sincere praise. He doesn’t think he did much, really, besides fumble every conversation topic and make a fool out of himself — but if Jil said so, then it must be somewhat true. It’s nice.
Haruki’s slight frown disappeared in a flash and the snowy-haired host relaxed at the sight of his expression going back to normal. The ravenette looks much better when he’s not frowning. "Besides," Jil added, his eyes crinkling, "this won’t be the last time that you’re coming back to see me, right?"
Again, Haruki would like to think that he isn’t a stupid guy — but he knows that Jil’s right, because this definitely isn’t the last time that he’s going to be seeing him again, and Haruki would put all of his effort into making sure of that.