Work Text:
A wave at Jeongin is all Felix needs to cut the line, squeezing past a group of dolled-up ladies and through the velvet curtains that Jeongin holds open for him. He steps into a flood of sage green, the lights overhead soaking the large room in that singular shade; as he makes his way over to the bar located in the middle, Felix digs through his memories and comes to the conclusion that he’s yet to experience this particular colour.
It may be a weekday, but Virtue is as packed to the brim as per usual.
The bar is known for its drinks, the live music, and the level of safety it provides for its customers. In Virtue, an omega’s word is law, and any claims by an omega regarding unwanted advancements will mean an immediate ban from the establishment, regardless of one’s status.
(While the bar’s clientele tends to be more sophisticated than those of other bars, it isn’t rare for people to accost others, especially when under the influence of alcohol. Society may have made many strides towards equality between the secondary genders, but there is much more left to be accomplished.)
It didn’t take long for Virtue to cement its status as one of the best bars in the city, and Felix is infinitely proud of his friends for having built this place from the ground up with their own hands.
On paper, Chan and Changbin are the owners, but the couple is always ready to admit that Virtue wouldn’t be what it is today without the help and hard work of their friends. Minho and Jisung play a set every night, Hyunjin mans the bar, and Jeongin is the sharp-eyed bouncer who can spot a fake identification card from a mile away.
Having only met the group after Virtue’s opening three years ago, Felix and Seungmin don’t have any official stake in the business. They are, however, the bar’s most loyal customers, and they’ve never turned down a request to help out as long as they’re able to.
Which, Felix guesses as soon as he locks eyes with Hyunjin across the room, is what’s about to happen.
“Hey,” Hyunjin says the moment he’s within earshot, “do you mind taking over for a couple of minutes? I just have to run to the bathroom, and I’m working the bar alone tonight.”
There’s usually a part-timer or two back there with Hyunjin, eager wide-eyed youths excited to learn tips and tricks from a bartender who is known and respected in his trade. But there’s no one else there, and while Hyunjin is more than capable of doing his job solo, even the most skilled bartender cannot fight nature’s call. So Felix nods and lifts the counter flap, stepping into what he considers a sacred space.
“Thank you.”
Hyunjin finishes the drink he’s making – a screwdriver – and slides it across the bar to a young man with a pinched smile. He accepts the money, presses the bills into Felix’s hand, and all but runs towards the direction of the bathrooms.
“Hi,” Felix chirps at the next person who flags him down. “What can I get you?”
Felix is nowhere near Hyunjin’s level when it comes to bartending, but he can hold his own for a drink or two. He is, after all, one of Hyunjin’s students, even if his classes are sporadic at best.
He’s making his third cocktail when Hyunjin reappears by his side, looking considerably less harried now that he’s no longer in danger of peeing his pants.
“Hey,” he says once more, holding an arm out so Felix can lean into the hug. “You always have the best timing.”
Felix tucks his face into the crook of Hyunjin’s neck and nuzzles in just a little to coax a bloom of the man’s scent out into the air around them. The alpha has one of the nicest scents Felix has ever had the luck of smelling, a mix of white musk, wild honey, and a smidgen of leather, and since they became friends, Felix has been shameless about his preference for Hyunjin’s scent.
Plus, seeing how Hyunjin always seems willing to let Felix sniff at him, Felix doesn’t have any plans to stop.
“Telepathy, I’m telling you. I can sense when you’re in dire need of using the bathroom.”
Felix feels Hyunjin’s chuckle more than he hears it over the music, and the sensation brings a grin to his own face. With a squeeze around the other’s middle, he steps away from both Hyunjin and the bar, watching as his friend places the garnish atop the drink he’d just made. The drink is handed off, money is taken, and Felix pats Hyunjin on the shoulder in (temporary) farewell before he passes through the counter flap once more.
“Be back in a bit,” he calls, and the last thing he sees before he turns away is Hyunjin lifting his hand in acknowledgement as he picks up a cocktail shaker with the other.
He passes Chan on the way, the man busy chatting animatedly to one of the bar’s regulars, and bumps – quite literally – into Changbin as he rounds a corner.
“Oh, hey. You’re here earlier than usual.”
“Told myself I wouldn’t work overtime today,” Felix says, rubbing at his forehead, “because fuck that.”
Changbin nods sagely. “Good choice.” He gestures to the door at the end of the hallway, one kept locked with an electronic lock that only the eight of them have access to. “The noisy one is in there, the crazy one is somewhere else.”
“So it’s Jisung in there?”
“Or Minho,” Changbin says pointedly before pulling a face.
Laughing, Felix steps around Changbin and into the room, where he sees Jisung slumped on the couch, guitar on his lap and head tilted towards the sky. His eyes are closed, but his fingers are moving prettily across the fretboard and strings.
“Yongbok-ah,” Jisung drawls. Eyes still closed, his head lolls down to his right shoulder to face Felix’s approximate position. “Any song requests?”
“Not really.” Felix crosses over to the couch and flops down on an empty spot. “I don’t really want to listen to any love songs though.”
That has Jisung opening his eyes.
“Your date didn’t go well, I’m guessing?”
Felix sighs. “No, it didn’t.”
“Same issue?”
Over the last couple of years, the quality of Felix’s love life has plummeted so low that if he squints, he can see said love life digging itself a never-ending hole. Securing a date is not the problem – the problem is making it past the specific date where mutual scenting happens. For some godforsaken reason, every single time Felix offers up his wrist or neck for the other person to scent, they never make it to another date.
He’s gotten so many I think we would be better off seeing other people-esque messages and has been flat-out ghosted just as often, and he can’t for the life of him figure out why.
“Well, it’s clearly not a you problem,” Jisung says upon seeing Felix’s disgruntled nod. “Or to be more specific, the problem lies with your scent, not your personality or looks or whatever.”
Felix sniffs audibly at his own wrists then thrusts a hand out at Jisung. “Do I smell bad?”
Jisung leans in for a whiff. “You smell the same as you always do. I like it, or as much as I can like another person’s scent, considering.”
Right, considering the fact that he’s mated while Felix is still despairingly single.
Felix heaves another big sigh and throws his hands up in the air.
“I think I’m just destined to be single.”
“Don’t be silly,” Jisung remarks, idly strumming the strings. “Your person is out there, maybe you’ll find them when you least expect it.”
“Here.”
Felix looks away from the stage, gaze landing on a shimmery blue concoction sitting on the counter by his elbow. He lifts his eyes to see Hyunjin there, bar towel in his hands as he dries a few beer glasses.
It’s that time of the night, the time when most patrons are too enraptured by Minho and Jisung’s performance to give much thought to drinking, so Hyunjin has a little more breathing space.
“You look like you needed a drink.”
Felix picks the glass up by its stem and brings it up to his lips, eyes trained on Hyunjin’s face as he takes a sip. Sweetness explodes across his tongue and Felix immediately takes another sip before setting the glass down.
“That’s delicious, what’s in it?”
“Trade secret,” Hyunjin smiles. “It’s a rum base and there’s enough syrup in there to make your sweet tooth happy, but that’s all I’m saying.”
Pouting, Felix swirls the liquid around just to see the glitter rise up. “Why is it a secret?”
“I want to finalise the recipe first.” Someone interrupts their conversation to order an old fashioned please!, and Hyunjin inclines his head in their direction before grabbing a glass. “I’m thinking of adding it to the menu when it’s complete.”
The couple on stage finishes one song and segues into another, one sultrier and smoother than the previous upbeat track. Felix twists around to fully face Hyunjin, weight on his elbows as he leans in for a better look at Hyunjin’s hands.
Being able to watch Hyunjin work is a privilege. The confidence that the man has shows in everything that he does, from the mere act of grabbing a bottle to the flourish he adds when it comes to finishing touches and garnishes. He’s fast and precise, and Felix has never witnessed Hyunjin be thrown off by a request, no matter how complicated it may be.
Hyunjin whips up an old fashioned in a minute and sends the glass spinning over to the customer with a quirk of his lips. The ice cube inside sparkles like a 100-carat diamond with the movement, but Felix finds it exceptionally easy to look away from the beauty of it when Hyunjin speaks once more.
“So I’m guessing you like the drink?”
Right, the drink. Felix takes a bigger mouthful this time, savouring the flavours and the way it glides icy hot down his throat.
“Mm, I do. Not sure how else you can make it better, to be honest.”
Hyunjin, palms resting on the prep counter, tilts his head in thought. Then he shrugs, expression shifting into something on the cusp of determination.
“I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”
Before Felix can ask why Hyunjin’s trying so hard with this particular drink, another drink order comes in and Hyunjin has to step away. It’s a ‘bartender’s creation’ this time, and Felix willingly lets his attention be swept up by Hyunjin’s creativity.
He puts a drink together so quickly that Felix can barely catch half of what goes into the shaker. A bar spoon disappears into the shaker and reappears alongside a few drops of liquid deposited onto the stretch of skin between Hyunjin’s thumb and forefinger.
Felix glimpses a flash of pink when Hyunjin licks his hand clean, the bartender nodding to himself in satisfaction at the taste. Pale gold is soon poured into a glass filled halfway with crushed ice, followed by a dash of grated cinnamon, a charred citrus wheel, and a singular edible flower.
“Please enjoy,” Hyunjin says. Money in hand, he returns to Felix without so much as a glance towards the customer to see if his creation is well-received.
Felix, however, has the perfect line of sight to see the lucky customer’s reaction. It’s overwhelmingly positive, because of course it is, all widened eyes and parted lips, and Felix opens his mouth to ask for one too.
“You won’t like it,” Hyunjin warns, although he’s already reaching for another glass. “It’s quite sour.”
“Well, I have this one to act as a chaser,” Felix grins. He gestures to his blue drink and pulls it towards his chest protectively.
A pause, then Hyunjin snorts in amusement. “That drink is not supposed to act as a chaser, but if you insist.”
A second drink soon materialises in front of him, identical to the one Hyunjin made a minute ago. Felix takes a moment to admire how pretty it looks before he tastes it.
He manages to keep his expression schooled for a grand total of two seconds before he gags and pushes it aside, sending liquid sloshing over onto the countertop. In an effort to chase the bitterness away, he drains the rest of his blessedly sweet drink and flaps his fingers in the direction of the tap that dispenses distilled water.
Hyunjin gets the hint, and Felix chases down his chaser with a glass of water.
“I told you it’d be sour. Here, eat this.”
It’s chocolate, one that melts like a dream and shoots a bolt of sugar right into his bloodstream.
“Oh,” Felix mumbles thickly. “That’s good chocolate.”
“You gonna live?”
“Give me one more and we’ll see.”
Hyunjin gives him two.
Felix is nursing a second drink – a simple vodka cranberry this time – when someone plops into the seat next to him.
“Barkeep!” Seungmin snaps his fingers at Hyunjin with a grin. “Get me something good!”
His Drink of the Month™️, a mai tai, appears soon enough.
“What a rowdy customer,” Hyunjin says with a shake of his head. “And you’re later than usual today.”
“Meetings,” Seungmin grimaces. “Don’t wanna talk about it.” He takes a hearty sip of his drink, sighs in contentment, then slants his gaze over to Felix. “I do wanna talk about your date, though.”
The yelp Felix is gifted with when he pinches Seungmin in the arm sounds heavenly.
“You may want to talk about my date,” he sniffs, “but I do not.”
“Fine,” Seungmin says, all petulant. He rubs at the sore spot on his arm and fixes Felix with an expression that would get a weaker man to cave. “I already got my answer anyway.”
He changes targets, the gleam in his eyes evident when he tilts his chin towards Hyunjin.
“How many numbers have you gotten today?”
Hyunjin sighs, like that sole question is the reason he struggles to get out of bed in the morning. He ducks, disappearing from view, then pops back up with a glass jar in his hand.
“I didn’t count,” he says, depositing the jar in front of Seungmin. “Feel free to do that for me.”
Seungmin looks like he’s just been given a winning lottery ticket. He upends the jar and slips of paper come tumbling out, most of them crinkled from the way they’ve been handled.
While Seungmin counts the number of phone numbers that Hyunjin has received since the bar opened its doors tonight, the man himself heads off to fill several pints of beer.
“Damn, he’s got seven numbers already.”
“What’s his record, thirteen?”
“Fourteen, actually. On Valentine’s Day.”
Felix shakes his head. “Can’t believe he’s never called a single one of those numbers.”
At that, Seungmin swivels his ass around on the barstool.
“Is that what he told you?”
“Yes?”
Seungmin leans in until their noses are inches apart. “Well, I have intel that says he’s slept with a few of them.”
Nonplussed, Felix scoots as far back as the seat on his barstool will allow, which isn’t very far at all.
“I – okay?”
Seungmin’s eyes narrow just the slightest. Right then, with the worst timing Felix has ever had the misfortune of witnessing, Hyunjin returns to the corner that they’re occupying and says, “What are you two whispering about?”
“Why did you tell Felix that you’ve never called any of the people who have left you their number?”
“Because it’s true.”
“But you’ve slept with them.”
Hyunjin, having just picked up a fruit knife to slice some lemons, stops with the blade millimetres away from the fruit.
“Yes,” he says slowly, “but I have never called them. They’d wait until my shift was over, and we’d…meet up in the back.”
For some reason, Felix can almost taste the sourness of the lemon when Hyunjin finally pushes the blade past the lemon’s skin.
“It has only happened twice,” Hyunjin adds. His head is lowered, gaze trained on the task at hand. “Quite a while ago, too.”
Lemon slices, all unnervingly even, are placed into an airtight container that goes into one of the many fridges below the counter.
Hyunjin drops the knife and chopping board into the sink and meets Felix’s gaze straight on.
“I never lied. I just never elaborated because I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“Yeah,” Felix hears himself say. “I understand. I’m not – I’m not upset or anything, there’s no reason for me to be.”
In the background, Jisung and Minho’s voices surge up like a wave – it nearly swallows him whole.
Virtue closes every last Sunday of the month.
According to Chan, it’s to decompress, to deep clean, to rearrange some things around for a sense of whimsy. In reality, the eight of them gather inside the empty bar so they can spend time with each other without dim lighting, music, or the constant presence of alcohol looming over them.
They get shit done, of course, but at least they have fun while doing so.
“So,” Jeongin says around a mouthful of salt-and-vinegar chips, “I think I’m gonna start taking boxing lessons.”
“You beat people into submission with your glare alone, why do you need boxing lessons?”
“My glare doesn’t work on you,” Jeongin grins, and immediately leaps out of Minho’s reach.
But Minho isn’t one to give up easily, and it isn’t long before the two of them are running circles around the place, weaving between tables and even up across the stage.
The rich aroma of coffee catches Felix’s attention and he looks towards the bar in time to see Hyunjin and Chan approaching, each carrying a serving tray.
One would assume that the two bonded over their mutual interest in alcohol, but they actually met a couple of years before the birth of Virtue at a barista class. At the time, Hyunjin was an intern at a design company and wanted another creative outlet that had zero correlation with his work. Meanwhile, Chan was rotting in an office job, subconsciously on the lookout for some form of inspiration that would give him the push to quit and do something he loved.
They met over a paired exercise for latte art – Hyunjin was already good at latte art while Chan only knew how to draw a heart, and their easy friendship started when Hyunjin taught Chan how to draw a middle finger instead of the leaf their teacher wanted them to learn.
Alcohol came along months later, when Chan was given a cocktail-making kit for his birthday by an acquaintance.
Hyunjin came across the kit in one of the cabinets when hunting for a snack, and because they’re both spontaneous people when it comes to trying new things, it didn’t take much for Hyunjin to convince Chan to open the kit and experiment with the few bottles of alcohol he had in his home.
(Changbin, the poor guy, shouldered the responsibility of being their taste tester for the longest time until Jeongin came into the picture. But by then, Hyunjin’s skills had vastly improved, and Jeongin never needed to suffer to the extent that Changbin had.)
Mixing drinks didn’t end up sticking to Chan the way it did to Hyunjin, but their friendship was solid, and the seed that will eventually grow into the sprawling tree that is Virtue had already been planted in Chan’s mind after he witnessed how Hyunjin took to mixing like a fish took to water.
Getting Hyunjin on board to be part of Virtue’s backbone was easy. Finding the source of musical entertainment was the hard part.
While Chan and Changbin worked on building and developing Virtue, Hyunjin and Jeongin worked on expanding Hyunjin’s palate – it just so happened that most of the bars they would visit often held open mic nights.
It was at one of these open mic nights that they discovered Minho and Jisung.
Hyunjin was too busy with his drink to pay much attention to whoever was on stage, but Jeongin – whose job was to 1) give Hyunjin his opinion on whether a drink tasted good or bad and 2) drink half of Hyunjin’s drinks so he wouldn’t get drunk while working – had quite a bit of free time on his hands.
He watched as the couple stepped into the spotlight, as Jisung sat down on the wobbly stool with a guitar resting on his thigh, as Minho checked both mics and made sure Jisung’s was adjusted to the right height.
They didn’t dally, taking just a minute or two to set up before heading right into their set.
The moment the music started and Minho opened his mouth to sing, Hyunjin looked up from his little notebook and forgot all about the drinks in front of him.
Later that night, Hyunjin sent a text to Chan, informing him that they’d found their bar’s main act.
All these small, seemingly inconsequential events have accumulated in what makes Virtue the bar that it is today; and not to be dramatic or anything, but it has changed Felix’s life.
“Here; careful, it’s hot.”
Pulled out of his reverie, Felix takes the cup of coffee that Hyunjin hands over to him and inhales the aroma, cradling the warmth in his lungs.
If these individuals didn’t meet and didn’t come together so easily, Virtue would not exist. If Virtue didn’t exist, he wouldn’t have given into his curiosity that one fateful Saturday evening with Seungmin after dinner, and he never would have met Hyunjin nor tasted a drink made by his own hands.
Virtue’s existence brought the gift of friendship along with it, and Felix is forever grateful.
“You know what would be perfect with this,” Seungmin’s saying as he taps the side of his own cup, “some cookies or biscotti or whatever.”
He turns to look very pointedly at Felix, who raises a hand in defence.
“I haven’t had time recently, but I promise I’ll bring something next month.”
Tray empty, Hyunjin sets it aside and claims the empty spot next to Felix on the couch. He’s nursing his own (huge) mug of coffee, and judging by the looks of it, it’s simply a steaming mug of black coffee.
Hyunjin notices him looking.
“Black coffee is the best way to really taste the flavour of beans,” he says. He holds out his mug. “These are new beans; they’re chocolatey and slightly nutty, do you want to try?”
Felix glances dubiously at the dark liquid.
“It’ll be bitter at first, but the aftertaste will be quite nice, I promise.”
Well, if Hyunjin promises…
Felix takes a generous sip. Like he’d expected and like Hyunjin had warned, the bitterness surges strongly to the forefront, but he fights past his dislike of it and waits.
The richness of hazelnut and the sweet depth of chocolate come through almost simultaneously, and Felix is left blinking at Hyunjin in pleasant surprise.
“Good, right?” Hyunjin takes another satisfied sip of his coffee and holds out the cup to Felix. “Do you want to trade?”
“I think you would suffer as much with the sugar in mine as I would with the absence of sugar in yours,” Felix laughs. “The aftertaste is wonderful, I will admit. You never go wrong when it comes to flavours, huh?”
“I’ll make you a drink with these beans next time. But with a tad less sugar, maybe.”
Felix pouts at him and Hyunjin lifts an eyebrow in response, a move that Felix knows means the other isn’t about to change his mind.
“Yongbok-ah,” Minho says then, and Felix looks over to see the beta looking awfully winded. Jeongin, meanwhile, looks completely unruffled, if a little pleased with himself. “Are you down for a blind date?”
At the word date, Felix’s heart jumps and sinks at the same time.
He sighs, gazing down at the foam topping his coffee. It’s supposed to be a cat, but he’s drunk enough to distort the image.
“I dunno, maybe I should give dating a break.”
Minho frowns at him, much like a displeased mother cat.
“Hey, just because your past dates haven’t worked out doesn’t mean your future ones won’t, either.”
“Yeah, but at this point it would be sensible to assume that they wouldn’t.”
A warm, comforting hand settles on his knee and Felix deflates into Hyunjin’s side.
“Well, this guy seems very intent on getting to know you.” Minho grabs a handful of corn nuts out of the bowl, lobs one into the air that Seungmin deftly catches in his mouth, and pops the rest into his own. “He’s a friend of a friend, so at least I can vouch for him not being an asshole. He’s been in the bar a couple of times this past week and noticed you both times; he tried to find you yesterday but you weren’t there, so he asked me to set you two up.”
Hyunjin’s scent is sweet all around him, hand like a weighted blanket where it rests on his thigh now.
“I’ll meet him,” Felix says. He nudges his head further into the crook of Hyunjin’s neck and breathes him in. “Here. But I don’t want him to think it’s a date.”
He’s never had a date in Virtue, partly because he’s got nosy friends and he likes his privacy when he’s getting to know someone, but if this mystery guy has already seen him here, then why not?
“I’m sure he’ll be happy with that.”
The hand on his thigh lifts off and Felix misses its weight instantly.
The first non-date goes…surprisingly well.
The guy, Hoon, seems very intent on getting to know him. He’s polite, pleasant to look at, and he’s the right amount of gentleman. They sit by the bar, Felix on his usual seat for that extra bit of comfort, and converse over Hyunjin’s cocktails and finger food.
By the time they call it a night, Felix is open to an actual date.
They set a time and date – a week from now, at Virtue, but in a booth. Felix waves goodbye, and Hyunjin waits a respectable thirty seconds before walking over to his side of the bar.
“I’m guessing that went well?”
“Well enough? I’m still not getting my hopes up, though.”
Hyunjin’s eyes are dark, the message carried inside them unreadable.
“He would be a fool to let you slip from his grasp,” he says, head ducked as he reaches for something under the counter. “Here, this one’s your favourite, right?”
Felix takes the wrapped chocolate from Hyunjin’s palm. It is his favourite among the selection that Hyunjin had procured and offered to him weeks ago; he unwraps it and cradles the treat in his palm long enough for chocolate to start smearing into his skin.
“Felix?”
He blinks at Hyunjin’s voice, then pops the entire piece into his mouth before it can melt further.
“Thank you,” he says, grabbing a napkin from a nearby pile and wiping his palm clean. “I just –”
Hyunjin waits patiently, focus trained on him and not any of the other customers spread across the bar.
“Nothing. Can I have a hug?”
“Yeah.” Hyunjin steps away from the counter. “Of course.”
They make it to the counter flap at the same time. Hyunjin is the one who steps through it, and Felix fits himself into the space between the other’s arms. Pressed up against the alpha, Felix can smell the faint scent of beer from when one of the part-timers on duty today accidentally walked into Hyunjin and spilled some down his shirt. It’s not unpleasant, but Felix doesn’t like how it slightly masks Hyunjin’s scent.
He tilts his head, brushes his nose against the hollow of Hyunjin’s throat.
“You think so?”
“Hm?”
The questioning sound rumbles through Hyunjin’s chest and Felix feels it in his own.
“You think that not wanting to date me would be his loss?”
“Yeah, Felix. It’d be anyone’s loss.”
A gentle pressure spreads across his temple and Felix wonders if that is what he suspects it is. Before he can ask, however, Hyunjin is already stepping out of the embrace.
“Gin and tonic, coming right up.” He turns away from the customer and gazes down at Felix, the smallest of smiles playing across his lips. “Everything will work out, yeah? Don’t worry.”
Felix blinks and Hyunjin is back behind the bar, a half-filled bottle of gin in hand.
The first official date comes and goes, then the second, then Felix finds himself in the same booth for the third time and wondering how the night will end.
It starts well, with a kiss on the cheek and a flutter of the pulse that Felix hasn’t felt in a while. They get drinks and food, and conversation flows smoothly until their plates are clean and dessert is on its way.
“So, Felix.”
Hoon’s hand reaches out across the table, palm up.
Oh, this is it. The moment Felix always dreads and yet somehow always looks forward to.
“Will you,” Hoon continues, oblivious to the sweat that’s starting to bead on Felix’s hairline, “give me the honour of scenting you?”
Felix stares at Hoon’s hand, at the relaxed curve of the man’s fingers and the hollow of his palm ready to welcome him.
His throat is dry, tongue heavy in his mouth, and it’s with an equal mix of anticipation and trepidation that he lifts a hand off his lap and sets it onto Hoon’s. The man smiles, a pleased alpha in the face of an omega’s acceptance to move through the first phase of courting, and gently pulls Felix’s hand towards him.
Hoon turns Felix’s hand over to bare his wrist, then lifts it right up to his nose.
One, long whiff – Felix can see the slow rise of Hoon’s chest, the expansion of his ribs as he inhales and fills his lungs with Felix’s scent.
Felix himself definitely isn’t breathing, that’s for sure. In fact, he’s too busy studying Hoon’s face for any signs of a reaction to his scent to give much thought to something like breathing.
It’s also why he instantly picks up on the tiny furrow that forms between the alpha’s brows. The crease disappears in the next second, but Felix knows that his eyes aren’t playing tricks on him and that once again, something about his scent has a courting alpha displeased.
His fingers curl into a fist, but right as he’s about to yank his hand back, Hoon pushes their joined hands back across the table and turns his own wrist up.
An invitation for Felix to scent him, too.
That…is unexpected.
Felix’s eyes flit from their hands up to Hoon’s face, then back down to the map of veins running just underneath the thin skin stretched over his wrist.
It’s been a while since he’s been faced with a proffered wrist. Willing himself to stay calm, Felix mirrors the alpha’s movements from moments before, the tip of his nose barely brushing against skin as he breathes in. Hoon’s scent is strong, with notes of saffron and cedar, and while it isn’t unpleasant, something about it doesn’t seem to appeal to his omega.
The backs of his knuckles meet the table’s surface, and Felix smiles at the other man.
Before he can speak, however, a shadow falls over them and Felix glances up to see none other than Hyunjin standing there. The bartender has a tray balanced on his hand, and he greets them with an incline of his head before serving up two drinks and a slice of red velvet cake.
“Oh, we didn’t order the drinks –”
“On the house,” Hyunjin says. He sets two forks down on the table, followed by some napkins. “Enjoy.”
He’s about to step away from the table with the tray tucked under his arm when Hoon says, “I’m sorry, but may I ask – are you two related?”
Felix’s confusion is clearly mirrored on Hyunjin’s face.
“I’m sorry, what? Related?”
“Yeah, I know he only has sisters, so maybe you’re cousins?”
Hyunjin speaks before Felix can even begin to formulate an answer. “We’re not related, no. We’re just good friends. Is there a reason you’re asking?”
That answer was not the one that Hoon was expecting. The man’s expression twists, the furrow returning to the space between his brows, and Felix knows everything is over. Hyunjin must have sensed it too, for he takes a step closer to Felix’s side of the table, like he hopes his presence will ease the disappointment.
“If you’re just friends, then there’s no reason for him to smell so strongly of you and you of him.”
“I smell – what? What are you saying?”
“I can smell him on you,” Hoon says, shoulders rolled back and jaw set. “And it’s obvious to even the weakest of noses that he smells of an alpha. What business do you have scenting a single omega who you’re not related to? I doubt he even gave you permission to do so.”
Hyunjin, a person who is usually very calm (in fact, some would say he doesn’t give two shits) in the face of conflict, bristles.
“Bold of you to assume that you know him better than I do.” Hyunjin’s voice is deceptively even, but the look in his eyes is the same one Felix has seen whenever his friend encounters an asshole down at the bar. “Do you not think he would have asked me to stop if it bothered him? Or do you think because he’s an omega that he is unable to speak up for himself?”
The question strikes Hoon right across the face and leaves him floundering for words. In the silence that follows, Felix reaches out for Hyunjin, fingertips skating across the back of the alpha’s hand. The touch has Hyunjin’s throat working, the tense line of his shoulders easing minutely. He shifts his weight from one leg to the other, and the movement is enough to close that sliver of distance between them.
Felix wraps his fingers around Hyunjin’s wrist and counts three beats of his heart.
“I think you should leave.”
Both alphas glance over at him, but Felix is only looking at one.
“What?” There’s a vein throbbing in Hoon’s temple. “You want me to leave?”
His voice rises in volume with each word, but Felix doesn’t flinch. From the corner of his eye, he can already see Changbin and Jeongin moving in from different directions, and he knows, deep in his bones, that Hyunjin would never let any scorned alpha near him.
“Yes,” Felix says. “I think you should leave. I would like to speak to my friend alone.”
“You want me to – but we’re –”
“We are nothing,” Felix says, making sure to enunciate every word. “We went on a few dates, I let you sniff my wrist and vice versa. It’s clear that my scent does not appeal to you, so walking away right now poses no loss for either of us.”
There’s a heavy, coagulating beat of silence that hovers over them, then Hoon abruptly gets to his feet and all but bulldozes his way out of the bar.
“Hey, you guys good?”
Hyunjin seems frozen in his spot, so Felix answers Changbin’s question alone and shoos both of his friends away. When they’re as alone as they can be, Felix tugs on Hyunjin’s wrist and points to Hoon’s recently vacated seat with his free hand.
“Hyun, please?”
Please has Hyunjin blinking, one where he keeps his eyes shut for a second too long before he opens them and slides into the booth. Felix has to lean over the table just to maintain his grip on his friend, but that’s a minor inconvenience he can brush off.
“Hyun, was he right? Have you been scenting me?”
The tension that lifted off Hyunjin’s shoulders earlier comes back in full force and Felix hurries to add, “I’m not angry or upset, I just want to know.”
Felix lets his touch slide over the jut of Hyunjin’s wrist and down the length of his fingers, where their fingertips hook around each other’s with the perfect amount of force from both sides.
“I didn’t realise I was doing it.” Hyunjin’s thumb skates over the bumps of Felix’s knuckles slowly, deliberately. “If he didn’t point it out to me…well.”
“How long?”
Hyunjin shrugs, a limp lift and drop of a shoulder. “I don’t know, long enough?”
It’s surprisingly easy to piece together things after that. All the dates that have fallen through? His dates picked up on another alpha’s scent on him and must have assumed that he was either an asshole for cheating on his mate, or a downright idiot for not realising that he’s already being courted.
(Why Hoon decided to push forward with the date despite detecting Hyunjin’s scent on him, Felix will never know.)
“I think,” Hyunjin continues, his thumb having ceased its movements, “that maybe we shouldn’t hug or stay in close proximity for a while? I think I’ve gotten too used to doing it that it’s instinctive now, so it’d probably be best if we –”
“Weren’t you the one who said I’m more than capable of telling you to stop if it bothered me?”
Hyunjin’s head snaps up.
“Yes, but – does it not bother you?”
Felix chooses to ignore the question in favour of asking his own.
“Why have you been scenting me?”
“I don’t –”
“I know you don’t know, but somewhere deep down, somewhere in the back of your mind, there’s an answer. What is it?”
Hyunjin’s jaw slams shut and Felix counts approximately six and a half seconds before Hyunjin gently extracts his hand from Felix’s grip and stands.
“I have to get back to work.” He pauses, and with Felix staring at his back, he continues, “We can talk about it later.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, they don’t end up talking about it that night.
Felix stays at the bar until he can’t, and he leaves with a lingering look over his shoulder that Hyunjin returns. Work whoops his ass the next day and Felix passes out in bed as soon as he gets home, which means he doesn’t get to speak to Hyunjin that day either.
Then, Felix finds him right at his doorstep on a Sunday morning.
He opens the door to a sun-drenched Hyunjin. The alpha’s standing in a strip of sunlight spilling in from the window at the end of the hallway, hair and jeans several shades lighter than they would be in the shade of Felix’s apartment.
“Got you some coffee.” Hyunjin lifts the coffee carrier in his hand to show Felix the two cups sitting snugly in their cardboard burritos, then lifts the paper bag clutched in his other hand. “And a chocolate croissant. I hope you’re not too busy?”
Felix steps aside to let Hyunjin in and accepts the coffee that Hyunjin holds out to him as he passes.
“How’d you know I’d be awake?”
It’s a valid question, for Felix is usually still in bed at this time on Sundays. Awake while in bed, yes, but awake enough to be on his feet and ready for what is probably going to be a serious conversation? Probably not.
Except today, because he’s been trying to wake up at a respectable time instead of past noon like he usually does, and there’s no better time to start than now.
“You mentioned,” Hyunjin answers, nudging his shoes closer to the shoe rack with his foot. “In the group chat. About wanting to get up early so you can get more things done during the day? It’s not too early and not too late, so I figured you’d be up as long as you stuck to your word.”
Felix sips at his coffee – it’s perfect, not that he’d expected otherwise – and chuckles.
“You have a lot of faith in me, huh? I bet everyone else assumed I wouldn’t have woken up early.”
“Maybe so,” Hyunjin says, “but all we need is one person in life who believes in us.”
They settle onto the couch, Felix keeping a leg tucked under him while Hyunjin gets comfortable.
Felix knows his friend well enough to make several educated guesses.
First, Hyunjin must have spent the entirety of his journey here going over what he wants to say. Second, he must have spent the last couple of nights putting his thoughts together and drafting what he wants to say. Third, he has probably forgotten everything he’d planned to say the moment he stepped foot into Felix’s apartment.
Which means that he’s currently panicking and unsure of how to proceed.
“Hyunjin-ah.”
Felix peels a layer off his croissant and folds it into a neat rectangle before popping it into his mouth.
“Don’t think, just say.”
Hyunjin’s fingers flex around his coffee cup, a movement that Felix tracks out of the corner of his eye. He pretends he doesn’t and continues picking at his croissant, until all the chocolate coating has disappeared into his stomach and he’s left with the remnants of a buttery pastry.
“I like it when your scent mixes with mine.”
This time, Felix is the one who pauses. There’s a tightening in his chest and a heat licking at the shells of his ears, and he tries his best not to focus too much on what he’s feeling, because if he does, he might pick up on just how quickly his heart is beating.
“I don’t think I realised?” Hyunjin shifts, his thumbnail catching against the edge of his coffee cup’s lid. “Not consciously, anyway. I’m actually quite embarrassed that I’ve been scenting you without even asking you; it’s probably the reason why all your potential partners decided to end things, so if you’re upset with me I completely understand.”
He stops to take a breath before ploughing on, as if he’s physically unable to dam the flow of words now that they’re all but rushing out of him.
“There’s really no acceptable excuse for this, because I really should’ve known better. You don’t have to hide or lie about the way you’re feeling just to make me feel better, I –”
“When you saw me with Hoon, what did you feel?”
The question seems to knock Hyunjin a little off-kilter, though he seems to gather his wits together pretty quickly.
“Weird,” is his eventual answer. “Uncomfortable, I suppose is the right word.”
With alarming clarity, Felix suddenly recalls the sourness in the back of his throat that formed when Seungmin ratted Hyunjin out for sleeping with a couple of his customers. He’d brushed it aside back then and never given it much thought afterwards, but it’s not too late to think about what it means now, is it?
He presses the oily pads of his thumb and forefinger together, feels the way his skin slips and slides.
“I’ve been scenting you too.”
Hyunjin’s mouth curves into a small smile.
“Yeah, I guess you have.”
An incredulous laugh bubbles out of Felix’s chest. How can he be so…dumb? He’s been looking for a person who will slot perfectly into every aspect of his life when Hyunjin’s right there, someone that fate – or at least something close to fate – has decided deserves to be more than just one of his best friends.
It makes a little more sense now: whenever a date crashes and burns, what upsets him isn’t so much the loss of a potential partner, it’s the idea that he’s undesirable in someone else’s eyes. He never misses the presence of a lost date, yet always desires to have someone to come home to.
He looks across the couch at Hyunjin, then behind Hyunjin at the rest of his living room, and promptly comes to the conclusion that it’s shockingly easy to envision Hyunjin as a permanent fixture in his home.
“Hyunjin, I…”
What is he supposed to say here? Hyunjin, I’m sorry I’m dumb, but you’re dumb too, so what do you say we be dumb together? Hyunjin, since we already smell like each other, maybe we can skip past the courting stage? Hyunjin, what are the chances that you really like the way my scent smells and won’t run away from me like everyone else?
Then Hyunjin’s phone buzzes with a slew of messages.
“Oh. Chan wants me to meet him at the bar to do some inventory checks – he thinks there might have been a break-in or one of the part-timers might have looted some bottles.” Hyunjin types out a quick reply to Chan and pockets his phone. “Is it alright if I go? We can talk later? You can drop by the bar or I’ll come over after my shift, whichever works best for you.”
“Shit, a break-in?” Felix flaps his hand at Hyunjin and nudges him with his toes until the alpha is off the couch. “Go, go. I’ll drop by the bar tonight.”
He follows suit, setting his half-finished croissant aside as he trails after Hyunjin to the door.
Hyunjin slips his shoes back on and steps over the threshold, where he turns around with a hand on the doorframe.
“We’re okay, right?”
Felix can’t help the smile that overtakes his face.
“Yes, silly. We’re more than fine. Now go, you know Chan’s stressing out and Changbin’s anything but.”
Once he finishes the breakfast Hyunjin brought over, Felix scrambles into a change of clothes and books it towards Jisung and Minho’s apartment. On any other day he would’ve enjoyed the nice twenty-minute stroll there, but he’s in no condition to do that today. Instead, he hops on a bus and grasps onto a pole while it trundles down the street for approximately eight minutes.
“I have an emergency,” he blurts out as soon as Jisung opens the door.
Jisung looks like he’s just crawled out of bed, but then again, that’s his default look on weekends.
“I expected you to turn up here earlier.” Jisung shuffles back towards the kitchen, leaving Felix to enter and shut the door behind himself. “Like, a couple days ago earlier.”
“A couple of days ago? What?”
Instead of elaborating, Jisung holds up an empty mug in question. “Coffee?”
“No, thanks. Hyunjin brought me coffee this morning.”
Minho’s head pops up from one end of the couch and Felix jumps so high he knocks into a side table. The two cat figurines displayed on it wobble dangerously, but he manages to right them in time.
“He went to see you today?”
“Yeah, he –”
“Where’s he now?”
Felix tells them about the missing alcohol bottles and Minho clicks his tongue.
“I’m gonna force Chan to let me vet his new employees.” He sips at his coffee, hums in contentment, and throws his feet onto Jisung’s lap. “He’s too kind and too trusting to do that. So what’s on your precious little mind? Have you finally come to the realisation that you’re basically in a two-year relationship with a certain Hwang Hyunjin? Or is it three years? Let’s go with two-and-a-half, how about that?”
Felix can practically feel his brain leaking out of his pores.
“You broke him,” he hears Jisung say through the muddled sloshing in his ears. “Like, I think he’s actually malfunctioning. Didn’t we talk about this? You promised to be less blunt when it comes to these things. You have to keep your promises!”
There’s the sound of Minho sighing, then Felix finds himself half-dragged, half-carried to the armchair.
“Let me know when he’s back online, I gotta take a dump.”
“Yongbok.”
Felix wants to respond, but all he manages to do is let out an odd, garbled sound.
“Okay, you don’t have to say anything, just listen to me.” A chilly hand curls around his ankle and Felix shivers at the contact. “I don’t know what went down that night, not completely, but I know enough to tell you this. Something inside you knows that you’ve been looking in the wrong place all these years. It’s not time wasted – sometimes we all need to run around in circles before we finally find what we’re looking for.”
That cold touch slides a little further up his calf.
“If it’s any consolation, I don’t think Hyunjin was heartbroken during the duration of your…quest.”
Felix’s mouth works faster than his brain does, and he rasps out a, “How do you know?”
“Educated guess,” Jisung shrugs. “Look, you always come back for him to scent and to scent him; there’s no way his alpha hasn’t picked up on that pattern, even if he himself is an oblivious idiot. His alpha’s mature enough to see the situation for what it is, and he knows you’ll come back, so there’s no reason for him to get upset. And hey, it helps that you haven’t spent a heat with an alpha since you met him.”
A door in the background opens and shuts, and Felix drags his eyes up to see Minho emerging from the hallway.
“Oh, he’s responsive, that’s good.”
Jisung rolls his eyes up to the heavens and Minho flops back into his recently vacated seat.
“So, Yongbok. Do you love him?”
What’s left of Felix’s brain frizzles up and Jisung throws the remote at Minho.
“You – What did I say barely five minutes ago!”
Tonight, Jeongin stops him at the door for a hug before he nudges Felix inside.
The confusion stays with him until he comes within view of the bar, at which point Felix forgets all about it. Hyunjin has changed out of his casual clothes before the start of his shift, and while his all-black outfit of fitted slacks and a button-down silk shirt is nothing out of the ordinary, he looks…good.
Felix stays rooted to his spot until someone accidentally walks into him, effectively knocking him out of his daze.
He stumbles forward, thankfully into an empty spot by the bar, and comes face-to-face with Hyunjin.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Hyunjin returns easily, one arm disappearing into the ice bin. Over the music, Felix can just make out the sound of ice cubes falling into the metal scoop. “Would you like anything to drink?”
Maybe alcohol isn’t the best idea tonight.
Felix shakes his head and slides onto an empty stool. “Are you the only one working tonight?”
“Yeah, turns out the other guy who’s supposed to be on shift tonight is the one who has been stealing from us. Changbin fired him as soon as we saw the security footage, and since no one else is able to cover, I’m alone tonight.”
The ice goes into a glass, and Felix waits until Hyunjin has mixed and sent off the perfect drink before asking, “Maybe I can join you back there tonight?”
Hyunjin blinks at him. “You want to work this shift with me?”
“Yeah, I can do the beers and the easier cocktails, and I’ll even do some of the washing.” Felix doesn’t want to work, per se, but this counter separating them is irritating him (irrationally so) and popping caps off beer bottles is a small price to pay to fix that problem.
Hyunjin laughs. “I’d be an idiot to turn that deal down, huh? Yeah, sure, come on over.”
For the first half hour or so, all they do is work. It’s oddly relaxing once he gets into the groove of things, and Felix finds that they navigate around each other quite seamlessly. Even when he’s focused on the drinks he’s making, Felix is acutely attuned to where Hyunjin is at all times, the baby hairs on his neck rising whenever Hyunjin’s too close.
It’s when a warm hand settles on his hip as Hyunjin passes, the touch itself lasting barely two seconds, that Felix cracks.
He sets two margaritas down on the counter, accepts the money handed to him, and turns to grab Hyunjin’s wrist. The bartender is in the middle of mixing together something gin-based, but Felix doesn’t care, not right now.
“Something wrong?”
“No, just –” He presses the pad of his thumb into the underside of Hyunjin’s wrist, right over the steady beat of his pulse and where his scent is strong. “Can I?”
Minho’s voice is soft in the background, a perfect accompaniment to Jisung’s guitar, and Felix lets the music wash over him in one soothing wave. Hyunjin is quiet, cocktail shaker still clutched in one hand as his gaze flickers all over Felix’s face.
Then, when the music mellows out, he lifts his wrist up to Felix’s nose.
Felix already knows what Hyunjin smells like. He knows what Hyunjin smells like in the wee hours of the morning and late at night when the city’s sleeping. He knows what Hyunjin smells like just before his rut hits and what he smells like the day after it passes.
What he should know is what Hyunjin smells like when their scents are mixed. He should know, but because he’s been so oblivious, there’s a chance that he’s never really detected the presence of his own scent in Hyunjin’s.
Now that he’s privy to their dating-not-dating status, he breathes Hyunjin in almost greedily, wanting their blended scents to be imprinted in the deepest parts of his brain.
Except…
“You don’t smell like me. I thought you would.”
Hyunjin, still with his wrist hovering by Felix’s nose, smiles helplessly.
“We haven’t scented each other in a few days. We usually…don’t go this long without.”
“Oh.”
A beat passes, then: “You can, if you want.”
He does and he will, but which way should he do it? The polite way – considering where they are and how much privacy they do not have – is to rub Hyunjin’s wrist against the curve of his throat. The more satisfying way is to nuzzle his way into Hyunjin’s neck instead, to be all up in the other’s space, chest-to-chest.
Felix decides not to spare the dozens of people around them from witnessing what’s about to happen and steps right up into Hyunjin’s bubble. He wraps a hand around the alpha’s nape and Hyunjin responds instantly, the sound of the cocktail shaker hitting the counter like music to Felix’s ears before hands are fitting around his hips. Hyunjin bends to give Felix better access, head falling to the side and exposing a long strip of smooth skin that Felix eyes.
Middle school biology classes have done a great job of hammering the exact location of scent glands into Felix’s brain, so it takes barely any effort at all to line up their scent glands.
He pulls Hyunjin flush against him, uncaring of the face-full of hair he gets in the process. The music in the background fades to a muffled hum, his ears now ringing with the unruly beat of his own heart.
He counts to three, then five, then ten.
“You’re warm.”
“Yeah, happens when you’re getting consciously scented by someone important to you.”
Felix steps back, enough to meet and hold Hyunjin’s gaze for a breath or two before he leans back in for a whiff.
“So do you like what you smell now?”
“You smell…right.”
The weight of Hyunjin’s hands on his hips is dizzying. Felix clears his throat, and it’s with a lot of effort that he peels himself away and out of Hyunjin’s hold.
“We should probably get back to work.”
He makes eye contact with a young woman by the bar – she grins at him and waggles her brows, clearly having witnessed everything that just went down. A wave of confidence hits Felix right in the face, and instead of blushing to the tips of his ears, he returns her grin and lifts a shoulder. Next to him, Hyunjin returns to his abandoned cocktail shaker, and Felix hears him say sorry for the wait, let me get you that drink.
Felix himself isn’t sorry whatsoever. He nods at the still-grinning woman and steps closer to the counter so he can hear her better.
“What can I get you?”
“One of whatever y’all have,” she replies, lips twisting into a pout. “I’ve been looking for a while now, but I haven’t had any luck.”
Felix doesn’t know if Hyunjin’s within earshot, but does it really matter now?
“I’ve learned that sometimes, the person you’re looking for is right there in front of you.”
Judging from the way the corners of Hyunjin’s eyes have crinkled, he is very much within earshot.
“Right in front of me, huh?” She peers down at her phone on the counter, chewing absently on her lower lip. “Hm. Can I get a shot of the best tequila you have?”
Felix gets her that shot, and he watches as she knocks it back in one swift gulp.
“You know what, I’m gonna test out that theory,” she says, pointing a slender finger at her phone. “Wish me luck.”
She digs out a bill from her pocket, but Felix waves it away.
“That shot is on me. Take it as a good luck charm.”
Another grin spreads across her face and she whirls around with a flutter of her fingers. She soon disappears into the crowd and out of sight, and Felix finds himself wishing that the theory truly works out for her, too.
“Yongbok?”
“Hm?”
Felix is busy pouring out the third of five half-pints, and he doesn’t want to look away lest he spills something.
“Come over tonight.”
The filled mug hits the countertop and Felix reaches for the fourth. Momentarily free, Hyunjin joins him by the beer taps and helps serve up the beers that are ready. The bar’s closing soon, which means a last call on drink orders and that they’ll be able to start cleaning up not long after.
“Are you asking me to stay the night?”
“Yes. It’s late, and my place is closer to the bar and your office. I’ll drop you off in the morning.”
Felix stays silent until the fifth half-pint is filled, which he passes off to Hyunjin and watches as the other accepts payment. Hyunjin hands the man his change, then turns to look expectantly at Felix.
“You don’t have to say yes, of course. I just thought –”
“I could take the day off tomorrow.”
Hyunjin moves over to the sink, a hand brushing against Felix’s hip as he passes.
“Sure,” he says neutrally. “We could go to your favourite café for brunch.”
The faucet turns on and Hyunjin gets to work washing the various glasses in the sink – Felix simply takes in the sight of the alpha’s pink ears and grins to himself. He leans in to grab a dishtowel, leans in closer than he has to, and Hyunjin doesn’t shift away when Felix breathes him in.
“Okay. I’ll come home with you.”
Hyunjin coughs, but otherwise continues scrubbing at the pristine glass in his hands.
Felix has stayed over often enough to know where things are in Hyunjin’s apartment, enough that he has a change of clothes stashed aside and a mug with his name metaphorically stamped on it.
Previously, he would take the bed – at Hyunjin’s insistence – while Hyunjin took the sofa bed, but there’s no way in hell he’ll be letting that happen tonight.
Hyunjin lets him hog the shower first and Felix emerges from a cloud of steam to see Hyunjin yanking new sheets over the bed.
“Were you cleaning up?”
The washing machine lets out a little whine in the background before continuing its monotonous trundling and Felix bites back a smile.
“I – well, the place was a little messy.”
“It’s almost four in the morning and I’m barely staying awake; you could have a floor covered in hay and I probably wouldn’t notice.” He gives his hair a perfunctory rub with the towel and throws it over the nearest chair. “Go shower, then come to bed.”
Hyunjin shuffles off obediently, and Felix spends the entirety of Hyunjin’s shower trying not to fall asleep. He accomplishes that by taking a lap around the place, peering at every single photo tacked to the walls or framed up and displayed on shelves. Hyunjin has amassed a collection of photographs over the years, some developed from film, some printed out on photo paper, some taken with various Polaroid cameras.
He’s featured in a lot of them, he realises, and he’s squinting at a Polaroid of him and Jisung when Hyunjin steps out of the bathroom.
“Was this during Changbin’s birthday party last year?”
Hyunjin comes up beside him, standing close enough for Felix to feel the warmth of his skin.
“Yeah, it was right before Jisung dared you to drink a mystery shot.”
“Oh god, I remember that shot,” Felix grimaces. He took the shot, some horrible concoction of spicy sauce and oil and alcohol, and proceeded to throw it back up right into the toilet bowl. “Never again.”
He points to a photo above the Polaroid in a silent question, one taken on Hyunjin’s trusty film camera, by the looks of it. He’s never seen it before.
“That was last year as well. We were on the way to the cat café that Minho was obsessed with and the sun hit at a perfect angle.”
“You developed a photograph of me and stuck it on your wall?”
Hyunjin lifts a shoulder. “That isn’t the only photograph of you that I have displayed. You do make a good photography subject.”
“Yeah? I’ll take your word for it.” He drops his head back slightly and peers up the wet strands of Hyunjin’s hair. “Where’s your hairdryer?”
It’s nearly half-past-four when Felix plugs the hairdryer in and points to the spot on the floor between his feet. Hyunjin settles down, knees pulled up to his chest, and the apartment is soon filled with the hum of the hairdryer.
The strands are fluffy when Felix turns the hairdryer off, parting easily around his fingers as he combs through them. The scent of Hyunjin’s shampoo wafts up to Felix and he holds it in his lungs until the need to breathe takes over.
“We should sleep,” Hyunjin murmurs, voice soft in the twilight. “You must be exhausted.”
Felix leaves the hairdryer lying on the couch and all but drags himself towards the bed, where he topples onto the duvet and allows his muscles to go lax.
“Where are you going?”
Hyunjin freezes mid-step with a pillow in his arms.
“Going to bed?”
“This is your bed, and it’s more than big enough for two.”
Despite the many ways society has progressed over the last few decades, it’s still considered improper for an unmated alpha-omega pair to be sharing a bed, and is the main reason behind why Hyunjin always insists that Felix takes the bed.
“Yes, but –”
“Aren’t we pseudo-mated by now, anyway?”
He pats the empty stretch of space next to him for extra emphasis. Even through the sleep threatening to overtake him, he’s able to see the mental battle going on in Hyunjin’s head. He shimmies up towards the pillows, rolls around until he manages to get the duvet over him, and turns over onto his side.
“If I wake up and I don’t see you in bed, I’m going to be very upset.”
The pillow under his cheek is soaked in Hyunjin’s scent. He falls asleep instantly.
It’s the incessant growling of his stomach that wakes him up.
Felix stretches, all pointed toes and scrunched up face, the accompanying groan lodging itself in his dry throat until his muscles slacken once more. Rolling around seems like an impossible feat, but he manages to flip onto his right and is rewarded with the sight of a slumbering Hyunjin.
He’s seen his friend asleep more times than he can count, oftentimes in the employee’s room at Virtue nabbing a quick nap during a lull in the waves of customers, but he’s never taken the time to appreciate the sight before.
Hyunjin’s hair, grown out longer than it’s ever been, spills across the pillow like melted chocolate, with only a single lock caught between his parted lips. Felix brushes it aside and is immediately enraptured by the way Hyunjin’s lashes flutter at the brush of his fingertips across the alpha’s cheek.
The plan, if it can really be called one, was to head out for food together. But Felix thinks he’d enjoy his day off – one granted without question by his too-nice manager – a lot more just staying home.
Hyunjin stirs then, face turning into his pillow for a breath or two before he unfurls from his ball.
“Good afternoon.”
He gets a jumble of mumbles in reply, and while he’s sure there are a few other people who can decipher the meaning behind all the unintelligible sounds, he’s still proud of himself for being able to do so himself.
“It’s past noon,” he answers, tucking a hand under his cheek. “Did you sleep well?”
Hyunjin cracks one bleary eye open, then the other. His gaze is gentle, albeit hazy with residual sleep.
“I did. Did you?”
“Like a baby. D’you know why?”
A questioning hm? floats his way.
“Everything smells like you.”
Hyunjin blinks, a slow sweep of his lids that’s almost poetic.
“We should talk, huh?”
They freshen up, Hyunjin makes them some much-needed coffee with his fancy coffee machine and specially curated beans, and Felix sets both their phones to Do Not Disturb.
“There’s really only one thing to discuss at this point,” Felix says, sipping at his caramel-ly concoction. “Well, and one thing to admit, but we can always do that later.”
“Okay no, now I’m curious – what are we admitting to?”
“The fact that we’re idiots,” Felix deadpans, and all Hyunjin can do is laugh in agreement.
Felix tracks Hyunjin’s path through the apartment, from the kitchen to the living room windows to the record player in the corner. Music soon fills the space, present enough for ambiance but still allowing them to converse without any issues.
“So.” Hyunjin snatches his mug off the countertop on his way back towards the couch and takes a sip. “We’re idiots, we both agree on that. What are we discussing?”
The couch cushions dip with the added weight, tipping Felix ever-so-slightly into Hyunjin’s bulk.
“If we’re, you know,” Felix waves his hand about, trying to find the best way to say what he wants to say.
“Official? Dating? Boyfriends?”
Well, those work.
He doesn’t know what expression is on his face right now, but whatever it is has Hyunjin smiling.
“I think we owe it to our stupid selves to give it a shot, don’t you think? Officially.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I think we do.”
In the face of Hyunjin’s adorably shy and inordinately pleased grin, Felix is helpless to do anything but set his coffee aside and crawl closer for a hug. Hyunjin is quick to move his cup away as his free hand falls perfectly between Felix’s shoulder blades, palm warm through the fabric of his shirt.
“M’sorry.” The syllables are muffled from where Felix has his face squished against Hyunjin’s chest, but Hyunjin understands him well enough.
“Why are you sorry? We were both clueless, it’s no one’s fault.”
“Yeah, but –” Felix pushes himself up onto his elbows, careful not to dig one into Hyunjin’s side. “I always tell you that you’d make a great partner, that whoever ends up as your mate would be lucky to have you. Isn’t that kind of leading you on?”
Hyunjin peers down his nose at him, brows pulled together as he muses over Felix’s words.
“No,” he says eventually, “I used it as encouragement instead. If someone like you thinks that someone like me would make a great partner, then I’d better live up to that claim.”
“Am I the reason you haven’t dated in years?”
There’s a grunt as Hyunjin twists around to the best of his ability in an attempt to set his mug down. Instead of lifting his weight off Hyunjin so he can do that much more easily, Felix selfishly chooses to stay put – besides, Hyunjin manages regardless, like Felix knew he would.
“Perhaps? All I know for sure is that no one else I’ve met thus far would’ve caught my attention even if you never came into my life.”
The words come tumbling out before Felix can hold them back and keep them in his throat, where they belong.
“But you’ve slept with a couple.”
Hyunjin, bless him, takes it in stride.
“Yes, because they propositioned me days before my rut hit, and while I’m generally very good at controlling my needs…” Hyunjin lets the sentence trail off, but Felix is more than able to read between the lines.
“What’s it like?”
That question has Hyunjin pausing.
“Um. Well, sex between two consenting parties is typically decent? Lix, I know you’ve had sex before, so I’m not sure what –”
“No, I mean sleeping with someone so close before your rut. Does it feel different?”
Hyunjin relaxes once more, fingertips trailing absently along the length of Felix’s spine. It’s ticklish yet soothing, and it’s easy for Felix to melt into the touch, deadweight spread across Hyunjin’s frame.
“Everything’s a little more intense, and it’s not uncommon for pre-rut sex to trigger the start of a rut because of that, but I wouldn’t say it’s better than sex any other time.”
“Have you spent a rut with a partner?”
“What is this, a cram session for Hyunjin’s Rut 101?” Hyunjin wriggles about until they’re both seated upright once more. “No, Yongbok, I have not spent a rut with a partner.”
“So you don’t know if sex during your rut would be better.”
Hyunjin raises an eyebrow, its curve matching that of his lips.
“No, I suppose not. But I’m sure I’ll find out one day.”
A flush washes warm over Felix’s face and he returns to his coffee in hopes it’ll prevent him from saying anything (more) incriminating.
Days turn into weeks and Felix re-discovers what it’s like to be happily dating someone.
At the bar, Hyunjin greets him like he always does, with a sweet smile and an equally sweet drink. They spend time together on the weekends taking turns bringing the other out on a date, and Felix often goes home feeling giddy, cheek tingling with the ghost of Hyunjin’s lips.
“Is this normal? Even when I was in school I never daydreamed about a crush.”
“Crush?” Jisung dunks a pretzel in a bowl of Minho’s homemade chocolate dip and pops it into his mouth. “This is so much more than a high school crush, Yongbok.”
Jeongin nods, “Besides, doesn’t it say something that you’re experiencing certain emotions for the first time with him? It means it’s different and new, and when it comes to someone that you’re serious about, different and new is always good.”
Felix squints at the bouncer.
“Have you been taking philosophy classes?”
Jeongin sniffs, batting Jisung’s hand away from the pretzel bowl.
“I’ve always been philosophical, what are you saying?”
“So, have y’all done anything yet?”
Somehow, even while shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth, Jisung manages to send him the greasiest wink.
“We haven’t,” Felix admits, and he’s just gotten the words out when Jisung starts hacking up his lungs.
“What,” Jisung wheezes, thumping on his chest, “do you mean you haven’t?”
There’s a piece of popcorn clinging to the edge of Jisung’s lip, and Jeongin, being the helpful little gremlin that he is, reaches over to flick it off – except he (unintentionally?) misjudges the angle and catches Jisung right on the tooth instead. Simultaneous yelps of pain soon reach Felix’s ears and he snorts so hard his nose hurts.
“I dunno, I think we’re both a little scared of moving too quickly?”
The unimpressed look Jeongin sends his way has him wincing.
“A very good argument could be made for you guys moving too slowly,” Jeongin says pointedly, and Jisung does some complicated thing with his hands in agreement.
The door opens then and Seungmin comes sauntering in, a glass of something orange in his hands.
“Is that a mimosa? Seungmin, it’s not even noon.”
“That’s the entire point of a mimosa,” Seungmin says, “it’s brunch time.”
They’ve all gathered at Virtue to help Chan and Changbin set up Christmas decorations, but it didn’t take long for Jisung to grab onto Felix with one hand and Jeongin with the other, before dragging them into the back room to do anything except help.
Now, it seems Seungmin has ditched them too.
“Anyway, what’s this I hear about moving too slowly?”
“This guy and everyone’s favourite bartender,” Jeongin says, pointing at Felix. “They’re moving slower than sloths.”
“Really? After two years and you’re moving slowly? I’d have jumped his bones by now.”
Jeongin smacks his palms together and points at Seungmin like the guy has just spouted gospel.
“Look, there are a lot of things on the line, okay?”
“Like what, pray tell?”
“I dunno, what if we’re not sexually compatible –”
A pretzel bounces off his forehead and Felix glares balefully at Jisung.
“Is a tomato red,” Jisung demands. He waits for Felix’s answer – “Yes.” – before he continues. “Is a sunflower yellow?”
“…Yes.”
“Is the ocean blue?”
“Well, generally yes, but that depends on –”
Another pretzel catches him across the cheek.
“Dude, you’re wasting pretzels.”
“Are the two of you sexually compatible?”
Felix guesses that the right answer must be part of the pattern.
“Yes?”
“Good, now get out there and –” Jisung pauses, lips pursed. “I take that back, not here.”
Seungmin sips at his mimosa and exhales. “And definitely not now. I need Hyunjin available for a second mimosa.”
Shaking his head, Felix grabs a handful of snacks and flops back into his seat. He momentarily wonders how the other four are doing with the decorations, then decides it doesn’t matter – he’ll find out later anyway.
They've done a great job with the decorations – Felix has been in the bar for almost an hour and he's still basking in the Christmas spirit.
“Hey, let’s go.”
Felix malfunctions for a few seconds, completely unused to Hyunjin being on the other side of the bar while Virtue is still packed with people.
“What? Now? Where are we going? Aren’t you working?”
Hyunjin, with his jacket draped over an arm, shakes his head.
“I asked Chan to cover the rest of my shift. I want to take you somewhere.”
With that, Hyunjin whisks him off his barstool and over to coat check, where Felix shrugs into his jacket and lets Hyunjin pull him right out the door. Jeongin calls out a farewell after their retreating backs, but he’s soon too far away to hear Felix’s reply.
Hyunjin straps him into his helmet before yanking one on over his own head, and Felix finds himself cruising through the city streets in no time. The wind is biting against what exposed skin there is, but Hyunjin’s warm in his arms, his very own personal portable heater.
The city lights coalesce into shooting stars, and Felix spends the entire journey to their destination watching them fly by.
Then the purr of the bike fades into silence and the warmth pressed to his chest dissipates.
“We’re here.” Hyunjin pulls their helmets off and leaves them dangling on the bike’s handlebars. He holds out a gloved hand. “Come.”
Felix takes Hyunjin’s hand, feeling the cool leather against his skin. His own hands are warm from where he’d shoved them into the pockets of Hyunjin’s bomber jacket, and his body heat soon seeps into the leather in his grasp.
“Where are we?”
“The sky is supposed to be really clear tonight,” Hyunjin says, leading the way up a flight of stone steps. “This place is great for stargazing; as good as a spot in the city could be, anyway.”
They emerge into a lookout of sorts, the space framed with trees and surrounded by wrought iron railings. There’s a lone bench right in the middle of it all, and it’s where Hyunjin guides Felix to.
Felix looks around, from the haphazard rows of houses down below to the skyline in the distance. He lets his head fall back until his gaze is cast upwards, to where stars are scattered across the sky like loose glitter.
It’s gorgeous, just like Hyunjin said they would be.
“Do you come here a lot?”
“I used to, back when I was a student. Not so much lately, though.”
Felix looks over at the other, eyes flitting from the curled wisps of Hyunjin’s lashes to the proud line of his nose. Hyunjin, too busy appreciating the stars overhead, does not notice.
“Do you have a favourite constellation?”
“Yeah,” Hyunjin says, eyes bright. He lowers his head and turns to meet Felix’s gaze. “This one.”
One leather-covered finger brushes against Felix’s cheek.
Felix feels his face heat up at such an alarming pace that he has to slap his palms over his cheeks in an attempt to cool them down. But that seems like an impossible feat, especially when Hyunjin starts laughing at how he’d rendered the omega speechless.
“I meant it, by the way. I think your freckles are beautiful.”
“Shut it,” Felix mumbles. “Didn’t we come here to stargaze?”
He reaches out, and with a finger under Hyunjin’s chin, redirects the man’s gaze skyward.
They bask in the companionable silence for a while, until Hyunjin reaches over for Felix’s hand and gives it a squeeze.
“Are you happy?”
Felix could simply answer the question, but what comes out is a question of his own.
“Why do you ask?”
“You’ve been wanting a partner, and I don’t want to be the person who doesn’t live up to expectations. You would tell me if you were unhappy, right?”
Felix looks down at their joined hands, at where Hyunjin’s almost engulfs his. What a fool, Felix thinks, in what universe would he be anything but happy?
“Hyunjin,” he begins. His breath mists in the air and he tightens his grip around Hyunjin’s hand. “Can I kiss you?”
The moment he sees Hyunjin’s lips form the word yes, Felix slides onto the alpha’s lap with the grace of a thousand swans, knees bumping against the slight curve of hips. He gently shakes his hand free of Hyunjin’s grasp and brings it to his nape instead, fingertips pushing into the strands of his hair until they can curl around a healthy fistful.
He watches, enraptured, as Hyunjin’s teeth dig into the flesh of his bottom lip. That should be him – that can be him.
There’s no point starting slow and chaste, not when they’ve been embodying slowness and chasteness for far too long. With a hand around Hyunjin’s jaw, Felix nips at that bottom lip and licks in deep when Hyunjin lets him, blood singing when he feels the alpha completely yield to him.
They kiss until their lips go numb, until Felix is breathless and Hyunjin’s knuckles are white inside his gloves, fingers tight around the cinched dips of Felix’s waist.
At this distance and from this angle, Felix can see the stars above reflected in Hyunjin’s eyes. His lungs are flooded with the other’s scent, with their scents.
“You’re right,” he breathes, licking the faint taste of Hyunjin off his lips. “This place is perfect for stargazing. But I think we should –”
Hyunjin presses his mouth to the divot behind Felix’s ear and Felix loses all train of thought.
“We should?”
That damned mouth moves further south, stopping over where Felix’s pulse is rampaging under the thin skin of his throat. At the first featherlight swipe of Hyunjin’s tongue over his skin, Felix shudders and melts into a boneless heap in Hyunjin’s arms.
“Hmm,” is all he manages to utter.
“Yongbok, what should we do?”
Hyunjin mouths his way over to Felix’s scent gland, and the sensation of his teeth right on that spot is the jolt that Felix needs.
“Home. We should go home.”
The desire that had pooled in the pit of Felix’s stomach is gone by the time they get to Hyunjin’s place, swept away by the cold and the passage of time. But Felix knows that all it takes is a single spark for it to come roaring back.
So he decides to strike the match.
“Shower with me?”
Hyunjin is achingly handsome in this low light, hair mussed from the helmet and lips still peach-bruised from their earlier kiss. The shadows cling to the planes of his face and hug the lines of his body, and Felix really wants to feel the other right up against him.
“Yeah, okay.”
It’s almost clinical, the way they gather what they need. Then they find themselves in the cramped space of the bathroom, framed in the centre of the mirror and waiting to see who would make the first move.
In the end, Hyunjin does, reaching for the waistband of Felix’s pants and popping the button with a flick of his thumb.
“I only want this if you want this,” he says quietly.
Felix’s heart twists in the sweetest way. “I asked, didn’t I?”
The pants drop to pool at Felix’s feet, and along with them go any last threads of hesitation.
Moments later and Felix doesn’t know how he ended up under the warm spray of the shower. The last thing he remembers is whiting out at the sight of a stark naked Hyunjin inches away from himself, but he must have stayed on his feet if he made it into the shower.
Hyunjin’s actually making sure they’re clean – Felix is completely useless in that aspect, all wandering hands that Hyunjin has to helplessly bat away so he can get shit done. It’s perfunctory at best, Felix will admit, but who is he to judge when he’s busy tracing the line of the groove running from Hyunjin’s hip down to his pelvis over and over again?
He rises up on his toes and kisses Hyunjin as soon as all the shampoo is washed away, moaning into the alpha’s mouth when he feels a solid line of heat against his stomach.
There are soapy hands running down his back, following the subtle curve of his ass until fingertips are digging into the seam under each cheek. A thumb dips into the valley between and spreads soap around, except Felix is positive the slipperiness he feels back there isn’t entirely due to Hyunjin’s expensive body wash.
The biting spark of pleasure that shoots up his spine when Hyunjin’s thumb brushes over his hole is divine. He’s fully hard now, precome beading on the head of his dick only to be washed away, and he’s pleased to see he’s not the only one.
“Bed,” he says, succinct.
He steals another kiss, then pushes Hyunjin up against the shower wall so he can get the spray of water onto his own body. Once he deems that most of the soap has been rinsed away, he shuts the water off and blinks the water out of his eyes.
Their towels are left neatly folded on the sink counter; water trails after them as they trip over each other on the way to the bed, unwilling to part but eager to get to their destination. Felix’s back collides with the duvet and the material clings to his wet skin instantly, only for Hyunjin to roll him over onto his stomach and pin him down with a palm pressed to his hip.
“I think our story’s kinda perfect.”
Hyunjin leans in to snuffle at his scent gland; Felix closes his eyes and tries not to grind into the bed.
“Perfect, huh?”
“Yeah.” Hyunjin kisses the hinge of his jaw, teeth closing around a pierced lobe to give it a tug. “Perfect.”
Weight eases off him, but Felix doesn’t get the opportunity to collect his fraying wits before a hand is skating down his side, damp skin proving to be of little hindrance in Hyunjin’s quest to touch.
Blood is already roaring in his ears when Felix feels Hyunjin spreading him open, long enough for a good look. Hyunjin doesn’t ask before he ducks to lap at where he’s wet and eager – which is fine, because Felix doubts he could summon the brain cells to answer, anyway.
It should be embarrassing how quickly his body relaxes to let Hyunjin in, but Felix is too busy moaning into the pillow to care. The way Hyunjin eats him out, all broad strokes of his tongue, is filthy. Then a finger eases into the slick mess that is his hole and Felix’s hips hitch up of their own accord, wanting that finger in as deep as it’ll go.
“I’m clean,” Hyunjin says, voice sounding so close to his ear that goosebumps erupt down Felix’s arms. “Are you?”
“Yeah, I’m, fuck, I’m clean. But I’m not on birth control – shit, Hyunjin, right there –”
“We’re not on our cycles,” Hyunjin points out, sounding far too unaffected compared to the state Felix is in. “But even if we were, we wouldn’t need birth control anyway.”
It’s easy to understand what Hyunjin means, and Felix’s omega is ready to present itself to his alpha like he is actually in heat. As if in understanding, Hyunjin pushes a second finger in, Felix’s body accommodating the stretch with ease.
A kiss, almost shy in nature, brushes against the small of his back.
“I’m happy it’s you.”
Felix opens his eyes, painfully aware of how his wet lashes clump together. He twists to look over a shoulder and sees love in the exact shade of Hyunjin’s irises looking right back at him.
“Wouldn’t want it to be anyone else.”
Hyunjin smiles, and Felix scrambles to move.
“Like this,” he says, flipping around and welcoming Hyunjin back between his legs. “I want it like this.”
Humming, Hyunjin closes a hand around Felix’s cock and gives it a single pump. Felix hisses at the touch, ankles coming up to lock around Hyunjin’s waist.
“You just want to look at me while I’m inside you.”
Felix doesn’t try to hide the blush that stains his cheeks.
“I always want to look at you.”
Hyunjin stares at him for a heartstopping second, then drags the length of his dick through the puddle of slick between Felix’s cheeks and slides right in.
There will be bruises, Felix thinks faintly, splotches colouring his skin that tell the story of their first time together, of the way Hyunjin takes him apart on his cock with single-minded focus. He’s filled to the brim, full enough to sate the hunger that runs bone-deep and to quell the desperation that’s been bitter on his tongue.
He sees the flex of Hyunjin’s hips as he drives into him in long, steady strokes, sees the whipcord muscles in arms that are straining to keep his weight off Felix underneath. It’s entirely encompassing, the two of them at this very moment, and Felix wishes it would never end.
But it does, and he comes with Hyunjin’s name on his lips and their mingled scents filling up his lungs. Hyunjin fucks him through it, fingers wrapped around the omega’s cock until Felix is buzzing with oversensitivity and begging for respite. There’s a mess all over his stomach and stripped across Hyunjin’s hand, and Felix watches through spotty vision as Hyunjin licks his fingers clean.
Groaning, Felix shoves at the other’s chest until they’re rolling over rather inelegantly. Hyunjin lying there under him – inside him – paints quite a pretty picture, and Felix files the mental image away for later…perusal.
He rolls his hips and throws in a bounce or two, ego inflating like a balloon when Hyunjin groans, fisting the sheets in his hands. Riding dick is a god-given skill that he doesn’t get to use as often as he’d like. But here’s the perfect opportunity, so he laces their fingers together and gets to work.
Hyunjin’s already teetering on a knife’s edge, so it doesn’t take long for him to spill into the greedy clutch of Felix’s hole, neck stretched taut and eyes screwed shut. Felix basks in each pulse of Hyunjin’s cock inside him, and when it’s finally over, he slumps happily onto Hyunjin’s chest.
Oh, he can’t wait until they’re in season. Just the mere thought of his alpha’s knot is enough to get his blood hot again.
Ear pressed over the steady beat of Hyunjin’s heart, Felix counts the beats until he loses count.
“Hey.”
“Hm?”
“Can I tell Jisung we finally slept together?”
“Sure,” Hyunjin answers. Then after a beat, he adds, “What do you mean by ‘finally’?”
“Long story,” Felix says. “Doesn’t matter.”
A hand comes to rest on his ass, fingertips dangerously close to where come has started to leak out of where they’re still joined. One traces along his sore rim, a teasing touch that has his spent cock twitching in interest.
“If we go again, are you going to tell him that, too?”
“No, I can keep that to myself.”
Hyunjin kisses the crown of his head. “Good.”
It’s the weekend sandwiched between Christmas and New Year’s, which means Virtue is packed to the brim every single night.
Being the bartender’s boyfriend has its perks, though. As people start recognising him as Hyunjin’s other half, Felix finds that his seat at the bar is always free regardless of when he gets there. In the past, Hyunjin does his best to keep it free for him, but his job is to make drinks, not to watch over an empty seat. Now, however, it’s as if his name has been branded on the velvet seat for everyone to see.
It’s also a bonus that there’s always a drink waiting for him when he gets there, paired with a kiss in greeting and a bloom of Hyunjin’s scent.
One night, barely five minutes after he’d plopped his bottom onto his barstool, Felix feels a tap on his shoulder. Standing there behind him is the woman he’d given a free shot to all those nights ago.
“Hey, your name’s Felix, right?” She beams when he nods. “I’m Goeun, I got your name from your mate. Do you remember me?”
“Of course. It’s nice to see you again.”
She reaches behind her and pulls out – a full-grown man. He waves at Felix, clearly a little shy.
“This is my partner. We used to work together, and I bumped into him as soon as I left the bar that night. I was gonna call him once I got outside, but it turns out I didn't even need to.”
Felix blinks at the couple in surprise.
“So the person you were looking for was really right in front of you the whole time?”
Goeun laughs, the sound bright and cheery.
“Yeah, fancy that!” She orders a singular tequila shot and places it on the counter right by Felix’s hand. “Cheers, Felix. Thank you!”
She leaves much like she did the last time, with a flutter of her fingers and a flounce in her step. The only difference this time is the presence of her companion. Felix takes the shot when he loses sight of her, and he’s just recovered from the taste when Hyunjin appears – right in front of him.
“Who was that? She asked me for your name but never told me why.”
“Someone who listened to my dating advice,” Felix says, and stands on the footrest to get better leverage for a kiss. When they part, he asks, “Do you know what she called you?”
“What?”
“My mate.”
Hyunjin tilts his head. “Mm, she called you my mate, too. She’s not wrong, is she?”
They have yet to talk about a mating bite, but Felix supposes she’s not wrong at all. He opens his mouth to tell Hyunjin as much, but judging from the tiny smile playing along his lips, he already knows.
“Here,” Hyunjin says instead, sliding a drink over to Felix. “Try this.”
It’s a blue and yellow concoction, shimmery and fun. Felix sniffs curiously at it – it smells fruity, which means it’s automatically up his alley.
“Do I mix it?”
Hyunjin hands him a cocktail spoon in response.
The colours swirl together and Felix takes a sip. Then another, and another, until Hyunjin stops him by gently prying his hand off the glass.
“Yongbok, this has rum in it, despite how it tastes.”
Felix pouts and makes grabby hands at the drink. Hyunjin gives it back to him, albeit with a pointed look.
“It’s so good. What’s in it? What’s it called?”
“It’s called a secret,” Hyunjin says with a grin. “It’s your drink; I made it for you, about you. Took me a while, but I finally perfected it. It’s not on the menu, and the recipe isn’t found anywhere else apart from in my brain. All I’ll tell you is that it has rum and a whole lot of love.”
Felix’s ears go hot.
“You made a drink inspired by me and you won’t tell me what’s in it?”
“Yes,” Hyunjin confirms, taking a step away from the counter. The smile is still on his face, and oh god, he’s unfairly handsome. “Yongbok?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
Then he’s back to work mode, asking a trio of men for their orders. Felix watches him for a moment, fingers turning cold and pruney thanks to the glass in his hand. His drink, made with a whole lot of love.
Suddenly, Felix thinks of the blue drink he had earlier in the year, the one Hyunjin said was a ‘trade secret’ and wanted to finalise the recipe for.
It’s this drink, he realises.
“Hyunjin!”
The alpha’s on the other side of the bar now, but he turns around at the shout of his name.
“I love you,” Felix calls, choosing to ignore the fact that there are dozens of pairs of eyes trained on him. If it’s up to him, people will be witnessing many more of these instances in the future.
He may get teased to hell and back by his friends – he’s willing to bet his entire computer set-up that Seungmin is lurking in the shadows and filming all of this –, but the joy he sees on Hyunjin’s face makes it completely worth it.
Hm, perhaps now is the time to think about a mating bite proposal?