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It was probably only Till’s second time visiting that specific concert venue. He’d been there once before for some small indie band that his friends had dragged him to a few weeks back, but this time, he was on his own. He’d been trying to get tickets to this specific band’s show for months now.
Till had nearly screamed when he managed to finalize the purchase for his tickets, not just to be there at all but to have a front row seat to the show. He’d been loud enough and annoying enough about it that his dormmate, Acorn, had thrown a pillow at him and yelled at him to shut up.
All of this is to say, Till certainly didn’t think this day could get any better. He was decked out in his favorite merch of the band, a t-shirt and the best ripped skinny jeans he had, his pair of Doc Martens, spiked bracelets, choker around his neck, the whole ten yards. And he had to admit that his eyeliner was absolutely on point.
He’d been wandering around in the main lounge area outside the concert hall, looking to grab some sort of snack to fuel up, seeing as he did have to drive the full five hours to this hall himself this time instead of switching off with anyone.
That was when he saw her.
She was probably the prettiest girl Till had ever seen, with long pink hair that faded into blue-tips, a cute black dress that should have felt out-of-place but somehow seemed to work, and a slightly nervous if not bright smile on her face. It took him a moment to realize that she looked a bit nervous, though, as he was a little too busy admiring her. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but…He knew his track record with attractive people. Till had known for a while that he was bisexual, but according to his roommate, apparently it just made him more pathetic that he had double the options and still managed to make a fool of himself in front of both.
Before he could even weigh his choices, the girl made eye contact with him, seemingly noticing that he was looking at her. There was a sort of hesitation to her movements, as though she was thinking about making a decision. Eventually, she moved towards him, offering him a bright, blinding smile that had his heart racing.
“Hello!” She called out, her voice light and cheerful, “I’m, um—” The girl let out a little laugh, “I’m a little new here, I’ve never been to this venue before—I think I’m a little lost! By any chance, do you know where the bathrooms are here?”
Till’s mouth opened and closed a few times, working over his words as his neck and face turned bright red, but eventually he managed to stammer out, “Y—Yeah, they’re just…They’re over there,” He held out his arm, pointing towards a turn in the hallway, “Down there…”
The girl gave him a grateful smile, “Ah, thank you so much!” She rocked back and forth on her heels, “I told my friend I’d be fine on my own, so I didn’t want to bother him in case he lost our seats inside,” She smiled, and her bag shifted slightly to show patches sewn onto them. Till’s eyes immediately latched onto them as he could tell how carefully they’d been made.
“...Mizi?” He said, reading the patch, and the girl seemed surprised. In fact, she looked a bit on edge by that, her eyebrows furrowing.
“Sorry if this sounds rude, but…” She started slowly, “How did you know my name?” This led Till to panic. Him and his big mouth had gotten himself into trouble again.
He held up his hands in a placating gesture, “I—I just saw it on your bag!” Till patted himself on the back mentally for not stumbling over his words too much, “The patches look, uh, really cool! So, I just kind of thought—”
The girl—Mizi—blinked, “Ah!” There was a brightness in her eyes now, “Sorry! Yes! My name is Mizi, my best friend made this patch for me! He makes a lot of them, he’s very good at sewing, the details always come out so good! Although, he says he’s not much of an artist…I think it’s just because he doesn’t draw a lot, but he likes making a lot of little handicrafts—Oh!” She stopped herself, giving him a sheepish look, “Sorry, I get carried away sometimes when someone mentions something I like! I’ve been holding you hostage here,” She giggled.
“I—It’s fine!” Till stammered, willing his face to at least attempt to not turn into a tomato, “It’s—It’s really cool, and you, uh…” How was he supposed to segway this into maybe asking for this girl’s contact information?
“Oh, shoot!” Mizi looked down at her phone which had lit up from a notification, “The show is starting soon!” She gave him a bright smile, “Thank you for the directions, I should be going now!” Before Till could even think, she’d already spun on her heels, starting to make her way towards the bathroom.
You’re pathetic, dude, Acorn’s voice echoed in his head, You have so many options and you somehow manage to not get any of them. You can’t even get an attractive person’s number when they gave you the perfect opening, that’s a whole new level of failure.
Well, Acorn could go fuck himself.
“H—Hey!” He jogged forward a few steps to catch up to where Mizi had now stopped suddenly, “I just—I was wondering if—” He stumbled over his words, “I think—I think you’re really pretty and I…Could I have your number?!” He managed to finally force out, squeezing his eyes shut as he held out his phone.
Till hadn’t noticed that people around them had noticed the interaction, and the way that Mizi seemed to have frozen at that. Her expression shifted, but by the time Till had opened his eyes, it had smoothed out. She took the phone from his hand, “Sure, why not?” Her smile was different now, though he wasn’t entirely sure why.
She typed in a number and quickly saved it as “Mizi” with a little smiley face at the end. Till looked down at it for a moment, eyes wide and face red. He’d finally done it, he’d managed to ask a cute person for their number, “Th—Thank you!” He gave her a big smile, “I’ll text you later! Oh—My name is Till!” He realized he hadn’t introduced himself at all.
“It was nice meeting you, Till,” Mizi said, that same smile on her face as she waved, turning around, “I’ve got to go now! Bye!”
As he started to make his way back to the concert hall, Till held his phone as it was some precious treasure. He couldn’t believe he’d done it, not only had he gotten the number of a pretty girl, he could now show Acorn that he did have game! Even he had to stumble his way through it—Acorn didn’t need to know about that.
He was brought out of his thoughts as his shoulder bumped into someone and he stumbled a bit, “Hey, watch where you’re—” Till began to call out, rubbing his shoulder only to stop when he saw who he’d bumped into.
The man was tall, tall enough that Till had to tilt his head up a little to meet his eyes, with dark hair and dark eyes. He was exactly the type of guy Till would expect to be a model, certainly not the kind that he’d expect to see wearing a tight, black bodysuit in what must have been a leotard-style, seeing the way it left circular cuts at his hips. The leather pants he was wearing were tight, gripping his shapely thighs, though where there meant to be pockets, there were more cut-outs covered by criss-crossing strings. Till felt his face heat up when he caught sight of a thin string through the pocket cut-out, running along the v-line of his hip bone. That had to have been—
Dragging his eyes up, the thing that Till couldn’t take his eyes off was the man’s waist. It was narrow, stupidly narrow for a man really, especially since his chest and thighs were definitely wide enough to make his waist look even smaller. The silver chain around his stomach did nothing to lessen that effect, in fact, it made it so Till could barely look away. That was until, of course, he realized just how much a creep he must have seemed like.
It seemed like the man was actually there for the same show as Till, and he couldn’t help but let his eyes drift back up to the man’s eyes. The eyeliner and smokey makeup made the flecks of red in his irises pop out even more.
Till took a second to realize the man was actually on the phone, finally dragging his brain out the loop of how is his waist so fucking tiny, what man needs a waist so slutty—
“—Don't worry, I'm coming there right now. Does Sua know…” The man’s eyes seemed to focus on Till, “Give me one second,” He said on the phone before quickly bowing his head in apology, “Sorry, I’m looking for my friend, she’s having a bit of an issue,” Any annoyance Till had felt was long gone by now, mostly replaced by awe at how a man could look that good. Then, the man’s words processed in his mind, and Till sighed.
“That’s fine, just…Watch where you’re going next time,” With that, he continued on towards the concert hall, getting ready to scream his throat out at the show. He didn’t notice the man still watching him as he walked away.
“It was the silver-haired guy, you’re saying?” Ivan asked as Mizi finally came out of the bathroom, once he’d confirmed the guy had gone into the concert hall, “Are you okay? He didn’t hurt you or say anything, right?”
Mizi shook her head, “No, nothing like that, it was just…He asked for my number and people started looking at us. I didn’t know how to turn him down and I just wanted him to leave me alone, so…He didn’t seem like a bad guy, he just didn’t seem to notice,” She snorted, “He also somehow missed the lesbian bear charm on my phone, so…”
“So, you gave him my number instead?” He raised an eyebrow as the two of them started to make their way back to the concert hall.
“I’m really, really sorry, Ivan!” Mizi gripped his hand in apology, “I just kind of panicked at the moment and didn’t know what else to do! I was going to give him a fake number but I just instinctively typed your number since I’m so used to it. Forgive me, please?” She gave him big pouty eyes.
Ivan sighed before patting her on the head, “Sua-noona would have killed me anyway if I didn’t do anything to help. Don’t worry about it, Mizi, I’ll deal with it. Besides, this is one of the perks of having a gay best friend. I can help keep all the straight assholes away.”
Mizi jumped forward and hugged him, “Thank you, Ivan! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now, come on!” She grabbed his hand before dragging him to the double doors leading to the hall, “Let’s go, otherwise we’ll end up losing our seats!”
Still on the adrenaline high from the concert, Till decided to text Mizi as soon as he got back to his dorm, tossing his keys into the bowl by the desk and draping his jacket onto the hook. His phone was still settled in the pocket of his jeans as he pulled it out.
“Could you be any louder?” He jumped as Acorn’s voice came from the bed opposite to his. It took him a moment to realize that the lump of pillows and blankets on the bed was actually Acorn.
“Shit, dude, sorry,” Till felt slightly guilty about how much noise he’d made coming in, reaching up and scratching the back of his neck, “What are you doing here, I thought you weren’t getting back until later…”
Acorn’s face poked out of the blankets, and the reason became very apparent as to why he was home early, “I’m fucking sick, that’s why I’m here,” He managed to say in between coughs, and his nose was so red that Till was tempted to compare it to a specific reindeer’s. He got the feeling that wouldn’t be appreciated.
“Sorry, man,” He apologized again before he remembered something, a grin coming across his face, “Hey, Acorn, buddy,” Till started slowly, “Remember how you were saying I would never get anyone’s number ever?”
“Yeah?” Acorn sniffled, rolling his eyes, “Because you’re a pathetic boyfailure loser that has absolutely no game.”
Till glared at him. There was no need for him to be so harsh but Till would let it go this once since he was about to prove Acorn wrong—Also, the man was sick, “So, guess who got a pretty girl’s number?” He asked, pulling up Mizi’s contact and showing Acorn it.
The man was quiet for a bit and Till frowned. He moved closer before moving some of the blankets.
“Hello? Acorn? Did you hear me? I got a girl’s number at the concert—Oh, you fucker,” He hissed, realizing that his roommate had somehow managed to pass out exactly as Till had been speaking, “You know what, fine. Sleep now, but I’m going to fucking yap your ears off about this tomorrow morning,” He vowed.
Acorn made a noise in his sleep that gave the same feeling as saying, “Yeah, yeah, whatever, let me sleep.”
It took Till a few minutes to get his makeup off and wash up, changing into a more comfortable t-shirt and pair of sweatpants before hopping into his bed. As he stared up at the ceiling, he counted to ten in head, building up his courage as he unlocked his phone and scrolled through his contacts.
There it was. Mizi.
Mizi :)
hey, is this mizi? this is till from the concert earlier, the
guy who helped you find the bathroom!
12:07AM
Oh, hello! |˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞNice to meet you, Till!
I’m sure you already have my name, so…!
12:10AM
Till couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Of course, someone as sweet and cute-looking as Mizi would be the type to use kaomojis. It didn’t bother him—In fact, it only made him feel more endeared.
Mizi :)
yeah, it’s nice to meet you too. we didn’t really have
time to talk earlier, sorry about just dropping that on you
12:10AM
It’s fine! I was just in a bit of a rush since
my friend was also waiting for me inside. Do you like
The Rebels too? (づ •. •)?
12:11AM
more than you can imagine, i love their music so much.
there’s just a sort of feel to it, something that makes you
feel alive, yknow?
12:12AM
what about you? do you like The Rebels?? i mean, i’m
sure you do since you were at the concert, but like…
what do you think of them?
12:12AM
Me? Hmmm…I think I like them a decent amount!
Honestly, my friend was the bigger fan out of us two but
I can’t say the experience wasn’t enjoyable!
12:13AM
they make a pretty big variety of music genres, so if
you let me know what kind of music you like,
i’m sure i could find something from
them that you’d like!
12:13AM
Really? ( ˶°ㅁ°) !! You’d do that for me?
You’re so sweet, Till, thank you!
12:14AM
ofc. what kind of music do you prefer? i kind
of have a knack for these things, i’m a music major
12:15AM
Oh? You’re a music major? That sounds like fun!
Do you play any instruments? (｡· v ·｡) ?
12:17AM
yeah, guitar. what about you?
12:17AM
That depends on the question! Are you asking if
I play any instruments or what my major is?
12:18AM
why not both?
12:19AM
I used to play piano, mostly because my sibling
was learning it, so our parents thought why not do a
two for one.
12:22AM
As for my major, it’s probably one you would
never guess! Do you want to try? (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
12:22AM
uhhhh not sure. you said it’s unexpected so maybe…
hm are you a sports major of some sort?
12:23AM
( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝) Nope! You have two more guesses!
12:24AM
i didn’t realize i had a limit??? can i have some kind of
hint at least?
12:24AM
Only because you asked so nicely! It’s kind of in the
opposite direction of what you asked. Think
hard about it, Till!
12:26AM
hmmm…opposite of sports. a math major?
12:26AM
ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧ Getting closer there! You’re going in
the right direction but not quite there.
12:27AM
If you can guess one of my majors then I’ll
answer any question you ask me! How’s that
for an incentive?
12:27AM
one of?? you’re a double major?? you’ve gotta
be really smart then, especially if one of them is
kind of like math.
12:28AM
btw i realize it’s pretty late, if you need to go to
bed, don’t worry about me. i don’t want to keep you up
12:28AM
You’re really sweet, Till (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)
12:29AM
I’m just washing up, I’ll be going to sleep soon.
While I’m doing that, though, keep guessing!
You have one more try!
12:30AM
alright. final guess…physics? the only thing i could
think of was science-related…
12:31AM
Ahhh!!( ≧ᗜ≦) You were so close! It’s a type of physics!
12:31AM
I’m an Astrophysics major. Well, astrophysics and
philosophy double major, psychology minor.
Studying at KAIST currently!
12:32AM
holy fuck you’re from KAIST???? and double majoring???
damn, i wasn’t aware i was speaking with a
literal genius.
12:33AM
Well, now you know! ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
12:33AM
So, since you didn’t get to guess my major, it’s my turn
to ask you a question and you HAVE to answer!
12:34AM
hey, i didn’t agree to that!
12:34AM
…alright, fine, ask your question.
12:36AM
Yayyyy! Okay, then.
12:36AM
Why did you ask me for my number?
12:37AM
The question made Till pause. He was sure he’d said to Mizi before that he thought she was pretty when he asked for her number. Maybe she just wanted confirmation?
Mizi :)
i thought you were really pretty. that was the
reason why i originally asked. but honestly, im
actually having fun talking with you.
12:40AM
Oh? I’m…Really happy to hear that. I wasn’t
sure you’d actually like me if you talked to me, so…
12:42AM
why not? you seem like a wonderful girl, i don’t
see any reason why i wouldn’t like you
12:42AM
Don’t worry about it. Thank you for answering
the question, Till. I should be getting to sleep
now, it was nice talking to you.
12:46AM
Till frowned at that. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he’d said something wrong. He had been honest, but maybe…
Mizi :)
i was a bit worried when i asked for your number, i was
kind of nervous and didn’t even end up telling you that
you didn’t have to give me your number unless
you were comfortable with it.
12:47AM
im sorry about that. i should have probably
said that way earlier.
12:48AM
You really are very sweet, Till.
12:51AM
I’m glad I got to meet you. And thank you for being
honest with me about this.
12:51AM
Was that it? Was that the end of their conversation? I mean, sure, if Mizi really didn’t want to talk anymore and was uncomfortable with Till, he’d accept that, but he wasn’t exactly sure what those last messages really entailed for them.
Mizi :)
wait, mizi
12:53AM
Hm?
12:54AM
i just. if i made you uncomfortable, please let me
know. i won’t text you ever again.
12:54AM
No, no! You’re completely fine, Till! ｡°(°.◜ᯅ◝°)°｡
I’m just a little bit tired, that’s all. We can talk
another time if that’s good for you?
12:55AM
Till let out a sigh of relief. It seemed like he hadn’t fucked this up. In fact, it seemed like Mizi was interested in talking to him again, which seemed like a good sign. Even if this wasn’t anything explicitly romantic, he still felt it would be nice to get to know her. After all, he wasn’t exactly the type that could actually fall head over heels for someone he didn’t actually know.
Mizi :)
alright, that’s good with me. send me your
schedule so i don’t end up bothering you during
your very important KAIST classes
12:57AM
As supposed to your very not-important music
major classes? /j
12:59AM
shut up, you. i’ll have you know that music
majors have some very important classes as well
12:59AM
Well, I’d love to hear about them, but I really do
need to be going to bed. I’ll talk to you later, Till!
1:00AM
Good night, and sweet dreams! ꜀( ꜆-ࡇ-)꜆ ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
1:00AM
Till couldn’t stop himself from chuckling out loud at the message, which resulted in Acorn groaning and throwing a pillow directly at him, despite not having moved from his pile of blankets, “Stop fucking giggling, I can hear you, loser!”
“I’m not a loser!” Till called back, rolling his eyes, “And I’m not giggling. I’m laughing. There’s a difference. Also, go the fuck to sleep? Otherwise, you’re going to be too sick for your exam tomorrow.”
“What exam?” Acorn nearly shot up at that, “Fuck, wait, what do you mean by an exam tomorrow, was something assigned that I missed?!”
Till frowned, “I swear you said you had a statistics exam tomorrow or something—” Another pillow was launched at him, this time hitting square in the face.
“That’s next week, Till, now let me fucking sleep!”
He sighed, laying back on his bed, looking at his phone one last time as his eyelids began to grow heavy as well, the adrenaline from the concert wearing off.
Mizi :)
gn, mizi
1:03AM
Ivan couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he got the message from Till wishing him goodnight, “He really is very sweet,” He murmured to himself, putting his phone on its charging stand and speaking to himself, “I don’t think I’ve had this much fun talking to a new person in a long, long time.”
It made him laugh at first, then he realized how much trouble he was in. He had agreed to talk to Till more, he had told Till that he enjoyed talking to him just now, and Till had seemingly reciprocated. But Ivan had told Mizi that he was going to turn Till down while pretending to be her.
Somehow, he couldn’t find it in himself to do that. Had he somehow become attached to this guy after one text conversation that lasted a total of one hour? It felt crazy, but…
Maybe Mizi wouldn’t mind if he pretended a little longer. It wasn’t like Till would ask to meet up or anything, not when they just met. And if it came to that later on, well, that was a problem for later. Besides, no one said that he had to make things romantic between them. Maybe he could just talk to Till as a friend—Though he doubted it.
Ivan sighed as he laid back on the bed, closing his eyes as he convinced himself that things would work out in his favor.
But he couldn’t have prepared himself for what came a few weeks later.
Talking to Mizi had become a habit now. Honestly, Till really enjoyed talking to her, so much so that he would do it whenever he found time, whether it be a few quick messages when he got up in the morning, or quick messages in between classes. Once in a while, he maybe responded to a message while in his car—But he’d been at a red light so it wasn’t that bad.
It was strange, despite being so nervous to talk to her in person, he somehow felt so much more comfortable over text. Maybe it was just that she was really pretty, Till kind of got tongue-tied, but their conversations seemed to flow well. More than that, in the beginning of their conversations, Mizi had seemed quite hesitant on opening up and sharing about herself. Not that Till expected that from her, but it was pretty clear when he’d sometimes ask questions and she’d redirect—Especially when it came to talking about family.
But Till didn’t mind that. Even if she never shared about herself, it didn’t matter to him. She made him feel comfortable enough to share about himself. He’d told her about how it was just him and his mom for most of his life. Even now, while he stayed in the dorms during the week, he tended to spend days off and weekends at home with his mom. Earlier on, his mother had dated a few people, but after one particularly abusive boyfriend, she felt like she didn’t want to risk putting Till in that danger again. Till had expressed he sometimes felt bad, that perhaps his mother wasn’t looking for a relationship because of him.
It was Mizi who had comforted him on that, texting him whether he’d talked to his mother about, “Do you know if that’s how she feels? Does it seem like she wants to be in a relationship and is stopping herself?” When Till had admitted he didn’t have any clear cut proof of it, he just felt that might have been the case, Mizi just sent a sighing kaomoji before telling him, “Talk to her. I’m sure that she’s just satisfied with what she has now. I’m also sure that she’d be touched to know you worry so much about her.”
He’d taken Mizi’s advice, deciding to sit down and have a conversation with his mom about it over dinner that night.
“Eomma?” Till called out from the table as his mother turned off the stove, picking up the pot of kimchi stew with towels around the handles, “Oh, wait—Eomma, I can help—” He stood up to assist her but Io simply shook her head.
“Sit down, I’ve got it!” She laughed, “Really, sometimes the way you act with me, it’s like you think I’m geriatric or something! I’ll have you know, I’m quite young!” Till shook his head at his mother’s playful antics. She liked to joke about her age a lot due to her having been a teen mom. Till really did appreciate her a lot, she was one of the strongest women he knew.
He sighed, “I know, I know. It’s just that after the scare…” About a year ago, Io had slipped on the stairs outside of their home while Till had been at university. He’d been called by his neighbor, who had been the one to get his mother an ambulance. The doctors had told him that if she had fallen at just a slightly different angle, it could have meant serious spinal cord damage, even leading to paralysis. Since then, her back and neck still hurt from time to time, and she was recommended to not to do too much heavy work by the doctors—Though, they had nothing to worry about, seeing as Till was even more insistent on it.
“I know,” Io said gently, “But I really am fine! If it’s too much, I’ll tell you, okay?” She reached over and messed with his hair a bit before dropping a kiss on his head, “But back to you—It seemed like you had something to ask me?”
“Oh!” Till blinked, “Yeah, and it’s uh…It might be kind of a weird question but it’s been bothering me for a while,” Io looked at him attentively, “I just—It’s nothing serious but I noticed that you kind of…Stopped dating people after, y’know,” Till scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “I just wanted to say that if you—I don’t know, if you do find someone or want to find someone, you know I fully support you, right?”
Io seemed a little bit surprised by his words, but after a moment, she let out a small laugh, shaking her head, “You silly boy,” She murmured fondly, “You don’t need to worry about that. Yes, I will admit that after the last time, I was a bit put off from dating. I didn’t want anyone to hurt you like he tried to hurt you—But after a while, I realized that I was quite content like this. I don’t need much else, and I have a wonderful son who keeps me company and great friends. If I feel inclined to, sure, I would go for it. But I really haven’t felt like that.”
Till exhaled, “Okay…Okay, good. I just didn’t want you to think that you had to restrict yourself because of me, you know?”
“Well, certainly,” She raised an eyebrow, “But this did come pretty out of left field. What made you bring it up at all?”
“...It was something I’d been thinking about for a while but…” He hummed, “A friend of mine told me that if it was really worrying me, then I should talk to you about it. She was saying how you probably weren’t restricting yourself for me but if it was really making me feel bad, then I should talk to you.”
Io nodded, “A smart person, it seems like. Who is this friend of yours, hm? I haven’t heard you mention anyone new…” A smile began to spread across her face, “Or perhaps, did my little boy happen to meet someone and hasn’t told me yet?” She asked, putting emphasis on the word to show what she meant by it.
“Eomma!” Till reacting on instinct, his face turning red as he blushed, “It’s not—Well, I mean, it’s kind of…You’re making fun of me,” He pouted, and his mother laughed.
“Yes, I am, but only in good fun. Tell me about this friend of yours, will you?” She replied, looking at him curiously.
He sighed, “Do you remember that concert I went to a couple weeks ago?” Till asked, and his mother nodded, “Well, I met this girl while I was there, she was really, really pretty and nice. I just ended up asking for her number and we’ve been…Talking for a while.”
“I see,” His mother hummed, “Not that I’m saying anything about you by asking this, but is it…Just because she’s pretty and nice?”
Till shook his head, “No, it’s…It’s more than that. Somehow, talking to her feels…Comforting. I feel like I can be real around her and she won’t judge me for it. I’ve also just…It feels like she’s genuinely interested in getting to know me. And I want to do the same for her. I think she’s pretty, yes, but I want to know her more than that. If she never wants to take things further than what we have now, I don’t think I’d mind. I just…Really like being able to talk to her.”
Io looked at him with a smile on her face, “She sounds lovely, Till-ah. I’d love to meet her some day—After you get to meet her again, of course. She sounds like a lovely person, and I’d be happy to meet anyone who makes my son feel so comfortable.
“If it’s a possibility, then I’d love for you to meet her as well, eomma,” Till replied, “Now, I should finish eating. I’ve got to go to class early tomorrow morning and I need to sleep early for that.”
He might have left out the fact that he had gone straight to his phone after dinner and thanked Mizi for her advice. When she had pushed him to tell her what had happened, he couldn’t stop himself from teasing her and calling her nosy. But the fond smile on his face as he relayed everything to her made it clear how he truly felt.
But Mizi hadn’t opened up to him before, not the way he had to her. So, it came as a shock when he randomly got a text from her one day, asking if he had some time to chat. This was definitely out of the ordinary for her—Mizi seemed to never expect Till to respond, always a little bit surprised when he did. Even though he did respond every time—He couldn’t help but find that adorable as well.
Immediately, he texted back that he had time. Sure, he might have been in the library to study for an exam but that could wait. It could absolutely wait, seeing as this was the first time Mizi had ever asked for his time.
Mizi :)
hey, you said you wanted to talk?
whats up?
5:12 PM
Oh, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?
I was just…
5:13 PM
I just feel like I’d like some company right now,
that’s all.
5:13 PM
Till frowned at that. Not only was that slightly concerning in general, he also noted that she hadn’t used even a single kaomoji. That was definitely out of character for her, usually her texts were littered with them. He’d asked her about them once, and she had said that she liked using them because people always seemed a little bit surprised that she used that.
When Till told her that it didn’t seem that surprising having already seen her once, Mizi was quiet. Then, she’d said that people had different impressions of her than Till did—And though Till didn’t really understand what she meant by that, he let it go, sensing she didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
He paid attention to his phone again.
Mizi :)
are you okay? did something happen??
if you wanna talk about it im here
5:16 PM
It’s just…You do remember I told you about
my major, correct?
5:20 PM
yeah, astrophysics, philosophy, and psych minor.
is it university stuff??
5:21 PM
Sort of…It has more to do with my family.
5:22 PM
…you’ve never talked about them before
not that you have to ofc but if you’re not comfortable
you don’t need to tell me anything you
don’t want to
5:24PM
It’s alright, I trust you. Besides, you’ve trusted
me with a lot of stuff as well.
5:24 PM
My parents were…Very overbearing. They always
have been, for quite a long time. I never had much say in
what happened in my life growing up. I always did
whatever they told me to. Even if it was something
I didn’t want to do, I felt like I would just be returned
to where I came from if I disobeyed them. And
I really didn’t want to go back.
5:26 PM
go back?
5:26 PM
Mhm. I’m adopted. The orphanage I was in before
my adoptive parents took me in was not…The best. I
was desperate not to end up back there. So, I went into
survival mode. Whatever my parents told me to do, I
did it. To be honest, from the way my sister puts it,
they treated me more like one of those showpuppies
that do tricks, something to boast about rather than
actually care about.
5:29 PM
holy shit, what the fuck? mizi that’s awful, i’m so
sorry to hear that. no one deserves to be treated
that way.
5:30 PM
also, sister? you have a sister?
5:30 PM
Ah, yes! I have an older sister! We are blood-related, we
were just split up at the orphanage. She was adopted
before me by someone else, but we ended up
reconnecting when I was in my last year of high school!
5:31 PM
She was in university at the time, and she had managed
to get away from her adoptive mother. When she found
out how my adoptive parents were treating me, she
wasn’t having any of it, haha. She told them that legally
I was an adult and they couldn’t stop me from living
with her from then on. So, I’ve been staying with her
ever since then.
5:33 PM
shit, mizi, thats so much to deal with. im glad you at least
had someone to support you throughout all of that.
5:33 PM
Yeah. I’m really grateful to my older sister. But it doesn’t
mean my adoptive parents have given up on me.
5:34 PM
They still blow up my phone with messages and calls,
even emails, telling me that I was a waste of their
efforts and how I was supposed to be the perfect
heir to their company. And now I’m here, studying
space and philosophy instead of business administration
like they wanted me to. They really hated philosophy.
5:35 PM
wow i can only wonder why, a major that pushes you
to think about everything in your own way
and to not just accept what you’re told.
5:36 PM
Stop it, you’re going to make me laugh!
5:37 PM
good. you shouldn’t have to be upset about this shit.
you shouldn’t have had to deal with it at all, and i’m
sorry you’ve had to. is there anything i can do to
help you or make you feel better?
5:37 PM
You’re already doing it by listening to me talk.
I haven’t had anyone to really talk to about this…
I mean, my sister knows, but not how insistent
my adoptive parents are. I didn’t want to
worry her….
5:38 PM
hey so i think you should follow your own advice,
you were the one who told me to talk to my mom. i
think you should talk to your sister and tell her
about this. who knows, maybe she could help
you figure out a way to get them to stop.
5:40 PM
I know you’re right. I do know, its just…
I don’t want her to worry too much. And it’s not
like it’s genuinely harmful, it’s just a little frustrating.
5:43 PM
I just don’t want to be a burden to her.
5:43 PM
Till frowned at this. Those words rang some alarm bells in his head, as did some of the things Mizi had said before. From what he was understanding, it seemed like Mizi saw people’s care for her as conditional thanks to the way her adoptive parents had treated her. That didn’t sound good under any light.
Mizi :)
you’re more than what you can be for other people.
you’re a person as well, and the people in your life
love you for that, not for being convenient. talk
to your sister, mizi. i’m sure she’d tell you the same.
5:45 PM
besides, i’m not expecting anything from you when
i’m talking to you, i hope you know that. i just genuinely
like your company, alright? so take it from me,
you’re a person. and a person who means a lot
to many people, okay?
5:46 PM
You’re really…Not what I expected, Till.
5:47 PM
is that a bad thing?
5:47 PM
No…A really good thing. Thank you, Till. I’ll
try and talk to my sister. But thank you for
being here. You didn’t have to, but I really
do appreciate it.
5:48 PM
of course, mizi. anytime.
5:49 PM
Till sighed, turning off his phone and staring at his textbook. He had meant what he said, he didn’t expect anything more from Mizi. Even when he’d first approached her, it had been on a whim. She was pretty, yes, but he needed to know more about her to really like her. Talking to her was what had sealed the deal. He’d never want to pressure her into anything, but…
He really was starting to like her a lot. But he wasn’t going to say anything about it. Not now, at least. Not unless he got a hint that his feelings were requited in any way. Her friendship meant just as much to him, and that was never going to change.
Just as he was about to return to his textbook, he got one more message.
Mizi :)
And for the record, I really, really like talking to
you too, Till. I enjoy your company a lot.
5:53 PM
ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧₊
5:53 PM
He couldn’t help but laugh, “What does that one even mean?” He murmured to himself quietly, unable to keep the fondness out of his voice. But he felt his heart relax at the sight of the silly emoji.
It seemed like she was feeling better. And her words had certainly made Till feel good about himself as well. She kept saying that he was the sweet one, but despite her teasing at times and her silliness, Till had to say it was her who was the sweet one.
Ivan put down his phone and sighed. He knew this was bad, not only was he starting to catch feelings for someone he’d only ever talked to over text, it was happening while he was pretending to be a girl. Ivan was pretending to be his best friend, for God’s sake! This was really bad, he knew he needed to stop.
But…Till had said he didn’t expect anything more from Mizi. Surely, he couldn’t be that bad of a guy if that was the way he saw it?
He knew the truth would come out some day. He…Hadn’t actually lied all that much, if he was being honest. The only lie he’d actually told was that he was Mizi. Aside from that, everything he’d said had been true, about his family, about his sister, about his life…
Ivan knew he was deluding himself. Till had approached Mizi because he thought Mizi was pretty, and Mizi was a girl, which Ivan definitely was not. If Till found out, there was no way he’d accept it. He’d probably hate Ivan, and then he would never be a part of Ivan’s life again. He couldn’t stand that, he’d just met someone so bright and kind, even if he got worked up when teased—There was no doubt that Till was a sweet person. And he was so free, Ivan couldn’t help but admire that about him. He did what he wanted and never let anyone get in his way, even if it meant bashing heads with someone.
Well, unless that someone was his mother. Till was weak to his mother, and that fact only made Ivan even fonder of him. He’d teased Till for being a mama’s boy, but Till had no shame in admitting it at all. He was colorfully emotional and open with his affection to the people he cared about. Ivan admired that in him, liked that about him. It was everything Ivan could never be.
Although, he could try. Till had given him some advice.
After taking a good while in consideration and even more time to psyche himself up, he opened the door to his bedroom and padded down the stairs. He could hear the voices in the kitchen—Of course, he could. He swore that at this point, it was just him and Sua living in this house, but that Mizi had practically moved in at some point.
“I’m coming into the kitchen, so if you’re making out, please finish things up!” He yelled, a grin stretching across his face as he heard his sister mutter several expletives under her breath and Mizi yell up at him to give them a minute. Ivan rolled his eyes at that, seriously, those two couldn’t keep their hands off of each other when they were in the same room.
“Right, I’m coming down now,” He said, after about two minutes of waiting. Mizi and Sua seemed to have pulled themselves together, the only sign of what they may have been doing before being Mizi’s smudged lipstick, slightly ruffled clothes, and the marks that peeked out from under Sua’s shirt. He chose to ignore that, “Glad you two are enjoying yourselves. Could you maybe not flaunt your relationship in front of poor little me who is all alone and has no one to love him?”
Sua huffed, “The fact that your gay ass doesn’t have a boyfriend is not my problem. Besides, didn’t you come down here for something? Or were you just trying to be an annoying brat?”
“As much as I wish that was all it was,” Ivan unlocked his phone, scrolling through his call log, “I do actually have an issue,” He was hesitant as he spoke, “They haven’t stopped calling me. Or emailing me. Or just contacting me in any way that they can. They want me to come back and take over the company. Keep offering money to do it.”
“...How long?” Sua asked, looking at him seriously.
Ivan had the wherewithal to look sheepish, “...A while. I just…Didn’t want to bother you with it. They weren’t actually hurting me or anything, it just…Makes me feel bad sometimes,” He felt like a child saying it, but Mizi’s look of concern and Sua’s expression made him feel a little more comforted, “It’s getting nonstop, so I…I don’t know. Is there anything we can do to stop them?”
Sua sighed, “You should have told me earlier. Then you wouldn’t have had to deal with this for so long, we could have gotten this taken care of long ago,” She clicked her tongue, “Keep all the messages, emails, call logs. Back them up or screenshot them. I’ll talk to the lawyer that got me legal emancipation from my adoptive mother. He’ll be willing to help you out and we can get a restraining order in place—What?” She scowled, “Why are you making that face?”
“I just—” Ivan hesitated, “I didn’t think you would get to it so fast. I mean, it’s not all that important, so—”
“Ivan,” Mizi put her hand on his arm comfortingly, “If it’s bothering you, then of course, it’s important to us as well. Sua-unnie cares about you a lot—” Sua let out a small cough, looking away, though her expression was slightly flustered, “—Come on, unnie, you can admit it just this once. And I care about you a lot as well! So, if something upsets you, of course we’re going to do something about it! You’re not a burden for asking for things, Ivan,” She said before pausing, “Do you think it might affect a restraining order case if somehow your parents end up beaten half to death? Just asking out of curiosity."
Sua blinked, “Mizi, jagiya, please do not do that. That would actually weaken our case,” She sighed, “But yeah, whatever she said. Honestly, now that I think about it, I’m kind of shocked you actually came and told us—Knowing your propensity to hide things from me, I would have thought I’d have to go through your stuff again before I ever found out.”
“Firstly, ouch, you didn’t need to hit the nail on the head, secondly, what do you mean by again—” He cut himself off, “Actually, I don’t need to know. Ignorance is bliss. Besides, I…Had a friend convince me. He thought it would be better for me to tell you about it if it was bothering me. He…Did the same thing when something was bothering him with his mother, so I thought I’d at least give it a try.”
“...A friend?” Sua raised an eyebrow as she met Mizi’s gaze, “Never thought a friend could convince you into doing this,” The pink-haired girl giggled at the older woman’s words.
Ivan knew he was blushing, he could feel the heat on his face as he turned around back towards the stairs, “No,” He said firmly, “You two are mean and I’m not telling you anything else. Call me when you guys decide to order dinner, I want to see what the choices are.”
As he made his way up the stairs, Sua yelled up after him, “Like you’re going to pick anything different, you know damn well your autistic ass is going to get the same thing!” Ivan nearly choked on air at that, “And I already know your order, stupid!”
With Mizi cackling in the background, he made his way back up to his room, closing his door and sighing, “She’s so lucky she’s my sister otherwise I could have gotten her cancelled online for that. I probably still could, if I wanted to.”
But he couldn’t help but smile as he saw his phone laying on his bed. He really should thank Till for this. He wished he could give him something substantial but he didn’t know what he could do that wouldn’t give him away. Maybe…Till liked music, and Ivan could play the piano. Maybe he could ask what Till’s favorite song was and play it on the piano.
He covered his face. God, he was down so bad. This was horrible. He knew this was going to end horribly. But he couldn’t help himself.
It was a surprise that Till’s art hadn’t become a subject of conversation yet. He wasn’t sure how he’d forgotten to mention it, but Mizi seemed completely surprised that Till was an artist. When he’d confirmed it, she teased him a little bit, saying that he wasn’t just a musical artist, but a fine artist as well.
Till did his best not to interpret that as a pick up line, especially when the text following that was Mizi saying she didn’t think about how that looked until she sent it, with an embarrassed kaomoji.
He very quickly had to shift gears to stop himself from immediately replying, “You’re adorable,” This had been happening quite often, nowadays. He’d found himself getting some form of cuteness aggression when they talked, she was…Honestly, kind of a dork. She would make silly puns and jokes that had Till either sighing in reluctant fondness or genuinely laughing from the absurdity of them. He had to admit, he really felt close to Mizi now.
So, when he had mentioned that he was going through an art block and was looking for inspiration, he’d been surprised to realize he hadn’t told her yet. She’d asked if she could see some of his art. He didn’t hesitate to send her his Instagram, where he posted most of his artwork.
Mizi :)
Wow, Till! You’re a really amazing artist, I
had no idea I was speaking with such a talented
person! (∩˃o˂∩)★
2:54 PM
cut that out, i can feel you grinning from over
here, you know? but yeah, thanks
2:54 PM
All jokes aside, I do mean it! Your art is…
Really quite remarkable. You can see the effort
and care that went into every piece you’ve posted.
2:55 PM
I’m sure whatever you choose to draw next will
be just as wonderful as everything you’ve
already posted! ദ്ദി´ ˘ `)✧
2:56 PM
well
2:58 PM
how about you choose for me?
2:58 PM
Hm?
2:59 PM
choose something for me to draw. i’ve
got no ideas so far, so i’d appreciate
anything you’ve got.
3:00 PM
Oh! You’re uh very much putting me on
the spot here, Till! Um…
3:01 PM
An idea came to Till’s mind. It was a risky one, but maybe…Till thought they were close enough for it. And, of course, he wouldn’t be pushy about it at all. If she said no, then the answer was no. But he could give it a try.
Mizi :)
hey so absolutely no pressure on this but.
i could draw you, if you have a picture for me
to reference. its just a thought.
3:04 PM
Oh!
3:06 PM
That’s…Really sweet of you, Till. I really am flattered.
But um…Maybe not just yet? I’m sorry!
3:06 PM
no no, please don’t apologize. like i said, just a
random thought. i completely understand if you’re
not comfortable with that, absolutely no hard
feelings. i really mean it.
3:07 PM
any other ideas on what i could draw?
3:07 PM
Actually, I do have an idea…But you don’t
have to do it if you don’t want to!
3:08 PM
go for it. i’ve got nothing else.
3:09 PM
So, my friend is a part-time model, and i was wondering
if you could maybe draw him for me? I’ve mentioned
you to him a little bit and I’m sure he’d be happy
to see a drawing of him, I know you’d do it well!
3:10 PM
If you need references, his modeling account is
@Paratise_Ivan on Instagram!
3:10 PM
oh? who is he?
3:11 PM
His name is Ivan, he’s my best friend!₍₍⚞(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⚟⁾⁾
We’ve both known each other since high school!
3:13 PM
Till hummed as he typed in the username on Instagram, leading him to a professional model’s page. He had to admit that he was curious, for Mizi to ask him to draw her friend rather than any random object—Especially someone that Till might not have known—This guy must be quite close to her. The question did pop into his mind, but he held out for a little while as he scrolled through the account.
It was clear why this guy was a model, even from the first image. Dark hair, and dark eyes, a little snaggletooth peeking out whenever he smirked at the camera. And his body as well, he was clearly in good shape, and Till had to admit that maybe his eyes honed in on his well-sculpted chest and legs. It wasn’t like he was doing it on purpose, the man’s poses had been made to draw attention to those parts of himself. Despite not showing a lot of skin, there was almost an effortless sensuality to him. Even Till had to steel himself at the sight of the man in a turtleneck shirt and tight, form-fitting pants, leaning over a pool table, his expression serious and eyes sharp. And that waist...Till had the oddest feeling that it was somehow familiar, but that was insane. And he should probably stop looking so intently at images of the man leaning forward against a counter, slightly provocative in his posing.
He was an attractive man, no doubt about that. Ivan, huh? Till could hardly blame Mizi if this was the reason that she didn’t want Till drawing her. If she perhaps had feelings for this man, then Till didn’t think he stood a fighting chance.
There were a few pictures, though, that caught his attention. They seemed to be framed as though taken from the point of view of a lover, something intimate and sweet. Images of Ivan in a soft sweater, the wide neck slipping down one shoulder and baring his skin, head resting on his elbows as his eyes were closed. Till’s attention caught on how long the man’s eyelashes were. It was a beautiful picture, somehow it made the viewer’s heart hurt with how soft it was.
Till had to say, the man looked practically angelic in that one. As he scrolled to see the next photo in that collection, it looked just as beautiful. The lens flare gave it a gentle glow, and Ivan sat in a grassy field, in the same sweater and a pair of denim shorts, showing off his long legs.
This smile was nothing like the ones he’d given in the other ones. This photo seemed to be captured while he was mid-laugh, a genuine laugh, reaching up for a flower-crown made of yellow flowers on his head. It made Till’s heart squeeze somehow, just from the sight of a beautiful person. He felt his fingers itching to grab his pencil.
Mizi :)
Till?
3:16 PM
If you really don’t want to, please don’t feel
pressured! It was just a stupid idea (ᵕ ´ ∇ ˋ ˶)
3:17 PM
no, no, you’re alright
3:17 PM
i got distracted looking at his instagram lol thanks
for the idea, my art block is definitely gone now
3:18 PM
Oh?
3:19 PM
just a quick question. is he just a friend or…
no judgement, just curious is all since
you haven’t mentioned him before
3:20 PM
Oh, God, yeah, no, just a friend! He’s not into
girls. At all. He’s very gay. Only likes men.
3:20 PM
lmao yes mizi i would hope i know what gay
means seeing as i am technically half gay myself
3:21 PM
What?
3:21 PM
oh yeah i guess it wouldn’t have come up
before. im bisexual lol
3:23 PM
Oh! I didn’t know that! Uh, congrats?
I mean, good for you?
3:25 PM
you’re so awkward lol you’re lucky
its endearing. but yeah, i guess as a bisexual
man i can admit that it makes sense why
your friend is a model. he’s certainly
got the looks for it.
3:26 PM
you know, somehow i feel like he looks
kind of familiar. has he been in any ads or
something like that???
3:26 PM
Oh, uh, yeah he’s been in a few posters
before, maybe you’ve seen him because of
that! But uh, you think he’s good-looking?
3:30 PM
i mean. im not blind and he’s a model for a reason.
yeah, he’s pretty. probably why he’s got all those
brand deals. why do you ask?
3:31 PM
Oh, I was just curious! I mean, he’s my best friend
so I don’t really see him like that. He’s honestly much
more of an idiot than anyone thinks!
3:33 PM
well, the pretty ones always gotta have some
kind of drawback. anyway, i’ll get to drawing but it might
take me a while, i’ll text you when i’m done, yeah?
3:34 PM
Sounds good! I should get to studying as well.
( ◞ ⌓ ◟)＝3
3:35 PM
Talk to you later! ( *・∀・)ノ゛
3:35 PM
Till tended to get a little bit in the zone when it came to his art. He’d already got the reference pictures ready and he knew from the start that he wanted to do it in watercolors. Usually, he tended to do pencil sketches, but just by looking at the photos, he knew that pencil wouldn’t do it justice.
It was the colors that really stood out to him, the soft, warm tones of the sunlight hitting the man’s hair and skin, giving his yellow sweater a bit of a glow. The lens of the camera was flared, only adding to the softness of the image. The man’s eyes were closed, though Till could see the faintest hint of a snaggle tooth peeking out from between his lips where he was smiling. It was a different expression from the rest of the pictures he’d seen on the account, and Till couldn’t stop himself from wondering if this was actually for a shoot or if it was a picture someone close to the man had taken. Maybe a family member, a close friend, perhaps a lover—A boyfriend?
Before he knew it, Till had already begun his sketches, pencil lines flowing freely over his sketchpad—The really good quality one that he only used for his major projects. Nothing else would do for this, and besides…If it came out really good, he was sure he could add it to his portfolio. After asking for permission. Maybe he could get this guy’s contact information through Mizi.
Oh, right. He was doing this for Mizi. For a moment, he’d completely forgotten about that, he’d been so focused on his subject that he’d almost convinced himself that he was drawing it for that man himself. She must have been pretty close to this Ivan guy for her to ask him to draw him for her. Or maybe she was uncomfortable with the idea of him drawing her.
It was a bit confusing really, while he had good rapport with Mizi, sometimes his flirting and compliments got through to her with no problem. But the moment he was a little more forward about his attraction, flirting with her more obviously or mentioning something that had to do with meeting up, she would pull back a little bit or close herself off. He couldn’t entirely tell whether she just saw him as a friend or if she was okay with more. He found himself not really caring, as long as she was in his life, he felt like he’d be happy.
His eyes drifted back to his phone, where the picture of the man was still open, smiling softly at him. Honestly, the guy was quite the looker. Till wondered if Mizi wouldn’t mind reaching out to her friends for him sometime, maybe as a live model or something.
Still, something about Ivan felt familiar in a way that he couldn’t place. He decided that he’d try to look at a couple of the ads the man was in later, because he got the feeling that he had actually seen the man somewhere. He just couldn’t recall where.
It was nearly 11 PM, and Ivan had just finished showering after another evening shoot. Sua had never really liked him taking photoshoots after what was typically working hours, but he’d assured her that he’d keep her updated and that he was being careful. Flopping down onto the bed, he groaned into his pillow, exhausted and wiggling his muscles to loosen them from where they’d tensed after the posing.
The buzz of his phone caught his attention, and for a moment, he was tempted to ignore it. Honestly, he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone—Especially if it was his manager—But his curiosity won out. Without lifting his head from the bed, he blindly reached out along his bed, trying to wrap his hand around his phone.
His head shot up so fast that he nearly strained his neck, seeing who the notification was from. Ivan moved to unlock his phone as quickly as he could, swiping through the apps he had open until he reached the messaging app—The notification banner beaming up at him.
The first thing he saw was a picture—A drawing of himself. He gasped as he looked at it, soft lines and colors against the paper, soft yellows and blues and bits of green as well. He knew what picture Till had referenced but…Somehow, this picture felt more intimate, it had more feeling to it. Ivan could feel the blush moving up his neck and taking over his face as he stared at it. His fingers moved before he even processed it, quickly saving the image once, then twice more for safe keeping.
Then, another message came through— “Tell your friend he should take more photos like that one. He looks the prettiest when he’s not playing it up for the camera.”
Oh. Oh, God, Till thought he was pretty. Ivan pressed his face into his pillow to muffle his own screaming. Somehow, he’d gone from not having a chance at all to possibly being in Till’s area of interest, at least physically—
“—Fuck. Oh, fuck, what am I going to do,” He groaned, dragging his hand along his face, “He still thinks I’m Mizi!” Throwing himself back down onto the bed, Ivan’s eyes fell on the open phone again, where the picture was open, “...I like him,” He whispered, “I really, really like him.”
This was bad. This was really bad. Because if Till found out the truth, that Ivan had been lying all along, he was going to hate him. Ivan really should have told him the truth or cut things off ages ago. But…
If he was already this far gone, then he might as well take it to the end, until he had to say goodbye to Till.
He replied to Till’s message, asking a quick question. Once he got confirmation, he opened up his own Instagram. Usually, Ivan had his comments turned off on his modeling account, so he was sure no one would be able to connect Till to him or vice versa—Notably, Till wouldn’t be able to find Mizi’s account.
The caption was simple— “A friend of a friend made this lovely drawing for me! I never thought I’d receive fanart some day, but I truly am flattered! The artist is @Unknown_Till_The_End, please show him some support! \(^o^)/”
Ivan couldn’t stop himself from smiling when he noticed the new follow notification and the first like on his newest post.
Yeah, maybe just a little longer.
Till hadn’t expected to be overseas for his studies, but an art competition with his team had taken him to New Zealand. They’d done pretty well, though unfortunately, it hadn’t been enough for first place. He’d been dragged along to some party by a few of groupmates for some celebratory drinks after, though in the end, it wasn’t exactly his scene. Additionally, there weren’t really people he knew there, so after a little bit of mingling, he ended up saying his goodbyes and heading out.
The night air was chilly, and Till exhaled as he pulled his jacket around himself. He usually ran pretty warm but even he had to admit that it was much colder than he expected, his mother had warned him to pack different types of clothes but he’d assured her he’d be alright—Always trust a mother’s intuition, he supposed. It was, however, particularly clear weather when he looked up at the sky above. As he walked through the streets, he let his eyes adjust to the darkness and marveled at how he could see so many more stars each time he looked up.
He stopped as his eyes focused on a specific set of stars. He recognized them from some of his conversations with Mizi. Some late nights, she would talk about some of the stars she could see from her home, talking about how she wished she had the time to go somewhere quieter, with less light pollution, so she could really get to watch the stars. It was a wish that Till wanted to help her with, but he knew that it wasn’t something he could just spring onto her. But maybe, this could be a pretty good alternative.
He pulled out his phone, holding it up to the sky and zooming in. Sure, it wasn’t the best quality, but it was a good thing that the specific series of stars he was trying to capture were pretty bright that night.
Mizi :)
[image sent]
11:23 PM
isn’t this the one constellation you were telling me
about? the uhhh the ship that used to be part of
a bigger constellation?
11:23 PM
Carina, yes! Oh, that’s such a nice view of it,
I wish we could see it from Korea ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!
11:25 PM
Actually, what are you even doing outside
right now? It’s kind of late for you, isn’t it? (•᷄- •᷅ ;)
11:26 PM
honestly it always shocks me how many
kaomojis you have stored.
11:27 PM
im alright, don’t worry about me. got invited to
some party but it wasn’t really my speed, so i ended up
leaving. im walking home right now but
11:28 PM
i just. kind of looked up saw that. it uh
reminded me of you, so…
11:28 PM
That’s…Really sweet of you, Till.
11:32 PM
so, what was the story behind this one again? i
kinda forgot it…
11:33 PM
In reality, Till remembered exactly what Mizi had told him about the Carina constellation, how the name had Greek roots, and how it used to be part of the constellation called “The Argo”, the person who discovered the constellation was Ptolemy, although it was a French astronomer who ended up splitting the Argo into three parts. He even remembered the exact stars Mizi had talked about.
But he wanted to see her talk about it again. She clearly held a lot of love for it, and she always seemed happy when she was able to discuss it with him. Plus, he had to admit it was pretty adorable when she started going on her rants about astrology and astronomy. He watched with a fond smile as the messages began pouring in.
Mizi :)
you had a favorite star in this constellation,
right? the one to the east?
11:44 PM
Yes, Canopus! It’s the second brightest star in the
night sky that we can see! Well, that we can see
If we’re in the Southern hemisphere, of course.
11:46 PM
oh? tell me more.
11:47 PM
Ah, well, the brightest star in the sky would be Sirius,
from the Canis Major constellation! That was the
dog constellation I was telling you about. Actually,
If you go far enough South, the star looks like it
sets below the horizon!
11:49 PM
huh, i see. that’s pretty interesting.
11:49 PM
Right? In China, they consider this as part of a different
constellation, though. They call Canopus the “Star of
the Old Man”, part of the constellation called
“The Old Man of South Pole”. It represents longevity
and happiness!
11:50 PM
It’s my favorite star because most people tend to
overlook it. Sirius is the brightest one, you know, people
naturally tend to look at that one. But Canopus is always
there as well, shining quietly, but consistently.
11:51 PM
you really know a lot about this stuff, huh?
that’s really cool, to be so passionate about something.
11: 51 PM
It actually kind of started when I found out about
what happens when stars die. I guess I always found
it poetic. Right before they die, they burn the
biggest and the brightest, they put out everything
they have and give one last grand show before finally
fizzling out into a ghost, practically.
11:52 PM
I always used to think that when I died, I wanted
to go out like a star. Show everything I’ve got without
any regrets. Try everything I was too scared to try.
11:53 PM
that’s…a really beautiful way of thinking
about it, Mizi.
11:54 PM
i do hope you weren’t thinking about it too often.
i like you right here on earth rather than up there.
11:54 PM
mizi?
12:01 AM
I’m here. Sorry, just…Thank you for saying that,
really. I don’t think about it often anymore, you don’t
need to worry about that. I’m alright!
12:02 AM
hey, if something is wrong or if i overstepped,
you can tell me. i’d rather know.
12:02 AM
It wasn’t anything you did! I just realized I was
talking a lot, I didn’t mean to start ranting about stars.
I’m sorry, I’m sure you weren’t expecting all of that! (>_<)''
12:03 AM
no, actually, that is why i asked.
12:03 AM
i like seeing you talk about what makes you happy.
and i get to learn something new along the way.
besides, it’s kind of cute when you get excited.
12:04 AM
There was no response for a while, and Till got the feeling that he might have overstepped. Just as his fingers moved to type out an apology, his phone vibrated with a new message.
Mizi :)
Thank you, Till. I really do appreciate that.
12:10 AM
I just don’t think you’d look too fondly on me
if you knew me in real life.
12:11 AM
what makes you say that? i’m sure
that’s not true. i enjoy all of our conversations
here, so i’m sure i’d like you even
if we met up again.
12:13 AM
besides, you’re making that assumption for me. let
me be the one to figure that out myself.
12:14 AM
It took him a moment to realize what he’d implied, and Till’s eyes widened, “Shit…Shit, I hope she doesn’t think this means that she has to meet me again, I don’t want her to feel pressured,” He began to type out a message, but was cut off by Mizi replying to him.
Mizi :)
If you say so, Till.
12:17 AM
He blinked. The response that she gave him…It didn’t seem like she was against letting him find out for himself if he would be fond of her. Which, honestly, he was sure he would be. Why wouldn’t he be, after everything they’d learned about each other. He had started off thinking she was pretty, but everything he’d learned about her had made him like her more.
Maybe…The idea had been in his mind for a while, but he’d always been too nervous to ask. But maybe, he could give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen? Even if she said no, Till wouldn’t mind. Even if their friendship ended up being only over text, that was okay with him.
Till took a deep breath.
Mizi :)
hey, so, you know how i get back next week?
12:17 AM
Yes?
12:18 AM
well, there’s this festival in seoul the week after that.
friday, i think. if you’re comfortable, maybe
we could meet up there?
12:18 AM
just to hang out. it’s not a date or anything.
it would just be nice to talk to you face-to-face.
again, only if you’re comfortable. if you
never want to meet, that’s fine too.
12:20 AM
Till waited, heart practically jumping out of his chest and into his throat as he watched the three dots, indicating that Mizi was typing. Then, a response.
Mizi :)
Alright.
12:23 AM
wait, really? hold on, you’re not just
saying it because i asked, right? i really
don’t want you to feel pressured.
12:24 AM
I meant it. I think it would be nice
to talk face-to-face as well. Plus, I was
already planning on going to the festival,
so there’s that as well…
12:26 AM
oh! okay, that’s great then! i’ll
let you know where we can meet up,
then if thats okay with you?
12:26 AM
That’s fine with me.
12:27 AM
i’m really excited to see you again
12:27 AM
I’m excited to see you as well, Till.
I just hope that I don’t disappoint you.
12:29 AM
you won’t. just be yourself, that’s how
i like you best. don’t worry about
anything else, silly.
12:30 AM
You’re really too nice to me, Till.
You should probably go to sleep soon.
I’m sure you have lots to do tomorrow.
12:32 AM
unfortunately, yeah. you should sleep
early too if you have the chance.
12:33 AM
goodnight, Mizi
12:33 AM
Good night, Till <3
12:35 AM
Till couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he pocketed his phone, continuing to walk back towards the hotel he and his teammates were staying in.
It felt like the next two weeks would fly by.
As he shoved his phone under his pillow, Ivan couldn’t help but press his hands to his face, rubbing at his eyes that were stinging with barely held-back tears. It was stupid, he shouldn’t have agreed in the first place. He should have stopped all of this ages ago, but he’d gotten so selfish, and now here he was, a prison of his own making.
There was no way he could ask Mizi to go meet Till. It would make her uncomfortable, but on top of that, Ivan didn’t really want Till meeting her and growing even stronger feelings for her than he already had. Which meant he really only had one other option.
He was going to have to meet Till himself. And that meant that he had to plan this in a way that would allow him to break the news as gently as possible.
Ivan knew it was unlikely Till would ever talk to him again after that. The least he could do was delay the reveal until the last moment. But he was going to have to do it. He’d let this go on for too long. He’d allowed himself to have this for too long.
And Ivan was not someone who was allowed good things. Not someone as good and kind as Till. Especially not when he’d been lying to him all along.
The tear stains had faded into his pillow by the time he’d woken up.
The festival day was here, and Till could barely keep his excitement in check. His mother had been leaving for a two day trip that morning, but he hadn’t been able to stop talking to her about it as she was packing her stuff into the car. His mother seemed amused by his excitement, but she reminded him both sternly yet gently to make sure that he was being a gentleman if he was meeting a girl for the first time.
Till had been a bit embarrassed when he quickly clarified to his mother it wasn’t meant to be like—At least, he didn’t think it was meant to be like that. But Io hadn’t changed in her stance, saying that even if it was just a friend, Till had better be respectful to her and make sure that she was comfortable around him. Just how she had raised him.
So, he found himself waiting in front of the fountain in the middle of the plaza where the festival was taking place, staring at his phone like it carried the answers to humanity’s most profound questions. He couldn’t shake off the nervousness, tapping his feet as he seemed to have gotten no response from Mizi all day. Even when he’d messaged her that he was driving over to the festival area, there was still nothing.
He’d dressed up pretty well for this, actually putting some effort into styling his hair and picking his least ripped dark-wash jeans. Seeing as they were going to be in the sun for a while, he picked a fitted black band t-shirt—The same band from the concert that he’d first met Mizi at. His eyeliner had worked out perfectly that day, and Till had been sure that it was a good sign.
But now, he was starting to feel wariness creep in. Mizi hadn’t texted him since last night, and she hadn’t been talking much about the festival. And maybe, looking closer into her messages, she didn’t seem as excited about the festival as he did. Maybe Till had been too pushy, maybe he had been reading into things too much, what if she never showed up—
The lively surroundings now felt too loud, too clammy, and Till felt like he couldn’t breathe. He had been so worried that by asking Mizi to come to the festival with him, he might have been pushing too far. With her reaction, he thought that it was alright, that this would be a chance for them to bond and get closer. He didn’t even care about in what sense, he just…Really felt a connection with her and he wanted to know her more than just over text.
But what if he’d made her feel uncomfortable by asking? What if she felt like she had to agree to meet him, but she really didn’t want to come? What if—
Till was broken out of his thoughts by a tap on the shoulder, “Till-ssi?” He spun around immediately, but it took a moment too long to process that the voice calling him wasn’t actually a female voice.
He felt the breath get knocked out of his lungs by the sight in front of him for several reasons. In front of him stood the subject of more than a few of his drawings lately. Since Mizi had asked Till to draw her best friend, it had opened the floodgates. Something about the dark-haired man in the photos had been a perfect subject for Till. He was lovely to draw, but enough of a challenge to keep him interested because he felt like he couldn’t get it exactly right through the pictures.
Ivan stood in front of him, wearing the soft light yellow sweater from the first picture Till had ever drawn of him, the v-neck slipping slightly off his shoulder in a way that was effortlessly seductive. It was tucked into a pair of high-waisted denim shorts that—Fuck, that was a tiny waist. A familiar one as well. Till realized that he probably seemed like a creep, just gawking at the man’s body without looking at his face. However, that only served to punch him in the chest again, being faced with how pretty the man was. His hair was curly, like in the photoshoot that Till liked, a silver pin slipped into the left side of his hair to keep it from falling in his face. His eyes were lined faintly with eyeliner as well, making them stand out even more, dark as the night sky with flecks of red in it. His lips looked soft and fully, lined with a subtle shade of gloss.
Then, it hit him.
“The concert,” He spoke, his voice breathless, “You were at the concert that day. I bumped into you.”
Ivan blinked in surprise, “How did you…” He exhaled, “I was there accompanying Mizi. I’ve…I’ve seen selfies of you through Mizi, but how did you recognize me? We’d only seen each other for a few minutes…”
Till, thankfully, recognized that it was probably a really creepy move to tell the man that he recognized him by how sinfully tiny his waist was. And that back then, Till’s impulsive thought had said to him that he could probably envelope most of the man’s waist in his hands. He had the exact same thought faced with Ivan now. Well, that and….
“Your eyes,” He said, “You have…Unique eyes. I had thought they were interesting the first time I saw you but I didn’t really…The camera doesn’t really capture the red in your eyes the way it does when you’re in front of me. I didn’t realize until now…” Then his face dropped, “Mizi…She isn’t coming, is she? Why are you here—You’re her best friend, right?”
Ivan shuffled a bit, “She wanted to come—She really did!” He assured Till, “It’s just that an emergency came up, that’s why she hasn’t texted you yet. Once it’s dealt with, I’m sure she’ll explain everything! She just…Felt really bad about canceling on you this morning when you’ve been excited about this for so long, so she asked me to come and hang out with you. She would have been here if she could.”
Till looked at him closely. He couldn’t really tell whether Ivan was lying to him or not, but something about Ivan’s words just…He wanted to believe them. He really did. Ivan seemed so earnest in convincing him. But there were just too many coincidences, too many things that Till had wanted to ignore. Mizi’s reluctance in being seen by Till or meeting him, her lack of excitement about meeting up, and now, making an excuse to not see him. It hurt, it hurt a lot. He thought they were friends but maybe…Maybe Mizi was just indulging him, out of pity or because she didn’t know how to tell him to leave her alone.
He knew it was too good to be true.
“...Till?” Ivan sounded hesitant, “I know you…Must be disappointed. I’m definitely not the person you expected to see, but I promise you that Mizi wouldn’t ever hurt you on purpose. She’s a wonderful person, she just really had something to attend to. If you don’t want to hang out, I completely understand. I just…Mizi has said some wonderful things about you, so I thought it would be nice to get to know you. As, uh, as Mizi’s best friend.”
Till looked at the man in front of him. Ivan’s expression was…Surprisingly dejected, more so than what he would have expected for someone who didn’t actually know him. Something about the way he spoke…It almost reminded him of when Mizi would say that she didn’t think Till would like her if he actually met her. Perhaps it was that similarity that was getting to him. Or the fact that something inside of him made him not want to see Ivan’s face looking that crestfallen.
“You know what?” He sighed, “You’re already here. And you took the time to actually come here in her place, despite never having met me before. Might as well make the best of it, yeah? Besides, we’ve at least heard of each other before,” Till offered him a smile, “I can think of worse ways to start a friendship,” And besides, it’s not like he was going to turn down the opportunity to get to know a cute guy.
“O—Oh!” Ivan seemed surprised at Till’s easy acceptance of the situation, “I mean, are you sure? Please don’t force yourself, if you’re not comfortable, I can just leave—”
Till clicked his tongue, “Didn’t I just say I’d like to be friends with you? Besides, Mizi has mentioned you a couple of times. I’ve been curious about you. I’d like to get to know her friends as well. Plus, it would be kind of weird for me to draw you and not get to know you when I have that chance.”
Ivan hummed, “Well, that’s what most fans do. Most of the fanart I’ve gotten is from people I’ve never met.”
“Well,” Till huffed, “I’m not exactly a fan. I only found out about you through Mizi sending me your account. Otherwise, I never would have drawn you. Besides, I only drew you once,” That was a big fucking lie, but Ivan didn’t need to know that.
“You say that,” Ivan giggled, “But you still liked every photoshoot I did, didn’t you? You really tried to space it out but I could tell you were liking some of the old ones as well,” Till felt his face flush as he realized he’d been caught, “Till,” Ivan leaned down, grinning and dragging out his name.
Till turned away, knowing that his face was heating up even more, “Are we going to just stand here all day or are we actually going to check out the festival? I didn’t get to look at any of this stuff because I was worrying I’d leave Mizi waiting here, so…”
Ivan did seem to settle a bit at that, smiling at him, “I’ve never been to the festival before, so I would like to see it as well—Actually, there was this one stall that was selling dalgona candy sticks. Could we go get that?” Despite it being phrased as a question, Ivan was already turning in that direction, grabbing Till by the wrist to pull him along.
“Hey, wait up—” He stumbled a bit as he was dragged along, catching his step from where his boots caused him to trip over the uneven ground.
The dark-haired man only laughed at that, yanking Till closer, “Come on, we don’t have all day, you know! The festival ends at eight tonight, and I want to see everything that we can before we have to leave!”
Till found himself unable to look away from the man. His smile was bright and his eyes crinkled at the corners. More than that, the snaggletooth that was hidden behind his plush lips really showed when he was laughing. Really, overall it was just…Very cute. Till’s cheeks flushed red at that realization. God, he really was a bisexual loser, huh—First Mizi, now Ivan as well? A part of him hesitated, seeing as Ivan was Mizi’s best friend, but…
If what he suspected was true about Mizi cancelling at the last minute just so she didn’t have to meet him, then he didn’t feel entirely too bad about it.
As they waited in line in front of the dalgona candy stall, Till looked at him, “This is your first time at the festival?” He asked, “You live in the same area as Mizi, no? There’s no way you haven’t heard about this festival, it happens practically every year.”
Ivan hummed, “It’s not that I’ve never heard of it—I’ve seen all the flyers and everything since I was in high school. It’s just that I wasn’t ever allowed to go until maybe three or so years ago. And during those years, I was just…Really busy at the time. Plus, I didn’t really have anyone to go with—My older sister always went with her girlfriend, so…”
Till blinked, “Huh. You have an older sister as well?” He asked, and Ivan looked at him confusedly, “No, I just—Mizi told me she had an older sister as well. I guess that’s something you both have in common, huh?”
“Oh!” Ivan seemed slightly flustered at this, which confused Till. It seemed like a perfectly normal thing to say, “Yes, we both—We both have older sisters! Just another thing we bond over,” He laughed nervously, and Till gave him a strange look.
“Hm, but you said you weren’t allowed to go until recently. What’s up with that?” Till realized how blatant his words had been the moment they came out of his mouth, “I mean—Shit, sorry, if that’s too personal, you don’t need to answer that—I mean, we just met—”
Ivan sighed as he took the two dalgona candy sticks from the vendor and handed him a few bills of cash. To Till’s surprise, he handed him one of the sticks, “My parents are—Were pretty strict,” At Till’s questioning look, he clarified, “They’re not dead or anything. Definitely not dead,” He muttered, “I just don’t live with them or have contact with them anymore. But growing up, they were…Very controlling. I had to kind of be the perfect child, the one who didn’t embarrass them and was…Next in line to take over the family. So, things like festivals weren’t really something I was allowed to go to. Honestly, I wasn’t allowed to go out in general without them—They were always…Really protective.”
Till felt a bit bad about asking now, “Shit, man, I’m sorry. That sounds horrible, I’m just…Glad you’re out of that situation,” In the corners of his mind, he had to admit that it was surprising just how much Ivan and Mizi seemed to have in common, seeing as it seemed that their family situations were similar as well. He decided against bringing it up, it just…Wouldn’t have been a good look to bring up someone who wasn’t present when he’d agreed to hang out with Ivan and get to know him, “Well, I do hope this lives up to any expectations you had of going to the festival…”
“It’s already better than I expected,” Ivan murmured, looking at Till, “I was expecting to be here alone, honestly. My sister and her girlfriend were busy today, it turns out her girlfriend needed some help with something, so they told me they wouldn’t be able to make it. Then, Mizi texted me about not being able to come—She knew I was going to be here anyway, so she asked me if I could meet up with you instead,” He swallowed, “Again, it’s probably not what you expected, but—”
“Hey, I could have left if I didn’t want to do this,” Till reassured him, “Besides, I’m not cruel, you looked like a kicked puppy before,” He couldn’t help but grin, “You were saying before that I was the one who liked all your posts, but I haven’t seen you post fanart on it’s own like that before. But you posted my art. Were you excited to get to know your favorite artist?”
Ivan flushed a bit, seeming a little bit surprised at Till’s teasing, but he quickly gathered his composure and leaned forward, “And if that was true? Tell me, what are you going to do about it, Till?”
Till felt his throat dry up. Having Ivan’s stupidly pretty face this close to his own was really dangerous, he was a weak man and Ivan had already caught his attention. Who knew he could be flirty like this? This was completely unfair, God really wasn’t on his side—Not only had he been stood up by a pretty girl, now he had this pretty bastard making him fight for his life.
“...Alright, I get it, you’re pretty,” He muttered, and Ivan blinked as he was pushed back lightly, “How did you finish that so quickly, it’s basically pure sugar!” Till looked at the now empty dalgona candy stick, and then noticed the few crumbs around Ivan’s mouth, “You…” He sighed, “Aren’t models supposed to be good at taking care of their image?”
He didn’t think too much as he reached up, using his thumbs to brush away the crumbs at the corner of Ivan’s mouth. Feeling the slight hitch of his breath, though, Till watched as the blush bloomed on his cheeks, the taller man staring at him with wide eyes that made him look strangely adorable and out of his depth. Feeling the slight puffs of breath against his finger, Till couldn’t help but gently drag the pad of his thumb against Ivan’s bottom lip. There was nothing there. He didn’t know if Ivan knew that or not. He hoped Ivan didn’t know.
“There, you’re all good,” He said, his voice low. Before Ivan could ask anything, he held out his own candy stick, from which he’d only broken off a small part to eat, “Hey, you want this? You can have it.”
“...But you barely ate any of it?” Ivan asked softly.
Till smiled, “It’s good, but I can only take a certain amount of sugar before it starts to get too much for me. I was actually going to look around to see if there’s any cafes open so that I could get some coffee. Do you mind if we look for that next?”
“Oh…” Ivan looked away, “I’m sorry, I didn’t even ask if you wanted it—”
“Hey,” In a move of sudden boldness, he took Ivan’s chin with his fingers and gently pushed the man to look at him, “It was nice of you to think of me. I did want it, I was probably going to throw it out after forcing myself to eat a little bit more, but now I’ve got you. Why waste it when you can eat it for me?” Till pressed the candy stick into his hand, “Now, come on. I really do need something to wash it down with. Besides, you paid for the candy, let me pay for the drinks.”
Till hoped that his hands weren’t too sweaty when decided to grab Ivan’s free hand to pull him along.
There was a small area of the festival that was sort of a food alley, all the stalls were set up to give snacks, lunches, and as they had been looking for, drinks. Some tables and chairs had been set up in the center area of the plaza, and Till walked over with both of their drinks in hand to where Ivan had grabbed a table for them. He seemed to be looking at the waterfall, waiting for him.
The sight of him had Till’s hands itching for his sketchbook. Ivan was just…Really fucking drawable, if he was being honest. Not in the way that it was easy to draw him, that wasn’t true at all. If it was, then Till was sure he wouldn’t have spent hours trying to perfect his eyes. No, there was something about Ivan that was so alluring that it made him want to draw the man, even when it was the last thing on his mind. He watched as Ivan shifted in his seat, gracefully crossing one leg over the other, the denim shorts riding up a little.
Till swallowed. He really needed to stop looking at Ivan’s legs. He should have stopped looking minutes ago. This was genuinely so unfair, “I wasn’t prepared for this,” He muttered to himself as he took a deep breath, approaching the man.
“Oh, you’re back! It took you a while, I was starting to wonder if you’d run off somewhere,” Ivan teased as Till sat down in front of him, sliding his drink over to him, “Glad to see you haven’t gotten tired of me yet, I feel like I’ve talked your ear off already!” His tone was light, but Till could sense a slight vulnerability in it.
“Nah, it takes a lot more than you,” He looked Ivan up and down, “To scare me off,” Till leaned back in his chair, taking a sip from his iced Americano. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Ivan’s drink, “That looks like diabetes in a cup, you know?”
Ivan pouted—Dear God, he fucking pouted, could he get any cuter than this— “I like sweets, okay!” He took a sip from the…The thing was called a ‘cotton candy milkshake’ and it was bright blue, pink, and white, with whipped cream, a few tufts of cotton candy, and some gumdrops placed on top as well. Till wondered how all of the man’s teeth hadn’t fallen out yet, “Besides, you haven’t even tried mine!”
Till huffed, “I’ll try yours…But you have to try mine as well,” He got the feeling that Ivan probably had such a strong sweet tooth because he wasn’t good with bitter things. The way Ivan swallowed while looking at Till’s drink only seemed to prove that assumption for him, and he tried to hide his grin, “Come on, one sip. It’s only fair.”
The dark-haired man grumbled something under his breath before pushing his drink towards Till and pulling the other man’s drink toward himself. Till braced himself as he lifted Ivan’s drink up, putting the straw between his lips.
The drink was exactly what he expected—Practically a sugar rush in a cup, and he winced a bit as he put the cup down, “I stand by my words,” He muttered, “I don’t know how you can drink something like that,” He grabbed his own drink from Ivan quickly to wash down the taste before pushing it right back into the dark-haired man’s hands.
“You know…” Ivan said, a slight grin on his face that Till knew meant trouble, “That could have been considered an indirect kiss,” He, of course, choked on his drink at that. Till had already thought about that, but he hadn’t expected Ivan to say it out loud! Seeing him struggle, Ivan laughed, “You’re so silly, Till.”
“Alright, alright, I get it, stop teasing me,” Till muttered, wiping his mouth with a tissue before fixing his gaze on Ivan, “Besides, it’s your turn now, sweetheart,” The endearment slipped out without him really think about it, and he only noticed when Ivan turned bright red.
Before Till could call him out on it, Ivan snatched up the drink from the table and brought the straw to his mouth. Till's mind very helpfully supplied that this was also an indirect kiss, but the thoughts of that were thrown out the window when Ivan screwed up his face in reaction to the bitterness, sticking out his tongue a little bit.
“It's so bitter! I don't know how you drink something like this, Till,” Ivan leaned over and took his own drink from Till, taking advantage of Till's almost physical buffering at how cute Ivan was, only compiled by the way the sweater slid a little bit further down by his movement.
“You say that like I'm the abnormal one,” Till murmured, taking his own drink back, “So many people in the world drink iced Americanos. I can't think of how many people would drink that,” He gestured to Ivan's drink.
The dark-haired man huffed, “Well, not everyone has the same amazing sense of taste that I do, so I wouldn't expect you to get it.”
“Right, your sense of taste is certainly something,” Till snorted before sighing, “Anyway, you were telling me about what happened at your most recent modeling gig. Something about them dragging you out at some ungodly hour to do a shoot, especially when you had a class the next morning?”
Ivan nodded, “Right! So, color me surprised when I get a call from my manager at 9 PM saying that it was the only time they had available for that particular shoot! I had literally just gotten washed up and was relaxing for a bit before wanting to head to bed, you know! So, I had to get ready, do all my base makeup, tell my sister I wouldn’t be home until late because these shoots take at least two hours—It was horrible, Till.”
Till could help but laugh, “9 PM doesn’t seem too bad, though? And even if it takes two hours, you’d still be home by eleven or so, wouldn’t you?”
“Well, not everyone can stay up until 3 AM without being a zombie the next morning like you, Till!” Ivan exclaimed, “I try to be in bed by 11 PM otherwise I have a headache in the morning! Do you know how hard it is to do 8 AM classes and you have to drive to campus?! I had a philosophy exam the next morning!”
That made Till blink, “Huh, philosophy? I thought Mizi was a philosophy major…” The question slipped out before he could even stop himself. Ivan seemed to pause in his tracks at the question, before quickly adjusting.
“We’re both in a philosophy class together! We’ve had a couple of them together, it was how we first became friends in university,” Ivan explained.
“That makes sense…” Till hummed, “Although, how did you know I stay up until 3 AM?” The thing was, this wasn’t the first time that Ivan had said something about Till that Till was sure he hadn’t mentioned to him. When Ivan had asked him about his mom, Till had asked why Ivan hadn’t asked about Till’s father.
Ivan had hesitantly said that Mizi had mentioned it to him in passing. Till hadn’t thought too much about it then, it seemed plausible. But then, it kept happening.
The next few times Ivan mentioned something specific, like the competition that Till had gone to in New Zealand, or some of the music he’d talked to Mizi about, even some of art pieces he'd made recently. The first few times, he'd asked if Mizi had told Ivan that but after a while, he stopped asking. Instead, Till noticed that Ivan never said that Mizi had told him those things unless prompted. The suspicion was starting to form in the back of his mind, but…A part of him didn't want to accept it, not without any outright, substantial proof rather than just conjecture.
“Ah, well, Mizi was…” Ivan glanced away so quickly that Till thought he'd imagined it, “She mentioned you stay up pretty late, especially since some of your conversations have been late at night. I see her online sometimes and when I ask what she's doing, she's usually talking to you!”
It made sense. Whatever Ivan was saying, it made sense logically. It was completely plausible. So, why was it that Till couldn't find it in himself to entirely believe what Ivan was saying? For Mizi to cancel on him out of the blue without a text and sending her male friend in her place, and the fact that she had turned down almost any advances Till had made, it just seemed odd that she would talk about Till so much to her best friend. But the alternative was also just so shocking that Till couldn't bring himself to consider it.
“Huh. That makes sense, I guess,” He took a sip of his drink and watched as Ivan exhaled a bit, seemingly in relief. It was small, barely noticeable if you weren't paying attention. But Till was paying attention, “Let's keep walking around, I've heard that there are a lot of games that you can win prizes from.”
They continued walking around the area a bit more, looking at some of the artisan stalls, where there was some traditional artwork along with pottery and other crafts. Till found himself talking about some of the painting styles, and he paused as he realized he was rambling. But to his surprise, Ivan simply smiled and shook his head, “I like hearing you talk about the things you're interested in,” He reassured Till, which made the silver-haired man blush. God, Ivan was a natural flirt, wasn’t he?
“...The same goes for you, you know," Till replied softly, looking into his eyes, “You don't have to worry about talking too much or boring me. I like hearing you talk as well. You look happy when you're talking about things you like.”
Ivan's face flushed at this, and Till couldn't help but think that he was prettiest when he was blushing. He wanted to keep that expression on Ivan's face as long as he could, “...You're really sweet, Till,” The words were said softly, but still audible from how close they stood. But something about those words tugged at Till’s mind.
“...Mizi said that a lot as well,” He didn't hold back, simply letting the words linger in the air. There was a faint implication, but Till didn't press any further, “Guess it must have some truth to it then if both of you think so.”
The dark-haired man didn't respond to that for a moment. Then, he finally said, “...I need to go to the restroom for a minute. Do you mind holding my drink for me?”
Till blinked, startled at the sudden change in demeanor, “Oh, uh…Sure?” Ivan barely waited for him to respond before pushing the drink into his hand and turning on his heel, making a beeline towards where the sign for the restroom was.
He let out a sigh as Ivan disappeared inside. Just what was going on? Clearly, there was more to all of this than Ivan was letting on. Something about all of it just didn’t add up, Ivan just seemed to know way too much about Till. What he knew about Till’s mom, the things happening in his life, his schedule…It was all stuff that Till had only told Mizi. And yeah, sure, Ivan had said Mizi had told him all of this. But that was…Just too unlikely. If Mizi hadn’t wanted to meet up with him, then it was just…It didn’t make sense for her to tell all of this to Ivan.
In the back of his mind, the suspicion was creeping further and further, starting to come to the forefront of his mind. It was something he didn’t want to say, something he didn’t want to consider. Because it just seemed so far-fetched, if what he was thinking was true, then Till’s question was just…Why?
He sighed. There was no point thinking about it now, not unless he planned on confronting Ivan about it. And honestly, he…He was having a really good time with Ivan. He didn’t exactly want that to come to and end, not yet, at least. Till decided he’d keep an eye on it, if it got too obvious, then he’d directly call Ivan out on it and he’d figure out how to handle it from there.
But while he was waiting, he might as well do something else.
Pulling out his phone, he shifted Ivan’s drink slightly so that he could pull up his messages inbox. Clicking through, he finally navigated to the message history he was looking for. There was still no response, but it seemed like his messages had been read. Till couldn’t help but sigh at that.
Mizi :)
hey, so, i met up with your friend ivan. he’s a
pretty nice guy. he told me you had something
urgent come up.
3:25 PM
i hope you’re doing okay. was it something
serious? if you need help with anything,
just let me know.
3:26 PM
but…if this has to do with meeting me, i hope
i wasn’t making you uncomfortable or anything.
i didn’t mean to pressure you. i’m sorry if i did, i just
wish that you’d told me straight up if you weren’t
comfortable with this. i thought we were close enough
friends to meet offline, but if you didn’t feel okay
with that, i would have accepted that.
3:27 PM
i just. i really hope that this friendship was real.
i never wanted to make you uncomfortable. if i did,
then i sincerely apologize.
3:28 PM
Till sighed and turned off his phone, slipping it back into his pocket. What was done was done, if she didn’t respond to this, he’d just go home and cry into his pillow at the loss of a genuine friendship. But right now, he was getting to hang out with a gorgeous guy—Ignoring the fact that the guy was kind of suspicious—So, he was going to focus on that.
Just as he had mentally settled himself with that thought, something caught his eye. At first, Till thought he was hallucinating, but as he looked closer at the stall across the plaza, he knew he wasn’t imagining it.
Pink hair.
It could have been anyone. It truly could have been anyone, especially seeing as the woman didn’t have long hair. In fact, her hair was cut short, curls sitting soft on her head—Her hair was probably shorter than Till’s. But when she turned to the side, to look at the woman who was standing next to her, Till knew it was her. That was Mizi.
Before he even knew it, he was walking over towards them. Till felt like he wasn’t even in his body, like he was watching his body raise his hand to tap on the woman’s shoulder.
“Hey,” Oh, that was his voice, “Mizi?” The woman looked at him in confusion, and he cleared his throat, “Till. I’m Till,” In response to that, her eyes widened, “Look, I’m glad you’re doing okay and whatever emergency came up has been dealt with—But if you didn’t want to meet up with me or come to this festival with me, then I wish you would have told me upfront. I thought we were good enough friends for that.”
“Oh,” Mizi exhaled, her voice holding a combination of surprise and dread, “Oh, shit. He didn’t tell you yet, did he?”
Till blinked. Who hadn’t told him what? He opened his mouth to ask that very question, but he was beat to it by the woman who was standing next to Mizi—Who he had only just noticed had moved closer Mizi, wrapping her arms around Mizi’s arm and pressing in close against her side, “Excuse me, sir, but why are you bothering my girlfriend?”
“What,” Till nearly shrieked at that, his eyes going wide as he stepped back. He looked back and forth between Mizi and the woman, stumbling over his words, “You—You have a girlfriend?! Then, why—What—Why didn’t you tell me?! I didn’t even know you liked girls, what the fuck?! Mizi, what the hell is going on!?”
Mizi began to speak, but she was cut off by Till’s phone receiving a notification. Somehow, Till had a feeling what he was going to find now that he was in the situation, but he…Really didn’t want to look at it. He didn’t want to, but he knew he had to.
Turning on his phone, he moved to the notification badge, then clicked on it. He was directed straight to the chat that he was hoping he wouldn’t see.
Mizi :)
I’m so sorry, Till, I didn’t mean to cancel at the
last minute! It wasn’t anything serious, it’s been dealt
with. I’m glad Ivan is keeping you company.
He’s a bit of a weird person but…He means no harm.
Let me know if he’s bothering you, though!
3:35 PM
Moreover, I did want to meet you, it’s just…
It’s kind of complicated. I promise I’ll
explain by tonight, okay? But you didn’t
make me uncomfortable or anything.
I promise, our friendship is real
to me.
3:36 PM
*\ (>o<) /*
3:37 PM
Till looked at the messages, looked up to see the woman standing in front of him also staring at the messages. Moreover, not once had Mizi made a move to take out her phone. It couldn’t have been her sending the messages.
The person Till had been texting was not Mizi.
He looked into her eyes and he saw guilt, “...Explain,” He said hoarsely. It was basically the only thing he was able to say at that point.
Mizi’s words poured out of her like a waterfall, “I’m so, so, so sorry, Till. Back then, when you asked me for my number, I was…Uncomfortable. You’d asked in such a public place and people were staring at us, I was scared that it might become a scene if I said no. I even…I had lesbian stickers on my bag and I thought you were asking me despite having seen them, so I was…Really worried. So, I panicked and gave you the first number I could think of that wasn’t mine.”
“...You gave me Ivan’s number,” Till said softly. There was no one else it could have been. The pieces fell into place too perfectly for it to be anyone else. Everything that Ivan seemed to know about Till, the fact that Till had already noticed that they were all things he had told “Mizi”—But he hadn’t told Mizi. He’d told Ivan. He’d been talking to Ivan this whole time.
“...I did. I’m sorry, I didn’t think it would go this far,” Mizi looked down, “At first, I expected him to just reject you for me somehow and didn’t think too much about it. But then, at some point, I jokingly asked him about it and he admitted that he was still talking to you. I started to get worried at the time. Not about him leading you on with the impression that I liked you, it became pretty obvious he was being careful about that. I was worried about how you’d react if you found out the truth. So, we talked about it, and he said that he’d tell you today. I just…Thought he would have told you by now.”
The woman next to her shook her head, “He didn’t think we were coming, remember? We told him that we had to cancel because of an emergency, so I think he just assumed we weren’t going to come. Knowing Ivan, he was putting it off until the last possible minute.”
Till took a deep breath, bringing his hand to his forehead to rub at his temple. Exhaling sharply he reminded himself to stay calm. Surely, there had to be a proper explanation to all of this. He took a few breaths, like his mom had taught him to whenever he got frustrated about an art project not going right.
“Okay,” He said, after exhaling one more time, “Firstly, Mizi, I’m really sorry about that. I actually texted you after, apologizing if I had made you feel uncomfortable or pressured to talk to me. I even offered to stop bothering you if you really felt uncomfortable. I just…I guess you didn’t get that message because it wasn’t sent to you—”
“No, I did,” Mizi interrupted, “Ivan told me. Of course, he kind of had to justify to me why he was still talking to you when I found out about that. He told me that you’re genuinely a really nice guy and that he likes talking to you, he was just trying to figure out how to break it to you that he wasn’t…Well…Me.”
Till was quiet for a moment. This was…So much information to process at once, “Okay. In that case, why didn’t he just reject me as you and then reintroduce himself properly to me? Especially since we follow each other on social media, he could have just reached out to me. Why would he keep lying to me and pretending to be you?”
To his surprise, the woman next to Mizi sighed, “I’d probably be more help with that question. That stupid, idiot boy, how does he always get himself into trouble…” She rubbed her temples as though stressed, “Unfortunate that this is how we meet, but I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m Sua, Mizi’s girlfriend. And the older sister of the absolute idiot that has put us all in this situation.”
“Oh,” Till said, “Oh! Um, yeah, I mean, I guess you know who I am—My name is Till. It’s nice to meet you…I guess? I mean, disregarding the circumstances…” His eyes widened, “I wasn’t trying to make a move on your girlfriend—I mean, if I had known then I wouldn’t have asked for her number like that!”
“Yes, yes,” Sua waved him off, “I get it, it was just a series of bad coincidences. Now, back to Ivan,” She huffed, “The kid has horrible self-esteem. I mean that he is probably a therapist’s worst nightmare and best dream wrapped into one because it would be hell working through things with him but they would definitely get a hefty paycheck out of it.”
Till frowned, “Horrible self-esteem? What the fuck? Has the guy ever looked in a mirror? I mean, he’s a model for a reason, what do you mean he has horrible self-esteem—”
“—That’s the point,” Sua interrupted him, “That’s all he thinks he is. His appearance,” She sighed, “A lot of it has to do with how our family raised him, but he basically wasn’t allowed to be his own person. He was barely allowed to be a person at all, kind of just…A puppet for his parents to use for their own gain. He was homeschooled for a long time as well so that…Didn’t really help him adjust to people, especially since the only person he was allowed to be around who was similar in age to him was me. He’s probably gone and convinced himself that you wouldn’t like the real him. Especially if you found out that he was a guy.”
“...No, but he knows I’m bisexual,” Till said plainly, “If he was worried about me being grossed out or something, it just…Wouldn’t have happened. Like, I told him straight up that I was bisexual, and he reacted…Strangely?”
Sua hummed, “That wouldn’t have helped things either, I think. I said that Ivan thinks that the only thing about him that’s worth something is his appearance. I think he liked that you were genuinely talking with him, and he was worried that something might change if he told you the truth. Whether you were disgusted by the fact that he was a guy or whether you liked it just because of how he looked, I think he didn’t want to risk that change. Especially since, well, he really likes you.”
“...Huh,” Till said. Somehow, that actually made him feel better. A lot better. Maybe that shouldn’t have been his reaction but the fact that someone as gorgeous, smart, and sweet as Ivan liked him that much…
Well, he had to consider how he felt about this. He had thought for a long time that he had feelings for Mizi, but his true feelings had only come out while they were talking over text. That wasn’t Mizi, though, that was Ivan. So, did that mean he liked Ivan?
Pulling out his phone, he scrolled through the message history before showing it to Mizi and Sua, “How much of this is really Ivan? As in, how much of this is true about Mizi, and how much is Ivan actually being honest about himself?”
Mizi shook her head, “All of the family details are wrong. I’m an only child, I’m on neutral terms with my foster parents, my biological mom died when I was little. Also, just this way of texting isn’t really me at all. This is just Ivan. And…Those aren’t my majors either. Ivan and I met in a philosophy class, but he just told you his own major.”
Sua snorted, “The stupid kaomojis. He always uses those—His parents always taught him to be very formal about his language so when he discovered kaomojis, he loved them. I seriously don’t understand where he pulls all of them out of. But, yeah, Mizi is right. Everything he’s told you, even his way of texting, he’s just being himself. The only big lie he told you was that he was Mizi. All of this only worked because you didn’t actually know Mizi.”
Till knew that, despite not actually knowing Ivan and only technically meeting him for the first time that day, saying he had no feelings for the man was a complete and utter lie. Sure, he’d approached Mizi on the basis that he thought she was cute. But his real feelings had blossomed during their conversations over text. But that wasn’t Mizi, it was never Mizi. The person who he had developed feelings for was always Ivan, even if he didn’t know it. And, of course, meeting him today had cemented that because Ivan was gorgeous—But he was also absolutely adorable. And apparently, he had feelings for Till.
Honestly, he was starting to wonder if he’d won some sort of astral lottery for his luck to turn out this way. Ask for a cute girl’s number and get the attention of a gorgeous guy who actually seemed to like him back, despite his “loser-ish tendencies” as Acorn would put it.
“...I like him as well,” Till admitted, “God, I really like him. You’re sure he likes me?” He looked at Sua, “He friend-zoned me a couple of times when he was texting me as Mizi, maybe he really meant it—”
Mizi shook her head, “Nope, he told me directly that he did that for my sake, he didn’t want to lead you on in a romantic way while pretending to be me—Seeing as that would have been weird. Especially since I’m dating his sister,” She squeezed Sua lightly, an arm settled around the shorter girl’s shoulders, “He absolutely likes you.”
“And he’s been pretty obvious and very pathetic about it,” Sua added.
Till exhaled, “Okay. Okay, so it’s fair game for me to go and tell him that I know, right? I mean, it should be fine as long as he knows that I’m okay with it. I mean, sure, I’m a little bit upset about him lying for so long but…Hearing his circumstances, I also kind of understand? I feel for him, at least. And to tell him that I like him, I mean, I think that’s a given.”
Sua hummed, “Not a good idea. If you go confront him directly about it, chances are, he’ll run. Ivan’s honestly not that great with confrontations, especially with people he cares strongly about. Either, he’ll put on an act and agree with anything you say or he’ll run, but seeing this situation, he’ll probably run.”
“Then…What should I do?”
“Ease him into it,” The dark-haired woman replied, “Show him that you’re interested in him, kind of hint at things that he’s told you that ‘Mizi’ likes. You know, how he likes sweet stuff, also cute stuff. The kid has a mountain of plushies at home.”
Till took a deep breath, “That…Is really fucking cute. Okay…Ease him into it. I can do that. I can definitely do that,” He tightened his hands into fists, “I’ve got this,” Looking at the two women, he smiled, “Thank you, both of you. And despite the circumstances, it was nice meeting you. I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your date.”
Mizi grinned, “You too, Till! Oh, and before I forget,” She plucked his phone out of his hands before typing something into it, “Here’s my real number and Sua-unnie’s number. If you need any help, let us know! And if things go well, we’ll probably be seeing a lot more of you!”
“Thanks, Mizi,” Till smiled, “I’m gonna head back to him now—He’s probably looking for me anyway. See you guys around!”
“Till,” Sua called out, and he turned to look at the woman, “Just know that if you hurt my little brother, I will chop you up into thirty-two pieces and spread you so far across the country that they will never find all of you again. Do you understand?”
Till swallowed, “Got it!” He squeaked out, “I very much understand, yes, ma'am!”
After a few moments, Sua smiled, “Good. And good luck to you. You're going to need it.”
As he walked away from them, Till paused and pulled out his phone. Taking a deep breath, he tapped a few buttons.
Mizi :)
Don’t worry about it, another time maybe.
I’m having fun with Ivan, so if I don’t respond,
I’m with him. Thanks for sending him.
3:47 PM
Oh, and he’s pretty sweet in person.
Pretty, but he seems nice. I’m glad
I’m having the chance to get to know him.
3:48 PM
He had one last thing he needed to do.
[Edit Contact:]
Mizi :)|
Mi|
|
Iv|
Ivan <3|
[Save Contact Edits?]
Yes
[Contact Name Changed:]
Ivan <3
“Hey, where did you go? Did you get lost or something?” Ivan teased after Till finally returned to his side. It was a bit ironic that he was saying that, seeing as Till had watched him look around like a lost puppy for nearly five minutes, just searching for the silver-haired boy. Yeah, he could have shown up a bit faster, but Till couldn’t help himself. Ivan looked so adorable like that, and he just wanted to take in the view for a bit longer.
“I just thought I saw a friend of mine, so I went looking for them,” Till said casually—After all, it wasn’t entirely a lie either. He had definitely made two new friends, although he supposed Sua was slightly debatable seeing as he was trying to get with her little brother. She probably wouldn’t have been the happiest about that.
Ivan blinked, “Oh!” He said, tilting his head, “Did you get to talk to your friend? If you want to go now, I don’t mind waiting a bit longer—”
Till shook his head and reached up, messing up Ivan’s hair with his fingers. God, his hair was so soft, he kind of just wanted to keep running his hands through it. A part of him wondered how Ivan would react if he tightened his grip and tugged a little—Okay, yup, Till needed to calm down five minutes ago.
“Don’t be silly,” He said, fighting off the blush that crawled up his neck at his previous thoughts, “It would be rude of me to leave my date over here just to go off and talk to someone else. Besides, it wasn’t who I thought it was anyway,” Till watched as Ivan’s eyes widened at the word ‘date’ and he tried to hide his grin at that, “Now, come on. There’s still so much of the festival you need to see and we only have a couple of hours left.”
“I—Oh…Okay, then,” Ivan managed to say, struggling over his words as his face was flushed. He seemed unable to make eye contact with Till, and Till couldn’t help but find it absolutely adorable.
Then, something else occurred to him. Secretly, he knew he was messing with Ivan, but he was curious to see what kind of work-around Ivan had for this, “Oh, right. Hey, what’s your number, by the way? We’ve been hanging around together, it’s probably best for me to get your number. You know, in case we get separated again.”
Ivan blinked, “Oh! Right, so,” He took a deep breath, “I’ve been having some issues with mass spam calls, so I’m getting my number changed. But once it’s done, I can text it to you through Instagram DMs! We can use that for now, if that’s okay?”
It was a pretty good excuse. Till might have believed it if he hadn’t known the truth, but as of now, he just found it kind of amusing. He gave Ivan a slight grin before saying, “I’ve got no problem with that, pretty boy. Now, come on. Let’s go check out some of the festival game stalls.”
He had to bite down on his tongue as he heard the little squeak of surprise Ivan made at the nickname, God, this man was driving him crazy and they'd only just met—Well, not really, but still! He resorted to grabbing Ivan by the wrist and tugging him along towards the alley where some of the festival games lined the streets.
The first one that they stopped at was a shooting game, having to knock certain objects off of a wall by shooting at them with water guns. Till had almost walked straight past it at first until he noticed Ivan slowing down, looking almost wistfully at a small, grey plush bunny. His mind immediately recalled Sua's words, “...He really does like plushies, huh,” He murmured to himself with a smile before tapping Ivan on the shoulder.
“Oh!” The dark-haired man startled with some embarrassment, “Sorry, Till, I got a bit distracted. Should we get going—What are you doing?” He tilted his head in confusion as Till gently moved Ivan to the side, pulling out his wallet and handing the stall owner a few won bills.
“Just give me a second, yeah, sweetheart?” Till knew he was probably coming on a bit strong, but he was kind of giddy in the knowledge that someone like Ivan was going to such far lengths to keep Till around, just because he liked him that much. Maybe it wasn’t the best way to look at it but Till didn't mind being a little bit crazy if it was for Ivan. God, he really was so far gone already.
Feeling Ivan's eyes on him, Till picked up the water gun and began to focus, keeping hands and his eyes steady on his targets. As they started to move, he trained his eyes on one of the objects, before shooting. The rapid-fire pressure of the water reminiscing was enough to knock it down. He heard Ivan cheer for him, but he had no time to bask in it, seeing as he only had thirty more seconds to knock off two more objects. But with the first hit, Till had managed to get the gist of how the game worked.
With fifteen seconds on the clock, Till had a triumphant expression on his face, the lights of the stall glowing green with an applause soundtrack playing over the congratulatory message. The ahjussi running the stall complimented him with a hearty clap on the back that made him yelp in surprise, telling him to pick whatever prize he wanted.
He didn't hesitate as he pointed towards the grey small bunny plush.
Ivan looked at him, an awed expression in his eyes as he cheered for him, “That was amazing, Till, you did so well!” Till couldn't help but preen at that, especially when Ivan seemed to hug him out of excitement. He stumbled back a little at Ivan’s weight, not expecting the sudden movement, but Ivan seemed to take that as rejection. He moved back quickly, apologies pilling from his mouth—At least, he tried to. It was a good effort, really, if not for the fact that Till had a tight grip on the taller man’s waist, his hand splayed across the small of Ivan’s back to pull him back in.
“What, you’re taking my reward away from so soon?” He teased, and Ivan made a confused noise before seeming to understand what Till meant by it. He stammered a little bit, seeming completely lost until he lightly shoved Till back so he could hide his own face in hands. Till liked this. Till really liked this, turning the tables on Ivan. The man had spent the entire first half of the day driving Till crazy and teasing him, making flirty little remarks and watching with thinly veiled amusement as Till tried his best to be respectful and not be a creep. Frankly, Ivan was just dealing with what he had brought upon himself.
“Your…Your stuffed toy,” Ivan said helplessly, pointing towards the ahjussi who was looking at the two of them with amusement. Till hummed before finally letting go of Ivan, only to take the stuffed bunny and push it into Ivan’s arms, “Huh? What are you—”
The ahjussi laughed, “Isn’t it obvious? Clearly, he was trying to win it for you,” He gestured to Till, who was a little bit flustered by the directness of the man’s words, “I’ve only ever seen someone try that hard at a festival game when they’re trying to impress someone. You did good, boy,” The ahjussi patted him on the shoulder, “Ah, young love. Reminds me of when me and my wife were younger.”
As if on cue, there was a female voice yelling from a bit further away in what seemed to be Mandarin. Despite the tone being harsh, sounding like it was scolding, the man’s expression didn’t break at all. If anything, he sighed even more lovingly. Till raised an eyebrow, “Your wife?” He asked, and the man nodded.
“My beloved wife. She’s even more beautiful when she’s annoyed with me. Regardless, I should probably go help her,” He waved to them, “Hope you both enjoy your date, and you…” He looked at Till, “Treat your boy right, he’s a pretty little fella. I’m sure there’s plenty of guys around here that would love a chance with him.”
Till snorted, “Don’t I know it. Have a good day, ahjussi,” He waved back, before guiding a shocked Ivan away from the stall. Noticing that the man seemed kind of out of it, Till slowly loosened his grip on Ivan until he stopped, turning to look at the taller man, “Hey,” He said lowly, and Ivan looked at him, wide-eyed, “If this is too much, if you’re…If I’m making you uncomfortable, just say the word. I’ll cut it out.”
Ivan blinked a few times before slowly reaching out and taking Till’s hand hesitantly, “I’m not uncomfortable,” He replied softly, “I’m just… Surprised. This is really unexpected, you know? I mean, we just met and…Well, I’ve never had someone be so enthusiastic around me.”
“...I kind of want to be offended by that,” Till couldn’t help himself, completely flabbergasted, “What kind of idiot wouldn’t be enthusiastic about you? I mean, that ahjussi was right, you’re a pretty little thing, anyone would kill to have a chance with you.”
“...Seriously, you…” Ivan looked away, covering his face with his hand. It didn’t do much to hide the redness glowing on his cheeks, and Till thought he could look at this expression on Ivan’s face forever, “You shouldn’t play with people’s feelings like this…”
Till raised an eyebrow before stepping forward, “Who said I’m playing?” He asked, feeling bolder by the second. He was starting to see what Sua meant when she said that Ivan had horrible self-esteem. But that was no trouble to Till—He had every intention of making Ivan feel like the most treasured person in the world.
Ivan’s mouth opened and closed, he looked a little bit like a fish gasping for air. A very cute fish. Till was going to scream. Instead, he decided that he probably should be a little bit more normal about this, instead resorting to taking Ivan’s hand and pulling him along
“Come on, let’s get you some more plushies. You like them, don’t you?” He asked, fighting back the stupid grin that threatened to take over his face.
“...Wait, how did you know that?” Ivan asked, letting himself be pulled along by Till, moving through the crowd that was building. It seemed that more people were coming to the festival now that it was evening, and children’s laughter floated through the air.
“Hm…” Till hummed, “Lucky guess? You’re cute and sweet, you like sweet things, so I thought you probably like cute things as well,” Ivan made some sort of noise that sounded a little bit like a kettle, trying to cover his face but forgetting that he was holding Till’s hand. So, he ended up partially pressing Till’s hand to his face as well. Till couldn’t help but laugh at this, “God, I stand by what I said. You are so cute.”
Ivan finally warbled out a small, “Shut up,” Before moving ahead of Till so the man couldn’t see his face. Till chuckled, watching as the man tugged him along through the alley. It was a beautiful sight, the string lights starting to turn on as the sun started drawing towards the horizon. Streaks of pink and orange began to color the sky—It was nearly time for Till to put his true plan into action, but it seemed like they had a little bit of time to spare before that.
And he knew exactly where they were going when Ivan’s eyes fell on a giant, cute black bunny with a little fang. Honestly, looking between Ivan and the bunny, they looked surprisingly similar, pulling a laugh out of Till’s throat. When Ivan looked at him with confusion, tilting his head, Till simply shook his head, “It’s nothing,” Although, with the way Ivan’s nose twitched a bit when he pouted in annoyance, Till had to admit the man actually was very bunny-like, “Alright, come on. Let’s try out this game.”
Unfortunately, Till had fallen short in luck when it came to this game. Ring toss. The first attempt, he hadn’t gotten even a single ring on the neck of the bottles. He was slightly embarrassed, but his stubbornness won out as he handed the stall owner a few more bills. The second attempt didn’t go much better, with him only managing to land one ring this time. He heard a muffled noise from next to him and looked to see that Ivan was covering his mouth, although it was unmistakable that he was trying to hold back a laugh.
“Oh, you’re laughing, are you?” Till muttered, his face red as he moved forward, digging his fingers into Ivan’s sides. The taller man was now fully laughing, and Till couldn’t help but smile along. He hadn’t been sure if Ivan was ticklish, but seeing the way he squirmed when Till casually put his hand on Ivan’s waist a few times to guide him, he’d had his suspicions, “I’d like to see you try and do better!”
After managing to move out of the range of Till’s squiggling fingers, Ivan finally managed to say, “Alright, alright, let me give it a try! I’m sure I can do better than you,” He teased. As he reached for his pocket to pull out his wallet, though, Till beat him to it, handing a couple more bills to the man running the stall, “Till! I can pay for myself, you know!”
“And what kind of date would I be if I made you do that, huh? Besides, you can count that as your prize if you do win,” Till pulled him in front of the stall, “Now, come on, before you run out of time!”
That seemed to snap Ivan back to attention, and he moved to stand in front of the bottles. He took a deep breath, and Till watched closely as Ivan’s eyes focused. Then, after a few seconds, Ivan sent one ring flying, then two, then the third.
All of them landed. Every single one.
“What the fuck,” Till said politely, and Ivan burst out laughing when he saw the expression on Till’s face. It certainly didn’t help that the man running the stall seemed to be making the exact same face, “That’s like…Abnormal, how the hell did you manage to do that? Have you ever seen anyone do that?” He asked the owner of the stall, who was collecting the rings from the bottles in a slight daze. Receiving a head shake in response, Till looked back at Ivan, “Are you an angel or something? Because that is some divine fucking luck,” He paused, “Okay, well, angel would make sense for you.”
Ivan flustered at that, “Stop that,” He muttered, weakly hitting Till on the shoulder before turning his attention back to the bottles, “They’re trick bottles. The rim is slightly wider than the regular bottles, so you have to throw the rings in a specific way. I saw a YouTube video explaining it once and then I got…Really obsessed with it for a while. So, I kind of taught myself how to win at ring toss?”
“...Well, what do you know,” Till murmured before looking at the man running the stall, “Damn, man, you just happened to have the absolutely wrong dude come over here. What are the chances of that?” The man still seemed slightly in shock at the situation, before asking Ivan what prize he wanted.
The dark haired man grinned and pointed at the bunny, but as soon as it was in his hands, he pushed it towards Till’s chest.
“What—?” Till took it, looking at it in surprise. Then, he looked back at Ivan, confusion in his eyes, “Ivan, what are you—”
“You got me one,” Ivan said, smiling, “It’s only fair that I got you one as well. Besides, your bunny and my bunny go well together, don’t you think?” He asked, pressing his grey bunny against the black bunny. Till was speechless for a moment, the cogs in his brains turning to try and process the absolutely adorable scene in front of him, “...Till? Do you not want it?”
Oh, hell no, “Nope, this is mine now,” He squeezed the black bunny close to his chest, he didn’t care how stupid it might have looked with the thing basically being half his size. He was never getting rid of this thing, “It kind of reminds me of you,” He added as a killing blow, watching as Ivan’s face turned redder. He was starting to worry that the man might turn into a tomato at some point, as adorable as he found it. Honestly, when he first met Ivan, he didn’t expect him to be the type to get easily flustered. But then again, Till hadn’t exactly been direct or this forward with him before. He had to admit, there was a charm to it—If he recalled correctly, it was called a gap moe…Or something.
“Well…” Ivan looked down at his own bunny, “This one reminds me of you as well…” Till kind of wanted to argue on that, how did that ugly little thing look like him—Did it just glare at him? He must have been imagining it—But then Ivan tugged it close to his own chest, hugging it gently and Till couldn’t find it in himself to argue. He also desperately wished he was in the place of that stupid bunny. Acorn would have pointed and laughed at him if he saw the levels Till had fallen to now, getting jealous of a plushie, “I’m going to call it Tillbun.”
“...Alright. Fine!” Till huffed, “I’m calling mine Ibanny, then!”
Ivan blinked, “Oh,” He said simply, “Tillbun and Ibanny…I like it,” He gave Till a soft, almost hesitant smile, “Do you?”
Till was dying. He was dead in fact. Somebody should dig his grave for him, this man was going to kill him, “Yeah,” He said hoarsely, “I like it, too,” In the corner of his eyes, he saw something light up, and recognized it as the lights of the giant Ferris wheel turning on. Looking back, it seemed that it had caught the attention of Ivan as well. Till’s gaze softened as he looked at the man, “...Wanna ride the Ferris wheel together? We should get in line now, I’m sure plenty of people are waiting. It’ll probably be dark by the time we manage to get on.”
Ivan looked at him, and smiled, an absolutely breathtaking thing, “I’d love to, Till.”
Till had been right in his assumption that they’d only manage to get on the Ferris wheel when it was dark out. After a long wait in line—Which was only made bearable by the conversations that they were having—Till found it much easier to open up now knowing the truth and having all of his suspicions dispersed. He wasn’t sure if Ivan had noticed the difference, but the man simply seemed happy to be there. Which was exactly what Till wanted. God, he really hoped Ivan had a good time with him. And also, perhaps it was a little mean to do the grand reveal when they were about a hundred feet in the air but at least that way, Till knew Ivan couldn’t run from him.
As they stepped into their carriage, Ivan carefully placed his plush bunny in the seat next to him, “So that he has a good view,” He explained to Till, and Till was doing his best to not squeeze Ivan out of pure cuteness aggression. And do about a hundred other things to the man—Genuinely, he must have been God’s strongest soldier because he was being tested. Instead, he carefully placed his own bunny across from Ivan’s, making sure that it was facing straight forward.
“So that he has the best view,” Till said pointedly, grinning as he leaned forward, resting his elbow on his knee to look at Ivan, “Just like me.”
“...Seriously, where did you learn these lines,” Ivan muttered, looking out of the carriage as it began to move, lifting into the air, “You didn’t sound like that—I mean, I just didn’t expect you to be so…” He seemed to cut himself mid sentence, but Till had a feeling he knew what Ivan was going to say.
You didn’t sound like that when we were texting.
“Hm, what can I say,” Till leaned back as he looked out the carriage as well, watching as they began to get further and further higher. He’d gotten lucky, it seemed like they would get to be at the top for a little while, “You make it easy to say things like that.”
Ivan was quiet, but the light flush on his cheeks was enough for Till to know that he was definitely affected, “...It feels almost unreal,” Ivan murmured, “When I came here, I had absolutely no expectations. I thought you would have sent me away the moment you realized Mizi wasn’t here,” Till frowned a little bit at that, “I couldn’t have expected all of this. You’ve been…Really kind,” Ivan looked at him as they nearly reached the top, “Thank you, Till. This has been…I haven’t felt this good in a long time.”
Till took a deep breath, “...I didn’t do this out of kindness, Ivan,” He said, “I did it because I wanted to. I’m a lot more selfish than you think.”
“You and ‘selfish’ don't really fit in the same sentence,” Ivan laughed a little at that, “You're kind, Till. Too kind, really. You really know how to make a guy feel special.”
“I wouldn't be doing it if you weren't special,” Till admitted, no hesitation in his voice. Ivan was special to him, and Till had absolutely no reason to keep that from him.
Ivan simply hummed in response as he continued to look out of the carriage. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he pointed to the sky, “Oh, it’s Orion's belt! I didn't think we'd be able to see it yet but—Wow, it's so clear from up here!”
Till smiled, “Is that your favorite constellation?” He asked, already knowing what Ivan's response to that question would be.
“It is one of my favorites,” Ivan admitted, “It was one of the first constellations that I learned to identify in the night sky, so I do have a soft spot for it. But my favorite would have to be—”
“—The Carina constellation. Your favorite star, Canopus, is in it. You always liked it because everyone overlooks it—Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, but Canopus has always been there as well, quietly and consistently shining bright.”
Till could see the exact moment when it clicked for Ivan. At first, he nodded, then his expression shifted to confusion as he opened his mouth, “Yeah, how did you know—” And then he stopped. Truly and entirely froze. He watched in live time as the realization hit Ivan, the man inhaling shakily, “...You knew?”
“Not the entire time,” Till smiled a little, “I didn't find out until today, actually. It was just a really unfortunate coincidence that happened to give you away. Otherwise, I don't think I would have figured it out—Well, okay, you were…You were dropping a lot of hints today. I might have figured it out eventually but certainly not this quickly. I started having my suspicions but I didn’t think it could have been true until it was outright confirmed.”
“I'm sorry,” Ivan's voice was hoarse as he looked down at the floor, “I'm so sorry, I—” His voice trembled, “I didn't mean to lie to you, I just…I was just messing around at first but then I really started to—I couldn't stop myself from liking you and I just didn't want you to leave—”
Till moved forward, crouching on the floor of their compartment as he took Ivan's hands in his own, “Hey, hey, you don't need to apologize. Breathe for me, come on. In and out, in and out,” He started to exaggerate his breathing a bit to help guide Ivan, “I really don't care, Ivan. Sure, I was a little upset at first, but it doesn't matter now. No matter how it happened, I still got to meet the real you. And I don't regret any of this, if it meant getting to meet you. Even if I met you under a different name, I still met you.”
“But I—” Ivan hesitated before continuing, “But I still lied to you! How can you not be mad at me, you were so open and honest with me, and I…”
“Okay, then,” Till looked directly into Ivan's eyes, “Every conversation I had with you over text as ‘Mizi’, was everything you said a lie? Was our friendship there a lie? Because if you say that it was, that you didn't feel anything, then I will let you go.”
Ivan shook his head, “No, none of it was a lie, I—!” He exhaled sharply, “All of that was real, all of my feelings, everything I was going through, my reactions to you…All of that was how I truly felt. I just…I couldn't bring myself to tell you the truth because I was scared you'd just stop talking to me if you found out I wasn't really Mizi. I just…I didn't want you to leave,” He looked down.
Till sighed, “To be honest, I might have been a bit more upset if I hadn't met your older sister today—”
“—You met Sua-noona?! When the hell did you meet my sister?!”
Till clicked his tongue, “Not the point, Ivan,” He said, and Ivan looked like Till had stolen the breath out of his lungs. It took Till a moment to realize why be he started laughing at the flustered the man in front of him, “God, you’re unreal, how can someone be this cute—” He sighed, composing himself, “Okay, look at me,” Sitting back in his seat, he leaned forward, “Ivan,” His voice was serious, “Remember when you said that you thought I would be disappointed to meet you in real life? I want you to ask me right now if I'm disappointed or not.”
Ivan swallowed, “...Are you disappointed now that you’ve actually met me?” He asked, his voice soft and fragile.
Instead of answering with his words, Till leaned forward, his hands coming to rest on either side of Ivan’s face. The dark-haired man’s eyes widened as he was pulled forward and as they reached the top of the Ferris wheel, there was a soft pressure against his lips. Till was kissing him.
Ivan was completely still, making a noise of surprise as his eyes widened, hands flailing in confusion and panic before finally settling on Till’s shoulders. Till made a low voice in his throat as he pushed forward a bit more, tilting his head to change the angle and—Oh, oh, that was it. The pressure was perfect and they fit together like a lock and a key, perfectly in time. Ivan let out a shaky little sigh, a sort of sound of relief as his eyes fluttered closed. He shifted a bit closer, their knees knocking against each other, Ivan finally responding to the kiss.
The taste of Ivan was divine, Till couldn’t get enough. His hand moved down from Ivan’s cheek down to his neck, sliding to the back of his neck and pulling him closer. Ivan let out a soft noise, and Till drank it up like it was the sweetest nectar, pressing with a little more force as he nipped at the man's bottom lip; He’d been wondering what Ivan’s lip glass would taste like. Finally, he’d gotten his answer—And it only made sense that he’d taste sweet, like strawberries.
He traced Ivan’s bottom lip with his tongue, feeling the prick of his snaggletooth against his own lip. He let out a groan at that, and Ivan made a little noise of panic, going to move back in worry. But as they pulled back a little bit, Till shook his head, “Come back here, you,” He murmured, tugging him back forward into another kiss. Ivan had moved forward a bit more now, responding to the kiss with a little more surety, his arms hanging loosely over Till’s shoulders as one of his hands tangled in the hair at the back of Till’s neck.
They traded kisses, soft yet intense—Only pulling apart at a loud sound in the distance and a spark of light in the sky. Ivan was the first to lean back, and his eyes lit up as he looked outside at the sky, “Till, look! Fireworks!”
Till grinned, “Yeah, they do them every year. I was worried that we wouldn’t be on the Ferris wheel when they started lighting them, but I guess luck was on my side this time. You know, I used to have pretty shit luck before I met you,” He looked at Ivan, “You’re pretty much my good luck charm.”
“Till…” Ivan huffed, his face red, “Really, you—You’ve already wooed me, you don’t need to keep saying things like…That.”
“Well, on the contrary,” Till smirked, “I think that’s all the more reason for me to keep being honest with you. You’ve had me thinking lots of things all day, you know? It’s been oh so difficult to keep it all inside, so you’re just going to have to deal with me continuing to flirt with you.”
Ivan couldn’t stop himself from giggling at that, “Oh, what a horrible curse that is, being flirted with by one of the most wonderful men I’ve ever met. How will I ever survive this?” He jokingly pretended to faint against the grey bunny next to me, “Tillbun, hold me!”
Till huffed, “I’m right here, you know,” He glared at the bunny, “I can hold you instead of that stupid bunny. Come here,” He grabbed Ivan by the thighs before dragging him forward to kiss him again. Ivan laughed against his mouth, and Till couldn’t help but smile into the kiss, his heart racing. God, he was so happy. Pulling back, he pressed his forehead against Ivan’s as he sighed, “I was surprised at first,” He admitted, “You really weren’t what I expected. But God, I am so fucking glad that Mizi gave me your number instead of hers. Because I would do this all over again if it meant getting to meet you and see you like this.”
Ivan looked at him, almost awestruck. It seemed like he was still trying to process that Till’s words were meant for him, the silly boy. Of course, they were meant for him, no one else in the world deserved them more than him. Then, hesitantly, Ivan moved forward and pressed their lips together again. This time, he opened his mouth, letting Till press in further, his tongue slipping in to tangle with Ivan’s. The carriage shifted slightly as Till pulled Ivan fully onto his lap, with the taller man yelping at the feeling of the swaying, tightening his grip on Till’s shoulders.
“Careful there, sweetheart,” Till murmured, pressing a kiss to Ivan’s shoulder as he stabilized the man in his lap, clinging to him.
“You were the one who pulled me over,” Ivan pouted, and Till couldn’t stop himself from leaning back in, kissing the pout off of his lips until Ivan was letting out soft noises of contentment. It was, however, getting harder to control himself with Ivan squirming on his lap, and Till knew the ride was probably coming to a close soon. After trading a few more lazy kisses, swapping spit back and forth until they were just pressing light pecks against each others’ lips, Till sighed with happiness, pressing his face into Ivan’s chest as the man ran his hand through Till’s hair.
Then, Till remembered something, “Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you about,” Ivan hummed in response, not pulling away, “That time when I said I had an art block and I asked for something to draw, was that really you trying to show yourself to me—” Ivan made a choked off sound and the hand in Till’s hair tightened to a painful point, “—Oh, ow, okay, okay, that hurts!”
“Shut up,” Ivan muttered, and his face was red as Till pulled him back to look at him. He buried his face in Till’s shoulder as he spoke, “I just—I really wanted you to draw me and I really didn’t want you to draw Mizi, so that was the only solution I could come up with! How else was I supposed to get you to draw me without giving myself away—I really wanted to see you draw me!”
Till was quiet for a bit, “...I have drawn you. As in, I drew more of you after that first time,” He face heated up at the admittance, but he pushed through it, “But I never really felt like I got it right. Probably because I was using photos of you as a reference,” He took a deep breath, “I’m sure I could do even better if…If you wanted to, I don’t know, come back to my place—”
Before he could finish his sentence, they both jolted as the carriage suddenly stopped. Neither of them had realized that the Ferris wheel had been slowing down and that now, they were at the bottom. The ride operator looked at them both with annoyance, and Ivan quickly scrambled back, seemingly realizing how they looked. Well, it was exactly what it looked like, but Till couldn’t help but sigh at the moment being interrupted and the loss of Ivan’s warmth.
They stepped out of the carriage, starting to walk away from the crowd in awkward silence. Whenever he glazed over at Ivan, the man would be looking at the ground, face red as he seemed reluctant to meet Till’s eyes, “...So, how are you getting home?” The silver-haired man asked, trying to break the awkwardness, “If you need a ride home, I can always drop you off—”
He cut himself off as a hand grabbed his wrist. Looking back, Till turned to see that Ivan seemed to be psyching himself up for something. After a few seconds, when Till squeezed his hand lightly in comfort, Ivan looked up, “Before we got out of the carriage, you were saying something. What was it?”
Till felt his face heat up at that, “Ah, it’s…” He scratched the back of his neck, “It’s nothing important, it doesn’t really matter…”
However, he was surprised when Ivan stepped closer to him, “No, I think it is important. I want to hear it,” There was a determination in his eyes, and that was all it took for Till to realize that Ivan knew what Till had been trying to say. He just wanted to hear Till actually say it.
Well, if that was what Ivan wanted, then who was Till to deny him?
He stepped closer, so close that Ivan’s breath fanned across his lips, “I want to show you all of my drawings of you,” Till spoke, quietly but firmly, “And I want to draw you in a way that no one else has seen. Would you let me?”
Ivan exhaled shakily, and then he leaned forward, pressing his lips to Till’s cheek. He moved towards Till’s ear and the shorter man shivered a bit at the feeling.
“Till,” Ivan whispered, “Take me home with you.”
The house was dark as they entered, moonlight streaming through the windows to give it a sort of enticing, blue glow inside. It was quiet as well, quiet enough that a slight awkwardness began to tinge the air. Maybe it was because the high of the festival was wearing off a little bit now that they weren’t in such a high-energy area, but Till couldn’t help but feel a little bit flustered at what was about to happen.
He hadn’t turned to face Ivan yet, going through the motions of locking the door behind them before tossing his keys into the bowl by the door where he always did, “So…” He started awkwardly, a slight crack in his voice, “My mom’s not home,” He blurted out, heat rushing up his neck at his own words.
Ivan seemed a little surprised by his words as well and he blushed too, visible in the faint light, “Oh, that’s—That’s good…” He murmured softly. Then, it seemed he realized what he’d just said and rushed to explain himself, “I—I mean, I would have been happy to meet her if the opportunity arose, I just—I mean that in our case, it’s just—”
He was blabbering a little bit, and Till couldn’t help but find it adorable. It was nice to know he wasn’t the only one who was nervous, and it seemed like Ivan wanted it just as much as he did. Stepping forward, he stopped Ivan’s rambling in its tracks by leaning up to press his mouth against Ivan’s in a slow, sweet kiss, one that was surprisingly chaste in spite of what they had come here to do, “You’re cute,” He said lowly, and chuckled as Ivan made a little strangled noise at that, “It’s a good thing my mom won’t be home until tomorrow afternoon. That means we’ve got the place to ourselves—And we don’t need to worry about any interruptions.”
There was no doubt about his intentions. Laid out bare in front of them both, it was now Ivan’s turn to make his move. And he did so slowly but without hesitation.
Leaning forward, Ivan pressed his mouth to Till’s, his eyes fluttering shut as the blush dusted his cheeks. He looked so beautiful in the moonlight that Till nearly forgot to respond to the kiss, getting distracted by how long the man’s lashes were instead of closing his own eyes. He shifted slightly, one of his hands moving to settle lightly on Ivan’s hip as one of Ivan’s hands came up to cup his face, tilting his head. The first kiss was soft yet deep, a fitting of their lips together like puzzle pieces—But as they continued to trade kisses, the tone shifted slightly.
Till moved closer, shifting his grip on Ivan’s hip to slightly slide up to his waist, unintentionally dragging the sweater up a little bit. Ivan made a soft noise into his mouth, the slight smack as they parted, coming back together and changing the angle of the kiss. Till’s hand slid back from Ivan’s waist to his back, gently pressing him forward so that they were now pressed together. His other hand settled on Ivan’s hip again, and as Ivan let out a small gasp at the way Till’s hand squeezed his hipbone, Till pressed his tongue into Ivan’s mouth.
Ivan’s snaggletooth dug into his lip a little bit, but Till couldn’t say he hated it—In fact, he really loved it. His tongue moved alongside Ivan’s for a moment as the man sighed into the kiss, his body relaxing. Ivan’s other arm came up, hanging loosely over Till’s shoulder as he shifted, both arms meeting behind Till’s neck. With a quick press of their lips together, Till pulled back, exhaling shakily as he opened his eyes slowly.
The sight in front of him made his heart stutter and a heat began to grow low in his abdomen. Ivan’s eyes were wide as he breathed hard, looking at Till like he still couldn’t believe the man was in front of him, face completely red. Looking at his neck, Till noted in his mind that Ivan’s nape also seemed to get red when he was flushed. He desperately wanted to know what other parts of Ivan got red. He hoped he’d get to find out tonight.
Pressing his forehead against Ivan’s, he asked quietly, “You’re sure about this? We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Ivan nodded and Till chuckled softly, “Words, bunny. I want to hear you say it.”
Ivan shuddered a bit at the pet name, but he looked into Till’s eyes, “...I’m sure,” He replied, “As long as you are as well,” Till didn’t deem that with a verbal reply, moving forward to kiss him again.
When he pulled back, he couldn’t help but ask the question that had been running through his mind, “Have you…Have you done this before?” He asked hesitantly, “Not that I’m judging if you have! I just—I just wanted to know…” He bit his lip. He wasn’t judging but…Some small jealous part of him really hoped that he was Ivan’s first, just like Ivan would be his first.
To his surprise, Ivan blushed at this, “I…No, I haven’t with—I’ve never gone all the way with anyone,” He looked to the side, “I’ve kissed guys at parties when I’ve gotten drunk but nothing that…It never meant anything. Not like this,” He looked back at Till hesitantly, “What about you?”
Till smiled, “Same as you. I’ve messed around a bit, but never anything serious. And I’ve never done this with anyone before,” His expression became a bit sheepish, “I’m kind of glad that we’re each others’ firsts.”
“Why?” Ivan asked, a small, teasing smile playing on his lips, “Would you have been jealous if I had been with someone before?”
“Yes,” Till admitted honestly, “I wouldn't judge you for it but I would have been jealous of anyone else who got to see this side of you. But I’m glad that I get to have you all to myself, especially now that I’m not going to let anyone have you,” He grinned.
Ivan stared at him before turning bright red and smacking his shoulder lightly, “You—You can’t just say things like that!”
Till shook his head, “I don’t see why not. It’s true. I think I might actually kill anyone who tries to take you from me, you know?” And before Ivan could splutter out a response, he leaned forward and pressed another kiss against the man’s mouth, effectively stealing the words and breath from him. Ivan gasped in response, but he didn’t hesitate to kiss back, pulling Till in closer by where his arms rested over his shoulders.
The silver-haired man slid his hands to Ivan’s hips, gripping them firmly and began to lead him backwards, not pulling away for a moment. He nipped at the man’s soft lips, having practically licked off all the gloss by now so all that was left was the addicting, sweet taste of Ivan himself. Till’s tongue pressed further into that wet cavern, exploring it like he was a sailor upon the seven seas, making sure to commit every movement, every noise, every feeling to his mind. Ivan pulled back, gasping for breath for a second but Till didn’t hesitate, surging forward to kiss him again.
He couldn’t stop himself, he was addicted to the feeling of Ivan against him, and his hands slipped under Ivan’s sweater to press against the warm skin underneath. Ivan let out something that was near a squeak as he slightly tripped on the doorway leading into Till’s bedroom. Noticing where they were, Ivan made a noise of confusion, as if not knowing how they’d gotten there, but Till could navigate his house with his eyes closed. Like hell he was going to pull away from kissing Ivan just to get them into the bedroom.
As they entered the bedroom, Till’s hands slipped up to Ivan’s waist and he pulled back to look at it. His hands covered a large amount of the man’s waist, and he squeezed to see if he could get his fingertips to touch. Not entirely, but pretty damn close, “I’ve been thinking about this waist all day. Even longer than that, actually,” He murmured, rubbing his thumbs into the skin, “When I first saw you at the concert, I think I spent an absurdly long time looking at your waist. It’s so small…It fits perfectly in my hands, you know?” Till looked up at Ivan, “I think this was meant to be.”
“You…” Ivan shuddered, “How can you just say things like this…”
“Because I mean everything I say,” Till replied simply, “Well, if I’m being honest, the first thing I thought when I saw you at the concert was ‘how can a man have such a sinfully tiny, slutty waist’ and I have to say…” He squeezed Ivan’s waist again, pulling yelp out of the man, “My thoughts haven’t really changed. On top of that, you wore this pretty little thing for me. Did you remember that I liked you wearing it? Were you hoping I’d do something like this?”
Ivan squirmed, “I didn’t—I don’t know,” He gasped out as Till’s began to press kisses to his jaw, moving slowly down towards his neck, “I thought maybe…Maybe you’d want to hang out with me more if I looked pretty—”
“You’re so silly, Ivan,” Till murmured against his skin, “You’re pretty no matter what you wear. But I would have wanted to hang out with you no matter what. Though, since you put so much thought into what I might like, I should reward you for your thoughtfulness, shouldn’t I?”
With a quick movement, Till had turned them so that his own back was facing the bed. Sitting down on it, he looped his fingers through the belt loops of Ivan’s denim shorts and tugged him forward. Ivan stumbled with a little exclamation, hands gabbing onto Till’s shoulders to steady himself as he landed on the man’s lap.
Till didn’t hesitate to grab him from under the thighs, pulling him closer so that they were pressed up against each other, “Ah, wait—” He paused as Ivan sounded worried, “Aren’t I…Aren’t I heavy? I don’t want to hurt you accidentally,” Till wanted to coo. It was adorable that Ivan was worried about being too heavy for Till when Till had every intention of asking Ivan to sit on his face. Later, though. They’d have to work up to that one.
“You’re not that heavy, I’m stronger than I seem,” Till said casually, and feeling Ivan squirm on his lap, he raised his eyebrow at that. It seemed like Ivan liked that. Hm, that was something for him to keep in mind, “Besides, I’d be happy to die suffocated by you, specifically your thighs—”
Ivan quickly pressed his hands to Till’s mouth, an expression of embarrassment on his face, “Okay, okay, enough! You’re—” He huffed, “You’re not what I expected at all. I didn’t expect you to be so eager…”
Till pressed a kiss against the palm of Ivan’s hand before pulling his hand down, “Of course, I’d be eager. It’s you,” He said with blatant honesty, and Ivan let out a strangled noise before pressing his head into Till’s shoulder, hiding his face. Till didn’t let that stop him, though, his eyes falling on the pale, unmarked skin in front of him. Slightly sliding the shoulder of Ivan’s sweater further down, he began to press kisses to the soft skin there. He began to trail kisses up and down the line of Ivan’s shoulder, the action seemingly innocent at first until he began to suck lightly Ivan’s flushed neck.
He didn’t expect Ivan to go tense against him and let out a small whimper against his ear. He froze as well, and Ivan seemed about to pull back. No, that was unacceptable. Till needed to hear him make that noise again. He began to suck more insistently at Ivan’s neck, grazing his teeth over the skin. This time, Ivan rewarded him with a half-choked moan, the prettiest noise that Till had ever heard.
“Fuck, your neck is sensitive, isn’t it?” Till muttered, watching as the hickeys bloomed against Ivan’s pale skin, “I had noticed your neck gets red easily, I already thought that was adorable but…Fuck…” He brought one hand up to the nape of Ivan’s neck and began to rub circles against it.
Ivan panted into his shoulder, keeping his face hidden as he squirmed and gasped, “It’s—You, don’t—” He babbled, and Till had no idea what he was trying to say, but he felt the way Ivan’s body stiffened against his own when he dug his nails into the back of his neck, “F—Fuck,” Ivan cursed, and Till sunk his teeth into Ivan’s shoulder. His cock was already straining against his pants, and he was sure that Ivan could feel it as well.
He brought his hands down to Ivan’s thighs again and pulled them so close that he could feel the dark-haired man’s arousal against his abdomen, “You know, your legs have been driving me insane all day,” Till muttered, dragging his hands up and down the soft skin. Ivan made a questioning noise, “They’re so sexy,” He dug his fingers in, “It took me everything I had in me to not openly ogle you like a creep but you made it so hard. These shorts are killer, you know?”
“I don’t…” Ivan gasped at the double sensation, Till sucking and biting at his shoulder and collarbone while gripping onto his thighs, “What did I…”
“You just existed,” Till replied, “It’s so unfair that you exist and you’re mine and other people get to look at you,” Okay, yeah, maybe he should tone it down, he was starting to be a little too honest—
And Ivan moaned at that, louder than anything. For a moment, there was silence, and Ivan turned so red that Till would have been concerned the man was going to pass out if he hadn’t been staring at him so intently that Ivan shifted nervously, “I—”
Within seconds, Ivan’s back hit the bed and Till was hovering over him, a dark look in his eyes, “Mine,” He growled, and Ivan flushed even more, letting out a little whimper, “You like it when I say that you’re mine,” Till couldn’t stop himself from grinning at that, something a little bit wolfish and predatory, “Because you are, right? He cooed, “My pretty baby. All mine.”
Ivan let out a shaky breath before reaching up, cupping Till’s face in his hands and pulling him down to kiss him. Till went without a fight, why would he ever fight this? Pressing their mouths together, Ivan pulled back and looked into his eyes, “...I’m all yours. Only yours.”
“...Fuck,” Till cursed, “You can’t be saying things like that to me, sweetheart, I’m going to do horrible things to you and I want to be nice.”
“...Do it,” Ivan said, a determination in his voice, “I want everything you can give me,” Till was still for all of about three seconds before he dove down, forcing Ivan’s mouth open as he looked to devour every inch of the man’s mouth, nipping and sucking at his lips. He didn’t hesitate to grip Ivan’s wrists, pushing them down against the bed as he situated himself over the man, Ivan’s thighs on either side of Till’s legs.
He began to kiss his way down Ivan’s neck, fingers gripping at the bottom of the yellow sweater, “Let’s get this off of you, pretty,” He murmured, lifting the sweater up slowly. Ivan responded with an eager nod, and Till chuckled, “Cute. You’re so cute, Ivan, I want to eat you right up,” Ivan flushed at that, letting out a quiet noise. He leaned up, raising his arms so that Till could pull the shirt off of him. It was quickly discarded to the side, and Till’s eyes roamed the expanse of pale skin in front of him, “Fuck…” He murmured, “Look at that. God, baby, your chest…”
Ivan tilted his head in confusion, “My chest? What about it?” Till stared at him, wondering if the man truly had no idea how alluring he was. Shaking his head, Till muttered something under his breath—Honestly, he was glad that Ivan hadn’t heard it clearly because he was sure he had something absolutely abhorrent and perverted. Instead, he leaned back down, trailing kisses down the hollow of Ivan’s neck, feeling the vibrations of Ivan’s throat against his lips when the man moaned.
“You’re perfection, sweetheart,” He murmured, making his way down from Ivan’s neck in between his very generous chest, “Your tits are insane,” Ivan let a half-affronted, half-strangled noise at that, “I’m sure some girls must be jealous of you. And now everyone gets to be jealous of me because I get to have these tits to myself,” He rested his head on one of Ivan’s pecs, looking up at him through his lashes. Ivan opened his mouth to speak, but every time he went to say something, Till pressed a kiss to the swell of his chest, sucking the soft skin into his mouth, allowing red and purple to blossom. Anything Ivan had to say then was promptly tossed aside, replaced with breathy, loud moans.
Till’s other hand came up to tease at Ivan’s other chest, cupping the warmth in his hands, massaging it as he turned his head, his tongue dragging along Ivan’s nipple. He sucked it into his mouth, dragging his teeth over the nub, multitasking as his other hands found Ivan’s other nipple, pinching and twisting it lightly. Ivan cried out, his eyes glistening with unshed tears as he watched Till play with his body. His back arched off the bed every time Till sunk his teeth into the skin, tugging at the nub with his teeth. Ivan’s hips jerked up against Till, and the drag of their arousals together was so good that Till couldn’t hold himself back from grinding down as well.
“Ha—ah, Till, feels good—!” Ivan choked out, his tears slipping out of his eyes at the feeling of Till slowly dragging their lower halves together, “I need—Need more, please—!” Till surged up to kiss him again.
“So good, baby,” He hummed against Ivan’s mouth, “You’re so good for me, I’ll give it to you, alright? I’m going to make you feel so good,” Ivan nodded quickly, eyebrows coming together as he looked up at Till with the most bullied expression. Fuck, and they hadn’t even really done anything yet. Till felt like a bad person for the fact that Ivan’s tears were turning him on more, but as he moved on instinct to lick up the tear tracks on the man’s face, the groan that Ivan let out spoke volumes about how he felt.
As Till left Ivan’s chest alone, one of his nipples standing erect with how he’d rolled it between his fingers and the other one glistening and red from his ministrations with his tongue, Till did wonder if Ivan could have just come from having his chest played. It seemed like the boy was very sensitive—Honestly, he had been surprised by just how easy it was to overwhelm Ivan. Of course, before today, Till’s entire perception of Ivan had been through his Instagram, and seeing some of the shoots he’d done, Till had expected him to be more confident, more experienced…
Not that he was complaining. He wasn’t complaining at all. He was, in fact, elated by the discovery that he could make Ivan fall apart so easily.
He began to kiss a trail down Ivan’s abdomen, dragging his tongue along the firm abs there as well. Another thing he liked—Clearly, Ivan was strong. Those muscles weren’t there just for show, but somehow he still let Till control him, manhandle him, take the lead. It felt so good, having a big, strong man falling to pieces under him.
Finally, his lips pressed to the skin right above the shorts that had been driving Till crazy all day. Well, the shorts that were on the legs that had been driving Till insane. He looked up at Ivan for a moment, pausing to make sure they were still okay. Seeing the little nod that Ivan gave him, he took the hook of jeans, tugging the button undone with his teeth.
Even a little thing like that had Ivan throwing his head back, letting out a whimper. When Till made a sound of confusion, Ivan panted out, “You’re—You’re so fucking hot, Till,” It came out of him in a whiny, punched out tone, and Till couldn’t help but chuckle as he dragged Ivan’s shorts down his long, long, smooth legs.
“I could say the same about you too, bunny,” He replied, pressing a kiss to Ivan’s ankle. Till slightly lifted up the other man’s leg, making his way back up to his destination while leaving a trail of soft kisses and bites against the clean skin until it wasn’t so clean anymore. Licking his lips at the sight of Ivan’s arousal straining against his underwear, the front damp from where his cock was leaking, Till tugged that fabric down as well so that Ivan was completely bare under him.
It wasn’t lost on him, though, that he was still fully clothed while Ivan was fully undressed. He liked that a little too much—Though he decided that it was something to ponder more on when he didn’t have a gorgeous man looking up at him through wet eyes, practically begging to be ruined.
“Even your cock is pretty,” He murmured, bringing his hands around the circumference of Ivan’s length, “Every part of you is so, so pretty, my pretty baby,” Ivan arched off the bed again, his mouth open as he let out little pants of pleasure, eyes rolling back and hair sticking to his forehead from sweat. His hips thrusted up into Till’s hand instinctively, looking for his release—But Till wanted to play with him for a bit longer.
Holding his hips down, Till began to lean forward before pressing a kiss to the crown of Ivan’s dick. The dark-haired man’s eyes went wide, “Wait, Till, you don’t have to—Oh!” Till ducked down taking more of Ivan’s cock into his mouth and down his throat. Ivan’s hands shot up towards his mouth, trying to cover the loud, almost desperate noise that escaped him. Till pulled off of Ivan’s cock.
“If you cover your mouth, I’ll stop,” He warned the other man. Ivan looked conflicted before finally, he slowly brought his hands back down to the sides of his body. Just for good measure, Till grabbed his wrists, holding them down as he grinned, “That’s a good boy,” Ivan jolted like he’d been electrocuted when Till’s mouth enveloped his cock again, and he began to bob his head up and down fast. It took him a few times to find a proper rhythm, he hadn’t done this before but…Well, he was a young man with needs. It wasn’t like he hadn’t watched some gay porn before.
But that could never compare to the sight in front of him. Ivan squirmed and whimpered, his eyes rolling back every time Till took his cock all the way into his throat—Ivan was a pretty decent size, a hefty weight. Although, he wondered how Ivan would react when he found out what Till was packing…
“Till, I’m—Ngh, slow down, I’m gonna—!” Ivan’s hands had broken free of Till's grasp and they were now buried in his hair, partially forcing Till to take more of Ivan’s dick into his mouth and thrusting his hips up. Ivan was being a bit of a brat, but Till supposed he could let it go. At least, this meant that he was making Ivan feel so good that he couldn’t control himself, “Till, you need to get off, I’m—Ha—ah!”
Till knew exactly what he was saying and he had absolutely no intention of stopping. His grip on Ivan’s thigh tightened as he began to rub circles into the skin, looking up at Ivan with a darkness in his eyes. Do it, come for me, the words were practically emblazoned into his gaze and as their eyes met, Ivan finally tensed up, letting out a loud moan as his cock jerked in Till’s mouth. The silver-haired man didn’t pull off for even a second, even as Ivan’s release filled his mouth. It was a taste that he hadn’t expected, but fuck, it came from Ivan. That was more than enough to get him to swallow.
Finally, when the dark-haired man stopped twitching, Till pulled off. A little bit of Ivan’s release dripped out of the corner of his mouth and he brought his thumb to it, swiping it towards his lips and catching it with his tongue, “You’re delicious,” He said with a smirk as Ivan looked up at him, struggling to catch his breath.
“You’re…” Ivan wheezed, “You’re crazy…And I thought I was the insane one for lying about who I was this entire time—You’ve got me breathless on your bed within a day of meeting me. Do you—Do you usually do something like this?”
“Nah,” Till leaned down to kiss him, pushing his tongue into Ivan’s mouth. The man let out a moan, and Till could tell that it was from the fact that he could taste himself in Till’s mouth, “This is all you, sweetheart. I wouldn’t be doing this for anyone else. Besides…” He smiled, “This wasn’t my first time meeting you, not really. I’ve known you for months.”
Ivan looked away, “You should be a lot more upset about it than you are,” He muttered, “I didn’t expect you to…I don’t know, I didn’t expect any of this.”
Till hummed, “Well, in that case, this is me getting my revenge,” He dragged his hand down Ivan’s body, “I’m going to break you down until you can barely remember where you are, I want the only thing you say to be my name from now on. By the time I’m done with you, you won’t be able to walk anywhere, especially not away from me.”
“You—” Ivan sighed, “You’re such a blockhead.”
“Mhm, sure,” Till leaned down to nip at his neck, “By the way, if you’ve had enough of a break, then let’s continue,” He pulled back to see Ivan looking at him in surprise and slight fear, “What? You thought I was done with you? How adorable…” He began to kiss his way back down to where Ivan’s spent cock twitched. Dropping a kiss to that, he moved further down, grabbing Ivan’s thighs and throwing them over his shoulder.
Somehow, even Ivan’s hole was pretty. Okay, maybe Till was biased, but it was still the prettiest hole Till had ever seen! Granted, he had never seen any in real life, but that was just technicalities! He took a deep breath before blowing lightly against Ivan’s rim, making him twitch a bit. Then, he moved forward and laved his tongue over the prize in between Ivan’s legs.
Ivan jolted at that, a little bit panicked, “Wait, Till, no, don’t—You don’t have to do that, I…Ah…” Till didn’t stop, continuing to press his tongue further into Ivan, testing the give of his hole. Ivan’s thighs tensed around his head and for a moment, he wondered if they wouldn’t tighten around him, “It’s not—We can just do it normally, you don’t have to—F–Fuck, ngh—!”
Till pulled back, “The more you say I don’t have to do something, the more I’m going to do it,” He threatened, before moving back in, this time pressing his tongue into Ivan’s hole deeper than before. This pulled a long moan out of Ivan and he felt that man’s thighs squeeze at the sides of his neck and head a bit. When he gasped for air, Ivan seemed to realize what had happened, stammering out apologies and starting to say that they should do something else—To which, of course, Till replied, “If I die because your thighs suffocated me while I ate you out, then I died the most glorious death in the world.”
“You’re—” Ivan’s breath hitched, “You’re absolutely shameless.”
“Yeah,” He pressed a kiss to Ivan’s rim, “Because I like you. Why should I hide how much I adore you, hm? I’ve got you now and you’re mine, so I’m just showing you,” With that, he moved back in to eat Ivan out with even more vigor, practically tongue-fucking the man. Till knew his hair was probably going to be an absolute mess by the time they were done with how Ivan was running his fingers through it and tugging it. Absolutely worth it to hear the sinfully lewd melody that was escaping the man’s lips.
Ivan tugged at him lightly to get his attention, “Till, wait—” He said, “I—I feel bad—” This made Till stop immediately, looking at him with worry in his eyes, “No, no, not like that! You’re doing good, you’re doing very good!” Well, that was nice to hear. Till nuzzled at the inside of Ivan’s thigh, pressing kisses and sucking lightly at the skin there, watching with glee as Ivan tried to focus on what he was saying already, “I just—I already got to come and you’re still…” He glanced down at Till’s pants where he was obviously straining, “I want to make you feel good as well.”
Till sighed, “You are. I like making you feel good, it does a lot for me than you think,” But it seemed like Ivan really wanted to do more, “Alright, come here. How about this—” Instead of saying what he was planning, Till laid himself down on the bed before tugging Ivan over him. Ivan made a noise of confusion as he tried to climb onto Till’s lap, “Not like that, bunny. Turn around.”
It seemed that once Ivan had faced the direction Till had been thinking of and began to get pulled over the man, he realized what the silver-haired man’s intentions were and turned bright red, “Till, no,” He whined, “It’s embarrassing—Besides, I really will crush you like this.”
“Like I said before, if I die getting crushed by your thighs—Or your ass in this case, because damn, you’ve got a nice ass—” Till traced along the curve of the skin admiringly, “Then it will be my greatest honor to die like that. Besides, this is most convenient. I can eat you out and prep you and you can suck me off.”
“How do you say these things so shamelessly,” Ivan muttered, ears still red but giving in to Till’s whims as he positioned himself with his knees on either side of Till’s head, lowering himself. The dark haired man leaned forward, popping open the button of Till’s jeans before hauling—Because, he literally had to haul—Till out of his underwear, “...Fuck, you’re—You’re really big.”
Till grinned as he heard both the fear and awe in Ivan’s voice, “You like it?” He asked. Instead of responding, Ivan leaned forward to grace his cock with small kitten licks, “Fuck, that’s good, baby—” The dark-haired man seemed to take this as a go ahead, fitting his mouth around Till’s dick and starting to bob his head. The wet warmth was addicting, slick and hot, it took everything in Till’s power to not thrust up into Ivan’s mouth. Besides, he had something else to focus on.
Gripping Ivan’s behind, he gently pulled the man down so his hole was directly above Till’s face. Ivan pulled off of his cock for a moment, looking back in concern, “Are you—Are you sure? I’m not exactly the lightest person…If you need me to move then just, uh, smack my thigh or something…”
Till hummed, acknowledging Ivan’s words before wrapping his arms around Ivan’s thighs and dragging him down hard. Ivan yelped as he felt the wet little organ pressing against his rim, fucking in and out of his walls. At first, Ivan seemed too tense, probably worried about crushing Till—The sweet thing—So, Till snuck one of his hands under Ivan’s thighs and began to stroke the man’s cock.
The result was instantaneous, with Ivan letting out a choked off groan as he relaxed against Till’s mouth. Not only that, he began to shift his hips, grinding down on Till’s tongue trying to press it further into himself with little whispers of, “Please, please, please—More, need more—”
It did catch Till by surprise when he felt two hands wrap around his cock—Honestly, he’d thought that Ivan would be too out of it to suck him off but he certainly wasn’t complaining. The man bobbed his head up and down, taking about half of Till’s length into his throat while stroking the rest of him in time with his head movements, “Shit, you’re good at this, sweetheart,” Till groaned as he let his head fall back against the sheets, “Such a natural…Hold on for one second, yeah?” Ivan seemed to stop for a moment, giving Till his full attention, “I just need to get the lube and condoms.”
Till reached under the pillow above him to grab the bottle that was tucked underneath there. However, Till’s gaze moved forlornly over to the dresser where the condoms were. He had to admit, he really didn’t want to get up—But before he could say anything or move, Ivan spoke up, seemingly having realized the problem, “I’m…I’m clean. If you’re okay with it, then…I want to feel you inside me. Properly.”
“Shit,” Till cursed, pressing a kiss to the soft skin on the inside of Ivan’s thigh, “Yeah, of course, baby, as long as you’re sure about this,” When Ivan nodded, he sucked a few more hickeys into Ivan’s skin before popping open the lid of of the lube. It did take him a few more minutes than it should have to get it on his fingers and Ivan’s hole, sees as he was doing his best not to come in Ivan’s mouth, “Ivan, you’re doing a really good job but—Fuck, I wanna come inside you.”
The dark-haired man let out a whine at that before fully pulling off his cock. Looking over his shoulder at Till, he looked absolutely sinful, face red from both the exertion and the tears that were now building at the corner of his eyes. His plump lips were swollen and reddened, glazed with what Till was sure was his own pre-cum. Fuck. He needed to fuck Ivan like yesterday.
Within seconds, he’d pushed Ivan down, the man falling against the bed with a yelp and whining as he was yanked over—Dear God, he did like to be manhandled, fuck, fuck, fuck—And Till was pressing one finger into him. It seemed like all the work he’d done stretching the man out with his tongue had worked, seeing as Ivan’s hole gave way pretty easily, still somewhat tight but soft and moldable. Till pumped his finger a few times before adding a second one, “God, you’re taking these like a champ,” Till muttered, leaning up to kiss at Ivan’s ear, “I can’t wait to see you stretched around my cock.”
Ivan did hiss slightly when Till pressed the third finger in, causing the silver-haired man to slow down a bit, “I’m okay,” Ivan reassured him, tightening his arms around Till’s neck and pulling him closer, “Just…Your fingers are longer than mine and…And they’re rougher, so it feels like a lot more.”
“Yeah?” Till was going crazy, he felt like he was going to pass out from how turned on he was, “You finger yourself a lot, sweetheart?” He didn’t even get a response as that seemed to be the exact moment that he pressed his fingers in at just the right angle to hit that specific bump that he’d been looking for. Ivan cried out, his nails biting into Till’s shoulders even through his shirt and Till grinned, “Found it.”
“Hah…Ah, Till, can’t—” Ivan moaned, tears escaping his eyes with ever precise thrust against his prostate by Till’s fingers, “So much, I need—Need you inside, please—Ngh, Till, just fuck me!”
Ivan probably needed more prep. He really probably needed more prep. But Till was at his wit’s end and besides—Ivan was the one who asked for it, right?
So, Ivan was the one to blame when Till rapidly slicked up his engorged, swollen cock, pressing it to Ivan’s hole and slamming in with one thrust. The high pitched noise that Ivan let out at that was nearly a scream, and Till sunk his teeth into Ivan’s shoulder to stop himself from moving, “Are you…Are you okay?” He panted, his hips jerking ever so slightly.
“Ha…ah…Give me a second—Mngh—” Ivan shifted slightly, wrapping his legs around Till’s waist as he tried to steady his breathing, his hole fluttering around Till’s cock as he attempted to relax, “You’re so big, Till…”
Till groaned, “You can’t say shit like that, baby, or I won’t be responsible for what I do to you. Is it okay for me to move?” After a few seconds, Ivan nodded. And with permission obtained, Till went to fucking town. He shifted himself so he was on his knees to get a bit more leverage, leaning down to cage Ivan between his arms as he pulled himself out and thrusted.
Ivan’s back arched off the bed as he keened, tears falling from his eyes with every noise forced out of his throat. Till’s rhythm was smooth yet brutal, reaching so deep inside Ivan that he could even make out a slight bulge in his stomach. His eyes caught on it, and it seemed that Ivan had noticed as well, seeing as he pressed his hand over top of it and moaning, “You’re so—Ah, so deep inside me—”
God, how was Ivan real?
“Your waist is so fucking tiny,” Till groaned, wrapping his hands around it to yank Ivan back down onto his cock, “You were made for this, weren’t you, sweetheart? You were made to take my cock, fuck—So pretty, so good—Ah—” He lifted Ivan’s hips off the bad just a little bit as he continued to pound into him, and the shift in angle had Ivan practically shrieking, “I’ve got you, fuck, am I making you feel good, bunny?”
“Good—So good, fuck, Till!” Ivan sobbed, his hands moving from Till’s shoulder to the back of his head, “So—So deep, hngh—” Till swallowed Ivan’s sobs as the dark-haired man pressed them together in a desperate kiss, tightening his legs around Till’s waist. Gasping for breath, Ivan pulled back as he let out a whine, “Thank you, thank you—Love you, Till, I love you—Hah—”
Till paused at that, his eyes wide, “You love me?” He asked. It felt like an insane notion, that someone like Ivan, beautiful, smart, kind, just everything that Till could have ever asked for in a person—Loved him back.
“I—” Ivan’s eyes widened, “I didn’t mean to—” His breathing picked up a bit as a slight panic seemed to settle in, “I’m sorry, I—It just slipped out, you don’t have to say it back. Just forget I said that, I’m so sorry, Till—”
Oh, hell no.
“Don’t tell me to forget that,” Till growled, slamming back into Ivan without a warning, the other man yelping in surprise, “Don’t tell me to forget that when it’s the best thing I’ve ever heard. Fuck, Ivan, I love you, too, you idiot. So much, more than I ever thought I could love someone, so don’t you dare tell me to forget that.”
“R—Really?” Ivan looked up at him with wide, disbelieving eyes, “You do? You love me?”
Till shook his head, “You’re so stupid it’s adorable,” He said fondly, “I said it over and over, didn’t I?” He steadied himself and began to thrust in with more vigor, feeling his orgasm starting to build low in his belly, “You’re all mine. I’d do anything for you, I’d do anything to keep you. I’m so lucky that I found you and now, I’m never letting you go. Of course, I love you.”
He wasn’t sure if Ivan was actually hearing his words anymore, his head thrown back in pleasure as little whimpers and whines escaped his mouth. Feeling the way Ivan’s legs tensed around him, Till had no doubt that the man was probably close to his orgasm as well. Leaning down, he rutted into him, grinding as deep as he could while murmuring, “I love you,” Over and over against his ear.
“Till, I’m—Ah, gonna come, Till, please—” Till didn’t think Ivan knew what he was begging for, but that was okay. Till knew what Ivan needed and he grinned down at him as he wrapped his fingers around Ivan’s cock, jerking him off at the same speed he was fucking him. He’d considered trying to make Ivan come untouched but he’d been so good so far. Maybe they could test that out next time.
“That’s it,” Till cooed against Ivan’s ear, “Good boy, come for me,” With those words, Ivan shuddered as a loud, draw out moan left him, his cock jerking in Till’s hand as his release spurted out, dirtying his hand and all the way up to his chest, along with over Till’s hand. His hole squeezed down around Till’s dick and the feeling had Till reeling, “Fuck, fuck, just a little longer, baby, I’m almost there,” He began to rock into Ivan, his hips jerking out of rhythm as he chased his own release.
Ivan whimpered as Till hiked his hips up and practically jackhammered into him, “Till,” He rasped out, “Fill me up…I want to feel your cum inside, please, I want it all—” Oh, God, Till was screwed. This was completely unfair, Ivan couldn’t just say that and expect Till to be sane about it—
“God, you’re unbelievable, I’m never letting you go,” Till gasped out, “You want it that bad? You want my cum? Fuck, bunny, I’ll give it to you, I’ll fill you up so good—” He was so close, and just as he crested over his climax, Ivan grabbed his face with both hands and yanked him down into a deep kiss as he spilled inside Ivan, pumping him full with a loud groan. He jerked his hips a few more times, fucking his release deep into Ivan, where it could stay as his claim on the man.
Both of them were breathing heavily, coming down from the high of their orgasms when Till looked down at Ivan, brushing aside his sweaty hair to drop a kiss to his forehead. Ivan made a confused little noise, and Till couldn’t stop himself from laughing.
“You did so well,” He assured, “You were perfect, sweetheart, I’m so lucky I got to do this with you, especially since it was both of our first times.”
“I’m glad it was you,” Ivan whispered back, his voice hoarse, “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you, so I’m happy that it was you.”
The silver-haired man couldn’t stop himself from leaning down and capturing Ivan’s lips in a kiss, a gentle, slow one, pouring all of his love in through his mouth. He giggled a bit at the feeling of Ivan struggling to keep up with the kiss, the man’s eyes heavy from exhaustion and sleepiness, “Get some rest,” He murmured, peppering Ivan’s face with kisses and watching adoringly as the man’s nose scrunched up, “I’ll take care of the rest.”
Ivan hummed, “Mhm…Love you, Till.”
Till didn’t bother to hide the lovesick grin on his face, “Love you too, Ivan.”
When Ivan finally roused from sleep the next morning, the sun was already peeking through the slightly open curtains, golden rays dancing over the walls and the man’s body. The covers were partially pulled down so that his upper body was bare, and he shifted slightly, yawning and stretching his arms.
Unfortunately, stretching also meant that he felt the aftermath of the previous night, and Ivan winced in pain. There was a low chuckle from in front of him, and he blinked a couple of times. His vision focused as Till rounded the bed, a glass of water in his hand and a small bottle of painkillers, “I thought you might need these,” He said, unable to keep the grin off of his face.
“This is entirely your fault,” Ivan muttered as he took the bottle from him and downed two of the tablets, washing it down with water, “You don’t need to look so smug about it.”
“Well, I don’t see why not,” Till hummed, “I take responsibility for my actions, you know? I cleaned you up and even made you breakfast—You were just asleep for a lot longer than I expected,” He gestured to the table next to the bed and Ivan noticed that there was a plate of scrambled eggs and sausages. It did look really, really good right now, seeing as Ivan was starving.
Ivan huffed as he reached for the plate, “Well, forgive me if I need to recover from that monster of a thing in your pants,” He looked pointedly towards Till’s crotch, “Seriously, how do you walk around with that?”
Till laughed, shaking his head before reaching over and grabbing his sketchbook, “I told you I wanted to show you all the drawings I made of you, didn’t I?” Ivan nodded, Till had said that before. The silver-haired man flipped through the notebook and pushed it towards Ivan, “Go ahead.”
“Are you sure?” Ivan’s eyes widened, “I know sketchbooks can be a private thing…”
“Who else would I show if it wasn’t you?” Till shrugged, as if that statement didn’t have Ivan blushing furiously, “I trust you. Besides, that entire notebook so far is basically filled with you anyway, if anyone should be seeing it, it’s you,” And as Ivan carefully flipped through the pages, he found that Till was right. The first drawing in the notebook was the one that he already knew about, the one that Till had sent him. But as he flipped through, he found more and more drawings of him and every page he flipped only served to make him more and more flushed. A lot of the drawings were using some of his modeling shoots as references but here and there, Ivan would see a drawing that seemed completely original, “You really are a miracle,” Till said softly, watching Ivan’s expression, “Seeing a picture of you somehow singlehandedly broke me out of my art block.”
Ivan made some sort of strangled noise of embarrassment that brought a giggle out of Till and as he flipped to the last page that was drawn in, he blinked, “Wait, is that…”
“You looked so pretty like that this morning,” Till said softly, “I couldn’t help myself. Besides, I said it when I brought you here. I wanted to draw you in a way that no one else had ever seen you. And I know that no one else has had the opportunity to see you like this before. And no one else will.”
The dark-haired man shuddered a bit at the possessiveness in Till’s voice, but he couldn’t help but drag his finger along the page lightly. Till was truly such a talented artist, but it was even more mind-blowing to Ivan that this was how Till saw him. Till drew him in a way that made him look almost angelic, and Ivan was now truly understanding what people meant when they said that being loved by an artist is the greatest blessing in the world.
“I’m so happy I met you, Till,” Ivan smiled at him, a soft and genuine thing, vulnerable, “And I’m so happy that you gave me a chance.”
Till clutched at his own chest dramatically, as if bracing his heart, “You can’t just smile at me like that and expect me to be okay with it!” He gasped, making Ivan giggle, “Unfair. You’re so unfair, how does your laugh sound so cute? I’m warning you, Ivan, keep this up and I’m going to capture you and keep you trapped here forever.”
Ivan hummed lightly, “I wouldn’t mind that, if I’m being honest,” Till looked at him, before muttering something about Ivan being too cute for his own good and then leaning in to capture his lips in a slow, sweet kiss.
They traded kisses like that lazily for a little bit, Till moving Ivan’s plate back onto the bedside table to lie down next to him, their legs tangled together under the blankets. There was no rush or hurry, just the two of them basking in each others’ presence.
When Ivan finally pulled back, he sighed, “I should…Probably get ready to go. It’s almost noon already and you said your mom would be back this afternoon.”
Till was quiet for a moment, and then he spoke slowly, “You know…This is completely up to you but, I’m sure my mother would love to meet you,” Ivan’s eyes widened as he sat up, wincing a bit at the sensation but looking at Till, “I’ve never introduced her to anyone and seeing as you’re my first boyfriend, well…I would like you to meet her. But only if you feel comfortable with it.”
“...Are you sure?” Ivan asked worriedly, “I don’t know, I just—I would love to, don’t get me wrong, I just…Don’t want you to regret it. Besides, what if she doesn’t like me, maybe we should wait—”
“Ivan,” Till cut through Ivan’s rambling, “I’m sure my mother would love you. You’re perfect—She’ll probably be planning our wedding once she meets you, if I’m being honest.”
Ivan blinked, “Oh,” His face turned slightly red, “I mean…What are we going to tell her? We did just get together. You only actually met me yesterday, I’m sure she wouldn’t be appreciative of that. Or our entire situation with the texting…”
Till leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Ivan’s forehead, “You don’t need to worry about that, just leave it to me,” He grinned.
“Eomma, you remember that I was supposed to meet up with Mizi yesterday, right?” Till asked as helped his mother unload her bags from the car.
“Of course!” Io smiled, “There was such a rush to get the plane and the airport was so hectic, I meant to call and ask you—How did it go? I hope you had a lot of fun!”
Till laughed a little nervously, “Well, I, uh, definitely had a lot of fun, it just…It wasn't exactly what I expected? So, um, I actually ended up meeting her best friend and one thing kind of led to another…I get along really well with him, so…” He opened the front door to the house, putting his mother’s bags to the side as he called out, “You can come out now, Ivan.”
After a few seconds of hesitation, Ivan peeked out from behind the wall leading to the kitchen, dressed in some of Till's clothes—Which Till had to force himself to focus on the situation at hand and not on how good Ivan looked in his clothes—And offered Io a small smile, “Hello, um, Io-ssi?” He looked at Till nervously, “My name is Ivan, I'm…”
Io's eyes lit up in recognition and she clapped her hands together, “Oh, You're that boy Till keeps drawing!” Her reaction had both Ivan and Till both looking surprised, although Till's face was quickly turning bright red. Ivan wasn’t too far behind him—Usually he wouldn’t have been all that flustered by being recognized by someone, he was a model after all, but it was a little bit shocking to be embarrassed by his boyfriend’s mother.
“Eomma!” Till whined, “You know, this would have been so embarrassing if I hadn't already shown him the drawings! And he would have probably thought I was a creep!” He sighed. Ivan didn’t have the heart to tell him that he probably would have been flattered regardless of whether Till had already shown him the drawings or not.
“It is still somewhat creepy, Till. Sweet, but a little weird,” Io said, and Till groaned something unrecognizable, covering his face with his hands, “Alright, alright, eomma will be quiet now. What were you going to tell me?”
Till coughed a little bit before clearing his throat, “Finally. Okay, so, eomma, meet Ivan, Mizi’s best friend. He’s, uh…Also my boyfriend now.”
Ivan seemed to look nervous at this, looking between Io's face and his feet as if steeling himself for her reaction. Something in both the mother and son's heart melted at that, “Well, you sure chose a pretty one, didn't you, Till?” Io smiled as she stepped forward, “It's lovely to meet you, Ivan. Although…” She frowned, “Till, didn’t you say that two of you met yesterday?”
“It's complicated,” Till muttered, “And a whole thing to explain. Just…Let's just say we've known each other for a lot longer than we thought we did. We didn't really see any point in waiting when we both already knew how we felt about each other, so…”
“I see,” Io hummed, “Well, whenever you're both ready to explain, I'm happy to hear it. Now, I smell something absolutely delicious in the kitchen and I know my son can't cook like that—” Till squawked at that, “Ivan, dear, did you cook?”
Ivan blinked, “Ah, yes,” He nodded, “Till mentioned you'd probably be tired after your flight so I thought maybe you'd appreciate someone making lunch for you. I didn't have much to work with but I made some bokkeumbap if you would like to try it?”
Io nodded her head approvingly, “Yup, you've definitely chosen well with this one, Till,” Ivan flushed at her words, “Don't mess this up for either of us, kiddo.”
“Eomma,” Till groaned, pushing her by the back towards her bedroom, “Go wash up and then come eat lunch. You're always saying such silly things,” Io laughed as she patted Till on the shoulder and offered Ivan a quick hug.
“I'll be back in a few minutes,” She assured them, and as the bedroom door locked behind them, Ivan let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that first impressions had gone pretty well.
A hand wrapped around his waist and tugged him close, “That went as well as we could hope for, didn't it?” Till murmured against Ivan's ear before pressing a kiss to his cheek, “My mom loves you already, I told you she would.”
Ivan shifted slightly, turning to wrap his arms around Till's shoulders, “Hm, I guess you were right. Although, we're going to have to explain the entire situation to her some day, you know…”
“Let's cross that bridge when we get there, yeah? How about we just enjoy ourselves for now?” Till leaned in to press their mouths together, and Ivan sank into the kiss easily, letting a soft sigh of contentment at the way Till's fingers pressed into his waist. However, they were both interrupted as Io's voice came out from the bedroom—
“Oh, and Till? Next time you're having your boyfriend stay the night, I'd prefer you let me know in advance just so that I know you're safe. Also, does Ivan's family know he stayed with you—”
Both Till and Ivan went bright red at this, Ivan burying his face in his hands and Till yelling, “Eomma, please, I will warn you next time but I’m a grown man, it’s embarrassing to tell you every time I’m having my boyfriend stay overnight—” After a few seconds, though, Ivan raised his head and his face had gone pale, “Ivan? You okay, sweetheart?”
Ivan rushed to get his phone out of his pocket, looking at it frantically. Till didn't understand the panic until Ivan finally spoke the next few words.
“I didn't tell Sua-noona where I was going last night!”
Oh. Oh, shit. Yeah, so the likelihood of Till getting murdered by a tiny, overprotective older sister had now just skyrocketed through the roof. Especially since he could see that there were several missed phone calls and message notifications popping up on the unlocked phone.
“Well,” He sighed, “If there's anything worth being murdered by Sua for, it's having the chance to fuck you. I can die happy now.”
“Till!”