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“So, what did you want to talk to me about?”
Woojin slurped from his strawberry milkshake as he looked at Gunwoo intently — this guy called him up this afternoon, and it was the very first time Woojin heard him so chatty. There wasn’t any moments for Woojin to ask him what was going on, because Gunwoo was rambling and rambling on about ‘how there was something crazy he had to tell him about’ and that ‘they needed to meet up right now’, and Woojin had to wriggle himself through Gunwoo’s words to tell him that he had time for dinner this evening. He was craving No Brand Burger since the start of the week, but hadn’t had any excuse to go — with Gunwoo being so excited to share whatever news he had that he offered to pay for dinner completely, Woojin made sure to take advantage of that.
Gunwoo was so giddy for a reason only he and god knew, but he was quiet — his mouth was full of burger, after all. Woojin waved his hand at him. “Chew a bit quicker, will ya? I’m really curious.”
And Gunwoo did as he was told. He swallowed his food and began speaking too soon, as he choked on the bits of food that went down his throat. Woojin clicked his tongue, shaking his head with this endearing smile because if Gunwoo was getting so worked up over something, it had to be important, and fun, and good, and whatever was good for Gunwoo was good for Woojin. Except winning the boxing tournament, but Woojin would let that one slide.
“Don’t choke, I can’t hear the news if you’re dead.”
Gunwoo pounced on his chest a few times until he calmed down, then looked at Woojin. He wiped the sauce off the corner of his lips when Woojin pointed out he looked like a clown, then finally, finally, he could tell Woojin what was going on.
“I…” he started.
“Seriously? Haven’t I waited long enough?”
A chuckle escaped Gunwoo’s lips. “Sorry, hyung. I’m going on a date.”
Woojin’s jaw dropped. “You?!” he asked, to ask, to confirm whether what he heard was correct. Sure, Gunwoo was sweet, was pretty strong, had all the right values and qualities of a good romantic partner, and not to mention had a pretty great ass — Woojin would be lying if he said he didn’t take a peek anytime they were working out together — but what Gunwoo lacked was… Well, the social aspect. All the experience. Romance was a completely foreign concept to this man, so it was incredibly surprising that Gunwoo finally joined the dating field. Perhaps even a little disappointing. “You scored yourself a date?”
With pride in his eyes, Gunwoo nodded. As he brought his burger to his mouth, Woojin slapped it back down onto the tray.
“Bro, there’s no time to eat right now. How did you meet? What’s their name? What are you going to do? When are you having this date?”
As Gunwoo pouted, he fixed his burger, as all the ingredients had fallen out of the patty when it hit the tray. But, he understood Woojin’s excitement — Gunwoo was excited too. There was a light in his eye that Woojin had never seen before, a mix of passion, excitement, and anxiety all together, creating a shaking and smiling mess out of the boxer. Gunwoo licked the sauce off his fingers.
“We met outside the gym, actually,” Gunwoo began, his hands curled up on his knees, swaying a little left to right when he thought back to it. It was adorable. “She told me she saw me everyday before she went to work and also every evening after she was finished. And apparently, she thought I was…” Gunwoo hesitated to continue, but thankfully, Woojin was the master of social cues.
“Cute?” he filled in for him, and Gunwoo grinned at the word, tilting his head a little, his eyes focused on the corner of the table as he recounted the memory.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice almost cracking. “She asked if I was free anytime this week and if I wanted to have dinner together sometime.” Then, Gunwoo widened his eyes. With a spooked expression, he looked at Woojin. “Wait, that means she asked me out on a date, right?”
Woojin had leaned back in his chair during the conversation, but Gunwoo’s clueless question brought him back with his arms on the table. “No, it wasn’t,” he replied with a straight face.
The gasp Gunwoo let out was comical. “It wasn’t…?” Before he had the chance to wallow in his blunder and embarrassment, Woojin’s grin gave him away — “Just kidding.” He leaned back in his chair again. “That was totally her being into you and asking you out. So where does she work? What’s her name? How old is she? When are you going on this date?”
Gunwoo sighed in relief, fiddling with the wrapper of his burger. God, he would not have known what he’d do if it was all just a prank. “She works at the office a few buildings next to the gym, but I forgot the name of the company. As for her name, um…” Gunwoo scratched the back of his head, letting out a nervous laugh. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?!” Woojin exclaimed, getting a few curious glances from the customers around him. After looking around, Woojin leaned in. “What kind of person doesn’t know the name of the person he’s going on a date with?”
“Um, the kind of person who’s younger,” Gunwoo said.
“Oh? She’s older?”
Gunwoo nodded. “She’s actually older than you. When I introduced myself, she asked me about my age. Then she told me she was 28, so there was no need to call her anything but ‘noona’.”
Again, Woojin’s mouth dropped open, but this time he made sure to cover it with his mouth. “Yo, this woman has game. You better not mess this up, because I’m looking forward to meeting her.”
Gunwoo chuckled. “That’s why I’m here, hyung… I don’t know what to do.”
“Ah… I see,” Woojin nodded, crossing his arms again. “You’ve come to the right place. I’ll teach you everything there is to know.”
He raised his eyebrows when Gunwoo let out a scoff. “What?” Woojin asked, looking at Gunwoo hiding his smile behind his hand.
“Nothing, it’s just… You don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Just because I don’t have a girlfriend doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about! Do you want my help or not?”
Gunwoo sat up straight, nodding profusely, determination spread across his face as Woojin let out a little laugh.
“Okay. So have you settled on a day yet?”
“No,” Gunwoo said, shaking his head. “She said she was free any day of the week after 6 PM, when she gets off work. Preferably when I’m not sweaty from working out, she added.”
“Makes sense. And what about the weekends?”
“Well, she said she was free all weekend, but she usually reserves them for her friends.”
“So weekends are a no-go.”
Gunwoo tilted his head. “How do you know? She said she was free all weekend too.”
Woojin looked at him, furrowing his eyebrows, not sure if this man was playing dumb or simply really this inexperienced. Or he just didn’t understand social cues. It was probably the last two. “Well, she says she does stuff with her friends on the weekends. If her friends make any plans while you already have a date, she might cancel on you. Imagine how you’d feel if we were planning on working out, but she asked you on a date during that time. Any normal person would cancel the workout session — I mean, I would — but you wouldn’t really like that, right?”
“Right,” Gunwoo said, focused as if he was taking notes. “Then when should I…?”
Woojin paused for a bit, thinking. “Do it on your rest day,” he then said, pointing at Gunwoo. “That way you won’t be sweaty and stinky when you go. When’s your rest day?”
“Tomorrow.”
“So you go tomorr— Tomorrow?!” Woojin raised his eyebrows. “Wait, really? I didn’t realise it was so soon.” He’d been slacking off his own training for a bit — maybe it was time to get started on that again. Perhaps he’d find anyone cute to take out on a date as well.
“You don’t think it’s too soon?” Gunwoo asked, a fearful expression on his face. “I mean… I’m scared that if I call her and ask her if she wants to go for dinner tomorrow, she’ll say no, because it’s a bit too soon.”
His expression softened when Woojin seemed unbothered by it.
“Don’t worry. It’s why she placed it in your hands in the first place. You call the shots! Don’t worry about it.” Woojin finally allowed himself to continue eating his burger, believing that everything would fall into place. “And where are you planning on taking her?”
He waited for Gunwoo’s response as he devoured his burger at full speed, but when he realised that Gunwoo hadn’t said anything yet even after he crumpled up his empty burger wrapper, he looked at him.
“You good?” Woojin asked.
“It’s just…” Gunwoo pulled on the collar of his sweater, letting out a sigh. “I don’t really have a lot of money to… you know, take her anywhere fancy.”
That was right — neither of them came from a place with money. Suddenly, Woojin felt bad for letting Gunwoo take the paycheck this time. No Brand Burger wasn’t particularly expensive or anything, but it would still hit Gunwoo’s wallet. And as a good gentleman, Gunwoo would have to pay for tomorrow’s dinner date with this mysterious office noona as well, so Woojin couldn’t let him treat him today.
“I’ll get today’s dinner,” Woojin said. “You save that money for your future dates with her.”
“Dates?” As in, plural? Gunwoo was already shaking in his boots thinking about the first one, yet Woojin was already putting it in his head that there will be a second one and third one and fourth one and… “But I still haven’t decided where to take her on the very first one.”
There was only one answer in Woojin’s mind. “It’s easy,” he responded. “You cook for her.”
“Oh!” His mouth shaped into an O and Gunwoo nodded at the idea. He could do that! That wasn’t too scary! He’d been helping his mum cook since he was a child and more often than not prepared meals for his mother at home. The recipes were already spreading through his mind. “But I live with my mum. Um, I can’t just bring over a random woman.”
“Then you go to her house.”
Only the idea of it was enough to paint Gunwoo’s face bright red. Woojin couldn’t hold back a smile. God, this man was so cute. Huh? Who said that.
“I can’t just go to her house!” Gunwoo exclaimed.
“Why not?” Woojin asked.
“Because… Because, well, it’s just…” To save himself the embarrassment, Gunwoo finally took a bite of his own burger that had unfortunately gotten cold. It hadn’t lost its taste, though, so he chewed the burger to prevent him from having to speak any further. Woojin laughed.
“I agree, it’s kind of forward to just invite yourself over to her house… But if you tell her the reason, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Otherwise you can think of a compromise. For some reason, I don’t think she’ll turn you down even if you told her you only wanted to come over to fu—”
“Hyung!”
Woojin stuck out his tongue.
He watched as Gunwoo ate his burger at a much slower rate this time. Woojin was fine being the one at word, though — he was used to Gunwoo simply listening to everything he said. Woojin started telling him about past dates he went on, what worked for him and what didn’t. A lot of women enjoyed it when Woojin took the initiative and made choices about where and when the date was, and that all they had to do was to enjoy their time together. Perhaps it was the same for mysterious office noona too, despite her being older than Gunwoo. Or was she testing him in some way? Woojin did recall the time he went out with an older woman, but for the first week, she let him handle everything to see if he was mature enough. He was, so then she started to take the lead more, which was great and all, but Woojin didn’t think she took him seriously after all. He decided to keep that story to himself.
When Gunwoo finally finished his burger, he nearly folded the wrapper and placed it on his tray. Woojin pointed at his mouth.
“You got sauce on your mouth again.”
Gunwoo licked his lips. “Gone?” he asked.
“No, on the left.”
Gunwoo licked the left corner of his lips, but Woojin shook his head. He took a napkin from their table and wiped the sauce off Gunwoo’s mouth, dabbing the tissue on his face a little more times than necessary. Then took the napkin to wipe his own mouth.
“That wasn’t my left,” Gunwoo laughed.
“Whatever, it was someone’s left,” Woojin said, scratching his head as he dropped the paper on his tray, eyes focused on it before Gunwoo took his attention again.
“Anyway, do you really think that if I call her tonight and ask her if I can come to her house to cook for her, she’ll say yes?”
Woojin stared at him for a second without saying anything.
“Hyung?”
“Yeah? Huh, oh, yeah. No, yeah, trust me, it’ll work out, I promise.”
He looked at the wide grin on Gunwoo’s face and how happy the reassurance made him. Woojin couldn’t help but smile, but it felt like the smile he gave Gunwoo wasn’t as genuine as he could make it.
“Got it, I’ll call her when I get home. Or maybe not when I’m home. I don’t want my mother to hear it.” Gunwoo grabbed Woojin’s tray and shoved all of the empty packages on his, then stacked them. “You were serious about paying for dinner, right?” he asked without looking at Woojin.
“Of course,” Woojin responded, his head in the clouds. “The man’s gotta pay for the date.”
“Hm?” Gunwoo looked at him.
“Hm? I’m saying I’m paying for our dinner so you can pay for your mysterious office noona’s dinner.” Liar.
“Thanks, hyung,” Gunwoo smiled, standing up from his seat to throw away the trash. Woojin followed him, grabbing his jacket from the chair and handing it over to Gunwoo as they walked outside.
As they walked towards the bus stop, Woojin grew increasingly curious about this woman. Her name, her appearance, her company — Gunwoo spared little details about anything of her description, so Woojin had to ask. It was just out of curiosity, no other feeling at all.
“What does she look like, by the way?”
Gunwoo turned to Woojin, smiling. “Pretty.”
Woojin scoffed. “Obviously she is! Anything else?”
“She’s shorter than me,” Gunwoo said. “She always wears a suit to the office. And her hair is in a ponytail most of the time.”
Woojin waved his hands at him. He was just describing every single office worker in Seoul ever. “Just send me a picture of her when you get the chance,” he said.
They reached the bus stop, but as soon as Woojin sat down, Gunwoo’s bus was coming their way — he didn’t even have time to sit down and chat with him. As the bus doors opened, Gunwoo looked at Woojin and held his thumb up.
“I’ll tell you how it goes,” he said. Woojin nodded, waving as Gunwoo stepped inside the bus, looking for a seat next to the window. Gunwoo waved at Woojin as the bus left him all alone at the bus stop.
He took this moment to think about what the hell just happened, because this wasn’t really how he usually felt around Gunwoo. He encouraged him to go out with mysterious office noona, he really did, and he was definitely happy for him. Just that other part of him that was afraid of having to give up Gunwoo, and it wasn’t friendship that Woojin was thinking of.
Ah, Woojin already knew he liked men. He just didn’t think Gunwoo would be one of them.
( . . . )
The bus was rather deserted — only two other passengers were inside. Gunwoo took out his phone and went through his contact list. Mysterious office noona had saved herself in his phone as a cherry blossom emoji. His thumb hovered over the dial button, with his heart pounding in his chest, as he took a deep breath. Then, he held in his breath as he pressed ‘call’.
A few seconds later, Gunwoo heard her voice in his ear.
“Hello?”
It felt like his chest was about to explode. “Ah, um, noona, it’s me, Gunwoo.”
“Ah, yes, Gunwoo! What is it? Have you decided on the date?”
Gunwoo gulped, then scratched the back of his head. “Yes,” he said, but he couldn’t bring himself to say much else yet. What would she think about him inviting himself to her house, promising her to cook dinner? What if she hated the idea? Or what if she didn’t like his cooking?
“Tell me,” she said.
It was now or never. “Tomorrow would work out for me, since it’s my resting day and I won’t go to the gym,” Gunwoo said, his hand inside his pockets, pulling and fiddling with a loose thread on the inside of his jacket. “I was thinking that maybe…”
“Maybe…?” It sounded like she already knew where this was going.
“I could maybe cook dinner for you tomorrow night,” Gunwoo mumbled.
“What did you say? I couldn’t hear you.”
“Ah, sorry, I said I want to cook dinner for you tomorrow.” It was embarrassing to say it again. “But, um, my place isn’t ideal, because I live together with my mother, so it’d be a little awkward and such… So I was wondering if I could maybe come over to your house. But! It’s alright if that’s too soon and too fast, we can think of something else if you’d like.”
His cheeks flushed red hearing her let out a chuckle into his ear. What a sweet laugh.
“You want to cook for me? That’s adorable. Of course! I’ll text you the address, okay? Do you know what time you want to come over?”
It worked? It worked! Gunwoo covered his smile with his fist, swaying back and forth in celebration. “Since you get off work at 6 PM, would 8 PM work for you?”
He could hear her smile through the phone. “Yes, that’s perfect. Do you need me to get groceries or anything before you get here?”
Gunwoo shook his head as if she could see. “No, that’s okay, I’ll get everything I need. All you need to do is enjoy the meal.”
Another chuckle in his ear. “You sound confident. Okay, if you say so! I’ll see you tomorrow at 8 PM then.”
“See you tomorrow, noona.”
The call ended as the bus neared Gunwoo’s stop. When he got out, he could physically not stop smiling — he was looking forward to it, and he hoped that everything would turn out okay. He’d have to tell Woojin about this later...