Chapter Text
Every single morning of Oh Sion’s life plays out exactly the same.
At 6:30, his alarm goes off. And Sion, grumbling all the while, has to fumble for his phone on his nightstand to turn the damn thing off. It’s a shrill, ear-shattering sound, mostly because he has the tendency to sleep like the dead and there’s been way too many close calls for him to risk using a normal alarm anymore. His neighbors have complained on more than one occasion. Sucks for them.
After tracking down his phone and swiping around until the ringing is turned off, he sits up in bed. Spends a good second contemplating his life, and more importantly, contemplating going back to sleep. Which he can’t, of course, much to his disdain. So after a good five minutes of staring off into space and blearily going through today’s mental checklist, he stumbles out of bed, stretching out his back and yawning, as he makes his way to the bathroom. He pisses, brushes his teeth, slaps on some moisturizer and the least amount of skincare he can get away with. He stumbles back to his room. He gets his gym bag together and pulls on a tank and sweats. Today’s are gray. Of course.
He’s still half-asleep by the time he makes it to the kitchen. Luckily breakfast has been made for a couple days now by the ahjumma who stops by every Sunday to meal prep for him. He heats up eggs and sausage and grimaces his way through electrolytes and protein power in a smoothie. To make that shit taste good, he’d have to actually be able to eat things that taste good. Which he isn’t allowed to do, lest he wants to get berated by his coach. Or even worse, Daeyoung. God forbid he gives the kid any more ammunition to give him hell while Sion runs through his reps.
At least he’s still allowed to have coffee. Coffee fixes everything.
And so once he’s done eating, he bundles up in his winter coat and a scarf and heads out the door with his gym bag. It’s only 7 AM - the sun slowly rising in the sky, the world bathed in heavy blue light. He only has to walk two blocks to his favorite cafe, the place that Sion considers to be the most integral part of his morning routine and also the only thing that stops him from wanting to die from the monotony of his rigorously consistent daily schedule.
Oishii, the Japanese bakery-cafe hybrid, was heaven sent for him specifically.
Most likely.
“Good morning!” Ryo greets him when he comes in. He’s smiling as he always is, leaning against the counter in his green-but-not-Starbucks-green apron. Ryo can’t be any older than 20 years old, a college student, and yet Sion has never seen anyone else work the counter. “Hi, Sion-ssi. Your usual?”
“Morning, Ryo. And yes, please,” Sion says. The human interaction wakes him up, getting him to smile as he pulls out his wallet. Ryo hums, typing into the cash register.
“Riku hyung made a new batch of cookies, if you wanna try some,” he mentions, wiggling his eyebrows. “Regulars can get ‘em for free. And you’re one of our favorite regulars.”
“Ah,” Sion says, a little bashful, his ears burning red. Both of the only two people who work here regularly say things like that to him, and yet it never makes him feel any less embarrassed. “Sorry. I’m on a diet.”
He hands his card over. Ryo takes it with a pout.
“You’re always on a diet.”
Sion laughs. “My bad.”
The receipt is printing when Ryo shouts in Japanese through the back door to the kitchen, and within five seconds, Riku is standing in the doorway with an armful of cookies. Oishii’s owner, baker, and coffee extraordinaire. The angel who saved Sion’s life with his sizeable, yet also affordable iced americanos.
“What’d I tell you about yelling!” Riku scolds Ryo, before he turns to Sion with a smile. “Hi, Sion-ssi. Cookie?”
They do this song and dance every single morning, and yet it somehow never gets any easier to turn the baker down. Half because of how damn the baked goods always look, half because Riku always stares up at him with wide, pleading eyes when he offers. Sion can feel a bead of sweat forming at his hairline as Riku fixes him with a pouting gaze.
“Sorry,” he smiles. “I’m on a-”
“The diet, still?” Riku asks, exasperated. And while Sion has never gone to the trouble of telling either Oishii worker that he’s actually a professional baseball player and no, he can’t indulge in a cookie every morning, it’s always entertaining to see both of them unable to grapple with the idea of someone on a long term diet, as that’s been his excuse since he started coming here three months ago. They both act like dieting is akin to a sin.
(Of course, Sion could easily tell them his job, and they could even more easily find out about said job by turning on a baseball game on TV. Sion is a well known figure in Mokpo, after all. But sometimes it’s just more fun this way.)
So Sion pats his stomach. “One day.”
Riku looks him up and down, his bottom lip jutting out. “Fine,” he says. “I’ll get the americano, you stubborn man.”
Sion just grins and waits by the counter as Riku gets to work on his coffee.
From what he’s gathered over the past three months, Riku opened the cafe up late last year, and Ryo is his only part-timer. Which, well, makes him a full-timer. But the two of them seem to handle everything just fine, as Riku always has a steady supply of baked goods in the back and Ryo always greets everyone with a smile.
Sion never quite understands why Riku always makes his coffee when Ryo brews everyone else’s, but what does he know about how cafes work? And he’s not complaining - the coffee tastes good.
(That… amongst other things. Namely the fact that Riku’s smile sends Sion’s stomach tumbling whenever it’s aimed at him. But that’s unimportant.)
“You’re an addict,” Riku hums when he passes the drink over. “I’ve never seen anyone look so happy over coffee.”
“Why, you’re complaining?” Sion smiles as he takes a sip. The drink is so fucking good, caffeine waking him up. Finally. “I can always go somewhere else.”
“As if,” Riku says, jutting his hip out as he crosses his arms. “Like you could find this cute of a barista anywhere else.”
And…
“Are you talking about me?” Ryo asks, batting his eyelashes.
Riku shoos him away. “You’re, like, twelve.”
Sion should be used to this by now.
Riku has the tendency to say stuff like that to him. A sweet treat for a sweet guy? Or would you like me with your coffee? He usually writes some inane pickup line on Sion’s cup, too.
He looks down at today’s: Are you Wi-Fi? Because I feel a connection :)
Huh.
Sion has never given much thought to any of it, mostly because Riku has been like this for the past three months. Batting his eyelashes, sly. Sometimes even shy, mostly when Sion sneaks up on him, but that’s only happened a handful of times. Usually Ryo is the one greeting him and Riku comes out to pretend to flirt with him for a few minutes before fleeing back to the kitchen. It’s a solid part of their routine as a customer and employee, and is therefore now a solid part of Sion’s morning. It was a little jarring, at first, especially since Riku didn’t seem to know that Sion was, indeed, the pride of Mokpo and the Kia Tigers. But he’s gotten used to it over the months - being unknown and the back and forth. The batting of Riku’s eyelashes. How he teases him.
Because that’s what it is. Some pretend thing, some good, light-hearted teasing, something Riku does to get close to him and have him come back everyday, which Sion does. Whether or not that has to do with the flirting is up for debate. A debate he very purposely pretends doesn’t exist in the first place.
“Stop! You’re ridiculous!” Ryo whines, because in the few seconds Sion zoned out, Riku has somehow gotten him in a headlock. “Sion hyung, help me-”
“You can’t just call people hyung, you little twerp,” Riku scolds, mussing up his hair. “You didn’t even ask him.”
“He’s a better hyung than you are-”
“Take that back right now or you can kiss your paycheck goodbye-”
“I don’t mind,” Sion says. He feels his face redden when they stop bickering and turn to stare at him. “I mean. You can call me hyung if you want.”
For a second, there’s no reaction from either of them. But then Ryo’s expression widens into a grin. He turns to Riku, smug as all hell.
“See?”
Sion expects Riku to start pouting, as he always does when Ryo wins over him in these little tirades. But somehow, this only makes Riku frown. He turns those pleading eyes back on Sion.
“What about me?” He asks. “Can I call you hyung?”
And, well. Well. To say he wasn’t expecting that, of all things, would be the understatement of the century.
Sion sputters.
Riku is probably a good few years younger than him, given that Sion is 32 and Ryo has never treated Riku as more than an annoying older brother, and Ryo can’t be older than 20. And it’s not that the age difference makes him feel shy, he’s just not used to being anyone’s hyung besides Daeyoung and Yushi. And when it’s Riku…
Well. He doesn’t know why it feels different coming from Riku. But it just does. In a way he can’t describe.
And yet those wide, kittenish eyes are staring up at him, so Sion crumbles, like, immediately. “Sure,” Sion croaks. “Why not.”
So now both boys are grinning. They look evil.
“Well, then, Sion hyung,” Riku says. “Thank you for the privilege.” And then both workers laugh when Sion goes bright red.
He doesn’t stay too long after that. Riku has to get back to the kitchen and a few customers come in, distracting Ryo, and Sion is quick to flee when given the opportunity. He feels a little flushed, for some reason. He puts a couple thousand won in Ryo’s tip jar (“thanks, hyung!”) and rushes out, cradling his coffee to his chest as he hails a taxi to the gym. He sits in the back in the cab and sips on his drink, willing his red ears away.
It gets stuck in his head. The echo of Riku’s voice calling him hyung. He doesn’t know why. It’s nothing particularly odd, is it? Right?
He’s being weird. Sion must’ve not gotten enough sleep last night.
Yushi is always telling him that he’s losing it, mostly when he thinks Sion’s being annoying. Because Yushi’s favorite insult is calling him old and senile, never mind that their age difference is only six years and they’ve known each other since Yushi was practically still in diapers. But now Sion’s wondering if maybe his best friend is right. Maybe he is losing it. After all, why would he be so flustered over someone calling him hyung? Never mind that ahjussi might be more apt?
His stomach flops over. There’s the tiniest prickle of Yushi’s voice in his head: I told you so. What, exactly, the metaphorical Yushi in his head was right about, he’s not sure. It’s weird.
He decides to not dwell on it, not really wanting to figure it out after all.
-
The second Sion walks through the gym’s front doors, Daeyoung is already on him with a wide, conniving grin on his face. “You-”
“If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it,” Sion cuts him off, beelining to the lockers. “And don’t tell me that it wasn’t going to be mean, I see that look on Yushi’s face all the time.”
“I was just going to say that you look different today!” Daeyoung says. Apparently ignoring the dig at his boyfriend, while also not really denying it anyhow. “Like… you’re glowing.”
Sion shoots him a sideways look. “Uh-huh.”
8 AM is still way too early to be accosted by his over-eager friend-slash-personal trainer. He unshoulders his bag and beeps in the door code to his locker. He doesn’t want to give Daeyoung the time of day, mostly because it’ll only rile him up more. But the unfortunate thing is that everyone in his life knows just what buttons to press to get Sion to crumble.
Case in point:
“It was the barista, right?” Daeyoung asks, eyes shining. “The one who flirts with you?”
And, hey. No.
“Absolutely not,” Sion says gruffly. He puts his bag in his locker and gets out his sweat towel. “He doesn’t flirt with me. No one flirts with me. You’re so nosy.”
“What’d he write on the cup today?” Daeyoung asks, grabbing for it.
Sion holds the cup protectively to his chest. “Nothing. It’s actually nothing.” And when Daeyoung sends him a look. “Nuh-uh. Don’t try that shit. I already regret setting you and Yushi up enough as it is, I don’t need you to be another version of him.”
“But hyung,” Daeyoung pouts.
Sion steels. “Nope,” he says. “No. This is a breach of professional boundaries, Youngie.”
Never mind that Daeyoung is the closest thing Sion has to a best friend (besides Yushi, obviously, who doesn’t count because he and Sion are probably trauma bonded, at this point). Being his personal trainer notwithstanding. His threats are empty because Sion would probably die if anyone else was hired to touch his muscles and tell him what to do all day, and there’s a part of him who kinda feels like he raised Daeyoung since birth since the kid’s been working for him since he graduated from uni. But still…
“What are professional boundaries?” Daeyoung asks.
Sion closes his locker and pinches him on the cheek. “You’re such a brat.”
Daeyoung grins.
Sion is guided through stretches and warm ups. Today is chest day, unfortunately enough. Like he doesn’t already have enough followers on Twitter calls his pecs “boobs.” Daeyoung talks his ear off about the new restaurant he wants to take Yushi to. And Sion lets him. He always thinks it’s kind of sweet how his best friends care so deeply for one another. And while most people would find it nauseating to be stuck with a couple like Yushi and Daeyoung with no relationship of his own to speak of, he doesn’t really mind.
Here’s the thing.
Yes, Sion is painfully single and has been for years. It’s not exactly a casualty of the job, either, he’s just been out of the game with little desire to get back in it. His life consists of nothing but baseball and his best friends, and he’s fine with that. Yushi and Daeyoung are disgustingly sweet with each other and it gives him fucking cavities, sometimes, and Sion can’t even imagine himself like that with anything besides his catching mitt, let alone another person. Not for a while, at least. No matter how much his mom complains about him running out of time to give her grandkids (never mind the fact that he’s gay and she knows that).
It just gets boring and monotonous. The dating scene, that is.
When you live in a tiny town like Mokpo, there’s no queer dating scene to speak of. Even when he goes out to Gwangju during the season, it’s not like there’s an Itaewon for him to prowl about, never mind his minor celebrity status. All of that aside, even the hook ups he’s embarked on have been… less than stellar.
With his build, twinks are attracted to him like a magnet. Which is fine! Sion doesn’t have a lot of preferences! But he doesn’t really want to dominate anyone in bed, let alone “obliterate assholes,” as multiple partners have requested. Like, he has absolutely no desire to do such thing. Which is why he feels just fine with his hand as company and access to all the porn the internet has to offer.
And so Sion is out of the dating game, the hook up game, and any game that isn’t baseball.
And for the record, he’s perfectly fine with that.
(It doesn’t help that Yushi and Daeyoung, his only two friends, are absolutely convinced that Riku’s been flirting with him.)
Sure, Sion is a regimented guy. Oishii is really the only place he regularly goes to besides the gym and sometimes the grocery store. Which makes Ryo and Riku the only people he interacts with on a daily basis besides his friends and Yushi’s part-timer, Sakuya (who Sion has, in all terms besides legally, adopted as his own). So naturally, when Riku jokingly flirts with him, his delusional friends take it as a sign that Riku is Sion’s chance to get to know someone out of work. They think that Riku is into him, and the coffee is just one big ploy, and he’s missing out on his chance for romance every time he doesn’t flirt back.
But the thing is that they’re wrong. Riku is only just being friendly with him, with zero personal feelings involved. And whether or not Sion has personal feelings for him back is no one’s concern because Riku doesn’t. So.
(That, and the fact that Riku most likely isn’t any older than early 20s, which would be highly inappropriate. Sion should stick to dating people who have fully-developed frontal lobes.)
“Maybe we should go to the cafe your crush works at for brunch this weekend,” Daeyoung muses as he spots Sion on his weights.
He really regrets ever telling either of his friends about the cute bakery owner who fake-flirts with him every morning. He never would’ve made a peep about it if he knew they’d get so fixated on it.
Sion grits out: “He’s not my crush.”
“But he likes you.”
Sion squeezes his eyes shut. “He doesn’t.”
“Pretty sure he does,” Daeyoung hums. “And that’s twenty.”
Sion sets down his weights with a huff, biceps straining. He pants a little as he sits up on the bench and sends Daeyoung a scathing look.
“Don’t talk about that when I’m lifting,” he complains. “I know you’re trying to manipulate me into something and I can’t focus when you do that.”
Daeyoung hands him his water bottle. “I wasn’t trying anything.”
“Uh-huh,” Sion breathes, taking a swig of water. And when he’s done gulping some down: “You two are gonna be the death of me, you know that? Yushi really corrupted you. You used to be so sweet to me.”
Daeyoung sits down on the bench across from him and shrugs. “Pretty sure I’ve always been like this.”
He leaves Sion alone during his water break, though, most likely because it coincides with Yushi’s lunch break as he sneaks outside to take a call. Sion lets him go, not really interested in being interrogated anymore. His friends probably mean well, really, really deep down. Super deep down. Sion knows they want him to be happy, but the thing is that he is happy. He’s perfectly content being alone. Really.
He’s not a guy who needs a lot to be satisfied, and he is. He’s satisfied. He’s got a good career, he’s got good friends (who are evil but usually have pure intentions), he’s got a cushy life, and there’s not a single thing more that he could ask for. Sion has nothing to complain about. Everything is just fine as it is.
-
(And if he sometimes thinks about the smell of freshly baked cookies and espresso and a wide, stunning smile, that’s no one’s business besides his own.)
-
Sion is exhausted by the time he gets home.
Daeyoung had him do a lot today, more than usual since it’s a good few months off from the pre-season and he can just focus on strength-building for the time being. So Sion calls a taxi to get home and trudges to his apartment in the snow. December is as cold as ever, much to his stiff muscles’ disdain.
(He ignores the urge to stop by the cafe and get a second coffee. He’s done it before, plenty of times, but he doesn’t need to give Riku any more ammunition to call him an addict. That, and he’s exhausted, not wanting to deal with any more people - as much as he finds the antics of the Oishii workers amusing, he doesn’t think he could keep up with Ryo’s banter tonight.
He’ll have to make do with the Keurig.)
He’s never loved coming home to a cold, empty apartment, but he does every single day and tonight is no different. The sun is sinking below the small-town skyline as Sion flicks on the light in the living room and drops his bag down by the couch before he beelines right to the shower. The amenities at the gym are perfectly fine, but he pays a good, high rent because his very own bathroom is state of the art. Heated floors and everything. It was 70% of the reason he settled on this place when he was apartment hunting.
His phone buzzes from the sink counter while he’s lathering shampoo onto his hair. Just once. But then very quickly, another buzz accompanies it. And then another. And then another. Sion ignores it when his phone starts ringing with a phone call, familiar sound echoing throughout the bathroom. When he gets out of the shower, he checks his texts while blow drying his hair.
Yushi: Now where are YOU
Yushi: How are you not going to come over today
Yushi: Do you hate me
Yushi: Daeyoung said you said you were busy but that cant be true
Yushi: IM YOUR ONLY FRIEND WHO ARE YOU CHEATING ON ME WITH
Typical Yushi. Ignoring the fact that Sion stops by his restaurant - if that’s what’d you call a place that makes gourmet instant ramyeon - every other single day. Even when he doesn’t want to.
Sion: ask your boyfriend, my shoulders hurt
Yushi: Thats not an excuse
Sion: wahhhhh im so fragile everything hurts
Yushi: Stop
Yushi: Come here
Yushi: You know I have attachment issues
Sion: you dont
Yushi: I do
Sion: no you do not
Yushi: UM YES I DO
Sion sighs. He switches chats and types out a text to Daeyoung.
Sion: can you distract yushi im trying to have one (1) peaceful night
The response is immediate, which oddly enough, doesn’t exactly soothe his soul. There are things to be said when one is too overeager.
Daeyoung: lol ok
Hm. On second thought.
Sion: if you dont im telling him where youre taking him to to dinner on sunday
Daeyoung: WTF
Daeyoung: HOW COULD YOU THREATEN ME
Sion: :))))
Daeyoung: fine fine fine
And as promised, his messages go blessedly silent. That can all be dealt with tomorrow.
It’s not like Sion doesn’t want to spend time with his friends, it’s just that Yushi paired with Daeyoung always tends to draw out the unsavory parts of his personality, in terms of how they like to rile him up to the point where he explodes. They think it’s funny, because they’re the worst friends ever. For two people who are individually very quiet and even shy, to an extent, they sure have a habit of bringing out the worst in each other. Why in the world Sion set them up, he has no idea.
(How in the world they ended up being the perfect match anyway, he has even less of an idea.)
Growing up, he and Yushi were neighbors. Yushi was still a toddler when his parents moved into the house across from Sion’s family farm. Naturally, they grew up together, as Sion became Yushi’s designated teacher for Korean culture and customs, as his parents were still largely unfamiliar. Growing up in farmland isn’t the easiest of ways to integrate into a new country, let alone when you’re as shy as Yushi, so Sion acted as his protector, teacher, babysitter. Whatever he needed. The reason they’re still friends all this time later can largely be attributed to their collective stubbornness to make new friends and meet other people, even though they both went to college in Seoul and swore they’d get out of Mokpo forever.
And yet they both had come crawling back.
It’s not that Sion hates the city. Hell, he’s got an apartment in Gwangju he stays in during the season, which is nothing to sneeze at. But he can’t deny the hold that Mokpo has on him, even if the town is tiny and there’s only so many times he can walk Noeul Park and everyone knows him on a first name basis.
Farmer boy in the big city, his teammates tease him. Sion, the prince of Mokpo.
It’s not the worst thing in the world.
He’s got a nice place. Sure, he’s a little lonely, but it’s never all that bad. He considered getting a cat, but he’d feel bad leaving them alone all the time when work calls, so he scrapped the idea. He can cope with reality TV and his big, squishy bed and the chaos of his best (and only, a voice in his head reminds him) friends.
He’s happy like this. He’s content. Really. He doesn’t need anything else, romance or otherwise. Sion is 32 years old, for christ’s sake, the only thing he has to worry about is how much longer his professional career will hold out on him. Seriously. That’s it.
He gets into bed and snuggles under the covers, sighing as his aching muscles get some relief. He has a massage appointment tomorrow, which will be a fucking blessing. He puts on some inane variety show garbage in the background as he scrolls through his email and texts and makes sure his socials are updated. He posts a gym selfie to Instagram at the request of his manager, ignoring all the comments and likes that start filtering in.
His phone, much to his dismay, buzzes with another text. It’s from Sakuya, this time - which is marginally better than Yushi having a meltdown in his inbox, but still only marginally.
Sakuya: hyung i think YOU KNOW WHO are kissing in the walk in freezer
Sakuya: can you rescue me
Sion feels bad for him, of course, but he’s also not surprised in the least that Daeyoung’s way to distract Yushi is by sneaking off to go make out. Even though they’re 25 and 26 years old, they also still act a lot like teenagers.
But still. That’s none of his concern, right now.
(Sorry, Saku.)
Sion: tonight is my night off
Sakuya: hyungggggg
Sion: zzzzz im watching running man
He watches Sakuya’s chat bubble appear, disappear, pop up, disappear again. It makes him feel a little vindicated. Even though Sakuya is a 20-year-old twerp who would probably trade all of his loved ones in exchange for a croissant, Sion can out-stubborn him no matter the situation. Their 12 year age difference has nothing on Sion’s uncanny ability to annoy his loved ones to death.
Sakuya: ok fine
Sakuya: [sent 8-ball]
Sion stares at the pop-up. Mostly because he may as well. It’s not like the Running Man episode is particularly interesting anyway.
And as long as he doesn’t have to suffer through any more interrogations regarding his relationship (or lack of one) with Riku…
Sion: youre on
-
As it edges closer to Christmas, Mokpo comes alive with lights and holiday displays everywhere. It makes Sion feel a little less dreary about waking up in the pitch-black of the early morning. As soon as he walks into the cafe, he’s hit with the smell of gingerbread.
“Hyung, try this cookie,” Ryo insists upon greeting. The baked good in his hand is shaped like a gingerbread man, complete with a little smile and santa hat.
Sion, who’s just here for his regular coffee, blinks.
“Um,” he says. “Sorry, but I-”
“Is that Sion hyung?” Riku sticks his head out of the door to the kitchen. It’s already a few weeks out from Christmas, and yet Riku is wearing a santa hat and a fake beard. That… is that sanitary? Does he bake with that on?
“Hi, Riku,” Sion says, waving. Riku grins and comes over with a tray of cookies.
“I have a present for you,” he sing-songs. The present, it turns out, is another goddamn cookie. This time, it’s one shaped like a candy cane. “I made this one specially for you, hyung. Can you try it for me?”
It’s weird. Sion knows he’s being manipulated, and he’s aware that he knows, and yet he wants to let himself be manipulated. Not that he does. But he wants to.
“My diet, guys,” he frowns.
Riku’s eyes go watery. “Please?”
“I can’t.”
“Just this once?”
Sion manages a smile. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I can’t.”
Riku frowns. With the fake beard, it looks kinda funny, but the image still tugs at Sion’s heartstrings. How in the world Riku’s pouting is so effective on him when he’s regularly subjected to Yushi - who has the world’s strongest aegyo, he can attest to that - he has no idea.
“I’ll give you a present, if you do,” Riku says. “Anything you want.”
There is a very, very brief fleeting second in when Sion’s mind goes right to a very, very dark place. A place in which there is a santa hat involved and little else, and Riku is there, and Sion’s hands wander, and- wait, what the fuck?
What the FUCK?!
“Um, maybe not,” Sion croaks out, trying to hide the fact that he may or may not just been hit with the barest trace of a Fantasy that is not only (1) highly inappropriate but (2) extremely creepy. Especially since Riku can’t be any less than seven years younger than him.
“What if it’s just this?” Riku asks, and he’s reaching across the counter to lace their fingers together. As in, Riku is touching him. With wide, kittenish eyes and extremely cute pout and a santa beard that scarily enough, isn’t really making any of this any less effective. And then, his voice lowering just the tiniest bit: “or do you want something else, hyungie?”
Sion’s face goes red and he very ungracefully yanks his hand away.
He’s the grossest person alive, because he’s harboring the smidges of a maybe-a-crush-but-definitely-at-least-attraction on a guy who is purehearted enough to run a bakery and makes Sion’s coffees every day even though Ryo is perfectly capable and also young enough to call him hyung. It’s… it’s not his finest moment. Not at all.
“Sorry,” he says. “Um. I’ll just take a coffee.”
His face feels like it’s on fire as Riku stares back up at him. Curiosity etched over his face. It really doesn’t help that in comparison to Sion he’s just… so much smaller.
“...Oh-kay, a coffee then…” Ryo says very slowly from the cash register. Sion tears his eyes away from Riku’s gaze and focuses back on the kid who definitely is too young to have seen all of that, mostly because Sion knows he’s never been any good at hiding his emotions. Least of all horniness.
Sion passes over his card. Ignores Riku’s burning gaze.
Fuck.
Riku makes his coffee while humming. He’s quick with it today. Practiced, nimble, flitting around the counter. Their fingers brush when Riku hands it over and Sion can’t even look him in the eyes.
“Have a good day, hyungie,” Riku says smoothly. “I can give you your present some other time.”
Sion thanks him with a bow of his head and rushes out. He forgot to tip Ryo, but he can just double it tomorrow. The frigid December air is a little startling, as he calls a taxi, as he tries not to dwell on what just happened. On what it means for his own feelings. On what it means for anything.
His cup has one line written on it: Can I have you for Christmas?
-
(“I’m sorry, in what world is that not flirting?” Daeyoung asks as they sit in Yushi’s restaurant later that night.
“You’re an idiot,” Yushi grumbles.
“He was just trying to be nice,” Sion insists. “He’s really passionate about his cookies.”
“He’s hopeless!” Sakuya calls across the restaurant, wherein he’s met with a chorus of agreement. Sion’s face burns red.)
-
The next day is oddly similar to the day before. Sion is very innocently standing at the counter, ordering his coffee with Ryo, when Riku accosts him.
This time he’s wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, a santa beard, and a santa hat. The sweater has tinsel dangling all over it, which absolutely cannot be regulation-safe.
“Hyung,” Riku greets him. He’s carrying a yule log cake on a tray. “Want a bite?”
Sion, who has spent the past twenty-four hours of his life grappling with the fact that Riku now feels no reservations towards touching him (holding his hand!), is a little wary. A little on edge.
“Sorry,” he says. “My-”
“-Diet,” both Ryo and Riku chorus at the same time. They’re both pouting, though Riku more so. “Would it really kill you to have one bite?”
Sion squirms under his gaze. “It’s not that it’d kill me, but I’d get in trouble.”
Ryo squints at him. “With who?”
Sion doesn’t know if he really wants to get into specifics, or while he’s at it, expose himself. His favorite thing about this place is that neither Oishii worker knows how famous he is.
“My job,” he says slowly. “They’re very, um…” He struggles for the word. “Particular.”
“Your job,” Riku echoes.
“You should find another job,” Ryo says sagely.
“Don’t worry, I’m doing just fine,” Sion tells them. “Really. I just can’t eat sweets, that’s it. But one day I’ll indulge, yeah?”
Riku sticks his bottom lip out. “I’m holding you to that, hyung,” he says.
He gets started on Sion’s coffee. He’s kind of graceful with it, as he always is, and Sion wonders, not for the first time, why in the world Riku always does it for him instead of Ryo. He’s not complaining, of course, but it’s just always confused him. Isn’t Riku busy with baking in the back? He’s never around before Sion comes in, and he only ever seems to come out of the kitchen while he’s in the middle of doing something.
But it’s not like Sion can pretend like Riku’s whole… everything… doesn’t confuse him.
“Here you go,” Riku says with a gentle smile as he passes the coffee cup over. Their fingers brush together, again, and Sion tries desperately not to think about yesterday, when Riku had touched him for real. “Enjoy, hyung.”
Sion takes a sip of his drink, and of course it tastes like heaven. Of course it does.
“It’s good,” he says. “Thank you, Riku.”
Riku’s smile grows wider, maybe a little bashful. And then, seemingly spotting something, he reaches out with his hand for the top of Sion’s head. Sion has to bow his head a little bit - there’s a counter between them along with a sizeable height difference - and he’s a little confused as he does so.
Because… why is Riku touching his hair. In what situation is this necessary.
Riku brushes a few strands out of place, gentle as anything in the world, and then he ruffles Sion’s hair before pulling away entirely, laughing a little bit.
“You had a snowflake in your hair,” Riku smiles. “Sorry.”
Sion blinks at him. It’s not even snowing outside.
-
(“You can’t be real,” Daeyoung laments, staring down at today’s coffee cup, upon which is scribbled: You’re at the top of my Christmas list :)
“I can’t even look at you,” Yushi grumbles. “How can you be so stupid?”
Sion looks pleadingly over at his favorite dongsaeng, sending Sakuya wide eyes. “Saku,” he says. “Help me out, here. It’s not flirting, right?”
Sakuya stops what he’s doing, which is mopping the floors. He sends Sion a disappointed look.
“Hyung,” he says. “You’re an idiot.”)
-
Sion may as well be living a groundhog day of being flirted with by his barista and being told repeatedly by his friends that he’s an oblivious dumbass. That doesn’t make it any easier to deal with, though.
“You’re here early today,” Ryo comments as Sion stumbles in around 6:30 AM. The cafe opens at 6.
“Couldn’t sleep,” he sighs. “Gonna need that coffee ASAP, Ryo, sorry.”
“‘S fine, hyung hasn’t even started on the cookies yet,” Ryo shrugs. Notably, the pastry display case is full of croissants and cakes - no cookies. And then Ryo turns and shouts back in the kitchen: “Sion hyung’s here!”
Normally Riku is out within the second, but there’s a full moment that passes before Riku stumbles through the swinging door, not even wearing his usual Christmas gear, but rather just an apron covered in flour. His hair is more mussed than usual, his expression a little panicked.
His eyes are wide. “Hyung?”
“Sorry if I’m early,” Sion says, even though he’s technically allowed to come in whatever time he wants (given that, after all, he is just a paying customer). And then, not really thinking, adds: “You’ve got, um. Flour…” He motions at his own head. “In your hair.”
Riku’s ears go red. He shakes his hair out. “Ignore me.”
And so Ryo takes Sion’s order and passes a coffee cup to Riku. It’s odd seeing him more frazzled than usual, even odder that it’s only thirty minutes earlier than the time Sion normally comes in. He never thought that the two workers expected him in at a certain time everyday, and yet he supposes that after establishing such a specifically consistent schedule everyday…
But still. Is it really that weird?
So Sion just hums with a thanks as Riku hands him his coffee. Riku watches him as he takes a sip, even though it tastes the exact same as it does every single day.
“It’s good,” Sion smiles.
Riku’s lips curl into a tiny grin. “Thank you.”
He’s more subdued than usual, which Sion doesn’t even know how to grapple with. Because he’s used to Riku’s over-the-top flirting, used to the two boys’ antics even at 7 AM. But Riku is twisting his hands in his apron, looking nervous.
“Hyung,” he starts. “Noeul park has that light exhibit tonight. Did you know that?”
Sion blinks over at him. He knows that Riku is new to Mokpo - he’s been here for less than two years. But Riku has never really asked him anything regarding the tiny town they live in.
“Yeah,” he says. “I used to go every year, when I was a kid. It’s been a while.”
“It looks fun, is it fun?” Riku asks. He’s still squirming.
Sion shrugs. “I’m sure it is. Sorry, I don’t remember much.”
There’s a brief moment of silence between them. Sion’s phone buzzes in his pocket, which is unusual considering none of his friends are ever up before 7 AM. He digs the thing out of his pocket as Riku starts saying: “Well, I was wondering…”
Sion stares down at his phone screen at a text from Yushi.
Yushi: Come over tonight
Yushi: Youngie is stressing me out
It’s… it’s extremely weird to get anything from Yushi before 10 AM. He doesn’t know what to say to that besides a “????.”
Yushi: Don’t ask just come over
Sion chooses to ignore that.
He is shutting his phone off when he realizes that Riku is still talking. And has been for the last few seconds he’s had to deal with Yushi’s weirdness.
“...And I thought it’d be fun to go together, that is, if you don’t think it’s weird-”
Sion blinks. “Um, sorry, I just zoned out for a second,” he says. “What were you saying?”
And, okay, he knows that it’s entirely his fault, but he doesn’t expect Riku’s face to fall.
In his defense, Riku has always taken everything Sion gives him in stride. Flirting, bantering, teasing. But this Riku is decidedly doing None Of That. He’s looking down at the ground, head bent.
“Riku?” Sion asks. “Are you-”
“Actually it was just something stupid, never mind!” Riku waves him off. He keeps his head down, hands clenching his apron. “I think the- the cookie timer just went off. Sorry, I gotta go, hyung. See you.” And then Sion is watching hopelessly after him as Riku flees to the kitchen, not so much as sparing him a glance.
Sion stares.
What the fuck was that?
It’s not that he’s stellar at social interactions (in fact he’s often the opposite). But something is definitely wrong, because Riku has never even genuinely frowned at him before. Let alone tried to ignore Sion completely.
What was he saying? What did Sion miss?
“Do you know what he said?” He asks Ryo, who is already staring at him from behind the cash register. His eyebrows are furrowed, a frown on his face. “I think I’m still half-asleep.”
All Ryo does is sigh. “Wow, hyung,” he says. “You’re kind of an idiot, aren’t you.”
Sion blinks at him. He does not know what to say to that.
-
(There’s a line written on his cup. The Grinch may have stolen Christmas, but you stole my heart.)
-
“He was trying to ask you out!” Yushi groans, burying his head in his arms. “He brought up Noeul park, Sion, you fucking idiot! Only couples go there!”
In Sion’s defense, they’re wrong. So, so wrong. His face goes bright red.
“Well, I would know if you hadn’t texted me!” He shrieks. “I thought it was an emergency! You were awake before 9!”
When he brought this dilemma to his friends, he was expecting a little sympathy. Or, at least, yeah, hyung, that is kinda weird. Not… not this scathing judgement. From Yushi, of all people, who didn’t even know that Daeyoung liked him even after he gave him a bouquet of flowers. Fucking hell.
Daeyoung is frowning, sitting with his arms crossed, at the other side of the table.
“Hyung,” he says very slowly. “You’re secretly an asshole, aren’t you?”
Sion’s ears burn.
It’s not that he thought he was completely in the right - because surely he did something that ticked Riku off, right? - but he didn’t think this would instantly turn into a shit-talking session. Even Sakuya had given him a stern shake of his head in disapproval, which hurt more than Sion would like to admit.
“I’m not an asshole,” he says. “I’m just…”
“Stupid?” Yushi asks.
“Brainless,” Daeyoung mutters.
“Old and rizzless,” Sakuya supplies from across the empty restaurant where he’s cleaning silverware. And Sion isn’t even going to pretend like he knows what the fuck that means.
“I just don’t know what’s going on,” Sion tells them, fully earnest. “I mean, sure, he’s been flirting with me. But he was just teasing. Trust me. I don’t see why he’d just ask me out out of nowhere.”
“Or maybe he was actually flirting with you,” Daeyoung points out. “And you rejected him like an asshole.”
Sion makes a face. “No, it can’t be that.”
Riku is a sweet guy, yeah. And he’s definitely leaning towards the homosexual side of the spectrum, if Sion’s gaydar is to be trusted (though it has failed him before). And yeah, you’d probably have to at least be somewhat interested in him if you’re going to flirt with Sion for over three months straight. But it’s… it’s Riku.
Who is cute and straightforward and has a face that’s disturbingly akin to a kitten’s. Who is, like, way younger than him. Who deserves more than an idiot like Sion.
Yeah. There’s no fucking way Riku is interested in him.
“I think I just caught him on a bad day,” Sion says when Yushi glares at him. “He didn’t seem his usual self to begin with.”
“Maybe that’s because he wanted to ask you out!” Sakuya calls. He frowns when Sion looks over at him.
“Why are you always sitting over there?”
“I’m protecting my vibes.”
Sion ignores that.
His friends have always been stellarly unhelpful even in the best of times, but Sion can probably blame himself for that. After all, he has six years on Yushi, seven on Daeyoung, a whopping twelve on Sakuya. He should probably get a therapist, one of these days, like a proper adult. But sometimes it’s just easier to unload on people much younger than you and watch them try to make sense of it.
Though it’s probably his fault that they’ve gotten so good at detecting his bullshit.
“I didn’t know you could fuck up something like this,” Yushi says with a shake of his head. “He’s been, like, presenting himself for you for three months, basically on a silver platter. And yet you still fumbled.”
“You fumbled,” Daeyoung agrees forlorningly.
Sion seethes. “I didn’t fumble if there was nothing to fumble,” he insists. “There has to be some other explanation.”
His friends exchange looks of frustration and shakes of their head. Sion gets lost in his own thoughts.
What did he do wrong? What did he say that warranted that kind of reaction from someone who’s normally so bold and teasing?
What the fuck happened to Riku?
-
Going to the cafe the next day, does not, in fact, answer his questions. If anything, it only gives him more.
For one, there’s no one other than Sakuya standing behind the counter, in a familiar green-but-not-Starbucks-green apron.
“What,” Sion asks, staring, as he approaches the counter. “What are you doing here.”
Not only has he never mentioned the specific cafe his favorite barista works at to his friends - mostly paranoid that one day they’d try and accost Riku themselves - he’s never mentioned names or ethnicities. If he ever told them that the bakery owner who invades his mind like the plague was Japanese, or that his name was Riku, they would’ve figured it out in no time. Mokpo is too tiny.
“I’m covering for someone,” Sakuya says, jutting out his jaw. “What are you doing here?”
Sion doesn’t know how to answer that.
That’s the moment in which Ryo comes from out of the kitchen, wearing Riku’s usual apron. The door swings closed behind him. “Oh, Sion hyung!” He says. “Morning!”
“Morning,” Sion says back, just as Sakuya exclaims: “Sion hyung?! You know him?”
Ryo shrugs. “He comes in everyday. He’s the guy who-”
“Sion is the regular Riku’s in love with?”
And. Hey. Wait. Back up.
What the fuck?
Sion’s brain goes blissfully silent as Sakuya and Ryo catch each other up, apparently, on who Sion is to them. That’s the baseball player who leeches off of Yushi, and yeah, he’s been coming here for months, why didn’t you say anything? And then: well, why didn’t you say anything?
“I’m sorry,” Sion says very slowly. “Riku is…”
“In love with you,” Sakuya says, like this is common knowledge.
“Has been flirting with you for months,” Ryo adds sagely.
Sion isn’t quite sure what’s going on, because he’s pretty sure that he heard them wrong. Or that he’s dreaming. Something like that.
“Riku is my cousin,” Sakuya adds, as if what he just said wasn’t enough to swallow as it is. “I mean, kinda.”
“He’s my cousin,” Ryo says. “Saku leeches off of us.”
They pay him no mind as Sion walks over to a nearby table with shaky legs and falls very haphazardly into a chair. Because he thought today would just be a usual Wednesday, bar the chance that the weirdness of yesterday could taint his usual time at Oishii. But this is… this is something else entirely.
What the fuck did they say? Riku’s in love with him?
Riku? His Riku?
“Great, you broke him,” Ryo grumbles.
“No, he’s always like this,” Sakuya says.
“Why,” Sion rasps. “Why do you two do this.”
He’s still half-asleep, for starters. He usually can’t think coherently before his first cup of coffee. But he's startled into clarity as Ryo just sighs, starting on his americano. Sakuya comes from around the counter to sit across from him.
“Hyung,” Sakuya says, with a surprising amount of gentleness. “If I knew that Riku was the guy you’ve been talking about-”
“He likes me?” Sion asks, a little disparagingly. His mind, foggy from sleep but waking up, blares with one thought: RIKU LIKES ME, HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT? HOLY SHIT, RIKU LIKES ME-
“He’s obsessed with you,” Ryo adds unhelpfully as he joins them, handing Sion his coffee. Sion takes a sip. “He called off today because you rejected him yesterday and it made him all emo.”
That’s a whole other can of worms to open - sure, Riku can like him, in some kind of abstract way. Because Sion knows his face is handsome, and his personality isn’t the worst in the world. Interviewers on TV always called him charming and earnest. But it’s a whole other thing for Riku - who likes him! - to want to ask him out. On a fucking date.
“I didn’t-” Sion stutters. “I didn’t know he asked me out. I didn’t know he liked me.”
“We know,” Sakuya mutters.
“Yeah, well, he’s not the smartest guy either,” Ryo says with his arms crossed. “But it’s not like he wasn’t being obvious about it.”
Which, okay, is fair.
Sion has never seen Riku even interact with other customers, besides when he hands kids cookies and comes out to greet people when he refills the pastry case. And yet Riku openly flirts (!) with him, makes a point to be the one to make Sion’s coffee, always spares him a few minutes before retreating back into the kitchen.
Oh, shit.
“Oh my god,” Sion sighs. “I’m an idiot.”
The bell on the cafe door jingles, and so Ryo goes back behind the counter to help the new customer. Sakuya gives Sion a very apparent look of pity.
“How could you not realize?”
Sion groans, running a hand down his face. “I don’t know, I just thought he was being nice. Trying to get a repeat customer, I dunno. He’s so pretty and I’m kind of old, so I never thought he’d be into me-”
“Riku is 27-years-old, hyung,” Sakuya says. “He’s not a kid.”
Which, okay, is another bomb to drop on top of everything else. Riku is fucking 27-years-old? He looks like he’s still in college, most of the time. So naturally Sion came to a natural conclusion.
(Though realistically, what young twenty-something operates an entire bakery solo…)
“Well, I didn’t know that! He looks 23, I felt like a creep!” Sion says, a little too loudly, as he gets weird looks from other patrons. He ignores them - his crisis is more important than their judgement. “And he calls me hyung. Which is… I don’t know, it’s kind of-”
“Oh, ew?” Sakuya makes a face. “You’re into that?”
Sion’s face burns red. “I’m not! I am not!”
He stays there for another hour, talking to the kids and gulping down his americano and asking as many questions as he can think to ask. As he wakes up from the caffeine thrumming in his veins, it feels more… it feels real. Riku likes him, genuinely, for real. Riku tried to ask him out yesterday and Sion was the asshole who accidentally rejected him.
And, okay, he didn’t know he was getting asked out in the first place. But that’s his fault, too.
Riku is gorgeous. He’s gorgeous and he’s sweet and he offers Sion a cookie every morning even though he knows that Sion will never say yes. He comes out from the kitchen just to make Sion’s americano. He’s flirted with him for three months, slowly working up the courage to ask Sion for real… despite how teasing he normally is… despite how bold he normally acts…
Sion has to fix this.
“I wouldn’t come back unless you plan on asking him out,” Ryo says right before the morning rush starts, as Sion edges out the door. “He doesn’t seem like it, but he’s sensitive, hyung. And he likes you a lot.”
“I know, I won’t,” Sion promises. Because his feelings on the matter have always been clear to everyone; everyone already knew that Sion was a little into his young - but apparently not as young as he thought - barista. Something that makes him feel icky but is also something he chooses not to dwell on. “I’ll be back tomorrow. I’m gonna- I’m gonna go talk to Yushi.”
“He’s gonna kill you,” Sakuya says, even though he nods in approval.
“Looking forward to your confession, hyung,” Ryo grins. “Make it exciting, will you?”
Sion promises to do no such thing, but tips them both extra. Just so they keep their mouths shut.
Thank god for those two meddlers.
-
Sion skips out on training for the day. He hasn’t even gotten home before Yushi texts him.
Yushi: YOUR BARISTA IS MAEDA RIKU???
Yushi: SION YOU SLUT
And, well. Yeah. He should’ve expected that one.
He dials Yushi’s number as he beeps in the code to his front door and huddles inside. Yushi picks up immediately.
“You know Riku, too, don’t you,” Sion says in lieu of a greeting. “And you knew that he was in love with me this whole time, right?”
“Riku gave me Saku,” Yushi says. He doesn’t even say it calmly, he’s very audibly keyed up. “I didn’t know that he liked you, but I should’ve put the dots together when he said his regular was a hunky but oblivious Korean guy, though he kept talking about how hot you were, so maybe-”
“Don’t call me ugly,” Sion complains. He toes off his shoes, takes off his coat. Flops down on the couch. “Don’t be mean to me right now.”
“I dunno, you kinda deserve it,” Yushi says.
Sion closes his eyes and buries his face into a pillow. “Yeah, I do.”
“Will you let me say ‘I told you so?’”
“Absolutely not!”
“He called me last night, after you left,” Yushi says, ignoring him. “He was all sad ‘cause the guy he liked turned him down, so imagine my surprise when I find out that the idiot who would turn down a guy like Riku is actually my best friend, who’s been pining over his barista for three months.”
And, well. When you put it like that, the whole situation sounds pretty damn messy.
Sion’s ears burn red, but he can’t deny any of it. “I haven’t been pining.”
“Yes you have,” Yushi says, not kindly. “You’ve been pining and it’s so fucking obvious, hyung.”
Sion groans into his pillow.
Yes, he maybe felt a certain way about their age difference, as any sane member of society would. Not that he ever thought that Riku was younger than legally acceptable, he just tends to err on the side of caution as both a celebrity and Normal Person. But Riku is actually a grown adult with a fully-developed frontal lobe, is exceeding flirty, is interested in him. Three facts that Sion was not aware of, but now that he is, he’s certainly not any less attracted to him.
No, he’s very attracted.
He doesn’t have much to offer someone like Riku besides his body and his face, as he can be a little blind to when people really like him, and Riku is a catch who deserves someone who is (1) more age appropriate and (2) not an idiot. But Riku doesn’t like anyone who’s age appropriate or smart, does he? He likes Sion.
Holy hell. He likes Sion.
Sion’s attraction to Riku was never in question. He’s always been extra aware of that smile, how coy and sly it is. He’s always gone pink-cheeked at Riku’s compliments, despite his pointedly big age. He’s always felt drawn to the silhouette of Riku’s waist in that apron, how fucking tiny it is. How tiny he is.
It always made him feel like a pervert to be so startingly aware of this much younger guy (who, in actuality, isn’t that much younger after all - but you know what they say about hindsight) who is flirty by nature, uses his wide eyes as a weapon, and could probably pass for a college student if you really tried. Though now that Sion is thinking about it, Riku has some smile lines around his eyes.
Hm. Hmmm…
“Does he know I’m in my thirties?” Sion asks him. “Do I- um. Am I-”
“Do you look 32?” Yushi asks, a little amused. “I’m not sure, you’ve always been old to me.” And then, before Sion can voice his protest: “He doesn’t, like, have a thing for older guys, no. But he told me the guy he likes is probably older, and it’s not like he cares about that.”
Sion swallows. “Does he think-”
“Yeah, he thinks you’re hot and tall and strong and-”
Sion’s blush grows. “That’s not what I was gonna ask!” Though it doesn’t hurt to know, not at all. “Does he think that I’m an idiot, now? Do you think he’d say no if I asked him out?”
Yushi doesn’t say anything for a second, and while that would set him on edge if it were anyone else, it doesn’t because it’s Yushi. He always takes his time when he’s genuinely thinking about things, when they’re not just quipping back and forth. Yushi is the reason Sion has gotten so comfortable with the idea of sitting in silence.
“I mean…” Yushi says slowly. “Of course not. He’d say yes. But-” He makes a frustrated noise. “You have to be nice about it, hyung. He’s really sad.”
“Of course I’d be nice about it!” Sion says, offended. Not understanding in what world his friends think he would be any less than a gentleman to the person he’s interested in, especially if that person is Riku.
“Well, he kinda thinks you strung him along for a couple months,” Yushi says. “That you let him flirt with him for fun, or something, I don’t know-”
“Well, I didn’t,” Sion says, despairing a little bit. Just a little bit. “I- I would never, Yushi.”
Yushi sighs. “I know, hyung. I know.”
But Sion is aware that Riku doesn’t know him, not as well as the others do. Riku knows him as a customer who comes in every morning at 7 AM on the dot, who orders an iced americano every time without fail, who’s on a diet for work that makes him turn down their demands to eat cookies. Riku doesn’t know that Sion is whipped for him to the point where everyone else knows about it, or that they apparently have all of the same friends, or that Sion isn’t asshole but just a fucking idiot.
God. He has to fix this.
“Tomorrow,” Sion tells him resolutely. “I’ll fix this tomorrow.”
Yushi is surprisingly stern. “You better.”
And that’s that.
Yushi hangs up the phone not long after to go off and open the restaurant. Sion texts Daeyoung that he’ll pay him extra for missing today, meanwhile Daeyoung just responds with a very cheeky message about how he’ll take the day off if it means Sion has found his true love. Sion does not respond to that.
Sion tries to make some plans. Tries to plan a proper date so he can promise something worthwhile when he asks him out. It seems like Riku wants to do coupley things for Christmas - Noeul Park is notorious, after all. Sion has no problem with doing something like that, but he tries to figure out ways to make it a little more special, at least. A proper apology, something he can use to grovel. Flowers, definitely. A nice dinner, for sure. He knows Riku doesn’t take much time off of the store - they’re open until 6 PM and Riku gets up around 3 AM to start baking - but maybe just a few hours squeezed in together would be enough. Hopefully.
He knows he can cheat the system and simply ask his friends what Riku’s into, but that would be inauthentic. He needs to do it the old fashioned way, learn about Riku by (hopefully!) going on dates. He has a minor crisis about his age, and then later about how long it’s been since he’s liked someone, but then he remembers how Riku flirted with him for three fucking months, and it occurs to him that it surely can’t be more difficult than any other times he’s asked someone out.
Though Sion certainly like Riku more than anyone he’s ever asked out before.
He likes that Riku has a strong personality. He’s feisty, definitely a tease. He doesn’t go easy on Sion just because he’s bigger, or stronger, or older. Sion always found that to be a problem when he used to date in college and early on in his baseball career. People expected him to play the part of dominance, which was something he had absolutely zero interest in. Power dynamics are tricky in relationships, especially if the other person is five years younger than you. Which isn’t the largest age gap in the world, but is certainly not something Sion feels easy-minded about.
Is Riku hip? Would he get all of Sakuya’s TikTok references? God - does he use TikTok? Sion’s experience with reels comes solely from Youtube Shorts. And those are usually about cooking, or drink-making, or baseball.
Fuck. He’s so fucking old, what the fuck.
So Sion plans. He orders a bouquet of flowers to his apartment, not really in the mood to go out himself and attract attention from people who know him as Oh Sion, the baseball player. He thought roses would be cliche, but Naver says that roses are the best option for asking someone out, so that’s what he gets.
He goes through his entire closet and picks out an outfit that isn’t too nice, but suits him more than his usual tank top and sweatpants. Yes, he’s going to wear a fucking sweater, it’s not a big deal! Slacks are kind of a hit or miss, given that his thighs (which have been so-eloquently been described as “the size of tree trunks”) are huge. But he finds a pair that looks decent on him, paired with a soft blue sweater, and Sion knows that he at least looks better than he normally does when he’s in his workout clothes.
If he plays his cards right, Riku could give him an excuse to skip work entirely. Sorry, Daeyoung-ah.
Sion, who is known to be mildly obsessive at the best of times, nearly rips his hair out trying to make all of the details of his proposal - date proposal, not actual proposal - perfect. He even writes his best attempt at an apology speech, which Ryo will absolutely give him shit for, but hopefully the cafe will be mostly empty. Hopefully.
He’s a little restless as he gets into bed, speedrunning through his nighttime routine. His friends, for once, leave him alone. Letting him handle this all himself. Which Sion is thankful for. He’s 32 fucking years old, thank you very much.
Okay. Yeah. He can do this.
-
He can’t do this.
Sion wakes up with an incredibly potent sense of dread weighing down his sternum, which is putting it mildly. He kind of wants to throw up the whole time he runs through his skincare and tries to style his hair, at the very least (a fruitless effort - no matter what he tries, styling his hair a certain way does not make him look any younger or hotter). He stares himself in the mirror, picking out every wrinkle on his face for ten minutes. And then promptly has to eat his breakfast at a breakneck pace, not wanting to be any later than he usually is.
He grabs the bouquet off of his table and opts to leave his gym bag behind, for once. He looks… well, he looks alright. Handsome enough. Definitely. But enough for Riku? The only barista to ever exist in the whole wide world?
Sion doubts himself even more with every passing second. He’s out the door before he can spend any more time dwelling on the unknown. There’s only one way to find out.
His feet drag the whole way to the cafe, but he still makes it inside at 7 on the dot.
“Good mor- holy shit, hyung!” Ryo says when he greets him. Luckily there’s no other customers in, not quite yet. “You look good!”
Sion blushes. “Do I?” He asks. He fiddles with the bouquet. “It’s not too much, is it?”
Ryo’s eyes shine. “No, it’s good,” he says. “He might cry, even. Hold on.”
Ryo goes into the back, opting to actually talk to Riku instead of vaguely shouting for him as he usually does. Sion’s ears strain to hear anything - there’s the faintest hint of argumentative Japanese in the back, but not much. He should’ve figured that Riku wouldn’t want to see him. He broke his heart, after all.
But then Ryo is coming back out, a smile on his face.
“He’s willing to talk to you,” he says, never mind how the word willing sounds in a context like this. “You can go back there. In case people come.”
Sion nods.
“Don’t fuck it up,” Ryo adds. “Seriously. Or else I’ll never be nice to you again.”
That makes Sion crack a smile. “Of course not, Ryo-ah. Thank you.” And then Ryo is pushing him through the infamous kitchen door, and he’s met with the sight of Riku standing in the middle of a very messy, albeit delicious smelling, kitchen. Covered head to toe in flour. Who looks up at him in mild alarm when Sion walks in.
“Riku,” Sion breathes. “Hi.”
He watches Riku take the sight of him in, sweeping him from head to toe. Sion has no idea what Ryo said to him, or how Riku took the idea that Sion wanted to apologize. But the second Riku clocks the bouquet in his hands, his eyes widen.
“Hyung,” he says. “You-”
“These are for you,” Sion blushes. He crosses the kitchen slowly, like he’s approaching a feral cat. He holds them out to Riku once he’s within arm’s length. Riku is staring at him, hands shaky as he slowly takes them.
“For me?” he asks, voice surprisingly small. Sion was expecting the usual feistiness, maybe even a little bit of anger. “You got flowers for me?”
“Yeah, um,” Sion stumbles to find his words. “Roses, you know… they represent love and friendship and gratitude, depending on which ones you get.”
Riku looks down at the bouquet in his hands before looking up at Sion in the eyes. Wide, familiarly pleading.
“And these are…?”
Sion licks his lips, mouth dry.
“True love,” he says. “Which, is, you know - kinda presumptuous-”
“True love?” Riku cuts him off. He steps in closer, reaches out a hand to run his fingers over Sion’s shoulders, feeling the soft cashmere sweater. Sion’s skin tingles where he touches. “You dressed up, you have flowers.” He looks Sion in the eyes. “Hyung. Tell me if I’m reading things wrong.”
And Sion knows exactly what he means when he says that. So he steels himself one more time and:
“I like you,” Sion croaks out, which is the lamest way he’s ever said that sentence by far. “I’m really sorry, I like you.”
Riku is staring.
“But…” he says slowly. “But I asked you out, like two days ago-”
“I didn’t realize!” Sion says. “I- I thought I was too- I don’t know. Old for you. Kind of lame, kind of stupid, I don’t know.” He bites his lip. “If I had known, I would’ve said yes, obviously.”
Riku is still staring up at him. “Obviously,” he echoes. “How old are you?”
Sion braces himself. “I’m 32.”
He expects a reaction, one that’s at least hesitant. After all, Sion always thinks of himself as old, especially since he’s always surrounded by people at least six years younger than him. But Riku breaks into a small smile.
“It’s only five years,” he says. “Don’t act like you’re geriatric.”
Sion blushes.
Riku, himself, doesn’t seem perturbed anymore. Going right with the flow, somehow, which Sion is kind of jealous about. “So you’re 32, you like me, and you didn’t think I was asking you out because you’re… old?”
“I thought you were just being nice,” Sion says, a little helpless, as Riku smiles up at him. Voice wobbling as Riku rests a hand up on his shoulders. “I didn’t think you would ever actually flirt with me.”
“There’s no one else I give cookies to,” Riku says. “You’re the only one.”
Sion’s breath catches in his throat when Riku leans further into his space. “I didn’t know that.”
“I told Ryo that only I’m allowed to make your coffee.”
Sion nearly has an aneurism when Riku circles Sion’s arm around his own waist. “I didn’t know that either.”
They’re standing close. Way too close. Sion’s heart is thundering in his chest, hands hesitant on Riku’s waist. He’s definitely getting flour all over himself, considering that Riku is covered in it, but he couldn’t give less of a shit about that right now.
“I’m sorry,” Sion whispers. “I’m sorry for rejecting you, I didn’t mean to- if you want to, I’d like to take you out-”
“Hyung,” Riku smiles. He loops his arms around Sion’s neck and comes up on his toes. “Shut up.”
Sion doesn’t know exactly what he was expecting from today, but it surely wasn’t getting kissed by the barista he’s been vaguely obsessed with for three months. He certainly wasn’t going into this with the idea that Riku would fit himself into Sion’s arms and lean into his space and press their lips together, and yet that’s what happens. Chapped lips gently kissing, just a brief peck, and then Riku is breathing out a giggle when Sion stays as still as statue.
“Do you even want to kiss me?” He teases. “Or am I too young and spry for you, old man?”
Sion’s brain short-circuits. “Um-”
Riku laughs, pressing their lips together again, letting Sion move against him. He digs his hands into Riku’s waist and lets the younger man nip at his lip, obedient. He’d never say no to a pretty boy wanting to kiss him dumb, he just- he didn’t think his little stunt would end up like this.
Riku, who is always sweet and absurdly kind and sometimes shy, is mean when he kisses him. Teasing, biting. Sion’s head goes light and dizzy. Feeling himself melt at a guy five years his junior kiss him silly.
“You-” Riku giggles. “You’re acting like you’ve never been kissed-”
“It’s been a while!” Sion whines when Riku pulls away. “It’s been- I haven’t for a few years. I haven’t liked anyone in a long time.”
“So you’ve been celibate?” Riku asks with a grin.
Sion dick, the fucking traitor, gives a very valiant twitch in his slacks. He groans.
“Don’t,” he says. “Riku, please don’t.”
Riku steps away from him with a laugh. Sion lets him go easily. Riku smiles down at his bouquet and smells the roses. “Sorry, I’ve been told that I’m a tease,” he says. “I’ll go easy on you. Thank you for the roses, hyung.”
“Of course,” Sion says, a little helpless. Not knowing how to say actually, you could tease me all you want and it’d probably just make me fall in love with you. Deciding that maybe right now isn’t the right time. “And I was serious, I want to take you out whenever you’re free. I, um.” He swallows. “I really like you.”
Riku grins up at him. “I like you, too.”
There’s not much left to say after that. Well, besides when Riku pulls out his calendar on his phone and squeezes a date with Sion in between closing and opening shift on Friday night - tomorrow. Which is probably for the best, because Sion doesn’t think he could wait longer than thirty-six hours to kiss his… not-boyfriend-but-maybe-not-far-off any longer than that.
“I’ll pick you up,” Sion tells him. “And I won’t stop by in the morning or else I’ll… um.”
“Get tempted?” Riku grins. “By my cute face and beautiful body?”
“Yeah,” Sion half-groans, half-chuckles, a little in disbelief that someone as coy and sly and gorgeous as Riku could ever give him the time of day. “That. Definitely.”
He is, indeed, covered in flour. Riku sends him off with a coffee and a kiss on the cheek. Ryo gives them a disgusted look, but all in all, looks happy at their coupling. Sion has to dodge Riku’s very blatant attempt to push a cookie into his mouth, but all in all, it’s not so bad.
“I’m gonna get you off that fucking diet,” Riku warns, wrapping his arms around Sion’s waist for a quick hug goodbye. “I’m not gonna date you unless you eat my food, hyung.”
“One day,” Sion promises, ruffling his hair. He has to fight the urge to coo when Riku looks up at him with those wide eyes. “Seriously, one day I will.”
That just makes Riku roll his eyes, pushing him out the door, sending Sion back home in a happy daze.
He has a date! A date with a gorgeous, funny, teasing man who smells like espresso and gingerbread and smiles with a grin that could bring world peace, if he only harnessed it properly enough. He has to shake flour out of his hair when he gets home, but that’s worth it, too.
Sion: i got a date :)
The response comes immediately.
Yushi: You’re the worst
Sion laughs to himself as he changes clothes and sips down his coffee. Fuck, he has a date. He needs to start preparing. What flowers should he get now? Does he have anything to wear? What kind of food does Riku like - where should he make a reservation?
Fuck. Is he even capable of planning something good enough for someone like Riku?
After another crisis about his age, and then another crisis about which restaurant is first date-worthy, he sets off.
He has a gorgeous boy to impress.
-
Somehow, Sion manages to miss today’s pickup lines written in messy Sharpie on his cup.
When we met, it was love at frost sight ♡ See you tomorrow!
Yours,
Riku
P.S. it’s kinda hot that you’re old ;)