Simple Love (Valentine One Shot)
-●●●- Pairing : Yang Jeong In x Afabreader
-●●●- Genre : Romance, Josei
-●●●- Warnings : Age difference ( 3 years); mention of alcohol.
A/N : I known today isn’t Valentine Day, but my plan actually was to publish it the weekend following the 14th so as much people as possible could find time to read it. This oneshot might be the only content published this month because I’m busy as always. I wanted to write something sweet with no mature content for once or maybe just like all the oneshot I have published here. ahah
Everyone around you would at first qualify your relationship as surprising but after ten minutes being around you they would start to see why you are both together. It’s true the first time you both met could qualify as quite unordinary, none of your friends understand how you met when your lifestyles are similar but a lot different at the same time. Working as a barman, you are what people call a nighthowl, working from the moment the sun is down until it rises up again ten hours later. Your sleep schedule, your whole life even turning around your work. Going to sleep at 7 am when everyone goes to work, looking as dead and motivated as them on the 06:45 am bus from the club to your place; then waking up at 2 pm to have a breakfast made mostly of coffee and anything you can find around your place; and finally doing nothing or some chores before getting ready around 5 pm, just having to put on your black uniform made of long pants, button shirt and a few of your usual accessories. Every day except two random days off a week, you keep that schedule, barely having time to go out, not that your friends mind since they come to your workplace from time to time or meet you in the early afternoon before letting you go make some money.
Jeong In being a work alcoholic pretty much just like you would wake up at 5 am to get ready for his day, taking time to choose his outfit for the day and working on a few designs while having breakfast. At 8 am, he would always be the first one at the tattoo shop to arrive, getting his space clean and ready for the day and then sketching when he had no clients scheduled or practicing his lines. He loved his job which is why he was always the first to come and the last one to go, always making sure his studio at the shop was as clean as he liked. After leaving at 7 pm it was most of the time a meeting with his couch that was waiting for him, not that he didn’t like going out but he would usually answer all his email from the comfort of his red velvet couch. Going out was nice from time to time, like going for drinks or to a nice restaurant, that’s why everyone from his friend group were surprised the night you both met.
The day, or more like the night you met each other was what you would call an usual work day. You were at work at 7 pm to clean your bar once again and to start getting fruits ready in advance, check if your colleague last night did put back in stock the bottles you asked for but also to correct if needed the drink menu. By the time you needed to open, which was usually 9 pm everything was ready, like usual you were on time and very organized. It was a Thursday night, not during any school holidays so you weren’t expecting a lot of clients, maybe a few early weekend birds but it wasn’t going to be a party from 9 to 5 like it could be on Friday and Saturday or even Sunday evening. Like you predicted you didn’t have a lot of people, a few friends group here and here but no one ordering much drinks. And so a boring Thursday night began with just making a few drinks every hour and watching people have fun in the meantime. At some point your eyes kept going back to one noisy group of guys, they weren’t noisy in a bad way, they seemed to be having fun, most of them looking a few years younger than you. You remember smiling a bit at them before going back to cleaning some glasses, not concentrating at all on what was going a meter at least away from your work space. You only came back to your surroundings when you saw a Three Days Grace altered tour shirt trying to take place in front of you. Like the professional that you are, you looked at him with a smile and asked him by habit what he wanted, but damned you were seeing “oh freaking damn” cute he was. His cute foxy-like eyes and the even more adorable smile you got in return almost made you unable to hear his order, a cuba libre, not strong and a little bit sweet, interesting choice. Usually people would order a beer or shots, so it was a nice change from the 30 or what drinks you made so far that night. Cute and like rum based cocktails ? Man if only you weren’t so sure he wasn’t at least 2 years younger than you.
“Here you go”you said, placing his drink in front of him expecting him to go back to whoever he was with.
But strangely after giving you a smile back while thanking you he stayed right there, not moving his cute ass from his seat. Not like you minded, it gave you more time to study the younger man in front of you. You finally noticed his bleached blond hair, a bit curly, then your eyes trailed to his arms and hands; jesus christ this fine man also had nice tattoo covered arms and hands, funny how all his tattoos were showing tonight while all of yours were completely hidden by your uniform. This got you curious, asking yourself if he was also hiding some under his clothes, you wouldn’t mind if while standing up and going to where he came from you could craps a glance of a low back tattoo.
“Not going back to your friends ?”, you ask, finally getting away from your little fantasies.
“ They seem to be distracted enough so I can stay here talking to you”, he smiled.
“Oh lord” was all that came to your mind, “if he wasn’t younger.” You tried to busy your hand by washing an already clean glass. Getting hit on by a customer wouldn’t be a first, with this kind of job it’s pretty normal, be it because alcohol gives them courage, stupidity or just them being bold even without any drink yet in their system. Usually you wouldn’t even have any reaction to them, but here you were having an internal conflict, a little screaming voice telling you how cute blondie in front of you was, customer or not. You should definitely not answer back, and you should absolutely not smile slightly like an idiot, which you are actually doing.
“Talk to me ? I wouldn’t want to keep you from all the fun they are having right now”
“ Here is more fun.”, a smile flashing up in your direction.
This smug little man, knowing exactly what to say to make you want to giggle like a 16 years old. If you weren’t on shift, not at your working place and better dressed you would already have offered him to have drinks at your place for a private after party even if younger men weren’t usually who you would go back home with. But tonight you had to keep it professional, eyes are everywhere and you already know the other bartender on shift tonight is already listening in to see if they can hear something they could remind you of in the staff room later. And at the same time, you want this to go a bit longer, just enough for your ego to feel great for the few hours left from your shift. Last few hours before the week off you will offer yourself after months without taking additional days off to take care of yourself.
“I guess it is, glad old me seems more fun than doing a push up match”, you said smiling while taking his empty glass and placing a new one the next second.
“ Yeah, way more entertaining and attractive.”
Smug again, but this time you couldn’t help the little giggling sound from your mouth. You wanted to punch yourself the moment you heard that sound but it seems the young man in front of you had a different opinion as he found it to be adorable how you tried to control yourself. Jeong In never came here with the thought of meeting someone, quite the contrary as he hasn’t felt the need to meet someone new in months. But tonight, as he entered this place one of his friends found a few weeks ago and saw one of the bartenders his eyes couldn’t leave them. It took him a few drinks before he mustered the courage to go over there himself and order a drink directly from you.
Quite frankly what struck him was your posture, the elegance you hold just standing there taking care of your space. From afar your figure was already beautiful enough but now that he was closer to you he could see more. He noticed your long and elegant fingers, quickly working around while making him his drink, he saw the tattoos adorning both middle fingers, the well taken care of nails, silver rings; those small details telling him enough about you to make him even more interested. It made him wonder about you and how you tried to control your reactions was really cute in his eyes. Jeongin found you so cute that he just wanted to keep going, but luck wasn’t anymore on his side, and his friends just decided it was the perfect moment to notice he stayed at the bar instead of coming back to their table.
“What’s taking so long, found something more interesting than us?” , said a voice while Jeongin could feel an arm headlocking him.
His friend made an exaggerated surprised sound and before Jeong In at times to say something else he felt himself being lifted from his chair. His friend didn’t even leave him a chance to say his goodbye to you, already dragging his ass back to their table. He could only stare as you tried to hide a small laugh, but that was enough for me to smile. Oh man, he hoped to have a new opportunity with you, one moment alone. But his friends didn’t let him escape again for the rest of the night, only deciding to leave when the sun was almost up and someone from the staff told them they would close soon. Jeong In mind went back to you the moment fresh air hit his face, while his friends were debating how to get home and what were their plans for the rest of the 3 days week-end they all offered themselves, here he was standing asking himself what the cute bartender was doing. Would you be going out soon to get back to your place or would have to stay longer so you could close up ? Should he stay and wait for you ? Would this be weird ? While Jeong In head was running miles to figure out if he should just go home or listen to his wants, he didn’t feel someone approaching him.
“Wait here”, Jeong In immediately lifted his head after hearing this.
“It’s obvious what you are thinking about, you were eyeing them all night.”
“ Should I ? Wouldn’t this be weird”, worry being slightly visible in his voice, Jeong In looked at his friend who just ended giving him an encouraging smile. “ Thanks Felix.”
His friend just kept smiling at him before going back to the others who were already splitting up into cabs, deciding it was way better than to wait one more hour somewhere else and to catch the first subway home. Jeong In just stayed there, waving them off before choosing to lean on the club’s wall. He might have been a fool, deciding to just wait here, not knowing when you would even show up on the street ready to get home. As he started to question his choice again, he didn’t notice how the club door opened to let someone out, it’s only when he heard the sound of trash meeting the concrete did he turn his head. And here you were, a bit surprised by meeting his eyes.
How surprised you were to see him standing just here, was he waiting for you ? That’s so freaking cute, and you couldn’t remember the last time someone actually did that for you. And even if your professional rules were to never have something with a client, here you were letting your mouth speak before you could really think about it.
“ I finish in half an hour.” was all you blurred out before you went back inside as fast as you came out leaving an as much surprised as you Jeong In on the street.
Your strike of confidence did fade a little when you went back to check the last details upstairs, asking yourself that maybe he was actually just waiting for a taxi and not you. You after all only “flirted” less than five minutes when he was still upstairs, you shouldn’t have thought he stayed just to wait for you. You aren’t in your sweet sixteen anymore, being delusional isn’t something that should exist in your mid twenties. Hell even when you were still in your early twenties you decided it was better to stop living in delusion when it came to dating or hookups.
But Jeong In proved your insecure end of shift brain wrong when he was still leaning against the wall when you came back down with your bag under your arm. Hands slightly sweating even after washing them to be sure they didn’t smell like cleaning products or alcohol, you stood there not exactly knowing what to say or do as you were digesting the fact that he was still waiting.
“ I thought we could go for a coffee but maybe it’s not very 6 am end of shift friendly”Jeong In tried to break the ice, worried the vibes between you both were gone but clearly the laugh you left out proved him wrong again.
“ Maybe not coffee, yeah, but coffee free breakfast wouldn’t hurt my sleep schedule.”, you smiled.
Jeong In couldn’t help smiling back at you before proposing to take the lead. You walked side by side for a while, preferring walking all the way to the nearest convenience store than taking the subway to a neighborhood with places still open. Here he bought you juice and sweet bread for you to eat outside while the sun started to show itself and blinded your eyes, which he covered by moving his chair around, you thought he was just as sweet as the bread in your hands. Sitting there for almost an hour, you learned about his work, he learned more about yours, you both ended up learning the age gap between you both, surprised about how three years wasn’t exactly that much. You laughed and smiled together and when you started to see the huge flow of people walking around you to get to their shitty 9 to 5 job you both decided it was probably time to split.
Jeong In insisted to at least take you to your bus stop, you talked a bit more on the way and while waiting for your bus you finally exchanged numbers and social media. Your bus was entering your sight when another bold thought came to you, you knew you didn’t really want to part, and you felt like the young man in front of you was feeling the same, or at least you hoped. You didn’t let your mind think enough before you blurred out your proposal.
“ Wanna actually come over right now ?”, a sentence enough to surprise the blonde once again.
“ Yeah.”, Jeong In answered, not thinking much at all either.
The next second you just took his hand in yours, leading him inside the bus before seating together. The entire 30 minutes ride neither of you made a move to separate your hands, yours still holding his and him slightly squeezing it. Suddenly you were both silent, but not an awkward one, one of comfort. Once in front of your door, you quickly unlock it, letting him inside, your brain starting to process what you just did, not knowing what the hell was going on and what you will do in the following minutes. Usually you would just go take a shower and sleep the second you met your bed, but you just took back a fine young man to your place with no actual thought of, well, fuck him in your bed.
Jeong In was actually lost too, what were you both supposed to do now ? But it wouldn’t be a lie to say he was starting to feel pretty tired and that he could feel the same coming from you. And so he decided to act first, even though it wasn’t his own apartment, Jeong In navigated easily in the three rooms you rented and found the couch, your cat actually already sleeping here. Jeong In let you both just fall down on the soft material, your hands still united, a sigh of relief leaving both your body but before any of you could completely let sleep gain your brain final words left your mouths.
“That’s so weird”, you said.
“Hell yeah it is.” he answered with a light laugh accompanied by yours.
And just like that, you both drifted to sleep, waking up four hours later before actually barely leaving each other for the rest of the weekend. Jeong In just went to retrieve some of his stuff from his place, coming back as quickly as he went out and then never leaving your side. Your cat seemed to appreciate him a lot, just like you, and the feelings seemed to be mutual as after this weekend, you keep texting each other. Soon enough you started dating, a few months later you moved together to a new place, you let him tattoo your arms finally fully completing them and you taught him how to make a few cocktails. And soon enough here you were in your second year of dating and traveling together in Europe for some of Jeong In's guest jobs.
Right now sitting in a cafe for breakfast, Jeong In was checking his email while you were stuffing yourself and savoring a nice cup of coffee as you looked at him; questioning yourself how all of this wasn’t a drunk dream you made up. You and Jeong In after all had completely different lifestyles, only seeing each other mostly very early in the morning and on your day off, day off you would spend together at his studio or at home. Not that you minded, it was the lifestyle you liked and Jeong In seemed to think the same, even making fun of it from time to time. You never thought meeting him that night was just the beginning of a long journey full of butterfly in your stomach every time the younger man would wakes you up in the morning, suddenly show you a design he made, surprise you with food his older friend Minho made for him at the studio but he kept just to share it at home, or when he just smiles at you with his teeth and eyes.
“What are you thinking about ?”
Your eyes immediately focused back on him and the adorable smile he offered you while taking a sip of his juice. Butterflies came the exact moment you saw it.
“ Nothing much, just how much you were with blonde hair.”, you said smiling while joking let out his beautiful laugh escape. Truly your love was so simple.