Work Text:
howon has been working in infinite infusions ever since he graduated from their local college about five years ago. he really can’t complain; the pay is great, seeing as they are one of the most well-known teashops in the country, and he gets the opportunity to experiment with drinks as he pleases.
even better, he has excellent workmates. jang dongwoo, a guy with the biggest heart and the loudest laugh in the world, has an ability similar to his, and they’d hit it off the very day howon first started his job at the teashop. five years of close friendship and many long, boring afternoons with few customers later and he and dongwoo have made it a sort-of tradition to rate each customer as they come through the teashop. so far, howon has proved himself to be by far the harsher of the two, with only a handful of customers succeeding in gaining a rating higher than 8 out of 10 from him since they’d started this game. in contrast, dongwoo’s ratings have never dipped below a 3. of course, dongwoo is also the kind of guy who believes that looks don’t matter when a person experiences attraction, and he’s just that kind of all-round good guy who shits puppies and farts rainbows.
but that’s beside the point. the point being that he has taken almost five years to build his reputation as mr. tough guy, a man almost impossible to please and that it has just been shattered by a black-haired customer who strolled in like he owned the place.
he faintly hears myungsoo take the guy’s order. everything seems to be moving in slow motion, and he startles when dongwoo nudges him. “eight point five?” dongwoo whispers. “those lips were made for sucking dick.” howon snorts despite himself. even though dongwoo is an angel that has been dropped on this earth to bless howon with his presence, he still has an incorrigible sense of humour and a sharp tongue capable of extracting all of howon’s secrets no matter how well he hides them.
“so?” dongwoo prompts when howon takes too long to reply. his hands are already busy, fixing up the customer’s drink. chamomile with a base of white tea, with an addition of valerian root. howon frowns. he’d have to keep a close watch on how many pots this customer ordered; valerian was a powerful sedative and could cause a myriad of problems if overdosed on.
by the time he turns to dongwoo, the older’s eyes are already on him, regarding him with a little too much smug knowingness and he sighs, knowing that he can’t run from this one, no matter how hard he tries. “hyung, would you be surprised if i said that this guy has made history?”
dongwoo hums. “depends, why would you be saying that?”
howon grimaces, admitting, “he might just be my first ten.”
dongwoo’s face breaks into a bright grin and he whoops out loud. myungsoo’s head whips around from the counter where he had been chatting to howon’s 10 rating customer, and he frowns disapprovingly at them to quiet down. the customer is also looking curiously between the both of them, and howon shoots him an apologetic look before turning and smacking dongwoo on the shoulder.
“hyung, what the fuck?! he looked over at us! now he’s forever going to remember me as “one of those rowdy tea-makers in the back” and my reputation will be tainted,” howon moans.
dongwoo snickers. “is the lee howon, dance machine and love guru, perhaps a little intimidated by this guy’s good looks? bad first impressions have never fazed you before; you must be losing your touch.”
howon sighs, not for the first time today. he should have known that dongwoo would have gone for his pride first. that guy always knew where to hit to get what he wanted, but before he could deliver a scathing retort, dongwoo had pushed away from the counter, heading towards myungsoo. “here’s your order coming right up, sir! please enjoy your visit here to infinite infusions,” he calls, smile fixed firmly in place. “may i get your name for future reference?” dongwoo adds. “it would save a lot of time if you happened to come in during one of our peak periods.”
howon’s mouth falls open in shock as he watches his best friend flirt his way into getting the customer’s name and even hold a short conversation with him. the customer throws his head back and laughs, and howon’s weak, traitorous heart jumps at the joyful sound. he’s still thinking about the brightness of the customer’s eyes when dongwoo returns, neatly nailing him a punch in the stomach for not starting the next customer’s order.
****
“his name’s lee sungjong, by the way,” murmurs dongwoo during another of their lulls in the teashop. shortly after dongwoo had finished preparing sungjong’s cup of tea, a flood of university students had entered the shop. howon knew that finals period had started by the way most of them were after their magic teas, the ones geared towards improving memory and focus and staved off sleep. he and dongwoo had made a silent agreement years ago to never serve the same student two pots of the same tea in a row after one of their patrons had collapsed in their shop and slept for three days straight.
“oh?” said howon, doing his best to appear unaffected. “and how do you know that?”
“don’t pretend like you weren’t eavesdropping on dongwoo-hyung’s conversation with sungjongie just now, hyung,” snickers myungsoo, who had left the counter unmanned and come over to rest his legs.
while howon is screeching in an attempt to defend himself, dongwoo takes a look at the front and sighs. “jungyeop-nim should really start looking for someone else to help you out there, myungsoo-ah. it must be hell having to write down their orders as well as collect their money.
“don’t worry about it, hyung! i’m managing just fine. it’s just that there’ve been a lot of rushes lately and i haven’t had time to rest at home as often as well,” myungsoo says, aegyo turned firmly on and eyes scrunched up in an adorable smile.
dongwoo doesn’t look convinced, but he drops it for the moment, instead turning to the counter and assembling several ingredients into a pot. green tea, ginger and linden flower are thrown into an infuser and hot water poured over it. dongwoo expertly sets up a timer with one hand while juggling the teapot in the other, and howon helps him put the teapot into a tea cosy before handing it to myungsoo.
“here,” dongwoo says. “put this up by the cash register and drink from it regularly. i’ve charmed it to stay warm, so it should help with your feet. i’ve put stuff in it to reduce swelling and pain, so you won’t need to soak your feet tonight like i know you’ve been doing. i’ll speak to sunggyu tomorrow about consulting with jungyeop-nim and putting up a sign for another cashier slash waiter.”
myungsoo is about to protest, but when dongwoo turns to him with an expectant look on his face, he hurriedly schools his face into a beatific grin, sliding down from the counter and dashing over to where dongwoo is already holding his arms out for a hug. myungsoo always hugs like there’s no tomorrow, and he makes sure to add an extra tightness to his grip on dongwoo, just to remind his hyung that his help is not necessarily a hundred percent welcomed. dongwoo squeals for breath, hitting him repeatedly between the shoulderblades when the hug becomes too tight for his liking, and myungsoo laughs, spinning them both round.
howon takes a deep breath and looks around the small teashop, where he has learned and gained so much from. even though it has been the three of them, myungsoo, dongwoo and himself manning the shop for a long time, howon can’t say he minds it. he knows myungsoo was struggling but was unwilling to voice any complaints for fear of their dynamic changing, and howon respects that.
he looks down into his own cup of tea that he had made earlier, the tea leaves maintaining their lazy swirl in the leftover liquid. as he watches their movement, they rearrange into several familiar shapes. howon grins and looks up again, draining the cup in one swift motion. the tea leaves had spoken, and they told him that change would be a welcome addition to his future.
****
the next day, the bell above the door rings, and dongwoo perks up. “yup, that’s him,” he exclaims, already heading towards the door. it swings open to reveal a guy around their age with a squarish jaw and a confused look on his face. dongwoo hustles him to the back where sunggyu is holed up as usual, chattering all the while with a beam on his face.
myungsoo leaves his spot at the cashier to come over to howon’s counter. “guess we’ve got a new guy already, huh?” he says morosely. howon laughs, patting him on the shoulder. “cheer up, myungsoo-yah! dongwoo’s instincts are never wrong - we’ll end up getting a great guy for sure.”
myungsoo doesn’t look convinced, but lets himself be pulled into a friendly one-armed hug before he has to extricate himself to serve a customer who has just walked in.
****
when lee sungjong next comes to the shop, howon is outside taking his break. it’s an unexpectedly cold day, and plenty of customers have come to the tea shop already in search of a warm drink. fiddling with his phone, howon makes a quick note to update their stock of ginger root, which had become unexpectedly popular with the falling temperatures.
he almost fails to notice sungjong coming up his way, lugging a massive backpack and blowing on his hands in an attempt to stave off the chill. the boy is clearly underdressed for the weather, and howon’s (extremely tough, thank you, myungsoo) heart goes out to him.
“here, let me get that for you,” he hurriedly says, catching sight of sungjong fumbling with the door handle.
“oh, thank you,” the boy replies, looking at him with a slight smile on his face. this close to him, howon is able to see how they are almost of a height, with sungjong just the slightest bit taller than he is. their bodies brush together slightly as sungjong maneuvers himself and his backpack into the warm shop.
when sungjong has entered the shop, howon lets the door fall closed, taking a deep breath. “okay,” he tells himself. “you are going to go back into that shop, and you are going to talk to him without losing your shit,” and having thusly steeled himself, he turns and enters the blessed warmth of the shop.
“back so soon?” dongwoo questions, loud enough for sungjong, who is leaning against the counter, to hear. howon slaps his arm, deflecting the question with a cheeky, “just thought you needed some help here, hyung, you didn’t look like you were handling the crowd well.”
sungjong is laughing at something myungsoo has said, and at dongwoo’s words, he glances up and grins. “oh!” he says to myungsoo, “could you get the one with the eyebrows to make my drink this time? he looks like he could whip up a mean spice mix.”
lips twitching, myungsoo turns back to howon. “howon-hyung! make our sungjongie here something milky to warm him up.”
howon scowls in warning but nods. “coming right up!” he calls.
he hears myungsoo telling sungjong to take a seat and sungjong replying with a cheerful, “yes hyung!” as he throws all the ingredients together into a small pot and heats it up.
when the drink is done, he slides it over to myungsoo to take it over to sungjong but myungsoo shakes his head with a grin. “we’re kinda busy over here hyung, do you mind taking it over to him this time?”
picking up the cup, howon makes his way over to where sungjong is sitting. he has books strewn all over the table and his earphones are already plugged in. intending to just drop the cup off and leave without disturbing the boy, howon weaves his way through the tables as inconspicuously as possible, but as he draws closer, sungjong looks up and smiles, removing his earphones and sitting up straighter.
“thank you!” he chirps as howon lays the cup next to the papers. “ah….i’m sorry, but i don’t think i got your name.”
howon startles. “uh- um. my name’s lee howon. nice to meet you….” he purposefully lets his voice trail off, asking for the younger’s name even though he already knows it.
“lee sungjong, good to make your acquaintance,” sungjong says, holding out his hand with a smile. howon takes it and shakes, grinning internally at the strength of the other guy’s grip. sungjong clearly wasn’t a pushover, despite his pretty looks.
“it’s always good to make an acquaintance as good-looking as you,” howon says smoothly, giving himself a mental pat on the back for his slick pick-up line delivery.
sungjong looks completely unimpressed, eyes narrowing and lips tightening. before he can say anything, howon hurriedly backtracks, waving his hands wildly between them.
“i didn’t mean anything by it, i’m sorry!” he exclaims, looking at sungjong pleadingly. behind him, he can hear myungsoo snorting his ugly piggy laugh, but he steadfastly doesn’t turn around to lecture his incorrigible dongsaeng, instead keeping his eyes on the cute boy in front of him.
eventually, sungjong’s expression relaxes and he cracks a smile. “don’t worry about it, howon-sshi, i was just a little lost in my own thoughts. i’m sorry if i gave you the wrong impression.”
howon schools his flabbergasted expression into a weak smile, stuttering out something before making a hasty dash for the kitchen to screech at myungsoo and dongwoo for throwing him into this mess.
****
it’s been about three weeks since their first formal meeting, and howon isn’t getting anywhere, at least romantically, with sungjong. he’s spent hours sitting with the boy on their less busy days, and they’ve probably talked about more things than howon had talked about with dongwoo in the first three months of their friendship. but there’s always a block that howon can’t seem to overcome.
“i don’t get it, hyung!” howon groans, burying his face into his best friend’s shoulder. “he always seems so interested until i pull out another flirty line and then he gets really quiet and cold. what am i doing wrong?!”
by this point, dongwoo isn’t even trying to control his laughter anymore, making howon’s head bounce with the force of his sniggering. “you know what, hyung, forget it,” howon huffs, making to pull away, but dongwoo grabs his head and smooshes it back against his bony collarbone, pointedly ignoring howon’s yowls of protest.
myungsoo, listening quietly from the till, interjects with a calm, “maybe you should talk to him about it, hyung.”
howon freezes completely at that. “i can’t do that!” he splutters. “what if he’s really not been into me all along and was just playing along to be polite?"
myungsoo sighs and thinks back to all the midnight calls he’s fielded from sungjong, ranting about howon’s many attributes and, “...how gorgeous he looks when he’s in his element, myungsoo, you don’t understand!” and turns properly to shoot howon a dull glare. “i really think that that won’t be the case, hyung.”
****
at any rate, howon is a big fat loser - yes, he admits it to himself - who absolutely cannot stand the idea of ever coming clean about his feelings when he doesn’t know for sure how the other party feels, and as such, he comes into work every day a little moodier than the day before, perks up when he sees sungjong and returns to the kitchen, absolutely crushed when sungjong shuts down yet another of his pickup lines.
myungsoo doesn’t envy dongwoo the job of comforting howon after each interaction with sungjong, but he does make a mental note to tell sungjong to be less harsh with his rejections in the future, not that the younger boy would listen to him anyway.
****
things come to a head one day when sungjong comes into the teashop looking visibly upset. myungsoo takes his order for a lemon balm tea in silence, skipping his usual teasing glance and head jerk towards howon’s ass in the background. he does stop sungjong from handing money over though, telling him that it’s on the house.
it’s a sign that something is really wrong when sungjong just accepts the free drink without any of his usual complaints, nodding in thanks before retreating to his usual seat in the corner. a little worried, myungsoo passes his order to howon before hopping over the counter and heading to sungjong’s table.
sungjong sees him coming and very pointedly scooches around in his seat until he’s facing the wall. myungsoo snorts and pulls out the chair in front of him, plopping himself down and fixing sungjong with a piercing stare.
“what’s up?” he says, careful to keep any accusing tones out of his voice. sungjong has a penchant for getting defensive, and myungsoo doesn’t want sungjong’s hackles raised before he finds out what’s bothering the younger boy.
sungjong continues staring at the wall, pretending that myungsoo isn’t there at all, and after a period of extended silence, a customer comes in. myungsoo sighs and gets up, ruffling sungjong’s neatly styled hair as he goes.
after he leaves, sungjong turns back around from where he was staring at the wall, and comes face to face with howon, who’d somehow managed to set down his cup of tea without him noticing. maybe, just maybe, he’s a little out of it today, sungjong manages to admit to himself.
looking up, he sees that howon hasn’t moved back to his place behind the counter, and when he shoots him a questioning look, howon grins.
“do you have any raisins?” he asks.
sungjong frowns. is this a joke? “....no?”
looking victorious now, howon delivers the punchline. “how about a date?”
something in sungjong tugs , and before he knows it, his lips are moving.
“stop it!” he snaps. “i know you’re secure in your relationship with dongwoo-hyung and all, but why must you-”
he breaks off, feeling abruptly, awfully, close to tears at the stricken look on howon’s face.
“just forget it,” he huffs, making to stand, but before he can escape, howon grabs his arm. sungjong tries to tug himself away, but howon’s grip is firm and unyielding.
“please sit down?” howon says. his voice is unusually meek, and when sungjong peeks upwards, he sees that howon’s eyes are fixed on the table.
when sungjong doesn’t react, howon drops his hand from his arm, but instead of returning to his place behind the counter like sungjong expects, he begins speaking.
“sungjong-ah,” howon begins to say, but sungjong is suddenly seized by panic about what howon wants to tell him - that he and dongwoo had just meant it as a joke, that they cared about him, just as a little brother rather than anywhere close to what sungjong wants - and he dashes out of the shop.
he dimly registers that he’s left all his things behind on the table, but protecting himself from howon’s inevitable gentle letdown is, ultimately, more important, so once he’s outside, he breaks into a fast jog, ignoring howon’s shouts from behind him.
****
when howon reenters the shop with a dark look on his face, dongwoo snickers and bumps his hip lightly against myungsoo’s. but before he can say anything, myungsoo butts in with a hasty, “you’re dealing with him, i’ve done my part,” and conveniently escapes to the back office right before howon slips grumpily back into his place next to dongwoo.
mentally cursing the little traitor, dongwoo gathers his thoughts and turns to howon expectantly, steeling himself for a rant of enormous proportions, but the younger boy is surprisingly silent. and since dongwoo is the type who absolutely (despite what he says to myungsoo) cannot resist knowing the latest gossip, he turns and prods howon in the side.
already well-used to dongwoo’s antics, howon simply bats his hand away and continues staring at thin air. after some consideration, dongwoo decides to simply leave him to it, knowing that the younger boy would talk when he was ready.
and sure enough, after a few minutes spent re-organising the tea leaves on the top shelf, dongwoo hears howon chuckling to himself.
“are you going to tell me what’s happened, howon-ah?” he calls.
howon snickers a little more before replying, “i know exactly why sungjong was acting like that, hyung.” he has the biggest smile dongwoo has ever seen on his usually stoic best friend’s face, and before dongwoo can think of anything to ask, howon has dashed off with a shouted, “if i don’t come back with a boyfriend, hyung, i’ll eat your dirty socks.”
well , dongwoo thinks to himself. either way, howon loses, so it’s fine by me.
****
howon runs out of the shop for the second time that day, rounds the corner and stops because he has no idea where to go next. he takes a few deep breaths - he really is less fit than he thought he was, gosh - and calls myungsoo.
in a few minutes, he’s jogging towards sungjong’s apartment, hoping that that’s where the boy returned to when he’d fled the teashop earlier.
****
when he knocks at the door, an awfully pretty girl opens it. “yes?” she says.
her expression isn’t exactly welcoming, and howon hurriedly glances down at his phone again, double-checking the address. it’s the right one, so he chances a tentative, “does lee sungjong live here?”
she breaks into a gleeful grin at that, and nods. “you must be the supposedly two-timing lee howon. wait here, i’ll get him.”
she disappears into the apartment and howon hears her screaming for sungjong, and sungjong screaming back. a few crashes and banging doors later, she comes back with a sulky sungjong in tow.
“let me go , noona! i have nothing to say to him,” sungjong wails, squirming in her hold, but the girl is unmoved, shoving sungjong out of the entrance and practically on top of howon before slamming the door with a muffled, “i’m not letting you back in until you’ve talked it out, sungjong-ah!”
the awkward silence that follows the door shutting is overwhelming. howon clears his throat and turns to sungjong. he opens his mouth. shuts it again. opens it, and….
“just spit it out, hyung.” sungjong isn’t looking at him, eyes fixed resolutely on the scuffed carpet between them. “there’s no need to let me down gently or anything, just tell me that you and dongwoo-hyung were playing around and didn’t mean for me to get the wro- argh!”
he breaks off into a yelp when howon grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him hard .
“can you just listen to me?!” howon half-yells. “stop assuming that you know everything and just listen . dongwoo-hyung and i aren’t dating; he’s my best friend. the person i have feelings for isn’t him, it’s you .”
he finishes his little speech feeling surprisingly close to tears. who would’ve thought that he, self-proclaimed “mr. hot stuff,” would have developed an awful, all-encompassing crush on someone in the span of about two months? it’s his turn to keep his gaze trained on the floor, slivers of doubt about his feelings being reciprocated creeping up on him the longer sungjong takes to respond.
and then he lets out a little oof when sungjong all but runs into him, hugging him tightly. after a brief struggle, he manages to get his arms up and around sungjong’s slim body. they stand there in silence for a little while, until howon mumbles, “does this mean you agree to be the rick to my roll?”
****
dongwoo later jokes that sungjong probably contributed to half of the shop’s revenue while mooning over howon, and sunggyu, who happens to be hanging out front, stomps on his foot while hissing, “don’t dissuade our only cash cow from coming!”