His fingers tapped against the steering wheel of his car in time to the ringing of his phone shrilly screeching at him. Alerting him that the contact he had mentally debated with himself whether or not to call or disturb at this house still had yet to pick up, and obviously so, he was at work. Changbin was calling him during his work hours, when he should be focusing on his fancy documents, and his fancy business meetings, and his fancy promptly sent E-mail responses to another part of the office, and his fancy haircut, and his fancy ties, he was calling all in the middle of that. For what? He barely found the confidence to press the call button in the first place, and now, that confidence was quickly waining.

Which is why, as soon as the person on the other end picked up with a quick greeting, Changbin startled. He settled hurriedly, immediately diving into the reason for his call without letting the other get in any words, "Hey, Hyunjin. Have you eaten anything today?"

"I haven't gotten the chance to. Why?" The voice crackled over the turned-up speakers of the car.

Thank the genius who decided wireless connections were a plausibility because, it led to beautiful areas. Such as Changbin, sitting in the driver seat of his car, knuckles nearly ghosting white as he held the steering wheel to calm his panic down as he listened to that melodic voice cut into the still of his vehicle. Melodic, tired, exhausted, drained, demure, but confident, assured his voice was perfect, all of him was perfect, Hyunjin was perfect and it wasn't fair for someone to be as perfect as he was, so perfect, cute, fancy, all the things that caused him to be having a full-on internal combustion with the slightest hint of that perfect man's existence.

"Is it alright if I bring you lunch? I had some spare time and..." Changbin rambled off to the microphone, glancing quickly over to the plastic bag wrapped around the deep bowl and water bottle he bought moments prior to calling up Hyunjin. He gritted his teeth together and lied, "And I picked up an extra poke bowl by accident because Innie said he wanted one but forgot to do, something or another, so, uh, yeah, I thought you might want it, I know you don't get much time to feed yourself."

From the other side, Hyunjin laughed softly, "Absolutely, I would love if you came. Let me send you the address and I'll let the front desk know you're here to see me."

"Awesome, see you soon then," Changbin hurried and hung up the phone, the panic in his muscles leaving him for dead as soon as he heard the binging of the dial tone telling him he'd left without giving Hyunjin a chance to say goodbye.

That hardly mattered in his mind at the moment.

With a groan, Changbin slammed his forehead into the steering wheel.

Why didn't I tell him I got it for him?

He smacked his forehead with the wheel for a second time. Then a third, lightly lecturing himself in his mind.

You could've told him, he probably would have done that airy thank you thing he does and he would've known he wasn't a second option, he was the first, and—

A vibration in his palm prompted him to turn his gaze down to his phone midlecture, the arguing thoughts going completely silent as he searched for the disturbance. A good disturbance. A lengthy text from Hyunjin with the location and the office address, where to park, how long he could park there, who to speak to and what to say when he did, what elevators to take and what floor he should go to, mentioning to avoid a 'Sandra' at the reception desk unless he wanted to hear about how her corgi managed to break a mirror while fighting with it's own reflection. A full tutorial on how to exist in Hyunjin's world laid out in the screen in his hands. A tutorial that must have been collected by days of making mistake after mistake to reset.

He had never driven so fast at the prompt of a text before. As soon as he finished reading the words, set the address into his GPS, and clicked the phone off to set on his console, Changbin was racing down the streets like a cat runs down a hallway at 3am. Not dangerously, he wasn't being dangerous necessarily, but every red light was poison, every stop sign he resisted the urge to roll through without police supervision stopping him, every pedestrian crossing he wanted to shout at them to hurry up, he wanted to bust out of his car, go over, pick them up, and throw them on the other side of the intersection so he could get to Hyunjin's workplace. He was about to kick a kid into oblivion if they didn't walk faster. He didn't care. He'd do it.

He followed the directions on his phone step by step, first from the GPS navigation app thingy he inputed the address into, then to figuring out what parking space underneath the tall glass building he would be able to temporarily occupy until he realized Hyunjin texted him the details. Without much thought besides to hurry up and get inside, Changbin yanked the plastic bag into his hands, shut the engine in the car off, and dashed to the entrance of the building.

For the record, this building was nice.

The kind of nice that Hyunjin's apartment was, but major. Seeing the interior of this building was enough to make him understand why his apartment was nice nice and not the regular kind of nice.

First off, the women at the front desk were exceedingly nice and understanding to him when he stumbled up to what he assumed was the front desk after gawking at the Godzilla sized roof and strange glass snake tassel chandelier that hung designed in the center, prompted to tell them he was there for Hyunjin to their evident surprise and murmurs of 'Mr. Hwang was telling the truth', before they checked his ID and explained how to reach Hyunjin after giving him a lanyard with what they said was a key card. A temporary one for the floor and elevator? It would deactivate after today? Which, again, technology was blowing his mind to tiny bits.

Both of the women at the front desk were done up in light makeup, but from the sheer quality of the coverage and what limited knowledge he knew about binge watching makeup tutorials on YouTube at 3am, the brands they used must have been costly to fit so evenly on their complexion. Their hair was neatly tied back into a bun, hair slicked. Slicked. All wispys and stray ghost strands slicked back with a precision that looked to be via comb only, no hair spray, only skill to an utmost degree.

Everyone was dressed like that. Like how Hyunjin was on his normal days; Business suit or blazer, refined white button up suffocating him with a tie, slacks, polished shoes that he could never remember the name of because he didn't own his own pair, the women who walked around in their own similar fashion; Suits, or pencil skirts, heels or flats clicking against the polished tile floor, diplomatic smiles. Neither of which would have helped his pansexual self on a normal day but that hardly mattered at the moment. He was there for Hyunjin.

Even if that meant fumbling stupidly with the key card he was given in the elevator for five minutes before a cluster of employees walked in and used theirs. And he, in his brilliant moment of embarrassment, only stood with his head leaning against the clear wall as he watched the spectacular ground floor disappear below them. If he noticed a few of the employees looking at him, he didn't pay it any mind. He tried not to. He really tried not to, but it was starting to get excessive when he wanted nothing more than to smoosh into a puddle of shame for not knowing how to work the stupid fancy elevator.

Was it the outfit?

He knew it was the outfit.

He tried this morning. After realizing that all his black t-shirts and normal cargo pants or black jeans were clustered behind days worth of laundry he had yet to do, Changbin pulled out the set of clothes that hadn't seen daylight for about a year. Which led to the current concoction and source of his anxieties; The crème colored button-up he rolled up at the sleeves to not overheat, and the strange shade of brown trousers he usually didn't wear because the waistband felt funky on his stomach. High-key hated how the entire outfit felt on his body, but he also wasn't about to do laundry so he forced himself to stick with it for the experience of "stepping out of the comfort zone".

Somehow, Changbin found his way to Hyunjin's office. He didn't know how, he didn't know where the hell he was, all he knew was that the floor was the correct floor on the text and as the receptionists told, and that when he opened the door to the room at the corner of the huge floor, he was met with the wide but exhausted smile he was familiar with.

"I could kiss you right now, I'm starving," Hyunjin stood up from the office chair with the fast ramble. He scurried his way to Changbin, steps light, bouncy, focused, as he zoomed from behind the desk to in front of him in an instant and snatched the bag in the older's hand before he could give him a greeting. The younger opened the plastic bag, immediately taking up the water  bottle with a cheerful sound slamming out of his chest. He held it out to the older, eyes raking him in as his grin softened, "You look nice by the way, I like it."

Changbin took the water bottle from him and snapped the top open, "Is it actually nice?"

"Yes, of course. You look really good. It fits you, the colors compliment you, is it comfortable to wear?"

"No, they're a bit... I don't know. It doesn't feel nice?"

"Oh, well, burn the clothes then," Hyunjin finished with another one of his squishy smiles. He took the water bottle and the plastic top back from him, already raising it to his lips to chug down the refreshing liquid as he wandered back to the office desk to set the plastic bag down and begin his assault on the food he was brought.

In his spot near the doorway, Changbin froze. He gawked at his hands.

Did I just open his bottle for him without even realizing it?

As the other quickly became too occupied with scratching at the sealed poke bowl to open it up and not attentive enough to truly offer him an answer, Changbin quickly shook the thoughts off. He buried himself in the scenery of the private room around him, wandering the corners as he took it all in; A fairly decent space wide enough for them to both walk and even do yoga in comfortably, classic yet luxurious furnishing that he would see in any office-type situation yet amplified in expense, the big mahogany desk that has a front touching to the floors, the cushy black leather chair and the stack of papers set next to his laptop, he even had a leather sofa on the other side, what kind of person has a leather sofa in their office?!

And, the most important part.

Massive windows.

Changbin was like a dog sticking his head out of the window of a car. He couldn't resist walking up to the windows and gawking. The walls which should have been walls were massive, plexiglass, windows, stretching from ceiling to floor, with the exception of the walls connecting him to the main building.

Through them, throughout the polished, cleaned, refined, detailed, huge sheets of window, he could see everything. The city laid out below him, lateral cuts of streets, freeways, highways, he saw each headlight passing by in the daytime that traveled the untaken roads. If he tried hard enough he could even identify what corner of the city his own workplace was, considering the two locations were within a walking distance to one another. He could see every pedestrian through the looking glass. Each their own lives, busy days, tiny specs that were nothing but dust to his mind and ants to his heart. It all glowed. It glowed bright enough that he couldn't make out the details of where the city stopped and the sun began in the middle of the day.

This was nothing like anything he was used to. None of it was.

He was used to the floor. The ground. The Earth. Dirt. Working on the ground. Staying on the ground. Simple things. Keys in his hands, he heard them jangle. A normal lock. Solid walls. An uncomfortable couch he should have ditched two decades ago. An apartment that had too many issues to count on his hands but that he desperately loved. Not, this. Not this type of money allocated in one place, not glass walls and super fancy sci-fi high-tech key cards on silky lanyards that worked in the elevator by tapping it against this panel thing, not the apartment unlocked using his phone, this was all different. So, so different.

Changbin murmured to himself as he gaped out the window with amazement, his eyes following after another pair of headlights on the freeway, "This is quite the view. I didn't realize how high up you were, Mr. Hwang."

"Please don't call me Mr. Hwang too, I'm so tired of it," Hyunjin laughed pitifully around a mouthful of food, a painful swallow being chased by more water. When Changbin shifted to see him, Hyunjin shoved another huge spoonful of the poke bowl into his mouth, before he groaned through the glob he roughly packed into the shove, "Tfiis isso good. Fahnk yeu."

Changbin let his own soft smile come over him as he watched Hyunjin inhale the lunch as if he was a ravenous ghoul slurping up some person for their meal. How he didn't get any mess on his clothes was a mystery, but, based on the way he was eating that could only mean one thing. The older shrugged, smile falling out to a frown he tried to keep subtle as his heart pained with the thought of the other going again without eating for a while. Considering how rigorous and how much mental work his job required, Changbin new more than anyone that it's hard to keep going on an empty stomach, "Yeah, I figured you probably didn't eat anything this morning."

Hyunjin shook his head, gulping down what was in his mouth as he prodded again at the contents in the plastic container, "I didn't have time to. It's been coffee and gum keeping me alive all day."

"How many cups of coffee did you drink?"

"Five?"

"All day?"

"I-It may have been within the last hour or so? I lost track of time."

"Hyunjin, that's not... That's not a meal? That's not good for your body or your mind, you have to eat something."

"I don't have time. It's meeting after meeting after meeting, I have to make another phone call here in a moment, I was running papers all day, my E-mail is filled and I need to respond. I don't forget, trust me, I know I'm hungry, but I don't get the time even in my breaks," Hyunjin ranted back, his throat strained in an odd way that sounded vaguely like he didn't swallow properly last time. His shoulders deflated down, body slumping with a sigh as he kept poking at the poke bowl to occupy his hands as he spoke, "Do you want to stick around for a while? You can hang out here if you want while I work."

"Is it interesting here?" He wondered.

Hyunjin smiled, "No. Not at all." 

"I'll stay and bug you. I don't have anywhere else to be," Changbin chuckled softly at the response, the younger turning his lips into a tiny beam that barely caused him to quirk an expression. He wandered back around to his desk, flopping down in the chair with his nearly devoured bowl as Changbin followed after. The older, leaned himself on the front of the desk and resisted the urge to sit on it. An urge he gave into. Changbin sat on the corner of the desk and with a slight flutter in his heart that caused him to loose gravity, he timidly offered, "If you're free soon, we should do something together again."

"I want to go to an amusement park," Hyunjin huffed, shoulders cascading down again to focus only on the poke bowl. Almost sadly, he uttered, "I haven't been to one since I was... Ten. Maybe? No, eight."

"Are you sure it's not too much for someone as busy as you?"

"For a day to an amusement park, with you? I would take the day off. I'll take it from my sick leave."

Changbin ignored the arrow to his heart at the other's words. He brushed it off, trying to ignore it and play off his excitement as nothing more than interest in the large office room. He cleared his throat out, shaking his muscles off from the jittering as he proclaimed, "I can start planning for it, then."

"Would you want to invite your friends too? Your Jeongin friend and his boyfriends," Hyunjin offered. He smiled down at the bowl as he shoved another spoonful into his mouth, then laughed softly through the chunk of food sitting in his cheeks, "It'll be sort of like a... double date?"

Changbin locked up. Heart rate increasing rapidly. Pulse going beyond normal capacity. Losing gravity. Starting to float. He was soaring on cloud nine before his mind caught up to the scrambled mess of emotions in his chest.

Date?

Did he really say double date?

Noooo.... He didn't mean it like that. It was a joke. Right?

"What about your coworker and his struggling relationship? You seemed close to him, you could invite them too. Then it's a triple date and we're saving a relationship," Changbin tried to joke too, mainly to brush off his own nerves at the proclamation. How else was he supposed to handle this?

"This seems like a lot of fun. Let's send out a few texts plan for it sometime soon, before I get wrapped up in events again," Hyunjin nodded the confirmation. He had a kind of assertiveness when he said it, as if he was a boss approving records and plans for a project, which in a way he was. He was approving a personal project. A 'date' according to his mind and a 'Holy shit what the fuck ahhhhhhhhhhhh' to Changbin. With that final note of attempting to calm himself down, Hyunjin set the empty poke bowl on the desk and took the water bottle up in his hand. He grinned a squishy grin up at Changbin, eyes drifting down to the older's lips before looking back up, "Thank you for bringing me lunch, and for staying with me for a short while."

Changbin scrunched his nose up.

He reached across the desk, giving a quick pat and a hair ruffle to the other.

"Anytime."

•°••°•°°•