mcdonalds!au

*

Pretty crappy content, but isok lololol 2019 is about accepting our mistakes, amirite?? :3

-Also OMGOMG I have these friends who are a couple, right??? And they're such GOALSSSS aah!!! They like cuddle all the time and chase each other and wear each other's jeans and piggy back each other while chasing other people and exchange memes on a daily basis — I hope every one of you looking for someone can get into a romantic relationship like that <3<3 uwuwu-

***

Half a year following the incident with the bedtime challenge, Jae lay on the floor in the middle of his and Younghyun's living room. His eyes idled around the ceiling. "I have a fucking crush on my flatmate," he breathed out, refusing to accept any of the words that came out of his mouth, but knowing that they were true. "I have a CRUSH on my flatmate?? What's fucking wrong with me!?" His hands drew over his face in a sign of defeat, dragging down his skin as if wanting it to melt beneath his hot touch.

To take his mind off of his conflicted thoughts, Jae thought about his earlier meeting with Wonpil and Junhyeok. The week's challenge was food, just like it had been a bit over half a year before. But this time he couldn't fail — so of course he had a plan. Everything was faultless: all he needed to do was ask Younghyun on a date to MickyD's and VOILA!! There was no room for error from then on—

Hold it a sec... a DATE??!! Jae internally punched himself for even thinking about it that way, but settled for a deep groan on the outside. Maybe he just needed a glass of milk or something—

Oh wait. "I'm fucking lactose intolerant..."

*

"Yo. Let's go to McDonald's tonight." Jae, after an entire day of fighting with himself had finally decided, SCREW IT, I'm gonna ask Brian out, but just not tell 'im anything about it being not just platonic, cuz then it'll be fine — right??

"Sure. I have a manuscript to read first, but I should be ready after that." Brian stepped through the door to their apartment and swung his briefcase to signal the work was inside it.

"So— two hours or so?"

Brian chuckled and slipped off his shoes to replace them with slippers. "You know me so well!" he teased. "But no, more like forty five minutes, half-an-hour, maybe?"

"That quick?!!"

"A short story."

"Ah." Jae felt the corner of his lip maddeningly slip up into a grin. "Cool, so we can go at 6?"

"Sounds good. It's a date, then!" Brian sent him a wink and disappeared into his office with his briefcase in tow. Jae's eye twitched in shock.

*

An hour later, the two were sitting in McDonalds, talking about work and stress and whatever the heck they ever talked about (ahem**MemeExchange) when they got the chance to be alone together — or at least alone surrounded by tons of crying babies and screaming kids and shushing strangers. Brian had finished his work in a record 27 minutes and had burst through his office door screaming out the words to Panic's "Hallelujah" — Jae had been impressed by the precision of his pitch given the ear-splitting volume of the vocals — all while dancing in a craze around the living area with arms outstretched to the heavens. Currently, they were showing each other memes about photoshopped wing-less birds and submarines in hockey stadiums.

Jae leaned across the table to retrieve his phone from the cackling Brian's grasp, replacing it with the man's own. "That was gold, Jae-hyung... I can't unsee that — those birds — the, the birds—!!" Brian wiped the teardrops out of the corners of his eyes and began to scroll through his phone in search of more memes to share with Jae. His calloused fingers grabbed for the fries on his platter and he sloppily popped the food into his mouth.

Jae gazed at him fondly an extra moment long enough for his heart to flutter in his chest. Then he noticed his personal slip-up and began to scroll through his own phone on a hunt for memes. His eyes soon landed on a familiar face and BAM! If that wasn't the sound of his phone slamming onto the table in front of Brian, then he didn't know what it was.

"I mean, you are what you eat, ma man."

Brian laughed a bit too hard at this. With eyes crinkled and wide mouth covered by a hand to hide the food inside it, he managed to speak out, "Well — guess I'm McDonald's, then."

The black-haired man stretched his neck out to sip on the straw of his Cola when Jae murmured, "Then I'm lovin' it."

The drink spurted wildly out of Brian's mouth when he spat it out in surprise, hitting practically all surfaces in range of the shot. Half of the spat drink ended up soaking into Jae's jacket. "Oh, fuck — I'm sorry, man—"

Brian hastily rose from his seat, grabbing a wad of napkins as he did. His hands soon reached out to wipe at Jae's chest in hopes to dry his jacket. Jae was quick to push him away with a beating heart. "No, no — it's fine," Jae reassured his frantic flatmate. He removed his jacket and hung it to dry from his chair. "Just— lemme sit next to you."

Brian nodded and slid over in the small booth to allow Jae to emigrate to his side of the table.

As Jae squeezed into the minimal space available beside his flatmate, the frantic beating of Brian's heart became apparent between their pressed-together arms. Jae's own heart was becoming an acrobat on a sugar-high by the second. He gulped.

"Brian, I—" "Hyung—" simultaneously rang out of their mouths as they both turned to face each other. Their noses were almost touching with their close proximity, and Jae clearly saw Brian's Adam's apple rise in a nervous gulp.

After an awkward moment of silence, Brian cleared his throat and began to speak. His face didn't move away from Jae's a bit. "Hyung... I wanna say something. But you have to promise me you won't hate me for it, okay? If anything, just kick me out of the apartment..."

"Wh— why would I hate you, Bri?"

"You don't know yet, okay?" Brian turned away to release a gritted sigh from between his clenched teeth. He looked down at the table and clanged the rings on his index fingers together in obvious discomfort. "I have no idea how you'll react to—"

"Do you— do you, perhaps... like me?" asked Jae in a whisper, all nervous English and shy glances.

Brian's head swiveled around and he was facing Jae again. "Wh— how—"

"It's obvious," Jae breathed out, his lip quirking up in a giddy smile. "The way you're reacting to what I'm saying. Your beating heart, your nervous habits — I know you do that with your rings when you're nervous!!" Jae's grin grew wider still when Brian's fingers self-consciously stopped their clanging. "And then there's me. I told you I'm lovin' it, didn't I? Your body, for one... But what I really meant was you in all. Your humor, your hard work — everything. Everything about you, yeah? It's all making me go crazy — crazier than the fucking clown who danced on the counter like some psycho in that one vine!! Ya know what I'm sayin?"

Brian stared at him with his mouth slightly ajar. He looked absolutely dumbstruck, and Jae didn't blame him one bit.

Soon enough, Brian's expression softened and his lips folded into a small smile, almost as if he was desperately trying to hide it but was terribly failing at keeping a stoic face. The translator's hand slid beneath the table and tentatively laced quivering fingers between Jae's own. "Let's get out of here."

Jae nodded. He bit into his lip to cover his own spreading grin, all giddy and world-spinning-round-his-head. "We have to clean up."

"You stay here, then. I'll do it." Brian traced Jae's knuckles with his cold ring and grabbed their trays before heading off to the trash bins with a bouncy gait.

"Pfft — nerd," Jae fondly laughed beneath his breath. "I haven't even asked him out, yet, he's already this happy..." With all that had just happened, the doubts had been erased from Jae's mind — he surely had a thing for Brian, and the fact that Brian had a thing for him, too (CLEARLY)... well, that helped a Mcfuckin LOT.

Brian was back, smiling down at him from his standing position. A gleam in his eyes, a sparkle in his teeth — Jae's heart swooshed and his ribcage seemed to tighten over it. "You wanna go to the ball pit before we leave?" he whispered out, joking around.

"Why not," Jae teased him, reaching out to poke his chest. "Been a while since you got in trouble for convincing Dowoon to go in it with you despite the age restrictions, hasn't it?"

Brian whined at him but didn't argue. "Where to, then, my man?"

Jae unnecessarily reddened at this, but cleared his throat and: "Home. Wanna start moving your things into my room."

Brian gaped at him. Jae grinned wide in response, knowing that he'd gone too far with his teasing, but not caring any longer. "If anything," Brian soon mustered, "it'll be my room you'll be moving into..."

His arms enclosed Jae (one hand on the corner of the table, the other on the back of the booth beside Jae's shoulder), and Brian leaned forward slightly to test the waters. Jae escaped through the other side of the booth with a laugh. "In your dreams, Bri-Bri!!"

Brian grabbed Jae's soaked jacket from the chair with a "Hey, wait!!" and chased him, laughing, to the bus stop.

*

They sat on the sofa, now, their legs bonking together as Jae's leg nervously bounced up and down, up and—

Brian placed a palm over his thigh and Jae gulped back his nervousness. "So—" he drew out, thumbs twiddling together. "Do we kiss, or what??"

Brian's head swiveled so he was looking directly at Jae. His eyes were blown up like a 200% zoom on a photo copier and Jae stifled his laugh. "What—"

"Well, it's not like we're ten anymore..." Jae reasoned, his hand enclosing Brian's and playing with his ring. "I'm 31, you're 28—"

"—Actually, we're in Korea — you're 32, I'm 29–"

"—We're clearly going out—"

"—What?!! Since when?!—"

"—It's about time we lock lips, eh?" Jae wiggled his eyebrows and his shoulders at once, leaning towards Brian. "Not like it hasn't happened before — right?"

Brian chuckled, a growl soon leaving his throat. "Hmm... Can't seem to recall..." The hand which had been lying beneath Jae's swiveled around to grasp Jae's wrist, his other hand doing the same, and all of a sudden Jae was beneath Brian with his wrists above his head. Their faces were close — very close. "Care to enlighten—"

Their lips were brushing, but then the doorbell was ringing and a startled Brian was hitching his breath and Jae was groaning at the lost moment. "Who the fuck is it—"

"Jaehyungie-hyung!!" came through the door, muffled. "Jaehyung-hyung, open up!! Save me!! Sungjin's after me — he's gonna kill me!!!!!"

Jae and Brian looked at each other with blank stares, then burst into laughter. "Of course it's fucking Pil," Jae breathed out over Brian's lips. "So.... where were we?"

Brian decided to play with him and tilted his head slightly to the side. "I dunno..." He licked his bottom lip and passed it between his teeth, all while looking at Jae's mouth. "I think you were going to enlighten me on somethin—"

Jae leaned up as an answer, bringing his mouth to Brian's in order to cut off his teasing. Their lips surprisingly softly mushed together, and soon Jae was breathing out onto Brian's mouth, "Be my boyfriend," and Brian was breathing out an acknowledging, "And you, mine," in response. Jae's hands were escaping Brian's grip to settle around the back of his neck and Brian's teeth nipped at his bottom lip, gently, gently, unlike the last few times they'd somehow ended up doing this — and this time, Jae was totally digging it.