Suju- Of Vending Machines and Quarters
Title: Of Vending machines and quarters
Pairings: donghae/eunhyuk, eunhyuk/sungmin, hankyung/heechul, kibum/donghae, kangin/eeteuk, kyuhyun/sungmin, siwon/hankyung, yesung/ryeowook
Rating: G
Genre: Fluff, Drabble
A/N: I tried to make all of them suit their Vending machine types as much as possible so hope you guys enjoy it:D HAHAH ALL SUJU PAIRINGS THAT I LIKE AND CAN POSSIBLY FATHOM!!! ENJOY^^
You know how people used to say that there was a man in the coffee dispensing machine preparing the coffee for us when we put a quarter in? Well, that’s half true.
(Love triangle of drinks)
A lone coffee machine stands in the streets of Seoul under a freeway where people pass daily on the way to work. Upon the insertion of 500won, a small man by the name of Lee Donghae would hustle over to the coffee pot and take out a teaspoon of coffee and pour it into the coffee pot where the coffee would take two minutes to brew. If you wanted sugar, he would take out two teaspoons from the sugar bag and put it into the coffee cup before the coffee was dispensed. If you wanted milk, he would quickly steam and fluff the milk such that it would form a layer of thick foam on the top of the coffee.
On especially busy days, Lee Donghae runs up and down the vending machine, picking the different coffee types according to the preferences of his customers. If one guy wanted blue mountain, Donghae would have to run three storeys up to make the coffee and if the next guy wanted Jamaican, Donghae would have to run two storeys down instead. On days like those, Donghae would sometimes forget to fluff the milk adequately, or sometimes even forget to add the milk completely and would hear cusses from his customers at the lack of sugar or milk. Sometimes, when Donghae got really tired, he would slump against the side of the vat of cool milk and fall asleep, often not hearing the clink of coins and the next order for coffee. This is when you must kick the machine to wake Donghae up, and he would scurry about accordingly to make the desired beverage.
Sometimes when everyone is at work, Lee Donghae gets bored and tries to study English and occasionally, he sends a message to complain to his CEO SM, to add more machines because he gets really lonely sometimes.
Donghae is awoken one day to the soft knocking against his polyethylene front of his coffee display case and sees a bright young man who is just as little him grinning through the window. He lets the man in through the large red circle that lights up when the coffee is ready for collection.
The grinning man introduces himself as Kim Kibum, the manager of the new beer machine that was installed overnight beside Donghae. Donghae is happy that he has a new neighbor that he can spend time with but finds it odd that Kibum has a perpetual grin on his face, as though he is constantly drunk (maybe from the fumes in the beer that he is surrounded by), but does not mind because it makes Kibum look extremely huggable.
Kibum’s machine is only patronized late at night or at wee hours of the morning and this gets Donghae down because he is free at that time and wants to visit Kibum, but he is running around frothing beer for the roaming drunklords. It hurts Donghae when these bums slam fists against Kibum’s machine or spits at the foot of his machine but Kibum just smiles it off and huggles Donghae for his care.
Donghae is all happy when he sees that there are more drink machines coming to join him cause he has his workload lessened, plus they have something in common so conversation would not be so awkward. Kibum is glad that Donghae’s mood has been getting better of late but what he does not tell Donghae is that he feels somewhat threatened by the introduction of another cold drinks vending machine, that and the fact that since he is on the other side of Donghae, Kibum cannot separate the two from their own private conversations.
Eunhyuk is the new carbonated drink added to the growing row of vending machines and is placed on the other side of Donghae. Donghae gets to see Eunhyuk more than he does Kibum because their patrons are more similar.
Now Donghae is not lonely anymore cause Eunhyuk is always around. But he hardly goes and finds Kibum anymore which causes Kibum’s smile to fade a little and his drunkenness is now really caused by over drinking.
(Let’s play a love game)
Along with a shiny new claw machine, a dull token dispenser is installed not too far from the beer machine.
It’s gets really annoying when little kids start shouting and screaming at their parents to purchase a token for the claw machine, but it gets even more annoying when they are unable to get the prize because the claw is deliberately made to miss the toy no matter how good a person is at the machine.
That’s Kim HeeChul’s job. He is the little figure atop the giant claw shouting “Yeehahs” and “Yahoos” every time the claw moves to grab a toy. He would wake up early in the morning and looses the claw just enough that the initial grip on the toy seems strong but will loosen the moment the claw lifts due to the weight of the toy. Only if the person pays for another nine tokens, Kim Heechul might decide to tighten the claw for the patron to win the prize. Of course, not every one has the stamina and money to invest in such a battle of wills with Kim Heechul, who usually wins.
Kim Heechul takes special joy in disallowing couples from succeeding in his game. The man would usually pretend that he was especially good at claw games to impress his girlfriend but he would ultimately fail (because of Heechul) and though she would say “it’s alright, it’s the machine’s fault,” in actual fact, she is disappointed at her boyfriend.
Hankyung dispenses the tokens for Heechul. And though he does not agree with Heechul’s tactics, he loves Heechul anyway.
What he does not know is that Heechul does his evil-claw-loosening-business for Hankyung to have some business of his own. Because he knows that a dull token machine like him is unable to secure any customers if they did not come as a set.
When Hankyung decides that one day he would like to visit the other vending machines, Heechul is slightly wary because the only one in sight is a beer machine and he, being a recovering alcoholic would not go near to such temptations if he had the chance.
But Hankyung assures Heechul that he will stop Heechul if he is unable to over come his temptations because no matter what, it is always polite to be a good neighbour.
One day, SM decides to install a water cooler between Heechul and Kibum.
Heechul scoffs at the installment of this contraption for one reason, it dispenses FREE water.
His name is Choi Siwon and he has this schedule that he follows to the tee cause he’s such a stickler for organization. But that’s not what annoys Heechul. What really takes the ticket is when Siwon admits to Heechul that he thinks Hankyung sounds very cute when he articulates in his broken Korean.
So Heechul decides that one day, when Siwon is sleeping, he will take his special tool-kit, the one which he uses to tamper with his own claw to meddle with Siwon’s water cooler. Heechul sneaks past Siwon and lightly scratches at the surface of the stainless steel water tank, rubs in abit of rust to start the reaction-and voila! It is only a matter of days before Siwon is reported to SM who shuts Siwon down until a new water tank is installed.
In that time, Heechul realizes that his plan backfires on him because in his wanting Siwon away from his Hankyung, Hankyung, the ever so kind-hearted token machine has decided to spend more time with Siwon, just cause he needs somebody to lean on.
(Cause you said you wanted our love smoking)
On the other end of the long wall, Eeteuk the ticket machine stands, dispensing tickets for the hourly train. He has always been alone because he is lazy and refuses to hike up that hill to where Donghae stood alone originally to chat-mostly because he is busy with endless customers.
But he can’t deny that it is a change that he likes when a new machine managed by a man called Kangin is plugged up next to him.
At first Eeteuk finds it odd that Kangin’s vending machine is isolated from the others but he realizes that it is necessary because you can’t possibly let little carbonated-drinks-buying kids near a cigarette vending machine. It’s ludicrous.
Eeteuk finds it odd that Kangin is perfectly healthy and runs up and down that hill that Eeteuk refuses to and has no time to run when he visits the other vending machines. He buys Eeteuk a beer or two sometimes when Eeteuk’s customers dwindle in number and they are alone, chatting late into the night. He finds out that Kangin does not smoke but just manages a machine like his because it is his job.
Despite his shady business, Eeteuk respects Kangin for having an id-scanner to ensure the customer is legit.
Kangin on the other hand, does not understand why he is being so nice to Eeteuk. He easily shouts at Kibum to give him free beer, and at Heechul, to give him a small trinklet from his claw machine, but with Eeteuk, he is always thrown off-guard by his innocent eyes, his pure questions and his never-ending energy that he possesses despite being the oldest out of all the machines, working the hardest and the longest hours. And Kangin wishes that he could take over Eeteuk for a day so that Eeteuk can just sleep in-which Eeteuk thinks is admirable, but tells Kangin that he cannot simply leave his work for even a day.
But Kangin is glad he gets to spend the most time with Eeteuk in the intervals between the arrival of the train so he sees Eeteuk as much as he wants and he is never unhappy.
(Our love’s got you stone cold)
When Sungmin is installed next to Eunhyuk, Kibum drinks less, because he has more Donghae to himself again.
Sungmin has Eunhyuk preoccupied half the time with his antics and his crazy martial arts skill with which he can easily open the metal cap of a carbonated drink bottle with a single ‘chop’.
Eunhyuk can admit that he is slightly offended when Donghae is not jealous he is spending more time with Sungmin because he knows that he is, seeing Donghae head over to Kibum’s a more often than he would have liked, but he realizes that it’s just the way Donghae is and decides that he will just spend more time with Sungmin.
They have a lot in common, Eunhyuk finds, as his cold drinks make for a good float with Sungmin’s ice cream. But Sungmin is always busy thinking of new ways to decorate the ice cream for his loveable customers-screaming children and mollycoddling mothers-and usually has no time to entertain Eunhyuk.
When he finds enough time to talk to Eunhyuk, they share a small bowl of Sungmin’s triple-chocolate-fudgalicious-rainbow-strawberry-banana split and talk for hours on end about absolutely anything, and they both like it like that.
But this happiness is short-lived because soon after, a slim gum machine is installed right next to Sungmin.
Sungmin is intrigued by the man in the machine because he is quiet and stoic, but Sungmin knows there is more to him than meets the eye because when Sungmin passes him a red M&M, Kyuhyun tosses it in the air and catches it with his mouth.
Eunhyuk tells Sungmin he is reading to much into it (mainly because he is jealous) and tries to change the topic of conversation. Sungmin follows along but leaves that thought lingering at the back of his mind.
When Sungmin sings a song about ice cream, Kyuhyun overhears and adds in a harmony which fits perfectly with Sungmin’s voice and that starts the conversation. Music is something that he and Eunhyuk cannot share, because Eunhyuk has his own ideas about singing and Sungmin, well, he doesn’t agree with half of them.
So Sungmin slowly drifts away from Eunhyuk, not simply because of Kyuhyun, but also because Eunhyuk has been acting really strange lately, being curt and nonchalant which Sungmin does not understand but it does not bother him as much as Kyuhyun’s mercurial mood so he brushes it off as Eunhyuk’s time of the month.
The only problem with this relationship is that Sungmin can’t spend too long with Kyuhyun or the coolness from his refrigeration will cause Kyuhyun’s gum to go cold and hard. At first Sungmin wonders who needs a gum machine, especially since an ice cream machine makes way more sense, but he does not say that to Kyuhyun for fear that he will hurt Kyuhyun’s seemingly non-existent feelings. But later he realizes that random strange looking men with bad breath and/or with the need to impress a girl are his regular patrons.
When Kangin proposes that Kyuhyun sell some nicotine gum for smokers Sungmin makes sure that the fistful of chocolate sprinkles he throws at Kangin hit his face.
And this elicits a laugh from Kyuhyun, which is the best sound that Sungmin has heard from Kyuhyun so far.
(My love for you is bigger than you (can) think)
Yesung is intrigued by the tiny machine next to him. He is not sure what it does exactly, all he knows is that it makes a “pppbbbbttttt” sound and hot yellow liquid flows into a cup, followed by a dubious looking brown one when a button is pressed.
He wishes that the machine would have a more obvious identity, like have a nice clear display case, like him where everyone can see what he sells. He doubts that anyone can miss that he is a sandwich machine, or that Heechul is a claw machine, or what Donghae sells coffee, and no one can miss Siwon the free water dispenser, but this tiny contraption is hardly identifiable, it frustrates Yesung.
When the owner of the machine comes into sight, Yesung jumps up at the chance and sees a man with delicate features covered with a thin layer of glistening sweat and overalls that make him look unnaturally beautiful. His name is Kim Ryeowook, operator of the mashed potato machine.
Yesung is unable to believe that such a contraption can exist, but he thinks about Kyuhyun the gum machine and realizes that something like this is hardly surprising after all.
Yesung is naturally affectionate and touchy-feely, so it does not strike Ryeowook as odd that Yesung like slinging his arm around him when they hang out, or that Yesung likes resting his head on Ryeowook’s lap. But Ryeowook finds himself doing it too and thinks that it must be strange.
When Ryeowook works in his mashed potato kitchen every morning, he makes sure to add just the right amount of gelatin and power so the mashed potato does not get overly thick or watery-a tough science that only the most experienced can manage. But when Yesung starts to show signs of a deteriorating health, his concoctions increase in viscosity because he worries for Yesung.
Ryeowook decides to go over to check on Yesung one day and realizes that he has been trying to work in the toaster section of his machine, just to understand how Ryeowook feels when he does his work. Ryeowook tells him that baking at cookie-inducing temperatures is just not his thing and transfers him to the cooler refrigerated section instead where the sandwiches are kept.
Despite the health hazard that came with Yesung’s trial at Ryeowook’s life, Ryeowook is sure of one thing: that Yesung loves him just as Ryeowook does. But Yesung thinks that his love for Ryeowook is bigger than that.
(I can’t stomach all this love business)
Shindong the snacks machine guy sits between Kangin and Yesung and just looks over the vending machine couples and sighs. He eats his snacks quietly in an empty compartment of his machine but does not feel lonely.
He just cannot bear the sight of the mushy couple messages and complicated love webs around him and thinks that the vending machines would be better off just doing their jobs, or eating snacks like he is.
The list of Vending machines for your reference! (according to alignment)
1. Hankyung (Token Dispenser)
2. Heechul( Claw Machine)
3. Siwon (Water Cooler)
4. Kibum (Beer)
5. Donghae (Coffee)
6. Eunhyuk (Carbonated Drinks)
7. Sungmin (Ice Cream)
8. Kyuhyun (Gum)
9. Ryeowook (Tiny mashed potato machine)
10. Yesung (Sandwiches)
11. Shindong (Snacks)
12. Kangin (Cigarettes)
13. Leeteuk (Ticket Machine)