[I50] AT YOUR CONVENIENCE
Prompt Code: I50
Title: At Your Convenience
Rating: pg-13
Side Pairings (if any): N/A
Warnings: N/A
Word Count: 4k
Summary: It’s super convenient that the convenience store on the corner stays open late. It’s even more convenient that the hot cashier seems to remember Kyungsoo.
AN: This had so much potential. My apologies lol
“That’ll be $7.50.”
Kyungsoo only half hears the cashier. He absentmindedly searches for his wallet in his backpack, eventually pulling it out and flipping through it until he finds some cash.
It’s been a rough week. Kyungsoo started the week with a Statistics project and a American History paper and he ended it twice that.
Kyungsoo heaves a sigh. It’s not even finals week yet.
As if that wasn’t enough to make him want to crawl into bed and not come out for a month, he had a huge programming project due next week. Of course, his program decides to start seg faulting during the most stressful week of his life, and Kyungsoo can’t figure out how to fix it for the life of him. There’s only so many hours he can spend on StackOverflow before he has try something else.
That something else being going to Dr. Wang’s office hours.
But Kyungsoo really shouldn’t have been that surprised when his professor was a complete dick.
He hadn’t even bothered to spare a glance Kyungsoo’s code, telling the him to, quote unquote ‘Go figure it out on his own because he can’t do Kyungsoo’s homework for him’. In comparison to the other times Kyungsoo has been to office hours, Dr. Wang was being nice.
Dr. Wang was infamous for being one of the most condescending profs in the Computer Science department, with one of the most ridiculous grading scales in the College of Engineering. He also wasn’t very keen on answering questions without making someone feel like an idiot, which kind of makes asking questions stressful.
Per Kyungsoo’s luck, he has had Dr. Wang for not only Discrete Math and Introduction to Programming, but for Data Structures and Algorithms too.
So really Kyungsoo has had three semesters to get used to Dr. Wang’s douche-ness.
Except he really hasn’t and that’s why Kyungsoo is buying junk food at a convenience store at 11:50 pm on a Tuesday night. It’s the same convenience store Kyungsoo frequents every time his professors make him feel like shit, which in recent times, is happening more and more often.
“Rough day?” The cashier asks sympathetically as he starts bagging Kyungsoo’s purchases.
Kyungsoo tries his best to offer some of a smile, but it’s not very convincing. He just wants to get home as quickly as he can so he can eat his junk food in peace and wallow.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“Ah, well I’m sure these will brighten your day up a little bit,” the cashier comments, holding the bag out for Kyungsoo to take.
Kyungsoo accepts it and wastes no time heading toward the door.
He thinks he can faintly hear the cashier call out “have a nice night!” but Kyungsoo’s already too busy thinking about what episode of Dexter he left off to be sure.
--
“Kyungsoo, wake up!”
Kyungsoo jolts awake, almost falling out of his chair. He glares at Baekhyun as he slowly sits up, closing his laptop where he had been drooling on the keyboard.
“H-how long was I asleep for?” Kyungsoo asks, voice hoarse from sleeping.
“I’m not sure. I only managed to finish one episode of Orange is the New Black so it couldn’t have been that long,” Baekhyun supplies unhelpfully.
Kyungsoo groans. “Why did you wake me up sooner? I literally don’t have time to be sleeping right now.” He opens his laptop back up and tries to remember the last thing he had done before passing out.
Baekhyun frowns. “You just seem so tired. I know you didn’t sleep much last night because of that paper. I thought you deserved a little break.”
Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything to this. He enjoys how thoughtful the Baekhyun can be sometimes. It almost makes up for how annoying he usually is. Almost.
“Well now I’m just going to have to stay up even later tonight then.” Kyungsoo says stubbornly. He pulls up the code he had been working on. He has 2 days left to finish the project, and his stress is definitely at an all-time high right now.
“Are you almost done?” Baekhyun peers over Kyungsoo’s shoulder.
“Barely. At least it’s finally compiling without seg faulting.” Kyungsoo presses F4, only to get a new set of warnings and error messages.
He could tell it was going to be a long night.
“Wow. I don’t know what that means, but I’m glad I’m not a CS major,” Baekhyun snorts.
“Yeah, it’s times like these I question my major too,” Kyungsoo replies half seriously.
They go back to working in silence, Baekhyun reading whatever play he had been assigned for the week, and Kyungsoo attempting to finish his project.
--
Kyungsoo suddenly stands up a few hours later, his joints cracking after not having moved for almost two hours straight.
“I am stressed. I need a break. I’m gunna grab some food, you wanna come with me?” Kyungsoo asks. He doesn’t wait for Baekhyun’s reply before he starts packing his stuff up.
A bag of Cheeto’s sounds so good right now and Kyungsoo’s going to go even if Baekhyun doesn’t.
Baekhyun looks up from the book he had been highlighting. “Yeah, let me just mark this page and we can go.”
Kyungsoo packs up in record time and Baekhyun follows not too long after. They walk back to the same convenience store that Kyungsoo always goes to.
There’s no one in the store when they get there, and there seems to be only two cashiers working right now. Makes sense, considering it was almost 1 AM on a school night. The ridiculous hours this store stays open until is half the reason Kyungsoo comes here so often.
“Hey, don’t look now, but I think that cashier is checking you out. He keeps looking this way,” Baekhyun suddenly whispers.
Kyungsoo reaches up to grab the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos off the top shelf and he tosses it into his shopping basket.
Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, “Baekhyun you say that every time we go out. People are allowed to glance in the same direction as me without them ‘checking me out’.”
Baehkyun sets some pudding cups in the basket before leaning closer to Kyungsoo. “Look, I admit that I do say that a lot, but I only mean it half the time I say it. This happens to be one of those times where I’m being serious.”
Kyungsoo ignores him, walking back towards the drinks so he can grab a case of Red Bull.
Baekhyun trails after him. “Fine, don’t listen to me. He’s actually pretty cute too.”
Kyungsoo knows he’s just trying to bait him into looking at the cashier. Kyungsoo almost turns to look because he’s curious, but he won’t fall for Baekhyun’s tricks.
He finally finds the Red Bull and puts it in his basket. When he’s finished grabbing what he needs, he heads towards the front of the store.
Baekhyun checks out first. The cashier diligently starts scanning the items, but even though his attention seems to be on the task at hand, Kyungsoo can’t help but feel the weight of the other’s eyes on him every now and then.
Kyungsoo tries to ignore the feeling but it’s hard to when Kyungsoo is also sneaking glances at the cashier too. He really was cute, just like Baekhyun had promised.
“That’ll be $10.63,” the cashier recites. Baekhyun already has his card out, and by the time Baekhyun manages to finish paying and he grabs his bag, the cashier is already scanning Kyungsoo’s stuff.
“Stressed again?” The cashier asks conversationally as he waits for Kyungsoo to take out his wallet.
Kyungsoo blinks and he feels Baekhyun looking at him curiously now.
What does he mean ‘again’?
Kyungsoo tries to remember having ever seen this attractive cashier at the convenience store before, but most of the time when he comes here, he is just trying to get in and get out.
He wishes he had paid more attention before, because this was not a face one wants to forget, and right now tall blonde and handsome was talking to him.
“U-uh, yeah. Got a big project due in a few days. Needed an extra boost to get through the night,” Kyungsoo stammers, avoiding eye contact with Tall Blonde and Handsome.
“Well, you have enough Red Bull there to keep you up for a few days. Good luck,” The cashier gives Kyungsoo a bright smile that shows off perfect white teeth.
Kyungsoo feels like someone has dumped a bucket of water on him. How can someone have such a nice smile? More importantly, how can someone be that attractive while wearing an apron and work slacks?
The cashier holds his bag out for him, and Kyungsoo accepts it with polite smile. He avoids looking at the cashier directly for the sake of his heart.
He shuffles over to Baekhyun who has been carefully watching the whole exchange.
“Have a nice night!” The cashier calls out after the two of them as they exit.
“See I told you! He was totally checking you out,” Baekhyun gleefully says when they are outside.
“Uh huh. Right.”
Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, but it’s too dark for Baekhyun to see. Thankfully, that means Baekhyun can’t see the slight dust of pink on his cheeks either then.
--
“Jongin you were definitely checking him out again,” Sehun snorts when the two patrons are safely out of ear shot.
“No I wasn’t! I was just providing him with exceptional customer service,” Jongin says defensively, causing Sehun to snort even louder.
“You didn’t even pretend to talk to the first guy. You couldn’t keep your eyes off Shorty.”
“That’s not true! I talked to the first guy. I told him how much his stuff was!” Jongin whines. He looks away from Sehun and starts organizing the change in the drawer as way to distract himself.
Sehun always teases him every time the ‘cute shorty’ came in. He had started coming to the convenience store at the beginning of the semester and Jongin thought he was cute the first time he came in and bought a bag of chips and a soda. Lucky for Jongin, that wasn’t the last time he showed up, and since then he always happens to conveniently come in when Jongin was working. Jongin would be lying if he said he doesn’t look forward to working late night shifts so he can see Shorty.
“You literally act like that every time Shorty comes in. It’s ok, I think he’s cute too,” Sehun says mischievously and he laughs when he sees his coworker’s cheeks flush.
“Whatever.”
--
Kyungsoo barely manages to finish his programming project, but with a lot of blood, sweat and tears, he does. Granted, he didn’t have much time to test the program to ensure that it was working right, but Kyungsoo’s already over that project.
He had other things to worry about, like, say, two tests and a paper?
Kyungsoo had been at the library since dinner time, working on his History paper, but his eyes were starting to get tired after staring at the small text on his computer for so many hours.
It was almost midnight but Kyungsoo’s night was far from over. He sighs.
As if on cue, his stomach growls and he realizes that he hasn’t eaten since 3. None of the cafeterias were open at this time, and the nearest fast food place was 15 minutes across campus.
The only place nearby that would be open at this hour would be the convenience store on the corner.
When Kyungsoo finally gets outside, he frowns. It’s pretty humid and he can tell it’s going to rain later that night.
The convenience store isn’t far from the library or the Engineering Building, and that’s why Kyungsoo likes it. His mind flashes to the last time he was there and he thinks of Tall Blonde and Handsome. He hasn’t been to the store in at least a week, a new record for Kyungsoo.
Surely the cashier has forgotten him by now, Kyungsoo thinks as he starts walking in the direction of the store.
Kyungsoo doesn’t see anyone at the front when walks in to the store, but he knows someone will come up when they hear the chime of the front door.
Sure enough, a second later the cashier from last time appears a moment later, coming out from the back room holding an ice cream.
“Oh, uh. Hi,” he greets.
Kyungsoo stares for a second, surprised that the cashier recognizes him.
“Uh. Hi.” Kyungsoo nods, and reaches over to grab a shopping basket.
“If you need any help, just let me know,” Tall blonde and Handsome says with that same pearly smile.
“Err yeah,” Kyungsoo stammers and he scurries off in the direction of the chips before he can embarrass himself.
He takes his time gathering some snacks, trying to avoid checking out because he knows Tall Blonde and Handsome is waiting for him up front. He feels stupid when he feels his heart start beating faster when he approaches the register.
Stupid Baekhyun instilling these ideas that Tall Blonde and Handsome thought he was attractive. Kyungsoo doubts it.
Honestly, he was probably just being friendly to Kyungsoo because he was doing his job, Kyungsoo thinks bitterly.
Kyungsoo does his best to brace himself when he starts taking things out of his basket and setting it on the conveyor belt. He will have to acknowledge the other eventually.
“You really like Cheetos huh? You always get them when you come here.” Tall Blonde and Handsome chuckles, scanning them then putting them in a bag.
Kyungsoo wills the heat away from his cheeks. Tall Blonde and Handsome doesn’t just remember that Kyungsoo comes here, but he remembers what he buys too.
Great, he probably thought Kyungsoo was a fat ass, considering Kyungsoo comes here to stress eat at least twice a week.
“Yeah.” Kyungsoo mumbles, setting the last of his stuff on the belt while praying that Tall Blonde and Handsome could hurry up and finish checking out so he can get out there ASAP.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to sound creepy. You just, uh come here a lot,” the cashier stutters, and Kyungsoo thinks he looks embarrassed but really, who should really be embarrassed right now.
Kyungsoo glances at the 2 chocolate bars Tall Blonde and Handsome is placing in the bag with his chips.
Kyungsoo makes a note to look for a new conveniently located convenience store to start going to.
“Er, I don’t think I ever asked but what was your name?”
Kyungsoo’s heart picks up even more, as if this was some sort of trick question, but honestly this was pretty hard to get wrong.
“Ah, My name’s Kyungsoo. Do Kyungsoo,” Kyungsoo replies, holding his hand for the other to shake.
He mentally berates himself.
Why is he so awkward? College kids don’t meet other college kids and shake each other’s hands.
The other doesn’t seem to think anything of it though, and he returns the shake firmly.
“Nice to meet you Kyungsoo. My name is Jongin.,” he reciprocates, cutely pointing at his name badge pinned to his apron.
Kyungsoo really doesn’t know to say to that, so he just nods. At least he knew Tall Blonde and Handsome’s name now. It’s a shame Kyungsoo never plans on coming back to this convenience store ever again.
“Ok, that’ll be $9.56,” Jongin says.
Kyungsoo already has his card ready, because he seriously did want to get out of their as soon as possible. He was about to his “talking to attractive people” capacity for the week.
“So I’m guessing you go to the university nearby then? Since you come here so often,” Jongin asks as they are waiting for Kyungsoo’s receipt to print.
“Yeah,” Kyungsoo confirms.
“Cool,” Jongin beams at him.
Kyungsoo feels kind of bad for not giving better answers, so in a moment of boldness, Kyungsoo adds on a moment later, “I go to the library a lot and this is one of the only place open really late.”
“Oh ok. That makes sense. I always work the grave yard shifts so that’s probably why I see you.”
Kyungsoo makes a noise of agreement and breathes an internal sigh of relief that the credit card machine tells him to remove his card and take his receipt.
“Well, it was nice talking to Kyungsoo,” Jongin says, and Kyungsoo wonders if he really means that.
Again, not that it matters because Kyungsoo is not coming back to this store ever again.
“Yeah, same.” Kyungsoo takes his bags and makes his way towards the door.
He stops in his tracks when he realizes that there’s a down pour outside. The perfect day to leave his umbrella at home.
He makes another mental note: start checking his weather app more often.
“Oh wow. It’s really coming down. Do you have an umbrella?” Jongin calls from the register.
Kyungsoo actually considers just walking out in the rain for a moment but he’s not that socially incapable of human interaction that he needs to do that.
“No. I’ll just wait for it lighten up before I go,” Kyungsoo says.
“That’s ok. I’m here. I can entertain you until then,” Jongin suggests brightly. He comes out from behind the register to join Kyungsoo by the window.
Oh no, he’s so close, Kyungsoo realizes. Breathe normally. Act natural.
“So what are you studying?” Jongin asks, but he’s looking out the window into the night and not Kyungsoo when he asks.
“Computer Science. What about you- er what school do you go - or- do you go to school somewhere?” Kyungsoo manages to stutter out.
“Wow. Computer science! You must pretty smart then. That also explains why you are always up so late and why you are always so stressed. I’m going to community college right now, until I can transfer to your school and get into Vet school. It’s just cheaper,” Jongin explains.
Kyungsoo could listen to Jongin talk all day. He has such a nice voice.
“Ok. That’s a good choice,” Kyungsoo agrees. Jongin smiles at Kyungsoo.
They don’t really say much for a while, but eventually they have a really nice conversation. Kyungsoo slowly begins to relax, and he’s able to talk to Jongin without his heart slamming in his chest or cheek’s turning red. This is a good sign. Maybe he doesn’t need to switch convenience stores after all.
The rain slows down soon enough, but Kyungsoo’s too engrossed talking to Jongin to notice.
--
“Shorty sure can talk a lot,” Sehun comments after Kyungsoo has left.
“His is Kyungsoo, not shorty,” Jongin corrects.
Sehun rolls his eyes. “Sorry. Kyungsoo is quite the chatter box.”
“Yeah. He’s not just really cute, but he’s smart and funny too Sehun,” Jongin says dreamily.
Sehun makes gagging noises. “Ewwww I liked it better when you just pined after him and creepily memorized his purchases.”
--
“I can’t believe you actually talk to Sexy Cashier guy now!” Baekhyun exclaims, dragging Kyungsoo into the store.
“Jongin. I talk to Jongin,” Kyungsoo says, somewhat embarrassedly.
After Kyungsoo told him what happened a few weeks ago, Baekhyun insisted that they immediately had to go to the store and get Jongin’s number.
“You have seen him at least 5 times since then, and you guys talk every time, but you still haven’t gotten his number? Kyungsoo, I thought I trained you better than this,” Baekhyun huffs.
They are outside the store now and Kyungsoo knows Jongin is working right now. He just hopes Baekhyun doesn’t do anything to embarrass him too badly.
The door chime when they enter and Jongin looks up from his phone.
“Welcome - Oh hey Kyungsoo.” Jongin gives him a lovely smile, one that still makes Kyungsoo’s heart feel a little funny, but is one that he is starting to get used to.
“Hey. What’s up?” Kyungsoo can feel Baekhyun wipe a fake tear next to him but he ignores it. He knows Baekhyun is proud of him for managing to hold a normal conversation with someone like Jongin. Even Kyungsoo is proud of himself.
“Not much. Things are pretty slow right now. The usual.”
Baekhyun clears his throat.
Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but says, “This is my friend Baekhyun by the way. He was my roommate last year.”
“Ohh, hi. Kim Jongin. Kyungsoo’s mentioned you before,” Jongin greets.
“All good things, right?” Baekhyun replies cheekily and Jongin laughs.
“Yup, all good things.”
“Awesome. Well Kyungsoo, let’s go get our stuff.” Baekhyun starts pulling Kyungsoo away, towards the back.
When they are far enough back, Baekhyun turns to him and says, “Ok Soo, seriously get his number. That boy is the freshest looking thing I have seen in this convenience store.”
“Ugh. I’m…scared,” Kyungsoo admits quickly and he walks away to go look for something.
Baekhyun follows after him.
“He obviously likes you! What’s the worst that can happen, he says no?”
“Yes. He could say no. Actually he will probably say no,” Kyungsoo replies seriously and Baekhyun glares at him.
“You know that’s not true.”
“Ok maybe it’s not true. Ugh. I don’t know. I’m just not ready to ask him yet.” Kyungsoo groans.
“Fine. I won’t make you,” Baekhyun eventually settles. Kyungsoo know’s that this won’t be the last of it. Baekhyun won’t stop until Kyungsoo has Kim Jongin’s number on his phone.
Even though Kyungsoo has been coming to the convince store more often now, and he talks to Jongin each time he goes, he still gets nervous when he walks up to the register.
Kyungsoo starts putting his things on the belt and Jongin starts scanning them.
Jongin makes small talk with Kyungsoo as he does so, and when Kyungsoo is signing for his debit card Baekhyun says, “Hey, I’ll wait for you outside.”
Kyungsoo nods, but he really isn’t paying attention Baekhyun. He forgot Baekhyun was there. Because Jongin was there.
“Uh. So, I’ll just be honest and say this. I’ve been to shy ask you out for real, so I just - I figured I would just give you mine, and uh. If you want to go out for dinner or coffee sometime. Just call me,” Jongin says quickly, and his cheeks are a wonderful cherry color. He hands Kyungsoo his receipt and sure enough, his digits are scrawled across the top of it.
Kyungsoo can’t believe it was that easy; that he literally handed it to him. Baekhyun’s gunna get a kick out of this.
“Yeah. I’ll. Definitely do that. That sounds good. Yeah,” Kyungsoo stammers in reply and he’s equally as red. He grabs his bag and bids Jongin a quick farwell, rushing out to where Baekhyun is waiting for him.
“Baek, look! I got his number,” Kyungsoo says proudly when he’s outside.
It’s Baekhyun’s turn to roll his eyes for once. “Kyungsoo, I know he gave you his number. You didn’t ask for it.”
“You don’t know that!” Kyungsoo says defensively.
“Soo, that’s not even your receipt.”
--
“Dude, wasn’t that receipt from like, 4 months ago?” Sehun asks when Kyungsoo is finally gone.
Jongin blushes harder, if that’s possible.
“Yeah…I had that receipt for a while…and I kept telling myself I would give it to him every time he came in…but I never got the courage to do it.”
“Well, you finally did it. Now let’s see if he actually calls you,” Sehun teases.
“I’m confident he will!” Jongin says confidently, but he swallows nervously anyways.
--
And Jongin’s right, because Kyungsoo texts him a few days later asking him to grab some coffee.