Prompt 9

Person A bumps into their ex at the store, Person B, a complete stranger, comes to their rescue.

Brown eggs or white eggs? What even was the difference? Daehyun squinted picking up the carton of white eggs putting it in his basket. Making his way to the snack aisle humming while he began to browse the chips, ah, there they were his fav—

“Daehyun?” Looking up, he about dropped his basket, there, his ex, who he had dated for three years, Yoo Youngjae. “It is you! I haven’t seen you since, well, y’know.”

“Uh, yeah, hi,” Daehyun was laughing awkwardly stepping back from Youngjae. “So…how have you been?”

“Well, I got this job as an elementary school music teacher,” Youngjae smile, his cheeks still did the thing, how unfair, he hadn’t changed at all. “Got a new apartment that’s literally only a train ride away from my job, my students are great. How about you?”

Daehyun stood there thinking for a moment because how does he explain to his ex that the only time he leaves the house is for food or to go to work. He had done nothing since the two broke up except spent two months crying himself to sleep every night into a tub of Peanut Butter Party ice cream. Then spent the following three months afterward ignoring everyone and deleting all his social media. He spent the following six months convincing his friends he was fine, it’s been a rough year for him.

“Ah, congratulations on that then,” Daehyun smiled softly and took another step back, he needed to escape from this situation. “It’s been same old, same old for me.”

Youngjae was about to speak when a tall, like super tall, a man appeared next to him, hand resting on Youngjae’s lower back. Oh. So that was clearly the new boyfriend. Well, suddenly he felt like and in need of a nice long cry. Youngjae turned his head smiling at the taller man, standing on his tiptoes to place a chaste kiss on his cheek.

“Junhong, hon, did you find the quinoa?” Youngjae turned back to  Daehyun, with an achingly familiar smile on his face. “Ah, Junhong, this is Daehyun, Dae, this is Junhong.”

The man, Junhong, was about to speak when felt someone hold his hand and kiss his cheek. The unknown person spoke lowly, only loud enough for him to hear, making him jump a little.

“Play along because it hurts to watch you suffer when I’m trying to buy groceries.” The voice was soft, soothing and Daehyun just nodded. The unknown man spoke louder, in the direction of Youngjae and Junhong. “Daehyun, baby, I found those snack cakes you wanted.”

Daehyun saw Youngjae do a double take, his smile faltering for a moment. Ha, take that with his stupidly tall boyfriend. The man bowed slightly, the corner of his lips tilted upwards revealing a rabbit-toothed smile.

“Ah, how rude, I’m Jongup, you are?” Jongup, well that was a nice name, wrapped an arm around his waist, snuggling up against him. Daehyun internally grinned victoriously, but outwardly remained calm. Jongup pinched his hip and Daehyun went stiff for a second and started with the introduction.

“Youngjae, Junghong, this is Jongup, ironically enough we met here,” There was a pause as he tried to come up with a story believable enough because he technically wasn’t lying. “We both reached for the last box of snack cakes and here we are.”

“Junghong, how did you meet Youngjae?”

“Oh, through some mutual friends, he had these sad puppy dog eyes,” Youngjae smacked his arm hissing out his name and Junhong grinned, a lovesick smile if Daehyun’s ever seen one. “He kept turning me down for weeks until he finally went on a date with me, he’s kept me grounded since.”

“Junghong, stop embarrassing me, I can’t do this,” Youngjae’s cheeks were red and he began pulling Junhong down the aisle while shouting behind himself. “Uh, my number is still the same, call me? Bye!”

Jongup and Daehyun stood there for a moment waiting for the two to leave the aisle before they separated. Daehyun started scratching the back of his neck awkwardly and Jongup pulled a marker from his bag and scrawled his number on Daehyun’s arm.

“Don’t call him, call me,” Jongup grinned while winking and sauntered off leaving Daehyun alone in the snack section.

“What the just happened?”