Kim Mitzuki hurried through his morning routine to get ready for one of his jobs, 'Damn! Knew I shouldn't've stayed up,' He cursed, he was running late for his shift at Wàng Jī Lǚdiàn because he'd stayed up late studying (again).
Kim Mitzuki is proudly a part time student who also has two part time jobs, this doesn't leave a lot of time to do other stuff but he enjoys his jobs and his University courses. Mitzuki's aiming to get a full scholarship at the local University during their next intake for either Dance or Literature and though he'd really, really love some time off the bills don't take a break just because he wants one.
"My shift at Wàng Jī finished at two this morning but then I went and studied 'til I fell asleep on my damn books, gotta admit Mitzu, not the smartest thing you've done this week but it's for extra credit so suck it up." He muttered to the room. Wearing fitting black slacks and a loose white shirt, he brushed his hair back. Taking a final glance in the mirror to check his appearance he winked at the brunette reflected there, blowing him a kiss Mitzuki closed the door and raced downstairs to his job tonight at the Wàng Jī Bar.
Dancing to the music coming from down at the bar, Mitzuki grabbed his apron from off its hook as he shimmied a few steps past the boss. Dodging their delivery girl on her way out with an early order for one of the offices nearby, Mitzuki grabbed his brunette co-worker and danced a few steps with him to the music as he called to the Manager,
"Lan Wuxian, Sir, I'm sorry I'm late! I studied too long this morning and slept over." Mitzuki released his fellow bartender and hastily tied the apron strings around his waist, tucking the ends into the pocket he making sure there was a working pen and fresh order pad. He tossed a wink to his co-worker, Jinhong Eijirou, as if saying, 'thanks for the dance!'
"Can you make it up at the end of your shift?" Lan Wuxian called back, Mitzuki shot him a brilliant smile,
"Sure can!" He grinned and nodded,
"You're a good kid, Kim." the Manager called back.
Everyone got along well with Lan Wuxian and Lan Yibo because they were truly wonderful people. The Lan's treated all their employees like family and that made the workplace feel less like work and more like play - it had the best atmosphere and was the best place to be. Tonight Mitzuki was feeling good, he was sure he was going to ace the test coming up, was feeling well rested and happy.
"What's got you in such a good mood today Mitzu?" the brunette asked.
"Eiji! Feeling the vibes babe, just feelin' the vibes! You look smokin' hot today, you got a date after work or something?" Winking again and nudged his shoulder, grinning. Eijirou thought if he blushed any more he'd probably explode or his face would set itself on fire so Mitzuki couldn't help but to tease him some more,
"Aahh, I'm right aren't I? Who's the lucky person hot stuff?" Eijirou didn't get a chance to answer right away because more customers came to the bar and since customers were the reason Wàng Jī Lǚdiàn started in the first place, they both got to work cheerfully pulling beer and mixing drinks to go with the restaurant orders as well.
Meet Jinhong Eijirou.
There was a new guy that had started working at Wàng Jī, the guys name was Kim Mitzuki. Jinhong didn't know where he'd come from and didn't really care (at first) because Kim didn't open up about his life before he arrived in Liánhuā Hú and the dark brunette had a suspicion that he was the newest addition to the Lan family since he was supposedly staying with Lan Wuxian and Lan Yibo. Jinhong Eijirou did notice though, that the new guy didn't like to be touched and he spooked easily - especially when he didn't see it coming.
Eijirou had popped up from behind the counter as a prank not long after Kim had started working at Wàng Jī but he'd ended up having to rush and find Lan Yibo because Mitzuki had a pretty bad panic attack which lasted for over an hour. Yibo had lectured Eijirou and punished him by making him rewrite all the signs for the Bar. It was troublesome but the bartender made sure to be more careful around Kim, observing him to try and learn more about him. That was when Eijirou decided he wanted to get to know more about the mysterious and shy male who had arrived seemingly from nowhere that the Lan's doted on.
As it turned out Eijirou and Mitzuki were the same age, Eijirou older by a couple of months, which thrilled them both and finding out that they loved changing their hair colour, both loved the colour purple and had similar taste in music as well, BTS being their favourite group.
It didn't happen in one conversation though or in a day. It took the brunette some serious effort to get this information out of his co-worker over a period of a couple of months. Jinhong Eijirou loved colouring his hair as much as Kim Mitzuki had, it wasn't often that he went back to his natural hair colour which is the bittersweet chocolate colour it currently was. Eijirou was currently trying to convince Mitzuki to change his hair again but wasn't having much luck so far.
Eijirou had dyed his hair a whole rainbow variety of colours - pink, blue, blonde, orange, yellow, purple - his favourite was definitely purple. He often thought his co-worker would look better with blue or purple hair but when he brought up the subject he was brushed off quickly. Eijirou simply shrugged at the time and got on with his day, he didn't really think much of the avoidance but he didn't ask either. Sometime during the third month of getting to know the new guy, a conversation came up that was an offshoot of a random topic they were chatting about while they were cleaning up the bar after it had closed for the night.
"Nah, Arrows to Athens and Watt White are better." Argued Eijirou,
"No way! Thirty Seconds to Mars is way better than both of those guys," Mitzuki shot back with a grin which caused Eijirou to stop what he was doing and just stared at Mitzuki, who hadn't smiled genuinely since he'd been around.
"The other guys I really like in that genre are... What?" The light brunette paused after he realised his co-worker had stopped functioning.
"What's up? Why'd you stop?" The dark brunette pointed at Mitzuki,
"You."
"Me? What about me?" Eijirou wasn't responding so Mitzuki moved over to him and gently shook his shoulder, initiating the contact between them for the first time.
"Hey? Earth to Jinhong? What about me?"
"Your fucking smile, Kim, it dazzled me! You bastard, gimme some warning next time! And my friends call me Eiji ya know." The younger felt a few traitorous tears build behind his eyes,
"What do you mean my smile dazzled you? You dumbass, it's nothing special, I'm nothing special," he paused, "Eiji." The dark brunette saw his eyes become glossy with tears and, choosing to ignore the comment about him being nothing special (for now), he fake gasped and dramatically held a hand to his heart,
"OHMYGODS! You called me Eiji!! I'm the luckiest person 'cause you smiled at me too - OHMYGODS! I have to go buy a lottery ticket, like right now, because I'm gonna win for sure - your smile Kim, OHMYGODS!" Eiji went way overboard and being extra because he wanted to see the other smile again, it truly had taken his breath to see a genuine upward curve on the younger's lips.
It made him look a little less... lonely.
Jinhong Eijirou decided right then that Mitzuki's smile was his new favourite thing to see. His new mission was that he absolutely HAD to make Kim Mitzuki smile again. His over-the-top dramatic act had created a half smile on the other brunette's lips, pulling only one side up though,
"You can call me Mitzuki or... Mitzu... if you want?" It came out like a question, though he really did hope that Eijirou would call him by his name.
"UGH. We need to get this crap finished so we can go grab a bite after. That cool with you, Mitzu?" Eijirou was rewarded with a sweet smile curving the other's lips again.
"Yeah. Yeah I'd like that, Eiji." The dark brunette made sure he had eye contact and opened his arms, the younger paused for a moment before hugging Eijirou.
"Thanks man." He mumbled into his shoulder.
"Any time bro."
After they'd finished cleaning up they went to the all-night diner at the outskirts of town, only a five minute drive from Bar but they had great food. That night, Eijirou learned a lot about the quiet boy who'd come to work at Wàng Jī. He learned why Mitzuki was so skittish and spooked easily, he discovered that the boy opposite him had gone through hell in his last relationship and that he'd managed to escape the situation; although it wasn't a given that his ex wouldn't come looking for him, he also discovered that the shy boy opposite him hadn't always been so shy or quiet.
Eijirou decided then that he would show Mitzuki that he could let his hair down a little, he would show the younger (by a few months) what it was like to have fun again.
"From now on if you have anything you want to talk about, you can come to me okay? Everything is just between us unless you say so and I want to teach you how to have fun again bro. You've missed out on a LOT let me tell ya about it..." he declared before animatedly explaining all the types of fun he was going to show to Mitzuki they were going to have, the trips they would take together and that, from now on, they were best bros.