BIT BY BIT… 💭 anton lee socmed! au
pairing: college student! anton x campus crush! reader
genre: college! au, social media! au with written portions, slow burn, pining, strangers to friends to lovers.
series synopsis: in which the quiet girl in anton’s language class who seems to never sit with anyone catches his attention. anton makes it his mission to get closer to her bit by bit and break down her walls. the only issue? she’s the last to arrive and first to leave, never allowing anton the chance to approach her.
series masterlist | 15: do you have a boyfriend?
you were busy fiddling with the hem of your skirt as you looked down at your shoes, your shoulder starting to ache at the weight of the strap of your bag. it was currently 12:50pm and you were ten minutes early to your study session with anton. you would’ve texted him to let him know you were already waiting in front of the campus cafe but you decided against it, not wanting to make him rush to reach earlier. the cafe wasn’t too crowded at this time, with only a few tables being taken up by students who were seeking solace in the air conditioned environment, with the heat outside being almost unbearable.
anton had spent the last ten minutes fixing his hair and making sure he looked presentable or “dripped out” as sohee had told him over and over before finally grabbing his bag and leaving his dorm. he had made it to the cafe five minutes earlier than the timing planned and was surprised to see you already waiting outside for him. you were dressed in a sleeveless top with a small bow that adorned the centre of the neckline and a denim skirt, an outfit anton had never seen you wear before, considering how you would show up for lessons dressed in baggy and comfortable outfits all the time. you even had colourful clips in to hold your hair back from your face, anton assuming that the reason for your styling choice today was the heat that was tormenting every student on campus for the past week.
you looked up from the ground when you sensed someone approaching you, looking up to see anton with his signature headphones around his neck and dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants. you raised an eyebrow at his chosen outfit, wondering how your hair was already beginning to stick to your bare neck but anton seemed completely unbothered by the almost blinding sun. “aren’t you hot?”
anton was unaffected by the heat, not even breaking a sweat until you asked that question. it was a completely harmless and innocent question but he couldn’t help but to blank out and embarrassingly stutter out a soft ‘no’ while shaking his head. before the both of you could get a heatstroke, you two decided to head into the cafe to seek comfort from the air conditioning and order some drinks to cool off.
“hello, welcome to cafe ddalgi! what can i get you two lovebirds today?”
yunjin cheerfully greeted you with a mischievous grin on her face. she had never seen you come to the cafe with anyone else, much less someone of the opposite gender, and she was so thankful to sullyoon for cancelling her shift today so she could be here to take this opportunity to tease you about it.
“oh hey yunjin, i didn’t know you were working today…! i’ll get my usual strawberry latte, iced of course, and— anton, what do you want? strawberry soda? okay. one strawberry milk and one strawberry cream soda, please.” you had turned to look at the male who was taken aback by yunjin’s comment, the blush on his cheeks spreading to his ears. he softly told you his order, struggling to meet your eyes as a giggling yunjin typed in your orders onto the tablet. she quickly rang you both up and almost immediately, anton took out his wallet and insisted on paying for you both. you could see the cashier’s grin grow wider at the sight of you and anton fighting over who would be paying and you eventually gave in to him, knowing that you would be getting teased to the ends of hell by yunjin later on.
the two of you looked for a table while waiting for your drinks to be prepared, choosing to sit at a booth seat in the corner of the cafe. you let out a sigh, happy to be finally safe from the sweltering heat. anton on the other hand, was already a mess from yunjin’s teasing from earlier and how you ordered for him. not to mention, how pretty you looked today. don’t get him wrong, you look gorgeous all the time but something about your outfit and the way your cheeks were more flushed than usual from the heat made anton more nervous and flustered in front of you. you, of course, had taken no notice to it and didn’t notice anything different than the usual soft spoken anton. opening your laptop, you turned the screen so that anton, who was sitting opposite you, could see the poem you had researched about prior to this meeting. you had picked out a poem written in ancient times by the imperial adviser yatsu-tada, about missing his loved one and how his love became stronger than his desire.
“i found this one online, it seems short and easy enough to analyse, so we could probably finish this by today.”
how desolate my former life,
those dismal years, ere yet
i chanced to see thee face to face ‘twere better to forget those days before we met.
a love poem? anton was surprised by your choice and his mind was already racing with delusional thoughts. before his thoughts could get any further, yunjin set down your drinks on the table. you had come enough times to know that your iced strawberry latte and anton’s strawberry cream soda should not have pink, heart-shaped straws. you could only glare at yunjin who was covering her mouth, holding back her laugh as she quickly walked away, most likely to text the rest of your friends about what was happening.
the two of you began to dissect the poem, analysing each word as you scribbled down notes into your notebook whilst anton typed it into his laptop instead. your phone began to buzz with notifications from your group chat, seeing how yunjin was excitedly relaying live information to the rest of the girls, typing in all caps. eventually getting annoyed with the vibrations and the way your phone screen lit up with texts from them, you set your phone to do not disturb. this didn’t go unnoticed by anton, who was staring hard at your lockscreen, which was a picture of your cat wearing a santa hat. he couldn’t help but to laugh at the sight, it was like you were a proud parent who made their lockscreen a picture of their child. “is that gapil?”
“hm? yeah, this was her last december!” you immediately unlocked your phone at the mention of your cat, scrolling through your camera roll and showing anton your album full of photos of her and telling him exactly when each picture was taken. “this was her dressed as a bunny for halloween, and this was her dressed in pink for when barbie came out, and— we should get back to work actually.” you realised that you were beginning to ramble on and you didn’t want to bore anton with stories of your pet and distract him from what you both came here to do. putting your phone faced down, you directed your attention back to your laptop screen as the both of you resumed your work. “what do you think of this?” anton turned his screen towards you as you craned your neck, reading the lengthy paragraphs he had typed down. “it looks good, but i think we can replace this sentence here,” you pointed at the screen, telling anton how he could rephrase the opening sentence and remove portions that seemed similar to each other. “we can take this one out and— hold on.”
you eventually got tired of leaning over the table to look at anton’s laptop screen and decided to get up and move to his side of the booth, sitting next to him, something you should’ve done since the start. “do you mind if i borrow this?” anton shook his head, motioning for you to take over his laptop. your fingers moved fast, refining anton’s work while the male sitting next to you wracked his brain for conversation topics. he had you sitting right next to him in an environment that wasn’t japanese 101 or the university gymnasium and he knew it was now or never to make a move on you. “so… what was eunseok like when he was younger?”
“younger eunseok? hm… he hasn’t changed that much actually. he’s been obsessed with sports since forever. he used to throw the ball around in the house and he would break so many picture frames and vases. he did taekwondo too and he used to force me to hold up the wooden board so he could kick it and break it. he ended up missing completely and kicking my head.” you couldn’t help but to burst out laughing from the old memory of your parents coming home from work to a twelve year old you crying on the floor while a fifteen year old eunseok held a bag of frozen vegetables to your head, trying to get you to calm down. anton could tell that you and your brother were close, watching the way your eyes lit up when talking about your childhood.
“that sounds accurate. what about you? what were you like as a kid?”
you stopped typing and turned to look at anton, who was now resting his chin on his palm and staring at you with the corners of his lips upturned. you were slightly taken aback by his question, the topic suddenly turning to you. “well… i guess i was a normal kid? i was, and still am, a lot more introverted than my older brother and i was more interested in reading in my room than going out and chasing butterflies like eunseok. he used to come home with scraped knees often, either from falling down during practice or from tripping on his untied laces and i was the one who always took care of him even though i was younger. i guess that’s what sparked my interest in nursing and why i’m here now.” the laptop was now pushed aside and left neglected, anton eagerly listening to your stories while looking at you with those wide boba eyes of his. you barely got a chance to ask anton questions of your own with how quick he asked follow-up questions, asking about your favourite shows and music taste, eventually asking about your love life. “do you have a boyfriend?”
you were clearly caught off guard by the sudden question, cheeks heating up as you began to stumble over your words, a sight anton had never seen from your usually composed self. “no, i don’t- i don’t have one. do you have one? not a boyfriend. a girlfriend, i mean.” he shook his head at your question, a small chuckle leaving his mouth. he wasn’t sure why, but seeing the way you got flustered and struggled to make eye contact with him after he had bombarded you with personal questions in attempt to break down your walls made him more confident, knowing that he had a chance with you and that your cold exterior was beginning to melt. not to mention, he finally had you in the same crumbling state that you usually had him in during your previous interactions.
“do you want one?”
“what?”
“a boyfriend.”
“stop asking silly questions and focus on your work, anton.”
“why? are you getting shy?” anton leaned in closer to you and teased you, enjoying watching how you would freeze up every time the distance between you two got shorter, his leg almost touching yours. you simply placed your hand on his shoulder and lightly pushed him away, mumbling something about needing to concentrate on the assignment. trying to ignore anton’s point-blank stare over your shoulder, you quickly finished up the closing statement, wanting to head back to the dorm so you could privately freak out about everything that happened today. once you were done, you let anton read everything and give his approval on the finalised work. the both of you agreed that this would probably get you a B and that it was ready for submission.
by this time, it was already past five and you and anton had been the only ones to stay that long in the cafe. after you submitted the document, you both began to pack up your belongings and finish the last bit of your drinks.
“i guess i’ll see you during practice on thursday? thanks for today, y/n! get back to the dorms safe!” anton waved you goodbye and got going first, not forgetting to thank the cafe staffs before leaving. he seemed confident earlier but now that he was away from you, his heart was beating at a million miles per hour. even he couldn’t believe the words that came out of his mouth and he never expected that he would have enough courage to flirt with you so outwardly.
you watched as anton left, putting his headphones over his ears. you were about to start making a move too when you heard the jingle of the cafe door opening, already groaning when you felt yunjin’s hand on your shoulder.
“yunjin. no.”
“oh come on! you’re telling me everything.”
taglist (closed due to the limit!): @andromedawillburyyou @imsiriuslyreal @beckiiee00 @dreamiestay @babigriin @kyusqult @eumppappaswife @sserafilms @annswwa @lecheugo @llearlert @nyuoqi @thesunoosshining @yangasm @mmsriza @myizhuos @miyawakiblossoms @hyucksdelicate @ilovejungwonandhaechan @snowyseungs @soobiary @ilovejaketoomuch @cla1r20 @darlingz99 @chiiyuuvv @lilacarat @ohmykwonsoonyoung @sonjuyeonnie @nicholasluvbot @haechology @luvnicho @numberonetaleprince @revehosh @jscvhs @istphanie @miszes @shnnzsworld @cowsmicwu @kiwigyuu @chuutaroo @dcvvr @ffixtionista @would-bee @yunjinsbbg @brachiotoni @jakeists @brachioswrld @bat-shark-repellant @taesanrot @neocockthotology
if i didn’t tag you, please check your account settings > visibility!
272 notes
·
View notes