Chapter Text
“Excuse me?” A soft voice spoke out.
“Mm…” Klein hummed as he stirred awake, feeling his left shoulder being gently poked by something.
“Oh, you’re awake now.” Klein heard as he slowly blinked the tiredness out of his eyes and squinted it, trying to make out the blurry face of the person currently in front of him.
Wow, he’s really handsome…. Klein couldn’t help but think as he stared at the person in front of him, still half asleep and in daze. The pair of green eyes silently stared right back at him, slowly curling his lips upwards.
Green eyes…. Long dark hair…. Handsome…
“Ah…? Ah!” Klein gasped, immediately jolting awake and stood up frantically. “H… hello there.” He awkwardly greeted the other, feeling embarrassment wash over him.
This wasn’t just any random handsome guy, this was the Leonard Mitchell!
“How can I help you?”
“When I was doing a check up, I noticed that you were still here, asleep, so I decided to wake you up since working hours are over.” While answering, Leonard’s smile didn’t drop at all.
Klein instantly felt another wave of embarrassment hit him and he couldn’t help but think if his face was bright red right now or not.
“I must’ve fallen asleep…” He mumbled, wanting to facepalm and throw himself out of the building through the window. “Sorry.” He added.
“It’s alright!” Leonard smiled and waved his hands in reassurance, but Klein still seemed really embarrased. “How about this, while we’re still here, you don’t mind if we go out to eat dinner together?“
Klein’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden invitation. “Dinner? With you?” He blurts out and Leonard nodded.
“Why not? I mean, this could be a great opportunity for us to get to know each other. You joined last month, right? I like to get to know my colleagues more.”
“Ah, but this is just….”
All of a sudden, the sound of Klein’s stomach rumbling interrupted them, causing the both of them to fall into a brief moment of silence.
“…”
“…”
☆
And that was exactly how they both found themselves in a barbecue restaurant.
“… I’m sorry for bothering you.” Klein sent Leonard an apologetic look as he apologised, still feeling extremely embarrassed. He felt so embarrased that he was close to digging his own grave right then and there.
Leonard shook his head and grabbed onto a piece of meat with his chopsticks. “I already told you that it was okay.” With his chopsticks, he hovers the piece of meat right in front of Klein’s mouth.
Klein stared at the meat for a bit before slowly opening his mouth and letting Leonard feed it to him.
“Good?” Leonard asked.
Klein’s eyes instantly lit up as he chewed and nodded his head in response which couldn’t help but make the other chuckle in amusement.
“So, how is work in the company so far?”
“Mm….” Klein thought for a bit as he stuffed another piece of meat into his mouth, chewing it and swallowing before answering, “It’s not as bad as my last job. The boss is really nice too.”
Leonard nodded in agreement.
“Dunn really is an amazing boss. You can’t find others who are as amazing as him.” Klein also nodded in agreement and shuddered a bit as he thought about his old boss who’s name was Roselle Gustav.
Sure, he was also nice, but sometimes he could be a bit too…. nevermind. That’s a story for another time.
Klein and Leonard had small conversations here and there while they grilled and ate some meat which slowly helped clear up the uncomfortable atmosphere. Klein still couldn’t believe that he was out here, eating and chatting at a restaurant with the company’s well known employee.
Ever since Klein had started working at the company, a name and face that had popped up was always ‘Leonard Mitchell’. They’ve only ever exchange small talks, pleasantries and smiles once in a while when they bumped into one another, so it was quite shocking that Leonard had invited Klein out like this.
It really felt like Leonard wanted to know more about him and Klein couldn’t help but feel flustered at that thought.
Leonard was the complete opposite in Klein in terms of…. well, just practically everything.
First off all, he was everyone’s ideal type. Very nice, outgoing, handsome, tall, wasn’t struggling financially, well spoken and he worked really well too. Although, Klein had heard that Leonard could be quite lazy sometimes, but he did seem to do his work well most of the time.
Leonard seemed to be the type of person who liked to make friends wherever he went, so it wasn’t surprising that he knew practically everyone working at the company. As for Klein, he was still reletively new to the company and his introverted personality didn’t help him much in making friends, but that didnt mean that there weren’t people who had tried to befriend him.
He was just still new to the current working environment and was too shy to initiate more conversations with them.
Compared to Leonard, Klein looked like a total loser. Well, at least, that’s what he thought anyway.
As Klein took a sip of his beer, Leonard asked, “I frequently see you reading a webnovel called ‘Lord of the Mysteries’ at work during break.”
“Pfft—!” Klein choked on his beer and almost spat everything out. “ Cough! Cough—! ” He coughed out repeatedly.
“Are you okay?” Leonard asked in concern, handing Klein a tissue.
“Ye—Yeah…” Klein mumbled, accepting the tissue and wiped his mouth clean. “I just wasn’t…. expecting that…” Once again, he felt extremely embarrased. He didn’t think that Leonard would be the one to catch him reading his favourite web novel at work.
“Do you like it a lot?”
“Yes….” Klein nodded with an embarrassed smile.
“I like it too. It’s my favourite web novel currently.” Leonard’s response caused Klein’s eyes to double in size due to shock.
“What?! You do?” Klein’s sudden burst of excitement caused a few people to look his way but he didn’t seem to realise as he was too excited to notice anything else. “It’s my favourite too!”
It was the first time that Klein had found someone with the same interest as him, especially someone who also enjoyed a web novel that was his personal favourite.
No one would’ve expected that this little ‘incident’ would form a close bond of friendship between the both of them.
☆
“Leonard, I got your favourite coffee!” Klein exclaimed as he entered the room.
“Oh?” Leonard raised a brow as he accepted it. “I didn’t even ask for it today.”
“Hm? Am I not allowed to buy my best friend his favourite coffee?” Klein said teasingly and Leonard shook his head woth a laugh, choosing to not question any further.
”Klein, do you wanna go out for barbecue again today?” Klein shook his head in response. “Let’s hang out at your place tonight instead.”
“Okay.” Leonard responded with a smile.
“Can you please stop flirting in front of my face?” Rozanne groaned, rolling her eyes as she walked into the room. Their other colleagues would frequently tease Klein and Leonard a lot because they were so close to the point where they were stuck together like glue now, but they both had learned to ignore the teasings. “And Klein, what about my coffee?” She frowned.
“About that…. I totally forgot….” Klein really did forget about it. He only went out to buy Leonard’s and himself, completely disregarding his other colleagues.
Rozanne sent him a look of disbelief and sighed.
“It looks like I’m the favourite one who’s getting special treatments.” Leonard joked, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Tsk.” Once again, she rolled her eyes and walked away causing the two males to chuckle.
Suddenly, Klein felt his right arm being tugged. He turned to his right where Leonard was and sent him a look of confusion. Before he could even ask anything, the cup of iced latte macchiato was held up to his lips and immediately, Klein felt the cold and sweet yet bitter taste of coffee enter his mouth.
Wasn’t this Leonard’s cup of coffee that he had drank out of??
“Leonard—“ Klein felt flustered as he called out once the cup had been pulled away from his lips with the taste of the coffee still lingering inside of his mouth. “What— What the hell was that for?”
“Did you taste it?”
“Yeah…. What’s the problem?” He asked, feeling as if his face was on fire. Leonard smiled in response, moving his face closer to Klein’s and closing the distance so that they were basically only inches away from one another.
“You accidentally gave me yours.”
Oh.
Oh.
Klein glanced over at the label on the cup of coffee that was now held up in front of him and realised that the coffee really was supposed to be his and not Leonard’s! He had accidentally handed Leonard the wrong one.
They both liked iced latte macchiato, the only difference was that, Klein had ordered it with much lesser milk than Leonard which was displayed on the coffee cup’s label, but Klein had completely forgotten about it.
“Ah… my bad…” He mumbled, still feeling extremely flustered.
“It’s okay. I don’t really mind it.” Leonard smiled as he took another sip of the coffee that was supposed to be Klein’s. “Maybe less milk will wake me up better as you say.” He added before casually making his way towards his working area.
Klein was left alone, speechless, with the coffee that was supposed to be Leonard’s in his hand.
Only when Leonard was completely gone from his point of view did he finally snap out of his daze. Klein couldn’t help but raise a hand up to touch his face and realized how warm they were.
“What the hell is wrong with me…” He muttered.
Klein’s own heart felt as if it was really about to burst out of his own chest.
He then glanced down at the iced latte macchiato in his hand and thought, ‘I’ll be drinking sweeter coffeee this morning….’
☆
“Leonard, do you mind if I— Mmmhh—“ Klein was suddenly interrupted by a piece of boneless fried chicken being stuffed into his mouth. “… Why do you enjof feedin me so mush?” He asked as he chewed.
“Because the face you make is adorable whenever you're caught off guard.” Leonard shamelessly answered with a smile that reached his eyes.
Klein blushed, turning his head away and let out a cough before taking a small sip of his beer. He was suddenly reminded of their first dinner together and couldn’t help but smile a little as he thought about it.
Leonard, who saw his little smile couldn’t help but raise a brow in amusement but before he could even ask or say anything, Klein had turned back to face him.
“Do you mind if I borrow your laptop?”
“Is it for reading web novels again?”
“You know me well.” Klein’s smile widened.
“Klein, sometimes I wonder if you only come hang out with me at my place so you could read all of the stuff I have on my laptop.” Leonard jokingly said but Klein nodded seriously in response.
“Of course. Your tastes in web novels is amazing.” Unknowingly to Klein, Leonard had tilted his head down and took a sip of his beer to hide the redenning of his cheeks and ears.
Klein had always thought that his reading lists were always elite but ever since he had discovered Leonard’s, he felt as if he couldn’t go back to his own anymore.
Sometimes, Klein would just show up randomly in front of Leonard’s doorstep, just so he could hang around inside of Leonard’s apartment and scroll through his reading lists. It was practically a common thing between the both of them now.
“It’s at the usual spot.”
“Okay.” With that, Klein was off to go grab Leonard’s laptop and almost instantly, he was back. This time, instead of sitting across from each other, they were both sitting beside one another.
“You added more things here?” Leonard hummed in response and casually dropped his head on Klein’s left shoulder. “If you’re sleepy, you can go to sleep. We don't have work tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Leonard didn’t object and to Klein’s surprise, he actually fell asleep instantly with his head still resting on Klein’s shoulder.
“…” At that moment, Klein didn't know whether or not he should laugh or cry. Instead, he just shook his head and sighed. His lips couldn’t help but twitch upwards.
He then proceeded to scroll down on the reading list for a bit with his eyes constantly darting around the room before landing on Leonard who was in deep sleep next to him.
“Leonard?” Klein tried to call out softly.
“…”
There was no response.
Klein tried to poke him a few times but still, there was no response. Leonard was knocked out cold and reeked of alcohol. He must’ve drank too much. Even his ears and face were bright red.
This was enough for Klein to turn his attention back towards the laptop screen in front of him. With one last glance at Leonard, he stared at the screen in front of him for a bit more before finally deciding to click onto a folder.
Lord of the Mysteries.
Those bold letters instantly greeted him.
Klein was a person who respected privacy, but ever since he had accidentally stumbled upon the folder full of only that of an author would have of their own novel, he couldn’t help but come back to this folder every time Leonard wasn’t looking.
It made him feel extremely guilty but he couldn’t help it at all.
Klein had never thought that Leonard, who had told him that he also enjoyed reading his favorite web novel, would actually be the author of that same web novel.
It was hard to believe at first, but ever since he had accidentally came across this folder, he couldn’t stop himself from snooping around a few more times before coming to a conclusion that Leonard really was the author.
Klein had been planning to tell Leonard about it but every time he tried to, he always ended up running away from the plan and he didn't exactly know why.
Perhaps he was afraid that Leonard would be extremely upset that he had invaded his privacy like that.
Klein glanced at Leonard’s innocent sleeping face and instantly felt a pang of guilt hit him. He bit into his lower lip and quickly closed the folder and as he was going to shut the laptop, he noticed something in the corner of his eyes.
Klein Moretti.
Huh?
Why was there a folder with his name on it?
With furrowed brows, Klein moved the mouse and clicked the folder. He was expecting maybe a folder filled with silly photos of him that Leonard may have taken, but instead, it was multiple different files of texts.
Klein knew that he should’ve stopped snooping right then and there but of pure curiosity, he clicked onto the first one that was titled ‘love at first sight.’
His slowly widening eyes scanned over each word as his cheeks started to burn and his lips were left agape. Klein came to realisation as he carefully read each word in every single file inside of the folder.
He couldn’t believe his own eyes.
These were all poems written by Leonard about Klein and they weren’t just any ordinary poems, they were love poems.
Yet again, Klein glanced over at Leonard’s peacefully sleeping face that rested on his shoulder as he tried to process everything.
All of this time… Leonard….
“What the hell….” Klein covered his burning face with both of his palms. “Fuck…” He softly cursed to himself.
For fucks sake, he just found out that his own best friend had been in love with him before they had even became friends!
Just what the hell was happening?? And what was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to feel about this?
Klein’s emotions were extremely chaotic.
Especially his heart. It was loudly thumping inside of his chest, as if trying to tell him something but Klein couldn’t figure anything out. He felt so lost and confused.
He felt as if he should be disgusted. Instead, he wasn’t. It was another type of feeling that he couldn’t comprehend at all.
Klein felt as if he had really gone crazy at that moment.
“Leonard Mitchell, just what the hell are you doing to me?” He whispered underneath his breath.