There is only enough time to go home and sleep, barely enough to eat, with the way Kyungsoo’s throwing himself into work. He leaves early, even earlier on saturdays, coming home late into the evening and it’s not to escape, he tells himself, because if he’s too engrossed with the job, when he’s too tired to even think straight, he won’t be occupied with thinking about anything else.

Three weeks of spreading himself so thin and Baekhyun calls him out, grabbing him in the middle of finishing a spreadsheet he’s not even supposed to be working on, and drags him by the arm into a nearby restroom.

He leans against the sink, folding his arms across his chest and the expression on Baekhyun’s face makes Kyungsoo a little skittish.

“What is up with you? You’ve been working non-stop. You don’t even hang out with us anymore because you’re always so damn busy. And don’t think I don’t know about your overtime for the rest of the week as well.”

“How did you --”

“You forget that I have eyes and ears everywhere in this company.”

Yeah and the fact that you’re a huge gossip, he mutters under his breath. A quick yet strong flick to the forehead has Kyungsoo crying out, pressing his palm against the throbbing pain.

“I heard that.” Baekhyun stares at him, looking annoyed for a few beats before it washes away, replaced with a sympathetic expression so much like a mother would have when looking at a miserable son.  “This isn’t like you. I know something’s wrong. You’ll burn yourself out at this rate.”

A sudden flush echoes from one of the stalls and they both turn in that direction. Jongdae, who sits two desks away from Kyungsoo, walks out and goes to the sink and Baekhyun moves out of the way. They wait in silence as he washes his hands, then takes a paper towel to dry off. He looks at them, clearly pondering over something, and says directly to Baekhyun, “He bullied me into handing over my spreadsheets.”

Kyungsoo gasps sharply, shouting “Traitor!” and attempts to collar him but Baekhyun holds him still. Jongdae backs away from them and towards the door, hands splayed out to protect himself.

“I’m sorry Kyungsoo but I’m just as worried as he is. Maybe he can find a way to make you stop.”

“Say goodbye to those spreadsheets you traitor!” Kyungsoo shouts at Jongdae who’s already making a break for the door. Baekhyun shoves at his shoulder to get his attention and Kyungsoo lets out a frustrated huff before he turns to him.

“Well? Are you going to tell me willingly? Or do I have to resort to special measures to make you spill?” Kyungsoo glowers at him, not liking the tone in Baekhyun’s voice.

“What do you mean special measures?”

“Oh just the usual techniques I use to get what I want, which you seem to have forgotten so I might as well remind you,” he explains and Kyungsoo backs away because Baekyun looks positively mental. His face suddenly drops as the memory hits him and hastily replies, “ Baek, we are grown men, we are professionals for christ’s sake.  Just.. just stop right there!”

But Baekhyun continues closer to him, smiling slyly, backing him against the wall and pounces on him in a flash. Kyungsoo is helpless as he’s tickled, can do nothing but laugh obnoxiously loud as Baekhyun attacks his waist where he’s the most vulnerable. His legs give way and he slides down the wall, arms wrapping around himself in a futile attempt to fend him off.

Yixing walks in on Baekhyun sitting on his legs and busily poking him in random parts of his torso, with Kyungsoo convulsing in laughter. He looks up at him and shouts desperately, “Xing! Xing! Help me please! I-I can’t breathe.. Hahaha!” Yixing pauses for a few seconds, cocking his head at the sight before him and when Kyungsoo screams at Baekhyun to ing stop, he kneels down beside them, already laughing along and starts to rake his fingers across Kyungsoo’s neck.

He tries to curse at Yixing but he’s too breathless from laughing so hard that a line of drool comes out of his mouth instead. He tries to push Baekhyun off but he’s no match against the combined strength of the other two and he finally yields, screaming, “OKAY I SURRENDER!! YOU WIN GODDAMIT!! JUST STOP!!”

Yixing runs his hands against his waist, earning him another scream before dropping his hands altogether as Baekhyun climbs unsteadily off of him. They both stand up and look down at him lying on the floor, boneless and panting. Kyungsoo tries to catch his breath and wipes the drool from his mouth, giving the two his most intimidating glare. It must not have looked menacing enough because they just snicker at him before giving each other high fives.

“s,” he spits out and stands up on wobbly legs, brushing his hands over them to tidy his slacks. “And what in the actual hell Yixing?!” he yells, scowling at him.

“What? You looked like you were having such a good time so I jumped right in! Y’all know I’m a er for anything fun,” he smiles broadly, exposing his adorable dimple. “Oh and take it as payback for that horrible gift you gave me last year.”

“Oh my god. You have got to be kidding me! That was like a year ago!”

Yixing just shrugs at him and enters a vacant stall, his evil laugh echoing through the tiled walls as he closes the door. Though Baekhyun  has stopped laughing, he’s still smiling amusedly at him.

“I cannot believe I have friends like you. You two are spawns of the devil himself!” He walks to the sink and washes his hands, angrily splashing the water around. As he’s drying his hands with a paper towel, Baekhyun moves next to him, patiently waiting for him to finish.

“Kyungsoo,” he starts, but Kyungsoo shakes his head at him.

“No, not here. I can’t bring myself to tell you stuff when we're standing in a moldy bathroom smelling of poop deodorizer, with satan’s lovechild as our only witness.”

“Hey! I resent that!” Yixing shouts from his stall.

He lets out a soft chuckle before he calmly stares at Kyungsoo. “That's fine. Tell me when you’re ready. And slow down, yeah?” Baekhyun reaches out a hand to gently his neck, something that Kyungsoo has always found oddly comforting and he smiles at him.

“Okay. Next week maybe? I still have overtime until Saturday.” Baekyun answers him with an affirming nod.

They’re about to leave when Kyungsoo stops and stares at Baekhyun.

“Uh Baek...”

“What? You changed your mind? I’m all ears.”

“Nope. It’s uh, your eyes.. they’re kind of uhm… melting.”

Baekhyun rushes to the mirror above the sink and swears at his reflection - smudges of black eyeliner, which he had so painstakingly drawn just a few hours ago, cover the corners of his eyes, making him look like a depressed clown. He quickly grabs a few paper towels, runs water over them before scraping them over his eyes.

“This freaking heat is detrimental to my flawless image," he says as he continues to clean off the mess from his face. They hear Yixing snort but Baekhyun ignores him and instead focuses on getting  his face to its original perfection.

“It’s the summer, what did you expect. Maybe you could try those waterproof types this time?”

“This is waterproof. It’s just too ing hot, I’m sweating all the time.” Baekyun swipes off the last bit of stray eyeliner and looks himself over before he’s fully satisfied.

“Or you could stop wearing them?” The murderous glint in Baekhyun’s eyes has Kyungsoo stepping away, saying, “Forget I said anything.”

Before they head out, Kyungsoo pauses and shouts over at Yixing. “You okay in there? You’re taking an awfully long time.”

Yixing sounds pained as he says, “It’s those damn tacos Mr. Lee orders all the time. I think I ate too much.”

“You were fine just a moment ago,” Baekhyun comments.

“Yeah, I-I thought it was just gas. It isn’t. But I’ll be fine. Just.. stop anyone from coming in here if you can.”

“We’ll tell Joonmyeon you’re here then,” Baekhyun says and they scurry on out of there when they hear a series of small farting sounds.

___________________

Kyungsoo enters his apartment that saturday at approximately ten in the evening, body completely spent. He drops his bag on the couch and stretches his hands over his head, pleased when he hears his spine pop. He goes to the fridge for some water but slows down when he sees something lying on the dining table. As he nears it, he sees three comic books piled together and a note stuck on top which read:  thought you might like these

He picks one up, this one looking almost brand new, and smiles because yes, this is exactly the kind he’s into. He’d mentioned it in passing and Jongin a