The lone thread of ramen gets caught on Chanyeol’s throat when Junmyeon asks, with a barely hidden pout, why Chanyeol didn’t want to go back to the cafe. Chanyeol gulps down the entire bottles and sputters, , cola is never the perfect drink to force food down. He looks at Junmyeon, who fortunately has stopped pouting (Chanyeol is weak of Junmyeon, more so his deadly pout), and now more interested leaning forward from his seat towards Chanyeol and dabbing a piece of tissue on Chanyeol’s chin.

Chanyeol offers a weak thanks as Junmyeon mutters about a clumsy dongsaeng. It’s Chanyeol’s lucky day. He couldn’t imagine what’d happen if Junmyeon’s boyfriend were here with them, seeing Junmyeon taking care of Chanyeol, on Chanyeol’s apartment. Minseok probably would froze Chanyeol to death. Or maybe Minseok would froze his insides and crush all the organs. Kim Minseok is an unpredictable man.

Chanyeol’s shudder doesn’t go unnoticed by Junmyeon. “Are you sick? Park Chanyeol, what did I say about this amazing invention called a freaking sweater?” Chanyeol laughs, Junmyeon always worries too much. “Hyung, I am a fire user.” He reminds the older the fact that he’s basically a personal human heater for all their friends. “And I am a water user. But you don’t see me dancing under the rain, begging to be sick.” Junmyeon raises his eyebrow in challenge. Chanyeol smiles, “Well, there was one time...”

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It felt like hell. Chanyeol was half draped, half passed out, on the counter. Junmyeon was at a similar state, face glued to the wooden table. They were closed for a day because, to simply put, the cafe was hot as . Usually the cafe would never be like this. After all they had a lot of air conditioners and Minseok’s power, but today Minseok was nowhere to be seen. He went after Baekhyun, to hopefully sue the out of Baekhyun. At least Chanyeol was the one who hope it, he didn’t know about Junmyeon since the man had already became one with the table right after Baekhyun decided that the right way to woo Jongdae was....flickering the lights. Their cafe’s lights. And successfully screwed up by shutting down their power. 

Like what the ing . Chanyeol felt ashamed by association. What kind of How To Get An Electric Night with A Thunder User book Baekhyun had read to get that idea. Probably a bad one, judging from how Jongdae gaped and stromed out the cafe, throwing his hand while screaming almost hysterically, “I can’t deal with this right now!”

Chanyeol pitied Jongdae who had managed to catch Baekhyun’s attention the first time Chanyeol dragging Jongdae to his work. There would be thousand embarrassing  events bound to happen to those two, Chanyeol was sure of it. Fortunately, Baekhyun and Jongdae had been the only costumers, so there hadn’t been any commotion (other than the commotion they themselves made, of course). No one was there to see the disaster happened, well no one, if you didn’t count Jongin who always got his morning coffee on 1pm because the dancer was an oddball like that. Jongin had been blinked and said what the hell after he witnessed the whole scene and decided to nope the out of the building in a second. Literally. Being able to manipulate dimention had its own perks.

Chanyeol was startled when drops of water fell on his cheek. He blinked and shot a cautious glace upwards. Please don’t tell him there’s a leak somewhere. He seriously didn’t get paid enough for this. Nothing seemed out of the place when Chanyeol swept the ceiling with his eyes. He groans in defeat when another drop of water hit his cheek. A giggle could be heard and there was Junmyeon, now sitting on the chair, water swirled around his hand like a mini water twister. Chanyeol raised his eyebrow.

Ten minutes later, they got scolded by Minseok who came back and freaked out at the sight of rain inside his cafe. “I won’t get cold. I am the one who is controlling the water.” Minseok sighed and massaged his head. Junmyeon stared at Chanyeol who had been silent. Junmyeon was used to talk back with Minseok, with Minseok and him being brothers for years, but Minseok was still Chanyeol’s boss, therefore an angry Minseok wasn’t exactly something he encountered often. Junmyeon mouthed I can handle this! to Chanyeol and patted his arm in reassurance.

 “Hyung,” that got Minseok’s attention. “Chanyeol is warm! I won’t get sick. We were close when we played with the water, so we won’t get cold, right Chanyeol?” Chanyeol almost slapped his face with his palm in distress when Minseok’s eyebrows went higher at his step brother’s explanation. Chanyeol’s sure Junmyeon meant well, but he made this worse, not better.

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That was almost one year ago, but Chanyeol’s head still hurts sometimes whenever he remembers the mess. The thing is Minseok was, and still is, very...protective towards Junmyeon. He maybe saw Chanyeol as something destructive for his brother (as if causing Junmyeon got cold is counted as destructive) and decided to fire Chanyeol’s the next month. Minseok was very appologetic when he did it, so Chanyeol accepted the thinly-veiled excuse of needing to cut down employees.

(Which Chanyeol knew was one hundred pure bull since the Kims never short on money, Chanyeol kinda researched about them first because he had....this little tiny crush on Minseok when he stumbled on the cozy cafe for the first time and greeted with that charming smile.)

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"I have like...thousand assignments this semester.” Chanyeol reasons and lies, this semester is the easiest semester ever. Sure, he is assigned to make two short film as final project, but he’s paired with Jongdae, it’ll be an easy A.

"You’ve had thousands assignments last semester too, and you never failed to visit the cafe.” Junmyeon says, stubborn as ever to bring Chanyeol back to the cafe because it’s already two months since you visited the cafe Chanyeol, the older reminds him again and again.

Chanyeol shrugs and keeps his mouth shut instead of bluntly says, yeah that's before your brother turned boyfriend called me the exact day you became couple and kindly informed me about the fact you are taken. It had been a normal day, minus the fact his old boss calling him and asking him how was his day before proceeding to tell Chanyeol that he and Junmyeon now is exclusive. Chanyeol has seen it coming long before aka since that one time Minseok smiled through his teeth when Junmyeon helped Chanyeol did the dishes. It was one of his top three most awkward moments. He managed to stutter a ‘congratulation’ though, so all is well. Or maybe not, because when he visited the cafe after that, Minseok stared at him like he'd be more than happy to freeze Chanyeol's balls and crush them using his own hand.

"Well, I can't. Minseok-hyung will kill me if he sees me.” Park Chanyeol is an honest and emotionally stable man, seriously, Junmyeon doesn’t need to stare at him like Chanyeol's the one who is crazy. The only one who can be labeled as crazy is Minseok. The probability of Minseok killing him is 60%, and it will increase to 80% if Chanyeol comes with Junmyeon to the cafe.

"Ugh, you are so dense." Chanyeol groans as he swallow down his next sentence, your boyfriend slash step-brother wants me dead. Junmyeon looks offended, "I'm not the dense one, you are.” He points at Chanyeol and crosses his arms.

"What? No way. I'm sharp as a blade.” If one thing Chanyeol takes pride of, it’s his ability to be realize and analyze everything, anything. "Then how come you don't notice that Jongin is always there whenever you visit the cafe.” Junmyeon accuses him, taking their dirty bowls and shaking his head when Chanyeol plops down on the couch instead of cleaning the trash on the table. "He even came at the morning you were there.” Junmyeon adds, half-yelling from the kitchen.

Yeah, there was one time when Jongin popped out of thin air ten minutes after Chanyeol moaned about college to Baekhyun and ordered a strong coffee. It was 11 am and Jongin looked like he just woke up, which actually was Jongin’s default look. Chanyeol paid no attention. Jongin had the right to get his morning coffee. Now if Chanyeol thinks about it, Junmyeon is right. Jongin is really always there whenever Chanyeol comes to visit. How the sleepy boy find out about his random visits is another question that need to be answered.

"Ok. I'll come but you need to save my from Minseok-hyung.”

"I swear Minseok won't get anywhere your .”

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This is how Chanyeol looks at xiuho's......odd realitionship. Please keep in mind, they are not related by blood. Xiuho are step brothers. There will be a Junmyeon's pov of the whole story, which I've written on twitter (more like I threw the whole concept @ Julia who's always supportive eventho she's barely alive....)