It was quarter past seven in the morning, and Vernon was completely calm. He wasn't freaking out because it was Monday, which meant seeing Seungkwan. He wasn't planning ways he could fake sick or get the day off. He was completely unbothered by the fact that he'd dreamed of Seungkwan last night.

The dream wasn't the reason he was still crumpled up on his bedroom floor, still in the pyjamas he'd gotten dressed into after his extremely early morning shower, hadn't yet eaten breakfast, and was considering trying to convince his mother to move back to the States. All that was because he'd woken up in a strange mood too early.

He hadn't woken up in a strange mood because of the dream though, it was just a strange mood caused by being a teenager. His still forming brain.

Yeah, that was convincing.

There was a knock on his door and he found himself groaning.

"Sweetie, are the blankets in the washing machine yours?"

Great, his mum had found them. He didn't even care right now. He grunted in a fashion he thought sounded like a yes.

"Ok, I'll dry them after I've dropped Sofia off at school." Vernon heard footsteps, which he assumed was his mother walking away from his door. "Joshua's walking with you to the cafe this morning, too."

Now Vernon had to go. Urgh. Unless..

"Joshua, I only just woke up! I'm not going to have time to get ready before we have to leave, so call Junghan to pick you up!" Vernon called through the house.

His door opened not even a minute later to reveal a smirking Joshua. "You've been awake for hours, I heard you moving around the house at three thirty."

Today was the day of never ending groans.

"But, I'll get Junghan to come around and walk with us anyway."

"Ok, I'm getting dressed into my uniform now." He would lose against Junghan, Junghan would dress him and force feed him.

Joshua backed out of Vernon's room, smirk still on his face.

A few minutes later, Vernon walked into the kitchen to grab some breakfast only to have a bag of food and a takeaway container of omelette and gravy shoved in his face by Junghan.

"The bag is school food, container for while we walk." The long haired man turned to Joshua. "You got your stuff for your first class?" Joshua nodded, lifting up his bag as proof. "Let's go then."

Junghan steered Vernon out of the house, stopping so they could all put shoes on.

"So, why didn't our precious Vernon want to come to the cafe this morning?" Junghan asked after a few moments of him chatting with Joshua.

Vernon shrugged. "Just felt off."

Joshua snickered and leant into Junghan's ear. "He had a wet dream," he stage whispered.

Vernon flushed. Junghan turned to him. "Haven't you been having them for years?" Vernon nodded. "So, don't be embarrassed, they happen," Junghan told him, sounding so nonchalant about it that Vernon was impressed.

"Or maybe he's acting strange because of who was in it?" Joshua raised his eyebrows suggestively. Vernon felt his face redden even more.

Junghan slapped Joshua's arm playfully. "Leave the boy alone, Shua! His dreams are his business."

The two continued in playful banter as Vernon observed them. They were really adorable and they'd only known each other for a few days. They fit together so well - it kind of made Vernon understand why Seungkwan was so desperate to meet his soulmate. If that was what it was like, slotting seamlessly together rather than colliding like tectonic plates as he'd thought the first few months would be like, he didn't think he'd mind the whole soulmate thing. He wanted in, one day.

The three reached the cafe, Junghan and Joshua's hands interlaced. Junghan rapped on one of the windows and Jihoon came to open the cafe door.

"It was unlocked, you know?" he grumbled as he went to a table where there was a cloth and bucket of water. "Junghan, help me wipe the tables and chairs, Jun didn't have time to do it before closing yesterday."

"I'll help," Joshua volunteered. Jihoon shrugged and threw cloths at the two. "You want to help too, Vernon?"

"No, Jihoon, Vernon'll come sit by me. He's a horrible cleaner."

That was a voice Vernon really didn't want to hear for a few days, at least. No, I'm fine. Nothing happened, Vernon corrected himself. He strolled casually over to the till, where Seungkwan was perched on the empty space on the counter.

(The image of Seungkwan's eyes screwed shut, his mouth open in a shuddered gasp, assaulted Vernon's mind. He shivered slightly, trying not to remember any more of his dream.)

He leaned against the counter, being careful not to hit the cash register, a little further away from Seungkwan than he normally would've. He expected Seungkwan to pull him so he was in front of him like he usually did. He'd asked Seungkwan why he always did that one time, and his answer was "you're comfortable". Thankfully Seungkwan didn't, he just started swinging his legs back and forth.

"Decide to try score a date with Jihoon?" Vernon asked, trying to keep his tone even. (The image wasn't leaving, and if he couldn't get it to leave he'd have problem. Think of grandma, he told himself.)

"No, just wanted to talk with him, he gives good advice." Vernon felt his eyebrows furrow, what did Seungkwan want to talk about that he couldn't talk about with him? They were best friends! (He couldn't recall what his grandma looked like. Cleaning detergent, cleaning detergent, he chanted to himself.) "He helped get a little perspective on the situation, and I helped him put the muffins and cakes and stuff out into the display cabinets."

Seungkwan hopped off the counter and went around to the back of the till, passing by Vernon on the way. (Damn, why haven't I noticed Seungkwan's bu- butts aren't attractive Vernon, they're where poop comes from, he told himself. Also where I'd put my- no. Shut up, little voice.) "Jihoon, I'm getting a muffin, I'm putting the money near the till," Seungkwan sang.

"Yeah, whatever," Jihoon called back.

"Vernon!" Seungkwan asked brightly, (he'd panted and moaned Vernon's name in the dream and Vernon could hear it ringing in his skull) "you want some of my muffin? What flavour do you want?"

Vernon cleared his throat, that sounded too much like a euphemism. "Uh, you pick. I'm gonna use the restroom real quick." He needed to get away before the situation got worse.

He turned the tap on and splashed his face with cold water. "He's your best friend. Get a hold of yourself. There was no dream last night, right Vernon?" he berated himself. "Seungkwan's just like Mingyu or Dokyeom or Junghan. Just friends." He took a few deep breaths and counted to ten.

"Except I'm guessing you've never dreamed of them like you did of Seungkwan last night."

Vernon jumped. He looked towards the door to see Jihoon leaning against the doorway, arms crossed and looking unimpressed.

"Relax, Junghan can't keep a secret to save his life - he and Joshua were still talking about your dream while they were cleaning. You seemed to be acting a little distracted while you were talking to Seungkwan, and came here. I followed to make sure you weren't going to mess up the place - freaking disgusting having to clean up - and heard your little speech." Jihoon uncrossed his arms. "But don't worry, nobody else will figure it was about Seungkwan, and I won't tell anybody.

"Look, there's nothing wrong with finding people attractive, it's natural. Seungkwan told me you don't really care about someone's gender. Do you freak out if you want to screw a girl?"

Vernon shook his head. "But I had a-"

"Yeah, yeah, you dreamed about him. Big deal. Do you want to date him?" Again, Vernon shook his head. "Then just act like he's a friend you have that's hot." He pushed himself away from the doorway so he was standing upright. "And you might want to wait a few minutes before coming back out," Jihoon's eyes flickered downwards to Vernon's crotch.

Jihoon turned around and walked away, throwing an "I'll tell everyone you're constipated" over his shoulder.

Vernon took a few minutes to breathe and calm down. When he emerged from the restroom he found Dokyeom and Mingyu had arrived. Seungkwan called him over and gave him half a blueberry muffin, and the group minus Jihoon discussed inane topics such as nutrition.

The walk to school was uneventful and when Vernon got to class Chan wasn't there. He thought it was odd, the other boy was always at school, and decided to text him after school if he didn't turn up.

Lunch time rolled around and still no Chan. Vernon didn't want to face Seungkwan again that day, so he escaped to the library. He had a couple sheets of mathematics to get through, and some English comprehension to finish off. Might as well get it all done now. He chose an empty table and set his books down on it. He finished off his English comprehension in less than ten minutes, and spent fifteen minutes on his first three maths questions.

"Excuse me?" Vernon heard a heavily accented voice ask. He looked up and saw a boy with blonde curled hair. Vernon recognized him as one of the boys Chan had introduced him to at the showcase."Hi. The8, right? What's up?" Vernon asked. He was pretty sure this one was The8 because the other blonde he'd been introduced to had longer hair and was Chan's instructor, too old for highschool.

"Just Minghao at school. I was wondering why you were alone." Minghao sounded hesitant.

Vernon motioned to his schoolwork. "Had maths to do. You don't happen to know anything about it, do you?" Vernon pushed the page he was currently working on across the table. Minghao looked at it and sat down.

"Yeah, it's not too hard, you just have to know when to apply the different formulas. You got two wrong, by the way." Minghao went through the second question with Vernon and explained the other concepts he didn't understand. By the end of lunch, Vernon was fairly confident he'd be able to complete the rest of the sums on his own.

After school ended Vernon sent a message to Chan asking if he was ok. He started walking to the nearest bus stop in the hopes he'd be able to avoid Seungkwan for a little longer. While he was waiting, he got a message from Chan explaining it was just a twenty four hour bug and he was already feeling much better. The bus arrived shortly after that, and Vernon boarded, paying the fare on the way to his seat.

While he was sat down looking out the window, his phone vibrated. He had another message from Chan, saying the boy's friends from the dance studio wanted to tag along to the arcade and wouldn't listen when Chan had told them it was a date, so could Vernon bring along a few friends and they could have their date later? Vernon texted back a "sure, no problem".

But who would he ask? Seungkwan was a no, and he couldn't invite Mingyu or Seungkwan would know he hadn't been invited to something. Which left Dokyeom. Jun from the cafe was tolerable, so maybe he could invite him, too? Vernon got off when the bus got to his stop, still mulling it over in his mind. It suddenly dawned upon them they were going to the arcade.

Seungkwan didn't like the arcade, he thought anything besides DDR was boring and nobody ever wanted to play DDR. Well, it was a bunch of dancers going and they mightn't mind the rhythm game as much the rest of his own friends did. Vernon just wouldn't tell Seungkwan who he was going with.

Monday night and Tuesday were a blur, but he did manage to invite Dokyeom, Jun, and Mingyu, while Seungkwan had excused himself ("urgh, the arcade? It's so loud and all the games "). Vernon also couldn't recall Seungkwan having a new soulmate thing for everyone to try, which was a strange occurrence when it happened every couple of months.

On Wednesday Vernon was still trying to find reasons to avoid Seungkwan, which wasn't working out as well as he'd hoped. He hid in the library at lunch with Chan and Minghao - who was pretty cool once you got past the slight language barrier - but it was difficult to avoid spending mornings at the cafe. He'd started helping out by mopping and putting the cakes and muffins in the display cabinets (Jihoon gave him half off on a muffin, while Jun and Junghan let him have a free beverage).

Chan chattered his ear off all day, excited about that afternoon. When the bell signalling the end of the school day rang Chan and Vernon went to collect Minghao, who was going to the arcade with them. They waited around the front entrance for Dokyeom and Mingyu, the latter of whom insisted they all walk Seungkwan home before heading to the arcade.

Vernon could see Seungkwan wasn't acting himself the whole walk to his and Mingyu's house. He'd offered to hang out with Seungkwan instead of going to the arcade, but Seungkwan had rejected his offer.

So, Vernon found himself playing a shooting game with Chan.

Chan's other friend that had tagged along was Soonyoung, or Hoshi when he was performing. He was Chan's dance instructor and the choreographer for the showcase and had hit it right off with Dokyeom. They were playing a racing game along with Mingyu. The unhygienic giant was winning because Dokyeom and Soonyoung were turning each other's steering wheel and covering each other's eyes.

Jun and Minghao were playing one of the claw games, calmly chatting in Chinese, and Minghao was holding few stuffed toys Jun seemed to have won, judging by how Minghao was pointing to inside the case excitedly.

It seemed almost like he and Chan were on the date they were supposed to be on.

By the time it had gotten late enough for his mother to send him a text saying she was outside and asking how many people wanted rides home, Vernon had gotten enough tickets to get a funny bobblehead pen for his little sister.

Vernon had given Chan a quick kiss on the cheek when thay'd said goodbye - Chan would be getting a lift from Soonyoung. He'd realised a kiss on the cheek was childish, especially considering he'd had a girlfriend a few years back. But he wasn't sure if Chan had ever been kissed. Just as Vernon pulled away from his goodbye hug with Chan, the younger boy pecked him full on the lips after being encouraged by Soonyoung to "get some, Chan!" when he'd noticed Vernon graze his lips against Chan's cheek. The younger boy pulled away, the embodiment of embarrassed with his rosy cheeks, clenched fists, and ducked head.

Vernon, Dokyeom, and Mingyu trouped into Vernon's mum's car, Vernon arranging with Chan when they could have their first proper date.

Vernon's lips felt strange all night though, and it wasn't in the way lips were meant to feel after you kissed someone new for the first time.

========== A/N: I'm seriously on a roll! That's only cause it's suddenly been quite warm in Aus and I haven't had the motivation to do anything else besides lay on my bed and watch YouTube, read, and write. So, here we have it. The last half/third of the chapter seems kinda not quite right to me, but it gets the job done. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!