A/N: Don't ask me why this update came so fast. It's definitely not because I don't have a life and have been writing like all afternoon or anything...

“Pickup for the gross old man picking his nose under the window,” Luhan called to Junmyeon from the back kitchen.

“Table three,” Junmyeon answered in exasperation as he reached for the grilled cheese. “You could just say table three.”

“It’s more fun to give the customers nicknames,” Luhan said indifferently, and then nodded as a pretty young girl opened the coffee shop door. “For example, she’s what I call ‘out of your league’.”

“I am so in her league,” Junmyeon huffed back, caring only because it was Luhan, and whipped around to the cash register. “Hi, miss,” he said with a sunny smile. “Can I get the time? I’d check my watch but I can’t seem to take my eyes off of you.”

Luhan rolled his eyes, cringing inwardly. Junmyeon was actually fairly good looking, but his grandpa-like flirting skills tended to mellow it out a bit.

The girl looked up expressionlessly from her phone screen and gave Junmyeon a blank smile. “Hi, can I have a medium low fat soy latte with no whip?”

Luhan snorted loudly enough for Junmyeon to hear him and then turned away to refill the coffee machine. He kept one ear open, listening to the floundering acceptance of tip, the embarrassment evident even in his voice, and had no doubt that his manager had turned a delightful shade of red.

“You know what,” Junmyeon grumbled as he joined Luhan in the back kitchen some time later. “I’m banning nicknames. From now on you refer to the customers as the customers.”

“Oh look, here comes idiot one, two and three,” Luhan intoned, ignoring Junmyeon, and pushed past him to meet Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae at the register. They were right on time, 4:00 to the dot; ten minutes after the school bell had rung. Both he and Junmyeon had spares last period, hence the reason they were able to open up the café a little bit earlier. Junmyeon had offered him the job after noticing that Minseok and sometimes Sehun had a habit of skipping class to spend Luhan’s spare with him. Since he was chronically broke, Luhan had gladly accepted. “Let me guess,” he greeted the three, already ringing up their orders, “A venti water for Chanyeol who really shouldn’t even be here, a grande caramel macchiato for Baekhyun, and a skinny vanilla latte, no foam, for Jongdae.”

“Thanks,” Chanyeol grinned in that deep voice, and grabbed his water, which was already at the counter. “This is why this is my favourite coffee shop.”

“You don’t even drink coffee,” Luhan told him dismissively, waiting as Baekhyun and Jongdae shelled out the required dollars. 

“I know, I hate it, it’s disgusting,” Chanyeol answered him cheerfully, and a few seconds later the three were crowded around their usual corner table, chatting away about who knows what.

“You guys are coming tonight, right?” Junmyeon called to them as Luhan stepped out to deliver a soup to another customer, which frankly he had forgotten about and it was probably now cold. Junmyeon was referring to the weekly Tuesday night roundups at his house, which had had a purpose that Luhan had also long forgotten about. There was a chorus of affirmatives from the table.

“Oh ya, Jongin asked me if he could bring the new guy,” Baekhyun said, taking a sip of his coffee.

Luhan looked up, amused. “He’s taken quite a shine to him, hasn’t he?”

“It’s supposed to be a committee meeting,” Junmyeon faltered. “You can’t just invite random-”

“Tell him he can come,” Luhan told Baekhyun with a cheeky grin. “You should have seen them in chemistry today. I think their chemistry is what I’d rather be studying, if you know what I mean.”

Junmyeon emitted a guttural groan and Baekhyun pursed his lips thoughtfully, a mischievous glint entering his eyes. “So you’re saying the odds are…?”

“Just need the right situation.”

“Let’s ask Kris to throw a party,” Jongdae chimed in, looking equally smug.

Luhan nodded musingly, suddenly excited at the prospect of playing matchmaker. How long had it been since Jongin had been with someone? Too long, he fretfully decided. 

-

“So,” Junmyeon finished lavishly, “Any questions?”

No one moved.

Jongin felt a strange stab of pity at the silence that met committee leader’s questioning face, but it was quickly dissipated when Sehun handed him the box of donuts that was being passed around.

“Uh,” Kyungsoo piped up from beside him, and Jongin snapped up at his voice, alert, midway through taking a bite of his strawberry jelly. “Yes, actually. What are we…talking about, exactly?” He looked back at the other eleven students only to be met with blank gazes.

“This is grad committee,” Jongin told him hastily through a mouthful of donut.

“I…am aware,” Kyungsoo replied slowly. “But Junmyeon just explained the importance of lavender napkins…over teal? What does this have to do with grad, exactly?”

“No one knows,” Kris said brusquely, who had stirred briefly from where he had been napping on Junmyeon’s couch, Zitao’s body spread over his lap.

“I was trying to get you guys on board with this colour scheme,” Junmyeon said helplessly. “Last time we didn’t really decide between lavender or teal, so I just went ahead and made a presentation to convince you that we should go lavender.”

"Lavender is so last season," came Zitao's sleepy voice, managing to be sassy even while he was speaking into Kris's thigh. 

Kyungsoo just looked even more lost.

“We’re really just here because Junmyeon’s loaded and always gives us food during the meetings,” Luhan supplied tactfully. “Honestly, I didn’t even know this was grad committee until now.”

“Luhan,” Junmyeon protested sadly, but was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell, which signified the arrival of their take-out. Jongdae and Baekhyun promptly got up from where they had been playing neopets during Junmyeon’s presentation to answer the door.

Kyungsoo turned to Jongin for explanation, a bewildered look in his eyes. “It’s ok,” Jongin told him, feeling slightly guilty at not having prepared him for a full-scale hangout with his friends. “The food’s here, so now we just chill. I didn’t know Junmyeon actually had something prepared today. Usually we all just show up at his house on Tuesday nights and have dinner while he talks in the background.”

“Is this…actually grad committee?” Kyungsoo implored. “Because if it is, your grad is going to be…a hot mess. Except minus the hot. Just the mess.”

Jongin shrugged. “Junmyeon’ll figure it out. He always does. And if it does turn out to be a total disaster, Kris will fix it.”

Baekhyun and Jongdae then returned to hand out steaming styrofoam boxes of ddukbokkie, japchae, jiggae, chaos insuing as everyone moved to grab their food. Kyungsoo accepted a box from Jongdae with a disoriented look on his face, and then the twelve of them arranged into small circles, awakening from the brief slumber they had been under while Junmyeon had been talking.

“So how did this, like…happen exactly? Why are you guys even here?” Kyungsoo asked as he settled into a group that contained Sehun, Jongin, Luhan, and himself. “Well,” Luhan answered him through a mouthful of japchae, “Junmyeon voluteered to be head and then recruited Kris, who agreed at first because they work well together and they’re both super rich so they know how to throw a kick- party-”

“Well, Kris does, Junmyeon has never thrown a party in his life-” Sehun interrupted.

“-he’s thrown rich-people galas-”

“-that doesn’t count-”

“-but anyway, Kris could make it cool. But then he started dating Zitao, who insisted on coming to the meetings, and then Zitao started inviting Baekhyun and Sehun-”

“-and Baekhyun invited Chanyeol and Jongdae and I started inviting Luhan and Jongin-”

“-and now I’m dating Minseok so I invited him and Jongdae is dating Yixing so I guess he’s here too-”

“-and I invited you,” Jongin finished, smiling at Kyungsoo. “So here we are.”

Kyungsoo glanced around again at the other eleven, who were sitting chatting on Junmyeon’s expensive carpet floor while Junmyeon looked on with a pained expression, and decided that there were a lot worse ways he could spend a Tuesday night.

-

“Did you know he lives near me too? How funny is that! I literally just need to walk two blocks down and then turn left and go up the path and his house is like right there, it’s so weird-”

Sehun rolled his eyes inwardly, effectively deciding to tune Jongin out. It wasn’t that he hadn’t enjoyed listening to him rattle on about Kyungsoo for the past ten minutes; it was just that…he hadn’t. They were on their way to their frequent practices at the school dance studio, preparing for the showcase that was being held next month, and Sehun had listened to him talk all the way from Bio on the third floor to the school basement. He waited patiently as Jongin opened the door to the studio and then shouldered past him, wanting to be away from him and his Kyungsoo-obsessed mouth.

Yixing was already there, freestyling intensely to…Rihanna, was it? and not even noticing the pair’s entrance. Sehun waited for a moment, and then walked around to block the mirrors so that Yixing would take notice of him. For a moment Yixing kept dancing, and then there was a lull in the music and he paused, turning his head to say “ better have my money!” with the lyrics as a final flourish. “I’m serious,” Yixing added as Sehun reached for the remote to pause the speaker. “You owe me ten dollars.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Sehun waved him off, already disconnecting Yixing’s phone from the bluetooth so he could play his own music.

As he settled on something that matched his mood (I’ll Still Kill by 50 ct for reasons unbeknownst), Jongin, who had still been going on about Kyungsoo during all of this, was interrupted by the door opening accompanied by a playful “Hey cutie!” and then Sehun was forced to witness the gross sight that was Jongdae throwing himself into Yixing’s arms. He watched them with minimal interest, figuring that within the week Jongdae will have moved on to some other pretty boy toy, his social reputation not exactly low-key when it came to his rate of promiscuity. Kind of like Luhan in junior year. They fit well together, for Yixing, despite his wholesome, pure act, was just as flighty as Jongdae, though perhaps more particular when it came to those he chose to spend his time on.

“What are you doing here?” Jongin asked him mildly, giving him the bro-fist all the same.

“Just came to watch,” Jongdae said gleefully, his lips turning up in that infuriating kitten-like grin.

“That doesn’t mean-” Jongin paled visibly, but was cut off by another whoop of glee as Baekhyun entered the room. Along with Chanyeol. Sehun had stopped noting his presence some time ago, because if one of them was there, the other was bound to be too.

Jongin groaned loudly.

“Hey,” Baekhyun said, or maybe it was Chanyeol, Sehun hadn’t bothered to check.

“Ok, you guys, no,” Jongin protested. “We actually have to get something done here.”

“Oh shush,” Jongdae told him carelessly. “You already know the dance. I’ve seen you do it a million times, honestly you’re so talented you have nothing to worry about.”

“And you’re very talented too,” Jongin said cuttingly, angry the way he could only be about dance. “Multi-talented. You can talk and piss me off at the same time.”

“Shh,” Jongdae answered soothingly. “You know I’m right. Besides, I have a proposition for you three.”

“And what would that be?” Yixing asked him gingerly, looping an arm around Jongdae’s shoulders and pulling him in tight. How sweet. It made Sehun want to hurl.

“Kris is having a party tonight,” Chanyeol piped up, and this time Sehun knew it was him because of the low, gravelly, baritone. “You guys are invited.”

“Mm,” Jongin began, the contradiction already on his face.

“We’ll go,” Sehun spoke over him, and deftly shut his music off. He’d already weighed his options, and spending another two hours in the studio with Jongin and then having to take the train home with him as he talked about Kyungsoo seemed to be the losing choice in comparison to a party at Wu Fan’s. It was a Friday night and he’d had a long week. Besides, Kris was hella loaded, his house was huge, and the booze would be good.

“Sehun,” Jongin started in dejectedly, but he was already packing up his stuff.

“You can bring Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun announced graciously, and with that Jongin’s face lit up and they were out the studio door within thirty seconds.

A/N: So in case you were wondering, yes, the next chapter is definitely going to be a highschool party featuring ot12, and yes it will probably be up within the next five hours. Because I actually have no life. But also, just wanted to say...thanks for reading, guys. I really didn't think anyone would actually like this lol.