---

Yifan isn't really a morning person.

But, he has to pretend like he is if he wants to keep his steady income and be able to leave work early enough in the day. So, while groaning and smacking his dry, chapped lips together, he slowly eases himself off of his bed and heads to his bathroom to take a shower. Only thing is, once he's stripped and steps into the shower, his feet slip as soon as they touch the slippery tiles and he ends up skidding and landing on his hands and knees quicker than he can even yell !

With his chest heaving and his eyes widened in shock, Yifan takes a moment to try and get over the fact that he could've just freakin' died.

Eventually, with a shake of his head and his breathing slowing down towards a more normal speed, he slowly tries to stand up; his legs wobbling and his arms extended out to try and maintain his balance.

When he manages to keep his feet steady, he then turns the shower knob towards the direction for scalding hot water to try and get rid of the slipperiness of the tiles somehow only to quickly change the knob back to the top direction when the burning water touches his skin.

---

After that small fiasco, Yifan's day seems to stabilize itself back into mundaneness. Now, he's showered up and ready to eat, clad in only his favorite polka dot boxers as he heads to his small little kitchen to get some breakfast. After he's poured himself a bowl of cereal and milk, he resigns to eating in his living-room while watching some TV on the couch.

Everything's as usual as it always is and he's still got almost an hour left before he has to leave for work (because even if he's not an early bird, he'd rather be early than fired). The TV plays this one show he used to watch when he was still tall but less cool than he is now, and he finds himself getting hit with a wave of nostalgia as he watches a random episode from season probably-six.

They say that how a person views art can change depending on time and personal growth. And they, whoever they are, would be so ing right.

Seriously, what he once thought was just a stupid TV show now looks, well, still stupid but also funnier to him too. Some of the teen actors' acting is still as cheesy as it seemed to him back then, and everything still has a soap-opera feel--but damn he'd be lying if he said it's not addicting to watch.

Heck, he finds himself waiting for the next episode after the one he just watched ended because What the --they can't just end it there?!

By the time he finishes that episode, he's already past that huge window of time that he usually gives himself to walk to work and make it there on time. And it's only when he's simultaneously watching a character accept drugs from this other character, and thinking about his friends back up in Canada that his hand accidentally loosens its grip on his remote--causing it to fall to his carpeted floor.

The floor easily cushions the remote's fall so he sighs in relief before looking at the screen and seeing that the button to see the TV info got pressed accidentally. And that's when he notices the time and proceeds to curse loudly before jumping off of the couch and dashing to his room to get properly dressed.

Around ten minutes later, he's running out of his room while furiously patting his low-hanging pants to make sure that he didn't forget anything as his front door looms in sight. He just about remembers to turn off his TV and quickly slides into his shoes before yanking open his door and locking it at a lightning speed after exiting. Then, he checks his phone for the time as he rushes down his floor's stairs to head out of his apartment complex. Now he doesn't even have ten minutes before he's supposed to clock in--causing him in his own lips as he quickens his pace.

-------

A few hours later, Yixing learns that the milk-honeysuckle shampoo that he bought and used last night smells really good. So good in fact that when he opens his home's front door to check the temperature outside--a flippin' moth zooms in and locks onto his hair like he owes it money.

Yixing instantly freaks out, jerking back and waving spastically at his own hair while the front door slams shut by itself. The moth flies away though before he can catch it with his hands and he lets out shaky exhales as he watches the moth hover near the closet in front of the door.

In...out... he thinks, taking in deeper breaths.

One wrong step and it could spell utter doom for him.

No don't do it...

But then, time slows to a halt as he and the moth seem to have a stare-down, and after mentally going over his options in his mind, he slowly tiptoes towards the moth while slowly raising his hands to catch it only for the moth to fly right into his face. He jolts back with a disgusted scream and trips on an upturned corner of his home's indoor welcome mat--resulting in him falling onto his .

Pain, humiliation, and resignation churns throughout his body as he stares blankly at the moth now flying around his head in circles.

And later when he's at work and Jongin and Taemin notice him wincing whenever he sits down--he has to tell them what happened while frowning as the two leer at each other in amusement.

"Yixing...buddy--" Taemin starts, placing a hand on his shoulder and Jongin snickers next to them. "--is there something you wanna tell us?" Taemin asks, trying not to laugh.

Taemin then in his lips as he pats his shoulder like he's actually trying to comfort him and Yixing tells him to off while Jongin starts laughing hard in the background. Taemin's shoulders shake as he finally starts to laugh too and Yixing rolls his eyes at them before walking out of Taemin's office with a frown on his face.

-------

Around the same time, in another part of town, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo are walking on the sidewalk and chatting as they head towards the flower shop where Jongdae and Minseok work at.

Kyungsoo's busy looking at the ground and chatting in a quiet tone of voice about some random dream he had, and Baekhyun feeling as tipsy as he does, doesn't even pretend to listen and just takes out his phone to text Jongdae. Good thing, Kyungsoo's even drunker than he is.

"...So then he went like this--" Kyungsoo swings his arms around like he's making a portal. "--and then he went like whoosh--" He does a quick two-finger salute while laughing. "--ah-ha-ha-ha and then he just--he just jumped in and the portal closed clock-wise and..."

Baekhyun just furrows his eyebrows at him as they turn the corner on the sidew