[title song: crush u - exo cbx]
[4k]
[the beautiful poster is by the lovely littleminq. omg isn't it gorgeous??? i lvoe it!!]
 

CHAPTER 4

Yoojin watches Chanyeol glance nervously in the direction of the children’s play area every five seconds, where Junmyeon is currently holding individual team surveys (which is just Professional Manager Junmyeon Speak for interrogations). Yoojin can see the flashlight flickering in the foam covered entrance to the play area, aprons hung over the netted area so none of them can see exactly what’s going on. Although, when Yoojin had been called in there, earlier, Junmyeon had had an LED flashlight that he kept pointing directly into Yoojin’s eyes and it had been incredibly cramped to the point where Yoojin felt like she was going to die in a puddle of sweat, though God knows how Junmyeon hadn’t appeared affected at all, much to Yoojin’s chagrin. It had been cramped and her head had been pressed up against the bottommost foam stair that lead up to the tubes and slide attached to the ceiling, the very same slide that happens to be Jongin’s favorite place to sleep during pretty much all his shifts.

(The very same slide Jongin is currently not sleeping in, which explains why she can hear Sehun giggling, a sound she’s heard maybe once in her entire time working with him, and there are so many crashes coming from the kitchen. Yoojin decides to tune it out because she really does not want to deal with Jongin and Sehun’s antics at the moment, or end up dead because Sehun and Jongin seem like the type to do that to people who get involved in whatever kind of they get up to. Besides, it’s practically ten in the morning and she shouldn’t be awake right now.

So her eyes hover over Chanyeol and his suspiciously nervous movements, watching as he taps his fingers against his thigh restlessly.)

Yoojin yawns before leaning against the front counter, her eyes pinned on Chanyeol’s lanky form, where he’s currently cleaning the soda machine (or rather refilling his cup with free Vanilla Coke while holding a washcloth in his hands as an excuse in case Junmyeon catches him). She leans precariously on her elbows, tipping forward until she’s practically hanging off the counter.

His eye twitches nervously as he sips at his drink and she smiles.

“Don’t tell me you’re the backstabbing spy.” Yoojin whispers loudly, her eyes widening at the thought.

Chanyeol jumps, spilling soda all over himself, and Yoojin just watches as he yelps belatedly and nearly slips, his long limbs flailing like one of those inflatable noodles they put in front of gas stations, and then gasps dramatically, pulling at his soda soaked shirt with a pout that he immediately directs towards her.

“So,” She blinks at him as he pouts. She ignores what just happened, raising a brow at him, “Are you?”

Chanyeol glares, pulling at his undoubtedly sticky shirt, “At least offer to help me.”

Yoojin ignores his whines and watches as he dabs at his body with a handful of napkins from the dispenser. She tilts her head, “You’ve been acting real nervous, you know.” She raises a brow, “Real………………suspicious.”

“Yoojin,” Chanyeol groans and Yoojin nearly bursts into laughter at the sight of Chanyeol drenched in soda with a bundle of McDonald’s napkins stuffed down his shirt and a puddle of Vanilla Coke at his feet.

“Chanyeol.” She copies his tone, giggling slightly when he glares in a pathetic, puppy-like sort of way.

Chanyeol crosses his arms and exclaims, “We’ve been over this already. Like a hundred times. I get nervous when Junmyeon has one-on-one meetings with us be—”

“Because of the flashlight, right?”

“Yeah.” Chanyeol visibly shudders before he blinks and jabs a finger in Yoojin’s direction, “Haven’t I told you about that nightmare I had involving a dark room and Junmyeon and his goddamn flashlight and aluminum foil and a trampoline because, dear god, it was the single-most—”

“I’m sure it was very, uh, terrifying indeed. But you’re avoiding my original question, Yeol.” Yoojin waves a hand, cutting Chanyeol off before he has some kind of breakdown over a nightmare Yoojin doesn’t need to hear the details of again.

Chanyeol blinks, still pulling at his work drenched work polo, paper napkins sticking out of his shirt in a ridiculous manner, his expression twisting into a look of annoyance that only amuses Yoojin. “I can’t believe you’re turning against me. This is what those Burger Dudes want, Yoojin!”

“Then why aren’t you answering my—”

“Can you stop antagonizing him? Chanyeol doesn’t even know how to work the fryer without help. He gets lost getting to work and he’s worked here for two years. You really think he could carry out a spy mission?” Sehun interrupts Yoojin with an eye roll and a dirty look, practically materializing out of thin air.

Chanyeol gasps loudly, clearly offended, “I have nightmares about the fryer, Sehun. That’s the reason why I can’t—”

Yoojin ignores Chanyeol’s whining (“And, excuse you, I do not get lost, you , the construction detours are always changing!!”), tuning him out in lieu of a chance to bother Sehun instead, and reaches over to pinch Sehun’s cheek, which earns her a fiery glare that could honestly kill her. Self-preservation is something she prides herself for, but this is Sehun, for God’s sakes. The kid is all bark and no bite. At least she thinks he is. Maybe. Now that she thinks about it, he is friends with that Taemin, but she decides to forget about that worrying revelation immediately and proceeds to pinch Sehun’s cheek harder. “I can’t believe you just used the word ‘antagonized’. So many syllables! Is our Sehun finally studying?”

“Do you want to die?” Sehun asks, quite bluntly,

Yoojin takes a huge step away, putting Chanyeol (who’s still sputtering about fryers and nightmares and confusing street signs) and a sleepy looking Jongin between her and Sehun, for good measure.

“Be nice, Sehun.” Jongin mumbles, offhandedly, chewing on fries while he stares at the play area longingly. Then Jongin points a finger at Yoojin, waving the fry in his hand around without looking at her, “And you, too, Yoojin.”

Before Yoojin can respond, Junmyeon sticks his head out the play area door and calls Sehun in next, Yixing leaving the room with a rather dazed look in his eyes.

~.~.~.~.~

“So, like, do you come here often?” Yoojin stares at the man with the quirked eyebrows and sleazy grin in front of her for a long minute because, first of all, he’s leaning against the counter she had just wiped down, second of all, he’s leaning so close that she can smell the Axe body spray practically seeping out of his pores (pores that are surprisingly visible from the little distance he’s put between them, unfortunately, and she swears she can map out Ursa Major on his face, but that’s beside the point), and, last but not least, out of all the pickup lines he could have used he had to go with that one, when, clearly, she works here. It’s not like she’s wearing this stuffy snapback and ugly polo t-shirt for the heck of it.

So she stares at him for another moment, watching as he gives her a once over, his smirk widening because no doubt the guy (who seems to have purple hair and the tiniest, pinkest lips she’s ever seen) seems to believe that he’s truly floored her by his spectacularly edgy pickup line because he’s doing that smirk-slash-smoldering-eyes-thing entirely too much (and his friends are snickering at the table at the back of the store like those groups of high school teenagers Yoojin is lowkey terrified of walking by because they’re always roasting the hell out of anyone passing by). So she just chooses to ignore everything he had just said, instead responding with a crisp, “Your order will be out shortly. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Axe Man blinks rapidly before he grins, all lopsided, and says, “How ‘bout you help me out by finally giving me your number?”

“How ‘bout I don’t?” Yoojin responds almost immediately, sarcastically imitating his lopsided smile, though her face feels stiff.

Then he makes a face, “Aww, don’t be like that.” He pouts and she narrows her eyes when he leans closer, his bony elbows sliding along the counter she had just painstakingly cleaned.

There’s another pause in the one-sided conversation (while Yoojin curses Sehun for being the slowest bagger on the planet), when the man’s eyebrows knit together and he looks genuinely confused for a brief second before it completely disappears, so fast Yoojin wonders if she just imagined it, “You really don’t remember me, do you?”

He raises his brows and tilts his head at her. She frowns. “Excuse me?”

He leans closer then, entirely too close, and Yoojin has to back away, frowning at the proximity and the Axe body spraying invading her senses.

He opens his mouth to say something, still smirking that ridiculous smirk, when Baekhyun appears beside her out of thin air and slides a tray filled with food across the counter so hard the tray bounces off the guy’s bony elbows with a resounding thud, some fries falling onto the counter. The man yelps in surprise, nearly falling flat on his face on the counter as he rubs his elbow and glares at Baekhyun, eyeing him up and down in annoyance.

“Are you order number twenty one?” Baekhyun asks, in a cheery voice that’s obviously fake, even as he leans into the counter, effectively making the purple haired man finally step away from the counter, deflating instantly.

“Oh, yeah, I am.”

Baekhyun just stares at him, brows raised, and it’s silent between the three of them for a good two minutes. The man blinks before he continues. “Uh, thanks.” He glances at Yoojin one last time before he grabs the tray and scurries away with his hypothetical tail between his legs. Yoojin giggles at the sight.

Baekhyun scoffs as he speaks to Yoojin, narrowing his eyes at the guy, “Five thousand won says he was going to say ‘You were running through my mind all day, how can you not remember?’”

Yoojin shudders at the line, cackling loudly, which makes Baekhyun grin, “You can’t make bets on things that we’ll never know the outcome of.” Yoojin tells him.

“Oh, but you’re forgetting that I know everything. So I guess that means that I win. You’re welcome. Now you owe me five thousand won.”

“But—”

“Excuse me, ma’am, are you open?” A familiar voice cuts Yoojin off completely and Yoojin glances away from Baekhyun’s face (his expression already morphing into something murderous even as he practically stomps away) to the registers where Jackson ing Wang is currently standing, hands on the damn counter she absolutely-one hundred percent-definitely needs to clean again and a terribly amused grin plastered across his face.

“Did you just call me ma’am?” Yoojin blinks rapidly, her tone more offended than she wants it to be. But, really? Ma’am? She’s not old enough to be called ma’am, especially not by Flopson.

“Yeah.” He shrugs, nonchalantly, but he’s grinning still and that only makes her glare harden. “Anyways, I have something for you.”

Yoojin stares at him, really looks, and takes in the drop crotch sweatpants that wrap tightly around his calves, the white muscle shirt (accompanied by some damn fine arm muscles she does not want to focus on because he is her arch nemesis for goodness sakes), and the black snapback sitting backwards on his head. She vaguely wonders why the hell he always wears snapbacks, but then again he’s a dancer and she knows a ton of dancers who also have snapbacks practically glued to their heads. It shouldn’t irritate her, but just the sight of the snapback gets her all riled up.

Then she, admittedly, starts to imagine actually gluing a snapback to Jackson Wang’s head and the thought alone lowers her blood pressure quite a bit.

But then she realizes that he’s slipping his backpack off his back and reaching for the zipper and alarms immediately start to go off in her head. That’s when she practically screams, “NO!” startling both Jackson Wang and the other customers in the store, including the Axe Man, who honestly looks like he’s just chomped down on his tongue rather than his burger.

Jackson Wang screams in response to her scream, dropping his backpack as he jumps in place, his eyes widening. His limbs flail all over the place and he knocks the tip jar off the counter, the sound of it shattering echoing throughout the store along with his terrified holy that’s definitely an octave or two higher than his normal voice.

Yoojin starts smiling at the reaction and she swears his face starts to redden. Her smile just grows wider then and his lip twitches upwards the tiniest bit.

“What the hell was that?” Junmyeon practically skids out of the break room, his eyes wide.

Yoojin just points at Jackson Wang and his suspicious backpack while Jackson gestures at her wildly. Junmyeon’s eyes just widen in recognition before his expression becomes absolutely stormy. Yoojin nearly steps away due to the utter intensity of the anger in Junmyeon’s eyes.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Junmyeon snaps out, almost immediately.

Jackson blinks and Yoojin can’t believe how innocent he manages to look and sound even when put in such a situation. “Just ordering some food, sir.” He says, airily.

For a moment, Junmyeon looks vaguely offended with the fact that Jackson had just referred to him as sir, but then Junmyeon blinks rapidly before shaking his head, frown deepening significantly, “Nope. No way. Didn’t you know that you’re banned from entering this building ever again?”

Jackson Wang raises a brow, actually raises one of his thick, admittedly nicely shaped brows (which only makes Yoojin wonder where he gets his brows done and if it’d be appropriate for her, as his Arch-Nemesis, to ask for the number of his eyebrow person because clearly eyebrows like those don’t just grow naturally) at Junmyeon in a way that Yoojin wouldn’t even dare do to Junmyeon’s face. And Yoojin really enjoys ing with Manager Junmyeon. “Really?”

Then Junmyeon jabs a thumb across the store, where the soda machine sits, and right above it sits a large corkboard labeled BANNED FROM PREMISES. Right under the title sits three headshots of Mark, Jackson, and Bambam, in that order, and Yoojin doesn’t even want to know how Junmyeon had gotten his hands on those pictures. They look like driver’s license photos. Or mugshots. Yoojin can’t decide which at the moment, though now she’s wondering if Jackson Wang has ever been arrested because where else would Junmyeon get a mugshot of him from?

Jackson squints at the framed photograph of him for a long, long moment, frowning, before he speaks up, “Where’d you get that picture of me?” He turns to eye Junmyeon speculatively before he suddenly grins, “I look really good in that. Like, better than I already do, man, and that’s saying something. Can I have it?”

Junmyeon splutters and a snort of amusement escapes Yoojin before she can rein it in. Jackson’s eyes slide over to meet hers, brown eyes sparkling a bit, and she quickly schools her expression into one of annoyance because she refuses to appear sympathetic in any form. Not with Flopson.

So she just makes a face at him, crossing her arms, and says, “Okay, Flopson, I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Jackson Wang’s expression flips between about thirty emotions at once, all of which seem to convey the same offense as the last. He gasps dramatically, “Why do you keep calling me Flopson?”

He nearly shrieks those words and she thinks it’s the funniest thing she’s ever seen because he looks like a pouty baby, despite his defined muscles. Like a very muscular baby. “Because you ?”

He stares at her then, with dark brown eyes that Yoojin would consider beautiful on any other person. On Jackson Wang, Enemy Number 1, however, they are the ugliest pair of eyes she’s ever had the misfortune of encountering and she’s looked into the eyes of a fly for one of her mandatory science classes before (although that had just been a diagram and not the real thing, but the point still stands). The longer he stares, the more uncomfortable she gets, and she frowns, because, for some Godawful, presumably satanic reason on his part, she can’t look away from him and his uglier-than-a-fly’s-eyes and why on Earth do they look familiar to her, like she’s stared into eyes just like these before.

“Yo, is there a problem here?”

Both Jackson Wang and Yoojin turn to look at the Axe man with startling synchronization (which Yoojin would deny to her deathbed if anyone ever pointed it out), the one with the damned purple hair, and Yoojin frowns. Jackson Wang frowns, as well, though there’s more anger in his eyes then she really expected to see.

Axe Man blinks rapidly, gaze focusing quickly on Jackson Wang.

And then he snarls, his teeth showing.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Jackson Wang...” He says, in a perfect imitation of those TV villains who have cats on their laps and twirling mustaches adorning their grins.

“You know him?” Yoojin asks, in an admittedly judgmental voice, because honestly, she wasn’t expecting her arch-nemesis to be friends with this guy. What does that say about her if her arch nemesis associates himself with sleazy purple-haired dudes? She’s supposed to be above that.

“You don’t?” Flopson glances sideways at her, a thick brow tilting upwards.

Even purple haired Axe Man looks at her inquisitively and her frown only deepens, “Uh, should I?”

Before either of them can answer, Junmyeon coughs noisily in an attempt to catch their attentions. “Hello, I was saying something.” Junmyeon huffs. “Don’t make me call the police.”

Jackson Wang sighs, loudly, before he yanks his backpack off the counter, mumbles a pouty whatever, and elbows past the purple haired dude and Yoojin absolutely does not take a moment to check out his backside, nope, she absolutely does not agree with Yuna and Chanyeol about Jackson Wang being “thick as hell”. Nope, not at all.

The door barely swings shut before Jackson Wang is stepping back into store and before Junmyeon can say another word, Flopson is yanking at the purple haired dude’s elbow, easily dragging the skinny twig of guy out of the store without breaking a sweat or even glancing backwards, at Junmyeon or Yoojin or the counter.

Yoojin blinks, “What the hell was that?”

The door swings shut, the bells attached to the door ringing softly in the silence that follows his departure.

Junmyeon shrugs, “Who knows. Good riddance though.” Junmyeon spins on his heel, before twirling again to face her, “Do you happen to still have the number to that animal shelter you volunteered at last semester?”

Yoojin blinks, rapidly, “Uh…why?”

“Just asking.” Junmyeon says, quite seriously. “For a friend. His name is Suho.”

That’s when Baekhyun strolls out of the kitchen, balancing five trays filled with fries in his arms as he groans at Junmyeon, “Dear God, stop trying to make Suho a thing. Suho is never going to happen.”

Yoojin raises a brow at Junmyeon, who’s cheeks pink a little because he’s been caught red-handed in a lie, “Okay, shut up.”

“Guardian angel, my .” Baekhyun mumbles as he stuffs eight and a half pieces of fries into his mouth.

Junmyeon frowns at the five trays of fries in front of Baekhyun, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Lunch break.” Baekhyun says, dismissively waving a fry at Junmyeon. Then Baekhyun’s eyes widen as he looks down at his fries before eyeing Junmyeon, “Oh, did you want some? I could tell Chanyeol to make you some.”

“You’re going to eat all five trays?” Junmyeon crosses his arms over his chest, eyes burning holes into the top of Baekhyun’s head, Baekhyun (purposely) remaining oblivious with the whole situation.

“Hell yeah, I am.” Baekhyun exclaims. Then he pauses and grins, all sharp teeth, “It’s not like any customers will be eating them.”

That’s when Junmyeon glares, stomps his foot, and storms out from behind the counter, disappearing into the break room without another word.

Yoojin makes a face, “Okay, now that was mean.”

“He was questioning my fries-eating ability.” Baekhyun whines, his mouth falling into a pout.

Yoojin raises a brow at him, crossing her arms and Baekhyun just rolls his eyes. He still sighs though, glancing sideways at the employees only door that Junmyeon disappeared through.

Junmyeon reappears at the counter fifteen minutes later with a plan involving plastic snakes, fake furry mice, and a blueprint of Burger King and Yoojin watches as Baekhyun pretends like he didn’t just push half a tray of fries under Junmyeon’s nose, his eyes pinned in the opposite direction as he insistently shoves the tray at Junmyeon. Junmyeon tries and fails to hide a small smile, only taking a fry when Yoojin pointedly looks away from the scene.

Yoojin would call it cute, if it weren’t for the fact that barely a minute later they’re both teaming up on her, Chanyeol egging them on.

“Yoojin can go in and plant the snakes and rodents.” Baekhyun nominates her without even looking at her. Yoojin grimaces and Momo laughs at her expression.

“How do you expect me to go undercover when they all know who I am?” Yoojin asks, scowling as she pointedly looks at Junmyeon because she’s never going to let him live down the time he ditched her at Burger King.

“Makeup.” Kyungsoo pipes up then and Yoojin wants to scream because Kyungsoo never gets involved in this stuff.

“No.”

Momo grins, from ear to ear, and claps her hands together, “I’m great with makeup.”

“I swear to God…” Yoojin turns her scowl on Momo, because she’s supposed to be on Yoojin’s side, what the , but Momo just keeps grinning, totally unfazed and eyeing her like she’s already figured out exactly how she wants to contour Yoojin’s nose.

“You owe me one for not firing you after you brought them into our store in the middle of the night.” Junmyeon adds, wildly waving the back of fake snakes and rodents around.

“Consider that me getting even for you leaving me there the other day.” Yoojin points out, making Junmyeon redden immediately.

“Oh, come on. You can even snoop around and figure out who that damn—I mean dang—spy is while you’re at it.” Junmyeon gives her a pleading look, one with all wide eyes.

“Oh, my God.” Yoojin mutters, because Baekhyun and Chanyeol join him and she can feel her resolve beginning to shatter the same way their eyes look they’re going to shatter with an onslaught of tears. Then Momo, of all people, joins them and she groans. “God, fine. Fine. Just stop…that.”

Junmyeon grins and shoves the bag into her hands as he pulls his shoes off and climbs onto the countertop, pinning the blueprint onto the menu. She watches him do so with a disgruntled scowl, “I hate you all.” She mumbles.

“I’ll give you time and a half and make you employee of the month.” Junmyeon says, with his back still turned to her.

“But you promised me employee of the month for the sign thing.” Chanyeol exclaims, throwing his long limbs into the air (and nearly smacking Kyungsoo in the face, which makes him shove at Chanyeol in retaliation).

Junmyeon just ignores Chanyeol completely.

~.~.~.~.~

Jongin walks into the store and blinks rapidly at the scene, at Momo and Baekhyun consulting each other over Yoojin’s make-up caked face, Momo adding the finishing touches to Yoojin’s contour while Baekhyun points at her eyes and mumbles, “She needs more mascara. Like, where the hell did all your eyelashes go?” Yoojin just kicks him in response while Momo pulls out mascara from her purse.

Jongin glances at Kyungsoo, “Why is Junmyeon on the counter?”

Kyungsoo and Jongin both stare at Junmyeon, watching as he seems to be detailing out a plan as he exaggeratedly gestures at the blueprint taped to the menu board, while no one listens to him, Chanyeol napping in front of him with his eyes open, which might be the scariest thing Jongin has seen ever, and that’s saying something because Jongin’s been Black Friday shopping in an American Wal-Mart once. Who knew price drops and the last set of fall-themed dishcloths could start something so terrifying.

Kyungsoo glances at Jongin and responds with, “He likes to be tall.”

Jongin nods, “Oh.”

"Yeah." Kyungsoo sighs loudly when Yoojin shrieks at Baekhyun for nearly poking her eyes out with eyeliner, Baekhyun shrieking back when she kicks him in the shin and completely misses, kicking him elsewhere, making him keel over in his spot. Jongin watches as Momo just nonchalantly steps over him and continues touching up Yoojin's makeup.

a/n: aaaaaaand we're back to weekly updates I believe. there's not much got7 in here, but it's building up to it I promise! thank you to everyone who commented on this I love you guys omg I'm glad you find my terrible jokes funny skdbjzhj

xoxo