Was it five seconds?

No, Jongin isn’t counting.

It’s such an alien feeling, to feel another pair of lips graze his own. He can perfectly hear the sporadic pounding of his heart, like a colossal bomb ready to detonate. His once organized thoughts have turned chaotic and his emotions scattering all around to the point that he can’t breathe.

Seriously. He really can’t breathe.

In a flash, Jongin’s lashes flutter open. One step back, and the wide gap between him and Chanyeol is once again back into place. The muted world where they seemed to plunge in moments before vanishes, ousted by the noise of reality.

Pure and utter awkwardness shower both Jongin and Chanyeol. They can feel the coldness of it cascading down their backs as their wide eyes collide. A twinge of humiliation spikes up in Jongin the second he eyes Chanyeol’s lips.

Those soft lips which took his first ever kiss.

Well.....

Jongin slaps a shaky palm over his mouth, sharing Chanyeol’s expression. They both look dazed, but the horror is still there.

And it’s not funny.

“Oh my gosh!” Comes the squeaky, high-pitched squeals of the two girls beside them. Half of their small audience gawks at them, while the other half surreptitiously slides away to spread the virus they have just witnessed. Chanyeol can’t even open his mouth to voice out his protest as half of his soul is still yet to recover.

“This is your picture!” One of the girls beams, pushing a freshly printed polaroid into Chanyeol’s clammy hand. The other polaroid is piled neatly on top of other images. “We have now collected our booth’s 100th kiss! Thank you so much for cooperating, have a nice day lovebirds~!”

Jesus ing hell, Chanyeol is suddenly encompassed by this overwhelming urge to flip these girls’ booths upside down. His violent thoughts are cut short though at the sight of a flushed Jongin whipping around and walking away almost robotically. The crowd disperses after realizing that the show is over.

Ignoring the teasing giggles around him, Chanyeol runs after Jongin, biting his lower lip in the process and catching a taste of the sweet cherry lipgloss Jongin’s lips left on it. Oh, .

Chanyeo is ing damned.

“Jongin!” Chanyeol calls, reaching the younger boy in no time. Said one halts his footsteps but remains facing the other way. Jongin’s face is in flames and his lips are still tingling and—oh boy, why wouldn’t the ground just open up and swallow him whole?! “Jongin, wait.”

The amount of humiliation crawling through his skin is enough to kill Jongin softly and silently. He can’t even face Chanyeol without his mind automatically reverting back to their short-termed kiss and jolting him with these strange, fluttering feelings.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, is dealing with his own share of shame. He just kissed a fourteen-year-old, for ’s sake. Yes, he admits that Jongin looks older than his supposed age and although those people who witnessed them kiss might’ve thought it as more of a sweet scene than a revolting one, it still doesn’t change the fact that Chanyeol has kissed someone five years younger than him. “Are you…uh…are you alright…?”

Son of a—why does his voice have to waver now, of all times?!

Completely flustered, Jongin turns around, facing the taller guy. His eyes are pasted to the ground and he’s floundering whether to look Chanyeol in the eyes or not. Chanyeol can see the younger’s struggle, so he chooses to man up and be the one to do all the talking for now.

“Hey, look,” Chanyeol gulps, scratching the back of his head. Jongin’s blush intensifies at the fluctuant tone coming out of Chanyeol’s mouth. Mouth. Lips. Kiss—oh my God, Jongin! Stop! “Uh…I know all of this feels weird and…well…weird—ah, .” Chanyeol wants to punch himself for sounding so dumb but he just can’t help but be inarticulate with abashment right now.

God, he has already shoved his tongue down an impressive count of throats, has done nasty things with his mouth. He’s a ing playboy, for heaven’s sake. That was just a small kiss! Why in the world is he crumbling in mortification?

Trying once more, Chanyeol lets out a shaky sigh. “What I’m trying to say is…I know this is awkward as , but…uh…I hope everything stays the same between us? I mean, it’s not like I was your first kiss or anything, haha…”

“……”

The lack of response from Jongin makes Chanyeol nervous. Even more so when the younger looks up, expression b with diffidence. “Y-Y-You are my…m-my first…k-kiss…”

A sudden shiver wracks up Chanyeol's spine, trepidation surging in his chest. He gawks. Kill. me.

He looks so stupid there staring at Jongin with both his eyes and mouth gaping. Uncertainty fills Jongin as he holds the taller guy’s eyes. He’s gonna laugh at me. He’s gonna laugh at me and think I’m a loser. I know it.

On the other hand, Chanyeol’s conscience suddenly rouses and prods his mind repeatedly. Take responsibility. Take responsibility. Take responsibility.

“Well,” Chanyeol whistles, his eyebrows arching high on his forehead. What the heck is he supposed to say now? He’s not acquainted with this kind of situation because he’d never been stupid enough to kiss a good friend. Damn that kissing booth to hell. “That’s…uh…”

Chanyeol is obviously at a loss for words. Jongin feels compelled to give a reassuring smile just to assuage the uneasiness of it all.

“B-But it’s okay, really!” Jongin inwardly cringes at the sound of his wobbly voice. “It’s just—it’s just a kiss, anyway…”

Chanyeol is gradually waning away in guilt. Yeah, it’s just a kiss. Still, he feels accountable for taking the one thing that might be important for Jongin. But dude, you didn’t know. Stop repenting okay, it doesn’t suit you.

“I-I have to go, the café…” Jongin’s mumbles are half-incoherent, his eyes blinking a little too fast. If this was any other normal situation, Chanyeol would’ve teased Jongin’s blazing cheeks. Unfortunately, this isn’t any other normal situation and it is, as Chanyeol have said, awkward as .

“Oh—yeah, uh…you better go, or…you’ll be late—yeah…” Chanyeol gives a quick nod, sidestepping to give way for the younger boy. Jongin blinks again, nodding his head too before he hightails it away from the upperclassman, head bowed low.

Chanyeol is left with his lips tightly pursed with an overcoming desire to bang his head on the nearest wall possible.

Stupid, stupid ing Park Chanyeol.

***

It’s been an hour now and Baekhyun still hasn’t heard his best friend utter any word aside from his usual ‘Hello, welcome to Switch! I’m Kim Jongin, your servant for today. How may I take your order?’ greeting. It’s quite worrisome, really, but he figures for a fact that it has something to do with a certain football jock.

Not his fiancé, of course.

“Baekhyun, be a dear and deliver this to Room 401. Take someone with you if necessary.” Miss Hwang passes a sweet smile to her student as she places two boxes of cupcakes on the counter for Baekhyun to take. The latter returns the gesture amicably and takes the boxes, sauntering over to Jongin’s way who is busy wiping a table clean.

“Jongie,” Baekhyun calls, poking his best friend’s back. Jongin turns with a questioning look on his face. “Can you come with me? I’m going to do some delivery.”

“Sure.” Jongin smiles, dumping his cleaning tools back to the sanitation cart. As they wend their way out of the café, a few heads turn to look towards their direction. Some pass them judging looks, while most seem sort of sly.

It doesn’t take a second for Baekhyun to catch up on it. He suddenly feels a bit remorseful for planning such a wicked thing, but it had to be done. His best friend needed a distraction and Park Chanyeol just happened to serve himself on a silver platter. “Jongie, what do you think about Chanyeol sunbae?”

At the mention of the name, Jongin visibly tenses. Inspite of that, he doesn’t stop walking, though it's pretty obvious he is bothered about it. “Wh-Why do you ask…?”

“Nothing, I just want to know,” Baekhyun shrugs, playing the innocent pretense. “He’s your fiancé’s best friend so you must be seeing him a lot in your house.”

“Y-Yeah, um…he does visit a lot…”

“I personally think he’s better than Sehun. He’s a complete package, you know?” Baekhyun presses, watching Jongin’s expression shift from uneasy to confused.

“A what?”

“A complete package,” Baekhyun says, as a matter of fact. “He’s tall and handsome and smart and great at sports and friendly and a mood-maker and cool and wayyyy nicer than his best friend who does nothing but glare at everyone else.”

“And oh!” Baekhyun’s face lightens up. Jongin casts him a sidelong glance, forehead creased. “I heard he’s damn great kisser.”

Oh no. Jongin blanches at his best friend’s words. No more than a millisecond later and his whole face flushes, the tingling feeling of Chanyeol’s kiss back to his lips again and more vivid than ever.

Baekhyun does his best effort of making his expression appear as neutral as possible. But honestly, he just wants to guffaw. “You know, there’s this rumor that if Park Chanyeol kisses you, you’re bound to become his girlfriend or boyfriend sooner than later. And I heard others say that his lips give the best kisses and it feels like you’re on a cloud nine every time he gives you a kiss—”

“Stop!” Jongin wails out of the blue, clamping a hand over Baekhyun’s mouth to stop him from blabbering even further. A smirk crawls its way into Baekhyun’s face the second Jongin retracts his hand.

“What’s the matter, Jongie?” Baekhyun nudges his best friend, who looks about to pass out any second.

Jongin isn’t planning on telling Baekhyun that he just had his first kiss today and that the one responsible for taking it is the same guy he keeps on glorifying, but he just can’t keep a secret from him.

“Baek…” Jongin’s lower lip wobbles. They stall momentarily when Jongin latches his arms around Baekhyun, trying to hide his embarrassed face in Baekhyun’s blonde wig. “I have a big problem…”

“What is it?”

“I…” Jongin swallows, pausing in a second’s hesitation. “I kinda...kissed…someone…during my break…”

“You what?!” Baekhyun gasps, feigning shock. He can’t fight the grin from breaking out of his face. “Who did you kiss?!”

Jongin whimpers. “Ch-Chan…Chanyeol hyung…” His voice is but a whisper. Baekhyun gasps again.

“Kim Jongin!” He exclaims, gripping Jongin by his shoulder blades. His ‘outburst’ scares Jongin to hell. “What have you done?! Why?! I’m not yet ready to give you up, I still have high hopes for you! Do you think I’d allow Park Chanyeol to be your boyfriend? You’re still a baby!”

Jongin is utterly scandalized while Baekhyun keeps on rattling him and spouting nonsense. “How could you let him violate you? This is absurd! No one taints my Jongie! My sweet, little angel…”

“Baekhyun!” Jongin whisper-hisses, shimmying out of Baekhyun’s hold. All that shaking makes him dizzy. “What in the world are you saying?!”

“I’m saying that I approve!” Baekhyun blithely chirps, linking his arm with Jongin’s and tugging the other forward to continue walking. Jongin’s face is streaked with nothing but pure incredulity. “My blessing is only for a limited time offer so go and make gorgeous babies with him while you still can.”

“Byun Baekhyun!” Jongin yells, hand darting