pairing: BaekLay
length: 1844 words
A/N: Written at the request of zaikenhuo! Hope you like it!
Part Two: A Sweet Treat

“You must choose one member. Lay, choose first,” Shindong says as he begins the next part of the radio broadcast.

Please pick me. Please pick me. Oh please, pick me!

“I choose Baekhyun,” Lay answers immediately with a huge grin on his face.

OH MY GOD. YES. LAY. I LOVE YOU.

“You can’t refuse it,” Shindong says teasingly as the camera pans over to my face.

“I’m not,” I answer with a goofy smile. I feel my cheeks burn, partly due to smiling so much and partly because of the pink blush that was appearing.

Of course I will never ever refuse Lay. When you look at that lovely dimpled smile and hear him ask for you so earnestly in that heavenly voice of his, you’d have to be out of your mind to say no to him. He always looks so lost, like a little puppy, but when he smiles and gives you his undivided attention, he makes you feel like you’re the most important person on Earth.

As we begin the quiz, I can’t keep my mind focused on the game since I’m too busy staring at Lay. He is just so energetic, shouting, “LayBaek!” while the other members shout out their couple names so Shindong will call on them to answer the questions.

Our names should always be paired together. LayBaek. BaekLay. BaekXing. XingBaek. I can’t even choose just one since they all sound perfect. Not to mention, our couple name sounds the best out of the six names coined that afternoon.

Ke-D? Lame. SuTa? Weird. XiKa? Not even. I mean, I guess HunChen is okay. And I’ll grudgingly admit that LuChan sounds pretty good. But LayBaek is the perfect combination and no one can convince me otherwise.

I can’t be dreaming about Lay for the entire time though. There’s only one question left and I know that Lay wants to win. He chose me as his partner and I’ve been doing a pretty lousy job so far. But I just can’t help it. Seeing him so fired up makes me forget everything else around me and all I want is to sit where Kris is, next to Lay.

Nevertheless, I can’t disappoint sweet, wonderful Lay. So I begin to actively throw out random guesses about whatever phrase had supposedly touched our manager’s heart. This is probably the most I’ve spoken the entire afternoon. When Chanyeol and Lu Han begin cutting in with their answers, I find my gaze drifting back to Lay once more.

And when it’s my turn to speak again, I accidently blurt out the words, “I love you,” as I stare at Lay.

“‘I love you.’ You said that?” Shindong questions, jolting me back to reality. I’ve temporarily forgotten that we’re actually focusing on our manager, not the man I am completely smitten with.

“No,” I admit sheepishly. Sorry, but there is only one man who owns my heart.

“Then of course it’s not the answer,” Shindong says, causing the other members to laugh at my faux-pas.

I laugh along, hoping no one else notices how I’m spacing out so much as thoughts of Lay fill my mind. While Chanyeol continues the game, I scour my mind for whatever the answer could be. I can’t keep dwelling on Lay, as much as I’d like to, since I want to win this for him.

After Shindong marks my latest answer as incorrect, he says, “I’ll give you a hint. This phrase was said by Tao.”

This is my chance! Tao is sitting next to me, so he has to know the answer. “Tao, you know this right? Then tell me what it is,” I beg shamelessly. I’m too invested in propelling the LayBaek team to victory to care if I come off as rude.

Tao shoots me a judging look before ignoring my plea and giving an answer, which happens to be wrong as well. Well, it looks like he won’t be of any help. I toss out more random guesses which all happen to be wrong. God, this game is hard. What did Tao say to our manager that touched his heart?

And just as my precious Lay is about to give an answer, Chanyeol speaks first with the correct phrase.

NO. WHY?! Chanyeol, you’re my best friend, but right now, YOU . We were so close! We were going to win! Even if I’m horrible at guessing games, we should’ve won!

As Suho and Tao begin their punishment of acting as alarms to wake people up, I can feel my palms begin to sweat as I rub them together under the table. I decide to actually concentrate on what’s happening instead of letting my focus get away by Lay’s mesmerizing looks, especially since Tao is sitting next to me. The camera focuses on the two of us whenever it’s his turn to speak as an alarm.

I interject with stupid comments and make fun of Tao whenever he talks, causing him to look at me with exasperation. Sorry for sacrificing you like this, Tao. This is for my sanity. Please don’t hurt me when we get back home.

Finally, Lay begins to read out what our punishment is. I can’t stop grinning the entire time as he slowly speaks in his accented Korean. He is just so adorable as his tongue trips over some of the more difficult words. And when he proclaims that we’re going to make patbingsu together, I almost squeal out loud. Because I love patbingsu and I love Lay, so putting the two together is like a dream come true!

Dear Shindong, thank you for giving us the best punishment ever. You have my eternal support from now on.

And I guess I’ll have to thank you too, Chanyeol. If it weren’t for you swooping in and taking Lay’s chance of winning away from him, this patbingsu reward would’ve been given to you and Lu Han instead. You truly are my best friend.

The only thing souring my mood is Kris leaning so closely to Lay. He doesn’t need your help to read the punishment card, you galaxy giant. My Lay is perfectly capable of reading it on his own.

“And today, since it’s a couple game, one of Lay and Baekhyun’s hands will be tied up,” Shindong announces once Lay finishes reading the orange paper.

“Yes?” Did I hear that correctly? Lay and I are going to be tied together? IS THIS REAL LIFE? Oh Shindong, you didn’t need to do so much for us! But thanks anyway!

After Shindong confirms that Lay and I are indeed going to have our hands tied together for this punishment, I immediately walk over to the female MBC employee who has a yellow ribbon in her hand. I’m too excited for this wonderful excuse to be next to Lay and as she ties us together, I grip Lay’s hand tightly and steal a glance at him whenever I have a chance. It’s admittedly difficult, since the cameras are everywhere and I don’t want to be so obvious.

I’m about to lead Lay out of the broadcast room, but the female MBC employee motions that we need to stay while we all continue with the mafia game. Everyone has to say something since the mafia was given instructions to say certain phrases throughout the broadcast, so this is another opportunity for that person to complete his mission.

I’m bursting with impatience as the other members speak their piece one by one and to shake things up, I quickly say, “Shimshimtapa,” in a low voice when it’s my turn. I know it’s going to throw people off when they try to guess who the mafia is, since it’s so random yet not at the same time.

We finally leave the broadcast room and I can hear our song, XOXO, playing for the commercial break as we run off. We go up the stairs to the office level of the building where the MBC employees are working in their cubicles and we look around for the ingredients needed to make our patbingsu. The entire time, Lay and I are working together as one. The feeling of his smooth hand in mine makes me extremely giddy and I only wish that the camera didn’t have to follow us around so we could enjoy this moment privately.

Lay is immersed in looking for the ingredients, so I run around and lead him excitedly as I speak to the female MBC employee while she records us for behind-the-scenes footage. My answers don’t come out as smoothly as they usually do, since Lay will constantly look at me with his beautiful brown eyes whenever he needs confirmation for something and I’m too distracted by his beauty to focus on the female MBC employee’s questions. I carry most of the ingredients we find while keeping a secure grip on Lay’s hand, since I don’t want him to worry about looking and carrying things at the same time.

We return to the broadcast room with the ingredients in our arms and begin making the most delicious patbingsu that mankind will ever taste, because anything that Lay touches automatically becomes holy. Lay tries to place the ice in the shaved ice machine, but the pieces are too big so I smash the bag several times against the leg of a nearby chair. Lay attempts to help me out, but I don’t want his delicate hands getting hurt and I motion for him to let me take care of the ice.

We finally manage to get small enough pieces to fit the machine and Lay begins to crush the ice into shavings. I don’t even notice how loud the grinding noise is until Shindong points it out, but afterwards, I can’t stop hearing it. Lay starts giggling because it’s so loud and as I look up at him, I’m blessed with the breathtaking image of his pure dimpled smile that I dream about each night.

I can’t stop myself from beaming back at him as we laugh together and make eye contact. If I could have a genie grant me just one wish, it would be to freeze this moment in time as we stare into each other’s eyes, grinning like there’s no tomorrow. Lay’s smile is so infectious as his body is wracked with silent laughter and I feel like swooning right there on the floor, because that special smile is only for me.

I almost forget that we’re being recorded because it feels like we’re in our own little world. The laughter from the other members and Shindong fades away as I’m focused completely on Lay’s high-pitched laughter that sounds like music to my ears. His smile could light up a million streetlamps and bring daylight for years to come.

Lay, I know you can’t hear my thoughts right now, but I just want you to know that you are the most brilliant man I’ve ever met and when I fall asleep tonight, this moment is all that I’ll be thinking about.

♈♈♈