| IX. friends or foes |

 

 

"We just need one more person." Luhan groans a week later, letting out a disappointed sigh. He leans forward to grab a pen, beginning to doodle on a stack of sticky notes. "I really want to throw that party."

Kyungsoo hits him on the head with a bunch of old order forms, not caring in the slightest when the brunet yelps a little at the impact. He's been getting increasingly annoyed each time the brunet would mention about his idea of making a new friend group, which has been a lot the past few days. Kyungsoo's always been against the idea, he's never really liked being around people he barely knows.

"See, this is a sign that this is a very bad idea. Get back to work and stop complaining."

"I already have eleven people, I can't give up now!"

"Here we go again," The florist mutters under his breath, but his head snaps up when he sees the door open.

Kyungsoo quickly changes his previously annoyed expression into a much more friendlier one and is about to say the usual greeting—when he sees Jongdae and Junmyeon walk inside the shop. Jongdae waves at him before sliding into the stool next to his, while Junmyeon nods at Kyungsoo in greeting.

"Hi, Kyungsoo," Junmyeon smiles apologetically at him, "sorry about the surprise visit."

"Don't be, you're always welcome here." Kyungsoo smiles back. "How can I help you today? Are the flowers doing well?"

"Oh yes, they're doing very well." Junmyeon replies as he reaches to take something out of his suit, brandishing a white envelope after a few moments. "I won't be here for long. Is Chanyeol here yet?"

"He'll be in later. He called in a few minutes ago and said that he was going to be late since he got a little caught up at work." Luhan tells him, as he starts drawing a couple of circles on the sticky note. He shades in a few spots before continuing, "I feel like Chanyeol's been super busy these past few days."

"We all are." Jongdae sighs. "Work isn't easy."

"So what did you need to give us, again?" Kyungsoo asks Junmyeon, curious.

Junmyeon instantly beams, setting the envelope he's holding on top of the counter. Kyungsoo glances at it with wide eyes, before reaching inside and pulling out six similar looking cards. They were black and white with a beautiful cursive font printed on them. The words You're Invited is on the top, and the details were provided in the space below.

"What's this?"

"I don't know if Jongdae told you yet, but the café's 50th anniversary is next month." Junmyeon answers. "I wanted to invite you guys there, but since I accidentally printed a few extras, feel free bring a friend along with you."

Upon hearing those words Kyungsoo's thoughts flit over to Jongin, and the memories from their date last week come back to him.

However, the police officer hasn't been visiting the flower shop during his lunch break lately; he hasn't seen Jongin at all since then, though he had said that he would see him the next day. For what reason he was gone, Kyungsoo didn't know. 

The florist couldn't help but feel a little neglected, though.

"Wow, 50 years of Moonlight Café," Kyungsoo pushes his thoughts away and manages a grin, "congratulations."

Luhan momentarily looks up from his drawing and takes the envelope to grab two invitations, flipping one of them over to see if there was anything on the back. "This should be fun, I'm sure that I'll be able to make it."

Jongdae grins and waves a hand, "Gramps wanted to throw a party this year because of how well the café was doing so far, he felt like we deserved it. Personally, I'm really excited." 

"Thank my parents for all of this." Junmyeon tells him. "They're the ones planning the party, and I think that they're probably bringing along their food critic friends. I'm a little worried of how that'll turn out, even though they've all left positive reviews in the past. We'll just have to work harder, as always."

Jongdae groans at this, and Kyungsoo smiles.

"I keep forgetting that your parents are rich. Why choose to live in an apartment when you could live in a mansion instead, Junmyeon?" Luhan shakes his head, studying the invitation thoughtfully. "After all, wasn't it your father who started the café a long time ago up until his retirement?"

"Yes, and I like where I live." Junmyeon shrugs. "I don't think I'd need a mansion to keep me happy."

They all turn around when the familiar tinkle of the bell alerts them, and Chanyeol walks into the shop at that moment, a wide smile plastered on his face as usual. His dark hair is slightly tousled from the wind outside, and he's panting slightly as he approaches the counter.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. What's the occassion?"

"Moonlight's 50th anniversary party is next month." Jongdae explains, handing Chanyeol two invitations with a teasing grin on his face. "Bring a friend with you. Better yet, bring Dr. Byun Baekhyun; I'm sure he'll appreciate the invite."

The florist's pretty sure that Jongdae was just joking, but Chanyeol hums thoughtfully to himself as he scans over the invitation. "Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea."

Kyungsoo mulls over this for a few moments. The only person that comes to mind is Jongin, but he can't help but wonder if the police officer was avoiding him judging by his disappearance the past week.

He was 97% sure that Luhan was going to drag Sehun along, though, and it was pretty obvious that Chanyeol was already thinking of bringing Baekhyun to the celebration already.

"I'll be going now, then." Junmyeon then says, waving at them. "I need to give some invites to Kris."

"Thanks for this, Junmyeon." Kyungsoo smiles.

"Anytime, I hope you guys can make it."

With that, the manager leaves, and the four of them soon return to what they were doing before. Jongdae answers the occassional phone calls, Luhan continues on drawing whatever (wasting Kyungsoo's post-it notes in the process), Chanyeol runs to the back of the store to put his apron on, and Kyungsoo finalizes people's orders. 

"So, what's going on with you and Jongin now?" Luhan asks, breaking the silence.

Luhan did call Kyungsoo a few hours after the date, demanding to know all of the details. Eventually Kyungsoo gave in (he was tired of Luhan bugging him) and told him that yes, Jongin treated him very nicely throughout the whole thing; he was very sweet and gentlemanly. He still is the same after all these years.

Still, Kyungsoo quirks an eyebrow at the question, and turns to see Luhan glancing at him with a curious expression on his face. The pen was set down next to his hand. But honestly, Kyungsoo doesn't know the answer to the question. Damn it all, he totally forgot how frustrating it was to go through something like this.

He looks away quickly, muttering a quiet nothing before crossing out a misspelled word a little too harshly.

ing hell, this was exactly like being in high school all over again.

His former roommate seems to notice this, and he tilts his head. "Whatever it is, it sure doesn't seem like nothing to me."

"Go and do something productive, Luhan."

"I am being productive," The brunet protests, and Kyungsoo scoffs.

"Remind me why I hired you again."

"You've been in a horrible mood all week." Luhan tells him, ignoring his remark, and Kyungsoo refrains himself from saying no . "In fact, I even drew a perfect representation of how you're feeling right now." 

He places a sticky note on top of Kyungsoo's hand, and the florist squints down at it with a frown. There's a drawing of a fluffy penguin on the sticky note, an angry tick mark on the animal's round face; its eyes were also narrowed.

"I don't get it." Kyungsoo deadpans after staring at the drawing for a few moments, and Luhan drags out a sigh.

"I drew you. Isn't it accurate?"

"I don't look like that."

"Look," Luhan ignores his statement and places a hand on his friend's arm, "Kyungsoo, let it go. Jongin's probably just busy with work."

Kyungsoo eyes him warily.

"I'm serious, okay! Would it make you feel better if I told you that Sehun hasn't been stopping by for lunch lately, either? I'm sure that they're both very busy. Like Jongdae said earlier, work isn't easy."

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Luhan was right. Come to think of it, he hasn't seen Sehun lately the past week, and he somehow feels a little better after realizing that.

Kyungsoo, not knowing what to say, chooses not to reply to his friend's statement; but as soon as the brunet stands up and leaves to walk towards the back (to finally do something productive), he smiles a little to himself.

 

 

---

 

 

Kyungsoo sure is far from prepared when Jongin comes in the next day.

He's at the back of the shop at the moment, trying to find an extra pair of gardening gloves because stupid Chanyeol lost his pair yesterday. He's occupied with cursing the sous chef and his clumsiness when he hears the bell tinkle and someone walking in. At first, he doesn't think much of it.

Then, Kyungsoo hears Luhan insantly gasp in surprise as soon as he sees the person (whoever it was); and that causes him to stop rummaging through the boxes, his curiosity increasing by the minute.

"Jongin! I haven't seen you in a while."

.

"." Kyungsoo whispers out loud, but he quiets down and listens despite his heart rate gradually increasing.

"Yeah, I know... Sehun and I got caught up in a case." Jongin says tiredly, and Kyungsoo could almost imagine the exhauted expression on his face. "Someone lost their kid, and we spent the whole week trying to look for them. One of our officers found them sixty miles away from home this morning; it turns out they were trying to run away."

"That sounds really tough," Luhan says, "Have you managed to get sleep at all this week?"

There's a short pause.

"Um... not really?" Kyungsoo starts to feel worry bubble up in him when he hears Jongin's answer, "Sehun's actually sleeping back at home right now, he wanted to come here with me but he passed out the moment he sat down on the couch."

"What a pity." Luhan hums. "I was going to treat him when he got back, but I guess that'll have to wait until tomorrow."

Jongin laughs, "He'll like that."

"He better."

Kyungsoo bites his lower lip, torn between wanting to make an appearance or hiding in one of the boxes. He's been waiting for Jongin to come back for a week now, and now that he's back he doesn't know what to do.

"Where's Kyungsoo, by the way?" Jongin asks.

Oh no.

"He's looking for some extra gloves in the back." Luhan tells him nonchalantly, as Kyungsoo begins to panic. "I don't know what Chanyeol was doing yesterday, but he lost his. Can you tell Kyungsoo to come out for me?"

"I will." Jongin replies, and Kyungsoo freezes when he starts to hear the footsteps coming closer to where he was at.

Crap, there really was no escape out of this one. The florist busies himself with continuing to try and find a pair of gloves in one of the boxes, and when he finally finds one he hears the footsteps come to a stop behind him.

.

"Kyungsoo?"

Kyungsoo stiffens while holding the gloves in his hands, but turns around slowly at the sound of Jongin's voice. Sure enough, Jongin is standing behind him. He's out of uniform today, dressed in a simple light pink sweater and jeans instead.

The officer does look extremely exhausted, his eyes are drooping and his brown hair is a little messy; but he breaks into a wide smile once he sees the florist. He's a little thinner, Kyungsoo notices, did Jongin even have time to eat the past few days?

"Hi," Kyungsoo says, smiling hesitantly at him.

"I'm really sorry for not being here lately."

Kyungsoo stands up, stuffing the gardening gloves inside his back pocket. He frowns, making eye contact with Jongin, and even though he starts to feel the nerves coming back he can't bring himself to look away. "Have you been taking care of yourself lately?"

"Not really...?"

"Jongin," Kyungsoo chides.

It falls silent until Jongin speaks up again.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No. I—" Kyungsoo starts, but he immediately stops himself. He sighs, and shakes his head. The florist really can't get frustrated at Jongin, no matter how much he tries to. He just can't. "No, I'm not mad."

"Oh, that's good." Jongin breathes out a small sigh of relief. "Luhan told me to tell you to come out, by the way."

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, and Jongin manages a laugh at the action. When they walk back into the main part of the flower shop, Luhan's waiting for them behind the counter. When he looks up to see them both, he grins widely. "Thanks so much, Jongin. Can you do another favor for me?"

"Uh, sure?"

"Give this to Sehun and tell him that he's going, and I'm not accepting any excuses. I was going to wait until tomorrow to tell him about it, but I know that I'm going to forget and you live with him anyways." The other brunet hands him one of the invitations to the party, which were stacked neatly to the side.

Jongin takes it, looking at the invite curiously. "Moonlight Café's 50th anniversary?"

"Do you want to go to the party with me?" Kyungsoo then asks, before he could miss the opportunity. "Junmyeon's the one who's hosting it, and he told us that we're allowed to bring someone since he printed out extra invites by accident."

"In that case, I'd love to." Jongin replies, his smile widening. "I can pick you up at your place."

Kyungsoo gives him another invitation at his response, and the officer accepts it gratefully. The florist starts to feel a familiar rush of muddled up emotions (most of which contain happiness) once he does, but he wills himself to calm down and keep a neutral expression. "Get some rest, Jongin."

He's certainly caught off guard when the officer brings a hand up to Kyungsoo's cheek, caressing it gently.

"I will, don't worry," Jongin smiles softly at him, "See you."

Kyungsoo doesn't say anything at this, because he was 100% sure that he was going to spout gibberish as soon as he opened his mouth. He only watches with wide eyes as Jongin's lips slowly tug upward into a small smirk, before the taller waves a goodbye at the two florists and exits the flower shop.

He's really not sure how he's supposed to feel about Jongin's actions slowly becoming bolder each day, but he bites his lower lip before turning around to see Luhan wiggling his eyebrows at him suggestively.

"Stop that," Kyungsoo grumbles, and he quickly walks away to hide his reddening face.

 

 

---

 

 

"Dr. Byun!"

Baekhyun raises his head and stops walking when he hears his name being called a distance away, frowning when he sees one of the nurses—Yoona, he remembers—in the hospital rush up to him. She's smiling widely, and her cheeks are dusted with a light shade of pink. 

"Uh... how can I help you?"

"Someone's here to see you," Yoona giggles.

"Okay, I'll be th—wait, hold on, what?" Baekhyun glances at her, frowning, because he was pretty sure that he wasn't expecting any visitors at all today. "What are you talking about?"

"He's very handsome, Dr. Byun, you're very lucky." Yoona doesn't answer his question and looks at him in awe, as Baekhyun continues to stare at her in confusion. "He's sitting in the main waiting area, by the way."

The nurse sends him one more bright grin before she walks away, leaving behind a very bewildered doctor. What? Who the hell would even see him at this time? He won't be on his lunch break for another fifteen minutes, and he needed to see a patient soon.

In the end Baekhyun shrugs and decides to go back to the main waiting room just for the heck of it, but he sure doesn't expect to see Chanyeol sitting on one of the chairs as soon as he walks in.

Chanyeol lifts his head the moment Baekhyun appears, and a wide grin spreads across his face at the sight of him. He stands up when the doctor slowly walks closer, still smiling. "Surprise."

He sounds a little breathless and he was panting heavily, like he was in a rush trying to get here; and he was still wearing his chef uniform.

The doctor gapes at him for a bit, momentarily losing his ability to speak.

"You okay?" Chanyeol asks, concerned.

"Holy... Park Chanyeol!" Baekhyun exclaims once he finds his voice again, and begins to feel flustered from knowing that some of the patients and staff members were watching them curiously. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at work right now?"

He shakes his head, still smiling, "Nope, I'm on lunch break right now. I'm sort of in a hurry, though, I have to run to be able to get back in five minutes; but that's besides the point. I need to give you something."

"What—"

"Here." Chanyeol interrupts him midsentence and grabs Baekhyun's hand (the shorter draws in a sharp breath at the contact), placing a black and white card on his open palm. "It's an invite to Junmyeon's café's 50th anniversary party. He said I could bring a friend with me, so do you think you could come?"

Baekhyun blinks down at the invite, studying the details as fast as he could; all of this was happening too fast for him to register it all at once. "It's too early to tell right now, but I think so?"

"That's great!" Chanyeol nearly yells, engulfing the shorter one into a hug. 

Baekhyun lets out a small squeak when he feels himself pressing up against the taller's body, face starting to gradually heat up in the process. Chanyeol lets him go almost as quickly, though, looking incredibly embarrassed—almost as if he just realized about what he did. "Oh, ... sorry."

"T-That's okay," The doctor stammers, vigorously fanning himself with one hand.

"Okay, I've got to go." Chanyeol says with a nervous laugh and gives him two thumbs up, waving at him (almost bumping into a few people along the way) as he speedwalks towards the exit. "Sorry for disrupting your work!"

"Wait, Chanyeol—" Baekhyun starts, but he isn't able to even finish his sentence for the sous chef was already out of the building. He presses his hand on his cheek softly, feeling how warm it was before stuffing the invitation inside his back pocket. Behind him, someone chuckles.

He turns to see one of the other doctors, Lee Taemin, glancing at him in amusement. "I didn't know that you have a boyfriend, Dr. Byun."

"I don't," Baekhyun blinks at him in confusion.

"Who was that, then?" Taemin laughs. "Your secret admirer?"

"What do you mean?" Baekhyun stares at Taemin, eyebrows knitted together in bewilderment, but his face turns even redder when he finally realizes that Taemin was referring to Chanyeol. "No, wait, it's not like that!"

"If you say so."

Baekhyun shakes his head in response, and Taemin grins at him again before patting his back lightly and walking off in the other direction. Baekhyun continues to stand there for a short while, hands in his pockets, glancing towards the direction where Chanyeol ran out only moments before.

He can't help but smile before getting back to work.

 

 

---

 

 

"Okay, I think that's everyone." Junmyeon mumbles to himself, as his eyes scan over the list in his hands. He lets out a sigh of relief, setting the paper down before leaning back in his chair. 

It's been quite a stressful week for him so far. He had to call, email, and talk to many people to let them know that they were invited for Moonlight's 50th anniversary next month, in order to get a head count of everyone attending and to let them know beforehand. 

Of course, Junmyeon was very excited for the party.

Moonlight meant a lot to him. It's been doing extremely well ever since his father started the business all those years ago, and it was also quite popular; earning the attention of some of the most famous food critics in the country.

And ever since his father retired, Junmyeon was determined to keep Moonlight successful through many years to come.

That reason alone was probably why he constantly felt pressured to keep and increase the café's popularity, because he really didn't want to let his dad (or anyone, really) down. Junmyeon found himself going to sleep really late daily, staying up past midnight to come up with new items on the menu or to read reviews left by critics.

It was beyond stressful, but he signed up for this.

His thoughts are interrupted when his phone vibrates, which startles him a little.

Junmyeon doesn't know who to expect when he checks his phone for new messages (thinking it was a few people getting back to him), but he finds a smile making its way up to his face when he realizes that it was Yixing who texted him. 

From: Yixing
stay focused at work today... don't forget to drink lots of water :-) 

Ever since Junmyeon told Yixing that it was okay for them to take their relationship slow for now, the bartender has been sending him lots of encouraging text messages lately. When Junmyeon arrived home from being at work all day, Yixing would sometimes be at his door, greeting him with a lovely smile (and a light kiss on the top of his hand) before he goes off to the nightclub.

Junmyeon will always feel guilty that he was too busy to be able to do all of those couple-y stuff at the moment, but he was glad that Yixing was patient.

To: Yixing
Thank you!

"What are you smiling at, Gramps?"

Junmyeon snaps his head up at the sound of the voice, wide-eyed, and sees Jongdae walking in his office with a curious expression on his face. Oh, shoot. Nevertheless, the manager places his phone facedown on his desk and folds his hands as he tries to put on a convincing grin.

"Oh, nothing... I just read a positive review."

"That's cool, can I see it?"

"Er—" Junmyeon frantically tries to think of an excuse, but his phone buzzes again. He immediately picks the device up (failing to see Jongdae looking at him suspiciously) and opens the messaging app quickly, to see an unread text from Yixing pop up on the screen.

From: Yixing
of course <3

The manager starts smiling again once he reads the message, and Jongdae clears his throat awkwardly. 

"You look seriously creepy."

"Sorry." Junmyeon tries to wipe the smile off his face, but he remembers the little heart Yixing added to his text message and fails. He fake coughs and hastily stuffs his phone into his pocket, adjusting his glasses before picking up a few papers. "Did you need anything?"

Jongdae doesn't reply right away, and Junmyeon glances at him expectantly.

"Junmyeon," Jongdae says after a while, crossing his arms, "did you really think that I wouldn't notice how weirdly you've been acting the past few days? First you were extremely stressed about something, and now you're super happy..."

"Um, what are you talking about?"

"Don't go all innocent on me, we both know exactly what I'm talking about." Jongdae chides, but he smirks afterwards. "This is about you and Yixing, isn't it?"

Junmyeon gapes at him with wide eyes. "How did you—?"

The manager cuts himself off, because he forgot that Jongdae tends to notice these kinds of things.

When he looks up at him again, he's met with the younger employee staring at him in obvious amusement. Jongdae looks particularly smug about this, the smirk on his lips growing ever so slightly. "Ah, so I was right after all. When have you two started going out?"

Junmyeon's cheeks redden. "We're not going out."

Jongdae raises an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Okay, fine, we're sort of going out," Junmyeon admits, flushing, "We're just taking it slow right now."

"Either way, I'm still happy for you." Jongdae grins, as he takes a few steps back to exit Junmyeon's office. "Looks like I'll be calling Yixing my grandma from now on, I'm really going to look forward to doing that."

"Please don't."

"Your secret's safe with me, by the way." Jongdae gives him a thumbs up, and pretends to zip his lips together. "See you, Gramps."

He leaves the room after that, and Junmyeon lets out an exasperated sigh.

 

 

---

 

 

Later that evening, Kris frowns at the invitations in his hand.

He doesn't really know who he should give the other invitation to, and he was really running out of ideas. Sure, he could bring an old college friend to the celebration; but then again he hasn't seen any of them ever since they graduated. That might be really awkward. What if they're not even in the country anymore?

The police chief sighs.

Today was one of those rare days where he actually had a break for once. The week has been so incredibly hectic for him, and he was honestly so ing exhausted. His voice hurt from yelling at the officers to do their job. His legs hurt from walking far distances, his head hurt from lack of sleep, and his stomach hurt from lack of food—everything hurt.

Kris sits down on a lone bench which was across the street of a restaurant, and continues to stare silently at the invitations in his hands. He really doesn't know why he brought them with him here in the first place, and he doesn't even know why he decided to go here out of all places.

He also knows that there really isn't any use stressing over this, but he doesn't want to put it off until the last moment.

Who, though?

Suddenly, a wild (and probably stupid) thought hits him.

Tao?

No way, his mind was telling him. At the same time, there was a slight possibility; they weren't exactly strangers anymore, even though he was pretty sure that Tao didn't like him. He hasn't even talked to Tao for a while now, but really, what was there to talk to him about?

The only things that Kris knows about him is that he lives in the same building as Junmyeon and he has a puppy named Candy. Kris sighs again, and shakes his head. The situation was hopeless.

He's currently stuffing the invitations in his coat pockets when he hears someone's voice.

"Hi."

Startled, Kris jumps.

When he looks up, there's some stranger standing in front of him who has dark hair, large ears, and a seriously bright smile (believe him when he said it was bright, it was almost blinding). The guy's wearing a chef uniform and he's holding a small bag in his hands, but Kris still eyes him and the object suspiciously. 

"Um, hi?" Kris looks at him weirdly.

"Can I sit here?" The guy asks, gesturing to the other side of the bench. Kris stares at him for a few more moments, unsure what to expect, but he shrugs and nods. The stranger smiles at him again before taking a seat next to him. 

A few moments pass by, and no one says anything.

Well, this is awkward.

The chef guy then clears his throat and holds out the bag to him, "You can have this. It's a pastry."

"What?" The police chief raises his eyebrows. "Why?"

He shrugs, "You look upset."

"I don't usually accept things from people I barely know," Kris tells him with scoff, but he takes the bag anyway. This guy does seem pretty harmless, and he finds himself smiling a little when he sees him begin to look a little sheepish. "but thanks, I guess. I don't really eat sweets though, sorry."

"That's fine, just give it to someone else," The chef grins, "may I ask why?"

"Why what?"

"Why you look upset."

"I'm not upset, I'm just tired." Kris corrects, wondering why the hell he's telling all of this to a stranger. "It's been a long week."

The other guy drags out a sigh, "Same here."

"Thing is, I've been invited to some celebration lately, and the guy told me I could bring someone with me. I've been thinking about taking some person that I've known for a short while to the event; but we haven't really had pleasant encounters with each other before, to put it simply."

The chef tilts his head to the side, and gestures him to continue.

"That's it. I mean, I think it seems like we're more like acquaintances than friends—even though he's rode in my car and helped me bring my drunk friends back home. We've also slept in the same house, and I was with him when he got his dog..."

"Whoa, are you sure you guys are just acquaintances?"

Kris blinks at him.

"Regardless, I think you should just bring him with you," The guy says, "if you don't have anyone else, that is."

"I don't."

"Then, yeah, go for it. I'm pretty sure that something good will come out of it if you do."

Kris supplies a nod after thinking about it for a few moments, and he surprisingly begins to find the other guy's company to be a little reassuring; even though he was literally still a stranger. "Maybe... I'll probably do that then. I should let him know before it's too late."

"Good luck."

"What about you?"

"Oh, me?" He looks surprised to be asked this, but he frowns a little before responding. "I don't know, honestly."

"Is it complicated?"

"I guess you can say that." Chef guy's smile doesn't fade, though, on the contrary, it seems to grow even brighter. Kris wonders if the guy ever does stop smiling. "You should go and find your acquaintance, my story can wait."

"All right, then." Kris takes this as his cue to leave and stands up from the bench first, watching as the other guy eventually does as well. The police chief puts the small bag the chef gave him in his other coat pocket, and manages a small smile as he holds his hand out for him to shake. "Thank you for listening, I appreciate it."

The man shakes it, a grin on his face. "Always glad to be of help."

Kris nods gratefully at him before he finally walks off; and that's when he realizes that he didn't get the guy's name.

 

 

---

 

 

Kris is still having doubts about asking Tao, but his gut feeling is telling him to follow the chef guy's advice and just do it. He stares at his phone for a couple of moments before deciding  it and presses the call button before he could think twice.

Please pick up. Please pick up, please pick up—

"Hello?" On the fifth ring, Tao finally answers.

"Hi, um, it's Kris. What's your room number?" Kris asks, cringing afterwards. He really is starting to regret calling Tao about this, and he's starting to feel really self conscious standing in the lobby of the other's apartment building. God, he must sound like a ing stalker right now.

"Why?"

"I, uh, need to give you something."

There's a small pause before Tao responds. "Um, it's 712."

"Thanks." Kris says, and he hangs up to prevent from embarrassing himself any further. He stuffs his phone back in his pants pocket and walks inside the elevator, joining a couple, who both smile sweetly at him. He gives them a curt nod and presses the floor number, waiting until it gets to the seventh before stepping out.

He locates the room numbers before he finally finds the correct one, and takes in a deep breath before knocking. As Kris stands silently at the door, he can hear the faint sound of Candy's barks; pretty soon the noise subsides and the sound of footsteps comes closer instead.

A few moments later Tao opens his apartment door, a towel wrapped around his neck. His hair was damp, and he vaguely smells like lavender. Kris assumes that he probably just got out of the shower.

Tao studies him for a few moments before asking, "What do you want?" 

"One of my friends is having a party next month, do you want to go?" Kris immediately blurts out, giving him an invitation. Strangely enough, he doesn't feel as nervous as he thought he'd be. Maybe it was because Tao didn't look like he wanted to murder him today.

"Why?" Tao looks vaguely suspicious, looking at him through his bangs, "The person doesn't know me, I don't know the person, and I still don't really know you either."

"Okay, fine." Kris huffs, crossing his arms. "My real name is Wu Yifan, I'm Chinese, I can speak a lot of different languages, I don't like sweets that much, and I'm really tired."

There's a pause as Tao furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

"What the hell was that for?"

"You know a little more about me now." Kris explains, and Tao raises his eyebrows. "Your turn."

Tao brushes a few strands of his hair away from his eyes before responding, "My full name's Huang Zitao, I'm Chinese, I like cute things, I do wushu, and I have a dog named Candy."

"Granted, I knew that last one, but you like cute things?"

"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Tao narrows his eyes, and Kris laughs nervously.

"I don't. I just wasn't expecting you to like those kind of stuff." Kris says, holding his palms up in defense. "I was just surprised, that's all. But hey, now we now things about each other. Is that good enough for you?"

"Still, I don't know if I'd want to go."

"He told me that it was okay to bring someone," The police chief insists, "Junmyeon's too nice, he honestly wouldn't really mind. Plus, I'm sure that Luhan and Jongdae are going to be there. You'll see them again."

Tao scratches the back of his head, "I think Luhan's going to continue shoving his idea down my throat."

"He wouldn't."

Tao lets out a disbelieving snort, and Kris manages a small smile at this.

"Actually, he might." The police chief says. "He really won't force you if you don't want to, I think."

"Was that supposed to reassure me? Because it didn't really work."

Kris just looks at him in exasperation, and Tao snorts. "Fine, I'll go."

"Wait, seriously?"

"No," The other Chinese rolls his eyes, "obviously not."

"I don't need your sarcasm right now." He reaches in his pocket to get his phone out, but his fingers end up brushing against the bag the chef gave him a few minutes ago. A sudden thought goes through his head, and he frowns. "Do you like sweets, by the way?"

"Of course I do."

The police chief reaches farther inside his pocket and pulls the bag containing the pastry out successfully, handing it to Tao with a sheepish expression on his face. He can't really bring himself to meet the other's eyes for some reason. "Well... I got this from someone earlier; but like I said, I don't really like sweet things. You can have it."

Maybe it was his imagination, but Tao's gaze softens a little. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Tao studies him for a few moments, before smiling at last.

"See you, Kris Wu."

He closes the door, leaving a smiling Kris behind it.

 

 

---

 

 

The next day, Minseok lets out a deep sigh the moment he takes his place behind the counter.

Seokjin looks at him worriedly, walking over to rub the shorter's back comfortingly. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." Minseok nods, and smiles gratefully at his friend. He really does appreciate Seokjin, honestly, he's been nothing but kind and caring towards him ever since he got employed. "I've just been really exhausted lately. But thank you, Seokjin." 

The blonde smiles, "Of course."

Minseok's sorting the bills in the register when Seokjin speaks up again. "Are you planning on going to the 50th anniversary party?"

"Yep."

"Are you bringing anyone?"

"Oh, no." Minseok shakes his head, chuckling lightly. "Bringing a friend isn't exactly required, right?"

"It isn't, but don't worry, you can make lots of friends at the party to make up for it."

"What about you?" Minseok then asks, tearing his eyes away from the bills in his hands temporarily. "Are you bringing anyone?"

Seokjin doesn't respond right away but gives him an incredibly sweet yet suggestive smile instead, nodding slowly in the process. Minseok raises his eyebrows, his curiosity growing by the second. "I sure am."

"Just a friend?"

"A bit more than that," The blonde winks at him.

Minseok's mouth falls open, "You're in a relationship?"

Seokjin only beams brighter in response, leaving Minseok completely shocked.

Honestly, he shouldn't be surprised; considering the fact that Seokjin is a really attractive person, but the taller has never mentioned anything about anyone in the past. The blonde usually talks about how he'd love to go on romantic dates and he coos when he sees couples enter the café, so Minseok always thought that Seokjin would be someone who was open about his relationship.

"You can't tell me?"

"Nope."

"Not even a hint?"

"No, sorry." Seokjin chuckles. "If I tell you, you wouldn't believe me."

Minseok blinks, because what was that even supposed to mean? "Well, I'll look forward to finding out then."

He turns back to the register to take a customer's order, and as soon as he's finished he walks over to the counter where there were a few coffee stains. The barista wipes the space down with a towel at once, but stops when he hears something.

Eventually, the something gets louder; and it turns out to be someone's voice.

The person's voice is soft and gentle, and it gradually gets louder as they get closer. Minseok listens with wide eyes, completely frozen. It's nothing like he's ever heard before, and it's beautiful, honestly. He could probably listen to it all day; the person's voice was that relaxing. His tiredness slowly fades away, and he's gradually beginning to feel content.

He doesn't notice Seokjin smiling creepily at him. When Minseok looks up at his friend at last, Seokjin's expression morphs quickly into a nonchalant one. The blonde starts humming along to the tune, swaying from side to side as he does so.

"Ah, here he goes again."

Minseok glances at him in confusion, "Who?"

"You don't know?" Seokjin stops humming and tilts his head to the side.

"What do you mean?"

"I guess you don't really pay much attention to the stuff that goes around here." Seokjin laughs, and then he smiles. "Didn't the employees warn you about Jongdae being noisy at times?"

Well, yes, Minseok does remember some of them mentioning something about that a while back. He's never found out what that was despite being here for a while now, but he doesn't see why that's relevant to whatever they're talking about.

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Seokjin blinks at him.

"Well, he sings during work. That was him just now, actually."

No way.

No ing way.

"Wait," Minseok holds up a hand as if to stop Seokjin, eyes slowly widening, "Wait. Are we talking about the same person?"

Seokjin nods.

"Are you sure?"

Seokjin nods again.

"Kim Jongdae? As in Kim Jongdae the idiot?"

Seokjin giggles this time, and he nods slowly for a third time to confirm this. "Yes, as in Kim Jongdae the idiot."

"Oh my God." Minseok breathes, slapping a hand over the lower half of his face in complete and utter shock while feeling his cheeks heat up in mortification. Holy , he just thought of Jongdae's singing as beautiful! What the hell was he thinking?

There's no way that could've been him, Jongdae was annoying, Jongdae was frustrating, Jongdae was—

His thoughts are interrupted when—speak of the devil—Jongdae casually walks in, singing softly, but he stops as soon as he sees the two baristas by the register. Minseok freezes at the sight of him. . Seokjin was right after all.

Oh, God.

"Hi, guys." Jongdae smiles at them, and he squats down to try and find something in one of the cabinets below. "Do you know where the extra take out carriers are? I checked in the back, but I couldn't find them."

"Oh, it should be in here then; I think Taehyung put them inside earlier." Seokjin responds. Jongdae nods, and pokes his head inside the cabinet doors as Seokjin asks, "I see that you're still singing?"

Minseok's gaze shifts to Jongdae, who chuckles lightly.

"You heard? I haven't practiced much since I was in the hospital for a while, so it sounds a little rusty at the moment."

Rusty? Minseok thinks in disbelief. That was rusty? Upon thinking that, he internally slaps himself. No, stop it brain! Stop thinking that, Jongdae's annoying and he's an idiot. Yeah, that sounds about right.

"I think you sounded wonderful, actually." Seokjin sincerely tells him. "You've always been a fantastic singer."

And what surprises Minseok the most is the fact that Jongdae suddenly looks sheepish, instead of flat out boasting about his talent like he thought he would. Jongdae's cheeks turn slightly pink at the compliment, and he rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment before reaching further inside the cabinet to hide his bashful expression. 

"Thank you," Jongdae says, and he sounds completely genuine when he does.

"Of course, sweetie."

Jongdae snorts, "You sound like my mom."

Seokjin merely smiles at this, and returns to doing whatever he was doing before Jongdae came in. On the other hand, Minseok has no idea what to do or how to react. He's still in shock about finding out about Jongdae's talent, and he remains standing there with a blank expression as the other barista finally finds those take out carriers and pulls them out with a satisfied sigh.

"What's up with you?" Jongdae asks, nudging Minseok's arm. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Minseok looks at him with wide eyes, and then back at the floor. Normally, he would've told Jongdae to go away and stop touching him, but this time he couldn't. He just couldn't.

"Uh?"

"You—" Minseok starts, but he cuts himself off immediately and shakes his head.

"I what?"

"Are you going to the celebration?"

"What?" Jongdae blinks at him in confusion. "I am, why?"

"Um..." Minseok mutters, because it's really the only thing he could manage to say. He changes his mind, though, and forces his expression to remain neutral. He rapidly thinks of an excuse, "I was just wondering if everyone was going to come."

"Of course they would; it's the biggest party of the year."

Minseok nods slowly, only half-listening. He feels really weird all of a sudden, and for a second it was as if he couldn't get irritated at Jongdae anymore. He doesn't notice Seokjin smiling secretly to himself, and also fails to see Jongdae's clearly bewildered expression. 

"Well, okay," Jongdae attempts to sound cheery, "that was weird."

"I heard that."

Surprisingly, Jongdae's expression softens and his grin grows. "There's the Minseok I know."

He leaves before Minseok could have the chance to step forward and hit his arm, laughing loudly while holding the take out carriers in his hands. Once Jongdae retreats to the back of the café, Minseok finds himself biting his lower lip to prevent a small smile forming on his lips. Upon realizing this, he starts to get confused (not to mention a little alarmed).

Since when has he smiled after Jongdae did something to annoy him?

 

 

---

 

 

A/N: next chapter is the party! WOO SO MUCH HYPE i'm so excited for it tbh omg

(also so sorry for not including the name of the café in earlier chapters... rip. i was stuck on what to call it, but moonlight seemed appropriate. yes, i got the inspiration from exo's song if u were wondering)

summary: thank you junmyeon for printing extra invites by accident lmao. sulay is good rn, but srry for not much hunhan in this one... trust me i already have an idea about what i want to do w/ them! also ft. minseok overhearing jongdae sing, and seokjin being sneaky as always

thank you so much for the subscribes and the comments! they make me very happy, thank you so much

also, i am super super super super proud of bts and exo!! both groups deserved their awards @ MMA and i was SUPER giddy when junmyeon mentioned bts in his speech (AND SEVENTEEN TOO HOLY SHIIITTTTT) ahhh, that was so wonderful! it was truly iconic

thanks so much for reading :-) comments and subscribes are always appreciated!

-seokminz