| XII. tis the season |

 

 

Three weeks later on Christmas Eve, Minseok's awkwardly standing in front of Luhan's door; unsure of what to do.

Throughout the drive to Luhan's house, he felt anxiety bubbling inside of him. The barista himself wasn't even sure why he was nervous; but then again he was never much of a people person. Besides, he's only met these people once. He doesn't know what they're really like yet, so he guesses that it's reasonable to feel slightly afraid on what to expect.

After a few more moments of hesitation, Minseok finally rings the doorbell. It's silent for a few moments before the door swings open, revealing a grinning Luhan standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Minseok!" Luhan exclaims as soon as he sees him. He looks particularly energetic today, which is probably not a good thing. A reindeer antler headband is lopsidedly perched on top of his head; the taller male's currently adjusting it with one of his hands.  "Merry Christmas Eve, man. Come in."

Minseok gratefully greets the warm air that instantly hits him as soon as he enters the house, and he looks around with wide eyes. There's a six feet tall Christmas tree in the living room, which was decorated with tons of ornaments and gold and white tinsel. An extremely tall person with large ears was busy putting the star on the tree at the moment—Chanyeol, the barista remembers.

Luhan closes the door behind him and cups his hands over his mouth.

"HEY GUYS, MINSEOK'S HERE."

"Hi," Minseok says, sort of as an afterthought.

"Hey," Chanyeol turns his head and smiles brightly at him, but he swears loudly when he accidently trips on one of the tinsel on the floor; causing him to flail his arms about, nearly dropping the star in his hands.

"Chanyeol, I swear to God if you break anything—" Luhan points at him threateningly.

Chanyeol interrupts him, producing a nervous laugh. "I won't this time, promise."

"This time?" Minseok raises an eyebrow, concerned.

"Yeah." Luhan rolls his eyes, "He tripped over an empty box of ornaments last year and in an attempt to stable himself he tried to grasp onto something... however, that something turned out to be the fairy lights. He also knocked the snowglobe off the table. It ended up shattering, obviously."

"I said I was sorry. At least it was a pretty cheap snowglobe. Three dollars, was it?"

"Yeah, one of my friends got it for me from a swap meet, so I wasn't that mad." Luhan turns to Minseok and produces another wide smile. "I still made him pay for the damage, though."

Chanyeol rolls his eyes, "Now that was completely unnecessary."

"Are you guys talking about that time when Chanyeol broke your snowglobe?" Kyungsoo walks out of the kitchen area just then, eyes wide as he turns to look at the three people in the living room. He's carefully holding a medium sized brownie tray in his hands.

"Yep," Luhan nods, and then gestures to Minseok. "We have a new friend here. Say hi."

"I noticed." Kyungsoo frowns deeply at Luhan (which makes Minseok wince slightly), but the black haired male smiles when he turns to the barista. "Hello, Minseok. It's nice to see you again."

"You too," The barista smiles at him, peering at the brownies. "I didn't know you bake."

"Only for special occassions."

"But when he does, it's the best ing thing on this universe." Luhan cuts in, and Kyungsoo gives him another weary look before retreating back inside the kitchen. "I'm not kidding, trust me. Jongin's lucky."

"Hell yeah I am," Minseok hears another new-yet-familiar-voice say, and he turns to see Jongin waving merrily at the two (a huge yet lovestruck grin on his face) before he joins Kyungsoo in the kitchen with noticeable hearts in his eyes.

"They're dating?" The barista asks, unable to contain the curiosity in his tone. They did seem pretty close to each other at the party, but he hasn't really thought much of it.

"Yeah, they started recently." Sehun appears out of nowhere just then, wrinkling his nose. He's holding a chocolate chip cookie in his hands and takes a bite out of it before adding, "Just a forewarning, they're pretty gross."

Minseok raises an eyebrow, and Luhan laughs loudly.

"Not gross as in the making-out-every-five-seconds kind of sense, but gross as they're so domestic and fluffy and . It's truly, very sickening and makes all of us want to puke."

"...I see."

"Anyway, want to help out with some of the last minute decorations? Mostly everyone else said that they're going to be a little late and I sort of need help. I only started doing this today. Big mistake."

"Sure, why not."

"Great," Luhan grins, and shoves three red stockings in his hands. "Hang these over the fireplace for me."

Minseok nods at this, and Luhan pats his shoulder before walking away. Minseok looks up to meet Chanyeol's eyes, and the taller man grins kindly at him. The star's slightly lopsided on top of the tree, but it's either that Chanyeol doesn't know or doesn't care.

Though, the barista does manage to send him a friendly smile before he gets to work.

Fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rings again. Minseok looks up from his spot next to Sehun on the couch as Luhan makes a dash for the door, peering into the peephole before swinging it open with a large grin on his face.

"Jongdaeeeee!" Luhan exclaims, gleeful.

Jongdae steps in the house, flattening his windblown hair. "Luhaaaaan!"

Minseok freezes slightly at the sight of him. Throughout the past few weeks, that girl Sunyoung has been visiting Jongdae a lot lately—especially during work hours. It was sort of why Minseok began to avoid him. It made him super uncomfortable to see Jongdae and Sunyoung laughing, flirting, and enjoying each other's company, so he hasn't really spoken to the other barista in a while.

In fact, the last time they had a proper conversation was at Junmyeon's party, three weeks ago.

Whatever. It's not like he cares, anyway. 

"Hey, Chanyeol." Jongdae grins at Chanyeol, who instantly waves back. His eyes land on Minseok afterwards, and Minseok thinks he imagines it, but does the other barista's smile grow a bit softer...? God, he really is out of it. "Hey, Minseok."

Minseok looks at him for a while, before finally saying a small "Hello," in response.

He doesn't get to talk to Jongdae after that, because Luhan throws an arm around his shoulders before walking into the kitchen. He watches as the two friends laugh over something—presumably an inside joke—and doesn't realize that Chanyeol's watching him until he turns his head to face the taller male's direction once more.

There's an odd sort of amusement on his face, and Minseok blinks.

"What?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Chanyeol quickly says (this was obviously a lie, for he was avoiding eye contact), but before Minseok gets a chance to ask him what he means by that the taller man grins sheepishly at him before retreating inside the bathroom.

Soon enough, everyone else began to arrive. After Jongdae it was Junmyeon and Yixing who came next (his boss smiled at him the instant he walked inside Luhan's house), then it was Kris, Tao, and the doctor who was there at the party whose name he can't remember.

At this point, the chatter in the house grows significantly louder with each person's arrival. He spends the next few minutes debating whether or not he should go into the kitchen, where everyone else was currently at. After a while, he thinks that he really doesn't have anything to lose and manages to get up from the couch without hesitation.

"Hey, Minseok, so nice of you to join us." Luhan stops his current conversation with Tao and looks up to face the barista with a wide smile on his face. He's suddenly aware of eleven pairs of eyes watching him, and he can't help but feel very awkward.

"Uh, hi."

"You're the Minseok from the party, right?" The person next to him asks. Of course it has to be the doctor whose name he forgot. Minseok nods slowly, feeling even worse because the other actually remembered who he was.

"Yes, and you're...?"

"Baekhyun," He supplies, smiling.

"Oh, yeah." Minseok grins sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm not that good with names."

"Should we all properly introduce ourselves, or are we okay?" Luhan asks, and is answered with a series of I don't knows or I don't cares. Finally, he shrugs. "Okay, I'm going to assume that we're fine then. If you don't know someone, then get to know them. That's the whole point of this party anyways, even though half of us know each other already."

Kris looks at Minseok thoughtfully as soon as Luhan finishes. "This is plainly out of curiosity, but how old are you?"

"Um, I'm turning twenty seven next year—"

"—What the ."

"Wait, what the hell? I can't believe that." Luhan interjects, a disbelieving look on his face. "I thought you were, like, twenty three or something. Even Sehun looks older than you, and he's the youngest out of all of us."

"...What the is that supposed to mean?" Sehun knits his eyebrows together.

"That you look mature for your age, which is technically more of a compliment than an insult."

"Okay, but now it sounds like you just insulted Minseok."

"I'm pretty sure that telling someone that they look young for their age isn't really a bad thing. Or, well, I guess it depends on the person. For example, if you tell a high schooler that they look like they're still in elementary school, I think they'll at least be a little offended."

"People, you can continue your conversation after you get your food." Kyungsoo then says, sounding a little exasperated. He gestures to the dish on the table. "The kimchi spaghetti's going to get cold."

"Oh, sweet." Jongdae grins, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I haven't tasted Kyungsoo's kimchi spaghetti in forever."

"Don't worry, Kyungsoo, all of this won't go to waste." Luhan adds, and he instantly grabs a paper plate and starts the line, while Sehun instantly takes his place behind him.

Minseok heads to the living room as soon as he gets his food, taking a seat next to Baekhyun. The doctor gives him another friendly smile when he sees the barista, and the elder returns it. Yixing and Jongdae were currently occupying the other two chairs, talking animatedly to one another while Luhan turns on the TV above the fireplace and uses the remote to flip through the channels.

"So, how do you know Luhan?" Baekhyun asks after a few moments of silence.

"Oh, uh, I met him at Junmyeon's party." Minseok says, stabbing his spaghetti with a fork before adding, "Nothing too exciting. You?"

"Well, I first talked to Luhan through a phone call."

"I see."

Baekhyun chuckles; he must've seen Minseok's confused expression. "Would you like an explanation?"

"Sure." Minseok manages a smile.

"Basically, I wanted flowers one day so I looked up a place with good reviews and called We Are One, which is the place Luhan, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae work at. Normally, Jongdae would've answered the phone since I ordered from them before—I knew him first before I knew Luhan—but he was out that day, so Luhan picked up instead."

Minseok makes an 'O' with his mouth. He wasn't expecting this much of a backstory, but he nods nonetheless. "Interesting."

"Yeah, but the first actual time we met was in the hospital." Baekhyun grins when he sees Minseok's astounded expression. "You work with Jongdae, right? Do you remember when he was gone for an extended amount of time?"

"Wait a sec, were you the one who looked after him?!"

"You bet." The doctor's grin grows wider. "I met Kyungsoo, Jongdae, and Luhan there for the first time. It's funny how these things work, huh? I knew Chanyeol before all of them though, he delivered the flowers to my door. He was late the first time; it made quite the impression."

"Ha ha," Chanyeol walks over to Baekhyun at that moment and ruffles his hair with one hand, holding a can of beer in the other. "I'm glad it did."

Baekhyun smiles up at him just then, and Minseok can't help but notice how fond the gaze looked. When Baekhyun smiled at Minseok, it was nothing short of friendly. But for Chanyeol, it seemed as if their relationship was entirely something else. He decides not to say anything about it, and he takes a tentative sip of his cup of water instead.

"Luhan and Kris are playing chess outside, want to watch?" Chanyeol then asks, smiling down at the other two adults.

Minseok raises his eyebrows.

"...Why are they playing chess outside?"

"No idea. Luhan has one of those patio heaters in his backyard though, so they're not completely freezing."

"Okay, I'll watch." Baekhyun decides, getting up from his seat on the couch. He takes another few bites of his food, and closes his eyes slowly. "Damn, this is probably the best kimchi spaghetti I've ever tasted."

"Kyungsoo's a really good cook, honestly." Chanyeol agrees, a bright smile forming on his face. "If he wasn't a florist, he'd make a great chef."

"Speaking of cooking, you should've made something too." Baekhyun says, as he gets off of the couch. He nudges Chanyeol playfully, and Minseok remembers being told that the taller was a sous chef. "You and Kyungsoo should go head to head in a cooking battle; it'd be like watching Chopped or something."

"If Kyungsoo wins, then my career is over." Chanyeol snorts, and then he looks over to the barista. "Want to come with us?"

"I'm good," Minseok smiles. "Thanks, though."

They both smile at him before heading outside into Luhan's backyard, and Minseok finishes the rest of his food (Baekhyun was right; Kyungsoo's kimchi spaghetti's ing delicious) and was currently helping himself to a brownie when he feels the other end of the couch slightly sinking down, meaning that someone took Baekhyun's previous seat.

He turns his head to see Jongdae now sitting next to him, and he nearly has a heart attack. Jongdae's smiling at him—God, when is he not smiling?—and Minseok clears his throat awkwardly before saying something.

"Oh, it's you."

"You don't seem too happy to see me."

"When have I been ever happy to see you?"

"Touché." Jongdae says, but he continues to wear that amused expression on his face, per usual. Minseok almost wants to scoff at it. "How've you been? I feel like we haven't talked in forever. Aren't we friends now?"

"Nope," Minseok replies, popping the p deliberately, "we are still acquaintances."

"Whyyyy. When are we going to be friends?"

"Things like these take patience, Jongdae."

To his surprise, the other barista bursts out into laughter. Minseok immediately feels his cheeks coloring at the action, and he brings up a hand to cover the lower half of his face, incredulous.

"What's so funny?" He asks, frowning.

"Nothing." Jongdae's still laughing a little as he talks, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I just found that hilarious, because I'm normally a pretty patient person. But all joking aside, it seems like you've been avoiding me at work lately."

"In my defense, you were occupied with other important things." Minseok retorts, breaking eye contact to look at Yixing, who was currently dozing off on one of the armchairs; expression peaceful. His plate was on the coffee table, half-finished. "And I don't want to talk to you anyways."

"Aw, come on, we both know that's not true." And Minseok doesn't want to admit it, but he's right. "We're all busy in the café, what are you talking about."

Minseok opens his mouth, but he closes it again. What the hell was he even supposed to say to that without making it sound weird at all? He sits there for a few moments, thinking, and after a while he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.

"I meant as in you're busy talking to Sunyoung all the time."

Jongdae only offers him a blank look.

"Okay, and...?"

"What do you mean, 'okay and'?" Minseok saves his embarrassment by finishing off the rest of his brownie. "Aren't you two together?"

Jongdae stares at him for a while before bursting out in laughter again. Now mortified, Minseok avoids eye contact and waits until the other barista finishes up. When he looks back at Jongdae, he's looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

"We're not together," The other barista says, tone unusually soft.

It takes a while for Minseok to process that. To him, it's honestly hard to believe that they're not dating—based on the never ending list of inside jokes and subtle flirting every so often.

"You're not with Sunyoung?"

"I am not dating Sunyoung." Jongdae firmly states. "We've never dated."

He must've looked really bewildered, because Jongdae sighs and folds his hands before continuing; a faraway look on his face. "I think giving you an explanation would suffice."

Minseok shrugs, and Jongdae takes that as an invite to start talking.

"Sunyoung and I, we've known each other since birth, basically. Apparently our dads were best buds in college, or some like that. Growing up, I always thought of her as my little sister—nothing more, nothing less."

Minseok has a feeling that there's a but to this, so he waits.

"Fast forward to college. We hung out with each other pretty often, so a lot of people were speculating that we were a couple—which we were not, by the way. No one really believed me when I said we weren't dating. After a few days of those rumors circulating around, I accidently overheard Sunyoung's friends talking about how Sunyoung had a huge crush on me ever since high school."

Jongdae sighs.

"It turns out that she was also the one telling everyone that we were dating, which explains why no one believed me when I said we weren't. Honestly, I was pretty pissed when I found out. I started avoiding her for a while because of that, and pretty soon she confronted me a few weeks after and told me the whole truth about her liking me."

He stops, and Minseok thinks oh .

"Naturally, I rejected her—nicely, of course. I think she already had a feeling that I didn't like her like that, because she took it pretty well."

"Well, damn."

"Yeah, huh." Jongdae shrugs. "I do know that she still likes me, though. I heard from one of her closest friends that she never really gave up on me. I feel sort of bad about that, you know. I don't want her to wait because I don't think I'll ever see her as someone different. I still get sort of uncomfortable when she does something remotely affectionate."

He reaches forward and grabs his cup of soda, taking a generous sip.

"So yeah, we're not dating."

Minseok doesn't know why he feels so relieved after feeling that piece of information, and he returns to looking at his empty plate, vaguely troubled.

"Want me to throw that away for you?" Jongdae asks after a few moments of silence, gesturing to the plate on Minseok's lap. Minseok snaps out of his thoughts and looks at the other barista with wide eyes.

"Uh, yeah. Sure. Thank you."

Jongdae nods, and he wordlessly hands his cup to Minseok, who takes it in exchange of the empty plate. Their fingers brush together in the process, and it makes Minseok want to flinch at the contact.

He does give him a suspicious look when Jongdae comes back, holding two plastic cups in his hands.

"Here you go." Jongdae says, handing him one of the drinks. The smell of cheap beer reaches Minseok's nose, and he eyes it suspiciously. The other barista smiles, "I'm sorry that it's not the best."

"It's fine."

Jongdae looks over to the still sleeping Yixing, whose head was now on the armrest. He sure looked pretty comfortable. "Man, it that Yixing's asleep. I was so sure that he was going to whip out some of his bartender skills and make some cool mixtures."

Surprised, Minseok nearly chokes on his beer. Yixing didn't look like he was a bartender at all with that serene expression on his face, but then again you learn new things every day. "Yixing's a bartender?"

"Yeah. He tells me that it pays really well, but it always takes a toll on him physically." Jongdae shakes his head. "His shift's super early in the morning. He comes home at the asscrack of dawn and literally sleeps through the rest of the day until he has to go back to work again."

"Damn... that ."

"I know, right? And I wonder how he and Junmyeon are able to keep it toge—oh, . I did it again."

Minseok blinks, unfazed. "Did what?"

"Accidentally reveal to someone that Yixing and Junmyeon are lowkey in a relationship." Jongdae sighs, and Minseok raises his eyebrows, although he already sort of knew about that. "Damn, I really need to stop exposing everyone."

The conversation stops when Tao walks back inside the house just then, shivering slightly. He approaches the two adults on the couch, saying, "Hey, Jongdae, Luhan wants you to bring out the six pack of beer in his refrigerator."

Jongdae rolls his eyes, "Why can't he do it himself? I'm a little busy here."

Minseok doesn't know why his heart skips a beat at these words.

"YOU MIGHT AS WELL DO IT SINCE YOU'RE CLOSER TO THE KITCHEN," Luhan yells from the backyard.

"He says that you might as well do it since you're closer to the kitchen."

"Yeah, I heard," Jongdae waves him off. He stands up from the couch and shakes his fist towards the screen door, cursing Luhan silently. "All right, I'll go get it. Tell him I'll be there in a couple of moments."

"Okay," Tao gives him a thumbs up before going back outside.

"Well, Minseok, I'm sorry that we have to cut our conversation short." The other barista says, stuffing his free hand in his pocket. His grin almost seems apologetic. "Knowing Luhan, he'll probably force me to stay and watch their never ending chess match. Unless you'd like to come?"

Minseok laughs nervously.

"That's okay. I'll just stay here with Yixing; board games get too competitive for me sometimes."

"If you insist." Jongdae rubs the back of his neck. "I'll be outside if you need me, though." 

He leaves after that, and Minseok smiles against his will.

 

 

---

 

 

"Hey Tao, can you get me a—what the is this?"

Tao turns around to face Kris, who's standing under the small arch between the kitchen and the living room. He's staring up at the ceiling, face drained of all color. Tao follows his gaze and realizes that the taller's standing under mistletoe, and he can't help but snort at the sight of Kris's distraught expression.

"What, have you not seen mistletoe before?" Tao asks after a few moments, raising an eyebrow.

"I have, but geez." Kris quickly moves from under it and joins Tao in the kitchen, taking a chocolate chip cookie from the dessert tray. He takes a bite out of it before continuing. "From the looks of it, Luhan wants to play the role of matchmaker tonight. I really don't know how to feel about that."

Tao scoffs, "Someone's going to get stuck under that thing, and it is not going to be me."

"Same here."

They both stop walking a little ways before the arch, and the two adults look at each other.

"Okay, one of us has to go first then," Kris tells him, and Tao nods in agreement.

"Yeah."

However, they both step forward at the same time, and Kris shrieks, "WAIT!", almost dropping the half-eaten cookie in his hands. "What the hell are you doing, I thought I made it clear that I was going first!" 

Tao grumbles in annoyance and gives the taller male an exasperated look. "Excuse me, you didn't say that you were going first, you said one of us has to go first. That means either of us."

Kris massages his temples in exasperation.

"Okay, fine. You go first then."

"Okay."

The instant Tao steps forward, Kyungsoo appears out of freaking nowhere, which makes Kris and Tao scream in unison (both in shock and fear). Tao places a hand over his rapidly beating heart and exhales as the florist stands under the mistletoe, staring at the two with an are-you-actually-kidding-me expression written all over his face.

"You scared me," Tao manages to say after a while, but Kyungsoo just lets out a long sigh and moves past them to get something to eat.

Kris and Tao quickly exchange a glance before the younger eventually passes through the arch first.

 

 

---

 

 

Luhan had finally decided to set up his karaoke system due to "popular demand" (because it was only Tao, Chanyeol, and Jongdae who wanted him to), and Sehun was now listening as Jongdae sings a lively song, drumming his fingers on the armrest as he slightly bobs his head up and down to the music. He takes a generous sip of his beer and feels goosebumps appearing on his skin when he hears the barista effortlessly hits each note.

His gaze moves from the television screen to Luhan, who was currently sitting down next to Jongdae. It's hard to see him since he dimmed the lights to "set the mood" for karaoke, but he can still tell that the brunet's grin is as wide as ever.  It makes Sehun smile at the sight of it.

The Christmas party was going better than he expected, to be honest. At first Sehun thought it'd be slightly awkward since Minseok, Yixing, and Tao hadn't really gotten to know them all quite yet, but within a couple of hours it seemed as if they've all known each other for years. 

Speaking of Minseok, the barista was currently seated next to Luhan; eating a store bought cupcake (which Junmyeon brought because said he felt really bad for not being able to at least bake something). A small twinge of jealousy erupts inside Sehun when he sees Luhan mutter something in Minseok's ear, making him smile.

"Having fun?"

Sehun swivels around to make eye contact with Jongin, who smiles at him brightly before taking a seat on one of the chair's armrests. Upon seeing him, Sehun has to do a double take at the gleeful expression on his friend's face—it's been a while since he's seen him so laid back.

Nevertheless, he shrugs.

"It's nice."

"I think so too," Jongin agrees, taking a sip out of his cup. He pauses before continuing, "They're all really cool people."

"I think interesting would probably be the best way to put it," Sehun tells him. A few moments later, he furrows his eyebrows and turns to look at him once more. Now that he thinks about it, Jongin does seem a little off. "Wait, you're not drunk, are you?"

"No, but I feel really good."

"I don't know what that's supposed to mean."

"Neither do I," Jongin's smile grows wider. "I just feel really happy. I don't think I'm drunk."

Sehun looks at him thoughtfully, watching as the other blonde continues to down his beer. After a while, he says, "Hmm... no, I think you're drunk."

"Oh, really?" Jongin says, sounding as if he didn't really care. They stop talking for a while, and Sehun hides back his laugh as he watches Jongin sway to the music from side-to-side. "Hey, doesn't Jongdae sing pretty well? His voice is great."

"Yeah, it is."

"You should go next." Jongin elbows him, grinning.

Sehun glares at him. "I'd rather die."

"Aww, you . That's not fair, you did it that one time."

"Okay, first of all, that was partially because of peer pressure. Second of all, I only did it because I was drunk out of my mind. Like, hella drunk. Third, how the hell did you remember that? You were pretty hammered, and that happened years ago. When Mark talked to you about it the next day, you didn't remember a single thing."

"Mark was a good guy. I wonder where he is now."

"Probably back in China," Sehun shrugs. "He always said he wanted to go back after college and take over his family business."

Jongin nods, momentarily distracted. After a while, he looks at him again.

"Sing, Sehun."

"Hell no."

The other police officer frowns. "If I get Luhan to ask you to sing, will you say yes?"

"What the f..." Sehun's eyes widen. "No, I will not. Definitely not. You're drunk, Jongin." He makes a disgusted face when Jongin blows a raspberry at him. "I cannot believe this." Swiveling around to face Kyungsoo, who was standing by the stairs, he cups his hands around his mouth and yells, "Hey Kyungsoo, can you get your creepy boyfriend off me please he's not leaving me alone."

The florist sighs. He scrunches his nose and walks over to Jongin, pulling his arm gently. "Hey you, stop bothering Sehun."

Jongin looks at him, blinking for a few moments. Then, he immediately sends the elder a flirty smile and a playful wink. "Well hello there, beautiful. You seeing anyone at the moment?"

Sehun almost spits his drink out.

"I am, actually." Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, unfazed. "I'm seeing you."

"Oh, thank goodness."

Sehun rubs his temple in mild annoyance. ", sorry Kyungsoo. I forgot to tell you that he gets really weird when he's drunk."

"If I was going to rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together." Jongin continues, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "If I was a cat, I'd spend all nine lives with you. On a scale of 1 to 10, you're a nine, because I'm the one you need."

"Oh my God." Kyungsoo shakes his head, exasperated. "What the hell is in your drink? Hold on, I'm going to get you water or something."

When Kyungsoo leaves, Jongin wordlessly stands up and follows him (albeit almost tripping along the way) after a few moments. Sehun watches him trail behind Kyungsoo into the kitchen, and he lets out a long sigh when they get out of sight.

After Jongdae finishes the song, Junmyeon is peer pressured into going next. The manager also chooses a song with an upbeat tone and begins singing (nervously at first) but eventually gets more into it as the song continues. Sehun scoffs a little when he sees the embarrassed expression on Kris's face and the amused one on Tao's.

"Not bad, eh?"

"What the f—oh, it's just you," Sehun whirls around again and lets out a sigh of relief when he sees a grinning Luhan pop up from behind the chair. Honestly, he was more than relieved to see the other florist there; he really wasn't looking forward to another encounter with a drunk Jongin. "Where did you come from?"

"The other couch." Luhan says. "But still, I didn't know Gramps had it in him."

Sehun turns back to the TV and watches Junmyeon sway to the music; a big smile on the manager's face. "Neither did I, honestly."

"What's wrong? You look, uh, frazzled."

"Well, if you must know, I just found out that Jongin's pretty drunk. I'm his ride back home, so now I have to deal with him drooling on my carseat. He said he wasn't, but his speech was sort of slurred and he seemed to forget who Kyungsoo was. He tried to hit on him."

"Oh my God." Luhan laughs, and Sehun's frown turns into a small smile. "That's pretty hilarious, I think I'd pay to see that."

"You better not get drunk either. I'm not cleaning after you again."

"Why would I not get drunk? This is the best day of my life." Luhan grins, holding up his cup. "But don't worry, I still have a long way to go. I'm in my own house anyway. You should let loose, man. It's Christmas Eve! It's the most wonderful time of the year, and I am LOVING LIFE."

With that, the florist downs his drink completely and sends Sehun another wide grin—a smile that does not fail to make the police officer's heart jump in his chest.

"Hey, Luhan!" Junmyeon then says, and the two adults turn to look back at him. The song had just ended, and he was now panting lightly while waving the microphone in his hand. "You should sing something too."

"All right." Luhan says, without any hesitation. Sehun snorts; if Luhan was sober, he probably would have made a run for it if someone asked him to participate in something like this. He hands his empty cup to Sehun (who takes it with an amused smile) and walks over to where Junmyeon was standing, taking the mic from him.

"WOOO!" Jongdae shouts, clapping, as Tao pulls his phone out to start recording.

When Luhan starts jumping around as the song begins, Sehun stares at him in a mixture of amazement and exasperation. Sometimes, he needs to remind himself why the heck he has a huge crush on this idiot.

 

 

---

 

 

It's almost 1 AM when everybody decides to call it a night, for most of them would be visiting their families later that day.

Yixing and Junmyeon were among the first to leave; even though they both insisted on staying behind a little later to help clean up, Luhan shooed them away and assured them that he would be fine. They were his guests anyway, and he was already used to doing this sort of stuff.

"Thanks for a great party, Lu." Yixing had said, pulling him into a hug before he joined Junmyeon in his car. "See you soon. Merry Christmas."

After them, Minseok also bid him and everybody else goodbye. He looked sort of uncomfortable at first (or cold, because it was extremely freezing outside) but he managed a smile when he spoke to him before he left.

"You were right; I guess it was a pretty good opportunity. Thanks for that."

For some reason (probably because he was a little drunk and his emotions were starting to go all over the place), Luhan felt extremely touched to hear that, especially coming from Minseok. So touched that he actually reached forward and hugged the barista tightly, which made the shorter male scream in surprise.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun left together too, wishing him a merry Christmas. After that Tao left, telling him that he'd drop by and visit over the break, and then Kris, who flashed him a peace sign before pulling out of the driveway.

Pretty soon, it was just Kyungsoo, Jongin, Sehun, and Jongdae left at his place—they all volunteered to help clean up (even though Luhan said a million times that they didn't have to). Kyungsoo's argument for staying was that he was wrong when he thought the party would be a waste of time so this was sort of like payment, but the rest just decided to help just for the heck of it.

About thirty minutes later, they managed to clean most of everything up (Luhan was too lazy to take the tree down) and Kyungsoo, Jongin, Sehun, and Jongdae were getting ready to leave.

Luhan watches Kyungsoo say his goodbyes to Jongdae and Sehun before witnessing him plant a kiss on Jongin's cheek, probably whispering some sappy stuff in his ear. Soon, he turns back to the other florist to say goodbye to him too.

"Don't do anything stupid." Kyungsoo says, and Luhan almost snorts at the fact that his friend was so quick to change personalities. "I'll see you when we come back to work in a couple of weeks. Take care."

"Yes mom," Luhan says, and Kyungsoo sends him a death glare before driving away.

"...And a new chapter begins," Jongdae says after Kyungsoo leaves, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We finally have a friend group now, I hope you feel accomplished in some way. Great job, man."

"I do, actually." Luhan mumbles; he almost wants to cry of happiness. "Thanks."

Jongdae smiles back. "Well, I've got to go get the little sleep I can before heading out later. You should start planning another get together soon; I have nothing better to do these days."

After Jongdae leaves, Luhan watches Jongin get into the passenger seat of Sehun's car, waving at him with a huge smile on his face (he wasn't as drunk as he was before, the florist notes). Sehun was currently using the bathroom inside Luhan's house, he said that he needed to take a piss before leaving.

"Did Jongdae leave?"

Luhan almost has a heart attack when he hears Sehun's voice, and turns to see him walking towards his direction. "Yeah, you just missed him."

"Damn," Sehun says, although he doesn't sound too disappointed. "It's okay. I'll see him soon anyway."

"Yeah."

They stand in silence for a few moments, even though its ing cold outside and Luhan wants nothing but to sleep in his comfortable bed for 12 hours. At the same time, he feels like crying nonstop—his chest hurts, for some reason. He sighs inwardly, not knowing why he feels so sentimental right now.

"Are you drunk?" Sehun then asks. The question sort of startles Luhan at first; he blinks twice at him before shrugging helplessly.

"A little..."

"I can sort of tell." Sehun smiles. "You sound pretty sad."

"When Minseok told me that I was right saying that the party would be a good opportunity, I almost started bawling. I couldn't believe it. I thought he was never going to say that to me. Ever."

"Well, he was right; it was a good opportunity. I became friends with a lot of good people. You did a great thing, Luhan."

"Don't say like that, you're going to make me..." Luhan grumbles, and he curses when he feels a tear trickle down his cheek. "."

"Ohhhhh, ." Sehun winces when more tears start to fall down on Luhan's face. "Uhhh. Luhan. Hey, it's okay. Don't cry, you just need to get some sleep, okay? You'll feel so much better in the morning."

Luhan nods, rubbing his eyes. He expects Sehun to leave after that, but to his surprise the blonde is still standing there after he wipes a majority of the tears away. His chest hurts even more when he sees the mildly worried expression on the officer's face.

"Damn it, Sehun, you're always looking after me. It makes me feel even worse."

He doesn't see it, but the officer's gaze softens.

"You don't have to worry about that." Sehun mutters, so soft that Luhan could barely hear him. "I care about you a lot, Luhan. I... um, I like you."

"What did you say?" The florist asks, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets in a futile attempt to keep them warm. He was focusing too much on not falling asleep while standing up; he was starting to feel extremely drowsy after he had started crying.

"Uhhh, what? I didn't say anything." Sehun then says, talking extremely fast all of a sudden, and Luhan could see the tips of the officer's ears slowly starting to turn red. "Merry Christmas, Luhan. I'll see you some other time, okay?"

Without waiting for a response, Sehun gets into his car and leaves; and Luhan stares after him in confusion.

 

 

---

 

 

A/N: sorry for not updating this for quite a while, i got pretty busy with school rip.

honestly i wish june would end pretty soon, i really want it to be july bc i'm going on vacation towards the end of the month!!!! other than that my summer's been sort of boring (and stressful) so far... i got a new computer though, so that's pretty cool! :) 

hope all of you are doing well~ sorry if this chapter has a ton of grammatical mistakes or mistakes in general, i didn't really edit this that much lol.

-seokminz