| V. to be, or not to be |

 

 

"Chanyeol, can you come here for a sec?"

Said person raises his head upon hearing his name, seeing Kyungsoo squinting at an order sheet with a deep frown on his lips. "Sure, what's up?" Chanyeol asks, sauntering over to his friend with a usual bright smile on his face. He takes the order out of Kyungsoo's hands and looks at the form quietly, muttering the words under his breath as his eyes run over it, stopping at the special requests which read: 'send your hottest delivery guy, pls and thank you.'

Kyungsoo sighs. "I really don't know what they mean by this. We only have one delivery guy, and he's not even that hot."

"Hey..." Chanyeol protests.

"That's real funny, Kyungsoo, coming from you," Luhan shouts from the back. Chanyeol watches in mild amusement as the brunet pokes his head out from behind the back door, breaking into a wide smile before continuing. "considering the fact that you haven't been in a relationship the past few years."

"Luhan, get back to work, or I'm not going to give you the raise that you've been asking for." Kyungsoo retorts on the beat, clearly unaffected by his friend's remark. Luhan covers his snicker with a fake cough before disappearing behind the back door once more. 

After he leaves, the black haired florist turns back to Chanyeol, rolling his eyes but a smile on his lips. "I was joking earlier by the way. You can go and deliver those in the meantime." Kyungsoo gestures to a large cardboard box on the floor.

"Sure thing." Chanyeol says cheerfully before swiftly picking up the box with ease. "Anything else from Byun Baekhyun lately?" He adds, trying to sound as casual as possible. The sous chef probably fails in doing so though, for Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow at him suspiciously before looking back down at the counter. 

"Why do you keep asking me that? Don't you know that you could just go ahead and look for yourself?" The black haired florist shakes his head as he flips through several recent papers, frowning. "But to answer your question, no. Maybe he's taking a break, he's ordered a lot of stuff from us after all." 

"It's nothing." Chanyeol feels strangely disappointed. "Thanks for checking though."

He looks back at Kyungsoo afterwards, who sighed after looking at the empty spot besides him. Normally Jongdae would be sitting on that stool, playing with the telephone chord while annoying the staff with his bad jokes and loud laughter. It was significantly more quiet with the barista's absence, but Chanyeol had to admit that he missed his company. "Still haven't found out where Jongdae is yet?" 

"Nope," Kyungsoo mutters as he massages his temples. "It's starting to worry me. He's not picking up his phone, and hasn't left any text messages for me." He sighs again before continuing. "I tried calling Junmyeon too, but it led me straight to his voicemail. It's nearing nine, I don't think Jongdae's going to be coming in anytime soon."

"That's strange," Chanyeol comments nonchalantly, still lugging the somewhat heavy box in his hands. "well, if that's all then—I'll be heading out now." With that, he turns promptly around to head towards the delivery van parked at the curb, humming a light tune before reaching the glass doors. He turns around and shouts an "I'll be back!" before kicking the door open, for his hands were full.

Unfortunately, he doesn't hear Kyungsoo's "WAIT!" in time and Chanyeol's eyes widen when he sees a figure crumple to the floor outside—collapsing from the force of the door hitting their body. The sous chef lets out a yell in surprise, setting the large box he's holding back inside the shop at once as Kyungsoo rushes from the counter to the front of the store, eyes wide with horror.

Still in the back, Luhan yells a "What the hell just happened?" as Chanyeol starts to feel a mixture of panic and immense guilt wash over him. As he steps over the fallen body and observes the person's features in the dim lighting, he realizes that the one lying on the floor was no other than Kim Jongdae himself.

"Oh my—!" Chanyeol swears, covering his hands over his mouth as he kneels besides his friend. "Oh my God, Jongdae. I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry..." He apologizes over and over frantically even though he knew that the barista couldn't hear him. There's a bump starting to form on said male's forehead and his nose was bleeding. It didn't seem as if it was broken though, which Chanyeol was more than grateful for.

Luhan appears in the doorway about a minute or two later, breathing heavily, halting at the sight of Chanyeol and Kyungsoo kneeling besides their friend. "Is that Jongdae?" Luhan mutters in amazement, bending down. He pats Jongdae's cheek lightly, frowning when the latter doesn't react to the touch. "How the hell is his nose not broken from the impact?" 

"We need to get him to hospital, and fast." Kyungsoo says hurriedly. "That bump looks pretty nasty." 

Chanyeol shrugs Jongdae onto his back as soon as Kyungsoo finishes his sentence. "I guess the deliveries will have to wait 'til tomorrow." He stares ruefully at the box lying next to the door before tearing his gaze away. "Come on, we'll take my car."

After Luhan walks back in to shut the lights off, change the 'OPEN' sign to 'CLOSED' and lock the shop's doors, Chanyeol nearly throws himself in the car, starting it immediately after Kyungsoo climbs in the passenger's seat next to him.

Luhan on the other hand chooses to slide in the back with Jongdae—whose head lolls repeatedly from side-to-side before landing promptly on the brunet's shoulder. He hears Luhan make a strangled noise, trying to push the barista off of him as Kyungsoo raises his voice over all of the commotion. "The nearest hospital is ten minutes away."

"Got it." Chanyeol exhales, speeding up once they get out of the parking lot.

 

 

---

 

 

Byun Baekhyun slumps against his sectional in the living room.

Not that he was counting, but today marks the end of his first month at work (which was incredibly hectic, mind you), a month of living in this really comfortable apartment, and also marks a month since he saw Park Chanyeol for the first time.

Ever since their first encounter, Baekhyun had felt... strangely more than intrigued by the delivery guy—it could explain why he proceeded to call the shop two (or more times) after their first meeting, asking for a few more deliveries to be made to his apartment. The second time that Baekhyun called a week after the first delivery, Jongdae didn't pick up on the other line.

It was some guy named Luhan who answered instead, and Baekhyun was able to vaguely recognize the other florist's voice being in the background the last time the doctor had talked to Jongdae. In his opinion he preferred talking to Jongdae more; Luhan talked much too fast and much too excitedly. 

Ten minutes later, there was a light knock on the door. When the doctor opened it tentatively, the one and only Park Chanyeol was standing there in the hallway—beautiful lavender tulips secured in his arms. Baekhyun remembered feeling a strong sense of dèjá vu at the sight, but had smiled at him earnestly when he saw the taller man for the second time that month. "Dr. Byun Baekhyun?"

"Park Chanyeol." His name was still a little unfamiliar on his tongue, but Baekhyun liked the sound of it. At the same time, the doctor felt strangely elated at the fact that Chanyeol had actually remembered his as well. "You're on time for once," he had teased. 

"Surprised?" The delivery guy chuckled. "For me, being late is a once in a lifetime experience. Consider yourself lucky to have witnessed it."

After that, the doctor gave Chanyeol the payment for the flowers (which the taller gratefully accepted). He had flashed him another blindingly bright (and infectious) smile as Baekhyun proceeded to take the tulips from the other's arms.

Then Chanyeol looked into his apartment and noted: "The roses look like they're in excellent condition," gesturing to the red flowers sitting on the coffee table.

"Ah, well. I used to do this a lot back in the countryside. Growing and watering flowers." 

"That's cool." Chanyeol supplied with a nod, and this time Baekhyun looked curiously at him. Then the taller guy gave him a small wave (Baekhyun still saw the three small band-aids on his palm) with a matching smile, before he stepped back into the hallway. "Bye, Baek. See you again sometime." And with that, he his heels and walked off—Baekhyun grinning at the nickname.

The third time Baekhyun called the store again was about a few days after the second call. He was watering the roses and the tulips when the thought crossed his mind to call again, and he still didn't know why he had the urge to.

Maybe it was the flowers, the doctor mused as he stared at the two flower pots sitting on his coffee table. Looking at them made him feel somewhat relaxed, especially after the long hours of being stuck in a hospital all day. He was definitely not calling We Are One repeatedly just to see Chanyeol again. Definitely not.

"Or maybe you are!" A weird voice sang in the back of his head, which he ignored.

Anyways, when he called the store again Jongdae had returned. Baekhyun was surprised to hear his voice at the other end of the line, having gotten a little used to hearing Luhan's. Jongdae sounded exhausted and possibly even a little irritated—but he had also recognized Baekhyun's voice the moment the doctor had told him his order, this time ordering a small pot of chamomiles.

"So I've happened to notice that this is the... third time you're ordering something in two weeks?" Jongdae asked him back then, sounding both amazed and concerned at the same time. "I don't mean to pry or anything, but I don't know whether or not I should feel grateful or worried that you're spending your money on a bunch of flowers."

Baekhyun chuckled. "It's okay, really. I like them."

"Well, that's good enough for me."

He hung up after that conversation, telling Baekhyun that Chanyeol should be there "in a few". Surely enough, there was a light knock on the doctor's door ten minutes later—once he had opened it, the doctor immediately broke into a grin at the sight of him. Chanyeol gave him another one of his gorgeous bright smiles at the door as Baekhyun handed him the payment. Then he got his flowers, and that was it. 

Nothing that interesting really happened between them, except for the fact that they had gradually started to joke around with each other more, sharing sarcastic remarks and light teasing. This time it seemed like Chanyeol was in a hurry and left almost as quickly as he came howe, much to Baekhyun's slight disappointment.

After that, Baekhyun kept on ordering things—buying a total of about twenty different kinds of flowers from We Are One in the span of a month. He could understand Jongdae's concern; flowers were unfortunately not that cheap. It was a very good thing that he had found a bunch of coupons from a newspaper clipping a while back, which saved him tons of money. 

To be honest, he didn't really know what to do with the flowers once Chanyeol had delivered them to him. 

That reason alone was probably how Baekhyun decided to be nice for once, sending a few of the flowers he's ordered to some of his old college friends and to his mom back at home. He also placed a short note accompanied with the potted plants just for the heck of it, messages sometimes reading a simple 'I miss you' (to his mother) or 'here's a nice present for keeping up with me for all these years' (to his friends).

He always gets all sorts of responses from his friends a few days after he sends the packages to them, a lot of them wondering when Baekhyun actually started showing the smallest bit of affection for them (he snorted when he read the cards)—but they truly were grateful, and that made him pretty happy. His mom too was overjoyed that Baekhyun was sending her things, always stating that she loved him and always wished him the best.

The doctor shakes his head to bring him back into the present, snapping out of his thoughts before training his gaze on the three pots of flowers sitting on the table. He leans forward a bit, smoothing out some of the petals gently and marveling silently to himself on how soft they were. Baekhyun gets interrupted shortly after when his phone starts buzzing, startling him momentarily.

"Hello?" He asks, once the phone is up to his ear.

"Dr. Byun." It's someone from work, and they sound pretty frantic. Baekhyun springs to his feet at once, knowing that what she's about to say isn't good news. "I know that you just got off your shift, but we have a slight emergency. Dr. Lee left early because he had to take care of family business, and we tried getting a hold of Dr. Jung but she's not picking up. Can you come?"

"Uh, yeah, I'll be there."

"Thank you so much!" 

She hangs up, and Baekhyun didn't even have to change into his uniform for he was already wearing it. He stuffs his device in his pocket and opts to take the stairs for once in his life (mainly because the elevators are so damn slow and taking the stairs are way quicker), breathing heavily the moment he steps outside the door. Once he gets out of the apartment building he jogs to his car parked in the lot and climbs in after unlocking it, hands secured on the steering wheel.

Baekhyun reaches the hospital in record time, having run a few stop signs along the way. But hey, an emergency was an emergency. He pushes open the glass doors, his eyes landing on a fretful looking nurse. "Dr. Byun!" She says gratefully, as he gives her a curt nod. He assumes that she was the nurse that had called him earlier about the situation.

"What happened?"

She gestures to a room frantically, where the patient most likely was staying. The nurse stood outside as Baekhyun moves to open the door slowly, acknowledging the fact that there were three other people waiting in the room with whoever he was going to see.

Once he walks in (shutting the door behind him) his eyes land on the person lying on the propped up hospital bed, who had sharp features and a square jaw. The guy looks as if he were sleeping; chest rising and falling peacefully, hands neatly folded on his stomach. But Baekhyun can already tell that the guy was unconscious, based on the small bump that had sprouted on his forehead as well as his bleeding nose, both most likely caused from a hard hit.

"What happened?" Baekhyun repeats, now concerned.

He shuffles over to edge closer to the unconscious guy and looks up. Needless to say, he is quite surprised to meet a familiar pair of warm brown eyes—Park Chanyeol. Judging by the taller's surprised expression, he clearly wasn't expecting him to be here either.

What seems to be the beginning of a small smile flickers on Chanyeol's lips upon seeing him, and Baekhyun immediately feels his throat growing dry at the action. He clears it before observing the other two people in the room.

One of them was taller than him but shorter than Chanyeol, having brown hair parted in the middle and soft facial features—while the guy standing next to him was about the same height as Baekhyun, maybe shorter. He had a head of black hair, wide eyes, and a worried expression on his face. All three of them were wearing dark gray aprons with nametags pinned on the right side of their chests. 

Chanyeol coughs nervously, breaking the silence. "Uh... it's kind of a long story."

Baekhyun checks his watch and shrugs. "I have time."

"Basically, Chanyeol wasn't looking where he was going and accidentally kicked our friend Jongdae here in the face with the glass door as he was leaving to deliver orders." Brown Hair explains, shaking his head as he does so—ignoring the exasperated noise Chanyeol makes. "We work at a flower shop called We Are One by the way, I hope that explains the aprons."

Baekhyun's eyes widen at the mention of Jongdae and the familiar flower shop, gaze shifting back to the still unconscious male on the hospital bed. He wonders why Brown Hair's voice sounds vaguely familiar, and then blinks when he finally pays attention to the nametag pinned to the brunet's attire. "Wait a second, you're Luhan?"

As soon as he asks, Baekhyun glances at the other member standing next to Luhan in an attempt to identify him as well, but the black haired male's nametag was blocked for he brought up his right arm and was currently covering his mouth and chin with his right hand.

"Well, yeah." Luhan confirms after a while, looking a little bit creeped out, bewildered, and suspicious at the same time. "And how exactly do you know that?"

"Nametag." Baekhyun then says, grinning when Luhan looks down in surprise. "I'm pretty sure that we've spoken over the phone before. I'm Byun Baekhyun." The doctor gestures to his own nametag which was pinned to his own uniform.

The confused expression on the brunet's face remains there for a while as he squints at the nametag pinned to Baekhyun's chest. Luhan then gapes at the doctor a few moments later, not before he places a hand over his mouth in evident surprise. "Holy , you're Baekhyun?"

"Uh-huh."

"Holy ." Luhan repeats, voice muffled from behind his hand.

"I'm sorry for interrupting whatever this is," Black Hair speaks up at last, slight annoyance and impatience embedded in his tone. "but can we please get back to the matter at hand?"

Baekhyun grabs a tissue from his pocket and after putting some gloves on rubs the corner of Jongdae's nose carefully, where a few specs of dried blood were located. "Well, he isn't hurt too badly," he notes, relieved. Afterwards, the doctor touches his patient's nose gently and checks to see if any of the bones are broken. "his nose seems fine too."

He proceeds to undo the first few buttons of Jongdae's shirt and his frown grows deeper when he's greeted with the sight of a medium sized purple bruise on the other's chest. "He'll have to put ice on that, though."

"But," Baekhyun adds quickly, before Chanyeol opens his mouth to say something. "he does have a mild concussion. It would be best to keep him from doing anything dangerous or hazardous to his health until he's fully recovered. In the meantime, I suggest putting an ice pack to his forehead to get rid of that bump."

Once he finishes talking, he places said ice pack (wrapped in a small towel) on the patient's forehead and watches as the corners of Jongdae's mouth twitch a little. 

"Thanks a bunch, Dr. Byun," Luhan says cheerfully.

"Just Baekhyun is fine." Baekhyun assures him as he starts to rebutton Jongdae's shirt. "Since it's already pretty late I think it'd be okay to leave Jongdae here temporarily, probably for a night or two. I'm sure he'll be fine here, I can explain everything to him once he wakes up." He looks up, and his gaze ends up meeting Black Hair's.

To his surprise, the other adult's lips form into a small smile. His previous stony and uncertain expression has disappeared, replaced with a neutral expression instead, and it made Baekhyun inwardly sigh in relief. He was sure that he didn't want to piss this guy off anytime soon. 

"That's very considerate of you," Black Hair muses thoughtfully, as he pulls his phone from his pocket. "now if you'll excuse me, I have to make a call."

"To who, Kyungsoo?" Luhan asks, wiggling his eyebrows. At the mention of the other's name, Baekhyun vaguely remembers Chanyeol mentioning a Kyungsoo a while back—it was very likely that this was the same person he was talking about back then. He's a little confused when a knowing smirk appears on Luhan's lips. "Jongin?"

"No, you idiot." Kyungsoo frowns. "Junmyeon."

"Oh." Luhan sounds vaguely disappointed. "How come?"

"Because Junmyeon will be worried sick if Jongdae doesn't show up for work tomorrow, and that will definitely not be good for his health." Kyungsoo says matter-of-factly as he approaches the door. He places a hand on the door's handle before looking over his shoulder. "I'll be back in a few moments," the florist adds, before shutting the door behind him.

Baekhyun backtracks a little, thinking about Kyungsoo's words and the mention of someone named Junmyeon—yet another thing that the doctor found strangely familiar to him. Wasn't Junmyeon the guy who was in the elevator with him that one time?

He's brought out of his thoughts when Luhan puffs his cheeks and lets out a long sigh after Kyungsoo leaves. "Well, tonight was certainly eventful." Luhan notes casually, as he moves to sit on one of the cushioned chairs in the room. He nods at Baekhyun before continuing. "Are you planning on staying here tonight?" 

Baekhyun shrugs. "Probably, you?"

"I'm only staying because I know that I'll feel really bad if I ditch Jongdae again. I'm such a great friend, aren't I?" Luhan grins sheepishly. When he sees Baekhyun raise a questioning eyebrow at 'again', the florist waves him off distractedly. "Yeah, again. But that's another story for another time."

"I'm not sure whether to feel alarmed or amused."

"Some people stay in the waiting rooms the whole night too, don't they? The chairs look comfortable enough to be able to at least sleep in them." Luhan then asks, changing the subject abruptly. When Baekhyun nods to answer his question, he stands up and stretches. "Okay, cool. I'm going to be there if you guys need me. Tell Kyungsoo that for me so he won't freak out or anything." With that, he waves and shoots a final grin at the two of them before walking out the door.

Once it closes behind him, Baekhyun feels his previous nerves return.

He's alone in the room now with Chanyeol (not really though, because Jongdae's still in the room, although unconscious), playing with the hem of his shirt nervously. Baekhyun really didn't know what to say—he certainly didn't imagine his next meeting with the delivery guy to be anything like this.

"Despite all the crazy stuff going on, it's nice to see you again." Chanyeol says, his deep voice bringing Baekhyun back to reality. 

When he looks up, the delivery guy sends him a soft smile. It's enough to make Baekhyun's stomach drop. "You too." The doctor finds himself agreeing to Chanyeol's words, and manages to smile back at him without making a fool out of himself.

"Although... I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to see you at all today. I thought that we'd see each other again when—" Realizing his mistake a little too late, Baekhyun immediately cuts himself off and coughs nervously. "—uh, anyway, how are you?"

Chanyeol raises his eyebrows. "When what?"

Damn it. "When... uh. When I was going to order more flowers."

"More flowers?" Chanyeol repeats, amazed. Baekhyun wills himself to glance at Chanyeol after he says that, biting his bottom lip nervously.

The delivery guy's staring at him with a mixture of mild surprise and amusement on his face now, a hint of a smirk starting to form on his lips. "Are you even aware of how many you ordered in the past month?" Chanyeol teases, his smug expression showing absolutely no sign of going away anytime soon.

Baekhyun snorts (inwardly screaming as he does so because he ing noticed). "I am, actually." 

Chanyeol's about to say something, but he's interrupted when Kyungsoo re-enters the room at that moment. The black haired florist looks particularly displeased when he walks in. "Junmyeon didn't take that too well." Kyungsoo grumbles, swiveling towards Chanyeol at once. "He thought that I was pulling an April Fool's joke on him. I had to remind him that we were currently in the middle of September."

"Wow," Chanyeol laughs. "he probably has a lot of stuff on his mind."

"Yeah, but I think that he's going to visit Jongdae pretty soon, judging by how much he freaked out." Kyungsoo shrugs half-heartedly before the corners of his lips pull down into a frown. "Where's Luhan?" He asks suddenly, upon noticing the brown haired florist's absence. "I swear, if he's out at this hour..."

"Nah, he's in the waiting room." Baekhyun answers with a reassuring smile. "Said he was going to sleep in one of the chairs."

"Thank goodness, I wouldn't want a repeat of last time..." Kyungsoo rubs his eyes and fights back a wide yawn with much difficulty. "Sleep sounds like a really good idea right now, actually." He looks up at the doctor, frown deepening. "Are you sure you're okay with us staying the night? I know it's kind of sudden, not to mention slightly alarming."

"It's okay, seriously. No one's going to judge you for it. At least, the staff won't... I think."

"Are you sure you'll be okay here?"

"Of course I will."

Kyungsoo finally relaxes a little at his words. "If you say so." He walks out once more (closing the door behind him), before telling the two of them a quiet goodnight. After Baekhyun and Chanyeol mutter a goodnight back, the black haired male leaves to join Luhan in the waiting room. It's silent after Kyungsoo shuts the door behind him, the doctor's gaze lingering on it.

"You know..." Chanyeol then mutters, as Baekhyun turns his head to look at him across the room. Now it's the taller's turn to be nervous—he's avoiding Baekhyun's confused gaze, choosing to glance at Jongdae (who was now muttering something in his sleep) as he rubs a hand thoughtfully on his chin. "We don't have to keep seeing each other like this."

"Like what, exactly?"

"Like... I mean. I think it'd be nice to see each other outside of me delivering things to you all the time." Chanyeol explains quickly, the tips of his ears slightly reddening. "We can become actual friends or something." Baekhyun doesn't say anything for a while, eyes widened in surprise as his heart pounds against his chest.

"Friends," Baekhyun repeats, albeit stupidly.

"You know..." Chanyeol waves a hand nervously. "Friends."

"I... I think I like the sound of that." Baekhyun finds himself blurting out before he could think twice, a smile working its way onto his lips. After he finishes his sentence, he glances over back to Chanyeol to see the man perking up instantly by the statement. His eyes were wide, and his grin was certainly wider.

"Awesome," the delivery guy breathes at last, looking extremely relieved. Chanyeol squints at the clock on the other side of the wall and lets out a long exhale. "oh, wow. I didn't realize that it's ten. Might as well sleep now, if I'm planning on being on time for work tomorrow." He glances at Baekhyun before giving him another thousand watt smile. "Where are you sleeping?"

"I dunno, personally I don't think that I will be sleeping tonight." Baekhyun laughs lightly. "I feel obligated to check on Jongdae and see if he gets better."

Chanyeol stares. "So you're just going to stay here?"

"That's the plan."

"I..." Chanyeol mutters. The tips of his ears are turning red again. "I can stay here with you, if you'd like?"

Baekhyun's eyes widen a little at his words, looking away at once to hide the light blush spreading on his cheeks. He chooses to focus on the small trash can besides the door in the meantime. "Errr... I don't know. I mean, you really don't have to if you don't want to. I know for a fact that the chairs in the waiting room are much more comfortable than the ones here."

"They have cushions, so I won't be suffering that much."

"Are you sure?"

"Baek, if I wasn't so sure then I wouldn't have suggested it in the first place."

Baekhyun hesitates, frowning.

"I did this to Jongdae in the first place anyways," Chanyeol mentions. "so I know I'll feel really bad if I don't apologize to him first thing when he wakes up."

"O-Okay." He says, finally giving in to the delivery guy's suggestion, moving to sit in one of the chairs by the door. Chanyeol sinks into the one that was a seat away from his. They don't say anything for a while, too occupied in their own thoughts to.

Besides, this was the first time that they were having an actual, proper conversation outside of those several—or more than several—flower deliveries. They were still technically strangers. Strangers who were friendly with each other. Friendly strangers? Was that even a thing?

"Goodnight." Chanyeol mutters quietly, before shutting his eyes and shifting into a more comfortable position.

Baekhyun doesn't answer right away, watching with a small sort of smile on his face as he witnesses Chanyeol falling asleep almost immediately; the taller's breathing starting to slow after just a few moments. It's sort of relaxing, for some reason.

"Goodnight," Baekhyun whispers, before resting his head against the wall.

 

 

---

 

 

Baekhyun doesn't realize that he's dozed off until he wakes up to the sound of someone muttering a soft "Uuuuuggggghhhhh."

He sits up with a start, looking right to see Chanyeol's still sleeping figure, thinking that the noise came from him. 

When Chanyeol doesn't stir, the doctor narrows his eyes as he fumbles for his phone, pressing the power button to display the time. The numbers blink back at him: 6:17 am. After a moment of silence Baekhyun's about to nod off (thinking that it's way too early for this) before he hears the person's voice again. "Uuuuuggggghhhhh... where the hell am I?"

At this, Baekhyun remembers with a jolt that Jongdae was still in the room with them.

With that realization whatever remaining sleep he previously had vanishes completely, causing Baekhyun to instantly stand up from his seat; slightly panicking because he felt responsible to check up on how his patient was doing. The doctor watches as Jongdae rubs his eyes tiredly and looks at him with confusion etched on his features.

The towel slides down a little on Jongdae's face, but the injured adult catches it before it falls—not before letting out a gasp of surprise at the touch.

"Good morning," Baekhyun greets him.

"Good morni—holy crap, that's cold." Jongdae replies, wincing slightly as he presses a tentative hand against the wet towel. His voice sounds a little different in real life, but it's still recognizable. "Where am I?" He repeats groggily, exhaustion evident in his tone.

"Hospital." The doctor answers. "And that cold thing on your head is an ice pack, keep it there. It's going to help that bump go away." Once he's sure that Jongdae would be okay for now, he moves over to the sink and begins to wash his hands, feeling the warm water hit his skin. He's aware of Jongdae observing the room silently before hearing him speak up again.

"What even happened? I just remember seeing Chanyeol at the door and then blacking out—"

"—about that. I was told that Chanyeol accidentally kicked you in the face with the glass doors." Baekhyun smiles apologetically at his patient, turning off the sink and wiping his hands clean on a paper towel. He tilts his head towards the delivery guy, who was still snoozing away on the other side of the room. At the corner of his eye he sees Jongdae scoff and shift around in the hospital bed, sinking his head further into the pillow.

"Seriously? Man, that sure does explain the headache."

"Yeah. He stayed here because he told me he felt pretty bad for doing this to you. By the way, your coworkers—Luhan and Kyungsoo—are here too if you're wondering." Baekhyun explains. "They're in the waiting room, probably sleeping on the chairs or something." He looks over his shoulder and sees Jongdae grinning slightly, looking amused and touched at the same time.

A pause. "Wow, that's really nice of them."

"They're good people."

"Pfft. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol sure, but Luhan? Questionable." Jongdae snorts, as Baekhyun manages a laugh at his statement. It was obvious that Jongdae cared about his friends a lot, and it was clear that the feelings were mutual. Honestly, it made Baekhyun feel a little envious; he hasn't really had a stable group of friends ever since he left high school. Sure, he had his college friends, but they were all off doing their own thing.

Jongdae adjusts the towel on his forehead as he leans further back into the pillow, letting out a small sigh of satisfaction the moment that he got fully comfortable. His eyes shift over to Baekhyun, who was looking back at him. "Who are you anyway?"

"Your doctor."

"Obviously." Jongdae chuckles at his response, but his smile turns into a grimace as he clutches his chest—clearly it hurt to laugh because of the bruise. When Baekhyun steps forward, concerned, he waves a hand. "It's okay, thank you. But let me rephrase that: what's your name? You sound awfully familiar."

The doctor smiles in response, not saying anything as he showed Jongdae his nametag.

Jongdae's eyes widen hugely after reading it. "Ah, so you're the guy who keeps buying flowers from us!"

"Yep, that's me."

"Wow." He gives Baekhyun a small, knowing smile before continuing. "Chanyeol did mention that you were a doctor, but as you can see, you can tell that neither of us were expecting to be here. Is everything okay so far?" 

"True," Baekhyun admits, mind spinning at the fact that Chanyeol actually talked about him. "and yes; everything's going pretty well at the moment."

Chanyeol stirs as soon as he finishes his sentence, blinking wearily at the two after rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He gives Jongdae a sheepish grin before raising his right hand (the small bandages on his hand were long gone), placing it on the back of his neck. Chanyeol smiles at the duo before turning to address Jongdae. "How are you feeling?" 

"I'm okay now, but I've had my better days." To confirm that, he flashes him two thumbs up, grinning widely before continuing. "My head and chest do hurt like hell, though. Thanks a lot for that." Jongdae drops his hands and lays his arms back on his stomach afterwards, the smile not leaving his face.

"I'm really sorry. I should've looked where I was going." Chanyeol apologizes sincerely, looking incredibly guilty.

"It's fine, accidents happen. This at least gives me a good excuse to not go to work."

Chanyeol laughs at his statement before sitting up and putting his head in his hands. He stares at Jongdae with a curious expression on his face. "But in all seriousness, you haven't called Kyungsoo all day yesterday, he was very worried about you. Not to mention that you didn't show up one day a few weeks ago without telling us until the last minute, and you also were coming when the store was almost closing last night... you've been a little off lately. What's up?"

"Why so nosy?" Jongdae whines.

"I'm your friend, I have every right to be."

"Uh. Can it wait?"

"What do you mean, 'can it wait'?"

"I mean, can it wait until Kyungsoo and Luhan—"

As if on cue, the door swings open in the middle of Jongdae's sentence, the two said florists filing into the room. Kyungsoo walks in first, looking tired but alert as he takes the seat next to Chanyeol. On the other hand Luhan was wearing a really big smile on his face, holding a half-filled styrofoam cup with coffee in one of his hands. 

Jongdae stares at them, incredulous. "What the..."

"We heard you guys talking when we walked over to the other side to get some coffee at that small cafeteria. This stuff is surprisingly pretty good." Luhan elaborates, as if to answer his unsaid question. He places the cup on the counter gently before spreading his arms, nearly whacking Baekhyun in the face. "Jongdae, my man!"

"Hello," came Jongdae's reply.

"How are you feeling?" Kyungsoo then asks, concern clear in his tone. He leans forward slightly and crosses his arms. "Do you need anything? How do you feel about going back to work? How many days would you need off? Are you—"

Jongdae holds up his hands to stop the black haired florist from attacking him with more questions. "My dear Kyungsoo. I appreciate your concern and all but please, let me breathe for just a second. But to answer the ones so far: I'm okay, I don't need anything, I feel great, I don't know, and I don't know." Kyungsoo wordlessly turns to Baekhyun, and he frowns in thought.

"It's going to take a while for him to recover from that small concussion, so I think it'd be best to let him rest for a couple of days." Baekhyun hums, and Kyungsoo nods intently at his words. "Jongdae may feel fine now, but we don't know how he'll feel much later in the week."

"Anyways, what were you saying about coming late last night?" Chanyeol says irritably. "You said to wait until they came, and they're here now. Get on with it." Now curious, Kyungsoo's head whips to the side and he glances at Chanyeol with wide eyes. 

"What's going on?" Kyungsoo's wide-eyed gaze shifts from Chanyeol to Jongdae.

Jongdae pales. "It's really nothing."

"Clearly it's not if Chanyeol has something to say about it." Luhan says nonchalantly, as he raises his cup at him. He lets out a laugh when Jongdae and Chanyeol both send a glare towards his direction. Baekhyun watches as Jongdae frowns a little, opening his mouth and closing it repeatedly before finally settling on what he was going to say. 

"Okay, fine. So there's a new guy who recently employed at the café about a month ago." He begins. "Anyways, Junmyeon's been telling me to, you know, help the new guy with all the stuff behind the counter—to take him under my wing and get him used to the environment. He never stops asking me questions which ultimately ends up in me having to stay extra shifts to help him, not to mention that he made me feel a little uneasy."

When Jongdae finishes, Luhan waves his hand in a 'go on' gesture.

"Um, that's it."

"Well, that was incredibly anticlimatic." Luhan shakes his head in disappointment as he tilts his head back to take in some more of his coffee. Baekhyun couldn't help but silently agree with him. "Are you really sure that's all there is to the story?"

"I did tell you that it was nothing."

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow. "Wait, you work in a cafe?"

"Yes." Luhan answers for his friend, the smile returning to his face. "Kyungsoo and I are the only ones who are full time florists. Jongdae's a barista-slash-singer and Chanyeol is our absolutely lovely sous chef. They help out a lot in their free time, Jongdae answering the phone and Chanyeol delivering flowers, but surely you know that part already."

"Don't lie." Jongdae scoffs. "I don't sing professionally."

Baekhyun stares at the two in awe. "Either way, that's still pretty impressive."

"Thanks." Jongdae grins, as the tips of Chanyeol's ears start to turn red at the compliment.

Kyungsoo coughs. "Anyways, what were you saying about that guy making you feel uneasy?"

"Oh, right—well, to be honest I don't know." Jongdae shivers, his smile faltering a little. "He watched me too closely, as if he was always wainting for me to make a mistake or some like that. I really don't know why always I felt a little intimidated in his presence. He doesn't even look the least bit intimidating at all. What the actual ."

"Do you have a picture of him or something?" Chanyeol asks curiously.

Jongdae shakes his head. "No, but check the website. We took a new staff photo a few days back and put it online."

Kyungsoo proceeds to pull out his phone at once and taps in the name of the café, bringing him to the website. Baekhyun and Luhan move to look over the black haired florist's shoulder as soon as it loads, and Chanyeol frowns as he too tries to figure out who Jongdae was referring to.

"Is he the tall guy with tattoos all over his arms?" The delivery guy guesses. When he looks up to meet Jongdae's gaze, the barista snorts and shakes his head.

"That guy with glasses—oh wait, haha. My bad, that's Junmyeon." Luhan laughs at his mistake, and Baekhyun vaguely recognizes Junmyeon's face from being in the elevator with him that one time. There's a friendly smile on his lips (the same one Baekhyun remembers) and his brown eyes are shining brightly behind the lenses. 

"Seriously, who are you talking about?" Chanyeol complains, giving up. "I've got to head to work in an hour." 

"The one on Junmyeon's left."

Baekhyun leans to look closer, and when Kyungsoo zooms in on the guy's face he can't help but bite back a laugh. He looked the complete opposite of intimidating—adorable, even. Jongdae was right when he said the guy didn't look intimidating at all. Hell, Baekhyun himself had to admit that the guy screamed cute in general with that baby face and fluffy brown hair of his.

Luhan chokes on his coffee, apparently thinking the same thing. "Are you actually kidding me? He looks like the youngest person there! Even Junmyeon looks older than him." He sputters, pointing at Kyungsoo's phone increduously. Luhan turns to Jongdae with evident disbelief written all over his face. "I can't believe that you're actually scared of a ball of fluff."

Jongdae rolls his eyes at his friend's statement before speaking up again. "Now that just proves that you weren't listening to anything that I was saying. I thought that he was intimidating. Thought, Luhan. I was using past tense."

"You little—"

"So... you're not scared of him anymore?" Chanyeol asks, clearly confused.

"No, I'm not."

"How did you even find him intimidating in the first place?" Kyungsoo wonders aloud, eyes wide.

"Hear me out," Jongdae says defensively. "I'm pretty sure that I was only slightly scared because Junmyeon told me that this guy was actually an ex-soldier. He used to be part of the military, so that also meant that he's super buff and can snap me in half if I do anything that pisses him off. And he always looked pissed off whenever he was with me." 

"I can't believe this." Luhan giggles. "I literally can't believe this."

"Shut up."

"But he's so—"

"—seriously, Luhan. As much as I'm grateful for all of you guys staying here for me, I'm starting to get a really bad headache." Jongdae suddenly grumbles, as he adjusts the icepack on his forehead. He buries his head back into the pillow before exhaling deeply. "Please, go be productive without me. I'll see you all later."

Baekhyun nods in agreement, his doctor mode taking over. "He's right, he does need his rest after all." 

"We'll be going now, then." Kyungsoo says, standing up from the chair. "Come on Luhan."

Luhan steps a few feet away from the trash can to the other side of the room, squinting at his now empty styrofoam cup. He adjusts his position and mimicks shooting a few free throws before tossing the item into the bin with one swift motion. "Hell yeah, three pointer." He grins, when he sees the cup land inside with a light thunk. "Oh, and Baekhyun?" The doctor looks up, eyebrows raised.

"You should hang out with us sometime." Luhan says cheerfully, holding out his hand for the doctor to shake. "I don't have any doctor friends, you can be the first."

Baekhyun grins as he takes it. "Sounds like a plan, I don't have any florist friends either."

"I guess you can say that there really is first time for everything," The brunet beams at him.

Kyungsoo tells him a temporary goodbye as well, and after that the two florists proceeded to leave the room. Once they've gone, Chanyeol stands up from his chair and dusts off his jeans, stretching. "I took them here, so I'll have to take them back too." He says, nodding towards the direction where Kyungsoo and Luhan went. "See you around?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Cool." Chanyeol beams, and then pulls his phone out. "Uh, can I have your number?"

Baekhyun, who was now approaching Jongdae with another ice pack in his hand, turns around immediately as soon as he heard what Chanyeol said. "What?" He asks, even though he heard Chanyeol perfectly. Unnoticed by the two, Jongdae stifles a loud (and what would be painful) laugh by digging the side of his face deeper into the pillow, grinning as he witnesses the scene unfolding in front of him. 

"Can I have your, uh, number?" He repeats slowly. "For... future reference. Yeah, that's it."

"U-uh, sure." Baekhyun walks over and types the digits in the device quickly, before smiling up at him hesitantly—observing how Chanyeol looks over the set of numbers wordlessly before breaking into one of the largest and brightest grins Baekhyun's ever seen on his face.

"Thanks!" The sous chef grins his award winning smile. "Later, Baek, Jongdae."

And with that he leaves, closing the door behind him.

Baekhyun doesn't even realize that he's still staring at the closed door until Jongdae begins to cough a little violently. Startled, he immediately turns back to his patient—momentarily scolding himself for being distracted. The doctor makes the latter sit up and pats his back until the barista stops coughing, undoing the first two buttons on his shirt as he does so.

"Whoa, man." Jongdae wheezes, his eyes wide as he pushes the doctor's hands away immediately. "I'm flattered and all, but I'm really sorry to say that I already have someone else on my mind—and it's obvious that you do too."

"Kim Jongdae, there's a ing bruise on your chest that's about the size of my hand." Baekhyun grumbles, although he wonders about what Jongdae meant by him having someone else on his mind. "I'm not stripping you because I want to."

Jongdae lets out a wheezy laugh at his statement, and Baekhyun too manages a smile before letting the other take off his shirt—putting another ice pack on the other's chest after covering it with another small towel. No words are exchanged between them as Baekhyun pushes him gently back onto the hospital bed, so that the barista's head was back on the pillow.

"Want to hear a secret?" Jongdae mutters after a while.

The doctor stares, hesitating before his growing curiosity finally got to the best of him. "Um, I guess. What is it?"

"It's about earlier," The barista grins mischievously, looking more than amused with himself. "when I was telling you guys about the person that I was helping out at the cafe. You know how I said that he asked a lot of questions and I had to stay extra shifts because I needed to help him?"

"Yeah." Baekhyun supplies. "What about it?"

"Well... I lied."

"That's pretty ironic, considering that you told Luhan not to lie just a few minutes ago."

"I know." Jongdae laughs merrily. "The truth is: this guy actually knows what he's doing. He doesn't ask me a lot of questions, I just made it seem like an excuse to cover up the real reason why I've been staying extra shifts the past few weeks. I'm not lying about the fact that I used to be scared of him either, I'm really not anymore though."

"Interesting, but shouldn't you be resting? If you talk more, your headache'll worsen."

"Oh, right." The barista nods. "That reminds me, I lied about that too."

"My God."

"But that, my dear Baekhyun, is completely irrelevant information for us to know and for them to find out. Anyways," Jongdae continues casually, "I stay late just to watch him, and I mean that in the least creepy way possible. That's the real reason why I've been so tired the past few days, I take extra shifts to help him when he doesn't need it. I didn't need to stay behind, I wanted to. It's fascinating, you know—how he seems like to be the one who's intent on doing everything right. He's a little weirded out by me though, he thinks that I just stay to mock him or something."

"I see." Baekhyun blinks slowly.

"Yeah. Weird thing is, I think... I think that I like him."

Although the doctor was sort of expecting it, Baekhyun can't help but be a little surprised to hear Jongdae telling him that he liked someone when both Baekhyun and Jongdae barely knew each other for about forty five minutes. But strangely enough, Baekhyun felt comfortable with him—it felt like the two of them have been friends for a long time, as they talked comfortably like this.

"But why would you tell me this? I'm not a love doctor." 

"Actually," Jongdae sighs, adjusting the icepack on his forehead. "I really don't know. My first instinct was to tell you, for some weird reason—you're a nice guy, Dr. Byun. I know that I will tell Kyungsoo and Luhan eventually, they deserve to know. Chanyeol does also, but he's too busy worrying about his own right now so I don't really want to burden him."

"Either way, I'm honored." Baekhyun muses. "You must like him a lot, huh?"

The barista gives him a small, knowing smile in response—and that was all the doctor needed to confirm his suspicions.

 

 

---

 

 

A/N: dang this chapter has a ton of words, 8k+? i need to calm down......
sorry for such a long wait TT i hope this extra long chapter makes up for it
i apologize if this is all over the place, i didn't really edit it that much rip,, tao and minseok WILL be properly introduced really soon!! i promise!!

so this chapter was basically like bringing baekhyun into the weird friend mix that is kyungsoo, luhan, jongdae, and chanyeol hahaha—eventually the rest of ot12 will rise from the ashes

also, holy, 60+ subscribers? what did i do to deserve all of you guys?? whaT thank you so so much omg!!

let me know what you think so far in the comments~

-seokminz