Chanyeol finds that Yifan's apartment is far more comfortable than his own house. So it's not really a surprise for Yifan when Chanyeol comes knocking at the most random of times. Even when it's early in the morning and Chanyeol goes over on the weekend, Yifan never rejects him. Chanyeol wonders when it was that he last felt so loved.

One evening after a session of chemo therapy, Chanyeol whisks his way through the bakery and when Yifan sees him with his head down and a beanie pulled until it practically covers his face, Yifan knows something is up. He approaches Chanyeol with the intent of pulling his beanie off to mess with his hair, but then he takes a closer look.

Then, Chanyeol's being pulled away into Yifan's apartment.

They're both silent as they enter the privacy of Yifan's apartment, with Chanyeol fidgeting with the beanie over his head, and both Luhan and Kyungsoo stare after them in worry. Yifan silently disappears into his bedroom, leaving Chanyeol alone in the living room and wondering if maybe coming to see Yifan right now was a good idea after all.

So Chanyeol nervously takes a seat on Yifan's couch and pulls his beanie lower like it will cover his whole head if he tries hard enough.

"What are you doing?" Yifan's voice calls, and Chanyeol looks up slowly to see Yifan at the foot of the room with an eyebrow raised in amusement and something in his hands.

Chanyeol looks up quickly, and though part of him wants to leave so Yifan doesn't see what's become of him, he finds himself rooted where he sits,

"I don't know."

Yifan chuckles at his honest yet completely lost tone and crosses the space so he can sit beside Chanyeol. Chanyeol feels his heart flutter for absolutely no reason, and when Yifan actually does end up sitting beside him, Chanyeol turns his head to watch Yifan's side profile.

"This is a picture of my-" Yifan's cut off when he turns his head and sees Chanyeol staring at him, and he looks a little flustered like he's never expected to receive this kind of attention,

"What?"

Chanyeol just grins and turns his head to the picture in Yifan's lap. It's his mother again, Chanyeol can tell by the face; but this picture is of his mother bald. Chanyeol feels a little sick after seeing it because even though she had therapy, Yifan's mother still passed away. Is Chanyeol going to die the same way?

"She's so beautiful." Chanyeol says quietly, and he takes the picture from Yifan, fingers tracing the outline of the woman in the portrait.

"Even without hair, she was easily the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." Yifan agrees, and Chanyeol's too busy looking at the picture in his hands to notice YIfan is trying to pull his beanie off.

"Like you're the most handsome man I've ever seen."

Chanyeol wants to cry when his beanie is slipped right off his scalp. The first reason is because the hat had become his safety against a world that could easily judge him. The second reason was because even without his head of curly hair, Yifan seems to adamantly stick to his claim that he's beautiful. Seeing the tears that sparkle in Chanyeol's eyes is enough for Yifan to pull him into an embrace in case Chanyeol wants to cry his eyes out, but he doesn't. Chanyeol wants to cry, but the tears don't come.

"I adore you, Yifan." Chanyeol admits against the taller boy's shoulder for the first time. He knows that with his actions it's pretty obvious, but he wants to let him know verbally, as well.

Yifan freezes for about a nano second, and then when he pulls away, Chanyeol feels a little empty.

"Are you hungry?" Yifan asks, eyes darting away because he knows Chanyeol is looking.

Chanyeol shakes his head no, quietly taking the beanie back from Yifan's grasp and slipping it on over his head. He's about to ask if maybe they can just sit together for a little longer until Chanyeol can sleep because he's been having some trouble falling asleep lately anyway, but there is wild knocking on Yifan's door that has Yifan up and running.

"What is it?" Yifan asks, and Chanyeol stands to watch as Luhan looks from Yifan to Chanyeol almost guiltily.

"I'm sorry to interrupt. The espresso machine is malfunctioning and the customers are lining up."

Yifan curses under his breath as he hurries out of the room and into the bakery. Chanyeol can't help the slightest of smiles because Yifan always looks like he's in a hurry when he's working. Luhan's left standing there as Chanyeol walks away and Chanyeol gathers his things with the intention of leaving.

"You don't have to go. He'll probably be back in a few minutes." Luhan tells him, and the guilt in his expression is seeping into his voice as well.

"No, it's fine. I have plans." Chanyeol lies with a wide smile. Luhan sees through his lie but he doesn't say anything and just watches as Chanyeol slips out of the bakery's back entrance so as not to be seen by Yifan.

Chanyeol wishes to have had more time with Yifan, of course, but he can't be a brat about, especially when Yifan works so hard already. He pulls his cellphone out of his pocket, scrolling through his contacts to find Baekhyun.

"Can you come over? I'm having trouble falling asleep." He texts quickly, tucking the device into his pocket soon after he's done.

Baekhyun's answer is slow but Chanyeol still gets it before he reaches his house, "The guys are over at my house. I'll try coming over when they're gone."

Chanyeol sighs as he reads it because he knows that's probably not going to happen, then, and decides he doesn't need to sleep tonight. So when he gets home, he just climbs into bed and stares up at the ceiling. The sun has set hours ago but here he is wide awake despite how much he wants to be asleep. And then he hears the doorbell and jumps up. It's only been a half an hour since he's left Yifan's house. Could that be him? Or perhaps it's Baekhyun coming to check up on him.

He learns that it's Baekhyun and his other friends trailing after him. Chanyeol kind of just stares at them with the beanie on his head because it's rare of them to come over all together like this, but his friends don't even seem to notice. There's a gallon of milk in Jongin's arms with Yixing and Sehun trailing behind him with large pillows. Joonmyeon and Minseok are at the end of the group holding blankets and Chanyeol makes eye contact with Baekhyun at the front of the group standing beside Jongdae; both of them are also carrying pillows.

"We're sleeping over." Baekhyun announces as he steps passed Chanyeol into the house.

"... What?" Chanyeol asks dumbly as the rest of his friends follow Baekhyun in. They start laying their things down right on the living room floor and Chanyeol just watches because he doesn't know how this happened.

"Why are you wearing a beanie indoors?" Jongdae asks, and he pulls the beanie off of Chanyeol's head before Chanyeol can stop him.

And then they're all staring at his bald head.

Baekhyun's the first to break the silence by bursting into laughter, and the rest are soon to follow. As sad as it is to know that Chanyeol's situation is so dim that he's even gotten his hair shaved off, the fact is that he looks ridiculous without hair and even he starts to laugh.

"We'll buy you a wig." Joonmyeon decides when he's calm enough to speak, reaching up to put the beanie back over Chanyeol's head, and Chanyeol is grateful that they don't think any differently of him because of this.

"Now, let's get you to bed." Minseok says, and Chanyeol's being pushes onto the couch where the lot of them tuck him in nice and tight so he doesn't roll himself onto the floor and Chanyeol laughs the entire time because he can't take his friends seriously.

"Shut up or you'll keep us all up." Jongin grumbles as he lays down on the floor next to the couch. Chanyeol's only partially guilty for having them sleep on the floor.

"Why are you guys even here?" Chanyeol asks, his eyes darting around the room. The others are all scattered across the living room floor and it's silent among them no matter how crazy they typically are.

"We were playing video games when Baek got your text and figured we'd come stay with you tonight." Jongdae informs as he turns to the tall male,

"I figured you'd be with Yifan, though."

"He got busy so I left." Chanyeol explains with his eyes slowly trailing over to Yixing.

Yixing himself is silent but he's staring at Chanyeol with a softened gaze and Chanyeol wonders what he's thinking of. There's no doubt that he's thinking of Chanyeol and Yifan, but what exactly is he thinking of? Chanyeol is going to ask, but then there's a knock on the door that has everyone turning in that direction with furrowed eyebrows.

"Oh, it must be Luhan!" Jongdae hollers.

"I'll go get it." Sehun sighs as he gets out from under the blanket he was curled up under. Chanyeol grins as he watches Sehun because he knows how excited Sehun is to see Luhan even if he doesn't say anything.

"Who are you?"

He can hear Sehun ask, and Chanyeol starts to get out of his confinement to go check on Sehun, but Baekhyun does it for him. When Baekhyun and Sehun return, Luhan and Kyungsoo are with him and so is Zitao. Zitao's not carrying blankets or pillows like the others but there's a worried grin on his lips as he walks over and crouches before Chanyeol.

"What are you doing here, Zi?" He asks, and Zitao presses his hand against Chanyeol's forehead.

"Well we told Yifan we were going to come over because you weren't feeling so great," Kyungsoo explains, and then his eyes dart over to where Zitao is still crouched before Chanyeol,

"And then he suddenly picks up a phone. When we got here Zi told us he was told to check on you."

"He couldn't come himself?" Chanyeol asks in disappointment, and Luhan looks guilty as he steps forward.

"Yeah, he has to call to order a new espresso machine so he's busy tonight."

Chanyeol stares for a few minutes at Luhan and then to his other friends, and then he smiles again because he never expected for himself to be so lucky to have so many people worrying about him. Finally, his eyes find Zitao again and he lifts his head to toss his pillow onto the ground.

"Stay, Zi. You're already here, after all."

Zitao seems absolutely surprised that he's offered such a thing and he looks down to his casual clothes, "I'd have to go get something to wear."

"Just grab something from Chan's room." Joonmyeon says from behind Zitao, and Chanyeol nods in agreement.

"Are you sure?" Zitao asks a little unsurely, and Chanyeol nods once more.

"Go with him, Hun." Baekhyun says as he tosses himself back under his blanket.

Sehun sighs but he climbs up the stairs, and while the others settle in under their blankets once more, Chanyeol pulls his phone and sends a text to Yifan, "Thank you, Yifan. Sleep well."

Yifan's answer is instantaneous, "I adore you too, Chanyeol. Sleep well."