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At around lunchtime, Tao woke up, his intention had been to sleep, however his body considered it to be a nap and that four hours was sufficient.

The air conditioning was blasting, but he still felt far too warm. The body pressed against his was searing hot, and he felt like he should probably move. When he glanced down he saw Sehun was still sleeping, Tao couldn’t bring himself to disturb him.

What had started out as early morning ‘dinner’ (both of them had been on the night shift) turned into a deep chat session, which eventually led to Sehun staying the night. He’d mentioned in passing that he wasn’t fond of returning home after night shifts because his family would make passing comments. Tao didn’t want to pry, so he just offered for him to stay the ‘night’.

They hadn’t even realised what time it was when they finished talking, because talking with Sehun seemed to be so easy, like second nature. Things were comfortable in a way that Tao didn’t feel like he had to hide his true self from Sehun, but he also didn’t feel pressure to be open either. It was pleasant, and certainly a nice change. Just the day before, Sehun had come to the ambulance waiting bay whilst he was on his break to bring Tao a hot drink and snack whilst he was waiting for his next call. He was genuinely thoughtful, not because he felt like he had to be, it just the way he was.

Brushing Sehun’s fringe out of his face, he smiled. He’d stay in bed a little longer.

--

Jongdae’s temporary state of happiness was brought to an abrupt end when he realised that not only had he run out of sick days, but someone had decided to switch his shift so he was once again paired up with Baekhyun. He didn’t know which one of the girls had done it, but they’d switched his shift without asking permission, and at ridiculously short notice. He was 20% mad at them for doing it in the first place, 80% terrified because he’d spent the last week and a half bottling up his feelings. To put it short, he was completely unprepared. Totally caught off guard.

What was he supposed to expect? It almost seemed as if Baekhyun had fallen off the face of the earth. Their friendship was essentially non-existent at this point, not once had he been contacted by him, despite Jongdae requesting shift changes, which he’d never really done before. During shift change and handover he hadn’t seen him, none of their other colleagues had really mentioned him. Maybe Baekhyun was avoiding him just as much as he was avoiding Jongdae. It made his chest ache.

Passing the desk, he gave a strong glare to Seulgi, she mouthed ‘sorry’ to him and shied away. He’d tell her off later.

Luckily, there was no sign of Baekhyun in the back room, which gave him some relief. Obviously he knew that Baekhyun would eventually turn up, and he’d be on high alert for the rest of the day, but for now, he could just be grumpy. He made himself a sad cup of coffee before taking his place. A quick glance up to the clock showed that switchover would be in five minutes, Seulgi had left a small list on a sticky note with a love heart on his keyboard, for a small moment he felt guilty that he’d been inconveniencing others but it passed quickly.

He really didn't want to think about any of it, when his brain wandered and he remembered the feeling of being cold and angry stood outside the restaurant, his jaw clenched. After everything that had happened the past couple of weeks, his feelings had begun to shift. The positive thoughts and opinions he held on Baekhyun were being washed out with negative ones. The quirks and qualities that he once found attractive were beginning to appear distasteful. A feeling of resentment was growing inside, and it was uncomfortable.

“Where’s Baekhyun? Your shift is due to start soon,” Seulgi stood, bag packed and files in hand.

“I don’t know,” Jongdae murmured, he was distracted.

“I heard the news about your university place, congratulations, are you excited to start the semester?” Joohyun brushed past to pick up her own bag, looking as cheerful as ever.

Was he? He wasn’t sure. “I am, I’m excited to see what happens, thanks.”

It was after that moment when Baekhyun finally decided to turn up, despite mentally preparing himself for seeing him, Jongdae still felt butterflies in his stomach. Stupid. Pretend it never happened.

He could tell by the look Baekhyun gave him that he wasn’t expecting to see Jongdae, but he couldn’t tell whether it was a positive or negative reaction. It was just the way Baekhyun’s eyebrows furrowed for a split second before he gave a half-hearted apology to Seulgi and Joohyun. The air between them was awful, Jongdae really felt sick, he had so many things he wanted to say but he didn’t utter a single word.

A solid half an hour passed where they were busy with taking names and booking people in to be triaged, and Jongdae was thankful for it. As he typed away and quizzed the patients he felt the nauseous feeling disappear, and the fear that was in the forefront of his mind slowly get pushed to the back. It was normal, he just didn’t want anything to happen which would jeopardize it, maybe if he stayed silent he wouldn’t have to deal with this all right now, then he’d have more time-

“You’ve been gone a while, everything okay?”

Baekhyun hadn’t even bothered to look at him, he just carried on typing away. When Jongdae was totally blinded with affection for him, he would have thought that Baekhyun was being genuine and thoughtful. Now, however, he second-guessed everything. Baekhyun probably didn’t even care, just wanted to know where Jongdae had actually done whilst he was away. Truthfully Baekhyun probably only started the conversation so that he could switch the topic and talk about himself.

Jongdae decided he needed to stay guarded, he’d give Baekhyun as much emotion as he was receiving. “I’m good, I just needed to take some time off and relax. I’m fine now.”

“Oh, well it’s good to have you back,” Baekhyun smiled, Jongdae could feel his resolve cracking.

Maybe he's got it all wrong, maybe Baekhyun just had an extremely extroverted personality-

“I’ve had no one to gossip too, Joohyun isn’t really interested in my stories.”

Nope, he was right.

And just like that, it was as if nothing had happened. Baekhyun just carried on, updating him on his life, talking about Chanyeol again and generally complaining abou