“I want a tea latte.”

Honestly, Yixing wasn’t sure how Baekhyun could be so basic. When Jongdae offered to drive the other two, he thought they weren’t going to a coffee shop that was nearby. But instead, he drove two blocks to some artsy coffee shop that no one ever entered.

To most people, this meant they were on the brink of closing down. Instead, a long haired fellow greeted Jongdae with a grin and a flirtatious look. Jongdae smirked before humming he wanted the usual. The silver haired boy gave him a smile, and Jongdae put his money on the counter. It was enough money to cover for both Yixing and Baekhyun.

When Yixing gave him a look, Jongdae shrugged his shoulders, before proceeding up the red stairs to a cozy little table. Even looking off the railing, the two could see everything. Yixing saw the barista making a latte Jongdae ordered. The dull yellow lighting lit up the brown and deep red walls. Tables were covered in different article clippings, and nerdy Lord of the Rings pages. The art on the walls ranged from surrealism to sweet photos of spring. And the jazzy music playing in the background only made sense that this was Jongdae’s home away from home.

“Then go order one, you idiot,” Yixing scoffed. Laughing, Jongdae watched as Baekhyun pouted as he headed downstairs to go get his order, leaving Yixing and Jongdae alone. It wasn’t a bad thing though. Baekhyun was closer with Jongdae because he saw him more often, and because Jongdae was always inviting them out whenever Yixing was busy. When he was lucky, Jongdae would personally invite him out for some dinner or coffee if Yixing had the time. Though, interning and working on campus while taking twenty credits didn’t give him much time to actually hang out. So, Jongdae always left a coffee to go at his apartment, or some cute text on his phone saying good luck today.

But right now, Jongdae was being charismatic and looked as though he had a little too many secrets hiding from the two of them. Yes, Jongdae was always charismatic, but today he was more so because of what Yixing thought was Jongdae’s Gokusen inspired speech, and his obsession with making life worthwhile.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been like this, huh?” Jongdae asked as the two could hear Baekhyun talking up the barista at the counter. The whirs of the coffee machine played as Yixing stared at Jongdae. His cat-lips were stuck in its smirk. As Jongdae sat there, relaxed and calm, Yixing had to wonder what was going through his mind. “How’s everything?” Jongdae asked.

Jongdae always asked the same question when they met. Most of the time, he was sipping on another speciality coffee drink while listening. But today, his eyes were focused on his, nothing to distract him.

“Yeah, I’ve been busy with so many things that I haven’t gotten the time to hang out or anything.” Before saying anything, the barista came up with Jongdae’s drink and winked in his direction. A smile appeared on the barista’s face when Jongdae smiled back. Smooth Jongdae was still incredibly smooth. “Work’s fine. I finished off that internship after summer quarter ended. It’s been weird having some kind of free time.” Nodding his head, Jongdae continued to listen to Yixing’s ramble about life and things. Not that it was a bad thing, it was something that Yixing appreciated about him. The dark haired friend only hummed to his responses, a question to clarify some things from time to time, but mostly it was Yixing talking about his co-workers, the result of his internship, and everyday things most people would find annoying.

Not Jongdae, Jongdae only smiled in reply and sipped his latte from time to time. “How do you live like that?” And it was a question Jongdae should have known the answer to, but that was only because Jongdae was as busy as he was. He was in several clubs, an essay heavy major, and tried to be involved with the community. Yixing had no idea how Jongdae did it, but whenever Jongdae looked at him, he realized that it was something else. There was a glint of jealousy in his eyes when he said those words. It was subtle and almost repulsed that he did things like that. But most of all, there was a gleam of pride in his friend. And he just didn’t know what to say when he saw it.

“One day at a time, I guess,” he said with a shrug. With a smile, Jongdae patted his shoulder. It felt like a reassuring hug though.

“Don’t forget to have some fun for yourself too.” And before Yixing could argue that he was doing just fine, and that he was the happiest he could be, Baekhyun came up the stairs with the biggest smile on his face.

“This is really good. I’m forcing you to drive me here all the time, Jongdae.”

“Are you saying that because the guy downstairs is your type?” Jongdae snarked back. Baekhyun shot the boy a glare. Baekhyun was just friendly with anyone and everyone. He was so friendly that a lot of people took it for being flirty. It was an accident to be that way, honestly. If someone asked Yixing though, it looked like Jongdae was waiting to get with that barista. From the flirty looks to the quick comebacks, it was hard to believe Jongdae wasn’t interested. However, Baekhyun wasn’t the type to fight for love.

With tight lips, Baekhyun sat next to Jongdae as Yixing crossed his arms.

“Okay, so what do we need to discuss?”

“The rules and the list.”

“Why rules?” Yixing questioned as Jongdae threw the book onto the table. A lot of things came with rules, education, work, life, almost everything. He had no idea why this stupid idea had to have some rules. But if his good friend thought there was a need for rules, his friend who never thought through anything, then it meant this was a major thing in all of their lives.

“Because I’d like to avoid any kind of future problems.” Baekhyun still sipped on his latte as Jongdae opened up the notebook to the pages labeled rules.

“Okay, no significant others, what’s up with that?”

While Yixing definitely didn’t have time to find someone, he could imagine Baekhyun or Jongdae, though Jongdae wasn’t the type to commit, feeling like this would be a limitation to what could happen in the future. And with Baekhyun’s widened eyes, he was sure that he was feeling a little played right now.

“I’m sorry Baek, but there are some things on this list that may take up more time than others, and I’ve never been a believer in starting relationships right before you graduate. We both know you went through that weird romantic phase in your senior year of high school, and that isn’t cute.”

“Okay, but what if I fall in love with someone?”

“Do you even have time for that?” Yixing asked. The boy went silent and with a eating grin, they all knew that this rule was going to be okay. “Besides, if we do some things, your significant other could just get clingy and break up, and I’m sure this is supposed to be pretty light-hearted,” Yixing sided. Sure, Yixing had no idea why he was siding with Jongdae, but he knew Jongdae had a good reason behind each of these rules.

“All entries must be recorded?”

“I’ll take that up unless I wasn’t there to firsthand experience it,” Jongdae explained. Raising an eyebrow, Yixing couldn’t understand why Jongdae was going to write it all down, and why it had to be from firsthand experience.

“Writing studies major, y’know.”

And there was this silence before everyone gave a nod of approval, mostly because it was actually needed more than anything else.

“Okay, but why firsthand?”

“You’ll learn in a bit,” Jongdae replied with a blushing Baekhyun by his side. Yixing wasn’t going to even ask. He knew Baekhyun was dense, but he didn’t know he was that dense. With a quick look, Yixing stared blankly at the rest of the rules. Nothing really stood out to him until they got to the last rule.

“For every item we try on our list, we help help someone achieve something on their list.”

“Was this inspired by The Buried Life?” Yixing asked. And of course it was because Jongdae was always obsessed with inspirational shows and movies. Except The Buried Life was one of his all time favorites he could not get out of his head. With a nod of his head, Jongdae bounced a bit in his seat like a little child who just got ice cream.

“I mean, if we could help someone with their bucket list, wouldn't that be amazing? Those guys were just your average Canadians. If they can do it, we can too.”

Yixing had no idea what was going through Jongdae’s head sometimes, but he had to admit it would be cool to know what kind of things people wanted to do with their lives. Flipping the page, he realized Jongdae only implemented three rules, and when he turned it, there was already a list. How was it possible Jongdae already knew what to write? How was it possible that he even color coded to people’s preferences? Yixing had no idea how he could come up with the things he did, but that -eating grin on his face only meant more and more. In coffee brown, all of Yixing’s deepest desires were written. In cotton candy blue, Baekhyun’s items were written, and Jongdae’s were all written in purple.

“How did you even know that we wanted all this?” he asked, agreeing to Jongdae’s neat handwriting. It was almost impossible that Jongdae knew all of this, but with every flip of the page, he saw more and more things he knew he wanted.

“I’m a crazy good listener,” Jongdae complimented. Baekhyun snorted, and it would have been been more successful if he didn’t accidentally spill the rest of his tea latte into his lap as he was snorting. The effect was ruined when milk dripped from the chair. Throwing a few napkins, Yixing watched as a smirk formed on Jongdae’s lips. How was it possible that he could come up with an idea due to Baekhyun’s demise?

“You know that this isn’t going to be enough to clean up that mess, right?” Jongdae asked. There was something in his voice that he was hinting at. Where was he going with this? Furrowing his brows together, Yixing never knew what to expect from Jongdae. Yixing also wasn’t caught up with everyone because of all the work he had lately. He had no idea what to expect from Jongdae, or if there was something he missed out from working between the two. Either that or he was oblivious because Baekhyun turned red once again.

“I mean, one of us has to do number twenty-four,” Jongdae shrugged. A eating grin was still on his face. As Jongdae smirked, his manicured fingers pointed at one of the scrawled cotton candy blue list items.

24. Ask a cute person out.

With how Baekhyun was fawning over the long haired barista downstairs, it should have been obvious to Yixing. But he was always the slowest one out of the group, it was a curse he had to live with.

“Okay, but I don’t even know the guy,” Baekhyun shot back.

Yixing chuckled, pointing at Jongdae. “Well, Jongdae seems to know him pretty well. I know he wouldn’t pair you up with a douche bag,” Yixing laughed. Jongdae nodded his thanks to Yixing before putting his arm around Baekhyun in attempts to encourage him.

“Of course, you know I have the best taste if I’m not on Tinder,” Jongdae replied. “What’s the worst that’s going to happen? He rejects you?” Jongdae laughed, squeezing the boy’s shoulder. “Take the L then,” he finished. Before Baekhyun could retort, Yixing and Jongdae gave each other a sly glance. Both getting up at the same time and forcing a whining Baekhyun back downstairs to ask the boy out.

“You wanna bet he bails?” Yixing questions as they watched over the railings.

“Nah, I’m a broke college student. I don’t bet with money I don’t have,” Jongdae nonchalantly replied. Their arms were hanging over the red railing, eyes staring at the rarely nervous Baekhyun and a surprised looking barista.

“You know him pretty well?” Yixing asked.

“Yeah, I come here so often that I know him on a first name last name basis.”

What they saw as pretty hysterical. Baekhyun was flailing his arms around like the nervous senior he was as he tried to recall the tale of spilling the tea latte. And even from above, the two could see the rosy hints of a blush on his face, embarrassed by what he did. The barista only smiled softly while cocking his head back in sweet laughter.

“Damn, who would have thought Baekhyun could be so flustered?”

“He shouldn’t be. Yoon Jeonghan is a freshman who wants to major in art. There isn’t anything to worry about.”

“, he’s a freshman?” Yixing knew from Jongdae’s experience that freshmen were usually bad news. Most if not all of them just wanted to around, get some experience, and never settle down. Looking at the composed Jongdae, he had to wonder what the hell was going on in his head? “Why would you push him to ask out a freshman?”

“Hey, this is partially your fault too. Don’t put all the blame on me. Besides, remember rule number three?” Jongdae asked, his eyes glued onto the laughing silver haired boy and the continuously flustered Baekhyun.

“No significant others?” As the silver haired boy smiled, Yixing watched as Baekhyun’s eyes lit up like a puppy who just saw his owner in the first time in years.

“Yeah. Jeonghan isn’t Baekhyun’s type anyways. Lazy guys who like making snarky remarks aren’t his type. Besides, Jeonghan likes them athletic. We both know Baekhyun is not athletic at all. He’ll know that it wouldn’t work out after a few dates. Don’t worry about it.”

As Yixing opened his mouth to rebutt, Jeonghan swung the counter’s door out with a towel in his hand and a happy Baekhyun trailing right behind. It meant Jongdae and Yixing couldn’t get caught checking the two out so they quickly sat in their seats pretending they weren’t spying on him. As the couple climbed up the stairs, Jongdae and Yixing looked towards Baekhyun with a curious look.

“I didn’t think your friend was going to ask me out, Jongdae,” Jeonghan answered first. His voice reminded Yixing of lazy Sunday mornings, and netflix and chill. With a shy smile, Baekhyun just scratched the back of his head, pretending his friends weren’t going to make fun of him.

Stretching out his arms in his seat, Jongdae yawned and looked at Jeonghan with a grin. “Oh, we both know you were checking him out too.” It was now Jeonghan’s turn to red while Yixing and Baekhyun went slack jawed. “You’re lucky I like you enough to get you a date,” Jongdae said, pulling out his hand. “That will be three dollars for using Jongdae Kim’s Love Services,” he finished.

Holy . Jongdae was one of the best players in the whole field. Yixing couldn’t even believe this was all just a scam to get some money. Was everything he said to him a lie then? As Yixing looked at the boy, another sly gleam appeared in it. No, there was something about the gleam that told him that Jongdae didn’t do this for a quick buck. It just wasn’t in his nature.

Grumbling, Jeonghan put the towels on the table and put some crumpled bills in his hand. Yixing and Baekhyun looked at each other again while Jongdae picked up his jacket from his seat, ruffled Jeonghan’s hair and signed off with a peace sign.

“Jongdae is a con artist.”

“The best one!” Jongdae shouted as he left the three of them stranded at a coffee shop that would be their new home for the rest of the year.