A/N

I encourage you to read the previous chapters, you might forget how the story goes. Sobs.

 

 

"You sure you’re gonna be fine?"

The set of keys jangles as Hyungshik throws them, missing its original destination by a few centimeters (Hyungshik is too old for these things but he insists, claiming that he’s young at heart so play along okay) but fortunately Sehun manages to catch them firmly after stumbling forward a little bit.

"Yes, Hyung. It’s not like this is my first time to close the shop anyway."

Hyungshik laughs. "Don’t lose them, okay."

"And it's not like I'm Park Chanyeol, either. Just in case you forgot." He beams mischievously. Hyungshik laughs even louder.

"Don’t forget to turn off the coffee maker!"

Sehun rolls his eyes at the unnecessary reminder but nods anyway. He chuckles as Hyungshik toodles him (Toodles. He’s 50 and he toodles. What.) and waves him a (normal) goodbye as the older walks out of the shop. He sits back down and losing himself on his latte again.

"Latte art? Wow, what’s gotten into you?"

Sehun jumps in his seat, his breath catches.

"Jesus, stop scaring people like that!" He clings on his chest, trying to calm down his racing heartbeats. Seriously, someone appearing out of nowhere and suddenly standing next to you when you thought you were alone is never a good thing for your poor heart. It doubles when it’s Wufan and his intimidating face, that’s for sure. "I thought you were already going home?"

"I did, but Zitao called me he left his oh-so-expensive sweater here." His eyes wanders around the room and goes to grab the said sweater when he spots it. "He’s all panicky and squeaky and so I figured I’ll get it for him. My house is nearer anyway."

Sehun throws him a smirk. "Your house is nearer, riiight."

"What, it’s true!"

"Oh come on, Wufan, everyone already knows you have a thing for Zitao." Sehun rolls his eyes again. "Except maybe the panda himself."

"I only see him as a brother."

"Such lies." Sehun clicks his tongue but soon bites it unconsciously when Wufan slaps his head hard. "Ow!"

"Serves you right." He huffs triumphantly. "You're good in changing topics."

The younger looks at him questioningly to find a chin pointed to his latte as the only explanation.

"It’s because of him, isn’t it?" Wufan slightly smirks, leading his gaze towards the sleeping-peacefully boy at the very corner of the shop. He decides it’s his turn to mock the younger. "You want to impress him with something."

Sehun scoffs nervously, not daring to lift his flushed face up. "…no."

"Such lies."

Sehun punches his arm. "Shut up."

Wufan chuckles (because he rarely laughs) and leans his lower back on the counter. "I thought you said you're not into relationships."

"Hmm, I did say that, didn't I." It was more of a statement rather than a question.

"Any reason why this one's an exception?"

Sehun reaches to his left for another set of toothpicks and glances secretly at the discussed boy, which is really pointless because Wufan's eyes are too glued to him to let the affectionate gesture slip away from his vision.

"I don’t know, he’s just…” A little smile creeps up his face as he sees the boy squirms cutely in his seat. "…special?"

It's that tender and loving gaze, Wufan decides, that confirms his whole being that the boy in front of him is in love. He thinks he probably can see little hearts inside those orbs if he looks at it close enough. He then hums a reply, smiling to himself as he sees Sehun's own embellishes his face. He suddenly feels like a proud father when his son achieve something great in his life.

A sudden and short vibration from his pocket surprises him. He shoves his hands down to it and flips his phone open, snorting a little chuckle when he reads the message.

"Gotta go." He suddenly says, startling Sehun for the second time that day. "Zitao just messaged me and he's being a little too frantic again so I guess I better take this ugly sweater to him, like, now. He literally sent me twelve consecutive messages of 'Is it there? It's there is it? Please say it is and bring it back here fast I can't live without it.' Ugh."

Sehun scoffs. "That panda is totally oblivious about everything, Ge, why don't you just go straight to him and tell him you like him rather than doing these subtle things to get his attention?"

Wufan raises one eyebrow at him, staring at the poorly drawn white heart on top of Sehun's latte in disbelief. "You're one to talk, kid."

Sehun's face heats up again. Wufan chuckles slightly at the view and wears his jacket, swinging Zitao's sweater to his shoulder on top of it. "I'll leave you alone with him now. Go talk to him or something. You two look good together and I know he cares about you." His grin grows wider when Sehun blushes even redder. He ruffles Sehun's hair once more and waves two of his fingers handsomely as he walks out the shop, leaving Sehun grumbling some inaudible words as he fixes his hair and stomps to the kitchen to make himself a new latte.

"Nghh..."

He jumps in his standing spot in surprise and jerks his head to peek out the kitchen to the origin of the sound.

He's still sleeping. His eyebrows furrow. Bad dreams?

He's not really sure what makes him abandon his new latte at once and rushes, as quiet as he can, to wake the boy up when he hears him groans louder after the third time. Now that is worrisome.

"Mmh, Sehu-un..."

All of his movements freeze on the spot. Okay, that was definitely not the usual grunt people does because of bad dreams, Sehun can almost hear his brain whirring like a overworked machine. That was a moan. With my name right after it.

Sehun steps towards the other's sleeping figure with his heart pounding inside his chest and face hot, praying that whatever the other's dreaming about is nothing close to whatever he thinks he's dreaming about. But with each closing gap he takes, the moan becomes somewhat lower and clearer and Sehun notices his breath is getting heavier that Sehun finds his cheeks burning even hotter and his heart hammers louder.

Yeah so he is definitely dreaming of what Sehun thinks he is dreaming about.

"Yah, wake up..." Sehun squats to his knees, poking Jongin's arms slightly and repeating it a few more times to wake him up but Jongin doesn't budge. He is about to jab his fingers to Jongin's side when another muffled moan of Sehun's name (Sehun just cannot distract himself from the fact that that lewd voice is seriously getting into his pants head) followed by a loud and desperate grunt enters his hearings. He suddenly panics; his whole face burning and flushed as red as a tomato as he pushes the older's body with a desperate "Yah!" and a bit too much force to make him stumble to the side and wake up.
 

"Um." He slowly opens his eyes and absorbs his surroundings. "What."

Sehun tries to hide his embarrassment by crossing his arms in front of his chest, but when Jongin sits up and looks at him with a ridiculously adorable sleepy face and the damp on his crotch is getting clearer to his vision, he can't help but getting redder.

It takes a while for Jongin to process the event (because he definitely will not point it out) and he groans when everything is finally in tact, mumbling oh my god what have I done in desperation.

"You were --"

He thanks high heaven silently for stopping his stupid mouth from squeaking any more sound just at the right time. Jongin looks at him skeptically and then silence takes over them, so he decides he should just go home before everything becomes more awkward.

"Uhh, I think I'll just—I'll leave now. It's late." He glances at his watch so quick Sehun wonders if he actually can see it properly.  He stares as Jongin tries to hide his lower body behind his bag, a fail attempt because his body is longer than his bag strap. "I'll, um, I'll text you?"

Sehun's slow nods are rather automated already. He stares at the floor—face still bright red, he believes—when Jongin dashes to the door and leaves with a clinking sound of the doorbell.

He can't express his relief enough on how he's the one to come the earliest to the shop the next morning and found that everything is still in place, nothing is burnt down because apparently, he did forgot to turn-off the coffee maker.

 

★ ★ ★

 

-DivaBaek-: I'm sorry I don't think I read that correctly. You did what?

 

Jongin immediately regrets telling (or LINE-ing, in this case) Baekhyun about his earlier 'incident' with Sehun. But this Ethics class is surprisingly a lot more boring than he thought it would be and the only way he could think to liven up his mood to at least kept him awake the whole session is to talk to him. And unfortunately, Baekhyun knows about practically any news about Jongin already so he doesn't really have a choice other than to talk about this latest one.

 

KimJongin: Yeah...

-DivaBaek-: Dude

-DivaBaek-: DUDE

-DivaBaek-: WHAT THE HELL

KimJongin: Um

-DivaBaek-: You are such a ert, I can't even with you oh my god

-DivaBaek-: What have I done in my previous life to have you as a best friend

-DivaBaek-: Out of 7mil people in this whole world

KimJongin: Baek

-DivaBaek-: Do you think I was a criminal before?

KimJongin: Baekhyun srsly

-DivaBaek-: I think I was because then it will explain everything

-DivaBaek-: I must hv been so evil they sent me you as a punishment

KimJongin: ...

KimJongin: you man

-DivaBaek-: Ew you had a wet dream about Sehun and now you want to me ew

-DivaBaek-: Wow I think I was Hitler then

KimJongin: Very funny Byun Baekhyun

KimJongin: Hey in my defense I have no control over my dreams ok

KimJongin: How should I know I was about to have that kind of dream?!

KimJongin: And I'm a guy ok, I have my needs. It's inevitable

-DivaBaek-: I am gasping

KimJongin: ....you did you just seriously type that

-DivaBaek-: So what did you do?

KimJongin: What do you expect? I ran away, it was so ing embarassing

-DivaBaek-: And?

-DivaBaek-: Oh by the way let's stop by the music store later, I want to buy Twinkle

KimJongin: And what? That's it, I left the shop and haven't been there ever since

KimJongin: Good thing it was late already and there's no one but him there but still man...

KimJongin: Again?! I thought you already have like six Twinkle albums

-DivaBaek-: Wow and when did this happen again exactly?

-DivaBaek-: Well yeah but I'm aiming for a complete taetiseo photocard, I still need Taeyeon-noona's

-DivaBaek-: Seventh time's the charm, yknow

KimJongin: Fine you maniac

KimJongin: And stop making your own phrases to make you look smart, it's not working

KimJongin: Uhh two weeks ago? I guess..

-DivaBaek-: Hey I am no maniac, I just happen to have infinite and forever overflowing love over them ok

-DivaBaek-: Holy crap that's long

-DivaBaek-: Did you text him after that?

KimJongin: Whatever you say, maniac

KimJongin: No, he texted me, asking if I'm okay and stuff but I didn't reply him

-DivaBaek-: What the actual ferk, you didn't reply?!

KimJongin: I can barely even look at his name on my screen without heating up

-DivaBaek-: What if he thinks you hate him you poopface

KimJongin: I don't know what to reply ok

KimJongin: Ugh too lazy to explain via text, I'll talk to you later

KimJongin: Mrs Kang is giving me enough headache already, I don't want it doubled by your comments

KimJongin: See ya

-DivaBaek-: YAH POOPFACE DONT YOU DARE GO OFF ON ME NOW

-DivaBaek-: KIM JONGIN

-DivaBaek-: KIM JONGPOOP

-DivaBaek-: GOD I HATE YOU

-DivaBaek-: WHY ARE YOU MY BESTFRIEND AGAIN

-DivaBaek-: YOU OWE ME ONE EYELINER

-DivaBaek-: AND ICE CREAMS

-DivaBaek-: AND YOU'RE SO PAYING FOR MY TWINKLE ALBUM!

 

★ ★ ★
 

Jongin shoves his hands in his jeans' pocket, trying his best to ignore the annoying slurping sounds Baekhyun is making as they walk along the main street of Yongsan. Oh how he wishes that ice cream would just magically fall to the ground...

"So?"

He turns his head to him. "So, what?"

"You owe me an explanation, remember?" Baekhyun said, still slurping his ice cream noisily. Jongin rolls his eyes in mild disgust.

"What is there to be explained though. I did something horrible and I ran away from him."

"Forever?"

"...Maybe. I don't know."

"Are you nuts."

"No, I'm Jongin."

A good smack on the head.

"Ouch, the heck?!"

"You deserved that. Why did you ignore him, anyway. If he keeps on contacting you, that means he's pretty much forgiven you already for being such a ."

"I am not a ert."

"Is what usually erts say."

Jongin shoots a glare through Baekhyun's head. Or at least try to; it goes through like nothing. No one can separate Baekhyun focus from his ice cream right now.

"I don't know, okay. I just thought maybe it's better if I still don't respond to him for a while more. You know, wait for him to completely forget about what happened." He states, his feet never stops kicking small pebbles near them.

"But what if he thinks you hate him?" Baekhyun throws his ice cream stick to the nearest trash as soon as he finished (but it ends up way too far from the trash that he has to run and picks it up again). "What if then he gives up on trying to reach you, thinking that you'll never go back to him again? What if then someone else comes to his life? Someone nicer, more good-looking, someone not as erty as you."

Jongin ignores his bestfriend's blabbering by pushing the music store's door open with a loud bang and walks inside rather quickly, ignoring a few glances he gets from the other customers. Baekhyun follows him like it's nothing serious.

"You know I'm just trying to state a possibility." He whispers.

"I know but God. Just stop it. I don't like the idea of that at all." Jongin ruffles his hair in frustration, following Baekhyun as he (mentally) skips as soon as he finds what he's looking for.

"Stop thinking and start acting, then. You don't want it to happen for real right?" He takes a glance at Jongin while his fingers are busy picking the 'right' CD.

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one dealing with it."

"What, I'm just giving you an advice here. Let's face it, Sehun's just too... bright to be missed. I mean, his aura, you know." He picks out one CD and starts examining each little details of the packaging. "He's cute and nice and his body's pretty lean. He sounds like a smart guy judging by his choice of words, it's easy for him to have any girls—or guys—attached to him. You need to move fast, man, I can't guarantee—"

"Baekhyun?"

Baekhyun freezes in his spot, eyes widen. That deep voice...

"Chanyeol." Jongin's voice is what assures him of his assumption. "The hell are you doing here?"

"Relax man, this is a public store. I'm only buying some CDs." Jongin notices the monotonous tone in his voice and the way his eyes glancing at Baekhyun's back.

"Leave him alone, he doesn't want to see you." He shoots. But Chanyeol throws him a desperate look and no matter how unwilling Jongin is, he knows he's got to give them both some privacy. He turns his head and walks away, not before murmuring "Let me know ASAP if anything happens" to his bestfriend.

"I broke up with Eunyoung." is the only thing Jongin managed to hear before he walks further to the corner of the store and aimlessly looks around the old Korean trot section. Jongin frowns a little. What does that mean? Why should he tell Baekhyun about that? I thought they didn't contact each other for weeks already...

It feels like hours when he stares at some old CDs by Kim Young Im, trying to examine her face to spend the time when Baekhyun suddenly comes rushing to him with unreadable expression, pulling him to the register and paying the Twinkle by himself (which Jongin finds a bit relieving since on the walk there he kept on reminding Jongin that the younger is responsible in this whole paying thing).

Jongin snaps his head to Chanyeol on the way out, only to find his face wearing the same expression as Baekhyun's. He tries his best to send his scariest "What did you do to my bestfriend, you " glare, but Chanyeol apparently doesn't get it and keeps looking at him helplessly. Jongin struggles to look away. He needs that or else he'd stomp back into the store and punch Chanyeol in the face for good.

Baekhyun releases his tight grip on Jongin's hand when they're already too far from the store, and Jongin gives him a gentle pat on his shoulder and hugs him, but he doesn't respond.

And with that, their walk home is filled with nothing but silence.

 

★ ★ ★

 

Another A/N

Jesus Krist finally. Enjoy, I hope it's long enough to make up for my hiatus. orz
I'll try my best to update by the weekend because it's going to be a crazy week for me.

Comments are appreciated! ♡