Twelve.

The Pretty Barista

To say the least, we all thought Chanyeol had a brilliant idea. I mean, an eating contest would make this whole thing more fun. Especially since all of us were so competitive. So adding a little competition would make this venture a lot more interesting.

"It should be one against one." Luhan says.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get full." Kyungsoo confesses. "We should have volunteers or contestants."

"Like all of us don't have to all eat from one stall?" I ask.

"Mhm." Luhan confirms.

"So, how will this work?" Sehun asks.

Chanyeol decides to take the contest rules into his own hands. "For example, we choose to eat ddukboki, then only the people who want to join should join."

"But I thought it was one on one?" Lay wonders.

"Oh!" Baekhyun calls our attention, "One on one contests should be decided by the group."

"YEAH!" Luhan was quick to agree.

"Voting for the person we wanna see go against each other?" Kyungsoo confirms.

"Suho hyung should be the marshall, since he's the most fair out of everyone here." Sehun says.

"What about Taemin? Since he's new, he's unbiased." Suho hyung suggests.

"Unbiased my ." Luhan snorts. "Kai is his favorite person." He throws casually.

I blushed. Luhan just likes embarrassing me.

Taemin chuckled and shook his head, "I wanna join the eating contest, too." Was all he said.

"But what if Suho hyung wants to join as well?" Baekhyun asks.

"Then anyone can referee." I say getting annoyed. Seriously, it was just a simple matter. And it's not like we didn't honor fair play. We did. We just get too competitive sometimes.

"After all that food, an eating contest?" Lay chuckles, "We have not changed." He comments.

Our group burst out laughing. We all immediately, I assumed, remembered the days we went through 30 McDonalds burgers and fries, just the 8 of us. Well, in our defense, we had all just come from playing soccer and our basketball camp.

Taemin had a questioning look on his face and I told him the story of when we used to have bottomless pits as stomachs.

"What about now?" He wonders.

"We're more tamed." I tell him with a light laugh.

Taemin seemed to be amused by me and my friends. And I'm glad that they treated him nicely. They didn't make it uncomfortable for Taemin, and he seemed to get along with my friends so far. No one was complaining, and he would laugh at our jokes, or we would laugh at his side comments and such. Things, so far, went smoothly.

"So! What should we do first?" Chanyeol asks us.

All heads turned towards different directions to check which would be an interesting first dish for our eating contest.

"Oh my god! Bibimbap!" I exclaim as I spotted one of my favorite streets in Myeongdong.

It was much wider than the alleyway we were in, and just had vendors all lined up almost endlessly selling food. It was the best smelling, most aromatic street in the area.

"Where?" Suho hyung asks, his gaze following mine.

"The street down there." I point.

Sehun, Luhan and Chanyeol recognize where I was pointing immediately. We made our way towards the wider street I pointed to and everyone agreed on bibimbap being the first dish for our eating contest.


The ones who volunteered to play were Chanyeol, Sehun, Luhan, me and Taemin. At first Lay wanted to join, but he dropped out because he was still full from the kimbap. The rest, who didn't join the challenge would be the judges, Suho hyung, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and Lay. And the loser would buy an order of bibimbap for the judges to share, and pay off the orders for the other contestants.

The five of us already had our servings in hand, ready for the contest, we were all getting really excited and growing anxious. I'm so glad Chanyeol suggested this.

"Ready?" Suho hyung asks us, a wide smile on his face. I could tell Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and Yixing were all just as excited as we were.

The 5 of us nod. I look at the other contestants, spoons at the ready, I wonder how Taemin would fair against us. I wanted to watch him eat his portions.

"So, the first one who finishes wins," Suho hyung reminds us, "And the last one who finishes has to pay for the bibimbap."

We acknowledge the rules!

"One." Baekhyun starts.

"Two." Kyungsoo counts.

"Three." Lay continues.

"And… GO!" Suho hyung finally announces and then we dig in our bowls.

Luhan hyung, who got a spoonful of rice and shoved it in his mouth, immediately cursed. "!"

Duh. The dish was hot.

I mixed my bibimbap first. And even though it was already thoroughly mixed, I just kept mixing it, hoping the rice would cool down and that would make it easier to eat.

Chanyeol was blowing at his food, and shoveled spoonfuls in his mouth one after the other.

Sehun, on the other hand, when he was done mixing, would get a large spoonful of rice and blow on it to cool it, then ate everything. He chewed as fast as he can.

Then I turned towards Taemin, he probably noticed cause he looked right back at me with a smirk. I observed him and he was doing the exact same thing I was, he was just mixing the rice in his bowl.

I grinned. It was just down to who could eat faster. I was confident I could beat Taemin.

"Why aren't Taemin and Kai eating yet?" Baekhyun asks out loud.

Three heads, with faces full of rice, and questioning looks turn our way.

"Strategy." Taemin calmly replies to Baekhyun's question.

When I felt the rice was cooled down enough, I started shoveling large portions into my mouth, and even before swallowing everything, I had fed myself a new spoonful each time, already. It was still warm, and it was so delicious.

Chanyeol finished his bowl in less than 5 minutes and he was declared the winner.

"Is your tongue okay?" Lay asks.

"It got burned, kind of, but not really bad. I endured it." He shrugged but he wore a bright smile on his face and cheered us on.

I finished in second, grinning as I wiped my mouth clean of the rice.

Taemin came in third, and we applauded him.

"Good job!" My friends congratulated and high-fived him. I pat Taemin on the back approvingly.

It was down to Sehun and Luhan, and by the looks of their almost empty bowls, it was a matter of who could chew and swallow faster that would determine the loser of the game.

Unfortunately for us, Sehun beat Luhan.

"Well, damn." Luhan says.

But surprisingly, he didn't throw a fit. Imagine how happy we were?

"I swear, I thought Sehun was going to lose. His stupid spoon-cooling strategy." Baekhyun comments. Immediately copying how Sehun was blowing on his rice. He made us laugh, as usual.

Sehun smacked Baekhyun in the arm.

Luhan shook his head, "I slowed down half way, my jaw was beginning to hurt." Luhan laughed, touching his aching jaw. "Congrats, by the way." He looks at Chanyeol. "Guess I need to treat you guys." Luhan chuckles.

It was so nice seeing him being a good sport.


Since we were all pretty full from the eating contest and all our previous dishes, we decided to walk around Myeongdong for a while to help the food go down. We'd resume our eating contests later. We already had most number of mandu in a minute and most sticks of hotdogs planned out as our next rounds.

But, for the sake of our stomachs, it was time for a break.

I check my watch and 2 hours passed by really quickly. It was actually almost 6:30.

"I want dessert, though…" Baekhyun says.

"There should be ice cream around here." Taemin looks around.

Luhan, however, waves Baekhyun off. "We'll get when we pass by one."

We all converse randomly about different topics as we walked around and looked at the different vendors selling things. We tried on funny hats and took photos of the ones who looked the most silly.

"Having fun so far?" I ask Taemin when it was just me and him, left behind at the back of the group, the rest of my friends enthusiastically enjoying a random punching arcade game.

Taemin nods, "Loads. Your friends are really fun." He tells me.

I smile. "I'm glad you think so."

"My friends are all older than me, so, we don't get to do things like this often."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Key hyung, and remember Onew and Minho hyung?" He asks me.

I nod, "They're all older than me… so the things we do aren't as interesting as this." He admits.

"How so?"

"Well, we go out to eat and watch movies and go to the mall and stuff… but like, thinking about eating contests? Or bets and things like that, we don't really have time for it because our college schedules are different, so, when we do all get to meet up, we just like to chill."

"If it's what you guys like, I don't think there's a problem." I tell him honestly.

"I just wanted to say, thanks for bringing me along to experience something new." Taemin tells me genuinely.

"It's no problem." I flash him a smile.

"HEY GUYS! LET'S GO TAKE A PHOTOBOOTH!!!" I suddenly hear Baekhyun's booming voice.

Taemin and I look towards the direction the voice was coming from. It's where my friends were, and they were way ahead of us already.

Sehun comes jogging over to us and grabs us both by the arms. "Slowpokes! Let's go!" He pulls us along.


My friends had found a photobooth and it was amusing to see all 9 of us squeezing to get in the frame.

"Suho! Get in front! Chanyeol, Kai and Sehun get to the back, damn it!!" Luhan was shoving to get himself in the middle. "Lay and Kyungsoo, first row, too!" He adds.

"So it'll be me, Luhan and…" Baekhyun grabs Taemin's arm, "Taemin in the middle!"

The whole 3 rows thing bombed, and we all eventually dissolved into a messy two rows, but the important thing was, we all fit in the frame. We took photos that looked crazy, silly, downright good looking, and ones that made us laugh.

There was this one countdown where no one was ready, and we were all distracting each other, talking amongst ourselves, so when the photo came out, mouths were open and eyes were closed. It was quite hilarious.

"You three should take a photo." Lay suggests, looking at me, Taemin and Sehun.

"Yeah, the 3 Muskateers…" Luhan grins.

"Huh? Why just the 3 of us?" I asked them.

"You guys look like fraternal triplets separated at birth." Baekhyun says pointedly.

"…if there was such a thing." Kyungsoo commented dryly, which made the guys laugh.

"Are you kidding?" I dead-pan. I wore a straight face.

Taemin chuckles, "I want a photo with my two favorite customers!" He pipes in.

"That's the real reason." Luhan snickers.

So the rest of my friends exited the photobooth, with the printed copies laughing at how idiotic we all probably looked and left the 3 of us inside to take our set of photos.

"I should put this in Dream Tea." Taemin jokes.

"So that people know who to give discounts to." I comment.

"Yeah! Speaking of discount, how come I never got a free drink?" Sehun pouted asking Taemin.

Taemin chuckles and scratches the back of his neck, "I promise! I'll give you two a free snack and drink next time you go back." He reassures Sehun.

I shake my head, "Sehun! Don't be so demanding." I warn him.

"What?" He whines.

"It's okay, really…" Taemin reassures.

I shrug, "Well! Let's get this over with!" I say shifting my place inside the booth.

Taemin found himself in between me and Sehun. We all huddled together and brought our faces close to the camera and made funny faces when the timer went off.

"We should switch." Sehun laughs. This time, I found myself in between my best friend, and my newest friend. I smiled a big smile when the camera took the first photo. And then for the rest of the photos, the 3 of us tried to look as cool as we could.

When the photos were printed we were laughing as we were looking at our faces.

"Real handsome, Sehun." I pointed to one photo of Sehun. "Your mom will be proud." I tease.

Sehun smacked my arm.

I explained to Taemin that whenever Sehun takes a photo, he has this bored look on his face all the time and his mom hates it.

Sehun rolls his eyes and exits the booth with a, "Whatever. I'll catch you guys outside."

Taemin nudges me. "Let's take a photo together, Kai." He suggests.

I shrug, "Why not? But can we just take one? I wanna get outta here."

Taemin nods, "Sure." Then he presses the button to take one photo.

We both decide to smile at the camera, since it was only one take, might as well make it a nice one. When the photo was printed, I picked it up and we exited the booth. I looked at the photo of me and Taemin.

"Wow…" I breathed quietly, my eyes scanning the print-out.

"How is it?" Taemin leans over and looks at the photo I held in my hands.

I was too busy staring at the photo that I couldn't help the 3 words that slipped out of my mouth.

"…you're really pretty."


THERE YOU HAVE IT! THE WHOLE OF CHAPTER 12! :D
Who liked the eating contest? There's more of that to come. LOL

SO....I made a TaeKai one-shot to celebrate Taemin's turning 19! :D So go! If you still haven't seen it... Check it out! www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/238398/

My original plan was to write a spin-off of this story where Taemin and Kai are already dating, but that did not sit well with me in the long run because up until now, Kai and Taemin are still getting to know each other! So no fast-forwarding of their relationship in any way! LOL.

Thank you to everyone subscribed. To all those who make an extra effort to comment, I really appreciate it! ^____^

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Thank you!
SapphireSwoon
AFF is being REALLY weird. I can't edit anything. This story or blog posts. And yeah. Hope you enjoy my newest chapter.

Comments

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Dayonyl #1
Chapter 21: Just beautiful❤️
PrettyChiisy
#2
Chapter 21: I enjoyed reading this!! It was a really cute fanfiction >w<
TaeKaiFeels
#3
This story it's so nice and cute! ^_^
bubbles3104 #4
Chapter 21: DANG I LOVE IT (´;Д;`)(´;Д;`)(´;Д;`)
I LOVE THEM (´;Д;`)(´;Д;`)(´;Д;`)
AND I LOVE YOU TOO AUTHOR NIM THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS BEAUTIFUL FIC (´;Д;`)(´;Д;`)(´;Д;`)
Wow, sorry for the capslock. Teehee.
You don't know how you had just make my day ♡ I read this fic straight from chapter 1 until the end without stopping from midnight until early morning. Who needs sleep anyway if you could have sweet taekai story to start your day? (;▽;)
I seriously love this. The idea, the other characters, how you put bromance!sekai, and taemin's long hair huhuhu I love his long hair! He was pretty with long hair (;▽;)♡
Tho there are missing exo members in here (´;Д;`) at least I can get taekai's kiss ♡
Really, thanks for this! ♡
Marshmallow-pop
#5
Chapter 21: I finally finished this fic! It was amazing! I'm so excited to read the sequel!!!!!
howlingwolffate #6
Chapter 21: oh god i almost cried at the ending because i relized i had no more chapters to read of this! omo you did a amazing job~!
Marshmallow-pop
#7
Chapter 18: Pretty boy came on while I was reading this I laughed so loud my little brother while up and heckled at me. Anyways, this is so amazing! Keep up the good work and have a super awesome day!
Nilde9 #8
Chapter 5: Go Taemin, Go!!!!! I guess he is the brave one!! Hihihihihihi
Nilde9 #9
Chapter 1: I don't know why, but I'm nervous already (but it's the good kind of nervousness). Yey!