Yixing walked into the cafe at 2:30 on Sunday, just like he always did. He approached the counter, where Jongin actually looked surprised to see him. Yixing stifled a giggle as he approached the counter. 

 

"I'll have the usual, please," he said, smiling at Jongin, who blushed and nodded, turning around to make the mocha latte. "So, um, Jongin," Yixing continued, his heartbeat picking up. "Do you have class tonight?"

 

Still facing the coffee maker, Jongin shook his head. "No, I don't. I only have class on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The other nights are for homework, and sometimes for sleep," he shot a smile and wink over his shoulder to Yixing, who laughed in return.

 

"Well, do you want to go  out with me tonight? I found this cool place that I think you'd like, but if you need to study, then that's fine too...." he trailed off, playing with the hem of his shirt nervously and avoiding Jongin's eyes. 

 

"No, I'd love to go! Where?"

 

Yixing perked up, and he couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face. "It's a new used bookstore that I wanted to check out. It just opened up, and one of my roommates got a job there, and he said that it's a really cool place. I mean, I know it sounds kind of lame, so if you don't want to go, that's fine, but--"

 

Jongin cut him off. "No, I'd love to. Here's your coffee, by the way," he said, and Yixing took the warm cup from him. Jongin began to make his espresso as he continued. "I've needed to find something new to read for a while. I'd love to go."

 

Yixing nodded. "Yeah, I need to see if they have the sixth Harry Potter. I just finished the fifth, and I can't wait to read the next one."

 

Jongin grinned. "Yeah, I noticed you reading it the other day. If I remember correctly, you were crying over Sirius's death, am I right?"

 

Yixing reached across the counter and smacked him on the arm. "Hey, it was really sad, okay?"

 

Jongin nodded, his expression suddenly solemn. "Yeah, I know. I remember I cried over that, too. But you should prepare yourself. It only gets sadder."

 

Yixing gasped and his hands flew up to cover his ears. "NO SPOILERS! I SWEAR, JONGIN, I'VE BEEN AVOIDING THE INTERNET FOR THE PAST FOUR WEEKS SO THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE ANY SPOILERS, SO IF YOU SPOIL IT FOR ME I WILL--"

 

But he was cut off by the sound of Jongin's laughter. "Don't worry, Yixing, I won't spoil it. But really? No Internet for four weeks? What have you been doing for entertainment?"

 

"I've been reading!"

 

Jongin laughed. "Okay, well I get off at four today, so we can go then, alright?"

 

Yixing nodded and went to the same corner armchair he had sat in the day before, but this time, instead of pulling out his book, he pulled out his sketchbook and a pencil. 

 

---

 

At four, Yixing looked up and saw that Jongin had vacated his post at the register. Yixing hurried to put his sketchbook away and looked around. Sure enough, there was Jongin, coming out of the break room and carrying his black backpack over one shoulder. 

 

Yixing grinned and walked over to him. "Are you ready?" he asked, grinning wildly at the thought of a whole afternoon alone with Jongin. 

 

Jongin nodded, and they walked out of the cafe, hailing a cab to the bookstore. When they arrived, Jongin paid for the cab when Yixing wasn't looking (earning a smack in the arm from Yixing) and they looked up at the sign above the entrance.

 

"Dragon and Panda's Used Bookstore," Jongin read aloud. "What is this place?" he asked, turning to Yixing. 

 

"It's the new bookstore I was telling you about. One of my roommates works here, but he said that his bosses, the owners, are a bit...eccentric."

 

"So kinda like Baekhyun."

 

"Well, the way Jongdae described them, they're a bit worse than Baekhyun."

 

Jongin raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

 

"That's what I've heard," Yixing laughed. He took Jongin's arm, tugging him to the door. "Come on, let's go in!" Yixing said, grinning excitedly. 

 

Inside, the bookstore proved to be as unique as its name. Shelves of books lined the two-story walls, going from floor to ceiling, and there was a balcony about halfway up, with multiple spiral staircases around the room leading up to it. There were also multiple ladders around the room, each with a sign saying 'Request Assistance for Ladders' taped to one of the lower rungs. In the middle of the room were clusters of armchairs, couches, and love seats. Some were more secluded, with fewer chairs grouped together, and some groups had more seats in them, obviously designed for people who wanted to be more social. Each cluster of chairs and couches had multiple lamps scattered among it, and for every chair there was a side table with a coaster and for every couch or love seat there was a coffee table positioned directly in front of it, each with three coasters. In the center was a small circular coffee shop, which, according to the menu, didn't have too large of a selection at this point. 

 

Suddenly, a door to the right that Yixing hadn't previously noticed opened, and out of it walked what might have been the scariest person Yixing had ever laid eyes on. He was Chinese, and dressed all in black, with styled black hair and multiple ear piercings. His eyes were heavily lidded, and he wore about double the amount of eyeliner that Baekhyun usually wore. He also wore copious amounts of dark eyeshadow, which enhanced the effect of black and white contrast, making him look strikingly like a panda. 

 

'If this is the panda, then I don't know if I want to meet the dragon,' Yixing thought, taking a few steps back from the panda man. 

 

Said panda man looked around, apparently noticing Jongin and Yixing. A smile broke out on his bow-shaped lips, and Yixing relaxed a little. The smile did a lot to soften the man's harsh expression, and Yixing dimly thought that if this man could smile so easily then there was no way he could be all bad, right?

 

"Ah, customers!" he exclaimed, coming towards them, and Yixing's eyes widened. This guy's voice was about as different from his face as it could possibly be, and it made him seem less like an angry cat and more like an adorable baby panda. "Welcome to Dragon and Panda's! In case you haven't noticed, I'm the panda," he said, gesturing to himself, "And my name is Tao. My partner, Kris, is the dragon."

 

Yixing briefly wondered what kind of partner Tao was talking about, but that question was soon answered as another Chinese man, this one blond, with an even fiercer expression than Tao's and oversized hands walked up and laid a hand on Tao's shoulder. "Oh, Taozi, you didn't tell me we had customers. Good afternoon, I'm Kris, and welcome to Dragon and Panda's. You've already met Taozi, he's the panda, and I'm the dragon." 

 

Yixing, who had relaxed slightly since his initial fear at he sight of Tao, recoiled again. This man looked even scarier than Tao, and unlike the panda man, his voice didn't help to calm the fear that his face inspired. In fact, his deep, slightly gruff once only added fuel to the fire. 

 

Tao laughed. "Duizhang, you're scaring them," he said, looking up at Kris, and Yixing didn't miss how Kris's expression softened ever so slightly as he looked down at Tao, though it hardened into a sinister-looking smirk as he replied. 

 

"So kind of like I was scaring you last night, right Taozi?" he asked, his voice dropping to a low whisper. Yixing blushed furiously and glanced up at Jongin, who didn't seem to have noticed anything. 

 

Tao blushed as well, slapping Kris lightly on the arm as he turned back to Yixing and Jongin. "Well, if you two will follow me, I can get you started," he said, leading them past the door to the register, where Yixing saw Jongdae, who smiled and winked at Yixing at the sight of Jongin. Yixing sent Jongdae a your-bosses-are-scary-why-did-you-make-me-come-here look in reply, and Jongdae somehow managed to pass off his laughing fit as a sudden bout of coughing. 

 

Tao, who didn't seem to have noticed this whole exchange, handed Yixing and Jongin each a small piece of paper. Yixing glanced down at his and saw that it was a labeled map of the store, showing where every genre could be found, and explaining the organizational system of the books. Yixing looked back up to listen to Tao. 

 

"So the fiction books are on the bottom, and the nonfiction ones are on top."

 

"So ask me if you need help with the nonfiction section, okay?" Kris cut in with a straight face. Tao stomped on his foot, hard, then smiled tightly at Jongin and Yixing. 

 

"Please, have a good time in here. And if you have any questions about the fiction section, be sure to go to Kris, alright?" he said before walking away, leaving Kris to grumble and limp away in the opposite direction. 

 

Yixing turned to Jongdae, who shrugged, grinning like a madman. "Hey man, I told you they were crazy. Don't say I didn't warn you."

 

"You never mentioned that they were ing each other," Yixing grumbled.

 

Jongdae laughed. "Well, you gotta let me have my fun," he said. "So, Yixing," he leaned over the counter, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Who's your friend?"

 

Yixing pretended that he hadn't noticed Jongdae's suggestiveness, making a mental note to give him a good punch in the gut later. Instead, he took Jongin's wrist and pulled him over to one of the couches nearby. 

 

He and Jongin sat down, and Yixing sighed, rubbing his temples. 

 

"Do you know him?" Jongin asked, and even though Yixing wasn't looking, he could hear the smile in the other boy's voice. 

 

"That's one of my roommates, Kim Jongdae. He's the one who told me about this place." 'He's also trying to set you and me up,' he added as an afterthought, but decided against telling Jongin this bit of information.

 

Jongin laughed. "His name sounds a lot like mine," he said, and Yixing looked up, smiling slightly and trying to ignore how fast his heart was beating at the sound of Jongin's laugh. 

 

"Yeah, well he's about as different from you as a rabbit is from a turtle. He's absolutely crazy. He makes me want to pull my hair out half the time," he said, laughing at the thought of the incident with the dishwasher last week, which had made Kyungsoo really pull his own hair out. 

 

Jongin laughed again, and Yixing had to stop himself from kissing the other man in the mouth right then and there. It took him a second to realize that Jongin was talking. "Sorry, what was that, Jongin? I spaced out." Yixing ignored the fact that in his peripheral vision, Jongdae was making kissy faces at Yixing. 

 

Jongin chuckled again--Yixing's heart skipped a beat--and repeated himself. "I said that we should probably look at that map the scary panda man gave us. You wanna find Harry Potter, right?"

 

Yixing nodded and fumbled for the brochure-like paper in his hands, suddenly flustered. 

 

He seemed to get that way a lot when he was around Jongin--flustered and fumbling over everything. He hoped it wasn't too obvious, but the way Jongdae was giggling into his hand suggested otherwise.

 

Finally, Yixing got a hold of the pamphlet and opened it, looking down at the map of the bookstore in his hands, with Jongin looking over his shoulder. 

 

"It should be over here," the Korean boy said, pointing to a section directly across from the main entrance. "Let's try there first."

They did, and Jongin managed to find the sixth Harry Potter in under five minutes. 

 

"How did you do that?" Yixing asked, raising a brow at the Korean boy. 

 

Jongin merely shrugged. "I worked in a library all through high school, and our head iibrarian had a thing for rearranging the books. I got pretty good at finding books."

 

Yixing laughed and took the book. "Well, thanks. Do you not have anything that you want to read?"

 

Jongin shrugged again. "Not really. Nothing here is standing out to me, at least."

 

Yixing thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers as he realized the solution. "You could read to me!" he said, grinning at the fact that he had managed to think of this wonderful solution all by himself. 

 

Jongin's eyes widened and his cheeks reddened. "U-um, really? I mean, um..." h stuttered, but Yixing didn't notice his nervousness. 

 

"Come on, Jongin! Please?" Yixing begged, sticking his lower lip out ever so slightly, and the look in Jongin's eyes told Yixing that he had already won.

 

"Okay, okay, fine. I'll read to you," Jongin acquiesced, taking the book from Yixing, who grinned widely and took Jongin's hand, leading the other boy back to their couch. 

 

Jongin settled on the couch and turned the lamp on, waiting for Yixing to settle down next to him before opening the book and starting to read about the Muggle Prime Minister and how he always dreaded his visits from Cornelius Fudge. Yixing watched him read, losing himself in both the story and in the way Jongin's plush lips moved and turned up slightly as he read. 

 

~

 

Half an hour later, Jongin felt a weight fall onto his shoulder. He stopped reading and glanced over, smiling slightly when he saw Yixing asleep on his shoulder. Jongin smiled softly and reached over, planning to shake the other by awake, but instead he ended up brushing Yixing's hair out of his eyes. Jongin's breath caught at the sight of the boy's sleeping face. He had always known that Yixing was attractive, but it hadn't really clicked in his mind until that moment. 

 

Jongin liked Yixing. He liked the way Yixing's eyes sparkled when he laughed, and the way his dimple winked at Jongin every time Yixing smiled. He liked how Yixing would mutter to himself while he read, and how he got so caught up in the world of his book that he completely tuned out the rest of the world around him. Jongin liked how Yixing chewed his bottom lip as he drew, and he liked how Yixing's eyelashes fluttered as he slept. But the question was: did Yixing like him back?

 

Jongin worried his bottom lip with his teeth as he stared at Yixing, his right hand absently  the other boy's hair. Eventually he realized what he was doing and removed his hand from Yixing's hair, instead using it to shake the other awake. 

 

"Yah, Yixing, you can't sleep here. Come on, if you're tired then I'll take you home, but you can't sleep in the middle of the bookstore," he said, looking away from the boy and trying to hide his flushed cheeks. 

 

Yixing stirred, and Jongin kept his eyes averted, knowing that with how cute he thought Yixing normally, just-waking-up Yixing would probably send Jongin into cardiac arrest. "Jongin?" Yixing muttered, rubbing his eyes and looking around as he sat up. 

Turning around, Jongin found that he had been right. Yixing was adorable when he just woke up, even though he hadn't been asleep for that long (at least, Jongin thought that he hadn't been asleep for a long time. He didn't really know how long he'd been staring).

 

Jongin felt his heart speed up so that it was nearly beating out of his chest at the sight of the other boy. Looking down the book in his hands, Jongin tried to fight a violent blush as he spoke. 

 

"You fell asleep," he explained. "I thought it might be time to take you home, since you're this tired."

 

Yixing blushed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep. I was just up pretty late last night working on..." he trailed off, looking around frantically. 

 

"Yixing? What's wrong?" Jongin asked, laying a comforting hand on Yixing's arm. Yixing paused in his search and looked up at Jongin. "I can't find my bag!"

 

Jongin could see tears pooling in the boy's eyes, and he immediately felt an incredible urge to stop Yixing from crying. "Okay, it's fine. Is your wallet in there? Your phone? Anything else people would want to take?" he asked, keeping his voice calm as he rubbed Yixing's arm in an attempt to calm the other. 

 

Yixing shook his head. "No, I keep my wallet and my phone in my pockets. In my bag isn't really anything anybody would want to take, but my sketchbook and journal are both in there," he choked out the last part, his hand coming up to cover his mouth. 

 

Jongin reacted before even giving himself a chance to think, and he pulled Yixing into a hug. "Okay...shhh....calm down, it's okay. I saw you with your bag at the cafe, it's probably there. Baekhyun should still be there--we don't close until seven. We can run by there before I take you home, alright? I'm sure it's there," he cooed, Yixing's hair and holding the other close to him in an attempt to calm the boy down. 

 

It seemed to work, as Yixing took a few deep breaths, pulling out of the hug after a minute or two and wiping his eyes. "Okay. Let's go."

 

Leaving the book on a nearby table, Jongin took Yixing's arm and led him out of the store, hailing a cab once they reached the main street. 

 

In the cab, Yixing spoke. "I'm sorry, Jongin," he said, looking at his hands folded in his lap. Jongin looked over, confused. "I'm sorry I freaked out. I just....my sketchbook and my journal are really important to me, and I don't want anyone to look in them," Yixing continued, still not looking at Jongin. 

 

Jongin's eyes softened, and he patted Yixing's arm. "It's okay, I understand. I don't mind going back with you to get them," he said. 

Yixing finally looked up, smiling at Jongin. "Thanks, Jongin."

 

Jongin's heart fluttered, and he grinned. "Anytime."

 

~

 

They arrived at the cafe just as Baekhyun was closing up. The barista had found Yixing's bag as he cleaned up, and he had set it aside. When Yixing asked if he had looked inside, Baekhyun had been highly offended. 

 

"Did you two seriously think I would be so rude as to invade my customer's privacy? I would never do anything of the sort! I expect this sort of thing from you, Jongin, but Yixing, you seemed nicer than that!" he had shouted, proceeding to bustle Jongin and Yixing out of the shop with the excuse that he wasn't done cleaning yet.

 

Jongin walked Yixing home (they didn't get another cab since Yixing's apartment building was just around the corner) and the two exchanged idle chatter as they walked. 

 

Then, in the lobby, before Yixing even realized he was doing anything, Yixing leaned forward and kissed Jongin on the cheek, whispering a small thank you into Jongin's ear before turning around and practically running away to the stairs. 

 

Yixing ran all the way up the six flights of stairs to his floor, bursting into his apartment and running into his room, shutting the door behind him and ignoring Kyungsoo's concerned questions. Yixing didn't much feel like talking, not even to his umma-like friend, and Jongdae would be home soon. He would be able to explain everything. Well, almost everything. 

 

Yixing groaned out loud when he realized that Jongdae had seen everything. Jongin reading to Yixing, Yixing falling asleep on Jongin's shoulder, and Yixing's freak-out over almost losing his sketchbook. 

 

Yixing pulled his sketchbook out of his bag and flopped on his back on the bed, opening the sketchbook to what he had been drawing earlier, while he waiting for Jongin to finish his shift at the cafe. 

 

Jongin's face stared back at him. Well, sort of. What Yixing looked at was a sketch of Jongin, asleep at his post in the cafe. Yixing smiled, hugging the drawing close as he drifted off to sleep, dreaming of Harry Potter, espressos, and plump lips.  

 

---

 

I AM SO SORRY. I wrote this over the course of like a week and tbh I actually really hate it. I did some flash editing while fixing the formatting(which took like twenty minutes since iPads are stupid) but I'm still not happy with this chapter. -.- I hate writers' block. Really. 

Anyway, leave comments and tell me what you think of the story so far! :D