Day 5
 

“You know what today is?” Baekhyun asks, leaning on my cubicle.

“Friday?”

“Well, yeah,” he mutters, shifting his arms in annoyance. “But more than that, it’s karaoke night at my favorite bar.” I raise my eyebrows at him and he grins widely. “I’ll pick you up at 8,” he mentions, before striding off.

“Did he just ask you on a date?” Luhan pipes in when Baekhyun’s out of ear’s reach.

“Um, yeah, I guess that’s what that was…” A blush rises on my cheeks and I try to fan it off my face.

“Hyosung’s gonna kill you,” Jongdae murmurs with a small glance to Hyosung’s empty desk. She’s been out the whole week recovering from her wisdom tooth surgery from earlier in the week, which by the way did not require a whole week of recovery. I’m more convinced that she took the week off to work on the place settings for the wedding…

“How do you know she doesn’t know?” I ask. I’m going to tell her eventually… But just not right now. Not when she’s in psycho bridesmaid mode…

“She doesn’t know?!” Luhan butts in, slapping me lightly on the arm and I glance down at where he hit me and send him an odd stare. We were becoming more acquainted than I had ever expected. Or maybe it was just because it was easier to confide in him because I knew he wouldn’t reprimand me for it. Plus, his friend Jongdae was expert at keeping his and Luhan’s mouth shut.

“It’s just a thing,” I reassure. “It’s not a big deal. We’re just friends now. I made rules: no and no kissing. It’s not a big deal at all.”

“But the fact that you’re not telling her makes it seem like it is a big deal and there’s no possible way you can go from buds to friends. Life doesn’t work that way,” Luhan says with a pat on my shoulder. He suddenly shudders. “Trust me, I know.”

***

Jongin’s still up in San Francisco and the house is considerably lonelier without him and the bed a thousand times emptier, but tonight is a little different.

I’m not curled up on the couch watching a predictable drama (that makes me cry anyway) or reading sappy novels or shoving ice cream down my throat even though I have a wedding dress I need to fit into in a month. Instead, I’m rummaging through my closet, desperately trying to find something that looks decent on, but I end up throwing everything off my body in disappointment. Jongin and I went out all the time, but I’ve never had to impress him with fancy dresses and makeup. We’ve come to the point where there was really no point in trying to go all out when we’d go on dates. And since then, I’ve completely forgotten how much it took to look like a femme fatale.

Eventually I settle on a staple black dress that every girl has in her closet and pile enough makeup on my face to appear sharp and sultry without looking like I was picked up off a corner. Baekhyun’s never really seen this side of me and I want to make sure everything is on point.

I hear a knock on the door and glance at the clock. It’s only a quarter after seven. He’s early.

I prance to the door, feeling like a teenager going on my very first date. I check my appearance in a mirror and fluff my hair before I open the door.

I almost cringe when I see a blonde head standing on my porch.

“Luhan, what on earth are you doing here?”

He lets out a low whistle and lets himself in. I side eye him as he walks straight into my house without invitation, and hesitantly close the door.

“I figured you needed a friend,” he says while peering at the photos I have hanging on a wall. They mostly consist of old pictures of Jongin and I and a few family photos mixed in. “Y’know since you’re not filling in Hyosung, or anyone to be honest, on your little “fling on the side”. You need someone to make sure you look hot.” He peels his wandering eyes off of my walls and faces me. “Well, you do so congrats.”

I peer at him through squinted eyelids. “Is this some weird way of taking a shot at me before I’m tied down forever because I think my hands are full-”

He lets out a guffaw. “I’m flattered, but I’m gay,” he says through a cheeky smile.

My eyes widen as I never would have pegged him as a player of the other team, but anyone that dyes their hair as much as Luhan has to be deemed at least a little suspicious.

“That really explains a lot.”

Luhan forces a tube of bright lipstick on me, saying that my lips need to look “irresistible” if we have a no kissing rule. He even picks a pair of heels for me to wear, mentioning that guys do notice what shoes girls wear and even gives a few pointers.

“Touch him a lot and laugh at his jokes. And make sure you drink straight from the glass. No straws. They make you look wimpy. And if you guys dance, make sure you’re always facing him and under no circumstances let him dance behind you. Too risky. Especially if you’re a little intoxicated.”

“And how exactly do you know all of this, Luhan?”

He blinks back innocently. “Practice.”

A honk is heard outside, and I figure it’s Baekhyun. “He’s not even coming down,” I scoff, slipping my stilettos on and checking my appearance one last time.

“You’re a grown woman. Do you really need to be walked to a car?”

I let out a breath. “Right…”

“Okay, well kill him out there,” he says, pushing me out the door.

“Wait, are you just staying in my house?!”

“Gotta make sure you make it home untouched, princess,” I grimace at the nickname.

“Don’t call me that. Baekhyun calls me that…”

“Oh, pet names already? Okay, good luck!” he says with one final push out the door. Either he really genuinely cares about me all of a sudden, or he really has nothing to do on a Friday night…

***

“Are you ready for a real date?” Baekhyun asks as he holds the door open for me.

“I hardly consider a karaoke bar a real date, but okay.”

He flashes me a bright smile and we grab a seat at the bar. A few drinks in and Baekhyun’s on the stage belting out a Bruno Mars hit, while the rest of the audience and I sit in enjoyment. I never knew Baekhyun could sing like that, and I try not to let it charm me too much.

But honestly how do you resist someone that can serenade you.

We spend most of the time enjoying everyone else’s drunken attempts and holding a note and singing on key. Everything’s nice until the night slows down and someone decides to choose to sing a sappy love song.

Baekhyun stands up and I wonder if it’s finally time to go home, but instead he offers his hand to dance.

“I love the song, but it’s accompanied by awful singing…” I say, cringing at the poor guy that’s on stage who’s clearly had too much to drink.

“So what? Come on.” He pulls me up by the hand and we’re gently rocking back and forth like preteens at a school dance.

Luckily, the guy’s rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” is helping ease the awkwardness by giving us a laugh every time a high note comes along.
 

Baekhyun’s hands are firm on my lower back, but they never move lower and he never tries to close the distance between us. He just keeps a small, content smile on his face the whole time while quietly watching me try to hold in my laughter.

He takes me home shortly after and doesn’t make any suspicious moves on me. He just innocently walks me to the door, since I seem to be unable to walk myself, and pecks me on the cheek. I don’t know if there’s a rule against it, but I let it happen anyway.

He probably could have his way with me considering everything is happening around me in a blur and I can’t form proper words , but he makes sure that I make it inside and just leaves. His self control was totally in check (Although Luhan's car is still parked out front so I doubt that anything would have happened anyway) and I can only wonder how serious he is about this whole thing.

And how serious I'm planning to be about it too. 

When I walk into my house, Luhan's bundled up on the couch with a bag of popcorn in is lap and a whole spread of different snacks out on the cofee table. He glances over his shoulder to the door when I walk in and he turns his head back to the drama that-

"HEY PAUSE THAT I HAVEN'T WATCHED THAT EPISODE YET!" I say running to the remote that he didn't even bother to grab. I change the channel completely, so that I don't spoil anything. 

"Hey it was just getting good!" Luhan complains stuffing a handful of popcorn in his mouth. I glance down at all the opened snacks on the table and feel a little ticked off. 

"I don't mind you going through my pantry, but did you really have to open every single one of them?" I say staring at the packages that looked like they were barely touched. 

Luhan frowns and says, "I'm picky okay. Just put those chip clips on all of them, they'll be fine. And if Jongin asks, just tell him you missed him so much that you had to eat your feelings." I glare down at him for a while before my feet let me know that their tired of standing and I plop down on the couch next to him, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bag in his lap and going back to the drama and rewinding it back to the beginning. "So how'd your date go?" he asks.

"It was nice. He kept his distance and everything and the stupid guy, as if he wasn't perfect already, he can sing too," I reply, eyes still glued to the screen.

"Really? Hmm, never would have pegged him as a singer... I think you should be careful though. It's kind of feeling like you're digging yourself into a deeper hole instead of helping you with this whole decision process."

I peel my eyes off the telivison and slowly face him. "What do you mean by that?" 

"You and I both know you're not doing this just to 'get to know him'. You're just stringing this thing along for no reason except wanting more time with the guy. But I can already tell you're too afraid to break Jongin's heart." I only stare back at him blankly, lowering the popcorn that I was about to put in my mouth back down to the pile in my hand. "You might as well just end things before you end up hurting yourself."