“Please let Tao be sick, please let Tao be sick, please let Tao be sick,” Chanyeol chants as he walks from the subway station to the little café he works at. Luck is not on his side however when he walks in to see Tao leaning over the counter with the smuggest grin he’d ever seen on a human being in his entire life.

Chanyeol sighs, running through every English, Chinese, Korean and Turkish curse he knows (Which isn’t really that much.) in his head before forcing a small smile. “Good morning.”

Tao just gives him a knowing look. “’Morning. Have a fun night?”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes; Of course Tao immediately starts the morning off asking about his date with Kris. “It was alright,” he answers, grabbing his apron off the rack under the counter. He cringes slightly as he realizes that Tao dyed the aprons again and that this time they’re a bright pink color, the small Panda&Deer logo on the corner above his name an obnoxious purple shade.

“Just alright?” Luhan asks as he passes with a tray of fresh cinnamon rolls.

Chanyeol can’t help the full body shiver that passes over him as he realizes that Luhan’s hair matches their aprons. “What did you do to your hair, hyung?” He blurts, tacking the honorific on the end as an afterthought.

“Dyed it, obviously,” Tao scoffs. The youngest of the three wraps his fingers around Chanyeol’s chin, demanding his attention once more as Luhan retreats back to the kitchen snickering. “Now tell me about your date with Kris.”

Chanyeol sighs, giving up on getting anything done before telling Tao about his night. “Kris picked me up after my last class and we went out for dinner and he took me to see a movie. Then he took me home,” he says, unable to look Tao in the eye as he leaves off the small detail that Kris hadn’t taken him home until about an hour before he needed to be at work.

“Oh really? That all?” Tao smirks. “Did you guys even get to watch the end of the movie?”

Chanyeol can’t help the flood of heat to his cheeks at the question. “Yeah, we did,” he says, officially out of the realm of omission and into straight-up lies.

“Oh that’s cool,” Tao muses, looking over his nails as Chanyeol moves about the café, taking chairs off of tables and wiping them down one last time before flipping the sign on the front door around so it read open. “What did you guys do after the movie?” Tao asks once Chanyeol is back behind the counter.

Chanyeol doesn’t get a chance to reply as the door swings open, the first customers of the day entering sluggishly. Before long the small shop is packed with students finishing up assignments before their first class of the day over steaming glasses of coffee and warm, gooey cinnamon rolls. Tao is still trying his best to grill Chanyeol with questions about his date while the taller barista rushes around making everyone’s drinks and Chanyeol’s patience for it is beginning to wear thin.

“You never did tell me what you guys did after the movie,” Tao smirks as Chanyeol’s cheeks redden and he can almost hear the mental reply of ‘We went back to his place and spent the night ruining his sheets.’

“I told you, we saw a movie and he took me home.” Tao pouts at the answer. His expression brightens once more before he asks another question.

“When did he take you home then? Huh?”

Chanyeol bites the inside of his cheek to keep from snapping at Tao, partially because that’s still his best friend, but mainly because that’s his boss and calling him an annoying twerp is a good way to get his pay docked. “The movie finished at ten-thirty, so probably around eleven,” ‘Eleven past six this morning,’ he mentally corrects, though he’s definitely not telling Tao that.

“So you guys really just went to dinner, saw a movie, and then he took you home? Seriously?” Chanyeol nods, prompting a groan from Tao. “You had one job, Channie, one job. How did you it up?”

“Wait, wha-”

“It’s really not hard to get into Kris’s pants, how did you not get laid last night?” Chanyeol flushes once more at Tao’s words. “When’s your next date?”

Chanyeol sputters. “W-what? There is no next dat-”

“Oh, yes there is, Park Chanyeol. I set you two up to get you some and dammit, you will get some. In fact, I’m gonna call Kris right now,” Tao declares, hand already in his apron pocket fishing around for his cellphone.

“No!” Chanyeol nearly shrieks, the sound drowning out the door chime. “You can’t call Kris.”

“I can too! You guys are going on another date and I’m gonna make sure of it!”

Chanyeol snatches the phone out of Tao’s hand. “We had a one-night stand, Tao! You don’t go on another date after a one-night stand!”

The café goes silent at his outburst and Chanyeol knows his face is probably redder than his boss’s hair.

“Ouch Chanyeol. Here I thought we had something special.” Chanyeol’s blood runs cold as he turns to see Kris standing just inside the doorway, fighting a smile.

“Just kill me, now,” Chanyeol moans, sinking down to the floor behind the counter as Kris laughs and Tao does a victory whoop.

‘ you, Huang Zitao.’

---

“I’m home!” Tao calls as he enters his apartment, laughing happily when he hasn’t even taken his shoes off and strong arms are wrapping around his waist and lifting him off the ground.

“I missed you,” a soft voice whispers in his ear.

Tao grins, turning in his boyfriend’s arms and pressing a kiss to the younger’s lips. “I missed you too, Sehun-ah. How was school?”

“Boring,” Sehun replies, nuzzling his nose against Tao’s. “I ended up drawing lewd pictures of you all of you all over my notebook.”

Tao snorts before flicking his boyfriend on the forehead. “You little . You’re gonna get in trouble for that if someone catches you.”

“You say that like I care. I just want to graduate already so I can move in here with you.”

“You’ve still got a few months before you can do that, baby,” Tao presses his lips to Sehun’s forehead before pulling away to take off his shoes. “How long are you staying?”

“I’m yours till Monday,” Sehun says happily, grabbing Tao’s hand and tugging him into the living room. “I told my mom I was staying the weekend with Kai so I could stay here and help you out with getting Chanyeol and Kris together.”

“So you’re just here to help me fix Kris and Chanyeol up?” Tao asks, voice dropping a bit as he backs Sehun up against the couch. “No other reasons?”

Sehun rolls his eyes, fighting a smile as Tao kisses him again. “Keep it in your pants, Tao…for now.”

Chuckling Tao pulls back to take a seat on the couch next to Sehun. “I think I can do that.”

“Good,” Sehun nods, the corners of his lips still twitching from his barely retained smile. “Now then, how’s Operation: Get Krisyeol Laid working out?”

“Well, they did sleep with each other after their date last night, but,” Tao pauses a moment to tap his index finger against his chin. “I’m thinking we should do more than that for them.”

Sehun quirks a brow at his boyfriend’s words. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that they’d be the absolute cutest couple ever if we actually managed to get them together. Well,” he amends. “they’d be the cutest couple right after us. Plus, it’s hard to find half-decent, out-of-the-closet gay men in Korea, so I know that if we don’t do this for them they’ll both spend the next few years lonely. Unless Chanyeol gets back together with his ex, but I don’t think that either of them would go for that. Of course, if Kris moves back to Cana-”

“Babe,” Sehun says, effectively cutting Tao off.

“Yes?” the elder replies, bright eyes excited at the prospect of playing matchmaker for his two best friends.

“You’re rambling. But I do think that we need to get Kris and Chanyeol together. They’re kind of perfect for each other.”

Tao nods in agreement before a thought strikes him and his jaw drops, normally wide eyes the size of saucers. “Sehun-ah, I have a serious question.”

“What is it?”

Tao leans in as if sharing an important secret. “Who do you think would top?”

The apartment is silent for several moments before they both answer.

“Kris.” Tao laughs and ruffles Sehun’s hair, the younger smiling at the fact they’d answered at the same time.

“So what’s the plan for actually getting them together then?” Sehun asks once they’ve stopped laughing, his arms wrapped around Tao’s shoulders while the elder leans back against his chest.

“First we actually have to get them to go on a second date. Kris seems up for a second date but Chanyeol flat-out refuses and he still won’t give me a reason. But I might have a solution for that if I can talk his roommate into going along with it. I don’t think that’ll be too hard since Soo does owe me a favor and I’m sure he wants Chanyeol to find a nice boyfriend and move out and-” Tao breaks off on a chuckle, mentally cursing the fact that he never knows when to shut up. “Sorry, babe, I’m rambling again.”

Sehun leans down to nuzzle Tao’s cheek before pressing his lips to the elder’s. “I don’t mind. I like hearing you talk. But,” he whispers, voice dropping an octave as he moves to nip the top of Tao’s ear. “I like to hear you moan a lot more.”

Tao grins before turning in his boyfriend’s arms. “I think we’ve done enough plotting for tonight.”