“He’s here again. Soulmate Guy.”

The tall stack of books nearly slips out of his hands and off the trolley. The slim brunette lets out a groan as he struggles to place the books down without the ridiculously heavy Modernist Cuisine falling onto his foot (the last time someone dropped the 23kg box set, the poor staff couldn’t walk for weeks). He eyes the trolley with trepidation for a few seconds, only straightening when he is certain the books are not about to fall to certain death on the trolley with the unsteady wheel.

He turns around to face his colleague, Amber, who is preoccupied with checking out said “Soulmate Guy”. Even without peeking in the direction, Zhang Yixing knows the 1.8ish metre-tall blond is loitering around shelf J11-01, where Family & Relationship books can be found.

The blond is a regular customer in the bookstore Yixing works in, often appearing about an hour before closing time to inspect the books on aisle J11. Ever since Yixing joined XOXO Books, he has seen the customer at least 3 out of 5 times a week and not once has he ever ever purchased a book. Instead, from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, Soulmate Guy lingers around that specific aisle with a book in his hands, pretending (at least that’s what they think) to read while chatting with (read: trying to pick up) anyone within a three foot radius.

None of the bookstore staff likes him, Yixing included. This isn’t a library, for goodness’ sake; why can’t Soulmate Guy just buy the book and read it at home instead of harassing the customers and the staff with his lame pickup lines and small talk?

“You know, he’s quite good-looking.”

Yixing rolls his eyes towards the ceiling, mentally noting that the lightbulb in that strange cone-shaped lamp needs changing. “Amber Liu. If I have a dollar for every time you say that, I wouldn’t be working here,” he retorts dryly. He eyes the blond, who is so tall his head peeks out from behind the shelf. “Why don’t you do us a favour, get together with him, and maybe then he wouldn’t be so desperate to try and fish for dates in a bookstore?”

 Amber sticks her tongue out. “I’ll go return the stray books to other departments.”

Shaking his head, Yixing glances at his watch and pouts sadly at his trolley. 9.20pm. No chance of him shelving the remaining books then.  He moves away from the trolley b with books to the Self-Help section to pack for closing, grumbling under his breath when he sees numerous books stuffed horizontally into the shelves. Ugh. Stupid customers. Is it so difficult to put the book where they took it?

He goes around the shelves, picking up stray books that do not belong (ie, Rainbow Fish, Freakonomics) and dumping them in a basket so he can return them to their respective departments later when he nearly walks into a wall. Scratch that, it’s the blond. Mr Soulmate Guy.

“We’re closing,” Yixing says pointedly, not bothering to sound polite because hey, this is the leech who treats their Lifestyle department as his personal library.

“Just let me finish this chapter,” mumbles the customer, poking his head into the book. Yixing looks at the cover (The Little Black Book of Chat-Up Lines and Flirting) and resists the temptation to snort. Clearly, books cannot help everyone.

“You know, you can buy the book,” Yixing suggests with a forced smile on his lips.

The blond blushes at that and quickly places the book back into shelf J11-02. “Maybe next time,” he says with a little cough and quickly makes his way out of the bookstore.

“I think he’s scared of you, Xing Xing,” comments a dark-skinned boy. Jongin, from the Comics department, grins as he shoves a stack of stray Lifestyle books into Yixing’s hands.

Scared of him? He’s probably the least intimidating staff in Lifestyle. Has he even seen Sehun’s face?

-

“How old do you think he is?” Amber asks the table of 6 conversationally during break the next day. She has a packet of BBQ Lays potato chips open and already half of its contents are sitting in her stomach while a portion of it spews out of messily when she speaks.

Sehun, one of their part-time Lifestyle staff, wrinkles his nose and edges away from her. “He looks old, like Jongdae,” the boy offers, before squirming backwards when said person reaches across the table to hit him on the head with his empty cup of bubble tea.

“I’m not old, !”’

Yixing pulls Jongdae back from their poor maknae, hand gripping tight on the collar of his uniform so he doesn’t lunge forward and kill Sehun. He prefers the youngest alive to tide them through the weekend crowd. “Twenty-three? Twenty-four? Why do you ask, Amb?”

“She wants to know if she’s compatible with him,” Jongin teases knowingly. Amber doesn’t deny. Jongin chews on a potato chip thoughtfully. “How is he here every day? Does he not work?”

From the way Jongdae lights up, Yixing knows he’s up to no good. “Hey, why don’t our Xing Xing pack the Family & Relationships shelves today? Talk to him and give us more gossip!”

“Why me?” he asks pathetically but he already knows the answer before anyone replies. Yada, yada, yada, because he’s the Lifestyle department’s assistant manager. Yixing pouts at the empty packet of Lays. Hopefully sleazy Soulmate Guy is straight and will not try to pick him up…

-

Ouch. Jongdae elbows him painfully at the side, jostling him forward when the familiar blond appears at exactly 8.14pm and heads, immediately, to shelf J11-02. Yixing looks at the ceiling as if hoping that cone-shaped lamp will fall onto his head but it unfortunately doesn’t, and by the time he comes to his senses, he’s already standing in front of Soulmate Guy.

Soulmate Guy looks at him questioningly.

He loses his nerve. And turns to the shelf behind to pretend to be sorting the books by the authors’ last names. Yixing nearly jumps out of his skin when Soulmate Guy bumps into his by accident when the other bends down. Why are these stupid aisles so cramped!?

“Sorry, are you okay?”

Yixing nods numbly. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jongdae and Jongin urging him to talk. Sehun just looks pained. Yixing mentally questions his boss’ choices in hiring these colleagues. He in a deep breath and smiles brightly at Soulmate Guy, dimple pressing deep into his cheek.

“So I see you here all the time but I’ve never introduced myself!” he exclaims, badly wanting to cringe at the happy, hyper voice he uses to talk to children. “I’m Yixing! You are?”

The tall blond blinks at him in surprise, as if he hasn’t expected a XOXO staff to say anything more than
“the store is closing”. Yixing’s eyes fall onto the book he’s reading (still the same The Little Black Book of Chat-Up Lines and Flirting) and hopes desperately that he doesn’t think Yixing is trying to flirt with him. The horror.

“I’m Wufan.”

Aha, Name acquired.

“Do you like reading relationship books?” Yixing continues bravely. “Are you looking for a s-soulmate?” Yeah, well, he isn’t nicknamed Soulmate Guy for nothing.

Wufan’s lips widen into a dazzling smile at the question, momentarily stunning Yixing. It occurs to him out of all the times he has seen this man, there is not once he has smiled this brilliantly. It almost makes Yixing feel bad for making fun of the man because wow, this man can actually be attractive. If he shaves and isn’t such a creep.

“It’s my mum. She keeps nagging at me to settle down,” Wufan tells him, voice dropping into a whisper as if embarrassed that anyone will overhear even though every single staff in the store has seen him at aisle J11. “I’m hoping that these books can help me.” He clears his throat and looks at the book in his hand, poking a finger at the page he’s in. “I would guess you’re against hunting – am I right?”

Yixing looks at him confusedly.

“Because you’re a fox!”

Oh… kay…

No wonder he can’t get attached.

The assistant manager clears his throat again, torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to tear the book in Wufan’s hand into halves. “Uh… but aren’t you busy at work?” Yixing asks weakly, not knowing how to react to the pickup line. “You’re here almost daily.”

A grimace forms on Wufan’s face, making him appear horrifyingly angry. Yixing takes an involuntary step back.

“It’s complicated,” he says.

Jobless, then. Not that Yixing is surprised, considering this is the man that has read every book on shelf J11-01 without buying any and is now on J11-02. He really doesn’t mean to judge but he can’t help it. They sell books here. They’re not a non-profit organization. Why doesn’t he just go to a library?!

When Wufan glances back at the book, Yixing takes the opportunity to look the other over and promptly grimaces. A collared long-sleeved shirt with a pair of terribly ugly drop-crotch pants. Was he dressing for work halfway and forgot he was wearing his pajama bottoms?

“Would it do you any good to learn pickup lines?” he mutters under his breath. “Especially when you’re dressed like this?”

Wufan’s head snaps up. . He hasn’t realised he had spoken aloud. “What’s wrong with how I dress?” he says defensively, dumping the book back onto shelf J11-02 (but not before putting a post-it note between the pages).

A flush creeps across Yixing’s cheeks. Did he sound too insensitive? He swallows guiltily. “I don’t—”

“Don’t bother apologising if you don’t mean it,” the blond bites agitatedly, storming off before Yixing can say another word. His ears burn hotly but it’s too late to say anything anyway. He watches Soulmate Guy’s retreating back remorsefully.

“Uh-oh. You’ve hurt Soulmate Guy’s feelings,” Kyung Soo, the Children Books department assistant, comments mildly from behind him.

“He deserves it anyway,” snorts Jongin, his elbow casually resting on Kyung Soo’s shoulder. “With any luck, he won’t come again.”

-

It turns out Jongin’s prediction is right. Soulmate Guy does not appear on the days Yixing is working and according to his colleagues, they haven’t been seeing him either. It’s almost as if he has disappeared into thin air and the book with the post-it note still rests comfortably between The Flirting Bible and The Art of Seduction. It has been 3 weeks and there is still no sign of him. Yixing tells himself he’s only worried because he offended the man and he really wants to apologise.

“Why the heck is there a sticky note in here?” the Lifestyle department’s part-time assistant, Sehun, questions on a slow Sunday afternoon. The Little Black Book of Chat-Up Lines and Flirting dangles between his index finger and thumb and the presence of the bright yellow note taunts Yixing. Sehun starts to pull out the note but before it can leave pages 25-26, Yixing snatches the book out of his hands.

“It’s mine,” he mumbles and ducks around the counter to keep it in his drawer. He doesn’t want to explain that he hasn’t taken the post-it note out of the book in the hopes that Soulmate Guy will return to continue where he left off. It’s silly, but Yixing thinks the line “you don't know what you're missing until it's gone” never rings truer.

He sighs in relief when Amber appears to tell him it’s time to take their break. Avoiding Sehun’s confused gaze, Yixing hurries behind her into the pantry and plops down dejectedly onto the chair.  Not even Amber waving a bottle of Strawberry Tea can cheer him up.

“Are you still moping about Soulmate Guy?” she asks in concern. “Maybe he hasn’t come because he found a job?”

“I don’t know why I said it, Amber,” bemoans Yixing, voice muffled since his head is hidden in his arms. “I should have kept my comments to myself. I’ve never even spoken to him before and the first time I speak to him is to diss him. What if he complains to the manager? I’m dead.”

Amber pats him consolingly on the shoulder. “It’s been weeks. If he wanted to complain, he would have done it earlier.”

It’s not only that but Yixing doesn’t know how to tell her that he’s worried he might have hurt Wufan’s feelings. Won’t the rest laugh at him if they find out? After all, Wufan’s just an annoying customer to them. One that doesn’t even buy anything.

“Cheer up,” Amber says sympathetically and quickly glances at her watch. “We should head back to the sales floor and prepare for the book signing later. Come on. I’ll buy you supper after work.”

The promise of a free supper does perk Yixing up a little. Trudging behind the other to the storeroom, Yixing picks up a stack of the newly released How I Got Out of My Comfort Zone and Met My Dream Guy for the book signing and sets them down neatly on the table top. He fixes the poster on the wall uninterestedly when the marketing team arrives.

“The turnout isn’t bad for a new author, is it?” Luhan asks brightly. Yixing shrugs at the marketing executive and scans the crowd. Well, yeah, not too bad, although for a title like How I Got Out of My Comfort Zone and Met My Dream Guy, Yixing will have expected more females in the audience. He starts to tell Luhan that but before he can get a word out of his mouth, someone taps him on the shoulder.

Luhan lights up. “Kris! Meet Yixing. He’s the one who’s been facilitating this book signing,” he says, and he continues to talk as Yixing turns to look at the person who so rudely touched his shoulder. “Your book is going to be in his department so be nice to him or he won’t sell your books, alright?”

Yixing’s jaw drops. It only takes a second for him to recognise the tall blond in front of him. Without the scruffy beard, without the awful mustard pants and cheap flip flops, Soulmate Guy cuts a striking figure in the sleek black suit. Is he dreaming? Is this really – Wufan?

“Yixing? Yixing??”

“Huh?” Yixing splutters incoherently. Luhan shoots him a bemused look.

“This is the author of How I Got Out of My Comfort Zone and Met My Dream Guy. Kris Wu—”

“It’s okay, Luhan,” Soulmate Guy says smoothly. “You don’t have to introduce us. Yixing is the Dream Guy in my book.”

-

“You mean it’s all a ploy?”

Yixing flushes all the way to his toes as Wufan nods at Amber’s incredulous face. He ducks his head and stares at the back cover of the book, wondering why he didn’t think of reading the synopsis when the title came in two weeks ago. He would have found the story familiar!

“Okay, let me get this straight,” Amber says again, eyes wide. She isn’t the only one. The rest of the bookstore staff have similar expressions on their faces. “You came to the bookstore dressed like a hobo, read almost every book on the shelf and harassed the other customers so you can get Yixing’s attention?”

This time it is Wufan who blushes.

“Wow. I don’t know if I should call it a really smart idea or a really dumb idea.” Yixing glares at Amber, who then smiles sheepishly before she adds, “So what’s the plan now? Now that you’ve ‘met your Dream Guy’?”

Yixing catches the look Wufan sneaks at him and he blinks at the blond like a deer caught in the headlights. Wufan clears his throat and, much to his surprise, reaches for his hand.  

“My next book will be titled How I Convince My Dream Guy I’m His Dream Guy.”