The minute the boys had finished their work they went straight to their room.

“I am starving hungry.” Lay complained in the elevator.

“Me too.” Kris complained. “We’ve been worked like crazy already and we still have to host tonight.”

They entered the dorm and Kris put two ready meals in the oven. “They’ll take 15 minutes.” Kris said, walking to the couch and switching on the TV. “What do you want to watch?”

“Anything. I probably won’t understand it anyway if it’s in Korean.” Lay said, joining Kris on the couch.

“Then try to understand them, it’ll improve your accent too.” Kris flicked through the channels and ended up putting on some drama.

“You like this kind of thing?” Lay asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not at all. But with our occupation we could pick up some good lines.” Kris smirked.

Five minutes into the drama Kris was trying not to make retching noises and decided to look elsewhere until the food was done. Naturally that elsewhere was, you guessed it, at Lay.

Kris looked at the shape of Lays cheekbones, his jawline, the way he was shivering, the_ wait. Shivering?

“You cold?” Kris asked, frowning.

“Only a bit, I’ll warm up soon.” Lay said.  A couple of minutes passed and Kris could still see Lay shivering, goose bumps forming on the exposed parts of skin. Kris silently got up and went into their room, returning just a moment later with his duvet. He threw it gently over Lay’s shaking form before settling down, though he couldn’t resist covering Lay’s cold feet with his leg, and since Lay didn’t pull it away he guessed that was a good sign.

“Thanks.” Lay said, and Kris thought for a second he saw Lay’s cheeks tinge pink, but that must have been because he was warming up under the duvet.

They carried on watching the drama even while they ate, and by the end they had both been successfully in.  

“Wait wait wait!” Lay said, leaning forward and pointing at the screen. “He was the one that killed her?”  Even Kris was in disbelief.

“But he said he loved her! What an absolute prick. No I’m not having this I’m going to shower!” Kris said, throwing off the duvet in despair. It was only then that he realised that him and Lay had moved closer during the whole time they had been sitting there, and their legs had been closely pressed together. Kris found himself turning pink at the thought and he quickly turned away, walking promptly to the shower.

Kris went into the bathroom and the taps, marvelling at the water that streamed over his body. It had been too long since he had felt the feel of hot water on his skin. Conscious that Lay still needed to shower too, Kris rushed more than he wanted to and the shower ended much too soon. After drying himself with a towel Kris realised that he hadn’t brought any clean clothes into the bathroom with him, and after a mild panic and several paces of the bathroom he convinced himself to man up and just walk out like Lay had that morning. That thought had Kris pacing once again around the bathroom until he was convinced he wouldn’t turn red the minute he saw Lay outside.

Putting the towel around his waist Kris unlocked the door and left the bathroom, walking to the bedroom just down the hall Kris assumed that Lay was still on the couch, however the minute he entered the bedroom Kris was startled by Lay who was right in front of him, putting his duvet back onto his bed.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Kris said, walking over to help straighten a corner of the duvet.

“Yeah well it’s my gesture of thanks.” Lay said, turning to Kris. Kris couldn’t help but notice Lay’s eyes widen and travel down from his face to his body and Kris became flustered once again.

He quickly turned away from Lay muttering about finding his suit for work, and it was due to that swift movement that his towel dropped south, leaving Kris in nothing but his birthday suit. Not quite the outfit he'd had in mind.

There was silence for a moment and then Lay started to chuckle. Kris unfroze and immediately picked up the towel, readjusting it around his waist.

“Don’t laugh!” Kris said, hurrying to find some clothes.

“Well…”Lay said, choking on laughter “When you said get dressed for work I didn’t think you meant… hehehe… that kind of work.” Kris reddened deeper at this.

“YAH! I don’t plan on going that far with clients if I can help it.” Kris stormed out of the room and to where they kept their clothes, where he dressed as quickly as he could and then lingered around for even longer, not wanting to see Lay. That was the most embarrassing thing he’d done in a while. A long while.

He waited until he heard Lay enter the shower before leaving the room, checking his suit in the mirror and styling his hair too.  He then returned to the couch, sipping on a glass of water and watching the news. It was only now that he remembered the cat-eyed guest. Tao. His stomach clenched at the thought. He got a strange vibe from Tao. 

Before Kris new it him and Lay were back in the Host room, taking their positions. Luckily tonight they didn’t have to have mentors. The consequence was that they were now alone. Kris got a cola from the bar and sat at a seat with a view of the door so he could see which hosts were entering. Conveniently he also had a full on view of Lay, who tonight without the guidance of Chen was taking a similar approach.

Guests filled the room and Kris did his best to entertain, keeping a close eye on Lay to make sure he was fine. Yesterday he may have done well, but Chen would have been able to translate for him, tonight Lay was all alone and having to chat freely in Korean. However Kris also couldn’t help looking out for the dark haired panda who somehow made Kris nervous. The night went on and there was no sight of Tao, though somehow that did not relieve Kris. 

Kris found himself using a line from the drama and couldn’t help but keep a smile from spreading on his face when he remembered how outraged Lay had been at the ending of the drama. Then that thought lead to him remembering their closeness on the couch. Kris’s expression turned bashful and the girl in front of him giggled, clearly assuming his expressions were directed to her. This angered Kris for a moment but he let it slide. It was his job to make girls feel this way.

“I need to go home soon, but spending time with you is too much fun.” The girl giggled before reaching into her bag, she scribbled on a scrap piece of paper before tucking it into Kris’s pocket. “It’s my number.” The girl explained as she got ready to leave.

“I’ll message you if I get free time. It’s a demanding life-style being a Host.” Kris winked. “But hopefully I can make time for you.” Ew, how could one brain make up such sugary coated nonsense. It really was sickening.

As the shift ended Lay and Kris reconvened only to be blocked by Min in the doorway.

“Between the two of you you’ve already had seven demands to be privately booked.” Min said, looking at the two boys and fluttering her eyelashes. “However you need to have two weeks of experience before you can be privately booked. We can expect a lot from you two.” She said before leaving again.

“Oh joy.” Kris said, faking a shudder.

“Bet half of those were booked by Min herself, and we all know what she plans to do.” They both gave her the same judging look as she walked away from them, then seeing the others expression they laughed.

“Not in one hundred years would I spend a night privately with her.” Kris said.  Lay then pulled something from Kris’s pocket and Kris remembered the number being given to him by the female host. He couldn’t even remember her name.

Kris snatched the phone number back and threw it into a bin.

“Well that was nice of you.” Lay joked.

“No relationships with guests.” Kris said straight-faced. “Not that I would want to.”

The two returned to their room, undressed and then collapsed into their beds, ready to sleep.

“It’s been a tiring day.” Lay said from where he was curled up under his duvet. Kris hadn’t noticed when he was first shown the dorm but there was no heating system. After living in his old apartment for such a long time he had long since grown used to cold temperatures, but Lay must not have adjusted so easily.

“Heck yeah.” Kris said, though his mind was thinking of how Lay had been curled under this very duvet just hours before. It created butterflies in his tummy and he found himself pulling the duvet closer and taking a sniff. There was a nice scent lingering on the sheets, a mix of men’s aftershave, deodorant and other products, but something else. It was a sweeter smell and couldn’t be created artificially. “Lay…” Kris whispered, taking another sniff.

“Did you say something?” Lay asked drowsily.

Kris realised what he had done and buried himself in his pillow in his shame. “Just, wanted to say goodnight.” He said after composing himself.

“Yeah, Goodnight Kris, sleep well. See you tomorrow.”  Kris grinned into his pillow. That had to be one of his new favourite phrases ever.

 “See you tomorrow.”

I FINISHED ALL OF MY EXAMS! WOOO! I also noticed that I now have so many more subscribers. Oh the joy I feel right now. WHO WANTS TO DANCE?

*five minutes later* 

But on a serious note I really am so happy! I could only do one update today because I had to study and then sit my exam, but now they're all over and I can dedicate much of the next few weeks to this fan fiction. The support I'm receiving is motivating me even more to work hard at this fan fiction and I've spent many nights working until hours as late as 2am to finish this for you. I know it isn't great but I hope to improve the more I write and the deeper into the story I get. 

All of my precious little stalkers you mean a lot so thank you all for subscribing, commenting or even upvoting this story. I'll work hard, hwaiting!

-1990stalker-