Baekhyun shuffled the pictures again and looked at the sketches. Mr Yamamoto was on time and he had already given him back some suggestion before their next meeting was due. The different shades of hues that were just born out of the colour pink was astounding - as expected of the great designer. He flipped through the next folder and took note of the number of models that were required for this single catwalk - he'd have to contact another agency again, they would need more models that those in his portfolio.

"Dara, huh?" Baekhyun ignored that voice. He had work to do.

"It's not very surprising." He really had people to meet, place to go to today. He was a very busy man till this fashion show was over.

"I wonder why they're meeting up though." Baekhyun searched around his table for the agency's number - he remember it being around here somewhere.

"Are you jealous?"

"NO I'M NOT!" Baekhyun positively screamed. The whole office stilled for a while, staring at what looked like a commotion in this cubicle, then resumed the usual office chatter.

Jongdae smirked. "Anything you say, princess." He turned around and did whatever the hell he was supposed to be doing before he decided to get under Baekhyun's skin.

Baekhyun turned back around and played with a piece of post-it note in his hands. He really wasn't. It was not like they were together, or he had a-

"..crush on Chanyeol?"

Baekhyun stared at Jongdae and wondered if his friend could read minds now - it was a dangerous ability for a man like Kim Jongdae to have.

"You didn't even bother to deny it."

"I was thinking."

"Of what?"

"If duct tape or poison would work better on you."

"I love you too, Byun."

He took a deep breath. It was his weekly meeting with Chanyeol again. He doesn't know when this weekly meeting thing started - but Jongdae informed him that he had one (which he had been Sehun's messenger, how did they get so close?) He hadn't seen Chanyeol for almost 2 weeks - his boss was never in the office, even if he was, it was only for an hour or two before he left to with Dara (again, yes, Baekhyun has been keeping track of Chanyeol's movements through Sehun).

He knocked firmly on the door this time round. "Come in!" A deep voice boomed form behind the door. He had missed this voice. Since when did you turn into a ing school girl, Byun Baek? He shook his head - he doesn't need this now, and walked in.

Chanyeol looked busy - really busy. He had tons of paperwork all stacked not only his desk but also on this shelves and coffee table. Papers and files were stacked like a game of Jango, with awkward angles at a really tall height.

"You look... busy. Should I come back later?" Baekhyun offered. He just needed to inform Chanyeol his latest developments regarding this fashion show, it wasn't really that important.

"No! No! It's okay, I just need to sign these stuff." Chanyeol waved Baekhyun closer to his desk.

Baekhyun walked slowly to his table, eyeing the mess that was Chanyeol's desk. Chanyeol took the chance to lean back into the chair of his and closed his eyes. "How did you get so busy? You just started." Baekhyun asked carefully. Chanyeol ran his hair through his dark locks and loosened his tie. With Chanyeol looking down, Baekhyun allowed himself to feast upon Chayeol's messy onyx head and wondered if it was as soft as it looked.

Chanyeol signed a piece of paper hurriedly before stacking it on the right side of his desk, where Baekhyun reckoned was a mini version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. "I have no idea at all, Baek." When did Chanyeol start to call him that? Not that he was complaining. "My dad just dumped it all on me suddenly. Even though I told him I had other things to take care of." Yeah, like dating your ex-girlfriend.

Baekhyun put his file down on Chanyeol's already messy table. "We have already decided on the place, the models and the main look. Please look through it and see if we can proceed." Chanyeol opened the file. "Ah! You're my Fashion Show guy!" Has he already forgotten Baekhyun in just a couple of weeks? Baekhyun sulked silently beside him.

Chanyeol was looking through the folder when suddenly Sehun just walked in. More like barged.

"Your parents and Da-

"We took the trouble of visiting you, son." Sehun scowled. Baekhyun bit down a smirk. Mr. Park was the only one who could offend Sehun and get away with it.

"Dad! Mom! What are you doing here!" Chanyeol stood straight up, knocking back a few papers that was overflowing on the desk.

Chanyeol's mom walked over to him, patting his face. "Oh, look at you, my dear boy. Chanyeol's dad! See what you did to my son! I told you to let him have ample rest!" The lady dressed in a hanbok complained while rearranging Chanyeol's tie and suit.

A middle-aged man who looked like he aged well with few white hair marring his otherwise jet black hair, stood tall in his crisp grey suit. So that's where you got your height from. He rolled his eyes and let out a huff, "If I let him rest for 5 days a week, how will he ever learn to run a business?"

Baekhyun noted that Chanyeol's family was almost as talkative as the man himself. He then saw a young woman that walking in warily behind Chanyeol's dad - looking very inquisitive of her surroundings.

Dara. "Dara!"

"What are you doing here?" Chanyeol furrowed hs eyebrows together. He looked really lost. Dara looked like she was about to answer when she was interrupted.

"Is that all you're going to say when your family and an old friend travelled an hour to have lunch with you?" Chanyeol's dad boomed in his deep voice. Chanyeol resembled his dad a whole lot. Baekhyun briefly wonders if he was looking at a time-skip version of Chanyeol.

Chanyeol looked at Baekhyun.

Baekhyun suddenly felt very visible, and very awkward. It looked like he was the one who walked in on a family meeting instead of vice versa. He starting rubbing his hands together.

"Oh. Uh- I - err- I.." Baekhyun wonders at the back of his mind if scientists were actually doing their job - it was 2014, they should have others ways to communicate when face-to-face, instead via word of mouth.

"He's Baekhyun. And I'm working." Chanyeol answered for him. Baekhyun just nodded dumbly. He had never felt so stupid in his life.

"Just lunch?" Chanyeol's mom tugged on his shirt. "Baekhyun here can join us, can't he?" The lady smiled at Baekhyun. She had the same smile Chanyeol gave him 2 weeks ago.

"I.. err- but - " Chanyeol put a hand on his shoulder - it felt so good.

"Have you eaten lunch?" Baekhyun stared at Chanyeol's parents for a while before realising that the question was for him - with everyone in the room staring at him.

Baekhyun opted for logical head movements. No, he shook his head.

"Well,so what are we having for lunch?" Chanyeol grinned.

Baekhyun liked sushi. He eyed that fatty piece of tuna sitting on the wide tray. He also looked to the family chatting away - feeling increasingly like an outsider as each second passed by. He gauged the situation carefully - would they notice if he too many pieces of salmon and tuna? Dara barely touched her food, drinking her 7th cup of water and signaling the waiter to refill her 8th.

"Eat more, Baekhyun." Chanyeol whispered to him from his side. He rubbed his own ear. It suddenly felt hot.

He looked at Chanyeol leaning close to him and putting the last piece of tuna on his plate. Since when did they get so close?

"Since when did you have a good friend in the company, Chanyeol?" Chanyeol's mother turned to them, beaming at Baekhyun. There was something behind that smile Baekhyun would rather not explore.

"I knew him even before I came into the office, mom." Chanyeol smiled happily, chomping down the remains of his own bento.

"Oh?" his father looked intrigued. "Where from?"

Chanyeol turned up his cheeks up, resembling that of a Cheshire cat. "Se-cret!"

Chanyeol's mom turned to Baekhyun and smiled that very mysterious smile. Baekhyun looked down at his piece of tuna. It looks juicy. He should probably eat it. He poked at it.

"What was Baekhyun doing in your office, Channie?" Dara quipped up finally.

Channie? Was he invisible?

"Oh, going through some project he was working on." Chanyeol muffled, still chewing on his meat.

"What is he in charge of?"

I'm right here.

"The Biennial thing Dad was talking to me about weeks ago."

"Oh! So what has he come up with?"

Baekhyun turned to Chanyeol's mom. He saw the lady smiling at him sweetly. (bless her heart)

She sees me, so I must be visible.

"I don't know - you guys disturbed us before we could get to it."

Chanyeol's mom chuckled.

Everyone on the tabled turned to look at her.  "Oh, nothing. I just thought of something funny." Chanyeol looked at his mom weirdly, Baekhyun liked that look on Chanyeol. He scrunched his left cheek up and raised his eyebrows - it makes him look like a little puppy trying to understand the world.

Baekhyun looked down at his food - he shouldn't be staring at Chanyeol here, someone might catch him. He heard someone giggle.

"Chanyeol's mom, you're really cheerful today, aren't you?" The man at the head of table commented. Dara just stared at Baekhyun.

Baekhyun looked back down at his tuna. "Aren't you going to eat it? It's delicious! I snatched it before anyone could take the last piece." Chanyeol whispered inside his hair, his lips touching just above Baekhyun's ear lobes.

Baekhyun shook his head and shoved the whole thing in.

"Good?"

Baekhyun nodded with a puffed out mouth. He noted that he hasn't formed any word out of his mouth for the whole afternoon that day.

"Well, that went well." Chanyeol patted his stomach in content.

The duo were already back in Chanyeol's office, with Chanyeol finally going through  Baekhyun's proposal. He nodded while flipping through the pages and handed the file back to Baekhyun.

"Everything's fine. Just go ahead with whatever you want to do." Chanyeol smiled.

Baekhyun gently nodded and was about to take the file from Chanyeol's hands when Chanyeol retracted.

"What do you want to eat tomorrow?"

"What?"

"That's the first word you've said all morning."

"Huh?"

"What do you want for lunch tomorrow?"

"We're eating together?"

"Is there a problem?" Chanyeol cocked his head.

Baekhyun quickly waved his head. "No. None. I was just surprised." Chanyeol smiled.

Baekhyun needs to learn how to smile like that.

"So lunch, casual lunch." Baekhyun repeated.

"Yeah, like a date." Chanyeol finally handed the folder to Baekhyun.

"DATE?"

The whole office turned silent to stare in the direction of Baekhyun's cubicle.

"Shhh!! Shut your trap, Kim!" Baekhyun hushed Jongdae. His friend just looked at him shocked.

"When you were gone for so long, I was so sure you were fired by Park. You came back with a date?!" Jongdae smacked him across his shoulders. "Way to go! Byun! I knew you had the homo attracting pheromones in you!" Jongdae barked out a laugh.

"My friend has a date with-" Baekhyun covered his mouth. Yes, duct tape. Duct tape was the solution.

Jongdae elbowed his side. "Let go of me you little flirt."

"I didn't do anything! His parents barged in and-" Jongdae waved his explanation away. "And somehow you got him gay. Atta boy, Byun!"

Baekhyun just shook his head and sat back down on his chair. There was nothing he could do from telling things to Jongdae.

"Now everyone in the world has a date, except me." his friend lamented. Baekhyun frowned.

"Everyone?"

"Yeah, for you, I set up the Oh kid with the kid that had Gucci for eye bags."

"That makes everyone?"

"And our dear Lulu is hitting on his Department head."

Baekhyun thought for a while. "But everyone likes Kim Minseok. Even you."

Jongdae shrugged. "But Luhan's holding a huge for him. Apparently desperation and determination can combine to become a very good attractive trait in men."

"Yeah, well.."

"And I saw Joonie and Dragon eye ing."

Baekhyun wonders how such a term came about. It must be from the KJD dictionary. It was very resourceful in modern times.

"I almost got fired for telling them I was sorry to intrude on their time of ual intimacy." This was the most his friend complained. "I wanted to hit the bars today if the work on my table got done - you know, just two bachelors prowling the streets but you got Park gay for you."

"I don't even know what he meant by 'date'," Baekhyun mumbled quietly. He didn't want to think too deep into things. Anyone could go on a lunch date. Maybe it means nothing.

"It means he wants to eye you over lunch."  Baekhyun shook his head.

"Aren't things moving too fast? I barely spoke to him and he's asking me out."

"It means he's been eye ing you from afar and decides to the distance."

"But he doesn't even know me."

"He doesn't need to know you to eye you. Ever heard of one night stands?"

"For eye s?"

"Hey, it's safer and you don't even need condoms."

Lemme know what you guys think! ^^
XOXO