Luhan was distraught for days to say the least. It had been less than a week and Luhan already noticed his hair thinning and purple bags under his eyes starting to form.   Why was he so bewildered?  Well, because he was debating whether Minseok was gay or not, of course.  His boss didn’t fit any of the typical stereotypes for gay men—though neither did many of his gay friends.  His only hints were subtle things every gay man did that only other gay men could notice.  Yes, confusing.  After asking around, Luhan was told that Jongdae was openly bi, yet, there was nothing on Minseok and his ual preference.

Maybe Minseok was just accompanying his friend to the bar?  Or maybe he was gay?  Ugh, why did this have to be so confusing!

But for now, Luhan was just glad that he easily skipped out on their morning carpool ride by telling Minseok that he had spent the night at his friends.  Luhan had no clue if he could hold a conversation with Minseok.  He hardly could the past few days.

"Hi, Luhan," Minseok smiled when he approached the younger.

"H-hello, day good we're having?"  He stumbled over his words.

Minseok laughed, "Day good very," He responded before getting into the car.

“Good morning,” Luhan smiled as he placed a black coffee on Minseok’s desk.  Though it wasn’t ideal, the younger still found himself making coffee and delivering it to Minseok.  It was as if something pulled him to the machine every morning.  Though Luhan did always try to keep their conversations short because he couldn't deal with the excessive pestering in his brain that wanted him to ask Minseok if he was gay.  Or was it his heart?

“Morning, Luhan."  Minseok paused and looked up from his papers.  "I’ve been thinking lately, and I've noticed that we’ve never really spent time outside of work, excluding lunches and carpools."  He flashed a smile,  "I was thinking we should go to dinner sometime, what do you think?”

For one second, one small second, Luhan thought Minseok sounded nervous.  Like there was a hidden meaning in his words that was begging to be understood and accepted.

But then again, Minseok never got nervous and the thought vanished, leaving Luhan baffled for another time.  He couldn’t watch the scene over and over like it was a television show, it was only a brief section of time that was hardly enough to analyze.

Say no, say no.  You are in no condition to spend a whole dinner out with this man.  You need to make sure your facts are straight . . . literally.

“Sure,” Luhan replied.  “Where should we go?”

So much for saying no.

Minseok smiled his brightest smile, it was the big smile that Luhan loved seeing—even when it wasn’t caused by him.  Minseok shrugged, “There’s this Chinese place I wanna try.  Since you’re Chinese I thought maybe we could . . .”

“That’s fine,” Luhan responded just a little too fast.  The smile on his face was too big as well.  He reduced it while scolding himself.  Maybe he was a little excited for this dinner with his boss, even if he shouldn't be.  But just a little!

Minseok smiled again, “We can go after work.  I’ll see you then.”

Luhan nodded and quickly left his boss’s office.

The dinner had went well.  Too well for the relationship Luhan thought he should hold with his boss.  In fact, Luhan thought that they really did look like close friends to anyone that looked at them.  Neither of them drank because they had both driven their own cars to work that day, but that didn’t stop either of them from looking like fools.

Luhan had gone to bed that night, replaying the scenes over and over in his head.  He remembered Minseok’s face when weird food came out and he remembered much they laughed at each other and when Luhan ate the food easily, but when Minseok tried it he almost spit up.

“What is this?”

“A very uncommon food that I love.”

And then Minseok got all shy and apologized if he somehow insulted Luhan.

~

Now, he was here.

Always thinking about Minseok even though he had only known the man for a few months.  Loving everything about him.  It was like a sickness, and Luhan couldn’t stand it.  He needed answers.

On small occasions, Luhan would be able to pick up on a subtle, flirting comments that would make him even more confused.

Jesus Christ, why was this man so unreadable?

Luhan clicked on his word doc, closing it and opening it until he finally stopped with it being open. He stared at the words he had written, but they just seemed like something to pass the time.  Something to make it seem like he was working when he was really ogling his boss and then scolding himself for doing such a thing.  A few items on the list had actually been made and was now ordered everyday in the coffee shops.  Luhan smiled.  One of his ideas had become Minseok’s favorite drink on the menu and it felt a bit too good to know of the approval he got from it.

He minimized the document and stood up, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, closed him door, and began walking to the elevator.  He needed food, he needed to freshen his mind.

“Hey, Luhannie!”

Luhan swiveled around as Minseok jogged slightly to him.  The smile on Luhan’s face appeared instantly, “Yeah?”

“You heading out to lunch?”  Minseok asked.

Luhan nodded, “Yeah, you wanna join?”  It was obvious that he sounded so hopeful in this situation.  Even if it still got to him about whether or not Minseok was gay, Luhan decided to try and not let it bother him.  He was sure that if they were meant to be, they would be.  Although things would be a lot easier if he did know.

Minseok shook his head, “No, I brought lunch today.  Thank you, though.  I just wanted to tell you that we need a new idea by tomorrow for the shops.  I’m sorry to put that on you, but one of our rivals just came out with two new ideas that seem like they’re going to be really popular.  They don't taste that good either, I tried them.  We even already have them on our menu, but I guess that doesn't matter because their new..  I mean like wha—”

“Minseok you’re rambling.”

“Huh?  Oh, sorry.  So, yeah.  I need another idea.  Can you get me one by the end of today?”

Luhan nodded, “That’s fine.  I have some ideas swimming around.”

“Really?  That’s great.  Thank you so much!”  Minseok responded before practically skipping back to his office.

Luhan was screwed.  He didn’t have any new ideas that were good enough to show anyone.  Let alone actually make them into a drink.

~

For the rest of the day, Luhan tried coming up with a new coffee drink.  He’d been looking at other coffee shop menus and thinking of seasonal options, but nothing he did was good enough.

“Ugh,” He groaned, leaning back in his chair and running his hands through his hair.

He was clueless, he was going to fail, get fired, and never see Minseok again.  Luhan leaned forward and hit his head on his desk repeatedly.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“Have a good night here, Luhan,” Yi Fan snickered as he popped his head in the office to say his ‘goodbye’s’.

Luhan just groaned again as a response.

~

It hit him while thinking of Minseok.  Granted, he had to admit that it was weird, but it was an amazing idea.  He’d been thinking of how great Minseok was.  How he was like a perfect dash of cinnamon, always making things better.  How his cheeks resembled apples.  How much he loved coffee.

Minseok was Luhan’s muse.

Luhan looked his computer screen up and down again, checking his idea, or rather, ideas.  He’d not only thought that they could base a drink after Minseok, but also after Jongdae.   It could be like an advertisement about getting to know the people who started it all.

If it weren’t for them, most people wouldn’t be able to get their favorite coffee every morning before work.  Or a nice cold drink for hot days.  The idea was perfect!

Right now though, it was only an idea, and he only needed an idea.

“Minseok!”  Luhan exclaimed once done looking everything over.

By now, Minseok and Luhan were the only two left in their floor.  Luhan guessed that Minseok didn’t want to leave him alone in the office.  Minseok had driven today and could easily have stopped by and said that he needed to head home and ask if Luhan could just get a cab.

Luhan’s ego hated it, but his heart loved it.

His heart started thumping even faster when he heard Minseok respond with a, “Yeah?”

“Come here!”

Luhan soon heard a pair of feet walking to his office, increasing in volume as they went.

“Do you need something, Luhan?”

Luhan smiled, “I got it!”

Minseok quickly caught on.  “Really?  What is it?”

“Not what is it, ‘what are they?’!”

“You have two ideas?”  Minseok asked even more excited than before.

“Yup!”

By now, the two were like excited little puppies.  Minseok, because he saw the confidence in Luhan and knew it would be great and Luhan, because it was his best idea in his whole career.

“Well, I was thinking it could start out as an advertisement sort of thing.  Like, we release a few commercials about you and Jongdae.  Something about you talking about how well you two work together, or how much you love your job.  It would be a ‘get to know the owners better’ sort of thing.  Then, we release the information about two knew drinks revolving around both of your personalities.

“For you, I was thinking something with cinnamon apple.  For Jongdae, I was thinking some white chocolate and caramel.  I was thinking that even his drink could be cold too, because he has such a boisterous personality.  I know it’s a lot, but I just feel so good about it and I’m sure we’ll get tons of press coverage.  Plus, if we have you and Jongdae on commercials, teenage girls will be ordering so much more of our drinks.  They’ll probably think you two are so handsome!”

Minseok laughed, “That sounds incredible, but I hate to break it to you.  Jongdae’s the only one who has interest in girls.”

Luhan didn’t even think about what Minseok said.  He was too in-the-zone for it to matter.  “That’s fine.  We aren’t going to be confirming anything about your uality, just publicizing your looks.  In all honesty, we could probably wait a bit and then talk more about it to lead into more and more things.  God damn, this snowball is just rolling in my head and it won’t stop—wait what?”

Luhan looked at his boss, finally realizing what he had said.

“You’re gay?”

Minseok went from confusion to laughter, “Yeah, isn’t that what I just told you?”

Luhan shook his head to clear it, “Yeah, yeah, sorry, I was just so focused on my idea.  Um, so anyways, that’s my idea.  What do you think?”

Minseok smiled, “I really like it, I’ve never heard anything like it and I can tell it will work perfectly.  We’ll totally crush our competitors!”

Both of them laughed at what Minseok said.  The older man had never been one to worry about ‘crushing the competitors.’  That was always Jongdae.

Luhan finished his laughing fit and ended with a simple smile.  “Tomorrow we can run it by a few other people too.  Then we have to get working on it, fast.”

Minseok nodded, “Do you want to head out now then?  You’ve worked hard enough today, I’m sure your brain needs a rest.”

Luhan nodded, “Yeah, go get your stuff together while I shut my things off.”

Minseok nodded back and left.

Luhan sighed; he wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight.  How could he?  Minseok just told him that he was gay?  Gay?  It was a miracle.  The man he had been crushing on for months just said he was gay?

Luhan was going to have to call Sehun later tonight.

He stopped cleaning up to send Sehun a text that he was going to call him later.

I need to talk to you later.  I’ll call you once I get off work.  Text me back if I can, it’s urgent.  –L

His phone buzzed seconds later.

If it’s urgent, then we should talk in person, I’m coming over.  –S

Luhan laughed.  Leave it to Sehun to always take things out of proportions.

~

“Goodnight, Minseok,” Luhan smiled—even if he was completely flustered—before he got off the elevator.

Right when Luhan opened his door he saw Sehun drinking some of his wine.  The man smiled, put his glass down, and patted the seat next to him on the couch.

Luhan sighed and sat down.

“What's wrong, Lulu,” Sehun pouted as he leaned his head on Luhan’s shoulder.  Somehow, he always ended up being sad when Luhan was sad.

“I don’t think wrong it the right word.”

Sehun looked up at Luhan and noticed that everything about him changed.  His sighs turned into laughs, and his frown became a smile.  He was the happiest that Sehun had ever seen.

“Oh my god, what happened?  Did you bang Minseok?  Who was the bottom?”  Sehun started squealing and clapping his hands.  “Lulu, we need to celebrate!”

Luhan laughed. “I didn’t bang Minseok, Sehun!”  He made out over the excitement coming from his friend.

Sehun pouted, “You didn’t?  Then why are you happy?”

Luhan smiled, “Well, it started with me being told I had to come up with a coffee idea by the end of the day . . .” And then Luhan told him everything about that night.  He talked about how frustrated he was.  He talked about his great idea.  And finally, finally, he mentioned how Minseok said he was gay.

Sehun, unlike Luhan, had caught on right away.

“Oh my God, he’s gay!  This is the best news ever!”  Immediately, the younger of the two began jumping up and down and running around the house.

Luhan smiled.  It really was the best news ever.

After Sehun had calmed down, Luhan finished his story.  “. . . And there you have it.  That’s my day.”

“We need to get you two together.  Before it was only subtle flirting because we didn’t know he was gay.  Now we know!  Now we can go full out!  Oh, oh, oh, we should buy you some lingerie and have you seduce him until he can’t take it anymore.  Wow, can we do tha—”

“We’re not having me seduce him!  Jesus Christ,” Luhan interrupted.  “I am not gonna dress up in boy’s lingerie anyways . . . at least not yet . . .”

Sehun sighed, “Okay.  You know what?  I still haven’t seen Minseok.  Why haven’t I met your crush yet, Lulu?”

“Because you’ll probably scream to him about how much I like him.”

Sehun mocked a shocked face, “What?  I wouldn’t do that!  Please?  I can pick you up during your lunch hour or something and like casually meet him.  I can be your wingman!”

Luhan always thought Sehun pleading was pathetic and he was usually always able to say no.  But right now, Luhan did want Sehun to Minseok.  He wanted to be able to fawn over all of Minseok’s features with his friend.  “Okay.  Tomorrow you can pick me up for lunch and you can casually meet Minseok.”

“Really?”  Sehun asked, eagerness spewing out of him.

Luhan laughed, “Yes, Sehun.”

That answer was soon responded to with a bone-crushing hug.  Luhan really hoped he wasn’t going to regret this.

A/N:  So, this section is a little shorter, but this is just where I felt like it should be ended.  Anyways, I am super happy because this story actually seems to be doing pretty well!  I hope you enjoy!

Please feel free to subscribe, upvote, and/or comment because that would make me feel incredible.

June 27, 2016: I have gone through and made changes to this chapter, mainly detail and grammar oriented.