Yixing is a nervous wreck.

Because moving into a new apartment is like that. He doesn't know his way around his own goddamn house and now he has to find the subway station and the bus stop and the grocery store and his new office and he's just simply a hot mess. Hopeless. He's never going to make it like this.

Sweat dripping down his bare arms, earbuds falling out of his ears, he runs barely in time to hop through the bus doors before they hiss close. The vehicle suddenly lurches forward and he uses the jerky movement to swing himself around the metal pole he'd latched on to upon entrance and swing himself around to plop onto the empty seat near the front. He grabs his earbuds and neatly ropes the wire together to stuff into the side pocket of his knapsack.

Breathing evenly through his nose is the hard part. There's someone next to him and he doesn't want to be that awkward guy that's panting as though physically dying, so he holds in his internal suffering and makes himself inhale and exhale through widening nostrils.

"Are you okay?"

Dammit. Well, that didn't work.

Yixing turns his head to meet the concerned expression of his seat neighbor and is instantly stunned by him. Wow. His skin is so milky. Yixing smiles lightly and lets out a sigh. "Yeah, I'm fine. New to the city, that's all."

The other man smiles too, eyes crinkling and perfectly white teeth flashing. A strand of dyed, light blond hair falls over his eyelashes. "I see. Well, congrats on making the bus."

Yixing laughs. "Thanks."

"So when did you move here?"

"A couple days ago." Not that his boxes are unpacked or that he's greeted the neighbors or anything. Nope. Just moved in.

"Oh, hey. Welcome, I guess." The man gestures around them as buildings blur past the bus. "We have great food and average manners. Good luck to you." He grins.

Yixing can't help but chuckle again. "I'll take note." He puts out a hand, being the friendly guy that he is. "I'm Zhang Yixing."

The man shakes it. "Kim Junmyeon. Nice to meet you."

"You too."

The bus slides to a stop and beside him, Junmyeon stands. He's got a great figure, thin and all the right proportions. Yixing tries not to stare.

Junmyeon gives him a last wave. "This is my stop. Maybe I'll see you around."

"Yeah. Maybe," Yixing says, waving back. He doubts it though. But he wouldn't mind seeing this prince again. In fact, he'd like to.

Four days in the big city and he's already met a handsome guy. He's starting to like this place.

The next day is solely for unpacking. He's dedicating an entire twenty four hours to moving and unloading these wretched boxes from room to room. After having bought groceries yesterday and stocking up his fridge, he's prepared to suffer whatever it takes to have the place look a little more like home.

Yixing looks at the mountain of boxes in his future living room and claps his hands together. . There's a ton of boxes.

Let's start on top, he thinks, and grabs the smallest package on the tip of the pile.

He begins the process of shoving clothes into drawers, posters onto walls, and utensils in the kitchen. It's cool outside and in his light sweater and worn jeans, the exercise of strolling around his new place is almost meditative. It's seemingly going well until he grabs a box from the middle of the pile thinking this is a good idea (famous last words) and all the boxes on top fall to the ground in a roaring tumble. He clasps his hands over his ears until the landslide dies down and stares at the clutter.

"Oh," he mutters to himself in despair. He can clean that later, right? The broom is in one of these boxes, right?

Somewhere down the hall, the doorbell rings.

"Who's there?" He calls out, hoping his voice can reach through the walls in between him and mysterious doorbell-ringer.

"Your neighbor!" The stranger yells back. Said stranger sounds rather familiar. "I heard a crash! Is everything okay?"

Yixing smooths down his sweater beneath his sweaty palms. "Yep! Um, one second!" He jogs to the front door and in one smooth motion, pulls it open.

"Oh!" He hears Junmyeon exclaim in surprise. "You're... my new neighbor?"

Yixing breaks out into a smile. "What a coincidence. Small world. Sorry I haven't been able to greet you sooner or else this would probably be a more comfortable meeting."

Junmyeon laughs. "It's fine. Are you packing?" At Yixing's nod, he says, "Do you want some help?"

Yixing shakes his hands in the air. "Oh, no no. I wouldn't want to trouble you more than I already have."

Junmyeon smiles. "What trouble? I have free time and I'd love to help out a cute new neighbor."

Yixing steps back and covers his face to hide the blush that had spread over his cheeks. He laughs nervously. "Well, if you want to, I suppose you can come in."

Junmyeon takes the initiative of crossing over and closing the door behind him. He toes off his shoes. "Where do I begin?"

Yixing leads him to the living room where the boxes are still jumbled on the floor.

"Ah, so this was the noise from earlier?" Junmyeon ruffles Yixing's hair, who reddens and adjusts it immediately after. "Then let's get started. Tell me where to put stuff."

"Yup," Yixing agrees, continuing his unpacking with a palpitating heart.

Yixing loves weekends mainly because he doesn't have to go to work. Not that he hates work, but the office means having to go and get himself a little lost before he can find the bus stop again. Living in the city is proving to be both confusing and agitating.

On a gorgeous Saturday like this, he finds himself alone and pulling a novel out from his mini bookshelf. He might as well spend some carefree time reading. No friends to hang out with yet since he moved, though there is a charming neighbor....

Right on cue, the doorbell rings.

"Junmyeon," Yixing breathes the name out as he pulls the door open, a smile already creeping up. "Hi."

Junmyeon's returning grin is like summer sunshine. "Hey." He lifts up the plastic bag in his hand. "I bought some snacks and was wondering of you wanted to share."

Ba-bump, ba-bump. "I'd love to. Come in." Yixing opens the door wider for Junmyeon to step in.

Yixing takes the bag from him to spread the assortment of snacks out on his kitchen counter. With a lopsided grin, he snatches one of the boxes before Junmyeon can.

"I call it. Pepero's mine," he says, holding the box to his chest.

Junmyeon laughs. "Fine. Everything else we share, okay?" He pokes Yixing's arm and Yixing squirms. Junmyeon laughs again. "So cute."

The tips of Yixing's ears, thankfully hidden by his wavy hair, turn pink. He motions for them to take a seat on the bar stools by the counter.

A couple minutes later, Yixing's mouth is filled with the sweet sensation of warm, melting chocolate, and he's balancing the pepero stick between his front teeth. He closes his eyes for a second to savor the taste but rapidly opens them again when he feels a bob, tug, and crack at the end of his snack.

He finds Junmyeon grinning whilst he crunches away at the broken end of what had originally been Yixing's pepero. Half of it is neatly gone, and he sees (crossing his eyes and glancing down) that only a mere centimeter had been the distance that had separated, dear lord, his lips from Junmyeon's.

"Hey, what was that for?" Yixing asks, both dazed and erratically excited. There's a fluttering in his stomach and his heart had just skipped a beat.

Junmyeon shrugs. "I felt like it," he says teasingly. But Yixing can see his cheeks are pink too. Their eyes meet and Yixing holds his breath.

"Well, um," Junmyeon says, somewhat panicky and hastily. "I remembered I have to make a call. Sorry. I'll leave some of these for you." He stands, looking at the snacks. "Actually, you can pick out the ones you want. If there are any you don't like, then you can come by and I'll take them."

"Oh," Yixing mumbles. "Of course." He gives him a smile. "Thank you for the snacks." An idea pops into his head and he takes a pepero stick and holds it out in front of Junmyeon. "Let's finish these off together someday."

Junmyeon smiles back, taking the pepero stick with his teeth. He shifts it to a side. "That sounds great. I'll see you soon then."

"Yeah. Thanks for visiting."

"Anytime."

Yixing watches Junmyeon leave his apartment with a small wave, wondering why he's always looking at Junmyeon's back as he walks away.

His hand hesitates at the last second. Yixing's fingers are already locked in a fist, his knuckles poised to rap on Junmyeon's door. His breathes are coming out fast.

He's so nervous, but his guilty conscience had led him to realizing that he should pay Junmyeon back for all the times he's helped him. In his apartment, he has a full meal already cooked and set. Now all he needs is that someone to eat with.

He knocks.

After seemingly forever, the door swings open to reveal a tired Junmyeon in an old t-shirt, pajama pants, and bed hair. Yixing freezes.

"Oh. Hey, Yixing. What's up?" Junmyeon tries to pull his hair back from his eyes with little success. The short strands keep escaping his chasing fingers.

"Um," Yixing snaps out of his daze. "Would you like to come over for dinner? I want to thank you for helping me all those days."

Junmyeon's dazzling smile breaks through. "I'd be honored to. But you don't need to thank me; I'd love to help you anytime. Give me a minute to change?"

Yixing nods. "Yeah. Come in when you're ready. I'll leave the door unlocked."

"Sounds good."

The door closes and Yixing almost collapses over his weak knees.

Step one done. Junmyeon is coming over.

Yixing walks back into his apartment. Everything looks ready. Not too long after, he hears Junmyeon step in.

Dinner has never been so... pleasant. Junmyeon makes casual conversation by asking Yixing about himself, and in return, Yixing asks about his life here.

He learns that Junmyeon works as a preschool teacher. He loves kids, and when he's not busy, does volunteer work for several different causes. As hobbies he loves reading, cooking, and various quote-on-quote "more gentle activities because, honestly, I don't like really loud and crowded places". (To which Yixing had sarcastically replied, "Yes, and that's why you moved to the city." And Junmyeon nodded seriously.)

The more he hears about Junmyeon, the more he adores him and the more he realizes just how much of an angel this man is.

Too quick, the food is gone, the hour is late, and Junmyeon is complimenting his cooking. Which, of course, implies his impending departure.

The second before Junmyeon turns to leave, Yixing blurts out, "Would you like to come over? Again? For dinner? I- I mean, we both live alone so... so maybe...."

Junmyeon, smiling, reaches over to stop his rambling and ruffles Yixing's hair. "That would be wonderful. More than that."

He bids Yixing a goodnight, who is too stunned to do anything but nod back.

Yixing's hand touches his hair hesitantly. His head feels warm. Maybe he's sick? Or maybe it's something else. The warmth spreads to his chest, his stomach, the tips of his fingers and toes. He likes it.

That night, he dreams of playing with cute little children that have his lips and Junmyeon's eyes.

On work days, Junmyeon walks Yixing to the bus stop and saves him a seat when he wakes up late.

He's been here for almost two months now and the city is growing on him. Well, to be more honest, the city is a bonus for what has really grown on him.

When Junmyeon isn't there, everything looks a little bleak. A little grey. When Junmyeon is next to him, talking to him, telling stories about the kids in his preschool or sharing a joke over a homemade meal, it feels... right. Nice. Like time has stopped and he could spend the rest of his life like this.

Something is waved in front of his face and Yixing shakes himself out of his thoughts. Junmyeon laughs. "You've been a little out of it lately. Are you always like this or is something wrong?" Yixing considers answering the question until he sees Junmyeon's teasing smile. "Look what I have."

Through the bus's bumps and curves, Yixing crosses his eyes to see the thing Junmyeon has stuck under his nose and Junmyeon chuckles again. "Um. Tickets?"

"Movie tickets! Want to go see something tonight?"

Yixing blushes. "Me?" It's true that they've become close friends over time but-- "Don't you have any other friends?" He raises his eyebrow to show he's joking.

"I'd pick you over them anytime," Junmyeon says.

Yixing can't hide his smile. "Then yes. I do want to go see something tonight."

"Awesome. I'll call you later."

"Or knock."

Junmyeon grins. "Yeah. I'll knock."

Yixing's phone rings, waking him out of his sleep-in Saturday.

"Hello?" Yixing mumbles, rubbing his eyes.

"Xingxing! How's the move? Sorry I haven't called sooner."

Yixing pulls the phone back to stare at his caller ID. "Oh, Luhan. It's you."

"Duh. Who else would this be?"

"Telemarketing?"

"Yes, Xinging. Of course I am a telemarketer, XingXing," Luhan responds sarcastically, mechanically spitting out every word.

"Yeah, I got it, I got it. Shut up."

"So, tell me about this new place."

Yixing pushes himself to a sitting position, one elbow balanced on his propped knee. "It's great. The office here is actually functional and the apartment is nothing to complain about."

"That's nice and all but have you met anyone cute yet?"

Only you, Luhan, only you. "Well, there's the neighbor."

"Oooh. A hot neighbor. How far have you gone?"

"Holy , Luhan." Yixing's doorbell rings. He's starting to love the sound dearly, but can't anyone let him sleep in on this beautiful weekend?

"Is that him now? Damn, Yixing, you fast bastard."

"Oh my god, Luhan. We haven't done anything." Yixing drags himself out of bed, quick-walks to the door and tugs it open. Junmyeon waves and opens his mouth to say something, but stops when he sees Yixing on the phone. Yixing motions for him to come in.

"What! Haven't you been there for, like, three months? When we were together, we--"

Yixing stops him through gritted teeth. "Luhan! First of all, two and a half months, and second, that was college, okay?"

The next thing Luhan says goes unheard over the sound of Junmyeon's soft voice in Yixing's other ear. "Who is it?"

Yixing blocks the mic of the phone to say, "An ex of mine, who is now my idiot best friend."

Junmyeon's eyes widen. "An ex?"

"Yixing? Can you hear me?"

Yixing goes back to his call. "Yeah, I--"

He stops with a gasp as he feels Junmyeon's arms snake around his shoulders and grab hold of his phone. "Junmyeon, hey!"

Junmyeon puts Yixing's phone up to his ear. "Sorry, Yixing's busy right now." He promptly clicks the call to an end and hands his phone back to him.

Yixing turns his head to stare at him, gaping. It takes him a few seconds to react. "What was that for?"

Junmyeon rests his head on Yixing's shoulder and Yixing realizes Junmyeon's arms are still around his body. "I don't know. I didn't really like it when you said he was an ex? Sorry. It's hard to explain."

They stay still for a few seconds before Yixing realizes he's heating up. "Um, Jun...myeon?"

Junmyeon jumps, apparently just noticing what he's doing. "Oh! Sorry." A pretty pink blush spreads from ear to ear. "I, um, I...." He rubs the nape of his neck, embarrassed.

"It's fine," he dismisses it as if nothing had happened. But it did. Junmyeon hugged me. From Junmyeon's expression, it appears he had done it unconsciously too. "What did you come here for?"

"Oh, right," Junmyeon's face returns to its usual silky complexion. "I wanted to show you around some of my favorite spots in the city. I know you've been here a while now, but maybe you'd want to see some landmarks or if there's anywhere you want to go? I could take you." He shoves a hand into his pocket.

Yixing admires how adorable Junmyeon looks there, in his white cardigan and tight jeans with his head bowed down the tiniest bit to hide his shy look and one hand running fingers through his hair.

"Sure," he agrees. He looks down at himself. "I'll change out of pajamas first though. Wait here a sec?"

Junmyeon's face lights up. "Definitely. I'll wait."

Over the course of the next week, Yixing becomes hyperaware of Junmyeon's everything. His subtle movements, his little idiosyncrasies, the way he mindlessly taps his fingers or scrunches his eyebrows when he's thinking or the small sighs he releases when he comes across a problem.

The small things, Yixing knows, are the things that get to him the most. With every tiny habit, Junmyeon slowly fits himself as the apple of Yixing's eye, the person of his unending affection.

They spend more time together in one of their apartments rather than separately in both. Junmyeon appears to enjoy Yixing's presence and the feeling is mutual.

He knows he's not the only one who let's out that breath when he has to return to his own empty apartment. But he silently hopes the reason is the same.

Yixing folds his arms behind his head as he fall back onto his bed with a sigh.

There's no denying it.

Junmyeon has been frequenting his apartment more than not in the past two weeks and, honestly, Yixing loves it. Not only is he not eating dinner alone, but Junmyeon is the most gentle and caring person he's ever known and terrific company overall. All formalities are dropped. Junmyeon comes over wearing pajamas if he's tired and Yixing dons wifebeaters and sweatpants. Who needs fancy clothes between friends?

It's lovely. He has both a best friend here and... and...

His doorbell rings.

Groggily, he walks to the door, running his fingers through his hair, and tugs it open. "Junmyeon?" He yawns. "It's kinda late."

"Sorry," Junmyeon says sheepishly. "But there's going to be a fireworks display later and I forget to tell you earlier today. I wanted to ask if you wanted to come with me though."

Yixing can think of nothing he'd rather do. "Sure," he says, holding back his excitement.

Junmyeon nods, already knowing the routine. Yixing comes out not five minutes later, out of his pajamas and into more casual and warmer clothes. Junmyeon leads him to the park nearby.

"They start at 9:30, I'm fairly certain," Junmyeon informs him.

"What's the occasion?" Yixing looks at him curiously.

Junmyeon shrugs. "I haven't really been on top of things lately. Even if you asked, I wouldn't know." He smiles, sheepish.

They settle under the cover of an old tree and position themselves side by side, leaning against the trunk.

After some light chatter, Yixing jumps to hear a loud pop from the direction of the air above him. He whips his head around to stare as one bright light after another explode in a magnificent display.

So distracted is he by the fireworks that he doesn't notice Junmyeon take hold of his hand until he feels a light squeeze. His attention is then captured by Junmyeon's smile, that beautiful expression he's so used to. The gentleness, the caring and loving meaning behind just a simple curve of his lips. Junmyeon's thumb the back of his hand and Yixing's reaction flares, a rose red blooming across his face. He's glad the darkness blocks Junmyeon's ability to see it.

He's not sure what to say, if he's meant to say anything at all. So he doesn't. He returns the smile, just as genuine, and turns away to keep looking at the fireworks. After a few minutes, he leans his head back and onto Junmyeon's shoulder. He feels the latter's arm drape across his body and hold him close.

He's never felt so relaxed and so bubbly at the same time.

The same night of the fireworks, Junmyeon invites him into his apartment.

Just as eager, Yixing nods and is tugged through the door. He shuts it behind him, his and Junmyeon's hands still clasped tightly together.

Junmyeon pulls him close and cups Yixing's face. Yixing feels his heartrate accelerate; he's almost sure Junmyeon can hear it too.

"Zhang Yixing," Junmyeon starts.

"Yes," Yixing answers. He knows it. He wants to hear it.

"I love you."

And before he can answer, Junmyeon is kissing him, softly and sweetly. Yixing can feel his body tingle with the impact. His mind is imploding on itself and his heart imitates the fireworks from the evening past. He kisses back, hoping to convey the words that he never got to say yet.

"I love you too," he whispers into Junmyeon's lips. And he feels him smile.

Junmyeon's hands travel from caressing Yixing's face down his neck and then his back, finally settling onto his waist to release him from the kiss and instead binding him with a hug.

They sleep together that night, legs tangled underneath the blankets with Yixing's back pressed up against Junmyeon's chest, the latter's arms wrapped firmly around Yixing's body. Falling asleep, needless to say, is easier said than done. But Yixing doesn't mind hearing the sweet nothings that Junmyeon whispers in his ear and Junmyeon doesn't mind feeling Yixing's heart beat beneath his palms.