WARNING: Slight (One sentence) mentions of past drug abuse and there is vulgar language (Cursing, nothing ual)

The alarm clock blares, jostling Chanyeol from his dream. A tired groan emits from his lips before he leans over to turn off the horrific screeching sound. He slumps back into his heap of covers, unable to find the motivation to move after his dream of Baekhyun. It was more like a memory actually. The day of his birthday, when he fell impossibly harder for Baekhyun to the point he knew he wouldn’t be able to feel anything different for the elder. He sighs and closes his eyes, especially not hatred.

 Though that didn’t mean he wasn’t bitter.

Looking at the bright red numbers on his clock he figured he shoulder finally get a move on. He needed to be at the hospital by six-thirty.

A sluggish walk to his bathroom later and he was staring back at a mop of black hair and eye bags. He suddenly really hated his medicine cabinet at that moment. As if he wanted the reminder that he was forced to dye his hair back to a natural color only so he could look professional and that his job kept him running at all hours day in and day out. Mirrors were a truly horrible invention. Then again if not for the mirror he wouldn’t even know he looked like this and would actually walk out, giving people the scare of their life. He chuckled, that’d be kind of funny.

Once Chanyeol deemed himself presentable, clad in a white button down, navy blue blazer, and gray slacks, he headed out for work.

Halfway into his walk and he’s passing the café of his once best friend. He pauses and glances inside, checking who was manning front today. His eyes rest on a petite raven haired man with dark rimmed glasses drooping down the arch of his nose. The man looked to be reading a book in the time he had until a customer comes in. It was like a scene in a movie.

“Baekhyun,” he breathes. Every time he sees his friend he’s reminded of how gorgeous he’s grown to be. It’s quite unfair really. His eyes shift to the stretch of road in front of him which will lead to the hospital and, sadly, their poor quality instant coffee.

Well Baekhyun did make a mean Americano the last time he came around. Despite it seeming an easy make, the espresso had to have been good quality. Which reminds him, when did Baekhyun even like coffee? And enough to start a coffee shop at that.

Chanyeol smiles at the familiar chime of the bell and cozy atmosphere that’s quick to surround him. Baekhyun did a really good job with the layout and interior design. The boy at the counter raises his head and Chanyeol watches in amusement as his eyes widen and his mouth gapes, a clear indication that the poor guy has no idea what to say or do.

“Is this type of greeting going to be a common occurrence? Because I think a good barista would have already said at least ‘welcome’ by now, don’t you think?” Chanyeol says in a teasing tone.

“I… Uh… Yes, I mean no!...” Baekhyun averts his gaze to the granite countertops, face flushed in embarrassment. “I mean no, it won’t be a common occurrence. At least I hope not. And yes, you’re right. Welcome to Double Shot, what can I get for you today?” When Baekhyun looks back up his eyes are screwed into half-moons and his teeth are shining. Chanyeol takes a deep breath, feeling as though he hasn’t breathed properly in the time that smile has been absent from his life.

“What do you think?” he questions, assuming Baekhyun should already know the answer by now. He quite likes having the upper hand on Baekhyun, seeing him stutter and fall all over himself. It’s a power he’s never had over the older before.

“Americano!” Baekhyun chirps happily. It’s clear he’s enjoying the interaction Chanyeol’s giving him. It’s a lot better than their encounter in the rain. “But do you want a single shot or double shot?” Baekhyun wiggles his eyebrows. “Because those are some serious eye bags you’ve got going on there.”

Chanyeol groans and drags a hand down his face. He even put concealer on the damn things. “Double shot,” he mutters from behind his large hand.

As Chanyeol watches Baekhyun make his drink he can’t help but feeling that just for this moment it’s like they’re best friends again and the last three years never happened. He knows he shouldn’t already be so friendly with Baekhyun after he blatantly told the other ‘forget you.’ But it’s like falling into a routine, a routine of fourteen years to be exact.

He’s starting to think it doesn’t count as getting over someone when you can’t see the person because there’s an ocean in between versus not seeing them because of pure choice.

It’s not long before Baekhyun’s smiling at him and holding out the newly prepared drink. Again Chanyeol lets his fingers brush lightly over the more elegant ones as he takes the Americano. He almost finds himself lost in the dark brown, almost black, orbs. The look Baekhyun gives him lately always seems like he has more to say, so much more. But Baekhyun never does, instead Chanyeol hears “Have a good day at work Yeol. Don’t stress too much.”

Chanyeol ignores the nickname and instead lifts the drink, shaking it a little. “This will help a lot, thanks.” With that Chanyeol is out the door and heading for the hospital.

A sigh escapes his lips when he finally walks back out into the fresh air. Even he admits the hospital is stuffy sometimes. He’s thankful they have a garden for the patients. Today was somewhat eventful. Two premature babies had been born and he had to help his supervisor in checking that nothing was wrong with the tiny beings, thankfully nothing was, but they still need to be kept in the hospital for a few more weeks. The rest was mostly wandering around beside his supervisor and being watched over as he did tests and gave diagnoses to ill newborns.

He chuckles lightly in spite of his drooping eyes. “Baekhyun probably doesn’t even realize I’m still an intern.” Granted interns make a decent amount, but it’s not until three more years does he become an actual neonatologist.

A sharp ringing from his pocket diverts his attention from the clouds. There’s quite a few and he can only hope there’s not another storm. He’d rather not end up sharing an umbrella with Baekhyun again. His fingers deftly pull the device out from the confines of his pants and he swipes his thumb to answer.

“Hello?” he croaks, his voice tired from, well… being tired.

“Hey buddy!” Jongin sings from the other end. Chanyeol smiles at the others enthusiasm, feeling it rejuvenate a little of his energy.

“What’s up?”

He hears Jongin hum and speak hurriedly to another person before replying. “Me and the guys, you know, Sehun and Kris, are heading to the club tonight. You wanna go?” Chanyeol snorts. The club seems like the least fitting place to be for an up and coming doctor. As if reading his mind Jongin continues, “Oh come on, your occupation doesn’t define you! It’s not like you’re going to pick up a one night stand or anything… are you?”

“Of course not,” Chanyeol yells into the phone incredulously.

“Good then it’s settled. You need to loosen up anyways, you’re always busy and it’s a total bummer.”

“Did you really just say bummer?”

“Stop changing the subject Yeol.” Chanyeol flinches at the nickname. He hates to admit it, but he’s not used to someone else calling him that; though perhaps this, Jongin calling him it, is a good thing. It’s improvement.

“Fine, fine I’ll go.” He finally admits defeat and sighs at what he knows he’s just gotten himself into.

“That’s the spirit! Be there at 8!” Chanyeol hears the click and then the dial tone, finalizing his decision for him.

“Just fabulous,” he mutters before heading home to change into something more… appropriate; if you could call ripped skinny jeans and a tight black V-neck that.

When he arrives at the club he can already hear the blaring music from the sidewalk. He cringes now that he's facing the reality of how he's actually going to be spending his night. Before he can fake sick and bail he feels himself being tugged inside by a strong arm. Looking first at the interlocked arms and then at Jongin he feels his face heat up. He’s usually the one who initiates any sort of skin ship.

“Hey there, big shot.” Jongin pokes fun at him while leading them to a table in the far back corner. Chanyeol squints in the dark to see Sehun and Kris are already waiting, sending waves along with their famous stoic expressions. Honestly when Chanyeol first saw Sehun at work he was stricken because of the change in demeanor. He’s usually so calm and cool, but at the café he’s childish and carefree.

He and Jongin took their seats at the booth, giving their orders to the waitress. Once he catches Kris’ eye he fist bumps with him and laughs at the others ‘I’m totally too cool for this’ façade. The waitress is quick with their drinks and once she lands them on the table he’s immediately coaxed into drinking the damn thing in one-shot curtesy of Jongin and Sehun’s childish manners.

He figures it’d be okay to let loose at least once in a while.

Right?

Eh.

It was enjoyable during the time he was dragged onto the dance floor and ended up full on grinding with the four of them. It probably looked horribly provocative to the public eye, but they were in a club full of drunken people doing exactly the same thing, which made it suddenly socially acceptable. He was certain more than once a few strangers tried to cop a feel on him in the middle of that dance floor too, but hey all’s good as long as they leave it at that.

It only started going downhill when they all sat back down exhausted. Chanyeol just wanted to breathe, but Sehun had other plans.

 “So what are your feelings for Baek?” Sehun asks, hovering himself above the slightly drunken Chanyeol.

“What? What the hell.” If that wasn’t spur of the moment and a total mood killer he wasn’t sure what was.

“Like now that your back. I know you guys ended it on rough terms.”

It seemed like a pretty logical question to ask in Chanyeol’s mind, just poor timing and even worse executing if you ask him. But Sehun’s had more to drink than himself so the younger probably wasn’t thinking about that at the moment.

“I don’t know. He’s an acquaintance? He makes my coffee?” He didn’t want to say friend, because that seemed too close. He didn’t even have Baekhyun’s phone number anymore or know where the guy lives. Thus he’s pretty sure he can’t count Baekhyun as a friend, he’s not sure he wants to either because the term brings complicated and troublesome feelings with it.

“He makes your coffee?” Sehun stares at him aghast. As if that’s the most repulsive thing he’s ever heard. “Are you kidding me?”

“Why are you so protective of him anyways? What’s he to you?” Chanyeol mummers, feeling the blood in his veins begin to boil. Who does Sehun think he is? He doesn’t remember the two ever being this close before he left and he definitely doesn’t remember seeing Sehun this worked up over something before.

“That’s none of your business. You don’t deserve him hyung.”

That hit a nerve.

“You don’t know Sehun, I don’t want him anyways!”

Sehun clenches the drink in his hand, willing himself to calm down. The last thing he needs is to start a fight with Chanyeol, the apple of Baekhyun’s damn eye. But the moment he sees Chanyeol sigh in annoyance, as if even thinking of Baekhyun is a burden, he loses it. it, he thinks and throws his drink on Chanyeol before storming out of the bar.

Chanyeol is seething. However Jongin, after witnessing Sehun’s outburst, is already leaning beside Chanyeol with a towel. Chanyeol feels himself calming down with every swipe of Jongin’s hand. Once Jongin feels he’s accomplished as much as possible he sets the towel aside and grabs Chanyeol’s hand, rubbing soothing circles on it. “I know your mad, but try to understand. See Sehun has had no one but Baekhyun for the last three years. Baekhyun was literally his life saver. So he’s kind of gotten especially attached to Baekhyun.” Jongin resorts to combing his fingers through Chanyeol’s hair once he notices the red flush slowly draining from the elder’s face. “He didn’t mean anything against you personally, I promise. Baekhyun’s a really touchy subject for him, probably one best not gotten into honestly.”

“And he’s not a touchy subject for me?” Chanyeol grits out. He doesn’t know what happened between Sehun and Baekhyun, in fact he shouldn’t care. But what makes him so angry is that it does bother him when it really, really shouldn’t.

“Of course it is. I’m sure Sehun will apologize tomorrow.” Jongin thinks more on his sentence before adding, “Maybe. He’s a bit stubborn.”

Chanyeol manages to crack a smile at that. It was bound for two guy friends to get into it at least once during their relationship and Sehun is definitely the more stubborn of the two of them. He supposes he’ll have to act like the older one he is, up his pride, and somehow manage to rekindle his friendship with Sehun later.

By the time Jongin and he are finally leaving the dingy building, Kris already left after the fiasco with Sehun, he notices the wind picking up and sprinkles fill the air. “I really have ty luck with rain.”

Jongin grins broadly at him. “I happen to like the rain.” He immediately starts walking and Chanyeol’s forced to follow after him, lacking a better option. He hates the feeling of the cold drops lashing out on his face and having to squint through it, but he figures it’s better than it pouring. As if the sky was mocking him the moment he and Jongin enter a convenient store the sprinkles turn into a downpour.

Jongin picks up a black umbrella near the front, quickly walking to the counter. It only makes Chanyeol think of Baekhyun’s pure white umbrella and the contrast between the two. “Yeol, go get us some drinks.” Jongin speaks, breaking Chanyeol from his useless thoughts.

Chanyeol just nods and heads to the back of the store, looking at all the colorful options. What did Jongin like again? Soda probably… or beer. He decided he’d just buy both, can’t go wrong that way. It looked like Jongin was going to be staying over anyway. They’d have plenty of time to drink it all.

When he makes it to the front he barely pays any mind to the cashier. He almost felt bad for the guy having to work at the ungodly hour of one in the morning. However, when he looks up to pay for the drinks he gapes at the raven-haired pretty boy.

“Baekhyun?” he flushed at the squeakiness of his voice.

“Oh… Hey Yeol…” Baekhyun mumbles uncertainly. He diverts his eyes to the cash register and quickly gathers Chanyeol’s change, setting it into the large hand. Chanyeol seems to be frozen in shock, mouth open and eyes bugging. Baekhyun can’t lie, it certainly made him uncomfortable. “What are you guys doing here?” he motions with his finger at the both of them.

“Went to the club,” Jongin is quick to say, saving Chanyeol from making a bigger fool of his self.

“Cool.” Baekhyun nods with his lips puckered. Baekhyun glances out the window at the monsoon running through the city. “Looks like another gloomy day.” Baekhyun shivers when a particularly loud thunder cracks through the sky. “That’s not going to be pretty to walk in.”

“Speak for yourself, you have to walk alone.” Chanyeol cringes at the elbow Jongin shoved into his rib at the comment. “Sorry, wasn’t thinking when I said that,” Chanyeol apologizes, quickly realizing his mistake.

“Its fine, I’m used to it.” Chanyeol isn’t sure if he means the thoughtless comment or walking alone.

“Well, we’ll be heading out now. Have a good night Baekhyun!” Jongin calls as he walks with Chanyeol out the door.

Chanyeol merely waves.

“You knew he worked there didn’t you?” Chanyeol said the moment they were out of earshot and Jongin was fiddling with the umbrella to get it open under the convenient stores awning.

“I only had an inkling of an idea…”

“How?” Chanyeol can’t understand why Baekhyun’s working here. It’s more than obvious that his café is flourishing, which means it should bring more than enough profit in for Baekhyun.

“I hang around here a lot. Or used to. He started working here when he first started Double Shot and he’s just kept the job since.” He notices Chanyeol’s questioning gaze. “Look, I don’t know any more than that. We’re not exactly close or anything.”

Chanyeol nods, thoughtful. “This is kind of a dangerous area though.”

“That’s exactly why I used to hang out here.” Jongin gives a grimace. Chanyeol sympathizes by taking the umbrella from him, once again being the taller of the two, and holding it in place for them.

It’s harder to cover both of them with the umbrella since Jongin is bigger than Baekhyun. And by the time they reach his apartment the wet spot on his shoulder is larger than last time.

He hates how he keeps comparing everything to Baekhyun.

Chanyeol feels really grateful for Jongin’s company while he’s laying his head in the other’s lap and watching iron man. Jongin was the first person to greet him when he came back, one of the few who he frequently kept in touch with while in America, despite Jongin’s rough patch. He remember sending Jongin encouraging messages every day that he can get better and that good things will come to him when he pulls himself out of the gutter. And when Chanyeol came back they worked together to finally push Jongin into that last bit of normalcy.

Jongin was aspiring to be a famous dancer and there’s nothing wrong with that. But somehow he was tricked into stripping at a club. Sure that was dancing, it had a stage, but it was definitely not what Jongin had in mind. Still, Jongin kept with it until the real thing decided to come his way. However; after Kyungsoo rejected him, mostly because he was a stripper, Jongin changed… for the worse. He and Kyungsoo slowly started to become awkward and with it, there was an intense lack in contact. So Jongin decided to embrace the stripper lifestyle in the worse way possible, drugs, ecstasy mostly. Jongin was in a down whirl of bad decisions, but after a while of contacting Chanyeol, the elder helped persuade him to try and get cleaned. When Chanyeol actually came back they spent all of Chanyeol’s free time together and eventually Chanyeol convinced him to get a new occupation. To go to the business service company and fill out an application. Baekhyun’s café was one of the options and it just felt like fate, so he took it. Now he just needs to make sure Baekhyun doesn’t kick him out or that Kyungsoo doesn’t get Baekhyun to kick him out. He’s not even sure if the other knows he works there. Or even better, that he’s crawled out of his old lifestyle.

Chanyeol feels bold enough after thinking over the last couple months with the other and links their hands, giving a tight squeeze. They were both rejected by the love of their lives and both were trying to move on. But he thinks he can still see Jongin’s love for Kyungsoo swimming in his eyes. It hurts if he’s completely honest, but he can’t help wondering if his eyes look the same. He smiles when he feels Kai squeeze back and the two fall asleep in the comfort of each other’s presence along with the sounds of buildings crumbling from iron man in the background.

Author's Note

In case of any confusion, Chanyeol and Baekhyun met when they were 8.

17 years have passed, Chanyeol is 25 and Baekhyun 26 because Chanyeol's birthday is in November.

14 years they spent as friends, the last 3 being Chanyeol's absence.

COMMENTS

abcdefghiluvyou: Yup, I thought it'd be awkward to write Chankai since I don't ship Chanyeol with anybody besides Baek, but it's kind of coming naturally. I'm in the same boat with Sebaek... They're perf.

jesselee: Do I ship Xiulay? The question is how do you not ship Xiulay...