“And it was amazing! They were all sorts of shapes and sizes; round and stout, long and straight, ess-shaped and longer still!”

“Mmhmm.” Baekhyun was unfocused on Chanyeol’s banter as the two returned home from the lab.

Being roommates with the guy who became the assistant to one of the greatest research doctors in the history of the continent had finally turned out as Chanyeol had been hoping it would: Despite the earlier upset, Baekhyun had finally managed to get him a job with Dr. Jongin Kim. THE Dr. Jongin Kim.

“You know, you made him out to be like he was Lucifer in the flesh.”

This finally hooked Baekhyun’s attention.

“You mean to tell me you worked with him all afternoon and didn't reach the same conclusion?”

“Hmm~” Chanyeol thought for a second, the smile from the excitement of his first half-day still plastered on his lips (Baekhyun wondered if it didn’t hurt.) “Nope. He seems a little lonely, maybe, but-“

Chanyeol turned around at the sudden explosion of laughter Baekhyun fell into, right outside of the door to their apartment building.

“YOU…. YOU SAID…. DR. JONGIN… DR. JONGIN KIM… LONELY…” He became unable to form coherent words for the next fifteen seconds, before finally being able to sputter out, “Oh Chanyeol… the man would set fire to his own mother’s funeral if it meant not having to interact with others!”

The taller rolled his eyes. “Oh come now, he’s not that bad. I asked him why he’s never taken a wife and he said-“

“He’s never taken a wife because no woman in this town would fathom it!” Baekhyun was still having a great laugh, but he was able to walk at this point and he and Chanyeol continued into the building, nodding in greeting at the owner’s eldest twin daughters who were doing their bi-weekly cleaning of the common areas. “That and he himself has no idea how to speak to them; I suppose that’s one thing you two have in common. And if this work has any major benefits, it’s being able to see Dr. Jongin stammer and stare into his tea any time he has to talk to Dr. Junmyeon’s wife.”

“I can talk to women,” Chanyeol pouted, focusing on Baekhyun's earlier point.

“True, but you’ve no need, right?”

Chanyeol hoped Baekhyun wouldn’t turn around and notice the former’s ears flushing red. He combed his hair over the tips—a futile effort, really, due to their anatomy.

“Relax, just don’t tell me Dr. Jongin is your type, or I’ll have to have you admitted for insanity.”

In silence, memories of the doctor's profile came fluttering back to Chanyeol.

Baekhyun turned.

“Chanyeol?”

“Well, I, er, I’m not saying… he’s not?” He combed his hair down over his ears again.

“It’s not just the ears; your entire face is red, idiot.”

Between the ‘My-best-friend-just-dragged-me-out-of-the-closet’ and ‘He-also-found-out-about-my-might-be-developing-thing-or-whatever-for-his-boss’, the shock of the situation was too much. Chanyeol grabbed one of the chairs by the crudely-constructed wooden kitchen table and nearly fell into it.

“Well, I shouldn’t be surprised.” Baekhyun said with his back to Chanyeol as he began to stock the small wood-burning stove that would hopefully soon bring them some hot tea and some warmth to the frigid unit. “You’re the sort who sees people who don’t like you or are grumpy in general as a challenge, and it’s not like you didn’t ask me almost daily to tell you what was happening in the lab.”

“Really? You’re not surprised?”

“OF COURSE I’M SURPRISED!!!” Baekhyun and another voice, coming from the door that had just been thrown open, yelled in unison.

“What the Jongdae!?” Baekhyun shouted.

Jongdae, lifelong friend of Baekhyun and a Master’s candidate working on his thesis in Dr. Zhang’s laboratory had apparently just dropped by for a visit, and had apparently also been eavesdropping. Hard.

“You’re interested in THAT GUY!?”

Chanyeol could have died.

“Alright. Alright,” Jongdae said, pulling out another one of the kitchen chairs to take a seat, “I’m not going to pretend like I know the guy that well. But I can say that if you’re int-”

“INEVERSAIDIWASINTERESTED!!!” Chanyeol finally yelled.

There was a knock at the door, which Jongdae stood back up to answer. The younger of the two twins, broom in hand menacingly, simply placed a finger to her lips and shushed the three before closing the door behind herself again.

“I never even said I was interested in men!” Chanyeol whispered.

Two pairs of half-lidded eyes with cocked eyebrows stared at him.

“What, just because I’d rather do research than chase every piece of tail that comes my way, I don’t like women?”

“Nooo,” Jongdae drawled, “Just because we can’t go to the corner bar anymore because we have to drag you off of the bartender every time you get piss drunk, you don’t like women.”

“The best barmaids are there, too…” Baekhyun sighed nostalgically. Jongdae had a similarly melancholy look on his face.

“Anyway, if you do think anything of him-“

“Which I don’t in particular,” Chanyeol clarified in a huff.

“I’d suggest you give it up. He’s a lost cause in terms of romance. He certainly doesn’t like women, and I’d doubt that he fancies men, either,” Jongdae advised. “Right, Baekhyun?”

The eldest was lost in thought, staring at the fire he’d just managed to get going.

“Uh, Baek?”

“Well… if nothing else, I don’t think he hates you as much as he hates other people,” he finally mused aloud. “I mean, sure, not kicking you out on sight was a positive sign, but he also poured you soup today, which I wasn’t at all convinced he even knew how to do…”

“Come to think of it, Dr. Zhang did mention you two being particularly chatty,” Jongdae remembered, a smirk coming to his mouth as he remembered the rest of the conversation. “He said he’d never heard the man have a non-scientific conversation that lasted that long, nor encountered someone who would dare try.”

“Congratulations, Channie. You’re the number one contender for the doctor’s cold, dry, dusty heart.”

Chanyeol groaned into his hands. “I don’t like either of you right now.”

“Good; I don’t swing that way anyway.” Jongdae slammed his hands down on the table and propped himself up to his feet, earning himself a dirty look from Baekhyun for being so noisy, but the latter quickly let it slide.

“You’re not staying for tea?”

“Can’t, just thought I’d drop by to hear about Yeol’s first day at his coveted new job on my way out.”

“Out? Who with?” Baekhyun asked, smirking as he pumped water for two into the kettle.

His question was soon answered with a knock on the door, which Jongdae once again answered. Behind the door, dressed up significantly more than before, was the eldest twin.

“Ready to go?” she asked, giving a coy smile.

“Of course, m’dear.” Jongdae offered his arm to the girl, and the two pranced off, first likely to her father’s quarters to give a proper greeting, and then off to whatever activities Jongdae had in mind.

“He didn’t close the door…” Chanyeol noted.

Baekhyun was again too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice.

“Say, I have an idea for you…" he finally spoke. "Actually, Dr. Junmyeon’s wife is extremely heavy with child, and because Dr. Junmyeon’s in the hospital, her family has called away for her at least for the next month…”

“That’s a fast reaction from her family,” Chanyeol murmured, “Considering that Dr. Jongin himself only learned today about the hospitalization.”

“True. Anyway, since the job of bringing food still falls to me, why don’t you make it since you like cooking so much?”

The housekeeping roles in their apartment had almost always fallen to Chanyeol due to his lack of permanent work and Baekhyun's busy schedule, but he had always been a fan of cooking in the first place.

“Mm, that sounds-“

“If a wife isn’t needed for cooking or cleaning, what good is a wife?”

Chanyeol wasn’t sure why he suddenly remembered the words spoken earlier by Jongin…

“Yeol?”

...But they made him both extremely excited to show off his cooking skill…

“Chanyeol.”

...And extremely terrified that Jongin wouldn’t like it.

“Chanyeol Park.”

“Fine,” he finally replied, hands tensing around the cup of tea Baekhyun had just brought him. “That sounds fine.”

“Why the bloody hell did I agree with you!?”

“Relax,” Baekhyun chided as he opened the door to the laboratory building for Chanyeol, who was toting the food-for-three he’d made that morning, “I’m pretty sure Jongin doesn’t even know Mrs. Kim is gone. If he hates it, we don’t tell him you made it.”

“Thanks for choosing ‘He hates it’ as your first scenario.” Chanyeol rolled his eyes and quieted down a bit when he realized that his low voice was carrying extremely well through the already echo-friendly stairwell.

“Anytime. So now that you guys have discovered these little moving things with the microscope, what are you going to do?”

Chanyeol sighed harshly in disappointment. “I told you yesterday. Locate a difference between healthy samples and plague samples. Work with Dr. Zhang on upgrading the microscope. Don’t you listen to anything I say?”

“Sorry,” Baekhyun said coyly. “I must have been distracted by the screaming Jongdae was putting that girl to.”

“He lives on the other side of the campus.”

“He must be good as I hear they say, then.”

The two reached the lab and continued laughing and sharing rumors of Jongdae’s romantic prowess while preparing it for Jongin’s arrival; Baekhyun tidying up anything the group may have left out from the previous day and Chanyeol prepping samples. When the blonde finally showed up, three minutes before ten as usual, everything was set, in working order, and ready to go, but Jongin did notice Chanyeol being spacier than usual.

“Boy, pay attention, will you?” Jongin muttered. Thinking for a second about why Chanyeol’s attention span was nosediving from its already low baseline, he opened his pocket watch to see that they were encroaching upon the last five minutes before lunch time without so much as a peep from Baekhyun.

“Mr. Byun,” he called out, “if your head is in that book rather than on your duties again, I’ll be happy to show both of you the door.”

A sudden clamor on the other side of the lab shelves indicated that Jongin’s presumption was correct, and Baekhyun rushed off to reheat the food, considering whether or not to apologize, but seeing as Jongin had already turned to continue his explanation to Chanyeol, he opted for silence.

He returned three minutes later with their food, and as the two turned their chairs around to the desks that sat across from the lab bench and rinsed their hands in alcohol, Baekhyun stole a look at the seemingly peaceful, only-a-friend-could-see-he's-a-nervous-wreck face of Chanyeol, complete with flaming red ear tips. As always, his meager attempt to cover them with his hair failed spectacularly.

Baekhyun had to choke back laughter.

This was already interesting.