Chanyeol back hugged his mother tightly with a carefree chuckle; making the tiny—compared to him of course—apron clad woman jump out of her skin in surprise. Her mind was somewhere else and that more than helped Chanyeol to startle her. He loved messing around with his mother, he especially loved the funny expressions she made every time he tried something on her.

“You’re such a kid Chanie, I can’t believe you’re in your twenties.” Chanyeol’s mother said with a fond smile as she took a long good look at her handsome suit clad son. “You look really good in navy-blue honey.”

“Thanks mom, it’s one of the perks of being your son.” Chanyeol couldn’t help but laugh when his mother visibly cringed at his cheesiness.

“Whatever, are you leaving already? I thought the party wasn’t going to start till ten or so, or were there changes in the plan?” Chanyeol’s mother asked as she walked away from her son towards a vase of lilies with a glass bottle filled with water.

“I’m heading to Kyung’s house. I need his honest opinion on how this suit looks on me and other men’s stuff.”

"Men's stuff..." Chanyeol’s mother couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

"Yep! Well I'm off, love you!"

“Oh, I almost forgot. Kyungsoo-ah left a few books here with me, can you give them back to him? He’s such a sweetheart you know, I’ve learned so many new recipes from him in these last few days. He’s been coming here more often since you moved out. You should definitely come cook with us someday Chanie-ah, It’ll be fun I promise.” Chanyeol shook his head at his grinning mother, he knew exactly what she was trying to do. Sneaky little mother, Chanyeol thought. She was so trying to get Kyungsoo and him together for some reason only god and her knows. Like it was really not going to happen because, hello? Chanyeol was already taken, even though she had no idea, but Chanyeol was going to tell her soon (hopefully just after getting Yixing’s grandfather approval of him)--and Kyungsoo…well Kyungsoo would never think of him in that way. They were best friends, yes, but nothing more nothing less.

Nevertheless, Chanyeol loved how exited his mother got every time she thought Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were already secretly dating and deeply in love with each other but were just refusing or not ready yet to tell her and everyone else. Ridiculous, he knew but never had the guts to tell his mother that him and Kyungsoo were never going to be anything more than just really close and good friends.

“Sure I’ll try, can you get the books for me? And an umbrella please, It’s raining a bit outside. I don’t want to get all wet when the party still hasn’t started yet, oh and mom, I’m getting jealous of how much time you’ve been spending with Kyungsoo lately. We should go somewhere together, just the two of us. It’s been awfully long since we last did something like that.”

“I’d love that honey. And please don’t be jealous, it’s not like I would steal your little boyfriend or anything.” Chanyeol barked a loud laugh while his mother smiled in victory. She waltzed happily towards her room leaving an amused looking Chanyeol behind her. He really loved how close Kyungsoo was to his mother, the younger never failed to give his mother company and listen to her complaints. It was really nice of him to do so, after all Chanyeol’s mother was just another maid in the Kims’ mansion yet Kyungsoo never treated her like one. Chanyeol appreciated that about Kyungsoo, in fact Chanyeol could never appreciate Kyungsoo’s entire existence in his life hard enough.

Chanyeol run as fast as he could towards the main mansion, a freezing wind hitting his bare face like a cold slap of hand, rain falling lightly over his transparent umbrella. He wondered briefly at how in the hell tonight’s party was still on. The weather was terrible and the Kims usually knew better. Chanyeol shrugged those thoughts away as he grinned at the maids who greeted him and complimented his choice of color. He gratefully kissed an elder maid’s cheek before storming towards Kyungsoo’s room with a goodbye wave of hand.

When he didn’t find Kyungsoo in his room he walked towards Jongin’s, hoping he’ll find both of them in there. The walk was not that long and he soon enough found the door to his younger friend’s room. He turned the expensive looking doorknob open and made his way in without even bothering to knock first, because he’s been living in this house long enough to not knock on either his younger friends’ rooms. Surprisingly, they both never cared to mind.

“Chanyeol! We were just talking about you!” Jongin’s velvety voice reached his ears the minute he stepped in, the younger boy run towards him with a wide grin and hugged him tightly.

“Oh, hopefully good stuff.” Kyungsoo chuckled, his glasses-covered doe like eyes focusing intensely on his phone. 

“Can’t promise you of that.” Chanyeol poked his tongue playfully at Kyungsoo although he was more than sure the younger wasn’t going to see his childish action.

“You look really good Chan.” Jongin whispered, his right hand caressing the taller male’s left cheek delicately. Chanyeol raised a brow at the action but didn’t really mind it.

“You’re already drunk aren’t you?” The suit-clad male asked in amusement and Jongin bit his lower lip to stop a smirk from blooming as he lightly nodded his head yes.

“A bit.” Kyungsoo took his glasses off and pushed himself up from Jongin’s bed.

“Oh, you wore the suit I got for you?” The doe eyed male questioned as he finally got the chance to take a good look at Chanyeol’s figure.

“Yeah, mom said it’ll look good on me. ‘Navy-blue suits me’ she said. I kind of have to agree with her though, I got plenty of compliments already and the party still hasn’t started yet.” Kyungsoo smiled and Jongin climbed on Chanyeol’s back with a chuckle.

“Your mom is right, you look stunning!” Chanyeol adjusted the younger male on his back before mouthing a ‘what’s wrong with him’ to Kyungsoo.

“Beats me. He woke up like this, loud, energetic and to everyone’s horror, excessively touchy-feely. He’s been acting like that all day. Anyways, why are you here so early Chanyeol-ah? There’s five hours left for the party to start.”

“I’m actually freaking out and I terribly need your advice on something.” Jongin raised his brows in anticipation when Kyungsoo took a swift confused glance at him.

“What is it?”

“I’m going to talk to Yixing’s grandfather tonight and I’m going to need all the help I can get.” Kyungsoo’s eyes widened and Jongin’s body stiffened on Chanyeol’s back.

“Are you for real?” Jongin questioned.

“Is he even coming tonight?” Kyungsoo asked as he tried to busy himself with some papers on Jongin's desk.

“He told me his whole family is invited, much to my delight of course. So I thought about it last night and I think I should do it and stop wasting time. Like, what’s worse than being in a secret relationship with the one you love most? I actually have a good feeling about tonight. I think his grandfather—“ Chanyeol was more than startled when Jongin got off his back harshly and stormed out of his room without a word. He confusedly stared at the door the younger just slammed before turning his gaze towards an equally shocked Kyungsoo. “What the hell is wrong with him?”

“I...honestly have no idea.”

♭

It was close to midnight and the party was going great, fantastic even. Everything screamed filthy rich and high-class. Graceful servants walking all around the heaven like garden with trays filled of all kind of expensive drinks and sinfully delicious world-famous chefs’ made food. The rain stopped falling awhile ago and the Kims were more than delighted by that. The guests were all adorned in gold and sparkly diamonds, designers’ clothes and fake smiles on display. Classical waltz music was blasting loudly through every little corner of the garden, and it was played by one of the most well known symphony orchestras in the world themselves.

Kyungsoo let his eyes wander in sheer amusement as he animatedly talked to one of his numerous cousins. The latter was standing to his left while his best friend Baekhyun stood on the other side with a half empty glass of sparkling Champagne on his slender hand, a golden Rolex watch peaking from time to time from under his coal-black blazer sleeve.

“That was exactly what I said! Just because the Kangs’ stocks hit rock bottom once doesn’t mean everyone should turn their backs on them now, right? They’re still one of the riches families around. I talked to my father and he said we should definitely take their side because if we do, then—“ Whatever Jongdae said after that Kyungsoo didn’t really hear it because his wandering eyes finally spotted Chanyeol’s figure.

Finally. He’s been looking for the other male the entire night. Chanyeol looked distressed and long lost on his phone. Kyungsoo kind of had an idea to why he was acting that way and he anxiously felt like walking over to him and comforting him, yet for some reason he couldn’t and in other words he didn’t really want to. Because Chanyeol was stressing over the fact that Yixing still didn’t show up although his entire family already did--hours ago. Chanyeol told him Yixing wasn’t even answering his phone, not like Kyungsoo cared about the Chinese male or whatever but he really hoped Chanyeol would forget about the other male for a second and come enjoy his time with his small group of friends.

“Where’s Chanyeol? He said he had good news for us.” Baekhyun pursed his pink lips to a pout and Jongdae rolled his eyes before answering.

“Good news. Yeah, right. I hope he’s not getting married or anything, it’ll ruin the whole ‘Bachelors’ power’ theme we have going on in our little squad.” Baekhyun laughed at that and Kyungsoo rolled his eyes without bothering to say anything.

“Well, knowing him, getting married at his age is not something that won’t cross his silly mind Jongdae-ah, so be prepared for when he asks us to be his wedding’s groomsmen.” Baekhyun amusedly shared after spotting Chanyeol and quickly waved for him to come over with a wide excitement-filled grin announced on his face.

“Do groomsmen get paid though?” Jongdae earnestly questioned with nothing but confusing lacing his voice. Chanyeol however, ignored Baekhyun completely as he made a beeline for the mansion’s main entrance, his fists clenched tightly on each side of his body with his brows furrowed.

“What the hell is wrong with him?”

“I…have no idea.” Kyungsoo’s eyes fell to the ground after answering. Baekhyun scoffed and exclaimed loudly at how rude Chanyeol just acted while Jongdae shrugged and started talking about how his father told him just minutes before they arrived that the Kims were going to announce something extremely important by the end of the night.

♭

“And then what happened?” Jongin had his head comfortably laid on his best friend Sehun’s lap as he drunkenly stared at him with half a smirk on display.

After getting hella bored by the party, Jongin and Sehun decided to take a rest for a few minutes, so they both ended up chilling out at his mansion’s lavish living room with a few bottles of vodka and a jar filled of crackers to waste time with.

“The wuss threatened to tell my parents, so I backed off. I mean I can’t risk my parents knowing so I just decided to let the idiot go this time and get him for it later.” Sehun explained, his slim fingers lightly tugging at a few strands of Jongin’s soft brown hair.

“I thought Luhan liked you back. What happened?” Sehun sighed at that with a roll of eye.

“He does like me back, he’s just playing hard to get I guess. Some er told him that I was going to dump his sorry the minute I sleep with him. I tried to get him to tell me who it was but he stubbornly refused and said that whoever told him that, wanted nothing but the best for him. ing bull, I kno