Chapter 11 – Affection

感情
（一）Place the palm of your dominant hand onto your chest.
（二）Put both hands up, palms facing each other. The hand in the front remains still, the other one gradually moves onto the other hand until they touch.

Sometimes Yifan wanted to punch himself for doing things he knew he’d regret at one point in his life, but he did them anyway. Giving in to Yin Hang’s and Marie’s begging to come with them to party at the Global Club right next to the subway station was definitely going to be one of those things. The problem was that Yifan really liked going out but it was hard doing this when he spent 99% of his evenings with Yixing who flinched everytime they’d pass a bar (Spring was finally fighting its way to the city and the days became warmer, which meant more and more bars opened up their terraces and people suddenly started drinking out on the streets). So when Yin Hang said the basketballers and the cheerleaders had reserved a table at the ‘G’ and Yifan should tag along too, he was up for it. And after Yixing told him to get out and have fun (his only condition was that Yifan wasn’t allowed to drink the club’s cheap whiskey because he hated the smell) he was actually very excited. But as soon as he had stepped into the club, his excitement was blown away within seconds.
It was a weekday, so the dancefloor was rather empty and the music wasn’t that good either – especially because the DJ was only playing music from the 90s and 00s which made Yifan want to commit suicide. His teammates didn’t seem to mind though and circulated around the dancefloor to try to pick up any girl that even considered walking over to the bar to get another drink.
“Selfietiiiiime!” Marie cried against the beats of Usher’s “Yeah” and shot a picture of the two – she was looking like one of those models on the covers of VOGUE China, while Yifan had just managed to raise an eyebrow with an unimpressed look on his face.
“God, it wouldn’t hurt to smile a little, would it?”
“I’m not drunk enough for stupid selfies, that is all,” Yifan answered and downed his Gin Tonic, hoping it would help, but the Gin was obviously fake and would do nothing but bring a big headache in the morning.
“Marie, let it go, he’s actually an old grumpy man,” Yin Hang said while she stood next to them.
Both of them were looking amazing in their short dresses and high heels and were a true sight for sore eyes for all of the people in the club. There was a real shortage of women today.
Suddenly, Yifan’s eyes caught a face that seemed familiar. The person had just picked up a drink at the bar and was about to leave for one of the tables next to the dancefloor, when his eyes locked with Yifan’s. His jaw dropped open.
“Sehun!!” Yifan cried out, while the Korean changed his course and hovered over to Yifan.
“Yifan what are you doing here?” He said and the two fell into each other’s arms as if they had been separated for years – which wasn’t the case, since they had met for lunch today.
“My team rented a table tonight, I kind of tagged along. What are you doing here?”
“Same thing. Just with one of my classes.”
Sehun nodded into the direction of his table where a bunch of other Korean guys were sitting, their eyes glued to their cellphones.
“But they’re not really fun to be honest.”
“Tell me about it!” Yifan said and pointed into the direction where a guy called Shaoqing had just encountered a female foreign girl who was clearly not interested in him.
“Ewww, I see, I see.”
“Hey, are you going to introduce us at least?” Marie threw in and Yifan snapped out of his little parallel universe with Sehun.
Right, the girls. They were still there.
“Sorry. Sehun, this is Marie. And this is Yin Hang.”
They greeted the Korean with radiant smiles, maybe because he was the first decent looking guy in this room ever since they stepped into it – Yifan was the exception, of course. Right in that moment, the DJ blasted Britney Spears’ “Hit me baby one more time” and the girls, already slightly drunk from their overly sweet cocktails they had had a few minutes ago, started to gaps in excitement.
“Oh my goooood, I loooove this song!” Marie cried, grabbed Yin Hang by the hand and dragged her on the dance floor.
“Time for another drink!” Yifan stated and Sehun laughed while he followed him to the bar.
He got another Gin Tonic, Sehun sipped on his Whiskey Sour and then they watched the girls that were dramatically lip singing to lines like “My loneliness is killing me”. Marie also knew the choreography to the song and tried to teach Yin Hang who was getting the hang of it very fast. The perks of being a cheerleader.
“If I had known that this was a trash pop party, I wouldn’t have come,” Yifan said.
“Come on, Britney is legendary. We all secretly love her,” Sehun responded.
While the girls danced to songs that were triggering some really weird childhood and teenage-years memories, the guys sat at the edge of the dance floor and sipped on their drinks – Sehun at least was tapping his toes to the beat of the music, Yifan remained stiff. Other girls from the cheerleading team soon joined Yin Hang and Marie and because of that, more and more people wandered to the middle of the room to dance, doing a more or less good job at it. Most of them did a horrible job and Yifan and Sehun had their time of their lives watching other guys making a fool of themselves – until two guys had chosen Yin Hang and Marie as their targets and started to circulate around them. Sehun raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t worry about them. Yin Hang has no problems in getting guys back into their lane,” Yifan said and took another gulp of his drink.
“Really? She seems so small and delicate.”
“It’s a trap,” the Chinese yelled and tried to be louder than Adam Levine’s whining to ‘This Love’, “She seems like a sweet cinnamon roll, but she can actually kill you.”
Sehun said nothing and went back to watching what happened with the two girls. Whoever these two guys were, they clearly couldn’t see how uncomfortable their ‘prey’ was with the whole situation. Yin Hang and Marie tried to ignore them and chose blend into the group of other cheerleaders, but the two strangers did not give in that easily.
“Are you sure they got this, Yifan?”
“I believe in my girl.”
The Korean didn’t seem to be too convinced and when Yin Hang got grabbed by the guy in ripped skinny jeans and a muscle shirt, he downed his drink and said while putting the glass on the counter:
“Come on, let’s help them.”
“Sehun, I’m not even half finished with my drink!”
“Ey, they’re you’re friends, don’t be a !”
Yifan sighed, but then went along with Sehun’s proposal. He finished his drink in three big gulps, knowing he would regret this very much in a few minutes and followed Sehun through the pile of people. Yin Hang and Marie, now pinned on the spot by the guys, tried to tell them to back off.
“Come on, you weren’t that shy while dancing, beauty!” the guy grabbing Yin Hang chirped.
In that moment, Sehun entered the scene. He tipped his shoulders and the attention of the foreigners shifted from the girls to him.
“Hey, I don’t think she wants to dance with you!” Sehun said, in a tone he thought was forceful, but nice enough to not cause trouble.
Yin Hang seized the opportunity and jumped behind the Korean to shield herself from another groping hand. Yifan grabbed Marie’s arm and put her behind him.
“Oh, and what makes you think she doesn’t?”
His Chinese was kind of weird, so Yifan figured he was maybe a Chinese guy who grew up in America or another English speaking country.
“Just let it go and stop being a ,” Yifan said.
The douchebag in his muscle shirt eyed him as if he tried to challenge him, but his friend, who was almost two heads shorter than Yifan, grabbed his arm and proposed:
“Come on, let’s go.”
The other one only reluctantly gave in to his friend and turned to Yin Hang one last time who was peeking behind Sehun’s back:
“You’re not even that hot, .”
When they disappeared, Sehun shook his head and said:
“Unbelievable! I bet 100 Yuan this idiot only gets girls who are drunk enough to ignore he’s an .”
Yin Hang sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t care what some random dude thinks about me to be honest.”
“If you want to know,” Yifan said while he pushed Marie off the dance floor and the other two followed him, “You’re the hottest in this god damn place.”
“Aww, look at Yifan trying to give out compliments!” Yin Hang responded and wiped away an imaginary tear out of the corner of her left eye.
“I could use a drink,” Marie suddenly threw in and Yin Hang agreed loudly.
“I’m in,” Sehun said and Yin Hang grabbed Sehun’s elbow.
“Let’s get something for everyone.”
The Korean shrugged and nodded, then Yifan said:
“I’ve already drank three Gin Tonics…”
“Good, this means you’re staying with Gin Tonic, I’ll get you one!” Yin Hang responded and dragged Sehun with her, leaving Yifan with Marie who laughed out loud.
“I was actually indicating that I’ve had enough for today.”
“One drink more won’t make too much of a difference. I don’t even think they put a lot of alcohol into their drinks.”
“They only put in fake alcohol, that’s what I know for sure.”
Marie didn’t really react to Yifan’s statement and then linked her arm with his.
“Thanks for the rescue by the way. I owe you.”
“No, you don’t. If anything, you owe Sehun. It was his idea to step in.”
“Wait, you wouldn’t have helped us?”
“I would’ve waited for Yin Hang to rescue you both. I remember she once rammed her high heels into the foot of one guy that d her and he left the club. Bleeding.”
Marie’s mouth dropped and her eyes grew wide.
“So, sooner or later, she would’ve stopped these two idiots anyway.”
The young woman pursed her lips and then said:
“Thanks anyway.”
She leaned in a little closer and exposed her shoulders with a skilled hairflip. She smelled of Yves Saint Lauren’s Black Opium, one of the perfumes Yifan hated on women. And in that moment, Yifan got the weird feeling he should tell her that he wasn’t available and belonged to another, but in that moment Yin Hang and Sehun came back. She was holding two cocktails for her and Marie, Sehun brought over Yifan’s unwanted Gin Tonic and his own drink.
“Let’s get away from the dancefloor or I’ll spill this stuff!” Yin Hang suggested and lead the way.
Marie followed and had fortunately let go of Yifan who fell back on purpose.
They spent a good hour emptying their glasses and talking, and Yifan just couldn’t shake off the awkward feeling when Marie leaned into him, touched his arms or laughed at his jokes, which he found not to be very funny at all. The biggest problem was that Yin Hang and Sehun seemed to get along so well, they suddenly had disappeared, leaving him with the other girl.
“Greaaaat, our friends bailed on us,” she stated when they realized the other two were gone.
Yifan panicked and suddenly found the straw in his glass very interesting.
Sure, he could’ve just told Marie that she should let the flirting go, but on the other hand – was she even flirting with him or was that just the way she was with a few drinks having knocked back? Maybe he was just misinterpreting her body language.
“Yeah seems we’re not very fun to hang out with,” he said.
“Do you think they’re making out in a dark corner?”
The young man tilted his head and gave it a thought. He totally wouldn’t put a make out session at a club past Yin Hang. But Sehun? He once had dropped that One Night Stands were out of the question for him and that he’d only kiss a girl if he was really serious with her. A true romantic – he got mocked for it by the rest of his friends.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Then, what are they doing?” Marie asked and took the last sip of her cocktail.
“I don’t know. Maybe they’re off to get something to drink.”
The girl next to him shot him a look as if she was about to ask if Yifan was really that naïve.
“Very well then,” she said and grabbed Yifan’s hand which was about twice the size of hers, “If we want answers to that, we need to find them.”
And she dragged him off to the bar, but the two missing persons weren’t in the middle of getting wasted at the counter and they also weren’t anywhere near the dancefloor. The only people hanging around the toilets were super drunk people that barely made it into a cabin to get rid of all the fake alcohol that they have been downing the past few hours. Marie even proposed to check the KTV rooms but Yifan could prevent her from that since that was way over the top. He then checked his phone for the time and decided that two o’clock in the morning was late enough for a weekday and said:
“Let’s go.”
“Wait, what?”
“I’m tired, I want to go home.”
Marie looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
“I told Yin Hang to leave together with her. She’s sleeping over at my place today.”
“Well, maybe she left already with Sehun and sleeps at his place. Let’s check the wardrobe.”
He turned to the exit and left Marie no chance of protesting so she followed on her high heels that were hurting her feet enormously.
“Don’t walk so fast, Yifan!” she cried out as she caught up with him and the woman at the wardrobe was already searching for Yifan’s coat.
“Your name, please?” another staff member asked Marie.
She gave out her Chinese name and the woman started looking for her name tag, when Yifan suddenly heard laughter that sounded way too familiar. He turned his head and saw Yin Hang and Sehun sitting on the stairs that led to the exit to the street.
“I’ve got two coats under your name, Miss,” the staff said and gave Marie her coat and the red one Yin Hang had been wearing.
“See, Yifan? She’s still here, I can’t leave yet.”
“I found her,” Yifan responded, took his coat and hovered over to the other two.
“Ooooh, look who’s coming!” Yin Hang cried out.
“I’m going home guys,” Yifan said.
“Booooh, you’re such a buzzkill!”
Yin Hang noticed Marie following and frowned when she saw the coats in her friend’s hands.
“We’re leaving already?”
“It’s two o’clock, young Miss! We’ve got classes at ten!”
“You sound like my dad, ugh.”
“If you’re leaving, I’ll leave too,” Sehun suddenly threw in and got up to get his own coat.
Yin Hang gave up defeat and when Sehun came back, he pulled her up on her feet. When they stepped out on the streets, Yin Hang was still struggling with the buttons of her coat.
“Aaaah, my hair got caught…!”
Sehun came to her rescue, while Marie turned to Yifan:
“Is she always like that when she’s drunk?”
“Yepp. Clumsy and annoying. Have fun bringing her to bed.”
Sehun freed her hair and closed the last button for her.
“This is embarrassing,” Yin Hang said.
“Oh, you know, this happens to me all the time too, so don’t beat yourself up.”
Yin Hang needed a moment to understand he was joking, but then she burst out laughing.
“Yifan, where have you been hiding this guy all the time? He’s HILARIOUS!”
“I think you need some water and a bed,” was Yifans dry comment before he asked Marie if they needed to be accompanied home.
“No, we’ll be fine. It’s a ten minute walk from here… if you’re sober.”
“Okay. Let me know when you got home.”
Marie nodded and leaned over to give him a peck on each cheek and when she noticed Yifan’s shocked face, she said:
“Sorry, I do this out of habit.”
“Umm… yeah… it’s okay,” he mumbled, even though he thought it wasn’t.
When they parted ways, the guy heard Yin Hang ask if they could stop by the Seven Eleven to get some water and food and Sehun chuckled.
“Sooooo, have you at least asked for her number?” Yifan asked while they walked over the street.
Sehun stopped abruptly and his eyes grew wide in shock.
“! I forgot to do that!”
“God, how the hell have you survived until now?”
Sehun looked back over his shoulder, but the girls were already out of reach and earshot.
“Yifan, you need to give me her number.”
“Pfff, forget it. This kind of stupidity needs to be punished!”
“Oh come on! I thought we were friends!” Sehun whined while they were getting into the building complex and Yifan opened the door to the elevator which was already on the first floor.
“You’re still at level two. I only give out numbers to level three friends.”
“God you’re such a head sometimes!”
Yifan pressed the six and ten and shrugged his shoulders to show Sehun he didn’t care. They spent the ride to the sixth floor arguing and in the end Yifan promised to arrange another meeting so Sehun had the chance to ask her personally for her number. This wasn’t really what Sehun had hoped for, but he had to get off the elevator so he had to settle for Yifan’s proposal. When Yifan finally entered Yixing’s apartment, he cursed himself for going out today. The alcohol had made his limbs go numb and was now creeping into his head, already announcing the huge headache he’d be having in the morning.  He the lights and after taking off his coat and shoes, he stumbled into the kitchen to get some water. Opening the bottle took a lot longer thanks to his brain not cooperating fully with him and when he turned around, he jumped and screamed a little.
Yixing was sitting at the peninsula.
“Jesus, you scared me to death!” Yifan exclaimed and took a sip of water.
“Sorry.”
“Why are you still up? It’s past two in the morning.”
“I’m not used to falling asleep alone anymore.”
“You’re cute.”
Yixing just stuck out his tongue lazily, because despite the fact he hadn’t been able to find any sleep until now, he was very tired.
“Don’t worry, I won’t do that again anytime soon.”
“Going out wasn’t fun?”
Yifan threw away the emptied bottle and sat next to Yixing. He then leaned over to place a kiss on the other one’s forehead.
“Not as much as I thought it would be.”
He thought about Marie’s weird behavior for a minute and wondered if he should tell Yixing about it, but he decided against it in the end.
“Let’s go to bed.”
“Finally!” Yixing exclaimed, in totally wrong tones and he took off for the bedroom.
Yifan followed on uneasy feet and managed to get rid of his shirt and jeans before he crashed into the pillow and the mattress. Yixing chuckled a little when Yifan needed three attempts to turn off the light and when they had finally found their usual sleeping position, Yixing grabbed his boyfriend’s arms and said:
“Much better.”
It took him less than two minutes to fall asleep after that. And Yifan didn’t have to wait for sleep to arrive either, maybe mostly because the Gin Tonics just knocked him out.

The next day, the two guys had decided on having breakfast at the Bridge Café because Yixing had run out of coffee and there was still enough time before both of them had to get to their lectures. The café was located in the second floor of a building near Yixing’s apartment and even had a patio that had just opened. Besides, Yifan really needed a good breakfast to get rid of the bad hangover he was having. Right when he was about to finish his omelette he got a notification from his coach who had just squeezed in an extra training at seven in the morning next day. He groaned in frustration. Yixing who had noticed his annoyed expression tilted his head while he was on the straw of his iced Americano. It was weird how he managed to make banal things like this become overly cute – or artistic. This time, it was definitely the first.
“My coach set up another training session for tomorrow at seven.”
“Seven in the evening?”
“No. In the morning.”
Yixing pouted and put his coffee down.
“Seems like I have to sleep at the dorm today. It’s nearer to the gym,” Yifan reasoned but that were words Yixing clearly didn’t want to hear – or see, for that matter.
He made a face as if he had just tasted something really bad. But then he sighed.
“This must be a very important game.”
“Well, yeah, kind of. But I think another beating from Qinghua’s team wouldn’t be the end of the world.”
If his coach could have heard these words, he sure would’ve been damned to run a few extra miles around the gym for this comment.
“When is the game?”
“April 11^th. It’s a Tuesday I think.”
“Isn’t Sehun’s birthday the day after?”
Yifan looked up from typing a short answer to his coach.
“Yes, we’ll celebrate his birthday after the game. So even if we lose, I still have a more positive reason to get drunk.”
Yixing snorted and threw his napkin on the plate to indicate he was done with his breakfast.
“He invited you too, you know that?”
The other one nodded.
“He told me already.”
“So we’ll go together?”
Yixing shrugged his shoulders but then nodded slightly. Yifan smiled at the news and Yixing returned it.
“Do you want to come over to watch the game also? The others are asking already if you will show up.”
His boyfriend hesitated with his answer and bit his lips.
“There will be a lot of people, right?”
“Oh. Yeah. Half the university. And they always go crazy as hell. Totally nothing you’re going to like,” Yifan said and grabbed his coffee, “But on the other hand: I look very good in those basketball clothes. Like. Really, really good. You wouldn’t want to miss this.”
Yixing closed his eyes for a second but then looked back at him and signed while keeping an extreme straight face:
“I think you look really good without any clothes, but that’s just me.”
Yifan choked on the last mouthful of coffee and immediately checked if anyone else had noticed, but the few other customers didn’t even look up from their plates and laptops.
“You dirty little !” Yifan shot back at him – not verbally, of course.
Yixing just grinned, leaned back and responded:
“You want to in public now? No problem.”
Sometimes he couldn’t understand Yixing at all. Moments like this threw the taller one off track because he couldn’t believe a guy with an innocent face like Yixing would ever start something like this. But on the other hand, Yixing liked to .
“That’s it, we’re leaving,” Yifan said and shot up.
When he went downstairs, Yixing followed on his heels laughing.
“Come on, that was funny!” he exclaimed while Yifan unlocked his bike.
“Get on that thing now, Zhang Yixing,” the older one said and pointed on the bike’s carrier.
“Are you sure? I might not be able to keep my hands off you.”
“What the hell is wrong with you today??”
Yixing burst out laughing once again, but then he seated himself on the carrier.
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Let’s go. But, you know, if you came over tonight…”
Slowly, the direction of the conversation was dawning on Yifan.
“Ooooh, now we’re blackmailing the own boyfriend with , huh?”
“I wouldn’t say it’s blackmail,” Yixing responded with an innocent look on his face, “It’s an offer resulting in nothing but a win-win-situation for everyone.”
Yifan shook his head in disbelief. Before he got on the bike he said:
“I’ll think about it. But don’t think you have won me over just now!”
“You’ll be coming, I can feel this.”
“Stop with this already!”
Yifan pedaled off while Yixing held onto him, the laughter of his boyfriend in his ears. About fifteen minutes later, they had reached the building where Yixing’s lecture was about to start. Nobody was around, since there were still almost thirty minutes left, but Yixing didn’t really mind. When he had gotten off the bike, he turned to Yifan.
“I’ll be there for the game.”
“Really? You don’t have to go, I won’t be mad!” Yifan said shocked.
“No, I’ll go. I want to be there.”
He looked at Yixing who seemed to be not too sure about the thing he just had decided and he sighed.
“I’ll come over tonight.”
Yixing applauded.
“Congratulations! You have made the right decision!”
“You’re an idiot, Yixing.”
“You’re dating said idiot, Yifan.”
“Which probably makes me an even bigger idiot.”
The other one nodded with an earnest look on his face, but started to show his dimpled smile a few seconds later.
“Around five then?”
“I’ll bring dinner.”
Yixing leaned over and kissed Yifan softly. It wasn’t a very long or demanding kiss, but the gesture alone meant a lot. Yixing wasn’t the type to show a lot of affection in public. The moments around his family had been something different, but he was still cautious when he was in the general public.
“See you.”
He watched Yixing enter the building, before he left the scene and got to his own lecture where he greeted a very hungover and ill-humored Yin Hang. The first thing she said was:
“God, I’m so stupid, I haven’t asked Sehun for his number last night. Do you have it and could you give it to me?"

A/N: Sorry it took so long, my RL wouldn't let me find any time or motivation to finish this chapter which is more like a filler, but it's a necessary evil for everything that's about to come. Ugh. I hope I'll find my "flow" back. :/
But I've got another plan! If I ever will crack the 100 subscribers mark (how does this thing even have around 90 subscriptions who are you and can I marry all of you?) I thought about putting up some oneshots that accompany this story, since there are also a lot of side characters etc. etc. Only if you're interested, of course. And if you have anything that wasn't mentioned in any of the chapters, but you guys want to know? (I've read one comment that said something about the moment they actually got together, which I indeed left out - for example). Let me knowwwwww. I really mean it. Give me some input, I'll be happy to make something out of it!
(I'll answer the comments tonight, I have to go to work now)

Plus did anyone realize I accidentally mixed up Minseok's and Sehun's birthday? Jesus Christ, I'm really stupid sometimes. But at least I fixed it now (better late than never wooops).