Tao yawned and flipped through his copy of Vogue China. Work had never been more boring. His boss – giddy as ever – piled a new order of SpongeBob goodies into the storage room and emerged carrying an electric pencil sharpener shaped like Gary the snail. He trotted over to Tao and placed it on the counter.

“Uh, what’s that?” Zitao pointed at Kyungsoo’s wrist, where a beaded charm bracelet was tied.

Kyungsoo blushed. “It’s my friendship charm,” He said. “With Kai.”

“Who?”

“Shut up, Zitao I’ll fire you.” Kyungsoo said. “Now go, get some batteries from the storage room, I wanna set up my new toy.”

Tao sighed and trudged to the storage room.

Sehun looked up from his phone, and grinned. This was his chance. He tossed his Samsung Galaxy at the counter, shot up and followed Tao into the closet. It had been his secret mission ever since the incident in the bread isle.

He was going to venture into Huang Zitao’s phone and see it. The picture Tao took of him that day when the Advil cabinet fell, and Sehun was publicly assaulted and chased around three isles of a rundown drug store with a tsundere’s IPhone 5.

He knew that picture was in Tao’s phone. He also knew Tao’s phone didn’t have a password. All he had to do was take it.

So he snuck in after Tao, into the store closet, closing the door behind him quietly, when Tao shrieked.

“No, Sehun you noodle!” Tao groaned. “This door doesn’t open from inside!”

Ah…

Sehun tried his best to look like it wasn’t his fault. “Oh.” He thought for a minute. “Gimme your phone, I’ll tell the owner to open the door.”

Tao forgot his annoyance and laughed nervously. “W-Where’s yours?”

“I left it on the counter. Tao hurry, your phone.”

Tao reached into his pocket and handed Sehun his Apple phone with shaking hands.

Sehun turned it on. The lock screen was an HD shot of the Sebooty. Sehun frowned, then grinned. “Nice.” He swiped the lock and entered easily. The home screen was another booty shot, this time of different jeans. Discretely and quickly, Sehun opened the Camera Roll and scrolled through dozens, maybe hundreds of shots of Sehun’s . At the top of the page he found it. The shot from that day.

He was just about to click it, but unfortunately for him, Tao’s phone chose that moment to die.

Chanyeol glared down at Baekhyun’s sleeping figure. He was curled up like a caterpillar in his usual corner, nibbling on the nail of his thumb.

Who does he think he is? Sleeping so peacefully like he owns the place.

Just then, the shop doors jingles open. “Ah, Chanelle.” Jongdae glided in, in his pinstriped suit and the fedora he bought the week before. “Lovely to see you working so hard.”

“It’s Chanyeol.”

“Whatever.”

“I thought you bought that hat as a gift,” Chanyeol pointed out.

Jongdae scoffed. “Did I? I just thought, since it looked so good on me, it would be a shame to let it slip away.”

“Uh-huh.”

There was a small silence, and Chanyeol looked at the sleeping Byun. “Man, have you ever felt so bothered by someone?”

Jongdae smiled. “Of course I have. I’m rich. Why? Tell Momma Jongdae all about it.”

So Chanyeol did. He unloaded all his stress about the shoplifting misfit that was Byun Baekhyun.

“It’s just, he messes me up, ya know?” Chanyeol finished.

Although Chanyeol was referring to catching Baekhyun, Jongdae was convinced he was being told a story about young love.

“I see, I see. Well you know what my advice is to you? Be soft. Compliment him. Give him presents. If you feel like that’s not getting you anywhere, hold his hand. Be a shoulder for him.”

Chanyeol nodded, not really understanding what any of that had to do with his quest to send Baek to jail.

“Y’know, I read somewhere that persistence is what really gets them. Be persistent. But be soft.”

“Where did you read that?”

“ manga. Man, that was gay.”

Chanyeol just nodded, because the poor soul probably didn’t know what or gayness was.

“How about this. Give him a bento. In fact, I’ll announce bento day, and everyone will be doing it. It’ll be the perfect chance for you to swoop in and make a gesture.”

“Momma Jongdae…you’d do that?”

“Of course! Anything for my children.”

Chanyeol nodded more vigorously. His eye twitched again. Jongdae gave him a pat on the shoulder, tipped his hat and walked outside into the blistering sun.

“Wait, gay means happy, right?”

Minseok charged in through the doors of Kyungsoo’s General Store.

“Hey, Kyungsoo, can I interest you in the newest volume of Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi?”

“Can you?! I’ve been waiting all month for it!” Kyungsoo tossed Minseok some cash and grinned at his manga.

“Where’s Tao? He said he wanted the new volume of Junjou Romantica, so I put one on hold for him.”

“I dunno,” the owner said. He was too focused on ripping the plastic wrap off his to care. “Sent him to the storage room and he never came back.”

“Aw, then is Senuh here?”

“Who?”

“Noodle boy.”

“Oh, I think he was with Tao.”

Minseok nodded and walked over to the store closet. He yanked it open. Sehun’s voice popped through immediately.

“Do you ever feel…like you don’t belong?” The two males were sitting on the floor, engaged in a suffocating deep talk.

Minseok shivered. “Gross.” And closed the storage room door again. Ignoring Tao’s muffled “WAIT”, he ambled back to the counter, where Kyungsoo was talking to Jongdae.

“Ah, Minseok.” Jongdae looked not-so-happy to see him. “I was just telling Kasey over here about a new event…”

“It’s Kyungsoo.”

“…Bento Day. I expect you all to participate.” He handed them each hand drawn flyers, and left, muttering something to himself about Chanel.

Jongin could only work for about twenty seconds before looking down at the charm bracelet on his wrist and giggling. Kai and D.O, he thought. D.O and Kai.

A few minutes ago, Momma Jongdae, the landlord, had sauntered in with a piece of scrap paper crayoned with the words BENTO DAY on it.

“Give your special someone a boxed lunch, Johnny, I’m sure they’ll be thrilled!” He had declared, before waving his arms dramatically and thundering out of the auto-repair shop.

“It’s Jongin.” He’d corrected, but Jongdae had already left.

Now, he was sitting on a stool beside Kyungsoo’s car in the gas station, blushing at his friendship charm, when Kyungsoo jogged over to him awkwardly.

“Uh, Kai…”

“D.O…”

“Uhm,” Kyungsoo had his hands behind his back. “Kai…”

“D.O…”

Kyungsoo whipped out a small box from behind him, holding it out to his friend. “Please accept this!”

Jongin looked down at the box. It was a bona fide Japanese boxed lunch. A bento. He suddenly got flustered. “I-I’ll cherish it.”

And the two grown men shared a classic Japanese-love-confession-situation in the sunset (even though it was like 3 in the afternoon) and a brotherly embrace over the idea of receiving a lunchbox as a token of affection.

Tao and Sehun’s conversation was starting to reach unrecognizable levels of bro.

They’d only fought for about twenty minutes before giving up and plopping down on the floor. Tao was leaning against a shelf and Sehun was lying on his back, his legs flat up against the wall in a 90 degree angle.

“Sometimes I feel like everyone’s just using me for my looks.” Sehun droned.

“I feel you,” Tao said emotionally. “I feel like they only hired me here as appeal.”

“No, bro.” Sehun held his hand up in a thumbs up, but it was too dark to see clearly. “I like you for your personality.”

“Bro.”

Another hour or so passed, and they talked about hope and souls and time paradox, all the deep stuff about life and death, and at one point even discussed the unreachable topic of Sehun’s encounter with Beyoncé, which Sehun claimed was not suitable for ordinary people to hear.

“And then I spammed her by writing-” Sehun was interrupted by someone yanking open the storage room door.

“Hi, can I interest you in the recent volume of Love Stage?” Luhan held up a manga, looking confused at the sight of the two souls ascending to heaven before him.

Tao and Sehun sprang up and pushed out of the closet, inhaling the fresh-ish drug store air and kissing the not-so-earthy floor tiles. “How long were we trapped? Two hours? Three?” Tao frantically ripped open a water bottle and chugged down the drink.

“I dunno,” Luhan shrugged, looking at the time. “I got here like thirty minutes ago.”

“I was working when you got here,” Tao thought hard. “We were in there for twenty minutes?!”

Sehun stopped inhaling the shop air like a druggy and gawked. “Seriously?”

Just then, Kyungsoo skipped in, smiling like a fool. “Ah, Tao, Sehun, good to see you’re out.”

“No thanks to you,” Tao grumbled.

“Whatever. Tao, go put the bento boxes in isle six on sale.” Kyungsoo suddenly got giddy and danced into the back room. “It’s Bento Day!”

“Bento Day?”

Chanyeol still had time before Baekhyun woke up to put his plan into action. He stood happily at the checkout desk in Kyungsoo’s General Store, watching with a Happy Virus smile as Tao stuffed a boxed lunch into a shopping bag. 

“Do you think he’ll like it?”

Tao didn’t care.

“Man, as soon as that rotten burglar gets comfortable in my shop, putting him behind bars will be a piece of cake,” Chanyeol grinned.

“I think you’ve got the wrong idea about bento day…your logic is a bit…”

But the frivolous Yeol was too excited about this to hear him, so he took his shopping bag and ran for the hat store.

When Baekhyun woke up, there was a boxed lunch in his face. Chanyeol sat in front of him, holding a bento under Baekhyun’s nose in his outstretched hands. He muttered something about accepting this token and pushed it closer to Baekhyun’s face.

Baek just looked at it, looking grossed out and then suddenly, ecstatic. “For me?! Thanks!” And he took it happily, popping off the lid and digging his chopsticks in.

As he ate, Chanyeol watched pitifully. Every once in a while he’d try to poke a finger in and steal a grain of rice or something, but he was ruthlessly swatted away every time.

And so ended the second bento confession of the day.

Yifan and Tao engaged in an intense stare off before the cop broke the silence. “Just give me one.”

“No.”

“But Jongin got one!”

“I didn’t give it to him!”

“But Taaoo,” Yifan wailed pathetically. “I want a bento tooo.”

They had been going back and forth for a while now, with Yifan insisting on receiving a bento from Tao and the younger just wanting him to get lost.

Yifan ran to isle six and picked out a bento. He brought it to the counter and slid it towards Tao. “Here. Now give it to me.”

Tao sighed. He picked up the bento and checked it out, packing it in a shopping bag and holding it out to his admirer. “That will be $5.99.”

Jongdae walked in as Yifan walked out of the convenience store. “Hey, Fiona, how’s it going?”

“It’s Yifan.”

“Uh-huh.”

He tipped his hat – the one he had originally bought for Junmyeon – at Tao and made for isle six like everyone else had been doing today, plucking up the first bento he saw and making way for the checkout desk.

Sehun was sitting on Kyungsoo’s foldable lawn chair, flipping through Tao’s newly ordered copy of Junjou Romantica, when he saw the rich landlord.

“Hey, Momma Jongdae,” he said. “You’re buying one too? Who for? Is it Minseok?”

“No, Benjamin, it is not.”

Sehun furrowed his eyebrows. “That doesn’t even sound like my name.”

But Jongdae had already bought the bento and left. Tao turned to him and shrugged.

Outside, Jongdae tried his best to act natural as he approached the jolly homeless man. He sat beside him oddly and presented the lunchbox. Junmyeon took it from him without a word. It was awkward as hell when Jongdae coughed.

“You know…” He inched closer to the man eating the bento. “I’m super rich.”

Junmyeon didn’t look up. He filed in bite after bite and didn’t look fazed when he said “Yeah.”

Jongdae coughed again. “Okay.” He scratched his chin. “Like my hat?”

Junmyeon looked up. “You look like Chris Brown.”

Another cough. Jongdae gave up and leaned against the wall.

It was the final battle of the day. Luhan and Minseok sat with their legs stretched out on the hood of Minseok’s Ferrari.

“I’m so done with this. Sehun asked me why a cute little lady like me was handing out mangas. I wanted to grab him by the collar and say, ‘, I am a manga!’” Luhan complained.

Minseok laughed. “You’ve done well, Lu-ge. Really, I’m impressed.” Minseok reached behind him, over the car windows and into the dashboard. “Here, I bought you a bento. It’s supposed to be popular among Japanese schoolgirls, so I thought it would be fitting.”

“Haha, funny,” Luhan laughed sarcastically - still, smiling when he took the bento. “Thanks, Baozi.”

“Can I braid your hair?” Minseok twittered suddenly.

“What?”

“Can I, like, braid the wig?”

Luhan seemed to consider it, then shrugged and slid onto the pavement. Minseok scooted to the left and crossed his legs. He leaned over and begun to braid the cocoa brown wig as Girl-han munched on his lunch, standing right in front of the hood of the car where Minseok was sitting.

The day ended like that, with Chanyeol’s spontaneous attempt to woo Baekhyun resulting in Bento Day for everyone.

D.O gave one to his best friend Kai.

Chanyeol gave one to Baekhyun.

Tao sold one to Yifan (quite against his will, but that doesn’t really matter now, does it?)

Jongdae kinda gave one to Junmyeon and finally, Xiumin gave one to Luhan.

The end of the day came simply and quickly, with no one really wondering where Advil Lay was the entire time, or why all of a sudden, Oh Sehun had no interest in giving Luhan a bento, or receiving one himself.

-

For those of you who don't know some of the terms in this chapter, a bento is a kawaii Japanese lunchbox. If you read shoujo manga, then you'll know it;s common for schoolgirls to give their crushes homecooked bento lunches as a form of confession.

Also, manga refers to Boy Love mangas, which is exactly as it seems. You can google it too, if you want >.<

ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING: I'm Canadian, and have no knowledge of Korean currencies (I know the unit is called won, but I don't know how prices and things work out) therefore I use dollars. It's inaccurate, I know, but please, please bear with it. 

What else? OH YEAH. Where was Lay this chapter? I have no idea ._.

Like I actually don't know. 

Anyway, who do you ship Tao with? Sehun or Kris? Personally, I'm a Taohun shipper but you can;t deny the Taoris, can you?

Whatever. Subscribe, Upvote, and Comment what you think <33 Thank you so much for reading this far :)) The next chapter should be out by...say... Friday? Is that cool? Maybe earlier, but I'll try my best >.<