Waking up the next morning, Joonmyun feels like he’s going to die. His mouth is dry, his head is pounding, and any attempt to open his eyes is futile as the light seeping in through the curtains proves too much. Groaning, Joonmyun turns to his side and jumps back when he nearly falls of the sofa he had slept on, pausing and frowning when he realised it wasn’t his sofa. In fact, looking around he realises that the bin placed next to where his head had been wasn’t his, and the living room he had slept in was definitely not his living room.

“Morning” comes a voice from behind him, Joonmyun quickly turning his head before holding it and wincing at the pain he was in. Yixing’s stood in the doorway, towel over his damp hair from the shower he had just gotten out of “How are you feeling?”

“You’re the guy from the bar. You got jilted by your friend who was supposed to meet you” Joonmyun points out instead of answering Yixing’s question.

“And you’re the guy who got jilted at the altar and drank himself silly. Joonmyun, right?” Yixing replies and Joonmyun nods his head.   

Yixing knows his name, yet Joonmyun cannot remember for the life of him what his name is. Come to think of it, Joonmyun doesn’t remember much at all. Obviously he remembers being jilted on his wedding day- who would ever forget something like that? - And he remembers being in a bar promising Jongdae he wouldn’t drink himself silly. Oh Jongdae was going to kill him when he saw the state Joonmyun was in.

“You can have a shower if you want. Freshen yourself up” Yixing offers

“Really?” Joonmyun asks hopefully

“Yeah. No offense, but you’re looking really rough right now” Yixing replies and Joonmyun laughs and nods his head. He hasn’t had a chance to look at himself yet, but he’s pretty sure he looks just rough as he’s feeling at the moment.

“I really want to thank you properly, but I cannot for the life of me remember your name” he says and blushes slightly

“It’s Yixing”

Nodding his head, Joonmyun moves to get up. The blanket that had been draped over him from the previous night begins to fall and to Joonmyun’s horror he finds himself topless… actually he finds himself wearing nothing but his boxers, wrapping the blanket back around his body as quickly as he can, eyes wide and a blush he can’t fight down appearing on his face. The blush only darkens when he hears Yixing laugh at him.

“You kinda got a bit of puke on your suit last night. It’s still in the wash but luckily for you I’m just a bit taller than you, so if you borrow some of my clothes they should fit you just fine”

Making sure that the blanket is firmly wrapped around him until he’s in the shower, Joonmyun thanks Yixing, gaze still on the floor out of embarrassment. He had only met the guy last night, gotten absolutely drunk, and was now in his living room in nothing but his boxers shimmying his way to the shower. Could it get any more embarrassing?

“Uh, which way is the shower?” he asks and can feel himself begin to blush again

“Down the hall, very end, first door on the left” Yixing replies, smiling and watching Joonmyun shuffle out the room, hearing him walk quicker down the hall until he was in the sanctuary of the bathroom.

Being able to finally get a look at himself in the bathroom mirror, Joonmyun laughs at how rough he looks. He looks like he could play an extra in some zombie apocalypse movie and the pounding headache still doesn’t make it any better. He still can’t believe he got himself into this state on the same night he had first met Yixing and was so drunk that he was sick in front of him, and spent the night sleeping on the sofa of his living room.

The sanctuary of the bathroom allowed Joonmyun to do all the groaning and cringing he could muster in his current state. Wanting to curl up in a ball and tell himself how much of an idiot he had been, he was interrupted when Yixing knocks on the door, Joonmyun opening is wide enough so that Yixing could stick his arm through.

“I have some clothes you can borrow” he says as Joonmyun reaches out and takes them

“Thank you” he replies quietly and shuts the door. Though Yixing only hears the response, knowing how shy and probably embarrassed Joonmyun was, he thinks it’s so endearing and actually has to bite his lip to stop him squealing out loud. Joonmyun was just too cute and he thinks the guy doesn’t even know it!

Joonmyun stands in the hallway freshly dressed sticking out like a sore thumb. If waking up in nothing but his boxers was embarrassing enough, standing there wearing Yixing’s clothes which were still too big for him made it all the more embarrassing.

“I have tablets if you need them” Yixing coaxes from the kitchen and Joonmyun gladly takes them and the drink on offer. They won’t kick in for a while, but anything that is going to help Joonmyun get over this headache he was willing to get into his system.

It’s when he’s finishing his glass of water does he feel like he’s overstayed his welcome. In fact he probably overstayed it when Yixing had to strip him out of his suit and place a bin next to his head so that he could puke in it! Just thinking of what Yixing had to probably do the previous night, Joonmyun had to think of some way to make it up to him. Anybody else would have left Joonmyun to his own fate, but Yixing had acted like an angel and took him back to his place when Joonmyun couldn’t remember where he lived.

Joonmyun wants to thank him, wants to tell him that if Yixing ever wants anything in return he can have Joonmyun’s number and call him up at any time. He doesn’t do that though. Whatever he wants to say, he’s too shy to say it and therefore keeps it bottled up inside of him.

“I should go” he says instead “Everybody will probably be wondering where I am”

“You sure you don’t want any breakfast? I can cook you up something so you don’t go home on an empty stomach” Yixing offers

“Thanks, but I think if I let anything get near my stomach I would just end up puking it back up” Joonmyun replies.

“What about your suit? Don’t you want to wait for that to dry?”

Ah, his suit. The one reminder that yesterday he was supposed to get married. The reminder that he had been jilted at the altar in a church packed with family and friends. If anything all he wanted was to take the suit and burn it, not caring how much money had been spent on it. He just wanted to get rid of all the memories that were attached to it.

“I think you’ll understand this when I say I would rather have you chuck it out, take it to a charity shop, just anywhere apart from me” he says

“Well then at least let me walk you home. It’ll be on my way to work as well” Yixing persists and experiencing first hand just how persistent he is, Joonmyun laughs and shakes his head

“Yixing, you’re too good for your own good” he replies, but takes him up on his offer. Quite frankly his head is still killing him and he doesn’t trust his body to make it home in one peace. That would be the last time he drank himself silly like that, he was going to make sure of it.

“Oh my God Kyungsoo he was just so cute!”

This was probably the tenth time in the past hour that Kyungsoo had heard about this cute guy whom Yixing had helped out the night before. He was all for letting his friend and co-worker feel happy and gush about it, but hearing the same story with the same sappy sigh and declaration of just how cute he was had begun to drive Kyungsoo mad.

“Oh my God!” he exclaims “If you like him that much why don’t you just go ask him out? You know where he lives, you walked him home!”

Though very tempting, Yixing shakes his head and this time sighs sadly, slumping against the counter

“He got himself drunk like that because his fiancé jilted him. He was going to get married Kyungsoo!” he replies “Why is it that I always like guys who are either straight or already taken?”

Kyungsoo had to give him that one. On a number of occasions he too found himself liking someone who was either straight or taken. Knowing how down Yixing usually got over matters like this, he quickly moved on and changed the topic.

“There’s plenty more fish in the sea Xing, you just have to wait for the right guy to come along” he says “Now help me get these cakes in the oven before the lunchtime rush otherwise I’m going to lose my mind in all of this flour!”

I was supposed to update this days ago, but the first draft I had of this chapter... I'm not gonna lie it was so bad I ended up deleting it all and starting from scratch. Hopefully this version is able to compensate for the wait.

And there are side character as you saw from the foreward. They have roles to play and have stories of their own, but I don't think they'll be explored until later chapters. Right now it's all about exploring Lay and Suho and how Lay is gong to make him realise that he's gay.

Until the next chapter!!