Something was up with Sehun, Yixing could sense it. Just the other day the boy was celebrating getting into university, and now his mood had completely soured. What had happened to him for his attitude to have done a complete U-turn in such a short amount of time?

“Are you sure you’re okay Sehun? You know you can talk to me or Kyungsoo about it” Yixing asks as the three of them close the café up for the day.

“Yeah, I’m fine” Sehun sighs, “It’s just… I don’t know, stress from upcoming exams I guess.”

Yixing’s not entirely convinced that Sehun’s telling the truth, but one glare from Kyungsoo stops him from asking anymore questions for today. Finishing up for the day, the three go their separate ways; Sehun gets a ride home from his friend’s mum, Kyungsoo goes to meet Jongin, and instead of getting the bus home, Yixing carries on towards the city, walking to the ice rink Joonmyun had given him directions to.

Yixing always learnt things way after others. He didn’t learn to swim until he was eleven, he couldn’t use a washing machine until he was almost eighteen, and only learnt how to ride a bike a couple of years ago when Baekhyun was horrified to learn that he hadn’t done so yet. It wasn’t the biggest deal in the world, but of course this was Baekhyun, everything was a big deal with him. Yixing had learnt how to do all of these things relatively quickly, not even bothered by the couple of bruises he had picked up along the way. So, when it came to ice skating with Joonmyun, Yixing was all for giving it a go, eagerly putting on his skates to get on the ice.

“Uh Joonmyun, I don’t think I can do this”

Yixing grips the side of the rink, trying to keep himself up as his feet skidded around, Joonmyun standing perfectly still on the ice laughing at him.

“All you need to do is push yourself off from the wall and balance yourself” he tries, “Come on, it’s not that hard.”

As he says this, Yixing’s feet finally give out from underneath him. Yixing only avoids crashing to the floor altogether because he puts all of his strength into his arms to keep him up. Laughing at his misfortune, Joonmyun skates over to him and helps him up, wincing when Yixing uses one hand to grab the wall and the other to grab Joonmyun’s arm.

“All you have to do now is let go of the wall”

“I’m not doing that!” Yixing exclaims, gripping Joonmyun’s arm even tighter when he feels himself slipping again.

“If you let go, I’ll help you learn to skate” Joonmyun tries, wanting to save his arm from further bruising.

“You promise to not let go of me?” Yixing asks

“I promise.”

Albeit reluctantly, Yixing finally lets go of the wall and loosens his grip on Joonmyun’s arm. Joonmyun uses this opportunity to move behind Yixing, gently taking a hold of both of his arms and helping to guide Yixing around the ice. Being slightly shorter than Yixing, this would have been quite amusing to everybody else on the ice with them, especially when Yixing fell back onto him and Joonmyun had to practically fight to keep both of them up.

“Okay, okay, I think I got the hang of this now” Yixing states fifteen minutes later, Joonmyun gently pushing himself away to see how Yixing faired. It wasn’t perfect, and most of the young children on the ice put Yixing to shame, but he was doing a pretty good job of keeping himself up. It wasn’t necessarily gliding across the ice as it was digging his skates into the ice, but he was at least learning.

When he does trip, he doesn’t fall onto the ice like he thought he would. Instead, Joonmyun’s there to catch him and his face collides with Joonmyun’s chest. Yixing can feel Joonmyun laughing, and looks up towards Joonmyun with a smile on his face himself. The lights around the rink fall perfectly onto Joonmyun from Yixing’s position, making him look even more perfect than Yixing thought he already was.

“You okay?” Joonmyun asks, and all Yixing could manage was a nod in response. They spend another ten minutes on the ice, Yixing slowly managing to find his feet and skate to some standard. Their little adventure ends when for a second time, Yixing finds himself slipping. Before Joonmyun could move to stop him falling to the floor though, Yixing had grabbed his coat and dragged Joonmyun down with him instead. Yixing goes crashing to the floor, and Joonmyun barely stops himself from crashing on top of him, slamming his hands out to break the impact. With Joonmyun hovering above him and being caged by his arms, Yixing blushes deeply whilst Joonmyun quickly scrambles off of him and helps him up.

“I’m definitely gonna be bruised in the morning” Yixing groans whilst rubbing his back

“I think I already have a bruise from where you grabbed my arm! I thought I was gonna lose circulation” Joonmyun jokes as he places a glass of mulled cider in front of Yixing.

After their ice skating adventure, they sit in a pop up café next to the rink to warm up for a while. Whilst Joonmyun had gone to get their drinks, Yixing had turned his attention to the window and back to the ice rink. Most of the people on the ice rink are young families with parents teaching their children how to skate, but there is also still an abundance of couples also ice skating together, holding hands as they wobble their way around. Yixing’s jealous.

“When do you go back to China for that wedding?” Joonmyun asks, setting his own glass down and sitting across from Yixing.

“In a couple of weeks. I really need to buy presents” Yixing comments, writing a reminder on his phone, “It’ll be nice to go back and see everybody for a bit.”

“I thought you would have gone back to China a long time ago. I’m surprised you’ve stayed here for so long” Joonmyun comments and when Yixing thinks about it, he’s right.

“That was the plan originally” he replies, “Finish up here and then go home. Work for some famous pastry chef I’m sure my dad would know and then eventually set up my own business like Kyungsoo did.”

“What stopped you?”

Yixing shrugs his shoulders, taking a sip of his mulled cider. “I love going home and I love being with my family… but I wanted to leave. Back home, I had experienced everything I thought I could, seen everything I could have seen. I was bored. Here in Korea though, there’s still so much I want to see, that I feel I could explore” he finishes, pausing before he smirks. “Plus, I think that if I told Kyungsoo I was going back, he’d murder me.”

When Yixing looks across to Joonmyun, he’s surprised by how fond he looks smiling at Yixing. Did he always look at him like that? Yixing thanks whoever decided to have low lighting in this place, otherwise he’d never be able to explain why he was blushing so much.

“What about you Mr Samsung? Ever thought about a career change?”

They spend the next hour or so getting to know each other on a much more intimate level than Yixing could have ever imagined. Yixing learns that until Joonmyun was thirteen, he was scared of the dark and had to sleep with a nightlight. He also learns that Joonmyun used to have his own little ant farm, and had cried when his mum had accidentally knocked it over and all of his little ant friends were lost forever. In return, Yixing tells Joonmyun about the time he and Kyungsoo had just opened the café and Yixing had almost set it on fire. He also tells Joonmyun of the embarrassing incident which caused him to dislocate his shoulder, making Joonmyun swear to not tell anybody else of it.

The whole time they’re talking to each other, Joonmyun still wears the same fond expression whenever he’s looking at Yixing. When Yixing goes up to buy their second round of mulled cider, Joonmyun’s expression changes as he stares out the window overlooking the ice rink. When Yixing comes back though, Joonmyun smiles at him and he’s instantly wearing that similar expression.

Yixing’s grandmother had told him that someone only looked at somebody like that if they cared about them, on a level that was more than just friends. Yixing didn’t want to believe it, he couldn’t believe it. They were just friends. Joonmyun made a point of reminding Yixing that on a number of occasions. This was merely nothing more than Joonmyun being a good friend to him. His grandmother was a hopeless romantic anyway, so why should Yixing believe her anyway?

“Here, take these”

Yixing holds Joonmyun’s gloves in his hands, staring back at him with a frown. “B-but your hands will get cold.”

“I’ll just put them in my pocket. Besides, I’ve been wearing them for most of the night and your hands look frozen.”

This did nothing to stop Yixing’s confusion on just where he and Joonmyun stood. It also didn’t help that Joonmyun was walking Yixing back to his apartment and had refused to let him go alone. Resigning himself to whatever happened next, Yixing puts on Joonmyun’s gloves and the two of them head down the road. There’s a nice gap between them that Yixing was comfortable with, but then Joonmyun moves in closer to let a jogger past him and he stays there.

“I guess that’s the end of me paying you back and our little adventures out together now” Yixing says as Joonmyun nods his head, humming a little.

“True, true. But I mean, we can still go out on these little adventures out together. They’re nice” he replies, shrugging his shoulders, “I like them.”

Was this Joonmyun’s subtle way of telling Yixing that he liked being with him? That he wanted to spend more time like this with him? What did that mean for their friendship? Did Joonmyun want something more? Or did he mean this in a ‘let’s get closer as friends’ kind of way? Everything was just so confusing for Yixing. He didn’t even know where he stood anymore!

Something in the back of his mind goes it! When he stops walking, Joonmyun stops and turns to him with a frown.

“What’s wrong?”

Not answering, Yixing steps closer to him, watching Joonmyun’s reaction the whole time. He would never know where he stood if he didn’t try. Throwing caution to the wind, Yixing leans down and kisses Joonmyun. When he pulls back and sees the look on Joonmyun face, it only then hits him how badly he had just ed up.

“Oh my God” he chokes out, stepping away from Joonmyun, “Joonmyun… I’m so sorry!”

Joonmyun continues to stare at him with the same shocked expression, this time reaching for Yixing to only have him step even further away.

“Yixing… I…”

Yixing can feel the tears forming in his eyes as he shakes his head and turns away from Joonmyun, speeding down the street.

“Yixing! Yixing come back!”

Joonmyun continues to call after him, and Yixing’s sure he hears Joonmyun even begin to run after him! This only makes Yixing walk even quicker until he’s running back to his place himself. He’s still wearing Joonmyun’s gloves, he trips a few times, and by the time he’s outside his apartment block, the tears are falling freely down his cheeks.

How could he have been so stupid?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯