* * *

It was on a Saturday; he remembers, because the weather was perfect, no homework was given by any of his teachers, and his best friend Minseok had a family reunion to go to up north. So, with time to spare, and no desire to call anyone else, Kyungsoo decided to just watch some anime on his laptop for the rest of the day (or until he thought of something else to do). He made it through half a season of a tennis anime when he heard his cell phone ring.

A calming piano melody started playing, which could only mean that the call was from Baekhyun. (Kyungsoo originally made the ringtone an erratic keytar jam, but that got old quick. Especially when Baekhyun found out what the ringtone assigned to his number was and would call at the most random times just to mess with him.) Closing his eyes, he let himself get swept away by the melody for a moment before reaching for the answer call button a mere second before it would've cut to his voicemail.

Then, he put his phone to his left ear and greeted Baekhyun with an obvious lack of enthusiasm. "...You rang?"

"Well, hi to you too, Soo," Baekhyun replied wryly. "Maybe I shouldn't give you this gift I got you after all..."

"...Why would you get me a gift?"

"Because I'm a good friend? Gosh Soo, you wound me."

Kyungsoo snorted in response, and Baekhyun chuckled lightly before asking if Kyungsoo could pick him up at the mall, seeing as how he had too many shopping bags to go anywhere with them.

"Call a cab then," Kyungsoo deadpanned.

He then regretted saying that when he heard Baekhyun whine, "But Kyungie~"

Kyungsoo's the only one out of his college-going group of friends who has a driver's license. He usually doesn't mind being asked to drive someone somewhere, but he can make an exception for Baekhyun. So, he told Baekhyun, No.

"Please?" Baekhyun asked again. And when Kyungsoo didn't respond he added a, "Pretty please?"

Looking at his mirror across his bedroom, Kyungsoo could see his unkempt self reflecting back to him and let out a deep sigh. Then, while pushing up his glasses that were sliding down his nose with a finger, he grumbled, "Fine...but I expect compensation for this service."

"I dunno if I'd wanna blow you, man," Baekhyun laughed, voice seeming far away as the sounds of people chatting resounded in the background.

Kyungsoo pointedly ignored that comment and started to put on some jeans, when he paused and asked him which mall he's at.

"The one I always go too--duh."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at that but still ended up cleaning himself up a bit so he could pick Baekhyun up. He'd just put on some jeans over his boxer-briefs, washed his face and just as he was grabbing his toothbrush, he heard muffled speaking coming from his phone. So, he let out a curious hum so that Baekhyun could repeat himself.

"I said I'm at the food court..." Baekhyun replied. "So if you could meet me here?...And take some of the bags off my hands...I'd appreciate it, Soo-soo~"

Kyungsoo promptly glared into the mirror while still brushing his teeth. "Ya know what, you're gonna be paying for the gas I'mma have to use to pick you up, ." He then rinsed out the toothpaste residue from his mouth and muttered, "Asking me to be some kind of in' pack-mule..."

"Haha, love you too, Soo."

"I'm serious," Kyungsoo responded.

"I am too, Soo~"

Kyungsoo drily replied, Yeah, yeah then muttered a quick See you there and ended the call with a playful roll of his eyes.

---

As soon as he was fully dressed and ready to go, he left his home, locked the front door and walked to his car--a small, black convertible. It only took a few minutes to get to the mall and once he was parked in a parking garage nearby, he locked his car doors with its remote lock and leisurely walked towards the nearest mall entrance. He guessed that there'd probably be a ton of people just near the entrance itself and braced himself for the onslaught of people coming and going.

And as he pushed through the entrance doors, he found that his suspicions were right--there was way too many damn people there. He ended up having to take deep breaths as he walked and tried not to freak out as more and more people passed by him--an abundance of stimuli leading to instant anxiety. Baekhyun said he'd be at the food court...that's only...two floors away...

He resolved to just charge his way through the crowds of people, as calm and collected as he could muster. Despite his best efforts though, he ended up looking like a lost penguin. (Sometimes when he walked, he kind of looked like he was waddling. Thus, the unwanted image stuck to him.)

He reached the escalator and rode up the two floors, practically jumping off at the top, and silently thanked the architects of the mall for putting the food court directly in front of the escalators. Scanning through the crowd of passing people, he then quickly spotted Baekhyun, who was sitting on a white bench near the mall's fountain. Baekhyun had a few store bags perched next to himself, and was tapping his index finger rapidly on his phone screen--probably playing a game on it.

Numerous people walked around and passed Kyungsoo; chatting on phones, talking to each other or just walking to who knows where, and his sense to turn back around and sprint out of the mall just grew more and more.

So, he quickly reached into his pocket to grab his phone and brought it closer to his chest as he unlocked the screen. But, just as he was about to text Baekhyun to meet him at the escalators instead, a young teen girl had dashed past him and ended up knocking his phone loose from his hands. With wide eyes, he fumbled for it as it fell to the floor with a clank and reflexively crouched down to retrieve it, but was startled to see pairs of feet (unintentionally) kicking it towards a corner between a wall and the escalators.

Muttering curse words at the girl long gone and the careless people around him, he followed where the phone laid and grabbed for it. But just when he was about to stand up again, he noticed a pair of brown sandals suddenly appear in his point of view.

Who the...? he thought as his eyes continued to scan upwards--taking in the sight of a deeply tanned guy wearing dark blue jeans, and a casual, striped pink T-shirt.

Kyungsoo felt his breath hitch as his eyes reached the stranger's