---

The next week, in another part of town, Zitao's sauntering out of a fancy clothing store with a grin on his face and his phone in his hand.

Earlier in the week he got a call back from a manager of the store he just left, asking if he could come in for an interview today. After what felt like an hour for what turned out to be a group interview, he's now heading back home--sure that he's got the job. All the interviewing manager said was that they'd do a background check and then call him and the others back in five business days. So by next week Thursday, Zitao'll know for sure whether he got it or not. But, his background is solid so he doesn't even think twice before dialing Sehun and excitedly telling him that he's got the job.

"Woo!" Sehun cheers on the other end. "That's my baby."

Zitao smiles and they continue chatting some more while he waits for his bus to come. When it finally arrives and he's paid his fare and boarded it, he sits at the back of the bus and lowers his voice a bit.

Sehun's now grumbling on the other end about this one cousin that's engaged now and Zitao lets out Mhm's and Uh-huh's as he listens to Sehun rant about his extended family.

After the bus chugs along and has passed a few stops, Zitao vaguely hears Sehun's mom in the background start talking about something in Korean, and he leans back into his seat to watch the passing scenery through the nearest window. Sehun answers back in English (because according to him, he at speaking Korean) and returns to the phone a few seconds later and says that they should go to their favorite diner later to celebrate.

Zitao grins wide at that and happily agrees to the plan and they continue talking all the way until Zitao gets home. Then when he gets to his room, he tells Sehun that he'll call him back later and ends the call with a Love you before hanging up.

He's been sweating like hell ever since he stepped into the interview room earlier today and can't handle the way that his clothes cling to his body anymore. So, after quickly stripping his clothes, he heads to his room's bathroom to take a shower.

As he steps into his shower with the pipe spraying warm water, all of his worries dissipate for just this moment. And with his hair getting wet, his shoulders tremble as he finally cries with relief.

---

The next day, Yixing's in the practice room of his work-place with Jongin (who's not scheduled to work today)--dancing part of a hip-hop number that he choreographed by himself.

He's still talking to that cute woman from Hyoyeon's dance class, and they've upgraded from shy texts to her inviting him to places and vice versa. His cousin (not by blood) is still trying to cope over her break-up with her ex and Yixing's already done as much listening as he can to help. He just hopes that she's feeling better when he and his family will visit hers around Christmas time.

Goodness knows how awkward the two of them were around each other during that Thanksgiving dinner.

Currently, he twists his shoulders and hips this way and that while watching himself in the mirror and imagining the subsequent dance moves in his head. Jongin watches him with an analytical gaze while sitting down against one of the room's mirrors. He taps his feet in time to the synchopated beats coming from the stereo and imitates each move that Yixing does a second afterwards.

When Yixing finishes dancing, he bends over with his hands on his knees and takes ragged breaths with his eyes closed. Jongin claps excitedly as soon as he's done and talks about how cool his moves were and such.

"Though you kept switching from alive to dead every other second so it was kinda weird," Jongin critiques.

Yixing opens his eyes to look at him and ask him what he means before bending back up. His back makes a cracking noise and he sighs at the feeling.

"Like it was really cool but...it felt like there could've been more with your face--like maybe a..." Jongin demonstrates what he means by giving a sultry bedroom-eyes look. "Or a..." He does a lip-bite that looks unintentionally cheesy.

Yixing laughs and walks over to the stereo to change the song from repeating itself before getting his water bottle from the right side of the stereo. Then, he chugs down some of the water and moves to sit down next to Jongin while Jongin continues giving suggestions on how to take his dance from great to phenomenal.

"Okay," Yixing says off-handedly once Jongin's done talking. He stretches his legs out and Jongin gets up to go to the same spot that he was dancing at.

"So like this part, right?" Jongin says while copying a move that Yixing did. Yixing watches him with blank eyes. "I think you should add maybe a head tilt or something... "

When Jongin sees Yixing's frown, he asks, What? and Yixing simply says, "You look so dramatic..."

"But that's the point," Jongin says, pouting. "It's called emoting."

"More like being a drama queen," Yixing mutters under his breath.

"Pssh says the zombie," Jongin retorts. Yixing's lips tug to the left a bit and he takes another sip of his water. Jongin frowns and asks for him to come to where he is. "I wanna be your teacher for this."

Yixing gives a wry smile but relents since he just knows that Jongin would berate him forever until he could help anyway. Jongin places his hands on his own hips as Yixing gets up and walks towards him and when they're standing side-by-side, he asks for Yixing to show him his iest face. Yixing gives him a look and Jongin looks at him unwaveringly. So, with a sigh, Yixing complies and lowers his eyelids a bit and lifts his lips to a slight smirk. Jongin purses his lips (while trying to stifle his chuckles) and steps back while lowering his arms to his sides.

"Okay...now do a move and keep that face."

Yixing rolls his eyes a bit while scoffing and chooses to do a short chest-pop and hip-wave and looks away from Jongin while doing it. Then, he looks back and sees Jongin giving him a smug smile.

"What?" Yixing asks when Jongin still hasn't said anything.

"You didn't even keep the face."

"So what?"

"Well, you can't have all those hip-s and and not have an expression on your face...otherwise you look like a dead fish. And that's