"I beat him at arm wrestling," Chanyeol says with a haughty jut of the chin. His mouth is twisted in an uneven grin, smug twinkle in his big, big eyes.

Yixing thoughtfully slips the straw between his lips, face blank. He doesn't react, not because he accepts Chanyeol's account of how they first met, no, but because the memory of the night in question isn't coming back to him quite fast enough.

One long sip of ice-cold soda, and then—

Ah, right.




It was Sehun's 21st birthday party.

Yixing remembers there being a lot of alcohol, not quite enough fried chicken (or maybe Jongin had stuffed his face with most of them while nobody was paying attention; who knows?), and a series of random games that involved bursts of obnoxious yelling and even more alcohol.

It was during one of these games when a giggly, gangly, birthday boy plucked Yixing off of the sofa where he had been engaged in a very serious—hysterically so, now that he thinks about it—conversation with Lu Han about whether or not aliens in fact existed. 

He squawked in surprise but didn't exactly protest when Sehun dragged him out to the backyard lawn and pushed him onto a waiting stool.

A stranger with large, sparkly, somewhat dazed eyes was sitting at the other side of the small table, bobbing his head to some obscure melody that he was humming under his breath. He looked like a puppy—if puppies had pointy, Yoda-ears.

Said stranger seemed to have had more to drink than Yixing, with the way he was blinking slowly and wobbling in his seat. He looked as though he'd topple right off of the stool if anyone so much as flicked him gently on the forehead.

Yixing could pinpoint the exact moment when his presence began to register in the other guy's alcohol-infused consciousness; it took about ten seconds, give or take, and he literally jolted in surprise. It was kind of hilarious. And then a friendly smile languidly spread across his plump cherry-red lips when he met Yixing's eyes.

Yixing remembers thinking he was kinda cute.

Sehun clapped his hands and announced that Yixing was Park Chanyeol's next challenger. Apparently he was now in the midst of an ongoing series of arm wrestling contests. The guy who went before Yixing—Byun Baekhyun—was probably puking his guts out in the bathroom.

Yixing didn't really care for things like this, but he didn't walk away because he wasn't going to be the one to disappoint the Birthday Boy. Also, the several shots of soju in his bloodstream seemed to fuel his competitive streak, somehow. Not that Yixing wasn't highly competitive by nature to begin with. He liked a good challenge. He liked winning even more.

Yixing distinctly recalls folding his fingers over Chanyeol's large, slightly calloused hand and absently thinking, mmm... warm.

All the while Chanyeol's grin never faltered. And so Yixing smiled back, eager and genuine, as he nudged closer, locking his elbow on the table.

For a second Chanyeol stared, big eyes growing bigger, like a child finding Santa's presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Yixing immediately recognized that as the Dimple Effect—which was weird because he was trying not to stare atChanyeol's dimples. They weren't quite as deep and pronounced as Yixing's, but whatever. They came at him like a pleasant surprise anyway.

And then Chanyeol's lips were moving—

"Hi, I'm Chanyeol," he drawled, relaxing as he planted his elbow across Yixing's. The deep, raw timbre of his voice sent a pleasant shiver down Yixing's spine. "You know, if you and I could have babies, I bet they'd have the cutest dimples in the world."

Instantly the small crowd gathered around them burst into laughter. Sehun came so close to literally rolling on the floor.

Yixing blinked, looking nonplussed at first because—what the actual ?—but he really couldn't help it. He snorted, cracked up, head lolling back in unadulterated glee. He had a feeling it was more the alcohol talking, but he got a kick out of it, anyway. Honestly, he was inclined to say that it was adorable, even.

The tips of Chanyeol's ears burned a deep crimson, his flushed face crumpled in a look of pain, while his shoulders shook with muted laughter. There were tears in his eyes when he glanced up at Yixing again. He was clearly more than sufficiently embarrassed with himself, but he powered through with a shy smile, unapologetic.

Yixing thought that was cute, too.

"Hi, Chanyeol. I'm Yixing," he said, grinning into Chanyeol's eyes like they were sharing an inside joke. "That might just be the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me."

"Ah," Chanyeol clucked his tongue dramatically. "You should stick around until I'm really drunk."

Yixing was still laughing when someone yelled "Go!" and he immediately slammed Chanyeol's hand on the table with little trouble.




Yixing smirks around his straw.

"Bull," Baekhyun snorts derisively from across the table.

"I did!" Chanyeol insists, gesturing wildly with one hand because he's just not the type to keep still. "He was completely defeated."

Yixing feels Chanyeol shift beside him, one elbow digging uncomfortably into Yixing's arm. Chanyeol never knows how to keep his long limbs inside his own space, but Yixing's used to that by now. He bounces a bit on his seat as he turns to Yixing, huge, puppy grin threatening to split his face in half.

"Right, hyung?"

Yixing raises an eyebrow, mouth spreading in a thin, unamused line. Chanyeol only calls him 'hyung' when he's trying to get away with something.

Yixing gets a playful wink in return.

This was a losing game from the start and Yixing knows it.

He heaves a lifelong suffering sigh, shakes his head, and indulgently says: "Sure."

Chuckling, Chanyeol plants a kiss on the side of Yixing's hair—a show of gratitude for his cooperation or something, maybe—and Baekhyun proceeds to make retching noises, throwing balled up table napkins at them for being gross.

Yixing laughs while the two lapse into a different topic, just like they always do.

Completely defeated me. Yixing hides a smile behind his drink as he looks down at his hand, at the silver band on his ring finger.

Maybe that's not exactly a lie.

 

(Chanyeol once proclaimed that he was prone to spouting the most romantic things only when he was a drop or two away from being irrevocably wasted.

But Yixing thinks he's wrong.

In fact, it happened when Chanyeol was completely sober—looking absolutely terrified, but hopeful; his voice cracking like that of a prepubescent boy's; shaking even though they were right smack in the middle of the hottest summer recorded in the past five years—and down on one knee—

"Will you please do me the biggest favor and let me spend the rest of my life with you? I promise I will always let you beat me at arm wrestling just like that first time—ow! Kidding, I'm kidding, I didn't let you win back then okay; you beat me, fair and square—but, I mean, you know, only because I was so smitten by your beautiful smile, so please? Zhang Yixing. Baby. Marry me?"

And how could he possibly say no to that?)