"Hey, Soo?" Luhan called out without looking as he bent down to retrieve something. "Will this do?"

Luhan straightened up while holding a sack, turning around to show it towards the said male. Kyungsoo spun around as well, stopping momentarily from rummaging the kitchen cabinet. He raised a brow when his gaze landed on the sack.

"What's in it?" 

Luhan instantly peeked inside to determine the content. "Seems like powder. A whole lot of it and it's red."

"Chili powder?"

"I guess so." Luhan abruptly facepalmed himself with his free hand. "No wonder my face feels so numb."

Kyungsoo walked in his direction without a word before snatching the sack of dried chili away. He also peeked slightly inside before smirking when he straightened up. 

"I have a better idea."

~~X~~

"Urghh, I'm so tired." Jongin whined loudly as he stepped into the house. He threw his bag onto the couch as he made his way around, only to unceremoniously plop down on it with his legs dangling off the couch.

Sehun appeared no seconds later, taking a seat on the smaller couch. He quickly reached for the remote control of the television and turned it on. Eyes fixed on the screen, he paid no heed as Jongin tossed around in his position.

"I'm hungry." Jongin said, attempting to fish for sympathy from the other. 

"None of my problem." Sehun replied, not bothering to spare him a single glance.

Jongin pouted. "Meanie."

At the very same time, Kyungsoo emerged from the kitchen with Luhan hot on his tail. The latter looked slightly worried, to say the least. His brows were all scrunched up together as he walked closely behind Kyungsoo, eyes never leaving the plate in Kyungsoo's hands. 

"Did I just heard the word hungry?" Kyungsoo spoke up with a strange tinge of anticipation in his tone. He alternated a look between Sehun and Jongin, wondering which one of them had said that. 

"Is that spaghetti I'm smelling?" Jongin sat up faster than you could blink an eye before he started sniffing around to locate the source of the smell. It doesn't take that long for him to find the plate in Kyungsoo's hold. His eyes quite literally sparkled with glee when he saw the food.

"Yes." Kyungsoo prompted. "Would you like some?"

"Smells like your kimchi spaghetti." Jongin was already drooling at this point. "I won't say no to that!" He added eagerly before snatching the plate away.

Sehun arched one perfect eyebrow. "What a funny coincidence."

"What is?"

"He's hungry and you conveniently already cooked." Abandoning the television, Sehun crossed him arms as if he was some sort of a detective that was about to reveal the secret to a murder. Give him a pair of glasses and he became your perfect guy for the role of the infamous Detective Conan. "How are we going to be sure that you did not poisoned it or something?"

Too late, Jongin was already onto his third spoon of the delicious kimchi spaghetti when he abruptly stopped because of the 'p' word. With a mouthful of the food in his mouth, Jongin closely resembled a fish out of the water as he halted mid-way while widening his eyes in horror. 

"There's poison in here?" He was barely audible because of the food. "YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL ME?"

"No." Kyungsoo answered, not even hesitating.

"Ohh, okay then." Jongin surprisingly accepted it without further ado. To be honest, he was in some sort of denial because he really wanted to eat the spaghetti. Evidently, he began stuffing his face with more of the spaghetti as if he hasn't eaten for years. Sehun though, remained rather skeptical as he fixed his gaze upon Jongin, determined that the latter was about to drop dead any second from now.

"Ok, maybe that's enough.." Luhan attempted to intervene, but his voice was barely above a whisper because of his hesitation.

"Shut up, Luhan." Kyungsoo warned without looking. He was currently watching Jongin devouring the food wih a strange glint in his eyes, appearing as if he was currently looking forward to something. 

"This is bad.." Luhan muttered to himself.

No seconds later, Jongin suddenly stopped devouring the food at once when he jolted forward with a coughing fit that rattled his lungs. His hands instantly made its way to his neck, desperately clawing around to stop the uncontrollable barking sound. 

"Water.. water.." He croaked in between his cough. "Please.."

Luhan was the first one to react, almost as if he had expected this to happen. He pretty much flew into the kitchen at an amazing speed before rushing back with a glass of water. 

"Here you go." Jongin gratefully accepted the glass before gulping down the water in one go. 

Meanwhile, Sehun squinted his eyes in Kyungsoo's direction. He had an accusing look plastered all over his face with his brows tightly knitted together.

"I knew it." Sehun said accusingly. "There's poison in there!"

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. "He's not dead yet, isn't he?"

"How do you explain that sudden coughing fit then?" Sehun challenged. "It must be the slower type of poison, isn't it? Like the one they used back in the days, where it will slowly burn your organs and give you a painfully slow death?"

"If I really want to give him a painfully slow death, I would've just stabbed him multiple times while avoiding his internal organs so he can slowly bleed to death in agony." Kyungsoo deadpanned. "It's a lot more bloody, but the tool is a whole lot more accessible."

"You know what, I'll just take Jongin to his room now." Luhan interrupted, already in the midst of helping Jongin getting to his feet. "I definitely do not need to hear more of that gory details.." He added under his breath. 

Luhan dutifully allowed Jongin to lean on him for support as they ascended the stairs. Not because he was feeling kind, but rather because he was feeling guilty. Jongin didn't say much as he was guided to his room, only coughing occassionally. It seemed as if he wasn't even fully aware of Luhan's presence since his eyes looked as if they had a hard time focusing on anything.

"Wait, hold on." Luhan struggled to open the door since Jongin was still leaning on him for support, but he managed somehow. "Ok, get on the bed now."

Luhan turned to look at Jongin before pushing the other from him. Jongin instantly swayed from the sudden loss of support, but he didn't fall at least. Luhan stared at him expectantly, openly gesturing towards the bed. 

"Get on the bed. What are you waiting for?" Luhan tapped his feet impatiently. (Can we all just agreed, by now, that Luhan could be such an idiot at times?)

"Bed.. where?" Jongin slurred his words like a drunken uncle at Christmas.

"There!" Luhan pointed at the bed with an exasperated look. Then, he groaned when Jongin didn't move one bit. "Fine, one freaking last favor."

He bedgrudgingly helped Jongin onto the bed. But, not before he nagged like an old grandma.

"I'm only doing this because I feel horrible for letting Kyungsoo do that to you. He's my friend but I don't agree with his way either. There's a lot other ways to take revenge on idiots like you after all, but trying to kill someone with an extremely spicy food is just not one of it."

"Thanks."

Luhan nearly jumped out of skin. He thought Jongin wasn't paying attention to him so you could probably imagine his surprise when Jongin suddenly spoke. 

"No.. problem. It was my fault too for not stopping him in the first place." Luhan furrowed his brows. "When did you even—"

"—became sane enough to talk again?" Jongin finished before smirking slightly.

"Pretty much." 

Jongin shrugged. "It's a little-known fact about myself. When I eat something too spicy, I will usually black out for the first few minutes and then, boom. Like, nothing ever happened. Kyungsoo knew that and it seems like he never forgets about it. It makes sense because it obviously served as a great revenge weapon for him."

"Oh." was all that came out of Luhan's lips because he seemed pretty distracted by something.

Jongin put his arms behind his head. "Pretty cool to know that at least he remembers something about me. I actually won't be surprised if he had tried to bang his head against the wall in order to erase any memories of me."

"I have a question for you." Luhan interrupted in all seriousness. "Have you ever, for the past few years, changed your phone number?"

"No." 

"Are you sure? Really, really sure?"

"Yes, of course." Jongin made a face. "Why won't I be sure about something that obvious? If I'd ever done it, it should be pretty damn hard to not notice, don't you think so?"

Luhan didn't reply. Instead, he sighed and facepalmed himself. 

"You know what, go to sleep or do whatever that you want because I honestly don't care." Luhan began walking to the door. "Because I need to go and talk to someone right now. Hopefully I can give him a piece of my mind as well while I'm at it." He mumbled to himself.

~~X~~

"Chocolate for him please."

Joonmyeon squinted his eyes. "No, Apple Mint please."

"Hey, don't be such a copy cat." Yixing whined in response.

"I paid for it so technically, I can do whatever I want." Joonmyeon turned to look at the worker as he handed the ice-cream. "Isn't that right?"

The worker smiled awkwardly. "Yeah, I guess."

"See?" Joonmyeon looked really satisfied.

"Fine, whatever." Yixing huffed loudly. 

"You guys must be in high school, huh?" The worker mused. "Ah, young love."

Joonmyeon immediately turned bright red before trying to deny the statement vehemently. "No, no, you are quite mistaken here. We're not—It's not like that—"

"It's alright, no need to be shy." The worker interrupted while chuckling. "You guys look cute together. Have a nice day."

Joonmyeon wanted to argue some more, but more customers were piling in by that time so they had no other choice but to leave. Yixing didn't seem bothered at all, though Joonmyeon suspected he wasn't even listening in the first place since he seemed more occupied with his ice-cream at the moment.

"Joonmyeon?" 

Said male looked up in an instant, craning his neck around in search of the owner of the voice. He quickly found Baekhyun and Tao walking in their direction. 

"Oh hey, Baecon." Yixing greeted.

"It's Baekhyun!" 

"That's what I said just now."

"No, you said Baecon!"

"Baecon sounds just right." Tao said while laughing.

If looks could kill, both Yixing and Tao would've probably be dead by now. 

"What are you doing here anyway?" Joonmyeon asked, not wanting them to get into a petty fight with each other. (Oh, the irony.)

"I could ask you the same question." Thankfully, Baekhyun was really easy to distract. He quirked a brow, switching his gaze towards Joonmyeon. "You disappeared like a ghost earlier and we can't find you at all. Then, you suddenly show up here with this.. this high dude? Shouldn't you be in detention or something right now?"

"High means tall, right?" Yixing questioned, but nobody paid any attention to him.

Joonmyeon rolled his eyes. "I'm here right now so the detention is obviously over. You can't possibly have a detention in a mall."

"Well, you never know." 

"Yeah, you don't know about that." Tao chirped in while nodding vigorously. "Maybe the teacher is trying to get in the line for the new Gucci collection like everybody else! Gucci waits for no one!"

Joonmyeon facepalmed himself. He opened his mouth to say something in reply, only to get interrupted by the ringing of someone's phone. From the look of it, it belonged to none other than Zhang Yixing.

"Was that Ginger Fox's song?" Tao questioned while furrowing his brows. He couldn't be sure since the song was immediately cut off when Yixing answered the phone, but he could've swore he heard the singer's voice.

"I think so." Joonmyeon responded while staring at Yixing, silently judging him. No offense to the singer's fans, but the woman is the most awful singer of all time. She couldn't dance to save her life nor is she that pretty.

"Yeah, sure. Just come here." Yixing could be heard talking on the phone while the rest waited patiently for him. "We'll be at the Caffe Bene. Alright, see you."

"We?" Baekhyun voiced out first. "You meant, just you, right? And maybe Joonmyeon too I guess."

"Oh, no no no." Yixing quickly said, looking panic for a split second. "My friends are coming and they will really, really love to meet both of you as well. So, why don't we all go to the Caffe Bene now and wait for them there, shall we?"

"Who said anything about me—"

"Are they hot?" Baekhyun interrupted, not allowing Joonmyeon to finish his words.

"Byun Baekhyun!"

"What?" Baekhyun shrugged. "If they're hot, I don't see why I shouldn't meet them."

"But still—"

"They're totally hot, I promise you." Yixing chimed in, interfering with poor Joonmyeon's words again.

"I don't mind." Tao commented.

"Of course not." Baekhyun rolled his eyes. "You already got what you want." Then, he pointedly directed his gaze towards the two shopping bags in Tao's hands. The word 'Gucci' was written in big, bold letters across the white and black paper bags.

"Alright then." Yixing clapped his hand slightly with a satisfied grin. "Let's go then."

Without waiting for Joonmyeon's agreement, Yixing was already pulling him in the direction of the cafe.

"For the record, I did not agreed to this!"

~~X~~

Half an hour later, Yixing nearly got murdered by Baekhyun when his "hot friends" finally showed up.

"Baek, stop!" Joonmyeon said while struggling in his futile attempt to stop the said male. "We're in public!"

"I don't care!" Baekhyun screeched as he attempted to scratch Yixing's face.

"Stop him." Yixing squeaked while cowering behind Joonmyeon.

Meanwhile, Tao looked up to the newcomers with an unamused look. "For the record, Baekhyun insisted on coming here and I'm just following them." Then, he turned to Baekhyun. "Well, at least he wasn't completely lying. They are hot.. sort of."

Yixing noticeably perked up when he heard this. "Exactly! Maybe not Chanyeol but Kris is one of the hottest guys in school!"

"Oi!"

"Bull." Baekhyun spat out, clearly in disagreement with that statement.

"I told you." Joonmyeon whispered under his breath. It was so barely audible that only Yixing could've possibly heard it. "So, maybe you should really start considering of stopping this whole cupid thingy you're trying to do."

"I'm not going to give up that easily." Yixing whispered back.

Kris cleared his throat. "Are you going to keep on whispering to each other like that or what?"

"Yeah, we are still here, you know." Tao added.

"What are you even doing here anyway?" Kris suddenly shifted his attention towards Tao. "I thought you have something extremely important to attend to?"

"I do!" Tao instinctively pointed at his shopping bags. "The new Gucci collection is out."

"That's it?" Kris widened his eyes in disbelief. "Just some new collection of what, bags? I seriously thought you had an urgent matter back at home or something!"

"It's not just any bag! It's Gucci!" Tao frowned. "Besides, why do you care so much anyway?"

"Because I wanted to ask you on a da—you know what, never mind." 

"Date?" Yixing intervened with sparkling eyes. "Did you or did you not just about to say the word date right there? And don't you dare lie to me, Kris Wu."

Kris sighed. "Yes, yes, I tried to ask Tao on a date just so I could err.. sort of get to know him better."

By now, all eyes were currently on Kris. Even Baekhyun had stopped momentarily with his fit of rage, though his hands were both noticeably placed a tad bit too near to Joonmyeon and it looked ready to strangle someone any time now.

"And why is that?" Yixing prompted.

Kris unconsciously ran his hand through his hair. "I guess it's mainly because I feel sort of guilty towards him."

"Why would you feel guilty towards him?" Chanyeol asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

"Because—"

"You know what, let's go then." Tao cut off before Kris was able to complete his explanation. In all honesty, he had suddenly recalled his conversation with Baekhyun at school earlier and he had to do something if he didn't want to spend the rest of his life with cats. Or pandas. Definitely not pandas.

Tao wasted no time to pull Kris out of there, not forgetting his precious new Gucci collections. Confused, the latter just trailed after him like a lost puppy. The rest only stared at their disappearing backs as they made their way out of the cafe.

"Well, that was easy." Yixing remarked, looking significantly more satisfied than ever now if that was even possible.

Joonmyeon blinked. "It works? Strange."

"Do not question the how, my bunny." Yixing tsked. "The only important part is the ending result."

Joonmyeon rolled his eyes, still unconvinced by the other's twisted way of thinking.

"And that is why exactly," Yixing abruptly grabbed Joonmyeon's arm as he rose in his chair. "—you should just listen to me when I tell you to do something. RUN!"

Joonmyeon was confused, to say the least. He didn't process the other's words until at least minutes later. However, in spite of his muddled mind, he complied in a dutiful manner simply because Yixing had his arms. ("Because you know, I can't possibly let him get away with my arms, right?" thought Joonmyeon.) The pair escaped in record time, leaving Baekhyun and Chanyeol staring at the empty spots.

"... I'm going to kill them all."

Author's note : Please do know that Ginger Fox is just a mere fictional character (from ICarly if anyone ever saw the show). I avoided using real singer's name so as to not offend anyone. Anyway, in light of the recent pandemic situation all over the world, I just want to say that hopefully all of you are safe wherever you are and healthy as a horse. I'm sorry for your loss if you're affected by it in any way and I'm sending much love and pray for all of you. Hopefully, this hard time will pass real soon and we will be fine again. In the meantime, be strong and stay safe, everyone!^_^