pairing: BaekChen
length: 1921 words

“Dang, I’m getting really hungry talking about McDonald’s,” Yixing commented as Jongdae’s livestream chat debated over various fast food menu items. “Maybe we should go on a midnight McDonald’s run and get some grub,” he joked.

“You wanna drive over and pick me up then?” Jongdae joked back, already knowing what the Chinese male’s response was going to be.

“Brother, you live thirty minutes away.”

“So? It’s midnight. The highway’s empty. You’ll be here in no time.”

“Then you move over to my city where all the good food is,” Yixing instantly countered. “There’s a McDonald’s right by my house. We can just walk to it.”

oohsehun
Wait, I wanna get McDonald's too.

“Yo, Sehun, d’you wanna go on a midnight McDonald’s run with us then?” Jongdae jokingly asked his friend, who lived on the other side of the country.

oohsehun
Sure, I'll be over in ten.

byunbaek
What the, where’s my invite?!

The streamer groaned as he read his best friend and chat moderator’s message out loud. “I can’t invite you, Baek. I know you’ll actually come over if I do.”

byunbaek
Lame. You invited Yixing and Sehun though. I thought we were best friends!

“Shut up, Baek. I only invited people I knew wouldn’t actually take up my offer. If we make plans now, that means I have to go and I’ve been really good about going to the gym recently.”

byunbaek
Just gym more, dummy. It’s only a couple of calories. You’ll burn it off in no time.

oohsehun
Can you drop off some food for me if you do go?

byunbaek
Bet. OK, Jongdae, we’re going.

“I swear to god, I’m about to unmod you, Baek.”

“Wait, now I actually wanna go with you guys to McDonald’s,” Yixing piped up.

byunbaek
You’re invited, Yixing. You can even sleep over at my place if you want. The sofa’s all yours.

Yixing hummed as he briefly pondered the offer, but then let out an audible sigh before replying, “Nah, I can’t. I’ve got a work meeting tomorrow morning that I actually have to attend.” His voice then brightened as he added, “But you guys can drive over to me and drop some food off instead!”

“Very funny, Yixing,” Jongdae deadpanned as he returned his focus back to Genshin Impact and the twelfth floor of the Spiral Abyss. With his properly built Hu Tao-led team, the streamer managed to make quick work of the monsters and obtained his final three stars for the cycle.

“Nice, good job, bro.”

“Thanks, Yixing.” After leaning back in his chair and stretching his arms out in front of him, Jongdae tabbed to the main menu before glancing at the chat and silently reading the newest messages. Seeing that there was nothing he felt the need to address, the streamer yawned loudly and said, “Alright, I think I’m gonna end here tonight. I’m really tired and hungry after all this talk about food.”

“Same, I skipped dinner earlier and now I’m starving,” Yixing lamented.

byunbaek
For real though, Jongdae, d’you wanna go to McDonald's? If you’re hungry, we should get something to eat.

“I already told you, Baek, I shouldn’t go,” Jongdae whined. “It’s too late for fast food.”

byunbaek
That’s cap. It’s never too late for a McFlurry.

“That actually sounds really good right now,” Yixing wistfully said. “Ugh, why don’t you guys live closer to me?! I wanna go with you, Baek.”

byunbaek
See, Jongdae? Let’s just go.

“But do I really want a McFlurry right now?” Jongdae mockingly mused.

byunbaek
Yes, you do.

“But I can’t finish an entire McFlurry tonight,” Jongdae protested.

“Weak.”

“Shut up, Yixing. You couldn’t even finish four lamb skewers at the night market last time.”

“That’s because I accidentally got a large strawberry lemonade!” Yixing squawked. “Well, okay, fine, it wasn’t an accident. But I didn’t know it was gonna be that big! I was too full for more food after that.”

“I even offered to help you finish them,” Jongdae reminded the Chinese male.

“Alright, then prove you’re better than me at eating by finishing a McFlurry tonight,” Yixing challenged back.

byunbaek
Yeah, prove it, Jongdae.

Too exhausted to continue this utterly meaningless argument, Jongdae instead asked his other friend in the chat, “Hey, Sehun, d’you wanna finish my McFlurry for me then? I’ll eat half and drop off the rest at your place.”

oohsehun
Yay, I love melted milk.

“Bro, don’t say it like that!” Jongdae wrinkled his nose in disgust at the image his friend had unintentionally painted into existence.

oohsehun
You’re the one who offered.

byunbaek
Also, the longer you take to decide, the later it’s gonna be when we go. Just saying.

“Fine, I’ll flip a coin,” Jongdae finally relented as he unlocked his phone and searched up a virtual coin. “Heads, I go. Tails, I don’t.” And with one click of a button, the virtual coin spun.

And in no time at all, the digital assistant announced, “Heads,” causing Yixing to immediately erupt into cacophonous laughter while Jongdae howled in anguish. His livestream chat suddenly sped up ten-fold as his audience began spamming reactions in the chat box.

byunbaek
See ya in five, Jongdae!

“What is this?!”

“You’re—so—dumb,” Yixing managed to wheeze out, still overtaken with laughter. “You could’ve just flipped a real coin or muted your phone and lied about the result. Now you’re gonna be held accountable by five hundred people who heard the result live.”

Jongdae let out another pained scream in response.

“The gacha gods heard your prayers and knew how much you really wanted that McFlurry, so they gave it to you.”

“My gacha luck needs to get nerfed. It’s too much, winning in every real-life gacha along with all the in-game pulls,” the streamer dramatically lamented as he reluctantly took out his phone and began searching for the closest McDonald’s. “Ugh, there’re two locations near me and they both only have a three-star rating.”

“Well then, pick your poison and have fun,” Yixing said in a sing-song voice.

Jongdae just groaned as he faced his monitor again and watched his livestream chat scroll like lightning across the screen. After several seconds, he sighed loudly before saying, “Guess I’m getting McDonald’s now. Thanks for hanging out today, guys. I don’t know when I’ll be live again, but yeah, have a good rest of your week.” With that, he ended the livestream and slumped in his seat while Yixing continued hysterically giggling in their voice channel.

“I can’t believe you’re actually going on a midnight McDonald’s run,” the Chinese male said once his giggles subsided.

“Yeah…” Jongdae sighed again as he shut down his game application and clicked out of all of his livestreaming software. “So I gotta go now. Baekhyun will be here in a few minutes.”

“No worries, all good. Tell him I say hi.”

“For sure,” Jongdae answered with a nod, even though the Chinese male couldn’t see him. “See you in two weeks for hot pot.”

“Yeah, see ya then. Bye, Jongdae!”

The streamer exited the voice channel before sighing loudly for the umpteenth time that night and painstakingly standing up from his chair. He was still in boxer shorts, since he hadn’t expected to leave the house again that night after going grocery shopping earlier that evening. By the time he finished dressing appropriately and splashing cold water on his face, Jongdae’s phone began ringing, signaling Baekhyun’s speedy arrival.

“God, I can’t believe I let you talk me into doing this,” Jongdae immediately complained as he stepped into the passenger seat of his best friend’s car.

“Aw, c’mon, you know you wanted it too,” Baekhyun teased as they began the short drive to the nearest McDonald’s drive-through.

“If I die tomorrow at the gym, I’m blaming you.”

“You’ll be fine,” Baekhyun replied, playfully dragging out the last syllable. “Just do an extra set of everything. It’ll be like this never happened.”

Jongdae sent his best friend a half-exasperated, half-amused glance as he leaned back in the car seat. “Well, I’m letting you treat me out tonight, since this was your idea. So thanks for the food, buddy.”

“What flavor do you want?”

“Oreo, duh.”

Baekhyun nodded in approval as he drove up to the drive-through speaker and placed an order of two Oreo McFlurries with the McDonald’s employee. Since it was late at night, there were no other customers ahead of them and the pair were presented their desserts the moment they pulled up to the pick-up window. Jongdae was tasked with holding the tall brown paper bag housing their ice cream during the short drive back and he shivered as the freezing temperature permeated through the bag to his legs.

Once they were back at Jongdae’s apartment, the streamer carefully unpacked the tall cups of soft serve ice cream and began uncapping them. After sticking a plastic spoon through each hollow cap, Jongdae was about to pick his up and start eating when his best friend suddenly stuck out an arm to stop him.

“Wait, let me send a picture to Yixing first.” Baekhyun then whipped out his phone, aiming the camera at the two Oreo McFlurries.

“Did he message you?” Jongdae asked, taking out his own phone to check whether or not Yixing was still online. He then let out a small snort when he saw the green circle next to the Chinese male’s username.

“Yeah, hold on,” Baekhyun murmured, clearly focused on taking the photo. “Okay, perfect.” His fingers flew over his phone screen as he typed a message back to Yixing. “Thinking—of—you.” And with a flourish, both the photo and the message were sent.

Not even one second passed before Baekhyun’s phone buzzed with a reply.

“What’d he say?” Jongdae asked in between bites of the sweet dessert.

“To enjoy it for him,” the older male relayed with a chuckle as he typed back a response. “Too bad he couldn’t make it tonight.”

“Because he’s not crazy like you are,” Jongdae snarked as he glanced at the time on his phone screen. “It’s one in the morning now. Who goes on a McDonald’s run this late on a Wednesday?!”

“We do,” Baekhyun replied with a saucy grin as he began eating his own McFlurry. “That’s the beauty of having a degenerate schedule. We can do whatever we want, whenever we want."

“Speak for yourself, Baek. I would’ve been a good boy in bed already if that stupid coin flip hadn’t betrayed me,” the streamer muttered, a grimace painting his face.

“That’s a lie and you know it. I see you streaming until two in the morning all the time,” Baekhyun easily debunked. “Besides, the McFlurry was worth it, right?” the other male asked with a gleeful grin as he bumped shoulders with Jongdae. “Right? Right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jongdae relented with a lopsided smile as he took another bite of the creamy dessert. “You’re lucky you’re my best friend.”

Baekhyun beamed brightly as he countered, “You mean, you’re lucky you’re my best friend.”

“…I think I just threw up in my mouth.”

“Tch, I hope you choke on your ice cream.”

“Just like you choke on—”

“Don’t you dare, Kim Jongdae!”

The streamer pealed with laughter as Baekhyun brandished his spoon at the younger male, feeling the sugar high from the McFlurry course through his tired body.

As silly as it had been, he wouldn’t have gone on a random midnight fast food run with anyone other than his goofy best friend, Byun Baekhyun.

♈♈♈