pairing: ChenLay
length: 3098 words

Lay mildly thinks to himself that the employee currently taking his order at Somi Somi, the ah-boong booth, is quite cute.

Very cute actually.

“What kind of soft serve would you like?” he asks, smiling kindly with his right pointer finger hovering over the screen.

Lay’s eyes briefly drift to the large menu behind the other male before answering, “Milk, please.”

“And the filling flavor?”

The Chinese male wishes he had memorized the menu beforehand so that he doesn’t have to keep shifting his gaze away from the Somi Somi employee. It takes him a moment to decide on Nutella, which he duly relays to the other male.

“Great, your total is five dollars.”

Lay inserts his credit card into the thin slot near the bottom of the register and waits for the charge to go through. He’s just about to look up at the Somi Somi employee again when the machine beeps and notifies him to remove his card. As soon as he does, the screen displays tip options. Being a poor college student, Lay usually doesn’t leave tips at small food booths like this one, but he decides that adding an extra fifteen percent to the charge won’t hurt his bank account this month. He’ll be getting paid the following week, so he can splurge a little for the cute employee’s benefit.

He hands over a printed receipt and smiles again while saying, “Your order will be ready in a few minutes. Thank you for coming!”

“Thanks,” Lay softly says back, stealing one last glance at the Somi Somi employee while he steps away from the counter and moves to the other side of the booth.

However, the other male is quickly forgotten once the soft serve-filled taiyaki is handed to Lay by another Somi Somi employee. The Chinese male’s attention is completely focused on balancing the fish-shaped bread in a small ice cream cup as he walks back to GameStop, the video game store that he works at part-time.

It doesn’t take him very long. It’s only ten feet away from the ah-boong booth.

--

As Lay rushes into the store, internally cursing himself for staying up the previous night to play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, his coworkers briefly nod at him before returning to their conversation. Once he’s properly clocked in, he joins the two girls behind the counter. There are no customers in the store at the moment—it’s a rainy Wednesday, which means there aren’t many people in the mall anyway—so the Chinese male takes a moment to breathe and calm his racing heart before turning to his coworkers. “What’s up?”

“Oh, we’re just talking about the new guy who started working at Somi Somi,” Jiwoo answers with a high-pitched giggle.

“The cute blonde-haired one,” Taeyeon adds when Lay looks at them quizzically.

“He’s new?”

Jiwoo nods vigorously. “I think he started working there last month. Around the same time you started with us.”

Oh, that would explain why Lay had seen him several times in passing before going there to order an ah-boong the previous Monday. He honestly never paid much attention to Somi Somi, usually bringing fruit from home to eat during his breaks. The only reason he had gone to the food booth that day was because he had been craving ice cream and he hadn’t eaten an ah-boong in over a year. The cute guy working there had been a bonus.

“I really want to know his name,” Jiwoo then says as she dreamily looks towards the food booth outside of the store. “I tried looking at his name tag when I passed by Somi Somi last time, but I couldn’t get a good look,” she continues, her cheeks slightly puffing up as she pouts.

“Then we can find him on Facebook or Instagram!” Taeyeon exclaims, her eyes gleaming as she smiles slyly and rubs her hands together conspiratorially.

“Can you do that with just a first name?” the Chinese male asks doubtfully while he leans against the counter, his eyes flicking to the ah-boong booth every few seconds as he silently wonders if the cute guy is working today.

Taeyeon lets out a chuckle as her smirk widens. “You underestimate my cyber-stalking skills, Lay. I can find anyone with a bit of information.”

He doesn’t doubt the store’s social media coordinator. Taeyeon had found both Facebook accounts and Instagram accounts of their two new—now former—assistant managers before they had even started working. Her aptitude for navigating these social media sites is quite frightening at times.

A customer then enters the store, so their conversation is cut short as Jiwoo leaves the counter to assist the stranger while Lay and Taeyeon busy themselves with other tasks. He has to do inventory while she takes pictures to upload on the store’s Instagram page later.

Whenever there is a lull in the work day, the three briefly reconvene to discuss the Somi Somi employee. Lay thinks how amusing it is that two girls are becoming so invested in knowing who the guy is, even though they both already have boyfriends. But he also knows that, despite their jokes to proclaim their love to this cute employee, they would never leave their boyfriends for him. It’s all in good fun.

It’s three o’clock when Jiwoo clocks out and picks up her purse. “I’m going to see if I can look at his name tag again,” she announces to her coworkers.

“Make sure you report to us!” Taeyeon squeals, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

Jiwoo trills with laughter as she walks around the counter. “If I come back, that means I was successful. But if not, I failed.”

“Sounds good!” Taeyeon comments while Lay nods in agreement. “Good luck, Jiwoo!”

“Good luck,” the Chinese male echoes as the sales associate waves before skipping out of the store. Before he can dwell on what the cute guy’s name could be, a customer walks over to the counter and asks about the Nintendo Switch accessories. All thoughts of the Somi Somi employee disappear from his mind and it isn’t until several hours later that Lay realizes Jiwoo never returned.

--

Ever since, Lay has kept his eyes trained on Somi Somi whenever he passes by the ah-boong booth on his way to work. Whenever he sees the blonde-haired employee, his hopes rise that he’ll be able to find out what his name is. The Chinese male previously decided that he’d sacrifice his dignity for his coworkers, since it would be less weird if he were caught staring instead of them.

However, since he’s been scheduled for closing shifts for the past week, Lay hasn’t been able to visit the food booth during his break while the cute guy is working. It’s frustrating, to say the least.

Another week passes before Lay finally gets scheduled for an opening shift on a day that the Somi Somi employee is working. He internally cheers when he passes by during his short break that day to get iced water for everyone from the Starbucks booth that’s also close to GameStop and Somi Somi.

Time ticks incredibly slow in between that short fifteen-minute break and his longer lunch break as he doggedly rings up consoles and games for customers. The Chinese male’s fingers incessantly tap the wooden counter whenever he finishes a transaction as he checks the clock and sees that he still has time left before he can clock out. It’s honestly agonizing.

Finally, finally, it’s one-thirty and Lay is allowed to clock out for lunch. He tells his coworkers he’ll be back in a bit before power-walking out of the store and to the ah-boong booth.

There’s no line, but there are also two other girls working with the cute guy. He is standing between them and all three seem to be staring at Lay as he walks up to the counter. It’s a bit unnerving, to be honest, and the Chinese male hopes his expression is neutral enough to not give away his disappointment that the shorter girl is taking his order instead of the cute guy.

After that, Lay tries to discreetly read the other male’s name tag, but he doesn’t allow his gaze to linger for long since he doesn’t want to come off as creepy. That’s the last thing he wants. But because he looks for only half a second, the only letters that the Chinese male can glean from the name tag are “CH” before his number is called and he has to give up.

The taller girl is holding out his ah-boong and there’s a hollow smile on her face, as if she knows what he just tried to do. Lay sends her an equally hollow smile as he accepts the ice cream-filled pastry and he hopes his ears aren’t burning red.

Deciding that he has nothing left to lose, he slowly walks past the booth and glances at the rest of the blonde-haired male’s name tag. Luckily, the other male’s name isn’t long, so once he has the rest of his name—or at least he thinks he does—Lay dashes back to the store and into the break room.

The other assistant manager is lounging there, since her shift doesn’t start for another twenty minutes. Hayoung briefly looks up from her phone and is about to greet her coworker when he suddenly exclaims, “I know his name!”

“Whose name?”

“Somi Somi guy! The cute one with blonde hair!”

Hayoung’s interest is instantly piqued and she sets down her phone as she eagerly asks, “What is it?”

Now that Lay’s mind is in less of a frenzy, he takes a moment to collect his thoughts and says uncertainly, “I—I think it’s Chen?”

“Chen?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so?”

“Are you sure?” Hayoung pressed.

“Well, I couldn’t really see his name tag all at once, so maybe it’s not…” God, Lay really wishes now that the line had been long, so he could have taken his time to properly read the Somi Somi guy’s name tag.

“Maybe it was Chanyeol? Or Cheolyong? Or Changkyun?”

Lay shakes his head. “No, those are too long. Definitely not any of those.”

“Chansung? Changmin?”

“It was definitely one character,” Lay says, knowing that his eyesight isn’t bad enough to be unable to distinguish a one-character name from a two-character name.

Hayoung purses her lips before blatantly commenting, “Chen is such a weird name.”

“Aw, c’mon, Hayoung, it’s not that weird,” Lay immediately counters. “Even if it is, it’s not his fault that his parents gave him that name.”

The other assistant manager raises her eyebrows as she points at the Chinese male. “You don’t use your real first name, so who’s to say that this Chen guy doesn’t either?”

“Well, it’s not that weird anyway!” Lay reiterates, feeling defensive that Hayoung is indirectly poking fun at him for having a nickname as well.

She laughs at how heated he’s becoming and then pats his back before saying, “Okay, whatever you say, Yixing,” while purposefully emphasizing his birth name to his chagrin. “And you’d better eat your ah-boong before it melts all over you,” Hayoung also adds, gesturing to the ice cream that is starting to stream down the sides of the crispy taiyaki.

Lay yelps as he grabs a napkin from the table to catch the creamy droplets before stuffing his face while Hayoung cackles in the background.

--

Ever since that day, Lay hasn’t dared to show his face at Somi Somi. He’s terrified that Chen, or whatever his name is, will recognize him and maybe even think of him as a creep. And that’s the last thing that Lay wants. His only solace is that he has a generic-looking face—he’s never remembered by anyone, which isn’t a great feeling, to be honest, but Lay is willing to take the loss this time for his jeopardized reputation—so hopefully Chen has also forgotten that the Chinese male exists.

Not that this thought is any more comforting.

But looking at cute people is difficult.

That’s the conclusion that Lay comes to as he resignedly wipes down the rack of Nintendo 3DS games by the door. His store manager assigned deep cleaning tasks earlier that week and since the store is empty right now, Lay decides that there’s no time like the present to knock out his deep cleaning. It’s quite therapeutic to carefully wipe every inch of the rack and wipe every disc box before neatly filing them in alphabetical order.

But this menial task also means that it’s very easy for the Chinese male to slip into thinking about things he’d rather not remember. Namely, how he probably embarrassed himself by checking out Chen in front of the other Somi Somi employees. Lay feels like kicking himself for acting so rashly and basically blocking himself from ever being able to buy ah-boong from the food booth ever again.

He turns to toss the dirty Clorox wipe into the small trash can near him and then lets out a choked gasp when his gaze alights on a familiar figure leaning against the back of Somi Somi. Chen’s body is faced towards GameStop, but he’s looking down at his phone so he luckily doesn’t see Lay waving for Jiwoo to join him near the 3DS rack.

The entire time as the two coworkers discuss whether or not Chen’s shift is over and if the GameStop sales associate should be the next to attempt to confirm the blonde-haired male’s name, Lay’s back is towards Chen as the Chinese male diligently continues wiping down the rack. His heart is pounding loudly in his chest; he’s never seen the other male standing over there before and part of him is worried that Chen will see him while another part of him is hoping that Chen is standing there on purpose.

“Oh no, he’s leaving,” Jiwoo reports as she cranes her neck to watch the blonde-haired male walk away.

“Did he look this way?” Lay asks worriedly as he briefly turns around to see the empty space behind Somi Somi. His heart drops, even though he immediately scolds himself for feeling this way about a fledgling crush.

Jiwoo nods. “He looked up and saw us before walking away. We didn’t make eye contact though, so we should be fine.”

The Chinese male exhales in relief and his shoulders drop. Everything is fine—sort of. Chen doesn’t recognize him—which is still sad, but bearable.

After a few more minutes of discussion, Jiwoo returns to the counter to ring up a customer while Lay finishes reorganizing the 3DS rack. During his lunch break later on, he takes a quick look at Somi Somi, but doesn’t see Chen there.

Well, it’s fine. He already saw him today. No need to be greedy.

--

It always seems like Lay is in a rush as he runs back into GameStop to see Hayoung twirling his lanyard of keys around her fingers as she looks at him with mock exasperation. “Th—thanks…” he gasps out as he bends over, catching his breath, while stretching out one of his hands to take the set of keys from the other assistant manager.

“We’re going to have to lock these around you like a leash,” she jokes as she watches her coworker slip the lanyard around his neck.

Lay chuckles nervously, but decides not to make a comment. He’s too out of breath to really say anything anyway. Once he’s finally stable enough to speak, the Chinese male says, “Okay, I’m going to leave now.”

“Okay, bye, Yixing!”

“Don’t call me that,” he grumbles as he sticks his tongue out at his coworker, who only laughs as she waves him away. Once he’s outside of the store again, Lay checks the time and sees that he only has a few minutes before the next bus arrives. God, today really isn’t his day.

Just as he’s about to sprint through the mall to get to the bus stop, a hand on his shoulder stops the Chinese male in his tracks and he whirls around, perplexed. But then, his jaw drops when he finds himself face-to-face with Chen, the blonde-haired Somi Somi employee—who also happens to be extremely cute.

“Hey, sorry for stopping you so suddenly, but are you busy right now?” Chen asks with that beautifully kind smile of his.

“No—I—wait—yes! I need to catch the next bus!” Yixing exclaims when he checks the time again and sees that he only has two minutes to run for the next bus.

“Oh, are you done with work today? I can take you home if you need a ride,” Chen offers, still smiling serenely as he gestures to the entrance to the parking lot for mall employees.

Lay responds with, “Uh, are you sure that’s fine?” while his mind is internally screaming at him due to this unexpected turn of events. Is this a dream? Did he even wake up to come to work this morning? Otherwise, how can this be happening?

“Yeah, it’s totally cool! I really don’t mind taking you home!” The blonde-haired male beams brightly.

Well, there may never be another opportunity like this, so Lay decides to jump on the offer and he nods, silently hoping that his face isn’t turning pink.

“Great! Let’s go, Lay! My car is this way.”

The Chinese male stands shell-shocked, not budging at all when he hears how Chen addresses him. “How do you know my name?”

The shorter male grins and points at the name tag pinned on Lay’s black shirt. “You’re not the only one trying to look for someone’s name,” he says, laughing at how Lay’s face flames up at once. He then proudly shows off his own name tag, which does say “CHEN” and this fact slightly eases Lay’s currently frazzled mind.

At the very least, he’s not blind.

“Shall we go then? We can talk more in the car,” Chen offers, still grinning in amusement at Lay’s reaction. “You probably have a lot of questions.”

Yes, he most certainly does. And it seems like carpooling with Chen will be the only way he’ll get the answers he needs, so even though everything is moving awfully fast all of a sudden, Lay manages to compose himself enough to smile back at the blonde-haired male and say, “Okay, lead the way.”

And it feels extremely nice to have Chen grab his hand and pull him along, because it’s not every day that a cute guy makes Lay feel special.

♈♈♈