Thank you to Megan (https://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/864600) for editing my writing~ and sorry the titles of each chapter are so lame lmao. i'm not good at thinking of titles. Enjoy this chapter!

“I saw the cashier again last week.” Sehun looked up from his laptop at his friend.

“Really?! That’s great. Why didn’t you tell me earlier? What’s his name? Or did you forget to look at his name tag again…”

Jongin glared at him. “For your information, his name is Baekhyun,” Jongin started, “and I didn’t tell you earlier because you’ve been so busy with Yixing I didn’t want to bother you. It’s not like it’s a big deal. I barely know him.”

Sehun leaned back on couch and eyed Jongin while crossing his arms. He could tell that the other was just in denial and that it really was a big deal.

This was the first guy he liked ever since Junmyeon!

“Baekhyun huh...That name sounds familiar…” Sehun mumbled.

“Really? Do you know him from school or something?” Jongin asked, hoping that Baekhyun went to their school so he could find out more about him.

The blonde shook his head. “No I don’t know any Baekhyun's from school...It just sounds familiar. Probably one of my friends’ friends or something.”

Jongin nodded, a bit disappointed.

“So what happened? Did you talk to him? Or did you choke?” Sehun smirked.

Jongin chucked a pillow at his face and got up to grab a water bottle.  “I did not choke. I talked to him.”

The blonde laughed and flung the pillow back on Jongin’s chair. “About what?” He asked.

Jongin took a gulp from the bottle before throwing it to Sehun, who caught it before it could hit his face like the pillow. “Bananas.”

“Bananas...” The blonde deadpanned.

“Bananas.” Jongin repeated.

“Is that code for something? Is there something you’re hiding from me? Your best friend? Since middle school?” Sehun asked, raising his eyebrows dramatically at Jongin.

Jongin rolled his eyes “First, don’t use my own words against me brat. Second, we just talked about bananas. He was saying how it was weird that I was only buying one banana.”

Sehun made a disgusted face as he went back to doing his homework on his laptop. “He was right, you are weird. Who buys only one banana?”

The other scoffed as he resumed with his homework as well.

“Next time, try talking to him about something other than fruit.”

“Like what?”

“Literally anything else!” the blonde exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air, “ Try to get to know him or something I don’t know. You did you lose all your game, what a shame...At least you know his name…”

Jongin threw another pillow at him. “Stop with your rhymes.”

Sehun threw the pillow back at him, hitting him square on the face. “I’ll stop when you stop throwing things at me!”

They both got back to their homework but the silence didn’t last long as Sehun spoke up again.

“Why don’t you invite him to Kris’s party next Saturday?”

Jongin thought about it, isn’t that rushing it? He didn’t know him that well. Hell, the only things he knew about him were name and what days he worked.

And that he was incredibly adorable, he thought to himself.

“He works on Saturdays.”

“Wow you already know his work schedule? Stalker.”

Jongin threw the pillow again, but this time Sehun saw it coming and dodged it.

*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

“Hello again, frequent customer.”

Baekhyun was wearing a glasses with black frames this time. Jongin liked the way they looked on him.

“My name is Jongin.” Baekhyun scrunched his nose upon seeing more instant ramen packets.

“Hello Jongin, you sure do eat a lot of instant ramen. That can’t be healthy.”

Jongin’s heart skipped a beat when Baekhyun said his name. He decided that could used to hearing how it sounded rolling off of the other’s tongue.  

He gulped and lips before replying. “In my defense, I’m not the only one eating them, my best friend comes over a lot and eats all my food.”

“Mhmm…” Baekhyun slowly nodded as he put the ramen into the plastic bag. “Why do you always go grocery shopping so late?”

Jongin shrugged. “I guess it’s the only time I’m really free, with school and all.” And I know it’s when you’re here.

Baekhyun suddenly gasped loudly, surprising the other.

“What’s wrong?” Jongin questioned.

“I had to restock the soup cans! Ugh, I forgot! And it’s almost closing time! My boss is gonna kill me.”

“Can’t you just do it quickly?”

“Ugh he wanted me to stack them all nicely in a pyramid for the display...They’re on sale. There’s a lot of boxes and they’re heavy. Great...I’m gonna be here all night.” He sighed.

“I uh- I can help you, if you want.” Jongin blurted.

“No it’s okay...I don’t wanna make you stay here all night just to stack cans of soup.” Baekhyun muttered as he walked out from behind the register.

“No really, it’s fine. I wanna help. I usually sleep late anyway.” Jongin smiled at him.

Baekhyun looked up at him, the corners of his lips curving up to form his signature smile. “Thanks, Jongin.”  

*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*(❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

“Ah we’re finally done,” Baekhyun sighed in relief, “It took an hour but we’re done, and we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.”

He stepped back to admire their work, the soup cans were neatly stacked in the shape of a pyramid and they were all turned so that the labels were facing out.

“Thank you again, for helping. I probably would’ve taken double the amount of time if I did it by myself.” He smiled up at Jongin.

Jongin’s heart swelled upon seeing the other’s crescent eyes.  “No problem. It was fun actually.”

During the hour that they were stacking, they had been talking and Jongin found out that Baekhyun was a year older than him, which surprised him because he of his youthful appearance.

He also found that they were both attending Seoul National University but Baekhyun was an engineering major and Jongin was a business major which explains why they’ve never ran into each other school since the College of Engineering was on the opposite side of the campus from College of Business Administration where he and Sehun went.

Baekhyun had insisted that even if may have sounded like he was a nerd for being into engineering that he was actually really cool and not nerdy at all.

Jongin joked and told him the glasses said otherwise.

He talked a lot about a new show he was binge watching called Once Upon a Time, Jongin listened closely even though he had no idea what was going on.

He thought it was really amusing and cute how Baekhyun was talking so passionately about a TV show and chuckled to himself as he recalled the conversation they had.  

“And then Red Riding Hood turned out to be the wolf all along! I even never saw it coming…” Baekhyun sighed disappointedly as he shook his head while closing his eyes.

He also learned that Baekhyun was living alone after moving to Seoul from Chungdong and that he doesn’t like cucumbers.

He was really silly and witty and made Jongin laugh a lot.

Jongin told Baekhyun about his family’s bakery and Baekhyun asked for Jongin to bake something for him sometime.

“I, uh, only really know how to make simple things like cookies or chocolate cake,” Jongin awkwardly confessed. He never really spent time in the kitchen since his studies took up most of his time.

“Cookies are fine, I love cookies. Simpler things are better anyway,” Baekhyun said as he placed a can down to finish a line.

Baekhyun asked him a lot of random questions like what was his favorite color, his favorite ice cream flavor, and what was his favorite TV show.

Jongin answered Baekhyun's questions as quickly as he spat that time and he couldn't help but find the whole exchange amusing.

He ended up explaining the whole plot of the zombie show he was watching with Sehun after Baekhyun had asked him to, and the cashier listened intently to every word only interrupting to ask questions.

By the end of his synopsis, Jongin had apparently gotten Baekhyun interested enough in the show that the older male decided to add it to his list of shows he's currently watching.

“Sorry you had to stay so late...I’ll buy you a bag of those chips you always buy as a thank you.”

Baekhyun was already turning to the snack aisle By the end of his sentence, but Jongin grabbed him by his wrist.

“It's okay I don't really need them right now so don't bother.” Jongin reluctantly dropped Baekhyun's wrist and took a step back.

“Uhm do you live close to here? I can give you a ride back. You said you missed the last bus earlier right?” He asked.

“Are you sure? I can just walk, it’s not that far.” Baekhyun said as he took off his nametag.

“Yeah it’s fine. Plus I wouldn’t want you to walk home alone at almost two in the morning.”

“Alright then, lemme go get my stuff and I’ll meet you outside?”

Jongin nodded and went out to wait in his truck.

Once Baekhyun was done grabbing his belongings he locked up the store and joined the other in the car.

He told Jongin his address and they drove off.

Baekhyun looked at home in Jongin's passenger seat as he sang along to the radio and Jongin, enjoying the other's voice, let him change the station to find another one after the next few songs proved to be relatively uninteresting.

Sehun often whined at Jongin because the younger believed the other had poor taste; he can almost hear the high pitched complaints of his roommate if he ever found out he granted Baekhyun the permission to do something he had yet to allow his best friend to do.

They arrived at Baekhyun’s apartment in about ten minutes.

“Thank you again, Jongin! For everything.” Baekhyun grinned as he unbuckled his seat belt.

“You’re welcome, Baekhyun” Jongin chuckled.

The other quickly got out of the car and walked up the steps before stopping and running back down to the truck.

“Oh yeah and goodnight.” He chirped and then turned back around to run up the steps and through the doors of the apartment complex before Jongin could even say goodnight back.

“Goodnight.” He said quietly, smiling to himself as he drove home.