wu yifan stands on the familiar street corner, just like he does every other week, with a sign raised above his head that reads “free hugs.” the piece of cardboard has seen better days, with the scrawled letters not as vivid as they once were and food and drink smudges staining the corners. yes, it’s definitely time for a replacement. yifan makes a mental note to stop by his local stationery shop at some point in the week to pick up fresh supplies to create a new sign.

blessed with a loving family and a stranger to difficult financial circumstances, yifan has lived a fortunate life thus far. but after his faith in humanity had been restored when his wallet had been returned to him after he’d lost it on a spectacularly ty day when anything that could wrong, did go wrong—yifan found himself wanting to give back to the community. though it’s not completely selfless—yifan can’t deny he feels good about himself when strangers’ faces light up at the sight of his sign and the way they beam at him after they embrace—he still hopes to spread positivity through small gestures of kindness.

with his tall and slender physique, it’s unsurprising that he’s often mistaken for a model, a question he’s asked at least once a week. yifan wouldn’t describe himself as an arrogant man, but he’s not blind to the fact that he turns heads wherever he goes. and yet, despite his handsome face and manga-like proportions, few dare to approach him. instead, he’s met with suspicious looks and candid photos being snapped from afar, no doubt to be posted on social media with the caption “check out this weird guy.” it must be an odd sight, he muses, a man standing over six feet tall with a sign offering free hugs to strangers.

he would have to admit that his ego is a little bruised by the fact that he can count on one hand, the total number of people he’s given free hugs to in the past week. and if we’re talking specifics, the total sum would be three—just three hugs.

today is much like any other day. people pass by without paying him much attention, with the exception of a hoard of excited school girls giggling as they openly discuss their favourite part of yifan’s body. he feels like a piece of meat when they talk of his “legs that go on for days” and “cute nostrils.” what the hell? since when did he have cute nostrils?

he's about to pack up and call it a day—five minutes before his usual hour is up—when he feels someone crash into him. he loses his footing, stumbling back a few steps.

“watch where you’re going!” yifan chides after regaining his balance.

the stranger looks at him with a shocked expression, his eyes glancing up at the sign yifan is holding above his head. his eyes dart from the board back to yifan and back up to the sign. before yifan has a chance to affirm that he’s giving out free hugs, the man buries his face into yifan’s firm chest.

“i lost him, i lost chennie!” the man sobs and yifan can feel the stranger’s arms curl around his waist, gripping him in an iron-tight hold that crushes the air out of yifan’s lungs.

"chennie? who's chennie?” yifan’s previous annoyance quickly dissipating on account of the other’s state. “do you need help looking for this chennie?" he asks, lowering his arms, softly patting the stranger's back with his right hand in an attempt to get the man to loosen his hold.

the stranger shakes his head in response and yifan can only imagine he's wiping his snotty nose all over yifan's two hundred dollar burberry oxford stripe button down shirt. yifan pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to the sniffling man, waiting patiently for him to stop crying. once the man’s whimpers subside, yifan ushers him to a seat on a nearby bench.

“are you alright?” yifan asks softly. “i’m yifan, by the way.”

“byun baekhyun,” the man introduces himself before pulling yifan back in for another hug. “and i think i’ll be okay.”

yifan’s on a roll today, one more hug and he’ll have doubled his count for the week. and all in the past two minutes. he pats baekhyun, running his hand down the expanse of the man’s back in an attempt to comfort the other. “is there anything i can do to help, baekhyun?” his good deed of the week doesn’t have to be limited to just hugs, right? he wants to help the poor guy out, he looks pretty upset that he can’t find this ‘chennie.’ it has nothing to do with the fact that yifan finds baekhyun absolutely adorable (and gorgeous).

“i don’t think there’s anything anyone can do. i think chennie was eaten,” baekhyun replies quietly as he releases his grip on yifan.

a jolt of shock runs through yifan’s veins. he grabs the stranger by the shoulders, shaking him slightly. a million thoughts start running through his head—which emergency service should he call for first, the police or an ambulance? does he need to check out the scene of the crime? because he’s pretty sure he’s going to faint at the first sign of blood, or at the very least, puke his guts out. was chennie this man’s pet? what kind of monster were they dealing with? “eaten?! wait, are you hurt?”

the puffy eyed man shakes his head slowly. his delicate fingers reach into his pocket for a brief moment before pulling out an item. yifan blinks several times at the object clutched in the man's hand, making sure he's not hallucinating.

it's a sock. and not just any sock, it’s yellow with a familiar cartoon face on it. it’s a pikachu sock.

he’s not exactly sure why the man has just pulled out a sock from his pocket. at a loss for words, yifan blurts out the first thing that pops into his head. “is that for me?”

baekhyun shakes his head emphatically, followed by a loud sigh. “this is jongdae—chennie’s brother. i think that mean old kyungsoo ate chennie."

chennie, the sock, was eaten by a kyungsoo? whatever the hell that means. a dog perhaps? yifan can tell the man is on the verge of bursting into tears again, but yifan isn’t quite sure how to console him. how does one comfort the loss of a sock? should he offer his condolences? unsure of how to proceed, yifan decides on another hug—it seemed to pacify the man earlier. he wraps his arms around the stranger’s small frame, and sways him gently from side to side.

“i know i shouldn't use kyungsoo anymore but i can't afford to use suho. even though he's state-of-the-art and makes my jongdae and chennie smell like a fresh field of daisies during springtime.”

what on earth is baekhyun harping on about? maybe he’s made a mistake in initiating a conversation with the man. he probably should’ve bolted as soon as he found out that chennie was a sock. yifan looks around to see if the crying man is accompanied by a friend, relative, perhaps a team of nurses and doctors looking for a missing patient? “er...” yifan trails off, unsure how to proceed.

the man points to the laundrette across the road and suddenly it all clicks into place. the man is talking about the washing machine eating his sock. okay, so he’s a guy who’s in distress because he’s lost his sock, that’s perfectly understandable. sure, baekhyun’s a little unique in that he names his socks, but just because yifan hasn’t formed a close attachment to any articles of clothing, who is he to judge the bond between a man and his socks?

they are very useful, after all. they keep one’s feet nice and warm, and thinking about it, yifan can appreciate how much he relies on them. without them, the whole process of wearing shoes would be pretty darned unpleasant. in fact, now that it’s been brought to his attention, the mere thought of wearing shoes without socks makes him shudder. unlike yifan’s best friend, jongin, who has a habit of never wearing socks, which is why he…

“oh!” yifan exclaims, the sudden outburst startling baekhyun. “wait a minute, i just remembered!” yifan shrugs off his backpack and rummages through it for several moments until he locates what he’d been searching for. “they’re not much, they’re certainly not as epic as pokemon socks. but they do have bears on them?”

baekhyun gasps as he takes the socks from yifan’s hands. “they’re so cute, i love them! thank you so much! are you sure it’s okay if i have them?”

yifan tries his best not to focus on the striking contrast between the size of their hands. “of course, and you’re welcome! i’ve gotta go now though, but maybe i’ll see you around? i’m here pretty much every week at this time.”

baekhyun nods his head, cradling the pair of socks in his hands like a treasured item. “thanks again, yifan!”

yifan waves goodbye as he stands up to leave. he doubts he’ll ever bump into baekhyun again, but a small part of him hopes that the other will visit him next week.






“yifannie! i want you to meet channie and yeollie!” baekhyun announces the second he bursts through yifan’s apartment door. he kicks off his shoes and lifts his right foot, wriggling his toes at yifan.

yifan looks down at the man’s feet, immediately recognise the red character—baekhyun’s wearing charmander socks today. “hi, channie! hi, yeollie. welcome to the family.”

it’s been half a year since yifan encountered a sniffling baekhyun, and much to his surprise, baekhyun did in fact return the following week for his free hug. and then again the week after that. and the next week as well. baekhyun had become yifan’s number one customer, and after baekhyun’s fourth visit, yifan worked up the courage to ask baekhyun out on a real date. they’ve been in a relationship ever since.

“how about i join you today?” baekhyun asks, pointing to yifan’s ‘free hugs’ sign by the front door. “gotta get my share.”

“you know you can get hugs anytime, right?”

“and kisses?”

“kisses, too.” yifan leans in, catching baekhyun closing his eyes. grinning, yifan skirts past baekhyun's lips and places a wet kiss on on his boyfriend’s forehead instead.

“hey!” baekhyun protests, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. “what was that for?”

yifan quickly pecks another wet kiss on baekhyun’s nose before capturing the man's lips, slipping his tongue in when baekhyun’s lips part ever so slightly. he smiles as baekhyun moans softly into his mouth.

“you don’t know how much it pains me to say this, but i gotta go do my good deed for the week. i’ll be back in an hour,” yifan tells baekhyun, breaking the kiss.

baekhyun taps a finger against his bottom lip. “what if i changed my name to deed? then you could…”

“only once a week?” yifan asks, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively. he pulls baekhyun in for another kiss.

baekhyun whimpers when he feels yifan pulling away. “stay, please? for me?”

yifan’s aim had always been to do things for others, and technically, that would include baekhyun. granted, it’s not exactly the most entirely selfless act he’s ever committed, there’s nothing that would make yifan happier than to see his boyfriend’s bright smile reaching his eyes. but nonetheless, it still counts as a good deed if he grants the request of the most important man in his life, right?

“anything for you,” yifan whispers into baekhyun’s ear as he wraps his arms around his boyfriend’s waist.

“i love you, yifan.”

“i love you, too. socks and all.”

a/n: comments make me happy face.