University life, academically, was going well for Lei _(LN)___. At least, it could have gone a lot worse for the year. She got the easy load from her professors, who were mostly against having to read and grade papers till the crack of dawn. She had a lot of hands-on projects to do instead, which was also kind of a negative thing considering she had a regular budget. That meant having to take up a part-time job, which was close to impossible to do in the day, because of her schedule, which led to her working the after hours at Grand Prix Pizza, the nearest pizza place to the school.

At least, she managed to drag a few of his friends to work with her. That, and most of the other people at Grand Prix Pizza were around her age anyway, so it was easy making friends with everybody else too.

"When are you going to wipe that smile off your face?" Yuri, one of the aforementioned friends, commented, rolling his eyes. He and Lei met when they were kids, back when they lived in Russia, and now he happens to be Lei's roommate. They didn't officially dorm in the campus apartments, choosing instead to live somewhere around the school instead. It helped since it was of decent distance from the pizza place, and the university.

Lei was already in an upbeat mood ever since she started work, even if it started at 12AM. The day had went well, she delivered a good report in one of her classes, and she got a few hours of sleep before heading over. She liked keeping a cheerful disposition at the workplace, because that not only helped her get by, but it helped her friends have a better time too. However, that night, her wider-than-usual smile probably had something to do with the really cute customer she just got off the phone with earlier, the one who had accidentally said 'I love you' and who began to apologize a million times.

"Hey, you gotta admit, it was amusing," she said lightly, recalling the look of shock that pass by her friend's features after he replied 'I love you, too' to the person on the other line.

That earned another eye roll from Yuri, "gross."

Lei huffed and pouted at that, "it was not gross, Yuri, I was just trying to lighten up the mood. Poor guy was working on something at 1:30AM."

"WE’RE working at 1:30AM," another voice quipped. Nour stood by the kitchen counter, flour obvious on her apron along with some tomato sauce stains, much like Lei's own. "Until 5AM, actually." (WRITER’S NOTE: yes I put myself in here because I’m egotistical trash lmao carry along)

"Which only leaves an extra two to three hours to sleep some more," Yuri sighed. "I regret letting you talk me into this."

Lei maintained her positive stance nonetheless, choosing to smile at her friends instead. Sure, she has class every morning that lasted till the afternoon and her sleeping schedule varied on how much assignments she had, and even so it wasn't usually straight hours of sleep, but still. It wasn't that bad working at the pizza place at ungodly hours, because it usually meant less work to do since most people would be asleep, and they were getting paid extra. It was a sacrifice worth making, in her opinion.

"Hey, at least we're doing a good service to others," Lei smiled.

"Is your idea of a good service flirting with customers through heart shaped pork?"

Lei threw some flour towards Yuri, who jumped to the side and dodged it easily. He stuck his tongue out, "stupid. You're cleaning that up."

"For the record, again, I wasn't flirting. I've never flirted with customers before," Lei flipped some of her hair off her face, getting flour in it in the process but didn't really care. "I just thought the gesture would provide entertainment for our valued customer."

"Valued customer? He's never been here!" Yuri reacted, well aware that Lei had asked whoever was on the other line if he had ever been to Grand Prix Pizza. "Save your excuses for another day."

"He will be a valued customer since I gave good service," Lei was saying just as the loud sound of a motorcycle engine could be heard outside. Yuri gave another eye roll as Yuuri sauntered into the place, a wicked grin on his face. Everyone could feel his excitement as he went up to the counter.

Yuuri clapped a hand on Lei's shoulder, who blinked back in surprise.

"You, my friend, will definitely enjoy the looks of him," he said, laughing loudly as Lei looked confused for a moment, before realization passed over her features and a light blush took place. She lightly swatted the hand on her shoulder away.

Yuri approached the two with a cheeky smile, "does he look like Lei's type?"

"He's good looking for sure," Yuuri said confidently, causing Lei to stutter something along the lines of “what type are you talking about pffft I don't have a type.” Yuuri continued, "Not as good looking as that Viktor guy we have as a regular though. He still refuses to acknowledge me."

Yuri and Nour snickered at the reaction.

"Did you get his name?"

"Unfortunately, no," Yuuri said, shaking his head sadly.

Lei couldn't help but feel a small tinge of disappointment too, before she brushed it off, reasoning to herself that it's not like she was actually expecting anything to happen just because I love you's were said. It was even accidental. Sure, the boy on the other line gave a really cute reaction, but the Risuces of them meeting each other or for that encounter to happen again were slim. She should really stop being a hopeless romantic. Right on cue, she felt an arm sling across her shoulder, and looked over to see Yuri standing there with a cheshire like grin on his face.

"Is our angel Lei-han sad?" Yuri teased. "You know we do have his number, right?"

At that, Lei visibly perked up- they did have saved numbers of the customers, and the boy from earlier did use a cellphone to call, but still.

"It could belong to somebody else and he just ordered for them," Lei muttered, remembering the countless times her own roommate had shoved his phone onto her ear just as the somebody connected to the other line, complaining that his Japanese wasn't good enough to order food when it perfectly was. Yuri must have realized this too, because he laughed and agreed, much to Lei’s dismay.

"We also technically have his address."

"That's way too stalkerish."

"It's still contact with him, kinda," Yuuri commented. "You'll regret not finding him, seriously."

Lei rolled her eyes and sighed, "c'mon guys, stop trying to pair me up. It was a customer and I was just doing my job, there's really nothing more to it." Yuuri opened his mouth to speak again, but she cut him off and continued. "It doesn't matter if he was cute. Really."

"You just admitted he was cute," Nour teased, which made Lei blush again before she argued that it was because Yuuri mentioned it and it was totally not because of the way he spoke over the phone, his voice light sounding and showed hints of shyness just by the tone of it, even if the boy sounded tired as hell. She was just doing her job, tried to make things better, all that jazz.

When she finished explaining himself for the hundredth time that night, Lei looked around to see that she was still met with mixed looks of amusement and skepticism. Finally, Yuri gave a loud sigh and nodded.

"Fine, whatever you say. Just stop talking…"

Lei was about to smile when Yuri continued.

"Lover girl."

That time, the flour managed to hit Yuri squarely on the chest before he could escape.