"Yeah."

Yuri stared wide-eyed at Lei, who kept up her wide grin all the way from Grand Prix Pizza back to their dorm, and into their shared room, immediately making Yuri curious- sure, Lei normally had a cheerful disposition, but her current look with the wide grin and dazed eyes was a new sight. He should have known it would have something to do with the customer from last night.

"You're serious? You met him?"

Lei sighed and slowly repeated, "Yes, Yuri, I met the customer from last night. He's... well, he's alright." Another smile began to grow on her face as she recalled Otabek and his shy boy reactions, specifically how easily he blushed and turned nervous. She had expected a timid sort of fellow, but Otabek exceeded expectations.

Yuri scoffed, "alright? You sound infatuated already. How easy can you get?"

"I'm not infatuated," Lei shot back. "I'm not easy either, what have I actually done? I just..." She paused, and a sneaky grin appeared on her face. "I guess you can say I developed a crust on him."

She dodged the pillow Yuri threw her way.

"What did you call me back for anyway?" Lei asked as she picked the fallen pillow up and settled down on her bed. "You sounded distressed."

"Oh," Yuri nodded. "Right. I forgot I have homework due this afternoon because Mr. Park is terrible and a holiday means nothing to that man. I need your help."

Lei rolled her eyes, "that's it? You couldn't have called Risu or Shupp?"

"Risu has no idea what she’s doing, and I did call Shupp," Yuri pouted. "She hung up on me because I woke her up."

"Fine," Lei finally said, deciding that her thoughts needed a break from Otabek, and that she really didn't need to see Yuri pouting. "Let's get started on that."

 

 

Lei never should have agreed to this.

"Just two pages left!" Yuri happily announced.

"You only need three pages."

"Oh, right..."

Lei would have definitely preferred having her own thoughts invaded by Otabek rather than have to spend an entire hour slowly trying to help Yuri with trigonometry. She should have just taken a nap. The assignment wouldn't have been that hard, if it wasn't for the fact that Yuri really didn’t know anything about trigonometry and Lei was doing all the work for him.

"I never should have agreed to this," Lei voiced out her thoughts as she sat beside Yuri on the living room sofa, laptop between them.

"But you always do," Yuri replied back sweetly. "That's why you're Angel Lei, right?"

"I wish you were normally this nice," Lei exaggerated a sigh.

Yuri's comeback was interrupted by the loud ringing of Lei's phone- it was that familiar ringtone again, which meant Yuuri, which immediately linked to Grand Prix Pizza, and then finally: Otabek, because the last time Lei spoke to Yuuri, the latter had mentioned going up to the table. The phone was on her ear in a flash.

"Put it on speaker!" Yuri complained, tugging at her sleeve, and Lei decided to just go ahead and agree, balancing the phone on the laptop.

"Yuuri!" Lei greeted happily, earlier fatigue gone.

"I should be your favorite person on the planet right now."

"That depends," Lei mused. "What happened when I left?"

Yuuri went into a detailed description of what happened, laughing now and then. Namely, how he went over and was thoroughly shot down by Viktor again, but at least he spoke more than three words to him that time. Lei told him to skip to the parts with Otabek, which Yuuri did so eventually. Lei easily imagined the reactions Yuuri described, because really, it was just too easy to see Otabek flustered.

"Are you still there?" Lei asked.

There was a pause.

"Yeah, I'm still here."

"What else happened?"

"I asked him if he wanted to go on a date with you," Yuuri said, a bit too calmly for Lei's taste.

"And?" Lei pressed on, leaning closer to the phone.

Yuuri sighed, "I'm so jealous. Why is it so easy for you?"

Lei gaped at the phone- "WHAT?"

"Do I need to grow my hair longer too? Will that help?"

There was some sort of loud noises coming from the background, like unfamiliar voices, but Lei just passed it off as the store's customers. She continued to stare at the phone with nothing coming out of , making Yuri roll his eyes beside her.

"Lei here doesn't understand basic language anymore," Yuri suddenly butted in. "Make it a clear answer. Is it a yes or a no?"

Lei stopped midway hitting Yuri's shoulder.

"Yes? It's a yes? He said yes?!!!!" Lei asked over and over, eyes wide in surprise, still staring at her phone in shock as if Yuuri could see her face. She did not expect Otabek to say yes. Well, to be fair, despite teasing the other boy, she expected the whole pizza thing to last only a day or so, until it wears out or until their friends get tired of teasing them. Speaking of which, Yuuri also described the surprised looks Otabek got from his friends, and added that 'they were all cool with it and just as excited as we are for you.'

She had to process it again.

Otabek said yes.

Otabek was actually okay with things stepping up a notch, despite how everything was an accidental situation blown up by their friends.

Otabek said yes to a date with her.

"Earth to Lei?" Yuuri said over the phone. "Yuri, did she die or something?"

"I hope not, I still need to finish my homework."

"I'm fine," Lei finally spoke, "he really said yes?"

"Did you want him to say no?"

"No!" She exclaimed- causing both her roommate, and the boy on the phone to snicker. "Thanks for letting me know, Yuuri, I'm gonna go lie down and try to catch my breath now."

"You're really into Otabek, huh?"

"Bye!"

"Wait--"

Lei ended the call before the other could continue. It was honestly a weird sensation. She wasn't sure what it was actually, but her skin felt tingly and the grin she had looked like it could break her face, which was alarming. She didn't even notice how much of her hair had fallen over his face, which usually made her push it back again. Otabek agreed to go on a date with her. She did not expect working the night shift at Grand Prix Pizza to have such perks.

Yuri shook his head, "like I said. Totally infatuated."

"I am not," Lei denied half-heartedly.

"Can I ask something?" Yuri said, and continued without waiting for a reply. "First of all, how are you going to go on this date with Otabek when you have no way of contacting him? I mean sure, we have a phone number and address saved but the number could be someone else's and you can't just show up there."

Lei didn't want to admit it, but Yuri had a point.

"I’m dumb," she said quietly as she looked for Yuuri's name in her contact list. "I am so dumb."

"I see you realized your mistake," was what Yuuri greeted her with when the call connected, still on speaker phone. Yuri exclaimed from the side that he was the one who realized it, and that Lei was too distracted by the idea, and the latter couldn't really deny it.

"So..." Lei started. "How will this go again?"

"I'm glad you asked," Yuuri replied back cheerfully, and Lei could almost see the wide grin on his face. "Hold on just a sec."

"What?"

There were some more noises- the same unfamiliar voices, a few more particularly loud, random sounds that Lei couldn't really decipher, but overall things sounded a tad bit different compared to the usual sounds she would hear around the store. She couldn't hear the sound of pizza being flipped around, stuff being fried, or orders being called, which should have been clear considering Yuuri should be around the counter.

Unless.

"Hello?"

Okay, that definitely wasn't Yuuri's voice anymore.