Kyungsoo walked towards the cozy little cafe with a solid, determined look on her face. Curse that ratted Byun Baekhyun for guilt tripping (read: forcing) her to get him coffee from his 'favourite' place at ungodly hours. Granted it was only noon, but still. It was the principle. Clearly this was the universe's way to telling her that she needed new friends - asap. Or maybe not, she could very easily survive in this cold hard world alone thank you very much. Who needed people anyway? Without them she'd be able to achieve all sorts: sing peacefully in the shower without Oh Sehun screaming at her in the mornings to shut up, wear all black everyday without Kim Jongin having a dramatic hissy fit about the importance of fashion, attend music theory lessons without Park Chanyeol giggling at her own jokes and showing her pictures of puppies every few minutes.

Thinking about the logistics it would be perfect, serene even. Definitely the best birthday wish in the history of ungranted wishes. But alas, it wasn't meant to be and she wasn't much of a dreamer anyway so instead she opened the brightly coloured front door.

The smell of coffee accosted her nose. She hated coffee. Unfortunately she was in the minority in the universe since most people were so reliant on the putrid substance. She it in and joined the queue, looking at the beautifully drawn chalk writing behind the baristas. The calligraphy showed excellent penmanship as well as being easy to read. They must have one talented artist in their midst and Kyungsoo wished her own chicken scrawl had half the class and sophistication that this one presented, maybe that would stop her professors from complaining every day for the last two years.

Before she knew it, she was at the front of the line and when one extremely bubbly sounding barista announced "next customer please" she squinted her eyes (a bad habit but she'd grown way too accustomed to it, besides she'd heard from multiple people that it made her look intimidating) to help her recognise from the distance why the person looked so familiar. Of course Chanyeol would work in a family run coffee house, because really. why wouldn't she? No wonder she almost always smelt of the beverage and the voice sounded so subconsciously familiar. Kyungsoo dragged her feet towards the counter, smiling tentatively at the taller girl.

"Hey Chanyeol,"

"Hey Kyungsoo. I didn't know you liked coffee."

"I don't," Kyungsoo muttered bitterly and she watched Chanyeol's face fall. Perhaps that was a little abrupt, normally she wouldn't have cared but there was something about the barista's sad face that made her heart twinge with something that felt suspiciously like guilt. The older girl suited the smile she constantly wore on her face and it wouldn't be Kyungsoo that ruined it dammit.

"Baekhyun forced me to go on a coffee errand. On my birthday of all days, it isn't fair. I'd spit on it but I'm not that unhygienic," Kyungsoo complained causing Chanyeol to chuckle as she recited the order that she'd memorised on the way to her.

"Leave his poor coffee alone, it's meant to be savoured. I didn't know it was your birthday! Happy birthday Soo. Maybe we could hang out sometime..." she looked unsure, tentative almost and it must have mirrored her own expression because time froze for a few seconds. If it wasn't for the whirring of one of the machines. Kyungsoo would really think that time had stood still in that moment.

She took in the features of Chanyeol's face, the full bottom lip that was currently being chewed on, the long silver ringlets that framed her face and the large doe eyes that her in at times without her knowing. She hadn't given her many chances at all, other than their shared university course, they very rarely crossed paths and if they did the conversations were mostly one-sided. The black haired girl had taken advantage of Chanyeol's friendliness but not given her the time of day in return and she could see that this offer had an underlying desperation in it, one that suggested this was the last let down that the older girl could take before giving up on their entire relationship.

"Yeah, other than hanging out with Baekhyun I didn't have any plans anyway. I don't really do much on my birthday," she let out a short laugh. That would be an understatement. All she did on her birthday was lounge around in her pyjamas, listen to her favourite songs, eat loads of pizza and nag Sehun like a mother. In other people's eyes though, that might not sound like much. To her it was perfect. But life did include taking on different enterprises one may not usually endeavour to approach so this was a gamble.

Chanyeol handed her the coffee cup and she noticed the chunky writing that said 'Too Soo' with a smiley at the bottom and couldn't help the slow smile that began to encompass her face. The other girl was too much sometimes, she'd already told her the backstory of this mocha latte and she still did this.

"Awesome. I'm finishing my shift in like...five minutes anyway. Think you can wait?" she said with a teasing lilt to her voice and Kyungsoo rolled her eyes.

"Of course I can wait, I'm not a child." she scowled playfully, furrowing her eyebrows a little.

"Are you sure? You're just as adorable as my five year old niece and she's really adorable. I should know, we share the same genes after all," Chanyeol stated confidently and Kyungsoo wondered how someone managed to be overly confident, yet charming at the same time. It was something she completely attributed to Chanyeol and no one else could mirror it in any way.

"Shut up and serve the customers," she grumbled before making her way towards an empty table, smoothing her sprayed on black jeans in the process. Her outfit consisted of two things; skinny jeans and a baggy grey shirt that was too many sizes above her own but was the comfiest thing she owned. The drooping arms and sweater paws were so worth it.

The chair she was sitting on directly faced Chanyeol, its not like she could face the opposite direction but she wasn't afraid to admit she quietly observed the other girl while she worked.

She was just the same as she was everywhere else, cheerful, friendly. A lot of the customers that came in seemed to be on a first name basis and small talk as well as simultaneous coffee making ensued. The whole time she was watching (or gawking at) the barista she couldn't help but wonder where the other girl got all that energy to be nice to people. People weren't always nice and most had to redeeming qualities, besides small talk had no use to someone on a deeler level. So what inspired Chanyeol, to go above and beyond societal expectations of faux politeness and top notch fakery?

At first, she'd assumed the older girl was fake and shallow. No one could be puppy like at their age, so she'd kept her distance. Letting the silver haired girl do most of the talking, waiting for her to get bored and move on to someone new. But it'd been months now and Chanyeol wasn't budging and Kyungsoo was actually starting to, shockingly, warm up.

A few minutes in and a apronless Chanyeol was heading towards her looking excited. Her bright red shorts and humongous navy sweater made her stand out but her tall figure did most of the work.

To say that Kyungsoo felt dwarfed next to her was an understatement, she was short for her height and Chanyeol was incredibly tall. If anything it should have made the barista more elegant but instead it served to opposite, if clumsy had a photo definition in the dictionary - Park Chanyeol's face would be right under it. Probably with a pained expression stemming from stubbing her toe on the same corner for the millionth time.

"So...where are we headed mi amigo?" Chanyeol asked, waggling her eyebrows cheesily.

"Uh. No idea. Any suggestions?" She replied, not wanting to embarrass herself with her grandma ideas of fun and ruin the all fun for the other girl.

"We could go see a movie, or one of my friends has a gig at this bar we both perform at. He mostly does covers and stuff but the atmosphere's nice."

"We could do both. We are both music students after all so I'm interested in seeing your friend perform and there's this new film that I've been meaning to watch too," she shared and Chanyeol's responding grin was very nice to see. From an objective point of view of course.

"You're right! We've got a lot of time today. Let's do all the activities we can okay? This is gonna be the best birthday you've ever had, courtesy of me," the tall girl enthused and they both started heading towards the exit of the café. Just as Kyungsoo opened the front door, she heard a shout of "Chanyeol! Get back here. Your shift isn't over young lady!" and froze.

Did this mean they weren't going together?

A soft voice on her loose black curls tickled her ear and whispered one word, "Run."

Nothing could have prepared her for the suddenness that was Chanyeol swinging the door open, taking her larger hands in her own and running with her - long legs bounding full speed ahead - until Kyungsoo was a panting mess whose heart was screaming at her to stop before it made her stop. Since they'd been running from the angry man with the spatula for a few minutes now, it took a while for her to realise exactly where they were.

They were really close to Baekhyun's flat. A quick turn and they'd be there. She could kiss the floor right now. In their instinctual, frantic escape they'd ended up in the one place she was planning to go to first. This stupid, now more or less cold, beverage wouldn't be consuming itself after all. While making the short bend, Kyungsoo lectured the other girl on the importance of attendance and commitment in the work place while Chanyeol looked slightly sheepish, playing with the end of her strands, insisting that it was for a good cause and the "old man" would definitely get over it.

Pressing the buzzer and tapping her feet, it wasn't long until Baekhyun's suspicious voice rang out.

"Who is it?"

She sighed at the dumb question. Really, why did she put herself through this all the time? Where was her knighthood? Sainthood?

"It's me you idiot. Who else would be providing you with your poisonous filth at this time?" Chanyeol giggled at her words, looking thoroughly entertained.

She heard shuffling and was that... heavy breathing?

"Sorry who? The only person I sent out to get my delicious mocha late was my friend Kyungsoo and she's been missing for about an hour now. Do you think you've seen her?" The voice sounded mocking and oh so irritating. Mentally imagining tearing the door down, beating him to a bloody pulp and forcing him to watch her pour his "golden elixir" down the toilet was the only thing calming her down at this point.

"Listen here Baekhyun you little . I just got out of bed and spent five thousand won on crap that I don't even like. So you open this door, pay me back now, drink every sip and then don't bother me for the rest of the day or so help me God-" by now Kyungsoo must have looked terrifying if Chanyeol's squeak of shock was any indication.

"All right...I'll open it. J-just don't kill me yeah? Promise," he sounded fearful. Good.

"I won't," she insisted. But there were a lot of things one could do that didn't involve the actual option of ending a life. Torture, chokeholds, hard kicks to the shin...

"Why are you smirking?" Baekhyun's voice shrieked out and he sounded like a pubescent teenage boy who'd just experienced a bodily malfunction. "There's a camera in front of you. I can see everything!"

Damn.

She looked to her right and Chanyeol was of no help at all, she was still laughing.

"I'm smiling. That's how I smile. Just like you can't help having girly hands that-"

Bzzz.

The heavy front door opened and Kyungsoo mentally cackled. Victory was hers.

They walked up to his door which swung open on the first knock.

"I don't have girly hands! Everyone I've met said that they look fine. Even Google stated that the length and width are average for a male my height. It's just you who thinks that-" Baekhyun stopped mid rant when he noticed Chanyeol standing next to Kyungsoo, looking at him with an amused look in her eyes. His own eyes widened and he grabbed the cup from the raven's hands and slammed the door in their faces.

"What just happened? Your friend's so funny by the way. You're so mean to him," Chanyeol cheerily commented as Kyungsoo glared at the offending piece of wood right ahead of her.

"More like ungrateful. Let's go Chanyeol, we shouldn't let losers ruin our day," she nodded at the taller girl and began walking away from the scene of what could have been her criminal masterpiece. Unfortunately laws and regulations prevented true freedom of expression, a shame really since it could have been perfect. Reminds her of that time she hung him upside down from a pole and caused him to go viral on twitter for a while '#happy memories'.

"So where's that bar that your friend sings at?"

"Oh...I sing there too...sometimes," Chanyeol looked slightly embarrassed as she divulged this but continued on, "It's called The Brick, it's like a five minute walk from here. C'mon."

She then, before Kyungsoo could physically protest, laced their hands together and began walking in long strides towards their destination. She didn't know how to react to the body contact, it was the second time now and the black haired girl hated other people touching her. Usually that was. There was something warm about Chanyeol's soft hands and innocent intentions. Besides, this was happening for a beneficial reason after all. It was understandable that them holding hands would speed up the process of them getting there and if there was anything Kyungsoo loved, it was arriving at places quickly. So she'd accept this, for now at least. This didn't mean hugs and other type of physical affection was allowed. Definitely not, if the older girl even tried it she'd find herself without a - wait, that only worked for guys. Still.
Girls could feel pain too.

So as they asked towards this "Brick" place (terrible name really, highly unimaginative) Kyungsoo felt a bubble of excitement coarse through her. She loved music, and now they were gonna watch someone play. A friend of Chanyeol's she was praying would be good.

 

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Hey hey heyyy. That was way out of my comfort zone but the first chapter was so fun to write. Yayyy! Why they so darn cute?? And Chanyeol with longer silver hair is my weak point *my hearteu* and Kyungsoo being psychopathically evil...as usual hahaha

#weshouldallprayforbaek