Baekhyun stayed a while, making her laugh and filling the silence she kept sinking into, in his attempt to make sure she was fully fine before he left.  He didn’t say if he was going to have words with Chanyeol or not, Alex didn’t ask, but she couldn’t kick the feeling that he would. 

She was thankful it was Baekhyun who had walked in at that moment and no one else.  True she didn’t know anyone else well enough, but she figured that Junmyeon had made his presence in her life known to them now, what with all the offering to send them round to be her maid, so it was only logical that had it have been anyone else they would probably have reported it back to Junmyeon.  She didn’t want to deal with that situation just yet.

She sat on her sofa, curled up like a cat, with a cup of hot coffee warming her in the chilly winters evening feeling at odds with herself.  She kept going back to that moment with Chanyeol, when that brief thought entered her mind when he might kiss her, and moreover that she wanted him to.   Shuffling anxiously under the enormous fluffy blanket she couldn’t shake the heavy weight of guilt she felt towards Junmyeon over it.  It beleaguered her all night, as she threw her limbs about unable to sleep, trying in vain to work out if she felt guilty because she liked Junmyeon more, or god forbid, it was because she liked Chanyeol more. 

Disturbed by a constant buzzing she woke up blearily.  Blinking into the sunlight, tenderly rubbing her eyes, she found the source of the constant buzzing coming from her phone. 

Junmyeons name flashed on the screen almost angrily at her in her sleepy haze.  She felt panic set in, looking at the time it was somewhere past 10, a lot later than she usually cared to sleep. 

‘Hello?’ she yawned into the offending device.

‘Hey… did I wake you?’ his y drawl swam into her ears, perking her awake a little bit more.

‘Kind of, I didn’t sleep well last night, I must be making up for it now.’ She sighed, happy to hear his voice.

‘Oh, poor baby.’ He chuckled, ‘how do you feel today?’

‘I’m fine now,’ she told him, thinking, in the physical sense at least. 

‘Good, good, that’s good’ he hesitated ‘Are you busy tonight?’ he asked, almost bashfully, but she could hear the smile on his face. 

Mentally running through the days of the week to land on what day it was she told him ‘No, I don’t think so.’ She stifled a yawn.  She really needed to get up and get coffee in her. 

He exhaled a little down the phone happily.  ‘Can we do our date tonight?’ his voice was low, kind of a whisper when you're doing something you shouldn’t be. 

‘Why are you whispering like that?’ she mimicked back, satisfied when she heard his smirk down the line.

‘I’m hiding out from everyone in a back room, at the moment, I don’t want them to know it’s tonight.  They’re nuisances if they know about it.’ He told her in the same strained whisper.

She had to giggle, he was their leader, but he was hiding like a kid from its parents.

‘You really show them who’s boss huh?’ she giggled at him again, knowing he would giggle back.

‘They bully me.’ He moaned sounding cute.

‘Do you need me to come and teach them a lesson?’ she teased back as she padded barefoot out of the room to make a coffee. 

He coughed back a throaty laugh.  The thought of her showing anyone a lesson was apparently hilarious.

‘I’ll survive without you hurting yourself on my account.’ He told her.  ‘So, tonight, 7pm?  Wear something nice ok?’ he told her mysteriously.

‘Nice?’ she repeated.

‘And warm.’ She could almost imagine his face winking as he said it. 

‘Yes, boss.’ She answered him.

He chuckled again, ‘See you later beautiful.’

Looking down at her phone smiling, she started her day with a coffee, letting her mind wander to what he had planned for her.  What could require her to look nice and warm?  Chanyeol’s words suddenly burnt into her mind, like a white-hot poker, shattering her daydream of the date.  ‘Don’t date Junmyeon.’ Deep frown lines appeared around as she heard his words replaying over and over again.  He wasn’t mad, his tone didn’t suggest he was angry about her dating him, he was pleading with her, it was a request, a begging tone he had used, but she still couldn’t work out why. 

Scrunching her nose up, she thought through his request.  She didn’t particularly want to cancel the date with Junmyeon.  She liked the relaxed banter she had with him, the way whenever she made him laugh her stomach clenched.  Being around Junmyeon was easier than being around Chanyeol, and she concluded her guilt from the brief insanity of wanting Chanyeol to kiss her must have been because she liked Junmyeon more.  It had to be that simple.  If she knew the reason he told her not to date him maybe it would have been a different outcome, but for today she decided she would ignore his request.

It was another cold day, the snow from the previous week had melted down some, and it was less icy than it had been, but piles of unclean watery snow were now lining the streets.

She got herself ready for the date early, always preferring to be ready and waiting than to keep anyone else waiting for her. 

Wrapped tightly in her towel fresh from a shower she opened her wardrobe and stared blankly at it.  She had no idea what to wear.  Warm but nice he had told her.  She had some strange ideas about what was nice, but really in her opinion, it was whatever you constituted as a nice place.  You could wear nice jeans to the park, or you could wear a body-hugging dress to go to dinner.  Both were nice. 

His words of wa