A Kiss Happens

“Byun Baekhyun! It’s still lunch time for God’s sake! Did you really have to literally drag me out from McDonald at the time I deserve?! I HAVEN’T EVEN FINISHED MY CHEESEBURG—“

            A balled paper shoved down Jongdae’s throat was enough to cut the male with boisterous high pitched voice that could be heard three floors above and below them off, at least for few seconds. Jongdae spat the paper and gave Baekhyun his dirtiest look.

            “We have to be quick, Chen!” Baekhyun interjected as Jongdae opened his mouth, ready to protest. Their steps were so quick now they were practically half walking half running toward the elevator which soon Baekhyun punched the button upon impatiently. “I have to be there first before that goofy lanky got a highlight! I’m so much better than him, you just see! And God damn it! Why this goddamn elevator won’t open yet?!”

            A frustrated sigh escaped Baekhyun’s pouty lips. If not for remembering the presentation he was about to do in less than fifteen minutes, Jongdae swore he could see Baekhyun tearing his hair apart. When the elevator opened with a ‘ding’ sound, Jongdae can’t help but letting out sigh of relief. Only God knows what could happen to the poor elevator one more minute in the abusive hand of frustrated Baekhyun.

            As they stood there in not uncomfortable silence while the elevator was moving up, Jongdae quietly sipped his drink while the corner of his eyes examining Baekhyun. He looked as stunning as he was on daily basis, neatly tucked baby blue shirt, ironed pants, combed and gelled hair, not any strain falling out of place, and that elegant aroma of his perfume. Baekhyun was sporting perfection, as always, except now for the frown on his pretty face.

            “Yah don’t be stressed like that, it’s just a presentation,” Jongdae offered, his elbow playfully tugged on Baekhyun’s. “You’ve worked hard on it these last two weeks and I could tell I couldn’t even make a presentation half as good as yours.”

            At that, Baekhyun allowed a small smile forming on his cherry lips. “But that Park Yoda would have his as well! Against mine! I should be better! I won’t ever let him beat me. Oh my god, I should have sabotaged his!”

            Jongdae glared at his friend’s not to saint-style way of obsession toward a certain tall name with a surname Park. “Baek, please-“

            “What?” Baekhyun fired back, arms crossed, and eyes now burn to live. “You also could see his stupid face everyday, right? There’s no way that oaf could win this time! I won’t let that goofy lanky idiot—“

            Just then the elevator made its ding sound before slowly opened, revealing the very same certain goofy lanky idiot Baekhyun had in mind standing before them, panting and all.

            Both Baekhyun and the tall Park seemed to be surprised for running into each other at the most unexpected, crucial time. The shocked expression on their faces only last for a few milliseconds only to be replaced by scowls and murderous looks. Baekhyun was quick to press the button again so that the elevator could be closed before Chanyeol get in, but the taller certainly wasn’t that slow to prevent it using his large hand.

            “Get out of here! I’m using the elevator!” Deep boisterous voice exclaimed. Not that Baekhyun ever waver even a little, given to the fact that he heard that awful voice every day.

            “No I’m not going anywhere! You use the stairs!”

            The (much) taller scoffed. “Why would I?! You are the one who should use the stairs! Who knows it could help to make you grow taller?”

            At the insult of his height, one he was sensitive about especially when it came from the cursed mouth of Park Yoda, Baekhyun rolled his eyes and balled his fist, already on his track recalling some judo techniques he used to master back then when he was younger.

            “Excuse you! My height is fine! It’s YOU who should use the stairs! Probably you’d trip on your clumsy legs and broke them then you’d need to cut them then tada~ maybe you can be lucky enough to make those legs look less abnormal.”

            Chanyeol’s big eyes got bigger as he glared at the shorter. The staring contest between both of them had started again, with so much heat hanging in the air that got Jongdae gulped down. As Baekhyun eyed Chanyeol, deciding with part of his ugly being to be punched and to be broke, Jongdae warily tugged on his arm.

            “Come on, Baek. You only have ten minutes left for presentation.”

            Hearing the notion, Baekhyun snapped back into reality. Quickly his thumb on the button again, punching furiously, but Chanyeol was quicker to get his body inside, slipping in between the door right when it’s moving to close, making the three of them trapped together.

            There was a heavy silence settled in once they started moving up. Baekhyun and Chanyeol both stood up at the opposite side of the small room, trying to inch as further as possible from each other with Jongdae in the middle, unfortunate enough to witness the silent war between the two. He could swear, both Baekhyun and Chanyeol tried their best to breathe the smallest amount of oxygen as possible for fear of breathing the same air as their enemy. The staring contest, Chanyeol with his big eyes, and Baekhyun with his small ones that couldn’t be less scary than Chanyeol’s doesn’t help either. Jongdae has a feeling in his gut that the two might choke each other anytime if he ever blinked an eye. So he joined the unofficial contest and stared at the elevator door hopefully. When will that freakin’ thing freaking open?!

***

            “So, the conclusion is, all we need to sell this product well, we should make a short drama as I explained the storyline earlier and close it up with them biting this chocolate caramel product together. I think it’d be very romantic and many couples would want to buy them.”

            Baekhyun ended his presentation with a huge grin that soon followed by a round applause by everyone in that room. Everyone except a certain lanky idiot who looked at him sceptically from across the table. Baekhyun had all the urge to crawl on that table and strangle Chanyeol to death, if only he didn’t care of many other couples of eyes staring at him in awe. He’s pretty sure he’d win this presentation already, that their client, his boss and his teammates would choose his idea instead.

            “Chanyeol, it’s your turn to show us your idea,” Kris, a very tall guy with grey hair and face screaming bad boy, who apparently was their new boss in the latest three months replacing his father shifted his gaze to Chanyeol. The later soon stood up from his chair and walked to the front where Baekhyun was still standing.

            “Make a way,” he said to the shorter, who shot him dirty look while standing there for a while, in high possibility was considering to block Chanyeol way instead. But for the sake of his image in front of his boss and client, he just raised his chin up and reluctantly got back to his seat.

            The moment Chanyeol connected his laptop to the projector was the moment he shifted his attention from Baekhyun (not that he was giving attention to Baekhyun anyway, not in a good gross way!) and started to focus to his own presentation.

            “I honestly against Mr. Byun’s idea,” he started casually, earning a few silent gasps and a death glare from the Byun himself. “I think this chocolate caramel product is not only snack for young people, for couples, especially. Everyone can eat it! Kids, teenagers, even old people without teeth-“ there was a space as the audients chuckled, “-so I think first, we should make our target of market become more general. Second, I don’t think drama is necessary, we are making ads not TV opera soap anyway.” There was a string of quiet chuckled again, and Baekhyun growled under his breathe. How dare he?!

            “So, why don’t we just put on how the chocolate made, how we poured melted chocolate on the delicious wafer then rolled it on the crispy almond chops and caramel and dip it into the chocolate again? We make it as dramatic as possible, with the appropriate theme song I will show you soon. Make the viewers droll! That is, they will definitely have the urge to buy our products!”

            Then Chanyeol showed them the simulation of the ads he had in mind, and at the end, all the audiences gave him applause. To Baekhyun’s irritation, Chanyeol got bigger applause than he did, not that he would ever admit that.

            “Honestly,” Kris spoke after Chanyeol took his seat back and the chattering among the others died down. “I do think of the ideas from Baekhyun and Chanyeol are fantastic. Don’t you guys agree with me?” He allowed a small smile before looking at a middle aged man next to him. “But since we need to choose one, I will let our client to choose by himself in the name of his company. How is it, Sir, after hearing both presentations? Do you like Chanyeol’s or Baekhyun’s more?”

            Both the said men stared at each other with determinations, half trying to break the other’s nerve and half trying to stay insane despite the prayers they kept repeat in mind.

            Let me win… let me win. God please. Don’t let me lost for that giant oaf.

            Don’t let him win don’t let him win. God please. Don’t let that cocky little fox win this.

***

            Baekhyun swirled the nth glass of wine in his hand with a scowl on his face. Sitting on the corner of the bar, he couldn’t took his sight from the round table in the middle of the room, with anger and irritation bubbled up in the pit of his stomach.

           There sitting Chanyeol. -eating grin attached to his lips not ever fading away. Kris, Tao, Jongin, all his colleagues and even Jongdae, who he thought his best friend joined them, cheering Chanyeol up and patted him on the back. Two intern es even clung to either sides of Chanyeol like he was some sort of mafia boss. them all!

            And Jongdae, you betrayer!  

            Yeah, Chanyeol won and Kris decided to throw a small party in the nearest bar for him. Too much for Baekhyun’s limit. He drown his drink and put it back on the bar counter with a loud thumb, before wiping off the stain on his lips using the sleeve of his favourite shirt (he was beyond care about such matter by now).

            “It’s still nine pm and you’re drunk already?”

            Being pulled back from his reverie, Baekhyun snapped his head to the side to find a very short male (shorter than Baekhyun already was) took a seat by his side without so much noise. Kyungsoo, he remembered despite his cloudy mind. That guy with a pair of big eyes looked innocent tonight, if only Baekhyun didn’t remember his reputation as that quiet one who would silently judge everyone with his creepy stare and at one time threw a can of soda to Kris’ head, Baekhyun would think he was a lost kid who barely old enough to get inside a bar.

            “Your presentation was good, though. I like yours better actually,” he added, offering Baekhyun a small smile that Baekhyun could only return with his half-drunk one.

            “Thanks. You are the only one with a good taste here.”

            That got Kyungsoo laughed. He grabbed Baekhyun’s hand just right as the other reaching for a bottle of wine in an attempt to pour more for himself.

            “Yah if you get drunk this early, who would want to take you home? Come on, let’s dance instead?”

***

            “Congratulations, Chanyeol-ah!” Suho, his senior patted him on the back and Chanyeol couldn’t help but grin impossibly wider. Even their senior and best worker for years when he was still an intern now admitted him.

            “Congratulations, Oppa~” Yerim, a very young intern who started working under Chanyeol a weeks ago clung to his left arm, given the fact Wendy already claimed the other one. “I should learn more from you,” she said in a clingy tone.

She’s drunk, Chanyeol thought. Yerim had just barely past her legal age and seemed like she couldn’t tolerate a little amount of alcohol well enough. As for Wendy, he couldn’t tell. He was dumb, but he wasn’t that dumb not to notice the girl’s suggestive look every time she greeted him good morning or walked past him which lately getting more frequent after Yerim came around.

Subtly, Chanyeol tried to pry the girls’ hands away from him as he stood up. He must admit he felt uncomfortable with the unspoken competition between Wendy and Yerim. To think that he wasn’t even interested in women, not that he would tell anyone.

“I- I’m-“

Upon realising the confused and upset look he got from the two girls still sitting at either sides of him, Chanyeol ran his fingers to the back of his head, the gesture he would do whenever his brain working up some excuses despite his mushy brain now. Ah, how many glasses poured for him already?

“I feel like dancing! Are you guys coming?”

***

In no time, with the help of alcohol, both Chanyeol and Baekhyun lost themselves on the dance floor. Baekhyun had no idea where was Kyungsoo going after he relaxed into the music and opted to busy himself dancing with few strangers happened to be there in front of him. Chanyeol, on the other hand consciously made his subtly way to get away from both the interns gluing to him like some gums. 

Somewhere in the middle, they met, among the crowd of other half-drunk people. Back to back until their butts bumped onto each other, causing them to turn around and have a look.

“Yoda?” Baekhyun blinked, confused if he were seeing things. Chanyeol was standing tall before him, grinning. He never saw him grinning like that to Baekhyun, and definitely never this close.

“Funny that you could still be dancing like this after being lost.”

So that was really Chanyeol. Baekhyun huffed in annoyance. In normal circumstance, if he were given this chance to be this close to Chanyeol, he would already pull that hair and tear that grin off of his face. But right now, Baekhyun felt too dizzy even to just balance himself standing on his two feet. Let alone attacking Chanyeol. Damn, alcohol!

“Go away, you ugly giant oaf!” He retorted defensively, using all the power of his voice, which is known to be too loud for everyone’s favour.

“Who’s ugly here?!” Chanyeol frowned. “Look at yourself, dwarf! Your hair is a mess, and what is it on your lips?!”

“Hey watch your language, motherer! Who you just called dwarf—“

Baekhyun had not yet finished with his profanities when Chanyeol presses his thumb against his lips, stopping the later all of sudden. He was wiping the stain of dessert Baekhyun had ordered earlier but somehow, that big thumb of Chanyeol lingered a little too long.

“Y-you ugly!” Baekhyun continued, more like an effort to collect himself because he didn’t know why, but a warm skin against his lips…. He almost leaned to the touch. Almost. “Look at that stick-out ears! You look really like Yoda! And those plump lips-“

As he said so, his eyes travelled to the said thing. It wasn’t a hard task since Chanyeol’s lips practically sitting on the same level with Baekhyun’s eyes (if not a little higher, that is), and he couldn’t help but to notice the thickness of Chanyeol’s lips, red and plum… and looked so… so kissable. And Baekhyun didn’t even know why or where that idea coming from.

“And you have weird-looking lips.” And since when his voice is this deep? This… y? “They remind me of…,” Chanyeol trailed, biting his plump lips which triggered Baekhyun even more, “…of puppy.”

In an instant, Baekhyun’s gaze shifted upward, meeting Chanyeol’s dark one. Somehow he could see lust in those eyes through his foggy sight. Maybe he did, or maybe he was just imagining, since all he could feel was hot. It was so hot all of sudden and he couldn’t think of anything but his desire, desperately wanting to taste that pair of tempting lips before him.

So when the same lips touched his, it didn’t take long for Baekhyun to respond, gradually moving his in sync with Chanyeol’s, nibbling on the plump lips and knowing now that he was right. Yes, those plump lips are kissable for real. And that Baekhyun would kiss him forever if he was allowed to.

There was a tugging, Chanyeol grazing teeth on his lower lips that made Baekhyun couldn’t help but gasped. Soon, he felt Chanyeol’s tongue intruding his warm cavern, which he didn’t fail to gladly welcome.

To be fair said, the kiss escalated quickly. Chanyeol placed one of his palms on the back of Baekhyun’s neck while the other on the shorter’s waist as he pulled in closer, if they could any more closer since Baekhyun was already clinging desperately on Chanyeol’s shirt. Wines, cheesecake, loud music, crowd, breathing… all were forgotten as they busy kissing the daylight out of each other.

Baekhyun was the first one to pull away, pushing Chanyeol lightly on the chest and soon inhaled as much oxygen as he could, but Chanyeol already moved his lips down his jawline to the expanse of his milky white neck. Baekhyun suppressed his moan to the back of his throat and pushed Chanyeol once again.

“L-let’s go somewhere better…,” he whispered breathlessly. 

A/N: Well, what is grammar? Who am I? Where am I?!