Baekhyun walked into the kitchen the next day grinning from ear to ear as if he had the worlds biggest secret stuffed down his pants. 

Chanyeol was busy cooking, having finally got some real food in their fridge for once, he wasn’t actually a bad cook, he was just lazy to buy supplies.

‘What?’ he asked Baekhyun as he swung his hands around, sniffing the air vigorously.

‘Nothing,’ Baekhyun answered innocently, but his tone implied otherwise.

‘What are you grinning for like a fool then?’  Chanyeol asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

‘Kyungsoo took Ella out for the day.’  Baekhyun broke his resolve chuckling away to himself as he took out a spoon to try Chanyeol’s cooking.

‘How do you know?’  Chanyeol challenged him, shoving him out the way before he ate all the stew he had cooked up.

‘I just saw him waiting outside the twins door.  He was holding a totoro.’  Baekhyun replied, lightly jumping up on the side of the counter.  ‘Is this done?’

‘Not yet.’ Chanyeol frowned, slapping his hands away.  ‘So?’ he got back to the topic.

‘So it’s cute, he bought her something obviously she would like, and he’s spending the whole day with her, thanks to me.’

‘Thanks to you how?’  Chanyeol snorted at him.

‘I helped.’  Baekhyun retorted simply. ‘Now to help you.’ He added in a lower voice.

‘Stop it.’  Chanyeol warned him. 

‘You’ve got to do something, she doesn’t even want to be with Junmyeon, like I told you, and I’ve seen you writing that song, ‘Butterfly?’ Your papers are all over the living room with scribbles on.’  Baekhyun said.

Chanyeol sighed, getting bored with this conversation for the millionth time. 

‘Ask her on a date.’  Baekhyun told him as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

‘No.’  Chanyeol huffed, washing the rice to go with the stew.

‘Why?’ He whined back at him.

‘She doesn’t want to date, or didn’t you hear Junmyeon yesterday.’  Chanyeol mumbled into the sink.

‘She doesn’t want to date our leader, doesn’t mean she’s against dating an over sized dork like you.’  He .

‘Mmm.’  Chanyeol responded.

‘Are you going to the meeting with Sungbin?’  Baekhyun asked, changing tact.

‘I don’t know.’  Chanyeol huffed in defeat.

‘You should figure that out.’  He told him, jumping down off the counter.  ‘I’m hungry when will this be done?’  He moaned impatiently.

‘When the rice is done, chill out.’  Chanyeol snapped, finally putting the rice bowl in the pot to cook. 

‘I missed your cooking.’  Baekhyun grinned up at him, melting something in Chanyeol as he grinned back. 

After eating with Baekhyun he cleaned up his state of a room as Baekhyun left with Jongin to meet Minho and Taemin, finally Chanyeol felt exhausted.  He had slept mostly well the past few days but doing strenuous house work always made him weak. 

He laid in bed and fell into a sound sleep, waking up to a dark apartment, and the doorbell ringing.  He considered rolling over in bed and going back to sleep when the bell rang again.  He groaned and hauled himself up, tripping over his feet as he opened the door.

‘Alex?’ he grumbled, sleepily.  He hadn’t spoken in several hours and his throat was stuck.  He looked at her confused, ‘Baekhyun isn’t here,’ he told her rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, assuming she was looking for his roommate. 

‘It’s not Baekhyun I’m here to see.’ She said, looking seriously at him. 

He stared, taken aback by her.  What did she want?  

‘I’m hungry.’ She explained her voice softening somewhat, ‘Do you want to come and eat with me?’ She spoke quickly but concisely. 

He looked at her very carefully, wondering if this was some kind of joke.  She stared right back at him, never giving in or giving anything away.  

‘Chanyeol?’ she pushed after several long seconds, her tone snapping him back to the here and now. 

‘I’ll get ready.  Come in.’ he said at once, opening the door more for her to step inside. 

She walked in slowly as he gazed down at her, unable to quite believe she was there or what was happening. 

‘Where is Baekhyun then?’ she asked following him inside. 

‘Gone to see a friend with Jongin.’ He answered quietly, his brain was still in the process of waking up.  He walked through the living room removing his shirt.  ‘I’m going to take a shower first ok?’ He turned to ask her, not realising what he was doing getting undressed in front of her. 

‘Ok.’ She stammered as she settled in a space on the sofa. 

Turning on the light in the living room, realising the only light was coming from his bedroom that he had fumbled out of, he made his way into the shower, washing himself as quickly as possible as he sang lazily to himself, unaware of what he was doing, being second nature to him to sing in the shower.

Chanyeol, emerging with a towel around himself, walked through to the bedroom.  Throwing some clothes on himself as quickly as he could he walked out into the living room, just in time to catch Alex with an unlit cigarette in , while she rummaged around in her bag.

‘Alex, you can’t smoke in here.’ He said, walking over to her, and pulling the cigarette out of and throwing it into the trash can in the corner of the room.  He wasn’t trying to be mean, but he didn’t want her to smoke in there either, besides it wasn’t good for her, he thought as he pulled his sweater over his head.

‘Fill your lungs with that outside, but not in here.’ He told her grabbing his coat.  ‘Ok?’  He tried to soften his voice, so he sounded less like her dad as he watched her, mouth almost hanging open at him.  

She nodded at him carefully as he hovered by the door. ‘Ok, let’s go then.’ He motioned for them both to leave. 

The few minutes in the elevator was spent in almost silence.  Chanyeol kept looking at her, daring to believe she had really asked him to go and eat with her.  It was almost like a date it occurred to him.

‘What do you want to eat?’ she asked him as they walked down the street.  Alex was practically jogging to keep up with his long strides.  He looked down at her realising how quickly he was walking, and he slowed his pace to suit her tiny legs.  He was about to ask her the same question when an idea hit him.

‘Do you trust me?’ he asked looking down at her. ‘There’s a place I know, if you want to try it?’

She nodded up at him eagerly with the hint of a smile on her lips and relief on her face. 

They walked a short distance to Chanyeol’s favourite place, listening to the passing cars and traffic noise, in passive silence.  He slowed as they approached the restaurant, holding the door open for her.  He had imagined taking her here if he had ever plucked up the courage to ask.

There was almost no one else there, as the usual waitress Chanyeol recognised directed them into his usual corner.  Chanyeol sat against the wall where he would be well hidden by the divider.  He was a little awkward as usual settling himself down.  Alex followed him, sitting against the back wall, crossing her legs a lot more elegantly than he did.

‘You come here a lot?’ she asked him curiously.

‘Yeah, this table has the most space for me to sit.  I always sit here,’ he smiled a little tensely, hoping she hadn’t noticed how he awkwardly squashed himself on the floor. 

She snorted at his words, catching him off guard.  All of a sudden, his face lit up back at her, his booming laugh filling the empty restaurant around them.

‘I deal with it because the food’s good,’ he explained gingerly once he found his voice again.   

‘Ok, so what is the best thing to eat?’ She asked looking at the menu, frowning instantly.  He smirked