Chanyeol realizes that having a best friend who happens to be your childhood friend means you know them like the back of your hand, and it applies to Baekhyun and him.

Chanyeol has known Baekhyun probably since the first time he took the first breath. Their parents were (and still) close friends, and they lived as neighbors when both of their sons were born. From hundred stories that his parents often tell him and a bunch of album photos, he knows that Baekhyun and him already ‘click’ with each other even before they understand that. They play together, eat together, cry together and of course, growing together.

Surprisingly, they’re still joined on their hips even after they went to university (thankfully to different major), rented an apartment together and became roommates. Because of that, they grow even closer than before.

That’s probably why Chanyeol understands Baekhyun’s date was horrible the moment his friend comes home and stomps his feet straight to the kitchen. He opens the fridge, takes a big ice cream container, grabs a spoon, then stomps his feet again, this time to the couch where Chanyeol is sitting on while watching tv. He flops down on the couch and doesn’t offer the ice cream to Chanyeol after he took a spoonful of it.

Chanyeol begins with, “I told you online dating is not a good idea.”

“I know,” Baekhyun huffs, grumpily, “But I don’t think it will be this ty.”

“What did he do?”

“He didn’t do anything.”

Chanyeol’s brows furrow in confusion. “So what’s the problem?”

“That’s the problem,” Baekhyun starts chewing his ice cream in anger, “He didn’t do anything. He didn’t talk to me and just listened quietly while I tried to make a conversation with him. It looked like he’s not interested in me and I’m the only who made effort to make this date worked.”

“Huh,” Chanyeol exclaims, “He sounds different from the way you told me when you two started chatting.”

Baekhyun scoffs. “I know right. He was pretty talkative on the chat but I guess he just did that so I would fall into his trap and agree easily if he asks me to have with him.”

“Did he ask?”

“He did,” Baekhyun takes a big spoonful of the ice cream and shoves it right into his mouth, “Why he was so confident that I would say yes after he dampened the mood of the date by being a statue? Like, really? Ugh , now I’m not really sure if he was listening to me or just imagining what my mouth can do other than talking.”

Chanyeol chokes on his breath.

“But whatever, you’re right, online dating is not a good idea,” Baekhyun nonchalantly says, “Maybe I’ll just die alone in this apartment, under the pile of our dirty laundry.”

Chanyeol chuckles. “You won’t. Don’t belittle yourself like that. Anyway, you also went to watch a movie right? Did you watch the movie that you told me before?”

At the mentioned of that, Baekhyun perks up in excitement almost immediately that the container almost fell from his lap. “Yes, Coco! I watched it! , I forgot about it for a moment because we watched it before going out to eat and somehow he ruined the dinner and the mood and everything—”

“Whoa, easy there,” Chanyeol snickers, “How was it?”

Instead of answering his answers, Baekhyun firmly says, “You have to watch Coco.”

“Um, okay?”

“No, you don’t understand, Chanyeol-ah!” He hugs the container as he stands up, enthusiasm clear in his voice and he’s wiggling his hand as if he’s trying to shape what he feels into something, “It’s truly beyond my expectation! The plot is a simple one but they added few twists here and there and voilà , it caught my attention from the beginning until the end. The animation flows so smoothly and the music, ugh , I think I was dancing to it on my seat I hope the person beside me didn’t mind it.”

Baekhyun adds more details about the movie but Chanyeol having a hard time to catch up on it while trying to understand the drama he’s currently watching—why the main couple is fighting again?

“And that’s it! I won’t share any spoiler again so you have to watch it by yourself,” Baekhyun flops back to the couch and continues eating his ice cream again, “But really, it’s so good, Chanyeol-ah. Like, so good and you won’t regret watching it.”

Chanyeol nods his head absentmindedly but he doesn’t take his eyes away from the tv— ah , so the man secretly meeting his ex and his girlfriend found out about it, that’s why they were fighting!

And just like that, the topic about Coco ends that night.

It’s when Chanyeol is walking around at the mall, alone because Baekhyun finally decided to work on his assignment that he has to turn in tomorrow ( yeah, such a responsible person he is) and his other friends are busy as well because it’s currently weekdays, that he decides to check out Coco aka the movie that Baekhyun praised like there’s no tomorrow.

He doesn’t think much as he buys the ticket and a cup of soft drink and then goes inside the theater.

—

After waiting for nearly an hour and not getting any reply to the messages he sent,  Jongdae thinks it’s safe to conclude that his date stood him up.

He doesn’t feel that disappointed because they hardly knew each other since they only met at that one seminar he went to with Kyungsoo and his date was the one who made a move on him. Maybe he doesn’t come because he has other things to do or he regretted asking Jongdae on a date but what’s so hard with sending a short ‘sorry I can’t come’ to let Jongdae knows that he’s wasting his time with waiting for him?

Jongdae sighs before gets up from his seat. He’s ready to go home when his eyes caught a poster of the movie that’s currently playing in the theater. He recognizes the one with the skulls holding guitars as Coco, a movie that his friends hyped up a lot lately. They said it was good and enjoyable to watch as they sang some songs from it.

It perks up some interest inside Jongdae and he decides ‘ why not?’ as he walks to the counter. The girl behind it asks what he wants to watch and Jongdae picks Coco with the closest playing time, which is five minutes away. There are only a few seats left and most of them are uncomfortable, like the front seat because he has to look up to watch the movie or the back seat because it’s too far from the screen. Finally, he chooses the one seat in the middle and prays he’s not sitting between couples because he’ll be distracted otherwise because couples tend to be a little handsy when the light goes off.

He walks into the theater and goes to his seat immediately. On his left are a bunch of girls chattering with each other and on his right is a guy who’s checking on his phone but holy  , he’s totally Jongdae’s type. The intense dark irises of his eyes, the perfect slope of his nose, defined jawline and comma hair— God , what kind of creature he is because there’s no human who can look this flawless, like, ever.

Jongdae can’t help to feel glad that the guy is too caught up with his phone that he doesn’t seem to notice his blatant stare, but once the light goes off and the screen curtains open up, Jongdae just wishes he won’t be too distracted by this guy or else his money will be wasted. (But how to be calm when you have a handsome stranger sitting so close to you? Jongdae wonders and knows instantly that he screws up already)

—

The movie starts with the story of a woman and her daughter who got left behind by his musician husband because he wanted to pursue music and because of that, she banned music from their life and started a shoemaking family business. In the present, her great-great-grandson, Miguel, lives with her daughter, an elderly named Coco, and forced to be part of the family business although he loves music.

Chanyeol can’t help to feel sad whenever his grandmother, Elena, keep stopping him and others from playing music. She hates it and bans it, just like her great-grandmother, Imelda Rivera did. Chanyeol knows something bad will happen soon as Miguel accidentally broke the ofrenda’s photo of Imelda Rivera and found something hidden on it. The photo was folded in half and the hidden part reveals a guy with his head part ripped from it, but Miguel can see the clothes and his guitar clearly. He recognizes the guitar as the one his role model in music, Ernesto de la Cruz, used. Chanyeol gasps, so Miguel is his great-great-grandson?!

Miguel grabs his self made guitar and tries to make his family understand that he’s the descendant of Ernesto de la Cruz, that the love from music is there on his blood and making shoe is not his destiny, but then Elena takes the guitar from Miguel— oh no, please don’t —and smashes it to the ground. Chanyeol swears his heart drop at that very moment and he wonders if that’s how Miguel feel too as he cries and runs from the house.

The movie keeping Chanyeol on the edge as Miguel tries to find a guitar so he can join a contest and decides to steal Ernesto’s guitar from his funeral house. Once he holds onto it and dramatically plays it under the flash of light coming through the window, the flowers fly away in the shimmering gold light. It confuses Miguel for a moment, and before he knows it, someone checking in the funeral house from outside and yelling the guitar is missing. A person comes inside and Miguel is ready to plead for forgiveness but then that person walks past his body. He runs frantically through the cemetery, Miguel met his dead family who visits for the Day of the Dead and they bring him to the Land of the Dead, the place where all dead people live.

He meets Imelda Rivera who can’t get across the bridge to the land of the living because her photo is not on the ofrenda . Miguel explains it’s his fault and Imelda asks him to go back and put it back on the ofrenda . Turns out, Miguel can go back if he gets a blessing from one of his dead family but Imelda makes him promises that he won’t play music ever again, which makes him run away to because he has another relative who can give him a blessing and won’t make him stop playing music—the one and only Ernesto de la Cruz. He needs to find him as soon as possible, if not he will be dead if he doesn’t come back before sunrise.

Chanyeol genuinely enjoys the movie so far, but after Miguel met someone named Héctor who claimed that he’s close with Ernesto and can help Miguel to meet him but in returns, Miguel has to put his photo on ofrenda so he can meet his daughter, he can’t help to feel uneasy again.

The uneasiness grows when Héctor leads Miguel to another area of the Land of the Dead, far away from the glistening light and deep into dark and vile houses, the place where people who can’t go back because their photos are not in ofrenda live. He goes to someone named Chicharrón and he asks him to lend his guitar for Miguel to use, but he asks Héctor to play him a song first. Chanyeol lets out a low ‘ oh ’ when he heard how gentle Hector sounds and Miguel also did a jaw drop there.

Suddenly, a gold light shines through Chicharrón’s body before he disappears, leaving his hat falling from the hammock that he slept in. Héctor explains that he’s been forgotten and when there’s no one left in the living world who remembers them, they will disappear from this world. Chanyeol desperately holds back his tears because Baekhyun never said it will be this sad, how dare he!

If he’s watching this with his friends, he will be clinging on to them already because that’s just the way he is. He needs all the support or else his heart can’t take all this angst alone.

(Little did he know, he already does so as he squeezes the stranger’s hand who sit beside him, unaware of the embarrassing situation he will face soon)

—

Honest to God, Jongdae doesn’t know what’s happening right now.

One second Jongdae is enjoying his time because Coco is actually better than he expected to be, one second later he almost jumped on his seat when someone grabs his hand out of nowhere.

He notices a big hand engulfing his smaller one, and he breaks into a cold sweat because boy, the hand belongs to the handsome stranger!

He’s torn between being happy because something like this only happens in his wildest dream or being horrified because technically, they don’t know each other. Who the heck just grab a stranger’s hand and acts nonchalantly like that—like he doesn’t realize he’s currently doing so?

Wait.

Is that the case?

Jongdae takes a moment to take a peek on the handsome stranger and sees how focus he is judging by the way his eyes glued to the screen in front of them, not even bat a glance to Jongdae.

If that’s how the thing is, then Jongdae can just pull his hand away. The stranger may not notice it or if he does, they will probably go through an embarrassing moment and then move on. That’s what the realist inside him trying to say.

But Jongdae is a true romanticist.

He likes to imagine that one day, he will meet a stranger and just like a movie, they fall in love and have a happy ending together.

Maybe not pulling his hand away will lead to that dream.

Although Jongdae can’t ignore how scary the situation is compared to his dream. For God’s sake, this man can be anything, including a serial killer! He can be someone who kidnaps a guy that watches a movie alone and then slices his body into pieces. Does something like this ever happened before? God dammit, Jongdae should have read more news from now on rather than going to the gossip sites in a daily basis.

Knowing damn well that he can’t continue watching the movie without getting distracted by the warmth of the stranger’s hand and his hand slowly getting numb, Jongdae just gives in and prays he’s not getting himself into trouble. His mind slowly wanders away between the group assignment that Kyungsoo reminds him to do, the seminar that he has to attend tomorrow and the needs to do grocery shopping because he ran out shampoo and instant ramyeon.

The reality sinks in again when he feels the stranger taps his fingers in a rhythm, bringing Jongdae’s eyes back to the screen again where he sees Miguel performing together with Héctor at the stage. He steals a glance and sees the stranger swaying a little in his seat, enjoying the music and it makes Jongdae chuckles seeing how a small thing like that can bring enough joy to the stranger.

Finally, Jongdae decides to just watch the stranger’s reaction because he can read him so easily just by looking at his face and what he does with his hand on top of Jongdae’s. He’s tensed when Miguel ran away from Héctor and his family, also when Miguel tried to take Ernesto’s attention by singing. He clings hard to Jongdae’s hand the moment the movie revealed that Ernesto and Héctor used to play together and he poisoned Héctor the night he wanted to go home and stole his notebook filled with his songs. To maintain his reputation, Ernesto steals Héctor’s photo and has Miguel and Héctor thrown into a cenote pit.

The important things start to unravel by themselves one by one as Miguel realizes that Héctor is his actual great-great-grandfather and that Coco is Héctor's daughter, the only living person who still remembers him. The moment Coco died, Héctor will leave the world too.

‘You know, I wrote her a song once. We used to sing it every night at the same time. No matter how far apart we were, what I wouldn’t give to sing it to her one last time…’

Jongdae watches in sadness when Héctor sings Remember Me, the song that Ernesto stole from him and made him into a famous singer. His memory fills with the time he sang it for Coco, and she followed along in her small, cute voice. What holds Jongdae back from crying is the stranger’s hand that still hold his tightly and he feels a little numb because of it.

The stranger already cries and he seems to be looking for something, and that’s the moment he finally realizes his hand on top of Jongdae. He lifts his head up, looking straight at Jongdae for the first time. No one moves or says anything and Jongdae watches him looking confused at first before his eyes widen. “, sorry!” he yelps as he pulls his hand away, making the person who sits beside them turns their heads curiously before continue watching the movie again.

“No, it’s fine,” Jongdae assures him.

“No, it’s not,” the stranger insists, “Um, how long I have been doing that? Y’know….”

Jongdae knows what he means, but he doesn’t know if he should answer it with the truth. “I don’t know, maybe halfway through the movie?”

The stranger gasps in horror. “, how come I didn’t realize that. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay, really.”

The stranger doesn’t seem to buy it at all as he continues mumbling, “It just, usually when I watch a movie with my friends I just kind of… cling to them? , now it sounds like a weird excuse but believes me, I don’t have any weird intention.”

Think, Jongdae, just do something! his mind tells him.

“I’m Kim Jongdae,” he quickly introduces himself, “And you?”

“I’m Park Chanyeol,” the stranger answers although he doesn’t know why Jongdae asked.

“Now we’re not strangers anymore and we can even be friends from now on! So it’s fine for you to cling to me because I’m also your friends,” Jongdae grins at him.

Chanyeol blinks at him before he laughs. “Wow, that’s a smooth move you did there.”

Jongdae gets distracted by how handsome Chanyeol looks when he laughs that he forgot what to say. He awkwardly clears his throat. “Is that right? Oh look, what’s happening here?” He turns his head to the screen, hoping he can get Chanyeol’s attention back to the movie and it somehow works. Chanyeol’s eyes are no longer on him and somehow, Jongdae misses it already as he can still feel the warmth from Chanyeol’s hand lingers on his.

—

‘You know, I wrote her a song once. We used to sing it every night at the same time. No matter how far apart we were, what I wouldn’t give to sing it to her one last time…’

Then Héctor starts singing Remember Me and the screen shows the time he sang it for Coco when she’s still a child, Chanyeol decides screws it and letting the tears fall to his cheeks. He can hear many sniffles around him so he can absolutely cry too. He remembers getting tissues when he bought his drink so he rummages around his seat only to realize later that he’s holding someone else’s hand.

The confusion arises inside him as Chanyeol lifts his head and faces with a stranger but damn , is it an illusion or this stranger really has a killer cheekbones?

No one says anything until Chanyeol grasps the situation and  , he must have been itching to cling to someone that it resulted in him holding the stranger’s hand!. “, sorry!” he yelps as he pulls his hand away.

The stranger must be a good guy because he assures Chanyeol immediately, “No, it’s fine.”

“No, it’s not,” Chanyeol insists, “Um, how long I have been doing that? Y’know….”

He can’t even bring himself to mention the incident but the stranger seems to understand what he means. “I don’t know, maybe halfway through the movie?”

Chanyeol wishes a hole opens up under him so he can bury himself alive because this is so embarrassing.

“, how come I didn’t realize that. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay, really.”

“It just, usually when I watch a movie with my friends I just kind of… cling to them? , now it sounds like a weird excuse but believes me, I don’t have any weird intention,” Chanyeol groans.

Suddenly the stranger says, “I’m Kim Jongdae,” he looks at Chanyeol expectantly, “And you?”

It’s weird, but Chanyeol still answers it. “I’m Park Chanyeol.”

“Now we’re not strangers anymore and we can even be friends from now on! So it’s fine for you to cling onto me because I’m also your friends,” the stranger—Jongdae grins at him and Chanyeol instantly captivated by his feline-like smile.

Chanyeol thinks he’s almost drooling but stops himself by trying to laugh and not looking awkward at the same time. “Wow, that’s a smooth move you did there.”

Jongdae seems to be embarrassed by he just did as he clears his throat, “Is that right? Oh look, what’s happening here?”

He probably does that because he wants them to move on from the topic so Chanyeol turns his head to the screen again and watches Imelda Rivera agrees to help Héctor getting his photo back. They slipping into Ernesto’s concert by being Frida’s dancers and sneaks to the backstage, only to find Ernesto before they even try to find him. Chanyeol erupts in laughter when Imelda whacks him in the face with her shoe, yelling, ‘That’s for murdering the love of my life!’

Beside him, Jongdae also laughs as well and his whole face brights up immediately. Chanyeol finds himself can’t take his eyes off of him and blatantly watches Jongdae instead of the movie in front of him. If Jongdae notices it, he doesn’t say anything.

Get a grip, Park Chanyeol! His mind telling him off and he quickly turns his head away. , don’t tell him that he’s actually attracted to Jongdae despite only knowing him for what - five minutes?

He tries to set the thought aside as he’s drawn to the plot once again. This time, Hector is the verge of disappearing and together with Imelda, they give a blessing to Miguel and he’s back to the real world. He runs as fast as he can to his house because he needs to make Coco remembers her father again.

At first, Coco doesn’t respond at all, but when Miguel sings Remember Me to her, she slowly lifts her head and sings along with a small voice.

Chanyeol swears at that very moment, everyone at the theater is crying together.

“Need this?” he offers a tissue when Jongdae is looking for something, and the latter accepts it with a ‘thank you’ before blowing his nose while scrunching his whole face. Dude, why he looks cute doing that?

“Do you need someone to cling to again?” Jongdae offers his hand.

Chanyeol can hear the teasing tone and know he’s only joking, but Chanyeol really wants to hold hand with him again, so he gathers his courage and says, “Well, since you’re offering so nicely….”

He grasps Jongdae’s hand immediately and sees how surprised Jongdae looks, but he doesn’t pull away. Instead, he turns his head away from Chanyeol but despite the theater is dark, he still can see the flush on Jongdae’s cheeks.

They continue to hold hand until the credit starts rolling and the light turns on. Both of them pull away and sit awkwardly while other people get up and leave the theater one by one.

“Um, I’ll go first,” Jongdae says as he stands up, smiling shyly at Chanyeol, “Bye, Chanyeol.”

“Bye, Jongdae. Thank you for… y’know, bearing with my weirdness.”

He laughs at that. “You’re welcome.”

Chanyeol should have asked for his number, but he’s too late as Jongdae already disappears from his sight. He groans lowly at how stupid he is to let the opportunity slips away. How many times does he get to see a cute boy sitting next to him and willing to hold hand with him despite being strangers? None, until today happens.

He walks home in dejected mode, and Baekhyun notices it right away.

“Are you sad because of Coco? It has a happy ending!”

Chanyeol shakes his head. “No, it’s not that.”

“Oh, then what?”

“Um, you know that I like to cling to someone whenever I watch a movie, right?” Baekhyun nods, “So, I kind of did that unconsciously today but this time... to a stranger?”

Baekhyun erupts in a laughter. “Really? Oh , and what did she say?”

“It’s a ‘he’, Baekhyun, and he has this cute feline-like smile and whenever he laughs his whole face brighten up immediately! And he’s sooo smooth like ‘oh so you did that with your friends? then what’s your name? I’m Jongdae and starting now we’re friends so it’s okay to do that too.’ ”

Baekhyun starting to shake in giddy, obviously excited to hear the story. “Chanyeol, that’s just like the story from the internet that we thought was a fake because it was too good to be true! And then? What happened after that?”

“Um, we stopped holding hands, but he jokingly offered to do it again near the ending—y’know, the scene where Miguel sings together with Coco.”

“Tell me you accepted the offer.”

“Yeah, I accepted the offer and we held hands until the credit rolled and the light turns on again.”

The sounds Baekhyun lets out is like a dying fangirl. “Tell me you got his number.”

“I didn’t ask for his number.”

“You… what?!”

“I didn’t ask for his number,” Chanyeol repeats.

“Why?”

“I don’t know? Maybe because it’s weird—this whole thing is weird actually, but yeah, I just spent my time thinking and suddenly he’s gone.”

Baekhyun looks like he’s ready to scream about how stupid Chanyeol is, which Chanyeol agrees wholeheartedly.

“Listen, I know you think I’m stupid,” he hears a low ‘Glad to know you can read mind now’ , “I’d also regret it, to be honest. I let the chance slipped out of my hands but hey, I don’t even know if he’s batting the same team. He can be straight and leave me broken hearted, so… yeah, you get the gist.”

—

“Even someone as dense as me knows he’s absolutely gay,” Kyungsoo says through the call Jongdae made almost immediately after he arrived at home.

“I don’t know, Kyungsoo. He said he usually does that to his friends, what if it’s just a habit?” Jongdae whines.

“You two are not exactly ‘friends’ and besides, he held your hands again at the end. Isn’t that enough to tell that he’s interested in you?”

“But he didn’t ask for my number….”

Kyungsoo sighs loudly. “You didn’t ask for his either.”

“I was scared! What if he thinks I’m a creep and rejects me?”

“He’s also a creep, Kim Jongdae. Remember that he was the first one who held your hand first? I still think he’s a serial killer.”

“I don’t think so, though. He looks… nice?”

“Jongdae, you’re the one who spends your weekend watching Criminal Minds. Do you remember when Garcia met a handsome man and he shot her after their date?”

Jongdae grimaces as he remembers exactly which episode it is. “Chanyeol is not like that, okay? I just know it.”

“Okay if you say so, but this is kind of a strange, to be honest.”

Jongdae blinks. “Why?”

“This is nothing if you compare it with your usual antics, like the time you dance and grinding with a total stranger at the club. I don’t know why you get so worked up when you two merely hold hands.”

“About that…” Jongdae bites his bottom lips, hesitant to tell Kyungsoo, “Do you ever meet someone and feels that you want to know them better?”

“Hmm, sometimes.”

“I think that’s how I feel right now. I just want to know him better, that’s probably why this thing affects me so much.” And Chanyeol showing zero interest in him is not helping at all.

“That awfully sounds like you’re falling in love at the first sight ,” Kyungsoo teasingly says.

“I’m not!” he denies, although he realizes that might be the case, “Anyway, let’s just forget it. It’s not like I will meet him again.”

“Or maybe you will, who knows.”

Jongdae really wants to hit Kyungsoo for saying that—it gives him another false hope because although he’s a romanticist, he knows that coincidence only happen twice in a teen flick movie, not a real life.

Months later, Jongdae still thinking about Chanyeol sometimes. He went back a few times to the theater with his friends but he never saw him. When Jongdae is back, this time alone with a ticket of ‘Insidious: The Last Key’ on his hand because he’s just in the mood of watching horror, he still doesn’t see Chanyeol in sight and he huffs in frustration as he takes his seat. He waits for the movie to play while watching the trailers of some kind of action flick on the screen.

He sighs while leaning to his seat. He really, really needs a miracle right now, like Chanyeol appearing out of nowhere asking if the seat beside him is empty.

“Hey.”

Jongdae jolts and turns his head to the voice, gaping when he recognizes the man.

“Is this seat empty?”

—

“I dare you to watch the new Insidious movie alone at night!”

Chanyeol breaks into a cold sweat at the dare Jongin gave him. He should have known playing truth or dare together with his friends is totally a bad idea.

“B-but you know I’m not good with horror movies!”

“That’s why it’s a good dare for you, hyung,” Jongin smirks, “Relax, I’ll buy the ticket for you.”

And here he is, sitting at the highest row, alone. There are not many people in the theater so Chanyeol decides he will move into the row where most people sit.

Until he sees a figure walking inside the theater and climbs up the stairs to find his seat.

It’s Jongdae! His mind supplies him and he wants to yell back ‘I know!’ as he sees Jongdae takes a seat a few rows below his. Chanyeol notices at how no one sits beside him and thinks that maybe Jongdae is watching alone again.

Or maybe his companion’s still buying their popcorn, he reasons.

When it’s almost time for the movie to play, Chanyeol decides to  it as he gets up and walks down the stairs to Jongdae’s seat. His heart beats faster the closer he is to the man and he tries to calmly say, “Hey.”

Jongdae is obviously startled and quickly turns his head toward him, his eyes widen when he finally looks at Chanyeol.

“Is this seat empty?” Chanyeol points at the seat beside him.

“N-no, um, I mean yes, I-I mean I don’t know because I’m watching alone and I don’t know if other people will take a seat here or not.”

Chanyeol chuckles at how cute stuttered Jongdae is.

“I don’t think anyone will. Seems like not many people watching this tonight,” he gestures around him, at the empty seats here and there.

That’s all it takes for Jongdae to say ‘okay’ and let Chanyeol sit.

“This is such a weird coincidence,” Jongdae begins.

“I like to call it fate,” Chanyeol confesses, “And maybe this means I have to ing ask for your number already.”

Jongdae’s cheeks turn red almost immediately as he laughs shyly, “Yeah, I think so too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Chanyeol pulls out his phone and gives it to Jongdae, which the other takes while deliberately grazing his hand with Chanyeol’s. Chanyeol knows that he has this big smile on his face as he sees Jongdae’s contact inside his phone.

“I’ll text you later.”

“What are you gonna say?”

“I don’t know,” Chanyeol shrugs, “Maybe I’m gonna say I can’t forget your smile for the past few months.”

“Ooh, smooth~” Jongdae burst into laughter. “Maybe I’ll reply it by saying how I can’t forget yours either.”

They smile at each other, happy with how things turn out.

“Y’know, if you’re scared, you can hold my hand,” Chanyeol puts his palm up at the armrest between them.

“I should be the one who says that because I’m not scared at all,” he challenges him.

In the end, they don’t know who reach for the other first as they cling to each other and scream loudly when the ghost appears.