It took two cocktails and eight shots of tequila to get Hayan even close to tipsy.

Not that Baekhyun was trying to get her drunk. It was her own fault really, for challenging Baekhyun to a drinking competition. She had seemed too tense about the Blue Dragons and in an attempt to calm her down, Baekhyun had let slip a few teasing comments and unwittingly sparked her hidden competitive side.

As Baekhyun remembered, his record was seventeen shots.

It took Hayan five shots to relax.

By the eighth shot she was smiling and laughing freely.

Baekhyun recognized the pleasant warmth that came with consuming alcohol. With it, his confidence level spiked up too.

He felt cheeky enough to grab the lime wedge Hayan was on and put it into his own mouth.

She gasped dramatically, “How dare you!”

Baekhyun could’t help but laugh at her tipsy behavior.

The two laughed and made small talk for another hour, during which they had nearly half a dozen more shots, much to the disdain of the bartender.

It was finally 3AM when the party ended. The music died and people cleared out.

“O-Oh,” Hayan looked around at all the people leaving with dazed eyes. “We should probably go.”

Baekhyun nodded, getting off his seat and holding out a hand for Hayan.

She gave him a smile before accepting it. He pulled her up and looped a casual arm around her shoulder, feeling much more brazen due to the liquor.

Baekhyun guided Hayan into the elevator and pressed the button for their floor. In the silence of the elevator, Hayan suddenly giggled.

“What?” Baekhyun asked, a smile already tugging at his lips.

“K-Kai,” Hayan managed to say between giggles.

Baekhyun gave her a playful look. “Don’t talk about other men while you’re with me.”

Hayan shot him a half-hearted glare. “He was totally jealous of Lay,” she finally said.

Baekhyun chuckled. “Kai’s pretty transparent when it comes to his feelings for Krystal, isn’t he?”

The elevator doors opened and Baekhyun tugged Hayan out.

“And you?” she said.

Baekhyun turned to her with confused eyes. “What about me?”

They had reached Baekhyun’s room. He tried to open the door but found it locked.

He heard giggles through the open window — he realized he had forgotten to close the window the previous night — and grimaced.

‘Of course they picked my room,’ he mentally rolled his eyes.

He wordlessly led Hayan to her room instead.

“Were you jealous too?” Hayan continued their conversation.

She leaned heavily on her motel room door as Baekhyun fished out the extra key Krystal had trusted him with earlier that night.

He inserted the key and twisted it, pushing the door open.

Hayan stumbled but Baekhyun was quick and grabbed her around the waist.

They were close now, so close that Baekhyun could see his own reflection in her dark brown eyes.