32, 33, 34…

, this is mind-numbingly boring, stacking shelves with new toilet rolls isn’t really how Baekhyun would’ve liked to be spending his Saturday evening. But alas, here he is. As he’s finishing up with the toilet rolls he hears his manager's voice over the store intercom
“We will be closing in 10 minutes… can all remaining shoppers please make their way to the checkouts, that’s all remaining shoppers to the checkouts. Thank you”
Baekhyun looked at his watch, it read 10.50pm
The time seemed to drag on, each second passing slower than the last. “Come on, only 40 minutes till I can leave,” he thought to himself.
Shoppers slowly trickled out of the store with their trolleys and bags full of the weekly shop. He finished stocking up shelves in the “home essentials” isle and made his way over to one of his co-workers Kyungsoo. Baekhyun’s eyelids were starting to droop as he plodded over to Kyungsoo in an attempt to stay awake after an excruciating 8-hour shift. 

He’d been working at Cesto supermarket for a couple of months after being relocated to from the other Cesto on the north side of town. All in all, he’d been working for the supermarket chain for about 3 years, not really what he imagined himself doing after finishing his undergraduate psychology degree at age 22, now being 26.

Baekhyun gets lost in his thoughts on his way to talk to kyungsoo, stopping by the cleaning aisle to lean on the shelves, hoping the spinning sensation goes away quickly. The ultra bright lights and smell of floor cleaner don’t go well with the 3 hours of sleep and toxic thoughts racing through his head. He takes a deep breath and looks down at his fuzzy watch that reads 10.04pm, nearly there.

“Baekhyun?” Kyungsoo is now staring at him with furrowed eyebrows

“You don’t look too good, are you okay?”

A mumbled response is all he gets

“Do you wanna have a sit down in the staff room?” Kyungsoo was already moving towards him to guide him to the back of the store

Baekhyun clears his throat “I shouldn’t, Matt doesn’t like when we slack off from closing up the store”

“ matt. You look rough. C’mon”

Kyungsoo places a hand on his back and helps him wobble through the store to the back room where they sit down together with cups of tea.

As they sat there for about 20 minutes chatting and laughing Baekhyun did start to feel better, they talked over their days and customer stories. When Kyungsoo asked if Baek was okay he replied with a meek “yeah”, which wasn’t entirely untrue; physically, he was perfectly healthy, but mentally, he was a bit unstable. This wasn’t surprising to him because his mental health problems started during university, and was the main reason for the downward spiral that his life took after his undergrad degree. But kyungsoo didn’t know anything about that part of his life, not yet at least. It was really difficult to handle his declining mental state and heightened anxiety after graduation, so with the advice of his parents and friends at the time, he dropped out, deciding against doing the 5-year post-graduate course he needed to become fully qualified. So he found himself here years later, still putting up a fight in the staff room of Cesto supermarket

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun snuck back out into the aisles and acted as if they were just finished sweeping the floors and doing their bit, mucking around and being idiots in the process. Their manager’s voice came over the intercom again like an almighty power from above, this time saying “Thank you for another day of hard work everyone. You can all head home”

A sigh of relief left Baekhyun’s lungs as he heard the words he’d been waiting for all evening. He quickly made his way to get his things from his locker, he couldn’t wait to curl up in bed and sleep.

After retrieving his bag and coat from the staff room lockers he zips his coat all the way up to his chin and heads out the exit of the store.

He hears Kyungsoo’s out of breath wheezing behind him accompanied by his name

“Do you want a lift home?” 

Kyungsoo had his hands on his thighs as he bent over to catch his breath, baekhyun would laugh but he’s just as bad with any amount exercise

“Nah it’s okay I’m waiting for my flatmate to pick me up, thank you though Soo!”

Untrue. Baekhyun planned on walking 25 minutes home because he liked the peaceful empty streets at night, even though he has had many near encounters with the youth on the street at night he still loved the brisk air and howling wind.

Baekhyun waved Kyungsoo off in his car when he felt a tap on his shoulder and nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned to see a man standing in front of him, a man who was far taller than himself and not making eye contact.

The tall figure gave an apologetic smile and extended his hand out, in it, baekhyun saw his worker ID and lanyard dangling between his fingers. Baekhyun was grateful to the man because he was always dropping and losing his ID. He gave the man a quick look up and down noticing he was also in uniform. Baekhyun politely took his ID from his hands and then squinted at the tall man’s ID on his shirt - “Chanyeol”. Unlike Baekhyun’s staff picture, Chanyeol looks gleeful in his, a face that could truly stop wars. If only Baekhyun didn’t have a greasy face, 3 massive spots, and half blinking eyes when his picture was taken.

“Thank you! I’d lose my head if it wasn’t screwed on” Baekhyun tried to laugh at his own attempt at humour

Chanyeol smiled with his eyes looking at the floor. He revealed the most captivating smile Baekhyun had ever seen in 26 years of living. Bright teeth, wide grin, rosy lips, and smile lines around his nose and eyes. Wow. Baekhyun heard his own thoughts and coughed a little in surprise.

Chanyeol twiddled with his hands, a sure sign of discomfort.

“Me too” he mumbled

A few beats passed, Baekhyun wasn’t expecting such a low voice because of his obvious shyness but those two words stuck with him

“Are you walking home?” Chanyeol asked quietly

Baekhyun nodded and added how much he enjoyed the serenity of the night. Chanyeol nodded too, he gave the same offer Kyungsoo did but again Baekhyun politely declined. 

They both bowed at each other and turned to walk in different directions.

When Baekhyun turned back around to look at the retreating figure he was taken back to see Chanyeol doing the same thing. They both swiftly turned away again and continued their journeys home, suddenly, Baekhyun was looking forward to the next day’s shift.

Sunday
1.23pm

Sun poured through his bedroom window casting pretty shadows across his walls and floor. He slowly woke up and stretched his arms far above his head, hitting his hand on the bedside table and letting out a tired yelp.

Baekhyun looked at his phone and gasped when he saw the time, his shift was 2 til 10 today and he was definitely going to be late.

He hopped through the hallway in his flat on one foot, quickly hoisting up each trouser leg and doing up the buttons at his waist. He ran into his bedroom and picked up his work shirt from yesterdays shift because he forgot to put his spare one in the wash when he got home last night.

Wow he now smelled bad AND was going to be late

Still so much to do and such little time, had to leave the house at 1.40pm at the latest, hoping to cut 5 minutes off of the route by half running, half walking.

By 1.41pm Baekhyun was out the door, unwashed work t-shirt, different socks, hair going in all directions. This really wasn’t his best look and he wouldn’t be surprised if he got fired on sight for looking so worn out and miserable.

Over the next couple of days, Baekhyun started to notice Chanyeol around the store, working on the till, re-stocking shelves, cleaning the floors. It was a weird phenomenon when you don’t know someone you don’t realise how often you see them. But when you know them, they seem to pop up everywhere all of a sudden, without you realising that they were always there to begin with.

By the time Tuesday came around, he had started to get really curious about Chanyeol, the tall quiet man who kept accidentally staring at him when baekhyun was staring back at him. 

“Should I just go and talk to him?” Baekhyun thought to himself

“Hmm, checking someone out are we Baek?” Kyungsoo had been watching Baekhyun stare at Chanyeol who was cleaning up a spillage down the alcohol aisle. Baekhyun chokes a little and straightens his back

“Um, well, okay maybe I want to go talk to Chanyeol”

Kyungsoo grins with a small chuckle 

“Chanyeol is lovely that’s for sure, make sure you speak up though” Kyungsoo adds with a supportive hand on his shoulder

Baekhyun tilts his head slightly

“Well he is taller than me Soo, but he’s not THAT much taller th-“

“Baek? No, he's deaf. He’s got a cochlear implant but it isn’t perfect, that’s why I said speak up, speak clearly. Sorry I thought you already knew”

He didn’t, but it shouldn’t change anything about wanting to talk to Chanyeol right?

“Oh Soo, I’m suddenly more nervous to talk to him now. Like, obviously it doesn’t matter that he’s deaf, just like, what if I say something completely stupid and offend him, now there are things that I could definitely up. Ughh” Kyungsoo smiles sympathetically and laughs at Baekhyun’s manic rant. Kyungsoo had the bright idea to stop this rant by just introducing them to each other. Kyungsoo was a pretty good work-friend so why not introduce two work friends? 

Kyungsoo grabbed Baekhyun’s wrist and pulled him in Chanyeol’s direction where he was moping up the red wine stain on the floor and picking up the smashed pieces of the bottle.

Baekhyun resisted and tried to pull back but apparently, Kyungsoo was stronger than he looked and so he had no choice but to comply with being dragged to Chanyeol who was picking up glass from the floor.

Now standing in front of Chanyeol with Kyungsoo walking away quickly Baekhyun’s mouth went dry. Chanyeol looked at him from the floor where he was crouched and smiled sweetly. 

He stood up, brushed off his hands, and said: “Hey, you alright?”

Baekhyun was absolutely not alright 

“Uh yeah,” think quick “I - um, I was wondering if um, if I could ask you for a lift home tonight? It’sliketotallyokayifyoucantImsorry”

Chanyeol chuckled at the last part, he put his mop against the shelves and had a look of confidence for the first time, Baekhyun gulped a little too hard. He really needed to chill, Chanyeol might be straight anyway.

“Of course I can, it’s no problem. As long as you like listening to The Beatles because that’s all I play in my car”

Baekhyun smiled

"That sounds great!" He said cheerily "Sorry for distracting you, I'll let you carry on" Baekhyun bowed

"Wait, I'm about to have my break, are you free in 5 minutes?"

Chanyeol had the goofiest grin.

Baekhyun grinned back

 

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I hope to update this story regularly because I haven't been motivated to write ANYTHING in the longest time but I really wanna write this story aha.

Thank you for reading :') 

Please leave a comment telling me what you think so far hehe

Thanku

xoxo