Baekhyun had been working part-time at the department store since the summer before. It wasn’t a cool job, none of his friends envied him and most of his co-workers were over 40, but it had its advantages. It was close to his college so he could easily arrange his shifts around his classes and now he had been there for a while he was finally assigned a department. He’d been hoping for the Men’s department or even the Kid’s department but instead, he’d be assigned Bedding...Bedding?! He was a 22-year-old male and they had given him bedding?!

 He had been extremely disappointed at first, but after a couple of weeks in Bedding, he was really starting to enjoy it. He’d been put in charge of one of the display beds. At first, he didn’t take this particularly seriously but after looking through all the bedding choices he started to get quite into it. He secretly thought all the other display beds were boring looking, with plain sheets and very obvious choices like floral duvets and he didn’t want his to look like that.

 His display was going to draw attention. He had actually gone so far as to look at some Home magazines for inspiration. He had chosen to mix bold geometric shapes in bright colours and while some of the other sale assistants had been sceptical of his choice at first they soon changed their minds. They had had to restock all the bedding Baekhyun had displayed because it had sold out within a week. He noticed the other assistants putting more effort into their own display beds but he still thought his looked the best.

He checked his display bed was looking perfect multiple times each shift and had already started planning his next display. One afternoon Baekhyun was coming back onto the floor after his break and walking through the Bedding department straightening the merchandise when he took a detour passed his bed display. From afar it looked perfect as usual but as he got closer he thought something looked wrong. The duvet wasn’t sitting flat and cushions had been moved. He felt instantly annoyed.

How dare someone mess up his perfect display bed!

He quickly approached the bed intending to straighten it up when he saw there was something brightly coloured underneath. At first, he thought maybe it was a cushion or a stuffed toy from the Kid’s department, he bent down to peer under the bed. It was a pair of large, red sneakers. 

Someone was hiding shoes under his bed! Maybe to steal them later?

He reached under to pull one out and immediately saw they weren’t merchandise, they were distinctly worn and the laces were still tied. He straightened up still holding the shoe. He glanced back at the bed and gasped as he understood.

Someone had taken off their shoes, stuffed them away under the bed and actually got inside. There was a person in his display bed!

The pattern and general plushness of the bedspread had disguised their shape before but now he knew they were there, he thought he could actually see the outline of their body. The cushions had also been moved to cover their face and no doubt carefully arranged to give them breathing room.

‘Oh, it’s on,’ he thought, as he climbed up onto the bed and crawled to the middle where the sleeper lay hidden. He started removing the cushions savagely and throwing them down the end of the bed.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, as he pulled back the covers and caught his first full look at the intruder’s face.

He had his eyes shut and was unmistakably fast asleep…he was also quite startlingly good looking.

Baekhyun stared. His dramatic ripping back of the covers had revealed the face of an extremely handsome young man. He had huge eyes which tapered alluringly at the corners and a tempting little indent in the middle of his full bottom lip. These features seemed to soften his straight brows and jaw. His luminous smooth skin and shining black hair seemed extra flawless against the roughness of the velvet pillow his head was resting on.

 “Just 5 more minutes,” mumbled the boy in a surprisingly deep tone. He rolled over on his side, snuggling into the pillows.

Baekhyun stared at his sleeping face for a few minutes before realising what he was doing. He blushed. He could practically feel his resolve to kick this boy out of the store fading and it annoyed him.

‘This is ridiculous,’ he told himself. ‘You can’t treat people differently just because of how they look, even if they do fill you with the urgent desire to press your finger into that gorgeous groove in the middle of their plump bottom lip’.

He scrunched up his eyes and shook his head.  

He had to carry out his original plan and insist the boy remove himself from both his display bed and the premises. ‘I wonder if he’d let me feed him strawberries?’ he thought. He smacked himself on the arm, he was being ridiculous. This was his display bed, he had a duty to protect it, even if he secretly thought it looked better with a gorgeous boy nestled neatly under the covers.

He nudged the boy’s shoulder.

“Excuse me?” he said rather weakly.

The boy moaned, repositioned himself and went back to sleep.

“Excuse me?” Baekhyun repeated a bit louder.

The boy stirred noticeably this time and muttered, “Shhh,” at him.

Baekhyun was shocked. First, this boy had taken off his shoes in public, climbed into his display bed and now, now he had actually had the nerve to shush him, an employee of the store he was currently sleeping in! He didn’t care if he was gorgeous, he was going to tell him off alright!

“You can’t sleep here!” he said loudly, and he smacked the pillow next to the boy’s face.

At first, the boy didn’t react, he didn’t even open his eyes, but then all of a sudden he reached out, slipped an arm firmly around Baekhyun’s shoulders and pulled him down onto the bed. Baekhyun lay pressed against the boy’s chest, his face resting on the soft, warm fabric of his t-shirt.

‘This is not how this was meant to go,’ thought Baekhyun. ‘Yeah...this is better, much better!’ added a voice from the back of his mind.

‘I’ve got to stop this now,’ he thought, and he attempted to pull himself up but the boy started rubbing his lower back gently and he practically melted. The boy smelled like fabric softener and warm sheets dried in the sun.

Just then a store announcement came over the PA. It took Baekhyun a second to come back to reality and take it in. They were calling for register backup. He was the register backup.

“,” he said, managing, at last, to sit up and wriggle out of the stranger’s arms. He looked around. What should he do? He didn’t have time to wake him up and convince him to leave. In a panic, he just covered him back over with the duvet and rearranged the cushions to hide his head.

He got off the bed and ran back through the department to the registers. He could always call security from the registers and they would remove the boy. He considered this but he was worried his supervisor might find out and think that he couldn’t handle these kinds of situations by himself. Also, if security took the boy away they would likely remove him from the premises and ban him from coming back and then he would never see him again. Not that he wanted to see him again, because he didn’t, he definitely didn’t!

In the end, he didn’t call security or tell any of his co-workers what had happened. He served the remaining customers in a daze. One was a particularly complicated exchange situation and he didn’t get back to the floor for almost 30 minutes.

He made his way back to the display bed, but even at a distance he could see the red shoes weren’t there anymore, the boy had gone. He checked the bed display, it had all been put back perfectly the cushions neatly arranged, and duvet smoothed out. He looked around but there was no sight of anyone.

                                                                                                            *

It had been 4 days since he saw the sleeper and he still couldn’t keep himself from checking the display bed as much as possible while he was working.

He told himself he was just doing like he always did and making sure it wasn’t messed up, but he was always disappointed when he found it neat, perfect and completely devoid of any beautiful sleeping strangers.

This day was no different. He hadn’t worked the day before and couldn’t shake the feeling he had missed out, that maybe that had been the day the stranger had appeared again. He was being silly, and he knew it there was nothing to suggest the boy had ever been there before or that he would ever come back again. Also, there was no way that boy was as hot as he remembered, he had probably built him up in his head and if he did see him again it would just be a huge disappointment.

By that evening he had weaned himself off checking the bed every half an hour and had managed to cut down to checking once an hour instead. He was feeling quite pleased with himself.

When the store closed at 7 pm he got stuck tidying up a huge pillow display which a customer had knocked over, once he was done, he walked back through the department heading for the staff exit. He was just making his customary detour past his display bed when he saw them.

The red shoes! They were back.

He gasped and approached the bed.

“Baekhyun,” said his supervisor from behind him, “what are you still going here?”

“Just tidying up sir,” lied Baekhyun, pretending to straighten a pillow as he actually pushed the red sneakers further under the bed, with his foot, to hide them.

“Well good job, but you should go home now. C’mon, we’ll leave together, I think we’re the last ones here.”

“Ok,” said Baekhyun, he backed away from the bed and walked a few metres with his supervisor trying to think what to do.

He stopped suddenly.

“You know, I think I left my water bottle at the registers,” he lied.

“Ok well, you grab it. I’ll wait for you.”

“No that’s fine, I don’t want to hold you up.”

His supervisor glanced at his watch. Baekhyun knew he was dating a girl from the beauty department and they usually met up after work.

“Ok. Well, have a good night then,” replied his supervisor and he continued towards the staff exit.

“You too,” Baekhyun called after him as he pretended to walk back to the registers. What he actually did was hide behind a display case until he heard the door open and close again. Then he ran back to the display bed.

He glanced at his watch. It was already 7:15 pm. He knew that security usually started their patrols shortly after closing. If they were going to get out of the store unseen by security, they would have to do it soon.

He took a deep breath, knocked the cushions aside and pulled back the covers. ‘Ok,’ he thought, looking at the sleeping boy, there was no denying it, the boy was even better looking than he remembered.   

“Wake up,” he said uncertainly. There was no reaction. He took another deep breath and poked the boy in the upper arm, while repeating, “Wake up!”

The boy screwed up his nose adorably then opened his eyes and blinked at Baekhyun. His eyes were even huger when open and his irises were a rich, chocolate brown. Baekhyun just gaped unflatteringly at him until the boy started to close his eyes again.

“No no no,” he said quickly, “you can’t go back to sleep! The store is closed, and security will be patrolling any minute.”

His urgent tone seemed to have only a minimal effect, the boy opened his eyes again though only slightly, and mumbled, “Just a bit more.”

“No. No more!” said Baekhyun firmly, “C’mon get up,” he added grabbing one of his arms and trying to pull him up.

While the boy put up no particular resistance, he also didn’t help Baekhyun at all. With considerable effort Baekhyun got him sitting up. He pulled back the rest of the covers and attempted to pull his legs out of the bedsheets.

“Ok,” he said, thinking this must be what it’s like to have a toddler. “Time to put your shoes on.”

He knelt down scooping the sneakers out from under the bed. He grabbed each foot in turn and succeeded in cramming the still laced sneakers onto the boy’s feet. He stood up and the boy flopped straight back onto the bed his legs dangling over the side.

“No!” exclaimed Baekhyun in frustration. He ran his hand back through his hair. “What’s your name?” he asked.

The boy yawned then said, “Chanyeol,” in his deep voice.

“Chanyeol? I’m Baekhyun. Ok, c’mon Chanyeol,” he said like someone calling a dog. “C’mon up you get.”

He managed to pull him to a standing position. “Holy you’re tall,” he exclaimed, as he was only eye level with Chanyeol’s shoulders.

He took Chanyeol’s arm and started pulling him towards the exit. Chanyeol followed surprisingly obediently but when Baekhyun looked at him he saw his eyes were actually closed again. He was clearly relying on Baekhyun not to steer him into any furniture.

They got out the staff exit and Baekhyun guided him slowly down the short flight of concrete steps.

 “Ok, now you need to go home,” said Baekhyun firmly.

To his annoyance, Chanyeol sat down on the 2^nd to the bottom step and leant his head against the bare concrete wall.

“I can’t sleep at my place,” he mumbled.

“You can’t sleep here either! It’s outside and if security finds you, they will call the police and have you arrested,” threatened Baekhyun dramatically.

Chanyeol seemed remarkably unbothered by this. “I just need a few more minutes,” he said thickly, closing his eyes. He his bottom lip sleepily and Baekhyun thought again, ‘Just think how pretty his mouth would look eating strawberries.’

Baekhyun hesitated, he couldn’t believe he was actually going to do this. He was getting way too involved with this boy who was clearly insane, gorgeous but insane and from what he could see the gorgeousness only slightly outweighed the insanity. And yet somehow, he couldn’t stop himself. “C’mon get up, I’ll take you home,” he said, pulling Chanyeol’s arm. Chanyeol got up and let himself be led once more like a sleepwalker out and into the staff parking area where Baekhyun kept his scooter.

“Where do you live?” asked Baekhyun.

Chanyeol mumbled something unintelligible.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Good, I don’t want to go home,” said Chanyeol more clearly. He looked around for a second as if surprised to find himself in a parking lot. “I can probably sleep here,” he said uncertainly.

“No, you can’t. And if you don’t tell me where you live, you’ll just have to go wherever I take you,” threatened Baekhyun.

“Ok,” said Chanyeol, moving towards the scooter.

“What?” said Baekhyun. “No, I didn’t mean it like that,” he began, but Chanyeol was now leaning against the scooter. “You’re going to knock it over!”

He went over and climbed on. This was such a bad plan.

Chanyeol got on behind him, putting his arms right around his waist and resting his cheek against Baekhyun’s shoulder. Baekhyun just sat there, caught up in the warmth of the unexpected back hug till Chanyeol mumbled into this shoulder, “Are we going?”

“Uh yeah,” said Baekhyun embarrassed and fumbling to fit the key into the ignition.

Baekhyun had never ridden with a passenger before, much less a passenger that was considerably bigger than him and still basically asleep. He drove without actually knowing where he was going, so autopilot kicked in and he drove straight back to his own apartment building.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he said a couple of minutes later as he unlocked the door to his small studio apartment and let Chanyeol inside.

Chanyeol walked straight into the room, without hesitation and took off his shoes. He looked around the small combined living area and found the bed immediately.

“It’s just like the one in the store,” he exclaimed happily walking over to it and flopping straight down on top of the duvet.

Baekhyun shrugged, it was actually just like his display bed because he had bought all the same sheets and cushions with his employee discount, but he was flattered that Chanyeol had noticed.

“Well yeah, the bed you’ve been sleeping in is my display bed, I get to decide the style and everything,” he admitted.

“It’s the best one,” said Chanyeol sleepily, “I only ever sleep in that one.”

Baekhyun smiled despite himself.

“You know, you can get in the bed,” he offered generously, there wasn’t much difference after all between having a stranger on his bed and having one in it.  But to his surprise as soon as he spoke Chanyeol swung his legs off the bed.

Was he leaving?

“What are you...?” Baekhyun began before Chanyeol stood up and he ped his jeans then yanked them off.

“Hey!” Baekhyun exclaimed covering his eyes but still looking through his fingers.

Chanyeol dropped his jeans on the floor then climbed back onto the bed and slid under the sheets.

Baekhyun let his hand slide down so it was covering his mouth instead. ‘Don’t think about the crazy boy’s body!’ he told himself, the crazy boy who was right now in his bed…in only his underwear. His very nice black and bronze boxer briefs which fit so...snugly. Baekhyun bit the side of his thumb.

‘This is a bad plan,’ he told himself, ‘a really bad plan.’

But the full extent of how bad the plan was didn’t hit him till after he had scoffed ramen in the kitchenette and then came to the realisation he now had nothing to do.  He couldn’t watch TV in case it woke up Chanyeol, who appeared to have immediately fallen back asleep. The bed was essentially the only place to sit in the apartment apart from the floor cushions that surrounded his coffee table, but if he couldn’t watch TV all he had to entertain himself with was his laptop. Unfortunately, his laptop wasn’t charged and the cord didn’t reach far enough for him to use it at the coffee table. It could reach the bed.

Turns out it was surprisingly easy to sit on his bed next to a sleeping stranger and play around on the internet for a couple of hours. Chanyeol was a quiet and relatively still sleeper, which was no doubt how he’d been getting away with sleeping in the department store for god knows how long. Baekhyun found his eyes occasionally wandering from his laptop screen to watch Chanyeol sleeping which he knew full well was a bit creepy, but couldn’t stop himself.  

The only problem was that now he was getting tired and he had work in the morning, but Chanyeol hadn’t woken up. He should wake him up, after all Chanyeol had repeatedly said he only needed a bit more sleep, but Baekhyun was having a hard time doing it.

He tried less overt ways of waking him like shutting his laptop very quietly and whispering, “You’re so pretty,” in barely audible tones, but nothing was working.

‘Oh well,’ he thought, ‘I tried everything I could,’ while he ignored the other voice in his head which distinctly said, “No you didn’t, you didn’t actually try anything!”

He put his laptop away super quietly and changed into a t-shirt and shorts.

‘I’m not being weird,’ he told himself decidedly. ‘This is my bed I have every right to sleep here.”

He turned off the lights and slipped quietly into bed and lay on his back.

‘It would only be weird if I was touching him,’ he thought, ‘and I’m not touching him.’

He snuggled down deeper into the bed, getting comfortable and his arm brushed Chanyeol’s.

‘Oh , I touched him!’

Suddenly the bed felt a lot smaller. He pulled his arm in but a couple of seconds later either he unconsciously relaxed and it moved out again or Chanyeol had moved his arm because they were definitely touching again.

‘It’s just because the bed is too small for two people to lie next to each other on their backs without touching, that’s all,’ he reasoned with himself, so he rolled over on his side, facing away from Chanyeol.

‘This is better,’ he thought, ‘this is good,’ and was just starting to fall asleep when he heard Chanyeol move behind him. He opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything since it was all dark and he was facing the other way. He was just considering rolling back over when something touched his back and he froze. Then suddenly he was being held, an arm around his waist, knees gently bending his own legs to accommodate, warm breath on the back of his neck.

‘It’s fine because I’m not touching him, he’s touching me,’ he thought, then fought and lost against the urge to hold onto the arm clutching his waist so gently.

*

The next morning. he woke up to Chanyeol’s panicked exclamations of, “Oh my god, oh my god!” and felt the arms which had previously been around him recede and the mattress shift as Chanyeol jumped off the bed.

He sat up in groggy confusion to see Chanyeol quite frantically pulling his jeans back on. When he saw Baekhyun looking at him he immediately went straight into a 90-degree bow.

“I’m so, so, so sorry!” he exclaimed then ran to the door, opened it, grabbed his shoes and ran out closing it behind him, without even stopping to put his shoes on.

“Wait…,” said a baffled Baekhyun futilely, Chanyeol was already long gone.

Baekhyun felt a bit deflated after that, he got up, had a shower and ate breakfast to prepare for going to work. He had just put on his work uniform and was about to make the bed when his foot slipped on something hard and flat on the carpet. He picked it up, it was a phone. He estimated it was lying right near where Chanyeol’s jeans had been the night before.

He previously hadn’t given a thought to how Chanyeol would find his way home from his flat, but now he knew he didn’t have his phone, he was worried. He tried to unlock it, but it had a pin.

Should he take it to the police? That’s what he would do if he’d found it in the street, but he’d found it in his apartment, that was going to be difficult to explain. And besides would Chanyeol think to go to the police to get it back?

This was a mess. He’d take the phone to work with him and think about it.

At work, he straightened his section, took inventory of an order of a new style of sheets then got stuck manning the registers as they were short-staffed. He did not think about or plan what to do with the phone, currently hiding in his back pocket.

He was just refilling the receipt machine when a cup of coffee in a takeaway cup was put on the counter in front of him. He looked at it then looked up and was surprised to find Chanyeol standing there.

Chanyeol immediately bent into a full 90-degree bow again, exclaiming loudly, “I’m so sorry!”

Then to Baekhyun’s further surprise, he began placing an assortment of drinks on the counter in front of him.

“What are you doing?” asked Baekhyun uncertainly, as Chanyeol ped his backpack and started producing even more drinks.

Chanyeol stopped and looked at Baekhyun nervously, “I got you the coffee to say I was sorry, but then I thought what if you don’t like coffee, so I got the bubble tea,” he said indicating towards the plastic bubble tea cup next to a takeaway coffee cup, “ but then I thought some people don’t like tea or coffee, so I got the juice,” he added pointing at it, “but juice gives some people indigestion so I got banana milk, but that makes some people stomach sick, so I got the sodas,” he added pointing at a milk bottle next to the line-up of soda cans, “and oh I forgot.” He stopped talking and reached into his backpack and pulled out another bottle.

“Is that soju?” ejected Baekhyun surprised.

Chanyeol nodded and went to put it on the counter with the other bottles.

“Put that away! I can’t be seen with soju at work I’ll get fired.”

Chanyeol gasped and quickly put the bottle away, “I’m so sorry,” he repeated, immediately going back into another full 90-degree bow.

“Stop that,” said Baekhyun weakly, “it’s ok.”

Chanyeol straightened up sheepishly.

“Oh, I have something of yours,” Baekhyun added, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out Chanyeol’s phone.

Chanyeol gasped again when he saw it, “Oh my god! My phone! I didn’t know where I’d lost it, thank you!” he exclaimed, taking the phone happily. “Where was it?!”

“On the floor next to my bed.”

At the mention of his bed, Chanyeol started to blush.

‘He’s so pretty when he blushes,’ thought Baekhyun.

“Hey um help me carry all this, we can go outside, I’m due for my morning break anyway.”

Chanyeol obediently helped Baekhyun gather up the drinks and Baekhyun slipped Chanyeol out through the employee exit.

Once they were settled on the outside stairs, Baekhyun drinking the bubble tea and Chanyeol drinking the coffee, Baekhyun decided he wanted some answers.

“What’s the deal with you anyway? Do you have narcolepsy or something?”

 “No,” said Chanyeol vaguely. “I just get really tired sometimes, like when I haven’t slept for a few nights.”

Baekhyun choked on a pearl. “Everyone gets tired when they haven’t slept for a few nights! That’s why you’re meant to sleep every night!”

“I can’t sleep at my place,” said Chanyeol succinctly.

“You said that last night, what do you mean? Do you not have a bed?”

“I’ve got a bed, but I’ve got 4 roommates, and they work all different hours so there is always someone making noise and I can never get to sleep.”

“But you can sleep in the middle of a department store?!”

“It’s a different type of noise, they’re always yelling and slamming doors and playing loud music.”

“Why do you live there?”

Chanyeol seemed to consider this. “Because they’re my friends?”

“Just because someone is a good friend doesn’t make them a good roommate. There are heaps of cheap studio and one-bedroom apartments around here. If you lived by yourself, you’d be able to sleep properly and you can still see your friends anytime,” he advised. “You can’t keep living like this, you’re going to give yourself serious health problems, ok?”

“Ok.”

“Are you just saying that?”

“No, I’m really thinking about it,” replied Chanyeol earnestly.

“Good,” said Baekhyun. “I don’t want to catch you sleeping in the store again, ok?”

“Ok,” repeated Chanyeol nodding.

“Ah,” said Baekhyun disappointedly, looking at his watch, “I’ve got to go back in a minute.”

Chanyeol scrambled up and pulled a plastic bag out of his bag and started loading it up with the various drinks, except the soju. He pressed the bag’s handle into Baekhyun’s hand.

“Oh no, I don’t need all these.”

“Please, I brought them for you after all! Because I really am sorry,” he said, his big doe eyes fixed on Baekhyun’s face intently.

“Oh, alright then,” Baekhyun agreed, feeling a little flustered.

Chanyeol bent suddenly and Baekhyun was expecting him to bow again but instead, he swept him into a quick hug, releasing him just as suddenly then running down the stairs. He stopped at the bottom to wave and Baekhyun felt his heart skip a little at the way Chanyeol was grinning.

He lugged his new drink collection back into the break room to put it all in the fridge.

                                                                                                                *

Another 4 days passed, Baekhyun went to Uni and work but didn’t see Chanyeol once. He wasn’t really expecting to if Chanyeol had followed his advice.

Baekhyun became increasingly annoyed with himself. What had he been thinking? He didn’t even get Chanyeol’s number when he had the chance and now he was never going to see him again.

It was time to change his display bed’s style but he’d even lost interest in that, he set it up according to his plan but didn’t take any particular pleasure in it. He didn’t even feel like gloating when the sales of the sheets and duvet he had used increased.

One afternoon a few days later, he was walking through the department and out of habit walked past his display bed, though without paying attention to it when something bright caught his attention. He stopped and looked back at the bed, the red sneakers were back, placed carefully under the side and pushed in to avoid attention. He smiled. He was sure he should be annoyed...but he wasn’t. He looked around quickly, there was no one around. He ran over to the bed, kicked off his own shoes and pushed them underneath, then climbed on. He removed a couple of the pillows and pulled back the duvet expecting the find Chanyeol sleeping but was surprised to find him awake. His eyes were bright and when he saw it was Baekhyun he gave him a sunny smile.

“What are you doing?! You promised me you wouldn’t sleep here,” scolded Baekhyun.

“I’m not sleeping! I was waiting for you.”

“Why didn’t you just walk around the store and look for me?”

Chanyeol blinked like that hadn’t even occurred to him.

“Because I only wanted you,” he went on undeterred, “I didn’t want any of the other shop assistants trying to serve me. It had to be you. I got a new place just like you told me to, and I want to buy some bedding.”

“How long have you been waiting for me?” asked Baekhyun.

“About 40 minutes.”

Baekhyun’s face must have expressed his shock because Chanyeol quickly added. “But that's ok because it gave me lots of time to think about what I was going to say to you.”

Baekhyun paused expectantly.

Chanyeol took a deep breath. “I want to buy bedding exactly like this bed! This is one of yours, isn’t it? I could tell as soon as I saw it.”

“It took you 40 minutes to come up with that?!” asked Baekhyun, he was flattered Chanyeol could tell it was his display bed, but he’d been expecting a little more.

“No, I guess I was mostly just thinking about…kissing you,” explained Chanyeol earnestly.

“Oh,” said Baekhyun, “…Oh.” He really hoped he wasn’t going as pink as the burning feeling in his face suggested he was.

All of a sudden Chanyeol reached out and grabbed his hand and he thought his heart might actually stop before Chanyeol pulled him down onto the mattress beside him.

“What are you…?” he began then froze.

He could hear footsteps, his manager had unmistakable and extremely annoying squeaky shoes and Baekhyun was sure that’s what he could hear him approaching now. He gasped.

Chanyeol alerted to the noise by Baekhyun sudden watchfulness, acted quickly pulling the duvet up to cover them both, skilfully replacing the cushions over the top before quickly pulling his arms back inside their little hideout.

They waited in silence, Baekhyun trying super hard not to breathe as the footsteps grew closer then receded again.

They exchanged a look in the dim, warm light.

“I think he’s gone,” whispered Baekhyun, he started to put his head up to move the cushions aside, but Chanyeol pulled him back down again.

He leant in, his face close to Baekhyun’s he whispered, “Don’t go yet.”

Baekhyun’s eyes were on Chanyeol’s still parted lips, as he opened his mouth to say, “Ok,” but the word never quite made it out.  Chanyeol pressed those lips, warmer and softer than Baekhyun had imagined they could be, against his, drawing him into a gentle kiss. Baekhyun closed his eyes and leant into the kiss. Kissing Chanyeol felt so natural, he was unsure how he could have resisted doing it for so long.  He felt like his whole body was tingling, radiating out from the spot where his mouth met Chanyeol's. Baekhyun didn't know whether Chanyeol felt it too, but he made a delighted noise in the back of his throat and wrapped his arms around Baekhyun pulling him in even closer. 

 “I can’t stop thinking about you,” Chanyeol muttered softly. His words were warm and ticklish against Baekhyun’s lips, he accepted another tender kiss.

“I know how you feel,” breathed Baekhyun, adding, “Do you like strawberries?” before he could stop himself.

“Yeah, I do. Why?” asked Chanyeol looking amused but confused by the sudden question.

“No reason,” said Baekhyun, trying to contain his smile.

There was a fruit and vegetable shop in the basement of the department store, which would definitely sell strawberries.

Sometimes dreams really do come true.

 

The end.