“Food’s ready!” Baekhyun called out while he set up the table. Good thing Kyungsoo had persuaded him into buying two sets of everything.

Sehun walked out of the guest room and stood awkwardly by the table, unsure of what to do.

Baekhyun chuckled and told him to sit in whichever seat he would like. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Sehun picked up his chopsticks and started eating. He was ravenous, and Baekhyun sat and watched as Sehun finished his bowl of ramyun in a matter of minutes.

“You were really hungry, huh.” Baekhyun took his time eating, not minding the noodles slowly swelling up from swimming around in the soup too long. “I don’t think I formally introduced myself. I’m Byun Baekhyun. 26 years old, and I work at a middle school as a music teacher. I’m actually pretty popular with the girls,” he added the last sentence jokingly. “Your turn.”

“…”

“Not again. Oh, come on. Fine. I’ll just talk more about myself,” Baekhyun huffed. Sehun couldn’t stay quiet forever. “Well, my best friend is Do Kyungsoo. He also works at the same school as me, but he’s a history teacher. Um… When I was younger I wanted to be a singer, actually. But it never worked out. My parents were really against it, but I didn’t want to give up on music. I don’t have any siblings. I used to have a dog but he—“

Sehun abruptly stood up and placed the bowl, spoon, and chopsticks in the sink. He side-glanced the pink gloves that were meant to be used when washing the dishes. Instead of using the gloves, he started washing the dishes with his bare hands.

Baekhyun, surprised, quickly finished his meal and got up to turn the water off. “Don’t worry about it. You can go rest. Now that I think about it, I’ll have to buy you some toiletries.” He glanced down at his watch. 11 pm. The convenience stores should still be open. “Want to go get some stuff with me? Or you could just stay and watch tv.”

Sehun nodded.

“You want to go with me?”

Sehun shook his head and took a seat on the couch.

“Oh, you’re going to stay. Okay! I’ll be back in a few!”

Baekhyun put on a light jacket and made sure his wallet was safe in his back pocket. He wasn’t sure if it would be okay to just leave the stranger there alone. He didn’t even know his name.

He got to the convenience store and greeted the cashier. Chanyeol worked several part-time jobs, and this was his last job of each day. They were acquainted with each other, since Baekhyun tended to go to the store later at night, when he was tired from grading and planning for class the next day. Hey, teaching music to rowdy middle schoolers was hard work.

“I wonder what color he likes,” he mumbled to himself.

“Who?”

Baekhyun jumped slightly at the sudden question. When did Chanyeol even get to this aisle? He was just at the front…

“This kid.”

“Kid? Girl?” Chanyeol nudged Baekhyun as he did some weird trick with his eyebrows. “I didn’t know you liked younger girls, Baekhyun.” He laughed his dorky laugh.

Baekhyun slapped his arm away and turned his focus back on the array of toothbrushes. “No, a boy. He’s not too much younger than us. Actually, I don’t even know. He won’t talk to me.” He picked out a simple blue toothbrush. All boys liked blue, right? He then walked over to look at deodorant. He picked up a random one, hoping it would be good enough.

“He won’t talk? So he’s mute?”

“He can talk. He just won’t talk to me.” Everything else the other man might need, Baekhyun had at home, so he strolled over to the cashier, Chanyeol right at his heel.

“Odd. Well, good luck with him. Good night!” Chanyeol’s teeth shone as he smiled at Baekhyun and waved at him. Baekhyun gave him a small nod and walked back home.

As soon as he walked in, he realized the stranger’s shoes were missing. He called out, just to make sure he wasn’t inside. He groaned in frustration. “Did he run away? Really?”