열 = Yeol. Fiery, ardent; open

The Break

Song Isa sits with her chin propped up on an empty cup. This is her third bubble tea today and it’s only ten in the morning. “This is so boring. We should just go home.” Isa says pessimistically, twirling her That’s mine, Peach! lipgloss on the table.

                The cafe manager Jinyoung looks up from his cellphone and chuckles. “Nobody leave until I say so.”

“Oppa, aren’t you the least bit curious though? We had one customer. ONE. Nobody even walked past the shop. It’s not like it’s Monday or super cold or anything, yet it looks like a ghost town outside. WHY?”

Chanyeol stretches in his seat. “I bet it’s because of the Star Date filming today.”

“The what?” Isa turned so fast that her neck creaked. “OW!”

“Star Date with Infinite’s filming three blocks away. It’s the top-searched keyword on the Internet today.” Chanyeol says, pointing to his iPad.

Isa’s mouth falls open. “Infinite? DID YOU SAY INFINITE?” She turns to Jinyoung. Again, she turned too fast. “OW!” She cries out in pain.

Jinyoung rolls his eyes. “Isa, be careful, will you? You might break something in the midst of your fangirling.”

Isa wasn’t listening. She puts on her best puppy-dog expression and smiles in Jinyoung’s direction. “Oppa. Can I go and see them? Please pretty please? There’s nobody around anyway. And it’ll be just a minute. I’ll come back after I get a lack of Hoya’s hair.”

Chanyeol looks at Isa with a frown. She laughs. “I’m kidding, okay? I’m not a sasaeng. But oppa, can I please still go?”

“I don’t know that you’re a fan of Infinite.” Jinyoung said in a question-like tone.

“I’m a fan of Hoya’s bod- I mean, I’m a fan of Hoya.” Isa says with a mischievous grin. “Oppa, not to be naggy, but can I please please please-“

“Okay, Song Isa-sshi, you can go. Chanyeol and I can manage on our own.”

Isa gets up with gusto. “YAY! I’ll throw this away first.” She heads to the kitchen to throw her cup away and wipe the table she was sitting at.

“Umm... Can I please go with her?” Chanyeol asks nervously.

Isa and Jinyoung both look at him with the same puzzled expression on their faces.

“You’re a fan of Infinite too?” Jinyoung asks, trying to hide a knowing smile.

“Well, I like... ummm... Hoya’s... ummm... dancing. Yeah, he’s a good dancer.”

“The BEST!” Isa says, clapping her hands in excitement. “Wow, Chanyeol, I don’t know that you’re a fanboy of Hoya...” She says, staring at Chanyeol.

Her huge eyes made Chanyeol uncomfortable. “So... hyung, can I go?” He’s starting to blush.

“Okay. I’ll give you guys a break. You’ve got an hour and a half. I’ll call you if a tour bus stops by or something, so I expect you to come back immediately, okay?” Jinyoung says, crossing his legs. “Bye.” He dismisses them and waves to the two as they exit the shop.

Jinyoung chuckles to himself and says to the empty shop, “Chanyeol-ah, I’m giving you a chance here. So be a man and make me proud, okay?”

Isa takes out her cellphone. “I should tell my friends so they can go too. Wow, I can’t believe we’re going to see Infinite!”

Chanyeol sniffs beside her. “Don’t count on it. There’s already like two thousand people there. We might not even see the top of their heads. You might not even get to SEE Hoya’s hair”, he says as he puts on a hoodie over his work uniform.

Isa glares at Chanyeol, putting on a jacket over herself. “Well, I know that you’re probably taller than Hoya by like 10cm, but that doesn’t mean that you can be a jerk about it.”

Chanyeol looks flustered. He gets it after about seven seconds. He facepalms. “That wasn’t what I meant. I didn’t mean to... Ugh.” He says, laughing into his hands.

Isa bites her lips, trying to keep from laughing too. “There’s really THAT many people already? Where is this all happening anyway?”

Chanyeol stops. “Oops. We just went in the wrong direction.” With a groan, the two of them turned in the other direction.

“Sorry.” Chanyeol says but Isa waves it away. “Wasn’t your fault.”

As they walk past Black Pearl on their way to the venue, Jinyoung swings the door open and calls out to them. “Hey guys! Why are you guys here?”

“We went in the wrong direction.” Chanyeol answers for the both of them.

“Oh. Well, are you still going?” Jinyoung asks.

“Yes.”

“Oh. Okay.”Jinyoung retreats back into the cafe.

“Wait! Oppa, why not come with us?” Isa asks, thinking that Jinyoung is disappointed.  “We’ll just get back before the crowd of Inspirits and whatnot come flooding in.”

Jinyoung looks from Isa to Chanyeol. The panicked look on Chanyeol’s face made Jinyoung want to laugh. “That’s okay. You two have a good time.”

“You look really happy.” Chanyeol remarks as he watches Isa skipping her way to see Infinite.

“Does it show that much?” Isa grins. “It’s so nice to take a break from work. Doesn’t it feel like we’re cutting work? It’s so awesome!”

Chanyeol laughs. “So, what? Is that some ambition of yours? To cut work? I thought that you love your job?”

“I do. It’s just that Sehun once told me about the day you guys ran away from practice. It sounded fun.”

“Yeah, it was kinda fun.” Chanyeol looks at Isa in wonder. “Hey, so what do you and Sehun always talk about?”

“Mmm... His friends, my friends, the people that come to the cafe, girls... Normal stuff.”

“Has he ever talked about us? EXO, I mean?”

“Yeah, sometimes. And you know what? I hope you don’t take this the wrong way or anything... It’s just that whenever Sehun talks about EXO, it just feels like he’s talking about his friends. Instead of super-famous idol stars.”

Chanyeol smiles slightly. To him, it’s the exact opposite when Sehun talks about Isa at home. He’s talking about a nuna friend, but Isa’s like a celebrity to Chanyeol.

The first time that Sehun visited Black Pearl, he came home with Luhan and told everybody at dinner about the funny waitress who works there. Sehun went over to the Black Pearl everyday that week. He invited Tao to go with him sometimes instead of Luhan. When M went back to China, Chanyeol figured that Sehun would have to ask someone else to go with him. Chanyeol hoped it would be himself.

But he never invited Chanyeol to come with him. Instead, Sehun started to go to Black Pearl unaccompanied.

And once he’s home, he would come straight into Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s room, lie on Baekhyun’s bed, and tell them about his day. Somehow, Song Isa would always come into the story.

“Sehun-ah, have you told her how you felt?” Baekhyun had asked one day. Chanyeol could swear that his blood froze while waiting for Sehun’s answer. But the maknae just asked Baekhyun innocently, “How I felt about what?”

“About her, you dolt!”

“How I feel about Isa nuna?” Sehun scrunches his face. He really did not understand what Baekhyun was talking about.

“Do you mean that you don’t have a crush on her?” Baekhyun asked. Sehun kept silent. And Chanyeol almost flipped his bed and stomped out from all the pressure, but he was too curious to leave. So he gritted his teeth and waited for Sehun to respond.

Sehun laughed. He laughed so hard that even his neck got red. “I don’t have a crush on Isa nuna!”

Chanyeol grabbed a pillow to hide his relieved face. He almost pissed himself because of the suspense. Baekhyun grabbed a pillow, too, but he used it to hit Sehun. “You liar!”

“I swear I don’t! Ask Isa nuna if you don’t believe me! I have a crush on someone at school, okay. I tell Isa nuna about her all the time. And Isa nuna’s just a nuna too me, honest.”

Chanyeol got up and made an excuse to go to the bathroom. He was grinning from ear to ear. And that was the day he realized that HE has a crush on Sehun’s Isa nuna.

But he still couldn’t muster the courage to meet her. He would be hanging around the area, daring himself to just walk in front of Black Pearl, but he was still too scared.

It was crazy. He doesn’t even know what she looks like, yet he fell for her.

And then Suho just had to go to Black Pearl that fateful day when he was doing Kai’s dare.

That was another crazy story. He was kinda thankful for that in some way. Maybe if Suho hadn’t dragged him there that morning, he would never visit Black Pearl on his own. And he and Isa might not be friends like they are now.

“What are you smiling about?” Isa’s voice interrupts Chanyeol’s thoughts.

“Nothing.”

“You’re still smiling though.”

“Do you hate it that much when I smile?” Chanyeol smiles even wider, living up to his ‘Teethrich’ nickname.

“Ouch! I’ve turned blind!” Isa wails dramatically as she shields herself from the wrath of Chanyeol’s bright smile.

They laugh.

“Sehun’s so cute though. He’s like a little baby, or a puppy. I just want to squish him and feed him mushed carrots and peas. And that lithp!” Isa squeals.

“He’s so adorable when he lisps! I just love it when he comes in and calls out, ‘Itha nuna! Thehuni watheo!’ And sometimes I try to find topics that will somehow make him say a word with an ‘S’ just so I can hear him lisp, haha. And oh my gosh, it just KILLS me when Sehun wears hats. His hair is always so poufy and the hats he wear can never fit his head properly. Oh my gosh, it’s so cute! And then there was this one time... Sehun just came back from practice and he looked super tired. But being the amazing boy that he is, he tried to do his homework in the cafe. He was like, nodding off, and his head was all over the place. He looked like he was high but he looked like a baby at the same time! That was sooo precious.” Isa ends her burst of unexpected fangirling by clapping her hands. Chanyeol snorts. He’d thought that they’re done talking about Sehun.

And all of a sudden, Chanyeol asks Isa. “Do you know that Sehun thinks of you as his sister?”

Call it jealousy, call it insecurity. But Chanyeol just really wants to know how Isa thinks of Sehun.

“I know. He told me.” And it was Isa’s turn to blind Chanyeol with her smile. It almost made him hurt to think that she’s that happy when thinking about Sehun.

“And it’s amazing and weird at the same time, you know? When I’m not working, I’m just like any other fangirl. I’d freeze when I hear an EXO song, and then sing along with it. Whenever, wherever. And I’d fangirl over the members like I’m fangirling about Sehun just now. But when Sehun comes in to the shop, it’s just like, ‘Yay, Sehunni’s here!’ He’s not EXO’s Sehun in the cafe. He’s just Sehun.”

“Oh.” Chanyeol says blankly.

Isa smiles at Chanyeol with a happy gleam in her eyes.

So what about me, Isa? What do you think of when you see me?

“You?” Isa asks.

Chanyeol panics. He didn’t realize that he had asked out loud.

Thankfully, Isa doesn’t realize the ‘EMERGENCY!’ look on Chanyeol’s face. “Whenever I see Park Chanyeol... I’d say, ‘어!열이다!’ (Eo! It’s Yeol!) It’s always been the same even before you start working here. Well... except that time, you know. The whole dare thing. While that was going on, I’d say, ‘Oh! It’s the Devil!’ or ‘Oh! It’s Darth Vader!’ You know, something like that. But now you’re back to being Yeol.” Isa says, walking ahead of Chanyeol as he stops in his tracks.

Chanyeol stares at the back of Isa’s head. “So let me get this straight. You call me ‘Yeol’ in your head?” Chanyeol asks with a grin.

Isa does a dramatic turn and her eyes widen. “No, I didn’t say that.”

“Yes you did! You just said it!”

“No I didn’t!”

“Yes you did!”

Isa stares at Chanyeol, confused. For a long time, Chanyeol had been her number one bias in EXO. She’d think of him as a friend that she’s yet to meet. Her eyes would look for him first whenever she looks at EXO. When she sees Chanyeol’s face, she had this feeling in her stomach that wasn’t anything like when she was fangirling over anybody else. And once she’d known Sehun, that feeling grows stronger everytime Sehun mentions Chanyeol’s name. Is that why she was so heartbroken when she finds out that Chanyeol’s not the person she thought she knew? Because of that feeling?

Just what IS that feeling though?

Isa’s not sure. But it’s back. And it’s stronger than ever.

Isa can see her reflection in Chanyeol’s eyes. That girl who looks like a deer trapped in headlights. She’s not sure what the feeling is exactly, but it’s reflected in his eyes. That means he can see it too.

So what the heck, right? Might as well grab this chance to just lay it all out there.

“Do you know what had been Yeol (opened)?” Isa says tentatively, her eyes not leaving Chanyeol’s.

“What?”

“My heart.” Her voice comes out shaky. Ugh, this is so cheesy! I can’t believe I just said that!

Why is he staring at me? Shoot, I just ruined everything. Now he’s gonna think I’m a sasaeng fan who comes to work just so I can stand next to him while taking orders and let our hands brush ‘accidentally’ aga - wait.

I’M the one who works there first.

Oh great, now he’s gonna quit his job because I’ve- hey, why is he smiling like that?

To Isa’s surprise, Chanyeol didn’t storm off after her cheesy pick-up line from the 80’s. Instead, Chanyeol smiles softly. “Do you know what I-Sa stands for?”

“What?”

“Ige Sarangiji? (This is love, right?)”

Isa’s lips curl into a smile. So he feels the same way too. Chanyeol lets out the breath that he didn’t know he held and takes Isa’s hands. He pulls her closer to him into a hug.

He holds her tightly, smack in the middle of the Inspirit crowd. When did they arrive at the Star Date filming site? They didn’t realize that. They didn’t realize it either when Hoya runs past them as a part of a race with fans seconds later.

“Oh hey, you’re back just in time!” Jinyoung greets Isa and Chanyeol as they enter Black Pearl. “Isa, did you get a piece of Hoya’s hair?”

“Hoya who?” Isa asks, her voice unusually high. She evades Jinyoung on her way to the washroom.

Jinyoung raises an eyebrow. “Is she okay? Did something happen between you two?” he asks Chanyeol, who looks like he’s trying very hard to keep a pokerface.

“Nope. Nothing happened.” Chanyeol scratches his head.

Jinyoung looks up at Chanyeol and narrows his eyes.

“Hyung, I’m gonna sit down for a bit, okay?” Chanyeol says and goes to the backroom, leaving Jinyoung alone in the middle of the cafe.

Jinyoung snickers, shaking his head. “Of course something happened between you two. Otherwise how’d YOU get That’s mine, Peach!  all over your lips?”

“Wow, he sure runs fast.” Suho remarks as he watches Infinite’s Hoya zip through the street like he’s a slippery eel. “Think you can beat him, Kai?”

Kai is frowning hard at the TV.

“Kai?”

Kai throws himself in front of the TV and starts pointing to the top left corner. “Hey, isn’t that Chanyeol hyung?”

“WHAT?”

“Move, you’re blocking it, how can we see?”

“Ow!”

The five EXO-K members all kneel in front of the TV, looking at the tall guy in a blue hoodie.

“That’s obviously him.” Baekhyun says. “He’s got a girlfriend? Why don’t I know about this? I’m his roommate!”

“He’s got a girlfriend?”

“WHAT?”

“MOVE, you’re blocking the way!”

“Ow!”

“Who is that?”

“Is she a celebrity?”

“SONG ISA! SONG ISA! SONG ISA! SONG ISA! SONG ISA!” Suho starts to call out like a siren, pointing at the girl in Chanyeol’s arms.

“Isa nuna?” Sehun screams as he realizes that Suho’s right. EXO-K stay rooted to their spots, watching Chanyeol  hugging his fan-turned anti fan-turned colleague-turned friend-turned girlfriend on national television.

On TV, Chanyeol smiles and bends a little, his hoodie now obscuring both his and Isa’s face. “WOW!” Suho says as D.O. beatboxes in celebration and Baekhyun and Kai high-five each other.

“Way to go Chanyeol hyung!”

Meanwhile, Sehun is losing his mind. “IS HE KISSING HER? CHANYEOL HYUNG IS KISSING ISA NUNA?! MY Isa nuna?!”

Suho smacks Sehun’s back. “Shh... What if the manager hears you? We might get Chanyeol in trouble.”

Baekhyun elbows Suho. “Hyung, you were the one who went, ‘SONG ISA! SONG ISA! SONG ISA!’ just now. Did you think that you’re a fire alarm or something?”

The camera starts to focus on Hoya and the fan who ran with him, and Chanyeol’s no longer in the frame.

“Sehun, are you crying?” D.O. sits next to Sehun on the sofa and takes Sehun into his arms. “Aww... My baby son... Did you lose your first love to your hyung?”

“Hey, you said you didn’t have a crush on her!” Baekhyun asks. “Hey, are you really crying?” He says as he pokes Sehun’s forehead. “Are those TEARS?!”

“Shh! Baekhyun, go to your room! Sehun’s going through a hard time right now.” Suho says sternly, but Baekhyun doesn’t budge. Kai looks at Sehun and starts to laugh, but the look on Suho’s face made him stop.

“There, there, it’s okay. You’ll meet other girls in your lifetime. Or you can just steal her away from Chanyeol.” D.O. pats Sehun’s back.

“I just... I just don’t understand... Why didn’t I see it coming? OF COURSE Chanyeol hyung would start to like her, I talk about her all the time! And anyone can tell that Chanyeol hyung and Isa nuna would be perfect for each other.” Sehun sniffs and inches towards the paused TV. The screen shows the Infinite members doing a “Fighting!” pose, but Chanyeol and Isa can be seen at the far back.

Sehun sighs, still in his dramatic mourning mode. “I was the one who brought them together! I caused this to happen! This-this-this... Yeolsa!”

 “Look at them, shooting hearts with their eyes at each other.” Kai says in disgust while looking at the TV. “I’ve got goosebumps.”

“Don’t be a hater, Kai.” D.O. says, smirking. “Don’t hate true love.”

Sehun stands up abruptly, his expression totally changing. “Hey you know what? They look good together, even with their height difference. I approve.” He nods and raises his fist up in the air. “SHIP!”

-THE END-

LOL. Well that kinda really . It was really cheesy. But hey, you can’t have pizza without cheese, can you?

What?

Nevermind. Anyway, this is the spin-off to THTITIK which is a sequel to JAMM (lol, I told you I can’t stop writing about these characters). And this is a ‘How we started dating’ date.

Okay, I should go get some sleep now before I start craving pizza. ^{*runs away into the land of dreams*}

Oh, wait. ^{*comes back*}

SHIP! ^{*runs away again*}

P/s: sorry to the Inspirits that expect more Infinite in this chapter.