“Hey~ you made it.”

Yixing had just stepped out of the elevator when suddenly Lu Han barreled into him for a one-armed hug. The accompanying smile Lu Han gave him soothed Yixing’s earlier doubts of coming to the board meeting room. After all, Yixing had only joined the company recently, almost two weeks and counting, so there’s no reason for him to attend the Christmas party. The party was organized by the financial department, the one he had hardly interacted with since his employment in EXO Corporation. Well, except for Lu Han… but that was different; Lu Han was one of his friends back in college.

“I was just going to check out the room and head back home, to be honest.” Yixing said sheepishly but Lu Han clucked his tongue to brush off his words and grabbed Yixing by the wrist.

“Che~, how boring. Come on. Let me introduce you to everyone.” Before Yixing could protest, Lu Han was already tugging him towards the crowd in the middle of room.

“That tall guy over there with the big smile is Chanyeol, the head technician. The one on his left side is Baekhyun, the marketing assistant. And the one using the magazine to slap them is Kyungsoo, the secretary of the treasury board, and that’s Zitao, the sales manager, looking all cool and bored just because Baekhyun was socializing with Chanyeol. And oh! That’s Jongdae, my supervisor. And the one sneaking in more sugar in his drink is Sehun—the art design assistant. Your manager, Joonmyun is going to come in a little later though.” Lu Han rattled off names and positions, while pointing to the respective people in the crowd. Yixing’s head was already spinning by the third name.

“This is Kim Minseok, my… cube mate.” Lu Han gestured to an employees wearing a red and green festive tie, for once tugging Yixing along to meet him for real. Minseok flashed them a dazzling smile in return as he passed two cups of beverages to both Lu Han and Yixing. Though despite the brilliant smile on his face, the corners of his lips slanted downward as soon as Minseok’s eyes saw Lu Han holding Yixing’s hand.

Yixing might come off as a clueless person with vacant eyes, but that look—that fierce look Minseok was directing at him was anything but friendly. He wondered if he had done something bad to the guy before actually meeting him here. Yixing winced inwardly as he remembered the many times he had embarrassed himself by spilling coffee on some tall guy, by mixing up some assignments project during his lettering, almost breaking a full sculptor in the main hall when he crashed into many tall people in the building.

“Minnie, this is Yixing.” Lu Han didn’t seem to notice the way Minseok tensed up when the former threw an affectionate arm around Yixing’s shoulder.

“Oh! The spacy guy. It’s nice to finally meet you, Yixing.” Minseok laughed suddenly. Though his laughter did not really spark any sincerity in his eyes—only a trickle of sadness.

“Yes, the spacy guy. I hope Lu Han didn’t ruin your first impression of me. He’s so overly dramatic.” Yixing smiled charmingly. They shook hands and then regarded each other with distrustful eyes.

“Hey, Minnie. Do you still remember when you first got into the company?” Lu han suddenly butted in.

Minseok blinked at Lu Han and then he grinned, “Of course! You wanted the cubicle for your own so you tried to mark your territory. Like a dog.”

Lu Han gasped. “I did not! You ruined my Man U scarf that day!”

“Correction. You were the one standing too close to the shredder machine.” Minseok retorted.

“You pushed me!” Lu Han accused.

“You were blocking my path.”

And they were in their own world for a moment, until Lu Han realized Yixing was still standing patiently by his side, listening into their friendly anecdotes. He excused himself from Minseok’s company and then gave Yixing a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, got carried away. Let me introduce you to the ladies.” Lu Han gestured to a group of women surrounding the drinks table.

“No, it’s all right. You look like you’re having fun.” Yixing waved a hand and cautioned a look over his shoulder. Minseok was watching them, or at least pretending not to watch them leave, as he wiped the table and placed the dishes in order.

“He’s nice.” Yixing said suddenly.

“What?” Lu Han gave him a blank look.

“That Minseok guy. He’s nice.” Yixing repeated in that same tone that made Lu Han narrow his eyes at him.

“Of course he’s nice. If he was an I wouldn’t even introduce you to him.” his friend said loftily.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Lu Han. You like him.” Yixing slowly tugged his wrist out of Lu Han’s grip. “It’s all right, Xiao Lu. You can go talk to Mineok if you want. I don’t need a babysitter right now. I can take care of myself.”

“But the party hasn’t even started yet. We were going to eat lots of amazing food and drink ourselves silly. And sing Christmas carols and my boss that isn’t in yet.” Lu Han pointed out.

“I didn’t say that I’ll leave. Just not yet anyway. Now run along,” Yixing made shooing motions to Lu Han, “Go have fun with your guy. Tonight I’m expecting lots of hot details from you on Skype.”

Lu Han gasped, looking scandalized, but a slow smirk tugged on his open mouthed shock. “Oh how naughty, Zhang Yixing. I never thought you were a voyeur.”

“I’m not.” Yixing said, crossing his arms, “I’ve never seen you smile the way you smile at Minseok.”

“You’re giving me approval?”

Yixing nodded.

“Awww, you’re so cute. You do know I’m at least a year older than you?” Lu Han leaned forward to ruffle Yixing’s hair. Yixing swatted the hand away with a huff.

“Hey! Stop that. It took me a long time to get the hairstyle right.”

With one last wave and a wink, Lu Han skipped towards Minseok and pounced on the poor guy’s back. Minseok yelped at the sudden weight and made threatening motions at Lu Han to get off. But when Lu Han started whispering into his ear, Minseok calmed down and flicked a glance to Yixing and then to Lu Han, his face colored red. After a while they both started laughing and teasing each other in front of Zitao, who balked and said something that made those two laugh even harder.

Yixing had been standing awkwardly in one side of the room for a while, simply watching his co-workers move about the room to chat and laugh with each other. He only remembered the cup Minseok had given to him when he walked to the buffet table only to have something cold splash against his sleeve and his pants. He dropped the cup instantly and inwardly cursed as he saw the wetness seeped into his clothes, leaving a dark discoloration on the fabric.

“Here. Use this.” A handkerchief appeared in front of him.

Yixing bowed his head a little, muttering a quick thank you as he accepted the handkerchief and dabbed the wet spots of his suit. He tried not to think how difficult it would be to clean those colorful stains off the fabric and was about to hand back the handkerchief before his mind registered how parti