June 3, 2013 ❝ dae one, dae two (celebration express) ❞ ❀❀❀❀❀❀ * second attempt at an impromptu party *   12.01 AM – Outside room 2317     Chen swung open his hotel door, sleepy smile in place as he took in the sight of his two visitors. “Hello, my wonderful and beautiful Fun Mistress and my handsome and gentle Prince,” he eyed the casual yet eye-catching outfits the other two were wearing, “What brings you two here at the of midnight plus a minute?”   Lay sighed, walking past the other to sit down on the couch. “She has another brilliant plan.”   Eunmi frowned, following in after him so Chen could close the door. She timidly walked up to where Lay was sitting before sitting about a foot away from him. “Xing?” she called out, Chen walking back to his bed and lying down in it to catch some sleep.   A visible frown marred the Chinese man’s face, even as he opened his arms out a few minutes later. Eunmi’s face broke out with a smile as she moved to sit in his lap, leaning back against his chest with his arms wrapped securely around her. “Jongdae,” Lay breathed out, the other mumbling an incoherent, sleepy noise in response. “We have a proposition to make that has the possibility of a raise in your future.”   A moment of silence passed, Eunmi wondering if the man fell asleep, as Lay knew the other was thinking it over. Chen shifted in his bed, burrowing further into the blankets. “At this time of night?”   “I know it’s late, but today marks an important date,” Eunmi softly said, turning on her side to throw her legs up on top of the couch and lay her head on Lay’s shoulder, “I know you had a busy day too.”   “So, why?” the other deadpanned, too lazy to look up and glare at her.   “Because you’re the best at this?” Eunmi tried feebly before quickly adding, “You can drag any one person to help you in this!” She winced when Lay pinched her. “Except Lay!”   “How much is the raise?”   “Twice your salary now.”   “Will my partner get the raise as well?”   “Depends if he or she is your constant partner throughout the summer.”   “How will you get the extra money?”   “We’ve had a successful start to the summer. It’s bound to pick up now.”   “What’s the catch.”   Eunmi chuckled nervously, looking up to Lay for help. “You will not have a permanent permanent job.”   Chen picked his head up and stared at the other two, confused. “What in the world does that mean?”   “You will have a permanent job at temporary jobs until we figure out what our customers like?” Eunmi tried to explain, only for Lay to sigh exasperatedly at the outcome.   Chen narrowed his eyes at them, sensing another catch somewhere. He debated it in his head, wondering what they were going to ask him to do at such a late hour. Eunmi had a huge pleading smile on her face while Lay simply closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the top end of the couch. He hummed. “What is this ‘permanent temporary job’ thing?”   “One step at a time,” Lay mumbled out, not moving from his spot as he started to drift off to sleep, “This is a stupid idea. We all just recovered.”   “But we have to commemorate today somehow!” Eunmi argued back, leaning up to kiss his jaw, “What else do you have in mind?”   Chen glared at the couple on his couch, “If you were just going to be all cutesy and gross, why didn’t you come to my room until you were done discussing this?”   Lay growled, tilting his head down to glare at his friend, “If you would just accept the position and raise, we still wouldn’t be here.”   “You haven’t even told me any other details so I can accept!” the other shouted out in annoyance, throwing his arms up in the air for emphasis.   Eunmi pouted, hands lightly gripping on Lay’s shirt unconsciously, “We wanted to throw another party right now.” She frowned when Lay pinched her again. “Fine. I wanted to throw another party.” She looked to Chen straight in the eyes, “I wanted you to be the host and everything.”   Chen’s features lightened up immediately. He looked up in thought curiously, “Host?”   “Yeah.”   The other hummed some tune, thinking it over, as he lied back in bed, just staring at the ceiling. Lay and Eunmi waited, the latter playing with the former’s fingers and pushing on callouses present from years of guitar. “But didn’t everybody just recover from being drunk and everything?” Chen quietly asked.   Lay breathed out a sigh – “Yeah.” He paused. “Luhan-ge hates me and Jihoon-hyung now.”   Laughter suddenly filled the room as Chen gasped out a soft “Why?”   The other shrugged, “I become needy and whiny when I’m hungover apparently.”   Eunmi laughed softly, “Luhan looked dead when I came back to the room.”   After a few minutes, Chen’s laughter softened before he his side to face the wall. He waited a minute before singing, “So, what to do?”   “Do you have anything in mind?” Eunmi murmured, a wave of sleep starting to make its way into her head.   “Mm,” Lay hummed, thinking about it seriously before softly suggesting, “Celebration Express?”   Another few minutes passed by with complete silence before both Eunmi and Chen sat up straight, eyes lit with excitement and energy, “That’s it!”   xxx   8.13 AM - Entering brightly into Unbreakable     “Good morning, starshine! The earth says hello!”   Himchan and Yue stared at the abomination duo in front of them, completely perplexed, until Yue scowled, threw a shell at each of them, and then stormed off to Onew at the other side of the store. Himchan winced at the small attack, reaching down to pick up one of the broken shells. “This one was actually my favorite.”   A moment of silence ensued as Himchan grieved the loss of his favorite shell.   “Hyung!” Daehyun suddenly called out, happily despite having a shell thrown at him.   The elder looked up at him, eyebrow raised, “Yes?”   Chen pouted at the assault before picking up the other broken shell and putting it on a table next to them. “We have something to give you and Yue.”   “And what might that be?” He was surprised when he was given a party hat, a noisy blowout toy, a hand clapper, and an air horn. He stared at the items shoved into his hands before watching Daehyun go off in search of a fleeing Yue, happy Onew, and confused Victoria. “What’s this for?” he managed to ask after getting his confusion in order.   Chen smiled brightly at him, bags hanging off of his arms as he threw them out to the side, “Celebration Express! All the workers meet at the beach after closing!”   “Mhm,” Himchan slowly nodded, trying to comprehend it before looking to see what Yue was doing without him. He was granted with the sight of Daehyun trying to hand her the celebratory items.   “Come on, Yue,” Daehyun begged, “Just take them, please?”   “No, you’re bothering me and should leave.”   Daehyun whined, flailing a bit in the process, “But you need these to party properly later on!”   Yue huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she glared at him, “I don’t want to party later on.”   “Yes, you do!” the other insisted, putting one of the hats on his head, “It’ll make everything fun!”   “Just leave her alone already,” Sungjong said, coming up to frown at him, “She doesn’t like you.”   Daehyun’s mouth opened in shock, looking back to Yue, “Why not? I’m a very likeable guy, even Chen thinks so!”   “Hyung thinks that about everybody,” the other deadpanned.   The other huffed, glaring at him, “But we have a special bromance.”   “Whatever that is,” Onew murmured as he walked by, talking about some unknown new packages that arrived but weirdly fit the situation going on past him.   “Exactly,” Yue muttered, glaring back at Daehyun, “What hyung said.”   “But Yue,” Daehyun whined, pouting a bit, “It’ll be fun. Everybody will be there.” He then handed out a set to Sungjong, who easily accepted it. “See? Boss agreed to this already. It marks a special occasion!”   Himchan sighed, walking over to the trio with Chen on his tail, “Yeah, Yue. Just accept it. You can throw it away after they leave.”   “Why, hyung?” Yue grumbled out, refusing to accept any type of items from the troll duo, “They’re wasting our time.”   “Fun Mistress said so,” Chen offered helpfully, putting on a cute smile, “I swear it’s going to be fun, Yue.”   “Besides,” Himchan added on, looking seriously at Yue, “You broke my favorite shell, you know? You have to make up for it.”   Sungjong shivered next to her, moving so he stood behind her in fear, “Whoa. He looks serious, Yue…”   Yue stared at her coworker, frown etched onto her face, “What?”   “Go to the party tonight and do something fun with Daehyun,” Himchan ordered, grabbing the party favors from his friend to keep for Yue, “That’ll make up for breaking my shell.”   “But why?!”   “Because it was really special to me and had a spell cast over it! That’s the only way to break the curse that the broken shell caused!”   “What?” Chen asked, on the verge of laughter before Daehyun threw a keychain at his head to keep him quiet. Sungjong looked at them weirdly before looking back to his coworkers in front of him.   “Make up with somebody you hate, and the curse will be lifted on the one who broke the shell,” Himchan recited, as if he had it memorized since day one.   Yue glared hard at her coworker before conceding, turning her glare to the offending items in his hands, “Fine. I’ll go tonight.” She glared at Daehyun before walking away to go find Onew, simply because being alone with Victoria was still a bit scary to her, “I’ll meet you at the beach tonight.”   Daehyun’s entire face lit up, Chen scoffing with how stupid his best friend could be.   “Come on, Dae number two. We have other stores to visit.”   And the lit up face crashes down with a frown as he lets the other drag him out of the store, “I thought I was Dae number one!”   Chen waved his hand in the air dismissively, “Nope. I was born first, so I’m Dae number one, and you’re Dae number two.”   Daehyun simply pouted because he knew the other was right.   “Is she going to regret this, hyung?” Sungjong questioned, looking to his side to see Himchan walking away already. He hurried after him, “Hyung?”   “Maybe,” Himchan mumbled, looking down at his broken shell, “She shouldn’t though.” He hummed for a second. “Yeah, she shouldn’t.”   xxx   8.48 AM - Wandering inside Exotic BabyZ     “Good morning, my lovely friends!” Chen beamed out, bright smile on his face as he jumped to try and put a hat on Zelo’s head. He pouted when the other tried to dodge him after the first time, very confused as to what was going on. “Baby Z! Bend a bit.”   Zelo complied, looking up cross-eyed when Chen finally managed to put a party hat on his head, “Hyung? What is this for?”   Chen put on his bright smile again, giving Zelo the other party favors all the other workers were getting, “This is for our party tonight.”   The other’s brows shot up in surprise, “We’re having another party tonight?”   “Yup!” the elder replied, going over to give Suzy some more items to pass it around to the other workers, “Everybody should go to the beach when they get off work tonight.” He pointedly looked to all the customers in the store, “Just the employees though.”   Some girls gave him a stare before leaving, although some did giggle when Chen gave them a flirtatious wink just to lessen their annoyance. Zelo continued to follow after him like a puppy, asking him another question, “Wait. So, what is this party for?”   The elder shrugged, getting out enough items for all the workers in the store Daehyun wasn’t getting to, “Eunmi-noona said it’s to commemorate today for something special. Celebration Express.” He tilted his head back to look up at him, “She woke me up with Lay-hyung last night, so it’s pretty important.”   “Really?” Zelo asked, fixing the hat so it was a bit tilted on his head, some other female customers who came in cooing over how cute he is. “So, do we need to dress a certain way?”   Chen looked back at him and then at the female customers before sighing in good nature, shaking his head in the process. He chuckled, reaching up to poke his cheek, “Nah. Just come by after you’re done with work or go find one of the bosses if we’re not there yet.”   Zelo grinned at him, nodding while he blew on the blowout noisemaker once. “Okay, hyung.” The elder laughed as the younger turned back around to go back to work.   “No wonder this place was named after him.”   “I am not wearing a paper party hat,” Sehun called out, glaring at Daehyun who tried to do the same thing on him.   “Why am I getting the difficult people?” Daehyun questioned with a pout, avoiding Minhi like the plague just to annoy her, before going up to Tao who happily put the hat on with a huge smile on his face. He smiled thankfully at the other, “Thanks, Tao.”   “It’s no problem, Dae number two,” Tao responded back with a cat-like smile, laughing when the other simply pouted at him, “We’re younger than him.”   Daehyun sighed, going up to Taemin to give him a set of party favors, “I know.”   “This is going to be fun!” Taemin exclaimed out, already putting on the hat and dancing away.   The other two laughed before Daehyun set his eyes on Sehun, about to run and pounce his target. “That’ll be a tough one,” Tao commented before walking away to get back to work, “Good luck.”   “Thanks,” the other muttered out, ignoring Minhi again as he ran past her to try and tackle Sehun.   “Nope.” And Sehun moved out of the way to eye his other friend.   Minhi frowned at the scene in front of her, refusing to go to Daehyun as well. She walked away, sticking her tongue at him as he just returned the gesture. “Rude.”   Sehun raised a brow at the obvious ill behaviors toward each other before following after Minhi to figure out why. “Hey, panda,” he called out, watching as Daehyun walked back to Chen to talk to him some more about their bags. He frowned when the other didn’t respond back to him, “Panda.”   “Me-panda or her-panda?” Tao called out, turning away once he saw the younger point to Minhi.   “Minhi,” Sehun tried again, grabbing her arm to turn her around, “Hey, I’m talking to you.”   The other frowned at him, tugging her arm out of his grip, “And I was ignoring you, Shun.”   Sehun rolled his eyes, “Why do you call me that?”   “Because ‘Hunnie’ makes me cringe, and ‘Se’ isn’t even a nickname.”   “Why are you and Daehyun-hyung ignoring each other like disgusting bugs?” the other questioned curiously, staring down at her intently, “And you and I both know that we try to avoid working at all costs.” He held up his hand when Minhi opened , most likely to refute that incredulous idea. “No.”   Minhi shut and glared up at him, “Rude.”   “Seriously, though,” Sehun continued on, face contorting into his famous… rude… face to try and understand why the two were avoiding each other, “Something happened?”   Minhi sighed, rolling her eyes, as she waved her hand in the air dismissively, “It’s a friendly rivalry, like, with food and stuff. We’re still friends but we like to make competitions with each other and everything.”   The elder stared at her for a minute, comprehending what she just said before asking quietly, “Like us?”   “What do you mean ‘like us?’” the other questioned, confused, “We’re different. We just don’t like each other.”   Sehun’s lips formed a thin line, Minhi not really knowing what she was saying, as Daehyun came up to them with Chen in tow. “Here,” Dae number two roughly said, shoving the items in Minhi’s hands before giving her a bright smile, “See you two tonight!”   Minhi laughed, shoving the other back playfully, “Yeah, yeah. We’ll see.”   “Here you go, Sehunnie!” Chen added, handing him his own stuff, before realizing the other’s troubled look directed at the young girl. He frowned, a bit confused, before brightening up a bit again. “Hey, Yehet kid. Take this.”   Sehun’s head snapped in the direction of the other before laughing slightly, taking the items from him, “Whatever. You know it’ll become popular.”   “Oh,” the other said, wiggling his brow, “Jongup has been saying it a million times since he first heard it at the party.”   Sehun laughed, blowing the noisemaker in the elder’s face. “Told you.”   “So stupid,” Minhi mumbled, laughing a bit as she walked off to store her own party favors in the back of the store with her stuff.   Chen gave Sehun a knowing look before looking pointedly in Minhi’s direction before grabbing Daehyun’s hand and leading him out the store. “We’ll see you two fighting love birds tonight!”   Daehyun’s head whipped towards Chen in shock before looking back to Sehun, eyes wide with disbelief, “What?!”   Sehun just glared back.   xxx   9.32 AM - Walking up to Frozen Delights     “Sup, there’s the troll duo. Come up here, and I’ll get you a float… oh?” D.O. looked to Baro and Yongguk for approval who gave him congratulatory claps for trying his best. His face brightened to show his heart-shaped smile.   “That’s pretty cool you’re trying your best, but now we have this man and this pest,” Yongguk rapped out, sticking his tongue out playfully at Daehyun who threw a hand clapper at him.   “Round of applause,” the other deadpanned, clapping his hands in a circular motion.   “Hey, squishy Soo,” Chen greeted before looking to Baro and Yongguk, “Sup, cool rappers.”   “I thank thee!” Baro returned, tipping his hat off to him.   Chen imitated the motion back, handing them their party favors. Daehyun sighed, walking up to Yongguk and giving him his own, “Meet at the beach tonight, after work.”   “Ooh,” Baro sang out, wiggling his eyebrows, “What’s going on then?”   Chen laughed, quickly dragging Daehyun out of the store before he hurt somebody, “That’s for us to know, and for you to find out!”   D.O. looked down at the items in his hand before putting his hat on Baro’s head, “Something tells me the Fun Mistress came up with this one.”   Baro smiled at him cheekily, spinning before blowing into the noisemaker, “Probably.”   “At least she didn’t wake us up in the middle of the night like last time,” Yongguk shrugged, going to the backroom to put his stuff down, “That wasn’t a good choice last time.”   “Tell me about it,” D.O. muttered, following after him.   Baro simply looked at them confused.   “I’m glad I’m not one of you guys.”   xxx   9.43 AM - Patiently waiting at Feathers and a Turtle     “Soy – sauce!”   “Salt!”   “Butter!”   Sunli slammed the kitchen door open, scaring Lay and Henry who were shouting out random ingredients into flinching in shock. They both looked to her with wide eyes, stopping their cooking in the process. “What in the world are you two doing?” she questioned, completely bewildered and annoyed with what they were doing.   Henry gave a bright, albeit sheepish, smile before grabbing the containing of pepper and adding it to the meal he was currently preparing, “Pepper!...?”   Sunli glared at him before shifting her gaze to Lay who just gave her a calm smile.   “I’m trying something new with Henry-ge,” he simply explained, going back to grilling meat and vegetables on the large grill in front of them, before shouting out “Soy – sauce!” while adding some of the ingredient into the mix.   The boss continued to glare at him, wondering what in the world he was thinking, before leaving to go back to the front reception area. She was greeted with the sight of Chen and Daehyun carrying bags of party favors and Yesung putting a party hat on his tortoise. She was starting to get a headache with all the glaring she’d been doing recently.   “Hey, noona!” Daehyun happily greeted, looking around her for Meilin and Minhee, “You already have your party favors, right? For the event tonight?” Chen smiled brightly as he ran past him to give a bag of the correct amount of party favors for the entire establishment to Sulli, who took it with a smile.   “Don’t remind me,” she breathed out, rubbing her temples briefly before politely greeting the next family walking in through the door, “Eunmi woke me up at six in the morning to go out and get those party things. Family of four?” She smiled as the husband nodded before she tabbed it off on the paper in front of her. She turned to find a host to bring them before looking to Yesung crouching on the ground with the tortoise in the pen. “Yesung-oppa.”   “Yes?”   Sunli sighed, walking over to him to hand him the menus and crayons, “Show this lovely family to their table.”   Yesung raised his brows before nodding, getting up and out of the pen while grabbing the menus. “Where at?” he followed her back to the podium to see where she marked out the table before nodding and looking up to the family. He smiled, “Please follow me.”   “That turtle is awesome!” the little boy shouted out, Yesung smiling even more as he readily agreed with him.   Sunli smiled at the sight, “At least the tortoise is bringing us customers.” She stayed there, surveying the restaurant for a few minutes before looking to her side, wondering why she felt someone staring at her. She immediately sighed when she saw Daehyun and Chen standing there looking at her. “Yes?”   “Where’s Meilin?” Chen asked curiously, Daehyun nodding next to him.   Sunli’s brows furrowed as she turned back to look at the restaurant. She hummed, making a quick way through the place as the other two waited by the podium. She came up empty-handed. “Huh,” she mumbled, now surprised to see Suho standing there with Xiumin, Kris, and Sena, “She probably went to go get something.” She eyed the four, “Are you eating here?”   “No, we came here because we want to be near Chen and Daehyun,” Kris grumbled out, glaring at the other two, “How come they’re roaming about?”   “We received a mission from Fun Mistress!” Chen happily shouted out before dragging Daehyun out of the restaurant, “We’re going to go eat at the other restaurant, Sunli! See you tonight!”   “What?” Suho questioned, off-guard, as he watched the duo leave, “Wait!”   “No!” Daehyun shouted out, laughing with Chen as they disappeared out the restaurant.   Sunli sighed before directing the four to their own table, “Enjoy your lunch.”   “Cheer up,” Xiumin softly said, poking her in the shoulder. He gave her a bright smile, “It’s still early in the day.”   Sunli hummed, mood lifting up as she continued to stare at the cute man trying to make her laugh. Eventually she did, swatting at his arm, “Okay, okay. I’ll cheer up.” She watched as Minhee came up to their table, smiling at all of them. She smiled back before looking to the quartet, “Enjoy your meal.”   “Of course,” Suho politely said, ignoring the loud call of – “Soy – sauce!”   Kris, Sena, and Xiumin looked incredibly confused before Sunli sighed, shaking her head, and walked away without saying a word. They were only snapped out of their confusion when Sena noticed Suho and Minhee talking politely with one another.   “You’re right on time for the lunch rush,” Minhee softly said, chuckling when she saw Sunli immediately call for Jinyoung to lead people to their table. She tapped her notepad, “What would you four like to drink?”   Suho laughed, waving politely to Jinyoung in the process, “I know, right? I’m glad I was able to bring these three with me. And water, please.”   Minhee smiled down at him, writing it down before looking to the others for their drinks.   “Water.”   “Lemonade.”   “Sweet tea.”   Minhee nodded, writing it down diligently. “Any appetizer?” She waited a few seconds, looking up to see all of them looking at the menu intently. She laughed, “Don’t you know most of the food by now?”   “I don’t!” Sena exclaimed out before saying next, “Mandu and kimbap!”   “Don’t scream so loud, Zen,” Suho chided before nodding, “Yeah, that sounds good.”   Minhee nodded, looking to the other two who gave her a thumbs-up. She laughed before nodding again, “Okay. I’ll be back!”   They all watched as she walked away except for Suho. Sena frowned, waiting a second, before smacking her brother on the arm.   “Ow!” Kris and Xiumin looked at her surprised. Suho pouted, rubbing his arm, “What was that for?”   “You should totally ask her on a date!”   Kris raised a brow at the girl in front of him, “Why should he?”   Sena frowned at him before looking back to Suho. “She’s pretty, and she seems your type.”   Suho sighed, looking to Xiumin for help, “You don’t even know my type, Zen.”   The other scoffed, “Of course I do.” She smiled again when Minhee came up to them with their drinks. “Thank you!”   Minhee smiled down at her, “You’re welcome,” before putting down the other drinks in front of their corresponding consumer.   Xiumin and Kris smiled at her, “Thanks,” while Suho reached out for his drink so she wouldn’t have to put it down. “Thank you,” he responded with a smile.   Minhee smiled back brightly, liking that he did that for her, “I’ll be right back with your appetizers.”   “Okay,” Xiumin happily said, bouncing a bit in his seat. The other simply laughed before walking away.   After a while, Kris just kept staring at Sena who kept making weird faces at Suho who was trying to avoid the impending questions by looking to Xiumin for help who only kept looking to his phone every few minutes and texting someone through it. Eventually, Sena gave up trying to question her brother; so instead, she turned to stare at the person in front of her.