The call came a little after a month later when the office was back to stressing out about deadlines. BaekHyun was cursing at his computer for something about corrupted files when YiXing saw his phone buzz next to his computer. He seized it, glad for the opportunity for a break, and stepped outside.

It was in the following week where YiXing found himself sitting at a table in a café just around the corner of his office during a quick lunch break, blinking at the piercing summer sun. He felt like he’d been staring at his computer screen for at least three days straight. The iced coffee in his hand tasted like water; after only having coffee as hydration for the past week, it was no wonder why.

The door to the café chimed. YiXing had chosen a spot where he wasn’t exactly facing the doorway, but he could casually look over to see the coming and going crowd. He swirled the ice in his coffee as he glanced sideways.

A middle-aged lady and a young man walked in, the lady scanning the crowd and the man slouching apathetically. Without a doubt…

The lady spotted YiXing, and he gave her a small wave. She twinkled her fingers at him, a large grin plastered on her face. YiXing stood from his seat as the two made their way over.

“You must be Zhang YiXing,” the lady exclaimed. “I’m glad you decided to deck yourself in such loud attire. I don’t know if I would have been able to spot you so easily!”

YiXing merely smiled at the comment. BaekHyun had already given him a horrified look upon seeing YiXing’s outfit that day. While neon brights certainly were in for the season, they were more suited for girls than guys. The other fairies in the office, however, thought YiXing looked absolutely fabulous.

“That was my intention,” YiXing replied. “You’re Seo NaYeon, right? It’s nice to meet you.”

He was in the middle of a polite bow when he noticed a swift hand swing out to jab the young man in the arm. The youth recoiled backwards as if the fingernails were poisoned. YiXing straightened before he looked over to the other member of the party.

“I’m Zhang YiXing,” he greeted calmly. “Your name is…?”

The first thing YiXing noticed about the young man was the furrow in his brow. It wasn’t a crease of ferocity that was to be expected in any other person around his age, nor was it a crease of defiance. The eyebrows were somewhat pushed together, but rather than casting down, they collided into a slight upward slope.

What are you afraid of?

The youth bowed politely, keeping his eyes down. “Kim JongIn.”

Even though JongIn wouldn’t raise his eyes to see it, YiXing gave off his vacant smile. “Nice to meet you. Have a seat.”

They took a seat at the small table. While YiXing kept up with the lady’s small talk, he continued observing the expressionless lump that was JongIn. His face never changed during the conversation, even when NaYeon threw out random comments and praises about him. His lips remained turned downward as he kept his gaze fixed on the grain of the table between them. At one point, the eyes lifted, and he finally noticed YiXing staring at him. While any other kid would probably look away immediately, JongIn unwaveringly held on to YiXing’s eyes, his brow still turned in that peculiar way.

YiXing pushed up the corners of his mouth. “Well, it was a pleasure chatting with you, but I’m afraid I have to return to work.”

“Oh, sure! Not a problem! Here, I’ll give you JongInnie’s phone number so you don’t have to bother me about getting in contact.”

There was that reaction again. A minute change that occurred in the eyes rather than the body. YiXing watched JongIn, half listening to the lady rattle out numbers that didn’t belong to her. And then they were standing, bidding polite farewells. YiXing lingered in the shop as the other two left, making a show about throwing away his trash. Instead, he watched as the two stepped out to the street. JongIn held out his hand expectantly to the lady – YiXing hadn’t deduced if she was his mother or any other version of relative. She tossed her head back in exasperation as she dug in her purse, whipping her hand back out with a cell phone. YiXing watched as she slapped the phone into JongIn’s hand before they proceeded to cross the street.

YiXing disregarded the fact that JongIn hadn’t said a word the entire time. He was satisfied enough just from what he had seen.

“Oh, you met them?”

BaekHyun stopped scrubbing his face long enough to glance over at his deskmate. YiXing nodded, swirling a new cup of iced coffee in his hand.

“Seemed nice enough, I think,” YiXing commented, taking a slow sip.

“Hopefully they didn’t think you were a crazy alien for wearing obnoxious orange in the middle of summer. I swear, I think you’re the one killing my eyes today.”

“You don’t even have any eyes to kill, byuntae.”

< 안녕 >*

Quite honestly, YiXing hadn’t thought of looking at his phone in the next day and a half. He had two more full articles to write about things he wasn’t impressed with, so his mind was fairly occupied. It wasn’t until he was wheeling through his contact list, looking for the phone number of the obnoxious doo-dad vendor he had interviewed weeks before, when he spotted the neglected number of Kim JongIn. Did the kid already forget about him? Maybe. YiXing shot off a quick text, anyway.

The first reply came around half an hour later when YiXing was consulting Amber about his syntax. She rolled her eyes, demanded to know who taught him Korean, and corrected about half of what he had already written – she also took a certain MinSeok’s name down for future scolding. The second reply came around half an hour after that, when BaekHyun kicked at YiXing’s seat, jolting him awake, as JungHyuk whizzed by with a judgmental glare plastered on his face.

< 누구? > the first text read.

< 이씨? > the second text read.

YiXi. He chuckled to himself, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he typed out his reply.

< 네. 이씽입니다. >

YiXing hoped he didn’t come off as rude or haughty. He set his phone down and tried to get back into his working mindset. It was broken easily as the next reply suddenly shook YiXing’s phone. He didn’t even have to bother picking up his phone since the preview on the alert was more than enough.

< 어 >

Oh.

“Who are you texting?” BaekHyun asked, slowly rolling over in his chair to sidle up next to YiXing. “That kid? What’s his name?”

“Kim JongIn.” YiXing hadn’t even realized he had pushed out his bottom lip, trying to figure out a good reaction for the minimalistic response. “Yah… How do I even respond to this?”

BaekHyun frowned at the single character on the screen. “I’d say… just don’t. I mean, he’s just a kid, right? If you pester him after that, you’ll seem like an overzealous girlfriend.”

“Oh, really?” YiXing set his phone back down on the desk.

The fourth text came when both YiXing and ChanYeol were sympathetically patting BaekHyun. They had situated themselves at the same restaurant as before (YiXing also thought it was the same booth, but he couldn’t remember too well), peeling the despaired hamster from the office; apparently, there was no recovering the corrupted PSDs BaekHyun had worked on for so long, so he would have to start all over. Ever since they had flopped into the booth, BaekHyun had buried his face in his arms on the table, in agony in response to everything ChanYeol and YiXing said.

“Come on, hyung, it’s not that bad.”

“Bluuuggghhhhhh…”

“You already know how you wanted the layouts to be, right? So you can do them easier this time.”

“Guuuhhhhhhhh…”

“It’s not like you have to redo everything. Just… a lot of it.”

“Muuuuuuuuuuuuuu…”

“That one sounded a bit like a whale.”

“Hurrrrr…”

Sighing, ChanYeol rubbed BaekHyun’s back consolingly as YiXing pulled out his cell phone.

< When? >

For a split second, YiXing thought the kid had texted the wrong person. Then he remembered his half-brain decision of asking JongIn to hang out over coffee. Overzealous girlfriend.

He thought for a bit, considering the deadline. < Next Saturday? >

The coffees had arrived, but BaekHyun showed no indication of surfacing for air. ChanYeol kept nudging the hamster until he finally caved and lifted his face, fumbling for the creamer. The phone buzzed again.

< Saturdays I can’t… >

YiXing frowned at the odd fragment. Kids and their speech these days. < I’ll have to think, then. I’m not free on the weekdays right now. I’ll let you know. >

“You texting him again?”

YiXing sent off the message and looked up at BaekHyun’s pouting face. He was lethargically stirring the creamer into his coffee, slouched over with his chin resting on the table. That posture couldn’t have been comfortable.

“I am.” YiXing set about fixing his own cup.

BaekHyun’s hummed response became a bit garbled when ChanYeol pulled the back of his shirt collar so the hamster would sit up straight. “So you’re really serious about all this?” ChanYeol asked, keeping an eye on BaekHyun to make sure he obediently stayed upright.

“I am,” YiXing repeated. “I wouldn’t have followed through this far if I was being half-hearted.”

“It’s not that we’re saying you were being half-hearted,” ChanYeol added quickly. “It’s just that we couldn’t really figure out why…”

“I know. I had to think for a while to figure out why, myself.”

“Oh…?”

YiXing had stopped stirring his coffee and watched the liquids swirl around the mug, chased by tiny bubbles. The two across the table from him waited to see if he would continue his thoughts, but he just kept staring into the cup.

< No work? >

It was probably the third or fourth time YiXing woke up and read the text. Each time he tapped the text box to reply, his eyes would just fail as he drifted back to sleep. When he woke up for the last time, he saw it was almost noon. His dark curtains were blocking out the sunlight from invading his bedroom. Groaning, he pushed himself up to his knees and tried to wipe the sleep from his eyes.

The past week, YiXing had sent JongIn random texts (to keep himself sane, he claimed), alternating between variations of < Off to work… Hu… > and < So tired T T >. JongIn had started off his replies with the personality-void < Oh >. He eventually upgraded to other blank replies such as < kk >, < Lol >, < Too bad >, and < Go to sleep >. YiXing really didn’t like his position as the overzealous girlfriend, but when his other two main contacts of conversation were BaekHyun (too busy glaring at his computer to say anything) and YiFan (he always responded with emoticons that YiXing had no comeback for), he would have found more enjoyment in talking to stray animals on the street. However, stray animals didn’t talk back.

So seeing the text message on his screen that late morning gave YiXing another feeling of accomplishment. He shook his head and tried to get his slow-moving brain to wake up.

< Nope. Deadlines past so day off. Slept in lol. > It took him a while to text such sloppy sentences through blurred vision and uncooperative hands.

YiXing dropped his hands to his lap and let out an unattractive yawn. His mind was still fuzzy, blearily recanting minor memories from the prior day. JongWoon giving them homicidal glares, cheering loudly with ChanYeol over BaekHyun’s exhausted body, and their incredibly extravagant dinner of home-made ramyun. And upon returning to his own apartment, a cup of YiXing’s plain, chamomile tea before he collapsed on his bed to hibernate.

His phone buzzed in his hands. YiXing didn’t even have to look at the screen to figure out what the text message read.

< 어 >

Oh.

He let out another yawn as he tossed his phone to some non-descript spot on his bed, standing up to wobble to the bathroom. After a few splashes of cold water to his face, the buzz in his brain began to fade out. It wasn’t until he made the mistake of pulling back the curtains in his bedroom, blinded by the midday sun, that an idea popped into his head.

YiXing stumbled to his bed to fish out his phone from the sheets, spots dancing in his vision.

< Coffee? >

He sat on the edge of the mattress as he hit Send and let his gaze settle easily on an undefined spot in the corner of his bedroom. As he waited for the spots to fade out, his phone buzzed in his hands.

< K > YiXing was halfway to mentally scolding the inept kid when the phone went off again, text messages bouncing upward on the screen as they arrived. < When? That same place? >

< No. There’s another place with better coffee. I’ll send you the address. Let me wake up first. >

< K >

A/N: Kai has arrived~ Wheeeeeeee-- Also, for anyone who can't read Hangul, I shall write out a mini-trans of the text messages.

< 안녕 > = "Annyeong" = Hey/Hi/Greeting of some sort
< 누구? > = "Nugu?" = Who?/Who's this?
< 이씨? > = "Isshi?" = fail!JongIn didn't spell YiXing's name completely
< 네. 이씽입니다. > = "Ne. YiXing ibnida." = Yeah. I'm YiXing.
< 어 > = "Eo" = This is more of a non-committed grunt rather than "Oh."

The reason I wrote it like that is 'cause the English trans... I dunno... just doesn't really cut it? So yeah. BTW, I don't speak Korean at all. Do not ask for any other trans :P I'm still learning.

I've started participating in other activities in working toward a certain goal (vague sentence is vague), so I haven't had much time to write. Not to mention I've been on a block for a while. But I definitely want to finish this fic because I think the later parts are quite lovely. Hopefully all of this mess right now won't be so slow that you lose interest OTL

Look forward to the next part~!