Kris woke up in the early Monday morning to the retching sound coming from the bathroom.

5.34 am… Chanyeol was vomiting again, Kris registered as he sighed and tries to rub away the sleep from his eyes. He practically sleepwalked his way towards the bathroom where a Chanyeol was slumping over the loo on the tiled floor. He stood behind him, collecting Chanyeol’s wavy hair and held them back with one hand while the other massaged his nape, and asked him whether he was okay.

“I’m alright… s-sorry I woke you up agaiihhhn—urghk”

“It’s okay…” Kris slurred, yawning wide as his eyes were still blurry and barely open.

While Chanyeol has to be at his office at 8 every morning, Kris goes out at 10 am for work to avoid the peak of rush hours. But, he’d been insisting to at least take Chanyeol by car to the office lately that he’d sort of gotten used to the change of sleeping habits. The blonde puked a few more bile into the water closet and finally patted Kris’ comforting hand on his nape to tell him that he was done. Kris let go as his fiancé flushed down the toilet and stepped into the shower, walking himself out of the bathroom to prepare breakfast.

Kris wasn’t a cook, but he managed to make them an abundant amount of scrambled eggs, fried bacon, and sausages. He was just slowly stirring hot water into Chanyeol’s milk and his own black coffee when he felt wet drops and a chin resting on his shoulder from behind.

“Aigoo Kris, don’t use the same spoon from the coffee, that stuff leaves residues!” Chanyeol’s whine was fresh and minty, so Kris just had to squish Chanyeol’s cheeks in and crane his neck to trap him in a smooch.

“Oh God,” Chanyeol chuckled at Kris’ morning breath kiss. Kris smirked wide, upper gum showing.

“Amazing, huh?” Of course Kris was being satirical, but Chanyeol gave him a peck back anyway, taking his filled mug by its cup-ears and sitting his towel-clad down at the modestly prepared breakfast table. Kris joined him, setting his cup on the round table in front of his lover. They ate while waiting the drinks to cool down, and Kris began a casual conversation.

“So, how’s your workplace treating you?” Kris asked after swallowing half a sausage. Chanyeol looked hesitant, and just shrugged.

“What do you mean?” Kris pressed.

Chanyeol sighs, “They’re still… I don’t know… unaware I guess…”

Kris raised his eyebrows.

“You know you’re going to have to come out to your coworkers sooner or later right? You still promised me of taking leave on your fifth month,”

“Sixth!” Chanyeol corrected. Yes, he still remembered clearly. “And I DID come out to them, since forever actually, but they just won’t take me seriously on the pregnancy part,”

“What did they say?” Kris queried.

“They just said I probably haven’t crapped in days,”

Silence ensued…

…before both of them laughed unattractively with mouths full of eggs and bacon.

“So what did your boss say? You gave him the note right?” The laughter quickly died down at the mention of the leave request note Kris had helped him to make a few weeks back. In all honesty, it was still sitting perfectly at the bottom of his bag, probably a little crumpled by now.

“I… haven’t, hehe,” Chanyeol quickly averted his gaze to his plate and stuffed another piece of scrambled egg into his mouth, so he wouldn’t see it if Kris gave him a disapproving look.

“What’s so hard in just handing it in? You’re not giving a resignation letter, for God’s sake, you’re only asking permission for-“

“I know! I know, but it still feel like… resigning… I mean… what if I’d really get fired?”

“Then just the hell with them, come work with me, with us. Chanyeol, why are we having this conversation again?” Kris was taking this so lightly, and that made Chanyeol kind of mad.

“You can say that easily ‘cause you’re not the one knocked up! Kris, I love my work, and you know that!”

“I know, but you also promised to me… and the Chanyeol I know keeps his promises.”

Chanyeol looked up, and was instantly trapped in Kris’ beautiful, dark brown irises that peered heavily over the tilting mug as he sipped on his black coffee. He knew his words meant more ways than one, more than merely taking a break from work. It also hinted back to the memories of the commitment they had both agreed to make. He promised Kris his devotion, and now Kris was demanding it from him.

“Alright… I’ll give it to him.” Chanyeol muttered, hoping Kris wouldn’t press any further at his slightly shaky tone. He didn’t.

“Chanyeol, it’s 6.30,” Kris reminded after glancing at the clock on their white kitchen wall.

“So?” Chanyeol could make it in time even if he went out at 7.30, it only takes 15 minutes by train to get to the SM Advertising building from where they live.

“So, you have to get dressed and go, you’re taking the taxi, okay?” Kris said sternly in slight worry. Their car was still in the service station thanks to their weekend accident, and it’d probably be discharged in the afternoon. Chanyeol groaned loudly.

“Oh Gooood Kris, No neeed!”

“Chanyeol, please, people don’t know you’re pregnant, and trains at this kind of hour are just. Hell.” Kris didn’t want Chanyeol, quietly carrying his future child, get shoved and pushed around just because he looked like a capable guy.

But cabs are so pricey… The distance from here to his office, topped with the traffic jam, would be ridiculously pricey… Chanyeol mourned mentally… the little remnants of his pride wouldn’t let him start taking Kris’ money to even go to his own workplace now.

“I’ll find myself a safe spot, so don’t worry!”

But Kris looked unnecessarily anxious to Chanyeol, and got up from his seat; “I’ll go get a cab.”

“Do that, and I’ll get off on the way and take the train either way.” And Chanyeol knew he had him at that. Kris slumped in defeat.

“Well just be careful, you have to be careful!” Kris finally gave up restlessly, and Chanyeol, though wanting to roll his eyes so bad at the barbaric driver, resorted to offer him a lopsided smile and kiss him, because after all, he just cares.

…

..

.

Just as expected, the train ride had been ruthless. But it wasn’t anything Chanyeol was new to dealing with. As a solution, Chanyeol had stood glued at the very corner of the packed corridor of the train, the part with less people due to the lack of air conditioning coverage. Women with very strong-scented perfume, male workers with earphones perched up their ears who couldn’t care less about anything, students with their big bags, all rushed by, pushing to and fro before him, attacking Chanyeol’s senses with nostalgic waves of stress from all sides. Chanyeol guessed he was indeed getting kind of spoiled by Kris when this felt so unfamiliar.

Thank God it was a short ride, so after swiftly walking out of the commute hell-hole, Chanyeol, in no time, was standing before the huge SM advertising building. He fixed his backpack that he had used to shield his front torso to its rightful place on his back, and brushed his hair down with clammy fingers before entering the automatic double glass doors of his workplace. The strong blast of the cold AC once he stepped in felt heavenly, and his mood quickly rejuvenated, bringing his trademark smile easier up his lips.

It also helped that the first thing he saw was a mop of colorful, rainbow hair.

“Thehun-ah!” Chanyeol called out mischievously to the boy getting his stuff checked by the security. The head turned and a pair of surprised eyes greeted him before it went back to its default bored-looking state.

“Hyuuung!” The whiny reply was one of the things he looked forward to every day since it was so difficult to shake a reaction out of the expressionless 19 year old, so he can’t help but to chuckle in satisfaction upon hearing it. He quickly got himself checked as Sehun waited patiently for him rather than joining the half-crowded elevator closing in on them. Oh Sehun was a design intern with a quirky fashion-sense that was trusted in his care since a month ago. Despite the student’s fancy, juvenile look that had a lot of Chanyeol’s co-worker noonas swoon over, he was quiet, smart, and hard-working. All in all, Sehun is a nice kid.

As they waited for another elevator lift, Sehun rustled something out of his huge canvas bag, and presented Chanyeol with BAP, 2NE1, BigBang and many more genuine CD albums he brought from home. Chanyeol thought his morning couldn’t get any brighter.

 “Aaalright! This is definitely an A plus in attentiveness!” Chanyeol clapped his hands and smiled wide at his dongsaeng bringing exactly what he asked last week. Sehun, looking hopeful and excited at the promise, had a timid smile on his tiny lips. He would do anything for good scores in his Internship report, and the person responsible to make that happen was none other than his supervisor; Junior Art Director, Park Chanyeol.

The intern-supervisor duo entered the elevator when it dinged open, and went up to the 19^th floor with equal, eager bounce on their heels. Chanyeol was so caught up admiring over the glossy covers of the CDs in his hands he hadn’t noticed Kai’s presence when he got in from the café on the 5^th floor with hot coffee in hand. Sehun bowed and greeted him respectfully, and Kai offered a small smile without bothering to greet the older of the two from his trance.

Chanyeol instinctively followed Sehun beside him when they’ve reached their floor, and only then did he realize Kai was walking in front of them. He walked up a little faster to say hi to him, which unfortunately, didn’t go well, as the 3D artist also remembered that he forgot something at that very moment and turned around, bodies clashing and hot coffee spilled over Kai’s tanned chest and Chanyeol’s white thick jumper.

“!!” Kai cursed at the stinging pain of freshly brewed coffee soaking through his black buttoned-down shirt. Chanyeol was horrified, both at the other’s anger and his Baby!

“I-I’m so sorry! Oh God-“ Chanyeol’s hands instinctively reached for him but Kai swatted them in disgust and sent the CDs flying to the floor. How could Chanyeol forget for a second that Kai was a homophobe who avoided him like a plague with every fiber of his being?

“Don’t TOUCH me!” Kai didn’t really shout, but it sounded like he was screaming to Chanyeol with the way black eyes pierced him with so much hatred. So Chanyeol quickly kept his hands to himself, and dropped down to pick up the innocent records off the floor as soon as Kai left with hurried steps.

“I’m such an idiot.” Chanyeol mumbled to himself, clutching at his soaked belly with one hand. Sehun joined him on the floor to help him out. “I’m so sorry Sehun-ah,”

Sehun shook his head and asked; “Are you okay, hyung? Your hands look…”

“Hahaha… I hope so…” Chanyeol laughed dryly. He was terrified.

Chanyeol checked himself in the bathroom and was relieved to find the skin of his stomach intact, not burned nor pink like a portion of his left hand. Hurray to his ruined hoodie which was both baggy and thick enough to protect him and the baby, yet too sparklingly white and vulnerable to avoid stain. He spent his extra minutes until the other co-workers came, putting his burnt hand under the soothing running tap water while futilely trying to rinse the coffee stain off his clothing, mourning over his relationship with Kai that had just worsened. It saddens him how one of his coolest friend, the one buddy he used to laugh together with over stupid jokes, could ever turn into the biggest homophobe he’d ever have to deal with in his life.

Well… apart from a certain person’s father…

..

.

From the morning’s internal creative meeting, he and Junmyeon, his copywriter partner, was assigned to handle the packaging of a new line of colorful, specially-designed for women, vibrating s that was potentially going to be exported worldwide, while the other team with Do Kyungsoo, got to handle the design for a more serious, historical-related event promotional.

Going over his team’s datas as Sehun carefully re-applied burn balm onto the back of his hand, Chanyeol came to a conclusion.

“Right, so… out of all these traits they claimed as being their superior points, the only special thing I could find from this is the blindingly fancy colors.” Chanyeol said as he slurped on his spaghetti lunch with his free hand. They were sitting around in Junmyeon’s cubicle (since his and Sehun’s was too messy), eating take-outs while discussing about their new assignment.

“Chanyeol, how you can eat casually while talking about toys is beyond my comprehension, but can we please just leave it alone while eating?” The ever polite copywriter said, trying to eat his bento box in peace.

“Sorry but, come on Junmyeon, ‘compact size so busy women could carry this in their purse anywhere’ what? What kind of busy women would carry around s in their purse? It doesn’t make any ing sense! these are just small and cute and that’s it,” Chanyeol scrunched his eyebrows at the sample products strewn across Junmyeon’s desk.

“Perfect for s!” a smooth, cheery voice beside his ear jerked Chanyeol and Sehun, and the three of them quickly stood up and bowed at the appearance of Byun Baekhyun, their 32 year-old boss with a baby face. Baekhyun waved them off  ‘No, please’ as he cleared the table a little bit and sat his small down comfortably in front of Chanyeol, casually biting on his canteen-made kebab.

“So how did you guys end up with this fagtastic- Omo Eggyollie! what happened to your hand?” Baekhyun gasped with his mouth full.

“Hahaha… just, hot coffee…”

“That’s not good! We should treat it right away!” Baekhyun stood back up.

“No no, It’s okay, Sehun already put some medicine on it, right Sehunnie?” Sehun nodded.

“Is that so… do you need to take the day off?” Chanyeol looked at the pretty hands of Baekhyun taking his inflamed one, rubbing circles over the tender knuckles, and shook his head.

“It’s fine, it’s just my left hand, it doesn’t even hurt anymore, See?” Chanyeol flexed his pinkened fingers to prove so. Baekhyun squinted his eyes through his huge black-framed spectacles, his hands lingering a little too long for Chanyeol’s comfort, but the latter can’t just pull away rudely.

“Okay,” Baekhyun finally says, but he kept Chanyeol’s hand in his palm on his lap as he continued eating non-chalantly. Chanyeol was almost grateful his phone blasted its ringtone right at that moment so he could excuse his hand out of his boss’ grasp.

It was from none other than Kris.

“Hey,” Chanyeol greeted. Baekhyun, who somehow always end up eating lunch with the three of them,started chatting with his other two subordinates.

“I’m checking your profile page…” Came Kris’ voice over the phone.

“Yeah?” Chanyeol raised his eyebrows in amusement, a smile creeping up his face at hearing his boyfriend’s voice which always increases his appetite.

“Yeah… and I don’t like this guy commenting on each and every one of your pictures and showing up on my news feed…” Chanyeol pondered briefly over what on earth was he talking about until Kris continued, “what’s with ‘that cap suits you, so cute!’…… then ‘Looking sleepy winky face’… ‘hahaha your eye’s twitching Eggyeollie,’… what the is Eggyeollie?” Kris protested as he scrolled down Chanyeol’s tagged pictures on his laptop unhappily. Chanyeol didn’t need to check his cyworld to tell those were comments from Baekhyun. He glanced nervously at his conversing boss. Well, this is a dangerous conversation to be having right now…

“What’ve you been doing in your office, really?” Chanyeol asked, changing the subject.

“I don’t know babe, use up electricity… breathe… piss,” Kris answered sarcastically.

“Sounds so productive,” Chanyeol countered.

“It does, doesn’t it. What do you have for lunch?”

“Spaghetti… did you eat?”

“I’m eating Yixing’s homemade cake…” a faint yelling was heard before Kris corrected himself, “Vanilla Milk Spongecake he said…”

“Oh, sounds good?”

“Mmh… tastes like wind…” Kris answered quietly.

“Like… no taste?”

“yeah…”

“Hmm…” Chanyeol rolled his last spaghetti and popped it into his mouth, humming sympathetically.

“So, what’s Eggyeollie?”

Chanyeol clicked his tongue at the returning topic.

“It’s just- look, I’ll explain it to you at home,”

“He’s right there, isn’t he?” Kris guessed, but Chanyeol’s too-quick of a ‘no’ confirmed it.

“Tell him to go himself.”

Chanyeol instantly ended the call. Seriously, Baekhyun might hear that, he’s even looking at him right now… Chanyeol thought consciously as he was getting too shifty in his seat. Chanyeol’s phone rang again almost immediately. He picked it up because it’ll look weirder not to.

“You , babe,” Kris’ tone was amused, completely unfeeling Chanyeol’s situation right now.

“That’s what I do~” Chanyeol said through gritted teeth, taking up the unintended ual pun, considering whether he should get up and take this conversation somewhere else his boss absolutely couldn’t possibly hear.

“Ah, Figured. By the way, the car’s done this afternoon, so just text me when you’re done and I’ll pick you up from work,”

“…okay…”

“Alright, Oh! And don’t forget to give the letter!” Kris reminded, Chanyeol just hummed.

“Okay then, see you later Eggyeollie…”

“Shut uuup,” Chanyeol replied in mild annoyance, putting down his phone, finally meeting his boss’ kohl-rimmed eyes behind vintage spectacles.

“Your boyfriend?” Baekhyun smirked tightly, kebab long gone along with the friendly tone he had moments ago. Chanyeol grinned uncertainly but nodded, wondering if he really did hear his conversation with Kris… he couldn’t have… it wasn’t on loudspeaker… right?. Shaking off his thought, he remembered his promise to Kris and seizes the opportunity.

“Uhmm… Mr. Byun… May I please talk privately with you later on?” Chanyeol requested reluctantly.

“Of course, about what?” Baekhyun picked a stray strand on the junior art director’s hoodie.

“Work related, and stuff…” Junmyeon and Sehun looked at him curiously at this. Baekhyun raised an elegant eyebrow, sensing the slight shake in his favorite junior’s tone.

“Sure, I’ll be in my office,” Baekhyun says as he got off the table and patted his subordinate’s cheek affectionately before excusing himself out of their sight.

Junmyeon & Sehun looked at him worriedly when the boss was gone.

“What’s going on?” the older of the two asked as Chanyeol began moving to clear the desk from his spaghetti lunch.

“Hahaha, it’s nothing…”

“Please don’t give us that joke about you being pregnant by Kris again,” Junmyeon supplied.

“But that’s what I was about to tell you!” Chanyeol laughed dryly. Minus the joke part... he added to himself, but Chanyeol had a cheery expression on and it was hard for the other two to decipher him, so they assumed he was being funny.

“Chanyeol, men can NOT get pregnant!” Junmyeon chuckled, Sehun’s shoulder was shaking, unable to take him seriously either.

“Tell that to my doctor!” Chanyeol laughed, walking towards his cubicle to fetch the leave request note.

His steps felt heavy as he approached the small cubicle where he had worked in for 3 years in this company. The barely 2 x 2 meters of space occupied by a desk, an old macintosh, a graphic tablet and some drawers in off-white is always completely covered in papers, cups, stickers, post its and other random stuffs in colors because that’s just Chanyeol’s style.

He had certainly never explicitly talked to his boss about his developing relationship with Kris, so he has no idea how he’s going to take this seemingly outrageous news. Best possible outcome; he’ll get his time-off after being labeled as a nutcase, worst outcome; he’ll get fired, after being labeled as a nutcase. His eyes stung and he tries not to get emotional just yet at the unfavorable probabilities, ping his bag to take-out the envelope that should be located inside the inner pocket of his-…

Chanyeol froze.

His fingers were digging the inner pocket of his backpack but they merely met thin air. His bag’s stitches had come apart.

“Oh My God…”

Chanyeol went into panic mode, emptying the contents in his bag, flipping through his sketchbooks, rustling into his pencilcase, going through every nook and cranny of his bag. Refusing to accept the fact that he had probably lost it somewhere on his way here just yet, he began searching through the mess of his desk, checking inside his drawers, dropping down to the floor to seek a yellow envelope anywhere, but he knows, picturesquely, that it really should’ve been in his bag, because he had put it there himself this morning and hasn’t taken it out ever since.

“Has anybody seen a yellow envelope dropped anywhere?” His baritone voice spreads through the whole room and heads perked up from the other cubicles, looking around, then shaking their heads his way.

“What is it, Chanyeol?” Junmyeon had come to him along with Sehun, noticing the fuss he was making.

“I los- I dropped my yellow envelope somewhere, I-It’s really important,” Chanyeol was on the floor now, crawling his way around the others’ cubicle, checking Junmyeon’s desk, his drawers, as Sehun began helping him out, sorting through his supervisor’s stuff and looked around where he could. He asked around, went through everything he went near this morning, he even checked the elevator, and asked the security guards on the first floor. But nobody claimed to have seen it. Chanyeol bit his nails anxiously.

“What’s in it, hyung? Money?” Sehun asked, wiping sweat that trickled on his forehead as they reached a dead end.

“No, not money, but an important letter,”

“What letter?” Junmyeon pressed.

 “Can’t you make another one of it?” Sehun added.

No. No He can’t. But Kris can. The downside was that Kris would definitely get suspicious and pissed if he said he lost it coincidentally today.

Chanyeol’s pale fingers reach for his mobile phone.

“Hello, Mr. Byun? Ah… yes it’s Chanyeol, uhmm about that talk I said earlier, I’m sorry, but can we postpone it in the meantime? I realized I forgot something from home…” He wasn’t ready to face all of the possibilities without a piece of Kris with him. Luckily Mr. Byun Baekhyun was more than welcoming him to ‘take his time’ and ‘meet him when he was ready’. He knew he shouldn’t have let that letter sit too long in his worn-out bag, but then again, he didn’t know his bag had loose stitches either. Chanyeol, hitting his deepest self-pacifying mechanism, decided to just it.

He’ll just ask Kris to make him another one tomorrow… he didn’t technically break his promise on purpose, things just happened… and he’s totally NOT relieved that he doesn’t have to give the leave request note today, nope… absolutely not… With those thoughts, Chanyeol felt a little better.

 “Nevermind, it’s probably at home or something.” Or out in the streets… It’s not that bad of a situation.

Sehun and Junmyeon’s eyes widen at the change of attitude.

They headed back upstairs after he convinced the other two that everything was fine.

On the way, they met Kai who just got back from wherever with his new friend, the perfect, brilliant designer Do Kyungsoo. The dark skinned artist smiled at the other two but barely even looked his way. Obviously still in all his glorious angry mode at him. Kyungsoo though, was nice enough to bow to all of them equally. He’s a sweetheart. He wondered if Kai had treated his burns with an ointment like he did, but refrained himself from asking and just tries not to pout.

...

..

.

It was rather exceptionally quiet in the EXO headquarters today since only Yixing, Kris, and Xiumin came to their internal meeting to talk about their new client.

“Where the hell are the others again? It’s almost three…” Kris broke the silence as Yixing was cutting up his cake carefully while xiumin was unceremoniously napping on the meeting room’s floor with the client’s photocopied brief over his face.

“Chen’s got the flu… and Tao’s not coming because-“

“He doesn’t wanna see Luhan’s face.” Kris finished Yixing’s sentence, having received Tao’s emotional voice note as well. Out of boredom, he replayed Tao’s voice message again from his phone;

“Hey Kris… Yixing… and whoever showed up for the meeting… just wanted to let you guys know that I can’t come today because of a certain someone I don’t wanna see. Yeah, yixing you know exactly who *coughs*xiao lu*coughs*. But I’ve already e-mailed you guys everything about our new client, so, just study and discuss that first without me. This one’s a big one, I’m telling you.”

And with that, the marketing division representative’s message ended. Kris rolled his eyes.

The door flew open, and a pink-haired male popped in.

“What the ?” Luhan scanned around the meeting room, only spotting 3 people present.

“What the indeed, Luhan, 3 pm? Seriously? Our meeting was at 11!” was Kris’ greeting as he hadn’t expected him to come at all.

“Shut up Kris, this is early enough, designers are creatures of the night.” The hipster dropped his tie-dye bag on a chair and immediately went over to Xiumin on the floor.

“Hey, Hey, Hey~” Squatting down, Luhan lifted the papers off Xiumin’s face and began patting Xiumin’s cheeks non-too gently. Xiumin was startled awake and whimpered at the sight of a creepy, grinning Luhan looming over him.

“Baozi~ Come play ball with me, c’mon, c’mon!” Luhan’s cheek slapping patting just escalated and Xiumin groaned in protest.

“Hey why don’t you tell me what happened back in the club that made Tao so angry?” Kris suggested.

“He’s still angry?” Luhan seemed amused.

“Pretty much…”

“Hahaha I didn’t do anything!” Luhan was now tickling Xiumin’s ears since the latter had curled to the side, protecting his cheeks.

“Don’t lie, Lu” Yixing eyed him.“In front of SNSD, you called him ‘ZIT!’ across the room and asked him to bring your vodka over from the table.”

Luhan’s laughter died down at Yixing’s conviction. Kris smirked in amusement.

“Well he is Huang ZITao, he didn’t need to throw a ing tantrum over his own name, ’s sake… he’s just exaggerating…” Luhan said in defense.

“And you also fooled around in the car, remember?” Yixing continued.

“Oh Shut up Dory, you laughed along on that one. It was a shared crime.” Luhan couldn’t seem to care less as he just shook Xiumin’s shoulders more fervently. Yixing sighed.

“So, we didn’t bring our cars to the club, remember?” Yixing began at Kris.

“Yeah,” Kris listened close in delicious anticipation as his team mate’s finally speaking.

“But Luhan did bring his Chevrolet, and he wasn’t exactly drunk when we were finished, so we all decided to tag along in his car to go home.”

“All 5 of you?” Kris queried.

“Plus Jessica, mind you,” Luhan butted in with pride. Kris raised an eyebrow.

“Her house was nearby so she didn’t feel like going back to her management’s office with the others and tagged with us instead. Anyways, Tao was in the toilet when we were all ready to go home in the car, so we all waited patiently in the car for him. Luhan in the driver’s seat, Jessica on his right, and me, chen, and xiumin at the backseat.” Yixing explained.

“Right,”

“You know Luhan’s Chevrolet got windows’ that are impossible to look through, right?”

“Yeah, it was what did you say, 85% tinted black or something?” Kris recalled.

“Mmmh yeah… you could get arrested for it, seriously, Lu,” Xiumin slurred, joining the conversation sleepily.

“Baooziiii~” Luhan cheerfully cooed at the wakening boy.

“So, we told Tao we were already outside the lobby waiting in the car, and he came out not long after.” Yixing continued his tale.

“But the idiot forgot how my car looked like.” Luhan interrupted.

“He could’ve flashed him or honked him or something,” Yixing pointed at Luhan, “But he didn’t, and instead, cruelly told him his car was red when Tao called through the phone. The car in front of us was red. So-”

“Tao knocked the front car instead and was stunned when the windows rolled down,” Luhan cackled at the memory.

 “And it didn’t stop there. Realizing our car was right behind after Jessica pressed the honk for him out of pity, he grumpily marched our way, like literally, stomp stomp stomp, like that,” Yixing mimicked comically. “And he furiously knocked on our window, but Luhan refused to unlock the doors for a couple of minutes,”

“Yeah, but then it was Chen who rolled the windows down a little bit just to give him a few 100 won coins.” Luhan explained as he and Xiumin burst into laughter despite everything.

“Sons of satan…” Kris just shook his head at the childish boys in disbelief.

“It was just a joke! Yixing, you laughed too!” Luhan accused, but Yixing just shrugged.

“You guys are lucky Tao haven’t shoved his wushu stick up your asses…” Kris said matter-of-factly.

“His wushu stick? More like his own . I think he’s a closeted gay.” Luhan blurted, looking at Xiumin who listened to him seriously. “Or at least, bi. Especially to you Kris, that guy has some major man crush on you.”

“ you, Lu.” Kris chuckled at his friend’s prejudice, feeling bad for Tao by the second.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Luhan said before dragging Xiumin up off the floor and out to their little grass field in the backyard.

“I’m almost touched by how you guys’ gay jokes are getting more honest and worse day by day…” Kris says to Yixing. Yixing merely patted his back before sitting down beside him.

“So, any cue of your marriage plans yet?” The yellow haired asked.

“I don’t know, Xiu said I should ask Chen instead of him about the laws & regulations.”

“Oh…”

“Me and Chanyeol had agreed to just get married after the baby is delivered, but he also didn’t demand a deadline of any sort.” Kris mindlessly clicked through their new client’s corporate website, the SM Advertising Firm. What a coincident his lover’s workplace was interested in planning on their business expansion with Kris’ contractor team.

“Patient, isn’t he?” Yixing smiled.

“I hope so. Either that, or he’s being hesitant.”

“Stop being such a pessimistic!” Yixing lightly punched his arm. Kris chuckled.

“Let’s start discussing business, okay?” Yixing flipped through his papers and started. “So, SM Advertising, second largest Advertising firm in Asia, has been renowned to have produced high-quality, International award-winning commercials and campaigns since 2008. Has approximately 12.000 staffs working worldwide, and growing. Expected to take-over YG in the next few years because of its brilliant human resource development. But I guess you already know all this because Chanyeol works there, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but go on…”

“So, basically they’re planning to launch another branch in the outskirts of Seoul, expanding their empire, opening possibilities to increase even more investment, workforce and productivity.”

“Cool.”

“Their demand roughly is, for us to build a 15-story building, excluding basement parking area and upper / lower ground floor, which functions as a multi-purpose indoor studio for pre and post-production necessities. Estimated total project worth : 180 million US dollars.” Yixing stated. Kris whistled at the whooping numbers.

“Indeed a big one.” Kris recalled Tao’s words.

“Our biggest project so far, hopefully.” Yixing agreed.

“So, how many teams are we fighting against for this?”

Yixing took a big breath.

“43 listed contractor teams competing.”

“What?!” Kris had expected somewhere around 15 to 20 at max.

“It’s a minimum-risk, non-governmental project, and highly prospective…” Yixing logically reasoned.

Kris looked at his friend’s eyes in overwhelm.

“We can do this, Kris.”

…

..

.

After lunch, Chanyeol, Sehun and Junmyeon began brainstorming and drawing mindmaps on a huge drawing board until they were on that particularly, maddening point where no other good ideas seemed to juice out of their brains anymore. And so, they finally sat back and swiveled on chairs. It was almost 5 o’clock in the afternoon, and they were going to go home soon anyways.

Sehun was still busy trying to get the moodboard and other tasks as told done though, while Junmyeon was already giggling happily at his cyworld messages, apparently chatting with a much younger woman Chanyeol bet he didn’t even know in real life.

Chanyeol’s wandering eyes landed on Kai’s ever serious working face, nose behind his macbook, headphones on, in the cubicle just across from him, , and then over to the bright, rainbow colored s on the table.

Chanyeol took a random, bright pink, glossy colored one (which was impossible to miss as it was so attention-stealing that even Kai looked up from his screen at him) and switched it on. Keeping his poker-face, Chanyeol picked at the stray ends of his hair, and used the quietly buzzing thing to curl the clumps around like a curler. Just slightly smirking as he could hear Kai’s pissed-off, frustrated sighs. At least one mission accomplished today.

..

.

Chanyeol waited for Kris’ car to appear any minute now, since he had texted Kris that evening and Kris had replied him to wait for him. Standing outside the front gate of the SM building with an umbrella in hand since it was raining lightly, he was careful to hide his left burnt hand inside his oversized hoodie sleeves. Talk about Kris’ major anger trigger.

Car light flashed him from behind, and he stepped aside as the said car halted beside him.

“Hey, you sure you don’t want me to give you a ride?” Mr. Byun Baekhyun’s head appeared from the back seat’s window.

“Yes, sir, don’t worry, but thank you very much!” Chanyeol bowed politely. The head of the creative department gave a smile and waved at him, motioning his driver for them to go. Chanyeol waved back, and it wasn’t long after he saw his boss’ car disappear into the distant that Kris came with their shining black ride with its headlamp all fixed as good as new.

His stupid, easily intimidated heart never seem to quit thundering everytime Kris picks him up and greets him with his confident smile from his car like this. Chanyeol quickly rounded the car to get into the passenger seat, closing up his umbrella, and carefully heaving his full-of-bag body inside.

“Did you wait long?” Kris helped take the paper bags off his hand and placed them somewhere on the backseat.

“Nope, just a few minutes.” Chanyeol grinned. Kris pulled him into a brief kiss and they started leaving the building’s premise. Chanyeol worried the other will pester him about the leave request note right away, but he didn’t need to, as his slight shivering and the large stain on his clothes distracted the other completely from it.

“Poor baby, you’re shivering…” Kris ruffled his boyfriend’s slightly damp hair as he turned down the AC slightly. “And what happened to your clothes?” Kris kept glancing to and fro between the road and Chanyeol.

“It’s just coffee, hahaha, stop taking your eyes off the road,” Chanyeol answered nervously, hoping the topic to be left alone. And Kris obliged. He did, but his large hand came to squeeze his covered hands, and Chanyeol instinctly winced at the contact of fabric over his tender wound, which didn’t go unnoticed by Kris.

“Chanyeol, show me your hands.” Kris ordered albeit softly.

“I’m cold…” Chanyeol muttered as he kept his hands to himself.

“I said show me your hands.” Red traffic light, and Kris pulled the stained sleeves up Chanyeol’s arm himself. His eyes dilated at the sight of an angry pink marring Chanyeol’s skin from his fingers, all the way to his forearm.

“What the is this?!!”

“See! You’re mad! You’re mad already and you expect me to tell you about it!”

“I’m not mad!! Just- was it HOT coffee?! Were you trying to hide it from me?!”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!! I was about to wait until we get home before I show it to you because I knew you’d be like this!”

“Of course you didn’t do it on purpose, you’d have to be CRAZY if you did!” Kris looked even more pissed at the stupid excuse.

Chanyeol bit his quivering lip still. “K-Kris, green light,”

Kris exhaled frustratedly and accelerated. The rest of the ride was stressful as Kris had him in another one of his temper-induced drive to the apothecary and then home. Once they got to their house, Chanyeol felt like throwing up while Kris was slamming doors and throwing paper bags to the table. Kris sat himself down and motioned Chanyeol to sit down with him at the dining table. Chanyeol waited miserably as his lover downed one, two, three glasses of water before speaking;

“I’m sorry.” Kris said stiffly. Chanyeol finally looked up, and Kris’ eyes were dilating no more.

“I’m sorry too-”

“Let’s try again, how could you have… spilled hot coffee onto your own arms?” The irritation was still there in Kris’ voice, but Chanyeol can deal with this better.

“Well… I was about to say hi to my co-worker this morning… but then he just sort of, unintentionally, suddenly turned when I came up to him, and we…” Chanyeol stopped when Kris closed his eyes and palmed his face.

“Nothing happened at the train yet you managed to hurt yourself over coffee at work… Didn’t I tell you to be careful?”

“I said I’m sorryyy!” Chanyeol whimpered.

Kris reached for the paper bag on the table and took out the skin ointment they bought at the apothecary, reading the label and box. Chanyeol just slumped in his seat.

“What about your tummy?” Kris asked. Chanyeol rubbed his tummy and lifted up his thick top to show the unblemished skin there.

“Thank God it didn’t get through my shirt, but Kai’s chest was a mess…”

“Kai? That 3D artist guy?” Kris recalled Chanyeol used to tell him a lot about Kai, though not anymore lately. Chanyeol nodded.

“Did he do anything to you?” Kris eyed him. Chanyeol shook his head quickly. In fact, Chanyeol think he actually managed to troll that guy yet again today… he can’t help it… it’s like defense mechanism when you know someone just hates you so much for something you can’t help but to be…

Kris put down the box and opened the tube containing clear, cold paste, and gently took Chanyeol’s hands in his as he started applying the medicine, just like Sehun did back in the office. Chanyeol sighed at the soothing, cool sensation on his skin.

“So, how’s work today?” Kris asked.

Chanyeol visibly stiffened for a second as his brain drifted back to the goddamn lost leave request note, but he quickly pushed that far into the back of his mind.

“Sehun brought me CDs I asked last week…”

“Really?” and Kris has that attractive smile plastered on his face, thus Chanyeol smiled for him a million times brighter, nodding.

“It’s in my bag! And oh! You have to see what product me and Junmyeon got this time!” The blonde haired jumped to his feet and rustled the paper bag that slid off the table to take out the colorful s they were working on. The black haired’s eyes widened in surprise.

“What is that?”

“It’s a one of-a-kind, specially designed for s, battery charged … in brilliant colors.” Chanyeol presented as he clicked the switch, and the thing buzzed familiarly.

Kris snorted in amusement.

“No it’s not, that’s a French fry!” Kris noted the bright yellow color thing in Chanyeol’s hand the size of his middle finger.

“Rude!” Chanyeol says, but couldn’t falter the grin on his own face either.

“Or a birthday candle!”

“Oh really, Mister? You’d put this on your cake and blow on it?”

“Oh I can certainly do that…” Kris smirked lopsidedly and made a show of his own upper row of teeth ertly.

“Really? You’d really do that?! I’ll note that down and really put these on your birthday cake!” Chanyeol dared eagerly.

“Sure, baby…” Kris took up the challenge without much thinking, and Chanyeol blushed before throwing the yellow rubber plastic toy to his boyfriend’s annoyingly smug face. Kris laughed.

“Hahaha- Hey!”

But Chanyeol threw him another pink one, and then an orange one, and then a green one, and then-

Kris pounced on him and they both fell to the couch, chuckling.

And Chanyeol thinks, as Kris brushes his hair back as he looked into his eyes, that the whole leave request note ordeal can wait later…

Yeah… especially when Kris kisses him this tenderly…

Other things can damn right wait…

...

..

.

A.N // Next chapter is titled Family Gathering = so Chanyeol will visit Kris' family gathering herpderp kekeke xD . I hope you liek this chap?