Lee Yunji’s POV

I’ve really dreamed up everything now, right?

Despite that constant train of thought, it didn’t stop me from waking up extra early to meet that person. Which was really stupid, considering the fact that for all I knew, everything I thought had happened the previous night might have been another wonderful figment of my imagination. But the messages on my phone were there.

I glanced at the mirror one last time and stared the girl in the mirror down. She was dressed casually for work in a simple white button down made of chiffon and flattering blue jeans. She wore her hair in a loose ponytail and looked like she hadn’t gotten as much sleep as she should have.  No one would have thought that this girl would be hurrying off to work early, not to work, but to meet an idol.

But I was.

My shoulders slumped with a quiet sigh, before I opened the door and made my way to the elevator. The ajumma from upstairs greeted me as I joined her in the small space and asked me to keep an eye out for her missing cat. I promised her I would with a smile and bowed with a goodbye when we parted ways in the lobby.

She had been asking me to look out for her cat for the past 2 years. She was suffering from some sort of mental illness that came with age and according to my neighbours on her floor, had been saying the same thing to them for another 3 years before I met her.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her, nor did anyone else in our building, that her missing cat was most likely long gone.

Her children left her alone in that apartment with a caretaker who would pop in during certain times of the day to check on the ajumma from upstairs. They did that when she started to forget things. Some said that it was because they couldn’t bear to watch their mother forget them, however I didn’t believe that for a second. I had already made my own conclusion based upon the circumstances of the situation.

They had abandoned her because they couldn’t be bothered trying to care for her. And for that, I hated them. Because if they allowed me to do so, I would care for my parents right until the end.

I glanced at my phone with a frown and found that I was right on time as I arrived at the corner of the block where my café was positioned. Lifting my head I aimlessly searched for him.

Where are you?

I felt my eyebrows tug together in frustration when I didn’t spot him instantly. The streets were already quite busy with people swarming from all directions. Some floating to the left, others charging from the right. No one stood still, no one was waiting around the place.

I was going to slip inside to wait for him there, when a thought sprung. I walked down the narrow alleyway between the café and the neighbouring store where the trash was kept for collection every Tuesday morning. At the end of the alley there was a small, square courtyard lined with bins and sure enough, a tall man dressed fashionably with sunglasses perched on the top of his head.

“Hey,” I awkwardly waved a few metres away from him. I kept my distance because…well…I didn’t know what else to do.

He raised his eyebrows, taking note of the set amount of space I kept between the two of us, and shrugged. “Hi,” He replied while stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

I cleared my throat and scrambled to fill the silence to come with words, “Were you waiting long?”

His reply made me feel as if an anchor had been dropped on top of me, mentally flattening me against the concrete floor like a pancake. “10 minutes.”

“Oh!” I popped and averted my gaze to the ground. “I’m sorry about that, I didn’t expect you to get here so early…” I trailed off, rubbing the back of my neck with a flushed face. Flustered, embarrassed.

“It’s fine.”

I lifted my head and pursed my lips. We just stared at each other for a while. I felt really uncomfortable simply standing there, it made me feel like a specimen underneath a microscope. I could feel Kris judging me.

“So what do you want?” I attempted to fake some confidence, folding my arms across my chest. If I was going to continue meeting with Kris, I knew I had to get over my fangirling self. I had been doing a pretty good job up until then, because he always reminded me he was actually a normal person with his teasing ways and blunt words. He reminded me that he was this perfect man I read about in fanfics.

“How do you feel about our bubble tea arrangement? Where I text you my order, you make it and I pick it up,” He asked me, studying my face as he did. I shifted slightly as he continued to do so and creased my forehead. To me it was a really random question to ask, but a valid question at the same time.

“Ummm…I don’t really have an opinion of it,” I replied.

Lies. It made me feel giddy at times and at others, brought me down with the fact that Kris wasn’t the guy in fanfics who would fall in love with me on the spot. It made me worry that I might not hear my phone one day and not prepare his order in time. It made me-

“You have to have some sort of opinion Yunji,” He scoffed at my admittedly, pathetic answer. Still, that didn’t stop me from feeling slightly offended by his tone. He was just so…blunt.

“I feel pretty normal about it,” I stated. A vague answer to give, but an answer all the same. I no longer felt timid. The shy shadow that I had when I arrived here a few minutes ago left, as it often did after speaking to Kris for a bit. I was increasingly getting used to him.

I guess he found my vague answer to be acceptable, as he nodded once and glanced up at the sky.

“I have a proposal.”

My head exploded with that single sentence. A flood of thoughts entering my mind simultaneously.

It was finally happening, I knew fanfics were real, he secretly loved me the whole time, bubble tea was just an excuse to-

“Not that kind of proposal you weirdo,” His flat toned, blunt voice brought my delusions to a halt. My mouth formed an ‘o’ and I blushed a deep shade of red.

Great, I had made a fool of myself yet again.

“Jeez Yunji. Your face is so easy to read at times,” He muttered, facepalming himself.

I chose to keep quiet, too embarrassed to come up with some flimsy defence to protect my already crumbling pride. I had jumped to conclusions with a fangirl’s heart. It didn’t help that Kris didn’t use any honorifics whenever he spoke to me, but even then I should have known better.

Idiot.

“I think we should be friends,” He said in a matter-of-fact tone. My lack of understanding must have been evident as he continued to elaborate, “Instead of just sticking to this business relationship. Where I snap my fingers, you make what I want and then I pay you.”

It really didn’t make any sense to me why he would want that, so any enthusiasm I could have possibly possessed was iced over by confusion and a need for further explanation.

It was a really good thing in this particular instance that Kris found it easy to read me.

“I don’t want you to think I’m using you for my own benefit carelessly.” But to me he kind of was, though I didn’t really mind. I wouldn’t be doing anything for him if I didn’t want to. “I don’t think of you as my bubble tea slave or anything like that,” He continued.

“And to prove that to you, I think we should actually be friends. That way we can look at this arrangement as more of a friendship favour system, rather than me using my idol status to manipulate you into doing things for me,” He wrapped up his little speech.

“A friendship favour system?” I repeated.

And just like me a few weeks ago with my ‘apology-extension’, he confidently replied “Yes, a friendship favour system.”

I was speechless. For one, his logic was near impossible to follow. It didn’t make any sense how all of those thoughts of his led him to thinking we should have a relationship like that- at least not in my head. He was overthinking things if he thought that I was harbouring any resentment towards him for using me. As if I was a victim of his. Secondly, the very thought of belonging to Kris’ friend category made my heart pound excessively- to the point of it actually kind of hurting.

And finally, I could come to the conclusion that Kris was worried about people judging him in a bad light. Like anyone else. Like a normal person. Like me.

The shining armour of an idol was starting to look less and less noble.

“So let me get this straight,” I began. “You think that I think you are using me?” I watched him nod. “And that I, even though you haven’t said anything about me feeling this way, probably secretly hate you for that?” I asked.

“Yep.” He confirmed.

“And you don’t want to be viewed like that and have somehow convinced yourself that we need to become friends because of that?”

Another nod was what I was given.

I bit my tongue and did my best to hide my amusement. He really was overthinking everything. To the extent that it seemed almost obsessive-compulsive.

I must have had a pretty good poker face on, because he ended up breaking the silence that I created without any further questions to ask him.

“Would that be alright with you then? If we were friends?”

“Yeah sure, but what does that mean for us? What’s going to change?”

He shrugged, “We’ll do what friends do. We’ll get to know each other, we’ll talk about whatever we feel like talking about and we’ll hang out.”

The corners of my lips reached up, creating a slight smile. Kris was such a strange person and the fact that he felt like he had something to prove to me entertained me tremendously.

“Okay,” I chuckled with a shake of my head.

“But don’t expect anything else,” He quickly added in. “I won’t always be around and you won’t get to have the same access to me that a normal pair of friends would have to each other,” He warned me. “And I definitely won’t turn into your prince charming,” He said with such a sternness.

The fact that he assumed that I would expect those things irked me. I thought after everything I had done, or should I say hadn’t done since I met him, I thought he would know me a bit better. I didn’t rat him out to anyone for constantly coming to my café, I never hassled him about EXO, I didn’t try to force my fanatic crush upon him. So what made him think that I would expect any of that?

Stiffly and kind of pissed off, I answered, “Of course.”

“Great,” He said.

Afterwards, my eyes wandered around the courtyard. Scanning over the bins, Kris, the wall behind Kris, Kris again and then at a group of ants manifesting at the bottom of the lower section of one of the walls enclosing the space that we stood in.

“Let’s go inside,” Kris murmured and brushed past me. I turned to follow him and furrowed my eyebrows when he walked to the wall of the back of my café instead of back down the alleyway. He extended his arm towards the door that was cleverly painted onto the said wall, and attempted to unknowingly grasp at a door handle that wasn’t really there.

It was pretty funny, watching his face twist in shock when he realized the door wasn’t real.

I started quietly giggling to myself as he turned back to me with a ‘what the hell is this?’ look on his face.

“You’re not that smart huh?” I joked, skipping down the alley.

Kris Wu’s POV

Since when did she get she get so confident?

Yunji was doing what she always did, making bubble tea behind the counter. While I stood in the same old spot that I found myself always standing in when waiting for my orders. She had just left me dumbfounded next to a painted door on a brick wall. A door that I had, to my embarrassment, believed to be real. And then to on top of it all, she had to make a comment that my ego would have a very hard time ignoring. I didn’t want to appear to be inferior in any way, shape or form to anyone- not even the bubble tea girl.

Or really, my new friend.

“Hey!” A small hand waggled in front of my face. I blinked twice and tilted my head to the side to see past the hand at Yunji’s face.

“What?” I asked. Her erratic hand motion ceased.

“Your order is ready,” She gestured to the cups in front of me. Just like she said, there were 5 tall plastic cups filled with the sugary goodness that the buffoons back in the dorm yearned for.

“Oh,” I straightened up. “Thanks,” I murmured and pulled out my wallet.

She hummed in response and took my money from me, her eyes flickering over my face quickly as she did so. She was nervous. I could see that, despite the ridiculous amount of confidence she tried to custard over her quivering body. Don’t get me wrong she never shook crazily in a way that was visible from across the room, but she did quake just enough so that when she would reach out her hand to grab something you could see it tremble.

I knew I was the reason for it all, and though it bothered me slightly to know I had such an effect on the mysterious fangirl before me it also made the corners of my lips curve upwards. I think deep down, it really made me happy knowing that I was the reason for her uncontrollable, relentless shaking, because even though I kind of wanted her to be comfortable around me I also didn’t want her to be.

I wanted to always have an effect on her.

I didn’t know if that was a healthy thing to want at the time, but it was no cause for concern in my head.

“We’re meant to be friends now,” I leaned across the counter closer to her. Her eyes widened and whatever she had been occupying herself at that moment flew out from her mind. “So tell me about yourself.”

“Tell me eleven things I need to know,” I grinned as I invaded her personal bubble of space. Our faces were so close to one another that I could feel the sudden rush of heat that came as her face flushed red. She was so flustered. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from laughing at her right then and there.

I really was going to enjoy teasing her like this over and over and over again

Writer's Notes:

And I'm back!

First off, hi everyone! I know it has been over a month since my last update, and yes I know I said I would update despite my vacationing status but I simply didn't have any time to do so. Every day I was out doing something and in all honesty, out of the whole month I spent in the U.S. I only slept in twice. So for the lack of any updates at all, I apologize. I really am sincerely sorry.

Onto another note, we're going to have some fun in the next few chapters :D
But I won't say anything other than that ;)

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and can forgive me for not updating for so long.
Thank you all for reading/subscribing/commenting/upvoting/supporting/being amazing~~~

Lots of Love,
xoxoxo,
HEATACHES <3