A/N: I have changed this chapter slightly from its original which I released last time. Things make more sense now and flow better (in my opinion). So please do read it again even if you already read the original. There should be no more typos/errors, but if there are I am sorry and our editor MikaMikaChu will fix them later ^^

Kris Wu’s POV

“I’m so sick of ramyeon,” Kai groaned, shoving his food away.

“You should just apologize to Kyungsoo then,” Suho sighed, putting his chopsticks down as he spoke to the younger member.

We were all in the dorm for dinner again. Our managers Hyunkyun-hyung and Minwook-hyung had agreed that we could leave the studio early as long as we didn’t gallivant off anywhere. It was great for us because everyone had recently been quite tense.

However, I think they agreed to letting us relax more for their benefit than ours. Because if Youngjun-hyung knew that they were smoking out there again he would have whipped them. The habit was taboo as far as he was concerned and he didn’t want any of the members to be influenced into starting it.  

A frustrated Kai turned to Lay, “Why can’t I have japchae like everyone else?”

Unconcerned the unicorn answered, “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Kyungsoo to make you something?”

“Because he’s mad at me,” Kai whined, seeking sympathy.

“Then maybe you should apologize,” Lay shrugged nonchalantly.

If someone who hadn’t been around for the past week and a half were to walk in on us they wouldn’t have understood the situation. Basically the neat freak and food genius Kyungsoo found a pile of dirty underwear stuffed under Kai’s bed. It must have accumulated over several weeks because when Kyungsoo pulled it out from its hiding place parts of the pile were glued together. Understandably he was grossed out beyond words and lectured Kai for a good 20 minutes. If Kai had apologized for forgetting about his laundry then Kyungsoo would have forgiven him in a heartbeat, but that wasn’t really the case. Instead Kai said it was only dirty laundry and that if it bothered Kyungsoo so much he should wash it all himself. Of course that didn’t go down well with Kyungsoo. Now the end result was packets of ramyeon for Kai until he could get over himself and say sorry to his roommate.

I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

“Everyone hates me,” Kai sighed, rubbing his temples.

“No we don’t Kai. We just want you to be a tidier person,” Suho smiled meaningfully.

Kai scoffed at that, “A tidier person? You’re one to talk hyung. Have you looked at your side of your room lately?”

Sehun, Xiumin chortled with a knowing laughter while Baekhyun pressed a napkin to his lips to hold back any sound. I bit down on my tongue and kept my eyes on my food. Kai did have a point. Despite being a leader, Suho was an extremely messy person and it was a wonder he ever had clean clothes considering the fact that he always put off doing his laundry until the last minute. But no matter how funny his remark was, it remained rude.

“Kai finish your ramyeon and then go to your room,” I ran a hand through my hair.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

Dinner resumed after the grumpy and deprived maknae left the room and before long Youngjun-hyung came storming into the dorm and dragged the other two smoking manager-hyungs out by their ears. His nostrils flared as he muttered unintelligible things on the way out of the room. Muffled, we could hear the begging and pleading of Hyunkyun-hyung and Minwook-hyung.

“Do you think we should have warned them that he was coming back early?” Tao asked, clearing up the dishes.

“I don’t know,” Sehun shrugged and rubbed his stomach. “Thanks for cooking Lay.”

“Yeah thanks for cooking Lay,” I nodded, standing up to leave the room.

“No problem,” He smiled.

I walked down the hallway towards my room when he latched onto me like a little leach.

“Hyung…”

“What?”

“Can we have bubble tea for dessert?” Sehun clung to me like a koala to a tree. His fingers curled around my bicep tightly.

A smile tugged at the corners of my lips and I found myself looking out the window of the fire escape I sometimes used to sneak out of the dorm to go on errands for the other members. The sky was painted a pinky-orange with parts of it already fading into darkness, but I could still make out the top of that block.

The block where that bubble tea café was.

“Maybe next time.”

Lee Yunji’s POV

As time went by, I doubted that I would be seeing Kris again. I didn’t know why I had expected anything after our last meeting. I told myself soon after my little moment that nothing would happen, but I let hope creep anyway. It was stupid for me to be disappointed with something that hadn’t had a chance of happening in the first place. What did I think would happen? He would come again the next day and all of a sudden want me? Claim me as his? Outrageous events like that only occurred in the treasured fanfics I read.

I needed to stop swimming in fantasies and face up to the cold, hard reality that stared me right in the face. I would not see Kris here again.

In a pathetic attempt to stop thinking about Kris, I focused on other things going on in my world. EXO’s song WOLF had been leaked yesterday and it was all I could listen to. I had downloaded it and had been listening to it religiously since. It wasn’t perfect yet, but I was looking forward to what the end product of the song would be. Just because I had some morale didn’t mean I was a saint when it came to being a fan and I couldn’t resist listening to the leaked song and its scratchy quality.

In addition Minsuh was trying to play matchmaker again, with me and one of her many male friends. She was one of those people that had lots of friends of the opposite who weren’t interested in her and vice-versa. She was friends with them simply because she could be and seemed to have a secret mission of pairing me up with one of them.

“You’re going to love him, I swear. He’s really fun,” Minsuh nodded enthusiastically as we walked into the restaurant we and a couple others were meant to meet up at.

“Mmm,” I hummed. I didn’t really think anything exciting would happen. It was highly unlikely the guy she was going to introduce me to was going to cause my stomach to flip with butterflies.

“Oh! Over there!” She squealed and clasped her hand around my wrist. I was dragged over to a table in the middle of the room where Sora, her boyfriend Gunwoo and 4 other men sat.

“Ah there you two are! Did you have to drag her away from Black Pearls Minsuh?” Sora asked as we stood in front of the group.

“No. She wasn’t difficult today,” Minsuh giggled. “Yunji-ah, these are my friends Hyun, Biho, Han and Jaewan. Guys this is my baby Yunji,”

I bowed shallowly and mumbled a quick greeting, feeling self-conscious. What had she told the guy she wanted to set me up with? Which one was he?

I nudged my friend inconspicuously in the ribs and gestured to the empty seats in front of us, wanting to sit down before things grew awkward. She took the hint and slid in promptly with me. Soju bottles were scattered out around the table and a bowl of bread sat in the centre.

“I think Jaewan is happy with what he sees,” Minsuh’s breath tickled my ear. Her whisper was an answer to a handful of questions.

Jaewan wasn’t ugly. He was an average guy with lightly tanned skin and dark neatly cut hair. He wore a suit which indicated that he probably came here straight from work too and a nice wristwatch suggesting he was successful in whatever he did. Admittedly he had a nice prominent nose, but there was a part of me that suspected that was the work of plastic surgery.  

“So Yunji…” Jaewan started. I stared at him, waiting for him to start up the conversation we were meant to hit off. “Where do you see this relationship going?”

What?

I shot Minsuh a glare to which she gave me ‘I don’t even know’ look.

Well, this is awkward.

The next day, I swore I was never going on another date set up by my well-meaning unnie ever again. The whole night consisted of questions that no one should ask the first time the meet someone like ‘What went wrong with your last relationship?’ and ‘If we were to have children how much weight do you think you’d gain?’ It was torture. I swear the closest question to anything remotely ordinary that Jaewan asked me was ‘How much money do I look like I make?’ And even that seemed overly confident and strange. I cringed at the thought of ever meeting him again in the unlikely event that Minsuh tried to bring him along to our next outing together.

I shook off disturbing images of what my children would look like if Jaewan was their father and focused on my customers who were flying in and out of the store. It was a Tuesday, so thankfully I didn’t have to deal with as many people. The working force and university students never took painfully long to decide what they wanted and were almost always swift with their payments.

“Thank you,” A girl with a blonde bob grinned, taking her bubble tea away.

“Have a good day. Next?” I popped.

“Hi. I need one small green apple tea and chocolate brownie to go,”

“Arasso. Anything else?” I checked, fixing up the order.

“No. That’s all thanks,”

I handed over the brownie and tea and continued on with the rest of the line. A sandwich here, milk tea there, pearls please, extra ice too. No one had the exact same preference, which made it interesting. I found myself making something new every day.

My mind wandered as I watched my served customers buzz at their tables. Some ate, others drank, a few laughed, one or two whispered. They were unlikely pairs sprawled around the room but they all must have had something in common to be together. Without a common ground how could anyone stand to get to know another person? Such thoughts made me ask me a question that I should’ve made a better attempt to avoid.

Do Kris and I have anything in common?

The answer was a devastating blank. I didn’t know how I was meant to answer that question. Once upon a time I would have confidently have said that we had many things in common, but now I wasn’t sure because meeting the real Kris Wu was different from gazing at him through a screen.

“Ummm, excuse me?” A tinker of a voice interrupted my thinking.

“Yes?” I responded to a girl with rosy cheeks.

“I thought I’d just let you know because you seemed to be spacing out that the phone is ringing,” She smiled meekly at me and gestured to the counter behind me.

My eyebrows rose and I turned to find that it was exactly as she said, the phone was indeed ringing. How I didn’t hear it was a mystery in itself to me, but I didn’t have time to worry about that.

I flushed red and did the quickest bow in history, “I can’t believe I didn’t hear that! Thank you!” I said in an unnaturally fast pace.

“No problem,” She smiled and walked away.

I lunged for the phone, getting to it just before the ringing stopped.

“Black Pearls. Yunji speaking,” I answered with a pant.  

“So you are alive?”

My heart began to flap its wing around like a retarded seagull. I knew the voice of the person on the other end of the line, even without him announcing himself. My body heat began to rise at a dangerous rate and I felt my legs turn to bricks.

“Hello Kris,” I stiffly greeted him. Scared that if I said anything else he would judge me.

“Do you know how many times I’ve tried to call your café today?” He asked in an irritated tone that I had been subjected to before.

Now that I thought about it, he didn’t sound too pleased when I answered the phone. Nervously I shook my head and then remembered he couldn’t see me, “No, I don’t. I haven’t heard the phone because I’ve been so busy here with the people in the café.”

“This is the eighth time,” He flatly growled.

“The eighth time!?” I exclaimed, going undetected in my own noisy café. “Omo! I’m sorry!” I squeaked.

I heard a sigh resonate, “It’s okay. Hey listen, I know I don’t really have the right to ask this but I need help with something…” He trailed off.

“What is it?” It didn’t matter what it was, I was more than willing.

Please be asking me to be your girlfriend. Please be asking me to be your girlfriend.

Lee Yunji, stop daydreaming!

“I was wondering if you could make one large chocolate milk tea with pearls, one large mango tea and one blueberry milk tea with strawberry syrup and pearls,” He whizzed.

“Sure,” I pressed my lips together and recorded the order. Reprimanding myself for letting my idiocy get the better of me a moment ago.

“Thanks, I’ll be there in 5 minutes.” Kris’ voice had my ear begging for more.

I gulped and made a mental note to read more Chagmin fanfics to even out my fangirling spasms. “Okay. See you soon.” I got ready to put down the phone.

“Bye.” The line went dead and my hands spun around in a flurry.

I was surprised at how I wasn’t even weirded out by that phone conversation. Just a day ago I was scolding myself for thinking I’d ever get to see my second husband again and yet look what happened. He called. I was quite sure my luck was bound to run out soon.

I placed the three drinks into a cardboard carrier and then put that carrier into a plastic bag on the ready for Kris’ arrival. He must have been in a rush to need to order something over the phone before coming over. Pre-ordering drinks wasn’t really a service that I offered but for Kris it was a given that I’d do it. I added a can of coke in and finished off the rest of my cookie just as he came walking in.

I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay long because there were lots of people around, but I still glowed happily. He was wearing jeans and a white sweater with a blue scarf and sunglasses which he wasn’t going to be taking off this time.

Instead of a ‘hey’ or ‘hello’, I got a “Why is it so hard to get a hold of you?”

My mood received a small dent from his question. Guilt was a and decided to rub salt into the small wound Kris had given me. I blushed and looked down at the counter, embarrassed. This wasn’t exactly something I liked about Kris- how he could be so blunt at times. Blunt people could be honest, but even I found honesty to sometimes be worse than telling a lie.

“I said I was sorry already,” I awkwardly stood there. “I was trying to get through all of the customers’ orders that I didn’t hear the phone.” It wasn’t a complete lie, I hadn’t heard the phone because of the noise the customers made. As I tried to reason with myself as to why what I did was okay he spoke again.

“I know you’re busy. But what if I had been the bank or something?” He frowned, treating me like a child. I didn’t know whether to feel special or irritated.

“If it bothers you so much then maybe you should just get my cell number,” I laughed playfully, joking around.

I swiped his card for him again and watched him scratch his chin. He had slight stubble growing and I found it to be quite attractive on him. Any other idol with facial hair wouldn’t have received my approval but Kris just appeared to make everything look good.

“That’s not a bad idea actually,” He murmured, entering his pin number. His long fingers punched in numbers faster and harder than most men ever did into the machine. Graceful, yet sharp.

“What?” I choked.

“Can I have your number?”

I felt my face burn and contemplated drowning myself in the kitchen sink behind me. What was happening could not have really been happening. It was impossible. Out of all the impossible things that had happened this one I could not believe. Not in a million fanfic years could this have been happening to me.

“You know I was joking right?” I peered up at the tall man in front of me. I tried to see if he was just pulling my leg or something but with his sunglasses on it was difficult to do so.

“What?” A smirk appeared on his face. “Do you not want to give it to me?” He taunted me.

“N-n-no-no. It’s not that,” I waved my hands furiously. “I thought idols didn’t have phones,” I lamely said, rubbing the back of my neck.

It was general knowledge that Kpop idols didn’t have phones. Or that if they did, all their activities on those devices we monitored by their agencies. It was a way they were kept under control, though with their gridlock contracts you’d have thought it was kind of unnecessary.

“That’s a myth,” Kris crisply said.

What?!

“Really?” I raised my eyebrows in shock.

“Really.” He stated. “So can I have it?”

“Wow,” I mused.

“Yeah I know, total shocker right? That I have access to such magical things,” He sarcastically said.

Again, I felt my cheeks colour and I looked down at my feet. The shoes I wore that day were white and pink flats.

“So can I have your number?” He asked once again. As if he were asking for a piece of cake, he acted as if the whole transaction would be a normal thing. Something a person like me would do on a regular basis.

Perhaps I was overthinking it. But you could never be sure when it came to him. He was Kris ing Wu. A member of EXO. A man who possessed the God-given ability to make a girl’s ovaries explode with the snap of his fingers.

“W-w-why do you need it again?” I vomited words, putting off having to give it to him.

“So that the next time I need to pre-order bubble tea I’ll get a hold of you faster,” He lowered his sunglasses just enough for only me to see his eyes. They were definitely amused. He must have found my flustered behaviour to be absolutely entertaining.

“Do I need to give it to you?” I hissed, feeling my palms sweat.

He pushed his sunglasses back up the bridged of his nose and shook his head with a scowl, “Are you really asking me that when I’m your second husband? Why don’t you just give me your number?”

I bit my lip, “Do you really trust me with something like this?” I spoke softly and tilted my head to one side. My airways were closing up.

Kris was asking for me to give him something that would eventually enable me to leak something of his to anyone I pleased. I didn’t understand how he could possibly trust me enough to still ask for such a thing whole knowing the consequences. Did he think I was a good person or was he thick skinned enough to not have thought anything through?

“You haven’t given me a reason not to trust you Yunji,” He shrugged.

If I had refused Kris that day, then maybe I would have started dating Jaewan.

“Okay. I guess so,” I nodded.

But I didn’t.

Writer's Notes:
Sorry I haven't updated in a week guys! I did warn you that things wouldn't be so consistent, but still...
How was this? I feel like maybe it moved a little too fast near the end but I'm too tired to write any more tonight so yeah...
Anyway, thanks for reading/subscribing/commenting/upvoting (Hi TheMushromCorner)/supporting/being awesome ^^

Lots of love,
exoexo,
HEARTACHES <3