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“So how was your date?” Chanyeol asked, waiting for the club to open before going on stage to perform and glad that Baekhyun wasn’t around. The two were still fighting but based on past patterns, they would return to amiable terms in a couple of days. Baekhyun insisted that they were over for good and it would be best if they were just friends, or if they really wanted, friends with benefits. It seemed like that was basically what their relationship hinged on and they were much more civil if they were just friends anyways. Jongin wasn’t sure whether it would last but they might agree to be friends with benefits.

“The most amazing thing of my life!” Jongin replied with gleaming eyes. He sounded like a lovesick teenage girl and Chanyeol rolled his eyes.

“Sometimes I forget how young and immature you can be. Your mature façade when you work is completely different from how you are when you let your guard down and act your age,” Chanyeol sighed.

“I’m not that immature nor am I much younger than you are,” Jongin complained, pouting.

“Two years is a big difference if you think about it. It’s about a tenth of your life,” the deep-voiced boy pointed out. Jongin puffed out his cheeks in annoyance. “There you go,” Chanyeol pointed out. “You’re a cute kid on the inside still.” He grinned that special grin of his. Chanyeol took a sip of his cocktail before saying the next thing.

“What about Luhan?” the giant asked quietly.

“Sorry?” Jongin asked with feigned ignorance.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Chanyeol groaned without particular malice. “Don’t play dumb,” he sighed. “Do you remember when Luhan first started coming here?”

“Yeah...”

“And this doesn’t bother you at all?”

“He told us not to tell,” Jongin sighed.

Luhan was looking to get absolutely wasted after another night of raging at himself for things he really couldn’t control. He couldn’t control the fact that his best friend would fall in love, with someone who was not Luhan, while he was at university. Tao suggested that he go to this place called “History” downtown. He was the friend of a guy who worked down there. The guy’s name was Jongin and he was a host, although Tao had never gone and was unsure as to what the job entailed. Apparently he was a conversationalist and he had a stage name, Kei or something. Luhan wasn’t really paying attention as he was drowning in his own thoughts so when he arrived, what he was met with was completely unexpected.

The building and signage seemed weird enough but the interior was on a whole new level of strange. The club looked classy, certainly but Tao’s description didn’t really hit Luhan until he ventured inside. The bouncer pulled aside midnight blue, velvet curtains to give Luhan entry. For a moment, all Luhan could see was the brightly lit stage at the far end of the room with a short singer with bright maroon hair and thickly rimmed eyes, eyes closed as he produced beautiful melodies. The rest of the room was only dimly lit with lights hanging from the ceiling over little tables scattered about the dark room. A young lady stood behind a podium beside the entrance.

Luhan’s gaze travelled from table to table and he realised what sort of place this was; it was a host club. Pretty young ladies and gorgeous boys sat at tables conversing and openly flirting with clients underneath coloured glass balls containing dim bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Altogether, the place had an air of class and Luhan was glad he had listened to Tao and gotten dressed up.

“How may I help you sir?” the lady at the podium asked politely in a soft voice.

“I, uhm, was looking for, uhm, I don’t know. A friend kind of just referred me here,” Luhan replied embarrassedly.

“Well, we here are a host club where you can have a drink and converse with our lovely hosts,” she explained. “At the moment, we have four of our ladies and two of our gentlemen free. Which would you prefer? Each hour costs £20.”

“I’ll take one of the boys I suppose.” Luhan nervously tapped his index fingers together.

“That’s fine,” she replied. She gestured to a cute boy who was sitting at the bar on the left watching for a cue to come over.

“Good evening,” he said politely with a bow. This boy rather resembled a Chinese steamed bun, a baozi, which Luhan thought was cute. “I go by Xiumin.”

“My name is Luhan,” the doe-eyed boy replied meekly.

“Where would you like to sit? There are empty tables by the stage but also a few seats at the bar.” His smile was enough to lift Luhan’s spirits even if just a little.

“Why don’t we sit at the bar?” I was hoping to get faced drunk so I wouldn’t have to think about how much I hate myself.

“Sure.” They took their seats.

“Can I get you anything to drink?” asked a cute girl with a pixie cut and lime sherbet-green hair.

“I’ll have a negroni,” he sighed.

“Are you sure about that? That’s some heavy liquor.”

“I’m very sure,” Luhan replied. He could hold his alcohol like no other so it would probably take a couple of these for him to start feeling a buzz. She set the drink in front of him.

“So why don’t you tell me about yourself?”

“I’m studying at the university nearby. One of my hobbies is singing,” he replied simply.

“That’s cute,” Xiumin commented with a smile. Luhan took a sip of the drink. It was everything he had hoped for. Haps he could get drunk yet.

“Do you like alcohol? That’s a really strong one,” Xiumin inquired.

“I like it. The good thing is that I don’t get drunk very easily. I always try to get something new every time I go to a bar.”

“So you don’t drink boring only scotches? I actually like simpler stuff.”

“I like having the spice of variety and creativity.” Luhan actually chuckled to himself.

“I wish I was brave enough to try new things like that,” Xiumin sighed.

“No... I’m not brave at all. I can’t even tell someone that I love him. I lost my chance, if I ever had a chance in the first place,” he sighed. “I guess that’s mostly the reason why I’m here. I wanted to just forget about things, even if it’s only for an hour or two.”

“Well that’s what I’m here for. I can talk to you or I can listen,” the boy replied with a reassuring smile. “We could talk about things like your favourite food to eat on Saturday nights, or where you like to go when the weather is nice outside.” Luhan smiled weakly, glad that he got to meet this nice Xiumin boy.

They talked for the whole hour about little trivialities. Luhan had managed to drink four beverages and was finally feeling at least a little tipsy.

“Are you okay? You’ve had enough of those to kill any normal person,” Xiumin asked, voice filled with true concern.

“Like I said, I’m good with alcohol.” His speech didn’t sound anywhere near as slurred as it should.  Xiumin pursed his lips in reply.

“I’m sorry to say that the hour is up. Do you want to buy another hour?”

“Nah. I think I’ll just go for a couple more of these,” he replied, raising the empty glass.

“Do you need a ride home? I don’t think you should be driving or alone in general in this state. I know that you can in alone,” Xiumin commented as delicately as he could.

“I’m just going to call my friend to pick me up. In the meantime, I’m going to try and drink another two of these and see whether the room starts to spin. Right now, it’s perfectly straight even when I feel like it shouldn’t be. My whole world feels crooked,” he mumbled, wishing he were drunker than he was. His feelings were finally surfacing after so much denial. Xiumin looked at the other boy one last time before sliding off the bar stool and heading back to the front to see whether there were any more people who wanted him as a host.

Three drinks later and Yifan finally showed up, face pitying instead of wearing his characteristic scowl. Luhan was leaning on the bar, working on a fourth drink and swirling the ice around in the glass. Somewhere around his sixth drink, Luhan’s world finally began spin out of control, just like his life.

“Krisus Christ Luhan, what have you done?” Yifan murmured.

“I was trying to get faced drunk. Guess I can’t even do that right,” Luhan mumbled. He finished off this eighth drink with a sigh and a wince. This was really going to hurt in the morning.

“Are you Luhan’s friend?” a boy resembling a baozi asked from behind Kris.

“Yeah. I just came to take him home,” the scowling giant replied.

“Thank you for coming for him. I think he needs someone here with him at a time like this. I’m not the right person,” the smaller sighed.

“I’m not sure I’m the right person either but I’m here all the same. The right person can’t be here at the moment and I’m not sure whether he will be here, ever.” He shrugged. Luhan got to his feet and wobbled so Yifan awkwardly bent down to support him.

“I hope I can see him again. Perhaps I can help him with his burden if he’ll let me in,” the shorter murmured. Yifan only nodded before dragging his intoxicated friend away.

“Do we have any more alcohol back at the flat?” Luhan whined from the passenger’s seat. “I’m not faced drunk yet.”

“You’re really deadest on this whole getting blackout drunk, aren’t you?” Yifan said with softness uncharacteristic of his gruff voice.

“I should probably do it sometime before my liver fails. And this is probably the closest I’ve ever gotten.”

“We might have something around. It might even be one of your winners, the really strong ones that will definitely lead to liver failure.” He shrugged. “Just make sure you don’t actually kill yourself doing this.”

“I don't’ plan on dying. I just want enough of a shock to make sure that this isn’t all some bad dream. I’d really like to wake up if it is.”

“Whatever.”

Luhan had another bottle of straight vodka before he managed to pass out from alcohol consumption. Either he had actually passed out or he had cried himself to sleep, Yifan couldn’t tell. Tears had begun to fall about a quarter into the bottle.

Once he had finally passed out, Yifan moved him to the bedroom from his place sprawled out on the sofa. “Goodnight . I hope you didn’t kill yourself and that you never do this again. It doesn’t do anything to off yourself. You’ll make that kid you love so much cry,” he announced to the effectively empty room.

A/N: Uhm... More angst than I expected... So I hope you liked it and didn't cry at all because this fic is supposed to be fluffy! So I've been getting votes for different pairings but I'm just going to say that I'm going to put out a poll later about who you think you want Xing to end the story straight! This poll will appear after Xing has had a date with all of the candidates. Including Baekhyun, Jongdae, Luhan, and  Joonmyun. I'm just going to say that if you choose someone who isn't Luhan, Luhan can still have a happily ever after!