Chanyeol's day officially starts at 10 a.m. despite coming to work at 8. This is because at precisely this time, his job is to hand paperwork over to Kim Minseok, head architect of their small office, which means that every single day there is a brief polite exchange of nods and smiles and words. And too be honest, for Chanyeol, this is more than enough.

"Here's the documents you asked for." Chanyeol extends his arm out and Minseok nods in appreciation, accepting the papers. Chanyeol's fingers almost  graze against Minseok's hand and the younger man feels his cheek slightly warm up.

Minseok is thumbing through the papers and Chanyeol feels his heart beat a little faster. The former doesn't look up from his papers though, and the contractor lets go of the breath he was unconsciously holding before breathing out a soft sigh.

He didn't get to see it today yet, but...

Sunshine.

As cliche and dumb and simple as it was, that's the first thing Chanyeol thinks of when Kim Minseok smiles (and laughs, and fidgets, and looks confused, and frustrated, and even angry because Minseok is still pleasant-looking, like, all the time).

He has no idea when or why or how it even starts, but lately his days at work don't feel complete until he sees the toothy and carefree grin. It's past the point where Chanyeol figures out when and how often Minseok has a meeting in that room and almost to the point where Chanyeol plans his routine to get the chance to even snag a glance at Minseok.

He's not creepy.

It's worth it, Chanyeol thinks himself as he airily smiles. He watches Minseok from across the room through the clear glass separating the meeting room from the rest of the office. It's moments like these when he's grateful that Junmyeon was a stickler for glass and "modern" design when the company remodeled the interior of the building.

This way he can see Minseok in his own element, in all his glory, as the architect presents to their clients potential ideas as to how they can beautify their landscape. And although Chanyeol has no ing idea what Minseok is talking about, the way that Minseok's eyebrows raise in excitement and his arms slightly flail around during the presentation has Chanyeol grinning so hard that he doesn't even notice it at first.

That Minseok is looking up at him with curious eyes, and a few more seconds pass before Chanyeol fully realizes that Minseok actually noticed he was staring for too long for the millionth time.

Chanyeol almost jumps in his seat as he scrambles to pick up whatever is in front of him and ducks his head down quickly. As his vision blurs on the text of the papers he's holding, his cheeks feel warm and his heart thumps loudly. Okay, this isn't a big deal. It's not the end of the world; he's going to survive. Minseok's had eye contact with him before, and that doesn't mean anything special really. Nothing happened.

An elbow nudges into his side and Chanyeol groans, forgetting that he was in his own meeting. When he turns to the source of the pain, he sees Jongdae sporting an all-knowing sly smile. Chanyeol's ready to roll his eyes and retort, but Jongdae leans in close, resting his spiky-haired head against his shoulder.

Chanyeol furrows his eyebrows in slight confusion, to which Jongdae responds by fluttering his eyelashes.

"Come on, when are you going to ask him out?" Jongdae asks in a sing-song not-so whisper, and Chanyeol almost guffaws at the ridiculous idea; instead, opting to push his same-aged friend away--but Jongdae is caught off-guard and his arm swings toward the cup on the table.

Jongdae sputters as he reaches out to his coffee. "Chanye--." He starts, before they both reach out for the teetering cup and Jongdae looks like his heart jumped out of his ribcage as they both freeze.

The documents that Chanyeol was holding earlier dropped haphazardly around next to him. Coffee spills

And for a moment there is silence, before Chanyeol lets out a snicker, then a chortle, and then an all-out laugh. (Jongdae isn't pleased one bit.)

"Your face was gold." Chanyeol says between robust laughs and Jongdae mutters under his breath as he walks away with his now empty cup of coffee. "You're not getting any, bastard."

"Get me some napkins at the least." Chanyeol yells back, wiping away the tears from his laughs, before remembering what Jongdae had brought up. Apparently he was so obvious to Jongdae, Baekhyun, and even Kyungsoo that Chanyeol starts to wonder if the whole office knows by now. Jongdae mentioned he had started a bet too.

But no matter.

With an 'ah right', Chanyeol whips his head up again, but Minseok is already back to conducting business. Chanyeol almost slumps in defeat as he bends down to clean up the documents on the floor.

This is why, Chanyeol thinks to himself, that if you're trying to be discreet, you double check to make sure that you're not going to drop a 25 page document that's probably super important.

This is also why you don't be super obvious when ogling people you kinda-maybe-like.

He's so deep into thought that he doesn't even notice someone's helping him until he sees two pairs of shoes and an outreached hand holding a document. He immediately looks up to see Minseok, and he swears he forgets how to breathe, forgets to blink, forgets how to function.

He can hear Jongdae now: If you were looking for a sign, this is literally it, Park Chanyeol. An opportunity has laid out in front of you on a dinner plate, and a neon sign sign is attached to it saying: "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?"

But Chanyeol hesitates. The fear of rejection, the potentially misinterpreted signals and the unclear status between the two barely co-workers stop him from doing it.

Because even though they've worked at the same place for at least a year now, Chanyeol is almost certain that they've only really had like four conversations together. (No, Chanyeol's not keeping track.) So, yeah, the odds aren't looking that great for him right now. In the grand scheme of things, Chanyeol is probably really in over his head. What if Jongdae's wrong, and this is the absolute worst time to risk things?

Chanyeol breathes again, and flashes a smile as he takes a hold of the papers that Minseok is holding out to him. "Thank you."

Minseok smiles as well, before standing up and brushing down his dress shirt.

"No problem." Minseok nods, standing there for a beat, and walks away.

Chanyeol nods to himself.

The world is in balance again. Life goes on. Time moves forward.

Cue the next 5 years of Park Chanyeol staring at Kim Minseok through a clear glass wall.

He can see Jongdae's disappointed frown now.





Wait.

He really is seeing Jongdae's disappointed frown--he's holding his mug up to his mouth with the saddest eyes Chanyeol has ever seen from his friend and Chanyeol opens his mouth before closing it promptly. Jongdae's motioning toward Minseok and Chanyeol swivels his body to the side and Minseok is still nearby, preoccupied with his phone.

Chaneyol looks over again to Jongdae, who is now almost silently yelling at him and Chanyeol raises his arms up, bewildered because seriously, he had no clue what Jongdae was trying to say to him.

Jongdae almost throws his arms up, and if anyone else in the office was bothered enough to look at them, the two contractors would appear to be angrily conducting a nonexistent orchestra from across the room.

It's when Jongdae facepalms that Chanyeol finally turns to Minseok and blurts out his name before he could even have any second thoughts.

"Minseok-sshi!"

Minseok turns around with a raised eyebrow and a slight tilt of head.

"I..." Chanyeol starts and after counting a couple seconds in his mind, he breathes out, "I was just wondering, um...areyoufreefordrinksafterworktoday?"

Minseok's eyes slightly widen with surprise and Chanyeol almost squeezes his eyes shut in embarrassment, feeling the urge to cover his face with his hands and hide in a corner for the rest of the century.

To make matters worse, Minseok is now pinching the bridge of his nose and Chanyeol was not expecting or wanting this reaction. He's kind of officially starting to panic a little as he wonders if this is a sign that he really did just make the worst decision in his life, if Minseok is trying to think of the right words to soften the blow of rejection and embarrassment and awkwardness and--

"Today's not a good day," Minseok sighs out but is still manages to give him a small smile. It's only then when Chanyeol notices the small bags under the older man's round eyes, the way that Minseok's hair is jutting out at the back of his neck (Chanyeol fights and mentally slaps himself for wanting to raise a palm and flatten it down himself or maybe even ruffle it), the way that Minseok's eyes, though slightly red, are still sparkling with life.

Chanyeol holds his breath and nods in understanding. He wasn't expecting anything, really, and as he opens his mouth to retract his invitation, he's surprised when Minseok steps closer and leans his head forward.

"But if you're free tomorrow, I know a good soju place?"

There's a seemingly amused glint in his eyes, and Chanyeol finds himself nodding along instantly. Out of all the things, the Final Fantasy 7 victory theme song plays in his head and Chanyeol beams, holding back a bounce.

"That'd be great." Chanyeol finally says and averts Minseok's eyes.

At the sound of Minseok's chuckle, he looks up sheepishly. The smile that Minseok has on his face is none like Chanyeol has ever seen from the man before. It makes him wonder what he's thinking, what different sides of Minseok he has yet to see, what opportunities the man will give him. He wants to know what bothers Minseok, what bad crinkles and wrinkles he can smooth out, if given the chance. Chanyeol hopes that as he smiles at Minseok, the latter feels a bit more energized (just the way that Minseok's smile gives him energy).

"Okay." Minseok finally says, and his lips curl up a bit more.

--

The problem, after all, was never who, when or where, but Minseok was curious about why.

He has no idea what Chanyeol’s intentions are, but when had he looked up to see the younger man’s deeply knitted eyebrows and pathetically uncertain eyes, Minseok couldn't help but feel so utterly guilty. They've worked together on projects before, and both have some mutual friends.

He couldn’t help but accept. Hell, one drink wouldn’t hurt anyway.

--

Baekhyun walks over to the break room to see Jongdae standing in the middle of the doorway with a really amused smile. He's about to ask what's making him giddy when he follows Jongdae's eyes and sees Minseok and Chanyeol talking animatedly with their phones out. Chanyeol's pointing to Minseok's eyes and Minseok is shooing the taller man's hand away playfully.

Baekhyun freezes and gapes at the scene before him because he was so sure that Chanyeol would never get the guts to do it. He crosses his arms because he knows exactly what's coming out of Jongdae's mouth.

"Come on, fork it over." Jongdae says without looking at him and extends a waiting hand out.

"But he didn't do it until someone told him to." Baekhyun says, not budging.

"That wasn't against the rules," Jongdae shrugs, wiggling his fingers and Baekhyun rolls his eyes.

"Fine." Baekhyun pulls out his wallet and a couple of bills before smacking them into Jongdae's open palm.

Jongdae smiles almost devilishly. "Pleasure doing business with you, my friend."

"Oh, off." Baekhyun says, pushing past the laughing designer for his morning coffee.