Kyungsoo casually bumps into Park Chanyeol, and the tall, lanky man spills his drink all over the bartender. Chanyeol, flustered, apologizes in broken and incoherent words. He mumbles and trips all over his letters, ears turning red. This wasn’t how he pictured his first meeting with his soul mate to be like- disastrous, messy and sticky.  Chanyeol continues to ramble inarticulately and in the corner, Kyungsoo smiles.

“You look pleased with your work.”

Kyungsoo breaks away from his reverie and jolts in surprise from the foreign voice. He almost gets a whiplash from turning his head too fast to seek out his visitor. Kyungsoo finds Jongin, dressed to the nines and looking out of place in the crowded bar.

Kyungsoo thinks he’s perfect.

“Jongin.”

Aforementioned man smiles and playfully croons, “Kyungsoo.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Waiting.”

For what, Kyungsoo doesn’t ask as Chanyeol is escorted out of the place with an infuriated Baekhyun shaking his head disapprovingly.

!

“How come you like to dip your fries in ice cream?”

“It’s ‘cause they complement each other, I think.”

Joonmyun nods indulgently as Jongdae proceeds to swirl his fries around his cup of ice cream, the vanilla and chocolate syrup mixing together in a disarray of shades. Somehow, Joonmyun can sympathize with the ice cream; they’re both in a muddle and it is all because of Kim Jongdae’s doing.

 It was unfair, being so deeply captivated with the childlike man in front of him, to the point that Joonmyun finds himself bewildered most of the time because of the intensity of how much he loves Jongdae. And what’s worse is that Joonmyun does not find this a problem at all.

“Joonmyun, look!”

Joonmyun slowly glances up and is greeted by a key harshly to his face. He takes it uncertainly and gives Jongdae a baffled expression. “What’s this?”

“Move in with me.”

Joonmyun’s eyes widen and he shakily grasps the key in both of his hands. “What-what brought this all of a sudden?”

Jongdae shrugs and grins, “It’s been two years, Joonmyun. It was pretty much inevitable from the first day we met, you know? It was- ah, haha never mind.”

“What? Finish your sentence, Kim Jongdae!”

“-it was as if we were meant to be, even from the start.”

!

Kyungsoo gives Chanyeol Baekhyun’s coffee and he only waits for a short while before Chanyeol approaches him to point out his mistake. Kyungsoo acts bashful, looking sorry for what he had purposely done and tells Chanyeol to wait while he go corrects his order. Kyungsoo counts fifteen seconds and Baekhyun enters the picture as well, puzzled as to why he was given an Americano instead of his usual Macchiato.

“Um, excuse me, there’s been a mistake.”

“It seems our friend is out of it this morning, huh?”

“Yeah. I’ve been coming here for four months, ordering the same thing and- hey, I know you!”

Kyungsoo tries to drown out the sound of the coffee maker to discreetly listen in on the conversation between Baekhyun and Chanyeol. He couldn’t stop the smile from appearing in his face, though.

“Oh, uh, yeah. That one time, in the bar?”

“Yes, that’s right. I, listen, I’m really sorry. I had a bad night then and it was seriously unreasonable of me to have snapped at you and have you thrown out like that. Maybe I can make it up to you?”

Kyungsoo takes this as his cue to set down an Americano and Macchiato on the counter, then subtly nudging it to a fidgeting Baekhyun. He sees Baekhyun’s eyes light up when he sees the cups of coffee and winces a little when Baekhyun screeches, “Coffee! I’ll pay for your coffee.”

Chanyeol looks incredulously at the smaller male before letting out a timid laugh, “Sounds fair. My name’s Chanyeol, by the way.” Chanyeol gestures for a handshake and looks at Baekhyun shyly.

Fascinated, Baekhyun grips Chanyeol’s hand in his and by the café’s window, a passing Jongin grins.

!

“Excuse me?”

Joonmyun fails to drag his hungry eyes away from thebook that he had clenched in his hands. The summary was so enthralling, what more if he purchases it and completely consumes the novel? He may not be able to go to his part-time job. No, he might not even go out, period. It’d be just him and the book.

“Uh, Joonhyun?”

So what if he was absolutely and utterly alone? Yes, he’s single but at least he had this book. Well, will have the book, if only-

“Joon…myun?”

Joonmyun looks up, disconcerted. He is surprised to see the stranger he had met when he was out on one of his strolling-while-reading instants in the park. Joonmyun racks his head for the stranger’s name, until he discovers it from the recesses of his mind.

“JONGDAE.”

“Woah.” Jongdae laughs, holding both of his hands up in surrender, “Okay, okay, that’s my name!”

Joonmyun brings his hand to his mouth and lets out a nervous chuckle, “I’m sorry. I was just so surprised to see you here.”

“What, you don’t think I read-“ Jongdae picks up a random book, “Slaughterhouse-hey! This was the book you were reading when we met.”

Joonmyun feels the mellow fluttering of the butterflies in his tummy tickle his insides jovially because wow, he remembered.

 Jongdae remembered.

From his vantage point from the cashier’s, Kyungsoo bites his lip in delight, a copy of Slaughterhouse 5 concealing his satisfied face.

And from the second floor of the bookstore, overlooking each and every one, Jongin chuckles and murmurs, “Cute.”

!

Kyungsoo knows his task is drawing to a close when Chanyeol bashfully asks if he could kiss Baekhyun, and the question has the shorter of the two gurgle unintelligibly. It had been three and a half weeks, and Kyungsoo has to admit, this was one of the most laidback missions he has ever gotten. He only had to do minimal work, and, unexpectedly, Jongin had helped out a lot as well.

When Baekhyun has yet to answer and Kyungsoo could see that Chanyeol was starting to deflate anxiously, he comes out of his hiding and calls out, “Baekhyunnie! Chanyeol!”

Baekhyun looks away from Chanyeol to greet Kyungsoo, while Chanyeol continued to look dejected. In turn, Kyungsoo makes it a point to make googly-eyes at Chanyeol. He’s supposed to be in love with the gangly man, the friend that gets let down in the end. Kyungsoo has played this role countless of time already that getting rejected was already second nature to him.

“What are you two doing out so late?” Kyungsoo inquires innocently, making sure to act as if he adored Chanyeol by directing the question mostly at him. Kyungsoo feels Baekhyun glare daggers and it takes a lot of Kyungsoo’s self-restraint not to laugh uproariously at the obviously jealous man. So predictable.

“Chanyeol and I had dinner. Like proper boyfriends.” Baekhyun answers with finality. He looks at Chanyeol and grins, “Right, Chanyeol?”

Chanyeol appeared like he was about to burst into tears of happiness and Kyungsoo takes this as his cue to leave, “Oh. Well, have a nice night you two.” He doesn’t forget to look disappointed and as Kyungsoo departs, he vaguely hears Chanyeol gently whisper, “I love you, Baekhyun. You are, and always were, the only one for me. We are meant to be. I love you.”

!

“You are sitting on wet paint.”

Joonmyun regards the unfamiliar voice and sees a guy smiling at him, as if he was the most amusing thing on the planet. Joonmyun quirks an eyebrow at the unfamiliar person and reluctantly sets down his book to point at himself, “I’m sorry, me? Are you speaking to me?”

The new arrival nods vigorously, still beaming, “Yes. Are you not going to stand up? Paint’s difficult to remove on clothes, y’know.”

Joonmyun glances down at his book and he realizes he only has a chapter left. He badly wanted to finish reading and he was too lazy to get up to find a new spot. So, as crazy as it sounds, Joonmyun shakes his head and says, “I’m pretty comfortable, thank you.” He gives the stranger a discomforted smile before returning to his novel.

“Are you sure?”

“Mhm.”

“Okay then. I think I’ll keep you company.”

The male sits down next to Joonmyun, ignoring the weird looks the two of them were starting to acquire as they sat side-by-side at the benches obviously freshly coated with white paint. A comfortable silence engulfs Joonmyun and the stranger, and the clamor of the kids at the park playground is the only sound that permeates the air.

“Jongdae.”

Joonmyun, still engrossed in his reading, hums and answers, “Joonmyun.”

At the other side of the square, Kyungsoo lets out a content sigh as he and his fellow park personnel load back the paint they’ve used to coat the benches, “Good work today, people.”

“And to you, as well.” Jongin answers, his paint-splattered overalls doing nothing to obscure the man’s attractiveness, “My dear, dear Kyungsoo.”

!

“What are you doing here?”

“Waiting.”

“Jongin, that has been your answer over and over again.”

“Well, maybe I could give you a different one if you’d just give me a chance.”

!

!

Sehun beams as Kyungsoo takes a photo for the school yearbook. The smile Sehun sends out is one that is hollering for adventure, something new and exciting once he leaves high school. And maybe, dare he say it?

Love. Sehun wants to look for love.

Unsuspecting, Sehun does not know the events and plans Coincidence has already planned for him to meet Luhan, who he will be meeting once he enters the university. One day, Sehun will magically misplace his Sociology paper and he’ll lose his wits trying to find it around campus. Only then will he meet Luhan who will curse at him in Chinese for messing up his mini-garden after Sehun had trampled all over it, looking for his paper that had gone AWOL. And then-

Well, truth be told, Kyungsoo’s still thinking how Luhan and Sehun are going to end up together. But he’s not in a rush.

He’ll get there. Luhan and Sehun will get there.

After all, there’s no escaping what Fate, Jongin, had decreed.

!

“What are you doing here?”

“Keeping the person I love company.”

“Well, I just want to let you know he appreciates it very much.”

!