Some people think love is the most important thing in life, but Yixing believes otherwise. To him, the most important thing to establish and maintain in life is a strong network of friends. Friends take you places and make you try things you wouldn't dare to do on your own. They convince you to walk forward and have an amazing ability to lift you up when you feel down. To Yixing, his friends are his life, which is why he has eleven very close buddies he would do anything for.

Myungsoo is different. Myungsoo believes in a life of one-on-one time with heart-fluttering gestures of romance and complete devotion. More than anything, he wishes for just one person to keep at his side that will look at him and him only, someone to watch over him and for him to watch in turn. The girl of his dreams is someone who is strong and protective as well as pretty and sweet. To Myungsoo, there has to be a single soul whose heart will mesh with his perfectly, which is why he really does not want to be here on this beach.

A midnight beach party with nothing but eighteen other guys, two thirds he doesn't even know? Myungsoo would much rather be gathering up the courage to ask that pretty girl from the barbershop near his college dorm, Sulli, out on a date than be out here sipping beer and watching his friends light off fireworks and sing drunkenly. He watches from where he sits on a large piece of driftwood as Dongwoo, a friend of his since high school, has an arm thrown over his neck by one of the people he doesn't recognize.

“Minseok, you're super heavy!” Dongwoo complains, but happily pulls the arm tighter around himself. “Good thing I'm super strong.” he boasts with a smile. Myungsoo recognizes the name because it was those two that organized this little meet-up, otherwise, the two groups of friends had nothing to do with each other.

But yuck! Could they act a little less like happy lovers? Myungsoo knew they were just joking around, but his mood is turning increasingly bitter as he watches everyone jump around and enjoy themselves when all he can think about is how close he had gotten this morning to actually walking into that barbershop and asking Sulli out. He had just opened the door and seen the girl's head turn his way when Hoya had showed up out of nowhere and pulled him away to buy snacks, alcohol, and other party supplies.

Currently, his oblivious friend is ripping into a pack of licorice from their stockpile with difficulty. Watching him struggle is a little entertaining and a lot satisfying, but then it gets ruined when some guy comes over with a smile and a pocket knife to save the man.

“Wow, those are some dimples.” Hoya comments when the package is handed back to him, shy of one less piece of the red candy that the stranger bites into. “Hey, Myungsoo,” he calls out behind him and the man jumps at his name. “His dimples could rival yours. Oh, wait, it's just one dimple isn't it?” Leaning in, Hoya inspects the interesting phenomenon that is this man's single deep-set dimple with all the care of someone who has had too much to drink, meaning he is too close and blowing a lot of beer breath in the poor guy's face.

“Let him breathe.” Myungsoo tells him.

Either ignoring him or not hearing him, Hoya continues ogling this new fascinating thing and tries to measure how deep the man's dimple is with his fingers. “You could collect water in it. You could store a bird's nest in it. Wah, you could land a plane in there!”

The stranger had begun to look uncomfortable, and indeed had been trying his best to scoot away before that last comment, but now he's laughing at the absurdity of the drunk's words. It's a nice laugh. He seems friendly.

“What's your name, Dimples- no, no. Dimple!” Hoya says much too loud before chuckling at the nick-name.

“Yixing.”

“Yish-”

“Yixing.”

“Leeshin.”

“Yixing.”

“Yelping.”

“Yixing.”

“Leaching.”

“Yi,” the man says slowly. “Xing.”

“Yi- what?”

Myungsoo facepalms and drags his inebriated friend away to where a bonfire is being lit by a tall guy with a lot of determination, making sure to shoo Sungyeol away from the area, because as hard as he tries, fire never seems to agree with him. “You should try again when he's sober, Leexing.” he tells the stranger when he comes back to his comfy spot on the driftwood.

“Yixing.”

“Oh, really? I haven't even had much to drink yet.” says Myungsoo in slight amazement.

“Just call me Lay instead. It's what my friends do.” The man comes over to sit next to him, chewing slowly on his unfinished piece of licorice.

“We're not friends.” Myungsoo points out, a little unsettled by the unwelcome company. “We just met today.”

“Harsh, yet true; I'll admit. Want one?” Yixing holds out a piece of licorice, and Myungsoo blinks at it, wondering where it came from. “Your friend left the package here.” he explains, offering the candy again.

Myungsoo plucks the licorice from his fingers and rips off a bite, gazing back at the sea of friends and strangers. All men. Every single one. What a lame way to party.

“That guy over there lighting the fire is Chanyeol. Set him to a task and he works and works until it's done. He's a bit stubborn like that. It's why we always put him in charge of the fire; everyone else always gives up in frustration, but not him.” Yixing points to the guy at the bonfire before moving on to his next target, two people taking pictures with sparklers. “Over there is Zitao and Yifan, AKA Tao and Kris. They're always taking pictures and modeling for each other. It would be best not to piss off either one as Tao knows martial arts and once high-kicked a guy in the face because he called him Kris' boy toy. As long as you stay friendly however, Tao can be a real softy. Now the guy with a small chin who's playing soccer with Minseok and Dongwoo is Luhan. Never call him girly or feminine; he can't stand it. Over there-”

“Why are you telling me all this?” interrupts Myungsoo.

The man shrugs. “Well, you were sitting all on your own before and you look like you want to sit on your own still. You're not much of a people person, are you?”

Myungsoo rips off another bite of licorice and doesn't answer.

“Anyways, I thought it would be easier for you to go out and mingle if you knew a little about what you were jumping into.” Yixing smiles and adds, “If you ever jump in at all. You know, these guys aren't so bad.”

Looking off at a guy currently draping seaweed on the first person to pass out in a big green afro while someone else buried the sleeping form in cold sand shaped as a mermaid's tail, Myungsoo isn't so inclined to agree just yet. The two giggle stupidly as they work.

“That's Sehun with the seaweed and Jongin with the sand. They make an awful pair of idiots together. Never get stuck alone with them.” Another man with big eyes and a small stature comes to join them and Myungsoo thinks he is going to stop them, but instead he wordlessly pulls out a marker and draws a very bushy, curly mustache on the man. “And that is Kyungsoo. But what's he doing encouraging them?" Yixing asks, laughing. "Really, Jongdae shouldn't have let himself pass out in front of these guys. Everyone jumps at the chance to play pranks on him because he just loves to cause trouble.”

Yixing shakes his head and sighs before going off down the line of driftwood for a couple beers, passing one to Myungsoo as he sits again. Off in the distance, the one named Tao jumps around excitedly and chases after Kris with his sparkler, getting upset when the other tries to do the same back. 

“Hey, Dimple Couple,” calls Hoya from their left before Yixing can introduce anyone else, arm-in-arm with another stranger to Myungsoo. “I think I found my twin.” he says seriously.

“What are you talking about? You two look nothing alike.” Myungsoo calls back.

“That's what I said! Twins always look alike.” says the stranger in a voice that gave off a very eerie Hoya-like vibe. “Hi, I'm Baekhyun.” he introduces himself with a wave.

“Not fraternal twins.” his friend argues, slurring his words a bit. “Fraternal twins could be boy and girl.”

“They'd still be siblings and siblings look alike.” Baekhyun argues back.

“Not all siblings look alike. Some siblings take after their separate parents more.”

“Chanyeol looks exactly like his sister.”

“That is one example. You can't base your entire opinion off of one example.”

"Oh, I guess I can't." Baekhyun suddenly agrees. "Sorry."

Watching the two bicker is a very strange experience and Myungsoo decides to tune them out to spare his sanity, getting started on his beer.

“YEAH!” comes a loud cry by the bonfire as it flares up. Chanyeol has successfully brought the thing to great height. “Lay, bring out your guitar!” he shouts, stumbling over in the loose sand towards them. “Wahh, nothing like a midnight jam under the stars.” He grins with many teeth and pulls out his own guitar case from behind the piled snacks.

Myungsoo looks at them in surprise. “You play guitar? I play too.”

“Yeah? You want to join?” Yixing asks, bringing out his instrument and beginning to tune the strings.

“I don't have my guitar with me, but I'll listen.”

“Come on over by the fire.” Sunggyu comes and suggests, his interest piqued from the arrival of instruments.

“Yeah,” agrees Hoya, dragging his twin with him. “So we can all see your pretty faces.”

“I hope you mean dashingly handsome,” Chanyeol butts in. “Because I already tried cross-dressing and I really don't think the whole poofy-pink look suits me.”

“That dress wasn't poofy or pink, Yeollie, it was skin-tight and red.” Baekhyun comments.

“No, that was the first dress you guys stuck me in. This was a completely different day- oh, wait, you weren't there, were you?” Chanyeol realizes, taking his pick out from between his lips to frown at the memory.

“You guys did this without me?!”

“Calm down, Baek.” says Yixing as they all begin to gravitate towards the bonfire, sitting down around it. “There will be plenty of chances in the future to put Chanyeol in a dress”

“Hey!” protests the man in question as the others laugh. “You're sadly mistaken if you think I'm letting you put makeup on me again. That mascara is damn hard to get off.”

“What's wrong with a little makeup?” Baekhyun mutters.

Hoya startles and sits further apart from Baekhyun on the sand. “My twin likes makeup? I'm not so sure I want to be family anymore. I think I need to disown you now.”

“All I'm saying is that guyliner and flawless skin is the new trend. Tao knows what I'm talking about, right, Panda?” he asks the tall martial artist as he joins them around the fire.

“Don't include me.” the man replies in a bored, cotton-soft voice. “Fashion and makeup are two very different things.”

“Traitor!” gasps Baekhyun dramatically, his twin falling over laughing. “Don't even pretend you don't use any creams over those dark circles. I will Hapkido your traitorous any time, Panda. Wushu only looks impressive.”

Hoya suddenly sobers. “Hey, I did Taekwondo. Maybe we are twins.”

“I'm telling you, twins look alike.”

“Not all twins!”

“You've been awfully quiet.” Yixing notes softly to Myungsoo, casually strumming a few chords.

“There's a lot going on to listen to already.” Myungsoo replies while the twins continue to argue and more people begin to notice that something is happening at the bonfire. He spots Sungjong with the two described as idiots and instantly worries they'll be a bad influence. Nervously taking a sip of his beer, he asks, “Those guys don't cause trouble, right?”

“Not really. They mostly just come up with random stupid ideas and petty pranks, nothing like what some of the others get into. That little cutie is safe with them.”

“Cutie?”

“Are you denying it? He's adorable.”

Sungjong is adorable, but Myungsoo would never in a million years admit to calling him a cutie. Men shouldn't say such things. “Are you gay?” he asks with curiosity, hoping he didn't accidentally lead someone on.

“You don't have to be gay to think someone is cute.” is the easy reply.

“Lay, do you have a song in mind?” Chanyeol interrupts, pulling his cap off and adjusting it properly on his head before going back to matching his notes to his friend's chords.

Sudden laughter cuts off the response as Sunggyu goes off to grab another beer and is tripped by a giddy Woohyun. Helping to pick up the fallen man and dust off the sand is Joonmyun, someone Myungsoo met earlier when they arrived.

“Suho, come sit with me!” Tao pats the spot next to him with eyes alight.

Joonmyun smiles widely and abandons Sunggyu who falls over again. “Really?” he asks, hopeful.

“No, I want to sit with Sehun.”

“Hey! You can't just change your mind like that! What does that little brat have that I don't? You guys , all of you-” he cuts off his angry rant as Sunggyu pats his back and they both head off for more beer with shoulders hunched.

Smiling a dimpled (mischievous) smile, Yixing starts singing of poor unfortunate souls, Hoya and his twin instantly jumping in before the song is changed to something upbeat and fun. Joining them with paticas is Dongwoo, and it's really amazing to watch the percussive instruments in play.

Myungsoo watches his friends meld into this huge group of people with no problems, thinking that maybe Yixing is right about them being okay guys.

The music is a lot of fun, with silly dancing and singing, even rapping and beatboxing. It turns out that a love for music is something everyone here had in common. Everyone had either been in a band, started attending a music school, sang or danced in a competition, or even played music out on the streets, finding each other through these connections. Why Myungsoo hadn't met these people before, he doesn't know, but these guys are talented and entertaining. He can feel a sort of respect growing for them as he sings along and laughs like the rest of them.

You know, maybe coming here hadn't been such a bad idea.

***

Author Note:

If you don't know what a patica (wikipedia link) is, it's kind of like two maracas attached on a string. Dongwoo really plays those in real life. Awesome, right?