"Psst, Chanyeol.  Chanyeol-ah.  Chanyeol-ahhhh~" Baekhyun whined.  I reluctantly opened my eyes and glared at him.  "Hey, don't look at me like that.  We've gotta get to work and I'm trying to help you out."  

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I mumbled.  I guess I was lucky to have Baekhyun as a roommate.  He was good company and never let me be late for work.  At the same time, I hated this side to him.  Everyone kept calling him my girlfriend and it really struck a wrong chord with me.  I had never kept a girl by my side because they hadn't taken enough care of me.  Selfish?  

No.

I took care of them with all my heart; was it so wrong for me to expect them to care as much for me in return?  I didn't think so, and I still don't.  By keeping this belief and staying true to myself, I was able to find my perfect match.  You'll find out more about her later.  Anyways, it was frustrating to find someone who took care of me that I also took care of but couldn't get romantically attached to.  Me and Baekhyun were bros and nothing was going to break that. 

I pulled off my old, white wife beater and threw it in the corner of the room and felt Baekhyun glare viciously at me.  I shrugged before pulling on my hideous, hideous work shirt.  It had purple and bright green vertical stripes and a chest pocket that had a patch that was a sun with a smiling face.  I put on the matching purple pants and the green cap and looked at myself in the mirror. 

"Hey Baek, remind me why I took this job again?"  

"To be with me?"  He joked.  I picked up my wife beater and tossed it on his head.

"To make my parents proud, you jerk."

"Chanyeol, you're an SM Entertainment trainee and you're smart.  I'm pretty sure they're already proud of you."

"I want to make them even more proud," I said through my grin.  "They'll be glad that I can earn money on my own."  

Baekhyun nodded senselessly, as if saying "whatever," and got up.  He was already in uniform and he walked to the door.  We grabbed our keys to the apartment, stepped out, jogged down the stairs, and walked to work about a mile away.  

We worked at a tacky little convenient store called Sunshine Sellers, hence, the sunshine patch on our uniform.  Baekhyun and I worked the two cash registers, which was boring as hell.  I was convinced that sitting there for four hours straight was incredibly bad for someone's health.  Baekhyun and I usually had the 8AM-12PM shift, which was nice because that gave us time to take a break before heading over to the SM Entertainment building.  

8-9.  Nothing special.  

9-10.  Nothing special.

10:50 AM.  Bingo.  

I was doodling on the wrapper of a piece of gum I'd just put in my mouth when I heard the little "ding" of the door opening.  Following protocol, I looked up with a half-honest smile and greeted the customer. 

"Welcome to Sunshine Sellers, customer!"  I chirped.  She smiled, bowed, and skipped to the back of the small store.  I leaned over to Baekhyun and whispered, "Is she not a student?  Why isn't she in school?"

"Why don't you ask her?"  Baekhyun suggested.  I nodded and turned my attention to her location in the store.  She was in the middle row picking out a snack sized bag of chips.  I quietly walked over to her and cleared my throat.

"Miss, shouldn't you be in school?" I asked quietly.  She laughed and turned to me.  

"No.  I'm not from around here and I graduated from a school in a different country," she replied confidently, killing my doubt.  

"Oh.  Okay then," I said, embarassed.  I scratched the back of my head and began walking back to the counter.  

"Wait," she called.  I turned and looked down at her.  She was really short.  "What's the best kind of Ppeppero?  I've only tried the traditional kind."  

"Ah, really?  You're missing out.  I really like the almond and kind.  They're my favorite," I said with two thumbs-up.  

"Which one is your favorite between the two?"  She asked.  

I the invisible beard on my chin and she laughed a little.  "Hmm...  The kind."

After my response, she picked up three packs of Ppeppero and motioned for me to move back to the counter.  I my toes and playfully trotted back in hopes that she would come to my cash register.  The cute girls usually went to Baekhyun and I really wanted to beat him at least once.  She came to my cash register and I heard Baekhyun curse under his breath.  I figured I'd make him really jealous by striking up conversation with her.  

"That's a lot of Ppeppero.  Who's it all for?"  I questioned softly.  Baekhyun kicked the back of my right calf and I held back a groan.   

"Well, there's a pack for me," she said after I rang up the first box, "there's a pack for my grandma," she said after I rang up the second box, "and that one is a pack for you."  She grinned and handed the box back to me.  

"What do you--"

"You helped me picked out a good flavor," she stated.  She quickly stood on her toes and leaned a little over the counter.  "If it's not good, you owe me."  She paid, stepped back and began skipping out the door.  

"Wait!"  Baekhyun called.  She spun around while leaving her left hand on the door handle.  Baekhyun wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I knew something was up.  "This is my friend Park Chanyeol and my name is Byun Baekhyun.  Would you like to go to lunch with us?"  I was a little horrified at Baekhyun's request because I felt that she'd be scared.  As predicted, she did act a little shaken up and began to shake her head.  Baekhyun reached for his pocket and pulled out his wallet.  He nudged me to do the same and I did.  He grabbed it from my hand and took out my ID and stacked it on top of his.  "Here, take these. Give them to you grandma.  If we do anything to you, she can hand in our ID's to the police and they'll find us."

"I'm sorry, I don't trust you," she squeaked.  "I'm sure you guys are nice, but I can't take this risk.  I'm sorry."  

"Wait," I requested.  She didn't turn back around but rather continued to look through the door.  "We can eat at the restaurant next door.  It's always pretty crowded and virtually impossible to be kidnapped from."  

I watched as she mulled the thought over in her head and turned back around.  

“I can’t,” she stated clearly and walked out. 

After that encounter with that then-anonymous woman, Baekhyun and I had an off day. We could understand her fear with "Taken 2" being in theaters and what not, but the rejection still hurt our pride. Baekhyun was hurt because he scored absolutely nothing with the girl, while I was hurt because I needed another girl, or at least a fling of some sort. My last girlfriend wasn't entirely understanding of our break up. She found a guy the next day in hopes of making me jealous. It worked, but I didn't let her know that. Then, things progressed downhill. She started partying and drinking and giving herself away to guys so she could get my attention. I was ready to rescue her when Baekhyun stopped me. 

"Chanyeol-ah," he said to me the day I was going to find her, "You're not going to bring her up. She's going to bring you down."  We got into a heated argument afterwards, but I finally realized Baekhyun was right. She was destroying herself to destroy me and I had to walk away. 

The ding of the door sounded and I stopped thinking about the girl for a while. I was going to greet the visitors, but I saw who it was and decided not to. The Jo twins had come in to take over the next shift. 

"Oh, hey guys," Baekhyun greeted. He slid off his chair and walked around the counter. "If you see a cute girl who looks like she should be in school and she says she's looking for Chanyeol and I, tell her she missed her chance. Yeol, I've gotta make a quick stop to the bathroom."

"Whoa, you guys got dumped, combined?" Kwangmin asked in astonishment. 

"Must be some stubborn girl, right?" Youngmin asked. 

"Nah, she's just foreign. She's scared of everybody," I told them. They understood and took the seats Baekhyun and I were just sitting in behind the cash registers. 

"I'd be scared of such a creeper as Chanyeol. Especially that smile~" Kwangmin teased. I laughed a little and turned away from them to lean against the counter. 

"Hey, girls like my smile," I protested. 

"Yeah yeah. Your girlfriend Baekkie does too, right?" Kwangmin snapped sarcastically. I grabbed his head and ruffled his hair. "Ah, ah! Sorry, hyung! It was a joke!" 

"That was insensitive," Youngmin scolded Kwangmin. Thankfully, Baekhyun came out and we could leave. I sensed a sibling skirmish coming. 

Baekhyun and I ate Ramyun for lunch and made Forever Alone jokes about each other.  We watched a little TV, chatted a bit, then went to the SM building and parted ways. Baekhyun was loved by the vocal department while I... I was a floater. I didn't excel at anything, nor did I do poorly at anything, so often times I would find myself practicing different things in different places.

I was let out early and decided to walk around for a while before heading home. I texted Baekhyun and told him I was leaving him in the dust. As I walked around, I saw her. 

My ex. 

She was drunk. A large vodka bottle dangled from her hands as she laughed along with another girl. She saw me and glared. 

"Look who it is, Unnie. It's that ungrateful son of a-" 

"Somin, stop," I warned and advised. She rolled her eyes at me and grinned. 

"Chanyeol, when are you gonna stop being that way?  Start caring about me again, pleaaaaaaase," she pathetically begged. She tried to put her hands on me but I pushed them away. She started screaming. "HELP!  THIS MAN IS ABUSING ME!" 

I walked off. But then, her drunken boyfriend showed up. Soon, I began to run as he chased me down the sidewalk. I cut a corner and was fiercely pulled into an apartment building. The person pushed me against the wall, lifted the hood of my jacket and brought our faces close together. 

The foreign girl blushed while looking intensely at anything except my face. 

"I'm hiding you, for the record," she told me. I grinned and she rolled her eyes.