It has been two months since they met and Chanyeol makes meeting for lunch a regular thing. Sehun says he only does it for the free food but then again a nasty little voice in his voice whispers that he is also doing it for the company, for the bright smiles, the arms slung across his shoulders and gruesome rock band tshirts.

Chanyeol's thighs are warm and comfortable against him and Sehun kind of wants to lean into it more. But nope, that’s not something casual friends do right?

Chanyeol, oblivious to Sehun’s conflict, is texting on his phone, fingers flying rapidly over the touchpad as he sticks out his tongue in concentration. Sehun wonders whether this is how he looks when he texts Sehun too. Then Sehun slaps himself hard on the head for wondering about useless things like that.

Chanyeol startles at the noise and looks over at Sehun with wide eyes. Sehun offers him an awkward smile. Chanyeol raises the hand that is not holding his phone and makes bunny ears at him. Sehun stares at him judgmentally. Chanyeol continues his bunny ear gestures and adds an eyebrow wiggle to him. Sehun wants to kind of bang his head against the closest hard surface but instead, oh the horror, he ends up smiling at Chanyeol.

This is not good, nope, not good at all. Sehun is sure he has read somewhere that smiling is bad for your soul. It makes your soul all wiggly and snuggly and sunshine-y and…. Well, Sehun just doesn’t like it.

That evening when his aunt pounces on him as usual as soon as he gets home and fires questions about Chanyeol at him he feels all uncomfortable and weird somewhere between his lungs and stomach about telling her new tid bids he has learned about Chanyeol today. He squeezes out a vague ‘He is scared of toe hair’ before he closes himself up in his room and googles it.

Naver comes up with a lot of answers for him – anger, stomach acid, nervousness, lung cancer, guilt, gastritis…,oh, guilt. Sehun stares at the computer screen. Guilt. Chanyeol is no longer a really tall stranger or the enemy or that guy who only texts after 1am. Chanyeol is…a friend? Sehun thinks he possibly might have to consult Jongin or Kyungsoo on this matter. A friend who’s face he admires? A friend who makes his soul less black and more..more something? As you could probably Sehun is not, in general, good at those things people call feelings. He shrugs at himself in the mirror. Who needs to think of this stuff anyway?

The next day Chanyeol texts him with a vague ‘so you have to eat your baby food today.’ Sehun blinks at the phone in the process of putting on his coat and this text is followed by a ‘I have an appointment. So no meeting up for lunch. :( ’, which is again followed by a ‘Also I am too broke to buy you 10 bowls of noodles today.’ Sehun stares at his phone for a few more minutes, brain working slow, one hand in the coat and the other hanging in midair. He had gotten so used to lunch with Chanyeol he doesn’t even remember what he used to do before that.

Jongin walking back in from a meeting looks surprised to see him there. “No lunch out today?”

Sehun shakes his head sadly.

“Huh! Dumped already!” Jongin gives him a huge -eating grin as he walks by and Sehun vows to poison his next cup of coffee.

It’s been a week and Sehun thinks maybe people can suffer from withdrawal symptoms for things that are not of the drug variety. Chanyeol has been busy all week and Sehun misses the free food and maybe the loud laughter as Chanyeol leaned close and commented on the sky or the second world war or his next door neighbor or something.

The daily barrage of texts have dwindled down to an occasional one or two and this seems sadder than no texts at all.

At home, his aunt has now stopped pouncing on him and instead started to have heated conversations with Sejung instead. Dino sensing that Sehun is in a rather vulnerable mood takes to chewing on Sehun’s Playstation cables and methodically destroying everything glass on his dressing table. When he returns home yet another day to see his favorite Justin Bieber poster torn to shreds on the ground he finds Dino already settled near his aunt’s legs for security purposes.

“I know you did this!” Sehun shakes tiny bits of the poster at Dino, who lolls his tongue out in reply.

“He doesn’t understand you, Hunnie. He is just a dog.” His aunt admonishes him and Dino makes adorable little whining noises and rubs against her leg.

“He is faking it! I won’t fall for it, you demon-child-dog-thing!”

“He is tiny and helpless, Sehun, how could you be so mean to my baby?” his aunt coos at Dino and pets him before being distracted by the ringing phone.

“Helloooooo~~” she always sing-songs when answering the phone, which is why Sehun never does anything but text her.

“I’m not buying the innocent act.” Sehun sneers at Dino, who wiggles his and glares at Sehun, all adorable whining gone.

“Yes, yes, ooooh! That would be wonderful! Simply marvelous!” her voice rises and falls with honeyed delight that makes Sehun feel like puking.

“You sure are named very ambitiously for someone who is so tiny. Mini would have suited you more than Dino.” Dino gives him his “you-are-dead-to-me-face” and walks away, not forgetting to stomp on Sehun’s foot hard on the way.

“Tommorow? Oh, fantaaaastic!” unable to bear the squealing anymore Sehun stalks back into his own room.

The next day when his phone pings with a message, Sehun drops a pile of files on a secretary and dives for his phone. He ignores her grumbling and cursing as he eagerly opens Chanyeol's message.

15-8-2014  11.00AM

from : That-Tall-Freak

so.

I will be seeing you today.

Sehun grins manically at his phone as he texts back an immediate ‘Lunch?’. 5 minutes later the reply comes ‘no, dinner” which immediately confuses Sehun. ‘Dinner?’ Sehun sends but only gets a very unsatisfactory ‘you will see’ reply back.

He adds 3 spoons of salt to Jongin’s coffee that day. Jongin burns his mouth on hot coffee and sprays it all over his table all at the same time, and this makes Sehun feel much much better.

He does see what Chan