“Hey, Twelve.”

“What?”

“Does it mean anything if I keep seeing the same person everywhere?”

“Uh . . . fate?”

“What does that mean?”

“Just go to sleep.”

“But-”

“Sleep.”

~ ~ ~

The second time they met, Baekhyun came out of the bathroom to return the jacket. He had kept it with him the entire time, even though it was “hella awkward”, as Jongin had so eloquently warned him beforehand. And as soon as that was done, he walked out, leaving the Cleaner standing in the room, dumbfounded.

The third time they met, Ten returned just as the Entertainer- Baekhyun, he reminded himself- stepped out of the bathroom. They locked eyes and he took the opportunity to ask, “Why do you look so sad all the time?”

The other frowned. “Excuse me?”

He walked up to the bed and dumped the sheets onto it. “Or angry. I don't know, but you're just not happy.”

The frown deepened into a scowl. “What is there to be happy about?”

Ten furrowed his brows as he tried to come up with an answer. “Well, no matter how difficult and hard something is, I always just try be positive and smile like an idiot.”

He thought that Baekhyun's scowl turned back into a frown and took it as a good sign. Seeing someone not happy always bothered Ten. He could turn a blind eye to the perpetually angry Elites, but someone like Baekhyun? No way. Even though he could probably verbally batter Ten to the ground, he looked fragile. Like a china vase that Ten could shatter with his clumsy limbs if he wasn't careful.

The Entertainer dug through the walk-in closet in the room while Ten made the bed. He kept talking, telling the other about all the random things that went on in his mind and had nowhere else to go but out his mouth. It felt like a one-sided conversation- it was a one-sided conversation- but it still felt nice.

The fourth time was nine days later. During those days, Ten felt . . . weird. Empty like the rooms he was met with. By the third time, everything was a habit, and he was already used to having a certain Entertainer come out of the bathroom while he worked. He wanted someone to talk to because conversing with the mattress made him feel crazy- no matter that it hadn't bothered him in his thirteen years of working.

It was a Sunday, which meant he could rest early and he was eager to do so. But when he entered the room, he saw the smaller boy still in the bed, legs tangled in the covers. With his eyes closed, he looked like a sleeping angel. Ten suddenly felt a rush of unidentifiable emotions and involuntarily held his breath, trying not to wake Baekhyun up.

He decided to clean up the mess of clothes on the floor and, of course, tripped over his own feet.

He landed with a loud ungraceful thud at the side of the bed and Baekhyun's eyes flew open. For a moment, it was as if the world was frozen as Ten looked into his eyes. They were beautiful- more beautiful than the lavish decorations he spent his days polishing, more beautiful than anything Ten had ever seen.

Then Baekhyun raised an eyebrow at him and the spell was broken. He quickly scrambled up, apologizing profusely. He had said “sorry” more times than he could count before he realized that the other was laughing. At him. But he was laughing.

His last “sorry” left his mouth as Baekhyun said, “I wasn't actually asleep, you .”

“Oh,” Ten said awkwardly, trying to straighten his clothes. “You looked really peaceful, so I didn't want to disturb you.”

The Entertainer sat up, blankets falling from his shoulders, and Ten saw that he actually had a shirt on for once, albeit a revealing one with sheer material and a plunging neckline.

“Stop staring at me.”

“Uh . . . sorry.” Ten blushed and suddenly didn't have anything to say. It happened a lot, but no matter how many times he did it, he still hated embarrassing himself. It was, well . . . embarrassing. His hands fell to his sides and he fidgeted, wishing he was still holding onto his cleaning supplies so he could pretend to do something, but he realized that he had dropped them somewhere between the door and the bed.

“Do you need me to move?” Baekhyun asked, cocking his head.

“No!” he replied a little too quickly and a little too flustered. “No, I mean- you can keep sleeping. I'll just . . . uh . . . clean up those clothes.” He gestured at the pile he was trying to get to before he tripped.

The Entertainer rolled his eyes. “I told you. I wasn't sleeping.”

“Then why are you . . . ?” The question died on Ten's lips. He didn't know how to complete the sentence and he found himself surprised at that. He credited it to the unnerving way Baekhyun stared at him.

“It's amusing seeing you like this, and now I'm leaving. Time to enjoy my break.”

With that, he climbed off the bed and landed lightly on the ground. The sheer shirt barely covered the shorter boy's torso, but he didn't seem to care.

Ten was distracted the rest of the day. The Entertainer was strange- his actions strange, his effect strange.

Ten kept hearing the small laugh ringing in his ears. It was genuine and happy, so bright compared to Baekhyun's usual aura. He wanted to hear it again. He vowed that he would hear it again.

When you smile, sun shines . . .

~~~

Sundays for the normal Numbered meant working half the day and then hanging out in their dorms, catching up on sleep, eating and maybe having fun. For Baekhyun, it meant sneaking to a place (far away enough to be secluded but close enough to not have to hurry back past curfew) with Jongin because he was such a good friend.

But Jongin was obviously a much better friend to spend the precious break time squatting in a pile of rubble and to catch up on life with Worker #94, also known as Sehun to a collective few.

According to Jongin, they were from the same orphanage and somehow remained friends through all these years. He seemed to remember a lot from his pre-Entertainer life and they were mostly happy memories. Baekhyun's childhood was a gray mess of blurs and he couldn't decide if that was good or bad. The only things he could remember were grimy walls, too many bodies and some guy dragging him outside. The sun had been blinding when he left the confines of the grayness after he was chosen. He faintly remembered wondering what it would be like to work under the heat and brightness. Thankfully he didn't have to. The horrors the sun would do to his delicate skin!

Baekhyun snickered at that and caught Jongin staring at him. He snapped back into reality and realized that they had reached their destination, some food already laid out on a flat piece of trash. It looked liked a picnic, if only they weren't in a landfill.

“What are you laughing at?” Jongin asked.

“My amazing sense of humor,” he replied honestly.

“Mhmm," the younger boy patronized.

“Don't ing 'mhmm' me.”

They waited in comfortable silence until a shock of blonde hair poked through the hole in the wall that served as their entryway into the landfill. The newcomer crawled through and stuck his hand back, replacing the dead bush and covering the hole. It wasn't that they were doing anything illegal; it just never hurt to be careful. There was always the chance some drunk Elite would find them and decide to cause some drama and land them in Punishment.

“Sehunnie!” Jongin called, waving his arm as if Sehun couldn't find him.

The Worker flopped down in front of them and Baekhyun acknowledged him by pushing the slightly-stale bread over.

“I'm so tired!” Sehun whined.

“Eat the food. You'll feel better.”

“I need a massage.”

“I'll give you one later.”

“My eyes,” Baekhyun moaned. “I'm going blind.”

“Why are you so mean?” Sehun asked, pouting.

“You two are disgusting.” He poked the apple that Jongin had brought to see if it was rotting. It was, and he cursed the Elite that had given him this unedible . Still, he didn't feel as angry today. Must've been the fact that his last master was kind enough to give him clothes and also wasn't too bad to look at. He kind of liked those doe-eyes, noticing them even as his mind wandered off to a world full of sandy beaches and frothing waves drowning Elites. (His fantasies always turned violent in the end without him realizing.)

“You need to learn how to have fun,” Jongin scolded.

“I am so much fun,” Baekhyun replied, glaring at him. He didn't know why people kept telling him to be more happy and be more fun. It annoyed the hell out of him.  “But Sehun is in your lap.”

“I'm giving him a massage,” the other Entertainer explained while expertly rubbing circles in Sehun's back.

“I'm surprised you haven't broken him yet, considering how ing scrawny he is.”

The Worker squawked indignantly at the comment while Jongin grabbed the rotten apple with one free hand. “Which reminds me,” he said to Sehun. “You need to eat more.”

“Can I whine about my life?” Baekhyun asked after Sehun finished recounting about how someone in his dorm forgot to be polite with his master and now "his back looks gross and probably has maggots living in them".

“You need to learn how to have fun.”

“ you, Jongin,” he said. “And Sehun,” he added as an afterthought.

“Watch your language,” Jongin told him mildly.

“ you.”

Baekhyun never knew why Jongin always dragged him along.

~~~

“Hey, Twelve.”

“What?”

“Does it mean anything if I want to keep seeing the same person everywhere?”

“Uh . . . why?”

“So I can try to make him happy.”

“Some people are trying to sleep!”

“Sorry, Twenty-one.”

“Shut up.”

♔ A  u  t  h  o  r  '  s    N  o  t  e ♔

Sekai aren't actually in love. They just like acting lovey-dovey to annoy Baekhyun, but Jongin is also really protective of Sehun (there's a story to this!).

#21= Chen

Guess who the doe-eye master was? ;)

But guys, sekaiiii~~~~~~~~~ they are so dumb and cute together (cr. wooyoung)