The entire week after that is extremely busy for Joonmyun. The company has an important business meeting coming up that can end up being very beneficial for them if they play their cards right, and everyone is working their hardest to make sure things are going to turn out in their favor.

Grueling office hours and tonnes of documents to read outside of work also means that Joonmyun doesn't have any spare time to see Yixing. He barely even has time to talk to him, which, to put it bluntly, . Yixing is very understanding, though, getting by on just short phone conversations whenever Joonmyun does have the time for it and the odd text message here or there. He doesn't even complain when Joonmyun falls asleep on him as they're talking right before bed (Joonmyun had been ashamed of himself and repeatedly promised to make it up to him somehow).

Yixing's encouragement makes everything much easier to bear, but Joonmyun still misses him a lot. That's why he's so happy when there's a knock on the door to his office some time Thursday afternoon and Luhan, one of his co-workers, sticks his head inside. “Someone's here to see you,” he says. He looks both puzzled and curious, which sparks Joonmyun's curiosity as well.

“Who is it?” he asks. He's not expecting any visitors.

“He says his name is Zhang Yixing.”

The mere mention of the name is enough to make Joonmyun's heart do somersaults and back flips in his chest. “Send him in,” he says, sitting up straighter in his chair. There's a voice in the back of his mind loudly protesting the situation – Yixing being in his office, his boyfriend being at his work place. Joonmyun aggressively tramples down the thoughts of doubt. The joy of finally seeing Yixing again easily overpowers the fear of getting in trouble for being caught having romantic relations with another man.

When Yixing steps into the office, all the stress bubbling in Joonmyun's body seems to vanish in an instant and a big smile spreads on his face all on its own. Yixing is looking around, taking everything in. He's wearing a T-shirt today, his tattoos peeking out from under the short sleeves, and now Joonmyun thinks he understands why Luhan had looked so inquiring. “So this is where you work, huh?” Yixing says. His dimpled smile fades away and instead he looks a little apologetic. “I'm sorry to interrupt like this. I know how busy you are.”

Joonmyun shakes his head reassuringly. “Don't worry about it, it's fine.” He gets out of his seat to shut the door and close the blinds, and then he pulls Yixing in for a kiss, slow and sweet. “What are you doing here?” he asks. “I mean, not that I'm not happy to see you, but...”

Yixing holds up a bag Joonmyun hadn't noticed before (probably because he was too busy staring at Yixing's tattoos to pay attention to anything other than that). “You said that you didn't have time to get lunch today so I decided to bring you something.” He pulls out a small, square box prettily wrapped in sheer, purple fabric with a metallic golden string tying it together. “It's kimbap,” Yixing explains further. “I made it myself.”

A loud gurgle fills the office and it takes Joonmyun a moment to realize that his own stomach was the cause of the sound. His cheeks heat up with a blush when Yixing chuckles. “Looks like my body welcomes it,” Joonmyun mutters, taking the package from Yixing's hand. Violet and gold. Joonmyun's favorite colors. He only ever mentioned this around Yixing once, back when they had just gotten to know each other, and still he remembered. Joonmyun is touched by the gesture. No one has ever done anything like this for him before. “Thank you. You're the best.”

“I try,” Yixing says with a shrug and a shy smile, which Joonmyun proceeds to kiss right off his face. He wonders how he managed to get so lucky. “I should probably leave, though.”

Once more, Joonmyun is instantly unhappy at the thought of not being with Yixing. He frowns. “You don't have to,” he says quickly, insistently. “You can stay a while longer, it's okay.”

“I don't want to distract you more than necessary, I just wanted to make sure you got something to eat. Can't have you getting sick on me.” Yixing brushes the back of his hand affectionately over Joonmyun's cheek. “I have somewhere else I need to be, anyway.”

“Where are you going?” Joonmyun asks. He's not jealous. Definitely not.

“I have an appointment with the guy who does my ink today.”

Joonmyun's eyes widen. “You're getting another tattoo?” He tries not to sound too eager about the idea (his attempt is not very successful).

Yixing shrugs with a smile that seems kind of... sad? Weird. “I'll show you next time we see each other,” he promises. “Right now I really have to get going, though. He's going to kill me if I'm late.” Joonmyun is still reluctant to let Yixing go. Only after Yixing reiterates the threat (“no, you don't understand, he will literally murder me”) does Joonmyun release him, but he doesn't actually get to leave before he has given Joonmyun a couple more kisses. Or ten. But really, who's counting?

Joonmyun hasn't even made it all the way back behind his desk before there's another knock on the door. It's Luhan again, and his curious expression hasn't changed, but now it's sharing its place with one that reeks of anxiousness. Revitalized by Yixing's visit, Joonmyun smiles. “What's up?” he asks, plopping down into his chair.

Luhan seems relieved by how welcoming Joonmyun is and steps into the office, closing the door behind himself and leaning back against it. “So...” he begins. His tone is overly casual and a little too friendly considering that he and Joonmyun are, well, not that close. “Who was that?”

“A friend of mine,” Joonmyun replies, now a little suspicious. Luhan has an annoyingly innocent-looking face, though, so Joonmyun can't tell if he has any ulterior motives.

“Mhm, I see.” Luhan nods, pursing his lips. Joonmyun narrows his eyes, but doesn't say anything, waits for Luhan to go on. “I'm sorry to ask, but... do you happen to know if your friend is seeing anyone at the moment?”

A sudden burst of dissatisfaction wells up in Joonmyun and he can think of only one word that fits: possessiveness. “He is,” he answers, probably a little too quickly for it to be natural.

Fortunately, Luhan doesn't seem to think that anything is out of the ordinary. “Oh,” he simply says and pulls a face. “That's a shame. All those tattoos and stuff, he's... kind of hot.”

“I know.” Again the snappy words just slip from Joonmyun's mouth, and this time it earns him an odd look. His cheeks heat up and he clears his throat awkwardly.

“Uhm...” Luhan's eyes flicker. “Right, I... I should probably get back to work. Since we're all super busy and all. Hehe.” He opens the door and motions to leave, but seems to change his mind. Instead he turns to look at Joonmyun again, regarding him for a moment, pondering. “Jongdae says you guys have been hanging out a few times.” Joonmyun nods, not quite sure where Luhan is going with this. Luhan smiles. “I'm glad,” he says in a genuine tone. “You know, we were pretty worried about you for a while.”

Joonmyun's defensive anger fades, replaced by confusion. “Wait, 'we'?” he repeats. “Who's 'we'?”

“Me and Jongdae.” Luhan sounds almost sheepish to admit it. “I know this may sound creepy, but we, uh... we used to talk about you from time to time. You seemed so sad. Nowadays you seem much happier.” Joonmyun stares at him with wide eyes, unsure how to react or respond to the knowledge that other people have actually been discussing him. The conversation is so familiar and he realizes that it's a lot like one he had with Jongdae not too long ago. “I have to go,” Luhan says. “Good luck.” He flashes an ambiguous smile that makes Joonmyun think that Luhan means for those words to apply to more than just work-related matters.

Once Luhan is gone, Joonmyun is left to his own thoughts. Apparently, Luhan could tell whether Joonmyun was sad or happy in the past, and Jongdae pinpointed almost exactly what Joonmyun's problem was when they talked about it. Even Sehun knew that Joonmyun had a crush before Joonmyun was aware of it. Although Joonmyun usually does his best to hide his emotions and keep his secrets to himself, others seems to have the ability to see right through him. It makes him wonder if everyone can read him so easily.

Yixing's surprise visit, no matter how brief, turns out to be just the boost of energy Joonmyun needs to get him through the rest of the stressful week. It's not only good for that, though. As overdramatic and sappy as it sounds, Joonmyun is almost convinced that he would have gone almost crazy if he didn't get to see Yixing for such a long time, so to get to see him for a few minutes really helped a lot.

Saturday is a work day as well, a day full of slaving through the remaining paperwork and having a last meeting to get everything in place before finally closing the deal. Afterwards, Jongdae and Luhan somehow manage to talk Joonmyun into joining them at the mandatory post-project barbecue party the company hosts after a job well done.

Several people express their surprise at seeing Joonmyun there since he's usually known to opt out of get-togethers like this one, but there are no hard feelings and everyone treats him nicely. Once he loosens up and lets down his guard, he actually ends up enjoying himself quite a lot. Now he's really starting to regret his decision to turn down all the invitations he has gotten in the past.

Going to the party, however, means that Joonmyun doesn't get home until late, which also means that he doesn't get to see Yixing again until Sunday rolls around. It's kind of worrying how much Joonmyun craves his company, and he should probably be concerned, at least a little bit, but he's too focused on the thought of being able to actually spend time with Yixing.

Despite getting home well after midnight, Joonmyun finds himself wide awake at eight am Sunday morning. It's nothing short of a miracle that he actually manages to hold himself back for a full hour before his composure cracks. He calls Yixing. It takes longer than usual before Yixing picks up, and when he does, Joonmyun is greeted by a sleepily mumbled: “Mhm, hello?”

“Hi,” Joonmyun says right away, and he's sure he comes across as an overeager puppy. He doesn't even care. It strikes him that Yixing was probably sleeping when he called, though, and that does make him feel a little guilty. He pulls a face. “I'm sorry, did I wake you?”

On the other end, Yixing lets out a raspy laugh. “Yeah, kinda. But it's okay. What's up?”

Joonmyun chews on his bottom lip. He's suddenly struck by shyness. “Nothing much,” he mutters, playing with a loose string on one of the throw pillows on his couch for something to do with his hands. “I just... I missed you. I miss you.”

“And you couldn't wait until somewhere a little closer to noon to tell me?” Joonmyun doesn't know what to say to that. He's blushing again. Yixing chuckles. “You're so cute.” Now Joonmyun blushes even more. There is a sound of sheets rustling, probably Yixing rolling over in bed, and he can hear Yixing yawning. “I miss you too,” he says quietly. “Do you want to come over?”

“Yes,” Joonmyun responds without even thinking about it. “I mean, if it's okay with you.”

“Do you really think I would ask if I didn't want it?”

“I don't know,” Joonmyun says with a shrug. He feels a little silly, though.

“Babe,” Yixing says, managing to speak with a determination that's quite impressive with how sleepy he still sounds, and the affectionate pet name makes Joonmyun's heart skip a beat. “I really want to see you. I want you to come.”

Joonmyun can't contain his smile so he doesn't even try. “Alright,” he says. “I'll be over in a bit.”

~*~

A/N: and this, boys and girls and genderqueers, is what we call a "filler chapter". there's not really a lot of plot in this, just a couple thousand words of meaningless blabber to fluff up the story. it's just joonmyun and yixing being cute and gross and clingy with their possessiveness (joonmyun) and their homecooked lunches (yixing). and, hey, I introduced another new character so at least there's that, right? this won't be the last we see of luhan, do not fret.

for once I am going to take a moment to talk about the title of this chapter. all my chapters have titles taken from/inspired by songs I was into at the time of me posting the chapter (if anyone wants a list of all the songs, feel free to ask for it in the comments :b), and this update's title is no different... except it kind of is. it's taken from this song, and the reason why I have decided to bring it up for once is because 1) the song is ing rad as , and 2) it deserves sooooo many more views. so here I am, doing some promoting. \o/ go watch the video, go go.

aaanyway. I've said it once or twice or more times than that, but I'll happily say it again: y'all are the best. ilu. ♥