Chanyeol’s face had already nearly fallen to the floor when before they had entered the manager’s office to just double check on the found items, because the man had said that he did not recall anything being handed in. True to his word he checked the safe though; Lay gnawing at his lip the whole time because he really did not want to think what would happen to the usual happy virus that was his friend if the book was not there.

The safe held a few things that had been found, an empty wallet, a jewellery box and a couple of pencil cases and there was a book but it was some girl’s fan account thing with some idol that Lay only vaguely recognised gracing the cover. “I’m sorry,” the manager said, “This is everything that I’ve currently got in here.”

Chanyeol sighed and pouted, “I understand. Thank you for looking though.” There was a greater despondency about him now, eyes cast downwards and it looked like he was about to burst into tears at any given second. Lay moved quickly to place a comforting hand on the other’s shoulder, as hugging someone who had lost a notebook would probably look a little on the strange side and he sighed, “Come on, Chan, let’s go and see if you left it somewhere else huh?”

There came a polite knock at the door which Lay ignored as he tried to guide Chanyeol out of the room but he looked up when he heard a deep rumbling voice, “Morning manager-nim, sorry about running late but I got caught in traffic.”

“Morning Kris,” the manager replied, barely looking up from his task of putting the found items back into the safe, “you’re on tables today anyway so you’re good for now.”

Kris nodded, trying to pretend that he hadn’t noticed a really upset looking Chanyeol and a frustrated Lay because he knew that he really shouldn’t get involved with the other. Though the temptation was completely there of course, it was still so heartbreaking to look at the other and know that he had no idea about who he was in the slightest. Still a little rule breaking wouldn’t hurt now, would it? “Oh manager-nim, I forgot to hand this in yesterday after the couple had that fight. I was rushing you see and...”

“Oh thank you,” the manager said, sounding completely disinterested but he was like that with virtually all of his employees regardless of status and he took the offered item without so much as a pause. Though he did actually take enough time to notice the book and he looked up towards the still barely moving Chanyeol, “Hey, is this the book that you’ve been looking for?”

Chanyeol snapped his head quickly to the side at those words, hope flaring and then a big bright smile breaking across his face as his eyes fell onto the book, “Yes!” he virtually yelled, grabbing the book and quite literally hugging it to his chest as relief washed through his system. Turning to the employee who had handed it across to the manager, before Lay could stop him, Chanyeol just beamed brightly at the man, “Thank you! You don’t know how much this means to me, I know it sounds silly but...”

Lay sighed as Chanyeol’s happy words trailed off in surprise as he found himself looking at the object of his affections but his smile changed to a soft on, “I mean...thank you,” he continued on, his voice a lot softer and a little less loud as he took in the man up close. His heart beat crazily in his chest and he knew that it was rude to stare but he just couldn’t help himself right now because there were so many thoughts running through his head that he couldn’t focus on them in the slightest.

“No problem,” Kris replied, casting his dark eyes downwards shyly and moving to head back to work, “Glad I could help.”

Chanyeol realised that this may be his only chance and quickly moved to grab at the other, “Hey wait, this may sound a bit crazy and all of that but can I take you out for a drink?”

“Can all employees please discuss their personal lives outside of my office?” the manager said, shooing the group away and tapping his pen irritably against a cup.

Lay nodded, “Yes sir. Come on, out before we end up in a whole lot of trouble.”

Once they were out of the office, Lay tried to tug Chanyeol away, “Come on, I still need breakfast and I’ve got class starting soon.”

However Chanyeol was not having it and pulled his arm out of Lay’s to hurry towards the retreating figure of Kris, “Hey, you didn’t answer my question.”

Kris turned and frowned towards the other, “What do you mean?”

“I asked if I can take you out for a drink to say thanks for finding my book,” Chanyeol said in a strangely confident manner, “you didn’t respond.”

“You really don’t need to...” Kris replied his voice low with nerves or shyness and Chanyeol noticed a very angry black bruise on his neck. 

“But I want to,” Chanyeol pressed, taking a second to pass his eyes carefully over the figure in front of him and noting that there were other things that seemed out of place. Like how Kris was wearing foundation though it didn’t quite hide the marks on his face and the fact that his trousers had a few very carefully re-patched sections and even though he loved to see his hair down, Chanyeol noticed that there were patches of it missing as if it had been burned or ripped out somehow. “Please?” Chanyeol asked cutely, large eyes almost matching his crazy ears for their size.

Kris stared at the boy in front of him, casting his eyes briefly over to Lay who looked highly worried but for what the taller man could not think of right at that second. His heart hurt more than ever but for once he felt like just being a little on the selfish side. “Okay,” he said softly, knowing that he couldn’t resist the other when he was being this cute and cuddly, “When?”

Mentally Chanyeol ran through his schedule and grinned brightly, “This afternoon?”

“I finish at six,” Kris said softly, knowing he would have to ditch Tao to do this but he was sure that his brother would understand and would hopefully be cheering him on.

“That’s fine,” Chanyeol said, “I’ll meet you here okay and we can just go from there.”

Nodding silently, Kris headed off to get changed for work with only a silent wave back to the pair before he disappeared around the corner.

Chanyeol brightly turned to Lay and hugged him, “Yay! So happy! I got my book back and I got a date with the hot guy.”

“Good for you,” Lay said, sounding glum but the happy virus did not notice as he virtually bounced out of the room like a hyper child. Following more sedately, Lay wondered if he should call Kyungsoo now or later but figured that the other would still be in classes right now so probably best not to disturb him.

~*~

“Why can’t we stop this?” Kyungsoo was virtually whining down the phone into Lay’s ear, “You know it’s only going to cause more problems.”

Lay sighed and shifted the phone to his other ear, “On some levels I totally agree with you there, but you should have seen the way that he looked at Kris. Soo...it may sound crazy but I think that this may help the both of them.”

“Both?” Kyungsoo asked and was probably shaking his head or something, “How can it help both of them? We made a promise to not let Chanyeol get dragged back into that mess.”

“I know we did but...” Lay chewed his lip for a second, “Have you actually looked at Kris recently?”

“Yes,” the word was almost a very sad whisper, “I’ve seen but we can’t allow Channie to go back to that and Kris knows that too. He should have rejected him.”

“And break his heart? Especially when he was looking at him with the great big puppy dog eyes that even I can’t resist?” Lay said, shaking his head, “That would be the worst.”

There came a noise of frustration from his friend, “I know that but I don’t personally want to have Chanyeol in a hospital again, not knowing if he’s going to come back or not.”

Lay nodded, “I know but...god I can’t explain it. Just the fact that Kris found the book and brought it in...look they’re going out at six. Why don’t we try to get in to the cafe at four and speak to him? I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“After we’ve ignored him for the past...” Kyungsoo sighed and shook his head, “Okay I know that we agreed and all of that but...”

“I know,” Lay said softly, “But we can’t ignore this, we can’t stop this and we can’t keep on babying Chanyeol all of the time either. We’re his friends, not his guardian angels and just maybe this may help him.”

There was another pause from Kyungsoo followed by a confirmation hum, “Right, we’ll talk to Kris at four and I just hope that this doesn’t explode in our face.”

“Agreed,” Lay said and together they quickly finished up the call and then went back to their respective studies with the plans all in place. 

Authors babbling:

Yay, finally got this chapter uploaded. Had a real busy week so hence why you didn't get it earlier but I hope it was worth the wait. So it seems that there's lots of things going on in this story which wasn't my original intention but hey it's working, well at least it's hopefully working and we get the date between Kris and Chanyeol next chapter so I'm looking forward to writing that all out ^^ as well as teasing you all with more unknown stuff lol 

anyways, I may be slow but tis the season and all of that so make sure that you all stay warm, have fun at your parties and most of all keep yourselves safe and sound. love you all

Chia