Re-joining the group after the scene he had just caused was truly an utterly embarrassing moment for Joonmyun. Entering the room, he could feel everybody stare at him, he just kept his gaze to the floor and went to refill another glass of champagne. Yifan appeared shortly after him but didn’t enter the room, saying his goodbye to Yixing and leaving Joonmyun by himself to face any questions the others may have.

“You’ve obviously got something to say” Joonmyun says, turning towards Luhan and Baekhyun “Ask away”

“I don’t want you thinking we’re being nosy” Luhan replies, hand clamped over Baekhyun’s mouth to keep him quiet “We don’t want you answering anything you’re uncomfortable with” he finishes and whines when Baekhyun begins to his hand, forcing him to release his mouth.

“You may not have questions because you’re old and too mature” Baekhyun begins, Luhan cutting in that he’s not that much older and if Baekhyun didn’t watch his mouth he wasn’t too afraid to slap him on the head “I for one have many questions that I wish to have answered.”

Though he’s hungry for gossip, Baekhyun does make sure that Joonmyun’s more than happy to answer his questions. He may have wanted to ask questions unlike Luhan, but he did agree with him that he didn’t want Joonmyun answering anything he felt uncomfortable with.

“If you must” Joonmyun concede and Baekhyun wastes no time launching into his questions

“You hate Yifan, it’s safe to say, if so then why did you help him?”

“Strongly dislike” Joonmyun corrects “And he saved me from the jackass who made those false allegations about him, remember? I couldn’t exactly leave him to be accused of something that wasn’t true, it would have weighed a lot on my conscience”

“And what did you guys talk about when you dragged him out the room?” Baekhyun asks next. He had tried to sneak off and follow them to overhear their conversation, but Chanyeol was quick to grab him and hold him back until Joonmyun returned to the room.

“To discuss like mature adults privately and to come to a compromise that we did not owe each other as our debts had already been paid off” Joonmyun lies. They were anything but mature and there was no way he was about to tell everybody that he had to meet Yifan on Sunday evening to settle their score once and for all. He would never hear the last of it!

“Hey Yixing, how do you know Yifan?” Chanyeol asks and this is something Joonmyun would very much like to know himself

“Well there was a period of time when he lived in China. My dad’s job meant that we moved around a lot and I spent a while in Yifan’s hometown. We went to school together and though he was a year older than me, we immediately bonded. Then of course he moves to Korea and we move some more so we naturally lost contact” Yixing begins “Fast forward to when I first came here as a trainee, it turns out his dad puts money into our company and Yifan joined him on a trip to see how his money was being spent. We didn’t recognise each other at first but cue a joyful reunion”

“Choi Siwon is Yifan’s dad?” Jongdae asks and Joonmyun and Yixing both nod their heads “How can he be his dad if he has the most Chinese name out there?”

“I’m only telling you what I know” Yixing replies with a shrug of his shoulders. Baekhyun opens his mouth to ask more questions, but Luhan steps in and suggests that if Baekhyun is going to interview Yixing and Jongdae anytime soon, now would be a good time. Joonmyun smiles at him gratefully and though he would want nothing more than to head home and just climb into bed, Luhan was his lift home and he wasn’t going to have a repeat of walking home alone in the dark again! For Baekhyun’s joy, he could wait just a little bit longer.

Still having Joonmyun’s number saved onto his phone, Yifan messages him on Saturday evening with the name of the place they’re going to and directions on how to get there. Joonmyun knows he doesn’t have to go- it’s not like Yifan can force him- but from their previous meetings Joonmyun knows that Yifan is relentless and would either end up calling Joonmyun to bother him until he conceded to go, or somehow track down his actual address and send someone there to kidnap him and take him to the place (he managed to get Joonmyun’s number easily, who’s to say he didn’t already know his address).

Finding what to wear to such a place was the difficult part. The end of the text Yifan had sent him said that he could wear whatever he wanted so long as it wasn’t either too smart or too casual. Joonmyun’s fashion choices were questionable the majority of the time, he had no idea what an outfit in between smart and casual looked like!

A Sunday morning spent calling his sister-in-law and asking Sunyoung for fashion advice in between breaks and a quick photo session over facetime by the time he got home from work, his sister-in-law was able to help Joonmyun put an outfit together that fell into the criteria of not looking too smart but nothing too casual.

“Just what is this for Joonmyun?” she asks

“A little get together with a few co-workers. The place we’re going to isn’t overly fancy but you’ll want to put some effort into an outfit, right?” Joonmyun replies and manages to get her to believe him. He wasn’t about to tell her he was off out to- reluctantly- meet the son of one of the richest men in the country because they couldn’t act like mature adults. That meant explaining to her what had happened the night he walked out of his parent’s house and that meant her telling his brother which meant an angry phone call in return.

Checking the time, he only had fifteen minutes left to get to the place. Running down to the underground parking lot the apartment complex had, if Joonmyun can get into his car and get on the road quickly, he should be there in no time. The evening work rush is well and truly over so the roads should be fairly empty by now.

“You won’t need your car this evening”

Joonmyun lets out a very unmanly scream and turns around clutching his chest to see Yifan leaning again the wall, smirking.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Joonmyun shrieks

“Well I knew which apartment you lived in after saving you that day. I thought I could be a Good Samaritan and drop you to and from the restaurant tonight” Yifan explains and Joonmyun should have seen it coming; if Yifan wasn’t going to send someone up to kidnap him, he was definitely going to wait somewhere and wait for Joonmyun to appear to scare him to death.

“Thanks but I can get there and back by myself” he says

“You have no choice. I’m already here, the car is waiting and I know a way in and out that won’t attract too much attention to people around us” Yifan replies, the last part catching Joonmyun’s attention.

“What do you mean by attracting attention?”

“I’m the son of Choi Siwon. Surely you’ve heard rumours about me going around in gossip columns lately. People see us two together out in the open rumours will fly” Yifan explains and Joonmyun hates to admit it, but he does have a point. He could only imagine what would happen if people found out he was seen out with Yifan all night, he would never hear the last of it!

“Fine” he concedes, car keys going into his jacket pocket and follows Yifan over to his car. Whether he was trying to be a gentleman or just wanted to get Joonmyun into the car quickly so they could remain on schedule, but he opens the door and waits until Joonmyun is in and belted into his seat before he gets in himself.

“Joonmyun” the same driver from their previous encounter greets and Joonmyun can only wave back and hope his smile doesn’t make him look too awkwardly uncomfortable.

It wasn’t a situation Joonmyun wanted to get himself into, by having Yifan drive him there he had no means of escape to get home easily if he just wanted to up and leave. They hadn’t even arrived to their destination yet and already he was dreading it.

The arrival at their destination was anything short of amazing. They had arrived at a restaurant where instead of going in through the front like any other civilized person, they arrived at the back entrance where someone was waiting for them and were quickly guided to their table. Joonmyun had no idea why rushing all over the place was really necessary, but Yifan had a hand on his shoulder to rush him about.

“Was all that really necessary?” Joonmyun asks when they are finally seated and menus are handed to the two of them

“Yes it was. This restaurant is renowned for allowing people to come here say for dates they want to keep hidden, or to go somewhere without having disapproving parents finding out. If anybody saw me casually walking in with you, imagine what they would think” Yifan replies “Rumours spread fast”

“Oh God” Joonmyun groans “Nobody in here is gonna think we’re on a date, right?”

“I did tell you this was a date when I originally proposed the idea” Yifan points out, Joonmyun looking up from his menu to glare at him

“This is not a date!”

They spend the next few minutes arguing whether the two of them having dinner in a restaurant to make up for one owing the other could really be classified as a date. Joonmyun opens his mouth to argue against Yifan’s previously made point, but stops short when his gaze falls on the entrance to the place and his mouth opens as wide as his eyes.

“Oh my God” he mutters

“What’s up with you?”

“Luhan is right over there” Joonmyun replies, making Yifan frown as he goes to turn around but yelps when Joonmyun kicks him on the shin.

“Don’t turn around! He might see us!” he exclaims “Oh man we gotta hide”

After the scene he and Yifan had caused at the concert, there was no way Joonmyun was going to let Luhan see him patronising with the enemy! Looking around, the toilets were too far away to make a quick exit, he would look pretty suspicious to anybody if he went out the way he came in to hide, and the only other available exit was the entrance right where Luhan was standing.

“Get under the table” Joonmyun says, pushing his chair back to get under himself

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me! Now move!” Joonmyun begs and Yifan shoots a weary look to his surroundings before getting under the table like Joonmyun had told him.

“Can you please tell me why we’re doing this?” he asks

“Luhan was with me at the concert. I can’t let him see us after the scene we caused, and I can’t let him go back and tell Baekhyun… I think I’d die of embarrassment!” Joonmyun explains before pausing and eyes widening once again “Wait, was he with Minse-ouch!” his curiosity cut short when he abruptly tried to stand and banged his head on the table.

Trying not to laugh- and failing miserably- Yifan reaches out and places one hand on the side of Joonmyun’s head to keep him still and presses the other one down on the spot where he had hit it.

“What are you doing?” Joonmyun asks

“Pushing down on your head where you hit it, that way you won’t have a bump. It’s a well-known fact that you should do this after bumping your head” Yifan explains and makes Joonmyun scoff

“Is that a medically proven fact?”

“… Okay so I read it somewhere online, so what?” Yifan replies and this is the first time that both of them are genuinely able to laugh over something Yifan had said. Joonmyun allows him to keep his hand there for longer, but they’re interrupted when their waitress for the evening comes back and lifts the table cloth up.

“A-are you ready to order? Or should I come back?” she asks, Yifan and Joonmyun temporarily freezing before coming out from underneath the table and awkwardly getting back to their seats. At least to Joonmyun’s relief Luhan’s no longer there.

“We’re ready, though I think we should skip starters” Yifan says and turns his gaze to Joonmyun “If we do that you have a pretty good chance of avoiding your friend”

Food ordered and drinks brought to their table, the two of them sit there in silence. Joonmyun takes the opportunity to quickly scan the room and see if Luhan is somewhere nearby, at the same time to also try and confirm whether he did indeed see Minseok with him or not.

“I don’t know what’s more terrifying; gossip columns thinking we’re dating or Luhan and possibly my boss seeing me here with you” Joonmyun says

“Please! You should feel honoured to be within my presence! I don’t offer things like this that often and I’m only doing it because you owe me” Yifan replies

“And you owe me” Joonmyun retorts “I can only imagine how the gossip columns would break this ‘scandal’ if they found out, especially because of the rumours that you and Soojung are dating”

“Well then they shouldn’t really go nosing around where it doesn’t concern them, should they? Besides, all these rumours about us two, they’re not true. We just do it to egg the press on. I feel like I don’t have to reveal my ual preference to anybody and though she has a lot to do, Soojung gets kinda bored. The perfect combination”

“And let me guess; you’re not going to stop for a long time are you?” Joonmyun asks as Yifan scoffs and shakes his head

“Now where would the fun be in stopping huh?”

Joonmyun hates to admit it, but deep, deep down inside he’s starting to enjoy his time out. He’s not going to drop that Yifan still owes him for going down to the police station anytime soon, but he feels like he’s sitting down and talking to a normal Yifan, not someone who constantly manages to annoy him.

“Just so you know, you’re paying for mains” Yifan says

“Pfft after I saw the price of what you just ordered? No thanks! I’ll pay for dessert!”

Well, he can still enjoy the food…

Okay, I may have gone slightly overboard with this, but hey! At least we have- christened from the previous chapter- the date "that's not a date" date!

I had so much fun writing this. Particularly the moment where they had to hide under the table from Luhan and possibly Minseok and I can only hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as I did writing it.

Until the next chapter!!