[PG-13] Please don't stand so close to me [EXO] (1/1)

[airplanewishes]

Title: Please don't stand so close to me
Author: airplanewishes
Fandom: EXO
Characters: Chanyeol/Baekhyun, Kai/Tao, Sehun/Luhan, Kyungsoo
Genre: Friendship, Romance, Comedy (I think)
Rating: PG-13
WC: 6,438
Summary: Park Chanyeol is tall, a bit on the gangly side with hair that sticks out like a mop on his head. He dresses up in faded jeans and what he calls vintage shirts (“But they’re tattered!” Kai complains) with cartoon characters on the front. He also has this unique trait that Kai calls the Chanyeol twitch.

A/N: This is for scrapedheart

Please don’t stand so close to me

Park Chanyeol is tall, a bit on the gangly side with hair that sticks out like a mop on his head. He dresses up in faded jeans and what he calls vintage shirts (“But they’re tattered!” Kai complains) with cartoon characters on the front. He also has this unique trait that Kai calls the Chanyeol twitch. One would think that in owning a laundry shop, he would be the king of cleanliness and orderliness in his life. But somehow he always just ends up messing things up. (“Just like he messes up all the laundering that we do,” Sehun says.) (“He doesn’t even know how to fold clothes!” Kai says, exasperated.)

The bell rings and Chanyeol makes his way to the front of the shop. His smile fades and is replaced by a scowl when he sees who had entered.

“You’re making me lose business by always coming here,” Chanyeol tells him without hesitation.

“What are you talking about?” Tao retorts. “Me coming here all the time attracts all the attention your shop needs.”

“Right,” Chanyeol makes a face. “People are starting to think I run a mafia instead of a laundry business.” He looks him up and down. “Don’t you own any clothing with color?”

Tao is tall, but not as tall as Chanyeol, who is a whopping 185cm in height. He likes wearing black, which conveniently—or inconveniently, depends on how you look at it—matches the seemingly dark look in his eyes. He also runs a martial arts school across the street.

“Black is a color,” Tao says with a straight face. “And I do not look like I belong to a mafia. You, on the other hand,” he comments, eyeing his hair and his outfit, “need to take a bath and a new shirt along with that.”

“Believe it or not, that’s his showered look,” Kai shares cheerfully, making his way to the front. He eyes Chanyeol. “Although that shirt looks strangely like the one you wore for three consecutive days.” He shrugs then leans on the counter towards Tao. “Are you ever going to have your clothes washed here? Or are you always just here for the eye candy?” He wiggles his eyebrows up and down and strikes a pose.

Tao scoffs and gives them a haughty look. “I’d have you know that there’s more eye candy out there than in here.”

“But what about me?” Sehun asks, lisps and all. He stands on Chanyeol’s other side and smiles prettily at Tao.

Tao slightly blushes, but frowns almost immediately. “I’m not giving Luhan the day off to come and see you here if you keep on giving me these googly eyes (“They seem effective,” Kai notices interestedly) and flattering me nonsensically,” he warns.

“Luhan says he’s not coming here until Chanyeol changes his shirt,” Sehun shares.

Chanyeol slaps a hand on Kai’s face, choosing to ignore what Sehun said. “Stop it. You’re not Sehun,” he says. “You’re just going to scare people away.” He pushes him to the back. “Go back to work. You too, Sehun.”

“See you later, Zitao,” Sehun waves as he goes to the back. “Please say hi to Luhan for me.”

Tao rolls his eyes. “I swear, you lot are crazy here,” he comments, shaking his head. “Good thing there seem to be more normal people setting up business beside me.”

“Oh?” Chanyeol’s ears perk up. “Who?”

Tao nods towards the dress shop beside his school. Chanyeol makes a face at the pink and glittery sign that spelled out Twinkle.

“How are they more normal than us?” Chanyeol shudders.

Tao laughs. “You should meet the owner,” he suggests almost mischievously.

#

The first time Chanyeol enters Twinkle is after he goes out to lunch with Tao, Luhan and Sehun. They were passing by to get to the burger place they usually went to when he finds himself pushed inside the shop of pink and glitter.

The girl on the counter with her pretty blonde hair and face looks up at him and smiles. He tries to smile back, which he thinks was a tad unsuccessful, seeing as the smile faltered on her face.

“Hi,” she greets him, smile brightening up again. “Can I help you?”

“Er,” Chanyeol stammers, gesturing vaguely. “I was just—I own the laundry shop across the street.” He points outside.

“Oh that’s right,” she nods. “The cute orange one.”

He frowns. “Orange is manly.”

“Of course it is,” she immediately concedes, her eyes turning into half moons. “So are you thinking of having any clothing made?”

“What? Why would you think that?” he asks confusedly.

“You walked in here,” she reminds him. “This is a dress shop after all. I figured you were interested in something?”

“Ah,” he wants to smack his face. “Right. I just wanted to say hello. You know, be the friendly neighbor and welcome you to the block.” He smiles what he hopes is a welcoming smile.

“That’s very sweet of you. Thank you,” she accepts. “I’m sorry I didn’t get your name.”

“Chanyeol,” he tells her, offering his hand to shake hers. “I’m Chanyeol."

She chuckles when he realizes that he was standing too far away from the counter for her to be able to shake his hand. So he walks closer.

“I’m Taeyeon,” she introduces herself, shaking his hand.

“Nice to meet you. Well, uh,” he gestures outside, “I should go. I’m actually having lunch with Tao, the guy who owns the martial arts school beside yours and his assistant, Luhan, and one of my staff, Sehun. So yeah. It’s this burger joint down the street.” Taeyeon nods as if everything he said was vital information. “Right,” he murmurs and exits.

A laughing Tao and Luhan receive him. Sehun was gracious enough to try hard not to laugh at his boss. Chanyeol takes one stride towards Tao and smacks him on the back of his head.

“I’m going to tell Kai you’re in love with him,” Chanyeol snarls before walking towards the restaurant.

The smile on Tao’s face disappears and he runs after Chanyeol. “But I’m not in love with Kai!!!” he lies.

“Why not?” Kai appears at his side, a frown on his face.

“You’re all crazy!!!” Tao screams, startled.

#

“What’s wrong with you?” Kai asks Chanyeol as he watched him organize files.

“What are you talking about?” Chanyeol asks him, dusting off the counter with a small damp towel.

“Just that it’s been two days and you’re actually…normal,” Kai finished, leaning his face closer to Chanyeol’s to peer at his eyes. “You haven’t knocked anything off or made a mess anywhere. It’s really strange.” (“He still hasn’t bought a new shirt, though,” Sehun adds)

Chanyeol turns to look back at Kai the same moment that someone enters the shop. By this time, Kai has a hand on Chanyeol’s waist.

“You really need to lock your doors when you do things like this,” Tao clears his throat.

“Things like this,” Chanyeol repeats, putting his hand on Kai’s face to push him away. “This is the first time anything remotely compromising has happened in this shop.” Kai and Tao exchange a look, but do not speak. “I don’t even want to know,” he mutters, shaking his head. “What can we do for you, Zitao?"

“Are you going to have your clothes laundered?” Kai asks, grinning happily at him as he leaned against the counter. “Or are you going to go into battle today?” He eyes all the silver surrounding his shirt, looking like armor.

Tao merely rolls his eyes. “The owner of Twinkle wants to meet the owner of Suds,” he relays.

“Me?” Kai flutters his eyelashes. “What ever for?”

“Are you the owner?” Tao pointedly questions.

“I’ve already met her,” Chanyeol absently tells him, blatantly ignoring Kai and his dramatic acts.

“Her?” Tao echoes.

Chanyeol looks up. “Yeah,” he confirms. “Short, pretty, blonde.” He finishes filing the receipts and puts them all back in the drawer. “What does she want?”

Tao opens his mouth then looks back outside. “Oh, I guess you’ll find out for yourself.” He steps aside just as the shop door opens.

In comes a small (smaller?) guy with perfectly styled dark reddish hair. His eyebrows were flawlessly arched with his lashes somewhat curled, emphasizing the eyeliner that he had put on. He was wearing a shiny, glittery silver tank top under a dark gray blazer and some black pants.

“Hi,” he smiles brightly just when Chanyeol thinks he couldn’t be any more blinded. He glances at all the people present at the reception area. His smile brightens up a notch when he sees Tao. “I’m looking for Chanyeol? I’ve been told he’s the person I need to see if I have any laundry needs.”

“That would be me,” Chanyeol actually raises a hand up. “What can I do for you, er…?” He glances up at Tao, hoping for an introduction. Tao merely quirks an eyebrow at him. There’s a twinkle in his eyes that Chanyeol didn’t like.

“Baekhyun,” the newcomer happily introduces himself, smiling another one of his tantalizing smiles. He holds up his hand, which Chanyeol notices are actually very pretty hands, small, slim, almost dainty.

“I’m Kai,” Kai gallantly introduces himself with a wink.

Everyone glances at him. Tao sniggers. Chanyeol and Baekhyun, meanwhile, turn their attention back to each other. Kai frowns.

“So you’re Chanyeol,” Baekhyun interestedly remarks. “Taeyeon’s told me all about you.”

Chanyeol, not really know how to react to that, merely shrugs. “What can I do for you?” He glances at Baekhyun’s feet, where he expected there to be a paper bag of clothing of some sort. “You didn’t bring any clothes?”

“Actually,” Baekhyun now hesitates, biting his lips that Chanyeol notices are appealing as well. “I was wondering if you could come with me, to the shop. The dress that I was hoping you’d take a look at is there. It’s really urgent.”

“Couldn’t you just bring it here?” Chanyeol asks as nicely as he could. He doesn’t really want to offend the cute (“What?” Chanyeol’s mind panics) dress shop assistant, but he doesn’t want to enter the Twinkle shop again either.

Baekhyun hesitates. “It’s not quite done,” he mutters with a frown that Chanyeol thinks should never be on his face. He opens his mouth to tell him not to bother when he’s cut off.

“I’ll go,” Chanyeol agrees, turning back to get his jacket from the back of his chair and wears it.

“You will?” Baekhyun’s eyes light up and Chanyeol feels like he did something great and noble. “Great!” Chanyeol moves around the counter and stands beside him. Baekhyun then notices lint on the collar of his jacket. Not being able to help himself, he reaches up and brushes it off.

The proximity of Baekhyun’s small, slim and nice-looking hands to his neck makes Chanyeol panic. His whole arm twitches and knocks down the stack of flyers sitting peacefully on the edge of the counter. The flyers fall to the floor in a mess.

No one speaks.

Kai smiles proudly. “There’s the Chanyeol that we know.”

#

Chanyeol is sitting on one of the stools in Bigger, Better, Burgers, slouched over the counter, face down, his nose being squished. He looks like he’s hung over, except he hasn’t drunk any alcohol the previous night or any other night for that matter. He’s not really one to drink after all.

No. But he’s hung over.

He had gone over to Twinkle only to find that there was only a tiny spot in one of the dresses that they were making. Nothing disastrous, like Baekhyun had made it appear to be. Apparently, Taeyeon was drinking Coke and had accidentally spilled some on it. What he did was, he got a bar of soap, dipped it into water and washed the spot away. Baekhyun had clapped his hands happily, while Taeyeon looked very much relieved.

“Anything like this, and you let me know and I’ll offer my services for free,” Chanyeol had offered to Taeyeon. “Owners should help each other out, right?” He was smiling rather happily, proud of himself for being selfless and a good neighbor.

But as it turns out, Taeyeon didn’t own Twinkle. Baekhyun did. Baekhyun with his perfect smile, perfect hair and perfect everything. Chanyeol didn’t know which one made him feel the most inadequate. He didn’t really want to know. What he did know was that everything about Baekhyun was like a drug to him.

He groans, turning his head to the side so that his cheek was now touching the counter.

“You’re the most unhygienic person I’ve ever met,” Kyungsoo decides as he starts to wipe the counter with a clean rag. Uncaringly, he shoves Chanyeol aside to remove the imprints that his nose and cheek had made. “You look like you’ve been wearing the same shirt for the past month then you place your big face and hair on the surface that my customers want to enjoy their delicious burgers on."

“I showered though,” was Chanyeol’s only comment.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Kyungsoo pokes his closed eye when he doesn’t respond.

Chanyeol straightens up and sighs. “I’m just…me.”

“O…kay?” Kyungsoo blinks. “That’s... I’m not exactly sure how you want me to react to that.”

“Don’t you ever wish sometimes that you were a different person than you are so that you can actually do things right?” Chanyeol pouts.

“What is this about exactly?” Kyungsoo gently asks. Chanyeol was never one to ask the most profound questions so this sudden display of wanting to know something other than what he was going to wear or eat the next day was a bit alarming.

“Nothing. I’m just being stupid,” Chanyeol shakes his head as if shaking himself out of something else.

Kyungsoo sighs. He disappears to the back for a minute then comes back, placing a tall glass in front of Chanyeol. “Here’s a milkshake on the house,” he offers. “Cheer up.”

Before Chanyeol could even touch the glass, a hand wraps around it and he finds it being pulled away by some guy wearing a dark shirt with skulls all over it. He groans, “Why are you becoming the bane of my existence?”

“Hey,” Tao frowns as he took a sip (or a lot) of the milkshake. “I’m a really nice and friendly person. You should be lucky I even bother with you. A lot of people want to be my friend.”

“And these people would be where exactly?” Kyungsoo jumps into the conversation, just as Chanyeol mutters, “Kai is one person.”

“Just because you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Tao quips, ignoring Chanyeol.

“There’s my mistake,” Chanyeol says. “You’re not part of a mafia. You’re part of a cult.” Kyungsoo snickers.

Tao calmly places the now half-filled glass of milkshake back on the counter. “I don’t really know why I’m friends with you two sometimes,” he announces, taking a seat on Chanyeol’s left side. Leaning on the counter, he asks Kyungsoo, “Do you have that burger with all the bacon and cheese and mushrooms on it?”

“Coming right up,” Kyungsoo tells him. “And you’re paying for that milkshake.” He goes to the back.

“But it was free!” Tao calls after him. He makes a face even though he knows Kyungsoo wouldn’t see it anymore. When he finally looks at Chanyeol again, he finds him slouched all over the counter. “What’s with you?”

“Leave me alone,” Chanyeol pleads.

After a couple of minutes, Kyungsoo comes back with the burger. Tao happily chows down on it, while Chanyeol is just there, staring into nothingness.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Kyungsoo prods him. “Like, I don’t know, your shop? Suds Laundry ring a bell to you? Can’t believe you’re leaving the shop with Kai in it.”

“Sehun’s managing the shop fine,” Chanyeol corrects him.

“Not when Luhan’s all over him,” Tao snorts. Chanyeol doesn’t respond, knowing that Luhan had vehemently declared war on him and his shirt, but this worries Tao a bit. “Hey, what’s with you? I’m starting to think something’s really wrong.”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo agrees. “You haven’t acted like this since—.” His eyes widen and he exchanges a look with Tao, whose face also looks like a realization dawned on him.

“This is about Baekhyun, isn’t it!” Tao happily cheers. “You like him! I knew it!”

“Who?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Baekhyun,” Tao repeats. “He owns the dress shop beside my school. He’s this really short, cute and very smiley guy.” Tao nods knowingly, grinning because he knew he was right.

“He’s not that short,” Chanyeol corrects him, looking at Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo raises his eyebrows. Chanyeol stirred immediately in countering that, yet he didn’t so much as move when Tao accused him of liking the guy. “So what is it about this Baekhyun that is bothering you?”

At that moment, a new customer comes up to the counter to order, making Kyungsoo go back to work and leaving Chanyeol to Tao’s annoying knowing and teasing smiles. Suddenly, Tao slightly stiffens in his seat and coughs. He discreetly prods Chanyeol, who blatantly ignores him.

“Go away,” Chanyeol grumbles.

“Oh, okay, I’ll just—.”

Chanyeol straightens up, horrified. He turns around and sees Baekhyun there, standing in all his flawlessness. He was wearing dark jeans and a white tank top that showed off just how nice-looking his collarbones are. He mentally smacks himself for noticing even that detail.

“No,” he immediately stops him from walking away, his hand grazing his wrist. He instantly pulls away and smiles (strangely, he was sure). “I wasn’t—I was talking to Zitao. How are you?” He says all of this very quickly that Baekhyun tilts his head, a small smile on his face.

“You’re really cute, you know that?” Baekhyun finally speaks, chuckling melodiously.

Chanyeol’s arm twitches and accidentally whacks the melted milkshake off the counter right onto Baekhyun’s pristine shirt and jeans.

While Tao stands up to help Baekhyun clean up (“This is a new outfit!” Baekhyun cries out in dismay), Chanyeol buries his face into his hands. Kyungsoo puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes it.

“You’ll do things right eventually,” Kyungsoo tries not to laugh.

#

For the first time in his life, Chanyeol listens to Kyungsoo. And Tao. And Sehun. And Luhan. And, damnit, yes, even Kai. He was finally at the mall, looking for a couple of new shirts to wear.

He flips through the clothing, not really sure how this was going to go down. He hates shopping. He doesn’t even know much about them in the first place. The shirts that he has are still very much wearable not matter how much all his friends would like to object (“They smell! You smell!” Kai rages). But, he figures, if he would even attempt to get Baekhyun to notice him decently (or to even just apologize for all the clumsiness he has displayed around him), he should probably really do something about his appearance.

A sparkly top catches his eye and he immediately thinks that it would probably be something that Baekhyun would wear. He gets it off the rack and stares at it, almost (“Yeah right,” his brain scoffs) imagining Baekhyun and his glorious clavicles in it.

“I never took you as a sparkly shirts kind of guy.”

Chanyeol drops the shirt to the floor. When he’s picked it up and tries to return it to the rack, he trips over air and almost topples the whole rack over. Through all of it, Baekhyun has stepped back, albeit looking amused.

“Are you okay?” Baekhyun tries again.

“Yeah,” Chanyeol says, stepping away from the clothing rack. “Sorry about that.” He tries to give him a reassuring smile, but he wasn’t sure if he was successful. Baekhyun’s smile had faltered after all.

Baekhyun stands there as if not knowing what to do next. Then he smiles. “Were you trying to do some shopping?” he asks.

“Trying,” Chanyeol answers.

“I can help,” Baekhyun bites his lips in uncertainty. “I mean, I know a thing or two about clothes. That is if it’s okay with you.”

Chanyeol shrugs, ignoring the furious beating of his heart. He should say no before he could get carried away, but before he could, his mouth was already saying, “I could use the help.”

Baekhyun looks pleased. “Let’s go somewhere else.”

As Chanyeol follows Baekhyun around the mall to go to some other shop, his brain is trying to compute the odds of Baekhyun choosing clothes for him, even when he had spilled all sorts of things onto him.

They enter a much more sophisticated store than where they were earlier and Chanyeol interestedly looks around. There were certain pieces of clothing there that he’d never seen before.

“You want to try it on?” Baekhyun asks. He plucks the dark blazer from his hands and helps Chanyeol shrug it on. “It looks good on you,” he smiles at Chanyeol’s reflection.

“It does,” Chanyeol agrees, surprised. It makes what he’s wearing at the moment like trash. He stops and blinks at this thought.

“You’d be surprised at how clothing other than shirts can change a person’s appearance,” Baekhyun tells him as if he knows what he was thinking.

Chanyeol’s face twitches. Baekhyun steps back at the sight as if expecting him to knock something over. But Chanyeol stays normal and points at an article of clothing. “What’s this?”

“It’s a sweater,” Baekhyun tells him. “It’s a little less formal than a blazer, but helps in styling. It’s quite comfortable, too.”

Baekhyun gets different pieces of clothing off the racks and pushes Chanyeol to try them on. Each time that Chanyeol does, he feels different, like he could actually more normal, even decent, and then hope blooms in his chest that Baekhyun could like this more normal and decent him.

“That’s a collared shirt,” Baekhyun informs him, eyebrows raised at the way Chanyeol was eyeing it.

“I know what a collared shirt is,” Chanyeol shoots him a look. Baekhyun has the grace to look sheepish. “I was just thinking…” He hesitates, but goes on when Baekhyun peers at him curiously, “I was just thinking that this would look nice on you. It’s blue. And, er, blue looks good on you.”

Baekhyun clears his throat and looks away to hide the blush on his cheeks. He grabs the shirt from him. “So, you all set?” he asks. “We can go pay for these now and you can change and go home a different man. Your friends won’t know what hit them.”

They have their purchases rung up and they leave the store happy. At least Chanyeol was happy because he managed to actually buy new clothes, not just shirts, clothes. And he got to spend time with Baekhyun, despite it being accidental.

He sees an ice cream stand on their way out to the parking lot and Chanyeol stops and turns to Baekhyun.

“What?” Baekhyun asks.

“What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” Chanyeol asks him.

“Pistachio,” Baekhyun answers without skipping a beat. “Why?”

“Wait here,” Chanyeol directs him. He rushes off to the ice cream stand and shortly comes back with two cones of Pistachio ice cream.

“I—thank you,” Baekhyun stammers, flustered. “You didn’t have to.”

“After all this shopping,” Chanyeol holds up the paper bags in his hands and Baekhyun was careful to step out of his way, in case his ice cream toppled down, “it’s the least I can do.”

Baekhyun smiles. “Well if you really wanted to make it up to me…” He stops himself.

“What?” Chanyeol prods him. “What can I do?”

“We can maybe grab dinner some time,” Baekhyun offers, his cheeks pinking. Chanyeol’s heart feels like it’s going to burst at the thought of being alone with Baekhyun, making conversation, and the hope blooms again. “…we don’t have to,” Baekhyun begins to finish off at the lack of his response.

“No,” Chanyeol shakes his head and Baekhyun’s eyes widen with dejection. “No. I mean, yes. We should grab dinner some time.” When he doesn’t say anything and merely looks unsure, he repeats himself bravely, “Will you go to dinner with me some time?”

Baekhyun smiles at this. This smile takes Chanyeol by surprise because it makes him realize just how much he really wants to go to dinner with him, and not just once, but maybe many more times after that. There’s really something about him that makes him want to try.

“Yes,” Baekhyun says and he’s laughing and Chanyeol’s laughing with him that he’s smearing some of his ice cream on his nose.

Baekhyun, without thinking, steps forward and thumbs it off his face. Chanyeol stops breathing and, before Baekhyun realized what was happening, Chanyeol’s arm had twitched and his ice cream was all over his hair and face. He licked the ice cream that had fallen near his mouth and shook his head.

“Chanyeol, you’re really something,” Baekhyun starts to say, but Chanyeol’s already taking a step back, completely mortified with what he’d done.

“I’m so sorry,” Chanyeol blurts out. He shoves the tissues that he had towards him. “I—I should go. I’m sorry.”

“Chanyeol, it’s okay,” Baekhyun yells after him, dripping in ice cream, but he’s already gone.

#

“Let me get this straight,” Luhan recites, his arms around Sehun, “he buys you clothes, asks you out, then you smash your ice cream on his face and hair and you run away?”

Chanyeol merely groans in response, wanting to be eaten alive by the ground. The ground would probably spit him back out seeing how much of an unpleasant person he was.

Kai bursts into peals of laughter. “He wanted to have dinner with you, Chanyeol, not be your dinner.” He stops himself at this then looks thoughtful. “Actually, he might want that, too.”

“Except if you never even have dinner together, that’s not going to happen,” Tao pipes in.

“You guys aren’t helping!” Chanyeol growls.

“Okay, let’s focus,” Kyungsoo was normally the more mature one in the group. He holds Chanyeol’s shoulders and looks him in the eye. “What do you want, Chanyeol? Do you want to have dinner with him or do you want to eat him instead?”

“Kyungsoo!” the whole group choruses in shock. Chanyeol blinks at him, feeling betrayed.

“He’s not going to want to do either if he keeps on wearing those shirts,” Luhan wrinkles his nose.

“But you went shopping,” Sehun says.

“And he bought you those clothes,” Tao frowns.

“Doesn’t matter,” Chanyeol declares. “You guys can have them.”

“Really?” Kai jumps in. “Coz I really want the mmmpppphhh.”

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo tries to reason with him with his hand covering Kai’s mouth, “it wouldn’t be fair to Baekhyun if you gave those away. If you don’t want them, just keep them.”

“Or you can wear them,” Luhan suggests nonchalantly. “They’re just clothes.”

“They’re like a glaring reminder of what I did,” Chanyeol argues.

“Just clothes,” Luhan repeats desperately.

“You just want him to start wearing something else,” Sehun teases.

“I have never lied about my hatred for his clothing,” Luhan peacefully admits. Then he tickles Sehun for teasing him.

Kyungsoo sighs. “Just go and talk to him,” he tells Chanyeol. “He’s a nice guy. I’m sure he understands you and your… Just talk to him.”

“Yeah, communication is the most important key to healthy relationships,” Tao states.

“And what would you know about that?” Luhan scoffs.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tao pouts.

“I think what he means is that you’re dating Kai,” Chanyeol supplies.

“So?” Tao asks.

“You’re dating Kai,” Chanyeol merely repeats as if that was answer enough. When Tao still doesn’t seem to get it, he explains, “You two have the weirdest relationship.”

“Can you get your hand off his mouth?” Tao demands from Kyungsoo.

“I think he’s dying,” Sehun observes.

“Oh.” Kyungsoo removes his hand from Kai’s mouth.

“Our relationship is not weird,” Kai breathes.

Kyungsoo claps. “Alright then, that’s all for today.” And everyone stands up as if Kai hadn’t spoken.

#

Chanyeol has just locked up his store, jiggling the doorknob to confirm, and was turning on his way when he saw Baekhyun, across the street having just locked up as well. He considers crossing the street and talking to him to apologize (or something), but he stops himself just as he takes the first step.

He’s never been good at relationships, judging by the way one girlfriend and two boyfriends had dumped him on the account that they couldn’t stand him. Well, they specifically said they couldn’t stand his clumsiness, which was basically who he was so it was really like saying that they couldn’t stand him. He cringes when he remembers that he’d accidentally dropped the box filled with their memorabilia on his last boyfriend’s foot. That had not been a pleasant parting.

He sighs as he pockets his hands. Who was he kidding? Why would Baekhyun think of him any differently? He’d messed things up one too many times already and they barely even knew each other.

“He doesn’t seem to mind,” Sehun interrupts his thoughts. Kai snorts beside him.

Chanyeol forgets that Sehun and Kai had actually stayed behind to help him lock up and jumps in surprise. Before he could do something about Kai, he was already jogging across the street towards where Tao and Luhan had just exited their school.

“Do you want to come with us?” Sehun asks him. “We’re watching a movie. Baekhyun’s going to be there.”

Chanyeol looks across the street and watches as Baekhyun laughs at something that Luhan says. He shakes his head and ruffles Sehun’s hair. “You guys go ahead. I’m feeling tired,” he says.

Sehun walks towards the others.

Chanyeol never sees Baekhyun watching him.

#

Chanyeol watches as Sehun cuddles Luhan on his lap, the two quietly giggling to themselves. Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Kai dips a fry into the ketchup and pretends to feed it to Tao but then eats it himself. Kai always, always explodes in laughter at Tao thinking that he was actually going to be able to eat the fry this time.

He averts his eyes and traces the edge of table napkin with his fingers. It feels like it had been a while since he’d gone out with his friends. He had buried himself into work, never going anywhere else but in his shop, and sometimes Tao and Kyungsoo (even Luhan did) stopped by just to see how he was, but he never did anything much with them anymore. He knew Baekhyun had started hanging out with them a lot. So there was that.

Baekhyun tried to talk to him a couple of times after that. And he did, too. Things just never seemed to work out. In those couple of times, Chanyeol had managed to just make things worse. Being too close to Baekhyun did things to him and made him clumsier than normal, so he opted to stay as far away from him when they talked. Still he seemed to keep knocking things over. And, after a while, Baekhyun just stopped trying. So he stopped, too, figuring that it would be hopeless anyway.

Kai laughs in a particularly loud manner that Chanyeol looks up. There was ketchup smeared all over Tao’s face and Tao looked very much murderous. Kyungsoo, who was silent up until that time, gets the bottle of ketchup and other condiments away from them to make sure that there wouldn’t be a food fight in the horizon.

Chanyeol looks away once Kai started kissing Tao’s face, licking all the ketchup away.

“Still takes some time getting used to, ‘no?” Kyungsoo speaks, shuddering. Chanyeol doesn’t say anything and Kyungsoo sighs. “I saw Baekhyun the other day.”

“Yeah?” Chanyeol says.

“Yeah. He’s doing pretty well, if you’re actually interested,” Kyungsoo tells him.

“Good to know,” Chanyeol shrugs.

“Seriously, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo says exasperatedly. “Why do you just go up to him and tell him how you feel?”

“He’s afraid that he’s going to smack him in the face next,” Kai announces.

“Maybe that would be good for the two of you, you know, to fight it out,” Tao agrees. “Could release some pent up frustration.”

“Are we back to the eating thing again?” Sehun innocently asks. Luhan smothers his giggle behind his hand.

Chanyeol glares at all of them, then he turns to Kyungsoo. “I could do that, but what would be the point?”

“Uh, you guys would live happily every after?” Kyungsoo proclaims.

Chanyeol scoffs. “That is if he was interested in me,” he snickers. All the flirting activities stop at this statement and everyone stares at him. “What?”

“How could I be friends with the stupidest person in the world?” Luhan announces, burying his face in his hands. Sehun tries to comfort him by placing a kiss on his head.

“What?” Chanyeol repeats cluelessly.

“Oh my god,” Tao gurgles. “I’m really going to join the mafia just for the desire to know how to kill you as painfully as possible.”

Kyungsoo looks confused. “Aren’t you a part of one already?”

“No, he’s part of a cult,” Kai corrects him, turning to his boyfriend. “Right?”

“NO,” Tao grumbles rather murderously and Kyungsoo and Kai decide to shut their mouth.

“I think we’ve lost track of the conversation,” Chanyeol says in despair.

“I told you, Chanyeol,” Sehun speaks. “He doesn’t mind.”

“Doesn’t mind what?” Chanyeol blinks.

Kyungsoo shakes his head in frustration. “Chanyeol, the guy practically shopped for you (“Since you clearly lack any shopping skills,” Luhan inserts with glee) and blatantly asked you out. He also doesn’t seem to mind your clumsiness since he seems to stick around.”

“You mean he likes me, too?”

“YES!!!” five boys yell at him.

Chanyeol looks dumbfounded.

#

He slowly opens the door, the chimes echoing across the reception. He steps in, trying to look at the back when no one came out.

“Hello?”

“Just a minute!” Baekhyun’s harried voice comes through.

When Baekhyun finally comes out, Chanyeol was standing by the counter, flipping through the portfolio of his designs.

“Did you make these?” Chanyeol asks, not looking up.

“I—yes,” Baekhyun answers haltingly.

“They’re really good,” Chanyeol praises, finally meeting his eyes. Baekhyun’s eyes were wide. He slowly closes the book. “So…”

“What are you doing here?” Baekhyun asks.

“I was…uh, just walking by and I thought you’d still be here since the light were still turned on and I wondered if you were here coz, you know, you work here and I was hoping you were because I actually wanted to—.”

“Chanyeol, you’re rambling,” Baekhyun comments, amused.

“I’ve been stupid,” Chanyeol summarizes. Baekhyun looks confused. “I wanted to apologize.”

“For what?” Baekhyun wants to know.

“For being stupid,” Chanyeol repeats, looking confused as well.

Baekhyun puts up a hand to stop him from any more verbal vomit. He was about to speak when he notices Chanyeol’s outfit for the first time. He was wearing the things they’d bought together. Baekhyun meets his eyes.

“You look good,” Baekhyun remarks, a hint of a smile on his lips.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “You make me look good. This is all your doing.” He fixes his blazer and smiles at him. “So…” he pushes forward bravely, clearing his throat. “I was wondering if you were free to have dinner tonight.”

“What?” Baekhyun stammers. He blinks and blinks and Chanyeol wonders if it’s weird that he finds that adorable.

“You, you invited me to dinner that one time,” Chanyeol reminds him, feeling breathless all of a sudden. “I was wondering if—if the offer was still on the table.” It took Baekhyun so long to answer that Chanyeol started rambling again. “I mean, you know, since you’d asked, but I guess it was a while back so maybe you’d forgotten, but you did ask me, remember, when we went shopping, and just right after I bought you the ice cream but right before I…” He shakes his head as if to rid himself of that memory. “But yeah, that time and—.”

“But you don’t like me!” Baekhyun blurts out.

Chanyeol blinks. “What?”

“You don’t like me,” Baekhyun repeats in a much softer manner. There was a frown on his face that Chanyeol wanted to kiss away.

“What—how could you say that?” Chanyeol asks in shock.

“Because,” Baekhyun reasons, “you’re always…doing these things when I’m around that I’ve learned to understand it as you not wanting me to be around.” He frowns at hearing himself say such things around.

“Why would you—those things happen because you’re around,” Chanyeol tries to explain.

Baekhyun shoots him a look. “That’s what I said.”

“No, I mean, I’m normally clumsy,” Chanyeol further clarifies. “I really am. I once knocked Kai out because I stumbled while walking and I hit him on the face. The guys really enjoyed it, but Tao was really mad at me—anyway,” he clears his throat when Baekhyun raises his eyebrows, “what I’m saying is that I’m clumsy, but, somehow, when you’re around, I just can’t…control myself. Like, your presence heightens it because maybe, I don’t know, maybe it’s because I like you. It’s really weird because it’s never been like this and—.”

Chanyeol never really knew what the and was going to be because his brain normally just supplies all the long-winded speeches that comes out of his mouth and he never really knows what he’s going to say next, but—oh! Baekhyun is kissing him.

He sighs into the kiss, his hands tentatively resting on the small of Baekhyun’s waist. (“Finally!” his brain screams at him. “Finally, you’ve gotten less dumb.”) He could really get used to this.

#

Chanyeol presses Baekhyun against the wall and Baekhyun doesn’t give an ounce of resistance. He smiles when he stands on tiptoe to meet his lips and enjoys the movement of their lips with each other. They’d been doing this a lot for the past few days and Chanyeol thinks he won’t ever, ever get tired of it. Baekhyun’s pretty lips moving with his own was just so—.

“What are you thinking about?” Baekhyun asks him.

“I wasn’t,” Chanyeol lies. Or he tries to.

“Really?” Baekhyun teases, slowly running his tongue on his lower lip.

Chanyeol’s leg twitches and he accidentally kicks his shin. Baekhyun bites his lip and winces.

“I’m so sorry!” Chanyeol instantly apologizes.

Outside the bathroom, everyone pays Kai, who looked smug. It was too easy to make money on the Chanyeol twitch every time he and Baekhyun makes out.