falling for you
Pairing: Chanyeol/Tao
Rating: G
Word count: 3k
A/N: for the prompt, "One day A finds a second chance at love in B over spilled coffee." aka in which chanyeol is a shit again aka this is so unrealistic i am so sorry
also i think i misinterpreted your prompt so again i'm sorry
Chanyeol only starts to think that maybe he comes to this coffee shop too often when he sees some new guy working there and realizes he only knows that because he recognizes all the staff here. He then starts to think that maybe his life really has become ridiculously dull because he’s considering moving from his table in the far corner to get a better look at this new employee.
It wouldn’t really be accurate to say that Chanyeol is a creature of habit by nature-- it was really more due to circumstance. His ex had been one for routine and schedules, and he just naturally molded himself to fit her nature. He thinks waking up at the same time he used to when they lived together isn’t so unhealthy even though it’s been a month. He will concede that maybe starting to come to a different Starbucks just to completely avoid the one he always used to go to (his ex’s best friend worked there and would give him discounts from time to time) is a bit much.
That’s not what he’s thinking as he slumps into his chair and slowly backs it up so he can take a look at the one change to his routine for the past month. He seems tall, but not as tall as Chanyeol. But what really makes Chanyeol take a second look at him is that he looks almost out of place among the typical patronage at this coffee shop, with his several piercings and hair that’s been bleached an unnatural blond. Chanyeol wonders if this is just his day job and at night he’s part of a band, or maybe some secret punk cult. Chanyeol doesn’t really know if those exist or what activities they’d partake in, but he bets all their members would look like this guy.
After said guy goes back into the employee-only area, Chanyeol realizes he’s wasted ten minutes staring at a stranger and sits back up in his seat. He plugs in his earbuds, turns on his music, and goes back to typing away on his laptop.
He doesn’t know how long he’s been working when he sees New Guy come out of the employee entrance near the corner where he’s sitting. Chanyeol looks up but quickly looks back down as he passes dangerously close to Chanyeol’s table. New Guy is over near the display shelf picking up something, but Chanyeol can’t see what it is because soon he’s heading back the same way he came and Chanyeol looks away at lightening speed.
What happens next is still a blur to him, but Chanyeol hears what he would call a yelp before a cloud of brown dust rains down on him and his laptop. He sputters after getting some of it in his mouth, but quickly realizes it’s coffee. When he pulls out his earbuds and looks up, New Guy is backing off from where he had grabbed the back of Chanyeol’s chair for support.
“Oh my god, I’m so so sorry-- I just tripped and-- The bag was-- Are you okay?”
Chanyeol’s brain hasn’t caught up with what just happened so he just nods, but New Guy’s already bending down to pick up the overturned bag of ground coffee that’s spilled all over the floor.
“I’m so screwed, they’re gonna-- Hey, wait here a minute and I’ll come clean this up for you okay? I’m so sorry, hold on a second.”
Just like that New Guy is gone through the employee door again. Chanyeol stays still for a moment processing what just happened before he stands up and brushes himself off. When New Guy returns with a broom and a dust pan, Chanyeol’s in the middle of brushing the coffee off his laptop and onto the ground.
“I’m really really sorry about this, it’s my first day on the job and--”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Chanyeol says, scratching the back of his neck. “It could be worse. The coffee could’ve been hot and in liquid form.” Chanyeol tries to appease New Guy while he works because he sounds really distressed but also he’s oddly cute when he’s distressed. Chanyeol wonders if maybe he’s wrong in the head for thinking that.
“I guess so…” New Guy says as he finishes sweeping up the mess he’s made. He looks up at Chanyeol. “Did it get on your laptop? Is it okay? Are you sure everything’s okay? I’m so sorry--”
“Don’t sweat it, really. It looks fine to me. I mean, I can get it checked with a friend, but I really don't think it's a big deal.”
New Guy looks like he wants to object and start another round of apologies but after a moment he looks over to the main counter where more and more people are starting to line up and bites his lip, eyebrows raised. He looks back at Chanyeol.
“I have to get back to work, but again, I’m really sorry. I can make it up to you, if you want a discount or something?”
A discount actually sounds great to Chanyeol but there’s nothing he really feels like ordering at the moment, and when he looks at the clock set on the far wall he realizes this interaction has taken longer than he thought it had.
“I actually need to head out right now, but really, don’t worry about it.” He smiles and hopes that’ll be enough for New Guy, who looks less distressed but still worried.
“Oh. Well, I won’t hold you up then, I’m--”
“Sorry, I know.” New Guy’s eyes widen a bit and Chanyeol wonders if maybe that wasn’t a joke he should’ve made with a complete stranger who’s already feeling really guilty, but then New Guy smiles. Chanyeol’s really glad and also somewhat confused because he looks even cuter when he smiles and before this whole interaction, “cute” would not have been a word he’d use to describe this guy.
He shakes himself out of his thoughts and starts packing up his things quickly. He gives a wave and a “See you around” as he leaves and doesn’t look back.
Chanyeol had said his laptop was fine and it probably was, but he decides to leave it at Kyungsoo’s the next day so he can take a look at it just in case. Without his laptop, he technically gets a break from having to work on the twenty-page paper he has due in a few weeks. He could go do something more productive with his time, or call some friends to hang out with him for the afternoon.
As it is, he finds himself at the Starbucks again even though he generally only comes here in the morning or when he needs to work. He gets into the relatively short line and notices that New Guy is working the cash register today.
When he gets to the front of the line, he’s standing in front of New Guy, who’s looking down at the cash register with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Chanyeol realizes he hasn’t thought about what he’s going to order and momentarily panics. He looks up at the menu and reads off the name of the first item he sees.
“Can I have a… grande… green tea frappucino?”
“Sure thing, hold--” New Guy pauses when he looks up and sees Chanyeol. He freezes and Chanyeol’s not sure if that’s a good thing.
The next moment though, he smiles and continues. “Hi! You’re the guy I spilled coffee on yesterday, right? I’m still really sorry about that, by the way.”
Chanyeol gives a sheepish laugh. “Yes, I am ‘the guy.’ That’s me.”
“How’s your laptop? No problems?” New Guy seems to realize maybe he’s asking more than he should of someone who’s essentially a stranger as he says, “I mean, since you said you were going to get it checked.”
Chanyeol doesn’t know what compels him to lie to New Guy, but it’s a split-second decision. “Oh yeah, I took it in to my friend and well,” Chanyeol pauses and closes his mouth in a tight line while he tilts his head slightly, “He said some coffee might have gotten into my CD drive. Shouldn’t be too serious, but it does get hotter than usual and smell like burnt coffee when I turn it on.”
The look on New Guy’s face is almost enough for him to want to take it back. His hands are on his face and Chanyeol wants to laugh, but that would probably be a bit cruel. Maybe a little bit.
“Oh my god, I’m so--”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chanyeol goes on to say. “It’s probably not that big a deal. My friend said he’ll see what he can do. It still works, for the most part.”
Chanyeol sees New Guy’s face drop at that last phrase. “There must be something I can do to make it up to you.” He looks left and right, then leans in and whispers. “I’m not really supposed to do this, but I can give you this drink on the house?”
Chanyeol shakes his head and puts his hands in front of him almost as if he were pushing the suggestion away. “No, really, I couldn’t...” New Guy’s face is almost pleading in the way he looks up at Chanyeol, so it only takes a moment for him to give in. “Well, I mean, if you insist, I guess.”
It’s kind of comical the way New Guy’s face can go from one emotion to another, guilty one moment and elated the next. He gives Chanyeol’s order to the employee next to him and smiles at Chanyeol.
“Thanks so much…” Chanyeol pauses and it takes a moment for New Guy to get that he’s being asked for his name.
“Oh! Tao. You can call me Tao.”
Chanyeol smiles. “Thanks, Tao. You’re the best for doing this.”
“It’s really no problem,” Tao says right before he pauses, and Chanyeol thinks maybe he’s being asked for his name too. The next moment, however, Tao’s eyes widen as he looks at the line that’s starting to form behind Chanyeol.
“Grande green-tea frapp?” someone calls from over by the drinks counter, and Chanyeol takes that as his cue to leave.
He grabs his drink and absentmindedly takes a sip as he looks over at Tao. His face contorts when he realizes how sweet it is. That had been a mistake, but he wasn’t about to throw away a free drink. On his way out, he turns around to wave and send a “See you around” to Tao, but he’s already attending to another customer. Chanyeol shrugs and figures, maybe next time.
Next time ends up being two days from that day, and the next next time a day after that. In the following week Chanyeol visits the same Starbucks a few times and purposefully doesn’t bring his laptop. Tao, bless his heart, always asks him how it’s doing, almost as if it were a child of his. Oh, Chanyeol, hi! How are you? How’s the laptop doing?
That’s another thing that inevitably happens-- Chanyeol finally telling Tao his name. It happens the third time he comes back because someone must’ve reminded Tao it’s company policy. Chanyeol gets the sense Tao must not have been paying too much attention at his job orientation, and between the incidents of the past few days-- spilling coffee everywhere, taking too long to have a conversation with a customer while giving said customer an unauthorized free drink-- he wonders if Tao’s manager has any complaints with him. Chanyeol hopes not; he’d feel somewhat responsible.
The day Tao asks him his name, he looks so sincere that Chanyeol considers coming clean and telling him why he had bothered lying to him in the first place. But he clams up and ends up moving along so Tao can get to the next customer.
By the fifth time he comes back, he’s gotten discounts on three cups of coffee and a free cake pop (the cake pop had been on the day he had decided to really ham it up and mention how all his compositions on his laptop weren’t backed up and he’d lose them all if his computer died). He doesn’t know what compels him to lie each time, but this is the most spontaneous thing he’s done in a while. Maybe the mundanity of his daily routine was finally making him mad.
Today, Tao isn’t at the register-- he’s mopping up a spill near the door. Chanyeol wonders if spilling things is a regular occurrence for Tao.
“Hey! Chanyeol!” Chanyeol doesn’t realize he’s been staring aimlessly at the spot Tao’s mopping until Tao snaps him out of it. “I have something to ask you.” He stops cleaning and leans against his mop.
“Oh, hi. Uh, yeah. Shoot.”
“The person who’s looking at your laptop wouldn’t happen to be a guy named Kyungsoo Do would it?”
Chanyeol swears his heart stops. “Uh, yes? Why?”
“Because I happen to have class with a Kyungsoo Do who I talk to sometimes, and when I told him about how my first week at my new job went and how I’d spilled ground coffee on some guy’s laptop, he said, ‘That’s weird, a friend of mine handed me his laptop this week for that same reason.’ Uncanny, isn’t it?”
“Ha, yeah, that is. Really uncanny. Funny how life is.”
“That’s not even the funniest part. I ask him to tell me more about this guy and he says his name is Chanyeol.” At this point, Tao’s already set his mop against a trashcan and his arms are folded across his chest. “More importantly, when I asked him how work on the laptop was going, he said he’d handed it back the very same day since there was nothing wrong with it.”
Way to go, you idiot is the first thing that goes through Chanyeol’s mind, followed quickly by I’m going to kill Kyungsoo. He shakes that thought because he feels like Kyungsoo will somehow be able to feel Chanyeol’s murderous intent from wherever he is, and he’ll hit Chanyeol in the arm for it later. Tao is still looking at him while Chanyeol sorts out his thoughts. “I can explain?”
Tao raises an eyebrow and Chanyeol deflates. “Okay, maybe I can’t. I lied about my laptop. But I-- I can make it up to you, I promise. For all the uh, discounts and stuff.”
“Really? And just how do you plan to do that?”
Chanyeol looks at the ground as he mutters, “By treating you to dinner.”
“What?”
“I said, I’d like to treat you to dinner!” Chanyeol says in what is definitely not an indoor voice. He closes his mouth tight and looks around. He’d forgotten they were having this conversation near the entrance and a man in a business suit who’s frozen by their interaction gives him a funny look. Chanyeol tries to give him a look that says What are you looking at? before he turns back to Tao.
Tao’s eyes are narrowed at him. “Is this some kind of joke?”
“What? No, no!” Chanyeol realizes he’s getting loud again and lowers his voice to a near-whisper. “I promise, it’s not. I,” he pauses as he tries to come up with a better explanation, but eventually settles on the truth. “I’ve been meaning to ask you out. Since a week ago.”
Chanyeol feels his face burning and he just wants to become one with the floor, but he stares at Tao as he waits for a reaction. Tao seems to be considering him, looking him up and down with an eyebrow raised. After what feels like ten minutes but is probably only one, he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a phone. Chanyeol watches him unlock it and even that feels like it drags on forever, but in another second, Tao is handing the phone to him.
He looks up at Tao in question. Tao answers, “Well? Enter your phone number.”
Chanyeol nods and types the numbers out slowly, then saves the number as Chanyeol. He stares at it and decides to be cheeky by changing it to Chanyeol~ before handing it back.
He expects Tao to text him so he’ll have his number, but Tao simply pockets his phone and grabs the mop he’d set aside.
“So…”
“I’ll let you know if I’ve decided to take your offer up or not.” Tao is smiling at him the same way he always does but Chanyeol feels particularly unsettled for some reason. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Tao takes the mop and its bucket and rolls it away.
Chanyeol stands there for a moment, not sure if he should feel accomplished or embarrassed. He settles on somewhere in between as he slaps his forehead flat against the glass door at the entrance, bangs pushed up. He sees a mother and her teenage daughter stare at him through the glass before they decide to use the door he’s not leaning on.
He sighs, breath fogging up the glass, and separates himself from the door of the Starbucks.
Later that night, his phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number. From his lock screen, he can see it says,
this is tao~
He sits up in bed and punches in his lock code. By the time he does, he sees he’s gotten another message:
you know, i’ve been craving kbbq lately…
Chanyeol mentally cries for his wallet as he sends a reply:
when are you free?
Rating: G
Word count: 3k
A/N: for the prompt, "One day A finds a second chance at love in B over spilled coffee." aka in which chanyeol is a shit again aka this is so unrealistic i am so sorry
also i think i misinterpreted your prompt so again i'm sorry
Chanyeol only starts to think that maybe he comes to this coffee shop too often when he sees some new guy working there and realizes he only knows that because he recognizes all the staff here. He then starts to think that maybe his life really has become ridiculously dull because he’s considering moving from his table in the far corner to get a better look at this new employee.
It wouldn’t really be accurate to say that Chanyeol is a creature of habit by nature-- it was really more due to circumstance. His ex had been one for routine and schedules, and he just naturally molded himself to fit her nature. He thinks waking up at the same time he used to when they lived together isn’t so unhealthy even though it’s been a month. He will concede that maybe starting to come to a different Starbucks just to completely avoid the one he always used to go to (his ex’s best friend worked there and would give him discounts from time to time) is a bit much.
That’s not what he’s thinking as he slumps into his chair and slowly backs it up so he can take a look at the one change to his routine for the past month. He seems tall, but not as tall as Chanyeol. But what really makes Chanyeol take a second look at him is that he looks almost out of place among the typical patronage at this coffee shop, with his several piercings and hair that’s been bleached an unnatural blond. Chanyeol wonders if this is just his day job and at night he’s part of a band, or maybe some secret punk cult. Chanyeol doesn’t really know if those exist or what activities they’d partake in, but he bets all their members would look like this guy.
After said guy goes back into the employee-only area, Chanyeol realizes he’s wasted ten minutes staring at a stranger and sits back up in his seat. He plugs in his earbuds, turns on his music, and goes back to typing away on his laptop.
He doesn’t know how long he’s been working when he sees New Guy come out of the employee entrance near the corner where he’s sitting. Chanyeol looks up but quickly looks back down as he passes dangerously close to Chanyeol’s table. New Guy is over near the display shelf picking up something, but Chanyeol can’t see what it is because soon he’s heading back the same way he came and Chanyeol looks away at lightening speed.
What happens next is still a blur to him, but Chanyeol hears what he would call a yelp before a cloud of brown dust rains down on him and his laptop. He sputters after getting some of it in his mouth, but quickly realizes it’s coffee. When he pulls out his earbuds and looks up, New Guy is backing off from where he had grabbed the back of Chanyeol’s chair for support.
“Oh my god, I’m so so sorry-- I just tripped and-- The bag was-- Are you okay?”
Chanyeol’s brain hasn’t caught up with what just happened so he just nods, but New Guy’s already bending down to pick up the overturned bag of ground coffee that’s spilled all over the floor.
“I’m so screwed, they’re gonna-- Hey, wait here a minute and I’ll come clean this up for you okay? I’m so sorry, hold on a second.”
Just like that New Guy is gone through the employee door again. Chanyeol stays still for a moment processing what just happened before he stands up and brushes himself off. When New Guy returns with a broom and a dust pan, Chanyeol’s in the middle of brushing the coffee off his laptop and onto the ground.
“I’m really really sorry about this, it’s my first day on the job and--”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Chanyeol says, scratching the back of his neck. “It could be worse. The coffee could’ve been hot and in liquid form.” Chanyeol tries to appease New Guy while he works because he sounds really distressed but also he’s oddly cute when he’s distressed. Chanyeol wonders if maybe he’s wrong in the head for thinking that.
“I guess so…” New Guy says as he finishes sweeping up the mess he’s made. He looks up at Chanyeol. “Did it get on your laptop? Is it okay? Are you sure everything’s okay? I’m so sorry--”
“Don’t sweat it, really. It looks fine to me. I mean, I can get it checked with a friend, but I really don't think it's a big deal.”
New Guy looks like he wants to object and start another round of apologies but after a moment he looks over to the main counter where more and more people are starting to line up and bites his lip, eyebrows raised. He looks back at Chanyeol.
“I have to get back to work, but again, I’m really sorry. I can make it up to you, if you want a discount or something?”
A discount actually sounds great to Chanyeol but there’s nothing he really feels like ordering at the moment, and when he looks at the clock set on the far wall he realizes this interaction has taken longer than he thought it had.
“I actually need to head out right now, but really, don’t worry about it.” He smiles and hopes that’ll be enough for New Guy, who looks less distressed but still worried.
“Oh. Well, I won’t hold you up then, I’m--”
“Sorry, I know.” New Guy’s eyes widen a bit and Chanyeol wonders if maybe that wasn’t a joke he should’ve made with a complete stranger who’s already feeling really guilty, but then New Guy smiles. Chanyeol’s really glad and also somewhat confused because he looks even cuter when he smiles and before this whole interaction, “cute” would not have been a word he’d use to describe this guy.
He shakes himself out of his thoughts and starts packing up his things quickly. He gives a wave and a “See you around” as he leaves and doesn’t look back.
Chanyeol had said his laptop was fine and it probably was, but he decides to leave it at Kyungsoo’s the next day so he can take a look at it just in case. Without his laptop, he technically gets a break from having to work on the twenty-page paper he has due in a few weeks. He could go do something more productive with his time, or call some friends to hang out with him for the afternoon.
As it is, he finds himself at the Starbucks again even though he generally only comes here in the morning or when he needs to work. He gets into the relatively short line and notices that New Guy is working the cash register today.
When he gets to the front of the line, he’s standing in front of New Guy, who’s looking down at the cash register with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Chanyeol realizes he hasn’t thought about what he’s going to order and momentarily panics. He looks up at the menu and reads off the name of the first item he sees.
“Can I have a… grande… green tea frappucino?”
“Sure thing, hold--” New Guy pauses when he looks up and sees Chanyeol. He freezes and Chanyeol’s not sure if that’s a good thing.
The next moment though, he smiles and continues. “Hi! You’re the guy I spilled coffee on yesterday, right? I’m still really sorry about that, by the way.”
Chanyeol gives a sheepish laugh. “Yes, I am ‘the guy.’ That’s me.”
“How’s your laptop? No problems?” New Guy seems to realize maybe he’s asking more than he should of someone who’s essentially a stranger as he says, “I mean, since you said you were going to get it checked.”
Chanyeol doesn’t know what compels him to lie to New Guy, but it’s a split-second decision. “Oh yeah, I took it in to my friend and well,” Chanyeol pauses and closes his mouth in a tight line while he tilts his head slightly, “He said some coffee might have gotten into my CD drive. Shouldn’t be too serious, but it does get hotter than usual and smell like burnt coffee when I turn it on.”
The look on New Guy’s face is almost enough for him to want to take it back. His hands are on his face and Chanyeol wants to laugh, but that would probably be a bit cruel. Maybe a little bit.
“Oh my god, I’m so--”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chanyeol goes on to say. “It’s probably not that big a deal. My friend said he’ll see what he can do. It still works, for the most part.”
Chanyeol sees New Guy’s face drop at that last phrase. “There must be something I can do to make it up to you.” He looks left and right, then leans in and whispers. “I’m not really supposed to do this, but I can give you this drink on the house?”
Chanyeol shakes his head and puts his hands in front of him almost as if he were pushing the suggestion away. “No, really, I couldn’t...” New Guy’s face is almost pleading in the way he looks up at Chanyeol, so it only takes a moment for him to give in. “Well, I mean, if you insist, I guess.”
It’s kind of comical the way New Guy’s face can go from one emotion to another, guilty one moment and elated the next. He gives Chanyeol’s order to the employee next to him and smiles at Chanyeol.
“Thanks so much…” Chanyeol pauses and it takes a moment for New Guy to get that he’s being asked for his name.
“Oh! Tao. You can call me Tao.”
Chanyeol smiles. “Thanks, Tao. You’re the best for doing this.”
“It’s really no problem,” Tao says right before he pauses, and Chanyeol thinks maybe he’s being asked for his name too. The next moment, however, Tao’s eyes widen as he looks at the line that’s starting to form behind Chanyeol.
“Grande green-tea frapp?” someone calls from over by the drinks counter, and Chanyeol takes that as his cue to leave.
He grabs his drink and absentmindedly takes a sip as he looks over at Tao. His face contorts when he realizes how sweet it is. That had been a mistake, but he wasn’t about to throw away a free drink. On his way out, he turns around to wave and send a “See you around” to Tao, but he’s already attending to another customer. Chanyeol shrugs and figures, maybe next time.
Next time ends up being two days from that day, and the next next time a day after that. In the following week Chanyeol visits the same Starbucks a few times and purposefully doesn’t bring his laptop. Tao, bless his heart, always asks him how it’s doing, almost as if it were a child of his. Oh, Chanyeol, hi! How are you? How’s the laptop doing?
That’s another thing that inevitably happens-- Chanyeol finally telling Tao his name. It happens the third time he comes back because someone must’ve reminded Tao it’s company policy. Chanyeol gets the sense Tao must not have been paying too much attention at his job orientation, and between the incidents of the past few days-- spilling coffee everywhere, taking too long to have a conversation with a customer while giving said customer an unauthorized free drink-- he wonders if Tao’s manager has any complaints with him. Chanyeol hopes not; he’d feel somewhat responsible.
The day Tao asks him his name, he looks so sincere that Chanyeol considers coming clean and telling him why he had bothered lying to him in the first place. But he clams up and ends up moving along so Tao can get to the next customer.
By the fifth time he comes back, he’s gotten discounts on three cups of coffee and a free cake pop (the cake pop had been on the day he had decided to really ham it up and mention how all his compositions on his laptop weren’t backed up and he’d lose them all if his computer died). He doesn’t know what compels him to lie each time, but this is the most spontaneous thing he’s done in a while. Maybe the mundanity of his daily routine was finally making him mad.
Today, Tao isn’t at the register-- he’s mopping up a spill near the door. Chanyeol wonders if spilling things is a regular occurrence for Tao.
“Hey! Chanyeol!” Chanyeol doesn’t realize he’s been staring aimlessly at the spot Tao’s mopping until Tao snaps him out of it. “I have something to ask you.” He stops cleaning and leans against his mop.
“Oh, hi. Uh, yeah. Shoot.”
“The person who’s looking at your laptop wouldn’t happen to be a guy named Kyungsoo Do would it?”
Chanyeol swears his heart stops. “Uh, yes? Why?”
“Because I happen to have class with a Kyungsoo Do who I talk to sometimes, and when I told him about how my first week at my new job went and how I’d spilled ground coffee on some guy’s laptop, he said, ‘That’s weird, a friend of mine handed me his laptop this week for that same reason.’ Uncanny, isn’t it?”
“Ha, yeah, that is. Really uncanny. Funny how life is.”
“That’s not even the funniest part. I ask him to tell me more about this guy and he says his name is Chanyeol.” At this point, Tao’s already set his mop against a trashcan and his arms are folded across his chest. “More importantly, when I asked him how work on the laptop was going, he said he’d handed it back the very same day since there was nothing wrong with it.”
Way to go, you idiot is the first thing that goes through Chanyeol’s mind, followed quickly by I’m going to kill Kyungsoo. He shakes that thought because he feels like Kyungsoo will somehow be able to feel Chanyeol’s murderous intent from wherever he is, and he’ll hit Chanyeol in the arm for it later. Tao is still looking at him while Chanyeol sorts out his thoughts. “I can explain?”
Tao raises an eyebrow and Chanyeol deflates. “Okay, maybe I can’t. I lied about my laptop. But I-- I can make it up to you, I promise. For all the uh, discounts and stuff.”
“Really? And just how do you plan to do that?”
Chanyeol looks at the ground as he mutters, “By treating you to dinner.”
“What?”
“I said, I’d like to treat you to dinner!” Chanyeol says in what is definitely not an indoor voice. He closes his mouth tight and looks around. He’d forgotten they were having this conversation near the entrance and a man in a business suit who’s frozen by their interaction gives him a funny look. Chanyeol tries to give him a look that says What are you looking at? before he turns back to Tao.
Tao’s eyes are narrowed at him. “Is this some kind of joke?”
“What? No, no!” Chanyeol realizes he’s getting loud again and lowers his voice to a near-whisper. “I promise, it’s not. I,” he pauses as he tries to come up with a better explanation, but eventually settles on the truth. “I’ve been meaning to ask you out. Since a week ago.”
Chanyeol feels his face burning and he just wants to become one with the floor, but he stares at Tao as he waits for a reaction. Tao seems to be considering him, looking him up and down with an eyebrow raised. After what feels like ten minutes but is probably only one, he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a phone. Chanyeol watches him unlock it and even that feels like it drags on forever, but in another second, Tao is handing the phone to him.
He looks up at Tao in question. Tao answers, “Well? Enter your phone number.”
Chanyeol nods and types the numbers out slowly, then saves the number as Chanyeol. He stares at it and decides to be cheeky by changing it to Chanyeol~ before handing it back.
He expects Tao to text him so he’ll have his number, but Tao simply pockets his phone and grabs the mop he’d set aside.
“So…”
“I’ll let you know if I’ve decided to take your offer up or not.” Tao is smiling at him the same way he always does but Chanyeol feels particularly unsettled for some reason. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Tao takes the mop and its bucket and rolls it away.
Chanyeol stands there for a moment, not sure if he should feel accomplished or embarrassed. He settles on somewhere in between as he slaps his forehead flat against the glass door at the entrance, bangs pushed up. He sees a mother and her teenage daughter stare at him through the glass before they decide to use the door he’s not leaning on.
He sighs, breath fogging up the glass, and separates himself from the door of the Starbucks.
Later that night, his phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number. From his lock screen, he can see it says,
this is tao~
He sits up in bed and punches in his lock code. By the time he does, he sees he’s gotten another message:
you know, i’ve been craving kbbq lately…
Chanyeol mentally cries for his wallet as he sends a reply:
when are you free?