[EXO] [PD11] Literary Friction
Title: Literary Friction
Fandom: EXO (sort of fused with Final Fantasy VII, plus some geography from FFVIII)
Series: Phoenix Down (#11)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, crossover (sort of)
Wordcount: 1688
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit.
Summary: Baekhyun learns a lesson about women, and Kyungsoo loses his primary source of entertainment.
A/N: Another sidequest, this one with Baekhyun and Kyungsoo at the bookshop. I blame my two tall friends for this - you guys know who you are. ;-) Crossposted to AO3
Literary Friction
Baekhyun likes working out on the shop floor, especially in the afternoons, because then he gets first crack at the college girls as they come in to browse for books. (Not that he has much competition, but he'll take any advantage he can get.) He puts on his best professional face to ask them if they need any help, knowing no one can resist the charm of his smile and bright, lively chatter. Economics textbooks? Mystery novels? Romance comics? Baekhyun knows where to find them all.
Which is why he hates sharing a shift with Kyungsoo, who always sticks him on the register and disappears behind the nearest bookcase, emerging suddenly if a customer seems to need assistance. It means Baekhyun only gets to talk if customers actually approach him, which is probably why Kyungsoo does it. Baekhyun's not the youngest staff member - Lu Han says that's Zitao - but he was the last one to join, so he can't argue when Kyungsoo tells him what to do.
Not successfully, anyway.
"It's got to be your turn by now," Baekhyun says when Kyungsoo pops over with a new box of paper bags to stash under the counter. He turns the full force of his smile on him, aiming to look as winsome as possible. Kyungsoo will crack eventually. He has to. "Wouldn't you like to sit behind the register for a while and rest? I'm sure your feet have to be sore, standing for so long."
"I know you're not implying that I'm old," Kyungsoo says, eyes glinting dangerously. "You wouldn't do that, would you, Baekhyun?"
Baekhyun has no idea whether Kyungsoo's older than him or not, because it's hard to get any sort of personal information out of him, but he's reasonably certain they're roughly around the same age and that Kyungsoo is not actually a thousand years old, even if he acts like it sometimes. "Not old. Never old. But I thought you might like a change of scenery-"
"Stop thinking before I have to hurt you." Kyungsoo sets the box down on the counter, carefully missing Baekhyun's fingers by less than an inch. "I don't want to scare the customers."
"If you don't want to scare the customers then let me go out and talk to them," Baekhyun pleads. "They like it when staff look approachable."
"I don't look approachable?"
Baekhyun can't find an honest - yet safe - way to answer that, so he has to settle for just being honest. "You look like you want to chop them into tiny pieces and throw them in the fountain outside."
"No, that's how I'm looking at you right now. I have a different face for customers. It looks like this."
Kyungsoo parts his lips a little and dials down the intensity of his gaze until his expression is less 'serial killer stalking his next victim' and more 'softly smouldering supermodel set on seduction'. The effect is immediate: one of the girls Baekhyun's been trying to ask out for the past month spots Kyungsoo from across the shop floor and comes over to ask him to show her where they keep the issues of Occult Fan - the same magazine she's been coming in to buy for years. Kyungsoo smirks and walks off to assist, leaving Baekhyun alone with his despair.
This just isn't right. Baekhyun's got it all. He's taller than Kyungsoo, he's got that cute, boyish grin that makes everyone feel at home with him, and he's spent years honing his flirting skills in high school. (Whereas he's pretty sure Kyungsoo spent his entire academic career plotting how to murder his fellow students, and possibly the occasional teacher.)
So why's Kyungsoo the one disappearing into the magazine racks with a gorgeous girl, while Baekhyun's left standing by himself at the register with trousers that are suddenly a lot tighter than they were a moment ago? He leans heavily into the counter, trying to find some relief with tiny, minute movements without making it too obvious that he's rubbing himself up against the wood. If Kyungsoo notices, he'll never let Baekhyun live it down.
But thoughts like that merely make the situation worse, and it takes a suspicious look from Lu Han, who walks past the register on his way upstairs with the groceries, to send Baekhyun's libido scurrying back into the darkness.
"I don't get it," Baekhyun whines the next time Kyungsoo's nearby. "Why would she suddenly ask you how to find a magazine she knows perfectly well how to find by herself? She's never asked me."
Kyungsoo's dropped his 'customer' face in favour of giving Baekhyun the kind of look one might use when explaining things to a small child. "Did you ever stop to consider that you might not be her type?"
"I'm everyone's type," Baekhyun says smugly.
"Not in this town," Kyungsoo says, laughing at him. "The odds would be better for you elsewhere."
Baekhyun's lived in Dollet his whole life and in this world, at least, he's never been anywhere else. He's never really given too much thought to what things are like in other places - he's got enough to worry about, keeping track of where all his different selves are. "What are you talking about?"
Kyungsoo peers at him thoughtfully. "You grew up here, didn't you? So maybe you just don't notice."
"Notice what?"
"That most of the girls you hit on come in here with their girlfriends."
Baekhyun drops the pen he's been fidgeting with, somewhat taken aback by the revelation. He's not stupid. He understands what Kyungsoo's trying to tell him. But... "Isn't that how girls are with their friends, though? Holding hands and hugging and stuff?"
"Some of them, yes, but only here. It raises too many questions anywhere else in the world - people make assumptions that they're more than friends, and that can lead to trouble. You're making assumptions that they're not, and look where that's gotten you." Kyungsoo leans on the counter, keeping his voice low. "Why do you think so many of the tourists who visit Dollet end up making the move for good? They can be themselves here, in a way they can't anywhere else. Maybe if you actually talked with some of them, instead of trying to ask them out, you'd know that by now."
"I...do talk to them?" Baekhyun tries feebly, but he's not sure he's got a leg to stand on. He'd much rather be having this conversation with any of the others, preferably Minseok, who is also a Dollet native but has spent years living in Esthar, so he can see things from both sides.
"Some of those girls could be making out right in front of you and you'd never notice because you'd be too busy talking about how you can charm chocobos with your singing voice."
"I can't help it if my voice is one of my best qualities."
"Then maybe you should try your luck with chocobos," Kyungsoo says. "Although they can run away from you much faster than the girls can, so watch where you stand."
Baekhyun flicks the pen at him across the counter. "You're not helping."
"I'm not trying to help," Kyungsoo says coolly, brushing the pen aside before it can hit his chest. "But I'd prefer it if you didn't drive away all our female customers by making a pest of yourself. It's bad for business."
Baekhyun doesn't think he's actually driven anyone away, given the number of women who keep sidestepping his advances week after week - and surely he must be less of a pest than Zitao, who constantly makes all the guys who come into the shop pose for photographs with him - so he hopes Kyungsoo's exaggerating on that score. Even so, it's a blow to his ego, a dent in his shield of irresistibility. Intellectually, he knows that there are women in the world who don't want him...but it would just be nice to find one who does, for a change.
"I didn't...I didn't know what it meant," he says with a shrug. "Zitao cuddles up to people all the time and I know he can't possibly be dating all of them."
"I'm sure it's not for lack of trying," Kyungsoo says dryly. He's had to resign himself to Zitao treating them all like his own personal teddy bears but Baekhyun knows he's not thrilled about it. "And now you know, so you can channel all that excess energy into something else in the future. Like," he reaches below the counter to take out the dustcloth they use for wiping it, then chucks it at Baekhyun, "keeping this place in order."
Baekhyun catches the cloth and gives the counter a token swipe as he glares at Kyungsoo. "What about the Occult Fan-girl earlier? I suppose she's not into guys either and she really did want you to show her where we keep the magazines?"
Kyungsoo's lips begin to curl up in a slow, self-satisfied smile. "She's into guys. Just...not into you. Try to get used to the idea."
There are conclusions that Baekhyun could draw from that, but the idea of Kyungsoo being involved with anyone is as foreign to him as the notion of Minseok and Lu Han giving up their beloved coffee. Kyungsoo does stay out overnight from time to time, but he never mentions any names and he keeps his private life so private that as much as Baekhyun would like to satisfy his curiosity, he values keeping his head on his shoulders more. Teasing Kyungsoo is a dangerous game.
"Would it have killed you to say something before, and maybe not let me go on making a fool of myself for years?"
Kyungsoo takes a moment to consider this, then says: "No, but watching you get rejected by every woman who walks in here was my primary source of entertainment. I suppose I'll have to find a new one now."
He slips past a fuming Baekhyun to head into the stockroom, leaving him to reel off a list of choice suggestions about what Kyungsoo might like to do for entertainment in the future.
Fandom: EXO (sort of fused with Final Fantasy VII, plus some geography from FFVIII)
Series: Phoenix Down (#11)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, crossover (sort of)
Wordcount: 1688
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit.
Summary: Baekhyun learns a lesson about women, and Kyungsoo loses his primary source of entertainment.
A/N: Another sidequest, this one with Baekhyun and Kyungsoo at the bookshop. I blame my two tall friends for this - you guys know who you are. ;-) Crossposted to AO3
Literary Friction
Baekhyun likes working out on the shop floor, especially in the afternoons, because then he gets first crack at the college girls as they come in to browse for books. (Not that he has much competition, but he'll take any advantage he can get.) He puts on his best professional face to ask them if they need any help, knowing no one can resist the charm of his smile and bright, lively chatter. Economics textbooks? Mystery novels? Romance comics? Baekhyun knows where to find them all.
Which is why he hates sharing a shift with Kyungsoo, who always sticks him on the register and disappears behind the nearest bookcase, emerging suddenly if a customer seems to need assistance. It means Baekhyun only gets to talk if customers actually approach him, which is probably why Kyungsoo does it. Baekhyun's not the youngest staff member - Lu Han says that's Zitao - but he was the last one to join, so he can't argue when Kyungsoo tells him what to do.
Not successfully, anyway.
"It's got to be your turn by now," Baekhyun says when Kyungsoo pops over with a new box of paper bags to stash under the counter. He turns the full force of his smile on him, aiming to look as winsome as possible. Kyungsoo will crack eventually. He has to. "Wouldn't you like to sit behind the register for a while and rest? I'm sure your feet have to be sore, standing for so long."
"I know you're not implying that I'm old," Kyungsoo says, eyes glinting dangerously. "You wouldn't do that, would you, Baekhyun?"
Baekhyun has no idea whether Kyungsoo's older than him or not, because it's hard to get any sort of personal information out of him, but he's reasonably certain they're roughly around the same age and that Kyungsoo is not actually a thousand years old, even if he acts like it sometimes. "Not old. Never old. But I thought you might like a change of scenery-"
"Stop thinking before I have to hurt you." Kyungsoo sets the box down on the counter, carefully missing Baekhyun's fingers by less than an inch. "I don't want to scare the customers."
"If you don't want to scare the customers then let me go out and talk to them," Baekhyun pleads. "They like it when staff look approachable."
"I don't look approachable?"
Baekhyun can't find an honest - yet safe - way to answer that, so he has to settle for just being honest. "You look like you want to chop them into tiny pieces and throw them in the fountain outside."
"No, that's how I'm looking at you right now. I have a different face for customers. It looks like this."
Kyungsoo parts his lips a little and dials down the intensity of his gaze until his expression is less 'serial killer stalking his next victim' and more 'softly smouldering supermodel set on seduction'. The effect is immediate: one of the girls Baekhyun's been trying to ask out for the past month spots Kyungsoo from across the shop floor and comes over to ask him to show her where they keep the issues of Occult Fan - the same magazine she's been coming in to buy for years. Kyungsoo smirks and walks off to assist, leaving Baekhyun alone with his despair.
This just isn't right. Baekhyun's got it all. He's taller than Kyungsoo, he's got that cute, boyish grin that makes everyone feel at home with him, and he's spent years honing his flirting skills in high school. (Whereas he's pretty sure Kyungsoo spent his entire academic career plotting how to murder his fellow students, and possibly the occasional teacher.)
So why's Kyungsoo the one disappearing into the magazine racks with a gorgeous girl, while Baekhyun's left standing by himself at the register with trousers that are suddenly a lot tighter than they were a moment ago? He leans heavily into the counter, trying to find some relief with tiny, minute movements without making it too obvious that he's rubbing himself up against the wood. If Kyungsoo notices, he'll never let Baekhyun live it down.
But thoughts like that merely make the situation worse, and it takes a suspicious look from Lu Han, who walks past the register on his way upstairs with the groceries, to send Baekhyun's libido scurrying back into the darkness.
"I don't get it," Baekhyun whines the next time Kyungsoo's nearby. "Why would she suddenly ask you how to find a magazine she knows perfectly well how to find by herself? She's never asked me."
Kyungsoo's dropped his 'customer' face in favour of giving Baekhyun the kind of look one might use when explaining things to a small child. "Did you ever stop to consider that you might not be her type?"
"I'm everyone's type," Baekhyun says smugly.
"Not in this town," Kyungsoo says, laughing at him. "The odds would be better for you elsewhere."
Baekhyun's lived in Dollet his whole life and in this world, at least, he's never been anywhere else. He's never really given too much thought to what things are like in other places - he's got enough to worry about, keeping track of where all his different selves are. "What are you talking about?"
Kyungsoo peers at him thoughtfully. "You grew up here, didn't you? So maybe you just don't notice."
"Notice what?"
"That most of the girls you hit on come in here with their girlfriends."
Baekhyun drops the pen he's been fidgeting with, somewhat taken aback by the revelation. He's not stupid. He understands what Kyungsoo's trying to tell him. But... "Isn't that how girls are with their friends, though? Holding hands and hugging and stuff?"
"Some of them, yes, but only here. It raises too many questions anywhere else in the world - people make assumptions that they're more than friends, and that can lead to trouble. You're making assumptions that they're not, and look where that's gotten you." Kyungsoo leans on the counter, keeping his voice low. "Why do you think so many of the tourists who visit Dollet end up making the move for good? They can be themselves here, in a way they can't anywhere else. Maybe if you actually talked with some of them, instead of trying to ask them out, you'd know that by now."
"I...do talk to them?" Baekhyun tries feebly, but he's not sure he's got a leg to stand on. He'd much rather be having this conversation with any of the others, preferably Minseok, who is also a Dollet native but has spent years living in Esthar, so he can see things from both sides.
"Some of those girls could be making out right in front of you and you'd never notice because you'd be too busy talking about how you can charm chocobos with your singing voice."
"I can't help it if my voice is one of my best qualities."
"Then maybe you should try your luck with chocobos," Kyungsoo says. "Although they can run away from you much faster than the girls can, so watch where you stand."
Baekhyun flicks the pen at him across the counter. "You're not helping."
"I'm not trying to help," Kyungsoo says coolly, brushing the pen aside before it can hit his chest. "But I'd prefer it if you didn't drive away all our female customers by making a pest of yourself. It's bad for business."
Baekhyun doesn't think he's actually driven anyone away, given the number of women who keep sidestepping his advances week after week - and surely he must be less of a pest than Zitao, who constantly makes all the guys who come into the shop pose for photographs with him - so he hopes Kyungsoo's exaggerating on that score. Even so, it's a blow to his ego, a dent in his shield of irresistibility. Intellectually, he knows that there are women in the world who don't want him...but it would just be nice to find one who does, for a change.
"I didn't...I didn't know what it meant," he says with a shrug. "Zitao cuddles up to people all the time and I know he can't possibly be dating all of them."
"I'm sure it's not for lack of trying," Kyungsoo says dryly. He's had to resign himself to Zitao treating them all like his own personal teddy bears but Baekhyun knows he's not thrilled about it. "And now you know, so you can channel all that excess energy into something else in the future. Like," he reaches below the counter to take out the dustcloth they use for wiping it, then chucks it at Baekhyun, "keeping this place in order."
Baekhyun catches the cloth and gives the counter a token swipe as he glares at Kyungsoo. "What about the Occult Fan-girl earlier? I suppose she's not into guys either and she really did want you to show her where we keep the magazines?"
Kyungsoo's lips begin to curl up in a slow, self-satisfied smile. "She's into guys. Just...not into you. Try to get used to the idea."
There are conclusions that Baekhyun could draw from that, but the idea of Kyungsoo being involved with anyone is as foreign to him as the notion of Minseok and Lu Han giving up their beloved coffee. Kyungsoo does stay out overnight from time to time, but he never mentions any names and he keeps his private life so private that as much as Baekhyun would like to satisfy his curiosity, he values keeping his head on his shoulders more. Teasing Kyungsoo is a dangerous game.
"Would it have killed you to say something before, and maybe not let me go on making a fool of myself for years?"
Kyungsoo takes a moment to consider this, then says: "No, but watching you get rejected by every woman who walks in here was my primary source of entertainment. I suppose I'll have to find a new one now."
He slips past a fuming Baekhyun to head into the stockroom, leaving him to reel off a list of choice suggestions about what Kyungsoo might like to do for entertainment in the future.