Maybe it’s true (I’m caught up on you) - 8/?
masterpost
Shadows alternate with headlights and neon signs across the sleepy faces of the passengers as Jongin drives his friends back to Chanyeol’s place, looking forward to crash in his spare bedrooms. Yes, bedroomS, because Chanyeol is a rich sonova with more than a guest room in his penthouse on top of an exclusive hotel.
(As if Jongin and co. have room to talk, tsk.)
Thinking back to the night out they just had, odds really have been in Chanyeol’s favor for him to be able to meet his Juliet--ahhh, the cringe---not long after their first, clumsy encounter. They still can’t believe it.
...Neither can they believe how stubborn Baekri is: while he agrees Chanyeol can be a handful once he sheds his professional persona, and only with his family and closest friends, Jongin thinks it’s unfair she pidgeonholes Chanyeol in the “asshole rolling in money” category and hence gives him the cold shoulder. With some reservations, Jongin decides that, if Kyungsoo and Sera are too hungover to remember any information they extrapolated from Baekri’s friends, he will tell Chanyeol what he remembers and together will work on a plan to allow the heir to at least say sorry (properly, because for the whole night he tried but she kept shrugging him off, good grief).
Halfway home, Jongin thought they were all mostly asleep when the virtual silence in the car is interrupted.
“I still don’t know her well, but I wouldn’t inflict you on Becky,” Sera mutters drunkenly from the backseat, completely out of the blue since she has been snoring softly a minute ago. That’s enough to rouse Chanyeol and Kyungsoo in a state of almost consciousness.
“Her name is Baekri, not Becky,” Jongin supplies helpfully from the driver’s seat, snorting.
Chanyeol blinks himself a bit more awake and, once his brain registers what the brat said, he gasps, “I’m really charming!”
Three eyebrows raise at his statement. From her half-slumped position against Chanyeol, Sera sits up straighter to look at him better, while Kyungsoo turns on his seat to level the elder with one of his looks; Jongin glances at Chanyeol through the rear-view mirror, but otherwise keeps staring at the street ahead.
Deadpan, Kyungsoo states, very matter-of-factly, “You forget we know the real you.”
“What is that even supposed to---”
“Those cougars and bimbos stroke your ego only to try to get in your pants.” Sera goes for the jugular...
“And wallet.” ...while Jongin adds salt to the wound.
3 vs 1: Chanyeol doesn’t really stand a chance (but he knows his friends are right), so he moves the attention to someone else.
“At least I’m trying, unlike you creeping on Minseok from afar,” he accuses, pointing a finger more towards the car door handle than Sera and smirking drunkenly. She blushes violently, floundering to come up with some lies, but Chanyeol’s attention already moved somewhere else.
“And you!” he shoves his long arms forward, harshly patting the front seats and making Kyungsoo recoil from his comfortable position, who then glares at the beanpole with slightly unfocused eyes. Jongin, too, jumps a bit, because no matter how used he should be by now, he’s easily startled.
“The UST between you two is well beyond Namsan Tower level, do something about it,” Chanyeol orders, folding his arms with a smug expression.
Jongin may or may not have pressed on the accelerator slightly more to get to Chanyeol’s place quicker and finally go to sleep, wishingbeggingpraying this conversation will be forgotten come the morning.
Baekri snorts herself awake following an high pitched laughter pretty much in her ear. She smacks her lips to fight their dryness as she looks around, noticing she’s sandwiched between Junghwa and Taozi on a bench; not so distant memories of calling for a couple of taxis and hanging around while waiting for them flood back in as she sits up straighter, past the point of caring if her friends noticed her less than elegant posture and noises.
Taozi is surprisingly still awake, chattering up a storm and always down for some tipsy gossiping. Baekri would’ve been less miffed if they didn’t have to talk about the guy or dig up in her past again.
As if they rehearsed this conversation already (or maybe he’s so whipped he goes along with whatever the raven haired girl says), Joonmyeon observes, “I find it quite ironic how the chaser is now potentially being chased.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Baekri stubbornly denies all allegations, ignoring Junghwa’s guffaw and consequent splutter when the brunette elbows her side.
“Come on, Chanyeol was this close to go on his knees and beg you to go out with him. I bet he would’ve accepted to wear a collar if you wanted him to,” Junghwa adds with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows, causing everyone but Baekri to laugh; said girl is scowling, mostly for show because Junghwa’s rated 19 humor never fails to have her in stitches, and the mental imagery is quite...ahem.
“Remember when you chased that tall piece of Chinese-Canadian ass?” Taozi reminds her (un)helpfully, impish grin stretching her glossy lips.
“What are you even saying,” Baekri snorts at her choice of words.
(“What ass?” Yixing points out quietly, but Junghwa and Minseok, standing closer to him, heard it and are now snorting in laughter.)
“Or that lifeguard in Busan, and that barista in Daegu. You wore them out until they asked you out,” the younger girl adds, unrelenting.
Baekri looks up at Joonmyeon, gritting her teeth. “Make your girlfriend shut up or I will.” She loves her cat vs. dog friendship with Taozi, but sometimes it goes too far, on both sides. Baekri gives her the benefit of the drunk doubt, because Taozi is a lightweight who loses her filter with a simple wine cooler, but they all know how shitty Baekri felt after the end of her relationship with Kris, so Taozi’s words sting more.
They fall in a slightly tense silence, broken only by the cars driving by, until Baekri takes it upon herself to break it.
“Yeah, well, too bad I got him as my English TA after we broke up. Talk about awkward,” she comments self-deprecatingly, a forceful note in her throaty laugh.
The tension is broken by the taxis parking by the curb and the group splits since they live in different directions. A tight hug and a whispered ‘I’m sorry’ are enough for Taozi and Baekri to make up and separate without hard feelings.
Besides, the mean hangover the younger girl will wake up with is karma enough to satisfy Baekri.
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