flashfic; stupid cupid, stop picking on me
IT'S JO'S BIRTHDAY!!! I MADE IT IN TIME FOR JO'S BIRTHDAY!!!! you better love me jo is2g
stupid cupid, stop picking on me
g; ~2.5k; beagle line, jongin (+ cameo baeksoo)
dating agency!au. the one where beagle line form their own cupid matchmaking company; cyrano’s got nothing on these kids.
written solely because jo was tweeting abt baekhyun dressing up as cupid with his stupid curly hair today, and because holly kept bullying me. i didn't quite get to where i wanted, but then again, i don't actually want to write a full 5k+ of this, so here we go.
“Love-Cupid Love Me Please office, Chanyeol speaking. How can I help spread some love in your life today?”
There’s heavy static coming in from the other line, and Chanyeol frowns, pulling the handset away from his ear to look at it for any possible defects before putting it back.
“Hello? I-is someone there?” he tries again, hesitant now.
The other line doesn’t respond, but the static grows heavier and closer to the speaker. It clears up a little, though, and Chanyeol strains his ears a little to pick out the rhythmic bursts in the stream of static being fed through the phone. It...sounds like someone’s breathing straight into the speaker.
“Excuse me? Sir? Ma’am? Can I help you?” Chanyeol asks, a sinking feeling in his stomach. There’s a hitch and then a sudden audible groan, and Chanyeol almost jumps out of his seat. He looks frantically around for Baekhyun or Jongdae to take over, but the office is frustratingly empty save for himself.
“Um, I think you have the wrong number, Sir or Madam, please have a good day,” he says quickly into the phone speaker and slams the handset back down on hook, forgetting to actually cut off the call. A loud tinny moan wails through the speaker, and Chanyeol yelps, hurriedly grabbing for the phone and mashing at the buttons to end the call.
The office door bangs open just as Chanyeol manages to finally stop the call, and he looks up with slightly wild eyes. Jongdae’s heaving in a huge plastic bag, wider than two of him put together, and Chanyeol sets down the phone to give him a hand.
“Thanks, man,” Jongdae grunts as Chanyeol lifts up the bag, taking off some of the weight. He tosses him a cursory glance as they waddle into the middle of the room and gently set down the bag on the ground. “What’s up with you? You look a little flustered.”
Chanyeol shakes his head, bright grin covering up his still pink cheeks. “Nothing. Just another one of those calls, y’know.”
Jongdae opens his mouth a little in realization and then laughs. “You mean the phone sex people? Again?”
“I don’t know why they keep calling our number! It’s so fucking creepy, man, this one didn’t even talk or anything, he just breathed into the phone,” Chanyeol shudders, wrapping his arms around himself. Jongdae snorts and claps him on the shoulder.
“It’s your god-given voice, Chanyeol, people just cream themselves over it,” he says flippantly. Chanyeol blushes again, red flooding back into his cheeks, and he blusters a little. “Anyway, enough about that. Give me a hand with this bag, would you? Baekhyun’s got another stupid plan.”
Chanyeol frowns but bends down to untie the bag obligingly, fingers clumsily working through the double knot. “Again? What stoned-ass shit did he come up with this time?”
“Hey, this is genius right here, I’ll have you know,” barks Baekhyun, sweeping through the door, grandly tossing off his peacoat and ruffling his hair a little. Chanyeol shares an eyeroll with Jongdae, but easily greets Baekhyun anyway.
“Morning, Baek. What’s this genius plan you got then?” Chanyeol says with a grin, playing along. Baekhyun picks his bangs into place, minutely flicking the dyed ash blonde locks back and forth, before greeting back.
“He wants to us dress up as grown-up Cupids and go mooning everyone on the streets to promote our company,” Jongdae says flatly, crossing his arms. Chanyeol lets out a burst of laughter, but it dies away when no one else laughs.
“You’re serious?” he asks incredulously, first to Jongdae and then to Baekhyun. “Have you lost your mind?”
Baekhyun shakes his head grimly and points down at the bag Jongdae dragged in. “I’m dead serious. This is the only way to save the company without having to resort to those dirty loan sharks.”
“You mean Kyungsoo?” Jongdae says dryly, raising an eyebrow. “The gracious gracious angel who gave us the starting loan in the first place?”
Baekhyun grimaces and whips out his index finger at Jongdae, pointing dramatically. “Don’t speak of the devil’s name in this building.”
Chanyeol scratches his head, running his hand through his hair in consternation. “Did something happen between you and Kyungsoo? What’s going on?”
“Baekhyun pissed him off and got dangled off the roof this morning,” Jongdae sings in a loud whisper, dodging the fist Baekhyun throws at him with a gleeful grin. Chanyeol laughs and offers a pitying look at Baekhyun.
“Got sent to the dog house again, huh, Baek?”
“I will throw you out this window myself,” Baekhyun promises with a scowl. He bends down and digs his hand through the opened bag and pulls out a white cloth. “Now get dressed, guys. We’ve got work to do.”
“Are those loincloths?” Chanyeol squawks. “In the middle of winter?”
Jongdae drops his face into his hands and lets out a low groan of despair. “Why did I become friends with you?”
“Chop, chop. You can curse all you want once we’re on the streets.”
“I’m gonna tie cinderblocks to your feet and push you into the Hudson River,” Jongdae vows between his fingers. Chanyeol makes a noise of agreement, already shedding his clothes for the slip of cloth.
“I’ll be look-out,” he offers, yanking off his socks. Baekhyun beams, uncaring of the threats to his person.
“You guys can thank me later when we finally get another job.”
-
The matchmaking company started off as a joke, to be honest. In their junior year of college, Chanyeol and Jongdae had dragged Baekhyun to go see their drama department’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac, and Baekhyun had come out of that play, inspired to bring love into someone’s life. So he roped his friends into helping their Chinese TA, Kris, get a date with the cute music comp student who walked around their campus with a yellow guitar all the time; it took three tries for them to even get Kris to speak properly to the guy, and the last time Baekhyun had to feed the lines directly to him through his phone. But Kris managed a date, and then another, and bagged the guy, Yixing, in the end through his bumbling efforts and Baekhyun and co.’s smooth planning.
It was some real-ass Cyrano shit though, and word spread a little after their first completed job--which Jongdae realistically had called a fluke, but Baekhyun had been too drunk with success to hear. They pulled four couples by the end of senior year, each with increasingly elaborate production that required Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae to skip several of their classes to help make perfect.
They came out of college with degrees--Chanyeol with a mech-e degree, Jongdae with a business one, and Baekhyun with a double in psychology and drama--and no actual desire to enter the working force any time soon, and it was actually Jongdae who came up with the idea to create a matchmaking company, tailored to each individual’s requests. Of course, he’d suggested it while half-drunk at the time, but Baekhyun had grabbed onto the idea, more than a little frightened with the prospect of job-searching and rejections.
They didn’t have the money to make it a reality though, so for the first year after college, they’d settled down in a two-room apartment with a living room for Chanyeol to sleep in and worked the jobs they could find in the meantime. Whenever possible, Baekhyun or Jongdae would bring in requests from co-workers and friends, and they’d pull mini-jobs for their patrons to get them dates or chance encounters with the people they’d wanted. Chanyeol took care of the accounting for all three of them, and steadily groomed the fund they’d all set aside for the start-up of their company until they’d almost reached the necessary amount.
Kyungsoo helped close the deal for them. A friend of Baekhyun’s and a co-worker of Chanyeol’s, he’d managed to loan them just enough to finally open the company--on the condition that he’d get to name it. Chanyeol and Jongdae didn’t know until after the name had been submitted that it’d been Baekhyun’s fault for pissing Kyungsoo off enough to name their company something embarrassing, but it’d been too late by then.
Love-Cupid Love Me Please had been born.
-
“I feel so fucking exposed right now,” Jongdae complains, shivering in the breezy 30 degree air, clothed in only a small towel around his waist. Chanyeol sneezes loudly and wipes at his nose with a grunt.
“I feel like my balls have finally frozen off,” he says thickly, pointedly glaring at the last of their trio. Baekhyun continues to hand out flyers to passing pedestrians on the street, oblivious to the complaints of his friends.
“This is so stupid, why did we listen to him,” Jongdae grumbles, flinging out an arm at a passerbyer, flyer in hand, and shaking at it until the guy takes it from him with an irritated expression. He sneers back and turns away, directing his attention back to another victim.
“I hope you chatterbirds are handing out those flyers instead of gossipping like fishwives over there,” Baekhyun calls out over his shoulders, smiling at the girl he’d cornered and pressed a flyer into. He seems nearly unaffected by the cold, save for the slight trembling of his fingertips and his bare legs. He primly adjusts the sash across his chest and walks over to another pedestrian to draw them into conversation.
“Suck my dick, asshole,” Chanyeol calls out, uncaring of the scandalized looks from the group of mothers passing by.
“I already did. Kyungsoo’s better,” Baekhyun retorts, looking over his shoulder with a nasty grin. Chanyeol makes a ghoulish face back at him and gives him the bird.
“This isn’t really how we should be ‘spreading love’, guys,” Jongdae pitches in. He smiles at the couple he’d stopped in front of and hands them a flyer before continuing. “We’re here to promote our company, not talk smack about each other.”
“I’mma smack him in a minute,” Chanyeol promises darkly, shoving a flyer at a flustered boy. He looks more closely at the boy, and softens his expression into a welcoming grin, widening it a little when the boy squeaks and runs off, clutching the flyer to his chest. “Oh, he’s cute.”
“Eyes on the prize, Chanyeol. Keep your dick in your pants when you’re in public,” Baekhyun warns, still handing out flyers. Chanyeol snorts and gestures at his get-up.
“What pants? I’m like a panty-slip away from showing Midtown my fruit and veg,” he says with an eyeroll. A passing woman stops in her tracks to look, and he leers in her direction. “I’m gonna need some payment up front first, lady.”
“Stop harassing the streetwalkers, oh my god,” Jongdae says, slapping Chanyeol on the upside of his head. “Where’s your common decency, you deviant?”
“Back in the office along with my dignity,” Chanyeol replies pointedly, and goes back to handing out flyers.
“I’m surrounded by children,” Jongdae mutters to himself helplessly.
-
They sit slumped in the office, exhausted after a whole afternoon of trying to solicit possible clients. Chanyeol’s wrapped himself up in all the extra blankets they have stocked up in the office closets, sitting impossibly close the heater. He gnashes his teeth whenever Baekhyun gets two feet close to his blankets, but he graciously allows Jongdae to slip under his arm and huddle in his warmth. Baekhyun pouts and childishly sits at his desk, hogging the throw pillows.
“So, that was a complete bust,” Jongdae points out, teeth still chattering. Chanyeol tugs him in closer, and Jongdae snuggles into his side, resting his ice-cold fingers under Chanyeol’s armpits. Chanyeol hisses and glares at him, but lets the hands stay in place.
“Well, at least people know who we are?” Baekhyun says hesitantly, looking for a silver lining. Chanyeol gives him an unamused look.
“I’m pretty sure half of New York know who we are now, thanks to you,” he deadpans. “The local news are probably talking about us right now, with the amount of people we’ve scared off the streets.”
“Hey, I looked amazing in that loincloth!” Baekhyun protests.
“Yeah, and your pudgy stomach really helped sell the part of Cupid,” Chanyeol snipes, slapping away at Jongdae’s tickling fingers. Baekhyun scowls at him and tosses a squeeze toy at his head.
“Shut up, you dickwad. We don’t all have time to go the gym and be muscleheads like you.”
“My guns did look pretty great,” Chanyeol muses, lifting an arm to inspect his biceps.
“Kids, kids, you both looked stupid, let’s not fight,” Jongdae breaks in tiredly, flopping a hand in the air. “The point is that we got nowhere, and it’s back to square one again.”
Baekhyun pouts again and looks down, making a face at his desk. “It was a good idea, okay,” he defends, just as someone knocks on the office door. He blinks at the sudden noise, and they shoot up from their seats as one, crowding around the door.
Jongdae pulls open the door after a small squabble over who gets to turn the knob, and they find a boy wearing a snapback hunching into himself in self-consciousness. Chanyeol stares at him for a minute before snapping his fingers.
“Oh! Oh! You’re the boy from today!” he says in realization. The boy blushes red, embarrassed at being recognized, and shies away from them a little more. Baekhyun smacks Chanyeol across the head and drags the boy in, cutting off his only escape route with a sharp click of the door shut.
“Hello! Welcome to Love-Cupid Love Me Please! How can we bring love into your life today?” he asks eagerly, dropping the boy into a spare chair. The boy looks up at the three of them with wide eyes.
“Um. Uh. I’m,” he stammers, cheeks burning even brighter. Jongdae beams at him and goes to fix him a cup of tea.
“There, there. No need to feel so shy, we’re here to help,” he says as he pours some hot water into a styrofoam cup and drops a teabag in. He pushes the cup into the boy’s hands and looks at him expectantly. “What’s your name, kid?”
“J-Jongin. Kim Jongin,” the boy says finally, soft accent curling around his name. Chanyeol claps his hands gleefully.
“Jongin, that’s great, it’s nice to meet you! I’m Chanyeol, this is Jongdae, and he’s Baekhyun. How can we help you?”
“I-I, uh, saw your flyer,” he mumbles, looking down at his cup of tea. “I thought I’d come by and see if you could help me with something.”
Jongdae presses his palms together and looks up at the ceiling gratefully. Food money, thank you, he mouths. Chanyeol wipes a mock tear and slings an arm around Baekhyun in a moment of shared exaggerated relief.
A new client, finally.
i need to work on my beagle line characterizations, man.
stupid cupid, stop picking on me
g; ~2.5k; beagle line, jongin (+ cameo baeksoo)
dating agency!au. the one where beagle line form their own cupid matchmaking company; cyrano’s got nothing on these kids.
written solely because jo was tweeting abt baekhyun dressing up as cupid with his stupid curly hair today, and because holly kept bullying me. i didn't quite get to where i wanted, but then again, i don't actually want to write a full 5k+ of this, so here we go.
“Love-Cupid Love Me Please office, Chanyeol speaking. How can I help spread some love in your life today?”
There’s heavy static coming in from the other line, and Chanyeol frowns, pulling the handset away from his ear to look at it for any possible defects before putting it back.
“Hello? I-is someone there?” he tries again, hesitant now.
The other line doesn’t respond, but the static grows heavier and closer to the speaker. It clears up a little, though, and Chanyeol strains his ears a little to pick out the rhythmic bursts in the stream of static being fed through the phone. It...sounds like someone’s breathing straight into the speaker.
“Excuse me? Sir? Ma’am? Can I help you?” Chanyeol asks, a sinking feeling in his stomach. There’s a hitch and then a sudden audible groan, and Chanyeol almost jumps out of his seat. He looks frantically around for Baekhyun or Jongdae to take over, but the office is frustratingly empty save for himself.
“Um, I think you have the wrong number, Sir or Madam, please have a good day,” he says quickly into the phone speaker and slams the handset back down on hook, forgetting to actually cut off the call. A loud tinny moan wails through the speaker, and Chanyeol yelps, hurriedly grabbing for the phone and mashing at the buttons to end the call.
The office door bangs open just as Chanyeol manages to finally stop the call, and he looks up with slightly wild eyes. Jongdae’s heaving in a huge plastic bag, wider than two of him put together, and Chanyeol sets down the phone to give him a hand.
“Thanks, man,” Jongdae grunts as Chanyeol lifts up the bag, taking off some of the weight. He tosses him a cursory glance as they waddle into the middle of the room and gently set down the bag on the ground. “What’s up with you? You look a little flustered.”
Chanyeol shakes his head, bright grin covering up his still pink cheeks. “Nothing. Just another one of those calls, y’know.”
Jongdae opens his mouth a little in realization and then laughs. “You mean the phone sex people? Again?”
“I don’t know why they keep calling our number! It’s so fucking creepy, man, this one didn’t even talk or anything, he just breathed into the phone,” Chanyeol shudders, wrapping his arms around himself. Jongdae snorts and claps him on the shoulder.
“It’s your god-given voice, Chanyeol, people just cream themselves over it,” he says flippantly. Chanyeol blushes again, red flooding back into his cheeks, and he blusters a little. “Anyway, enough about that. Give me a hand with this bag, would you? Baekhyun’s got another stupid plan.”
Chanyeol frowns but bends down to untie the bag obligingly, fingers clumsily working through the double knot. “Again? What stoned-ass shit did he come up with this time?”
“Hey, this is genius right here, I’ll have you know,” barks Baekhyun, sweeping through the door, grandly tossing off his peacoat and ruffling his hair a little. Chanyeol shares an eyeroll with Jongdae, but easily greets Baekhyun anyway.
“Morning, Baek. What’s this genius plan you got then?” Chanyeol says with a grin, playing along. Baekhyun picks his bangs into place, minutely flicking the dyed ash blonde locks back and forth, before greeting back.
“He wants to us dress up as grown-up Cupids and go mooning everyone on the streets to promote our company,” Jongdae says flatly, crossing his arms. Chanyeol lets out a burst of laughter, but it dies away when no one else laughs.
“You’re serious?” he asks incredulously, first to Jongdae and then to Baekhyun. “Have you lost your mind?”
Baekhyun shakes his head grimly and points down at the bag Jongdae dragged in. “I’m dead serious. This is the only way to save the company without having to resort to those dirty loan sharks.”
“You mean Kyungsoo?” Jongdae says dryly, raising an eyebrow. “The gracious gracious angel who gave us the starting loan in the first place?”
Baekhyun grimaces and whips out his index finger at Jongdae, pointing dramatically. “Don’t speak of the devil’s name in this building.”
Chanyeol scratches his head, running his hand through his hair in consternation. “Did something happen between you and Kyungsoo? What’s going on?”
“Baekhyun pissed him off and got dangled off the roof this morning,” Jongdae sings in a loud whisper, dodging the fist Baekhyun throws at him with a gleeful grin. Chanyeol laughs and offers a pitying look at Baekhyun.
“Got sent to the dog house again, huh, Baek?”
“I will throw you out this window myself,” Baekhyun promises with a scowl. He bends down and digs his hand through the opened bag and pulls out a white cloth. “Now get dressed, guys. We’ve got work to do.”
“Are those loincloths?” Chanyeol squawks. “In the middle of winter?”
Jongdae drops his face into his hands and lets out a low groan of despair. “Why did I become friends with you?”
“Chop, chop. You can curse all you want once we’re on the streets.”
“I’m gonna tie cinderblocks to your feet and push you into the Hudson River,” Jongdae vows between his fingers. Chanyeol makes a noise of agreement, already shedding his clothes for the slip of cloth.
“I’ll be look-out,” he offers, yanking off his socks. Baekhyun beams, uncaring of the threats to his person.
“You guys can thank me later when we finally get another job.”
-
The matchmaking company started off as a joke, to be honest. In their junior year of college, Chanyeol and Jongdae had dragged Baekhyun to go see their drama department’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac, and Baekhyun had come out of that play, inspired to bring love into someone’s life. So he roped his friends into helping their Chinese TA, Kris, get a date with the cute music comp student who walked around their campus with a yellow guitar all the time; it took three tries for them to even get Kris to speak properly to the guy, and the last time Baekhyun had to feed the lines directly to him through his phone. But Kris managed a date, and then another, and bagged the guy, Yixing, in the end through his bumbling efforts and Baekhyun and co.’s smooth planning.
It was some real-ass Cyrano shit though, and word spread a little after their first completed job--which Jongdae realistically had called a fluke, but Baekhyun had been too drunk with success to hear. They pulled four couples by the end of senior year, each with increasingly elaborate production that required Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae to skip several of their classes to help make perfect.
They came out of college with degrees--Chanyeol with a mech-e degree, Jongdae with a business one, and Baekhyun with a double in psychology and drama--and no actual desire to enter the working force any time soon, and it was actually Jongdae who came up with the idea to create a matchmaking company, tailored to each individual’s requests. Of course, he’d suggested it while half-drunk at the time, but Baekhyun had grabbed onto the idea, more than a little frightened with the prospect of job-searching and rejections.
They didn’t have the money to make it a reality though, so for the first year after college, they’d settled down in a two-room apartment with a living room for Chanyeol to sleep in and worked the jobs they could find in the meantime. Whenever possible, Baekhyun or Jongdae would bring in requests from co-workers and friends, and they’d pull mini-jobs for their patrons to get them dates or chance encounters with the people they’d wanted. Chanyeol took care of the accounting for all three of them, and steadily groomed the fund they’d all set aside for the start-up of their company until they’d almost reached the necessary amount.
Kyungsoo helped close the deal for them. A friend of Baekhyun’s and a co-worker of Chanyeol’s, he’d managed to loan them just enough to finally open the company--on the condition that he’d get to name it. Chanyeol and Jongdae didn’t know until after the name had been submitted that it’d been Baekhyun’s fault for pissing Kyungsoo off enough to name their company something embarrassing, but it’d been too late by then.
Love-Cupid Love Me Please had been born.
-
“I feel so fucking exposed right now,” Jongdae complains, shivering in the breezy 30 degree air, clothed in only a small towel around his waist. Chanyeol sneezes loudly and wipes at his nose with a grunt.
“I feel like my balls have finally frozen off,” he says thickly, pointedly glaring at the last of their trio. Baekhyun continues to hand out flyers to passing pedestrians on the street, oblivious to the complaints of his friends.
“This is so stupid, why did we listen to him,” Jongdae grumbles, flinging out an arm at a passerbyer, flyer in hand, and shaking at it until the guy takes it from him with an irritated expression. He sneers back and turns away, directing his attention back to another victim.
“I hope you chatterbirds are handing out those flyers instead of gossipping like fishwives over there,” Baekhyun calls out over his shoulders, smiling at the girl he’d cornered and pressed a flyer into. He seems nearly unaffected by the cold, save for the slight trembling of his fingertips and his bare legs. He primly adjusts the sash across his chest and walks over to another pedestrian to draw them into conversation.
“Suck my dick, asshole,” Chanyeol calls out, uncaring of the scandalized looks from the group of mothers passing by.
“I already did. Kyungsoo’s better,” Baekhyun retorts, looking over his shoulder with a nasty grin. Chanyeol makes a ghoulish face back at him and gives him the bird.
“This isn’t really how we should be ‘spreading love’, guys,” Jongdae pitches in. He smiles at the couple he’d stopped in front of and hands them a flyer before continuing. “We’re here to promote our company, not talk smack about each other.”
“I’mma smack him in a minute,” Chanyeol promises darkly, shoving a flyer at a flustered boy. He looks more closely at the boy, and softens his expression into a welcoming grin, widening it a little when the boy squeaks and runs off, clutching the flyer to his chest. “Oh, he’s cute.”
“Eyes on the prize, Chanyeol. Keep your dick in your pants when you’re in public,” Baekhyun warns, still handing out flyers. Chanyeol snorts and gestures at his get-up.
“What pants? I’m like a panty-slip away from showing Midtown my fruit and veg,” he says with an eyeroll. A passing woman stops in her tracks to look, and he leers in her direction. “I’m gonna need some payment up front first, lady.”
“Stop harassing the streetwalkers, oh my god,” Jongdae says, slapping Chanyeol on the upside of his head. “Where’s your common decency, you deviant?”
“Back in the office along with my dignity,” Chanyeol replies pointedly, and goes back to handing out flyers.
“I’m surrounded by children,” Jongdae mutters to himself helplessly.
-
They sit slumped in the office, exhausted after a whole afternoon of trying to solicit possible clients. Chanyeol’s wrapped himself up in all the extra blankets they have stocked up in the office closets, sitting impossibly close the heater. He gnashes his teeth whenever Baekhyun gets two feet close to his blankets, but he graciously allows Jongdae to slip under his arm and huddle in his warmth. Baekhyun pouts and childishly sits at his desk, hogging the throw pillows.
“So, that was a complete bust,” Jongdae points out, teeth still chattering. Chanyeol tugs him in closer, and Jongdae snuggles into his side, resting his ice-cold fingers under Chanyeol’s armpits. Chanyeol hisses and glares at him, but lets the hands stay in place.
“Well, at least people know who we are?” Baekhyun says hesitantly, looking for a silver lining. Chanyeol gives him an unamused look.
“I’m pretty sure half of New York know who we are now, thanks to you,” he deadpans. “The local news are probably talking about us right now, with the amount of people we’ve scared off the streets.”
“Hey, I looked amazing in that loincloth!” Baekhyun protests.
“Yeah, and your pudgy stomach really helped sell the part of Cupid,” Chanyeol snipes, slapping away at Jongdae’s tickling fingers. Baekhyun scowls at him and tosses a squeeze toy at his head.
“Shut up, you dickwad. We don’t all have time to go the gym and be muscleheads like you.”
“My guns did look pretty great,” Chanyeol muses, lifting an arm to inspect his biceps.
“Kids, kids, you both looked stupid, let’s not fight,” Jongdae breaks in tiredly, flopping a hand in the air. “The point is that we got nowhere, and it’s back to square one again.”
Baekhyun pouts again and looks down, making a face at his desk. “It was a good idea, okay,” he defends, just as someone knocks on the office door. He blinks at the sudden noise, and they shoot up from their seats as one, crowding around the door.
Jongdae pulls open the door after a small squabble over who gets to turn the knob, and they find a boy wearing a snapback hunching into himself in self-consciousness. Chanyeol stares at him for a minute before snapping his fingers.
“Oh! Oh! You’re the boy from today!” he says in realization. The boy blushes red, embarrassed at being recognized, and shies away from them a little more. Baekhyun smacks Chanyeol across the head and drags the boy in, cutting off his only escape route with a sharp click of the door shut.
“Hello! Welcome to Love-Cupid Love Me Please! How can we bring love into your life today?” he asks eagerly, dropping the boy into a spare chair. The boy looks up at the three of them with wide eyes.
“Um. Uh. I’m,” he stammers, cheeks burning even brighter. Jongdae beams at him and goes to fix him a cup of tea.
“There, there. No need to feel so shy, we’re here to help,” he says as he pours some hot water into a styrofoam cup and drops a teabag in. He pushes the cup into the boy’s hands and looks at him expectantly. “What’s your name, kid?”
“J-Jongin. Kim Jongin,” the boy says finally, soft accent curling around his name. Chanyeol claps his hands gleefully.
“Jongin, that’s great, it’s nice to meet you! I’m Chanyeol, this is Jongdae, and he’s Baekhyun. How can we help you?”
“I-I, uh, saw your flyer,” he mumbles, looking down at his cup of tea. “I thought I’d come by and see if you could help me with something.”
Jongdae presses his palms together and looks up at the ceiling gratefully. Food money, thank you, he mouths. Chanyeol wipes a mock tear and slings an arm around Baekhyun in a moment of shared exaggerated relief.
A new client, finally.
i need to work on my beagle line characterizations, man.