Maybe it’s true (I’m caught up on you) - 6/?
masterpost
Chanyeol has just stepped out of the shower when the elevator doors slide open and three people file in the penthouse. He pads to the entrance, leaving wet footprints in his wake.
“I should change the code without telling you guys. What if I was dancing around naked?” he grunts, voice quaking with each rubbing of the towel on his damp hair.
“As if we hadn’t seen it before,” Kyungsoo quips and makes himself at home on the closest leather armchair. Jongin contemplates sitting on an armrest, but opts for the couch on its immediate right, Sera plopping next to him.
“Seriously, dude, aren’t you cold? Summer is dwindling,” Chanyeol asks once he’s more presentable and joins his friends in the living room, where he notices Sera is wearing a crop top despite the chillier evenings.
“NoPe,” she insists, popping the P. The girl leans back more comfortably, showing off her bare flat stomach and the glittering piercing embedded in her navel. “Are we here to criticize my style or to indulge your creepy obsession for a stranger?”
“I just want to apologize to her!” Chanyeol groans, tired of seeing his genuine intentions not being believed. “...The fact that she’s pretty is a bonus,” he mutters, scratching his nape in badly concealed embarrassment and sitting on the free armchair. "By the way, what are you doing here? I thought we agreed to meet directly at the bar?"
"I bring offerings!" Sera chirps, fishing a small box from her clutch bag. "DNA and fingerprints kit! In case you wanted to extrapolate hints from the elevator to find your Cinderella," she explains, widening her eyes in fake innocence.
(Truth be told, they could find a way to take the girl’s fingerprints from the elevator panel, but a) he doesn’t want to give Sera the satisfaction of being right, and b) they aren’t the goddamn CSI.)
At Chanyeol's unimpressed look, who doesn’t even glance at the object in the girl’s hands, she relents, admitting, "It's just a chocolate box I got gifted, don't worry. As for why we're here, believe it or not but we met by chance in Itaewon and decided to walk here while we were at it."
"Riiiight…” the elder drawls, squinting at his friends, but quickly drops the topic and stands up, smoothing his pants. “Well, since I'm ready we can head out already."
Sera shoots her arms in the air to the cry of "Shotgun!"
“What are you on about?” Chanyeol blinks at her. “We’re taking the subway. Responsible drinking, Sera! We ain’t gonna drunk drive.”
“Jongin doesn’t even drink! He could drive us back to the safety of our abodes,” the girl argues, pouting pitifully at the mentioned guy, who shakes his head with a mischievous grin.
“Sometimes I think you hang out with me only for my car,” Chanyeol states flatly, dragging Sera to the elevator by her elbow. After a beat of silence, they snort and push each other playfully, the four of them filing in the elevator and heading to the garage.
“So, anything to start from?” Kyungsoo asks as soon as Chanyeol is back from ordering their drinks. They aren’t in some exclusive club with a private room and champagne flowing copious, but rather in a modest yet modern bar in an university district: leave the bling blings to more official occasions.
Raking his mind to remember any detail that could help them find the metaphorical needle in a haystack, Chanyeol tries to recall what was written on the piece of paper the girl was holding.
...Moshi moshi?...Yoshi?…Sushi…?
“SOSHI!”
Chanyeol exclaims so loudly, the couple at the table nearby turns to look at them. He didn’t seem to notice so he continues the conversation, elaborating, “She had a printed out paper about Soshi...isn’t it Sonyeoshidae? Girls’ Generation?”
“How can you not know one of South Korea’s greatest idol groups is in your hotel?” Jongin chuckles, nodding thankfully at the waitress who brought their drinks over. Chanyeol scoffs and sets on the table the beer he was about to drink to gesticulate more freely.
“First off, it’s not my hotel: i just happen to live there. Second, I haven’t seen throngs of fans camped in front of the hotel for the whole day. Third, I’m more of a 2NE1 fan, so i don’t keep up with other groups much.” He shrugs and leans back, forgetting he’s sitting on a bar stool and risking to topple.
“Well, you should, since they haven’t been very active lately…” the dancer murmurs around his soft drink, right as Kyungsoo smirks and adds treacherously, “2NE1 over SNSD? One more reason for the girl to hate your guts.”
At that, Chanyeol whines and, standing up pompously, walks away claiming he needs to go to the toilet.
“He likes her because she sassed him back,” Kyungsoo states as he takes a sip of his own drink. Jongin and Sera nod solemnly, and all three of them bottom up in honor of the still unknown girl: she’s a breath of fresh air from the trophy-wife wannabes that throw themselves at Chanyeol, only to be met by a wall of courteous indifference, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that this stranger tickled the elder’s interest, renowned for surrounding himself with honest people, even bluntly so.
Chanyeol steps out of the restroom with a relieved sigh. Dodging tray-carrying barmaids and more or less inebriated patrons, he’s walking back to his table when he overhears someone mentioning “some filthy rich brat”.
Feeling inexplicably involved, Chanyeol turns to scan the area, eyes falling on a table where two girls are playfully slapping the one between them. It’s the girl at the center that catches his attention, realizing with a start that that haircut and profile are somewhat familiar. Approaching them carefully, Chanyeol can now hear a voice that sounds considerably more cheerful and carefree than a few hours ago, but it’s definitely her.
Before he can even think of what to say to her, he calls out, “Elevator girl?!”
Chanyeol can see the way she freezes, and the identical masks of surprise etched on her friends’ faces; in particular, he locks eyes with the guy sitting opposite the feisty girl, holding the sharp eyed boy’s icing glare with a minute quirk of his lips. Chanyeol can’t help but explode in a boisterous laughter, that he later realises doesn’t really help in his quest to sincerely apologize to the girl and make himself look better in her eyes (and her friends, since they’re there).
Showing off all his charm, the heir turns to the girls sitting at the table nearby, asking if they would “be so kind to trade tables with my friends over there?” while pointedly waving his arm to catch either of those three’s attention and gesturing to sit at this other table when the girls agree, giggling stupidly as they leave.
(They will occasionally glance at Chanyeol -and the others- and talk behind hands for the rest of the night.)
“Where are my manners?” Chanyeol says when his own set of friends joins the lot of them, “My name is Chanyeol, and these are Sera, Kyungsoo and Jongin. If you don’t mind, I’d like to toast to a small world: only this way I could meet again the girl that stole my heart, mere hours after our fateful meeting in the elevator of the hotel where I live.”
Three smacks of hands over foreheads resonate in the busy bar as Chanyeol’s friends feel second, third and fourth hand embarrassment, itching to apologize for the cheesy speech on his behalf.
He raises his drink with a winning, bright grin, unfazed by the owlish stares his audience is giving him and zeroing on Baekri with a smitten smile on his face, a stark contrast with the turmoil of emotions that cross her face, until she settles for a scowl and a drawn-out, venomous, “You~”.
Chanyeol loves himself a challenge.
From now on, updates will most likely be less consistent: with this chapter I reached the end of what I managed to write and edit so far. I probably should’ve updated the fic with a different schedule, e.g. once a week, so i would’ve had more time to churn out the remaining ### chapters, but the damage is done ^^;;
[In other news, I'm dead and gone.]
Thank you for reading 😘 I’ll try not to make you wait too long for the continuation of this fic.
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