Maybe it’s true (I’m caught up on you) - 7/?
masterpost
The bigger the company, the more copiously alcohol flows (much to the delight of the bar owner’s wallet): it helps friendships to form and some people to get loose-lipped, despite the initial awkwardness and reticence, but others stay wary.
Baekri can’t believe this guy--fine, Chanyeol--and his rich ass friends happened to be in the same humble bar as her and her clique. On the same day they met, no less.
She’s observing her extended group of friends (more like her own friends and some strangers who approached them) and actively avoiding the guy, when he props his head up on his hand, leaning just the slightest bit towards her sitting two people over, and says, “Penny for your thoughts?”
Baekri’s knee-jerk reaction is to reply with, “You can afford to spend more than one penny,” followed by a defiant gulp of her drink as she barely spares him a sideways glance.
To his credit, Chanyeol has kept a respectful distance and hasn’t annoyed her with pretentious flirting for the whole night, rather being entertaining and companionable towards everybody at the table. Baekri almost wishes he acted like an idiot like in the elevator...at least she’d have an excuse to be snarky and not pass for the bitch of the situation: she is friendly, but also tends to become hostile towards who, accidentally or not, embarrass her on their first meeting, and if it’s someone she finds attractive she unconsciously starts playing hard to get, even when they haven’t shown any sign of vague interest for her.
(Also, she’s genetically bitter towards rich people and their tendency to be so goddamn lucky in everyfuckingthing, from their bank account to their appearance--even worse if they got minimal to no plastic surgery, to finding the pot at the end of a rainbow.)
“So you said the two of you used to work together?”
“Yesh....at a perfume shop, in a mall...but she abandoned me to wait tables~”
“Oh, really? Where? I like to try new places to eat at, maybe I could swing by sometimes.”
“It’s a pretty good restaurant in Gyeongun-dong, near a…”
Yixing, Joonmyeon and Taozi warmed up to Chanyeol and his friends quick enough, but that’s a given (Taozi, in particular, looks extremely fond of Sera and her style). Junghwa, the traitor, is all smiles and loud laughter, managing to crack the stoic Kyungsoo (she’s always friendly, but the several cocktails she downed turned her volume up). Only Minseok, bless his older-brother-syndrome, is cordial but still guarded, silently assessing the sincerity in the words and behavior of the potential new friends; even he, though, isn’t quite immune to Sera’s model-like proportions (her legs are almost as long as Baekri is tall, dammit), throwing shy and furtive glances at the younger girl every now and then.
Baekri sighs: she’s alone in this.
“Are you all in college?”
“NO! The guys are done already, it’s us girls still stuck in books~”
“What do you study?”
“Music! And Business for Baekri, and Sociology for Taozi~”
Considering the unfolding of the events, Sera is suspicious of Chanyeol’s choice for a bar when he suggested to go out and talk about his love life mishaps. Sure, they never stick to the same place for drinks, but it is one hell of a coincidence that, of all the clubs available and of the millions of people living in the capital, he goes and picks one in an university district and is lucky enough to meet again the girl he was looking for.
“Chanyeol,” Sera whispers, unceremoniously digging a pointy elbow into his arm, “you knew you could find her here, didn’t you?”
The elder excuses himself from the conversation with Joonmyeon and Jongin to look at Sera in earnest, but his tone is wry when he states, “Unlike you ‘casually meeting’ Kyungsoo and Jongin in Itaewon, I really didn’t know she would be here, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked for help from you guys.”
They throw daggers at each other for a full minute, mutely daring each other to cave, until Sera appears convinced of Chanyeol’s words and takes a nonchalant sip of her drink (...to avoid admitting she did follow Jongin and Kyungsoo, but only after she casually saw them in the district, that much is true).
Sera pretends not to notice, but she’s well aware of the heavy stares Baekri throws their way from above the glass rim during their exchange, looking like she wants to shoot laser beams from her eyes whenever Sera or Chanyeol lean against each other and brush lips against ears to whisper.
Whether she’s just imagining it or Baekri really is starting to show a budding jealousy (alcohol-influenced, maybe, but they take what they can get), Sera can’t help widening her smirk when the older girl glares at her briefly, effectively making the brunette bristle even more.
Filed under: “you might have a chance, Chanyeol. Fighting!”
“Baekri almost described your friend like the devil incarnate, but he’s nice...you’re all nice.”
“Why thank you. Haha, was he really that awful?”
‘Cross my heart I can drop dead’, or however the saying goes, Chanyeol did not know “elevator girl” would be there, no matter how skeptical the others at the table are. Regardless, he must’ve saved a country in a previous life for getting a second chance so quickly.
Baekri’s--he can finally put a name to a face--feistiness is subdued by tiredness and many drinks, but by no means is she any less sharp tongued when she quickly shuts down almost every single one of Chanyeol’s attempts at striking a conversation.
He won’t give up. He feels like he’s trying to tame a tigress, but Chanyeol is sure he’ll be able to redeem himself if only Baekri gave him the time of day, ready even now to agree to back off if she still doesn’t want to go out with him after they got to know each other.
They’re all at different levels of drunkenness and the risk to forget any agreement to a truce is high, as is being told to fuck off once and for all and getting splashed in the face with a drink, so Chanyeol can only count on the newly formed friendship with Baekri’s friends to keep in touch: he can’t deny it sounds stalkerish, but he’s wearing his heart on his sleeve and he wants Baekri to see it, even if it means risking to rip it in the process.
(Whoa, alcohol makes Chanyeol sound deep and sentimental. And desperate.)
“The two of you look good together!”
“...”
Growing up next door to each other means Minseok feels protective of Baekri like of his own sister, the two girls happening to be the same age; he has been teased relentlessly for his “older brother syndrome”, but his subtle protection has saved Baekri’s ass several times, so she can’t really complain.
It isn’t surprising that Minseok has observed every little demeanor of the tall, slightly cocky, charming stranger for the whole night. So far Chanyeol hasn’t given them any reason to think he’d hurt Baekri: if anything, he looks like he’s yearning to apologize to her for his assholery of that afternoon, but better safe than sorry. More than once does the eldest lock eyes with Chanyeol, letting the younger guy know that ‘I’m watching you, don’t try any tricks’ without uttering a word and receiving a partly polite, partly smug look in return.
The smugness is caused, much to Minseok’s chagrin, by Chanyeol noticing how the elder’s piercing gaze becomes softer and timid every time he glances at the beautiful Sera, sitting right next to Chanyeol.
(What Minseok doesn’t know, though, is that the girl peeks at the pretty eyed man, too, and Chanyeol is on the edge of his seat -both literally and figuratively- to play matchmaker with them.)
...Things are getting awkward and Minseok’s leverage is slipping. Darn it.
“Shall we exchange numbers?”
“Sure! You look more sober than me, type yours in my phone and ring yourself...”
Jongin sips his soda as he looks at his old and new friends, some half slump on the table and drinks barely in their grasps, some still laughing and (relatively) hyper despite it being so late into the night. He feels a weight on his side and notices only then that Kyungsoo is nodding off as Joonnmyeon drones on and on, better at holding his liquor than Jongin would’ve given him credit for.
“I think you lot have drunk enough, better get going,” the black haired boy exhorts, elbowing softly the guys at his sides and standing up, reaching out to shake Sera’s shoulder as well; she whines but accomplishes, pulling Taozi up as well. One by one, the ten young people raise from their seats and are herded outside by Jongin as Chanyeol, Minseok and Joonmyeon stay behind to pay.
(The heir is all but forced to split the bill with the other two, instead of paying it all by himself like he planned to: the magic words are “Baekri wouldn’t want you to.”)
They say their goodbyes with sloppy hugs and promises to keep in contact, and they split to fetch a taxi or retrieve the car parked two blocks over.
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