「 scream, chocolates & fireworks 」
"Luhan, I was lying when I said your shop was the only place where I could find pistachio ice cream," he sighed, taking a deep breath before looking at the boy before him, bright, doe-like eyes bringing a smile to his face unknowingly, "There is a shop right across the street from the office which sells pistachio and sea salt caramel ice cream,” he gulped at the mention, noticing that the boy was still staring at him with a puzzled expression, urging him to continue. “I make the 20 minutes drive every day to see you, Luhan. The extra hours at gym to burn away the calories from all these ice cream don’t matter a thing if it means I get to see you, talk to you,” he shrugged, feeling his ears burn at the thought of how foolish he must sound right now, but it was now or never. “Last week when I went at 9:30, you weren’t working that day. Your colleagues were preparing to close the shop but they took me as the last order. I commented that they were closing early and when they looked at me quizzically, that was when I realised never once had I thought to look at the opening and closing hours that you guys have stuck on the door,” he watched the boy with wide eyes, pausing to let his words sink in, “You close at 9:30,” he whispered, as if guilty of a terrible mistake.
"I was just one of the hundreds of customers that you get every day - even though you got to know my name after I deliberately dropped my namecard together with my credit card into your counter - I was nobody. I never thought that you would take notice of me, let alone remember me, but after learning that you stay at the shop for an extra 3 hours on days that I don’t pop by in the noon, I thought, maybe, it means something," he took another deep breath, preparing himself for the worst and the possibility of having to quit ice cream altogether for a while, before asking, softly but surely, "Have I gotten lucky?"
Milliseconds felt like centuries as he waited, and he was finally granted with a response, the boy smiling as he nodded. He could barely contain his excitement as he wrapped his arms around the boy to lift him off the ground and spin him around in ecstasy, making the boy scream from the initial shock and embarrassment of being carried in public. Laughing as he finally gave into his protests and let him back down, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small box of chocolates, “My sister was making some for her fiancé, so I got her to teach me.” Successfully feeding him one of the cubes, Chanyeol munched on one himself and murmured his satisfaction as he wrapped his arms around the boy from behind and rested his chin on his shoulder, making him turn to face the river breeze. As if on cue, the fireworks soared one after another into the night sky, painting the darkness with bursts of brilliance and colours, showering sparks on them all. He could hardly believe it, but the odds were finally in his favour.