Like Night and Day

Others

a/n: this chapter isn't as good or long or angsty as the last chapter. slight fluff. maybeee some angst. i dont really know. anyways, chanyeol buys bread.

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Chanyeol's focus at work began to degrade, though he tried his best to push aside his feelings to enable himself to smile and greet customers as he was supposed to do on the job at the store. His boss had put him on the register due to his popularity with customers, so rather than working in the back where he would've been free to be act the way he actually felt on the inside, he had to force himself to grin and smile at numerous people when he all he wanted to do was go home and think about things that would inevitably bring him down.

Baekhyun's outburst and drunken state happened on Saturday, and it was already Tuesday. That was three days of absolute silence, and though it killed him every day to try and avoid looking in Baekhyun's direction whenever the brunet came into view, Chanyeol was determined to keep his word. But that didn't mean it wasn't hard.

After sending off another customer, Chanyeol turned his focus to the next woman who approached his lane. Casually, he smiled as he took the first item off the belt. "Hello! Did you find everything okay?"

"Yes, yes. I did--oh!" Raising a brow, Chanyeol looked at her again only to find the old woman staring at him with her head tilted to the side. "Baekhyun's friend?"

"Huh?"

"You're Baekhyun's friend."

It took a second to register the woman's words before it began. Chanyeol realized where he had seen her before. "Ah, Baekhyun's grandmother! Yeah, hi!"

"I haven't seen you in a while... How's school?"

God-awful, but Chanyeol couldn't honestly say that. Instead, he shrugged as he checked out her items, mostly groceries and vegetables, out. "It's been great. My basketball team won the game on Saturday. A few more wins and we'll make it to regionals now."

"That's exciting... If only Baekhyun was into that type of thing, but there's nothing wrong with what he likes, either."

"No. There isn't."

"Are you still friends with my grandson?"

Chanyeol blinked, so unused to the word friend but remembered how their relationship was relatively on the down low for the most part. Nodding, he gave her a soft smile. "Yeah. I am."

Shaking her head, the old woman muttered words under her breath too quiet for Chanyeol to catch. Then, she looked up and sighed. "That's too bad... I thought you two looked cute together..."

"What?"

"Nothing," the woman said, giving him a smile that reminded the giant of his boyfriend's often faint, but familiar grin.

"Oh, okay." Chanyeol's eyes lingered on her for a few moments before remembering where he was and what he was doing. After finishing up her last items, he put everything in the cash register, and asked, "Will you be needing any help carrying these?"

"No, no," she said, reaching into her purse and pulling out a few bills. "That should pay for everything. I come by and buy the same things every week."

"Not into change?" Chanyeol playfully asked as he punched in the amount given to him and opened the register.

"I've been eating the same thing for years, and I like it that way."

"Hmmm..." Chanyeol taps his fingers on the counter as he waited for the machine to print the receipt. Then, on a whim, he looked at the elderly woman and asked, "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm just wondering... Where does Baekhyun get his stubbornness from?"