Roll for Initiative

No smoking, no outside food, no flirting with the staff

Chan did not plan on doing the whole asking Minho out on a date spectacle right now. Obviously. In fact, he didn't even seriously plan on doing it at all. Of course, he wanted to do it, had fantasised about it. But there is a difference between dreaming about doing something and actually making plans to do it. Because in his fantasies Chan is braver, smoother, bolder. More daring. His hands don't tremble in his dreams. When he is daydreaming about how and when he will ask Minho out it always seems to be so easy. The atmosphere is perfect. They're always at some quiet, private place. Like the beach at night, where the waves are crashing against the shore to supply the backdrop music to the romantic finale of a cheesy romance movie. Or they are sitting on the floor in the living room at the home of Minho's aunts. Minho is cradling a cat in his lap – maybe Dori, she's the only one who Chan can safely tell apart from the other two – and he's looking at Chan with so much softness in his eyes. The curls of his lips make his smile look a little cat-like as well, add that to the feline shape of his eyes and the most adorable human being is looking up at Chan with widened brown eyes. Curious and expecting. In some of these made-up scenarios Chan will then just lean forward and press his lips against the soft kitty curls of Minho's mouth, Minho melting into the touch as if he had been wanting this for even longer than Chan has. Which is quite frankly impossible. But a man can dream right. Sometimes Chan fantasises about Minho making the first move. Which would make things a lot easier, but it's also a lot less likely. After all, he is the one with all the feelings piling up and threatening to come crashing down on him like an avalanche of affection. Having to make the first move is a burden and it's getting kind of hard to carry.

Yet Chan never really planned to make any of these fantasies real. Sure, he'd spend hours staring holes into a wall, hugging a pillow to his chest and dream up a perfect first kiss. But he could never seriously make that happen. But occasionally other people do cross your plans. And sometimes these other people messing up your life are actually some of your best friends. Well, for Chan that seems to be the case awfully often, if he is being honest with himself.

He dreamt about doing it, but not even in his more down to earth fantasies would he have imagined having to make a move like this. No beach, not even a comfortable, yet slightly messy living room. He's standing on the basement stairs of the coffeeshop that the parents of one of his closest friends own. The light is slightly flickering and every once in a while it stops working for a moment before it comes back to life with a buzzing and the crackle of electricity. Jisung's father keeps saying that he will replace it when he has the time, but he never gets around to doing it. Maybe one day it will just explode. And hopefully, there will be no one standing underneath when that happens. Then again, Chan wouldn't mind the light exploding into his face right about now. Maybe his friends would stop pressuring him into asking his crush out if he had a shard of glass stuck in his face.

How stupid even is this whole situation. Chan feels like he has been transported back in time to when he was twelve years old, playing truth or dare with his friends from school. The truth they asked of him had been too hard to speak, so he had switched to dare. And of course, they had played him. Go ask out your crush, call her right now and tell her that you like her. Maybe he should have just gone with the truth instead. But some secrets are unspeakable, especially if you're a scared twelve-year-old. Who in our class do you like? Maybe he should have just told them, but he didn't dare. So he went for the stupid challenge. He managed to convince his friends to let him do the call in the room over and then come back to tell them how it went. He's sure that they all stacked on top of each other to press their ears to the door, but he talked with his voice lowered, making sure to not use the other person's name when greeting him on the phone. Of course, he said no to Chan's clumsy little confession. And after that Chan went back to tell his friends just that. They all pat him on the shoulder or gently pressed a fist into his upper arm and after that, the night went on.